CORRECTION OF LEADERSHIP!        DO 38    1/71

ACCEPTING CORRECTION & CONFESSING ERRORS!

         1. FIRST OF ALL, WHEN THE LORD WARNS ME THERE'S TROUBLE BREWING & I SENSE IT IN THE SPIRIT, I begin to look for confirmations of His discernment in all the actual concrete evidence I can find! When I write to you leaders on any problem, I speak to all: To the guilty that they may be convicted, & to the innocent, that they may be warned! I'm glad to see that you have taken it as such. "It's always the hit dog that howls the loudest!"
         2. THE ONES WHO WERE NOT GUILTY HAVE ALREADY RECOGNISED & CONFESSED THEIR PROBLEMS along these lines, agreed heartily with us & even thanked us for the reproof, thanking God for its timeliness & the faithfulness of His Spirit.
         3. BUT ALWAYS THOSE WHO ARE HAVING THE GREATEST DIFFICULTIES ALONG THE LINES OF THE REBUKE, SEEM TO HAVE THE HARDEST TIME IN AGREEING WITH IT & CONFESSING IT & REPENTING OF IT! I was asking someone this very day in regard to a problem of my own personal pride, "What are the three hardest words in the English language to say?", and she soon hit the nail on the head: "I was mistaken!" or "I was wrong!"
         4. YOU HAVE TO SET THE RECORD STRAIGHT IF YOU VARIED IN THE SLIGHTEST FROM THE WHOLE TRUTH & if you don't stop when you see it & get back on the main track, if you don't heed the danger signals, you're headed for trouble & there's no telling how far you'll get off the track!

PRIDE PREVENTS CONFESSING MISTAKES

         5. I KNEW WHEN I GOT NO MENTION OF THE STACK OF LETTERS YOU MUST HAVE HAD FROM ME THAT SOMETHING MUST BE WRONG, when already we were receiving glowing reports from the other Homes about these subjects. I tried to brush aside that still small warning voice of the Spirit, which, I'm sorry to say, I so often try to do, when She so often warns me of things in advance, because I don't want to believe them & I'm hoping I'm wrong, still hoping for the best, but the Lord never fails to be right!
         6. BUT ALL THE TIME THE SPIRIT KEPT WARNING: "He's not going to like these Letters--the shoe fits too tight & it's going to pinch!"--Even though all the others were guilty of the same, I knew it was going to be the hardest for you to take because of that damn stinking PRIDE of yours! You found it so hard to confess your sins, because you were trying so hard to be PERFECT & wanted so much to be RIGHT!
         7. BUT YOU SEE, IF YOU'RE TRUSTING SO MUCH IN YOUR OWN RIGHTEOUSNESS, your OWN perfection, it almost becomes impossible to confess your own mistakes & shortcomings, because it destroys your own self-confidence & it nearly shatters your own self-reliance, because it proves you're not perfect, & you hate to even admit it to yourself. "The bigger they come, the harder they fall!"
         8. IT SEEMS TO BE SOME PEOPLES' CARNAL NATURE TO DOUBT, QUESTION, ARGUE & EVEN CRITICISE! If you don't look out, the next steps follow, as the night the day: Disagreement, disunity, disloyalty, condemnation & division! Such cannot be tolerated in any man's army--right or wrong!
         9. IN ANY MAN'S ARMY, YOU'VE GOTTA HAVE FAITH, TRUST & CONFIDENCE IN LEADERSHIP & strict loyalty & obedience thereto, or you've got trouble!--Because unless you have these, you'll find it difficult to follow, as you have, time & again in the past!

COMMUNICATION FAILURES ARE SYMPTOMS OF PROBLEMS

         10. YOU DO NOT HAVE TO LEAVE THE SHIP TO BE IN MUTINY AGAINST THE CAPTAIN! All you have to do is interfere with his control--& this you have done in failing to read the Lord's Letters to His children & in failing to report back to the king on the state of his nation. But rather you reported to the captain of the ship that all was well, when all was NOT well--& you have not permitted or encouraged anyone else there to report on the situation!

CONFESSING & OBEDIENCE BRING RESTORATION!

         11. RESTORATION HAS THIS ONE NECESSARY STEP FOR QUALIFICATION: That you confess your faults to all of those who know about them, your failure to respect leadership & to honour your spiritual father & follow his commands. "Them which sin before all, rebuke before all, that others may fear."

Copyright (c) 1998 by The Family