RAUL'S KNIFE!             7/76              DFO546

         1. Do you love lost souls or don't you?--That's the question! One of our friends told us he was leaving today for a trip, but we even forgot all about him. Yesterday he was supposed to come to the house to say goodbye and we even forgot that he was coming. That's one thing about having the Lord, if you're in good communication with the Lord, a good channel, He doesn't let you forget for long.
         2. So to remind us to pray for this boy, even though we forgot about him yesterday when he was supposed to come, the Lord had to tell us about it last night in my sleep! Maybe the Lord's trying to teach us a lesson in neglect, to show you how, though we forgot about him, God didn't forget about him.
         3. Last night I was so totally entranced or asleep that I didn't even know I had heard or thought about this boy.
         4. It shows how precious he is to the Lord! Apparently since the day he was here several weeks ago and received the Lord, now he's our baby, we're responsible for him and we must not forget to pray for him.

         5. YOU'D BE SURPRISED HOW MUCH GOD DEPENDS ON YOUR PRAYERS, how concerned you are and how interested you are. You're His hands, His feet, His eyes and His heart, and if you don't love them God still loves them, but they'll suffer from your neglect.
         6. The Lord answers your prayers, so why don't you pray? Well, honestly we didn't pray for this boy because we had so many other things to think about, business meetings and all kinds of things--we just forgot about him. Apparently we don't love him enough or we wouldn't have forgotten him.
         7. But God didn't forget him and I'm sure God gave this little revelation as a reminder to pray for him as well as to teach you a lesson and to show you what the major essentials are that every new convert needs.
         8. THERE ARE FOUR OR FIVE MAJOR THINGS A NEW CONVERT NEEDS: First of all, just the fact we got the message shows that they need prayer, God was reminding us to pray for him. You need to ask God to help them. I hadn't even been thinking about this boy, but God punches right through in my sleep and talks to us about him! It's a rebuke from the Lord. Listen to what He says. (Maria reads the revelation:
         9. "You know what you can do?") In other words, you know what you can do--not what you will do, but what you could do if you tried. "You can trade the knife with him!"--Trade knives!--Think of that!
         10. God and His Word are more powerful than that switchblade he carries in his pocket. (Maria: "You can trade it for love.") Trade it first of all for love! Now what is the knife representative of? It represents fear, right? Fear and Hate, right?
         11. But you can trade all this for what?--Love! What is it that "casts out all fear"?--"Perfect love casts out all fear!" (1John 4:18) Isn't that beautiful?--He needs a lot of love to bring him out of his fear and his hate.
         12. "And then you can give him another bigger one so that he can get in the door without knocking!" Then you can give him another bigger knife, a much bigger knife! What do they call a knife when it gets that big?--A sword! What's that symbolic of? The Word, of course! (See Heb.4:12 and Eph.6:17.)

         13. BUT WHAT IN THE WORLD DOES THAT MEAN, "SO HE CAN GET IN THE DOOR WITHOUT KNOCKING"? Well,
         14. Who's the Door?--Jesus! Yes, but you say he's already gone through the Door, he's already saved, he's already gone through the Door. Yes, but he is such a new babe he still feels like a stranger.
         15. So what's this a symbol of, that you go in a door without knocking? You're at home! He needs to be made to feel at home, that we're his family and this is home!
         16. So what does that mean that he needs?--Fellowship. Fellowship with the family! It's like Jesus is in him, but he's got to get into Jesus now and he's got to know that he doesn't have to knock.
         17. He can feel at home now anytime to go into the house, and that he's a member of the Family and he doesn't have to beg and pray or knock or anything. It's his house, he can walk in anytime he wants to.

         18. ARE YOU GIVING THEM PRAYER, LOVE, THE WORD, JESUS AND FELLOWSHIP? If not, you're failing God and begetting poor little parentless homeless starving orphans! Why not start today! Pray, love, trade knives, open the door and let 'em in!--Amen?


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