DO 23909/86

—The Secret Place of the Most High!

1. We haven't had the 91st Psalm yet, have we? (David: Oh, that's a real good one! I like that one!) All right‚ who's going to pray for us this morning? (Children: I will!) Okay, he beat you to it! So Techi can close in prayer. (David: TYJ! TYL! Amen, thank You Lord! Jesus, we thank You for this time that Grandpa's going to give us another Bible Study! We pray, Jesus, that everything will go good & we'll be good listeners, Lord. Please help us to get a lot out of this Psalm & really have a good time studying Your Word, in Jesus' name! Amen!) PTL! Hallelujah! TYJ! Amen, Lord, help us to have a good lesson. Help the children to learn something that will help them be better children, and all of us to learn something‚ Lord, from Thy precious Word! Thank You for this nice sunny day!

THE SECRET PLACE!

2. "He that dwelleth in the secret place of the Most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty." What in the world does that mean? Where is "the secret place of the Most High"? Who's the Most High? (Children: Jesus!) In a way, but there's one even higher than Jesus. (Children: God.)—God the Father! And where is His "secret place"? (David: At the top of Space City?) Well, how are we going to dwell Up There when we're down here? He says "in the secret place of the Most High" meaning now‚ "under the shadow of the Almighty." (David: In our hearts.)—Yes, meaning in close intimate fellowship with the Lord.

3. Sometimes it can not only be in your heart, but in the bathroom! That's where I do a lot of praying & get things from the Lord lots of times.—The secret place! Jesus said, "When you pray, go into the closet & shut the door!"—Mat.6:6. So I go into the water closet & shut the door! Most people think of a closet as a place to keep clothes, but if you ride the trains in Europe, on all the trains you see a little room on the end of almost each car that has a great big W.C. on the door. What do you suppose that means? (David: Water closet!)—Right‚ because that's what the Europeans call the restroom or the toilet on the trains, they call it a water closet.

4. And why do they call it a water closet? (David: Because it has water in the closet.) It has water! Well, in this case they didn't have many showers, but they had a water basin where you could wash & shave, etc., & also a toilet uses what? (David: Water.) You use water to wash your face & hands, & you use water to wash away the waste when you go to the toilet. So water's very important & we spend quite a bit of time in the water closet, don't we? It's where we wash & we bathe & we go to the toilet, all those things.

5. So therefore it's any secret place‚ really, where you spend time with the Lord, when you get alone with the Lord. Even if it's in the water closet or it's in your bed or it's even when you're thinking about the Lord when you're out working & in your heart, you're communing with the Lord. "He that dwelleth in the secret place of the Most High" means with the Lord.

THE SHADOW OF THE ALMIGHTY!

6. "Shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty." Now what's the difference? What does "abide" mean? (David: Live.) To live. Under the shadow. What's God's shadow? (David: Under God's protection.)—Right‚ exactly right! Under God's protection! That word is used as a symbol of God's protection. You're under the protection of the Lord, you're in His shadow, right? If you're outside & it's very sunny & a big cloud comes along to protect you from the hot sun, you're in the shadow of the cloud, right? And when you're under God's protection you're under His shadow!

7. When the Children of Israel were out in the wilderness on hot days, what did they have over them all the time? (Techi: A cloud!)—A cloud to protect them from the hot sun out in the desert. Isn't that wonderful? God sent along a special cloud which covered them all the time when they were in the desert. And then at night the desert gets very cold. So hot in the daytime & so cold at night! So what did the Lord give them? (Techi: A pillar of fire!) That's right, they had a pillar of fire‚ like a cloud of fire over them at night! And what did that do for them? (Techi: Protected them!)—Protected them & what else? (David: Kept them warm!)—Kept them warm! Isn't that nice?—Exo.13:21,22.

8. That was almost like Millennial conditions to have such miraculous protection of the Lord & for Him to take such good care of them! They didn't really deserve it, but anyhow‚ their children did. And finally the Lord let those unbelieving, complaining, murmuring, grouchy, trouble–making old Jews die right out there in the desert‚ but He spared their children & He let them go into the Promised Land!

9. (Techi: Joshua & Caleb too!)—Yes! Those were the only two old folks the Lord spared‚ Joshua & Caleb. (Techi: Were they younger than the old folks, is that why?) No, they were the same age as the old folks, they were quite old! But because they were so good & they didn't murmur & complain & gripe & bellyache & grouch all the time, always misbehaving & disobeying & everything like the rest of the Children of Israel did—& in this case the Children of Israel means even the old folks—since Joshua & Caleb didn't do that, then they could go in, & because they had the faith! Do you remember? (David: Yes!)—Numbers 14:29,30.

10. If the Jews had had enough faith & if they'd have made a straight trip into Canaan, which later became Israel, if they'd gone straight from Memphis, Egypt, straight to the Promised Land, Canaan, they could have gotten there in just a few days, at the most maybe 40 days! But because of their complaining & misbehaving & griping & murmuring & doubting & rebelliousness‚ how long did it take them? (David: 40 years!)—40 years, 365 times as long! Instead of 40 days it took them 40 years! What kind of lesson is that for us? (David: You shouldn't complain & murmur!) (Techi: You should obey God!)—Yes‚ & not complain & murmur, as David said.

PILGRIM'S PROGRESS!

11. Their trip is like our journey through life, & Canaan, the Promised Land, is like Heaven, or our reward!—Like the story of Pilgrim's Progress! The Pilgrim, Christian, had all kinds of adventures! Did you ever read it? (David: We read half the book, but we stopped.) It must have been fascinating! (David: Yes, it really was.) And it's got lots of pictures! I had one of the old original copies which had a picture almost every other page. That's what made it so popular with children. It was the next most popular book to the Bible when I was young. I don't know where it rates now. People today probably wouldn't even know what you were talking about when you said "Pilgrim's Progress." But in those days it was very popular, next to the Bible, because it was a good children's story!

12. John Bunyan was the first Christian I ever heard of to write what's called Christian fiction! It means like a parable, an allegory or an illustrated story of what's happening; in some ways what some people call an imaginative story. I call my "Heaven's Children" story a visionary story because I get a lot of it from actual visions from the Lord where He shows me things. So I can't say it's imaginative or fiction, because fiction is something that's not really true. Imaginative is something maybe you just imagine in your head. But a visionary story is something that you really envision & you see pictures of, & if it's from the Lord you know it's right!

13. So John Bunyan wrote these stories about Christian's adventures, how he met the Giants of Doubt, the Lions of Fear & all those things. It was kind of an illustrated story of how we go through life‚ see? Doubt is like a giant & Fear is like a lion, he met these strange creatures as he was travelling along, & he learned how to conquer each one! Did he have a sword? What would his sword have been? (David: The Word!) (Techi: Faith!)—The Word, faith in the Word.

14. The Word is the sword, but it takes Faith to use it! (Techi: But you can conquer Doubt & Fear with Faith.) That's right, & by using the sword. What does it say? They triumphed, they conquered‚ in the last days of the Tribulation! "They overcame by the blood of the Lamb & by the word of their testimony!"—Rev.12:11. "The blood of the Lamb" means their faith in the blood of the Lamb for Salvation, so it symbolised faith, "& the word of their testimony" showed even their testimony was the Word of God! So here they conquered‚ they overcame by faith & the sword of the Spirit, the Word of God!

15. So "Pilgrim's Progress" is a symbolic story symbolising the experience of Christians in this life! And Jesus told a lot of stories about different things to illustrate different spiritual truths & the experience of Christians, right? So there have been lots of stories the Lord has used to help people to understand things, to illustrate. What does it mean to "illustrate"? (David: To picture.)—Right‚ to picture it! So I picture the story in words, with the Lord's help‚ & then our artist pictures it on paper with actual pictures, with your help! Right?—Your help because you're in the pictures!

16. (Techi: Do we have that book?) You'll have to find it! The best part about it was the pictures! We've gotta get that book so they can read "Pilgrim's Progress," the adventures of Christian in maybe what we could call "Troubleland"! This life is full of troubles so you learn how to overcome them, right? I think that Letter on John Bunyan will be a great encouragement to the folks, because it was a great encouragement to me! (See ML #2226, "The John Bunyan Revelation!") He was a great Saint of God who tried to illustrate in pictures & in words what a Christian's experience is like going through life, showing what to do & what not to do, etc.

THE PROMISED LAND!

17. Oh my, all this out of one Verse, the first Verse of Psalm 91! "Shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty!" And I was telling you how even the journey of the Children of Israel, the Jews, through the wilderness to the Promised Land was kind of like our journey through life to our Promised Land, which is Heaven! (Maria: And Canaan was like the Promised Land‚ Canaan represented Heaven.) Canaan was called the Promised Land, & why was it called the Promised Land? (David: Because God promised it to them.) Because it was the land that God promised to them! And what is it like to us? What Promised Land are we headed for? (Techi: Heaven!)—Heaven‚ we've already answered that. One nice thing about our Promised Land, it's not full of … Canaanites, that we have to conquer before we can move in!

18. Well, even this World, this Earth, is like the Promised Land!—How? It isn't yet, but what about the Millennium? It's going to be like Heaven on Earth in the Millennium. But to get there we have to keep fighting all these devils & all these enemies here in life, in this life, this side of the Promised Land‚ this side of the Millennium, & the Earth is like Hell on Earth sometimes today!—Except out in the hills & the country it's like Heaven on Earth, the way God originally made it, it's still beautiful!

19. But in this life, the way the World is now, we've got to fight our way, against all kinds of lions of fear & giants of doubt, all kinds of trials & troubles & tribulations on the way. Why does the Lord let all those things bother us? (Techi: So we can learn to overcome them!)—Right! It makes us stronger, we learn how to get the victory! We learn how to overcome! Otherwise we'd be weak & sickly & probably just interested in ourselves & not really caring about people like we should. But the Lord lets us have all kinds of experiences to make us strong soldiers of the cross!

20. And all this time we're going through all this wilderness of this World before we reach the Promised Land of the Millennium! I like to call the Millennium the Promised Land now because that's going to turn this whole World into a Promised Land! Instead of a Hell on Earth, it'll turn into a Heaven on Earth! The wonderful thing about it is‚ while we're going through all this, God is with us & protecting us like He was with the Children of Israel on their way through the wilderness! In spite of all their gripin' & groanin' & grievin' & grouching & complaining & murmuring & bellyaching & being rebellious & disobedient, all that time, just think, what did the Lord do for them? (David: Gave them everything they needed!)—Right! He fed them, He watered them, even if He had to bring water out of a rock! He overshadowed them from that hot desert sun in the daytime‚ & He warmed them at night with that cloud of fire. And don't you think that scared their enemies away too, as well as kept them warm & protected them?

21. So does God do that with us even today? Well, we may not have a cloud in the daytime we can see, or a cloud of fire by night that we can see, but we've certainly got clouds of His protection! (David: Clouds of Angels!) Praise God! So is that true? Can you recite that verse again now? (David: "He that dwelleth in the secret place of the Most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty!")—Right!

HE'LL PROTECT YOU IF YOU STAY IN THE SECRET PLACE!

22. See, it's got a condition though! The promise is that He will protect you, you'll abide under His shadow of protection, the shadow of the Almighty, God's shadow, but what's the condition you have to meet? What do you have to do? It's like a contract! Every promise has conditions. A promise is like a contract. God says, "Now if you'll do so-&–so, I'll do so-&-so!" What's His condition? What does He say He will do for you? (David: He'll protect you!) You'll abide under the shadow of the Almighty.—Providing you do what? (David: If you dwell in the secret place of the Most High.)—Exactly right! That's a condition!

23. You can't go running around out in the World amongst the Devil & his people & being worldly & doing all the bad things they do & forgetting all about God & running out from under His protection, you can't claim His protection then, can you? So you've got to dwell in the secret place of the Most High, you've got to stay close to the Lord. And what other ways are there to dwell in the secret place of the Most High? (David: Obey Him.) That's right, what else? (Maria: Yield.) We're doing it right now, for one thing. (Maria: Getting in the Word!)—In the Word & also be yielded, & as David said, "Obey!" (Maria: Do our job that He's told us to do.) That's part of the obeying, to do the job we're supposed to do. Be where God wants you to be‚ where you're supposed to be. What else could we be doing dwelling in the secret place? Besides reading your Bible, what else are you supposed to do? (Maria: Pray!)—Right‚ you're supposed to pray, that's dwelling in the secret place. And witnessing!

24. You mean to tell me you could be out there in that wicked filthy dirty city with all those devilish people & everything, witnessing & Postering & Tapenessing, door-to-door, & you can still be dwelling in the secret place of the Most High?—Yes! Because if that's the place God wants you, you're dwelling in the secret place of the Most High. Therefore, praise the Lord, even while you're out there witnessing in the World, you're in the World‚ as Jesus said, but you're not of the World!—Jn.17:14-16. But at the same time you're in the World there you're dwelling in the secret place of the Most High if you're dwelling in Jesus, staying close to the Lord‚ & you're praying.

25. And boy, I'll tell you, you probably do as much or more praying when you're out there witnessing than any other time! You're really hanging on to the Lord & you're really praying, & you're really trying to do the right things & obey the Lord & praying God will help you! So you're really dwelling in the secret place of the Most High even if you're out there in the middle of a crowd in public. Your heart & mind need to keep dwelling in the secret place of the Most High.

26. You may have to quote yourself Scriptures to keep your mind on the Lord, because what does He say? If you keep your mind stayed on the Lord, what will happen? It's another promise that has a condition. (David: "Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on Thee, because he trusteth in Thee!"—Isa.26:3.)—Right! No matter where you are, you can have perfect peace if your mind is stayed on the Lord. You just keep thinking about the Lord and you will be dwelling in the secret place of the Most High, because your mind will be on the Lord. Your mind‚ in a sense, will be in the Lord, the secret place of the Most High! Praise the Lord! So we got a lot out of that one little verse already! Since we got so much out of the first verse, why don't we just end up with this last good verse, the second verse:

JESUS—OUR REFUGE & FORTRESS!

27. "I will say of the Lord, He is my refuge & my fortress: my God; in Him will I trust!" See, if you dwell in the secret place of the Most High, you abide under the shadow of the Almighty & He'll be your what? (David: Your refuge & fortress!) He's your refuge & your fortress! You don't even have to have a big stone fortress, the Lord's your fortress! You don't have to have a refuge off in the mountains. Most of our Family have to live in the city where they can be a good witness! So you don't even have to have a refuge off in the mountains, you can have a refuge right in the city if you dwell in the secret place of the Most High & abide under the shadow of the Almighty. He'll be a refuge for you & He'll be a fortress! Think of that! Isn't that wonderful?

28. So Who is going to be all that? (David: Jesus!) David says, "My God," & that includes Jesus, of course. He's God's Son, so He's part of God! And he says then, "In Him will I trust." In order to get in line for all these things, in order to get qualified, what do you have to do? What does "qualified" mean? (David: It means to get okayed for it.)—Right‚ to get okayed for it or to get certified for it, I almost used that word a minute ago. (Maria: Approved.) To get approved for it, qualified, to meet the conditions of, to be permitted, & literally to deserve. To deserve this kind of protection‚ what do you have to do? "In Him will I trust." You have got to trust in the Lord, you have to have faith & trust God to get all these promises! Well, since Techi's gone to the bathroom, you can close in prayer, David.

A SLIP OF THE TONGUE!

29. So what did we read? (David: Psalm 91!) And what verses? (David: 1 &...) 2! 2 comes after 1, that shouldn't be hard to answer! (David: I thought you said you went to the last verse.) (See last line of Paragraph 26!) I meant verse 2 will be our last verse‚ verse 1 & 2! That shows how you can get confused on words!

30. That happened to us once in London! I had somebody go pay the rent on a little house & the agent wasn't there, so this somebody left a little note with his secretary with the money inside it & said, "This is last month's rent." And the agent got all excited & he telexed all the way to the owners in Australia that we were going to move out & we told him that that was the last month's rent! And he quick phoned us as soon as he could & wanted to know why we were moving out!

31. That's just a little slip of the tongue, a little peculiar English expression. We were a little late paying the rent‚ it was slightly overdue, so that's why he said‚ "This is last month's rent!" He didn't mean it was the last month's rent, the last month we were going to live there! So we kind of get mixed up a little bit sometimes on the way we word things. You've got to be careful how you word things‚ that people understand it, that it doesn't have some kind of double meaning & they accidentally take the other meaning. Try not to be ambiguous, try not to say something that has a double meaning, that they can take two different ways. PTL!

CLOSING PRAYER!

32. Here's Techi! You're just in time for the closing prayer. PTL! I've got an idea, next time we can bring your potty & you won't have to leave the class, because you always seem to have to have your BM during class! It's natural because it's after breakfast & you just ate. I have mine before breakfast, but a lot of people have theirs after breakfast. Some people have theirs in the morning, some people also have some at night, like Mama. (David: I have mine after breakfast.) I didn't mean to interrupt your prayer‚ pardon me, but I was just thinking how we could solve that so you won't miss anything next time. We're free, we're not bound by convention or the System! They'd be shocked at you having a BM right in the middle of a Bible Study! My oh my!

33. (Techi: Amen, thank You Lord for this good time we got to have a Bible study, Lord! Thank You for Grandpa teaching it to us, Lord. Please give us a good day in whatever we do. Help us to be loving & keep us safe today, in Jesus' name.) Amen‚ as we pray together the Millennial Prayer that the Lord taught us to pray! How does it begin? It doesn't begin "witches in Heaven," it begins "Our Father"! In fact, the Catholics call it the "Our Father." We'll call it the Millennial Prayer, the Kingdom Prayer! Okay! Are we going to start with "witches in Heaven" or "Our Father"? (Children: Our Father!) Okay! As we pray together the Millennial Prayer, the Kingdom Prayer the King taught us to pray: (Prays the Lord's Prayer.)

34. Amen, Lord do bless & keep us safe this day. Help us to work & play safely, thinking about You carefully, prayerfully, cautiously & obediently, Lord, to hide safely in that secret place & not get out from under the shadow of Thy Presence & the cloud of Thy protection, but to stay close to You all the time so that You can take care of us & make us a blessing, in Jesus' name. Amen! TYL!

DAD'S HEADACHE,THE DEVIL'S A LEFTIST!

35. Will you pray for my head? The Devil just attacked me with a pain in my head! I hardly ever have headaches, thank the Lord! (Techi: Amen, Jesus, please rebuke the Devil from giving Grandpa a pain in his head & please take it away right now‚ all the pain! Rebuke the Devil, Lord, & take away the pain & keep Grandpa under Your protection, Lord! Thank You that he doesn't have it very often, Lord, & he doesn't hardly have it at all, but take away this one in Jesus' name!) Amen! Hallelujah! The Lord began to relieve it just as soon as you prayed, it feels lots better!

36. The Devil must hate these little stories! He tried to attack me with a pain in the head which I hardly ever have. TTL! (Maria: The Lord made him wait till the end, anyway!) Yes, the Lord wouldn't let him test us till we got the job done! He often does it that way. But then the Lord lets the Enemy test you sometimes. First of all He lets you do it, like we go into places & witness, etc. & He lets us reap a big harvest, but then He lets us be persecuted so we'll go someplace else! All right, praise the Lord, children! TYL!

37. (Dad's headache comes back again & Maria prays for him:) Amen! PTL! TYL! As soon as you prayed for me it went away again. Keep praying! TYJ! Amen! It's just been on the left side. The Devil must be a leftist! Leftist usually means Communist. A leftist is on the Devil's side! Surely they got that expression first from the fact that the Lord separated the good from the bad & He put the good ones on His right side‚ & the bad ones on His left!—Mat.25:31-46.

38. But that's the usual meaning & it came from a Bible story that Jesus told. (Techi: To put the sheep on the right hand & the goats on the left.) That's right! So these leftists are usually a bunch of stubborn old goats who don't love the Lord & don't follow God, like the Communists.—Whereas the rightists are the sheep on the right who are right! (Techi: He'll probably put the Systemites on the left.) Yes, that's right, I'm sure He will. I'm afraid He's going to put a lot of the rightists on the left too! (Techi: And the people who want change on the right?) Well, if they're good & they want good change‚ a change for good.

39. If they want a change for the right they go on the right! If they want a change for the wrong they go on the left! (Techi: And if they want to be stuck in their own ways like the rightists in the System, they go on the left.) Well, yes, that's where the Lord would put them, I'm sure. However, the World doesn't recognise it that way, they usually think of the rightists as being those that want to keep things the way they are, & they're called the conservatives.

40. Do you know what "conservatives" means? What do you do to conserve something? (David: Hold back.) That's right, you save something. It literally means saving something. Some people are called conservationists, they want to save the ecology & nature & save the streams & the lakes & the forests & all the good things about God's Creation! Some of them are kind of crazy‚ they want to save the alligators & save the snakes & crazy things like that! But those that want to save the good things are called conservationists.

41. And those who want to save what they think is a good government or a rightist government, they call conservatives, they want to save the government, to conserve it. To conserve something means to save it. See? But the leftists‚ the goats on the left‚ they want to destroy it! They want to destroy the good & destroy the good people, destroy the good government, & they're like the Communists! And the Leftists usually are Communists, they're radicals & terrorists & things like that. Okay, enough is enough!

Copyright (c) 1998 by The Family