CELEBRATING HEAVEN!--Dad's Easter Message!
7/4/85
DO 2094
1. SOMETIMES I THINK THE LORD SPOILS US, HE'S SO GOOD TO US! Look how we live! I don't think the richest live any better than we do. After all, you can only sleep in one bed at a time, you can only eat one meal at a time, you can only love one girl at a time. He really presses down, shakes together & we run over with all the blessings that He gives us! We could hardly be any happier, free most of the time of any accidents or serious illnesses.
2. THE LORD IS UNUSUALLY GOOD TO US! I'm sure we're a lot happier than the average run of the rich, we don't have all the diseases & accidents & troubles & things they have, heartaches & heartbreaks & family breakups & all kinds of horrible things. As Carl Sandburg wrote in that famous poem about the rich, "The Fence", although thieves etc. couldn't get over the big high spiked fence around their yard, sadness & sickness & death could enter freely!
3. BUT ANYHOW, WE HAVE SO MUCH TO BE THANKFUL FOR! Probably some of you didn't even know it was Easter Sunday. TTL! I'm here & you're here & we're alive & we're well & we're happy & we live in a Heavenly Home! We have more than enough to eat, good beds to sleep in, lots of folks to love & so much to be thankful for! PTL? We have a little bit of Heaven on Earth right now! When I look at some of these pictures the artists are drawing, you might as well figure that's one of our present Family Homes. If you didn't see people flying through the air you wouldn't even know it was Heaven, because we already live that way & we already have these beautiful people & are living a Heavenly life! So we have so much to be thankful for!--Amen? Are you thankful this morning?
4. SINCE IT'S THE EASTER SEASON, WE'VE BEEN READING RECENTLY ABOUT HOW IN SOME SUPPOSEDLY CHRISTIAN COUNTRIES SUCH AS LATIN AMERICA & THE PHILIPPINES SOME'RE JUST ABOUT AS HEATHEN & PAGAN AS YOU CAN GET, people trying to earn their way to Heaven & trying to merit their Salvation by flagellation, beating themselves with whips etc.! It's just horrible when you think the laws of some countries, both in the East & the West, actually allow that sort of mutilation of their bodies! Talk about abusing our body, the temple of the Holy Spirit, how horrible! It certainly shows they don't have the Holy Spirit! They don't even know Christ, they don't even have Salvation!
5. THE CATHOLICS WORSHIP A LIVE MARY BUT A DEAD CHRIST! The only Christ you see in Catholic churches is a crucified Christ, a dead Christ. And if you ever see any depictions of a live Christ He's always a little child. They worship a dead Christ or a baby Christ, & a live Mary, & obviously they worship Mary much more than they do Jesus. No matter what they say, they are still in heathen darkness & still trying to earn merit & trying to work their way to Heaven.
6. AND THE SAD PART ABOUT IT IS, EVEN AFTER ALL THAT SUFFERING of one sort or another, all kinds of self-denial & physical & mental torture & crawling on the stones & all that sort of thing, it's not going to get'm one inch closer to Heaven! They're still unsaved, their sins are still unforgiven, they still don't know Jesus!
7. THEY'RE ALMOST SLAPPING JESUS IN THE FACE WITH THEIR OWN SELF-RIGHTEOUSNESS! It is a self righteousness, & there's nothing God hates like self-righteousness, trying to think you can earn your own salvation & you can be good enough to be saved, you can suffer enough to be saved, you can deny yourself enough to be saved, you can abuse your body enough to be saved. How horrible! What an insult to God! What ingratitude to Jesus!--Just brushing aside the sacrifice of Calvary, the genuine sacrifice.
8. THEY PICTURE JESUS ON THE CROSS ALL THE TIME & THEY DON'T EVEN SEEM TO KNOW WHAT HE DIED FOR! Isn't that horrible? All the time they're confronted with crucifixes, & yet they don't take it to heart, that there's their sacrifice, Jesus died! And as far as they're concerned, He's still on the Cross, He still hangs there, still dead. It's a wonder they ever even celebrate Easter & the Resurrection, because all week long they celebrate nothing but death & in some places even self-abuse & torture & mutilation, horrible! It's just shocking to hear about things like that!
9. WE LIVE IN A WORLD OF DARKNESS, A WORLD OF HEATHEN PAGAN DARKNESS THAT BOASTS ITSELF OF BEING PROGRESSIVE & civilised & highly modernised! The Catholics have had so-called Christianity (which I call nothing but churchianity, church-worship, they worship their buildings & their traditions, & this kind of stupidity, ignorance & deviltry that they indulge in during the Easter season) for years & they still don't know Jesus! Years of church & they still don't know Christ! Isn't that horrible? That's worse than the pagans or the heathen that worship other gods, because now they're so insulated by thinking they have religion, thinking they have Christianity, thinking they're Christians, it's hard to even show them the difference!
10. SO WE REAL BORN-AGAIN ETERNALLY SECURE CHRISTIANS HAVE LOTS TO BE THANKFUL FOR! It should make you very very thankful that you have the Light! Think how good God is to us, having given us the Light! Oh, we have so much--we've got it all! I never saw a church like this! We've got perfect freedom, beauty, joy, happiness, pleasure & genuine Salvation above all! Aren't you thankful? Isn't God good to us? We don't have to go through all kinds of suffering one week out of the year to portray the sufferings of Christ, & worse yet, suffer ourselves to try to earn Salvation & forgiveness & merit, but we already have it! It's ours!--Not through ourselves, but through Jesus! PTL! "Not of ourselves, it is the gift of God! Not of works lest any man should boast. For by grace are ye saved through faith, & that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God!" (Eph.2:8,9) PTL?
11. AROUND THE WORLD OUR HOMES ARE FULL OF LIGHT, JOY, PEACE, PLEASURE, HAPPINESS, SALVATION & SATISFACTION! What more could you say?--All this light in the midst of a World of darkness! Thank God there are some real Christians & good people in the World, even lots of the Catholics who are trying to be good & good people. There are probably lots of Catholics & church people who are sincere & who have genuine faith in God & Jesus & the Bible, but they're still in ignorance, in ignorant darkness, they still don't know the Lord, they still don't really have Jesus in their hearts. Isn't that sad?
12. IF ANYTHING, IT SHOULD INSPIRE US TO GET OUT THERE & GIVE'M THE LIGHT, GIVE'M THE GOSPEL, GET'M SAVED QUICK BEFORE THEY DIE & GO TO HELL! Get out there & give these people Salvation, a real genuine living Christ, a joyful Jesus, so they can know right now that they're saved & going to Heaven! Show'm what Heaven's like & get'm to receive Christ!
13. WOULDN'T YOU LIKE TO MAKE THE WHOLE WORLD JUST AS HAPPY AS WE ARE? WELL THEN GET OUT THERE & GIVE THOSE POSTERS OUT! I'm talking to the folks outside who can. You folks are helping to get them out by being here & helping me get'm out & our artists get'm out, & our secretaries & typists & all the rest all have a hand in it, as well as the people that feed us & clean house & all the things that have to be done to keep the army going. So you all have a hand in these beautiful Posters, every one of you can take part of the credit. PTL!--And also a share in the reward for the souls that are going to be saved as a result.
14. I GUESS THAT'S MY EASTER MORNING MESSAGE TO YOU, THAT WE'RE NOT TO BE PREACHING DEATH & SUFFERING & crucifixion & torture & torment & all those heathen practices that they call religion, but to try to give people a little bit of Heaven! I've been talking about the other side, the black side, the dark side, to help you appreciate the bright side, your side!--What we know, the way we live! PTL?
15. I JUST THINK WE MUST BE THE HAPPIEST PEOPLE IN THE WHOLE WORLD! I really believe we're the happiest people in the World, along with any other real born-again, genuinely saved Christians.--Although I don't even think they could be as happy as we are, because they're still bound by churchianity & its rules & the Law. They're not completely free. If Christ sets you free then you're free indeed! But if they're of the concision, the circumcision, they will have to keep their church rules & church laws.
16. BUT WE DON'T HAVE TO WORRY ABOUT ALL THAT RIGMAROLE & ALL THAT CHURCHIANITY & ITS CEREMONIES & RITUALISM & ALL THAT JUNK! It's just so much garbage, it's not even necessary! Just think, the churches go through all this junk which isn't even necessary & doesn't even help them in any way, it's nothing, in fact it even gets in the way of being a true Christian! The Devil has so deceived them into thinking that they're Christians & kept them so busy going to church & keeping church rules they have totally neglected the main job that God has given the church to do, & that's to get out & witness & win souls! And how many are doing that?
17. HOW MANY CHURCH PEOPLE DID YOU EVER KNOW THAT REALLY WITNESSED FAITHFULLY & WERE DILIGENT SOUL-WINNERS & REALLY BORE FRUIT? How many church members did you ever know like that? Well, I'll tell you, they were few & far between even in the best of churches that I went to, even the poor little Gospel churches that Maria & I were in. The people who really diligently witnessed & won souls were rare!--Even in what I would call the best of churches, the most Christian, the most Gospel-preaching, the most saved, the most righteous, even Spirit-filled Christians. They still just came to church & sat there singing, going through their motions, praying, listening to sermons, & going out thinking they'd done their duty for God.
18. YOUR FELLOWSHIPS, EVEN MEETINGS LIKE THIS, ARE SUPPOSED TO BE YOUR PLEASURE, YOUR ENJOYMENT, YOUR FEASTING & FOOD! The Christians' meetings and even their church meetings should be simply their pleasure and their joy, that's not their job! Going to church is not a Christian's job, it's his privilege, his pleasure! Having fellowship with other Christians, having meetings and praying together, worshipping together, singing together, that's their joy, not their job! They don't start working till they go out the church door the other direction and start facing the public and the sinners and the lost! Then their work begins! But most of them don't even know that, they're totally ignorant of what a Christian's duty really is. And they're not told by their preachers, sad to say.
19. AND YET YOU CAN SEE WHAT IT LEADS TO, THE TOTAL HEATHEN DEVILISH FIENDISH DARKNESS! There's churchianity to the full, churchianity in its highest form!--I'd say its lowest form, its worst form! My Dad even used to say that if you really want real churchianity & you really want to go in for it big, you ought to go to the Catholic church! They've really got the cathedrals & the churches & the stained glass windows & the trappings & the decorations! Boy, now there is real churchianity to the full! And it costs a lot of money too!
20. BUT THE CHURCH COULDN'T POSSIBLY BUILD AS BEAUTIFUL A TEMPLE AS THAT PRETTY GIRL RIGHT THERE! God made the most beautiful temples of all! We're the temples of the Holy Spirit, we are His temples! (1Cor.6:19) How could Man ever think that he could build a temple beautiful enough to house God? God Himself condemned it in both the Old & the New Testament!--Even though He tolerated it & let them do it when they insisted! (Acts 7:48; 1Kings 8:27)
21. BUT ONCE THE GENUINE SPIRITUAL REALITY WAS REVEALED & CAME THROUGH JESUS CHRIST, HE SAID FOR THEM TO PUT AWAY ALL THESE THINGS, GET RID OF THEM! Jesus said, "The time is coming & now is, when ye shall worship neither here in this mountain nor in Jerusalem!"--The Temple, in other words. "For they which worship God must worship Him in spirit & in truth, for the Father seeketh such to worship Him." (Jn.4:21-24) We're worshipping Him in our house here, but this is not our temple, it's just our dwellingplace. We have to have something to live in.
22. BUT EVEN GOD WANTS SOMETHING TO LIVE IN, NOT A TEMPLE, NOT A BIG BEAUTIFUL BUILDING, NOT A CATHEDRAL, NOT A SYNAGOGUE, BUT YOU! That's where God wants to live. Amen? He wants to live in you, & if you want to worship God you must worship Him in spirit, in your heart, & in Truth, in the Word! PTL?
23. THAT'S OUR RELIGION! THE TRUE RELIGION IS IN YOUR HEART, IN YOUR SPIRIT! The heart is used in the Bible as a term symbolic of your inner being. You talk about the heart of a matter, the heart of the apple is like the core, the heart, the inner part. So the Lord uses that term "heart" a lot to symbolise the real you on the inside. And the real you on the inside is not flesh & blood, is it? Your flesh & blood is beautiful, but there's something even more wonderful, more beautiful & eternal, which can never be destroyed, on the inside, the real you, the one who's looking out those windows right now, the one who's looking at me right now through those windows, your eyes!
24. I GUESS THIS WASN'T SUPPOSED TO BE A BIBLE PROPHECY STUDY THIS MORNING--MAYBE IT'S SUPPOSED TO BE YOUR EASTER SUNDAY SERMON so that you can appreciate your kind of religion & your kind of living Christ, saving Jesus, & thank God you don't have that kind of religion that we've read about in some places this week. Thank God that we are already living in Heaven! We're already the Kingdom of God! It seems to me that we not only have Heaven in our hearts, but we have Heavenly Homes, we're living in a Heavenly atmosphere, a Heavenly environment that is absolutely Heavenly!
25. SOMETIMES I WONDER HOW HEAVEN COULD BE ANY BETTER THAN THIS, BUT I KNOW IT CAN BE because we won't get tired There & we won't have to worry about any sickness or anything, no more sorrow nor sighing nor crying nor anything, everything will just be perfect! But we've already got a little bit of Heaven right here & now, this is a sample, & we've certainly got Heaven in our hearts. We already have saved spirits. We are already saved! We don't have to worry about whether we're going to Heaven or not, we know we're going to Heaven because we have Heaven already! We've got a little bit of Heaven right here & now when we have Jesus. PTL? Amen?
26. AREN'T YOU THANKFUL FOR THE HEAVEN WE HAVE IN OUR HEARTS & THE LITTLE HEAVENS WE LIVE IN like this? That's why we're doing these Posters, to show people these things. They can't understand the spiritual, they're so childlike & some so blind that they can't picture it, they can't imagine it. But we're trying to make it real to them, we're trying to portray these visions the Lord told us that they were. God gives these artists visions, & then they put them down on paper so you can see them.
27. SO THANK GOD FOR THESE VISIONS OF HEAVEN, THAT WE CAN PORTRAY HEAVEN TO THE WORLD & to the lost & to the sinners & to the people who are hungry to hear about Heaven. I think that's why the Lord is having so many popular songs come out now about Heaven. The Lord wants to let them know that there is a Heaven & that there's something better to look forward to, because the Earth is getting more like Hell all the time.
28. SO AREN'T YOU GLAD FOR YOUR HEAVEN? AREN'T YOU GLAD THAT YOU LIVE IN A HEAVENLY ATMOSPHERE, IN A HEAVENLY HOME, & you have Heaven in your hearts & we can show Heaven to the rest of the World! PTL! Every one of you helping me to work are helping me to show Heaven to the whole World. Every one of you has a job, a part in this marvellous ministry of getting out the Gospel, the Good News about Heaven, about Jesus, because He's the only way you can get There! PTL? That's the good news!
29. SO ISN'T THE LORD GOOD TO US? WE HAVE HEAVEN IN OUR HEARTS & WE LIVE IN A HEAVENLY HOME, & we're on our way to our final Home in Heaven. Just think how we live with all these angels here! Aren't they gorgeous? GB'm!--Beautiful! Angelic children! Hallelujah! TYL! God bless'm all! PTL! Hallelujah! Let's thank the Lord, shall we?
30. (SINGS:)
"HEAVEN IS HERE, IS HERE RIGHT NOW,
Heaven is here & I'll tell you how.
Jesus to know is Heaven below,
Heaven is here, is here right now!"
PTL! Amen? Hallelujah! We're celebrating the Resurrection of Christ this morning, almost the whole World is, certainly the whole church, & resurrection has to do with Heaven, doesn't it? When you're resurrected you're going to go straight to Heaven! When you're raptured you're going to go straight to Heaven, you're on your way to Heaven! We're already on our way to Heaven, in fact we've already got a little bit of Heaven! Praise God! What other songs can you think of about Heaven? (Fam: "Heaven is Better Than This!")
31. (SINGS:)
"HEAVEN IS BETTER THAN THIS,
OH MY, WHAT JOY, WHAT BLISS!
Walking down those streets of the purest gold,
Telling a story that never grows old!
Heaven is better than this,
Oh my, what joy, what bliss!
I love the people of the Family,
But Heaven is better than this!"
Well, sometimes I wonder how it could be, we're so happy & it's so Heavenly & you're all so Heavenly, thank the Lord, but Heaven is even better than this. We've got a little sample here in our hearts, we have the Lord, but one of these days it's going to be even better! Isn't that wonderful?
32. SO THIS MORNING WHILE EVERYBODY IS CELEBRATING THE RESURRECTION, WE MIGHT AS WELL CELEBRATE HEAVEN!--Because that's what it's all about, that's what resurrection is for. There wouldn't be any point to the Resurrection if there wasn't any Heaven. When you're resurrected & you've got your new body you've got to have someplace to go, someplace to live! PTL! That's the first place you're going to go. Of course, you're going to come back too because there's still a big job to be done down here.
33. BUT WE'RE GOING TO GO UP THERE FIRST WHILE THE WORST IS GOING ON DOWN HERE & THERE'S REALLY HELL ON EARTH, we're going to have our Heaven in Heaven & be having our great Marriage Supper of the Lamb & receiving rewards & crowns & all those wonderful things. God's going to take us on a tour of those beautiful mansions to see where we're going to live.
34. I JUST DON'T SEE HOW THE LORD COULD BE ANY BETTER TO US EXCEPT TAKE US TO HEAVEN! But He can't do that yet because we've got a big job to finish up here! PTL! And this may be our last year to finish it if the Famine's coming. If the Crash comes & then the Antichrist, it's going to make it more difficult all the time to do what we're doing now. We've got to get these Posters out now, because we can't get them out soon enough to suit me! Because we don't have much time left.
35. SO LET'S WORK THE WORKS OF HIM THAT SENT US WHILE IT'S DAY, FOR THE NIGHT COMETH! There will come a time when it's so bad that no man can work, & then what's going to happen? (Jn.9:4) When we can't work any more, then He's going to give us a rest, He's going to take us up to be with Him in Heaven! Isn't that wonderful? Then we'll never be tired any more & we won't have to work for a little while at least. We'll have a big feast & celebration & Heavenly tours & crowns & rewards & all kinds of wonderful things, marvellous, before we have to come back here & fight that big battle that we've been studying about, & I guess we'll have to get around to that in the next Lesson. ILY! God bless you all! Thank the Lord for Heaven!
Copyright (c) 1998 by The Family