RAGS TO RICHES!           DO 211            3/73

RICH UPPER CLASS THE MOST NEEDY--WHY & HOW TO REACH THEM FIRST!
        
         1. THE MOST GOSPEL-NEGLECTED CLASS ARE THE RICH & THE INTELLECTUAL, because the missionaries are afraid of them! Lenin's message was for the poor & the peasant & the labourer, yes. But do you know who pulled off & LED the Revolution?--It was NOT the poor & the peasants & the lowly labourer! It was the educated RICH, sons & daughters of the intellectuals, children of the ruling classes! t
         2. THEY WERE THE ONES WHO HAD SYMPATHY FOR THE POOR WHO COULDN'T HELP THEMSELVES! They had to go to bat FOR them & SAVE them! Where did we start?--At the TOP! We won the sons of the rich & the educated.
         3. Money itself means nothing to God & He's got plenty of it! IT'S BEING STINGY & selfish to move out to some remote shanty just TO SAVE MONEY INSTEAD OF SOULS, because it's LIMITING THE GREAT WITNESS WE COULD HAVE & our sphere of influence, & it's being afraid of being of service to God! WHAT ARE WE SENDING PEOPLE TO THE MISSION FIELD FOR, anyway!--To bury themselves in some dunghill to save a few pennies? God has the money!--Let's pay for it! GET YOURSELF A PLACE WHERE YOU CAN WITNESS!
         4. It's easier to be able to give than to have to receive, but GOD WANTS TO TEACH US TO ASK & RECEIVE what He has for us! One of the toughest lessons we had to learn in the life of faith was to HAVE to receive!--To receive from our own RELATIVES, our FRIENDS, our IN-LAWS.--That's going through hell, as far as your pride is concerned! But oh, it's so good for your humility! It absolutely humiliates you until you're really humble!
         5. I think that's what's wrong with some of our kids.-They've been so rich! They want to give it all up for the Lord & that's great! But then they want to get out there & degrade themselves to the dust & put themselves down with the poor & just STAY there! But where do they go from there?--They must do it with a METHOD in their madness--to go down there like Jesus did.--HE, though He WAS rich, BECAME poor, that WE THROUGH HIS POVERTY MIGHT BECOME RICH-NOT DEVELOP MORE POOR!
         6. He wants to make us rich too! He didn't leave the Halls of Heaven & Ivory Palaces to come down here & live with us poor so we could all stay HERE & STAY poor forever. He wasn't about to begin to stay here & walk these dusty roads FOREVER with some poor stinking fishermen! That was not His aim! Otherwise, it would have been a DEAD END & He never would have gotten any further! HE CAME DOWN HERE TO OUR LEVEL TO TAKE US WITH HIM BACK UP TO HIS & MAKE US RICH TOO!
         7. If you think the end is for everybody to become poor & live like pigs, you're mistaken! That's not the end NOR the goal & you've got the WRONG idea! GOD'S IDEA IS NOT TO SHARE THE POVERTY, BUT TO SHARE THE WEALTH! But you HAVE to share their poverty temporarily to GIVE them the wealth! He only had to come down to OUR level to FIND us, to go out into the streets & the highways & byways, like some of us have done.

CHILDREN OF THE BOURGEOISIE THE MOST IDEALISTIC!--RIPE FOR THE "R"!

         8. I WAS BROUGHT UP IN A WEALTHY HOME. WE ARE INTELLECTUAL & INTELLIGENT & WELL-EDUCATED--BECAUSE IT TOOK THAT TO LEAD THE REVOLUTION!--We HAD to have the intellect, education & intelligence to be ABLE to have the brains that God by His Spirit could USE to reach the World! Those POOR PEOPLE who live like animals need to be rescued, but they're never going to be rescued by another of their own kind because they just haven't got what it takes. They've been smothered & dampened intellectually for so many years that they're practically like zombies, & after centuries of poverty & disease, THEIR BRAINS HAVE BECOME TOO DULLED TO BE ABLE TO THINK IN TERMS OF ECONOMICS, POLITICS & REVOLUTION!
         9. The most idealistic are the youth from decent homes. The young of today & the hippies are IDEALISTS. Contrary to what the System contends & thinks, the hippies are not some low-down bums who came from poor-class neighbourhoods. They are their OWN children & they are the idealists, the ones who thought up & led the Revolution & who still rule the Revolution, because the others don't have the brains for it!

IDEAL HOMES LIVE ABUNDANTLY & HAVE ENOUGH TO SHARE WITH OTHERS!
        
         10. THE POOR CANNOT SAVE THEMSELVES--WE HAVE TO SAVE THEM! WE could not save ourselves!--JESUS had to pay the price & come down & live with us & sacrifice Himself to save us.--AND IT MAKES ME SO MAD when these people get down to where they're scraping & scraping & starving to death, until they THINK THEY'VE FINALLY ARRIVED--THAT TO BE A CHILD OF GOD MEANS TO STARVE YOURSELF TO DEATH!
         11. In all the years we've lived by faith, we've never starved! We've eaten well, & not only that, we've lived almost like the rich! God is not stingy. We limit God by thinking we have to live like bums on the street. We have come to RESCUE the poor in spirit that they, too, WITH us, might become RICH! THERE IS NO REASON FOR OUR HOMES TO THINK THEY HAVE TO LIVE IN SQUALOR & TOTAL DESTITUTION & NAKEDNESS! IT'S RIDICULOUS!
         12. God wants you to have enough, plenty, abundance, sufficient! The only reason any time at all that we SACRIFICE our sufficiency & plenty is to help OTHERS become rich, NOT that we might remain there FOREVER in the squalor & dirt & disease & privation & anaemia & malnutrition of POVERTY! THAT'S NOT OUR END NOR PURPOSE! That's a pride trip for the rich!--"Oh, look, I'm poor now & humble & I'm unselfish!" GOD IS NOT AGAINST RICHES. Some people have the wrong idea. He's NOT against riches. He is NOT against wealth. HE'S ONLY AGAINST RICHES & WEALTH IN THE HANDS OF TOO FEW WHEN TOO MANY DON'T HAVE ENOUGH! God thinks wealth is great & will give you all you can possibly stand, if you'll give it away & share it so EVERYBODY has enough!
         13. God wants us to get out & win the World & take the Message to them that they don't have to be poor & impoverished & starving to death & naked & cold! What's our Message, anyhow?--Riches for the SPIRIT & riches for the BODY, TOO! I believe it!t
         14. It's like this: It's from riches to rags first, in order to get everybody back to abundance somewhere in between! But these Christians who proclaim the abundant life & rich living for all, THEY WANT TO GO FROM RICHES TO RICHES & SKIP this middle RAGS part! THEY JUST WANT TO GO FROM RICH HOUSE TO RICH CHURCH & SHARE THEIR WEALTH WITH THE ALREADY RICH who don't even need it! God doesn't want us to be poor & deprived FOREVER. God wants us to be RICH!--But NOT rich in the way the WORLD is rich, selfishly rich, where they've got millions heaped up that they're not USING, that they don't NEED & they aren't SHARING. But He will HEAP it ON us if we'll GIVE it OUT!

GETTING OUT THE MESSAGE MOST IMPORTANT!--TO THE LEISURE CLASS
        
         15. THE MOST IMPORTANT THING WE HAVE TO GIVE OUT IS THE MESSAGE! Our poor kids, physically naked & cold & with malnutrition, living in squalor & disease, MAY BE JUST AS SELFISH & JUST AS MUCH REFUSING TO SHARE SPIRITUALLY AS THE RICH ARE MATERIALLY, IF THEY'RE NOT GETTING OUT THE MESSAGE God has given--not JUST to the poor, but to EVERYBODY, including the most neglected class of all, the rich!--And maybe that's why they're so POOR! My Mother said, "I belonged NOT to the DREGS of society, but to the CREAM or really the scum of society, the froth of society, the upper crust, & nobody ever preached ME the Gospel, nobody ever led ME to Jesus! That was something you did in the missions for the POOR! The RICH ARE THE MOST NEGLECTED CLASS OF PEOPLE THERE ARE, SPIRITUALLY!"
         16. Until a few smart, intelligent, formerly well-to-do, well-educated, intellectual Children of God went down to certain fields & started evangelising the RICH & the RULERS, we never made much progress down there. There isn't enough time from now till the Lord comes to go to every little village & reach every little poor peasant! The REVOLUTION FIRST CAPTURES THE UPPER CRUST & THEY SHARE WITH THE POOR! Do you know where Revolution was most TALKED about before the French Revolution, BEFORE the American Revolution, BEFORE the Russian Revolution & BEFORE every single Revolution? It was talked about amongst the people who had TIME to talk about it!--THE LEISURE CLASS!--And that wasn't the poor little labouring man out there sweating away!--All HE had time to think about was getting his job done & getting enough to eat!
         17. Throughout the centuries it has always been the task of some of the leisure class to analyse the needs of the World as far as economics was concerned & formulate & lead the revolutions! KARL MARX CAME FROM A FINE HOME OF WELLTO-DO GERMAN JEWS & HE HAD TO BE WELL-EDUCATED TO BE ABLE TO WRITE such an intricate, intellectual treatise, as involved & complicated a tome about Socialism as "Das Kapital!" HE HAD A UNIVERSITY PH.D. DEGREE & HIS BEST FRIEND & SUPPORTER WAS A RICH MAN OR THE SON OF A RICH MAN, FRIEDRICH ENGELS!
                 
BRING OTHERS UP TO OUR STANDARD!--BY GIVING YOU'LL RECEIVE MORE!
        
         18. WE ARE NOT OUT TO MAKE THE WHOLE WORLD POOR or to try to trim everybody down to the LOWEST level. WE'RE OUT TO BRING EVERYBODY UP TO OURS, TO SHARE OUR WEALTH with EVERYBODY so we can ALL have enough! When we started this, we didn't give everything we had AWAY, believe it or not! We USED it to help them & SHARED what we had WITH them! We didn't share it until WE had NOTHING left, so that THEY had more than WE had!--NO, we SHARED it until we ALL had the SAME, living in the SAME house, eating the SAME food, with the SAME income, all EQUAL! We did not give away everything WE had, so that they had EVERYTHING & we had NOTHING!--We SHARED it!
         19. You can never outgive God! He also says He'll give you back an hundred-fold! The point is, you can't share it or give it away fast enough! God is not in the business of giving EVERYTHING away & having NOTHING left for Himself!-There's always plenty more where that came from! God's principle is not for the rich to descend to the level of the poor & give everything away & die of starvation! GOD'S IDEA IS, THE FASTER YOU GIVE IT AWAY & SHARE IT, THE MORE HE'LL HEAP IT ON & THE RICHER YOU'LL BECOME SO YOU CAN SHARE MORE!

IS YOUR HOME POOR?--WHAT'S WRONG & WHY
        
         20. IF THERE'S ANY POOR LITTLE HOME THAT'S STARVING TO DEATH, THERE'S SOMETHING WRONG! God usually supplies for His Children ABUNDANTLY! If they HAD it, they WASTED it or didn't SHARE it as they should have when they had it; or they weren't DILIGENT in their PROVISIONING, they didn't SEEK & FIND, ASK & RECEIVE or OBEY the Lord. Most of all, THEY PROBABLY DIDN'T HONOUR & CULTIVATE THEIR KINGS & QUEENS & MINISTER TO THEM SPIRITUALLY, SHARE THEIR SPIRITUAL RICHES with their System friends, so the FRIENDS could share their MATERIAL riches with THEM!
         21. If they're witnessing, maybe they're not witnessing to the right people! They're being selfish & too proud to go to the most poor of ALL spiritually, the ones that need us the most & are the hardest to reach--the RICH--& share their SPIRITUAL wealth, so the rich could in turn share their material blessings with THEM. They're pretending to be humble, living in poverty, but they're too proud if they're not sharing their spiritual riches with the spiritually-impoverished, materially RICH! Therefore they themselves are STARVING MATERIALLY because they are SELFISH SPIRITUALLY & they're not sharing their spiritual wealth with the poor, spiritually-impoverished rich!
         22. It is given to the poor to be rich in faith, but the poorest people in the World spiritually are the rich materially & they are the hardest to reach because of our God-damned pride, the spiritual PRIDE of the POOR! We're ashamed to go to the rich for fear somebody will accuse us of wanting their MONEY!--Why shouldn't we want their money for God's Work!
         23. We are spiritually rich, but we are being spiritually selfish & proud not to share with those who are spiritually poor! It is given to the POOR to be RICH in FAITH, what is it given to the RICH?--To be POOR in faith! Now, why are the RICH POOR in faith? And why are the POOR RICH in faith?--Because that's ALL they've got--their faith & God! So to them God pours out abundant SPIRITUAL riches & they are happier, healthier & more spiritually rich, & more of them spiritually saved than most of the rich of the World!
         24. We are not in the business of trying to make people poor! WE ARE IN THE BUSINESS OF TRYING TO MAKE PEOPLE RICH-SPIRITUALLY!--AND God doesn't mind them being RICH MATERIALLY at the same time, if they keep giving it away as fast as they can, so He can keep giving them more! I'm willing to live in a shack, but I don't have to, & if living in shacks & shanties takes too much of my time, so I can't devote it to giving God's Message, then I'm wasting my time. IF I SPEND ALL MY TIME TRYING TO BARELY EXIST stuck out in some shack where I spend all my time carrying water & trying to scrape a few scraps of food together, I AM WASTING THE MOST PRECIOUS THING IN THE WORLD, GOD'S TIME, & MY TIME & MY TALENT & MY SPIRITUAL RICHES!

MOST SUCCESSFUL PIONEERS START AT THE TOP--APOSTLE PAUL!
        
         25. I WANT YOU TO LOOK AT WHERE OUR MISSIONS HAVE MADE THE MOST PROGRESS. Many others never made as much progress in all the years they worked there as we have in the last few months, BECAUSE WE STARTED WITH THE RICH, THE INTELLECTUALS, THE PRESIDENTS & the GOVERNORS & the POLICE & the heads of the secret service--THE MEN WHO HAVE THE POWER & THE AUTHORITY TO LET US & HELP US WORK! When Paul landed on the island of Cyprus, he would have been there yet if he'd just associated himself with the fisherman only. Of course he preached to the fishermen! HE PREACHED TO THE POOR ALL THE WAY ACROSS THE ISLAND, BUT HE WAS ON HIS WAY TO SEE THE GOVERNOR! He won him to the Lord, & as a result CYPRUS BECAME THE WORLD'S FIRST CHRISTIAN NATION BECAUSE HE WON THE ONE WITH THE POWER & AUTHORITY TO PERMIT IT & FINANCE HIS PREACHING TO HELP THE POOR!
         26. When Paul just went to the poor only, he got knocked out & the officials ran him out of town when they heard about the stir he was making since they didn't know what he was up to. BUT WHEN HE WENT TO THE POWERFUL FIRST, THEY GOT THE POINT & GOT JESUS & THEY HAD THE POWER & WEALTH TO PERMIT HIM & FINANCE HIM. They needed the knowledge of WHY & WHAT he was preaching & that it was something EVERYBODY NEEDED, including THEM!

IT'S BEST TO WIN PEOPLE ALREADY LEADERS TO BE OUR LEADERS!
        
         27. GOD WANTS YOU TO CAPTURE LEADERS!--PEOPLE WHO ARE ALREADY LEADERS! If they aren't showing any leadership ability where they are NOW, BEFORE you get to them, they'll probably never show any afterwards! THEY'VE GOT TO HAVE SOMETHING IN THEM TO BEGIN WITH. We need many QUALITY labour leaders-even college grads--people of intelligence & talent & skill.
         28. We don't have much time to train the poor & uneducated from scratch to lead this Revolution! If we're going to win the World, we don't have time to fiddle around training people from scratch right now. WE HAVE TO CAPTURE THE LEADERSHIP, the intellectuals, the bourgeoisie, the class the Communists say they hate the most. But if they are honest, they'll admit IT WAS THE BOURGEOISIE THAT BROUGHT ABOUT THE REVOLUTION!--THE CHILDREN OF THE INTELLECTUAL BOURGEOISIE!--THEIR IDEALISTIC CHILDREN!
         29. The places where we are making the most progress is where we have reached the leaders & the rich first. The Early Church was capturing Centurions & rich people & Governors & Kings, & if they hadn't, they would have gotten run out of town before they had a chance to reach the poor. John was known of the High Priest.

OUR VISION IS TO GO BEYOND POVERTY TO RICHES!
        
         30. God has promised us palaces & cities & countries & nations & kingdoms & the World!--Not only a bunch of shanties & shacks in the dungheaps! He has told us if we'll get out & give the Message to the World, & most of all the poor in SPIRIT, that He will give us the WORLD & the heathen & the uttermost part of the Earth for our inheritance!
         31. That's where the hippie movement missed the boat! Poverty & drugs were their dead end!--To live in destitution & self destruction!--That became their goal, therefore it became their dead end.--Nothing beyond. Where else could they go?--Back to their miserable riches?--Never! So they wound up in poverty & that didn't satisfy either!
         32. But we have shown them there is some place beyond to go to! We have shown them there is a goal beyond the poverty, THROUGH THE POVERTY, BACK TO THE RIGHT KIND OF RICHES, the ones they never knew existed, but what they were hungering & thirsting & looking for all the time! When we become willing to suffer poverty to OBTAIN the true riches, then God is perfectly willing to let you have anything you need physically & materially, plenty & abundance! IF YOU ARE UNSELFISH & GENEROUS WITH YOUR SPIRITUAL RICHES & if you prove that even as He gives you spiritual riches, you will give them away & SHARE THEM WITH THOSE THAT NEED IT, HE WILL ALSO TRUST YOU WITH MATERIAL RICHES to share!--And that's what we're doing!
         33. When the Lord said to forsake all, He didn't say to forsake all & leave it behind & FORGET ABOUT IT! But He meant to bring it with you & give it to the poor, like He said to the rich young ruler. We NEED what you've got, not for us to use, but for YOU to use to help OTHERS.

LEARN TO HAVE PLENTY SO YOU CAN SHARE WITH OTHERS!
        
         34. SOME OF OUR RICH FRIENDS MAY NEED THE EXPERIENCE OF TEMPORARILY LIVING FOR A FEW DAYS IN ONE OF OUR HOMES JUST TO SEE WHAT IT IS LIKE TO BE POOR! But they don't need that FOREVER, so they'll be TOTALLY impotent & inept & unable to help us! WHAT THEY NEED TO DO IS TO USE THEIR WEALTH & POWER & INFLUENCE & CONTACTS TO BE A HELP to the Kingdom of God. They shouldn't totally curse these things & abandon them & give them to ungodly relatives & friends who don't need them. We need to GET IT so we can GIVE IT to God's Kingdom to make God's Kingdom rich so we can SHARE it with those who DO NEED IT! GOD WANTS US TO HAVE PLENTY MATERIALLY ALSO, SO WE CAN SHARE OUR MATERIAL BLESSINGS AS WELL AS OUR SPIRITUAL WEALTH!
         35. A poor little starving Home is not the living end--it's the dead end! Paul got entertained by Princes & Kings & Governors & lived a great deal of his time in palaces! He knew how to take it or leave it. He said, "I know how to live in want or how to abound". YOU KIDS NEED TO START LEARNING A LITTLE HOW TO ABOUND & take over some castles & mansions & riches so we can SHARE OUR SPIRITUAL WEALTH WITH THE WORLD!
         36. God does not want us to be rich in the ways of the World, where we selfishly keep our riches to ourselves & don't share with those that need it. It says the RIGHTEOUS shall GIVE of his ABUNDANCE, so they can SHARE with the poor! But some of you give people the idea that you've got to live in POVERTY in order to be SPIRITUAL! It was not MY teaching. I think it's a hangover from HIPPYISM. They condemn anybody that doesn't live in poverty. THE SIN OF THE RICH IS NOT LIVING IN COMFORT & CONVENIENCE SO THEY CAN WORK BETTER TO HELP THE POOR: They can get things done better many times that way. THEIR SIN IS THEY DON'T SHARE WITH THOSE IN NEED.
         37. The richest people in the World in God's Kingdom are going to be those who share the most & He will heap on them more than they can hold!--"GIVE & IT SHALL BE GIVEN UNTO YOU!--See if I will not open the windows of Heaven & pour out such a blessing you will not be able to hold it!"--Luk.6:38, Mal.3:10. It's only places like the Dead Sea which have no OUTLETS that get so stinking DEAD you can hardly stand it!

MINISTER TO YOUR KINGS--EXAMPLES FROM THE BIBLE!
        
         38. WE DON'T MINISTER TO OUR KINGS ENOUGH & HONOUR THEM & LOVE & CARE FOR THEM & SHOW OUR GRATITUDE & GRATEFULNESS TOWARD THEM AS WE SHOULD. We should not always be expecting them to forsake all their riches & their power, because if they DID they wouldn't be able to help US any more! WE NEED TO HONOUR THEM FOR WHAT THEY ARE & WHERE THEY ARE, AS LONG AS THEY SHARE THEIR RICHES WITH THOSE OF US THAT NEED them!
         39. How are we going to help the poor unless we start with the rich & the POWERFUL who can make it POSSIBLE? Read the stories of Joseph & Moses & their Pharaohs! Look at little David & his King Saul!--Esther & King Xerxes!--Baby Jesus & the Kings of the East who brought Him rich gifts on which to live in exile in Egypt!--Paul & his powerful friends!--The Popes & their kings!--Luther & his kings!--Etc., etc.--Do we need RAGS or RICHES?--Or BOTH?--JESUS HIMSELF STARTED WITH THE RICH!--Our Heavenly Father, Lord of the Universe, King of Kings, HE WAS RICH!--SO HE HAD THE POWER & RICHES TO COME DOWN TO HELP US POOR TO SHARE OUR POVERTY TO MAKE US RICH! Amen?--Hallelujah! Let's share our riches with the poor to make them rich!

FIND A BALANCE IN LEARNING TO ABOUND OR BE IN WANT!
        
         40. REMEMBER, JUST BECAUSE GOD WANTS YOU TO BE RICH & HAVE AN ABUNDANCE when & where possible & with whom it's expedient & necessary, THIS DOES NOT MEAN FOR SOME OF YOU GUYS TO NOW GO TO THE EXTREME & GET SO LOADED THAT YOU THINK YOU CAN START LIVING LIKE LORDS OF LUXURY over god's heritage or treating your people like slaves, or feel like you're failing because you're not yet rolling in dough!
         41. Remember also, though the Apostle said that he knew how to either be in want or abound, he also said that HE HAD LEARNED HOW TO BE CONTENT IN WHATSOEVER STATE he was in! We just want you to learn how to take it or leave it, as the need may be. JUST DON'T BE AFRAID TO BE RICH IF THE OPPORTUNITY ARISES TO SHARE SOME WEALTH with all the rest of us! Neither be sorry that you're poor for the time being, for it won't be long till God makes you rich again if you stay in His Will & keep waving His Words of Wisdom before the World!
         42. He's promised that, if you'll prove Him by trusting & obeying Him, He'll pour out such a blessing that there'll not be room enough to hold it! JUST DON'T LET IT GO TO YOUR HEAD, as the Apostle also said, "NONE OF THESE THINGS MOVE ME!" Most of you already know the deceitfulness of riches, but poverty won't get you anywhere either. We need both our ups & our downs!--Take it as it comes! But don't be afraid of either!--Use it! ALL THINGS ARE YOURS in Christ Jesus! "SEEK FIRST THE KINGDOM & ALL THESE THINGS SHALL BE ADDED!" Amen?