Doing God A Service Without His Will #03

Let us pray.

Heavenly Father, again we want to invoke Your good wishes toward us, and Your help, Lord God, that You might help us in the study of this Word, which we know was delivered by a vindicated prophet. Therefore we know we must be careful how we speak and how we hear Lord, and what we say about that which has already been said, in order to be right with the Word and right with You Lord.

So help us this morning Lord, we pray by the Holy Spirit You’ve given unto us.

In Jesus’ Name, we pray. Amen.

You may be seated.

Now we’re at the third message on “Doing God A Service Without His Will” or apart from His will, and just in thinking of the title of this message, one might well ask, “How can anyone do God a service?” So how can anyone do God a service? Does God need anything done for Him in the light of Romans 11:34-36?

So it lets you know there if you would do God a service, you would have to know what He wanted done, and then you would have to realize that you can only do with what He gives you, or the service wouldn’t be of any value, because he says,

When did we ever give God anything? God always gave us everything, and so therefore this comes back to, can you really do God a service?

So let’s go to 1 Corinthians 4th chapter and just follow that same thought through in verse 7:

So we’re looking at the title here in a very strong light. Is it possible that anybody can do God a service? Well it is quite evident then that the subject is not so concerned about conceiving and performing some service, directed at God personally, but rather acting in all things, always in accord with God’s desire from us. Considering especially how He would have us do what He desires.

So we just can’t think in terms of doing something special for God, although I don’t obviate that thought perfectly. But you see the thrust then of the message would not be somebody really doing something for God, as though God needed something done.

He said, “If I were hungry I would have told you.” He said, “I’m not only not hungry,” but He said, “What would you give Me? The cattle upon a thousand hills are Mine. What could you do for Me?”

So when you come to something really personal, you’re not looking at it that way. You only could look at that obliquely, you could never meet it head on. You’d have to think of it in terms of God, should He want something done, it would be a matter of what God should want acted upon, would have to be perfectly in the Scripture.

And particularly as pertaining to His Kingdom and our part in It, whether it be direct worship of God, and you can do that, or serving Him in our relationship to Him and the members of His Kingdom, or even non-members of His Kingdom, and that must always be done according to certain precepts, which we’ll talk about.

So what we’re seeing here then is anybody rendering a service unto God, so-called service unto God, it would have to be something in relationship to God’s Kingdom or non-kingdom, the people in It, and what could be done, if anything, that would be pleasing to God and glorifying Him and thinking of the welfare of others.

Even the Scripture says, “How can you say you love God and hate your brother, because you see your brother, and if you hate him, how can you love something you don’t see?” Although the Scripture says, “Not having seen Him, we do love Him.” God puts that love in his heart.

So there are three little precepts that Brother Branham laid down here, and we look at them concerning this service, what if anything is to be acted on? You would have to know, is it something you should be doing, something that’s pertinent to you.

Secondly, are you authorized to do it or who is authorized to do it? First of all there has to be something made clear, then a person authorized, and then the third one: when is it supposed to be done?

Now of course that would obviate such things as well, giving to the poor, and helping the indigent, but you notice that even that in Scripture is limited. Because the Bible said if a man doesn’t work, he’s not going to eat. And you just don’t take care of moochers. Now you might help them a couple of times over the hump, but they better get cracking.

You know the Didache they claim written about the first two centuries. This is tough on preachers. But do you know the Didache said, “If a man comes to your church or gathering and he expects welfare more than three days, you brand him as a phony”?

I’m sorry, that’s how it goes. And it says he’s supposed to be content with just enough to get him to the next place.

Even Jesus said, “Don’t take scrip,” and this and that.

So you’re looking at something here in this message Brother Branham is preaching that is beyond just normal situations and that which we could perhaps gather by ourselves, it would take something very pointed to give us the understanding of this message. To bring this clearly to our attention, Brother Branham first used the illustration of David trying to bring the ark home.

Now you’ll notice that this was an intervention for the glory of God for the sake of the people, in order to bring God and the people together, because it was the only way it could be done. Now to you and me that sounds very far out, because we’re used to this freedom, which we have in Christ by the Holy Spirit, this universal freedom.

But you’re going back to an unchanging God, Whose ways don’t change in spite of the fact that the geography and the people have changed. So you’re going to have to stick to a precept here. And you can’t just say, “This is something that is different from us.” You’re wrong. It is a hundred percent directed to you. Do you follow?

Okay. David trying to bring the ark home. Then he referred to Micaiah the prophet refusing to act without direct permission from God, even when it could be said that according to the very commandment and promise of God it should be done.

So as we continue this message, reading it and talking about it, I want you to realize that Brother Branham is once more in a veiled manner, not interposing, but literally showing the truth – call it interposition if you want. Doesn’t matter to me what you call it. But the actual truth is he is showing you something in this hour and it is the hour of prophets.

Most of which are false. And if you let your minds go, and remember the last church age was Pentecostal, and they’re full of prophets. Everything is prophesy, prophesy, prophesy. Prophesy for me, over me, with me, to me and… you know set the order straight for God because He boo-booed. Prophets, prophets, prophets.

Jesus himself said in this hour of the Appearing, which is the Presence, that the great problem would be false prophets arising, and you know as well as I do that they will be accepted as genuine prophets, and as always the true prophet is shunted to one side. Now that has to be. I don’t care what anybody says, show me a true prophet.

Now every church says, “Show me a true prophet, bless God, my church and my people come.” That’s a lie from the pit of hell and the person that says it is no longer in the security what he thinks he’s in, but he’s in danger of the pit of hell. Because Jesus was that Prophet and they couldn’t wait to kill him.

And there hasn’t been a prophet that hasn’t been mauled or marred somewhere down the road. So anybody says any different, he’s no friend of mine, tell you right now, I say, “Goodbye Charlie. It wasn’t even nice knowing you.” I’ve only thought that of two people, in my seventy years, “I wish I’d never known you.” But I tell you, I can do without the prophets.

Now this is what this message is about, so you listen as we read it. We’re going to recap on page 13. This is about Jehoshaphat, came down from Jerusalem to meet with king Ahab. 

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

Now,

[58]  First, Ahab said, “We got a place up here at Ramoth-Gilead that actually belongs to us.” Now, that’s THUS SAITH THE LORD. Because 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, those heathens, off the very ground that Jehovah God gave us.” That’s very straight.

And he said, “Here, we, the people of God, are sitting here with our children, so needy, and our enemy feeds their children on the ground that God called us out of Egypt in order to give it to us.” Now that would raise a theologian, wouldn’t it? [Make him rise up, see?] And he said, “Shall we go up and take our grounds that God gave us?”

How many foolish virgin in the end will say, “Let’s go in and get the Holy Ghost, bless God”?

So Pentecost very nicely lays on hands on them, got them all talking in tongues… and that’s the Holy Ghost? That’s a gift of the Holy Ghost. And God makes the sun to shine on the just and the unjust and the rain to fall on the just and unjust, so who’s got what? See?

[59]  Jehoshaphat said, “I’ll help you. We’re brothers.” …Now Jehoshaphat however 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, [that’s brought the prophets down,] “Listen, let us consult the Lord, first.”

Now here’s a very tricky thing. I just read paragraph 58 here, which is a hundred percent correct. That land belonged to Israel, according to God it was theirs. Why do you have to bother consulting God to take what’s yours?

Now you see, anybody thinks that’s the way it go, but you go back on your own spirits if you’re truly born again. Did you consult with God just because He said, “Unto us a child is born, unto us a Son is given”? And He became the propitiation for our sins? You’d just say, “Well hallelujah, I’ll take that.”

And you know millions are doing that, and they’ve got what they call proof text salvation and don’t get anything from God, or never get past justification, if they get that. Because it’s just joining a church.

Now let me ask you a question. Did you consult with God concerning what God promised and His Book said? Now most of us didn’t, but we did know that we came to God and asked if He’d do something for us. Now you got to really consult with God. There’s no way you cannot consult with Him and get anything, but we’re dealing with a bigger thing than just this, we’re dealing with the church itself in the crisis of a present time.

Now you’d think, “Well hey, why do we need to consult? Just take God at His Word.”

Now,

[59]  Jehoshaphat said, “…We ought to find out about this.” See, if David would have done what Jehoshaphat did! [But he didn’t.] So Jehoshaphat said, “Shouldn’t we do this?” [Consult the prophets.]

And quickly, an Israelite, Ahab said, “Certainly. I’ve got four hundred Hebrews, like we are, Hebrew prophets of our own organization. I’ll consult them. They are prophets.” Now…

[60]  You say, “That stumbles me, Brother Branham. A prophet?” Yeah. There was one in the time of Jeremiah, who said they would only be down there two years. And Jeremiah [said], “seventy.” This man put a yoke around his neck, and the prophet broke it, that’s Hananiah. [He said, “Thus Israel’s going to break the yoke of the bondage of the Philistines.”] You know what happened to him. [He got killed, didn’t he? All right now.] You got the Word, stay with It.

Now, prophets here are men who are merely foretelling events, and we’ll see where anybody can do that. And you can go completely wrong on it. A prophet is more than a foreteller, he is a forth-teller, telling forth the Word of God, what is given to be written in the chronicles of the Word as part of the holy Scripture, the canon here, or he can also tell you what that Word means if he’s been so ordained of God to do it.

[60]  So the prophets came up and prophesied, and said, “Go on up! The Lord is with us.” [Now they weren’t vindicated prophets, see? They had an office, they were prophesying.]

[61]  And one of them, I believe (forget his name now) the chief, Zedekiah, I believe, he put two iron horns in front of him and said, “THUS SAITH THE LORD. By this,” and the man was very sincere, “you will push your enemy plumb back into their lands, 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.

Now he’s speaking of good people mistaken. Now they’re good people, they read the Bible, they said, “This is what the Bible says.” Okay.

[62]  You say, “Prophets?” Yes! Remember, the very man that consented to kill Jesus Christ, prophesied, because it was his office. [What was his office? High priest.] He was high priest that year. And being that he had that office, and held that office, the Spirit of God came to him. That didn’t mean he was saved or anything about it. And he prophesied, because it was his office that did it.

Now you notice it said it was his office that did it. Now that’s different language from what you and I are used to hearing. The man was controlled by an office, whether he knew it or not. Because the Bible says so.

He prophesied not knowing his words were really right, on that one occasion, but his words all the rest of the time were wrong. He couldn’t line up the Scripture to the prophecy. But he could line with that one, because Jesus must be betrayed and destroyed.

All right, let’s just take a look again at 1 Corinthians 14, where Paul is speaking about himself and prophets.

And he said,

Now how could they acknowledge that except they have some way of knowing? Paul was thoroughly vindicated before them. And furthermore, there’d be a witness in everybody’s heart that this was the true revelation. Based upon a vindicated prophet of Deuteronomy 18.

Now,

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

Okay, let’s just think of those people. Do you realize though to begin about that, Paul never called himself a prophet? He called himself an apostle. But an apostle can’t do what he did. Apostle can only disseminate, be a front man, a missionary, a man that goes out to disseminate. He’s a sower.

In a very highly complicated, powerful office. Where did he get the Word? He admits that God gave it to him, face to face, just like Moses. So unqualifiedly, he would be one of the great prophets of all history. Moses, then Paul. In our day we saw William Branham, Pillar of Fire with him, he’d fall in the same category.

Okay, let’s keep a little reading more then. And we’ll talk about this.

[64]  I realize I’m talking to ninety-nine percent Pentecostals. Many times, a man, God will deal with him, give them gifts, 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 it.

Okay, what we’re looking at then are apart from the gift of God to the Church, which is a five-fold ministry, they are gifts of the spirit that differ from Ephesians 4. So let’s go to Ephesians 4 and look at this. Now this is going to deal with a true five-fold ministry. And true is true.

Now let’s understand that.

Now that was already happening, in the Ephesian church age, Paul admitted it was happening in the Corinthian church. He said, “I’ve got my suspicions and I believe I’m right, that you are no longer a virgin of the Word and unto Christ, but you’ve already been deceived.” In other words, “You are a philanderer concerning the Word of Almighty God.”

Let’s go to 2 Corinthians, just hold your finger there, and get back to 2 Corinthians 4.

He’s telling you that he’s absolutely vindicated and he has not given anybody anything but the perfect revealed Word of Almighty God. So therefore this is unique here.

Now that’s a true five-fold ministry, that’s what they can do, that’s what they’re supposed to do, and that’s what they do! Now you may look around and say, “Well I just don’t think I’m seeing that done.” Well you’re smarter than God, why don’t you go home and eat a big feast and drop dead? You’re going to get killed anyway.

You ain’t got a prayer, because you got your own idea. You’ve got to put your trust somewhere, and the trust must be in a vindicated one. Now Paul was vindicated. And the Church started that way. The Church got off of track. But remember, the oil and the wine was never lost to the Church. They always had what life was there in the Church.

Now look, you can have a full grown, full developed life, but it comes from a little tiny cell, hardly see with a microscope. And it’s the same life that’s in the vast body. So when they had the vast element of truth in Paul’s day, it didn’t matter if that light went down and down, as long as they had some life. Because that’s all you need.

You could take a sperm back right now, and you could take and freeze the sperm, and that sperm may last for a thousand years for all I know, bring it out under the right conditions, the life never departed from it. You can take grain that was found in the Pharaoh’s pyramids and the granaries back there that are in rock, in Egypt, three thousand years later, what do you find? There’s life in the wheat.

So you’re talking here of a five-fold ministry that is been commissioned and ordained of God to see the Church through! Not that any man in himself can do it, but there’s a Word there, and this will bring about the Rapture.

Now I’m not going to take time, but you read Romans 12, and you read especially 1 Corinthians 12, and even 14, you will find there a bunch of gifts in a bunch of people that destroy the church and they can never bring the church anywhere! So that’s what he’s talking about.

Now, remember, this Scripture quoted here, this is a quoting of Scripture, “He led captivity captive and gave gifts unto men.” We go back to Psalms 68 again, because I’m not belaboring this point for the fun of it. I want to show you these things, what this sermon’s all about.

Verse 18:

And he’s telling you right there that the time of God dwelling amongst men, there’s a five-fold ministry, and there’s a bunch of gifts given to people that are in rebellion! What are they in rebellion to? In rebellion to the Lord! How are they in rebellion to the Lord? There’s only one way they can be in rebellion, and that’s against His will! And what is His will? It’s the revealed Word of God.

So there you see the whole thing lined up. That’s what Brother Branham is talking about here. He’s not talking about a phony five-fold ministry, though God knows there is a phony five-fold. There’s phony as false apostles, there’s false prophets, there’s false teachers, there’s false evangelists, there’s false pastors, there’s false elders, there’s false deacons.

There’s a false church that’s headed up by this antichrist himself that’s on the scene right now, denominations have taken over. But this is in particularly he’s referring to a time of prophets, an hour.

Now, he said, “Many a time God will give a man a gift.” Doesn’t say God gave the church a gift, he said, “God gave a man a gift.”

Apostles, prophets, teachers, evangelists, pastors are literal gifts to the church, and those men will not make mistakes. How can they make mistakes when It says they’re going to bring you up into Christ? Now they can have some error, but those errors will be corrected in the light of what God has in that season.

Just like a kid going through high school, going through school to high school, university. He starts with basic understanding. He takes the same understanding all the way through, if it’s a true understanding, only it’s embellished. A little life in the seed. You can’t see much, but it grows into a giant tree for all we know, a little acorn. That’s that one little bit of life in there, see what it will do.

So, he says here, God will give a gift to a certain person, and:

[64]  If they’re not perfectly called and sent of God… [with this, they can be in a five-fold ministry.]

Now if they’re not part of that true ministry, they can blow it, they can ruin it, the whole thing can go. Now that’s true, you know that, it starts with the elders and the deacons. Always has and always will. You see? Okay. Because they’re the ones that rise up. That’s the congregation, one thing the congregation got to be very careful about ever rising up, because that’s the first sign that you’re going down the hill.

Now Brother Branham said if you’re not satisfied with your pastor, get yourself another one. But it’s very dangerous, very, very dangerous. Because you may be coming against the will of God in a man that is absolutely of God and his ministry perfectly of God.

But if he doesn’t agree with you, you say, “Well that’s too bad, I’m going to fight that.” Well you see what could happen, you’ll be destroyed. Because there’s something about this that you and I don’t have a control over.

I’ve tried to explain time after time, Brother Branham tried time after time and all you do is get in trouble with yourself, with God and the people. They don’t respect you one ounce more for trying to explain things. And I’ve done more than my share of trying to explain how a gift operates, they can’t do it, there’s no way. There’s just no way.

There’s no way under high heaven you can tell anybody how it is, you just know, something… Well, how does an artist explain how he can wield a piece of chalk or crayon or a pen or a paintbrush? Now you may learn to have a tiny bit of skill with it, but you’ll never do what the artist does, you can’t do it. There’s no way.

So when you’re looking at this, you’ve got to divide the two and understand how it is. As Brother Branham said, God has set gifts in the Church, that’s gifts of the Holy Ghost, and there’s many, many of them, to be complementary to what is given by a five-fold ministry. And if the Church understood that, it would have been fine, but in Brother Branham’s own church, what did they do?

He couldn’t make them sit down and shut-up. They had to jump up every time and disturb every single service he had. Time of the altar call, the most important, they jumped up and screamed and ruined an altar call. And finally he finally set a woman down and everybody got mad. Not everybody, but most of them got mad.

My wife thought she’d be helpful in a meeting in New York one time, where a black girl got over enthused, and God know what spirit she had, but she literally threw herself over people sitting in benches and chairs. Land in the aisles. My wife said, “Now you better quieten down.” People got mad at her for quieting her down.

People got mad at me because I led people out of meetings that wouldn’t stop talking and gibbering and jabbering. People got mad at me, and Brother Branham congratulated me and thanked me. So did God. I was really doing God a service. Right in His will too. Well you say, “Well that’s not the will of God.” See?

You know, see talking to Pentecostals, you can’t talk to Pentecostals because you can’t apply anything to their heads! It’s all feeling, feeling, feeling, feeling, feeling. Now if that isn’t sex, you tell me what it is.

Now I’m hitting it right hard here, because that’s what it’s all about. If people applied their head, they put their feelings where it belongs, which is in the marriage ceremony and in a marriage. Not run around with a bunch of prostitutes. That shows the church is condemned and a prostitute church.

Look there isn’t a type, there’s not one thing, brother/sister, comes to our attention, in the heavens and this earth, politics, even the church, you name it, but types this hour perfectly. You tell me I’m wrong. You don’t know what you’re talking about, I do. You say, “Well I don’t think I like the way you talk.”

That’s fine by me; nobody has to like the way. I don’t care two cents. When in this pulpit, I get out of the pulpit, then I might repent. No I won’t. Be right back doing the same thing.

[64]  If they’re not perfectly called and sent of God, [listen,] he’ll cause that man or woman to say something that isn’t His will, because the people push on them… [Pull on them.]

Now listen, these people he’s talking about are nice people. They’re good people. They’re not in the bar room, they’re not down in the gambling joint, they’re not smoking hashish or anything else like that, they’re trying to be fine citizens, they’re trying to do something in the Kingdom, some little things been given to them, and I’ll tell you, pride could have crept in, I don’t know.

As well as just trying to help people. And when you try to help people and you’re not called to it, then that to me is a type of pride too. Intruding where they don’t belong, then they try to help the people and do things.

Why we got so bad down in our church, Pentecostal church in Florida, we had a woman running around, and she said she was really ordained of God, she knew she had a calling to help preachers. Oh, female holy ghost. God have pity.

Bad enough for a man, but a woman running around. Poor thing a million miles out of the Word, didn’t even know it. Tried to tell me, “Well Brother Vayle, the trouble is the people fuss over the Word. We just need Jesus, drop the Word.”

I said, “That’s where you’re wrong, sister. You drop the Word, you drop Jesus.”

Where did the church go wrong? It went off the Word. See? At the end time the church is wretched, miserable, blind, naked, and says, “We’re rich, increased in goods, and don’t lack a thing.”

How far offbeat is the church in this hour? You say, “Well that’s for another age, that’s coming up.” I’m afraid you’re wrong, it’s for this age.

[64]  …people push on them…

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

[66]  Everybody said, “Brother Neville, prophesy, prophesy over me. Tell me this or that.” You’d have him saying things that wouldn’t come to pass. [Why? Because he talked out of his heart when you push him. See? Sure. The secret is:] “They that wait,” to find out what the Lord wants to do. [Then they’re the ones that have the right to talk.]

Now dealing with individuals like this is not all there is to being a prophet. You better have a whole lot more than that. See?

Okay, here is where start reading now, this is the new material:

[67]  So these men looked upon it in a natural sense, “It belongs to us.” [Now the natural senses reading says, “Yes, it belongs to us.”] But, you see, they didn’t find the Word and will of God.

Now what happened? They didn’t read the whole Bible; they just took a part of it. Had they read the rest of the Word, they would have found out that God said, “You betray Me in your idolatries.” And Ahab was a confirmed idolater and married to one. Literally he had hybridized the Hebrew religion and brought it to a very low ebb, by allowing all kinds of sacrifices.

They even instituted a worship apart from Jerusalem, so the people wouldn’t go up there three times a year and come back to truth. They organized. He didn’t read where It says, “Now listen, you get into idolatry, I’ll desert you and the land will go back.” No, they didn’t bother reading that.

They didn’t bother reading where It says, like Solomon reached his hand toward heaven, and he prayed, way before this fellow, and he said, “Now Lord if we depart from Your Word, bring us back to Your Word. That is help us to repent and come back so the blessing of God’s upon us.”

No, they didn’t take that part of It. And neither does Pentecost take anything but what they want, and the churches today, see? No, they wouldn’t do that, no way, shape and form.

[68]  Then Micaiah come down, and he had a vision. [He’s one of the good old boys. They didn’t like him though.] And he examined, first, you notice. He said, “Wait. Give me tonight. Let me find out, and tomorrow maybe I can answer you.” He wasn’t right quick, with “THUS SAITH THE LORD,” like, in agreeing with the other prophets. He said, “I’ll only speak what God says.”

In other words, too many people glibly quote the Bible. Listen; never expect the prophet to glibly quote the Bible. He doesn’t even have to quote the Bible. The Word of the Lord comes to the prophet and what he says will be the Bible!

Like I told you, this brother there in Canada, well he said, “Trouble with you Brother Raskovich, is that you take…” he told Brother Branham’s little… like this here, you know in book form. He said, “You take this and make it equal this.”

Well he said, “Sure I do. What do you expect?” What are you supposed to do? Do you believe in a prophet?

Let’s… come on, that’s the whole thing. That’s what Brother Branham’s saying, he said, “You believe in prophets? What are you talking about? How’s supposed to do here?” He didn’t just say, well, “Hey that is the Word all right, let’s go ahead and act on It.” No.

Now Micaiah was not against the need of the hour. Now let’s understand that. He accepted the evident fact, with all the other fundamentalists. He accepted it, it belonged to… God gave it to Israel. And the Philistines had it. But he didn’t draw any conclusions by saying, “We’ll just go take it back.”

You know a doctor looks at you and he’s got all these… you’ve got all these symptoms. What’s the first thing he does? He says, “Let’s find out what caused it.”

Did these Hebrews prophets? No. What’s behind it? People didn’t ask Jesus, “What’s behind you, fellow?” Did they ask Brother Branham, “What’s behind you fellow?” Did they say to Micaiah, “What’s behind you fellow?”

Now that’s not a bad term because Jesus is exalted above his fellows so you see, I’m on Bible ground, don’t think I’m… I’m not being facetious and I’m not being disrespectful. The Bible used the term.

But he could not endorse their scriptural understanding of what was to be done about it. He examined his own role in that situation lest he sin against God, or be found trying to annul the will of God, even as Balaam did. Because Balaam said, “Let’s go curse him, let’s go curse him. Let’s get it done with.” Then he came back and said, “How can I curse what God has blessed?”

Like Brother Branham said, “How can I take off you what God could have put on you?”

Wouldn’t that be great? Prophet going by taking… God putting things on to get people lined up, or letting the devil do it, or something happened, and then the prophet taking them off. And God would say, “Who’s running this show? You or Me?”

Well who can talk that way to God? Say, “I’m running the show Lord.”

Now come on, examine your own hearts. You know if you had a gift or something that’s the first thing you’d do. That’s sure the first thing I did, I can tell you that flat. If I had a gift or not, but I sure worked hard at helping people get healed and everything else. And the more I went to the Word, the less people got.

Because you know why? They wouldn’t believe the Word. They’d put their faith in everything else. You know you can put your faith in a lot of things and you can get results from God, and the Bible said you get leanness of soul. You talk about lean people. See? God doesn’t want that.

[68]  And the next day, we find out, God told him what would happen. And it was absolutely contrary to the others. To the whole school, it was contrary. And even one of them walked up and smacked him in the face…

Good old Cain, you could tell just where he came from. Good old Cain. Say, “Let’s bless God, we’re worshipping too. Don’t think we haven’t prophesied. And look we’ve got the Word. How come you come against this word here, it’s the very word, and you say you’re a prophet of God?”

Do you think people liked Brother Branham when he downed women preachers? “Oh my, listen, we can find women, deaconesses, and everything in the Bible, just look hard enough, oh you can find it all there, no problem at all. Flaming evangelists, oh yeah, apostles, yeah, yeah.

Prophetesses, oh yeah, you can find them all there, yeah.” You can find anything you’re looking for, be my guest. I like looking for this. We look for something vindicated, yeah.

[68]  But, see, he waited. Then when he did that, [having waited, got a vision,] he compared his prophecy, his vision, with the written Word, and it was right with the Word.

Sure it was right with the Word. How was it right with the Word?

Number one: he knew it was a judgment of God.

Number two: he knew that Elijah had promised the blood of Ahab had to be licked up by the dogs. And he knew this was the hour.

And he said, “If you come again,” he said, “I am a false prophet.”

You know something? Do you know Brother Branham one day stood – and I heard him – he said, “If God told me to go beside the grave of Abraham Lincoln and raise him from the dead, I would challenge the whole world to come with their guns and shoot me down if I couldn’t do it.”

Do you know that is insane? That is insane unless, unless you are linked up with omnipotence. That doesn’t take intestinal fortitude to say a thing like that. It goes beyond courage, it goes beyond strength, it goes beyond anything. It goes right to God. Do you realize he said that? Well God didn’t put any man to the test.

They’d say, “Well Brother Branham, what about the fact you know…” Brother Branham didn’t know anything. He just said, “Look.” He said, “If God said it, I’d stand there, you could shoot me down.” Now what if he got a hallucination? He’d have stood there and they could have shot him down. He didn’t get any command to do it, but he put himself where he could get a commandment.

Okay:

[69]  When somebody says he’s “got a revelation to baptize people in the Name of ‘Father, Son, and Holy Ghost,'” that’s contrary to the Word. None of the rest of them ever did it. When they say, “Oh, we’re going to stand, this, that, and the other,” and so forth, that’s contrary to the Word. When they say they “don’t believe in serpent seed,” that’s contrary to the Word. All these other things, that’s contrary to the Word. [Now you notice he’s defending his doctrine, and he is proving to the people like Elijah did.] It must be with the Word and at the season.

[70]  Now, if David would have only done that. [One:] The ark was coming, [two:] but not at that time; [three:] there was no place for it.

Now this is a simple illustration, letting you know how things work. How it didn’t work. How it’s supposed to work. See? All right, let’s read.

[71]  Notice, now when they went down to get the ark, all the dignitaries said, “That’s the thing to do, David. Glory to God! We need a revival.” And that is real Pentecost, today; and Baptist, and Presbyterian. “David, you’re our king! Captain So-and-so, and Major So-and-so, and General So-and-so, will be at your meeting. Why, they say that’s just the thing to do, David. You got the whole country with you.”

That’s what’s the matter today. I don’t want the country. I want God, if there is nobody else stands.

Now watch, ecumenism of believers and state and religion will become one if there is a common cause that is strong enough or urgent enough. You know people can even get together over the United Fund to help people that are indigent, everybody gets together. They’ve already got the groundwork set up.

Protestants and Catholics all alike have things worked out, and the governments got it set up the same way, turning things over to the church more and more, and if there’s a real common urgent cause, you can surely get people together.

Now that’s human nature and you’ve got it right here, well meaning people will mistake what’s going on in the land today, which is ecumenism, which is going to bring us right to destruction, because God is going to judge that prostitute church. He said,

[71]  I don’t want the country. I want God, if there is nobody else stands. [Now standing with his office as a true prophet is what he did. And he defied ecumenism.]

[72]  David had all the captains. He had co-operation with the military forces. Co-operation with all the denominations, all the theologians, everybody agreeing with him. So did Ahab, and others in the Scripture; but he didn’t have God, because he was out of the will of God.

Now remember, the cry came out. “Who is on the Lord’s side?” Not “Who’s side is God on?” That makes a… I’m going to tell you whose side God’s on. God’s on the man’s side who’s on His side. He listened to the Word. Who has gone…

Now listen, if our premise is right in this church that we teach. And this teaching goes many, many places around the world. If our premise is right, in standing with William Branham, we’re standing against the world, as it was in the days of Noah, as it was in the days of Lot. And people can say what they want.

It has got to be a minority, for how can the whole world come to God in a vast revival at the same time the antichrist takes them there. I’d like to see people in heaven and hell at the same time. Do you know what they’re really doing? They’re making God and the devil the same person. Because the devil has told them this big thing.

And God has said small thing. And they’re taking it from one word that God wrote. So they got God and the devil in the same person, literally. Then it boils down to where their god is the devil, because they’re listening to him. Certainly that’s how it’s going to go. He said,

[72]  I hope we get this.

So therefore, there is a right division, there is a wrong division. Rome did this and people are still doing it right today, all the big cooperation. Trying to get together as though the world can do something about it and we’re the speckled bird… speckled bird is of course, it’s that one the blood spattered on, it was different from all the others.

[73]  Notice, they did every religious thing they could.

Now watch this. See look, I’ve been through this many times as a minister, watched it from the outside looking in, and thank God I never was able to join that bunch. Because you see they didn’t think that we should be able to win souls, because we were little independent Pentecostals and they were big Baptist, Methodist, Presbyterian. Hot dog. We didn’t have much and they had less than we did.

[73]  …they did every religious thing they could. They probably put out advertisements and everything, [Oh they always have.] “Great revival! The ark is going to be brought back. We’re going to have a revival. We’re going to do this.” [Never changed.]

[74]  Notice, David sent singers. He sent people with harps, with trumpets, and they did every religious thing they knew how to do; and still God was not in it. Somewhat see it repeating again, don’t we?

In other words they had professional talent, very good singers, great composers and that’s going to draw the crowds.

You know, Finney wrote a book, which was fine in his day. But it never was really right. He wrote a book how that you could have a revival, period. “Revive thy works in the midst of the years, O Lord,” is what he said, in the text of his great book.

And he laid it out systematically, being a lawyer theologian, a great expert in his field, one of the greatest men, I admire him; he’d never fit in this age, he fit in that age perfectly, face of man. He laid it out in this masterpiece called Revival, I think I still got a copy or so, and it will tell you exactly how to go about to get a revival! And the great secret of course is to pray!

Like Moses went down to Egypt and prayed for Pharaoh. That’s how you do it, get revival. Get the big guys in. Get them all in. Oh yes, that’s all we need, just a few, and the rest will follow. Because you see God works in a predestinated manner, he takes a couple predestinated and they set the key and the tenor, then the rest come in.

Hallelujah, at a hogwash. Everybody’s predestinated or nobody’s predestinated. Everybody’s foreknown or nobody’s foreknown. What these fellows don’t realize, that everybody’s foreknown, elected and predestinated to his exact position, which was before the foundation of the world.

In the mind of Almighty God, and let me tell you furthermore, it was already in the life of God. And the Church therefore is the genes of God. And we’re all part of Him in that respect. Just giving bodies to us.

So Finney’s revival wouldn’t go too great. And this would be the answer to us today when Brother Branham says, “I don’t pray for America anymore.” Didn’t say he wouldn’t pray for people. Didn’t pray for America; she’d gone over the hill.

[75]  They took all the singers. They took the harpists, they took the trumpeters; they took women, men, whoever it was that sang. They took them all down there, and they went through every religious motion. I don’t want to say this, but I’ve got to say it. So are these denominations today, Pentecostal and all, are going through every religious motion, of singing and shouting. [Instead of waiting on the Lord to know.]

Brother Palberg’s a very good friend of mine, and one of my dearest friends, and one of my most respected friends. I really think a lot of him. When it was approached him that he might possibly go to Toronto from Edmonton, and see what the people thought of him and what he thought of the people, he already knew he was going there, and whether they wanted him or not he was going to sit there, because he knew God wanted him there.

He already talked to God and knew the price he should put on his house. When the real estate man was called, he said, “Reverend Palberg, you’ll never get that, because houses aren’t getting that.”

He said, “I’ll get it, just put it on the market at that price.” And he got it.

And his wife said, “Well we’re doing these things, what about it?”

He said, “Where are we going to stay? What’s this?” He said, “I’ll fly to Toronto and get a place.”

He was there forty-eight hours and had the exact place, and he’s in a position right now to double what his house cost, or he could add to it and sit in one of the best places in all of Ontario in that area, and have literally a palace, in the sense if he wanted to add to it or not. What he’s going to do is his business. Whatever he does. But he knew. And the Church loved him and he’s been there I guess seven years, been a real wonderful thing.

The other day, they’ve been trying to get a church. And they got this bit of property, felt led that they should get this property. Then they found out the property was not zoned right. One day in praying, he got the mind of the Lord, and the Lord seemed to say, “Go on down and check the people of Milton.”

He went down there and the guy said, “Well I’m glad you came,” he said, “that property has been rezoned.” He said, “We don’t know what all it could be used for, but I’m quite sure you can have it for a church.”

So now they’re going to look around and they’ll be able to get it. So he’s just going ahead, you see? And now that’s not the office of prophet, that’s just those that wait upon the Lord. See? They get these things.

But it seems to me that people in this position here that say they want revival have already made their minds up what they’re going to do, because they feel from the Word they know what they’re going to do, they’re determined to do it, and now they say, “Lord, send Your Spirit, hallelujah,” so they can really do it.

You know what that’s like? That’s like you knowing that old John D’s been dead a long time now, Rockefeller, he’s got all this money. And people did it to him, they did it to LeTourneau, they’ll do it to anybody that’s got a buck and they know he’s got a buck and he’s generous.

Well John D was never generous, LeTourneau was generous. “I’ve got this great plan, Brother LeTourneau. All I want now is your money.”

He said, “Now, my money? You said my money didn’t you?”

“Oh yes, yes, it’s your money.”

“Well I think maybe I ought to have an idea what I should do with my money. Not you.”

I guess he told them that too at times. Because he’d be pretty ouchy. A lady went by one time with her visions of grandeur for his money and he just about threw her out. And I thought well it wasn’t nice, but now I’m very hilarious over it, ha-ha-ha, and I get a kick out of it. He was right! Yeah. Yes, sir. Like people that drink. They can drink any given quantity. Going through all the religious motions.

Now planned revival with every precept found in the Bible won’t do it in this hour. It won’t do it. I’ll tell you why. Because what’s in this Bible, God Himself has to do and you go along and enjoy it. Listen to what it says in the 3rd chapter of the Book of Acts. Read this dozens of times. Middle of 19th verse. My books there should be a period there.

Now it tells you right here that there is going to be a revival come all right, but it’s going to take the Presence of the Lord to do it, which is the Appearing, which precedes the coming. That’s your revival! And they turned it down flat!

And that was in the Word as everything else is in the Word, but God’s got to do it! And things like this cannot happen unless there be a prophet, because Amos said so. See? That’s what you’re looking at.

[76]  Notice, David shouted with all of his might, he screamed, he jumped, he went through every religious motion [that he did too,] that there could be; and still God was not in it.

Now listen, let’s get this flat. This is not just a little illustration, this is the truth. God wasn’t in it. Everything he was doing was good motive, good incentive, good everything. His purpose and all these things was fine, it was right there in the Bible, but it wasn’t in the Bible. Not that was in the Bible. Not the way he did it. No sir.

[76]  …his motive, his objective, everything was right; but he went the wrong way to do it. See? He performed all the religious movements [or motions] shouted, sang, had special singers, special shouters, everything else. They danced in the spirit. They did everything that was religious.

Now therefore, I’m going to say this, even if it is in the Word and suits your position, watch out. You’ve got to watch out. Because this is not page 8, paragraphs 33 and 34.

Where Brother Branham said here, about Brother Blair quickly praying for his little boy, because the child got hurt, and he recovered. Or the little lady, wife of a minister, the doctors gave her up to die, she’d be paralyzed all her life with a bursted spine, but they prayed and God healed her.

Now you can always do something quick about those things. You never need to worry. Just jump right in, do your best to believe God. Because anybody could do that.

Now I like what Spurgeon said, he said, “It is my job to believe God for the impossible, and leave the results up to Him.” And I found that in any ministry that’s a very successful thing to do. In other words you’re not trying to lead the cart; you’re just simply standing by the cart in case God should do something.

[77]  It’s something like our crusades of our time. They wanted to win the world to Christ. [Now watch, he’s bringing out for this hour.] There is no such a thing. [As winning the world to Christ in this hour.] Great landslide revivals, great things happening; if they could only realize, that day has passed. She’s doomed. But they’re building, crusades, organizations, and everything. But, the results is just about like it was in David’s time, it didn’t work.

That’s why Billy Graham says the well’s run dry. Brother Branham beat him to that – what? – twenty-two solid years, at least. He said, “I’ve crisscrossed this nation. It’s all seined out.” Maybe one or two there. Fifty came to the altar, how many got saved? No one has an idea. What they’re doing is confusing this age with the Wesleyan Age of the pollen, the scattering of the seed. But there’s no life in it anymore.

Look, when the Word of God is fulfilled, the life moves on. The life from Philadelphia moved into Laodicea. It died in Laodicea and it went now to the seed. Its right back to the original form, we’re back to Ephesus again. We’re back to the perfect ministry of Christ on earth that started the whole thing.

What started this whole thing? The ministry of Christ! Not his preaching, his ministry! He began to do and to teach! He explained what he did and why he did it! Now you’re right back to it! The ministry! See? Proved the Capstone, proved the Headstone in Spirit form, proving the authenticity of the revelation, the hour in which we live. You’re right back. You’re past those ages.

Nothing will work but this. Nothing outside this Message will come to life. People can say what they want. I know we’re not trying to be hard on anybody. Look, Noah couldn’t help building an ark. What are we supposed to do? Cut our throats and bleed with the rest of them? I suppose Noah said, “Now Lord just hold off, hold off, hold off. I will not build an ark, even if it means saving me and my family. I’ll die with them.”

Well, well, well, well. That wasn’t what Noah said. Noah just built the ark; he’s supposed to build the ark. Preached a hundred and twenty years or so. What more do you want from the fellow? You can’t do more than that. See?

[78]  We go and have a revival. Some of our great evangelists, they say they have thirty thousand converts, [that’s Billy Graham he’s talking about] in six weeks; [nothing wrong with Billy Graham, he just doesn’t understand because it’s not his business to understand.] and a year from there, now they go back, they can’t find thirty. Something’s wrong. What is it, it’s just the same thing David did. Great dignitaries, great men, great preachers, greater schools, great authority, but still they’re consulting an old denomination instead of looking in the face of God’s Word and seeing when the season’s on. You can’t raise certain foods but certain times a year.

So you see, evidently there’s nothing in what they’re saying to promote the health and the welfare! In fact, what they are doing, those that appear the most sincere are those that will fight this the hardest! They’ll say, “Don’t tell me, I know.” What do you know from? Your experience? Hogwash.

That’s the flattest thing I ever heard. I can take a Hindu and knock the spots, every single person here, all of us put together, rolled in one, will never touch a real consecrated Hindu and really show you love. You haven’t raised your kids what where a Hindu raised his kid. A kid comes to his mother, and his mother said, “Now go down and get a loaf of bread.”

The kid, “There’s no money.” So he doesn’t say, “There’s no money mother, I can’t get bread.” He said, “Mother I will get the bread when the money comes.” He puts the aspect on knowing the money’s going to come, he’s going to get a loaf of bread. Everything is positive over there. Everything is in love.

You’ve heard a lot of the bad side of them, that’s true. Everybody’s got a bad side. But you get on the good sides. I can tell you the truth.

I know to, a minister, one of my dearest friends went over to India and another friend of his, an associate, not a minister, but an associate, a businessman, when they came back they were converted away from Christianity, both having spoken in tongues and preached the glorious Gospel of the Blood and everything else.

And then flimed out of the whole thing, because they couldn’t stand up, when they saw something. I’m going to tell you brother/sister; you better see what the Scripture says you’re to see. And have a revelation the Scripture’s supposed to have. And I’m not championing the lack of love or anything, God, you people know me better than that.

I told you, I tell everything, I spill my guts, wherever I go I tell you flat, that’s the greatest thing I’ve longed for all my life, to be gentle, kind, sweet, to be just what I know Christ would have us to be in that order. But I’m going to tell you something. It’s not ordained that I’m that kind of a guy, or I’d never preach like this, no way.

My heart can bleed because I’m not as nice as I should be. But there’s no way I can change what I am, that’s all there is to it. I’ll die this way. But I will not die a liar, and you’ll never say I skinned you or did a thing to you. I might not have helped you too much, but if anything can help, this Word’s going to help, because I can’t do it.

No prophet, nobody can do it, because I’m going to tell you, the conduit of the Holy Spirit is that Word, and from thereon you are the conduit. And I don’t care how you get that Word, brother/sister. People just pick up a book, it was written, Brother Branham’s message, they can get it.

Certain food for just certain times of the year. So what is the food of this hour? The food of this hour is Malachi 4. Okay, immortality food is for this hour. To eat and live forever. To take of the Tree of Life, to stretch forth your hand, lest he stretch forth his hand and take of the Tree of Life. What are we going to do today?

Let’s go to Philippians. Let’s read it, Philippians 3. Paul says,

You know what? Paul could not know it. He had to die. He will know it when he’s raised. You and I are different! We’re here to know it. Right? Ephesians 1, right? 17-23.

The very hour you and I are in. Now I’m going to show you, he’s stretching forth his hands to the Tree of Life. How’d he do it?

Stretching to the Tree of Life! You cannot stretch forth your hand as long as there’s these veils upon your minds and your hearts of denominationals!

Now he said,

Which is what? The Word in season for the hour! See? The stretching forth is ridding the mind. Getting rid of every creed and dogma. All unbelief and anything associated with unbelief, all disbelief.

What’s the high calling of God? The top one! What was the top one for him? Resurrection! Of which he said, “If there’s no resurrection I am of all men most miserable.” And Brother Branham says He does all three in descending: Shout, Voice, Trumpet. The Shout is the Message, the gathering together unto Christ.

So you can press into the Tree of Life and receive. The stretching forth your hand, the constant stretching forth is the constant disapplication, the cutting off of what you used to know, until you can perfectly think with the Word of God as revealed the Word of God, not what the denominations taught, because there’s death in it!

If I am wrong in my premise of what I teach, I’m a billion times closer than the rest of them! Because at least I’m not teaching anything the way they’re teaching it. That gives me that much consolation; I’m at least somewhere on the road trying to get to glory.

But you teach all this old hogwash about the Appearing and Coming and all that stuff, you’re no more near this, the Tree of Life than nothing, from what I read in the Book here, and I’ve got to go by the Book!

Oh sure, I mean I could exercise my senses and jump up and down, in fact I’ve got a little trampoline in my house here. I could bring it to church and I could maybe excel all of you by jumping in the air. I don’t think I’d last as long as the rest of you though. No, it’s not… Listen, shouting and vim and vigor doesn’t constitute authority, the authority has been established. See?

Okay:

[79]  Let’s see what happened. Though… Their religious emotion and stuff was great, their intentions great, their crusade great, their singing great, their dancing great, their shouting great, their music great, and they had the ark. What good is the ark without God? It’s just a wooden box, couple of tables of stone.

What good is the Bible unless It’s revealed? I’ll tell you, it’s not good, it’s the authority of condemnation. You’re in jeopardy.

[79]  That’s like taking Communion, being baptized. What good does it do to be baptized if you haven’t repented first? What good does it do me to take Communion, become a hypocrite, if you don’t live the life and believe the rest of God’s Word? Take part of It, and not the rest of It, shows there’s something wrong. [See, that’s what David did. See?]

Now this sounds as if every age and season had to have a prophet. That isn’t so. You only had to have a prophet when a prophet’s required. That’s at this hour. Because a prophet has to open the Seals! Now people don’t want to even believe that! And they say they’re fundamentalists.

You say, “What about those Seals? What about those Thunders?” “Oh well, no, oh well, oh well.” Well I tell you one thing they’re saying, “If anybody’s going to do it, our church is going to do it.” Or “They’ll come to our church.” Always it’s the same old gimmick.

You know something; I never expect anything to come to me. I was on the receiving end because I didn’t expect anything to come, but God helped me to know when I saw him. Same with you.

[80]  …let us now see what happens when God, and His age at His time, is not considered; just people’s ideas. [When God’s age and His time. Okay.]

[81]  Many people have said to me, [he’s talking about himself,] “Why don’t you come over and hold a meeting here? Well, we call for you. Sign this, or that, or the other.” Wait! You might want it, but what does God say about it? Many people have called me and said… I’ve had an invitation, I’ve had interviews, personal interviews and things, and I’ve even waited for a year for that. Wait! How will I know what to say until God tells me what to say? See, got to wait! That’s the reason I said, “Write that out. Let me see what He says.” See? Wait! “They that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength.” Is that right?

Now in other words the prophet is giving an example of his ministry, how he has got to operate. And that is not how you and I operate except in the trickle down economy of God.

We must wait on ourselves to receive leading, but this man is talking of receiving a leading which concerns vitally the Kingdom of God and the subjects therein. And at that time also, those who have not yet found their identity, a part of the Kingdom, and they might come in.

So this is very responsible. A very great thing that a person should do. Like Brother Branham said, “Look,” he said, “I could go anyplace and preach.” And he said, “I’ve done that.” And he said, “Because I preach, God blesses to a degree.” But he said, “Oh,” he said, “if I go and I know I’m to go, then let the devil do what he wants! There’s nothing can stop that.”

And I tell you I know nothing about those things like I ought to know, any more than you do. And I know this one thing, when I know that I hear from God it works every single time. There’s no time it doesn’t work, it always comes to pass, exactly as He said. You see?

Now listen, there’s room for the trickle down ministry in every single one of us, because every one of us has a ministry whether we believe it or not. Now I tell you, when you get… the trouble with a lot of people in the church is they get all mixed up in ministries.

They still will not believe Romans 12. Now we’re taking our time, as we always do and we’ll get through in forty lessons instead of ten lessons, like I ought to get through, but we just can’t help ourselves. I can’t help myself, and you’re stuck because you’re here with me.

Okay, listen to Paul. Romans 12. This is for the whole church.

Now it tells you everybody has a measure of faith. Whether that faith is the identical measure, I don’t know for sure, but I do know everybody does have to begin with an identical measure of faith, that gives us the power of revelation. So okay, this could be a measure to a ministry.

So therefore to prophesy will take a whole lot more faith than to speak in tongues. And to interpret the message in tongues takes a whole lot more faith than to speak in the tongue. So there’s a difference in your faith geared, whether it’s a big faith or little faith, or a little faith used greatly.

Because Jesus said, “Though I have the faith of a grain of mustard seed, I could move a mountain,” and Paul said, “Though I’ve got all faith I could move a mountain,” so big faith and little faith is really the same thing in action. But there is a difference, we see it here. Okay.

But don’t stand around waiting for somebody to give you things. Who in our church has a gift of ministry? “I’s a man that could tend that gift.” No, you don’t do that. Nope, you don’t hint. And you don’t go to someone because you think you’re drowning; get him to drown with you because he can’t turn you down. That’s right.

Let me tell you something, I’m being very sincere and very sober. If you’ve got a real problem, don’t get anybody else involved. Now if he wants to get involved, that may be all right, because he wants to help you. See, I told you thirty years ago I tried to pull a gimmick and I learned my lesson, you don’t gimmick, period.

One nice, easy lesson… Now how many preachers will tell you that? Outside of me and Brother Branham? One or two. Jack Bell, oh yeah, I can name a few. Paul Burton. They’ll tell you the honest truth. You’re going to know it on judgment day, I’m beating you to it, so therefore judgment won’t even come up.

My sins are sent on beforehand. But you’ve go to watch it. I preached on Stewardship. I want a lot of questions asked. Write them on a piece of paper, we’ll deal with them. I haven’t got any questions, except one or two. And we’ve got the answers; the answer’s always found in the Word of God. No problem.

That’s a tough one right there. Ha-ha-ha, easy to get mad. Say, “Okay, you’re off the hook this time bird, but don’t ever get on the hook again. Or wham you go.” How many times Lord? Seventy times seven. Oh-yi-yi, four hundred and ninety times in one day? I haven’t shown that in a lifetime, I don’t think. We’re laughing at ourselves; we’d better be more serious though about these things.

Now these are ministries and how they are to be performed, your motivation with the incentive is these good spirits. So it’s a trickle down economy. Everyone has a ministry. You talk about prophets; you’re in the highest level of all. See, that’s what he’s dealing with, in this age of what? Matthew 24.

The time of the Presence, the time of the Appearing, the time of the parallel ministry, not parallel, the very ministry of Christ returned to this earth, there will be false prophets. And I tell you, oh, they’ve made themselves known to the whole world, “We are prophets.” Brother Branham always took it back and Paul never mentioned it. [inaudible] says, “I’m a prophet.” Grant says, “I’m a prophet.” [inaudible] “I’m a prophet.”

I’ve got news. Vayle is not a prophet. In fact he is prophetless. And you can spell it two ways. Bankrupt financially and never had a thing in the spiritual when it comes to a prophet. Sure I prophesied; I believe I have a gift of prophecy. But it’s not relevant. I didn’t go out and use it; I don’t even to go into a room with you.

You people want to go in a room? You get a church with a room, I’ll go in with you, I’m not afraid to go in. I don’t know what’s going to happen, but I’m not afraid. I’m a little diffident, but not afraid. Not real afraid. Diffident, slightly afraid, maybe. In other words, I wouldn’t be too much at home in the sense that hey, I’ve been out of this thing for years.

But I would go in there. I’m not supposed to even go in there, but I would go in. Sure. I don’t mind. Brother Branham said he’d go in, he didn’t have to go in, nobody was in there. They all left. I’m not saying we’re going to do that here, but you know, we’re putting the welcome mat out. If you would like something, look, we can look into all these things, there’s no problem.

Now,

[82]  Notice, they consulted only the priests of that day, the theologians, the denominations. And, in doing that, consulting the priests and congregation, consulting the people, they did it wrong.

You see this is the hour of consulting a prophet. Ha! Did Israel consult Jesus? They said, “Get rid of that bird.” Do you think they’d consult Brother Branham? They never did consult any… Isaiah they sawed him in two. Jeremiah got thrown in prison. There wasn’t anybody they had the use for. You know the reason Joseph got along? He got too big for them. He became the king! Yeah.

Back in those days, old Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob and Joseph, they were too bigwigs. You had a job coping with those fellows, they were it. Abraham was a king in his own right, so was Isaac, so was Jacob, when you consider their land, what they owned, everything else. They were top men.

But you notice how they even had to bow to God? Old Isaac, when he blessed Jacob, he couldn’t take the blessing back, because he knew God spoke through him and it wasn’t Isaac that gave the blessing it was God that gave the blessing.

Do you think, “Why, people wouldn’t consult with William Branham.” You know the man here is terribly egotistical; he’s letting everybody know, “Listen, you want to know about revival? You want to know if there’s going to be something in the land? Do you want to know something?”

Listen, he let the cat out of the bag. Back in the days of… what’s that fellow’s name from England in the Secret Service? I’ll remember later on, I’ve used it over the pulpit anyway. The businessman and different men knew, even government men knew that Brother Branham had a gift like Elisha.

“What’s going on there with the Assyrians?”

Well Elisha says, “Just a minute I’ll tell you. Well there’s fourteen thousand Assyrians under Captain so and so, and there’s six thousand Assyrians over here under Captain So and So, and I’ll tell you how to get behind them and just take them all in tow.”

And so they knew that Brother Branham could, if he so desired, look behind the Iron Curtain and other places too. And Brother Branham knew he could do it too. And so they propositioned him. They were smart. But did the church come? No.

This man in England, he’s got a French name. I’ll remember it later on. Not Delacour but it’s a French name. No they didn’t… He was turned down. And when he prophesied, they turned it down. Come right against it.

[83]  Notice, the ark was the Word. We know that’s right. Because, the ark is Christ, and Christ is the Word. See? The ark, or the Word, was not in its first, ordained, original ordained position. Oh, don’t fail to get this, church! Everything was perfect, everything looked good, like a great revival was coming; but because they failed to consult the right person about it!

I was in Chattanooga with Brother Branham. Cerullo had just been in Lima. And he told the Lima people, got them all happy, how that he’d heard these footsteps, I think it was, and saw the light coming through under the door, into the room, and the angel of the Lord appeared and told him, “A great revival is coming.”

And he was in Chattanooga, when we were there, and he got on the platform, prefacing Brother Branham, and he made the remark how that this great thing was going to come.

And Brother Branham… I tell you, you talk about fortitude. That little fellow came on there and he said, “There’s a wrong spirit in this room, a false spirit. You’ve just been told the great revival’s coming. There’s no revival coming, it’s all over.” You talk about lead balloons.

But listen, they no more received that than nothing! Oh they just said, “That’s the curmudgeon, that crank. Who does he think he is?”

They must have said something like that, because they turned it down flatter than a fritter. Nobody had any faith in it. And yet he stood in the discerning line that night and showed what nobody else could show. My heavens.

Why that man came to me he said, “Brother Vayle, you and Brother Branham do wrong,” he said, “no wonder you’re starving,” he said, “haven’t got any money.” He said, “What you do,” he said, “you tell the folk you’re going to pray for everybody, but…” he said – that’s the days when five bucks was a good offering, it will be fifty bucks today at least, I wouldn’t settle for less than fifty or a hundred.

He said, “Why to get a good offering,” he said, “you tell everybody you’re going to pray for them all, but you’ll pray for those that put in the five dollar bill first.”

I said, “Thank you, brother, I’ll tell the prophet.”

So we had a good laugh over that one. We still had our hamburgers while they had T-bone steaks. Ha-ha. I’d sooner have God’s hamburgers than the devil’s T-bone steaks. Sure.

They failed to consult the prophet! Listen; did anybody consult Brother Branham concerning this over here in the 3rd chapter of Acts, the restoration? Did anybody come and say, “Brother Branham, you’re the one man, if anybody can tell, you tell us what this is.” Did they? No they didn’t. They didn’t give a rip. No. No.

They didn’t ask the man who knew all about it, by virtue of the fact he was the man who could do it. They didn’t care about Restoration and Rapture which could only come by the prophet. That’s Acts 3. Let’s face it.

[83]  They consulted the priests, consulted the dignitaries, consulted theologians, consulted singers, got everybody in one accord, great organization of the military, all the forces of the nation. Everything in harmony for a great meeting, but they failed to consult God.

Now they say, “Well who needs God, we’ve got the Bible.” Oh it’s not that they don’t need God to be consulted. That’s not a good way of putting it. Say, “Who needs to get through to God, God’s got through to us.” Had God got through to them? Well if God had got through to them, how come they’re in idolatry?

[84]  Now don’t miss this. They failed to get it, because they hadn’t consulted. And by doing that… Watch. By going to the priests, the theologians, the military forces, not even considering their God-sent messenger of the hour, Nathan, they did it wrong. They went and picked up the ark and put it on a new cart, put it on a new cart, or, “a new denomination is going to start up,” and not upon the God-given, ordained way to pack it. It was supposed to be packed on the shoulders of the Levites. But, you see, when you start wrong, you’ll keep going wrong.

What’s Brother Branham preaching here? Church order. Letting you know this Message will not denominate. Now is this a picture of men outside the five-fold taken over, ‘Full Gospel Businessmen,’ ‘Fishers of Men’? Well let’s put it this way too, the Levites were there. The wrong five-fold ministry took up where they should not have taken up.

How are you going to get to the Wedding Supper according to Acts 3 and 1 Thessalonians 4:16, and who can prove it? You see? Or will we end in the great tribulation? You’ve got to have somebody in this hour to get us there because deceit is in the land, you see?

Now:

[85]  If a bullet is supposed to be directed to a target, and you jerk the barrel one thousandths off here, to begin with, at a hundred yards you’re four or five inches off. You start wrong. O God, help us to know this thing has started wrong, this great crusade of the hour, as they’re so called.

If the bullet is the Word and that requires a prophet, where will the bullet hit? William Branham was God’s spearhead. All right, again, “When times of refreshing shall come from the Presence of the Lord,” [Acts 3:19] which is a great revival, the Holy Spirit having breathed.

Now what is that from the Presence? It is without a doubt Matthew 4 and Matthew 12. Jesus began to do and to teach. The great end time revival for an exodus. And an end time revival for exodus is not a beginning revival for a genesis. That’s where people make their big mistake.

That’s why Brother Branham said, “Though you go back to Pentecost, you cannot go back to Pentecost.”

How can you go back to Alpha? You cannot become Alpha. Omega becomes Alpha, you see the same earmarks. You see like I said if a board is oak at both ends, it’s oak in the middle! If you see what was back there now, you know it’s completed! God has brought it through! And the Bride is His victory!

In the face of everything, God’s brought a Bride through, and you watch her come out of the ground one of these days and you watch who’s going to be glorified. People think this is just some kind of a dream, and we’re like on the road to Emmaus, but it’s not a dream, brother, this is reality!

And if we’re not Bride, I say as Brother Branham, there’s a Bride out there somewhere that believes right and she’s going to be in it. And may we not get in her way. Let’s have enough brains to do that, enough something or other.

Brother Branham was God’s spearhead. Why? The Bible says so. “Elijah must first come.” End time evangelism, what is it? Closing off, it’s here. Get ready to meet the Lord, come out to meet Him, come out to meet Him.

Behold the Bridegroom, behold the Bridegroom. Meet your Husband. Know Who He is. Well which one of the three is the Husband? Father, Son or Holy Ghost? Father, Son and Holy Ghost is one God. Three manifestations. Three dispensations.

Now he said,

[86]  God is not consulted about it. [That’s today.] Priests and religious men are consulted. Organizations consulted. “Well, will you have such-and-such? I believe, if we could get everybody together!” [Under those grounds.] Don’t get everybody together. Just get God’s Word about it.

One person. One Word. One Word, one person, because God deals with one, right?

[87]  Then we find that, when they do that, what happens? They continue to go right on with their same old religious program, which is out of the Word of God and the will of God. That thing died, years ago, those old dried up things of years ago.

That’s the life has passed out of the Word. Remember the Bible said, “Heaven and earth shall pass away, but not one Word till It be fulfilled.” And when the Word is fulfilled It’s passed away, and then It becomes what? Example. Example.

[88]  It had dried up in the days of Lord Jesus. They didn’t know it.

I think our time’s run out. Okay, we’ll get to the place now where… well we’ll just have to take a recap next week, next Sunday… no I won’t be preaching next Sunday, Brother Brian. When we come back to this, we’ll have a recap to bring you up to date and we’ll go on from here.

So the Lord bless you, as usual it’s a great pleasure to be with you, and as usual I didn’t get my ten pages done, I got two pages done. So I got what? Two leaves and four pages done, and I’m sorry about that, but I can’t help it. What can I do? I got to just take my time and the Lord bless you.

Let’s rise shall we, at this time? And again, see a little later on in the week, in the meantime have a good Christmas, have a nice time with the children, teach them what you can about the things of the Lord for His Namesake, for their good, and may you all prosper in Christ.

Now Heavenly Father, as we go now, we ask You to be with the people Lord, each and every one that is here or represents a home, and all those that are not here, the beloved which are a part of this assembly, which we believe to be a part of Christ.

Lord, knowing we welcome everybody and don’t put anybody out, but we do stand with Your Word, as we believe It was delivered under vindication in this hour. And so let the people’s faith stand not in themselves any longer at any point, no way, shape and form, but in a vindicated Word, this is it, God has spoken, and this is that of that hour.

So Father we commend ourselves to that Message more thoroughly than ever, believing most considerately and conclusively, having considered and arrived at the conclusion that this Word in us is the conduit of the Holy Spirit to bring the life of the Word of this hour, which is immortality, and by Your grace Lord, we stretch forth our hands and take of the Tree of Life to live forever. Because we know there’s some here unto whom it is predestinated.

Lord, knowing Your servant here could go off the scene, which is perfectly fine and good if it for the pleasure of our Lord to do so, but there will be those who are here, who will not have to molder in the ground, or come up, although that’s marvelous just even to think about, what a tremendous, tremendous thing that is. But there’ll be others standing here with the tremendous, marvelous opportunity and experience.

One day the reaching will have been successfully concluded and the dead will be standing here, and that quick sweep that Brother Branham said will go over them and there’ll just not a wrinkle, no more blood in those veins, no, nothing that’s mortal any longer, but immortal, likened unto our blessed Savior Himself to Whom we’ll be caught up to meet at the Wedding Supper.

We cannot praise You enough for this Lord, what a tremendous thing to know that here is a Christmas that we can honor more than we’ve ever before of commemorating Your birthday amongst us in flesh, knowing that You are here now in the form of the Holy Spirit, and You have seen the travail of Your soul, it’s all but over.

You are seeing the triumph of the Blood and the Spirit. We are Your victory, ready to be caught away to the eternities. We cannot praise Thee enough.

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

The Lord richly bless you, just take the Name of Jesus with you.