Matters Touching The King

Written By: Bishop G.T. Haywood
Published By: Voice In The Wilderness (1924)

“My heart is inciting a good matter;” my heart is meditating upon something that is good; my heart is creating some good things. From the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh. You know your heart better than anyone else. You know whether your heart is inclined to righteous. No body needs to tell you about own heart. Whenever a man is honest in his own heart, it is no trouble for him to say, “Lord search my heart”, because his heart is honest. The devil cannot overthrow a man whose heart is honest. No wonder God says, “Son, give me thy heart”. The Lord sees not as man sees, but he looks into the heart. “My heart is inciting a good matter: I speak of things I have made concerning the King.” David must have been setting his affection on things above and not on things of the earth. He had something in his heart to speak of about the Lord; talking about his goodness, how he had delivered and comforted him.

There is nothing sweeter than keeping a sweet song in your heart until the sick person you are visiting gets stronger, or singing hymns to those who are heavy. How it cheers things up when somebody is in a corner crying or weeping over some trouble that has come into the family, to have someone come and sing a sweet song of comfort, a joyful song. When you are fighting darkness, and the power of the enemy what ought the songs of Zion  do for the people of God? “I am speaking of things that that I have made touching the King,” speaking of his will, of faith, of supplying needs, of how to talk to the sick; we have so much to talk about touching the King.

My tongue is the pen; my tongue is going to record things, not like man with a book, but I am going to speak to God. A pen writes, it records; I am going to be a living pen. My tongue is ready to put down what God has done for us. This is what we are for. We are to talk about the Lord. I know there are many people who don’t like it, but there is somebody who will be glad to hear some one talk about the Lord. The written word of God will outshine darkness every time.

I am touching the King, telling how fair he is. When you see the beauty of the Lord, you will not backslide. I didn’t see how people can fall away. If I should backslide, I might as well “check my grip” for another destination. The best thing to do is to live for Jesus. It is best to honor the Lord; to be honest and true. I ask God to keep me in the way. When I look Him in the face, I want to be free from condemnation. I am even afraid not to speak to people, lest I should pass somebody and they should say that I am “stuck up”. The Holy Ghost does not make us “stuck up”.

Wherever you go, there is always somebody to see you. You are a city set upon a hill that cannot be hid. When you stand up to testify be sure that people cannot point their fingers at you. If they see you go into a saloon, or a picture show, they will point you out.

“Grace is poured into thy lips:” when you talk to some people you cannot tell whether they are sinners or saints, or whether there is grace in their lips. Grace makes your words round and smooth. Think of Jesus’ words when he said, “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the Gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the broken-hearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised, and to preach the acceptable year of the Lord.” Luke 4:18-19. Some people’s voices are so hard and screeching whenever they get out of line with God that their voices tell on them, but grace is poured into thy lips: therefore God has blessed thee forever. The people marveled at the “gracious” words that proceeded from his lips.

I used to think when people received the Holy Ghost, they were all in unity of the Spirit. After I got rid of all my thoughts, I found that you have to keep the word of God on the people in order to keep them in harmony. You have to keep constantly telling them about it. I am going to keep stirring up your memory. Peter says, “Wherefore I will not be negligent to put you always in remembrance of these things, though ye know them, and be established in the present truth. Yea, I think it meet, as long as I am in this tabernacle, to stir you up by putting you in remembrance.” We find a lot of ministers who don’t know how to keep the unity, but this is not God’s will. He says, “If a man loves me, he will keep my words.” I believe we ought to keep the words of God and then the Father will love us; he will come unto us and make his abode with us. When there is unity, the Spirit of God comes upon the people. On the day of Pentecost, there was unity. The same spirit that fell upon Christ came down upon the body that day. God commanded a blessing to rest upon Zion. Therefore God has blessed thee forever.

Gird thy sword upon thy thigh, O most Mighty, with thy glory and thy majesty. Having the strength of life, the power of the Spirit, we have a sword on our thigh. Gird yourselves with truth. Make yourselves strong. Practice having a good spirit, speaking good words, going to church on time, not getting angry, praying every morning and not going to work until you do pray. You have to get to the place where you can practice some these things. Speak a word to somebody every day, practice makest perfect. The Lord will teach you how to meet the enemy and put him to flight. We don’t want to be talking Christians, but doing Christians. Gird on thy sword. The voice of the Lord is full of majesty. Be a true soldier of the cross.

I am a member of Him; I belong to Christ; a member of his body and of his bone. A church full of truth and spirit ought to be able to move things, even mountains.

Pray that God give victory in his church. Our ruling authority is righteousness, freely working and laboring to keep the victory. The church of God cannot be overthrown, for there is no other way but God’s way. You must love righteousness and hate wickedness. If the devil tries to put it upon you, hate it anyway. I don’t understand people getting into sin when they are told to hate it. When you hate sin it cannot creep upon you. Thou lovest righteousness  and hatest wickedness - if you want to be anointed above thy fellow man, hate wickedness. Destruction is on every side, trouble is in the land, the Lord is at hand. Don’t let your joy leak out. Come to church regularly. All thy garments smell of myrrh, and aloes, and cassia, out of the ivory palaces, whereby they have made thee glad; all these are the expressions of God. Righteousness sends a sweet fragrance into the nostrils of God.

The best gold is very highly priced and when there is a scarcity of stuff, things go up. Consider the privilege God gives of allowing you to be a queen.  It pays to be a member of the queen, the Lamb’s wife highly favored with the Divine Life. You have kin people trying to pull you away from the Lord, but you had better forget them. I don’t care how much the world calls for me, I am going to stay on the Lord’s side. If you come out from your people’s house  and from the world, God desires to see you. God is getting the church in order for his coming. The king shall greatly desire thy beauty - his church’s beauty. There is something in store for us. No man can say that he is the Lord’s but by the Holy Ghost. We are begotten to worship him is spirit and in truth. The people will give the rightful place of authority, when you live right. When grace is poured into your lips, the people will say that you have the real thing. Some religious people will ask you to pray for them. Very often the people call upon the Saints to pray for them. Keep in line. Keep tuned up. Somebody’s salvation depends upon you.

We see over the hill a great outpouring of the Spirit of God coming. Be not ashamed of what you have. We don’t have much finery on the outside, but oh, on the inside; no jewelry on, but dressed up on the inside. God help the saints to put on their beauty in their hearts. Your beauty must be on the inside. God is working on your garments. Are you washed in the blood? Are you getting ready for the King? If ever we Are able to meet God, we must have on the garment of fine needle work. Let the days linger; let the time be prolonged; I must walk with God.

G.T. Haywood