GOD'S LITTLE MIRACLES!   DO 1     10/70

YOU CAN'T OUTGIVE GOD!

         1. THE LORD DOES RETURN & REWARD & COMPENSATE FOR ANY SACRIFICES YOU MAKE FOR OTHERS IN TRYING TO HELP THEM. You see, if we are willing to do His will & carry on His work, He never fails. As Martin Luther said when somebody complained that he was taking too many people into his home & he had about 25 people living with him then: "Never fear, with every additional mouth, God will supply!" And so it's been, amen? He's not only supplied but He has ABUNDANTLY supplied & lavished on us many blessings because we have obeyed His commandments & obeyed His example in living simply & humbly & sharing what we have with others.
         2. SO IT HAS BEEN BY STARTING OUT WITH BEING KIND TO A FEW, the Lord has been kind to us in return & caused many others to be kind to us & to care for us in our needs as we have endeavoured to bring happiness to others & to you.
         3. I WANT YOU TO REMEMBER THAT YOU CAN NEVER OUTGIVE GOD. We have tried to give & to share & to sacrifice but as David Livingstone, the great pioneer missionary to Africa said when he was even facing death in the heart of so-called darkest Africa, when asked by the newspaper man, "Hasn't it been a terrible sacrifice for you to leave a Baronial mansion in England & the wealth of a fine home & family to come to this dark land amongst strangers & savages, enduring hardships & privations & malaria & all of these things?" And Livingstone answered, "I have enjoyed life, I have been happy, I have been healthy, I have done a great work for the Lord & I HAVE NEVER MADE A SACRIFICE!" What he was saying was that he couldn't possibly outgive God! The more you give, the more He gives back in return.
         4. WHO WOULD HAVE EVEN DREAMED THAT THIS SOON, the dreams which we have had in the past would be so marvellously & abundantly fulfilled, both in our household of faith & the Children of God spread abroad throughout the land! But now here we are, we can sometimes hardly believe it. We've turned to each other & we've said, "Are we dreaming or are we really here?"
         5. (PROPHECY:) "EVEN AS UNTO ABRAHAM WHOM I HAVE CALLED OUT OF HIS OWN LAND & FROM HIS OWN KINDRED INTO A STRANGE LAND & AMONGST STRANGERS that I promised that I would give unto him & to his children, so have I called thee out from thine own country & from thine own kindred & into strange lands amongst strange people with strange tongues & I shall give them unto thee for an inheritance, even unto the uttermost parts of the Earth!" Hallelujah! TYJ! PYL! Isn't the Lord wonderful!
         6. WE HAVEN'T MADE OURSELVES GREAT, WE'RE NOTHING, but God has increased us & strengthened us & prospered us & given us many souls. Surely as the promise even unto Abraham, He shall increase our seed as the sands of the sea & as the stars of the heavens for multitude shall He give them unto us! Hallelujah! Praise Thy precious name!

GOD'S ENTRANCE EXAMS!

         7. IF THE DEVIL CAN JUST SCARE YOU OUT BEFORE YOU BEGIN, then you'll never even get started & you'll never accomplish what God wants you to do. So for God's sake & the sake of others & your own sake, don't let the Devil frighten you or bluff you out of what the Lord wants you to do before you even get started. That's when he attacks you the worst & that's when the Lord ALLOWS him to attack you the worst because the Lord is TESTING you to see if you really mean business & if you're really willing to even die trying.
         8. I'VE FOUND ALMOST ALWAYS THAT THE LORD GIVES ME THE MOST SEVERE TEST AT THE VERY BEGINNING.--Just as it was with some of you when you first joined, you had your worst test then, because God was putting you through an entrance exam to see if you had what it takes & to see if you were really willing to die to self & cry out to Him, because otherwise what's the use of even wasting anything on you?--Any time or any of His goods or the strength of His leaders on you at all if you just haven't got what it takes.
         9. SO I FOUND THAT GOD USUALLY ALLOWS THE ENEMY TO TEMPT & TEST ME THE WORST JUST AS I'M CONSIDERING OR ABOUT TO BEGIN A NEW TASK for Him or a new project. We have the most difficult times & trials & the most severe testings because God wants to know if you're really going to go through with it, live or die, sink or swim, whether you really mean business, whether you're really going to trust Him or not & whether you have really got what it takes to see it through, because usually if you pass those first severe hard tests the Lord stamps your passport with HIS stamp & says, "OK, buddy, go to it, you're free to go on into the Promised Land that I have offered you if you're willing to forsake all & to follow & to die if need be to do the job I want you to do!"
         10. AFTER THAT IT'S NOT NEARLY AS HARD AS WE WERE AFRAID IT WAS GOING TO BE, as Mark Twain said, "I'm an old man & I've had many troubles, most of which never happened!"
         11. MOST OF THE THINGS WHICH WE FEAR, MOST OF THE THINGS WHICH WE WORRY ABOUT, most of the problems that we thought we were going to encounter never even happened, God didn't let them happen. But the Lord allowed the Enemy to make us think they MIGHT happen & to even worry about them a little bit & even be willing to go ahead thinking that it's possible that they might happen to see if we were willing to go at any cost, pay any price, make any sacrifice, to die any death in order to obey Him!
         12. BUT THIS IS A VERY IMPORTANT PART OF THE WHOLE THING, THE PREPARATION, GETTING A START, because if you can get started, that's what the Devil attacks the most. If you get over that hump, then you can usually make the rest of the journey! None of the other trials ever seem as great as those in the beginning, isn't that what you've usually found? Haven't you had greater strength, haven't you had greater victory as you went along, & even though perhaps the trials in some ways might have actually later been more severe & bigger problems, bigger trials & greater testings, you were much stronger to meet them & they were not nearly as difficult to overcome as even those little trials in the beginning? How true that is. PTL!

WORRY!

         13. "THE COWARD DIES A THOUSAND DEATHS, THE BRAVE, BUT ONE!" I'm afraid most of us are cowards, because most of us seem to have to die a thousand deaths before the one real one, & many deaths that we think we're going to die, & we go through all the hell & the agony of dying them before they even happen & worry about them & fear them even to the point of making us sick, as it did me that night.
         14. WORRY CAN KILL YOU! "Fear hath torment," His Word says, & lack of faith is a terrible frightening thing, but I thank God He brought me through that terrible test the Enemy put me through that night in which he almost killed me. I'm telling you, I nearly died & I believe it was mostly spiritual, not even physical due to fear that the Enemy tried to place upon me.
         15. WE RESISTED IT IN JESUS' NAME, WE RESISTED THE OPPRESSION, the horrible pressure that came down upon us, the dark ness that enveloped us, the sinking feeling, the pain in our heart, the gasping for breath. I mean it was horrible! I've never been through it so severe in almost my whole life & the Enemy was trying to knock me out for a complete loop before we even got started, but thank God for loved ones who will stand by you in prayer & hold on & pray earnestly & desperately as they did that night, & it was wonderful! We kept the victory, I survived & in fact I've hardly been sick at all since.

FLEECES!

         16. I WONDER HOW MANY TIMES YOU'VE PUT OUT A FLEECE? YOU PUT OUT A CONDITION TO THE LORD for something, kind of hoping maybe HE wouldn't do it so YOU wouldn't have to do it & the Lord just knocked the props out from under you & jerked the rug out from under you & took away all your excuses & did all the miracles & everything so that the decision still had to be up to you & you had no excuses & no reasons for not going on with the Lord because He'd opened the door, He'd provided the way & made everything possible!

GOD'S LITTLE MIRACLES!

         17. THE REASON I'M TELLING YOU THESE LITTLE THINGS IS BECAUSE IT'S SO WONDERFUL TO ME! You can expect that of course God is going to do the big things that have to be done, but the little tiny thoughtfulnesses of the Lord--a market that's open, to find a bathroom scale, to find that your bags weigh just the right weight--it is so wonderful how the Lord thinks of every little thing!
         18. THERE'S NOTHING TOO SMALL FOR THE LORD OR TOO HARD FOR HIM! Why do you worry, why do you fret? God's going to take care of every little detail! Each time I thought, "Well, maybe this is it, maybe we just can't make it because surely this is going to be the door that's going to be closed, this is going to be the impossible situation. Well yes, Lord, You brought us this far but now here's where we can't make it any further, it's impossible." But everything I asked God to do, the Lord did every little thing! PTL!