Wow! I am sad I am almost to the end of your book that I am reading! I read this (below) yesterday morning and am still thinking about it. The highlighted sentence painted a whole picture for me. I could see myself, young and sitting perfectly still in the Catholic Church, not moving except when prompted to kneel or stand, or to make the sign of the cross, speaking only to recite their chosen words, having “communion” when it was the appointed time. Wow! Never a word needed to be spoken for me to be programmed to reject the truth, to reject Jesus and the power of God, to reject you. Every mass I sat in was slandering the real Jesus. But….. Jesus intervened!
My heart was conditioned by ceremonial form to reject moving when Jesus moves, reject rejoicing, clapping, dancing, and crying. I was never encouraged to feel Jesus fill a room or praise him when I did, or speak in His language, in His words when He moved in me. Nothing in my heart, trained by that religion, should ever have wanted Jesus and everything he has given us here. The slander began before I ever knew you existed. My heart should have never wanted you; it was trained not to. But it does! Jesus did that!
The power of God doesn’t need words either! Just as Jesus said, it condemns sinners without words! It condemns Christianity without words. That is something! Satan is never going to one-up God!
From your book:
Slander
The mere existence of the Institution, with age lending weight to its claims, condemns true men of God without words. Those who belong to the Institution do not even have to dirty their hands to protest against true messengers of God. Merely by continuing in the Institution’s forms, without uttering a word against any man of God, they maintain their appearance of righteousness and bolster their claim to be the representatives of Christ. This is what I call “institutionalized slander”, and it is Satan’s most effective weapon against God’s servants. This is how the Lord described it to me some years ago: “When a lie becomes the norm, normal people become liars.” And when normal people become liars, God’s messengers are condemned because they tell the truth.
As one brother recently testified, “If you want to be right with God, you have to want to be right with God more than you want to be right.”
Amen!
Beth D.