"CONSIDER THE POOR!" (Psa.41:1).         5/12/91
--Our New Ministry in the U.S. to the Poor!      DO 2755
--To the People Who Don't Care Who You Are!

         1. I've been reading the prophecies given at the Summit meeting, and they're really inspiring and thrilling! In fact, I got so inspired, I got a little one myself! I was about halfway through reading the prophecies for the North American leadership and something kept coming to me very strongly. I said, "I'm going to have to jot that down and let the Family know about that!" And just then I came to a prophecy that was quoting the same passage in Isaiah that I was getting! (Isa.61:1-3). It's the passage the Lord read in the synagogue in Nazareth, that He came to heal the brokenhearted and set the captives free and all of that (Luke 4:18,19).
         2. At the Summit the leaders were praying for the team that's going to be leading North America, and they were getting all kinds of prophecies about their work and what the Lord wanted them to do there. It voiced so much what I was getting, only mine was even a little more specific. Does somebody want to read that passage in Isaiah? And as you do, notice particularly the kind of people the Lord is talking about.
         3. (Family reads: "The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me; because the Lord hath anointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek; He hath sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound; to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord, and the day of vengeance of our God; to comfort all that mourn; to appoint unto them that mourn in Zion, to give unto them beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness; that they might be called trees of righteousness, the planting of the Lord, that He might be glorified" [Isa.61:1-3].)
         4. From that, what would you gather is the type of people the Lord is calling our folks to minister to now as they serve the Lord in North America? Does it sound like bigshots? Does it sound like the top? Does it sound like the military? Does it sound like the church people? What economic class would you say those people are? (Family: The poor.) The poor!
         5. I think we're going to have a very lowly ministry again, and I think that's what the Lord was saying in some of those prophecies. That's what I was inspired with, that we're going to seek out the people that nobody wants--the lost, the lowly, the forsaken, the despised and the broken--"the cast-offs, those which no man desireth, which others do not want and do not seek, the unwanted and uncared for." That's what the Lord gave me--that we'll be doing just like we did when we first started! The hippies were the scum of the earth to most people! They were the worst and the lowest, the dregs of society, and the Lord called me and my little family to the humblest of ministries, to be a King of the Beggars, to seek out the lost sheep who had no shepherd.
         6. I think that's going to be one of our ministries again, just like it was in the beginning. Our Family needs to start looking around to see who is the worst off, who needs help the most, who is the most desperate for answers--like Jesus did--and minister to them!--The drunks and the harlots and the publicans and the sinners! The Lord said He loves them--the sort of people that nobody else cares to minister to, or at least not many. And yet there are so many unemployed right now in all North America that the poor are getting poorer! And the unemployed are getting to be the homeless as they have their homes and their cars repossessed when they can no longer afford to pay for them, when they can no longer afford to pay the monthly payments.

Our Ministry to the Hippies!

         7. That's the way we started, ministering to the lowest of the low, the people nobody else would touch with a ten-foot pole--the hippies! Their parents didn't want them and kicked them out of their homes! The hippies were the lowest of the low.
         8. When the Lord first called me, He said, "Would you be willing to be King of the Beggars?" The Lord is very clever how He does things. First He put a burden on my heart for all those poor kids, and I saw they were like sheep having no shepherd. And that's what the Lord said: "These poor sheep have no shepherd. They need a shepherd like you. Would you be willing to be their shepherd?" I said, "Yes, Lord!" Then He got a little stronger, because He knew this would be a little tougher, and He said, "Would you be willing to be King of the Beggars?" The hippies were all panhandling, going around begging for money so they could buy dope and whatnot. And I said, "Yes, even that, Lord!"

Our Main Job Is to Minister Spiritually!

         9. So the whole message I was getting as I read those prophecies was about our Family in the U.S. ministering to the lowest of the low. There are not many hippies any more, but there are lots of poor people--the homeless and hungry and people who nobody's helping! They've exhausted their unemployment insurance, and can't get welfare and food stamps any more. The government won't just let you live that way forever, you know! They've even found some pretty nice families with children living in their cars.
         10. People are hard up in the U.S. right now! So to our people who have gone back to North America--that formerly proud, high-falutin', luxury-loving area of the world which used to be rich, but now is becoming poor--the Lord is saying, "Search out the needy, the lonely, the lost and the helpless and the homeless, the lowest of the low and those that nobody else wants--and give them Jesus, just like you did when you first started!"
         11. This would also include ministering to such people as migrant workers, refugees, illegal aliens, minorities, unwed mothers, prostitutes, the neglected youth, drug addicts, the physically handicapped, and those in correctional institutions, prisons, orphanages and old folks' homes! And if you pray for and work on winning the heads of the institutions where you go, you'll have a much better reception and they will be working with you instead of against you!
         12. We don't have a lot materially and we may not be able to help them much physically, but we can certainly help them spiritually, which is of far greater importance--so great, in fact, there's no comparison! As Peter said to the lame man, "Silver and gold have I none, but such as I have give I thee: In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth rise up and walk!" (Acts 3:6). These people were already down and out spiritually, and now He's allowed them to get down and out physically as well, so they will turn to Him in their desperate need. And as they turn to Him for their spiritual needs, He will also supply their physical needs.
         13. There may be times when we can do a little physically, such as providing videos for the poor that we've gotten the rich to sponsor, or helping them with physical healing by praying for them, etc., but this is just a very minor, minimal part of our ministry.
         14. I'm not suggesting that we run shelters for the homeless ourselves, as this is a monumental job and very costly and time-consuming and takes away from our witness. Witnessing is our job and we shouldn't get into anything that's going to distract us from that! But some of our people may be able to visit the missions and shelters and minister there to the homeless. In times of recession or depression, many of the homeless are not just of the very low economic class or not just bums, but they're formerly middle class or even well-to-do people who have lost their homes because of hard economic times. So they're usually newly poor or homeless who are very desperate, many of whom would probably be very open to the Gospel.
         15. (Maria: Of course, somebody has got to feed the hungry and clothe the naked and shelter the homeless, so especially since they're not doing much of anything else, that's a good job for the churches! Even the Christians who are doing something, most of them are involved in social projects. But most of the evangelicals who are involved in these projects and programs don't really do a lot of witnessing, let's face it. They consider their sample of good works their witness, and actually trying to lead people to Salvation doesn't usually come for months or even years later, if ever!
         16. (Of course, we have to do what we can to help people physically, if that's their need, but our main job is to minister to them spiritually. The Lord can take care of them after that; we don't have to do it for them. It's like the quote, "Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day. But teach a man to fish and you'll feed him for life!" The social gospel gives the fish to the people, but what we're doing is we're teaching them to fish by getting them saved right then and there and dispensing with all the physical stuff and all the things that the Lord will take care of immediately when someone finds Him. Then He'll supply all their material needs automatically! He'll do that! He can do that easily! But He needs us to do the job that we have to do, which is to really feed their souls and help them to find the Lord!
         17. (Of course, we should do what we can, since if you have it in your hand to help someone who you see suffering and you don't do what you can, then you're not being a good sample of Jesus' love, and it may be pretty hard for them to see past your poor sample. But in our situation we usually don't have that much material goods that we can share with others, and the Lord has given us the much more important commission of feeding their souls, not their bodies. You can tell them, just like Peter told the lame man, "I'm sorry, I don't have any money to give you. I wish I did, but what I have to give you is far more valuable than money or goods!" Of course, if the Lord supplies an overabundance of provisioned goods, etc., you could always share this excess with the poor you minister to, the homeless missions, etc.
         18. (It doesn't take long to lead them to the Lord, and once they get led to the Lord, then the Lord is going to take care of them right away! And that's our job!--And that's really the job of all Christians.) Amen! PTL!

Help the Helpless Who Don't Care Who You Are!

         19. We're going to have to love the unlovely! That's what Jesus did! He went down amongst the drunks and the harlots, the publicans and sinners, on the highways and byways, and compelled them to come in! (Luk.14:23). And that's what He's told us to do. Our folks who have gone back to North America may find they're not going to be able to minister so much to the upper class. I don't know if we're going to reach many top people in the U.S. They've had their day and many of them have rejected us!
         20. That was another thing that was in the message the Lord gave me: "Help the helpless who don't care who you are!" (Weeps) Praise the Lord! Thank You Jesus! Hallelujah! How about that? A ministry to people who don't care who we are and are just so thankful for our help! I think the Lord is certainly going to use us with the forsaken and the homeless and the unemployed and the poor that nobody else wants, that most of the churches are not seeking out or caring for, just like we did before with the hippies.

Whatsoever Thou Spendest, I Will Repay!

         21. (Maria: Some may ask, "But where will our support come from if we're just going after that kind of people?" If we could just stop worrying about support and go out to those that can't help to support us, think of how receptive those people would be!--And think of how much more inspired our kids and our adults would be witnessing to those classes!)
         22. To begin with, we're not going just to the physically poor. I have no doubt that the Lord will also lead us to the spiritually poor as well, who may have enough physically but are poor and destitute and blind spiritually. We should go anywhere that people will receive us and our message. However, the point that I believe the Lord is trying to make is that our ministry will be much more to the physically poor because they will be the ones who will be the most receptive as a whole. When people are insecure and uncertain and in fear of losing their job and their home or have already lost them, they are desperate and frightened and are much more apt to be willing to listen to God's solutions. Those who are secure and sure of themselves are much less likely to feel they need anything. "The hungry hath He filled with good things, but the rich hath He sent empty away" (Luk.1:53).
         23. In answer to your question about support, remember the story about the Good Samaritan? The Lord said, "Whatsoever thou spendest, I will repay!" (Luk.10:35). I got that scripture just as clear as anything! We're not to worry about that. He'll take care of it if we'll try to save those that nobody else is saving, those they don't even want to save. (Maria: That's beautiful, TYL!) And there are other verses along that line: "Blessed is he that considereth the poor: the Lord will deliver him in time of trouble. The Lord will preserve him, and keep him alive; and he shall be blessed upon the earth: and Thou wilt not deliver him unto the will of his enemies." "He that hath pity upon the poor lendeth unto the Lord; and that which he hath given will He pay him again." And "he that giveth unto the poor shall not lack!" (Psa.41:1,2; Pro.19:17, 28:27).

A Ministry to the Poor in Spirit!

         24. (Maria: Do you think worldwide we should try to continue as we are, to try to reach the top in the rest of the world?) Oh yes, we should continue to reach whoever we can, but I think we're going to have our greatest ministry again amongst the lowliest and the most despised and the ones who need the most help, like the hippies in our early days. That's the type of people the Lord has always used us with the most. Of course, we've won lots of people in high places as well--the well-educated and the intelligentsia--but we are also going to have to go back to a ministry like we had in our first days--to the worst, the lowest, the beggars, the ones nobody else cared for and everybody else hated. I think that's where we're going to be best received.
         25. But we should go to anyone who needs us and will receive us--and not neglect to follow up on those who already have! Don't try to force the doors open, but pray and ask the Lord to lead you to whomever He wants you to minister to!
         26. Let's not carry this to the extreme to think we're only going to minister to the homeless and the poor! Jesus didn't minister only to the poor and the homeless and the hungry. I'm just saying there are going to be an awful lot of people who are poor and hungry because of the depression, so we'd better get ready to minister to them, as well as whoever else we minister to.
         27. The Lord says, "Blessed are the poor in spirit!" (Mat.5:3). And He said He satisfied the hungry, but that He sent the full away (Luk.1:53). You can be hungry in spirit, and yet be rich in material things. (Maria: The idea is that we should minister to not just the physically destitute, but also the spiritually destitute and needy.) People in need! Sometimes the rich are the most neglected of all. We're to minister to whoever the Lord leads us to and brings to us, but there are going to be a lot more poor than there used to be. A lot of people who have been rich, by comparison they're going to be poor. But that doesn't mean they're going to be beggars on the street, or absolutely, horribly poverty-stricken like some of the poor in Southeast Asia and South America who live in shanties with no plumbing, and sewage running down the street!
         28. Let's put it this way: We need to minister to the poor in spirit. (Maria: And not just the bums on the street, because most bums are either alcoholics or drug addicts, and many are there more or less because they've chosen that way of life and prefer to live that way, so you can't do too much for them.) And most of them have already heard the Gospel!
         29. What a ministry! But it's nothing new! We were practically outcasts when we started ministering to the hippies. We had no denomination, we had no popularity amongst the churches or anything. But the hippies didn't care who we were!--In fact, the less we belonged to the System, the better they liked us! The less we belonged to something respectable like a church, the better they liked us! So that's where we started, with the people who didn't care who you were! They're so desperate, so helpless, so needy, they won't care who you are! Isn't that a calling? It's going to humble a lot of us, but Lord bless and help us and make us a blessing! Amen? Praise the Lord!


Copyright (c) 1998 by The Family