Priorities #1

Bro. Lee Vayle

Gruenthal Church

Saskatchewan, Canada

July 11, 1978 A.M.

1.	Now it’s certainly a privilege to be back with you. And I do not
say that with my tongue in my cheek; because, if I had not wanted to
come, I would not have come; and, if I did not enjoy myself and love
you, I would not have come. But I love you greatly. In fact, I am a
little disappointed that some of the brethren have to work, and I
haven’t seen them. I’m not quite sure whether I am to go out and
sort of cajole them or to grab them, or to do something, so we can see
them here as usual. 

	So, I want you to know that being with you is a great privilege, and
it’s certainly wonderful for me. You know, I read a little article in
the Reader’s Digest one time. It was talking about a certain little
thing that happened on television. They had one of these programs of
interviews. And the man said to this very dear old lady, (She was very
old.) “I hear that there’s something a little different about your
marriage.”

	She said, “That’s right.”

	He said, “I understand that your husband has never once said, in
fifty years, that he loves you.”

	She said, “That’s right.”

	And so, he turned to the man, and he said, “Is that so?”

	He said, “Yep. Sure is. I told her the day that we got married I
loved her, and, if I’d ever change my mind, I’d tell her.”

2.	And do you know that sounds very smart, but it is hellish as the
devil himself. I tell you I love you, the same as the sticker says,
“Have you hugged your child today?” You can’t tell people too
often. You can’t hear it too often, because it’s been so… They
made it embarrassing, as though it’s not the thing to do. The people
have been afraid and ashamed of their emotions.

	Ah, maybe Women’s Lib has done one thing besides send them to hell.
It’s given men a chance to sort of break down, admit they’re a bit
weak. They can change a baby’s diaper and wash the soiled diapers.
I’ve done it; I never felt ashamed of it. I thought they were my kids,
the same as my wife’s. 

3.  So, well, I’m embarrassed, [Bro. Vayle weeps.] so I might as well
just say, “I hate you, and get down to preaching.” I love you,
because the Lord blesses you. Now He’s not going to bless you because
I’m here. If that were the case, you’ve got problems. He’s going
to bless you in spite of the fact that I’m here. That’s nice. I
always like to make God a big God, so all I do is come around… And
He’s sure got to be a big God to overcome the influence I’ve got.
So, that makes it very nice.

	So, we’ve been having a blessed time in the Lord, and I’d like
nothing better than to… And the fellowship has been good. Sometimes I
kind of think that, hey, we sort of overdo it, because Bro. Branham said
we don’t come for fellowship. He didn’t mean a lot of things the way
he said it. He was a middle-of-the-roader. Sure he loved fellowship. The
same fellow that said, “We don’t come for fellowship; we come for
correction,” the same one said, “My, I’d like nothing better than
to go into your house,” he said, “and take off my shoes and sit down
and open your refrigerator door.” 

	And I said, “The difference between William Branham and me is: he
says it, but I do it.” If you don’t believe me, you can ask John and
Margaret and Bro. Guenther and anybody else’s house I’ve been in.
But Bro. Branham meant it.

4.	I was talking to him one day. My introduction is going to be so long,
I’m going to let you go home without preaching. That’s going to be
the best part of it. It lets me off the hook. Now one day I said,
“Bro. Bill, maybe I’m wrong, but I’ve been thinking, what could
have been more wonderful than for people to be on this earth without
Satan, to live our lives, to marry, to raise our children in the way
that looks to be like God had in the Bible.”

	He said, “Lee, you’re talking about the Millennium.”

	I thought, “My, isn’t that nice?”

	And it began to give me some thoughts, which are not part of the
subject this morning, and yet they are. Do you know that ole Doc
Bosworth, Bro. Branham, and just about everybody says that word
‘zoe’ is eternal Life. Well, that’s true, and it’s not true. The
word ‘zoe’ is just ‘life’. It’s where you get the word
‘zoology’ and so on. But, when you speak of God, you relate it to
the infinite. Do you realize what that means: you are going to be the
same person under the right conditions eternally? So, if God could have
made a better job of us, and wanted a higher plan, He would have had to
have failed or this is it. Now He’s going to take this very thing and
eternalize it and glorify it. That’s what we’re going to talk about
this morning, although that’s not the title. See? I’m going to show
you.

5.	So, there is a rapport, camaraderie, a fellowship, that is not to be
ashamed of. It’s not to be downgraded. It’s not to be set to one
side. But it’s to be actually aggrandized, that this is a family of
God, and we’re all part of each other. When Bro. Branham was here as
our tie post, it didn’t really matter if people called him ‘God’.
He set the record straight. It didn’t matter who had this idea and
that idea, you could put your church in order or put it in disorder; it
was all right. Those who did believe in disorder believed just as strong
in their way as we believe in our way: we wanted order, which to them
was disorder. And it’s the same spirit. Nothing has changed really, as
far as God is concerned; but we haven’t risen to the occasion to be
one family. And I’m looking to see where are some of the families that
were families just a while ago. It’s a good question. 

	You say, “Bro. Vayle, I can’t take a club and hit them.”

	No, and you’d better not. You’d better pray and be just as sweet as
you can. And, if somebody draws a circle and draws you out, you better
start drawing a bigger circle and draw them in. 

6.	Now you know I’m about as tough as nails and as hardboiled as they
come, when it comes to pronouncements and certain stands. I’ve said,
“Look, when it comes to this Message, I don’t have any friends; I
don’t have a wife; I don’t have children; I don’t have anybody.”

	I mean that in the extreme sense of the word. If a man doesn’t
forsake everything, he isn’t worthy of God. But in the meantime I have
brothers, I have sisters, I have prodigals. I have them all over; and I
myself can be a prodigal, for all I know. “And the foundation of God
standeth sure, having this seal of the Lord, and the Lord only knows
them which are His.” [2 Tim 2:19] When that Lamb’s Book of Life was
opened, the Book of Redemption before us, and we saw our names by faith,
I’m going to tell you flat, my brother/sister, those same people saw
their names by faith, and there wasn’t one who could say, “Well, I
didn’t see your name there, but I saw mine.” Yes, sir. And Bro.
Branham said, he said, “Notice I use the word ‘we’. By thoughts of
grace I count myself with you.”

	See, I’m still talking about the same thing: the love and compassion
as a family, that we are one; not just part of the human race. We’re
part of a super-human race. Do you know that a fallen son of God can be
the rottenest apple of all? Do you know a fallen son of God can put the
serpent to shame, just about, or a Pharaoh? That’s right, you show me
one thing Pharaoh did that Paul didn’t do. Pharaoh was out to kill the
children of God. He did a pretty good job; Paul came along and did a
better job.

7.	But now, in this Message we’re one. Let’s try to keep it that
way. Let’s build our faith up in Jesus Christ, walk in that light,
and, above all, show love one to another. And the major ingredient of
love, whether you believe it or not, is not a sensation, is not an
emotion, is not a box of chocolates, is not glossing something over: it
is respect. The major component, the major root word in love is
‘respect’. That’s right—respect. See? That’s why I talk the
way I do. One person believes this, one person believes that, one person
has this ministry, one has that. We’re not here to be one lump with
one arm, one finger, one eye, (We’re all different.) but to have
respect—real respect.

	You say, “Well, this brother here is bumptious; he’s rambunctious;
he’s putting a lot of things out of order.”

	That man may have done a lot of things for Jesus Christ you never
thought of doing that. See? 

8.	So, here we are this morning, and we’re going to talk about
“Priorities.” I haven’t preached it before. I didn’t think I’d
be here. I thought I might be in Europe, but for a long time now I’ve
had a low-grade infection that got more and more a problem to me, until
I said, “Well, I don’t give a rip. I’ll go to the hospital if
necessary, but I’m tired of suffering.”

	So, I went to the doctor. He put me on a massive dose of antibiotics,
because a low-grade infection will give you all the symptoms in your
body of something that’s radically wrong, and it’s not wrong at all.
It’s just that low-grade infection driving you crazy.

	And so, there was nothing radically wrong, except it was radically
wrong, that a low-grade infection is terribly hard to get rid of. So, I
felt I could not be too far away removed from where my doctor is.
Therefore, I did not go to Europe. Perhaps next year I’ll be able to
do that. But, as I was at home and thought how nice it would be to be
with you here again, also knowing Bro. Brown would be here, (Which we
are very, very close.) I thought upon what I might possibly bring to
you, because I did not want to enter the doctrinal field at this time.
If I visit your churches, then this will be a different story. What can
I say that is Scriptural, that is in harmony and aligned with what Bro.
Branham taught, that might do us all some good?

9.	And I thought upon the subject of ‘priorities’. And so, as we
launch this study on the God-commanded, (And you notice I used the word
‘God-commanded’.) priorities in the lives of Christians, I want to
make a few remarks. As I say, before we touch the subject of
‘God-commanded priorities’, I want to make about three little
points. The first is this: there are ministers of the Gospel who are so
dedicated to these priorities that they so live them that their message
and their lives are both the living Word of God as an example to us.

	Those men are very few, but there are some. They were in abundance
years ago, before the turn of the century when we had great men of
consecration, who went to retreats, such as the Kessy…?… Conference,
the old A. J. Gordons and S. D. Gordons, of whom it was said of S. D.
Gordon: from the minute he was born again, he grew in such grace as to
be phenomenal among men of the caliber—it just skips my mind for a
moment, but I’ll remember him later on. He was going down the street
one day with his little boy, constantly doffing his hat to men and to
women. The little boy also took his hat off. And a ruffian looked at the
boy and began to laugh. And that preacher, with tears in his eyes, said,
“Sir, don’t make fun of that child. I want him to be a real man—a
real man of God.”

	The age of sanctification was a great age, an age where men lived in
such sobriety as “living epistles read and known of all men.” That
age seemingly has gone down—don’t see much of it. But there are a
few preachers, a few ministers, who know the priorities of God, and they
live them.

10.	But there’s a second group of preachers, and they’re the
hypocrites. They preach them; they don’t live them. They talk as
though they do, and they nail you down with such sermons as to make you
feel like a skunk if you even thought one word of criticism concerning
them. And that’s their defense, so they can have the old Roman
Catholic spirit of the cloth. The cloth is nothing! The man is
everything, so we’ve got the hypocrites.

11.	We have the third class (I suppose they’re the largest number.) of
ministers who are embarrassed. They feel great shame, because they know
that they fail much and many times in these priorities, yet they preach
them. They try to live them—maybe not too successfully. They try, and
they fail; but they preach them, whether they point the finger at the
congregation, knowing that three more fingers point back at them, and
they know they’re preaching to people better than themselves, but
they’ll preach it, because it’s God’s Word, and it just might be,
by grace, that someone picks up the challenge, becomes a bright and a
shining light. 

	Little Samuel, who was raised in the presence of Eli and his profligate
sons… Eli would say to little Samuel, “Samuel, don’t do what I do.
Don’t do what my boys do. We’re weak. I’m embarrassed.”

	And Samuel said, “That’s right. I’m not going to be.” And he
wasn’t. 

12.	I can stand up at the end time and say, “Which of you have I taken
money from? When have I ever told you a lie? When has the bell of my
life not run true?”

	Well, sadly these preachers admit to their failures, but they won’t
compromise with truth. 

	How often some of us could stand and look around… “Well, look.
I’m not doing what he’s doing.” 

	Women and men are so eager to say, “Well, look what they’re doing.
I can do it, too.”

	No, you can’t! No, sir. Neither can any preacher with any modicum of
the Holy Ghost stand before a pulpit and shun any Word of God, though it
cuts himself to ribbons. Moses was a paragon of virtues, but he failed,
too, the day he glorified himself instead of God, when God said,
“Speak to that rock.” Angered, he struck the rock.

	Joseph, the most perfect example, also had his problems, and not one of
those persons shunned the Word of God.

	The apostle Paul had to apologize to the Corinthians, yet he said, “I
am guiltless of the blood of all men, because I have not shunned to
declare unto you the full counsel, the whole counsel of Almighty God.”

13.	Yes, priorities. They’ve got to be preached, they’ve got to be
known. They’re not always lived up to, but they’re supposed to be.
Luke 13 may throw a little bit of light on the subject. Here is Jesus
talking about the sower that went forth to sow. Now he said, “You are
blessed, because I’m going to reveal to you certain things that have
been said, but not revealed; now I’m going to talk about it.” [Lk
13:16-17] Now he mentions here in Lk 13:18:

(18)	Hear the parable of the sower.

(19)	When any one hears the word of the kingdom, and understands it not,
then comes the wicked one, catches it away, what was sown in his heart
is gone. He is like the fellow that received seed by the way side (and
fell on the pavement).

(20)	But he that received the seed into stony places, the same is he
that hears the word, has a lot of joy about it; 

(21)	He’s got no root, dureth for a little while: …tribulations
come, he can’t take it… He is offended.

(22)	He also that receives seed among the thorns is he that hears the
word; and the care of this world, and the deceitfulness of riches, choke
the word, and he becometh unfruitful.

(23)	But he that receives seed into the good ground…

	Now, who’s that sower? The Son of man. What is the good seed? It is
the Word of God, uncorruptible. All these people had a chance to hear.
They took It in, but only the good ground was fruitful. Jesus said, “I
perceive this amongst you Pharisees.” You cannot hear this Word,
because you’ve got no place for My Word.” There was no place in
their soul for It. As the serpent had a place for a soul, but he
couldn’t take anything, these men lacked a place for the Word. There
was no place—there was no gene there to mate.

14.	Now he said:

(23)	…He undersands it; and he bears fruit, and the fruit comes forth
from that legitimate Word, (But, notice:) thirty, sixty, a hundred.

	How many of you in the thirty class? Ninety-nine percent, perhaps, this
morning. You’ve had a few priorities, you lived it. Who’s in the
sixty percent class? Do you realize what I’m saying this morning?
There’s not one percent, two percent, three percent, four percent,
five…to a hundred. There’s only three percentiles: thirty, sixty, a
hundred. If you are only one percent, he’ll give you credit for
thirty. If you’re thirty-one, you get credit for sixty. If you’re
sixty-one, you get a hundred.

	These men all had the same Word in their fertile soil, but some could
only bring forth thirty percent of the priorities, which is the Word.
Some brought sixty and were given a hundred, but none were turned away.

15.	So, we’re going to talk about priorities. I don’t know how many
messages it will take. It all depends. But, before we talk about the
first one, let’s bow our heads in prayer.

	Kind heavenly Father, I pray that You’ll help me to shorten this
message, to take the many Scriptures that I have put down before me in
note form, to be able somehow to lump them together, and by Your Spirit,
O God, there would be an illumination; but not just an illumination. May
there be the spark of life to ignite within us that which is beyond us.
[End of side 1 of tape. Words missing.] and, Lord, to work with that
which is within us, so that we can know where responsibility blends with
infinity, so that these lives will come forth as you want them to. 

	Lord, I hope I am not asking something that can’t be answered, unless
it all falls on us; and if it does, if it’s that you’ve done your
entire part, and it’s up to us now, (And that could be true.) then,
Lord, help me and all of us here to, not just change or prayers, but to
change our very minds, until from center to circumference, from soul to
physical manifestation, all coming through the Word of God by soul,
spirit, and body to show that we are citizens of that kingdom. 

	Now, Lord, we just try to relax in your presence and depend upon you
that this is not going to be any type of lecture, any type of
excoriating message dressing down superior thoughts or innuendos, but
people thinking, striving, and going on together—one people, Lord. We
ask these mercies in Jesus’ Name. Amen.

16.	Now, when it comes to priorities, the saint is no different from the
sinner. Both have priorities. It’s impossible to live without having
priorities and, thereby, making decisions. We must make decisions. We
must put certain things in first, second place, and so on. Not that we
do it correctly every time, but there must be an order. Everybody has to
make decisions, and those decisions are made and kept according to the
impact of the importance we place on them. Now, speaking ideally, that
is the way it should be. 

	Many are too dog lazy to exert themselves, to attempt to arrive at a
position, which is a good position—desultory wasted lives. But we are
not talking about that. We are talking in terms of reality. Decisions
and priorities are absolute musts. You cannot duck them. We give
priority or first place according to what is important to us or how we
feel, which is about the same thing, because we’ll put a thing first
based on how we feel. And, if your feelings are superior to what is
really that which should be done, that is your priority, see.

17.	Now, of course, remember this: that what is important to you may be
next to nothing to me; and, what maybe important to me, may be nothing
to you; and this is to be understood. Not that nothing is unimportant,
but we are all different members in the body of Christ, and therefore,
we will act out more naturally than spiritually. And I am talking now of
supernatural, being placed in a tube and God making you do things,
giving you visions, do this, do that. No, there is a naturalness in the
Zoë combined with the Holy Ghost that the steps of a good man are
ordered of the Lord. [Ps 37:23] 

	And my steps may be so different than yours that you’re trying to put
your priorities on me. Forget it. I’ve learned long ago: I keep out of
your hair; you keep out of mine. At least I try. I’m not harping on
that. I am just letting you know that there are priorities. (See, things
of importance.) That’s why our women are so confused. They don’t
realize that being in the home taking care of the husband and the babies
[is] spiritual. Spiritual, that the better you attend to your business,
the better the rewards you are going to get, the more marks you’re
going to have. See? 

18.	Get your priorities straight. That’s what happened to Bro.
Branham. Don’t get your lines crossed up in this late day. See? He
thought he had a priority of trying to explain spiritual things to
Pentecostals and talk all about the soul and spirit. And, if Bro.
Branham got all mixed up trying to place the soul and spirit, and being
so smart about it, then don’t you and I get too tricky in our
theology. 

	Thank you. I never asked for ‘Amens’, but I liked that anyway.
(Bro. Vayle questions: “Who is that man? Good boy.”) All right. 

19.	Listen. Now in this business of priorities, the saint and the sinner
are worlds apart as to their priorities, because they live in two
separate worlds. They are members of two separate kingdoms. See. So,
we’re not interested in the sinner. We are interested in the saint.
According to the Word, what should be his priorities, what does God ask
us as saints to put first? The most notable to me, of course, is Mt
6:33; then you’ll understand, as I bring the message, why this is the
basis. [Mt 6:33]

(33)	But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness, and
all these things shall be added unto you.

	The word ‘seek’ in the Greek here means ‘desire’, our desires
and endeavors, with the central theme as God centered worship. Let it be
known that you who belong in the kingdom have desires and endeavors that
center in the worship of God; and remember, God is not just God because
He is worshipped. God is God because he is sovereign omnipotent. You
see, that is why they are God-given priorities. 

20.	Now this text was spoken to a great multitude of people at the
Sermon on the Mount. The crowd was made up of a very few disciples of
Jesus Christ, and the multitude as yet had not been converted. And I
know not how many were converted. The main context of the Scripture is
[found in] verses nineteen to thirty-four. So, we are going to read
them. [Mt 6:19-21]

Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth
corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal.

But lay up for yourselves…

	 Did I read it right? Maybe I should read: “but lay up treasures for
God.” He doesn’t need them. Lay up treasures for your brother.
Impossible. 

(20)	Lay up treasures for yoursel(f) in heaven, where neither moth nor
rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do break through and steal:

For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.

	The key right here is to learn how to lay up treasure so you have a
settled, full heart of the kingdom of God. 

21.	If you want to know this morning why your heart is empty, why
you’re wandering, the answer is here. You have not put your priorities
in order. You have not laid up any treasure. How many can say, “I know
I’ve got a record here that is going to correspond in heaven. When
that day comes, I will see it laid up there”? 

	You say, “Bro. Vayle, nobody knows.” 

	I say, “You’re wrong, because the Word of God makes us a liar.”
Let every man’s word be a lie, but let God’s be true. Yes sir, Paul
the apostle said, “I have fought a good fight.” Now he said, I have
finished the course hence forth there is a laid up…” [2 Tim 4:7-8]

	You say, “Paul, you’re a little bit erratic. You stupid old fool.
How can you know?”  

	Let me tell you: you and I had better know!

22.	Why we’ve got so many bankrupted men? Because they didn’t know.
We’ve got a good brother here sitting here this morning from Minot. He
told me he lost a quarter of a million dollars. Why? Because he didn’t
know. He thought he knew, but there were smarter crooks in the world
than there were smart saints in the kingdom. And he being a sort of nice
saint in the kingdom, in which the Bible says is pretty dumb according
to the world, they took him. But the same man can lay up treasure in
heaven. No smart crook on earth is going to take away a little old dumb
Christian, going to have us sitting there waiting for Him. Yes sir. 

	Listen. Where the treasure is, there is where your heart is going to
be. Yes sir, if your wife is your treasure, you’ll never lose [her],
and she’ll never lose you. If your silver and gold is your treasure,
you’ll be just like old Gehazi. “Where did you go?” said Elijah. 

	He said, “I didn’t go anywhere.” 

	He said, “How come?”

	He said, “I felt my heart go out where your heart was and where you
took it.” [2 Kings 5] See?

23.	Now the light of the body is in the eye. Get your priorities
straight, or you’ll go cross-eyed. You ever seen a cross-eyed person?
They are looking straight at you, but boy you can’t tell it. You look
where they are looking. You want a single eye, both eyes tracking. Are
you going to Laodicean, rich in goods, increased, and they have need of
nothing. He said, “Yet you’re miserable, wretched, poor, blind, and
don’t have a thing. I counsel you before it is too late do something
about your priority.” [Rev 3:17-18] Now He said: [Mt 6:22-24]

The light of the body is the eye: if therefore thine eye be single, thy
whole body shall be full of light.

But if your eye be evil, thy whole body shall be full of darkness. If
therefore the light that is in thee be darkess, how great is that
darkness! (In other words, if you’ve go the wrong priority, my
brother/sister, you can talk of all the light you wan. You are still
outside of it.) 

No man can serve two masters: (Get this flat. He’ll…) [for] either
he will hate the one, and love the other; [or else he will hold to the
one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon.]

	Now this word here… You could say well, that’s like “Esau have I
loved less than Jacob.” I don’t believe that nonsense. I like good
strong hard terms. I’m not a perverter. I don’t like grey. I like
black. I like white. Period! I don’t like shadow. I like “at evening
time it shall be light.” [End of the first audio tape.] 

24.	Make up your mind. What are you doing about your life as concerning
laying of treasures? Now he said, you can’t have a foot in each
kingdom. You can’t have a hand in two pockets. It’s got to be a
single eye, a single foot, a single hand, and if you start getting
offended and messed up just cut one of them off. We will talk about that
later. Listen.

…he will hate the one, and love the other; [or else] he will hold to
one, and despise the other. You can’t serve God and mammon. (Now he is
talking here about priorities of Christian living this life, see.)

Therefore I say unto you, Take no thought for your life, what ye shall
eat, or what ye shall drink; nor yet for your body, what ye shall put
on. Is not the life more than meat, and the body than raiment?

Behold the fowls of the air: for they sow not, neither do they reap, nor
gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feedeth them. Are ye not
much better than they?

	(27)	Which of you by taking thought can add one cubit to your stature? 

(28)	And why take ye thought for raiment? Look at the lilies of the
field, they’re not sowing, they’re not toiling: (They’re just
growing from the seed, taking advantage of the sunshine and the rain.) 

(29)	And Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. (In
other words, no matter what you do, you will never become as great and
as wonderful in your own way, as just letting God’s Word take place in
your life. Now:)

(30)	Wherefore, (Notice, another ‘wherefore’.) if God so clothe the
grass of the field, which today is, and tomorrow is gone, how much more
shall he clothe you, O you of little faith? 

(31)	Wherefore (Again ‘wherefore’) take no thought, saying, What
shall we eat? or, What shall we drink? or, Wherewithal shall we be
clothed? 

(32)	The Gentiles, the sinners, think of those things—that’s all
earthly, but) your heavenly Father knows the things you have need of.

(33)	But seek you first the kingdom of God and his righteousness; and
all things shall be added.

	Now I want you to notice here that verses 26-32 explain, express,
endorse, aggrandize, and make all powerful the validity of faith. The
validity of faith supercedes everything in this world. See?

25.	You say, “Bro. Vayle, how can I begin to put these things aside?
How can I go ahead and put that Kingdom first?”

	Let me tell you, brother/sister, in the days of which I have seen the
grace of God, I’ve prayed food on the table; I’ve prayed patches on
my patches; I’ve gone down … I won’t take any backtalk from any of
you, until you’ve been in the same place I’ve been in: where
you’ve had to pray God’s power down, you’ve had to see God move,
you’ve been to your wife and kids, you’ve stood the temptations of
time, you’ve prayed until God brought your kids back. 

	Listen, brother/sister, the validity of faith, the validity of faith!
In other words God stands behind His Word! It gives you that opportunity
to put God first, and put these other things down. Too busy proving your
ground, too busy aggrandizing your family; preachers who think more of
their own family, flesh and blood, than they do of the kingdom of
Almighty God. People in America, and all around, thinking more of their
nationality, God knows what, Bulgarian, Hungarian, English, and so on,
more than they understand the things of God? Shame on you! You’ve got
your priorities all mixed up. No wonder your faith is dead—if it’s
dead. 

26.	The validity of faith right here: He said, “Look what I’ve done
in nature. And nature’s expendable! But I’ve got you eternalized,
and everything you’ve done immortalized! So, that‘s what you do, you
simply pattern from this rose to the other rose…everything that you
are here, and what you’ve got here. The validity of faith! 

	You’re wandering; you’re looking around. Listen to me! Look at me!
You’re not believing in the validity of faith. You’ll leave this
building this morning and say, “Ho, hum, well, ole Vayle preached a
pretty good sermon; but, you know, God just doesn’t live up to His
Word.”

	You hypocrite! I caught you looking around. Don’t pull that on me, or
I’ll walk out the door. I taught school too many years to be made a
jackass of. The validity of faith! God doesn’t lie! I’m a liar!
You’re a liar! I’m a failure! You’re a failure! But God said,
“You’re going to put that Kingdom first.” 

	It takes priority over every single thing that you, as a natural man,
stand for and stand with. See? Does he? One of your biggest problems
right today is birth control, that a man can’t leave his wife alone to
give her a little break. I’m hitting where it’s hard. I don’t give
a rip if I am. 

	A man says, “I’m young; I can’t leave my wife.”

	I left mine for six months at the age of thirty-four or five—I had no
problems. The Kingdom took precedence. Sure, you can suffer a bit. 

27.	Priorities. We don’t believe in priorities. We don’t believe in
the validity of faith. Let me tell you something, my brother/sister; the
Book of Hebrews is full of it: “By faith…”, “By faith…”,
“By faith…,” “By faith…”, “By faith…”, “By
faith…!”

	Old Jephthah one day coming home said, “I’m going to give the first
thing that meets me coming home from the battlefield, because God gave
me a victory. I’m going to give the first thing.”

	That little daughter came by, and he said, “Oh, God, why’d she have
to come by?”

	Somebody said, “Well, I’m sure that what happened to her was: he
put her on an altar sacrifice.”

	Hogwash. They bewailed her virginity. She wasn’t allowed to marry;
never had a chance of being in the line to bring forth the promised Son.
Never had a chance to fulfill her wifely duties, which were hers,
according to the Word of God—set aside as the temple virgin, sort of,
for just praying day and night in the temple. Priorities.

	“Oh, too big a price to pay,” we say. 

	There’s a bigger price down the road. See? 

28.	The validity of faith! Faith is valid, my brother/sister. Bro.
Branham said, “If God sends you, He’ll take care of you.”

	Oh, I’m glad I learned my lesson. I tried the old political way. Oh,
the political way is fine—some nice sugar-daddy, some nice old, sweet
Christian, loaded with dough. I found one once. He made a mistake. He
meant to write Oral Roberts a check for $1,000, and, inadvertently, he
lost his little cue ball for a bit, and he put in $10,000.

	“Well,” I said, “why don’t you tell him?”

	He said, “Oh, not me. I’ll give him the $10,000. It’ll just take
three years to do it.”

	He was a good buddy of mine. I thought, “Well, that’s nice. I’m
going on the road. I’m broke again, and I can write him a little
letter asking for $300.” Confession is good for the soul, and it’s
good for a laugh. So, we’re going to have a little confession and a
little laugh. That’s back in the days… You guys don’t know nothing
about it. You’ve got it so soft these days, you could get a job and
fall in a dish of money. I’m talking about the tough days. See? So,
let’s not get carried away.

29.	So, we had it real tough. The validity of faith did not appeal to me
at that time—the validity of being in a sinners’ world, using a
sinner’s con game, which many Christians call ‘legitimate’ because
they think, “Well, it worked, didn’t it?” So does seduction. So, I
tried it…I wrote him for $300, knowing full well that if I couldn’t
pay him, he’d forgive me.

	He wrote back and said he didn’t have it. He wouldn’t give it to
me. 

	And I said, “Thank You, Lord. From now on, I’ll die first.” Never
again; never again. It was a good, easy lesson.

	That validity of faith, my brother/sister, I have never suffered beyond
what I did there, but there was always a way of escape, and there always
will be. 

30.	I’m going to go to Heb 10:38. I’m preaching faith. Bro. Branham
commissioned me to preach faith in the afternoon. I think it’s the
midnight hour; never mind the afternoon. That’s right. I’m not
kidding you. Hebrews 10:38:

(38)	Now the just shall live by faith: but if any man draw back, my soul
shall have no pleasure in him. 

	How could God’s Soul have pleasure in any man when He explains, “If
I’m taking care of the sparrows, if I’m clothing the lilies, then
how much more am I going to clothe you? So, forget about it. Shut up
about it! Go down the road serving me.” 

	See? No need to worry. The great solemn worry is this: am I pleasing
God? Am I putting these things first?

31.	Now, this dissertation on the validity of faith must not lull one
into a false hope, or the false process of faith, or the life of the
Kingdom. Now I’m going to explain that. We’re going to go to Mt
6:26.

(26)	Behold the fowls of the air: they don’t sow, they don’t reap,
they don’t gather into barns; your heavenly Father feeds them. 

	“So therefore, hallelujah, I don’t have to go to work this morning.
I’ll just lie in bed until the Lord tells me to get up.”

	I’ve got news for you: He ain’t going to tell you to get up. He
already done told you. 

32.	We better turn to Matthew 10; we’ll take a look at verse 16 and,
then, 24-25.

(16)	Behold, I send you forth… (Now He said, “You people I’m
sending forth as my saints, looking to the future Kingdom; I put a
priority upon you, that there’s nothing in this world that’s not
expendable. There’s nothing in this world that you don’t lay down,
and I promise to take care of you.” Now He said:) I’m going to send
you forth as a sheep in the midst of wolves. So, you be wise as serpents
and as harmlesss as doves.

	And in Mt 10:24-25 He says:

(24)	The disciple is not above his master, nor the servant above his
lord. 

(25)	It is enough for the disciple to be as his master, and the servant
as his lord. (See? Now, keep reading.) If they have called the master of
the house Beelzebub, how much more shall they call them of his
household?

	Now, also Mt 10:28-31:

(28)	Fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the
soul: but rather fear him which is able to destroy both soul and body in
hell.

(29)	Are not two sparrows sold for a farthing? and one of them shall not
fall on the ground without your Father.

(30)	But the very hairs of your head are all numbered.

	And, as his wife said to Bro. Branham, “You’ve lost your hair.” 

	He said, “I tell you, I haven’t lost any of my hair.

	She said, “Well, pray tell me, where they are.”

	He said, “They’re right back where they were in the beginning.” 

	There’s nothing lost; it’s just misplaced. I’ve got a few
misplaced hairs myself. All right.

(28)	Fear not them which kill the body… (And so on.)

(30)	The very hairs of your head are numbered.

(31)	Fear not therefore, you are of more value than many sparrows.

	Now, what I’m saying here is the validity of faith: you will go
through hard times. You will be tested; you will be a sheep amongst
wolves; you won’t know which way to go, but there’s one way to go:
smart as a serpent, harmless as a dove—which means you’re putting
the priorities in the proper place. See?

33.	Let’s go to Hebrews 1. Before I get away, I want to talk about
that sometime, the Lord willing. Hebrews 11:32-40:

(32)	And what shall I more say? for the time would fail me to tell of
Gedeon, Barak, Samson, Jephthae; of David, Samuel, prophets: 

(33)	Who through faith subdued kingdoms, wrought righteousness, obtained
promises, stopped the mouths of lions, 

(34)	Quenched the violence of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, out
of weakness were made strong, waxed valiant in fight, turned to flight
the armies of the aliens.

(35)	Women received their dead raised to life again: and others were
tortured, (See? Out there amongst a bunch of devils, out there treated
as scum, as rotten; out there you and me trusting God, out there putting
the Kingdom first, every desire, everything we want, centered in Him.
Listen:) not accepting deliverance; that they might obtain a better
resurrection: (Laying up treasure in heaven. See? Making sure their
lives were not wasted.)

(36)	Others had trial of cruel mocking, scourging, imprisonment and
bonds: 

(37)	Stoned, sawn asunder, tempted, slain with the sword: they wandered
about in sheepskins and goatskins; destitute, afflicted; 

(38)	Of whom the world was not worthy: wandered in deserts, in
mountains, in dens and caves. 

	That could happen to you and me in the last days, when the churches
begin to get closed, when the squeeze begins to come down. Bro. Branham
said it would. I’ve got nothing to do but believe it and get ready for
it, to set my priorities in line. The way Jesus set them in line at the
beginning is the way they’ve got to be at the end. “Take no thought
for tomorrow.” See?

	People are looking down the road. “Bro. Branham’s going to come
back and do this…” 

	Sure, he’s going to come back and do something. I don’t know what
he’s going to do, though, and I’m not depending on it. I’m
depending on now. I’m depending on Him Who came here to head the
Church and to raise the dead. He’s bigger than Bro. Branham! He’s
God! He’s the Lord of Glory! He’s Jesus Christ the Logos! The Holy
Ghost come down! And He’s going to raise William Branham. There’s no
stronger champion of William Branham than I. I’ve written more about
him, I think, than any man living. Books have gone around the world,
translations, the whole thing. I stand with that man as a man of God!
But I stand with the God of the man above standing with the man. Get
that straight. See? 

	“Bro. Vayle, don’t talk straight.”

	Then, why do you talk straight? Huh? Oh, I love these birds. They
can’t stand you talking straight, but, boy, they want to talk
straight. Let’s talk straight. Certainly. All right.

	Now, listen.

(39)	These all, having obtained a good report through faith, received
not the promise: (Why? Because they were laying it up.) 

(40)	God having provided some better thing for (you know) us and them.

34.	All right. Hebrews 10:32-39:

(32)	But call to remembrance the former days, in which, after you were
illuminated…

	When you were born again in the kingdom of God, and the Holy Ghost came
in and made Jesus Christ revealed Word, real to you. And that
illumination made you do things that other people couldn’t do, and
wouldn’t do; and you were excoriated, because you did do them. And, as
Paul said, “I’m judged a heretic by the way I worship God, and the
only thing they hate about me is the fact that I do worship God this
way.” And Paul said, “They’re going to harm you and get mad at
you, because you don’t run to the same excess of rioting the way they
do, and they’ll criticize you.”

	“Well, how come your kids can’t wear shorts?”

	“What’s wrong that they dance?”

	“What’s wrong if they have little bikinis on and go swimming?”

	“What’s wrong?”

	Nothing’s wrong with you bunch of jerks. The devil and hell God
reserved to that bunch.

35.	What did God say about it? I’ll tell you something: you haven’t
taught your kids priorities! Kids like today get shamed in school. Now
we have the first amendment down in the States. I don’t remember
anything you’ve got here in Canada, and I forgot it. Thank God I did.
I want to tell you something flat: liberty is your child’s right to
express himself the way he wants—or take it to court. We’ve got
rights. A kid ought to be taught he’s got rights, and his right to
live for God a certain way had better be respected, and teach him right
before the class and say, “Look, I’ve got my rights. I’m not
infringing on yours!”

	See? In other words, I’m showing you something here: those kids at
home need to learn priorities. It starts from the cradle right to the
grave. See? Not that we want to go to courts of law and all, but there
are times when it is possible to go before various boards and get some
type of action, the same as Paul did.

	I don’t like going to courts; but remember; in the States, they have
won battles down there. We’ll talk about that in another message. All
right. 

36.	Listen, I was over here in Hebrews 10. Now:

(32)	(When you were illuminated) you endured a great fight of
afflictions;

(33)	Partly, whilst you were made a gazingstock both by reproaches and
afflictions; and partly, while you became companions of them that were
so used. 

(34)	You had compassion of me in my bonds, and took joyfully the
spoiling of your goods, knowing in yourselves you have in heaven a
better and an enduring substance. 

(35)	Cast not away therefore your confidence.

	He’s explaining what Matthew 6 is all about: if God so clothed the
lilies, if God fed the sparrows, if not one falls but He knows it,
He’s watching you! Don’t be afraid to pay a price, if a price is
necessary. Lay up those treasures. I’m going to tell you something,
brother/sister: I don’t know about you, but I was pretty
light-fingered. It’s a good thing that when people got gold in their
teeth, they were stuck in good by a good dentist. I found this: either
I’m given a thing, or I steal a thing, or I pay for a thing. And the
person that gave me the gift either paid for the gift, or he stole the
gift. So, there’s only one or two ways you can really get anything,
and that’s either buy it or steal it. Now you better not steal it. So,
if you’re going to lay up treasure, I’m telling you, it’s going to
cost you something. Paul said it’s going to cost you something.

37.	Now he said: (Listen.)

(36)	You’ve got need of patience.

	The laying up of treasure in heaven is wearisome, many times, because
it looks like it’s not going to pay off. But, he said, “Don’t cast
away your confidence.Don’t cast away the validity of faith.” Faith
works! God is not unfaithful, and His faithfulness is all the more
clearly seen by our faithlessness. And one day, brother/sister, I’m
sorry to say, one day up there we’re going to see what we’ve missed,
because we didn’t believe what He said about priorities: to put that
Kingdom first.

	He said:

(36)	You have need of patience…

(37)	For yet a little while, and he that shall come will come, and will
not tarry. 

	Now we thought that the Resurrection would have taken place and the
Rapture in 1977. When l977 got here I said, “It can’t happen.”

	You say, “Why? You some smart cookie?”

	No, I just knew what the prophet said. The prophet said, “I can’t
call this Sodom and Gomorrah,” he said, “on the grounds of marriage
and divorce. All the signs must be there.” 

	Where’s the sign of the squeeze? Where is the sign of the pressure?
If we go this way in 1978, there’ll still be no Rapture. Of course the
bright boys will be saying, “Well, you know, it’s really only
1977.”

	Now, look; you may be a little bit warped, brother/sister, but don’t
try to inoculate me. It doesn’t say, “Be nutty as a fruitcake.” It
says, “Be wise as a serpent and harmless as a dove.” I don’t
qualify in the dove bit. I don’t know if I qualify in the other bit
either.

38.	Listen, let’s go further. We’re going to go to Acts 14: 20-22:

(20)	Howbeit, as the disciples stood round about him, he rose up, and
came into the city: and the next day he departed with Barnabas to Derbe.


(21)	And when they had preached the gospel to that city, and had taught
many, they returned again to Lystra, and to Iconium, and Antioch, 

(22)	Confirming the souls of the disciples, exhorting them to continue
in the faith, and that we must through much tribulation enter into the
kingdom of God. (Which will come upon this earth.) 

	“Much tribulation.” That word, ‘tribulosis’, I believe is from
the Latin word: They had those little three-pronged things that they
threw down on the battlefield that the horses would step on, and lame
you. Now it’s not too bad to get lame, anybody can get lame—just
keep limping, honey.

39.	Acts 21:10-13:

(10)	And as we tarried there many days, there came down from Judaea a
certain prophet, named Agabus. 

(11)	And when he was come unto us, he took Paul's girdle, and bound his
own hands and feet, and said, Thus saith the Holy Ghost, So shall the
man that owns this girdle, be delivered into the hands of the Gentiles. 

(12)	And when we heard these things, both we, and they of that place,
besought him not to go up to Jerusalem. 

(13)	And Paul said, What mean ye to weep and to break mine heart? for I
am ready not to be bound only, but also to die at Jerusalem for the name
of the Lord.

	And this is the man that believed what Jesus said, “Fear not,
you’re worth more than many sparrows. The hairs of your head are all
numbered.” See? There he said, “Henceforth, there’s laid up for me
a crown of righteousness, and not for me, only, but also for them who
love Him.” 

	Brother/Sister, listen, if you don’t lay up a crown, there won’t be
one crown waiting for you. If you and I don’t lay up treasures, there
won’t be any treasures laid up. If we don’t put that Kingdom first,
we’re going to be the losers. It’s time to get our eyes above being
thirty percent Christians.

40.	Romans 8. And I said I’m using lots of verses to get the picture,
because a while ago, I was quoting you. Now he said here that the
sparrows don’t toil; the flowers don’t spin.

	“Oh, ye of little faith, just dance in the sunshine, waltz in the
breeze, pretend you’re a butterfly. Go to bed and wake up when you
feel like it, snore during the day, and the grapes of Eshcol will come
down and Illysian fields open before you, and the lovely man will
descend, and you’ll go, ‘Chomp, chomp. Ain’t it nice to be a
Christian? Hallelujah.’” That’s faith?

	That’s hogwash. The sparrows died, the grass gets cast in the oven,
we get our heads cut off, we get smitten here, this cheek is smitten,
this one must be turned, the back must be sliced with many slashes of
the whip, the feet must walk upon the gravel, the tears coursing down
our faces; but you’re worth many sparrows. Don’t worry! It’s worth
it all. Put the Kingdom first. 

	I’m just trying to show you what it’s all about. You see, I’ve
been all through that Pentecostal nonsense and this prophesying stuff.
You keep it. Don’t come around old Lee Vayle. No, no, no, no. Forget
it. We’re not here in the nonsense age, brother/sister; this is the
no-nonsense age. This is the age to strive. This is that last hour, the
last hour of the laboring, where the reaper catches up with the sower,
because the new sowing has gone forth, the early and the latter rain
falling at the same time, and the harvest, when the wheat comes to
maturity and the tares are burned up. It’s here, brother/sister.
There’s only a minute to go—only a little time left to be
consecrated, dedicated to God.

41.	Romans 8:35-39:

(35)	What truth shall separate us from the love of God? tribulation,
persecution, or famine, (He said, “No.”) 

(36)	For thy sake we are killed all the day long; we are accounted as
sheep for the slaughter. 

(37)	But in all these things we are more than conquerors.

	Why? Because God has got something better. Imbued with this reality,
Polycarp could die at the stake. Imbued with this reality, the martyrs
couldn’t wait to be martyred. Imbued with this reality, we can’t
wait to get out of Laodicea and its rottenness. See? Imbued with this
reality, he said, “I have got to persuade you.”

	God, help us to get a persuasion. That’s our trouble: we need a
persuasion. It pays to serve God. It’s going to pay off. The dividends
are there. “I’ve got it and no man can take it from me!”

	Oh, I know people have got an idea, they say, “Bro. Vayle, my
religion is this: you know, if I work for the Lord, and I was serious,
and I laid up some, and I got tired, and, you know, I got a little bit
worried, and it’s all gone now.”

	You’re crazy. It’s not gone. He has not forgotten your labor of
love. It’s still yours! Put your claim on it. You think those
years—I look back there struggling and sacrificing. You think those
years are wasted? Hogwash! Those years aren’t wasted. Everything I
laid up is waiting for me. Everything you laid up is waiting for you.
And everything you and I didn’t lay up ain’t going to be there. Yes,
sir.

42.	(38)	For I’ve got a persuasion, death, life, angels,
principalities…

	Nothing, no how: things here, things there, things back there, that
created, that which might be created… Who cares? Nothing, nothing,
nothing is going to separate me. I’m going to tell you: that fellow
sure must have a lot of treasures laid, because his heart was sure
single—heaven-bound, bless God. Not as though he was so
heavenly-minded that he was no earthly good. That man was
heavenly-minded and earthly good. He knew what he was doing.

	Oh, look. I’m not going to read Rom 1:1-5 and Rom 8:14-18. Read It
for yourself. What I’m trying to say here: this Kingdom priority costs
us something, (It sure does!) but it’s worth it. And what you pay for,
you get. Listen, what Jesus paid for, we get, and what we pay for, we
get. And the beautiful thing is: if we just stick around a little bit,
He’ll give us the grace to see it really amounts to nothing—what we
pay for.

43	Now from these Scriptures that we’ve gone into, I would gather that
a very important part of the full understanding of the first priority of
a Christian is to get the proper understanding of the true relationship
of all materiality to spirituality, of time to eternity, (See.) and how
to abide within the spiritual. Listen: from this which I have spoken to
you, it is plainly evident that what we are discussing is to place us in
the Resurrection and the kingdom of God on earth.

44.	Now we’re going to go to Hebrews 11 again. Now a few years ago I
preached on “The Faith of Abraham, Part 2.” We’re going to do the
same thing right now, but we’re going to epitomize it. Heb 11:8-11:

(8)	By faith Abraham, when he was called to go into a place (He was
called out, you see.) to go out to a place which he should after receive
for an inheritance, obeyed; and he went out, not knowing whither he
went. 

	You and I don’t know hardly the first thing about the Millennium.
It’s one of the most obscure doctrines in the whole Bible. Bro.
Branham could come back and tell you about what Paul couldn’t tell you
about over there, but he could not come back and tell us very much about
the Millennium. He skipped the Millennium and went to “The Future Home
of the Earthly Bride”—New Jerusalem. Little is known about the
Millennium. Therefore, it’s going to be the tremendous secret of the
ages. Oh, to miss it will be catastrophic! To be in it will be out of
this world!

45.	Now, listen. He didn’t know but he went out.

(9)	By faith he sojourned (That is, he journied, he stayed there.) in
the land of promise, as in a strange country.

	Yeah. We’re children of the kingdom of God, and, boy, is it strange!
Sure is strange. I’m a citizen of heaven, and I’ve got aches and
pains? You lost your arthritis, thank God—getting nicely cured, one of
these days; You know, my philosophy is: diseases come and diseases go,
and one day I’ll go with the last one. Well, a wonderful, strange,
strange Kingdom I’m in: belong there, live down here; breathe up
there, walk around here… Well, what a cunundrum; what a paradox.
Strange. I’m strange to this world, and it’s strange to me. We
don’t like each other. What a mess. All right.

(9)	…Dwelling in tabernacles (Little old tents) with Isaac and Jacob,
the heirs with him of the same promise: 

(10)	For he looked for a city which hath foundations, whose builder and
maker is God. 

	Abraham did not look to this earth for this city; he looked beyond it.
His whole life was a preparation for the future. The Scripture says,
over there in Acts 8, that God did not give them one place for an
inheritance where their foot was—never gave them a bit of it. No, sir.
You and I don’t own one part of the real estate here at this time.
We’re just supposed to use it and lay up treasure. How nice. 

	In other words I’m trying to show you that our entire preparation,
the entire promise of the Word of God is a future, and right down here
there’s a training school where we get the privilege of entering in to
the glory of God in a most magnificent way. Yes, sir. That’s what God
wants of us.

46.	Now it is materiality, this Kingdom, in subjection to spirituality.
It is the carnal in subjection to the spiritual. It is the things seen
in subjection to things unseen. In other words a bird in the hand is not
worth two in the bush. Forget the bird in the hand, and get your eye on
the bird in the bush. Don’t even take worry about the bird in the
hand, about your losses, about this, about the other, and what it’s
going to cost you. Don’t pay any attention to it. There’s something
a whole lot better.

	It is things seen in subjection to things unseen; it is the present in
subjection to the future. In other words there is nothing that I do that
is not with the mind of what’s ahead. And I mean ‘ahead’: I mean
when you and I are dead and raised in the Resurrection. 

	It is mankind in subjection to the Godkind. It is abasement, you know,
negation, humility, in subjection to future reigning. That’s what
it’s all about. That’s why you can afford, as David said, “God,
You made men ride over my head.” That’s why you kick the preacher
around, and he hasn’t got a comeback. That’s why you kick each other
around, and nobody can really say anything. See? That’s why somebody
can start a fight, and the other fellow can’t defend himself. What
I’m trying to show you here, brother/sister, is that it’s the last
age and the last moment of time whereby we can bring our minds and our
lives in subjection to that which is shortly going to appear. And, from
then on, it’s too late. Either we do it now, or we can’t do it then.
Thank God for the grace of thirty percent, but how humiliating to know
we could have been a hundred percent. See? Not that anyone is going to
go around crying, weeping, and saying, “Oh, I’m sorry I made it.”
Oh, no.

47.	Now a moment ago I said it was all materiality that must be in
subjection; and that’s correct. We go back again to Mt 6:25:

(25)	Therefore I say unto you, Take no thought for your life, what
you’re going to eat, what you’re going to wear, nor yet for your
body, what you put on? Is the life not more than meat, the body, more
than raiment? (That word ‘life’, I think, is not ‘zoe’ but
‘psuche’, which is the soul life, that outer life here.)

	Now Mt 5:29-30 with it:

(29)	And if thy right eye offend thee, pluck it out, (In other words it
is causing you to offend) cast it from you: it is profitable for thee
that one of thy members perish, thy whole body be cast into hell.

(30)	If thy right hand offend thee, (or cause you trouble, cause you to
bend) cut it off, and cast it from you: it is profitable for you that
one of your members perish, and the whole body should be cast into hell.

 	Now, what I’m drawing from that is this: there are certain
sacrifices that we must make that would literally appear to cripple our
endeavors and our success, our popularity, our future, our
everything—according to the world. Do it anyway; do it anyway. Get rid
of it. See? Do it now. No matter what it costs, do it now, because it
will be too late later on.

	In other words he’s saying here that, if you don’t take notice, and
you don’t take and pay the price that is demanded (of an arm cut off),
he will cut the whole body off. There will come a day when God could cut
you off. And there’s going to come a day when God will cut everyone of
us off, if Jesus tarries. And it’s going to be too late to do
something in the Kingdom then. It’s going to be too late to lay up
treasure.

48.	Now I realize I’m talking in a way about pie in the sky, but I’m
not, because you remember my introductory remarks that, when you and I
start laying up treasure in heaven, it stabilizes our hearts, and we
begin to live and flow in the divine life, like Paul did. And that’s
what we’re all longing for; and it’s a faith precept that does it. 

	“God, if You took care of the sparrows, You’re going to take care
of me. You clothed the grass; You’re going to take care of me. God, I
can trust You, and I can die trusting You. It’s worth it.”

	Yes, sir. We’re talking about that.

49.	Please do not become unbalanced. I’m going over this again.
Don’t become unbalanced, like, “Oh, I’m just trusting God.”
I’ve seen too many preachers do it. 

	I’ve seen where preachers say: “I’m trusting God, hallelujah! I
don’t have any money in the bank, but I want to tell you: I’ll write
a check in faith.” 

	Boom! They got put in jail. It serves them right. 

	You’ve got to be nuts. Where is that rendering to Caesar what’s
Caesar’s? Where does the law tell you: you can write a check, if you
haven’t got any money?

	Now I know a guy said he did it, and he’s got the money. You say,
“That’s God.” 

	Could have been the devil, too, waiting to get him to lay a really big
egg. And here’s a missionary lands in jail. Huh? Sort of like a fellow
heard a voice, and the voice said, “Now,” he said, “his brothers
require it: you kill your two boys.” 

	He killed his two boys. The man was so-called full of the Holy Ghost.
He spoke in tongues and everything else, but he killed his two boys.
They put him in jail for awhile—a mental institution. He got out. You
better watch those voices and all those funny things.

50.	“Wise as serpents”—slicker than the slickers out there—but
just like doves. We’ve got it in a different way. We get our
everlasting treasures, our mansions, our palaces, our ‘goody-goody
gumdrops’ laid up in heaven by being little old doves—slick, smart
with the wisdom of the Holy Ghost, comparing spiritual, getting the
carnal out of the way. Oh, brother/sister, “eye hasn’t seen nor ear
heard”, because we haven’t given God a chance. Heaven’s city
slickers! Hallelujah! Too smart for the world. We’re so above them,
they aren’t worried of us. We don’t pull their shenanigans, pull
their deeds. We just say, “Lord, what would You have us do?”

	“Just give it to them.”

	Give it to them?

	“Be my guest.”

	I learned one thing. I often talk about lawsuits. Forget it. Give it to
them. See? I’m one of those thin… I used to be so thin… Thin guys
like me are always nervous and restless, and we’re always for the
underdog. If the enemy’s the underdog, we suddenly love our enemies,
because we’re for the underdog. We can’t help ourselves. I would be
a communist or something, except for Jesus, because I can’t stand
injustice. I might do a lot of wrong things myself. Forget it. Just
believe in His justice; just walk in His justice. Be smart, wise, but do
it like a dove. All right.

51.	We’re going to go to 1 Corinthians 6. We’re going to look at
ourselves, see, because the Bible did it. I’m not doing it; the Bible
did it. [1 Cor 19-20]

(19)	What? Don’t you know your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost
which is in you, which you have of God, and you are not your own? 

(20)	You’ve been bought with a price: therefore (priority!) glorify
God in your body, and in your spirit, because you are God's.

	Lord, what will I do with Your Body? How many of us are saying that?
There’s more, “What would You do with my body. I’ve got an ache
and a pain. I’ve got a tummy ache; got a bad gizzard; got a problem
with me old woman—the old man.”

	Always complaining, huh? It’s not my body. Huh? Sex-oriented; have it
even before you’re born. Little kids can’t kick the dashboard out of
the cradle, but they’re having sex. What about you Christians? I’m
not trying to be rough on you now, but I get a little fed up on some of
this stuff. I never was a poolroom cowboy from the day I was born. I
don’t see things with these eyes the world sees where ‘everything
goes’; because it doesn’t. Your body is the temple of the Holy
Ghost, and you don’t own it. You’ve been bought with a price.

52.	You know something about women? I don’t want to hurt you women,
but you know it’s the truth. Anything a man’s got is yours. If I
bought… My wife won’t like this too much, but who cares? I’m not
here to please her. I’m not here to please me or please you, because
it’s going to cut right across the board. In my home, most of the
time, I buy two of everything, and say, “Keep your hands off of
it—that’s mine.” But she doesn’t know where hers is, so she
comes and gets mine. Now nobody knows where anything is. And you women
do the same thing with your husbands, with your kids. Most husbands are
like me. I know, because I know a lot of men. At least I kind of think
we’ve got the same little old spirit on us. So, we say, “All right,
Mama dear, and the kids dear, here is yours, and this is mine; keep your
cotton-pickin’ claws off.” But pretty soon mama and the kids don’t
know where it is, so they get papa’s, and then, there’s war. 

	I’m going to tell you something: the Holy Ghost made you forfeit the
rights to your body. It’s His. Keep your claws off of it. Sorry about
that. Now look: I told you there are only a few preachers who can preach
this kind of sermon and live it, but I ain’t no hypocrite in preaching
it. But I am here, standing here with a red face, except I’m a little
bit too brunette to blush. [missing portion of tape.]

53.	…fire of devotion, and lay up treasures and stand there and say,
“Lee Vayle, I’ve got you beat hands down. Look at my rewards, but I
thank God you came along and inspired me by the Word of God.” Now, I
tell you, I will gladly go to hell just for that privilege. I will, if
I’m Bride, and you want it so bad I’ll step aside. I ain’t going
to shove you. I am going to tell you, brother/sister, the Word of God is
true, and we don’t own ourselves. So, what has God said? All right. [1
Cor 19:20]:

You’re bought with a price: therefore, glorify God in your body,…

	Seek the Kingdom of God. See, in your spirit, which are God’s. Not
just your body, but your spirit’s God’s: Ephesians 5. You all know
that--what we are going to talk about there. [Eph 5:28-29]:

So [ought] men ought to love their wives as their own bodies. He that
loveth his wife loves himself.

For no man [ever] yet hates his own flesh; but nourishes it and
cherishes it, even as the Lord the church:

	Now we see right there, again, the constant desire to put yourself in
service to, and in a helpful position to, not only your own family, but
anybody to love and to cherish. See? Just as the husband does to the
wife for his own particular selfish purposes, which usually are sexual,
so we ought to also, for each other, for the glory of God, put ourselves
in a place of service that we might be of benefit and aide to somebody. 

54.	In 1 Th 4:11-12:

And that you study to be quiet, and to do your own business, and to work
with your own hands, as we commanded you;

That you may walk honestly toward them that are outside, and that you
may have lack of nothing.

	Here again we see that we are commanded to do certain things; not just
let things slip by, not to become unbalanced, not to become “so
heavenly minded; no earthly good”. There are certain things we are
obligated to do; but, in our obligation, God always comes first.

	You say, “How can I be that way, Bro. Vayle?” 

	That’s your job. You do it as unto the Lord. 

	Bro. Miller here, I guess hires some different men. As far as I know
he’s got one of the best reputations as anybody I know of in the
world. Of course, my world is not too big--not too many places in Europe
or the rest of the world. But I’ve been a few places. I understand he
pays his men in such a way that he lacks to see that his men got help.
Do the men reciprocate in such a way to Bro. Miller? Why does he do what
he is doing? Because he is doing it unto to the Lord. No businessman
would do… That’s not the brains of this world. That is
stupidity--unless he is employing psychology to make himself look good,
and then they’d be nice to him; but it is not. It’s the way God
wants it. 

	Now, let the man give the honest day’s work to Bro. Miller. 

	So, “Bro. Miller is a good boy…I sort of feel like playing hooky
today to unplug the sink or something. He won’t mind.” 

	Hire a plumber, or wait until night!  Follow me? You don’t go
unbalanced. Everything must have its application in life concerning what
has God said about it. See? 

55.	2 Thessalonians 3:10:

(10)	For even when we were with you this we commanded you, that if any
would not work, neither should he eat.

	I’m not really touching these. That’s a part we will get to a
little later on. I’m just showing you here: you don’t become
unbalanced. 

	“God so clothed the field. God took care of the sparrows. He’ll
take care of me. I’ll just sit at home and meditate.” 

	You better not sit at home and meditate except for just a little while.
Get out there and work. Get out and work. See? I’ll tell you something
flat, brother/sister: if God said, “A man that doesn’t take care of
his family is worst than a heathen,” I’m going to tell you, then,
God is worse than a heathen, if he doesn’t give us jobs, except under
certain conditions as there was a famine in Israel or certain
conditions; and then, God raised up men to help them over those certain
conditions; then, they went right back to work. Yes, sir. 

	There is no fanaticism involved here. None whatever. It is solid
citizens of the Kingdom. A credit to Caesar, a credit to God, a credit
to each other, but always with the mind on the Word: whatever they are
doing they are doing unto the Lord. Oh, brother/sister what a change
there’d be in your life and mine. 

	You say, “Oh my, I want to love somebody. That’s why…” 

	Just do it unto the Lord. 

	“I want to forgive somebody.”

	Do it unto the Lord. 

	Bro. Branham said, “You can’t forgive anybody.” That’s true.
Even Paul couldn’t do it; in the person of Christ forgave he them. All
right. 

56.	1 Cor 7:29-31:

(29)	But this I say, brethren, the time is short: remains, that both
they that have wives be as though they had none.  

[And] they that weep, as though they wept not; and they that rejoice, as
though they rejoiced not; and they that buy, as though they possessed
not;

And they that use this world, as not abusing it: for the fashion of this
world passes away.

	Now, what’s he saying here? Look. He is telling you flat: This life
will be over. There are many and varied important things that are
incumbent upon us. But there is a greater importance, and that is
everything falls second to the kingdom of God and what we’re doing
about it now. Our daily lives, my brother/sister, our eating, our
drinking, our rubbing of our elbows and our shoulders with the world and
with each other and in the right spirit will lay up treasures. God is
not unworthy to forget a labor of love. So, we see our great first
priority. Let’s look at it a little more thoroughly.

57.	First, we look to Rom 14:14 Listen, [Rom 14:14]:

(14)	I know, and [I]am persuaded by the Lord Jesus, that there (Now,
listen; there) is nothing unclean of itself: but to him that esteemeth
any thing to be unclean, [to him it is unclean.]

	 It’s unclean. What I am trying to show you here: There is nothing in
this life that we are in touch with or that is amongst us as principles
and actions, but is clean. It’s pure on the ground that you take it
right with the Word. See? Do you get what I am trying to show you? The
first priority in seeking the kingdom of God is that everything must be
viewed to the future, every thought concerning what will be laid up
there and come down here with us, our lives being lived. There is
nothing unclean of itself. It’s what we do with it. We can make the
cleanest job filthy or the filthiest job, as it were, clean. 

	I wouldn’t believe for one minute that this man would lie to me: a
very, very godly person to my knowledge. He was a quality control
manager in a mill in South Carolina. One day he sent Bro. Branham a
check for fifteen hundred dollars. Bro. Branham phoned back. He said,
“What’s this money for?” 

	Well, he said, “Bro. Branham, I didn’t know I was suppose to tithe,
so I am looking to see what I owe you. I am paying fifteen…” 

	Bro. Branham said, “In ignorance it is forgiven. The money goes back.
It’s yours. Forget it.” Did you know that? Now you wouldn’t think
that. Would you? But it is right. The same man phoned Bro. Branham said,
“Bro. Branham, pray for me.” 

	He said, “What for son?”

	He said, “I just quit my job.”

	He said, “What for?”

	He said, “I’ll tell you why. I just can’t do it anymore.” He
said, “I am the manager that they speak to in the mill when you draw
up specifications, and I sell those men what they want in a contract
according to what they want is specified, and I guarantee it. As soon as
the people leave the boss says, ‘Look, we are going to change this and
this and this. They’ll never know it, and we’ll make more
money.’” 

	He said, “I can’t do it. I quit.”

	Bro. Branham said, “Go back. Get your job. They’ll answer to
God.” 

58.	Now I am trying to show you something here. Don’t get confused
now. I am trying to show you something, brother. If your faith and what
you do is unto Almighty God, you can be out there in the cesspool with
that world, because God has already told you He is not going to take you
out of this world. He said, “With a man that calls himself a saint,
no, don’t you dare sit with him, because he is living in sin.” But
He said, “With that sinner you can rub shoulders all you want. Don’t
do what he is doing.” He said, “Or else I’d have to take you out
of the world.”  There is nothing unclean of itself. It is what you
make of it. 

	Why didn’t Bro. Branham believe in conscientious objection? Because
he said, “If they make you go to war and kill, that’s politics. It
is on them. It’s not you.” The same man said, “If I teach you, and
you believe me, and I teach you wrong, I will answer. Not you.” 

	I am trying to show you here, brother/sister, this life of the Kingdom
is not a million miles down the road. It is not something so aesthetic
and, then, so thin and so ethereal that you just hope maybe a butterfly
on gossamer wings will drop something in your life where a little bit
here and a little bit there… Hogwash! It is a day by day living from
morning until night with a man that looks around with clean hands and
clean eyes, and things are clean to him, and he says, “God I am right
here. I am doing the best I can as a servant to the fellow that has
hired me; being the best husband I can; being the best one. I am doing
the most with the money that is laid out here. I am watching my
attitudes. I am thinking, Lord, of everything. There has got to be a
precedent. And, if there’s ever going to be a decision, you’re going
to get it on your side of the fence.” 

	And I want to tell you, God will see you through. Just like that poor
fellow did, going crazy, because the boss made him do what he thought he
was doing the wrong thing. It was the boss that did the wrong thing.
Lots of things we don’t understand, brother/sister, but there is this
kind of thing we do understand. You keep your conscience in line with
the Word of God. Sure. 

59.	Look here: 1 Cor 10:23:

(Though) all things are lawful for me, [but] all things are not
expedient: all things are lawful [for me,] but all things edify not.

	You mean to tell me God made one dirty thing in this world? Not one
dirty thing. He said, “Everything was good.” It is man that messes
things up. But, if you say, “Lord, look, in this earthen vessel there
is a treasure, and both the treasure and the vessel are yours. I am
yours. Conduct me, and tell me as you would lead me,” and, if you mean
it, brother/sister, then it is whether you rise or whether you sit,
whether you eat or whether you drink, whether you sleep or whether you
are awake, you are the Lord’s. Do you know what you are doing? You are
laying up treasure, because you see your treasure is nothing but a life
spent. And he that seeketh to save his life from self shall lose it. And
he that says, “God, I am willing to give it, lose it,” God says,
“You’ve got it. It’s yours forever.”

60.	Romans 14:22:

Hast thou faith? Have it to thyself before God. Happy is he that
condemneth not himself in that thing which he alloweth.

	Again we’re trying to show you that in this life, brother/sister, it
is not the things here that bug us. We think it is. That’s wrong! It
is what’s in here that makes the difference, whether you use it right
or use it wrong. Jesus one day said, “A rich man can hardly go into
the kingdom.” Why, he said you could get a…I think the eye of the
needle is--one translation here says, “It is easier to thread a rope
through the eye of the needle than it is for a man to get into the
kingdom.” Another fellow says, “The eye of the needle is a little
tiny gate where the camels have to crawl through,” and they said,
“Well, who is going to be saved?” He said, “Man can’t do it.
With God it is possible.” [Mt 19:23-26] 

	In other words money could be a hindrance; but it doesn’t need to be.
Poverty could be a hindrance; but it doesn’t need to be. There’s
nothing, brother/sister, we could account blame to and exonerate
ourselves, because there is nothing outside of us that matters. It’s
what’s inside of us, reacting to what’s outside of us. 

61.	They came to the apostle Paul, and they said, “Paul, you restrict
us. You bug us. You cut us down. We can’t live the expanded life.” 

	You know, this modern life saying is: ‘express yourself’. Yes,
well, somebody else hasn’t got a chance, because you bung him up. 

	You rat fink. I know your rotten philosophy, if you are here this
morning. If you are not, good for you. I am glad the other guys are
listening. See?

	And they said, “Paul, you are messing us up. You’re constricting
us.” 

	He said, “Hogwash, a man is as big as he is inside.” He said,
“The trouble is, you are too small inside.” Get big inside, and
you’ll be a big person. Big men are big inside. They are not great big
six-foot birds like these… You know, the serpent was seven foot, eight
foot, nine foot, ten foot--big inside. The serpent had a place for soul,
but no soul. Little man, place for the soul. It’d better be all soul. 

62.	Listen, go back to Genesis. I know you’re getting tired, but
that’s all right. I am tired, too. That makes all of us. I made my
notes, and so I am going to preach it. I’m just that stubborn. Too bad
for you; too bad for me. I always said, “A stubborn man causes
everybody trouble with bottoms down. Genesis 1:31:

And God saw every thing that He had made, (and the devil can not create)
and, behold, it was very good. 

	There was nothing wrong with anything. Everything was wrong with man
when he fell, and now, through the baptism with the Holy Ghost, we can
make everything work for good, if we put Him first. Yes, sir. 

63.	Now I believe you already know, through Bro. Branham’s message,
why this is the great priority, because perversion is and still is the
original primary sin. See?

	I am leading you step by step to show you. In this kingdom there is a
way to beat the devil. There is… Bro. Branham said in “Marriage and
Divorce”, there is a way to marry and be happy. There is a way to
marry and live with your wives in the very secrets of the plan of
Almighty God and the great plan of Almighty God. And I am trying to show
you this morning that is by putting the priority where it belongs. When
a man will live for a God, and a woman will live for God, there will be
peace on earth, good will toward the wife, and kids, and the husband,
and the relatives, and the in-laws, too. If they will not live with the
priority toward God, they will not live with heaven in a home. There
will be a hell in a home. 

64.	The one difference lies not in what obtains, but what is inside and
what you do with what is inside to make what obtains out there perfect,
as God made it. Marriage is honorable in all. Why is it dishonorable?
Because the priorities are missing. The first priority, Bro. Branham
said, is: “You’ve got to pray yourself that is the woman God wants
for you instead of some little sex queen or some sex symbol. Then the
marriage is of God.” Do you see what we are talking about? The earth
was made perfect and pure. Now let’s take some Scripture. I hope
you’re still with me, because I am sure throwing the Bible at you, and
I don’t mind, because I have got a lot of fun doing it. This is all my
fun in life, and so, please don’t be grudge me my fun. Listen. Romans
13:1:

Let every soul be subject to the higher powers. For there is no power
but of God: (and) the powers that be are ordained of God.

	Now, in my understanding here, there is no authority in heaven or in
earth that God is not behind it, period. Just keep that in your mind.
The next is Col 1:16-18:

(16)	For by Him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that
are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or
dominions, or principalities, or powers: (That’s what he said back
there.) all things were created by Him, and for Him:

(And) He is before all things, and by Him all things consist.

And He is the head of the body, the church: [who] is the beginning, the
first-born from the dead; that in all things He might have the
preeminence. 

	In other words He made it; He maintains it. Okay. 

65.	Isaiah 14:12-14: 

(12)	How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! How
art thou cut down to the ground, (that) [which] did weaken the nations!

(13)	For thou hath said in thine heart, (Listen, thou was perfect in all
thy ways until you said in your heart) I (am going to) [will] ascend
into heaven(s), I will exault my throne (above the throne of God) above
the stars of God: I will sit also upon the mount of the congregation, in
the sides of the north:

(14)	I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will be like the
Most High.

	And that is exactly where you and I are today. As sons of God, we
don’t realize that God has made everything. Everything is good. There
is nothing wrong with this earth. There is nothing wrong with Almighty
God. What it is, people will not put the priorities where they belong.
See? That’s the trouble. Get the priorities right, and that is the
Kingdom. We are only here for a little hour. We are here to prepare for
eternity. We are going into eternity. We are in the final stage of His
eternity. We are going in there as we are--just what you are right now
and I am right now, we’re going in just that way--what we’ve laid
up. 

66.	So, what I am trying to show you is: it has nothing to do with out
here. It has nothing to do with out there. The sparrows, everything in
nature, shows you God is over and above all. What’s wrong is: man
won’t give Him priority. You put God first, and a lot of things have
got to go down last. You put God first, you’ve got to put yourself
aside. You put God first, your body’s got to go to one side, your
pleasures, all your fun, all this, and all that. 

	You kids that want to get married so quickly, you haven’t got time to
grow up. You think you’re smart. You’re stupid. You have botched
your whole life. For a few minutes of sex and indulgence, you men and
women, you throw away everything, and you think you are smart. You’re
crazy! You’re insane! I don’t believe you’re born again. I am
laying it right on the line. What’s a matter with you? Are you so
wrapped up that you’ll pervert everything? Don’t you understand, my
brother/sister, the whole tenor of the Message is perversion,
perversion, perversion, which means you won’t use for God what God put
there to be used in God’s way of doing it. See?

67.	Do you want a heart that’s filled with the joy of the Lord? Do you
want an eye that’s single? I want to ask you a question: Do you?
You’re not going to get it there at the altar screaming and thumping
and pounding and getting something called sanctification. You’re going
to get it through the process of life, like I am talking this morning,
by saying, “Lord, I am putting you first. What do you want me to do
with this, that…?” 

	I want to tell you something about Evangeline Booth--little girl, just
a tiny little girl. She said she never did remember the time she
wasn’t saved, which is fine by me. And one day her mother said,
“Evangeline, would you like me to buy you a new dress?” 

	And she said, “If it is pleasing to the Lord.”

	Now that sounds like some snotty, little, smart-alek kid. “If it is
pleasing to the Lord?” [Bro. Vayle mimicking]

	Oh no, oh no. The little kid had something that a lot of adults ought
to listen to: “If it is pleasing to my Lord.” I can do without a lot
of things, brother/sister; and so can you. And I can have a lot of
things, and so can you. But it is: “What are we doing with it? How is
it affecting?”

	You say, “Bro. Vayle, you make this sound like a full-time job.”

	I’m sorry, honey, but that is exactly right. You can’t get this
like the preachers try to tell you: fifteen minutes of prayer, fifteen
minutes of Bible reading, and fifteen minutes of testifying and
hallelujah, you’ve got it made. Hallelujah, you haven’t got it made,
because you may pray wrong for fifteen minutes. You may testify to the
wrong guys. You may read the wrong scripture. Not that any scripture
isn’t worth reading, but I am trying to show you.

68.	See here, the priority. You went to school for years under a
priority. You were trained by your parents under a priority. And it is
the strangest thing in the world that the church has missed the
priority: the kingdom; lay up treasure. Oh, for the last thirty years or
better the Pentecostal preachers have been coming by and making a bunch
of greedy hogs out of this.

	“Give and it shall be given. Is that right, sister dear, that you
gave twenty-five dollars and the next day you got back twenty-five
hundred?”

	And she said, “Hallelujah brother, I got back twenty-five hundred.”

	And there was a scream, “I am going to get twenty-five hundred.”

	Go ahead. Go ahead and get it.

69.	I’d sooner give twenty-five dollars and get back nothing, but lay
it up in heaven. I am going to tell you something, brother/sister. I
don’t know about you, but I have never been affected by giving money.
I know many a man who said, “I gave him big tithes. I gave him big
money, and I’ll tell you he turned out this, and he turned out that,
and I sure regret it.”

	Listen, I have given people thousands of dollars that have gone back on
this Message, and I say, “Hallelujah, I did it to the Lord!” and I
get so happy, because they got the books out. And I’d give them
thousands more, if I knew they’d get the same books out again, because
I did it to Jesus. I laid everything on the shelf the day I said to Bro.
Branham, “Bro. Branham, nobody can write your book. I believe I know a
bit of your doctrine. I’ll do my best to help you.”

	He said, “Lee, you go ahead and try.” I gave him everything I had:
my life and all. I don’t regret it, because I did it unto God, laying
up treasures.

	“How much treasure have you got, Bro. Vayle?”

	Oh, about two cents worth out of about twenty billion I could have had.
Are you a thirty percenter? Well, thank God for grace; I am about a two
percenter like poor--poor cheap beer. Oh, oh boy. Yeah, I wish I was
eighty percent proof--the good bourbon. Now I am about two percent beer.


70.	Oh, how we could lay up treasures, brother/sister. How we can, if we
so desire. Oh, we must get a proper insight into priorities, because It
says here in verse 18 that “in all things He might have the
preeminence. For it pleased the Father that in Him fullness should
dwell.” [Col 1:18-19] God came down full, and God came down an empty
God. God came down and completely produced God. Brother/sister, if you
and I empty out of ourselves, get a little more of God, and begin
producing a little more, we will give Him preeminence. See? Oh yes,
listen. 

	“In all things that He might have the preeminence.” The life of
Jesus is our example, for he looked to the kingdom and nothing else. He
said, “My kingdom is not of this world. It’s hence.” 

	Now, there was a time when God was in complete control upon this earth,
and under His control, through infinite wisdom, man was under control by
the Word of God. But man left the Word by changing It. And since then,
man has never rightly used materiality or material things. He has not
been master of his life. He has always failed in his comparison and his
decisions. But there is a way out. Wait, I say. Wait upon the Lord. 

71.	Let me tell you something. We kill ourselves with the anxiety of
going to a dentist. Oh, boy. I remember years ago when I was a kid the
dentist. You know what they’d do? They freezed this bone back here.
Why must they freeze that stupid bone back there? I’d sooner they gave
me several shots down here where it doesn’t bug me. But they would do
the bone, and right away I get sick at my stomach, and I just want to,
whew, pass right out, because I think one day a dentist used a rusty
spike with a shot. And ever since then, I just go plumb wild thinking
about going to dentists. And that dentist can give me a shot, and I
don’t even feel it.

	See, I get kind of scared about things. And, you know, that is the way
it is with us as Christians. We are literally scared so much of the
time, because there are temptations and trials involved in literally
giving our lives over to God, letting Him decide.

72.	Now, listen; the crucifixion or the battle, the frust… I don’t
know what you are going to call it. The anxiety of relinquishing your
will to God is the rough part. If you could ever learn to say, “Lord,
look. I don’t care which way it goes,” and mean it, you can get an
answer like that every single time, bing, bing, bing, bing, bing.
You’ll never miss. 

	But, when you and I get to saying, “Well. I wonder if I can just take
it, and I would like this,” and you don’t even realize your body is
not even your own, (And nobody asked you anyway. You’ve got told that
God’s kingdom is a dictatorship of glory, beauty, and wonder that
you’re allowed by grace to come into, so nothing will go wrong, and
that is why he is a dictator.) then we’d get somewhere. Let me tell
you, and this is just too simple, because it is too easy. It is one of
those nice easy ones.

73.	When I didn’t know what to do about leaving Canada, because I was
preaching there at the West coast in Vancouver, and you know, through
British Columbia. Also, I preached some in Alberta, and I was going down
to Washington. And in those days I was out of my element, you know,
really, I was ministering in a way I shouldn’t be: I was discerning,
and it was really good. We could discern them coming and going. I got so
I thought I was a second William Branham. I challenged them. I’d say,
“You couldn’t…” 

	I didn’t know he said, “You couldn’t hide if you tried.” 

	But I said, “Come on up here. I’ll lay hands. You can’t hide if
you tired, because I know better than you do.” 

	And it got so bad until… I am going to tell you how good it was, how
bad it got, how good it was. You get what I mean now? It was so good, it
was so bad at the same time. Ah, it was a hotshot Charlie deal. That’s
why… I was in a woman’s home one day in Leverage, and she said,
“Hee, hee, hee, you know.” 

	So, I said, “You, hea, hea, hea.” 

	I said, “Sit down, and I will lay hands on you.” 

	She said, “Nothing is wrong with me.”

	I said, “I’ll find out.” 

	So, I laid hands on her, and I said, “Your right, nothing wrong
except for one thing.” I said, “every time you buy a new
undergarment you itch.”

	She said, “Ah, oh that’s right. I forget.” So, I was hotshot
Charlie. See? 

74.	All right I had this ministry going, and a nice fellow around Kent,
Washington, a very rich man, he said, “Bro. Vayle, now, why don’t
you just come right down here and take the key to one of my brand new
houses.” 

	Whoo, whoo, whoo, whoo! That’s about a prettiest things I ever heard:
someone say “Come on down here and live,” sign me across the line!
(The guy was worth a mint.) And I could live in one of his nice houses
and just preach. Why you couldn’t beat that for… [end of side 1,
audio tape 2] 

	So, another brother said, “Now, Lee,” he said, “look, you can’t
leave this part of the country. He said, “You know already that
you’re accepted here, and we love you, and we want you to stay.”

	I said, “That’s very lovely, but I don’t know what God wants.”
But I said, “I am going to tell you something, son. I am going to know
tomorrow morning, if I am to stay in Canada or go down in the states.”
And I went to bed, and I said, “Lord God, you know my heart. I don’t
care two cents, because I don’t know better than to know two cents. If
you want me to stay in Canada, Hallelujah! If you want me to go into the
states, praise God, I don’t give a rip.” 

	And I didn’t. And next morning I opened my eyes, and I knew I was
going to the states. 

75.	I went down, and I went to the office, and I said, “I’d like to
get a visa.” 

	And they said, “Now, Rev. Vayle, I think it’s in line that you can
get a visa that you get the proper signatures, because they want you
down there to pastor, but remember this. The thought that you might be
able to go does not mean that you will go. Please do not sell your
furniture. Don’t do one thing until you get that visa.” And the man
said, “That is right, Reverend Vayle, our Lutheran preacher, now, he
tried two years, and he couldn’t go.”

	And I said inside, “Ha! Ha! Chuckle, chuckle, but I ain’t no
Lutheran preacher, and I am going.”

	So, we got selling everything, and the very day that everything got
sold, and everything was loaded the visa came through, and I went down,
and I am still down. That was easy, because I said, “Lord, I don’t
care.” What do you want? Now, I could come or I could go.

76.	I remember years ago, I said, “Lord, I want a car.”

	And God said, “You can have a car.”

	And like a jackass, I didn’t say, “But, what car would you like me
to have, Lord?”

	So, I got a lemon. [Congregation laughs] Now you see what I am trying
to tell us. If we just… The birds of the air, they don’t have any
problems. The flowers don’t have any problems. I’ve got all the
validity of faith in the Word. Yes, Lord, I can trust you.

	What do you want? Not great big fancy things, big ministries; but what
Lord, how should I do this? How should I do that?

	I am going to tell you something. I am amazed at us as people who
really know God the way we do know God when I read books by Christian
Scientists and Unity. And you ought to hear the way those women just
say, “Lord, how should I make a cake?” Oh, yes, I wouldn’t ask God
about making a cake. You wouldn’t. That’s why you are a flop. God is
in making cakes. He likes women to cook pretty food. He said he looked
at the tree and it was good to look at; it was pleasant to the eye. It
was good eating.

	“Well, I’ll just throw my husband some old slop on the table.”

	Oh, boy. Well, come on.

77.	I am not just being foolish here and silly. You women want
ministries. You men want to serve God. Bro. Branham said, “It is not
the big things, honey. It is the little things.” Oh, the old Naaman
wouldn’t dip in the river seven times.

	And the fellow said, “Look, father, look, look, look we know you’re
a big shot. Oh you’re a big shot. Now, if the prophet would have said,
‘Jump over the, you know, at least jump two-thirds through the Sahara
Desert, you’d have got a pogo stick and tried it, because you are a
big shot. Why don’t you please do the little thing?”

	“Oh, well. All right. [sarcastically said]

	Boy, it’s the next thing to the resurrection for doing some little
thing: simple, simple, simple.

78.	Let me tell you something. The life that God breathed into Adam was
His Own life, and it hasn’t changed. It is just in a perverted vessel.
Oh, I want to cheer you this morning, brother/sister, to know… Look,
it is not as hard as you have been thinking to lay up treasure. It’s
not really difficult. It is just knowing: look, he is taking care of the
birds. Hallelujah! He is taking care of the trees and the flowers.
Hallelujah! That gives me my faith validity, he is going to take care of
me. It is going to work. It does work. 

	Now I may go through the valley. I may lose the children. I may lose
the home. But Hallelujah, look what I am laying up in heaven. It is
valid. It is real. I am on my way. Priorities, priorities: that is what
we are talking about. Oh, yes. Listen. 

79.	However, in the meantime we are commissioned by the priority of all
priorities this life we are living here. We are commanded to seek first
the kingdom of God, to remember that is the great thing. Now, as we
pointed out, the seeking of this kingdom literally pertains to pilgrims
abiding temporarily. 

	There is a fellow called a fool. He laid up a lot of stuff. He said,
“Man,” he said, “You’ve got enough for a lot of years.” He
said, “You have a good time.” 

	God said, “Your good time has ended.”

	You haven’t got one thing to take with you. Yes, naked we came in the
world. It is essential we aren’t going to take anything out, material,
but you’re going to take a life out with you.

80.	Is your life and mine like a Christmas tree, all lit up with the
bulbs and the beauties of this life by decorating it as lovely as we
can? Or, is it just some old scrub with every dead limb? That is up to
us. Yes, we’re children living in a strange land in a strange way, and
what we are doing in our pilgrimage is transporting great wealth to our
credit in God’s future Kingdom on earth. The life that we now live in
the flesh considers all the present in the light of the future.

	But does it?

	I want to ask you a question. How much of your life and mine, as we
look back, the life that we lived, was considered in the light of the
future Kingdom in which we are going? When Bro. Branham said, “Women
bring down your pride,” have you thought that he was kidding? I am not
against women. I love my sisters, but I could weep when I see women
doing their best to lead their husbands by the nose and interfering,
when the husband wants the boys to cut their hair and the ‘right’
mom steps in with her sexy wiggle, and she is going to run the house.
But oh, she is spiritual. She is still in spiritual harlotry and
doesn’t know it.

	And Bro. Branham looked at women, and he said, “Women, you caused the
whole thing, and you’re still not understanding. Get rid of that
pride.” Come on. Step down. Play the part God made you to play. 

	“Oh, but we’re liberated. Chauvinist male pigs aren’t going to
control us.” 

	Let me tell you. Listen. The Holy Ghost is a male, and then, He is a
chauvinist male pig, my brother/sister. Do you want to blaspheme Him?
Who’s doing the most prophesying, women or men? Uh, they haven’t
changed any; or have they? 

81.	What about the future? I am living today. What about tomorrow? That
is why Jesus said, “Look, don’t even think about tomorrow. You’ve
got enough on your hands now to realize this is my moment to lay up my
treasure at this hour for eternity where you get it all back.” 

	Don’t miss a trick. Everything that he bought for you, that’s
yours. Everything you buy through grace at the time he gives you,
that’s yours. “Come ye blessed; inherit the Kingdom. Take it over,
my son. Rule and reign. Tell that tree to move. Tell that cloud to go.
Walk out there and enjoy. Lead the lions around. Lead the lamb.” 

	Oh my, what lies ahead? The great priority is literally the preparation
for the future glory. That’s what It says in Rom 8:19-23 and Mt
10:19-21.

	“For I reckon the sufferings” (that pertain to the adoption that
get me ready. Oh, It says,) “of this present time are not worthy to be
compared with the glory that will be revealed in us.” They’re
nothing compared to what it is going to be. 

82.	Now I challenge you this morning, like me. I am sixty-three years
old; I look back. Oh, how I’ve belly-ached. Oh, how I’ve squirmed.
Oh, how I’ve prayed. Oh, how I’ve cried. I thought I was abused. I
look, and I say, “Oh God, what a jackass. What a fool. It was easy.”
How often have I told people like you, and I tell myself, what was it
that kept me away ten years ago when I worried about it? I don’t even
remember what I worried about last night. Then, why worry? Why worry?
Don’t fuss. Start thinking about Him. Start thinking about the
Kingdom. If you’re going to worry, worry about that. If you’re going
to get troubled, get troubled about that. If you’re going to take
time, take time about that. See? Citizens with a vocation, heavenly
calling, and an avocation, dropping life out here; but ah, there is
something better so that at any given moment I can lay down this and do
what He wants me to do. 

83.	Oh, yes, listen. What’s it going to be like in that day, when the
transition of the physical is to the spiritual, which is eternal? 

	I am going to tell you something. This is physical. I could get a torch
and disintegrate it. Now the trouble is with you and me; because there
are things out here we can’t see, we don’t give them the thought of
permanency. Let me tell you flat: the spiritual substance is billions of
times greater than a physical substance down here. Brother/Sister, we
are laying up a spiritual substance.

	Oh, you say, “Bro. Vayle, do you believe you got a few rewards?”

	I better have. I better have. There are times that I have cleansed my
soul before God and done it for the sake of Jesus Christ. I was
troubled, and I know, like some of you folk are troubled. Bro. Branham
and I sat for one day, and stood for two hours in a closed-in garage,
and I was grumbling in my heart to him the same as maybe you’re
grumbling, and there are some things I couldn’t understand. What about
this love toward God? What about my emotions? What about my fervor? 

	And he said, “Lee, can I ask you just one more question?”

	I said, “Go ahead, Bill, any number.”

	He said, “Have you ever done anything for Jesus that you wouldn’t
do, except you did it for him?”

	And I said, “Sure. Who hasn’t?”

	He said, “Son, that’s love.”

84.	Who told you to get all fizzed up and fuzzed up to do something?
“I’ve got to…” A bunch of beatniks, acid rock, soulish as Bro.
Bob [Brown] brought out. I don’t care if it’s Beethoven. Tra, la,
la, la, la,…da, la. I think that’s somebody else. Da, da, da, da,
da, do…What was Daniel doing in the lion’s den? [Bro. Vayle pounds
pulpit five times.] What’s that got to do with it? Do you think when I
have heard from God, the most high, the drums begin to roll and
everything like that bursting across the sky, like old Naaman thought,
come out here--go blam, blam, blam. 

	No, just walking down the road one day, I heard the voice of God. I
heard the voice of Jesus: “Come unto me, and I’ll give you rest. Lay
down, lay down thy weary one thy head upon my breast.” I came to Jesus
as I was. Oh, brother/sister, you know, don’t worry about the rockets
and the Roman candles and this and that. Just make up your mind to seek
the kingdom of God this morning. Read the Bible, and say, “What do you
want from me, Lord?” and then, don’t expect some big rigamarole.
That’s hard now. 

85.	You just say, “Lord,” you know, “tomorrow morning I got to get
up and make breakfast.” 

	“Well,” the Lord might say, “Yes, but how did you make breakfast
yesterday morning?”

	“Well, I was sure mad, because that little mill didn’t work that
made the porridge, and one of the elements went out. And my husband
ought to know how to do those things, and he didn’t do it, and now he
sure has gotten kind of mad.”

	“Well, what about if you just had corn flakes?”

	Well, hallelujah, corn flakes with a smile is a whole lot better than a
beefsteak with a grouch. That’s right. You know what the doctors tell
you? “Never eat when you’re angry.”

	The same thing applies to God.

	“What do you want, Lord?”

	Then, don’t get big ideas. Don’t go to some room and sit there, and
you’re going to get great big gifts. What if you’re some little old
gal that is just suppose to show mercy with cheerfulness, or if you’re
someone that gives, because his right hand and his left hand doesn’t
know?

86.	Where do people get the idea that serving God is some great, great,
great, great, great big thing? It’s a life.

	You say, “Bro. Vayle, I happen to know that this fellow, this fellow,
what’s he called? Yes, his name is Edison; he had hundreds of
inventions; big thing.” 

	As far as I know, he died an atheist. 

	“Well, you know Einstein had a great theory. He got the atomic
bomb.” 

	The last I heard, he was never converted either. 

	I heard about a man named Paul, smart, clever, brilliant, great leader;
left the pinnacle of the church that fell upon the dunghill, fell and
got broken upon the cross, rose a simple man, and said, “I haven’t
got anything left anymore. It’s either God or nothing. What do you
want Jesus?” Lion’s den, that’s okay. Over the wall, the basket.
That’s okay.

	“Well Lord, here I am in the dungeon. Well, what am I going to do?”

	He said, “Don’t worry, Paul I am going to use you more in that old
prison cell than you could have been used before, because I am going to
get you right to the king.”

	He took him right to the king, and Paul testified.

87.	What are you worried about? Put the priority of God. The priority
is: I am living for the Kingdom. I am living for the future. Make my
life count now. How? By just doing it unto him, because everything is
pure that you do, as long as with the right motive toward Him.

	Do you follow me? Now, listen; if you really did, and I really did, and
we’re not just a bunch of talkers now, (And I am very good at that,
you know.  I can blow it, but sometimes I can’t push it.) if we begin
doing it, you’re going to see a change, brother/sister, in this church
and around here such that no bombs are ever going to shake you.

	They’re going to come and try to kill you, and you can just grin and
say, “Hallelujah, ain’t He wonderful?”

	Say, you’ve got a wonderful thought. Ain’t it nice? Yes.

	Oh, you say, “Heaven was never like this.”

	You’ve got to be kidding, because heaven can be just like this,
because it is like this. You’ve got to start here to get it all over
there. 

88.	Let me show you something. I am going to you, and I am going to read
It now; and, oh yes, we will be out of here by three o’clock, and I
promised you, and my word is good. [Congregation laughs as Bro. Vayle
remarks further.] 1 Corinthians 3:11-13:

[For] other foundation can no man lay that is laid, which is Jesus
Christ.

(12)	Now if any man build upon this foundation gold, silver, precious
stones, wood, (Ah, hold it, wood) hay, stubble; and the fire shall try
every man’s work of what sort it is.)

Every man’s work shall be made manifest: for the day shall declare it,
because it shall be revealed by fire; and the fire shall try every
man’s work of what sort it is.

	That’s God’s Own Word, the Pillar of Fire right there, the Logos
looking right at it, checking it right through. Let me hold my finger
there, and let me go right back to prove it to you. It’s over here in
Heb 4:12-13]

For the Word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any
two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and
spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts
and intents of the heart. (and)

Neither is there any creature that is not manifest in His (‘His’,
not ‘its’, but ‘His’ sight. Christ is the Word, Logos, Pillar of
Fire right there. Everything in His sight: but all things are) naked and
opened to the eyes of Him with whom we have to do.

	And It says, every man’s work tried by fire what sort it is.

(14)	If any man’s work abide which he has built thereupon, he shall
receive a reward. (In other words that reward is that work standing
right there; and then, God pouring on top of it and pouring on top of
it. Yes sir. Now:) 

If any man’s work shall be burned he shall suffer loss: but he himself
shall be saved; [yet so as by fire.]

89.	Don’t worry. You’re going to make it. You’re going to make it
a thirty percenter; nobody less than thirty percent. Thank God.
Wouldn’t it be wonderful to be up in the hundred percenters? 

	You say, “Bro. Vayle, time is running out.”

	Oh no, not that fast. The dedicated heart at this moment, my
brother/sister, can lay up immeasurable treasures, if Christ were to
come by next week or take you home. He himself shall be saved, but it is
light by fire instead of the grace: “Come ye blessed. You give it all
to me. Now I give it all to you.”

	But what we give to Him, He gives in measure back. God commands us to
look to ourselves that we use our own physical existences and all other
materiality around us as belonging to Him, and we are but stewards who
will give account of it in the Day of our Lord. And in that day it will
all become eternal; eternal gain or eternal loss is before us, with no
second chance. There will be no changing of our status, for what we are
in the Resurrection, we will continue to be. For the Bible says,
“There is one glorious sun, moon, stars; so is the Resurrection.”
What we are, there will be forever whether we are Bride, New Jerusalem
or bring our glory into Mt. Sinai, one hundred and forty-four thousand
with us, there will be no changing. It’s up to us to do it now.

90.	But, how can a man live up to that priority? How can he do it?
We’ve been talking about that, and will continue to talk for a few
minutes. 1 Corinthians 6:19, again.

[What?] (Don’t you) know [you not] that your [body is] (bodies are a)
the temple of the Holy Ghost [which is in you,] which you have of God,
and (God’s in you) you are not your own?

	And, what about over here in 1 Jn 4:4?

Ye are of God, little children, and have overcome them: because greater
is He that is in you, than he that is in the world.

	What about over here is Heb 13:6?

So that we may boldly say, The Lord is my helper, and I will not fear
what man shall do to me. (When I try to do the will of God and they try
to stop me.)

	Can we not also go to Rom 8:26-27?

(26)	Likewise the spirit also helps in our infirmities: for we know not
(even) what we (ought to) [should] pray for [as we ought:] but the
Spirit (Himself will start making) [Itself makes intercession for us
with] groanings (and utterings) [which] cannot be uttered. 

	Because he searches our hearts. He knows what we really want. We
can’t express it; can’t seem to do it. But he comes on the scene and
intercedes before God saying, “Father God, let me do it in him. Let me
do it for him.” Yes sir. 

91.	Hebrews 12:1-7:

Where[fore seeing we also are] (en) compassed about with [so] great a
cloud of witnesses, [let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which
does so easily beset us, and] let us run with patience the race that is
set before us, 

(Who) Looking to Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the
joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame,
[and] (now) is set down at the right hand of (Almighty) God. 

	You’ll be contradicted as he was. Struggle, strive, you won’t shed
your blood doing it. He shed great drops of blood as he struggled
against himself. You and I won’t do it. We don’t need to. All we
need to do is to say, “Yes, Lord, you’ll take me through, because
you are that One.” 

92.	Back again in Mt 6:21-22:

(21)	For where your treasures is, there will your heart be also. The
light of the body is the eye: [If therefore your eye be single, your
whole body shall be full of light.]

	Start laying it up. From then on it will start to come easy. You know
something, brother/sister? It is said in economics by men who invested,
and I read what they said: “The first ten thousand dollars is the
hardest to get; but, if you save the first ten thousand dollars you are
on your way to being a millionaire, even if you don’t know what
you’re doing.”

	The first rewards that you and I begin to deliberately put up into
heaven, suddenly get our eyes single, we become exercised within our
senses spiritually, and that perceptive spiritual quality begins looking
out as a wise investor and says, “Now I’ll do this, and now I’ll
do that, and look over here, and look over there buying up the
opportunities.” I’m not lying to you bother/sister; I’m not lying
to you.

	We just have been haphazard. God condemns haphazardness! God condemns
carelessness. God condemns sloth, but it is amongst us. There is a cost
in progression: the path of the righteous shining more and more to the
perfect day. As one man once said, “Write over your mirror, ‘Born to
die.’”

	I say, “No, don’t write that over your mirror. You already know
that.” I say, “Write upon your mind in letters of fire and upon your
heart, ‘This day lay up eternal treasures with joy; adorn this moment
with eternal wealth.’”

93.	Never forget 1 Pet 1:2-6.

(2)	Elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, through
sanctification of the Spirit, (That’s you and me.) (unto) obedience
and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ: Grace (be) to you, and
peace be multiplied.

Bleesed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which according
to His abundant mercy has begotten us again to a lively hope by the
resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.

To an inheritance incorruptible, and undefiled, and that fades not away,
reserved in heaven for you,

Who are kept by the power of God through faith to salvation ready to be
revealed in the last time.

Wherein you greatly rejoice, though now for a season, if need be, [are
in heaviness through manifold temptations.]

	You see the sparrow fall and you might fall with it. Be of good cheer.
He remembers the sparrows. He remembers you. You may go down in dust.
Your life may end in divorce. Your family may leave you. It may all go.
You may pay a price, my brother/sister, but you’ll get back a million
fold in this life and the life which is to come.

94.	Where are your priorities this morning? Is it the Kingdom? I hope
so. I hope mine are too. I’ve wasted a lot of time. Oh, I know why
Bro. Branham screamed out, “I haven’t done a thing, and I am fifty
years old. What’s the matter with me? Oh, God I have done nothing.”
Because he had a vision of the very thing I am talking about today, when
he knew fifty years in the light of a service that could of been
dedicated to God, and he himself said, “Oh God, I’ve always been in
a tube, and you have had to push me. Why, oh God, can’t I have done my
own and do something?” 

	I know the cry of his heart this morning, because it is all the same
cry. What do we doing? It’s not that we couldn’t do it.

95.	 I want to ask you a question this morning. Let’s be honest.
Let’s get down to nitty gritty, because I am a bit of a nut. Now you
be honest before God with me. Now I don’t want anybody to lie to me.
Now, don’t be a hypocrite, and don’t be afraid. How many of you this
morning feel a little funny about really grabbing somebody in your arms
and hugging them in the name of Jesus and maybe crying a bit? Let me
see. I am funny. I find it hard to do. Do you all do it easy? I am going
to ask the question again, because I don’t believe you. You’re still
kidding me, or either you’re the greatest bunch of people under
God’s high heaven. I am asking you again.

	Do you understand my language? Because I am not fooling. Is your heart
so open, are your arms so open that you can just grab that brother and
sister, and you just love to do it, and maybe with tears just so free
and easy, because you’re part of each other? Can you do it? I find it
difficult. How many do? That’s better. You’re no longer hypocrites.
God bless you.

	Listen, my brother/sister. Let me tell you: there is only one way to
start, that is to start doing it. Don’t ask God to make you do it,
because He already told you to do it. Don’t feel embarrassed if you
do. Do it anyway. Don’t be afraid to let your jaw sag. Mine hurts me
day and night, because I keep it so grim. 

96.	Why are you loosing your eyesight? Because you are too rigid, and
you’re too nervous. Relaxing time under the Seventh Seal,
brother/sister. It better begin sometime. Start somewhere. Start
somewhere to lay up some treasure. Start somewhere. 

	Let’s start today. Don’t ask God. It’s not necessary. The
government doesn’t ask you to pay tax. The government says, “Pay
your taxes.” The pastor here may say, “Will you come to church?”
God doesn’t say, “Will you come to church?” God says, “Go to
church.” The pastor doesn’t say, “Will you please pay your
tithes?” God says, “You better pay your tithes.” The same God
today that says, “He that shuts up his bowels of compassion,” and It
means you and I either open them, or we close them. 

	You say, “Bro. Vayle, how can you reduce it to such simple terms?” 

	Because He said, “He that gives a glass of cold water in my name
shall not lose his reward.” Treasures in heaven, the great priority,
life--a little training school, a little while until we are caught away
to eternity. 

97.	I started by telling you that ‘Zoe’ is just life. It is just
life with the devil bound. Yes, with the flesh that Adam gave is bound,
because it is no longer that flesh. It is his flesh, and I won’t need
to worry anymore whether I have got to make myself say “heart shut
up” and let your emotions go and love that person like you want to do
it. I won’t have to. I’ll just do it. But God didn’t say wait
until that time. He said, “Do it now.” That’s what I want, and
that’s what I can have; but I have got to want it. I can only have it
by doing. 

99.	This is the first priority, the great priority, the one priority.
This is the great teaching of our Kingdom, which is Christ’s Kingdom,
which is hence; and as God’s entire plan is set forth in Ephesians
1:9, through grace, that all of us who are in Him shall be caught up in
that great day, even so, it is his desire, by His Own sacred Word, yes,
His command, that the same ones for whom he laid up treasure, we, for
His sake, by grace, also lay up treasure that there maybe the abundant
entrance into the kingdom of Almighty God. 

	The great priority, brother/sister, is as simple as A-B-C. I don’t
want to quote the philosophy of Jonathan Livingston Seagull, but I will
say it’s true. You can do it, if you want to. If you don’t want, you
don’t have to. If you want to let your heart go just now, you can do
it. Right! If you want to let your fears go, you can do it; because hey,
listen; I’ve started I am telling you the truth, for Jesus preached
the validity of faith. 

100. You don’t have to worry about anything down here. You start
worrying about what’s up there. He said, “Look, I am taking care of
the sparrows. I am taking care of the flowers.” It’s valid. Don’t
worry. I will back it up. Do you believe that? Brother/Sister, I have
got to believe it. And I can say with Bro. Branham, as he said, “If
we’re not Bride there is a Bride out there somewhere and I will not
stand in her way.” I can say this morning there’s… If we’re not
that people, there is a people somewhere laying up treasures, and by the
grace of God, I’ll scream all I can to help them lay up those
treasures. Lay them up! [Bro. Vayle screams!] [End of side 2 of audio
tape 2]

Priorities #1A – Page   PAGE  36