David Berg
—MO January‚ 1973 NO.199—GP
P. O Box 31, London WC2E 7LX, England or BP 752, 75123 Paris Cedex 03 France
1. I WAS PRAYING FOR HOWARD HUGHES. Whenever I wake up during the night I feel I may as well redeem the time, and the Lord usually lays someone on my heart to pray for. I had been reading a copy of Samson's letter to Mr. Hughes and maybe that's what made me think about him. Anyhow, I was thinking about Howard Hughes and I was trying to get back to sleep while I was praying for him. I had prayed about Ho and the paper, and I remember praying about the vigil. It was like we can have it if we want to, but we missed the ideal opportunity when public opinion was really against the bombing.
2. AND THEN I GOT TO PRAYING FOR HOWARD HUGHES, and all of a sudden it was like I could see him lying there on his couch! It was like one of those old Roman couches that tilt up at one end so you can half sit and half recline. It looked white, like all the furniture was white or some very light pale colour—even he looked white! He apparently has a problem with sleep. He must have insomnia or something, because he was lying there alone but awake. I had a feeling that his nurses were nearby somewhere, sleeping perhaps. It was in the middle of the night, three or four o'clock.
3. HE HAD A VERY DIM LIGHT ON, and was lying there meditating or thinking. Seemed he had been reading, and he had his glasses in his left hand and some papers in his right hand, and I was facing his right side and his arm had dropped‚ hanging over the side of the couch with the papers in his hand, his other hand leaning against the left side of the couch with his glasses in them.
4. HE WAS LYING THERE THINKING‚ and it just seemed like I was coming slowly closer and closer all the time until I wasn't more than ten feet away—15 at the most—almost like I was a ghost! But he didn't see me at all that I know of. He was just looking off into space. Apparently I was in the darkness over to one side.
5. THEN I HAD THIS STRONG URGE TO COMMUNICATE WITH HIM, to speak to him.-Only it was not I that spoke. It was as though the Lord Himself was speaking to him, and it was as though he were hearing the words in his heart or mind. God was speaking to him. He was thinking back right then—back over his life. Apparently he went through quite a religious experience at the time he had the accident in the plane‚ and something had reminded him of it. Perhaps it was what he was reading-maybe Samson's letter-he had several pieces of paper in his hand.
6. HE WAS WONDERING ABOUT THAT EXPERIENCE, like it had brought him closer to the Lord, but not close enough. The Lord had really spoken to him through it, and he was now wondering about things. Like, "Here I am, I'm old and going to die before long. What have I really accomplished? I'm still lonely." All the things he really lived for are gone. And he was wondering why he was spared in the plane accident, and then again what a miracle it was he'd been spared in the last thing—the recent earthquake in Managua—while on the top floor of his hotel. He was really thinking‚ "Well now‚ I must have been spared for something.—Why me?"
7. THE LORD WAS LEADING HIS TRAIN OF THOUGHT and causing him to think of all these things. "Well now, why was I spared and what am I doing here, besides being here on business? Has God really had something to do with it‚ and if so, what for?"-Like he was ripe and ready for an answer. It was as though his spirit‚ because of his (Tongues)... It was like his spirit was seeking an answer. He was pulling for an answer, like faith, and for this reason God was pulling my spirit toward him and I had a great longing to communicate with him.
8. I WAS LYING HERE IN MY BED, AND HE WAS THERE, and God was laying him on my heart to pray for him, probably because he was praying. And then‚ because of his pulling in the spirit, the Lord permitted my spirit to be drawn to him. Then when I got close to him, the words began to form, and it was just like God speaking through me to his mind. All I can remember were the first words, and it was a message for him!
9. BUT I CAN USUALLY REMEMBER THE IMPRESSIONS, they come so clear and strong. He was the rich man who was rich and increased in goods, and instead of sharing he was building even bigger barns.—But that if he didn't soon begin to share, the Lord wouldn't spare him any longer. The only words I can remember of the actual message were the first ones, they came on so strong!—"It is I the Lord thy God that hath delivered thee for the work that I would have thee to do." As though the Lord had been sparing him all these years for a special work He wanted him to do.
10. ISN'T IT AMAZING THAT HE SHOULD HAVE BEEN ON TV AGAIN TONIGHT! That accident he had must have happened when I was in my early twenties because we were living in Hollywood and Mother was holding meetings there, and that's been at least 30 years ago. He was at least 10 years older than I then—he must have been at least in his 30's or 40's and he was known as the young millionaire from Texas, with Hughes Aircraft and Tool Company. Last night when I saw him, he looked pretty old and tired and sick and pretty frail, with a short grey beard and grey hair—at least that was my impression. The thing I noticed most about his appearance was that he was old and tired and sick and very white and pale.
11. IT MUST BE THAT THAT SCRIPTURE WAS IN THE MESSAGE: "Thou hast built bigger barns". (Luke 12:16-21). And he was thinking, "Here I am, really dying, and what am I going to do with all this money?" I haven't ever heard about him being very formally religious. Rich people are always suspicious of people like the churches who are always dunning them for money, The Lord was trying to show him God was not nearly as much interested in his money as He was in him.—That his soul was worth more than all his millions!—He's reputed to be worth two or three billion! Probably if he'd go to the U.S. embassy, they'd try to slap a warrant on him, so many are suing him. But as long as he's investing money and spending it there, the British Government isn't going to be anxious to get rid of him.
12. PART OF THE MESSAGE WAS THAT HE'D BEEN BROUGHT TO ENGLAND FOR A PURPOSE. I heard those first words, and I suddenly realised I was being used as a messenger to give him God's message in the Spirit!—Like the Lord was saying, "It is I the Lord thy God who hath delivered thee and prospered thee"... and God went on telling him all the things He had done for him, and that it was the Lord who had brought him through all these things, not because of his money, but because the Lord loved him-his soul-and apparently because of the love and prayers of others. I've been praying for him, and probably the Children have also, because we've mentioned him in our Letters.
13. SO THE LORD HAD BROUGHT HIM HERE for a reason or purpose.—That he was nearing the end of his mission and that even his present location in England was God's design.—And that he was not to be as the rich man who built greater barns and refused to share, for this night his soul could be required of him, and then whose would all these things be? Something he was reading had brought all this to his mind. It could have been the letter and the books Samson sent him. He was not to be as that foolish rich man, but that the Lord had brought him to England for a purpose.
14. GOD WAS SPEAKING LIKE A LAWYER PREPARING HIS CASE: "I've done all these things because of My love and the prayers of others, and now is your hour. You've come to the Kingdom for such a time as this, and now is the hour when I'm going to require something of you—I'm going to require you to do something for Me!" It was like God was bringing him up to a point of decision where he was now going to have to do something for the Lord.
15. GOD WAS SPEAKING ALL OF THIS TO HIS HEART, and he may have thought it was all his own thoughts and meditations, as so often we do when we don't realise it's God speaking to us.-And then it was as though God had put the proposition up to him, and now the choice was up to him. Now was the time! Now was God's hour! And then it seemed at the end, I was terribly burdened to pray for him that he would make the right decision.
16. IT WAS LIKE AFTERWARDS I WAS BACK IN MY OWN SPIRIT. God's Spirit had lifted, and now I was praying for him, a real concern and burden for him, like if he didn't make the right choice he was going to die. God would just let him die, and he'd lose everything, and that would be the end. But my impression was that if he would make the right choice‚ God would spare him even longer to help.
17. GOD'S OBVIOUSLY CALLED HIM to make money for some reason. I wonder if he's concerned about young people at all? (Boom! Just now when I asked that question I had a flash of Janie Russel—so young, not more than a teenager or in her early twenties when he discovered her and helped her to make good in the movies—he financed her first film!)
18. HIS FINANCIAL INTERESTS WOULD BE PROTECTED if he would use them for the Lord. It was like when it first began to happen I was drawn right out of my room right in the direction of his hotel-just like distance was nothing. Zoom! And I was there!—with the speed of thought—speed of the spirit! And it seemed like when I was through praying for him I awoke and was right here again. You know‚ I'd like to see that room! I wonder if the furniture is really white like it was in the dream? (Boom! We did see it on TV later—the inside of the suite and it was white, or light!) The couch was all white he was lying on—white padded or white leatherette.
19. THE LORD WASN'T EVEN CONCERNED ABOUT WHAT HE REALLY LOOKED LIKE. But all I felt was sorrow and compassion for him, this poor old man lying there wondering about the end. In my experience, his looks, how the place looked where he lived‚ even the papers in his hand—nothing else was important.—Only his soul! It was this terrific spiritual battle, this momentous decision God was asking him to make, that was the important thing. I wasn't even concerned or curious about anything. I was only drawn to be a messenger, and to be conscious only of the tremendous battle that was going on‚ and to have a great concern for his soul.
20. THE REASON I REMEMBER THE COUCH WAS WHITE, or at least light, was because he looked white. It was a beautiful, almost angelic or saintly picture the way he lay on the couch. He was pale and white-his skin and hair and beard(?) and couch and papers. Everything was white and blended together. He must have also been dressed in white or pale clothing or it just looked that way in the dream, white and ghostly! I never thought about those things actually being white until I saw his apartment later on TV. At the time I just thought it was ghostly—you know how you think of things in the spirit. But the furniture really was white!
21. IT MUST HAVE BEEN LIKE OUT IN THE LIVING ROOM because now as I go back into the picture, which was not important at all at the time, it was almost as though there was some kind of bar or kitchen behind him. But he was in this big room with white furniture with this white couch he was lying on.
22. IT WAS AS THOUGH I WAS PRAYING NOT ONLY FOR HIS SOUL, but for his body, like I was praying for the Lord to spare him and give him time to make his decision-asking the Lord to have mercy on him. I was totally in the spirit and I didn't dare interrupt his reverie. I was the conductor, the lightning rod God used to bring the message to his heart. I had the definite impression he wasn't supposed to see me. That's why I was standing a little distance away—15 or even 20 feet—in the shadows. Like I was not supposed to interfere or interrupt him.
23. HE STARTED OUT BEING AN OIL MILLIONAIRE FROM TEXAS, then to California in the Aviation business during the War. I believe he really only went into the movie business to help Janie, who used to come with her mother to Grandmother's meetings quite frequently. It was Mrs. Russell who phoned us for prayer for him when he crashed his plane in Beverly Hills near us and nearly died. From that time on, Mrs. Russell used to phone asking for prayer for him for this and that, and he was on our prayer list for years, and we all knew God was dealing with him.
24. THEN HE SEEMED TO DROP OUT OF SIGHT for a long time and we never heard much of him until he began buying up Las Vegas where Janie was working. We all figured it was to protect her, and when he moved there we figured he still wanted to be near her.—Then he began having all that trouble with his former business managers, then to Vancouver and back to Managua and the earthquake, when he came to London—where some of us are.
25. LOOKS LIKE GOD'S ON HIS TRAIL—and he's on ours! Then recently Faith was introduced to a member of the Rothschild Family, his bankers!—And finally Samson had faith to take that letter and literature to his hotel! Remember what God told us about him in "Questions and Answers"?—"David prays for Hughes. He is in My hands. I have placed him where he is that he may know that I am God, and he shall be as another man, and even he, according to thy request, shall help thy children in the day that they come unto him in the nation to which he hath fled. If thou shalt have faith to ask‚ I will open unto them a way where there is no way‚ and open a door which no man shall close." God bless Samson for his faith! And God bless Howard Hughes!
26. AS YOU MAY RECALL, "QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS" WAS ACTUALLY A SERIES OF REPLIES which we received from the Lord while in the spirit back in September 1971 in answer to some questions about various matters including current events‚ the rise of Ghadafi and his union with Egypt, which have since been recently fulfilled. Our questions had included the following: "What about Howard Hughes, the man you have been so interested in and prayed for so long?"—to which we had received the above reply, which was rather remarkable and even prophetic in that, at that time we had no idea what the Lord was talking about!—He has fled from an earthquake in Managua to London, and some of you Children have now "come unto him in the nation to which he hath fled!" Surely the Lord is able to also fulfill the remainder if we do our part: "I will open unto them a way there is no way, and open a door which no man shall close!" God's will be done!
27. GOD'S CHILDREN AND PROPHETS HAVE ALWAYS NEEDED POWERFUL FRIENDS, kings, protectors and patrons or they could seldom have survived in the face of the bitter opposition aroused by their message of God. So God knows we need all the help we can get! I believe Howard Hughes is a believer‚ but he's lived the life of the Prodigal somewhat far from the Father's House and what the Father would have him to do. Now he's beginning to realise that such a life has not brought him total satisfaction. It's as though he would really like to find God's will, "But where is it? But where is the Father's House? Where can I go? How can I serve God?"—I believe he is sincere and God is truly trying to show him! Please pray he will find God's will. Amen.