Dad
July 1, 2004
—MOMay 12, 1973GP NO.326
© Copyright February 1975 by The Children of God, P.O. Box 31, London WC2E 7LX, England or GPO Box 3141, San Juan, Puerto Rico 00936
(One young man recently asked us: )
1. "I'VE BEEN WONDERING ABOUT CLASSICAL MUSIC A LOT LATELY. I really love it and the Lord's really given me a burden to listen to it, and attend and witness at philharmonic concert and ballets. But I'm a bit reluctant, not having listened to much since I joined and not knowing what is okay and all. Perhaps some time you might be able to recommend some approved classical music. I used to listen to Bach, Beethoven, Handel, Strauss, Grieg, Rachmaninov and others."—So wrote this young music lover.—This is our answer: Later while listening to Edward Grieg's "Peer Gynt Suite", "In the Hall of the Mountain King," David said, I was sitting here thinking of that and all of a sudden it came back to me. When I was a little boy I used to sit by the old record player‚ the old fashioned crank-up player‚ and this was a famous classic I used to play and play and play, and it just absolutely flipped me out and turned me on and I would sit there and get the chills and just be thrilled all over!
2. I WOULD FEEL THE ANOINTING OF THIS MUSIC AND THESE GREAT COMPOSERS who were really inspired. But right that moment suddenly came back to me the "Hall of the Mountain King!" (Tongues:) "Why wonderest thou at these wonders I have shown thy father David?" It flashed on me a moment ago as though that were prophetic—the music had been inspired—prophetic of my future.
3. LOOK HOW THE LORD PAINTS PICTURES LIKE LEGENDS OR FAIRY TALES! God by His Spirit in the world of the spirit takes this and makes it alive in the spirit! In the spirit I'm a great king living in a mountain hall or cave. I didn't know why I liked it so much‚ but I was getting a witness of the spirit. I didn't know that someday I was going to become that Mountain King!
4. "BEHOLD HOW THESE NOTES ARE TUNED TO THE KEY I HAVE GIVEN TO DAVID‚ and how I have inspired the hearts of their composers that they may unlock the door of his heart to inspire this, the heart of their father. Even the words of thy mouth are tuned to this music, and thy words turn the heart of the father to the children."
5. MUSIC CAN BE A BLESSING, AND YET IT CAN ALSO BE SO DANGEROUS! That's why it is so important to listen to the right kind of music. The Pavlovian Method of conditioning reflexes enables evil men to discover secrets of the hearts and minds of men in order to manipulate them for their own evil purposes. Men can be mentally conditioned to respond to a set stimuli like a series of tone signals. Almost like a telephone: You can dial a certain combination of numbers and that keys the equipment to connect one instrument with another instrument.
6. IT'S ALREADY ALL IN THE "KEY OF DAVID", BUT I NEVER SAW IT SO CLEARLY ABOUT MUSIC BEFORE! The "Key of David" was mostly about the Lord's means of spiritual communication. He activates circuits through a certain key in order to turn your spirit on to start receiving His message like a teletype machine.
7. CERTAIN KINDS OF MUSIC CAN ALSO BE LIKE A COMBINATION OF TONE SIGNALS, almost like dialing a number. If they hit the right combination of notes, the right music can bring a certain response in your own heart and mind. It has a psychological and spiritual effect on you. If you're really spiritually tuned, it has just as direct an effect on you as an electrical current or receiving a radio signal.
8. CERTAIN KINDS OF MUSIC WILL TURN YOU ON FOR CERTAIN KINDS OF THINGS.—IT'S SPIRITUAL! I know now that when I was a kid I was flipping out spiritually when I would sit for hours listening to classical music. My mother would come in amazed to see me weeping because it got through to me so. I couldn't restrain the tears or control the weeping. That music would turn me on so much that it was just like I was flipping out into another world. It was almost like I understood the music and was there and knew what was going on.
9. IT'S ALMOST AS THOUGH IT LINKS THE HEART OF THE HEARER WITH THE HEART OF THE COMPOSER. It blends the spirit of the composer into your spirit. It's almost like the composer is a spirit guide and becomes a medium and his music is his crystal ball! When you listen to his music you gaze with him into his crystal ball, and all of a sudden your spirits are united and you both see the same things.—You both see the same pictures. Music then is like a coded key: A combination of numbers or tone signals which work their way along the circuits of your nerves and over the various relays right into your heart and your spirit and your mind.
10. WHEN I WAS A LITTLE BOY LISTENING TO THAT MUSIC I WAS GIVEN THE MESSAGE! God was even speaking to me by that music, and though I didn't really understand what He was talking about, I was absolutely lifted into the realms of the spirit, and I was being identified. I felt an identification with what was going on.
11. IT'S ALMOST LIKE THOSE SCIENCE FICTION MOLECULAR TRANSPORTERS: They step into those machines and they're disintegrated one place and reintegrated in another.—Space transportation! It's like what happened to Philip in the physical, only this is completely in the spiritual. It's just like it sucks your spirit out of your body and transports it into another world. Suddenly you are reintegrated or revitalised in the world of the spirit in some other place (Acts 8:39,40).
12. LET ME TELL YOU, THE SPIRITUAL WORLD IS FAR MORE REAL THAN THE PHYSICAL! Music like that is like a vehicle, a crystal ball‚ like drugs, like electronic keying, tuning into your wavelength, radio tuning. If you're tuned and that's your wavelength and you're supposed to get the message‚ then you get it! I was getting the message way back when I was only a little boy, and I didn't understand or realise what it was all about.
13. THAT ONE PASSAGE IN THE PEER GYNT SUITE SUDDENLY JUST KEYED ME JUST LIKE FLIPPING A SWITCH! That familiar little passage just flipped me right back again, just like it used to. I flipped right out into the world of the Spirit, and I am there! I see things and I feel them. I suppose that some people who are strictly carnal and unspiritual would say it was my imagination.
14. BUT IF THAT'S MY IMAGINATION I'VE GOT ONE HELL OF AN IMAGINATION!—'Cause I totally flip out and am no longer here.—I am there! It is just like my body is left behind. It's just like turning on the switch of an electric motor and then trying to stop the motor without cutting the electricity off. There are certain things the Lord does that just make me explode!
15. IT SAYS THE SPIRIT OF THE PROPHET IS SUBJECT TO THE PROPHET‚ BUT THE SPIRIT OF GOD IS NOT SUBJECT TO THE PROPHET—not always anyway! God can just blast through and drown everything else out. You can't control it and it just comes through loud and clear, boom! You know how I explode sometimes—It's totally unexpected, but the Lord informs me like this. I don't remember any other portion really but "The Hall of the Mountain King." The music that comes before it is like setting the stage for his audience with the king.
16. YOU KNOW WHAT THAT SECOND THING THE LORD SAID REALLY MEANS? It's as though we got this thought somewhere way back there when I was asking God why I had to write such long Letters and why they couldn't all just be simple, short and sweet. Why couldn't they all be little messages for the children.—Some were so long and involved.
17. THE ANSWER WAS THAT SOME LETTERS ARE LIKE LITTLE CHILDISH SONGS AND SOME ARE LIKE SYMPHONIES that are very difficult, very complicated and extremely intricate but nonetheless beautiful! Don't you get that picture? You see, it's just like the Lord gives me symphonies in words!
18. I HEAR THE LORD'S MUSIC THAT'S IN MY KEY AND TURNS ME ON, AND THEN GOD GIVES ME THE WORDS TO THE MUSIC! Some of the music that particularly turned me on was really inspired and had something particularly significant in it about my own future. It's just like it bore a message, and now the message is coming out in words. Now the Lord is adding the words to the music. That's interesting because this particular piece is a symphony, not an opera, but a symphony without words. It's like it was prophetic—prophecy in music! It's almost as though the Lord is now inspiring the words and bringing out the message that was in the music, the real meaning of the story, in other words.
19. YOU KNOW SOME OF THESE COMPOSERS WERE INSPIRED! Wagner was sometimes inspired by the Devil, and others like Handel and Mozart, were sometimes inspired by the Lord. It's as though they were really inspired by the Lord or the Devil. Those inspired by the Devil were getting the Devil's message, if they were really tuned in.—And if the hearers are tuned in, they get the message too!
20. HITLER WAS ABSOLUTELY HYPNOTISED BY WAGNER'S MUSIC! He was getting the message! He was like a receiver for the message and he played the tune. He added the words and the bombs and the bullets to the tune and brought Hell on Earth!
21. BUT YOU SEE, OTHER COMPOSERS WERE INSPIRED BY THE LORD AND WERE GIVING GOD'S TUNE AND GOD'S MESSAGE. If we're the Lord's and we're tuned to His channel and they're on His channel‚ if it's God's composer and God's music and God's message, then we who are tuned in and keyed to the Lord get the message!
22. THERE'S MORE TO THE "KEY OF DAVID" THAN WE YET COMPREHEND!—The keying power! The keying electrical impulses must be multitudinous to form a whole composition, like the hundreds of pieces of a jigsaw puzzle that make up the total picture. God is playing the tune, the melody and the harmony and everything, and when it's all put together, every piece, it makes one gigantic gorgeous symphony!
23. THE PICTURE ON THE TELEVISION IS ACTUALLY COMPOSED OF THOUSANDS OF TINY ELECTRONIC IMPULSES. There are thousands of tiny little dots on your TV screen in the TV tube and every one of them receives a little impulse. The way these are varied and how each little tiny dot reacts makes up the picture. The way impulses come and the way they are then received governs what picture you see on the TV screen.
24. THESE ARE LITERALLY THOUSANDS AND THOUSANDS OF NOTES WHICH MAKE UP A SYMPHONY. But when they're all put together they can paint either a gorgeous picture or an evil picture depending on the source. They either transmit a hellish picture or a heavenly picture. Therefore, their effect on the individuals and audiences, and even on whole nations like Wagner's music on Hitlerian Germany, either brings Hell on Earth or has a Heavenly effect. Wagner's music was inspired, but I'm afraid that most of the time it seemed to be inspired by the Devil!
25. THE MUSIC OF SUCH WONDERFUL SPIRITUAL MEN AND BELIEVERS LIKE HANDLE AND MOZART AND SOME OTHERS WAS DEFINITELY INSPIRED BY THE LORD! It most be that Grieg was also getting something from the Lord, but these composers are just like us. It all depends on whose channel they're tuned to and according to their mood, whether they're in a believing and faithful mood, or are doubting‚ discouraged, despondent and fearful, and listening to the Devil! We all go through those experiences where we sometimes listen to the Enemy instead of the Lord. The Lord lets us hear the Devil's tune if we insist on it—even if it's only a test to see if we can tell the difference and to see if we'll receive it or reject it.
26. THERE ARE CERTAIN KINDS OF MUSIC THAT MY HEART‚ MIND, SPIRIT AND EVEN MY PHYSICAL BODY RESIST AND REBEL AGAINST! It makes me furious because I know it's diabolical and Satanic! My whole soul just fights it and I hate it because its effect is so fiendish! But other kinds of music just thrill and inspire me and lift me up into the heavenlies and put me into communication with the Lord.
27. SO HOW ARE YOU GOING TO KNOW THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN DIFFERENT KINDS OF MUSIC? Which music is of the Lord and which of the Devil? Well, how do you know the difference between the Voice of the Lord and the voice of Satan? It's like the little boy said when the old elder was scoffing at his faith and asked him, "Oh, how could you know the Lord when you're so young?—How could you be saved? You're not even old enough to know the difference in the Voice of the Lord and the voice of the Devil. How are you going to know the difference?"
28. "WELL, IF IT TELLS ME TO DO SOMETHING GOOD, IT'S GOD.—BUT IF IT TELLS ME TO DO SOMETHING WRONG I KNOW IT'S THE DEVIL!" he wisely answered. That's exactly the way it is with music. How does it make you feel? What does it tell you? All music is a message, and even the horrible music of today which is often nothing but jargon, noise and racket, has a message. It's confusion, rebellion, conflict, war, insanity—the message of confusion‚ the message of Satan. Some of music's message is the deafening roar of Satan himself—the old lion going around seeking whom he may devour.
29. THE SWEET‚ HEAVENLY MUSIC LIFTS YOU INTO HEAVENLY SPHERES, transports your spirit into heavenly places and makes you want to be good and do good, and inspires you to higher things. This is the Voice of God! Whether it's a simple little lullaby, a sweet little childish song, or a precious little love song, or a happy little dancing song like our children sing and dance, or a praising song or even some of the sweet sad songs that move us and touch our hearts with sympathy and love and compassion and cause us to weep with those that weep, or the most complicated and intricately beautiful inspiring symphonies of those mighty composers, it is God—inspired music!
30. HOW DO YOU TELL THE DIFFERENCE?—WELL, DOES IT MAKE YOU NOT ONLY FEEL GOOD, BUT FEEL GOOD IN THE RIGHT WAY? Does it make you want to be good and do good, and love and be loved, and be helpful and constructive? Or does it inspire you to be evil and do evil, and be rebellious and destructive and hate, like some of Wagner's music inspired Hitler to destroy? Does it build or does it destroy? Does it help or does it hinder? Does it lift you up or drag you down?
31. YOU CAN TELL ABOUT MUSIC JUST LIKE ANYTHING ELSE, BY ITS EFFECT ON YOU. Is it beautiful or is it ugly? Is it clean or is it dirty? Is it inspiring or is it oppressive? What effect does it have on your own spirit? I told one of the boys one time to weed the garden and he said‚ "Well, how am I going to know the difference between the weeds and the flowers?" I said,
32. "WELL, I'M NOT A HORTICULTURIST OR A FLORAL EXPERT EITHER, BUT I CAN TELL THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN WHAT IS UGLY AND WHAT IS BEAUTIFUL. IF IT'S PRETTY JUST LEAVE IT‚ EVEN IF IT'S A WEED!" Some people don't even like dandelions in their garden, but I like their pretty golden flowers. But I sure don't like the looks or the feel of nettles! They're ugly and they actually almost look Satanic, like those horrible monstrous vines that I saw in "Alice's Magic Garden." They were kind of an ugly dark green, almost kind of a sickening ugliness. Nettles are thorny and sticky and they sting. They look and feel ugly and their effect is ugly, but God created them just like He created the Devil.
33. GOD GIVES YOU ENOUGH SENSE BY HIS SPIRIT TO KNOW THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN WHAT IS GOOD AND BAD‚ then He gives you a choice between good and evil, Himself and the Devil. He gives you the sense to know the difference between flowers and weeds. So I just told this young lad, "I'm not familiar with the flora of this place either and I don't know which is which, so we'll just go by what it looks like. If it's ugly, we'll cut it down. If it's pretty or beautiful, we'll leave it. If it is ornate and it's attractive and it looks good, then leave it alone and let it grow."
34. "IF YOU CAN'T QUITE MAKE UP YOUR MIND ABOUT WHETHER IT'S GOING TO BE PRETTY OR UGLY, THEN LET IT GROW A LITTLE LONGER TO SEE WHETHER IT DEVELOPS FLOWERS OR THISTLES.—Whether it develops beautiful blossoms and blooms, or whether it just develops thorns and thistles, then we'll decide which is to be cut down." Like the Lord did about the tares and the wheat: The reason He said "let it grow until the harvest" was so you could tell the difference!
35. WHEN PLANTS ARE YOUNG AND TENDER, JUST BLADES CUTTING THROUGH THE SOIL, YOU CAN'T ALWAYS TELL THE DIFFERENCE.—a lot of them look alike, it could be grass‚ wheat or flowers, or in the long run it may turn out to be a filthy weed that just soaks up water and vitality from the soil and gives nothing in return but a stench, stink and stickers. It robs the soil of the plant food that needs to go to the good plants. But you can't tell the difference between them really until they get fairly well along and have grown up a little more so you can see what they're developing into. And sometimes, like the tares and the wheat, they're much alike until they come to harvest time and you can finally see which bears the right fruit.
36. AS THE LORD SAID, BY THEIR FRUITS YE SHALL KNOW THEM! And then He said He was going to send His angels into the fields, like the harvesters in the final harvest of the world to weed out the tares and harvest the good grain and place it in His garners—His Heavenly barns. So if you want to know the difference, just like the Lord said‚ whether it's flowers or weeds, good grain or tares, good works or evil, good fruit or bad‚ good literature or bad literature, good food or poison, good music or bad music, you can tell by whether its effects and fruits are good or bad, good or evil.
37. DOES THE MUSIC INSPIRE YOU AND DRAW YOU CLOSER TO THE LORD TO BE GOOD AND DO GOOD THINGS AND HAVE A GOOD EFFECT?—Or does it destroy you, shatter you, oppress you‚ make you feel rebellious‚ hateful, angry and destructive and want to hurt and destroy and do evil things. Does it make you want to seduce, violate and rape, kill and do violence and make war?
38. FILMS HAVE AN EFFECT ON PEOPLE TOO—either good or bad, to do good or evil. The effect that one film had on some young people the other night when they came out of the cinema was that they wanted to break and destroy things and commit vandalism—wreck the foyer of the theatre and rob the cashier!—So music is the same way!—By their fruits ye shall know them!
39. WHAT INSPIRES PEOPLE ABOUT OUR MUSIC IS THAT IT'S HAPPY MUSIC AND MAKES THEM HAPPY! It's good music and makes them want to be good. It's friendly music and makes them want to be friendly! It's Godly and makes them want them want to be Godly! It's saving music and makes them want to be saved! It's enjoyable music and makes them want to join in! It has good fruit and makes them want to do good and be good!—To joy—in-join!
40. BUT THE DEVIL'S MUSIC IS DEAFENING AND NOISY AND CONFUSING—LIKE THE ROAR OF A SATANIC BEAST or diabolical monster that wants to destroy! It has both a physical and a spiritual effect. It will literally destroy your eardrums and your hearing and deafen you physically. Its pulsating beats will cause your very body to throb with evil instincts and evil desires, evil reactions, as well as to get your spirit right on the Devil's channel! It will put you in tune with Satan, where you get his message and you carry out the Devil's will—his diabolical designs!
41. GOD'S MUSIC MAKES YOU WANT TO DO THE WILL OF GOD AND LOVE HIM AND LOVE THE CHILDREN OF GOD! The Devil's music makes you want to do the will of Satan and love Satan and the children of the Devil and do evil. So how do you tell the difference?—What music should you listen to?
42. I'VE TURNED ON THE RADIO OR TV SOMETIMES AND HEARD MUSIC WHICH I KNEW WAS INSPIRED BUT IT HAD AN EVIL FASCINATION FOR ME! It was gripping, like the tentacles of an octopus and you felt like you were being sucked into a vortex or maelstrom, almost irresistible! But it was evil and you could tell by the evil effects it had on you. It was the voice of Satan—the sirens of Satan, and it can get you in the spirit all right, the Devil's spirit! It'll get you right in tune with Lucifer!
43. BUT WHEN I LISTEN TO YOU KIDS SING, AND YOUR MUSIC, IT REALLY TURNS ME ON! It makes me love you Children of God and love the Lord! It inspires me to do His Will and want to help you all I can to reach the world with our saving message of His Love!
44. IF IT'S REALLY EFFECTIVE MUSIC, WHETHER GOOD OR BAD, IT WILL INSPIRE YOU TO ACTION! It will move you! It will cause you to emote, create emotions which put you in motion to do good or evil. How does it make you feel? Good or bad, good or evil, Godly or fiendish? What does it provoke you to do? What kind of action does it inspire you to do? Acts of love, kindness‚ mercy‚ compassion and helpfulness?—Or thoughts of hate, cruelty, vengeance, violence, destructiveness, vandalism, wastefulness‚ rape, murder and war!
45. ANOTHER KIND OF EVIL THAT IS JUST AS BAD: DOES IT LULL YOU TO SLEEP, INDIFFERENCE, INACTION‚ CARELESSNESS, INDOLENCE, NEGLIGENCE AND ZOMBIC STUPOR. If the Devil can't inspire you to take actual negative action and do his violent will, he'll try to put you to sleep and put you out of action like he has the church, so you at least won't get in his way!
46. WHAT KIND OF MUSIC ARE YOU LISTENING TO? Whose voice are you hearing? What does it do for you? What does it do to you? What does it do with you and what do you do because of it? What does it make you want to do and be, if anything? Does it bring life or death?—Good or evil? Does it make you want to live or die? Is it sad and depressing and does it make you want to quit‚ or is it happy and inspiring and does it make you want to live for the sake of others‚ to serve God and your fellowman?
47. THAT'S HOW YOU KNOW THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN GOOD AND BAD MUSIC. Just like you know the difference between any other good and bad in the world. Take the Devil and cut off his head, remove the capital "D," and you've still got evil! Chop off another head and he's still vile, and another and you've still got ill, and the last one and there's nothing left but "L"—Hell! So there's very little good about the Devil‚ if any. By their fruits ye shall know them.
48. YOU KNOW THE DIFFERENCE BY THE END RESULTS AND THE FINAL FRUITS. That's how you know whether our words and music are of the Lord. It's had good results‚ good fruit, so the tree cannot be evil.—It's gotta be good! It's gotta be God! Hallelujah! Amen! Listen and see if you can tell the difference. Watch and see if you can see it. Feel it! How does it make you feel? Inhale it! What is its fragrance? "O taste and see that the Lord is good! Blessed is the man that trusteth in Him." That's how you know. Come and see! You have to come before you can see. Believing is seeing!
49. TRY IT AND YOU'LL FIND OUT WHETHER IT'S GOOD OR EVIL. It's not hard to tell the difference if you're a Child of God! If you have the Spirit of God and are the Children of God, you can discern the difference! (1Cor.2:14; Isa.7:15,16; 1Kings 18:21; 1Jn.4:1,3; 3:14)
50. WHAT KIND OF MUSIC DO YOU LISTEN TO?—It could be an indication as to whether you're a child of the Devil or a Child of God!—Are you on the Devil's channel listening to his evil voice inspiring you to do evil?—Or are you on God's channel listening to His sweet loving Voice inspiring you to do good?
51. "CHOOSE YE THIS DAY WHOM YE SHALL SERVE! If God be God then serve Him! if Baal be your god, then serve him! As for me and my house we will serve the Lord!"—Amen? Praise the Lord!
52. COME SERVE AND LOVE GOD WITH US and enjoy His Heavenly Music in our Heavenly Homes of loving hearts that want to love you too! You'll love, enjoy and even learn to play the music that loves and helps and lifts and encourages and saves souls for God's Kingdom!—WHICH MUSIC TURNS YOUR KEY?
Copyright (c) 1998 by The Family