—Is God Dealing with You through Your Child?DFO 11123/12/81

—By Father David

[HomeARC note (10/98): The Charter states the Family's current principles, policies and attitudes regarding faith healing and getting outside medical attention, especially in regards to children.]

1. TO PUT IN A WHOLE SECTION IN THE FN from these different mothers whose children have the same disease & are sympathising with each other, handicapped mothers‚ it's getting to be a sort of a … society of mutual sympathisers. … (Maria: Well, I think "Are You Deaf?" is gonna really do it. That's what those parents were trying to do‚ they were trying to get everybody to write in, & in a way you can understand they were trying to help other parents.) Well, of course.

2. BUT THE GREATEST WAY THEY CAN HELP ANYBODY IS TO FACE THEIR OWN SINS & THE FACTS, that God is dealing with them for their sins; it's not the child's fault in any way. They need to wake up to what is wrong with them & seek God desperately to find out why He has had to go to the extreme of having to allow the child to be afflicted in order to affect them. It seems like that's the only thing that would touch their hard hearts.

3. YOU KNOW, THAT IS ALMOST THE LAST EXTREMITY that God would deal with your child to touch your heart. He's probably used everything He can on you first to try to break you or humble you or convict you or show you that there's something wrong with you. When He has to go to that extreme to allow your child to be afflicted to touch your heart, you're pretty hardhearted, & I think sometimes pretty self-righteous.

4. IT SEEMS TO HAPPEN MOSTLY TO PEOPLE WHO ARE A LITTLE SELF-RIGHTEOUS ABOUT THEIR OWN RIGHTEOUSNESS. Oh, they confess that they made some little mistake, but they don't confess very much, you know, that it was really something big & it was really something serious & it was a really horrible thing that God had to afflict their child to bring them to their knees! They sort of try to brush it off as though it was just some minor thing & their little mistake, that they just did some little thing they shouldn't have & it was some natural cause & not a deep spiritual sin.

5. I THINK MOST OF US WOULD RATHER CONFESS TO SOME MINOR SIN as being the cause of our afflictions or our children's afflictions, rather than something really truly deep & very very wrong that's wrong with us. So God has had to go to that pitiful extremity to allow our children to suffer in order to make us suffer enough to get convicted & repent of the real trouble. And when they don't see it, or they refuse to see it or they're not willing to see it & be convicted of it & confess it & be honest about it & really repent, then it's even worse!

6. IT'S AS THOUGH … THE CHASTISEMENT, THE SUFFERING HAS SEEMINGLY PROVEN FRUITLESS because they haven't really yet faced themselves & their own sins & confessed the really big sins that were the cause of it all.—That they themselves are very hard of hearing, hardhearted, deaf spiritually & retarded spiritual cases that God is having to deal with very seriously to try to wake them up to their own spiritual condition.

7. GOD DOES USE PHYSICAL CIRCUMSTANCES SOMETIMES TO BE THE INSTRUMENT OR THE TOOL, but these are more the effect than the cause when it's a deep spiritual problem with them personally, the parents‚ or at least one of them. And for anyone to have two retarded children in a row, that is really something spiritual.

8. I THINK IT MUST BE VERY DEPRESSING & MYSTIFYING TO OUR FAMILY TO HAVE TO READ THAT SORT OF THING‚ wondering why would God allow such a thing when the parents themselves in their description of the problem of the disease of the child are not really coming out all the way making a full open honest confession of what was so terribly seriously wrong with them that God had to allow them to have a handicapped child like that to try to break them & humble them & reach them & touch their hearts & chastise them openly by showing them how difficult it is to have a handicapped child like them, the parents, & what a hard time He's been having with them, that they're either spiritually deaf or spiritually retarded, spiritually handicapped & they can't even see it‚ don't even know it!

9. IT'S ALMOST LIKE SOMETHING ONE OF THE MOTHERS SAID IN HER LETTER: "Of course‚ you shouldn't let a handicapped child know that he's handicapped. You must treat him like any other child." Well, let me tell you‚ God doesn't do that! If you're handicapped spiritually, He'll let you know about it in no uncertain terms! He may not entirely blame you for it, but in the case of the spiritual He certainly tries to show you that you are handicapped & how you're handicapped, & at the same time try to help you get the victory over it.

10. HE SAYS‚ "BUT RATHER LET IT BE HEALED!" (He.12:13). He would rather see us healed of our spiritual handicaps & deafness & retardedness, lack of spiritual growth or slowness of growth, like a handicapped child. But if we don't even recognise we're spiritually handicapped, don't even recognise what's wrong with us, that we're different from other normal Christians who are really growing & producing & fruitful & giving & happy & obedient & blessed by the Lord, if we don't even see the difference & we try to defend ourselves & protect ourselves from even recognising the difference between us who are spiritually handicapped & other Christians who are normal, then we're never going to get the victory, we're never going to be healed!—Because we won't even admit that we're handicapped!

11. IT'S JUST LIKE YOU CAN'T GET SAVED WITHOUT ADMITTING YOU'RE A SINNER. Christians who won't admit that they're spiritually deaf & dumb & handicapped & retarded—as so many Christians are, particularly church people—how are you going to get'm healed? It's just as impossible to get them healed as it would be impossible to get a sinner saved who won't even admit he's a sinner & that he needs to be saved!

12. HOW COULD YOU TEACH A HANDICAPPED CHILD THAT HE'S NOT HANDICAPPED & try to treat him just like any other normal child, which this one mother advises in a letter? Of course, she's probably heard this from some Systemite, apparently, some doctor or psychologist or psychiatrist—Worldly wisdom of man, fleshly wisdom, not of God—that you just should treat them like any of the rest of the children & not act like they're not normal, etc.

13. WELL, FOR GOODNESS SAKE! IF THE CHILD'S SEEN ANY OTHER CHILDREN AT ALL, HE MUST REALISE HE'S NOT NORMAL, not like other children; if he doesn't right away he soon will as he grows older. And if you make the child think that it's all right to be handicapped, that it's perfectly normal to be retarded & don't worry about being deaf, how are you going to ever make the child really want to be healed? And how are you going to have the faith for the child's healing when you just try to brush off the fact that he's handicapped or belittle it or just say, "Well‚ it's nothing, it's nothing! It's a very small thing, it's not very important. Lots of children have it & you just get it from eating raw meat or cat dung, a little disease that you get. It's serious‚ of course, affects the baby, but it's perfectly natural."

14. IN OTHER WORDS, THEY'RE TRYING TO SAY IT'S NORMAL, IN A SENSE, TO CATCH THESE DISEASES & to suffer from them & have your unborn child permanently handicapped because of it. It's spiritually like saying: "Well, these things are perfectly normal‚ everybody has'm & it's not unusual, & of course, naturally you're prone to catch'm if you're not a little careful. But don't worry too much about your spiritual diseases of deafness against the Lord's voice, hardness of heart against His Word, being handicapped in growth spiritually because of your refusal to listen & heed & obey, your fruitlessness spiritually, lack of really serving the Lord & witnessing & winning souls & bearing fruit, it's just a normal little condition of Christians that they shouldn't worry too much about, most Christians are that way."

15. THEY LOOK AT THE CHURCHES & THE CHURCH CHRISTIANS: "Well, they all get by with being nearly all sick Christians, nearly all handicapped, nearly all retarded, nearly all deaf to God's voice, hearts hardened to His Word, disobedient‚ stiff-necked, rebellious." And you come along into those churches—as I have many times—& tell'm what's really wrong with them & shake'm up & tell'm that it's not just a little disobedience & a little bit of wilfulness, a little bit of rebelliousness.

16. "WELL, YES, I'M NOT QUITE AS GOOD A CHRISTIAN AS I SHOULD BE‚ I'm not quite as obedient as I ought to be. I agree, I don't listen to the Word like I should or read the Bible like I should & I don't hear from the Lord hardly any, but that's perfectly normal & natural. All the rest of the Christians in my church, we all are handicapped & we're all a little bit sick & we're all retarded & we're all pretty disobedient & rebellious & fruitless. But it's a kind of a normal condition, because I look around me & everybody else is the same way. I'm in a kind of a handicapped institution. I'm in some kind of an institution for the handicapped!"—Which is what the churches mostly are!

17. COMPARING THEMSELVES WITH THEMSELVES (2Co.10:12), they look around at others & they can't see any difference between themselves & other Christians—until we come along & expose them & shake them up & show them their sin & show them what's wrong with them & show them how terribly rebellious & disobedient & horrible they are! Whereas the Devil has just lulled them to sleep in indifference & coldness & lukewarmness & thinking‚ "Well‚ I know I'm not as good as I should be, but I'm not too bad."

18. YOU HAVE TO COME ALONG LIKE THE PROPHET SAMUEL & face these Sauls & Saulites face-to-face & say‚ "Listen, this little sin you think is so small, a little bit of rebelliousness, a little bit of disobedience, a little bit of not listening to what I told you, you think it's so unimportant. Well, I want to tell you what's wrong with you! This is just as bad as witchcraft & idolatry! Therefore the kingdom is going to be taken away from you, the blessings of God are going to be removed from you! You're going to be cursed! You're going to suffer for it & your children too with you!" (1Sa.15).

19. SAUL'S SEVEN SONS WERE VIRTUALLY CRUCIFIED ALONG WITH HIM, their heads decapitated & their bodies pinned to the wall of the city that they tried to go up & attack without the strength of the Word of the Lord & without the Prophet of God & in their own flesh. They failed miserably & were totally defeated‚ slaughtered & completely lost the kingdom, which had been the blessing of God (1Sa.31).

20. I THINK SOME OF THESE PARENTS OF HANDICAPPED CHILDREN ARE MISSING THE POINT! They're missing the whole lesson by just sluffing it off & saying, "Well, it's just a little raw meat I ate," or "it was that stray cat we took in," or "my child just happened to catch the mumps." Well‚ let me tell you, I had the mumps when I was a little child, but my parents got desperate about it & prayed desperately for me to be delivered! The sides of my head were swollen up till my head looked like a pumpkin! It was Christmas time & I remember standing at the table looking at that delicious Christmas dinner & I couldn't eat a bite!

21. BUT MY PARENTS DIDN'T JUST TAKE IT & ACCEPT IT & say, "Well, it's just normal for kids to get these childhood diseases, & of course, he's just got to go through these things." We had childhood diseases, yes, but my parents really got desperate in prayer & asked God to deliver us & He did!—And we had no lasting effects, no lasting handicaps or disablement's from these diseases. (Maria: When I got German Measles nobody else here got it.) Yes, blaming it all on some kind of natural conditions or natural diseases & not on themselves & their own pitiful spiritual conditions. That they are themselves diseased spiritually, & God is trying to illustrate this & show it to them through the natural illustrations or the natural diseases & how it affects their children, etc.

22. THESE BACKSLIDDEN PARENTS—& I NOTICE THAT NEARLY ALL OF THEM ARE IN THE U.S.A.—THEY'RE NEARLY ALL PEOPLE STILL LIVING IN THEIR HOME COUNTRY—not obeying, not getting out & seemingly have no intention of doing so from the way they write. They've just gone back into the System & have accepted it, from the way they sound. I don't know, it may not be true of all of them—of course from all I can hear & what I read, that's all I know—but it seems it's mostly parents that have gone back to the States, have gone back home & are back in the System, until they write & sound almost like Systemites! They don't really give spiritual reasons or spiritual causes or make spiritual confessions or seem to recognise how serious their spiritual disease is!

23. SIN IS A SPIRITUAL DISEASE! It is a spiritual handicap! It is a spiritual affliction, in a way‚ of the Devil, & it needs to be rebuked & gotten desperate over & prayed about & delivered from just like a physical disease or handicap! The parents go through all this & they see how their own diseases have affected their own innocent children, & yet they don't see that their own spiritual disease & condition of coldness‚ lukewarmness, disobedience & rebellion is as serious as the sin of witchcraft & idolatry—God said so through the mouth of the Prophet Samuel (1Sa.15:23)—& that therefore God is cursing them for it & even letting their children suffer for it to try to show them what's wrong with them & they still don't see it!

24. THEY'RE AS BLIND AS SAUL WAS TO THE FACTS & THE TRUTH OF GOD! They're as deaf as he was to the voice of God! And they're … disobedient & rebellious & deaf to God's will. … They don't see it that bad, but it is! But they just sort of grow cold. It says in the Last Days that will happen: "The love of many shall wax cold" (Mt.24:12), & "they have forsaken their first love" (Re.2:4).

25. AS I PUT IN ANOTHER LETTER RECENTLY, "THEY HAVE BECOME DARKENED IN THEIR UNDERSTANDING" (Ep.4:18). They don't even understand the spiritual things anymore or the Word of God anymore. They become alienated from the life of God, separated spiritually to where they no longer really live on the Spirit & the Life of God spiritually, until they become past feeling to where they don't even feel it any more.

26. IT'S LIKE LEPROSY! At first it's just a tiny spot & it just itches, & oh well, you might think it's not serious. But it grows & grows until finally it becomes numb & dead & paralyses the nerves so you can't feel it anymore. Even though it's eating off your fingers & your toes & your ears & your nose‚ you can't even feel it anymore, it just has no feeling, it's numb. That's the way leprosy affects people. And they don't even know, really, in a sense, that they're lepers hardly unless they look in a mirror!—Or unless they become so handicapped they realise their fingers are fallin' off & their toes are fallin' off & finally wake up to the fact that they've got leprosy!

27. SIN IS A DISEASE AS HORRIBLE AS LEPROSY & GOD HAS COMPARED IT TO LEPROSY. But that's what happens‚ at first it's just a little annoying itch‚ a little sort of defective spot that grows & grows until it finally consumes'm‚ & by that time they know they've got it, usually when it's too late, they've let it go on so long. Some of these Christians, some of our own Family, apparently, have gone back home & gotten entrenched in the System again, they have so hardened their hearts that they don't even feel it anymore—the conviction, the worry about sin. They're so deaf in their ears to the Word & the Voice of God they can even read the Magazine or read the Scripture & think, "Oh well, that's for somebody else, that's not for me. I'm not guilty of that."

28. THAT'S THE WAY THE SCRIBES & THE PHARISEES DID, THE HYPOCRITES OF JESUS' DAY. They were fluent in Scripture, they knew it by heart! They copied it all the time by hand! And yet they were so hardened in their hearts & deaf spiritually, devoid of understanding because of their resistance to the truth & because they refused to recognise that something was wrong with them. Truth resisted lost its power over their minds to where they didn't even realise that they were deaf or blind or retarded or diseased or dying or dead spiritually. They didn't even know it! They didn't even recognise Christ as the Messiah, in fact, they even killed Him thinking they were doing the right thing.

29. I'LL TELL YOU, THE CONDITION OF BACKSLIDDEN CHRISTIANS, they need to become really truly convicted by coming face-to-face with the truth, somebody telling them off & telling them what's really wrong with them, looking at themselves in God's mirror to see what a horrible mess they really are instead of covering up & just belittling it & minimising their sin:

30. "WELL, I'M NOT DOING VERY BAD, I'M GOOD! I still belong to the Family, we tithe, we even witness a little bit weekends & we teach our children Bible & we read the Komix. Of course, we're not getting out of the country because that's too much of a sacrifice. We're not leaving the System because that's too difficult financially. We're not going to the mission field because we just couldn't make it there‚ it was too hard. But that's a small thing‚ God doesn't really expect so much of all of us.

31. "PERHAPS IT'S A LITTLE DISOBEDIENCE & A SLIGHT BIT OF REBELLIOUSNESS & just a little hardness of heart toward God's Words, but it's not really serious enough to warrant any kind of special punishment or retribution from the Lord or any serious chastisement. My little child is handicapped not because of any huge serious sins on my part"—they tell themselves—"it was because he got in touch with a little cat dung or he caught the mumps or I happened to have German Measles when I was pregnant or I ate some raw meat which I shouldn't have done, that was naughty!"—And not recognise the really big sin, the huge sins that are wrong with them, that are shocking & horrible & terrible, that they are not just a little sinner, but a huge sinner & worse than the worst sinners out in the World!

32. JESUS TOLD THE SCRIBES & THE PHARISEES, THE HYPOCRITES, THAT THEY WERE WORSE THAN THE DRUNKS & THE HARLOTS & the publicans & the sinners, & that there was more chance for sinners to get saved than it was for these self-righteous hypocrites who not only wouldn't confess their sins, couldn't even see their sins! Couldn't even see that there was something wrong with them, seriously wrong with them‚ didn't even recognise it! Because they resisted the truth so long, hardened their hearts against the voice of God, then deafened their ears, until they were absolutely pitifully darkened in their understanding. They couldn't even understand it anymore, they couldn't even see it anymore. Blind to it, deaf to it‚ alienated from the life of God, not even in touch with the Lord anymore, not even in direct communication with His Spirit anymore!

33. YES, THEY PRAY—"OF COURSE WE PRAY‚ WE TEACH OUR CHILDREN TO PRAY!"—BUT THEY DON'T HEAR FROM THE LORD ANYMORE because they're deaf to His Voice. His Word doesn't convict them anymore because they've hardened their hearts to it‚ until they've become really actually past feeling. Their spiritual nerves have become so diseased they are paralysed & don't even know it. They don't even feel it anymore! It's pitiful!

34. THEY'VE BECOME JUST LIKE ONE WHO IS NUMB & PARALYSED & CAN'T EVEN FEEL THAT THEY HAVE A DISEASE ANYMORE, just like the lepers‚ unless they take a good look at themselves. But if they ignore looking at themselves to recognise they have a disease & they just look away & try not to see what's wrong with them, try to ignore it & just figure if they don't look at it it will go away & if they ignore it it will somehow not be there, they're gonna die of it!

35. IF THEY DON'T RECOGNISE THE DISEASE & SEE WHAT'S WRONG WITH THEM & GET HORRIFIED AT IT & terrified by it & shook up by it, shocked by it, concerned about it, desperate about it, recognising it, seeing it, confessing it, exposed by the Word of God, exposed by the Light of His Truth to themselves as well as to others, then they'll never see their need, they'll never feel that they even need healing or a change or to be convicted or to confess or to repent!—When they refuse to recognise it, refuse to see it, refuse to admit it that there's something terribly wrong with them for God to have to afflict their child that way‚ usually.

36. IN A FEW, I THINK, RARE CASES, IT MIGHT BE THE LORD HAS HAD TO ALLOW IT TO TEACH THEM MORE LOVE & HUMILITY, UNDERSTANDING & SYMPATHY FOR OTHERS as well as recognising how difficult spiritual retardation & spiritual affliction & spiritual disease & sin are to deal with, & spiritual deafness & hardness of heart. (Maria: That's been the case in about three of our VS couples who are very sweet & loving but they have to deal with those problems, so like you say, maybe that's why the Lord did it.) There are a few that the Lord has perhaps allowed one afflicted child to teach them a few lessons, keep them humble.

37. BUT I CAN'T JUST IGNORE THE SCRIPTURE! HE SAYS, "RATHER LET IT BE HEALED!" Nothing's impossible with God! "With God all things are possible & all things are possible to him that believeth!" (Lk.1:37; Mk.9:23). God healed many of the incurables of His day. Jesus touched & healed many people who were totally incurable, dying of incurable diseases‚ & He even raised Lazarus from the dead! If He can do that, He can certainly cure afflicted children—retarded, deaf or whatever they are!

38. HE CERTAINLY DOESN'T WANT THAT POOR LITTLE CHILD TO STAY THAT WAY, if He can possibly get through to the parents why the child is that way. He's trying to show the parents how they look to Him‚ & what a problem they are to their Father God!—How deaf they are to His voice, how hardened their hearts are to His Word, how blind they are to the Truth & how paralysed they are to feeling, spiritually, or spiritual conviction! How retarded they are in their Christian growth, spiritual lives, how weak they are spiritually‚ how afflicted they are spiritually‚ how handicapped they are in their Christian lives, how unfruitful! Somebody has to take care of them, instead of them now being grown enough to take care of others.

39. I USED TO SAY—& STILL SAY—THE CHURCHES ARE FULL OF SPIRITUAL BABIES WHO NEVER GROW UP! Because the System & the preachers keep them that way, & because also that's the way they want it, they don't want to have to grow up & be responsible for others, to go out & witness & win souls & distribute literature or go to the mission field. They don't want to grow up!

40. THEY LIKE THE PREACHER TO PAMPER THEM & PET THEM & SPOIL THEM & tell them, "Oh no no‚ that's all right!" Pat'm on the back, "It's OK for you just to be a normal Christian, stay here, sit on the pew, just come to church on Sunday. Give your gift & your offering‚ & if you tithe‚ well‚ that's really being a sacrificial Christian! And you don't have to forsake-all & go to the mission field or go out witnessing with your children or pass tracts.

41. "YOU DON'T HAVE TO BE A FANATICAL FANATIC LIKE THAT, YOU KNOW! It's all right to be a Christian, but don't be a fanatic! I'll do the job! Pay me & I'll preach & witness & I'll win the souls right here in church where it should be done & you won't have to get out on the corner & look like some kind of religious fool or fanatic passing out tracts to the bums & the drunks & the harlots & the publicans & sinners as well as the self-righteous! Let me do the job!

42. "AND DON'T GO TO THE MISSION FIELD, YOU DON'T HAVE TO! That's only for the rare exceptions. The main body of the church stay at home & only a few freaks feel called to the foreign field. After all, if we all went, who would support them?—Blah, blah!" How many times have we heard that argument? I'll tell you, if they'd all go, God would support them, that's for sure, if they'd all obey!

43. AFTER ALL, THE PREACHER DOESN'T WANT TO LOSE HIS CROWD nor his offerings nor his job or he might have to go to the mission field himself! How terrifying! How frightening! He wouldn't have any job here at home on the nice comfortable home field with a nice fine home & a fancy car & luxurious living & all he has to do is preach his pretty little pious pulpit platitude every Sunday morning, maybe Sunday night too. Might even have to have a prayer meeting on Wednesday night, a little Bible Study! How sacrificial‚ how terribly persecuted he is!

44. YOU CAN SEE HOW ALL THE GREAT CHURCHES ARE BEING TERRIBLY PERSECUTED! All the great powerful established religions are being terribly persecuted! Huh!—Well, no place‚ really, but in Communist countries. Well, they finally get it when they keep on in that hard condition & unfeeling condition, diseased condition, afflicted, handicapped, retarded condition. God finally, if they don't get healed, He socks it to'm & kills'm, delivers them with death because they encumber the ground! (Lk.13:6-9).

45. THEY'RE MORE OF A HANDICAP TO THE WORLD & they're more of a hindrance than they are a help, like the unfruitful tree. He said‚ "Well, we'll dung around it, dig around it a little bit more & see if maybe it will bear next year. If not, then chop it down, it cumbereth the ground! It's in the way of the other trees. It's a bad example, it's a hindrance, it's a stumblingblock."

46. HOW MANY CHRISTIANS, AFTER BEING PATIENT WITH THEM FOR YEARS & YEARS, GOD HAS FINALLY HAD TO JUST CHOP'M DOWN TO GET'M OUT OF THE WAY OF OTHERS so they wouldn't be such a dandy bad example & such a hindrance, such a handicap to the Church‚ the True Church. The churches are full of'm! They don't even know the difference, that's the norm. They don't really realise they're all lepers, they're all diseased, they're all handicapped, all retarded, all sick, all afflicted monstrosities & overgrown babies who are deaf, dumb, blind, crippled, diseased, paralysed & would probably be much better off if God would just take'm—which He will‚ eventually‚ when He finally judges a person or a family or a church or a city or a state or even a whole country or whole civilisations or whole empires as He has on occasion.

47. GOD WILL ONLY PUT UP WITH IT SO LONG & then He has to bring down His rod of judgement, even unto death. As John says, "I do not say that you should pray for the sin that's unto death" (1Jn.5:16). They've sinned too long, too far. They have been warned too many times. "He that being often reproved & yet still hardens his neck & his heart‚ shall suddenly be destroyed & that without remedy!" (Pr.29:1).

48. BECAUSE THERE'S NO USE TRYING TO GET AT HIM ANYMORE! There's no use trying to show him anymore! He won't listen, he won't see, he won't hear, he refuses to understand! He's become dark in his understanding, alienated from the life of God & past feeling till there's nothing left for him but a certain awful looking forward to judgement & to be even cut off from this life, because they are in the way of others & bad examples & encumber the ground! Lord help us! (He.10:25-31).

49. I THINK SOME OF THESE PARENTS ARE TAKING TOO LIGHTLY THE AFFLICTIONS OF THEIR CHILDREN & their handicaps & their retarded condition & their deafness or whatever‚ as though they're trying to minimise & belittle it, that, "It's not a very serious thing, really, & lots of other children have it, & it's a very common disease, & it comes normally & naturally! It's perfectly natural & normal for my child to have gotten it through a little accidental infection, or me to have gotten it through a little neglect & oversight, small sin, small disobedience, small carelessness that my child has been afflicted through me & diseased from birth, but it's perfectly normal, natural, it's common!"

50. I THINK IT'S A TERRIBLE ATTITUDE TO TAKE, as though they're just to accept it, because it's something natural & normal—well, a little subnormal or abnormal, but not very much. "Lots of other children have it & lots of other children are like that & it's a natural thing & quite common & therefore we just have to accept it as something God let happen for some reason, we don't quite know why!"—Because they're not willing to know why, they're not willing to see why, they're not willing to look at themselves & see what's wrong with themselves, they're not willing to listen to the voice of God & heed it.

51. AT THE SAME TIME SAMUEL SAID TO SAUL, "FOR TO OBEY IS BETTER THAN SACRIFICE & TO HEARKEN THAN THE FAT OF RAMS!"—All this just going through the motions & the mechanics of witnessing & litnessing & going downtown with the children to sing once a week or whatever it is these System backslidden families do that claim to still be part of the Family & they tithe & they get the Magazine‚ they sacrifice.

52. REBELLIOUS DISOBEDIENT DEMONIC SAUL WAS PUTTING ON AN AIR OF SELF-RIGHTEOUSNESS, WAS EVEN SACRIFICING TO GOD! He built an altar to sacrifice to the Lord before the battle to ask for God's blessing. He was going through the motions, the mechanics of being righteous. But it was pure self-righteousness because he wasn't obeying the Lord or the voice of the Prophet & he didn't wait for God & God's voice. So Samuel said, "Listen, it's better to obey than to sacrifice! It's better to hearken, to hear, listen to the voice of God than to burn the fat of rams in sacrifice to God."

53. THESE FAMILIES ARE IN SUCH A MESS & DON'T EVEN KNOW IT!—Such a horrible, cold, lukewarm, diseased, leprous, paralysed, nerveless, feelingless spiritual condition, retarded, handicapped, because they're still even going through the motions. "And he wist not even that the Spirit of God had departed from him!"—Because of his disobedience, his rebelliousness, his hardness of heart & his refusal to listen to God, his refusal to obey!—Until Samuel came along & exposed him before all the people & told him off! First privately, he said, "Listen, to obey is better than sacrifice, to hearken than the fat of rams!"

54. SOME OF OUR FAMILY ARE TRYING TO GET BY WITH JUST TITHING, A LITTLE LITNESSING & A LITTLE MAGAZINE READING & a little teaching of their children & they're sacrificing some. They're tithing, they're burning a little of the midnight fat reading the Magazine & maybe even the Word a little‚ but it all rolls off like water off a duck's back! They're insulated, they're waterproofed to it, the Water of the Word can no longer soak in.

55. THEY ARE ALREADY SOAKED IN THE VENEER OF SELF-RIGHTEOUSNESS & WATERPROOFING AGAINST THE WORD!—A thin paint of self-goodness & self-obedience & pretended service & ten-percent sacrifice when they ought to be giving 100% or 110! So insulated, so waterproofed that it doesn't even soak in anymore! So insulated against the electric shocks of the Lord that they don't even feel it anymore! And so blind that they can't even see their handicapped diseased spiritual condition! So deaf they can't even hear the voice of God anymore! So hardened in their hearts they're completely darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God, past feeling! Having been often reproved, hardening their hearts & necks, so that about all God has left to do is … to get them out of the way of others so they won't lead their children astray & won't be bad examples to other Christians & give other Christians the idea that they can be like that too & get away with it!

56. THAT'S THE HORRIBLE PART ABOUT THE CHURCHES!—They have become inoculated, they have become vaccinated with just enough religion to make them impervious & inured, completely protected against the whole thing! Just a little religion so they won't catch too much. Just a little religion so they won't get this fanatical disease of the Family & go overboard on it! "You've got a family now, you have your children to take care of, you have your children to think of now! You can't expect to raise them on that foreign strange filthy disease-ridden demon-ridden backward uncivilised foreign field or they might even grow up to teenagers & fall in love with some of the natives & actually marry those horrible people!—Or even get infected with their customs & cultures before they get that far! So we've got to rush'm home quick before they get too old & it has too much of an effect on them!"

57. MANY MISSIONARIES HAVE GONE HOME FOR THIS REASON. In the denominations I belonged to before, they suffered more missionaries going home, supposedly to protect their children from the conditions of the field, than almost anything else. Especially when it came time to go to school, they wanted them to go to a good American school, a good home school of their own nation or culture & to be sure they learned their own language well. Some of the missionary parents were getting shocked that their children could speak the native language better than their own national language, the parents' language, so they had to rush'm home quick to preserve their own national culture & their own national language, their native tongues rather than allow them to become more like the natives & more like the foreigners than they were like their home people.

58. WHY ARE THESE CASES NEARLY ALL IN THE UNITED STATES & HOME IN EUROPE? Why do you seldom ever hear of them on the field? Huh? Very few. I can't even remember any right now. There could be some, possibly are. Just because a person is on the foreign field doesn't necessarily make'm a missionary if his heart is still back home, or her heart would prefer to go home. (Maria: We have a few who are really really good samples, beautiful samples‚ with a few handicapped children. Like Ebed & Estrela, & Micah & Deborah, & Phineas & Rebecca.)

59. I STILL THINK THAT SOMEWHERE THERE'S SOMETHING THERE THAT THEY'RE MISSING. Now even these good examples who have retarded children who are still serving the Lord faithfully, sacrificially, full-time & wisely & wonderful parents, wonderful spiritual examples, you could say, well, perhaps they suffered this in order to help & encourage other parents of afflicted children & to realise that they're not the only ones, that even some very good people have suffered this too.

60. WELL, I GRANT YOU THAT "MANY ARE THE AFFLICTIONS OF THE RIGHTEOUS" BUT DON'T FORGET THE REST OF THE VERSE!—"The Lord delivereth him out of them all!" (Ps.34:19). And if they are afflicted, they should find out why, or if the child is afflicted they should find out why, what God is trying to show them & teach them!—Why He's chastising them, why He's even having to make their own little children suffer for their sakes to try to teach them something, show them something, show them their sin, show them their own handicap, their own retardedness, their own spiritual disease—blindness‚ deafness, whatever it is, spiritually.

61. HE SAYS, "THEN RATHER LET IT BE HEALED!—Lest it be turned out of the way." He says, "Lift up the hands which hang down & strengthen the feeble knees"—it's right there in the 12th Chapter of Hebrews. We make so much of the 11th Chapter, somebody needs to learn that l2th chapter, first half at least!—One of my Mother's favourites, because people in churches & Christians were always excusing themselves for their diseases & their handicaps & their afflictions. "Well, many are the afflictions of the righteous. I guess that's just one of those things I have to bear." He says, "Rather let it be healed!" He says, "The Lord delivereth him out of them all!"—Then why aren't they healed? Why aren't they delivered?

62. WELL, YOU SAY, WHAT ABOUT PAUL'S THORN IN THE FLESH? (2Co.12:7). (Maria: And what about the man that was blind from birth & had to go so many years? And He said it wasn't his parents' fault [Jn.9:1-3].) That's true, but he was finally delivered. And we don't know that Paul was never delivered. In that case‚ that was a very rare case of the man who was blind from birth & the Lord said it was not because of the sins of his parents. He didn't say his parents didn't have any sins‚ but He said the main purpose of it was that he might be healed & be a testimony to the people there. There are a few cases, exceptions where the Lord may have allowed it in order to be a testimony & a witness.

63. THERE COULD BE A FEW PROUD CASES LIKE PAUL'S where he had to have a thorn in the flesh for quite awhile. (Maria: But that was his, he was an adult, so that's different.) Yes, & not only that, it didn't hinder his ministry, it didn't hinder his witnessing, soul–winning‚ missionary work, didn't even slow him down, it just bothered him. And, in fact, he said this thorn in the flesh was a messenger of Satan, some kind of demonic annoyance like a little fly buzzing around or a mosquito or something that just kept annoying him.

64. BUT IT DIDN'T STOP HIM FROM OBEYING THE LORD! It didn't make him go back to Jerusalem & retire from the field. He didn't give up writing letters, he didn't stop preaching the Gospel & encouraging others to. He didn't stop sending missionaries to the field! He didn't stop telling people off for their sins, either, just because he had an affliction‚ a messenger of Satan, a thorn in the flesh which troubled & bothered him—which he as good as confessed was to keep him humble because he had been so exalted & carried up to the heavens with great revelations & so on, lest he become too exalted (2Co.12:7).

65. I'LL TELL YOU, I'VE SURE HAD THE REVELATIONS & BEEN IN THE HEAVENLIES & seen the visions & heard the voices, & if any man had a temptation maybe to get exalted, especially the way people love me & some nearly worship me—which they shouldn't—it's me! But the Lord lets me have enough afflictions physically & different things to be concerned about to keep me humble—faults, weaknesses. But thank God, He doesn't let them last forever! He doesn't let them be too heavy a burden to be borne. He doesn't allow them to be so serious they interfere with my service for the Lord fulltime, or to afflict my family‚ or to affect my children.

66. WHATEVER I HAVE OCCASIONALLY IS USUALLY MY OWN FAULT & DUE TO MY OWN SINS—past or present—& my own carelessness & disobediences & excesses & nobody else's fault, certainly not God's fault, & I thank God it's not affected my children seriously. But He's let me suffer a little for my own mistakes & my own faults, my own sins, my own excesses. But then He heals me, TTL, & He delivers me when I repent & ask Him to help me & forgive me. But in a way it keeps me humble & to realise that there's no good thing in me & without Him I can do nothing & it's all Jesus, nothing else! (Ro.7:18; Jn.15:5).

67. I THINK IF SOME OF THESE PARENTS WOULD COME TO THAT REALISATION & really realise that there's nothing good about them or in them & that they are just sinners saved by grace & they still need to keep asking God for deliverance & repentance & to try to get rid of these sins & diseases so they can serve the Lord better & their children won't be so handicapped, I think the Lord would do it! It's in the Word. He as good as says plain as anything He would rather let them be healed!

68. I THINK PROBABLY HE WOULD RATHER IF PAUL WOULDN'T HAVE BEEN AFFLICTED or had a thorn in the flesh, but He had to send it to Paul because of his sins. Apparently from what he says, he indicates that it was his sin of pride, & he even is a little bit vague about how he confesses it, showing that he did have it.

69. SO I THINK THESE PARENTS NEED TO COME OUT IN THE LIGHT & SEE THEMSELVES AS GOD SEES THEM & to recognise that they are bad—not good! They are wicked & sinful & selfish & perverted spiritually except for the Lord‚ & they need to recognise these sins, face them, see them, hear them, get convicted of them, recognise they have them, recognise they have these spiritual diseases, handicaps‚ retardation, blindness, deafness, dumbness‚ disobedience. They've got to recognise it & see it & believe it & confess it & repent of it to be delivered!—And just ignoring it or overlooking it or trying to pretend it's not there or trying to pretend to their children it's not there is not going to cure it or get deliverance.

70. JUST TREATING A HANDICAPPED CHILD AS THOUGH IT WAS NOT HANDICAPPED & trying to pretend it's not handicapped, treating it like a normal child, is not going to get the child to recognise sufficiently that it's serious enough & bad enough & sad enough to really desperately pray & want deliverance‚ just as the parents should.

71. THEY NEED TO FACE THEIR SINS & THEIR FAULTS & OPENLY SEE THEM, hear them‚ comprehend them‚ confess them & repent of them & desperately ask God to "deliver them out of them all" & "rather let it be healed" & expect God to do it!—Than to just put up with it & belittle it & minimise it & try to say, "Well, it's just some natural little almost normal thing, rather common, & it just happened accidentally or by some little mistake." They need to take it all more seriously. (Maria: First of all pray for their own healing & then pray for their child's healing.) Yes, & get down to business with God to see what's really wrong & why!—Find out why, ask God why, really want to know why! Desperately, honestly, sincerely want to know why, so God can show them so they can be delivered, so He won't have to afflict them or their child anymore.

72. HE CAN HEAL THEM, HE CAN DELIVER THEM—& HE WILL!—If they make things right, confess & repent, receive the Word of the Lord, believe it, act on it‚ obey it‚ heed it, hearken! "Better to obey than sacrifice & to hearken than the fat of rams. For disobedience is the sin of witchcraft & rebelliousness is idolatry!" They need to see the awfulness of their sin & recognise it & confess it & get right with God & repent & repeat again their first works, go back to their first love (Re.2:4,5), do the job God sent them out to the field to do & go back to the plow so that God will deliver them & their children. Otherwise they'll never be delivered, they'll never be healed & can't be, & they have nothing to look forward to but death as the only end to it all & deliverance from it. What they refused to learn & couldn't learn & didn't learn in this World, they're apparently going to have to learn in the Next.

73. I JUST DON'T BELIEVE THAT GOD ALLOWS THE AFFLICTION OF LITTLE CHILDREN, innocent babies, unborn babies, for no reason or just a mere little natural cause or a little physical neglect or a little normal disease! I don't believe it! Nothing happens to a Christian by accident. It might be considered by some to be minor neglect or a little so-called normal sickness. I don't think really any sickness is normal for a Christian. If they get one it's usually for a reason to teach us something or because of our own sins, faults, mistakes, neglect, disobedience, something, & that the norm is to be healed, the norm is deliverance. [See Pro.26:2b.]

74. (MARIA: YOU KNOW THAT WHEN YOU DO GET SOMETHING IT MUST BE THE LORD LETTING IT HAPPEN‚ because otherwise we could go out to these restaurants every night & get food poisoning as dirty & filthy as this place is. So if we do get sick‚ we know that the Lord allowed it for some reason.) Yes. I wonder if these parents were being as careful about what they eat & don't eat, & drink & don't drink as well as being as prayerful as they can. We try to eat safe foods & drink safe water, safe drinks & avoid anything that could possibly be contaminated. But then there are some things & circumstances beyond our control where we eat in restaurants & in foreign countries & foreign foods cooked by foreign hands & God knows how dirty or diseased or infected or contaminated!

75. SO THERE, HAVING DONE ALL THAT WE CAN DO, WE HAVE TO TAKE A STAND OF FAITH & PRAY DESPERATELY over every plate of food, every drink, glass of water, & the Lord has gotten me now to the point where I have to pray over every bite & every swallow & resist the Devil, or I wouldn't be alive now!—Rebuke Satan & all of his dastardly dirty deeds & ask God to protect us & keep us & take every bite with faith, every swallow or drink by faith. You know how we do?—We pray over it constantly. Not just a little itty-bitty ditty of thanks or a song of grace before the meal, but I mean desperately pray over the food & the drink & continue to do so all through the meal & ask God to protect us & deliver us. Thank God He has, it's miraculous, all the dirty countries we've been in with all the dirty food & dirty people & dirty water!

76. PEOPLE NEED TO TAKE THOSE THINGS MORE SERIOUSLY! Cleanliness is Godliness! But when you can't protect yourself, there's no other way & you're dependent on others over whom you have no control except by prayer, then you've got to depend on the Lord. And He has promised that if they touch or they drink any deadly thing, it shall not harm them! They can even pick up serpents! (Mk.16:18). I don't think He expected them to pick them up on purpose, but by accident, like Paul did in the woodpile (Acts 28:3-5), & even if they bite'm it's not going to hurt'm.

77. PAUL COULD HAVE SAID, "OH WELL, THAT'S JUST A NATURAL THING to run across a viper in a pile of old wood & of course I can expect it‚ & well, I guess it's too late now, I just have to die of it! It's perfectly natural & normal to get bitten by an adder in a pile of old wood if I go in there & fiddle around without my gloves on, so I got bit. It's a natural normal thing through a little neglect." Paul could have told himself, "Well‚ I just wasn't careful enough so now I'm having to suffer for my carelessness & I just have to suffer this bite now‚ however it may affect me & make me sick or drop dead." But he believed God! He just shook the thing off & went right on! He didn't expect it to affect him because he was God's man with Christ's Word that "if they touch any deadly thing it shall not hurt them!"

78. MISSIONARIES HAVE BEEN FORCED ON MISSION FIELDS SOMETIMES BY BITTER ENEMIES, MEDICINE MEN‚ TO DRINK DEADLY POISON, the medicine men trying to show that the missionaries were not of God or not genuine or wrong or false & say, "All right, if you're a so-called child of God, the Bible says if you touch any deadly thing it's not going to hurt you. If you drink any deadly thing it's not going to hurt you, & you shouldn't be afraid to drink this poison. Come on, drink it! Let's see if you believe it!" And many a missionary has actually done that on the field, I've heard it story after story! And while all the people waited to see'm drop dead, it didn't even phase'm, didn't affect'm!

79. SO YOU CAN'T JUST BLAME EVERYTHING ON NATURAL CIRCUMSTANCES, NATURAL CAUSES: "Oh, it's a common disease, it's a common childhood affliction, it's a well-known disease of pregnant mothers that affects their children, blah blah!" I don't think it should. I don't think it would if they were really desperate enough in prayer & constantly praying God to protect them & doing the best they can to protect themselves & eat the right foods & boil the water or whatever they have to do plus obeying God & being in the right condition spiritually themselves & obedient & where they ought to be, doing what they ought to be doing‚ serving God as they should be. They can't expect God's perfect protection & full blessings when they're not where they belong—either physically or spiritually.

80. SO I DON'T THINK SOME OF OUR PEOPLE ARE TAKING SOME OF THESE THINGS SERIOUSLY ENOUGH. They're not getting desperate enough, they're not recognising the real root of the matter, the real cause of the trouble‚ the real spiritual deep down big spiritual sin, spiritual diseases that are at the root of their so-called "natural" afflictions & just "simple accidents." I don't think they're really seeing the problem. I wonder if they want to see it. I wonder if they're afraid to look, afraid to recognise it lest they have to confess it openly both to themselves, their mate, their family, their children, their fellowship‚ the Family & God! In their pride they don't want to see it.

81. WHY WERE THE SCRIBES & THE PHARISEES SO SELF–RIGHTEOUS & HYPOCRITICAL?—They were proud, they didn't want to confess they were sinners too, that they were doing anything wrong or they were disobedient to the Word. After all, they were top spiritual leaders‚ they didn't dare confess to the people that they were the worst of all sinners, so they never did!—So they never recognised it, so they became blind leaders of the blind & they all fell in the ditch & they committed the sin that couldn't be forgiven, & that was the sin of self-righteousness & rejection of Jesus Christ‚ literally the Word of God or the Truth (Mt.12:31,32). They rejected their only hope of salvation, which was to recognise the Truth, Jesus!

82. AND I'M AFRAID SOME OF OUR FAMILIES ARE REJECTING THEIR ONLY HOPE OF SALVATION FROM THESE AFFLICTIONS & DISEASES & their afflicted children by refusing to receive the truth & recognising & confessing their faults one to another that they might be healed (Ja.5:16). Confessing their sins openly & asking God to deliver, getting back into the Will of God. How can they expect God to deliver them—even if they see it & confess it & ask God to deliver them—if they don't obey, they don't go back into the Will of God, they refuse to go back to the field & back to their job for the Lord, back to the plow. Even if they seem to repent, how can they expect deliverance if they don't really make a change & turn around & go another direction, the direction of God's will?

83. WHAT WAS THE MATTER WITH KING SAUL? He was always confessing his sins. Every time the Prophet would show up & expose him‚ he'd break down & weep & confess. When he came face-to-face with David he'd break down & weep, cry & confess, "Thou art God's man & I know you'll be king, but please come back! I know God will bless me for your sake!" Well, David finally refused because Saul kept doing that so many times‚ but he never really meant it, because he never quit it!

84. HE NEVER CHANGED, HE NEVER REALLY REPENTED, HE NEVER TURNED AROUND! He didn't revolute, he didn't metanoia, he just kept on in his sin. Although he often confessed it, recognised it, even openly before others, but he didn't change, he didn't obey. He still hardened his heart against the truth, he still deafened his ears against the voice of God, he still rebelliously went his own way, he still disobeyed the voice of God's prophet. It was impossible for the Lord to heal him or deliver him or his people, you might say his family or his children, because he went on in his own stubborn wilful rebellious disobedient hypocritical way & refused to change!

85. TILL FINALLY HE WIST NOT THE SPIRIT OF GOD WAS EVEN DEPARTED FROM HIM! He didn't even realise that things weren't as they had been, that he was no longer the man he used to be & that the blessings of God had departed. He kept right on trying to pretend he was the king & right & doing the best he could & doing the right thing, "Well, why does God let this happen? Why does God allow this to be? Why does He let me be defeated, my family & my soldiers & my country?"—Blaming it on God instead of himself & his own rebellious wicked heart & evil disobedience & horrible sin of rebelliousness which is as witchcraft & idolatry! No matter how much he sacrificed, Samuel said: "It's better to obey than sacrifice!" No matter how much he burned the fat of rams to the Lord, gave to God‚ Samuel said, "To hearken is better than the fat of rams!"

86. JUST BECAUSE THEY'RE TITHING THEY THINK THEY'RE GOING TO GET BY WITH IT. Just because they're reading the Magazine they think they're going to get away with it. Just because they're doing a little witnessing‚ a little litnessing, they're teaching their children a little—when they know they ought to be serving God fulltime & back on the mission field somewhere. But they're not, obviously they're not.

87. NEARLY ALL THESE FAMILIES I'VE READ ABOUT WHO ARE HAVING ALL THESE TROUBLES & afflictions & accidents & diseases & afflicted children, nearly all of them are in their home countries. They're not out on the foreign field trying to witness to the lost or win souls or take the message of God to the heathen. They're back in their nice comfortable home country, probably have System jobs. Yes, still consider themselves in the Family, tithe, get the Magazine‚ read it, sing the songs, listen to the tapes‚ but it all rolls like water off a duck's back or water off a waterproof coat. They're so insulated they can't even feel the electric shocks of God anymore!

88. SO I JUST DON'T BELIEVE IT JUST HAPPENS NORMALLY, NATURALLY, FROM NATURAL CAUSES & accidentally & just a little mistake, a slight oversight, a small neglect: "I ate a little raw meat or I got a little uncooked food or I just didn't obey Dad about what to eat & not eat & drink, etc., & I caught a little disease from some natural little stray cat or my child did or I did & infected my unborn baby & now it's just a natural thing! We just have to put up with it because it happened naturally through circumstances we really didn't have too much control over or we were a little careless about."

89. THEY TAKE IT TOO LIGHTLY! They take it too easily! They don't really take the blame enough!—Just a little blame, just a little inoculation, just a little vaccination. But it just hardens their heart against the real disease & what's really wrong with them, so they can't even see it anymore. I believe it! I can't believe that God would just let it go on & on & on when He says that He'd rather it be healed. I can't believe He just lets a Christian be afflicted forever, indefinitely‚ when He says, "God delivereth him out of them all!" "Confess your faults one to another that ye may be healed!"

90. HEALING IS THERE!—And God says everything He can in His Word to encourage you to have faith to be delivered! But you can't be delivered & you can't have faith for it unless you are obedient & honest & confessing your unrighteousness & your sins & your faults & your mistakes & your disobediences & your hardness of heart‚ your blindness to the truth, your deafness to His voice‚ your resistance to His Word & your rebellious selfish sanctimonious stinking filthy rags of self-righteousness!

91. AND IF YOU CAN'T SEE IT & WON'T THEREFORE ADMIT IT, HOW CAN YOU CONFESS IT or repent & return to obedience & the life God expects you to live‚ showed you you should live, & which even some of you once lived in obedience on the field? If you can't even see it anymore, you're so dark in your understanding, you're so out of touch with God you're alienated from the life of God, & you're so hardened against conviction that you're past feeling, how can you possibly expect to repent & confess, honestly, & get right with God & expect God to deliver & to heal & to bless you unless you do all of these things?—See it, confess it, recognise it‚ get desperate in prayer about it & repent of it & get delivered so you can obey God & go back to the field, or obey God & go back to the field & prove that you really mean business even before He delivers you.

92. A LOT OF PEOPLE WEREN'T HEALED TILL THEY WENT—"AS THEY WENT THEY WERE HEALED" (Lk.17:14). God's going to maybe have to make you prove it this time that you mean business‚ & you may have to start obeying before He starts blessing! You may have to start really genuinely repenting & living a different kind of a life & obeying God & getting back on the job & on the wall before He delivers & heals. This time you've almost got to earn it.

93. SO I DON'T KNOW WHERE TO END THIS, because the problems are endless & the applications endless, & thank God, God's mercy is also endless & His healing as well, from everlasting to everlasting! And I know it's not God's fault, so they'd better not blame God for it or ask God, "Why did You let this little child be afflicted? Why, Lord, did You cause this little child to be retarded?" God didn't do it, you did it!—Through your sins, your neglects, your disobedience, your rebelliousness, your self-righteousness, whatever it was.

94. IT'S ONLY IN VERY RARE CASES THAT IT'S NOT THE FAULT OF THE PARENTS, VERY RARE! I would say they're absolutely exceptions. And they have too many of these cases in the Family to be rare exceptions. I think it's more likely a common fault as a result of backslidden parents & disobedient parents, dishonest parents‚ unrepentant parents, unconfessing parents who've left God's best & His Will & turned away from the Lord & His way, including His Word‚ even if they're still reading it, it doesn't affect them anymore.

95. SO THAT'S HOW I FEEL ABOUT IT & if in a few rare cases I'm wrong, may God forgive me, but I would daresay that in most of them I'm right. Those who are honest about it & know that it was the result of their own sin, then there's some hopes for them. If they'll even confess it in their own hearts to the Lord, confess it to God‚ then they've reached the turning point where there's some way out & some way up.

96. BECAUSE THAT'S THE FIRST THING YOU'VE GOT TO DO TO EVEN BE SAVED IS SEE THAT YOU'RE A SINNER, recognise it & confess it. First thing you have to do to be saved is confess your sins‚ & that means to believe that you're a sinner. If they won't even believe they're sinners‚ how are they going to confess it & how are they going to pray desperately to be delivered & obey God again if they won't even see it? So may the Lord help these.

97. LORD, IN JESUS' NAME‚ HELP THESE PEOPLE WHO ARE SOME OF THEM SUCH HARD CASES, SO DIFFICULT! They are so righteous, they are so good & they're Family Members, tithing, getting the Magazine, reading it, Thy Word, & teaching their children, trying to bring them up in the right way. But somewhere, Lord, they missed the mark, & that's a sin. Somewhere, Lord, they've shot far afield & missed the target altogether, missed Your will, missed the place they're supposed to be‚ missed Your highest & best calling.

98. THEY HAVE NOT ABIDED IN THE CALLING WHEREIN THEY WERE CALLED, BUT THEY HAVE FORSAKEN THEIR PLOW (1Co.7:20; Lk.9:62). They looked back & now they've turned into a pillar of salt—hard, brittle‚ crystallised—& even then they've lost their savour & worthy of nothing but to be cast out & trodden under foot of men! (Ge.19:26; Mt.5:13). They've lost it, they've lost that saltiness of the savour & the flavour of Thy Spirit through their disobedience, their wilful neglect, their rebelliousness against Thy will, their forsaking—not forsaking all but forsaking Thee & their job & the field & their plow & their work & their calling & going back to all the things they should have forsaken, which they had forsaken, but now going back to them again, to the beggarly elements, as a dog to its vomit & a sow to her wallowing in the mire! (Ga.4:9; 2Pe2:22).

99. MY GOD, NO WONDER THEY'RE IN SUCH A MESS & THEIR CHILDREN ARE AFFLICTED! You're trying to get through to them even yet, still trying to get through to them & wake them up, shake'm up, even through their pitiful little children!—To shock them to the realisation of how horrible their sins are & how terrible their spiritual condition, as a last chance‚ a last resort, a last affliction, a last chastisement before they have rejected so long & become so hardened & such a handicap themselves to Thy Work & Thy Family & Thy Children & even a bad testimony to the World. … (1Co.5:5).

100. MY GOD, SOME OF THESE SAD CASES & ALMOST END-OF-THE-LINE-CASES‚ WAKE THEM UP YET, IF POSSIBLE, to see it & hear it & feel it & confess it & repent of it & get back where they belong before it's too late, to the center of Thy will & obedient, yielded to Thy will wherever it may be, whatever it may be‚ however it may be & as soon as it may be before it's too late. …

101. YOU SAID IT WOULD BE BETTER FOR ONE TO HAVE A MILLSTONE HUNG AROUND THEIR NECK & CAST IN THE DEPTHS OF THE SEA THAN TO CAUSE EVEN ONE OF THESE LITTLE ONES TO STUMBLE (Mt.18:6)—which they have done with their own children! Bless & help them, Lord, & help them to see it, & help them to confess it & get right‚ repent, back to the center of Thy will‚ the center of Thy blessings & "let it rather be healed & be delivered out of them all." In Jesus' name, amen. PTL! TYJ!

102. IS THIS YOU? GHU!—And He will if you'll confess it & make it right by obeying & getting back into His will! Will you?—Or will you go on in your sins. … It's YOU that caused it, & YOU'RE more afflicted than they [your afflicted children] are!

Copyright (c) 1998 by The Family