Shalom #3
Reflection; Proof of Paternity
Shall
we pray. Heavenly Father, we would earnestly ask this morning that You evoke
within us, and cause there to be a Spirit that welcomes You and understands
Your Presence even as Simeon did of old, and Anna, while others stood by and
didn’t notice that this was the one that You had ordained to be the Savior. And
then, down the road, Lord, when there was a great ministry coming forth, there
was the majority who understood only it was a great ministry and some kind of a
sign, but didn’t understand Your Presence. And now in this last day we see the
same thing, and yet here we are, singing this morning that You are here, which
we know to be true. You are here in a way that You could not be here for over
two thousand years, and in a way You could not be here, just this one time
really through all eternity, where You come to take out a Gentile people for
Your Own Bride. And Lord, we want to be not only aware of that as historians,
but we want to be aware of it as recipients.
So, we
pray You’ll help us today to solemnize our hearts and minds, and everything
about us, Lord, that would help us to make You know that we understand,
appreciate, and love, and respect You for Your kindness and goodness toward us.
Yet we know that can only come through sovereign grace. So, we’re praying for
sovereign grace this morning as never before, in Jesus’ Name. Amen.
You
may be seated.
1. Now
Bro. Branham in bringing this message, “Shalom,” which means ‘Peace’, is preaching
this in
2. Now
many people do not like to consider that God would do this; but remember,
Elisha died of the sickness wherewith he was ill. And yet, after he died, they
put him in a cavern of some description, like a pit. And remember, after his
body had decayed and the bones were lying there, there were some Israelites
fleeing from the Philistines or some other group, and somebody had died, and I
guess he was really, officially dead. So, they dumped him down this hole, not
realizing Elisha’s bones were there. And the minute the man hit Elisha’s bones,
he had a resurrection, so to speak. He came hurriedly climbing out of the pit.
3. But
we’re looking at the fact that people do have some avenue to get us out of
here, and usually that is some disease. It is not always so. And disease is not
always a matter of the person having sown somewhat, and therefore, has to
particularly die because of his sowing. What about diabetes? What about the
cases we see where the people are born deformed? Well, that’s the problem of
genetics. Something has gone wrong. And that’s the course of sin over
generations; you know, the breeding has come to the place where it’s like
in-breeding with livestock, where there’s… Well, they like to call it line
breeding in order to make it sound good, if you’re in that business of breeding
fur bearing animals, and so on, to try to get out the best qualities. But it
does weaken the stock; there is no two ways about it.
So,
what’s happened over the years is we have become weaker and weaker from the
sins of our parents. And those sins might not be actual filthy sins. They might
be fine Christian people, but they’ve lived wrong. Perhaps in a case where they
never sought God who to marry, and they end up, like I say, two people having
recessive traits, which would bring about diabetes, and here suddenly you find
children with terrible diabetes. I’ve witnessed that way back when I was just a
tiny child. A little person was born in our community, terribly diabetic, and
he just swelled right up with fluids and all. Now he didn’t have a thing to do
with that. It just happens.
4. So,
there’s… It’s just a pity, but it’s kind of like the old Rabbi said, “Well,” he
said, “if you are a believer in God, if you are a theist, you’ve only got one
thing to question, one thing to explain. And the question is: ‘Why is there suffering’?”
But he said, “The point is this, if you are an atheist, there’s nothing but
questions.”
We
have only one question, and we don’t have that question as Christians. We know
that sin is here and sickness is a result of sin; and, as people go on more and
more, there’s a drift from God, until today, as we have mentioned many times
over the pulpit, you have a condition of AIDS, which is brought on by sexual
infidelity, grossness of mankind, and their bodies are actually rotting. That’s
the truth. Their bodies are rotting while they’re walking. And these same
people are influencing government. They’re telling you and me, “Hey look,
you’ve got to get what we got, because we’re going to have our fun.”
5. Now
brother/sister, listen. Sit awhile and think this morning. Could a righteous
God overlook that? You tell me. Am I all messed up this morning that I cannot
direct my compassion to their needs? Am I messed up to believe what the prophet
said, “Compassion is doing the Will of
God,” which is the Word of God? You’ve got to take your stand against that.
See, the pleasures of sin for a season, and it’s going to be a mighty short
season, and a mighty long time of destruction.
Well,
Bro. Branham brings this out for us here. But he says to the Christians, those
that are dying: (And we are dying no matter how we’re dying.) “Look, this is not the real death. The real death is the second death which is
the Lake of Fire,” which Bro. Branham, not quoting from Matthew 10, but
bringing to our attention, because that’s where it is: “Fear not him who hath
power to destroy the body, but fear him who hath power to destroy both body and
soul in hell.” That doesn’t mean instantaneous judgment. That’s not a Catholic
doctrine where you’re going to go to purgatory and get prayed out. That’s
folly. The second death is the Lake of Fire, which can only take place after
the general or Second Resurrection, when everybody stands there, fire comes
down upon the infidels, even with their resurrected bodies, (which are not like
yours and mine, if we’re Christians) and they come toward God and His holy
people and try to destroy them, and they’re cast into a Lake of Fire. And there
they are eventually destroyed, which means ‘annihilated’.
6. Look,
either believe your Bible or forget It. And then, you’ll only believe what some
teacher comes along from the Bible and teaches, if he’s vindicated. It’s too
late in the day to say, “Well, Dr. So and so, Somebody such and such, …!”
Where’s his vindication? Give me one proof that he’s heard from God! Anybody. I
know of a guy, positively who heard from God, so-called, a man so mixed up. The
poor fellow was Pentecostal. He went literally insane. He heard a voice say to
kill his two sons; and he killed his two sons. Hearing from God? Never! You
better hear from the Word and know if it’s God or not. Then, you better know if
that person’s vindicated by God to tell this at the end time, because
vindication has to come at the end time, because the Bible says so.
I’ve
got utter faith in the prophet William Branham. You‘re entitled to anything you
want, but I’m for Bro. Branham. Listen, that’s all the trust I got, and I’m
going to be honest. It isn’t a great deal. He hasn’t come back from the dead
yet. Tell me anybody who came back from the dead. When they come back, that’s
when you know that you know that you know that you know, and there isn’t any
more knowledge that you’ll ever have, because it’s over. Well, we believe it’s
the hour of the Resurrection. Absolutely. We talked about that last Wednesday
night, I think it was.
7. Now
‘death’ means ‘separation from God’. It started back there in the Garden of
Eden when man got separated from God, physically. And the sentence was death.
Sure. And God never came down and walked and talked with man as He did then, in
that particular way. What He did afterwards was to come down and deal with
people through the prophets. And then, ‘to turn away the Word of God’ meant
that ‘there wasn’t a sacrifice that could be applicable to you’. And at the end
time, this second death, which is eternal separation, is about to take place.
Bro.
Branham said, “We are in physical
bodies.” Without the physical bodies we wouldn’t really know each other. We’d
be disembodied spirits.” But he said, “Through
the body you’ve got the five senses, and tasting, and feeling, smelling,
hearing, so on. And therefore, by that you declare yourself.”
In
other words your form, your visage, your physical structure, how you act, what
people see, what you say, what you indulge in, what you participate in, and
thereby communicate to people, that tells you about the person inside the
vessel; because you’re tripartite; you’re a tri-unity of a body and a soul and
a spirit. Remember, you’re two-thirds spirit.
8. He
said, “Frankly, we’ve never seen each
other.” That is exactly true. Then, with what are you communicating? How
are you communicating with each other? You, as spirit beings, and I, as a
spirit being, communicate with each other through a body, and thereby, we
actually know each other, as far as we can really know. If you really want to
know what a person is, he’d have to break down and tell you just what he’s like
inside. He’d have to declare himself further than just you seeing him, because
people can be the greatest hypocrites under high heaven, you know. Satan is
very well versed at that. “No man has seen God at any time.”
9. Bro.
Branham goes on to even relate it to God. You haven’t seen God at any time. But
what happened? The Only-begotten, the one-of-a-kind Son, which was Jesus
Christ, hath declared Him. Then, he tells you what that word ‘declare’ really
means. It’s the word ‘exegesis’ from the Greek, which means ‘to lead forth by
Word’, ‘to bring into actual manifestation what the unseen is’. So, when the
Son declared Him, it meant that the unseen was made visible and knowable, so
that now we have knowledge of the unseen, and we’re talking about God. And
here’s what Bro. Branham said.
[7] The Only-begotten of the
Father hath declared the Father.
See? In other words God was identified. Now
watch. The Person of God was identified in the Body, which was the Lord Jesus Christ, so that Jesus Christ was the expressed image
of God. Now he’s combining John and
Hebrews, right. Now listen. Or, God expressing Himself through
an image, (See?) through an image, man.
Now
the image is not the real thing. It’s a copy. So, here we saw God giving an
image of Himself, which was not God Himself, which you are looking at, then God
came into that Body, and so therefore, Jesus could say, “He that hath seen me
hath seen the Father.” Couldn’t do it any other way. See, God identified
Himself through that particular measure.
10. Then, he
speaks of the manifestation of God, how that, declaring how John said, “We have
handled, we looked at, we literally felt Him.” Sure they did. They ate with
Him. They took Him by the hand; and no doubt put their arms around His
shoulder. John said, “I leaned upon His bosom.” Absolutely. Maybe even stumbled
over Him when He was in the boat, as He lay there sleeping; who knows? But they
had an absolute physical communion with Almighty God through that individual
called the Lord Jesus Christ. So, God came into reality, a physical being in
that way.
And
Bro. Branham said, [9] “God is in man.
Identifying Himself today.”
And in
it, in identifying Himself, how does He do it? God was in the prophets. A part
of God, in the sense, that God gave each prophet a certain portion of the Word.
He didn’t give all the prophets the same Word. It was all one Word, but in
parts! And it takes a prophet to bring that Word. So, God did it. Now, what’s
Bro. Branham saying? He’s saying here that you can identify God, once more; by
the works that God is doing, if He is doing it, through any individual. He
never said, “I am the individual,”
although you understand he’s talking about himself. But he had the authority
from God and the Word of God; and therefore, the Word of the Lord was
manifested in this particular hour.
11. Now
we’re getting down to paragraph 10, where we left off in his salutation. He
says:
[10] What a wonderful thing that is, especially
when an old man like me stands here and thinks of the life that is fading away,
that's gone past, and we're facing a future of an eternity.
He’s
talking about death. You’ve got to leave these bodies. See, when you leave the
body, what happens? You don’t become disembodied. You go to a structure, to a
house, to a body—according to 2 Corinthians 5—that is eternal in the heavens.
And 1 Corinthians 15 tells you there is an earthly body, and there is a
heavenly body.
This
body that I’m wearing, and you’re wearing, never came from heaven. It was made
by the soul’s ability to take the chemistry, the chemicals of the earth,
through the process of gestation and birth, and the soul has produced a body
for itself. Then, a spirit allowed of God comes in to animate it! So, now
you’re a tripartite being.
But,
what happens when you die? Oh, logically you know, if the body comes forth,
which is a structure of the soul, and that spirit comes in to give it a spark…
All right. What goes out? The spark goes out. So, the body falls down. It’s
finished. Then, the soul goes back to God. Just what Jesus said. He said, (The
Bible distinctly says:) “Into Thy hands I commend my spirit.” And then, He
said, “Thou will not leave my soul in hell!” And the body was lying in a tomb!
If you believe your Bible, you know that you’re a tripartite being, that your
spirit leaves you, and your soul is at the disposition of Almighty God, and
your body molders!
What
happens to that soul? It goes exactly where Paul said it goes. It goes to a
body, which is not earthly, which is of the heavens, heavenly, commensurate
with your soul, where you’ll never have any more trouble with sin and
degradation, any problems with temptation. You’ll never wonder if you’re doing
the right thing. You’ll never look in a book again, like the Bible and say,
“Oh, I wish I really knew what that meant.” No, you won’t have to do that
anymore, because you’re in that beautiful particular place.
12. [10] What a wonderful thing, he said, that I’m facing death like this
brother dying with cancer. Seeing my life gone away. It’s faded; it’s in the
past. But, he said,
that doesn’t bother me, because I’ve got a future of eternity. What kind of a future? In a body! In a body, see? That’s
exactly true. Now, that’s Scripture, see? Now, we’re facing an eternity. And knowing if
this life only is what I had hopes in, I would be a most miserable person this
morning.
That’s
what Paul said. He said, “Well, I think I’d like to get out of here and just leave
this body.” Well, if you just got hope in Christ that all He can do for us is
what He is now doing, and not bring you back in a glorified body, you don’t
have proper religion. You’re not born again. You can’t be, because Paul says,
“I’m born again. I spoke face-to-face with the Pillar of Fire, and I’ve come
away with this understanding: no matter how my life has changed, how much I
believe in Jesus Christ, how much I believe the Word, if I do not have a body
ahead of me, then all I’ve got here is something I can’t understand of myself.
Something’s happened to me here, but who needs it?”
You
say… Well, look. Please understand me. I don’t want to get tough and nasty and
rude. I would sooner be erudite, sweet, kind and loving, which is not my true
nature. If you have any understanding than this, you are wrong! You’re wrong.
You’re just dead wrong; that’s all. You are going to come back here in a
glorified body. And before you do, you’re going to give an account of the deeds
done in the flesh! And then, you’re going to go beyond that: what motivated it.
See? If it’s not the Spirit of God working by the Word, as sure as you’re
alive, you will never be virgin Bride. You could be foolish virgin and be on
the outside of the City, and you say, “Well, that’s wonderful.” Sure it’s
wonderful. Anything from God’s wonderful. But all the rest get thrown into the
Lake of Fire where they’re eternally destroyed. See?
13.
Now he said:
[10] I’d be a miserable
person if I didn’t know that was ahead
of me. But knowing that this life has only been a shadow
of what we have to come.
Do you
realize that this is just… What is a shadow? It is light… It is a darkness.
It’s something that comes from light, which has fallen upon an object, and the
light can’t get through the object, so there’s a darkness. See? All right. This
life here can’t fully express in any way, shape, or form, the light of God with
His sons and daughters! No way. The best is cut off. What about when it becomes
pure light? You become an absolute pure conduit. Well, you see, that’s what he
said, “I’m looking to be that perfect
conduit.” See?
[10] It's a reflection,
because it’s not a perfect thing.
Why a
reflection? Well, a reflection is due to the light striking an object, going in
line, to meet a surface which will cause the light to come back and show what
that object is. Well, that tells you again you’re looking in a glass. And what
you see is just an infinitesimal part of the reality that you’re going to get
into.
Oh,
listen; don’t ever think you’re going to be an angel or somebody you’re not.
Don’t ever think you’re going to change. You are not going to change. Take a good look in the mirror; and, if
you got a nose like mine, forget it, nobody’s going to be critical. You’ll love
it! You get as old as me, you’ll love it. Thank God my nose has got two open
holes in it and I can breathe. Some cute little noses are so plugged up they
can’t even breathe. So, what’s all this talk about beauty contests? Just get
imbued with the picture: I’m getting out of here and coming back to what God
planned, and I’m a part of it! And I know I am! To a rebirth in the Lord Jesus
Christ. Think of that. This is just a reflection.
14. “Then,
what’s the real thing?”
Well,
listen; men are men, and women are women. So, let’s get real chummy and
downright earthy. Here’s a guy looking in a mirror; here’s a girl looking in a
mirror. And man, this guy looks in the mirror and pretty soon he sees a really
beautiful face appear. You think for one minute that he is going to let that
face appear and not do something about it, if he can? Oh, come on, you got to
be dead! Is any man here this morning so dead that a beautiful face doesn’t do
something to you? in the sense of…
Let’s
all pretend we’re young and single again, and so our wives won’t get offended…
Now we won’t be offended, because the wives are going to look in the mirror,
and here’s a very handsome, real handsome guy that’s… Not one of these birds,
you know, rotten scuzzy little tramps. I’m talking about a real man, a real
woman! You mean to say that that woman, she just look in the mirror and say,
“Well, hmm…” She’s going to take a good look at what made the reflection.
Right!
15. Well,
that’s what we’re talking about here. If this is just a reflection, and the
reflection has to be a copy which is very accurate, you know, of the real
thing, then, how in the world could anybody deny a resurrection and coming back
here in this world under the ideal conditions that God originally had for us,
and they’re going to be better than ever? You see? So, if you have anything in
you this morning to realize how good a reflection can look…
Now
the Bible distinctly tells you a lot of people are like a man that had a dream.
He was hungry; he was starving. And he dreamed he was eating food, and he woke
up empty. The man that was thirsting out in the desert, no water, and he was
dreaming he was drinking water. It didn’t do much good.
We’re
not dreaming today. We haven’t got the dogmas of men to rely on. We don’t need
them. We’re talking about a reality. And Bro. Branham stands with the apostle
Paul. He said, “And knowing if this life
only is what I had hopes in, I would be the most miserable person this
morning.” But it’s just a reflection. And a reflection cannot be perfect.
No reflection is perfect. The thing that is responsible for the reflection, the
object, that is what you’re really looking for and looking at. See?
16. Now he
said:
[10] It’s a reflection,
because it can not be the perfect thing that God made. God doesn't make
anything that perishes.
Now,
what’s he talking about? He said, “God
doesn’t make anything that perishes.” I got news for you. When you and I
die, if we should die and go to dust and ashes and to gases, we will come back
in these bodies, which have been renewed somehow, into the Resurrection, either
for immortality, or for destruction; but they’ll be real. The point is: God did
not make those bodies. The soul actually made it’s own body.
Now,
when God makes you a body—which you go to, which is a heavenly body, and that
heavenly body comes down here and picks your body up—God Himself literally
creates again, from what you once were, an immortal body. And you reside in it
threefold again. This time a soul, this time a theophonic form, or the form
which is from heaven, and the earthy. God always does everything in three. And
I’m only saying earthy, because God is actually making a body of physical
substance, as we know it, now. Just like Adam, as the same physical substance
we are, and he would not have died had he not sinned. He would have gone on and
on. Now he would not have died, but within 6,000 years, he would have been
immortal! He’d have simply passed from that life into immortality, as God
re-created the cells by God’s Own life! Your soul can’t do
it! God stopped that. But God will do it. See? Now, let’s understand that.
That’s something we have to know.
17. Now he said, “That
thing perishes;” it goes away.
[10] God is eternal. And
therefore, this life that we now live in, is only reflecting what is ahead of
us.
This
body, which is the life and all we’re living in, only reflects what’s ahead of
us. And what is ahead of you? How would you… Listen. Wouldn’t it be nice to
just let our hair down once and for all? Go to bed at night and sleep? Wake up
healthy and happy? Have a beautiful relationship with everybody? Not trying to
skin anybody? Not trying to get ahead? They, not trying the same thing, but
just each one showing forth, somehow, through a divine plan, or some plan,
whether divine or not, with every single element, every single entity, every
form of life, working together?
“Well,”
you say, “Man, give me that for 50 million years, and I’ll stick around!”
That’s
exactly what I’m saying. I’m not going to stop at 50 million though. That’s far
too short. Look, if you’re going to be a hog, be a hog. God never for one
minute ever looked down upon a person with any favor, who said, “Enough.”
Right.
The
fire never says, “Enough.” The thirsty land never says, “Enough.” Neither the
soul crying for God ever says, “Enough.”
Now
it’s not to say he’s going to be discontented. But, who in the world even with
the good condition wants to die?
You
say, “Well, this is what I like.”
This
is what God had for us.
18. Now he
said here, about this only reflecting what’s ahead of us, [10]“The real one that cannot die.”
What’s
the real one that can’t die? The body. He starts his message by saying “Hey.” His introduction, his little
prelude to the people—getting to feel their spirits and helping them along…
What he says in there, he says,
“Something’s got to take us out of here.” What’s got to die? It isn’t the
person that dies until the second death; it’s the body. That’s all. The body
perishes.
Now he
said, “The real one,” the real body “cannot die.” And the next sentence he
says, and I’ll prove I’m right: “That
body that cannot perish. The Life that cannot be taken.”
Now,
why was the life taken at the time of Adam? Because he sinned! Now you and I
don’t sin after Adam’s sin. We sin because we
sin! We’re sinners, naturally. That life can be taken. See? And the spirit
leaves, (Sure!) and you’re gone. The spark is gone. The fire is out. You’ve
gone to ashes and dust and gases, perfect decay, just right back, like to
original building blocks or something in nature there.
He
said, “This can’t be taken.” Why? No
reason to. Now that ought to make us feel good. It’d be nothing… There’d be no
reason… See, no matter how far we go, the mind has a terrible job being
completely renewed. And you know what? Let me tell you. Today, if the people
are right who wrote the record, (And they may have got a little previous.) but,
when I read this record years ago, they said, “Knowledge is doubling at the
rate of every two years.” And by this time knowledge should be doubling almost
every six months! I’m trying to tell you something: you’re in a mind age.
You’re in a tremendous mind age of the accumulation of knowledge, and at the
same time the more knowledge that man has, the more destructive he is, because
he can’t handle his knowledge!
19. Now they
said “We’re up against a blank wall,” and the blank wall is ecology—hole in the
ozone above the North Pole. Now it’s over Australia. Nobody knows what’s going
on.
They
say, “Try this, try that.”
There’s
no way. Dr. Kelly said years ago, “Nobody is going to have good health in
America.”
The
way people are going, they’re on junk food, they’ve shot their wad; it would
take eight generations, 200 years, to breed a healthy person in America and
have a healthy family. Bro. Branham said so truthfully, “The soil is gone. There’s nothing left; your body is mush.” And,
if your body is mush, your brain is
mush! The scientists know that!
Everybody knows it’s a wiser, smarter, weaker world. Everything is out of
balance. See? What a terrible condition man lives in.
20. Now,
what we’re trying to tell you, then, is this: there is such a thing as the
mind, illuminated by Almighty God in this mind age, which has followed the eye
age of the prophet, that we can be perfectly reconciled to the Word and the
Will of God, and don’t care about what’s going on out there! Abraham had a
promise from God!
God
said, “Abraham, you’re going to have a son by Sarah.”
And he
did everything, and she helped him! Oh women, listen, if you butt your noses
in, look what happens.
She
said, “Okay, Abraham, I’ll let you have Hagar, and, when she comes time to bear
a child, she can bear the child over my knees, or whatever way, and we’ll go
through a little charade here, that I’m having a son for you.”
Oh
brother, what a mess they have today: those Arabs right now.
And
the Bible said, “Abraham staggered not at his own body now dead, neither yet
did he stagger at the deadness of Sarah’s womb, but he took faith in God. And
with perfect assurance, God brought forth into manifestation physically renewed
bodies that brought forth the son!
And
you know, the best the world can do with that… And I’ve read the books of
theology. You know what they say, when Abraham went down amongst the
Philistines with Sarah, and the king said, “I want that beautiful girl!” as
though he was looking at a 90 year-old grandma? And a 100 year old man, going
to get rid of him, to get this lovely young woman.
And
they say, “Well, you see what it was, there’s a chronological error in the
Bible, that the writers who wrote it made a mistake, that chapter belonged way
back.”
There’s
no mistake made. He was made a young man, and she was made a young woman. How
was it done? In the face of everything that contradicted in their minds the
Word of God! So, Abraham refused to consider it!
21. Now you
and I get to the place where we forget to… We just refuse to consider all these
things, everything coming upon the world, but look up, your redemption draweth
nigh. We are going to be transformed in our bodies, because the Bible said that
we are transfigured, or transformed, go through metamorphosis, by the renewing
of the mind! That’s why we pile Word upon Word here! I don’t care if anybody
comes along and says, “Bro. Vayle I don’t like the way you preach, taking those
messages Word by Word. You preach over our heads,” or something.
I’m
sorry for you, but I’m not going to quit. I’m not about to quit. You know why?
Because it does me so much good. I just love an audience. It inspires me.
22. All
right. Now he said:
[10] That body that cannot
perish. That Life that cannot be taken. Therefore, the Scripture is right, when
It says that we have everlasting Life, we have eternal Life. We shall never
die. See, because, when you're born again, you become a part of God.
Now
right away, that’s something Bro. Branham never said in another sermon. Every
other sermon he says, “You always were a
part of God.” And he said, “You’ll
realize sometime that the day you
thought you were born again, that wasn’t it at all. You’ll just realize you
always were a part of God.”
What
is he saying here? Well, he’s not talking about what people think he’s talking
about. There’s another way of looking at this.
23. So,
let’s go to Corinthians 6 and see what he’s saying, because he’s talking to a
group of people. Because later on he says, “I
feel that this little group here is a
portion, or a part, of the Bride of Christ.” [1 Cor 6:15]
(15) Know ye not that your bodies are members of
Christ?
Know
you not that your bodies that are dying are members of Christ? Christ did not
produce those bodies per se. You got those bodies by sexual intercourse! And
the life of the soul could take what the woman provided and bring forth the
body. That’s exactly what it is! But he’s telling:
(15) Know (you) not that your bodies (It tells you,
“Know your bodies…”) are members of Christ? (See, he’s looking down the road
there, looking right down. Then, will you) take the members of Christ, and make
them members of a harlot? God forbid.
24. All right
now. Let’s go to 1 Corinthians 12, and we’ll put It together now. You’ll see
what I mean. [1 Cor 12:13]
(13) For by one Spirit are we baptized into one
body, whether be Jews or Gentile, bond or free; and (all) been made to drink
into one Spirit.
(14) For the body is not one member, but many.
So,
he’s telling you right here now… given us, it says, [10] “You become a part of God.”
What’s
he talking about? Body. So, you become a part of the mystical body of the Lord
Jesus Christ when you’re born again. Now that being so, how in the world will
there not be a resurrection? God just defeats Himself, if there’s not a
resurrection! Because he said, “You’ve been born again, now your body has got a
part it didn’t have before.” Do you think God’s going to lose your body, if
you’re born again? Don’t be ridiculous. Your soul didn’t die. How can a part of
God die? How can you credit a part of God with sinning? That which is born of
God cannot sin. That which issues forth from God does not sin. Paul said, “In
my body there dwelleth no good thing. Sin dwelleth in my flesh.” The Blood fell
upon the ground to redeem the ground to bring us back, because we’re of the
ground. We’re of the earth. Earthy! See? Understand the Scripture. Let your
mind become free of the things that people have taught you over the years.
25. All
right, now, when you become a part of the body of the Lord Jesus Christ, which
is many membered, you’ll be standing here on earth with Him, reigning and
ruling in the New Jerusalem. That will be forever.
[10] See, you are forever for
eternity, never to fail. You are a part of God, because you're His son.
Now
you got two parts in there. You’re a part of God… How can you be a part of the
human race, if you’ve got… Well, how could a dog be your ancestor, and you be
part of a human race? How could you be a son of God, if it isn’t by genetics?
Tell me.
You
know, people go insane when it comes to the things of God. Listen, I told you,
it took me years and years to follow Bro. Branham and realize, when Bro.
Branham said, “You go to nature, and in
nature you’ll see God.”
I
couldn’t do it. Just like falling off a log backwards now, with someone giving
you a push. Dogs bring forth dog; cat bring forth cat; willows bring forth
willows; armadillos bring forth armadillos; palms bring forth palms. Then God
brings forth children. You had to be in His genes. You had to be in His line.
It’s a matter of genetics. You’ve got to understand that. Don’t fool with God,
and don’t lose your mind.
God’s
become unveiled to us. It’s not mystical anymore. It’s not mysterious anymore.
See? There is a natural election that people fail to see. And it’s the natural
election that brings about the predestination, which utterly means a
manifestation into a physical substance! Touched Him, felt Him. We can be
touched and felt as sons. And one day we’ll be just like Him. There’s no two
ways about it. Listen, this is where the rest comes in. This is where the
Bridegroom has appeared on the scene and made wonderful promises to a virgin Bride.
And He said, “Hey, you’re not even going to die. All the rest die, but you
don’t die.”
I
don’t know. I may be living; I may be gone. I don’t know. It doesn’t matter to
me.
Now It
says you are a part of God. You have to have been a part of God to be a part a
God, and we’re talking of two different things! In the one place you’re talking
of the soul, which came from God; in the other place, you’re talking of the
manifestation of that soul, which comprises a full body as the body of Christ.
No more children after they’re all in, in the First Resurrection. That’s for
both Jew and Gentile. It’s all over.
26. [11] Now, I might take
another name, and say my name is some other name.
Okay, now he’s going to illustrate here. I might take my
mother's name, which is
Harvey, because that’s the closest one in the world to me. My mother was a
Harvey, so then I might take the name of Harvey. But still the blood would
prove I’m a Branham. See? Because I'm part of my father.
Now he’s telling you
something right there. What’s he talking about? The life is in the Blood. And
you can analyze the Blood and say, “Well hey, absolutely by the blood test,
this boy…” Now blood, you know today in the world, they’ve got a test from the
blood. I guess it’s one hundred percent perfect now. But back in Bro. Branham’s
day, they didn’t have it. But he’s illustrating, anyway, the fact that you can
tell paternity to a degree, by the blood. In other words some males could not
be the father of certain children, because it just wasn’t possible. The woman
lied or something. You know how it is.
But he
said, “Now look,” under the belief
that this is a legitimate valid test that can be used, he said, “It can be proven that I am a Branham,
though my mother is a Harvey. See, why? Because that’s where the life was;
it was in the father. He said:
[11] Because I am a part of
my father. See, “I’m a part of my father.”
As long as I got blood in me, I’m still part of my father. All right. All
the way down the line. See, that's right. But, when I'm borned of the
Spirit, I’m a part of God, that's all; I’m identified with Him, that He is my
Father.
27. Now he
said:
[11] A blood test will show
positively, that I’m a Branham. I
belong to that particular group of people. Now he said, when I’m born again, that is going
to prove that I’m a part of God. Call me anything you want down here, call me
Branham, call me Harvey, do what you want. He
said, If anything at all, I am a son of my father, Charles Branham. My
mother of course was Ella Branham. She’s a Harvey. I could take the name but
I’m not a Harvey. Now he said,
my blood will prove it. Then, he said,
when I’m born again, there’s going to be…
In
other words he’s telling you there is a proof somehow, an identification, that
positively and absolutely he is a part of God.
And
now he said, “I am identified with Him,
that He is my Father.”
Now
watch, and he’s going to bring something out here that you and I can talk all
we want, and anybody can laugh at us, and say “Anybody can say what you are
saying.” Now watch.
[11] Then my life should
reflect Him; as my life reflects my earthly father in the image that he was in.
They say I look a whole lot like my father, so then, therefore, it's His image
reflected in me. And your father reflected in you, and your parents. And so,
God our Father is reflected in us when we're born and conformed here to His
image.
All
right. Now, what is he talking about below the surface? You know as well as I
do. I can stand up here and talk, and say, “I’m born again.” Prove it. Prove
it. That man had “THUS SAITH THE LORD.” Never failed. Thoroughly identified.
28. Now
then, if he comes with the Word of understanding, and we receive the Word of
understanding, wherein God identified Himself, then tell me we’re not
identified with God? Come on. Come on. Listen, a pig goes, “Oink, oink, oink,
oink, oink.” Does the sheep answer back, “Oink, oink, oink, oink, oink?”
The
dog goes, “Arf, arf, arf.” The cat’s hair rises on its body, and it runs.
“My sheep
hear my voice, and they follow me.” [End of side one of the audio tape.]
What
we’re looking at here, then, is Bro. Branham giving us this testimony of the
admission of the fact that, though he has earthly parents, like you and me,
there is a way of complete identification. The proof of paternity is to go and
see, check out the life. As you can find it in a blood pattern, you can find it
in the saint of God also, and the true child of God. Because, if the Holy
Spirit is actually pictured there, [Bro. Vayle points to the picture of the
Pillar of Fire over Bro. Branham.]
and that’s an authentic picture—and it’s absolutely authenticated by every test
known in America… If that is an actual test of the Holy Spirit in the form of a
Pillar of Fire, and that man is vindicated like Moses and Paul, to know what he
is saying—and the purpose of that is to bring a Word—and the people do not
respond to the message, then, my brother/sister, you tell me that that is a
child of God. You are lying in your own teeth.
“My
sheep hear my voice.” Hebrews 12 distinctly says that, “The One from Heaven
speaks one more time.”
And we
know that is not Jesus as a man. No.
He
said, “What if and if you see the Son of man ascend up where He was before?”
He’s
talking about the form of the Holy Spirit. And that same Son of man was to
manifest on earth, which means once more, the Holy Spirit will manifest on
earth as He did back in those days,
proven. And we’ll show later on in Scripture again, Matthew 4, and Matthew 12.
And
then, people turn that down? How can they turn that down?
29. Look,
quit looking around. Get rid of your theology and creeds.
You
say, “Well, what about you?”
I got
rid of all mine. Listen, I was Pentecostal, Baptist, Presbyterian, God knows
what, and the background was Roman Catholic. I wouldn’t give you two bits for
the whole system. I have no allegiance to any system! But look, I want to tell
you something. When something comes across my path, out of the supernatural, I
am not going to run to some fuzzy-minded person who claims something. I stood
with William Branham time after time, and I saw it. And I know this much, what
I’m talking about. I can say exactly… You people weren’t around him the way I
was, but I can say as John said: how he handled Jesus Christ, I was that way
with Bro. Branham. And let me tell you: the man was different from any man
you’ve ever known, or ever will know, until there is a resurrection. The Word
of God is true, brother/sister. Yes!
30. Now, in
paragraph 12 he said:
[12] Now, I start talking, never get to my text of
what I was going to talk to you about.
[13] I have always
appreciated a house meeting, that’s a cottage prayer meeting such as this, then
I guess people could think that I would, because the finest meetings and the
finest times of fellowship is usually in a little cottage prayer meeting like
this. Where I have felt the closest to God, is when just a handful of believers
come together and worship.
Now
every preacher would like to have a great big crowd. I remember I wasn’t there
at my sister-in-law’s funeral. My wife wasn’t there either. But she was so much
loved in that town. She gave herself to her family and to everybody, until she
exhausted herself entirely and died of lupus. A Missionary Alliance preacher, who
couldn’t draw a crowd if he tried, (That’s the sorry truth. He just never had
any influence in the town.) but, because they knew her, and she had gone to
their church a certain amount, and done a lot of things for the church, he was
to take the funeral eulogy. He got so carried away by the size of the crowd, he
forgot to say one thing about my sister-in-law, who was one of the loveliest
women ever lived on this earth. You know, Bro. Branham wasn’t fooled by the
size of the crowd—that he had to talk to a lot of people. Crowds don’t mean
anything. You can be the loneliest person in all the world in a crowd. It’s
“Are you with the right crowd?” And the right crowd may be two or three where
God joins Himself.
31. Now, why
did Bro. Branham like a small crowd? The fact of the matter is: it’s like the
Bible said, “Where there are no oxen, the crib is clean.” If I had to deal with
six people, it’s not hard picking up after you—the mess you make. If I’ve got
to deal with sixty people, I got to get a bigger shovel. Because the crib isn’t
very clean anymore. There are too many oxen. And that’s the way it is with
spirits. You get a few people that are intent upon the Word, and that’s all you
need.
And we
have built this church upon the intensity of your love of the Word. If you
didn’t have it, I’d walk off and leave you. I’m sorry, but I’m just being
honest with you. I wouldn’t have time for you. It’s the intensity of your
desire for the Word that makes me say things I could never dream of saying, and
have thoughts I wouldn’t ever dream of having. Because that’s what Bro. Branham
relied upon, was a small handful of people who believed.
32. When we
had our meeting in Ohio here, years ago, back in 1957, Bro. Branham came to
Lima. The people there that go to that church now didn’t know the first thing
about Bro. Branham. Our little Baptist church, as I’ve told you, had prayed. We
had prayed for weeks and weeks and weeks in chain prayer, and then in the last
two or three months we would meet every single night and pray from about 8:00
till 10:00 or later, but always went on—this chain prayer. Well, what happened
was, a group of devoted people, who loved Bro. Branham, came to that
auditorium. Now it was built like the kind of auditorium I love. Like the opera
type, you know, for orchestras and all. And just beyond it were the galleries
in tiers, about three galleries. And it was like Bro. Branham was holding the
people, as I said, you know, like Edgar Bergen and Charlie McCarthy. And here
was this group of people here in front.
And,
of course, in those days I preached faith like a house afire. And I was
preaching faith every day and telling about Bro. Branham, until if I’d have
said, “Listen you people, Bro. Branham is going to sneeze two times. And when
he sneezes two times, it’s all over. You’re free. Everybody’s healed.” And
they’d have believed it.
For
the first time in five years the gift of healing went into operation. There
wasn’t one missed. People in the audience who came—and we heard their own
testimonies—they said, “I heard about the meeting, and I didn’t believe a
thing, but I just came down anyway. And you know, I got healed!”
There
wasn’t one person picked out by Bro. Branham that wasn’t healed that I know of.
And yet I’ve been to many of his meetings where he picked them out many times,
and there wasn’t one person healed! What was it? It was not a big crowd,
because a man named Ivy, from Cincinnati… Maybe you heard of him. And I hope
I’m not telling a lie, but I understand he kind of got rode out on a rail, because
he was with too many women. He could pull a way bigger meeting than William
Branham did.
Where
are they today? It isn’t the number that counts. It’s whether you’re one with
the Word.
33. That’s
why I keep telling you, understand me please: Bro. Branham is telling you what
I have been telling you. This church is built on nothing but the Word. If the
life in the Word doesn’t do it, nothing will do it. Our doing is vain. But
you’ve got to receive the unadulterated, Word by Word, Bro. Branham’s message,
just the way he said it, just the way he meant it, and no changes made. You
believe it. And then, the life that is in the Word works in you.
And
the life was there. See, that’s the life, a picture of it, [Bro. Vayle points
to the picture of the Pillar of Fire again.] an emanation, the Shekinah Glory,
which means the glory attendant upon the personal presence of almighty God
Himself, that light, signifies it, bringing him a Message, which is we believe
Word for Word, and that Message vindicated by that life, so the life is now in
the Word, and we having that Word, how in the world are we going to miss it?
For
the first time in two thousand years, brother/sister, something tremendous has
happened. There was first Jesus, then there was Paul. That Spirit that met Paul
on the road to Damascus returned in our day. What is the next thing? The dead
rising, the Bride caught away, and the two prophets appearing to Israel. And
it’s all over.
You
say, “What if it doesn’t happen?”
What
if it does happen? Has anybody but us got anything like that? [Bro. Vayle
points to the picture yet again.]
34. You say,
“I don’t think I should look at those things.”
Well,
you look at what you want, and, when you produce something, let me know. How
many of you have even tried sometimes to sneeze when your nose is itchy, and
you [Bro. Vayle makes funny noises.] can’t even sneeze when you’d like to.
Then, what are you going to do to produce the spiritual, to show you’ve got
something?
I
mean, look, I’ll make this thing very silly to let you know where you stand if
your faith isn’t where it should be. What can you produce? Go to the churches
anytime you want. They’ll be like the doctors. They’ll skin you alive, and what
do you get? An educated guess. That’s not worth a nickel. I’m suffering today
from an educated guess. When a man to be your doctor (And he’s fifty.) said,
“Hey man, you’re in better shape than I am,” I don’t have too much confidence
in that man.
I sort
of bawled out the guy giving me a test the other day in the chiropractors.
I
said, “Listen, Bob, I’m fed up.” I said, “I’m better than your chiropractor;
here, at my age, I’m in better shape. Look at his pot belly on him, look at
your pot belly.” I said, “I’m in better shape than either one of you, and I’m
seventy-four.” I said, “Of course you got a young chiropractor there, but he’s
only in his twenties,” I said, “if I was in my twenties, watch me then.”
Twenty-eight inch waist, about 145-147 pounds. Reflexes. I still got good
reflexes. I moved. I moved. I still move. Something’s wrong… “What are you guys
going to do about my hands?” An educated guess. Who needs it? Not an educated
guess. Oh, brother/sister, differentiate
before it’s too late. See? [Bro. Vayle points to the picture once more.]
35. Now he
says here, “We can express ourselves this morning,” with the few people
here. And in paragraph 15:
[15] And I would speak this morning to my
new-year's Message that I had planned for speaking next Sunday afternoon in the
Phoenix auditorium. Because, in here, I thought maybe they're making tapes out
there. Which they were.
Maybe the Spirit would give me a better thought here amongst just a bunch of
believers, than perhaps it would be at Phoenix amongst, you, where the belief
and unbelief, and superstition and everything is mixed together. And then, if
the brethren that are making the tapes, they can do a better job on the tapes
that are going out. So, I asked the boys to check the acoustics. And I came in
this morning, Terry said they were fine. So, that's good.
Let me
tell you about Phoenix. I was there. Bro. Branham preached a sermon, and I told
you about it, “Paradox.” He said to me, when the meeting’s over, he said, “Lee, what did you think of my message?”
“Well,”
I said, “Bro. Branham I thought it was okay, but factually, I enjoyed the other
message.”
I
forget what it was now. And I saw his face fall.
And I
said, “Now hold it. Let me tell you something. I think I never got what you
were saying because of the people’s spirits.” I said, “I was sitting there
surrounded by a bunch of people who tried to make you God—and Pentecost,
everybody else that didn’t understand.” And I said, “The next day, when I came
to the meeting, I was so disgusted with not being able to reach through, as I
sat trying to listen to Bro. Branham, I said in my own heart, ‘Okay, by my own
spirit I will move around every one of these people, and contact Bro. Branham,
and I will get what he’s saying.’”
And I
did. And you know, when I preached “Paradox,” that’s one of the greatest series
I will ever preach in my life, because I saw what he was saying. No wonder his
face fell. No wonder he said this.
36. You
wonder why people come in here, and they love to preach to you as a crowd? Or
why, if they get carried away, they say, “Wasn’t that really great? Oh my, I
really did the people good.”
No,
you people did the man good. I’ve told you time and time again, I wouldn’t
waste my time, and I wouldn’t want you to waste your time! If you didn’t have
enough faith in me… …Our spirits to move until something began to move! Not a
bunch of nonsense, or emotion. When you stand here and know the Spirit of God
is moving, faith worketh by love, and that’s what it was. I was away, and you
people loved me enough. So, when I came back, you just showered your love upon
me, faith began to work. And in the morning I said, “You could have been
healed, but even now you can be.”
Little
Aaron sitting there, I’d looked him right in the eye, not knowing it. Four
years of severe back pain. He doesn’t have an ounce, and that’s weeks ago. That
doesn’t mean anything! in the sense hundreds of men could produce that in
hundreds of audiences. But we don’t operate that way. We teach only one thing
here: that is Word.
He
said, “Take this message for your healing,”
and when we pile the Word upon Word, the life of that Word, in the vessel
begins to move, till there be no sick amongst us somehow, by the grace of
Almighty God, a prelude to the great Resurrection.
You
say, “Bro. Vayle pray for me now, and I’ll get healed.”
You
might not get healed anymore than nothing. Now Aaron’s neck still bothers him.
Just like my arthritis, perfectly gone, but I got arthritis in my hands. When
will that come? I don’t know. Might wait for the Resurrection. I don’t think so.
Our little bit of faith moving, that says things are moving. See? All right. It
means a lot to have the people in the right position where they are hearing the
Word of Almighty God.
37. Now he
said, [16] “I believe they said some of
you are staying for lunch.” You can do that here too. Lunch is going to be
served. Just like Bro. Branham. [Bro. Vayle laughs.] I hope that’s not the only
way we’re like Bro. Branham. “Very fine.
I sure appreciating you all coming together.”
[17] And I feel that my Message this morning is
addressed to the church of the living God, (See?)
which I believe this is a portion of it sitting here this morning. And now
before we come to that solemn part, let's bow our heads a moment of prayer.
I’m
going to quit right there. Now Bro. Branham says here, “I believe the little group is a part of the church of the living God.”
Now listen, remember, in Scripture there is positively church and church, and
Bride and Bride. The church of the living God, designated this time, is truly
the Bride of the Lord Jesus Christ. See? The church, which is also of God, is
an admixture of foolish virgin and the downright, outright, not-of-God.
The
Bride is being separated by the Word at this point to be separated by the
Rapture a little later on. The foolish virgin did not have oil in their lamps.
The oil had been used up. The Bible said the Word of God does not become void
under any condition, and pass away, until it’s fulfilled. A fulfilled Word then
passes away and is void! Seven Church Ages with seven messages. Six messages
absolutely void! There has to be a seventh. And, if you haven’t got the seventh
message, you don’t have anything for your oil. The oil’s been used up. It’s
gone! And they come too late to try to get it. See? And at the time they’re looking,
the Bride has already gone to be with her husband! She’s at the Wedding Supper.
Now they die. And they come up in the Second Resurrection, and they get
immortal or glorified bodies, but they are not a part of the Bride. They are a
part of that outside group—church, which bring their glory into the Holy City.
38. Now,
never forget an understanding of what the doctrine is brother/sister. Look,
what good is anything, if you don’t have your doctrine? You’ve got to have your
doctrine in order to know. And this is the true doctrine of what is going on
right now. There has already been a call out of Egypt, which is Babylon.
Mystery Babylon, right in the Book of Revelation. It’s mentioned. “Come out of
her my people. And be not partaker of her sins.” See? “For the wrath of God has
come against her.”
39. Now he
said, “You are a portion sitting here.”
Now, does that mean that every single person is born again and a part? Nobody
can say that. But nobody can say that somebody isn’t. “The foundation of God
standeth sure, having this seal, the Lord knoweth them which are His.” And I
saw one thing about Bro. Branham: he always counted every single person a part
of what he had received from the Lord and, therefore, a part of that body, on
the grounds that they saw something.
40. Now,
listen. At the time of Jesus, there were people who saw something but couldn’t
place it. They’re not going to be destroyed in any Lake of Fire. No they won’t.
They come up in the Second Resurrection. So, does everybody who really saw something,
though they misplaced some of it, and have not blasphemed the Holy Spirit in
this end age. They will be part of that which comes up in the Second
Resurrection. So, we must be very, very careful as we progress down the road
not to withdraw ourselves and think we’re somebody, when we’re not. But to give
God the glory that we have seen and heard, and by grace understand the things
which are before our eyes in this hour. That is what really counts.
And
Bro. Branham looked down in his humility one day, and he said, “Oh,” he said, “by thoughts of grace, I count myself a part with you.” What a
tremendous thing from a man. I really believe that’s the Shekinah Glory. I
really believe the camera caught it. I really believe that man’s a prophet, if
I know anything at all about things that pertain to prophets.
41. Look at
the Mohammedans today. They talk about Mohammed being a prophet. Oh, maybe he
was a prophet, but he wasn’t a true prophet. Where do you get that nonsense
they preach? Where’s there any vindication? And it’s the Shiites who are
causing the trouble. Wasn’t it the Shiites that Bro. Branham challenged in
India? Yes, it was the Shiites! When he said, “Listen, you pray in the name of your gods, you sitting here, you
standing, you priests come forward. Give this man his sight in the name of your
god.” And he said, “Boy they sure
were quiet.” But, when he prayed in the name of Jesus Christ, that entirely
blind man, with his eyes rotted out by the sun, his eyes opened, and there he
stood with perfect eyesight.
Where
is Khomeni, today, and his gang, brother/sister? Don’t tell me they didn’t
know.
Who
are you standing with this morning? Brother/Sister, listen. I wouldn’t put my
trust in any organization or any dogma under any consideration. I may not know
much, which is the truth. I do not. But I know this one thing. I came out of
enough churches, enough background, to know they had nothing that what we have
today. It’s all leaked out. Go on back over the centuries. You’ll find out.
42. Where
are they? Where’s St. Martin? Where’s Columba? Where’s St. Francis? Where’s
Wesley? Where’s Luther? Where’s men like Dr. Price? Bring them all through the
ages. Where are they? The oil is leaked out. No, you can’t go in unless the
vessel is full of the oil. A portion of the living Bride of Christ could be
sitting here this morning, and by the grace of God I believe that’s absolutely
true, and I’m not leading it. You better believe that. I’m preaching to a
section without a doubt. I got no doubt in my mind.
If I thought
for one minute that, there’s a bunch of people sitting here that certainly
wouldn’t be a part of this revelation, which has been vindicated, you know I’d
be terribly disappointed. You know that. And you know what? If you didn’t
believe that this Word was transforming your life, even though you don’t see
it, (But one day you will.) you wouldn’t be sitting here.
43. By the
grace of God we’re here, because there’s a vindicated prophet with a vindicated
Word. And by His grace we’ll get into this message Saturday night, and by grace
I will show you something I have taught for years. And I’ve read it hundreds of
times to you, and you’ve heard it hundreds of times, and not one of us caught
exactly what it said, and I’ll prove it to you. And it’s as simple, again, as
falling off a log backward, when a mule kicks you. You’ll see why the prophet
knew he heard from God and had to hear, in a vindicated way, why love is not
the evidence of the baptism with the Holy Ghost. It’s the Word of the hour. I
promised you that; now you’ll hear it.
I can
promise you this, as much as I know, we’re going to stand on this Word, and be
closer and closer knit together, by the life that is in the Word, which Word we
hold as common property. I don’t have any more than you possess. Don’t think
for one minute I do. I haven’t any more than you have. No. There’s no great
ones here. There’s no little ones. We’re all one in Christ Jesus.
Let’s
rise and be dismissed.
Again
our Heavenly Father, we thank You for Your love and mercy that You’ve shed upon
us in this hour, that You by grace have allowed us to come together and to know
Your Presence, which so many people simply don’t understand. And Father, I’m
sorry to say they don’t want to understand. Not knowing, that back in the day when
Paul appeared, they said, “I’m called a heretic, because I worship a certain
way.” And that’s the way it is with everybody, Lord. We’re heretics to
everybody, and everybody’s heretics to us, and yet, always there is that
thought somebody wants to proselytize and make something out of something.
Our
Father, this morning, if there’s anything in my heart that I want to lay hold
of anybody, I pray You’ll just cut it out of my heart and burn it right out of
there by the Holy Ghost, because all I want to do Lord, is lay hold upon You,
and have You lay hold upon me, until we come into union, and that union, Lord,
with everybody here, is on the same basis, a one-to-one confrontation, You
laying hold of them, and them laying hold of You, and together we forming a
body, a Bride, of the Lord Jesus Christ, which has an eye single to You , an
ear single to You, a mouth single to You, and a life single to You. As the
prophet distinctly said, there’d come a day when the Bride had “THUS SAITH THE
LORD,” or she’d keep her mouth closed, and that’s the way we want to be; and we
believe we are that way to a really good degree already, and coming more and
more into it, and having the Word to know what to do with it, Lord, right back
as it was in the beginning, before Adam fell into sin. And now in this last day
there’s a Bride that the prophet by absolute vindication, could stand up and
say under divine authority, “Little Bride, you are the virtuous, righteous,
sinless Bride of the Lord Jesus Christ, you didn’t even do it. It’s all cast
back upon Satan, because he’s the one that propagated and did it.”
And
so, Lord, here we are today, and we can stand upon It. We really can, because
of vindication, and by Your grace we’re trying. And Lord, we know that even
though we do believe it, in the degree that we do believe It, having received
It, and put It all with all the rest of It, we know it takes Your life, Your
Spirit to ignite It and weld It into our very lives, and mold It there until we
are that living Word of God, manifested, and the virtues coming forth even unto
a stature of a perfect man. Father, we thank You for that privilege, it’s not
beyond us, Lord, because You said, just like Your prophet said, ‘If You demanded
it, You made a way for it.’
And
so, we thank You this morning, by our uplifted hearts and minds, and our hands,
if necessary, Lord, standing even on our feet here in Your Presence. We honor
that great Word, that You made a commandment, and You made a way for It. By
Your grace O Lord, no matter what comes, we say with Paul, because we know what
was true for him, is true for us: there’s neither height nor depth, nor life
nor death, nor anything, can separate us from Your love. We’re predestinated to
be with Paul, and with Jesus above all, and William Branham, those old saints
of God, that went on before us; those wonderful people, no matter what their
backgrounds were, their parents’ parentage, and their fathers. And their lives
were from You, the Father, and we’ll stand with them in grace.
So now, Lord, dismiss us with Your strength in our beings within our innermost soul and our consciousness. Give us strength for the journey in the days that lie ahead. Heal the sick amongst us, especially little children, Lord. You said bring them unto You, and we’re bringing them this morning, Father, little children that they can