HomeARC ML 0328
"GLAMOUR OR GLORY?"--MO March 30, 1973 NO.328--GP
Copyrighted March, 1973 by The Children of God
Box 31, London WC2E 7LX, England or GPO Box 3141, San Juan, Puerto Rico 00936
1. MUSICAL PERFECTION IS MATHEMATICAL BUT MUSICAL INSPIRATION IS DIVINE!
2. THERE WAS ONCE A FAMOUS ACTOR who was quite an orator. The story is told how he was invited to come back to the church of his childhood which his old friend was now pastoring, and now the actor was famous. So he came back and as his contribution to the service he very oratorically recited the Twenty-Third Psalm with all the perfection of the orator and the proper gesticulations and intonations, and so on. When it was done the people applauded, "Great Wonderful, Hurrah!" etc.
3. THEN THE PASTOR AROSE and he said, "If you folks will forgive me, I know you enjoyed that, but I would like to recite the Psalm my way this time. You know?--There's a difference!"
4. AND SO HE BEGAN TO RECITE THE PSALM and by the time he was done the people were in tears--moved emotionally! They just lightly and superficially enjoyed the actor they were applauding, the orator, the instrumentalist, so to speak. But when the preacher got done they were thinking about the Lord!
5. WATCH PERFORMERS, THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN THE TRULY GREATS AND THE MERE PERFECTIONISTS: The major difference is that the perfectionists, those who have great voices, etc. but who are more interested in their performance and are more conscious of how they are singing and looking and sounding, are only interested in themselves! It falls flat, nothing but an egotistical display of self!
6. WHEREAS THE TRULY GREAT PERFORMERS MAKE YOU FORGET THEY'RE PERFORMING and make you forget their performance and even forget them, you're so carried away with the emotion of their message and what they're singing about or saying or portraying. So that they almost fade out of the picture and you're getting the message These are the truly greats!
7. WHAT DO YOU THINK MAKES A MO LETTER? MO? NO! Because he's only the channel. Probably if you met me personally, you'd be highly disillusioned by the flesh. But it's the Spirit. You're not really thinking about me. You're thinking about the truth and the Lord and what is being said.
8. THE GREATEST STARS ARE THOSE WHO DON'T KNOW THEY'RE STARS. The greatest men are the ones who didn't know they were great, at least they didn't feel great. What makes you really great is the greatness God gives you the spirit the inspiration.
9. IT'S LIKE THEY SAID ABOUT MAKARIOS, HE HAS A MYSTICAL CHARISMA, that something that is dramatic! He looks and acts like a king! He's majestic, stately!
10. WHAT A DIFFERENCE THE SPIRIT MAKES! It's the emotional thing: That's the thing that really counts, not a technical perfection.
11. HE APPEALS TO THE PEOPLE'S DESIRE FOR DRAMA, to get out of the humdrum world of reality, and he makes the people feel like he's something great, and that makes them feel like they're very important people because they have such an important king. But he uses a few props the robes and the chain and the headdress.
12. YOU HAVE TO HAVE THE HOLY SPIRIT which people recognise as something great. You kind of swing with the drama of it and sort of fit in with it and ride the crest, but you have to remember it is not you it's something divine, the Holy Spirit so people recognise they're not seeing you--they're seeing the Lord.
13. WE'RE SHOWING GOD TO THE WORLD. They don't know what He's like. The only way they're going to know is by seeing God in you, and that's not you. If they only see you like they see in the churches, Ugh! But if in seeing you they don't see you, they see the Lord that's the difference.
14. THAT'S WHAT THE WORLD TODAY CALLS CHARISMA, a kind of a mystical charm, a divine anointing, a supernatural fascination. That's what every really great musician, singer, speaker, performer, prophet or king must have, a divine anointing. It ought to really erase the performer in some respects and make you think of God, of the greater One behind the person--not the mere instrument.
15. MAKARIOS, FOR EXAMPLE: LOOK AT HIM AS HE WALKS STATELY DOWN THE STREET! He doesn't just remind you of Makarios he is like a picture of the Lord--majesty, power, wisdom, strength! Those really greats!
16. WHEN YOU'RE WATCHING A MOVIE, DO YOU THINK OF THE ACTOR as he is by his own name? No, if he's truly acting and it's great acting, you forget who he really is. He becomes somebody else. He becomes the part he's playing.
17. WHO AM I? LOOK AT ME--AN OLD HUNK OF CLAY, ugly, old and pretty dumb, a little crazy, and half crocked sometimes! It's like Paul said, being personally acquainted in the flesh is a letdown. It's the old story: familiarity breeds contempt.
18. WHAT IS IT THAT TURNS THE KIDS ON?--IT'S THE SPIRIT! God said to Saul, "I will make thee another man," and to David too--God made him another man. He turned him into something he wasn't. It's almost like playing a role.
19. DO I ACT AND LOOK LIKE A KING?--ONLY WHEN I'M UNDER THE ANOINTING. Otherwise, I look and act and sound like the fool I am! But when God has given you a role to play and you can play it with divine anointing and real inspiration of the Lord and by the power of His Spirit, you become that creation of God!
20. GOD TOOK FAITHIE, OUR YOUNGEST, MOST OBSCURE CHILD--the one nobody thought could do anything--and He poured out the anointing on her and made her a new creature! Now she glows with such radiance they think she's beautiful! She sings with such divine annointing they think she's marvelous!
21. IT'S THE POWER OF GOD! I asked God one time, "What is it that just grips us and holds us when Faith sings?" And the Lord said, "She sings with authority!" It's such divine conviction, nothing and nobody could shake it!
22. THAT'S WHAT YOU HAVE TO HAVE when witnessing, singing, writing, or whatever. It's gotta be God! But you have to have the faith to play the role God has given you to play.
23. I WAS SHOCKED, ALMOST TERRIFIED, WHEN I FIRST BEGAN TO GET THOSE HINTS GOD WAS GOING TO MAKE ME SOMEBODY GREAT! And when I began to hear those things about David, I wanted to turn tail and run! But only as I became yielded and willing to consent to being the creation God was trying to make me into, to play the role God wanted me to play, only then could He really begin to use me.
24. IF YOU'RE WILLING TO BE WHAT GOD WANTS YOU TO BE, not what you are but what God wants you to be, then He can mightily use you. You might be able to relax and be what you are in private, but out there when you're facing your public you've got to be what God has made you to be.
25. EVERY KING IS BOTH KING AND MAN: The king that he is en cathedra, like the Pope, but a mere man in private, ex cathedra. The Pope is supposed to have divine wisdom and speak with authority as long as he's en cathedra, but outside of the cathedral he's just another man.
26. THE LORD SHOWED ME THE FIRST TIME I EVER SAW THAT MOVIE, "ULTIMATE TRIP!", WHAT STARS YOU GUYS ARE who only used to be a bunch of hippies and nobodies! God had written you a script and made you a play of which He made you the stars and you were playing your roles well! Our kids are just kids, no different from any others, except for one thing--God-- and He's everything!
27. HE MAKES THE DIFFERENCE between lifeless clay and the alive, pulsating energetic body of a human being! It's the breath of God, the anointing and power of God that makes the difference and don't you forget it!
28. WITHOUT HIM YOU'RE NOTHING! You'll fall flat as a flounder! What did the Lord show me in the "Bahai Prophecy" about the pitiful prophets who tried to keep on going after the anointing was gone? They're the most sad, pitiful cases in all history after God removed the anointing because they went astray or began to exalt themselves instead of giving God the glory.
29. I DON'T DOUBT GOD ANOINTED HEROD that day when he spoke as ruler of the people: They said, "It is the voice of a god!" Now there was nothing wrong with him speaking that way, but when he forgot to give God the glory and rebuke the people for giving him the credit, suddenly he was eaten with worms! He fell ill and died! God smote him because he didn't give God the credit.
30. ONE OF THE BIGGEST DANGERS YOU HAVE IS TO BEGIN THINKING IT'S YOU. It's God's anointing. If He withdraws it, you're just as flat as ever. It doesn't matter how technically perfect these bands are, they can be dead as a doornail if they lack the power--that supernatural thing--that mysterious mystical power that really turns people on and makes them trip out.
31. A LOT OF THE WORLD'S BANDS HAVE IT--the Beatles, for example they had a supernatural spirit that turned people on. The letter killeth, but the spirit maketh alive.
32. THAT'S WHAT IS WRONG WITH THE CHURCHES TODAY: They've got everything, but they're one helluva failure because they've lost the Spirit--no anointing or power, no real emotion, no dramatic mystical charisma. The fire's gone!
33. WHAT GOOD IS THE FURNACE WHEN ITS FIRE GOES OUT? It's cold and dark and useless! But it's still all there--just no fire. Let the furnace go dead cold and dark and the whole house grows cold and that's what happened to the churches. Their furnaces or prophets have all gone dead: No emotion, no spirit, no anointing, no power, no fire. The fire's gone out, so the whole house has gotten cold!
34. WHAT IS IT WITH US? WE'RE BRINGING THE FIRE BACK IN! Whoever will receive us, we'll set them on fire and get them perking again!
35. IT'S NOT THE FURNACE, REMEMBER: IT'S THE FIRE! A BONFIRE IN THE BACK YARD OF FALLEN LEAVES AND BROKEN TWIGS AND TRASH WILL DO MORE GOOD out there uncontrolled and give you more heat and light and warmth than this mechanical genius, the furnace, this mathematical perfection, without fire! It's marvelous, but without fire it's not as good as the bonfire of trash out in the backyard! It's the fiery anointing that counts! The dead, dry old churches are afraid our backyard bonfire of us trash is gonna set their churches ablaze, so they call the System to put us out!
36. "IT'S THE SPIRIT, IT'S THE SPIRIT!" I kick over the traces, break all the rules, shatter all the precedents, rebel from the System, destroy the conventions and depart from the traditions! What in the world? What good could I do without all those?
37. I'LL TELL YOU WHAT: I'VE GOT THE FIRE and it doesn't matter if I break all the rules and mix everything up, as long as I've got the fire they'll follow the flame! Hallelujah! (Tongues) "Listen to the words of David! They'll warm themselves by your fire!" As my grandfather used to say, "If you'll just get on fire for God, the world will come out to see you burn!"
38. I DON'T CARE HOW GOOD THE BAND IS, IF IT'S NOT GOT THE FIRE, IT'S JUST SO MUCH SOUNDING BRASS AND TINKLING SYMBOLS! I don't care how much education you have, how much of an orator you are, if you haven't got the fire, it profits nothing!
39. IF YOU HAVEN'T GOT THE FIRE I DON'T CARE HOW "GOOD" A WITNESS YOU ARE, how many verses you learn, how many MO Letters you can quote, how much you understand Bible Prophecy and can describe every beast in the book and hang a label on every horn, if you haven't got the fire, it's just cold dead icicles of facts and figures--no warmth, no heat!
40. YOU'LL NEVER SET ANYBODY ON FIRE WITHOUT IT! All you'll do is get them muddled up and turn them off. So I don't care if you're a witness or a singer or a secretary.
41. I'VE KNOWN LOTS OF SECRETARIES, BUT THEY JUST DIDN'T HAVE THE FIRE, the spirit. They just didn't have it. But Maria has the anointing. she has that certain divine inspiration under that anointing. She gets it in the spirit. Even if she can't hear it in the natural, she can sense when I'm in the spirit and beginning to flow, just like love-making, and she doesn't want to miss it!
42. I THINK YOU CAN EVEN BE ANOINTED AND SPIRIT LED IN DRIVING A CAR! It doesn't mean you have to climb a light pole to be inspired. But you're thinking and praying about your driving and asking God for wisdom, and He can inspire you! Anything you do, washing dishes taking care of babies, no matter what it is, you can do it in the Spirit! But of you just have the letter of the law of duty only, it drags you down and turns you off.
43. IF YOU'VE GOT THAT DIVINE ANOINTING, IT MAKES EVERY LITTLE TASK WONDERFUL! "You've got to have a glory in the thing you do, an everlasting glory that'll carry you through!" I've had some guys polish my shoes who just did it like they could have spit in my face instead of on my shoes! But I've had other little native boys get down and sing to the rhythm as they shined my shoes with glory! It was a glory to them and they had an anointing for it!
44. MOM'S GOT AN ANOINTING FOR HER JOB, whether it's giving them recipes or telling them how to cook. She has an anointing. God gives me an anointing to feed them spiritually.
45. AND OUR BANDS, MUSICIANS AND SINGERS HAVE TO DO IT IN THE SPIRIT or it'll fall flat on its face, and you'll hear all that glorious beauty and marvelous perfection and you'll wonder why it doesn't move you.
46. UNLESS IT MOVES YOU, WHAT GOOD IS IT? Anything like the business we're in is moving people. We're trying to move them from one place to the other, one life to another, one spirit to another. We're trying to move them!
47. IT'S LIKE GIVING BIRTH TO A BABY: If we have no strength or power, we'll never make it. If it doesn't move you, there's something wrong. If you're just attracted to the quality of the music or looks of the singers, if it just tickles your ears, but doesn't touch your heart, it's no good!
48. IF YOUR MUSIC DOESN'T AFFECT PEOPLE, YOU'RE JUST IN THE ENTERTAINMENT BUSINESS! if your singing doesn't affect people, if your witness doesn't make them glad or mad or sad, it's just so much hot air and a waste of time! It's the difference between somebody that is proud of his own work and himself and those who have the spirit and just wanna exalt Jesus!
49. IF PEOPLE GET THEIR FOCUS ON YOU, WATCH OUT! I think if most of you kids saw me, you'd lose interest. You've got your attention focused on my spirit, my spirit being the spiritual creation of God: King David--and in the Spirit that's what I really am! But out of the Spirit, I'm only a crazy nothing.
50. PEOPLE NOT ONLY HAVE TO SEE YOU, BUT THEY'VE GOT TO SEE JESUS COMING THROUGH YOU. But if it stops dead with you, they'll just go on and figure it was a waste of time--no different from what everybody else was screaming. "Not by (thy) might not by (thy) power, but by My Spirit!" saith the Lord. Jesus said, "The Words that I speak unto thee, they are spirit and they are life!"
51. THE WORDS THE PHARISEES SPOKE WERE WELL EDUCATED, BUT THEY WERE FLESH AND THEY WERE DEATH! Why? Because they spoke from their heads and Jesus spoke from His heart--from the Spirit. That's the difference.
52. I DON'T CARE WHAT YOU DO, YOU'VE GOTTA HAVE THE SPIRIT!--Witnessing, singing, playing, writing, dish-washing or cooking! I used to get really anointed working on the engine of the car!--It thrilled me! I'd get real inspiration working on it, and the Lord would show me what was wrong. I taught Caleb too, and he became an anointed mechanic!--He didn't know anything about it when he began, but the Lord would show him what was wrong.
53. YOU CAN BE AN ANOINTED WORM AND BECOME A GLOWWORM FOR GOD! They glow in the dark, you know. Without the anointing you'd just be an ordinary ugly little bug! But with the anointing you become a firefly lighting up the night for God! My brother wrote a poem one time which ended with the thought: "This Jesus--He troubles me, He bothers me. He moves me. I don't understand why this had to happen, but He troubles me."
54. YOU'VE GOT TO MOVE THEM, make them mad, sad or glad, drive them to a decision, spur them to action, emote them into motion by emotion by the Spirit. "It's the spirit, it's the spirit!"
55. THE BODY WITHOUT THE SPIRIT IS DEAD!--SO IS EVERY SONG, every sermon, every witness, every book, every picture. Every task, whatever it is, without the Spirit it's dead and will eat your heart out and kill you! But the Spirit can make anything glorious! It can make you even clean toilets with an artistic finesse and be proud of the good job you did and consider it a work of art and a thing of beauty!
56. "YOU GOTTA HAVE A GLORY IN THE THING YOU DO!" The Spirit can turn it on, no matter what it is or who it is, and give it glory and glamour and life! Beauty, joy and life and heat and everything.--You name it! It's the Spirit that makes the difference.
57. "I AM TOILET!" YOU CAN EVEN BE A TOILET! You can be the humblest, lowliest most contemptible vessel in the whole house, but with the life of the water of God you become the most absolutely essential, needed and useful vessel in the whole house!
58. THE GREATEST TO THE LEAST HAVE TO SIT ON YOU! Only one vessel in the whole house is built in permanently! Only one vessel in the house has a room of its own. It's like a throne!
59. BUT A TOILET WITHOUT WATER IS THE LETTER WITHOUT THE SPIRIT. If your service for God hasn't got the spirit, it stinks and people are going to hold their noses and run the other way! All that meat and no potatoes! All that smoke and no fire! All that action and no juice that brings fruit.
60. HAVE YOU GOT THE SPIRIT? Has your singing, music or whatever you do got the power, the fire of God?--If not, it's dead works!--And it'll never set anyone else on fire either! God help you to have the fire-power of God's Spirit in all you do!--Amen? Praise the Lord! Don't try to work up glamour--pray down glory! Hallelujah!
Copyright (c) 1998 by The Family}
