Prayer

Comments

1	Ten Points

10-17-93 (1993A)

1.	Pentecostals were very, very much for praying in public and praying
loud and praying long and very vociferously, excitedly, and all those
things. They would work themselves up and kinda believed that this way
of getting a more intensity was their faith, which it wasn’t. So, we
have to learn not to get ourselves into some type of stereotype way and
think that is the way it has to be. You know, they say, “Put up your
lightning rods, so the lightning would come.” And well, you know, we
had a good time. Let’s just put it that way. And it’s about all you
could say. There were so few answers to prayer. But we did have a good
time. It became an emotional outlet; so, that’s all right. I’m not
against that, but we want to go beyond that in praying.

2.	And then, I went with the Baptist for quite awhile and we were much
more conservative. Naturally, we weren’t Southern Baptist; we were
Northern. We sort of gathered around, like we’re here, and people took
turns in praying, after a little bit of Bible discussion or study; and
it was all right. Fortunately for them, I was in the mode of discerning
and picking people out. One lady came in, and I said, “Hey, you got a
problem with your foot?” She had a bone tumor instantly healed. And
so, we had a little excitement. It was good for the soul and for the
body.

3.	And it’s all right, but my attitude towards prayer today is more or
less to scatter ourselves and kneel. You can pray together; it’s all
right. You can pray out loud or just begin concentrating, especially on
your heart with the Lord, or you can take turns in praying (whatever you
want), or be led of the spirit. But the point is that prayer always has
been a very, very tremendous part of worship, and of community worship
before the Lord, to pray together.

4.	Now I’m not going to comment about ten different things the Bible
mentions about prayer. I’m just going to let you to know where you are
coming from. First of all:

(1)	Pray in secret. Your Father will see in secret; will reward you
openly.

(2)	Do not use vain repetition. Don’t think you’re going to gain any
ground by saying ‘Praise you Jesus; Praise you Jesus; Thank you Lord;
Thank you Lord’ and go into some kind of an experience, you know.

	But here’s one that is tremendously important:

(3)	Pray for laborers that the Lord of the harvest will send forth
laborers into the harvest. If there ever was a time to pray for the
ministry, it’s now. You can end up with a lemon. So, that’s one
reason why it’s very important to begin to pray and have these
meetings, so that God gives you someone here. If the time of attrition
is here, you’ll never... It doesn’t matter. You’re still to pray,
because you don’t know the hour that it’s over. Only God knew the
day to shut the ark.

(4)	Always pray for journeying mercies. If you’re going on a journey,
always pray that God will help you. ‘Watch and pray’, which in my
understanding means to ‘look for opportunities’. Don’t deny
yourself the privilege of prayer.

	But this one’s a tough one:

(5)	When you do pray, believe; gear yourself down.

	And here’s one that’s tremendously valuable:

(6)	Pray for those that despitefully use you. Today, in the era of no
peace, no calm, no nothing—the hour of destruction—it is difficult.
And I’m a victim of my own stupidity in this area. Just simply pray
for those that use you wrong and go down the road. As Bro. Branham said,
“When you’re walking up hill, and the snakes are snapping at you,
don’t stop to beat them over the head. Just keep moving up.” Don’t
be a snake whipper, a snake cracker.

(7)	Pray and not faint. In other words, learn patience. You will get the
answer. Stick with it. If your heart is right, it’s in the Bible.
It’s yours. Just hold on. It’s very important to pray every day so
we enter not into temptation. I pretty well practice that myself. It’s
very scriptural.

(8)	Pray one for another that you may be healed. It may be right this
afternoon you’re lacking healing, because you haven’t prayed for
others. 

	So, all of these let you know what’s between you and the Lord, what
the church needs. You’ve had prayer requests over the last little
while, right? Lee Miller needs serious prayer. I phoned him last night.
I didn’t want to talk with him. I just talked to his wife, and then I
prayed for him. And I believe that the Lord really touched him, because
I believe what the Bible says, “Where two of you be agreed upon
anything that touches the kingdom of God, it shall be given to you.” 

	You ensure your own healing by praying for others. Remember those
requests such as that.

(9)	Remember God’s ministers. You never know if the young man is going
to cut the old man’s throat, or the old man’s going to cut the young
man’s throat, when it comes to ministering. Now you understand what
I’m telling you. I could illustrate that; I’m not going to bother.
Again we know what it is to pray for those that despitefully use us. We
don’t need comments on this. So, well, “I don’t think I should
pray for that guy”— “should hang him up a noose.” The minute
that you and I take judgment in our hands, (And I do it all the time. It
seems I got a terrible time. I’m not going to try to lie to you; just
tell you the truth.) we take it out of God’s hands.

(10)	Don’t blow a trumpet when you go to prayer; just pray. 

	So, what we’re looking at, then, in the meetings, from now on at all
times, just scatter yourselves or do what you want to do. We have... One
thing in this church: we are fortunate we have room where you can kneel.
I used to read the Scripture years ago, and I’d say “Well, the Bible
says kneel; the Bible says stand,” till I found out one day the word
‘stand’ (when you are praying) means ‘steadfast’. It doesn’t
mean to ‘get off your knees’. It means to be `steadfast’, `stand
still’. So, I was shocked when I heard that I had to change my whole
thesis on my position. 

	Hey look, you can lie on your back and pray; you can lie on your face
and pray, you can be scrunched in a position, your body racked with
pain. Position is not it. Jesus knelt. We kneel. Paul knelt. We kneel. I
think that’s good. Some people aren’t in a position to: bad hips,
bad knees and things. Hey, the Bible doesn’t say you can’t sit and
pray, because It says “always pray”; and I’m sure we’re not on
our knees all the time.

5.	So, we’re just talking about these things to be free; and so,
we’re just going to go to prayer and not going to say anything
special. You know what’s on your heart. You’ve got loved ones;
you’ve got problems that bother you as a person; you’ve lost respect
for somebody; you’ve lost feeling for somebody. You’ve been
disobedient here and there; the other thing. We haven’t prayed
sufficiently for the church as a community, a body of Christ, to really
bear each others burdens and so full fill the law of Christ, all of
these things.

6.	Remember, we’re not praying to twist God’s arm. We’re praying
actually for ourselves what we can do in communion, fellowship with him,
so that His Spirit begins to tender us up. Bro. Branham would call
“tender us up” you know, make us more loving and kind toward each
other, forgiving, motivating us to go and do the things that we perhaps
don’t like to do, but we must do according to Scripture: walking the
extra mile, giving away the coat on top of the... taking your little
jacket and giving him your coat—very difficult—turning the other
cheek. All of these things are what Bro. Branham would say, “Prayer is
not twisting God’s arm or asking Him to change His mind, but prayer is
getting us to change our mind.” So therefore, as we talk of
repentance, the change of mind by the Word, we’re doing more than
that; we’re moving with all of our hearts, opening our souls to God.
This may be it. So, any position is fine and all. 

	Let’s just bow our heads in a moment of prayer, then we can just do
as we desire.

	Heavenly Father, you heard a little dissertation here which is just
simple, and yet, it is direct; and we’ll be praying each in our own
ways. That used to be said, but, although that’s true—‘praying in
our own way’, You didn’t lead us to pray in our own way. You told us
to pray ourselves, and you said in certain ways. May what is from the
Word which we spoke these ten or eleven little points, as we enter, as
it were a little closet between you and us, may each one, Lord, pray and
believe and know that the grace of God and the Holy Spirit from the Word
is moving in our lives, and there is no way that we shall not rise or
leave here in an inferior way or lesser way than we came. But it will be
clinching that Word, and that Word clinching us, and we moving on
together. We ask your mercies in Jesus’ Name. Amen.

2	An Attitude of Prayer

10-24-93 (1993B)

1.	...Not when people wish to come in and pray before we, you know, call
the meeting. I say, sure. That’s maybe the best way to actually do it,
is just as you have time to come in and pray. We don’t all have to
pray together, that is, pray at one time, because we usually pray our
own prayers, and then we decide to depart. So, that would be fine, if
you care to do that.

2.	I’m just going to read from the Book of Mark, just a few words
here. [Mk 11:22]

22	And Jesus answered...unto them, said, Have faith in God.

23	For verily I say unto you, That whosoever shall say unto this
mountain, Be thou removed, and be thou cast into the sea; and shall not
doubt in his heart, but shall believe that those things which he saith
shall come to pass; he shall have whatsoever he saith.

24	Therefore I say unto you, Whatsoever things you desire, when you
pray, believe that you receive them, and you shall have them.

	And then, there’s an addendum as we were talking about it this
morning.

25	And when you stand praying, forgive, if you have ought against any:
that your Father also which is in heaven may forgive ...your trespasses.

26	For if you do not forgive, neither will your Father which is in
heaven forgive your trespasses.

	Now, of course, we know that you can read Scripture one way and read it
another way, and you can come to the conclusion that, as far as
forgiveness is concerned, it’s all a matter on your side of the ledger
whether you ever forgive anybody or not. And, of course, you’d have to
keep prime to have a works program which you would constantly keep
before your eyes, hoping that you’ve forgiven enough so where you
could be forgiven.

3.	By comparing other Scripture with this, my own thinking is that this
has to do with the fact that the Bible says: “Agree with thine
adversary while thou art in the way with him lest thine adversary turn
you over to the judge and the judge to the prison keeper, and you
don’t come out till you pay the uttermost farthing.” I think what we
have here before us is an attitude of prayer wherein we realize that, if
the Lord has forgiven us, we ought to forgive each other; and It would
tell me that, if we have an unforgiving spirit, it’d be very, very
difficult to have a real spirit of faith—have a real faith in your
heart for the Lord to do anything for you. Because it’s a lot like
where the Scripture says, “If you say you love God and hate your
brother, how can you say you love God whom you haven’t seen, and you
hate your brother whom you have seen”. I think all these things you
have to put together and work them out. Some will take quite some time
to work out, because many times these feelings we have build up over a
long period of time. And that’s the bad part of it; letting them build
up rather than to just get them out of our hearts and minds.

4.	So, there’s a warning here in praying. First of all, there’s the
understanding that whatever you believe… And, remember; faith has to
be contingent with the Word; it’s a revelation. It says, “What you
desire you can receive when you pray, but you must believe that you’re
going to get it.” Otherwise you’re more or less spinning your wheels
in the sand. So, people should really believe when they pray and put
their hearts to it—just put their minds to it; put their hearts to it.
It’s not like demanding God. It’s more demanding of yourself that
you believe God, and you wait upon him. But then, It says here, “When
you stand praying...” in other words the word means to persevere; and
as you persevere in your praying, you don’t let these animosities take
control over you; because, if they do, you not only don’t get your
prayers answered, but the point is you become a debtor. Actually, it
builds up in your life, builds up in your heart so that there comes a
time when you just wouldn’t believe for anything. You just can’t do
it. So, there’s a lot of, there’s a lot more to prayer than just
coming and just simply praying, you know, like you’re going to pray
the rosary or something like that. That’s not going to work. So, all
right.

5.	That’s what we want to think of today for our little meditation
that... Ask the Lord to help us to have a real, good, clean, forgiving
spirit and to mean it. One thing, you know, we can say something with
our lips and not mean it with our hearts. You don’t fool God with
that. I mean, He discerns the thoughts and intents of the heart. So, you
just can’t say, well, you know, to the Lord, “I forgive” and down
in your heart all the time you’re not only not forgiving, but you’re
continually building up a state of agitation against the person. And I
find that very easy to do. You get to the place where you’re so
disgusted with the constant dinnings and drummings and the things that
people... Well, there’s just not even the first premise of Christ in
their lives that you can see as far as we can see. Only God knows if
something’s there or not. It becomes pretty burdensome; it becomes
pretty difficult.

6.	But Bro. Branham himself said that, when Dr. Davis really did
something that was really wrong, and, concerning Bro. Branham, he said
he went to the cave to pray lest something bad happen to Bro. Davis.
Now, that’s a marvelous attitude, but the fact of the matter is that
Bro. Branham was actually not only doing the right thing toward Dr.
Davis, but he was doing the right thing toward himself. So, praying and
forgiving are twins; they go together. And you can see, then, why the
Scripture says, “Men ought always to pray and not faint,” because
this is no doubt going to take some work. And this is particularly one
of the reasons we’re meeting together at this particular time.

7.	So, we’re going to go to prayer, and you pray as long as you want
to pray. You pray until you feel that you’ve prayed for the day, at
least for this time. We want to pray particularly to forgive and to
forget everything that’s transpired over the years. We did at one
time; they brought it back with them. I’m going to have to admit that
flat. I will not take that back for any man living, because I know my
heart; but unfortunately, I let my heart get embroiled again with the
same things we had before. And perhaps my stand was a bit too rugged. I
have a lot of Scripture to back me. The only thing I know is that
perhaps my attitude at that time was particularly wrong. There again, I
don’t particularly admit to that at this particular time. But I know
we can all stand with improvements in our hearts, our hard attitudes, so
that as we persevere and pray which we intend to do coming together for
an hour, half an hour, whatever it is, to really pray to ask the Lord to
help us and begin to think those thoughts of forgiveness and get
ourselves out of the way so that the Lord will prosper us and not let
anything come back upon us due to our refusing to obey this precept to
get it out of our hearts and our minds.

8.	Forgiveness really means to absolve the person to the point where the
person never even did it. Now, that’s what happened when Bro. Branham
came back with the Word for the Bride. If we can come to that place,
where we can just absolve the person separate from the act—forgive and
forget the whole thing—then, we’re going to be in a much better
position spiritually. So, that’s what we have to think of when we
consider prayer. 

	So, we’re just going to pray a second, and you can kneel where
you’re at. However you want to move around and pray. There’s lot’s
of room between the seats, and we’ll do that.

	Shall we pray. Heavenly Father, we’ve read your Word here, and we
know that this is a part of the Word that we could look at and, then,
just read the first part and forget the rest of It. We know that’s not
the way It works. We pray, Lord, you’ll help us in the person of
Christ to truly forgive every single thing, knowing that certain modes
of walk and all may preclude the possibility of ever entering into any
liaison whatsoever with the people. You didn’t ask us to do that. You
just asked us to forgive lest You Yourself would not forgive us, and we,
then, would be paying a price above and beyond what we already have paid
through the offence of the hour. And we know that that is compound
interest, which we don’t want. So, Father, we would ask you, as we
have had our minds renewed concerning the doctrine and the Word, that we
begin to have our minds renewed concerning the utmost forgiveness, Lord,
of everything done, to leave it all in Your hands, to begin to take the
place of the good Samaritan, and begin to take the place, Lord, of the
person who can really begin to pray with these attitudes and
understandings. 

	So, we just commend this little prayer service into Your hands as we
faithfully pray in our own way, our own minds, our own hearts, Lord, and
ask You to help us and bring us to that place which we are really
hungering to come to. Not asking You to be previous, Lord, but just
knowing that You are bringing us along this highway; and Lord, we
believe that soon there’s going to be a passing of time into eternity
in the way that it hasn’t been accomplished to this point, but it
really will be as we believe and know it to be with the change of our
bodies and, Lord, we a part of that Resurrection and a part of the
Wedding Supper. 

	Unto the King Eternal... It’s in the Name of Jesus Christ we ask
this. Amen. 

	We’ll just go to prayer.

3	Get the Paths Clear

11-14-93 (1993C)

1.	…Now, if we want to turn to the Book of Jeremiah, Jeremiah 7, we
will find out when God does not hear people praying, or even those of
the highest authority in the land, which would be the prophet.

	So, It says:

1	The word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord, saying,

2	Stand in the gate of the Lord’s house, and proclaim there this work,
and say, Hear the word of the Lord, all ye of Judah, that enter ... at
these gates to worship the Lord.

2.	Now we’re going to transfer all this to the Laodicean Church Age
and the people who call themselves by the name of the Lord, who attempt
to enter in by the gate, which is Christ Jesus, who attempt to teach and
say that they worship which would be in the body of Christ for the name
of Almighty God is.

3	Thus saith the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, Amend your ways and
your doings, and I will cause you to dwell in this place.

4	Trust ye not in lying words, saying, The temple of the Lord, The
temple of the Lord, The temple of the Lord, are these. (In other words
their creeds and their dogmas have given them a complete new and
outrageous religious system.)

5	For if ye throughly amend your ways and your doings; if ye throughly
execute judgment between a man and his neighbor;

6	If ye oppress not the stranger, the fatherless, and the widow, and
shed not innocent blood in this place, neither walk after other gods to
your hurt;

7	Then will I cause you to dwell in this place, in the land that I gave
to your fathers for ever and ever. (Now you can apply a lot of that to
America—Revelation 13, being like Israel.)

8	Behold, ye trust in lying words, that cannot profit.

9	Will ye steal, murder, and commit adultery, and swear falsely, and
burn incense unto Baal, and walk after other gods whom ye know not;

10	And come and stand before me in this house, which is called by my
name, and say, We are delivered to do all these abominations?

	Now, see; there’s where the Catholic Church stands right today. And
the Protestants are no different, because there’ll soon be a complete
reconciliation between them all, which, of course, will come through the
necessity of their form of living and the type of life that people like.
They will sell everything down the river to the financial system, which
is coming upon the world.

11	Is this house, which is called by my name, become a den of robbers in
your eyes? Behold, even I have seen it, saith the Lord.

12	But go ye now unto my place which was in Shiloh, where I set my name
at the first, and see what I did to it for the wickedness of my people
Israel.

	Now you see this through Seven Church Ages. Each age comes to a close
with the judgment of Almighty God, becoming an abomination, and out of
that little root of the tree comes forth the Word, that little life,
until the end time.

13	And now, because ye have done all these works, saith the Lord, and I
spake unto you, rising up early and speaking, but ye heard not; and I
called you, but ye answered not.

14	Therefore will I do unto this house, which is called by my name,
wherein ye trust, and unto the place which I gave to you and to your
fathers, as I have done to Shiloh.

15	And I will cast you out of my sight, as I have cast out all (of) your
brethren, even the whole seed of Ephraim.

	Now Ephraim, you see, joined himself to idols—got into complete
idolatry. And you notice that they never came up at the end time as one
of the tribes because their names were blotted out. And that took a
process of time, of course, that God just diverted the seed elsewhere.
Now, notice; It says:

16	Therefore pray not thou for this people, neither lift up cry nor
prayer for them, neither make intercession to me: for I will not hear
thee.

3.	Now, if you take that to the Book of Proverbs, and it’s Prov 28:9:
“He that turneth away his ear from hearing the law, even his prayer
shall be (an) abomination.”

	Now there’s another verse that also said that, “He that turneth his
ear from hearing God’s Word, even God will not hear his prayer.”

4.	So, you can see here that there is a people at the end time that are
praying, and no doubt they think they’re getting a lot of answers, and
no doubt, according to them and according to much Scripture, they are
getting a lot of answers. They are not actually getting the results that
they desire. Everything they have is as Israel was at the time of the
crossing over and in that particular period of time a little later where
they longed for flesh, and so, God gave them the quail and whatever they
wanted. Not that that is bad in itself, but they lusted when God gave
them manna, which was a complete, marvelous food. Even the angels ate
it; so, you can tell what it would do a human being. If he got a hold of
it, it would be tremendously wonderful for him. Everything would be
there that he needed and then some. 

	And they turned away from it, and they... The Lord was angry with them,
and He said, because of that, because they got the answers to their
prayer for what they wanted, which was not according to the Word, but
according to that which was contrary to the Word, (God still answered
them.) He sent leanness to their souls. And we see today a picture of
Laodicea where there is the leanest bunch of souls that ever were in the
world and all the time proclaiming they’re rich, increased in goods
and don’t lack a thing, when actually they don’t have anything.
They’re beggars, hoping that somehow they’ll sit outside the door
and ask for something. Beggars, you know, don’t get in the door. They
sit on the outside. Somebody drops them something, you know.

5.	And so, you’ve got a picture of that today. And I just wanted to
bring that to your minds that there are people who think they’re
getting answers to prayer, and they are getting it to the limited degree
of the permissive will of Almighty God. The Word, that in Itself, if
believed in, brings forth answers; but there’s no way they’re going
to get their prayers truly answered in this hour, which the great hour
is the end-time restoration, the Resurrection and the immortalization of
the Bride standing here, the catching away to the Wedding Supper and
those things.

6.	Now people think they’re going to get it, but they cannot. And,
when you look to these people here, and you see them in their idolatry,
I want you to know you’ve come to the place where Bro. Branham said.
“I don’t pray for America any longer.” Now, there’s no use you
praying for the church any longer, because the church is not going to
respond. You can’t pray for America any longer, because it cannot
respond.

7.	The greatest praying that anybody can do in this hour, (Believe me!)
because the seed is run out, the last elected one must come in, be child
trained which will be very simple and very rapidly done… The greatest
praying that you can do is for yourself that you might become more
yielded to God, more submissive to His Will, more attentive to His Word
in relationship to God in yourself and, then, to your family and to each
other. And we don’t want to become so self-centered and so
family-centered that we cannot think of other people. That would be a
great injustice to yourself and to others and to God Himself. But,
realize that much of your praying now in this land where we are is to
the place where Noah was, with seven more people.

8.	Poor old Lot, just by himself and a couple of wayward daughters and
completely rotten son-in-laws and who else? I don’t know. It was a
complete, tragic mess. The best that Lot could do was to just mumble a
prayer to get him and his wife out, and she turned back and became a
mess. The daughters came out. I guess they were pulled out, and they
were a mess. And poor old Lot, the best he could do was just kinda pray,
“Lord, I’m an old man, and I don’t feel too good, and I hope you
let me get in the little city here where at least they got indoor
plumbing and a few things I could use.” And that’s about all he got.
That’s about all he got.

	And Abraham back there by himself, having had discourse with God, stood
there, and he and Sarah composing the Bride, truly representative, were
right there ready in a short order to bring forth the son that had been
promised.

9.	And so, you’ve got to take your cues from the Bible and your
thoughts and your ways of praying from the Bible; and, you know, don’t
just get the idea you can pray through a brick wall, that you can set
your heart and demand according to certain Scripture, which in the sense
is true; but there’s always the framework that you got to work within
and the motivation that is there. Why are you really praying? What do
you really want? And, as you examine your hearts, I believe you’ll
find what you really want is a closer walk to the Lord and a more
compassionate, outgoing walk toward others. Because, now then, you’ve
satisfied the requirements of the whole Word of God.

	But these people in idolatry, they’re just wasting their time
praying. You don’t pray for America. You don’t pray for the church.
There’s no way you do, because they’re not going to come. The
door’s already closed; it’s already over.

10.	So, as I say, the big thing is to get in harmony with God. The
Scripture says, “In the last day, that day (you know) when I’m in
the Father, you in me and I in you;” there’s that harmony there.
Pray for that consciousness. Open our hearts to be more compelled by the
Word, to have more of the Word in our lives, in obedience to It. And,
then, manifest that amongst our fellow people, knowing that there’s
certain things laid down there such as the Bible said, “If you pray
and don’t forgive your fellow men, neither will God forgive you.” 

	Now you can’t apply that to the idolatrous people. You can only apply
that to those that are part of your own fellowship in Christ. And then,
you go one step beyond that, which I find, and I think you’ll find
quite difficult, until we begin to practice what the Word of God says:
to forgive those who have not done us irreparable evil. Nobody can do
that to us. Not when you’re born again. There’s nothing irreparable,
unless you let it be irreparable, unless you don’t want it mended.
There’s nothing irreparable as far as you yourself is concerned and
your own spiritual ways. But you can, and I can, do great damage to
ourselves by allowing what people have done to us to become an
obsession, to be grouchy.

11.	 I’m 79 years old, and I remember Bro. Branham’s words; and he
died 23 years before, and I’m still living. He was only 56, and I’m
23 years older. And he was talking about the fact, even in 1953 and `52
and ‘51 and ‘50 how that the Branhams had palsy; and he said, “I
can see myself an old man, shaking with my cane.” 

	Well, I thought that was a pretty lousy testimony, but the man was just
being honest and truthful. Runs in the family. Who’s to say he
wouldn’t have palsy? But he didn’t say God couldn’t heal him. 

	And, then, he said “There’s one thing: I don’t want to die a
bitter, complaining, old man.” 

	Well, I’m an old man, and I do complain a certain amount, but thank
God I’m not bitter. Now I get madder and hotter than a firecracker on
the Fourth of July, you know, one of those cherry bombs. I admit it. I
admit that I get hot as a firecracker, but I don’t hold grudge to the
place where I want to retaliate, though I must admit many times I sure
feel like it. And I must admit at times, too, I think in terms of
what’s down the road, and my thoughts get pretty sober and serious
concerning what’s down that road when I think of people. The reason I
think this way is because I can’t understand a man claiming anything
at all to do what some of the people do.

12.	Now, that’s my problem, and you’re going to have the same
problem and do have the same problem, whether you know it or not. The
reason I say this is because the Bible said, “Let the priest go
between the porch and the altar, confessing his sins and the sins of the
people.” Now the point of the point is this: how in the world can the
priest or that prophet confess the sins of the people, unless he knew
every single person and knew their hearts. You don’t need to. As long
as I know my heart, (I know what goes right; I know what goes wrong.) I
can nail you to the wall by just talking about myself, because there’s
one Word that classifies us all: “The heart of man is desperately
wicked and sinful. Who can know it? I, the Lord check those reins
out.” So, you must be careful that you live in peace as much as is
within you as possible. 

13.	And the next thing: how much is in me? How much do I claim? How much
at peace can I be? “Let not the sun go down upon your wrath.”
Don’t bear grudges, and don’t hold grudges. Commit all things unto
the Lord, for He careth. But, remember; when you see those things out
there... 

	Bro. Branham once said to a man, “By the grace of God, I’ll never
use your name again.” 

	You say, “That’s a terrible thing.” 

	What do you mean it’s a terrible thing? You think the guy was nuts?
You think you know more than he does? You going to come on Judgment Day
and say, “Well, I never said that. The prophet said that. I’m better
than the prophet.” Hey, you better take a lesson. It means, keep your
mouth shut. 

	“Never, ever use your name again.”

14.	Now he said it one time. He said, “If you can’t say something
good, keep your mouth shut.” And he’s telling that man, “Listen.
There’s nothing good I can say about you. I’ll never speak your name
again either here or before the Lord.” So, there’s a lot of praying
you can do. Those are just plumb negatives; it’s just wasted time;
it’s hogwash. You’re boring God; you’re boring people; you’re
boring yourself. Be honest and be sincere. Be really sincere in your
heart, so you know, when you call upon God, you’re calling out of your
spirit of truth, sincerity. You’re not high-browing; you’re not high
mucky-mucking. You’re just an ordinary guy that needs help like
everybody else. Consider yourself, lest you’re tempted, and you pray
earnestly for around about you, loved ones and all.

15.	But, remember; you can’t pray for that church out there, you
cannot pray for the reprobate. It doesn’t make any sense. If you could
snatch them as a brand from the burning, that’s great. Be nice, if you
could. Some make a difference. Is there something there? If you don’t
see anything there, leave it. But the great thing is, start with
yourself, getting your channels open to God, asking the Lord to forgive
you if necessary, praying until you get certain things out of your
heart, you know. You’ve got the victory over them. Get the paths
clear; pray for one another—God’s people. You haven’t got time for
the Word; you hardly got time to even pray for yourselves and each
other.

16.	So, keep yourselves in the love of God and the prayer this way, and
you will see that things will begin to move. You’ll have more peace in
your heart, more peace in your mind, and you’ll see things coming from
your soul. It’ll be clearer, more one with the Word that’ll reflect
in your actual walk. I think it could even be seen in your body in the
sense that God looking down, piling Word upon Word, is bringing us
somewhere. Somebody is. If I’m not, there’s somebody in this
congregation this afternoon on the way to immortality, just sitting
here. I don’t know who it is. I’ve no doubt there’ll be somebody
here today who will not see death but stand right there while death’s
passing all around, the Great Tribulation setting in, the devil
completely incarnated in a pope. It’s just going to be good to get out
of here. 

	And Bro. Branham said, “So live that you may see your loved ones in
the Resurrection.” You can live any way you want. It doesn’t mean
you’ll see your loved ones in a resurrection. They might not be there.
You might not be there. But he said. “Now, you live in such a way.
(And you will, if your name is on that Lamb’s Book of Life.) that you
know you will see them.” It’s not built upon works. It’s built
upon the grace of God and people’s lives that allow them to put down
their own living and take up His living: His life within us.

17.	So, when you pray, just be careful that you get your lines clear
with God that you are forgiven, and do your best to get your lines clear
with everybody else. Keep at it, and I believe that pretty soon we’ll
have clearer lines toward each other, and we’ll really know the love
of God which passes understanding in our hearts, minds and lives in a
unison we’ve never known. And there again, you’re right back to the
time of the apostle Paul that happens to come and can only come by the
living Word of God. That’s where all our trouble has been here. Our
whole trouble is always never going to cease. If we have trouble in the
church, it’s going to be always over the Word, except for one or two
that may want to step out and speak, go into sin. Let me assure you, if
you’re caught, don’t worry; the whole world will know it. There’s
nothing that’s under covers, but you’ve got to watch that Word.
Okay. 

	Let’s pray; and then, we’ll go to kneel down and pray.

	Heavenly Father, we pray you’ll take these few words here where we
can all begin to open our lines to you, oh God, in our lives and our
souls, Lord, that the truth of the Word, the spiritual, moral and values
of It, Lord may get down deep within us. And we in turn, Lord, be
transformed and our lives transformed by that Life of that Word, because
we take heed to the Word. And we know as we take heed to the Word, you
take heed to ours, oh Lord, and you answer our prayers. 

	And today we know we have many prayers here that’ll be called by
various ones in Your great Name, Lord, as we pray before you, whatever
way the people would desire to pray but praying from the heart, Lord, in
faith that You hear, that You want us to be living epistles read and
known of all men; and that’s what we desire too, so we don’t turn
away our ear from Your Word one iota, and thereby, then, neither do You
turn away Your ear from our word, because Lord, we know that we’ll be
wanting what You want us to have. And there’s so much in this Book
that You said we could have, and like James said, “It’s a pity
you’re not getting it, because you could have it.” Help us to know
that as we pray today that the surety is there, the enforcement is
there, the claim is there as the prophet taught, as we have heard from
his word this morning that we have the indication given. Let it be that
for the people today, Lord, in the days to come, as we seek Your face.
In Jesus’ Name we pray. Amen.

	Let’s go to prayer.

4	Pray and Not Faint

1994A

1.	I think perhaps the prayer numbers are here, and I want to read a
little bit from the Book of Luke, Lk 18:1-8, before we go to prayer.

1	And he spake a parable unto them to this end that men ought always to
pray and not faint.

	Now the premise set forth is that evidently people are doing things
wrong, and there’s a right way to do things. And we’re about to get
some correction here; and especially this after Luke 17, which is an
end-time portion, where the Bride is separated by the Rapture from the
foolish virgin and the lost world, and gathered where the soma, the
carcass—food for healthy eagles—is made available. So, it’s not
likely that this is given by a circumstance outside of the present
situation. 

2.	So, there at the end time, after the days of the Son of man, where,
at the place of separation, and where, at the place of many things that
evidently are going to be confusing and divisive, he said he spake a
parable unto them to this end, that men are to pray and not always
faint, saying:

2	There was in the city a judge which feared not God neither regarded
men. There’s a widow in that city and she came unto him saying, Avenge
me of mine adversary.

	Now you see two extreme cases. Evidently the judge doesn’t believe
anything worth believing, and the woman evidently seems to come with
what might be a valid, but could be a flimsy basis, for some desired
remedy for an ill that has been received by her. So, she has a lack;
she’s got a problem.

3.	4	And he would not for a while, but afterward he said within himself,
Though I fear not God nor regard man, (Notice, there’s a double
emphasis there.) yet because this widow troubles me, (She had a husband;
she doesn’t have one now.) I’ll avenge her lest by her continual
coming she weary me. And the Lord said, Hear what the unjust judge said.

	And so, based on the unjust judge avenging the widow, although she
might have had a good claim, might not have had a good claim, she had a
problem. This man that was in the position, really, to give her
anything, or could give her something, depending on his whim, he
evidently, according to his whim, gave into her, and he said:

7	And shall not God avenge his own elect, (And they are definitely with
foundation, with proper understanding, with proper needs, with proper
promises, with everything.) which cry day and night unto him though he
bear long with them.

8	I tell you that he will avenge them speedily. (In other words he will
take care of their problems or show that right or justice is on their
side.) Nevertheless when the Son of man cometh, shall he find faith on
the earth?

 	So, you’re into a situation here that’s going to be very much
evident amongst us. I would say that we should take heed to it. And, if
we should take heed to the lesson that is given to us… Now the lesson
is in the first sentence: and he spake a parable unto them to this end:
that men ought always to pray, and not to faint. 

4.	So, this is just a story with a moral to it—not just a moral, but a
lesson based on the fact that men ought always to pray and not to faint.
Now, first of all, the word ‘prayer’ simply means ‘to
supplicate’; it means ‘to come to God’, and it also means ‘to
worship’ and, you know, ‘to praise’ and things like that. But I
don’t think that this—although the woman employed all of that she
thought she might flatter the judge, she might praise him and say, “We
know you’re certainly a fine man. You always do listen to justice, and
you adhere to things that are right. We believe that we come to you, we
have every right to believe that you’re a good person.”

	She might have said, “I remember your mother was a fine woman, and I
know you’ve done a lot of fine things.” 

	There were a lot of things that she could have come to him praising. 

	But, you know, he was a tough old boy. He really didn’t regard her
whether she praised him, she flattered him, she said the truth, or she
didn’t tell the truth. He knew that this woman was a persevering
person, like Bro. Branham spoke on “Perseverance”. You’re going to
persevere; this woman was a persevering person; so, she got her desire. 

5.	Now, as I say, there’s a key to it. And the key to this little
story, the truth in it—the picture, is that we should never give up
praying and give way to fainting. You should never cease the one and
give way to the other. 

	The word ‘faint’ seems to be a pretty poor translation to me,
because the actual root means ‘depraved’ or ‘injurious’, and
also has the aspects within it as being ‘bad, harmful, evil or
noisome’. Now you will never think of that when you just read that.
You just think, “Well, now, ‘He spake a parable unto them to this
end, that men ought always to pray.’” 

6.	Well, the moral is that, when you leave prayer, (like is left out of
school, is left out of poems, and so on) you have only one recourse to
get what you want, and that’s to fight for it, whether you’re going
to knock somebody’s teeth out, knock his head off, or pull out a gun
and kill him. And that’s the law of the jungle, and that’s what’s
going on today. And that’s going to continue to go on; because, if
people do not continue to commit to God their needs, there comes a time
when they’re going to do something about it physically, or they will
deteriorate into a carping, noisome complaining, always-finding-fault
people. 

7.	Now he uses the judge as being an entirely unscrupulous individual.
And he uses the woman, not a man, although he says, “men ought not
(to) faint.” So, with this idea that you have a choice of going to
God, or a choice of deteriorating into your natural instincts and what
you really are, we find, then, this parable clearly speaks that all
people, women equally, as well as men, because they talk about men and
jump to the women (for a woman is mentioned here in particular as a
better example than a man, for she will usually prove to be the weaker,
physically, and unable, and especially without her head being the
husband, and especially, if she can’t get what her husband legally got
for her). So, she’s a good example. And so, we say then: all people
should learn to pray and commit all disputes and wrongdoings, real or
imagined, unto God—the Strong One Bound by an Oath—than to take
things into their own hands. 

8.	Now the example here, then, is that this person would be pestered
into giving this woman what she desired. Evidently, he didn’t even
look into it, whether she was right or wrong—whether she had a right
to it. He just said, “Well, I can see that she’s going to be a
nuisance, and I’m not going to do this, because I fear God, haven’t
got any love for God or man or anybody else. I don’t even claim that I
serve the devil. The point is that she’s going to keep this up, and
I’ve got to deal with her—call for the Mafia to liquidate her, do
something about her—or I’ve got to give her what she’s making a
claim to.” 

9.	Now we know that you can’t go to God with false claims. So, we know
that the claim that the woman brings is just. She’s a widow; she’s
been beat by a swift-talking lawyer, or some relative or somebody
that’s not a right person. And so, she keeps going to the judge. But
now, we’re told to go to God, Who is the Judge, the Strong One Bound
by an Oath, and we’re to let God arbitrate. You know, she didn’t
call a jury, where she might’ve worked up all the widows and all the
other people to feel sorry for her and, thereby, tell the judge, “Hey
this woman should have something.” And so, you notice that it’s an
arbitrator that the judge has become. And an arbitrator is like a
mediator. And a mediator is of one. So, God does not call two people in
who have a little forum, although its not wrong for two people to agree
upon anything and call upon God; that’s scriptural. We’re talking
here, though, about anytime two people or anybody needs to decide what
this person should have. 

10.	What we’re looking at here is: God is the Arbitrator, the
Mediator, and she comes being the weaker one, (You can talk about Bride
now.) with any just cause, any real desire that is based upon the Word,
that which is lacking, that which is true, that which is right. Even
though God could take some time, he’s not going to take all the time
in the world, because you could be dead, you know. If you get healed of
cancer, you can’t die of cancer. If you get healed of TB, you can’t
die of TB. There’s got to come a time when the thing is under control.
So, there comes a time when things are under control, and it’s not
going to take too long, because God sent an answer. 

11.	Now he says, “I tell you that God will avenge them speedily.”
Not exact revenge that you’re going to get your enemy hit on the head,
and God’s going to denude him of that which belongs to you, and
everybody else is going to put him to an open shame. You’re not
dealing with things like that. That’s way down the road. What you’re
dealing with is an everyday situation where God can, will, and does take
care of people’s needs as those needs should be met. But you notice in
here he says, “I tell you that God will avenge you speedily” on the
grounds, “shall not God avenge his own elect, which cry day and night
unto him, though he bear long with them?” So, the big picture here is
that, instead of taking things in our own hands, quietly stay before
God, even day and night, waiting upon God to make all of the moves that
are propitious, in order to help us get those things which we are
entitled to by the Word. 

12.	Now, of course, the greatest blessing is to get the blessings of God
in our souls by the revelation—to build up in the most holy Faith,
which is once delivered to us; that is the passive. But you can apply
this to the physical or the active faith in your life. And that is: do
not quit praying; do not believe that God is not going to answer your
prayer; do not at one time harbor in your heart any sense of what kind
of justice you want delivered upon anybody. Now that’s a tough one
right there, because we’re in the hour of judgment. We know the
devil’s going about like a roaring lion, because time has run out on
him; everything conspires to make us highly nervous, radical, jumpy, and
ready to blast. Like I’ve said many times myself, I’m so fed up
that, if God doesn’t pull the pin, I’m just about going to do it;
I’ll do it for Him. And, if the Lord doesn’t give us a pope from
America, I’m going to start lobbying for one. That’s my own crude…
I think sometimes I call it cheap, but I call it stupid at the same
time. That’s my way of saying, “Hey, things should be finished by
now.” Well, it’s not scriptural, whether I do it or you do it. Not
scriptural. Scriptural is to be patient; because you only learn patience
by tribulation, by persecution, by trials that come. 

13.	So, all right. Your lesson here, then, is in the first sentence
which is the introduction. The parable is, the story is, the moral is,
the way of life is this: do not give way to vengeance. The Bible warns
you, “Vengeance is mine saith the Lord; I will repay.” Do not give
way to being disquieted. Why art thou disquieted and cast down O my
soul? We must learn; we are in a very sloppy age to learn. 

	And I’ve had many years to overcome, (But believe me, it’s no
different from you.) to learn not to give way to fainting spells, which
definitely include depravity, injury, bad attitudes, harmful attitudes,
evil toward people, loud-mouths speaking against it. The big thing is to
keep our spirits under control, and our souls, hoping with light through
the Word of God not to give way to something which ends in depravity,
and not to faint, but to just keep talking to God about it. Not
necessarily trying to storm the gates of heaven every single day until
suddenly you see an angel appear and something happens; (I don’t go
for that; I don’t think you do either.) but, more or less, when we
have prayed, to quietly believe God and praise God, worship God to thank
God that this lesson here is in the Bible. We see it everywhere we go.
The world practices it; judges, men of authority. It’s very difficult
to get away from it; from someone that’s persistent, especially in the
right way, to just keep knocking on the door to the judge. It tells us
that how much more should God avenge or answer or give what that one is
crying for. He said, “I will avenge those ones speedily.” 

	In other words at the end time things are speeded up. You won’t have
too many years or days to go until it’s all over. And then, It says,
“When the Son of man cometh.” In other words, during this period of
the Son of man ministry on this earth, when you see gifts of healings
and all these things taking place in the false anointed, there’s a
little word of warning here. You can easily say, ‘Well, look, all
these guys are getting answers. Everybody’s happier than we are.
Everything looks like they’ve got ten jumps ahead of us. What are we
doing sitting here? Where are we at?’ And you can destroy your whole
concept of faith, the whole life you are depending on having, moving on
with God. It’s just that simple. 

14.	You got to come to the place that I came many years ago before I
understood Son of man—before I knew what Bro. Branham was all about.
I’d already decided that the only way for me to get ahead in the
ministry, and I was very strong for divine healing, discerning and
everything… If my name wasn’t Rip my name was Snort. So, it was a
matter of Rip-Snort or religious boy; I was fall for it. 

	And I told my wife, “You’re a blond, so I’m going to have you dye
your hair black, paint your eyebrows and eyelashes black, and we’re
going to get the speediest Cadillac in America. I’m going to cut a
swath for God like you can’t believe, because it looks like that’s
what it takes.” 

	So, I’m just on the verge of what I’m warning you about. You’ve
got to watch your spirits and watch yourselves. 

	While I knew I couldn’t quite do that, I didn’t mind being a
hypocrite, but I didn’t think I’d get my wife in on the deal that
easy. She would have rebelled. At least I told her years ago that, if
I’d ever went haywire, “Don’t you dare follow me; you’ve got to
account for God.” 

15.	That’s shortly after Bro. Branham took me aside and told me
concerning the anointed ones at the end time. And I began to see, like
David saw, when the rich got richer and they spread their leaves out
like the bay tree. They’re out there doing things. He did something,
and God just beat the living tar out of him. I know he got another
man’s wife and all; I appreciate that David was skuzzy when he did it,
but God just beat the living daylights out of that guy for that, until
he got scared to make a move, and Shimei cursed him, and he said, “Let
him be, God told him to do it. Let him do it.” 

16.	The greatest force of prayer is actually submission to the Will of
God. When you go before God, don’t ask for a lot of things; just live
the life. But he said, ‘You don’t try to change God’s mind.
You’re there for God to change your mind. So, prayer is very important
here in this particular aspect. We’re not out here quoting, “God,
you’re a god of battle; you never lost a battle; you’re the great
warrior; the shout of the King is in the camp.” Listen, all those
things are true, but you can cut yourself to death quoting the Bible and
go plumb to hell; get the choicest place in hell, which is the longest
place in the Lake of Fire—just quoting the Bible. You’ve got to do
it with understanding. Prayer is not a steamroller device. It’s only a
steamroller device when there’s something urgent that’s, you know,
just not for long: we’ll say doesn’t expand over years, but is
something you can lay your hands on, perhaps like your sick, you’ve
got a bad case of pneumonia. You could fight that pneumonia out of your
body in maybe three solid hours; it’s gone never to return again.
That’s a little quickie. A lot of things take much longer. But the big
thing is to stay there. 

	Don’t get entangled with anybody. Just stay before God. Don’t
become a wicked person because of somebody else, because that’s easily
done. That’s exactly why men kill their wives; wives kill their
husbands. And, if you think you know a little bit about women turning on
the men, you’ve just begun to read in the papers what they’re going
to do. That’s right. Lorainna Bobbit’s just a symptom. She’s just
a symptom of what women will be doing pretty soon. Why? Because men have
been dogs for many years. They beat their women and everything else
that. 

	“I can do it; I’m the man.” 

	Like fun you can. I’ll see you roast in hell, you pull that around
me! Oh, yes. Men have tongues that are bad enough talking to their
wives. Hey, that’s bad enough. Sometimes tongue whipping is a million
times worse than a slap in the chops. 

	How great it would be if we took a lesson from the Bible. 

	Well, you’ll never hear greater words of wisdom in all your life than
you heard today. But I don’t know what we’re going to do about
it—you or me both. It’s up to us. That doesn’t mean you lie down
and let people walk over you because you’re a Christian. Let God
handle it. Let God handle everything. 

	Now, if a man’s going to come in your house to shoot you, and you got
a gun, hey, you don’t let him kill you and your family. I’m not
talking about that. I’m talking about this: Don’t bring everything
on the outside on this. Keep this solid. I’ve got a need; I’ve got a
problem; I’ve been rooked; I’ve been euchred, I’ve been taken
from; this or that. All right, I’m not going to be a party to it.
I’m not going to be a mean person because of it—a wicked person.
I’m going to be a better person. I’m going to go to God, and God
will take care of me. And God will make it up to me, because while that
man’s sowing, you’re sowing. He’s going to reap; you’re going to
reap. Go to the Book of James; you’ll find everything I’ve said is
said just perfectly there. 

	So, all right. Prayer is that way with us. I’m not going to belabor
the point. I could take and go over this an hour and a half by simply
flipping back and forth in the Scripture—quote Scripture after
Scripture. But there’s the point: As you pray, remember this: as we
all pray any time any problem comes, (And it may be that we’ll number
our prayers on our fingers (That’s ten.) and on our toes (That’s ten
more; twenty times.) until we’re crying. It doesn’t matter. It all
boils down to one thing: I’m going to become a better person because
of this. I’ll in no wise let anybody push me, where I’ll become
degraded and go down to their level. See? Too bad they don’t teach
those things in our schools, isn’t it? and the homes? It makes such a
difference. They took it all away, and now all hell is breaking loose.
Hell is moved from beneath. I think this is a good scripture for Luke
17, the days of the Son of man. 

	So, all right. We go to prayer. Praise, if you feel led. Just bring
your petitions before God. Remember, you pray for each other in order to
get healing. The person who wants everybody to pray for him and
doesn’t think praying daily for somebody else, and they get healed, I
think he or she becomes quite lean in soul. I believe more and more
it’s a real communion family walk, and, by the grace of God, may it be
family and walk together. Even if it’s just one or two. Remember,
Moses went down to Egypt with just a one man army and took over. What
would’ve happened if two Moses had gone down. Well, nothing more than
happened, really. One man in God is a multitude or a majority. We
don’t worry about it. But there’s only one person. 

	So, there it is. Maybe a thought or two will stick in your minds, stick
in my mind, stick in all of our minds. As you realize, you can go to
church and become a worse person than when you came in. You can pray,
and be a worse person than when you got down on your knees. 

	Hard to believe this kind of preaching, isn’t it? I doubt you’d get
it out of any other church in the world but our church here, because I
bite the bullet and tell the truth, because I know the truth: I can
leave here a worse person by far than when I came. Some people do. Some
people do. You will have less faith when you got down on your knees,
less understanding, less everything. It’s up to you and me. Here’s
where the rest and peace of God comes. Understanding… All your wisdom
and all your knowledge; get understanding. All right. 

	The Lord bless you. Let’s pray.

5	Sow with the Word

1994B

1.	…from various portions of Scripture and it would be perfectly the
Word of God, because there was no change in It. And, as the people came
back, they found the law of God written in the temple of the Lord. And
they were utterly amazed that they found this book that had been lost
for so many years, and they themselves, therefore, were greatly in error
by what they believed from all the interjections made especially by the
wives of Solomon and, you know, the ritzy crowd that had more time than
they had brains to use. So, they indulged themselves in illicit love
affairs, and idolatries and everything else along with their adulteries.

2.	So, it was a tremendous let-down to find out they were billions of
miles off the Word of God. And that’s about how it was in light of the
actual Word that was read by the scribes and people. And anyway, in Ezra
8, there’s a verse there that mentions a commandment that says: “Let
the priest go between the porch and the altar, weeping and confessing
his own sins and the sins of the people.” Now the actual fact of the
matter is: sin is unbelief. It’s the only one. And faith is a
revelation. The only thing a person would be, actually, in sympathy
with, and one hundred percent concerned with confessing, would be coming
to the place of repentance where he knew he was off the Word of God and
would faithfully ask the Lord to forgive him and begin to walk in the
light. The Bible say, “If we walk in the Light, as he is in the Light,
we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ
cleanseth us from all unrighteousness.”

3.	This does not obviate for one minute the fact that people do sin. As
John said, “If we say we have not sinned, we make him a liar.” But
he said, “If we sin, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins
and cleanse us from unrighteousness.” And again It says, “Confess
your faults.” (James said.) And the word ‘fault’ is like the fault
of an earthquake, which means an area that is flimsy, which could slide
here, could slide there—you know, throw the people from being truly
anchored and stabilized and foundationalized. But this Scripture is full
of admonitions where people examine themselves in the light of the Word
and especially in this hour today. 

4.	Now you don’t go to the place where you become a legalist, and you
look at yourself till you finally get fed up, and there’s no pleasure
in life. It’s like years ago they told the joke about this prayer.
(This is actually supposed to be true; I don’t know if it was or not.)
But the man kept praying. He said, that he needed the Lord to fill him
up; he was always so empty. 

	And so, this woman got so disgusted hearing him pray that she said,
“O Lord, just stop all the leaks.” 

	And you know, there’s a lot of truth there. Where are the leaks in
life? What will we find there, really, is the embarrassing situation
before the Lord. That’s where James says, “Confess your faults.”
What are those weaknesses? Now it doesn’t mean you simply go around
confessing and say, ‘Now, look; I’m going to tell you something:
“I have this terrible propensity to tell fibbers.” 

	Or, like to Bro. Moody, she said, “I have a terrible time; I always
exaggerate.” 

	He said, “Well, madam, just call it lying. Just call it lying.” 

5.	You know, these are the things that you have to watch that Ezra’s
bringing out. It’s an examination. As Bro. Branham said, “Smoking is
not the sin, drinking is not the sin, lying is not the sin; stealing is
not the sin.” He said, “The sin is unbelief; those are just
attributes.” Well, now the point is: we believe we do pray sincerely
that the Lord, as we recognize our weaknesses, begin to ask the Lord,
not for help to overcome, but would be more necessary to ask Him to
bring us to the point where we will overcome with what he has given us.
Because, I’ve heard of people telling me how they were a sinner; that
God just took away this, that… I really don’t find any Scripture for
that. Brother Branham said, after he got converted, (And I don’t doubt
his testimony one little bit.) how from that point on he didn’t have
such a terrible time with his anger. Well, it might’ve been that one
little thing that God had to do for him, so he would learn from that
point to overcome all the rest. 

	But I personally do not find any Scripture where God takes away those
temptations and takes away our propensities. He forgives us. Paul
himself said, “Therefore, put off the old man, put off doing this, put
off doing that.” And It doesn’t mean, “Put it off and do it a
little later on, when no one watches it.” Because that’s the way
people often interpret Scripture. Like they interpret the Scripture in
Ephesians [Eph 4:28] where It says “Let him that stole steal no more:
rather let him labor, working with his hands the thing which is good”
where they interpret It saying “Let him that stole, steal; no more
laboring with his hands.” So, you can take any Scripture you want, and
you can pervert It to where you can destroy yourself. 

6.	So, it’s very important to know what Ezra was saying. The priest he
said, “Going between the porch and alter, weeping and confessing his
own sins and the sins of the people.” That was the big thing right
there, that they had found the Word, and now they found that all their
thinking was wrong. Consequently, their worship was wrong. Consequently,
many things they thought were okay were not okay, in the light of that
Word. So, a prayer meeting in the church is greatly concerned… And
you’re right back where Bro. Branham put us. We’re greatly
concerned; not trying to get God to change his mind or getting God to do
something, but putting ourselves in the position where God can help us
by his Word, our consecration, our dedication, to see that we not only
walk in the Light as to the passive faith, but we attempt also, with his
Grace, to walk in the Light by reason of our active faith. 

7.	Now our most active faith is not going to be for you and me to pray
for the sick and pray for this and pray for that and see how nice God
works. It’s not going to be help this sister over here; help that
brother over there. That is not it at all. The actual fact of the matter
is, we could be in the hour that Jesus said, “You will no longer ask
the Father in my Name.” In other words you will be so one with the
Word that, as Bro. Branham told Jack Palmer, “Jack, don’t ask God
for things. Just get away from that.” But he said, “You begin to
live before Him in that Word and watch God begin to do things.” Now
that’s what we’re looking at more than anything in this Message. The
legalist will always try to add to it or try to put something to it or
try to do something.

	The man that’s truly liberated will say, “Lord, I’ve learned this
one thing: all power is of God; and, if I want you working in my life,
I’ve got to come to the place where I am so dedicated, or so in
oneness with You and Your Word, that this Life will begin to flow
through me.”

8.	Now Pentecostal people got into clothes closets. Actually, some
people locked themselves in and refused to budge, until they came up
with gifts. A.A. Allen was one of those people, and he died a drunk. 

	The very day he died under alcoholism is when people were saying,
“Allen is dead; A.A. Allen is dead.”

	And that very day that he died in alcoholism in California, that tape
was on the air saying, “People are saying I’m dead. Does this sound
like the voice of a dead man?” 

	It came right back to haunt him. See? Pushing for things is not the
answer—gifts, saturated with the Word of God. Believe what that Word
says. 

9.	Now we’re going past the passive now; we’re going to the active.
And the active is not you and I forcing issues, but looking at what God
has said about all of these conditions: Is there something in here where
I can make my attitude right; and, if there’s something to do in
cooperation with Him in helping me, working with me, I might make
certain moves. And that is the way we must learn to do. 

10.	So, there’s a great deal of repentance and confession in this last
day Message. And we’re right back to where I believe Ezra was and
Nehemiah was—those men of God. So, as we go to pray today, again,
every Scripture indicates that we’re not trying to change God’s
mind. We’re trying to get in the position where God has changed our
mind. Then, when God has changed our mind, that we really know that we
stand with this Word, Bro. Branham said that you confess that Word. And
he said, “If you stay with that, the day will come when that Word, God
by that Word, will make your body obey your testimony.” 

11.	So, these are just some of the things I wanted to bring to your
attention. I’ve been all through the gamut of work, work, work, you
know, all of those things. It just is not the principle that we come at
any time and think we’re going to win souls, we’re going to add to
the church, we’re going to bulldoze the Kingdom of God, like, ‘The
kindom of heaven suffereth violence, and the violent take it by
force.’ What does that actually mean? You can have a hundred
interpretations from a hundred different people. What does it really
mean? I don’t know what it really means. I don’t know. The only one
I can think of is: the Lord at the end time waking as a strong man from
his sleep, violently angry at the present conditions and coming down and
shaking everything up. But for you and me to attempt to come to the
place where we can become shakers and movers is not the thing. It always
comes back to where we are keeping in constant touch with the Lord
through that Word that He’s given us and bring ourselves under His
subjection more and more and more, so that our sewing is going to be one
with that Word and our reaping one with that Word. And that’s where
the Bible says, “Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of
the ungodly, nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful. But his delight is
in the law of the Lord, and in his law doth he meditate day and night.
And he shall be like a tree planted by the water.” And this is the
same as the Psalm 23: “The Lord is my shepherd. I shall not want. He
leadeth me beside still waters. He restoreth my soul. He makes me to lie
down in green pastures. And He watches over me.” 

12.	There to me, this is what we’re speaking of when the Lord descends
at the end time—which He has with His mighty angels to avenge His
Bride. And he said, “At that time you’ll rest with us; you’ll come
to relaxation.” You already know it’s “live, die, sink or swim.”
But this is now the relaxation; and God’s moving in our lives and us
living those Christian lives and receiving the blessings of the Lord. 

13.	So, don’t strive for mastery, don’t strive for things. Strive
within yourself to keep our spirits down and to do what the Word says:
to sow with the Word. And then, the Bible says, as you patiently wait,
do not fear. God will bring that back to you what you’ve sown with
that Word, because that Word cannot return unto Him void. 

14.	So, all right. That’s what we have in mind today. That’s what I
thought of, thinking of Ezra telling the people. Here the Word has been
here all the time, but nobody knew. It was hidden. The Seventh Seal hid
that Word; now the Seals are open. So, the point is the contriteness in
our heart, the broken spirit that does not despise, the neck that is not
stiffened, the heart that is not hardened, but the open yieldedness to
God, knowing that our sufficiency is of Him, putting ourselves more and
more into His hands: any difficult problems, a difficult walk. Many
things are very difficult.

	But I’m going to tell you one thing: you will not get through this
life without difficulty. You will not get through this life without your
back being bent, your neck being unstiffened; you’ll never get through
it. You cannot get through this life without your heart. Sometimes you
might say, “Well, you get old; you get soft.” 

	That isn’t it at all. The point is: God never intended, neither young
nor old, to ever be stiff toward Him, but to learn to bear the yoke in
our youth; remembering Him in the days of our youth; the constant
remembering of the Lord—like Israel did, and constantly being tender
toward Him. I believe that this is going to be the great secret of every
single thing that we’re looking for. But we have to look for it in
this particular way.

	So, all right. Let’s bow our heads; then, we’ll go to prayer.

	Heavenly Father, we thank You for this time we had together for talking
together, knowing, Lord, that every one of your disciples, every one,
that reaped in righteousness, had to sow in righteousness. Those that
have sown in iniquity, they have reaped that which is iniquitous, and
they were very, very accountable. And so, we pray that You’ll give us
a contrite heart, Lord, a broken spirit, a mellowness toward You, O
Lord, that we may be more and more mellow, and more and more sweet
toward the things of God, so that, being unencumbered with those things
that lie within us, the Word may have greater free course and be
glorified. Then, we’ll know, Lord, that our actions one toward
another, and all the things we intend to do as Christians will be
blessed of You, Father, and they will come forth in their due season.
Teach us this way, Lord, to gain patience, because we know it is the
only way we gain patience. Many of us have already learned that, but
we’re trying to learn more. 

May this time, Lord, of prayer, where we pray together, be fruitful, and
blessing each person, Lord, to be more amenable to Your Will; more and
more filled with your Word and, thereby, more and more led by Your
Spirit; more and more as Paul said, “Don’t just live in the Spirit,
but walk in the Spirit.” And that’s what we’re trying to obtain,
Lord, people who walk more and more in Your Spirit, because we believe
we’re being more and more filled. 

And so, what can we say, Father? We can only say that you told us that,
if we’re willing, we will know the Truth—and the Truth will set us
free: we will know the doctrine. And today, Father, we want Your help;
we have to have it, which we believe we do, to become more and more
yielded and willing to walk in these paths of righteousness for Your
Name’s sake and, also, for the great and good for us and each other to
build this church, not in numbers, but to build it in the grace and
strength and beauty and nearness and all the things, which in You, Lord,
that You have for us. This is what we want. 

And today is another step, we believe, toward preparing us for this
great and wonderful work that You’re doing in us—not to be seen of
anybody. No! You already told us that, if they hated You, they’d hate
us. They won’t like us; but, it’s not what we’re looking at,
Father. We already know that. We’re just looking at within—that we
look within our heart and toward each other who are believers and become
one with You, and You one with us, and we with each other, that we might
be that expression that You want us to be.

So, help us, Lord, to gain strength at this time, as we kneel in Your
Presence and pray for ourselves and for each other, that You might be
glorified, and we, in turn, satisfied within our hearts that we know
we’re walking and talking with You through this Word. In Jesus Name we
pray. Amen.

6	Have the Faith of God; Preservere

1994C

1.	Now, just a little tiny reading here that’s a very outstanding
portion of Scripture. It has an application for this hour, but it also
has an application through the ages when It comes to certain principles
or context that are cast around or become the context or a part of the
tremendous prophecy. Mark 11:22 says:

	22	And Jesus answering saith unto them, Have faith in God.

	This is based upon the barren fig tree, which is a type of Israel.
There was no fruit; there were lots of green leaves. It wasn’t the
time of the fruit; there were lots of green leaves there. And it kind of
reminds you of the hour in which you live. Brother Branham mentions the
leaves of the trees rejoicing and all of those were Pentecostals, but
not fruit. They didn’t have fruit. The chaff merely contained the
life, the seed, but it didn’t have anything of itself. And you notice
in there that Jesus said:

	14	No man eat fruit of thee hereafter for ever.

	And there you get Malachi 4; the burning and leaving neither root nor
branch. I’m just hitting this casually, because you’re old enough by
now in the Message to know just where I’m coming from and where I’m
going. 

2.	And then, you’ll notice he overthrew the moneychangers in the
temple and the seats of those that sold doves, and so on. He said,
“You’ve made my house a house of merchandise, which is definitely
Christ with his disciples in judging the false iniquitous church, the
organizational church, Jerusalem, which is on earth here, which was
Babylon, which is Rome today. Of course, one Babylon moves to the other
Babylon, and pretty soon the pope will be over there. You see the golden
calf scheme. That’s when the people, then, completely come against…
They’re amazed at the doctrine, and pretty soon they come against the
doctrine, and you see the sign for this hour—the very same thing.

3.	And then, he cursed the fig tree. We know it was a green tree and no
fruit. And, even though the tree was not supposed to have fruit at that
time, he still cursed it. And you see the same thing today where people
are up-at-arms about the fact that Bro. Branham would say this is
cursed; the countdown has started; this generation was indicted; “I
don’t pray for America.” But, if Paul’s right in true harmony,
based on the foreknowledge of God and predestinating power of God, that,
when the Pentecostals should have gone on, (Because they were the last
ones--the final age that come—the baptism with the Holy Ghost, which
means the true Holy Ghost baptism would have given them the
understanding that Bro. Branham was that man.) they didn’t have it;
so, the people were cursed. And that’s one of the things you notice
Bro. Branham would later on mention in a sermon that Los Angeles: the
environment, was cursed, and so on.

4.	Now they came by a little later, and they saw the fig tree was
dead—withered away. This would let you know the vindication of
everything that Jesus had done, which was highly satisfactory to God,
because it was God doing it. It was highly unsatisfactory to the people,
because they didn’t believe God would do that. And so, they worshipped
the God of their imaginations. 

	The disciples were astonished to see that the tree was dried from the
roots up. Now you’ll notice that this tree even had its roots die;
they were dead. When it comes to the Gentile tree, the life is in the
roots. And the manifestation in Pentecost is all carnal—humanistic.
Even though genuine gifts are there, there’s no fruit there. 

5.	And, of course, this is the great age that everybody talks about. So,
if you think there’s love in that age, you don’t believe like me. I
can’t tell you I’m right as though I’m right; I just know I’m
right. You can do what you want about it—your love and what your
thinking is. I can just tell you flat: I don’t buy it. I don’t buy
peace outside the Word. I don’t buy faith outside the Word. I don’t
buy love outside the Word. I don’t buy anything outside the Word.
Because, if that Word is not the conduit of the Holy Spirit, I don’t
care what this Word says, it just isn’t going to work. Because the
only word that will not return void unto God is His Own unadulterated,
truly revealed Word. Everything else is dead. Now nothing outside this
Message comes to life. 

6.	So, they marveled at how quickly the fig tree withered away. And
Jesus at that time says, “Have faith in God,” for which the literal
translation is: “Have the faith of God.” Now, of course, Bro.
Branham was God to the people. And Bro. Branham spoke and said, “If
God told me to raise Abraham Lincoln from the dead, I’d challenge the
armies of the earth to shoot me down, if they could do it.” Brother
Branham also said, “You’re looking at me aren’t you.” He said,
“‘THUS SAITH THE LORD’ and these other things have happened so
perfectly are not William Branham. I had nothing to do with these. I was
just a voice and one standing there, and He used me; and against my
better judgment. I wanted to be a trapper.”--you know, skunk skinner.
If you can stand it, fine. God has something better for the man. He’s
got something better for us than skinning skunks, anything else.

7.	So, He says, “Have the faith of God.” Now, what I’m trying to
say there is to not just have faith in God; have the faith of God, which
positively would mean that, as God had faith on the grounds that what he
said would come to pass, and did come to pass, in this hour we have what
Bro. Branham said: the absolute perfect faith as never before. We have
that genuine faith of God. Just like the Bible says. Paul says: [Gal
2:20] 

20	I have been crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I,
but Christ liveth in me and the life that I now live in the flesh, I
live by the faith of the Son of God.

	He never said he lived by his own faith; he lived by the faith of the
Son of God, which knew that God would raise him from the dead and bring
every single thing to pass, which is now coming to pass—God Himself
doing it.

	So, we are hooked into that particular faith. That’s the big thing
we’re looking at.

8.	Now He said:

23	Verily I say unto you, That whosoever shall say unto this mountain,
Be thou removed, and be thou cast into the sea; and shall not doubt in
his heart, but shall believe that those things which he saith shall come
to pass; he shall have whatsoever he saith.

	Now you know that any person outside of the faith of God could not say
that. Only a truly vindicated prophet like William Branham could say,
“You, city that called yourself by the name of the angels, ‘THUS
SAITH THE LORD,’ you’re going to be under the water.” And so, this
has come to pass in our day. Now the mountain itself, the valley itself,
has not plunged in the water; but, if you have any doubts about it going
in there, you don’t believe this Message. You don’t believe God. You
just don’t qualify. See what I’m talking about? I’m talking about
you; I’m talking about me. 

	The word ‘you’ is a principle. I am too used to using the word
‘you’, because many years when I preached faith, people just
didn’t believe like me. They just didn’t. I had an extraordinary
measure of faith in those days, but my ministry was not in that
particular area. The same faith I had in those days is now transferred
into the passive, which is to believe this Word.

9.	Now William Branham was the one that said it. William Branham said to
Billy Paul, “Billy Paul, let me tell you flat: where you’re standing
now, the sharks will be swimming.” The same man that said, “If I
can’t raise Abraham Lincoln, shoot me down,” is the same man that
said that. And I told you how it was in this place called Northland (or
Northup or something) in Los Angeles, California, the shock came and
leveled to rubble the May’s Department Store—absolute rubble. [Bro.
Vayle may be referring to the rubble resulting from a massive earthquake
that hit LA on January 17, 1994. The May Company building that Billy
Paul was standing in front of still exists today as the Los Angeles
County Art Museum.]

10.	Hey, listen. Nobody’s happy that people are dying and all, but
I’m going to tell you something flat: better they than me. I’ll tell
you the honest truth. I’m not some great hero that’s going to say,
“Hey, better me than they.” 

	You say, “Well, I am.” 

	Well, good. I’m glad for you. Let me see it happen. 

	No, you’ve got to look at what’s here, and it doesn’t have one
thing to do with you and me. No matter what you read anywhere, even Paul
saying, “For I could wish that myself were accursed...” That
statement, in my books, was made by Paul concerning his own hungry heart
for people dying round about him that knew not what he knew and fought
against it. He felt terribly, terribly sorry for them. 

	But I’m going to tell you one thing: Jesus was cursed for the sins of
the people. Don’t Paul or anybody else try to rise up and say, “Hey,
I could do that.” Now you can give your body to be burned. You can do
a lot of things, but, we must be very careful: we don’t try to get
where Jesus got and do what he did. The church is full of people who
want to grab the ball from somebody and run with it. That to me is
ludicrous. 

11.	Now he said here, because someone is going to say this; it’s got
to happen that someone is going to say it. Therefore, I say it to you in
your capacity, what I’m going to say concerning this man and his
capacity, “Whatsoever things that you desire.” Now he never said
that this man desired to see the mountain move. He just said, “If you
say to this mountain, ‘be moved’,” and you’ve got what it takes,
which is the faith of God Himself, which is exactly the predestinated
Will—a part of history, (You’re going to stand there and you’re
going to believe it.) it’s going to come to pass, because this is an
authentic prophecy.

12.	Now bringing you down a step. “Whatsoever things you desire.” It
didn’t say this fellow desired; this fellow desires. When you pray,
believe that you receive, and you shall have. Now there’s a principle
there that prayer works [Bro. Vayle says ‘is motivated’ but then
says it is not ‘motivated’.] through believing. The motivation is
the desire. And the desire, even though It says you shall receive and
have them, you must be very careful; because James was standing there,
the brother of Jesus, and he wrote factually concerning this: that most
people pray to receive and simply use it for themselves. 

	To consume upon your lusts simply does not mean something that has to
do with sexual things or sexuality. The word ‘lust’ in the Bible
means ‘pleasure’. And some people would be as fat as four horses and
three elephants, if they could simply get from God, you know, not
baloney sandwiches, but caviar, turkey, rib roast, baked potatoes,
quantities of gravy to consume it. Like the Bible said, “Their god is
their belly; their glory is their shame.” In other words the life is
more than the meat, and the body is more than a raiment. 

13.	Now there are people who would not take it any further than a
self-aggrandizement. And James says, “You have not, because you ask
not. And, when you ask, you only ask to consume it upon your lusts. And
therefore, you don’t have it.” And then, because you don’t go the
Bible way, there are all kinds of rivalries among you. There’s all
kind of impertinent things going on, all kinds of fights and everything
else: jealousy, malice and the whole bit. 

	Now, if every one of us today had a nose exactly like this and three
inches long, we wouldn’t then be the guy with the nose two inches
long. If all the women had beautiful baby blue eyes or brown eyes that
really opened just nice and wide, the right way, with lovely lashes and
all, and high cheek bones--not exactly like Marilyn Monroe… (I think
she was a fine looking girl, but I think Marlene Dietrich was a
beautiful woman.) Well, if every single woman was like a Marilyn Monroe,
and every single man was like whatever the man is supposed to look like,
and everyone dressing alike, looking perfectly alike and even walking
alike, talking alike; what could you possibly ask for? 

	You say, “Well, why would you ask?”

	[To be like them or have what they have? After all, they eat the same
food, have the same car, …]

	It’s because you want to be different—pride. You wanted what you
didn’t want and didn’t need. So, James is hitting the nail right on
the head. He said, “Too much of your asking is dependent upon what you
want, only to use it in a way that is not becoming, and therefore you
have no basis to ask God for what you’re asking.”    

14.	Now we go back to the Psalms. And the Psalms tells us when Israel,
the called-out people on the way to the Promised Land, began hankering
for the carnal, which was the leeks and the onions… I know they kill
bacteria, but with manna; you didn’t even get bacteria. Who needed
Russian penicillin, when there are no germs for the penicillin, the
garlic to kill? Manna does not give indigestion. It does not make you
regurgitate or burp or anything else. It’s absolutely fantastic food;
gives you energy all day long, and it’s just marvelous. But, see, they
wanted something different to consume by their lusts. And the Bible
said, “God gave them the desires of their hearts, but sent leanness to
their souls.” Now, praying with the wrong motive, receiving answers,
you’ll have the leanest soul under God’s history in this end age,
because there’s no Word going down there. You follow me?

15.	So, you got to watch your praying. The Bible said to “pray without
ceasing. Pray all manner of prayers. Watch and pray.” Well, we can go
to hundreds of scriptures; but, we dare not just go into scriptures
saying, “I’ll pray…” 

	Like I told you about this guy; he committed a really filthy sin
against me, and I hit right between the eyes on it. 

	I said, “You wouldn’t even do that to a sinner.” 

	“Well, I prayed about it.” 

	I said, “Well, why don’t you pray to rob a bank? You don’t pray
about sin; you pray to shun sin!” 

	This bird was praying to God to give him strength to sin. Then, when he
got up enough guts and nerves, he did it. 

	Why don’t you rob a bank? Anybody here got enough guts to rob a bank?
You know you can pray and get your nerve up and everything else. You can
even pass a lie detector test, if you pray hard enough. You can kill
somebody. Yeah, like Ames [Aldrich Hazen Ames, CIA intelligence
officer], who took a lie detector test. Who ran it? What psychiatrist
gave him something, where it was his brain power that did it? One of the
biggest spies in American history passed two lie detector tests. 

16.	A farmer killed his wife many years ago, and they knew he killed
her. They couldn’t prove it. Every lie detector test indicated he
didn’t kill her. Finally, they broke him down. 

	He said, “Yes, I did.” 

	They said, “How did you pass those lie detector tests?” 

	He said, “I prayed.” 

	Prayer answers many things. Hey, let’s have fun, eh? Don’t fool
with prayer and the Word of God. You simply cannot bypass this Word when
you pray. Your motives, your intents, the material of your supplication,
what you’re going to do with it all depends…

17.	Now He said, “When you pray, you believe.” Without believing you
spin your wheels. Yet, at the same time you cannot stop praying. You
must keep coming before God with His Word, until It sinks deep down
within your heart.

	I had an old friend, Herman Alexander (I think I told you about him.)
He needed a car desperately, and he never had a plugged nickel. His
mother was a widow; he supported her and his aunt. He was a
preacher—very sweet person, wonderful person. So, one day he asked God
for a car. 

	Now he said, “Lord, I realize if I ask You, that’s sufficient.”
He said, “I’m going to praise You for the car that You have already
given me. And I’m going to praise You everyday for at least an
hour.” 

	And everyday for at least an hour or better he was in his room raising
his hands, praising God for that car. And one morning he sat up in his
bed, and he was sitting there praising God for that car; and a man
stormed up to the door, knocked on the door; and his mother opened the
door, and he said, “I want to see Herman.” 

	“He’s upstairs.” 

	He storms upstairs. He takes a shoebox full of bills; he dumps them on
his bed, and he said, “Here is the money for your car that you’ve
been praying for!” 

	And he wasn’t even happy. 

	And Herman said, “Thank You, Lord, for the money!” 

	And the guy looked at him funny as though it wasn’t the Lord that did
it. 

	He said, “The Lord gave me that money; he just used you as the
messenger.” 

	So, he went downtown, bought a car he always wanted, and he really
didn’t overdo it. He was just a young guy. He bought himself a nice
car, a red car with the proper spoke wheels and all. He went by that
guys house, knocked on the door.

	He said, “Sir, I brought my car to give you a ride.”

18.	You can prevail in prayer when the prayer is legitimate, whether
it’s a loaf of bread, hunk of cheese, a house, whatever you actually
need, because prayer is based upon need, not upon fanciful desires that
will make you the prettiest girl in town, the most handsome man in the
universe, and all that sort of crud. Because you’re already warned:
you cannot add a cubit to your stature by taking thought nor keeping one
hair on your head, unless you do something about it. You lose it, and
it’s really gone. It’s gone until you catch up with it someplace
else.

	See, prayer is important—very important. And it has very important
rules and laws concerning it. 

19.	Now it goes on to say, and this is the part that most people do not
like to inculcate into their lives: When you stand praying (The word
means to ‘persevere’: you keep on, you keep on, you keep on.)… Now
It says, “When you pray, persevering in prayer, forgive, if any have
ought against you.” Now It tells you right there that you can be
distracted by what is coming against you, what people are perpetrating
upon you, in the midst of your praying, which would discourage you. So,
don’t be discouraged. Keep on praying. Whatever they do, don’t you
retaliate. No matter what happens, don’t you quit praying, because you
are going to have intensified problems when you pray, because there’s
a catch to this whole thing. 

20.	Now It says that your Father, also which is in heaven, may forgive
you your trespasses. Now, in other words, if we do not… The word
‘forgive’ here is not that whole word that I have used in preaching;
but it literally means more ‘the removing’ and ‘the
disassociating’, so that the more you get involved with what is done,
you get more involved with the personality. The more involved with the
personality, the less involved with the personality of God. The more
you’re consumed with these things, the less you’re consumed with
prayer, which is communing with God, and really standing there praising
Him and asking Him, believing Him to bring into manifestation what is
already ours, because what we want is here. Because what a man sees,
does he yet hope for? No, you want something that’s here. 

21.	So, for you to really give your attention to that, you’ve got to
come to the place of forgiveness. You must; otherwise, you will be
entirely consumed. And the point is: if we do not forgive, but harbor
those things in our heart, (which is so easy to do—I mean it’s just
our nature to harbor those things, what has been done in unbelief.) we
simply cannot reach out in faith, believing to get those things that are
ours. 

22.	Now He said, “That your Father in heaven may also forgive you your
trespasses.” In other words He may remove from you, and separate you
from these things like Bro. Branham saw that the circle of Blood around
the earth kept you visible to God with no sin and nothing particular
there, because It scattered the sins, until nothing remains. But It
says, “If you do not forgive, neither will your Father, which is in
heaven, forgive your trespasses.” So, what I see in here is that the
unforgiving spirit, coupled with the wrong motive, lets you and me know
that, when we pray, we are merely spinning our wheels—merely spinning
our wheels. If we ever come to the place where we’re like these men
that Allen preached of that go into the closet and lock the door till
God does something… You’ll come out all right, but you can die the
same alcoholic he died. You can be the same perverted man with money
that he was. You’ll end up in a complete mess.

23.	I found that prayer is not what most people think it is on the
grounds it… 

	They say, “Well, it’s just: ask and ask and ask and ask and ask and
ask, and that’s all there is too it, because the prostitute can come;
she’s not going to change her ways, and, if she gets healed, she’s
going to go back to her business.” 

	Look, I don’t deny any of those things, but I quoted you the
Scripture: He sends leanness to your souls. What we do not want is to
have God answer our prayers in order to find ourselves in a worse
position than when we start. And that’s exactly what can happen.

	You’ve got the chaff today that has gifts. They’re the ones with
the prayer lines. They’re the ones telling you all the miracles,
everything else, and there’s absolutely no place in them for this
Word. 

24.	So, all right. What are we looking at in praying? We’re looking at
just exactly what I said: there must be the knowledge that we need
something. We know that God can supply that need. Now the thing is, if
you can do it yourself, you have no right to pray to God except to say,
“Lord, (You speak to the Spirit within you.) You are here to give me
strength and help. I’m relying on You now; give me the courage and the
strength to do this thing with Your help that can be done.” And it can
be done. 

25.	So, many things here that we need God to really intervene on our
behalf… And the thing that you’re looking at is: that, if you want
God to intervene on your behalf, if I want Him on my behalf, remember
how he intervened with the forgiving of sins, the helping us to be
reconciled to come to Him. Then, just forgive that guy; get him out of
your life and remove it. Just get him away; forgive him; don’t have
any bad thoughts and feelings and condemnations. 

26.	This is a tough one. I admit it. I can get hotter than a
firecracker, and no doubt I miss a lot of answers. I tell you, when I
was praying for people years ago, I put in hours of prayer, hours of
study. I kept myself in peak form for just one thing: looking to that
Word that people might get delivered. Of course, I was a minister; I
could afford that. But, we taking these little hints here: whenever
there is an unforgiving spirit, God does not even want you and me to
bother Him. First, He wants us to get detached from all those things
that bug us, because, you see, that’s like the cursing part. We want
to get attached to all the blessing part. Well, there are certain things
you go through. And one thing is: get all these things to one side that
are bothering us, because we can do it. We wouldn’t be told to do it,
if we couldn’t. Then, persevere. 

27.	Now, watch. I’m going to put the two together. We persevere in
praying; don’t stop praying. And, don’t stop persevering in
forgiving. Keep talking to yourself. Keep communing with the Holy
Spirit, as David said [Ps 77:6] “I call to remembrance my song in the
night: I commune with mine own heart: and my spirit made diligent
search.” In other words, in the night hours; the Bible speaks of
communing with God. Spend your time, and my time; we must give equal
time to forgiving that we give to asking. 

28.	Now, to be perfectly honest with you: this age, I think, is in the
place of being more concerned with the issues that are bugging us that
need forgiving than we are concerned with the issue of getting rid of it
and standing with prayer. And, as we stand with both, we will come to
the place where God gives us the desires of our heart, because He said,
“Whatsoever things you desire, when you pray, your motive, what you
want, what you want to do with it, He’ll give it to us.” That’s
true. I’ve seen it. It works; it absolutely works. What you put your
mind on, if you want it to work, you’ll make it work. 

29.	An old friend of mine said years ago, “You get what you preach
for.” 

	If I were to start a series on divine healing, there’d be a lot of
people healed here. 

	You say, “Well, why don’t you do it?” 

	Well, because my ministry goes elsewhere. I’m ordained to what I’m
ordained to. I have the word of the prophet on it, and the prophet’s
words were not casual to me. I never asked him to tell me the things he
told me concerning myself and him and the ministry. He would take me
aside at times and say, “I want to talk to you Bro. Vayle.” 

	And I would say, “Fine, let’s talk.” 

	It never mounted to a long collaboration; it was simply those things he
told me. I believed them. And there it is.

	So, what you’re seeing here, if you don’t prevail, you don’t
stand there when things come against you, things are rough, it looks
like you don’t have the answer; just you keep moving in that
direction, and it will come—both. With this, then, is the expanded
life of the beauty and goodness of the Spirit working by His Word in
your heart and my heart. And, at the same time, because we can be
trusted with the things He would give us, He’ll give us.

30.	Now many people were very jealous with me with Bro. Branham. And I
have no apologies. I don’t care if they were jealous. I’ve had them
come to me and tell me they were jealous, but they didn’t know what I
knew. What I knew is what Bro. Branham told me. He said, “Lee, you can
come and bring any friend you want, any time day or night, because you
never used me.” I never used him—never used the man. And he
appreciated that. He always got up to the platform on time; I always put
him forward. He knew I would never use him. I would never say, “Well,
hey I could get you to Bro. Branham, this and that…” You know, folk,
I’m going to tell you something: this being a prophet, especially with
that Pillar of Fire, that’s the closest to heaven and to God,
millions, if not billions, are ever going to get. And they’re going to
miss it by eternal years. Serious, isn’t it? 

	Well, you people are unfortunate. You always want me to say something,
like Jack Bell said, “Lee’s not long winded. He just has got a lot
to say about the subject.” 

31.	So, we have our time of prayer now, but at least you know where
I’m coming from, or where I believe the Word of God is: to prevail,
prevail, prevail. Prevail in believing God for those things you can
have—your healing and all. Prevail in overcoming our distaste, our
dislike, our anger at what has been done to us. 

	Okay, let’s pray.

	Heavenly Father, we thank You for the time we come together. We know,
Lord, that our prayers are not even to be considered alongside Your
Word. But we know, Lord, if and when we truly get back to You, Your
Word, from a heart that’s been cleansed, from a conscience that’s
been cleansed, from attitudes toward others, coming to the place of
forgiveness, knowing, as You forgave us, it was grace, and we’re
looking at You, Lord, for this prayer answered, which is grace, (And You
want us to extend grace to somebody else, Lord.) we know we should not
be too discomfited or disturbed by it. Help us to be such a congenial
spirit, yielded, meek, and happy to do that. Just exactly like, when
Jesus was accosted by Judas, knowing that He’d be betrayed, he said,
“Friend.” We know he wasn’t a friend like the others, any more
than Cain was a brother of Abel in the true sense of the word. They were
just there. 

	But, Lord, we know that we can start with that spirit of quietness;
bringing ourselves down, until we do actually get to the place of
absolute genuine forgiveness; absolute believing in our hearts as never
before. So, help us as we pray today and the days to come as we pray in
our own secret chambers and those other places where we should
pray—praying for others’ needs. May it always be this way. We give
You the glory in Jesus’ Name. Amen.

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