Faith
no 13
Why
Faith works for some and it doesn’t for others
July
2, 2017
Brian
Kocourek, Pastor
Before I begin this morning
I would like to thank brother Vayle for the inspiration for this message and
for the title of last nights. Some of the thoughts I am bringing out here come
from a sermon he preached called Negative confession back in 1965. It was one
of his great sermons on faith that he preached back in those days, but it is
still very appropriate for us in this hour.
Now, we have been speaking
about faith, and we have looked at the faith of Jesus from Gethsemane to the
cross, and in that we found that His Faith was based upon God’s word, what God had
promised, and that was His Faith. And so
too in this message we are going to look at the basis for our Faith and that is
God’s Word. What he has promised. And remember, we showed that it matters not
what the measure of faith is, because there is only one faith because
there is only one Lord.
In fact br.
Branham said in his sermon, Anointed ones at end
time 65-0725M P:186 Now, notice. That was Jesus speaking. Here come Paul right
behind Him and said, "Now, in the last days
there will come religious people (See?), having a form of godliness, and lead silly women, led away
with all kinds of worldly lust (Then they
wonder, say, "Why do you pick on them women?" Oh, for goodness...
They just don't even see it.)--lead silly women,
laden with divers lust (away from things like See?)...
And as Jannes and Jambres (Matthew 24:24, false christs, false anointed, doing signs and wonders to
deceive the elected)--now as Jannes and Jambres
withstood Moses, so will these reprobates..."
Reprobate mind concerning The faith, not a faith, the Faith. One faith, one Lord, one...?... You can't have one faith without
believing in one Lord. You can't have two baptisms, not one for
the Father, and Son, and Holy Ghost. There's one baptism, Jesus Christ. That's
right. See? False baptism...
And so that One Faith is the
Faith God had in His own Word when created the world. Therefore, if we can just
tap into the very mind of God, we don’t have to worry about how much faith we
have as long as we have tapped into the current of God’s thinking.
But this morning we want to
answer the question, why does Faith seem to work in some while it doesn’t in others?
Now, we know that the
Scripture plainly teaches that we have all been given a measure of Faith. And since
there is only one faith, then that measure of faith, no matter what the measure
it is, is a perfect faith. Because it is the Faith of God. But the problem lays
in the fact that this perfect Faith is placed in an imperfect vessel.
It’s like when we see a
light go out. The same current is still working in the other bulbs but just one
seems to go out. That is because that bulb was weaker than the others.
But the current doesn’t
change, and neither does the faith. It’s the weaker vessel that causes the current
to not do what it is ordained to do. So we need to look into this problem
because we all have weaknesses in our vessel. That is why we came to earth in
these vessels for testing. So the vessel is what causes your faith to waver.
When brother Branham spoke
on the token he said that a token is an evidence that the price
has been paid. Therefore it is the assurance of having that thing which has
been paid for. And Faith is the assurance of things hoped for
the evidence of things not yet seen. So your measure of faith is
your God given assurance that you can have every promise in the Bible which is
extended to you.
Now, The reason most people
are impoverished concerning the blessings of God is either because of their
imperfections in their vessel, or just their unawareness of what they really have
within their grasp, or else it is just their inability to use what God has
given them.
To begin our study this
morning let’s turn in our Bibles to, Gen 25:27-34 And
the boys grew: and Esau was a cunning hunter, a man of the field; and Jacob
was a plain man, dwelling
in tents.
Now, the word plain is a
mistranslation there because the Hebrew word is ‘tam’ which does
not mean “plain”, but rather it means “complete”, or “perfect” as in
“undefiled”. Thus we see that Jacob was an undefiled man suggesting that Esau
was not.
"And Isaac loved Esau,
because he did eat of his venison: but Rebekah loved Jacob. 29 And Jacob sod
pottage: and Esau came from the field, and he was faint: 30 And Esau said to
Jacob, Feed me, I pray thee, with that same red pottage; for I am faint:
therefore was his name called Edom. 31 And Jacob said, Sell me this day thy
birthright. 32 And Esau said, Behold, I am at the point to die: and what profit
shall this birthright do to me? 33 And Jacob said, Swear to me this day;
and he sware unto him: and he sold his birthright unto Jacob. 34 Then Jacob
gave Esau bread and pottage of lentiles; and he did eat and drink, and rose up,
and went his way: thus Esau despised his birthright."
Now, here is a good example
of a confession of unbelief. In order to better understand what was going on in
the mind of Esau we must understand that in Chapter 26:1 we are told that there was famine
in the land and that is what caused Esau to speak the way he did. Esau was
not just a careless man who didn't care about his birth right. If that were the
case then he would not have been so angry with Jacob for taking it and the
blessings that went with it.
No, Esau was raised in the
same faith as Jacob, and he wanted that birthright, but he was at the point of
starvation and in his mind he reasoned that it was better to eat and live than to
hold onto his birthright since it would not do him any good if he were dead. God
had given Esau a “Trial of His Faith”,
and his reaction was in response to some very grim and desperate conditions he
was going through.
Now, a famine meant that
there was no rain, and if no rain then very little if any vegetation would be
growing. Now, you might say, yes but Esau was not a farmer he was a hunter. And
that is true, but when there is no rain there is no vegetation for the animals
as well, and the animals must migrate further and further in order to find
whatever little vegetation that can be found.
So Esau had traveled a great
distance and for days without food and perhaps very little water, and the body
cannot do well without food and water. In fact the body becomes very weak at
this point and that is the picture we see in Genesis 25 where Esau came into camp and the Bible says he was “faint”
which means he was very weakened by his thirst and hunger, and he became in somewhat
of a delirious condition when he came into the camp. Being dehydrated and weak,
when he smelled the food that Jacob was cooking for himself, he was perhaps
half beside himself with hunger and thirst.
Now, what we see here is the
picture of a man that is so desperate to eat that in his mind he believed he was
going to perish.
But the facts were that he
had a promise of the birthright, and God had made that promise to Abraham that
his seed would be multiplied as the stars of the sky. So Esau instead
of looking at what God had to say about his trial, looked at the circumstances
that he could see, taste, feel, smell and hear.”
Esau was a man of the earth,
very earthy, and he was in very fine tune with his flesh, but there were some
promises that God had made that he was overlooking because he was focused on
the circumstances around him and not on the promise. And so Esau
focused on the circumstances of the trial set before him said, "what profit
shall this birthright do for
me?" In other words, what good is it doing me, I am about to
die! What am I getting out of it? And that is when he died spiritually right there. That is when he
proved what seed he is right there. And that is why God hated Esau and loved
Jacob.
When a person says, “What
good is it for me to give and give and give, what am I getting out of it",
that is when you fail right there.
Brother Branham said our motive must be right in order for our
faith to work.
From his sermon Queen
of Sheba 61-0219 P:8 he said, “Always remember this, church; God's Words are true.
I believe the right mental attitude towards any Divine promise of God will
bring it to pass, if you can look at it in the right way. But remember, here's
been my standard in life. I have tried to do this. The first thing, I
want to find out whether it's the will
of God or not. Then I know it's God's will. The next thing, is my objective to
it and my motive in doing it. Then if it's the will of God, and my
objective is right, and my motive is right, I have
faith that it'll be done. Because, first, it's the will of God and my objective
is to glorify Him, and my motive is to give Him all the glory. See? So there's
no selfish motives about it. If you have a selfish motive it won't
work. If your objective is to make
money for yourself or something, why, you'll never succeed. And then try to do something
outside of the will of the Lord, then it won't work to begin with. So there is genuine
faith, but you must come into the real channel of God to have that genuine
faith. There's human faith, then there's faith of God. And you must
have a godly faith to believe. Now,
then to have godly faith, you must have the mind of Christ in you. Then that's
how God projects to you visions, revelations, and all these things
comes by the mind of Christ being in you. You get it?
"Let the mind that was in Christ be in you."
But Esau showed his motive
for the birthright was totally for self, and not to please God. Nor was his
motive to stay with the birthright because it meant fulfilling the role of
tribal
leader with all the
responsibilities of leadership for many other lives in the tribe. No, all he could see was his own situation.
All he could see were his own trials. All he could see were the circumstances
surrounding him at that point and because his focus was wrong he failed.
Godhead explained 61-0425B
P:33 And you must test your motive and
objective first. First, find the will of God,
and then find your
objective, and then
test your motive and see if your motive is right. Then as Jesus said in Mark 11:24,
"If you
say to this mountain, 'Be moved,' and don't doubt in your heart..."
But as long as you got doubt in a heart
whether it's the will of God, or your motive or objective is wrong, how is it
going to move? But when you know
that your motive is right, and
it's the will of God, and your objective is right, it's got to move.
That's all, or God told something wrong.
Hebrews 12: 15-17 tells
us, Looking diligently lest any man fail
of the grace of God; lest any root of
bitterness springing up trouble you, and thereby many be defiled; 16 Lest there be any fornicator, or
profane person, (the
word profane means: contempt or irreverence
towards those things which are sacred, and that is what
God considered) as Esau, who for one morsel of meat sold his birthright.17 For ye
know how that afterward, when he would have inherited the blessing, he was rejected:
for he found no place of repentance, though he sought it carefully with
tears.
Look, he did seek repentance
we are told, "he sought it carefully with tears," but
it mattered not with God.
Now, people try to say that
Esau was just indifferent towards the birth right, but that's not what the
Bible tells us. The man cried crocodile tears and he tried carefully to and with an
great effort to gain back that birthright but it was no longer his to
have. He had given it away. And later on when he realized what he had done, it
was already too late by then.
God had a great blessing and
not a curse for that man, and he cast it away. And the apostle Paul warns us in
Hebrews 10: 35 Cast not away therefore your
confidence, (your faith and trust in God) which hath great
recompense of reward.
So many people are like the
parable that Jesus tells us in Mark 4:5 And
some fell on stony ground, where it had not much earth; and immediately it
sprang up, because it had no depth of
earth: 6 But when the sun was up, it was scorched; and because it had no root,
it withered away.
The Word of God needs to be
planted deep into the heart, not in shallow ground of the mind.
And Jesus tells us the
meaning in verses 14 "The sower sowed the Word".
And in verse 16 Jesus
tells us about those seeds sown on stony ground. 16 And
these are they likewise which are sown
on stony ground; who, when they have heard the word, immediately receive it
with gladness; 17 And having not taken root in themselves, it endures but
for a time: afterward, when affliction or persecution
arises for the Word's sake, immediately they are offended. (And
this word offended comes from a Greek word which means enticed
to sin or disbelieve).
So we see there are those
whose flesh is weak and they say they believe but when they are tested
concerning their belief they fall short and can’t hold out until the end. So we
see the reward has to do with your confidence. The level of trust you have in God and His Word. And Paul
tells us that unless we hold fast our confidence in
the promise unto the end, we will not receive the reward.
Hebrews 10:36 For
ye have need of patience, that, after ye have done the will of God, ye might
receive the promise. 37 For yet a little while, and
he that shall come will come, and will not tarry.
Now look! That is a promise
from God. He said he will not tarry, he
will bring the reward but he says you must have patience,
and the person who is not patient enough to wait will not receive the reward.
And Patience is a mark of maturity, and confidence.
Then Paul goes on to say) 38 "Now
the just shall live by faith" (And we know that Faith
is a Revelation. It is something that has been revealed to you.) but if
any man draw back, my soul shall have no pleasure
in him. 39 But we are not of them who
draw back unto perdition; but of them that
believe to the saving of the soul.
If you are going to make it in God’s game, you will either have
patience to wait, or you will lose out in the end. God
is not interested in little immature spoiled rotten children who cry constantly
and have to have it now. He makes you wait for the promise. That is how he tests
your faith in the promise. To see if you are willing to wait for it.
Now, most Christians are
just too smug when it comes to what Esau did. They say, I would have waited. I
would have believed God would do something for this family that he promised
would be numbered as the stars in the sky. Well, one day many Christians are going
to face this same seen as Esau, and they will be confronted with a very similar
trial.
God already has promised in
the Book of Revelations chapter 13 that there will be a boycott
and you won't be able to buy or sell, so you won’t be able to eat unless you take
the mark of the beast. Then what? What are they going to do then? Yeah, the
trial will prove what they are right then, that’s for certain. And how many for
a morsel of meat will trade their soul to the denominational system and in
doing so will take the mark of the beast?
But most people who claim to
believe the Message will say, "I will be in the rapture so that won’t
affect me." How do you know you will be in the Rapture? And how do you
know that when the squeeze comes down that you won’t go through something very
similar at that time to what Esau went through with no food to eat? People do
strange things under pressure. Look how many millions of Jews were killed in Germany
while the good so-called Christian nation turned its eyes to look the other way.
They sold their birth right
that Luther had won for them for a measly two chickens in the pot and a car in
every garage. America did the same. After the depression, when Roosevelt
offered them a way out, the American people broke with the constitution and
elected the man to four terms and they sold their birth right as a nation for a
mess of pottage.
We haven’t even a clue as to
what is coming upon this earth. Brother Branham said there is coming something
so horrible that he could not even speak about it because the people couldn’t
handle it if they knew. He told his own son Billy Paul that he could not tell
him what was coming under the sixth seal, because if he did he would never
sleep again the rest of his life. So be prepared, for that thing he couldn’t
speak of is surely on its way.
So what does it mean to
confess unbelief in God? In order to confess unbelief in God, you must first admit
to the conditions around you. It means that you admit to the conditions and to the
natural conclusions of that condition, instead of what God has already said
about the conclusion of that condition.
Esau confessed to the
conditions, "there is a famine",
and indeed there was a famine! He said, I have hunted and there is no food, and
he was absolutely correct. He said, I am faint and I am going to die, and that was
also absolutely correct in view of the circumstances. All his thinking was so
rational because if you don’t eat you will starve, and if you starve you will
eventually die, and then if you die then what good is the promise to you
anyway. And that is the reasonable way to think if you do not think like God
thinks. But God does not want for us to think like man thinks, he wants us to
think like He thinks, and that is why he has so willingly given us the mind of
Christ for those who want it.
God said in Proverbs
16: 25 There is a way that seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof
are the ways of death.
And he also said in Isaiah
55:7 we read, “Let the wicked forsake his way, and the un-rightly-wise man
his thoughts: and let him return unto the LORD, and he will have mercy upon
him; and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon. 8 For my thoughts
are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the LORD.
9 For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your
thoughts. 10 For as the rain cometh down, and the snow from heaven, and
returneth not thither, but watereth the earth, and maketh it bring forth and
bud, that it may give seed to the sower, and bread to the eater: 11 So shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth: it shall not
return unto me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please,
and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it.”
So God has promised us that
his Words will bring forth exactly what He sent It to bring forth.
We see also in Genesis
15:1-6 that God had made a promise to Abraham to be not only His provider
but also his protector as well, because what good does it do if you receive the
reward but can’t hold onto it, or lose it.
1 After these things the
word of the LORD came unto Abram in a vision, saying, Fear not,
Abram: I am thy shield, and thy exceeding great reward. (I
am thy protector and thy provider, believe me…) 2 And
Abram said, Lord GOD, (if you are my protector and my provider,)
what wilt thou give me, seeing I go childless, and the steward of my
house is this Eliezer of Damascus?
3 And Abram said,
Behold, to me thou hast given no seed: and, lo, one born in my house is mine
heir. 4 And, behold, the word of the LORD came unto him, saying,…
Notice that God did not give
Abraham an action, God gave Abraham His Word. Abraham said, I am getting
old Lord, and you promised me a seed, and I have nothing yet but this man here that
is my servant, and if I don’t get what you promised, he will become my heir
because I haven’t yet received what you promised. Abraham was looking for action
from God, but God
just gave Him His Word, but told Abraham that His Word was still for the
future.
This shall not be thine heir;
but he that shall come forth out of thine own bowels shall
(future tense,) be thine heir. 5 And he
brought him forth abroad, and said, Look now toward heaven, and tell the
stars, if thou be able to number them: and he said unto him, So shall
(future tense) thy seed be. 6 And he believed in the LORD;
So what did Abraham believe
in? He believed in God’s Word
to Him, that's what he believed in… and God counted it to him for
righteousness.
So we see that the promise
to Esau was through Abraham and that was that through Abraham’s seed the
lineage would become as many as the stars in the sky. Therefore he had a
promise that he would not die, for God said, this promise is unto you and your
seed after you, and I am your protector, I am present to watch over you to see
that you get your reward. And you will not die, but you will live, and your
seed will be as the sand of the sea. And Esau lived to regret that he didn’t
believe God. And God hated Esau.
But what about Jacob. He faced the same famine that Esau was
facing. We are not told how much food he had left but it could not have
been much being that they were all facing the same famine. But he
chose to get that birthright, even if he had to give up his last bit of
food. Just like the woman of Zarephath who was down to her last bit of
meal and she and her son were preparing to make their last meal cake and then
die for there was also a famine in the land, and then Elijah appeared on the
scene.
1 Kings 17:1 And
Elijah the Tishbite, who was of the inhabitants of Gilead, said unto Ahab, As
the LORD God of Israel liveth, before whom I stand, there shall not be dew nor rain
these years, but according to my word.
(He had the spirit of Christ in Him so he believed
"whatsoever
you say if yu do not doubt in your heart you shall have whatsoever you
say".)
2 And the word of the
LORD came unto him, saying, 3 Get thee hence, and turn thee eastward, and hide thyself by the brook Cherith, that
is before Jordan. 4 And it shall be, that thou
shalt drink of the brook; and I
have commanded the ravens to feed thee there. 5 So he went and did
according unto the word of the LORD: for he went and dwelt by the brook
Cherith, that is before Jordan. 6 And the ravens brought him bread and flesh in
the morning, and bread and flesh in the evening; and he drank of the brook. 7
And it came to pass after a while, that the
brook dried up, because there had been no rain in the land. 8 And the word
of the LORD came unto him, saying, 9 Arise, get thee to Zarephath, which
belongeth to Zidon, and dwell there: behold, I have commanded a widow woman there to sustain thee. (So how did God command this widow woman to sustain Elijah? He gave her
a heart for the people of God.) 10 So he arose and
went to Zarephath. And when he came to the gate of the city, behold, the widow woman was there gathering of
sticks: and he called to her, and said, Fetch me, I pray thee, a little water in a vessel, that I may drink.
11 And as she was going to fetch it, he called to her, and said, Bring me, I
pray thee, a morsel of bread in thine hand. 12 And she said, As the LORD thy
God liveth, I have not a cake, but an handful of meal in a barrel, and a little
oil in a cruse: and, behold, I am gathering two sticks, (signifying crucifixion, I am
crucified with Christ nevertheless i am living) that
I may go in and dress it for me and my son,
that we may eat it, and die. 13 And Elijah
said unto her, Fear not; go and do as thou hast said: but make me thereof a little cake first, and bring
it unto me, and after make for thee and
for thy son. 14 For thus saith the LORD God of Israel, The barrel of meal shall not waste, neither
shall the cruse of oil fail, until the day that the LORD sendeth rain upon the
earth. 15 And she went and did according to the saying of Elijah: and she,
and he, and her house, did eat many days. 16 And the barrel of meal wasted not,
neither did the cruse of oil fail, according to the word of the
LORD, which he spake by Elijah.
Now, what if this woman had
been like Esau and said, there isn’t enough to share with you, so get lost
young man. She would have eaten her last cake and died. But she had faith in
the Word of the Lord that was given her by the prophet of God. And she was
predestined to do it. For God had said to Elijah, , I have commanded a widow woman there to
sustain thee. Now I don't
believe for one second she heard an audible voice from God commanding her to
feed Elijah, but God had placed in her DNA a belief in the Word of the Lord and
God's prophets who brought it. She was ordained to that trial and God had
prepared her for it.
And her meal and oil
sustained her, her son and Elijah for many days until the drought had ended.
But what about Eve? She
turned down God’s Word for what appeared to be morsel of food, something "to eat
to make one wise". And yet, what does the Bible tell us about Moses? He
turned down the treasures of Egypt to keep God’s Word.
And so we see that God doesn't want us to talk about and evaluate the
conditions of life and look at their end. He wants us to look at one thing and that
is His Word. He wants us to only look to His promises and to where they will
lead.
We are not to be negative in
our confession but positive giving God praise for what He has promised. We even
read a quote a few weeks ago where brother Branham said you must not claim your
conditions, but just say what God's Word says about them.
Results of decision 55-1008
P:24 We find out many times that people rely on their symptoms, if they're
prayed for. I was going to find the report from Brother Joseph, see how many
went away last night with really... after a full week of Gospel teaching how to be healed,
that went away and say, "Well, still got it." See? And you'll
probably always have it (See?), if you feel that way. Faith don't see that thing.
Faith sees what God
says. Faith
don't see any symptoms at all. Faith refuses to see symptoms. You
say, "Well, Brother Branham, if they are there, shouldn't we say they're
there?" "No.
No, sir."
Christ 55-0221 P:49 You're not
using your own thoughts; you're using His thoughts. "Let the mind that was in Christ be in you." See? Think
His way of thinking; say what He says. "Confession" means
"to say
the same thing." Say... Confess is to confess the same
thing, say the same thing. Then don't confess your own mental conception.
Be born again and confess His Word, confess what He said. That's
confession. Say, "By His
stripes, I was healed." By His stripes, I have a right, by His wounds, right now, I have a
right for salvation. I have a right for the Holy Spirit. He promised it to me.
Said, 'It's
in you and your children, and them that is far off, and as many as the Lord our
God shall call.' "I believe it. It's for any generation.
"Lo, I
am with you always, even to the end of the world." He died
that He might raise again and be with His church all the way to the end of the
world, to confirm the Word with signs following. How far was that to be? "Go ye..." Did it
end it with the apostles? Mark
16 said, "Go ye
into all the world, and preach the Gospel to every creature." It's
never met there yet, just about one third of it. God's depending on us.
And from his
sermon, Works I do bear witness 53-0216 P:10 he
said, "Listen
close. You'll never live above your confession. Jesus is the High Priest of our confession (Is that right? Now, Hebrews
3:1, now any scholar knows that same word
"profession" is "confession" too, same translated.), now setting at the right hand of the Father to make
intercessions upon what? Our confession. He can't do nothing for you
until first you confess He's done it. See?
The problem is that we just
don’t take God seriously enough. If he gave you a promise then he will come
through with what He promised. But we are living in Laodicea, and we think we have
rights to think anything we want to think and say whatever we want to say, but
I am here to tell you this morning you do just that and you won’t make the
rapture.
That is "Thus
Saith the Lord” because it is what "the Lord has already said thus".
God said in Proverbs
16: 25 There is a way that seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof
are the ways of death.
So go right ahead and
complain about not getting the promise when you think you should get it, but The
Bible says, "They that are willing to wait on the
promise are the ones who will receive the reward"
I can just imagine Sarah
saying to Abraham, how much longer do we have to wait honey? We’ve already
waited 20 years? And so what did she do? She said take my made and have a baby
by her and we can say this is the promise that God gave you. You think God was
pleased with that? No way...
You think God was pleased
with Abraham’s wife saying that? I tell you what. It angered God so much that
he told Abraham to go ahead with her plan and Abraham’s Seed by Sarah have been
battling for their lives against Abraham’s seed by Hagar for more than 4,000
years now. And will that negative attitude that produced that Ishmael finally
find peace? Not until the New Jerusalem because that seed will not be there. And
then after waiting 25 years to receive the promise, God tested him and asked
him to offer up his son. What would you do in that situation. But Abraham
didn’t look at the circumstances, he just looked at God’s word.
What God promised. And so he said, the lad and I are going up to do sacrifice
and WE shall return. He had a testimony just like Job did, “though
He slay me, yet I’ll trust Him, and in my flesh I shall see God.”
Abraham knew that if God
allowed him to slay his son, God was obligated to raise him up again.
Thy
seed shall possess gate 62-0121M P:55 When
you receive the promise, how are you going to stop the thing? How you going to
ever expect to be a father of nations, and here you are a hundred and fifteen
years old now? Little Isaac about fourteen or fifteen years old. How are you
going to be a father of nations when you're a hundred and fifteen years old,
and here's your only child, and you're destroying your only evidence that you
have?
Amen." How am I going
to make it if I get out of an organization? How am I going to make it if I do
this?" Oh, listen to that still small voice
that comes with the Word. The Word...You say, "I heard a
voice tell me this." If it's contrary to the Word, it wasn't God's
voice. God's voice comes with the Word.
Faith 56-0815 P:80 And
then, when you receive the promise, call anything contrary to
that promise as though it was not, and God will bring it to
pass.
And what About Noah, He
preached his message for 120 years and built the ark over that time frame, and
what if he said, “You know, I have been
building on this ark for 100 years and still no sign of rain, so I think I will
just stop? You think that would have stopped the rain from coming? And what
about Israel. God promise them Messiah would come and they waited over 4,000
years for him to come, but I truly believe that many of them no longer believed
in the promise because they waited so long for it and that is why many rejected
Him when He did come. And the church today, do you think the Christian Church really believes the Lord is Coming
back? They proved they don’t by rejecting His Appearing before His Coming.
And why don’t they believe? Because they have had to wait a very long time for
the fulfillment of God’s promise.
Influence 64-0315 P:57 Jesus
promised them that He would send the promise of the Father upon them (Luke
24:49), "Behold I send the promise of My Father
upon you. But tarry ye..." "Tarry"
don't mean pray; it just means "wait." "Tarry" means wait.
"Wait up there at the city of Jerusalem until you're endued with power
from on high." And what if they would have walked out
after ten or twenty days? No they had to wait 50 days. One
day less and they would have missed it.
Shalom
64-0119 P:52 Some people says, "But, Brother Branham, I have tried and I
have tried." But wait a minute. Patience
is virtue. Patience is Holy Spirit virtue. "They that wait upon the Lord
shall renew their strength." You say, "How can I wait any longer?" Just keep on waiting. When you've done all you can
do to stand, then stand (See?); just stand.
"How am I going to do it?"
Stand. He said it's the Truth, and it's
the Truth. He said it'll happen. How, I don't know; but it'll happen. He said
so. He promised it. If He promised it, it's going to
happen. That's all. It can't wait. So now just remember, God took
thousands of years to fulfill His promise of a coming Saviour. Four thousand
years God took to fulfill that promise. But He knew from the beginning just
when it was going to happen. He knew; no one else did. He just said it would happen. And when it happened, the people was in
such a delusion, till they didn't know how to accept it. If that same thing hasn't repeated again. It
always does, never fails, both sides always.
God
of this evil age 65-0801M P:90 But in obedience this
little faith woman, that lives by faith, the
Bride, the person here, there, here, off somewhere else, some other
church, some other denomination, whatever it is, and some...?... believes the Word of God, obedient, waiting
in love for the promise of the age to be confirmed. She's watching for it. She
is part of that Word, and she's watching for Her life to
manifest that Word. Brethren, can't you see that? I hope that
didn't go over you. The Body is waiting for, which
is the Word, waiting for the Life, which is the Spirit, to confirm or make It
alive. That's what she's waiting for. No other life will work in
her. She can't come to life any other way, yet she feels it out there, and she knows it's going to happen; then here
it happens, then she wakes up. God said, "Let there be,"
and She came forth like the first one come forth.
Who
is this 59-1122 P:18 What if Abraham would've
took what it looked like, twenty-five years waiting for a promise that God gave
him? Why, he'd have never had the baby. He'd never been the father of little
Isaac. But he believed God's Word and
wouldn't turn It loose. But he
watered it day and night, strong, giving praise unto God.
Oh, when Sarah would say, "Honey, it's been twenty-five years ago since
the promise was made, here I am nearly a hundred." He'd say, "Praise God, we're going to
have it anyhow, 'cause God said so, and that settles it."
That's right. He knew the nature of God because he was a friend
of God. He knew how to take Him, because he knew that His
promises, no matter how foolish they looked, or how simple they looked, or how
unreasonable they looked, they were true because God said so,
and that settled it forever. That's the
way every seed of Abraham does today. That's the way the born again Christian
does today. No matter what the world says, what science says, what they
say, this, that, or the other, God's Word stands above it all. And they're
looking at His Word and what He said to be the truth. It doesn't matter if they
say today the world can't be burned up, and the dead, or them bodies can't rise
again. God said so, and that's the truth; that settles it
forever. God said so, and we keep our eyes on what He said.
Led
by the spirit 59-0407 P:10 If you make a promise to anybody, you're obligated to that
promise. And if you're a man or woman of honor, you'll do everything you can to
keep that promise. But it could be that something might
happen that you could not keep it. But did you know God's more obligated to keep His promise that you are? When God makes a promise, He's got to keep it in order to
be God. Every promise He makes is true. And He's obligated to that promise. If you'll keep that in mind while
you're crossing through this prayer line tonight, something will happen to you,
to know that God cannot make a promise and not stick to it. He's got to. And He
knows all things, so He's infinite. We're finite and can make a promise and
have to take it back. But He can't, because He's perfect. He knows everything,
the end from the beginning. So He has to keep His promise. And He's always got
somebody who will believe that. God, let me be one of those. No matter how much
you have to be criticized and laughed at, let me believe God's promise and stay
with it.
Let us
pray...