Communication is important, isn't it?
You want to hear these things.
I don't think you want us to just
give messages to you.
You want to know what's happened.
What are you getting into?
We trust you.
We believe in you.
You are now in the family.
We will share and must share the burdens.
One thing I want to mention.
If you don't feel happy about OM, you're
not convinced about it, and I hope you
will investigate and ask questions and not be
manipulated into coming into this world.
But if you don't feel happy about certain
things, you have certain questions, there is no
pressure for you to give in your money.
That announcement given is for those that are
sure to come in on the year program.
After all, most of you by now, you've
told your church, you've told your parents, this
isn't something you decided last week.
But we get new people here who don't
understand, and just one mistake can be costly.
So there is no pressure.
At this stage, if you're not sure whether
you're coming this year, there would only be
a small percentage in that camp, there is
no pressure for you to give in any
money.
In fact, if you need some money, maybe
we can help you.
We have to do everything possible to communicate
that in no way is OM anything like
a false cult.
The only thing that may be similar is
false cults have a lot of zeal, a
lot of zeal, and I hope we have
a lot of zeal.
But from there, there may be some other
things, of course from there we do part
ways.
So we welcome you in the name of
the Lord.
We hope most of you will be with
us for the year or two.
We hope you'll not be afraid to ask
questions.
We hope that you'll sleep well and that
you'll stay healthy, and that you'll try to
understand what we're trying to communicate.
And one of the reasons we have these
sessions is so that you can communicate to
others.
You've got to communicate to prayer partners.
You've got to communicate to parents, to church.
And you have to communicate to the people
you teach.
Some of you will be in leadership or
some responsibility.
Now, you'd think I'd lost my marbles if
I didn't mention any books.
So I thought I'd mention two books.
We don't do a lot of book purchasing
this time of the year because you're limited
in the number of books you can cart
all over the world.
And you'll find every OM team has a
huge library or a good-sized library with
a lot of books.
So I'd like to introduce two books.
One is not new, Life Sentence.
If you're really looking for something to read
during this conference, which is unlikely from the
number of books most of you have, and
you would like to sink your teeth into
this book, just write a short note to
my secretary Vera and say you really are
looking for something to read during these two
weeks and you'd like a copy of Life
Sentence, a fantastic book by Charles Colson, the
author of Born Again, about his whole ministry
and how he wrestled with criticism and mistakes
and problems and, oh my, the birth of
that ministry and what he learned.
It's not a normal biography, though it's shared
in that style.
Then a new evangelistic book, though this book
is being used as an evangelistic book, especially
among prisoners.
It's called World on the Run, the rewrite
of Michael Green's outstanding book, Runaway World.
It's rewritten and InterVarsity is actually lowering some
of their prices.
So this is a book that we also
are just beginning to use and if you
would really like to read an evangelistic book,
you can drop Vera a note with a
definite commitment that you want to read this
in the next couple of weeks and I
don't think many of you are going to
be able to do that and we might
be able to supply you with a copy.
We may put a few on the book
table.
We prefer you to look at the books,
write what ones you want, unless you're already
in a field.
If you're already in a field, you can
go through your field leader to get a
book.
Not so easy these days, so be patient
when the finance is the way it is.
And if you don't know what field you're
going to yet, which is most of you,
you can look at a book, write the
title down, generally, and then get it later
on when you know where your field leader,
through signing.
The idea of that system, it's an honor
system, that when you sign for a book,
certainly if you're seeing your full support come
in, there's scope for a couple of books.
You go to Bromley, you get a little
piece of paper, and they give you so
many free books.
But it's actually you, out of your support,
that are seeing it come in.
Now, if you're only seeing your minimum come
in, I doubt if there's too much scope
there, but your leader, of course, he's not
going to ask you generally questions about it.
It all gets rather interesting when we're so
short of finance, and we're wrestling with so
many factors, so many factors.
You know, some people think the due loss
is some great extravaganza, which proves that OM
has lots of money, and that's why some
people no longer give any money to OM.
We even have people on OM.
They told me they'd rather give their money
to somebody else, because, you know, they figure,
you know, it's OM is so big, and
what, you know, what good does my little
gift do, this movement that's got ships?
And if only they understood that that ship,
built in 1914, is one of the most
economic ways to move manpower, and literature, and
vehicles into world evangelism.
Many people have no idea.
Right now they're raising millions of dollars in
England for just an evangelistic crusade within Britain.
And, you know, I don't believe that OM
is wasting a lot of money.
Any movement this size wastes some.
When I think of some of the experts,
some of the very talented people that God
gives us, and without those people, the likes
of us, you know, we wouldn't be able
to go too far.
A ship without a chief engineer.
An accounting office without a chief accountant.
These people all work and basically live on
the same lifestyle, modifications, of course, if they
have a family, as the newest recruit.
Can you imagine if, like most organizations, we
had to pay the experts the salaries that
the experts are demanding today?
The world is a strange place.
Great numbers of people unemployed.
They're happy to get half-day work at
terrible salaries.
Other people are making a million dollars a
year.
If you think it's any different in the
Soviet Union, visit.
I was just reading an article in the
Soviet Union today that the elite who run
the Soviet Union have special food, special cars,
special doctors, special films, including films that are
completely banned for all Soviet citizens, Western pornography.
If you're in the elite, you can see
those films.
They've got everything.
And I know it's true because I've seen
Soviet diplomats in the New Delhi airport with
30, 40 boxes of possessions they bought in
Delhi.
If they buy that much in Delhi, imagine
what they buy in New York, flying back
to take it home with them.
There's no system, neither communism nor capitalism, that
is going to straighten out all the crazy
problems in this greedy, unfair, lost, depraved world.
And I think it's a miracle that we
can all, as much as possible, try to
live on a simple lifestyle with freedom, and
that we can get some of these experts
and highly trained professional people, people with all
kinds of degrees and can demand big salaries,
to come in on the same level.
And do you know how much money that
saves us?
I tell you, two of those salaries would
save all the money I believe OM has
wasted, because we do waste some.
You'll see how that...
Just two or three of those salaries would
cover it all.
But that's perhaps for another day.
I want to speak to you on how
to find the will of God.
I wonder if that's of any interest to
anybody.
Tomorrow, boy, you're going to be hit.
All these different field leaders, they're warming their
engines, they're cruising around the woods, praying and
crying out to God for their recruits.
You know, it's interesting, that announcement last night.
I've never seen any problems in these woods.
I'm always running around.
And this morning, when I was jogging, a
sister alone was walking through the woods.
And I don't generally jog with my hat
on.
I had this funny old American baseball hat,
and I just felt like putting it on
this morning.
Put it on over my head.
And I came jogging out of a distant
part of the woods.
And this sister was walking right toward me.
And suddenly, she did an immediate reverse and
headed in the opposite direction.
And I thought, boy!
And then immediately, I remembered Nigel E.'s announcement,
and I had myself a good laugh.
Actually, those woods are not very big.
They're actually quite small.
And I hope the Lord catches this fellow
out there, because I've been, of course, challenging
people to go out to the woods to
have a quiet time.
Then Nigel comes in with his announcements.
It's unfortunate, but it is quite normal in
the world in which we live.
I once called this message, Harbor Lights to
Finding God's Plan.
I think that was a result of living
on a ship and a result of hearing
somebody else's message.
You know, when you come into a port
with a ship, and I've had the joy
of living about two years of my life
put together on the ships, and I've been
on many other ships, the old QE2, or
the old Queen Elizabeth, the QE2.
I guess I've been on about 50 different
ships.
And when you come into a port, often
you just begin to see one distant light.
If there's a lighthouse with a strong light,
you'll see that a long ways away.
And you have to sail to that.
It was a great joy to visit the
douloirs, and I especially like to go up
on the bridge and watch the navigators.
And I think often finding the will of
God is like a ship coming into harbor.
You don't see it all at once.
You don't, you know, just one night get
a revelation.
You often have to fix on one light.
And then as you move by faith, another
light will come, and another light.
As you keep moving, pretty soon, there'll be
the harbor.
And then you'll see eventually your birth.
Some of you perhaps are in the right
harbor.
We hope OM is your harbor.
But you're not in the right birthing.
And, oh my, we've learned in the world
of shipping there are many different kinds of
births.
I remember in India we got put in
a birth, and all we had blown on
us all day was iron ore dust.
The lights fused out with the dust.
We coughed in the dust.
What a horrible birth.
Difficult birth.
I think it was down in Goa.
Goa.
In Goa there's many fields.
Some of them are hot, and they're hard.
Some of them are not so hard.
Some are big, super-tanker fields.
Some are small, rowboat fields.
Then there's two real ships, to make it
even more interesting.
How in the world to determine the will
of God?
Another title I've given to this message is
Foundations for Knowing God's Will.
I think that's a better title.
Let me just give you a few basic
foundations for finding and knowing the will of
God.
I think many of you feel you know
the will of God, and now you need
that confirmed.
We are not here to find the will
of God for you, but we are, through
counseling, going to help confirm that this is
God's will.
And I think O.M.'s sort of down
-to-earth balance of the spiritual with the
practical has helped a lot of people in
their life to get off will-of-God
extremism.
And I hope that even though you may
not agree totally with everything I say, you'll
glean some of this.
Let's just pray again and ask the Lord
to help us.
Father, we thank you that we're here.
We believe that right here we are in
your will.
We ask for continued confirmation through provision, through
the witness of your Word and your Holy
Spirit, through the counsel of other leaders and
men who know the situations that we feel
we want to go into.
Guide us now as we look into the
Scriptures.
In Jesus' name, Amen.
By the way, when you go to England,
one of the things you need to learn
about is cricket.
That is such an interesting game.
It's a long game.
It takes a long time.
One of my long, unfulfilled desires has been
to learn to really play cricket.
But because I've been somewhat committed to other
things, I haven't got heavily into that.
But it's certainly very interesting to watch.
Even more interesting, those of you, and quite
a few of those Americans and people from
other countries, you are going to have the
phenomenal privilege of living on the great island
of Great Britain.
Actually, many islands.
But most of the people seem to live
on one.
And you're going to be able to get
involved in things like rugby.
Rugby is really exciting.
It's a little bit like Operation Mobilization.
And you find one man is running with
a ball and he passes it on, and
then someone else is running with a ball.
And when you get to your field, there's
a man, he seems to be the leader.
Suddenly, he goes off to preach somewhere and
gives the leadership to someone else.
And he's running with it, and you just
get to know him.
Suddenly, he hands you the ball and he
runs.
And you'll know you're on Operation Mobilization.
But you know, over in America, we play
baseball.
And I still am just American enough.
Some actually think I'm British until I open
my mouth.
But I'm just American enough to think that
that's a great, unique, interesting game.
I started playing when I was about five.
I was a baseball addict, though I wasn't
very good.
I was good when I was 13.
I made the team and was a pitcher.
But I didn't grow very much after that.
So when I got to secondary school, I
made the team and they let me warm
the bench.
In other words, I didn't play.
But all this is just to try to
get you calmed down about this long message
I'm about to give you.
In baseball, we have a term called a
double-header.
How many know what that is, a double
-header?
Here's a few Americans.
This shows the tremendous differences in language.
A double-header is when they play two
major league games on the same night.
It's long.
I saw some of you come across with
an expression that was less than joyful at
that moment.
So this is a double-header.
First game, the will of God.
Okay.
Number one, how to find the will of
God, the foundations for finding the will of
God, spiritual life.
Matthew 6.33, Seek ye first the kingdom
of God.
This is our first priority in these days.
This conference may be of value to you
even if you never go anywhere because we're
here to seek God.
We're here to have our spiritual life built
up.
We're here to be edified.
We have different people coming to minister the
word of God.
We're grateful for men like Tony Sargent, willing
to leave his rather aggressive, rapidly growing, unique
British church to come here and teach us.
Spiritual life is the number one foundation for
finding the will of God.
OM must not be geography-centered.
It must be reality-centered or Christ-centered.
The big thing, even this week, is where
am I going to go?
People get so uptight that when a bird
flies over them, you hear a noise come
out of their nose.
And we need to just relax, just relax
a little bit and just get into the
word and have our spiritual life built up.
You know, I believe even if you miss
God's geographical will, He can make this the
greatest year of your life.
If I didn't believe that God could put
together some of our blunders and some of
your blunders, you know, I'm not sure I'd
even want to speak.
Knowing the will of God does not destroy
the human factor.
That's original.
Very seldom I come up with anything original.
Say that again.
Let's see if I can remember it.
Knowing the will of God does not destroy
the human factor.
You're a human being.
You've been programmed by your parents, by your
culture, some good, some bad, by previous experiences,
by language, by emotional difficulties, by failure, by
sin.
And so it's not just going to all
come together in the little couple of weeks
at OM.
We're building for a life of commitment, a
life of service.
And praise God that we can take a
month out of our life and be in
the word and be with other people and
hear the things that we hear.
We're learners.
I have been learning wonderful things in the
last 12 days here.
From listening to my brothers and sisters and
from the things I've read and also the
things that are happening around the world as
we pick some of that up in the
newspapers and in the news.
And some of that will even come out
in the prayer meetings.
Number two, submission to God.
OM is into the submission movement.
We believe you need to learn to submit
to God.
And we as OM leaders, we are not
God and we are not going to play
God or play the Holy Spirit in your
life.
Did you know one of the books we've
been pushing is Rich Christians, how is it,
God Wants You Rich and Other Enticing Doctrines.
There's not hardly a copy left.
200 copies have gone just like that.
You read that book.
You can find one in your team library.
And that book speaks against extremes in the
area of submission.
Leadership in OM is by negotiation.
And we have to negotiate.
That leaves us ultimately with the right to
say we don't believe it's God's will for
you to go to this particular field.
You in turn have the right to say
I don't believe Operation Mobilization is for me.
It's as simple as that.
And I will tell you when you leave
OM we will pray for you.
We will say God bless you.
We will stand with you.
We will not put you into a guilt
trip.
We will not say hey, you're backsliding.
God's brought you here.
Now you're trying to run away from God.
That's the way the cults work.
So submission to God.
1 Peter 5, 6 speaks about that.
We do believe that we need to learn
something of working with and cooperating with the
leaders in the work we're in.
Dr. Martin Goldsmith spoke to us about this
at the Leaders Conference, giving us a very
unique interpretation of Hebrews 13, 17, 1 Thessalonians
5, 12.
God raises up spiritual leaders.
What He shared with us is what we
are trying to do in OM.
We're trying to be examples.
We're trying to encourage.
We're trying to lead by persuasion.
We're trying to lead from the rear as
God's shepherds.
We don't like that word so much, but
it is found in the Bible.
Submission to God.
Priority for finding God's will.
Number three, Thanksgiving.
Look at 1 Thessalonians 5, 18.
Get my new international version out.
1 Thessalonians 5, 18.
Let me read that.
Pray continually, giving thanks in all circumstances, for
this is God's will for you in Christ
Jesus.
You want to know the will of God?
There it is.
Give thanks.
If you're not learning to obey the revealed
will in very basic ways, like giving thanks,
no wonder you're having trouble finding the will
of God in some very unique, complicated situations.
So giving thanks is another foundation for finding
the will of God.
And then, number four, trust.
Trust that God loves you.
Trust that God will care for you, even
if O.M. makes a mistake, an O
.M. leader, even if something goes wrong in
relationships.
I hope it doesn't happen here, but it
may happen someday in your life.
It can happen in a local church.
It can happen on an O.M. team.
I warn you in advance, things because humans
are so gifted in this area go out
of control.
And people start to get hurt.
We had it in our leaders' meeting tonight.
There's supposed to be a policy in O
.M. that if a field is going to
jump a lot of numbers, they're at least
supposed to tell me about it so I
can tell the other leaders, and we can
find out where we're going.
You can't just have every leader just launching
his own plan.
We've got to work in harmony and unity.
So one of the leaders was in the
meeting, just kidding, that we have need, because
the leaders were giving in people they need
for their team, new people they need.
And he read off in the meeting, we
need, leaders feel we need 1,200 people.
Well, there's only 700 people here, including returning
people.
And my mind just, you know, I just
thought, oh no, this thing has finally got
out of control.
And boy, I was warming up.
Boy, this is it.
Boy, I'm going to give these leaders a
piece of my mind.
I've always wanted to do that.
But you've got to be careful, because you
start running out.
Maybe that's what's happening to me.
I hope not.
So I gave this excitation, there is an
existing policy that if you're going to increase
your numbers, I'm supposed to know about it.
And I went on, and I think, what
did I say, something about, you're all doing
your own thing.
Dead serious.
Then they told me they were only kidding.
Now, my brother and sister, I like to
talk once in a while the way some
of my friends in the States talk.
Now, brother and sister, have you ever done,
felt like a first class fool?
Praise the Lord.
Then they managed to tell me that they
may have this important statistic by tomorrow.
Well, I can assure you, you are one
of the most wanted groups of people anywhere
in the world.
Really.
Overnight, you have become spiritual heroes.
People are going to chase you around this
compound as if you were some kind of
E.T. And when they get you, if
it's the ship, they'll challenge you about joining
I.T. Anyway, Proverbs 3, 5 really helps.
Trust the Lord with all your heart.
Lean not to your own understanding.
In all your ways acknowledge Him and He
will direct your paths.
Isn't that wonderful?
And God is teaching me more about trust.
More about trust.
It's so easy for my type of personality
to want to get my hands on things,
you know.
I get the feeling things are getting out
of control.
I'm getting my hands on it.
And the Lord is telling me about O
.M. More and more.
Get your big ugly knuckles off this thing,
Berwer.
You ever see my...
I got very big hands.
I used to play basketball and I learned
to stretch my hands so I could just
hold that ball and bounce.
Once a team actually tried to throw me
up through the ring.
Trust.
Deep trust.
God is in control.
Even when things are out of control through
the human factor.
And then number five.
Witness.
You know, if we're faithful where we are
and I hope you get some opportunities for
outreach on the weekends.
But this is a message I've shared firstly
with people who are not, you know, necessarily
in a conference where it's not so easy
to witness just for this short period of
time.
But if you're faithful witnessing where you are
doing the will of God where you are
the Lord will lead you.
I want to tell you something that's really
interesting.
It's to see people fall apart in October
because they can't go to their field as
quick as they want to go.
And they may be in London.
They may be here.
There's opportunities to witness.
These people are lost in Brussels.
They're lost in London.
They're lost in Manchester.
Everywhere you go people are lost.
The need is always there in the face.
And yet we find people during that waiting
period all uptight, not really getting involved in
witnessing, mainly just concerned somehow to get out
to their field.
No wonder six months after some get to
the field they're mainly thinking about when they
get home.
There's something in the human heart, something deceptive
that we're never satisfied and we're incredibly impatient.
And I think I can challenge you, though
it's hard for some of you to sit
in meetings and listen, it's hard for me
to sit.
And I have been sitting for 12 days,
11 days, in a lot of meetings.
When the prayer time came I could usually
stand up.
And I think in the field leaders meeting,
I remember now I was able to stand.
I got in a corner and had a
pulpit for my desk.
But the last set of meetings I was
sitting.
It isn't easy for some of you to
sit.
But I believe as we sit and listen
and study and pray we're going to learn
a lot.
And if we are held back and we've
got a lot to see happen before we
can move out, even to get the fuel
and the vehicles and all the rest of
the things, as we witness, God is going
to honor that.
And then I have as number six just
learning God's viewpoint.
Getting the big picture.
Understanding God's priorities.
Getting things in focus only through suffering and
difficulty and delay.
Have you ever read about the discipline of
delay in Raymond Edmond's outstanding book on discipline?
It's often only through delay that we learn
the lessons that God wants to teach us.
Some of you, your finance may not come
in immediately.
You're praying away and praying away.
The discipline of delay.
The discipline of disappointment.
The discipline of learning to be desperate.
Some of us won't see breakthroughs until we're
desperate.
We say, Lord, what are you doing?
We maybe miss one meal in order to
fast and pray.
Then the breakthrough comes.
The training does not start when you get
in India or Sudan or London.
The training started the moment you were born
again.
That's right.
And all we are is part, just part,
of God's ongoing training program.
You know why some of you are going
to have trouble this year?
You're expecting too much.
You're a little hyper-idealist and you think
it's all going to be taken care of
in one year.
God's giving you a vision for the Muslim
world and you're going to get out there
and you're going to win Muslims to Christ
and you're going to plant a church this
year.
Disappointing.
So learning God's viewpoint.
Slowing down a little.
Getting things in focus.
A few other things to remember as you
try to find God's will in these days.
Number one, God guides different people in different
ways.
This is things to remember.
Six foundations, now things to remember.
God guides different people in different ways.
Number two, waiting on Him.
Getting the facts.
Why are we having these incredibly important sessions
tomorrow?
Because finding and obeying the will of God
must be based on facts.
There are all kinds of O.M. fields.
Some of you are not going to be
happy in certain O.M. fields.
There are certain places in O.M. where
someone who's strongly charismatic might not be happy.
There are other places where they more easily
wouldn't be happy.
We cannot manipulate and control 35 nations and
100 teams.
So you ask the hard questions.
While you're here, you've got that opportunity.
Of course, one way there's no easy answer.
Waiting on Him.
Getting the facts.
Number three, of course, God uses His word.
But it's not a matter of just letting
your Bible flop open and pointing to a
verse.
You've all heard the story, but just for
those of you who are new in the
Christian world, and we have new Christians here,
the old story is a man who believed
this method of guidance.
He opened the Bible and he pointed to
the verse to get the will of God,
and it said, Judas went and hung himself.
He thought, boy, I better try this again.
So he just once more, and it came
to the verse, go ye and do likewise.
Tried it again.
One more last time, Lord, I need your
guidance.
That was a misfire.
I'm counting on you now this third time
in the name of Jesus.
Whatsoever you do, do it quickly.
Shows how many of you are new Christians.
So we need to get the whole general,
a general overall understanding of the word of
God.
We need to see how God leads different
people in His word.
And then, God, of course, can speak to
us from different verses within their context.
And that can be confirmed by other important
things like prayer.
That's my fifth, fourth point.
He brings thoughts to our mind.
We have the mind of Christ.
As we're in the word, as we're in
prayer, as we're walking in the Spirit, God
can bring thoughts to our mind.
But as God brings thoughts to our minds,
they have to be tested.
And then number six, or number five, the
providence of God.
You know, if I didn't believe in the
providence of God, I think I'd give up.
God uses circumstances.
God uses people.
And one of the methods in OM is
the door-pushing method.
Really.
You've got to push different doors.
For some of you, the main thing is
that you're in OM.
You came in OM for basic training and
growth and grace.
For others, your bigger interest is a particular
country.
That's why we're so different.
And so you've got to be sensitive about
other people, and you've got to push some
doors.
Many of you, the door you push, as
you feel burdened about a particular country, either
this year or next year, it will open.
A very high percentage of people who come
on OM, they do eventually get to the
place they really felt God wants them after
it gets confirmed.
And there's a time of preparation.
Many cannot go to difficult situations without a
year of preparation.
We're all different, and we cannot get to
know everybody that easily.
And that's why we have to acknowledge as
leaders we make some mistakes.
So be patient.
But I believe through God's Holy Spirit, as
He uses providence, there's so many, only so
many open doors on the ship, only so
many open doors in Sudan, only so many
open doors in Lebanon, very few, and not
too many takers right now.
God will lead.
And then number six, we have to learn
to move by faith.
That's why some of you are here.
You never really had the full assurance, did
you, that OM, or this conference, was to
be God's will.
You want to know why?
I never had the full assurance that I
should be at this conference.
I had a number of other ideas.
I'm always conniving on my little dream plans.
You know, I've been twenty years, twenty-two
years of September conference, every September.
And, you know, I wasn't really sure this
was God's place for me this month.
But I took a risk.
I've always been a bit of a gambler.
I learned to gamble when I was about
six.
I used to keep the aces up my
sleeve and I learned how to shoot them
out.
Later on, I think it was really, I
only got into winning when I was about
twelve.
But, you know, I'm glad the Lord crucified
the money gambling.
But I think in God's plan, you've got
to be a gambler.
If you're ever going to get married, you've
got to be a gambler.
I remember a fellow sitting in one of
my sessions on marriage and he had this,
I think I told this this summer, forgive
me if I told this this summer, it's
one of my favorite stories.
It's a true story.
Not all my stories are true.
He was a real conservative Englishman.
He had his eyes on this girl for
years and praying about her, looking for verses,
waiting for revelations.
Had a very conservative view on marriage, you
know, all that.
And he was in one of my marriage
sessions and the last point, eight points, was,
you know, be willing to take a risk.
He went out of that meeting like a
bullet.
This is the honest truth.
He caught her on the stairways and he
just about proposed on the spot.
I was just with him, happily married, couple
of kids, leader in his church.
Boy, I tell you, he appreciates my ministry.
It's always good to have a few.
Now let me just bring that into balance,
that this is not the year for that
event for most of you.
If this is your first year, this is
the year to watch and pray and wander
not astray.
But some of you are in your second
or third year and you've just been wandering,
you know.
Well, if you've prayed about it for quite
a while and maybe you've sought some counsel,
somewhere you may have to take a leap.
But when you do, get ready to be
hurt.
Because there's no entering the romance aspect of
life, and it's an exciting aspect, isn't it,
without getting hurt.
It's an enormous blessing and there's tremendous hurts
that come out of this whole area.
I'd love to speak about that, but we
haven't got time.
Moving by faith.
We can't remain passive.
We've got to do something.
A lot of times I find it hard
to make a decision.
You ever find that hard?
And often you just have to.
You just have to.
And so you decide and you trust God
that even though you're feeble and you're not
sure, He's going to work it out.
Oh, I love that teaching from God's Word.
And then, above all else, you've got to
be ready for failure.
You've got to be ready for a cul
-de-sac.
You've got to be ready for things to
go wrong.
And in life, sometimes they do.
And realize that when they do, God is
still God.
There's going to be some tears in the
coming days.
There's going to be some disappointments.
There's going to be a lot of discussion.
There's going to be counseling.
But God is God.
Now let's stand up and sing after we
finish.
Now, how many of you have ever seen
this little leaflet?
Seven major emphasis of Operation Mobilization.
Okay.
So this message can be short because you've
already seen this.
But I want to just review this which
represents some of the most basic.
This is a week for some of the
basics.
And a lot of this has to be
relatively quick because we've got to move on.
After years and years and years of wrestling
and teaching so many things, we decided to
sum up some of our basic teaching.
Now you'll find on the free literature table
the OM doctrinal statement because there's another message
I'd like to give and there's not time
for that called the major doctrines that we
believe in Operation Mobilization.
And some of that will be touched in
other sessions.
But I'd like you to study that doctrinal
statement because we hope that you're aiming in
that direction.
And of course without sound doctrine and basic
Bible doctrine which is important, these other emphases
can go off balance.
They can lead even into extremism and cults.
But we're just going to share this tonight.
I think most of you have had the
doctrine statement.
And that's one of the reasons you're here.
The first emphasis that we want to major
on throughout this year is worship and prayer.
And it doesn't hurt to write these things
down again because one of the reasons I'm
sharing this is so that you can share
it with others.
You're at that stage now.
And you can sit down and share this
in a humble way with other people.
So the first emphasis that's on our heart
in our whole Christian experience is God Himself.
And you get some of these books by
Tozer.
If there's any of you that can honestly
say you've never had a book by Tozer,
you write to my good friend Vera and
you say, I've never had a book by
Tozer and you'll have one in your mailbox
as a gift, probably a magazine book before
you know what happens.
Because this man has been one of our
teachers in O.M. And praise God for
his emphasis.
Knowing God.
The harp.
Remember Tozer talks about the harp?
God's given everybody a harp.
Worship.
And you've got to learn to play your
harp.
Worship Him.
To praise Him.
And to learn then from a heart of
worship as we're broken before God, we learn
about thanksgiving, about praise, about prayer, confession, intercession.
It's a big, big challenge and there'll be
other messages on it so we'll just leave
it.
And there it is.
Major emphasis number one.
God.
God Himself.
Number two.
Love and forgiveness.
In a sense, two sides of the coin.
Some of you have read my book Revolution
of Love and Balance.
In fear and trembling, I ever say these
things and allow these things to be printed.
Love and forgiveness.
In a sense, two sides of the coin.
Some of you have read my book Revolution
of Love and Balance.
In fear and trembling, I ever say these
things and allow these things to be printed.
Part of that I wrote.
Part of it's from taste because I know
that I've been such a failure.
I don't just say that.
In the depth of my soul, I know
that when it comes to love, I have
been a failure.
I have been a failure in my home.
I have been a failure on teams.
And I just thank God for the other
side of the coin, forgiveness.
Now, you're not going to heaven because you
are such a great person of love and
you've got the first commandment in one hand
and the second commandment in the other and
you're just Mr. Compassion.
God so loved the world that he gave
his only begotten son that whosoever believes in
him should not perish but have everlasting life.
While we were yet sinners, Christ died for
us.
We are a forgiven people and we want
to proclaim from one end of the world
to the other justification by faith.
This is why we can't always cooperate with
everybody because once a man is preaching justification
by works, it's another gospel and Galatians says
anathema.
I remember hearing Donald Gray Barnhouse on Galatians
when I was a young Christian.
I've just been listening to some of his
tapes this summer.
That great Presbyterian.
Went to be with the Lord many years
ago.
Boy, I tell you, his lectures on Galatians.
And I hope you'll become a tapeworm.
I don't want you to be afraid of
being a tapeworm for Jesus.
Get into some of these tapes.
Love and forgiveness.
You're gonna have messages on them.
It's the foundation without which we don't go
very far.
I have a message I'd love to share
with you on learning to love.
Yes, when we're filled with the Spirit and
we have the reality of the Holy Spirit,
the potential to love is there and the
fruit will begin coming.
Fruit of the Spirit, love, joy, peace, long
-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faithfulness, meekness, temperance.
Against such there is no law.
Everybody should memorize Galatians 5.22. But then
we have to learn through the circumstances out
in God's gymnasium.
Dr. Lloyd-Jones in his great book, one
of the greatest books in the English language,
spiritual depression, its cause and its cure, speaks
about in God's gymnasium.
You're joining or you're now part of one
of God's gymnasiums.
And it's through training that we learn about
love.
You ever had my list of all the
different kinds of people in OM you can
learn to love?
We got a fantastic range.
Learn to love the people you don't understand.
Learn to love the loudmouth.
Learn to love the person with prejudice.
Learn to love the person who rejects you.
Learn to love the person who's unattractive.
Learn to love the homosexual.
Learn to love the one who's slow.
Learn to love the perpetual backslider, the self
-righteous, the one who won't share, the one
who shares too much, the liar.
Learn to love the mentally disturbed.
Learn to love other races.
Learn to love other ages.
Learn to love the people that disagree with
you.
Learn to love the people that speak against
you.
Pretty big challenge, I'd say.
You think that just comes when you get
one spiritual blessing and you go away and
say, Oh, the Lord's filled me with His
Holy Spirit.
I want to tell you some of the
most unloving people I've met have had triple
blessings, supposedly, from the Holy Spirit.
And all the gifts on top.
Beloved, it takes years for the Holy Spirit
to make this a fuller and greater reality
in our life.
William Macdonald, once speaking to us, I believe
it was in the conference in the mid
-60s, shared with us why it seems to
be and must be an ongoing walk of
faith.
The Christian life, a life of constant crises
of dependence upon God.
I like that.
A life of constant crisis of dependence upon
God.
And in these days, we're going to have
to learn to depend on God in new
ways.
And one of the reasons he gave, he
gave several, is that so easily we can
feel that we can arrive.
Now I'm here, I'm spiritual.
I've had the final blessing.
And I've got the O.M. Summer Crusade
experience as well.
And I've even been through O.M.'s six
-day leadership training.
God bless your fickle heart.
You know the word fickle.
I so appreciate being able to preach in
English.
And I hope, you know, I wish that
I spoke French and not English.
I don't like English.
I actually like Spanish.
Yo puedo hablar y predicar en Español, pero
no hay mucha gente que hable Español.
Aquí, en esta tienda.
And I wish the international language was French
or Polish or even Russian.
Really.
What a tremendous change.
But somehow, you know, I wasn't in heaven.
God, I want to be born in America.
You're just born there.
And you learn to just accept that.
Why argue all your life, Lord, I was
born in the wrong place.
I wanted to be born in the Fiji
Islands.
And I just appreciate being able to just
speak English.
I've had so many messages this year with
people interrupting me.
I thought at times I was becoming schizophrenic.
Love and forgiveness.
Memorize 1 Corinthians 13.
God can teach us more about love.
This can become a reality.
And I've seen thousands of people over the
last 28 years since I've been a Christian
become more and more loving.
To me, it's one of the most exciting
things.
People.
Actually becoming more and more loving.
Beautiful.
May it always be our major emphasis.
Yes, we believe in the fullness of the
Holy Spirit.
If you use the term baptism of the
Holy Spirit, praise the Lord.
We're not going to have a big fight
with you.
We've got too much to do.
To fight over the Holy Spirit.
Because these terms are all found in the
Bible.
We know there are different interpretations.
We'll never all agree even among leaders in
OM.
Much less all the new recruits.
We try to avoid just unnecessary controversy.
And try to use vocabulary that's more united.
Not going into a brethren assembly.
Or some church that you know uses one
vocabulary.
And just use totally way out vocabulary.
And every time we get in a church
to preach, a vagabond band of disciples like
us, it's a miracle.
Much less go in and speak different languages.
We have to become to some degree all
things to all men.
To win some.
When we get our foundation of communication, then
we can say a lot more.
Then we can say a lot more.
This is not a restriction, young people.
It's a new road of discipline and liberty.
Because it forces us to get to know
other people.
And the way they express their faith.
Different people express their faith and their love
to Christ.
In different ways.
And if it's in the Word of God,
we at least want to listen.
And there are, as you know, beautiful words
that are not even in the Word of
God.
But they express deep truths of the Word
of God.
Like Trinity.
Is that a bad word?
Jehovah's Witnesses.
They foam at the mouth and really shake.
You say Trinity.
And praise God.
You know, one of the first people ever
got an O.M. His name was Baltimore
Aguilar.
And he was the leader of the work
in Mexico.
And God used him.
And he won over 50 Jehovah's Witnesses to
Christ.
They couldn't.
When he opened the Word of God, they
melted like butter.
Do you think they know their Bibles?
Most of them don't.
But maybe before you tackle them, you get
to know your Bible like Baltimore.
Because he was like a little mini walking
concordance.
Victorious living.
We often quote 1 John 2.1, which
is mentioned in that section of the leaflet.
Our first goal, sin not.
Second goal, if we sin, we have an
advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous.
In O.M., when we talk about victorious
living, that includes knowing what to do when
we fall.
I repeat that.
In O.M., when we speak about victorious
living, it includes knowing what to do when
we fall or when we fail.
And any other teaching about victorious provision or
victorious living that doesn't have that provision, I
believe often leads people into a dead end
street.
I'm always amazed when they invite me back
to the Southport Convention.
I'm not holiness in background, in terms of
the holiness movement as it is known.
But this is my seventh visit to the
annual holiness convention of Southport.
And I find those people are very hungry
for this balanced message on holiness and victorious
living and the Holy Spirit that God has
given us in O.M. And some of
you from that background, you should be very
at home in O.M., even though maybe
your leader is not of that background.
And there will be some things in O
.M. that will ring the same as your
Nazarene church or your Methodist church or your
Salvation Army Citadel.
And praise God for the amalgamation of people
from so many different backgrounds.
Victorious living and the fullness of the Holy
Spirit.
A.W. Tozer said, the more keen Christian
is more easily led astray.
That's an amazing exhortation, isn't it?
We've discovered this, and this is one of
the reasons we want to emphasize the whole
counsel of God.
We want to emphasize balance because when people
get keen, they get enthusiastic.
The enemy seems to move in on them
and try to get them into extremism.
We've seen it again and again.
Not that we believe O.M. is the
movement of perfect balance.
No.
Because balance will be different to different people.
And balance in itself incorporates, listen, a great
range of variety.
A great range of variety.
And don't be afraid to be yourself.
And you meet some little American who's a
little bit right-wing in his politics and,
you know, the first time you talk to
him, wow!
And maybe you're a little more left-wing
and you're thinking, you don't have to, overnight,
you know, just adapt to his theories.
And politically things get more intense as the
world gets more and more out of control.
And it's beautiful to meet different Christians of
different political persuasions.
And if you think all Christians have the
same political persuasion, you must have had your
education in an extended shoebox.
May somehow your mind be a little expanded.
Don't feel threatened.
You can even write to your president and
tell him what's happening.
But don't feel threatened.
So, it's a long road.
It's an exciting road.
But there is victory.
The Holy Spirit can fill us and guide
us.
And we'll have more teaching on that.
Number four, the Lordship of Christ and the
all-sufficiency of Christ.
By the way, this leaflet is in many
languages, about 20 languages.
The Lordship and the all-sufficiency of Christ.
And I would love to speak longer on
this, but I'll just recommend the book of
Colossians.
Some of you are looking for a good
book.
You want to get into a really good
book in these days.
Try Colossians.
In him are hid all the treasures of
wisdom and knowledge.
You want education?
You're in the right place.
We believe in education.
We hope you'll read good books this year,
both secular and Christian.
And we hope you'll realize as you read
and you study and as you listen and
as you go to great films and videos,
some of them may even be secular, you'll
realize, in him are hid all the treasures
of wisdom and knowledge.
I was doing a little 10-day special
course at Wheaton College when I heard the
great Raymond Edmund, the principal and former missionary,
give a message on that verse.
It stuck with me like an arrow in
my heart.
In him are all the treasures of wisdom
and knowledge.
God didn't leave me to have so much
education as many of my co-workers.
I'm one of the least when it comes
to formal education.
But I discovered that little truth and it's
helped me keep all the hundreds of books
and thousands of tapes and all the things
I've read and studied in focus as I've
been able to go to these some 60
different countries and study and learn and read
and then do a little bit of writing.
I've always kept that as a focus.
In Christ are hid all the treasures of
wisdom and knowledge.
And so each day, this is the first
book.
This is the fountainhead.
And to know Christ and to walk with
Christ is the key to real, biblical, revolutionary
education.
The kind that's going to enable us to
carry the gospel to the ends of the
earth and make an impact on a humanistic
lost world in which sometimes if money and
sex hasn't become God, education has.
Knowledge has.
And then number five, honesty and true openness.
We've often spoken as though I am being
a revolution of honesty.
By the way, what I'm sharing is totally
different except in one or two places from
this text so you can still re-read
this.
These truths are so big you could give
20 messages on every one of these subjects
and be new territory each time.
Honesty.
I was reading something on honesty today that
an ex-OMer sent me.
I don't know if you've ever read that
powerful little book God for Sale by Greg
Lewis.
What a bombshell of a book.
No wonder it never sold.
It's so unpleasant.
This book, God for Sale.
Greg Lewis was with us on OM years
ago.
He's a man who's been through much suffering.
And he sent me something today on honesty
and an article against lying among Christians.
And I find there is an increase of
dishonesty and lying and poor ethics among Christians
and Christian businessmen.
Little lies.
We have people confess to us.
They lie on their application blanks.
They lie about the people or their references.
They lie about the church relationship.
Incredible.
We believe there needs to be a revolution
of honesty.
Let's put things right.
If you've had something in your background that
you've lied about on your application we need
to know it.
Someone once didn't put a major health problem
on their application.
This is a medical form.
Some of you in certain countries get a
medical form.
And they said well they didn't put it
down when we finally caught up with it
after a major problem.
They didn't put it down because God had
delivered them from that.
Well if God has delivered you totally from
that medical problem maybe you could just testify
on that medical form about it and how
the Lord has delivered you from it.
Wonderful.
But you know if we're sending somebody out
to Bangladesh or India and they're an epileptic
or they've got some other medical history we
need to know about it so that we
can serve better.
OM is very revolutionary in receiving and working
with people who have health problems.
We have epileptics we have diabetics we have
people who have had mental illness.
We believe God is alive.
God is able to heal.
God is able to change.
But we don't believe in playing games because
there can be reoccurrences that we are complicated
our physical being complicated.
So we need to know and we hope
there'll be openness and a developing of openness.
And there's an army of people here most
leaders are willing to talk to you and
share with you and I hope that we
may see this particular emphasis continue as we
learn as it says in 1 John chapter
1 to walk in the light.
Not in a way that it will hurt
people everything has to be with love.
You don't just walk up to somebody and
say I've been having evil malicious thoughts about
you I wanted to choke you in the
meeting last night.
That is not going to edify him.
That's not the way of expressing love.
Now if you did choke him then you
need to apologize.
Open sin needs open confession.
Most private sin there are exceptions most private
sin needs to be dealt with privately between
you and Jesus at the foot of the
cross.
We operate no confessionals in operation mobilization.
And our sharing and our openness and honesty
is for growth for edification for healing not
for forgiveness.
And then number 6 discipline and brokenness.
Some people have never heard about brokenness before
they came on the web.
The Lord Jesus spoke about the broken vase
and the beautiful perfume and ointment coming out
of the broken vase.
And in the Old Testament there's the breaking
of the jar and the remaking the molding
of the jar in the potter's hand.
Andrew Murray said that brokenness was humility's response
to the touch of God.
It's hard to discern sometimes when God is
touching you or when some human being is
trying to push you.
Forgive us NOM if sometimes we try to
push you.
We're all too human.
And this is where you have to learn
to deal with false guilt because some of
the guilt that some of you are carrying
around is not from the touch of God.
It's from a pre-tuned wrongly tuned conscience
because your conscience is not a total guide.
Your conscience can be wrong because so much
negative input is in conscience sometimes even from
your parents.
And we need the redeveloping of our conscience
by the Word of God and by sound
doctrine and it's a long road.
And I thank God that at times now
when my conscience twinges I can say thank
you very much conscience but on that point
you're wrong.
We're free tremendously free and we need to
beware of the manipulation of false guilt.
We need to somehow be able to discern
when God is whispering something gracious and forgiving
and tender into our ear or even firm
or when the enemy the accuser of the
brethren is trying to push us down again
and tell us we're no good and tell
us we'll never make it through this kind
of spiritual movement and we'll never relate to
this this band of international nondescripts.
Beware the enemy is the accuser of the
brethren.
So we're not talking about a discipline that
leads to bondage we're talking about a discipline
that leads to freedom.
A freedom to be to some degree yourself
and yet to continue being conformed to Jesus
Christ.
A freedom to have different kinds of discipline.
Someone asked I think it was myself actually
Why don't we have an early morning exercise
program?
This really took a lot of change in
me to give this up.
I took the whole OM plank on head
on.
We're not giving up the 630 exercise program.
I'm going to lead it.
It's going on for 20 years.
You think I'm going to sacrifice a major
doctrine?
They're so gentle the leaders.
They just took me aside put one arm
around my back put my leg around my
head and said this is the way it's
going to be from now on, George.
No, actually what they said was that there
are no showers except once a week.
And I said oh my who wants to
preach in a tent with a hundred cases
of BO?
I guess we'll have to change we'll have
to change the doctrine.
But some of you maybe don't sweat so
quickly.
I'm actually in that camp.
Some of us our sweat glands must be
clogged with something.
I hope it's not dirt.
But boy I love to get out there
early and exercise.
And you know you'll usually find a few
people out there at 630, 7 sometimes throughout
the day of course.
But I personally and this is no rule
in O.M. have found it so helpful
these twenty some years to always start the
day with exercise.
You can do it even in your house.
Just help me to be alert and it's
broken a battle I had with early morning
depression.
Just help the blood get circulating and make
the Bible study better.
Now I I had a letter from one
of the leaders who was opposing this who
said he believed that you should wake up
early and he had a letter from a
doctor that waking up slowly was better and
that this was not right that we were
inflicting O.M.ers into a crash program
wake up and we were going to hurt
people.
You know and it's true.
Now we've got a quotation from Mike Evans
that Billy Graham is having his quiet time
in bed.
I'm finished.
You know at 65 or some years of
age you know maybe you can get permission
to have your quiet time in bed.
Even if you do it now provided you
get what God wants you to have I
don't think anybody's going to hit you too
hard.
Discipline it means different things to different people.
We're not interested in regimentation and we're certainly
not interested in producing a bunch of people
who are trying to be little mini George
Burwers or little mini Dale Rotons or Nigel
Lees.
You've got to be yourself.
You've got to walk with God.
You're original.
Some of you are more original than others.
But we can all learn something of discipline.
We can all learn something of brokenness.
We can all read Calvary Road and get
something though the book will mean different things
to different people.
And some of you will get much more
blessing out of some other book.
Wonderful, isn't it?
God is so in many ways so big.
You have a big God.
He's not a denominational God so take your
label off him once and for all.
Let's not try to put God in a
theological box.
Let's get to know him in all of
his greatness.
The way he's working so many different ways
through so many different people.
Give him all the glory as we learn
something of discipline and brokenness.
Oh, to go to somebody even during these
days when necessary and say, look, I'm sorry.
I kept you awake last night.
I'm sorry.
That brother who played that little joke on
me at the leaders meeting, he was after
me right after the meeting.
Look, I'm sorry about that.
He didn't need to be.
You know, let me tell you, sometimes our
jokes for somebody of another nationality and another
language is not a joke.
Any of you who are practical jokers, be
careful because we've had people injured seriously through
practical jokes.
We're an international movement that is just now
being welded together.
A new team, a new army.
We need a lot of sensitivity, a lot
of wisdom, understanding people.
And because we will fail, we've got to
know brokenness.
We've got to go and say, look, I'm
sorry about what I said.
I didn't mean to say that about your
country.
And actually, I want to tell you, I
want to learn to appreciate your country.
I have to admit, I'm really ignorant and
I have prejudice.
Or whatever it may be.
Brokenness.
Humility.
Response to the touch of God.
And then number seven.
World evangelism.
No need to emphasize that tonight.
Got a whole night of prayer tomorrow night
for world evangelism.
It's going to be just a half night.
Not going to have any message, but go
right into prayer early and finish it up
at twelve o'clock so that you can
get the sleep you need for this intensive
week.
Last week we had a long one.
It was about three o'clock.
Then the leaders had another long one about
three o'clock a few days ago.
So we're just trying to get a little
balance.
Just as everything in OM, as leaders we
can't get unity as to when to close
the prayer meetings down.
Isn't that beautiful?
You think that's the biggest problem in the
average church, huh?
Whether to close it down at midnight or
one or two or three or four.
Well, we appreciate having that problem.
And we know, of course, there are churches
that know a lot more about prayer than
any of us.
World evangelism is absolutely a major, a major
principle or burden on the heart of God.
We know Acts 1A.
We've had messages on it.
We've been involved in it all summer.
And I just praise God that despite the
difficulty, the necessity for solid structure and organization
and offices, to have an ongoing worldwide missionary
evangelistic trust.
And as I look back over this past
year, as I visited a high percentage of
all the teams in the whole world, personally,
in the past two years, a hundred thousand
miles, I have found it exciting to see
so many, so many are committed to actual
evangelism.
And even those that work in the offices,
battling and struggling, sure, lots of failure to
get that day or two out in evangelism
in their free time.
This is an area where because we're so
idealistic there'll be tremendous failure.
And especially some of us as leaders.
It seems to be so easy to miss
that half day of evangelism when there's so
many other things crowding in.
It seems to be so easy to forget
those tracks that we used to never forget.
We're committed to world evangelism, my beloved brothers
and sisters, not in theory, not through just
having conferences or books, but where the tire
hits the road or the eyeball hits the
eyeball.
And what a privilege it is to be
involved in leading men personally to Christ.
Seven major emphases.
Will you make those your emphasis?
Will you make those your goals for this
year?
And believe that the Holy Spirit can have
the ongoing process of making them a reality.
And my friends back here for the second
year, how are you doing in those seven
things?
Did you hear that message, read the leaflet
and then drop it along the road as
though it got rough and tough and there
were disappointments and failures?
Or maybe you got bitter because somehow you
feel that the thing wasn't really what you
thought it would be?
Have somehow you, by God's grace, been able
to lay aside some of the folly of
men and get it in any movement and
focus on God Himself and say, Lord, these
emphases, they're not OM emphases, they're biblical emphases.
And though I may have my hassle with
OM, I do, depends on, guess what you
mean, I don't have any hassle with believing
that.
And believing those emphases must be an ongoing
reality in my life.
Let us pray.
Father, we thank and praise you for this
opportunity to be together and to have this
seminar.
It really has been a seminar, the way
some people define a seminar these days.
And we believe these truths can be an
ongoing reality in our lives.
And though some of us, it'll be a
long, slow road, we are on that road.
We thank you for it.
And you're going to lead us into your
will.
And we're going to rejoice all the way.
We thank you.
Thank you for your healing.
Thank you for your love.
In Jesus' name, Amen.
Now, just to let you know that through
most of the years of OM, the evening
meetings always finished around quarter to ten.
So don't think, you know, we've laid something
extra heavy on you.
But that is because of interpretation.
And because we used to have two speakers.
And we had strong opposition from the leaders
against two speakers.
So we don't have two speakers.
God bless you as you press on, walking
with Jesus.
Amen.