HomeARC ML 2755
"CONSIDER THE POOR!"--Psa.41:1.--Our New Ministry in the U.S. to the Poor!--To the People Who Don't Care Who You Are! DO 2755 5/12/91
1. I've been reading the prophecies given at the Summit Meeting, & they're really inspiring & thrilling! In fact, I got so inspired, I got a little one myself! Do you want to get something hot off the griddle? (Family: Yes, Sir!) I was about halfway through reading the prophecies for the North American leadership & something kept coming to me very strongly. I said, "I'm going to have to jot that down & let the Family know about that!" And just then I came to a prophecy that was quoting the same passage in Isaiah that I was getting! (Isa.61:1-3.) It's the passage the Lord read in the synagogue in Nazareth, that He came to heal the brokenhearted & set the captives free & all of that. (Luke 4:18,19.) That was right along the line of what I was getting, only a slightly different wording.
2. At the Summit the leaders were praying for the team that's going to be leading North America, & they were getting all kinds of prophecies about their work & what the Lord wanted them to do there. In case you don't know it, North America includes Mexico, the U.S.A. & Canada.--Our old home stomping grounds from our earliest days over 20 years ago! So this is sort of a picture that they were getting regarding whom the Family is to minister to now in North America. It's amazing! It voiced so much what I was getting, only mine was even a little more specific. Does somebody want to read that passage in Isaiah? And as you do, notice particularly the kind of people the Lord is talking about.
3. (Family reads: "The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me; because the Lord hath anointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek; He hath sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, & the opening of the prison to them that are bound; to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord, & the day of vengeance of our God; to comfort all that mourn; to appoint unto them that mourn in Zion, to give unto them beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness; that they might be called trees of righteousness, the planting of the Lord, that He might be glorified."--Isa.61:1-3.)
4. From that, what would you gather is the type of people the Lord is calling our folks to minister to now as they serve the Lord in North America? Does it sound like bigshots? Does it sound like the top? Does it sound like the military? Does it sound like the church people? (Family: The young people?) Some of them. It depends on what kind of young people they are, what strata of society they're from. I wouldn't say it was church young people. Can you think of a word that would just about cover all of that? Let me give you a hint: What economic class would you say those people are? (Family: The poor.) The poor!
5. I think we're going to have a very lowly ministry again, & I think that's what the Lord was saying in some of those prophecies. That's what I was inspired with, that we're going to seek out the people that nobody wants--the lost, the lowly, the forsaken, the despised & the broken--"the cast-offs, those which no man desireth, which others do not want & do not seek, the unwanted & uncared for." That's what the Lord gave me--that we'll be doing just like we did when we first started! The hippies were the scum of the Earth to most people! They were the worst & the lowest, the dregs of society, & the Lord called me & my little family to the humblest of ministries, to be a King of the Beggars, to seek out the lost sheep who had no shepherd.
6. I think that's going to be one of our ministries again, just like it was in the beginning. If you looked around in those days, who were the worst?--The hippies! Our Family needs to start looking around to see who is the worst off, who needs help the most, who is the most desperate for answers--like Jesus did--& minister to them!--The drunks & the harlots & the publicans & the sinners! The Lord said He loves them--the sort of people that nobody else cares to minister to, or at least not many. And yet there are so many unemployed right now in all North America that the poor are getting poorer! And the unemployed are getting to be the homeless as they have their homes & their cars repossessed when they can no longer afford to pay for them, when they can no longer afford to pay the monthly payments. At present the U.S. has more homeless than any other industrialised country on Earth! (Note: According to the 1990 Census, almost 14% of Americans live below the poverty line. About 9 million Americans are out of work, & another million or more are so discouraged they're no longer even looking for work.)
Our Ministry to the Hippies!
7. That's the way we started, ministering to the lowest of the low, the people nobody else would touch with a ten-foot pole!--The hippies! Their parents didn't want them & kicked them out of their homes! The church people wouldn't even have them in their churches! They couldn't think of any other way to keep the hippies out, so they'd put up signs on their front doors: "No bare feet!"--And that cinched it, because nearly all of the hippies were either barefooted or wearing flipflops or sandals.
8. There used to be this fancy restaurant on the pier at Huntington Beach, & every now & then I liked to go there to get away from everything & everybody & sit down & rest & just eat a bowl of my favourite soup. Soup was the only thing I could afford there.
9. Ho had finally gotten the use of some bleachers on the beach front that they had for programs & orchestras & political rallies, & our kids would hold meetings there. So one Sunday I asked Ho to meet me over at this restaurant after his meeting was over. It was just a few feet away. I said, "I'll be up there with Mama Eve & you guys can come over afterwards." I didn't know that on the door to the beach side of the restaurant where all the young people would try to come in, they had one of those "No bare feet" signs!
10. Well, our kids were out on the beach ministering & witnessing, & they ran around in either their bare feet or flipflops. So when Ho came to the back door of the restaurant to try to join us, he just got in the door & the waiter stopped him, so he couldn't get to us. Ho said, "But that's my father over there." And at that time when I was out in public I was well-dressed, I wore a suit, coat & tie & all that. So the waiter looked at us & we waved at Ho, & he waved at us. But he said, "I'm sorry, you see the sign, that's the rule, no bare feet!" Ho said, "Well, I've got flip-flops on!" The waiter replied, "That's bare feet to us!" So that was it!
11. In those early days we ministered to the lowest of the low. You couldn't have gotten any lower than hippies! They treated bums on Skid Row better than they treated the hippies! A lot of those missions wouldn't even let the hippies in, they trusted the bums more! At least the bums were patriotic, they would have saluted the flag! They'd have done anything for a cup of coffee & donuts! So the hippies were the lowest of the low.
12. When the Lord first called me, He said, "Would you be willing to be King of the Beggars?" The Lord is very clever how He does things. First He put a burden on my heart for all those poor kids, & I saw they were like sheep having no shepherd. And that's what the Lord said: "These poor sheep have no shepherd. They need a shepherd like you. Would you be willing to be their shepherd?" I said, "Yes, Lord!" Then He got a little stronger, because He knew this would be a little tougher, & He said, "Would you be willing to be King of the Beggars?" The hippies were all panhandling, going around begging for money so they could buy dope & whatnot. And I said, "Yes, even that, Lord!"
13. When my Mother invited us out to California we were redneck Texans & we thought all hippies were Communist drug criminals who ought to be lined up against the wall & mowed down!--Ha! Can you imagine us, Texans, going out to minister to the hippies?! I was a little doubtful about it at first, but my Mother said, "You just don't understand. These are good kids, a lot of them come from good homes etc., they're just down & out & on drugs & whatnot, they just need the Lord."
14. Every day she'd spend the morning making peanut butter & jelly sandwiches for the hippies, then she'd putt-putt down to the pier to give'm out in her little electric cart that she rode around in. Huntington Beach was famous for its sidewalks that had ramps, so it was full of old people.--Rich people! It was the richest town in Orange County, which was the richest county in California, which was the richest state in the U.S.A.! The Lord knew where we were to be, & although these hippies looked like bums & acted like it, a lot of them were not so dumb! They were well-educated, from good homes, they just were fed up with the System.
15. You never know what kind of a diamond you'll find in the rough, even in the garbage! Remember my Letter about "Dirty Dishes"? (See ML#566.) Sometimes when you cull through the garbage, you can find a real jewel. That's the way we often felt when we were going down to those clubs in Tenerife, like we were culling through the garbage to find a jewel now & then.--And we did, thank the Lord!
Our Main Job Is to Minister Spiritually!
16. So the whole message I was getting as I read those prophecies, was about our Family in the U.S. ministering to the lowest of the low. There are not many hippies any more, but there are lots of poor people--the homeless & hungry & people who nobody's helping! They've exhausted their unemployment insurance, & can't get welfare & food stamps any more. The government won't just let you live that way forever, you know! They've even found some pretty nice families with children living in their cars. I read about one poor guy who had lost his job, his home, his furniture, everything! All he had left was the car, so he & his wife & their three children were all sleeping in the car!
17. People are hard up in the U.S. right now! So to our people who have gone back to North America--that formerly proud, high-falutin', luxury-loving area of the World which used to be rich, but now is becoming poor--the Lord is saying, "Search out the needy, the lonely, the lost & the helpless & the homeless, the lowest of the low & those that nobody else wants--& give them Jesus--just like you did when you first started!"
18. This would also include ministering to such people as migrant workers, refugees, illegal aliens, minorities, unwed mothers, prostitutes, the neglected youth, drug addicts, the physically handicapped, & those in correctional institutions, prisons, orphanages & old folks' homes! And if you pray for & work on winning the heads of the institutions where you go, you'll have a much better reception & they will be working with you instead of against you!
19. We don't have a lot materially & we may not be able to help them much physically, but we can certainly help them spiritually, which is of far greater importance--so great, in fact, there's no comparison! As Peter said to the lame man, "Silver & gold have I none, but such as I have give I thee: In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth rise up & walk!"--Acts 3:6. These people were already down & out spiritually, & now He's allowed them to get down & out physically as well, so they will turn to Him in their desperate need. And as they turn to Him for their spiritual needs, He will also supply their physical needs.
20. There may be times when we can do a little physically, such as providing Videos for the poor that we've gotten the rich to sponsor, or helping them with physical healing by praying for them etc., but this is just a very minor, minimal part of our ministry. In some places in the World our Family has already implemented a program whereby they request that the rich sponsor Videos for orphanages & institutions for the handicapped, daycare centers in poor sectors of the city etc. The people who can afford it buy the Videos for those who can't, & the donor is often given a certificate & receives recognition from the institution that was able to receive Videos due to his sponsorship.
21. Have we gotten so high & lofty & mighty reaching the top that we can't go back to the hippies or the homeless? At Fred's Skid Row Mission in Los Angeles, Josh & Faith used to have to carry on the services at night when Fred had a meeting for the bums to come in & feed'm. We furnished the entertainment, so to speak, & various ones of our leadership there would preach the sermon & offer the invitation--just like Fred's custom was & the way he told them to do it--& then those who came forward could go & eat. And he served good meals!
22. I'm not suggesting that we run shelters for the homeless ourselves, as this is a monumental job & very costly & time-consuming & takes away from our witness. Witnessing is our job & we shouldn't get into anything that's going to distract us from that! But some of our people may be able to visit the missions & shelters & minister there to the homeless. In times of recession or depression, many of the homeless are not just of the very low economic class or not just bums, but they're formerly middle class or even well-to-do people who have lost their homes because of hard economic times. So they're usually newly poor or homeless who are very desperate, many of whom would probably be very open to the Gospel.
23. (Maria: Of course, somebody has got to feed the hungry & clothe the naked & shelter the homeless, so especially since they're not doing much of anything else, that's a good job for the churches! Even the Christians who are doing something, most of them are involved in social projects. Even the Evangelicals who could be out witnessing to people are instead doing things like standing in front of abortion clinics.--More interested in saving physical lives than spiritual ones! Well, praise God, they're getting out the Message! Each Christian group seems to have their own ministry that the Lord is allowing them to do, or wants them to do. One may have a ministry to the refugees, another to the migrants, another to the homeless, another to the orphans, another to the handicapped.
24. (So it seems that they are doing something, but most of the Evangelicals who are involved in these programs don't really do a lot of witnessing, let's face it. They consider their sample of good works their witness, & actually trying to lead people to Salvation doesn't usually come for months or even years later, if ever! In one case I read about, the preacher set out to lead a business colleague to the Lord by meeting him once a week for lunch & occasionally playing golf with him, looking for the "right" opportunity to pray with him. According to this preacher, who was telling this story in his own words, that opportunity did not present itself until one day, after five years of weekly lunches, the businessman in desperation shared with this pastor that he & his wife had decided to get a divorce. Finally the ideal opportunity had arrived & the pastor was able to lead him to the Lord. This is no joke! This is a true story & was told by this preacher as an example of how to witness. This is not an isolated incident but one which is repeated over & over by today's church Christians. How much better it would have been to give this man the Lord at the beginning of their acquaintance, which would probably have saved him his broken marriage & many other problems.
25. (Of course, we have to do what we can to help people physically, if that's their need, but our main job is to minister to them spiritually. The Lord can take care of them after that, we don't have to do it for them. It's like the quote, "Give a man a fish & you feed him for a day. But teach a man to fish & you'll feed him for life!" The Social Gospel gives the fish to the people, but what we're doing is we're teaching them to fish by getting them saved right then & there & dispensing with all the physical stuff & all the things that the Lord will take care of immediately when someone finds Him. Then He'll supply all their material needs automatically! He'll do that! He can do that easily! But He needs us to do the job that we have to do, which is to really feed their souls & help them to find the Lord!
26. (So the churches have really got this thing all screwed up! It's like that documentary you watched with the kids about a Catholic bishop who'd been a rebel from the Catholic church & had gone to South America & pulled away from his organisation because they "just preached." He said, "Look, people are just animals unless they have food in their stomachs & a place to live & a job. They can't even accept Jesus or want to be Christians unless they're living like human beings." That's the Social Gospel & that's where they're putting the cart before the horse!
27. (Of course, we should do what we can, since if you have it in your hand to help someone who you see suffering & you don't do what you can, then you're not being a good sample of Jesus' Love, & it may be pretty hard for them to see past your poor sample. But in our situation we usually don't have that much material goods that we can share with others, & the Lord has given us the much more important commission of feeding their souls, not their bodies. You can tell them, just like Peter told the lame man, "I'm sorry, I don't have any money to give you, I wish I did, but what I have to give you is far more valuable than money or goods!" Of course, if the Lord supplies an overabundance of provisioned goods etc., you could always share this excess with the poor you minister to, the homeless missions etc.
28. (It doesn't take long to lead them to the Lord, & once they get led to the Lord, then the Lord is going to take care of them right away! And that's our job!--And that's really the job of all Christians. But most Christians have been deluded into thinking they have to do it all. They think they have to feed & house them, build them villages & schools & give them all the necessities of life before they can even ask them, "Would you like to take Jesus now? Look what He's done for you." But how long is that going to take while a lot of them die & go to Hell!)--Amen! PTL!
Help the Helpless Who Don't Care Who You Are!
29. We're going to have to love the unlovely! That's what Jesus did! He went down amongst the drunks & the harlots, the publicans & sinners, on the highways & byways, & compelled them to come in!--Luk.14:23. And that's what He's told us to do. Our folks who have gone back to North America may find they're not going to be able to minister so much to the upper class. I don't think we're going to reach many top people in the U.S. They've had their day & they have rejected us!--Especially the churches & church people.
30. That was another thing that was in the message the Lord gave me: "Help the helpless who don't care who you are!" (Weeps) Praise the Lord! Thank You Jesus! Hallelujah! How about that? A ministry to people who don't care who we are & are just so thankful for our help! I think the Lord is certainly going to use us with the forsaken & the homeless & the unemployed & the poor that nobody else wants, that most of the churches are not seeking out or caring for, just like we did before with the hippies. When we did it & set the example, then the churches followed our lead & they all began to let in the hippies! Before that they had all rejected them & despised them.
31. Nearly all of the top people in the U.S. are older people who have heard about the COG & don't like us, don't want us! But the meek & the lowly & the broken-hearted & the young don't care who or what we are as long as we help them & love them. The common people are going to hear us gladly!--Mk.12:37.
Whatsoever Thou Spendest, I Will Repay!
32. (Maria: Some may ask, "But where will our support come from if we're just going after that kind of people?" If we could just stop worrying about support & go out to those that can't help to support us, think of how receptive those people would be!--And think of how much more inspired our kids & our adults would be witnessing to those classes!)
33. To begin with, we're not going just to the physically poor. I have no doubt that the Lord will also lead us to the spiritually poor as well, who may have enough physically but are poor & destitute & blind spiritually. We should go anywhere that people will receive us & our Message. However, the point that I believe the Lord is trying to make is that our ministry will be much more to the physically poor because they will be the ones who will be the most receptive as a whole. When people are insecure & uncertain & in fear of losing their job & their home or have already lost them, they are desperate & frightened & are much more apt to be willing to listen to God's solutions. Those who are secure & sure of themselves are much less likely to feel they need anything. "The hungry hath He filled with good things, but the rich hath He sent empty away."--Luk.1:53.
34. In answer to your question about support, remember the story about the Good Samaritan? The Lord said, "Whatsoever thou spendest, I will repay!"--Luk.10:35. I got that Scripture just as clear as anything! We're not to worry about that, He'll take care of it if we'll try to save those that nobody else is saving, those they don't even want to save. (Maria: That's beautiful, TYL!) And there are other verses along that line: "Blessed is he that considereth the poor: the Lord will deliver him in time of trouble. The Lord will preserve him, & keep him alive; & he shall be blessed upon the Earth: & Thou wilt not deliver him unto the will of his enemies." "He that hath pity upon the poor lendeth unto the Lord; & that which he hath given will He pay him again." And "he that giveth unto the poor shall not lack!"--Psa. 41:1,2; Pro.19:17, 28:27.
35. This ministry may be pretty humbling for our Family who have gone back to the States. They may think they've gone back to civilisation & all the comforts of home, but it might humble them to find out that the Lord may not let'm minister to the rich & the full where they've already rejected us & wouldn't even touch us! They'd probably call the cops on us! But He's calling them to minister to the people who don't care who we are, those who won't care if we're the Children of God or the Family of Love or Ichabod Crane, they're so desperate for help!--Hungry, deserted, broken, jobless, homeless, or fearful of becoming homeless or jobless at any moment! They couldn't give a damn or care less who we are, they're so helpless & so desperate & need help so much. They'll be thankful for anyone who will give it.
36. (Maria: Every time we see newsclips about the U.S., it looks like the ones who are the most fearful are the middle class. Although on the outside they look so comfortable & well-off, these are the ones who are the most fearful & who are most at risk of losing their jobs, & as a result, having their homes & their cars repossessed & ending up out on the street with absolutely nothing! This is a very large group of people who might fall into the category of "some being saved by fear."--Jude 23.
37. (It seems that these people would now be very receptive & desperate & finally willing to look to the Lord for their salvation, both spiritually & physically. They might be willing to promise the Lord that they would serve Him & give their lives & their money to His Work if He would let them keep their jobs & homes & possessions. You know that God would bless them if they would turn their lives over to Him & start giving & tithing to His Work. So it seems that this would be a very potential source of supply. "If we have sown unto them spiritual things, is it a great thing if we shall reap their carnal things?"--1Cor.9:11.
38. (Many of the middle class have lost their jobs already, & are about to lose their homes & cars & other possessions if they cannot find a new job. You can find these people hanging out for hours at a time in unemployment offices & welfare offices. Perhaps this is why the Lord allowed them to lose their jobs, so that they would turn to Him in their desperation. They need to be reached as well, & when they are, & when they do turn to Him, He will most likely reward them with a new job if they will serve Him & use their financial means to help His Work.) Amen!
39. A lot of our folks probably never thought they were going to have to minister to the poor! But the Lord may call them to, & it sounds like that's what He's doing. I was definitely seeing the U.S. in this vision when I was reading the prophecies for the North American Leadership.
A Ministry to the Poor in Spirit!
40. (Maria: Do you think worldwide we should try to continue as we are, to try to reach the top in the rest of the World?) Oh yes, we should continue to reach whoever we can, but I think we're going to have our greatest ministry again amongst the lowliest & the most despised & the ones who need the most help, like the hippies in our early days. That's the type of people the Lord has always used us with the most. Of course, we've won lots of people in high places as well--the well-educated & the intelligentsia--but those in the U.S. are going to also have to go back to a ministry like we had in our first days--to the worst, the lowest, the beggars, the ones nobody else cared for & everybody else hated. I think that's where we're going to be best received.
41. But we should go to anyone who needs us & will receive us--& not neglect to follow-up on those who already have! Don't try to force the doors open, but pray & ask the Lord to lead you to whomever He wants you to minister to!
42. Let's not carry this to the extreme to think we're only going to minister to the homeless & the poor! Jesus didn't minister only to the poor & the homeless & the hungry. I'm just saying there are going to be an awful lot of people who are poor & hungry because of the depression, so we'd better get ready to minister to them, as well as whoever else we minister to.
43. The Lord says, "Blessed are the poor in spirit!"--Mat.5:3. And He said He satisfied the hungry, but that He sent the full away.--Luk. 1:53. You can be hungry in spirit, & yet be rich in material things. (Maria: The idea is that we should minister to not just the physically destitute, but also the spiritually destitute & needy.) People in need! Sometimes the rich are the most neglected of all. We're to minister to whoever the Lord leads us to & brings to us, but there are going to be a lot more poor than there used to be. A lot of people who have been rich, by comparison they're going to be poor. But that doesn't mean they're going to be beggars on the street, or absolutely, horribly, poverty-stricken like some of the poor in Southeast Asia & South America who live in shanties with no plumbing, & sewage running down the street!
44. Let's put it this way: We need to minister to the poor in spirit. (Maria: And not just the bums on the street, because most bums are either alcoholics or drug addicts & many are there more or less because they've chosen that way of life & prefer to live that way, so you can't do too much for them.) And most of them have already heard the Gospel! Some of them hear it two or three times a day at the missions in order to get something to eat! Those bums are some of the hardest people I ever dealt with! Talk about arguing doctrine & everything else, they know more about it than you do! So go to those who want & need you, amen?
45. Amen, David, do you want to close in prayer? (David: Thank You Jesus for Your wonderful Words that You've given through Grandpa, & for the start of this new revolution. Thank You for all that we learned tonight & for the special privilege of all being together & learning Your Word from Grandpa, in Jesus' name!) Amen, thank You Lord! Praise the Lord! Hallelujah!
46. What a ministry! But it's nothing new! We were practically outcasts when we started ministering to the hippies. We had no denomination, we had no popularity amongst the churches or anything. But the hippies didn't care who we were!--In fact, the less we belonged to the System, the better they liked us! The less we belonged to something respectable like a church, the better they liked us! So that's where we started, with the people who didn't care who you were! They're so desperate, so helpless, so needy, they won't care who you are! Isn't that a calling? It's going to humble a lot of us, but Lord bless & help us & make us a blessing! Amen? Praise the Lord!
Copyright (c) 1998 by The Family
