NOT A SERMON, BUT A SAMPLE!               DO J             7/70
--On occasion of Hosea wanting to take a team into Austin, Texas, for several days of witnessing.

         1. WE CAN'T AFFORD TO GO RUNNING OFF TO OUR OWN LITTLE BATTLES COOKED UP BY OUR OWN IDEAS just because we think our soldiers need a little witnessing. When we send out teams, I hope to send them out & never see them again. I want them to go & stay until they get the job done.
         2. MOSES WAS GETTING DIRECTIONS FOR EIGHTY DAYS FOR A WORLD PROGRAMME WHICH WAS TO LAST FOR THOUSANDS OF YEARS. Do you think it was time wasted, a time to get bored, a time to be impatient? Like when we were up in Laurentide & when God started talking, He told us exactly what to do & how to do it & we had a monumental year on the road, because we spent time listening to God & got our orders directly from Him.
         3. YOU NEED TO GET YOUR ORDERS FROM GOD! Joshua was already a good soldier, already knew how to fight battles & lead an army, had been doing it for years under Moses. By the time they got to Sinai, what he needed was time to let Moses hear from God & tell him what to do--to know what God wanted him to do.
         4. I HAVE A FEW IDEAS OF WHAT GOD WANTS US TO DO, BUT UNLESS GOD SAYS, "NOW IS THE TIME TO GO OUT HERE OR THERE", I'M NOT GOING! I'm going to sit right here & relay to the people what I get from the Lord. A lot of people are telling me what to do, but the only person it pays to listen to is the LORD, & when HE tells me what to do, I DO it! But if He hasn't told me to send a team somewhere, I'm afraid to do it, because it may be a disaster if God hasn't ordered it & specifically called for it & staffed it! I'm afraid to do anything that isn't directly ordered by God.

TRAINING IN PIONEERING A NEW COMMUNAL SOCIETY

         5. WE OURSELVES ARE IN BASIC TRAINING HERE. God is trying to teach us all something. We're doing something here that is just as important as witnessing. We are learning to do something that the rest of the World says cannot be done.
         6. WE ARE LEARNING TO BE A LIVING EXAMPLE, not just to be out hither, thither & yon, screaming our heads off, but setting an example of how God wants His children to live, & it's taking us time to organise it & get accustomed to it. You don't realise what we're doing here, but what we're doing here has a tremendous impact on the future!
         7. WE ARE PIONEERS, WE ARE PIONEERING SOMETHING HERE! THIS IS LIKE A GREAT EXPERIMENT & WE'VE GOT TO MAKE IT WORK! One of the greatest witnesses is that we have a real Christian commune, & one of the biggest jobs we have to do is to make it work, & we're learning something new every day in every department. God said the way we live would be our greatest witness & people would come to us because of it. I believe God, & until He tells me something different, I'm going to stick to that. But you want to go off half-cocked & start something that you can't carry through.
         8. WE ARE ORGANISING A SOCIETY. WE'RE IN THE EXPERIMENTAL STAGE OF ORGANISING A NATION WITH EVERY MINOR DETAIL INVOLVED, from how to take care of babies in a communal programme to ID cards. None of these little details are unimportant. We're organising a city, a whole new culture, a totally different society, & what we're doing here is one of the greatest parts of our testimony! We're not planning to be totally separated from the World & cut off, but we are trying to get organised here so we can go out of here & tell others how to do it!

OUR GREATEST WITNESS IS OUR EXAMPLE OF DROPPING OUT AND FORSAKING ALL, WHICH IS A CONDEMNATION OF THE CHURCHES!

         9. WE ARE DOING SOMETHING THAT IS PHENOMENAL, ALMOST UNHEARD OF, THE WAY WE'RE DOING IT! There have been all kinds of communal groups before, but none with such a militant & active type of witness that we have & continue to have.
         10. ANYBODY & EVERYBODY CAN TALK ABOUT JESUS. There's nothing new about Jesus. The churches have been talking about Jesus for thousands of years & it hasn't done much good, but the way WE are LIVING & PRACTICING Jesus is making news!
         11. THE CHURCH IN GENERAL SAYS, "YES, THAT'S THE WAY THEY DID IT IN THE EARLY CHURCH, BUT IT'S IMPOSSIBLE TODAY. It wouldn't work now." That's the damned fool excuse the church has used for thousands of years, so they can live as they damn please & live selfishly to themselves & do their own thing. Ninety-nine per cent of the damn preachers have told them, "You don't have to do it now. Anyway, you couldn't do it now. This is a different day."
         12. THE GOSPEL HAS BEEN PREACHED FOR THOUSANDS OF YEARS, the whole World in a sense has heard about Salvation, but our major witness is actually a condemnation of the so-called church of Jesus Christ. We are a testimony against them just as Jesus Christ & His Disciples were a constant testimony & a final one too, because as soon as they were gone, the judgements of God began to fall upon them. They knew everything. They had the Old Testament. They thought they knew all about Salvation. Nobody could tell them anything, but the thing that was really the testimony against them was the different way in which Jesus and Paul LIVED, as well as what they PREACHED. You never heard of any Scribes & Pharisees telling people to go about dropping out.
         13. THIS IS IN EFFECT EXACTLY WHAT MOSES SAID, "DROP OUT, forsake all & follow me. You don't need Egypt. You don't need the System!" They could have said, "Why, that's impossible! If we get out in that desert with you, we'll starve! We won't have our jobs, we won't have our homes, we don't have our churches!" But Moses said, "You can follow me in the middle of the desert & God will take care of us!"
         14. NOAH PREACHED THE SAME THING: "FORSAKE EVERYTHING! Come into the Ark & God will protect & supply for us," & they probably said, "You fool, it never has rained. You can't get along without this World." He invited them to repent. They could have gone along with him. His whole message was to drop out, live fulltime for God & He'll take care of you--& he lived it! We're living witnesses against them!
         15. WHAT MAKES US UNIQUE IS THAT WE ARE LIVING LIKE JESUS INTENDED FOR HIS CHURCH TO LIVE! We are proving that it can be done & we have got to make it work. We've got to LIVE it & make it work! Do you realise what a miracle it is that we have no violence in our camp--no one ever coming to blows. It is the Lord & the way we are obeying Him & the way we are living. We are a living example.
         16. OUR DOCTRINE IS AS OLD AS THE HILLS, NOT EVEN WITNESSING IS NEW! NOT EVEN BIBLE PROPHECY IS NEW! It's not much different than what they're teaching. The newspapers don't write up our BIBLE PROPHECY. They come to see the way we LIVE! They come to see if it is possible, actually possible. "How do you do it? How do you live like this without money? We've been told it's impossible, so there must be something wrong with it, so we're coming to see what's wrong," but they come out & "beholding the man" they can't deny it. We're living it!

OUR COMMUNE IS AN EXAMPLE TO THE WORLD OF HOW TO SURVIVE!

         17. WE'RE AN EXAMPLE! If we can prove God can do this with us, it will probably spread all over the World, because unless other Christians do this, they won't survive, because it will be impossible to live within the System or they'll have to accept the Mark of the Beast. We'll continue to exist if God has to drop manna out of Heaven just to prove that we can do it!

THE IMPORTANCE OF OUR WITNESSING BY DROPPING OUT OF THE SYSTEM & BUILDING A NEW GODLY COMMUNAL SOCIETY RATHER THAN SCATTERING TO PREACH SERMONS

         18. WE ARE JUST GETTING STARTED WITH A TOTALLY NEW CULTURE. God called us a New Nation! That means a whole new culture--a whole new way of life. We are a little sample of the coming Millennium & we're going to prove it can work!
         19. BUT WE'VE GOT TO WORK AT IT. EVERY DAY WE'RE LEARNING to take care of this need or how to handle that situation. We're a totally new society, a totally new culture, an altogether new nation, a brand new people! We even have a new economy, even a new politics, as well as a new spiritual body. Do you understand how important it is what we are doing?
         20. LIVING THE WAY GOD WANTED PEOPLE TO LIVE HAS NOT BEEN PRACTICED OR TRIED VERY MUCH, because not many people had faith to try it. Besides, it was too Revolutionary, too anti-System, too totally different. They were afraid to, they wouldn't be accepted, respected or rejected; might even be persecuted, so why do anything different?
         21. IT'S ONE CONSTANT MIRACLE THAT WE MANAGE TO SURVIVE, because there is no rhyme nor reason to it at all, except that we live by a miracle! Do you know what it says about Noah?--He condemned the World by his faith. That's exactly what we're doing--condemning the World, including the church, by the faith of a few young people.
         22. GOD HAS GIVEN US THE FAITH BECAUSE HE WANTS US TO BE A TESTIMONY AGAINST THE WORLD & THE GOD-DAMNED CHURCH, & I think it's going to be their last witness before they start getting the rod. They are now without excuse because, like all the Prophets, we have proved to them that it CAN be done & this is what they ought to do. Anybody can go down & witness--Teen Challenge, the Jesus People etc.
         23. WE'RE NOT JUST TALKING ABOUT IT, WE'RE DOING IT & LIVING IT & SHOWING IT! THAT'S OUR WITNESS. So then, what's more important? We have a society in training. We have a nation born in a day that's a mere baby yet, whose citizens don't even know why they're here. They think they're here just to learn how to witness & win souls. I'm trying to get it across in Leadership Training.
         24. LOOK AT US! WE'RE ALL A MIRACLE! IT'S A MIRACLE THAT WE'RE HERE! It's a miracle that we're alive with enemies all around us. Our very existence is such a miracle & testimony. We are a greater testimony living like we are living than if we were out there some place without it, just preaching Jesus!
         25. SO IT IS ESSENTIAL THAT WE KNOW WHAT WE'RE DOING & THAT WE WORK AT MAKING IT WORK! It's important to prove it can be done & be sure we are what God wants us to be & doing it how God wants us to do it!
         26. WITNESSING IS NOT THE MOST IMPORTANT THING. OUR FELLOWSHIP WITH GOD IS MOST IMPORTANT, HEARING FROM THE LORD! Then we'll know HOW to witness & WHAT to witness & that's why we're where we are today--because we stopped & sat down & listened to God & then followed His directions & won every battle, because we did it God's way. But if we'd gone ahead in our own way & wisdom, nobody would have heard of us yet.
         27. THE BIGGEST FAILURES IN THE WORD OF GOD WERE THE BIGSHOT BOYS WHO THOUGHT THEY KNEW WHAT TO DO & WENT OUT & FELL FLAT ON THEIR FACES. "Here's a war. Aren't we supposed to fight it? What do we have all these soldiers here for, anyway?" "No, Son, you're just here to watch Me work. You're not to do the job. You're just to listen to Me & I'll take care of the Enemy." Those big shots who thought they could do it in their own natural wisdom went out & fell flat on their swords. They went ahead just because they thought that's the way you're supposed to do it.
         28. IT IS MORE IMPORTANT THAT WE MANAGE TO SURVIVE & EXIST AS A SOCIETY, as a religious movement, with a new idea, totally independent, free of the System, condemning it, damning it, & saying to Hell with it, while we manage by the miracles of God to survive without it. It is more important that we do that, believe it or not, than to run hither, thither & yon & just say, "Jesus Saves! Jesus Saves!" Do you know why?
         29. A LOT OF PEOPLE ARE RUNNING AROUND SAYING, "JESUS SAVES", BUT WE'RE THE ONLY PEOPLE I KNOW OF WHO ARE PROVING IT!--And that He can do it without the damn System & without the damn Churchy System & without our damn jobs & without all the rest of the damn stuff! We are proving that Jesus Saves!
         30. GOD HAVING PERFORMED THE MIRACLE, WE ARE A TESTIMONY AGAINST ALL THE TENS OF THOUSANDS OF PROPHETS OF BAAL, preaching in their pulpits every Sunday. The very power of our witness & Word of God is slaying them right now & they know it & that's why they hate us!
         31. THIS IS THE KINGDOM OF GOD! WE ARE LEARNING HOW TO RUN HIS KINGDOM! "Thy Kingdom come."--Right here, now! "Thy Will be done," on this Earth, right here!--"As it is in Heaven."
         32. ALL WE HAVE TO DO IS OBEY GOD! I'm not budging one inch until I hear from God! He knows the only way in the World that it can be done & it's probably not going to be through normal channels. I could have run off half-cocked & come back a failure. I'm sitting here waiting for a miracle because I can't do it. We can't do it. GOD'S going to have to do it & He's going to have to show us how to do it & it's going to take a miracle!
         33. THE ONLY REASON IN THE WORLD THAT MAKES OUR WITNESS MORE EFFECTIVE IS THE TESTIMONY OF OUR EXAMPLE OF THE WAY WE LIVE. What is it you hope will be the fruit of your witness? What are you looking for?--Fruit like us? And what do you expect to do with them? We hope that they become a part of us. Our whole idea & programme is to make them one of us, to live like us, with us, to continue to testify that this is the way to live. But if we're just going to have babies all over the streets & send them back to the orphanages, we're not proving a thing.
         34. WHAT WAS THE GREATER TESTIMONY--THE THINGS THAT JESUS SAID OR THE WAY THAT HE LIVED & THE WORKS HE PERFORMED? Which was the greater proof of His Messiahship? They didn't say, "By what authority sayest Thou these things", but "by what authority DOEST Thou these things?" It was what He was DOING that bothered them, not just what He was saying, & the fact He was doing them outside of their damned System & was setting such an example with His Disciples--His dropouts from the System, a testimony against them.
         35. DO YOU WANT THE REST OF THE WORLD TO DO IT THE WAY WE'RE DOING IT? Well then, let's get things running the way they ought to run. Let's be a shining example to the World that this is the way the whole Church should do it. One out of ten is going to say, "Yes, this is what I've been looking for," & for their sakes it is worth it.
         36. THE TIME WILL COME & MAY SOON BE, WHEN WE WILL BE SCATTERED & GO EVERYWHERE PREACHING THIS, BUT RIGHT NOW THEY NEED TO LEARN HOW TO ORGANISE SUCH A SOCIETY, how to make it work & how to run it so they will be able to do it too, because this is going to be the basic block of survival. This is how it is going to have to be done. We're literally right now giving a course in Church Survival.--What the Church is going to have to do to survive!--To pull out of the System & expect the Lord to feed them with manna out of Heaven & water out of a rock in the wilderness!
         37. IT'S HAPPENING! WE ARE OUR OWN SOCIETY, IN A SENSE, WITH OUR OWN GOVERNMENT. We have our own babies. We have declared our independence from the System, & we're making it work & that's the thing that counts! It IS possible for God to still take care of His children without the help of the System!
         38. IT'S NOT JUST TALKING ABOUT IT THAT COUNTS!--IT'S LIVING IT, PRACTICING IT! I'll tell you, we've got a terrific example to set & you have no idea how important this witness is, & it has to be properly organised. Are they getting to see that it is working or are they just getting a sermon?
         39. THE GREATEST PROOF OF THE PUDDING IS NOT A SERMON, BUT A SAMPLE--IT IS TO SEE THE FRUIT! You're minimising the ministry here. You say, "Well, we've got to get out witnessing. We've got to leave this place to get the vision." But most important of all, they need to catch the vision here & what they're doing here. It won't last long, the System's not going to let it last. It is too great a condemnation. So we've got to make hay while the sun shines!