Everywhere Is Home

Everywhere Is Home

by Gertrude Dekock Keehn

Transcribed from the original recording; may contain errors.

Heavenly Father, we thank Thee for the wonderful opportunity that is given to us to meet together in this way, to be able to learn more of Thee. O God, grant that not one soul here shall leave this place without having learned more of Thee. And may they be filled with Thy Holy Spirit and know the wonder of that gift of God. That their lives may be constantly unfolding into the pattern which God has ordained for all of His children. That they may find themselves within that pattern and know that rest which only Thou canst give. We ask this in Jesus’ name and for His sake. Amen. Amen.

It’s a very wonderful joy to me to be here again. I remember so well this auditorium. Somehow or other I’ve been to so many places since then. And yet you come back and you see these faces that you remember and it’s just like another coming home. I find that everywhere I go back to, the places, the people I’ve known, it’s coming home. And I’ve learned that everywhere is home when God within you is felt and realized. So that home is the real home. And then your home wherever you are. But to me the world is home. It’s just as though all those who love God are belonging to one family and we all love each other. Sometimes we visit and sometimes we leave. But we’re all one family. I’m going to read just a few verses from the 19th chapter of Matthew. Just a few verses commencing at the 13th verse.

Verse 1. Then were there brought unto Him little children, that He should put His hands on them and pray. And His disciples rebuked them. But Jesus said, Suffer little children, and forbid them not, to come unto Me. For of such is the kingdom of heaven. And He laid His hands on them. And departed thence. And behold, one came and said unto Him, Good Master, what good thing shall I do, that I may have eternal life? And Jesus said unto him, Why callest thou Me good? There is none good but one. That is God. But if thou wilt enter into life, keep the commandments.

I remember when that verse first struck me very forcibly. There is none good but God. Just one. God. And gradually it dawned upon me that Jesus Christ identified Himself with God. God. That God was to have all the glory, all the honor. God must be all in all. Therefore, they must not even think of Him as being He whom they should worship. It must be God. God. Now friends, we meet together at these camps. And we think that we have come for various reasons. I believe, and I say this at nearly every camp, because at the end of every camp they all tell me that what I said was true, I believe that you all have a motive for coming. And I believe that you believe that is your motive. That you believe that is your motive. But I believe that deep underneath whatever your motive is, other than this one, it is this one. That you want to know more of God. More of God. Or you may not have thought it out in so many words, but that is so. Because even if you have come with simply the motive to be with people who think this way, and to have fellowship with old friends again, and because the place appeals to you, or perhaps somehow or other there is somebody here you wanted to see very much.

Whether that be your reason seemingly or not, it is because somehow, somewhere, you want to strive towards that which will give you more peace, more joy, more love, more lasting happiness. And I know that that is the real reason. Some have said to me, “Well, I came because I am sick in body. And I hope to be healed.” And others have said, “Well, I have come because I am passing through deep waters. And somehow my life at the moment is dark and I need to regain my faith.” And others have said other things. All different reasons. But really and truly, the one reason is that we should know more of God. I have said this probably to some of you before, that as a child I was frightened of God. I could think of Jesus Christ and I could imagine that I could talk to Him. And I would be able to perhaps get something from Him. But God frightened me. The thought of so great a being. So tremendous a being. Someone who could do the things He could do. And that He was everywhere. It was a little frightening to me. I don’t know whether it ever was to you, but it was to me. I couldn’t dare think of Him seeing me everywhere, wherever I went and whatever I did.

Proving that I did much that I hoped He’d never see. And so our fear of not wanting God to be so close is simply that we are living outside of the realm of His love. But if we live within the realm of His love, we’re so glad that He’s so close. He is the only vibration within our life at last. And therefore we couldn’t bear to be out of tune with Him. We couldn’t bear to be out of step or out of rhythm with Him. So the fact that we might avoid the conversation about God, or just not want to know that He’s so very close, is proof that we are not living the life that we were meant to live, that we might enjoy the fullness of all things. Now, therefore, my being frightened of Him changed into a longing to be near Him. Then of course to discover, which I was not taught as a child, that the Spirit of God was within me, or I read it, the ministers read it, my mother and father said it. But it was never really conveyed to me in such language that I could grasp the idea that the Spirit of God was within me. Well, now the Spirit of God is within me. God is Spirit. God is Spirit.

Now, if you ponder over that for a little while, and then say, the Spirit of God is within me, how mighty, how vast, a realization, how wonderful a truth, what an enormous security, what a tremendous companion. Why, it shatters all those fears and doubts. It shatters all your idea that you cannot solve a problem. God, the Spirit of God, dwells in me. Does He dwell in everybody? They don’t look like it. They don’t act like it. And that again became a subject for me to ponder over, as I’m sure it has you. But I love the way we may grow into a deeper awareness of these truths until these truths are part of us. Until they become actually the very life of us, the very food, the very drink, everything we require. These truths at last become the foundation of all happiness, all security, everything. So therefore, these things do not come to us in their fullness. At first, we get little glimpses of it, especially at a camp. You get a very large glimpse of this truth that God is in you. And you find He is in a lot of other people around you in the camp, people you never dreamt He’d dwelt in. In fact, you wouldn’t have even given them a thought about God dwelling in them.

But before two or three days, you find that He’s simply bubbling up over and out of them. You think that’s strange? Now, where did He come from? You don’t think these exact words, but these are the emotions that pass through one. And so we find ourselves slowly pondering over this truth. There is one God, and He is good. He is the only one. Does that mean that Jesus wasn’t? No. It means that Jesus was so full of Him that that was only God. Only God. And if the Spirit of Christ is in you to such an extent that He lives in you, the way, the truth, and the life, then the Spirit of God is one God in you, and it’s bubbling over. Then if everybody has this oneness with God, so that you say, “Callest thou Me good? Only one is good, God.” Doesn’t it mean that all you think of and all you want to be is like Him? Therefore, you talk as though it is Him. Then it is one universal God manifesting in myriads of forms. One God. Jesus said that so that there should be no separation between the two consciousnesses. Jesus said, “Callest thou Me good?” Well, as a man, wouldn’t you think He was good? Wasn’t He just the most glorious being that ever lived?

And isn’t He still the most glorious being that ever lived? But He said, “Callest thou Me good? One is good. God.” God. This proves to me that Jesus had no other consciousness within Him but God. He had no other consciousness. Nothing that He saw around Him separated His idea of God. Perfection, beauty, love, truth. In the vilest of sinners, He saw the Son of God. It doesn’t matter who they were, He somehow saw this glorious Father. This Father that He alone knew as His life, His very being. Friends, you and I are a long, long way, aren’t we, from being that perfect Son of God. How many things in our daily lives separate our minds from this truth? How many times do we speak as though we sense insecurity? How many times do we doubt the possibility of being healed? How many times do we doubt that someone will come back who has left us? How many times do we doubt through the day about anything? Business, home life, anything. How many times? How many times? And every time we do that, every time, we’ve separated our consciousness or awareness from God. Yet His Spirit is within you. His Spirit is within me, mighty.

Almighty God dwells within you. Almighty God dwells within you. And dwells within me. Why is He not expressed? Because I would… if He was not expressed in me at any moment of the day, that is when I am not aware that He is there or that His life is my life, it means that I become aware of that silly little trouble, of that silly little difficulty, of that little setback, of that criticism, of that something that makes me wonder, how shall I do this or do that? If one of those things cause us to depart from the living God, we are miserable indeed. St. Paul said, “Let not unbelief creep into your heart, that ye depart from the living God.” So it’s up to us then. God never departs from us, we depart from Him, but not actually in person, but in consciousness.

Oh, it’s the most wonderful thing in life to know that God dwells in the midst of me. And that He lives in the midst of you. And the moment you turn from any destructive thought, any fear, any doubt, any seeming thing, anything, doesn’t matter what it is, and return to the consciousness that He is within. And it’s just where everything is, you’re just where you are completely safe, you say safe, that the things are still happening, but you are safe, you’re safe. While you try to put it right yourself and sweat and toil to get it right, you’re not safe. You’re in danger of retaliating. You’re in danger of speaking out your fears. You’re in danger of passing on your fears and your doubts. You’re in great danger of losing faith. You’re in great danger of losing your health in such a state of mind. You are in great danger when you don’t enter the secret place of the Most High God. You are not safe. Yet standing here in one place, on my own two feet, I can be in hell and I can be in heaven. I can be a cast away from the living God, or I can stand firmly grounded in the truth that He is in me, my Deliverer. Oh friends, when Christians reach this, we are going to look like strangers in this old world.

Real strangers. Because the world won’t know us. And the moment the world doesn’t know you, and doesn’t know me, be sure you are in the kingdom. Because the children of the kingdom of God live different lives to the children of the world, people who walk in darkness, they don’t think so. They think they walk in light. But it’s dark the way they live. Dark the way they walk in their fears. Fears over their children. Suspicions over their friends. Oh, it’s dark. It’s one of the darkest places to live. Yet you’d be shut in a dungeon. Because you witness for the truth. And you’d be in brilliant light. Brilliant light. Because where Christ is, it’s all light. So I’m wondering, how many people here… And you see, when I heard you all singing at supper time, and I saw the radiant faces, I was perfectly aware of that. Not just all being necessarily spiritual, but it’s psychological. You know, if somebody was telling you a very ugly story, and you weren’t on guard, you’d go down. And you tell the next one, they’d go down. But let one person come in and lift you up. You begin to be lifted up. That’s good. But that isn’t truly enough. This must be a spontaneous joy coming out of your hearts yourselves.

Such a spontaneous joy that everybody’s going to catch it, even if you don’t try to let them. Somebody said to me once at a meeting, it wasn’t camp, “Oh, let’s do something to stir the people. Aren’t they heavy?” I said, “Well, we don’t have to stir them. It’s the Holy Spirit that has to stir them.” “Yes, well, let’s do something.” “No,” I said, “let’s just be still. And let’s ask God to do something.” Friends, I could only rouse you to excitement for five minutes. You’d be worn out. But the Holy Spirit arouses this within you that is a permanent reality. Don’t you see we don’t want these temporary happinesses and joys and upliftments. Why, it makes the returning to our normal, which isn’t normal, our normal way of life, it makes that returning just terrible. It makes your life seem twice as dark, because you’ve tasted some light. You know, if you go into a pitch dark room, after a long period of time, you can begin to pick out certain things in the room. Your eyes get used to the darkness. But let somebody strike a match and throw up all these things and you see them and then blow that match out. Why, it’s darker than it was before. It’s much darker because you’ve had a little light.

And that is what it is like when we leave these places where we find a lot of happiness and we go back to what we call our normal life. Believe me, friends, it’s the most abnormal life. But we go back to what we think is a normal life and we feel so flat. Oh, I had some beautiful experiences at our last camp. We had a tremendous lot of young people. And Gregory Rosemont was the other speaker with me there. And we both felt led to give our talks more to the young people. And it’s amazing, you know, that at last the older ones understood. The more we talk to the young people, the more the older ones understand. And they say, “Oh, you know, I never knew how to talk to my children until you were talking to those children.” Just keep that up. So Gregory and I kept it up, which was very, very nice for us, you know. We just kept youthful the whole time. Now, these dear children, there were three rows along the front. And every day they brought their Bibles. Oh, was that a joy to me. To see them the moment we said where we were going to read from, get their Bible. Oh, friends, when I see young people holding this book, my heart sings.

And we had these glorious times together. I’m going to tell you this to show you just how a vibration can change. These children were getting more and more and more filled with the Spirit. And they were scholarship children. They’d come with the scholarship funds. And they’d come from various kinds of homes. And one little girl especially had come from a very unhappy home. And it appears that she was what she called dragged to camp by a religious woman. That religious woman was one of the sweetest women. But this little girl thought, oh dear, you know, just dragged there by a religious woman. Now, this little girl became so alive with the Spirit of Christ. She was about 14. She was about 14. That she just wanted to tell everybody. And what she was going to do when she got home. Well, it was… the camp closed on Monday. And on Sunday morning, we had a phone call from a church about 135 miles away. And these two evangelist ministers said, “Could we bring over a lot of young people? We hear that this camp is appealing to youth. And we’d like to bring all these young people.” So they brought over several carloads. 65 children. Teenagers. Now, I want you to follow this very closely.

Our young people had, for a whole week, been building up into an atmosphere of love and joy and fellowship and oneness. They’d forgotten about anything that divided them. They were just one in Christ. And they had yielded their lives. Nine of them, anyhow, had fully yielded their lives, wanting to be like Jesus Christ. Now, all these children came from a church. Now, mark you, a church? A church where they were being taught the right way and where these ministers were giving their whole attention to educate these children spiritually. But they had caught the picnic spirit coming over. They’d had hamburgers and Cokes, you know, and they’d got a picnic spirit. Well, now the picnic spirit’s alright, but it isn’t necessary at that moment on a level with what we had arrived at in a week. So they all came into our hall, where to us it had become almost sacred ground. You know how it does after a week at camp. You feel as if somehow every little tiny corner is filled with the Spirit of Jesus Christ. And they all came bouncing in with their Cokes, you know, throwing papers at each other. And our three rows looked, oh, this is awful. But they didn’t understand. And they all crowded in the back and they all began to talk, you know, crossed their legs and talked to each other.

What’s this show? What’s going on? You know, because we weren’t church. So they didn’t expect it to be like church. And I could see all the faces of these young people. Oh, this has ruined our camp. But it didn’t. It didn’t. I said to them, “This would be a very good afternoon for you young people to come up and tell them what Christ has done for you. How many of you could?” I was supposed to have a question and answer period for all these young people. I wanted to get the atmosphere right with our young people. So nine of them came up. I have that tape recording. And I tell you, it’s just a joy to listen to. They were telling what Jesus had done for them. And one boy said, “I don’t know what to tell you. I don’t know how to tell you. It’s just something you can’t explain. You’re so full of something that you can’t talk about.” Anyhow, I highly recommend it.

And then another little girl said how she hadn’t loved God. He hadn’t meant a thing to her. And what love had done. And oh, it was just heaven to hear all these nine stand up and tell all those young people, as well as our own campers, what Christ had done. And how they were going to try to be different. And what they were going to do. Well, then I had the questions and answers. And some of them were not at all like we would have had at camp, but they were good from some of these other boys and girls. And just as they were about to leave, one of the girls stood up and she said, “Please, may I come up?” So, one of our girls, when she came up, she said, “I’m going to tell you all that I was afraid. I didn’t want to come up. I wasn’t going to come up there.” But she said, “Something in me has made me come up and tell you what God has done for me.” Just a little thing. About fifteen. So she told them all what God had done for her. It was the most impressive afternoon. Anyway, all the others went. Some of the boys and girls said, “Oh, Curtis, isn’t it good that that crowd has gone?”

And I said, “You know, that’s the greatest lesson for you boys and girls, that you may ever have. Those boys and girls are no better and no worse than you are.” “What do you mean?” “No,” I said, “they were in a picnic spirit. It was hard to catch on. And you’re going to be in that picnic spirit sometimes. When you get back, you’re going to be caught up in other spirits as well as picnic spirits. And you’re going to have things said to you that are going to draw you away from this high altitude of spiritual life.” “You don’t believe it now?” “No,” they said. And one boy said, “I’m determined nothing’s going to move me.” And a tremendous compassion filled me. Because I know, I know how hard it is to stand firm to that one level. And to keep like that, no matter what’s happening to you, all around you. How quickly the mind can go down to a lower level. How quickly we forget that God, the almighty Spirit, is within us. And so, when I said goodbye to them all, I said, “You know, I don’t know whether to cry or to laugh when I say goodbye to you. Because something in me knows your willingness, your eagerness. And I know how hard it is.”

And sure enough, within three or four days, I got letters. “Oh, Gertrude, how right you were.” Now, friends, I tell you that little story about those young people, chiefly because it’s the same with everybody. Just the same with everybody. We all come to these camps to catch this spirit of love and fellowship, which we do not perhaps have in our business and home life perhaps even. And so we come here to catch it. And we feel as though those that we meet here are nearer to our family than even those of our flesh and blood family sometimes. Simply because they love the same Lord that we love. And we all speak the same language and so it’s heaven. Especially towards the end of the week. Because, you know, if you ever hear a bunch of people ever gossiping at a camp, I believe I’d just drop on the spot. It just wouldn’t seem possible. It’s as though something disappears out of our consciousness. Something that doesn’t belong where God belongs. And therefore we have come, whether we admit it or not, we have come that we might know more of God. We have come that we might learn to abide in His presence. So that we have this tremendous joy which Jesus says we may have.

Because Jesus, even though His life was one long… I don’t know what He would have called joy out of that precious life that He had here on earth. I couldn’t find one thing in it that could have given Him joy. And yet He said, “I give you My joy. I’m going to leave you My joy. And if you have My joy, no man will ever be able to take it away. My joy. I’ve come that you might have fullness of joy.” Therefore, you and I have to search for this joy. What is this joy? Is it this effervescence that we have in our fellowship at camps? Yes, it is. If it isn’t emotional. Yes, it is. If it is something that is going to be a realization permanently within us. Yes, it is. If it remains when what seems to be sorrow approaches us. Yes, it is indeed joy. If it remains when adversity comes. All the other kind of joy, surely, is natural if you’ve got nothing to worry you. That isn’t the joy Jesus talked about. He didn’t talk about a joy where you were having fun and life was good. He talked about a joy that was within you no matter what happens. It was the joy that St. Paul had when he was chained by his feet and his hands. In that dungeon.

When I came back from South Africa last June, I flew over the North Pole. I went to Rome first. I had five days in Rome and I visited all the places where St. Paul was. I went down in that dungeon. When I think of how he wrote those beautiful letters to the Ephesians, to the Corinthians, to the Galatians, at least he couldn’t write them. He dictated them. Just one he wrote, you know, where he said, “See with what large letters I have written.” And you pictured his hand chained, trying to make these letters, these big letters. Well, he was full of joy. What kind of joy? He knew later on he was going to have to die for his faith. He knew what they were going to do to him too. He knew that in the shipwreck, when they said it would be a shipwreck, he knew that the Lord had said, “You shall witness in Rome for Me, Paul.” He knew they wouldn’t drown, because the Lord had said he had to go to Rome. But he knew what faced him in Rome. And yet he was full of joy. Why was he full of joy? He caught the joy of Jesus Christ. And that joy no man could take from him.

He was witnessing for the Lord. He who had persecuted the Christians. He who had watched them killed and stoned. But now he’d received the joy of Jesus Christ, and nobody could take it away from him. So what do I really want to do at this camp? You know, I love these camps. I take only about five. I don’t think I can ever do more than five in one year. It seems to me enough. But everyone this year has been aglow with the Holy Spirit. And something has happened at every camp that I’ve been to this year. Something amazing. Not because of me. Don’t misunderstand me. I mean, the Holy Spirit, in some wonderful way, was active. People were either healed, or they were able to overcome some deep-rooted sin. Or they were able to triumph over something that had no victory over before. I can assure you that each camp has been, to me this year, a living witness of what the Spirit can do when it is allowed to act. And I want you, this week, with me, to just open yourselves entirely to Him. Father, Heavenly Father, I know that Your Spirit is in me, but it doesn’t seem to be very active. I’m not… I know that You’re my very life. I know that I live and I move and I have my being in You, but somehow Your life is not in me active, as it was in Jesus, doing the things that Jesus did.

I don’t find this great joy, which is a bubbling reality. Oh, God, I want it. And I want You to want it. I want You to want it so badly, more than you want anything else you’ve ever wanted in your life. Because once you have found that pearl of great price, you’d sell every other pearl you’ve got to get it. You know, Jesus said, it’s like a treasure in a field, that when a man knows that treasure’s there, he’ll go and sell all that he has and buy that field, so that he can have that treasure. And He says, it’s like the leaven that the… that you put down in the third measure of meal, and it rises and it makes this great lump rise. It’s like that. Well, do you have that? Do you really have it? Have you got that something in you that is like a ferment of the Spirit? Always bubbling up like a fountain of living water? Because if you haven’t, don’t say it is impossible, that that is a gift only to the few. It’s a free gift to all, whosoever will may come. Now you might say to me, “You know, you’re talking to a lot of Christians, aren’t you very presumptuous?”

Oh, friends, I talk to lots of Christians. I was a Christian once too. You say, “Aren’t you now?” Well, not if meaning… not if a Christian means just going to church and singing hymns and being partially good. No, I’m not a Christian anymore. Because I believe when the Spirit of God dwells in you, and you let that Spirit do and be in you whatever it wants to be, you’re a changed person. So changed that nobody knows you. And when they don’t know you, you’re sure you’re there. It takes a long time, you know, for people to acknowledge you when you make that change. They first think you’re not normal, which of course is the natural reaction, because they’re not normal. The second reaction is that they wish they could be abnormal like you are. And then, if you keep on being what we know is normal, but seemingly abnormal, they will at last copy you and then say, “It’s so nice, isn’t it? Nobody’s normal in this world.” They discover it at last. And when people say, have said that I am not, many times, you don’t say that I don’t think you are either. You just know it inside with a tiny little smile. You think it’s a shame. They don’t know it. That’s the reverse way.

But you don’t tell them, because you see, they get hurt. When you really know that God is in you, the only one good God. Oh, isn’t that something? When I realize it, sometimes I don’t know what to do. And then I wonder what that great joy is, as I realize it. What is this great joy? Why? You’re acknowledging God. So as you acknowledge God, He comes into manifestation within your consciousness, therefore within your life. Therefore within your life. And whatever you do, it is no longer I, but Christ dwelling in me. And Christ is the Son, the universal Son of God, born in you. We’re going to hear a lot more about it this week, I know. But I want something to happen at this camp. I want something big to happen. So big that you’ll never forget it. Not because it’s somebody else’s experience, but yours. Yours. Oh, it’s so easy to say, “Oh, I saw a wonderful thing happen, you know. Saw a man get up there and, why, it was marvelous what happened.” Friends, that’s not marvelous, it’s only marvelous when it happens to you. It’s when it happens to you that you can say it’s marvelous. Because you can’t speak for anybody else. At this very camp that Guy spoke about this evening, there was a young girl there.

She never minds anyone knowing her story. In fact, she’d tell it right now if she stood here. She was about 21. And she had become involved in many vices. They don’t matter. You know, we never need to talk about what they are because they’re unreal. But she was. And she didn’t want to come to that camp. And she said to me one morning, about the third morning, “Pray for me that I lose all these dreadful, evil desires.” And I said, “No, no, that wouldn’t be much good. Because if I did and you lost them, there’d be room for a lot more to come in. I want you to want to be like Jesus and then I will pray with you.” No, she didn’t want that. She just wanted to get rid of all these desires that brought her into terrible difficulties. Disliked by her friends. She’d lost her job. All sorts of things had happened to her, which of course made her want to lose those desires. That’s not the motive. That mustn’t be the motive. Jesus said, “If I cast out one, I leave room for a legion to enter.” And so that was no good. Well, she came again and again until it got to about the second day before the camp was over.

And she came to me begging me. She said, “I want to be like Jesus. I do.” “All right,” I said. And so Harold and I took her to pray in spite of that romance business. There was no romance. We did pray together, but there was no romance. I’m sorry, Guy. I’d love to say it was so. It wasn’t. Anyway, she came and we prayed with her. And to our utter joy when we had prayed with her, I’d never seen anything quite like it ever. She just jumped up off the chair and shouted, “I am free. Whatever this is, I’m free.” And she was. Then I said, “Don’t come to any more of the meetings. Go down by the river and sit down there by the river alone with God and see what He has to say to you.” Which she did. Well, when she left the camp, she said, “If I could only leave this place where I live, where everybody knows me, where my father has sort of disowned me. And if only I could just go to some other place.” I said, “No. It’s right there. It’s right there in that town where you are going to reinstate yourself and witness for the Lord. That’s where you’ve got to do it.” You remember when Jesus said to Paul, “Now you should teach the Gentiles.”

Paul had to do jobs that weren’t at all pleasant. But that was the way best he could witness. And so she went back to the town. That girl today holds three prayer groups for the crowd that she mixed with. That she and they were deep in vice and sin. She holds prayer groups. I get long distance calls or letters. “Pray for this one.” Then she writes, “Thanks, Gertrude, that prayer was answered. Now pray for this one.” And I get all these lists that I have to pray for with her. By faith, you see, she knows. They’ll have their prayers answered just as it was answered for her. She is a little shining light. That was something that happened. Something that happened. Truly happened. You say she wasn’t healed. Oh, she was healed of things that are worse than sickness. Yes, she was healed. Yes, she was healed. And therefore, although there may be nobody here who has such an experience, there’s not one of us here who couldn’t cry out with David, “Search me, O Lord, and know my heart. My heart. And see if there be any wicked way in me. And if so, Lord, cleanse me and lead me to eternal life.” Friends, it’s the most wonderful thing to live in eternal life.

Every time we do wrong, every time we think wrong, we are walking this way into eternal destruction of our hopes, our joys, our loves, our everything. That really are eternal. But every time we speak in the consciousness of the indwelling God, we are on the eternal road. Life eternal. It’s up to us which way we walk. It’s up to us which way we live, joyously or miserably. The offer is free. And I have found that the more I relax into His promises, the less I have to do. But I found that the hardest thing in life was to claim my inheritance. Because you always imagine you’ve got to make your own. No, your Father has your inheritance. What you have to do is abide in Him. Jesus said, “If you would have eternal life, keep the commandments.” The greatest commandment is love one another. The only law is love. And I think this week we are here to learn about what that love is. It’s not love like we know. And this human level. It’s not love like we think we want out of life. It’s not like that at all. It’s a love beyond human comprehension. And yet, every man and woman may have it. Every man and woman may live within that love.

That they themselves become love itself. It’s something that very few people believe. It’s something that very, very few people possess. And imagine, it’s a free gift. It’s a free gift. But there are so few people who know how to claim it. Because they believe that by living all these things that Jesus told us to live is going to be terribly hard. Oh, it’s so hard to live like that. But look at the results. What results do we get from living the opposite way? Miserable. Always having our hopes dashed to the ground. One minute up and one minute down. And I tell you plainly, I could not stand that kind of life anymore. I just could not. If I couldn’t wake each morning and know that I abide in Him and He in me, I don’t think it’s worth living. Because the petty joys of this life are nothing as compared, just nothing. Not even coming to this camp and enjoying each other is worth a thing to you. If at the back of your mind you think, oh dear, six days more. Five days more. Oh dear, twelve hours more. And we’ve all got to part. Oh, I’d love you to be so glad you were going to say goodbye to each other next Saturday or Sunday.

Because you’d found this joy and you didn’t need each other anymore. You didn’t need each other anymore. You could enjoy each other, yes. That’d be fun. Why, when I see Bernie every few camps, I just go nearly crazy as I see him come in. Because his soul speaks my language. We’ve got one soul. He knows all I know in my heart. He doesn’t have to ask me if I’ve grown. And I don’t have to ask him if he’s grown. We know it isn’t. Will you grow? It’s the fullness of the stature of Christ that grows. And so, you see, when you meet somebody who speaks the same language, you don’t need each other. Well, I couldn’t cry when Bernie went home. What for? If he did, I’d think he wasn’t anywhere anyhow. So, you see, when we love people from our souls with the love of God, you don’t miss each other. Truly. You don’t miss each other. You’re all living in the same place anyhow. Every time you go within and say, Father, you’re aware everybody else is saying, Father. You’re all in the same place. That’s the thing that does away with space and time.

All in one place. If my daughter in South Africa and my son who is in Ethiopia, if they are talking to God, we’re all in the same place. Ethiopia. What’s Ethiopia? Johannesburg. What’s Johannesburg? If you’re all in the one place, you’re aware God is. And yet, two people, related by flesh and blood, could be sitting together. Much farther apart than my son and I from Ethiopia to Indiana in America. Because if the souls are one, you’re together. Always. But you can be next to each other and be miles apart. You know that, don’t you? So then, what do we strive for? What are we striving for? To know this one God. This one God. Oh, that I might know God. There was a story told. An Eastern story. Of a teacher who took his pupil. And he said, “Now we will talk today about God.” And the pupil said, “I’m sick to death of learning about God. I know all about Him. Teach me something else.” And the teacher quietly took him down to the edge of a river. And pushed him under the water. And held him under the water till he struggled and struggled. He had no breath. And at last he brought him up fighting for breath. And he said, “My son, what did you want most of all when you were under that water?”

He said, “When you want God like that, we’ll begin to talk about Him. When you want God like that.” And you know it isn’t a strange thing to ask us to want. If you have God, you’ve got everything. If you live with God, you live where it all is. And if you live where it all is, you’d have nothing to ask for, would you? And if you have nothing to ask for, all you’d say is thank you. So to abide in God is to say thank you. From morning till night, thank you. And don’t give me more than I can use, Lord. Because I’ve just got today. Most people say, “Oh, Father, give me enough. Especially for when I’m about 80. Because I don’t believe I’ll be able to work when I’m 80. So, Lord, will you help me save up?” And He says, “Save up? What for? I shall love you just as much when you’re 90. I expect that I’ll be able to take care of you from within when you’re 90, like I did when you were 20. It’s the same life, you know. And I’m the same Father. Father.” So, this loving Him and abiding in Him stops all the asking for anything. You’re where it all is when you abide in God.

So, this first little talk is just to make you want to know God in His fullness so that you won’t want anything else. Nothing. I want this week to be so alive with that longing. More of Thee. Oh, God, that I might know more of Thee. That I might find You in Your fullness. “If you truly seek Me, you shall surely find Me.” Oh, Heavenly Father, let this week be one of such revelation to us all. God, illumine us with the light of Thy Spirit. Open our ears that we may hear Thy voice. Open our eyes that we may see the spiritual meaning in Thy word. And open our hearts wide to receive the inflow of Thy wisdom and Thy truth, Thy love and Thy beauty. If there is anything in any one of us, Lord, that is blocking up, yes, even one little crevice of our mind and our heart, then let Thy light like a mighty searchlight just go right through our whole temple, showing it up just to ourselves. And we, seeing ourselves as we truly are, will look into Your face and say, Lord, Thy light hath revealed this little inner darkness. And now let Thy love sweep in and purify me completely. And then let Thy life pour in that I may begin to live the everlasting life, that life which Jesus came to give us, a life so beautifully lived such a pure example.

O, that we might live like He lived. Father, grant this for His dear name’s sake. Amen. Amen.