Perfect Faith #11

Shall we pray.

Heavenly Father, we know that a very wise person once said that liberty is costly, the price is eternal vigilance, and we know, Lord, that that’s what Paul the apostle, Peter, and different ones, actually said, though in different words, to be vigilant, always careful… Abraham, careful to keep his eye upon the goal, upon the Word.

And Lord, we have the same admonition this morning, and so much so as Brother Branham brought us the message, “Perfect Faith.” We pray, Father, that You’ll help us to be vigilant, as we’ve never been before.

How often Lord, You said through the apostle, John the Revelation, “You better watch out, because you can fall, you will fall. I’ve given you a chance; I’ve given you a space; you never took it.”

Lord, at this end time we have the same thing devolved upon us, so help us to be very, very serious in the study of this Word. And not just know the Word by rote; simply know It Lord, because someone taught It.

We pray It shall be very meaningful Lord, and become a part of our lives, experience the very Word, that we become that Word, by the due process of the Holy Spirit coming forth from that Word that’s launched in us because we’ve put heed in It.

We’re careful to exalt It, careful to watch It, believe in It, know that It can work out in our lives.

So, Father, may we be serious this morning and yet full of great joy, knowing that we have Your answer, and we have the answer to the devil, we understand mysteries.

We don’t do it Lord, have it for the sake of just understanding or to be somebody, but because we are, we believe, the Elect of God this morning, True Believers.

May each heart, Lord, be under Your control. I cannot do it, but You can do it. And we commend the service unto You.

In Jesus’ Name. Amen.

You may be seated.

Now this is Perfect Faith 11 and in this message we are seeing several major projections develop on the subject of perfect faith.

Brother Branham says a lot of things, and we’re going to just review some of those things because they seem so pertinent.

Number 1: Brother Branham refers to his own vindicated ministry to show us we have come to the ultimate in faith revelation and faith manifestation.

That’s absolutely true, because when That Which is Perfect is come, which we believe It is, where Brother Branham was asked the question, “What does it mean?”

He said, “Well,” he said, “What is perfect but the Word?” Yes, “What is perfect but the Word?”

How does he put that? “What is perfect but God?” And he said, “God is the Word, and by His grace, we believe.”

So you notice he said, “We believe. We have the perfect revelation of the Word for this hour.”

So we have come to perfect revelation and that perfect revelation is vindicated to be the perfect revelation because of the manifestation.

So we see faith revelation, we see faith manifestation, both of them at the same time, one dependent on the other for its proof.

Number 2: He transposes the operation of his faith based upon vision to us, by stating his visions are hardly to be compared to the Bible and Its unfailing promises given to us.

Now he brought that out by saying, “My visions are nothing compared to this Word, because my visions simply come from the Word on the basis as Malachi 4, Elijah, restoring.

I will have visions and they’ll come to pass as vindication.” But where is it coming from? It’s coming from this Word.

So there again we’re looking at the part of the whole. Brother Branham only brought the whole revelation for this hour, you see.

But the whole lies here from Genesis to Revelation, much of which is absolutely fulfilled, will never be fulfilled again. So, he’s telling you: the part that he has vindicates and makes solid the part that we have.

So there’s a transposition there, like he said, “Take this Message for your healing.” So you take this Message, how it came as the basis for your faith: this is it. See?

Number 3: He gives us some rules of faith found in the Bible, using Abraham, Job, Peter, the woman with an issue of blood, and some others. All right.

The A: Faith is real authoritative, dynamic, and of a super power, or a superior power, to all laws of this world and the kingdoms of this world.

So we’re looking that God has given us something in this end time revelation, all the way through the Bible, proven that we are superior to any force, real or imagined, any authority, real or imagined we are strictly above it on the grounds of being one with this Word.

Now our faith cannot take us beyond the legitimate. Like the Bible says, very carefully tells us in Romans and also in the Book of Corinthians.

How that all law is of God, taxes are of God, authorities are of God, all of these things are of God, and anyone who fights and disobeys those is fighting the power of God.

So what you’re seeing here in my statement when I say, “Faith is real,” it is not something that’s simply assumed, something that’s guessed at, something, some imaginary thing, but it is absolutely authoritative and dynamic, and of superior power, or power over all the laws of this world and the kingdoms of this world where the Bible sets this faith in order, but not in our human thinking.

You cannot use your faith for your human thinking, because faith is not a product of the mind. Faith is a product of the revealed Word. All right.

The B part, number B: The recipient of this faith must begin to deny his senses and reasoning.

When you come against anything that’s against the Bible, you deny your senses and your reasoning. He is blind to all contrary evidence that’s any evidence contrary to his faith; he’s blind to it, and deaf to all voices apart from the Word.

Any other voice outside the Word just doesn’t go. There’s nothing in the world that has a thing to do with faith… not a thing. There’s nothing out there. You’ve got to go to the Bible for faith. That’s all there is to it. The Word alone with no other substance or substanding evidence can be taken.

C: He knows who he is, and his place in the Word. Now we went through a long dissertation on that.

We know that we are believers, we know our place, and we understand this by the fact of understanding the Word.

D: He knows he has put away fear. “We have not been given the spirit of fear, but of courage, love and a sound mind.”

You’ve got to know that… say, “I’m not a fearful person.”

Remember many persons came up… different ones came to God and said, “I’m a fearful person.”

He said, “You’re not fearful at all.” See?

Brother Branham said, “Afraid?” He said, “No way.”

Now, you say, “Well, that’s prophets.”

Well, all right, then, you’re not called upon to stand in the prophetic office. You’re called upon to stand in your own office and so you’re admirable in that respect. You have no fear; there’s no reason to fear.

E:He knows how to resist the devil. He does it by walking away. How?

By using the Word of God. Actually, the devil will walk away from you.

When Brother Branham says to walk away, he means it in the sense of a term, you have nothing to do with it, you walk away from it. I have nothing to do with the devil. He’s got nothing in me and I’ve got nothing in him.

But literally, you’ll notice, he does use the example where Jesus withstood the devil by the Word. So you come to that understanding. Put them together.

F: He understands that the trial of his faith is not a denial, but is God’s way of developing character.

The trial of our faith we don’t get things the minute we ask, under most considerations, because if we did, we’d be a bunch of spoiled, pampered kids, and you’d never know what it is to come under the rod and the discipline and the training of Almighty God.

So he understands that the trial of his faith, which must come with every promise, in the proper order, the proper conditions, the proper pressure must come. It is not a denial, but God’s way of developing character. We read that in Romans 5 and we’ll see it again.

Then on page 22, paragraph 126, he speaks of love and its part with faith, and in this section we will learn how to mature in love as we mature in faith. There’s a great thing there we’re going look at it and see what the Word of God says. All right.

Reading then, paragraph 126:

[126]  And faith and love are relatives because you can’t have faith unless you’ve got love because your faith is in a God Who is the very essence of love. Faith and love work together.

Now that’s a legitimate statement that there’s no way in having faith without love, because you’re asking God to do something for you and He’s the God of love and so therefore faith is operative.

The very principle of faith that God endorses and gives to you, which you operate, is because of love, and remember the servant is not greater than the lord; it’s enough that he be equal, as the same as his lord. So the love principle comes in here. All right.

But remember when you talk of this, as Brother Branham talks of it, as a basic knowledge contingent to faith; we recognize that God is also the Word.

That’s right. And because He is the Word ‘Logos’, which is God manifesting Himself according to what lies within Him, and His spoken Word that He gave us, which is the Rhema, this, then, the Rhema, is a love letter.

That’s why people call the Bible ‘a love letter’, because it’s from Him Who is able to conceptualize Himself. See? The Unseen, Unsensed, Unknowing, Unknown Spirit.

But God can conceptualize Himself which He started by bringing Himself into manifestation with nothing to see there was a light came out of Him and then He began forming creation.

So that’s what I say, ‘God conceptualizing Himself’, God becoming not Zoë, but a part of Zoë, on the grounds that He Himself came into manifestation, then began bringing all this out here into manifestation.

So thus “in Him we live and move and have our very being.” That’s why the words even use eternal life and all. Okay.

So God is also the Word, so therefore the Rhema is a love letter, and the love of God to you and me then, will be a love of His Word when It is correctly revealed.

And the Word is also a part of our life so that whatever conduct we engage in, you could not dare to call that ‘love’ and know it is love unless you had the Word to go by, and a proper motivation within your heart, which is still love, because you can say, “Well hey, this is love and I’m going to rebuke you in love.”

And it’s nothing but a high-handed tactic to get something over somebody and just run them down. Now that’s a legal spirit that’s in a lot of churches.

Now I trust that if we ever get that up here that God will deal with me and see that it just goes off your back like water off a duck’s back, or there’d be some kind of correction, because that’s not the way the things are.

When God speaks, and He speaks harshly, He speaks very strong, it is purposeful.

Like He said, “We correct our children many times in anger and at our own disposition because they irk us, but you cannot accuse God of that.

You can never accuse God of flying off the handle. God does not fly off the handle. God does not make immature judgments. His judgments are perfect according to the Word of God.

So you’ve got to begin to understand, as I’ve preached many a sermon on love that we simply cannot love the way people in the world and the churches look at love.

There’s no way! Well, you say, “Well, I love this person, therefore, I wouldn’t dare.”

Well, it shows you’ve got no more love than a good nanny goat, because like Brother Branham said: “Hey, this person is approaching a cataract, ‘Well, have a nice time’!

And he’d go over the cataract because you don’t want to raise your voice to cause a little problem,” as it were, and they break the fellow’s equanimity, his peace, serenity, which is not true serenity, it’s stupidity.

The deliberate closing of the eye, the winking… you can’t do that. So we’ve got to kind of watch this thing of love here as we’ve got into it on different occasions. All right.

Then if faith is Word-based, which It is Word-based, because he said, “Faith and love work together,” and faith is Word-based, we know it is: “faith cometh by hearing,” can there be a love of God apart from it?

Can you have a love of God apart from the Word? Now I’m going to prove this to you as we get down the line. I hope I can do it before we get out of church this morning because, you see, I’m taking my time on purpose we have to.

To love the Word above all else is loving God. Revealed Word is revealed God.

As Brother Branham said, “The Word interpreted,” or revealed, “is the manifestation of the Name of God.”

That’s a tricky statement but it’s nonetheless true. See? All right. Faith toward God because we love Him, that’s true, and faith for others because we love them, and faith, because we love His commandments, that’s what we’re looking at.

We’re looking at this whole picture of love here. All right. Faith and love are relatives, because you can’t have faith unless you’ve got love. Do you think for one minute that you’d have the love of God in your heart, or faith without that love?

You can’t do it, because, you see, it’s by the same Holy Spirit. His very essence is love. So, we’re looking at a love scene here, and that’s interesting to look at because the fact of love love never will ever work evil; love will never, ever go against truth; love will never, ever go against a person for the sake of going against somebody.

Love will always benefit the donee, it will benefit the donor. See? If God never gave His love, He would never be benefited. So you see, it works that way. Okay.

127… we keep going. Now he’s going to illustrate some things here.

[127]  Sure, just like a young couple. You take a young man and a young woman, they fall in love with one another.  And as they go along and begin to know one another more, their hearts just begin to beat as one.

They’re not husband and wife yet, but their love binds them together, and they have confidence in one another. 

Now, if they really love one another, really love, and you know that this girl loves you and she knows that you love her, you’ve got confidence [faith in one another] if you got faith in one another; if you didn’t, you’d better not marry, see.

Okay. We see here then, Brother Branham speaking here, that love gives the power to overcome by faith.

It gives you that power right in there because, you see… I don’t believe there’s anybody that I don’t say there couldn’t be, but I just don’t believe there’s anybody, any couple that ever got married, that each person didn’t know the other person had faults. See?

There are faults there. As long as you’re human, there are problems. The very fact that a woman is a woman, and a man is a man… that’s a problem right there. It is, that’s a fact. There’s a problem right there.

There’s meant to be, but you see, if a person loves, then putting the faith there, and faith is what begins to move those mountains, you begin to have a marriage that is truly a great marriage, see. All right.

Now Brother Branham uses the illustration of lovers coming to be, or becoming husband and wife, and that’s extra appropriate at this time and for this hour, because there’s a bride and groom illustration going on where Brother Branham said, “We are married to the matchless Son of God, and the Bride is the perfect bride, the wife, and He has nothing against Her, freely justified, She never did it at all.”

So, using this thought of the husband and wife coming together is very, very good.

Yet we ask the question, “What about love of a parent?”

See? Now we speak a great deal of mother- love.

The Bible does talk a little bit of mother-love, but It talks actually more about the father pitying the children, and the father having that attribute in a superior way.

Now, I suppose that goes back to the garden of Eden, where God said to Adam, “For this cause shall a man leave father and mother and cleave unto his wife.”

And the father and mother of Adam was God. So when Brother Branham presents the thought here of husband and wife, I don’t want anybody to get away from the thinking that God is not a parent as well as He is a husband.

Because we know that parental love is a love that many times binds the parents together when a lot of love has already been lost. It’s the children that do it.

So we’re seeing here that God is not disregarding all love, He’s actually including it, but in this hour He is more Bride and Groom than any other time.

Now, also, we might look over here, though there’s not too much said of God ever loving us.

You know if you start looking at Scripture, you’re going to find that God demands a lot of love from us, and there’s not a tremendous amount of love, the love of God set forth as though God delineated upon it, but you can see if God started Adam and Eve off the way He started them off, in a perfect setting with everything under their control, He sure must have loved them beyond what would be human expectation for anybody to be loved, to turn the kingdom over to them.

So, in other words, everything was so propitious for man to know God in His love, that it isn’t sensible to even begin to wonder if God is Love.

Well, any sensible person would say, “No.”

You’ve got to understand that even by nature that God is Love. We see a lot of quirky things out there, you know, cyclones, hurricanes, and things, but basically when you look at nature in its highest form it’s a fantastic thing. Okay.

Then in Malachi, the 1st chapter, you notice in here,

See? Now God says, “I’ve loved you.” And the people say, “Well, wherein is the love of God?” And you notice it’s the elective love, the same as election holds in choosing a Bride.

And Brother Branham preached a message, one of his last messages, “Choosing a Bride,” and at that time, in California, God came on the scene, and Brother Branham, completely beside himself, predicted the complete destruction of that whole coast was coming upon the earth.

So, you see, now what does He say? Well, He said, “Look, can you doubt Me that I love you? I loved Jacob and I hated Esau.” Then anybody in this Message says, “Well, I just wonder about the love of God.”

You see, you put yourself, and I put myself, right here with back-slidden, degenerate Israel in this hour, because the love of God has been proven to us where the prophet could stand and say that God, in this mighty ministry of His that Brother Branham was showing to us, was literally currying favor with us.

Why didn’t He just haul and hit him with a club? Now, He didn’t say, “I tell you what I’m going to do: I’m sure going to make you, you know, really smarten up about My love and all.

What I’m going to do… I’m going to save you during the flood, but you, and your seven more, are going to be riding on logs doing it.”

Wouldn’t it be great floating forty days and nights on the mountains tops, swirling water on logs? But that’s not much love. Well, you ain’t even going to get wet, kid. See? Look at the love of God.

See, these are the things we must understand when Brother Branham says this, that, from the Scripture, like he said, “Look, what I’m saying is nothing compared to what’s in here.

It’s saying the same thing, but you know there’s much more here. Then my visions and all, nothing compared to what’s in here.”

So, we can take what he says and go back to the Word, which we’re supposed to do, and we can say, “Say, that’s a hundred percent right.”

How in the world can anybody say that faith can really work apart from love? It can’t do it; there’s got to be an understanding of love in there, the same as there is faith. See? Okay.

Now notice he says here in 128:

[128]  Notice, you got to have faith. And you separate them, [that’s one from the other, that’s the boy and the girl] and put one in extreme south and one in extreme north, there’s still that love beats one for another, no matter where they’re at.

They’re just as true to one another as they can be, because they love one another. And if you love the Lord, not just try to dodge hell now… [not just trying to dodge hell], but you love the Lord, then you have faith in God [See?] if you love Him.

All right, now… let a little thought there. He says, “If they’re separated… she’s at the North Pole, and he’s at the South Pole,” or visa versa, there’s something in there that is electric.

Now, I’m going to tell you something, if you read the last ‘Reader’s Digest’ science page, you’re going to find when the stars die, that nova dies, some atomic particles, called ‘nutrinos’ leave the dying star and they speed right through the earth.

In other words, they have no affinity or proclivity to hang onto any substance. They just don’t mix. And that’s the way love is, it doesn’t mix. It goes right to the children of God, just like this man and this woman.

The earth can separate them, but you realize the earth, the rock, the solid, molten lava does not stop these from going through.

And I think of all the… for years I have preached, I visualized Christ, our Head, God, in the middle of the Bride, as I say, in my conceptualization of this, I can’t explain it to you, but for a while it was very real to me, how that the Bride was not divided, She wasn’t in many places, She was in one place somehow. This gives you a little idea of how it is.

So there’s something in our hearts moving out to the Bride everywhere She is. There’s nothing can stop it. There’s a conceptualization there: we’re one, we’re just one.

Put God, if you want, in the middle of the earth, put Him anywhere you want, it doesn’t matter. There It is, in us, and amongst us. Fabulous as you think what science is discovering for us every day.

I like science for what they’re doing; they just prove us a hundred percent right, which is more than we’re doing for them. Well, I always said, that’s great. All right.

[128]  …if you love the Lord, not just trying to dodge hell, but you love the Lord, then you have faith in God [See?] you love Him. Okay.

Let’s go to the Book of Romans and just look at this a little bit according to some Scripture that I believe fits the occasion here, Brother Branham telling us it’s true.

I won’t read anymore than that, but let me start now and go back and read the first 5 verses:

Now, it tells you here that the Holy Ghost is shed abroad in our hearts, and the love in the Holy Ghost is shed abroad in there, too.

Then it tells you how it was done: because God loved us and gave the Son, which, in turn, the washing of the blood allows the Spirit of God to come into our souls.

And there this love is. So we have a little portion of God and in Him is everything in the little miniscule form that is in the great form, you know. So, all right.

Let’s go to 129. He’s still talking of this couple:

[129]  Like a young girl… just happened here in Louisville, not long ago. This woman had been a Christian for many years, and she fell in love with a man who had been a Christian maybe only a couple of years.

They loved and had confidence in one another, and they got married. And she said to the man one day, “Hubby, it must be hard on you, you’re just a young Christian. You’ve had to much to do through…” [He was drinking, whatever.]

And she said, “You’ve had so much to go through with, and I know you’re bound to be tempted awfully hard.”

And said, “I want you to know one thing now. Now, if you happen to fall, if you happen to fall into temptation and are overcome, don’t stay away from home; you come on back.

You come right here, ‘cause I’m going to be right here waiting for you, and I’m going to help you pray through again until you get the victory.

I’m going to stay with you, because when I married you, I married you because I loved you. And no matter what you are, I still love you.”

[130]  A few days after that, he was eating his lunch with the fellows down in the boiler room, and he was telling them about it, and he said, “How could a man ever do anything wrong when somebody loves you like that?” See?

Now this is not a trick situation, and this is not psychological. This is a fact that is to be faced by the people who claim to be born again with the love of God shed abroad in their hearts and they are true believers. This is something to be faced.

Now I know that it’s too often we’re looking at too many things as illustrations, and we say with a head knowledge, just a little cursory knowledge, “Hey, that’s fine.

It is so,” but it is not truly so in our beings, in what you might call the magnified intensity that we ought to have at this point of the hour in which we live.

Now:

[131]  There you are, [said Brother Branham.] How could you trespass that confidence? [See? That’s the truth.]

Now, here’s what we’re looking at: has God today openly evidenced or commended Himself or His love to us?Now, see, we admire this woman. We say, “Now, that’s right.” And we take an illustration and say, “That’s good because that’s the way God has set it up.” All right.

Now, looking in this hour, in the light of the rottenness, let’s just take a look at ourselves. Why not? I could be away for a month and come back and preach ten more sermons so it’s okay… you know, take our time.

And a man, catching a woman in that condition, if he’s a man at all, just spit on her, might as well spit in her face, and walk out. He said, “You’re slimy, scurvy, scummy.”

Now what’s He say?

In other words, you change your mind and begin to get My mind concerning the situation that you’re scurvy and scummy, you’re low-grade, you’re a downgrade.

And I said the other day that I’ve never seen a sheep that couldn’t do anything a goat did, and a whole lot worse. So we’ve nothing to be proud of.

Now, with what God has done, could there be anybody in his right mind in this Message disbelieve in the love of God or believe that God would ever reject you, no matter what you did? In other words, we’re preaching grace, not blind, eternal security.

We don’t believe in that. We believe in true eternal security. In other words, you have been secured, but you’re still not out of the flesh, and you’re a bit weak you’ve got to grow. You’ll see that all of this we’re speaking of is a growth. Okay.

Can we then deny the love of God in this hour? What must we do? We must spend our time more and more thinking and pondering, visualizing and wondering over it the amazing grace.

I remember a fellow one day, preacher, one day said to another person, “the bondage of smoking.”

The person said, “Well, I can’t quit.”

“Well,” he said, “couldn’t you quit for the sake of Jesus Christ?”

How many people think of things like that? Couldn’t you just quit what you’re doing for the sake of Jesus Christ?

“Oh, well, you see… ”

There’s nothing to see, my brother, my sister. Is God so small in our thinking that we simply cannot do certain things? We can’t quit our grouching and every other cotton-picking mess we’re into for His sake.

A man that cannot keep himself virtuous from women, and visa versa, you know, for the sake of the person they’re married to… Now that’s not legalism.

You say, “Well, my husband will throw me out.”

Or, “My wife will sure pour hot water in my ear.”

“Oh, yes, yes, I can see the divorce case, and I can see my broke property, and I can see all my wages, like.”

Oh, shut up! That hasn’t got a thing to do with it. That’s a legalist concept. “Or I might get caught.”

Now, you might get AIDS. That ought to make you stop anyway, but that’s still not it.

How could you do it to somebody, how could you? If you’re a child of God you can see this; if you’re not a true child of God, you can only see when you’re born again.

Or if you had some philosophy drilled into you, “you can do it, it’s okay.” Like the Way bunch did. Oh, God. They tried to pull that when I was in the Baptist church over yonder.

They got in… and a Latter Rainer wine, women, song, anything… “Well, the flesh profits nothing.… if you’re in the Spirit.”

I said, “You pull that around here, I’ll have you thrown out that door you better have somebody there to catch you on the first bounce you’ll have several bounces.”

I had the same thing in Canada. Preacher down there had believed in free love… soul mating, they called them.

I saw some of them messing around. I said, “I’m going to tell you: if I’m running a house of prostitution, although I called it a little different than that.

I said, “I’ll hang a red light out in front and charge for it.” We were upstairs… “In the meantime, you going to find yourself kicked downstairs.”

Legalism hasn’t got a thing to do with it. You can only be at rest if you think highly, subjectively, in the right area. How can I do that to somebody? “Love worketh no ill to the neighbor.”

And the same love in the church restores people that fall, it doesn’t throw them out on their ear… it’s willing to talk things over and get things right.

Of course, there could come a day when the person kept on doing it, they must be then dealt with in another manner.

Let’s read further:

[132]  And when we were enemies, alienated, without God; in the world, in that muck of mud, as I talked about this morning, God came to us! God sought you, you never sought God.

[And that’s true. Did Adam seek God? The answer is, “No.” He ran. The Bible says,] “No man can come to Me except the Father draw him first.”

[That’s absolutely right.] And God came down in that muck, what you were, [pretty mucky,] and sought you out and brought you out!

He’s talking now that seed down there, which you really are. That ought to create a perfect love, providing you know what the transaction entailed.

Now if it’s just a thought off the top of your head about the blood, and a thought off the top of your head about God’s grace to fill with the Holy Ghost, those are just, you know, like the old churches, come on… you’re sprinkled as a baby, “Now you belong to the great church, hallelujah!”

Then you’re confirmed, “hallelujah!” You got a bar mitzva, “hallelujah!” You’re interested… You’re just a bunch of dogs, there’s nothing there. Now, if you’ve got that, you’re all right, you know. This means nothing.

But if there’s really something in there, you know, then there’s going to be a response. How can you know? It tells you that. Now we read what we are in Revelation 3:14-17 or 18, we don’t need to cover that again.

Now, Brother Branham said,

[132]  …Look what you were, look what you are now.

From look at the mess you are, to the spotless, virgin Bride that didn’t do it at all. Well, then, man, should I start all over then with this gamut of sin that I’ve been in?

What did that? Somebody that loved you! Can’t you have faith in what He’s promised you, then? Real genuine love will create a confidence in his Word.

[Now that sounds very good. I hope today I can get to show you how this works. I don’t know if we’ll get there, because I just don’t feel like moving very fast. Lazy this morning.

Genuine love, real genuine love. [Now watch his language, I like it. You know the ad says, “Genuine, simulated pearl,” “Genuine, simulated diamond.” I like this. This is a rebuff to that kind of hogwash… I got that word out. Where’s Mandy? She likes my ‘hogwash’.] Real genuine love. [Well, there’s a phony love, there’s a pseudo love, a hypocritical love.] 

Will create real genuine love, [not our pseudo diamonds or imitation], will create a confidence in his Word. [Sure will. All right. That gives a rest of faith, he’s talking about. All right.]

[133]  He caught me when I was nothing. I’m still nothing, but I’m in his hands. [Now that’s exactly right.]

Let’s go to Romans 9, just take a look at that.

All right. He said:

[132]  …I was nothing… He caught me and loved me when I was unlovable. He loved you when you were unlovable, but He changed you.

[133]  Just like the colored sister who said, that time in her testimony, “I’m not what I ought to be, I’m not what I want to be, but I’m not what I used to be.”

She knew she came from somewhere, something happened. That’s the way it is.If God, when I was an alien from Him, so loved me that He stooped down to get me and pick me up, and give me confidence that He wants to use me.

He’s got a purpose in doing it. He saw something in me. He saw something in you. He had a reason to save you, look at the people that are unsaved today.

Look at the millions He could have taken besides you, but He took you. Amen! No one can take your place. Amen! You’re in God’s economy. [Say “Amen” to that, too.] No one can do it. That’s his love to you.

All right.

Now, this great faith that we have which is working by love, and he just keeps building and talking about it, and you’ll notice… maybe there’s a little… well, I don’t have to go back to paragraph 130 to read that again.

We’ll just come on down here and go into this thought here: He said, “He stooped down to get me and pick me up and that gives me confidence.”

Now, actually, that’s the keynote of the proof of God’s love in Malachi. They were beefing and grouching… end time… last book of the Bible.

And they were saying, “Where have you loved us?”

And He said, “Let me tell you of my love. My love is in election, “Esau have I hated; Jacob have I love.”

And that’s the very thing that Brother Branham is bringing out here. If you ever doubt God’s love, and I doubt God’s love, we are commanded of God to think on this: who understood the prophet?

Who knows the things of God? They’re not revealed to anybody but the Bride. Now that’s a proof of God right there. If you’ve got no more proof than that, that is sufficient. See?

That’s sufficient, right there, to make you know that God loves you, and loves you sufficiently. See? He wants to use you, wanted to use Brother Branham. All right.

Brother Branham’s ministry proved to him that God loved him. See? Time and time he would have quit. He wanted to go to Alaska. God would never let him do it. And God will never let us go either.

And you might as well recognize it. And you know something? Love is all the more wonderful when you realize that God will not let you go when you yourself are so full of despair that you want to go, that God will not allow you to finish the work that He wants to have done in you.

There’s no way.

[133]  …He’s got a purpose in doing what He’s doing. He saw something in me, saw something in you. He has a reason to save you, look at the people that are unsaved today. Millions… [and many of them are wonderful, wonderful people.]

And you look around and say, “Well, why didn’t God save that person instead of me?” Well, God was not looking at human qualities.

God was looking at seed. He could have taken someone else besides you… Just like Brother Branham said, that “Esau was a better man than Jacob he looked after his mother and dad, he tried to be a good boy to his parents.”

He was a mighty fine boy in those respects. Then think of Irenaeus. Irenaeus said, “God, being a Savior, it was necessary to predestinate a sinner in order to give Himself reason and purpose of being.”

There had to be someone to save. And so that’s where God put us. So we are a part of the economy of Almighty God Himself. Okay.

[134]  Then, won’t your love reach right back to Him? Okay?

2 Corinthians 5:14, I think it is:

In other words, you know the marriage act, the marriage life… it’s a living for each other. She lives for him; he lives for her, the existence. So God lives for us in His love; we live for Him in our love.

Our love reaches back. And then he says:

[134]  …there’s a love affair there. No matter what the situation is, its circumstances are governed by this love that creates faith: [Now watch again:] No matter what the situation is, [or whatever arises in our lives, the circumstances of all things that come to us are] governed by this love that creates faith.

In other words, gives you the faith to go on, and say, “Well, God loves me. Nobody else does, but God does.”

So the circumstances are governed by this love that creates faith: that God loves you and you love God, and you love one another, and that brings the faith.  All right. Then it can’t keep from bringing out exactly what God promised He would do.

Now God’s love must not be spurned. Most love affairs of great quality do not start as love at first sight, although it could happen once in a while.

That’s happened, but it’s not the case. See? Loving is a growth from good to better to best.

As the old person wrote to the older woman, he said concerning marriage, he said, “At their age,” he said, “that the best was yet to come.”

And all through the ages we’ve heard the love of God, we’ve talked about the love of God, and this is the greatest display, whether the people want to believe it or not. And they’ll always turn and say, “Well, that’s not much of a display.”

Well, if that’s what God’s heart calls for, that’s what our heart calls for, and we think it’s the greatest.

[135]  Now, watch! Perfect faith is pure, just as pure as love. See?

Okay. There’s something over here in Deuteronomy 7:6-9. I want to read it to you.

[135]  …Perfect faith is pure, just as pure as love. See? Now, when you love somebody, you love your husband or love your wife. Now, there’s no need of anybody telling you you don’t love, because you do love, and you know that you do love. See?

[136]  Now, if I’d ask you, “How can you prove it?”

[137]  “Oh, I prove it by the way I live to him. I’m a true, honest wife.” “I’m a loyal, honest husband, that proves to me that I love my wife; or I love my husband.”

Now, all right.

What you’re looking at there is the ethical and moral precepts of union are understood and accepted in faith as real and binding from both sides when you marry you accept those as a covenant, and so therefore you’re based upon a word, “Yes, I will do this positively.”

Now, what is the strength behind it? The strength behind it is love. So therefore love takes a word and the people believe the word. You see what we’re looking at?

Now, I went through, I told you different times… you’ve got it on tapes… where I went to see Brother Branham one time because he was preaching at that time ‘the evidence of the baptism was love’, and I couldn’t see it myself, because I believed in something else.

But I finally came to the place where I said to myself, “Look, I can’t prove anything and I don’t know that he can at this point, but I do know one thing: that he’s more right than I am, so I’ll take his evidence.

So, before I got to that point, we had talked and talked and talked. Finally, he drove the car in the garage, pulled the door down, said, “Lee, nobody can see us here. We’ll talk.”

So we talked and talked and talked and talked. Finally, after the longest time… and he talked about love.

I said, “Brother Branham,” I said, “look, you’re not telling me one thing I don’t know I’ve preached this for years.

I still am not satisfied. There’s something in me that doesn’t recognize… there’s something wrong somewhere with my understanding.”

Well, he said, “Lee, do you mind if I ask you one more question?”

I said, “Bill, you ask any question, I care less. I’d like a settlement here.”

He said, “Have you ever done anything that you wouldn’t do, except for the Lord?”

I said, “Yeah.”

He said, “That is love.”

See? So you want to maybe check yourselves and say, “Why?”

Now there’s times that you get miffed, maybe, husband and wife, with kids and all, but then when the chips are down, do you give in, softening up… the others are softening up… but there’s a not necessarily giving in, in the moral issue.

There’s a giving in in the fact that you were hard about it, and you go and see the thing is done right.

Like I told… Bailey in South Africa… he’s a Presbyterian, he’s dead many, many years now, and a very marvelous person, one person who made a tremendous effect on my life by preaching one sermon, all I ever heard from him, but the illustration I’ll never forget.

And he was on the mission field and he was the kind of the honcho, the head honcho there, responsible the superintendent.

And things weren’t going too well… the people were deprived of finances and things, the mission board at home had not done perhaps as they should have done.

So one night he wrote a long letter, very nice letter, delineated everything wrong, and told them where they were wrong.

Oh, about a week or two later, like a Hand shook him in bed, he woke up and a Voice said, “Bailey,” he said, “I’ve somewhat against you.”

Well, he knew it was the Lord speaking, so he said, “Lord, what is it?”

“Well,” He said, “that letter you wrote to the mission board in New York.”

“Well,” he said, “Lord, I had to write that letter. Everything I said was true.”

He said, “I did not say it was not true. It was not what you said, it was how you said it.

Now get up and rewrite the letter and apologize.”

And he did. Well, he went on a mission as a supervisor. He had to go look at all the outposts and do everything he could to help the field.

So each place he went he found things wrong and he told them what was wrong, and he went home. A few nights later, the same Hand shook him awake out of bed. He sat up.

The Voice said, “Bailey, I’ve got somewhat against you?”

“What is it this time, Lord?”

“Well,” He said, “when you went on the mission field and you told all those missionaries, the people, their faults.”

He said, “But I was right in doing it.”

He said, “Yes, what you said was right, but how you said it was wrong. Now go back and apologize.”

And, you know, that was in the days when you, you know, when you didn’t have nice roads and nice motorcars, and you didn’t have the jungle under control… this was a long time ago now. This was, I suppose, sixty some years ago.

Things have just boomed, you know, ever since 1945 things have boomed, but previous to that, you didn’t have too much booming. And so it was pretty rough.

So he went there, he apologized to each one of them, set everything in order, and within a couple weeks revival broke out. God gave them a real overflowing of souls, and what have you. Yes, God uses Presbyterians when they’re born again. And there’s some born again people.

Like Brother Branham said, “Foolish virgin come out of that.”

So, you see, what you’re looking at here is the very truth that Brother Branham is setting here, that there is a love in our hearts, and it doesn’t mean we’re going to be perfect with it at all times, but here’s the thing: when you do use it, you will be perfect.

Faith will operate and you’ll find how much you gained by it. Now today again we notice and mention that God has proven His love to us and that from both sides, and we do know, since we’ve received the Word, that we do love the Lord.

[138]  And when you’ve got pure, unadulterated faith, like your love is to your companion, then you prove it by the way you act. You aren’t complaining anymore, you know it’s done. Just walk along.

No matter what things look like, what anybody else says, you know what’s happened. You know that it’s finished; just as well as you know you love your husband… See, love and faith have to go together. They’re kinfolk, they love. Love produces faith.

Now this testimony here, “You say you aren’t complaining anymore.”

In other words, you take for granted, you’re sure that the thing is going to be done because the Word has been given. That’s a lot like over here in James 1, where he’s speaking concerning the person that knows the stability of a sound mind, a made-up mind.

He says:

Now that’s the point I brought out one time which is very true. We ought to school ourselves not to ask God for anything unless we’re prepared to go through the trials of getting it and standing still.

Like Spurgeon said, “My job is to believe God for the impossible and leave the results up to Him.” And that’s the way everybody should pray for anybody else. You really set your heart.

Now that’s the statement right there that we must look at, and brother/sister, take it, because if we don’t, we will never mature in real dynamic faith. You just can’t do it. Why? Because you get a habit, you get a habit.

We should come to the place, “I will not ask God for anything unless I am prepared right down the line to believe for it.”

That means my life, my conduct toward people, things in my heart… get them out, everything else. See? That’s how it is. Okay.

This is what we saw in Romans 5, we already read it, and as we should abhor and hate unfaithfulness in our spouses, even so, should we be very, very anxious to please God and not ever let Him down, and utter some prayer we’re not willing to see through.

Because, remember, God is willing to see it through… what about us? All right.

Romans 13, beginning at verse 8.

What law? The law of God. Not, “Thou shalt not do,” “Thou shalt not do,” Thou shalt not do,” but the spirit of life is the law of God, and the fulfillment of it is, in this respect: love will do what this can’t do, see, like love wouldn’t want to do this.

Like Brother Branham said, “Old people grit their teeth, say, “Wouldn’t I like to do to that person, but you know, I’m a Christian.”

He said, “That’s no Christian. That’s legalism, or you wouldn’t want to do it in the first place.”

Now, that doesn’t mean you back away from righteous judgments of God.

You can’t hold yourself and say, “Well, I don’t want to see judgment hit this world.”

The Bible says when you see it coming, “Lift up your head and rejoice. Your redemption draweth nigh.”

You know, brother/sister, you see what I’m saying? Everything is Word-oriented or forget it, forget it. Your eating, your drinking, your uprising, your down sitting, your sleeping, awakening everything is Word-oriented or forget it, absolutely.

You understand what I’m saying this morning? Logos and Rhema. You can’t get apart from the Word of God in love.

Now His love is different from ours, because the Laodicea is screaming, “Love! Love! Love! Love!” Love Him and boot Him out? Ha! Fap! What did He ever do?

The Same One, they say, that they do love, the Same One’s supposed to be so gracious, so kind, so healing, so kind, so merciful, “Boot Him out!” Knocking at the door, trying to get in. “Aw, get away from here!”

Ha! Wouldn’t know God if they met Him in their porridge. And they don’t know God, because they need to know the Word or the God of the Word; they don’t know love, and the God of love.

Remember: there is a love of God which is fine, and God can love everybody, but there is God, Who ‘is’ Love that’s different again.

Now, one springs from the other, and you can receive the love of God you bet you can, but do you have the God of love in you? There’s a difference.

Now we bend toward the Lord, but we’re not schooling ourselves. I want to get to that schooling as I go along, never forget.

How far do I want to read? I forget… down to 14. Okay, I’ll read down to 14:

There can be nothing but life in this Christ when we recognize on the precept of love. Where did you do wrong? Where did you sin against God? Against anybody?

Oh, boy, that sweet Spirit come into the church, Oh God, help us to get there. This is the one cry that I see above every other cry in the world. See? Amen. Okay, see?

[138]  …love and faith have to go together. They’re kinfolk, they love. Love produces faith.

[See?] Confidence is there in both people. You know God’s got confidence in us and we’ve got confidence in God. Why? Because He put it in us. All right.

[139]  When Satan tempts us, we are to resist him in a perfect faith in a perfect word, like Jesus did. The Word of God is perfect. We’re to have perfect faith in this perfect word, and resist Satan.

Okay. All right, Perfect Faith has come. Sure. Brother Branham said it has. Perfect… Okay.

Let’s go to Ephesians 4, I wrote that down here for some reason, so I trust it’s a good one. It’s always good, regardless anyway. 4:27. All right, now watch what God is going to do.

Tells you right there, we give no place. In other words, anti-Word is anti-Christ. Pro-Word is pro-Christ. Anti-Christ is Satan in his first and last form of trickery, from the Garden of Eden till now. He had her deny the revelation of the hour.

I shouldn’t say there’s no God; he just had her change the Word, so now we’ve got a Word to go on that gives us great confidence that that love is there, everything is there. Now let me learn how to work it out, and to keep moving. The Perfect is come.

Now watch it: as I see this, we can grow into it. Let’s keep moving.

[140]  Now let’s hurry as quick as we can.

[141]  By his faith in his Word we [He conquers, Now listen, “by his faith we, due to Him in us, “greater is He that’s in us than we ourselves,” so we can’t do it, but He will.]

We can conquer anything; [“Not by might or power, but by my Spirit,” and to get God willing and doing of His Own good pleasure,] death, hell, and the grave.

[Now he throws them in for a purpose because we’re hitting that now.] We can conquer anything: death, hell, and the grave.

We know that God is God, [proven that, yes, sir. We know that. It’s been proven in this day.] that perfect faith in God’s perfect Word, [we got perfect faith in God’s perfect Word.

The perfect revelation is here; we believe it; God has manifested this is God Others said it wasn’t. See? All right.]

He conquered everything that He came in contact with. [Brother Branham, the same way power over life and death proved the whole thing.]

Death could not even stand in His presence. Sickness could not stand in His presence. [That’s Jesus the Christ.] Flowing from Him were rivers of virtue, going out constantly, virtue going from his garment.

These people, lying in the shadows, just put their finger on his garment were healed. See?

When that woman did that, then everybody wanted to touch his garment, because they saw that there was virtue going from Him constantly, flowed like rivers.

Brother Branham, the same thing. See? There He was, walking, walking in a world with perfect faith, because He was the Word.

Other men have done the same thing, but not like Brother Branham. This is Brother Branham’s testimony he’s telling us right here. See?

Okay. Now, 142:

[142]  And now, “If ye abide in Me,” [that’s ‘A’ part; ‘B’ part:] through Him, [now abiding in Him and through Him,] He brought the Word to you; “and my Words abide in you,” then walk in the same way: virtue flowing from you, the rivers of God’s fountains of blessing just flowing out to the people.

Now Brother Branham said, “My thoughts are all God’s thoughts.” Nothing but Word, what God wanted.

You and I can follow in those footsteps, too, because remember: we’re sticking to the Word, we give the Word preeminence, we say, “This is it I’m stuck with It and not moving from It.”

Then He takes that Word and works through it so you become the kind of Christian that you want to be, and the blessing of God flowing through you now, not just praying for the sick and healing, and casting out devils and all those things but a man of influence, a woman of influence, is shown here on a different power level than before, living a triumphant life. See what I mean?

[142]  …And you’re not bluffing it, you’re not imagining it. It’s actually taking place, and you see it. If you’re just imagining it, it won’t do any good; but if it’s really there, it really happens.

Now extend this to us not great prophetic members with gifts, but lives fully conscious of Him and our love and our faith moved daily, as true Christians.

Brother Branham said that his ministry was the same as Christ, one with Christ, we in our own are ambassadors the same way, so we want to start rising to the privilege that God gave us.

[143]  Now notice! See, by it, when he stood and He said, “If you destroy this body, [this temple,] I’ll raise it up again in three days.”

Why? He was completely satisfied that He’d do that, you see, because the Scripture said that He would do it [the Messiah]: “I’ll not leave his soul in hell, neither will I suffer my Holy One to see corruption.”

A prophet, to whom the Word of God comes, had said this would happen, and Jesus knew that He was that person, to whom it would happen. [It was spoken of him. All right.]

Remember Brother Branham said concerning himself, “The first are last; the last are first.” So he told you flat he’s going to be back.

He said, “When I’m dead, I’m going, but I’ll be back.” He’ll be the first one back. He said, “I’m going to ride this trail one more time.”

What does that mean? I don’t know, but whatever it is, he’s either done it or he’s going to do it. Why? Because the words of a prophet can’t fail. Now I don’t know how to explain them except I’ve always understood that the prophet explained them.

And if the prophet didn’t explain them, I’m going to sit back until he does explain them. So I don’t know how the trail is ridden once more.

Was that said in the first person, like David said, “My hands and my feet were wounded”?

Or is it in the third person? Brother Branham said it concerning himself, or first person, whichever way you want to put it.

Was it the Holy Ghost to him, like in David, or was the Holy Ghost in him referring simply to Himself? I don’t know.

What about that vision? Well, it’s a composite. Don’t ask me. Will it come to pass? If it hasn’t, it’s got to come to pass, because you believe ‘all’ the prophets, what all has said. So you just believe it.

Don’t let yourself give way to folly by taking sides on things, but don’t give way to take it to believe it, then don’t make issue.

Just the only issue maybe, say, “Well, he said it. Whatever it is, is going to come to pass.” If it hasn’t come, it will come. I don’t believe it’s really come to pass, as far as I actually know.

I believe part of the composite came to pass, I’m pretty convinced of that, but that last part there, there’s something in there in the resurrection. I like that, that’s good. Why shouldn’t it be?

Do you think God’s going to bring a band of angels back here? Hogwash! They don’t get resurrection. He’s going to bring a bunch of [Inaudible] back here. We get our start right here, with the dead that are risen.

We get very chummy, very happy; we learn who made it and what all these things, and that thing, and then when we’re thoroughly satisfied, He takes us up where then Christ can get all the attention the incarnation reincarnation.

So you know what I mean, it’s all there for us. See?

[144]  And Jesus, Himself, said, “The prayer of faith shall save the sick,” or “They shall lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover.”

Now, in other words, what Brother Branham said is a dedication of faith from Christ to us. What we saw in Christ’s ministry and in Brother Branham’s ministry is dedicated to us in our own sphere. See?

We know this in the Scripture, part here, has been spoken of us, not just to us. See? That’s what Christ understood… William Branham spoken of, but spoken to. I’ll prove it.

It said, “A virgin shall bear a child.” Okay. “This is my beloved Son.” See? “Elijah shall restore.”

You are Elijah. So there you are. And we in turn, know we’re believers. So this is spoken of us and to us. So we should go ahead doing it. Not trying to make some big deal out of it, but doing it. See? A commitment.

[144]  …You must have that perfect confidence that when hands are laid on me, I shall recover, because He said so. [It’s a commitment. Now how do I believe it? Just believe it. When the chips are down, still believe it. You get worse, still believe it.]

[145]  He said, “You destroy this body, and I’ll raise it up,” because He knew He was the Messiah. “I’ll not suffer my Holy One to see corruption”; He knew He was the Holy One. “Neither will I leave his soul in hell”; He didn’t.

He knew He’d do it. He had confidence that He was there to conquer both death and hell, so he said, “Destroy it, if you wish to, and I’ll raise it back again in three days.” Oh, my! “I have power to lay my life down, or I have power to take it again: He knew who He was.

Now, according to the Message we are identified in this Message so thoroughly that we can identify with Christ in this same area.

We know who we are; we know what’s going to happen. If we don’t die, we’ll be changed; if we do die, we’ll get changed anyway. We’re identified.

That’s like Paul said, “I’ve been crucified with Christ, nevertheless I live, yet not I live but Christ lives in me. And the life that I now live in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God who loved and gave himself for me.”

And he’s telling you flat: “Look, I’ve learned to get myself out of the way. It cost me a lot of headache and heartache as a man.

It took me a while to learn that His way was the best way, and what He does for me is far beyond what anybody could do for myself, so I’ve literally crucified myself to the world, what the world does.

Yet I am living, and let me tell you flat: I couldn’t be this way except the injection of His life gives me the strength for my life, and there we are. Christ and I are one.” You’ve got the same thing right today.

All right. 146:

[146]  You’re a Christian. You have a right to any redemptive blessing that Jesus died to give you. It’s yours! It’s already paid for, you just have to believe it. Not imagine it; but believe it, and know that it’s yours, and you can possess it. Oh, that’s the conquering faith: to know! See? [All right.]

There’s more identification there. “Not imagine it.” In other words, no sensations you believe it. Now he’s raising our sights to this project of faith that is laid out before us.

In other words, he’s literally quoting Romans 8:32, which we quoted other times, I could just quote it by memory, I think.

Now, that’s the thing, and you can say, Yes, bless God, that’s true. I might not get every promise in that Book that’s coming to me, but I know out there, there are people getting promises that I don’t get, because they’re not looking to it.

I’m getting something they’re not looking to, so amongst us, we know there isn’t one promise that God hasn’t fulfilled and is not fulfilling, but, hey, let’s cut it a little thicker. Let’s not go for tissue paper slices of God’s Word; let’s go for big chunks, because believe me; he threw the book at us this last time.

The challenge is there, and as long as you have that little bit in your heart that knows that you want to glorify God, you’re not going to get knocked down, taking glory to yourself.

Remember: God hit Brother Branham a little hard and He said, “You made a side show,” but I tell you He had to say, “Moses, you glorified yourself before the people, instead of Me.”

Moses died for it. Now, none of us are going to get that big, but I’ll tell you something: when you’re small, you get stupid pretty fast.

It’s the funniest thing in the world, you give somebody a dollar or two, you know, it’s, well, you know how it is, I don’t even want to talk about it. People just go wing-ding. All right.

Now… how much time we got? I haven’t got enough time to go into these next things. Ten minutes?

I’m not going to finish in ten minutes. I want to read a whole section here, and then I want to take you into a principle of exactly how this love grows, and as far as I know, there is no place in Scripture I can tell you different, nothing from Brother Branham I can tell you different.

I just don’t know how I’m going to do it except take you to the Scripture and show you what the Bible says, and we’re going to have to be happy with it and work on it, and that’s all.

Like, hey, if the doctor told me, “Now, look, there’s only,” like he told Brother Joe, “Hey, man, you better have no more chicken, no more meat, no more fish, no more this or that,” and he said, “You do what I tell you, and even then, you’ll be like the one… suddenly gone.”

We’re believing for something different. Do you know something? God can put in… I know where God put in new kidneys, where God put in new lungs. I know Brother Branham tells of the baby, the bowels on the outside just went right back in.

Look at… You talk to Brian Kocourek, how that baby, his sister’s baby, I guess was… even before pregnancy, she had a very bad case, and afterwards. The baby delivered, they’re both a couple of Catholics, which is fine, you know, for them.

And the girl said, “Well, I think we better go and have the priest dedicate it,” and he said, “No way,” he said, the priest had nothing to do with this.

It was Brian’s prayer. We’re going to have Brian dedicate it.” So, you know, God does things: God heals, God does many things.

I tell you what: you get in the place where you can let God talk to you, even though sometimes it’s very hard to get still where God can be.

I want to tell you: God does speak, I know it, I’m telling you as a friend this morning. Maybe because I have a little unique ministry, a little gift, it isn’t the Voice that speaks.

It might as well be a voice, though, or letters in front of me, but I know when He says something, and it’s never failed, and it’s not going to fail. See?

Now I look for healing, I look for health, I look for every way I look for health, and I can say honestly, if it weren’t for the people of God here praying, and my friends all around the country praying, I wouldn’t be here this morning.

I tell you frankly, I wouldn’t be able to take it. You don’t get sleep… maybe you get a bit of sleep, you’re lying there in pain, knowing that you’re full of pain, and yet I can get up and feel good. By the time I get up, the pain’s all gone.

Now I can take that, but I’d sooner not take it. I’d sooner be healed, but if that’s part of the cross, that’s part of the cross. That’s what I’m trying to preach to you this morning. There’s a little bit of a cross for all of you.

You might have to bear a little more, give a little more, do a little more, fall down a little more, melt a little more, bend a little more, all of these things.

I can tell you… You say, “Well, I don’t think I’ll do it.” I’m going to tell you something: somebody else will do it.

And what about judgment day? Do you believe you’re in the White Throne right now? You don’t really believe it, you’re only kidding me. You say you do, but do you?

I know that I don’t really, but I really do. I know it, but I don’t know it, I’ll be honest. I can tell you one thing: I know it this far, brother/sister, we are there. It was revealed to me.

Revelation is a mighty serious thing. We should all be walking closer to the Lord this morning, much more careful, really should.

See? It’s not just now, hey, we know we’re in this Word right. That’s the big thing we stand for here, I admit it, there’s no use kidding ourselves.

We stand on it, we believe with all our hearts. We’ll be witnesses in that day; we’re witnesses right now. The White Throne is right here, as far as the prophet’s concerned, when he stood here.

That’s one sentence we’ll read in this very message, in his prayer, right in this message, we’ll read it, “Perfect Faith.” White Throne, no escaping it, See?

Is there something else we can bring as a testimony, not just witness to the Word, in a sense. We believe It, and we do, and that’s wonderful… mind you, that’s marvelous.

That’s the starting point, but are there other ways? And if there are, let’s get busy, and you know how you do it. Self-effacing is the way. Brother Branham said, “Learn to get out of the way.”

Humble pie… best pie in the world. Graham wafers? No, it’s a bunch of rusty old nails ground up in the pie crust. Little sweetening? Yeah. Oh, Lord bless you. Love Him this morning? I trust you love the Lord. I hope you got some good out of the service.

If many can get back Wednesday, you come back. If you don’t, get the tape, I’m sure by Wednesday I can cover what I can show you, and show you a growth. Now, it’s not going to be just apple pie easy, it’s right in line with this. It’s going to be a little difficult.

You know I’m lazy, but I need to do it myself… go back thirty some years, when I was thirty eight, no, yeah, more than that, more than thirty years, and I’d not turned thirty-eight… oh, before that, thirty-four about, almost forty solid years, I said, “I’ve got to do it.

I can’t turn back.” I’m glad I didn’t. Wasn’t half bad. When you have the baby, beautiful little baby, “Man!

Nothing to it… love another dozen just like him, but I kind of hate to go through that.”

Let’s rise.

Gracious Heavenly Father, we want to thank and praise You again for Your kindness to us. We know Lord, we’re learning; we only trust Father, that we’ll put our learning into practice, and practice Lord, into high gear, more going forward than ever before, bearing the load, bearing the yoke, whatever is necessary.

Father, some… we have done it over the years. We look back and we know Lord, we didn’t do anything. Even the prophet felt that way, and literally Lord, You used him to shake nations.

Father, help us to learn to get out of the way with the joy of the Lord is our strength. His love is our confidence, moving into the realm of faith. That’s it Lord. That’s a hundred percent how it is. We know, Lord, by Your grace, we said it right.

Now Father, somehow bring our minds and our mouths and our hearts and our bodies right in line with Your Holy Spirit and Word in us to move right down the road the way you want us to go.

And unto Thee shall be the glory, because Lord, it will be, and it’s the only way it can be, the honor and glory that’s Yours.

In the Name of Jesus Christ we pray. Amen.

‘Take the Name of Jesus with you.’