Possession, Continuation and Expansion

A good deal of what we heard this morning from a number of people could be summarized tersely in about three words. One of those words would be Possession—that is the possession of things that we have received; and they become very real possessions.

Another word would be Continuation—the taking of those things received and then continuing on with them exactly as they are, as Benjamin said, without diminishing them or without frittering them away in any way or diluting them.

And the third would be Enlargement—not only Possession and Continuation but, in the process of all that, also Expansion on several hands.

We’re privileged this morning to be in a very special environment in this room in the Body of Christ or at Rehoboth this afternoon for those who will be there, because in this environment all of the things that we possess in the Body of Christ are not controversial at all. There’s very little here that opposes to the T that which we express and know and believe in the Lord, praise God. That is, the walls of this room secure to us a real liberty to believe and to practice and to proclaim. And therefore there is but a small test really for any of us in coming into this room or into the room of Rehoboth and enjoying all of this. I have to always compare the condition here.

I’ve been a Christian for 22 years, since 1950. And I spent a number of years in the church or in the churches in the various places where I was. And I can remember a great deal of the atmosphere, a great deal of the conditions, a great deal of the hardness and the feelings that went therewith, because outside of this atmosphere, the foundation truths of the gospel, just the basic things, that Christ died for our sins, are in the world at large controversial; we know that.

Certainly those who are at Yale and Harvard, standing alone for the Body of Christ—not just for an occasional proclamation of the gospel, but the Body of Christ in those places—know that they are living in an alien atmosphere, inhabited by all kinds of things that are very contrary to this gospel.

Then to go beyond that, from the foundation truths of the gospel into the baptism of the Holy Spirit and all of the things that flow out of the baptism of the Holy Spirit. Well, in the Christian churches, that has been tremendously controversial and to a large degree still is, understood truly and rightly. And it can be very uncomfortable indeed to hold the belief, not only in the gospel but also in the baptism, to be in these churches, because there’s a hostility in the environment that is always quickly edging out to cut off at the first sign because of what it would mean. And then beyond that to the vision of the Body of Christ, which is the hardest of all to stand for at large.

If we were this morning not in New York City or in Morningside Heights or this afternoon in Yonkers, if we were instead in Buffalo or Cleveland or Baltimore or Miami or somewhere else, and we thought, well, we would like to worship this morning after the Body of Christ style, it would be a pretty lonely Miami, and a pretty lonely Baltimore. Because you couldn’t really go anywhere. You couldn’t leave your hotel room or your wherever-you-were door and say, “Now, I will go out and gather with the Body of Christ and see what the Lord would do this morning.” Because as soon as you open that door, you walk into a very cold world, and you wouldn’t have any destination.

And if you were more permanently settled there, you would begin to realize week after week that all you could do would be to stand and to pray for the formation of the Body of Christ, not knowing when the first one might come in. And it would be the labor perhaps of, who knows, years before you would see four or five or six people, gathered in some kind of secure situation—spiritually secure, I mean, not [?], not controversial, not edged with contention primarily. And you would have to go through a period of uncertainty, of suffering, of reproof, of rebuke at times, standing for that. If you were in the church standing for that, if you were in some church atmosphere, you would find you would become yourself a controversial and unwanted person.

Oddly, there’s an instinct that is devilish, of course, that marks such a person and leaves them out as far as possible in the cold, unrecognized, unwanted, not given opportunities. So then here we are in this special situation. Thank God, we are here, we can speak forth freely. No one says, well, watch it now or contradicts.

We have no assurance per se all of us who are here today will be in the Body of Christ in future years. Perhaps all of us will be, perhaps most of us will be. We have no guarantee upon that, if everyone here will be five or ten years from now in the Body of Christ. We believe that some here today will, regardless of anything else, regardless of what happens, be in the Body of Christ in years to come, however many years they may be or wherever we may be at that time. Still in the Body of Christ, still having the same vision that we have received and still going on with it, still insisting upon it, still seeing that it is allowed to grow by the fact that we hold it. Because if there isn’t someone to hold it in possession, then there’s no possibility of the continuation of the expansion of it.

The song that we first sang this morning says, “That we may tell it to the generation following.” Well, in Israel’s terms, that would be very clear it will be the fathers telling the sons—the grandfathers telling the sons, and the fathers telling their sons: each generation. In the Body of Christ, perhaps a generation doesn’t take 20 or 30 or 40 years, but it’s the next person on the horizon who can come into the vision because you can express the vision. And you tell it. You got it from a past generation, the generation of some previous time and you have it in your generation. And then you allow it to generate out from your generation into the next generation that it may work there too.

I think there is no doubt that the reason there are so few now at Yale or at Harvard—is it the vision is the Body? If the vision were for bringing a part of ourselves and a part of our lives and a part of our substance into a meeting once or twice a week, you could get people to operate on that basis. And you would find there be the five or the 10 or the 15 or the 18 there. And that’s what the church gatherings are: it’s the bringing of a part of yourselves, the churchgoing part of yourself, the church offering giving part of yourself, into a place for an hour and a quarter or an hour and 20 minutes, whatever the time may be, once a week, receiving very little personal attention, getting whatever little there may be or more, whatever—it depends upon the places. And then leaving and then going back into your own situation, your own family situation, your own life situation, your own work situation, and then coming together again at the next appointed time, whether it be that evening or next Wednesday or the following Sunday.

It calls for a very far less than total commitment. It calls for a partial commitment. And when you call for a partial commitment, you can get more people to agree on the matter and come in and cooperate with that. It only requires so much of their time, their energy, their attention, and their substance.

In 1 Timothy 4:9-12, “This is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptation. For therefore we both labour and suffer reproach, because we trust in the living God, who is the Saviour of all men, specially of those that believe. These things command and teach. Let no man despise thy youth….”

The marvelous thing about your age is that for you it is absolutely perfect, and you couldn’t be five minutes older if you wanted to be. If you are 19 years old, well, that’s all there is to it, it has to run its course through the rest of that year until your birthday comes, and you turn 20. And you cannot possibly do anything about that. But if you are 19 or 22, whatever age you are, you can possess all that’s been offered to possess of the knowledge of the truth. Hold that in your own young personality, letting no man despise your youth, insisting upon it and communicating it to whoever you may have opportunity to communicate it to.

“Let no man despise thy youth, but be thou an example of the believers, in word, in conversation, in charity, in spirit, in faith, in purity.” It’s a pretty big order. But as a very young person, “be thou an example” of those who believe, after these various manners, which are all really one manner.

“Till I come, give attendance to reading, to exhortation, to doctrine. Neglect not the gift that is in thee, which was given thee by prophecy, with the laying on of the hands of the presbytery. Meditate upon these things; give thyself wholly to them; that thy profiting may appear to all. Take heed unto thyself, and unto the doctrine; continue in them: for in doing this thou shalt both save thyself, and them that hear thee.”

“Those that hear thee speak,” out of this condition “that thy profiting appears to them”—knowing whereof we speak about these truths—and those who have faith, hearing these things will say yes. The response will come somewhere at various times to some who will say in themselves “yes” to this very message. And that “yes” will be the continuation, the start in that life in that generation or the continuation of the vision.

The Catholics have made a grotesque thing out of a teaching they call “apostolic succession.” But there is a succession, and it is from the apostles, as was earlier said this morning. And that is that the light of the truth that they held to themselves, that they got from the Lord, and they held and carried forward and committed to others was through those others to be continued through their time and then placed in the hands of the next, and then borne on by them and continued through their time that there might be the same light of the truth of the gospel and the church all the way down through the age. That’s not what happened.

Those who had the vision and paid the price and kept it to the end kept the light bright in their generation without any diminishing, without any of that beginning to taper down. But somewhere along the line those to whom it was committed allowed the light to diminish, to be reduced, until finally that light became darkness. It’s so apt to call it the Dark Ages, for they were exactly that, spiritually.

And the succession had failed, not because it needed to have failed, but it failed because those who had taken it from the previous generation had not run with it by giving themselves wholly to it, by possessing it entirely in their beings.

And you can see this in worldly things. A certain man owns a business. Dan was speaking this morning earlier: well, he had that plane, he had made that rather fragile thing, from a number of elements very carefully. And he didn’t want some ham-handed brother smashing it up, because the brother had invested nothing in it, you see, and could therefore not value the item in the same way.

Well, a man will suffer privation, start from nothing and build up a business, and there’s a quality in all he does because he values it as it really ought to be valued. He knows what it cost. And then he passes it on to his son, and his son firstly runs out and gets himself a red sports car or something and runs around and becomes a sort of playboy. He has the whole business in hand, it’s all his possession, and yet his life becomes a kind of spectacular failure because he could not somehow participate in the things that had made the father’s custody of that business a high quality thing, the father having valued it greatly.

This has been notably true in the newspaper business that men who have been great creators of newspapers and have made them vital organs in their time have passed them on to the next group of men. And that newspaper often died with the generation, because they’re not able to bring the same thing to it. Some are—there are some that are able to catch it and say yes. The New York Times has been in custody now for several publishers by those who have held to a very large measure to the integrity of the man who established it about 1895, or who got it on its feet at least.

Well, in the Body of Christ, there is the opposition of the enemy, who is determined to destroy, if he can, or to reduce or to hamstring, to paralyze. We’re told in the Scriptures (2 Timothy 2:2) by Paul: what you have received from us, commit thou also to other faithful men, and let them in turn commit to yet other faithful men, which is the apostolic formula for succession really. The succession of the truth through time after time.

We’re also told by Paul in a certain place (Acts 20:29-30) that he could tell them with tears that after he had left, that grievous wolves would come in to tear and to rend the flock, to do that destroying, invading work. And he was warning them in very due season, that they could not expect that there would be some kind of automatic continuation, that somehow if you just come to the same place regularly that it will go on. But he was saying that a powerful strategy would be put into effect against you in the form, I tell you now, of grievous wolves. Why would he tell them that? So they may say, “Ohhh,” and get weary in their minds and say, “Well, we’re going to get terribly rent”? No—that those who had an ear to hear might say, “All right, to be on the alert, to be able to recognize when that comes in.”

[He said “from within the church.”] Oh that’s right, from within, who rise from within. Yes, exactly. Grievous wolves will arise from within to rend the flock.

And there are times in the Body when essential elements of the Body come within the Body into spiritual controversy. [Exactly.] And it’s no easy business. [No easy business.] To weather through that storm and see the thing come out on the other end intact.

Who can say what the quality of any of our response will be in the long run? [Exactly.] I would not say for myself that I knew, guaranteed somehow, that through everything, regardless of what should happen, that I know that I would never fail, you see. You trust that whatever happens, whatever change might come, whatever place you might be, that you would not be tempted enough by the easier way to fail the vision.

For I think the wonder of this is, that when Thomas E. Lowe did die, that the vision was not only held to but then—I think largely—I can’t know entirely how much of the vision—I know that parts of the vision were absolutely in Hannah by the time that he died. I do believe that since then there has been an expansion through the years, a [discipline] of the Lord upon Hannah’s life especially that has caused the vision to be refined and purified and made in some ways perhaps more explicit.

I know that when I met Hannah, I rather believed that I was set for the Body from the day I was converted. Because except for the place where I was converted, I did not find thereafter a congenial atmosphere in the churches except for one very brief period in Brooklyn, where I found a very specially powerful church and rejoiced greatly in its power and also recognized even there vital elements missing. And I was forcibly [?] removed from that situation after a few months and brought to Morningside Heights. And I had within me the knowledge that all that I had had there, plus other things, ought to be the case. And yet I could not specify as many… I could specify some of the elements, but I could not specify all the things. And when I met Hannah, she was able to fill in marvelous specifications.

It wasn’t an altogether easy process, I don’t believe, even there. Because there were some things that perhaps were stubbornly held to for a time. But then as it was portrayed and painted and prayed—we prayed much prayer, I think [yes]—that those things became clear, you see, by revelation, as it always is.

“Meditate upon these things.” We rejoiced to hear yet last week that someone said, “Well, I meditated all this week upon a certain thing.” And then this week, “Well, I meditated this week upon the Jews, especially because of the message last week.”

“Meditate upon these things,” hold them in your mind, in your inner man. “Give thyself wholly to them,” what a wonderful command. Restrain, hold nothing back. “Give thyself wholly to them, that thy profiting…” “Thy profiting”—you’re the one that profits. You profit in many ways, you can’t hardly enumerate now, and later you’ll hardly be able to believe all the profiting that there will be. And that that profiting which you have may free up outwardly to all at least to those who have eyes to see it. “Take heed unto thyself and unto the doctrine, continue in them, for in doing this, thou shalt both save thyself and them that hear thee.”

The work of the establishing of the Body of Christ in this generation is yet oddly enough very much in its infancy. These are the lonely years in certain places, as there were, before, lonely years in Colombia for the Body. And then the loneliness began to be replaced by those of like, precious faith and vision. So that loneliness changed into company and collaboration and continuation.

So there are lonely times now in other places that will, at some future time, probably fruit in the absolute establishment of the Body of Christ in those places in a way that will be very hard for the enemy to break up, because so much of sovereignty and human cooperation have been linked together in it.

I don’t know just what age the apostle John was, we know he was an elderly man, when he wrote the epistles. And the epistle that is so beautiful and applicable. It says, “The elder unto the elect lady and her children, whom I love in the truth….” (2 John 1) I think there’s been some pondering to whom he was writing, but I think the general thought would be that he is writing to the church. And he says, “the elect lady and her children, whom I love in the truth, and not I only, but also all they that have known the truth. For the truth’s sake, which dwelleth in us, and shall be with us for ever. Grace be with you, mercy, and peace, from God the Father, and from the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of the Father, in truth and love. I rejoiced greatly that I found of thy children walking in truth, as we have received a commandment from the Father.” (vv. 1-4) I rejoice greatly.

“And now I beseech thee, lady, not as though I wrote a new commandment unto thee, but that which we had from the beginning, that we love one another. And this is love…” (vv. 5-6) What is love? Because love is certainly a word that is dragged down, sex line or the people talking about love or thinking that they love someone. Or the people in church, they don’t want to follow the Lord and they say, “Oh, you have to do it by love,” we know all of that.

“And this is love, that we walk after his commandments….” What is love? That we walk after his commandments. “This is the commandment, That, as ye have heard from the beginning, ye should walk in it.” (v. 6)

He goes on because it’s… The whole of the second epistle, in the one page, why? Because “many deceivers are entered into the world.” Simple reason. It’s all for their good, that they won’t be taken off. As we know, we’ve heard so many things. For instance, John Wesley. Or you can take any of the leaders. Start out well, and if John Wesley could ever see what the Methodist Church is today, he would wonder why he ever started such a thing going. But we know his reward will be just the same. But what it has gone into. Because as John said, it wasn’t given down generation to generation to generation to Methodists today. Well, they’re just simply…it’s going all into antichrist. Has gone.

“For many deceivers are entered into the world, who confess not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh. This is a deceiver and an antichrist. Look to yourselves, that we lose not those things which we have wrought, but that we receive a full reward.” (2 John 1:7-9)

Because it’s not to him that runneth or it’s not to him that just starts out to do something. But to keep on and to be found that way. Because after those men that had been raised up, say, with a vision, pass out and then it’s taken up and they’re not out for the will of the Lord and they’re not out in the same way and they’re not fully sold out to the truth and something else is there—the seed of whatever it might be and take hold of that same work, that it is scattered. To the winds, and not just to the winds but you can say to the antichrist, to the devil.

“8 Look to yourselves, that we lose not those things which we have wrought….” (v. 8) You’ve come along and we have wrought things in the Lord, that we lose not those things we have wrought. Because then it’s all divided, scattered. And everything that has been wrought and brought together, scattered to the enemy.

“9 Whosoever transgresseth, and abideth not in the doctrine of Christ, hath not God….” (v. 9) John is very strongly writing, writes very strong indeed. It says, “he that abideth in the doctrine of Christ, he hath both the Father and the Son. he Son. 10 If there come any unto you, and bring not this doctrine, receive him not into your house, neither bid him God speed.” So you don’t take those people in your house. Come Jehovah Witness, do you bring him into your house and argue with him? You don’t even bid him God speed. You don’t even say “God bless you” as he goes.

Some people have that sort of habit or custom, and they say, well, God bless you anyhow. It’s just some kind of a saying that you’re not supposed to bless the devil’s things or the devil’s people, the antichrist. But take him in or whoever it is and bid him God speed when he leaves. “God bless you,” why would you bless people that God isn’t blessing or why would you want use it or be nice or something pleasing? “Well, God bless you anyhow, we part in peace, I don’t want to have any trouble with you, God bless you.” All off. He that biddeth him God speed—it’s worse than that. “11 He that biddeth him God speed is partaker of his evil deeds.” So you become a partaker of his evil deeds in doing such things.

“12 Having many things to write unto you, I would not write with paper and ink: but I trust to come unto you, and speak face to face, that our joy may be full. 13 The children of thy elect sister greet thee.” Another church, I would think. Another church, so he’s writing to the church of whatever place it is. And he’s telling them, and just that one side tells you that gives you the salutation, the greetings and the commendation. And then he’s giving the warning. Because, as John said, one could not stand up and vow, I’ll never take the wrong side. By the grace of God, you never would. But you can take within a group, the people are like sheep, they’re not willing to take responsibility, most people. Neither for the church or for their own lives. And so the responsibility is always up to somebody else, and it’s always, well, there are people with the leadership ability. But you take a time of testing when it comes to a test, and you will notice that most of the sheep go on the wrong side.

I’ve been through these places, I know what I am talking about. You’ll find when it comes to taking the real test and standing for the truth to the highest degree that those people will go for something lesser, or the sheep will go for something lesser because they’re sheep, they’re followers. And they don’t know in themselves what’s right. And for the most part, well, I don’t think that that’s just right, and I don’t think he or she see it, and they go off and they go to something lesser and to doom. I’ve seen it happen many times, within my life or my husband’s life. We’ve seen it happen, done.

So who are we that…or ones that stand and say, Well, I know that one will go all the way through no matter what. Just don’t know. You don’t know yourself. And if there is anything in you that the enemy can put any of his claws in to hold you, you will not stand, you cannot stand. Because there’s something in you that will go the other way. Even maybe you wouldn’t want to be swayed, maybe you wouldn’t…oh, but you just don’t know, and you’re fooled by the enemy, and you’d think that that’s exactly the right. You’re looking at a person, you’re standing for this or that, and you can go off. The only way you can stand true and stay true is to be in the Lord and asking for His will. And even though your flesh is able to be fooled, anybody’s is, anybody’s flesh is weak enough to be fooled, God will not let you, because somehow it will balance out.

But you can look back at your own lives—some of you, I know—and think how near you were to going overboard, going over the precipice. You could never say it was God. But you know yourself. And how do you know unless you walk in all the light.

Helen brought that out over the phone to me yesterday, I think it was. She brought it out very well today again. That if there’s anything in you that you cannot get over or you cannot get the victory over. You cannot stand still and say, well, this, I must get through. Because the enemy can allow you, just say success. I’ve watched and with no joy to me, because some of them that have fallen off the cliff or the precipice whom I have loved very dearly and only wanted them, as John would say. The best thing is if you walk in light. Elect lady. What I am so glad about, that I’m rejoicing so greatly, is that I’ve found of thy children—it didn’t say all of thy children, so that meant some of them, that’s the way I take it. The inference would be that there were some of them walking in the light, walking in all light, praise God. And that is the greatest joy that any apostle or anybody could ever have that had spiritual children—say, natural too, but spiritual children—that their children walk in all the light. And you know that they are walking in the light up to date. Praise God.

And as I started saying, I’ve seen them fall off a cliff from some of the biggest of the world. And God permitted us to go to one of the greatest that you could think of, and to warn that evangelist, to warn that leader that they were falling off the cliff. And what was the answer? “I’ve never been so happy in my life. What do you mean? I’ve never been….”

And one of the things that the enemy has and puts on people. Some people were depressed, or other people…. But with the delirium of themselves and of some kind of power that they have. The enemy takes hold and off they go. And it’s so plain. You look on one side, and he’s talking and saying that…and you look at the other side, because—“for” which means “because”—for many deceivers are entered into the world, and he says, who confess not that Jesus is the Christ. Well, you say, who would do that? If we all confessed. But if there’s something in you that is a moving on, you will automatically not confess that Jesus Christ. You might with your mouth, but it wouldn’t be inside. Because if Jesus were the Christ, he’d be working into you the entire victory. That’s why John says, we have no assurance who in our midst will we find in the Body of Christ and continue in the Body of Christ. Or has been or will continue, we don’t know. But the part here is “I greatly rejoice, lady,” the church wherever it was, I rejoice that I found of thy children walking in truth as we have received a commandment from the Father. And now I beseech thee, lady, not as though I wrote a new commandment, but that which we have had from the beginning, that we love one another. And this is love. Because no matter how much a person loves another one, in the Lord it has to be that you’re walking together in the Lord. You can have all the natural love. But the commandment is… What is love? This love is that we walk after his commands. Together, it has to be together. It cannot be…. Because if you’re walking in love, and I’m walking in love, then that’s the move together. You don’t meet one another on the common basis or because you particularly like that person’s manner or…. It’s not like that. I’ve said that so many times. We meet, we walk in Jesus, and then this is automatic here. It isn’t because I try to be nice to you or you try to be nice to me. Or you try to do everything that you think would please me, or I try to handle you with kid gloves that you won’t get sort of miffed or something.

We meet in the walk. We have to walk. The commandment is… Love is that we walk after his commandments. This is the command. It wouldn’t be anything where anyone is. It could be in Africa, China, Jerusalem or where. Are you walking with them, because we’re walking in Jesus.

It’s like there’s one sun. There’s only one sun up there, and we can only get the benefit of that one sun. All the world gets the benefit of the sun, right? That sun is there. And we only can get the benefit of Jesus Christ as we walk, as we keep his commandments. Then we walk, but not only walk in the Son, the son of God. But we walk in the light, as he is in the light. And if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have—automatically—fellowship one with the other.

That brings me to you and you to me, just like a magnet. We are absolutely one, totally one, in the Lord. And every move and every thought is for the bringing forth of His plan, and we’re automatically in Him.

You know, there’s the, “Well, let’s sit down and just get our differences straightened. Now, you believe that….” It’s nothing to do with that. You walk in the Lord, I walk in the Lord. We walk in the light, and we automatically, simultaneously, we’re walking in the light as He is in the light. Was there ever any thing of contradiction between the Father and Son and Holy Spirit? Those three are absolutely one. They agree in heaven—the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost.

He says, if two of you agree on earth as those three in heaven agree, then something is done. If two of you agree as touching one thing. One thing. If you’re walking in the light, it will be done. Absolutely. You’re walking in the light, you’re walking in Him, and so you’re automatically together, automatically you’re going forth. Nothing could hinder it.

And this has to be. Because many deceivers entered into the world who confess not. This is a deceiver, that confesses not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh. Then he tells you, he is an antichrist. I don’t care if that’s your father, I don’t care if that’s your mother. I don’t care who that is. He is, she is, an antichrist, has an antichrist spirit. It’s very serious. And you can have all the blood relations and the natural love, and you would do the world for them, if you could. But they’re antichrists you’re doing it for. The antichrist. Because they’re not following the Lord. It’s very strong. And people don’t like to take this.

But that’s what it says, Look to yourselves that we lose not those things. So you can just spend out. You can have a big supply that you have throughout the years wrought and a supply of that which will take you through. But he says, See to it that you don’t spend that, that you don’t pour it out, that—this word has come out a couple of times here—dilute that. Because you can dilute the things of the Lord. Look to yourselves that we don’t dilute those things we have wrought. But that we receive a full reward.

Because this wouldn’t come to us like a leave it all and turn to the world; it would be a dilution, a little at a time, eeking out. So you don’t move on today, and you don’t move on anytime, you’re just being diluted. You’d take all this in. Or you’re around it or you hear it or it’s wrought somehow. But see to it that you don’t allow this. Because it will ruin you in the end. You may never become the great evangelist or something, but whoever. And whatever grade you are, whether it be from the top to the bottom or from the bottom to the top, the dilution comes in so subtly. And so you’re in this weakness; weakness is diluting. The weakness dilutes whatever strength that you have. You can take Samson, you can take people for instance that we know about.

Whoever transgresses, whoever—it wouldn’t make any difference who this is. It could be the dearest or the nearest what. Whoever transgresseth and abideth not in the doctrine of Christ hath not God. Hath not God. He that abideth in the doctrine of Christ, he hath both the Father and the Son. As my husband said, and the Holy Spirit and all the holy angels; everything is backing us. And he has not only the Father, but he has the Father and the Son. You can say it vice versa, you have everything that you need as you walk in the light.

If there come any unto you, if there are any, no matter what they come with, no matter what they name or mouth the name of Jesus, and they are not walking in the doctrine, in the light, in the things of God, according to this Bible here, neither bid him…. Receive him not into your house. He is not welcome in your house. Neither bid him God speed. For he that biddeth him God speed is a partaker of his evil deeds. Very strong. John is very strong when he writes. Especially the epistles. So we know where we stand.

What I wanted to say, I thank God for those that walk in light, just as I can repeat it, just what John said. “Lady, I’m so glad that you have your children, those that walk in light.” And I say, well, thank God for those who walk in the light who are moving on, who are taking the dealing or whatever it is, and moving on with it, and thanking God. It’s not that there are not many people that say “Thank you” when you tell them. Maybe after they’re over, say 5 minutes, maybe after a year, maybe after two, maybe never. They might say, well, I’m so glad you called me on that; I would have been ruined.

Just think of this great evangelist. When my husband and I first started out, and praying for this evangelist and praying for her. But at last, the prophecy came forth, you’ll be able to see this evangelist. How could we? I can say she. She was one of the greatest women of her day. And she was in California; how could we ever see her? We were little people, praying on 3407 Pinkney Road, Baltimore, MD, up in an upper room. So you’re going to see this great evangelist. Well, she wouldn’t know we existed, nothing. And how could it be when the other ladies with us, there were three of us, and the call came.

Her pianist for the greatest campaign ever was taken ill. The big arena in Washington was filled. And someone heard that she was this wonderful pianist, which she was. And could she come? Well, what do we do with that? Well, she went to be her pianist.

And then time came when the Lord said, Now is your day, you go. Well, praise God we could get through to her. The suite of rooms and the finest hotel. And how it ever came that she came to the door, because she had everyone at her hands, she could bid anything. She had her private secretary and other secretaries, everything, just a retinue of people. And she came to the door, how could it be? And we could tell her with all love, not something of going against her, but now is the time. And she threw this to the winds. What a death she died. What a death, what a horror.

But God got that message through, and the warning by people that she never heard of before. Only because when we called, we could say, could we make an appointment? Who is it? Well, it’s your pianist that’s calling. Oh yes. She thought surely it would be something about the music, because that had to be just right. And she was in charge of power, a power for God. You could see people coming out of wheeling chairs, she went all over the earth, and people were healed, just wonderful.

There are deceivers that go out. And he’s out. Do you think he’s bothering with the drunk in the gutter? He’s got him. And all these drug people and all. I mean to get them, he’s got them, he doesn’t have to.

But what he’s out, it’s to deceive, “to deceive the very elect if it were possible.” And who are we, would he bother with us? He would bother with anybody that is set for the plan of God, which we have had. And he said, be careful. He said, look to yourselves that we lose not—I think this is a very important verse—that we lose not the things which we have wrought. But that we receive a full reward. Paul said it. He said, I’m watching myself lest I become a castaway. I keep under my body; I don’t want, and I can’t have it. And every day is a watching, is being, holding yourself in place before God that you were not allowing the enemy to put something over on you.

Because no matter how high you go, there’s a saying, the higher you go, the harder the flop is. And when someone like that lady went so high, and the flop was so great. You can imagine what she brought down with her, what was brought down with her. So to speak, kingdoms and the things that she had done for years and years, flop.

Of course, those that were entirely in God wouldn’t flop, because of a woman. But naturally the kingdom was hindered and brought down. But today, every one of you that are here have had the message, and there are those that are not moving on in the Lord. Or those that are so slowly…it’s a crawl, it’s the crawling of a snail. Maybe they come out or a tortoise, terrapin, go along like this. And then somebody comes and the head goes in. It’s really like an armored car. You can’t do anything with that. As far as hurting the thing, it’s like an armored car, it’s all covered over with that whole back, the tortoise shell. And then out peeping, those little bright eyes—if you’ve seen them—look out and see if anything is around, no. Well, if it’s free to be moving on, but if it’s to crawl within that shell and stay in there until the time is gone for you. It’s worst than the tortoise or the terrapin.

Because the dealing comes, and the Lord speaks, and I know that there are those that have kept within themselves, kept it in their shells. And when it seems like everything is going all right, they’ll manage to eek out a squeak, come out of it a little. Then all of a sudden in again. And that’s been the walk, more or less, for years. Well, let’s measure it, with the word of God.

“Look to yourselves.” I can’t stop you, and I can’t start you. Because the clock I can wind. But it winds its time out, unless I crank the thing up, it stops, it won’t go on. And it has to be wound. And I can only… Or we here can only inspire or warn or remonstrate or whatever it might be to get you going. But you got to do the going yourself, the click, tick-tock has to be within you. And the heartbeat has to be within you. I can’t make you live, I can’t make you die. I can’t make you live spiritually. I can’t make you die spiritually. It’s all in you.

“Look unto yourselves, that we lose not those things, which we have wrought.” There are some things that you have done personally, that are good, wrought well. Don’t lose them. You say, is it all wrong? No, it’s not all wrong. You walk along, but don’t lose it, don’t lose what you have wrought. Look unto yourselves individually, that you lose not those things which we have wrought, but that we receive a full reward. That is a beautiful verse. I never noticed it so much as I did right now.

[Spotlighted] Spotlighted. Receive a full reward. So I would ask that you would pray for me. I have not made it, to say that I am here and that I am finished, and I’ve made it. I have however long it is. And there are the deceivers going out, sent out. Many deceivers entered into the world who confess not. Well, you say, that’s easy, you can just take them out easy.

You’ve confessed, oh, I don’t want to have anything to do with him. No, Millennial Dawners, what they used to call them, Jehovah’s Witnesses, they change their name so many times. Because people get on to them, and they change it to another thing. Say, I wouldn’t have anything to do with them. You can just throw them out. But if they’re not walking in the light, if they’re not moving according to the doctrine, they’re not of God. This is a deceiver and an antichrist. Look to yourselves. See, if you weren’t…. Look to yourselves, that you don’t get into anything or you allow any space there for the enemy to hinder you from the full reward. Not just the reward, from the full reward.

Well, praise God that we’ve been able to come together today, and the day that it is. I know the memories. I know that down there, I would suppose that they do whether I’m there or not, they’re out at the grave, and taking something out there. They pray there. Thank the Lord we don’t pray to any dead. We pray there and thank God there. Well, what good would that do? Well, it is the tabernacle, that Thomas Ernest Lowe inhabited. Naturally, it’s deteriorated to how far, we don’t know. But he lived in that tabernacle, and he did the will of God in that tabernacle. And that tabernacle was used to step out from Baltimore, MD, to Colombia, South America. And we honor, as Jesus said about Mary of Bethany, who brought the alabaster box of great price and broke it. And he said, This will be a memorial. So there’s nothing wrong with remembering or a memorial.

Well, you say, what good would that do to take it? Well, they remember that his—not an alabaster box—was broken, but the whole man was broken so that he would do absolutely the will of God. We honor his memory and the memory of him. So we have a memory today. And not only that, Jesus said as a memorial to her. He said, wherever this is told, this will be this in all the world. He said, all the world—he used that.

So we’re not able to tell it to all the world, because they wouldn’t be interested. But we have a world here, our world. We have a world in Bogotá, in Cali, and at Rehoboth. And we can and all the world remember Thomas Ernest Lowe, not just about him being my husband, he happened to be. But did the will of God, and you could say lay down his neck for the Lord Jesus Christ, praise God.

So we do thank God that such a one was born, that such a one lived, such a one accepted the Lord Jesus, such a one moved on in life—always moving in the light, there was never any conflict. And when we talked to one another, if there was something that we didn’t see or say, well now, how is it you do that? Always get it down whatever it is and get it straight, that is, that if that wasn’t walking in the light. But the opposition that you meet in people, the stubbornness, the refusal, the rebellion, the hell that people set up when you start talking to them. And excuses go around. And you know that you’re on an effortless conquest. What would you call it? It’s effortless to just deal. Then if they do get it, it takes so long to get over, the shock is so terrible. It’s just like you hacked him in the head with a hatchet or something, they get split, and they have to get so long to get it pieced together again to start clicking again. Just can’t take it. Just knocked out. And you know they’re knocked out, and they’re under it and not moving on.

He said, watch yourself; look unto yourselves, watch out. That what you have done doesn’t get lost. Because there are good things—there’s salvation, filled with the Holy Spirit, praise, speaking in tongues, whatever—watch it, that you don’t lose it. Because you can.

So I thank God for those that are walking in light. I thank God for the others, too, whatever they do. But, I mean, it isn’t the joy that I would have with those that are moving and walking, and that you can depend on, and…. Say, it couldn’t be the same. It just couldn’t be the same, because it’s not automatic, it’s not going together like this [(clapping/meshing sound)]. Praise the Lord for today.