<TITLE>35. Par 253-257</TITLE>L-253 You know, in the old days before they had smelters, the--the goldsmith used to beat the gold with a hammer. I guess you've heard of it. Before it went to the smelter, they beat it. And gold is the heaviest material; it's heavier than lead. And so I've done a little prospecting, and you can take in the sands in the wash in the deserts, and rub your hands over the sand, and then (whoosh) blow like that, and the dust and everything will fly away, the rocks, but gold is so heavy it lays there. And then when you pick up that gold, it's rolled through so much dirt until it's accumulated a lot. And through the volcanic ages as it accumulated up, it got sludge and everything, iron pyrite and other materials mixed with it. The beater used to take this lump of gold and beat it and turn it, and beat it and turn it, until he beat all the dross out of it. And you know how he knowed that he had all the dross out? He could see his own image reflected in it.

L-254 And that's the way God does the Church. He beats every creed, every denomination, every man-made dogma, until He sees His Own Life reflecting in you. "If I do not the works of My Father, believe Me not." See? If what is purposed to the Church, the Life that was in Christ isn't reflecting in you, don't you stand still if you haven't got patience, virtue, all these things, and temperance, and--and things, and godliness, and brotherly kindness, and all these things that's required of you. No matter what you've done, no matter how much you've shouted, how many churches you've joined, how many feathers you've pinned into yourself, don't do it. Wait till genuinely from your heart you can forgive, till in your heart you have brotherly kindness. No matter if they pull a handful of beard from one side, you could turn the other cheek with sweetness (See?), until those virtues, no matter what they say to you...

L-255 When they put a rag around His face and hit Him on the head, said, "Now, they tell me that you're a prophet." Now, jerked the rag off of Him, and one of them holding the stick, said, "Which one of us hit you? Prophesy and tell us, in otherwise, then we'll believe you are a prophet." He never opened His mouth.
When you hear a prophet rising that's got all the answers to every gimmick that you can bring up, remember, he's not a prophet. Yes. Today they've got to know everything, when you're going to have a toothache and when you're going to have a tummy-ache, and everything else, and tell you all about it. That isn't the nature of our God. Watch the prophets; watch Jesus.

L-257 Look at Paul, when he could smite a man blind, and let the coppersmith run him out of the country, "I guess he lost his power to smite blind."
Jesus, Who could raise the dead, and yet said a drunken soldier spit in His face, and hawk and spit and jerk beard out of His face, and hit Him on the head, with a rag around Him, said, "Prophesy and tell us who hit you."... And opened not His mouth.
Don't watch all these gimmick workers. But remember, they're only speaking... A bogus dollar only speaks that there's a real one somewhere. When you see this organization stuff growing and prospering, as it said, "Craft would prosper in his hand," just remember, there's a little Church of God somewhere, really is Holy Ghost filled, genuine, that's moving up the ladder. Don't look at the big organization.


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