Working Through Headship
Introduction
A question has arisen in our day concerning leadership. In this day of compromising, we have seen many great men fall in both the political and religious realms. It appears that the whole world is desperately searching for someone who can lead them through this dark hour.
We are living in an age that has stressed education as the answer, but education is not the answer. Family life today is filled with sorrows and heartaches because of immorality, disease, and financial pressures that were not present a few years ago when people were not as educated as they are today. Instead of becoming more civilized, our world is becoming more violent and evil.
What is the answer to this world crisis? The Word of God is the answer. The Bible states that God has never left us without a witness, and this means that there has to be a man of God somewhere in the earth today. Can one deny that we are living in the days that the Bible describes as being “The beginning of sorrows” (Matthew 24:8)? Wars and rumors of wars, earthquakes, and famines are in the news every day, yet worse than all of those disasters is the famine for the hearing of the Word of God (Amos 8:11).
Why is there a controversy raging in the religious world today? Where are the true men of God today? The Bible said that the man God sends will speak God’s Word. “Who can I teach doctrine?” God asks.
It is our sincere hope that this book will help guide you to the answers to these questions. We at Little Bethlehem are thankful to God for a man that refuses to compromise God’s Word. Brother George L. Pike is a man that believes that we should teach and live the Word of God, and he has been a witness to the flock of God for many years.
Working Through Headship
It is really amazing how the Lord speaks concerning the prophets and concerning the things that He is planning to do, and He tells them in the prophecy that comes from Micah, the prophet, that there will come a time when the people shall be driven out of the presence of the Lord because of their sins, their iniquities, and their willful shortcomings. Now remember, God doesn’t drive people out because they have shortcomings or because they fail. What man would drive his children away from home because they have shortcomings, and because they cannot measure up to what he expects of them, when they are just being children that are tutored in the home? God doesn’t do that. He doesn’t drive us away. Let a child grow up, and get old enough to marry and have their own home, and let them get haughty and self-willed and see if father and mother doesn’t ask them to find their own place.
God is very tender. He watches over us, but when we get haughty, and when we get to the place where we want to do our own thing, then God is ready to excommunicate us. God doesn’t want anybody that wants to do their own thing. God isn’t interested in what I want to do, or what you want to do. God has a program and a plan in the earth, and God is expecting you and me to obey and to honor and to conform to His way and His desire, and when we fail to do that, then we invite trouble. We cause sickness to come into the home. We cause confusion to come into the home, and all kinds of problems begin to infiltrate our home and our hearts and our minds, simply because we won’t fit in with God’s program. God has a way. God has a will.
The minister is the leader among you. Look how God speaks in the book of Micah concerning the heads of the house of Israel. He said to them, Oh, thou princes of the house of Israel and the heads of the house of Israel, I’ll visit you. I’ll blame you with the situation because you want to build the city up with blood. You want to do it by war. That’s the way of the world today. Have a war, build up the nation. Build up the nation, but do it by means of war, by bloodshed. God isn’t in that.
God wants us to labor. The Bible teaches that there is reward in all labor. He wants to reward us according to our labor. Let’s labor in our own country. Let’s build up our own country, and help the needy around and about. Let’s do that in our own homes, in our own little sovereignties, in our own little kingdom. Let’s come together. Let’s labor for a good income, a good living, a good way of life, a good law, a good understanding, a good relationship between the dad, the mother, and the children. And then spread around the community and to the different people, as a great light, and help show them the way, and share with them. That’s what God is wanting.
So then, we see that God has a program and a plan. God has a way of life, and He expects Brother Pike to fit into that way of life, and He expects me to order my family in that way of life. He said concerning Joshua and the different ones of the Old Testament, the great men, I know that they will command their households after Me. I know that they will.
We have some men today that don’t do much commanding in their home. The wife has the harness on them, and she’s got the reins in her hand, and if they don’t do the way she wants to do, she will pitch a temper fit and she is likely to throw a hammer through the wall or at him. He doesn’t have any control in the home. The way I feel about that home is that they really don’t have a home. If that was the kind of wife I had, there wouldn’t be any need to worry about that part of it, because I wouldn’t even have a wife. I wouldn’t have a home. I wouldn’t have a wife like that. That’s not a wife, anyway. Some just have a beast for a wife and they’re in bad shape.
So then, God said concerning those men of the Bible, I know they will command their households after Me. A man should command his wife and command his children. They should be under subjection. If he can’t do that, he doesn’t have a home. According to the Bible, he doesn’t have a wife. He doesn’t have a family. All he has is a place of misery. He’s got a wretched circumstance of life, that’s all. He’s in bad shape.
God wants us to be real men. He wants to work through the man in the home. God wants to work through the man, not through the woman. When the woman starts putting on the pants of the family, as we say, and she starts saying that we’re going to do this and we’re going to do that, then God frowns on it. God doesn’t have anything to do with it. I don’t care if she’s religious, if she fasts for fifty days, or if she stands on her head, it doesn’t make any difference with God. He’s not going to work through the woman. That’s not His way. He works through the man. If the man won’t serve God, or if the man is going to go his own stubborn way, then God will work through the woman, but otherwise, God isn’t going to do it. God has a program, and God wants to work through a man.
Did God, as the Holy Spirit, personify Himself in a woman? He personified Himself in a man. Isn’t that right? The male is the one that shows the power of control in the home. The feminine part shows the church, which should be under subjection. God is going to work through the man. I know He isn’t going to work through the man to some women, because they’re not going to let Him, but I’m talking about Christian homes.
Some of the women here at Bethlehem are like those in every other place. They say that God isn’t going to cause their husband to do like that. They’re going to do the way they want to do. But I want you to know something: God isn’t in your home. God isn’t even in your life. First of all, God isn’t with your husband, because if God was with your husband, he’d rise up and put you in your place and that would be it. So you don’t have to worry about God interrupting your program or way of life, because God isn’t even in your home. If He was there, you’d know about it.
So then, God doesn’t want us to manhandle our wives, and beat them and slap them and kick them around and do them any old way. God doesn’t do the church like that. God respects the church. She’s a lady to Him and He treats her with all respect. But when that dear little wife starts telling you that you can’t do this and you can’t do that, and she’s not going to have it this way and she’s not going to have it that way, you just say, “Look, sister, I’ve got things to do for God, and when I get more time we’ll sit down and talk this over, but I don’t have time to waste with you right now. I’m busy.” Then, just go right on your way for God.
Now, I believe that men and women should get along, and that women should have a voice. I believe that God wants it this way, and the wife has a right to know where you are and what you’re doing and who you are with. She’s got a right to know that. She ought to know, because you want to know where she’s at, who she’s with, and where she’s going, and if you don’t care where she goes or what she does, then she doesn’t have a husband. If your wife doesn’t care where you go, you don’t have a wife.
If anything is precious to you, you are concerned about it. Isn’t that right? I’ve made the statement that some people are more concerned about their hogs and cows than they are about their wife. You let their cow get out, and they want to know where their cow is, where it’s going, and if the neighbors have seen it. Somebody might say, “Where is your wife?” “Oh, I don’t know. She left this morning. I don’t know where she is. I guess she’ll be back soon,” the husband will say. They are more interested in knowing where the cow is than where their wife is. Brother, I don’t feel that way. The same way with the wife. If you should ask her, “Where is your husband?”, she might say, “Why, I don’t know. I haven’t seen him since this morning. I don’t know where he is.” If I were a woman, married to a man, I’d know where he was. If I couldn’t know something about where he was, I wouldn’t be married to him, because you wouldn’t have a husband anyway.
I believe you should work together, but at the same time, I don’t believe that a woman should control a man. That’s an abomination in the sight of God. If she’s going to pitch a temper fit and tear her clothes and go into a frenzy, just to keep him under subjection, or if he tells her that they can’t do a certain thing and she says she is going to do it, and she doesn’t care what you’re going to do, then he needs to let her do it, and when she comes back he needs to have the door bolted. I know a man, that I think was a little bit out of tune, but he meant business. He was a sinner and didn’t want his wife to go to church, but she went anyway. So, he bolted the door, and she had to sit outside all night. I feel this way: the man is in control. If a woman will stand up and tell her husband she’s going to do such and such, and he gives into it, then he is not a child of God, much less a minister, and she’s not a child of God, nor has an inheritance with the saints of God. We should work together.
The Lord wants to work through the male, so He said to Israel that He was working through headship, but the headship has become corrupt, and He was going to deal with them. When He starts dealing with the church, and when God starts chastening the church, then all of the world wants to pounce on the church. They think that they are an abomination in the sight of God, and they say that here is a chance to really get even with that bunch of Christians. God says in His Word, though, to let the world stay away. This is what He tells them, if you interpret the Word. He said to let them stay away. I’m going to chastise Zion, but let the world stay away and don’t let them bother these people. These people belong to Me. I’m going to chastise them, and when I do, they’re going to take on a confidence so that when the world starts to close in on them, I’m going to cause them to have horns like a bull, and I’m going to cause their hooves to be like brass, and then I’m going to turn and anoint you to rise up against them to break them into pieces.
That’s the same thing that God did to Israel. God took Israel and God chastised Israel and God drove Israel out of His presence, and He put Israel through the fire, and everybody pounced on Israel. They’ve been on Israel ever since. Every nation killed them out. Look what happened through the Dark Ages. They were literally chewed up. They were slain just like you would cut the flesh off the bones of an animal. God said that you’ve chewed them up and you’ve broken their bones, but I’ll get even with you, for out of Zion shall come forth the law. Though I have put them out of My presence, yet there is coming a day when I’m going to gather them all together, and when I do, the house of the Lord is going to be established.
I believe we are living in the last days now, don’t you? God said that in the last days, the house of the Lord shall be established, and all nations shall flow unto it. Now, that means that at the time of the establishing of the house of God, there is going to be some nations left around. How many of you believe that? He says here, that all nations, Germany, Japan, and others shall gather themselves, and they shall say let us go up to the house of our God, and let us learn about our God. The Bible says that at that time they’ll beat all their spears into pruning hooks, and they’ll beat their weapons into plowshares, and they’ll come together and they won’t be fighting any more. There won’t be any more war. There won’t be any Noble Peace Prizes that they’ll have to give away. There won’t be any trips here and there trying to have a conference to get peace, but the Bible teaches that God will come and there will be peace.
Brother, let me tell you something, when God sits down upon the throne and says it will be a certain way, it’ll be like that. You can believe that. When we think of God, we think of God as that precious, bleeding Lamb that hung there at Calvary, and that’s a good way to think of God. If you are out there in sin, and you’ve never known Jesus, then that’s a good way to think about Him, because He’s tender, He’s loving, and He’s saying, Come, come unto Me, and I will save your soul. But brothers and sisters, let me tell you something. The Bible says that when He sits down upon the throne, He’ll rule with a rod of iron. When the house of God is established, He’ll say to the people that it will be thus and thus and thus, and that’s the way it’ll be. It won’t be any other way. The Bible says everyone that takes a different idea about it won’t have any bread to eat, and the Bible says there won’t be any rain coming down on their crops and God will put them through the fire right then and there, until they come and fall on their faces and say, “King Jesus, have it Your way.”
So, we see the beauty of what He tells us. Not only does He point out that He is going to punish them, but even the sun that’s over the prophets" that is, the great light, the brightness of My coming, the great bright light of the Holy Spirit that woos the church, that comes down upon prophets and causes them to conceive in their minds the Word of the Lord, that light will be moved away and they won’t conceive anything in their minds. They won’t be able to understand anything in their minds, and the sun shall go down that’s shining over the prophets. It’ll be taken away, and the prophets won’t be able to say, “Thus saith the Lord” in anything. He said in that day they won’t be able to divine. Your soothsayers and all of your fortune tellers won’t be able to get in touch with anybody, for the light will be taken away, and everything will be dark. They won’t be able to run over to a Jeanne Dixon or whoever and say, “Tell me thus and thus.” They won’t be able to take their star gazers and try to figure out what’s up there in the elements to find their path or the way that they are traveling or should go.
God tells us here that He’s going to deal with the wicked. He’s going to deal with the wicked, and there’s going to be a dark day. He said, I will establish My covenant with My people. During the crisis, during the heartaches, the trouble, the problems, you don’t have to worry about it. If you’re going on with God, and you’re loving Jesus, and if you’re trying to do the best you can, you don’t have to worry about it. I’ll take care of you. I’ll never leave you and I’ll never forsake you, but I’ll be right there with you through all of the trouble. In the sixth trouble, I’ll be with you. In the seventh trouble, I’ll be with you. I’ll be with you in every trouble and problem that you have. Don’t you fear, little flock, it is thy Father’s good pleasure to give unto you the kingdom, and the Bible teaches that God has given us all things in Christ Jesus. All things that pertain unto life, God has given to us. He tells us in His Word, not to worry and not to fear. You just stay right in the Word of God. You just keep on doing for God whatever you’re doing. Whatever God has appointed you to do through life, you continue to do it. God is going to be with you, and help you, and establish your way of going. He’s going to set you as a ruler over the things of His kingdom.
In that day, every man will have his own little vineyard and his own little piece of ground. Every man will have his own way of life, and nobody will be able to bother him. The Bible says that in that day he’ll build himself a house and he’ll dwell in that house. Somebody else won’t dwell in it. He won’t work hard and labor to get a nice, beautiful little home, and then somebody come and tax it or run him out of it. There won’t be any such thing in that day. The Bible says he will have his own little vineyard. He will have his own little home, his own little place, and he’ll sit under his own vineyard, and the Bible teaches that the curse will be lifted and all nations shall flow to the house of God.
So then, we see what a beautiful plan that God has. What a beautiful program God has in this life, as I’ve said so many times. God lets us be born into this world, and then He expects us, as we grow up, to mature in the knowledge of the Lord Jesus. He expects us to multiply and reproduce images so that God, the Holy Spirit, might have a temple, that He might have a great kingdom, that He might be able to dwell in the multitude of the people, and dwell on the inside of them that His kingdom may be great and mighty. The Bible tells us that of the increase of His kingdom, there shall be no end. When we come down to the end of this world, God’s kingdom isn’t going to come to a close. It’s still going to increase, whether you multiply or don’t multiply. God’s kingdom is going to increase. Throughout eternity there won’t be any end to the increase. It’ll grow bigger and bigger, forever and forever. But we’ll find our place in God’s program.
He expects us to multiply and replenish the earth. Now, we have our own little wife, we have our own little children, and our own little home, but when we get over into the spiritual world, there isn’t going to be a wife. There won’t be any children. There isn’t going to be a husband. The Bible says that in heaven, we shall be as the angels. That is, we will be a spiritual being. We’ll be a celestial being. We’ll have this body, but it will be a celestial body. There won’t be a husband to command you. There won’t be a wife to cause you problems. There won’t be any children that you’ll have to worry about. In the spiritual world, it won’t be that way. It’ll be heaven. That’s what it takes to make heaven. In heaven, they neither marry nor are given in marriage, but the Bible tells us that they are as the angels. In heaven, they are as spirits. They are like Michael and like Gabriel.
So then, what is marriage? What is the little home that we constitute through life? What is a little family? What is all of this? It’s God’s program. That’s why I keep telling you to forget mother and father, forget about sister and brother, forget about husband and wife, forget about children in the sense that God must be first in your life. Follow God first, and then after that give your love and consideration to you family.
Now, I know people say they put God first in everything, but don’t lie against God! If you ladies put God first, I wouldn’t get reports like the report I got not too long ago, when some husband said they were not going to do a certain thing and the wife said she was going to do it. When you say you put God first, you are a liar, because the Bible says to obey and honor your husbands in all things, and God is the Word. You don’t put God first, you put your family first, you put your friends first, you put your desire first, you put your ambition first, you put your temper first, you put your feelings first. When you put God first, you put the Word first. When you honor your husband, wife, and obey him in all things, then you are putting God first.
I know about some of the little wives going around. They say “Daddy this” and “Honey this” and “Sugar this” and they are as bitter as a bitter weed. That’s just a lot of foolishness. What you need to do is get out of that rut. Those little sayings don’t mean a thing. Get out of that rut and be right with God. Be clean and holy. If you want to say “Daddy” once in a while to the husband or “Mommy” to the wife, that’s all right. But don’t be hypocritical, because that’s what it is. I’ve seen that a number of times.
Wives, honor and obey your husbands. Do the thing that God tells you to do. The Word is what God tells you to use in your life. Husbands, the Bible teaches that you are to love your wives. Now wives, don’t get upset just because he wants to live on a farm. Maybe he’s a country boy and you’re a city girl, and he doesn’t want to live right next door to folks. He might want to live two or three doors away from anybody. Don’t feel like he has taken and put you in a prison. And ladies, just because your husbands expect you to come home once in a while, at least one time out of the day and say “Hello, I’m here,” don’t get upset. He has a right to at least know that you are somewhere in the neighborhood.
Women come to talk with my wife, and sometimes I overhear them, and they act like they are in such bad circumstance because their husband expects them to act like a wife. You can’t live with your mother and father, and live with your brothers and sisters and go to every family reunion and go to everything that takes place and still be a wife. Look at the wives back there that married the great men of God in the Old Testament. They left their home country. They left the place where they were born and they never did go back any more. They never saw their mother or father again, nor their brothers and sisters. That’s what they had to do in giving them up. I’m talking about women of God. Women of God will do this.
I know some of the sneaky attitudes of husbands. The devil has a long, sharp tongue, and he says, “Remember, it says in the Bible that you’re the boss. If you want to take her away from her folks and she doesn’t ever get to see them again, remember that it is your right.” Then the husband will say, “Honey, I think we ought to go visit mother and father.” His mother and father! That’s the way he does it. That’s a sneaky attitude. That’s wrong. The Bible says for husbands to forsake your mother and father. Forsake your family and cleave unto your wife.
You don’t need to put your wife in a prison where she can’t put the shade up and look out the window once in a while. God doesn’t intend for you to do that. But we don’t need a bunch of “road runners” that run up and down the road, and every time you look out the window, you see them in the vehicle going to and fro, always going and coming. You don’t need that kind of woman, either. What we need is people that love God first, and then love one another and respect one another.
Let’s be a real man and not look for the wife to make the living, and us drag around and do nothing. Let’s not sit around and pine and let her sit there sad, day after day, because we’re lazy and won’t even get out and do anything. Let’s not be that kind of people, and let’s not be a haughty wife.
You know, a haughty wife is typical of a haughty church. A wife that is contrary, that won’t obey the husband is typical of the whore that God speaks of in the Bible, the whore that He will burn with fire. Every time you disobey that husband, or willfully come against him, you are symbolic of the great whore, and you are classified with the great whore. If you do it willfully, you are the great whore that He said He would burn with fire, because you are contrary to the Word of God.
Now, get prepared to whet your swords, because I’m going to say something and you might want to slay me over it. You black folks, stop trying to be white folks. Somebody say I love Jesus. You were born as you are and quit blaming your husband because of the color you are. He didn’t have anything to do with it. God made you that way. Did you know that? God wanted you that color or He would never have made you that color. Being a black person is not a curse. Whoever says that is out of their minds. They don’t understand correctly. Being a red person is not a curse, and being a yellow person is not a curse, and being a white person is not a curse.
It’s become so that it looks like being any kind of a person is a curse by the way the world is going. As a matter of fact, we could go a little further than that. A human being is under the curse and will end up being turned into the lake of fire, because there is only one thing that is not a curse or is under the curse, and that is sons and daughters of God. All the rest of it is the beast regime and is under the curse of God and will be destroyed.
So then, you people that are one color, or that are poor, stop acting like God has done something horrible to you because you’re not some rich man. Some of you poor people act like you were predestined to be rich and God has done such a terrible injustice because He didn’t give you a silver spoon to eat with and somebody to take care of you. That’s awful in the sight of God. You don’t want to work or do anything. Get up from there, lady, and clean the house up! Be a woman. Man, get up and make a living! Be a man. Be a testimony for God. Not only that, but remember, when you don’t clean that house up, you’re a type of that great whore again. That old filthy heart of yours is what causes you to keep a filthy house. When a man gets clean in his heart, he’ll clean up his body and he’ll clean up the house if the wife doesn’t, or else he’ll move out of it.
Let’s rise up and be straight in the sight of God, and in every way, be like Jesus. That’s what God wants. Let’s see the house of God established. Not with just a yea and amen, or coming to church, or being religious, but let’s be men and women. Let’s rise up and be holy and clean in our heart and holy and clean in our home, holy and clean in our transactions, in our commitments and whatever we do and with whoever we meet.
Let’s use a little wisdom and a little understanding, and let’s testify of the Word of God and the wisdom of God, and let’s not be showing our ignorance all the time. There’s some of you, that when you go to make a transaction or do anything else, you show your ignorance a dozen times before you get through with the transaction. You’ll tell the man everything but what you need to talk about, and that’s Jesus. That’s why you don’t get any further in life than you do. Be careful of what you say. Somebody has said, “Put your mind in gear before you open your mouth.” Think about what you say. Look to the end of your conversation. Think about what you’re saying and how it’s going to affect the man you’re talking to. Think about the way you’re going to answer him, to evade that cunning, foxy mind of his that’s going to pull you into the mire.
Be careful, folks. The Bible says you’ll eat good by the words of your lips. Do the same thing in Christianity. Don’t be a chain talker, because, if you are, you’re going to say some things that are wrong. Let your conversation be yea and amen. Yea and nay. Amen to God’s Word, and don’t put anything in between, and you’ll be all right. The fewer words you can say, the better off you’ll be. When a person starts talking about anything, just convert the conversation over to Christ. Convert the conversation over to God. Change the whole situation, and you’ll find that you’ve created a good atmosphere for the Spirit of the Lord to come to.
The Bible says that a good man brings forth out of his treasures both old and new. In the day we’re living in, some of the antiques are the finest things, and then there are some new things that we can add to the antiques and have a real household. At the same time, there are a lot of modern inventions that are not worth taking home. They fall apart, and are no good. There are a lot of old things that are no good, but there are some old and new that we need to think about, brothers and sisters in Christ.
One brother came to me and said, “I want to do something for God, Brother Pike.” He was of the opinion that it is late, and if we are ever going to do anything for God, we’d better get started. It’s late, folks, real late, and you need to get up from where you are at and get to where you’re going. If you’ve not started on your journey, you’re running late.
I’m grateful for you, and I love you. I’m not grateful for you because you are Spanish, or because you are Caucasian, or because you are Negro. I’m not grateful for any of that. I’m grateful because you are a Christian. If you love God, you are sons and daughters of God, and I’m grateful for you and I appreciate you. I love you, and you are human beings to me that have been born of the Holy Spirit, that are waiting for the redemption of the body, and you’re my people and my children. I love you without respect of person. God loves you.
I know there are some white people that think they are so good that if they see a black person or a red person or a yellow person, they look at him and they think, “My, what a fine person I am. I’m white. When I look in the mirror, I see my white face.” You poor, pitiful thing. Remember, God the eternal Holy Spirit built the black man so that He could live in on the inside of a black man. Every day God lives in the black man’s heart. Some of you white folks are so dainty that you think that you are so much better than God that you can’t even fellowship him. Then there are some black folks that feel that they are special, so they are trying to prove that Jesus was a black man, and they feel they are so special that the white are accursed and they should pull away from them. You are a pitiful person when you think like that. God made human beings. When it comes to color, you can say that God is color blind, as far as being respect of persons. God sees people through the blood of Jesus.
It’s wonderful to be a Christian and have the right understanding, and it’s wonderful to be bold enough to say so. Don’t try to love just your creed or your race. That’s not what God is wanting. Love your fellow man. Love one another, Jesus said. He didn’t say for the white man to love only white men, or for the black man to love only black men, or for the red man to love only red men, or yellow man to love only yellow men. He said to love one another. What we’re supposed to be doing is to love one another. Praise God! When some people go to hug a black person, they’re afraid that the color might rub off. Some men can’t hug their wives unless they get lipstick or eye shadow or makeup rubbed off on them. With brotherly love, one for another, nothing will ever rub off of you except the love of God, folks.
There used to be a saying a few years ago that the holiness people would throw powders on you. That’s why some folks won’t go near holiness folks. They think that if you get too close to them, they’ll throw powders on you and you’ll become one of them. I sure wish we had some powders like that, don’t you? I’d sprinkle some of it all through town. You don’t do it by powders, though. This is not something that you throw on somebody to get them to be like you.
This thing is so wonderful, it is far beyond the wildest dreams. It’s so beautiful that the banker, the rich man, the educated will all long to get just one glimpse of it. They’ll have to work with all of their might just to get close enough for God to even take a look at them. That’s right. The Bible says they’ll never see when good cometh. They’ll want it, but they’ll never get to it. This is not something that God tries to force on you, friend. It’s something that you will have to try hard to be able to get. The Bible says that many shall try and not be able to enter in. It’ll be a straight gate. It’ll be a narrow way, and many shall try but the gate will be so tight, they won’t be able to go through it.
I know what some folks think. You think that I am the most meddlesome preacher you’ve ever heard in your life. But I tell you, if you were going to be a physician, then the examination should be thorough. I don’t mean this mess of man with woman, either. I don’t mean that sloppy mess, because that’s what it is. It’s wrecked the homes and took away every decency. I don’t mean the pigs in the mud holes. But if you were going to be the right kind of physician and you were going to give an examination, then you’d want to give the right kind and you’d want to give it thoroughly. Isn’t that right? You’d want to give it thoroughly. So then, I’m a physician tonight. I want to give you a thorough examination, to see if there are any spots, blemishes, or wrinkles. You may take an x-ray of the lungs and there might be some spots on the lungs that could later cause TB, so let’s have a good examination. If we pass under the x-ray of God and the mind of Christ and the light of His glory, then let’s take a good look down in the heart through discernment and see what’s on the inside of you and find out how you are put together and what you are constituted of, so that we might be able to diagnose your case and give the right prescription and do something to help you.
If you need an operation, we are not going to try to be a butcher and just butcher you up, but we are going to have to cut on you a little bit. If we don’t, it’s liable to get malignant, and you’ll die. So then, when the singing comes, the praising of God and the worship of God comes, it’s just like the anesthetic comes and you go off to sleep, then the preacher gets his sword and he starts to cut, trying to get down in there. You won’t feel much. You’ll just know something has happened. After a while, it’ll all be over and you’ll open your eyes, and like I’ve said, you’ll be sore at the preacher. You’ll say, “He cut me!” I have heard them say that. They go away and say, “Oh, that preacher cut me.” But, I notice that some of them, a few days later, die. They’re in the morgue because they didn’t survive the operation. But there are others, that after a few days, they heal up and they say, “You know, that fellow is not so bad. I feel better than I ever have in my life. I think I’ll go back over there.” After a while, they decide they are going to make him their family doctor. That’s what we need.
We need a real physician. That’s Christ. He’s the real physician. Surely this proverb shall be spoken of Me, He said, Physician, heal Thyself.
I’m trying to get into your home affairs to tell you how to order your home so you can have happiness, so that you can have peace. Don’t abuse your little wife. Don’t be cruel or try to be some lifted up genius, trying to lord over her and call her some slut. She’s not a slut" she’s a wife. She’s the mother of your children. You’re the beast when you even think like that. You wives shouldn’t call that man some bad, beastly name. He’s the husband. He’s the father of your children. He is your salvation, if he is living for God.
So don’t put your wife in a prison. Don’t just turn her loose out in the field either, or you won’t have a wife. You’ve got to have some control over your wife. You’ve got to know what she is doing and where she’s going.
I’ve got some cases here, that in the past, I’ve picked up their spirits without trying to be a Peeping Tom, and in the past, some of my most overconfident men felt that their wives were so good, but a little peek back there and their wives were such horrible, terrible people, and they don’t know what she’s done. They didn’t have enough love to look and find out what was going on. She just pulled it right over them, and until this day, they don’t know. Let’s just be thankful that it’s all under the blood and it’s gone. Lady, you just be thankful and realize that God knows. Be grateful that God isn’t bringing it up. Some of you men have been so wretched. I’ve looked in your past, and I know how low-down some of you have been. Well, let me tell you something. Just be grateful that it’s all under the blood, and don’t be firing on one another because all of you were wretches before God saved you, including me. There’s none good, no, not one. The Bible says not one. Not Elijah, not Abraham, not Paul. Not one good, no, not one.
The Bible says that Jesus bore our iniquity and sin. God forgives us our sins. Let’s leave it under the blood, and let’s be holy and clean, and let’s not be more holier than thou to those that are without. They need a helping hand. Let’s remember that one time, you were such and God showed mercy. You show them mercy, but mercy doesn’t mean to go out and be partakers of their evil and go with them to their horrible, evil places. The Bible says to come out from among them and be ye a separate people. Touch not the unclean thing, and I will receive you, saith the Lord. If you want to be healthy, happy, and whole, then let’s go on with Jesus.
By Rev. George Leon Pike Sr.
Founder and first President of Jesus Christ’s Eternal Kingdom of Abundant Life, Inc.
Holiness Unto The Lord