WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO BE TRULY REVOLUTIONARY?              9/85
--The Reason for Sacrifice: Love for Jesus & Others!--By Maria--Maria Letter No.44

         1. MOST OF US WHO JOINED IN THE BEGINNING OF THE FAMILY HAD FEW IF ANY OF THE BENEFITS & EXTRAS THAT WE HAVE NOW! We didn't have any videos, any TVs, hardly any tape recorders, no wine & no sex! Most of us slept together communally on the floor in sleeping bags, boys in one room, girls in another. All we had was the Word! But that was enough, because it was satisfying & fulfilling! We didn't need anything else, we didn't even think about it or want it! We gave it all up!
         2. NOBODY HAD ANY MONEY BACK THEN FOR ANYTHING! Sometimes the food wasn't so good! We hardly even had any clothes, just somebody's old castoffs. Nobody worried about those things & I think most everyone turned out pretty well. It didn't damage us permanently for life just because we ate donated left-over donuts & white bread sandwiches day after day. Nobody got hurt from it & the Lord kept us. TTL!
         3. IT WAS A HARD LIFE, IT WAS RIGOROUS, IT WAS AN ARMY! Our mornings were spent in Bible classes & then we went out witnessing for 4-6 hours, then we brought visitors home & continued to witness into the night! It was hard! It was rough! It was a sacrifice! But today, most of our Family is not required to sacrifice in this way, and, in fact, have not even experienced this kind of sacrifice. You sacrifice in a way, by working hard out in the field witnessing, but in most ways you have all you need & even much of what you want.
         4. AS DAD SAID ONCE, "IT IS ONLY THE FIRST GENERATION WHO FOUGHT & BLED & DIED FOR FREEDOM WHO REALLY APPRECIATE IT! The next generation didn't have to pay anything for it! They got it free, so they weren't interested in fighting & bleeding & dying for it! All they wanted to do was enjoy it! The second generation didn't have to pay as much for it, so they couldn't possibly appreciate its value." (ML#42:11)
         5. WE DON'T WANT TO BE GUILTY OF THIS ATTITUDE. WE ALL NEED TO REALISE THAT IT STILL COSTS EACH OF US SOMETHING TO BE IN THIS FAMILY! How revolutionary are you? Do you even know what it means to be "revolutionary"? Have you ever even read the "Revolutionary Rules", much less lived them? Or are you just here in the Family living for Jesus because your parents are, or because you have nowhere else to go, or maybe because it's a pretty good way of life with a lot of blessings & benefits.
         6. THE WAY WE LIVE IN MANY WAYS IS MUCH LIKE THE SYSTEM. We have all the System conveniences & money & we even look like the System because we've had to shape up & clean up for PR. Sometimes we look so similar to the System that you kids are probably tempted to think, "What's the difference?" You really do start to feel unrevolutionary after awhile if you can't sing or praise the Lord out loud or if you can't practice some of our more radical doctrines openly, & if you have to dress & live like the System & in many ways act like the System. Outwardly you've got to be like everybody else. The days for being weirdy beardy Jesus freaks are over, & as Dad says, a real revolutionary must be revolutionary enough to pretend not to be a revolutionary when dealing with the System. We do need to look somewhat System on the outside in order to make it possible to continue to witness underground in the days to come--and even now.
         7. SO IT'S NOT THAT WE WANT TO TAKE EVERYTHING AWAY FROM YOU NOW & MAKE YOU START SLEEPING ON THE FLOOR WITH 50 OTHERS IN A COLD UNHEATED WAREHOUSE, but you young people & more recent arrivals need to be conscious that our Family did sacrifice & that if the time comes for you to do the same, you shouldn't murmur & complain about sacrificing! We won't suggest that everybody throw away everything & go back to the way things were 17 years ago, but we should remember that that's a distinct possibility & that we probably will need to do it again someday!
         8. AN ARMY OF SOLDIERS ON THE MOVE IN THE MIDST OF A BATTLE HAS TO FOREGO LUXURIES & EVEN MANY OF WHAT ARE USUALLY CONSIDERED NECESSITIES. They have to lay aside all the weights that would hinder them from gaining the victory. Sacrificial, revolutionary living shouldn't be something that's completely foreign to our people. Our attitude shouldn't be, "Why should we have to give all this up? We deserve these things, we're Christians & the Lord should be good to us & provide for us!"
         9. PHYSICALLY & MATERIALLY THE LORD HAS MADE THINGS EASIER FOR OUR FAMILY IN THE PAST FEW YEARS FOR SEVERAL REASONS. One, so we could multiply rapidly & have many children & better conditions under which to raise them. Another reason He's allowed us to benefit of more comfort & convenience is His Love & mercy upon us parents who are now reaching middle age & are not teens any longer, even though we may still feel young in Spirit. Maybe you can think of some other reasons, like so we'd have money for special tools for a greater outreach like videos, TVs, tape recorders etc.
         10. WITH WORSENING WORLD ECONOMIC CONDITIONS & PERSECUTION, WE MAY BE REQUIRED TO GO BACK TO OUR EARLY LIFE OF SACRIFICE! You young people have never even had a taste of it, but you need to see that there are some sacrifices that will have to be made & you need to be prepared for it! You need to learn a bit about sacrifice & about having to do without things if necessary.
         11. TO REFLECT ON OUR BASICS & THE BEGINNING DAYS OF OUR REVOLUTION FOR JESUS IS REALLY A HELP IN GIVING US BACK A VISION, even if we can't exactly live in the same style now as before. We can't go back to those days, but if we'll just reflect on the dedication & sacrifice of our first teens we'll be challenged to be willing to do the same if we're called upon to do it. It keeps the vision before us & the goal a little bit closer, otherwise we may tend to drift away from the real reasons that we are in this Family.
         12. WE WANT TO CHALLENGE YOU YOUNG PEOPLE WITH THAT SAME VISION OF 100% FORSAKE ALL & SACRIFICE. Are you willing to do the same? Even though we're not asking you to sleep on the floor & to live such an austere life, are you willing to live that way without murmuring & complaining? Are you willing to fight & die & suffer & do whatever it takes to carry on this war of the Spirit against the System & its evil? Are you willing to be totally married to Jesus, forsaking all other people & things that would keep you apart from Him? In spirit are you living that way now?--With the same willingness, the same dedication, the same desire to serve Jesus with all your heart & soul & mind & spirit no matter what?
         13. (SARA: IT'S LIKE ASKING YOU, ARE YOU WILLING TO DROP OUT? Even in the Family right now you have to drop out of wanting to do things your own way & wanting things that may not be good or edifying. You may be hung up in a lot of things like girl/boy talk & dieting & free time.--When you have to learn to live Luke 14:33!)
         14. NOBODY HAD ANY FREE TIME BACK THEN, we didn't have any coffee, we didn't have any wine, & we loved it! Those early teens had many more System hang-ups to forsake than you present teens do! Most had been in the System for 14, 16, 19 years! But they had to stop all those Worldly habits immediately, no questions asked, no complaints, no nothing! They had to drop out from doing their own thing into a completely different life!
         15. YOU YOUNG PEOPLE HAVE TO DO THE SAME. You have to drop in to wanting Jesus & the Word & souls above all else. "Turn your eyes upon Jesus. Look full in His wonderful face, & the things of this World will become very dim in the Light of His glory & grace." So if we ask you young people to give up a few of your old habits & hang-ups (it's really the Lord that asks you), that's nothing to what the early teens did!
         16. (PETER: ONE BIG DIFFERENCE IS THAT WE HAD TO MAKE A DEFINITE DECISION TO LEAVE OUR OLD LIVES & OUR OLD WAYS OF DOING THINGS & OUR OLD THINGS TO FOLLOW GOD & FOLLOW THE FAMILY, whereas you kids were born into it. But you have to make a decision also: "This is it, I'm going to follow, not just because my parents are in the Family, but because I want to follow the Lord! I want to be a disciple of Jesus! I want to forsake whatever I need to, whether my things or my ideas or my bad habits or my time or my loved ones! I want to fight & die for the Truth!") That's right!
         17. I THINK WE ALL NEED TO RENEW OUR VISION FOR SACRIFICIAL & REVOLUTIONARY LIVING, BECAUSE WE HAVE IT PRETTY GOOD! These days, for new disciples to drop out of their System home & into a Family Home does not make such a drastic difference. This is especially true on poor fields! In fact, in many cases it's a real step upward for babes who join. When they join, they no longer have to slave away anymore at a daily job for hours & hours with very little pay. Many are from poor countries & they are actually getting up in the World to join one of our Family Homes, & therefore not really required to make much of a sacrifice. But if the time comes when they have to give it all up, it may be hard for a lot of them because they've advanced their social status in some ways. They are living with "rich foreigners!"
         18. IT'S GOING TO BE A BIG SHOCK FOR A LOT OF PEOPLE TO EVENTUALLY HAVE TO MAKE SOME SACRIFICES & TO LIVE WITH A LOT LESS. Of course it's not only going to be the Family that has to suffer deprivation & sacrifice material things!--The whole World is going to be in that condition! There's going to come a time when it's going to get worse & when the Lord's people are going to have to flee, & conditions are going to be a lot rougher for the Family than other people, especially in the End. So we're all going to have to somehow be prepared for some sacrifices!
         19. WE'RE PRETTY RICH & INCREASED IN GOODS COMPARED TO WHAT WE USED TO BE & I'M NOT SO SURE IT'S SO GOOD FOR US SPIRITUALLY! Of course, in some ways it's necessary for the reasons we brought out before, & also because we're winning a different class of people than we did in the Early Days. The hippies were glad to join an "any old pad" type of life. But there are some advantages to having a little more "respectability" for PR & FFing & for reaching the top & their children. The Lord seems to be blessing us materially so we can appeal more to System people who look so much on the outward appearance.
         20. OF COURSE THERE'S A DANGER IN LOOKING TOO GOOD, because here you're supposed to have forsaken everything to live for the Lord, & your friends & fish & kings & queens may wonder how you could have done that & still have so much. There has to be some kind of balance. If you can take them into your house & say, "Look, we provisioned this & the Lord sent us this & we also provisioned that & our other king gave us this, & the Lord supplied this by a miracle," that's different. You should show them that the Lord really did provide it, that you gave up everything in order to live for Jesus & He blessed you & provided for you & gave you back much more in return. But if you look too rich & you have even more than they do, they're not going to feel much like helping you! The balance is to not be greedy or overly mindful of material things to where you try to collect them just for themselves or for your own carnal desires.
         21. YOUR MOTIVE SHOULDN'T BE TO GET THESE THINGS JUST FOR THE COMFORT OR THE LUXURY OF MATERIAL THINGS OR FOR WHAT OTHER PEOPLE MIGHT THINK OF YOU! If your motive is really for the ministry's sake & the sake of the Lord's work & accomplishing your job, then the Lord will bless & give you just what you need, & not too much & not too little. PTL!
         22. JUST DON'T LET THE MATERIAL BLESSINGS THE LORD BESTOWS ON YOU BECOME SO IMPORTANT to you that you can't give them up if He asks you to. Don't let the "cares of this World & the deceitfulness of riches choke the Word" (Mat.13:22) so that you become unfruitful! Make sure that you have the right attitude about those blessings & that you instil that attitude into others by your good example! The Word & Jesus must always have first place in your heart & your thoughts & your time.
         23. SACRIFICE IN OUR LIVES SHOULD NOT BE MERELY AN EXERCISE TO PROVE TO OURSELVES, OTHERS OR THE LORD HOW SELF-DENYING WE ARE & how righteous we are. We don't want to sacrifice merely for the sake of sacrifice or try to earn merit with the Lord. For us sacrifice & forsaking all & denying ourselves & taking up our cross are just part of the requirements for being a dedicated revolutionary for Jesus, something we do when called upon & necessary in the line of duty in our life as a Christian soldier in the Lord's Army.
         24. THE MOST IMPORTANT THING IN OUR LIFE FOR JESUS IS NOT SACRIFICE, ALTHOUGH WE'LL BE HAPPY TO SACRIFICE IF NECESSARY. THE MOST IMPORTANT THINGS ARE LOVE FOR HIM & OTHERS, resulting in our obedience, submission, yieldedness & a willing spirit. If we have these, we will be a true revolutionary for Jesus. We won't have to worry about sacrificing, because sacrifice will just come as a matter of course in our life for Him, & when we are called upon to sacrifice we'll do it because we love Him. If we're willing, yielded & obedient we'll be good soldiers who aren't going to be entangled with the things of this World or dragged down by them, neither with material wealth nor the personal weights of our own selfish desires & attitudes. (Gal.5:1; 1Jn.2:15)
         25. OUR GOAL IS TO BE TRUE REVOLUTIONARIES FOR JESUS, 100% DEDICATED TO HIS CAUSE of exposing & destroying evil & bringing in God's Kingdom right here & now. If we're willing & yielded, submitted to Him & obedient, all the other qualities & qualifications of a revolutionary will follow: We'll be looking for a City Whose Builder & Maker is God. We won't be tied down to this World. We'll be willing to fight & die for Him because this World & what it has here, even the attractions & the comfort of the physical flesh & its comfortable selfish attitudes, will no longer appeal to us. Our hearts will be 100% dedicated to the Lord & our treasure will be in Heaven. (Heb.11:10)
         26. WE'LL BE WILLING TO CHANGE WHEN THE LORD SAYS CHANGE--change our direction, our home, our loved ones, our lifestyle, our habits, our attitudes, our clothes, or our hair, because it won't matter to us anymore. Our only purpose for living will be to live & die for Jesus. We'll be willing to sacrifice anything for Jesus & we'll be happy to get rid of the Worldly weights that so easily beset us, in order that we may get the job done. We'll be able to run the race & win.
         27. WE'LL BE READY TO MOVE, TO CHANGE, TO GO OR TO STAY AT A MOMENT'S NOTICE. We won't resist change because we know that only with change can come progress in getting rid of the old & overcoming evil, & bringing in the new & implanting the good in men's hearts & minds.
         28. SO, OUR GOAL IS NOT SACRIFICE.--OUR GOAL IS TO BE A TRUE DEDICATED REVOLUTIONARY FOR JESUS. Our goal is to be yielded, obedient clay in the Potter's hands, so moldable & pliable that He can make us into whatever He wants & then break us again & make us into something else if the need arises.--A Christian revolutionary so obedient to Christ's call that when He says, "Go!", we go, "Stay!", we stay, "Fight!", we fight, "Abound!", we abound, "Be abased" & we are abased. When He says "Go ye into all the World & preach the Gospel to every creature", we go. And when He says, "Come unto Me all ye that labour & are heavy laden & I will give you rest," we rest in His arms. When He says, "Fight the good fight of faith", we fight with everything that is within us. When He says, "Stand back & see Me fight!", we stand back & see Him win the victory. When He says, "Ye are not your own, ye are bought with a price," then we act like it. (Phil.4:12; Isa.30:21; Mk.16:15; Mat.11:28; 1Tim.6:12; 2Chr.20:17; 1Cor.6:20.)
         29. WHEN HE GETS DONE MOLDING US INTO THE VESSEL HE WANTS; WE DON'T QUESTION "WHY HAST THOU MADE ME THUS?" When He says, "Lovest thou Me? Feed My sheep," we don't make excuses but we go & feed His sheep. When He says, "He that forsaketh not all that he hath cannot be My disciple", we say, "Yes, Lord, all that I have is Thine. And here it is." (Rom.9:20; Jn.21:16,17; Luk.14:33)
         30. IF WE'RE 100% YIELDED & OBEDIENT REVOLUTIONARIES FOR JESUS, WE CAN'T BE OLD BOTTLES, because we are so busy changing, moving, fighting, serving & exploding, that we don't have time to get settled down & become brittle & unbendable & stuck in our rut. We're new bottles no matter how old we are, because it is our spirit that counts. If we're 40 years old, we can be just as much a new bottle as if we're 12 years old. But if we're 12 years old & not obedient & yielded, we can be just as old bottlish as some 40 & 50-year-olds.
         31. THERE IS NO AGE LIMIT IN THE LORD'S NEW BOTTLE ARMY, ALTHOUGH THE OLDER ONES OFTEN HAVE TO FIGHT A LITTLE HARDER to overcome years of getting settled down & weighted down with the cares of this life. But that should make them even better fighters as they know they have to fight all the harder, even get more stirred up & more angry at evil & more enthusiastic for the good. True revolutionaries for Jesus dream the dreams that the World says are impossible, but they see them come to pass & materialise before their very eyes, because "With God, all things are possible!" (Mat.19:26)

Copyright (c) 1998 by The Family