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"NOT A SERMON, BUT A SAMPLE!"--MO July 3, 1970 NO.J--DO
Copyrighted July, 1970 by The Children of God
P.O. Box 31, London WC2E 7LX, England or GPO 3141. San Juan, Puerto Rico 00936
(On occasion of Hosea wanting to take a team into Austin, Texas for several days witnessing.)
THE MOST IMPORTANT THING IS LISTENING TO GOD TO LEARN HIS PLAN
1. THIS TIME HERE IS SO PRECIOUS, I CAN'T TELL YOU HOW PRECIOUS IT IS. I want to tell you something: We greatly emphasize witnessing here, but the "poor ye have always with you, but me ye have not." (Mt.26:11)
2. THIS TIME IS PRICELESS AND I DON'T THINK IT'S GOING TO LAST THAT LONG, SO WE CAN'T AFFORD TO GO RUNNING OFF TO OUR OWN LITTLE BATTLES COOKED UP BY OUR OWN IDEAS JUST BECAUSE WE THINK OUR SOLDIERS NEED A LITTLE WITNESSING. THEY HAVE HAD MORE WITNESSING EXPERIENCE THAN THEY HAVE HAD TEACHING, ESPECIALLY FROM ME. We'll, I'm teaching now, son, and I just don't see how we can afford it.
3. WHEN WE SEND OUT TEAMS, I HOPE TO SEND THEM OUT AND NEVER SEE THEM AGAIN. I WANT THEM TO GO AND STAY UNTIL THEY GET THE JOB DONE. This time here is God-given and it is extremely precious and so much that's important is going on in what we're developing and accomplishing here. It is tremendously far-reaching--the witness we have is in the papers to the visitors, on the radio with our provisioning teams--just by the whole world knowing we're here.
4. MOSES WAS GETTING DIRECTIONS FOR EIGHTY DAYS FOR A WORLD PROGRAMME WHICH WAS TO LAST FOR THOUSANDS OF YEARS. Do you think it was time wasted, a time to get bored, a time to be impatient? We are sitting here right now talking and listening to God and trying to find out what God wants us to do next, like we were doing up in Laurentide and when God started talking, He told us exactly what to do and how to do it and we had a monumental year on the road, because we spent time listening to God and got our orders directly from Him.
5. THE HIPPIES YOU'LL ALWAYS HAVE WITH YOU, BUT YOU'RE NOT ALWAYS GOING TO HAVE A CHANCE TO BE TOGETHER LIKE THIS LISTENING TO GOD'S PROGRAMME AND GOD'S PLANS AND WHAT GOD IS THINKING. We're just barely getting around to where we're well enough organised to settle down long enough to listen. YOU NEED TO GET YOUR ORDERS FROM GOD. Joshua was already a good soldier, already knew how to fight battles and lead an army, had been doing it for years under Moses. By the time they got to Sinai what he needed was time to let Moses hear from God and tell him what to do--to know what God wanted him to do.
6. I HAVE A FEW IDEAS WHAT GOD WANTS US TO DO, BUT UNLESS GOD SAYS, "NOW IS THE TIME TO GO OUT HERE OR THERE", I'M NOT GOING. I'm going to sit right here and relay to the people what I get from the Lord. A lot of people are telling me what to do.
7. THE ONLY PERSON IT PAYS TO LISTEN TO IS THE LORD, AND WHEN HE TELLS ME WHAT TO DO, I DO IT! But if he hasn't told me to send a team to Austin, I'm afraid to do it, because it may be a disaster, and certainly if God hasn't ordered it and specifically called for it and staffed it, then I'm afraid. I'M AFRAID TO DO ANYTHING THAT ISN'T DIRECTLY ORDERED BY GOD.
TRAINING IN PIONEERING A NEW COMMUNAL SOCIETY
8. I THINK WE OURSELVES ARE IN BASIC TRAINING HERE. God is trying to teach us all something. We're doing something here that is just as important as witnessing. We are learning to do something that the rest of the world says cannot be done.
9. WE ARE LEARNING TO BE A LIVING EXAMPLE, NOT JUST BE OUT HITHER, THITHER AND YON, SCREAMING YOUR HEADS OFF, BUT SETTING AN EXAMPLE OF HOW GOD WANTS HIS CHILDREN TO LIVE, and it's taking us time to organise it and get accustomed to it. You don't realise what we're doing here; because what we're doing here has a tremendous impact for the future. It has a lot to do with the future.
10. WE ARE PIONEERS. WE ARE PIONEERING SOMETHING HERE. THIS IS LIKE A GREAT EXPERIMENT, AND WE'VE GOT TO MAKE IT WORK. AND ONE OF THE GREATEST WITNESSES IS THAT WE HAVE A REAL CHRISTIAN COMMUNE, AND ONE OF THE BIGGEST JOBS WE HAVE TO DO IS TO MAKE IT WORK, AND WE'RE LEARNING SOMETHING NEW EVERY DAY, IN EVERY DEPARTMENT. GOD SAID THE WAY WE LIVE WOULD BE OUR GREATEST WITNESS AND PEOPLE WOULD COME TO US BECAUSE OF IT. I believe God, and until he tells me something different, I'm going to stick to that. But you want to go off half cocked and start something that you can't carry through with. You make contacts and then you can't follow them through. But what if we had let you go and stay there. Can you imagine what would have happened here, and the things that would have gone undone?
11. WE ARE ORGANISING A SOCIETY. WE'RE IN THE EXPERIMENTAL STAGE OF ORGANISING A NATION WITH EVERY MINOR DETAIL INVOLVED, from how to take care of babies in a communal programme to ID cards. None of these little details is unimportant. We're organising a city a whole new culture, a totally different society, and what we're doing here is one of our greatest parts of our testimony.
12. THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN US AND FORMER SOCIETIES--SUCH AS COMMUNES OF OTHER DAYS AND TIMES, MONASTIC SOCIETIES AND CONVENTS, ETC.--IS THAT WE'RE NOT PLANNING TO BE TOTALLY SEPARATED FROM THE WORLD AND CUT OFF, BUT WE ARE TRYING TO GET ORGANISED HERE SO WE CAN GO OUT OF HERE AND TELL OTHERS HOW TO DO IT. There needs to be something like this in Great Britain, Africa, South America, our East Coast. But your vision is so small, you want to run to Austin, when they could come to see us if they wanted to.
OUR GREATEST WITNESS IS OUR EXAMPLE OF DROPPING OUT AND FORSAKING ALL WHICH IS A CONDEMNATION OF THE CHURCHES
13. WE ARE DOING SOMETHING THAT IS PHENOMENAL, ALMOST UNHEARD OF, THE WAY WE'RE DOING IT IS ALMOST UNHEARD OF. There have been all kinds of communal groups before, but none with such a militant and active type of witness as we've had and continue to have. I wonder how many other kinds of communes have had nearly 1,000 visitors in a little more than three months come to their gate to see what's going on, having helicopter pilots breaking rules and dropping out of the sky to see what's happening--already over 100 of them. And frequent Salvation's, and people getting filled with the Spirit.
14. WE ARE ACCOMPLISHING AS MUCH, IF NOT MORE, RIGHT HERE RIGHT THIS MINUTE AS FAR AS OUR WITNESS POPULATION-WISE, AS WE DID WHEN WE WERE ON THE ROAD WITNESSING EVERY DAY. Anybody and everybody can talk about Jesus. There's nothing new about Jesus. The churches have been talking about Jesus for thousands of years and it hasn't done much good, but the way we are living and practicing Jesus is making news.
15. PEOPLE DON'T COME OUT HERE TO GET SERMONS, THEY COME OUT HERE TO SEE A PHENOMENON THAT THEY NEVER HEARD OF BEFORE. Nine out of ten people that come to this gate already claim to be Christians, so what are they coming out here for? What do they need? You know what the Lord said to me in my call? He told me I was to be a witness to the House of Israel. This was to be my main ministry, and you can believe it or not. I think that's what it still is. I believe we are famous among the church people--if for no other reason than what Jeremiah and Ezekiel were famous for--as a testimony against them because the people didn't repent. And when they stand in the Judgment they will have not one damned excuse, because Jeremiah and Ezekiel had told them. And that's what we're doing.
16. THE CHURCH IN GENERAL SAYS, "YES, THAT'S WHAT THEY DID IN THE EARLY CHURCH, BUT IT'S IMPOSSIBLE TODAY. IT WOULDN'T WORK NOW." That's the damned fool excuse the Church has used for thousands of years, so they can live as they damn please and live selfishly to themselves and do their own thing. Ninety-nine of the damn preachers have told them, "You don't have to do it now. Anyway you couldn't do it now. This is a different day and it's impossible."
17. THE GOSPEL HAS BEEN PREACHED FOR THOUSANDS OF YEARS. THE WHOLE WORLD IN A SENSE HAS HEARD ABOUT SALVATION, BUT OUR MAJOR WITNESS IS ACTUALLY IN THIS NATION RIGHT NOW AND OUR MAJOR WITNESS IS CONDEMNATION OF THE SO-CALLED CHURCH OF JESUS CHRIST. We are a testimony against them. Just as Jesus Christ and His disciples were a constant testimony and final one, too, because as soon as they were gone the judgments of God began to fall upon them. They knew everything. They had the Old Testament. They thought they knew all about Salvation. Nobody could tell them anything. But the thing that was really the testimony against them was the different way in which Jesus and Paul lived, as well as what they preached. You never heard of any Scribes and Pharisees telling people to go about dropping out.
18. THIS IS IN EFFECT EXACTLY WHAT MOSES SAID, "DROP OUT; FORSAKE ALL; FOLLOW ME. YOU DON'T NEED EGYPT. YOU DON'T NEED THE SYSTEM." They could have said, "Why that's impossible. If we get out in that desert with you, we'll starve. We won't have our jobs, we won't have our homes, we won't have our churches." But Moses said, "You can follow me in the middle of the desert, and God will take care of us."
19. NOAH PREACHED THE SAME THING. "Forsake everything. Come into the ark and God will protect and supply for us," and they probably said, "You fool; it never has rained. You can't get along without this world." He invited them to repent. They could have gone along with him. His whole message was to drop out, live full-time for God and He'll take care of you--and he lived it. We're living witnesses against them. Ninety-nine percent of the church says, "It can't be one. You shouldn't do it. It's not for today. Do your own thing, and just go to church on Sunday."
20. IT'S NOT BY OUR PREACHING SALVATION, OR JESUS OR HEALING OR THE BAPTISM OF THE HOLY SPIRIT, BUT WHAT MAKES US UNIQUE IS THAT WE ARE LIVING LIKE JESUS INTENDED FOR HIS CHURCH TO LIVE. WE ARE PROVING THAT IT CAN BE DONE AND WE HAVE GOT TO MAKE IT WORK. WE'VE GOT TO LIVE IT AND MAKE IT WORK. The average church couldn't have had 200 of their people living together the length of time we have been without having a hell of a fight by this time. Do you realize what a miracle it is that we have no violence in our camp--no one ever coming to blows. It is the Lord and the way we are obeying Him and the way we are living. We are a living example.
21. WHAT INTERESTS THE HIPPIES IS THAT THEY HEAR OF SOME PEOPLE THAT ARE LIVING LIKE THE EARLY CHURCH AND THE DISCIPLES--ACTUALLY DOING IT, NOT JUST SAYING IT. THAT'S THE NEW AND UNIQUE AND DIFFERENT THING ABOUT US--NOT JUST OUR DOCTRINE. Our doctrine is as old as the hills, not even witnessing is new. Not even Bible Prophecy is new. It's not much different than what they're teaching. The newspapers don't write up our Bible Prophecy. They come out to see the way we live. They come out to see if it is actually possible. These pilots--intelligent, intellectual, smart guys--keep dropping out of the sky to see what's going on. Do you think they want to be preached Jesus? No.
22. THEY JUST CAN'T COMPREHEND THAT THERE IS A GROUP OF YOUNG PEOPLE LIVING OUT HERE TOGETHER IN PEACE WITHOUT FIGHTING OR SQUABBLING, ACTUALLY JUST LIVING OUT HERE AND LISTENING TO GOD AND LIVING AT PEACE WITH EACH OTHER, AND THAT GOD IS TAKING CARE OF THEM LIKE MOSES AND HIS FAMILY IN THE WILDERNESS. "How do you do it? How do you live like this without money? Wish we could come out here and join in your efforts of peace." Why don't they? They haven't got the faith to trust God that much.
23. THE SYSTEMITES COME OUT HERE AND LOOK DOWN THEIR NOSES TRYING TO FIND FAULT AND WHAT'S THE MATTER WITH IT. "We've been told it's impossible, so there must be something wrong with it, so we're going out to see what's wrong," but they come out and "beholding the man" they can't deny it. We're living it. ALL THEY CAN DO IS PLAN TO GO BACK AND PLOT TO KILL US OFF SO THAT WE WON'T CONTINUE TO BE A WITNESS AGAINST THEM. Meanwhile we continue to prove it can be done.
OUR COMMUNE IS AN EXAMPLE TO WORLD MISSIONS OF HOW TO SURVIVE
24. WE DON'T HAVE TO PROVE WE BELIEVE IN MISSIONS AND GOING INTO ALL THE WORLD. Our family has been doing it all our lives and we've led these Children of God into doing it for the last couple of years. But that's not much different than what the missionaries have been doing. But how many missionaries are living in a totally God-dependent commune with their natives all dropped out to follow Jesus--on the mission field?
25. WE'RE AN EXAMPLE TO THE MISSION FIELD! IF WE CAN PROVE GOD CAN DO THIS WITH US, IT PROBABLY WILL SPREAD ALL OVER THE WORLD, BECAUSE UNLESS THEY DO THIS, THEY WON'T SURVIVE, because it will be impossible to live within the System without accepting the Mark of the Beast. We're not buying or selling here, but we'll continue to exist if God has to drop manna out of heaven just to prove that we can do it.
THE IMPORTANCE OF OUR WITNESSING BY DROPPING OUT OF THE SYSTEM AND BUILDING A NEW GODLY COMMUNAL SOCIETY RATHER THAN SCATTERING TO PREACH SERMONS
26. GOD IS JUST BEGINNING HERE. WE ARE JUST GETTING STARTED WITH A TOTALLY NEW CULTURE. GOD CALLED US A NEW NATION. THAT MEANS A WHOLE NEW CULTURE--A WHOLE NEW NATION, A NEW WAY OF LIFE. We are a little sample of the coming Millennium and we're going to prove it can work, believe it or not.
27. WE NEED TO GET BUSY AND MAKE IT WORK RIGHT HERE. CHARITY BEGINS AT HOME AND THAT'S EXACTLY WHAT WE'VE BEEN DOING, IN SPITE OF OURSELVES AND OUR OWN DESIRES TO GO, GO, GO. What if you had been gone to Austin the weekend that those reporters came here. I don't think anybody could have possibly presented it to them the way you did. You had the anointing of God and that was vital! Can you think what a tragedy it would have been if you had been gone. They see these kids--the leader only twenty-one (as far as the reporter was concerned you were the leader, and you are above ground). Joshua and Aaron were the ones in touch with the people. All Moses did was pass on the words of God to the people. Moses seldom spoke to the people. Aaron did his talking for him--his executive officers did his talking for him and that's what it amounts to here.
28. "BUT SON, WE'VE GOT TO MAKE IT WORK AND WE'RE MAKING IT WORK, BUT WE'VE GOT TO WORK AT IT. EVERY DAY WE'RE LEARNING TO TAKE CARE OF THIS NEED, HOW TO HANDLE THAT SITUATION. WE'RE A TOTALLY NEW SOCIETY, A TOTALLY NEW CULTURE, AN ALTOGETHER NEW NATION, A BRAND NEW PEOPLE. WE EVEN HAVE A NEW ECONOMY, EVEN A NEW POLITICS, AS WELL AS A NEW SPIRITUAL BODY. DO YOU UNDERSTAND HOW IMPORTANT IT IS WHAT WE ARE DOING?
29. PREACHING SALVATION IS AS OLD AS THE HILLS. WITNESSING IS AGES OLD. TELLING PEOPLE ABOUT JESUS IS EONS OLD, BUT LET ME TELL YOU RIGHT NOW, LIVING THE WAY GOD WANTED PEOPLE TO LIVE HAS NOT BEEN PRACTICED OR TRIED VERY MUCH, BECAUSE NOT MANY PEOPLE HAD FAITH TO TRY IT. Besides it was too Revolutionary, too anti-System, too totally different. They were afraid to, they wouldn't be accepted, or respected, might even be persecuted, so why do anything different.
30. DO YOU THINK NOAH SUFFERED ANY PERSECUTION? WHY? BECAUSE HE WAS LIVING DIFFERENT, WORKING ON THE ARK INSTEAD OF IN THE SYSTEM. Do you think Moses suffered? Yes. He almost got killed, because he was different. He forsook the System. He dropped out of the System.
31. THEY THREW THEMSELVES UTTERLY AND TOTALLY UPON GOD. "Here we are. We're your Children. Now you take care of us. We're going to live full-time for you." Which do you think was the greater miracle--six million Children of Israel without food or water crossing the desert, or when they got to the Promise Land and started living like everybody else? When they were totally dependent upon God, not spending their time on crops or anything else.
32. THERE'S NOTHING NEW ABOUT JESUS OR SALVATION OR WITNESSING OR HEALING OR BAPTISM OF THE HOLY SPIRIT OR MISSIONARY WORK OR EVANGELISM. ALL ARE DESPERATELY NEEDED AND ARE INDISPENSABLE. ALL ARE A PART OF OUR MESSAGE AND MINISTRY, BUT NOTHING NEW AND SHOCKING TO BE A CONDEMNATION TO THE CHURCH. They can all claim they know all that. They do it, and blah, blah, blah.... OODLES OF PEOPLE HAVE EXPERIENCED ALL THESE THINGS, BUT THEY HAVE NOT TOTALLY DROPPED OUT OF THEIR SYSTEM AND THE DAMNABLE RELIGIOUS SYSTEM TO SHOW THAT IT IS NOT OF GOD, COMPLETELY AND TOTALLY, AND CAST THEMSELVES UTTERLY ON GOD TO TAKE CARE OF THEM. I look at our financial reports and think, "My God, how do we manage to exist?" Our usual report says there is more going out than coming in, and I don't know how we do it.
33. IT'S ONE CONSTANT MIRACLE THAT WE MANAGE TO SURVIVE, BECAUSE THERE IS NO RHYME NOR REASON TO IT AT ALL, EXCEPT THAT WE LIVE BY A MIRACLE. I wonder from week to week how we are going to survive next time. If he's got to drop manna out of heaven to feed us, and I believe that if that had to be done, He'd do it, if we were totally shut off from any outside contact, He'd feed us miraculously just to honour our faith and prove He loves us for condemning the world. Do you know what it says about Noah--he condemned the world by his faith. That's exactly what we're doing--condemning the world, including the Church, by the faith of a few young hippies.
34. GOD HAS GIVEN US THE FAITH BECAUSE HE WANTS US TO BE A TESTIMONY AGAINST THE WORLD AND THE GOD-DAMNED CHURCH, AND I THINK IT'S GOING TO BE THEIR LAST WITNESS BEFORE THEY START GETTING THE ROD. THEY ARE NOW WITHOUT EXCUSE BECAUSE, LIKE ALL THE PROPHETS WE HAVE PROVED TO THEM THAT IT CAN BE DONE, AND THAT THIS IS WHAT THEY OUGHT TO DO. Anybody can go down and witness to hippies--Teen Challenge, the Jesus People, etc. Last time you went to Austin what was the absolute clincher to your witness? Did you tell them about how we lived? That's our whole witness! That is the witness. It wouldn't be possible without Jesus, but that message is so familiar they're sick of it, but they've never seen anybody live it--acting like they really believed it, and believed that God could do what He said--putting the Kingdom of God first and believing that God will supply all these things.
35. WE'RE NOT TALKING ABOUT IT; WE'RE DOING IT AND LIVING IT AND SHOWING IT. THAT'S OUR WITNESS. So then, what's more important? We have a society in training. We have a nation born in a day that's a mere baby, yet whose citizens don't even know what they're here for. They don't even know why they're here. They think they're here just to learn how to witness and win souls. I'm trying to get it across in Leadership Training, but I haven't been able to yet.
36. WE'RE NOT SITTING HERE ON THE MOUNTAIN JUST TO TELL PEOPLE ABOUT JESUS. WE'RE SITTING HERE LISTENING TO GOD AND SHOWING THEM WE CAN SURVIVE eighty days (as the world looks at it) without food and water and God can take care of us and we can go through the wilderness and God can throw manna out of heaven if necessary, to their way of thinking.
37. AND LOOK AT US! WE'RE ALL A MIRACLE! IT'S A MIRACLE THAT WE'RE HERE! It's a miracle that we're alive with gun-slinging enemies all around us. Our very existence out here is such a miracle and testimony. We are a greater testimony living here like we are than if we were out there some place, just preaching Jesus. Think about it!
38. SO IS IT IMPORTANT? IT IS ESSENTIAL! IS IT IMPORTANT WE KNOW WHAT WE'RE DOING AND THAT WE WORK AT MAKING IT WORK? WELL, THAT'S WHAT YOU'VE BEEN DOING AND I THINK IT'S MORE IMPORTANT TO STICK HERE UNTIL WE GET THIS THING WORKING AND CONTINUING TO BE SUCH A TESTIMONY, THAN IT IS TO SEND A TEAM INTO AUSTIN OR DALLAS. It's more important we prove it can be done, and when we are sure we are what God wants us to be and doing it how God wants us to do it, then we can get out and start bragging about it.
39. WITNESSING IS NOT THE MOST IMPORTANT THING. OUR FELLOWSHIP WITH GOD IS MOST IMPORTANT. HEARING FROM THE LORD! THEN WE'LL KNOW HOW TO WITNESS AND WHAT TO WITNESS AND THAT'S WHY WE'RE WHERE WE ARE TODAY--BECAUSE WE STOPPED AND SAT DOWN AND LISTENED TO GOD AND THEN FOLLOWED HIS DIRECTIONS AND WON EVERY BATTLE, BECAUSE WE DID IT GOD'S WAY, but if we'd gone ahead in our own way and wisdom nobody would have heard of us yet, because we never in this world would have thought of wearing sackcloth, carrying rods, wearing earrings, and all kinds of other crazy things and standing silent in vigil.
40. WHAT DO YOU THINK ATTRACTED THE MOST WORLD-WIDE ATTENTION--THE JESUS PEOPLE PREACHING, "JESUS SAVES, JOIN THE SYSTEM," big crowds that have parade permits protected by the police, not suffering any persecution, advocated and trusted by the System? I haven't seen a lot of news about them. Where have you seen feature articles about them? They aren't doing another damn thing except letting their kids wear long hair and carrying signs about Jesus. They still have the same damn churches, same damn system.
41. IT ONLY TAKES ABOUT FIFTY OF OUR KIDS TO STAND IN TIMES SQUARE IN FRONT OF THE UNTIED NATIONS TO MAKE NEWS. Because how many other Christians are standing out there in stringy, faded, motley robes, with rods in their hands and crazy looking yokes about their necks? They've seen longhairs by the thousands, but this is something different. You know why we did it? Because we waited until God told us what to do.
42. BUT THE BIGGEST FAILURES IN THE WORD OF GOD WERE THE BIG SHOT BOYS WHO THOUGHT THEY KNEW WHAT TO DO AND WENT OUT AND FELL FLAT ON THEIR FACES. "Here's a war. Aren't we supposed to fight it? What do we have all these soldiers here for, anyway?" "No, Son, you're just here to watch Me work. You're not to do the job. You're just to listen to Me and I'll take care of the Enemy." Those big shots who thought they could do it in their natural wisdom went out and fell flat on their swords. They went ahead just because they thought that's the way you're supposed to do it.
43. IT IS MORE IMPORTANT THAT WE MANAGE TO SURVIVE AND EXIST OUT HERE AS A SOCIETY, AS A CHURCH, AS A RELIGIOUS MOVEMENT, WITH A NEW IDEA, THAT WE MANAGE TO SURVIVE AND JUST EXIST, IF NOTHING ELSE, TOTALLY INDEPENDENT, FREE OF THE SYSTEM, CONDEMNING IT, DAMNING IT, AND SAYING TO HELL WITH IT, WHILE WE MANAGE BY THE MIRACLES OF GOD TO SURVIVE WITHOUT IT. It is more important that we do that, believe it or not, than to run hither, thither, and yon, and just say, "Jesus Saves, Jesus Saves!" Do you know why?
44. A LOT OF PEOPLE ARE RUNNING AROUND SAYING, "JESUS SAVES", BUT WE'RE THE ONLY PEOPLE I KNOW OF WHO ARE PROVING IT!--AND THAT HE CAN DO IT WITHOUT THE DAMN SYSTEM AND WITHOUT THE DAMN CHURCHY SYSTEM AND WITHOUT OUR DAMN JOBS AND WITHOUT ALL THE REST OF THE DAMN STUFF. We are proving that Jesus Saves, just by managing to hang on by out toenails out here on this dust, in this God-forsaken country with dead people walking around in these stinking little ghost towns. This is the last place I'd have chosen to live--freezing winters and over 100 degrees Fahrenheit in the summer. We didn't pick this place for its nice climate or because it had such nice friendly people or because it was so convenient to town.
45. WE BROUGHT THE OFFERING OUT HERE AND LAID IT ON THE ALTAR AND PUT WOOD AROUND IT AND POURED WATER ON IT AND MADE IT AS IMPOSSIBLE AS WE COULD AND SAID, "NOW GOD, YOU SEND THE FIRE!" AND HE'S DONE IT! We didn't go running around looking for a match or trying to make it burn ourselves. We didn't seek the publicity. They came looking for us. They begged to come in our gates. GOD HAVING PERFORMED THE MIRACLE, WE ARE A TESTIMONY AGAINST ALL THE TENS OF THOUSANDS OF PROPHETS OF BAAL, PREACHING IN THEIR PULPITS EVERY SUNDAY. THE VERY POWER OF OUR WITNESS AND THE WORD OF GOD IS SLAYING THEM RIGHT NOW, AND THEY KNOW IT AND THAT'S WHY THEY HATE US.
46. WE ARE GETTING ABOUT AS MANY NEW DISCIPLES RIGHT AT OUR GATE AS WE CAN PROPERLY ABSORB INTO THIS SOCIETY RIGHT NOW, just with the contacts we make at the gate, those few that are made when some of us leave the Ranch occasionally, and the new disciples they would love to send us from California. We have more right now than we know what to do with. We have plenty because we are a new society trying to learn how to make it work.
47. FOR US "SEEKING THE KINGDOM OF GOD" FIRST IS NOW AT WORK, RIGHT HERE IN A TOTALLY NEW TYPE OF CHRISTIAN SOCIETY. THIS IS THE KINGDOM OF GOD. WE ARE LEARNING HOW TO RUN HIS KINGDOM. "THY KINGDOM COME." RIGHT HERE, NOW! "THY WILL BE DONE," ON THIS EARTH, RIGHT HERE ON THIS DESOLATE PIECE OF LAND IN THE MIDDLE OF GOD DAMNED TEXAS--"AS IT IS IN HEAVEN."
48. NOW DO YOU BEGIN TO UNDERSTAND WHAT WE ARE HERE FOR? ALL WE HAVE TO DO IS STAY RIGHT HERE AND OBEY GOD. I'm not budging one inch out of this camp until I hear from God. He knows the only way in the world that it can be done and it's probably not going to be through normal channels. I could have run off half-cocked and come back a failure. I'm sitting here waiting for a miracle because I can't do it. We can't do it. GOD'S GOING TO HAVE TO DO IT, AND HE'S GOING TO HAVE TO SHOW US HOW TO DO IT, AND IT'S GOING TO TAKE A MIRACLE. But it's not going to happen until we have been such a witness here against the whole God damned country and System. Until they're not going to be able to forget about us through the Judgment and through all of eternity. THAT WE PROVED YOU CAN DROP OUT, FORSAKE ALL, FOLLOW JESUS, SEEK FIRST THE KINGDOM OF GOD AND, IF YOU'LL FORSAKE ALL AND FOLLOW JESUS, HE'LL HELP YOU AND SUPPLY EVERY NEED.
49. THE ONLY REASON IN THE WORLD THAT MAKES OUR WITNESS MORE EFFECTIVE IS THE TESTIMONY OF OUR EXAMPLE OF THE WAY WE LIVE. What is it you hope will be the fruit of your witness? What are you looking for? Fruit like us? And what do you expect to do with them? We hope that they become a part of us, here or in another commune like us somewhere. Our whole idea and program is to make them one of us, to live like us and with us, to continue to prove it can be done, and to continue to testify that this is the way to live.
50. BUT IF WE'RE JUST GOING TO HAVE BABIES ALL OVER THE STREETS AND SEND THEM BACK TO THE ORPHANAGES, WE'RE NOT PROVING A THING. BUT, LIVING LIKE WE ARE, WITH GOD FEEDING US AND GOD SUPPLYING US WITH WATER AND THE MATERIALS WE NEED, WE'RE PROVING THAT GOD STILL RAINS MANNA DOWN FROM THE SKY AND BRINGS WATER OUT OF THE ROCK, AND THAT IF HE CAN DO IT FOR US, HE CAN DO IT FOR THE REST, IF THEY ARE WILLING TO BELIEVE HIM AND TRUST HIM.
51. WE ARE SUCH AN ABSOLUTE PARADOX, SUCH A CONTRADICTION, SUCH AN ENIGMA, SUCH A PHENOMENON, THAT THEY'RE COMING OUT TO SEE US, AND IT'S MORE IMPORTANT FOR US TO SET THE EXAMPLE THAN IT IS JUST TO TALK ABOUT IT. Honestly now, what was the greater testimony--the things that Jesus said or the way He lived and the works He performed? What was the greater proof of His Messiahship? They didn't say, "By what authority sayest thou these things", but "by what authority doest thou these things?" It was what He was doing that bothered them, not just what He was saying, and the fact that He was doing it outside of their damned system and was setting such an example with His disciples--His dropouts from the System-- a testimony against them.
52. WHAT WE ARE DOING IS MORE IMPORTANT THAN WHAT WE'RE SAYING. People don't come out to hear what we're saying. They come to see what we're doing. They don't even want to hear what we have to say. They want to see how we live. We are practicing what the Bible preaches and that's what they want to see. So it behooves us to get busy and set them a good example and show them how it ought to be done.
53. DO YOU WANT THE REST OF THE WORLD TO DO IT THE WAY WE'RE DOING IT? WELL THEN, LET'S GET THINGS RUNNING THE WAY THEY OUGHT TO RUN. Let's get our signs up and the place cleaned up so we can be a shining example to the world that this is the way the whole church should do it. One out of ten is going to say, "Yes, this is what I've been looking for," and for their sakes it is worth it, and it is even worth it to damn to hell the other 90% to be a testimony against them, even if we never got a convert, to condemn these damnable church people of their hypocrisy.
54. THOUSANDS OF PEOPLE CAME OUT TO SEE JESUS. HOW MANY OF THEM FOLLOWED HIM? How many went out two by two and witnessed? At the most seventy and most of the time just a dozen. Thousands of people will come to see us--most of them just curious, but we have to be a constant testimony against them anyway. But once in a while we'll get a disciple.
55. NINETY PER CENT OF OUR MINISTRY HERE IS CONDEMNING THE CHURCH AND THE CHURCH PEOPLE AND THE DAMN SYSTEM. There is probably hardly one in twenty who have responded to our invitation to take Christ. About five percent--the other ninety-five percent be damned.
56. GOD IS KEEPING US HERE LONG ENOUGH FOR THOUSANDS OF PEOPLE TO BEAT A PATH TO OUR DOOR TO SEE WHAT THE CHURCH OUGHT TO BE LIKE, BECAUSE EVEN WHEN WE MOVED AROUND THE COUNTRY WE COULDN'T ACTUALLY REACH AS MANY PEOPLE AS WE CAN RIGHT HERE because they know where we are and they've heard about us, and now they have time to come to see us. But now they can say, "By the seeing of the eye and the hearing of the ear. Surely indeed this is the Messianic Kingdom!"
57. THERE WAS A GUY DOWN IN MIAMI BEACH WHO WORE A LONG ROBE AND GOT REVELATIONS FROM GOD AND HAD SOME MARVELOUS IDEAS ABOUT PLANS FOR A CHRISTIAN SOCIALISTIC COMMUNE, BUT IT WAS ALL HOT AIR AND TALKING. HE DIDN'T HAVE AN EXAMPLE. He couldn't even show it in his own house, so whoever heard about him after he quit doing miracles. He never made it work. He never persuaded anybody to do it. We came down there and said, "Avak, we're already doing what you're talking about. Why don't you come and join us?"
58. DON'T MISUNDERSTAND ME, SON, I BELIEVE IN WITNESSING, AND I BELIEVE THE TIME WILL COME, AND MAY SOON BE, WHEN WE WILL BE SCATTERED AND GO EVERYWHERE PREACHING THIS, BUT RIGHT NOW THEY NEED TO LEARN HOW TO ORGANISE SUCH A SOCIETY, HOW TO MAKE IT WORK, AND HOW TO RUN IT, SO THEY WILL BE ABLE TO DO IT, TOO, BECAUSE THIS IS GOING TO BE THE BASIC BLOCK OF SURVIVAL. This is how it is going to have to be done. We're literally right now giving a course in church survival.--What the church is going to have to do to survive--going to have to pull out of the system and expect the Lord to feed them with manna out of heaven and water out of a rock in the wilderness.
59. IT'S HAPPENING! WE ARE OUR OWN SOCIETY, IN A SENSE, WITH OUR OWN GOVERNMENT. We have our own babies. We have declared our independence from the System, and we're making it work and that's the thing that counts. IT IS POSSIBLE FOR GOD TO STILL TAKE CARE OF HIS CHILDREN WITHOUT THE HELP OF THE SYSTEM, and let me tell you, some of the Christians had better learn that and learn it fast because pretty soon they won't have help of the System and they will have to be utterly dependent upon God or they won't survive.
60. IT IS NOT WHAT WE'RE SAYING OR PREACHING THAT COUNTS. IT'S THE WAY WE'RE LIVING. So God help us to survive and be a living testimony.
61. Quote Psalm 126, Son.
1) WHEN THE LORD TURNED AGAIN THE CAPTIVITY OF ZION, WE WERE LIKE THEM THAT DREAM.
2) Then was our mouth filled with laughter, and our tongue with singing; then said they among the heathen, the Lord hath done great things for them.
3) THE LORD HATH DONE GREAT THINGS FOR US; WHERE OF WE ARE GLAD.
4) Turn again captivity, O Lord, as the streams in the south.
5) They that sow in tears shall reap in joy.
6) He that goeth forth and weepeth, bearing precious seed, shall doubtless come again rejoicing, bringing his sheaves with him.
62. IT'S NOT JUST TALKING IT THAT COUNTS! IT'S LIVING IT, PRACTICING IT! Imagine the Associated Press reporters coming out here to a rag-a-tag band of ex-hippies, coming to worship at your feet and say, "This is of God." I'll tell you, we've got a terrific example to set and you have no idea how important this witness is, and it has not been properly organised and given enough credit, because these are the people that are going to go back and give a report. Are they getting to see that it is working or are they just getting a sermon?
63. THE GREATEST PROOF OF THE PUDDING IS NOT A SERMON, BUT A SAMPLE--IT IS TO SEE THE FRUIT. You're minimizing the ministry here. You say, "Well, we've got to get out witnessing. We've got to leave this place to get the vision." But they need most important to catch the vision here and what they're doing here.
64. IT WON'T LAST LONG. THE SYSTEM'S NOT GOING TO LET IT LAST. IT IS TOO GREAT A CONDEMNATION. SO WE'VE GOT TO MAKE HAY WHILE THE SUN SHINES!
Copyright (c) 1998 by The Family}
