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PASTOR GENERAL'S REPORT, December 5, 1980
Page 8
Under normal circumstances, however, NO ONE NEED FEAR A DEMON MAY
TAKE POSSESSION--unless you open your mind by letting it be blank, or
under control of another, or you lose your mind in an emotional, angry
rage.
But we do need to be ON GUARD against the wiles and deceptions of
Satan. He deceives people by SELF-centeredness, vanity, lust and greed,
especially of power, envy and jealousy, hostile competition, resentment
of any kind, and especially resentment of authority, and most especially
resentment of the GOVERNMENT OF GOD!
Satan is going about seeking WHOM he may destroy from God's Church
and Kingdom. Don't let the one he destroys be YOU!
We CAN be secure in Christ and in His Church.
Let me close, as the Apostle Paul did his second letter to the Church
at Corinth:
Brethren, Ministers, and even chief Evangelists in God's Church,
"EXAMINE YOURSELVES, to see whether you are holding to your faith. Test
YOURSELVES.
II
--
I have covered here IN PRINCIPLE, what OTHERS did that caused Christ
to take them out of GOD'S CHURCH! Don't think, "Well, all that applied
to THEM--not to ME!" Be sure YOU do not start, even so little at first,
in Satan's direction. Let no jealousy or contention of any kind against
another--whether another member or another of YOUR RANK in the Work, even
start to kindle in your mind! For GOD IS NO RESPECTER OF PERSONS. For if
God spared not even the ANGELS that sinned (II Peter 2:4), He would no
more spare YOU! I did not write this article in order to speak AGAINST
those who are OUT, but to warn YOU who are still in, from the very TOP in
the Church to the least.
We say we are back on the track now. We say we have TEAMWORK and
harmonious cooperation at Pasadena. That·had come at great COST. SEE
THAT WE DON'T LET SATAN GET TO ANY ONE OF YOU!
If I had to take the MOST difficult action against even my own son,
as Paul wrote, be zealous that "I may not have to be severe in my use of
the AUTHORITY which the Lord has given me for BUILDING UP and not for
tearing down" ( II Car. 13:5, 10).