How to Be Fruitful — Devern Fromke

Ephraim and the Call to Fruitfulness

On the 19th, 1973, in Richmond, Virginia, ministry is being given through Brother DeVerne Fromke.

I would like to turn tonight to the book of Hosea, please. Hosea, I have been opening my heart to the Lord in a portion here for the last few weeks, and it seems as though the Lord has been speaking to me about Ephraim.

Have you ever had a name sort of jump out at you for a while, and you long to get into it and study it, and then all of a sudden some things begin to unfold? Well, that's been true, as I've been looking at God's word to Ephraim.

In the sixth chapter, it is interesting how he speaks of the latter days. We might read just a few verses. Come, verse 1, and let us return unto the Lord, for he hath torn, and he will heal us. He hath smitten, and he will bind us up.

After two days will he revive us. In the third day he will raise us up, and we shall live in his sight. I don't know which Bible you have, and I don't totally go along with all that Schofield Bible says, but I kind of am interested in the caption just above this chapter.

It says it's the voice of the remnant in the last days. I believe with all my heart that God is calling out a remnant today, a people whose hearts are holy toward him. There's a sense in which this applies very directly to Israel.

You know a day is as 2 ,000 years with the Lord, and Israel, so to speak, set aside for two days, or 2 ,000 years, and the third day is about on us. The third day when God will once again restore back to Israel and begin to reign through his coming back to set up the throne of David.

But to the remnant here, there's something rather interesting. I believe that everything God has been doing in a natural plane has its spiritual counterpart. Some people take only everything for Israel, like this, and they don't see anything else.

Sometimes people spiritualize it, and they only see the spiritualization of it. I'm open for adjustment, but I've had the most ease about seeing that God can work on two planes, and that surprises everybody.

It sort of gets things together. What he's been doing here in a natural way, speaking, you have the spiritual counterpart as he's working through the church. So if there's a remnant in Israel that we'll be expecting, there certainly is a remnant today in the midst of the church that God is tuning their ear.

There's an expectancy. Now, what is his word regarding Ephraim as we read on? Well, verse 3 says, Then shall we know, if we follow on to know the Lord. His going forth is prepared as the morning, and he shall come unto us as the latter and former rain unto the earth.

I do believe that there are drops of rain, there's a moving of the Spirit of God in various places. I marvel at the people who are very sovereignly being saved. Every time I turn around, I run into a businessman, somebody who's been mixed up in the church world for years, and then they find out they've never known the Lord Jesus.

It's quite wonderful. God is moving. But here he comes now in verse 4. He says, O Ephraim, what shall I do unto thee? What significance does Ephraim have? Where does Ephraim fit into all of this? Well, you remember that God, from the time of passing on through Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, God has been passing blessing on through birthright.

Out of the loins of Abraham there came Isaac, and it was Isaac the right hand of blessing was upon. Ishmael, you remember, though he was first born, was not after the Spirit. He was after the flesh. And then out of the loins of Isaac there comes who?

Jacob and Esau. And you remember the awful turmoil that takes place in the womb. It's an interesting story. We can't go into it. Esau and Jacob. Esau is the elder, so to speak, and yet he sells his birthright for a net of potage.

And Jacob comes into line. Of course, his mother has to help him, it seems, for a moment. She's afraid that things aren't going to work out. God was going to give the birthright to Jacob in due time, but I think his mother was trying to help, and Jacob has to flee, you remember.

But I'm only mentioning this to draw your attention to the fact that there's something quite significant about the blessing and the birthright as it passes on. So Jacob comes in line for the blessing, and Jacob has twelve sons, which is the oldest son.

You remember, in the 48th and 9th chapter of Genesis, Jacob calls all the sons in to give them blessing, but just before he prophesies and gives indication to these twelve sons, Joseph hears that his father is sick.

Now you know what has happened. God has gotten the whole family down into Goshen in Egypt. Joseph has been the premier and has been in blessing. The family are all there, but now Joseph comes down into Goshen to visit his father, and he takes his two little boys with him.

Remember what their names are? Manasseh and Ephraim. And it's sort of interesting how all the way through you have the human mentality trying to maneuver things. When Joseph comes in, before his father, Joseph comes in, he steers his two little boys, Manasseh and Ephraim, and he deliberately steers them so that Manasseh will be at the right hand of Jacob, right?

And Ephraim, because he's the younger, will be at the left hand. After all, the blessing, the birthright, is to be to who? The elder, which would be Manasseh. And you remember it says Jacob was, he was getting old and he couldn't see, and here's Joseph helping things along.

Ever help things along with the Lord? We mean well, don't we? Now, I can't read it tonight because it's not our lesson, but here he is helping the Lord and helping his father, and he steers the two little boys, Ephraim and Manasseh, so that they will be in the right place for the blessing.

And do you know what the elderly father does? And when Joseph sees what he's doing, he says, Father, you've got the wrong hand. And what does his father say? No, son, I know what I'm doing. The younger is the one who is to have the birthright blessing.

I don't understand the election. I don't understand God's sovereign working. But you know what does one thing to me? It causes me to tremble. It causes me to stand with an awe toward the Lord. And here you have Ephraim, quite unexpected, you see, the younger this time.

He crosses his hand and he blesses him. Ephraim now, it seems to me, in all the line of birthright and blessing, it is through Ephraim that there is to come fruitfulness. Because if I understand the name Ephraim, it means in the Hebrew, fruitful.

How wonderful then, that when God has reached down and in his own way put his hand upon a life, the privilege is there. I just pause along the way tonight to say this. Have you felt God's hand on your life?

Have you sensed something? It could just as well have been somebody out here. Why did he do this? Why did he do it like? I don't know, but I know one thing. I know one thing. The fact that I have at times sensed God's hand has caused me, and in a whole new way in recent days, to stand with great sense of awe.

Oh, dear Lord. Why did you do it? Millions of others. Why did you touch? How come I was the one you called, the one you touched? Has he touched your life tonight? Don't take it lightly. Don't take things for granted.

Thank God. Thank God. Here is Ephraim now. Great expectations. Who much is given is much required. And I keep having a sense as I move among some of God's people. I believe some that he's been touching.

I have a sense. It seems to grow within that it must be encouragement and yet an exhortation. Let us be careful. Let us walk before the Lord so that he will not have to say as he did regarding Ephraim.

The one who was in the line seems to have come all so short. Ephraim, he says, verse 4, What shall I do unto thee? O Judah, what shall I do unto thee? For your goodness is as a morning cloud, and as the early dew it goeth away.

Therefore have I hewed them by the prophets, I have slain them by the words of my mouth, and thy judgments are as the light that goeth forth. And then he gives us a verse that's rather interesting. Verse 6, chapter 6,.

For I desired mercy, and not sacrifice, and the knowledge of God more than burnt offerings. Now, what my burden is tonight, just for a little time to fellowship with you, is to speak essentially on this.

If we had sensed God's hand, if we know that God is longing for those whose lives can be as Ephraim, fruitful unto him, and that's what it means. The question is, how to be fruitful? How to be fruitful?

What cautions, what guard, what guideline can we take, you see, that we can assure ourselves before the Lord, even though his hand has touched Ephraim, that we will not come short of God's expectation.

Here's this little verse, and we just read it. He says, For I desired mercy, and not sacrifice, and the knowledge of God more than burnt offerings. That verse, as you recall, if you'd like to turn to Matthew, please.

That verse is recorded by Jesus with quite a bit of significance. Matthew, chapter 9. I picked up your living Bible to look at it. I don't like it all the way through, but now and then it gives a little light.

In chapter 9, it's interesting. Beginning with verse 10, it came to pass, As Jesus sat at meat in the house, behold, many publicans and sinners came and sat down with him and his disciples. And when the Pharisees saw it, they said unto his disciples, Why eateth your master with publicans and sinners?

We really don't understand your teacher. What's wrong with him? You see, they had a real religious mentality. Let's read on. And when Jesus heard that, he said unto them, They that behold need not a physician, but they that are sick.

But go ye and learn what that meaneth, or what this meaneth. I will have mercy and not sacrifice, for I am not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance. Turn over to chapter 12, and you have almost an identical thing.

Chapter 12, verse 1, At that time Jesus went on the Sabbath day through the corn, and his disciples were in hunger and began to pluck the ears of corn and to eat. But when the Pharisees saw it, they said unto him, Behold, thy disciples do that which is not lawful to do upon the Sabbath day.

But he said unto them, Have ye not read what David did when he was hungered, and they that were with him, how he entered into the house of God and did eat the shewbread, which was not lawful for him to eat, neither for them which were with him, but only for the priests?

Or have ye not read in the law how that on the Sabbath days the priests in the temple profaned the Sabbath and are blameless? But I say unto you, that in this place is one greater than the temple. And then he gives them the same thing.

But if ye had known what this meaneth, I will have mercy and not sacrifice, ye would not have condemned the guiltless. I don't know how to say this, but it seems that Jesus sums an awful lot up. He doesn't do a lot of answering.

He just seems to say, Look, when you discover this little secret, you won't have any trouble with me. You won't have any trouble understanding. And what is it? Let me read it here out of the living. It says this, Does your teacher associate with men like that?

Because people who are well don't need a doctor, it's the sick people who do. But Jesus replied,. Then he added, Now go away and learn the meaning of this verse of Scripture. It isn't your sacrifices and your gifts I want.

I want you to be merciful. And he uses the same thing over in chapter 12. If so much hangs on this, Jesus pulls it out, and we'll see as we go on into Hosea now. So much hangs on this. What does the Lord mean?

And I've been crying out. I'm not sure I have the answer tonight. But I'd like to just suggest something that I believe might be helpful to us. Beloved, one of the gravest dangers and one of the big problems, Jesus was always being confronted by the religious, the establishment, the people of that day, who could not understand why he ate, why he did.

And it seems to me he sums it up this way. He says, Oh, if you folk could move out of outwardness into inwardness. Now it's not just subjectivity, but if you could move out of just outward acts, outward things, and you could see inward reality.

What is mercy? He says, I desire mercy. I want mercy. What is sacrifice? Let me see if I can take you back to the thing that God keeps driving home to me all the time. I do believe, beloved, that in our spirit, God has designed a way by which he can maintain an intimacy and a fellowship with us as his children.

Fellowship With God Through the Spirit

Here is our spirit, but it is so easy for us to live out here in the realm of our soul. We live in our mind. We have religious conceptions. We live out here in our emotions or we live in our will, the realm of the soul.

The mind can be very sacrificial and the feelings go right along and say, I'm going to give something to the Lord. And we build up all of our conceptions of what we think will please the Lord. It's sacrifice.

It's an outward thing. And yet totally void in our spirit of what God really wants. What is it that God is after? Well, you pardon me again. I'm sure I've been through this. Every time I've been at Richmond, I don't want to disappoint you.

I am absolutely convinced every place I go that if people do not understand the livingness of their spirit and fellowship with God by the Spirit, nothing else matters. I feel like Jesus saying, if you don't know anything, go learn this.

I want mercy and not sacrifice. If we want it, I've just seen the transformation it brings in lives. Once we discover that our spirit with its open door of conscience, honesty, openness, transparency before the Lord, there's no other way to maintain fellowship.

The Lord keeps pressing me continually to walk before Him with complete openness, honesty, transparency. You know how easy it is to become a little opaque toward somebody or a little translucent? You let a little light get through.

But transparency, what is it? Complete openness. This is what God requires with Him, that kind of openness. And you can be sure that just as surely as that openness is maintained this way, the Lord will help us to maintain it.

Of our spirit is an open conscience, an openness, an honesty before God. That makes possible in our spirit what we call brothers and sisters. He has not called us to activity. He's not called us to religious performance.

He's not called us to doing. He has called us first of all to fellowship with Himself. And out of this fellowship, everything else flows. It ought to. Out of this kind of a livingness with Him, all our doing, fellowshiping with the Lord is the highest calling, a worship.

I've shared so often with the Lord's people that the highest occupation we can enjoy is our spirit attuned in worshiping the Lord. To begin each day, to make this the constant note of my spirit, open and alive to the Lord.

And you see, when there's this openness and fellowship with Him, then it is that God in turn shares with us the things that we need to know. The inner knower, the inner knowledge, then shall we know if we follow on to know the Lord.

And of course, we call this our intuition, our inner discerning. Now, the reason I say that God is after an inwardness. I desire what? Mercy. Mercy is a quality of the spirit. It's a fruit out of our spirit.

I can be so right, so sacrificial out here. God is all the time dealing with the inwardness of the spirit. David learned this. I believe he'd gone through all the ritual and the ceremony of sacrifices, and yet caught in sin, one day God exposes His heart and He says, Behold, thou desires reality or truth in the inward parts.

In the hidden part, thou shalt make me to know wisdom. What's the hidden part? It's in our spirit, your inner knower. You see, your mind understands things that are enlightened. The Word of God is illumined.

You come to understanding. But it's the inner registration in your spirit, checks or release, peace or heaviness, darkness or light. All how we need, how we need in our walk before the Lord to maintain this continual openness in our spirit.

Is there peace about it? Is there a lightness in it? Is there a release about it? Or do I have a check, a release? I believe that this ought to be the normal life of God's children. Again, so I don't like to call it super spiritual or deeper spiritual or anything else.

Just the normal life that God wants. Our spirit attuned to His. And so David gets to say, the sacrifices of God are what? A broken spirit, a broken and a contrite heart. It is not all our doing, but it's a quality.

It is something of the Spirit. And I believe this is why Jesus turns these who come. They've got a head problem. Why does your master do this? Why does he allow his disciples to eat from the grain field on the Sabbath day?

Can you see how religion, how man with all of their theological interpretations build up a whole system? We have it today. Just as they did in Jesus' day. And yet miss the very heart, the inwardness of the reality.

Mercy. Something of the Spirit. So I feel that what the Lord is saying in this, what He is saying, if you folk go and learn what it is to maintain openness with me, fellowship with me, then you will know.

It's another way of saying mercy, inwardness, instead of just outward. Back to Hosea again. And you'll notice verse 6, for I desired mercy and not sacrifice, and the knowledge of God more than burnt offerings.

The Knowledge of God Above Religious Dedication

What do burnt offerings represent? When the burnt offering was given, it was the whole burnt offering presented unto God as a type of a dedication of oneself completely unto the Lord. I wonder if you've seen any folk who are dedicated to a cause, a religious cause.

Oh, the dedication of some folks. They wear me out to watch them. The dedication of some individuals to the program, the cause, the thing that has caught their life, usually religious, you see. The dedication of it.

But what is he saying? It is not the dedication. The mind that's caught, the emotion that's gripped, and the will that's set, it is not this kind of outward dedication, so to speak. It is what? The knowledge of the Lord.

Oh, to know Him. The life that comes and the inwardness of a fellowship with Him comes to know the Lord. To know the Lord. The key to fruitfulness then, first of all here, as we've been saying, I think we'll just say it is inwardness that produces an outwardness.

Now, what really is in the Spirit, the mercy, mercy will demonstrate itself. It will sacrifice. But it won't be just sacrifice. It will start with a broken heart, a broken and a contrite spirit. Move on now to Hosea, and let's just see what else he says in chapter 7.

When I would have healed Israel, then the iniquity of Ephraim was discovered and the wickedness of Samaria. Jump down to verse 8. He hath mixed himself among the people. Ephraim is a cake not turned. Strangers have devoured his strength, and he knoweth it not.

Yea, gray hairs are here and there upon him, yet he knoweth not. Just look at that verse with me for a little bit. I'd like to think of some things here that he speaks of Ephraim that I believe picture why Ephraim did not really become fruitful for the Lord.

He says, first of all, we'll just put it here. Ephraim hath mixed himself among the people. I just say mixture. Mixture. God hates mixture. One of the things that I believe is happening today all over is the breakdown of any of the delineations or the things that keep in their proper order and character.

God hates mixture. He has set boundaries. He has made distinctions, and I believe he wants us to honor and recognize some of those distinctions. I don't want to go into it, but I think I see mixture on every hand.

It gets so I have to look three times to see whether it's a man or a woman down on the street. It's a mixture. I'm not sure which is to be which, but I know one thing, they're not to be alike. I believe it's mixture.

I really do. And I began to weigh this because my heart is set, beloved. My heart cries out, Lord, I don't want sacrifice. I don't want just a lot of dedication. I long that I might really know how to be fruitful.

Is there any lesson, anything you want to say that can be a safeguard in bringing a life to fruitfulness to what Ephraim was supposed to be? So as I began to consider this mixture, the Lord took me back to Deuteronomy.

A Pure Message and an Unmixed Ministry

If you'd like to turn there, please. Deuteronomy 22, and you get a little picture here of God's carefulness to keep us from mixture. Deuteronomy 22, and beginning with verse 9, he says, Thou shalt not sow thy vineyard with seed, divers seeds, lest the fruit of thy seed which thou hast sown and the fruit of thy vineyard be defiled.

No mixing up of seeds. What's the spiritual picture in this? I believe it is very clear. God wants a pure message. He wants a pure seed. What is the pure message? It's so easy to speak out of one's own heart instead of sharing, thus saith the Lord.

It's so easy to mix, to mix. I believe God is very careful. First of all, we'd say, they have a pure message. So far as what we share. John, in the second epistle of John, he says that if any man come to you and do not share with you the doctrine of Christ, do not receive him into your house, and do not bid him Godspeed.

Why? The man has mixture. Mixture. Lord, you're careful. You're careful. But hasten on. I don't want to just stop there because I believe the next gives us something even a little more pertinent to us.

Verse 10. And he says, Thou shall not plow with an ox and an ass together. First of all, he's careful in the sowing, we call it. And then he's very careful in our serving together. What does the ass represent in Scripture?

Something unbroken and unclean. What does the ass... Excuse me. What does the ass represent? Something unbroken and unclean. What does the ox represent? Something clean for sacrifice and broken. Or he says, Don't put an ass and an ox in the same yoke.

Well, in the natural, I can see how both would have raw necks. They don't have the same gait. They just couldn't walk together. And I believe the Lord is saying, Don't get your mixture in service thinking you can be yoked with someone who's not broken in your service.

Someone who's not broken. I think I've seen some asses around. I use that in a gentle way. What do you mean? Everything about their makeup is, Let's get up and go and do it. They don't know what it is to be broken.

You see, in our service, He's saying, No mixture. You can't put the ox and the ass together. The ox, of course, is the clean. And it is for sacrifice. It is for service. So in our mixture, then, not only a pure message, unmixed, but in our serving, all to be yoked in the right way.

The next verse, 11 says, Thou shall not wear a garment of diverse sorts as of woolen and linen together. Well, you know, when you put wool and linen, and you wash them, of course, there's no compatibility.

One shrinks terribly. And the natural reasoning of it would be, Don't put it together. But what is the spiritual significance of it? I believe that anything woolen always speaks of that which produces sweat, or from sweat.

When they went back into the holiest place, no wool, only a linen garment. What is the linen a picture of? I think it's something of life. You see, the strands of the linen come right out of life. And it's really clothing that he's speaking of here.

And what is clothing? It's the energy for your service. Be clothed upon with the spirit, you see. It is not to be a mixture of flesh and spirit. Spirit, what's your clothing? What's the source? In our source, whether we're endued or how much sweat there is, dear Lord, let me know.

Let me know. Your garment, not by might or by power, not by something woolen, but by my... I believe that God is saying, at least to my own heart, careful of mixture. How much sweat there is today. When I went one step further, I was thinking of this portion over in 2 Corinthians, where he deals with mixture.

2 Corinthians 6. And verse 14. Equally yoked with unbelievers, for what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? And what communion hath light with darkness? And what concord hath Christ with Belial?

Or what part hath he that believeth with an infidel? And what agreement hath the temple of God with idols? For ye are the temple of the living God. As God had said, I will dwell in them and walk in them and I will be their God and they shall be my people.

Wherefore come out from among them and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing and I will receive you. So, and I will receive you. So, I'd like to just add, not only in our sowing, is it a pure message, in our serving, a proper yoking, carefulness, in our service, to be sure it's not the sweat of wool, but it is the clothing of the Holy Spirit.

Fellowship Without Complicity

And in our fellowship, I'm open for adjustment. I've maintained this for years. I fellowship with the Lord's people. I may not get in a yoke to serve with some, but I fellowship with them insofar as possible.

And the five things that are mentioned here all refer to the believer and the unbeliever. Darkness and light, what's that? Light is the Christian, darkness is? You take all five of these and I don't find any real room here for much separating or dividing, as it were, from those who are the Lord's.

I've said for a long time, if a brother's sister will fellowship, I will fellowship. I believe God wants fellowship. We may not be able to yoke in our serving, following me, insofar as possible. I think we need to keep this openness, Lord, to fellowship with your people.

And you go through and carefully consider. Now, we ask what is a yoke? I've studied lots of definitions of yokes. I like the one G. H. Lange gives. I'll give it to you. He says, it is such a connection as suspends individual freedom and compels united action.

Did you get it? Let me read it again. What is a yoke? It is such a connection as compels, let me say, such a connection as suspends individual freedom and compels united action. It just makes an application.

When you two got married, was that a yoke? Should it have been one? Was it? Yes, it was, brother. I'm kidding you now. Yes, it was. Marriage is a yoke. Some people today, I don't think, have gotten that far, but it's supposed to be.

I'll read it again. As far as individual freedom. Right. It is such a connection as suspends individual freedom and it compels what? United action. Let's put the emphasis there. Right? That's a yoke. Two individuals go into a business partnership together.

Is that a yoke? I would hope so. It suspends individual and compels what? United action. You see? Walking down the street, I say, hello, brother. I haven't seen you for a long time and we take a whole block together.

A fellowship. Is that a yoke? I'm trying to make a little distinction. I believe fellowship is something we ought to maintain insofar as possible with all of the Lord's people. I call it contact, but not complicity.

Not getting involved, as it were, you see, in any kind of a yoke. When I go out to serve with someone, as the ox and the ass would be put together, I tell you that yoke that holds the two together, it suspends individual freedom, doesn't it?

And it compels united action. Are you following me? Well, God, God says that Ephraim hath mixed himself among the people. We are in the world, but I believe, as the living translation says, Ephraim had gotten too much involved with the world and they took on the evil ways of the world.

And I could plead with us tonight, beloved, I could plead with us as the Lord's, whose hand he has put upon our lives, to be very careful in our window shopping. Do you know what window shopping is? I've said to so many folk, you don't really have time for a lot of window shopping.

Because you stop and look in the window, first thing it says is, I look nice, don't I? Then the next thing, that thing says, you really need me, don't you? And the next thing it says, well, I'm cheap, come and get me.

And you get caught. There's all so many things that we really don't need. This is what I mean. We walk in the world, but we stop to gaze and long, and pretty soon we get captured. I believe God wants a people who can walk uprightly, forthrightly, and yet not be mixed and take on all the ways, the fads, the passions, and all that this represents.

I just plead with us tonight. I believe God's been quickening to my own heart the need to call out those who want to be as Ephraim, truthful to the Lord, not mixture. I do believe, as it was with Abraham and Lot, you remember Lot, just Lot, came out of Chaldea, and they got to a certain place when they were in the land.

The herdsmen of Lot and the herdsmen of Abraham began to quarrel. The herdsmen wanted the best watering places. They wanted the best grassland. And in due time, Abraham turns to Lot and he says, this isn't right.

There shouldn't be any quarreling. And it's interesting, the very next verses read,. And Lot pitched his tent toward Sodom. Nobody ever moves right down into Sodom. You don't do that in one big move. The first thing anybody ever does is just sort of look.

The tent gets pitched. And it isn't very long before Lot is mixed up and becomes one of the great men in Sodom. I believe, while the scripture says three times they separated themselves, there was no division at this point.

Difference of goal, difference of vision, Abraham's heart was wholly toward the Lord. Lot's heart was toward things. And the two necessarily were having a difference of vision. But I do not believe, while it says they separated, that there was division as we would think of it.

The reason is, the very next chapter, when Lot gets taken captive by the kings of the valley and word comes back, what does Abraham do? If there had been division, I think he would have said, good enough for him.

He got into his mess. That's the spirit of division. Separation is sort of a necessity because there is sometimes a difference of vision. Abraham arms his household. He goes down and he liberates Lot out of his captivity.

That's the heart of one who is set toward the Lord. Well, I didn't plan to stay on that so long. Do we have an eraser here someplace? Well, I'll just erase it this way. We have first, he says, a mixture that hinders fruitfulness.

Spiritual Balance: The Cake Not Turned

The third thing, he says in Hosea, Ephraim is a cake not turned. Thank you. A cake not turned. I wonder what that is. Well, I think first of all, it is basically unbalance. I think I've seen an awful lot of this.

It really is somebody who is baked or, let's say, alright, half-baked. They're raw on one side and burned on the other. What this really speaks to me of is people who get in the outwardness of things without the inwardness of a fellowship.

I believe, beloved, you can't live in a real fellowship and a walk with the Lord but what the Lord has a way of turning your sides so that you get balanced. Every time I've gotten a hold of a mental conception and run it to extreme and got fried, you know, burned on one side, raw on the other, it was something of the soul.

You following me? You just follow a thing to its extreme. You can rejoice and you can thank God tonight. He's destined you for balance. Men will try and get a hold of you and use you for their little kingdom to carve out something for themselves and you can get awfully unbalanced.

Oh, how many groups there are today. Rigid, strong, and one thing. Completely blind to something else. I'm so glad that what God is doing today is to balance some things up. He's just seeming to turn us around by the Spirit and tell some of the sides that have been so raw, so raw, so raw.