—MO December 6, 1971 NO.144

(Written in North America)

Greetings in Jesus' Dear Name!

1. Thank you again for all your good letters, reports, logs, tapes, photos, news items, etc. They truly inspire us and we really appreciate them! Some of you girls are really getting to be genuine journalists and your inspired accounts are excellent! All put together they would make a very exciting book, which is exactly what we may do with them one of these days! So keep up the good work! You are making and writing history! God has certainly blessed you with talent for His Service!

2. YOU KIDS ABSOLUTELY AMAZE ME! The Spirit of the Lord is really upon you and really anoints your writing! Hail, Children, full of grace—the Lord is with thee! Blessed art thou amongst millions and blessed is the fruit of thy labours! Hallelujah!

3. IN FACT, YOU'RE GROWING SO FAST and the Lord is blessing you so for your consecration, dedication, obedience, faithfulness, and diligence and self-sacrifice that it looks like we're going to be able to get the job done before Jesus comes‚ praise the Lord! You are an inspiration to us all‚ and your example is helping to keep us all going, especially since things have gotten a little bogged down in some situations in North America recently! I'm doing my best to try to break up these big American Colonies so we can send you all the help you need in the way of leaders, as well as a lot of other new teams to pioneer small new Colonies elsewhere that are needed.

4. SOME GET SO INVOLVED IN THE MASSIVE COMPLICATED OPERATIONS OF BIG COLONIES that they seem to forget what they joined the Army for; not just to demonstrate our way of life, but to save the youth of the world for Jesus! The Colonisation method the Lord has given us is merely a means to that end, but if we get so busy with the means that we forget the end, we'll never reach it This is the greatest danger of the big Colonies—they get so involved with themselves that they forget what we're here for!

5. THIS IS ANOTHER REASON WHY THE SMALLER COLONIES DO SO MUCH BETTER: They are able to spend so much more time in personal attention, personal training, and personal witnessing they can be much more personally obedient in going about their father's business, instead of having their fruitfulness choked by the briars and thorns and weeds of the cares of this life and material concerns, which is also why God showers them so with His personal blessings! Hallelujah!

6. WE HAVE BEEN MAKING A LITTLE PROGRESS ALONG THIS LINE by cutting down some of these larger Colonies‚ spreading their manpower around a little more‚ sending out new teams, and pioneering a few new Colonies—but we're still dragging our feet, are still short of real labour leaders, and the bigger Colonies are usually still loath to give up the happy fellowship of their large numbers! They want their Heaven on earth now, and they're getting it, but in the process they're forgetting about those who are going to Hell! But I think we're getting some of these things straightened out, praise the Lord!

7. I BELIEVE WE HAVE MADE ONE GIGANTIC STRIDE OF PROGRESS IN THIS VERY DIRECTION by the rather shocking and stupendous move of sending everybody home for the Holidays to witness to their relatives, just like we used to! This seemed to stun some of their leaders even more than their people, they had become so accustomed to this over-protective pampering‚ that they seemed to have forgotten what kind of disciples we're looking for! Some of them seem to be afraid of even committing their members to the Lord, maybe because they knew they were not very good disciples, but just stuffing in the turkey to fill up space, which reminds me of the churches who are always so anxious to get a crowd that they don't care what kind of a crowd they get or how they get it!

8. WHEN WILL WE EVER LEARN, LIKE YOU'RE PROVING THERE IN EUROPE (1971), THAT IT'S NOT NUMBERS THAT COUNT‚ BUT THE QUALITY AND DEVOTION OF YOU DISCIPLES to the Lord and lost souls. Some of our Colonies have therefore gotten into almost the same selfish "bless me" sort of an attitude that they have forgotten, that like Jesus‚ we came not to be ministered unto, but to minister! May God have mercy on them and bring them to repentance and get them out of the barn into the Harvest again before it's too late, like you in Europe—such shining examples to us all! God bless you!

9. BY THE TIME THE HOLIDAYS ARE OVER, WE'LL SEE HOW MANY REAL DISCIPLES WE HAVE—maybe only a Gideon's Band, which can all go to Europe and the rest of the world and finish the job, so Jesus can come soon, praise the Lord! However, this purging and wedding out may even backfire on us and bring in more disciples than we had before! So praise the Lord! That's what we're here for—to win youth to Chris! Hallelujah! The more we get, the more we'll be able to send you if they're the kind of material they should be‚ praise the Lord!

10. WE LOVE TO HEAR ABOUT THE WAY YOU FOLKS IN EUROPE PUT EVEN YOUR BABES RIGHT TO WORK TEACHING OTHERS! This is the way it ought to be and this is the faster way to develop leadership! They took me too literally and have babied the Babes so much over here, especially in the big Colonies so that they can't even take care of themselves, much less lead anybody else! May God forgive us! But we're now trying to correct the situation!

11. SINCE THE LEADERS IN NORTH AMERICA DO NOT SEEM TO HAVE ENOUGH OF THE KIND OF FAITH and leaders that it takes to send out large teams of a couple dozen to Colonise—or even a dozen!—We have now tried to bring the level of this pioneering operation down to the level of their faith: small six man teams with only one vehicle, van, camper, or trailer and just one potential leader with only a handful of Babes that almost anybody could have faith for!

12. THESE COULD THEN EVEN CAMP OUT in almost any kind of weather in their little camping vehicle in or near the city of the Lord's choice, while they began their pioneer witnessing invasion until the Lord opens up better housing for them, which, of course, He will, because now they'll be out there actually trying to obey Him by faith just like you did in Europe—and that's exactly how you got started there, both in London and in Amsterdam and in each of the cities where you now have Colonies!

13. SINCE THE MAIN EXCUSE OF THESE BIG COLONIES HAS ALWAYS BEEN THAT THEY HAVEN'T GOT ENOUGH LEADERS for pioneer teams and they don't have enough openings to house them in, these small teams would solve both problems! Almost any little leader can have faith for only half a dozen, especially if he knows he's at least got some place to sleep them, such as his little camper or trailer, and you know God would always feed them, use and bless them‚ as they obey! So now maybe we'll get some teams out! Praise the Lord!

14. ALL IT TAKES IS A LITTLE FAITH AND OBEDIENCE AND A HANDFUL TO START WITH. The Lord can do all the rest, if we'll just start out and obey, and if we'll obey He'll give us the faith and supply the needs just as He has done for you in Europe! I told some of the top leaders here that we're going to have to send these teams out no matter what! They can't do anything but fail, which isn't so bad! They might even learn something! Nothing ventured, nothing gained—but everytime we've done this, they've always made it somehow, praise the Lord!

15. THE ONLY PERSON WHO HAS NEVER FAILED IS THE GUY WHO'S NEVER TRIED—and the least we can do is try! We just sent a little team of three to the big city of New Orleans, and the Lord's already given them a big club– house, and they're going great, praise the Lord! But it seems like it's the major leaders who have a hard time having the faith for it, because it's always harder to have faith for someone else than for yourself! I'll never forget how we split up into the first three teams when we left the West and how concerned I was whether you guys could make it, but I just had to commit you to the Lord—but you didn't seem to be the least bit worried and you came through great, Hallelujah! Guess it's come to that: We'll just have to rust God! Hallelujah!

16. SO IT LOOKS LIKE WE'VE FINALLY FOUND THE SOLUTION: VERY SMALL TEAMS with very small leaders and very small equipment, sent on very small missions, since our faith seems to be very small, God forgive us! However, this may be just what the Lord wants to show: He's not limited by few! Although contrary to the same Jonathan's opinion, He sometimes seems to be more limited by many than by few, like with Gideon!

17. I'D RATHER SEE SOME LITTLE GUY WHO CAN LEAD A LITTLE TEAM ON THE ROAD, LEADING THAT TEAM THAN RUNNING A GAD SHOP OR A BAND OR PROVISIONING OR WHATEVER FOR SOME BIG COLONY! Let the little guys who can't even lead five people run these big Colony operations, but let these little potential shepherds hit the road with their sheep! The trouble with a lot of them is: They could be leaders, but they don't want to be, because they don't want to have to make decisions because they might make a mistake and get blamed for it, which of course, they will! But we're going to have to push them out like the birds out of the nest whether they want to or not! Going is not an option!—It's a commandment! And if we send them and they go in obedience to God's commandment you know the Lord will take care of them! Praise the Lord? Amen?

18. A LOT OF THE STRIFE, PERSONALITY CLASHES, AND PERSONAL PROBLEMS IN SOME OF THESE BIG COLONIES IS BECAUSE THEY HAVE TOO MANY LEADERS ALL BUNCHED UP TOGETHER and they don't want to let them go‚ when every one of them ought to be out on the road with a team of his own. Then if one of these leaders in these big Colonies shows a little leadership ability and initiative, has a little vision or spunk which threatens his superior's jealous pride and position and reflects on his own officer's weaknesses, his leader says he's "lifted up in pride" and puts him down several notches or back several grades to something like the Babes table or cleaning toilets, and totally wastes this potential leadership ability!

19. BUT SOME OF THESE VERY POTENTIAL LEADERS WHO WERE SO PUT DOWN by their leaders in America are now proving to have outstanding leadership ability in Europe once they were allowed to get out on their own and the Lord and exercise their talents and faith, unhindered by jealous superiors! Meanwhile, back home, some of these same jealous leaders who wouldn't let these little folks leave, have now themselves fallen flat on their faces and proven almost total failures as Colony leaders! I can think of several specific examples, but I don't want to embarrass them!

20. SO OUR BIG COLONIES ARE BECOMING JUST LIKE THE CHURCHES full of feuding leaders, fighting with each other, instead of getting them out on the road, starting their own Colonies! Either that or they haven't enough responsibility in a big Colony, so all they have to worry about is their own personal problems, which they soon develop plenty of! The best cure for personal problems is the battlefront! The best cure for petty bickering and friction is to get them out eyeball-to-eyeball with the real Enemy! Amen? Witnessing may not be a cure-all, but it helps! Amen?

21. SOME OF THESE LITTLE POTENTIAL LEADERS IN SOME OF THESE BIG COLONIES ARE PROBABLY EVEN SMARTER THAN THE COLONY LEADERS, but whenever they try to make a suggestion or a correction or point out a problem‚ the Colony Leader reports that they're lifted up in pride and need to be put down, so he proceeds to do so, when he really ought to kick them out and let them run their own Colony! I've found you can't always go by some leaders' reports on some people, when it's the leader's own God-damned jealousy that's to blame! The quickest way to find out if his underling really is a leader or if it's just pride, is to put him on the road! If it was really pride, he'll fall flat, but if it was really leadership, he'll make it! Besides, responsibility can humble you quicker than almost anything!

22. I USED TO BELONG TO A LITTLE DENOMINATION run by little men and leaders with little minds, little vision, and very little faith! Whenever a big ma came along who had any different ideas and was too big for them‚ they threw him out because they just couldn't handle him! So they are now more famous for the famous people they threw out who really made it than they are for their own accomplishments! They expelled everybody who had any brains‚ faith, or vision and wanted to make any changes in the status quo, from the world-famous men like Paul Rader‚ Raymond Richey‚ Oswald Smith, and others right down to little old Grandmother and me! As a result, God has left them a hundred years behind and they have withered, stagnated, and died and are now attacking us viciously because we're still alive! They'd like to kill us, too! That's why I got out, or I'd have died with them! Let's don't get like them!

23. SO SOME OF THESE SO-CALLED TROUBLESOME OFFICERS OF YOURS MAY NOT BE SO LIFTED UP IN PRIDE AS THEY ARE CALLED TO LEAD, and their only trouble is that they are leaders, and you resent other leaders who want to lead what you're trying to lead, so they have trouble working under you and you under them! Don't crush their initiative and spirit by putting them down—Put 'em out!—Where they can lead, or where they can prove they can't! This should be a good test! These small teams will be the test tubes out of which can come out world leadership! They may surprise you, like some of you've surprised me, who I thought were losers, but given a chance proved winners!

24. A LOT OF TIMES I'VE SENT YOU GUYS OUT TO DO JOBS I DIDN'T EVEN HAVE THE FAITH FOR—because you had the faith for it, so I didn't have to have the faith for it! God doesn't give me the faith for your job! You have to have the faith for your own job‚ and God will give you the faith for that job! So why don't you big leaders let these little leaders out, and let them volunteer for whatever jobs they have the faith for, whether you've got the faith for it or not! You don't have to have the faith for it—it's their faith that counts! Let my people go!

25. IF YOU'VE LET SOME OF THESE LITTLE GUYS GO AND DO WHAT THEY WANT TO DO, THEY MAY SURPRISE YOU! I let you go, and now look what some of you've done!—Some things I didn't even have the faith for! If you don't, you're going to be sorry! If you don't let them do what they want to do and put them down instead, you'll just discourage them and have nothing but trouble on your hands, and they can blame it all on you! But if you'll put them out on the road and give them a chance where they've got nobody but themselves to blame, they may die trying just to prove they were right! And God may be with them—and I believe He will be!—And you may be surprised what God will do with them if you give them a chance! Let them go!

26. I BELIEVE GOD IS GIVING US HIS LAST WARNING to break up these big Colonies and let these little fledglings out of the nest to scatter them and prove what they can do on their own so we can get the job done! But if you don't do it voluntarily‚ God may smite you over-shepherds just so He can get some of these under-shepherds out of the fold with their sheep to spread them around the world and grow! If you don't do it now, I believe this is your last chance! God Himself will have to smite you shepherds to scatter your flocks where they belong! Let My People Go! Hallelujah! That's the way we started! That's the only way we'll be able to keep going and growing! Otherwise you'll get just like the churches! God forbid!

27. WELL, NOW, YOU EUROPEANS! MAYBE THAT'LL GET YOU SOME NEW LEADERS AND TEAMS FOR EUROPE! The trouble with some of our leaders in America is that they've become just like the parents! They themselves have become 10:36ers!—pampering, possessive, selfish, and over-protective and jealous! They don't want to let their spiritual children go to serve the Lord as they should! They want to keep them home in their own little Colony, or big Colony where they can enjoy and use them themselves, instead of letting them out to do what God has called them to! Besides, their spiritual parents, the Colony Leaders, are also afraid that they might have to spoil their own little Egypt some in order to give them the equipment to send them!—Right?

28. THERE NOW! MAYBE THAT'LL GET SOME OF YOUR LEADERS TO LET YOU GO, FELLAS! But I don't know! I've been preaching this now for a year‚ but it doesn't seem to have done much good just to preach and scream it! I had to take drastic steps to even get them to let you go home for the Holidays‚ which we always used to do when I was running things! And some of your leaders were even mad at me about it! But if this doesn't break up those big Colonies and make you send teams on the road—if they all come home to roost and you still don't send them out—what are we going to have to do to persuade you?—Tell you you're no longer a part of the Revolution if you have a Colony of over two or three dozen? What's it going to take?—A blow from God?

29. WELL, EXCUSE ME, EUROPEANS! I just had to bawl out these Americans a little bit when I hear how you're cryin' for leadership over there, and these big fat American Colonies aren't even willing to send them! When I see dozens of good guitarists, singers, and inspirationalists all in one big Colony when some of those little European Colonies don't even have one, it makes me downright mad! You better get them out of there and over where they're needed, or I'm going to come in with a whip like Jesus did and drive them out—and that's what I'm trying to do with this Letter! Praise the Lord?

30. WHICH REMINDS ME, LONDON, YOU'RE GETTING SO BIG YOURSELF, YOU'D BETTER START DIVIDING too and put a little team in every one of those places you have over there and every open door‚ including Scotland and Italy! That camp on the Italian Riviera would be great this time of year! What are you waiting for? You'd better grab those opportunities while they're knocking, or they may let somebody else in! What do you need? More leaders?—Just tell us who you want, and we'll send them! If I have to go there and kidnap them myself, like the parents! I'd be a helluva 10:36er!

Copyright (c) 1998 by The Family