I think we'll just make a start.
I'm supposed to be giving a little welcome
message, so I'll say welcome.
I was just sharing with Nepali Christian leaders
this morning.
I had the opportunity to give them a
little history of why I'm in Kathmandu.
It always saves a lot of talk.
People always want to know why I'm in
exile here in Kathmandu.
If you're as gifted as some other OM
leaders, you probably have it muddled in your
own mind, but I'm not going to repeat
it.
You know, I get attacked with discouragement sometimes
when I think of sharing more messages with
you, because it does seem so often in
OM we're taking so much in, and only
seemingly a percentage of it is ever getting
down into our feet.
I guess I know that from personal experience.
I'm working on a message.
It'll take me a couple of years to
get it, and I think I'm going to
put it into a book if somebody doesn't
rob my title.
It's called The Confessions of the Spiritual Blood,
because compared to most Christians, I've had more
spiritual food than one could ever even measure.
Think of all these Nepali believers all over
the nation, just the little tiny spiritual diet
they get, and what we expect them to
do in church life on the diet that
they get in comparison to what you get
in terms of what you give and what
you really produce.
Now we have Peter Maiden, the Bible expositor,
feeding you more each morning.
What does it really do to our lives?
Are we really changing?
Are we really growing?
It's a great struggle for me.
As you know, one of my texts, which
I'd like to read again this morning, a
way of remembrance, is in the book of
James.
Book of James, chapter 1.
I keep a record of all the messages
I give in Kathmandu and in Butwal.
This is our fourth consecutive year.
We've been here before.
We had other meetings in other places.
But if you remember, we were in Butwal
together.
I think it's the fourth consecutive year that
Peter Maiden came to Butwal.
This is our third year here in Kathmandu.
I've kept a notebook of all those messages
so I don't repeat.
Some emphases might get repeated, but I hope
the messages won't be repeated.
I even thought of just giving a little
exam of what I taught the last other
years just to see how much actually went
in.
I know it is possible for things to
go in and become a part of your
life and not be able to put it
on an examination paper.
That's another little interesting, somewhat encouraging aspect of
this.
James 1.
Wherefore, my beloved brethren, let every man be
swift to hear, slow to speak, and slow
to anger or wrath.
For the wrath of man worketh not the
righteousness of God.
Wherefore, put away all filthiness and overflowing of
wickedness and receive with meekness the engrafted word
which is able to save your souls.
But be doers of the word and not
hearers only, deceiving your own selves.
For if any be a hearer of the
word and not a doer, like a man
beholding his natural face in a mirror, for
beholdeth himself, he sees himself and goes his
way and immediately forgetteth what manner of man
he was.
But whosoever looketh into the perfect law of
liberty and continueth in it, he being not
a forgetful hearer but a doer of the
work, this man shall be blessed in his
deed.
I'm not going to speak about that, but
would like to use it just as a
foundation for our thoughts.
Let's just pray.
Father, we thank you for bringing us together
here in this unique place.
We thank you that we have experienced so
much blessing and breakthrough here in the past.
We don't take that lightly.
We believe that, again, in your purposes, you
want to accomplish something here in Kathmandu.
As we meet personally and as we share
in the vision and the burden that you
have given to us.
We have so much to be thankful for.
We see areas where we ourselves have disobeyed.
We do at times seem to have so
much ministry, tapes, teaching, books, articles, magazines, and
somehow a lot of it we don't seem
to always get into practice.
Lord, help us in this area, though that
perhaps is a feeble way of expressing it.
We do want to grow in grace and
a knowledge of you.
In Jesus' name, amen.
Well, a lot of things have happened since
we were here one year ago.
And I, in many ways, believe that 1984
was an epic year for Operation Mobilization.
A year in which we were greatly challenged
about some of our most basic principles.
One or two major leaders surprised us by
writing letters that they thought we should maybe
go into fundraising, you remember?
And a lot of other basic things were
challenged.
And somehow the Lord kept us together and
enabled us to hold fast.
The Bible speaks about holding fast to things
which have been given unto us.
I think it's a great thing that in
our fellowship that we can continue to change
any movement that does not continue to change
will dry up in its own pride.
We have failed many times, so we need
to change.
But in the process of change, we have
to make sure that we don't throw away
the basics, basic principles God has given to
us.
I personally always get amused by people who
think that the real, original vision is not
the same as it was years ago.
Let me just inform you, as I have
in the past, that O.N. India, whether
you go back 21 years ago or 19
years ago, always had a lot of messes.
And a lot of sin.
It hasn't changed in the sense that back
then we really were the disciples shaking India
for Christ.
And today we're now all sitting on committees
or fossilizing in the Bombay office, except when
fires begin to attack us.
You know, I think sometimes we don't change
maybe as much as we think.
And in the Christian warfare, some of the
same problems we had 21 years ago we
have today.
People are people.
The problems will often be the same.
Overall, as a spiritual force, a spiritual movement,
there's no question in my mind that O
.N. is stronger today than it was 21
years ago or 10 years ago.
The reason for this is that we have
an army, a longer term, like-minded, committed
people who have stood the tests, many tests,
their own unity, false doctrines, total answerism, all
kinds of different tests that have come upon
us.
And somehow we've kept the unity in the
bond of peace, as one scripture says.
And we have in the work today a
tremendous foundation that we can build upon.
And we want to build.
We want 1985-86 to be a year
of growth.
There are many kinds of growth in O
.N. and in the work of God.
The first kind of growth is not numerical
growth.
Someone I read some time ago said that
it was more of a product of just
sociological change than it was necessarily some great
spiritual increase.
This is what he said.
Numerical growth is part of a sociological process,
not a biblical mandate.
I don't even know if I agree with
that.
But I wrote it down as just something
to get me thinking.
Because, especially in the West, we're very infatuated
with numbers.
How many were in the Sunday morning meeting?
How many are in the Sunday evening meeting?
We never talk about the prayer meeting.
How many were there?
Except in a few places.
But we want to grow.
Quality is a form of growth.
If we increase the quality of the work,
there's more love, more fruit.
It's sort of a growth.
If we see a lot of fruit on
the tree, we think, Wow, this is good.
This is growth.
The tree is growing.
It's bringing forth fruit.
Galatians 5.
Fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace,
long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faithfulness, meekness, temperance, or
self-control.
Perhaps that's the greatest growth we need.
In the work, more fruit of the Holy
Spirit.
A seminary may not necessarily be increasing in
numbers, but it's growing in its influence because
it's graduating people who are going into vital
ministries.
And so OM, as part long-term evangelistic
thrust, part short-term training program, a lot
of our victories will come for the people
we graduate, people we train and send out
into vital ministries.
This is why we're trying to maintain our
link with XO Emeritus.
This is why some of our best men
will graduate.
The latest is Bert Kempis.
Sort of shocked us a bit out of
our shoes when he announced to us recently
that he felt he should take on a
position at the Prairie Bible Institute where he's
spending his sabbatical study year.
We've had quite a lot of discussion.
Bert, of course, is completely linked with OM.
There is no division or particular problem, but
he feels that with the size of his
family, pressures of life, that he shouldn't continue
as coordinator of OM Canada.
We, by the way, do not have his
replacement, so that's something for you to pray
about.
Bert may remain another year or so, helping
part-time coordinating Western Canada where he's now
living.
Canada, by the way, is a very large
place.
But I think that God is fulfilling the
burden I've had shared with you many times,
that each year we should see some of
our best men being called out into other
ministries.
There's no way we can practice what we
are preaching in OM unless that happens.
And when it happens, of course, it's always
sometimes a bit of a struggle.
Neville Goodyear, the director of the exhibition, feels
called into a longer-term work in literature
in Italy.
After going down there, he came back and
tried to persuade us to start this work
within OM.
He got about as far as a baseball
player on Red Square.
And it looks like a new ministry will
be born in Italy with Neville...
Is it Goodyear, is it?
Neville Goodyear in D.
And there are many, many other things along
that line that I would love to share
with you.
Maybe we'll get to some of them throughout
the week.
So I am greatly encouraged that God has
given us this foundation to build upon.
Three or four hundred leaders or people in
responsible positions across the world, yet good numbers,
moving on into other fellowships and other organizations.
Linked with this is the increasing credibility that
God has given us with other missions and
other agencies.
Very encouraging.
Because that was one of our goals from
the earliest days, that we would not be
a renegade, exclusive type of group condemning other
believers.
I had the joy of visiting the former
dean, my dean, when I was a student
at Moody.
He's 80-plus years of age.
He remembers more about early days of OM
at Moody than I think I do.
And he's well on the 80 mark.
But from those earliest days, God gave us
this burden to build relationships.
Pastors, church leaders, missionary leaders.
It means eating humble pie.
If you don't know how to eat humble
pie, you're probably disqualified as a leader.
You probably just haven't discovered it yet.
Apologizing, basically saying the same thing.
And going the extra mile to keep those
relationships.
The Lord led me some months ago to
just phone Lauren Cunningham, the director of Youth
with a Mission in Hawaii, and talk with
him on the phone.
Because we were having a united effort, OM
Youth for Christ, YWAM, and Buzz Magazine, in
these Keith Green Memorial Concerts in Britain.
And so I phoned him and asked him
to pray and let him know what was
going on.
He, of course, knew something about it.
So I believe as we launch into this
year, we're already in the year, we've got
a solid foundation.
And it's very, very encouraging.
Increase of unity and like-mindedness.
That doesn't mean everybody is happy about everything.
I don't think it's possible to be an
OM and be happy about everything.
I don't think we even know ourselves well
enough to know how to be happy about
everything.
If you're happy about everything in your life,
you are really an unusual character.
But I think that we sense the ship
is going in the right direction.
You know, Dulas is a very slow ship.
It goes 10, 12, 13 knots.
So it's actually coming to India.
It's just going to take about two years.
It's ready to get here.
It won't come to Nepal.
Forgive the, you know, I know that's almost
a statement of unbelief these days, the way
some people are teaching.
Wise is a man who knows the limits
of his own faith.
But when Captain Isaacson takes the ship out
of port in Southampton, the last British port,
and heads toward Africa and Asia, we don't
expect him to arrive next morning.
Or even next week.
And I think this is also true about
our meetings here in Kathmandu.
When we leave here with fresh vision and
fresh burden and recommitment of our hearts, we
don't expect to arrive, you know, at the
places we're aiming at spiritually, you know, next
week.
But I hope that with the Dulas, you
can at least know that you're going in
the right direction.
OM has not arrived.
We have many areas of need.
We have many things that still need to
be sorted out, as we work on our
famous policy manual and try to get unity.
I'm one of the most pluralistic, wide range
of people that have ever come together in
the history of foreign missions to try to
work on a like-minded basis.
Some might think the simple thing is just
let each country do whatever it wants, just
cut the whole thing off.
A number of groups have operated that way.
But we in OM don't feel that is
the way ahead.
We feel that the way ahead is a
high degree of like-mindedness and unity about
basic biblical principles.
You know, if you lose your basics, you
end up recruiting people into something that is
nothing more than a Christian service experience.
It's just sort of something you use because
you want to get on and, quote, serve
the Lord.
There's no real sense of oneness of purpose.
There's no real foundation of biblical principles.
The fact that most of us have read
similar books, we all to varying degree believe
the message of Calvary Road.
It doesn't mean every single OMer, but in
general, we believe the message of that little
book.
We tend in general to believe that true
discipleship by William MacDonald is a relatively correct
challenge about what discipleship is.
Certain books in OM bring other books into
balance.
We believe that what's written in the discipleship
manual is something that we all want to
see happen to varying degrees.
And the leadership manual.
And the endless memos.
I don't know if many movements in history
have launched out so much communication, so many
memos on such a wide range of subjects.
I think many of these memos are in
considerable demand by other groups.
What happened to the prayer meeting has gone
into endless languages, magazines all over the world.
Well, what good is it to produce these
things?
There's no group that's an example that these
things can work.
And you must understand that the powerful thing
about OM is not that you have a
loud-mouthed international leader, sometimes called founder, which
I don't really like.
In any movement, sometimes too much attention is
paid to the leader.
The one thing that would cause me not
to come to Kathmandu, certainly not to go
to Butwal, is if it brings excess attention
to me.
On the other hand, just my stepping out
of the picture really wouldn't resolve that problem,
because we do tend to have a desire
for some kind of spiritual leadership.
We have been influenced by the writings of
Hudson Taylor, by the writings of Dr. Schaeffer,
by the writings in the example of Bakht
Singh.
There's no way we can sort of separate
ourselves from influential Christian leaders.
And it's hard to keep it all in
balance.
But I can tell you the thing that
makes a greater impact in OM is the
Holy Spirit using ordinary people, like perhaps you
feel you are.
Some of you perhaps haven't got the faith
to believe that you're going to die as
a great Christian hero, and publishers will be
fighting over your biography, and thousands will be
coming to your funeral.
Well, if you do dream about those things,
well, the Lord help you.
But I think the thing that really speaks
to people through the ministry of OM is
an army of ordinary people who are being
used of God, who want to be better
disciples, who want to go on for Jesus,
who want to reach the world for Christ,
who are demonstrating the revolution of love to
some degree and making an impact.
As you probably know now, quite a few
outsiders speak too highly of our work.
A man came to India recently, quite a
well-known Christian leader, and when he came
back to the West, he was saying things
about OM.
He must have had just a superficial view.
He also met some ex-OMers.
He was amazed that we had trained up
such gallium dynamic.
And a couple of the ones he mentioned,
I thought, were actually some of the ones
that we weren't too proud of in terms
of what they were doing.
But it is a problem at times when
people speak too highly of us.
And I think most of us within OM
have a fairly down-to-earth view of
ourselves.
If anything, we get a little too introspective,
seeing our problems and seeing our failures.
That's always something that has to be kept
in balance.
And I believe here in India also God
has done a real work.
One of the Christian leaders this morning asked
me, he more or less asked whether there
was anything left in India now that the
new law had come in, asking whether foreigners
could not stay longer term, people like Mike
Wee.
He's a man who just had a very
superficial understanding of what OM was.
And he was quite amazed to discover that
the Lord had led us 20 years ago
to build the work on Indians, and that
actually that law that took place has not
changed OM to any great degree.
Of course, it has been a hindrance.
We've had many hindrances.
We're used to hindrances.
So this is one more hindrance.
But in fact the work is going on
as usual.
And he was really quite amazed.
I think God has put a further stamp
of approval, it's not the best way to
express it, on the fact that in His
sovereignty I was removed from India, in His
sovereignty most foreigners did not come back, even
when we asked them to, and that the
work has been built on you men.
Most of you in this room have been
quite a long time in the work.
We thank God for that.
Another miracle, as you know, that we're rejoicing
over is the provision of finance.
I think most of you realize that operation
mobilization is not well known in the United
States where there is seemingly a lot of
money for Christian work.
Let me just say that certain groups have
an enormous ability to get that money, and
other groups can try for ten years and
go bankrupt.
So do not misunderstand the USA and all
the so-called money that is there.
Money, in any case, as we've looked at
this week, is the root of many evils.
I think one of the things the Lord
showed us this year, that the deeper roots
of OM are in Europe.
There are Canadian roots, Mexican roots, and certainly
quite a deep American root.
Don't deny that.
And there are deep Indian roots, especially as
we travel out here.
And now there are South American roots.
You know, there are many roots.
But as far as the foundation of OM,
where it sort of exploded and spread out,
it was in Europe.
And this will have many practical implications that
sometimes I know people don't always understand.
The final thoughts that I had just to
share with you in this little opening time
are linked with those words in Thessalonians, where
it says in verse 12, And we beseech
you, brethren, to know them who labor among
you and are over you in the Lord
and admonish you, and to esteem them very
highly in love for their work's sake, and
be at peace among yourselves.
Now we exhort you, brethren, warn them that
are unruly, encourage the faint-hearted, support the
weak, and be patient toward all men.
See that none render evil for evil unto
any man, but ever follow that which is
good, both among yourselves and to all men.
Rejoice evermore.
I love that.
Pray without ceasing.
In everything give thanks, for this is the
will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you.
Quench not the spirit.
How easy it is to do that.
Despise not prophesying.
Prove all things.
Hold fast to that which is good and
abstain from all appearance of evil.
Wow, what a great passage.
I think the burden I had the most
for this first opportunity to share with you
is something that I haven't quite done before
in this same way.
But it's just deep conviction that in Alfie
and Ray and Chaco and Diva and Joseph,
that God has given us the men who
are to lead this work in India.
If you think for a minute that I
am leading this work in India, I feel
sorry for you because you just do not
understand what is happening and you must greatly
lack spiritual discernment.
I am involved in so many things, mainly
people, that there is no way that I
can lead this work in India.
I don't even know a lot of things
that are going on.
And without going into India and living among
you and having much more fellowship than I
can have here, I cannot lead this work
in India.
And I haven't been leading it for many
years.
Now, I can be a help.
I can help you if I see you
going completely astray into false doctrine on one
side or departing from the principles of the
work.
I can muster up my forces.
I work by persuasion.
I have no dictatorial power.
But I can persuade.
I hope spirit-controlled gifts of persuasion.
I'll try to persuade Peter and then I'll
try to persuade others and then we will
move.
If we see you doing something really off,
we will move and try to persuade you
that this is not right.
You decide you're going to build a gospel
skyscraper in New Delhi, 100 floors, each floor
with a different ministry, with a giant cross
on the top.
We are going to move.
That doesn't mean that we are running the
work in India.
It means that we are part of this
work of God and if we see you
going into error or into something wrong, we
are part, we're part of the body.
We can do everything we can to try
to persuade you not to build that gospel
towers of Babel.
Now I have never sensed to any great
degree that you men out here do not
respect me or accept me as your international
leaders.
You know, Peter and I more or less
work together.
We are part of an area leadership team
and even in the area leadership, because we
had to divide OM into areas, we in
the area leadership, people like Dale Rota, I
wish you could know this brother better, just
how much of a coach, how he works
so much on the basis of persuasion and
love and unity, how sensitive he is about
other people's feelings and needs and yet how
firm, as we saw in 1984, Dale Rota
can be when he feels convinced about something.
But even those of us in this area
leadership, we feel very much we are like
coaches.
Did you ever play any sports?
You have a coach.
We very much feel God has called us
to be servants.
Of course, most of us in that position
of leadership, we do have a desire to
see things done right.
So we are going to be constantly exhorting
and preaching.
I do the same thing when I'm preaching
with other groups.
I just spoke to Nepali Christian leaders.
I speak the same way.
I burden them.
They do things right.
This morning we talked about integrity and dealing
with money.
We talked about Luke 14, counting the cost,
before you go ahead with this project and
that project.
We talked about building on the basis of
relationships, which takes time.
And I gave them the real story of
the ship and the amount of time and
effort and relationships that took place before there
was ever any ship whatsoever.
So I've sensed, of course, here in India,
a loyalty.
I've sensed a linking with you.
But I think it just needs to be
reaffirmed that we, those of us on an
international level, feel that this group of men
are God's leaders for this work here in
India.
I may not come back here next year.
That's not the purpose of this talk.
I'm not needed to come back here.
We don't have to come to Kathmandu.
The Lord opens the door.
It seems to be a good thing.
God has given me a ministry of teaching
and exhortation.
I'm linked with you.
I love this part of the world.
If I don't come to Kathmandu, I'll probably
just go over to Pakistan or Malaysia or
Bangladesh.
But let's make it clear that God has
put his hand on these five men.
And I think one of the greatest struggles
all of us will have in the work
of God is whether we really can give
our loyalty and whether we really believe in
those men who are the leaders over us.
It's always a major thing in the work
of God.
It's true in churches.
I'm involved in local churches almost as much
sometimes as OM.
What's the greatest task that a pastor has?
It seems to be just winning the loyalty
of his people.
Many pastors have at least one man in
the congregation who has as his committed goal.
I mentioned this this morning.
They all laugh at pastors because they know.
Their committed goal is to get rid of
the pastor.
They've just worked on it.
Seen it happen?
See, it's much more difficult.
A local church can be much more difficult
than OM because OM is a training movement.
People come, people go.
We're not a church.
And basically, we've got a terrifical momentum.
And people generally don't come on OM unless
they seriously want to do what we're talking
about.
Evangelism, street work, preaching, nights of prayer, all
this kind of thing, generally speaking.
God has given us a tremendous group of
people around the world.
These people aren't getting their salaries from OM.
Not that there'd be anything wrong with that.
But oftentimes if people are seeing their own
finance come in, as many OMers, there's even
higher motivation.
I'm not saying that people who get salaries
have no motivation or that they're wrong.
No.
Great works of God operate on a salary
basis.
But when it is volunteers, and they're trusting
God for their own money, and it means
they can leave, they can leave, and they
do.
And when they leave, they take their money
with them.
And they join another group, or they start
their own organization.
About over a hundred different groups are born,
directly or indirectly, out of OM.
Some of them very small.
But this means that generally the people in
OM are there because they really want to
be there.
To me that's great.
And you know, if you are in OM,
but don't really want to be there, if
you're there for some other motive, or you're
there because there's nothing else to do, or
you're there because of this or that, well,
you know, I'm not going to hit you
on the head.
God may.
But how much better in a Christian work
when everybody's there because this is what they
want?
You know, sometimes in India, people have got
in a certain property with a certain mission.
The whole thing is caved in and come
apart.
They wouldn't move out of the property.
Have you ever come across any of that?
It's called vested interests.
That was their house.
And there were other vested interests.
And so they stayed long after their motivation
was gone, long after the zeal for what
they originally started was gone.
They stayed because that's the way life is.
Moving is a problem.
Vested interests.
So I would just commend to you again.
You may not think it's necessary, but I
think it is.
I would commend to you again these five
men.
They work very closely with others.
And we still within India highly esteem and
want to highly esteem every longer term person
in the world.
We want to move on the basis of
unity.
We don't have to have you men up
here.
You know, we can run this thing with
an iron hand.
George Berwyn is faithful.
Five, you don't like it?
No problem.
Bye-bye.
Lots of groups operate that way.
Lots of groups operate.
Churches operate that way.
I was in a big church in Akron.
If any assistant pastor disagrees with the philosophy
of a senior pastor, they have a very
easy answer.
The door.
Out he goes.
OM has gone to the extreme to keep
peace and to work on the basis of
unity so that not only do we invite
all of you up here to get involved
in major decision making, though we hope somehow
in the midst of it all God will
give his mind and that basically we're here
to seek God's mind and God's will and
then somehow come into unity in a way
like saying amen.
To me, Christians coming into unity is like
saying amen at the end of the prayer.
Yes, we sense this is God's will.
We've had terrific confusion in Europe because people
got talking too much about how decisions are
made.
It let us down a dead end street.
People got hurt.
They got confused.
They got even fighting over who is making
the final...
Is it the board?
Is it Burwer?
Is it the new recruits?
Is it the old man's club?
Is it the Baldies or the Beardies?
Who is making the decisions?
As if whoever was making the decisions, we
must then bow down to that group.
And we had people come in from the
outside world, from different corporations, and OM blew
their circuits.
They went around trying to figure out who
is making the decisions.
It must be Burwer.
He's got the biggest mouth.
Maybe others thought it's Roton.
He's got the biggest brain.
They finally got tired and they realized that
OM has worked on the basis of seeking
the will of God.
Different ideas have come from different places.
Sometimes new recruits.
Sometimes quite a few ideas have come through.
We have to acknowledge that.
But we moved on the basis of unity.
That takes time.
You see, some have been upset because they
felt OM was going too slow.
But it's worth slowing down to get unity.
It's worth slowing down to get like-mindedness.
It's worth slowing down to get the will
of God.
There's not enough time given to prayer and
waiting upon God.
Many of you spend more time reading than
you do in prayer.
And I don't think that should be.
I think there should be more time in
prayer.
I don't mean reading.
If your particular work, like mine, demands reading,
I'm not talking about that.
I'm talking about reading Christian books and Christian
magazines.
And I think that we need more waiting
upon God and getting His mind.
And if you study the book of Acts,
that is clearly what you will see there.
And I hope that somehow, by God's grace,
that He will continue to give His will
and that we will accept it, realizing that
generally in the work of God, not exclusively,
but generally, the Lord works through anointed leadership.
Otherwise, we have to have twice as much
manpower and we have to start a full
-time democracy with all the bureaucracy and all
the departments and all the voting procedures.
We're not O.M.'s parliament up here in
Kathmandu.
There are brothers down there that are just
as important as those of us who are
here.
But we're here as a representative body seeking
God, crying out for His will, talking about
things, debating things, even sometimes arguing the Lord
doesn't eliminate the human factor.
They had to go to Jerusalem and have
quite a big ding-dong over whether Paul
could even be accepted.
And you'll find plenty of other discussions going
on in the New Testament.
We'll never eliminate the human factor.
It's not a matter of coming here, having
four hours of prayer, and then there's a
revelation written on the wall over there.
God's strategy for the next two years.
Some people operate that.
More confusion has come in the last few
years by all kinds of superpower, will of
God finding, you know, waiting for somebody to
get the exact prophecy.
Zoom.
Everybody's dead.
That's it.
And if you resist it, wow, you're speaking
against God.
We don't have that type of guidance system.
You know, maybe we got the wrong telephone.
Ours just is a little more tied to
the human factor.
We have to discuss.
We don't always agree.
We have to take steps of faith.
Sometimes you do, in God's Word, you work
on a trial and error basis.
Does finding God's will eliminate trial and error?
No.
Because as long as you and I are
involved, there will be trial and error.
Ray, and Alfie, and Diva, and Joseph, and
Chaco, and you will make mistakes.
And of course, when a person makes a
mistake, the higher his position of leadership, which
is supposed to be low, the more people
will talk.
And this is why we're having more leaders
with nervous breakdowns.
We're having more leaders who want to quit.
And I tell you, one of the reasons
I'm sharing this, because I know in my
heart that all five of these men are
willing to leave OM.
And some of them may leave.
And if they are going to go ahead
with this impossible task we have in India,
so many people, so many problems, such a
pluralistic society, so many voices, and plenty of
criticism against OM today.
It only takes one bitter OMer to create
a holocaust of gossip, and criticism, and lies,
and innuendos.
And I picked some of it up even
back in England.
But if there's anything that I want to
do in your midst during these four or
five days, and I don't think it will
take long, it is to somehow get your
wholehearted support that God has his hand on
these five men.
And that you will give them the same
esteem that you would give me if I
had stayed on here all these years.
Now, of course, maybe after all these years
you wouldn't give me any esteem.
That's another problem.
But, you know, I am very, very microscopic
with the leaders that I work with.
I know these men's lives.
And if there's any accusation against these five
men, we treat that with absolute seriousness.
The Bible speaks clearly about bringing accusation against
a man of God.
It should be in the presence of witnesses.
And if there's accusations against the moral lives
of these men, corruption in the area of
money, family life, you know, they want you,
they want you to share that with them,
or if you feel it's too complex, you
can either talk to Peter and myself.
We, in turn, of course, are subject to
others who are in subject to others.
So I am excited about what God is
doing here.
I don't believe that the devil won a
victory the day I was pushed out of
India.
I don't believe the devil won a victory
the day that some of our other brothers
had to leave like Mike Wheat.
Of course, these things are hard to evaluate.
The enemy was certainly involved in some way.
But I believe the Lord has given five
men, all with Indian citizenship, one of them
a little bit unique, to lead this work.
And if you're not going to give them
one whole heart of support, then I would
like to deal with it here in Kathmandu
together, because I think it will be an
enormous hindrance to the work if there isn't
that loyalty.
You know, whenever I find a man talking
against me, disloyal to me, I go after
him like bee to honey, and we fellowship.
I don't demand 100% loyalty.
You know the motto of Operation Mobilization.
I've been reading it for the last ten
years.
Let me read it again.
Because of world evangelism and the reality of
the spiritual warfare, we need to agree on
a plan of action and a strategy and
policy to carry out that action.
That, of course, means we've got to agree
on who is going to lead.
Even when there are things we don't like
or even agree with.
You think I agree with everything going on
in India?
I don't even agree with everything going on
in my own home.
But because of world evangelism, because we want
to get the job done, we agree on
a plan of action.
We agree that Thomas Matthews is to be
the state leader in Gujarat.
We agree that these five men are to
be the overall directors of the work, that
Alfie and Ray are the co-coordinators, and
we go forward on that basis.
Sure, there'll be things we don't like.
Sure, once in a while we'll get upset.
But this is the plan of action we
agree on.
And I believe if we can continue to
follow that route, it's unlimited the number of
people we can reach in India.
God is supplying finance.
God is still giving His foreigners who are
willing to come out here on a two
-year basis and do whatever you tell them.
Never have there been so many foreigners come
out to be servants of Indians.
And you say, some of the ones on
my team aren't very good servants.
Well, give us.
We've got to keep working on them.
But generally speaking, most of them come here
with a desire to serve.
And to me that's very exciting.
It's quite unique in missionary history.
Let's pray.
Father, we thank You for this challenge to
our own hearts.
We thank You that You've raised up these
five men, just as there were five men,
I believe, in Antioch, to be the spiritual
pillars of this work.
Not that there are not other great men,
you know, in India.
Even men who may have greater spirituality.
Even men and women who may have greater
discernment.
But because You anoint earthen vessels, and because
Your work has to go forward, and there
have to be leaders, and You have, by
Your grace, given us the wisdom to choose
this group and to get unity about them.
You think of the hours and hours they've
got to meet together to wrestle with things
which, among other things, if we all had
to be constantly involved in all of these
issues, it would be an enormous waste of
time.
Far less evangelism would ever take place.
We'd end up some kind of jungle of
democratic circus acts.
So Lord, we want Your wisdom as we
go forward.
Help things to come lovingly to the surface
here that need to be prayed through and
dealt with.
And Lord, may we not panic when some
things go wrong.
May we not swing the pendulum when we
don't get our own way, when mistakes are
made or sin gets in, in one way
or the other.
By Your grace, help us to keep repenting
and to keep dealing with different issues and
to press on together.
Lord, as each one of these fives gets
offered other jobs, other opportunities, give them wisdom,
Lord.
We know that You may lead some of
them out someday into something else.
But Lord, may it be very, very clear
because we believe that You have put Your
hand upon them for the leadership here.
We pray that there be no heavy handedness
but that there would be firmness and love
in dealing with problems and in discipline.
Lord, You know more than we do our
own needs at this time.
We're cast upon You, in Jesus' name.
Amen.