GIVE GOD A CHANCE! DO 2428 5/88--You Can't Be Afraid of Publicity!
1. (Maria: The leadership at the Japan School are asking about a TV producer there who might be interested in doing a documentary on them. A documentary like that could bring up all kinds of questions.)
2. I'd tell them the same thing I told Ho when a TV man wanted to do a documentary on them. I said you've got to give them a chance or you could miss some golden opportunity. Perhaps it could even be an influence on them. Of course, in Ho's case, when he found out that the guy was definitely antagonistic & was definitely going to try to do some kind of negative thing or expose', then he killed it. But until they show such negative feelings or intents, you have to give them a chance. You may be denying the Lord a chance, not giving God a chance! God may be trying to do something for the School, & for them, for the nation--to get the Message out to all Japan!
3. (Maria: But when you know or you're pretty sure that that's going to bring up all kinds of questions, all kinds of investigations & all kinds of identification...) Honey, the Family there are about as far as they can go right now on investigation, identification with Immigrations, City Hall, the local government, & they have won the hearts of all of them! They're riding a wave of popularity right now & good favour, a very favourable wave, & they need to ride it as far as they can & get as much out of it as they can & get as much mileage out of it as possible while they're riding high! That's what we've always done!
4. The days of exposure always come in the long run. After the blessing of the popularity God gives us & the good reaping He gives us as a result of it, then He allows the Devil to rise up and start fighting with persecution to really sift the people. It always follows the same pattern. But that doesn't mean you should be like Farmer Brown who was so afraid of everything he didn't have anything! You've gotta give'm a chance! You've gotta sow the seed, you've gotta grow the crops, even if the bugs do get in!
5. (Maria: You mean they should encourage him to do a documentary?) By all means, absolutely! Honey, we can't be scared of everything just because we're in a dangerous business! If you don't go to war you don't win any battles! In any man's war you're apt to stand some losses, but if you don't go to war, you don't win any battles! War is dangerous business, especially our kind of war, spiritual warfare. You have to take so-called chances. You've gotta give God a chance! Of course this often gives the Devil a chance too! So what?--That's God's way of fighting His war!
6. He always gives us favour at first, tremendous favour, popularity & everything, like He did in the U.S.A. Then once we have run the gamut & reaped the harvest, then He allows the opposition to come to sift the people & divide the sheep from the goats, to get the national reaction so to speak, the public reaction.--Just like He did in the death of Jesus. Everybody who stood at that crucifixion, everybody who formed an opinion on Jesus will be judged some day according to that opinion & that decision they made! You have to give'm a chance! And if you don't give'm a chance, then you'll never know. If you don't ever try, you'll never know if you're going to win or lose!
7. (Maria: In another related situation, one of their friends, when they talked to him about raising support, suggested they go to see this man who is known all over Japan as giving huge donations to certain situations, to certain people, if he gets enough publicity out of it. He does it with that intention and he does it to make a name for himself.) Most big donors do! Most charitable big givers do it to get credit. (Maria: So there's always a lot of publicity surrounding him because he wants to make a name for himself, he wants to go down in history with as many things having his name on them as possible for posterity, and his greatest desire in life is to obtain the Nobel Peace Prize.) That's a worthy goal for a Worldly man. (Maria: They say that with him being such a big man and such a big name, if we did get involved with him & if we could win him over to what we're doing, it would probably mean a lot of publicity.)
8. Well, we cannot be afraid of publicity just because we might get some bad publicity! "Great were the companies that published it!"--Psa.68:11. We've had lots of publishers & it wasn't all good, by any means, but at least it got out the Message, & at first it is usually good, their first impressions are almost always the right ones. They have a good impression, God's Spirit sees to that, & they give favourable reports & we receive good publicity at first. And sometimes it lasts quite awhile! It's a lot of favour, gives us a lot of favour with the powers that be & with the public, & as a result lots of people come or go & get saved & we reap a harvest!
9. This is almost God's standard recipe for reaping a harvest! You've got to get publicity, you've got to get people's attention, you've got to get people to come, you've got to get ahold of people to give them the Message, whether it's individually or publicly or what!--Newspapers, television or whatnot! We've always had that! And nearly always at first, where God really wants to reap a harvest, He keeps them in the dark and ignorant of our past, at least for awhile, until they can get the Message and He gets things across to them & we have published the Gospel to every creature possible!
10. Therefore, how can you be afraid of publicity, just because it might eventually result in something bad, which it almost always does! God always allows the sifting afterwards, the bad publicity, resulting in persecution etc. How many times do I have to say this?--Which shows we have done the job, we have finished the job, and the Lord allows the Devil to rise up & fight us & oppose us. When we've already reaped the people who the Lord knew would respond & receive & get saved, then He allows the Devil to come up to make sure that the Devil's people are also called to account & take a stand, that their cup of iniquity might be filled, so they can be held responsible.
11. If they never hear about us & don't know anything about us & never get the Message, they're not responsible! But in witnessing it's just as important--I've said this so many times--it's just as important to send the right people to Hell as it is to send the right people to Heaven!--Or rather to send the wrong people to Hell & the right people to Heaven! We're ministers both of reconciliation and condemnation! John put it straight & clear in the first chapters of the Gospel of John. He made it very clear that to some we're ministers of redemption & reconciliation, to others we're ministers of condemnation.--John 3:17-21,36; 15:22-24; 2Cor.2:15-16.
12. We bring them out & force them to a decision! We force people to a decision to either receive the Truth or reject it, so that God might be justified & just in both saving those who receive & condemning those who reject! But you can't have those reactions from both sides unless you get the Message publicised, unless you get the Message to both sides! (Maria: So we want as much exposure as possible so we can cover the most people.)--Exactly!
13. And the Lord always sees to it that we get the good side published first to reach the good people who are going to receive it & get saved & like us & all the rest, before He allows the evil lies to leak out from the Devil's sources, in order to get the bad people to make the wrong decision that they might be condemned! It's just as clear as anything, that's all the way through the Bible!
14. Both the good and the evil have to hear it that the good might be saved & the evil be damned! That was the main sin of those people of whom the Lord said, "They received not the love of the Truth". He said He will send them strong delusion that they might believe a lie! So why has He been letting all these strong delusions & lies be published about us? Think about that!--That they might believe those lies, that they might be damned, He says!--2Th.2:10-12. Because His children & the good people who are going to be saved will not believe the lies, they will believe the Truth first, & then the Enemy will cause his people, our enemies, to believe the lies that they might be damned, because they received not the love of the Truth!
15. So it's important that both sides hear the Word!--Both the people who get saved & the people who reject it & get lost. And by the time they get the whole story from our enemies, of course it's bad, but then we've finished our job. And the Lord allows persecution to drive us on to new fields. I've said this so many times, over & over!
16. (Maria: Certain kinds of contacts, just because of their nature you're pretty sure that you are going to get investigated, & when they do investigate you, you're pretty sure that they're going to find out what most people don't like, the lies about us.) Well, you can usually tell if they're negative. Just like Ho, as soon as he found out this guy's negative attitude & the kind of questions he was asking--this TV station that wanted to do a documentary on them--he soon found out their spirit & motivation. God's Word says that we're to discern the spirits, & there's a gift of discernment.--1Cor.12:10. You'll soon find out whether they are favourable, good people really trying to find the Truth & trying to help, or they're just enquiring minds, morbid curiosity, who are trying to dig out all the dirt. It doesn't usually take long to find that out.
17. (Maria: This TV producer in Japan has a good spirit but his sponsors might be questionable.) When he shows those sponsors the School's promotion video, I think they'll be sold just like that! What more could they have?--Unless they actually go to the School & pay it a visit?
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