Questions And Answers -Pastors Series #14

Transcript in progress. Audio is available now.

Shall we pray.

Gracious, heavenly Father, we want to thank You again for Your love and mercy and grace extended to us. You’ve given us health, Lord, in a good measure.

You’ve given us strength, and above all You’ve given us spiritual perception, we believe You have, Lord, for this last day, this last hour making us wise unto salvation.

You have said in Your Word, Lord, that the wisdom of the wise would truly increase in the last day; the rest would just run to and fro. They wouldn’t know just what they were doing, but there would be a people who would have direction from You.

And we believe that’s our lot today, Father. We don’t want to put ourselves where You haven’t put us. But we believe by grace, Lord, You put us in that particular position.

So, help us, Lord, to heed all the admonition there be by the Word and to live according to truth. Give us that strength by the Spirit of God within us.

In Jesus’ Name, we pray. Amen.

You may be seated.

Now, we’ve been dealing with questions that have come up especially concerning the ministry, and some having to do with the congregations. And so we’re going to continue that.

[Brother Vayle goes through some local announcements concerning church planning.]

So, getting back to the thought, then, of questions, we’ve been sort of been given some questions. I brought some up myself, raised some.

But we have a couple this morning, one which has to do with the White Throne, and I’ll see if we have time to cover it.

But there’s a question here, and if you have any more questions, please be sure to get them to me, because when I close off on questions it’s a long time before I ever take them again.

So, we want you to have the right to ask anything you feel that you need information on.

Now, the question comes in:

“Brother Vayle, am I correct to say that you have set forth a principle in the church, which I believe you called a ‘Word base principle’, wherein you teach the Word and water It by constant repetition and enlargement, and then, as far as you are concerned, you can but wait to see the life of that Word manifest Its Life in the hearers?”

Well, I’m going to read that again to you. So, because I think that is pretty well what I have tried to do here.

“Am I correct in saying that you have set forth a principle in the church, [in other words, something to go by in our church here,] which you call [maybe it’s loosely called that, but it’s nonetheless,] a ‘Word base principle’, and the teaching is that the Word of the Lord is preached here and watered by constant repetition and enlargement, [That’s what Brother Branham did and the apostle Paul did.] and then, as far as you are concerned, you can but wait to see the life of that Word manifest Its self in the hearers?”

Now, that’s so far so good.

Now, the rest is:

“Here is what I’d like to know: What steps can we take, if any, as we try to lie in the presence of the Son and ripen, as Brother Branham told us to? Are there active steps of faith that we do our best to use based upon passive faith?”

Now, that’s a pretty good question. And maybe it’s got a good answer. I hope so, because it’s directed to what we try to do here, rather than, as I’ve said so many times, tried to ride herd on a congregation, we use the Word of God.

And it’s like a farmer, if he’s got a good piece of ground.

And the Bible speaks of it to Israel and said, “Look, I’ve got a choice piece of property. I took out all the rocks. I took out everything offensive, which would not be good for what I am going to plant in the soil. And I’ve properly fertilized it. I’ve got good plants; I put them in there, and they were grape vines.”

And he said, “When it came time… And I watered it, [he said,] I gave it lots of fertilizer, and I gave it lots of water, and lots of sunshine, but when the time came for the grapes to appear, they were sour grapes. They weren’t nice, ripe, rich grapes.”

Now, Paul talks about the people as being God’s husbandry, and he, as a faithful farmer or a steward entrusted with a husbandry of God, he did those things which were necessary from his viewpoint, and God’s viewpoint, so that God would then bring the rain and the sun, and the people then should be able to produce a fruit.

Now, that is the logical sequence of how a church is built up in the grace of God and manifesting good Christian fruit as we should manifest.

Now, of course, with that we understand problems can arise, because as long as we are here in the flesh, we have a tremendous battle going on in our minds from various pressures that are in nature, that are in nature covers the whole gamut of human, you know, pressures, peer pressure, and all those other things so that many times, there might be required a certain amount of discipline.

So that’s where the question then will be coming from.

What can we do, or what are we supposed to do, as well as receive the Word of God? Believe It intensely. Expect that Word of the Life in the Word to come forth in us. And what are we going to do about it?

All right. Now, first of all, I want to read a little Scripture here to sort of settle us down.

It’s found in,

Now, Brother Branham… You’ll read in the Scripture where Paul said, “Though I present my body to be burned, and I don’t have love, [he said,] it profits me nothing.”

So, there’s lots of things you and I can do.

And since this Church is not a holiness church per se… It is not Pentecostal; it is not Methodist; it is not Nazarene; it is not some Church of God; and neither are we extreme like the Baptist and some of the Presbyterians and all, who would not believe in any type of discipline, but just kind of more like a club—which not trying to hurt anybody’s feelings, but I came out of some of those churches… So I know what I’m talking about,… but just trying to be good Christians.

As we say, we don’t ride herd on people.

So, what does God want of us if we’re not too, you know, to be pressured into things, but something’s to be working in our lives, and thereby coming forth?

In other words, can you just go hog-wild as it were? This is extreme. And people are extreme. I’m sorry to say that, but if you don’t know that by now, we’ve had a lot of miscarriages.

We’ve got a lot sitting right here in this church. That’s not insulting; that’s just the truth. You know that people are extreme.

Now, we’re going to get down to what is not extreme. What is the norm? What is the thing in here?

Now, listen.

Now, that’s all the way from flying high to coming right down on a level where you exist normal Christian lives.

Now, let’s look at It again. What is it? Not all these things up here. This is not what counts. It is nothing extreme, and yet it is very extreme to do this, because where do you find it?

“He has showed thee, O man, what is good; and what the Lord wants from you.”

Now, we want to know what God wants from us, because we’ve had all this revelation. We had a prophet at the end time. We’ve had much given to us.

“Do justly,” be a just person. Weigh things carefully in the light of the Word, and then stand with It to the best of your ability.

“Love mercy.” That’s the good one right here. “Blessed are the merciful for they shall be shown mercy.”

So, learn to love mercy… to learn to be bearing and be forbearing: to bear when it comes, and forbear to retaliate. See? You’ve got to be careful there.

“…and to walk humbly with thy God.” And that’s a very good instruction for this hour when you realize that God is present in a way that He has not been present for a long, long time.

He’s here to bring a Church to perfection, to raise the dead, to get us out of here to the Wedding Supper, then come back to the Millennium.

All right. These verses to me spell out exactly what Brother Branham was telling us as to how to conduct ourselves now that we are living in the period of Revelation 22:10-21, which Scripture, or which wording of Scripture, God Himself has already brought to pass according to our understanding of the prophet Elijah.

Now, look; in Revelation 22:10, It says:

In other words, Revelations 10:4, “the seal up the Book” is now opened. Whoever opened It, people are going to argue.

People today still don’t believe It’s opened. They don’t believe a prophet came. Those that don’t believe aren’t looking for a prophet.

They’re looking for some ‘hocus-pocus’, ‘mumbo-jumbo’, hit or miss, that they will call ‘this is God’ by the pure imagination of a persuasion of verbosity, an intellectual theology from the Book, instead of any proof that God ever did it.

Now, you do with what you want with it. But I’m not interested in hocus-pocus and hit and miss, or some pedantic person who say, “Well, I’m really satisfied now, because a certain brother explained all about prophet.”

He explained it the way that man wanted it. I just want one sign the man was right.

Do you want a sign that I’ve got over two dollars in quarters? Come on up here and look at them, kid. These are little kids. I’ve got ten bucks in my pocket. I don’t bluff. Neither does God.

God had better open this Book in a way that we had better know, or God isn’t God.

For It says, “The secret things belong unto the Lord our God, but those things which are revealed unto us, belong unto us and for a thousand generations, that we may do all the will of the Lord.” God doesn’t bluff.

The Book must open one day. We believe It’s open now.

Now, look. That time which signifies the literal return of the Lord Jesus Christ to set up His Kingdom, It says:

And then He said:

And that’s exactly true, because the Bride alone gets out of here living. Everybody else gets burned by the fire of God in the Great Tribulation. This is not my interpretation.

This is what the Word says, and this will be… what a prophet who was vindicated by God said. We know that, because he quoted Malachi 4:1 on it.

Revelation 22:

I am the One that was in the Garden of Eden that stopped the meeting of the Tree of Life to become immortal in that condition, I am now ending it, because their period of probation is over.

There will be those now who can now come to the Tree of Life and become immortal. I’ll read… I’ll prove what I’m talking about, because the next verse says:

So therefore, when you talk about the Garden of Eden restored, you immediately talk of the Holy City which we’re going to. It’s the same thing.

God has as an end for us, not to take us back to the place where Adam and Eve were and live one thousand years, which we will, on this earth here, but He’s going to take us to the Holy City, “which has foundation and the builder and maker is God.”

Now:

Now, if you think that isn’t fit for burning, you tell me why you want to save all the old corn cobs, and you want to sow wild oats in your field, and chickweed and everything else. You don’t.

You say, “Let’s get rid of the stuff and burn it.”

Now, concerning this revelation which we have here that I speak of, that we believe that Brother Branham brought us, the excitement of the Seven Seals and the Seven Thunders, the excitement of their revelation will never leave us, for they constantly stimulate us.

But after those highs of excitement in the heavenly places of inspiration, which we received under the prophet, we have to stop flying so high.

In other words, passive faith now takes on an active faith.

This which I read is absolutely passive.

You and I could beg and scream, try everything we could, as a matter of legislation in this church, and say, “Well now, Brother Vayle will lay hands on you, and we will pray steady for forty eight hours as least, and then we’ll go into chain prayer. There will be somebody praying all the time until You open this Book.”

No way could you twist God’s arm. No way can you get this. This is by the divine grace of Almighty God, Who shut the Book.

And there is only One Who could open and shut, and that’s God. There’s only One Who can shut and open, and that’s God. There’s only One who can bind and loose, and that is God. So, this is passive faith.

This is the one place in history, especially American under the economist Friedman, who said, “There’s no such thing as a free meal.” I contradict that.

This is the one free meal: passive faith. You can have it, turn it away. It’s your business; it’s my business, what we do with it. But there is a place to walk.

Now, thinking on what Brother Branham said, which he told us, “Just be real sweet, kind, Christians.”

He said, “Look, if you’re waiting for the Lord to come (and you are), and you’re pounding nails and you knew He was coming tomorrow morning, you pound nails all that day long.”

Now, if you knew He was coming at eleven o’clock or two in the afternoon, you get up in the morning and start pounding nails till two o’clock.

What’s he trying to tell you? Just live simple lives like Micah said. Just be down to earth Christians.

Now, what Brother Branham said concerning his ministry, I think with Micah we can see a very perfect picture strangely in James 5:7-20.

Now, this is right after he speaks of the end time where the financial system, and the manipulators thereof, are going to run into trouble with God.

Let me read It.

Let’s just stop a second here. We’ll get this picture covered. Don’t worry; I’ve got time. Have you noticed that in spite of more of less unemployment, the GNP is up, the dollar is coming up, everything is moving up.

There is a pessimistic attitude of everybody engaged in financial circles, and they’re saying, “Recession has started. Depression is on. The Reagan Administration is horrible. Everything is rotten.” They’re weeping and howling already for the miseries that shall come. They’re already doing it.

Back in ‘29 it wasn’t that way. It was over. Everybody was happy. They were flying high, until they jumped out of windows to fly low. Today they’re deliberately bringing upon themselves, because they know it’s there. It is there.

Let’s not kid ourselves. This is going to crash. It’s got to go down, because the money isn’t there. You’ve got two small a group of people controlling the money.

And Mr. Reagan, as I’ve mentioned at times, is very foolishly allowing companies to buy up companies, and they’re not creating one job; they’re destroying jobs.

Now, let’s keep reading.

They’ve joined “house to house,” and land to land, which is one hundred percent unscriptural. I’m sorry, but it’s unscriptural.

And the White House and this government can proclaim they are Christians. They are not Christians, at least ‘aware’ Christians.

If they are, they ought to read their Bibles. And this is not for the Republicans. This is for the Democrats and Republicans together.

You know, the Democrats remind me of a marriage, just like two people I knew down in Florida. Every time she got on the ball, he’d drag her down. Every time he got on the ball, she’d drag him down.

And I’m just like Jack Bell said concerning a couple in Texas. He said, “What you need is a couple of Colt 45s, take ten paces and blast each other.”

He said, “Lee, they thought I was joking. They laughed out loud.” He said, “I don’t know if I was more serious in my life or not…” See, they’ll never get together on this.

Now, watch.

Then who’s going to raise your food for you? Importing apples out of Brazil cheaper than growing them in Buffalo, New York. America importing forty percent of her food, which was a grain basket.

Well, it’s coming, and here it is. Let it come, praise God.

Show me where the people that have been attacked and destroyed by criminals have a fair shake in the judicial system? But the criminals get more than the fair shake.

You put them in lovely prisons with beautiful TVs and good food. And people on the street that are decent can’t even get a home.

Now, watch. Here’s what I’m aiming at. This is our hour, when the Seals were opened; we’re ready for the little return of the Lord Jesus Christ.

In other words, just… see what he’s saying here? What’s left to do in this day? You’ve just got to learn to gear down: “to walk humbly before God, to show mercy, do good.” That’s all.

Don’t twist, just twist you minds this direction, that direction. You know the truth now; gear yourself down.

Now, watch. Here’s what I’m driving at. This is answering your question.

Now, I want you to notice in verse 7, which is the main verse we really started with. The others are commentary in this hour in which we live.

It says here: “Be patient for the coming of the Lord,” which signifies the Resurrection and the Rapture of the Church at this hour.

And then, the word in there is the ‘Presence’, which brought us a Church order according to 1 Thessalonians 4:16, and 1 Corinthians 15.

And in verse 9, It talks about, “the judge.”

So therefore, when you talk about a judge, you understand that not only a judgment set, but you’re getting decisions and an understanding of the Word.

Then, in verse 10, It speaks of the prophets.

And in verse 17, It specifies who the prophet is. He calls him Elijah, is what you’re looking at.

And in verse 11, It said, “You count them happy which endure, and we’ll remember the patience of Job, and the goodness and tenderness of Almighty God.”

Now, bringing this together with what we read in Revelations 22:10-21, which we did read awhile ago, this draws us to 2 Peter 3:3, and I’ll bring it all together for you.

And he said:

Now, what I’ve done is to connect that verse with that in James 5:11, say,

And I brought this over here to where Peter is saying in verse 4, and this is for the sake of your patience now: “Where is the promise of his coming?” Now, to me that doesn’t mean, “Where is the promise of His Presence?”

He has already come according to an understanding which we in this Church have in the form of the Holy Ghost in a Pillar of Fire with a prophet, who brought us a Message which was vindicated.

Now, what is the promise, not of the Coming or the Presence, but what is the promise that comes out of It? See? What is that promise? The Message, raising the dead, and getting us out of here.

Now, in between the time of the Message and the raising of the dead and the getting us out of here, which we are now focusing upon the understanding that we are to get out of here before all the trials, and all these great things that happened in the three and a half years of tribulation come, your patience can wear thin.

Like people—some preachers especially—don’t like the fact that I always talk about the presence of the Lord as we understand It here.

And they say, “Well, He’s Present. So what?” See, it’s wearing thin. Now, don’t let it ever wear thin. See? That’s what you’ve got to watch for.

Now, listen to what he says here in,

Look; how long did it take for the virgin to bring forth the body of God, that He might incarnate Himself in It, after Isaiah said it? Hundreds of years.

How long did it take before the flood came, as said by Noah? Hundred and twenty years.

Patience can wear thin because people don’t realize the prophets themselves were examples of suffering. How do you think that Isaiah felt? He died, the promised unfulfilled.

How do you think Noah felt hundred years as a target of men? How do you think, then, we will feel?

“Well, we’re going to feel it not too good .”

So, you look at the prophets, their pressure, because they brought the Word of God, which seems so unsatisfactory to man and so dubious as to its fulfillment.

So, there’s a big lesson being learned here. Gear ourselves down. How do I do now that I have a Message from God? The first thing that you learn to become very, very patient. That what It says right here.

You’ve got to do that; you haven’t a choice in it. See? Because everybody is literally steaming and screaming for the result.

It’s like we dedicate the babies here. Woman has nine month period of gestation in that time. Frankly, I wouldn’t want to be a woman. Men have it very easy in this respect.

Women are prone to all the internal troubles that a baby can bring about. Varicose veins is one. Some never get over it. Hemorrhoids which can be terribly, terribly painful. Never, never get over this again.

Prolapsed organs, ripping and tearing, because doctors aren’t proficient, or their bodies are not the way they should be.

“Aw, that’s not nice.”

But you see, as we said this morning looking in expectation for a realization, brings about a nature in the woman to bring forth the baby, even when it comes with hard times.

And sometimes a second one is worse than the first, and the third is worse than the second. It isn’t first one come hard, from then on easy. You just don’t know.

So, we see here in our waiting time for our realization. Since we know this is, as we see, a prophet with a Pillar of Fire, as it were, the conception going through the gestation for Christ to be thoroughly formed and to come forth is certainly not an easy breeze or a very easy matter. See?

Now, notice what he says here in James 5 at this particular time, at verse 13.

Are you afflicted? Pray.

Are you merry? Sing.

Are you sick? Get some prayer. Have somebody pray for you.

Are you having troubles in your life? Tell the person…

In other words, I’m going to caution you. Many people take this word ‘fault’ and say, “that means ‘sin’.” Naw, not every time. It simply means ‘a place in your life that you know you’ve got troubles.

I don’t know why the great Jimmy Swaggart didn’t know this. He could condemn everybody, but he didn’t take his wife in confidence, or one person, and say, “I’m plagued with this monstrous devil that’s driving me crazy.”

This is a word of caution what we see in these televangelists and in preachers and everybody else.

When we have problems, don’t run around the world and broadcast them. Don’t tell any one person outside of perhaps a very one, special person that can keep the mouth shut and has enough love of God to pray with you, till you pray through because you can’t.

Now, what am I saying here in answer to the question? What is the great thing this church must learn to do? Pray.

But as Brother Branham said, “Not to twist God’s arm and get answers, but to let God twist your arm like Jacob did.”

Jacob wrestled with God, till God overcame him. We must learn to wrestle with ourselves, until we learn that “Greater is He that is in us, than we ourselves.”

We got to be like the poor old girl that was… she was a lush, and she was a good one. I guess she didn’t have her corn-cob pipe, but she had her quart of rye.

And one day she met the Lord face-to-face and she got wonderfully saved. But she knew she was on very risky grounds. And one day she came face-to-face with the old problem drink when somebody offered her a snort.

And she looked, and she said, “This is too tough for me, Mr. Devil. I’m just going to ask Jesus to do it for me.” And you know, that’s what happened. She didn’t take a snort of liquor.

See, we have a theoretical understanding, and it’s not just theory. No, no. It’s more than that. It’s a passive faith understanding of truth that “Greater is He that’s in us, than we ourselves.”

“I can do all things through Christ Who gives me inward strength.”

“I have been crucified with Christ, nevertheless I live, and yet not I, but Christ liveth in me and the life that I now live in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God who loved me and gave Himself for me.”

And you can see right here what I am saying in my own little vernacular, “Greater is He that is in me, than I am myself.”

So therefore, we must learn by prayer, and literally the prayer is the struggling of where we are on our knees and our faces before God, to get off of our faces and knees, and meet the issue in the power of God, knowing it’s going to be tough. That’s the greatest battle there is.

You know, many a man has finally gone to a court and said, “If they throw me in jail or hang me, I’ve got to tell them.”

Some they did throw in jail, and some they did hang.

But, “Greater is He that’s in you, than you yourself,” and that One will see you through.

As Paul said, “I have been crucified, but I’m still living, and yet not I; there’s Christ living in me. I’m living and Christ is living. And Christ’s life is bigger than mine. And I’m now ‘I’ve learned to live it’ through faith in that Life that’s in me.”

You know, many times we just pray… Hey, you know what?

I don’t think there’s much sense in me saying, “Now Lord God, the great One that we know is descended on earth in the form of the Holy Ghost in a Pillar of Fire, we know that You are here; we know that You’re a great God. And I’m asking You, Lord, now, to strengthen me in my temptation, because you know, as sure as I’m alive, that I’m going to smoke a cigarette if You don’t help me.”

Ain’t going to do you a bit of good. I think you should talk to the Christ within you, as Brother Branham said. Talk to the Christ in you.

“Now Lord, you know me better than I know myself. And I sure do know myself. I’m just going to snitch a smoke if You don’t help me.”

Now, you’re going to have to wrestle with yourself. But you keep calling upon Him to do it.

We do not have an inner strength, my brother/sister. We have an inner strong One. An inner strength sounds like something that you’ve been handed.

Well, that’s true in a way, but I’m talking about a life.

So, we’re looking at,

Do you know It says right here, that if you… And before I say this… Look; where could you find in Scripture where God ever asked one man to stand alone? He either stood with him or had somebody with him.

The Bible said, “When two sleep together, they get warm. One sleeps alone, by himself, he just gets cold.” The Bible said, “It’s good for two people to walk together, and one fall down, they’ll pick him up.”

All right. Look; we weren’t asked to win the battles by ourselves. But wouldn’t it be nice to know… And I’m not trying to get like Wesley, and I’m not trying to get anybody else.

I’m just saying this is in your lap. You do what you want with it. You can have wives, can have husbands, husbands have wives, you can have friends or anybody else.

If the burden is too great for the home, you say, “Look, I’m having problems here, and I’m afraid one day they will surface. And I can see times when they have surfaced, and we sort of kept the lid on. But one day the pressure will build when the lid could blow off. I want you to pray with me, and I want you to pray for me.”

And then you know what you’ve got to do? You just maybe got to keep coming and say, “Are you still praying for me? because I’m having an awful time.”

Been prayed from three years over this Candida that I had. I’ve been to doctors, everything else. Not a trace in my blood anymore. The terrible effects I had have gone.

I’m going to tell you something: people all over the world prayed for me. And I thank God they did. And I covet people’s prayers more than I covet anything else.

I don’t need their money. I don’t need their happy smiles, though it’s certainly nicer than their awful frown, if I had to settle.

I can tell you this: prayer is the greatest thing in this world. And praying for each other and becoming a praying church, not Wednesday night and Sundays up here pounding and all.

Look; I’ve been all through that. That’s Pentecostal. You can have it. I’m talking of sincere prayer for each other where we love each other, and, people need help, they’re going to pray and be prayed for.

Now, It says there that this is the key to healing. Now, Brother Branham categorically said, “Oh,” he said, “for the day when the gifts of the Spirit are put on the shelf, [so to speak,] and the sweet Spirit of Christ comes into the Church and everybody is healed.”

Then let me tell you: put the sayings of William Branham with James, and you come up with a Church that majors in the sweet Spirit of Christ through prayer.

And you know something? There’s nothing greater in this world to be on your knees and know that know that you’ve heard from God, and know the answer’s there.

And you don’t have to beg or try to twist His arm. It’s just getting lower and lower in our own spirits and more and more in His so that He can tell us, “Look; everything is alright. It’s going to be fine.”

We just don’t wait on God enough. And now we can have healing.

And It says:

Elijah was a man like anybody else. But when God’s Spirit came upon him, heaven and earth moved. Fire came down.

I want to tell you something: William Branham was like Elijah. And we saw by perfect faith, we knew in that meeting there’re people were healed, by the fact because that man prayed to God.

In other words, we’ve seen the ministry of Elijah come back to earth here. We’ve seen the power of God demonstrated. We know that this is ours, based on the fact of proof. That’s one of the great principles we’ve taught here.

We’re letting it go by the board; we’ve got to come back to it. Once you have proven something, there is no need for further proof—just, “that’s it.” That’s it.

We haven’t come there, but we can come there, and prayer is an initial factor and a great factor.

All right. Here we are told by James not to cover up or gloss over our failures.

Now, let’s understand this, because you want to know the answers to the question: “Is there something we can do?”

We pray. But here’s something else. James says, “Do not cover up your faults and do not gloss over your failures.”

Our lapse from a Christian attitude… We must be careful how we lapse, because we can lapse from it. Our lapses from a Christian attitude are there many times, but if we recognize them and admit it, and pray, that is the big thing.

Now, what are you looking at here? Specifically, we are looking at each other. Why? Because we are still in the place of brotherly kindness and not in love, though love is here to consummate. But this age is brotherly kindness.

Brother. Branham said, Brotherly kindness is characterized in the age by prickliness amongst the people, but if someone really needs help they knelt down and then come to help the person.

So, brotherly kindness, this church is full of it. We’re prickly. I’m prickly. I’m not going to stand up here and tell you I’m not prickly about things.

I have to watch myself, because I’m aloof. It’s not that I don’t love people. I do love people. I’m very gregarious you know that. I go down town, and I tackle anybody in a conversation.

And I know that I shouldn’t even do it because they might not feel like talking. I try to say something cheerful, something upbeat. But you know, I’m still inside very aloof. It’s a lack of a giving over to a thing.

The apostles said, “We will give ourselves to prayer and to the Word.”

Now, to do that it means all the tension up here in the mind and the forehead and the scalp, and all the tension down here in the heart and the solar plexus goes because you are going to give yourself over to it.

Now, you maybe a little edgy about whether you can really flow with it, because you know you’re fallible like I am.

But you got to believe it’s going to work. The apostles knew it would work. We’re going to give ourselves to prayer, and to the Word.

Now, what I’m trying to bring you to is this: we’re prickly people. And I find it very hard to give myself in a complete submission to people.

Not that I expect people in a position I have to submit to. It’s submit yourselves one to another, in honor preferring each other, being more gentle, more giving, bearing, forbearing. See?

And we’re praying all the time, because we’re sure going to have to, believe me.

Now, so, here we’re told by James not to cover up or gloss over our failures, our lapses from a Christian attitude, but to recognize them and admit it and pray. And that’s prayer as in contradistinction to everything else. It means real prayer.

Now, here is the point I want to get across: the church is like, our church, this here, is like all of the churches, all of us have a weakness… We’re talking about it, and our failures. We’re all human; we’re all prickly to a degree.

And we all kind of hold ourselves in a certain position, which is not bad, but we’ve got to get more and more into the divine flow of God and oneness with each other. And we ought to recognize them.

Now, let me read this again: Now, here is the point I want to get across: This church is like all of churches, all of us have weaknesses and failures, and we ought to recognize them, but not excuse them, or judge them so much as to constantly pray for each other with an eye to believing we are all going to make it together.

Now, look; there isn’t one family here that doesn’t have problems. Everybody’s got problems. And those problems, I’ll be honest with you… they spill over into the congregation.

Now, why am I saying this? Because I don’t want anybody in this church, that especially comes here, think for one minute that the church doesn’t know pretty well as a whole everything that’s going on in your homes. And if some of those things are not right, the church knows it.

Now, we’re not here like, as I say, a bunch of holiness folk, and I’m not against them. God bless them; they’re fine people. We do not ride herd on you.

And nobody in particular is going to come, unless gross immorality is there and the thing is going plumb to pot. …Will somebody come and say, “Hey, the chips are down, kid. You’re going to face it.”

But understand this, and start to be at home with it, that everybody here we’re small enough to pretty well know problems that exist. Parents, children, relatives, in-laws, the whole bit.

Anybody can stand up here or sit there and easily surmise by observation what everybody would not like to have brought out, simply glossed over. And nobody is going to stand up here and call anybody by names.

Now, why am I saying this? To make you feel at home in this respect: It’s something like the old saying, “There’s so much good in the worst of us, and so much bad in the best of us, it doesn’t behoove any of us to point the finger or the kettle to call the pot black.”

In other words, we have the saying here that God is not put us here to judge each other, but to help each other. See?

And when we see these things, remember; people see them, the same as you and I know them. And nobody wants to hurt you.

But nobody wants to see your families going down the drain, or seeing somebody in that family hurt because you spout off too much, or you cut too much, or you won’t stand up and be counted, or you let sin drift in and out of your doors.

Now, you sitting here know that I know what I’m talking about, and you know who I’m talking about. Don’t look at me funny like that. We’re not stupid. None of us are stupid.

I’m just trying to help you with answers here, because we’re all going to get there. This church is going to get there. And it’s not going to get there by beating you over the head. No way.

It’s only going to get there by the Word of the living God, that you understand that Word, the implications, the problems that arise in us as human beings, and we look at them and we say, “Yes, Lord,” and we pray about them, and we become helpful within ourselves and without ourselves, and together we become one people.

That’s what God said in His Word that He wanted. “They may be one, as You and I are one Father.” Oh my, what a tremendous…

We don’t look at that and say, “Hey, I don’t think we’ll get there.”

We say, “By the grace of God somebody’s going to get there, and we’re the somebody.”

I tell you frankly, I don’t know about you… I do know about you, pardon the expression. I do know about you. I’ve seen monumental strides in this church. And I’ve had great strides in my own heart and life.

Brother/sister, listen; what we believe in absolutely is going to take us to Ephesians 4:13-16, which the full Headship is in Christ, Christ governing a Church body and that Church responding every member under the love of God.

Prickly, brotherly love is giving way to the love of God through the Life that is in the Word. Now, let’s understand that, because there’s no understanding apart from that in my books.

All right. Let us face it; unpleasantness arises in every home sometime or another… Not all the time, and in some homes, even the church, more times than it should. It is husband many times against wife, or wife against husband, problems relative to children.

As I’ve said, this opens the door, often, to second marriages. People can’t get along. They should. They should learn under every aspect to get along, bend over backward, see what God will do, but they’ll blow it.

They won’t be patient; they won’t endure. Brother Branham himself even said, “Look; you couldn’t get along, don’t get back.”

Then what happens? Second marriages comes along, then children are involved.

Like old John Harris one day told a little joke. This woman and a man got married, and he had kids and she had kids.

He said, “Come quick, Molly, he said, your kids and my kids are killing our kids.” There were problems come along.

Now, look; there again, because these things do happen, what is the norm of the church? The norm of the church, first of all, knows that, if these parents have anything… And they say they do have something if they come around here, they will be trying to solve the problems.

So, you pray for them.

Now, what if things get a little out of hand? All right. Well, you’ve got to do something about it because, if we know the problems, we can pray from our hearts.

Now, in some cases, if not most cases, who is to blame is not the real issue. See? The real issue is not blaming somebody. The real issue is not the problem. The real issue is getting the victory. Yeah.

Everybody blows his life. Come on! And yet, if we lived it over again, we’d do the same thing. So, you’ve got to remember we are a bunch of flat tires a lot of the time. But God can pump us up again.

He said, “The righteous man can fall seven times, the Lord will raise him up.”

So, the real issue is not who is to blame, but getting the victory over the issue that is caused, which means there’s a disturbance in here, and that can only be ruled out through the “greater that’s in you, than you yourself.”

And that’s where the people must pray more and more, and their faith will begin to come through for those people, because, if their faith on their own could stand, they wouldn’t need you prayers and mind.

Look, I’ve explained it many times. Call the elders of the church. Why do I need the elders to pray for me, if I could pray for myself and I’ve got faith? The thing is, I’m sick. The elders are not sick.

They can say, “Hey, Lee old boy, no problem, kid.” Sure, they don’t have any problems. I’ve got the problems. My problems are between me and God. God is obscured,… human nature, I’m sorry… too much of the time.

Now, It says, “Their prayer of faith is going to raise me up.”

I say, “Boys, hop to it. You pray.”

I haven’t seen too many elders. Years ago I told you, I used to pray for the sick. I don’t anymore like on the road and all. …Made a regular ministry out of it.

I would say to some folk, I’d say, “Will you please pretend you’re in Africa or someplace else. Pretend you’re not even here. Let me pray for you with my faith.”

You should have seen the results. Woman, shaking with palsy, instantly stopped. Eyes blind or halfway couldn’t see with… Come right off.

People suffering over years, instantly healed. Why? That’s where you and I come in, recognizing “Lord, I don’t have this problem, but I know that this problem shouldn’t exist, and I have that faith for this person.”

So, the issue is to get the victory. We pray for each other. In most cases, something friendly and considerate can be done to ease the tension and try to bring about a happy situation by doing something nice.

Ever stop to think how much you can help people by being nice? I’ve told you different times how… Starr Daily, he was kind of, you know, half of a favorite of mine. He was a fellow converted in prison.

The old lifer in there, when Starr Daily got wonderfully saved… And he was treacherous. I mean, he was completely demon possessed somehow.

They could whip him, hanging him up by his thumbs, anything else. He just came back ready to kill. Till one day, the cell broke open with a vision of Christ. A holy light filled the whole room. Starr Daily’s life was changed.

So, he said to the old lifer, he said, “What should I be when I got out of here?”

The old lifer said, “Well, how many things would you like to be.”

“Well,” he said, “There’s three things.” I forget what they were. One of which was an author.

He said, “Tell me Starr, which would be the hardest to do?”

He said, “Be an author.”

He said, “Be an author.” The man became an author.

He tells of this woman Mrs. Bean. She had the biggest tongue in the city, not just the entire block. It was the kind that could lick the jam off the door knob thirty feet away.

And she was malicious and vicious. And one day they saw her coming up to his gate and coming in.

And they said, “Oh, God.” So, they said, “Well, we’ll fix her.”

They brought out the best china, gave her the nicest tea, the nicest tarts, you know, tea scones and crumpets, patted her on the back, made her feel like a million. She grinned; she loved it.

She said, “I’m coming back.”

“Oh, Lord.”

Thought he got rid of her by being nice. She came the second time. Oh, they were just smooth, like the crystal sea, polished glass and all that.

And one day Mr. and Mrs. Starr Daily said, “Look, that’s not the way Christ would do it. We’re all show off, we’re all pretentious. Let us love her.”

They began loving the woman. Within a few months the woman was saved. And from being the most malicious, gossipy woman you ever saw in your life, never doing anybody a favor, always running to harm, no one could visit more hospitals, sit by more beds, nurse more people, open more hearts and arms than that woman did.

What did it? They no longer looked at the problem, they looked at the victory. And they helped by their prayers and their attitudes.

I’ve seen it in this church already, by your writing letters, remembering birthdays, anniversaries, sending cards, buying gifts, because you wanted to make somebody feel a little happier in an unhappy situation.

This is what I call ‘visiting the sick in prison’. And this is what I call ‘doing those things in Matthew 25 advocates that we do’.

The secret is to be understanding and helpful, and not ignoring the situation, or, you know, somehow putting it out of our minds as though we could just gloss it over and all, but to meet it head on with prayer, fervent prayer in combination with the Spirit of God working in us to see what we might do for the people that they might have help.

Now, let me say to those who get help.

“If you’ve had a kindness shown, pass it on.”

“It was not meant for you alone, pass it on.”

“Let it wander through the years; let it wipe another’s tears, till at last in heaven the deed appears; pass it on.”

You’ve got to keep doing these things. I must do them myself all the time. If something nice is not being done, we have no guarantee that something harmful isn’t being done. You see?

It’s like they said years ago, the devil always finds chores for idle hands to do. You know. …used to sing a little song:

“Be careful little eyes, what you see.

Be careful little ears, what you hear.

Little tongue what you say,

Little feet where you go,

Little hands what you do.”

Now, remember; all those things are controlled by an ego. And remember; God has an ego also. His ego is what we want to look up to and listen to.

Now, as I said the church is already doing this. It has that harmony that I think is wonderful and is coming along just great.

As Brother Branham warned us, let us keep that way no matter what comes. Let us let nothing disturb us, but keep pressing on together.

Now, even the mildest correction is often taken as an insult or an intrusion of privacy. Ever see churches like that? Aw, they’re all over the country.

No doubt we have a little problem here with.. you know, sore thumbs and things. Even the mildest correction is often taken as an insult or an intrusion of privacy. The courts would say that.

Yet we are responsible for each other and to each other. And there are times we can be helpful in encouraging people to deal with personal problems so as to gain a greater victory. And that’s what we’re after.

So, we should share our needs, which the great ones are spiritual. But we must have the knowledge of the Spirit of God to do this. It is not always easy to be a real caring person, and the Bible admonishes this to be so.

Let’s go to Romans 15, and I’ll conclude with a couple of verses here, two or three Scripture, where It says here,

Oh my, I’ve seen that happen in this church. It happened when I was sick. I appreciate that.

In other words, we don’t please ourselves, and at the same time we’re not trying to be men pleasers.

We are acting on the Word of God to do the right thing, the good thing, the kind thing, the humble sweet thing.

And remember; we’re trying to do everybody good.

It says in verse 3:

Now, let’s go to 1 John 4:20, because we’re being told something’s here that are good for us.

All right. We talk about the love of God, and the love of God, then, being the true love of God would motivate us, “because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost,” would motivate us to the Christian experiences of not simply tolerance and of observation, but of doing something sacrificial about the condition.

What is it costing me to help my brother and sister in this church. If it’s not costing anything, they’re not getting any help. That’s all there is to it. Let’s be honest about it.

So, the love of God is certainly exemplified as we love our fellow beings. And we can begin to check ourselves: how much love have I really got for God?

In,

Do you ever get these telephone calls like I do, where somebody really is there to set the world in order? And boy, if anybody needs setting in order, he does. It’s usually a man, not a woman. It’s almost always the same man.

Well, what do you do? You just take that part of your daily cross and walk on. You know there’s nothing you are going to tell him, nothing you can do for him, because… what can you? Pray, that’s all.

There’s nothing left but pray, and pray you do.

Here again, now:

In other words, if we ever come to the place where we think that we have arrived, and we have become true examples in a sort of permanent way, our thinking blurred by believing we are, not perhaps invincible, but we’re pretty close to, because you know, we’re really something.

That’s entirely wrong, because you can fall.

Now, It tells you right here, there’s two things: It tells you each one is obligated to grow up and come to a strength in his own Christian reality that he positively knows right from wrong, attitude and action, has demonstrated through the exercise of this type of walk that he is capable of helping others and does help others.

And you are obligated to do it, and I am obligated, because if we don’t do it, we’re responsible to God for not doing it.

The Bible says, “For him that knoweth to do good and doeth it not, to him it is sin.”

“And whatsoever is not of faith is sin.”

So therefore, put them together. Have real faith, all of us together that we can and will help people.

I saw in myself… You might not think this is so great, but I thought a great step is when I see the brothers all get together, and those that aren’t even with us… haven’t been with us very, very long, they want to come and work, and they do come and work.

And I say, now, that’s good, because I know there’s brothers have a common interest. What happens? Something else comes up. You watch, that brother and sister will begin to do good. See it all the time.

You see, to do good… If the question comes up… my passive faith… Hey, that’s great! But you mention active faith. What about it?

Well, I’m telling you some of the things that everyone is obligated to do. I’m obligated. You’re obligated.

How can I see anybody in this congregation need food, clothing, and shelter, and then say, “Well, God bless you, and not do something about it?

Now, if that person deliberately will not do the things that he knows that he should do, there comes a time when you say, “Look bud, you’re on your own; you better start hustling.”

Because nobody is obligated to take care of anybody in this church, outside of a widow, who is a widow indeed, seventy years of age. And yet thousands of dollars have gone through this church.

Sometimes we have as many as seven, eight thousand dollars in the benevolent fund at one time.

You wouldn’t get a church eight times this size have that kind of money. You know why? Because they just don’t want to help people.

No, brother/sister, you got to be… We must shake ourselves. But we don’t shake ourselves like somebody coming to a pecan tree, and a pecan tree is full of nuts, and shake the tree till the nuts fall down. We are not nuts, except for God.

So, we don’t take advantage of people. We don’t want to be taken advantage of, but we all want to take advantage of God, in the sense of the Life that’s in His Word in us.

And we demonstrate in us, because it’s being done around here, and it can be done. And we can see the problems that arise, and we do have our problems, and we can see them corrected until they’re no longer problems, they are victories.

Now remember; war is a long time. There are many battles and skirmishes, but always keep the eye on the victory.

America to date, well, except for the Vietnam fiasco, has been a victorious nation, but her internal squabbling’s and folly have brought her down, with Vietnam being a part of it until America is bringing herself to disaster, because it will not pull together. They will not pull together.

Let this church take a lesson this morning. We want to know, ‘Hey, what are the simple things we can do?’ Keep our eyes open to help people.

When we see a need, begin praying: pray earnestly, pray sincerely, pray a long time if necessary.

We got people that… Well, there’s Brother Ron Zimmerman up here in the northwest area. I pray every day for him, that he and his wife will be able to sell their place and move.

They want to move Cincinnati. Why? Because they want to be where the Gospel is preached. He works for Delta Airlines. He can move there; there’s a work there.

People want home churches desperately. There are young men in this congregation who need wives. I have…

You say, “Why, hey, there’s a lot of women out there.”

Not the kind of women that God wants those godly men to have. Ever thought of praying for them?

“So, my marriage wasn’t so good.”

Who’s fault is that? That’s yours.

I have great love and respect for the young people here. Their marriages to me and the little children are pure inspiration. Maybe I’m too old to know better.

One time I was too young to know better. I’m back to childhood: too old to know better. But I love it; I appreciate it.

And you know my heart, I wouldn’t stand up here and tell you these things as a bunch of lies. I’m not a flatterer.

I know flattery will get you somewhere, but in the long run it doesn’t pay. So, I wouldn’t flatter you up here, just telling you the honest truth: I’m very proud of our people here, and their sincerity, their love of God.

And we’re looking. See, brother/sister, we’re looking at the end of the trail the great victory to get out of here. Not just with flying colors… Never mind the colors; it’s going to be pure white—white robes. White robes, get out of here, and the flying will be of God.

As on Mount Transfiguration, He took them in His arms and raised them right up there, so this great God in the form of the Holy Ghost and the Pillar of Fire, one day is going to call forth the dead and take the people to the Wedding Supper of the Lamb and come back here in the Millennium.

The Lord bless you. Next Sunday we’ll talk about the White Throne, if we ever get there.

This time let us rise and be dismissed.

Gracious, heavenly Father, we want to thank You again for Your love and Your grace and mercy, which You’ve bestowed upon us, Father.

We come together here and discuss the things of the Lord, the Way, the walk of Life and all, to help each other, Lord. We do love You; we know that. We know that because You shed Your love abroad in our hearts.

We love Your Word, Lord. It is stimulating. It is energizing, Father. There’s nothing like it. O living God, we appreciate that so much, and we thank You for it.

But Lord, we know that there is a walk on earth here, and that walk we know is reflected amongst us as children of God and around the world here.

We do not partake with the world, but neither do we pan it in the sense that we have aught against it. We try to help it, O God, and especially the household of faith.

Settle our hearts and our minds, Lord, to pray more for each other than we ever done before, to take the time, to be sincere when the problems arise, and when the prayer requests come in to make a real note of it, and take time off, and to pray and to pray and to pray.

And whatever we find near our hands to do, may the hands be anointed to do: the homes to visit, the people to help, whatever it may be.

May it be with consideration as you said in Your Own Word that “When you do it unto the least of these my brethren, you’ve done it unto me.”

So, Lord, we know the way has been clear before us. It’s been so clear, Lord. That’s the trouble, we stumble over it. It’s been so clear. Help us, Lord, not to be that way anymore, but to hold it dear and sincere and honest in all things.

Bless Your people today, O God. Heal the sick amongst us, and where there’s a need, Lord, we pray You’ll meet those needs that are there, whether they be jobs, whether they be for marriage partners, women, men, back and forth, whatever it is, Lord, we know, my God, that You made it this way, that there would be an amplitude of all.

So, Father, we commend and commit these things to You today, that this church may know the full grace and the provision of our God, and grow up, Lord, and one day meet You face-to-face in that glory.

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 bless you.

‘Take the Name of Jesus with You.’