Rising of the Son no 58

Resurrection Life

April 16, 2017

Brian Kocourek, Pastor

 

 

Romans 8:8  So then they that are into self cannot please God. 9  But ye are not into self, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you. Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his.

 

These words are very important for us to understand. What the Apostle Paul is telling us here is that if you are into self, you cannot be into God. And thus are not born again. He says, if the Spirit of God dwells in you, you will not be into self, but you will be into The Spirit. And if you are not born again of God's Spirit then you are none of His.

 

Now, I think these are resurrection words the Apostle Paul is telling us here because he is letting you know how you can tell whether the Spirit of Christ has come into your life and taken over living of your life for you or not. And if you have received the Spirit of Resurrection and Life into your mortal body, then you will surely die to self, and live unto Christ.

 

Let's continue reading from Romans 8 and we will pick up at verse 10  "And if Christ be in you, the body is dead because of sin; but the Spirit is life because of righteousness. 11  But if the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by his Spirit that dwelleth in you. 

 

Now, for the next few minutes I would like to do a comparative study of this verse from several translations because the wording of the King James version is somewhat confusing.

 

1st let's read from the version called The Wuest Translation 9-11: "but, as for you, you are not in the sphere of the sinful nature but in the sphere of the Spirit, provided that the Spirit of God is in residence in you. But, assuming that the person does not have Christ's Spirit, this one does not belong to Him. But assuming that Christ is in you, on the one hand the body is dead on account of sin, but on the other hand the human spirit is alive on account of righteousness. And assuming that the Spirit of the One Who raised up Jesus from among the dead is in residence in you, He who raised from among the dead Christ Jesus, will make alive your mortal bodies through the agency of the Spirit Who is resident in you. So then brethren we are those under obligation not to the sinful nature to live habitually under dominion of the sinful nature. For assuming that by the Spirit you are habitually putting to death the deeds of self, you will live.

 

Now, what I'm seeing here is that when you are born again, and God begins making your body come into obedience to His Word, something happens within us that is like flipping a switch to the on position, where you were once tied to your flesh, and living in sin, you are not lit up by the power of Resurrection Life that is now living in you.

Jehovah Jireh 3 64-0404 P:78 God help, that He'll turn that little switch in your heart. Friends, this week you've seen the great Holy Spirit among us. There's no question to that. But, oh, let that little Light be turned on tonight.

 

Shalom 64-0112 P:61 Oh, church, turn to the Word; get back to the Word; flip the right switch; quit punching around on electric lights (See?), artificial, manmade. Turn to His Word and see the promise of today. And then see what the promise is, and watch for its identification. When it's vindicated, then you know whether you're in Light or not.

 

Jehovah Jireh 3 64-0404 P:77 There's a Man here that's among us tonight, the Holy Spirit; He can turn on the lights. He is the Word: a Man here that can turn on the light. I don't know how He'll do it. It's not for me to know. But he knows how to turn the switch on. He made the promise.

 

And now that this switch has been flipped on you are no longer tied to your sinful nature of your flesh that was born in sin, shaped in iniquity and came to the world speaking lies, but rather, now your focus entire is upon Him who has taken over your mortal being.

 

Brother Branham calls this thing that happens the resurrection power of God within you.

 

From his sermon The Token 64-0208 P:69 brother Branham said, "The Token is the resurrection power, showing that Jesus raised up from the dead, and you are raised from the dead, the dead things of unbelief, and have been made alive in the Word of Jesus Christ. You believe it, and the Word lives through you.

 

Again brother Branham speaks of this resurrection power of the Lord Jesus being in you in his sermon, The Comforter 61-1001E P:75 where he says, "What is it? God's Word anchored in your flesh, that gives you Eternal Life, that gives you the resurrection power to bring you from the things of the world, from blind traditions of man, to walk in the Sunlight of the health of God. That's what the Comforter does. It lifts you out of that cellar condition. It brings you up in the Presence of God, and gives you an experience with God, that you can scream with Job of old, "I know my Redeemer liveth." Then if we see His Word, and we've refused to walk in the Light as He is in the Light, then our fellowship with God is cut off. But when we see the Light and walk in the Light, as He is the Light, then we have fellowship one with another; and the Blood of Jesus Christ, God's Son, cleanses us from all sin.

 

Notice to the Word of the Apostle Paul in Romans 8:9-11 from the version called the Message. And while reading I want you to focus on this resurrection power that comes into you when God's Spirit enters in a indwells in you. And remember, this is the same Spirit that raised up Jesus from among the dead, so it is the Resurrection Power of the Holy Spirit living and dwelling in you.

 

The Message 9-11 But if God himself has taken up residence in your life, you can hardly be thinking more of yourself than of him. Anyone, of course, who has not welcomed this invisible but clearly present God, the Spirit of Christ, won’t know what we’re talking about. But for you who welcome him, in whom he dwells—even though you still experience all the limitations of sin—you yourself experience life on God’s terms. It stands to reason, doesn’t it, that if the alive-and-present God who raised Jesus from the dead moves into your life, he’ll do the same thing in you that he did in Jesus, bringing you alive to himself? When God lives and breathes in you (and he does, as surely as he did in Jesus), you are delivered from that dead life. With his Spirit living in you, your body will be as alive as Christ’s!

 

So when God's Resurrection Spirit comes into your vessel to live, Paul tells us it brings with it the same resurrection power that raised up Jesus from the dead. Now, this is important for us to understand, because we are living in the hour that shall see those which are asleep raised up from the grave and those who are alive until then shall receive a change of their body.

 

From his sermon Jehovah Jireh 59-0417 P:43 Brother Branham said,  "When you touch Him, the High Priest of your confession, Who is a great Seed of Abraham, through God's promise, then you take on His Spirit in the fullness of His resurrection power; He fills you, and charges you with His goodness and His mercy, and His power of faith to call anything that's contrary to God's promise as though it isn't even there. Don't even look at it. March on. Amen.

 

And again from another sermon called Acts of the Holy Spirit 54-1219E P:45 brother Branham said, "When a man's ever born truly of the Spirit of God, and from the crown of his head to the ends of his toe nails, he's been changed by the resurrection power of the Lord Jesus Christ, and his own selfish ideas have faded away, and God has got complete control of that man, he will believe every written Word of the Lord Jesus Christ and practice the same."Upon this rock I'll build My Church, and the gates of hell can't prevail against It." Amen.

 

Notice he says, he's been changed by the resurrection power of the Lord Jesus Christ, and his own selfish ideas have faded away,

 

That means he has died to self, and the resurrection power of the Lord Jesus Christ is now in control.

 

Then brother Branham says from his sermon, Earnestly contending for the faith 53-0614A P:56 "Look. You can be just as fundamental... People preach the virgin birth, the death, burial, resurrection, second coming. That's true. I couldn't fuss with you about that. You believe it, and it's the truth, and I do too. So did Balaam. So did Israel. But what Balak failed to see there, down here in this camp, they had signs and wonders a following them. That's what they failed to say today. They're just as fundamental as we are. They believe it just the same way we do. But they deny that there is a resurrection power working among the people. Well, did the Holy Ghost speak that it would be that way? Paul said, "In the last days they'd be heady, high-minded, lovers of pleasure more than lovers of God; having a form of godliness, but would deny the power thereof." Hallelujah.

 

Notice he said they failed to see it and they fail to say it. Yet God said He would make our body to obey our confession. But they fail to say it because they fail to see it.

Now, the apostle Paul continues to say in verse 12  Therefore, brethren, we are debtors, not to self, to live after self. 13  For if ye live after self, ye shall die: but if ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of self, ye shall live. 14  For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God.

 

So what is leading you today? Is it self? Or is it the Spirit of God?

 

verse 15  For ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear; but ye have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father. 16  The Spirit (God's Spirit) Itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God:

 

And the way God's Spirit will bear witness with our Spirit is when God is living your life for you and He will bear witness with your spirit, that your spirit is truly in sync with His Spirit when your actions are Holy Ghost actions.

 

Now, brother Branham said in his sermon, Rising of the Sun (Son) 118 For now (Notice.), we are redeemed by Him and now risen with Him. That's what Easter means to the people: risen with Him. Notice. Now, we have His Spirit in us, the Abstract deed, fully paid. No. You don't say, "Well, I hope I make it." You've already made it. Not, "I will make it"; "I've already made it." I never made it; He made it for me. See? Not me, Him."Well, Brother Branham, they say..." I don't care what they say there; He made it for me. That's all I want to, I'm caring about. I just want to see Him manifested. How can you do it? Call Him down? No. He's in you. See? He's in you. "Well then, Lord, if I can get myself out of the way, You can manifest, ... myself. How can You do it? Because You ordained it so: 'All that the Father has given Me will come'" Notice. Glory.


Yes, we are ordained to do it. He ordained there would be sons of God who would manifest to the world they were sons of God. He ordained that there would be a people Who would be conformed to the image of the first born son. He ordained it. he ordained there would be a people who received the Spirit of Adoption, and would be positionally placed in the family. And he is not talking about in the millennium, he is speaking of this hour.

 

That is what brother Branham said in his sermon, Explaining healing and Jairus 54-0216 P:37 he said, "The devil's just trying to scare you out of something. He's trying to put something off somewhere else, say, "Some of these days you'll be this." You are now. Now, we're sons of God. Now, we're seated together in heavenly places. Now, we have all powers in heavens and the earth. See? Now, we have it. Not in the millennium, we won't need it then. We got it now. We're... Right now we are the sons of God. "It does not appear what we shall be, but we know we'll be like Him." What you are here is a reflection of what you are somewhere else. "Those who He called, He justifies." Is that right? "Those who He justified, He has glorified." Already in the Presence of the Father, we have a glorified body. Whew! Wasn't that deep? All right. We'll find out whether it's right or not. "If this earthly tabernacle be dissolved, we have one already waiting." Is that right? That's right. So right now, and what we are there, is a reflection. Here, what we are here, is a reflection of what we are somewhere else. So if your deeds are evil, you know where it comes from. You know where your other body's a waiting.

And then in the next paragraph of The Rising of the un (son) 119 brother Branham said, "With all that evidence collected with us now this morning, oh, I think of that song: On that resurrection morning, When death's cords will be broken, We shall rise, Hallelujah. we shall rise. You believe that? We shall rise. In Him we become part of Him, the Easter, the revealed secret of God like it was then, of Life after death. We are now alive, who were once dead in sin and trespasses. The true Easter Seal has broke death from around me, and I'm alive. The Easter Seal at the beginning broke the seal of the Roman seal (the Easter Seal) that He was sealed up. And man when they died was gone, but He broke the seal and revealed the secret. And now, God by His Holy Spirit has broke the seal from around our lives, and Christ is revealed that He lives in us, for now we are quickened with Him. Oh, page after page... We shall rise! Hallelujah. We shall rise! Amen. On that resurrection morning, When death's... bars are broken, We shall rise, Hallelujah! we shall rise! Oh, aren't you glad. I'm so glad way back down yonder, in a little old coal shed one morning, the seals were broken, and I raised with Him a new creature. His Quickening Power, the Son's up.

 

And now, let's skip ahead to paragraph P:127 of Rising of the Sun 65-0418 1M where brother Branham says, "And now (See?), now you are already resurrected. When God raised Him up, He raised you; the Son is just now on you. And now you're growing into a blossom Life like He was to be resurrected completely in that last day. Your potentials you have now. Why do you know? Your soul changed, didn't it? Your body come in obedience to It, didn't it? Into obedience to what? A church? The Word, which is the Life. Then you are now resurrected from the dead. It is Easter with Jesus and I. It's Easter with you and Jesus, and it's Easter with you, I, and Jesus. We are all, Jesus, you, and I, we're all resurrected together and we will rise at the last day even though our spirits leave our body, even though the bodies rust, may they go to dust, may they be burnt up, may they be in the bottom of the sea, the Bible said an Angel poured out his upon the sea and everything that died come up. There's nothing can hide us or separate us from that God that we love so well, that's raised us up together.

 

This is so beautiful what brother Branham is saying here. Notice he said, "now you are already resurrected". Then he said, "And now you're growing into a blossom Life"...And then he said, "Why do you know? Your soul changed, didn't it? Your body come in obedience to It, didn't it? Into obedience to what? A church? The Word, which is the Life. Then you are now resurrected from the dead."

 

Notice we see this in Romans 8:16  The Spirit Itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God:

 

So how does God's Spirit bear witness with our Spirit? He is the Word, and He is the Life, and when we are born again and filled with His Spirit, His Life, "it brings our body subject to His Word," and we actually see manifested in our body His Word, and His Life.

 

From brother Branham's sermon The Second Seal 63-0319 P:82 He said, " When Jesus incarnates Himself in His people, the very Life that was in Christ is in this person. What would it do if you took the life out of a grapevine and put it in a pumpkin vine? It wouldn't bear pumpkins no more; it'd bear grapes. See? What if you took the life out of a peach tree and put it in a pear tree? Would it bear pears? No, bear peaches. The life tells what it is. See? When you hear people say they got the Holy Ghost and deny this Word, there's something wrong. The Holy Ghost wrote that Word. And Jesus said this: "If a man has My Spirit in him, he will do My works." You want to read that? If you want to put it down, it's Saint John 14:12. Yeah. All right. "He that believeth in Me, the works that I do shall he do also, even more than this shall he do, for I go to the Father." See? Then He sanctifies and cleans him so he can stand before God. That drop of ink falls there and takes him across the chasm. See? 83   Now, watch. Satan, when he incarnates himself in his subjects, they do the work that he did. Don't you see? What did he do? Come right to that innocent woman to deceive her. And that's exactly what some of these devils do: come right into a place, and say, a little pastor gets started out somewhere come in and say, "Oh, if you just join up with us..." See? The same devil work. Now, that's the Truth. And when Satan become incarnate into his church, if there be a devil, then they are the ones that does the murdering and killing and so forth, because Satan is a killer in the first place, a liar and a... See? All right, what does Satan do when he does, when he becomes incarnate amongst the people? It's his duty to be shrewd. He is shrewd. You search the Bible, and you show me where God ever dealt with intellectual people. Hunt for it and see if it isn't always the intellectuals that's devil possessed. It's a big word, but it's true. I challenge you to take the lineage from Abel to Cain, and them fourteen generations, run them out, and see which ones was on the smart side and which ones was the humble ones.

 
Listen to the words of Jesus in Luke 11:47  Woe unto you! for ye build the sepulchres of the prophets, and your fathers killed them. 48  Truly ye bear witness that ye allow the deeds of your fathers: for they indeed killed them, and ye build their sepulchres. 49  Therefore also said the wisdom of God, I will send them prophets and apostles, and some of them they shall slay and persecute: 50  That the blood of all the prophets, which was shed from the foundation of the world, may be required of this generation; 51  From the blood of Abel unto the blood of Zacharias, which perished between the altar and the temple: verily I say unto you, It shall be required of this generation. 52  Woe unto you, lawyers! for ye have taken away the key of knowledge: ye entered not in yourselves, and them that were entering in ye hindered.  53  And as he said these things unto them, the scribes and the Pharisees began to urge him vehemently, and to provoke him to speak of many things: 54  Laying wait for him, and seeking to catch something out of his mouth, that they might accuse him.

 

Now, listen again to the words of William Branham from his sermon on The Second seal - 63-0319 86. And when a man turns down the Gospel Truth, Satan marks him. Where? At his ear. He deafens him so he can't hear the Truth no more. And he's finished. My. He stays with the group that he's with, if he won't hear the truth. No. "You shall know the Truth and the Truth shall make you free." The Truth makes free. God marks His when they comeGod marks His by vindicating His promised Word through them. That's exactly. Saint John 14:12, and another thing if you want to put down: Mark 16. Jesus said, "These signs shall follow them that believe."  

 

Notice brother Branham tells us the way God marks His own is with signs and wonders following. And then listen to what he tells us next, because there are some who would have you to believe God limits that to just the apostles or just His prophets. But that is not what God said. I can show you where God said it now you show me where he took it back. Now, listen to what brother Braham says next. Because he is telling you exactly what I just said.

 

87. Now, let us just take that a minute. Was He joking? [Congregation replies "no"--Ed.] Did He just just mean the apostles as some would tell us? [Congregation replies "no"--Ed.]

 

Seems to me that congregation had more on the ball than some congregations. Yet ministers and laity will tell you,  "oh, those people in the Branham Tabernacle, they don't understand the doctrine, they don't understand the teaching". They don't?  They sure got it right on this doctrine. And I don't know any of them who denied the Presence of Christ in this hour through brother Branham's ministry, do you? Now, listen as we hear God's prophet continue...

 

"Watch, read the background of it. Go ye into (where?) all the world; preach this Gospel to (what?) every creature." It has not even one-third of the way have met it yet. "These signs shall follow in all the world, to every creature, wherever this Gospel's preached. "These signs shall follow them that believe," not just to one little handful. Like a fellow one time tell me: "God only gave the twelve apostles gifts of healing, and..." Oh. Many of the brethren is setting here when he raised up to say that. See? He got enough of it in a few minutes. So now, notice, "All the world, to every creature, these signs shall follow."  88. Don't take Satan's unbelieving mark. Now, he will put it on you tonight if he can do it. He will poke you up against the wall and you'll walk out and say, "Aw, I don't know about that." You go home and study it. And then be sincere and pray, 'cause everything's is too perfectly Scriptural at this very hour, this sacred hour of time. It's done been for years, proved. Come right up to it and this is the hour. This is the time. And now, don't let him poke that in your ear, his unbelieving mark. See? 'Cause he was an unbeliever to begin with. He doubted it. All right. Oh, don't even let him take the Scripture with his wisdom and twist It and pervert It with his own wisdom into reasoning powers. You just be humble and say, "God said so, and that's all there is to it."

 

Notice brother Branham is speaking in terms of the very life expressed is the very Word manifested or vindicated. Then when we are filled with His Spirit your body can not help but to express John 14:12 because the Word is the Life. And the expression of the Word is the expression of the life. And then he goes into the other Spirit, the other Life which is the life of Satan, and says when Satan incarnates a person that person will do Satan's works. So you are either going to manifest God life of satan life, and you can't get around that.

 

We can prove it by Scripture. Turn with me to John 8:37  I know that ye are Abraham's seed; but ye seek to kill me, because my word hath no place in you. 38  I speak that which I have seen with my Father: and ye do that which ye have seen with your father. 39  They answered and said unto him, Abraham is our father. Jesus saith unto them, If ye were Abraham's children, ye would do the works of Abraham. 40  But now ye seek to kill me, a man that hath told you the truth, which I have heard of God: this did not Abraham. 41  Ye do the deeds of your father. Then said they to him, We be not born of fornication; (we are not serpent seed.) we have one Father, even God. 42  Jesus said unto them, If God were your Father, ye would love me: for I proceeded forth and came from God; neither came I of myself, but he sent me. 43  Why do ye not understand my speech? even because ye cannot hear my word. 44  Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and the father of it.  45  And because I tell you the truth, ye believe me not. 46  Which of you convinceth me of sin? And if I say the truth, why do ye not believe me? 47  He that is of God heareth God's words: ye therefore hear them not, because ye are not of God. 48  Then answered the Jews, and said unto him, Say we not well that thou art a Samaritan, and hast a devil? 49  Jesus answered, I have not a devil; but I honour my Father, and ye do dishonour me. 50  And I seek not mine own glory: there is one that seeketh and judgeth. 51  Verily, verily, I say unto you, If a man keep my saying, he shall never see death. 52  Then said the Jews unto him, Now we know that thou hast a devil. Abraham is dead, and the prophets; and thou sayest, If a man keep my saying, he shall never taste of death. 53  Art thou greater than our father Abraham, which is dead? and the prophets are dead: whom makest thou thyself? 54  Jesus answered, If I honour myself, my honour is nothing: it is my Father that honoureth me; of whom ye say, that he is your God: 55  Yet ye have not known him; but I know him: and if I should say, I know him not, I shall be a liar like unto you: but I know him, and keep his saying. 56  Your father Abraham rejoiced to see my day: and he saw it, and was glad. 57  Then said the Jews unto him, Thou art not yet fifty years old, and hast thou seen Abraham? 58  Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Before Abraham was, I am. 59  Then took they up stones to cast at him: but Jesus hid himself, and went out of the temple, going through the midst of them, and so passed by.

 

Notice how Jesus tells them if God were your Father you would know the truth, you would know the Word that Spoke of Him.

 

And that is what the apostle Paul taught us in 1 Corinthians 2: when he told us "No man can understand the things of God except the Spirit of God be in him." In other words, if you are not born again by the Spirit of God and God's own Spirit is living in you, then there is no way you could understand the things of God. In fact the Apostle Paul says it is impossible for the unregenerate mind to know the things of God. It can only be done by the Spirit of God in you.

 

1 Corinthians 2:10  But God hath revealed them unto us by his Spirit: for the Spirit (God's Spirit) searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God. 11  For what man knoweth the things of a man, save the spirit of man which is in him? even so the things of God knoweth no man, but the Spirit of God knows. 12  Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the spirit which is of God; that we might know the things that are freely given to us of God. 13  Which things also we speak, not in the words which man's wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy Ghost teacheth; comparing spiritual things with spiritual. 14  But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.

 

In other words, it is impossible for any man to know the things of God unless the Spirit of God is in him. That means the Life o God must be in him, or it matters not what he thinks he knows. Without the Spirit of God you are only guessing. But you are not capable of knowing.

 

From P:14 of The Rising of the Sun (Son) brother Branham said, ... What good would any of it do you, whether you had Lent or not Lent, if there's no Life in you. It's only a memorial, which there's nothing against it, but they have certainly carried out their traditions but left off the main thing. Satan doesn't care how religious you are, or how right you are in your doctrine; if you miss that Life, you're won't come up anyhow. No matter how religious, how good, how many churches you've belonged to or will belong to, it doesn't matter one thing unless you have been born again. Therefore, if God raised up Jesus from the dead, did He raise Him up for a memorial, and is this resurrection morning only a one day in the year or a certain day that we celebrate this, or are we benefactors of His resurrection? What does it mean to me? What does it mean to you? Now, we believe by faith that He raised from the dead, but what has that got to do with me? That was two thousand years ago.

 

And from his sermon Who is this Melchisedec 65-0221E P:33 he said, "Before the foundation of the world his Name's put on the Lamb's Book of Life. Then from that He become the Word, the theophany, that could appear, disappear; and then He become flesh and returned back again, resurrected that same body in a glorified condition. But you bypassed the theophany and become flesh-man to be tempted by sin. And then "if this earthly tabernacle is dissolved, we have one already waiting." We have not yet the bodies. But look, when this body receives the Spirit of God, the Immortal Life inside of you, it throws this body in subjection to God. Hallelujah."He that's born of God doth not commit sin; he cannot sin." Romans 8:1. "There is therefore now no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus; they walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit." There you are. See, that throws your body subject. You don't have to say, "Oh, if I could just quit drinking, if I could just..." Just get in Christ; it's all gone. See, see? Because your body is subject to the Spirit, it's no more subject to the things of the world; they're dead. They are dead; your sins are buried in baptism; and you are a new creation in Christ. And your body becoming subject to the Spirit, try to live a right kind of life...

 

And from P:22 of The Rising of the Sun (Son) Then He said when He come forth on that morning, "Because I live, you live also." Not only was He the beneficiary of the resurrection, but all those Seed that was resting in God's great providence was a benefactor of that resurrection to Life, because He said, "Because I live, ye shall live also." That was the breaking of the Seal. Because He was brought up, so will every one that's in Christ be brought up with Him. At this glorious sunrise God had proven or vindicated His Word. All the glooms and doubts that had moved in people's minds was taken away, because here was He Who once lived, eat, drink, and fellowship with mankind that said, "I have power to lay My life down, and I have power to raise it up again." And now, not only had He made the statement, but He proved it to be the truth. Oh, what a glorious thing that is. I'm sure this morning that even we, who believe it, cannot comprehend what a great thing that was. Because He raised from the dead, we also have already raised from the dead, for we were in Him.


let us pray...