HomeARC ML 1241
WORLD SERIES!--CHAPTER 1!--By Father David DFO 1241 14/12/81
--Introduction: The Future of the World!
1. (DAD SINGS:)
"HE'S GOT THE WHOLE WORLD IN HIS HANDS!
He's got the whole World in His hands!"
PTL! Hallelujah! TYJ! Amen, amen! GBY all, how are you? It looks like about half of you are still in the nuclear North while the other half are safely down South. I know that because I've been looking into my crystal globe lately, & according to what I see here, half of you are down here where you ought to be somewhere, but the other half are still way up here in the dangerous nuclear North instead of the safer South. Well, anyhow, PTL! (Dad sings:)
"He's got the whole World in His hands!
He's got the whole World in His hands!
He's got the whole World in His hands,
He's got the whole World in His hands!"
Amen? PTL? Hallelujah? TYJ? So don't worry, no matter where you are, you're in His hands & He'll take care of you somehow or another. He'll either take care of you or take you, whichever, PTL!
2. BUT WE NEED TO HAVE A LITTLE TALK WITH YOU ABOUT A FEW VERY IMPORTANT THINGS & I'm speaking particularly right now to the top leadership of the Family around the World & especially to the World Service leadership & our Units. And of all things, this has to do particularly with the World Service Units which are engaged in publications & the production of our various publications, both printed & recorded, both the Magazine, books & other printed matter, as well as various tapes.
3. BECAUSE THERE COMES A TIME WHEN ALTHOUGH YOU DON'T WORRY ABOUT THE FUTURE & YOU DON'T FRET ABOUT TOMORROW BECAUSE YOU KNOW IT'S ALL IN HIS HANDS, THAT WE STILL HAVE TO THINK ABOUT IT A LITTLE. "Take no thought" as far as worrying or fretting, but in this World of today in which man insists that you take some thought--such as preparing your reservations on an airplane or preparing your finances & so on, or even your fleebag--you have to give a little preparation to what you're planning to do & have some idea in advance of what you're going to do.
4. NOW SOMETIMES WE HAVE TRIED TO PLAN A LITTLE TOO FAR IN ADVANCE & perhaps taken a little too much thought toward the Future & suddenly the Lord has changed our plans the last minute, or almost the last minute, the last few days. We recently made a major move & had everything all settled & all done & visas & tickets & all packed & all ready to go, even a house rented in a certain part of the Southern Hemisphere, when suddenly the Lord changed our plans & wanted us to go someplace else!
5. MAYBE IT HAS TO DO WITH THE LORD'S SECURITY SYSTEM, He doesn't wanna give the Devil too much advance notice, 'cause He really made a fast quick last minute switch on him. So if the Devil was preparing to receive us at our previously planned destination, he sure was fooled! Because within the last just a few days of our expecting to go to that particular place & the house all rented & everything, all of a sudden the Lord completely changed our plans entirely & sent us to an entirely different destination where we had no house prepared or ready & we had to send someone quickly to find one, & where we had not had any idea of going or expecting to go at all.
6. SO, WHEN WE'RE TALKING ABOUT THE FUTURE AT ALL, WE AS CHRISTIANS & THOSE WHO KNOW THE LORD, KNOW THAT WE'RE TALKING ABOUT SOMETHING WHICH IS ONLY IN GOD'S HANDS. When we're talking about the Future of the World we're talking about something that is certainly only in God's hands & only He knows what's really going to happen. But there is nothing that He will do, He has promised, that He won't show it to His prophets--& you are His prophets--especially when you need to know. (Amos 3:7)
7. HE TOLD US ABOUT OUR CHANGE IN PLANS JUST IN TIME WHEN WE NEEDED TO KNOW BEFORE IT WAS TOO LATE TO MAKE THE CHANGE. In fact, we only had a few more days, so many days, about a week--something like that--left in the country where we were, & He told us just in time when we had just barely enough time to change our plans & have our tickets reissued to another destination & to cancel the old plans & reservations & all of these things. So the Lord may not let you know until the last minute if that's all you need to make a change of plans. But if you need a week, well, He doesn't really have to let you know until a week before the change, right? If you need a month, OK, He'll give you a month, PTL!
8. AND IN OUR PRESENT PLANNING REGARDING THE COMING EVENTS IN WORLD HISTORY, particularly the impending war, we do need to make a few plans & preparations & start working towards certain goals in order to obey the Lord, in order to help preserve His work & His manpower & our ministry & to make sure that we are going in the right direction where we can be the most useful & do the most good for both the Family & the whole World.
9. SO IN VIEW OF THE FACT THAT WE HAD JUST MADE SUCH A MONUMENTAL MOVE OURSELVES & it was the last moment change of plans & switch, & seeing how quickly the Lord can change your plans & your mind & show you something else entirely which you had no idea of whatsoever & would have been perhaps the furthest thing from your mind!--Allowing for the Lord's privilege of changing our plans at any time He wishes according to conditions or perhaps changing World conditions, something happens in the World events that even He has to change His plans, some small plan like us.
10. HIS OVERALL PLANS FOR THE WORLD & WORLD HISTORY IN GENERAL & BIBLE PROPHECY, NOTHING ABOUT THAT'S GOING TO CHANGE. The major events & the major participants & the final outcome, that's all settled! "Forever, O Lord, Thy Word is settled in Heaven" He says. (Ps.119:89) And, "I am the Lord I change not!" (Mal.3:6) He doesn't change, His Word doesn't change, & even His prophetic plans for the World have not changed & are not going to change. But He may alter a few minute, tiny, infinitesimal details like your plans or my plans if they don't happen to fit according to His purpose & His knowledge & what He knows is best for us.
11. IN THE LIGHT OF RECENT WORLD EVENTS--& PERHAPS IT MIGHT BE GOOD TO GIVE A LITTLE RUNDOWN ON THOSE TO ASSESS WHERE WE'RE AT RIGHT NOW before we try to give you a little picture of what we think is going to happen in the near future & how we need to prepare for it & where & when--perhaps we'd better give you a little assessment of current events first so you'll know why we're having to even make such plans. I might entitle this little talk, "Before & After the War!"
12. WE BEGIN WITH THAT CERTAIN ASSUMPTION OR PERHAPS EVEN KNOWLEDGE, A CERTAIN FACTOR IN THE EQUATION, we begin with the fact that God has warned us time & again since our very beginnings, in fact, almost since the beginning of man & certainly throughout the Bible, that there's coming an end to things as far as man's rule on this Earth & that his governments are going to eventually end so that God can set up His Kingdom on Earth.--First of all during the Millennium, & then finally the New Heaven & New Earth & the Heavenly City here on the New Earth for Eternity--or however long He wants! He may have some other plans even after that that we don't know about, but that's quite a way in the Future already that He's already revealed to us, how much He's gonna do along that line & how far it goes.
13. I THINK HE IS QUITE GENEROUS IN HIS REVELATIONS TO SHOW US WHAT'S HAPPENING NOW, for example, & it's all been fulfilled that He has revealed to us up to this point, & also what the various Endtime events & even approximate dates are going to be leading up to the End, which will be, of course, in the Antichrist reign before the coming of the true Christ, followed by the Millennial reign of Jesus Christ here on Earth, the Kingdom of God on Earth, much as it now is except for the effects, the aftermath of the war, followed then by the final war of Gog & Magog in which Satan & his hoards are wiped out & God creates a New Earth with a New Heaven & a new Heavenly Headquarters, a new Capital City, Space City as we've called it!--The Heavenly City of God come down from God out of Heaven to the Earth to be the Center of the World & our Heavenly Home & our happy Heaven on Earth forever!
14. NOW WHEN THE LORD SAYS "FOREVER" LIKE THAT, THAT WORD IN THE GREEK NEW TESTAMENT SO OFTEN USED, we haven't got exactly the right words in English to express very often what the Lord is saying. The word so often used in the Greek is, as I recall, "aeon" or something similar, & it literally means "an age," or a certain period of time. It's hard for us to think without time, but of course when the Millennium is over, even before that for us, during the Millennium there'll be no more time when Jesus comes. Time shall be no more, as far as we're concerned! (Rev.10:6)
15. THE EARTH WILL STILL BE LIVING ON TIME, the unregenerate, unsaved people who have survived the holocaust of God's Wrath, first of all the Antichrist's wrath & Armageddon & Christ's Wrath--those who manage to survive it, who are blessed by having survived it--they'll still be in the bondage of time & space. They'll be bound by time & space here on this Earth as we were before we left with Jesus.
16. BUT YOU & I, FOR US, TIME SHALL BE NO MORE, & IN SOME WAYS SPACE WILL BE NO MORE! We will not be bound, in other words, by time & space. We will be able to just wish ourselves anywhere & be there with the speed of thought. And of course we'll only wish to do God's will & we will be messengers of His will. We'll be His governors, His officers, His leaders, His rulers of the World! "We shall be kings & priests unto God," He says (Re.1:6), & we will rule the Earth! And you & I are being prepared for that now.
17. WE ARE GETTING TO KNOW THE WORLD NOW & ITS PEOPLE & ITS COUNTRIES & ITS LANGUAGES so that we will be well familiar with this Earth when it comes our time & our turn to rule it under Jesus & with His Heavenly angels & the already departed Saints. That's gonna be a big job! So the Millennium is not gonna be entirely a vacation, but it will probably seem like a vacation compared to what we've been through here in this life under our wicked enemies & persecutors & the evil rulers of this Earth with its injustices & its unjust laws & its lacks of freedom & all the suffering that we've had to go through here during this life.
18. AND WE'RE NOT GONNA BE WEARY ANYMORE BECAUSE WE'RE GONNA BE RELIEVED OF THESE OLD PHYSICAL BODIES!--We'll have a new model, a wonderful, supernatural, miraculous new kind of spiritual body which can materialise, can feel, eat, see, be felt, drink, even have sex--like the angels! "We shall be as the angels of God," He tells us, & we'll be like Christ. (Lk.20:36; 1Jn.3:2)
19. JESUS, WHEN HE WAS RESURRECTED, HAD A NEW, SUPERNATURAL, MIRACULOUS, INDESTRUCTIBLE BODY that Satan could no longer touch, hurt in any way, no enemy could hurt in any way whatsoever! He could appear & disappear, He could walk through walls or closed locked doors, yet He could sit down with His disciples & He could eat & drink with them, or He could have doubting Thomas thrust his human fingers into His superhuman side which still bore the marks, the wounds, & the nail pierces in His hands.
20. SO WE WON'T BE ALL THAT DIFFERENT THAT WE WON'T BE ABLE TO BE RECOGNISED. We'll know each other, we will look as much like we do now that we will know & recognise each other & remember each other. Even if we have a few scars, well, they'll be our battle decorations. They'll be our wounds from the battle of which nearly every soldier is always proud to show that he really saw action & he really got wounded, & it's an old custom of soldiers to show & brag about their wounds in the war.
21. SO IT'S NOT GONNA BE SO BAD TO HAVE HAD SOME OF THESE WOUNDS & STILL BE ABLE TO SHOW THEM LIKE JESUS DID. He had the spear prints still in His side, still had the scars of the nails in His hands, but He was beautiful, He was wonderful, He was miraculous, supernatural in His marvellous, gorgeous new body, perfect, that Satan, neither man nor devils, could harm or touch any more! He could appear & disappear, as we say, or He could wish Himself here or there, decide to go here or there, & be able to do so without a disintegrator or a transporter or a "Star Trek" spaceship, but just on His own, praise God!--And we will be the same! "We will be like Him," it says, "when we see Him."
22. SO THESE ARE WONDERFUL THINGS TO LOOK FORWARD TO! And these things are immutable, unchangeable, they are settled--what God is planning to do in the End & as our end & our reward which is just really the beginning of Eternity--this is all settled & it's all in God's Word & you don't have to worry about it.
23. WE'VE TOLD YOU ALL ABOUT IT IN THE LENGTHY GARDEN OF EDEN SERIES ON BIBLE PROPHECY carrying you all the way through the Bible--virtually from Genesis to Revelation, all the way through from the Beginning to the End. We've explained why the Garden of Eden, why Adam & Eve, why man is here at all, what happened really, how it was before, how it was afterward, & finally what it's gonna be like all the way up to the End which we are very fast approaching right now.
24. THEN WE DESCRIBED THE EVENTS OF THE ENDTIME ITSELF & THOSE WHICH IMMEDIATELY PRECEDE THE COMING OF JESUS CHRIST, which is the major event, of course, for us, of the end of this World as we now know it, & our place in it in these present physical bodies. Followed then by our complete translation, Rapture, caught up to be together with Him in the air & taken off into Heavenly places--probably in Space City itself--to give us a little glimpse of what's coming, to have the Marriage Supper of the Lamb.
25. WOULDN'T THAT BE A TERRIFIC PLACE TO HAVE THE MARRIAGE SUPPER, HUH? Why not? That's the place He's gone to prepare for us, that's the Home He's going to prepare for us, that's our Heavenly City that's coming down that's gonna be our home for Millenniums or for Eternity for all we know! Not for the Millennium, don't get mixed up on that! Remember, the Heavenly City does not come down until after the Millennium, & it does not come down till there's a New Earth & a New Heavens, it comes down then. But it will be our future Home in the beginning of Eternity!
26. WHAT A PLACE FOR A BALL, HUH? What a place for a Marriage Supper & laughter & singing & music & dancing & wine & women & song & angels & everything your heart could possibly desire!--As well as being in supernatural, miraculous bodies that will never tire, never grow weary, never grow hungry or thirsty or sick or even have to eat or anything--although you can if you want to, you can still enjoy these things. If you desire to eat, you can eat like Jesus did after He was resurrected, or you can drink wine as He did after He was resurrected.
27. AND HE CAME BACK & FELLOWSHIPPED WITH HIS FRIENDS, HIS DISCIPLES & HIS WOMEN AFTER HIS RESURRECTION. He told Mary at the grave in the garden--Mary Magdalene, the ex-harlot out of whom He'd cast seven devils & made a saint of her--"Don't touch Me now!" Wait! First I've got to go see My Father & then I'll be back"--& I'll bet He touched her then! I'll bet she touched Him then too, praise God! I'm sure they had a good lovin' up when He got back, because it was those women who took care of Him so much of the time when He was here on Earth.
28. AND OF COURSE, I BELIEVE, SINCE GOD'S WORD SAYS THAT HE EXPERIENCED EVERYTHING WE HAVE EXPERIENCED--everything but sin--that that includes sex, because sex is no sin. I believe that He very likely had the same needs as we have since He was in a physical body & needed to satisfy those needs with His women such as Mary & Martha & so on, & that therefore He experienced everything that we experienced so that He could be a better High Priest, as God's Word says, for us! (He.4:15)
29. WELL, WE HAVEN'T REACHED THAT POINT YET, WE STILL ARE IN THESE POOR, TIRED, WORN & WEARY HUMAN BODIES, & if I look a little tired it's just because we've been on a very long journey & we have just moved again & relocated. It seems we never stay more than three to six months in any one location, & even if we stay in the same country, we move around a lot! Which is one reason--because we've used God's wisdom & common sense--that we have not had any problem with authorities & enemies, etc.
30. WE HAVE REMAINED PILGRIMS & STRANGERS ON THIS EARTH WITH A PILGRIM SPIRIT, because Heaven is our Home & the Heavenly City is our destination. We desire a Heavenly City whose builder & maker is God, a City which hath foundations which will never again be moved unless He wants to move. This is a City, by the way, that can fly. In fact, it's on its way down here now! It must not be too far away since Jesus is coming soon & we've gotta have that Marriage Supper of the Lamb, & then we've gotta come back & fight the Battle of Armageddon, wipe out the Antichrist & his forces who've been through the Wrath of God, & that's the final Wrath, the final judgement on them, & they're all cast into Hell at least for a time.
31. THE BIBLE SAYS "FOREVER," AS WE STARTED TO SAY, & ACTUALLY THE GREEK TERM THERE MEANS "FOR AN AGE," for a certain period, for an aeon or whatever expression best describes it to you. An age is the literal translation. Now, every age has its beginning & has its end, right? It doesn't matter how long the age may be, it might be the age of a child, it might be the age of an old man, it might be a lifetime, it might be your age, it might be the age of beginnings of man, the ages of Adam & Eve when they lived to be nearly a thousand years of age--that was quite an age--but it had a beginning & it had an end, right?
32. AND THERE HAVE BEEN OTHER AGES, CERTAIN AGES OF HISTORY. Some Bible scholars have divided the World's history into what they call the various covenants of God. That first of all there was the age of the "Adamic" Covenant, the covenant that God made with Adam & Eve & the promises He made to them during their age, which lasted up until the "Noahic" Covenant.
33. AFTER THE FLOOD, REMEMBER WHEN NOAH SACRIFICED TO THE LORD & GOD GAVE HIM A BEAUTIFUL RAINBOW TO SEE, the bow of promise that there would never be another worldwide flood of water to wipe out the Earth, He made a lot of promises there too & a few changes in His contract with man, & this is called the "Noahic" Covenant which lasted from the time of Noah until the time of Abraham.
34. THEN ABRAHAM CAME ALONG & GOD MADE A NEW COVENANT WITH HIM--another great man of God & a great leader--called the "Abramic" Covenant--as the theologians & Bible scholars have analysed the history of the Old Testament. And it's a very good analysis, it's a very good bird's-eye view, so to speak, to sort of divide the history into these periods. And it's remarkable how well-ordered they are, each of them comprising a certain number of generations of man even, something like seven or fourteen & so on, seven being God's number & He likes to kind of use it! Well, there was the "Abramic" Covenant of Abraham, the covenant God made with Abraham.
35. THEN WHEN MOSES CAME ALONG SOME YEARS LATER--HE MADE A NEW COVENANT WITH MOSES, CALLED THE "MOSAIC" COVENANT, & there was a new type of contract with quite a few new rules, but much the same promises! There were slight changes that God made under each of these new covenants, but the overall rule of God was still the Law of Love. The overall destiny of man was still union with God & eternal happiness. God's overall plan didn't change, but under each of these men's administration & the beginning of a new age & a new covenant, He merely changed a few of the minor details & the minor rules & added a few new promises to a new man.
36. BUT HIS OVERALL PLAN IS THE SAME, THE PLAN OF CREATION IS THE SAME, God created the Worlds & this Earth. His plan for man hasn't changed. He put man here as His creation to create a being who had free will & choice, he could do God's will if he wanted to or he could refuse to if he wanted to; he could do either good or evil. So man was put here to test him, to see what he would do in the way of free choice.
37. WHAT WE DO NOW IN THIS PARTICULAR AGE THAT WE ARE NOW IN, DETERMINES OUR POSITION OR OUR PLACE, OUR REWARD OR PUNISHMENT IN THE NEXT AGE THAT IS COMING, which is the Millennial Age, after the coming of Christ. And, believe it or not, a lot of people are going to be judged during the Millennium, too, according to how they behave during the Millennium, what their status is going to be in the next World, which is the New Heaven & the New Earth with the Heavenly City.
38. (TO CAMERA CREW:) ARE WE HAVING A LITTLE PROBLEM OF SOME KIND? Thank you. When my crew gets a little upset here & active & whispering back & forth, I wonder if maybe my clothes are falling off or maybe they can't hear me on the microphone or maybe the World's about to drop off or deflate or something! An amazing little World I have here, by the way, I'll tell you more about it in a minute.
39. BUT REMEMBER THAT, CREW, & YOU FOLKS WHO MAKE VIDEOS that when your camera crew gets active & somebody's on camera performing & you get all excited & shouting back & forth, it immediately worries your performer: What's happening? What did I do wrong? What did I say? What am I supposed to be doing that I'm not doing? It's a little distracting!
40. SO UNLESS YOU HAVE TO COMMUNICATE & THERE IS SOMETHING DEFINITELY WRONG, ONE OF THE BEST THINGS TO DO IS TO WRITE A LITTLE NOTE & hold it up by the camera so the performer can see it--big enough to read it--of what's wrong: "The microphone has fallen to the floor" or "Please open your eyes so we can tell you're not asleep" or "The sun is glinting on your glasses" or whatever you need to tell the performer so you won't have to interrupt the show with a big conversation & get the poor performer all wondering while he's trying to talk, & talk about very involved & important & difficult & complicated subjects such as I'm dealing with here now, that I don't get distracted by some other conversation.
41. IN OTHER WORDS, I LIKE AN ATTENTIVE AUDIENCE, DON'T YOU? And if they're paying attention to something else I figure it must be something very disastrous or important that I should be warned about. There's a little advice to you video crews who are now making shows & so on. Please try not to distract & disturb your performer to get off the track because he thinks there must be something wrong by the way you're acting.
42. I KNOW IT'S NOT THE TIME BECAUSE I'M KEEPING MY EYE ON THE CLOCK HERE, SO THAT COULDN'T BE IT! So whatever it was, I don't know what it was! If it wasn't worth distracting my attention, then it shouldn't have been a distraction! Well, PTL! Some people get off the track too, for God, & get distracted by the Devil. I guess that was one of his little distractions. Where were we? Well, that's really our subject, where are we?
43. THE LORD IS KEEPING HIS SCHEDULE THROUGH VARIOUS AGES & COVENANTS, slight changes of either renewed promises or new promises, & slight changes in some of the minor rules & laws & regulations or ways of living. Very minor, there's still no major change, really, in His major plans for man, His major rules for man, His major promises to man. All these are fairly static & stable & unchanged, unchangeable, unshakable, forever settled in Heaven, for He is the Lord & He changes not!
44. BUT EVERY NOW & THEN IT'S LIKE MOVING FROM ONE GRADE TO ANOTHER. You go through school, you're the same person, the school has the same rules & the principal still runs things very much the same. But as you pass from one grade to the other, one stage to the other--a little higher each time--there are a few new requirements, there are a few new subjects, there are a few changes in curriculum & schedule, but the general schooling is very much the same, right? The principal is the same, the school superintendent is usually the same & you're working toward the same goal all the time. You're just learning a few new things in each stage, each grade.
45. BUT THE RULES OF CONDUCT ARE PRETTY MUCH THE SAME, AREN'T THEY? Regardless of grade you've still gotta be a good boy, good girl, & behave yourself & study hard & work hard in order to pass from one grade to the other & to be passed on & get good grades & prepared for the next grade. I always worked real hard & studied real hard because I like to study for one thing, & I like to read, & like things like World history & all kinds of subjects in school.
46. BUT I WAS VERY THANKFUL THAT IN THE SCHOOLS I WENT TO IN FLORIDA AT THAT TIME THEY HAD A VERY WONDERFUL RULE, & that was, that if you made an average of 90% in any subject you were exempt from the final examinations. Oh, brother, was that a relief when I found out I had made 90 or more on a subject & I didn't have to take those horrible final exams! So I worked like mad all the way through school & I had to take very few final exams because I made in the 90's--& once even made a 100 in history!
47. I DON'T THINK ANYBODY DESERVES A 100 'CAUSE NOBODY'S PERFECT, but that dear teacher, she thought I was perfect, God bless her, & I love her yet!--Mrs. Tate! She was so sweet, a Christian too! But I studied hard & I made 100% on every test that she gave, so what could she do but give me 100 on my report card, which meant I didn't have to take final exams, praise God!
48. WELL, MAYBE IT'S KIND OF LIKE THAT IN GOD'S PLAN TOO, YOU KNOW? If you do real well, you apply yourself, you study hard, you behave yourself, you learn the lessons you need to learn, maybe you won't have to go through some rigorous, difficult, strenuous final exam at the last minute to make sure you make the grade & that you pass. Maybe He'll exempt you from that. Maybe that's why He's not gonna let me have to go through the Tribulation. Maybe it's because I'm making pretty good grades, I've behaved myself fairly well, I've been a good boy.
49. AS LITTLE TECHI PRAYED THE OTHER DAY--she's quite a prayer warrior, she goes on & on & prays & prays--she said, "Lord, please heal this little thing. And Lord, You know, I'm a good girl most of the time, I know I'm a bad girl sometimes, but, Lord, You know, I'm important to You, & therefore, Lord, would You please heal me & would You please take good care of Mommy & Daddy, they're so busy & have so much to do."
50. WELL, I'VE BEEN A GOOD BOY, I THINK MOST OF THE TIME, REALLY, & not too bad a boy sometimes, & at least I've trusted the Lord by grace for salvation & I've been working real hard at my job to get it done, to create you, the Family--the Lord did it, of course, I'm just the tool in His hand. (Dad burps.)
51. PARDON ME, IT'S ALL THOSE SOYBEANS I ATE, I THINK! These beans, you know, they really have a lot of gas! It's like the old sign out in front of the church that said: "Bean Supper at 6:00, Organ Concert at 7:00"! And sometimes after a bean supper like I've just had you can have quite a musical recital afterward!--Ha!--Coming out both ends of the organ!
52. WELL, ANYHOW, I GUESS THE LORD HAS TO THROW IN A LAUGH ONCE IN AWHILE TO RELIEVE YOUR TENSION & SO YOU CAN RELAX A MINUTE! Besides, I think the Lord has a sense of humour, I'm sure, or He wouldn't have made anybody as funny as me! I just can't help but be a little funny sometimes because I see the funny thing about a situation & the humorous side, & that's a real lifesaver in some tight spots sometimes. So, TYL! Hallelujah! It's wonderful how the Lord works!
53. SO WE'RE SORTA LIKE GOING THROUGH SCHOOL TOO, & if we're good & maybe we make 90% or over, we won't have to take any very hard, difficult, strenuous, nerve-wracking, trying exams at the end of each grade or each period or each age. And it's quite obvious that that's what the Lord does with us who are saved, because we have followed Him & obeyed Him & we have trusted Him & we are saved, He removes us from this Earth before He pours out His worst Wrath upon it.
54. AND THEN HE REMOVES US FROM THIS EARTH AGAIN AT THE END OF THE MILLENNIUM before He really finally wipes out the Devil & the Antichrist, False Prophet & all his whole System & all those who took the Mark of the Beast & didn't change, & all those who rallied around the Devil when he came back from bondage again! So I think the Lord deals with us a great deal in the same way! You say, "Well, what's got that to do with before & after the war?"
55. WELL, I'M JUST TRYING TO TELL YOU, FIRST OF ALL, THAT SOME OF THESE CALCULATIONS & PREDICTIONS THAT I AM ABOUT TO MAKE MAY NOT NECESSARILY WORK OUT EXACTLY THE WAY I SEE THEM AT THIS MOMENT through a glass darkly with only what God has shown us thus far. And maybe I can use our latest move as an example. There were certain steadfast, static factors in the equation that didn't change.
56. NUMBER ONE, WE KNEW THAT WE HAD TO LEAVE THAT COUNTRY AT THE END OF OUR VISA TIME--we'd already gotten one renewal & we couldn't renew any longer without applying for residency which means a great big hassle. And besides, we didn't wanna become permanent residents in that country anyhow! Now that was one stable or static or stationary factor in the equation which was more or less unchangeable, which meant that we did have to move--that was another factor, we had to move--which meant we had to move somewhere--third factor--so we had to prepare for that move to go somewhere, & we prepared.
57. THE ONLY MISTAKE WE MADE WAS THAT WE PREPARED TO GO TO A CERTAIN PLACE PERHAPS A LITTLE EARLIER THAN GOD HAS PLANNED FOR US TO GO THERE, & we may very likely go there later. It may even be our next move, who knows? But at this particular moment during this big push for final big publications & literature & magazines & books & everything conceivable that we can get into your hands as tools to do the job & food for your soul, we are doing everything we can right now to try to push on these things. So it wasn't quite time to move that far away from our production & creation units, our publication units. We would have been even further than ever & even more difficult to reach, communication & mail & all those being even slower & more difficult & telephone calls more expensive & more difficult, etc.
58. SO AT THE LAST FEW MOMENTS, FEW DAYS, THE LORD SHOWED US VERY CLEARLY & BY A NUMBER OF FACTORS as we looked at the situation--what we were trying to do & planning to do--that that was not the best way to do it. It was a little bit premature, a bit early to make our plans to move to that particular goal or destination that we had chosen--that even God had revealed to us sometime before--that it wasn't yet quite His time to go there.
59. IT'S JUST LIKE YOU & I ARE DESTINED FOR THE HEAVENLY CITY, BUT IT'S NOT QUITE TIME TO GO THERE YET! In fact, we've got a whole Millennium! We've got the Endtime & then the whole Millennium between us & the Heavenly City! We will go only by stages, by ages, by certain periods, grades--how shall I put it? What would be a simple way to say it? Is there any simpler term?--In which we are preparing each time for the next stage or the next step.
60. JUST LIKE A LITTLE CHILD GOING UP STEPS, IT TAKES ONE STEP AT A TIME & each step raises a little higher & a little higher until you get to the next floor! And even that next floor may not be the last floor. You may have to go up another series of steps to get to the next floor! So that's the way God works for going through various steps, you might say, right now, toward the Endtime--or we are in the Endtime--toward the End--& then there will be a major change of floors.
61. GOD IS GONNA JERK THE FLOOR OR THE RUG OUT FROM UNDER WICKED & WORLDLY MAN & his establishment & his systems & his governments & set up a whole new floor for you & me to run the Earth during the Millennium over our former enemies & adversaries, the wicked & our persecutors & those who tried to annihilate us. God's Word says that our enemies are gonna be ashes under our feet (Mal.4:3) & that others of our enemies are gonna be crawling on their hands & knees to us, who right now are trying to beat us to our hands & knees before them. (Is.60:14)
62. WELL, THIS IS A GENERAL LITTLE INTRODUCTION, AT LEAST, INTO THE SUBJECT THAT I'M GOING TO DEAL WITH in our next little period of this lesson--we spent about an hour already almost on this introduction & to prepare you for what we really have to say! But that's the way the Lord works, everything in a sense has a beginning & an end, you might say, except Eternity, which has never had any beginning & will never have any end! Like the Lord, God Himself, the Father, He's been forever & will be forever. The Son, however, Jesus, was the creation of God in the beginning!
63. DO YOU REALISE THAT? JESUS HAD A BEGINNING LIKE YOU & ME, PERHAPS TO HELP HIM UNDERSTAND US BETTER. But He'll have no end--like us--we will have no end either because we're gonna go on with the Lord forever in the Heavenly City & the Heavenly New Earth & the New Heavens & New Earth & the beautiful new Heavenly City, PTL! Hallelujah?
64. AM I GETTING THROUGH TO YOU? CAN YOU HEAR ME OK? Anybody back there on the back row that can't hear me, raise your hand? Oh, I see a few hands raised. Well, if you can't hear me, why'd you raise your hand? That's an old trick we preachers used to play on congregations!--Ha! Somebody in the back row would always raise their hand & say they couldn't hear us!--Not thinking for a minute, you know, that of course they wouldn't raise their hand if they couldn't hear us!
65. IT'S KIND OF LIKE THERE'S A LITTLE JEALOUSY BETWEEN OUR KIDS SOMETIMES, especially our little new Papa's pet, Techi, & every now & then once in awhile after prayer one or the other will pipe up & say: "Techi had her eyes open!" Maybe Davida will say it & I'll say, "That's funny, how'd you know? You must have had yours open!" Children don't always think of that sort of thing!
66. WELL, I HOPE YOU'VE GOT YOUR EYES OPEN RIGHT NOW & YOUR MIND & HEART TOO, & YOUR SPIRIT, SO YOU'LL GET WHAT WE'RE TRYING TO DRIVE AT! God has His overall plan & His goals & His promises & His purposes & His overall rule of Love, the whole works is unchangeable, its history is set. The End is determined & it will come to pass no matter what! You don't have to worry about that!
67. BUT JUST LIKE ANY COMMANDER-IN-CHIEF IN ANY KIND OF WAR, AS THE TIDE OF BATTLE CHANGES FROM HERE TO THERE OR ELSEWHERE, very often He may change his tactic slightly, or He may shift some of His forces over to this hot front from this stationary front, or He may change a little bit in the way things are going. You see, there's another thing, people shouldn't come to your door or shouldn't be banging around outside, but it could be the neighbours.
68. BUT ANYHOW, GOD'S OVERALL PLAN IS THE SAME, His purpose is the same, His redemption of man is the same, His Love is the same, He is the same, His Word's the same, our destiny is the same, none of this has changed. His rule of Love has not changed, nothing has changed that is basic or major. Only sometimes little details because of the flow of events there are changes here & there, because man still has free will & man can still do as he pleases, more or less, in defiance of God & against the Lord sometimes, & devils too, even, in a way!
69. HE MAY SHIFT THE PIECES ON THE BOARD AROUND A LITTLE BIT IN ORDER TO MAKE A SUPER PLAY SO THAT YOU WON'T LOSE! Or once in awhile He might even let you lose a play so that He can kind of decoy the Enemy around to a position where you're gonna win the game! So, if there are any differences & any changes of plans, it's only because God's got a better one & maybe there has been some change in circumstances like a change in government of a country or a change in times & tides of man that God has to maybe shift you around a little bit differently to a different place, a different time, different way, or change our method of ministry.
70. HE CHANGES METHODS, TACTICS, MINISTRIES FREQUENTLY IN CERTAIN PERIODS OF OUR HISTORY. Certain ages of our Family we have gone through various stages & different kinds of ministries. In the earliest days of the Family we were almost always out just witnessing & passing tracts. We didn't sell any literature, the Lord just supplied our needs through the people who joined in mighty droves of new disciples & their forsake-alls, & this was our major source of income. Our major ministry was growing as a Family, gaining new disciples & spreading throughout our home country, our original country, & then throughout the World.
71. THEN OUR MINISTRY SOMEWHAT CHANGED & IT TURNED OUT THAT THE LETTERS WITH THEIR INTERESTING WORLD NEWS & SO ON BECAME QUITE A HIT ON THE STREETS & were actually virtually saleable, or at least in return for donations, & as we had grown & the Family got bigger & more disciples & farther afield & many countries, litnessing or the literature became one of our major sources of income. We went through a litnessing stage of litnessing income.
72. THEN AS LITNESSING BECAME MORE DIFFICULT & PERSECUTION HOTTER in some countries against our litnessing, we had to change that ministry to other supporters & other ministries such as door-to-door or more provisioning or even FFing & a lot of other things. So there have been changes in our tactics & our methods & our ways of ministering, but still, every one of our tactics, methods, changes of ministry whatever it was, it's always to preach the Gospel to the whole World, to every creature! It's always to show God's Love to others, right?
73. SO THE BASIC PRINCIPLES ARE THE SAME, THE BASIC PURPOSES & GOALS ARE THE SAME, although there may be some minor changes in tactics & methods & ministries & places & areas & means & even supporters, etc. You understand? All that to say this: What is now about to happen?
74. WELL, WE'RE ALMOST AT THE END OF THIS INTRODUCTION TO OUR LESSON, OUR FIRST HOUR, in which we're trying to get one hour on audio tape, & then we hope the next hour on another audio tape as well as this videotape. We're trying to divide it in sections so that you'll all be able to get it--if not on video, if you're not meant to see it on video for security reasons--at least you will receive it on audio & you'll hear about what the Lord has in store for us & what we believe is going to happen in greater detail perhaps than we have ever even told you before, specific, regarding moves, etc.
75. AND AS I SAID BEFORE, THIS IS PRIMARILY DESIGNED FOR YOUR LEADERSHIP, the leadership of the Family, you the leaders, & particularly the production units, World Service Units who are involved in creations & production of literature & tapes, etc. So therefore in this next hour, God willing, we're going to try to analyse for you the present World situation & why we are going to have to make certain plans & changes & how they may affect you, how the World situation is affecting us & how it's going to affect our ministry & our methods & even our locations, before & after the war.
76. I DOUBT IF THERE'S VERY MUCH WE'RE GONNA BE ABLE TO DO DURING THE WAR, IT'S NOT GONNA LAST VERY LONG ANYHOW, probably within one day or even the worst of it in one hour! Even the scientists & the warmongers & the military & the World leaders themselves say this. But we don't even have to have them say it to know it because God's Word's already said it in the 18th chapter of Revelation: "In one day all these calamities shall befall Babylon, the World System. Even in one hour shall all these riches be destroyed!" So it's gonna happen very fast when it comes & I believe He's talking there about this next coming conflict.
77. SO THEREFORE WE'RE TRYING TO PREPARE YOU FOR THAT, & what we're trying to do is to prepare our ministry & our methods & our Units & our means of production, etc., so that we will be prepared for that time, so that you & I & our World Service Units will not only as much as possible escape the war itself--at least the atomic targets & the worst of the war--but that we will be able to survive that war as many & as much as possible.
78. AND HOPEFULLY THAT OUR MINISTRY WILL BE ABLE TO SURVIVE THAT WAR AS WELL, our Production Units, World Service Units & leadership will survive so that we can continue to minister to you & continue to give you the tools to do your job in going into all the World, preaching the Gospel to every creature. Continue to feed you spiritually & informationally & revelatorily in the revelations that the Lord gives us & the direction He gives us so that you will be able to continue to minister to the millions of this World who need you & His Love & to know that it is still a time of ministry as best we can in the post-war period as well, we hope.
79. AND WE KNOW THAT SOME OF YOU ARE GOING TO BE ABLE TO CONTINUE TO MINISTER BECAUSE THE LORD HAS SHOWN US THAT. Even the Bible tells us that there will be witnesses up to the very coming of Christ, the Resurrection & Rapture. So therefore somebody's gonna keep working for the Lord right up to the End until He takes us out of this old World. I believe He's gonna have thousands of us still witnessing, still working! They're never gonna be able to catch us all, they're never gonna be able to kill us all!
80. THEY CANNOT STOP OUR RAIN! We're in too many places, too many countries, too many of us & we've sowed too much seed already, too many raindrops of refreshing rain of His Spirit already sown! They'll never be able to stop it now! The message has reached too many millions of hearts & too many millions have already believed & received Jesus & are following Him to be able to stop them all now, thank God! And even if they tried, the Lord wouldn't let them. He may allow a few to suffer persecution, even martyrdom, but I believe that many of us--if not even most of us--at least many of us will still be able to continue in that ministry. So PTL! Hallelujah? TYJ! Amen.
81. WELL, I THINK WE'VE ABOUT REACHED THE END OF THIS FIRST AUDIOTAPE, RIGHT? And that's been our first hour, our first lesson, & the videotape's gonna go on. But I think, Mama Maria's gonna change the audio tape now so that we can go into the next part of the lesson where we deal with specifics of our preparations. Well, first of all, the World conditions which are provoking & prompting these preparations & then into the more specifics of the actual preparations themselves & our plans to try to meet these emergencies. So God bless you! PTL? Amen!
Copyright (c) 1998 by The Family
Copyright (c) 1998 by The Family
