The Power of the Cross

Power of Son, then Power of God

1970s

1.	…the prophet set in order by the revelation which was real to him,
and he had the complete spiritual substance of it, what we, in turn, are
to have by the water to the ankle, the water to the knee, the water to
the thigh, and to swim in. And that’ll be it. You follow me? It’s
coming. We’re growing up into it, so that what we have heard from the
Word, we say, “Yes, that’s true. The face of God is real. The
righteousness of God is real, and these things are real.” And we know
they’re real, because they have been academically given to us. But
there comes a time now, when the Holy Ghost, in the soul of man, and the
mind, is a part of that complex; that Spirit will, then, begin to well
up and by revelation make the reality so great that nothing else is real
in comparison. You see? 

	I just ask this question, “What is more real to you?” Answer me
before God. “Your own idea of sin or God’s pronouncement of His
righteousness?” Don’t you dare tell me, unless you’re prepared now
to take a very strong stand, that you have a complete revelation of His
righteousness, because I’ll be expecting something of you that you
never dreamed possible, because, when the Bride comes to this mind age,
she’ll have “THUS SAITH THE LORD” in her. That’s right. You
follow me? 

2.	So, this age of which he spoke is the age of the dynamism of
revelation, which makes the things of God so real, that we could say
with John, “We saw the Word of life; we handled the Word of life; we
listened to the Word of life; He was here; we know it; we want you to
know it, too.” And I submit that nothing else is going to be
satisfying for this last day age, that we’re going to be restored,
because they had it.

	What made Peter say at that day, “Such as we have, we give unto you.
In the name of Jesus, rise up and walk.”

	And they said, “By what power have you done this?”

 	And he said, “Don’t look on us as though any power, or any
holiness or power that we had, did it.”

	See? They knew there was a power there which was linked to holiness. It
was the righteousness of Christ that Peter had anew, and the revelation
of the faith of God and the name of Jesus, and he was right in acting
because of that revelation.

3.	And, brother/sister, I want to tell you: certain things in this life
I know, and I’ve always known them. I have an analytical mind, and I
could do mathematics, until my mind went sort of phooey: algebra,
analytical geometry—just a snap: analytical grammar,
composition—just a snap. I could do it! because it was more real to
me. 

	I can tell you one thing: Unless something becomes very real to me
concerning the carburetor on a car… I didn’t even know what that
vacuum thing was good for, till Bro. Harold came along and told me, and
I’d driven the car roughly thirty thousand miles. All I knew was it
went up and down, and said something about a vacuum. And the other day I
was even wondering if maybe a valve was going or something, and he
showed me. “Now,” he said, “if a valve was going, the vacuum would
show it.” So, I learned something. But, as far as mechanics are
concerned, I don’t know for nothing. 

	But there are certain things I do know, and we know in this life. The
Scripture warns us, “No man knows the things of man save the spirit of
man,” and we know those things. Right? You don’t need anybody to
teach you, as far as a man or a woman is concerned. You were born to it!
But now we’re born again. For what end? That the Spirit of God may
make the things of God to such an extent so clear that we know those
things. And now the things of man go down. Paul said, “All those
things I once knew, I count as nothing, and I don’t walk in that realm
anymore. I’ve been crucified. I’m dead. But I’m now risen in the
Spirit of God.”

	Now, you see, that must become real, and that’s what we’re coming
into. I believe there’s coming an age, brother/sister, when we are
going to be like Daniel: not turning the world upside down. I don’t
want to turn any world upside down. It’s been turned upside down long
enough. I don’t want to go around emptying hospitals. I don’t say
it’s not going to happen. I don’t go around preaching any great
revival. I believe that’s over. But I believe that God’s got
something in reserve by His Spirit that’ll restore us, and that’s
got to come. We saw it, and I could not, under any consideration,
believe that that is not our portion, and that is revelation, the Spirit
making the things of God real and God Almighty so real.

4.	So, that’s the age we talk about. As I said, Simeon had the
revelation: Christ is coming. It was there. He knew it. But the day had
to come when God Himself was manifest in flesh, and He put him in his
arms and held him there. We, too, are not simply waiting for Jesus to
come. That is true, but we are waiting now for the restoration, the
reality of the things of God. And Lord knows we need it in this age of
the Laodicean church, because everything else is too real, and the
things of God are dim. Jesus Himself said, “You come to me for what?
For gold, for raiment, and for eye salve to anoint your eyes.” How we
need to have the eyes anointed. 

	As Bro. Branham has said that when he was a little boy, the cold wind
blowing in would cause the eyes to get matted over. His mother took some
hot coon grease, and God knows we need the hot coon grease again. See?
You follow me? It’s not that it’s not there, but how real is it? How
real is His face? How real is His love? How real is His life in us? See?
We wouldn’t deny the reality in the abstract, but how many could say,
“I have it. It’s operated.” That’s what’s real. 

	It’s the Laodicean age of cold mush. Well, it’s lukewarm mush,
which is even worse than cold. It’s got to change to the red hot, not
in the world, but in the Bride, because God said, “When the enemy
comes in like the flood, the Lord would raise up a standard.” And
according to the Word of God, the standard is revelation by the Spirit.

5.	Now then, listen to me, you cannot act, except by your mind. I know
people say, “Bro. Vayle, I have involuntary actions.”

	Ah, ha. Let’s watch it: If I put my hand upon a hot stove, what
happens? The defense will bing-bing-bing to my brain; it brings the
signal “take it off quick;” off goes my hand just faster than that.

	You knock a certain part of the ganglion part of your brain, your heart
stops beating. Man acts according to knowledge. Therefore, when the
knowledge of the most high God supersedes all other knowledge, we will
act like gods. “THUS SAITH THE LORD” will be in us. Right? Now, you
know what he said, “The day must come when the Bride is a Word-Bride
and she will approach unto Christ by means of the Word, becoming like
Him in order to be united to Him”…not in order to turn the world
upside down, not in order to empty all the hospitals, not in order to be
as Latter Rain says: to recreate the earth; but it’s uniting time,
brother/sister, because it’s this uniting time of the church. Right?
Follow me? I hope you do. Some of you look like you’re drawing a
blank. It gets me kind of nervous, because, if you’re skeptical,
I’ve got nothing more to say to you, because this is the best I can
express it. Follow me? Okay.

	Let’s bow our heads in prayer. 

	Gracious heavenly Father, we look to You tonight in order that Your
Spirit Who has been given unto us, illuminate our hearts and our minds,
for You said we can do nothing except You are doing it in us. So, we can
only do according to knowledge, unless we are sleepwalkers, or
automatons, robots, but we are not. So, we are confined, O God, to the
truth of spiritual revelation, which is Word made real, so that we
become Word epistles, walking, read and known amongst all men. 

	Lord, that’s been my bondage through life. If men must read me, and
read me they will… And it’s been so dissatisfying to know that they
haven’t read the Word so many times. But You said to repent in this
day, and I do repent and pray, O God, that Thy Holy Spirit, Who was
given to this end, to make You and Your things so real, that men can
literally turn my pages, and not one page be blank, or not one page be
faulty, but every page to reveal Christ.

	And, help each one, O God, tonight, having the same earnest cry to be
like You, not waiting only for that day when we’re changed in the
atoms, but at this moment we can manifest You to a people. Lord, help us
all. 

	Now God, I pray that every word coming forth to be Your Word, in
sweetness and love and humility, earnestly contending for the truth, and
every heart, Lord, submissive to the Word of God, not the word of man,
and then, every heart receiving the Word of God, not the word of man,
should be enflamed thereby, incited, excited and ennobled to do all that
which You’d have each one to do.

	We pray now, Lord, for an understanding upon our subject tonight,
because, Jesus, this is so important that we do, O God, and then,
we’ll fulfill the last commission that Your servant gave that in these
end days when he told us not to withdraw ourselves, not to fuss among
ourselves, but to be sweet and kind, charitable, yielding, in honor
prefering each other. That’s exactly the way it should be. And in our
hearts we want it that way. And You are greater than our hearts, because
You’re God. So, we trust in Thee, Lord, that Thou should surely make
Thy redemption complete, and we’ll be satisfied with Thy goodness. In
Jesus’ Name we pray. Amen.

6.	I want to bring a message tonight concerning “The Power of the
Cross”, and I’ll read in a little while from the Book of Colossians,
whereby we will find a Scripture that will show us the truth which we
have in mind. Now this study of ‘the power of the cross’ is very
enlightening, because I feel that the majority of us have not thoroughly
studied the truth of ‘the power of the cross’ as we ought to have
done so. And the reason we’re not aware of this power is fourfold: the
first is that we have thought that the cross is rather a passive
instrument and that its work is negative now that the cross has been
completed two thousand years ago, that the atonement is over. And we
look back upon it, and we say, “It is a finished and completed
work.” So, we say the cross is ‘passive’; we call it
‘negative’. We do not look for it to produce a literal, functional
power in our lives. 

	Now the second reason we have not known of its great power is that we
are so used to thinking of the Resurrection in terms of power, that we
can hardly begin to think of the cross in terms of power. 

	And thirdly, we have not distinguished between the power of the cross
and the power of the Resurrection, even though they are both set forth
in the Word of God.

7.	First of all, our thinking, I say, has been that the cross is
passive, a completed work, now lying in the back of history, so that the
cross is passive. See? That’s the way our minds think. Secondly, our
minds have been so imbued with the truth of the power of the
Resurrection that we have automatically put all of our confidence in the
Resurrection and forgotten that there might be a dynamism in the cross.
Therefore, we have not distinguished between the power of the cross and
the power of the Resurrection as set forth in Scripture, which, believe
me, we have tonight.

	In Col 1:20-22, listen:

(20)	And, having made peace through the blood of his cross, by him to
reconcile all things unto himself; by him, I say, whether they be things
in earth, or things in heaven. 

(21)	And you, that were sometime alienated and enemies in your mind
(your heart) by wicked works, yet now hath he reconciled 

(22)	In the body of his flesh through death, to present you holy and
unblameable and unreproveable in his sight.

	With that, in Col 2:13-15, and It says:

(13)	And you, being dead in your sins and the uncircumcision of your
flesh, hath he quickened together with him, having forgiven you all
trespasses; 

(14)	Blotting out the handwriting of ordinances that was against us,
which was contrary to us, and took it out of the way, by nailing it to
his cross; (See?)

(15)	And having spoiled principalities and powers (at that cross), he
made a show of them openly, triumphing over them in it (which is the
cross, you see.)

	Now, with that, 1 Cor 1:18:

(18)	For the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness;
but unto us which are saved, the preaching of the cross is the power of
God.

	Now the Scripture sets forth here that the cross cannot be a negative
implement. It cannot be passive, because it is still reconciling men to
God, and furthermore, Paul says that the preaching of the cross is
powerful.

	Now, listen to me: You can’t make anything that’s dead-possessed,
power, by talking about it. Talk all you want to that stone out there;
it will never come to life. Talk all you want about a stone being able
to walk; it will never walk. So, therefore, you can preach the cross all
you want. If it is passive or negative, it will never do anything.
It’s got to have the power in it.

	So, therefore, when men preach the cross, it has to be an implement of
power, because simply saying it is, doesn’t make it so. See? Either
Jesus is a Savior, or he’s not a Savior. Like, as Paul says, “If I
preach the Resurrection and Christ be not risen from the dead, that
doesn’t do one thing. Preach it all you want; he’s dead.” And
brother, this you could preach all you want about a cross being an
instrument of power, and, if it isn’t, talking will never make it so.
The cross, according to Paul, is an instrument of power, and it has a
vitality and a virility, a dynamism, that is absolutely fantastic, when
you view it in the light of the Word of God.

8.	Now, let us view the power of the Resurrection. It has its own power.
In Rom 1:3-4:

(3)	Concerning his Son Jesus Christ our Lord, who was made of the seed
of David according to the flesh; 

(4)	And declared to be the Son of God with power, according to the
spirit of holiness, by the resurrection from the dead.

	Now, in Eph 1:15-23, which we have been dealing with, we read again:

(15)	Wherefore I also, after I heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus,
and love unto all the saints, 

(16)	Cease not to give thanks for you, making mention of you in my
prayers; 

(17)	That the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may
give unto you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of
himself: 

(18)	The eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that you may know
(See? There’s revelation, when the mind begins to see by the Spirit of
God what the truth of God really is. See? Human mind alone can’t do
it.) …That you may know what is the hope of his calling, and (You may
know) what the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints, 

(19)	(And you may know) what is the exceeding greatness of his power to
us-ward who believe, according to the working of his mighty power, 

(20)	Which he wrought in Christ, when he raised him from the dead, and
set him at his own right hand in the heavenly places, 

(21)	Far above all principality, and power, and might, and dominion, and
every name that is named, not only in this world, but also in that which
is to come: 

(22)	And hath put all things under his feet, and gave him to be the head
over all things to the church, 

(23)	Which is his body, the fulness of him that filleth all in all.

	Now you will notice here that there is a difference, and that
difference is that, on the cross, the power of the Son was manifested,
but it’s in the Resurrection that the power of God is manifested. See?
There are two complete operations of power. 

9.	Look: over here It says in Rom 1:3:

(1)	Concerning his Son, Jesus Christ Our Lord, which was made of the
seed of David according to the flesh;

(2)	And declared to be the Son of God with power, according to the
spirit of holiness, by the resurrection of the dead.

	But was he not also the Son of man, God manifest in flesh, when he hung
upon the cross? And there it was said that “upon the cross he openly
was able to blot out the handwriting, which was against us and spoiled
principalities.” See? You will notice, therefore, the difference
between the power of the cross and the power of the Resurrection is that
the power of the Son, God the Son, manifested upon the cross, see, but
God manifested again through Resurrection in a higher degree of power
once more. 

10.	Now then, this brings us to the fourth point, and that is this: that
the power of the Son, or the power of the cross, always precedes the
power of the Resurrection. See? The Son must act first, then acts the
Father. In other words, that which is accomplished by the cross will
always precede that which is accomplished by the power of the
Resurrection. 

	And that’s exactly where we have made our mistake in this last day,
the Laodicean age. Nobody has given any thought to the power of God. I
don’t mean ‘nobody’, I mean that the general run of the people
have turned away from a dynamism, because they didn’t know it existed,
and they didn’t understand by Scripture that the Son must act first,
see, which is upon the cross in obedience to the Father; then, the
mighty power of the resurrection comes into being.

11.	Now with this in mind, we will study the actual, virtual power of
the cross, and thereby we can empower our lives until the manifested
power of God comes forth as it’s never come forth before. Now, to do
this, we must recognize the factor of the cross in our lives, much more
than we have even recognized the factor of the power of the Resurrection
in our lives. You see, this is reversing it. We have been taught to
recognize the factor of the Resurrection, making the cross passive,
putting it out of the way. Now, if we are going to really have the power
of God, we’re going to have to turn around the way God did it: We’re
going to have to come to the factor of the power of the cross.

	In Mt 10:38 It says:

(38)	He that taketh not his cross, and followeth after me, is not worthy
of me.

	Put it there.

	And again in Mt 16:24:

(34)	If any man will come after me, let him deny himself and take up his
cross and follow me.

	There must be a cross in every man’s life, and that cross, my
brother/sister, is not a weakening, negating force, but it is an actual
power in the life of every believer. As the songwriter once said,
“Must Jesus bear the cross alone, and all the world go free? No,
there’s a cross for everyone, and there’s a cross for me.” 

12.	That we understand this to be true is brought out in Hebrews 12:

(1)	Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a weight
of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight and the sin which so easily
doth beset us, (That’s unbelief.) And let us run with patience the
race set before us,

(2)	Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who, for
the joy that was set before him, endured the cross, despising the shame,
and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God. 

(3)	For consider him that endured the contradiction of sinners against
him, (They killed him!) lest you be wearied and faint in your souls.

(4)	You have not yet resisted unto blood, striving against sin. 

	See? The cross is a dynamic factor in the life of every Christian, and
we’ll show you this by our study now of the Book of Colossians. Now
this is a lengthy reading, so I’ll let you have plenty of time to go
to it. The Book of Colossians:

 (1)	Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God, and Timotheus
our brother, 

(2)	To the saints and faithful brethren in Christ which are at Colosse:
Grace be unto you, and peace, from God our Father and the Lord Jesus
Christ. 

(3)	We give thanks to God and the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ,
praying always for you, 

(4)	Since we have heard of your faith in Christ Jesus, and of the love
which ye have to all the saints, 

(5)	For the hope which is laid up for you in heaven, whereof you heard
before in the word of the truth of the gospel; 

(6)	Which is come unto you, as it is in all the world; and bringeth
forth fruit, as it doth also in you, since the day you heard of it, and
knew the grace of God in truth:

(7)	As you also learned of Epaphras our dear fellowservant, who is for
you a faithful minister of Christ;

(8)	Who also declared unto us your love in the Spirit.

(9)	For this cause we also, since the day we heard it, do not cease to
pray for you, and to desire that ye might be filled with the knowledge
of his will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding;

13.	You see what we’re talking about again? Revelation. Anybody can
read the Bible here and understand the will of God per se, as just
simply written out, but to understand the will of God in wisdom and
spiritual understanding takes the Holy Ghost, my brother/sister. Do you
follow me?)

(10)	That you might walk worthy of the Lord (See? We’ve been preaching
this all week long.) and all pleasing, being fruitful in every good
work, and increasing in the knowledge (By revelation) of God; 

(11)	Strengthened with all might, according to his glorious power, unto
all patience and longsuffering with joyfulness; 

(12)	Giving thanks unto the Father, which hath made us meet to be
partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light:

(13)	Who hath delivered us from the power of darkness and hath
translated us into the kingdom of his dear Son: 

(14)	In whom we have redemption through his blood, even the forgiveness
of sins:

(15)	Who is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of every
creature:

(16)	For by him were all things created, that are in heaven, that are in
earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, dominions, or
principalities or power: all things were created by him, and for him:

(17)	And he is before all things, and by him all things were maintained.
(The word ‘consist’ means ‘maintained’ or ‘kept up’.)

(18)	And he is the head of the body, the church: who is the beginning,
the firstborn from the dead; that in all things he might have the
preeminence,

(19)	For it pleased the Father that in him should all fullness dwell;

(20)	And, having made peace through the blood of his cross, by him to
reconcile all things unto himself; by him, I say, whether they be things
in earth, or things in heaven. 

(21)	And you, that were sometime alienated and enemies in your mind by
wicked works, yet now hath he reconciled 

(22)	In the body of his flesh through death, to present you holy and
unblameable and unreproveable in his sight: 

(23)	If you continue in the faith grounded and settled, and be not moved
away from the hope of the gospel, which you have heard, and which was
preached to every creature which is under heaven; whereof I Paul am made
a minister; 

(24)	Who now rejoice in my sufferings for you, and fill up that which is
behind of the afflictions of Christ in my flesh for his body’s sake,
which is the church:

(25)	Whereof I am made a minister according to the dispensation of God
which is given to me for you to fulfill the Word of God.

(26)	Even the mystery which hath been hid from ages and from
generations, but now is made manifest to his saints: 

(27)	To whom God would make known what is the riches of the glory of
this mystery among the Gentiles; which is Christ in you, the hope of
glory: 

(28)	Whom we preach, warning every man, and teaching every man in all
wisdom; that we may present every man perfect in Christ Jesus: 

(29)	Whereunto I also labour, striving according to his working, which
worketh in me mightily.

	[Colossians 2]:

(1)	For I would that you knew what great conflict I have for you, and
for them at Laodicea, and for as many as have not seen my face in the
flesh; 

(2)	That their hearts might be comforted, being knit together in love,
and unto all riches of the full assurance of understanding, to the
acknowledgement of the mystery of God, and of the Father, and of Christ;


(3)	In whom are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. 

(4)	And this I say, lest any man should beguile you with enticing words.

(5)	For though I be absent in the flesh, yet am I with you in the
spirit, joying and beholding your order, and the stedfastness of your
faith in Christ. 

(6)	As you have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in
him: 

(7)	Rooted and built up in him, and stablished in the faith, as ye have
been taught, abounding therein with thanksgiving. 

(8)	Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit,
after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not
after Christ. 

(9)	For in him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily. 

(10)	And you are complete in him, which is the head of all principality
and power: 

(11)	In whom also you are circumcised with the circumcision made without
hands, in putting off the body of the sins of the flesh by the
circumcision of Christ: 

(12)	Buried with him in baptism, wherein also you are risen with him
through the faith of the operation of God, who hath raised him from the
dead. 

(13)	And you, being dead in your sins and the uncircumcision of your
flesh, hath he quickened together with him, having forgiven you all
trespasses; 

(14)	Blotting out the handwriting of ordinances that was against us,
which was contrary to us, and took it out of the way, nailing it to his
cross;

(15)	And having spoiled principalities and powers, he made a shew of
them openly, triumphing over them in it. 

(16)	Let no man therefore judge you in meat, or in drink, or in respect
of an holyday, or of the new moon, or of the sabbath days: 

(17)	Which are a shadow of things to come; but the body is of Christ. 

(18)	Let no man beguile you of your reward in a voluntary humility and
worshipping of angels, intruding into those things which he hath not
seen, vainly puffed up by his fleshly mind, (If that doesn’t go on
today, I don’t know the Word.)

(19)	And not holding the Head, from which all the body by joints and
bands having nourishment ministered, and knit together, increaseth with
the increase of God. (See? It’s a good growing up.)

(20)	Wherefore if you be dead with Christ from the rudiments of the
world, why, as though living in the world, are ye subject to ordinances,


(21)	Touch not; taste not; handle not; 

(22)	(Which all are to perish with the using;) after the commandments
and doctrines of men? 

(23)	Which things have indeed a shew of wisdom in will worship, and
humility, and neglecting of the body; not in any honour to me, to the
satisfying of the flesh.)

	[Colossians 3:]

(1)	If you then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above,
(The Word does not seek, it’s the mind.) Mind those things which are
from above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God. 

(2)	Set your affection… (The same word again: Mind those things above,
not the things of earth.)

(3)	For you are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God. 

(4)	When Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then shall you also
appear with him in glory. 

(5)	Mortify therefore your members (Put to death those members.) which
are upon the earth; fornication, uncleanness, inordinate affection, evil
concupiscence, and covetousness, which is idolatry: 

(6)	For which things’ sake the wrath of God cometh on the children of
disobedience: 

(7)	In the which you also walked some time, when ye lived in them. 

(8)	But now you also put off all these; anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy,
filthy communication out of your mouth. 

(9)	Lie not one to another, seeing that you have put off the old man
with his deeds; 

(10)	And have put on the new man, which is renewed in knowledge after
the image of him that created him:

(11)	Where there is neither Greek nor Jew, circumcision nor
uncircumcision, Barbarian, Scythian, bond nor free: but Christ is all,
and in all. 

(12)	Put on therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, bowels of
mercies, kindness, humbleness of mind, meekness, longsuffering; 

(13)	Forbearing one another, and forgiving one another, if any man have
a quarrel against any: even as Christ forgave you, so also do ye. 

(14)	And above all these things put on love, which is the bond of
perfect(tion). 

(15)	And let the peace of God rule in your hearts, to the which also you
are called in one body; and be you thankful. 

(16)	Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom; teaching
and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs,
(That’s a far cry from a crack in the face, isn’t it?) singing with
grace in your hearts to the Lord. 

(17)	And whatsoever you do in word or deed, do all in the name of the
Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God and the Father by him. 

(18)	Wives, submit yourselves unto your own husbands, as it is fit in
the Lord. 

(19)	Husbands, love your wives, and be not bitter against them.

(20)	Children, obey your parents in all things: for this is well
pleasing unto the Lord.

(21)	Fathers, provoke not your children to anger, lest they be
discouraged. 

(22)	Servants, obey in all things your masters according to the flesh;
not with eyeservice, as menpleasers; but in singleness of heart, fearing
God: 

(23)	And whatsoever you do, do it heartily, as to the Lord, and not unto
men; 

(24)	Knowing that of the Lord you shall receive the reward of the
inheritance: for you serve the Lord Christ. 

(25)	But he that doeth wrong shall receive for the wrong which he hath
done: and there is no respect of persons.

14.	Now, there’s a lot of verse in here we’re going to talk about as
respecting the cross, because this, to me, is the ‘Book of the
Cross’. Let’s go back and look at the verses carefully, and
beginning at verse 9:

(9)	For this cause we (chapter 1) since the day we heard it, do not
cease to pray for you, and to desire that ye might be filled with the
knowledge of his will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding; that
you might walk worthy of the Lord;

(10)	That you might walk worthy of the Lord (See? We’ve been preaching
this all week long.) and all pleasing, being fruitful in every good
work, and increasing in the knowledge (By revelation) of God; 

(11)	Strengthened with all might, according to his glorious power, unto
all patience and longsuffering with joyfulness; 

(12)	Giving thanks unto the Father, which hath made us meet to be
partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light:

(13)	Who hath delivered us from the power of darkness and hath
translated us into the kingdom of his dear Son:

(14)	In whom we have redemption through his blood, even the forgiveness
of sins.

	Now, notice in verse 11, It says, “Strengthened with all might,
according to his glorious power, unto all patience and longsuffering and
joyfulness.”

	You will notice in here that the cross in the life of the Christian is
set forth immediately, because patience and longsuffering have to do
with the crucified life. Many people feel that they are brought to
nothing, if they are literally, as it were, crucified upon a cross.

	If God could take and pinion them, if He could demand of them a death,
they say, “Well, that’s not it, because, you see, that’s not the
point. I want the power which is resident in a resurrection. I want an
authority,” 

	But you will notice here that It says, “Strengthened with all might,
according to his glorious power,” (The power of Christ, and it’s the
power that lies in) “patience and longsuffering with joyfulness.” 

	This power is a definite, real power. As I say, it is not negative; it
is not simply passive as though nothing was going on, but it is a
reality, because this is strengthening us. There is no such thing, as I
understand my Bible, as a man simply being stringent, that God is simply
pouring strength in him, and saying, “Now, this is it entirely.”But
it is man through the Spirit of God being strengthened by man being
literally crucified, man himself going out of the way.

15.	Now, notice:

(12)	Giving thanks unto the Father, which hath made us meet to be
partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light:

(13)	Who hath delivered us from the power of darkness and hath
translated us into the kingdom of his dear Son: 

(14)	In whom we have redemption through his blood, even the forgiveness
of sins.

	Now the secret here is that: “God has delivered us from the power of
darkness and has translated us into the kingdom of his dear Son.”

(14)	In whom we have redemption through his blood. 

	Now, where did the Blood come from? The cross. That right? Without the
cross, there was no Blood. And without the cross and no Blood, there was
no deliverance from the power of darkness.

16.	Now, listen to me. Hold your thumb there, and turn back to 2
Corinthians. I’ve never used it this way, but I’m going to use it
this way now. In 2 Cor 3:13:

(13)	And not as Moses, who put a vail over his face, that the children
of Israel could not stedfastly look to the end of that which is
abolished: 

(14)	But their minds were blinded: for until this day remaineth the same
vail untaken away in the reading of the old testament; which vail is
done away in Christ. 

(15)	But even unto this day, when Moses is read, the vail is upon their
heart. 

	There’s a veil upon the mind, and a veil upon the heart.

(16)	Nevertheless when it (The mind, see, and consequently, the heart)
shall turn to the Lord, the vail shall be taken away. 

(17)	Now the Lord is that Spirit: and where the Spirit of the Lord is,
there is liberty. 

(18)	But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the
Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by
the Spirit of God.

	Now, listen to me: Israel could not accept Jesus Christ’s sacrifice
upon Calvary, according to the Old Testament. When Jesus talked to his
disciples in Emmaus, and then later in the building with them, he showed
them all the things in the law and the prophets concerning himself,
which was confirming his death, particularly. And Israel could not
accept the cross. And, because they could not accept the cross, they
remained in darkness.

17.	Now, what It says in Colossians here:

(13)	But we have been delivered us from the power of darkness, and hath
translated us into the kingdom of his dear Son: 

 (14)    	In whom we have redemption through the blood of the cross,
even the forgiveness of sins: 

	And, let me tell you tonight that this is absolutely true, that amongst
the Christians today, there is a complete darkness, there is a complete
authority of sin, as you can see, over the multitude—even as Jesus
said, ‘Because of the bounds of iniquity, the love of the many shall
wax cold’, and there has not been a translation into the Kingdom of
Light. In other words, our understanding is darkened tonight, because we
have not accepted the cross of Christ. You know, that’s true. I’ll
prove it to you.

	Today in Pentecost… Go back to when you were first in Pentecost; go
back when you were born again and all, and the…was the last they knew,
they had one thing: they had Pentecost—resurrection,
Pentecost—resurrection, Pentecost—resurrection. That’s all they
ever talked about. They never talked about the cross. And today their
minds are blackened and darkened. When the prophet came, they could no
more accept him than the Jews, the authority of their day, could accept
Jesus Christ.

18.	And the same thing happens today in the majority of Christians,
because we have turned aside the cross as an instrument of power that
will take us from darkness to light. Today we are wondering, “Why are
these things going on?” “What’s all this trouble?” 

	Your own prophet told you, “If somebody should come into the church
to stir you up and to destroy you, take up your cross! Don’t turn to
one side! Don’t miss it! See? If they persecute you, don’t
retaliate; don’t fuss. Don’t fuss!   

	If somebody amongst you rises up, don’t retaliate; don’t fuss;
don’t fight! Take the cross! Why? Because the time is coming to be
translated into the Kingdom of Light, but no more will Jesus Christ
translate us, spiritually, from the world of darkness to the world of
His kingdom, except by means of the cross. Can you or I ever come to a
place of light, until we take up our cross and let the people of this
world buffet us and do what they want with us?

	We are in darkness today, because we have not taken the cross, but
denied it. The Bible says, “If any man will follow me, let him take up
his cross.

19.	Now the Scripture says here, concerning the time of Moses, back in 2
Corinthians 3, which I read. It says:

(16)	Nevertheless when it shall turn to the Lord, the vail shall be
taken away. 

(17)	Now the Lord is that Spirit: and where the Spirit of the Lord is,
there is liberty. 

(18)	And we all, with open face (And so on, and going on and on.)

	And today there is a gross darkness, and people are not going on in the
spirit. They are not understanding and receiving the resurrection power
of God, because they say, “We’re going to bypass the cross. We’re
going to bypass it. Who wants to talk about the cross? That’s
finished. He died, didn’t he? We’re identified with him; we rose
with him. Let’s talk about the power.”

	Where is the power? See? Where is the light today? You’ve never seen
people so nervous and so aggravated, never seen people under such
pressure, under such bondage, never seen people so confused. Tell me:
Are you really clear today in your mind? How clear are you? Can I even
say things up here that you’re not wondering about. “Is he’s going
to quote the prophet’s word.” What are you scared of? Huh? Come on,
let’s be honest. I’ve got nothing to lose. We’ll throw out the
challenge. What is it? 

20.	Who wants to take up his cross? Who wants to take up his cross? The
Son must first act before the Father brings His power, but the Son must
die, before the Father raised him! But we want a resurrection without
death. We’re in darkness, brother/sister. If there are five hundred
here tonight, you’ve got five hundred opinions. There are roughly five
hundred of us running scared. Is that translated from darkness into
light? There’s something wrong. I think we’re just as bad as the
folk that turned down Bro. Branham, when he stopped doing all the
miracles, because they wanted to see miracles; they didn’t want
teaching. 

	It’s the Son-act that will be in them, that the Father may act in
power. But, remember; it was upon the cross, not in the Resurrection,
but upon the cross that we receive the power to be literally translated
from darkness to light.

	You say, “What’s going on? Why am I in this darkness? Why am I in
this spirit?”

	I’ll tell you one thing: Just submit to the cross, and that spirit
will begin to go, because I found every single time that I have
submitted to the death, and I have submitted to that which is against
me, and I have let them take me and crucify me, I have not only had
peace, but I’ve had light, and I’ve walked in victory, because then,
God stretched His Hand down. But He wouldn’t stretch His Hand, until
the cross.

	It says, “We have redemption through His Blood and the forgiveness of
sins.” 

	I say that darkness, my brother/sister, will go the minute we express
ourselves willingly to go to that cross and say, “Let them do what
they want to me. Let them say what they want to say. I’m not going to
fuss back. I’m not going to argue. I’m not going to worry. Let them
do it.”

	Isn’t that what Jesus did? And in that very process, that was the
process that translates from darkness to light. Let me submit to you
tonight: The ways of God will never become real, until we take up that
cross. Their lives will be a mystery. And those who take up the cross
will always be a mystic to those who don’t. But I’m going to tell
you one thing: You’ll always see the power of the Resurrection in
those who take up the cross, but you’ll not see it in those who
don’t. The cocklebur never took his place in death with Christ. There
was a peace.

21.	Now, let’s go a little further here. It sets forth, as I say, the
translation of darkness to light: of sin having dominion to reigning
with Jesus Christ, because we’re put in the kingdom of His reign. Now,
let’s take verses 20-21. [Col 1:20-22]

(20)	And, having made peace through the blood of his cross, by him to
reconcile all things unto himself; by him, I say, whether they be things
in earth, or things in heaven. 

(21)	And you, that were sometime alienated and enemies in your mind by
wicked works, yet now hath he reconciled 

(22)	In the body of his flesh through death, to present you holy and
unblameable and unreproveable in his sight: 

	Now, notice these verses: “And having made peace through the blood of
his cross, by him to reconcile all things to Himself.” Notice, it was
the cross that reconciled all things unto Himself. Wouldn’t we like to
have all things reconciled unto us? Now, it doesn’t say we’ll be
reconciled unto them. It says, “All things will be reconciled unto
us.” If Christ had not died upon the cross, there could have been no
reconciliation of those outside of him to come into him. See? 

	And It says, “You who were alienated in your mind by wicked works,
yet now hath he reconciled in the body of his flesh through death, to
present you holy and unblameable in his sight.”

22.	I agree with the verse this morning in Scripture concerning that.
It’s in Mt 5:23-26. I quoted It this morning. Now, let’s look at It:

(23)	Therefore if thou bring thy gift to the altar, and there
rememberest that thy brother hath ought against thee; 

(24)	Leave there thy gift before the altar, and go thy way; and be
reconciled (How do you get reconciled? By death, by the cross. There’s
no reconciliation, except by means of the cross. The world today… The
group that doesn’t see the truth are trying to reconcile the world to
God through a power ministry. You can’t do it. It’s through the
cross.) and then come and offer thy gift. (Now, notice:)

(25)	Agree with thine adversary quickly, whiles thou art in the way with
him; lest at any time the adversary deliver thee to the judge, and the
judge deliver thee to the officer, and thou be cast into prison.

(26)	Verily I say unto thee, Thou shalt by no means come out thence,
till thou hast paid the uttermost farthing.

	God is looking for reconciliation, but there isn’t any reconciliation
apart from the cross.

23.	Now, if God employs the cross to reconcile the world unto Himself,
we, too, must employ the cross to reconcile the world to ourselves.

	“I’m at loggerheads with this man.”

	“I’m in trouble with this one.”

	“I’ve got trouble with that one.”

	There is a constant bickering that goes on today. It shows only one
thing, that somebody is afraid that, if he humbles himself, it won’t
work. Somebody’s afraid that the cross doesn’t work! How can we
glory in the cross of Jesus Christ, if we don’t believe in His power?
See? If it worked for him, it’s got to work for us, because every man
must have his cross. We need reconciliation. But somebody’s got to do
the humbling. We need to get around it. But somebody’s got to say,
“I’m wrong.” We need to have a spirit of peace and love amongst
us, but somebody’s got to say, “I’m sorry. I spoke out of turn.”
“I’m sorry I…” See? Reconciliation. See?

24.	Now, let’s go and see if this is true, what I’m talking
about—some more in 2 Cor 5:18-19:

(18)	And all things are of God, who hath reconciled us to himself by
Jesus Christ, and hath given to us the ministry of reconciliation; 

(19)	To wit, (To know this) that God was in Christ, reconciling the
world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them; and hath
committed unto us the word of reconciliation.

	Christ said, “Look, I’ll bear it. I’ll take the cross, only
let’s come together.”

	How many of us can say, “I’ll take all the blame.” Now we just
want to go right with the Laodicean spirit, “I’ll defend my rights
unto the death, bless God.”

	Now I’m not preaching to you. I’m just telling you what’s in Lee
Vayle’s heart. If you back away these days, and say, “I’ll take
the blame,” they’ll think you’re just weak and a sucker. They’ll
think you’re a coward. That’s right. This is the day, as it were,
for a group to stand up group and say, “I want you to know, I’ve got
what’s true.” All they do is bring further reproach; all they do is
bring further enmity. It takes the cross to reconcile, because you
can’t find any place in Scripture of reconciliation without the cross.
See?

25.	Now then, if we become reconciled by the cross, isn’t that a place
of power? Well, isn’t it? Certainly. Let me show you in Ephesians.
Just hold your Bible.

	You say, “Bro. Vayle, I want to find out if it’s true.”

	What do you know about truth? You’ve got vindication any more than
I’ve got? If we’ve got the first step of truth towards vindication,
we’ll take the cross. And I’m going to show you, before I finish,
how right I am—not how right I am, but how right the Word of God is,
because I’m not claiming it. Let me see if I can find this in
Ephesians here. It’s Eph 4:16.

(16)	From whom the whole body fitly joined together and compacted by
that which every joint supplieth, according to the effectual working in
the measure of every part, maketh increase of the body unto the edifying
of itself in love. 

	It was love that put Jesus Christ upon the cross. Love was manifested
by a cross. It was there that Christ reconciled the world. It is in
reconciliation that unity comes. And, if we want the Body to increase,
that means reconciliation, not division, and somebody’s got to take up
a cross. Do you know who it’s going to be? It’s going to be the one
that’s really got the Spirit of God that’s going to do it, because
it was the Spirit of God that led Jesus through the wilderness to be
tempted and tried literally upon the cross of the devil, before he was
crucified on a cross of wood. See?

26.	Now, we cannot reconcile people to ourselves without the cross any
more than Jesus Christ could. Look at our family lives. Even as much as
men and women love each other, let’s be honest: How many of you
don’t have little resentments toward each other? Now, don’t tell me
that doesn’t happen, because the Bible says it does. “Husbands,
don’t get bitter against your wives.” 

	I don’t know what kind of women you are, but the Bible says, “Watch
out, you men.”

	Now, is that the way it ought to be? No! It says what? “Husbands,
love your wives as Christ loved the church and gave himself for it!”

	What was it? The stronger vessel took the cross that the weaker might
have life. And I say it’s more incumbent upon the man than it is the
woman. See? Look at the home, all these things. It’s got to start
somewhere where somebody says, “I’m sorry.” It’s got to start
somewhere, or there isn’t any reconciliation. There cannot be. It’s
an impossibility.

27.	Now, let’s go a little longer in this chapter of the cross.
Let’s go to verses 24-29 [Colossians]:

(24)	But now rejoice in my sufferings for you, and fill up that which is
behind of the afflictions of Christ in my flesh for his body’s sake,
which is the church: 

(25)	Whereof I am made a minister, according to the dispensation of God
which is given to me for you, to fulfill the word of God; 

(26)	Even the mystery which hath been hid from ages and from
generations, but now is made manifest to his saints: 

(27)	To whom God would make known what is the riches of the glory of
this mystery among the Gentiles; which is Christ in you, the hope of
glory: 

(28)	Whom we preach, warning every man, and teaching every man in all
wisdom; that we may present every man perfect in Christ Jesus: 

(29)	Whereunto I also labour, striving according to his working, which
worketh in me mightily.

	What was working in him? What was working in him was to be sacrificial
in his nature to present Christ. That’s what he said. Paul didn’t
say, “I want to tell you folks something: I’ve got the power of the
Resurrection. Hallelujah! I’m going to show you a mighty thing, bless
God. You, church, want to know a thing or two? All right, I’m going to
raise the dead, bless God.” 

	“You want vindication? Hallelujah, I’ll give you vindication. Bless
God, I’ll do it.” Why, he said, “I was caught up into paradise,
and I could tell you things, but I won’t tell you, because, bless God,
you know, I don’t want to be too proud about these things. Why, you
want to know power? I’ll tell you power! I got with God. I got Holy
Ghost power! Hallelujah!” 

	Paul didn’t say that. What did he say? “So now, rejoice in my
suffering for you.” 

	Who likes suffering? Who likes to suffer? Paul said, “I rejoice in my
suffering for you and fill up that which is left behind of the
afflictions of Christ,” in my flesh for His Body’s sake, the church.


28.	You and I don’t only suffer, my brother/sister, and take up our
cross in order that we be translated from darkness to light, that we
walk in a spiritual knowledge of God, but we do it for the sake of the
body of Jesus Christ, to gain the unity and blessing of love, where the
Body increases itself. And Paul said, “I have been made a minister of
this very thing in order to show forth this mystery, which is Christ in
you, the hope of glory, whom we preach, warning every man, teaching
every man of all wisdom, that we may present every man, perfect in
Christ Jesus, where unto our labor, strive according to his working
(What working?) of the sufferings of Jesus Christ.”

	It’s not popular to preach about suffering today. See, people want
their rights. See? People want rights. They say, “We’re democratic.
We can do what we want. We raise our own standard. We make our own
way.”

	That’s not God. Paul here brings out the thought that, if the body of
Christ is going to come to perfection and Christ would be made
manifest… In other words, the manifested Christ will come by
suffering, if men and women can take up their cross and suffer.

29.	Now, going to the next chapter:

(1)	For I would that you knew what great conflict I have for you, (See?
There’s a conflict—the cross—because the cross means conflict.
See? Crossing. Two things coming across each other make a
cross—contradiction. A cross, contradico—I say again. A cross, see?
You see the centrality of the cross in conflict.) For I would that you
knew what great conflict I have for you, and for them at Laodicea, and
as many as have not seen my face in the flesh; 

(2)	That their hearts might be comforted, being knit together in love,
and unto all riches of the full assurance of understanding, to the
acknowledgement of the mystery of God, and of the Father, and of Christ;


(3)	In whom are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. 

(4)	And this I say, lest any man should beguile you with enticing words.


(5)	For though I be absent in the flesh, yet am I with you in the
spirit, joying and beholding your order, and the stedfastness of your
faith in Christ. 

	What’s that faith in Christ? The trial of their faith. They’re
being tried. They’re being tested. They’re carrying their cross, but
they’re being faithful.

30.	Now:

(6)	As you have received in Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in him:

(7)	Rooted and built up in him, and stablished in the faith, as you have
been taught, abounding therein with thanksgiving. 

(8)	Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit,
after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not
after Christ. 

(9)	For in him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily. 

	Now you will notice in here that Paul is bringing out again the
philosophy of mankind, the philosophy of mankind in his day was the
complete rejection of the cross. See? That’s why he said in the Book
of Romans, “Say not in thine heart, Who shall bring him down?” See? 

	They said, “Hey, what’s this about a God up there. Now you’ve
brought Him down? Well, that’s funny. You say He dwelt in a man?”

	“Yeah.” 

	“Well, then, but you killed him!”

	“Yes.”

	“Well, if you killed God, who’s going to raise Him?”

	He said, “God did.”

	They’re saying the same thing right today: “Your God is dead. Now,
who’s going to bring Him back?” They said, “If you killed God,
then that’s all over; because, if God’s dead, and He’s supposed to
be the head man, and He’s gone, then what are you going to do about
it?” See?

31.	The philosophy of man never embraced the cross. It never has. The
philosophy of man is a Utopian dream. It’s bypassing the suffering.
Man’s age is a Garden of Eden. Man’s desire is the pushing of a
button, where all machines are run by electronics. But that’s not
God’s philosophy. See? The vain philosophy of man is not God’s way.
God’s way is that darkness can only be brought into light by means of
the cross.

	Man says, “Educate them. Our people right today turn around and say,
“We’ll go to a doctor.” And the doctor says, “You’re covered
with so and so. Go to a psychiatrist; take shock treatments.” 

	Has it ever been taught the beauty of suffering and humility? They
wouldn’t be in this position that they needed shock. But our very
fighting against the trials of this world, our very fighting against the
cross, brings us to a place where it gets darker and darker, until we
are so distraught, we have nervous breakdowns on every side.

	I came into almost a complete nervous breakdown. I was ready to attempt
suicide on the very grounds I felt the cross that Christ placed upon me.
There is no life, my brother/sister, except by the submission to the
cross, because it’s thereby you are translated into life. When we stop
fighting against the pressures of this life, submitting ourselves to
God, that’s when we’re going to have peace and confidence in Christ.
Why? Because that means God fights your battles when you. The vain
philosophy of men Paul says, “Beware of it.” 

32.	Now, look at It. Turn to Col 2:9.

(9)	For in him dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead bodily.

	Just hold your thumb there, and turn back to Col 1:19, will you? Look
at It now:

(19)	For it pleased the Father that in him should all fullness dwell.

	It said that it pleased that it ‘should’. It didn’t say that it
did. Is that right? It didn’t say that it did. It said, “Should
dwell.” But now in verse 9, after the cross, it dwells in him fully
now. We talk about knowing the fullness of God, my brother/sister, apart
from the cross, is gross ignorance in our part spiritually. There
isn’t any man can go to God and get an experience and say, “Now
I’ve got that fullness, Hallelujah!”

	“I know by experience; I’ve got it.”

	No, sir. You only know the fullness of God after the cross. Let a man
be crucified, let him take up his cross, let him deny himself—his
ambitions, his passions, his desire to retaliate, let him be crucified
by the hand of God. You watch, he’ll know the fullness of God in his
life, and not before.

	It’s not very nice preaching, is it? Not the popular, Pentecostal
kind. They get you all wumped up, so we cut a rug and go out in society
and fall flat on our face and show the world we haven’t got a thing.

	“I thought you had something!”

	“Well, I’m in church. I’ve got it! Hallelujah!”

	That’s the thing I’ve fought all my life, was the so-called
Pentecostal move. Everybody’s happy in the prayer room. Everybody’s,
“Glory to God,” faces shining, but get out in that street, and one
word that crosses anybody, “Bam!” The attack fight’s on; the dog
fight’s on.

33.	How can God move, except somebody stops moving, so God can? You see?
It was God was pleased that in him should dwell the fullness, but it was
only after his death upon Calvary that he was worthy and is above all
principality and power. See? If we want to get above the world and its
stink and its problems, there’s only one thing to do: just submit to
the whole thing by crucifixion, because that’s what it means. That’s
the cross. And then, let God come in and take over.

	You say, “Is that easy?”

	I’ll tell you how easy it is: Jesus sweat drops of blood in
Gethsemane to submit to it. That’s the hard thing.

34.	Now he was man and God before the cross, because he had a physical,
fleshly body, but after the Resurrection, he took his seat upon the
throne. And, when John looked, he saw one, because he’d taken upon
himself his glory by right of having done the miraculous work of
overcoming all principalities and power through the cross—not the
Resurrection. We’ll go on and show you this. Now, watch it. In verse
13—and we’ll read 10, too.

(10)	And you are complete in him, which is the head of all principality
and power:

(11)	In whom also you are circumcised (Notice: Paul brings out here,
“Don’t forget,” he said, “You’re circumcized. You’re cut
off. You’re dead.”) with a circumcision not made with hands, in
putting off the body by the sins of the flesh by the circumcision of
Christ:

(12)	Buried with him in baptism, wherein also you are risen with him
through the faith of the operation of God, who hath raised him from the
dead.

(13)	And you, being dead in your sins and the uncircumcision of your
flesh, hath he quickened together with him, having forgiven you all
trespasses; (Now, notice:)

(14)	Blotting out the handwriting of ordinances that was against us,
which was contrary to us, and took it out of the way, nailing it to his
cross; 

(15)	And having spoiled principalities and powers, he made a show of
them openly, triumphing over them in it. 

	Now, what’s he saying here? It wasn’t the Resurrection that did
this. So, don’t say that it was. It was in the cross that he blotted
out the handwriting of ordinances against us. Now, if that isn’t
power, I don’t know what power is. This is not resurrection,
brother/sister. This is death; this is the cross. On the cross he
literally brought it out what was against us and contrary to us, and he
spoiled principalities and powers.

35.	Do you know we do the same thing by the cross? What’s against us?
People, things, circumstances. Right? So, we get up there and say by the
power of God, “Hallelujah! I’ll knock them all dead.”

	Huh-uh. No, sir. You put him to an open shame. You destroy what’s
against you—not by going against it, but by bowing to it—just like
Christ. He literally defoiled principalities and powers by saying,
“Take me where you want to; put me upon the cross and kill me.” And,
when he did it, he took complete victory over them.

	Oh, that’s hard to understand, because I want to go “Pow!” right
in the kisser! Do you know what happens? You get licked every single
time, because neither you, nor I, nor all of us, are a match for
principalities and powers or anything else.

	You say, “Bro. Vayle, do you mean to tell me the way of getting
things out of my way is to let them ride over me?”

	That’s absolutely right. You’ll get them out of your way once and
for all: let them do what they want.

	“Well, but I’ve got rights according to the law.”

	Forget it. Listen to what It says, brother/sister. Listen to It: “He
made a show of them openly.” He made a show of them for what they were
by letting them do what they wanted.

	“Bless God, I’ll…”

	Let them do what they want.

	“I’ll show them a thing or two.”

	You know what happens? We get shown up what we are—every time. To
triumph, to get things out of the way, to show indeed who is in truth,
you don’t fight! You take your crucifixion, and God will make manifest
who is right.

	Now you say, and I say, “We love the prophet and honor him.” Now,
do we go this far? Because that’s what he did. Tell me when William
Branham fought one fight. Show me where Moses fought back. Show me where
Paul… Show me where anybody you have ever admired as a true and
tremendous servant of God, who did not do exactly what Jesus Christ did:
He submitted and, thereby, openly showed where the power is. Now you
know that’s the truth.

36.	We talk about the power of God; we talk about a Resurrection. The
Son must first show his power upon the cross, which is what? Complete
submission. Then, the Father will reach down and raise him from the dead
and place him in heavenly places, manifest His power in him. See?

	Now this is what I admired in William Branham. I don’t know what you
saw, but this is what I saw. It’s what I saw in Jonathon Goforth and
wept as I saw it. I saw it in Bailey when he came back here from South
Africa, and I cried my heart out, because I saw God. I saw God in
action, the God who openly spoiled, took away what was against him by
submission to it, and demonstrated the mighty power of God.

	What are people like without this cross? The same bunch of carnal
impersonators that are taking the people through the mainstream of
Christianity, which is ecumenicity, which is the beast of the power
raised up to the antichrist. And they’re doing it all by flexing their
muscles and saying, “Boy, look at our crowds we’ve had in
Jamaica.”

	“Look what we had down there in India. Look at our mighty work! Man,
we’ve got it.”

	But the cross is missing, because you cross one of those men, and
they’ll come against you like a bulldog. 

37.	They took him, and they hanged him on a cross. But he was God
manifest in flesh, and he didn’t raise one finger, but in the cross is
where he openly showed the world what they were, and he triumphed over
it. And he took away exactly what was against us. And, brother/sister,
when you and I are fighting and fussing, and there is something against
us, we do not resist any longer, but humble ourselves under the mighty
hand of God, and lie down and die! And you’ll show the whole world who
it is that’s got truth and light, and then, God, by resurrection power
will come down and raise you up and set you in a place of authority. Let
denominations scrap, let the pseudo-religious do their fighting, but let
the Christian die, that God may raise him.

38.	Now the Bible says that concerning this suffering in Jas 1:2-4:

(2)	My brethren, count it all joy (The word ‘all’ means
‘pure’—nothing in there that adulterates it. Like you say ‘pure
sausage’. ‘Pure pork sausage’ means there’s no beef and no bread
crumbs. See? It’s pure pork sausage. See? James says, “Count it pure
joy. There’s nothing in it but joy, wonderful joy! Count it, impute
it, pure joy:) when you fall into divers testings; (Which is the cross.
See?) 

(3)	Knowing, (See? the revelation) that the trying of your faith worketh
patience. 

(4)	But let patience have the perfect work, that you may be perfect and
entire, lacking nothing.

	“Why,” we say, “bless God, you wait till I get one of those
gifts, get two more gifts, hallelujah! In fact, the odds are, maybe
I’ll have all nine. I’ll show you a thing or two, boy. I’m going
to go to God, and I’m going to get this thing worked out, if I have to
keep going to God. Bless your heart, I know it’ll go all the way.”

	Better reconsider that, because James said we’d become perfect and
entire, lacking nothing by the way of the cross. Because, you see, if
the Son acted—death, and then God in His mighty power can raise it up
and manifest it… And, what is more perfect than God’s perfection?
See? God is showing us the way of the cross.

39.	Now: verses 14-15 [Colossians 2]:

(14)	Blotting out the handwriting and ordinances which was against us
(See? We’ve been talking about that.) and took it out of the way,
nailing it to his cross;

(15)	And having foiled the principalities and powers he made a show of
them openly, and triumphed over them in it. 

	It’s strange, but submission is the one way to get out of it. Our
idea of Christian virility, my brother/sister, may not be what the Word
of God says. Now I realize this is a little bit hard in the flesh, but
there’s nothing we can do about it. We just look at the wonder of it
and say, “God, if this is Your way, we submit.”

	That’s what Peter said: “Humble yourselves before the mighty hand
of God, then you can resist the devil.” We’re doing opposite.
We’re trying to resist without submission. See? Submit to God. Why?
For this is the will of God concerning you. It’s God Who is head of
our daily affairs. It is God in us submitting ourselves, knowing that in
this hour He manifests, God’s going to put it right out in the open
(See?) and bring it to a proper end.

40.	But I love this thought, brother/sister, because this is the one
that’s the hardest in my own life: to realize that the way to get rid
of anything that’s against me, just let it do what it wants, and trust
God. You want to run over me? Run over me. Do you want to just rob me?
Go ahead. Oh, I hate that! I don’t mind giving it. I want you to come
and take it? Oh, boy.

	When I find shenanigans, whew! I take up a black pen and go [sounds
like stroke, stroke, stroke]. That’s not the action that’s going to
bring us into power. That’s not going to translate us from darkness
into light. That’s not going to get God working in us and openly
showing who’s right. It openly shows that the both are wrong. See?
It’s getting it out of the way by saying, “All right, let him do
it.”

	Kids come in, jump on your couch and destroy it. It’s all right.

	“Ooh, my! That new couch of mine… Wow!”

	Yeah. Sure. That shows how dead we are to things. The first nail lets
us know how hard we’ll wiggle. See? But, what is it? It’s the
Son-act, you see, the Son-act in death, complete submission to all sins,
except where they try to make you go contrary to God’s Word, and then
you say, “Kill me, but I’ll not disobey one Word.”

41.	Now, why don’t we do the same thing here? Kill me in my
submission. But God says, “Let them do what they want,” and I’ll
let them do it. Right? That’s what Samuel did. That’s what the
Hebrew children did. That’s what the prophets did. That’s what Jesus
did. He said, “Which of you can find one sin in me, one Word even,
that I’ve said wrong? Which of you can put your finger on me? I’ve
lived the life; I’ve portrayed God; I’ve done the works!” 

	And they said, “Crucify him.” 

	He said, “If that’s what you want, crucify me.”

	And then, when they came to get him that night, (They were going to
take the other disciples.) he said, “Look, it’s me you’re looking
for. Let them go.”

	Did he die?	But, what happened? He made a show of the whole world when
he did it, and proved himself right, and God came down, raised him from
the dead, and the power of God is in him tonight. And he’s above every
name. He owns it all, because He is mighty God, but he proved himself in
the death.

42.	You know, Satan couldn’t figure that out. Satan said, “I will go
up above the most High. I will do this. I will do that.”

	You know that Satan spirit? You don’t get Satan dying. It’s the
spirit of Christ that says death. Then, let God move upon the scene. Oh,
brother/sister, I know what I’m talking about academically. I know it
with all my heart, because all my headaches, all my worries, all my
griefs… It’s all of these things; they’ve been from one source all
along, and that is refusing to submit myself to what God wants to put me
through and say, “Let him do it, hallelujah, for my life is hid with
Christ in God.”

	And we can say with Polycarp, when they said, “We’re going to kill
you.”

	“Why, you can hardly do that,” he said, “I’m alive in
Christ.”

	They said, “We’ll take away your life.”

	He said, “Well, you can’t do it; I’ve already given it to God.”

	See? He prayed for those that were going to kill him. 

	Don’t tell me, brother/sister, that Christ and Polycarp are different
from the Christ in us, or one of us hasn’t got the real thing. The Son
must die upon the cross. The Son must act first in obedience to death.
Then, the Father reaches down. See? Resurrection comes after death.

43.	Now, let’s go a little further. I don’t have to read the whole
chapter, but we read here, Chapter 3:

(1)	If you then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above,
(Mind those things which are above.) where Christ sitteth on the right
hand of God. 

	What is that? That’s an expression, like, “Sit thou on my right
hand.” And, what does it mean? You’re going to sit on the right hand
of the king? He can’t. That means he’s bigger than the king! It’s
an expression. See? It means he’s proved himself. See? It means he’s
gone through and shown he’s a victim. It’s an expression. Christ
died, and the way of death was the way of power, because that’s where
it licked sin. See? That’s where it’s defeated. Now, he’s risen.

(2)	Set your affection on things above… (Notice: See? What’s our
affection, our love? Why?)

(3)	For you are dead…

	You are dead. You’re crucified. You’re dead. You’ve died with
Christ. Now, if Christ died, what happened? God made him alive. There
could be no resurrection except for death. Now Christ has warned us.
“You’re dead! You’re dead!”

44.	A young preacher came to an old preacher: “What does it mean for a
man to be dead?”

	He said, “Son, do you remember that well-to-do citizen that had a
great, fine reputation in town, that died last week?”

	He said, “Yes.”

	He said, “You go down to his grave and tell him all the nice things
you ever heard about him.”

	Well, the kid thought it was funny, but he said, “If you say so,
I’ll do it.”

	He went down, and he said, “Sir, I don’t know if you can hear me or
not, but I want to tell you, I’ve heard a lot of nice things you’ve
done. I know all the gifts you’ve given to poor folk. I know all the
lovely things that you have heaped upon those that were not too
deserving. But you, in your great power and love did so and so…”

	He went back after an hour and told the preacher. And the preacher
said, “What did he say?”

	He said, “Nothing.”

	Well, he said, “That’s good. Now,” he said, “you also heard the
other side. That boy was going to be a crook. So, what he did was a
ploy, as a cover up, for stealing from widows. Now you go down there and
tell him what kind of a crook he was.”

	The boy went down and said, “Sir, I hate to say this, but everybody
knows it’s true, that you were a crook. Everything you did was merely
hypocritical. It was a great big farce and a cover-up. You gave a little
bit away, but you stole a lot.”

	He went down the road and told him off.

	He went back and told the preacher. The preacher said, “What did he
say?” 

	He said, “Nothing.”

	The preacher said, “He’s dead.”

	Do you understand it now?

	Christ received not the flattery of men, nor was offended when they
rebuked him. But it was in that, and that alone, that the power of God
became manifested. The Son must first act in the power of the
cross—then the Father openly displays him.

45.	Now It says:

(3)	Ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God (which is
exactly true.) 

	Notice, he said:

(5)	Mortify therefore your members (See? That means ‘kill’, ‘put
to death’, ‘crucify’. What?) fornication, uncleanness, inordinate
affection, evil concupiscence, and covetousness, which is idolatry.
(Notice what he said about ‘covetness’: It’s
idolatry—worshipping money. See?)

(6)	For which things’ sake the wrath of God cometh on the children of
disobedience:

(7)	In the which also you walked sometime, when you lived in them.

(8)	But now you put off all these things: anger, wrath, malice,
blasphemy, filthy communication. (What is that a sign of,
brother/sister? It’s a sign of when those things come against us,
we’re dead to them. Let them come. We don’t get mad anymore. Why?
Just take it and let it come. See? Get it out of the way. See?) 

(9)	Lie not to one another, seeing that you put off the old man with his
deeds;

(10)	And have put on the new man which is renewed in knowledge after the
image of him that created him. See? 

(11)	Where there is neither Greek…(and so on.)

Notice again, verse 13:

(13)	Forbearing one another, forgiving one another. If any man have a
quarrel against any, even as Christ forgave you, so also do to them.

	What is that? That’s the cross! That’s not a man saying, “Well,
I’m going to take him to task.”

	‘Forbearing.’ What does it mean ‘to forbear’? Bear and forbear.
See? That’s not rising up. That’s taking it. See? 

46.	Notice: 

(13)	…Forgiving one another. If any man have a quarrel against any… 

	That’s why Christ said, “When you bring your gifts…” Everything
that God did in His ordinances within the church was for a purpose, even
bringing gifts.

	If you have ought against your brother, when you bring your gifts, say
in your heart: “Is there something that someone has against me? Is
there some problem” Then leave your gift, and go and make that thing
right. And at the Lord’s Table, not to dare to take it, until
there’s a thorough examination and a confession concerning how we take
it.

	Foot-washing: an admirable situation to make up any grievances and go
and wash the feet of the person that you kind of got angry with, kind of
have an animosity. Confess! And that’s the cross, my brother/sister.
That’s humility. The Scripture says that Christ humbled himself, even
to the death of the cross, and the cross spells humility. It was God
coming down and dying, and it’s now we die and go up, via the cross.

47.	Notice: now he says:

(14)	Above all these things put on love, which is the bond of
perfection.

(15)	Let the peace of God rule in your hearts.

	How can it rule in our heart? There’s only one way it will rule:
that’s by crucifixion, because that is what takes away what’s
against us. See, brother/sister, we are not going to ever get this peace
inside us until, or unless, we let the Word of God set the standard. If
Christ went this way, you and I are going to have to go this way,
because we are going in the same direction he went, and we’ve got to
go the way he went. He said, “The way that I go you don’t know now,
but you’re going to know.” I’m talking now about the way of
humility, when he washed their feet. Though he is ‘the way’,
you’ve got to be in Christ, but you have the power of God, being in
submission to God, in crucifixion.

48.	Now:

(17)	Whatsoever you do in word or deed, do all in the name of Jesus
Christ…

(18)	Wives, submit yourselves unto your own husbands.

	This is one of the biggest bugaboos in this whole thing that Bro.
Branham taught us. Women are rebellious. They don’t want to submit to
their husbands, and the men are even more foolish than the women,
because a lot of men are going around saying that the women make it by
the husbands. Of all the crass nonsense I have ever heard in my life:
“A woman’s going to make because she obeys her husband.” 

	You obey your husband as it fits in the Lord.

	This got so bad in one place they finally asked the preacher, “Do you
really believe that I ought to obey my husband?”

	And he said, “Yes.”

	She said, “All right, then, explain this: He says, ‘Cut your
hair’.”

	Why, he did a double-take; he didn’t have an answer.

	You obey as fit in the Lord, but obedience is the faith of a woman; but
a man is supposed to love his wife as Christ loved the church. This is
sacrificial. This is a cross, but it must be taken up daily, because
believe me, why do homes go into the divorce court? Because somebody
doesn’t take up a cross. It takes two to make a fight. And, when two
get mad at the same time, it could end in a pretty bad situation. See? 

	It’s to back down. We think it’s a disgrace to back down, but
it’s not. Back down. Take the low seat, because that’s when God will
call you to a higher. Let the world puff and fight it. Let people rub us
the wrong way. Let them do it. That’s right. It will show in time who
was manifestly a servant of God. He’ll openly show it, then He’ll
give us the power. But we’re talking about a power without the cross:
It can’t work. That’s the world, my brother/sister. That’s not
Christianity. Do you follow me? All right.

49. 	[Colossians 3:]

(21)	Fathers, provoke not your children to anger, lest they be
discouraged. (That’s good thinking right there. There’s a lot of
people too rough on their kids. There are a lot of them that are not
true enough to their children, to not have them be obedient to God’s
Word.)

(22)	Servants, obey in all things your masters (Back up; that’s the
cross), not with eyeservice, as menpleasers; but in singleness of heart,
pleasing God: (That’s the cross.)

(23)	Whatsoever you do, do it heartily.

	That’s the cross, because many times we don’t feel like
preaching… Do you remember the time Bro. Branham preached that sermon,
that great one, “Anointed Ones at the End Time”? I believe that’s
the one. I’m sure it was. And he told me later, he said, “Did you
notice anything?”

	I said, “No. It was a tremendous sermon.”

	But he said, “I never was so sick in my life.” He said, “I
thought I’d crack, holding on to that pulpit, to finally draw the last
breath.”

	How many times did we go to him in his utter weakness? I could kick
myself in the teeth thinking about it. The number of times he was so
distressed and so distraught, yet not once did he have a critical or
mean word for anybody, but received them with joy and heartiness unto
the Lord—every rebuke, and every trial, in order to help some soul.
Certainly that’s the way of God.

50.	Now, no wonder the Scripture says, “As oft as you eat this bread
and drink this wine, you show forth his death.”

	Oh, we want to sit back. “Oh,” we say, “isn’t it lovely? We
take the Lord’s Supper, and we think about his death, because we’re
looking for his coming.” 

	Cut it out. Just drop it right there. It hasn’t got a thing to do
with his coming. It says, “When you eat that bread and you drink that
wine, it means one thing: You’ll let them do what they want to do to
you, because it means you’re going to die by way of the cross. It
signifies in symbol that you are open to go where he went.

	“If He’ll lead me to the judgment, I’ll go with Him. If He leads
me through the garden, I’ll go with Him. If He’ll lead me through
the fiery furnace, I’ll go with Him. If He leads me through the death,
I’ll sit right with Him,” because what he did upon the cross, in
shedding His Blood and breaking His Body, I’m just as willing to die
upon my cross, and this signifies that I’m going to get all my sins
picked up, and I’m going to make all my rights wrong with my
fellowmen. No wonder he said, “As oft as you eat this and drink it,
you show forth his death till he comes.”

51.	My brother/sister, my last thought; turn with me to Rev 5:5-6. Oh,
let’s read from verse 1:

(1)	And I saw in the right hand of him that sat upon the throne a book
written within and on the backside, sealed with seven seals. 

(2)	And I saw a strong angel proclaiming with a loud voice, Who is
worthy to open the book, and to loose the seals thereof? 

(3)	And no man in heaven, nor in earth, neither under the earth, was
able to open the book, neither to look thereon. 

(4)	And I wept much, because no man was found worthy to open or read the
book, neither to look upon the book. (Oh, they cried and they sobbed.
And, as they wept:)

(5)	One of the elders saith unto me, Weep not…(“Oh, John, don’t
cry. The Lion! Oh, That strong One, that Lion, you’ll find is the
strongest of all beasts, you’ll find he’s the greatest earthen
power.”) the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, hath
prevailed and he’s going to look upon the book and open it. 

	And John said, “Hallelujah, a lion. Oh,” he said, “bless God.
Power! Power, raw, unadulterated, supreme power! This is to open the
book. This is going to do it! Oh,” he said, “I heard him his voice
roar like a lion! Oh,” he said, “thank God the Lion’s coming!” 

	The lamb, slain from the foundation of the world, was Christ.	

52.	I saw a man who walked down the road, after he laid his baby in the
arms of his wife. He saw her eyes crossed in convulsions. His little boy
could have died also. He took the nursing bottle and kept it warm upon
his breast, and he hugged his child.

	As he went down the road, a man said, “Billy, do you still love?”

	And he said, “I love Him more than I’ve ever loved Him in my
life.”

	And I saw that man open the Seals in the Seventh Church Age—not
because he was a roaring lion. The world wanted him to be a roaring
lion. They said, “Branham, you must have lost something, because
you’re not down there in the prayer line like you used to be, with two
thousand going under your hand and not one miss. What’s the matter
with you? You’re not the man with that dynamism. Where’s your
program? If you’ve got such authority, why don’t you stand up with
Elijah and call the fire down?”

	And I saw a man go out of life the same way he came in—crucified from
before the foundation of the world. A man who could bear the trials, the
temptations of the church, could put it in order and be rejected, and to
never lift a finger, but commit all to God. And there is where the
saints of God were. And when that man’s funeral oration was given, I
saw that he was the mighty prophet of God, for even God witnessed, for
out of the sun that turned red and blue and black and green and
multi-colored, there came out a cloud on the left hand of solid gold,
and on the right hand, of solid blood. And, when the cloud got between
the sun and the white building, when it was gold, it turned the building
gold. And, when it got red and went between the building, the white
building in the sun, it turned red. And all night long, the lights were
red, and the power lights gone red, signifying the gold of God, the
trial of faith was completed, and judgment would come upon the earth.
But it was a lamb. It was a lion crucified, as it were, as a lamb, but
it wasn’t a man who flexed his muscles and took authority.

53.	I saw him that night when God gave him the power of death and life,
and he tested it on the two young people in the audience, kissing and
messing with each other, and he said, “Don’t do that!” And as he
rocked backwards, with his face ashen, almost in a trance, he said,
“I’ve got power to let you go or to let you die.” 

	He suddenly breathed a sigh and said, “You’ll live.” 

	I saw God testing.

	And he went down that road to know God said, “William Branham, I gave
you a test, and you didn’t fail it [ ], because you didn’t try it,
like the world, to be a roaring lion and set your authority up. But you
just came like a lamb and didn’t pursue it, and you let me vindicate
it.”

	Now I don’t believe there was a greater man since the day of Paul. He
might have been greater, for all I know. I’ve got no idea, because
what’s great with God, I couldn’t comprehend. But I saw a lion. But,
when we looked, he was a bleeding lamb.

54.	My brother/sister, let’s understand this today: That was his
message, and that’s our lives. I’m not preaching down to you as
though I’ve got it, because you look at a man most miserable, because
I know these things, but It says “Happy are you if you do them.” But
I’m seeing a revelation tonight as I’ve preached to you from the
bottom of my heart. It’s time for us to quit our fussing. I don’t
know if we will or not. It’s time to quit defending ourselves. I
don’t know if we’re going to stop. It’s time to let them carry us
where they want to carry us. I don’t know if we’re going to let them
do it. But, if we want to have the power of God loosed, it’s going to
have to come, first of all, by way of the cross, the way the Son went,
and then, the Father will reach down and manifest Himself. 

	Oh, dying Lamb. Have you got power? 

	“All power, is given unto me.”

	But have you changed, Lord? 

	“No, I’m still the dying Lamb, slain from the foundation of the
world.”

	When you said you’d take your great glory after it’s all over, and
“I’ll show them, but until then, I’ll just wait,” said he who
gave himself and reigned supreme.

	My brother/sister, let me submit to you tonight: If this is the way God
wants us to go, I don’t know if we’re going to go or not, but I hope
we do. I hope we do, because this is the way we were taught. This is
what we sought, and this is what we better have, because this is it. 

	May God bless you. 

	Shall we pray.

	Gracious, eternal Father. O Lord, I’m not worthy to even open my
mouth, O God, because like a serpent or a crooked adder, O God, I seem
to be, not to go against Your Word, O God, when You said we’re
righteous with Your righteousness, but, Lord, just thinking in terms
what we’ve done with all the beauty and holiness You’ve given
us—all this, O God. 

	Lord, how able we are to take up our cross. Jesus, Jesus, mighty God,
Thou bleeding Lamb, have compassion on us as a people tonight, Lord and
once again wash us by Your Blood and give us a proper mind and
understanding, Jesus, that the cross is an instrument of power, that
You’re not trying to confuse and confound us, You’re not trying to
debilitate us, Lord, or bring us to nothing, but You’re trying to
raise us up into the strength of God to that first step. 

	Lord Jesus, we know now when we […?...] because we know. O God,
tonight, help us. Help us, Lord, take the vessel once again like that
beautiful Potter You are, and take this clay in Your hands once again
and remold it, in this last day, O Christ, that we might come forth.

	Now, Lord, You know that I’m as sincere as I can be, and I know I’m
not yet sincere enough. I’ve got to have help, Lord, I can just say
one thing, “Without You, I’m nothing. I’m less than nothing,
because I’m in a complete debt. But, Lord, I believe tonight in Your
Word, believe in a measure, when You said to ask anything in Your Name,
You’d do it. And here’s the one thing we want above all else, Lord:
to humble ourselves even to the death of the cross, humble ourselves
right down. Lord, we will never take up a weapon against anybody, never
take up one word in defense of ourselves, never again, O God. And God,
as I’m saying it, I know I’m going to do it, Lord, unless You do
something about it.

	God, tonight I’m so utterly helpless, and yet so sinfully vigorous,
that I need help, God, and I’m asking, and I’m asking for everybody
here, too, Lord, that wants help. God, help us, from this moment on, to
have the revelation of the power of the cross, so even as You said to
those people years ago, that they took joy disposing of their goods,
because they knew they had something in heaven, let us do, Lord, as
Jesus, joyfully go to the cross, because we know by revelation the power
of what has been set before us.

	Lord, we do that with our children, and I know that You’re not less
than we are, (You’re greater.) that You’re going to do that with us.
God, please now, move by Your Spirit, to bring us into harmony with the
cross, that the Father may act in the power of the Resurrection, that
God might be glorified.

	And now unto the King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only wise God,
be all power and honor and glory, through Jesus Christ Our Lord.

	

	While our heads are bowed, and our eyes are closed, maybe somebody say,
“Bro. Vayle, I agree with you. I know what it is. I haven’t been
fooling myself either. When they’ve come against me, I’ve
retaliated; when they fussed, I fuss back. I don’t want to be that
way. I’ll do one thing: I’ll pray for you, if you pray for me. Raise
your hands. And I appreciate your prayers, because God knows I need
them. We must, we must go the way of the Word. Jesus, You’ve seen the
hands, and I’m going to remember these folks, day by day, Lord,
thinking, as I pray for them. [End of recording.]