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—Excerpts of Counsel Given Regarding Recent Persecution.—By MariaMaria #170 DO 2812

Miracles in Court!

1. In some of these court cases, because of the wrath & strength of the System, it may get to the point where everything goes against us so much that right in the courtroom the Lord will have to step in & supernaturally turn things in our favour. In fact, a lot of the visions that our people had worldwide seemed to indicate that there were going to be some supernatural things taking place in the courtroom, that people would say things they never intended‚ that our persecutors would even go insane on the stand, & that our people would be given supernatural wisdom & anointing‚ etc. (Ed., 8/92: This has actually happened now, with one of our chief accusers literally "losing it" while being cross-examined in court, resulting in her having to go to the hospital & get a doctor's certificate verifying she was too unsettled to resume cross–examination!)

2. So, even if things seem to be very bad & discouraging on every side, we're not to fear‚ "for God hath willed His Truth to triumph through us!" He's not only willed it but He's promised it over & over again, & we know that He will win the victory!—Hallelujah!—Even if He has to do supernatural shocking miracles right there in the courtroom, things that the whole World will know are miracles!

Teaching Our Kids to Love Their Enemies

(After the children had been taken by Social Services & kept in captivity for one week.)

3. The Australian Family mentioned that when the Social Services people come for their regular visits‚ our children are cold to them.—And considering what those people did to them, you can certainly understand why. Maybe it's a good thing they have been cold to them, so the Social Services can get a reconfirmation that the kids love their parents & want to be with them, & don't want to be with the Social Services people! However, I do feel that not only can our adults not afford to get bitter, but we have to teach our children not to be bitter, & to even love their enemies. It would be good to teach them verses on loving your enemies. (See Pro.25:21‚ 22; Mat.5:43–47; Luk.6:32-35.)

4. Of course, they are our enemies & they are trying to stop us from witnessing & stop us from doing the Lord's work, but maybe we can win them to Jesus if we talk to them about the Lord & quote our verses & sing for them etc. These people are sinners‚ but maybe we can win them if we're kind to them & show them God's Love.

5. Of course, if they don't respond to our witness, then we don't have to keep on loving & trying to help them forever, but if they do respond to it‚ then we will have won them with the Lord's Love. Our parents there need to continually emphasise to their children the Romans 8:28 in it all, finding as many good things as possible in this whole situation & pow-wowing it with the children so they can make it into a good experience & a good memory because of what they learned from it‚ & not just a bad experience that gives them nightmares. They need to explain to the children that they were suffering for Jesus, so they should be happy & rejoice as it's a glory to them, the Lord is proud of them! (See Acts 5:41; Heb.11:16.) They should try to cover all the good things they can think of that have come out of it.

Answers to Those Who Criticise Our

Provisioning & Asking for Donations!

6. It's ridiculous for people to criticise us for asking for provisions or donations! Most institutions & organisations who raise funds or solicit donations don't give the public anything in exchange, like we do with our Posters, Tapes & Videos. Even in the case of our provisioning, we give them something that is priceless—spiritual encouragement & inspiration & comfort from the Word in the form of personal ministering to them, & very often give them Tapes, Videos & Posters as well.

7. Almost all organisations, institutions, religious groups, political groups, social groups, etc., raise funds for one purpose or another, & they give the public a lot less for their money than we do! But even if we didn't give people these invaluable Posters, Tapes & Videos in exchange for the provisions that they give us‚ we are providing a valuable service to the public just by our being in their community & being a sample of God's ideal way of life, & also by our ministering to the public with our literature & spiritual help etc.

8. In the case of our Audio & Video Tapes, not only are people getting something very worthwhile materially—certainly much more worthwhile than anything else they could get in exchange for their money—but at the same time they're getting spiritually fed through those tools. So in comparison with every other organisation or group that raises funds, I'd say we give much more than almost anybody! Not only do we offer the public a service by just being in the community, but we actually bring with us the blessing of God on that community, if they receive us. And to each individual we meet, we offer the priceless wisdom of God's Word through personal ministering & through our beautiful Tapes, Videos & Posters.

9. Other organisations raise funds & it's supposed to be enough reward for the donor just to know that the institution or organisation is providing some sort of service to the public—spiritual or material. And the donor doesn't usually get much out of it personally, other than the satisfaction of knowing he's helped others. But with us, not only do we provide an invaluable service to the community by being a witness & a testimony to them, but we also give the individual people who contribute to us a lot of spiritual input.

10. The Scriptural principle is, "They that preach the Gospel shall live of the Gospel."—1Cor.9:14. We work at the job we're doing just as hard, or harder, than people in the System‚ but we're working for the Lord at the most important job of all. We're working at helping others in a spiritual way, & considering the few people the Lord has available to work for Him, it's important that we continue to concentrate on our spiritual ministry, & that we don't stop it in order to obtain our needs in the physical. Therefore, we need the help of others to carry on our work. (1Cor.9:11) The Lord said in His Word that if we do His Will, He will provide for us, & of course‚ He usually uses people to do that. And when they give to us, they in turn receive a great spiritual blessing for helping us. "It's more blessed to give than to receive, & whoever gives one of these little ones a cup of cold water only in the name of a disciple, he shall by no means lose his reward."—Acts 20:35; Mat. 10:42.

11. When people give to God's Work, & especially to as important a work as ours, God does richly bless them for it. He always blesses them spiritually, & often even materially. To many of these people we are like their church. In a church, the preacher usually gets paid by the parishioners‚ so why shouldn't we, who really minister the Word & daily preach the Gospel, also receive support in that way?

Appealing for Help & Raising Support!

12. During this very stressful time for you in Australia where your energies, of necessity, have been focused on these court cases & related matters, the time you have been able to spend on provisioning & raising funds for your daily needs has been greatly limited, not to speak of the interruption of normal supply channels by antagonistic police who have actually gone around to your provisioning contacts & spoken against you, intimidating many of them & turning others against you.

13. You Homes are hurting financially & you have many needs, but the Lord has promised to supply them if you will ask & seek & knock.—Mat.7:7. You need to explain to your friends that with all of this court–related work that you've been involved in‚ & having to give your children extra care to help them get over the trauma that they've experienced through being ripped away from your loving care & taken into the custody of strangers who didn't love them but were only trying to destroy them & you, you've been unable to do your regular raising of funds, & because your enemies are even going so far as to accuse you of fraud in your provisioning, you desperately need support. Just ask them if there's anything they can do to help or any ideas they might have.—Or if they can't help, maybe they know of others who can. When people can see that you are suffering & hurting, they should be very sympathetic & very willing to help if you'll just humble yourself & ask.

14. Explain about your tremendous Videos & Tapes & how you'd like to get openings to speak at meetings of organisations or associations & give your story & testimony & sell your Videos & Tapes & Posters.—Or maybe some of their friends could make an appeal to some of their friends on our behalf. We have large Homes & families & children to support & we are tied up in lengthy court cases. It's expensive to feed & house people & we desperately need funds, but we're not begging, we have a lot to give! We have excellent Videos that the public should have & really need, & we really need to find some way to get them to the public, so could they help us to somehow open up a wider audience than we've had in the past? Can they help us increase our opportunities to reach many more people than we can through our very limited DTD method?

15. You can see by the response of some of your friends that they think you are quite well off because you have such top lawyers representing you. That right there is part of the problem—people not understanding your situation, & your not saying anything about it, & not appealing for help. You need to mention your need for help every time you talk to someone or witness to them. I think the Lord is trying to show you that if you will just let your needs be known, that He will abundantly supply! This is a perfect time to do it & a lot of people would be more than happy to give to you. But if some of your friends who even know you quite well didn't think you needed anything, then certainly the rest of the public must be of the same opinion!

16. I can't help but believe that if you would put a real push on raising support that you could get lots of it, & the Lord would really abundantly supply! You have some very favourable friends, key people who are involved in organisations themselves, who, if you would just let them know your situation, could spread the word, & I think people would be more than happy to help you. Realising that you're in the middle of a big court battle & you cannot do much at this time to support yourselves, they would probably be happy to make appeals for you. I think that this is the most ideal time in the World to raise support!

Counsel to Australia about Their

Open House & Appealing for Help!

17. I think it would be a blessing for you to have the Statement on "Our Support" available to study prior to the Open House you're going to hold, as you will most likely need to be answering some questions about that. Even if you aren't asked questions along those lines, I think you ought to even bring the subject up & appeal for help. This would be an excellent opportunity to give a real good plug for help & support while you're having to fight this battle for religious freedom for all freedom-loving people. "So please, if you could help us now with contacts, funds‚ food, furniture...etc., we really need it!"

18. You'll have to be sure you appeal for help in the right way, but I definitely feel you need to do it! I think you could liken us to a church & say, "We are a church, & all churches exist by the donations of those who attend them, their parishioners & other interested parties. We do the same & we need your help‚ just like any church.—Even more than any church because we're really doing the job that Jesus said to do, & we're also fighting for the freedom of all people everywhere! Our poor nursing mothers are staying up till three or four in the morning doing affidavits because we can't afford to hire people to help us do that sort of thing. We don't have enough lawyers to do it."

19. You need to tell it like it is!—How much stress & strain you're under & how difficult it is. "Our kids have been traumatised from being in the Social Services' custody."—And maybe explain in detail what some of their problems are. "But by our giving them extra time & attention & loving care, they're regaining their security & stability & being influenced enough by our good to overcome the bad & fearful influence of the Social Services. But all of this takes a lot of time & work & attention, & added to that we also have to work fulltime on this court case, which requires many long hours of doing this & that & other things."—And you could enumerate them. Tell it like it is!—How you're fighting for the freedom of all of the people & you really do need everyone's support. If they can't support with monetary donations, at least they can pray for you, or they can give you helpful contacts. They could give you food or clothing, or raise money for you, or help you to distribute your Videos, or whatever. Be sure to plug the Videos, & show them how very good they are!

20. Another point to remember is that personal testimonies are always important & very effective.—Testimonies that tell how the poor nursing mothers with newborn babies are having to stay up until three or four in the morning going through hundreds & hundreds of pages of ridiculous charges against us, & answering them. Explain how some of the others have to be out all day raising the public's consciousness about who we are & the righteousness of our Cause & trying to get people to stand up & be counted & fight in this fight for the right! Tell them how your kids recently were invited to do a show at a prison & brought a little light & joy into the lives of the poor inmates, many of whom had been taken by the Social Services as children & then ended up on the streets etc. Give them your real-life stories of what you're actually doing & what's going on, & your battles & your victories etc.—That is, as much as you're allowed to tell them, & you should be able to say quite a bit. (Ed: While the case is in the courts, you are limited as to what you can say publicly about details of the case.)

21. You could even say how your counterparts in Japan have had a huge media battle, & your friends there are standing up for you more than ever before! You can give them some testimonies from Japanese friends & supporters, & maybe even show the clip from the Teen Inspiration Video‚ "New Worlds." Maybe you should play them a "Kiddie Viddie" song or two, or show them a clip from "Treasure Attic." Get some of your Teens to speak to them & tell them what it was like in custody, & how hard it has been. Tell them how you feel, that now that you've gone through all of this‚ you've got to continue to endure it & come through victoriously. You should use this opportunity to promote your Work & show them the witness we are & the Light we're bringing to others & the good we're doing, & show them the sample of our kids & Teens!

Police Intimidation—The Devil Is

Always Trying to Scare You into Making "Peace"

22. This business of the police & authorities intimidating some of our people & trying to mentally & emotionally coerce them into surrendering their computer password so the authorities can open their computer files of friends' & contacts' addresses & put them under the scrutiny of their evil eyes is outrageous!—Unless they get a court order forcing them to do it! (Which still wouldn't make it right, of course.) But demanding that they open their personal records to anybody who wants to see them, without their even being charged with any wrongdoing is an invasion of privacy, & an infringement of their basic human rights.

23. They ought to fight it‚ just on the principle that it's wrong! Even though they don't have anything to hide, I certainly wouldn't give them that password without a good fight! Even if nothing in those files is out of the ordinary, the Devil can always find something to twist & accuse you of.

24. The police are just trying to intimidate them into voluntarily giving it up, like the Social Services tried to intimidate the parents into agreeing to all of those restrictions on their children. The police are trying to get them to think that if they don't agree with them & their coercive tactics, then it's going to really get bad for them, & they'll be in big trouble. The Devil is always trying to scare you into surrendering to him, threatening that if you don't, he'll do something even worse to you. Whereas the fact of the matter is, if you stand up & face him down & don't give in to him, then he probably can't do anything worse to you.—"Resist the Devil & he will flee from you!"—Jam.4:7.

Praying that the Lord Leads Our

Lawyers the Way He Wants Us to Go

25. In some of these legal matters, we pretty much have to go by our lawyers' leadings & counsel‚ so we need to pray desperately that their leadings will be the Lord's leadings‚ & that if they don't advise us correctly, the Lord will somehow overrule and show them‚ such as happened recently in one court case. We had advised our lawyer to try to get a postponement on a hearing right away, and he was set on not asking for this extension until the date of that hearing. But then when we desperately prayed, he heard from his own senior colleague that she felt the same way we did, so he changed his mind‚ thank the Lord!

(—PRAY!—FOLLOW GOD! GBY! Tx!—WLY!—We can't lose! Jesus never fails! TYJ! KGFJ!—WLY!)

Copyright (c) 1998 by The Family