THE HELMET!      DFO1058  26/9/81

         1. I DREAMT I WAS A BIG HANDSOME KNIGHT IN BEAUTIFUL SHINING SILVER ARMOUR! I was in the armourer shop having the armour fitted on & they were about to fit the helmet on, a beautiful helmet inlaid with gold & silver! The pretty girl assistant told me to lay my head down on a folded-up rag on the table, so I laid it down & just then I felt a real sharp kind of a pin prick! I raised up & the armourer had sort of an awl or ice pick in his hand & a hammer, & he'd just gone quick like that right here on my head!
         2. I said, "What is that?!" & he said, "That's for the attachment for the helmet!" I said, "What in the World do I have to have an attachment for the helmet for?" And he said, "You great big soldiers & knights in armour come in here & you make such a big fuss about a little thing like a hole in the head to keep from losing your helmet!" Isn't that a funny dream?
         3. You know what helmets are, they're like salvation! (Eph.6:17) And I guess God wants to make your salvation permanent so you don't lose your helmet, your salvation. When you get saved, you get your helmet of salvation forever & wear it forever so you never lose it! Some people make a fuss about it & don't believe in having it all the time, but we believe in permanent salvation. Once we're saved we're saved forever, even if it costs a little hole in the head for the attachment!
         4. IT CERTAINLY REMINDED ME OF HOW SCIENCE HAS DEVELOPED THE SCIENCE OF CYBERNETICS & MAKING ROBOTS to such an extent that they've about decided man is the best robot of all & the best way to make robots is to implant controlled electrodes in man's own brain to be externally stimulated by the controllers to prompt him in his actions to obey their will.
         5. I had the impression they were implanting this thing in my head like an electrode that was going to be attached to the helmet so that the helmet was going to be my control mechanism & control me! And that's what the Lord does in salvation!
         6. In many of these sci-fi movies they implant some kind of alien controller to control human beings from an alien source, & in a sense, that's exactly what the Devil does--he implants his dirty little demons in their minds & hearts to control them. And in a sense that's the same way God operates!
         7. When we're saved He implants a bit of Himself, His Spirit & His Love & His spirit helpers, His controllers, in our minds & hearts to guide & direct & protect & keep us in control, guided by His direct will & leadings. Once we put that helmet on we are forever His children & we can never take it off no matter how hard we try, & some have tried.
         8. SOME HAVE BACKSLIDDEN BUT FOUND THEY COULDN'T EVEN STOP WITNESSING. When I landed in the army, I couldn't stop witnessing, I couldn't deny my faith. That helmet was permanently attached, that electrode of God's guidance was buried in my brain & my primary reactions were always to defend the faith & give God's answers no matter even if I was out of God's will myself, rebelling against His service & trying to take off the helmet of His salvation & don the uniform of the U.S. Army!
         9. Once you're really saved that helmet is there to stay & everybody you come in contact with is going to see it & know you're different. Even if you've backslidden & forsaken the field & your plow, you're still saved & one of God's children. You can't hide it! You can't deny it!
         10. God will not be frustrated, His plan is not going to fail! Though God may let you go back & learn bitter lessons through your backsliding, sooner or later you're going to learn also the benefits, that backsliding is a hell of a hole, & home & the System are hell holes & pits! You're going to get sick of the vomit & the husks & the mire & mud of the System & want to run back to the Father's house as fast as you can go. Even though your feet were stuck in the mud of the pit, your head was stuck in the helmet of Heaven, & obviously in the case of the Prodigal Son, the helmet's pull proved stronger.
         11. Some big brave strong people fear getting saved. They fight conviction & the permanent donning of the helmet of salvation. "I want to be captain of my fate & master of my soul! Nobody can get me to be faithful & loyal to the Family & support it with my tithe. I believe in what you're doing but it's just not for me! I don't want that hole in my head! I don't want that helmet clamped on my head forever! It sounds too much like surrendering my own will & self to a total control!"
         12. NO MATTER HOW FAR YOU BACKSLIDE YOU'LL NEVER BE ABLE TO ESCAPE THAT HOUND OF HEAVEN who'll track you down & nail you one way or the other! And if you become more of a poor testimony & bad example than you are an influence for good, God will see to it that that helmet of salvation saves you from becoming a worse testimony & leading others astray by killing you physically, destroying your body that your soul might be saved! (1Co.5:5)
         13. You're going to find out when you try to take that helmet off & yank out that electrode, it's going to kill you! Because God will not allow your body to be taken by Satan to be used by him once you've taken His helmet of salvation. He'll never let you be taken from Him, even if the Devil tries & even if He has to let the Devil, His executioner, kill you in justice, retribution & just punishment for your sins.
         14. You're here to stay in God's Family, Beloved, dead or alive! So what will it be with you? Are you going to keep on resisting the control of God till He has to take your life to save your soul?--Or are you going to confess, repent, humble yourself & run back to the Father's house as fast as you can go.--Back into the fellowship of the Family & joy of the Holy Spirit, back to the food & plenty & warmth of the home, & even sometimes those self-righteous older brothers.
         15. MAYBE IF YOU OLDER BROTHERS HAD BEEN MORE LOVING, merciful, forgiving, tolerant, understanding, gentle & reasonable your younger brother wouldn't have run away from home. Maybe he was trying to get away from you & your unloving critical attitude & hard spirit. It certainly wasn't the Father that was unloving! What about that, older Brothers? And Sisters?
         16. That younger brother is here to stay & part of God's Family forever, & whether you tolerate him or not, God will, & God will follow him up if you don't. The Good Shepherd will follow him out into the hills & the night & the storm to find the stray sheep, even if you are not willing to leave the comfort of home & the luxury of that country to go out to a foreign field to try to find the lost sheep that was straying. God still loves them & you'd better love'm too!
         17. So you'd better open your arms of love & humble forgiveness, & you'd better ask those younger brethren to forgive you for your impatience & your hardness of heart, your intolerance, your unloving critical spirit, & take them back in with wide open arms & ask them to forgive you for being so self-righteous & critical & hard of heart, unloving & impatient, which may have driven them out of that Home, out of the Father's house.
         18. IT'S NOT WORTH THE PRICE OF DYING FOR NOTHING & IN REBELLION & IN YOUR BACKSLIDDEN CONDITION. If you'll even start God's way & turn toward Him, He'll be out there waiting for you & will receive you with open arms of love & a new garment of righteousness, a beautiful new golden ring of reward that you don't even deserve & a feast of thanksgiving & celebration!
         19. Bless them & help them to return, Lord! It's not too late for some of them to come back home & serve faithfully on the farm again & help with the work & the crop & share the blessing if they'll come now.--Even if it's to everlasting shame & contempt amongst the older brethren, the loving ones will forgive you & take you in again.
         20. O God, yet have mercy upon some that are still backslidden, so many of the old-timers who were led astray by the Chain. Help them to forsake their pride & abandon their selfishness & evil ways & come back to the Father's house & fruitful service in the fields for Him, in Jesus' name, amen!

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