God gave me some years ago when I
was speaking to our leaders.
We have different levels of leadership in our
work.
We have our general leaders, which would include
team leaders, it would include responsible people in
the office, like the man in charge of
our accounting, who, by the way, I think
is an Assembly of God man from the
West Coast, been with me since 1963, a
bachelor, and I tell you, if it wasn't
for him, expansion would be very, very hard.
We're working on about 50 currencies, and we
have a system that, like, if anybody gives
a gift anywhere in the world to India,
every penny of that gets out to India.
And that's all done through a computer.
We have one computer, but we don't have
it for our finance department.
That's done by a volunteer up in Sweden,
one of the countries where we have the
greatest links, actually is in Sweden, and many
of them with some of the great Pentecostal
churches in that country, where I'll be going,
actually, in about a month's time.
But we have that level of leaders, and
then we have the leaders who we call
coordinators, and they are the men who have
under their responsibility a whole country, and oftentimes
they would have two or three top men
who are responsible for a whole area in
their country.
For example, India, we break up into about
14 areas, and they would be considered coordinators.
So every year we get together.
First of all, everyone within OM, we get
together for three weeks of prayer and the
Word and getting right with each other, the
weekends and evangelism.
This year it was London.
This is apart from those in India.
They have their own similar conference in India,
since it's rather a big place, and we
have 280 workers out there.
And then during that three weeks, the coordinator
level, the main leaders, get together for four
days, and really praying at a night of
prayer, sometimes fasting in prayer, get God's plan
for the next year, talk out some of
the problems, hammer out policies, changes, doctrinal things
like this whole argument that's come up lately
on the authority of Scripture.
This is a very important time, and it
was during a meeting like this some years
ago.
We were actually in a little coastal town
of Deal.
I think it must have been around 1965
or 66.
God just gave me this burden, and I
shared it with them as leaders.
And it was what I titled it, The
Great Dangers That I Feel Are Facing Us
in the Work of God.
And I drew their notice to a text
in Isaiah that I'd like you to look
at, the book of Isaiah 58.
58, verse 1.
Cry aloud, spare not, lift up thy voice
like a trumpet, and show my people their
transgression, and the house of Jacob their sins.
Yet they seek me daily and delight to
know my ways as a nation that did
righteousness and forsook not the ordinances of their
God.
They ask of me the ordinances of justice.
They take delight in approaching God.
And it goes on, Why have we fasted,
say they, and thou seest not?
Why have we afflicted our soul, and thou
takest no knowledge?
Behold, in the day of your fast ye
find pleasure in exact all your labors.
Behold, ye fast for strife and debate, and
to smite with a fist of wickedness ye
shall not fast as you do this day
to make your voice to be heard on
high.
Is it such a fast that I have
chosen, a day for a man to afflict
his soul?
Is it to bow down his head like
a bulrush and to spread sackcloth and ashes
under him?
Wilt thou call this a fast and an
acceptable day to the Lord?
Is not this the fast that I have
chosen, to loose the bands of wickedness, to
undo the heavy burden, and to let the
oppressed go free, and that ye break every
yoke?
Is it not to deal thy bread to
the hungry, and that thou bring the poor
that are cast out to thy house, when
thou seest the naked, that thou cover him,
and that thou hide not thyself from thine
own flesh?
That's a terrific passage to expound and to
study, but it's mainly the sense that there
is a time in a work of God
when we need to cry out.
And that morning with my leaders, I cried
out about my burden for the work.
Do not get a false impression about Operation
Mobilization when something gets this big, with 3
,000 people in the summer, spread out into
about 50 nations and two ships and 300
vehicles on the road, couple of boats in
Bangladesh, 25 headquarters, one of the largest distributing
operations of literature in the world, even though
that's only 20% of our emphasis.
Right now we're in about 500 literature production
projects in 50 languages.
And when you have so many young people,
so many new people, you've got problems.
And one of the things I want to
tell you, and I'm sure you already know
this, you don't do God's work without problems.
You don't do God's work without struggles, without
misunderstandings, without having at times to go to
one another and to share and to be
honest, and yet to believe the best and
to battle toward renewal and revival and reality.
And of course, we must acknowledge that sometimes
the most basic mistakes can come in even
into our lives as leaders.
The very things that we thought we learned
as two years in Christ, like maintaining a
quiet time, we can be wrestling with 25
years later.
And so I cried out that morning, and
I think it was before a breaking of
bread service, I also shared from 1 Corinthians
10-12, which I'd like you to just
look at briefly, 1 Corinthians 10-12.
I think you know that chapter.
It's a powerful chapter.
Consider the spiritual blessings that these people had
and then what happened to them.
Wherefore, let him that thinks he stands take
heed lest he fall.
And this is given after we had this
powerful chapter about the overthrow of these people
in the wilderness.
And notice these people had a great spiritual
experience.
They weren't a bunch of spiritual numbskulls.
They had had some tremendous experience.
Verse 4, they did all drink of the
same spiritual drink, for they drank of that
spiritual rock that followed them, and that rock
was Christ.
They seemingly had experienced the deepest experience you
could have in the Old Testament.
That's an incredible verse.
And yet, but with many of them God
was not well pleased, for they were overthrown
in the wilderness.
Now these things were examples to the intent
we should not lust after evil things as
they also lusted.
You know, it's always bothered me that in
some Bible circles they teach the Old Testament
in a way that it seems the main
thing is to see how much knowledge you
can accumulate in your head.
And people go on into endless Bible study.
One would wonder, is it possible to have
too much Bible study?
Of course, anything can be taken to extreme.
If a man, for example, has just endless
Bible study for pure knowledge's sake, no prayer
life, no fullness of power from the Holy
Spirit, of course it's a dead-end street.
And we see these things are written in
the Old Testament.
Not that we may open Bible schools and
fill young people with knowledge, but these are
examples.
And of course we need knowledge.
I'm not opposed to that.
But it's also written for our example.
Now, because of time, I'm just going to
give you some of these burdens.
The first burden I cried out about, and
I still cry out about, I re-shared
this message recently again with the leaders.
It always changes because I just had the
outline.
But the first thing I cried out about
is the danger of getting set in our
ways.
That which can be born of a spirit
initially, ten years later is merely a tradition.
This is the way we do it.
And this is why often what starts as
a movement ends up a monument.
Because tradition comes in, and well, this is
the way we always do it.
Come on in, Jim.
I just made Jim go send off a
special delivery letter.
And it's so important to be open to
change.
This is why it's wonderful, for example, even
in the area of music, to teach people
new choruses, new hymns.
We can use the old hymns.
A lot of churches today, you know, are
missing out on reaching the young people simply
because of a little bit of lack of
adjustment.
You know, a few changes and they would
reach that many more people.
And traditionalism in the church, I don't sense
that your church is that way, but traditionalism
in the church, and even in a work
like O.M., can be so deadly.
Getting set in our own ways.
What does this mean?
It means a young person comes with a
new idea.
We're already in the 30s and now I'm
40.
We're beginning to become set.
If we had applied to come in in
reverse some years ago, we would be rejected
by our own traditions.
And this means we've got to let new
people make mistakes.
As we grow older, we may have more
wisdom.
We may know, look man, this is not
going to work.
But if the movement is going to remain
fresh, people have got to have some degree
of freedom to make mistakes.
This is how terrific works of the Spirit
end up in total legalism.
What they battled through initially in the Spirit,
finding out, discovering through failure, through trial and
error, through weeping, now they set up as
a structure and you've got to absorb in
two weeks what it took them years to
learn when the movement was being born.
Study the history of your own denomination.
Any mistakes made in the early days?
Could it be that the assemblies of God
are going to go the same way as
every other denomination?
Could it be that in a few years
you might even face liberalism?
We hope not.
But you know the brethren assemblies, on the
other side of the fence theologically, they are
always known for being at least very biblical
in their own way.
And yet we've seen in some brethren assemblies
people would never believe it, even the inroad
of liberalism, which you wouldn't dream.
You know they have other problems, but you
wouldn't expect that.
Look at the Christian church.
You know the history of the Christian church
was called Campbellism.
It's a group that we've never had much
fellowship with because of certain extremes, but they
were so fundamental, I mean, dear me, in
their own way.
Of course, very strong on baptism for salvation,
and great arguers, great debaters, and yet the
whole movement, half of it, has gone completely
liberal.
Completely liberal.
And so there's no one that's free.
There's no one free from the devices of
the enemy.
And we may say now, well, this is
not a problem, but Satan is very, very
clever.
And so you have a problem.
On the one hand, you want to maintain
sound doctrine.
You don't want to compromise.
You don't want liberalism to come in.
Playing down on the teaching of the word
of God.
On the other hand, there's got to be
the flexibility.
There's got to be the avoidance of legalism,
of traditionalism.
There's a difference between maintaining a few good
traditions and traditionalism.
There's a difference between having a few rules,
and we need rules, and becoming legalistic.
And that's why, of course, balance is so
important.
We, of course, in OM, we discovered within
a decade, we have many traditions, some of
them very funny traditions, missionary traditions.
We just have a constant problem to know
what to do.
For example, we took a strong stand against
television.
We had no television around OM, you know,
within 50 miles.
Then some of our people got older.
They got married.
Some people were recruited in the work who
already had children, and who already had television.
And the Lord showed us that for these
people, we could not legalistically dictate, you know,
the television's got to get out of your
house.
And so we made an adaptation.
Basically, we never had a written rule about
this anyway.
Sometimes it's better not to put things in
writing.
You know, just keep kicking.
Don't put it in writing.
But we decided that if a family is
living on their own within the Arm Fellowship,
and they have children, then that decision has
to be theirs.
But if it's an OM headquarters, any place
where the training is going on of young
people, it's out.
And to this day, there's not television in
such a situation.
That's only one example.
It may not be a good one.
Number two, the dean's not continuing to walk
in the light.
Now, this was a big emphasis in our
work.
Let's be honest with one another.
Let's walk in the light.
If you've got a problem, you know, let's
share it.
First John 1-7 talks about walking in
the light, confessing our sin, being open.
James says confess your faults to one another.
Pray for one another.
And we found that as we moved into
our second decade, there was a danger of
becoming accustomed to one another and not walking
in the light.
And then darkness gets in.
You know, in some things, the big problem
is not the sin the person commits.
The big problem is they go into the
dark.
For example, we have a social policy.
You have to have a social policy in
a movement like this with so many young
people.
For the first year, we don't even allow
any dating.
We say, seek God first.
It's not that we believe dating is wrong.
We don't.
But we feel that in this type of
training, preparing people for world evangelism, first year,
either they seek the Lord firstly and get
trained in the spiritual warfare, or we'd rather
not have them come.
And you know, it's amazing.
When you give this to young people before
they come, they come into it and you
don't have that much trouble.
But sometimes you do.
And when I talk to someone who may
have broken the social policy in some way,
I've always seen the big thing has not
been the breach of the policy, but the
danger that he's putting it in the dark.
He's doing it in secret.
That's the bigger danger than maybe going off
in the corner and talking excessively to one
girl again and again and again.
And so we have found the need to
stay in the light, to stay in the
light.
That's not an easy thing, I'll tell you.
In Christian work today, there's such an emphasis
on reputation and being someone.
But what a beautiful thing, at least in
a smaller circle like this, if you can
really be in the light.
That doesn't mean you share every little detail.
My wife doesn't even want every little detail.
She knows, for example, sometimes I have a
struggle with these magazines.
You know, over in Florida, this is nothing
compared to England, the pornography thing.
I'm amazed.
You can actually go to a newsstand in
some places here and survive, you know, trying
to buy a magazine for my son or
cars.
And I survived.
In England, I try to just stay away
from newsstands completely.
You send the dog to get your paper.
Or your wife.
My wife walked into one of these places
recently and rebuked them.
I was really encouraged by that.
But I share that with my wife if
I've had some struggle, but not necessarily every
detail.
Walking in the light, we don't want to
drag people down into depression.
People already tend to be depressed.
But I think honesty and sharing and praying
together is so important.
Most of you will have a ministry of
counseling.
When people come to you for counseling, one
of the key things is not to communicate
that you're up here and they're down here.
But try to relate to them.
Try to say, look, I've had somewhat of
a similar struggle in my life.
It may not be the same.
This will often bring out.
Many times when people are talking to you
in counseling, the first 20 minutes they don't
even tell you what the real problem is.
I had a fellow come to me and
his big problem was dancing.
It was going on and on, dancing, dancing.
This was in India.
I had to go out of the room
and I came back.
This was on the ship.
I said, look, is that really the issue?
And I sensed it wasn't the issue.
And he said no.
And then he shared that he had been
seduced by a professor in a homosexual act.
And this was tearing him apart.
And that was really what was on his
mind.
Keep in mind in your counseling ministry, this
is a bit of a side track, and
I'd love to talk to you about this
whole thing of counseling, that it is a
big thing when someone comes to share to
some of you as leaders in the church,
especially to the chief pastor.
I'm sure you realize that.
Some people, I know when they come to
me, they're shaking.
They've been praying about it for days.
And I have been so insensitive at times,
not realizing this person was shaking.
Then they're having trouble verbalizing.
I wasn't concentrating enough and making them feel
relaxed.
And of course, I therefore blew it.
Or a bigger mistake I made is overreacting
to their initial thing.
They may give me 25 or 10, 20
sentences, and I overreact and give them my
quick solution.
They haven't even got to the problem yet.
And I've lost them.
I've overreacted, I've given them a quick answer,
and I've lost them.
And I don't see anybody today in God's
ministry can avoid the ministry of counseling.
It's very difficult on the pastors because we
can get bombarded, and we do.
We just run out of time.
And people in my position, one of my
greatest struggles every day is just frustration.
There are so many things to do every
day.
There are so many needs.
I've got a couple hundred phone numbers of
people I could call and minister to on
the phone.
And some of them are very needy.
And much less people pounding on your door
or making appointments, and then you're supposed to
be preparing for sermons.
This is why it's so beautiful to have
a team.
And any team that's working with an aggressive
pastor who's on the move, I don't know
that much about your pastor, but I just
get a few vibrations he's slightly on the
move.
You are going to have to be patient.
You're going to have to esteem him.
You're going to have to tell him what's
on your mind.
For example, I've had brothers on my team
that wanted some time with me because I
was moving so fast, I didn't read the
vibration that they wanted some time.
And if you ever have that problem, just
make it clear to your senior leader, look,
I really need some time with you.
I'm going through some struggles.
Can I have some time?
And I'm sure when that vibration comes on
paper, he will make the time.
Sometimes in my own position, and I can't
project this on anyone else, some days I'm
just hanging on for survival.
I'm experiencing him and I'm filled with his
love, but it's still a survival situation as
far as time, problems, family, the roof's leaking,
my wife's had a bad day, the kids
are griping.
And it's in days like that when sympathy
from your staff and patience really enables you
to keep your sanity.
Maybe things are easier here in Florida, the
vacation land, I don't know.
Number three, not taking time to meet for
prayer.
This is a danger.
Now I'm speaking about the leaders.
We're all counseling so many people, we're all
ministering.
Pretty soon, we can count the days that
have passed since we've met for prayer, corporately,
as you do here in the mornings, and
then as much as possible with one another.
You're not all going to have as much
personal time and prayer with Quinton, for example,
as you would want.
That would be normal.
You could pray with one another.
For him, he may be praying with someone
else.
And you know, in any ministry when we're
on a team, our whole work is teamwork.
For 24 years, our whole movement has functioned
as a team.
Church planting teams, evangelistic teams, renewal teams, music
teams.
There are teams that often have tremendous struggles.
People in music are usually high strung, temperamental,
they're often melancholics, and our music teams, and
we've been in very heavy music ministries, television,
I tell you, the devil, he has a
whole set, a strategy, just for musicians.
And they, you know, I've been with music
teams backstage, they're at each other's throats, one
or two are in love with the same
girl, and all kinds of things, and some
of them are depressed, and then they have
to get out and sing, you know, Joy,
Joy.
I've seen them winding it up before they
go out on stage, you know.
There they are, they're here, come along.
Then they all come backstage because I'm the
preacher waiting back there, you know.
The moment they get backstage, ooh.
So, I've often prayed the Lord would keep
me from the music team, but the same
thing can happen, you know, in a regular
team like this.
And the devil is very, very clear, clearly
trying to destroy any team that's trying to
work together to accomplish something.
So don't neglect that time of prayer.
And then the fourthly, not being involved in
evangelism.
Think of Acts 17, 17.
Here's the Apostle Paul, a great theologian.
Apostle Paul, the church planter, Apostle Paul, who
had these great ideas and great experiences.
Where do you find them?
In the market.
We insist on our leaders, no matter how
much gift they have in preaching, no matter
how much public ministry, that they get out
in face-to-face street or door-to
-door evangelism every week.
Now, we fail.
You know, if you set high goals, you
fail.
And I don't get out every week as
I used to, but it's so important for
people in behind-the-scene ministries.
Our office staff all go to the door
-to-door evangelism on Saturday.
It's a requirement.
There's a loophole.
You can get out of it.
You don't want to force people, but most
of them go.
I tell you, that really helps the week
stay real.
If you're spending so much time behind-the
-scenes counseling people, if you're not out meeting
sinners, we're all sinners, but those who have
not been saved, unreality comes in.
You know why God's people often pick each
other in a monastic cage of unreality.
When you get out involved with people out
there, you know, a man who's beating his
wife every other week, a triple divorce case,
drunkard, murderers, you know, then the problems among
God's people, they get much more.
When you're not involved with people in the
world, the problem of the person sitting behind
you in the Christian office becomes bigger and
bigger, you know.
Everybody has got areas of inconsistency, and when
we're not involved with the world and people
that are really raw, then we magnify the
problems of God's people, and then that pulls
us apart.
And it's so important to be involved in
evangelism, and our leaders have testified sometimes this
is the hardest thing.
The morning you set aside to do it,
suddenly, you know, ten things, zero in on.
And it's a struggle, but make it a
goal.
You have house-to-house work coming up
on Saturday or Wednesday or whenever it is.
It's an enormous encouragement to the church when
some of the full-time staff gets in
that kind of thing.
It really means a lot.
The devil will try to divide the full
-time staff from the layman.
You may not have the problem now, but
it's always a danger.
And they at times will wonder what you
aren't doing.
You, in turn, can get into a guilt
trip without even taking one day off.
They have to be careful, you know, in
their judgments and believing the best.
But I'm not speaking to them this morning.
On the other hand, you need to keep
your lines of communication open and realize that
our first ministry as full-time people in
a church is to serve.
It's to be the doorbell.
And that means we're going to be misunderstood.
Somebody is going to think we're just lounging
around when, in fact, we may have been
up the night to three in the morning
counseling someone and sleeping in an hour would
have been justified.
But I tell you, if old Joe Farmer
who gets up at five o'clock every
morning to milk his cows sees you sleeping
in an hour, you know, what a lazy
preacher.
And, you know, it can be pretty wild.
You know, the greatest pressure in a church,
I feel at times, comes upon the pastors
and the staff members wise.
These people are put in a cage.
They're expected to be, you know, the sort
of the reincarnation of the pastor's sermon.
They know he's got this problem, but, you
know, they expect the pastors and his wife
to sort of have all this tremendous pressure.
And I've seen this in counseling.
Pastors' wives just going down the tube.
That's a way to get at a strong
pastor who may be going very well.
One of the ways to get at him,
the devil knows it, get through his wife.
And he may not be sensitive to this.
Every one of you married men have got
to be very sensitive to the strategy Satan
will try to use upon your wife.
It will not be the same strategy as
upon you.
And therefore, you may be making the greatest
mistake in your ministry, not protecting your wife.
Old Bill Gothard says, you know, we've got
to protect our wives.
That's one of the basic things in marriage.
So keep that in mind.
Number five, we've got to move on a
little quicker.
Number five, subtle influences of the lukewarm.
We all know what happens, what it says
in Revelation about the lukewarm.
I have a little note here.
I recommend you have a quotation book.
I hope it doesn't get to look as
bad as mine.
You put in that book quotations that really
go through you like an arrow from Tozer
or anyone else.
And I have a little note here to
read page 29 and the book gems from
Tozer, but I don't have that with me.
But I think you know some of the
writings of Tozer and I strongly recommend them.
It doesn't mean the books I put on
my book table.
I don't agree with everything.
I caught this cold up in Chattanooga and
it's almost gone.
Some sunshine would come here in Florida.
It might disappear.
But I believe in Christian work one of
the greatest enemies is the lukewarm.
This is one of the things I just
try to ward it off my own soul.
Lukewarmness.
Oh my land it can come in so
many directions.
And linked to that is we become accustomed
to spiritual things.
We become accustomed to miracles.
You go in some circles miracles what's that?
Oh we have miracles here every week.
Sometimes of course the miracles we're talking about
aren't always miracles but there are real miracles.
It's becoming a difficult word in our work
it's becoming a difficult word.
The word miracle.
But whatever we must avoid lukewarmness we become
aware of the danger of over familiarization with
the things of the spirit.
So we no longer are excited.
People come to the altar tears and you
know we've seen it so much we can
walk off and you know mainly be thinking
about what we're going to eat or some
other thing.
And I mean I just have to repent.
I don't know how you survive but I
have to repent often because I know God
sees my heart and I know sometimes I
don't have the compassion and I've seen sometimes
that I don't throw myself into the altar
call as strongly as I used to.
Sometimes it may be partly justified and I'm
battling for survival.
I've got other people to deal with.
Of course you've got counselors that are doing
that and you need help but I remember
being in intensive campaigns in India.
I didn't even eat at night.
They used to eat after the meeting.
I couldn't even think of eating.
Needy souls crying out for God and praying
for the sick and you know they're not
even happy unless you preach two hours in
some of these places.
And by the time I was done counseling
at midnight I just went out.
And then up in the morning and out
into the streets.
I think at times I found that hard
and overreacted to it.
And it is a struggle.
Let's cry out that God will keep us
from lukewarmness and when it comes let's repent.
Let's be honest.
We're walking down the street just say God
you know that my eyes have been more
attracted this morning to the CV shop or
the clothing shop or the cars or the
telephone poles.
Let's face it there are days when we
have more interest in passing cars than passing
people.
What's the latest thing?
Oh what's he driving?
Oh look at that shop window.
And right by us people on the way
out into eternity.
And you know if we lose our passion
for souls whatever else we may have it's
canned.
May God have mercy on us and pray
for me and I may not lose a
passion for souls the extra mile in sharing
Christ.
Then six presumption.
Presumption that we know the principles.
This is a danger in a work like
ours we have a lot of strong principles
a lot of burdens and after years ten
fifteen years we can presume.
Oh we know that.
We get a visiting preacher in.
We develop a wrong attitude toward him.
I've been working a lot on messages on
attitude.
Very important.
Right here in this room do you have
a right attitude toward everybody else in this
room?
I don't care if they've stepped on your
toe disconnected you on the switch board.
I don't care if you think you've heard
that someone had said something about you or
you think the pastor didn't really appreciate your
ministry and your gifts or has not given
you all the opportunities you should have.
I want to ask you regardless of whatever
else do you have a right attitude toward
everybody in this room?
If you don't you need to repent.
Claim his precious blood.
He doesn't expect that you're going to get
all the sweet lovely overwhelming emotions toward one
another.
Some people just switch us off.
Certain types of people switch me off.
I'm fortunate very few people actually switch me
off.
A lot of people I counsel they may
get switched off very quickly.
Well you know we're delivered from that being
switched on and off about people.
We don't make little instant evaluations based on
our previous emotional experience but we seek in
all that we do to have the right
attitude toward people.
We may not agree.
We may be even spiritually upset but the
right attitude.
Tozer talks about sins of the disposition.
We can come Sunday morning big gospel smile
and up there in front of everybody inside
rattlesnakes and cobras and crocodiles are fighting and
we're boiling up because our wife boiled our
egg too much or some other major crisis
that we've had in the morning.
You know Christians can become super sensitive.
We need to develop sensitivity toward others but
not become super sensitive about what they are
saying about us.
What they are thinking.
I find Christians get in such a bind.
Christian workers.
What's he thinking about me?
How do they feel about me?
And we can become very unrealistic.
We can become even naive about life.
Life is filled with nitty gritty things and
things go wrong.
And we shouldn't panic.
We shouldn't read into people's words more than
we really belong in.
Some people are more moody.
I'm a little bit moody.
I'm not talking about D.L. Moody, huh?
And, you know, in the course of a
day, if you have to, you can ask
Jim about me.
The course of a day, you know, you
can ask me the same question in two
different moods and get two different answers based
on major theological issues depending on the mood
that I'm in.
Now, yesterday morning, soon as I finished preaching,
I was depressed.
Just mildly, but I was depressed.
I walked to the back and I was
just depressed.
I'm a very idealistic person.
I always feel my preaching is generally poor
considering what there is here.
Then a lady came to me for counseling
and she was really needy, I tell you,
and immediately I went up.
I respond to problems.
But, you know, after Elijah had his greatest
victory, he went into his worst depression.
And Christian leaders have to be careful about
that.
You may have your greatest crusade, great victory,
and somehow go into depression.
You'd be better if somebody loaded a big
problem on you.
And someone was sharing with me the other
day.
Well, it was when I came to the
ship, in my main leader on the ship.
This is another important thing I can bring
in here.
Your relationships with each other will change and
develop over the years.
And you'll find as a man, your co
-worker, has more and more pressure, he will
even change in his relationship to you.
Maybe when he first came he was very
submissive to you and, you know, you just
seem to get on so well.
But as he had more and more and
more pressure and had to discuss more things
with you on a high level, on a
difficult level, you had greater difficulties in your
relationship.
I've had this with some of my leaders.
When they first came, you know, things just
went incredibly smooth.
But as they got into more and more
responsibility, they were more under pressure.
They came into what I was in.
And so two of us were on a
similar level.
I went to the ship recently with one
of my main leaders.
I was in a bit of a negative
mind and burdened about, you know, the need
for revival on the ship, the need for
more reality, more prayer.
And we got locked into an overreaction.
He said this.
He was defending the ship and I was
attacking.
And I ended up saying, man, the whole
movement is sick.
OM is sick.
That's just what I said to him.
So he musters up all his attack to
prove to me that OM wasn't sick.
About a week later, he started loading me
with all his problems.
This thing, that thing.
Without realizing it, I was defending the movement.
God's moving.
Praise the Lord.
We almost laughed.
And he said, I know the way to
keep you motivated.
Just load you with the problems and with
the negatives.
That forces you to become positive.
They know I'm sort of one that likes
to keep the balance.
So if they come with all negatives, I
go positive.
Sometimes if I start with all negatives, then
it gets into an interesting situation.
Well, that's important.
Presumption is deadly.
Number seven.
Choosing the road of the least resistance.
This is a danger as we become older.
We know more of the angles.
And we can choose the road of least
resistance.
Especially in regard to our own temperament.
What happens to many evangelists?
They get wiped out.
Wiped out.
Why?
Because God's using them in evangelism.
In evangelism they're fine.
And people immediately, they appreciate their ministry.
People are being saved.
And they emphasize that.
And they throw all their effort into that.
But here's something that's very important.
That man who's a gifted evangelist, he shouldn't
worry about that gift too much.
He'd better search out his weaker points and
work on those.
At 17 I was being used in evangelism.
God broke me and showed me not to
worry so much about that gift.
But to look at my weaker points.
Not choose the road of least resistance.
My weaker points were lack of patience.
Lack of patience.
Lack of sensitivity about people.
Gentleness.
Forbearance.
Becoming a good listener.
And I think it's important not to choose
that which is easiest for your temperament.
But to be willing to go sometimes the
hard way.
Not to justify your weaknesses in your temperament.
In counseling we sometimes find men telling their
wives, well this is the way I am.
And you know, more or less take it
or leave it.
Can you imagine a spiritual man saying such
nonsense?
We can't do it.
Even though we may have battled against a
particular weakness for years.
And I find people with super sanctification concepts.
I don't think any of you are in
that category.
But I don't know if you've dealt with
super sanctification.
They no longer are able to accept any
weaknesses in their own life.
It's always the other man.
It's always the wife.
It's always this factor, that factor.
And soon they are unwilling to repent.
And I tell you when you get people
in that stage you get real troubles.
You get real troubles.
There may be a few people, history seems
to show, that seem to get such a
godly walk that very few people can find
anything.
But let's face it, 99% are not
in that category.
And if we misuse those few people, especially
when they read their biographies, because biographies don't
generally give you the total story.
Even A.W. Tozer, most of his kids
have gone astray.
He had enormous problems in his home.
Enormous problems.
And if you read Tozer carefully, he confesses
this.
He confesses that a lot of times he
couldn't figure out what was from God and
what was his own temperament.
And some of his friends were there when
I talked to him just openly about his
weakness and his struggles.
Every man of God, every prophet of God
will have his weaker areas and how important
it is to have a realistic view of
ourselves.
Billy Graham said the greatest obstacle in our
sanctification is our unwillingness to see ourselves as
we really are.
Sometimes to see ourselves even as other people
see us and yet not become depressed.
You get some people that live on a
terrific high pitch but then finally it dawns
on them that they've got this kink in
their life.
Everybody's seen it.
Finally they've seen it.
What happens?
Depression.
Like somebody putting a pin in a gigantic
balloon.
It's deadly.
So we need to beware of that danger
of choosing the road of least resistance.
I remember Dale Roton who's been my co
-worker and has stood with me for 23
years.
He's phlegmatic.
He's an intellectual.
He's got a couple of degrees.
I don't have any degree.
Sometimes people give me a third degree.
But really he's stood with me all these
years.
He's been my Nathan.
If I say something in a message, he
feels it's exaggerated, he feels it's this, that,
he comes up to me very quietly.
Brother George, I appreciate that message.
And you know I have learned more from
that Nathan, Dale Roton, than I have from
a lot of people who are patting me
on the back.
And we're always growing, we're always learning.
And I think that's very important.
And I remember him sharing in Madrid 20
years ago in a ministry, he said whatever
you do, harden your heart against any area
of sin.
Anything that's besetting you, battling and falling again.
With me it's been my tongue.
My tongue goes faster than my brain and
this problem, that problem.
How easy it would have been years ago
just to harden my heart a little bit.
And I think it's so important just keep
breaking, keep learning and that sanctifying work will
continue, it will continue.
And it's a beautiful thing.
And then number eight, listening too quickly to
evil reports.
Proverbs 11, 13 warns us about this.
I tell you beware of listening too quickly
to evil reports about anyone and especially those
who are in leadership because the devil is
so clever in this area.
We find the devil trying to bring disunity
between our top leaders and it happens because
here's a man over in France, here's a
man in Germany, here's a man in India,
they hear things, it's amazing how quickly news
goes and they feel someone doesn't respect them.
Little things, they arrive in the airport to
visit a particular field, they expect someone's going
to meet them after all and no one
comes, no one answers the phone, you're stuck
out there for hours, you get the feeling
what am I?
Nothing?
The devil is so clever bringing in disunity.
Guard your unity with everything you have because
the way many ministries have been destroyed here
in America is through disunity and different people
are reading different books, they're getting input from
different directions and pretty soon if they're restless,
some crazy things can take place and then
number nine, allowing the discipline to slip.
I will tell you, I could be here
all morning on this, this is the issue.
We get in God's work, God uses us,
people start giving us things, sometimes we're not
so accountable for our time, this is probably
more on the mission field than what you
and I have and our discipline begins to
slip.
In evangelism, a great problem, the band just
goes out, everybody wants to fill their stomachs,
let's have the evangelist over for a meal,
I don't know if the local pastor has
this problem, but pretty soon you can just
be big as a balloon, all God's people,
sometimes they're trying to throw off their own
guilt complex by getting you fatter, but really
discipline in eating, discipline in sleeping, discipline with
the eyes, discipline in our quiet time, discipline
in intercession, discipline in every area is basic
and the devil is clever, men who once
preached so greatly today reprobates.
Number ten, subtle forms of pride.
You know, I actually was so stupid, I
thought I was really quite victorious in this
area of pride.
You know, it's like the man who's going
to write a book on humility with his
picture on the cover.
How I learned humility, God's gift.
And I am convinced that the battle against
pride never ends.
It never ends.
See this front door pride, the obvious guys
on an ego trip, but that's not the
problem for most of us, it's back door
pride.
Back door pride.
And it's so subtle and it says before
contention, pride comes before contention.
Often the disunity, the struggles, if you get
down to the root, and it's hard to
get to the root of issues, it's pride.
It's pride.
You may have some very good facts.
You may have some very good reasons.
You may have been definitely mistreated.
What you have to say is right, but
the root is still pride.
The root is still pride.
And that's difficult to handle.
You don't get roots by just pouring some
kind of water on top of the leaves.
You've got to dig.
There's got to be surgery.
Number 11, slacking off in the war of
lust.
Slacking off in the war of lust.
First Peter 2.11 is a verse that
I often meditate on and memorize and review
it.
And I need to review it now because
I can't quote it verbatim, but it talks
about the war against our members.
First Peter 2.11 Dearly beloved, I beseech
you as sojourners and pilgrims abstain from fleshly
lusts which war against the soul.
I want to give a warning here that
in your counseling ministry especially you've got to
be careful.
And avoid all appearance of evil.
Two things keep this in balance as you
work together with the opposite of sex to
some degree.
One, believe the best.
Believe the best.
Number two, avoid all appearance of evil.
It's not a matter of going 50%
in all of this.
Each has got to go 90% and
stay well interlocked because the devil is so
clever in this.
I tell you things are happening in the
states in this area that are just unbelievable
and we just must not slack off.
You know something you're going to face if
you haven't faced it already?
In most congregations, I say this with care
and I know you're leaders, there are women
hallucinating about the pastor.
I've been involved in a lot of counseling
on this and I am speaking the truth.
Generally there's some women out there hallucinating about
the pastor.
They have a wild affection toward the pastor.
It cannot be avoided.
And we had this recently with our minister
of music.
There was a girl in the audience and
she wanted to come on and she was
actually mental.
This is often the case.
A person don't know whether she was after
me as well, maybe after our musical director,
just hallucinating and just infatuated and then when
she didn't get it, they turned.
And you get someone like that out there
who's after the pastor or could be the
sister of the pastor.
And then they don't get what they want.
You have to cut that person off.
They can turn and spread malicious gossip and
lies and accuse you falsely and say you've
been to bed with her or any kind
of story.
And this is where we need a lot
of wisdom.
This is why we need to stay in
the light with one another because then we
know one another's walk.
And the fiery darts that Satan gives and
this is why the women need to be
saved.
And need to be saved.
And the women need to
be saved.
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