THE LOVE OF CHRIST!      DO 1806  7/84
--For His Girls, Faith & Magdalene--Lessons on Teamwork.

         1. We should encourage Magdalene that she could be a real strong personality, a real strong warrior, a real strong leader without trying to be a man. She can be a strong Amazon or a Brunheld or a Joan of Arc, a real female warrior but still a female. It's just that imitation of a man that the Lord hates.--Almost like a usurpation of His authority! Faithy & Magdalene might work well together, that was my dream since they first came. They've really learned. It's been a hard road but they've really learned to get along. She's got a lot of the practical common sense about travel & knowledge of the countries that Faith needs, but Faith has really got the inspiration, & real knowledge of the Word & the Lord that Magdalene needs.
         2. Magdalene has been so humbled by this & so put down that she couldn't go out on her own anyway, she'd have to have encouragement, & that would encourage her & encourage the people to have confidence in her, that we have enough faith in her that we send Faith with her to show that we still believe in her & trust her & have confidence in her. Faith can help sort of hold her up & lift her up on that score while she sort of holds Faith up on the practical side.
         3. Magdalene would hardly dare try to push ahead. She won't dare to push ahead of Faith. She'll act more like Faith's assistant, sort of what I always said Faith needed. She always needed someone who could sort of take care of her on the practical side & supplement her ministry. I think Magdalene has all of that--the strength & the knowledge & the drive, but I think in this case she will let Faith lead in these situations.
         4. Faith needs to let people lead in the practical things who have better sense than she has on practical things, in travel & things like that. I still think they might make a good team. (Maria: Well, I thought maybe we could see by sending them just on a trial run to somewhere where they're needed right now.) Yes, & also to get the reaction of the people. (Maria: Then they could come back & give a first-hand report & we could see how they did.) Tell the leaders there to give us an honest report of what they feel is the effect on the people, if they were a blessing & an inspiration & an encouragement & the help I think they will be.
         5. I really believe the Lord has worked on both of them & they'll really be good together. (Maria: The nice thing about it is they both have had the same problems, in a way. They both go through, & have gone through, the same battles, have had the same problems & they know each other real well & could help & strengthen each other.)
         6. The Family can't just brush away & forget all Magdalene's years of faithful sacrificial service for them. She really spent years in their service & helping them & I'm sure they love her. I think they were sort of almost aghast at her humbling when we took her down, but I think it was the very thing she needed to knock that mannishness out of her. It was sort of a self-confidence of the flesh rather than of the Spirit, you know, sort of an overbearing aggressiveness & strength of the flesh rather than of the Spirit. I believe she has the Spirit & I believe she has had an anointing or she could never have accomplished as much as she did. She had a lot of faith & was really led of the Lord & really inspired the people & really sparked them & got them going. I don't know how good an organiser she is, but if anything she's probably better on that than Faith.--We'll see!
         7. (Maria: They really need each other, too, not only to keep each other humble but to encourage each other.) Yes, for company & companionship. Do they seem to get along pretty good? (Maria: It was a rough start since they're so different, but over the months they've gotten to understand each other now. They discuss everything together & they help each other with their battles.)
         8. It reminds me of the early days, a policy we used to have with people who had personality clashes & couldn't stand each other. We used to make them work together, sleep together, live together & eat together until they finally just learned to get along with each other. (Maria: Yes, it's been sort of a hard road but they're making it, God bless them!) Praise the Lord!
         9. I think the people will recognise that they both received the humbling & the training that they needed, & I think the fact that we send them out officially together will help inspire confidence in them now, maybe even more than before. Before people just sort of held them in an awesome fear with fear & trembling at their superior authority, whereas now I think there'll be more real genuine love & appreciation & understanding even of their faults, but to love them perhaps even more. "Upon our most uncomely parts we do bestow the greater care."--1Cor.12:23. And they'll go out as a shining example of what the Lord can do even with the broken & humbled & the unlovely in a way, you know?
         10. (Maria: And we'll have to caution the people to be respectful, just like you did after you put down the Royal Family & some people started being really cruel & disrespectful! That's a tendency with some people which you really have to get on their case about.) That's a tendency with the unspiritual who merely feared them because of their authority & didn't really love them in the Spirit. I think the truly spiritual will now genuinely respect them & appreciate them & love them & follow them. There may be a few rebels, who perhaps before even resented their authority but were afraid of them, that might choose this as an excuse to be defiant or insolent, like they did to even some of the good leaders of the Chain after the RNR.
         11. But His sheep know His voice & they'll follow Him, & I'm sure they'll follow them if we send them out with my appointment & anointing & authority as our official representatives. I think the people should be notified of that in advance (Here 'tis!), let them know that we have confidence in them now & that we have been pleased with their humbling & retraining & their actual improvement, & that's why we're sending them out to genuinely represent us now, which we're not too sure that they always did before.--To genuinely represent the Lord too in the way we think they ought to represent Him, not in their own strength or in the power of their own might & their own ideas of what the Family should be like, but what the Lord has shown us & what we believe the Family should be like.
         12. I think it could amount to a real powerful team, to supplement each other's gifts & strengthen each other's weaknesses & help lift each other & encourage each other. Let them know they're going with our full backing & encouragement & all the help we can give them. They'll have sort of a tentative itinerary, you know, of the places where we think they should visit & encourage & all the things they need to straighten out, & maybe the people they need to straighten out, but can leave it open for variation according to the leading of the Spirit, because they'll be on the scene & can be directly led of the Lord as to the actual needs.
         13. (Maria: And the great thing about it is that neither one of them want to do it. They're scared to death! They never want to be big leaders again, so that's the best attitude they could have.) Absolutely! Absolutely! Boy, I'll tell you, I never really wanted to be a leader! But I guess the Lord had that spark there that He wanted to fan to flame, because that's what He did. So praise the Lord!
         14. Lord bless them now & strengthen them in the power of Thy might, Lord, not their own flesh.--Not in their own wisdom but Thy wisdom, not their own self-confidence, Lord, but confidence in Thee. Bless them, Lord, & keep them humble, close to You, Jesus, totally dependent on Thee & Thy Spirit. Jesus, Lord, do bless & help them! Make them what You want them to be, to be a blessing to Thy people, Thy Kingdom, an encouragement, good leadership, leading them the right way & teaching them in the right way, Lord. Prepare them for the Future! In Jesus' name! Thank You Lord! Praise the Lord!
         15. So, praise the Lord! That should encourage the people to see that we still love people & have hope for former leadership, that we haven't completely thrown them over & abandoned them & discarded them on the scrap heap, that we still are trying to use them & train them, & God is still trying to reclaim them & sort of rehabilitate them & help them to fly higher than ever through the humbling.
         16. (Maria: That's a big revelation for our kids, that God has that much love & mercy on people! Even after the RNR many completely put down their old leaders & still have a hard time working under leadership. For example, one couple we recently had to rebuke publicly & demote but still kept on in a WS position, but their staff has completely lost all respect for them.) It's disrespect for us if they don't show respect to those whom we have retained in positions, to at least respect them for our respect & the position we've left them in. It's a kind of all-or-nothing-at-all attitude, they either worship them or hate them, so they need to learn a little mercy & forgiveness & tolerance & love. (Maria: Like you & the Lord have.)
         17. "Oh, wretched man that I am!"--Rom.7:24. But the Lord still loves me & uses me, so I figure He must still love me. (Maria: Amen, Honey! You certainly figure right!) I think that's the attitude they should take with these leaders whom we've put down & humbled & demoted & then promoted again. They need to learn to be forgiving & tolerant & loving & respectful, if not for their sakes, for our sakes. Praise the Lord? Amen.
         18. As they used to teach us in the Army, they said, "It doesn't matter what you think of the man, respect him for his position, his authority. If you don't like the guy, at least salute the uniform & his office & the officer, the fact that the Army has entrusted him with such a position." In other words, it's like you're saluting the Army, not just the individual personality. Some of those guys in the Army we despised, they were despicable! But we had to salute them for their authority's sake & for the position they held, thus showing the confidence of the Army in them in spite of their personality flaws etc.
         19. So I think the Family needs to learn to respect appointed leaders that we have designated! They need to learn to love & respect & tolerate & forgive them for our sakes if nothing else! (Maria: Faith & Magdalene's testimonies & their repentances have gone before them & all the lessons they've learned have been pubbed.)
         20. Amen! GB'M! I love'm!--And I'm expecting great things of them & the Lord & the people! Please help'm all you can. They're there to help you! Let the Love of Christ constrain us all!--2Cor.5:14.--In Jesus' name, amen!--"For the greatest of these is Love!"--1Cor.13:13.--Do you have Love?
         (Editor: Dear Family, please remember that all prophecy is conditional on our yieldedness & obedience. GBY!)

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