HomeARC ML 1677
GO TO WORK!--OR GO HOME! DFO 1677 11/83--The Secrets of Success!--And Failure!
1. AMEN! PTL! TYJ! HALLELUJAH! HAVING ACCOMPLISHED MOST OF MY MAJOR PROJECTS--EITHER FINISHED OR IN THE WORKS--WITH NOTHING MORE URGENT TO DO THIS MORNING, AS IS MY CUSTOM I WAS PRAYING, ASKING THE LORD WHAT I SHOULD DO NEXT. And I was led to sort of take a bird's-eye view of our whole operation & what are its strengths & its weaknesses, where is it okay & where does it need help? As I did so I felt it wise to make a list of the major points, & since I felt they were pretty major, I decided to list them in the back of my Diary to analyse our entire Family & its foundation, its Message, its personnel, methods, organisation, communication, stats, security & support, these nine principal necessities of success.
2. PTL! HALLELUJAH! TYJ! HELP US, LORD, IN JESUS' NAME TO GIVE THEM THE RIGHT MESSAGE, to feed Thy sheep what they need to know that they might be strong & healthy & well & flourishing & productive & pleasing & obedient to Thee, in Jesus' name. TYL! You may think of some more to add to this list, I don't know, but I think this pretty well covers all the major points of the necessities for success in our ministry.
3. FIRST OF ALL, PRAISE THE LORD, OUR MINISTRY MUST BE BASED ON THE RIGHT FOUNDATION, & "NO OTHER FOUNDATION CAN ANY MAN LAY THAN THIS, THE MAN CHRIST JESUS!" (1Cor.3:11) He is the Foundation of our entire building made of living stones. (1Pet.2:4-5) He & His Father's Love are the reason & purpose for all things & "of whom all things do consist" (Col.1:17) & for which the Worlds were made & man made & all creation exists. "For this is the whole duty of man, to glorify God & to keep His commandments." (Ecc.12:13) And to glorify God we must praise the Lord, give Him first credit for everything & "acknowledge Him in all our ways, then He'll direct our paths." (Pr.3:6) We must praise Him, thank Him & give Him all the glory. "Whatsoever we do in word or in deed, do all to the glory of God." (Col.3:17)--To glorify God in all that we do & to keep His Commandments of Love & service to both Him & our fellow man, in Jesus' name. Hallelujah! TYL!
4. SO WE KNOW WE HAVE THE RIGHT FOUNDATION FOR OUR WHOLE FAMILY STRUCTURE, WHICH IS A PART OF HIS BODY, OUR FAMILY, PART OF HIS CHURCH. We are not the whole Body nor the whole Church, thank God, but there are millions of others who love the Lord, who truly trust Jesus Christ for their Salvation & are born-again Christians following or serving the Lord in various degrees & ways & places. So there are millions of us the World over, & in the other World as well, praise God!--Billions! TYL!
5. SO WE KNOW WE HAVE THE RIGHT FOUNDATION, THANK THE LORD! We are built a house of living stones on the only possible foundation that can stand & last & endure & be strong enough to bear us & survive, including the Cornerstone, Christ Jesus. (Eph.2:20) He's not only the Foundation, but the Cornerstone as well. I would say He's even the Capstone too & we are all a part of His Body, so it's all Jesus, thank the Lord!
6. SO WE NOT ONLY HAVE THE MAN, WE HAVE THE MESSAGE, & THAT IS OUR MESSAGE!--THE MAN IS OUR MESSAGE! We preach Jesus! We preach His Word, we preach His Love, we preach His Gospel, the Good News of Salvation, we preach faith in Him, we preach Him as the answer to all of our needs--physical, spiritual, mental & with hope for the future & Heaven at last! This Message answers all our questions, meets all our needs & is the solution to all the problems of the whole World if they would just listen & receive it & obey it. And thank God, it is changing the World, at least our parts of the World where we are & where it is preached & believed & received & obeyed, thank the Lord!
7. SO WE KNOW WE HAVE THE RIGHT MAN WITH THE RIGHT MESSAGE, THANK THE LORD, BUT THE RIGHT MAN WITH THE RIGHT MESSAGE IS NOT SUFFICIENT, WE MUST HAVE THE RIGHT MEN TO PREACH IT, MEN & WOMEN, BOYS & GIRLS! And in order to have this we must recruit soldiers for His great Army of Witnesses! We must win souls to faith in Jesus Christ, Salvation in Him, for transformation of their lives & to make them disciples. He tells us that we have to "go into all the World to preach the Gospel to every creature" & "make disciples of every nation". (Mk.16:15 & Mt.28:19)
8. WE MUST NOT ONLY WIN SOULS, BUT WE MUST MAKE DISCIPLES OF THOSE SOULS, or we are going to become a fruitless, dying Church like so many, dying of self-genocide for failure to be productive & self-propagating!--Like some religions which teach celibacy & are anti-sex, & therefore barren & childless & are dying or already dead!
9. AND TO MAKE THESE DISCIPLES FRUITFUL & PRODUCTIVE WE MUST TEACH & TRAIN THEM & SHOW THEM HOW TO WITNESS & WIN SOULS & TEACH & TRAIN THEM & HELP THEM. We must, as in 2nd Timothy 2:2, teach others to teach others to teach others in the endless chain reaction of the explosion of constant witnessing, soul-winning & discipling!--The name of the game being multiplication of Citizens for the Kingdom of God to glorify the Lord, to love Him & to give Him as many as possible to love, which is the reason for it all--Love! God made us to love because He needed someone to love, & He made us to love Him because we need to love Him & be thankful for Him & His Love.
10. SO WE'VE GOT THE RIGHT MAN, THE RIGHT MESSAGE & WE ARE GETTING THE RIGHT MEN & WOMEN! I use the old all-inclusive form of the term "man" & "men", including of course the women as well. So you can call me a male chauvinist if you want to, but if you gag on that, I'm certainly not going to call you a feminist, because the so-called feminists are anything but feminine! But I'm just trying to use words with an alliteration, beginning much with the same letter to help you remember these points: The Man, the Message, the men, & now we must be sure that we have the right methods!--Both to love Him, to glorify Him & preach Him & spread the Gospel & faith in Him & feeling & hope of Heaven, a bright & glorious future here on Earth, both in the Millennium & the New Heaven & New Earth! Praise God!
11. SO WHAT ARE THE RIGHT METHODS? Well, the most important & first & foremost, primary & always, of course, & the most effective, efficient & fruitful is personal witnessing, personal evangelism, personal soul-winning in whatever way you may do it.--Whether it's to friends & acquaintances that you know, workmates, schoolmates, business co-workers or on the street or in private such as FFing, or with literature distributed by hand or by mail or by whatever method possible.--Also through small meetings, not too large.
12. WE DON'T BELIEVE THAT THE MASS MEETINGS & MEDIA ARE THE BEST & SAFEST MEANS OF SPREADING THE MESSAGE. They're too impersonal, too massive to handle with the personal touch & too dangerous because you can't be quite as choosy about whom you're talking to. But in small meetings you can be selective & you can be much more secure & cautious about who you invite & who you're talking to.
13. THESE SMALL MEETINGS I'M SPEAKING OF, OF COURSE, CAN INCLUDE EVERYTHING FROM "WHERE TWO OR THREE ARE GATHERED TOGETHER IN HIS NAME, THERE THE LORD IS IN THE MIDST OF THEM" (MT.18:20), anywhere, indoors, outdoors, busking or singing in the parks or the restaurants or schools or on campuses or wherever the Lord opens the door & makes a way for you to get out the Message.--But preferably in small meetings, class-type meetings where the risks of insecurity are far lower & the selectivity of your objectives is far better & with a more personal touch.
14. AT THESE MEETINGS YOU CAN ALSO GREATLY UTILISE AUDIO TAPES, MUSIC TAPES, VIDEO TAPES WITH FRIENDS OF THE FAMILY & MUSIC CLUBBERS ETC., FRIENDS & NEIGHBOURS.--Not always neighbours, they're sometimes the hardest ones to love & have the hardest time loving you & it's not always too secure! But share them with friends, families, kings, queens, friends of the Family, those who are faithful donors in provisioning, those who live outside your home yet are good prospects for encouraging their faith & fellowship by giving them an opportunity to share our music & our Family & its work & ministry throughout the World by means of audio tapes & videos, a wonderful ministry & proving more effective all the time.--As well as now the slide shows which are proving very effective with small groups & audiences in preaching the Gospel & even showing the Family & its work & ministry around the World! PTL!
15. SO WE BELIEVE WE'RE USING THE RIGHT METHODS IN THIS PERSONAL WITNESSING--literature, meetings, tapes, videos, FFing & any others that you may think of or wish to advocate. We believe in preaching the Gospel any possible way we can by any possible means or method, thank the Lord!
16. SO NOW THAT WE HAVE THE MAN & THE MESSAGE, THE MEN & THE METHODS, EVERY ARMY NEEDS SOME TYPE OF ORGANISATION, PLANNING & ATTACK so that we don't fall over each other by having too many in some places & not enough in others, so that we will spread out & recognise the needs on various fronts & shift personnel according to the need. As in any battle, as every commander knows, we must keep our eyes on all fronts & send help to those that need help & are weak, & take it from those that are strong. And in order to have this type of organisation it must begin, of course, at the very local indigenous level with local indigenuity, local self-support, self-government & self-propagation.
17. BUT THESE LOCAL UNITS MUST ALSO HAVE SOME FORM OF SUPERVISION & CO-ORDINATION in order to set standards with which the soldiers & army must comply, in order to follow orders of leaders & have some form of firm control of the army to be sure that it's obeying & following & doing what it's supposed to be doing, to keep a sharp eye on every combat unit & every member, every individual soldier & fighter.
18. FROM THE BOTTOM ON UP & THE TOP ON DOWN WE MUST HAVE GOOD, TIGHT ORGANISATION to keep things in their proper places, that "everything might be done in decency & in order" (1Co.14:40) & kept under proper control, supervision & leadership with the right standards. Amen? So therefore we must have good organisation.
19. AND IN ORDER TO HAVE SUCH GOOD ORGANISATION WE MUST HAVE GOOD COMMUNICATION, first of all with our Commander-in-Chief, Jesus Christ, the Head of our Army. We must have this communication personally, each one individually, directly with Him to know that we are aware of His Word & pleasing & obeying Him & following His directions & His orders.
20. THEREFORE WE MUST HAVE THE WORD IN EVERY FORM POSSIBLE. The Bible was the one to begin with, the already recorded & established Word down through the centuries which has worked. It works, which is the greatest proof of its efficacy. And we need to have His present Word, direct answers to prayer, direct revelations, messages, prophecy, tongues, interpretation, information straight from Heaven to know exactly what He wants us to do right now!
21. WHAT KIND OF AN ARMY WOULD IT BE WHICH WAS SIMPLY GOING BY THE OLD RULEBOOK ESTABLISHED CENTURIES AGO without any immediate, present, direct communication with some kind of leadership as its Commander-in-Chief right now? Just going by historical precedent, just going by the ancient messages recorded & methods set down, such as the Church is doing so much today with no present-day, up-to-the-minute direct communication with God, no recent Word, no present-day revelation, we would become as out of touch, out of fellowship, out of communication as most of the churches are today, going on past history, resting on their past laurels & past records & yesterday's advice & counsel--not only yesterday nor even yesteryear nor even yester-century, but information given hundreds & thousands of years ago!--Much of it very good & still useful today & still appropriate for today, such as the basic rules in the rulebook of every army.
22. BUT WITHOUT PERSONAL, IMMEDIATE, DAY-TO-DAY, MOMENT-BY-MOMENT DIRECTION FROM ABOVE, WHAT KIND OF AN ARMY ARE WE GOING TO HAVE?--What kind of a mess with every man doing as he pleases & what he thinks should be done & going his own way with no coordination, no organisation, no central leadership, no plan, no counsel, no communication & no specific direction? And of course for this kind of good communication, as I say, we need prayer & the Word, & we're getting the Word from the Bible & from the Letters & our modern literature & publications, communications, as well as in local fellowship & an interchange of Worldwide Family News! We are endeavouring our best to stay in excellent communication with each other & with the Lord! PTL? Amen!
23. ANOTHER THING WHICH WE CANNOT DO WITHOUT IN ORDER TO SURVIVE IS A CERTAIN AMOUNT OF RECORD-KEEPING, REPORTS, STATS, TRFS, WORLD STATS, BOOKS! We must keep books on what we're doing to know where we're at. We must know what you're doing to know what you need to do. We must know what you're doing & not doing so we can help you in case you need it. We need thorough records. You need to keep records, your personal records, your personal witnessing records, diaries. You need to keep stats for your personal reports & then deliver these stats to your Shepherd in order that he might make out your Family TRF & make sure that these are sent to the various stat-collecting agencies where they can be compiled & analysed & sent on to us for the final summations & analyses so we can know exactly what state & condition our army is in, exactly what they're doing, what they're not doing, where they're at, what they're up to & all that any good Commander needs to know regarding the operation of his army to ensure its success in the field.
24. STATS, YOU MAY SAY, ARE REALLY A PART OF OUR COMMUNICATION, but I wish to emphasise them in particular as being absolutely essential & necessary for our well-being. They are our pulse-taking & temperature-taking of the body politic to know exactly the health of the body & its physical functions.
25. AND CLOSELY RELATED TO THIS, THE BODY CANNOT PHYSICALLY FUNCTION WELL UNLESS IT IS NOT ONLY HEALTHY BUT SECURE, SO SECURITY IS ONE OF THE ESSENTIALS OF SUCCESS FOR OUR FAMILY OPERATIONS. This includes the personal security of each individual member, each disciple, caution in their personal health, diet, rest, exercise, sleep, habits, contacts, activities & security of the local Home in general.--The security of both its personnel & its materials & finances etc., varying in degree as to whether they are completely Selah Homes engaged in Selah ministries or underground in closed countries, non-public, or whether they are open Homes in free & liberal countries where they can operate more openly. The security of each Home must be governed by the situation in which they live & operate. Therefore the personal & material security of each Home must be kept under very close surveillance & watched & guarded. He said, "Watch & pray!" (Mt.26:41)
26. SO PRAISE THE LORD, SECURITY IS ESSENTIAL TO SUCCESS IF WE'RE GOING TO SURVIVE & keep going & keep preaching & keep our lives & disciples & continue the Message with the men & the methods & the organisation & communications. These all must be very secure, including our records & stats etc., & not permitted to be neglected nor kept in unsafe places or operate unsafely with any measure of insecurity, if at all possible.
27. AND NOW WE COME TO THE LAST BUT BY NO MEANS THE LEAST OF THE NECESSITIES OF SUCCESS IN OUR WORK, & THAT IS SUPPORT! I would not say that all of the items I have mentioned are necessarily in their order of importance, although these main categories I believe are, beginning with the Man & the Message & the men & the methods, the organisation, communication & tabulation--if you want to call the stats & records that--& security. But finally, without good support, none of these can possibly succeed & they are doomed to failure!
28. AS NAPOLEON ONCE SAID, EVERY ARMY TRAVELS ON ITS STOMACH! We must have logistics, we must have food & clothing & usually some amount of shelter. We must have these personal necessities of life. We must have our needs met in order to be able to perform our tasks & to fight our battles. We must have good material support. Because no matter how good a soldier we have, if he has nothing to eat, nothing to wear & no place to stay, he's not going to amount to much or accomplish much & he'll soon fail as a fighter, being weakened, exposed, insecure & unable to do his task.
29. SO AS I WAS PONDERING OVER THESE VARIOUS NECESSITIES OF SUCCESS of these various essentials for our effective & efficient & fruitful operations, I was asking the Lord this morning, "Where do we need the most help? What is our weakest point?" It certainly is not the Man Christ Jesus! It's not the Message, we know what Message to preach. It's not the men, we've got thousands of volunteers eager to serve the Lord. It's not the methods, we believe we're teaching & preaching & practising the right methods, the best & most effective & efficient & fruitful methods. We believe we have a good, strong, tight organisation with good communication, excellent tabulations & security.
30. BUT I BELIEVE TODAY THAT AFTER ALL OF THESE YEARS OF HARD WORK & hundreds of Letters & much instruction, excellent teaching, beautiful synchronisation, a Worldwide work in every way, wonderful Foundation, Message, men, methods, organisation, communication, tabulation, security & all, that our weakest point today after all these years is still support!
31. WE HAVE HAD MANY GOOD, LOYAL, FAITHFUL, DILIGENT, HARD-WORKING, INSPIRED MISSIONARIES IN THE FIELD WHO HAVE FAILED, not for their lack of desire to serve the Lord or their lack of love for others, not even for their lack of the right Message or soul-winning or discipling ability or the right methods. They're in a good organisation with good communication & tabulation, security, everything, but they failed to have sufficient support, & therefore they failed.
32. THEY HAVE EVERYTHING ELSE & EVERYTHING ELSE GOING FOR THEM & EVERY OTHER OPPORTUNITY, everything else right, everything else strong, everything else going great. They obeyed the Commander-in-Chief, they got to the field, they're fighting faithfully, but the supply line has been broken somehow & they're out of touch with their support & therefore they have very little or almost no support, no logistics, poor food, poor clothing, poor housing & insufficient to meet their needs. Therefore they have been sorely handicapped, pitifully debilitated & some have even had to fold-up, pack up & go home for lack of sufficient support.
33. I WOULD SAY TODAY THAT THIS IS PROBABLY OUR WEAKEST POINT & THE CAUSE OF THE GREATEST NUMBER OF OUR FAMILY FAILURES & MISSIONARY FLOPS, THIS FAILURE TO GET SUFFICIENT SUPPORT! We have done everything else, we have everything else, we're doing everything else, we've got it all, but without the blood supply the body will die! It may have everything else--the right Man, the Message, the helpers, the methods, the organisation, communication, tabulation, security, everything, but without food, without a good circulation of blood supplying the absolute essential needs of the whole body, the body will sicken as many parts have & die on the vine, wilt, various branches becoming unfruitful for lack of support.
34. YOU SAY, "WELL WHY DID IT HAPPEN? Here we did everything, we did it all right! We had the right Man, the Message, the men, the methods, the organisation, communication, tabulation & security! What's the matter with our support?" Well number one, Jesus Himself said, "I am the Vine, ye are the branches, & ye cannot bear fruit of yourselves except ye abide in the Vine. If a branch abide not in the Vine, it's going to wither & die. Without Me ye can do nothing." (Jn.15:4-6)
35. SO FIRST OF ALL, IF YOU WANT GOOD MATERIAL & FINANCIAL SUPPORT, YOU MUST BE IN CLOSE COMMUNICATION WITH THE LORD HIMSELF. You must be firmly implanted in the Vine where you're receiving the juice & the sap & the nourishment that you need directly from the Lord Himself. And if you are staying & living close to the Lord in close fellowship & obedience to His Word, God will support you & see that you survive & take care of you & "supply all your need according to His riches in glory" if He has to drop it directly out of Heaven! (Ph.4:19)
36. HOWEVER, HE DOES USUALLY USE SOME MEANS, & THOSE MEANS ARE USUALLY MEN & WOMEN, FRIENDS & FAMILY, LOVED ONES, SUPPORTERS, PARTICULARLY HOME SUPPORTERS IN THE CASE OF MISSIONARIES, since most missionaries are sent out from more advantaged countries that are able to support them & help them to go to the field & to minister there to the less advantaged & the underdeveloped countries. Therefore most missionary support comes from their home countries.
37. ON THE FIELD AMONGST YOUR NATIVE & NATIONAL DISCIPLES, THEIR HOME SUPPORT OF COURSE WILL COME RIGHT FROM THAT FIELD, right where it's at & where they are, from their own people, & God will see to it that it does. But most of the missionaries are the Apostles of the Lord, those sent with a message, & to be sent you have to go & get there, but to go & get there you've got to be sent & somebody's got to send you! Somebody's got to foot the bill, pay the ticket & send you support to keep you there at the battlefront.
38. NO ARMY CAN SURVIVE WITHOUT SOME KIND OF SUPPORT!--Whether they get it from the headquarters or the home country or the home land by means of lines of supply & logistics or whether they live off the land where they are. Every army travels on its stomach & must have some kind of material & physical support to survive in this World, in this life.
39. THEREFORE YOU MUST FIRST & MOST OF ALL PRAY & ASK
GOD TO HELP YOU & TO KEEP IN CLOSE COMMUNICATION WITH THE LORD, abiding in the Vine as one of His branches so that He Himself can make sure that you're getting the right juices & sap & circulation to supply your physical needs. And probably the first thing He'll tell you to do, of course, is to raise your own support as much as possible. Don't expect Him to drop it all from the sky. He can do that & He has done it sometimes, but usually He likes to use people. He likes to use men as His means in order that they too might be blessed & have a share in your ministry & its fruits & receive part of the rewards. Because that is a part of His plan, "that they which stand by the stuff shall receive equally with them which go forth to the battle." (1Sam.30:24) Therefore God intends for others to help you & support you.
40. BUT TO DO THIS YOU MUST BE WILLING TO ASK THEM FOR SUPPORT! You must be humble & not too proud to ask. He says, "Ask & ye shall receive, seek & ye shall find, knock & it shall be opened unto you." (Mt.7:7) And much of your support in so many countries must come from the richer countries of the World as you minister in the poorer, needier countries, the ones with the greatest population, the greatest number of unsaved & the greatest ignorance of the Gospel. Therefore much of your support will usually have to come from your home country, & with many of us that is one of the Northern or Western richer countries of the World.
41. THEREFORE IF YOU ARE GOING TO HAVE THEIR SUPPORT IN THE FIELD, YOU MUST FIRST OF ALL TRY TO RAISE IT IN YOUR HOME LAND BEFORE YOU GO by the many methods which we have already gone into in great detail, in witnessing & winning souls & disciples, teaching & training them to do the same & helping them, & then teaching & training them to also help you.
42. THEREFORE ONE OF THE FIRST WAYS YOU GET YOUR SUPPORT IS AT HOME, from your own disciples, followers, supporters, offerings, provisionings, forsake-alls, FFing, even working. If you're an unusually successful litnesser, you might even raise a good deal of it that way, but litnessing usually is not sufficient & you are going to fall short if you depend almost entirely on litnessing, either at home or in the field. You must have other means of support as well, particularly by donations & gifts, tithes & offerings from those who know you & love you & are persuaded by you, convinced by you to have faith in you that you are serving the Lord & in such a way that they would like to help support you.
43. SO MUCH OF YOUR SUPPORT SHOULD BE RAISED BEFORE YOU EVER LEAVE YOUR HOME LAND, from your friends & family, kings & queens, converts, churches, disciples, wherever you can get it, by whatever means.--Particularly by not only present support & present supply, but promise of future support when you get to the field, as well as help on getting to the field. And this you endeavour to raise by means of pledges, the little pledge cards which we recommended long ago, in your meetings & contacts & personal witnessing from your friends & disciples, loved ones & those who love you, by endeavouring to persuade them to sign a little pledge card which is a promise that they're going to help you get to the field & on the field by pledging to give you so much per month in faithful, steady, monthly support. (See "Get Home Support--Or Stay Home!" No.922.)
44. NEARLY ALL MISSIONARIES MUST DO THIS & all missionary societies I have ever known of insist on this before they will even send a missionary to the field, that you have raised your fare & all your needs as well as your monthly support in pledges sufficient to meet the need of your living expenses in that particular field. So this is why we have advocated time & time again & never ceased to advocate that you must raise your support, or at least most of it, if not all of it if possible, in your home land before leaving for the field.
45. THEN ONCE IN THE FIELD YOU MUST KEEP UP A CONSTANT, LIVELY LINE OF COMMUNICATION & NEWS & THANK-YOU'S & REQUESTS FOR PRAYER BY MEANS OF PRAYER LETTERS FROM THE FIELD TO YOUR HOME SUPPORTERS & FRIENDS. PRAYER LETTERS ARE YOUR LIFELINE of continued support from home & your home supporters, or your supporters wherever they may be. You must keep up good communication with them to show that you appreciate, first of all, their support & that you are concerned about them & you're thankful for their gifts with constant thank-you's for every single gift that they send, a little thank-you note, as well as updating them on the news of your field & what you're accomplishing to help them see that their investment is worth it & you're worth supporting because you're really accomplishing something, you're getting results, you're winning souls, disciples, you're fruitful, faithful, effective & diligent!
46. YOU MUST KEEP UP A CONSTANT LINE OF SUPPLY & COMMUNICATION WITH FREQUENT PRAYER LETTERS, AT LEAST MONTHLY, TO YOUR SUPPORTERS, as well as immediate thank-you notes as each gift comes in. Just prayer letters once a month is not enough, you must write a little thank-you every time you receive a gift, with another bit of news or a paragraph or so in order to keep up good communication & show them that you really appreciate their help & you really are thankful for it & you really desperately need it & tell what you spend it for. They like to know what you're using their money for!
47. --LIKE THE LITTLE BOY THAT THEY SAY WANTED TO GO TO THE MISSIONARY MEETING & HEAR THE MISSIONARY TALK. His mother wondered, "Well why are you so interested in hearing this missionary, Johnny?" And he said, "Well, I want to find out what he did with that nickel I gave him last year!" Well, I'll tell you, if you don't keep up better communication with your supporters, with even your nickel-givers, you're not going to get very much support either now or next year if your communication is not any better than that! The little boy had to wait all year to find out what the missionary did with his nickel & wait for a personal visit. You had better keep them informed almost day-by-day, week-by-week & at least month-by-month of your activities & your fruits & results & that you are worth supporting & worthy of their continued support.
48. SO HOME SUPPORT IS VIRTUALLY ESSENTIAL FOR ALMOST EVERY FIELD IN THE WORLD! Either you're in the home field & getting support there, or you're in some foreign field far away, a much poorer field usually, & getting your support from home which you must raise before you go. It's very difficult to try to raise home support after you're long-gone, out of sight & out of mind. So if you were not interested enough in trying to raise your support before you left & make friends & influence people & win disciples & followers & supporters, how do you expect to do it by mail from the far distant far-away field?--Because you probably won't even have a mailing list if you weren't faithful in contacts & converts & raising & recruiting friends & supporters at home before you left!
49. SO WE BELIEVE THAT HOME SUPPORT IS THE MOST IMPORTANT, OR AT LEAST THE SECOND MOST IMPORTANT, THE FIRST BEING GOD'S SUPPORT! "If God be for you, who can be against you?" (Rom.8:31) But He's going to expect you to share the blessings & share the ministry with those at home, to give them an opportunity--if they can't go to the field or won't--to at least share in your ministry & to help support you so that He might bless them & reward them for it. So you must keep up a good mailing list & mailing ministry with prayer letters to your home supporters with consistent, frequent, diligent thank-you's, pictures, audio tapes, even videos etc.
50. ALL RIGHT, SO MUCH FOR HOME SUPPORT, ONLY WE COULD NEVER SAY TOO MUCH ABOUT THAT! And if you didn't work on it before you left, you will probably be in a fix if you're not already in a fix right now, & a mess! Because with everything else you've got going for you, being in the right fellowship with the right Man, the right Message, men, methods, organisation, communication, tabulation, security & everything, if you haven't got sufficient support you're not going to make it! You're just not going to make it, sad to say, even if you've got it all! What are you going to give the man who has everything? Well I'll tell you, if he hasn't got sufficient support, you'd better give him support, that's what you're going to have to give him!
51. NEXT COMES ACTUAL FIELD SUPPORT WHERE YOU ARE WORKING, & OF COURSE THIS CAN COME IN VARIOUS WAYS. One thing the poor seem to have plenty of, the Lord blesses them at least with food in most countries, even the poorest. They have an abundant crop of various kinds of natural, native foods & are so often very willing to share what they have with you, even a foreigner. So provisioning is of course one of your best means of field support where you are in the field, as well as offerings by means of busking, meetings, music or whatever.
52. THE POOR DON'T HAVE VERY MUCH, BUT THEY GIVE MORE SACRIFICIALLY THAN THE RICH, & IT IS THE POOR WHO SUPPORT THE LORD'S WORK! So you will find that even on your foreign field the natives will be one of the greatest means of your support & one of the most faithful & immediate, because you are there & they are there & they see your need & are touched to give to help supply it. So don't be afraid to ask for it if they have it. If they have the fruits or the vegetables or the meats, whatever it may be, don't be afraid to "ask & ye shall receive, seek & ye shall find, knock & it shall be opened unto you!" (Mt.7:7)
53. SO PROVISIONING & OFFERINGS ARE TWO OF THE MAIN MEANS OF FIELD SUPPORT, AS WELL AS FORSAKE-ALLS FROM YOUR DISCIPLES, those who join your ranks & enter your Home & decide to join your Family, bringing with them everything they've got. In the early years of our Family this was our major & principal means of support, constantly-joining disciples every day & a constant inflow of their possessions & funds & support. It was more than sufficient to meet all of our needs because we were doing so much soul-winning & so much discipling & getting so many new disciples & new members to join.
54. MANY OF THEM HAD FAIRLY SUBSTANTIAL MATERIAL MEANS & BROUGHT THOSE THINGS WITH THEM--FROM THEIR PERSONAL POSSESSIONS TO THEIR ACTUAL FUNDS. Very few people in this World, except in the very poorest of all countries, have absolutely nothing personal that they cannot bring with them, & in the richer home countries in particular they had plenty & they brought plenty with them & we were plentifully supplied constantly with all kinds of needed materials & funds, thank the Lord!
55. OF COURSE LITERATURE & STREET DISTRIBUTION OF LITERATURE HAS BEEN ONE OF OUR MAJOR MEANS OF SUPPORT & gradually became our next greatest means of support in the later days of the Family as they were litnessing in rich countries to comparatively rich people who were able to give abundantly & generously. So litnessing kept us alive for several years, primarily litnessing, thank the Lord, getting out the Word. "The labourer is worthy of his hire", "Muzzle not the ox that treadeth out the corn", "They that preach the Gospel shall live of the Gospel", in other words should be supported by it, if possible. (Lk.10:7; 1Co.9:9,14) Paul says a great deal about this, exhorting along this line: "If I have ministered to you spiritual things, then you should minister to me material things." (1Co.9:11)
56. THEREFORE YOUR OBJECTS OF WITNESSING & LITNESSING, DISCIPLING ETC. SHOULD BECOME A GREATER & GREATER MEANS OF SUBSTANTIAL SUPPORT IN THE FIELD, INCLUDING OF COURSE FFING which has become one of the most lucrative of all means of support. Thank God for our girls! God bless them for their sacrificial laying down of their lives & bodies for the salvation of lost souls, as well as the support of some lost missionaries who would otherwise be lost to the field if they were not so supported!
57. SO THANK GOD FOR FFING, THAT CAME ALONG JUST IN TIME TO SAVE US & HELP US WHEN WE NEEDED IT MOST, as persecution became heavy against public witnessing, public litnessing, public meetings, mass media etc., & in many cases due to the persecution of the cults we were driven underground & into Selah Colonies & compelled to raise our support in other more clandestine ways rather than these public means on the streets & the public parks etc. So thank God for FFing & our dear FFers, God bless every one! We love you & we really appreciate your support. So that has become one of our best, most effective, efficient, fruitful means of support, as well as winning souls, disciples & Family Members! TTL!
58. LAST, I WOULD NOT NECESSARILY SAY LEAST, BUT I WOULD SAY PERHAPS THE LEAST MINISTRATIVE MEANS OF SUPPORT IS ACTUAL LABOUR OR A SYSTEM JOB where you have to put in most of your time labouring for the System, working for Mammon to try to help support the work of God or even yourself. But it's pretty hard to serve both God & Mammon (Mt.6:24), unless you take a lot of that Mammon & give it to the missionaries, then the Lord might let you get away with it.
59. BUT EVEN ON THE FIELD MANY HAVE FOUND THAT IT WAS NECESSARY TO TAKE JOBS OR PART-TIME JOBS, teaching or various types of employment in order to supplement their income to be able to stay on the field & do any kind of ministering at all & personal witnessing if nothing else. So some have had to go to work at regular System jobs in order to survive.
60. BUT I'LL TELL YOU RIGHT NOW, WHATEVER KIND OF WORK YOU DO, "THEY THAT SHALL NOT WORK, SHALL NOT EAT!" (2Th.3:10) And if you don't work & work hard at some of these means of support, or every one of them, or at least some of them, you are not going to be supported & you are not going to survive on the field. You're going to go home in shame & disgrace & almost contempt from your Home, Family & relatives & System associates saying, "Ha ha, told you so! You couldn't make it, they didn't help you, you're a failure, it was no good & you shouldn't have done it in the first place!" They're going to ridicule & scoff & have contempt for you because you failed, you didn't make it. You had to come home to their charity, come home for their help when you should have gotten their help before you went!
61. IT SEEMS ESPECIALLY THOSE WHO ARE ANTAGONISTIC ARE CERTAINLY NOT HELPFUL WHEN YOU'RE IN THE FIELD, BUT MY, HOW THEY CAN HELP YOU TO BACKSLIDE, help you to go home & help you to get out of the Family! They'll help you all they can to go against the Lord & forsake the Lord & His work & His Family, then they'll really support you, then they'll really help you do that. But some have found that even their family & friends won't even help them do that when they get home, they have such contempt, scorn & ridicule for them. They figure, "Well, that's what you wanted & that's what you got, so this is what you deserve. We're not going to help you, we're having a hard enough time ourselves!"--Especially during the present Recession.
62. SO YOU MAY FIND IT EVEN AS HARD IF NOT HARDER AT HOME RIGHT NOW where there's high unemployment & low income, high taxes & insecurity both social & otherwise, & you may have to go ahead & get a job to try to support yourself. But how much better to have gotten a job to save up money to support yourself ahead of time & at least get to the field, even if you have to get a job on the field to support yourself. At least you're out there where the people are that need the Gospel the most & you can have constant contact with them so that you can witness to them personally if nothing else. So that is our last & least recommended means of support, a System job.
63. BUT WE REALLY TRULY BELIEVE THAT TO THOSE WHO ARE FAITHFUL, DILIGENT, HARD-WORKING & OBEDIENT IN THE LORD'S FULLTIME SERVICE, HE WILL KEEP HIS PROMISES! If you'll "seek first the Kingdom of God & His righteousness, all these other things shall be added unto you!" (Mt.6:33) For it's very difficult to try to serve both God & Mammon, & in fact Jesus Himself said you could not! (Mt.6:24) You certainly cannot effectively, that's for sure.--You can neither do a good job of your job nor your ministry if you have to work at a System employment of some kind & not fulltime for the Lord.
64. SO AS FAR AS I CAN SEE, THIS HAS BECOME OUR GREATEST LACK & FAILURE & CAUSE OF FAILURE!--THE REASON FOR FAILING TO SUCCEED ON THE FIELD HAS BEEN OUR FAILURE TO GET SUFFICIENT SUPPORT, both before leaving home in the home land & getting support from home while in the field, as well as field support. We have tried to emphasise this a great deal & have endeavoured to encourage you, inspire you & instruct you in all these means & methods of raising support to keep you in the field & make you an effective, efficient, fruitful disciple of Christ & a good soul-winner & preacher of the Gospel, a faithful witness. But still some have failed to get sufficient support, mostly because of their failure to obey & to raise it in the means & by the methods & the ways which we have advocated, principally by failing to get sufficient support before they left home & then failing to keep up that support while in the field by writing faithful thank-you's, prayer letters & newsletters & keeping in constant touch & communication with their supporters. It has been a great weakness. I would say today probably our greatest weakness of the Family is insufficient support, both home support & field support.
65. SO I AM GOING TO START PRESSING ON THIS, BELOVED, & INSISTING THAT YOU DO MORE TO RAISE YOUR SUPPORT! Some have obeyed partially, they have raised their fares, they have raised a few hundred dollars, some even a few thousand to land with, but because they did not make sufficient contacts & win friends & solicit sufficient funds & pledges & support before leaving home, they soon found out on the field that they were running out of money & running out of time & were soon flat broke living off of other missionaries & their poor meager funds & becoming a drag & a burden & a handicap to the work as a whole instead of the asset that they should have been.
66. WE HAVE TRIED TO INSIST THAT YOU MUST HAVE NOT ONLY YOUR FARE TO THE FIELD, BUT SUFFICIENT HOME SUPPORT IN PLEDGES & IN ACTUAL CARRYING CASH, LANDING MONEY, BEFORE YOU EVEN LEAVE HOME! But many have disobeyed this & have gone ahead recklessly, carelessly & very foolishly to the field anyhow without the required support, just because you had the fare & the funds for landing & getting started, thinking that you were going to survive somehow. But soon your funds ran out & the fun ran out & the feeling ran out & you began to be in want like the Prodigal Son in a far country! And some of you have had to go to the System swine-pens & hog-pens & work for the System swine-keepers because "you fain would fill your belly with the husks that even the swine do eat"! (Lk.15:16)
67. GOD HELP YOU & HAVE MERCY ON YOU, I'M SORRY FOR YOU, BUT YOU'RE SUFFERING FROM YOUR OWN SINS OF NEGLECT & CARELESSNESS & FOOLISHNESS & DISOBEDIENCE & LAZINESS IN NOT RAISING SUFFICIENT SUPPORT BEFORE YOU LEFT HOME, or not working hard enough to keep up that support with sufficient communication & prayer letters & thank-you's with those who have been supporting you.--Or not truly faithfully ministering even in the field to such an extent that people are willing even to give you field support & offerings & provisioning.--Or not winning sufficient disciples to give you forsake-alls, or litnessing diligently enough to even get a little pittance here & there from literature distribution, & not cultivating the kings & the queens & the rich supporters that you could have even in the fields.
68. EVERY COUNTRY HAS ITS RICH! Every country has its big business moguls & governing kings & queens & princes & princesses who have lots of money & who would be happy to support you if you'd win'm to the Lord & win their love & their friendship & their interest to encourage them to support you. But too many are afraid to contact this class of people, too many are afraid to go to them. The rich, as I've often said, are the most neglected class of people of all when it comes to preaching the Gospel to them! Most missionaries avoid them like the plague because they think they haven't got what it takes to approach them, either in looks or clothing or education or a means of conduct or whatever. But there are plenty of rich people in every country who could help & support you if you would ask God to help you find them & get ahold of them in some way that they would be willing to help you.
69. AND NOT AS A LAST RESORT BUT SOMETIMES AS A FIRST RESORT, YOU CAN AT LEAST DO SOME FFING! And of course this has been a boon & a salvation of many of our mission stations through even just one little FFer from the Home supporting the entire Home & supporting it well by means of their sacrificial laying down of their lives for the Lord's work.
70. SO THERE'S NO EXCUSE FOR IT, BELOVED! THERE IS NO EXCUSE FOR YOUR FAILURE TO RAISE HOME SUPPORT BEFORE YOU LEAVE! There is no excuse for your failure to keep up that home support after you leave. And if as a last resort you found home support impossible, there is no excuse whatsoever for your not being able to raise field support as well by all of these various means--provisioning, FFing, offerings, forsake-alls, soul-winning, cultivating friends & influencing important people.
71. THERE IS NO EXCUSE FOR YOUR HAVING INSUFFICIENT SUPPORT IF YOU WILL WORK AT IT! Only those that shall not work shall not eat! I promise you, as God bears me witness I would swear on it on a stack of Bibles, that if you will work hard in some way, God will see to it that you are supported in some way, in whatever way you work or by whatever means you solicit or raise or supply your support. If you will work hard at it you will get support, & if you are not being sufficiently supported it is because you are not working!
72. YOU ARE NOT WORKING IF YOU ARE NOT EATING! And the reason you are not eating, according to God's Law, is that you are not working! It's just that simple! You are either not working at one of the Seven Supporters, or you have failed to work at it in the past. But even now as a last resort at this late date, I believe God is willing to have mercy on you & forgive you if you will get to work now & pray as though everything depended on prayer & the Lord Himself, which it does, & send out those prayer letters to still try to raise support from your friends at home! How many prayer letters do you write?
73. I HAVE A NOTION TO SEND OUT A NEW QUESTIONNAIRE ON THE MATTER OF SUPPORT TO EVERY SINGLE ONE OF YOU INDIVIDUALLY! Maybe I'll put it in a GN. Maybe we'll put it following this Letter & you can tear it right out of the GN & answer for me personally these questions: How much did you pray for support this past month? How much time did you spend specifically, desperately praying for support? How much time did you spend writing prayer letters? How many prayer letters did you send to how many friends asking for support this past month?
74. HOW MANY DISCIPLES DID YOU WIN WHO WANT TO JOIN YOU & GIVE YOU EVERYTHING THEY'VE GOT? How many forsake-alls have you received? How hard have you worked at provisioning locally in your field for your needs? How many contacts have you made? How many hours did you spend out in the field going from store-to-store or market-to-market or business-to-business or even house-to-house asking for help?--Or even person-to-person litnessing on the street. How hard & how much have you worked at trying to raise your own support?
75. HOW MANY LITTLE MEETINGS HAVE YOU HELD IN YOUR HOME OR AT YOUR NEIGHBOURS OR IN THE PARK OR WHEREVER, in the restaurant, busking, playing, where you were not ashamed to take an offering & ask for help as missionaries or "labourers worthy of their hire"? How much FFing have you been doing? Who in your Home is your FFer? How much does she FF? How often? How many? How much support does she get? Or are you even working at some kind of a System job to try to help support yourself in order to somehow hang on in the field? What are you doing desperately, daily, urgently, working hard to raise your own support both from home & in the field?
76. AS FAR AS I'M CONCERNED, BELOVED, THERE IS NO EXCUSE FOR ANY MISSIONARY GOING HOME BECAUSE OF LACK OF SUPPORT & INSUFFICIENT FUNDS, BECAUSE GOD HAS PROMISED IF YOU'LL OBEY HIM & SERVE HIM & WORK, HE'LL FEED YOU! He'll "supply all your need according to His riches in glory!" (Ph.4:19) There is no excuse for your not having enough money! There's no excuse for your not having enough to eat! There's no excuse for your having no place to lay your head! There's no excuse for you being unable to minister for lack of funds, because if you would quit playing around & just funning around & foolishness & get out there & get busy & get to work in some way, somehow, in some of these supporters or even one of them, God has promised that He will support you! He will see that you're supported & He will make sure that your needs are supplied! He will feed you! He will take care of you! In fact, if you delight yourself in the Lord, He'll even give you the desires of your heart, anything you want! (Ps.37:4)--Not only whatever you need, but your wants & luxuries as well!
77. NOW THAT IS THE FACT & YOU CANNOT DENY IT, BECAUSE IT'S THE WORD OF GOD, IT'S THE PROMISES OF GOD & YOU HAVE NO EXCUSE FOR NOT CLAIMING THOSE PROMISES & HAVING SUFFICIENT SUPPORT! You certainly have no excuse whatsoever, & not working is not an excuse!--Not working as hard as you can at any or all of these various means of support of the seven or even eight or more supporters. If you're not working at those supports & supporters, then you are absolutely without excuse! And of course you won't get support if you don't work & work at it! You'll fail, you'll starve, you'll have insufficient funds to carry on, you'll be unable to minister, you'll get discouraged, other people will get fed-up with you & you'll get fed-up & go home because you did not work hard enough at trying to raise your own support & you sponged off of other people & other missionaries!
78. YOU LAZED & LOAFED AROUND COMPLAINING & WHINING & GRUMBLING & MOANING & MURMURING BECAUSE YOU DIDN'T GET ENOUGH HOME SUPPORT FROM THOSE FRIENDS AT HOME! I've read some miserable letters blaming the home folks for your lack of support. Don't you blame those home folks even if they're guilty! There's only one person that you've got to blame for your lack of support & that's you, period!--Because you're not working at it!
79. SO DON'T LET ME HEAR ANY MORE OF THOSE COMPLAINTS OR REPORTS OF GRIPING, GRUMBLING & BELLY-ACHING BECAUSE OTHER PEOPLE DON'T SUPPORT YOU! If they thought you were worth supporting, they'd be supporting you! If you'd keep in touch with them & let'm know what you're doing, they'd support you. If you'd write'm faithful prayer letters & thank-you's they'd support you. If you'd get out there & work right in your field & minister, even the poor would support you! And if all else fails & everybody else fails, if you're obeying God & preaching the Gospel & winning souls & disciples & doing His will, God will support you no matter what! So don't give me any of that stuff about, "The people failed to support me so I had to go home, blah blah blah blah blah!"
80. THERE'S ONLY ONE PERSON TO BLAME FOR YOUR HAVING TO GO HOME & FOR LACK OF SUFFICIENT SUPPORT, & THAT'S YOU!--YOU & YOU ALONE! Nobody else. You can't shove that off on anybody else. You can't blame that on anybody else. Because if you were out there working like you ought to work or in there working on your prayer letters like you ought to work & your mailing list & mailing ministry & friends at home, or out there in the field provisioning & having meetings, busking & taking offerings, soliciting help, litnessing, FFing, whatever it is, if you were really working you would be eating & you would be supported!
81. SO THERE'S ONLY ONE REASON IN THIS WORLD FOR YOUR LACK OF SUPPORT, & THAT'S YOU & YOUR FAILURE TO WORK AT IT! Don't give me any other excuse! No failing missionary has any other excuse but themselves, no one else to blame but themselves, no other reason whatsoever except that they were lazy loafers & refused to work like they should work in order to support themselves, if they couldn't persuade other people at home to support them. You & you alone are to blame for not working, & that is the simple answer to the whole problem & the single solution, & that is for YOU to get to WORK!--Now!--Or never! Stop being a burden on others!--Either go to work--or go home! God help you!--In Jesus' name, amen.
Copyright (c) 1998 by The Family
