Loneliness

LONELINESS

RELATED INDEX TOPICS: Commitment, First Place, Loss. 1. There are two main reasons why the Lord allows Christians to be lonely. Number one, so you will reach out to others with Jesus' Love & comfort. Number two, & most important, so you will look to Jesus for your deepest satisfaction & companionship. You will find that loving others will partially & temporarily fill a need in your life for fellowship, but only in Jesus will you find complete & permanent fulfilment. 2. The best thinking has been done in solitude. The worst has been done in turmoil. 3. By all means take some time to be alone. 4. Language has created the word "LONELINESS" to express the PAIN of being alone, & the word "SOLITUDE" to express the GLORY of being alone. 5. Loneliness is more of an attitude than a circumstance, more self-inflicted than outwardly caused. 6. Loneliness is not a matter of isolation but insulation. Lonely people build walls around themselves & then complain of their loneliness. 7. Hungry, lonely, empty, unhappy dissatisfied & spiritually destitute--they were all longing for love of all kinds, but especially for a Love they had never known before, true Love, sincere Love, genuine Love, the truly great Love of their life, the Love of all loves of the Lover of all lovers, Who alone can satisfy that deepest yearning of every human soul for total love & complete understanding. For although the body is of this Earth, earthy & satisfied with the things of this Earth, the human spirit, that intangible personality of the real you that dwells in that body, can never be completely satisfied with anything but utter union with the great & loving Spirit that created it. 8. I guess the Lord has just given me a special sympathy & love & compassion for the underdogs, the people everybody else can't stand & wants to get rid of. Because I was an underdog for a good many years, & I know how it feels to feel unloved & alone & that nobody cares. If I hadn't had the Lord I'd have probably gone crazy or jumped off a cliff or something. The Lord let me go through those years of loneliness & underdogedness to let me know how it feels, so I could have a great love & compassion for the unlovely & the beasts, the guys who, with just a

little touch of love, could really be made to blossom. 9. I put the Lord's work first & I did that wholeheartedly, & for years I had to be away from home & loved ones two or three weeks out of month travelling for Gospel TV & radio. Now if I was willing to put the Lord's work first in those days in that way, why shouldn't YOU be willing to do it in this great Endtime work for the Lord! 10. Soldiers go away for months & years at a time to fight their nation's battles in far-off fields & even get killed for it, suffer injury, endure sickness, face all kinds of dangers away from home & family just for the sake of patriotism or their country, or even the draft because they HAVE to. Businessmen spend most of their time away from home at the office & come home too worried about business affairs to pay attention to the kids or hardly anything except maybe on weekends! If THEY can do it for patriotism & for money, I'd like to know why some of our people are so reluctant to be willing to go out & leave home & family & wife & children & forsake all to serve the Lord in this Family & for this Family & for the Lord & for souls & in extremely important & urgent work that they have to do which can't be done at home, that they have to do in the field? 11. How can you love the World unless you can feel their heartaches & their loneliness? We have so much to be thankful for! We don't know what loneliness means, we're seldom sad, we don't know what it is to be really alone, we don't know what it is the be sad or without love. You need to hear the heartcry of the World! You need to be sensitive to their sorrows & their sadness, or how are you going to have compassion for them? How are you going to have love for them unless you FEEL their LONELINESS & their lack of love & their sadness? If you don't have a broken heart, you're never going to be any good for anything, you're never going to know how to love the World or want to reach somebody lonely with the Lord. It's so sad, they're so lonely & every road they try is DOWN because they don't find JESUS. They're so lonely & playing Solitaire. Can you remember when you were lonely without the Lord & everything seemed to take you down & there seemed to be no love, no hope? It ought to break your heart & make you pray & do everything you can to try to reach them for the Lord. 12. I think it was those 15 years I spent on the road alone promoting Gospel TV & Radio that really helped break my heart & break me for the poor lonesome World. I had a chance to be with them & feel what they feel. I'd been living in Heaven-on-Earth in a Christian family with Christian service in a Christian church, & I didn't know what the World was like. I was like Jesus coming down from Heaven to Earth, from the beauties & perfectness of Heaven to the foulness of this Earth & its heartbreak & heartache & loneliness! But I think the Lord let me go through that to break my heart for the World & make me feel for them, & be sad for them & love them & have compassion on them. They still wind up lonely, never find real Love. I mean, how CAN you unless you find the LORD? You're always looking for new love & real love & you can't find anything. You know it must exist, you have the hunger for it, the feeling for it, but you can't find it because you don't find the Lord. It's so sad! 13. I walked a mile with Gladness, She chatted all the way, And never a thing I learned from her For all she had to say. But I walked a mile with Sadness And never a word said she, But, oh, the things I learned that day That Sadness walked with me! 14. Once when I was 8 years old, my Mother & I were playing the piano together one evening, something we enjoyed very much. Then she said, "Honey, I'm sorry, but I've got to go to my job for the Lord now."--And I began to cry.

"No, Mommy, PLEASE don't go! We're having SO much fun, we're having SUCH a good time, PLEASE don't go! But she said, "I'm sorry, Honey, but people are EXPECTING me & it's IMPORTANT business for the LORD." But I wept. "Oh, Mommy, please stay home with me! Why don't you stay home with me like LAMONT'S mother does with HIM?" But she said, "Well, I'm sorry, Honey, but YOUR mother's got to serve the LORD, & that's IT! I've got to GO & put GOD'S work FIRST!" And I cried when she tucked me into bed & told me goodnight, & she cried, too. When she came back late that night, I was sound asleep but my face was still tear-stained. I had cried myself to sleep even after she left. So Mother felt stubborn, rebellious & bitter & went to her room & her bed & told the Lord, "Lord, I know You said to give up HOUSES & WIFE, MOTHER & FATHER, BROTHER, & SISTER & all that, but You certainly didn't expect us to give up our CHILDREN! "SURELY You didn't expect us to forsake our CHILDREN! It doesn't say anything about CHILDREN!" But the Lord said, "Get up & look!" So she got up & got her Bible & looked & there it was!: "OR CHILDREN!" "Everyone that hath forsaken houses or brethren, or sisters, or father, or mother, or wife, or CHILDREN, or lands for My Name's sake, shall receive an hundredfold, & shall inherit everlasting life!"-Mat.19:29 She certainly got back an hundredfold! TYL! The next morning--remember, I was only 8--I came in as I was on my way to school & kissed my Mother goodbye. I was all bright & cheery & smiling as I said, "Mother, I put you on the altar. That's all right, you can serve the Lord. Don't worry about me." I can remember being a very lonely little boy & living a very lonely little life in my lonely little room most of my lonely little time, & those were long lonely years until I was 16 & had a license to drive & could start taking my father's place as her chauffeur & singer. But in my Mother's & my cases, when you give up something for the Lord, then if later it is GOOD for you, the Lord will RETURN it again some day when He can TRUST you with it. But if you are STUBBORN & REBELLIOUS, He's apt to take it away from you ENTIRELY & FOREVER, if you're selfish & won't give it up. 15. I have to be practical & look at the facts & look at the present & forget the past & think of the future. Time spent crying over spilt milk & getting sentimental about the past rosy days--which you can do so easily when you're alone especially, as I know--is just time wasted! Forget the past! The Lord says FORGET it!--Phi.3:13. It's water under the bridge, it'll never be back again, things will never be the same again. I sympathise with you in your loneliness & your lack & need of companionship. But don't look back, Honey, look forward! If God has someone for you, He'll bring him along in due time. In the meantime, let the Lord be your First Love! Help her, Lord! We know it's not easy when she sees others with their mates & their companions & she still seems to be alone & belongs to nobody. Help her, Lord, to see that she belongs to Thee & to me & that if You want to give her someone who will belong to her, the time will come. But she's going through a testing time right now, Lord, to see if she'll put You first & love You most & be willing just to belong to You, a time to draw close to You, Lord, closer to You than ever before, to be just Yours! The only kind of love that will ever satisfy us is God's Love, Love that will not let us go, never fail us, the great Love of our lives! The Lord is your Lover & you can only belong to Him! No one else can truly possess you. Maybe you need time alone with the Lord more than you need these people that come BETWEEN you & the Lord. You have to remember, you belong to the Lord & you belong to everybody, therefore you can never belong to anybody alone. Get your mind on the Lord's Work! Be like Joan of Arc! You don't dare belong to anybody but the Lord! You will never belong to anybody else but the Lord if you're going to do the job you're supposed to do! But if you're faithful & put God first & lay everything else on the altar, He can send you someone--if you need someone. We know this is a human need for companionship & love & even sex. We ask Thee, Lord, to help her to put Thee first! You said if we will delight ourselves in Thee, You will give us the desires of our hearts, everything we need, everything we even want.--Psa.37:4.

If we'll just pass the test & put YOU first, delight ourselves in YOU & YOURS most of all, then You can trust us with other things, Lord, because they will not come between. They will not supercede & not overshadow & they will not distract, but they will supplement & be a help & merely augment the work that we're doing in our ministry. So don't put your hand to the plow & look back!--The Lord's plow, the job that God has for you. Don't look back, Honey, amen? He says, "Forgetting those things which are behind, press forward to the things that are before!"--Phi.3:13,14. That's a commandment from the Lord: Forget the past! Think of the glorious things that God is doing right now & about to do! 16. She (he) shall know that the role of leadership is a lonely one, & the Shepherdess (Shepherd) is often alone at the head of the sheep. There are some things which others can perhaps never share with her (him)--that divine anointing, that divine right, that divine occupation, that divine calling, that divine responsibility--the crown which she (he) alone can wear, & sometimes must also bear! She (he) may sometimes say, like Queen Elizabeth: "The crown so beauteous to him that beholdeth, is so heavy to her that weareth it!"--That though so often beautiful to them that see it, it is sometimes a heavy burden to bear! But she (he) must bear it for the sake of Thy Kingdom, & let no one else steal it from her (him), not even a part of it. Help her (him), O God, to realise these things if she (he) would truly rule as Thou wouldst have her (him) to rule, & reign as Thou wouldst have her (him) to reign--strong, courageous, valiant, fearless, upright, righteous, unselfish, sacrificial, self-denying, taking up the crown as though it were a cross, for indeed a cross it may be!--Holding the scepter as though it were a burden--for indeed a burden it shall be! For they that bear the cross shall wear the crown, & THOU shalt be their reward! This is not an easy task Thou has called her (him) to--it is one in which You've asked her (him) if she's (he's) willing to come & DIE for Thee--die to self, die to even to personal pleasure, die to privacy of life, die to personal will & choice, & submit only to Thee & to duty; that she (he) may be truly great, Lord, even in Thine eyes, & be honoured of her (his) people. With man it is impossible, but with Thee, Lord, nothing shall be impossible, but all things are possible to Him that believeth! Help her (him) O God, to cling to Thy hand! She (he) shall never walk alone, & it shall be unto her (him) better than a light & better than a known way! 17. Maybe God's waiting process is a part of the process of testing YOU first of all to see what kind of DECISION you'll make, & last of all to see if you're willing to WAIT & be PATIENT & let the LORD make the decision for that matter, bringing the right one along. In a way that's what God finally did with Adam. He really finally had to let God make the decision. He didn't find anybody that suited him, anything that suited him, & so he didn't know what to do. Well, by that time he was really ready for God's choice, wasn't he? After trying to choose for himself & naming all the animals & looking them all over & not being able to find even ONE for a helpmeet, he must have been pretty desperate by that time & ready for almost ANYTHING God would choose! So that may be one reason why God lets us go through these experiences where we have to make decisions & choices & we have to have patience & we have to wait. That way we can learn how to be patient, which takes faith; & how to WAIT, which takes TRUSTING God; & how to make the right kind of a DECISION, which takes a lot of looking over of other animals & birds FIRST to make sure you know that's not where it's at, until you finally find the RIGHT one. 18. Some people get things from the Lord, & don't even know it IS from the Lord. For a long time I thought it was just me--& all the time it was the LORD speaking to me. I used to go out by myself & walk in the woods & the fields. I was scared of people & liked to be alone--but God must have made me that way so I would stay by myself & commune with Him. The Lord showed me things about the birds & the bees, & sky & the clouds, the flowers & the trees, & the Lord showed me so many spiritual truths about them. "I learned alone, I learned to love. I listened to the still small voice of God!" 19. You'll only find satisfaction in the LORD! 20. "Jesus, only Jesus, Only He can satisfy!

Every BURDEN becomes a BLESSING When I know my LORD is nigh!" 21. "I have found no satisfaction In the fleeting joys of Earth, I have built me broken cisterns That have mocked me by their dearth. Every spring my soul has tested Failed to meet my deepest need, CHRIST ALONE has filled my longing, HE has satisfied indeed! Christ is NOT a disappointment! Every longing in my breast Finds in HIM complete fulfilment HE has brought me into rest! I have tested Him & proved Him More than all I'd dreamed He'd be! Christ is NOT a disappointment, He is ALL in ALL to me!" 22. When you take that stand of faith, you usually have to take it alone with God. Don't expect any help from the Devil or the System or sometimes even your friends. "A man's foes shall be they of his own household" & a test of faith! When you made your final decision for Salvation, you had to make it alone, with only the help of the Holy Spirit! When you made your final decision to forsake all & follow Jesus, you probably had to stand alone with only the encouragement of the Lord & His Word. When you make your final stand of faith on any issue, if you're a person of great faith, you'll have to make it alone, with only God's help! Most of the decisions--great decisions--that I have made in my life as a leader have been lonely decisions where only I & God stood together, & the whole World stood against us!--Sometimes even my family--sometimes even those I loved the most! They have been mountain peaks of decisions, with nothing but thin air between me & the next peak, & I had to take that step alone, & trust God for the consequences, with no guarantee but God, no warranty but His Word--all other conditions being against it--all natural circumstances being opposed to it--the waves & the winds fighting against it--& all I had was the Hand of God! 23. Every time the subject of relationships comes up I still tend to think, "Well, who really ACCOMPLISHES the most & who is really the CLOSEST to the Lord? Is it these people who are deeply in love with each other & so dependent on each other, or is it the ones who don't have anybody & feel a little lonesome or lonely?" Just look at what the Lord does with them & look how their loneliness & situation keeps them dependent on & close to the LORD. I was reading somebody's letter recently about how they were feeling lonely, & I realised, "But look at the good fruit!--They're really dependent on the LORD now & they're more desperate." Look at Leah, for example: The Lord allowed her to have a sweet love relationship with someone while she was with him, to help him & to help her, too, but when she had to go out & really do a big job for the Lord, the Lord didn't let her depend on him or her husband or anyone because she couldn't have gotten the job done that way. The Lord gave HER the job to do & she HAD to really be desperate & dependent on the LORD & He really helped her to do the job & made her a wonderful testimony. Whereas she didn't do much at all before, when she was just hanging on to the coattails of somebody else. The Lord wanted to make her into a leader & wanted to make her utterly dependent on Him! When Leah was in a place where she didn't really have a big responsibility to carry alone, the Lord allowed her to have that sweet relationship with someone. It was good, it helped both of them. She didn't really HAVE to be so dependent on the Lord at that time & she didn't have so much to do for Him so He allowed this temporary relationship, & she learned much about relationships with people that way.

There are different times in our life when the battle lets up & we have time to concentrate more on relationships & individuals, & learn special personal lessons, & it was such a time for Leah then. But later she had to go out & be our Ambassador. She couldn't have done as much if she had insisted on a helper to lean on. She was the one the Lord chose, & the Lord knew she was prepared to do it. And the Lord wanted to make her a stronger leader, so therefore He HAD to have her depend totally on HIM & not on her personal love relationship. She's been naturally very dependent on others all her life & she LIKED being dependent. It's EASIER to depend on somebody else & not have all the burdens & have to make all the decisions yourself, so she wanted somebody else to depend on. Once on her own, she became lonesome & she really missed her mate & her other helpers, but Leah also realised that the Lord wanted her to depend only on HIM when she was lonesome! Lots of people are lonesome if they don't have any human being to depend on, but that's WHY the Lord takes loved ones away or doesn't provide help or companionship from others, so we will depend on HIM & get close to HIM, we'll hear from HIM & get our orders from HIM. The more lonesome you are & the more you have to go on your own, then the more you want & need the LORD'S help. Nobody wants to be ALONE, so of course you seek the LORD & you get HIS help on every matter. You enter a more intimate relationship with the LORD if you're lonely in the flesh. I mean, when we've got to make a choice, wouldn't we rather have the LORD'S fellowship? We've got to make a choice even at the expense of being lonesome & not having anybody to talk to or to depend upon, as in the case of a lot of wives who are now women leaders. They WANT to depend on somebody & women are especially dependent on their mates, so it's a little harder for them to be dependent on the LORD because they have to work a little harder at it! You have to be CLOSE to the Lord if you're going to be dependent on Him, to hear from Him & to be able to get your orders from HIM instead of your mate or helper! That's why some wives, like Leah, who are leadership like to be dependent on their husband, because he made the decisions ultimately & she liked to give him the blame for it if things didn't turn out right so she wouldn't be to blame herself. That's what it comes right down to. You've got to be dependent on SOMEBODY, so when Leah couldn't be dependent on her husband or lover, she had to be dependent on the LORD & let Him make the decisions. And in order for Him to make the decisions, she had to be close enough to hear what He was telling her. So to be DEPENDENT on the Lord you must be CLOSE to Him & further away from others. That's the whole point, if you're depending on the Lord, it results in letting Him rule & make the decisions & tell you what to do. So if He is going to tell you what to do, you have to be CLOSE enough to Him that you can HEAR Him tell you! So your dependence on the Lord means you've got to be CLOSE to Him. It seems like the vast majority of lonely people in the Lord's Work tend by far to be closer to the Lord than those who are involved in a nice, romantic, close, intimate, physical relationship, because obviously it's a little hard to give your complete time to TWO people. If the human is there close-by within easy access & easy to listen to & hear from, much easier than the Lord, then of course your natural human tendency is to be closer to the human. Often in cases like this, the Lord has to just take you out of that situation because physically you're very weak & you don't have the courage to tell the Lord you don't want a personal relationship. You want to have a good relationship with the LORD, but not at the expense of a cozy relationship with a mate, so a lot of times, since the Lord knows your heart & He knows you really want to be close to Him & dependent on Him, He will take you OUT of that relationship, or not put you IN it, one or the other, so you can more easily get close to HIM & Him alone! The Lord gives some people real close physical relationships because it teaches them certain lessons. It teaches them submission for one thing, which is learned more effectively when you're with another human being. Maybe you need those lessons at a certain time more than you do lessons in dependence on the Lord. At different stages in your life you need to learn different lessons. It's a little harder to learn submission to the Lord if it's just you & the Lord, because you can more easily sort of go your own way & not get quite so submitted to the LORD, but human beings can in no uncertain terms be sure to teach you to yield & to submit & you can't do anything else sometimes. So the Lord certainly uses PEOPLE to teach us submission, also unselfishness. But often when the Lord has taught you to be a good follower through being submitted to other leaders or your husband, if He is ready to make you a leader on your own, & He wants to teach you real

closeness & dependence on HIM, a lot of times He may release you or relieve you of that HUMAN relationship, because without that PERSON involved it's usually a lot easier to get close to the Lord & dependent on Him. These are all different stages & different things we have to learn, & we learn them in different ways & in different relationships. In the early days of the Family when we didn't HAVE all those distractions & affairs, I'll bet we got a lot more done! Obviously that was really the Lord's plan so people wouldn't get so tied up in themselves & their personal affairs that they couldn't get the job done, & also so they would get stronger in the WORD before they got into all these relationships, just like we talked about in "Sex for Babes." (See No.1909.) So going WITHOUT relationships does have its advantages when the Lord has a big job to get done. Your own personal affairs should not take top priority over the Lord's Work at hand! He only lets us have them if it will make the job easier, & help us & others to get His WORK done better, & NOT distract from the Work & make us neglect it in any way! --Maria. 24. The Lord has seen fit to take you from the heights to the depths! You look at it like, "I lost my wife, I lost my job, I lost my home, I lost everything!" Well, look at Job, it was the same thing, HE lost everything! But see, the most important thing is that he didn't lose the LORD! The Lord knew exactly what was going on & the Lord only allowed so much to happen. And the Lord did give him the victory & blessed Job more than ever! He had to learn those things, he had to go through that to make him the kind of man he needed to be--willing, yielded & accepting the Lord's Will over his own. Once Job learned his lesson, the Lord blessed him & He took off the pressure! Job had to realise that all he had that was any good & that was worth anything was the LORD! The Lord was testing him to see if he'd "set his affections on things Above" or on things of the Earth.--Col.3:2. The Lord wanted to see where his treasure was: "Lay not up for yourself treasures here on Earth," but Above!--Mat.6:19. It's all temporary anyway, our job & all of this! Look at all the people who were in office jobs that are now on the field. Should they be angry at the Lord?--No! Does that mean the Lord loves them less?--No! It means He loves them more because He's teaching them lessons they couldn't learn any other way.--Of yieldedness, humility, faith, understanding of & compassion for others & many other things. You can look at it like, "I had that extra blessing that nobody else had & I'm thankful for that!"--Or you can look at it like, "I expected to have that blessing forever & now it's gone so this is really bad!" But the truth of the matter is that in the Lord's eyes & in His plan, your job & your wife were not permanent, even thou you THOUGHT they were. If you had realised at the beginning that the Lord was just giving them to you for a little while, wouldn't you have appreciated them more & wouldn't it have even been easier for you to let them go, knowing the time was up? Then at least you wouldn't be questioning the Lord asking why He took them away. Well, that's the way we should be with any of the blessings the Lord makes us stewards over, constantly keeping in mind they're all His & just on loan for a little while. When you have to share or give up your mate, you're just returning her (or him) to the Lord Who owns her (or him).--Peter 25. I see so much now where I could have avoided falling into this extreme feeling of loneliness & desperation, frustration, unhappiness, even selfishness & finally even a little bit of murmuring due to not being really satisfied & content in "whatsoever state I'm in". And it could have helped me find the TRUE happiness, the most lasting eternal happiness through seeking the happiness of others & not my own happiness. While praying about putting this lesson down & trying to research in the Word how I fell into this state of not being as content as I should have been even in my loneliness, & believing that it was of God, & that God was allowing it for a definite reason, I looked in the "Third Epistle to Pastors" & found a beautiful quote. It says, "The rule of thumb is very simple, the solution is plain but not always easy. God's Word makes it very clear & is summed up in the little slogan on priorities: 'Jesus, & Others, then you.' If you'll follow this simple rule it will keep you out of a lot of trouble. Jesus comes first." And I guess what happened during this trial was that I began to think too much about myself & not enough about others, & in a way kind of murmuring against the Lord by saying, "Well, isn't the Lord supposed to supply all of our needs? How come He is not supplying my need when I am so lonely & I really need someone to be close to that I can share my heart with & have that real close fellowship & inspiration & sex?" We sometimes don't have someone right there that we can run to & talk to, & this therefore puts us

through a trial. But you, Mama, brought out the point very clearly that it's such a special blessing to even be lonely, because when we don't have someone to go to, it does make us depend on the Lord & go to the Lord for our fellowship. So the question was brought up, "Is the Lord failing in His promises when we are lonely? The Lord has promised to supply all of our needs according to His riches in glory." The answer: He's doing something even greater, helping us to have something that we NEED even MORE, which is a close relationship with Jesus! God DOES supply every need! He can be TOTAL fulfilment to us, & satisfy our loneliness if we'll just go to Him. If we are ever going to be leaders, then we're going to have to be dependent on the LORD & NOT on another person, but really on the Lord alone. We can't serve two masters. In a sense, being dependent on another person can be like serving another person & not just the Lord. The Lord must be our First Love! It's not always good to go to someone else instead of the Lord during those times when the Lord is allowing us to be lonely, because the REASON He's letting us be lonely is so we'll draw closer to Him & it will force us to go to Him & Him alone to really love Him & fellowship with Him & get to know Him better. If sometimes we are lonely, it's something the LORD is putting us through. We should be so thankful that He's brought us to this place of utter dependence on Him & only Him.--That He even trusts us with this suffering or this trial & sacrifice & that He knows we're going to put Him first in spite of it all! God doesn't consider our relationship with a SPECIAL someone nearly as important as He considers our relationship to HIM. Getting counsel through a confirming quote or a passage from His Word has been just as good as going to someone & even better, because I'm SURE of what the Word tells me. I can STAND on it, I can CLAIM it & I can be absolute directed by it in the right way & it's not going to take me in any way off the track or in any way cause me to be dependent upon anything or anyone but the Lord & His Word. When I don't have anyone to talk to or anyone to turn to even just to ask about an idea I have or a leading from Lord, seeking a confirmation from them, NOW I turn to the Word! For the type of person who is so dependent on others, the worst thing that could happen to them is to have SOMEONE to depend on all the time instead of the Lord. Our whole dependence needs to be really on the Lord & the Family as a whole & even on the Folks, not just on one person in our lives. It's important that we not seek to be "bound" to any one person or relationship no matter how lonely we feel, or how desperate we think our need is for that close companionship & fellowship, because the reason that the Lord is even allowing us to be lonely is to draw us closer to Him. Dad & his years of loneliness is what really made him what the Lord wanted him to be, because for years he didn't have anybody but the LORD to go to for fellowship. Dad's own example, of course, is another thing that really hits home the most. Dad was willing to do that for what was the Lord's Work for him at that time, & so how much more we should be willing the make even greater sacrifices for His Endtime Work, even suffering greater loneliness if need be for the sake of His Work. Loneliness is good for us because it makes us depend on the Lord. Maybe the Lord doesn't supply because we don't really NEED someone to be close to at this time, but we just need to be close to the LORD. And even though it is not easy, the end result is going to be very good for us because he is teaching us to "set our affections on things above, not on things on the Earth." Sometimes your loneliness is a result of your pride or your selfishness. Maybe it's hard for you to let others know you have a need.--Or maybe you aren't willing to put forth the effort to make someone else happy, & in doing so, find happiness yourself. Or perhaps you only want to be with a CERTAIN person, & if you can't be with them or have their love & attention you don't want anyone, & you wind up very lonely. One night when I was feeling so lonely, I was crying & pouring out my heart to the Lord, & all of a sudden the Lord showed me that, amongst other things, He was using this loneliness to help me feel for the many people in the Family who are separated, or who are singles in a Home & the loneliness that they probably go through. It really did break my heart for those in my same situation, & just for lonely people in general. Maybe the Lord's wants to send along somebody new for us to get to know & to talk to & to pour out to. Maybe we need to pour out to new people so that we don't get too much involved with just one person & become so dependent on that person. Maybe we need others too & their fellowship, & maybe they need us as well. All of this of course, is so that one day we'll be able to comfort others with the same comfort that we're being comforted with, having known real loneliness & having known the Lord's comfort through it all.

Sometimes the Lord lets us start a relationship & it has very good fruit & it meets the need at the time, & then suddenly He just stops it & it is no longer needed. Perhaps we have passed that stage of growth or the Lord has something else for us. The thing we're sometimes seeking & desiring may not be what we really need. So we need to pray & seek the Lord & go to His Word to give us direction, so that our desires will be His desires, nothing more or nothing less. So much of the LEADERSHIP in our Family has had to give up mates! But even sometimes when they were mated they weren't all that compatible because the Lord didn't allow it to be this perfect relationship of such perfect compatibility & love & no problems. It draws us closer to the Lord & it makes us really reach out for the Lord, because we realise that even having a mate doesn't satisfy that place which only the Lord can take, which is "FIRST PLACE"--that NO ONE can fill that place that's made for Him. And if we don't fill it with Him we're just going to have an aching void there, & no matter how many mates or lovers we have, it's never going to be filled until we draw close to Him & put Him in that place. TYJ! "It's wonderful to see them pass the test. ... God help the men & the women too to stand the test, Lord, to fight a good fight, to finish the course & keep the faith so they'll inherit the crown & receive the reward that You have in store for them, the high calling which is in Christ Jesus, the highest they could possibly have, Lord. They already have a high one but You've got an even higher one in store for them, not just something good but something better, the best. Help us not to fall short of Your best, Lord, help us not to trade the best for something that was just simply good. Help us not to settle for anything less than Your best. In Jesus' name. Amen! PTL! Hold on a little longer! The best is just around the corner & worth it! Amen?" --Faithy 26. In the Early Days we went weeks, months, some people went years without sex, & the grace of God sustained us & we just won souls & put all our energy into that & were there for Jesus & for lost souls & it didn't matter what else happened or what we did or didn't have. Eventually, of course, the Lord blessed us with mates & lots of love & sex. We know how to be abased & how to abound & everywhere & in all things we're instructed both to be full & to be hungry, to abound & to suffer need, but in whatsoever state we are, we're to be content. There were times when we did without & we praised the Lord & we were thankful just to be in His Kingdom. When I pioneered Europe, I went about a year & a half without sexual fellowship, & maybe it was to make me a strong soldier & help me to learn to endure hardness. I certainly had to learn to get my orgasms in the Spirit & to really stay close to the Lord & put all my energies into witnessing & winning others for Jesus. Well, thank God for the freedoms that we have now & He has liberated us & it's so wonderful that we can enjoy it, & if we're not with the one we love, we can love the ones we're with, as Dad often says. But we still have to keep the Lord first in our lives just as we did when some of us were practicing eunuchs. Are we in this Family just for the sex or for the freedom or mates or lovers, or for JESUS? Are we really here to save lost souls & are we really here to live & die for Jesus & others? Are we still here for what we joined the Army for or have we allowed other things to take priority in our lives & take a place that they shouldn't & a higher priority than they should? Is the rule of thumb still Jesus, others & then ourselves? --Faithy 27. Shakespeare, Leonardo da Vinci, Benjamin Franklin & Lincoln never saw a movie, heard a radio or looked at TV. They had "loneliness" & knew what to do with it. They were not afraid of being lonely because they knew that was when the creative mood in them would work. --Carl Sandburg 28. If you feel lonely & alone, try a little love! You will be amazed at what you yourself can do to love others & cause them to love you in return. There are many others around you who are just as lonely & longing for love as you are, & just waiting for you to make the first move! Step out by faith & talk to someone today about Love & try to make them happy! Love someone today! Find out what wonders Love can do! You'll find a whole new World of Love you have only dreamed of! There are wonders of Love that you yourself can enjoy along with some other lonely soul--if you will only try! If you GIVE Love, you'll GET Love!

29. The cure for loneliness is not a pill or suicide. It is a person. The lonely one needs a person, or persons.--Someone with whom he can share his dreams, his dreads, his disappoints. Life is lonely until it finds such. The lonely person cannot wait for another to enter his life & dispel the loneliness. He must first begin the journey into another's life, through service, caring, & helping. Then, chances are, he will find his loneliness vanishing. And he will probably have filled another's lonely hours, too. 30. "The things of yesteryear, the things of yore & the pain shall be gone & forgotten in the things which shall be! Neither shall there be any more crying nor any more sorrow nor any more pain! For all these hurts shall be forgotten in the joys that I will give them in the things to come. And I shall wipe away all their tears, neither shall they remember them any more, for all their pain shall be forgotten in the beauties & joys that are to come!" "For yet a little more sorrow & a little more crying, a little more pain, & these things of time shall be no more & shall be forgotten, as a tale that is told & like a dream that is past, in the glories that shall come! It will be worth it all." "The tears shall be wiped away & the former things shall be no more in the glories of the ecstasies of the Kingdom to come! These shall be they that shall be no more & they that shall be forgotten like a dream or a tale in the real World to come forever! We kiss good bye for now--good night here, but good morning Up There!" Forgive me for not rejoicing. So many beautiful wonderful glorious children! So many, Lord, so many! Lord forgive me for grieving over these little ones that I've lost for now that I may regain millions forever! Thank You Jesus! "For yet a little while & these things shall be no more & thou shalt be received into the Kingdom of everlasting habitations & be given joys that shall cause thee to forget these sorrows. For God shall wipe away all tears from your eyes, & there shall be no more pain nor death nor dying nor sorrow, & thou shalt forget the former things & thou shalt have only joy, & forget the sorrows in the World to come forever & ever!" "Yet a little while, & time shall be no more! Just a little more time, a little while, & thou shalt be with Me forever! Sorrow shall endure for a season, but joy cometh in the morning.--Psa.30:5. Then all these sorrows shall be swept away." "Yet a little while, & these things shall be no longer, & I shall take away thy pain & thy grief forever with everlasting joy & eternal solace that shall never end!--And thou shalt have these thy children forever then, & the love that shall never end & a life that shall be forever! Yet a little while & a little sorrow & a little more wringing of the hands, & time shall be no more! Then thou shalt know the love wherewith I have loved THEE, as THOU dost love THEM!" "Yet a little while & these things shall pass away like the night season, & thou shalt glory in Me & My Love forever! A little more pain & a little more sorrow & a little more wringing of the hands, & these things shall be no more. Therefore comfort ye one another with these words. Even as this perfume wipes away the evil, so shall My Love wipe away the hurt!" 31. You must put God first! If the Lord gives you a little sweet personal fellowship in the Lord together, that's a bonus. But don't blame it on a person if you don't have it.--It's up to the Lord! If you don't have it, just bury yourself in the Lord's Work--& let her (him) do the same. You just go your way, & let her (him) go her (his) way. God is in control! And if you're reaping what you sowed, you may have to do it for the rest of your life! Your love for the Lord cannot hinge on your wife (husband)! You're going to have to put God first--nothing except God's Work. God's testing you now to see if you're going to put Him first! You can't expect to work together all the time. You're both so valuable your talents can't always be all concentrated in one place at one time. Unless the Work unites you where you have to be together--God expects you to be willing to put Him first & be separated from each other. You have to be willing to say, "Lord, if You want to give her (him) back to me, okay, but if not, I'm going to go ahead anyway without her (him) & praise You no matter what!" Sacrifice has been the primary requisite for love in our Family! That's the kind of person she (he) will love. But a selfish possessive love doesn't work in our kind of Family. The person with the most dedication is the one who always comes out better. It's easy for her (him)

to go because she's (he's) more dedicated. When you're totally dedicated & sold-out to the Lord & Him alone, you don't care so much about it. Get busy & involved in the Lord's Work & it won't bother you so much! 32. They won't let you take MO Letters to prison, only what you remember in your head & heart, that's all you'll have. You'll only have what you have inside, that's all, nothing outside. That's all I have already in the night like this when I wake up, besides praying in tongues. All I have to fight the Enemy with is the Scriptures that I have memorised. At night I'm already in prison & I'm alone & I fight the forces of darkness alone with the Lord & His Word. I just have to quote Scripture & pray in tongues against the Enemy who tries to overwhelm me at night when I'm alone & you're all sleeping. But thank the Lord He never fails. He always helps me through! TYJ! PTL! 33. If you put your desires of the flesh first above God & others & the needs of your spirit, you'll find that nothing ever satisfies, not even the most total indulgence in the flesh! You will become as the world-famed poet, Lord Byron, when he despaired at the height of his fame with these words: "I've drunk of every fount of pleasure & quaffed every cup of fame, yet, alas, I die of thirst!" For the things of this Earth can satisfy your body, but only God & His true Love can ever fill that aching spiritual void of your heart which He created for Himself alone! For true happiness comes NOT in your personal pursuit of selfish pleasure & satisfaction, but in finding GOD & giving His life to OTHERS & bringing THEM happiness! THEN happiness pursues & overtakes & overwhelms YOU, personally, without even seeking it for yourself! So maybe that's what's wrong with you:--You've been looking for someone to make YOU happy.-Maybe you need to look for someone to make THEM happy, & then happiness will find you! For whatsoever a man SOWETH that shall he also REAP. 34. I know how you feel when you're lonely. I was lonely for many years on the road as a travelling salesman until I found how to relieve that loneliness with company. Of course if you have JESUS you always have company & love. But you usually need some human being as well, & I learned how to find somebody to fill my loneliness & we've learned how to help others fill that loneliness with somebody, Jesus & others. Sometimes during those years on the road without my family, I got so lonely I could almost die, but instead of that I just prayed the Lord would help me & comfort me because HE'S always there, thank You Jesus! You don't have to be alone, you can go out & love somebody & be loved. You can talk to them about Jesus & God's Love & help them to be FULLY satisfied & COMPLETELY happy FOREVER with not only HUMAN love & companionship, but with the Love of GOD, because God IS Love & He will satisfy your need of love FOREVER! 35. When everything else is passed away, you'll still have Jesus! When everything else is gone, there will still be Jesus! When all others forsake you, there will still be Jesus! When you haven't got anything left, there will still be Jesus! When everything else has gone to pot & everything else lies in ruins, Jesus will still be with you. When the World has nothing left, YOU'LL still have JESUS! When the loves of this World pass away & that old girlfriend deserts you because she's not willing to forsake all, & that old boyfriend isn't willing to join up & die with the Children of Love, you can sing this dear old hymn that was written by a man who was told by his doctor that he was going blind & would be totally blind in six months. So he went to tell his girlfriend, his fiancé that he was about to get married to, & he took her hand in his & began to tell her the sad news that he was going blind. All of a sudden he felt her hand quiver & then icily, coldly, withdraw it from his & she burst into tears & said, "I couldn't be married to a blind man!" Well, he went back home & sat down & he knew that all he had left now was Jesus, & he wrote this precious old hymn which has wrung my heart many a time & encouraged & thrilled me when others disappointed me & others failed me! Oh Love that will not let me go, I rest my weary soul in Thee, I give Thee BACK the life I owe. That in Thine ocean depths its flow May richer, fuller be!

You were giving your life to SOMEBODY else, you were giving it to SOMETHING else & now you wake up to the fact that something else & somebody else doesn't satisfy, & somebody else fails you, somebody else disappoints you, so you give it BACK to the Lord that gave it, the One you owe it to, amen? "Seek first the Kingdom of God."--Mat.6:33. "I'll have no other gods before Me!"--Exo.20:3 36. There are many people in the World with nobody to talk to. At least YOU'VE got somebody to TALK to. YOU can at least talk to JESUS even if you don't have anybody else. 37. Although I had the Lord I used to feel very lonely because I really had no one to share Him with--like you & you & you & all of you! Even if you know the Lord, you need someone here & now physically to communicate with & to share with, to talk to. 38. Get your mind off yourself! Forget yourself! Get your mind on OTHERS! Get your mind on JESUS! Think about the Lord & forget yourself & go to work for Jesus! That's the best cure in the World for that kind of problem, good old-fashioned work-therapy, love-therapy, love for others, love for the Lord! Sacrifice yourself on the altar, forget yourself, lose yourself! Forget your God-damned selfish personal proud feelings! Happiness is what you make it, & you don't make yourself happy by TRYING to make yourself happy, or trying to find somebody else to make you happy. It's a law of God just like gravity that you don't GET happy by trying to MAKE yourself happy or trying to get somebody else to make you happy, but you GET happiness by trying to GIVE it to other people! You don't find happiness by chasing it! You go around chasing others & trying to make THEM happy, then happiness will find YOU, it will chase you & catch up with you & make you happy! That's a law of God! We have a little saying, love isn't love till you give it away! What does it mean? Love isn't REAL love until you are spending your time trying to give love to others.--Not trying to GET love, that's not love, that's selfishness. That's wanting selfish satisfaction, that's introspection, that's sucking, that's desire. My, how we love sympathy when we're down, when sometimes that's the last thing in the world we need! Instead, somebody needs to come along & sock us in the butt, kick us in the ass, sock us on the chin to wake us up out of our lethargy & our stupor of self-pity & self-sympathy so we can get our minds on the LORD & His WORK & OTHERS & forget our God-damned, stinkin' self! You'll never get the victory by looking at yourself, because there's nobody that drags you down worse than you & your stinkin' self, your own foul spirit! Self is horrible! Self is terrible!--That kind of self, that evil you, that evil SELF. (Sings:) "Keep your eyes on Jesus, do not watch the waves! Keep your eyes on Jesus, 'tis faith in Him that saves!" Quit TRYING to have the victory, just let JESUS come in & let HIM win it!--PTL? Get your mind on the Lord! Get your mind on your job! Get your mind on helping others! Seek their happiness before your own! Have real, genuine, sacrificial, unselfish love! Get your mind on JESUS! Ask HIM to help you love HIM so much you'll love OTHERS so much you'll FORGET your God-damned evil self, your worst enemy, & live for the LORD, live for JESUS, live for OTHERS! 39. Don't you understand that the MOST IMPORTANT thing is to stay close to JESUS? Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, precious Jesus! Don't you understand? The MOST important thing is JESUS!--To stay close to HIM!--To let HIM lead & guide you! 40. I'm sure it's the Enemy that keeps bringing those things to your mind to distract you & to get you away from what you're supposed to be doing. It's not only distracting to your work, but it's also not even GOOD for you to be thinking those things. It's remembering the PAST & we're supposed to FORGET the things that are behind! It's like people who lose their husband or their wife, a lot of them just live forever in the past after that & they just refuse to be comforted. In a way it's a COMFORT to them to live in the past & to relive all the wonderful things they went through. Sorrowing for them in a way is a comfort because it feels good, it brings back their mate, it brings back those good times, so they refuse to accept reality & they just live in their world of the past. I guess it's EASIER for THEM, but it doesn't help anybody ELSE because they're not able to go on to NEW HORIZONS, they just continue to live on in the past.

Well, if they're very old & if they don't have to do anything else & they don't have to preach the Gospel & they don't have kids to raise, then maybe the Lord is merciful to them by letting them relive their memories. If they don't have anything else worthwhile to do, living in the past is probably happiness for them, it makes them much happier than living alone & not having anybody or anything to live for. But for us who have battles to fight & a war to win, we can't be constantly thinking about the past & how great everything USED to be, because we don't have time! Everybody daydreams sometimes & even though they may not have made it a lifelong habit, there may be certain times when they are drawn much more to the past. Perhaps you just left your loved ones & you miss them & are concerned about them, which of course is common & natural. But like Dad said, when he was on the road for Fred he never took with him pictures of Mother Eve & the children, because he felt he had a job to do & he wanted to be SINGLE-MINDED & he didn't want to be constantly reminded of what he was forsaking. He didn't want to make it easy for his mind to wander back to his family & his children, because he needed to keep his mind on the Lord's Work without distraction & he trusted the Lord for the care of his family. Of course, you want to PRAY for your loved ones sometimes, but if praying for them draws you into thinking too much about them & missing them, then maybe you should ask OTHER people to pray for them. Of course, it's normal to have that temptation to think about them all the time, but you have to put them out of your mind MOST of the time if you're going to keep your mind on the job the Lord has for you & not get down & depressed & discouraged & murmuring. --Maria 41. I thank the Lord that most of the time I have victory over the past & my loved ones whom I loved dearly, but if I let myself go & think about it, I could weep & cry too. I have to just keep my eyes on the goal & single-mindedness to the job & I can't let myself go. Otherwise I'll displease the Lord & He won't be able to use me. If we weep so much over our losses the Lord is just liable to give them back to us & give us what we so desire. I have to say that the Lord gives me so many to love around me that I have little time for remorse or regret or even self-pity.--Not that I don't deeply love & miss my loved ones & every once in a while feel a sadness at not seeing them. But I've got to keep my mind & heart on the job at hand & just put them in the Lord's hands & pray for them faithfully & let the Lord's Spirit continue to uphold them & carry them through this time. I've really got to just keep pouring out to others & giving love so that I can receive the love to keep going & to be able to strengthen others. --Faithy 42. "ONE thing have I desired of the Lord, that I will seek after. that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the Lord & to inquire in His Temple," & I soon learned that the MAIN lesson that the Lord was trying to teach me was not that I just needed to get over losing this love in my life, but that I really needed to FILL all of the gaps & the vacancies left in my heart with MORE of JESUS, more of HIS love & a greater YIELDEDNESS to Him & His Will!--THIS is why our whole relationship had gotten so out of hand in the first place, because it encroached on the place in my heart that the LORD intended for HIMSELF alone!--It was a very sad & heartbreaking thing to realise that I had failed & hurt the Lord & not given HIM first place. "I am He that FILLETH all things, to pour out upon the thirsty ground, to beautify the lowly life, to heal the ragged wounds, to enlighten the darkened minds, to bring grace & beauty & wisdom!"--What a precious promise that the LORD can fill up ALL the holes & the gaps in our hearts. I really clung to this as I would sometimes feel such a void in my life & emptiness inside after losing someone whom I loved so dearly, but I knew the solution was to get filled up with more of JESUS! "He FILLS all the empties!" --Apollos 43. It would help so many couples to realise that perhaps the Lord doesn't expect them to have a perfect ideal relationship, as if they did, perhaps they would then feel that they could do without the fellowship of other Family members, & even worse, perhaps without the fellowship of the Lord. 44. Jesus is the only One that can satisfy that empty feeling which we sometimes feel. Even when we have someone dear & close to us physically, there seems to be that feeling, which is only satisfied by us getting desperate & closer to Him.