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"MORE ON FAITH"--MO       July 1969       GP NO.T

(Transcribed & Edited by: Beriah & Beth Wire from an old TSC tape--our 1st Colony!)

© Copyright June, 1977 by the Children of God C.P. 748, 00100 Rome, Italy.

       1. WHEN I WENT TO VISIT MY COUSIN THE DOCTOR IN CALIFORNIA HE CHECKED MY EYES and he said, "You have unusually good eyes for your age--one of the most remarkable ranges of vision. You have a full 180-degree vision, what they call wide-angle vision." I can see a complete half circle. That's why my kids could never get away with anything.--They thought I had eyes in the back of my head.

       2. HE SAID, "BUT YOUR CORNEA IS LOSING ITS ELASTICITY AND YOU WILL PROBABLY NEED GLASSES before long"--which I eventually did. When it got to where I had to stand outside the phone booth to read the telephone number on the dial and my arm got so it wasn't long enough to read the newspaper, I decided I'd better get some glasses. I prayed about it for awhile and I guess I should have had greater faith maybe, I don't know. You can accuse me of lack of faith and you're probably right, although I've had great faith for other things more serious.

       3. SOMETIMES THESE LITTLE THINGS THAT WE CAN DO SOMETHING ABOUT, if we can buy glasses, it's pretty hard for us to have faith for them. Of course, if you're as broke as some might be right now and you can't buy glasses, why, you ought to be in a good position to have faith. I finally went and bought myself a pair of glasses. I went down to a dime store and paid a dollar 75 for a pair of glasses to read with and they worked pretty good for awhile, until I began to find out that I wasn't seeing signs at a great distance in driving. I decided for the sake of safety it would be a good idea to get a pair of glasses, a prescription, which I did, thank the Lord!

       4. NOW IF YOU WANT TO ACCUSE ME OF LITTLE FAITH, well, you're probably right, at least on that particular score. On the other hand God has given me great faith for some things which were more important. Maybe I just didn't seem to have the faith for that because it's natural and normal at my age.

       5. I MIGHT HAVE GREATER FAITH FOR YOU AT YOUR AGE TO BE HEALED of eye trouble because you shouldn't have it because you're young enough to have normal eyes. But maybe you're just born with poor eyes, born with poor teeth; some people are--they inherit some of these weaknesses from their parents. I thank God I inherited good teeth and good eyes from my parents, as well as a lot of the things more valuable in the Spirit.

       6. GOD MAY GIVE YOU SOMETHING BUT IT'S UP TO YOU TAKE CARE OF IT. I didn't know if you ever noticed in the Book of Genesis where He put Adam and Eve in the Garden, but He didn't tend and keep it for them. Did you know they were put there for a purpose, did you ever notice?--To dress it and keep it, tend it and take care of it.

       7. KIND OF LIKE THE OLD FARMER THAT WAS SHOWING OFF HIS FARM TO THE PREACHER that he'd carved out of the wilderness and he was sort of bragging about what a beautiful place it was and what a good farm he had and he worked hard on it. The preacher said, "My, this certainly is a beautiful place the Lord has given you." The preacher wanted to emphasis the fact that God had given it to him. Well, the old farmer, like so many farmers, a little tersely said, "Yes, but you should have seen it when the Lord had it."

       8. WELL, HE WAS ABOUT RIGHT--I MEAN GOD PUTS YOU HERE TO SORT OF IMPROVE ON HIS CREATION AND TAKE CARE OF IT, DRESS IT, KEEP IT, AND GOD LEAVES SOMETHING FOR YOU TO DO. He doesn't do it all for you! You have to dress yourself in the morning; you've got to get up, brush your teeth, wash your face, shove food into it, go to the bathroom.--He didn't do everything for you.

       9. SO MAYBE MY FAITH IS JUST A LITTLE WEAK; as long as I could buy glasses I went and bought glasses. He raised Lazarus from the dead, but He didn't roll away the stone. All I can say to you when you ask me questions about should I trust God for my eyesight and so on and so on, is what Jesus said, "According to thy faith be it done unto you."

       10. "ACCORDING TO THY FAITH BE IT DONE UNTO YOU." IF YOU'VE GOT THE FAITH FOR IT GOD WILL DO IT. AND FAITH IS NOT JUST HOPING BELIEVING OR SOMEWHAT EXPECTING, BUT FAITH IS KNOWING.--ABSOLUTELY KNOWING!

       11. FAITH HAS LOST ITS MEANING TO US TODAY. Today the word faith means kind of a hazy vague belief of some kind in some thing or other; the word faith doesn't really mean much. It meant more tan that in God's Word. But it doesn't mean much today to most Christians. It is the substance, it is the hupostasis, it is the title deed! I told you that before, didn't I?

       12. --ABOUT THAT WORD TRANSLATED "SUBSTANCE" IN THE 11TH CHAPTER OF HEBREWS. When they translated the New Testament from the Greek nearly 400 years ago they were still puzzled by the word "hupostasis". If you want to write down the transliteration for the Greek-you can't write Greek, so I'll put it in English--H-U-P-O-S-T-A-S-I-S--hupostasis, which is the word in the 11th chapter of Hebrews translated "substance". Now they knew from the way this word "hupostasis" was used in some Greek literature and so on that it apparently was something fairly substantial, pretty sure, some very sure evidence of some kind, so they translated it "substance". In Greek classical literature not ordinarily using business terminology it was very difficult to find this word or what it meant.

       13. BUT JUST A FEW YEARS AGO archaeologists uncovered the burned ruins of an old inn in northern Israel. There they found a small iron chest containing apparently the valuable papers of some Roman noblewoman who had been travelling in Israel at that time, checking up on her various land holdings, property that she owned in Israel. So in this little chest they found most of the papers labelled with a big title "HUPOSTASIS" at the top of almost every paper. The business of the day was done in Greek because this was the worldwide language of business and culture, even though the Romans were ruling the world.

       14. ALL OF THESE PAPERS WHICH HAD THE TITLE "HUPOSTASIS" in big letters across the top were, guess what?--Title deeds to her properties! But this was long after the King James was translated, so they didn't have the advantage of that discovery.

       15. IF YOU WANT TO TURN TO HEBREWS THE 11TH CHAPTER, THE WORD THERE "SUBSTANCE" IS JUST AS GOOD AND CONVEYS THE MESSAGE and I am quite sure it's sufficient, but if you want to make it even clearer and more explicit you can write above that word "substance," in parentheses, "title." Now faith is what?--The Title Deed!

       16. IN FACT YOU COULD PUT IT THIS WAY: "NOW FAITH IS THE TITLE DEED TO THINGS HOPED FOR, THE EVIDENCE OF THINGS NOT SEEN." This Roman woman perhaps had never seen her properties she'd bought in Israel, but she knew she had 'em and she could prove her ownership even though she had never seen them.

       17. THEY GAVE ME A CAR ONCE, I got the title through the mail. Though I'd never seen the car, never driven it, didn't know what it was like, I knew I owned a car. I knew I had it because I had the title in my had!

       18. IF YOU'VE GOT THE FAITH, EVEN THOUGH YOU HAVEN'T SEEN THE ANSWER YET, IF YOU HAVE REAL FAITH YOU'VE GOT THE TITLE DEED TO IT! It's yours; your name's written on it and you will see it eventually--that's faith! You know you've got the title in your hands. Praise God! It's done! The 11th chapter of Hebrews, the first verse--don't forget that if you want real faith for healing, for finances, for miracles, for protection, for your memory work, your class lesson, for souls.

       19. REAL FAITH KNOWS AND IT HAPPENS; IT NEVER FAILS! But sometimes, I want to warn you, some people throw away their glasses because of pride, not faith. They're ashamed to confess that they don't have the faith but they want to try to prove that they have; so even though they haven't got the faith for God to really heal them they stomp on their contacts or throw their glasses in an ocean. I'm sorry to say that we've got several folks in our Revolution who are still going around almost as blind as a bat because they got smart with the Lord and threw away their glasses before they had the faith for healing.

       20. I WANT TO WARN YOU RIGHT NOW YOU BETTER HAVE THE FAITH YOURSELF.--God's going to except it of you as real Revolutionaries for Jesus and you're not going to be able to lean on somebody else's faith. Since you're going to be a leader and a teacher and an officer in this outfit, and you're going to be able to instruct many, you're going to have to know how to do it yourself--and if you haven't got it then you're not going to be any leader. So don't expect somebody else to have it for you.

       21. I HAVE FOUND THAT I HAVE LESS SUCCESS IN PRAYING FOR THE SICKNESSES OF PEOPLE WHO HAVE BEEN CHRISTIANS A LONG TIME and have known about the Lord's healing for many years than I have for some of you babes who never heard it before and just child-like expect God to do miracles. These other Christians, so-called Christians, have been Christians so long and have been unbelieving so long and have so many hang-ups and are hung up on the church and churchianity and everything else so long that it's harder to get them to have faith.--Ask Oral Roberts or any other of these faith-healers, so-called, he says

       22. HE HAS GREATER SUCCESS WITH PEOPLE WHO KNOW LITTLE OR NOTHING ABOUT THE DEEP SPIRITUAL LIFE, like Catholics or raw heathen, in praying for them to be healed 'cause they just accept child-like. But Christians can think of all kinds of excuses, like me, "Well, Lord, I'm getting old and my eyes are naturally getting kind of weak, so ..."--Savvy?

       23. DON'T DO IT BECAUSE SOMEBODY TELLS YOU TO AND ACCORDING TO THEIR FAITH.--That's one thing you can't do! You gotta have the faith for it yourself, unless you're such a babe that you just don't know anything and can't do anything and it's an emergency situation. Sometimes God will give them vicarious faith, and in that case, strangely enough, it would be like faith in you--they just have faith in you.

       24. THE CATHOLIC LADY THAT LIVED NEXT DOOR TO OUR CHURCH BUILDING that I built with my own hands in Arizona came rushing over to me one day, weeping, with her little five year old son in her arms, writhing in agony, screaming, holding his side--acute attack of appendicitis. I've been through that myself; I know what it's like.

       25. BUT SHE CAME AND BROUGHT THE CHILD TO ME BECAUSE SHE HAD FAITH.--Oh, she had faith in the Lord, but for some reason or other, because we prayed for the sick and the Lord had healed many of them, she sort of had faith in me--that's vicarious faith. God in His mercy honoured it because I represented God to her.

       26. TO HER I WAS LIKE GOD OR HIS REPRESENTATIVE, like a priest. I was a priest, a prayer priest, in a sense, on that particular occasion. She cried and asked me to pray for her little boy. I laid hands on the boy, instantly--just like that (claps)--he stopped crying, he relaxed and went sound to sleep and was completely healed!

       27. NOW THAT WAS VICARIOUS FAITH because she herself didn't know much about the Lord's healing, the prayer for the sick, but she just heard that we prayed for 'em.

       28. THAT'S ALL THAT STARTED MY FOLKS' GREAT WORK in Miami, Florida, that grew to be a great tabernacle there. That old building they had was one of the roughest, old, ricketiest-looking things you ever saw, before the denomination took it over and dressed it up. It had a sawdust floor and rough wooden rafters, a big old tin roof, just about the worst, cheapest kind of building you can possibly have to house 5000 people in a meeting, and it was packed out every night for months, years on end. Hundreds and hundreds, thousands saved, hundreds healed, miracles, but the whole beginning of that Work was one little incident.

       29. WE WERE UP IN CANADA clear up on Hudson's Bay, and the president of our denomination came to my folks and asked us if we would please take over that Miami work--Miami, Florida--we'd never even heard of such a place! It was just a small town then, in 1924. He said, "We've heard some evil reports about the Pastor, about some things that are going on down there, and we're going to have to replace him. So far he's refused to leave and let somebody else have it. We feel perhaps you folks are strong enough to go there and handle the situation." One of those problem situations in which you have to be a trouble-shooter with false leadership, a very difficult situation to get into.

       30. SOME OF THESE OLD STORIES MAY ENCOURAGE YOUR FAITH because you may go through situations like this. We're going to talk to you a little about faith because if you're going to pioneer a work you're going to have to have some. Praise God!

       31. WE JUST ARRIVED there and the dear brother who was the assistant pastor, sweet man, didn't know we were flat broke. My mother and dad would present things to us kids just like we do to you, just like I did to my young folks when as a family we were in evangelistic work. We reared them right, trained them right, to follow the Lord and have the Holy Spirit.

       32. SO WE'D PRAY ABOUT THINGS AND GET AN ANSWER FROM THE LORD. She'd asked us, "Now which do you want--groceries or do you want to go down to the Express Office and pay that money we've got left to get your summer clothes?" We had had them shipped down there because we couldn't carry everything with us. Of course, we were all in these heavy woollen winter clothes from up there in cold Canada and we were sweating it out down in Miami. At that moment I guess our stomachs must have been full, so of course, we all hollered, "Clothes! Clothes! We want our summer clothes!" The next day wasn't so easy: We had the summer clothes but nothing to eat.

       33. SO THAT MORNING WE WERE IN PRAYER, we had six cents, and were asking the Lord, "Now, Lord, You know we're Thy Servants and we need money for groceries." They'd given us a little apartment, but we didn't have any money for groceries yet, and the assistant pastor came in and said, "I was in prayer this morning and the Lord told me you folks needed some money for groceries, so here's ten dollars."--Ten dollars in those days would go about as far as fifty today, just like handing us fifty dollars, enough to carry us through the first couple of weeks!

       34. THE NEXT THING THAT HAPPENED was that Sunday morning we went to church.--I thought in those days you could still go to church, now I know you can't go to church because you are the church, you can take the church to the building. This preacher that was misbehaving didn't want us there anyhow, but here we were. He knew the president of the company had sent us, so he didn't dare deny us the privilege of speaking, and finally he looked over and said, "Well, they're here. I don't know anything more about them than you do." So he sat down then; that was his introduction to the evangelist! We've just about been introduced like that sometimes, as the Revolutionaries for Jesus, on some of these church platforms: "Well, they're here. I didn't ask for them, but somebody said they were supposed to testify."

       35. LET ME TELL YOU, WHEN THAT HAPPENS YOU'D BETTER PRAY LIKE MY MOTHER DID THEN--THAT GOD WILL VINDICATE YOU. She lifted up her heart to the Lord, she was the prophetess of God, and she said, "Lord, vindicate Thy Handmaiden." To vindicate literally means defend and cause to conquer, in other words, prove that they're the right ones.

       36. SO JUST WHILE SHE WAS PRAYING THAT PRAYER, her eyes were still shut, the front door of the little chapel burst open and a woman rushed down the aisle with a little child in her arms--a child of about three months old. Now the woman was not part of the church women or anything. I think she was a Catholic, I don't know what, but apparently not too familiar with this type of a church. She said,

       37. "WOMAN OF GOD, I HEAR YOU'RE A WOMAN OF FAITH AND YOU PRAY FOR THE SICK. Would you please pray for my little baby? It has paralysed eyelids; it's never opened its eyes of its own accord. The doctors say that the eyes are very good eyes, but it can't hold its eyes open." My mother took that beautiful little baby in her arms and looked down at it and she said, "Lord God, here's Your chance. I can't do it but You can!" And she prayed for that child and instantly its eyes opened and it never had that trouble again!

       38. A MIGHTY MIRACLE BEFORE THE WHOLE CONGREGATION.--They all saw it happen and His Handmaiden was vindicated and her enemy was put to shame.

       39. WELL, WHEN THESE THINGS WERE NOISED ABROAD THE MULTITUDES GATHERED TOGETHER, as God's Word says. That night there were so many people there they couldn't get in the building. Soon they had a big tent that held 500, but that couldn't hold them; a tent that held 2000, but that couldn't hold them; so they finally broke down and went the way of all flesh and built a building that could hold 5000! God did use it, at least used them there.

       40. IF ALL THE CHRISTIANS HAD BEEN OUT PREACHING WHAT THEY OUGHT TO PREACH they wouldn't have to have buildings that size or crowds that size; but when He's got so few workers able to preach what they ought to preach, well, He's sometimes got to have pretty big crowds. Jesus ministered sometimes to large crowds, more often to small groups and individuals.

       41. OVER 70% OF JESUS' MINISTRY WAS EITHER TO INDIVIDUALS OR GROUPS OF TWO OR THREE--small groups of people, or just His twelve disciples, very seldom to the crowds. Do you have any confidence in the value of the individual?

       42. SO THAT'S HOW THE GREAT WORK IN MIAMI STARTED.--It was a great Work of the Lord which really reaped that harvest there when it was ripe, just before the Great Crash came.

       43. SO GOD SOMETIMES TURNS THE WHEELS OF HIS OMNIPOTENCE ON INFINITESIMALLY SMALL THINGS, and that Work started on six cents and one healing and a little woman who had faith.

       44. GIRLS, HAVE YOU GOT WHAT IT TAKES? Never underestimate the power of a woman in the Holy Ghost, no male or female in Christ Jesus, praise God! I beat you down some nights, girls, especially when I'm talking about marriage, but when it comes to the church, the Work of God and the Spirit, you've got just as much right as anybody, praise the Lord? That's one place where maybe you can even pass him up--if you're really yielded, surrendered and used of God. You may not get the credit for it and he may still beat you down at home, but the Lord can use you in the ministry.

       45. THERE'RE SEVERAL METHODS OF PRAYING FOR THE SICK, and there're gifts of healing. Some people have more faith for certain kinds of diseases than others; some people have faith for healing one way and don't even have the gifts of healing; some people can pray for people en masse; some people can call them out of the audience; some people lay hands on them; some people can know what's wrong with them--all kinds of different operations of the Holy Spirit. But it's God that gives the increase! He's the One that does the healing! Praise the Lord!

       46. THE PROVISION IS THERE FOR YOU! There are lots of Scriptures in Grandmother's books on healing, all the way from the Old Testament references: "I am the Lord that healeth thee", "I will lay none of these afflictions upon thee, that I have laid upon Egyptians: for I am the Lord that healeth thee." But it also says there: "If thou shalt keep My commandments." (Ex.15:26).

       47. SALVATION IS A GIFT, the Holy Spirit's a gift, but healing, though it's a gift, you have to earn it by obedience. You have to, not maybe earn it, but you've got to be worthy of it. If you want to keep it you'd better obey--like a loan, like living on borrowed time: When you're healed you better stay close to the Lord and do the things that He healed you for.

       48. YOU'D BETTER USE THAT STRENGTH THAT GOD GIVES YOU IN HEALING FOR HIS GLORY, or He can take it away from you. This is not so with salvation or the Holy Spirit--those are a gift, pure gift. I don't know whether I should put it that way, because I've had a lot of healing I didn't deserve.--But it's almost as though you have to be worthy or earn it or obey to get it. Healing--that's a little extra bonus from the Lord; It's a little extra blessing, kind of like finances.--If you think you can just live as you please and get God to support you, you're mistaken!

       49. YOU'D BETTER OBEY THE LORD AND STAY IN THE CENTRE OF HIS WILL AND DO WHAT GOD WANTS YOU TO DO--IF YOU EXPECT TO LIVE BY FAITH and God to take care of you, you understand? All of these things we're giving in preparation for the work that you have to do. Now you've already learned many of these things. These are a few little stories to illustrate it and give you a few pointers from His Word. This is what we believe and this is what we practise, thank God, and we couldn't afford to live like this if we didn't.

       50. HAVE YOU EVER NOTICED HOW LITTLE SICKNESS, ACCIDENT OR INJURY WE HAVE IN OUR MIDST?--A miracle of God. Most camps have a full-time nurse or doctor on hand and the clinic is always busy with sickness and injury and accidents and all kinds of stuff. But God is good to us, God is merciful and miraculously protects us because He knows we love Him and we're trying to do the best we can and we ask Him for it, and we expect it, we pray for it. You better keep remembering to give God the Glory! Don't go rushing off in your own strength, in your own impatience, and forget to pray!

       51. DO YOU REALISE HOW MANY VEHICLES WE HAVE HAD ON THE ROAD WITHOUT ANY SERIOUS ACCIDENTS? One guy came out of his farm and looked at my car--I had just gotten to Pennsylvania in an old beat-up taxi-cab with worn-out tires. He said, "You came here all they way from California? I'd be afraid to go around the block in that thing!" I'm telling you, that was a miracle of God! I've never heard a car go that long with a motor making that much racket; sounded like it was falling to pieces almost every revolution. Several hundred miles we drove that way and it went bang bang bang and plop right on the spot where it was to spend the next three weeks.

       52. OUR CARS ARE A MIRACLE, OUR BODIES ARE A MIRACLE, OUR WORK IS A MIRACLE! Many have been a hopeless case but the Lord patched them up and they're still putt-putting along. They run purely on the Power of God. I remember on my first pastorage somebody was going to give us a washing machine that had broken down and they said, "Oh, I wouldn't give them that--it's broken down." And the other lady says, "Oh, go ahead and give it to them. Everything they've got runs on prayer anyhow!" So I tinkered with it a little bit and last time I saw it, it was still running!

       53. HOSEA WAS DRIVING DOWN THE STREET in Washington, D.C., with this big sign on the back: "Repent or Perish"--the way he drives, driving along and dreaming like he so often does, wandering all over the street, turning right turns from the left lane. So one can driver screamed at him as he passed him, blowing his horn, "Drive or you'll perish!"

       54. BOY, I'LL TELL YOU, SOME DRIVERS THAT WE HAVE IT'S A MIRACLE THEY'VE SURVIVED. It's nothing but the miracle-working power of God the way He's spared us! I've had a piece of tube that big showing through the fabric of my tire. We pulled into the filling station to get gas and the guy says, "You've been driving on this thing?" I guess the angel was hanging on that keeping it from getting worn. We've had people run out of gas just pray and kept on diving on, haven't had a nickel! Praise God!

       55. HAVE YOU HEARD ABOUT THE GUY THAT RODE OFF THAT TIME FROM HIS CHURCH WITH ALL THE WIRES CUT IN HIS CAR? The boy that told me was in his 20s. He was greasing my car and he was a Christian and I asked him how he got saved. He says, "You really want to know? Well, I'll tell you, I was scared into it." I said, "What do you mean?" He says, "Well, this evangelist at our little church was always praising the Lord; we called him 'Hallelujah'; he was always praising the Lord about everything. No matter what would happen he was always praising the Lord. We boys said, 'We're going to fix his wagon so he won't say hallelujah!'" And so while he was in church that Sunday morning preaching they went out and cut all the wires in his car, cut every one of them, all the wires to all the cylinders, ignition wires--cut 'em! He said, "We hid around the corner of the church. We were going to have a big laugh at him when he finally started cussing when he found the wires cut. We figured, 'He's going to cuss on this one.'" Like most preachers he was the last one there, nobody left to push him or anything--but of course, that wouldn't have done any good anyhow. He tried and tried starting it, turned it over and over.

       56. OF COURSE, NO CAR WILL RUN WITHOUT IGNITION WIRES.--I mean no wires to carry the spark to the cylinders, The boy told me, "He said, 'Now, Lord, I'm Your Servant, this is Your car and I've got to go to the next meeting and I've got so much time to get there, and I don't know what's wrong with this car, Lord, and there's nobody here to help me. You're just going to have to fix it, Lord. In Jesus' name I command this car to go!' He turned on the key--brooom--and off he roared!"

       57. THAT IS A TRUE STORY! The boy said, "I was about twelve years of age and I nearly fainted in a dead faint because I knew there was no car in the world that could run with the wires cut. We felt the presence of the angel of the Lord so close we were scared stiff--either we were going to drop dead or he was going to smite us down with the sword of His judgment! We felt like the same angel that had healed the car was standing there about ready to slay us and, man we hit the sawdust. Let me tell you, that night in church we took Jesus; the whole gang got saved!" Just think how busy it must have kept that angel keeping the timing; you mechanics understand what I mean--shooting the juice to each cylinder just at the right time!

       58. GOD CAN DO MIRACLES! HE EXPECTS YOU TO DO WHAT YOU CAN DO, BUT GOD HELPS THOSE WHO CANNOT HELP THEMSELVES. He's not going to feed you or wash your face for you, shove food in your mouth and wash your teeth, roll away the stone, but He'll heal you and He'll supply the food.--He'll let you cook it usually. Of course, there was one prophet He had the birds deliver it every morning and every evening--both bread and flesh. That's why my father said you should only eat twice a day--if it was good enough for Elijah it's good enough for you.

       59. I HAVE NEVER SEEN SO MANY MIRACLES, honestly as I have seen since we have been doing this Work.--So God must love you and must be interested in getting the work done. That story reminds me about the atheist who heard the old lady praying for bread and he threw it in the window so he could make fun of her. When she started thanking the Lord for it he said, "It wasn't God at all, it was me!" She said, "Thank You Jesus, thank You Jesus! You sent it, even if the Devil did bring it!"

       60. GOD CAN DO ANYTHING IF YOU THRUST HIM, IF YOU'RE OBEDIENT. Now here's the connection between obedience and faith: It's pretty hard to have faith if you're disobedient. -- In fact it's virtually impossible to believe God for anything if you're disobedient. But if you know you're doing your best to please Him and obeying Him you can expect almost anything. God will do almost anything for you, some of the most amazing things you could possibly imagine! I could tell you some things you probably wouldn't even believe that God has done for me--just because I love Him and am trying my best to please Him, obey Him and do the job.

       61. HE'S DONE SOME THINGS FOR ME THAT YOU PROBABLY WOULDN'T EVEN APPROVE OF. My dad used to say to my mother, "You're the Lord's spoiled child; He pampers you!" Because she really loved the Lord and she did everything, made all kinds of sacrifices, in touch with the Lord and really served the Lord and really obeyed Him. He gave her anything she wanted, anything she asked the Lord for, her heart's desire, I told you about the time she stuck that quarter in the slot machine and got the jackpot. A lot of things you probably wouldn't approve of--I wanted to see this or that, or go some place or have some thing that maybe you might have thought was a luxury or a little unnecessary.

       62. BUT MAYBE AFTER YOU'RE SERVED THE LORD AS MANY YEARS AS I HAVE He might even supply a few things exceedingly abundant above all you could ask or think, pressed down, shaken together and running over--more than you need, little luxuries, comforts.

       63. COME ON, LET'S FACE IT!--YOU'VE GOT STUFF RIGHT NOW YOU DON'T REALLY NEED. The Lord was good to you and gave it to you because you pleased Him. In the contract He only promised us food and clothing.--He only guaranteed food and clothing, all your needs according to His riches in Glory. You're only guaranteed your needs, but if you please Him He usually throws in a few little odds and ends with it just to keep you happy.

       64. NOW A FATHER OF A HOME IS OBLIGATED TO SUPPORT HIS FAMILY and supply their needs and give them food, clothing and shelter--the Law will even get after him if he doesn't. But if he really loves his children and they please him and obey him, he will often come home and bring them the little extras, a little extra gift and toys and extra presents.

       65. NOW THE STAGE YOU'RE IN RIGHT NOW IS PROBABLY GOING TO BE THE ROCK-BOTTOM STAGE because first of all He sees what you're going to do with a nickel before He starts giving you quarters or half-dollars or dollars or maybe a hundred or even a thousand. He wants to see if He can trust you with nothing before He gives you something. If you're faithful in a few things He'll make you ruler over many. The Lord's going to wait to see if He can trust you with the necessities before He trusts you with any luxuries.

       66. HE SELDOM EVER TAKES ANYTHING AWAY FROM YOU BUT WHAT HE GIVES YOU BACK SOMETHING BETTER. The first car I had was an old Ford and now I'm driving a vehicle that cost originally $10,000 and they're worth $15,000 this year. I use it for the Glory of God and have to have it for the work I do on the road; it's better than riding around in a Cadillac. We can eat, sleep, go to the bathroom, everything in this vehicle, and can house a lot of people in it besides. It's an expensive vehicle, but we didn't pay that much for it, thank the Lord! (A Dodge Motor Home.)

       67. IF HE CAN TRUST YOU WITH LITTLE THINGS, fine. When we started out we started out with an old Ford car, one of the first Ford V-8's, and the first trailer we had was a little 14-foot affair; it only slept four people, and as the family grew and as we grew in the Lord's Work and grew in faith, why, God started supplying us bigger trailers and more equipment as we had need of it. And He will for you too. You don't start with a Dodge mobile home, maybe only a tent!

       68. NOW SOME PEOPLE HAVE GRANDIOSE IDEAS OF HOW GOD'S SUPPOSED TO SUPPLY YOUR NEEDS: You ought to be rolling around in the very best and have the finest and the best-looking and the most expensive and so on, "Nothing is too good for God's servant." I agree that nothing is too good for you, but it might not be good for you. It might minister to your pride instead of your humility.

       69. TED BECKETT WALKED INTO OUR CRUISER ONE DAY AND SAID, "Oh, you don't have to be rolling around the country in this old beat-up battered piece of junk."--He even thought our cruiser was a 'beat-up' thing.--"You ought to have brand new. Here's a thousand dollars on a new one." Well we thought, "I don't know, maybe we ought to buy a new one." So we went and priced them and found out we had to go in debt at that, even in trade we'd have to go way in debt and 300-dollar-a-month payments and hundreds of dollars of insurance and a lot of finances and blah blah blah, and maybe I didn't have the faith for the rest of them.

       70. SO I LOOKED AROUND THE OLD CRUISER AND THOUGHT, "WOW, LORD, I'M HAPPY HERE, What's the matter with this thing anyhow? After all, it may not look so fancy and people may not be impressed that I'm rich, but I've done a lot of work on this thing. I've got it the way I like it now and everything--little knickknacks and this, that and the other, and it takes a lot of living to make a house a home, as Edgar A. Guest said in an old poem he wrote about that, and we've got a lot of things here and there." I looked at the new ones and man, they were streamlined and bright and shiny but almost no place to store anything. They had the looks and class but they weren't as suitable for our purposes as the one we've got.

       71. SO I TURNED AROUND AND USED THE THOUSAND DOLLARS TO HELP OTHER PEOPLE and to get Ho's little camper--so now instead of one we've got two. Ted Beckett got so mad at me for that that he never spoke to me for a couple of years because I didn't go out and buy a new Dodge mobile home, I went and bought a camper for other workers instead.

       72. SO YOU SEE, GOD HAS WAYS OF DOING THINGS THAT AREN'T ALWAYS OUR WAY. There are certain people hung up on certain doctrines of affluence--that no Christian should be poor, that no Christian should be afflicted, no Christian should be sick, should ever be unpopular, that you should have perfect wealth, perfect health, perfect popularity if you're a Christian.

       73. FOR SOME REASON OR OTHER I DON'T SEEM TO FIND THAT IN HERE about the Apostle Paul. Somehow or another Jesus didn't seem to quite fit that pattern and His dirty, barefooted, long-robed, long-haired, long-bearded, hippie disciples: and I figure if Paul hadn't quite made that affluent society, why, I sure don't rate it. Although I must say I think the Lord sometimes is a bit better to us than He was to the poor Apostle Paul--maybe that's why he'll probably get more glory and reward.

       74. SO GOD IS NOT GOING TO BLESS YOU WITH THE BEST TO BEGIN WITH. I slept in my station wagon, as I told you, for a year before I got that vehicle. So He may see how He can trust you with your station wagon or jalopy before He gives you anything better. Some of you, I think, have already made the grade, so it's time for God to give you something better, praise the Lord! One preacher I knew said, "Lord, give me a car, I need a car, I'm desperate for a car, Lord--any old car!" That's exactly what he got! He said, "Next time I prayed for a good car and got it!"

       75. GOD WILL GIVE YOU WHAT YOU ASK FOR: HE'S VERY DEFINITE, BE DEFINITE WITH THE LORD! He says, "Command thou Me." He'll give you what you ask for, and certainly what you have the faith for! That's the way the Lord blesses if you trust Him, if you please Him, if you'll follow Him, if you obey Him, if you're doing what He wants you to do and getting the work accomplished that He wants you to accomplish. (Isaiah 45:11)

       76. BUT NOW, WATCH OUT--SOMETIMES MATERIAL BLESSINGS CAN BE A SNARE and a little trap of the devil, and the devil can heap them on you if you just kind of do a little compromise here or there. Naaman the healed leper, healed by the true God Jehovah, said, "Lord, forgive me now--I've got to go back to my job. Now, Lord, You know I've got to go back in there and worship in the Temple of Rimmon or I'd lose it, because the King worships Rimmon; he doesn't worship Jehovah. Lord, please pardon Thy servant as I go into the Temple of Rimmon, the King leaning on my arm." (2Kings 5:18.)

       77. AND YOU NEVER HEAR ANYTHING MORE ABOUT NAAMAN AFTER THAT! Well, he's mentioned once in the New testament--that's about all. A couple of guys in Damascus might have been sitting out on the curbstone discussing Naaman's healing and one of them could have said to the other one, "Well, now I understand that Naaman went down to Israel and he got healed by that God Jehovah." And the other guy could have said, "Oh, no! I'm sure it must have been the god Rimmon because see, there he's going into the Temple of Rimmon right now." Who got the glory?

       78. WATCH OUT ABOUT COMPROMISE. Watch out about any compromise or pulling your punches for advantage, for finances, for protection, for safety, for anything. Be faithful to the message; be faithful to the method; be faithful to the Word; be faithful to the Voice of God; be faithful to His Revolution, the particular ministry He's called you to--be loyal! Of all the requirements required of anybody in anybody's army, it's what?--Loyalty! He may not be the best officer in the world: he may not have the qualifications that somebody else has; but if he's loyal you can trust him!

       79. MY BROTHER WAS A PH.D., he had a gorgeous voice; he was big and handsome, brilliant mind, college president, but now he's bankrupt, broken in health, lost his family, and a miserable failure to God. He had everything, but he failed God. I had little or nothing, but I obeyed the Lord. Of course, he looks at what I'm doing today and he still thinks I belong, as he said, "to the underworld of religion," the dregs of society. Praise God! I suppose they looked at Jesus and His motley crew and said the same thing, or St. Francis and his motley crew and said the same thing, or Paul and his motley crew and said the same thing. How low can you get?--The lowest of the low!

       80. LOYALTY IS THE PRIME REQUIREMENT. I don't care how gifted, how talented, how artistic, how cultured, how beautiful, how strong, how educated you are; I don't care what you've got; if you're not 100% loyal, God can't use you--He can't trust you! If He can't trust you with what He's given you, He can't use you.--It's got to belong 100% to God or He can't use you.

       81. SO I'D RATHER HAVE THE LITTLE SQUIRT THAT'S GOT LITTLE OR NOTHING but he's always Johnnie-on-the-job. When you want help, he jumps when you snap your fingers and he does what he's told to do even if he doesn't understand it or why, he just does it because you said so and he's got faith in you and he's got loyalty and he's obedient. The big guy thinks he knows everything and he's a little smarter than you are and, well, you don't necessarily have to do it that way.

       82. THESE LITTLE THINGS ARE VERY IMPORTANT TO THE LORD, how you handle the small things. "Despise not the day of small things", the Bible says. It's important that you be faithful in a few things." You say, "Oh, I can't stoop to washing dishes and floors and mopping and cooking and things.--I want a big job!" Let me tell you right now, that's a big job, and this army couldn't do without it, and nobody's too good for it! The people who are going to get bigger jobs are the ones that we find can be trusted with sweeping the floor properly or washing the dishes or running an errand, do you understand? We're not going to give you big things to do until we find out you can be trusted to do the little things.

       83. I WANT TO TELL YOU RIGHT NOW, WE'RE HAVING A PROBLEM WITH A CERTAIN SITUATION OF SOMEBODY THAT DIDN'T WORK THEIR WAY UP FROM THE RANKS, from scratch, and now the weaknesses are beginning to show up. They didn't start at the bottom and finish the course and get knocked around and tried and proven first; they started at the top and now that weakness is showing itself that they weren't thoroughly indoctrinated, that they weren't thoroughly brainwashed. They weren't tried and proven and tested as to their loyalty to the message and the methods of the Revolution, and now we're feeling it. So you see, God's method is best: Start from the bottom. Here's an old saying for you that's very true; this is Scriptural if not Scripture.

       84. "GOD'S WAY UP IS DOWN." Okay now, give me a good Scripture for that. There's a lot of Scripture about "the first shall be last, the last shall be first", "humble thyself under the mighty hand of God and in due time thou shalt be highly exalted." (Mt.20:16 & 1Pt.5:6.) Proverbs 15:33 and a lot of Scriptures about being humbled before God exalts you. You have to be broken! God's ways up is down! The best place to start is at the bottom!

       85. JUST REMEMBER: "FAITH IS THE TITLE DEED to things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen!"--Heb.11.1--And "without faith it is impossible to please God!"--Heb.11:6. So don't think you can get away with not having it! Jesus said, "O ye of little faith! Wherefore dost thou doubt?" (Mt.14:31.)

       86. SO HOW DO YOU GET SUCH FAITH? "Faith cometh by hearing the Word of God!"--Rom.10:17.--Hear and read the Word!--The future is as bright as the promises of God!

Copyright (c) 1998 by The Family