PITY THE WEAK!   DFO720   9/6/78

         1. (MARIA: SOME PEOPLE IN THE FAMILY ARE REALLY CONDEMNED & FEEL LIKE OUTCASTS, that the Lord can't do anything for them & they must be demon-possessed because they have certain problems.--For example, epilepsy.)
         2. I've known quite a few epileptics--even Christians who loved the Lord--& most of them seemed to be fairly nice normal people under normal conditions. But it seemed like always, if they ever got under any pressure or strain, particularly nervous strain, that the Enemy took advantage of it & attacked & they would go into a fit. But how could you call it demon-possession when someone is saved & born again?
         3. I'm convinced those attacks are certainly of the Enemy, whether outside, inside or whatever, because they are so ugly & grotesque. They are temporary, harsh, cruel attacks of the Enemy, really pitiful, enough to make you weep.
         4. But I'm not even going to say anymore that epilepsy is necessarily always demon-possession. It may be a temporary obsession or oppression or a temporary attack of the Enemy. But they still need to get prayed for & ask the Lord for deliverance.
         5. (MARIA: DON'T YOU THINK IT MIGHT BE ANOTHER THING LIKE "BUT IF NOT", one of those things that the Lord uses to keep people humble, a weakness?) Maybe so. (Maria: Perhaps we should be stronger, but if we were all so righteous & didn't have any of these weaknesses, we couldn't help others much, we couldn't be sympathetic or compassionate, we couldn't even understand them.
         6. (Months ago when Davidito was badly afflicted with stammering for awhile, you said, "Why don't you cry out to the Lord, why don't you pray? Why don't you act like his problem is your own?") Well, finally when we all really got desperate about it & wept & prayed & cried out to the Lord in real desperation, the Lord delivered him!
         7. (MARIA: SOME OF THE FAMILY HAVE HAD SUCH A CRITICAL CONDESCENDING ATTITUDE towards homosexuals & epileptics & other handicapped people, when they themselves may be guilty of things much worse, like jealousy & the sins of the spirit.--They'd temporarily go almost stark raving mad!)
         8. Well, of course, if you LET the Enemy in, if you yield to his attacks, if you surrender to his assaults, almost anything can happen except for the mercy & the protection of the Lord.
         9. (Maria: I couldn't understand why the Lord didn't deliver me from my terrible jealousy for so many years.--And I was saved & filled with the Spirit! But it kept me humble & understanding of others. And thank God, finally He delivered me! That's not to say I don't have occasional battles with it even now, but I know I don't have to yield to it & let it control me.)
         10. Well, if the healthy have self-righteous feelings of being better than he is, like the Pharisee who said, "I thank Thee, O God, that I am not as this man", then that holier-than-thou self-righteous attitude in itself is a worse sin than the pitifully human afflictions of the flesh & the physically afflicted & tormented! (Maria: Yes, "He that is without sin, let him cast the first stone!"--John 8:7) Amen!
         11. "To him that is afflicted pity should be showed", Job said in his afflictions, & "have pity on me, for the hand of God hath touched me." (Job.6:14 & 19:21)--And it was certainly to humble him & test his faith, for before that he thought he was pretty righteous! (See also Eph.4:32; 1Thes.5:14; Mt.9:36; 14:14; 1Pet.3:8; Rom.14:1; 15:1; 1Cor.9:22.)
         12. Finally the Lord comforts us with: "My grace is sufficient for thee; for My strength is made perfect in (your) weakness...for when I am weak, than I am strong"--in Him! (2Cor.12:9,10)--So God bless & keep you strong in the Lord!--Not yourself!--Amen? Praise the Lord!


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