PERSECUTION!     GP 125   11/71

         1. PERSECUTION IS NOT BAD, BUT GOOD, & GOOD FOR YOU! It is persecution with a purpose! First of all, it is GOOD FOR YOU! It purges, purifies & makes white, as the Lord brings out in Daniel 11:35 & 12:10. It tests your devotion & loyalty to Him & His & keeps you closely dependent on Him, crying out for help! It purifies YOU & makes you mean business! It sees whether you've got what it takes, if you really love Him & His all the way!
         2. SECOND, IT PURGES THE RANKS of those that DON'T mean business & who are NOT devoted, loyal & true & who will NOT be faithful unto the end, but who, like Judas, will cop out under pressure & turn on you & betray you rather than suffer & die for you! It really shows you who's who in your own ranks & who is going to be dependable when even greater pressure comes! It may even sweep away over thirty thousand who are afraid & leave you with only a Gideon's Band of three hundred who have REAL faith & REAL courage & will fight to the death!
         3. THIRD, IT WILL REALLY SHOW YOU WHO YOUR ENEMIES ARE & WHAT TO EXPECT FROM THEM! It separates the sheep from the goats & the wheat from the tares! They are exposed & they expose themselves by stepping out to fight against you! It brings them to a decision & action against you so God can expose your enemies, so even the World will know who they are & remember when God judges them, thus vindicating you & your Message & condemning them for their wickedness!
         4. FOURTH, IT ALSO SHOWS WHO YOU ARE, THE TRUE PROPHETS OF GOD, & that your Message is the truth, by the very fact that they persecute you. It also shows you are worthy of the calling God has given you, because you have not looked back in time of tribulation, much less deserted your plough & gone back! It shows that you deserve the rewards, salvations & blessings God is about to give you! It shows who the good guys really are! PTL!
         5. FIFTH, IT ALSO SHOWS YOU'VE DONE A GOOD JOB, delivered your soul, warned the wicked & finished the job! By the time the enemy starts persecuting, it shows you have really gotten the Message out! You've gotten a few disciples amongst those who received it & stirred up a hornet's nest amongst those who rejected it! You've brought division & the issues & sides are both made clear-who's right & who's wrong, who's received & who's rejected! You've reaped the harvest of believers, made clear the righteousness of God in judging the rest & it's time for you to get out of the way so He can clobber them! When they make it too hard to carry on, it's time to move!--When they make it too difficult to witness & win souls!
         6. SIXTH, NOW THAT YOU'RE OUT OF THE WAY, GOD CAN BRING HIS JUDGEMENTS ON THOSE WHO FIRST REJECTED YOUR MESSAGE & finally rejected you, & He can show His righteousness in so doing, because their wickedness has been made clear! This is the LAST STAGE for your enemies! When they start persecuting you, their own end is at hand & God is about to persecute THEM!
         7. SEVENTH, YOU CONTINUE ON GOD'S WAY, giving some OTHER city or land THEIR chance! Hallelujah!
         8. WE'RE NOTHING, NOBODY!--OUR NUMBERS ARE RIDICULOUSLY SMALL compared to the number of people in churches all over the World--but in GOD'S sight we're EVERYTHING, because we're about the only ones doing what He has asked. Even one of our witnesses is accomplishing more than all the church members put together! So God is interested in saving us & vindicating us that He might be glorified because we are His mouthpiece to the World! He tries to spare His Prophets if He can. But PERSECUTION IS GOD'S LAST STAND! He's got to let them persecute the very ones who try to save them that their cup of iniquity may be full!
         9. THE PROCLAMATION OF THE MESSAGE COMES FIRST, then the SAVING OF THOSE WHO RECEIVE IT, THEN PERSECUTION OF THE SAVIOURS & their departure, & finally, the rod of JUDGEMENT FALLS ON THE ENEMIES! A few prophets are martyred & suffer, for GOD ALWAYS LEAVES A FEW TO HAVE A WITNESS, even to behold the destruction of the wicked so the Prophets can say, "I told you so", & even in God's mercy to reap a few more souls turned to the Lord by His judgements & also to preserve this remnant like Jeremiah did! Jesus had to die but the Disciples lived through it! In fact, THE MAJORITY OF GOD'S CHILDREN HAVE USUALLY LIVED TO HELP CARRY ON. THE MARTYRS ARE ACTUALLY THE EXCEPTIONS, just examples of the dedication of His witnesses! Suffering & persecution are universal but martyrs are usually exceptions! GOD DELIVERS US ONE WAY OR ANOTHER, either physically or by death! Whether we live or die, we're saved either way!
         10. OUR MESSAGE HAS CIRCLED THE GLOBE & THE WORLD! The little bit that we're doing personally is nothing compared to what God has done in getting out the Message! THAT HAS BEEN OUR MAJOR ACCOMPLISHMENT: God has used us as His Prophets! What were the Prophets' major accomplishments? If you judged Jeremiah by the number of his followers, he was a flat flop!--There were only two or three! If you judged us by the number of our disciples, that's nothing! Some of these preachers have two or three times as many in their churches every Sunday morning! But who ever heard of them or of their church or of their message? But God, by the Power of His Spirit, has caused this Message to echo 'round the World! This World has been warned!
         11. WE HAVE NOT REACHED EVERY CITY, BUT OUR MESSAGE HAS! We have accomplished the major purpose God sent us for already: The Message has reached the World! I dare say there are very few places in the World that haven't heard about this Jesus Revolution. GOD IS MUCH MORE INTERESTED IN THE MESSAGE WE ARE GETTING OUT TO THE WORLD THAN EVEN IN OUR NUMBERS! Our reward in a way is the disciples, the stars & all the sheep that have been brought into the Fold. This is what God does for His faithful messengers. He saves them, preserves them & keeps them until they have finished the job!
         12. SO THIS IS A VERY ENCOURAGING SIGN WHEN THEY BEGIN TO ATTACK YOU & PERSECUTE YOU! YOUR JOB IS JUST ABOUT DONE & when they get finished with their job on you, God will start on them! Why worry about a city that's rejected the Message? There are always those who are eagerly awaiting to receive it & you! Keep moving. Stay as long as you can in order to do a good job, gather a few believers & teach them & warn the wicked, but then when the wicked definitely show that they have rejected it & you by making the persecution so rough that you're too hindered in carrying on the Lord's Work, your job is done there. GET OUT SO GOD CAN JUDGE THEM & take vengeance on them for you. Their cup of iniquity is full & there's nothing left for them but the judgements of God! Don't waste your time on them any further--the dry tree that's ready to burn--the dry dead branches that are about to be cast into the fire! Move on to greener fields & greener trees who will receive you!
         13. THE FAVOURABLE PUBLICITY HELPED US TO WIN THE HEARTS OF THOSE WHO WERE WILLING TO RECEIVE IT--the positive Message of the Truth! NOW THE NEGATIVE & CRITICAL PUBLICITY IS HELPING TO HARDEN THE HEARTS OF THOSE WHO REJECTED THE TRUTH. Even this condemnatory publicity is still full of the truths that we believe, although presented in a negative & critical way with manifest disapproval of these truths. So that those who read these derogatory articles & agree with their censuring of our truth are themselves taking a stand of disapproval & personal rejection of the Word of God, for which they will be held accountable!
         14. THIS IS THE SAME PATTERN REPEATED OVER & OVER THROUGHOUT ALL HISTORY IN ALL AGES: The PREACHING of the truth followed by the REAPING OF THE HARVEST OF TRUE DISCIPLES, FOLLOWED BY JUDGEMENT upon their enemies after God's people have left or been REMOVED from the scene, driven out by persecution or fleeing according to God's warning to escape from the wrath to come!
         15. AS WE'VE OFTEN SAID, "DISCRETION IS THE BETTER PART OF VALOUR!" Or, to put it a little more simply in the language of the little schoolboy: "HE WHO FIGHTS & RUNS AWAY, LIVES TO FIGHT ANOTHER DAY!"--In another time & another place! We are far outnumbered by the enemy & we cannot possibly fight them on their own grounds, their own terms or with their own weapons!
         16. THE TACTICS OF GOD'S TINY MINORITY OF PROPHETS HAVE USUALLY BEEN THE HIT-&-RUN guerilla warfare with commando raids: INVADE suddenly without warning, STRIKE hard with the truth, RELEASE the prisoners & THEN RUN when the enemy begins to awaken & strike back! m
         17. "YOU CAN'T FIGHT CITY HALL!" When the Lord has used you to release enough of the Devil's prisoners to get the parents & the System stirred up against you & City Hall starts fighting you, it's time to go to greener, more peaceful fields & start the process all over again!
         18. THIS EVEN RESEMBLES THE COURSE OF NATURE OR GOD'S CREATION: In the peaceful sunny beauty of the bright Spring sunshine, the farmer goes forth to plow & to PLANT, to fertilise & to nurture; & throughout the warm Summer months, he tends the tiny new plants & protects them from the fowls of the air, the beasts of the field & the bugs & weeds of the Earth, REAPING a ripe harvest in the Fall, which he hides away in barns & garners or ships to other places, until he himself RETREATS to the protection of his own hideaway as Winter's cold stormy blasts begin their damaging DEATH-DEALING BLOWS, which also send the birds, the beasts & the bugs, the crops' former FOES, running for cover, destroying many of them, thus keeping God's proper balance in His Creation. Otherwise, if the harvest were not gathered & put in a place of safety & if the farmer did not run for cover, they too, would be destroyed. So you see, IT'S GOD'S PLAN FOR BOTH THE HARVEST & THE FARMER, BOTH PHYSICALLY & SPIRITUALLY!
         19. THERE'S A TIME TO TAKE A STAND & THERE'S A TIME TO FLEE! May God help you to know the difference! Even those last stands are usually only delaying actions to give time for the main body of the army to escape or to find a place to go! May God help us to ALWAYS BE PREPARED FOR PERSECUTION--PREPARED TO FLEE, WITH OTHER FIELDS & OTHER BARNS ALREADY IN MIND TO WHICH WE CAN GO!
         20. OUR OFFICERS & SOLDIERS SHOULD ALWAYS BE WELL TRAINED & INSTRUCTED as to exactly what to do & where to go in the event of such a sudden evacuation, of which we have now had several, but still do not seem to be learning our lesson. WE NEED A CRASH COURSE ON EVACUATIONS--how to run, where to run & what to do, when the next such emergency arises!
         21. IS YOUR HOME READY? ARE YOUR SHEEP PREPARED? Are you a good & wise shepherd who has made thorough plans on how to flee to another fold in case the enemy takes this one away from you or drives you out & the wolves get too numerous & the wintry blasts too fierce & your fold too dangerous? Are you ready to vacate? ARE YOUR TEAMS ORGANISED & INSTRUCTED? IS YOUR TRANSPORTATION SUFFICIENT? Will your members know where to go & how to get there & how to keep in touch while on the road, how to survive, how to camp out if necessary? DO ALL HAVE PASSPORTS in case they should have to leave the country or even the continent?
         22. WHICH IS IT GOING TO BE FOR YOUR HOME? ARE YOU GOING TO BE READY AT A MOMENT'S NOTICE to evacuate like the Children of Israel from Egypt?--Or when God has numbered your kingdom & finished it, are you going to be weighed in the balances & found wanting, your dominions given to the enemy & your sheep scattered & you yourself smitten for your failure to heed the warnings of God!
         23. BECAUSE OF THE JITTERY WAY SOME OF YOU SCAREHEADS HAVE BEEN ACTING LATELY, you roving rebels with a yen for the road & just waiting for any excuse to pick up & take off for parts unknown to get out of the heavy responsibility of running a stable Home, I'm going to have to add at least one more paragraph:
         24. DON'T LEAVE UNLESS YOU HAVE TO!--UNLESS GOD DEFINITELY REVEALS IT TO YOU BY DIRECT REVELATION WITH A CONFIRMATION OF YOUR LEADERS; or because the persecution is making it virtually IMPOSSIBLE FOR YOU TO CONTINUE to operate, such as forbidding you to witness, cutting off your police protection, cutting off your source of supplies, suffering constant legal harassment, continual physical violence or actually losing your housing etc.--NOT JUST THE THREAT of these things!
         25. THE DEVIL IS ALWAYS THREATENING & BREATHING OUT SLAUGHTER & TRYING TO BLUFF YOU OUT OR MERELY PERSUADE YOU TO SURRENDER, BECAUSE HE CANNOT ACTUALLY LICK YOU. We mean the actual suffering, NOT JUST CRITICISM & BAD PUBLICITY, WHICH WE'LL ALWAYS SUFFER, or just little minor harassment attacks, but A TRULY MAJOR ATTACK WHICH COULD TOTALLY DESTROY THE WORK, as listed above, including specific action against your leadership which could literally put them away, NOT JUST WILD RUMOURS, BUT FACTUAL INFORMATION of such impending action, as you'll note several instances of in the Book of Acts. As we said before, only go when you've delivered your souls, reaped the harvest & then the persecution makes it nearly impossible for you to operate any longer in that area: Little or NO WITNESSING, NO SUPPLIES, NO PROTECTION, NO FRUIT, NO HOME, NO LEADERSHIP & TOO MUCH PERSECUTION! Amen?