-Who is this Melchisedec #150

“Don’t Focus on the Conduit, Focus on God”

September 8, 2002

This Morning we will look one more time at paragraph 175 of brother Branham’s sermon called Who Is This Melchisedec 65-0221E “177 Now, if I be God's servant and have told you the truth, God will vindicate that to be the truth. And that would prove that Jesus Christ is a-living tonight, standing here. Is that right? Now, you have faith, just one side at the time, one side. You have faith out there. (I'd better stay at the microphone here, because they can't hear me.) Somebody just look up to God and say, "God, that man don't know me. He knows nothing about me. I'm a perfect stranger to him. But let my faith touch You, Lord. And You know what's the matter with me, Lord. You know all about me; You know who I am, the same as You knew who Peter was, same as You knew Nathanael, as You knew what was wrong with the woman with the blood issue. And this man tells me that You're the same yesterday, today, and forever. Then, Lord, let my faith touch You." And if He'll do that and infallibly prove Himself here, how many of you will believe Him with all your heart, if He'll do it at least one, or two, or three people for--for a witness. God bless you.

Now, I want you to notice how brother Branham is actually teaching the people here how to have faith and how to place that faith in God through a channel or conduit for their own healing. In other Words he is instructing the people through this dialogue that they must go to God and say, OK, God, I know you know me, so to show me that you hear my prayer, use this man here and reflect yourself through this man so I can get my answers that I need.

First of all he says, Now, if I be God's servant and have told you the truth, God will vindicate that to be the truth. Now, There is so much in that statement by itself that you could take several sermons and perhaps an entire book just showing how that is God’s way of doing things. That’s Amos 3:7 “Surely the Lord God will do nothing except He reveal it to His Servants the Prophets.”

Secondly Brother Branham continues by saying, And that would prove that Jesus Christ is a-living tonight, standing here. Again, this statement has so much depth that we could take hundreds of sermons on it, as we already have and we could not only write a book on it, but we have already written three books showing you how He is here, and How He is, as brother Branham put it, “a-living among His People”. And remember the prefix “a” - means continuous, so we see this “a-living among His People” speaks of a continuation. Remember, He said, I will not leave you nor forsake you, and he also said the Pillar of Fire is here to lead us into the millennium.

THIRD EXODUS 63-0630M 45-3 But this time (Glory to God.) the Pillar that we see among us, the Pillar of Fire will lead us to the millennium, where He will return to His people in that great millennium reign after this exodus, where we'll live eternally with Him. He always has the Word of the Father, always proves that It's right. We are in an exodus, and in leaving and turning the tapes off in a moment, oh, my friends, my brothers, both present and that will hear the tapes, let me as your brother and citizen of the Kingdom of God, come out in this exodus. For all that's left behind will bear the mark of the beast. Come out of Babylon; come out of this confusion; come out of these systems and serve the living God. And let this great Angel of the Covenant, Jesus Christ in the form of God, thought it not robbery to become equal with God... Now, He's a Pillar of Fire in the same form that He was back there bringing that first exodus, bringing the second exodus, and here He is with the third exodus. 45-4 The first exodus, what did He do? He brought them out of a natural land to a natural land. The second exodus, He brought them out from a spiritual condition into a spiritual baptism of the Holy Ghost. Now He's bringing them from a spiritual baptism of the Holy Ghost, right back into the eternal land of the millennium and the great hereafter. Same Pillar of Fire by the same anointed system, the same God doing the same things; and the same Word declared the first one, declared the second one. The same Word declared the second one has declared the third one, and here we see it among us. Come out. Oh, come out of this chaos. Come to the living God. Come to the Word. "And the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us." And now, He's in our flesh, dwelling among us. Come out and serve the living God, while we bow our beads.

Now, the Third point I want to call to your attention is that brother Branham is showing here that God uses a certain channel to let us know He is here. Notice the words that brother Branham uses here to bring this forth.

Somebody just look up to God and say, "God, that man (Who? The channel) don't know me. He (Who is he? The Channel, William Branham) He knows nothing about me. I'm a perfect stranger to him. (Who? The Channel, or conduit) But let my faith touch You, Lord. And You know what's the matter with me, Lord. You know all about me; You know who I am, the same as You knowed who Peter was, same as You knowed Nathanael, as You knowed what was wrong with the woman with the blood issue. And this man(Who is this man? He’s the channel or conduit) tells me that You're the same yesterday, today, and forever. Then, Lord, let my faith touch You." And if He'll do that (Now, brother Branham is referring to God) If God will do that, and infallibly prove Himself here, how many of you will believe Him (God) with all your heart, if He'll do it at least one, or two, or three people for a witness. God bless you.

Now, I will never forget years ago I was talking to brother Vayle on the Godhead, and I said to him, “Brother Vayle, when the Scripture says, God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, could we say, that God was in Christ and Christ was in the man Jesus? And He said to me, “Brian, Brian, Brian, Do you want to go crazy? Get your eyes off the vessel. I don’t care if it was the pillar of fire or the burning bush, or the Cloud that followed the children in the wilderness or the Rock that the Bible said was Christ. It is not the vessel that we should be focusing on, but God that used that vessel. It wasn’t the vessel that did those things, that brought forth the water and all, it was God Who did those things. And so I learned an important principle. And I know that this principle is True and right with the Scripture because Jesus Himself said the same thing. He said, “If you don’t believe me, the vessel God is using, then believe me for the very works sake. Because there is a greater witness than I, the vessel, and that is My Father that dwelleth in me, He it is that doeth the works.”

JOHN 10:37 If I do not the works of my Father, believe me not. 38 But if I do, though ye believe not me, believe the works: that ye may know, and believe, that the Father [is] in me, and I in him.

JOHN 14:10 Believest thou not that I am in the Father, and the Father in me? the words that I speak unto you I speak not of myself: but the Father that dwelleth in me, he doeth the works. 11 Believe me that I [am] in the Father, and the Father in me: or else believe me for the very works' sake.

Therefore, I hope we can see that we must get our eyes off the vessel that God uses, if we are to recognize who it is that is doing the greater works. That is why I thought those qyuotes we read were so striking a couple weeks ago. Let me read them again, so we can look at them in light of this thought on the conduit of God. You se the conduit is not God and yet it becomes God to the people. Yet if we are to truly understand the conduit, we must recognize one principle thing. The Conduit is nothing without the One in that Conduit doing the works. Even Jesus said those very words.

JOHN 5:19Then answered Jesus and said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, The Son can do nothing of himself, but what he seeth the Father do: for what things soever he doeth, these also doeth the Son likewise.

JOHN 5:30 I can of mine own self do nothing: as I hear, I judge: and my judgment is just; because I seek not mine own will, but the will of the Father which hath sent me. 31 ¶ If I bear witness of myself, my witness is not true. 32 There is another that beareth witness of me; and I know that the witness which he witnesseth of me is true. 33 Ye sent unto John, and he bare witness unto the truth. 34 But I receive not testimony from man: but these things I say, that ye might be saved. 35 He was a burning and a shining light: and ye were willing for a season to rejoice in his light. 36 But I have greater witness than [that] of John: for the works which the Father hath given me to finish, the same works that I do, bear witness of me, that the Father hath sent me. 37 And the Father himself, which hath sent me, hath borne witness of me. Ye have neither heard his voice at any time, nor seen his shape.

JOHN 8:26 I have many things to say and to judge of you: but he that sent me is true; and I speak to the world those things which I have heard of him. 27 They understood not that he spake to them of the Father. 28 Then said Jesus unto them, When ye have lifted up the Son of man, then shall ye know that I am [he], and [that] I do nothing of myself; but as my Father hath taught me, I speak these things. 29 And he that sent me is with me: the Father hath not left me alone; for I do always those things that please him.

UNVEILING OF GOD 64-0614M 257 268 (continued) But then the real believers, they couldn't explain it, but they believed it anyhow. They went on through. 269 The veil, tradition of unbelievers, taken away, you see God. When the veil of traditions has been removed, you can see that God is still God of His Word. He still keeps His Word. He's the God, Author of His Word that is hid behind skin veils to others. Yes, that is right. To those who cannot go behind the veil, He's still behind skin veils. 270 Notice, then we become part of Him, as you are the veil that veils Him. You are part of Him, as long as Christ is in you, as Christ was of God. Because God was in Him, made Him God. (Oh, how I love that. Notice what he just said, He said, because God was IN him is what made Him God.) And as Christ is in you, the hope of glory, you become part of Christ. "He that believeth on Me, the works that I do shall he also." See? You become part of Christ as long as Christ is hid in you. Then it's veiled to the unbeliever, but you know He is in you. You're templing Christ that's behind the veil, the skin. Then we become... behind... Because of this veil... The veil again, in human flesh, hides God the Word from the unbeliever. (No wonder they can’t take the vessel, the conduit. It hides God from them. It’s hiding the Word from them, because they were not meant to see it.)

271 As it is written (See?), written, "You are written epistles," the Bible said. Now, what is "epistle"? Is "a written word." And you are the written... Other words, you read it like this; you... he'd say, "You are written epistles," or, "You are the Word that has been written, made manifest." Nothing can be added to it. You can't say, "I'm a written epistle," and living some other kind of a something but what This has already wrote, because nothing can be added or taken away.

Now, isn’t that exactly what Jesus is saying in this prayer to the Father aboiut you and me being One with Him even as he is one with God. We are One by manifestuing the same Word. 12 While I was with them in the world, I kept them in thy name: (and Why did Jesus Keep them? Because He was keeping God’s Word.) those that thou gavest me I have kept, and none of them is lost, but the son of perdition; that the scripture might be fulfilled. 13 And now come I to thee; and these things I speak in the world, that they might have my joy fulfilled in themselves. (Now, here it is, catch this. This is what it all comes down to.)14 I have given them thy word; and the world hath hated them, because they are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. (did the world hate you before you received the Word? Absolutely not. They hate you because of the Word.). 15 I pray not that thou shouldest take them out of the world, but that thou shouldest keep them from the evil.

16 They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. 17 ¶ Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is truth. (Now this word sanctify means to set aside for service, so He is speaking of God, separating the believer from everything that is not Truth. Separate them Father by Thy Truith, for Thy Word is Truth and then thy Word is what separates.) 18 As thou hast sent me into the world, even so have I also sent them into the world. 19 And for their sakes I sanctify myself, that they also might be sanctified through the truth. 20 ¶ Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also which shall believe on me through their word; 21 That they all may be one; as thou, Father, [art] in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us: that the world may believe that thou hast sent me.(And this is made possible only by our having the same Word in us that was in the Son of God, for the Father is the Word as we heard brother Branham say in the message Unveiling of God)

22 And the glory which thou gavest me I have given them; that they may be one, even as we are one (Let me read that quote to you again in case your oneness mindset creeps back into your little mind.)

UNVEILING OF GOD 64-0614M 257 When this veil is took off of the Word, the traditions is taken off the Word, as Jesus once said, "When you see Me, you see the Father." See? God and His Word is One. Now you understand? And then he went on to say, … If I do not the works of My Father, then don't believe Me. But if I do do the works, I and My Father are One. When you see Me, you have seen the Father." And when you see the Word made manifest, you see the Father God, because the Word is the Father; the Word is God. And the Word made manifest is God Himself taking His Own Word and manifesting It among believers.

SHOW US THE FATHER IT'LL SATISFY 56-0422 E-36 Now, it's many times it's been said that no man can see God at anytime, the Bible said so. But the only begotten of the Father has declared Him. Philip, here was very inquisitive; he wanted to see the Father. Says here He said, "I've been so long with you, Philip, and you don't know Me?" Said, "When you see Me you see My Father."

In other words, (so we see here that brother Branham is going to explain what Jesus meant when he said this to Philip.) you see the Father express Hisself through the Son. Him and the Father were one in the sense that His Father was dwelling in Him, not Him doing the works; He was a Son, Himself, the immortal, virgin born, Son of God. And then in Him was dwelling the God the Father, expressing Himself to the world, His attitude towards the people. See? Well, that's how Christ and God were one. God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself. Now, He said, "When you see Me, you see the Father, and why do you say, 'Show us the Father?'"

HE SWORE BY HIMSELF 54-1212 156 And God Himself living in this, making a tabernacle, and He dwelt in Christ. There's God walking around. He said, "I and My Father are One. My Father is in Me." Said, "Show us now the Father." Philip said, "Showeth me the Father and it'll satisfy me." Said, "Philip, I been so long with you, and you don't know Me?" He said, "When you see Me, you see the Father. And why say, 'Show me the Father.' I and the Father are One. My Father's living in Me now. It's not Me that doeth the works; it's Him that dwells in me, that does the works." Oh, my.

DIVINE HEALING 54-1219M 114 Thomas looked at Him, or Philip, rather, and said, "Lord, show us the Father. Who is this Father You're going to?" He said, "Why, I've been so long with you. You don't know Me?" He said, "When you see Me, you seen the Father. The Father is in Me. Believe that I and the Father are one. Or, believe Me for the very work's sake, that the Father's in Me. It's not Me that doeth the works; it's the Father that's in Me, doeth the works." 116 I'm not the Holy Spirit. You're not the Holy Spirit. But if there's anything... He's not the Holy Spirit. But those messages he preaches was not of him. It's the Holy Spirit in him. Is that right? Well, some of these days, this whole, little, old frothy frame of his is going to drop down, but his Holy Spirit and his spirit become one. And as that Holy Spirit raised Jesus from the grave, also brings his body up in the resurrection. You see? So that's the hopes that we have today.

QA ON THE SEALS 63-0324M 520-2 {377} Now, I want to ask you. Do... That Holy Ghost dwells within you, is that right? Do you talk to Him? Speak to Him? Pray to Him? All right, that's all I want... Thank you very much. See? Now, do you get it?

I'll ask you one: How did it come that when Jesus in St. John 3, He said, "When the Son of man shall be, which now is in heaven (See?)--now is in heaven, shall come to earth." See? "The Son of man which now is in heaven," and here He stood right here talking to the person. Now, you answer me that one. Jesus and the Father was the selfsame Person, just the same as the Holy Spirit in me. You're looking to me preaching, but it's not me. It's not me can speak a word that could bring, as you know, an animal; set there and looked at it, and kill the animal and eat it. That's creative power. That doesn't lay in a human being.

QA ON THE SEALS 63-0324M 520-5 {380} It's not me could take a little boy here laying--the doctors laying him on his back, with heart trouble tonight, and say, "Thus saith William Branham..." No. "THUS SAITH THE LORD, it's finished." And bring him down to the doctor the next day and it's all gone. A kid with leukemia, till its eyes were bulged out, and yellow all over, and its stomach... until they taken it to the hospital to give it blood and things to even get it here; and in five minutes time, cry for a hamburger, and take it back to the doctor the next day and can't even find a trace of it. That's Thus Saith William Branham? That's THUS SAITH THE LORD. Yet He is an individual different from me, but the only way He's expressed is through me. See? That's how Jesus and the Father was. Jesus said, "It's not Me that doeth the works, it's My Father that dwelleth in Me." Now, the Son of man shall ascend from heaven, which now is in heaven. See? What was it? He was omnipresent because He was God.

JOHN 17:23 I in them, and thou in me, that they may be made perfect in one; (In One what? One Word), and that the world may know that thou hast sent me, and hast loved them, as thou hast loved me. 24 ¶ Father, I will that they also, whom thou hast given me, be with me where I am;(Look, he is now praying for Parousia, He is praying for eternal Presence) that they may behold my glory, which thou hast given me (And if God gave it to Him, He did not have it to begin with) for thou lovedst me before the foundation of the world.(Now, there is for those who do not believe in the pre-incarnate Son of God, he said God loved Him before the foundations of the World.) 25 O righteous Father, the world hath not known thee: but I have known thee, and these have known that thou hast sent me. 26 And I have declared unto them thy name, and will declare [it]: that the love wherewith thou hast loved me may be in them, and I in them.