In this sermon, the speaker reflects on his own journey of transformation and acknowledges that he is still a work in progress. He emphasizes the importance of testing the spirits behind our dreams and desires, referring to the scripture in 1 John 4:1. The speaker also discusses the need for seeking counsel from multiple sources and peers to discern God's will. He highlights the significance of spending more time in prayer and relying on the tools available to us as children of God, especially when human logic falls short.

We do praise you and thank you for this opportunity just to be here and just this place that you've provided this unique country Where we can come together from surrounding lands and be here together We believe this is a significant meeting in terms of your work here in this part of the world Really help us now to Understand what you want to say to us from your word in Jesus name. Amen Now Some of you were Listening to me last night and you have to listen again this morning. This will not be the normal Practice for the time together Generally, I'll just be sharing once a day But we've just made a slight change yesterday so I could Have that one opportunity yesterday to share Some of you have just arrived and we really want to welcome you we will give names now as we're also making the tape the One of the requirements to be able to attend this session was that you went through the nine tapes of the last session in Putwal Or you were you were there Some of you have probably not been able to do that. Probably didn't even know that but Communication down to the grassroots level in India doesn't always work But I have a very clear set of notes of everything from Putwal. Thanks to Steve Davis So that I don't repeat things Some of the things I said there I think are more important than what I'm going to say here But I'm gonna try to avoid repeating them to any great degree And I trust that perhaps in time I do have a set of those tapes with me you will be able to Listen to them It's interesting that one of the things I emphasize most in my first message last time was my burden to see people Have a really proper diet of food on the teams It's interesting because that's been one of our major discussions here and I had I Knew I knew of course I had mentioned it, but I didn't know that it was One of the main things I had mentioned at Putwal. I Think you're going to find this morning's little talk quite different and Challenging one of my greatest challenges to be able to come up with material. That's new Some of you have been around a while. You've had 100 per word messages if you add them all up including tapes And just the thought of having to listen to me again. I'm sure must ring a few Boredom bells in the back of your head But you take up the cross and press on And you're here I'm gonna share with you this morning something about this thing of testing the spirits And I want you to turn with me to first John chapter 4 First John chapter 4 Forgive me, I'm still at times preaching from the Authorized version I'm a Fanatic believer in distributing especially to the unconverted the most modern translations Even if they have what evangelicals may consider a few errors Because I think when unconverted people read some of these translations It results in their minds hundreds of errors, but I won't get into that this morning Read from my authorized version beloved believe not every spirit, but test the spirits whether they are of God Because many false prophets have gone out into the world By this know ye the Spirit of God Every spirit that confesseth that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is of God And every spirit that confesses not that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh not of God And this is that spirit of Antichrist of which you were heard Not it should come and even now already it is in the world You're of God little children have overcome them because greater is he that is in you than he That is in the world There's a number of other scriptures that come to my mind Especially how it explains that the enemy sometimes comes in in sheep's clothing This Whole area of discerning the will of God of knowing when the Lord is speaking and when our own ego is speaking is A huge area of challenge no matter how long we have been Christians we find It an enormous challenge to know the will of God especially when it comes to big big decisions And I thought I would share with you this morning in the way of the spiritual lesson tied in with scriptures The story of Charles Blair You probably know that two of the most outstanding writers in the Western world are John and Elizabeth Sherrill Anything they touch in writing usually goes quite far and recently they have produced a book With Charles Blair called the man who could do no wrong This book has made its slowly made its inroads into OM I don't know if it's gotten this far yet. Has anyone read that book in this part of the world? Harley Rollins was reading it and just about jumping through the telephone The Lord certainly ministered to him about taking it a little easy on the Georgia Warehouse project Through this particular book and it's just been published in Great Britain You probably don't know the name of Charles Blair and that's not so important But he was one of the leading evangelical pastors in all of the United States Number of books his articles were in all the magazines. We had some exo emers involved in his huge church Calvary Temple in Denver, Colorado where hundreds and hundreds came to Christ and many thousands gathered together and Charles Blair Built this church through a system of borrowing money and then had a vision from God he felt to build a huge Giatric Center, I think that's for older people, isn't it? This huge older Old people's home old people center. I think it was a very elaborate thing. I don't know that much about the plan Things began to go wrong Eventually could not pay back his loans and he was soon in prison it was one of the largest scandals among Christian leaders that America's had in the past decade it was flashed across the Denver papers and The name of Charles Blair was mud I don't know if he was ever able to pay back all these people. I guess I have to read the book and see what happened through this Came a very honest a very unique and honest evaluation of failure and that's what this book is about How he failed why he failed what he learned through that failure and I just got this little excerpt I don't even know where I got it But I found it just so helpful Called lessons in listening. I don't even know if it's exactly taken from the book. It looks like it is and The headings provide an outstanding little message that I think the Lord can use in our midst Let me just read this first part. I'm gonna read quite a lot of this and then comment on it I don't believe that God has us go through either success or failure for ourselves alone There's something good to remember, isn't it? My experience happened to come through attempting to build a giatric center geatric center but the things I learned could apply equally well to anyone in the act of building a young couple building a home a career woman getting started the officer of an organization all of us are in the process of creating all of us can face some variation of the temptations which beckoned me and So I've spent time reviewing what happened at Calvary Temple the process of transformation is still going on I Appreciate him saying that I have not achieved complete permanent release from old habit patterns but I have some hearing aids that I didn't have before and Then he talks about some of the hearing aids some of the things that he feels He should use now to really determine what God's will is what God's plan is The first one he puts down is linked with the scripture that we just read Test the spirit behind your dreams The Bible tells us to try spirits to see if they are of God First John 4 1 which we just read to this day I'm confused as to whether that original vision for life centers the name of the place Came from God or from my own ego Seen as guidance it appeared to have lots of confirmation But there were persistent Christian voices challenging this It's a difficult area another major scandal in the United States last year and maybe the year before now Was the bankruptcy of a Lagos publishing house? This was probably more embarrassing than the Charles Blair thing because the Lagos publishing house Represented the miraculous more than any publishing house perhaps. It's ever been launched One out of every four books. They published was about the miraculous God doing anything everything Answers to prayer healings. I think some of you know their publications 50% of them quite spectacular And the story of the Lagos publishing house and its bankruptcy is just it's just baffling just baffling but again the leader of that Felt he had a word from God and Even his own board of trustees could not stop him in his plan to launch a daily Christian newspaper in the United States It's interesting that Charles Blair brings out at the end beware of prior Successes and it does seem that the downfall of many Christian groups comes be due to prior successes for example in OM the thought that since we launched two ships successfully a third ship would just be quite easy I Would consider that an extremely dangerous move as I think most of you know, and I think you will be Happy to know that there is an absolute Moratorium on any third ship the bigger crisis is whether two ships will be able to continue at the present time So previous successes sometimes can lead to failure That's what happened with Lagos publishers This daily paper didn't go. He kept borrowing money. He was sure the Lord was in it and People I don't know if you are aware of how people gifted people can put the screw and the pressure on people to give money people mortgage their homes people give everything they have and Then when it goes bankrupt they get they don't get anything back Many lost their life savings. It lost everything they had. I Don't know how much that was true in the Charles Blair case, but it's certainly true in a lot of these big bankruptcies there's been a significant number of Major bankruptcies among Christian organizations in the Western world that happens, of course when you keep borrowing and Of course, you eventually have to pay back here. You can't pay back you get more desperate you borrow more This is how some of the governments So the Mexican government has been operating about 50% of the governments of the world are operating in a very high percentage of them are Bordering on bankruptcy, of course in this gigantic world If somebody seems to manage to come up with another loan and the World Bank gets together and Hatches another program if we got into that, I think all of us would be just Just really amazed And we don't want to get into it. All right his second hearing aid hearing aid number one test the spirits behind your dreams Remember tozers little outline of things you can use to test the spirits. You've all had messages on that. Let's go to number two Unity between husband and wife The primary person to question my dream was Betty his wife She objected with gentleness Because this was in her nature But I never doubted her position We were not in accord Today, I would not dare violate the injunction of Ephesians Ephesians 5 521 thought it would be good to look that verse up and read it in its context context Ephesians 5 21 Submitting yourselves one to another in the fear of God wives Submit yourselves unto your own husbands as unto the Lord The husband is the head of the wife even as Christ is a head of the church and he is the Savior of the body Therefore as the church is subject unto Christ So let the wise be to their own husbands and everything husbands Love your wives even as Christ also loved the church and gave himself for it He writes here the front I already read the first part of it. We were not in accord today I would not dare let dare violate the injunction of Ephesians 521 That we be submitted one to another it's interesting that probably some people Would not connect verse 21 with verse 22. They would feel that the teaching about wives and husbands only begins at verse 22 He feels it's all linked together. I Think it's important to realize of course that our wife isn't only our wife. She's still a person She's still part of the body of Christ. She still has the ability to get guidance from God and so I would Think that he has a good point there. I never really prayed through this major project with Betty Until we were of one heart and one mind. I never really submitted my dream Until we reached a place where we could say it seemed good To the Holy Spirit and to us acts 5 or acts 15 verse 28 so he is pointing out here that He moved ahead with this project without his wife really being of one heart with him it's a complex area And probably more complex in the Eastern world than in the Western world at least for some people Probably also more complex in certain churches. There's a great variety of teaching in churches even churches We are linked with about the place of woman But I am sure most of us. I hope all of us in on will never just Manipulate our wives into doing that which we feel is God's plan Especially if it's against her conscience And if she is really seeing spiritual red lights now often in the United States And it's true here. I'm sure as well in some cases the wife actually even has more education And has maybe even read more widely and might even be more involved in the church life or as as involved as The husband so even more so she would have a lot of insight Thirdly the third hearing aid Seek a body of spiritual peers The word peers is not so widely used some places spiritual equals People who are of equal stature If he was a strong man that it would mean men of strong spiritual stature the protection a husband and wife provide each other can be extended or supplied For for example the unmarried person by entering into Relationship with a small group of men and women committed to lift one another up regularly to the throne of grace Such group such a group provides not only support But crucial in any time of building correction I Woe to any of us who get in a place where there's no one living close enough to us and Who's got enough courage to correct us? It's just something we've emphasized in OM for a long time provide needed correction This is what makes spiritual peerage new term perhaps for some Not age or education or social position But willingness to speak the truth in Christ Willingness to speak the truth in Christ Probably a very difficult challenge Because we all know situations when spiritual peers Had not have in their effort to correct not only spoken the truth Truth is not always easy to find But it's interesting that in Lagos publishers the board of directors felt definitely they must not go ahead with this project Some of them resigned in protest to the project and this man still felt he must Go ahead with the project. I Don't know, you know how much of that we have in the in this case with Charles Blair Are your co-workers this is really a strong valuable point to contemplate Yeah number four Are your co-workers a completion of yourself? Or simply an extension Ideally in any Christian undertaking There will be as many facets of Christ personality represented as possible If I am called to leadership and find helpers who are simply echoes of myself. I Double my strengths, but I also double my weaknesses Now that's probably a little bit More meaty than we might want to grasp in one reading. So I'll read it again Are your co-workers a completion of yourself or simply an extension? Ideally in any Christian undertaking there will be as many facets facets of Christ personality Represented as possible if I am called to leadership and Find helpers who are simply echoes of myself. I Double my strengths my strengths But I also double my weaknesses And of course one of the great problems In Christian work is that when the Lord is really using us we tend to meditate on our on our strengths Why do evangelists so often get in trouble probably 50% across the board evangelists? They just seem to be the most vulnerable We've seen them knocked out, you know from Charles Templeton It was considered greater than Billy Graham and became the reprobate of the day right up to how Lindsay who was wiped out through immorality communicated from this church and Fortunately praise the Lord is is back walking with Jesus today Even though it may be with a new wife in an incredibly compromising confusing situation but evangelists are vulnerable and one of the reasons is because God is working through them and They see tremendous things happen You can't believe the things that some people say, you know, even just skinny weak little evangelists like myself You know the letters the the the compliments the things they say after the meeting the the introductions the man of God bit I mean it really If you aren't tied very much to the soil and have had your tail kicked in so many times You'll never forget it by others of a more sane nature Some of that can really it couldn't really get to you, especially if you're isolated Then when that man who's seeing a lot of successes is criticized. It's very difficult to handle. He's unable to To handle it and keep it in balance the greatest strength in Billy Graham and my study of him for 28 years More actually the only Christian I studied much before I was converted It seems to me that one of his greatest gifts and graces. It's a grace more than gift It's ability to handle criticism If you're unable to handle criticism, you're gonna have a long life of suffering. You're gonna get suffering anyway, but you'll get Even more so that's that's a beautiful point and I praise God that many many years ago In OM we turned away from just producing people who would be echoes of ourself It went even extreme at times To be anything that appeared like George Verwer would be considered almost the cardinal sin of the movement Beards popped up everywhere because I was against beards all kinds of things took place as the brothers made sure that they weren't just little carbon copies of George Verwer and of course people like Dale wrote on in the work from the very beginning many others in no way were they Sort of little echoes. That doesn't mean we've never had that problem. I Don't we could debate the subject any subject we talked about we could debate as to you know When that actually takes place and I would be very slow to accuse some poor new brother, you know Just being a total phony. I Had someone hit me once after preaching at Moody as a young Christian, you know It just came really having how you're trying to be like Billy Graham. You sounded just like Billy Graham Yeah, I mean it certainly was never in my mind that I was trying to be a little Billy Graham if anything I probably got in trouble Making sure I went a different direction from the man. I was converted through Who knows maybe I missed a major aspect of what God would have me do in evangelism Because the last thing I wanted was to be some kind of evangelist with a lot of publicity and great meetings and all that kind of Thing not that I was against Other people doing that but I didn't feel that was my way of course when I was first converted I was immediately thrust in the big evangelistic meetings and I gave Invitations and I gave people copies of peace with God when they accepted Christ Back in the high school, you know the story so naturally people who are New I mean they put all this together. Anybody who has a meeting gives an invitation. He's trying to be Billy Graham And it is incredibly difficult at times To know how to react to criticism not all criticism is from God any more than all your ideas are from God You have to be able to sort it out. That's why you need more than one counselor and More than one peer that you can consult with and pray with and even then you probably have a total Answer. Well, that's something to really give thought to isn't it? Fifth point I spent too much time reasoning and not enough in storming heaven Too much time reasoning and not enough in storming heaven When time is short, the most important way we can use it is in prayer praise the Lord In any crisis there comes a time when human logic is worthless And we need the tools which are available to us as the children of God more than usual doing must be balanced by more than usual praying I Repeat more than usual doing must be balanced by more than usual praying It's an amazing confession, I think One of the things about his book that has really impressed people is very very honest appraisal not a hyper-defensive Type of book at all what people have told me but a very very Honest appraisal and that's what that seems to communicate And how true it is and even as we come here together Though we don't have some new massive dream to launch Um, we still desperately need that time in prayer And I hope that there can be a lot of spontaneous prayer in some of our rooms Our rooms are better for prayer almost than this room where we're going to practice this Juan Carlos Ortiz I open type of praying. It's been going quite well But we can have prayer cells often in our rooms. We can have prayer two by two Because we're trying to emphasize personal fellowship and It's it's just a beautiful testimony Especially from the nation where prayer has been so tremendously neglected Because of the enormous power of money because of many many very gifted people Because I Guess of many many factors prayer is so often Neglected and then his sixth point Impatience was my biggest problem Impatience I Simply couldn't wait Today, I have committed myself to a new route When my timing is sorted, I will divert my restlessness to prayer and do nothing Until I have a clear directive from God confirmed by the body Then we will put our feet where he has trod Now in OM today, of course for some people the movement will seem a lot slower We have a new vision every month of fairly major proportion coming within OM new nations new plans new ideas Recently a group in Mexico and brother Dick was not there sat down and drafted up I think 25 major points of change they wanted in Mexico all they need is perhaps a million dollars and a couple of really super dedicated committed longer-term Mexicans Maybe a hundred other answers to prayer and they'd be off and running The Problem is OM is not just Mexico OM is 35 nations If we count sending countries and receiving countries, I don't know if you know that terminology It's not the best terminology because receiving countries are also sending Some are in transition. We've been trying to convert Mexico from a receiving country that is receiving workers receiving Finance receiving the thrust of our evangelism. That's where we're going to their receiving country receiving people We've been trying to shift that from a receiving country to a sending country and when the peso went From 20 pesos to $1 to 120 pesos to $1 It seemed that everything we had attempted for four years was just sat back completely and that's we can totally altered Our financial policy is subject of great debate within OM India is definitely a receiving country. You have received more overseas personnel than any nation in all of OM but you also are To some degree a sending country first of all within India. You're sending people are being sent from Kerala to Rajasthan. So that's Sending and some have gone out on Lagos to witness other countries others Of course outside of OM have gone to places like England and different parts of the world in small numbers To carry the message usually to your own people. There are a couple of a couple of beautiful exceptions cross-cultural activities, I think of Brother I think is Pamar working in Kenya in Mombasa Who's working among Muslims? Is he just working on the Indians? Oh mainly probably mainly among the Indians, but still it's a Tremendous ministry that the Lord has put him in in there. We try to keep in contact with it And I Would just really ask you to pray that especially in some of our international meetings and That will include the one we're going to have in the next two days as the Coordinators from the subcontinent meet together here that we really would have wisdom We we can't emphasize everything just we just can't I Think if you'll study this Charles Blair situation, you'll study the largest publishing situation. You'll study a lot of other situations You'll see that people who got in trouble they overextended himself They overextended themselves and Christian work. One of the main Things you must have is communicate. We hope to eventually produce a list Of ministries that had their catalysts or their birth In a sense through this same stream of what God was doing trace back to the prayers of that Elderly lady and it will be quite an amazing list But I think it's so important to see that This is this is a part of the way that God works God led Greg Livingston out of the work not through any great division Not because he was purged from the leadership, you know, this isn't the Communist Party purge people from the leadership It's just nonsense if people think that Is clearly the Lord's guidance Greg was sure he should leave actually ever before he ever came along us You remember when he was alive, he was convinced. He should leave and I said look go one more year overwearing Manipulation, maybe I don't know but I met him in Colorado and I really put the screw on him To you know, try Lagos I thought I got just just that'll fit you fine. Yeah, it fit him like you know woman's bathing costume on a giraffe and He he just never never worked out. Uh-huh, and it was so clear the Lord was leading him out Sorry about that You got to come up with something original Some of you have two vivid imaginations And It's so thrilling to see God's hand upon Greg. I won't repeat what I said two days ago just about the way the Lord has led Greg Greg is only one of a hundred. He's more known Greg's the kind that Easily, you can see where he is, but there's another hundred who? More than a hundred, but I'm thinking of a hundred who you know are really insignificant ministries There's the other sense where everybody's ministry significant, right the person who's unknown and they're praying behind the scenes So I don't put one above the other but I think you know what? I mean, and I believe as we saw last time we were here that OM is already in India stretched to breaking point. We cannot add more numbers We cannot add more major thrusts in more states So we must therefore if we're going to grow if we're going to continue to see Explosive and great things happen then to some degree we must be ready to hive off How if church is grown? One of the main ways churches grow is When there's quite a big church and a group are willing to hive off, you know, you know that word hive off They're willing to move off into another part of the town and start another church Now sometimes they maintain a very close link with the you know, the mother church Other times they they go they go their own way Many of the assembly started or that were once in relationship with with buck sing They've hived off especially when they they drew up their Constitution and took over the property There were some more stubborn types that decided they weren't going to sign their property over to the Hebron Fellowship It was their wife bought the property anyway, and they decided to keep it in their own name Property and the property crisis that those assemblies hit was the greatest disunity and cause of disunity their movement I almost ever experienced property often is but through it New things happen and the church kept growing a lot of the church growth in Britain today is through division and Some of the division isn't very pleasant Now you have two sides of the argument and I don't want to go too far down this road Number one all carnality anything that sin it's wrong Cannot justify but that doesn't mean God can't use it and many even ugly divisions We haven't had too many of those in a way But even ugly divisions God is overruled brought into being two living churches instead of one and he was able to add more to those two churches Then he was able to add to the one And one of the reasons people are people You know one of the men who's influenced me lately. I can't say a lot because I'm so I'm influenced already by so many people. I don't think anybody can come along anymore and have a lion's share They're all just gonna have a little bit But one of the men who's influenced me in the past years is Ralph winner I'll have to tell you more about him in another session But this man is unique and he has influence Missions almost more than any single man probably it would be difficult to know how much of it we can trace back to others because he's a he's an amalgamation of a lot of different thoughts different people people like McGovern and so many others, but I was in this IFMA missions conference and some of the older missions were saying what a problem it is with so many new groups coming on the scene and there's confusion and and They were sort of emphasizing it's better to have the bigger movements, and it's more efficient There's less need for duplication of office staff, and you know it's the argument Scripture Union used to give in in England when we arrived And of course some of those arguments are valid bigger organizations They they can they can have tremendous advantages Ralph winner got up to speak and completely Completely attacked this theory He this was this was at the IFMA That's a big mission Association in America most of those missions for a while the first ten years are fairly skeptical about OM So Ralph winner said oh, it's interesting now that it's taken you people 25 years to accept operation mobilization You know some of them slumped down into their seat, and then he said he personally still believed in the Sandlot mission Now whenever you hear me speak you get a course in American slang Or other slang Berberian slang, but the Sandlot you know what we mean by Sandlot You know we're little kids in the States, and if your family didn't have a lot of money There wasn't a big park nearby and you wanted to play baseball Britain it would be cricket You just found any any empty piece of ground Used to be an empty piece of ground Near Alfie's house in Bombay actually I think that was that was a proper field so that one That would be too luxurious just any piece of ground And you just have your your baseball game your cricket game whenever you're playing right there It's a very small operation the press wasn't there there were no you know those spectators except Johnny's dog might be running around and So this was a I never heard this term used the Sandlot mission The small operation That's what OM was OM was a Sandlot operation three people got in a beat-up van and drove Several thousand miles to get out a few tracks and a few Gospels over a long period of four weeks That was it they returned to college and God somehow Took it from there, and I I pray that OM may may spawn a whole host of Sandlot missions They don't have to be big things They don't have to have a lot of publicity We may not even know about them in fact many of the individual Exoemers who have graduated from OM term you like to use here in India. We can't get away with that in the West We're still just exoemers but the graduates Many of these people they're they're operating Sandlot missions. They're planting little church. They got a little literature operation some of them are even publishing tracks Things are happening And it's exciting and the only way ahead for OM Is is just to hive off let people hive off Now the Lord has many ways of doing this he allows differences in ideas There's so many different ways to think and still be a Christian isn't wonderful All of you learned over the years you don't agree with me on everything. That's great But there comes a time when your your your thoughts may be so different from from the way OM is driving that you'll just feel more comfortable if you can get with a group. That's more like minded I suppose you want to pray go into a big church planting ministry in Nagaland And there's a lot of response up there some of you could go up there and just blink your eye and start a Sandlot Mission it's a lot happening in Nagaland, and I know some exoemers have gone up there but You know I'm praying about it thinking about it as an international body and because of our commitment in so many parts of India We really don't feel God wants us to plant churches in Nagaland But we'd be thrilled if somebody goes and launches an effort in Nagaland So catching the vision is one thing, but then getting the battle plan is something else You may have a vision the battle plan may not be to carry out that vision with you know M It may be to carry that battle plan somewhere else John for word. I had an unbelievable I mean if there was ever a dreamer and a guy with visions and ideas in the Middle East was John for word and We just felt after a lot of prayer and discussion That it was better for this to take place outside of OM one of the reasons For this was that when it gets out of a lamp it can get new unique stronger financial roots You know the the OM roots are already being tapped To breaking point we need new roots. This is why it's so beautiful now the quiet corner has got under caponry Rather than having been quiet corner directly relating back to OM as its grandfather It's relating to caponry and Thomas went to caponry almost before he joined on well. He's with us summer, then he went to caponry and And this means that when Thomas Henry takes a trip to the States he gets in churches that we don't get in he presents the Indian vision in a place where they maybe never heard it before and So this gives new roots, and if the work on the field trying to get this if the work on the field is going to go on there needs to be new roots and And and when something is born within OM Though we try often to help it we also try to challenge it to get new roots Ron George has just launched a whole new ministry the Girdner trust every magazine that has anything to say about Missions that I pick up It's lately. It's had a little article about the Girdner trust I just got my copy of axe little article about the Girdner trust and Ron Though he's related to some people of course XO embers and friends. He's found new roots, and so he's not just in any way some kind of Thing that's just sort of you know living on OM's energy or excessive OM energy. It's finding new energy new roots new people new prayer partners new churches It has a distinct vision Most people who leave OM and launch into something new if they're human beings They're gonna be critical of OM let's not be hyper defensive about OM I'm gonna be loyal and We want to follow God's Word. We don't want to be unloving, but it's only normal that when God is allowing Bringing into being a different movement That the person is gonna be critical most of these different groups that were born Through and in one way or the other not all went through a period in which they were fairly critical of OM the Lord use That yeah, do you think everything that's born is with only pure motivation? I will not use anything if there's any false motivation God does not destroy the human factor There's been much accomplished at times in the kingdom of God Through mixed motivation because God is God of mercy and If he chops everything off where there's any mixed motivation any ego any you know maybe a little double talk maybe a little bit of conniving God just lops it off. You know a lot is gonna disappear some of you may immediately go back on the road to hell Because the person who led you to Christ was with mixed motives time and time again And time again, I've heard of cases where some guy got his eye on a pretty chick. I mean a woman You gotta watch her terminology And of course he was a Christian so In moving in on the target he had to share Christ and in the process of trying to Get her in the bag. She she accepted the Lord as her as her Savior, but his motives were very mixed His motives were very mixed God is a God of mercy and Most people when they're launching out and something new they go through times also in which they may be negative they go through times in which they may feel that Their friends don't appreciate what they're doing or their friends are not helping them enough or all kinds of struggles The human factor doesn't disappear. I remember Gilbert Kirby was a one of the main leaders of the evangelicals in Britain I think we're supposed to finish at 50 that gives me two minutes He told me at a meeting there's some people very much criticizing. Oh, em, this is 1963 in Britain They called a Jerusalem meeting in London had mission leaders. You know here I was It's a little character and all these mission leaders were in around a table like this And some of them were very critical and Gilbert Kirby defended OM at that time to some degree. This is pretty low profile And he said anything new being born in that generation Would have an extremely difficult time surfacing and being accepted by the Christians And I don't think we can realize how difficult it is at times for anything new to be born People are so critical so skeptical And OM is a movement that battled its way up from nothing with much criticism We must never lose our compassion for the new Sandlot mission The new thing being born. They're not in this generation gonna be the same as we were in our generation And with all the differences of theology and emphasis, I mean last day's ministry Keith Green, you know God just so united our heart but the differences between last day's ministry and operation mobilization would be many I can assure you and The same is true of our brothers and sisters in why we're The same is true of many groups I got a force that I'm very very linked with the differences even though they've tried to copy many things from OM some degree The differences would be huge If you could see them raising money in their last convention where I spoke at some of you probably have a heart attack They actually brought in someone from the outside to do it. They weren't really totally even an agreement with how it how it happened God works in different ways through different people God allows people to believe different things. God allows a certain amount of error in all of his children The more truth we get of course the better God's calling us on the truth truth is important, but God allows us to have kinky ideas errors extremes a lot of things and he continues to work the last thing that Charles Blair's said in this article. There's nothing under it. Just says beware of prior successes Just as Failure can be the back door to success Success can be should we say the front door to failure? And we need to beware of our successes this man Had what was considered one of the most successful ministries and churches in all of the United States and Then this happened OM has been considered by many mission leaders much more so than by us IFMA has asked us to join. I just had another letter. Yes, and they would like us to join a A lot of other things a lot of openings indicate success We must not be overly afraid of Success and go to the opposite direction But I at times have great Concern that our initial successes May lead to failure, of course with so many new people coming in OM every year I don't think we live in a movement. That's too overly concerned about successes If anything, I find that you know em, we at times get too self-analytical too critical And get depressed in the process. Well, there's some lessons lessons in listening Some of God's hearing aids test the spirit behind your dreams Unity between husband and wife Seek a body of spiritual peers Are you are your co-workers a completion of you? of yourself Don't spend too much time reasoning and not enough time storming heaven problem of impatience Catching God's vision is only half the battle and beware of successes Let's pray Lord we really thank you what we can learn from other people This man has been in the battle he's been scarred and wounded He's been through things we haven't been through yet court Indictment Prison Front page The works We Lord pray for him in his ongoing ministry We've distributed his books And we asked Lord to use in Bible use this book And we asked Lord that we may learn We know wise is the man who can learn from counsel because Any fool can learn from his mistakes Unfortunately, sometimes we don't even learn from them Lord we do. Thank you for These lessons and we want to incorporate them into our own lives, maybe in a much smaller scale a Much smaller scale and Lord maybe for some of us The main thrust of this message isn't a major thing, but some of the points are incredibly relevant in our situation Give us great wisdom Jesus named Amen