OPEN DOORS! DO 2472 9/88
1. That's the way I always operated, even when I was a kid shopping for things. When the Young People's Society gave me $5 to buy a new Bible, I did the same thing I always did when I was shopping. I went around & looked at all the Bibles in all the different stores. When I finally found the Bible I wanted, then I went around & priced it in all the stores until I had found out where it's not, & by the process of elimination, I found out where it was. I whittled it down to the one I wanted & liked best & at the best price! After I'd seen everything in town, then I bought it!
2. I've often said that the Lord allows us to shop for things to show us & convince us so we'll know where it's not at as well as where it is at! So when we finally choose something, we know we've got the best, the best item at the best price & there's nothing better in town. (Maria: And in the best location if it's a house or something.) Right. That's what shopping is all about, to find the best & to reject all the others.--To "choose the good & eschew the evil."--1Pet.3:11.
3. God often leads us to the right one first, then He lets us go around shopping to every other one to prove it's the right one. I think I've always operated that way. The Lord has often led us to the right one, but then He's let us go around everywhere shopping to show us that it is the right one, it is the best!
4. (Maria: You've been great, Honey, at seeing where it's not, because we usually have to see where it's not before we can see where it is, right?) Yes, but it must look kind of uncertain to some people, like we don't know what we're doing sometimes. (Maria: But it's a good way to teach them & train them, to show them that that's the Lord's way of doing things.)
5. You have to look around & try the various doors. In shopping, you shop around & try the various stores. How are you going to know which doors are open or shut unless you try'm? I think most people's idea of the open door theory, open doors, is that they visualise a row of doors standing there, some of them standing open & some of them shut, so just at a glance you can tell which ones you're supposed to go through. Everything's closed except that one open door, so you know exactly where to go & you just march through.
6. But my experience in most decisions in life has usually been that I've had to go down the row trying the doors one by one until I find the one that's unlocked. (Maria: Also, when it says, "Seek & ye shall find" (Mat.7:7), "seek" is the word for search, & a search usually denotes something that's really difficult, you really have to go all-out, looking down different paths.) Yes, you have to look for it! (Maria: It's a desperate major effort to go down all the trails & all the paths, to go up & down the different roads, it's a big project!)
7. I think most people's idea seems to be that there's an obvious hallway of doors & you just stand back & you look & you see which one is standing wide open, & you go that way, you don't even have to bother with the others. But what I've usually found out was that it's like a bunch of room doors in a hotel hallway, you've got to find the doors & then you've got to knock on each one of them to find out which one's going to open. "Seek & ye shall find, knock & it shall be opened unto you!"--Mat.7:7. After you think you've found the right one you knock to make sure. Sometimes you've got to go right down the row knocking on every one of them till you find which one opens. Then when you find the open door & somebody opens it, or the Lord opens it, then you ask.
8. That's how you shop for the best buys, for a place to stay, or whatever you're looking for. If you don't know where it is, then at least you find out where it ain't! (Maria: It's very effective because after you're done, you can explain to other people exactly why they should go through certain doors, to help them avoid making the same mistakes you made.)
9. Sometimes it's also a matter of when. Like the old coloured lady said: "I don't know what unction am, but I sho' knows when it ain't!" If you don't know the right time, sometimes you have to try a few times & then you'll sure find out soon when it ain't! You kind of learn by the process of elimination of the things that it ain't & the times it ain't.--Unless you're some kind of a super-duper Prophet & Angel & you don't have to seek or find or knock or ask & you just get it by revelation!
10. I've only gotten a few things by revelation, & usually it was something that I couldn't possibly have found out any other way. The Lord had to reveal it, because there wasn't any way I'd have found it by going along seeking & knocking & asking. I had to have an absolute revelation. Although even some of those outstanding revelations, we'd already made plans to do something else but the Lord stopped us with the revelation, to show us that that was not the thing to do.
11. You learn a lot, I think maybe just as much, if not more, by closed doors as you do by open doors! When you go along knocking on the row of doors, how do you know which ones are closed?--By seeking & knocking! If they're locked shut, then you know they're closed, & eventually you find out which one is open, which one the Lord wants you to enter, which one is the open door. I think the Lord really teaches you a lot of lessons that way. He shows you why this is not the right door, why this is not the right place, why this is not the best buy or whatever. By going & trying & testing these others you find out why. It's an education! You find out why things are not the best & which way is not the best & what time is not the best, what place is not the best, & then you'll be satisfied.
12. Sometimes when I just went & bought something because I was in a hurry, later I found out I didn't get the best buy, & I was sorry that I was in such a hurry.--Or I wondered from then on, "I wonder if I really got the best buy? I wonder if I could have done better? Maybe I should have shopped a little longer!" I didn't really know I got the best. But when you have shopped & tried & tested & knocked & sought & asked & everything else, then you know you've got the best one at the best price & you're satisfied & content to know that it couldn't have been anything else or anywhere else or any other time.--That was it! This is it! It am what it am & it ain't no other! If that hadn't a been'r, whodabeenr? Well, you found out that nobody else had been'r, nothing else, that's it!
13. When you find out there's nothing else then you know that's it! When you find out what it ain't, that's all a part of the process of finding out what it is, & then you'll know, you'll absolutely know from direct knowledge that that is it, because beside that there ain't no other! So praise the Lord, you've got it & you're content & satisfied & you're not always wondering, "Did I get the best? Was it the best place, was it the best price or was it the best time?" You found out that it was because nothing else was!
14. Then you know you've got the only thing you could get, & a lot of times that's how you find out what's best, when you find out what ain't best, & there is no other, & that's it! Then you're content, satisfied, & you're not wondering if you should have waited, if you should have gotten something else or if you should have looked someplace else or if you got the right place, if you chose the right time & all that. When you've tried everything else, then you know. I think that's one way the Lord really convinces you! (Maria: It's such a good way, a good method, so logical.)
DAD'S OPEN DOOR TO THE HIPPIES!--WAIT TILL THE FOG CLEARS UP!
15. When you find out nothing else works & this is the only one that does work, then it's pretty convincing that that's it! That's the way I was about my life's work. For about 50 years I tried everything else & nothing worked, then all of a sudden when something started working, I realised, "Well, this is it! This is about the last thing in the World I ever thought I would do!"--In fact I never even thought about it! But I tried every kind of church & every method & everything. I had tried everything, I'll tell you, till it seemed like I finally just stumbled on the thing that finally worked. It was a miracle, something I never even thought of, but I found it through trying everything else first & finding out where it wasn't, where it ain't! And I sure found out when it ain't, because it took me 50 years to find it!
16. In Grandmother's little cottage there in Huntington Beach the Lord said to us as plain as day in a message just before the Revolution began: If the fog is so thick you can't see your way, then stop & wait, pull over!--Instead of just going on pell-mell & crashing in an accident. If you can't see where you're going, stop & wait, pull over, until it clears up & you can see! If nothing seems to be working & you can't seem to figure out what to do or where to go or when, that's a good time to stop & wait. If you've tried everything & you can't seem to find your way, & the fog is just too thick, you just can't see, it's dangerous to go ahead!
17. That's how a lot of these terrible pile-ups on the superhighways happen, people racing ahead in a thick fog just taking it for granted that everything's all right up ahead, & all of a sudden, bang, & the next guy bangs into them! They have 50-car pile-ups sometimes, everybody just running along, speeding along, tailing somebody else, the blind leading the blind figuring, "Well, he knows where he's going, so I'll just follow him!"--But he doesn't know where he's going either, & they all pile up!
18. If you don't want a pile-up when the way gets too thick to see, then the best thing you can do is pull over & wait till it clears up. It's better to wait till it clears up instead of having a pile-up! If you don't wait till it clears up you may pile up! When you don't know where you're going & you can't see your way, it's better just to stop & wait on the Lord until He clears things up & He shows you.
19. If you don't know what to do, just stop & wait! That's one of the hardest things to do because you always feel like you want to do something. You've tried everything & nothing works & nothing seems to be it or the right time, "But Lord, I've got to do something, I can't just sit here & do nothing & wait!"--When that's exactly what the Lord wants you to do!--Sit there & do nothing & wait until He's ready & has got things ready for you! Then He'll clear up the fog & show you clearly what the way is, & then you go. So if you're in a fog & you can't see your way or His way, & you don't know what to do & you can't tell where to go, just pull over. Sit there & wait & pray until the Lord clears it up & shows you which way to go!--And that's what I did.
20. I had to try everything for 50 years--actually 49 years to be exact for some of these perfectionists. It wasn't until my 50th year that I finally found out what I was supposed to do, until I had tried everything. First I wanted to be a singer. Oh, I can go back even further, when I was a little boy I wanted to be a railroad engineer, then I wanted to be an astronomer, then I wanted to be a singer, then I wanted to be an evangelist, then I wanted to be a teacher, then I wanted to be a pastor, then I wanted to be a college student, then I wanted to be a Communist, then I wanted to have a school, then I wanted to be a rancher, then I wanted to be a salesman & just travel.
21. At that time I was always travelling, either in between jobs or on the job. I went through a whole series of all kinds of jobs, everything from sorting mail in the post office to stacking lumber on trucks or pushing a wheel barrow full of cement. Then I went around showing slides, giving lectures on Creation to disprove the bunk of evolution & to preach the Truth of God!
22. I tried just about everything in the book to try to find out where it was, & nearly all the time all I did was find out where it wasn't! I spent 50 years finding out where it wasn't, till finally we just sat down & prayed & asked the Lord to show us, & He started off with the 68th Psalm. He said He was going to show us. He told us to pull over & wait till the fog cleared up, then we'd see our way clearly. So we pulled over & waited at my Mother's cottage & prayed. We had one 11-hour session & another 14-hour session of sitting on the floor praying & opening the Bible & reading, & we just waited, because we couldn't see where it was! The reason we couldn't see where it was is because the Lord wasn't ready to show us yet. He had to get us ready for it, He was working on us.
23. We couldn't understand why the Lord wasn't ready, why He didn't have something for us. Well, it's because we weren't ready! He was working on us to get us ready. He knew what door it was & He knew which door we were going to go through, He could see the future clearly, but we couldn't. Thank God we didn't because we probably would have gone into it unprepared & unready. And thank God we didn't move when it was foggy or we could have crashed for sure. We just pulled over & sat tight & waited on the Lord & kept praying & asking the Lord to show us, & then He did. When it was His time He cleared up the fog & showed us the way.
24. So a lot of times the best thing to do if you don't know what to do is don't do anything, just wait till the Lord shows you. If you've tried all the doors & you've sought & nothing seems to be open, nobody invites you in, OK, then just camp out awhile, park it awhile, wait awhile, sit down & wait & pray until the Lord shows you. Don't go rushing ahead pell-mell, stubbornly insistent on doing something, especially when it would have been much better if you'd done nothing, & you wouldn't have crashed!
25. That was the picture the Lord showed us, "It's foggy, you can't see, pull over! Wait until I clear it up & then you'll see clearly." So we did, & pretty soon the fog began to clear & we saw what the Lord wanted us to do, ministering to the hippies & young people, who were ripe & ready for us & our ministry. They just needed to be shown the way, they were a bunch of poor helpless sheep who couldn't find the way. They didn't know it but they were waiting for us, & then when the Lord revealed us, they followed! And praise God, that's what the Lord wanted done, so therefore it was a huge success.
26. But we had to wait till we were ready & till they were ready! We had to wait until we were desperate! We got down so low & so out of meetings & churches that we were even willing to minister to the hippies! And they were down so low & so frustrated & desperate that they were even willing to listen to a preacher & a teacher, a Systemite! Well, we weren't exactly Systemites, but compared to them we were. We'd already been pretty revolutionary for a few years. But the Lord had to wait until we were both ready for each other, until they were ready for us & we were ready for them, & when we finally were, we really clicked & we got it together & we really rolled! PTL! So, thank the Lord!
27. We couldn't possibly have seen what the Lord wanted us to do! We weren't ready for it & they weren't ready for it! The Lord waited for just the right hour, the right time, the right people, the right leader, & then bang, everything just clicked & rolled, & we roared off full-speed & could see the highway clearly, thank the Lord! And we were a huge success & we got where we wanted to go, where we needed to go, where God wanted us to go, & we got there in pretty much of a hurry!
28. That Christmas time in '67 we were nowhere except sitting on Grandma's floor, humbled down to the lowest level, defeated, discouraged & ready to go back to the East Coast. We had to sit down & wait for the Lord to show us, but He cleared up the fog & showed us. First of all, He had to take dear Grandma out of the way in March '68. Then He gave us the Club that summer, & we were really rolling! Then He persecuted us so that after we'd done all we could there we would flee to other places. So we started rolling across the country establishing Colony after Colony, until 2 years later we already had 50 Colonies all over!
29. One year we had nothing & didn't know where we were going or what we were going to do, two years later we had a huge work of hundreds of people in scores of places! But we just had to wait until it was God's time, God's people, God's leader, God's conditions, & then we exploded! PTL! The Lord showed us it was going to be like a forest fire that was just going to sweep the forest & roar!--And we did, until the System was scared to death!--Ha! These little old hippies marching down the street had the cops & everybody shaking in their boots as our staves thundered on the pavement! It was the power of God! They were absolutely trembling from the show of force of the Lord, they really thought we were going to take them over! But we had better things to do than taking them over, we were going to take over the World & all the hippies we could find!
30. (Maria: Didn't that really encourage you talking about that?) Yes, I must admit! I was getting almost as frustrated & discouraged & at the point of giving up like we were there on Grandma's floor. So we'll just sit & wait. In the meantime we're going to throw out some feelers & find out a few things! PTL!
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31. I got a picture from the Lord this morning. It was a long hallway of doors, almost like a hotel hallway. It's funny, all these years that I've been talking about open doors, closed doors & that sort of thing, I've always pictured a row of doors on a wall with most of them closed but one or two standing open, & those were the open doors. We were to recognise that by the fact that the others were closed & one or two are open, & those are the ones you see are open, therefore you go in, & you don't even try the closed ones. But in this vision every single one of them was closed, & it came to me just as clear as anything, "Well, they're not just standing open, they're all shut, but you have to go along & try them to see which ones are locked & which ones you can open!"
32. Isn't that something? I never saw that before! That's so often the way we find what we're looking for--we go along trying the doors. It's not that they're visibly standing open & it's so easy that you don't even have to seek, you don't have to find, you don't have to knock. But there are times when they're all closed, or look closed, & you have to seek & ye shall find, knock & it shall be opened. They're not always just standing there open, you have to go along & try the doors! And that's one reason we try so many doors that we find are locked or that we don't like what's inside etc.
33. We do that much more often than getting sudden direct revelations that, "This is the door right here!" The Lord doesn't really do that for you very often. He usually makes you go & seek. That's what He says, "Seek & ye shall find!" Now if the door is obviously standing open, you don't have to seek, there it is, you can see it. But usually you've gotta go along trying them! Ha! I never got that picture so clearly before! That's why we try so many & we find so many that are unsuitable or locked. But we have to find that out or afterwards we'll think, "Well, now maybe I could have found a better door, maybe there was something better!"
34. It's just like going shopping. Often He leads you right to the right thing first. But then you have to go around trying everything else to prove it's the right thing so you'll be satisfied it's the right thing & you won't doubt that you got the right thing. Well, we've been trying quite a few doors lately & so far we have knocked & we have tried to open a few & a few were open, they weren't locked, but we didn't particularly think it was the best thing. We're still looking for the best thing, the best door, & I'm sure when we find it, it will be open! PTL!
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