Supply the Body By Giving and Receiving

Father, we thank you so much for being in our midst. We are so privileged, Lord. The overwhelming majority of the world doesn't know you and we'd certainly like to be your vessels through whom You reveal Yourself to them, and we pray toward that end earnestly. Lord, forgive us of our sins and our foolishness. Give us your grace. Please rise up in us and do your wonderful work in these days. Please anoint us, Lord. Please show us wisdom. Lord, we want to return to what you gave the early church and even go beyond, Lord. We want you to teach us, Lord; show us how to walk in Your steps. We just ask for Your mercy and grace today. We see the world crumbling around us and we need Your wisdom now, Lord. We want to come out of this world and totally into Your kingdom. We want to know the difference. And we know Your principles, Lord. We've been reading them and studying them, and we ask you to help us put them into effect in our lives and in our midst. We just need You, Lord. We need You now more than ever. Come, Lord Jesus. Amen.

So we're hidden in Christ. People never think to pray about those kinds of things, to hide us from the Beast and take our name out of their system. I believe the Lord is getting ready to prepare us to separate somewhat from this system because it's getting ready to fail miserably and there's no use in us continuing to hemorrhage Kingdom supplies to the Beast. Basically, we're headed back to the book of Acts. We know we're going there and we need to start preparing for this because very soon we're going to see prices go to the sky and availability fall way off. It doesn't have to happen for us because we live in a different kingdom and we need to start living according to that kingdom and according to the Word of God.

You know, we have a precedent in the scriptures to follow and we know from the scriptures that it's important for us to work. I had a lady ask me years ago, was I supposed to be working in a secular job. I said, "Well, why don't you go ask the Lord that?" And so she did. And she came back and she said, "No, the Lord told me you were doing exactly what He told you to do". And I said, "Well, that's right". But it wasn't always that way with me. I worked for a long time, enjoyed it and had a very fruitful ministry when I was doing what the world calls a part-time ministry. But it really wasn't a part-time ministry because I got to minister to a lot of people I never would have touched otherwise. Toward the end of that kind of a ministry, I was working for Exxon and we had gatherings every day of men and women from across the plant. It was a very large plant, took up a good portion of the center of Baton Rouge on the river. When Christians around the place heard that we were having Bible studies, they would flock from every corner of that plant and come in there. We started having two meetings like that -- one in the field and one in the central mechanical building, and we had a very large church assembled out there and lots of miracles were happening. Lots of people were finding out that God was bigger than they thought. They were coming out of their structured churches and fellowshipping with other Christians and learning that there was more to Christianity than what they thought in their little sheltered clique that they were in. I believe the same thing is going to happen here. I really believe that there are a lot of people here for us to reach and that that's going to happen.

I think I know one way it's going to happen. We're going to have something in common with them, other Christians, and that is, we're coming into tribulation here. Even before the tribulation, we're coming into tribulation and that kind of draws people together. It causes them to drop their sectarianism for the sake of survival. So I'm not really worried about survival. I don't know about you, but I'm not doing this because of survival; I'm doing it because it's scriptural. I believe that if we seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness, all these other things will be added unto us. We won't have to worry about a thing. But if we're seeking God and His righteousness, let's face it, we're going to be doing some things that they did. You know, we get what they got, we'll do what they did, as I've said so often. And if we do what they did, we'll get what they got. And so we have a precedent here in the scriptures.

The apostle Paul worked for many years in a fruitful ministry, tent making, which led him from city to city with other people in the same business. He didn't like relying on people, he didn't like being a burden on people; he said so. And I felt the same way. I mean, I didn't get out of my ministry, for instance, at Exxon and having Bible studies. Willie Poe was in one of our Bible studies for many years. I didn't get out of that and start into what they call the full-time ministry because I wanted to; I waited on the Lord and waited on the Lord. I just told the Lord, 'Hey, Lord, I need more time to study; I'd like to have more time to share'; but I waited. And I waited for years until the Lord told me, okay, it's time. I didn't choose that for myself; the Lord is the one Who has to open the doors. As many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God. We have to be led of the Lord. We shouldn't be making steps on our own.

But anyway, we know from the Paul's testimony that he did this and we know it's scriptural. You know, we'd like to just live by our faith and sit out there and meditate on God and let Him drop manna out of heaven, and there's no doubt we'll get into situations where He's going to do just exactly that, but the Lord's multiplied food for me and even put it in my stomach when it wasn't there, so I know God's a mighty God. And Jesus multiplied the fishes and the loaves and we're going to do the exact same thing. But where did the fishes and the loaves come from? You ever think about that? Well, somebody had those fishes and loaves before Jesus multiplied them. So you know what, I believe that it's scriptural for us to be effectively working, according to the scriptures. I'll just share a few with you.

(1Th.4:11) And that you study to be quiet and to do your own business and to work with your hands even as we charged you... You think there's any difference today? I don't think so. Now, we know that we're in the process of easing ourselves out of this worldly business and into the King's business all the time, and that's good. I mean, ultimately that's all we're going to be doing because the world is not going to accept us doing any business with them anymore, and so God's going to use that to put us totally in the wilderness. But there's no reason to not be walking out a little into that wilderness right now because we're going to need to prepare for what's coming. I believe it's good and right and proper for people who have good-paying jobs to continue to work them because, if we're successful in doing what they did, a lot more of this is going to stay with us and a lot less of it is going to go out into the world. And people who have jobs, there is still a need for cash to pay bills, as long as we have electricity, so on and so forth. Some things there's a good need for that. So you're not obsolete. I mean, be useful where you are.

I found a very useful, very fruitful ministry while working at Exxon and I was enjoying that, and when I went into what they call the full-time ministry and God moved me to Florida, there was a little while there where I said, 'Lord, I think I was bearing a whole lot more fruit there doing that than I am now'. I was studying the Word and digging in the Word and I asked, "Lord, do you want me to go out and knock on doors?" He said, "No, I want you to do just what you're doing now, except a lot more of it". I said, okay.

So there is a very fruitful ministry out there among the people who won't come into a church; they won't listen to a preacher. You know, you can talk to them where you are. So I'm not talking about departing from that yet, but I am saying this: There are some of us who have some time on our hands that we could fulfill some other things that we see going on in the scriptures. (12) ... that you may walk becomingly towards them that are without and may have need of nothing. So he says to work with your hands so you won't have any needs. Well, we can pray it all down out of heaven, can't we? Yes, but it's scriptural. You still have to obey these principles. And certainly, when we get into a spot, and we will get into spots where we need a miracle, a creative miracle, praise the Lord, these creative miracles are going to convert a lot of people. I believe that we can have some association with the people in this area around here (East TN). There are a lot of Christians here and there are some innocent people here, and some of them might be ignorant, but that doesn't make you not innocent because, if you're walking where you know to walk and you're walking as close to the Lord as you understand and you know, you are innocent and the Lord looks upon them that way and we should look upon them that way, too.

We're supposed to be making friends by means of the mammon of unrighteousness so that they can receive us into eternal tabernacles, right? So we're supposed to use everything around us, to have associations with these people, not to go into the corrupt lifestyles that some Christians are in or into the apostasy that they're in, but we still have to love them and we still have to share with them. We're going to be close together in these end times and I believe that when we start living the way we see in the scriptures, we'll be able to associate with them and they will see some things in us and they will want some things we have and you'll be able to share not just how to bake bread with them or how to raise chickens with them, but more about the Gospel. You'll have something in common. We all have a need, right? So I think what he says right here is very plain: "So we can walk becomingly towards them that are without and have need of nothing."

(Eph.4:27) Neither give place to the devil. But let him that stole steal no more: but rather let him labor, working with his hands the thing that is good, that he may have whereof to give to him that hath need. So one reason we work is not for ourselves at all; it's to give to people who have need. There are going to be a lot of people who don't know where we're going right now and they're going to have needs because they haven't been prepared and that's going to put them at the mercy of God and, in some cases, at our mercy, so we work in order to be prepared to give to those who have need. There are going to be a lot of Christians who have need. This world is going to persecute Christians. This world is going to do what they have done in the past: They're going to illegally tax Christians, they're going to separate them, they're going to plunder them. The further we separate from the dependency upon this system, the better. We don't need to be dependent upon this system; we need to be dependent upon God. Now, we've been studying faith and that is good; you'll need that all the way through this thing; but there are some things I believe we can do to be more like the early church and less dependent upon this world.

You know how often you have to go to the grocery store, right? You know how often that you need what they have. Well, I believe we ought to come to the place where we need a whole lot less of what they have and not be dependent upon them because the powers that be are using that dependency to bring you under their thumb. There are a lot of ignorant people out there who are walking with God where they are who are going to take the mark of the Beast because they don't know any better. They don't know that they don't have to. They don't know that God supplies. They don't know Christian community because, hey, they go to church, they're a spectator, they get up and they go home. They don't have any community, they don't have any fellowship and they don't know that God still does these things because they've been lied to coming and going; and so, when we rub elbows with them, we can be able to tell them the good news that Jesus is the same yesterday, today and forever. So, he says, "Let him that stole steal no more: but rather let him labor, working with his hands the thing that is good, that he may have whereof to give to him that hath need."

(2Th.3:6) Now we commend you, brethren, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you withdraw yourselves from every brother that walketh disorderly... I might say, this is some people who think they just have to have faith; I've run into them. It's not an evil in them, necessarily. They want to serve Jesus. Everybody wants to serve Jesus, right? All true Christians want to serve Jesus. But we're imbalanced. We need some help; we need some wisdom from those who are older in the Lord because we can serve Jesus anywhere. Anywhere we are we ought to be serving Jesus. We work as unto the Lord. In other words, the Bible says, we're working like we work for the Lord. We're not here to be men pleasers, right? We're here to work for the Lord, whatever will serve His kingdom.

(6) ...Withdraw yourselves from every brother that walks disorderly and not after the tradition which they received of us. (7) For yourselves know how you ought to imitate us: for we behaved not ourselves disorderly among you; (8) neither did we eat bread for nought at any man's hand, but in labor and travail, working night and day, that we might not burden any of you. (9) Not because we have not the right, but to make ourselves an example unto you that you should imitate us. (10) For even when we were with you this we commanded you: If any will not work, neither let him eat. Some tough-love there, isn't it? And, of course, sometimes people don't have jobs and they don't think they can work, but I believe that can change. I really do. And I think some ideas are going to come out from you and from me that are going to show us a way to do this. (11) For we hear of some that walk among you disorderly, that work not at all, but are busy-bodies. (12) Now, them that are such we command and exhort in the Lord Jesus Christ, that with quietness they work and eat their own bread. (13) But ye, brethren, be not weary in well-doing. (14) And if any man obeyeth not our word by this epistle, note that man that you have no company with him, to the end that he may be ashamed.

You know, there is something almost anybody can do to serve the Kingdom and to be able to meet the needs of other people. I believe we're about to see lot of needs presented before us very soon here. The dollar is dying very fast. It's going to crumble. The whole system they have is going to crumble. They know it, they're forcing it, they're doing it on purpose. They want a New World Order. They know that if we are totally dependent upon them, we'll be at their mercy. But we're not totally dependent upon them and we need to get prepared to live in the Kingdom like a body would. You know, the world doesn't know anything about this. A body meets its needs. We all are built for something in God. Praise be to God.

I thought we could begin to put together some cottage ministries. I don't think any of the elders have any mind to make this anything but voluntary. We're not interested in, nor are we trying to make a cult here. We're not interested in that. We just want you to be prepared for what's coming. I believe, personally, that God's going to bring millions of dollars into this ministry, in order to meet people's needs. I believe He showed us that very plainly. We're waiting for that to come. It is coming and it's on its way now; but at the same time we still have to obey the scriptures and every one of us ought to be giving and receiving. You know, there is no reward in the scriptures for buying and selling whatsoever. The reward in the scriptures is for giving and we can be doing that weekly, daily. Why didn't God just make us enormously rich where we wouldn't have to worry about giving orders here? Because He wanted to give us a reward for this. He's promised a great reward multiplied many times over in the Kingdom forever, so He wants us to do it. Let's do it.

I just wrote down a few things. There are some people who could supply milk, for instance. You say, 'Well, I don't have a cow, David'. Well, I don't think too many of you do have cows here, but we might run into some kindly people who do have cows and we might teach them a little bit about giving and receiving; I'm talking about dealing with worldly people. I'll give you something for your milk or I'll meet your needs in some other way. In other words, bring in something that normally we don't even have among us. Not saying that God won't give us cows. I think in the near future we're going to get some cows; I think we're going to get some fields; I think we're going to get some equipment to plow those fields; I think we're going to get some equipment to plant those fields. I think all of this is coming, but again, we are learning how to live differently. We're learning how to fellowship with one another about this work and to have more in common with one another than we do just coming to what people call church.

Some people know how to make bread; they're very good at it. They can teach others. There are some people who have poultry, eggs, turkeys, chickens, rabbits and so on and so forth. Just some ideas here. If anyone feels led to go in any of these directions, that's what I'm asking.

What do you feel led to do? Everything you do you need to be led of the Lord. I'm just putting this idea in your mind because the Lord spoke it to me a few nights ago in the middle of the night and I don't want Him to talk to me again about this in the middle of the night, so I'm going to share it with you. I like talking to the Lord in the middle of the night, but not about the same thing.

Some people are good at vegetable growing. I was telling somebody the other day that the house I moved into several weeks before my family moved here, there was one tomato plant that somebody forgot about that's on my property. It was behind a wood pile and nobody had ever stuck the plant; it was just laying up on the ground, growing this way, growing that way. And I got to walking around behind this wood pile and I saw there were tomatoes all down in there, so I've been eating tomatoes ever since then. Every day I've been eating tomatoes. That's just one vine. It's just one tomato vine. I've been eating tomato after tomato. Then the frost got them the other day. I said, I better go out there and get those tomatoes. So I got them and the frost had gotten a few of them, but I got a few out of it. I've just been sticking them on the window sill. But I've been eating plenty of tomatoes from one vine that somebody forgot about. The landlord was telling me, "Hey, you can eat those off that tree over there", and I said, "Hey, I've been eating your tomatoes ever since you left here".

I was watching some brethren make some soap the other day. That was pretty neat. I said, "Hey, you need a machine to grind that". They were hand-grinding. I believe some people can make soap, in order to have the soap for the neighbors. You've been paying way too much for soap and it doesn't work nearly as well as these folks' soap would. And then we got brother Darv here. He's been working on a stove/water-heater heat. He's working on something there that's pretty neat. And there are people who would be good at distributing, you know, carrying things around and swapping them with the people out there. And Army-Navy surplus is one thing that came to me.

There are people good at doing taxes; there are people good at law. They can offer their services to the brethren and vice versa. Carpentry, mechanic and electrician, handyman, techies, etc. You can think of a lot of things, all kinds of services you can give to others and they can give to you. And this giving is just part of being a Christian.

The world is buying and selling. God kept complaining about the buying and selling and the marrying and giving in marriage, and we see that that's the way of the world. Suretyship is the way of the world. Borrowing and mortgaging and guaranteeing to pay back -- that's the way of the world. I think the Amish have something to teach us there. They all gathered together and built the house. Okay, we'll build you the house and you aren't going to be in debt either. We can gather together and build a few chicken coops and rabbit coops and whatever. We can do these things.

The ministry can help some of you get started into what some people have called cottage industry. We can give you something that will, for example, get you a grinder that will grind soap all by itself. Ideas. I've already talked to Darv about it, but there are a lot of people that one day will likely have to get away from electricity to heat their houses. There's a real easy way and plenty of wood to heat your house for when the electricity runs out and the system goes down. I mean, they're talking about now and we've received several prophecies about it -- a virus that's going to shut down the Internet and the grid. Hey, you know, we don't have to stop because we've been warned. The world doesn't know this is going to happen. The worldly church doesn't know this is going to happen. We don't have to stop; we've been warned. We can listen to God: Hey, God, what do you want me to do about this?

Well, He's giving us some ideas. One day you won't be able to buy your electricity from so-and-so; you may have to make your own or you may have to do without it. I prefer, frankly, to do without it, but some people have different ideas on that. I don't really care. But we know the Lord is going to supply our need according to His riches in glory. That's what He said, right? But we just need to be obeying Him, right? So we know we may lose the grid, we may lose electricity, they might crack a few dams around here, we know there's an earthquake coming through here. The Lord showed us that. What's going to happen that's going to run people off? I don't know. But I know it's going to happen and we just need to be ready.

Even bartering is taxable, so giving freely and receiving freely is the best policy and has heavenly rewards.

The banksters who are running this government have been shooting people all along who come up with the ideas of 'we don't need your money'. They've been doing it all along. So it's very interesting. I mean, throughout American history these people have been in organized crime against the average American citizen and we're headed toward the mark, folks. Some people are going to take the mark because they don't think they have a choice. And we can show them not only some supernatural choices, we can show them some natural choices just because we live like we're supposed to live toward one another and meet one another's needs and working hard to make sure everybody's needs are met, making sure that there is equality. And the Lord spoke in 2 Corinthians about equality. He wants equality in his church. He wants all of his people to have their needs met. And the way of the world is, I'm in a race with my neighbor: gotta have the biggest car, the biggest house, swimming pool, etc.; but that's not us. We're here to serve and to lift up our neighbors and to be a community, a body, so to speak, and to make sure that everybody's needs are met through giving and receiving, right? The idea of gain from your neighbor is less important to us than making sure our neighbors' needs are met and our needs are met.

It's a control thing with them. They know that if they bring down this economy, we will be under their control, or they think that. And it's true; for an awful lot of Christians it's true. We can give them a choice here and I believe that we can -- I know that everybody can have chickens -- but I believe that if we do a little bit of specializing and less duplicating, we can get this thing up and going pretty fast and we won't --we'll be going to the store for almost no staples and paying their exorbitant prices and that price going to feed the Beast; we don't care about that. Whatever we make, we would like it to totally serve the Kingdom. Wouldn't you? That's the way. I'm not talking about names and storefronts and things like that. These are things we have to avoid. We have to have a low profile where we're going. We want to avoid open rebellion against the system because they'll come to get you. They'll figure out a way to do it. We know we're protected in God, but we don't want to dare them, right? And we can do a lot of things just the way we normally do it, just naturally. The way of the world, of opening a big storefront, saying, 'We're not buying and selling, we're bartering'; they'll tax you and figure a way to shut you down. They want control and they don't want anybody to be independent. We can be very independent, if we give and receive individually and we can bring in a lot of Christians who don't know what's coming.

We'll enjoy fellowshipping with them and not just around these things, but around the Word of God. So we can share with others this way. In Acts 6:1-4, there were some people complaining about their system not working very well and so they ordained some deacons to make sure that the widows weren't missing out. We have lots of deacons in our ministry. "Deacon" just means "servant" in the Word of God. We have servants who do all kinds of things in our ministry. This is one we need to move toward, too: People whose whole concern is to make sure that everybody's needs are met, that the system is working, it's not breaking down somewhere. So we'll be thinking about this and you be thinking about this, too, because it's going to be needed. Definitely needed. And they did it at that time, the apostle said, so that they could continue in prayer, the Word of God and teaching, and these brothers can handle this.

Let me say this: Because you're a deacon does not negate you from being an elder or being a two-witness or being in the man-child. Doesn't negate that at all. Jesus was called a deacon, too. Any way in the scriptures that people served others, the word diakonos was used; it just wasn't always translated that way. So if we translated it the same way every time, we would find out that Jesus was a deacon, all of his disciples were deacons, everybody was a servant in one form or another.

And our ministry has lots of servants. There are a lot of people who are coming together here to serve the Word of God to people and to make sure it's prepared properly, and there's a lot of kitchen work that's being put together so people can eat it. So I'm not bringing this up for any other reason than I feel like the Lord brought it up to me, and I'm not bringing it up in desperation because I'm worried about what's coming. I'm not in the slightest bit worried about what's coming. I really think God's already taken care of this. I'm doing this because we can offer something to the people around us. We can be giving and receiving. We can receive the benefits of eternal blessing by just learning to give to people and making sure their needs are met. And as we read, they worked for more than just me, my and mine; it was for being able to give to other people who were in need. We're going to see lots of people in need. And God's going to give us property here, He's going to give us houses here, He's going to give us lots of stuff here, but there are going to be a lot of other people, refugees from all over this country coming here and people from other parts of the world that are coming here and we want to be hospitable. We want to be able to take care of them and help them to move into something that, even if they don't have a worldly-type, secular job, they can meet their needs and meet the needs of people around them.

You know, we're not trying to build what the world would call a commune here. You don't see anybody in our ministry running around giving orders, do you? It's a little different than a lot of ministries you've been involved in, I'm sure. Most of the people in this ministry who are deacons, diakonos in this ministry, they have that because it was in their heart to do that and they came to us and said, 'Hey, I'd like to do this; I can do this'; and so praise God. We're not trying to do anything but allow people to do these things from the heart. If you give from your heart, that's a good sacrifice before the Lord, according to 2 Corinthians. And so I'd like to get your ideas. Maybe some of you have some and maybe you can correct me on something. I'm willing to be corrected.

In our ministry, from the very beginning of our ministry, we've never charged for anything; we just give it. People, if they want to give back, that's fine; if they don't, they still get it, so we can't really call it bartering when you're not demanding anything in return.

We're not talking about hoarding, folks; we're just talking about feeding people. Well, we could do some workshops here, people showing different people how to do things and people gathering together to get these things started in a really good way. And, as I said, I felt the Lord told me that the ministry also could contribute money toward things that people need to get started in this way.

I was talking to Darv the other day and he's been experimenting with the wood-burning heater that's made out of a 55-gallon or 30-gallon barrel. You can heat water with it, you can cook with it, you can heat your home with it. Other people can chip in and help with that, make a few of those for everybody; that's just giving and receiving. The ministry will definitely help you to get started. If you have any ideas, just tell us about it, what you need; let us know. We'll help you with it. And, of course, you can all help one another. You know, just take a lesson from the Amish. They gather together and do something in a group that they could never do individually or, at least, it would take a lot longer time. We don't have a lot longer time. I know that if we specialize in some things right now, we can get up and going. Maybe a lot of people would want to raise chickens. That's not a bad thing to do. We could have our parties in different places, you know, to study what somebody's expertise is and to chip in and to, you know, get everything up and going. And it's, of course, all voluntary, whatever you feel the Lord is guiding you to do. One brother was talking about raising turkeys.

You know, one thing that's kind of fascinated me was, I did a little research on this area and right down the Tennessee Valley here is a really rich gas deposit. The funny thing is, I'm visiting people's houses and the house I'm living in now, they are all electric. Does anybody have natural gas? So not many people have gas, right? That's kind of strange and I'm wondering why because there is a richer deposit of gas right here than anywhere around and that's free energy. We had a brother whose family came down and visited us in Pensacola, who was just north of Knoxville, and he has a gas well in his backyard and I'm thinking, why aren't more people punching holes in the ground around here? That's free heat; that's energy. When the gasoline is gone, you can convert your car over to run on natural gas. I'm wondering, why aren't there a lot of gas wells here? Well, if you have a community of people who aren't far apart or, if you want to, use it to pressurize it and run vehicles. When I was young, we used gas tractors, gas trucks, we had the old International Harvester trucks that ran on gas and they converted them to run on gas because it was readily available, so you can do the same thing today. People are talking about all different kinds of ways to keep your car running when gas becomes hard to find, which it will. Not necessarily here, but it will. But certainly, if you have availability of a gas well, that's one thing that you can do. I'm not talking about selling it; I'm just talking about buying the converter kits.

Birds are hand to mouth, aren't they? They don't worry about storing it up; they just eat it. Well, I think you get the idea, so really just pray and ask the Lord if He wants you to do something and, if so, what, and just be ready and willing for Him to use you. You can train other people and you can be trained by other people and we can all get together and put together what we know the Lord is leading us to do. And the ministry would be glad to contribute to anybody who wants to get a start, so you all think about it and pray about it and we'll see where it takes us.

Lord, we just ask you, Father, in the name of Jesus, to give us wisdom, Lord. You know what's coming down the road. You see the end from the beginning. We see nothing, Lord; we just trust in You. We want to be led by Your Spirit. We are the sons of God by faith, Lord, and we're asking You to lead us and guide us into something that will be very useful, not only to us, but the people around us. Lord, we thank You for Your mercy toward us and we know that we have nothing to worry about; we could put all of our faith in You. We know that You are an absolute miracle-working God and You will multiply the fishes and the loaves, Lord. And You will bring us manna out of heaven and You'll do everything that's necessary to provide for Your people. So we just trust in You and we just want to be useful. And we thank You for it, Lord, in Jesus' name. Amen.

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