SPECIFICS! DO 127        11/71
--Decision-Making & Establishing Homes

DECISION-MAKING--HOW, WHO & WHY

         1. DECISIONS: AS WE TOLD YOU ONCE BEFORE, LIKE MOSES OF OLD, IT IS HUMANLY IMPOSSIBLE FOR US TO JUDGE EVERY SINGLE MATTER which some of you write us about! It's my job to hear from the Lord in generalities or specifics, whatever He's interested in, & pass it on to you, whether it be something affecting the whole Revolution or just you personally, but my main job is to deal with those subjects which affect most all of us--God's answers to major problems regarding major decisions regarding God's will for us all.
         2. IT WILL BE NECESSARY FOR YOU TO TAKE MOST OF THE MINOR PROBLEMS TO THE LORD & YOUR LEADERS YOURSELF if you need an immediate answer--that is, your local leaders--decisions regarding marriages, personal problems, local Homes etc., should be handled on the local level by you & your local leaders, if possible, or at least at the Area level, if too much for you & your local leaders. If you expect an early answer or indeed, any answer at all, the matter should be handled by those who know the situation best!
         3. MANY OF THE QUESTIONS YOU WRITE US ABOUT NEED IMMEDIATE ATTENTION & should not have to wait for an answer from us after days or weeks of delay in transit, or while we're wading through volumes of other mail.
         4. THAT'S WHY SOME OF YOU ARE SO BOGGED DOWN! YOU DON'T KNOW HOW TO MAKE THE SMALLEST DECISION ON YOUR OWN, & then you turn around & make some monumental earth-shaking decision, or drastic top level massive personnel changes, without even consulting me! This is straining at a gnat & swallowing a camel!
         5. IF THERE'S ANY DECISION WHICH OUGHT TO BE MADE BY THE INDIVIDUALS INVOLVED, BETWEEN THEM & THE LORD, IT IS CERTAINLY MARRIAGE!--And if you can't find out from the Lord who you're supposed to marry, or you can't find a girl who wants to marry you, you'd better not get married! Your local Home leaders are the only ones you should have to consult on matters of marriage! I hope none of you leaders are choosing mates for your people yourselves, or you're apt to get blamed for it later! You matchmakers would like to get credit now, but just remember, you'll also get the blame later! A young person should have no one but themselves to blame for their marriage!
         6. SOME PEOPLE LIKE TO HAVE YOU MAKE DECISIONS FOR THEM SO THEY WON'T HAVE TO PUT FORTH THE EFFORT in prayer & sober analysing of the situation & do the hard work of making the decision, especially when later they might be blamed for it! But that's the price of making a decision!
         7. IF THERE'S ANYTHING A POTENTIAL LEADER NEEDS TO LEARN HOW TO DO, IT'S TO LEARN HOW TO MAKE DECISIONS! I don't think you should even have to ask anybody whether you can listen to a record, who you should marry or what to name your baby--& this goes for choosing Bible names, too! If you can't even make these decisions for yourself, how are you ever going to be a leader & make major decisions affecting others?
         8. WE HAVE STRICT DISCIPLINE & CERTAIN RULES, LIKE AN ARMY!--FOR WE ARE AN ARMY! BUT YOU ARE EXPECTED TO MAKE YOUR OWN DECISIONS WITHIN THE BOUNDARIES OF THESE GUIDELINES, on your own & with the Lord's help, & only refer it to your leaders if it's something they have to decide & that you're not allowed to decide, because if you don't start learning how to make decisions now for at least yourself, you'll never be a leader--& we need leaders--not robots--or slaves!
         9. INDECISION CAN DRIVE YOU CRAZY, SO YOU'D BETTER LEARN HOW TO MAKE DECISIONS WITH THE HELP OF THE LORD & HIS WORD, & none of these decisions should be referred to your leaders unless it's something that only they are supposed to decide! Remember leaders, the rule: Don't do anything someone else can do!--Only the things that no one else can do but you! Otherwise, you'll be busy doing everyone's job but your own! May God help you!
MAKING DECISIONS IS LEADERSHIP TRAINING

         10. AT ONE OF OUR FIRST HOMES, AT THE VERY BEGINNING OF THE REVOLUTION, IT WAS NEVER A DICTATORSHIP, except by the Spirit of God! I didn't even know what was going on down there half the time! All I did was get things from the Lord & come down & teach them & light your fire--& you did the burning! I was only the little flame that got you started! I merely imparted to you the vision & message of God, & showed you which way to go! I merely set you the example by leading you in some of those early classes, meetings & demonstrations. That's all I did! You & the Lord have done all the rest! He got me started, & I only got you started, & you & He are finishing the job!
         11. IF YOU START DEPENDING ON ME NOW FOR EVERYTHING AT THIS LATE date, with as many Homes & people as we have now & the many more we're going to have--you'll never get anywhere! The Lord just aims us, I squeeze the trigger & you do the job! That's the way it is & that's the way it has to be! May God help you!
         12. THAT'S WHY WHEN I MAKE A SUGGESTION FOR ONE HOME THAT MIGHT WORK THERE, IT DOESN'T NECESSARILY MEAN IT WOULD WORK EVERYWHERE under all conditions, so you've got to learn to make your own decisions with the Lord's direct guidance, individually for each Home, right there & on the spur of the moment! If you wait for me, you may be too late! The Lord & I are way out in front of you showing you the general direction, but the details & specific decisions on how to best carry it out in each individual case & situation--these must be up to you personally!
         13. IT'S UP TO YOU! YOU'RE THERE & KNOW THE SITUATION BETTER THAN I DO, SO YOU'RE THE ONE TO MAKE THE DECISION WITH THE LORD'S HELP! I give you God's general overall plan! It's up to you to carry out the details & specifics & work out the logistics & individual tactics! The Commander-in-Chief lays down the general battle plans & gives the general command to advance, but his generals & officers must work out the details, & the foot soldiers have got to carry them out!
         14. SO THIS ARMY HAS GOT TO BE MOSTLY DIRECTED FROM ITS HEADQUARTERS IN HEAVEN by the Communication of the Holy Spirit, since our ground communications are very slow & very poor & extremely inadequate & frequently disrupted! But if you follow the Lord you'll never go wrong. He's right out there with you & He knows exactly what to do, & all you've got to do is ask Him & you can get an answer in a split second!--Whereas you might have to wait weeks to hear from me, or even from some of your officers! Keep in touch with Heaven! Jesus never fails!
         15. A PRETTY GOOD RULE TO FOLLOW ON DECISIONS IS THIS: MAKE ALL THE DECISIONS YOU CAN!--THOSE YOU CAN'T MAKE, PASS ON TO YOUR NEXT HIGHEST OFFICER!--Not the top unless he's it! You're bound to make some mistakes, but you're going to have to learn to make those decisions, even if sometimes you're wrong & get scolded by a superior officer for blowing it--unless he wants to make them all FOR you! And if he does, he's not doing his own job, which is to help you learn how to make your OWN decisions to make a leader out of you! If he interferes too much with your own vision, faith, initiative & courage, he may wind up doing the whole job himself, when he ought to be doing something else--like making you do it!
         16. THAT'S THE MAIN REASON WE'RE HERE IN THE FIRST PLACE: TO LEARN HOW TO MAKE DECISIONS UNDER GOD'S GUIDANCE, from the Garden of Eden to the present! God has set down the general rules for the War in His Soldier's Handbook, the Bible, & He has furnished an excellent means of communication with Headquarters--prayer! So if you can't find that specific situation in your Rulebook, all you have to do is call Heaven & they'll let you know what to do! But if you can't seem to get an answer from either source, the last thing to do is ask your earthly leaders! They're only a last resort! This War depends on you!--And your individual Home & what you & it have faith for!
         17. OTHERWISE, YOU'LL GROW OLD & STALEMATED WHILE WAITING FOR AN ANSWER from some of us leaders who know nothing about the situation! If we're going to grow fast & win the youth of the World before He comes, you're going to have to forge ahead on your own, with God & His Word, & expect Him to keep you going & not us! He just used us to get you started.--Now you're on your own & Him! Get going! Do whatever you & He think is best! Don't ask us! That's the only way you're ever going to get anywhere--because I can't have the faith for your job, or make your decisions for you! I only have the faith for my own & to make my own decisions!
         18. THIS IS GOD'S OWN WAY! IT'S THE WAY THE EARLY CHURCH OPERATED! Neither Peter nor Paul were Popes, dictating every move! They were too busy running around doing their own jobs, fighting their own battles, starting their own Homes, winning their own disciples! They could only advise & counsel others from what they themselves had already learned--& they did a lot of this by letters, but the people themselves had to make their own decisions with the help of the Lord by His Spirit!

THE GUIDELINES FOR DECISION-MAKING ARE IN THE LETTERS & BIBLE

         19. WE'RE TRYING TO ADVISE YOU FROM WHAT WE'VE LEARNED FROM THE LORD & our own experience, but you don't necessarily have to do what we say! You can make your own decisions, according to your own leadings from the Lord! You don't have to agree with me! I don't even agree with everything Paul had to say, & I'm sure that he made a few mistakes, as I know I have!
         20. BUT NEARLY EVERY QUESTION YOU DO ASK ME HAS ALREADY BEEN COVERED IN DETAIL IN SOME MO LETTER OR IN THE BIBLE! So your main problem, when you ask these questions that have already been answered, is that you're either not studying your Bible or the Mo Letters or you'd already know the answer! Like the Bible, the Letters won't do you any good if you don't read & study them, & even review them!
         21. NOW WHAT YOU SHOULD WRITE ME ABOUT, OF COURSE, IS ANY MAJOR DECISION AFFECTING THE OVERALL WORK & GENERAL PRACTICES & POLICIES. These we needed to know & agree on generally, especially before making any major moves! PTL!--Even your suggestions about what to write in Mo Letters!

PERSONNEL MOVES & ESTABLISHING HOMES

         22. THERE'S A TIME TO MOVE, BUT THERE'S ALSO A TIME TO STAY PUT. Don't keep moving a man around so fast you make his head swim, so he doesn't even get to know his people, his staff or his Home, & they don't even get to know him, & they don't have time to get organized, coordinated or cooperative, so that they're so busy moving they don't have time to do anything but pack, travel, unpack & pack again, so they can't get anything done!
         23. I COULD GIVE YOU SOME "THOUGHTS FROM CHAIRMAN MAO" ON THIS SUBJECT, on correcting mistaken ideas in the Party, one of which was "The Ideology of Roving Rebel Bands", which has some very fitting things to say about the subject, which are badly needed right now! I'm going to quote you what he had to say about these guys with a yen for the road! "The political ideology of roving rebel bands has emerged in the Red Army because the proportion of vagabond elements is large. Some people only want to be guerrillas but are unwilling to undertake the arduous task of building up a base & establishing the people--recruiting deserters & mutineers instead of expanding the local troops..." In other words, they just want to roam the country, see the sights, live off the land & never establish any permanent work in the hearts of men, more interested in making love & having babies than the hard work of training disciples, good soldiers & leaders into an Army!
         24. NOW THERE'S A TIME FOR GUERILLA ACTION, AS WE'VE SAID BEFORE, PARTICULARLY WHEN PERSECUTION & THE SUPERIOR FORCES OF THE ENEMY DRIVE YOU MORE OR LESS UNDERGROUND--but there's also a time to establish a Home & its babes & teach & train & make them strong when it's possible to do so! As Mao says, there's a time to "counter the vagabond outlook & draw active & militant workers into the Army" instead of just roving rebels who like to travel!
         25. YOUR HOME SHOULD TRY TO STAY PUT AS LONG AS THE LORD IS BLESSING, publishing the message, bearing fruit & estab lishing the believers & providing your needs & protecting you from too much persecution! You can do this better when you're not having to move too much! A rolling stone gathers no moss, because when you're busy travelling, you haven't much time to study, teach, train & establish! We didn't really start growing very much until we stopped travelling so much! It's hard for mothers to travel with babies, even most creatures that God has made have to have a little nest, lair or burrow once in a while in which to safely rear their young until they're strong enough to thrust out into the World on their own.
         26. THIS IS THE WHOLE IDEA OF COLONISATION, INSTEAD OF SCATTERATION.--To give the young babes the time & place to grow strong & their leaders an opportunity to learn responsibility before they're ready to go pioneer a new Home somewhere else, until God lets you know through heavy & hindering persecution that it's time for you all to move & perhaps divide into two or three small Homes instead of one big overgrown one!
         27. THIS SHOULD BE BY THE TIME YOUR HOME REACHES ABOUT ONE OR TWO DOZEN IN NUMBER, OR MORE! You should then begin to figure how you can divide it into two Homes, each with capable leadership & all gifts & ministries & talents & skills represented as much as possible in each, & then send one of the groups off to a new location in a new city!
         28. I AM STILL FIRMLY CONVINCED THAT THE SMALL INDEPENDENT HOMES ARE THE MOST EFFECTIVE & THE HARDEST TO STOP! We've had some big ones that collapsed or got slowed down to a standstill just by their own size & weight! Some of our smallest Homes have lasted the longest, accomplished more effective leadership & babe training on a smaller scale, have received less persecution & more provision & protection & some of the greatest blessings of God! We are just crazy enough to believe God's Word, that if we constantly divide & go into all the World, God will cause us to constantly survive & grow in all the World! So if your Home is over one or two dozen, why don't you organize it into two Homes, ask your leaders where there's an open door or another place one of them can go, or ask God for one, & half of you take off for greener pastures & new harvest fields where God will bless you for your pioneering, vision, faith, courage, & initiative! Praise God!

Copyright (c) 1998 by The Family