David Berg
—Dad's Easter Message!DO 20947/4/85
1. DID YOU HAVE ENOUGH SINGING & PRAYER TO GET YOU WARMED UP? Well, if not‚ maybe we'll have enough Scripture to get you warmed up. Several times now I've tried to start off with the Scripture so we'll be sure to get around to it sooner or later, but something always comes up‚ some other lesson. Repeat, repeat, repeat! Review, review, review! I guess it's just an old habit & I never have gotten over it since teaching in school days‚ I always want to ask the Class what you've learned so far.
2. WHAT IS THE MAIN SUBJECT WE'RE STUDYING?—I'm talking about what first inspired these Classes, why we decided we had to have some more Classes on Bible Prophecy. (Fam: The Survivors of the Tribulation & the Wrath of God.)—Yes. The actual question that gave rise to this is, if all the Antichrist's Mark-of-the-Beast people are killed at the end of the Battle of Armageddon, then who are we going to rule over in the Millennium? Who are those Survivors?—Not that you have to know, but I think it's a good idea. And in the process of learning the answer to that question we have studied a lot of other things too & had a lot of lessons of all kinds.
WE HAVE SO MUCH TO BE THANKFUL FOR!
3. GRANDPA JUST OPENS HIS MOUTH & THE LORD FILLS IT TO OVERFLOWING‚ & SOMETIMES I THINK HE STUFFS IT MAYBE A LITTLE TOO MUCH! Well, in a way He does give more than you can hold, pressed down, shaken together, running over‚ so that you're really given more than you can usually hold. He wants to make sure you get plenty so He gives you more than enough!—Pressed down, shaken together & running over. (Luk.6:38)
4. WHEN OUR DEAR DAVID Z. WAS LIVING WITH US IN THE CAMPER, I WAS MAKING LOVE TO SOMEONE IN THE BACK & HE WAS MAKING LOVE TO SOMEONE IN THE FRONT & the camper would rock with the rhythm. So I said, "You know, it reminds me of a Scripture!—Pressed down, shaken together & running over!" If you press hard enough & shake enough you'll run over! So he wrote a cute little song about it, & I don't know, I guess it's been lost to posterity. Did anybody ever hear it? He was quite a composer. This was a sort of a paraphrase, this cute little song about sex, & in that case that's true too, the Lord does give you even more than you can hold. To make sure you have enough He gives you too much!
5. SOMETIMES I THINK HE SPOILS US‚ HE'S SO GOOD TO US! Look how we live! I don't think the richest live any better than we do. After all, you can only sleep in one bed at a time, you can only eat one meal at a time‚ you can only love one girl at a time. Well, I can love two at a time sometimes. I used to tell the girls that's what God gave me two arms for & two hands! But to get down to the real nitty-gritty, you can only really fuck one at a time. He only gave you one of those. Ahem! Right?
6. BUT ANYWAY, HE REALLY PRESSES DOWN, SHAKES TOGETHER & WE RUN OVER WITH ALL THE BLESSINGS THAT HE GIVES US! We could hardly be any happier‚ free most of the time of any accidents or serious illnesses. There are raging epidemics going on all over the World‚ but thank the Lord He's spared us! About all we ever get are a few little colds & minor aches & pains. The Lord has been very good to us to spare us from accidents.
7. IT SEEMED LIKE WHEN I WAS A KID WE WERE ALWAYS HAVING SOME KIND OF KNOCKS & BUMPS & SCRATCHES & BRUISES & ACCIDENTS. It was just the ordinary run of the day, you just never thought anything of it, it was just normal for a family of 3 or 4 children to constantly be having some kind of hurts. But with our kids, it's absolutely miraculous, supernatural‚ the way they hardly even get any bumps or scratches‚ just barely, once in a great while, but nothing serious. About the most serious accident that has occurred in the last three years was when dear Dora got her finger cut in the mixer, & that probably was to teach us all a lesson to be more prayerful & careful.
8. SO THE LORD IS UNUSUALLY GOOD TO US! I'm sure we're a lot happier than the average run of the rich, we don't have all the diseases & accidents & troubles & things they have, heartaches & heartbreaks & family breakups & all kinds of horrible things. As Carl Sandburg wrote in that famous poem about the rich, "The Fence", he said that although thieves etc. couldn't get over the big high spiked fence around their yard, but sadness & sickness & death could enter freely!
9. DR. KOGER HAD A LARGE PRIVATE PRACTICE AMONGST THE RICH as well as his public practice for the city amongst the poor. He used to say about the rich on Palm Island & Miami Beach, "Don't ever envy them, David, that's all the Heaven they'll ever have, & actually they're the most miserable people in town that I have to take care of! They've got more problems, more troubles, insanity & all kinds of terrible things. The happiest people that I minister to are the poor ! They're always finding something to be happy about & praise the Lord about!"
10. IN THOSE DAYS [THE POOR] FOLKS WERE MOSTLY GOOD CHRISTIANS, WONDERFUL PEOPLE !
11. BUT ANYHOW, WE HAVE SO MUCH TO BE THANKFUL FOR! Probably some of you didn't even know it was Easter Sunday. For some of us it's like the resurrection of the dead for sure, good examples of it! I didn't wake up till 10:30! That's amazing! When that happens to me, I don't understand it sometimes, it's amazing!
12. BUT ANYHOW, TTL! I'M HERE & YOU'RE HERE & WE'RE ALIVE & WE'RE WELL, more or less, & we're happy & we live in a Heavenly Home! We have more than enough to eat‚ good beds to sleep in, lots of folks to love & so much to be thankful for! PTL? We have a little bit of Heaven on Earth right now! When I look at some of these pictures the artists are drawing, you might as well figure that's one of our present Family Homes.—If you didn't see some of those people flying around through the air! I always tell them to be sure to put some of those flyers in to make sure they know it's Heaven, otherwise they just might mistake it for one of our own Homes with all those beautiful people & everybody happy & gorgeous surroundings & Heavenly life! If you didn't see people flying through the air you wouldn't even know it was Heaven, because we already live that way & we already have these beautiful people & are living a Heavenly life! So we have so much to be thankful for!—Amen? Are you thankful this morning? PTL!
CATHOLICS & HOLY WEEK!
13. I HEARD YOU SINGING THAT FAMOUS EASTER HYMN, THAT WAS SWEET! I'M GLAD THAT SOME OF YOU HAVE LEARNED A FEW OLD HYMNS so that you can sing a few of those good old-timers. They're good songs, even if they do sing'm in church. Not everything the churches do is bad. Remember, be thankful that at least they preserved the Bible & they preserved the Gospel. They certainly preserved it, that's for sure, they almost pickled it! They kept it all bottled up in their churches. But at least they preserved it so that we finally got it. But we've decided to uncork the bottle & let it roll, & let it roll out to the whole World, to all the folks who need it, the Love of the Lord & the Good News of His Salvation!
14. SINCE IT'S THE EASTER SEASON‚ WE'VE BEEN READING RECENTLY ABOUT HOW IN SOME SUPPOSEDLY CHRISTIAN COUNTRIES SUCH AS LATIN AMERICA & THE PHILIPPINES SOME'RE JUST ABOUT AS HEATHEN & PAGAN AS YOU CAN GET, people trying to earn their way to Heaven & trying to merit their Salvation by flagellation, beating themselves with whips, etc.! It's just horrible when you think the laws of some countries, both in the East & the West, even allow it, actually allow that sort of mutilation of their bodies! Talk about abusing our body, the temple of the Holy Spirit, how horrible! It certainly shows they don't have the Holy Spirit! They don't even know Christ‚ they don't even have Salvation!
15. THE CATHOLICS WORSHIP A LIVE MARY BUT A DEAD CHRIST! The only Christ you see in Catholic churches is a crucified Christ‚ a dead Christ. And if you ever see any depictions of a live Christ He's always a little child, the Child Christ. They worship a dead Christ or a baby Christ, & a live Mary, & obviously they worship Mary much more than they do Jesus. No matter what they say, they are still in heathen darkness & still trying to earn merit & trying to work their way to Heaven.
16. AND THE SAD PART ABOUT IT IS, EVEN AFTER ALL THAT SUFFERING of one sort or another‚ all kinds of self-denial & physical & mental torture & crawling on the stones & all that sort of thing‚ it's not going to get'm one inch closer to Heaven! They're still unsaved, their sins are still unforgiven, they still don't know Jesus!
17. YOU OUGHT TO REALLY THANK GOD THAT YOU'RE NOT THAT FAR BEHIND & back in heathen darkness of the middle ages as some of those Catholics are! It's almost unbelievable!
18. AND TO THINK THAT THE CATHOLIC CHURCH CONDONES THAT, EVEN ENCOURAGES IT, THAT THROUGH THEIR OWN SUFFERINGS THEY CAN EARN SALVATION!—When it doesn't do them a bit of good‚ in fact it does them a lot of harm—harm to their bodies & harm to their spirits in thinking they're earning their Salvation. It's blasphemous! It's an insult to God! It's ingratitude to Jesus that they should just push Him aside & almost ignore Him & His great sacrifice on Calvary for our sins. He paid the price, He bought our Salvation with His Own blood‚ & that's the only way we ever get saved, the only way we ever could have gotten saved!
19. AND YET THEY'RE ALMOST SLAPPING JESUS IN THE FACE WITH THEIR OWN SELF-RIGHTEOUSNESS! It is a self righteousness, & there's nothing God hates like self-righteousness, trying to think you can earn your own salvation & you can be good enough to be saved, you can suffer enough to be saved, you can deny yourself enough to be saved, you can abuse your body enough to be saved. How horrible! What an insult to God! What ingratitude to Jesus!—Just brushing aside the sacrifice of Calvary, the genuine sacrifice.
20. THEY PICTURE JESUS ON THE CROSS ALL THE TIME & THEY DON'T EVEN SEEM TO KNOW WHAT HE DIED FOR! Isn't that horrible? All the time they're confronted with crucifixes, & yet they don't take it to heart, that there's their sacrifice, Jesus died! And as far as they're concerned, He's still on the Cross, He still hangs there, still dead. It's a wonder they ever even celebrate Easter & the Resurrection, because all week long they celebrate nothing but death & in some places even self-abuse & torture & mutilation, horrible! It's just shocking to hear about things like that!
21. THANK GOD FOR THE EVANGELICALS AROUND THE WORLD WHO REALLY PREACH CHRIST & SALVATION! But they are also so strong on baptism & being good & going to church that they almost preach the same thing. Although they are preaching Salvation & Grace etc., even the churches that preach Salvation through Christ & His sacrifice say, "But you must also do this, that & the other or you're not going to be saved."
22. IF YOUR SALVATION‚ AS YOU CLAIM, DEPENDS NOT ONLY ON CHRIST BUT ON YOUR GOING TO CHURCH & BEING GOOD & doing this & that & blah blah blah blah blah blah, the church is making a new law‚ new rules, even if they have abandoned the old Law. In one place I was one time they even showed the movie "The Ten Commandments" during Easter! What have the Ten Commandments got to do with Holy Week & Easter? That's the time to thank God you're delivered from the Ten Commandments, that you're free & now God's only Law is Love! That's the truth!
23. WE LIVE IN A WORLD OF DARKNESS, A WORLD OF HEATHEN PAGAN DEEPEST DARKNESS IN A WORLD THAT BOASTS ITSELF OF BEING PROGRESSIVE & civilised & highly modernised! The Catholics have had so-called Christianity (which I call nothing but churchianity, church-worship, they worship their buildings & their traditions, & this kind of stupidity, ignorance & deviltry that they indulge in during the Easter season) for years & they still don't know Jesus! Years of church & they still don't know Christ! Isn't that horrible? That's worse than the pagans or the heathen that worship other gods, because now they're so insulated by thinking they have religion‚ thinking they have Christianity, thinking they're Christians, it's hard to even show them the difference!
24. IN FACT, THE CHURCH ITSELF FIGHTS THE GENUINE GOSPEL & ENCOURAGES THIS SORT OF SELF-RIGHTEOUSNESS & SELF–WORKS FOR THEIR SALVATION—teaches it, encourages it, flaunts it! Many of the ceremonies they participate in are just an old carry-over from old pagan ceremonies & heathen-worship from the days before Christianity. They're just revamped & given a new Christian mask to pretend that they're Christian when they're actually old pagan ceremonies & things they used to do long before the Catholics, including some of those self-inflicted tortures & stuff like that.
25. SO WE REAL BORN-AGAIN ETERNALLY SECURE CHRISTIANS HAVE LOTS TO BE THANKFUL FOR! I didn't intend to get on that subject this morning‚ but I was thinking how the Catholics emphasise so much death & suffering during Holy Week celebrations. They go through all the agony all over again. Literally‚ as someone has said‚ at every mass the Catholics "crucify the Son of God afresh & put Him to an open shame!" (Heb.6:6) Isn't that what they're saying in the Mass? It's the body of Christ being offered again as a sacrifice‚ "crucifying the Son of God afresh & putting Him to an open shame", when they should be celebrating nothing but His glorious Resurrection, His Eternal Life & His wonderful free Salvation, nothing but happiness & joy!—Instead of going through this whole rigmarole every Holy Week & Mass!
26. IT SHOULD MAKE YOU VERY VERY THANKFUL THAT YOU HAVE THE LIGHT! Think how good God is to us, having given us the Light! Oh, we have so much—we've got it all! I never saw a church like this! We've got perfect freedom, beauty, joy, happiness, pleasure & genuine Salvation above all! Aren't you thankful? Isn't God good to us? We don't have to go through all kinds of suffering one week out of the year to portray the sufferings of Christ, & worse yet, suffer ourselves to try to earn Salvation & forgiveness & merit, but we already have it! It's ours!—Not through ourselves, but through Jesus! PTL! "Not of ourselves, it is the gift of God! Not of works lest any man should boast. For by grace are ye saved through faith, & that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God!" (Eph.2:8,9) PTL?
27. TO ME, CHURCHIANITY IS THE WORST SECT, THE WORST CULT ON EARTH! There's nothing worse! Even the Devil's cults aren't that bad because at least they're honest about it that they're worshipping the Devil! Those Satanic churches in America, they've got Satanic religions etc. that actually worship the Devil! But at least they're honest about it, they're not trying to hide anything. They're telling people the truth, that they worship the Devil.
28. OTHER CHURCHES WORSHIP THE DEVIL BUT THEY CLAIM TO BE WORSHIPPING GOD! They're practicing devilish fiendish things, Satanic forms of worship, & they clothe it in a cloak & a mask & covering & pretend that it's Christianity! It's the worst form of so-called religion. It's really self-worship & Satanic worship, Satanic, fiendish, devilish practices in the name of Jesus, the name of Christ! Well‚ at least He doesn't get most of the blame for it‚ Mary gets most of the blame. I'm sure she's horrified at the way they worship her & the horrors they commit in Mary's name! It's pitiful!
29. BUT AROUND THE WORLD OUR HOMES ARE FULL OF LIGHT, JOY, PEACE, PLEASURE, HAPPINESS, SALVATION & SATISFACTION! What more could you say?—All this light in the midst of a World of darkness! Thank God there are some real Christians & good people in the World, even lots of the Catholics who are trying to be good & good people. There are probably lots of Catholics & church people who are sincere & who have genuine faith in God & Jesus & the Bible, but they're still in ignorance‚ in ignorant darkness, they still don't know the Lord, they still don't really have Jesus in their hearts. Isn't that sad?
30. IF ANYTHING‚ IT SHOULD INSPIRE US TO GET OUT THERE & GIVE'M THE LIGHT, GIVE'M THE GOSPEL, GET'M SAVED QUICK BEFORE THEY DIE & GO TO HELL! Get out there & give these people Salvation, a real genuine living Christ, a joyful Jesus, so they can know right now that they're saved & going to Heaven! Show'm what Heaven's like & get'm to receive Christ!
POSTERS—GOOD NEWS OF WHAT HEAVEN IS LIKE!
31. WE'RE FINALLY GETTING REACTIONS NOW TO THE POSTER DISTRIBUTION & THEY'RE SAYING THAT IT'S MADE WINNING SOULS THE EASIEST THEY'VE EVER HAD IT! People just see those Posters & right away they want to go to Heaven & they're willing to pray right away & receive the Lord! So it's a real tool. It's really showing the people what Heaven is like & what they're going to miss if they don't take Jesus right now. So they're doing it quickly.
32. SEE WHAT HEAVEN IS LIKE? THERE'S A GOOD SAMPLE OF WHAT HEAVEN IS LIKE!—SHE'S HEAVENLY, & so are you & you & all of you! Even you boys are heavenly, God bless you! Maybe to the girls you look pretty, but for some reason or other I seem to have a sort of a preference for feminine beauty. I guess that's because I'm a man. It's natural for boys to like girls, & of course it's natural for girls to like boys. But it's a little unnatural if girls like girls. Well‚ girls should like girls, but you know what I mean, & it's absolutely forbidden of God for men to like men that way!
33. IT'S NATURAL FOR ME TO LIKE BEAUTIFUL WOMEN, pretty girls, so I suppose it's natural for you girls to like us men too‚ so I guess we'll settle for that. I don't think I'm beautiful‚ but Maria's always saying I'm beautiful! (Maria: You certainly are!) Personally, I feel like woman was the final crowning creation! She was the ultimate creation. She was created last so she must have been the best! PTL! I really believe in women & thank God for'm! PTL! So we've got a little bit of Heaven right here & right now, these beautiful girls, & I guess they think we men are heavenly, so PTL! We have a lot of Heaven right now!
34. WOULDN'T YOU LIKE TO MAKE THE WHOLE WORLD JUST AS HAPPY AS WE ARE? WELL THEN GET OUT THERE & GIVE THOSE POSTERS OUT! I'm talking to the folks outside who can. You folks are helping to get them out by being here & helping me get'm out & our artists get'm out, & our secretaries & typists & all the rest all have a hand in it, as well as the people that feed us & clean house & all the things that have to be done to keep the army going. So you all have a hand in these beautiful Posters, every one of you can take part of the credit. PTL!—And also a share in the reward for the souls that are going to be saved as a result.
35. THE POSTERS WON'T SAVE THEM, THE POSTERS ARE JUST A WAY OF PRESENTING THE GOSPEL. What does the word "Gospel" mean? (Fam: Good news!) What do those Posters preach? (Fam: The Good News!) Here's the Good News of what Heaven is like! That's why I like most of them to be very positive & beautiful! As I've often said‚ the World's had enough Hell, let's give'm Heaven!—And that's what we're doing in these Posters! PTL! So thank You Lord!
MORE ON CHURCHIANITY!
36. I GUESS THAT'S MY EASTER MORNING MESSAGE TO YOU, THAT WE'RE NOT TO BE PREACHING DEATH & SUFFERING & crucifixion & torture & torment & all those heathen practices that they call religion, but to try to give people a little bit of Heaven! I've been talking about the other side, the black side, the dark side, to help you appreciate the bright side, your side!—What we know, the way we live! PTL?
37. I JUST THINK WE MUST BE THE HAPPIEST PEOPLE IN THE WHOLE WORLD! I really believe we're the happiest people in the World, along with any other real born-again, genuinely saved Christians.—Although I don't even think they could be as happy as we are, because they're still bound by churchianity & its rules & the Law. They're not completely free. If Christ sets you free then you're free indeed! But if they're of the concision, the circumcision, they will have to keep their church rules & church laws.
38. THEY THINK THEY'VE GOT TO TRY TO BE PERFECT & SINLESS & BLAH BLAH—EVEN THE GENUINE BORN-AGAIN SAVED CHRISTIANS. They're in the same churchianity rut, that same legalistic, self-righteous rut. "Yes, Jesus saved me, but I've got to sort of help Him keep me saved." That's their attitude‚ whether it's Catholic or Protestant‚ that it takes the church to save you. Isn't that really what they preach? Isn't that what they live as an example? That's their motto, go to church on Sunday. That's not just a motto, that's their law, that you've got to go to church on Sunday or you're not a Christian! Well, now that we've been having Sunday classes we can live up to one of their rules. Only we don't have to go to church, we are the church! We are the church wherever we go, we are Christ, "Christ in us, the hope of glory." TTL! (Col.1:27)
39. SO WE DON'T HAVE TO WORRY ABOUT ALL THAT RIGMAROLE & ALL THAT CHURCHIANITY & ITS CEREMONIES & RITUALISM & ALL THAT JUNK! It's just so much garbage, it's not even necessary! Just think, the churches go through all this junk which isn't even necessary & doesn't even help them in any way, it's nothing‚ in fact it even gets in the way of being a true Christian! The Devil has so deceived them into thinking that they're Christians & kept them so busy going to church & keeping church rules they have totally neglected the main job that God has given the church to do, & that's to get out & witness & win souls! And how many are doing that?
40. HOW MANY CHURCH PEOPLE DID YOU EVER KNOW THAT REALLY WITNESSED FAITHFULLY & WERE DILIGENT SOUL-WINNERS & REALLY BORE FRUIT? How many church members did you ever know like that? Well, I'll tell you, they were few & far between even in the best of churches that I went to, even the poor little Gospel churches that Maria & I were in. The people who really diligently witnessed & won souls were rare! Even in what I would call the best of churches, the most Christian‚ the most Gospel-preaching, the most saved, the most righteous, even Spirit-filled Christians. They still just came to church & sat there singing, going through their motions, praying, listening to sermons, & going out thinking they'd done their duty for God.
41. YOUR FELLOWSHIPS, EVEN MEETINGS LIKE THIS, ARE SUPPOSED TO BE YOUR PLEASURE, YOUR ENJOYMENT, YOUR FEASTING & FOOD! The Christians' meetings & even their church meetings should be simply their pleasure & their joy‚ that's not their job! Going to church is not a Christian's job‚ it's his privilege, his pleasure! Having fellowship with other Christians, having meetings & praying together‚ worshipping together, singing together, that's their joy, not their job! They don't start working till they go out the church door the other direction & start facing the public & the sinners & the lost! Then their work begins! But most of them don't even know that, they're totally ignorant of what a Christian's duty really is. And they're not told by their preachers, sad to say.
42. THERE ARE VERY FEW PREACHERS THAT I EVER HEARD PREACH ON WITNESSING. Fred Jordan was one of the rare characters that preached that every Christian should be a witness‚ every Christian should be a soul-winner. He was rare. But it was like a gift of God that the Lord gave him that revelation. Thank the Lord for Fred Jordan. He didn't go far enough, but I guess the Lord knew he couldn't. He had to pick me up & put me down where I could carry on where he left off. Thank God he really did preach a message most needed by the churches, but it was the churches who rejected it the most. The churches were his greatest enemies!
43. AS CARL G. FISHER, THE FAMOUS FISHER BODY MAN OF DETROIT WHO MADE CAR BODIES, A MULTI-MILLIONAIRE, RICH MAN, TOLD FRED ONCE after Fred was talking to him about soul-winning: "Fred, you're right! But the churches will hate you for exposing their failure!" Thank God Fisher was a member of the Christian Businessmen's group, they were just laymen who organised to try to teach men to witness & be fishers of men & to win souls, that it's the job of Christians to get out & witness & win souls. They were a rare group. And guess who fought'm the most?—The churches! The pastors were jealous of their success in witnessing & winning souls & some churches even banned them & discouraged their members from joining!
44. THEN CAME ALONG THE FULL GOSPEL BUSINESSMEN. We had a lawyer member of our group one time who kept getting his tongue twisted. It's supposed to be the Full Gospel Businessmen's Group, & he said, "the Full of Business Gospel Men"! Well‚ that was true of a lot of them‚ they were more full of business than they were Gospel! But thank God, they were preaching witnessing & soul-winning & that it was the duty of every Christian to get out & tell others about Jesus. But guess who fought them the most?—The churches!
45. THE CHURCHES HAVE RESISTED ANY KIND OF CHANGE, ANY KIND OF THING THAT WOULD TRY TO GET THEM OUT OF THEIR RUT, OUT OF THEIR COMPLACENCY, THEIR DEADNESS! They're dead & dying! If the Devil can't stop people from being Christians, even real Christians, born-again saved Christians in the Evangelical Fundamentalist Pentecostal churches‚ he gets them into that same old rut of churchianity‚ go-to-church-on-Sunday & that's your duty. If he can't prevent them from being Christians, he tries to prevent them from being the kind of Christians God wants them to be, witnessing Christians, Gospel-preaching Christians, missionary Christians, soul-winning Christians! To me that's the only kind of real Christian there is, & any other kind, it's all dead works. They may be saved—sometimes I wonder about some of them—but they are certainly dead spiritually & dead as far as doing the World any good, evangelising the World or going into all the World & preaching the Gospel to every creature, they're dead!
46. THEY THINK, "OH, THAT'S JUST A JOB FOR A FEW MISSIONARIES. I don't mind giving a nickel out of every dollar to the missionaries, but I've got to save the other 95 cents to pay the preacher & to build the building & to carry on the church building & its activities, churchianity." The average Protestant gives 5 cents out of every Dollar to Missions & 95 cents to his church & the building—mostly to the building!
47. THE BIGGEST DEBT THAT NEARLY ALL CONGREGATIONS I EVER HEARD OF HAVE IS THEIR BUILDING! The biggest expense they have‚ the biggest payments they have to make is for their buildings, & then the preacher gets up there & does the job for them. They say, "That's what we pay the preacher for! I'm not supposed to get out & preach & witness & win souls‚ that's what we pay the preacher for! Let George do it!" Isn't that the attitude of the average church Christian? It's sad, it's pitiful!
48. AND YET YOU CAN SEE WHAT IT LEADS TO, THE TOTAL HEATHEN DEVILISH FIENDISH DARKNESS! There's churchianity to the full, churchianity in its highest form!—I'd say its lowest form, its worst form! My Dad even used to say that if you really want real churchianity & you really want to go in for it big, you ought to go to the Catholic church! They've really got the cathedrals & the churches & the stained glass windows & the trappings & the decorations! Boy, now there is real churchianity to the full! And it costs a lot of money too!
49. I TOLD YOU ABOUT THE TIME DOWN IN MEXICO WHEN WE WENT OUTSIDE OF MEXICO CITY TO SEE THE VIRGIN OF GUADELOUPE. It looked like a big doll encrusted with jewels & gold & silver. The doll wasn't much bigger than Techi standing up on this big pedestal just covered with robes & a jeweled crown & all this junk, & yet there were people outside starving, pitiful beggars & poor people. And here was this whole crowd being shown by the guide through the Church of the Virgin of Guadeloupe that was supposed to be such a miraculous "Our Lady" blah blah, & had healed lots of people. Can you imagine that statue healing anybody? That's just as much idolatry as the pagan heathen that worship sticks & stones! It's just as much animism as the worst heathen in the depths of the darkest jungle!
50. I FINALLY COULDN'T STAND IT‚ I JUST PIPED UP‚ YOU KNOW ME! The guide was telling how the jewels & gold & trappings of the robes of golden thread that she was wearing was worth 2-1/2 million dollars—in that day! I said, "Then why don't you sell all that stuff & use the money to feed all your poor out there that are starving?"—And he called the guard! That's how they fear the truth! At least I figured I'd put a bug in those people's bonnet that they'd never forget, put a little question in their minds about this kind of religion that robs the poor & makes their ecclesiastics rich! They don't even hesitate to call them palaces where they live—the Bishop's palace, the Monseigneur's palace, the Pope lives in a palace, they all live in palaces! Well, we live in a temple, praise the Lord! Of course we don't dress quite like they do. I think you look a lot better the way you are.
TEMPLES!
51. THE LORD EXPECTS YOU TO TRY TO TAKE CARE OF YOURSELF & TRY TO BE A GOOD CUSTODIAN OF THIS MARVELLOUS TEMPLE THAT HE'S LETTING YOU LIVE IN. The church couldn't possibly build as beautiful a temple as that right there! God made the most beautiful temples of all! We're the temples of the Holy Spirit, we are His temples! (1Cor.6:19) How could man ever think that he could build a temple beautiful enough to house God? God Himself condemned it in both the Old & the New Testament!—Even though He tolerated it & let them do it when they insisted! (Acts 7:48; 1Kings 8:27)
52. DO YOU KNOW WHY GOD EVER EVEN LET THEM BUILD A TEMPLE?—BECAUSE DAVID INSISTED! But He said, "How could you build Me a house when even the Heaven of Heavens couldn't contain Me!" (2Chr.2:6) But they wanted to be like the other religionists & the other heathen round about & whatnot. The first thing they wanted was a king & God said, "What do they want with a king? They've got Me!" (1Sam.8:5-22) But the people demanded a king, & the kings caused them nothing but trouble.
53. THEN ONCE THEY HAD A KING & A BIG KINGDOM & THEY GOT RICH, THEY WANTED TO BUILD A HOUSE FOR THEIR GOD. And He just almost laughed at it, "The idea of trying to build Me a house!" He doesn't need a house to live in‚ just you & me! The days of that ignorance God winked at. He sort of tolerated it, He almost closed His eyes to it because they insisted they wanted to build some beautiful building like the other peoples built to their gods. Every other religion had great temples for their gods, the Jews seemed to think it was already asking enough that they couldn't have any kind of idols or figures to represent their God. "At least‚ Lord, give us a Temple!" So they demanded a Temple. So the Lord let Solomon build it.
54. BUT YOU SEE WHAT HAPPENED, THE TEMPLE REALLY BECAME THEIR RELIGION. They really worshipped the Temple & they all had to make pilgrimages to the Temple & make sacrifices to the Temple. The Lord put up with this kind of ignorance because this is the way they were already programmed by the rest of the World & the rest of the heathen, so He sort of had to play along with them like little spoiled children that insisted on certain toys even if they weren't necessarily very good for them. He let them have these toys, these representations of spiritual things, these forms & symbolisms of the realities.
55. BUT ONCE THE GENUINE SPIRITUAL REALITY WAS REVEALED THROUGH JESUS CHRIST & CAME, HE SAID FOR THEM TO PUT AWAY ALL THESE THINGS‚ GET RID OF THEM! "For the time is come & now is‚" Jesus said, "when ye shall", meaning you should, "worship neither in this place"—Mt. Gerizim where He was talking to the woman, which was the place of worship where the Samaritans had a Temple, or at Jerusalem. (Jn.4:21) And that was her religion, kind of a mixture of Judaism & heathenism, because they were half-breeds, half–Jewish & half–Assyrians. They were trying to carry on the Jewish religion but they mixed in their heathenism with it. So they had to have their Temple‚ & they had their Temple on top of Mt. Gerizim. Of course it wasn't as big & beautiful as the Jewish Temple because they were a fairly poor minority.
56. THAT'S WHY THE LORD USED A SAMARITAN AS AN EXAMPLE‚ THE SAMARITANS WHO WERE AN ABOMINATION TO THE JEWS! I mean, the Jews wouldn't even touch'm! They were the untouchables! In fact, if they had to go from Judea up to Galilee, they wouldn't even go through Samaria for fear they might touch a Samaritan! The real Orthodox religious Jews would cross the River Jordan, go up the other side & cross back into Galilee. But Jesus walked right amongst them & said, "I must needs go through Samaria." (Jn.4:4)—Because He knew there was going to be a woman at that well who He was going to save, who would then result in the salvation of her whole town! She went back & got all her men friends & I guess the women followed too & they all got saved! Isn't that wonderful? That's what you call real witnessing & soul-winning!
57. BUT JESUS SAID, "THE TIME IS COMING & NOW IS, WHEN YE SHALL WORSHIP NEITHER HERE IN THIS MOUNTAIN NOR IN JERUSALEM!"—The Temple, in other words. "For they which worship God must worship Him in spirit & in truth, for the Father seeketh such to worship Him." (Jn.4:21-24) We're worshipping him in our house here, but this is not our temple, it's just our dwellingplace. We have to have something to live in.
58. BUT EVEN GOD WANTS SOMETHING TO LIVE IN, NOT A TEMPLE, NOT A BIG BEAUTIFUL BUILDING, NOT A CATHEDRAL, NOT A SYNAGOGUE‚ BUT YOU! That's where God wants to live. Amen? He wants to live in you, & if you want to worship God you must worship Him in spirit‚ in your heart, & in Truth, in the Word! PTL?
THE EYES, THE HEART, THE REAL YOU!
59. THAT'S OUR RELIGION! THE TRUE RELIGION IS IN YOUR HEART, IN YOUR SPIRIT! The heart is used in the Bible as a term symbolic of your inner being. You talk about the heart of a matter, the heart of the apple is like the core, the heart, the inner part. So the Lord uses that term "heart" a lot to symbolise the real you on the inside. And the real you on the inside is not flesh & blood, is it? Your flesh & blood is beautiful, but there's something even more wonderful, more beautiful & eternal, which can never be destroyed, on the inside, the real you, the one who's looking out those windows right now, the one who's looking at me right now through those windows, your eyes!
60. THAT'S WHY EYES ARE SO REVEALING, BECAUSE YOUR SPIRIT, THE REAL YOU, IS LOOKING OUT THROUGH THOSE EYES. Eyes are so spiritual! Oh, they are terrific! You can almost read a person's character by their eyes. I can often see into people's eyes, I've even seen demons, I could tell demons were dwelling there just by the look of their eyes.—Demons looking out at me through those windows, horrible fiends! But when I look at you‚ praise the Lord‚ I see sweet spirits, beautiful spirits looking out through those windows. They show the real you, the spiritual you! I hesitate to even say "your spirit", that's as though it's something that belongs to you. But your spirit is you!
61. THE LORD HAD TO TALK TO PEOPLE LIKE THEY WERE CHILDREN & HE HAD TO ILLUSTRATE THINGS TO THEM SO THEY WOULD UNDERSTAND THEM. If they didn't understand what a spirit was or what the real you was, He just spoke of it as your heart. We know that when He's speaking about that kind of heart that He's not talking about this pump in here that keeps pumping blood all the time even while I'm talking, even when I'm asleep‚ & my whole life long keeps me alive, keeps this flesh-&-blood body alive. And you only stay alive as long as it keeps pumping.
62. SOME DAY IT'S GOING TO GET SO OLD & SO TIRED THE LORD'S GOING TO TELL MY OLD PUMP‚ "WELL, HE'S DONE ENOUGH, that's enough‚ it's time for him to retire & I'll take him Home"—& He'll let the old pump stop. And then the old man is going to stop too, just his body, not me! We used to sing a song about the old grandfather clock, did you ever hear that one? "But the clock stopped, never to run again, when the old man died!" Well, that's the way your heart's going to stop some day.
TRANSFORMED AT THE RAPTURE!
63. WELL, MOST OF YOU ARE GOING TO LIVE RIGHT THROUGH TO THE RAPTURE, the transfiguration, the transformation, the complete & instant renewal of your body in a "twinkling of an eye" as St. Paul says, in an instant‚ in a moment! (1Cor.15:52) Like that! Your body is going to be changed to your new body & you will never even know what death really is, because you are raptured & instantly changed! So you'll probably never know what death is really like or a heart stopping or anything like that, thank the Lord!
64. OH, THERE ARE A FEW OF US WHO HAVE DIED IN THE FAMILY, BUT NOT VERY MANY. I think you're all so young the Lord took this generation & He's going to carry you right through. You're young enough to live right on through to the Rapture. We may have a few martyrs, I don't think too many.—Only if it's going to be a good testimony & your best witness. But there are going to be millions of Christians who are going to be instantly changed, those that are alive are going to be raptured, boom!
65. SO YOU MAY NOT EVER EXPERIENCE WHAT IT FEELS LIKE TO HAVE THE BODY DIE & THE HEART STOP, but even when it happens, even when it happens to me, I'm not going to die, I'm never going to die, just my body. What's the verse? "I am the Resurrection & the Life. He that believeth on Me, though he were dead, yet shall he live. And whosoever liveth & believeth in Me shall never die!" (Jn.11:25-26)
66. YOU WILL NEVER REALLY KNOW WHAT REAL DEATH IS LIKE AS THE SINNER KNOWS! The Lord is talking there, of course, about spiritual death, going to Hell, the second death. You'll never know what that kind of death is. But you who are so young & will live till the Rapture won't even hardly know what the first death is like, the death of the body, because you'll be instantly changed, in an instant‚ in a moment, in a twinkling of an eye! That's one verse that I know where it is because it's so easy to remember the address: 1Corinthians 15, then turn the 15 around & it's 51! Since you know it so well, can you quote it? "For ye shall all be changed, in a moment‚ in a twinkling of an eye." When?—"At the Last Trump!" There you are!
67. YOU'LL BE CHANGED WHEN THAT TRUMP BEGINS TO SOUND FROM THE HEAVENS TO CALL YOU UP TO MEET JESUS! I wonder what it's going to sound like? It must be some trumpet to be heard all over the World by everybody! "The Lord Himself shall descend from Heaven with a shout, & the Voice of the Archangel & the Trumpet shall sound." (1Th.4:16)—Three great big noises when the Lord comes. He shouts, the Angel shouts & the Trumpet is blown! PTL? Isn't that wonderful? You'll know when the Lord comes, you're going to hear it!—Not only see Him, but you're going to hear Him! The whole World is going to hear it!
68. WHAT A SHOCK WHEN SUDDENLY ALL THESE PEOPLE GO UP IN THE AIR RIGHT BEFORE THEIR EYES! I don't believe in that stuff about everybody's just going to suddenly vanish & they're going to wonder where they went, blah blah. Some preachers teach that kind of Rapture, the Secret Rapture‚ that suddenly all the Christians will just vanish into thin air & they'll wonder where they went, of all the ridiculous things! The Bible doesn't teach that at all! The Lord's going to come like lightning shining from the East to the West! (Mt.24:27) Have you ever seen when the lightning lit up the whole sky? Well, He's going to light up the sky more than that, where the whole sky is going to light up where it's daylight as well as where it's dark, so bright, the Lord coming brighter than the sun, & with big noises‚ big voices, trumpets! Wow!
69. THEY ALWAYS BLOW TRUMPETS TO ANNOUNCE SOMETHING IMPORTANT, "TA-TA-TA-TA-TA! THE KING IS COMING!" Well, He's coming, & there will be some big noises, & in a moment, in a twinkling of an eye you'll be changed, completely transformed with your new body for your spirit, for you. In other words, you will get a new body‚ an actual body.—Not flesh & blood, but flesh & bone.
70. JESUS SAID, "TOUCH ME, FEEL ME, THAT IT IS I MYSELF & NOT A GHOST! FOR A SPIRIT HATH NOT FLESH & BONE AS YE SEE ME HAVE." (Luk.24:39) Jesus already had His resurrection body, His supernatural, miraculous Heavenly body. But it was real enough they could touch it & feel it! Think of it!—So much like the ones we have now. You're beautiful now, gorgeous, but you're going to be more beautiful then with your eternal body!
71. I THINK YOU'RE GOING TO LOOK JUST ABOUT LIKE YOU DO RIGHT NOW OR WE WOULDN'T RECOGNISE EACH OTHER. I don't see how you girls could be any more beautiful than you are now!—Maybe if your body just glowed, but it's already glowing. You already radiate beauty, I don't see how you could be any prettier! But you will be, because you'll be just absolutely glowing with eternal life, more beautiful than you've ever been, but not so beautiful that we won't recognise you, thank the Lord!—Boys too, David. I always look at the girls because to me they're so pretty.
ANGELS!
72. LOOK AT SARA‚ HOW COULD YOU HAVE AN ANGEL MORE BEAUTIFUL THAN THAT? I don't see how the Angels of Heaven could be any prettier than that! In fact, most of them that I've seen looked like men‚ very masculine, although in their pictures the World portrays Angels as looking like beautiful women. Well, that's fine if that's the way they want to picture them. I haven't seen many Angels. I've seen Angels on the street impersonating people‚ but the only time I ever saw Angels as they look in their real Angelic form & great power & beauty & glory is that time I had that vision of my bodyguards in London when the Lord showed me those seven Angels! We were talking about that last night.
73. WE WERE TRYING TO FIGURE OUT HOW MANY ANGELS THERE WERE IN OUR ROOM! Somebody said that each one of you had at least two guardian Angels. I didn't know about that, but I know we've got at least one guardian Angel! I wouldn't be surprised if in this outfit each of us has to have at least two, because we're really fighting the Devil & we've really got to have a lot of protection!
74. SO WE FIGURED IF THERE WERE FIVE FOLKS THERE WHO EACH HAD 2 ANGELS, THAT'S 10 ANGELS, & I HAVE 7 GUARDIAN ANGELS, SO THAT'S 17 ANGELS! That's a pretty full room every night! And God knows how many hundreds are around this house to protect us from the Devil & all his demons! We have to have a lot of protection! That is why we've had so little sickness & so few accidents & so little trouble with enemies. The hosts of Heaven surround us! "The Angel of the Lord encampeth round about them that fear Him!" (Psa.34:7) Praise God?
75. YOU MAY BE LIVING IN A NICE HOUSE, BUT THE ANGELS ARE CAMPING OUT, THEY HAVE TO BE OUTSIDE AROUND YOU! That's what the Bible says! "The Angel of the Lord encampeth round about them that fear Him!"—They're camping out! They've got to be outside here to protect this building. God knows what would happen to it if they weren't out there to protect it! The Devil would assault it in some way. But thank God, we sit here in peace & quiet & freedom & perfect security & protection—hallelujah, thank You Jesus, praise the Lord—from the Devil & all his demons, because of the great Angels of God who surround us & protect us! Isn't that wonderful?
76. THE LORD SAID ONCE TO MY MOTHER, "YOU SHOULD THANK GOD FOR HIS ANGELS THAT PROTECT YOU!" Don't forget to thank the Lord for His Angels that guard us. And we thank Him every night when we pray for His guardian Angels, so that we're able to lie down in peace & go to sleep & not worry about enemies or troubles or anything, because our guardian Angels never sleep. They neither slumber nor sleep‚ they're always awake. They don't need to rest, they're not affected by gravity or weariness or anything, they just can be on the job all the time.
77. THEY'RE PRETTY GOOD SENTRIES, THEY'RE PRETTY GOOD GUARDS! Even this World has never been able to furnish any kind of guards like that. On guard duty in the army you had to take turns because sooner or later you got tired & had to sleep, you also had to eat. But our guardians, our guards, the hosts of Heaven surrounding us, they don't have to eat or sleep, they never get tired‚ they can be on the job full time, 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year, all the time! PTL? Isn't that wonderful?
HEAVEN IN OUR HEARTS!
78. I GUESS THIS WASN'T SUPPOSED TO BE A BIBLE PROPHECY STUDY THIS MORNING—MAYBE IT'S SUPPOSED TO BE YOUR EASTER SUNDAY SERMON so that you can appreciate your kind of religion & your kind of living Christ, saving Jesus, & thank God you don't have that kind of religion that we've read about in some places this week. Thank God that we are already living in Heaven! We're already the Kingdom of God! it seems to me that we not only have Heaven in our hearts, but we have Heavenly Homes, we're living in a Heavenly atmosphere, a Heavenly environment that is absolutely Heavenly! PTL? It's wonderful!
79. SOMETIMES I WONDER HOW HEAVEN COULD BE ANY BETTER THAN THIS‚ BUT I KNOW IT CAN BE because we won't get tired There & we won't have to worry about any sickness or anything, no more sorrow nor sighing nor crying nor anything, everything will just be perfect! But we've already got a little bit of Heaven right here & now, this is a sample, & we've certainly got Heaven in our hearts. We already have saved spirits. We are already saved! We don't have to worry about whether we're going to Heaven or not, we know we're going to Heaven because we have Heaven already! We've got a little bit of Heaven right here & now when we have Jesus. PTL? Amen?
80. AREN'T YOU THANKFUL FOR THE HEAVEN WE HAVE IN OUR HEARTS & THE LITTLE HEAVENS WE LIVE IN like this, & all these gorgeous angels?—Even nice big manly angels too‚ God bless them! We couldn't get along without these men, girls, could we? Thank God for the men! I'm always raving about the girls, I hope you'll forgive me for that, boys, but they look so pretty I just have to rave about them! I don't see how Angels could be any prettier. But as I say, the only Angels I ever saw were my bodyguards, & they looked like big strong men, believe it or not. I guess the Lord was just sort of representing them to me because each one had a great big broadsword, a two-handed sword. I'm sure Angels don't have to carry swords, but the Lord was picturing them to me.
POSTERS, VISIONS‚ ARTISTS!
81. I'M LIKE A LITTLE CHILD, WE'RE LIKE LITTLE CHILDREN, THE LORD HAS TO DRAW US PICTURES! That's why we're doing these Posters, to show people these things. They can't understand the spiritual, they're so childlike & some so blind that they can't picture it, they can't imagine it. But we're trying to make it real to them, we're trying to portray these visions the Lord told us that they were. God gives these artists visions, & then they put them down on paper so you can see them. Why not? Aren't they beautiful?
82. THE LORD CALLED THEM VISIONS! HE CONFIRMED THIS POSTER MINISTRY. We were in a hotel room having a conference & the Lord spoke & said that He is the One that had given these visions to our artists that they might portray these Heavenly realities. They may not be perfect‚ they may not be exact in every way, but at least they're a little sample. At least they're a little glimpse of what Heaven is like‚ & the Lord has given these visions.
83. SO DON'T BLAME THE POOR ARTISTS & DON'T BLAME ME! IF YOU DON'T LIKE IT, GOD GAVE IT! He has given it, so if you want to give anybody credit for it, give the Lord credit. When an artist sits down at his drawing desk & puts that blank paper before him, think of what a miracle it is that God can give him a picture in his mind, in his heart‚ as we say. The heart is the real you, it's your spirit, the heart of you. The Lord gives him that picture & then he has the gift & the skill to draw it. Not everybody has it. Some of you are very artistic & you do real well, but not everybody has to be an artist. Remember, other people have other gifts. If you had'm all you might get the big head, you might get proud of having so many gifts. Some of you are very gifted in drawing pictures, for others it's a real struggle. You've seen some of my horrible scribbles!
84. THAT MADE ME SO ASHAMED WHEN THEY PUBLISHED THAT BOOK OF MY SKETCHES, BUT MARIA SAID, "IT'LL ENCOURAGE THE CHILDREN! I wanted them to see that even Grandpa can draw pictures, & even his pictures are not all that professional." She thought it would really be an encouragement to the children to see my funny little scribbles & sketches, my funny little pictures. I'm no artist, I don't have the gift to be able to draw. Well, Lord forgive me. The Lord has helped me to draw just enough to portray to the artists what the Lord has shown me in my dreams. That's why I drew those sketches, not because I was an artist, but I was trying to show them the positions & the way things looked in the dream, & that helps them a great deal. Because they didn't see the dream, I saw it, & I have to portray it to them so they can use their great artistic talent to really draw a beautiful picture the way it really was. Then God gives them that skill & that gift to be able to try to portray even what I saw.
85. BUT WHAT A MIRACLE IT IS THAT THEY ARE ABLE TO SIT DOWN AT THAT DESK WITH THAT BLANK SHEET OF PAPER, TAKE THEIR PENS & PENCILS & SKETCH WHAT GOD IS SHOWING THEM. It's almost like tracing. They look at the paper & they can see the picture on the paper before it's ever there, all they have to do is outline it. That's a real gift! No wonder the Lord called them visions! They have to have a vision of what they're drawing before they can draw it, they have to see it. Then all they do is just trace it! It's just about like tracing, isn't it?
86. SO THANK GOD FOR THESE VISIONS OF HEAVEN, THAT WE CAN PORTRAY HEAVEN TO THE WORLD & to the lost & to the sinners & to the people who are hungry to hear about Heaven. I think that's why the Lord is having so many popular songs come out now about Heaven. The Lord wants to let them know that there is a Heaven & that there's something better to look forward to‚ because the Earth is getting more like Hell all the time.
87. SO AREN'T YOU GLAD FOR YOUR HEAVEN? AREN'T YOU GLAD THAT YOU LIVE IN A HEAVENLY ATMOSPHERE, IN A HEAVENLY HOME, & you have Heaven in your hearts & we can show Heaven to the rest of the World! PTL! Every one of you helping me to work are helping me to show Heaven to the whole World. Every one of you has a job‚ a part in this marvellous ministry of getting out the Gospel, the Good News about Heaven, about Jesus, because He's the only way you can get There! PTL? That's the good news!
CELEBRATING HEAVEN!
88. WELL, WE DIDN'T GET AROUND TO BIBLE PROPHECY, BUT I THINK THAT'S ENOUGH HEAVEN FOR THIS MORNING, what do you think? TTL? Aren't you glad you've got Heaven in your hearts & you live in a Heavenly Family, a Heavenly atmosphere? You have a Heavenly life of living like Heaven on Earth right now instead of all that Hell you've seen in those System videos & all that Hell outdoors! Hallelujah! TYJ!
89. SO ISN'T THE LORD GOOD TO US? WE HAVE HEAVEN IN OUR HEARTS & WE LIVE IN A HEAVENLY HOME, & we're on our way to our final Home in Heaven. Just think how we live with all these angels here! Aren't they gorgeous? GB'm!—Beautiful! Angelic children! Hallelujah! TYL! God bless'm all! PTL! Hallelujah! Let's thank the Lord, shall we?
90. (SINGS:)
"HEAVEN IS HERE, IS HERE RIGHT NOW,
Heaven is here & I'll tell you how.
Jesus to know is Heaven below,
Heaven is here, is here right now!"
PTL! Amen? Hallelujah! We're celebrating the Resurrection of Christ this morning, almost the whole World is, certainly the whole church, & resurrection has to do with Heaven, doesn't it? When you're resurrected you're going to go straight to Heaven! When you're raptured you're going to go straight to Heaven, you're on your way to Heaven! We're already on our way to Heaven, in fact we've already got a little bit of Heaven! Praise God! What other songs can you think of about Heaven? (Fam: "Heaven is Better Than This!")
91. (SINGS:)
"HEAVEN IS BETTER THAN THIS,
OH MY, WHAT JOY‚ WHAT BLISS!
Walking down those streets of the purest gold,
Telling a story that never grows old!
Heaven is better than this,
Oh my, what joy, what bliss!
I love the people of the Family,
But Heaven is better than this!"
Well‚ sometimes I wonder how it could be, we're so happy & it's so Heavenly & you're all so Heavenly, thank the Lord, but Heaven is even better than this. We've got a little sample here & now & in our hearts, we have the Lord, but one of these days it's going to be even better! Isn't that wonderful?
92. SO THIS MORNING WHILE EVERYBODY IS CELEBRATING THE RESURRECTION, WE MIGHT AS WELL CELEBRATE HEAVEN!—Because that's what it's all about, that's what resurrection is for. There wouldn't be any point to the resurrection if there wasn't any Heaven. When you're resurrected & you've got your new body you've got to have someplace to go, someplace to live! PTL! That's the first place you're going to go. Of course, you're going to come back too because there's still a big job to be done down here.
93. BUT WE'RE GOING TO GO UP THERE FIRST WHILE THE WORST IS GOING ON DOWN HERE & THERE'S REALLY HELL ON EARTH, we're going to have our Heaven in Heaven & be having our great Marriage Supper of the Lamb & receiving rewards & crowns & all those wonderful things. God's going to take us on a tour of those beautiful mansions to see where we're going to live, He's going to give us a beautiful little white stone‚ I can imagine it's sort of like agate or those white crystals. They used to find those in the mountains in Texas, great big crystals, pure crystals. What did they call those?—Gorgeous things!—Quartz!
94. HE'S GOING TO GIVE US A WHITE STONE, PROBABLY A CRYSTAL LIKE THAT‚ WITH OUR NAME IN IT.—Not necessarily the name you have now, but a new name!—A secret name that only God knows. And maybe that crystal is going to be like your key to your mansion too. You know‚ when you go to a hotel you check in & they give you a key to your room. Well, we're going to check in to Heaven & He's going to give us those white stones with our secret names on them. I don't know that it's going to be secret after that, I guess everybody will know it then!
95. REMEMBER THAT SCI-FI MOVIE WE SAW WHERE THE GUY HAD THE CRYSTAL & IT WAS THE KEY TO THE CAR‚ KEY TO THE COMPUTERS, ETC.? I think a lot of those things they sort of get in imagination, maybe the Devil even gives it to them so they can try to imitate it here on Earth, things God's going to do. So I wouldn't be surprised if that's going to be some kind of crystal just like they had in that movie that'll unlock our doors and unlock things, and maybe it's a means of communication too, marvellous!—And a new name!
96. ISN'T THAT SOMETHING, A MYSTERY, SOMETHING YOU DON'T KNOW, GOD'S GOT A NAME FOR YOU THAT HE'S GOING TO GIVE YOU! I always feel like maybe it's going to be symbolic of what you're like or the kind of person you are, & He's going to have a name for you. You know all through the Bible God was always giving people names, & the name you were given was very important‚ usually symbolic of your character or how you were born or where you were born or different things like that. A name really meant something in those days, it really told something. Well, it's going to really mean something Up There, it's going to really tell something, probably tell the World what you are like or maybe be symbolic of what you accomplished for the Lord. Maybe He's going to call you Faithful, maybe He's going to call you Patience, maybe He's going to call you Faith, maybe He's going to call you things like that!
WORK WHILE IT'S DAY‚ FOR THE NIGHT COMETH!
97. PTL! TYJ! LOOK AT WHAT ANGELS WE HAVE! I JUST DON'T SEE HOW THE LORD COULD BE ANY BETTER TO US EXCEPT TAKE US TO HEAVEN! But He can't do that yet because we've got a big job to finish up here! PTL! And this may be our last year to finish it if the Famine's coming. If the Crash comes & then the Antichrist, it's going to make it more difficult all the time to do what we're doing now. We've got to get these Posters out now! I'm pushing Sprint to get them out as fast as they come, & I'm pushing the poor artists, I keep pushing & pushing because we can't get them out soon enough to suit me! Because we don't have much time left.
98. SO LET'S WORK THE WORKS OF HIM THAT SENT US WHILE IT'S DAY, FOR THE NIGHT COMETH! There will come a time when it's so bad that no man can work, & then what's going to happen? (Jn.9:4) When we can't work any more, then He's going to give us a rest, He's going to take us up to be with Him in Heaven! Isn't that wonderful? Then we'll never be tired any more & we won't have to work for a little while at least. We'll have a big feast & celebration & Heavenly tours & crowns & rewards & all kinds of wonderful things, marvellous, before we have to come back here & fight that big battle that we've been studying about, & I guess we'll have to get around to that in the next Lesson.
99. AMEN! PTL! TYJ! HALLELUJAH! AMEN! (SINGS THE LORD'S PRAYER) I get to singing too loud, I guess the Lord had to stop me, I might be heard outside. We don't want to let them know that we've got a church right here. We don't want to let them know that there's a little bit of Heaven right in here or they might want to come in! That wouldn't be good security, would it? "That Heavenly Family lives there!" We don't want to let them know that because the Devil's people can't understand. The Devil understands, but his people can't. So PTL! Hallelujah! TYJ! I just felt like singing it today! Amen? That's a Heavenly song about the Heavenly Kingdom. That's a song about Heaven! GBY all! You're Heavenly & I love you!
100. LORD BLESS & KEEP YOU ALL TODAY & GIVE YOU A GOOD DAY OF REST & INSPIRATION! Get your reading done! (Kisses all the girls!) TYL! We don't have many ceremonies, but I sure like the ceremonies we do have! I can't kiss you on the mouth because I've had a little cold, but I can kiss you down here! (Kisses the girls' breasts.) I never heard of anybody catching cold this way! PTL! I love you boys too, but somehow or another the girls just have a certain extra appeal! I can't do this to you boys. But I love you, we couldn't do without you, we need you. What a church! You never saw a preacher kissing goodbye this way, did you? Hallelujah! A "nursing father"! (Isa.49:23) ILY! Thank you for your patience with me! God bless you all! Thank the Lord for Heaven!