TURN ON & TUNE IN!
DO 2087
1/86
--Lesson on Prayer & Spiritual Receptivity!
(After Prayer for Dad:)
1. I'M GLAD THE LORD LET ME COME BACK TO LIFE & GIVE YOU THIS LITTLE TALK, BECAUSE IT'S A LITTLE HARD TO GET THROUGH TO YOU GUYS FROM THE SPIRIT WORLD! We're trying to bring out a lot of things about the spirit & why prayer & meditation & getting alone & quiet & really dealing directly with the Lord is very necessary, because it's kind of hard to get through to you otherwise when your minds are all filled with the events of the day. But it seems like about the only way He can get through to some of us is when we're sleeping. Even then it's sort of on the borderline, twilight, sort of like one foot in Heaven. You still need one foot on the ground in order to transmit.
2. IN THE EARLY DAYS OF RADIO, TO HAVE A REAL GOOD RADIO & GOOD ANTENNA & GOOD RECEPTION, IT NEEDED TO BE GROUNDED. When I was a little kid all we had were those little crystal sets & a good ground was important. The crystal was only about the size of my thumbnail. All the power it had was embedded in that crystal, except for the antenna, & that was very important, & a very good ground so you could complete the circuit for that radio wave. The weaker the crystal, the stronger the antenna had to be & the better the ground.
3. IN ORDER TO GET REAL GOOD RECEPTION IN THOSE DAYS WHEN THE POWER OF THE RADIO ITSELF WAS SO WEAK, in fact, almost no power--maybe you feel like that sometimes--well, that's when you've got to really stick up your antenna, & you can do that in prayer. And then you've got to have a real good ground! If I had a Bible I could put my foot on it to illustrate what I'm talking about! You've got to be grounded in the Word & you've got to have an antenna up as high as you can get it to get good reception!
4. IN A WAY, REALLY, YOUR SPIRIT IS YOUR ANTENNA, BECAUSE IT IS SPIRITUALLY SENSITIVE. And it receives these impulses that you feel in the spirit, just like radio waves. God has just made the rules that way! And you get these things in the spirit when you're quiet or alone or most spiritually sensitive or asleep, somehow. It seems like your spiritual antenna can then go up a little higher & get a little better reception.
5. WHEN YOU'RE IN PRAYER YOUR SPIRIT IS SEEKING THE LORD. In a sense your spirit comes out & up & reaches out for the Lord. Most of these antennas on radios nowadays you can tuck'm away, you just fold them back & you can hide'm away. But when you go to praying, the minute you start thinking about the Lord & get spiritually sensitive, your little spiritual antenna goes up! So you can get your signals a lot better that way & you won't get so much interference & static if you've really got spiritual contact.
6. IF I GIVE YOU A MENTAL PICTURE YOU'LL REMEMBER IT BETTER! You'd better have both feet on the Bible, on the Word of God & stretch your antenna up so that you can really be spiritually sensitive. You know you can do these things because you read it in His Word somewhere, & therefore you know He'll do what He promised to do. You have to be in the right position--spiritually, that is. It hasn't got much to do with the position of your body, whether you're standing up, kneeling down, sitting down, lying down or walking around or working in the kitchen!
7. HE SAYS, "YOU OUGHT ALWAYS TO PRAY & NOT TO FAINT!" (Luk.18:1) It's too bad that we seem to sort of pull our antenna in when we get busy physically & we don't seem to have very much reception.
8. IF YOU'VE GOT ONE OF THOSE LITTLE RADIOS & YOU'RE TRYING TO GET A STATION FAR AWAY, IF YOU DON'T PULL OUT THE ANTENNA YOU DON'T GET ANYTHING! So you've really got to pull it out where it sticks way up there & really can get a nice loud clear signal. Because that radio signal has to bounce back & forth between the Earth & the Heaviside layer clear halfway around the World till it finally gets to your antenna!
9. SO IF YOU WANT TO GET GOOD CONTACT WITH THE LORD, THEN GET YOUR ANTENNA UP! To be able to hear the tiniest little sounds it has to be quiet. You really have to concentrate & turn that dial slowly or you might miss something, because a lot of times there are a lot of stations in there & you might miss one. That's what's called tuning!
10. SO BE SURE YOU GET YOUR ANTENNA UP & BOTH FEET ON THE WORD WHEN YOU PRAY. I don't have any knobs to tune here, but I see a couple of pretty ones I'd like to turn! Come here, Honey. (Demonstrates on one of the girls:) And then be sure you've got your knobs turned & tuned right! Tune this one a little bit here & tune this one a little bit here & finally you get something!
11. SO THE POINT IS THAT YOU NOT ONLY HAVE TO HAVE THAT GOOD ANTENNA & GOOD GROUND, BUT YOU'VE GOTTA BE IN TUNE! You have to have the power too. In other words, the Lord. You have to receive Jesus, really, & His Spirit. That's the power!
12. BUT EVEN IF YOU'VE GOT YOUR FEET ON THE WORD & A GOOD ANTENNA RAISED & YOU KNOW YOU'VE GOT THE POWER OF THE LORD, YOU STILL HAVE GOT TO GET IN TUNE. Every time you turn that radio knob you're tuning, finding different frequencies, tuning in to that particular frequency. And spiritually you've got to kind of get everything else out of the way & concentrate on what you're doing, on your prayer, & have a good antenna up high where it's unobstructed, with none of the cares of this life getting in the way.
13. AND THEN TURN ON THE POWER! IT'S ALWAYS THERE, BUT THAT LITTLE SWITCH, THAT KNOB YOU TURN, HAS TO MAKE CONTACT FOR IT TO HEAT UP & let the power flow freely through you, your spirit, your body. That's very important too. If any one of these things are missing or are not in the right condition, you're not going to get very good reception: You've got to have an antenna, good ground, proper circuitry & some kind of power, either a battery or an electric main line.
14. BUT EVEN THEN AFTER YOU TURN ON THE POWER & YOU'VE GOT JUICE IN THE RADIO, YOU'VE GOT POWER THERE, YOU STILL HAVE TO FINE TUNE IT. And if you can't tune a radio, it's no good! Every radio has two knobs, one to turn it on & control the volume, & the other to tune it.
15. SO YOU REALLY HAVE TO HAVE ALL THE RIGHT CONDITIONS & the right equipment turned on & tuned right before you really get good reception. I'm sure the Lord has allowed radio to help people understand prayer & spiritual receptivity, because it works a lot on the same principles like I was showing you--grounded in the Word & your antenna really up high where it can catch those wavelengths, & with the right equipment.
16. YOU SAY, "DAD, YOU'RE MAKING PRAYER SOUND SO DIFFICULT THAT WE'RE GOING TO HAVE A HARD TIME PRAYING!" Well, the Lord has made this necessary. You say, "Well, why didn't He make it easier? Why do the spirits have such a hard time getting through to us?" Well, aren't you glad that you aren't sensitive to all of the wavelengths there are & all the sounds & everything that's on the air right now? Wouldn't it be horrible if you could hear them all? You'd be getting a lot of trash & junk & noise that you wouldn't like!
17. ON THE TWO-WAY RADIOS THEY HAVE WHAT'S CALLED A SQUELCH THAT TUNES OUT ALL THE NOISE & the static & all the stuff that's going on on the wavelengths except what you're trying to receive. That's a good illustration too. On some of the new radios they have a code that you can program into it, like a computer, & you can't break through that squelch, which is kind of like a silencer, unless you're tuned exactly according to that code.
18. BUT WHEN YOU HIT THAT FREQUENCY JUST RIGHT, IT BREAKS THROUGH THE SQUELCH & YOU CAN HEAR IT. It's tuned in just right, it's coded, & that's to tune out all the other junk & static & interference. Even in radio it's the same principle! If you could hear it all it would drive you nuts! You want to get in tune with just one particular frequency, one station. Now if you want good spiritual reception, you'd better make sure all those conditions are ideal, that you're in the right place, that there's no static in your life that's going to interfere.
19. BECAUSE THERE ARE MANY MANY VOICES IN THE WORLD, LIKE ALL THE RADIO STATIONS, & YOU CAN THANK GOD YOU DON'T HAVE TO LISTEN TO ALL OF THEM, especially some of them! But you want to tune in to a certain particular frequency, and get that one! And that's the Lord or His emissaries, His Ministering Spirits. So you've got to go to a little trouble, a little work, to get all the right equipment and all the right conditions and be well-grounded, spiritually sensitive, turned on and tuned in just right!
20. SO IF YOU DON'T GET CLEAR RECEPTION IT'S NOT THE LORD'S FAULT! He's got strong signals, but there may be things that aren't clear between you & the Lord, because you've got too many things on your mind or your heart that perhaps shouldn't be there.
21. NOW WHAT'S SO DIFFICULT ABOUT THAT? YOU'VE ALREADY GOT ALL THE EQUIPMENT! You've got the foundation in the Word. He's given you Salvation & the Holy Spirit & lots of holy spirits! All He's asking you to do is turn on to His power, get in the place of prayer, & if you really want to hear something, get something! I don't think the Lord has made it too hard if you just stop long enough & get other things off your mind & out of your way & just give Him your attention!
22. HE'S GIVEN YOU ALL THE EQUIPMENT, YOU'VE GOT IT ALL & YOU'VE GOT HIM, YOU'VE GOT THE POWER, all He asks you to do is get in a position where you can turn it on & tune it in!--To Him!
23. DO YOU THINK THAT'S ASKING TOO MUCH, TO GET YOUR ATTENTION? That's all He's left up to you, you've got all the rest of it. But to do that you've usually gotta get quiet. Haven't you enjoyed the Prayer Chain, Quiet Time where you feel obligated & know you've got to do it at a certain time?
24. SO ALL HE LEFT UP TO YOU IS JUST TO TURN ON--GET ALONE WITH THE LORD SO HE CAN REALLY TURN IT ON--& TUNE IT IN! He's given you all the rest & that's all He leaves up to you. The manufacturer doesn't expect you to build the radio. He built it, the Lord built it, you are it! You are the radio!
25. ALL WE DO IS OBEY! With almost every little radio comes a little sheet of simple instructions of things to do and not do etc. They made the radio for you but you've got to tune it. That's all the Lord asks of you in prayer. Just be sure you've got the right foundation, a good ground of the Word, & you put up your spiritual antenna under good conditions without interference & a lot of static going on around you, quiet, & all He asks you to do is just turn on and tune in to what the Lord has to say to you! But when you hear something you say, "Oh Dad, that was just my mind, that was just my memory, I'm not sure I got that from the Lord." Well, He gave it in the first place, didn't He? And He made you think about it, didn't He?
26. YOU SAY, "YOU'RE MAKING IT SOUND DIFFICULT AGAIN, DAD!"--NO, THAT'S ALL SET! Once we set that, we don't have to do it again. See, all we've got to do now is turn it on & tune in & that's it! God's given you all the necessary equipment, all He's left up to you is to turn it on & tune in! That would be a good name for this Letter: "Turn On & Tune In!"--To remind you of the only two things God left for you to do!
27. (PRAYS:) THANK YOU LORD FOR SENDING THE ANSWER WHEN WE MET THE CONDITIONS! All we had to do was turn on, Lord, & tune in to receive. And we did & You did it, Lord. And we believe You've given them a good lesson, Lord, something they probably really needed, to know how to use this equipment You've given us. All we have to do is turn on the power, let You flood our beings with Thy power, & tune in to Your frequency. For You're not just frequent, Lord, but You're there all the time! Amen! PYL! TYJ! So they have a sample today of what it means to turn on & tune in & get results!