Doing God A Service Without His Will #02

Shall we pray.

Heavenly Father, again we’re very grateful of this opportunity You’ve afforded us, and Lord, above that even You put it in our hearts to be here, for many people are afforded the opportunity, yes, the whole world has been afforded it, but they’ve turned it down. We thank You Lord that You’ve put it in our hearts that we would accept the invitation to hear Your Voice in this end hour. And we’re very grateful for it, Lord.

We pray now as we enter into the study of this message that the prophet brought, that You will help us Lord to understand it even as he understood it and wanted us to understand it, having presented it to us, in order to do us good. So Father may we receive the good tonight that lies in it, and we carefully give You the praise, in Jesus’ Name. Amen.

You may be seated.

Now this is the second lesson we’re taking on Doing God A Service Without His Will or apart from His will, and we recall that Brother Branham put his text of Mark 7:7 in the context of 1 Chronicles 13, wherein David inspired to do the right thing, which was a good thing, which was to bring God and the people back together in worship and service, committed an error in the way in which he tried to do it, and therefore brought death rather than life.

So what we’re saying here is that Brother Branham took his text of Mark 7:7 from the context of 1 Chronicles 13, and that’s the story where David tried to bring the ark back, which would give the people a proper worship and contact with God, and he didn’t know how to do it, so therefore he failed, and what would have brought a life actually brought death, at least to one person.

His effort was in vain, and never was the problem rectified until it was worked out according to the Word’s instructions. What he’d done, he had failed to follow the Word of the Lord, which said the ark must come back, not upon a cart but upon the shoulders of the Levites. And Brother Branham’s text was, “In vain do they worship me, teaching for doctrine the commandments of men.” [Mark 7:7]

Now in this grave hour of Laodicea wherein people are worshipping and serving God – that is they’re trying to worship Him and serve Him, and they say they are… God says, “You are wretched, miserable, poor, naked and blind, and I counsel you to come to Me and buy, and open the door unto Me.”

So therefore it’s something as it was in the days of the ark, claiming to know God and be known of God, to be worshipping God and of service to God, this age is miserable, wretched, and blind, and perhaps it is the, not perhaps, but no doubt, it is the poorest age that ever lived, not only rivalling, but I believe surpassing the age of Noah, when the people were destroyed from off the earth.

In other words the Laodicean age of worship and service is in vain. And that has to be true if you know your Bibles.

Now we’ve noticed last Sunday that just as soon as Brother Branham gave his text, he opened his message by saying,

Trying To Do God A Service Without Being The Will Of God, 07/18/65M

[28]  Now, I know nothing but the Message that the Lord has given me, that’s all I can speak on.

Now putting his text and comment together, it is evident that to him his Message is entirely of God, containing no commandments of man, but only commandments of God, and is the only key to accepted worship and service.

Now you can see that in the Book of Revelation, the Laodicean church age, there is an abject condition of the people and literally an entire negating of the world by Almighty God, so that if somebody doesn’t come on the scene to help rectify conditions, it would be a very, very sorry mess, even actually fulfilling, as the Scripture said, “I will come utterly and destroy all.” So the age is a very bad age.

And Brother Branham in his message here, makes it very evident that he puts himself exactly on par with the apostle Paul in the Book of Galatians, because he said, “All I know…” Let me read that back here, to get it.

[28]  Now, I know nothing but the Message that the Lord has given me, that’s all I can speak.

Okay, Paul says the same thing. Though an angel from heaven came down and preached any other gospel than that which he has already spoken as a man, that angel had better be accursed, that he’s a bad angel and he will be cursed. And he said,

Remember he was taught by Gamaliel, and this was a complete departure from Gamaliel who was the authority of that hour, if anybody was an authority. Having been thoroughly instructed and learned of Gamaliel, for him to say, “No man taught me any of this,” was to say that he had departed from Gamaliel in the faith of his fathers.

He was actually a renegade, according to them, and he also said in his own testimony, “The way I worship God makes me a heretic in their eyes and they call my worship heresy.”

So he said:

In other words, Christ Himself revealed Himself, just as He did to Moses, where He said, “I will speak to him apparently,” which means in a visible form of some description that can be apprehended by the prophet, which we know to be a Pillar of Fire, because the light struck him down.

Now for a moment let us notice Paul in his revelation, which is based on Galatians 1:11,12. So we go to the Book of Corinthians, which will be the first book, and just looking at the 11th chapter for a second, verse 23.

And of course that’s the Lord’s Supper, which you heard me comment many times, that Paul did not have the history of the Lord’s Supper. It was not something which he understood by hearsay, and whatever hearsay he had would have been that Jesus’ body had been cut into little pieces and they were eating it, and I don’t know how’d they drink his blood, because that was spilled on the ground, or what was in his veins had been congealed.

There would be no way of ascertaining their stupidity, except to realize their eyes were blinded by the devil. And when you’re blinded by the devil you can be stupid beyond degree. You absolutely can. God calls it the wisdom of this earth, which is sensual, earthy, comes to nothing. But the wisdom from above is what we need.

So he received a revelation. And let’s look at 11:2.

And he said,

Now let’s go to 1 Corinthians 14, with that thought of ordinances, which are commandments, and the 37th verse:

So therefore if anybody worshipped and served God in the light of the Pauline instructions, that man had to be perfect in his worship and service of God. See? All right.

Now you notice that the church here, in the Corinthian era were using the gifts inappropriately in a wrong time, in a wrong place, for a wrong reason. They were really very, very bad shape. And they were fast coming to the prophecy of Jesus, who said, “Many will come in that day and say, “Have we not prophesied in Thy Name, and cast out devils, done wonderful things?”“ And so on.

And He would have to say, “I did not know you. There’s no way I knew you at all.”

Mark 16 can end in Matthew 7. So therefore Mark 16 is not to be looked upon as an evidence or a sign of anything, except God said they would follow the Word, which means anybody can have that following. Only a prophet can give that which is ‘THUS SAITH THE LORD’, which precedes the act of Almighty God, vindicating the prophet.

So therefore we see here, according to this Scripture, why Paul could actually tell the people the spiritual gifts out of order for any other reason than a true infilling of the Holy Ghost was leading them to follow the gifts according to the Word of God would show that they were hypocrites and the gifts were nothing but window dressing. Because they said, “Though I speak with the tongue of men and angels.”

And that’s pretty nice. “Though I give my body to be burned, though I give all my substance to the poor, though I prophesy,” all of these things in there. He said, “They can be nothing but window dressing for the hypocrite.” Superficial garments that mean nothing at all. Remember the garment must be on the inside, before there can be anything on the outside.

Now we recall that Paul, according to his own words, because he said, “You’ve got many instructors but not many fathers, I’m your father.” And Brother Branham used the same word exactly. We recall that Paul fathered a virgin Bride church and that soon that church fell. That of course was 2 Corinthians 11, Paul is speaking:

Now the espousal was literally an engagement wherein this Bride was to remain pure until she came to her husband. What happened?

Now you notice the law of jealousy is where the husband thinks that his wife has been messing around with somebody, but he can’t prove it. He’s suspicious.

Now there’s something here you got to notice. You can’t prove who’s born again and who’s not born again, if you just want to look at situations and all. You might even come to a church like this, and being instructed as a child, grew up to adulthood, and you could know this Message just as well as I know it mechanically, maybe even better, because you’re much smarter. Doesn’t mean you’re born again.

Second generation, you still got to be born again. See? But what we’re talking about, if you’re truly born again, then the Message is life to you and you understand where the conduit of the Holy Ghost lies and what these things are about.

Now we’ve had very bad training over the years, and of course us old timers have it very bad. The newer ones should not have much trouble if they’re truly born again, they’re already in the line where God wants them, they’re in that conduit, or that passage that God wants them. 

He said,

Now you notice that’s kind of the same thing over here in, this crosses my mind, in 2 Thessalonians 2, concerning our day, just before the close out in the great tribulation. Now Paul says,

Now over there you’ll notice that there were three things the apostle Paul put out in Corinthians. That you could be wrong in. But notice over here at the end time:

Now where was the virgin’s trouble? It was in her mind by taking a wrong mechanics! Somebody came by and took the words of Paul and confused the whole issue. And we’re sitting here tonight, how in the world, we think in our mind, could anybody be so spiritually gross as to believe the Resurrection was over when Paul said it wasn’t.

Young fellow came to Brother Jack Bell’s church, and he heard me preach of course in Memphis, and he’s under another preacher out West. Well he said, “Brother Vayle, he doesn’t believe in a literal second coming.”

Jack said, “Where did you get that?” See the boy doesn’t sit still to listen. So he runs with everything.

And I can understand perfectly how it was in the days of Paul. I don’t care what Paul manifested, the spiritually ignorant were there waiting, the false brethren unawares, the false teacher, listen there’s five-fold false prophets, apostles, evangelists, teachers, pastors, elders, deacons, the whole bunch of them. That’s seven of them. And the false crew sitting in the pews.

Don’t think for one minute brother/sister this is a locked case all shut up and we just sit here and everything goes fine. I don’t care about our election. The Bible says, “Make your calling and your election sure.” Mount Zion is the showdown! How we ought to walk carefully before God.

So over back here in 2 Corinthians they had a false spirit and a false gospel, and a false Jesus, there’s a false Jesus right today. The Jesus Only people don’t qualify in this Message, Brother Branham said he wasn’t that. He wasn’t Oneness, now he was in his doctrine of being there one God, but he wasn’t Oneness as a denomination. And he wasn’t Trinitarian. Then where did he stand? He stood between them!

Even right today people got a hard job understanding Jesus is alive! He’s the one that took the Book out of the right hand of Him that sat upon the throne. Ripped the covers off, gave it back to Him upon the throne!

The One on the throne got off, and the Son climbed upon the throne! That’s pure and simple, understandable. But you can’t get them to believe that. They don’t know if he’s dead or he’s alive or he’s sort of dissolved or disintegrated or inane or supine or God knows what.

I’m going to tell you something, brother/sister, you better believe He liveth to make intercession. You better believe God’s putting all things under His feet. You better believe we’re going to meet Him in the air up there. He never took one wink of sleep, brother/sister. When he died, his body alone died. You know what’s going to happen to you and me? The prophet told us we would be aware, but the rest will be in a never-never land.

What does that mean? I don’t know. Seventh Day Adventists come along, they believe in soul sleeping. I don’t believe in soul sleeping. They believe in a lot of goofy things, because they’re a cult. Led by a woman. Shows where they are anyway. You get a leadership woman, you’ve got nothing. But the people believe anything. Where they want to believe these things, they’re entirely wrong.

But Jesus is alive. He has risen from the dead! See? How in the world? He only separated from God. He went into Upper Sheol like a roaring lion! Then went down to the lower and preached to those ones that had rejected Him in a crisis moment, back there in the time of Noah.

And he showed them that He was that One and they were wrong. Then he went back to Upper Sheol, cleaned them out and went with them. Never died for one minute, just took a separation. That separation was real, just the same. He said, “My God, my God, why hast Thou forsaken me?”

People understand these things, there’s a simplicity. Don’t go running around and looking for something, and try to figure things out. Just let it come to you. If it doesn’t come to you, don’t you go running around; you’ll never get it.

Why do you think the prophet would go out in the woods? What did he do? Run around, run around, “O God show me, O God show me, O God show”? He sat there. And then he said, “Lord bring the squirrels to me.”

Why you and I would be so grateful to think maybe we could just ask God for a little old measly squirrel, we’d go running to it. Hogwash. He said, “Lord, put it over there.” He said, “Well that’s fine, put it over there, and put her there,” and didn’t move a diddly. Yeah. Up in the storm up there, he sat down. Peace and quiet. You don’t get anywhere running around. Got to get quiet in your soul.

That’s the trouble with people, they don’t get quiet… I’m going to tell you something about that a little later on, when I talk about how I dealt with women years and years ago. It is years and years ago, because I’m seventy-two, and that’s thirty-five, six, thirty-seven years ago. Man, time has gone fast. Praise God, it’s gone fast.

Okay, now we see here at the end time it’s like that first time. The people are gathering around a wrong thing. They should be gathering around the Presence of the Lord now, the One that descended with a Shout, which is a Message!

And Brother Branham said our gathering together is the Message! To get us in the right mind. Because her mind was seduced, and our minds are being set right! And the clarion call of this age is “Repent!” Not repent to be baptized!

A church that’s already baptized is to repent! Come out! God doesn’t call for a bunch of sinners to come out; He’s calling for a Bride to come out. She’s been locked in there. And remember, you always were Bride.

Remember Brother Branham said, he said, “One day you’ll realize that you didn’t receive eternal life at the time you thought you were born again, it will suddenly come upon you and realize that you always were eternal!” That’s the real you.

Then how come these people believe in two kinds of souls, one’s going to die and this and that? They don’t know what Brother Branham taught, they can’t put it together. When they think they got it together, and tell their false lies, they go into adultery every single time. You watch it, brother/sister! Get this flat, I’m not kidding you! The original mark was adultery! Therefore the end mark is adultery!

Read your Bible’s for heaven’s sake and understand what I’m talking about. And flee fornication and those things. See? People don’t want to listen to that stuff. I’ve preached so many sermons up here, you must be embarrassed by now, by my x-rated sermons to lay it all on the line and show you exactly what’s in the heart of people.

I’ll tell you what, if people hadn’t kept their morals by just fear and a few other things, this world would be a greater mess than ever. But just wait, it’s soon going to get there. It will soon get there. If you think AIDS is the bad thing, wait till the next thing comes out of it, because those germs are moving and moving and moving. Sure. They can mutate and they sure do it. See?

Now thus in the midst of the Laodicean death, which we’re in, God brings a spiritual resurrection through Revelation 10:1-7, and the whole world, bar none, saint and sinner, from Revelation 10:1-7, God in the prophet, Seven Thunders, Seven Seals, is now under Revelation 22:10-19! Now that’s where they’re at. Through this Message here! And I’m talking about William Branham and his Message. Okay, and he says here,

Now you see what we got here is the opening of the Seals, Revelation 10:1-7 has already been fulfilled. So we’re not looking now for the Presence, we’re looking for that which is after the Presence, to meet Him in the air. Where there’ll be the great convocation, all the Bride’s there, and the handing out of the status, and the rewards, and all those things.

Now he tells you it’s all wound up. And watch, “I was there in the Garden of Eden.” Now what’s He here now? This hour, not up in the air, but here.

That’s dibbies on the Tree of Life, authority to take it, franchised. You don’t have to elbow your way to it, it’s yours. You don’t have to have any safeguards, it’s yours. The rest of the world think it’s theirs, but it’s not.

The Bride alone has the right to it, the Bride alone is going to be transfigured. Because the Bride alone has revelation. Remember the mind was despoiled, the mind was despoiled, the mechanical conveyor, the mechanical conduit had been impregnated, defiled.

Look, what did Brother Branham tell us a little while ago? That’s years ago. He said it’s not necessarily the medicine you take that’s bad, but they haven’t cleaned the machines! Now he knew what you and I know if you know anything by reading your paper. Little baby girls were having menstruation periods from having hormones in their medicine because the machines hadn’t been cleaned!

All right, if the conduit is fouled up, you’re diseased! I want to ask you a question then. Do you think God’s going to let His Holy Ghost Word go through a lousy conduit? Something that’s messed up with creeds and dogmas, man’s messed with? Neither will we be transformed without the minds being renewed! That means every creed, every dogma; everything else got to get out of your skulls and mind.

Isn’t this difficult. I got preachers phoning me all the time and people talking to me. And it’s hard to nail this down, because I have a job myself. Godhead alone just about makes my skull expand and break, but don’t worry I’m believing, and I’m standing just what I believe and I know I’m right. I don’t know that I know Him like a prophet; God never met me face to face.

At least I know one thing, the prophet couldn’t say what he said, and you not back away from the two extremes, Oneness and Trinitarian. It’s about time to smarten up and get rid of these creeds and dogmas, all these things.

Okay, he said,

Now through the gates. There’s still gates. Okay. The gates of hell are against the revelation of Christ being here, and all hell is against the understanding it takes one man to do it, and that is the discerning of the body. Do you hear what I said? And that is the discerning of the body. I’ll explain later on. But I want you to hear it again. And that is the discerning of the body.

Can’t even take communion without understanding that. And you put the two together, then you’ll see what the gates of hell are. They’re to hit this revelation place after place after place! And remember the Name is in that place. The gates of God. Which is what? The Presence, and one man doing it. There’s where your refuge is.

Now you try to clear your mind out of that. But you got to do it. Never mind your background, burn it up. When you find something to the detriment, you get rid of it. You know. Like the old fellow, his house was infested with bed bugs. You ever had bed bugs? Oh you missed a treat. Oh, man, shee, like little red hot needles. Brother. They smell me out any place. Bed bugs can smell you forty miles from anything. Stinkers.

Anyway, guy one time, standing outside his cabin, just a shooting… he said, “I got them,” jumping up and down, “I’ve got them!” Just having a great time. “I got them!”

“What do you mean you got them? …?…”

“Oh he said, “I got those bed bugs in there and they’re biting me again!” That’s the way you better be. Get rid of the bed bugs. Yes sir.

Now the gates of hell are against this truth, see?

That could only happen now, because this is the only hour you could take from it or add to it, because you might have read it and hit it a hundred percent right and not even known it. By that I mean you said, “I don’t understand this, I’ll leave it go.” And just leave it sit there. See? This is the hour that takes place. So it’s a very crucial hour, when Brother Branham says, “I am the one to bring you this Word.”

Now in every message of restoration Brother Branham brings us, he lays before us a very pertinent fact. And that is his Message is actually no different from the other three ages, of Luther, Wesley and Pentecost, except that as Wesley had a greater glory of revelation than Luther, and Pentecost a greater glory than Wesley, now we have come to the glory that cannot fade.

Listen, what is the glory that cannot fade? Christ Himself. The perfectly revealed Word. It won’t. See? It takes a restored church into the Millennium. That’s what this restored Word does.

As the seed planted in the ground must go through successive plant life stages: sprout, stem, leaves, the forming of the little spike at the top, where the seeds are going to …?… and all. As the seed planted in the ground must go through successive plant life stages according to nature, which of course is controlled by the sun, right? until it can come back to the original patterning or imaging it perfectly, till it comes back to where the original pattern.

The original seed is right back to it again, so the life that fell into the ground, started to come forth in Luther in its season, Wesley in its season, and now in the last messenger, a prophet, we have the perfect parallel ministry, or the perfect ministry of Christ in the prophet to bring forth the finished Message which unites God and man under the Name and in the Name of Jesus, bringing forth the dead, and immortality, and back to Eden.

Now that’s what you’re looking at. Now remember the Word was in Luther, the Word was in Wesley, and it came down through the trickle down method. God’s way of doing it, five-fold ministry. Through the prophets, through the five-fold ministry, whatever they were, apostles, evangelists, so on, right on down, down the way. Now and remember the prophet said, “God is sovereign over all of this.”

Okay, we’ll now read again on page 10, and we’ll begin again at paragraph 40, and the two paragraphs we read last Sunday, we’ll continue.

[40]  Like the heat of the sun, to open up [the seed into a plant and so on]. When it’s tender and young, bring it out of the ground, [that’s the sun does,] the seed; then it gives its leaves, in another stage of the sun. The hot sun will kill it if it’s the ripening seed… or ripening time. So, He regulates the sun and regulates nature, to meet His Word. [Okay.] He regulates the Church, the predestinated, the Bride, to meet the season that they are living in.

So other words, every certain age there is a spirit that’s on the church to receive that particular Message. Now there’s four animals. There was the lion, there was a calf, the face of the man, and now the eagle. And with it of course you have that Word that suits that particular area and that’s what the Bride of every age waited for was the particular Message.

And remember then the person to bring it was predestinated, the Word of God was predestinated, the people to have It were predestinated, and the whole thing then was like a plant in its season, which planted by the water, that’s what David said, the tree planted, will bring forth its fruit in its season.

Remember in the Tree of Life there were twelve manner of fruits, one for every month. And so therefore, there are seven manners of fruit for seven church ages. And within it there could be multiplied differences. In other words they’re still coming up and coming up.

Of course it did fall in the ground and die back there in Nicaea; it went down, down, down and started coming up again. But I want you to know there is a nature that God has in a certain chronology that parallels nature out here in the universe.

Now the nature of the Bride today goes toward revelation, which is the eagle. And it’s strange the rest of the people recognize something is going on but they can’t place it. See? So Brother Branham here is explaining why the Word must be in season.

[41]  Even nature itself tells us today, [that’s paragraph 41,) as we see the nations breaking, the earth sinking in, the handwriting is on the wall. We see the church and the state it’s in. We see the Bride and the state She’s in. And we know, by nature, that the Church is getting (that’s the true church is getting) ready to leave. What a glorious time! It’s a time that all the prophets longed to see, this very hour.

Okay, world events reveal the hour in which we live. And remember the major sign in the world, in the socioeconomic world is homosexuality and the government allowing it. And the only reason they’re trying to clamp down now and put quarantine upon these illegitimate ones, which are homosexuals, is because they want to protect themselves, but there’ll be no protection. What if it comes to the place where they mutate to where they’re airborne? Right now it comes by fluids.

The old Bhagwan out there, Rajneesh… Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh, what do you call them? There in Oregon, he forbade the people to kiss each other, because he said kissing could bring it on. He said this is the big thing that Nostradamus saw.

And the people said, “Well it’s not going to come by kissing.” Oh yeah, just don’t kid me about that. Passionate kissing, woman bite a woman’s lips, or woman bite a man’s lips, rather, and bite back and forth, all that involvement, little scratch here and there.

I’m going to tell you one thing, people can say what they want, but I’ll tell you this, when the human nature gets more beast-like, which it does, it will be more thoroughly involved sexually, somehow, someway. It’s going to increase; I don’t care what anybody says. They’re just talking up a storm.

Now if there is such a thing as Dioxychlor and these things that doctors have now can cure it, it will only mutate to where it will be bigger and better. What do you think my trouble was all these years, fighting two solid years the yeast infection? Because they mutate.

So when you give them one shot of one thing, they just climb right back, and it doesn’t do them any harm. Then when you drop the stuff off, they come out again to where they were. So the doctor got smart, he gave me three days on and two days off. And it took some things and all, and the Lord helped me, we got rid of it. People praying every day.

I tell you, if you’ve got trouble with yeast, and it’s the same idea of AIDS, and you’re sitting here, every one of you with yeast in you. Everyone’s got it. If you got a blood test right today, I could show every single one of you got it in your blood. Your immune system is what keeps it from taking over.

In fact you’re a sea within and without of bacteria, virus and God knows what. Anybody knows that and the older you get, the more you know it. Just get a good shot of it and you’ll know it for sure. See?

[42]  Now, He reveals His Word only in Its season. [See?] Martin Luther read the same Bible we do. Wesley read the same Bible Martin Luther did. Pentecostals read the same Bible we read. Jesus read the same Bible the Pharisees read, but they were… Trying to keep the corn in its early stage, when it was ripening, and they failed to see their hour.

Now you could look at this one way by saying, “All right, they organized to keep their own ideas and centrality of their thoughts going for themselves.”

But how are we to look at also this way: Brother Branham is warning us that it was later than the Pharisees thought. What about today, as the prophet said the same thing to us? “It is later than we think.”

Now we’re used to understanding there’s an end time Message, an end time revelation, we understand that, there’s no problem there. But we can get a little out of tune by not settling down and realizing this could go on, and by going on our love could be diminished and our zeal could go down the drain. Now that’s true.

And that’s where the Scripture distinctly warns us that we ought to be very careful about our attitude toward church and going to church. It doesn’t mean that everybody can get to church all the time, but it categorically says in the last day you better be careful so that you really have a desire to be in the House of the Lord, so much more as you see the day approach.

A lot of people take any excuse to stay away. Well if I’d have taken every excuse to stay away, there’s many time I wouldn’t be in this pulpit. And I’m not the most rugged man in the face of God’s earth, I can tell you that. I’m not the most enterprising. In fact I’m anything but enterprising.

The only thing I’ve had going for me is the ability to be patient with God in certain areas, and it proved out. Anything else I don’t have. But there’s what it says, he’s warning you, the same thing is going on today, it’s later than people think. It definitely is, see? Actually it’s all over.

The man that’s sitting in death row, with no right to appeal, could be sitting there for one month, ten years, thirteen years, twenty-five years, and be like some people down in the south which had no thought of justice at all, where a black man could steal something, maybe worth twenty-five cents, end up in jail for forty years, where the white man could murder and rape and get away with a light tap on the wrist.

That man didn’t …?… for forty years, but he was. You read the case of the south and you’ll understand why the blacks have had an awful lot going for them against the whites. But then you see the white asked for it by killing the Indians.

“Be not deceived, God is not mocked. What your parents sowed and your ancestors, you will reap.”

Say, “Why should I?”

That’s the law of God. And a warning to you, if you find it bad, then don’t you sow so your kids are going to reap. Comes a day when people can turn things around, but they got to turn it around according to God. See, that’s poor old David didn’t do that.

Okay. Today they’re trying to hold the prophet back through organization, just as these people tried to hold the people back and Christ back through organization. Paragraph 43:

[42]  Now David has done the same thing here. [What? He failed to see.]

[43]  God reveals this Word in the season, and to whom He chooses to reveal It. God chooses whom He reveals It to. He chose that before the foundation of the world. [You got to believe that if you believe in predestination.] All of His doings were foreknown by Him, hidden from man.

See that’s the cherubim hid that, Tree of Life. Kept people from the revelation. Christ hiding in His Own Word. And the only time a revelation could come forth is when the flaming sword held in the hand of a prophet. Would just move back enough.

See, the same protection is the same revelation, brother/sister. The same flood that killed all the world floated Noah above it. The same tribulation is going to get rid of everything, everybody and everything, so you and I can come back and have the Millennium to ourselves. All right.

[43]  All of His doings foreknown, just hidden from man. He just reveals them as He will. [That’s true.] It is His chosen season, [one was Thyatira, that was Luther.] His chosen person [was Luther]. [Next season was Philadelphia, which was Wesley. See? His chosen season, chosen purpose.] And He never did choose a party or sect; it’s a chosen person, that’s how He does it.

Now you see that’s the thing that all hell is against. See? They think, “Well the Bible was written. It’s up for grabs. I’ve got the Holy Ghost, therefore I can know.” Now if you really had the Holy Ghost you’d understand you didn’t know. You’d understand the Word of God, see?

Okay, 44:

[44]  Who is it that will dare to correct Him, and say, “Now, Lord, You made a mistake by putting this man in the ministry. This man doesn’t believe like we believe”?

You know Brother Bose was a great friend of Brother Branham’s, in fact I told you one time we had a run in over him, because I couldn’t stand the way the guy did things, and I guess he’s still living, and I still can’t stand the way he did things. And I’m going to admit it, be honest with you.

What did Brother Bose say? He said, “I made the mistake, I encouraged Brother Branham to preach. He had no business to, and I’m responsible” – these were his words, almost literally – “before God, in my mistake, I should not have got him to preach.”

Well I don’t see Bose sitting up above the Pillar of Fire. I ought to. …?… maybe don’t like me calling names, but I call them just as it is. Now you know that’s the truth over this pulpit. I’m not fooling. Yeah. I know the crocodile tears and all those things; I’ve had a few of them myself, but not over the prophet. A different story.

People don’t understand this. Oh they take his ministry any day. Wouldn’t take him. No there’s no way they’ll do it. Well this man doesn’t believe like we do.

I told you one day my wife tricked him. She just sent a letter in the name of our son-in-law and said, “Do you believe there’s one God like William Branham?”

He wrote back and said, “No,” he said, “I believe there’s three gods, have all my life, and will believe it.”

And Brother Branham couldn’t do a thing about it. He just couldn’t see it. And you know what? He didn’t take the words of Jesus, just look at the acts. Just look at what’s going on and then stop and think, “Could I be wrong? Am I making a mistake?” Good question.

Where are the gifts going to end up in a lot of people? “I never knew you.” Mark 16 runs into a dead end. Hebrews 2 runs into hell. Sure. “Go into all the world and preach the gospel, baptize in the Name of the Father, Son and Holy Ghost,” and they do just that, and they go to hell doing it. Now they wouldn’t some time ago, but they will now. Because it shows they have come right against what God Almighty told them was here.

Now so Brother Branham’s giving the warning of danger. Now,

[44]  Who is going to tell God He is wrong? It would take somebody that’s a little more delinquent [notice his terms. It would take somebody a little more delinquent] than I am, to tell Him that. He knows what He is doing. He knows whom to choose and whom not to choose, what to do and when to do it. No matter how much we think that a certain person is qualified to do a certain job, God knows who is qualified for the time and the season, or the time and the right time to do it. [Now what’s he doing? He’s talking about himself.]

Okay, let’s just take a look at this.

[44] “…You made a mistake by putting this man in the ministry. This man doesn’t believe like we believe”?

What’s he teaching? He’s teaching discernment and the recognition of the prophet, which is true discerning the body of the Lord Jesus Christ, because the body that God is using within the body, the framework of the body, is the prophet! And if you don’t understand God’s body at that time, then you don’t understand. See?

Don’t understand the saying, what is it John say? “He that is antichrist that doesn’t believe that Jesus is come in the flesh”? Well, Jesus himself is not here in the flesh. Whose flesh is he in? God was in the prophets. A little statement like that. And yet they failed to see that Jesus was the great Prophet. A Prophet like unto Moses. Never mentioned the sacrifice.

God Himself mentioned to Adam and Eve the bruising of the head of Satan and the bruising of the heel of the seed. They didn’t catch on. They just knew something was coming. And of course when the babies came, she said, “I’ve gotten a man from the Lord.” Cain wasn’t of the Lord; he was just one of the principles, that’s all.

They cannot discern. So therefore where is communion today? Where is the baptism with the Holy Ghost in the light of what we’re saying according to the prophet? And he ought to know. You know the thing is this, if a man can do something, and you really want to know what it’s all about, why don’t you go to the man that does it instead of going to your organization? Or going to some other person?

I always found this: it wasn’t too difficult for me to try to get to the man that I really wanted to get to. And I’m quite a shy person. Yeah, you think because I’m up here I just blast out. You think I’m that way. Now you know me, I’m not that way. I’m not interested. I just soon walk away; have a good time by myself.

Like that old song says, “I love me, I love me, I’m wild about myself.” Not really, not really. Give myself a pat on the back. But you guys want to give me a boot in the back. Not you guys here. I’ll give myself a pat on the back. I’m just letting you know, we’re people, we’re all that way.

But I never did find it, it was too difficult, it was difficult, but I never found it impossible to get to men I wanted to get to. And I got to the men I wanted to get to. See? That’s the way it is. Now you think they couldn’t have got to Brother Branham? Didn’t want to.

Now 45:

[45]  And the real, true Christian; the real, true believer in God, waits upon the Lord for these things. [Now he’s talking about himself again, and it’s trickling down.] Wait on your ministry. [Self-testimony.] If you feel a call, be sure that it’s God. Be sure that it’s right. Be sure that it’s timely of what you’re saying. The Bible said, “They that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength.”

Okay, we realize here that many people start and fail, because they started in the flesh. Now Brother Branham made a very strong statement. Unless you know “Woe is me if I preach not the gospel,” you don’t have a call. Furthermore those that want to preach the gospel never have been called. It’s those that run from It, until you get slapped around, until you wouldn’t run if you were paid to run, you got to stand and take It.

Now William Branham did it, I did it, and you’ll find everybody goes through it. And if Jack Bell ever told you his testimony, told you what he went through, and what certain people we could name that think there’s really somebody or thought they were, you’d be surprised that kid went through.

That’s one reason I like Jack, really admire him, because he stood the test, and I mean he stood right there with the wife and about four kids, live or die, sink or swim or starve, and the best the fellow did for him, that said he’d really help and support him, brought him some stale doughnuts. But Jack wouldn’t budge, he got a job. And God began to move.

And he got one of the best churches in America. And he stands right alone, he knows all the tricks of the trade. And he doesn’t sell his church down the river for any one person or persons, because he’s obligated. Not his family or anybody. There’s where some of you folk would fail flat, because you’d sell out because of your families.

You’ve got to honor your wife and your kids, and everything else, and kowtow, Jack never let one his children or does he allow any influence, and God has made it pay off. There’s not one that’s out there messing around. Turn over. I don’t say it’s going to go that way all the time, because …?… no matter what you do, kids will run off on you.

But I’m just laying down the line; show you what it is there. Brother Branham had to sacrifice his family, and there’s one out there in the boondocks that really needs God. If you want to pray for somebody, you could pray for his daughter. I don’t think a lot of it’s her fault, I think it’s a lot of other people’s fault. We won’t discuss that. But the thing is that we pray for her and we trust you do too.

All right, now notice in here:

[45]  … “They that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength. [Now this above all is a successful way to go about doing things.] They shall mount up with the wings like an eagle. They shall run and not be weary. They shall walk, and they shall not faint.”

Now without this your ministry will fail, because you’ve got to know it is from God. Failed ministers are all too common.

Let’s go to Romans 7. Let’s take a look at it. 12th chapter… did I say 7? I meant 12:7, and it says here:

See, because that’s what we’re supposed to do. We’re supposed to wait on that, to see the thing mature, to see it develop, to wait for it, we’re a part of it. You know, men either beat the gun or they fail to rise at the bugle call, when it comes to ministries, it is very difficult.

People shouldn’t faint, but they do faint. We’re just kind of prone that way. The 2 Corinthians 4. Brother Branham mentions here, “They that wait upon the Lord renew their strength,” and so on. The renewal of strength. Notice what Paul said here,

They that wait on the Lord shall not faint. You see? Now notice in here you have mercy given of God so you will not worry about your strength, you just go right on ahead. But you got to have a character that:

Now you and I cannot do that except in our walk and our conduct and trying to show people, “Look, we’ve got no designs on you.” The apostle Paul and William Branham had theirs by manifestation of the power of Almighty God. You and I don’t have that. See?

All right:

[45]  They’ll run and not weary. They’ll walk, and not faint.” [So wait on the ministry.]

Now that’s where Brother Branham’s letting you know that his life was constantly waiting on his ministry. And nothing could interfere with it.

[46]  Notice David, king of Israel, just anointed. Samuel poured the oil upon him, he was chosen of God, to be king of Israel. And David got this revelation, to bring the ark of the Lord up to the city of David. Now, there is nothing wrong, but, you see, David went at it wrong.

Now what is that? That’s the error of Cain. What Cain did was a good thing. The Bible said Abel’s offering was more excellent. Therefore as I told you, Cain must have had an excellent offering. It was. It was a fine thing; he was worshipping and serving God, trying to do something. But you see, he did it wrong.

The Scripture said he divided wrong. And the Bible said we have to rightly divide, and that’s one of the main things Brother Branham put to our attention. You cannot mis divide. That’s why I said if you don’t know doctrine you’ll mess up in this Message, you can’t help yourself!

Now everybody wants to quote, quote, quote, quote, quote. You can quote yourself plumb into hell with this Message! I don’t care who you are! Me, you and all us together! You’ve got to know the doctrine! See? You’ve got to know division.

They’ll come and say, “Well you’re preaching two gods, you’re preaching three gods, you’re preaching this, you’re preaching that.” No I’m not. They say, “Lee Vayle’s preaching Jesus already come, spiritualize the second coming.” The man that said that is insane spiritually speaking.

One of the men said that, I preached right in his pulpit, showed the whole thing how it is. Amened every word. Then somebody said something, he turned right around. Never knew a word I was saying. I have no trouble with the fellow. I’m not here to convert anybody. I understood God converts the sinners.

And God grants repentance. I said, “I grant your repentance,” I might as well be a preacher with holy water. Do you all want to get turned back to youth or something? I’ll pour buckets on you. Won’t do you a bit of good. …?… do any good, have to do me good, I’d charge you ten dollars a bucket. Come on, it’s nonsense. You ever hear such junk in your life? See?

See here now:

[46]  …nothing was wrong, but, you see, David went at it wrong.

[47]  Now, it looks like if a man like that would get a revelation, a great man like God’s chosen king, the greatest king ever lived on earth, outside of Christ, I guess, was David, ‘cause Christ is a Son of David. (See?)

Now he said, “You think anybody get a revelation, sure be that fellow.”

[47]  Now, the greatest man, freshly anointed, [that’s David] coming from the very Presence of God, got a revelation to do something for God, and wanted to do it for God; but the revelation was wrong.

Now was the revelation wrong? It was wrong, because part of the revelation was how to do it, and the how of it was wrong, so the revelation was wrong. Out one word. Threw the whole thing plumb out. See?

Now this is a point blank statement of fact. It was something that ought to be done, but not by him. He received the very revelation of what to do. And today we have a very revelation that the prophet gave us, but how many people know how to be a part of It? They don’t know how to be a part of It. You get to be a part of It by waiting on It. Let It become a part of you.

Now that he said, you see:

[47]  …but the revelation was wrong. Now, that’s a great thing. It’ll deal with our subject: Trying To Do God A Service Without Being Called To Do It.

Now he’s taken the context, he’s explained his position, and he’s now taking his text here from the background and he’s talking about it. Now this would be what you’d call the body of the message, the rest would be introduction. Not really, because Brother Branham and I, all the preachers are getting just alike now, we don’t follow Spurgeon.

Spurgeon, he would tell you, “I’ll introduce it this way, the body will be this, and the conclusions this,” and he lay it all in points. Wonderful preacher, but we’re not wonderful preachers, we’re just talk. We just discuss these things, and have a nice time together, a little fellowship, you see? Okay, like Brother Branham called a Sunday School lesson. Okay, this will be the body of it.

[48]  Notice, David got the revelation. And notice, it was not the prophet, Nathan, that got the revelation. It was David, the king, that got the revelation. Neither was Nathan consulted about it. He never asked Nathan. But did you see here, in First Chronicles, he consulted captains of thousands, and captains of hundreds? He never consulted Nathan. He consulted the people, he consulted the priests and the theologians of that day, the scribes and the theologians. David consulted first, said, “If, this, be of God, let us go down and bring the ark of the covenant of our God, up in the city, and let us consult God before we do these things.”

[49]  They said, in the days of Saul, “They left off consulting God, by the ark, the Urim and Thummim. They left off doing that.” And David said, “Now let’s get back to God, all of us! Let’s get back to the right thing. Let’s go down and get the ark and bring it here, bring the Presence of God,” in other words, “into the city. Let’s hold a revival. Let’s bring the people back.” But he got the revelation, which seemed to be good, but it wasn’t the will of God.

Now you see this there is a real sticker. See that’s a real sticker. Because this illustration of human reasoning and spiritual motivation could hardly be closer to God’s Own heart than if God had thundered it from heaven. Because God wanted the ark back there! He wanted fellowship! He wanted the people! And He could have screamed from heaven, “I want to come back by means of the ark, do something!”

So therefore what David had was as close to the heart of God as God’s Own heart! And he’s wrong. Are you getting the drift of what I’m saying? Are you really? Or are you just sitting there? Now I’m not saying you’re not. I want you to think. To put on your thinking cap.

I want to ask you a question: is this what God wanted? Yes this is what God wanted. I can prove it. God got it! On the shoulders of the Levites it came back. This is what God wanted! God wanted restoration! He wanted it His way, in His Own doing, His Own time! The church also wanted it! And wants it. And they’re doing everything they can about it!

As you’ll see an illustration here, Brother Branham speaks of Roman Catholics. And so on. People think they’re going to restore the Roman Catholic church. Why? Because people want restoration. God wants restoration! “Well hallelujah, let’s do something!” Said the Full Gospel Businessmen, “You preachers sitting on your duffs, you’re not getting the souls in! So God told us, hallelujah.”

Maybe Dr. Price had a hand with Demos, I don’t know! So they organized, like the fishers of men! And they’ve shaken the world! What for? To bring on the great sin of blindness. And the cunning deceit of the enemy, through the cunning wisdom of our God, Who Himself said, “I’ll bring deceit on them.” Say, “How are you going to bring deceit?” Turn them loose, with the Bible.

You know I’m going to tell you something about the Roman Catholics. Every Protestant thinks the Roman Catholics are stupid. I just wait enough before God and start preaching, and God shows me everything the Roman Catholics had, we’re supposed to have, they had it once. And the Catholics say, “Don’t touch that Bible, because that’s for an exclusive group that knows it.”

God sent exclusive men, one for each age, that knew the Word for the hour. This Book is dangerous, brother/sister, unless you have the right revelation. Because the whole world is taking the Bible and going right to hell, faster than a horse can trot, and faster than tongues can tongue. And it did it.

And the Full Gospel Businessmen organized Trinitarians and turned down the prophet. And thumbed their nose at God. I …?… use rough language, that’s exactly what happened. Spit in His face. Made themselves great guys.

And Brother Branham said, “Sister Shakarian will die at two o’clock in the morning.”

It wasn’t long till some big mouth rose up and prophesied, “Behold, I have heard your prayers, a daughter shall live.”

And Billy Paul said, “Daddy, what about it?”

He said, “You wait, God said two o’clock. I don’t know where they got theirs, just look at the clock.”

Two o’clock, she was dead. Did you think it did anything? Did nothing. Made them angrier than ever. Until men… what’s that fellow’s name in Philadelphia? I forget. He just hated the name of William Branham.

I’m going to tell you something. It’s easy to hate anybody that steals your thunder. It’s easy to hate somebody that’s got something more than you’ve got. Why have men killed other men? Because of the love of a woman. She loved Jory better than she loved Smitty. So you know Smitty go – pop – get you, just nails him. Hate.

Why did the devil hate God and why did he hate Jesus? Because they out-did him. Why did Cain hate Abel? Because he out-did him. Why did anybody hate anybody? Because of the very thing, the very thing there.

We’re looking at this then, see? Okay. The very thing that people would agree on, look, is the very thing God said. “Then let’s do it!” No, can’t do it. See? “Let’s hold a revival. Let’s bring the people back.”

They started ecumenism back when I was very young. The churches were getting together, but of course they wouldn’t let mine in, because I was Pentecostal. And I wasn’t only Pentecostal, I was independent Pentecostal, which is ten times worse. Ha. Could be. Could be, I ain’t arguing nothing. Oh yeah.

“Well I’d like to rent this building.”

“See the council of preachers.”

What for? What are they scared of? Oh brother/sister. Devil possessed and don’t even know it.

[50]  Instead of asking the source that he should have asked, [that’s David should have asked,] he consulted his captains, because he just become king. And followed that line of thinking, of his chief captains and great men.

Why if you’re a great guy, you really don’t need anybody else. You’re a leader, you lead them. David figured then he had something to do with the leadership that he got from God. Now David had a real leadership from God, in the place that God put him, but not in the place where he went. That’s the five-fold ministry, deacons, and all the rest of it, people in the church.

You know we don’t have any trouble here, because we’re not Pentecostal. Oh if you want trouble, go to a Pentecostal church. Or any other church where the people don’t understand leadership. They’ll all be raising up and fussing and fighting. If you ever understand leadership, where you got confidence and love and nobody’s going to try to hurt you, then what do you want to be somebody for? You want to get this pulpit? I’ll give you this pulpit. I could retire today.

Say, “Well I think I’ll take it over.” I walk out the door; ninety percent would go with me out of this building. You’re not stuck on the man, you believe in a ministry. I don’t kid myself. Personality, I don’t have any. I’m a person; you wouldn’t believe that, but it’s true.

I’m not a fine figure of a man, anything like that, but I have a gift that God gave me. And I don’t care what anybody says, I know He gave me, because Brother Branham said so. I believe the prophet and that’s all there is to it.

Now what happened?

[51]  David then went to the church nominal and asked if they could have the revival. The priests, the scribes, and the captains of thousands, and captains of hundreds, he consulted them. “Was this the will of the Lord?” [Bringing the ark back?] And they said it was. [Sure, sure, that’s the thing.] But, you see, he failed to ask the main resource that God always deals through. He failed to get it.

Now Brother Branham uses the word ‘source’ and ‘resource’. I like them both. Because the prophet is a source and he’s a resource of the church! Everybody wants resources! Something to fall back on! Oh, something to get ahead on! Yeah, to make sure! Then get a prophet. Because he’s a source of the great Resource! Trickle down economy, vicar-ship. See?

Okay, the question now arises: can man by spiritual law bring about a revival, actually, unless God specifically wants it? Now that’s the question. Can man, by spiritual law – that is knowing the Word of God and doing the things that pertain to that Word – bring about a revival unless God specifically wants it? Is there a time and season? Is there ever an off season? That’s a good one right there.

Brother Branham says there’s a time and season. …?… hold it, there’s never an off season. Because the Bible said to be ready in season and off season. That’s a horse of a different color, that’s not saying the same thing. There’s never an off season to love your wife and your family. There’s never an off season for that. But there’s an off season where God may want you to do something for Him that excludes your family, and you got to do it. See?

But, you know, people look at this thing and they say, “Well there’s never an off season, it’s all a season.”

“Well all right,” they say, “is there a fountain open in the house of David that’s not always open?”

Nobody said there wasn’t. But see, those folk don’t understand sovereignty. Now the Pentecostals are legalists, because they came out of Methodism. The same as the Seventh Day Adventists, Jehovah Witnesses, the Nazarenes, the Missionary Alliance, all those people.

I suppose Church of Christ, whole bunch of them. Or did come out of the Baptist? I’m not sure. Can’t remember if they were formally Camelites or what. Because I’m not much on history anymore, who needs it. We need this. And get our own little history, which is fading out right away, because we’re going to the land that never fails. See?

So people just don’t understand predestination, they don’t understand these things. See? The Full Gospel Businessmen didn’t do it and I think he’s typing them here.

[52]  Now [52] his intention was good. His motive was good. His objective was good, that is to bring a revival in the city, and bring the people back to God. But he never consulted the way God told that it should be done. See? [That’s a very strange doctrine. People wouldn’t like that.]

[53]  Even all the people agreed, and the priests also, that the king was right…

Well that makes it unanimous. And say, “Hey God, this got to be done. Amen, all of us agree, if any two agree that’s touching the kingdom, it shall be done, we’re agreed there’s going to be a revival.”

So Moses said to Aaron, “We’re going to agree and Pharaoh will get saved. We’re going to make a Hebrew out of that guy and then he’ll say, “Go out and take everything with you, hallelujah, it’s all …?…”

And God said, “I’m going to kill him. I’m going to harden his heart.”

Do you think Moses then would have said to Aaron, “Hey, let’s go down there and pray for that guy”? He said, “Let’s go down there and watch what God does.”

Actually Moses forgot that God was going to do that! So when God hardens Pharaoh’s heart, Moses began quaking and say, “Just a minute, You didn’t only not let us go, You made it worse.”

And God says, “I told you I was going to do that. What’s the matter with you?”

So God can say in His Word exactly, and man will come back and say, “No it ain’t so! I don’t want it that way!” Like through great tribulation we shall inherit the Kingdom. On flowery beds of ease I want to drift, drift, drift. Never there’s a rift, but it’s nice, nice, nice. Hogwash. You don’t suffer, you won’t reign with Him. Oh how we hate suffering. I do, I’m like you, it’s okay. It’s not okay, but I just mean I understand the position.

[53]  [So they all agree.] “They needed the ark back in the city. Now, they needed the Presence of God. [Goody, that’s our language.] They needed the revival.” But God had not promised to reveal His Word, in Its season, to the peoples. [Now He promised to reveal His Word in season, but not to the peoples.] He never promised to reveal It to the king, in the season. And God doesn’t change, a bit. He didn’t promise to do that. [What’s His promise? A prophet.]

[54]  No matter how sincere, and what good motives, and what good objectives, and how the people want those things and see the need of those things, there is a will of God to be carried out in those things. That’s what I want to drive down tight, [I don’t think he got too far,] I want to make this so that you have to see it if the Spirit of God dwells in you. [Then you will see it.] That’s the reason I’m lingering so long here. Not taking you people’s time on the telephone, and the hookup, but I want you to see it. If you run out of time, then get the tape..

[55]  No matter how much it’s needed, how much everybody agrees that it’s needed, how much that that is the Truth, there is yet one thing to find out. Is it the will of God? [In other words, is the timing right? Is this the hour? See?] Now, God never promised that He would reveal His secrets to His kings, He would reveal His secrets to His people.

Now don’t you realize that a body of people wouldn’t get ahead of the king? So what’s he saying? He’s telling you what Amos says. That God will make it known through the prophets. Now watch, he’ll explain, here’s an illustration.

[56]  Something like the time of Micaiah, the son of Imlah. As we leave, not the text, but another time, to bring this in and make it true to you, real to you, so you won’t miss it.

[57]  Look at the days of Micaiah… He was a poor man, and he also came from a poor family. But, Ahab, king of Israel, as a nation under God, had set aside a school and brought up selected, hand-picked prophets, and had four hundred of them in a school. And they were great men. They weren’t just false prophets. [Like you know some outside bunch. They belonged to the group.] They were Hebrew prophets, genuine men. And they consulted the Lord by these men. And they did prophesy. But, you see, when the real showdown came, they were every one out of God’s Word and will.

[58]  For Jehoshaphat came down from Jerusalem to meet with the king Ahab, and they put on their garments, [that is the men, the prophets and all,] and sat in the gateway, and brought the prophets up before them. First, Ahab said, “We got a place up here at Ramoth-Gilead that actually belongs to us.” Now, that’s THUS SAITH THE LORD. Joshua divided it for the people and gave it to them, but the Philistines had taken it over.

And he said, “Here our children need bread, and we haven’t got enough land to raise the bread on. And our enemy, the Philistines, feed their children, the heathen, off the very ground that Jehovah God gave us.” That’s very straight. And he said, “Here, we, the people of God, sitting here with our children, so needy, and our enemy feeds their children on the ground that God called us out of Egypt to give it to us.” That would raise a theologian, right there wouldn’t it? He said, “Shall we go up and take our grounds that God gave us?”

[59]  Jehoshaphat said, “Yes, I’ll help you. We are brethren. You’re in Judah, and I’m in Jerusalem.” Or, was it just vice versa? No, that’s right. I think it was… Jehoshaphat. However, Jehoshaphat was a good man, a king, a righteous man who loved the Lord. And Ahab was a lukewarm believer. So they brought them down, and Jehoshaphat said, “Listen, let us consult the Lord, first.

See now? So what we read up here, paragraph 58, is true, why one should consult the Lord to see if it’s running in continuity. You see? Because paragraph 58 is true and would make you think then, why in 59 would this man want anybody to consult, when it’s already laid out there in the Word?

Well you see you got to know if its the time by looking back and understanding what had preceded it. Because something might have preceded it, which has to set this thing aside. So, but they didn’t do it. So they said,

[59]  …Jehoshaphat said, “Let us first consult the Lord. We ought to find out about this.” (Really for sure, if this is just going to work that way.) See, if David would have done what Jehoshaphat did! [But he wouldn’t.] “Shouldn’t we do this?” [That’s what Jehoshaphat said.] And quickly, being an Israelite, Ahab said, “Certainly. I’ve got four hundred Hebrews, like we are, Hebrew prophets of our own organization. I’ll consult with them. They are prophets.” [You know. Now,]

[60]  You say, “That stumbles me, Brother Branham. A prophet?” [Yeah.] Oh, yeah. There was one in the time of Jeremiah, who said they’d only be down there two years. The Lord told Jeremiah, “seventy.” So he put a yoke around his neck, and the prophet broke it, that’s Hananiah. But you know what happened to him. Oh, yeah. [Hananiah of course died.] You got to stay with the Word.

Now Brother Branham in this case here, like all prophets, is different from this other prophet, which evidently was not a true Word prophet. And though in this case about Ahab, Jehoshaphat and Micaiah, you’ll notice that Elijah had prophesied that the dogs would lick the blood of Ahab and Jezebel.

Now I don’t know that Jehoshaphat knew that, but as a saint of God he knew that he should make a further inquiry to see that everything was in order, because he seemed to understand the principle. That’s what we’re looking at here. And then he also mentions concerning Jeremiah and this other fellow. And they were at logger heads.

Now but in Brother Branham’s case you will notice we haven’t had a man like him since the apostle Paul, which is two thousand years! So you can’t go back with Brother Branham to trace through to see what would obtain. But Brother Branham previously, way back in ‘33 or so, had already prophesied through seven major visions, which thoroughly vindicated him, that he stood alone with his prophetic utterances and didn’t have to check with anybody, just the Word.

And God revealed the Word and he brought the Word. It’s a different case from this, but he’s building the case of the prophet to show you how you got to stay with the Word, stay with the Word, stay with the Word, under every condition. You’ve got to really know it as from the Lord.

And remember that prophets are not only foretellers but forth-tellers. And these people were not true forth-tellers. They didn’t have the Word, really know it. They just foretold, and they got tripped up because they couldn’t stay in the framework of the Word. You see? Like Brother Branham talked about prophecy, you got have people judging it, everything else.

[60]  So the prophets came up and prophesied, [the four hundred] and said, “Go up! The Lord is with you.” [Now they weren’t vindicated.]

[61]  One of them, I believe (forget his name now) chief, Zedekiah, I believe, he put two iron horns [in front of him and he began pushing] and he said, “THUS SAITH THE LORD. By this,” now that man was sincere, “you will push your enemy plumb back into their land, and take what belongs to God. It’s given to you.” I don’t believe he was a hypocrite. I believe he was a good man. I believe all those prophets were.

[62]  You say, “Prophets?” Yep! Remember, the very man that consented to kill Jesus, prophesied, because it was his office. [Now he’s talking about office now, see?] He was high priest for that year. And being that he had that office, and held that office, the Spirit of God came to him. [That’s strictly anointing.] And that didn’t mean he was saved or anything about it. And he prophesied, Caiaphas did, because it was his office that did it.

Now can elected men do this? That is to say, can there be a problem here with people getting involved erroneously? Can they have problems? Well let’s go back to 1 Corinthians 14 again. I’m not going to take too far, but I want you to know, brother/sister, this isn’t just like looking through a plain glass window, something like a stain glass, there might be too many mosaics, then you got a problem looking through. Verse 36:

Now right here it is very evident that these men could be pulled aside, at least for a time, and misunderstand. Because Paul had to set this whole church right. So there’s something in there perhaps we don’t understand too well, but it’s a warning to us to watch out.

Now watch. Now he’s going to tell us a little more about it.

[63]  And these prophets, being prophets, of office prophets, [office prophets, prophets of office,] prophesied. And the Spirit of God came on them, men with gifts of the Spirit.

That’s Psalms 68. See, “You ascend on high and gave gifts to men. Yea, unto the rebellious also He gave gifts.” That’s like 1 Corinthians 12, gifts to the spirit. See? Not like Isaiah and Moses, not like those men, they were men who could have trouble. Now watch what he says.

[64]  I realize I’m talking to ninety-nine percent Pentecostals. Many times, a man, God can deal with them, give them a gift, and the people will squeeze in on those people. If they’re not perfectly called and sent of God, he’ll cause that man or woman to say something that isn’t His will, because the people constrain them to do so.

That’s the danger of a gift. A prophet doesn’t have that trouble, because he is a gift. He doesn’t have gift, he is a gift. Now he could have gifts being a gift, but a prophet is a real gift. He’s a peculiar channel, a peculiar person like nobody else is. Now watch what Brother Branham is going to illustrate.

[65]  How I had to catch our own little pastor here on that. Out here in the woods one morning, about three in the morning, said, “Go tell Brother Neville!” I came to you, didn’t I, Brother Neville?

[66]  Everybody said, “Brother Neville, prophesy over me. Tell me this or that.” You would have him saying things then that wouldn’t come to pass. “They that wait,” to find out what the Lord wants to do. [See.]

Now he’s letting the people know, “Look, don’t you go to anybody to try to find out what God wants you to do. You can go and ask for counsel, you can go and ask for prayer, but don’t go and have somebody prophesy.”

Now look, I was Pentecostal years ago, I’d gotten Latter Rain, and one or two of you here know a little bit about it, not too much. So I was trapped in this very thing. When I first received what I understand to be the baptism with the Holy Ghost, I’d been taught as a young fellow, what is it? About maybe 18, 19 years of age, that prophecy was the greatest gift.

Prophecy is not the greatest gift. It is greater than tongues, and greater than interpretation of tongues, but is not the greatest gift. The greatest gift to the church would be a prophet, period. But we weren’t taught these things. Being in my mind taught that, the Lord didn’t mind that, because it didn’t mean too much, but I remember I was taught that you should ask the Lord for a gift. Everybody have a gift of tongues, great. Many people had a gift of tongues, you should interpret, that’s great, you’d have that too.

So being fooled in my own thinking concerning prophecy, I went to the Lord, and I must admit that I know my motivation and my thoughts were right, I went to the Lord very humbly, and it didn’t matter to me, whatever God said would go. He could say to me, “You can have a gift; you can’t have a gift. Jump here, jump there.” I don’t give a rip. No problem. No problem, because I wasn’t pushy.

So I said, “Lord, I really wouldn’t mind, but it’s up to You, and if You say I can’t, that’s fine too, but I would kind of like to have a gift of prophecy.”

And like a Voice said to me, “You have a gift of prophecy. It’s been proven time after time, the prophecy’s been accurate.”

But you know, came a time when I got involved with this bunch called Latter Rain, which is a very bad situation, because Brother Branham said they came the closest, therefore they fell the furthest. Because the greatest lie is ninety-nine percent truth.

So being with that bunch then, I thought, “Hey, that’s a pretty good thing, because they pattern after Brother Branham, they thought they did, and they got discernment, everything else going.”

So all these people would prophesy. Well I had a pretty good gift, but you know it wouldn’t work in public, like you could have people come through. And here’s what actually happens. So the first person comes, you say, “Oh prophesy, Brother Vayle, prophesy.”

Now say, “We’re going to prophesy, Brother Smith, Brother Jones, Brother Whoseit and Brother Gunkas,” and all the rest, doesn’t matter who it is, Hotkiss and Coldkiss and all the rest, but just prophesy. So they get them going through like a sausage machine.

Now the point is this: if God’s not really in it, you really got to use your brain or think that God’s in it. So how are you going to give something different to fifty different people? You can’t think that fast. So the first few may be on target, and then from then on you’re off.

Now I’m not too embarrassed to tell these things, because look it, I’m honest with you people. I don’t know if you really, some of you may honestly appreciate this, the rest of you are scared. But that’s your business, not mine. See I have nothing to hide from anybody.

In this pulpit I want to be honest, or I won’t say it. See? So if it’s going to hurt me or you, I’m sorry, that’s the way it’s going to go and you got to understand that, because I’m not here for bad publicity, you or me, but I know how these things work.

Now listen, when I am alone, or I was alone, and I laid hands on people, I could read them like a book. And I would say, “You can’t hide if you tried.” I was tough. They did call me at that time a second Branham. I didn’t know anything about Brother Branham, except I knew he could do that. But I’d never seen him but that one time. And he hadn’t done that. He just stood in the line and went through discerning, as he needed to. But he didn’t do it very much.

Okay, now let me just tell you how these things work, and how it is very dangerous for people to let anybody so-call prophesy. There’s a brother in our church in New Westminster, Canada, whose name was Brother Marks. A very sweet young man, lovely wife and children.

And every time I laid hands on him, my body just responded like a million quivers, like a bowl of jelly, and I said, “Brother Marks, you are a terribly, terribly nervous person.” And I said, “Something has upset your life very tragically.” And I waited.

And I said, “I’ll tell you what it was brother. You were in a meeting and you spoke in tongues, and you were understood by a missionary from that native language that you’d never learned, and people said, “Brother Marks, you should go to that place because you speak their language, and when you get there, you will speak their language.”

“ And I said, “That’s upset you and you’re so nervous, because you believe those people, you did speak the language, but you’re afraid to go.”

He said, “That’s right.”

“I’m going to tell you something my brother, they’re wrong, don’t go.” He never went.

Now God gave me a true Word. Time after time women came under my hands, nervous as just like a spooked jack rabbit or a bunch of cows out in the field. Time after time, I knew by the Spirit of the living God, and I’d say, “Sister, years ago you felt you had a call of God to be a preacher, but you fell in love and you married, and it’s torn up your whole life, you have no peace.”

She said, “That’s right, Brother Vayle.”

I said, “You’re wrong sister, forget it. Just be the good wife and mother you are. If God has an open door, He’ll open that door.”

But you see what can happen under prophecy? And Brother Neville was pushed, and even to the extent if it was a genuine prophecy, which I doubt very much if he had that much going for him the way they kept coming. I don’t think any man has.

Brother Branham took me aside one day, he said, “Brother Vayle, listen,” he said. “Son, you’ve got a real gift of discernment to a degree.” Pardon me, he said, “You have discerned, and you’ve got a lot of genuine discernment.” But he says, “See Lee, you do make mistakes.” And he said, “Therefore it is not a genuine gift, that is mine, leave it alone.”

Now these are the things as Pentecostals you people don’t know, but I am telling you what he’s talking about. See? There are people who can be anointed and have gifts, but never will they stack up, it isn’t the way to go.

God has a vindicated prophet, and when you don’t recognize him, you haven’t got the Holy Ghost, you don’t discern the body of Christ, you haven’t got a part in it, and you shouldn’t take Communion, foot washing or anything till you repent, be full of the Holy Ghost and then know these things.

Now let’s not equivocate, because I don’t care if your uncle’s a preacher and your great-uncle’s a preacher, and your grandfather, and your father, and your mother, and your sister, and your brother, for six hundred generation preachers, this is right. And nothing else is right. Now that’s the truth. And that’s the truth, that’s all there is to it.

Now you see, Brother Branham got me out of that, before I even understood the Presence. Now you see John says, “That you be not ashamed in His Presence.” Now the word ‘shamed’ always has to do with nakedness. And nakedness has to do with sexuality. And sexuality is idolatry. Creeds and dogmas and those things.

So here you are not found naked in His Presence, you are found clothed through the Word if you accept the choice, channel, time, that God brought to you through God’s sovereignty. See?

[66]  Everybody, “…prophesy… Tell me this or that.” See, you would have him saying things then that wouldn’t come to pass. “They that wait,” to find out what the Lord wants to do.

That’s the thing there. See? Dealing with individuals like this is not all there is to being a prophet, you better believe that.

Okay, let’s look at Mark… I want to take you to the Book of Acts here – what time? We got just about finished? Just a few minutes. Okay, I’m going to finish up on this and we’ll quit here. I want to go to Acts 15:10.

Now look it here:

And these people prophesying to women then said, “Women, you’re preachers.” And woman has a bad enough time now trying to please her husband. You ever seen a woman preacher ever please her husband? He ought to be a fool if he ever pleased her. I can tell you that, I’ve been around them.

That’s one thing, God gave me brains, years and years, and I mean He gave me brains. I don’t understand preachers. My Pentecostal buddies all wanted a woman preacher and I said, “I’ll never marry one.” And before I got married, I told my wife, I said, “Look I’m going to tell you.

When you and I get married, get this one thing flat. You will never lead a song service, you will never sing, you’ll never play the piano, because you can’t anyway, and you’ll never preach, you’re not required anything in that church, teaching Sunday School, do one thing, except take care of me and that’s a bigger job maybe than you’ll be able to do.”

And she found out that was right. …?… psychiatric nurse she never would have got through the ordeal. Because being around a guy like me, plus my nerves and all, the fact I can be inspired, you don’t have any fun.

I’m not boasting, not saying, just telling you the truth, because I level with you and tell you what goes on. You say, “I’ve seen Sis. Branham loved Brother Branham.” But why do you think that one day she got angry? Because she just broke down, that’s all. Bill came and Bill went. He couldn’t help with the kids like he’d like to help. Just torn all the time.

Do you think he didn’t love her? He loved her better than his own life, would have died for her a thousand times. But there was too much a price to pay. Too much of a price. It wasn’t too much of a price, I just mean the human skull, the skeleton can only stand so much.

[67]  So these man looked upon it in a natural sense, “It belongs to us.” But, see, they didn’t find the Word and will of God. [They didn’t find the Word and the will of God.]

Did they refuse to read the part of Moses’ law that said God would take it away from them? In their idolatry? No, they didn’t believe that. What does God say about Laodicea? Do you think they believe that? Oh no, they don’t believe that. How can they believe William Branham? There’s no way.

Rich, increased in goods, that’s what you say and you’re liars. You’re wretched, miserable, blind and naked; you’re caught in your adulteries, shameful stinking adultery. Perverts. And saying you’re virgins of God, you’re born again. Can’t even see a prophet. “Well I know Elijah is to come, but who is Elijah? He’s going to come to the Jews, give it all to the Jews.” I thought Elijah came and saved the people from burning.

The Jews are in the great tribulation. The day of the Lord, the wrath and the judgment. And that’s not Elijah. They go down. People are all mixed up. They don’t know what the Word of God really says, but they’re not going to solve it by listening to a prophet, there’s no way they’re going to listen.

So that’s what Brother Branham’s saying here now. He said, he’s telling you his own ministry, look, there’s a lot of people out there, good people, no doubt, and they can read Bibles, and they say, pin it down and say, “Sure, that’s what God wants,” and God does want it. But He said, “Hey I want it My way.” Say, “No, I want it my way.” Well who do you think is going to win the battle?

Now listen, when you’re just a little calf, and the guy’s got you on a rope, you know you dig your heels in and pretty soon, you know, you can swing the calf. But when he gets to be about twelve hundred pounds, he’s going to swing you. Unless you got some kind of rope, and you put some kind of check and halter.

Well I’m going to tell you one thing: you aren’t going to swing God any way, brother/sister, God will swing you. I don’t care how big you are, how little you are, how many you are, God’s going to swing you at the end, and I trust we are not left swinging; we’re in the sheepfold of Almighty God. Sheep you don’t have to take by the neck, you just call them and they answer. They follow.

And Brother Branham’s trying to tell us these things. He’s telling Pentecostals now. You don’t even qualify to get in on this because you weren’t Pentecostal. But I’m letting you know what he said, seeing you, one or two of us had a Pentecostal background.

What he’s actually saying here, and what has happened, and Pentecost being Laodicea, that’s why the condemnation is at the end time, and they go from chaff, never having known, to a tare that God didn’t plant. One time a little part, now no part. “I used to know you as My wife, but I don’t know you anymore.” Who brought that? God in His prophet. So that’s what we’re looking at.

The Lord bless you, let’s rise at this time.

Gracious heavenly Father, again we want to thank You for Your love, mercy and grace, allowing us this time of fellowship in the Name of the Lord Jesus Christ, one with the other. And we appreciate the Word the prophet gave Lord, we just pray in Jesus’ Name we shall never take it lightly, but more and more as the days go by, see the sobriety and sincerity of it, and Lord be more sober and sincere ourselves so that our whole lives are built upon It.

Not those that hear the Word lightly, but those that hear the Word and I t goes down deep, deep, deep within a soil that is fertile, that is rich, O God, because You made it rich. We’re Your planting Lord, somehow we got to believe that, we do believe that.

Now heavenly Father we pray as this Message, the prophet said we take for healing, we take it Lord for our spiritual healing number one, right down deep in the soul, so that from the soul now it comes as John said, “That you may be prosper and be in health even as your soul prospers.” We take it Lord for the healing of everything tonight.

Help us, O God, thereby to receive and abide in it, and may the life which is in it be loosed within in our very members to bring us forth as we ought to be the seed of the Lord Jesus Christ, manifested in this earth, living epistles, read and known of all men, which indeed we are, but how many of us Lord are known to the people as being with You, epistles of God.

Help us Lord to be that tonight. Not throwing off on anybody, Lord, but just naming it straight out there, Lord if we’re wrong, one day someone can come right behind us and show us where we were wrong, exactly where we went off trail. We know Lord it’s just literally as it were open season, because all things had been made open at this hour.

So Father we commend ourselves to You, every single one of us, give Your grace Lord and Your mercy to us, we pray, as we seek Your face day by day, this week and all the weeks to come, until one day Lord we are laid to rest, or we see the dead come out of the grave and somehow the sweep goes over us, the prophet said, and we’re all changed from glory to glory into Your very image.

Give rest and peace tonight, Lord, guide us and direct us, bring us back on Sunday, Lord, with the joy of the Lord, the strength of our God.

And unto the King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only wise God, be all power and honor and glory through Jesus Christ our risen Savior. Amen. The Lord bless you.

‘Take the Name of Jesus with you.’