WHAT IS WEAK?--By Maria
Maria No.58
8/86
1. ON THE SEARCHERS' MISSION TO THE STATES, PAUL PAPERS & FAITHY REALLY WORKED HARD AT TRYING TO REVIVE & REJUVENATE & BRING BACK TO THE FOLD SOME OF OUR ORIGINAL LEADERS, among them Miguel, Joel & Joab (Happy). All three of them were strong, top leadership in the Family, but have been backslidden with their families in the System for years. They're old bottle Systemites now & it would be very difficult for them to rejoin the Family. It would require a total change, more difficult by far & no less dramatic than at Salvation. It would be almost too humbling for those old backslidden leaders to now rejoin as babes again!
2. WE CONSIDERED THESE MEN SOME OF OUR STRONGEST LEADERS. You say, "If they were so strong & backslid, what hope is there for me? I'm so weak!" Well, it may surprise you to know that we've had lots of weak people with us on our personal staff, & we always work at helping them to become stronger. Some people in our Family just seem to "sit on ice" for years, they don't seem to progress like they should, they don't really learn lessons & make changes or seem to get anywhere, they just seem to have stagnated. But maybe they haven't yet had the opportunity to grow & change. Maybe it's due to the situation they are in.--Maybe they just need the opportunity & good training to help them to grow & make some progress & reach their full potential still. Maybe they just haven't had the chance yet to really blossom for the Lord, or it's not His time yet to use them to their fullest! Many of the teens at the Mexico Teen Camp were worried that they just couldn't make it, that they were too weak or not "spiritual" enough. But who can say who's weak & who's strong?
3. LOOK AT OUR FAMILY PEOPLE OVERALL & THEN ASK YOURSELF THIS QUESTION: In times of Great Tribulation or heavy persecution, if someone was really under pressure or even torture, who would you guess would really make it? Who would prove to be strong & able to go through such perilous times? There are people who are outwardly strong & there are people who seem outwardly to be weak. But just think about it, aren't you often surprised at the people who backslide & the people who don't? Hasn't it often surprised you to see who ends up backsliding? You think, "My goodness, not him of all people, not Timothy, not Rachel, not Joab!" You'd think if they were such strong leaders they'd be able to hang on right through the Endtime! But some of our "strongest" old-time leadership backslid as soon as the going got rough. There are actually very few of them still around. So you've got to give people credit when they don't leave, when they stick it out. That's what shows that they're really strong, in the Lord!--It's often the so-called weaker people who stay on, who progress, who really make it for the Lord.
4. SO HOW CAN YOU JUDGE IF A PERSON'S STRONG OR WEAK? How can we tell who we should pick for our staff, who will make it & who won't! Well, even if we think they'd do well with us, we let the Lord make the final decision, & pray He'll close the doors if they're not the one. Because only the Lord knows.
5. BUT WE HAVE TO GO THROUGH A PROCESS IN THE FIRST PLACE OF DECIDING WHO MIGHT BE POTENTIAL, & HOW DO WE DO THAT? How & on what do we judge a person's spiritual strength?--By who knows the most Word? No, when we want to find who is the strongest & most spiritual, we ask questions like:
6. HOW OBEDIENT ARE THEY TO LEADERSHIP? Do they immediately obey without complaint? Are they usually cheerful? How do they take correction? How do they take change? Do they offer to go beyond what is expected of them, & do more than they are asked, to cheerfully work overtime without complaint either on their lips or in their hearts?
7. HOW EASY IS IT FOR THEM TO TAKE DIFFERENT THINGS BY FAITH & not be stumbled by them, & not have to have an explanation for everything? Do they mind their own business & are they easy for others to get along with? Do you feel comfortable with them? Do they have an encouraging spirit or a critical one? How do they take difficulties & trials? We ask who goes to the Word in time of trial & can get their answers from the Word.
8. EVEN IF SOMEONE'S WEAK, I FIGURE THAT IF THEY'VE MADE IT THIS FAR, I'VE GOT FAITH FOR THEM NO MATTER HOW MANY BATTLES THEY HAVE OR HOW LITTLE THEY MAY SEEM, to continue going for the Lord, no matter what! If they've made it this far, through thick & thin all these years, it seems they'll make it through anything & all the way! Like Dad often says, time is the greatest tester, & it's especially a good test for those who have just been followers.
9. PEOPLE WRITE ME THESE REPORTS OF THEIR DIFFERENT CONFESSIONS & BATTLES & PROBLEMS THEY HAVE, & I just think, "Well, thank God they made it this far & thank God they're learning their lessons! It's wonderful that they're going through these battles & lessons, that's really good!" It just gives me faith for people when I see that they're making it through their daily battles. I expect them to have battles, & what's good about it is that it makes them stronger in the Lord, because you have to be more dependent on Him & not so dependent on yourself. Then you know the Lord has pulled you through!
10. IF THEY'VE ALREADY HAD MANY BATTLES & MAJOR LESSONS & BREAKINGS & THEY'VE MADE IT THROUGH HARD SITUATIONS, I BELIEVE IT WON'T BE SO HARD FOR THEM IN SOME FUTURE TIME OF TRIAL OR PERSECUTION. A lot of our kids were cruelly misused under the Chain. Some of our people have experienced real hardships. Some have been through emotional strain & mental torture & nervous breakdowns, but they've stood firm & they're still with us! So some of the ones that we thought were the weakest have withstood some of the hardest battles & hardships & they are still with us! GB'm!
11. LOOK AT SOME OF THE PEOPLE WHO HAVE BEEN ON OUR STAFF BEFORE WHO ARE NOW LEADERS OUT ON THE FIELD. Now they may not be what you would consider real strong leadership, but they're still at it, they're still going for God & they're still being used in His Work. Maybe that's because they were nothing when with us & they know they're nothing, so they're compelled to depend on the Lord. When they're weak, then they're strong in the Lord's strength!
12. ONLY THE LORD REALLY KNOWS WHO IS TRULY WEAK & WHO IS STRONG. You just don't know how people are going to pan out. "Man looketh on the outward appearance but God looketh on the heart!" (1Sam.16:7) You can look at a person & think, "They're rather weak," but how do you know? What are you basing your judgement on? You can't judge people or predict their final outcome by their outward appearance or personality. The Lord doesn't even judge us by our past sins or by even our present ones or our personality or whatever. Only the Lord knows & judges the heart!
13. LIKE DAD SAID, "JUST BE FAITHFUL TODAY." Of course if you're unyielded & you don't want to grow & progress in the Lord then you could grow weaker & weaker. But what is weakness & what is strength? How does the Lord look at it? Who does the Lord consider weak & who does He consider strong?
14. IT WOULD BE VERY INTERESTING TO SEE A LIST OF THE BACKSLIDERS IN OUR FAMILY & SEE ALL THE ONES THAT WERE CONSIDERED IN THE PAST TO BE SOME OF OUR STRONGEST PEOPLE. Look at some of those FFers we had in Tenerife, some girls who were only a very short time in the Family, & even young in the flesh, yet who are still going for the Lord & the Family. But look at the Spanish disciples Belen & Roser, for example. They were some who we considered our strongest Spanish girls. As long as they were obedient & submitted & full of faith, they were strong, but when they doubted & rebelled against God's will they lost their true strength.
15. THE DIFFERENCE IS THAT SOME PEOPLE ARE ONLY STRONG OR TALENTED IN THEIR OWN STRENGTH. They have a strong personality or they have strong drive or they're strong in the flesh. But that doesn't mean they're strong in the Lord. This should be encouraging to those of us who are weak, & most of us really are! Some of our staff people here are especially weak. It should encourage everyone to just hang on to the Lord, that you don't have to be "strong" to be used by the Lord, certainly not strong in yourself! Your strength actually depends on how desperate you are with the Lord, & how much of you you've given Him!
16. PEOPLE CAN ALSO CHANGE AT THE SPUR OF THE MOMENT. Look at Phoebe, she just made up her mind & changed almost overnight when she decided that she was going to be a much more willing & yielded vessel. So it can happen to anyone. A weak person can become strong & a strong person can become weak overnight according to a decision they make. You can just suddenly decide to make the right decision, to obey & follow God & go the right way for the Lord so He can use you more mightily, & then you'll be strong in the Lord & not in yourself.
17. SO MAYBE IN A CERTAIN MOMENT OF CRISIS THE SO-CALLED WEAK ONES WILL DECIDE TO GIVE IT THEIR ALL & pull through & put the so-called "stronger" ones to shame! The weak ones seem to be the only ones who really make it! Because they've been weak all through their lives, they've grown more dependent on Him & at the last moment or ultimate time of trial they'll really make it. We've had a lot of people with us on the staff who seemed rather weak but who've continued to be faithful & dependable! They have progressed & learned lots of lessons, but they're still rather weak, but they're still here & still in the Family serving the Lord & that's what counts! The Lord made us all different, some are strong in character & personality, but they're not really that strong in the Lord. Others seem weak in personality & character, but they may be very strong in the Lord.
18. THE SAME PRINCIPLE HOLDS TRUE WITH PEOPLE WHO ARE STRONG IN THE WORD. Just because you memorise hundreds of verses & you can quote every verse by reference doesn't mean you're so spiritual or so strong in the Lord! Look at Joel.--If you'd say anybody was strong in the Word you'd say he was, right? But that's not what counts. It doesn't matter how much Word you know, it's what you do with it & how it affects you that counts! What is spiritual strength but being obedient & yielded to the Lord & His Word!
19. SO JUST LIKE WE'RE SAYING ABOUT WEAKNESS & STRENGTH.--HOW DO YOU JUDGE WHO'S STRONG IN THE WORD? Joel, who knows thousands of verses? Maybe someone who knows hardly any Scriptures & has a poor memory may be a lot stronger in the Word because when they read it it affects them & it changes them & bears fruit in their lives & in time of trial they hold onto the Lord because that's where their only strength comes from. After all, "the Word was made flesh." (John 1:14) If they know & love Jesus & stay close to Him & try to please Him, that's what counts! The Lord often looks at things a lot differently than we do, in fact, most of the time!