BACKSLIDERS BEHAVE!--Out You Go Again for the Last Time!                  DO 2229           9/86

         1. (MARIA: FAITHY & PAUL PAPERS WENT THROUGH NORTH AMERICA LIKE EVANGELISTS & GAVE THEM LOTS OF LOVE WHICH THEY DESPERATELY NEEDED, of course, & passed on our messages of love, told'm, "We love you! The Family still loves you! Come back! We need you!" etc. But it seems that perhaps they didn't prepare them that love also includes discipline & rules & regulations too. So a lot of them have been rejoining Homes, & evidently had not been expecting to find that they've landed in the army again, with tight regimented control & discipline & sacrificial living & 100% dedication required! Instead, some resent the rules & the schedule & our revolutionary way of life. They've been independent for years & they don't want to have to submit.
         2. (SO FAITHY & PAUL DIDN'T EXACTLY PREPARE THEM THAT THEY'RE GOING TO HAVE TO BUCKLE DOWN & BE LIKE BABES AGAIN & really toe the line.) The Revolutionary Rules still hold true! (Maria: So the Homes are having a bit of a problem. They have to lay down the law & they have to abide by rules, & then these people who have lived in the System for years & years & been their own bosses, now they're joining Homes & a lot of them have real trouble learning to live under others & live in an Acts 2:44 communal situation. And some of them are causing a lot of problems! So we're going to have to tell them that you can't expect all sweetness & love without some law for the would-be lawbreakers!) The rules haven't changed any! The Lord's rules are just the same, "Forsake all & follow Me!"
         3. IT WILL BE A MIRACLE IF THOSE BACKSLIDERS MAKE IT! The Lord says of some that "if these should fall away, it will be impossible to renew them to repentance." (Heb.6:4-6) Also, "Esau found no place of repentance though he sought it carefully & with tears." (Heb.12:16,17) With some there is no hope, for "He that having put his hand to the plow & looking back is not worthy of Me." (Luk.9:62) That's why some are so sad. They know that they repented too late!
         4. BUT WITH SOME WHO HAVE GENUINE JUSTIFICATION & WHO ARE GENUINELY REPENTANT & REALLY REALLY WANT TO SERVE THE LORD AT ANY COST, THEY'LL MAKE IT NO MATTER WHAT! But those many who are just sorry for what they missed & just sorry they made a mistake & went back & wasted all those years, for some of those it's just too late! About some the Lord says, "My soul abhorreth him that turneth back!" (Heb.10:38)
         5. IT WILL HAVE TO BE A MIGHTY GREAT REPENTANCE & A TERRIFIC SACRIFICE, SELF-DENIAL & ABSOLUTE FORSAKE-ALL, total self-sacrifice with the spirit of being willing to come back & die in order for the Lord to restore them! Only those will make it who really are willing & want to die trying rather than fail!
         6. (MARIA: SOME OF THESE BACKSLIDERS ARE COMPLAINING & STILL JUSTIFYING THEMSELVES, STILL KICKING AGAINST THE RULES & THE LEADERSHIP!) Well, the Homes ought to kick them out all the quicker now, because actually they don't deserve another chance! It's only the mercy of God that they've been given another chance! They're going to have to earn it now. I've said that about backsliders before. You can never trust them any more, they have to earn your trust & earn their place & really work for it! The first time was by grace, but this time they've got to earn it & work for it!
         7. (MARIA: I FEEL SORRY FOR THE HOMES THAT ARE TRYING TO TAKE IN THESE BACKSLIDERS & THEN THEY'RE NOT GRATEFUL, A LOT OF THEM ARE JUST COMPLAINING.) I'd throw them out right now! Get tough with them! They'd better get tougher with backsliders than with anybody or they can lead others astray! The Prodigal Son went home but the Father didn't restore anything, he was tough on him! He really put him down. He then came under the jurisdiction and the superiority and seniority of his Older Brother. He had nothing left, no claim on anything! He had spent it all and wasted it all and he could be thankful that he simply was allowed back into the Father's house and to sit at the Father's table. Otherwise, he had nothing, no claim on anything, and everything belonged to the Older Brother who had been faithful and stuck by the stuff! (Luk.15:11-32)
         8. SO THESE BACKSLIDERS THAT COME BACK DESERVE NOTHING! They should be just thankful that they are allowed to come back to the father's house & the father's table & expect nothing else!--Expect, if anything, even shame & contempt for their failure & be so thankful & appreciative that they are even allowed back in to enjoy the fellowship of the Family & food & home, & if they don't, kick'm out!
         9. (MARIA: THEY BRING ALL THAT TERRIBLE INFLUENCE from years of being on their own & in the System, & their kids are polluted & corrupted & spoiled!) Just forget it! If they don't show a very desperate desire to change & cooperate & be in subjection along with their children to their older brothers, to whose homes & to whose mercy & hospitality they have literally no right & no claim & should only be very very thankful, then you might as well forget'm!
         10. (MARIA: PLUS THE PRODIGAL SON DIDN'T HAVE ANY SAY IN HOW THE RANCH WAS RUN, RIGHT?)--No! (Maria: And couldn't participate in the decision-making.)--Absolutely not, nothing! He was no better than a servant!--In fact, not even as good as a servant! Even the servants had stayed by the stuff, worked hard & hadn't run off & wasted anything. He wasn't even as good as a servant! (Pro.17:2)
         11. I'M NOT FOR ANY KIND OF INDULGENCE OR PAMPERING THOSE BACKSLIDERS! I'd be tougher on backsliders than on anybody! I've always taken that stand!
         12. THEY CAN EXPECT RESENTMENT FROM THE ELDER BROTHERS WHO DID NOT DESERT & DIDN'T RUN AWAY & WASTE EVERYTHING! They need to expect resentment, & they deserve resentment! They should just be thankful that they got in at all, because the backsliders are going to be in Heaven saved but failed, & are going to live in everlasting shame & contempt, that's the backsliders, that's all they can expect! They can just be thankful that they made it to Heaven at all, even though everybody despises them & they're in contempt!
         13. THE ELDER BROTHER OWES HIM NOTHING! The Father & the family simply rejoiced over his return, that's all. He was dead but now he is alive! So he can be thankful for that, that he's at least accepted in the Beloved, to put his feet under the table & go out & work in the field, but he can expect no respect at all, no special privileges, except that he has to work hard now for a living because he threw it all away! And he can't expect anything but contempt from his Elder Brothers!--And he ought to realise that he deserves it! From now on he'll have to earn his way back into the hearts of the family & earn their trust & respect!
         14. WE GAVE THEM A CHANCE, that's all, so that we are no longer responsible. We can wash our hands. We have done what we could, & if they don't appreciate it, well, just kick'm out! We can't stand to be contaminated by their horrible perversion & pollution, having been in the System & their kids spoiled & all the rest!
         15. IF THEY DON'T APPRECIATE THIS HAND OF FELLOWSHIP & MERCY THAT WE'RE EXTENDING TO THEM & THEY START BITING IT, WELL, LET'M GO, KICK'M OUT! At least we are delivering our souls & our hands will be innocent of their blood, we tried! And if they don't appreciate it, they don't follow through, they don't work for it, earn it, sacrifice for it, forsake all for it, & be thankful that they're accepted at all in the Beloved without complaint, without murmuring, without any rights or dues or claims whatsoever on the inheritance, nothing, then forget it!
         16. IF THEY MUFF THIS LAST CHANCE, THEY'VE HAD IT, OUT THEY GO!--If they're not very thankful & practically crawling to come back like the Prodigal Son, willing & thankful to be a hired servant! (Maria: And before their six months probation in the States is up, the fields that are going to clear them to come better be very sure that they've proven themselves & really made it!)--And with very good recommendation from their probationary Home, I'll tell you, or forget it! Otherwise they're nothing but trouble!
         17. SO WHAT COULD THE PRODIGAL SON DO AFTER THE NICE ROYAL WELCOME HOME BY THE SEARCHERS & AMBASSADORS? Now that the Older Brother owned everything & the Prodigal Son had nothing, what could he do? Huh? What could he do to earn anything or have anything?--He had to go to work for his Older Brother! He had to be a servant, literally, not just to the Father but to his Older Brother, to earn his way. And that's exactly the way they ought to look at it! They're not doing us a favour, by rejoining, they're not doing the Homes a favour by rejoining! We're doing them a favour, & if they don't appreciate it, out they go!
         18. WE'RE A VERY TIGHT SHIP, a very tight Family, & if they don't behave themselves as a soldier, & "please Him who hath called him to be a soldier" (2Tim.2:4), then they can't be tolerated!--Out they go at the slightest infraction, anything! We can't allow them to endanger the whole Army! I mean it!
         19. I'VE NEVER HAD MUCH PATIENCE WITH BACKSLIDERS! The fact that I've had any mercy on them at all is a miracle of God, a sign that God is trying to overdo in bending over backwards to try to win them back again! And let me tell you right now, if they don't appreciate it & they're not willing to come crawling as a hired servant & thankful they're let back in at all, then forget it, out they go! We don't want any Home to suffer from people like that.
         20. AND IF IN OUR LOVE & MERCY WE TRIED TO RESTORE THEM & THEY DON'T APPRECIATE IT, LET ME TELL YOU, THEY DESERVE GETTING KICKED OUT HARDER THAN EVER! It's an abomination to the Lord! Their first backsliding was bad enough, but then if they don't appreciate that they're being forgiven & taken back in & they do nothing but cause trouble, my God, we don't have to put up with that! We have all the more cause & reason to kick'm out & let'm go! Forget it! I mean it!
         21. SOME OF THEM THINK THEY'RE GOING TO SOMEHOW RESTORE THEMSELVES & THEIR SELF-RESPECT & respect of the Family & God by coming back, but they don't & they won't unless they literally crawl like the Prodigal Son did! He said, "I am no more worthy to be called a son, make me one of the hired servants!" Well, the Father in his indulgence & love & mercy celebrated his return & then after that he was nothing but an employee of his Elder Brother, that's all!--Period! If they're not willing to be employees of their Elder Brothers who have remained faithful & worked hard to serve on the ranch, then out they go! They're more trouble than they're worth.
         22. JESUS HELP US, LORD, DELIVER US FROM THESE HALF-HEARTED SICKENING NE'ER-DO-WELLS! Deliver us, Lord! Our poor Homes are having a hard enough time, without having problems with them too! Unless they can be a blessing, unless they can be an asset instead of a liability, a blessing instead of a curse, help them to get rid of them!--In Jesus' name! Amen!
         23. (MARIA: THEY HAVE TO LET THE SHEPHERDS OF THE HOME TAKE CONTROL & EVEN TAKE CHARGE OF THE TRAINING & THE DISCIPLINE OF THEIR CHILDREN as well, because obviously they failed with it.)--Yes, of course!--Absolute authority!--If not, they can have their kids back!--Good riddance of bad rubbish! But the parents made them the rubbish they are! Lord God help us! Salvage those who really deserve it, Lord, & get rid of the rubbish who don't!--In Jesus' name, amen.
         24. THIS IS AN ARMY, & I'LL TELL YOU, IF THE DESERTERS DON'T COME BACK REALLY CRAWLING & repentant & in shame & grovelling & thankful that they're let back in at all & willing to do anything, serve in any capacity, do any job, scrub floors, clean toilets, wash dishes, do the lowliest jobs of all, jobs that they don't even deserve, & realise that they are in shame & contempt & they're going to have to really work & earn any kind of respect or appreciation or we don't need them, then forget them, get rid of them!
         25. WE'RE GOING TO BE TOUGHER ON THE BACKSLIDERS THAN ANYBODY! It's going to be harder to get back! "The way of the transgressor is hard" (Pro.13:15) and it is very hard to get back. We do love these people, but we'll love them a lot more if they'll obey & repent & if they'll be sorry for all the damage they did & all the horrible things they did & all the damage they did to the Family!
         26. I'LL TELL YOU, BACKSLIDERS HAVE TO PROVE THEMSELVES, I'VE SAID THAT FROM THE BEGINNING! You can't trust them any more! They have to know that. They no more have respect by grace, they have to earn it, work for it! (Maria: That's sort of the same with love too. They no more have really love by grace, they have to work for it.)--Absolutely!
         27. IF THEY'RE TOO MUCH TROUBLE, JUST BOOT THEM OUT, GET RID OF THEM! They don't deserve it! Boy, I'll tell you, I'd sure slap them down in a hurry! I wouldn't put up with any kind of foolishness! I mean, they can't tell us anything! They've forfeited all their privileges of saying anything or telling us anything! We don't have to listen to them at all! They need to listen to us, & if they don't, out they go! I mean it! They either knuckle down & be thankful for the lowest place in the house or out they go!--Amen?

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