ON GUARD!--A Warning on Shallowness, Compromising, Disobedience & Security!
DFO1377          23/8/80

         1. GOD HATES MURMURERS ALMOST MORE THAN ANYTHING ELSE! It is dangerous to have people around us & our Units who are not in tune with the Lord, not right with the Lord, who are grumbling & murmuring & complaining & causing difficulties & are disobedient & not subject to authority, because if you don't spank'm, God will!--And you're apt to have to pay the bills for it!
         2. As I've said before, murmuring is the voice of doubt! When you start losing faith by not being in the Word & in the Spirit, then you lose the vision.--You're not close enough to the Lord to have any vision or direction & you begin to doubt because of your lack of faith. And if you doubt, pretty soon you voice it.--And the voice of doubt is murmuring!
         3. It's amazing to me that people like that get so self-confident.--It shows you how out of the Spirit they are, so self-assured that they're so secure that they can get away with anything! They never seem to realise how insecure their position is & how much danger they're in until you finally kick'm out!--And then they're insulted & hurt & say, "How could you do this to me?"
         4. The trouble with people like that is they're always living just in the flesh. They're shallow & it's just shallow flesh so they're bound to make a lot of mistakes, because they're not led by the Lord or really living in the Spirit.--They're not really trusting the Lord or looking to Him for guidance.
         5. They're like Saul, just strong in their own flesh & so confident of their own intelligence that they make all their own decisions, which are usually the wrong ones, because you just can't be led of the flesh when God's Spirit may lead differently & often does. So people like that are really dangerous to have around, who just live shallowly in the flesh & are guided by their own smartness.
         6. "FELLOWSHIP WITH THE WORLD IS ENMITY AGAINST GOD!--For what fellowship has Christ with Belial, or light with darkness?" (Ja.4:4; 2Co.6:14,15) We've got plenty of entertainment here!--We can watch videos & have our own fellowship, without sitting down in the seat of the scorner & standing in the way of sinners. Read the first Psalm!
         7. If you still hunger for fellowship with the World, there's something wrong with you spiritually. If you'd rather go sit with the World & drink beer with the World & gab with the World & enjoy their fellowship more than ours, then something is wrong with you spiritually, if you really like it & enjoy it, it's dangerous & you're dangerous.
         8. One little compromise with the Devil is extremely dangerous! We need to stay very close to the Lord & very secure in the Spirit & very Spirit-led. If we're leaning to our own understanding & forgetting all about acknowledging the Lord or listening to the voice of His Spirit to lead & guide us every moment, then we're apt to fall into one of the Devil's traps, & it's dangerous business.
         9. If you're living in your own Home, your own Colony, your own Unit somewhere else away from me & away from us, you may be able to get away with it, but this is a top security situation. I still wouldn't advise it, & I'd still say it's an indication of a lack of spirituality, a lack of satisfaction with the Lord & His children & their fellowship etc. I would still say it's dangerous because the condition of even one member or one Home can seriously affect the whole body.
         10. But it's extremely dangerous for people on our team to be shallow, not deep in the Lord or deep in the Spirit, but shallow in the flesh, carnal & carnally-minded. As Jesus said, without Him we are nothing--& we will arrive at nothing too if we don't stay close to the Lord! We can't even do things that look like they're good & reasonable & common sense unless we're sure it's God's Will!
         11. IF YOU, AS A LEADER, SHOW A WEAKNESS & WAVER IN SOME OF THESE THINGS, they'll think it's OK. Stupid dumb people who live in the flesh & not in the Spirit are going to think it's alright & they'll follow you. Do you want them to follow you? Do you want them to be like you? Think about that.
         12. I'll say to you what my brother once said to me. He said, "Dave, don't let others drag you down to their level.--You pull them up to yours!"--A leader will keep on course & try to keep others on course in the direction he's going & pull them his way. But if you have a tendency to be pulled other ways by followers, then you're not much of a leader, if you can't buck the tide. Sometimes it pays to disagree, especially when you know it's not good.
         13. Others may, you cannot. Other people might be able to get away with it, but because of your position, you can't. You have to lift up the standard, you have to hoist it higher & try to bring them up to what they ought to be, & not let yourself get dragged down by them to please the people.
         14. That was Saul's main problem, he was a man-pleaser, & to please the people he disobeyed the Lord: "Well, the people persuaded me, the people wanted me to spare the oxen & the sheep & the king." But Samuel socked it to him & said, "To obey is better than sacrifice, & to hearken than the fat of rams!" (1Sa.15:22)--So it's pretty serious business when there's a compromise or a compromiser, people who try to play both ends.
         15. Compromise is a dangerous thing, & carnality is a dangerous thing. Poor Saul is about the most pitiful thing in the whole Bible.--He had everything in the flesh, everything! The people respected him, loved & admired him, & he led them to victories, but he just couldn't seem to get the point that the only way to stay that way was to stay close to the Lord & follow the Lord & obey Him. He got to thinking that he knew better than God, which is in effect what you are saying when you disobey.
         16. ONE OF THE CLEVEREST WAYS THE DEVIL CAN TRY TO FIGHT US is to get into other people with foolishness & carnal-mindedness & a hankering for the World. "Love not the World, neither the things that are in the World. For the love of the World is enmity with God!" (1Jn.2:15; Ja.4:4)
         17. So if you still have a hankering for those things, watch out! That's a fifth column in your own heart. That's a poison in your own soul & it's the Devil's own tool.--It's a hole in the dike if you still have a temptation toward these things. We've got everything right here, so why do we need to go out & fellowship with the World?
         18. (Prays:) Lord, help these who are shallow & frivolous & foolish to sober up. Make them more sober regarding the seriousness of the job we have & more mindful of You, Lord, more humble before Thee, more conscious of Thee & Thy presence & more sensitive to Thy Spirit, so that they will know Thy Will & do it.
         19. Don't let such carnal-mindedness, deadness in the Spirit & shallowness be our weakness, Lord. And don't let us compromise by tolerating it in any of these, but help us to hold the standard high & stick to it & not compromise & not let it down & not lower it & not vary from our course, to the right hand or the left, & not make too many allowances or tolerances one way or the other, variations from the straight & the narrow way. (See Mt.7:13,14)
         20. Help us, Lord, for meat not to destroy the work of God. (Ro.14:20)--For some carnal desire or some carnal weakness, some foolish fellowship, to endanger Thy work, Lord, & Thy children. Help us to keep on the whole armour, Lord. And especially, help us not to hobnob with the Enemy & reveal classified information to them by some careless remark, or leave a chink in the wall or in our armour where the Enemy could get in.
         21. HELP US TO REALISE THAT WE CANNOT DO WITHOUT YOU, JESUS, without You we are nothing. And we cannot do without Your Word. We must be fed & inspired by Thy Word, Lord. Without Your Word we lack vision, & without a vision the people perish. We have to have Your Word, Lord, to show us the way, to show us the vision, to show us Thy Will so we'll have the faith to perform it. (Pr.29:18)
         22. "To him that knoweth to do good & doeth it not, to him it is sin." (Ja.4:17)--Nothing short of right is right! So help us to do the right thing, & the only thing that's right is Your Will, Lord, regardless of what we think. And having done all, Lord, help us to stand, to stand our ground & not give ground to the Enemy, not compromise, not let down our guard, Lord.
         23. Remind us, Lord, of how important our job is & how jealously we should guard it from the Enemy & his slightest attempts to enter in in some little unguarded moment or place or some little chink in the wall or crack in the armour. Help us to realise that we're in a constant battle & should always pray, not faint, & that we are at war & must keep Thy whole armour on all the time, night & day, in Jesus' name we ask for Thy glory. Amen!--Do you?

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