—MO August 20, 1973 NO.263—GP

—Or Listening to Counsel—Or How To Be a Good Executive in One Easy Lesson!

Copyrighted August, 1973 by The Children of God

Box 31‚ London WC2E 7LX, ENGLAND, or BP 752‚ 75123 Paris Cedex 03 France

1. A GOOD EXECUTIVE IS NOT A BOSS!—HE IS A SERVANT! Jesus was not just trying to teach His disciples humility when He said, "He that is greatest among you must be servant of all"! A good executive simply is not a dictator! He must call his people in and talk to them and find out what they think, and go a great deal by what they say. If he sees their ideas are good, all he has to do is say, "Okay"!

2. A GOOD EXECUTIVE IS REALLY A SERVANT! He listens to his employees. Labour representatives on the executive board are a must for good labour management relations in any organisation. When the top people don't even communicate with their co-workers, then of course they don't understand the problems of those under them.

3. TAKE ONE OF OUR BEST LEADERS, FOR EXAMPLE: HE WAS LABOUR! That's why he's so good now: He was one of them! He's sold papers on the streets and done the most menial tasks, and I would sooner listen to his advice, frankly, about the kids and their needs and their feelings, than I would to some of my own original personal natural family.—Because I believe he understands the kids better than we do, because he was and still is one of them!

4. THAT IS THE ATTITUDE YOU SHOULD TAKE TOWARD YOUR OWN CO–WORKERS: YOU NEED TO LISTEN TO THEM! Leaders do have the responsibility to respond and to make the final decision, but being a good executive does not mean that you are the only one who has all the ideas and does all the thinking and all the consulting just within yourself, and then makes all the decisions. Being a good executive means you assemble your people and share and listen to others.

5. THEY PROBABLY KNOW MORE ABOUT IT THAN YOU DO! Any good secretary knows more about her boss's business than he does, and she should! Because he shouldn't have to be bothered with all those little details. But she need to know all those things, and he needs to listen to her! My secretary makes many suggestions on what needs to be done, and what has to be done, and often suggests how she thinks it ought to be done: Many of the initial suggestions come from her.

6. I, BEING THE EXECUTIVE, THE FINAL DECISION–MAKER, HAVE TO DECIDE between these choices she presents to me. She presents her case for each alternative, and she explains why she thinks it ought to be done. She's like a lawyer, and I'm the judge, and I have to make the final decisions as to whether she's right or not. The vast majority of the time I take her suggestions, because I know she knows what she's talking about. She's more familiar with the extent of the work, the urgency of it, and the need for it‚ and so I usually take her suggestions.

7. SHE'S JUST LIKE MY LITTLE COMPUTER: SHE GETS ALL THE INFORMATION, SO I WALK UP AND PUNCH HER BUTTONS‚ AND OUT COMES THE ANSWER!—(HA! SOMETIMES MORE THAN that, if I punch certain buttons!) That's all the computer does: It provides answers the operator is looking for. But the human executive has to make the choice as to whether to follow that solution.

8. SO WHEN IT COMES TO THINGS THAT ARE PRACTICAL, THE LEADERS OUGHT TO LISTEN TO THEIR HELPERS! When it comes to the inspirational‚ you're supposed to be good, or you shouldn't be the leader! But when it comes to the practical, they probably know more about it than you do! (Read Acts 6:1-4.) Once you have made the decision‚ okayed your workers' suggestions, accepted them, approved what they have to do or want to do, your should then agree together to do it.

9. I'M ONLY LIKE A JUDGE, except for the things I get straight from the Lord. I'm either God's servant or your servant, or I'm both, and I really only do what you and He tell me to do! Once you have gone down and given approval or okayed a project, you need to leave your co-workers alone and let them carry it out the way they think best—just checking it to see they don't make any serious mistakes, and to see they are producing, and then okaying the finished product.

10. NOW THE BEST BOSS I EVER HAD WAS FRED JORDAN, believe it or not!—And do you know how he accomplished so much through me, and how I got him on so many TV stations? I was the man in the field, I knew the situation, I had to do the work. So he simply said: "Dave, you go ahead whatever way you think best:—You know what you're doing—I don't! You know how to do it—I don't!" He had tried buying time all over the country and it didn't work: He was only on about 6 stations.

11. WELL, I WENT OUT AND GOT HIM THE TIME FREE ON OVER 300 STATIONS! He didn't even know how I got it! He was so dumbfounded! I knew what I was doing, but he had to okay it and supply the ammunition.

12. ANY OFFICER, ANY GENERAL WHO DOESN'T LISTEN TO HIS OFFICERS, AND DOESN'T PAY ANY ATTENTION TO HIS MEN, IS GOING TO BE IN TROUBLE! When I told Fred, "You supply the expenses, and I can go out and do it everywhere," he said, "Okay Dave!—Whatever you say, as long as you get the job done!" I was telling him what to do, believe it or not!

13. THAT'S THE WAY IT IS WITH EVERY GOOD KING. HE IS SURROUNDED BY MANY COUNSELLORS WHO TELL HIM WHAT TO DO! DID YOU KNOW THAT EVEN GOD WORKS THAT WAY?—He calls in His chief counsellors and spirits and angels and asks them‚ "What do you think we should do about this?" He listens to their different plans and suggestions, and then He has the Godly wisdom to know who is right and to make the choice!—Believe it or not!—If you don't believe it, read Genesis 1:26; 1Kings 22:19-22; Job 1:6-12, etc.!

14. MY LORD, IF GOD HIMSELF WON'T DO ALL THE THINKING FOR US and expects us to do some for ourselves, then who are we to try to make all the decisions, do all the thinking‚ give all the orders, and carry them all out besides? We're really getting to the stage where we're beginning to be a real government, a New Nation, a Kingdom, and a business—God's business—and it's got to be done! We're no longer just haphazardly slopping down the road with a bunch of jalopies!

15. BUT EVEN THAT TOOK A LOT OF ORGANISATION!—I never made a decision without calling all the leaders in and giving them the alternatives‚ and asking them what they thought about it. I would have some ideas and suggestions, and I would come to them had ideas they got from the Lord, they'd come to me for approval.

16. YOU JUST CAN'T OPERATE ALONE!—This isolation of leadership can got to the extreme! Now for matters of security, yes: Leaders should be well insulated and protected from the mob and particularly from outsiders. They should be well protected from all but their very top leaders. But when it comes to getting the job done and the work done, if those top leaders don't learn how to assemble their staffs together and let them do the talking while the leaders merely guide the conversation or pump the well, then they're going to have trouble!

17. THE WATER COMES FROM BELOW OUT OF THE WELL‚ GOD'S RAIN WATER!—It doesn't come out of the pump handle! The guy who does the pumping just creates a vacuum that pulls the water up out of the well. He just does the pumping.—He doesn't supply the water! God supplies His rain water to the people through His rivers and streams, the prophets like me. It is collected in the people's wells for later use. Then the leader works at trying to persuade the water to come up, and lets it flow, and he merely provides the vessels, or somebody else does, to catch it in!

18. THAT'S REALLY THE JOB OF THE EXECUTIVE: HE'S MERELY THE GUY WHO IS SUPPOSED TO KEEP THINGS MOVING, the power that just must keep pushing.—But he should let his people do the work, recommend the work, initiate the work‚ and by all means carry out the work!

19. IT'S ONLY A NOVICE‚ A NEW BABY OR JUNIOR EXECUTIVE WHO WANTS TO BE THE BOSS AND ORDER EVERYBODY AROUND! When a baby is born, let me tell you, he is the boss! He tells everybody what to do, and if they don't do it he screams his head off, and they have to do it or else! At first he really pretty much gets his way‚ so he has to be taught to listen to others: He has to learn to obey! He has to learn to cooperate and to work together.

20. SO IT IS ONLY THE BABY, THE BRAND-NEW NOT-YET-DRY-BEHIND–THE-EARS EXECUTIVE, WHO TRIES TO RUN EVERYTHING and boss everything and push everybody around and tell everybody what to do! That's been the problem we've had with some of our top leaders: They've never been executives before, and never had such responsibilities before, and they don't know how to handle it, and don't know what to do.

21. THEY'RE EMBARRASSED, AND THEY DON'T WANT TO CONFESS THEY DON'T KNOW WHAT TO DO OR HOW TO DO IT! So they sit on their thrones giving out dictums and giving orders about things they don't really know much about. But they're ashamed to confess to their under-officers that they don't know what they're doing, so they try to pretend they know what they're doing and it's a very foolish king or executive or president or boss of any kind who works that way!

22. BECAUSE A WISE SMART KING‚ WHEN HE WANTS TO GET A DAY'S WORK DONE CALLS IN HIS COUNSELLORS and his wise men, and he listens to them, has them talk. Then he makes the choice as to whose advice is best. So then, who does he appoint to carry out that job?—One of the other guys who had another plan?—Of course not!—He gives the job to the guy whose idea it was and who had the burden for it!—Right? What did Pharaoh do when Joseph suggested he do so-and–so and thus and thus? He as good as said, "Joseph, you have the burden: You do the job! You're just the man for the job!"

23. NOW OUR EDITOR, JUSTUS‚ DID THE RIGHT THING: HE WROTE ME HIS PLANS, AND I JUST CHECKED EACH POINT AND APPROVED THEM and wrote back to Justus expecting him to carry them out. I liked the ideas, and he had the burden, and therefore, I expected him to do it. Now if anybody else is stepping in and interfering with the ideas Justus had and that you and the Council and I approved of, which makes them then an executive order and turns it into law, I'm going to be angry! If they interfere with the due process of law I'm gonna get mad!

24. NOW YOU TAKE THE GOVERNMENT FOR EXAMPLE: IT'S USUALLY THE MEMBERS OF THE LEGISLATIVE BRANCH OF THE GOVERNMENT, THE INDIVIDUAL MEMBERS WHO INITIATE BILLS. But until the bills are approved by the whole body and the leading executive of the country, they don't become laws.—It has to have first of all the approval of counsellors, which in that case are other members of that particular body, and get their majority vote. Which means that the majority of the king's counsellors must agree on a certain plan or procedure before it's carried any further.

25. WHETHER THEY BE CABINET MEMBERS, OR THEY BE THE PARLIAMENT, OR THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, OR THE SENATE, THEY ARE A LEGISLATIVE BODY OF COUNSELLORS to whom a proposal is presented in the form of an initial legislation or a bill. The majority of them have to agree on it before they even present it to the top executive of the country! They are really the ones who suggest it, and it is usually their idea. They are the ones who want to do it and carry it out.

26. THE KING‚ QUEEN, PRESIDENT‚ PRIME MINISTER, WHOEVER HE MAY BE, THE CHIEF EXECUTIVE IS MERELY NOT TOO MUCH MORE THAN A RUBBER STAMP who stamps his okay on it! Of course, the man with the rubber stamp or royal seal in his hand wields quite a weapon of power, because it is up to him to make the final choice. He can also initiate legislation, but it must have their approval!

27. EVEN IN THE FORM OF GOVERNMENT WHICH THE UNITED STATES HAS, THE PRESIDENT HAS VETO POWER. Even though a majority of the legislative body has suggested in a bill that a certain idea should become law, that a certain order should be carried out, if it is only a simple majority and the president doesn't agree with it‚ he can veto it. Then if the legislative body is still convinced it is the best way to do it, they can even override his veto by a larger or two-thirds majority vote.

28. THIS IS WHAT IS KNOWN AS THE BALANCE OF POWER in the U.S. between the three branches of government: the executive, the legislative and the judicial. The legislative body can override the chief executive's veto by a two-thirds majority. If the vast majority of the people, two to one, wants that to be the rule or wants to carry out that particular suggestion or bill and make it into law, the representatives of the people have the last word!—Well, not quite: The Supreme Court can then declare it unconstitutional and kill it even then!

29. NOW THAT'S THE PROBLEM WHICH IS ARISING IN THE U.S., IN THAT THE EXECUTIVE IS TAKING TOO MUCH UPON HIMSELF AND UNDERTAKING TO WIELD TOO MUCH POWER to go over the heads of the legislative branch, the representatives of the people, and do as he pleases without consulting with them, without even consulting with his cabinet of counsellors, and only consulting with one or two or at the most three men!—And apparently, in some of those cases, he's not even been consulting with them!

30. THERE YOU HAVE A DICTATORSHIP, which unless the man is divinely inspired directly by God and with the wisdom of God, he can become a tyrant! Because if he's merely a frail human man and wicked and evil with an evil heart‚ which all men have except for God, and he will not listen to his people or counsellors, he is bound to make a great many mistakes.

31. THE HORROR OF IT IS THAT WHEN HE WIELDS THAT MUCH POWER HE CAN PUT THOSE MISTAKES INTO LAW! He can carry them out, because he won't listen to his counsellors or his people. And it has another bad effect: Since he ran things that way himself without consulting with them, quite obviously some of his own leaders were running things the same dictatorial way right under his nose without consulting with him, supposedly to protect him!

32. NOW THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES STARTED OFF BY DECLARING AN ILLEGAL WAR OVER THE HEADS OF THE DULY ELECTED REPRESENTATIVES of the government of the people; which, according to the Constitution, he had not the power to do, because U.S. declarations of war can be made only by the Congress. So how did he do it and get away with it?—Well‚ being the commander in chief of the military, he simply ordered them to go in there and start fighting, that's all!

33. SINCE THE CONSTITUTION SAID HE COULDN'T DECLARE WAR, HE DIDN'T DECLARE WAR! HE JUST SENT HIS FORCES IN THERE TO FIGHT THE WAR WITHOUT DECLARING IT!—And U.S. forces fought in Indochina for ten years without a declaration of war! Congress finally gave him some kind of a little approval, a resolution of some kind, but still without an official declaration of war, because they didn't want to be responsible for the war either, so they just let him have his own way and carry out his own private war!—That's dictatorship!

34. BESIDES, BELIEVE IT OR NOT, AN OFFICIAL STATE OF WAR INVOLVED A LOT OF LEGAL TECHNICALITIES which would have set a lot of legal machinery into operation which would have made the government liable for a lot of legal responsibilities that they didn't want to be responsible for, such as certain types of compensation, pension, insurance and a lot of other things! So they were just willing to let the President go ahead and wage his undeclared war all by himself, more or less.

35. ALSO, THE PEOPLE OF THE COUNTRY REALLY WEREN'T INTERESTED AND WERE TOO BUSY DOING THEIR OWN THING. They didn't care that the President was slaughtering thousands of innocent poor people, women and children and the helpless‚ and destroying a whole country under the pretext of saving the world from communism! Even communism in Southeast Asia would have been a lot better for them than what the United States bombs have done for them!

36. SUCH WERE THE RESULTS OF AN EXECUTIVE WHO INSISTED ON MAKING DECISIONS ON HIS OWN WITHOUT CONSULTING WITH HIS COUNSELLORS, which can get the whole country, if not the whole world, in a whole damn mess!—And the same is true of us: If I were to go ahead and make all decisions from the top, initiate all the rules and make all the choices and have all the ideas and try to run everything from here without any consultation with anybody whatsoever, either God or man‚ then I would be the biggest fool in our whole Nation!

37. SO ARE THE EXECUTIVES IN ANY COLONY WHO TRY TO RUN THEIR COLONY THAT WAY!—THEY ARE THE BIGGEST FOOLS IN THE COLONY if they try to run their Colony without consultation and without letting people speak, and their workers make suggestions, and their counsellors present ideas! It is best for the chief executive to simply pump out the material: The counsel, the suggestions, the discussion—to pump it out of his people. I believe in people power!

38. ANY SMART EXECUTIVE IS GOING TO PUMP PEOPLE POWER!—He's not going to try to be the power! He is neither going to try to be the pump‚ nor the water, nor the bucket! He's merely going to be the guiding hand that takes hold of the handle and grabs the bull by the tail and pumps!—I'll tell you, you'll get action then! Let the people's well, the repository of God's rain, provide the water! Let the pump, his counsellors, bring it to him‚ and then let his spouts guide it into his buckets, and not try to run everything himself!

39. ALL THE PUMPER DOES IS JUST KEEP THE PUMP IN MOTION that's all! The Council pump then provides the vacuum, as the channel of counsellors, the people's representative, opens itself for suggestions. The Council Pump are his counsellors, his cabinet‚ his committee, or whatever it is, and the suggestions, or the water, is provided by the earth itself‚ the people from the well holding God's rain!—Amen?

40. THE COUNCIL PUMP MERELY CHANNELS IT UP TO WHERE THE PUMPER CAN SEE IT and decide which bucket it ought to flow into.—That's all he does!

41. THE EXECUTIVE IS MERELY A HAND: HE IS MERELY THE MOTOR WHICH KEEPS THINGS MOVING! He keeps the pump handle (the top Council) moving, which keeps the pump (the Deptartment Council) moving which keeps water (God's rain of inspiration, ideas and suggestions) moving, which keeps the spouts (the individual Dept. heads) moving the water into the buckets of each worker who takes it to the people! Pump people power! The executive hand is merely the power who helps to pump out the people power!

42. HE'S ONLY LIKE THE ELECTRIC MOTOR OR THE PUMP: IF IT IS AN electric pump, it is God's power which turns the motor—He "turns you on"! You the executive motor are only the instrument through which God works to turn the pump. Your cabinet or counsellors in turn provide a vacuum or suction which draws up the water through pipes of communication from below from the well (the repository of truth‚ the minds of your workers) out of the Earth, the people!

43. YOU ARE NOT GOD! YOU DO NOT CAUSE IT TO RAIN! You don't bring it down from Heaven:—God sends the rain! God originates the water, and God Himself even gets that water from the Earth, draws it up into Heaven to refine it and purify it and distil it and sends it back in the form of rain!

44. IT IS NOT THE KING WHO ALWAYS CATCHES THE RAIN! IT IS USUALLY THE EARTH, THE PEOPLE who receive the rain. Then they channel it to the places where it is needed and useful. It is only the king's job to see to it that the water is channelled both from the heavens, and from the earth in some form, whether by dams‚ reservoirs, channels, wells, pools, and to see to it that the water flows into the right receptacles.

45. HE SEES TO IT THAT THE PEOPLE PROVIDE THE RIGHT RECEPTACLES, AND THAT THE WATER IS PROPERLY USED. The king is only a guide. A chief executive or Colony leader should only be a guide, who in turn is guided himself by God. But the one thing our chief executives and Colony Shepherds seem to forget is that they are not only to be guided by God, like some little god themselves or a dictator, but that they are also to be largely guided by the people!

46. LET ME SHOCK YOU: People talk about theocracy, government by God alone; absolute monarchy, government by king alone; and then there is autocracy, government only by the rich aristocracy or nobility or the rich; or democracy, government by the people.

47. NOW LET ME SHOCK YOU: I DON'T BELIEVE IN ANY ONE OF THOSE ALONE AND NEITHER DOES GOD! The fact of the matter is that God uses all of them working together, and if any one of them get total and absolute control, things will go to hell! If even any two of them get total control as opposed to the rest and overrule the others, you have a hell of a mess!

48. JUST AS IN THE U.S. NOW: THE PRESIDENT HAS ACTED INDEPENDENTLY IN MAKING WAR. Whether he declared war or not‚ he waged it! Now he seems to think he can wage war on his own people! Having waged war on the peoples of other nations without their consent, he seems to think he can get away with waging war on his own people.

49. HE'S BEEN WAGING WAR ON THE CONGRESS and defying the Congress and doing as he pleased without their consent—waging war, bombing illegally, waging war on other political parties illegally. He is at this present moment initiating a war with the Congress illegally, where he is defying them and refusing to obey their orders, and so far he's been successful!

50. HE HAS REFUSED TO TURN OVER TAPES, DOCUMENTS, RECORDERS ETC., which they have not only requested but legally subpoenaed. He has placed himself above the legislative branch of the government‚ which means he has placed himself above the law! So now they have turned the matter over to the courts, or the third branch of the government, for the courts to decide.

51. HIS NEXT STEP IS TO WAGE WAR WITH THE COURTS, HE HAS CONQUERED THE CONGRESS. He refuses to do anything they tell him to do, and he claims he has the right to do as he pleases. He uses the excuse that this is the balance of power, and it is to preserve the independence of the three branches of government. But he has become so independent from the other two branches that he has destroyed the balance of power and caused an imbalance of power.

52. HE HAS TAKEN UPON HIMSELF MORE POWER THAN THE CONGRESS OR THE COURTS PUT TOGETHER! He has defied them, refused to obey them, and therefore he has conquered them! He is still at war with them, and they are still at war with him, and they haven't given up yet. What was an undeclared war is now an open warfare, and they are exposing him and his dictatorial tactics.

53. THEY ARE NOW CARRYING HIS CASE TO THE LAST RECOURSE OF THE SUPREME COURT‚ which he, the President, has already packed with his own men, which means the final decision will probably be in his favour.

54. THIS, AS WE SAID BEFORE, WILL MAKE HIM A DICTATOR with supreme power above the law, above the courts, above the Congress. The executive privilege of independent executive power, which he's now claiming, is literally declaring himself to be a dictator totally without restraint and without restriction!

55. IF YOU CARRY IT TO THE FINAL CONCLUSION OF THAT LOGIC, HE CAN EVEN COMMIT MURDER without anyone being able to retaliate or hold him responsible! He's claiming a sort of diplomatic immunity from his own government! Now most diplomats claim immunity from the laws of other Governments, but here's a man who is claiming diplomatic immunity from the laws of his own country, and saying he is above the law!

56. THE U.S. PRESIDENT IS SAYING: "YOU CAN'T SUBPOENA ME, OR MY RECORDS, OR TELL ME WHAT TO DO IN ANYWAY, shape or form! I am totally above the law in everything! I don't have to obey the Congress or the Courts! I can commit crimes if I want to and get away with it! I am my own boss‚ the captain of my fate and the master of yours!"

57. SO WHAT IS THE NEXT STEP? First he went to war with other nations. Now he's at war with the Congress, and he's now going to war with the courts. He has waged all these other wars, beginning on the outside.

58. HE HAS ALREADY COMMITTED UNWARRANTED MASS MURDER WITH IMMUNITY AND IMPUNITY ON OTHER PEOPLES of other nations with his monstrous bombings and horrible destructions of other people and their lands. By this he is not only saying, "I have a right to commit murder with immunity", but he's already done it! He only stopped the bombing at the request of the Congress because it pleased him to do so, really‚ because he's already confessed he bombed secretly and illegally before.

59. BUT HE HAS SUCH A WAR ON HIS HANDS AT HOME NOW THAT HE CAN'T AFFORD TO BE EMBROILED IN FOREIGN WARS, SO HE'S NOW CARRYING HIS WAR TO THE HOME FRONT! He is virtually winning his war with the Congress, he's about to win his war with the courts, probably‚ since the Supreme Court was packed by him with his own men. So, having declared himself superior and unanswerable to anyone else in the whole world, either abroad or at home to his own government‚ when he wins his battle with the Courts, what do you suppose his next step will be?

60. HAVING WON HIS BATTLE AGAINST OTHER GOVERNMENTS, HE IS NOW WINNING HIS BATTLE WITH HIS OWN GOVERNMENT, AND THE NEXT STEP IS HIS OWN PEOPLE! As he considers himself totally irresponsible to world opinion, which he's already done in waging his atrocious illegal wars on other nations, he is now no longer responsible to his own government. In other words, he is a god, a dictator, and nobody can tell him what to do!

61. HIS NEXT STEP WILL BE TO DECLARE HIMSELF INDEPENDENT AND NO LONGER RESPONSIBLE EVEN TO HIS OWN PEOPLE and that with them he can do as he pleases also! Having had his way with the world and with the Congress and with the courts, I don't believe that he would think a thing of deciding to have his way with the people!

62. HE CAN CALL OUT THE ARMED FORCES AND DECLARE MARTIAL LAW AND TAKE OVER MILITARY RULE BY FORCE, as he has already done elsewhere, with himself as the head in order to stay in power. This he must do next in order to keep the power that he has already stolen from the world community and his own government and finally the people! This could possibly mean severe civil war, chaos and great confusion and the downfall of his country.

63. NOW, BACK TO THE COLONIES AND YOUR OWN JOB AS A LEADER: Any Colony Leaders whether they be of local Colonies or regional or Royal, who try to run their colonies‚ districts, regions, or worldwide administration in that fashion, are headed for nothing but trouble! If you get any one or two or three branches of any government, pitting them against the other branches of government instead of working together, you're bound to have trouble.

64. IF THE BRAIN OF THE HEAD REFUSES TO LISTEN TO GOD, OR THE HAND REFUSES TO LISTEN TO THE HEAD, or the handle refuses to respond to the hand or the handle refuses to work with the pump, or the pump refuses to react to the handle or pump the water, or the earth refuses to give it and yield her store, or the rain refuses to fall and the well runs dry, or the buckets refuse to receive it, you're going to have a famine for water and the word of life!

65. THE PEOPLE ARE GOING TO GO HUNGRY AND STARVE AND THAT KINGDOM WILL DIE because of a lack of cooperation between its heads of government and between its government and the people!

66. BECAUSE IT WORKS BOTH WAYS: THE GOVERNMENT MUST COOPERATE WITH THE PEOPLE, AND THE PEOPLE MUST COOPERATE WITH THE GOVERNMENT. The king must listen to God‚ and the king must listen to the people, who are also inspired by God! The king must listen to his counsellors, and they must listen to him. The counsellors must listen to the people, and the people must listen to the counsellors.

67. WHEN EVERYBODY HAS HEARD WHAT EVERYBODY HAS TO SAY, THEY SHOULD THEN ALL AGREE TOGETHER ON A DECISION AS TO WHAT TO DO. No one should have all the say, or no two or three should have all the say, and nobody should be a total absolute monarch or dictator, refusing to listen to anybody else.—Not even God does this!

68. GOD NOT ONLY LISTENS TO HIS HEAVENLY COUNSELLORS, SPIRITS AND ANGELS, BUT DON'T FORGET, HE EVEN LISTENS TO US and does what we ask Him to do! But some of our leaders seem to think themselves superior even to God, and that they don't have to listen to either their counsellors or their people.

69. BUT A TYRANNICAL SPIRIT MAKES A LEADER LIKE THE DEVIL, the first would-be dictator, who didn't want to listen to either God or the other angelic forces! Obviously the majority of them were opposed to his rebellion‚ for when he leaves Heaven at the start of the Tribulation he'll only take one-third of them with him! So he and his demons are in the minority, thank God!

70. THE DEVIL, HAVING REFUSED TO LISTEN TO EITHER GOD OR THE MAJORITY OF THE ANGELS either one, what does he do? Does he then yield and give up and say, "So sorry! I was wrong." No, he does like Nitler!—He goes mad‚ he goes insane, and he screams that he alone has the power to do as he pleases!

71. LIKE NITLER, HE REBELS AGAINST ALL GOVERNMENTS AND ALL PEOPLES AND BECOMES THE DEVIL, SATAN, THE WAGER OF WARS UPON THE WORLD and all peoples and all governments and even God! He is the rebel of all rebels, the terrorist of all terrorists, the backslider of all backsliders‚ the delinquent of all delinquents, and the criminal of all criminals, and the worst monster of all ages!

72. HE DECLARES HIS INDEPENDENCE FROM ALL RIGHTEOUS RULE AND PEOPLE AND GOES ABOUT DOING HIS DIRTY WORK amongst the whole universe as a dandy bad example of what not to be and what not to do! So we have hell on earth and even some hell in the heavenlies at present in the spirit world, until God throws him out completely‚ and all his devils, in the coming Tribulation and wrath of God after the rapture.

73. IS THAT YOU, AND IS THAT WHERE YOU'RE GOING TO WIND UP—WITH THE DEVIL AND HIS CROWD—BECAUSE YOU REFUSED TO LISTEN TO ANYBODY, WHETHER GOD OR GOVERNMENT OR PEOPLES? If you even reject the counsel of any one of these branches of God's government—whether it be God or the King or the Councils, Bishops‚ Shepherds or people—if you totally and inconsiderately reject the counsel of any one of these and insist on your own way alone, you're going to be in trouble!

74. EVEN IF THE MAJORITY REFUSES TO LISTEN TO THE MINORITY, THE MAJORITY WILL BE IN TROUBLE! Every government has to heed the voice of its minority as well, because to have a successful kingdom, any kind of kingdom, you must not only try to keep the majority happy, but you must also try to please the minority and keep them happy too‚ as much as possible.

75. IN OTHER WORDS, YOU MUST TRY TO KEEP EVERYBODY HAPPY, because everybody has a right to be happy and to have his needs met and to do the work he likes to do and wants to do if he's in the will of God and competent and qualified.

76. SO WE ALL NEED TO WORK TOGETHER, we need to listen to each other, counsel together‚ agree together, decide together and then work it out together. If we're going t be an effective body, every member must work together with all the other members,—not just one‚ not just a few, not even the majority, but with all working together as a body which Christ described as His Body, the Church, and with Himself as the Head.

77. WE CANNOT EVEN SAY WE HAVE NO NEED OF ONE LITTLE MEMBER! You even need every fingernail, every cell as well as every organ and every limb, and you need to all work together for the glory of God!

78. SO PLEASE, FOR GOD'S SAKE YOU LEADERS LISTEN TO YOUR PEOPLE‚ as well as to the Lord and to me, and let's try to do what we all think is best together, and let no member try to declare himself so independent that he has no need of another member!

79. FOR EVERY MEMBER IS NEEDED AND EVERYONE IS IMPORTANT, from the lowliest to the mightiest, from the most insignificant to the most seemingly important, from the most obscure to the most obvious, behind the scenes in the kitchen or on a throne behind an executive desk, everyone is essential, everyone is important, everyone has his job, everyone is needed, and all must work together in unity and harmony and cooperation with agreement.

80. OH, THAT IT MIGHT "SEEM GOOD TO ALL OF THEM", AND THAT WE MIGHT AGREE AND WORK TOGETHER as the Spirit leads‚ if we're going to get the job done, and get it done right and get it done soon, and when and where it is most needed, and if the vessels are going to receive the water of life and carry it where it is most needed to all the parts and places of the earth, that it may water the ground and bring forth fruit for God's glory and the good of the land and the earth and its people!

81. SO AGAIN, WE SAY UNTO YOU, GET IT TOGETHER! For God's sake, and your sake, let's get it together!—Talk together, discuss together‚ counsel together, agree together, decide together‚ love together, go together, do together, bear together, care together, grow together, work together and enjoy the fruits of our labours together!

82. "HE THAT WOULD BE GREATEST AMONG YOU, LET HIM BE SERVANT OF ALL!"... "Well done‚ therefore, thou good and faithful servant!...Enter thou into the joy of thy Lord!"..."For the last shall be first, and the first shall be last," but we'll all be together! Praise God! In Jesus Name, let's get together and work together and enjoy together!

83. GOD BLESS YOU AND KEEP YOU TOGETHER—even when you're apart! Never get so far apart you can't stay together in spirit. The only way we're going to win this war is to fight it together, and not, against each other, but together with each other against the enemy!

84. LET'S WIN IT TOGETHER SO WE CAN SHOUT THE VICTORY TOGETHER AND GREET GOD TOGETHER IN THE END! Hallelujah? Praise God! I love you! Let's get it together and keep it together and always together in all ways with all of us—always together! Amen?—Then and then only will you be a wise leader and a good executive!

Copyright (c) 1998 by The Family