Spoken Word no. 266

“Rightly Dividing the Word of Truth”

Brian Kocourek, Pastor

July 17th, 2011

 

2 Timothy 2:15 Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.

 

This morning we will read the last three paragraphs from The Spoken Word is the Original Seed pp. And we will see later on if the Lord has anything else for us to look at in this Sermon before we conclude the series. But for now, let’s read beginning with paragraph  205 as brother Branham is closing in prayer.  “Him that led us, and in this now with the hours of preaching, explaining, doing the best I know how for my fellow man, trying to get them to understand the things that I have said, and why I have done these things. I bring to You now, Lord, this people, this people visible and the people that will hear will hear the tapes hereafter...?...Think, God, Himself, give the Divine interpretation; and I'm sure, Lord, if I brought the Word, It'll fall on them that It's predestinated to fall on. Thy Word is Truth. Father, I'm sorry that I failed You many times. I pray You forgive me. I pray You forgive my audience, visible and invisible, of all their sins; that, Lord God, we realize that we're at the end of the road. Every sign's right here before us. I'm sure the spiritual mind, Lord, catches what I just said a few minutes ago. I pray that they'll understand, Lord, where we're at. We're near something. We can hear the breakers; we're close.   206   Help us, Lord in heaven. I pray for every person that's setting here. I pray for these handkerchiefs that represent the sick who trust me, Lord, that I pray a prayer of faith for all. Now, to those that are open hearted to God's Word, by faith I plant this seed. I claim that in the Name Jesus Christ and in faith in God, that, Lord God, I commit them to You now. Water it; send the Spirit upon it, Lord, that germitized Word there, that You're the same great God to heal, same great God to save, the same great God of the resurrection. You're God. May they produce a crop, a bride for our Lord Jesus, a sanctified womb of the heart to receive the Word. Grant it, Lord. I commend them to You to take from here, if possible, every one Your bride. In the Name of Jesus Christ. Amen. 207   I love Him, I love Him Because He first loved me And purchased my salvation On Calvary's tree. All together now with our hands up. I love Him, I love Him  Because He first loved me And purchased my salvation On Calvary's tree. Now, after the Word has been six hours, but there's an addition. I commend you the first step. Repent...?... the God and be baptized in a few minutes in the Name of Jesus Christ for the remission of your sins, and God promised to give you the Holy Ghost, for the promise is unto you and your children and to them that's far off. It's to the Methodists, Baptists, Catholic, Presbyterian, and whosoever will receive the Word, let him come. You believe that? I see you have a pastor...?... in service. If you'll make ready now 'cause we're getting ready to ask Brother Neville. Now be seated just a moment. Our Brother Neville, now, our pastor, will tell you about the order of the service right now, just in a minute. God bless you till I see you again.

 

Now, in closing of our reading here and perhaps even the end of this wonderful series that we have sent the last 3-1/2 years on, I would like to take our thought today on these words which brother Branham said, You're God. May they produce a crop, a bride for our Lord Jesus, a sanctified womb of the heart to receive the Word. Grant it, Lord. I commend them to You to take from here, if possible, every one Your bride. In the Name of Jesus Christ. Amen.

 

And so we are looking at His request that each of us that hear The Word would produce the crop that we are ordained to produce.

 

Now, we find that these were also the Words of our Lord Jesus Christ in the Book of Matthew chapter 13.

 

Matthew 13:10  And the disciples came, and said unto him, Why speakest thou unto them in parables? 11  He answered and said unto them, Because it is given unto you to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it is not given. 12  For whosoever hath, to him shall be given, and he shall have more abundance: but whosoever hath not, from him shall be taken away even that he hath. 13  Therefore speak I to them in parables: because they seeing see not; and hearing they hear not, neither do they understand. 14  And in them is fulfilled the prophecy of Esaias, which saith, By hearing ye shall hear, and shall not understand; and seeing ye shall see, and shall not perceive: 15  For this people's heart is waxed gross, and their ears are dull of hearing, and their eyes they have closed; lest at any time they should see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and should understand with their heart, and should be converted, and I should heal them. 16  But blessed are your eyes, for they see: and your ears, for they hear. 18  Hear ye therefore the parable of the sower. 19  When any one heareth the word of the kingdom, and understandeth it not, then cometh the wicked one, and catcheth away that which was sown in his heart. This is he which received seed by the way side.  20  But he that received the seed into stony places, the same is he that heareth the word, and anon with joy receiveth it; 21  Yet hath he not root in himself, but dureth for a while: for when tribulation or persecution ariseth because of the word, by and by he is offended.  22  He also that received seed among the thorns is he that heareth the word; and the care of this world, and the deceitfulness of riches, choke the word, and he becometh unfruitful. 23  But he that received seed into the good ground is he that heareth the word, and understandeth it; which also beareth fruit, (produces fruit) and bringeth forth, some an hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty.

 

Notice in the Scripture we just read, Jesus is very plain that there are some who are ordained to see and understand, while others are not ordained to see and understand. And those who are ordained to see and understand He said will produce fruit, while the others will not produce fruit. In other words the Word will produce in them what it has ordained to produce. Others you will not see this seed-life manifested, because there is not life in them.

 

We also find this same thing spoken of in Acts 13:48 And when the Gentiles heard this, they were glad, and glorified the word of the Lord: and as many as were ordained to eternal life believed.

 

Now, the fact is you can not believe what you do not understand. Oh, you  can believe in a person because of vindication even though you do not understand what they are saying, but to believe person you have to have some kind of understanding and perception what they are telling you. And the fact that we have understanding and perception of the doctrine that William Branham taught us indicates we have been ordained to understand it.  Then what does that say about those who do not understand what God is doing in this hour? It is very simple. They are not ordained to see it, and no matter how much you try to tell them what you see, they will never see it unless they are ordained to see it.

 

That is why brother Branham preached his sermon “Look” right after the seals were preached. And in that message he said,  Look 63-0428 P:12 Now, we are going to try this morning to take just four letters in a word, "Look," for a subject, and to deal with it a little while as the Lord will lead us to do. I have a few notes written here and some Scripture that we might refer to as we go along. Look, l-double o-k, look, the word, really, when... It's used oft, "but, look..." When you hear the word it's usually somebody trying to get you to see what they are looking at. They say to you, "Look." Like going down the road, someone might see a certain scene and they'd say, "Look," and then express what it is. It's at the mountain, at the cactus, or whatever they're looking at. But the first thing to get your attention is, "Look."

 

And so we see this sermon was called “Look” because brother Branham was seeing something the people were not seeing, and so as he said, we use the word “Look” to get their attention to stop whatever it is they are doing and to look at what we are pointing them too. So we see in Matthew 13, Jesus tells us "There has to be eyes first to see. Is that right? And if we have those eyes to see, we will see what is in Malachi 4:5-6 Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and the dreadful day of the LORD:  6  And he shall turn the heart of the fathers to the children, and the heart of the children to their fathers, lest I come and smite the earth with a curse.

 

If our spiritual vision is good we read this with perception and understanding, and we see it speaks of two events, a Great Day when the messiah would come and be introduced by Elijah the prophet and it would turn the hearts of the Fathers to the children, and the Dreadful day of the Lord in which Elijah the prophet would turn the hearts of the children to the fathers. So here we see these two ministries of Elijah the prophet separated by 2000 years. And remember, the word heart is always used in Scripture to refer to understanding.

 

And of course there are many Scriptures that speak of understanding from the heart, as we read in Matthew 13 as well as Acts C28:27 For the heart of this people is waxed gross, and their ears are dull of hearing, and their eyes have they closed; lest they should see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their heart, and should be converted, and I should heal them.

 

And as I said a few weeks ago, we see the same thing with John 14:12. Jesus speaks of the believer doing the works and then he speaks of doing the greater works. So we have works and greater works. And as I have said we have to be careful to say all that the prophets have said on that. Just because brother Branham identified that with his ministry does not say that he believed it was only for his ministry. So we must be very careful on rightly dividing the Word of Truth.

 

That is why when brother Branham and Br. Vayle were discussing the evidence of being born again, they talked about how the Pentecostals looked to tongues as the evidence, and both knowing it wasn’t any evidence so when brother Vayle mentioned two different experiences brother Branham had mentioned concerning his own new birth experience, one being like the rain pelting his face in the shed, and the other had to do with a light appearing or something like that, but then brother Branham said to him, “Lee, we don’t go by experience we go by the Word of God.

 

From his sermon, Ye must be born again 58-0619B P:14 What you are, what Calvinism is, what grace is, is what God did for you. But what works is, is what you do for God in appreciation of what He did for you through grace. That's the whole answer. Then if I am saved, then I live like I'm saved. But I could live like I was saved and not be saved. See? So it's the fact then brings it to this spot, that we must be born again. So the born again experience tells what we are. It doesn't mean that we, I believe in shouting and all the manifestations and demonstrations of the Spirit, but yet that's not it yet. See? It's something different from that. It's a new creature, something in the heart. And I wonder if we ministers, both man and women, if many times we don't just say the word, "You must be born again," and take it over the head of the people like that. When we've got to come back to the spot and let them know what a birth means. See? It's got to come back to something more than words; it's got to come back to a fundamental fact, and that is this great experience of being born again and what it produces for us. See?

 

You see evidence and experience are two different words and mean two different things. Evidence is what the new birth produces for us, and that is “we can say from our heart amen to every word of God, and we can not only hear it, but we can also recognize it and act upon it”. That is what the Word of God is to produce in the hearts of man. Not just talking about the Word, or being able to say the same words, because any parrot can do that? But it means to hear it, recognize it, and then begin acting upon it. That’s why brother Branham said, And I wonder if we ministers, both man and women, if many times we don't just say the word, "You must be born again," and take it over the head of the people like that.

 

You see, having an evidence in the fact that you receive the Word for the Day in which you live, doesn’t do away with your having an experience of birth, it just means that there is an empirical  evidence that shows whether that birth was genuinely from the Holy Ghost or not. The devil can duplicate any experience, but not every one can hear, recognize and act upon the Word of God. But that does not do away with the fact that every believer has some form of experience when being born again. And let’s face it, every birth into this world is unique in it’s own sort of way. I had to be placed in an oxygen tent for my first 8 days on earth because my lungs had not fully formed yet. Others may have been born very early and needed assistance for a period of time, others may have had to have a C-section in the mother for the baby to be born, etc. No matter what the birth, each was a real experience with real pain and suffering involved to one degree or another.

 

As Brother Branham said, how can you come through a birth and not know it. But they were not talking about whether a person has an experience or not, that was not the subject. The subject was “what is the evidence of the new birth?”, and the word evidence means plainly visible or admissible testimony. In other words, they were looking at evidence of something having already taken place. And the experience of being born again is just that an experience. But since Satan can duplicate any experience we do not look to the experience as an absolute, but only at the indicative admissible testimony which is always the Word.

 

From his sermon, Discerning body of Lord 59-0812 16 Jesus said once, "That except a man be born again, he cannot see the Kingdom of God," or understand. And in other words, you can't discern the Kingdom of God until you are born again.


Now, I believe the evidence of being born again is the Word comes alive to you and you receive an ability to understand the Word and to see it unfolding in your day.


John 1:12 But as many as received him, (The Greek word for received here is Lambano and it means to have experienced or to have taken to one's self. Therefore, those who truly experienced Him, are the one's He says) to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name: So these are believers. They Believe on His Name. And to them He gives power to become sons… Now the word power used is the Greek word "exousia", an ability to make a right decision, For you see, the Bible also tells us, "PROVERBS 14:12 There is a way which seems right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death.


Therefore if a man is left up to his own choosing, he will go in the ways of death. But God has given him, or has granted, given him a grant, the ability to know and to understand. And this ability to make a right decision concerning the acceptance of Christ is not for everyone. For Jesus tells Nicodemus, these … 13 Which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God. So He is talking about the new birth and the importance of that new birth is that God gives him an ability to know and to understand the kingdom of God and what it is all about.


I Corinthians 2:9 But as it is written, Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him. 10 But God hath revealed them unto us by his Spirit: for the Spirit searches 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 teaches, but which the Holy Ghost teaches; 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. 15 But he that is spiritual judgeth all things, yet he himself is judged of no man. 16 For who hath known the mind of the Lord, that he may instruct him? But we have the mind of Christ.

Why against organized religion 62-1111E 63 But if he's born the same way that I'm born, then he'll know the things that I know. Amen. Oh, my. Yes, sir. You can't tell a knot on the tree how we move about and be active, it would have to receive our kind of life to understand it. Same with the Spirit. The same thing is with the Spirit, or you can't understand It. There's no need of trying to figure It all out; just come to Him first. For, "Except a man be born again, he can't even see the Kingdom," He said, that's understand it. You've got to be born again in order to know It.


Contending for the faith 55-0220E 66 Jesus said, "Except a man be born again, he cannot see the Kingdom." You can't understand it. It's a mystic, mythical thing until you're born again. There the very Life of God comes in you. Everlasting, Eternal Life, Zoe, God's own Life comes in you, and then you're a part of God. You're a Son of God or a daughter of God. And then you see as God sees. You believe as God believes. Then you'll be a new creature in Christ Jesus....


In I PETER 1:23 we read, Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which liveth and abideth for ever. Now, I want you to understand what this is telling us. In John chapter 1 we read that the new birth is being born of God… and now we are told here in 1 Peter that the new birth comes by the Word, being born again by the Word of God…


And yet does not John 1:1 tell us, “In the beginning was the Word and the Word was God.” And did not Jesus tell us in John 6:63, “My words are spirit an they are life.” Therefore, as Jesus said,  God is Spirit and they that worship Him must worship Him in Spirit and truth.” And God being a Spirit, and He is the Word, then that Word must come into the believer and it is that Word which quickens the Soul of the Believer to the word of God, and thus to God Himself, for He is the Word. And Being that God is the Word, and He is Spirit, then when the Word of God comes alive in the believer it is actually the Life of God in the Believer coming alive.

 

The Scripture doesn’t say that when you believed you received the Baptism, but have you received the baptism since you believed. The word Since means after. Now, the problem we have in this Message is that of having a balance in understanding how the evidence is one thing yet there may be an experience which is something different altogether.

 

From his sermon, Questions and answers COD 64-0823E P:48 289. At the instant of receiving the Holy Ghost, or the baptism of the Holy Ghost, is there a difference? Does a person speak with tongues? If not always, what manifestation is known? Well, could you imagine a mother giving birth to a baby and not knowing it? She'd have to be unconscious not to know it. Neither can you receive the Holy Ghost without knowing it. There's something takes place in you. See? There's something that changes you. Your whole system, your whole spiritual system is made new again, and you become a new creature in Christ, as the Bible puts it, a new creation in Christ. You know it. Now, you say, "Brother Branham, then you don't believe that a man should speak with tongues to receive the Holy Ghost." Not to prove he's got the Holy Ghost..

 

And from his sermon, Voice of the sign 64-0321E P:25 Now, we're not playing church. This is church. Christ is the church. We're in Christ, the mystical body of Christ. We're born into it; you can't join it. I've been with the Branham family for almost fifty-five years, and they never did ask me to join the family. I was born a Branham. That's the way you're a Christian; you're born a Christian. Not joined into it, you're born in it. Everybody's afraid of the birth. They have some nice clean way of taking a little hand, or signing a little card, or a salt-shake with some water in it. That's not the birth. A birth is a hard thing. A birth is \an awful thing. I don't care if it's in a pigpen, or a barn stall, or in a pink decorated hospital room, a birth is a mess. And it makes a mess out of you. You don't want to give up. You don't want this, that, or the other. But the tears'll wash the paint off your face and make you a different person. If you're born again, it'll make a mess out of you. But you'll come forth a new creature. They don't want that. They want some easy way, you know. And there is no easy way. As the song, he said, "I'll take the way with the Lord's despised few." You don't want to be a hotbed plant.

 

Balm of Gilead 61-0218 P:55 You know, the new birth's what people want to dodge; they want to dodge the issue. So the devil patches it up, says, "When you believe, that's when you're born again." That's not right. Listen, any birth, as I said before, any birth is a mess. I don't care where it's at. If it's in the pig pen, it's a mess. A mess of pigs being born out there, it's a horrible thing. If it was out in the field when a calf's born, it's a horrible thing, nasty mess. If it's out in the pink decorated hospital room, it's still a mess. And the new birth is a mess. But you have to have that messy thing to bring forth new life. Amen. That's what's the matter with the people today. They're afraid it'll wash some of the paint off their face and make them straighten up. They got the toxine, but they don't want to take it. And God's going to ask you why someday, didn't you do it? Why didn't you? There's toxine; there's balm in Gilead, there's physicians there. But the reason's because the people don't want to subscribe to this physician. They want an aspirin instead. They don't want to diagnose the case. When you go into a doctor and tell him, "My... I'm sick, my stomach's hurting; my head's hurting." If he wants to get rid of you. Well, the first thing he do, he will give you a little formula that's got some aspirin in it and send you out. That's not a doctor. He's trying to get rid of you. A real doctor will examine that case till he finds the reason and then start to work from there.

 

We find also Scriptures as we pointed out a few weeks ago in John 14:12, where the people get a hold of one little idea and they can’t see any further than that. Look, I do not want to keep hitting these things, but we’ve got to snap out of it. We’ve got to take all the Word not just that which suites our doctrine. So we saw how that there is a balance within John 14:12 just as there is in Malachi 4:6 and Isaiah 61:1-2 where there are 2,000 years separated by a colon.

 

This day this scripture 65-0219 P:13 And just as plain as you could hear any voice, a Voice come to me and said, "He entered into Nazareth to where He was brought up at and went into the synagogue as it was His custom. And the priest gave Him the Scriptures to read, and He read Isaiah 61. And when He had read the Scriptures, He set down, handed the priest back the Bible, the Book, and set down. And all the eyes of the congregation was upon Him, and precious words proceeded from His mouth and He said, 'This day this Scripture is fulfilled.'" "This day this Scripture is fulfilled." How accurate is the Scripture. If you'll notice this, in Isaiah 61:1-2 is where our Lord was reading from: Isaiah 61:1-2. But in the middle of the second verse of Isaiah 61, He stopped where it said, "The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me to preach the acceptable year." Then He stopped. Why? The other part, to bring judgment, it didn't apply to His first coming, but His second coming. See, it didn't apply there; how the Scriptures never make a mistake. They're always perfect. Jesus stopped just where the Scripture stopped, 'cause that was exactly what was to be vindicated in His day.

 

So you see how we have shown you three scriptures where that Scripture was broken into first coming and second coming, and yet if we said Malachi 4:6 was William Branham we could say amen to that. Yet if Someone said Malachi 4:6 was John turning the hearts of the Fathers to the children, we could say Amen to that also. And Isaiah 61 as brother Branham pointed out is the same things, as well as John 14:12 we saw the same thing. That is why Brother Branham could identify with ia particular Scripture and yet say, just because all can not do those things doesn’t mean that only one man will do it either. Because part of that verse also applies to others in that group as brother Branham made it so clear. In other words there is a balance we have yet to come to. And it takes a balance to bring us to maturity. 

 

We see the same thing concerning Revelations 10:1-7, I can show you many quotes where brother Branham in speaking of His own ministry and says, “friends this is the fulfillment of  Malachi 4, St. Luke 17, St. John 15, oh, so many, Revelations 10, so many prophecies that can be pinned exactly to this day.

 

And we could take and show you nearly 70 quotes where he identifies his ministry as Revelations 10:1-7 and yet I can show you some others where he says that will be when the Lord returns to the Jews. So what are you going to do about it? Just say what he said that’s all you can do.

 

I was listening to my Ipod Friday night and as I awoke Saturday morning I heard brother Branham says, yesterday morning as I awoke from sleep and heard brother Branham say, “5   These couple requests... I don't know whether they got the recorders going yet for this or not. It might be good. Well, I guess it's all right for the outside, the public to hear this, it's a request. Did you prophesy that there'd be a million Negroes killed or did you just announce that there would be this happening? Now, see, I've always asked you to be careful what you're listening to. See? There's so much of it that it's just the human side. But always if there is something that goes forth, it will speak it, "It's THUS SAITH THE LORD," even to visions or anything. The visions on the platform, in the audience, you are doing that yourself; it isn't God; it's you. See? God doesn't produce that vision; you do it yourself by your faith in a Divine gift. Like the woman touched His garment. He didn't know who she was or what was wrong with her, but she did that herself. See? Now, that wasn't THUS SAITH THE LORD. It was THUS SAITH THE LORD when Jesus spoke back and told her that her faith had saved her. But, see, you have to watch.  6 No, I just was talking about Martin Luther King on this great disaster that they're having in the south, with the colored people. I said, "If those people were slaves, I'd take my church and go south to help them people out of slavery." I sure would, because man makes slaves, not God. We're all of one blood. …and then in paragraph 7 he said,  And I think that Martin Luther King is Communistic inspired, which is going to lead about a million people to a absolutely a death trap. See? I don't say the Lord told me that. I believe. See? And I believe it shouldn't be done. I think that people ought to be Christians and recognize one another as brothers.

 

So you see, I think it has become too common among the people in this Message to say everything brother Branham said was thus saith the Lord, and many people have been waiting for the million blacks going to there death as something that has to happen before the coming of the Lord, and he said it was not something that God told him, it was just what he as a man could see happening because the man was being influenced by the wrong spirit, which was the communist party of America. So if you are waiting for that to happen, just forget it. Because remember he said everything has been fulfilled except the coming of Christ. Remember also that brother Branham told us that even the disciples had a hard time understanding Jesus because he was a dual being. He said in his sermon, Sirs we would see Jesus 57-1211 P:21 Christ seemed to be a dual personality. He would speak sometimes and they'd scratch their heads; and they didn't understand Him. He'd speak one thing one time, look like, and something else another time. What it was, was Jesus speaking, and then Christ speaking. Jesus was the man. Christ was the God that was in Him. "Not Me that doeth the works: My Father that dwelleth in Me, He doeth the work." See? God will not share His glory with no one.

 

So you see, that is why I try to take everything brother Branham says in these sermons back to the Scriptures and run it from Genesis to Revelations, then we can rest in knowing that it is Thus Saith the Lord. Because as Christians we are commanded to not add one word or take one word from this Bible, and being Christians and being it is in our nature to hold onto every word, we then take every Word God’s prophet said and run with it, when sometimes we need to just set back and watch and let God interpret his own Word by bringing it to pass. People seem to be in too big of a hurry to try to make things happen. So my advice is this, If God said it, it will most assuredly happen. If God did not say it, then it will not come to pass.

 

And that is why brother Branham tried over and over to emphasize that he did not prophecy concerning 1977, he simply said as a human being who is watching the timing of the 5 previous visions coming to pass, based on that time-frame I believe the 7th vision will come by 1977. But later he said, things are slowing down and we have to wait for things to catch up. So what does it all mean? I don’t know. Do I care, not really. I try not to get myself involved in things that are not my business, and I can’t say I have always been that way, but you get your hand caught in someone else’s cookie jar and get it slapped and you learn to get your own cookie jar.

 

I have too much trouble trying to undo my own human shortcomings, so why would I want to stick my neck out into some else’s business and get involved where it’s none of my business?

 

So we try to the best of our ability, to stay within the limits of Genesis to Revelations, and by God’s grace if it goes outside those limits you won’t hear it from this pulpit, at least not knowingly. We are all human and as brother Branham said 700 instead of 7000 we are all capable of making those kind of errors, but we can minimize our ability to err if we stay with the Scriptures, and as ministers, knowing that some people may hang onto your every word, we must be very careful not to get too much self into the pulpit. So we need to stay prayed up, and even more so as we know the hour is coming to a close. In fact in speaking of prayer, brother Branham said in…

 

Abraham restored 61-0211 One day while Abraham was setting there, along about eleven o'clock in the day, I imagine. He looked, coming up through there, and here come three Men with dust all over Their clothes, walking along. You know there's something about it, you can pass right by God's blessing and not know it if you're not prayed up. I think about that, prayed up. There was a little Irish woman come over from Ireland not long ago, and they said she was on a ship and  was along about, oh, about time they was getting in New York a great typhoon swept out across the ocean, and the ship was just sending out SOS's, and it was just diving from place to place. The bands had been playing; they'd been doing all the rock-and-roll that they could and all like that. And the band started playing... The Captain said, "Everybody pray; everybody pray, the way you do in your church." And the bands begin to play "Nearer, My God To Thee." And they all begin going on.   36   A little Irish woman begin walking up and down the floor. And the Captain said, "If we can only hold this storm for thirty minutes, we'll come into the harbor, drop anchor." Said, "But if we can't hold it for thirty minutes," said, "we'll be at the bottom of the sea." That little Irish woman said, "Glory to God. Hallelujah." So the Captain walked up, said, "Lady, did you understand what I said?" She said, "I understood you plainly, sir." He said, "I said in thirty minutes from now we may be in the bottom of the sea, if we can't hold out thirty minutes in this storm." Said, "I understood what you meant." Said, "Hallelujah. Praise God." Said, "Why don't you pray?" She said, "I'm prayed up. Don't have to do any more praying." Said, "I was prayed up to begin with." Well, said, "Why could you say hallelujah like that and knowing that you might be in the bottom of sea?" She said, "Sir, I'm on my road from Ireland to see a daughter of mine that lives in New York." She said, "I got a daughter in glory and one in New York. If we go down I'll see that one up there. If we land I'll see that one there. I'll see one of them in thirty minutes." That's right. Prayed up... Amen. That's the way to stay, prayed up. Be ready for it. She was going to meet one of them in thirty minutes. It didn't make any difference to her, up there or down here, she was going to see one of them in thirty minutes. Now, that's good, that's fine. That's the way the church ought to be all the time, prayed up.

 

Let us pray…