David Berg
—MOMarch 29, 1971DO No.61
My Precious Children: Greetings in Jesus' Dear Name!
1. Thank you again for all your good letters‚ reports and logs! I'm still hoping to get time to acknowledge each one individually‚ but I have so much to tell you I don't want to take time for it now! I would like to mention a couple extra specials which we just received in that long-lost mail, all the beautiful pictures you sent and that gorgeous big Valentine-Birthday Card with all your pictures on it and all your little notes on the back. I just wish I could have connected your picture with your note, and next time I suggest you each sign your individual picture so we'll know whose who, because we long to know you better—every one of you! We love you!—And miss you, and dream of the day when we'll be in your arms again! Praise the Lord! He is faithful‚ and we are trusting that day will come again! Thank You, Jesus! You're wonderful.
MARRIAGE—THE NEED AND THE BENEFITS!
2. SPEAKING OF VALENTINES, I HOPE YOU'RE GETTING YOUR MARRIAGE TAKEN CARE OF, as I've suggested; the more the marryer—so marry 'er! Amen? And all the boys and girls said..."Amen"! And I hope we don't have anything else but boys and girls. In the beginning God created them male and female and said Be fruitful and multiply and fill the whole earth! So let's get busy and obey His commandment! Especially you sexy little gals who are watering at the mouth for a nice juicy boy—Go ahead and marry him. And you elders, let them marry; they sin not, that every one may have his or her own, and to avoid fornication; it's God's Word‚ and God's Plan! So get with it! DON'T HAND ME ANY OF THE EUNUCH OR ST. PAUL STUFF, UNLESS YOU ARE EUNUCH OR ST. PAUL. If you're like all the rest of us, you need a mate—and bad!—And you better wake up and break down, and marry one, and quit trying to get the victory over something God ordained you to do. It's like trying to get the victory over eating! Temperance is one thing, but if you quit altogether for too long you'll die! IT'S LIKE THE FARMER, WHO SAID HE'D GOTTEN HIS COW USED TO GOING WITHOUT FEED, and he'd have gotten her used to going without water, too, if she hadn't up and died—and some of you reluctant gentlemen who don't wanna oblige, to show how holy you are‚ how sanctified‚ how holier-than-thou and sanctimonious by refusing to marry that poor little girl who's just dying for you, had better take a tip from the story of the two farmers who owned one cow together! When they got it home, the one wise guy claimed he owned the rear end where the milk was, and that the other one owned the front end that had to be fed. One day‚ the farmer that was getting all the milk went out and found his dear Bonanza dead, and the other one that had been feeding it said. "Sorry, but I got tired of feeding my half, and your half just died"! If you don't get the point, maybe somebody can explain it to you. IN OTHER WORDS‚ YOU BETTER STOP BEING SO DAMN SELFISH, EXPECTING EVERYTHING AND GIVING NOTHING IN RETURN. The labourer is worthy of her hire and muzzle not the ox that treadeth out the corn. You expect the girls to do everything for you—your wash, your mending, cooking food, clean house, take care of the office and the school and the kids, and be a lovely decoration and a comfort to the whole colony, but you're not willing to knuckle under, or maybe I should say knuckle over and give them their due; or maybe I should say, their duty of marriage! He that withholdeth, it tendeth to poverty, but there is that that scattereth abroad, and increaseth! BE FRUITFUL AND MULTIPLY—THAT'S ONE OF THE FIRST PRINCIPLES OF THIS OUTFIT IN MORE WAYS THAN ONE. We believe in multiplication—that's a part of the game—in more ways than one! Two and two don't make four—they oughtta make a dozen—so let's get busy, Boys! Give the girls their due—their duty of marriage! DO IT!—Unless you wanna be like the Antichrist, who won't regard the desire of women! Could it be that he that regardeth not the desire of women is anti-Christ‚ defying the plan of God and living selfishly only for his own interests‚ enjoying his privacy and unwilling to share and refusing to humbles his pride? IF YOU WANT TO LEARN SOMETHING ABOUT UNSELFISHNESS, HUMILITY AND SHARING, JUST GET MARRIED! Then somebody will find out just how good a Christian you really are! I think some of you guys are afraid to get showed up for the egotistical, conceited, selfish asses you really are. You don't want some little female to humble you, and to have to get down on your knees to her! Well, she's willing to get flat on her back for you‚ so why should you object to getting on your knees for her! Sock it to 'em, Boys, they need it! Some of them need to be humbled, too, and if they can't make up their minds, you make it up for 'em! ARE YOU GONNA LET THE GIRL MAKE THE VERY FIRST AND MOST IMPORTANT DECISION OF ALL, as to whether you should get married or not? Is she gonna have to come to you and tell you that the Lord revealed to her you oughtta get married—or are you gonna be a man and face up to it, and settle it with God and her and admit you need a woman as much as she needs a man, and you owe it to her as much as she owes it to you, and agree together that you oughtta get married, for the Lord's sake, His Work's sake‚ and your own sake? How about it Boys,—And Girls? Are you ready? Then let's go, go, go! Some of you are way overdue! You're lagging way behind. And there have been times when we even lost some boys and girls because we were slow in getting them married. If it takes marriage to keep the babes happy, let them marry; they sin not. It is better to marry than to burn! or to let them burn! Marry that fire!
BABES TRAINING PLAN AND THE BENEFITS!
3. OF COURSE, SOME OF YOUR BABES HAVE BEEN THERE TWO AND THREE MONTHS, AND NEVER EVEN HAD THE "REVOLUTIONARY SHEET" (ML #S) YET, which we used to start'em with the very first day! And others haven't even begun most basic classes when we used to shove them through all the basic courses in only three months, and all the leadership courses in another three, or a total of six months, with only three months more of leadership training in actual positions of responsibility, teaching‚ and pioneering, before we sent them to a distant foreign field where they had to shift for themselves on foreign soil—strangers in a strange land, using a strange tongue! That was progress, Brother!
4. BUT FROM WHAT I HEAR OF SOME OF YOUR BABES‚ YOU STILL CALL'EM BABES AT NEARLY A YEAR, and they still haven't had all the courses! You still don't trust them with any leadership responsibility, so of course, you don't have enough help, and of course, you're not ready to send'em out, because you've babied 'em too long, just like the churches, who are full of just such overgrown retarded children, because Papa and Mama want to pamper them, and keep them home forever! WHEN I SAID "BABY THE BABES," I DIDN'T MEAN FOREVER! When the Lord said temper the wind to the little lambs‚ He only meant while they were still little! There comes a time when they all have to grow up and be trusted with responsibility, and the leadership of others!—At first under your supervision‚ and then on their own! We're not moving fast enough, Folks! The harvest is gonna rot in the fields before you've taught your labourers how to use a scythe. Time spent sharpening the scythe is not wasted; but if you spend all you time sharpening, you'll never get the crop in! We have more openings now than we can fill—more people crying to come over and help them, than we're able to answer, and the rate we're going, our babes will probably even have gray hair before you let them marry! Get with it, Leaders! It's time to go, go, go!—Past time—and you're not even packed yet. You're acting like Mothers and Fathers who never let'em grow up!
ADVICE ON PIONEER ROAD TEAMS
5. OF COURSE, NOW, DON'T GO DUMPIN' 'EM OUT IN THE STREET BEFORE THEY'RE READY, without knowing how to take care of themselves, much less how to take care of other‚ Be sure your teams are well-prepared‚ well-trained, well-taught, well-instructed, well-organized, well-equipped, well-directed, well–staffed, and well-led—and know where they're going, and where they're going to land. With all the places we're being offered, and all the invitations we have, there's no need for any team to have to go out not knowing where it's going to stay, especially a large team that's hard to feed and house. I grant you we've done this in the past, but we were equipped for it, and had no other place to go, and it was God's design for the time; but I STILL BELIEVE THAT CHRIST'S BASIC PLAN OF ABOUT A DOZEN THAT AREN'T TOO HARD TO HOUSE OR FEED IS BEST FOR MOST SITUATIONS. Any group larger than that on the road can become nearly a nightmare living in a constant state of emergency, as some of you can recall, when there were over a hundred of us camping out in the parks on the grass under the trees scrounging what we could to survive—sometimes on the mud under the rain! Horrors! There may be times when this is necessary, and cannot be helped, even as a testimony to others‚ as it was then, but it's quite obvious from the Bible that His Children weren't always living under these conditions which take every moment of your time just to survive, with very little time for witnessing—but you were a witness anyway!
6. HOWEVER, WE DIDN'T LIVE LIKE THAT BECAUSE WE LIKE HARDSHIPS, PRIVATION, AND SUFFERING, but because it was the only way we could get the job done, and God used it! But Jesus Himself said that when you go out and enter into a town, inquire in it who is worthy and there abide in that house until ye depart; so they must have usually stayed in the homes of friends and didn't always camp out! CAMPING OUT IS AN EMERGENCY IN THIS DAY AND AGE, particularly under present circumstances of the usual attitude of the System toward campers like us. Holiday system camping by well–heeled tourists is something else, but 35 hippies in an old dilapidated bus camping in a city park or on the city streets is another thing—the very kind of thing the Romans don't like because they know the Systemites will complain about it. Besides, it's a major operation to try to feed that many people under those conditions, much less sleep them. To do this for a day or two on the road between Colonies is understandable, and briefly tolerable‚ but for a team of that size to land in a big city with no place to go, no way to cook, and nowhere to sleep, is almost intolerable! Don't let it happen again! IF YOU THINK THE CITY MERITS A LARGE TEAM, BE SURE YOU'VE ARRANGED ACCOMMODATIONS FOR THEM when they arrive where they're going‚ so they don't have to camp out on the streets, which I told you would not be tolerated by the authorities. A quiet couple in a camper is hard enough to get away with on a city street, but certainly not a busload of noisy kids shouting Hallelujah all over the place and tackling every citizen with Salvation. YOU GOTTA HAVE SOME PLACE TO FLEE TO WHEN THE ROMANS CHASE YOU OUT; although I'll confess, if you haven't got any better sense, the Lord'll take care of you somehow, but I wouldn't try to strain His patience too much when He's already laid down the rules in the Book. I told you that a road team of about a dozen‚ with good camping equipment could camp in approved campgrounds and survive till they had a place, but a large team has got to have a place, at least to camp, if nothing else. Even Jesus, when He sent out the 70, only sent them out two by two. How about you?
7. NOW FOR SHEPHERDS TO BE CAMPING OUT IN THE OPEN FIELDS WITH THEIR FLOCKS IN A STILL PRIMITIVE LITTLE LAND LIKE CYPRUS, IS ANOTHER WORLD. They won't even let you do that in most places in the States without proper sanitary facilities, water‚ fire regulations, and strict supervision‚ etc. But even the shepherds here have better sense than to try to camp right downtown on the city streets, or in the city parks, with all their little lambs and goats and asses. Even the simplest shepherds know they couldn't get away with that, no matter how green the grass was in the city park, or how good the water out of the drinking fountain, or how handy the bathroom. They stick to the open fields, away from civilisation, and try not to be a public nuisance to everybody, or a downright health hazard disturbing the System's peace. They try to stay out‚ to themselves, where they and their flocks won't bother anybody. You can only get near them if you go to them.
8. THIS OF COURSE, WOULD BE DIFFICULT FOR OUR FLOCKS, since we like to round up their sheep for our folds, which you can understand somebody's bound to object to sooner or later, especially the former owners—parents schools, churches, officials, etc. But [winning] sheep is our business; [getting] their cattle is our job; but it's a dangerous one —but I never heard of [those who do those things] camping out in the city park! They usually had a [place] somewhere that they could run to with their herds! How about you? [W]e hit 'em suddenly, fast, and hard, then we make our getaway with the booty, having accomplished [mission], and disappear into the woods, or the wilderness, before they even know what hit 'em.
9. AT LEAST, THIS IS ONE MODE OF OPERATION WHICH IS FREQUENTLY SUCCESSFUL, especially if you're outnumbered in unfriendly territory. L.A. and Cincy have found out what it's like to be living right in the city in the middle of everything and sometimes it's been pretty rough!
10. BUT MOST OF OUR UNITS ARE NOW CONVENIENTLY AWAY FROM THE BATTLEFRONT where they actually do their fighting—at least most of their fighting‚ beginning with TSC, Zion, Coachella, etc. Some are strictly [quiet places for our] leadership and the seclusion and teaching of babes ; that's good!
11. AND OF COURSE, LIKE MOST GYPSIES, THEY TELL A LOT OF LIES ABOUT US, and accuse us of a lot more than we're actually guilty of! But that's life—a great life, PTL!
THE FASCINATING DISCOVERY OF A GYPSY CAMP!
12. WE HAD A FASCINATING EXPERIENCE YESTERDAY. We took a little minibus for about 36 miles for 36 cents to the flower-filled fields of this beautiful pastoral and agricultural little country, where most of the common poor still live in peaceful, idyllic tranquillity of the simple life, as they have for thousand of years.
13. IT WAS SPRING, SUNNY, AND EXCITING. Our British-looking Greek driver ambled along at a leisurely speed like he had all the time in the world! Why hurry? So we really relaxed and enjoyed the trip. We had seen shepherds in the fields tending the flocks or herds before, but suddenly as we neared our destination we saw something different, tents pitched in the fields with the flocks; and startled and surprised, somehow I knew they were gypsies, so I asked the driver‚ and sure enough, he said yes! HERE WE HAD SEARCHED THIS WHOLE TRIP FROM ONE END OF EUROPE TO THE OTHER and all around the Mediterranean hoping to find some Gypsies but didn't run into any until it was God's time. Here, in this quiet little rural area, in this tiny, isolated little land, an island in the Eastern Mediterranean, cut off from the mainland‚ here in the most unexpected of places, we at last found our Gypsies! In France we had even gone far out of our way and to a lot of inconvenience to try to find a big Gypsy encampment where they were supposed to come from all over Europe, but much to out dismay, they had already left, and we couldn't even find one. In England, we had started researching on their history in a local library, when the Lord rebuked us and told us that He knew more about them than we'd find in books, and if we wanted to know, He'd tell us! We also finally decided that if He wanted us to meet some, He would lead us to the right ones at the right time—and He did! Praise the Lord! Let God lead!
14. WE WERE ON OUR WAY TO A SEACOAST TOWN TO VISIT THE VILLA OF THE FATHER OF ONE OF OUR STUDENTS, which the boy had said reminded him of one of our dreams—but the most important discovery we made that day was these Gypsies, and our visit with them! We could hardly wait! But business before pleasure. We hurried to the villa, had a good visit with the boy's relatives‚ his aged uncle and aunt, who welcomed the good news of his new life with us in one of our schools. We tried to interpret the new turn of events in language they could understand‚ so we told them, that you were now studying for the Ministry in one of our Bible colleges—and that's the truth and they were very happy and want your picture. Your newlywed father is in Beirut but will be back.
15. HE HAD JUST LEFT THE DAY BEFORE, and had rented the house only two days before, so apparently that's not why we came. So‚ after a quick kebab sandwich, we asked our driver to take us out to see the Gypsies. The Lord even picked exactly the right driver, because he not only knew good English‚ having spent 10 years in Britain, but he also knew the Gypsies and both the Greek and Turkish languages which they speak over here. We had missed the first bus by only five minutes in going there, but that must have been why, for he was truly the right man for the job—very cooperative‚ and very sympathetic, for it soon proved that his major job was to be our faithful interpreter!—All for a dollar, which is all he asked for although it was miles!
16. SUDDENLY, THERE THEY WERE—TWO TENTS, A COUPLE DOZEN HORSES AND ASSES, A WAGON, AND A LARGE GYPSY FAMILY CAMPED IN AN OPEN GREEN FIELD under God's bright-blue sky with the mountains for a background! It was as beautiful as a painting—and we hope our pictures came out so you can see it, too, someday soon. We parked at the edge of the field, and as we walked through the grass toward the tents, I explained to George‚ our guide, that I was part Gypsy and could still speak the ancient Romani language and wanted to see if I could converse with the Gypsies in my own language, so he would understand when I began speaking to them in another tongue. It was really weird, like a dream come true‚ and our hearts were skipping with excitement as the Gypsy children came out to meet us! It was God's time and place‚ and we were soon to know the truth!
ABRAHIM'S GYPSY HISTORY!
17. A FEW OF YOU KNOW THE STRANGE STORY OF MY CONTACT WITH THE GYPSIES, AND OF ABRAHIM, MY GUIDE, our origin in Israel, our captivity in Babylon, and our flight to India from which we immigrated due to persecution for becoming Christians. For years we wandered across the plains and mountains with our families and flocks trying to find Paradise Lost, our homeland of Israel; always we were hounded, persecuted, and driven out‚ first by this religion, then by another; first this oppressor‚ and then another, until we had again crossed Persia, and dwelt in Armenia, the land of Noah and Abraham and our ancestors, at the upper reaches of the Euphrates and the mountains of Ararat. From here we were driven Northward, into Russia by either the Arabs or the Turks, and around the Black Sea into Hungary‚ Rumania, and finally Bulgaria, where our tribe of some 200 were finally massacred by the Turks, as we were camped peacefully around our campfire one night in the Bulgarian woods. I have never been to Bulgaria, as far as I know‚ at least, not in this life, but somehow I was there then, and I could remember it well when I had these revelations; I saw the mountains and the beautiful valleys filled with fields of roses, although I can never in this life remember seeing pictures of that land, nor did I know that one of their principal products is tartar or roses! But believe it or not, that was the year 1272, during one of the many Turkish invasions of the Balkans‚ with whose history I was almost totally unfamiliar! I WAS TOLD THAT I HAD BEEN CHIEF OF THIS TRIBE, AND MY NAME WAS ABRAHAM, that we were all Christians, and had gone to be with Jesus. The dying scenes of that night of horrors of our martyrdom still move me to weep. I don't know how I was there—but I was there! Who can understand the things of the Spirit? I haven't time here to tell you all the things the Lord has shown us, but somehow from then on I was used by the Lord to lead many other tribes across mountains and deserts and through the wildernesses, driven by enemies in many lands, until now somehow, I was to lead another great tribe—a new nation—out of the wilderness of this world‚ into some Promised Land of the Lord! I still don't understand it all, but I know it's true, because I was there when it happened.
SPEAKING THE OLD GYPSY LANGUAGE!
18. AND NOW WE WERE ABOUT TO MAKE OUR FIRST CONTACT WITH REAL LIVE GYPSIES, since all these revelations, the story which inspired the song, "Mountain Children"! The Gypsy children greeted us with friendly smiles and chatter, and our Turkish speaking guide introduced us‚ as most of the Gypsies here speak Turkish. The handsome gray-haired father sat benignly by the campfire with a look of peaceful resignation to his lot, a sweet, somewhat sad‚ yet smiling, face, in whom I felt a very good spirit‚ and for whom I got the Scripture, "A man of sorrows and acquainted with grief." THE CHILDREN WERE BEAUTIFUL, HUSKY‚ HEALTHY, AND HAPPY, and chattered with friendship. The three older girls were beautiful, as well, shy, demure, but obviously friendly and curious. The oldest was calmly and casually, and without embarrassment, as though, of course, it was the most natural thing in the world for anyone to do, which of course it was, completely exposing her lovely well-rounded bosom, as she nursed her child, who looked like he was beyond the nursing age, but after all, how can the poor ignore God's good, free, handy and natural supply of milk for their children! That's what He made it for, so why not? WHAT A DIFFERENCE FROM THE HELL OF A SYSTEM OF TODAY! She smiled sweetly and obligingly as we took her picture, and they all cooperated in letting us take colour photos of them and their camp. I was more interested in talking to them in my language than anything else, but before I could begin, I got a surprise I hadn't anticipated, and which was the furthest thing from my mind. THE WITHERED MOTHER OF THE TRIBE‚ WITH A STRONG INTENSE FACE‚ SUDDENLY OFFERED TO TELL MY FORTUNE! I thought, of course, she was after money, and they obviously needed it‚ so I thought by letting her do so I would have an opportunity to try my language and could hold their interest until I found out what I wanted to know; if I was really speaking an ancient Gypsy dialect—a gift of God's Spirit!
19. SO WITH A LITTLE PRAYER IN MY HEART, I TOOK THE PLUNGE, AND BEGAN TO SPEAK WITH ANOTHER TONGUE, as the Spirit gave utterance. They looked a little mystified, so I asked if they understood that I was part Gypsy, and spoke the ancient tongue, but through our interpreter they apologised that it had been a long time since they had spoken it, and had almost forgotten it, but still recognised a few words—so I was thrilled. Later, when I was praying for them in my tongue, before we left the man's face brightened, and he said he understood part of what I had said, that it was about our being separated from them—and I was thrilled again‚ because what was on my heart as I prayed was that we had to leave now, and be gone from them, but that the Lord was still there, and I asked Him to bless and keep them and help them to love Him more and know His love—so I know the Spirit was faithful and spoke what was on my heart—and the old man understood at least part of it.
20. SO THE LANGUAGE I SPEAK IS REALLY WHAT WE SUSPECTED IT TO BE—an ancient Romani dialect at least 700 years old! What a thrill! What a miracle! What a God! PTL!
THE BIGGEST SURPRISE—THE GYPSY PROPHECIES
21. This, from the experiences and revelations we had already had, I was sure was true and only confirmed it, but I WAS YET TO EXPERIENCE THE BIGGEST SURPRISE OF ALL—A PROPHECY ABOUT OURSELVES AND THE FUTURE THROUGH THE OLD WIZENED MATRIARCH OF THE TRIBE HERSELF. She took my hand, as though in a pretense of reading my palm, but she never even really looked at it, but instead, there began to flow through her fluently and without hesitation, and with perfect confidence and firm definiteness, the following details; some of course which we already knew, which was to inspire our confidence that she was telling the truth, which was being revealed to her‚ so that we would have faith to believe the predictions of the future. IT WAS TRULY AMAZING‚ AND WHO CAN UNDERSTAND THE GIFT OF PROPHECY, and who can deny that God is all-powerful, and even able to give this dear little old lady, living in abject poverty, despised by the System around her‚ one of the richest of all treasures, the Words of God! She is richer than the richest in this land, and seemed to be perfectly content with her lowly lot—and this is what the Spirit spoke through her to us on that memorable day!
22. (THROUGHOUT THIS MESSAGE IN THESE PARENTHESES YOU WILL FIND THE INTERPRETATION WHICH THE LORD WAS GIVING ME OF HER MESSAGE as she spoke, along with the pictures that God gave me of what she was talking about. The Lord was giving me the gift of interpretation of her prophecy right along with it, and each picture was definite and I had no doubt as to what it meant. What she was describing was just as clear to me as a picture‚ and I had to explain it all to my little stenographer afterward, who faithfully took it down in her ever-present little notebook as it was being given, God bless her. If it had not been for the faithfulness of the Lord's little scribe, I could never possibly have remembered it all, and thank God also for the services of our very cooperative interpreter, George, our driver, who seemed to sense that he was taking part in something very important, and eagerly related each phrase of the message to us as it came, Hallelujah! Thank God for His faithfulness!)
23. "VERY SOON YOU WILL LEAVE HERE BY THE SEA. (Oddly enough, most tourists come here by plane, but we are leaving by boat!) Your luck is very good‚ like running water. (The immediate interpretation which I received was that the word which our interpreter translated "luck" was really "life," and I suddenly got a picture of the Sign of Aquarius, my personal astrological symbol for my birthdate of February 18, which is also the prophetic sign of the present age in which we live, and a life poured out like water‚ the Water of Life, for the benefit of others, so typical of Aquarians, for those of you who understand! Then came:) YOU ARE A VERY PLEASANT PERSON, GOOD-HEARTED, AND A VERY GOOD- HEARTED, GROWN-UP MAN. (It was very clear to me what was meant: that we were mature, full-grown‚ and with genuine understanding of the world situation today, not a babe, nor blind to the realities of God.) Whatever money you spend, you don't feel sorry about it; you're willing to spend it. (Those of you who worked close to me for years know that money doesn't interest me except as a necessary evil to pay the bills, and that I'd sooner give it away than keep it! My little secretary says that's true, for which some have accused me of being too generous and wasteful.) Very shortly you are making a journey. (I suddenly had the feeling that this meant it was going to be sooner than I thought‚ an impression I've had frequently lately, and this confirmed it.) YOU ARE RESIDING IN A VERY BIG HOUSE. (The immediate picture I had was not a building, but You, my big family! What bigger house could I have!) But someone is jealous of you. (Right now it's best that I not tell you who this is, but the person was very clear to me in the picture, and I have been warned of them before by the Lord.) Very shortly you are going to win a fortune—plenty of money. (I saw God showering us with an abundant supply of every need for His Work! Hallelujah! God never fails, if we're obedient!) Of course you enjoy yourself: you eat, you drink, but you feel sorry for one person. (We are very happy in the life the Lord is giving us at the moment, but I have felt sad lately for someone who I understand has been missing us more than usual of late—Eve!) Now you are thinking of making a kind of a job—of doing something. (We are on the eve of one of our major projects—London, for which we're leaving‚ in a few days, God willing!)
24. YOU LOVED QUITE A FEW BEFORE, BUT ALL OF A SUDDEN, THE LOVER YOU HAVE NOW CAME ALONG SUDDENLY—and you love her very much—the one you have. (How true, how true, hallelujah! God bless her! The work I'm doing now would not be possible without her, Praise the Lord!) Very shortly you are going to shake hands with somebody‚ and you will fulfill your intentions with the person you are going to shake hands with. (I had a picture of me meeting Jeremy for the first time, and that he's going to fulfill God's purpose‚ Praise God!)"
25. THE FIRST PROPHECY CONCLUDED AT THIS POINT, AND I WAS DEEPLY MOVED AT ITS AMAZING ACCURACY. I had the feeling there was more, but she acted like that was all, and we went about taking more pictures, and showing them ours of you. My dear little secretary with her usual bold friendliness and childlike curiosity even poked around inside of their tent and took a picture of them in it‚ and also wanted to know who slept in the chicken coop—a little teepee all to itself, but they laughed and said, only the chickens. Meanwhile, all the burros and horses eyed us soberly, as though we were intruders from another planet, and how come we did dare to invade their world? The kids seemed to be enjoying it immensely; and never once did they make a wrong move or try to pick my pocket, although I'm ashamed to confess, because of the stories I've heard, I expected it momentarily! HOW LIKE ONE OF THE VISITORS TO OUR OWN CAMP I MUST HAVE FELT‚ and how ridiculous can you get. God help us! They were just lovely, treated us royally, showed us genuine love, and I had the same strange‚ strong urge to want to join them then and there on the spot—a strong kindred spirit, like "Here's where I belong‚" that some of our own visitors must feel. It was really remarkable! WE WERE TRULY DRAWN TOGETHER IN LOVE AND A FEELING OF UNITY—a oneness that it's hard to explain, like they were part of our family, and here, with people like this, is where we belonged. Even George seemed to fit, and strangely enough, they discovered they'd known each other before, many years ago, before he went to London, when they had predicted he was going to take a very long journey and be gone a long time, when he had no intention of doing so, but eventually did exactly as they had prophesied! HOW WONDERFUL ARE THE WAYS OF THE LORD—HOW PAST FINDING OUT! Praise the Lord! He's so amazing‚ and works in such strange ways, in such unexpected places, with such unlikely people, God help us to have more faith to believe that God can do anything, anywhere, anytime, with anybody! Do you believe it! Let the redeemed of the Lord say so! Hallelujah! Praise the Lord? Amen?
26. FINALLY, AS WE WERE TELLING THEM GOOD-BYE, KISSING AND HUGGING LIKE LONG-LOST MEMBERS OF A VERY DEAR FAMILY, almost to the amusement of George, our guide, who nevertheless seemed to be taking it all in stride, like it was meant to be, which it was‚ one of the grown girls even did us a little dance‚ a really "wow," of which we took pictures, and they asked if they could see them when they were finished. We asked, that if we didn't get back, where could we send them, and they said rather pitifully that they had no mailing address, and didn't know how long they'd be there! Wow! How much like our early days on the road! WE FELT SUCH A KINSHIP AND AFFINITY FOR THEM, like no one could understand like we could‚ having been there ourselves. The System could never believe it, what love and understanding we had for these dear Gypsies. They also told us they had a son who was a good musician, but he had gone to England with their only guitar‚ but that they had heard no word from him, of course, since they had no address, and I almost broke and wept again. He might as well have gone to Heaven or some other world as far as their communication was concerned, but they spoke bravely and happily of him, and we got his name in case we could find him there, God knows!
27. I STILL FELT THE LORD WAS NOT FINISHED, so finally in desperation, I held out my hand to that dear old prophetess and asked her if there was more. She smiled, took it, looked silently thoughtful then sober‚ and said the following.
28. "YOU WILL GO WITH SOMEBODY OF HIGH OFFICE TOGETHER ON A JOURNEY AND SIT TOGETHER AT A TABLE. (The picture I got was of some of us leaders sitting down with government officials to explain our plans, and I think it was England!)—(The Lord predicted this a long time ago, and we thought it was going to be Israel, but it didn't happen there, could it be London? We have also had an urgent invitation from a prominent psychiatrist of a large hospital in Denmark vacationing here to start a Colony in his country. He was thrilled with Grandmother's book‚ and is enthusiastic about our work. Maybe it's there, I don't know. The future will tell. The prospects of such an official meeting are very likely in many countries, but I had the feeling it might be England, as it seemed Hosea and Jeremy were there, and we were asking for permission for something.) WHEREVER YOU GO, EVERYBODY LOVES YOU AND LIKES YOU BECAUSE OF YOUR GOOD HUMOUR. But a relation of yours felt very sorry about you some time ago. (I think this person knows who she is, and I love her, God bless her‚ and hope to see her soon.) Your house—surroundings—will be much better from now on. (As He has promised, God is enlarging our tents.)
29. VERY SHORTLY, IN SOME OTHER PLACE WHERE YOU WILL GO, you will lay a table for guests. (He hath set a table before me in the presence of my enemies—and we are going to feed the poor and hungry young people of a new nation, God helping us, PTL, Hallelujah!) Next to your house wherever you are living, there is a slim girl very jealous of you. (I got a very clear picture of who this is, and what for‚ and I think she knows who she is, too!—and it's not for her own sake, but someone else whom she loves very dearly—but she won't have to be jealous much longer, Praise the Lord! I love you!—God bless and keep you until then, Praise the Lord! He never fails! Don't doubt Him now! Keep trusting Jesus! Amen?) FROM YOUR HOUSE YOU ARE GOING TO PLAN A JOURNEY TO SOMEWHERE ELSE. You're O.K., your luck is good! (All you dear children I love are my house, and you know where I'm planning to go when I leave you! It's O.K. I'll stand in my lot in the end of those days, and it will be good for me and for you, PTL!) Somebody from your own, a girl, a relative of yours, is thinking of you all the time wherever you go.—(And of course, you know who that is: you're there now, Sweetheart, but you will soon be with us, so thank you for praying for us, and thinking of us continually. We love you! Isn't that beautiful! HOW COULD ANYBODY BUT THE LORD HAVE SAID SUCH BEAUTIFUL THINGS‚ or described our situation more perfectly, or told me exactly how you feel, and how faithful you are. I love you! XXX That means hug, hug, hug‚ and kiss, kiss, kiss! Praise the Lord! Hallelujah! Amen. God let it be so, and soon. Amen? Hurry up. Get ready. We need you! And his work over here needs you.—So pray we'll find a place soon! The Lord will provide!—if we are faithful!)
30. JUST THEN MARIA THRUST OUT HER HAND AND SAID, "WILL YOU TELL MINE‚ TOO?" And the old lady looked her right in the eye and said, "Your luck (life) is like a rose (fragrant and beautiful!) You are a bit scared—scared easily. (She worries too much about me.) From your dress you are wearing‚ you don't like everything (she doesn't like herself.) You are a bit too selfish (selfish for me.) YOU HAVE AN ODD NUMBER OF BOTH BROTHERS AND SISTERS (This is true—a very odd number, as well as very many). Are you engaged? (Here she seemed rather puzzled, as though she didn't quite understand the relationship, that it was rather unusual, not exactly customary—How true!) The person you got engaged to is very good, but you are jealous of your fiancée. (Isn't that amazing! That's really the truth, but she has amazing victory—unbelievable!—She usually wins!) WHEN YOU ARE ASLEEP, YOU ARE DREAMING VERY MUCH‚ but in the morning you are afraid to explain your dreams. (They're probably about her rivals!) You are going to have either three children‚ or five—an odd number. (The Lord has already prophesied Little David, and also a little girl later; but this prediction had an even more significant meaning: There are now three‚ but there will be five—and this too, has been prophesied! Wow! The Lord is too much! Can you take it! Hallelujah) There is a tall, very good girl of your relations, who will very shortly come to your house. (Wow! Isn't that terrific!) YOU ARE VERY CAREFUL IN DRESSING YOURSELF TO GO OUT. You like dressing up very well. (She's not really crazy about clothes. I even have a hard time buying her anything—but this means she likes to appear well and be liked.) Very shortly you are going to shake hands with a person coming to your house. (She's going to welcome a certain person with real grace.) The person who got engaged to you—your souls are very, very, similar—they coincide. (In fact‚ we are absolutely one, along with all the rest of you, Hallelujah, Praise the Lord! What a wonderful family! They'd never believe it! Truth is stranger than fiction! Praise God!) YOU ARE GOING TO LIVE TO 93. (I believe this may mean the year 1993, just two or three years after my predicted death, and exactly in accord with several other prophecies.) And in your latest years have a baby girl. (This, too, I saw in vision, and her name was Davida, Praise the Lord, with short curly blond hair! Isn't God wonderful? What a wonderful life He has given it—and she's gonna be spunky, just like Maria, Thank you Jesus! Amen!) You are goodhearted and a very polite person, and God will help you always! (so true, thank the Lord!)
31. MARIA DIDN'T EXACTLY LIKE SOME OF THIS, BUT SHE KNOWS IT'S TRUE, and of the Lord and thanked Him for it. Amen, Maria? Maria: Amen!! Amen!! Amen!! Praise God!
32. IT WAS A WONDERFUL DAY, AND THE BEAUTIFUL SUN WAS GOING DOWN BEHIND THE LOVELY CLOUDS, but we still tried to take a few pictures with the help of the little flash cubes, and I hope we can send them to you soon. We'll probably send them to Hosea in London to bring back and show you with our own narration on tape, God willing, but we just couldn't wait to tell you about it all!—It's such a wonderful story, so thrilling, so fitting, and so encouraging about the future‚ and so true, PTL! Amen?
33. OH‚ SO YOU DON'T THINK GOD CAN USE AN OLD GYPSY LADY IN THE MIDDLE OF A FIELD IN A STRANGE COUNTRY IN ANOTHER TONGUE TO GIVE A TRUE PROPHECY GIVEN BY THE SPIRIT OF GOD? He has done stranger things than this! The gifts and callings of God are without repentance! In the last days He has promised to pour out His Spirit upon all flesh, and upon His handmaidens, and His daughters shall prophesy—even an old Gypsy woman here. Remember, I didn't go to her seeking this—God just sprang it on us unexpectedly!—It was just an extra bonus! For of Him, through Him and to Him are all things! Hallelujah!
SCATTERATION—WHY TO KEEP IT SMALL AND PERSONAL
34. THIS VISIT WITH THE GYPSIES REMINDS US OF OUR SMALLER COLONIES, and what their example means to all of us, and the overall organisation of our work and plans for the future. I AM STILL AS MUCH CONVINCED AS EVER THAT THE SMALLER COLONIES ARE THE IDEAL. I am just as much opposed as ever to large churches, over–sized congregations and their cumbersome, burdensome machinery, and their impersonal conglomerate fellowship where leadership loses that personal touch, intimate fellowship, and close attention to the individual. No pastor can be a good shepherd to so many sheep! He cannot give each the individual attention that is necessary.
35. THIS IS ONE REASON MOST CHRISTIANS LIKE BIG CHURCHES; THEY CAN HIDE IN THE CROWD and avoid the close scrutiny of them and their lives by the pastor's not all-seeing eye. They can live as they please‚ do their own thing, and still call themselves a church member on Sunday, although the Pastor doesn't even know who they are, much less anything about their individual lives. Not even the Assistant Pastor Home-Caller Visitation System can do the job. There are just too many people, too many calls to make‚ and it's too confusing and impossible to get around to everyone.
36. SO LIKE A DOCTOR, CALLS ARE NOT MADE TO KEEP THE PEOPLE HEALTHY‚ BUT INDIVIDUAL ATTENTION IS ONLY GIVEN IN THE MOST DIRE EMERGENCIES, WHEN SOMEONE IS VERY SICK. Even the Sunday School Teacher Visitation Plan does not cover everyone, and is mostly concerned with the mere attendance of the children. No Pastor, even with a small group of Assistant Pastors can do a consistently good job of giving personalised, individual attention to so many thousands‚ or even hundreds, in one congregation in one place, no matter how well-organised they are. Some are bound to escape the watchful eye of the shepherd and go astray.
37. EVEN JESUS DIDN'T ATTEMPT IT! He preached to the multitudes and He fed and healed them, and ministered to them, but when it came to actually pastoring them, teaching them, feeding them, and giving them the individual care and watchfulness of their growth that's necessary, even He couldn't properly care for more than 12! I'm convinced that a congregation of 12 is the ideal‚ God's ideal. I don't know how He taught the 70, but if you'll divide 70 by 12, you'll find that each of the 12 Apostles could very well have taught a little handful of half a dozen each, which is perhaps all that weaker under-shepherds in training are properly able to supervise. They're not even ready for a load of 12, because they're still being taught themselves by the Master Shepherd. EVEN IN MODERN EDUCATIONAL PSYCHOLOGY, WE ARE TAUGHT THAT THE IDEAL SCHOOL CLASS SIZE IS ABOUT A DOZEN‚ and never more than two dozen at the most. Even the teachers‚ whose business is Education, have discovered this through years of experience, and we should be able to take a tip from their common sense. This is also one of the secrets of the famous Montessori Method!—And how I ever taught a roomful of 50 junior highs in two grades for three years was a miracle of God. No one man can do his best, or a real good job of such a ridiculous situation.
38. OUR ENORMOUS UNION HIGH SCHOOLS AND MAMMOTH UNIVERSITIES HAVE BECOME HEARTLESS MACHINES, producing unguided little monsters, which are going to destroy them—the Frankenstein that made them—and the churches are the same. The ideal school system was that of the early settlers and pioneers, in which the local pastor used the simple little churchhouse, which tripled as a townhall, church, and school, with full 100 percent usefulness all week long as his schoolroom, housing only a dozen or two students in several different grades, with the older students being taught to help‚ teach‚ and care for the younger, as assistant teachers, even in so small an operation. THERE WAS MORE INDIVIDUAL ATTENTION—MUCH MORE, FAR MORE, THAN IN THE SCHOOLS OR CHURCHES OF TODAY!—And this little one-room school system produced America's greatest statesmen, leaders, and heroes of those by–gone days, which are no more, along with no more great statesmen‚ leaders, or heroes, either. You just can't produce that kind of product, with the massive machinery‚ mass production, and rapid, hasty, impersonal, assembly-line type of an operation of our present educational and religious systems! It's impossible!
39. We are producing more students and fewer teachers—more babes and fewer leaders, and the end result is going to be catastrophic, chaotic‚ and great confusion!
40. THE POOR COMMON PEOPLE HAVE LOST TOUCH—THAT PERSONAL individual touch and interest—with their pastors, teachers, and politicians, even the children with their parents, because the selfish parents have abdicated their responsibility as individuals, and turned their pitiful little living sacrifices over to the greedy clutches of the mammoth god Moloch, to be cast into its gaping‚ massive‚ fiery maw, to their eternal destruction—to come out in identical molds of dead, lifeless‚ mindless‚ leaden, robots!
41. MAY GOD PREVENT THIS FROM HAPPENING TO US. I can write you and your leaders from afar, and give you overall counsel and advice, and occasional individual instruction, as your Supervisor or Bishop, but I cannot give you the individual personal attention that you each need. This must be the job of your local shepherd and individual overseer, and I am convinced it can still be best done in only a small Colony of a dozen or two in a separate place away from the rest where your shepherd can keep an eye on you!
THE DANGERS OF BEING LARGE AND THE SAFETY OF BEING SMALL
42. A LARGER‚ CENTRALISED, AND MORE HIGHLY SPECIALISED, SINGLE HEADQUARTERS OPERATION MAY BE NECESSARY, AT LEAST FOR THE TIME BEING, for the purpose of overall administration, distribution of such productions as printing, photography, and the processing of mail, the training of teachers‚ and the manufacture of teachers' tools, such as tapes, filmstrips, lesson booklets, etc. IT SEEMS THAT MOST KINGDOMS NEED SOME CENTRALISED LEADERSHIP, SUPERVISION‚ AND UNIFYING ADMINISTRATION to keep them together and in fellowship, and of one mind, one heart, and all speaking the same thing, as well as coordinating the operation and effective maneuvering of their forces in correlation with each other—all members of the same body, working together in perfect coordination, although in many different places and of very different kinds and types of operations, or members. This seems usually the necessary case!
43. HOWEVER‚ NOW I'M GOING TO SAY SOMETHING THAT'S GOING TO SHOCK YOU, and which is entirely contrary to this. The most highly organised kingdoms this world has ever known, with the strongest and most centralised and dictatorial forms of government and leadership, with the widest expanse of territorial coverage, such as the various Empires this world has known, although they have lasted for long, sometimes hundreds of years, have every one eventually crumbled and fallen, or been destroyed by others! Why? Was it poor leadership‚ poor organisation‚ poor unification, poor loyalty, poor instruction, poor control? What was it? I AM SUSPECTING THAT PERHAPS EVEN THEIR GIGANTIC SIZE, GREAT STRENGTH AND DICTATORIAL CONTROL WAS A PART OF THEIR WEAKNESS, which brought on such impersonalisation, such remote control, that they lost the personal touch completely, lost the loyalty of their lowliest subjects‚ lost communication and identification with the grass roots, got out of touch with the masses, and no longer had their fingers on the intimate pulse of each individual‚ and his basic morale. SUCH A CHAIN OF COMMAND SYSTEM IS NO STRONGER THAN ITS WEAKEST LINK, and even now, small independent, guerrilla bands of individual warriors, operating almost totally on their own, far from central control, with only remote coordination‚ are proving able to outmaneuver, outflank, and outdo, the largest of conventional armies of the most powerful nations on earth.
44. IT'S A LONG, DIFFICULT AND HAZARDOUS PROCESS‚ BUT THE TINIEST GUERRILLA BANDS of these little, loyal followers, unbelievably outnumbered and out-armoured, have been able to hold at bay the huge conventional armies with all their top-heavy brass and elaborate sophisticated equipment of the world's most powerful nations in one little country alone for nearly 30 years! This is an amazing accomplishment of decentralisation and diversification! How can this be so?
45. EMPIRES HAVE COME AND GONE, BUT THE LITTLE PEOPLE HAVE LIVED ON, and the poor ye have always with you, as Jesus said. Maybe their very weakness is their strength! What glory is there in attacking and conquering a tiny little handful of the weak, the poor‚ and the meek! Rulers have come and gone, but the meek still inherit the earth. They live on the land, close to it, enjoy it, and benefit from the fruits thereof, the healthful atmosphere, the non-pollution‚ the vigorous exercise, the wholesome foods, and the simple, uncomplicated life, with no psychological neuroses and nervous breakdowns, little or no drug problems, very few medical needs, and very little dependency on the System. Each little farmer and his family, or his tiny village, or tribe, grows its own food, makes nearly all of its own needs, and equipment, and lives its own life, almost totally independent from the rest of the world.
46. LARGER GOVERNMENTS ARE ALMOST A NUISANCE TO THEM, from which they derive few benefits, but must pay useless taxes to support. These governments prey upon them, upon their own people, oppress them, overburden them, and use them for their own selfish ends and their manpower to wage larger wars, in which the common people have little or no interest. God warned of this when Israel lived peacefully in a tiny little independent theocracy ruled by God alone through his simple prophets, when the people finally demanded a king to become big and powerful like other nations. You can read about it in 1Samuel 8‚ etc., as well as throughout history!
47. NUMBERS, POWER‚ AND WEALTH HAVE ALWAYS BEEN WORSHIPPED BY MAN, but as long as God's people were small, somewhat scattered, only loosely associated, and with a minimum of rule from above through His Prophets, and obedient to God's Rules, they lived in peace with few wars, close to the land‚ engaged in the production of only the necessities of life‚ with more intimate fellowship and personal attention from their leaders.
48. THE POOR HAD NOTHING ANYBODY ELSE WANTED, so their very weakness was their protection under God, as there was no great glory in conquering them! They were the poor, the nobodies, the have-nots, and nobody paid much attention to them, but God. From the historical viewpoint of the historians of the great powers of the earth, God's children were just little, insignificant bands of guerrilla savages living in the remote mountain hideaways of an almost unknown wilderness, and nobody much bothered them, except for an occasional retaliation by the powerful, nearby System for Israel's raids on the Establishment; so the Jews, and the Gypsies, and the common poor of the whole world have long outlived all of their would–be conquerors and the mighty empires of governments that have come and gone. The poor ye have always. It pays to stay poor! Amen?
49. WHERE WAS THE CENTRAL ORGANISATION OF THE EARLY CHURCH? What was its so–called Headquarters, and how much control did it have over its individual member, or units? Very little, except for the Lord, by His Spirit. Our Headquarters is in Heaven! Our Ruler is God! Our King is Jesus! And our communication system is His Spirit!
50. GOD HIMSELF PERMITTED THE LARGE, OVER–SIZED, TOO TOP-HEAVY AND LETHARGIC FAILING-TO-EVANGELISE–THE-WORLD JERUSALEM HEADQUARTERS COLONY TO BE SMITTEN by the sword, in order to decentralise, diversify, and scatter them throughout the whole world, these tiny little individual and almost invisible bands of poor little Christians, living largely out of sight and under ground, meeting clandestinely, and witnessing individually, were able to do what the big Colony had failed to accomplish. THEY WERE NOT BOUND TOGETHER BY A DICTATORIAL, HIERARCHICAL, CENTRALISED GOVERNMENT, FROZEN TOGETHER WITH FORMALITIES, but they were only united by His Spirit, governed by His Word, and melted together in love, with an absolute minimum of supervision by the Apostles. Their unity was in the Spirit and in Love and in Doctrine, not in highly technical organisation. Their coordination and cooperation were God-made‚ not man–made, and it was a supernatural thing, strictly miraculous, and not manufactured by man's fleshly wisdom! Hallelujah! Thank you, Jesus! Praise the Lord!
51. WHILE IN THIS POOR, WEAK‚ SCATTERED AND DISORGANISED CONDITION, THEY LITERALLY EXPLODED, with a population explosion through their individual witnessing which filled the whole world with their doctrine and their converts, swept the whole earth in a tidal wave of love, simplicity, poverty, and loyalty, that threatened the very Roman Establishment itself, and eventually overthrew it!
THE HISTORY OF CHRISTIANITY—AND ITS LESSONS FOR US!
52. THEN A SAD AND SIGNIFICANT AND DISASTROUS CHANGE TOOK PLACE! Christianity became accepted, recognised, popular‚ powerful, wealthy, and dictatorial, and became Rome itself—the very System it had dropped out of, and the Establishment it was to be separate from—and a new Roman Empire was revived in the new so-called Holy Roman Empire of the Roman Catholic Church, whose dominions, power, wealth‚ and expansion far outreached the former boundaries of Rome, and outlived the decadent Empire! THE CHURCH HAD BECOME THE EMPIRE, and continued to persecute and attempt to destroy the true little bands of genuine Christians who lived on in spite of it, even in the Catacombs, beneath the city itself‚ and in far-off lands, free from the long arm of Rome! For a thousand years of the Dark Ages, the True Church had to go underground, while the whorish System of Babylon reigned supreme! BUT ALL OF THAT TIME, TINY BANDS OF TRUE CHRISTIANS, UNITED ONLY IN LOVE, THE SPIRIT AND THE WORD, MANAGED TO SURVIVE by the Grace of God throughout the world, despite every attempt to stamp them out, every effort to burn their Bibles and destroy their numbers through torture, intimidation‚ and martyrdom. They had no central leadership, but the ever-present prophets of God; no formal organisation but the unity of the spirit; no common bond but His Love; and no doctrine but His Word. And yet they, like the Jews and the Gypsies and the common poor, have survived until this day, despite every effort to crush them, liquidate them, and completely exterminate them!
53. EVEN WHEN FREED FROM THIS OPPRESSION THROUGH THEIR FORMATION‚ WHEN THEY AGAIN BECAME ACCEPTED, RECOGNISED RICH AND POWERFUL, THEY AGAIN REVERTED TO THE SAME whorish collaboration with the Beast under a new guise, known as Protestantism, and the new system was little better than the first, because it had lost the power of God, the communication of the Spirit, and the sacrificial, forsake-all love of one another! ("Blessed are your eyes‚ for they behold that which the prophets have dreamed of."—You don't realise what you're watching‚ but I can feel it by the Spirit of God! It's an absolute Revolution—a Revolution, and things will never be the same again!—Prophecy and revelation with tongues and weeping)—This is the secret—this is the Truth of God! Hallelujah! All glory be to God! Thank you, Jesus!
54. BUT STILL THE TRUE CHURCH HAS SURVIVED, UNDER ONE AFTER ANOTHER OF HIS TRUE PROPHETS, until this very day, when you are a part of this present Manifestation of another powerful moving of His Spirit‚ to save this last generation—to save yourselves from the untoward generation of your fathers! Hallelujah! Thank God!
55. LET US NOT OURSELVES FALL PREY TO THESE FORMER ERRORS. Let us remain pure from these corruptions. God help us to stay poor‚ and weak, and despised, and scattered, and united only by His Love, His Spirit, and His Word!—For when we are weak, then are we strong, and His strength is made perfect in our weakness, for His grace is sufficient for thee! (2Co.12:9,10) As long as we perpetuate the seemingly impossible conditions of scatteration, decentralisation, diversification, and indigenuity in small individual, virtually independent groups or Colonies, held together only by His Love, His Spirit and His Word, there is hope for our survival‚ no matter how the enemy attacks. IF THERE IS NO TRULY CONTROLLING HEAD BUT GOD‚ THEY CANNOT KILL IT. If there is no visible organisation, they cannot destroy it. If there are only tiny scattered Colonies, they will never find them all—and some of us will survive, no matter what happens, even the Antichrist government, until Jesus comes! God help us to stay this way, like the Jews‚ the Gypsies, and the Early Christians, and we'll outlive them all! PTL!
56. AS THE SCRIPTURE SAYS, THERE'S A TIME FOR EVERYTHING, and my Father's motto was, there's a place for everything, and everything should be in its place. There was a time for the Early Church to have its thousands, all in one place at Jerusalem to attract the attention of the whole world and to start off the Church with a bang—one big huge splash.
57. DURING JESUS' 3 1/2 YEARS OF PUBLIC MINISTRY, THE NUMBER OF TRUE DISCIPLES OR GENUINE FOLLOWERS WAS FEW—about 12 to 70, to be exact. The thousands to whom He had preached, healed, and fed were seldom to be counted on for loyalty or faithfulness or genuine discipleship, and public fancy is fickle at best. One day they're worshipping you, and the next, demanding your crucifixion. THE VAST MAJORITY OF PEOPLE COULDN'T CARE LESS; they're not even interested, or only of passing interest‚ and are predominantly indifferent, except when you attract their attention momentarily, as Jesus did. And the crowds at His Crucifixion were symbolic of these various reactions. The smallest group were His friends, another small group, but probably larger, were His enemies; but the vast majority were only the casually curious—the largely indifferent, the passing throng to whom it meant little or nothing.
58. THIS IS STILL TRUE TODAY. The true followers, the true disciples, willing to forsake all, truly follow His teachings, and truly obey His Words, will always be the infinitesimal minority‚ for narrow is the way and straight is the gate that leadeth unto life eternal‚ and few there be that find it; but broad is the gate and wide is the way that leadeth unto destruction, and many there be that go in thereat! (Mt.7:13,14). The vast majority are always wrong; that is, in the world at large! In the world's politics, majority rule means rule by the wicked majority, because the majority are always wrong—and they can usually easily be swayed by a very wicked minority of enemies, as the religious leaders did when they persuaded the crowds that Jesus had fed and healed that He should be crucified. They'll do it to us someday, too, and already have, in a measure upon occasion.
KINGS AND HELPERS—OUR NEED TO HAVE, HELP AND KEEP THEM
59. THE INDIFFERENT, THE LUKEWARM, THE SO-CALLED NEUTRALS‚ are really enemies under the skin, since‚ as Jesus said, "If you're not for Me, you're against Me, and he that gathereth not with Me—gathering in His sheep into the fold, labouring diligently to bring in the Harvest—he that gathereth not, scattereth abroad" (Mt.12:30). So if they're not working with us‚ they're against us—but watch out!—This does not always mean that they have to be an actual member‚ and have already forsaken all, and are already following Him fulltime, to be one of us.
60. JESUS AND HIS DISCIPLES HAD MANY UNDERCOVER FRIENDS, MEMBERS OF THE SYSTEM—a great company of the priests and even some of the Sanhedrin, the rulers and the rich, who were their friends, helpers, and protectors‚ for whom God had ordained for this ministry. You must remember this, and not curse everyone who does not immediately drop everything and join you. God may know that they would not make very good full-time disciples, they would not be whole-hearted enough, sacrificial enough and enthusiastic enough‚ to do a very good job as one of the inner circle—but there are many concentric circles and degrees of discipleship which must be recognised and appreciated and used; as we have taught you before, this includes kings and politicians and businessmen and noble women and influential friends whom God must use to help, provide, and protect you—so again I say, Don't knock 'em: use 'em! But also, always keep an eye on 'em‚ and don't trust them too far‚ or too close in to the inner sanctum of the inner circle, or you may be sorry, as they are usually rather weak spiritually‚ confused theologically; and sometimes, unreliable physically.
61. THESE ARE THEY WHICH HAVE NOT YET COME OUT COMPLETELY TO BE SEPARATE‚ and are still touching unclean things; and when the judgements fall, some will still be trapped in Babylon, and therefore have to suffer with Her for Her sins, as well as their own. This includes a great many born-again Christians who are truly saved and do love Jesus, but are stunted, retarded, handicapped little babes, far from spiritual maturity, due to the sins of their spiritual fathers, the religious leaders and the damnable religious system of which they are victims.
62. WHEN I CURSE THE SO–CALLED CHURCHES AND THEIR PHARISAICAL RELIGIOUS LEADERS, AS JESUS DID‚ I'M NOT CURSING THE POOR PITIFUL VICTIMS of this horrible churchianity system: I feel sorry for them! They're like the wounded casualties in a monstrous war—the deformed babies of a vicious drug. The communists are only too right when they say that religion is the opiate of the people. The kind of religion they have seen is exactly that—a horrible drug which puts them to sleep, makes them oblivious of the conditions around them, lethargic and senseless to the needs of mankind, and the mothers and fathers of horribly handicapped children who cannot even care for themselves, much less others. But the religious system likes it this way, since they can control them better in this stupor; and the government prefers it this way, since they don't know any better, anyhow, and the religious system helps keep them in power. But the pitiful part about it is this: that God says, even My people love it so: the vast majority of Christians prefer it that way, pampered infants, spoiled children!
63. SO DON'T TRUST THEM TOO FAR‚ as some of them can be so deceived and deluded sometimes, as to even kill you thinking they're doing God service, because their diabolical leaders tell them so, as when the high priests told that mob of simpletons to crucify their Saviour! Nevertheless, while they're still with you‚ still listening, still observing your miracles, and sharing your popularity, let them help you all you can! Use them!—And you may even have to let them use you a little, as Jesus did, when He fed them and healed them and helped them; because He came to minister, not to be ministered unto. Nevertheless, a few of them did minister unto Him, provided Him with their protection, their provision‚ their legal defense, their homes‚ their food, and even their grave. Some of them even helped provide his final cross, as they will yours! But in the meantime, accept their assistance and bless them for it!
64. I HAVE BEEN A LITTLE CONCERNED ABOUT THE ATTITUDE OF SOME OF YOU TOWARDS SOME OF THESE PEOPLE: You're acting like some of Jesus' disciples did when they wanted Him to destroy someone who was using His Name—but in this case He rebuked them, and as good as said that he that was not against Him, was for Him; because there are no neutrals (Mk.9:34-41). If they're not actually against you, then they could be for you, because they certainly cannot be for and against you at the same time. So for God's Sake, stop cursing those who are for you, helping you, and doing the little they can, and sometimes a lot; just because they're not exactly like you, because they haven't gone all the way. Again I say‚ you don't curse the blind for their blindness‚ nor the lame for their lameness, nor a babe for its helplessness and ignorance.
65. COMFORT THE FEEBLE-MINDED, AND HIM THAT IS WEAK IN THE FAITH, RECEIVE YE, BUT NOT TO DOUBTFUL DISPUTATIONS (1Thes.5:14; Rom.14:1); and this is an obvious reference to these weak Christians. They make me sick, and they make God sick, enough to turn your stomach, like many hospital cases; but you don't curse them, or cast them out, or kill them for it: you put them somewhere they can be cared for‚ but certainly not in the frontline trenches. Maybe that's what the churches are for—a bunch of hospitals and nurseries for spiritual babies, perpetual stretcher cases that will never grow up, or get well!
66. BUT THEY MAY HAVE A HOUSE YOU CAN USE, A BUILDING, OR A FARM, OR INFLUENCE‚ or a fortune they can leave you for God's use when they die. So don't knock 'em; use 'em! Some of you are still being unwise along this line, and cursing everyone that's not one of us, which will only make enemies out of those who could have been friends, and who even were friends, until you began blasting them for not forsaking all immediately and following you.
67. NOTE THE WAY JESUS TREATED SOME OF THESE CASES: HE PUT THEM TO THE TEST‚ BUT WHEN THEY COULDN'T TAKE IT, HE DIDN'T BLAST THEM, curse them, and damn them to hell forever for not being just like the Twelve; but rather, He was sorry for them, even the rich, because they were missing a big part of the blessing, losing a reward, and possibly a crown. It's a high privilege to be one of the Twelve‚ or even one of the Seventy; and not everyone attains to such discipleship, but many are just little, lost wandering sheep, pitiful victims of the fiendishly wolfish religious system, so have pity! Use 'em!
68. WELL, I GUESS THAT'S A PRETTY GOOD START ON THE BROAD GENERAL CLASSIFICATIONS OF CHRISTIANS IN GENERAL, for the purpose of defining and analysing our own personnel, methods, and organisation. There are many Christians in the world, but most of them make very poor disciples, and are still babes in Christ‚ and always will be; so upon our most uncomely parts‚ we must bestow the greater care, sympathy, and patience!
69. BUT FOR OUR OWN INTIMATE DISCIPLES WE ARE GOING TO BE STRICT‚ EXPECT EVERYTHING‚ COMPLETE forsaking, 100 percent dedication, absolute loyalty, and full-time service. We are the hard core, the spearhead, the avant-garde of this last great spiritual Revolution We are cadre, the officers and leaders of it. After all, it's God's Revolution for all His people, and some of us must lead it‚ while others can only follow in our wake, like the "Jesus People," the "Jesus Movement‚" which we pioneered and set the example for. We are still far ahead of them, but don't curse them. Thank God they are following, even if only afar off‚ who, like Peter, weak and with little power, under the slightest pressure denied Him, as they will; but Jesus still loved him, and took him back in when he repented. So don't knock 'em; use 'em! How many times will I have to say that, before some of you get the point? Most of you have, thank God, but from some of your reports‚ some of you still don't savvy! Wake up!
WHEN TO BE NUMEROUS AND WHEN TO BE SMALL
70. BUT FOR OURSELVES, IT'S QUALITY, NOT QUANTITY; purity, not population; pneumatology not numbers; power‚ not populace; and leaders, not just sheep; disciples, not just church members; soldiers, not just civilians;—but don't forget that both are necessary. Don't be like most of us when we were soldiers during WW II, and scorn all those who are not in uniform. The army could not operate without the help of the civilian population. Each depends upon the other‚ and cannot do without each other. So Use 'em!
71. DURING THOSE EARLY DAYS OF THE EARLY CHURCH, THEY NEEDED NUMBERS TO GET STARTED, A BIG PUSH TO GET 'EM ROLLING, sensational publicity to make them popular‚ and a wave of fame to noise them abroad, as we have now. Their original Colony was immense, like some of ours have been, to make them known, strong‚ encouraged, basically trained and off to a head start, way out in front of the opposition before scattering for survival.
72. SO NOW YOU KNOW WHY, EVEN IF I NEVER FINISH THE DETAILS, WE MUST BREAK UP INTO SMALLER COLONIES, AND MORE WIDELY SCATTERED EVENTUALLY, if not now. Some of you jumped the gun recently and did it a little too soon‚ without sufficient preparation‚ training and planning, or consulting the general staff on the overall war; because at the moment, we need one or two large Colonies to impress the System with our size and appearance, which is all that counts with them, and that's the way they judge things. "Man looketh on the outward appearance," and we have to make it look good to become all things to all men, in order that we might win some! (1Sa.16:7; 1Cor.9:20-22).
73. ALSO, THE ORIGINAL CHRISTIANS PROBABLY WOULD HAVE ALL BEEN WIPED OUT IMMEDIATELY AFTER JESUS' DEATH IF THEY HADN'T BEEN SO NUMEROUS and looked so big and powerful, so they were practically telling the city what to do. This was to impress the System to leave them alone, for fear of the multitude, until they could get organised, taught, strengthened, grown up, and ready for the bigger battles ahead, from babes to big brothers‚ from raw recruits to seasoned soldiers. Then when they were ready for full-scale war, God scattered them throughout the world to salt the whole earth, and enlighten all mankind. Praise the Lord! Hallelujah! This is the beginning! Praise God!
74. WE, THE LAST CHURCH, ARE NOW RIDING OUR WAVE OF PUBLICITY AND POPULARITY, TO GIVE US TIME TO GROW IN STRENGTH AND NUMBERS, and increase our quality‚ organise our methods, produce our weapons, train our soldiers, and get them battle ready for the main war ahead, when we will be scattered in smaller groups throughout the whole world, like the Early Church, tough little, hardcore quality units, WHICH THEY CALL CHURCHES AND WE CALL COLONIES, both to get away from the evil connotation of the word "church" as it is used today, as well as to define our method of operation, which is actually the same as theirs, the "ecclesia‚" "the called–out ones," the "separated people," which we certainly are, in the same sense that they were‚ and hated by the System‚ as were they. They call us "dropouts" in our generation, and they don't like us, as then!
75. BUT IF WE DON'T HAVE AT LEAST ONE OR TWO LARGE COLONIES, AND START DISPERSING TOO SOON, OR BREAKING UP, AS THE SYSTEM CALLS IT, THEY'LL SAY WE'VE FAILED, like all the other communes, and that you see, it just doesn't work, as they've always claimed. So we still need to maintain one or two. Right now L.A. has been in the limelight, and should keep at least enough there to impress the System‚ finish that harvest‚ and be ready to pick up the pieces and run when the Crash comes. But prepare and send small teams now, to provide places in the wilderness to run to when the time comes! Amen?
76. TSC IS NOW SERVING AS OUR MAJOR HEADQUARTERS operation for production, processing‚ and distribution of supplies and weaponry for a large part of the army and these many new little Colonies, as well as training personnel to man these outposts. Every army needs some home base, and the Early Church used Jerusalem, then Antioch, then Ephesus‚ then Rome, then Germany, then England‚ and finally America, moving ever-westward‚ with and toward the major world population. WE, THE LAST CHURCH‚ ARE NOW MOVING IN REVERSE, SPREADING EASTWARD: first L.A., then Texas, now the East, and soon London, God willing—and God only knows where we'll go from there if we have time, so get ready! The move is on! We too, are spreading toward the world's major populations. And who knows? We may not only have to evangelise Europe‚ but also Africa, the Mid-East, Russia, India, and even China, if God opens the door—even under the Antichrist in Great Tribulation!
SUMMARY LIST OF THE IDEAL TEAM
77. RIGHT NOW WE'RE LEARNING HOW‚ AND WHO‚ AND WITH WHAT, AND WHERE—AND SOON WE'LL KNOW WHEN, Praise the Lord! Hallelujah! So get with it. There's not much time left! Amen? So we've dealt a lot in these lessons with methods, places, and personnel of these teams. The present lesson has had a lot to do with size and organisation. We've already told you what the Shepherd of each Colony should be like in one of our recent lessons, as well as what his wife should be like—his little secretary. What we said about secretaries should fit his wife, and she should be it if possible, or he might have to pick a new one—a new secretary, that is. I hear this has really gotten a lot of you wives on the ball‚ and some of you are really writing me letters like mad, to show you can do it! Hallelujah! That's the spirit! That's the way you oughtta be! Get with it, Girls, or you might lose it!—Your secretaryship, that is—all for the glory of God! Amen? Hallelujah! You gals are really getting on the ball. All of a sudden we've got more secretaries than we ever dreamed! More power to ya! This secretary-wife is really second in command, the Assistant Shepherd, the one who knows how to run everything in her husband's absence‚ or even when he's around and busy. As I said before, a good secretary always knows more about the business than the boss does, and only leaves the major decisions to him, relieves him of details, and defends him from others. (Mine says she tries her best!—And a lot of the rest of you seem to be trying harder, too! Good!)
78. NEXT, AFTER THE FIRST APOSTLE, PROPHET, AND TEACHER, WITH HIS LITTLE HELPER AND GOVERNOR, HIS SECRETARY-WIFE, the most important thing a team needs is the miracle of music—a good musician, to communicate its witness to this generation in a language it understands! OUR MESSAGE IN SONG IS ONE OF OUR MAIN MINISTRIES, AND IT CAN BE USED WHERE ALL ELSE WOULD FAIL. Shepherds and wives may have to double as musicians, if you have none, but it's better to have one; and he may be able to double with some of the other needed jobs, such as provisioning‚ mechanic-driver, cook, teacher.