Grace Vs. Law

Dad
May 28, 2003

—MO—November 8, 1977DFO NO.635

1. IF YOU MISS THE PATTERN, AT FIRST IT'S NOT NOTICEABLE‚ but then as it grows and grows and grows it becomes much more obvious and causes more and more trouble later on.

2. YOU KNOW‚ IF YOU HAVE EVER HAD A PROBLEM WITH SOMEBODY ALONG THIS LINE, you are not really sure if they ever got completely cured and you can't help but wonder, when trouble begins to crop up and signs begin to show that something is haywire, "Well, I wonder if it is the same old problem?"

3. SOMETIME IN THEIR BACKGROUND, IN THE EARLY DAYS OF OUR HISTORY, THEY HAD A RECORD OF PRIDE, UNFAITHFULNESS, DISLOYALTY and jealousy. Some of these things go a long way back, but if they don't get the victory and they don't obey the Lord and they don't forgive and forget for whatever it is, it's like a little "root of bitterness"—it grows and it grows and pretty soon it's a pretty big tree. (Heb.12.)

4. TWO I'M PARTICULARLY THINKING OF RIGHT NOW BOTH HAD THE SAME PROBLEM OF NOT HAVING ENOUGH CONFIDENCE OR FAITH IN ME and they were prone to doubt Dad and what he said. Now these recent doctrines‚ they are enough to try churchy men's souls‚ and as churchy a background as they had, it could be that some things are a little difficult for them to take.

5. WHAT'S DRAGGING THEIR WHOLE TERRITORY DOWN, WHAT'S DRAGGING DOWN THEIR STATS? Why is God withdrawing His blessings?—What's their attitude, real honest attitude, towards FFing and the FF Letters?

6. WE COULD BLAME IT ON A VARIETY OF THINGS, BUT IT'S GOT SOMETHING TO DO WITH GOD AND THEIR RELATIONSHIP WITH THE LORD. Now I'll tell you one thing right now‚ that God won't bless if they have had doubts about me or the Letters and some troublemaker has instilled some of his doubts into them. I know God wouldn't bless that.

7. THERE'S ALWAYS A REASON AND IT'S ALWAYS GOT SOMETHING TO DO WITH THE LORD. In some way you are either not obeying the Lord or something in your life is displeasing the Lord. I mean, if they had the slightest thing in their hearts against me, the Lord wouldn't bless it.

8. WELL, THERE IS CERTAINLY SOMETHING WRONG, THAT'S FOR SURE. They can blame it on whatever they want to blame it on‚ but we have had more problems and more trouble and worse kinds of it in other places and we're still going strong in those places.

9. IF ANYTHING, WE HAVE TAKEN ADVANTAGE OF OUR HANDICAPS AND TURNED THEM INTO ASSETS and are doing even better, like in all these terrible attacks, the Lord has turned them to our advantage.

10. WHAT COULD BE WRONG? If they are obeying the Lord and are faithful and loyal and trusting and believing, then God's got to bless them. If He's not blessing them‚ it's not God's fault. Something's wrong somewhere.

11. SEE‚ IF THEY HAVE MADE ANYTHING TAKE PRECEDENCE OVER THE WORD, over the Letters, if their hearts have been in those products and their sales and their popularity with the kids and all that kind of thing—(in fact, the person they've been listening to a lot was always crazy about all that kind of stuff)—God won't bless it above the Word!

12. IN OTHER WORDS, THEY HAVE BEEN DOING MORE OF THEIR OWN THING‚ INSTEAD OF REALLY PROMOTING THE LETTERS. I mean that is the same thing some other leaders used to get off on. They'd get some project and some things that they were interested in‚ always interested in their own thing more than the Letters or Dad, or really in the Spirit.

13. SO IF THEY HAVE BEEN LED ASTRAY IN THAT FIELD, THE LORD WOULDN'T BLESS IT.—No matter how much their sales went for that kind of thing. It's fine as long as you keep it in its place, but when it starts taking the preponderance of your time and pre-empting other things and causing you to neglect the Word or the output of the Word, the Lord just won't bless it if you put it above the Word.

14. OR IF THEY'RE NOT OBEYING THE LETTERS AND WHOLEHEARTEDLY IN ACCORD IN SPIRIT, if they discourage FFing, either openly or by lack of example because they're unwilling to share their own wife, God is not going to bless it. God is not blessing the area because something is wrong with somebody who is leading others astray.

15. LORD, YOU KNOW WHAT THE TROUBLE IS AND I BELIEVE YOU ARE LEADING OUR THOUGHTS and guiding us with our thinking concentrating on them and trying to trace back to what might be the trouble. These things come back to us Lord about former unfaithfulness and former disloyalty and former doubts that they used to have about leadership, Lord.

16. WE'RE SURE, LORD, THAT THESE RECENT LETTERS HAVE CERTAINLY TESTED THEIR FAITH! Some of these experiences are hard enough even for me to believe, Lord, and they certainly would test the faith of those that are weak in faith, the weaker brethren. And if they are still weak, Lord, if they still have a little disloyalty back in the back of their heads and little doubts, we're sure the Devil is playing on it and aggravating it.

17. IT'S LIKE AN INFECTION, LORD, THOSE LITTLE ROOTS OF BITTERNESS, DOUBT AND DISLOYALTY that date so far back, Lord, but are still causing trouble. We know they are causing trouble no doubt in several areas because these people have never changed.

18. THAT'S STRANGE, THE SCRIPTURE COMES TO ME, "O FOOLISH GALATIANS‚" ISN'T THAT THE ONE? "YE DID RUN WELL, WHO HATH BEWITCHED YOU?" Now that would indicate that somebody has led the leader of this problem area astray, and my opinion would be that it is a person he has long looked up to and confided in, although this man has a history of spiritual weaknesses.

19. IN HIS TROUBLES HE'S PROBABLY BEEN LISTENING TO THIS PERSON TOO MUCH FOR A LONG TIME, and now that he is beginning to lose the blessing of the Lord and really having big problems‚ he has probably turned to him even more. What is that Scripture, Honey?—Look it up.

20. (MARIA: GAL.5:7: "YE DID RUN WELL; WHO DID HINDER YOU THAT YE SHOULD NOT OBEY THE TRUTH?") How about that! (Maria: And in Gal.3:1: "O foolish Galatians, who hath bewitched you, that ye should not obey the truth?") See, the Lord so often gives you a Scripture that is the key to the situation, that unlocks the whole mystery of what the problem is.

21. WHEN HE FIRST WENT THERE HE DIDN'T HAVE ANYBODY BUT THE LORD and he just leaned on the Lord and got desperate and looked to the Lord for guidance and he did marvellously. He just leaned on the Lord for everything, leaned on the Lord for guidance and he did tremendous.

22. BUT THEN‚ YOU SEE, AS HE GOT SUCCESSFUL AND WAS BLESSED FINANCIALLY and materially and everything else, you know sometimes that can go to your head and make you forget that it was the Lord, and you start leaning on the flesh on the finances and on people more‚ instead of on the Lord. It could be the thing that is responsible for the whole thing.

23. SO THERE IS SOMETHING WRONG THAT THEY ARE NOT OBEYING THE TRUTH, SOMEBODY HAS BEWITCHED THEM. They are not obeying the truth, and I wouldn't be a bit surprised if it is because of this man I played down. It was a pretty heavy blow to his pride, because I almost exposed him before the whole world once in a Letter I wrote.

24. I KEPT HAVING THIS TROUBLE WITH HIM AND IT DIDN'T SEEM TO DO A BIT OF GOOD TO TELL HIM, so finally I just almost had to tell the whole world what his problem was. Well‚ for a man as proud and self-righteous as he was, I must admit it was a pretty tough blow to expose him to his public.—I wonder if he has ever forgiven me for that? Read that whole chapter‚ Honey.

25. ("STAND FAST THEREFORE IN THE LIBERTY WHEREWITH CHRIST HATH MADE US FREE, and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage. Behold, I Paul say unto you‚ that if ye be circumcised, Christ shall profit you nothing."—Gal.5:1-2.)

26. APPARENTLY THEY WERE GETTING SUCKED IN AGAIN TO LEGALISM and going back to old law-keeping in their self-righteous self-works trip. (Maria: "For I testify again to every man that is circumcised‚ that he is a debtor to do the whole law." v.3) See, once they start back in that direction there's no stopping place.

27. IF THEY HAD THE SLIGHTEST DOUBT ABOUT THE LETTERS AND OBEYING THEM, THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS HALF-WAY OBEDIENCE.—You know what I mean? There is no such thing as half obeying. Another Scripture comes to me in which the Lord said,

28. "WHY CALL YE ME, LORD, LORD, AND DO NOT THE THINGS WHICH I SAY?" (Lk.6:46.) And they said to him, "But Lord, have we not prophesied in Thy Name? And in Thy Name cast out devils? And in Thy Name done many wonderful works?" (Mt.7:22.) The whole idea was, "Yes‚ but you didn't obey me!" They did all those things apparently in their own strength and their own will and their own way, but they didn't do what God wanted them to do.

29. SEE, IF YOU HAVE EVEN THE SLIGHTEST RESERVATION IN YOUR MIND AS TO WHETHER THIS IS TRUE:—"What's this kick Dad has gotten off onto‚ this new track?"—If you've got the slightest doubt in your mind about it, that is really dangerous because that can lead you all the way back.

30. WELL, IN OTHER WORDS, IF I AM WRONG, WHO IS RIGHT? If they doubted Paul as to his teaching, who were they then going to turn to? Who did they turn to? They turned back to their old churchianity, their old legalistic works.

31. SEE, THEY'VE GOT TO HAVE SOMETHING TO HOLD ONTO. They've got to have something to have faith in and something to follow. And what have they got?—If not me, then back to the System!

32. WHERE COULD THEY GO BUT BACK INTO THE SYSTEM from which they came?—Just like Judas tried to do, back to the System. The Galatians were turning back. There were some amongst them who weren't agreeing with Paul's letters and they were leading the others astray‚ back to their old works trip and their own self-righteousness. Go ahead and read.

33. (MARIA: "CHRIST IS BECOME OF NO EFFECT UNTO YOU, WHOSOEVER OF YOU ARE JUSTIFIED BY THE LAW; YE ARE FALLEN FROM GRACE." v.4) See, if they have a reservation about even one little thing, then they've got to go all the way back. Just like Paul said, if you are going to be circumcised you've got to keep the whole law.

34. ONCE THEY SURRENDER ONE POINT ON ONE ISSUE THEN IT KNOCKS THEIR WHOLE FAITH DOWN. If they agree that I'm wrong about one thing, then they believe that I could be wrong about it all. That's why in court if a witness lies about one thing, they throw his whole testimony out, all of it.—No matter even if all the rest is true, they bar it from the case if he has perjured himself in only one thing. If they start doubting me about one thing‚ where do they stop?

35. THIS ONE MAN HAS QUITE OBVIOUSLY HAD SOME DOUBTS since he has been there.—Some little things he had like this dream, waking the other poor fellow and getting him all shook up in the middle of the night saying, "I believe Dad is dead and they are just not telling us."

36. HE HAD SOME CRAZY DREAM THAT I HAD DIED AND YOU GUYS WERE NOW RUNNING THE SHOW. You know they would be tempted to believe that again, you know why? Because I used to answer all their little things with all my own personal notes, but now I have given it over to you to take care of and answer because I can't get involved. So now they get letters from you instead of me and they don't get their reports back all marked up by me but just from you. I wouldn't be a bit surprised if he's reviving those old rumours again.

37. YOU CAN SEE HOW SERIOUS IT'S GETTING. WE'VE GOT TO FIND OUT WHO'S OBEYING AND WHO'S NOT OBEYING, if I have to start at the bottom from scratch and start all over again with people who are willing to obey. I'm not going to put up with a bunch of people who are just out there peddling lit that is years old just to make money to live! That's not what we are in God's business for!

38. WE'RE IN THIS TO OBEY GOD AND TO FOLLOW HIS LEADERSHIP and to do what He's told us to do, but if they are still living on old bread crusts from ten years ago, that's not going to do us any good today.

39. IT'S ALMOST LIKE THEY ARE HANGING ON TO ALL THAT OLD STUFF BECAUSE THEY'RE AFRAID OF THE NEW REVELATIONS and the new wine. They are scared to death of it, and so they just sort of wish it would go away, and get real absorbed in other things.

40. "YEAH, LET'S PUT THE OLD WINE IN SOME NEW BOTTLES! Let's put it in new jackets. We can't even publish anything Dad is writing now." Well, they are not going to have an excuse now‚ with the whole stream of GP Letters I'm getting out now.

41. WELL IF WE CAN'T GET THE REVOLUTION TO OBEY, MAYBE WE CAN GET THE PUBLIC TO OBEY! That's what Paul did: He said from now on I'm going to quit going to the old Jews, they won't listen. "From henceforth I will go to the Gentiles!" (Acts 18:6.)

42. (R: IT'S AMAZING HOW THESE PEOPLE WHO ARE GETTING FFed JUST ACCEPT EVERYTHING we tell them with childlike faith!) Well, maybe we are going to have to start a whole new revolution with them, they could do it! Then let these guys have the old thing—that's what they always wanted.

43. THESE GUYS ALWAYS DID WANT TO DO THEIR OWN THING and have their own revolution and not have to follow me or obey me, some groan every time they get a new Letter. Boy, this Scripture has really got it pinned down!

44. ("FOR WE THROUGH THE SPIRIT WAIT FOR THE HOPE OF RIGHTEOUSNESS BY FAITH. For in Jesus Christ neither circumcision availeth any thing, nor uncircumcision; but faith which worketh by love." v.5‚6)

45. SEE THEY WANTED TO BE PROUD OF THEIR OBEDIENCE TO THE LAW OR THEIR DISOBEDIENCE to the law. You can get proud of your freedom, like some of these guys have done, and gone a little too far with it.

46. BUT THE ONLY THING THAT COUNTS IS FAITH; faith in God and His Word and obedience to the Lord. That's what counts! Not whether you are circumcised. Not whether you are sleeping with the right woman or the wrong woman.

47. ARE YOU OBEYING THE LORD?—THAT'S WHAT COUNTS!—If you've got the Faith and the Truth and the Word and obey!—That's what counts!

48. ("YE DID RUN WELL; WHO DID HINDER YOU THAT YE SHOULD NOT OBEY the truth? This persuasion cometh not of him that calleth you." v.7,8) Somebody is persuading somebody obviously. Whoever is persuading them along this line‚ it's not coming from the Lord.

49. ("A LITTLE LEAVEN LEAVENETH THE WHOLE LUMP." v.9) Well look at their leadership falling apart, something's wrong somewhere if that's the kind of leadership they've got. Their leadership is failing.

50. ("I HAVE CONFIDENCE IN YOU THROUGH THE LORD, THAT YE WILL BE NONE OTHERWISE MINDED; but he that troubleth you shall bear his judgment, whosoever he be." v.10) Obviously there was a troublemaker. ("And I brethren, if I yet preach circumcision‚ why do I yet suffer persecution? Then is the offence of the cross ceased." v.11)

51. IT'S FUNNY HOW THESE TROUBLEMAKERS HAVE A TENDENCY TO GRAVITATE TOWARDS EACH OTHER and they get together sooner or later, just like our enemies and backsliders; birds of a feather flock together. Well, if they go in the same direction they will get together sooner or later sympathising with each other. "Well, you know we don't agree with them on this FF thing, we're not practicing it here."

52. THIS LITTLE FF REPORT FORM IS GOING TO BE ONE OF THE BIGGEST BOMBS WE HAVE EVER HAD. When they get that in the mail and realise they are going to have to sit down and say on paper in black and white what they have done or not done, and that we are going to get the report, that's going to be one of the biggest revelations we have had for a long time!

53. THAT'S ALMOST AS BIG AND BAD AS WHEN WE FOUND OUT THEY WEREN'T DISTRIBUTING THE NNNs on the streets, when we found out how many people weren't obeying. Well then, if we start applying the "New Revolution" methods of persuasion that we did on other issues, we may have a new revolution on our hands for sure! The Lord says you can't put new wine into old bottles. (Mt.9:17.) Well, I wonder what happens when you put old wine into new bottles?

54. ("I WOULD THEY WERE EVEN CUT OFF WHICH TROUBLE YOU." v.12) Ah ha! Obviously there are troublemakers. It's better to cut them off, better to even cut them off!

55. MOST OF OUR KIDS DON'T KNOW THE OLD BIBLE DOCTRINES THAT WELL. They don't know that much about the Bible, they never studied or learned about it or had it drilled into them every day like some of these guys with churchy backgrounds.

56. SO THEY JUST TAKE WHAT I SAY WITHOUT QUESTION; they don't even know any Bible verses to use against the Letters because they don't know the Bible that well. They just trust me and trust the Lord, and love me and take my word for it.

57. BUT SOME OF THESE PEOPLE HAVE HAD THEIR RESERVATIONS AND THEIR DOUBTS FOR A GOOD MANY YEARS‚ and have had their questions sometimes, and due to their jealousy and wanting to do their own thing and have their own thing‚ have been a little bit disloyal and unfaithful in the past, especially those of strong churchy Biblical backgrounds. Therefore some of the things that I have said are going to raise questions in their minds and I'm sure the Devil is going to supply them with lots of Scriptures and say, "Well now‚ but, the Bible says so and so, and Paul said so and so and so on."

58. THAT'S WHY IN MY DEFENSE IN "GOD'S ONLY LAW IS LOVE" I STUCK STRICTLY TO THE WORDS OF CHRIST and the Gospels and didn't get into the Epistles. There are quite a few things I don't agree with Paul on, and I think I have as much right to my opinion as he had to his.

59. BUT WHAT IF YOU TAKE PAUL'S WORD AS LAW, LIKE THE CHURCH DOES? Everything Paul said is total absolute law, they claim, and that's it! Even if he says, "This speak I, not the Lord" (1Cor.7:12)‚ it still came from Paul so they think it is right. These conservatives say, "Of course it's right; absolutely unquestionably right! If God didn't say it, the Apostles said it, and how can you question what he said, the Apostle Paul?"

60. WELL, I'M SORRY TO SAY, I DON'T AGREE WITH ALL THAT PAUL SAID, and I'm sure, dear Paul you understand. I think right now he is probably sorry for some of the things he said and certainly for some of the things he did. I've had to back down on some of my stands, he ought to be willing to back down on some of his.

61. MY MOTHER DIDN'T AGREE WITH PAUL ALL TOGETHER BY ANY MEANS. She was convinced that he was a woman-hater and that he was probably a poor loser who had gotten pretty well burned and therefore didn't have too much confidence in women.

62. WHAT HE SAID ABOUT WOMEN IN THE CHURCH AND ALL THAT‚ WAS TOTALLY CONTRADICTORY TO WHAT THE HOLY GHOST SAID through the mouth of Peter right in the second chapter of Acts. (Ac.2:17-18.) How are they going to keep silence in the church if they are going to prophesy, or how are they going to prophesy if they are going to keep silence in the church? So there are quite a few contradictory things about Paul.

63. HE CERTAINLY MADE ONE HELL OF A MISTAKE WHEN HE WENT BACK TO THE TEMPLE, went back to the Jews and tried to pacify them. It was obvious that he was on the wrong track, and he went in spite of every warning that God's prophets gave him not to go. But stubborn Jew that he was‚

64. "I GO BACK TO JERUSALEM, KNOWING THAT ONLY BONDS AND AFFLICTIONS AWAIT ME THERE." (Ac.20:22-23.) In spite of all the warnings God gave him not to go he went anyway, and it didn't do him anything but cause him trouble, and in two years or more he was dead, and he spent those two years as a prisoner.

65. THE LORD USED HIM ANYWAY. HE WROTE A LOT OF LETTERS and he got to witness to Caesar's household and all that, and perhaps it was of the Lord in order to get him to go to Rome. Maybe that's why the Lord let it happen, but it certainly didn't do the Jews any good and it certainly didn't bring about any compromise or peace with the Temple.

66. SO IT WAS JUST A MATTER OF GOD USING HIS MISTAKE FOR HIS GLORY; it didn't vindicate or justify Paul in what he did. So some of those old-time churchy Paul worshippers are apt to have quite a few doubts and questions about the things I say.

67. SO YOU HAVE GOT TO BELIEVE IN THE LORD AND IN ME‚ that I am a new prophet of a new day of a whole lot of new things that Paul never even thought about! (Maria: Some of these people, if you look back‚ seemed to spend a lot of time studying the Epistles, the writings of Paul.)

68. I WOULDN'T BE A BIT SURPRISED IF SOME OF THIS NEW WINE HAS DRIVEN THEM BACK TO THE OLD to check it out. Well, I'll tell you, it certainly doesn't check with some of Paul's wine. And if they consider Paul infallible, then I've got to be wrong in quite a few things.

69. THIS IS EXACTLY WHAT'S KEPT THE CHURCH IN SUCH A RUT FOR SO MANY YEARS. They got to where they totally bound themselves entirely to the Bible with no extra-curricular revelations of any kind, that that was the last word and that's the end of it!—Well at least until the Pentecostals came along, but then they almost got in that rut too. It took until the Latter Rain Body folks came along with prophecy to finally break out of the mold that God had said everything He wanted to say and it was all in the Bible and you didn't need any more. Thank God for the revival of modern day prophecy!

70. A LOT OF THINGS THAT PAUL SAID WERE RIGHT FOR HIS TIME AND HIS DAY, BUT THEY DON'T NECESSARILY BIND US TODAY. If God has spoken at all and shown me these things at all, if it's the Lord at all, it is His Words for today and it supercedes anything else that has ever been given, if it is different, if it is a change. That's what the Christian era did to the Mosaic era.

71. THE CHRISTIAN ERA WAS A TOTAL CHANGE, and it totally outdated‚ outmoded and overthrew the whole works. That's the fight that Paul was having!—Here he is having it right in this passage.

72. IF THE EARLY CHRISTIANS HAD SAID, "NOW WAIT, WE HAVE TO CHECK ALL OF THIS OUT WITH THE MOSAIC LAW and we still have to keep the law.—It's got to check out with the Scriptures, it's got to check out with the law!"‚ they never would have broken away from the Mosaic Law.

73. OUR REVOLUTION HAS ALMOST BEEN AS BIG A BREAK WITH THE PAST AS THE COMING OF CHRIST and His message was with the legalism of the past of the Mosaic era. Right? It's been like a whole new dispensation of grace.

74. THANK YOU LORD FOR THE ANSWERS, thank You Lord. As soon as we started praying Lord, You began to reveal to us, Lord, You confirmed to us. Thank You Lord for giving us leading and guidance and wisdom, Lord. We can't do it in our own strength.

75. THEIR LEADERSHIP IS FAILING. It's quite obviously failing, so something is wrong with it. And God gave us this as the answer. When I get something from God I cannot doubt it, it's got to be right. Somebody there is causing trouble and is leading the leadership astray. Read on Honey.

76. ("FOR, BRETHREN‚ YE HAVE BEEN CALLED UNTO LIBERTY; ONLY USE NOT LIBERTY FOR AN OCCASION TO THE FLESH, but by love serve one another. For all the law is fulfilled in one word, even in this; Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself." v.13,14.

77. "BUT IF YE BITE AND DEVOUR ONE ANOTHER, TAKE HEED THAT YE BE NOT CONSUMED one of another." v.15) In other words, they are talking about us behind our backs and disagreeing with us behind our backs.

78. THEY ARE BITING AND DESTROYING EACH OTHER'S FAITH. I wouldn't be surprised if the Devil through this troublemaker even played up the fact that we haven't seen them all these years and we've neglected them and Dad isn't really concerned.

79. WELL, THE DEVIL IS PRETTY CLEVER TO EVEN GO SO FAR AS GIVE THIS TROUBLEMAKER DECEIVING DREAMS which he spread around trying to get the leadership stirred up against Maria. Those dreams certainly were not of the Lord. I mean, even if she were driving, there couldn't be a more careful driver as far as this revolution is concerned, and she doesn't even like to drive. Don't worry, I'm still in the driver's seat, and it's Maria who's back there helping with the heavy loads of Letters. She works harder than I do.

80. WELL, I KNOW THESE PEOPLE DID HAVE PRETTY GOOD FELLOWSHIP THERE WITH THE LORD AT ONE TIME and were getting things from the Lord and the Lord was leading and guiding. But if they've gotten out of fellowship with the Lord and if they feel like there is some little thing in their life that they're ashamed of or isn't right, well, that can interfere with their faith and their ability to stay in contact with the Lord.

81. WELL‚ I'LL TELL YOU, IF I HADN'T GOTTEN THESE THINGS STRAIGHT FROM THE LORD some of them would have been hard for me to believe myself! If I didn't know I got it from the Lord, some of them might have been pretty hard for me to take.

82. BUT I KNOW WHERE I GOT THEM, BUT THESE OTHER GUYS USED TO DOUBT ME ANYWAY so it might be pretty easy for them to sort of wonder, "I wonder who is getting dear old Dad into all this stuff?" He could have actually gathered from the Letters or gotten some crazy screwed up idea that Maria was the one that got me into some of these new doctrines, such as FFing.

83. (MARIA: I THINK HE DOESN'T LIKE WOMEN LEADERS EITHER.) Oh, that was one of the strong points of the church he came out of. They didn't even let my mother, while we were missionaries, speak in his church! So that's the kind of background he came out of.

84. WHEN I CAME TO LAURENTIDE HE REALLY DIDN'T WANT ME TO TEACH those kids, he wanted to do it by himself. He really got hurt about me coming in and taking over. Now if he had been in the right spirit and had the faith in me he should have had, he wouldn't have hesitated. He would have been tickled pink to have me come. So I had to give him back some class time to appease him and make him happy. Go ahead Honey.

85. ("THIS I SAY THEN, WALK IN THE SPIRIT, and ye shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh. For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit‚ and the Spirit against the flesh: and these are contrary the one to the other: so that ye cannot do the things that ye would." v.16,17.

86. "BUT IF YE BE LED OF THE SPIRIT, YE ARE NOT UNDER THE LAW." v.18) I believe the Lord is hitting the nail on the head. Somebody back there has gotten under bondage to the law, the old ways and the old wine‚ and apparently has been either rejecting or disobeying the new wine, or at least doubting it.

87. ("NOW THE WORKS OF THE FLESH ARE MANIFEST, which are these; Adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, envyings, murders‚ drunkenness, revellings, and such like: of the which I tell you before, as I have also told you in time past‚ that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God." v.19-21.)

88. HE'S ALWAYS TALKING ABOUT GRACE BUT THEN HE TURNS RIGHT AROUND and says, "You had better be good or you won't make it"—the law. He had some hangovers. I am not saying that these things are right, but I'm just saying that he's as good as saying that if they do anything like that they really don't have faith, and they won't make it even though they've accepted Jesus by grace through faith—which is contrary to his own doctrine that he majors upon throughout his entire writings. Well, I confess that if I knew somebody was guilty of all those things or some of them all the time, I would even tend to doubt their salvation myself, if they couldn't have any victory.

89. ("BUT THE FRUIT OF THE SPIRIT IS LOVE, joy‚ peace, longsuffering‚ gentleness, goodness, faith‚ meekness, temperance—against such there is no law. And they that are Christ's have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts." v.22-24.

90. "IF WE LIVE IN THE SPIRIT, LET US ALSO WALK IN THE SPIRIT. Let us not be desirous of vain glory, provoking one another, envying one another." v.25-26)

91. WELL, THAT IS ONE OF THE PROBLEMS OF THIS TROUBLEMAKER—HIS DESIRE FOR VAIN GLORY AND ENVY. He always wanted to be a big shot and leader and to be worshipped and followed. I wasn't surprised when I found out that he spend most of his time writing cards and letters to his personal mailing list and keeping up his following and answering his fan mail!

92. LET'S READ THE OTHER CHAPTER, GALATIANS 3, THE FIRST VERSE OF WHICH THE LORD HAS ALSO GIVEN US FOR THIS SPECIFIC SITUATION‚ together with Gal. 5:7. (Maria: You got the verse the Lord gave you as a combination of phrases from both these verses without realising at the time that they both contained the words "that ye should not obey the truth.")

93. THE WORDS THAT CAME TO ME AS CLEAR AS ANYTHING WERE, "YE DID RUN WELL, WHO HATH BEWITCHED YOU?" That's what I got and I knew that one was in Galatians, "O foolish Galatians, who hath bewitched you." I didn't know the other one was there too—thank You Lord!

94. ("O FOOLISH GALATIANS, WHO HATH BEWITCHED YOU, that ye should not obey the truth, before whose eyes Jesus Christ hath been evidently set forth, crucified among you? This only would I learn of you, Received ye the Spirit by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith?" Gal. 3:1-2.)

95. SEE, THERE THEY ARE HAVING A PROBLEM, A BATTLE BETWEEN LEGALISM AND GRACE. You see, when people don't want to obey the grace they always return to their legalism in self-defense, they always go back to the law to prove their point.

96. WHEN PEOPLE ARE NOT WILLING TO RECEIVE THE REVELATIONS GRACE GIVES, the freedom that grace gives and the new wine that grace gives, they always turn back to their legalism and the law to prove their points‚ that it is not according to the law‚ not according to Moses, not according to the Bible, not according to Paul.—See, when they are not willing to receive the new wine that grace gives and the new truth, they go back to their law and their self–righteousness and their old rules, "back to the Book!"

97. IF IT WEREN'T FOR THE HISTORICAL VALUE OF THE OLD TESTAMENT and what they went through and everything else, as far as its value for us today, except for the fact that it's a valuable example of the history of the Jews and God's dealings with them, especially their dandy bad examples,

98. IF IT WEREN'T FOR THE BEAUTIES OF THE ANCIENT PROPHECIES, PSALMS, POETRY FOR TODAY and tomorrow‚ you could throw out virtually all the old history and the Mosaic Law and we wouldn't even need it anymore, except to show us what it was and what it was like.

99. WHEN THESE PEOPLE START GOING BACK TO THESE OLD LEGALISTIC SCRIPTURES, EVEN SOME OF THE LEGALISM OF PAUL, THEN THEY ARE TURNING THEIR BACKS ON THE FREEDOM OF GRACE and the liberty which the Lord has given us and the new wine and the new truth and new revelations which are for us today, here and now, and not for Paul and his day, much less Moses and his day!

100. ("ARE YE SO FOOLISH? HAVING BEGUN IN THE SPIRIT, ARE YE NOW MADE PERFECT BY THE FLESH? Have ye suffered so many things in vain?—If it be yet in vain." v.3,4.)

101. WHEN THESE LEADERS FIRST WENT THERE THEY JUST TOTALLY DEPENDED ON THE LORD and were desperate with God and prayed and got their directions from the Lord, and they did great before this problem case came along. But it seems like they've been sort of sliding downhill ever since, particularly of late. At first they were listening to the Lord more than him‚ and his influence was not so great.

102. BUT IF THIS LEADER OF LATE HAS BEEN A LITTLE RELUCTANT TO BELIEVE IN THE LETTERS AND THE FF-ING, if he has any reservations about it at all‚ of course the Enemy could use this troublemaker in the background to play that up. Well, somebody is obviously leading somebody astray, from this answer we got—the Lord cannot be wrong—this is the answer. (Maria: And both chapters are exactly along the same line.—A battle between the liberty of grace and the bondage of the law.)

103. ("HE THEREFORE THAT MINISTERETH TO YOU THE SPIRIT, AND WORKETH MIRACLES AMONG YOU, DOETH HE IT BY THE WORKS OF THE LAW, OR BY THE HEARING OF FAITH?" v.5.) Now, in regard to that passage, I think of myself, in a way. In other words‚ now, are you going to believe this by faith or not? Am I doing this by works of the law or are we doing it by faith? In other words, you've got to have pure naked faith to believe it because it's not according to the law!

104. ("EVEN AS ABRAHAM BELIEVED GOD, AND IT WAS ACCOUNTED TO HIM FOR RIGHTEOUSNESS." v.6) It was Abraham's faith, his willingness to believe and obey, that was his righteousness, because he didn't even have any law to keep!

105. ("KNOW YE THEREFORE THAT THEY WHICH ARE OF FAITH, THE SAME ARE THE CHILDREN OF ABRAHAM." v.7) Amen, it takes faith to believe it. ("And the scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the heathen through faith, preached before the gospel unto Abraham, saying, In thee shall all nations be blessed." v.8.

106. "SO THEN THEY WHICH BE OF FAITH ARE BLESSED WITH FAITHFUL ABRAHAM." v.9) Not by work of law, "for by the works of the law shall no flesh be justified." (Gal.2:16.) Purely by faith and purely by grace‚ not by any kind of works.

107. ("FOR AS MANY AS ARE OF THE WORKS OF THE LAW ARE UNDER THE CURSE: For it is written, Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things which are written in the book of the law to do them." v.10)

108. IF THEY GO BACK TO THE LAW EVEN ON ONE POINT THEY ARE OBLIGATED TO KEEP THE WHOLE LAW, just like he says back there in that other passage, about yielding on the matter of even one point like circumcision. See, if they will surrender even one point and feel that in any one point that they have got to be bound by the law and it contradicts what the Lord has shown, then they are going to go back to the whole works and there is no stopping place!

109. YOU'VE EITHER GOT TO GO ALL THE WAY BY GRACE OR YOU'VE GOT TO GO ALL THE WAY BY LAW. ("But that no man is justified by the law in the sight of God, it is evident: for, The just shall live by faith." v.11.

110. "AND THE LAW IS NOT OF FAITH: but‚ The man that doeth them shall live in them." v.12) Now that's a pretty strong statement, "the law is not of faith"! Whew, that must have been a slap in the face for those old Jews‚ and I mean it still is today for any of our people who feel more bound by the old laws and the old words. I said in "Old Bottles",

111. IF YOU ARE GOING BY LAST YEAR'S INSTRUCTIONS, THEN YOU ARE WAY BEHIND, BECAUSE WE ARE GETTING NEW THINGS ALL THE TIME and ever changing. We're revolutionary, constantly revolving. I wonder how they took things like "Mocumba" and "Atlanta"? They were pretty strong.

112. ("CHRIST HATH REDEEMED US FROM THE CURSE OF THE LAW, BEING MADE A CURSE FOR US: where it is written, Cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree." v.13) That means if they go back to the old law they sure are cursed, and if they've had that problem it's no wonder the whole thing is going down!

113. I TELL YOU, DOUBT IS CONTAGIOUS‚ DOUBT IS CONTAGIOUS! IF THE LEADERS HAVE DOUBTS, THEIR UNDER–LEADERS ARE BOUND TO SUFFER, are bound to feel it and know it, and they communicate it right on down the line. It's obvious they have doubts on the matter of FFing or there wouldn't be so many people saying, "Well, our leaders said we can't," or "We are waiting for word," right on down to the bottom!

114. SEE, NOW PAUL WAS HAVING THE SAME PROBLEM WITH SOME PEOPLE WHO COULDN'T HANDLE THE LIBERTY.—They took it as a license, lustful license, and went to the extreme. But you see‚ that kind of people, when you rebuke them, they are apt to go back the other way to the opposite extreme.

115. THEY ARE REALLY WEAK IN FAITH, THEY ARE WEAKER BRETHREN. They can't take it, because they go too far if they do, and if they don't, then they hang back altogether. They can't trust themselves. And obviously it says that somehow or other they are not obeying.

116. ("THAT THE BLESSING OF ABRAHAM MIGHT COME ON THE GENTILES THROUGH JESUS CHRIST; that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith." v.14) That's almost like our fish, receiving really by faith and not by law, even by methods which some of them deem to be against the law‚ purely by grace.

117. WELL, THE GENTILES ARE RECEIVING IT, BUT I'M BEGINNING TO WONDER ABOUT SOME OF OUR OLD JEWS, our old bottles! Our little babe fishes are receiving it, but I wonder about some of our old bottle leadership?

118. IF THEY ARE NOT OBEYING THE LETTERS, THEY ARE NOT BELIEVING THEM, and if they are not believing them, they are not receiving them. If they are not believing and receiving the Words they are not obeying, right? ("Brethren, I speak after the manner of men;

119. "THOUGH IT BE BUT A MAN'S COVENANT, YET IF IT BE CONFIRMED, NO MAN DISANNULLETH‚ OR ADDETH THERETO." v.15) Well, in this particular case, even though it came through a man, me, if God confirmed it, who is going to be able to refute it? And God has certainly confirmed it with fruit, proof of the pudding, in the good fruit of FFing!

120. ("NOW TO ABRAHAM AND HIS SEED WERE THE PROMISES MADE. He saith not, And to seeds‚ as of many; but as of one, And to thy seed, which is Christ." v.16) Well, that lets everybody out who doesn't believe, who doesn't receive grace, including the Jews and the old bottles!

121. ("AND THIS I SAY, THAT THE COVENANT, THAT WAS CONFIRMED BEFORE OF GOD IN CHRIST, the law, which was 430 years after, cannot disannul, that it should make the promise of none effect." v.17) He sure knew how to pull the documentations on them! God bless Paul! He was a real Word-wielder.

122. HE DIDN'T JUST GO BACK TO THE LAW, HE WENT BACK TO THE ORIGINAL GRACE, the original promises that preceded the law. Praise God! Much more so, we should not go back nearly 2000 years to back up old-bottle laws instead of living by God's recent revelations of today.

123. ("FOR IF THE INHERITANCE BE OF THE LAW, IT IS NO MORE OF PROMISE: but God gave it to Abraham by promise." v.18). Grace, grace, grace! ("Wherefore then serveth the law? It was added because of transgressions, till the seed should come to whom the promise was made; and it was ordained by angels in the hand of the mediator." v.19)

124. THE LORD REALLY PREFERRED THE WHOLE THING BY GRACE AND FAITH TO BEGIN WITH‚ THAT WAS HIS ORIGINAL PLAN, but He had to crack down with the rules because they didn't follow grace and faith and love. But keeping the rules didn't save them‚ they only showed them where they were wrong.

125. ("NOW A MEDIATOR IS NOT A MEDIATOR OF ONE, but God is one." What does that mean?) Nobody can be a mediator of one, it's got to be between two people or two parties, in other words. ("But God is one." v.20.) Jesus, in other words, had to become our mediator between us and God. I think he's trying there to prove that there was more involved than just God Himself. God is only one, but the mediator had to involve somebody else.

126. ("IS THE LAW THEN AGAINST THE PROMISES OF GOD? God forbid: for if there had been a law given which could have given life, verily righteousness should have been by the law." v.21) So he's just going along saying that the law can't do it. Legalism doesn't do it, it's grace. ("But the scripture hath concluded all under sin, that the promise by faith of Jesus Christ might be given to them that believe." v.22) We're all sinners, nobody keeps the law. Nobody can keep the law, we always depend on grace by faith. (Eph.2:8-9.)

127. ("BUT BEFORE FAITH CAME‚ WE WERE KEPT UNDER THE LAW, shut up unto the faith which should afterwards be revealed. Wherefore the law was our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ‚ that we might be justified by faith. But after that faith is come, we are no longer under a schoolmaster." v.23-24.

128. "FOR YE ARE ALL THE CHILDREN OF GOD BY FAITH IN CHRIST JESUS. For as many of you as have been baptised into Christ have put on Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female: for ye are all one in Christ Jesus." v.25-28.)

129. I WONDER HOW THOSE OLD BOTTLES ARE GOING TO TAKE THE LITTLE LESSON ON PLEASURE in "Spaceship". I mean, you come out of church with the idea that all pleasure is sin. That's just saying, "Don't enjoy anything—pleasure is sinful!"

130. NOW HE DOES TALK ABOUT SOME PLEASURES WHICH ARE SINFUL, they which have pleasure in unrighteousness (2Th.2:12) when they are the wrong kind of people enjoying the wrong kind of pleasure. But I'm talking about us, God's children, enjoying the different pleasures which are good for us.

131. ("AND IF YE BE CHRIST'S, THEN ARE YE ABRAHAM'S SEED, and heirs according to the promise." v.29) Praise God, thank the Lord we are Abraham's children by faith, because we have faith and we believe it. Praise the Lord?

132. AMEN, LORD, THANK YOU FOR THESE PASSAGES AND THE PARTICULAR KEY WORDS THAT YOU GAVE US, "Ye did run well, who hath bewitched you?" Lord forgive those who have begun in the Spirit and now seek to be made perfect in the flesh.

133. WE ARE CONVINCED BY ALL THAT YOU HAVE LED US TO DISCUSS TONIGHT AND THE SCRIPTURE THAT YOU GAVE us that somebody is off the track and leading others astray and pulling down leadership. And we feel‚ Lord, that we can't think of who else could have that much influence over these formerly strong spiritual leaders other than this person we've been speaking of who has had that problem in the past.

134. LORD HELP THEM TO BE HONEST, TO CONFESS AND QUIT COVERING FOR OTHERS, LORD, to quit trying to save them, because now their covering and defending‚ or not confessing and not giving us the whole story, is now beginning to drag the whole thing down, drag down their whole area, Lord, and their whole work for You, Lord.

135. YOU KNOW IT MUST REALLY HURT THE KIDS' FAITH when they get and read all these Letters about FFing and all‚ and then they see plainly that their own leaders are not doing it and are certainly not encouraging it and in some cases not even allowing them to do it. Now how much confidence is that going to inspire in their leadership?

136. THESE POOR KIDS, LORD COULD BE GETTING DOWN AND GETTING DISCOURAGED BECAUSE THEY SEE THAT THEIR OWN LEADERS ARE NOT OBEYING. They could be losing faith in their leadership when they see their leaders are not obeying. They're not obeying, they are obviously not obeying and they're not encouraging them to obey—if anything, they are encouraging the kids to disobey!

137. THAT WILL SURELY DRAG THEM DOWN IF THEY CAN SEE THAT THEIR LEADERS ARE NOT OBEYING the Letters and are even discouraging them from obeying the Letters. I mean, we've gotten oodles of reports that prove it—

138. KIDS THAT WANTED TO FF AND WANTED TO OBEY but their own leadership have discouraged them from it or even forbidden them! They have written us personal letters about it.

139. SO WE KNOW THERE ARE SOME LEADERS WHO ARE NOT OBEYING, which means they are not receiving and believing the Letters, which means they don't believe in me, and if they don't believe in me, they ought not to be in this outfit!

140. THEY CERTAINLY OUGHT NOT TO BE IN POSITIONS OF LEADERSHIP if they themselves are not shining examples of obedience and faith in the Word! We are discovering some leadership that is obviously like that, and their whole structure is crumbling.

141. SO THANK YOU LORD FOR REVEALING THE TRUTH TO US AND GIVING US THE KEY, Lord. You always unlock the door, or You at least give us the key with which to unlock it. You give us the key and the clues and the word and You show us the secret of what the problem is, what the trouble is, which we had already suspected, Lord, and it was confirmed by Your Word.

142. NOW WE ASK YOU TO HELP US TAKE THIS KEY AND UNLOCK THE DOOR and uncover the whole situation and ferret out the trouble and the troublemakers and set the kids free to obey! In Jesus' name we ask it Lord. Thank You Lord!

143. BLESS AND HELP IN ALL THESE PROBLEMS‚ LORD. We thank You for giving us some of the answers tonight, and we ask You to continue to keep us safely at peace here and continue to strengthen us and give us all a good night's rest tonight in Jesus' name. Thank You Lord! Thank You Jesus! Praise You Lord! Amen, rest in peace. Praise the Lord. We know‚ Lord, You've got the answers and will work it out, but help us to do our part and obey!