QUE FAUT-IL POUR MENER UNE VIE CHRETIENNE ?
E-1 Thank you, Brother Joseph.
Good to be here this morning. And fellowship is something that's hard
to explain, isn't it?" I--I told my wife I'm getting old. When I...
Joseph called me the other day and we were talking. I said, "Say,
Joseph, I'm just outside the city Sunday morning, I'll be over and see
you."
"Oh," he said, "nothing would please us any better." I thought I was at
Gary, and I was a hundred and twenty five miles of South Bend. I drove
through a blinding snow storm this morning after a meeting last night
over there in dedication of a church. And a good friend, Mr. Tom from
Canada, and we drove this morning zigzagging over the roads with...
over here in a blinding snow storm to keep our promise to Brother
Joseph, a very fine friend.
E-2 These Swedes, I don't
know... The other day I would've never knowed unless my bosom friends
here, Gene and Leo, had told me. I was supposed to be in Minneapolis,
February the tenth through the seventeenth. Never heard a word of it.
And I was going down... The meeting was in making, to be with Sister
Coe, that's Brother Jack's widow. She... He just went on to be with the
Lord, and she's in desperate need, and I said, "Now, Sister Coe, I'll
let you know in a few days. I'll be praying over it." And here come a
message in from these boys that I was on the radio station being
broadcast all across the country, to be there the tenth through the
seventeenth. Have never yet heard from it. See? So I'm going to have to
go because I... I just had to tell Sister Coe I can't go.
These Swedes... Gordon Peterson. So I guess I'll have to do it because
I--I... Some people, not him at this time. He just, has just... You
have Gordie to know that. So it's just... They advertise you to be
certain places, and I don't know nothing about it. And then I've got
other meetings set now. I have to keep my word to the people. That's
how it happened. So if anybody ever says, "Brother Branham don't keep
his word," you just remember that's the kind of slip-ups that it is.
E-3 And I don't have any big
outlets, radio, television, and things like that. If I did, I couldn't
go to little churches. Do you think Oral Roberts could come to a small
congregation? Certainly not.
I was in Parkersburg, West Virginia, the other day, and I heard a man
making a statement, said, "Here we are a little people, fifteen hundred
here at the little temple." And said, "We asked a certain minister if
he would come, 'Too small, can't do it.'" Said, "We asked another one,
'Too small, can't do it.'" Asked three or four of them, of the big
ministers that's in the field today, 'Can't do it, you're too small.'"
And he said, "Brother Branham come." Like he's giving me a great praise
for that.
And I got to the platform, I said, "Now, just a moment. I heard the
pastor back there make that statement. Now, these men would come if
they could, but you see, they've got theirselves under such
obligations, financially they can't do it."
How many thousands of dollars a day do you think Oral Roberts has to
have? How's he going to go in a church where you stay there four or
five days and get a three hundred dollar love offering, when he has to
have six, seven thousand a day? He can't do it. Not because he don't
want to, but he can't do it.
E-4 But you know, just myself,
well, I--I just haven't got that. I don't--I don't need nothing. And
what I need, the Lord supplies it, what little I have to have. So
I'm--I'm not under any obligation, so I can just go anyhow. If He wants
me to go to a little place here that's got ten in the congregation,
okay. If He wants me to stay a week, ten days, I can stay. If He wants
me to go to Africa and preach for three or four hundred thousand, well
He--He has the money, so He just sends me. I ain't under any
obligations. And if He wants me to go, He always takes care of that. So
that's the way I like to live, just free.
I'm going to a tabernacle beginning tomorrow night... Tomorrow night
I'm going to a tabernacle that packed out will hold sixty for a two
night's meeting. That's right, Sturgis, Michigan. When she's packed
out, it holds sixty people. Well, I'm just as happy going there as I
was in Bombay, India, to five hundred thousand. It just depends on what
the Lord would want you to do. See? Now, I like that. Pray for me.
E-5 Now, we got a snowstorm on
now, and I've got all this road to drive back, get over there this
afternoon. But somehow my wife got up this morning; she was kind of low
in faith. She said, "I believe if you'd just call Joseph and tell him
that you made a mistake..."
I said, "But that's not what I promised."
Said, "Billy, do you think that Chicago... Why, it's three above zero.
Do you think people would come out?"
"Well, I've got to come out, 'cause I promised it. You see? I promised
Joseph and I want to do it."
E-6 Now, before opening His
Word just for a little evangelistic message this morning, the Lord
willing, and we'll dismiss. You can go home and have your dinner. We'll
be on the road back over there. Will you be praying for us? Do that.
I'm so thankful to see this nice audience.
Now, just a word to the Author of the Book.
E-7 Our heavenly Father, we thank Thee today for the Lord Jesus, Who came here on earth from heaven and was made flesh and dwelled among us, the Word of God made manifest. And then in doing so He reconciled God and man together, which had been at ends for some time because of sin and transgression. But now, today we're sons and daughters of God by His appearing. It does not yet appear what we shall be finally, but we know we'll look something like Him, for we shall have a body like His own glorious body. We shall see Him as He is. We'll live in a world without snow, and without troubles, and without heartaches, and without sorrow. And now, as we're looking to that time, pulling Thy precious promises from the Bible, we pray that the Holy Spirit will come now and take the Word of God and deliver it to every heart as we have need. For we ask it in Christ's Name. Amen.
E-8 Over in Ezekiel... And I've
got some itinerary wrote out here I should say something about
before... right before reading the Scripture. I'm sorry I didn't think
of it, just happened to feel my marker.
Now, after leaving Sturgis, Michigan, the following week I am with the
Baptist people in Lima, Ohio, at the Municipal Auditorium. I go then to
Minneapolis, from the--February the tenth through the seventeenth, Mr.
Peterson. The following Sunday I'm with Brother Moore, one night at
Shreveport, and the tenth to the tenth of Febr... or the twenty-sixth
of February until the tenth of March I'm at Madison Square Gardens in
Phoenix, Arizona. And on the--the seventeenth of March I begin with the
Brother Espinosa in the valley of the San Fernando Valley. And on the
nineteenth I begin with the Philadelphian Church at the Civic
Auditorium. That's the big auditorium in Oakland, California. We come
back, and from that till June I'm in about six different major cities
of Canada.
In June I'm planning, the Lord willing, this is after the... First is
the Philadelphian and the International Brotherhood Meeting again at
Indianapolis. Brother Joseph knows about that. And from the hop off
there, I hope I can meet David duPlessis in Africa and to go into
Africa and stay until this coming autumn. If that doesn't materialize
I'm be with the Christian Business Men in July with Brother Carlson,
was just asking me that. I told him I didn't know as yet, 'cause I'm
kinda betwixt two opinions here. I don't know which way to turn from
there asking the Lord for the big convention here in Chicago this
coming July. So pray for us.
E-9 In the 6th... 26th chapter
of Ezekiel and beginning with the 26th verse we read this.
A new heart also
will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you: and I will
take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you a
heart of flesh.
And I will put my
spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes, and you shall
keep my judgments, and do them.
And I will... (This here's the part
I want you to get) And
you shall dwell in the land, and I will give you your first fruits.
Now, I want the Lord Jesus, if He will, to give us His blessings upon
the reading of His blessed Word.
Now, we're going to talk about this morning what is the reason... And
Brother David, I want you to especially pray for me on this, and the
rest of you, that I'm going to talk about: What Does It Take To Make A
Christian Life? What--what constitutes the Christian life?
Now, there's many things that--that we do not know. It's not let...
We're not... Many things that we--we don't know. There's many things
that God lets us know. And now, the things that we do know, we want to
fellowship around each other and around the Word of God to find out
these things. Now, I pray that God will send His blessings upon us as
we minister in His Word, as you all remember and pray.
E-10 Now, to begin with, there's always been something about the church that isn't just exactly right. 'Course we realize that's the devil. Brother Carlson and I were talking about it up in the room just a few moments ago, in the pastor's study. It seems like that there has been a lacking somewhere among the people. I have my ideas, and we have beat at this bridge, and beat these walls as hard as we could, but yet in all of it we're been unsuccessfully to beat down the walls of the opposition. Yet I'm so glad that we got some bomb holes in it anyhow, that someday this great wall of indifference among the people will fall down and God's great united army will march in one great forefront, with one great banner of the Lord Jesus Christ. That's my sincere hope.
E-11 Now, if the Church of the
living God, which is the pillar of the truth... God intended this
Church to be a powerful Church, a glorious Church, a Church that the
whole world could look upon as a--a Bride of Christ well expected and
espoused, and to live in such a--an atmosphere and conduct itself in
such a way that the--God would be proud of this Church to present it to
Christ at the coming of the Lord. It should live in that--in that
characteristic in the Church, and it should be living that way. But we
find out that many times that with good intentions that people are
trying to make themselves act like Christians. They're trying to say,
"Well, I am thus, and--and I must live this way."
Now, if the church could only not look at it in that way. But
Christianity and the church... God never intended Christianity to be
governed by denominations, neither by creeds, or He... If God only
allowed or intended for the church to be governed and carried on by
creeds and denominations and intellectuals, then we do not need the
Holy Spirit in the church. Our church then should... It's success would
be largely placed upon the intellectuals of the best of us. That would
be what our church would have, would... The better intellectuals we
would have in our church, the more progressive our--our church would be.
E-12 But in the Word I find that
God did not intend for the church to be governed by intellectual or by
any theology of man, but the Holy Spirit was given to the Church to
govern and control the body of Christ. And I think in doing that, with
that in mind and in God's program, we will never be successfully, no
matter how good our intentions are, until we get back into the center
of God's program where the Holy Spirit...
Now, realizing that this is no new thing to preach on, It is something
that's been preached on many times, but the way we approach it and the
way that we take it, we take it still thinking that it is a Holy Spirit
controlled church. And yet we put our intellectuals mixed with it, and
then we can get a conglomeration of both Holy Spirit and intellectuals.
And when the Holy Spirit desires to do a thing and degrades something,
or lifts something up, it causes petty jealousy amongst the people,
which proves that they haven't got the Holy Spirit. Every man would
want to be in his place.
Now, in this the people has a reason because they have seen so much
denominationals and so many different dictators, as it was, spiritual
dictators in the church to say thus and thus. But the Holy Spirit has
placed each one into the body of Christ, and we're helpless to maneuver
without every member of our body. We have to have my hands, my arms, my
mouth, my eyes, my... Everything that's in me has to operate to make my
body function perfectly. And then if God wanted His body, the Church,
to be governed by His Spirit, there has got to be some way or some
program that we've got to enter into other than what we have already
had.
E-13 Now, the Bible said here,
Ezekiel speaking... And Ezekiel was a prophet, and he said, "A new
heart will I give you..." I like it, always God speaking of something
new that He's going to do. He doesn't... He didn't say now... That
doesn't mean that He will just patch up the old condition, but, "A new
heart will I give you: and I'll take away the stony heart which you
have, and a new spirit will I give you."
He never--He never said He would have a--a--a face-lift to the old
church. He would have a new thing, a brand new. And in doing this you
can't mix an old intellectual church with a new Pentecostal experience
church.
E-14 Jesus taught the same thing
in Luke when He said you cannot put new wine into old bottles. That was
sometimes hard for me to understand before I became a--a missionary, to
see what bottles and so forth. I thought, "Well, the bottle, what we
call a bottle, it just wouldn't get old." But in the Palestinian
country, and during this time especially, the--the bottle was an animal
skin that had been tanned and sewed up and tied up in places, and the
skin contained the--the liquids and so forth they put in it: water,
wine, and oils, and what they carried in the skin.
Now, when the skin became old, well, it was dry. And then when Jesus
was speaking, "Put new wine into old bottles," they would both perish;
you'd lose your wine and lose your bottle.
Now, you might be able to put water into an old bottle, but you can't
put wine into an old bottle, because water is the ashes of hydrogen and
oxygen which remains, and if anything, dwindles away. It shrinks. It's
substance has no life, but it is the ashes made from hydrogen and, or,
the ox... Hydrogen and oxygen is the--is ashes.
So... But wine has a life in it. And wine, new wine especially, it's
fermenting yet, and it--it might spread out a little. And if it goes to
pushing in the old bottle, in the old dry hide will burst and fly open.
Now, that's... And then the hide is ruined and also the bottle is. The
bottle is ruined and the wine is spilled.
Now, that's about the picture we have before us today. You can't come
to an old formal bunch of intellectuals and your ideas and try to adopt
God's program into your intellectual program. It just won't work. That
old dry cowhide will blow up. It just can't take it.
E-15 Now, a new bottle is a new
tanned hide, and the new tanned hide has still the animal oil in the
hide. And then when the new wine goes into a new bottle, then when the
new wine begins to swell the new bottle gives, pushes out, because it's
got oil in it. And if there ever was a time that the church needs a
oiling, it's today: a Holy Spirit oiling: new wine.
Now, when the Bible says, "Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today,
and forever," His healing power's just as great today as it ever was.
The old intellectuals will blow up. "No such a thing, Dr. Jones said
the days of miracles is passed. That settles it."
But when the new wine is put into a new bottle and then when
the--begins to ferment, the life begins to work in from the old outside
theology that we used to study, and see the Word of God in its Divine
promises and said, "Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and
forever," the new wine will say, "Hallelujah!" And the old bottle will
say, "Glory to God," spread out and give it room. That's what we get.
E-16 It's not the... Put the new
wine in the old bottle. You say, "Now, our school teaches different,
our denomination..." That old dry cowhide... You... "Our teachers, our
pastors said these things are finished."
But if it's a new hide and it's got new life, it's flexible and it
gives to the Word, and the Word supports the Spirit, or the Spirit
supports the Word, and when they come into the new bottle and they say,
"Someone got healed of a cancer last evening," the old hide says, "Let
me see what the doctor says. Let me see in a year from now. I just
can't believe it."
But the new hide says, "Hallelujah to the Lamb," spreads out. Then both
wine and bottle is kept. You can't put new wine in old bottles.
E-17 It reminds me of an
experience of years ago. I don't know whether I ever told you or not. I
was in Northern British Columbia on a hunting trip, and I was out into
the woods one night. I thought I was a pretty fair woodsman, raised in
the woods all my life. And I got turned around, and I'd been chasing an
old bear, and I wanted to get some pictures of him and so forth. I
didn't have a license to shoot the bear 'cause I was goat hunting, but
I wanted to get close to this grizzly. He was a beautiful animal, and I
wished to have his picture.
And on a little young horse of about three years old that had an
ambition that he wanted to pile a preacher off of him for... And then
he'd tried all day long to throw me as I'd spurred him through the
blow-downs and so forth, to kinda catch up with this bear.
E-18 And I had got into a place
to where I had got turned around. And on my road back, knowing general
directions... Was raised to know the moss on the north side of the
tree. Or if there's no moss, close your eyes and take a hold of the
tree and move around the tree with the bark in your hand until you find
a thick place, and that's the north side. So there's many things you
have to know in the woods if you survive.
And that's the same thing it is if you survive spiritually. You have to
know Him Who is the Creator and Who leads you and teaches you.
And then I noticed as I come up and got my bearings, and I started back
the general direction. 'Cause you'd go--you could go hundreds of miles
without seeing a--a living thing. Getting my general directions to know
that some... After while I'd catch into the top of the--of a mountain
there that I'd find my way back that night.
E-19 I was amazed as it'd been raining that afternoon, and storming, partly be... Caused me to be turned around. But the clouds were clearing, and there were great white clouds in the sky that the moon shining down beautifully. And I stopped in an old blow-down. I don't... a burn over, rather. I don't know whether you people here in the city would know what a burn over was. It's where a sweeping fire with a wind behind it sweeps through the forest and--and it kills everything. Many times the tree remains standing but it's burnt the bark. After while the little termites will get into the bark, but the fire will taste the tree and the bark falls off, the termites eats it. But the old tree stands there as a bleak snag, no lifeline in it, no sap ring and so forth. And it dies because the sap ring, of course, comes through the bark.
E-20 Now, as I stood there, and
I was amazed as I tied my horse... The little fellow was very tired and
I just felt somehow definitely led to stop for a few minutes. And I
tied up my horse, and I got over there. I was looking up at the moon,
and I said, "Father God, I am so happy to know that You are my Father.
Into this beautiful country to which I am now permitted to come on this
hunting trip to look at Your animals and the things that You have made
for my joy, and how I thank Thee for these." And only as you could see
British Columbia, a woodsman or a hunter could appreciate, and there
looking at those beautiful things.
Then I begin to notice a peculiarity. It was a noise that it seemed to
be so weary. And the winds were blowing as it had blowed away the
storm. And as the clouds passed over, little what we call "buttermilk
skies," them little blotches in it, and of white clouds. But the moon
shining down, the wind blowing, a real weary noise set in, like a
mournful noise, moaning, groaning, ooh. As the moon shined upon the
bleak trees, it looked like tombstones. And that mournful noise, ooh,
what a horrible thing. And I said, "Now, I wonder what all this means?"
E-21 And we're taught that the
footsteps of the--of the righteous is ordered of the Lord. And
everything works together for good to them that love God. God just
brings things around to happen that way. It's His great love to His
people. Sometimes He has to take you through some dark places, but only
to show you light. And our Father works those things.
And I believe that the church today, only in its condition... It's only
a place that God's a bringing the church that when it all breaks, what
a time of rejoicing. When the redeemed stand someday to crown Jesus,
King of king and Lord of lords, when He's setting on Mount Zion and all
around the earth is circled with--with the redeemed singing of
redemption, the angels will stand off on a sideline with bowed heads.
They won't understand. They've never been redeemed. They never fell to
be redeemed. Only we mortals know what it means to be lost; an Angel
doesn't know what it means to be lost. And we are the only ones that
can get joy out of the song of redemption; and I think that's the way
it'll be in the Church.
E-22 And as I stood there
looking, and I... All that mournful sound, I thought, "Oh, this is a
hideous place." This is (we would call it on the street) spooky. It's a
horrible place. "O God, why did You ever let me tie up my little horse
here, to let him rest here? We should have been over into the forest
farther and a tied up." But somehow it was God teaching me something.
And I said, "What does all this mean?"
Then I begin to think, them tombstones, as it were. That mournful wind
as it howled through them sets up a sensation of a little weary
feeling, kind of leery, especially way into the mountains. I thought,
"Why would I, the servant of the Lord, be presented with a picture of
this? What type of drama are You setting before me, Father?"
E-23 And as I looked onward,
wondering, it seems to me that a Scripture came to me over in Joel,
"What the palmerworm left, the caterpillar eaten; what the caterpillar
lift--left, the other bugs eaten."
And I thought, "That's true; that's right." Now, looky here, these
great big trees once were mammoth big fellows who stood there. As the
winds blowed they swayed back and forth in its power. What a majestic
sight it must have been in those towering big spruce up on top of that
mountain as the wind swayed. But now, what can they do? They cannot
sway to the wind anymore. Something has happened. They are dead, and
the winds can blow, and they're only so starchy, so stiff, that the
winds passing through their beings can only make a mournful sound, can
only set up, instead of a beautiful rhythm of the playing of the--the
tassels on them back and forth as they frolicked one time in the winds
of heaven. Now they can only be bare and mourn." And I thought, "Yes,
Lord, that's it."
E-24 I looked back then upon the
Lutheran, the Methodist, and even the Pentecostals, and the Nazarene,
the Pilgrim Holiness, and all the great churches that we have. And I
think of their early--in their origins, how they were--had a lifeline
on them; the Holy Spirit was in them. And how when God sent the mighty
rushing wind like He did on the day of Pentecost, how they frolicked in
the blessings of God with their--with their great heavy foliage on
them; the winds caught into them like sails and sailed them back and
forth, revival after revival.
But there came something that happened. The fires of persecutions and
the new--the new order of the church... When they got off into
seminaries and got boys and men who were brilliant and intellectual,
and taught out the old baptism of the Holy Spirit; they cut the
lifeline.
When the Methodist revivals used to strike in the nations when they'd
lay in schoolhouses on the floor and receive the Holy Spirit and become
"knocked out," as we call it today... Or in them days they thought
they'd fainted. And in our own Baptist church, how I've seen in our
Baptist church, take pitchers of water from the pulpit and pour it on
the people's faces and fan them and cry when they were laying under the
power of the Holy Spirit.
E-25 But the new teachers, the
old country church was done away with and they brought it into the more
elaborate, the more fantastic, the educated side of it. Upon the side
of the altar being betterly decorated, or the pipe organ, and the seats
all plushed, and--and the old church was done away with. The old altar
was taken. The old fashion mourners bench was taken out and put down
into the basement. And instead of souls on the altar, it was lilies on
the altar. And instead of the old fashion organ that they used to pump
with a stick, or the old tuning fork...
And when they sang, "As...?... I will fear no evils when I come to
die", instead of that, it was a well trained choir with a melodious
voice that sang such hymns until they would hold on till they were blue
in the face and call it class. That's the most miserable thing I ever
set under, is to hear a over-trained voice that'll hold a note until
they're blue in the face to try to put on a show; and that's all it is.
You're not singing to the glory of God. And the sweetest thing under
heaven is an old fashion Spirit filled church with the Holy Ghost,
everybody singing in the Spirit.
E-26 But they cut the lifeline
when they cut the singing. When they taken the days of miracles away
from the church and adopted their theologies and their intellectuals
instead of the baptism of the Holy Ghost, they cut the lifeline. No
doubt they're great denominations. So was them great trees. They can
prove by history that they had great things. That if... The one who
looked at the forest could prove that they were once great thriving
trees. But, oh, today they're nothing but bleak. The lifeline is gone.
And when God still sends His wind down for His trees to frolic and to
take new life by the pushing of the trees, what can they do? Just set
up a mournful sound, "Now I will tell to this congregation, if anyone
shall attend that healing campaign, immediately they'll be
excommunicated from this fellowship." Some little preacher with more
intellectuals than he's got sense to govern, stand up there with a
tuxedo coat on and bow with a "Amen" like a calf with a cramp, and then
try to place that to take the place of the Holy Ghost. It'll never do
it.
God's eternal plan of salvation for His people is the Holy Spirit in
the Church, borned again men and women operated by the Holy Spirit, not
them trying to operate the Holy Spirit, but the Holy Spirit operating
them. Do you see?
E-27 And as I looked at those
trees, I wondered, "What about them?" And then I thought, "Yes, there
comes the wind from heaven just like it always did." And Christ is the
same. On the day of Pentecost there was a mighty rushing wind who came
from heaven and the people received it because they were flexible. They
were willing to take God's way.
But we find out that now when God sends down a great healing campaign,
or great miracles and signs, and the signs that were in the Bible
returned back to the Church, what does the great intellectual group
say? "The days of miracles are past. There is no such a thing as Divine
healing. There is no baptism of the Holy Spirit. I will give my
congregation to know this, that just the poor, just the outcast, just
the--the illiterate type of people attend those meetings. Go around to
them and find out." And true the man is. The man is true when he says
that. It's usually the poor, the--not the intellectual type. It's the
uneducated type. "It's the common people who heard Him gladly," said
the Bible.
E-28 Now, we will notice again,
if you will. Then I thought, "What's the use of sending any rushing
mighty wind if there's nothing to receive it?" But God is sovereign to
His promise and He has to send it. He keeps His Word. "A little while
and the world will see Me no more, yet you'll see Me, for I'll be with
you to the end of the world. And the things that I do shall you also."
God's got to send His promise.
I thought, "Well, Lord, what will happen?" Then I happened to notice.
Listen. Then I noticed that after these trees, in their falling, their
great cones that they had, there was some little seeds dropped out of
these trees and out of these cones, and they were--they were absolutely
the life of that tree. And it dropped off onto the ground, and though
the fire passed over, and though all these things happened, yet I
noticed underneath there was a undergrowth coming up, trees again,
trees that were flexible, young trees that had life in them, the
undergrowth, what we call today, maybe, the underdog, the fellow that's
been kicked out of the big church because he hollered "Amen" when the
preacher was preaching, and maybe something like that. But anyhow, it's
some of the life, or the teachings from the old beginning, from the
Methodist, Lutheran, and the Pentecostals, and so forth, as they used
to be.
E-29 And so I noticed when the winds fell, the old tree moaned, but the little tree had a revival. It just jumped and went round and round and round and round and flashed around, shouting and praising the Lord. And I thought, "Well, there's one thing we might say; it may not have the education that the old one's got; it may be green; but it's flexible. So that's the--what God was doing." And I noticed in an experience with God, how God likes to shake His trees, loosen them up. And every time a tree moves and shakes, it pulls the roots and makes them loose so they can grow down and get a better hold.
E-30 Now, what the Lutheran left, has the Methodist eaten; what the Methodist left, the Baptist eaten; what the Baptist left, the Presbyterians eaten; what the Presbyterians left, the Nazarenes eaten; what the Nazarenes left, the Pentecostals eaten. "But I will restore," saith the Lord. "I will restore." Then God in His great move of the Spirit is coming to restore.
E-31 Notice, God taken one
hundred and twenty brand new green bottles of flex--all flexible, and
laid them in the upper room, green bottles. And when there came from
heaven as a sound of a mighty rushing wind, they were all filled with
new Pentecostal wine. Oh, what a working, and a moving, and an
explosion there must have been, how those bottles were leaping and a
jumping. They had life in them.
Now, the old bottle would say, "This is fanaticism."
But the new bottle got life and spread out and hollered, "Amen" to
everything the Spirit said. There were some things that went on that
didn't seem ethical to the old teaching, but they were new bottles;
they could stand it. And God takes His bottles...
E-32 Now, I want you to listen
for a few moments before closing. I want you to notice one thing and
watch closely now. Watch the order of the Scripture, "I will take away
the stony heart and give you a new heart." Now, the heart is the
dwelling place of the Holy Spirit. "And I will give you a new spirit."
I want you to watch the order. Now, many people get mixed up there.
They think they got the Holy Ghost, but they just get a new spirit.
Watch. "I'll give you a new heart, and a new spirit. And then I will
put My spirit..." Now, the new Spirit... God had to give you a new
spirit, but that's a new spirit God give you so you could get along
with the Holy Ghost. With that old spirit you had, you couldn't get
along with your neighbor; you couldn't get along with yourself; so you
know you couldn't get along with God; so God gives you a new spirit.
And many times under enthusiasm, and if you'll watch the life that it
bears... I hope I'm not hurting, but I hope I'm uncovering. See? A lot
of times you'd think that you'd have the Holy Spirit. "Oh," you said,
"I sung; I spoke in tongues." Certainly. Being that close to it you
might do all of that, but that isn't the Holy Spirit yet. See? The Holy
Spirit bears record of Jesus Christ.
E-33 Now, He taken, and what did
He do? Give you a new heart, give you a new spirit, and then He puts
His Spirit, His Spirit in you. It's just like... You don't have to go
around and pretend that you're a Christian man. That new spirit brings
new life. The Holy Spirit in your new spirit, in your new heart... Your
new heart, your new spirit and the Holy Spirit goes right in the center
of your new spirit, and your new spirit goes right in the center of
your new heart.
So it's like a--a mainspring in a famous watch, and it's self-winding.
All right, it sets right in the middle of that new spirit, and the
mainspring of a--of a famous watch sets in the middle of the watch and
makes every organ of that watch, every little instrument, tick just
perfectly to time. It's all done by a mainspring. And the little works
out on the side move with this mainspring. It is the wheel in the
middle of the wheel, as Ezekiel said.
E-34 Now, when you receive the
Holy Spirit It goes right in the middle of that new
dispensa--disposition of yours. "Oh," you say, "I quit drinking; I quit
smoking. You know, I--I--I just feel like a different person." Oops.
Wait a minute. See, you just got a new spirit, but the Holy Spirit
comes into the middle of that spirit and then He makes you every--every
main motion, every intellectual, everything agreeing right into this
middle of the wheel. What God says, that's... [Blank.spot.on.tape--Ed.] If the days of miracles,...
If Jesus is the same yesterday and forever, the Holy Spirit would bear
record with that, and every intellectual move of yours will say the
same thing.
And when you have these little temper fits and you fly out, and you
tell lies, and you proselyte, and you jump the fences, and you so
selfish with your organization that you're so narrow minded you
couldn't hear another minister, just remember, the Holy Spirit isn't
ticking in the inside of you. Whew. I didn't know I was going to say
that, but--but that's right. See?
E-35 The Holy Spirit will make
every movement like Christ. It'll make you Christ-like. The fruits of
the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, goodness, meekness,
gentleness, patience, faith. Those things are what the Holy Spirit
controls, our emotions.
Our emotions is not so much as jumping up-and-down. You could do that.
A shindig will bring that to you. But the Holy Spirit brings you into
operation, or in control of God, that you walk in peace and in love and
in joy with longsuffering, goodness, meekness, gentleness, patience.
You see? It isn't something that you do. It's something the Holy Spirit
does in you. You see, it's no longer an intellectual thought of your
own; it's a subconscious moving of the Holy Spirit. Oh, I wish I could
shout the praises of God around the world to that.
Church of the living God, there's where our Pentecostal move failed. We
have some manmade musical, clap hands, jump up-and-down emotion. When
if we go back out on the street and the Holy Spirit doesn't govern our
lives to cooperate with that, we have not got the Holy Spirit. That's
not skim milk. But, brother, that's what the church needs. Only life
can come by the Holy Spirit.
E-36 Did you ever notice how God
in His Bible, how wonderful He made things? Just one moment now. Jesus
said, "Except a man be borned again, he will in no wise enter into the
Kingdom." You've got to be borned again. You've--you've got to be.
What is it? That doesn't mean an experience that you shouted or spoke
with tongues. Those things are fine, but that--that isn't what I'm
talking about this morning. If your life doesn't cooperate, or doesn't
testify of your emotions that you receive when you spoke with tongues,
then you're deceived, because the Holy Spirit takes your innermost
being and controls you as you are, makes you, forms you into Chris--to
a Christian man or a woman. It ticks off with your life. There's
something in you pushing you, just making you do it anyhow. It makes
you love those who spit on you. It makes them love those who say that
you're insane.
E-37 When you get this Spirit in
you, then the--the burdens of life becomes light. You don't notice them
anymore. The yoke is lined with feathers. They become so easy. And then
the people pile things on you... You know what? You're like Samson at
the gates of Gaza, who picked up the big brass gate and packed it up on
the hill.
And when you get to a place that the Holy Spirit has you, not you the
Holy Spirit, but the Holy Spirit has you... You say, "I got the Holy
Ghost." I don't think that should be said. You must say, "The Holy
Ghost got me." And then when the Holy Ghost gets you, the burdens, the
yoke is easy. Then you pick up the big gates of Gaza and pack them
straight to Calvary. And there on Mount Calvary you lay them at the
feet of Jesus and pray for your enemies, not with a grudge, "Lord if
You'd bust him open." No, but with something within your heart that,
"Dear God, that man is a man like I am." You see what's lacking in the
church, friend? Now, what we need is a... We need to be--start all over.
E-38 Now, a few remarks before
closing, please. You're lovely. I want to speak to you from my heart
now. Let's take a little mental trip this morning and then we will
close. Let's go back to before the foundation of the world.
I look at those lilies in the bouquet setting on the little table.
Bless the man. I believe there's a florist comes to this church. He's
always so generous in doing things. He perhaps sent those. And how they
are serving their purpose. But did you ever knowed that Who made that
lily? Where did it come from?
E-39 Let's take before there in
the beginning of the world. Now, the lily come from the earth, so did
you. If that be so, then we were here; our bodies were on the earth
before there was any life here. We are made of sixteen different
elements of the earth. That's potash, calcium, petroleum, cosmic light,
and so forth, and held together by atoms: sixteen elements of the
earth. Then, if that is so, which is scientifically so, then we
really... Our bodies were laying spread out on this earth before there
was any type of life on the earth.
Potash, calcium, petroleum, and cosmic light was here at the creation.
As the volcanic was thrown out, they tell us, that bursted and formed
the materials of the earth and so forth, was, it just a burning
brimstones as it was Satan's possession as he walked up-and-down the
fiery brimstone of the earth. And then when God cooled it off and set
it over there in His great mind, He had something in His mind that He
was going to do.
E-40 "In the beginning was the
Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God." Now, a word is
a thought expressed. God had in His mind what to do, but when He
expressed it, it had to come into existence. It become a--it's become a
reality because it was God's Word expressed.
And there isn't... May you take me to record this morning, friend.
There isn't enough power in all hell can ever defeat the purpose of
God. God will do it anyhow.
E-41 And as I've often said... I
hit a little spot last night in the church that I didn't know I was
saying it, but how that Satan is not a--a healer. And the Lutheran
college where all those were converted recently, when I... The man
debated with me on the subject, said Satan could heal. And when you
hear anyone say Satan can heal, he's wrong.
Only God can create. Satan cannot create. He can only pervert what has
been created. There's only one omnipresent. Satan cannot be
omnipresent. God alone is omnipresent, omnipotent, infinite.
And no medicine can create cells to heal. There's doctors that can cut
out old cells; there's ones that can straighten arms, or set arms, or
pull extractions of the tooth; but there's no one, no powers in all the
earth and all hell that can create cells outside of Almighty God. "I am
the Lord that heals all your diseases." How petty, how childish,
juvenile, that even great intellectuals can be when they get away from
the Word of God.
E-42 Now, I want you to notice.
In the beginning when God our Father looked over this bleak earth, and
it wasn't nothing but one great big ball of water, and God sent the
Holy Spirit to the earth, the Logos that went out of God, and It began
to brood over the earth. Now, the word "brood" means "to make love" or
just like the dove to coo. And the great Holy Spirit over the earth...
As a mental picture, we're going make It like wings, with His great
wings around the earth, a brooding, making love, cooing. "Come, come,
the Father has ordained you, come. I'm coming to perform what the
Father's Word has said." Is it soaking in? "I have come to manifest
what the Father has spoken."
Brood... And after a while there begin to come some petroleum moving
across the earth, and a little bit of this and that, and a little
Easter lily comes up in the earth. What brought it? The Holy Spirit
brooding. Then come along the dahlia, the azalea, and the other bush.
Then along come the vegetation, the Holy Spirit brooding. Then along
came, after the vegetation, came the trees, then the plant life, then
after while birds begin to fly from the dust of the earth, the Holy
Spirit brooding them together and sent them into the air. Then along
came the animal life, the Holy Spirit brooding.
E-43 Then what happened? Along
came human life. All of our bodies was all laying right here on the
earth at that day, if we come from the earth, and we do, and our bodies
are made by the earth. We are the dead substance of dead cattle and
dead sheep and fish, dead beans, dead potatoes, and dead wheat. The
stuff that we eat multiply cells and make us what we are. We are from
the earth; that's what we are.
We live because something died. If you don't live today, if you don't
eat dead substance, you can't live. Our natural life is only by dead
substance. We eat fish; the fish died. If we eat beef, the cow died. If
we eat bread, the wheat died. Something has to die so we physically can
live again, because we are substance of the earth, and that's the way
we take in the substance to keep us alive. And if something had to die
so we could live physically again, why not this immortal soul in you?
Something had to die so that could live eternally. The flower has
perpetual life, for it's here for a purpose of beauty. We have immortal
life.
E-44 Now, I want you to notice
as we are moving on. The Holy Spirit, after brooding into man, man come
up. What a beautiful thing he was. And then God made the woman. Now,
she was not in the original creation; she's a byproduct of a man. I
don't want to get started on that, but she is a byproduct of man. Then
when she came into existence... And she was the prettiest woman in all
the world, little Eve. I can see her long hair hanging down. And let's
say for sake right now, it was blond. And she had her eyes as blue as
the sky, and her sparkle was like the stars. What a sweetheart Adam
had, not vulgarity, not even in the picture. She walked with Adam and
here he come to where the waters was and she'd say, "Oh, Adam, that
wind."
"Peace." And the wind ceased, and then she went on to... And the great
lion let out a roar. Eve could not be afraid, for there's nothing in
her to make her afraid. She said, "Dear, what is that?" He called the
lion over, said, "Come here." And he patted him on the head, and he
meowed like a kitten and walked behind him as a little dog would follow
you from your house. And here comes Sheetah the tiger. So he talked to
the Sheetah, and--and then he begin to speak with her and she followed
along.
E-45 But you know, it begin to
get evening time, the sun was setting. And he said, "Sweetheart, we
must go up to the Cathedral; we've got to worship." It wasn't a
denomination; it was in a great big forest. And they went up and knelt
down as the sun was going down. And the Father came down. The
lightnings flashed, the thunders roared, and a beautiful majestic Light
sailed over the bushes, and it come down. I can hear the loving voice
of the Father say, "Children, have you enjoyed yourself today? Papa has
come down to kiss you good night and lay you down for the night." And a
kiss upon the cheek of Adam, and a kiss upon the cheek of Eve... And as
he lays his big arm out and she lays her head, little dainty head, upon
his arm as a pillow, they went to sleep and perfect, nothing can bother
them. Father is watching over them. There's nothing in the earth to
harm them. Leo the lion lays here; Sheetah the tiger lays there. He
laid them all down: Father. If that isn't wonderful.
Then sin came in. It spoiled the picture, yes. But we were here. God's
purpose has to be carried out.
E-46 Now, women must bring forth
this germ of life, her and man together by connection. We won't go into
that 'cause you'd certainly disagree with me. But it wasn't apples they
taken in the garden of Eden. So then, when they did, let it be what it
may, woman sinned, man never sinned... I mean man sinned, woman never
sinned. The woman was actually deceived. Adam was not deceived; he
knowed what he was doing. Eve actually thought she was right. She was
getting some new light that Satan was giving her. He's still giving her
new light. Stay with the Bible. That's it.
But he told her, and she said, "Now, wait, God has said..."
But he said, "Surely..." And then, whatever it was, the act was
committed. And then she enticed her husband, him knowing it was wrong.
And Adam walked out of the garden of Eden because the love of his wife;
which was a type of Christ, knowing no sin, come down and was made sin
for His Church, walked right out knowing what he was doing. "I have
power to lay it down or take it up." He walked out knowing what he was
doing and was partakers of our transgression that He might redeem us
back. What a beautiful picture.
E-47 Notice. Then, friend, if it took the Holy Spirit to woo us, or brood over the earth and to call us back and to call us together, and we were made thus without any consideration of our own... We were made what we are now without having anything to do into it; God, by His foreknowledge knew we would be here, and He made us what we are without us having any--anything to do into it, how much more will He raise us up? Though the potash and calcium and petroleum and moistures, and so forth, of our body be scattered to the four winds, the same Holy Ghost that brooded us into existence in the first place, can raise us up again in the last day.
E-48 And then, how do we come
when we become a young man or a young woman? He said, "How do you like
to be this a way?"
"It is wonderful, Father." You are on the free moral agent. You can
take your choice. You can receive Eternal Life or you can reject
Eternal Life. You're the potash and calcium of the world. Your bodies
are made of that. Now, do you love to remain... He never made you an
angel and you never will be an angel. He made you men and women, and
that's what you'll remain. But if you love life, then seek life.
E-49 And if the Holy Spirit...
Here it is, quickly... If the Holy Spirit brooding over mankind, that's
already nothing but dust of the earth, the Holy Spirit is the only One
Who can brood Eternal Life into you. Your intellectuals, no matter how
brilliant you may be, they are totally rejected by God. Your
denominations means not that much to God. Your great teachers of
theology doesn't mean that to God. It takes the brooding of the Holy
Spirit to bring you into the fellowship of God to give you Eternal Life
to raise you up again at the last day. "Except a man be born of the
Spirit and water, he will in no wise enter in."
Do you see it, friends? How smart you are, that has nothing to do with
it. That could be you... "I belong to church," that could be your new
spirit. "I've spoken in tongues," that could be your new spirit. Don't
think because you spoke with tongues... I've seen devils speak with
tongues, witch doctors, and every... And yet the Holy Spirit speaks
with tongues.
E-50 But what is
unrighteousness? It's righteousness perverted. Certainly, the devil has
a false thing. What is an old fortuneteller out on the street, a devil
possessed person? It's a prophet perverted. He can only take something
of God and pervert it. But we've been taught against those things. And
the devil just cabbages on them. But when we're taught in the line of
the Bible, then the Holy Spirit takes it and places it into the church.
Do you see?
If you won't accept righteousness, then unrighteousness will take over.
If you won't receive Christ, the world will take you. You can't go out
that door the same person you was coming in here. You can't be. The
Holy Spirit brooding, wooing, calling, "Oh, if you'll come, I'll take
away that stony heart. If you'll come, I'll place a new spirit in you;
and if you'll come, I'll come into this new spirit."
E-51 Then when the devil comes
back, what does he find? He finds his old tin can alley. God sent His
big bulldozer down and cut the thing all to pieces, and bulldozed it
up, and scraped it all off, and a Hallelujah Avenue is built there. It
ain't the same place. There's a big modern home built there with... The
Holy Spirit has brooded, big beautiful flowers of salvation standing
up. You don't have to try to impersonate anything. It's a new heart.
It's a new dwelling place. It's a new spirit. Everything is new.
How can the devil walk back there and expect the old card table and
cigars and the old fussing, fighting, stewing, everything that you had
in you. When he walks back, he finds God took His bulldozer, and run
the whole thing out, and turned the whole ground upside-down, made a
big terrace, and put a beautiful home, and moved in Hisself.
Hallelujah. Amen.
Oh, I feel--I feel religious. The Holy Spirit turns over the old tin
can alley, and dumps you upside-down, sweeps the devils stuff out of
there, and creates a new heart and a new life. Not only that, but He
moves in to see that everything goes all right. Glory to God. He has
the care-takers, the Angels that prunes the trees. My, my. Oh, I wish I
was twice my size. Think of it, what He does, brother, sister.
E-52 Today there is so much based upon intellectual. There's so much based in Pentecostal, upon fantastics, upon emotions. Now, don't take a substitute when Pentecostal skies are loaded with the real thing. Don't take some little emotions, some little work up, some little oil falling from your hands, or a bloody face, don't take these little emotions when the whole skies of God is full of real genuine Pentecostal blessings. He will give you a new heart, a new spirit, and put His Spirit in you.
E-53 Let us pray. And with our
heads bowed and your eyes closed... You know which way you're pointed
now? From where you moved out of, the earth. Do you know which way
you're going? Right back the way you got your head bowed, right back to
the dust. But did you know, that dust that you're made out of was
laying here on the earth when God created the earth? He created you
with the earth. You're part of the earth, but the thing is in you is a
spirit; it's a life. If it's old and stony, it's of the world by nature.
Now, do you want a new heart? You want a new spirit? And do you want
His Spirit to come into yours and to operate you, you not try to tell
Him what to do and you have your own thoughts of things; you just take
what He wants. And you want Him to go to brooding to you? "Yes, Brother
Branham."
Well, that's Him brooding at your heart right now. "It's Me, child.
It's Me." I'm standing here. I don't want you to perish. Oh, Jesus our
Lord died that you wouldn't perish. But if you continue in the way you
are, you're going to perish. You can't raise up. There's nothing in you
to raise you. The Holy Spirit you rejected, He can't brood in the last
days. You crossed the line. Oh, come back quickly, right quick, before
you get too far away.
E-54 How many in here will raise your hand, with your heads bowed in prayer, the church praying, say, "Brother Branham, please, in Christ's Name, pray for me right now that I will receive God's Spirit in my spirit to make me live a victorious life. I'm up and down. I just have the awfullest time trying to be a Christian, and I want you to pray for me right now." Will you raise your hand? God bless you, sonny. God bless you. God bless you, lady, you, sir, and you brother. Someone else? God bless you, sir. God bless you. God bless you, sir, you, you lady. I... God knows everyone of you. Raise your hand. Don't you think the infinite God Who knew every flea, every fly that would be on the earth before the earth was ever created, knows you? Can two sparrows be sold for a farthing, a fourth of a penny, and not one of them can fall without your Father... How much more are you than the sparrow?
E-55 If you just say to God,
"Here's my hand, God, I truly want You to come into my heart. I've
belonged to church for years. I believe something happened to me, but
I've never been able to live that type of life that the preacher's
speaking of. I am living a life of ups-and-downs, and I'm up-and-down
and in-and-out and I can't get nowhere. God, maybe I just received a
new spirit. Your Word said so. Your prophet said that You said You'd
give them a new spirit, then put Your Spirit in the new spirit; and
maybe I just got the new spirit. My life is... Oh, I got an awful
temper. I got all of this, and I--I--I don't to be..." Sure, your new
spirit will make you that way.
But, brother, "Except a man be borned again."
"Oh, but Brother Branham, I spoke with tongues. I shouted; I--I--I
spoke in tongues; I prophesied;, I..."
That don't make any difference what you've done. "Many will come to Me
that day and say, Lord, Lord, have not I done this and done that?"
E-56 But right down in the
depths of your heart, has all the world died and Christ just took over,
and now, something just moves you every day in love. No matter how
things come, you're still in love. The skies are blue always to you. No
matter what happens, God is on the throne; He's answering prayer,
working everything for you. Neighbors talk about you, somebody ridicule
you, the church tell you you have to do this or do that, and you don't
want to do it. Do you just pick up the cross with a sweet little smile
and go on towards Calvary? Or do you stand off and sulk, say, "I'll not
going back anymore; I'm through with that old bunch of people anyhow."
That the spirit that's in you? That isn't the Holy Spirit.
Will you raise your hand and say, "God, right in the spirit that I
have, my new spirit, give me Your Holy Spirit. Make me live a
victorious life." God bless you, sir. God bless you, lady, you lady,
you, you, you back there in the back, little lady there up in the
balcony. All right. God bless you, you, you. All right.
Now, let's bow our heads quietly.
E-57 Kind heavenly Father, the
snows are raging outside; the streets are slick. I don't know why that
standing on the telephone, that I said to Brother Joseph, "I'll be
over." Maybe that was all in Your great work. I know it is, for all
things work together for good. And now, as the little message, though
chopped up, has been given to the people, yet maybe twenty or thirty
people has raised their hands to Thee. They could not, by no means,
Father God, ever do this without You knowing. And I pray Thee, that in
Jesus' Name, that You'll grant whatever they have need of; may it be
given to them.
And, Father God, I pray with all the sincerity of my heart, that every
sin, every iniquity, every sickness and everything will be taken away
from the people. In Jesus' Name, may it be so. And may they be blessed
abundantly and gratefully. And may every heart go out of here singing
with the mainspring of their soul, the Holy Spirit, and the pulsations
of their heart as it beats... Oh, may their souls jump and spring and
stretch to the Word of God as new bottles with new wine, with a new
hope, with a new faith, with a new spirit and God's Spirit in the
middle of it, the life pushing them on. Grant it, Father.
Bless Brother Joseph; he's in a marvelous hour of decision. I pray that
You'll be with him. Brother duPlessis, the brother from Africa, and all
the visiting brothers with us, God be with us. Help them here tonight
in their service. Help us over yonder where we shall go, Father, to
preach tonight. And I pray that You'll be with us and help us along the
slick highways as we go back. Let Thy Holy Spirit guide us and direct
us in these things. In Christ's Name we pray. Amen.
E-58 I love Him, oh, I love Him.
I want to see Him. My deepest desire of my heart is to see that lovely
Person, the Lord Jesus. Is that your desire this morning, Church of
God? Is that your desire? May He share His blessings upon you. "All
power in heavens and earth is given into My hands." and what God had,
He poured... Everything God was He poured into Christ. What Christ was,
He poured into His Church. The great fountains are open everywhere,
ready. Just get rid of these little isms and so forth, and open up your
heart, and say, "Lord Jesus, move into my heart."
Pray for me, friends. I love you. You're a wonderful people and I love
you. Wished I could stay tonight with you, but I must go hence. And
I'll be across the nations, if the Lord willing, 'fore I see you again.
So I pray that God will bless you abundantly, and I love you. And I
want you to be in prayer for me. God bless you till I see you again.
Brother Joseph...