The Purpose of Almighty God

Macon GA

1973

	Thank you, Bro. Palmer. Why don’t we remain standing for awhile,
while we turn to the Ephesians 1 and read the Word of the Lord.

	Now, when we move to Matthew, don’t turn from Ephesians; just keep
you finger there, beginning with verse 3.

(3)	Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath
blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ:

(4)	According as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the
world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him. In love

(5)	having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus
Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his will,

(6)	To the praise of the glory of his grace, wherein He hath made us
accepted in the beloved.

(7)	In whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of
sins, according to the riches of his grace;

(8)	Wherein he hath abounded toward us in all wisdom and prudence.

	You can tell right there, there is no disgrace with God because His
grace is with wisdom and prudence.

(9)	Having made known unto us the mystery of his will, according to His
good pleasure which he hath purposed in himself:

(10)	That in the dispensation of the fulness of times he might gather
together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven, and
which are on earth; even in him:

(11)	In whom also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestinated
according to the purpose of him who worketh all things after the counsel
of his own will:

(12)	That we should be to the praise of his glory, who first trusted in
Christ.

(13)	In whom ye also trusted, after that ye heard the word of truth, the
gospel of your salvation: in whom also after that ye believed, ye were
sealed with that holy Spirit of promise,

(14)	Which is the earnest of our inheritance until the redemption of the
purchased possession, unto the praise of his glory.

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

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

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

	Now we turn to Matthew for just a minute: Mt 11:25-27.

(25)	At that time Jesus answered and said, I thank thee, O Father, Lord
of heaven and earth, because Thou hast hid these things from the wise
and prudent, and hast revealed them unto babes.

(26)	Even so, Father: for so it seemed good in thy sight.

(27)	All things are delivered unto me of my Father: and no man knoweth
the son, but the Father; neither knoweth any man the Father, save the
son, and he to whomsoever the son will reveal him.

	Going back to Ephesians:

(18)	That the eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that ye may
know what is the hope of his calling, and what the riches of the glory
of his inheritance in the saints,

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

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

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

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

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

	Shall we pray. Our God, heavenly Father, we thank You this evening we
are standing in Your Presence because we know You are here in our midst.
And we know, Lord, if we did not even invoke Thy great Name and Thy
Presence amongst us, You would be here, for who could hide from Your
eyes? Whoever, Lord, could flee from Your Presence? That is not within
man. But, Lord, “all things are open unto Your eyes with whom we have
to do.” 

	And knowing this is true, that one day it is going to be made manifest
in that great day, if we are not right with You by the rebirth
experience, we will stand in the judgment, and then, all things will be
known. And it will be known whether we have been hypocritical tonight,
whether we have been genuine, whatsoever we have been, and we know that
this is absolutely true. And we are going to have to face up to exactly
what we are, for soon You are coming, and then, “that which is holy
will be holy, and that which is righteous, righteous, and he which is
filthy will be filthy still.” [Rev 22:11] It will be all over. 

	And so, Lord, tonight we pray our hearts will be greatly solemnized by
the fact we are going to hear Your Word and know what Your Word said
according to what was revealed to us by a vindicated prophet. And we
pray, therefore, the eyes of understanding shall be opened, and we shall
all carefully watch what we are hearing tonight so that we will not be
off that Word, but understand the riches and glory which has been placed
in us through Jesus Christ our Lord. 

	And now, Lord, I pray that the speaking shall be absolutely identified
with that which has been vindicated, and the hearing, Lord, should be
that which is also the same Spirit that we might be one together. Grant
these mercies we pray, Lord, for Your honor and glory, that You might
receive great praise and preeminence in a Bride. In Jesus’ Name we
pray. Amen.

	You may be seated.

1.	The message tonight is the “Purpose of Almighty God”—the
purpose of Almighty God. In July 28, 1963, Bro. Branham preached
“Christ Is the Mystery of God Revealed”, and in there, as you
well-know, he stated that God had a three-fold purpose.

	Number One: God wanted to, and actually did, reveal Himself to the
people. 

	Secondly: He predestinated a Bride, a people in whom He would be
preeminent by indwelling that Bride. In other words, headship would be
Christ-centered in this Bride. 

	Thirdly: He purposed to restore the kingdom that had fallen to Satan by
Adam’s sin.

2.	Now you can see that is absolutely so by the Scripture, which we
read. For in Eph 1:15-17, coupled with whatever in Matthew 11, It says:

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

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

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

	In other words, God is going to give us a spirit of wisdom and
revelation, and this spirit of wisdom and revelation will give us the
knowledge of Almighty God which He desires us to have. And It also says
the same thing in Mt 11:25-27:

[(25) 	At that time Jesus answered and said, I thank thee, O Father,
Lord of heaven and earth, because thou hast hid these things from the
wise and prudent, and hast revealed them unto babes.

(26)	Even so, Father: for so it seemed good in thy sight.

(27)	All things are delivered unto me of my Father: and no man knoweth
the Son, but the Father; neither knoweth any man the Father, save the
Son, and he to whomsoever the Son will reveal him.]

3.	Secondly, there is to be a preeminence of Christ in the Bride as
proven by Eph 1:22-23:

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

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

	And you can actually find that in 1 Corinthians 2. ‘All things’
refer to the full Word of God. So, the Bride is full of the Word. 

	I want to get a little clearer as I go along because it is going to be
a long study tonight. Now, also notice in Eph 3:11:

(11) 	According to the eternal purpose which He purposed in Christ Jesus
our Lord:

	It is an eternal purpose.

4.	Again thirdly, you will see the Kingdom restored on the very grounds
of Eph 1:10-12.

(10) 	That in the dispensation of the fullness of times he might gather
together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven, and
which are in earth; (Now, this is true: then there will be restoration
in heaven and there will be restoration in earth. It is all going to be
restored. That is exactly what the Scripture says.) …in Him: 

(11)	In whom also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestinated
according to the purpose of him Who worketh all things after the counsel
of his own will.

	It says right here that God has purposed. This is His counsel that this
very thing is going to come to pass. And with this we can also bring up
corroborating evidence in Rom 8:21.

(21)	Because the (creation) itself shall also be delivered from the
bondage of corruption into the…liberty of the (glory) of God.

	Right back to the glory of God from the alpha to omega, from the center
to circumference, and from circumference to center, that He might be
“All and in all.”

5.	Now, let us take the first part: God revealing Himself or God
expressing Himself. Now the minute we talk of God revealing Himself to
men, we immediately understand that God is supernaturally hidden from
man’s view, and man cannot see God unless God shows Himself in some
way. Supernaturally hidden, He cannot be seen, and yet He must,
therefore, reveal Himself in some way which is applicable or
apprehendable by man.

	But God is Spirit, and there is no original or inherent relationship
between spirit and matter, or to put it simply: God and matter are not
of the same source, for God made matter; He created substance. The
substance and matter are not made out of God, but God, by creation, made
substance and matter. Nature and creation is not God; they were made by
God. That is why we say the spirit and matter are not kindred.

6.	So therefore, if God is going to reveal His Own invisible Spirit-Self
to us who are matter, who are substance, He must do it in some creature
form. 

	Are you listening? I am reading my notes, and I am doing it on purpose.
I am not making one mistake.

	God cannot be seen as a spirit. Spirit and matter do not coincide
because they are not of the same source. One cannot apprehend the other.
So therefore, God must absolutely make Himself, His Own invisible
Spirit-Self, visible or revealed to us in a creature form. That is all
we understand. Since flesh and blood cannot see the Kingdom of
God—cannot understand it, then God must condescend to become, as it
were, a part of His Own creation, veil Himself in a creature or a
creation creature form, and by this form we can see Him.

	Now, that is exactly what we find to be true throughout Scripture in
relationship to man.

7.	We go to Rev 3:14.

(14) 	And unto the angel of the church of the Laodiceans write; These
things saith the Amen, the faithful and the true witness, the beginning
of the creation of God.

	God calls Himself by three titles: ‘the Amen’, ‘the Faithful and
True Witness’, ‘the Beginning of the Creation of God’. But let me
just put it this way: “Thus saith the Amen, Who is the Beginning.”
See. He is ‘the Amen’. He also is ‘the Beginning’. Same thing.
He is the End and the Beginning of the Creation of God. See? Of course,
He is, because He is Alpha and Omega. For alpha means ‘the
beginning’ and ‘omega’ is ‘the end’.

	Now, watch. Bro. Branham said, “The beginning of the creation of
God,” which He is the Beginning and the Ending. He is all of it. See.

	This is the revelation of Christ in this Book, is it not? And here is
what Brother Branham said: “The beginning of the creation of God was
God creating Himself in the form of human flesh...the Revelation of God,
God becoming One with His Own creature form. God making a body of... God
making a “Body” of His Own that He can be identified in, certainly.
There is no other way that He could get the preeminence. He has to have
a Bride to indwell her.”

8.	But leaving that thought, and going back to God creating Himself in
human form. In Gen 1:26 It says:

(26)	…Let us make man in our image, after our (own) likeness.

	…especially the word ‘likeness’. We look at it. God made man in
His likeness. When God made man in His likeness, the word suggests that
God had some figure of a creature form in order to make man like that,
because that is what ‘likeness’ speaks of: the creature form, the
matter being duplicated. So, God took upon Himself a sort of the form of
humanity, or some form of humanity, to start humanity, and then, one day
became a ‘man’ Himself in order to bring all the elect into the very
‘image’ of Almighty God.

9.	Now, let us see God taking on the creature form or created form. We
go, first of all, to Exodus 3. And we all know what this is without
reading It, because this happens to deal with Moses who stood before
God. Notice in verse 2: 

(2)	And the angel of the LORD appeared unto him in a flame of fire out
of the midst of a bush: and he looked, and, behold, the bush burned with
fire, and the bush was not consumed.

	You notice here that God took on the veil of the Pillar of Fire. He
made a veil. He made a fire which, in itself is not God but which is
something created by God. So, God took upon Himself a form of creature
that He had made upon earth, or some form of creation.

10.	In Ex 33:23 we are going to see this form that God had when He made
man. And He is still speaking to Moses here when Moses wanted to see
Him. In Ex 33:23:

(23)	And I will take away mine hand, and thou shalt see my back parts:
but my face (shalt Thou not see).

	God, in revealing Himself, must absolutely ‘veil’ Himself in a
creature form—something of His Own creation in order to reveal Himself
to His creation.

	Again, in Ezek 1:1:

(1)	Now it came to pass in the thirtieth year, in the fourth month, in
the fifth day of the month, as I was among the captives by the river of
Chebar, that the heavens were opened, and I saw visions of God.

	He did not see a vision from God, though that goes without saying, he
saw an actual vision of God. God was presented to him. Now, how did he
see God? It tells us in verse 26.

 (26)	And above the firmament that was over their heads was the likeness
of a throne…

	Notice the marvelous language of the Bible. It is flawless; It’s
perfect. You cannot help but wonder how gloriously the Scripture all is
so cohesive and perfect, made in the likeness of man, made in the Pillar
of Fire, another likeness, and now we got a likeness, as It says here:
the likeness of a throne.

(26)	…as the appearance (It does not say ‘it was’.) of a sapphire
stone and upon the likeness of the throne was the likeness (of) the
appearance of a man above upon it.

	There was God showing Himself once more in a creature form in order to
reveal Himself to that which is substance and matter, which in itself is
not truly spiritual.

11.	Notice also, another beautiful time of His veiling is over here in
Revelation 4, and this to me is very beautiful for It says in verses
2-3:

(2)	And immediately I was in the spirit: and…a throne was set in
heaven, and one sat on the throne.

(3)	And he that sat was to look upon like a jasper and a sardine stone:
and there was a rainbow round about the throne, in sight like…an
emerald.

	What is this anyway? This is a picture of the amber colored, Flame of
Fire that came down and in this Flame of Fire, It shined forth as an
emerald, as a sardine, as a jasper. What is this? This is the Urim and
the Thummim: God Himself manifesting in a form that people might know
the truth and the revelation of Almighty God Himself, because ‘Urim
and Thummim’ means ‘manifestation and truth’. And here is your
Urim and Thummim right here: God revealing Himself to the people.

12.	Now, notice also, in Heb 1:1-2, and here we find the choicest of
all, because this brings it down within a deeper, with a more simple
understanding, we are acquainted with. In the first two verses:

(1)	God, who at sundry times and in divers manners spake in time past
unto the fathers (in) the prophets.

	Not ‘by’ the prophets, though that is true, He was ‘in’ the
prophets by His Spirit, and He spoke to them because the Word of God
descends by the ‘prophet’s spirit’, not by your spirit and mine,
even though we have the ‘same’ Holy Spirit. Is that right? Do you
understand what I am saying? That’s what the prophet said. I am
repeating him. I am a parrot to the glory of God.

(2)	Hath in these last days spoken unto us (in) his Son, whom he hath
appointed heir of all things…

	There He is bringing us back to restoration. He is the only one that
can do it. By His preeminence, He has made even all these varied ages.
Now He, God, by His Spirit, was in the prophets and God was in His Son
by His Spirit, Who will restore all heirship.

13.	Now, watch carefully. Who is God, the Creator? According to
Scripture, He is Elohim, and Elohim is made up of two words: ‘El’,
‘E-l’, and ‘Elah’, E-l-a-h. ‘El’ means ‘the Strong One’.
‘Elah’ means ‘One bound by an oath’ or ‘bound by His Own
Word’. Now, each of these names is significant, but especially is
‘E-1-a-h’ significant. For listen now, it can be used of other
personalities as well as deity itself. 

	Well, you say, “I do not believe God gives His Name anywhere. He is
jealous.”

	I believe you believe wrong. I know you believe wrong. I can prove you
believe wrong. It can be used as a magistrate who is bound by an oath,
as It speaks of judges in Ex 21:6, if I have this written down right.

(6)	Then his master shall bring him unto the (elohim) … (That is
right. See.)

	It was used of Moses in Ex 7:1.

(1)	And the LORD said to Moses, See, I have made thee (Elohim or Elah)
to Pharaoh: and Aaron thy brother shall be thy prophet. (See.)

	It can be used of God in Ex 12:12.

(12)	For I will pass through the land of Egypt this night, and…smite
all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, both man and beast; and against
all (Elohim or Elah) of Egypt I will execute judgment: I am the LORD.

	You see, they represented God; so therefore, they used the name. This
is exactly why God could be a messenger, because by this name He can
identify. He has an identifying Name. He can be the servant as He was
when He came to Jacob and to Abraham. He came identifying Himself as an
angel. He can be Messiah only under the very same context because this
allows Him to be as a creature Himself, identifying Himself in a
creature form, though He is Almighty God. 

14.	That’s exactly why Jesus said what He did over here in John 10,
which Bro. Branham quoted so very, very many times. John 10:34-35:

(34)	Jesus answered to them, Is it not written in your law, I said, Ye
are (elohims)?

(35)	If he called them (elohims), unto whom the Word of (the real
Elohim) came, then the scripture cannot be broken

(36)	Say ye of him, whom the Father hath sanctified, and sent into the
world, Thou blasphemest; because I said, I am the Son of (that Elohim)?

	In other words I am Elohim come in flesh. See? No, this confirms the
Book of Hebrews. Paul said ‘by the same Holy Spirit’, saying the
same thing: “God in sundry times and divers manners spake unto us in
the prophets.”

	This is exactly why Bro. Branham could say in that day the Son of man
will be revealed in a body of flesh, and he didn’t need to be actually
referring to the Bride, but could be referring to an individual: the
prophet in the Bride. But it didn’t make him God. It made him the
representative of God; it made him the one that stood for God, and made
him the one that if you listened to, you were hearing God. And it meant,
if you turned him down, you were turning down God. See.

15.	 Now, also notice, Jehovah also took upon Himself a human form. He
did. And this is where you get the word ‘lord’ many times. And there
are many ‘lords’.

	This is how He appeared to Abraham in Genesis 18, showing us what we
are seeing tonight—that God reveals Himself, and He does it according
to the Book of Revelation: Jesus Christ Who is the beginning of the
creation of God. And, if He’s the beginning of it, He’s the middle
of it and the end of it; He’s got to be all of it.

	And see how He is doing it. It is laid out before us. Because man
cannot apprehend that which is invisible and stand in the glory of God,
then God must condescend to do something about Himself, that man may
know God.

	Oh, can’t you see what the prophet taught: God veiling Himself in
simplicity and revealing Himself in the same and people stumbling,
making too much or too little, not knowing what it is all about? That is
why I challenge anyone to show me one place where the prophet was wrong.
See.

16.	It is God, the unfailing Word, the Logos in the creature, so that
God can be revealed; God making a ‘body’ of His Own that He can be
identified. Certainly, that is exactly right. So, we begin to understand
how it is that there is one God, not three, Who is revealing Himself. If
you can see this, you do not have to see where God sent His Son, as
though the Son was pre-existent with Almighty God, Who was Father. See.
No eternal sonship; there is no such thing in the Book. It is the Son of
God, Jesus, Who came down as a....became a creature form so God could
identify by filling it. We will get into that in a minute. 

	Not three gods revealing who they are as three gods, but it is one God.
His Name or title, Elah, tells us that “He Who is bound by an Oath,”
or “Bound by His Own Word,” was able to become flesh, and did become
flesh. He did. It is Elohim under the title of Elah, Who reveals Himself
through a creature form. 

17.	Now we look at Jn 1:1, the Gospel.

(1)	In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the
Word was God.

(2)	The same was in the beginning with God.

(3)	All things were made by him; and (so on)…

	In the beginning was Elohim, Whose attribute was Elah, Who had the
ability to become a ‘man’. And if God can’t become a ‘man,’
you make God fallible. See? Certainly. Now, listen. A God Who is bound
by the Word. But God can’t be bound… Now, listen carefully: God
cannot be bound except by what He is. 

	Our limitations bind us; so do our potentialities bind us. God is also
bound: He is bound by His Word. What He is binds Him. So therefore, if
God is bound by the Word, then He is the Word. Is that right? No great
mystery; no great mystery.

18.	I am bound by what I am. I am Lee Vayle. I went to Bro. Branham and
cried about it. I said, “I am complaining, Bro. Branham. I am
disgusted.” 

	He said, “What is the matter?” 

	I said, “I am fed up.” 

	He said, “What with?” 

	“Me.”

	“What is the matter with you?” 

	I said, “I am too mean and too harsh. I preach too rough.” 

	He said, “You wouldn’t be Lee Vayle.” 

	“Oh,” I said, “come on.” I said, “Bill, there are limits to
everything. I am just too mean.” 

	He staggered back like in a trance and said, “It is too late.
You’ve got to tell them.” 

	I am bound by what I am. I never asked for my brown eyes and my falling
hair, my very large nose which used to disgust me, but it doesn’t
bother me at all as long as it keeps clear of sinus. I am bound also by
my good points and my bad points. If I am made in the image of God,
somewhere this is the way it has got to be. God is bound by His, too.
What is He? He is the Word. Certainly, if He is bound by the Word, He is
the Word.

19.	Now, watch. Word is Logos, but Logos is not Word that is written, or
a part of speech like we say: noun, verb, adjective, participle and so
on. It is spoken Word, and spoken Word is the expression or
manifestation of the invisible thought. It is actually the revelation of
what is invisible so that one can, by revelation, know or see the
invisible: “the eyes of your understanding being opened.” See.

	Now, so Christ by becoming flesh became the actual embodiment and
outward expression of the invisible God, Elohim. He said, “Before
Abraham was I AM.” He said, “If you believe not that I AM, you shall
die in your sin.” He was God manifest in the flesh: 1Timothy 3:16. He
was the expressed image of the person of God because He was the person
of God: Heb 1:1-3. He was the image of the invisible God, because He
simply made God visible. God Himself made Himself visible in the human
form: Col 1:15. He was the very form of God Who came of no reputation,
taking upon Himself the form of man that He might be seen of us, and we
could behold His glory. 

20.	And when people beheld His glory, they didn’t recognize the glory,
and they crucified the glory. And they’re doing the same thing again
today because they want to see another glory than the glory of Almighty
God, so they miss the glory of God that was revealed. That is not a
tongue twister; that is Almighty God’s Word today. That is what the
prophet said. One God, many attributes, but He reveals His ways and
Himself to us so we know that there is but One. And that revelation,
when proven to be Scriptural, is a perfect revelation of Almighty God.

	Now, man wants another manifestation; man wants another out-shining;
man wants another out-cropping of glory. Man wants what God will not
give him. And until man wants what God gives him, there’ll never be a
revelation. God manifest, yes. God revealing, absolutely. No guessing;
this is it exactly.

21.	Now, as I said, if He is the Word and He is revealing Himself, it
will always be, for it must be, according to the Word which He has given
us, because what limits anything defines and reveals it. You get it? Let
me tell you again. Now, if God… If He is the Word and He is revealing
Himself, It will always be, for It must be, according to His Word which
He has given us, because what limits anything and defines it is the same
thing that reveals it.

	Supposing I described an apple to you. Couldn’t you guess it was an
apple? That is what I am saying here. That which limits it and binds it
absolutely reveals it. Apple is not a peach. Peach is not a pear. 

22.	God being the Word is bound by that Word. And what’s going to
reveal Him? The Word is going to reveal Him. See, He is that Word. When
God came down to us as a dove and filled Jesus with the fullness of God,
that same Jesus said one day, “Which of you convicteth me of sin?”

	Now, that does not mean, “Which of you can put your finger on me and
see if I have sinned?” It means, ‘which of you can confute me’.
“Which of you,” as Bro. Branham said, (And he brought it out not
knowing the Greek.) “Which of you can say that I have failed to
manifest one Word required of me as that One?”

	Brother/Sister, if He failed in one Word, He cannot be God, because you
cannot take from God or add to God. Some people have an idea that is
good to ‘out-God’ God or something, but they are wrong. It is not
the way it is.

	Now also, He said, “Which of you, (when it came to the word
‘confute’)… Which of you can find me wrong in just one Word? Where
did I miss being the Word of God? And therefore, if I did not miss being
the Word of God, I AM Elohim, because Elohim exposes the Word.” See.
That is right. Keep your thoughts, and you will come out on top. Don’t
worry.

23.	Now, listen. There, on the road to Emmaus, He began with Moses and
all the prophets and revealed that all the Word was actually about Him.
He was that Word: He was Elohim. 

	You say, “How can all the Word be about Him?” 

	I will tell you simply: because He gave the Word, and He gave It to man
revealing Himself, and He left it up to man what he would do with that
Word. So therefore, everything in that Bible is God and man in that
Word. That is why Bro. Branham said, “If you cannot see Him in every
verse, in the history, in the prose, in the Law, in the psalms, in the
poetry, and in the prophets, you had better read It again.”

	And that is absolutely ‘THUS SAITH THE LORD’ because He is that
history. It was His unfolding before the people and what they did (See?)
that makes it absolutely the revealed Word of Almighty God. He was
Elohim. The Bible testifies of Him; every Word is about Him somehow. It
all relates to Him.

24.	Now that we see how God has been revealing Himself, we can see
easily how He expresses Himself. It is the ‘same’ way. For when God
expresses Himself, it is the same as when any other person expresses
himself. In other words, He declares Himself on the subject. What’s
the subject? God. And who is a better authority to declare It than God
is? You think you know all about me? Ha, you know nothing. You cannot
tell about me, how you going to tell about God unless God reveals
Himself? 

25.	He declares Himself on the subject. So, God expresses or declares
Himself. And how does He do it? We go back to Deuteronomy18, and we gain
a little. Perhaps that is not all the insight we want, but we do gain
some insight. Deuteronomy 18:15-22:

(15)	The LORD thy God will raise up unto thee a Prophet from the midst
of thee, of thy brethren, like unto me; unto him ye shall hearken;

(16)	According to all that thou desiredst of the LORD thy God in Horeb
in the day of the assembly, saying, Let me not hear again the Voice of
the LORD my God, neither let me see this great fire any more, that I die
not.

	Right here, God’s Own people desired that the creature form of God,
the Pillar of Fire, and the Thunder and Voice no longer be identified.
And they said, “What we’ll do, we’ll use a representative. Moses,
you be that representative.”

	God said, “I will take that exactly,” because that is exactly what
God wanted to do. 

	And He said, “I will have a prophet.” 

	That is what He said. 

26.	(17)	(Now) the LORD said…, They have well spoken that what they
have spoken.

	Isn’t that nice that the people said the right thing? Bro. Fred,
where are you? The people said the right thing. All right, it can be
done. See, now:

(18)	I will raise them up a Prophet from among their brethren, like unto
thee, and I will put my words in his mouth; and he shall speak unto them
all that I shall command him.

(19)	And it shall come to pass, that whosoever will not harken unto my
words that he shall speak in my name, I will require it of him.

(20)	But the prophet, which shall presume to speak a word in my name,
which I have not commanded him to speak, or that shall speak in the name
of other gods, even that prophet shall die.

(21)	And if thou say in thine heart, How shall we know the word which
the LORD hath not spoken?

(22)	When a prophet speaketh in the name of the LORD, if the thing
follow not, nor come to pass, that is the thing which the LORD hath not
spoken, (Yeah. I won’t let go on that at this time. I won’t be that
mean preacher.) but the prophet hath spoken it presumptuously: thou
shalt not be afraid of him.

	Here we see Elohim expressing Himself by representation. To fail to
listen could be death. Why? Because the prophets were God to the people.

27.	Now then, let’s apply this all to Jesus.

(1)	In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the
Word was God. 

(3)	All things were made by Him...(Who is the Word, Who was Elohim.)

(14)	And the Word (became) flesh (and in verse 18)

(18)	…the only begotten Son...has declared him. (Or in the Greek,
‘exegeted Him’, which means to absolutely define, picture, and
present perfectly after the content identity through words.) 

	God declared, God revealed, God defined, God made plain by the Word
that God gives. Jesus came forth as the last Adam who was both created
and formed like the first Adam, for the ovum and the sperm were created
in the womb of Mary, but the body was formed from the dust through the
chemistry in the womb of Mary. God indwelt that body at Jordan so Jesus
could say, “He that hath seen me, hath seen the Father.”	

28.	“Well,” I say, “I want to see that Spirit.”

	You know what Jesus would say? 

	“How long have I been with you? How long must I suffer you? When you
going to learn; you don’t see it that way.”

	“But I want to see it that way.”

	“Then die in your sin, because if you believe not that I AM He, you
die in your sin.”

	What are you scared of? Looking at a human figure and seeing God? God
wasn’t scared. Why should you be scared? Why are you worried about His
plan? He wasn’t worried about His plan. In fact, His plan is going to
go into effect, and yours is going to go down the drain. The prophet
taught us this. This is no mystery. Jesus said, “He that hath seen me,
hath seen the Father. So, why do you keep saying, ‘Show us the
Father?’ What is the matter with you?”

29.	You know, many people think Jesus was just such a little different
person than what he was. At the graveside of Lazarus, he wept. The Bible
said, he groaned. If you read the original translation, he was angry at
the unbelief.

	Jesus marveled one day. He marveled at their hardness of heart and
their unbelief: “He that hath seen me, hath seen the Father.” This
is the explanation mark and the period rung down on all ages. There is
no alternative; there is no question mark. “Why do you keep asking to
show us the Father? You have seen Him.” 

30.	He proved it was He, Elohim, the Word, by the Scriptural works. John
14:9-11:

(9)	Jesus saith unto him, Have I been so long time with you, and yet
hast thou not known me, Philip? he that hath seen me hath seen the
Father; and how sayest thou then, Shew us the Father?

(10)	Believest thou not that I am in the Father, and the Father in me?
the words that I speak unto you I speak not of myself: but the Father
that dwelleth in me, he does the works. (Don’t you see I AM
Deuteronomy 18? Don’t you see I AM a regular prophet, a real prophet,
but I have gone beyond being a prophet because I AM that Prophet that
was ‘in’ the prophets?) See. Now, listen:

(11)	Believe me that I am in the Father, and the Father in me: or else
believe me for the very works’ sake.

	He said, “Look; if you cannot understand it, you can understand this.
Who is doing the kind of works I AM doing but God? If that does not
settle, you nothing will.” 

31.	You know, I make this sound kind of hard, but if you realize the
infinite patience of Jesus Christ with this man after all that
time...see…it would make lesser people like you and me just rise up
and say, “Let’s call it quits and go home to glory. Hallelujah!” I
try...I try... My God, what are they looking for? What do you want? What
do you think you’d like to see? 

	“Well, I would like...”

	“Well, well, well,… I wonder what I would like to see...”

	“Yeah, by the way, what would God be like?”

	It all boils down that He has got to come in some creature form. He has
got to come in His Own creation, just like the Book of Revelation said.
Certainly, you’ve got three witnesses. 

	Genesis: “In the beginning God created the heavens and earth”;
“In the beginning was the Word and the Word was God”; then at the
end here, “The Faithful, the Amen, the Beginning of the creation of
God.” Three places: at the beginning, in the middle, and the end. See?

	Sure, what is alpha is omega and what’s in between. There is no board
without two ends, and there is no two ends without the board in the
middle.

	God had revealed Himself in a creature form, Elohim the Servant, the
Messenger was revealed. God expressed Himself in the Son. Relax and
believe It.

32.	You know something? Let me tell you something, I knew there was one
God for years. He wasn’t too real, but I kept preaching and hammering
away, and one day suddenly... Boing! There it was, one God. Now, you try
to phase me. You can prove there are fourteen gods. You can prove there
is half a god. I’ll still come away saying there is one God. I am
sorry; I have had it. Now, you do the same with this. Get rid of your
ideas, your Trinitarian dogma, the little layers of unbelief, all these
funny feelings and thoughts. 

	He was God. No problem. They looked at Him. That is what they could
see. That is all God wanted them to see, and when they could not see, He
called them blind. That is the only way God had of doing it. If He had
another way, He would have done it. God does not have two ways of doing
the same thing; He has got one way. That is easily understood.

33.	The mystery of God in human flesh stood revealed, and the Son
declared, or expressed, or exegeted Elohim. Elohim was unveiled as
Christ brought Him into full view. See. Even God, what God was to man
was brought in full view. As Bro. Branham said, “There, as they sang
the Psalm, ‘They wounded my hands and my feet...All my bones stare at
me...numbered them all.’”

	He said, “There they sang in the temple, and the Mercy Seat was
brought into full view, which was Christ,” because the Mercy Seat on
earth was merely a type or a creature form of reality. Look at God
letting man have a part in it. 

	He said, “I will let you make a Mercy Seat. I will let you make me in
lesser substance, then I will come down in your substance.” 

	Oh, hallelujah! It would make a dead man come out in resurrection. I
will prove it to you. You wait a while. I am not talking through my hat.

34.	Now, and once more in this hour, Elohim has been revealed. That’s
right. Who were you looking at when you saw ‘that one’ stand up and
say, “In the name of Jesus Christ, I take every spirit is this
building under my control for the glory of God”? 

	You were not looking at a man. You were looking at God, the God veiled
in human flesh. William Branham was not Jesus Christ, but he is
identified with Elohim, or I miss what the Word of God says. See, that
is exactly the way it was. Not somebody saying, “We are going to pass
the bread now in the memory of the one whose body was broken out there
on the highway.” That is nonsense. He was the representative of that
one. If that wasn’t God in William Branham bringing this Word, then
you and I are fooled tonight. But I will ask you one question: how did
this great foolish God back up the man who said, “THUS SAITH THE
LORD,” proving that God listened to this man’s words? Let me tell
you something, brother/sister: God does not listen to anybody’s words;
He listens to His Own Words. 

35.	Notice again, God expressing Himself, God expressing Himself by
becoming a Son, but He has never stopped expressing Himself in the
Church. Can you say hallelujah? 

	“Hallelujah!”

	I am glad you said it, because I am going to prove it to you. I won’t
ask you to do anything wrong. Don’t worry. I am not one of those
tricky preachers.

	A fellow tried to trick me one time, he said, “Over here in the Book
of James It said the prayer of faith shall heal the sick.”

	And I said, “Amen.”

	He said, “I caught you, preacher! It says ‘saved’!”

	He is a liar. The word is ‘soso’ and the word is the same for
healing ‘and’ for salvation. Let not trick ourselves in little
Pentecostal nuttiest. Amen. I am going to preach on, brother… 

36.	Now, listen. Revelation 1:

(1)	The Revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave unto him, to shew
unto his servants things which must shortly come to pass; and he sent
and signified it by his angel unto his servant John:

(2)	Who bare record of the word of God, and of the testimony of Jesus
Christ, and of all things that he saw. (That is the Testimony of Jesus
Christ.)

(3)	Blessed is he that readeth, and they that hear the words of this
prophecy, and keep those things which are written therein: for the time
is at hand.

	Now you go to the Church Ages (Revelation) Chapters 2-3, you will find
seven complete church ages in this earth under the Gentile age, and He
has continuously revealed Himself by seven major revelations of Himself
through the messenger in each Age. And you can prove It, because It says
here in the First Church Age: [Revelation 2:1]

(1)	Unto the messenger of the church which is in Ephesus write, These
things saith he that holds the seven stars... (Verse 8):

(8)	And unto the angel of the church in Smyrna write; These things saith
the first and the last, which was dead, and is alive. (The twelveth
verse had the Sword):

(12)	And to the angel of the church in Pergamos write; These things
saith he which hath the sharp sword with two edges; (The eighteenth
verse: “His eyes are a flame of fire”):

(18)	And unto the angel of the church in Thyatira write; These things
saith the Son of God, who hath his eyes like unto a flame of fire, and
his feet are like fine brass.

	In every single age the messenger comes away with a revelation of Jesus
Christ, and He is the revelation by virtue of the revelation being in
him.

37.	The seven church age messengers. I believe, that is the seven
spirits before the throne up there, the seven Spirits of God because
Bro. Branham said in the “Rapture” tape, he said, “Those seven
mighty Angels that came down were the seven counterparts, as it were,
standing before the Throne of God and every one had a messenger on this
earth.”

	And in those seven Messengers came down that mighty Messenger—came
down with a Revelation: God once more revealing Himself in a creature
form. God revealed Himself in a creature form by those messengers by the
Spirit of God within them. He gave them the Word for their day. That is
exactly right. And at the end time, there will be a complete revelation
of the whole Word because It says, “The mystery of God should be
consummated and perfected in the days of the voice of the seventh church
age messenger.” 

38.	Now, the seventh Church... Let me read It for you here. It says:
[Revelation 10:7]

(7)	But in the days of the voice of the seventh angel, when he shall
begin to sound, the mystery of God should be (perfected and
consummated), as (God) hath declared (the good news of the Gospel by)
his servants the prophets.

	The very mystery of God is going to be wound up through the complete
revelation and, as Bro. Branham that revelation is a three-fold purpose
and mystery which has been hidden until this hour of which I am speaking
on according to what the prophet taught us in “Christ Is the Mystery
of God Revealed” [7/28/63].

	Then, in the opening of the Seven Seals: it has been Christ, the Word,
all the time: Glory to Elohim, Christ the Word. Who was Jehovah? Christ
the Word. Who was in Moses, but Christ the Word? Who was there in
Melchisedec, but Christ the Word? Who was Jesus, but Christ the Word?
Who was in Paul, but Christ the Word? Who came back at Pentecost, but
Christ the Word? Who indwells the Church now, but Christ the Word?
It’s a whole revelation of Christ the Word. 

	The Seven Seals declared It—corrected all the errors, and brought us
back to a full understanding. Certainly that is what it is. Here we are
at the end. The full assurance of faith has come to us, making us ready
for a Rapture.

39.	Our fathers find it very hard to see seven church ages and the
continuing revelation of Jesus Christ.. . Sure they do. They want to
look back and say, “Well, He did it all in Jesus, and you sort of got
to pick it up.”

 	Well, I got news for them: they are off, entirely off. It is a
continuing revelation. Not we are adding to it, or taking from it. It is
the continuing revelation, because it’s God all the way. But, if you
can see Christ… Now, listen; if you can see Christ in the Old
Testament in Abraham, in Joseph, and Isaac, and Moses, and Samuel, and
David, and the prophets and the mighty men there, because they are typed
there, then you can see Christ in the Bride, revealing Himself as the
Word to her also.

40.	Now, listen. If Christ had the preeminence back there in the Old
Testament, and, as Bro. Branham said, “Men not knowing it, just acting
out the coming One,” then surely, we are acting out the same One Who
came two thousand years ago, even though we are actually unaware of it. 

	I ask you a question. Do you think for one minute that Moses really
understood and believed it? I better not use Moses because he did pretty
well above the others. But do you think that maybe Joseph understood
this and believed that way? And Jacob and some of those? They would say
themselves, and maybe David, after his sin say, “Oh, I don’t think I
am… I don’t think am, am, ...I am, that He is acting out anything in
me. I just don’t know that He is revealing Himself. I just wonder
about that, (See.) but it must be so.”

41.	Now, listen. It must be so if the Bride is the ‘Body’ of Christ.
See. Elohim hasn’t got any other way of doing it. Jehovah hasn’t got
any other way of doing it. Do you think…? (Now, listen; now, watch
carefully now.) Do you think any, but the first and last church age
messenger, out of all seven, were aware of who they were? No. Only Paul
and William Branham. Why? Because alpha is omega. And if Paul knew, then
seven has to know it, and two, three, four, five, and six wouldn’t
even recognize it? See.	

	I will prove it to you. Moses knew it, and Jesus was the one who
replaced Moses, and they both knew it. And Moses stood with Jesus
talking about his demise, and the fellow who missed death stood there
and said, “Hallelujah! I won’t be there to die, but I will get a
little later on...”—old Elijah. See, there again, principles of
alpha and omega.

42.	Remember; the prophet said, “A measure of the Spirit of Christ was
poured out under Luther through justification, Wesley and Pentecost, and
now the Baptism and restoration, and Christ revealed fully as the
‘Seed’ of the entire Bible is planted—Christ showing Himself
perfectly in this age.”

	So, Elohim has revealed and expressed Himself to men from the
beginning, soon as there was a man there on earth, God was expressing
Himself. He had to, for this was His purpose which was in Himself, and
what was in Him, that alone had to come out. God is just like you and
me; He cannot express what He isn’t. That is why He can’t lie. You
and I can; it’s just too bad. That’s why it comes out. But He could
only reveal and express Himself according to His Own ways, because that
is how He is. 

	Here is the mystery that men have found so hard to grasp, and
therefore, they are failing to see the presence of God revealed: Acts
3:19. Talk about these grease lights... These lights, I could do without
them.

43.	Now, let’s go to Acts 3. We are going to see something here.

(19)	Repent ye therefore, and be converted... (Change your mind and turn
around. You only get turned around by getting the Holy Ghost now. That
is what Bro. Branham said, “Conversion is Holy Ghost.”) that your
sins may be blotted out, (That is a sure way to know they are gone. Now
listen:) when the times of refreshing (when God shall send a new
revival) from the presence of the Lord.

	Now, let’s be honest. They do not need a revival in heaven. God is
not going to get rid of angels. There is only one place you need a
revival, and that’s down here. Let’s face it: be honest, not
children…simple as A-B-C. We need a revival. Now It says right here,
it is going to come from the presence of God. Where? Right here. And
where is the presence of God? It is going to be right here.

44.	Now, the word in the Greek for ‘presence’ means ‘that part of
anything that is visible to the eye.’ Now, what is visible to the
human eye? The creature form that God takes on.

	Now It goes on to say here that:

(20)	…he’ll send Jesus Christ which was (appointed) unto you, (not
preached). (Jesus was not preached, He was there. I am not preached to
you; I am here.)

(21)	 Whom the heavens must retain until the restoration of all things.

	Now then, it is not Jesus Christ Himself in flesh that is here, but the
presence of Jehovah, or Elohim, must be here. Where is God? In a
prophet, because God is the Word.

45.	Now the Bible says right here that God is going to send a revival
from that which can be seen of God. And Jesus said, “Have you seen me
so long and don’t know that I AM the Father? I will give you one more
clue: Look at my works.”

	That’s God when you see those works. Now you show me a man who
duplicated the ministry of Jesus Christ. I will give you two thousand
years to go into history, because that is how long we’ve been here,
and I want to you to show me one man who duplicated the ministry of
Jesus Christ outside of William Branham. Now he said, “There is going
to be a revival,” and Bro. Branham said, “See, that revival has been
going on for twenty years and they can’t kill it.” How you going to
kill it, when it is going to put you in the Resurrection; Christ
revealing Himself, proving Himself to this age to put us in the
Resurrection?

	You say, “Why?” 

	Because, brother/sister, He cannot come until there is a resurrection.
See. So, Elohim revealed Himself and has revealed Himself in this day.

46.	Now we could go on and on, but we are going to quit right there and
go to the second purpose, because we have shown you God revealing
Himself. He has never stopped revealing Himself; He has revealed Himself
consistently through the Scripture method which is in Himself, which
then must be Himself revealed.

	How is an artist an artist? 

	“Oh, because he says he so.” 

	Hogwash! He is an artist because he can draw. He shows he is an artist.
He has got the ability and the spirit, the fineness in that which makes
him an artist, not some dibbler or dabbler. A lot of dibblers and
dabblers… A lot of dibblers and dabblers in the days of Moses. Korah,
Dathan and Abiram. Oh, they dibbled and dabbled, and everybody that
dibbled and dabbled with them lost out—ended up in the Lake of Fire
with that nonsense. But Moses was the prophet, and God was in the
prophet, and He said, “You are Elohim to them.” See, all through the
Bible we’ve got the very same thing: Christ is in a body. Today: the
bride of the Lord Jesus Christ is His Body. See.

47.	But we are not talking about that just specifically. We are talking
specifically how God comes to us and shows us His Word, see. Now, how
will He have the preeminence in the Bride? Now His first purpose, He has
attained. There is no doubt about it. For six thousand years God has
been revealing Himself. He has done it in the one way He told us He
would do it, and it has always been that way. There has never been any
other way. Two thousand years we have had God revealing Himself by the
Word to a messenger, and then the messenger teaches faithful servants,
and they teach others. See.

	And those who saw with the ‘understanding’ by the way God sent His
revelation of Himself, saw God. See. Now, is that hard to understand?
Well, I didn’t get any comment, so I will give one myself. 

	1 Samuel, my favorite, sweet, little Scripture, 1 Samuel 3:21:

(21)	And the LORD appeared again in Shiloh for the LORD revealed himself
to Samuel in Shiloh by the Word of the LORD.

	Now, let’s go a little further, and It says over here: (1 Sam 3:15)

(15)	And Samuel (laid down) until…morning and opened the doors (to)
the house of God and Samuel feared to show the vision to Eli.

	Now, that something or another has gone haywire, if you don’t
understand it, because little Samuel didn’t see anything; he
‘heard’ something. Now the Bible said he had a vision through
hearing. You want to see God, then hear His Word, and hear It right, and
you will see God with your spiritual understanding.

48.	Now, it is very simple to understand how God will get the
preeminence. We go to the Book of Colossians, which Bro. Branham used,
which I did not use until this moment. Colossians 1:15-19: 

(15)	Who is the image of the invisible God...

	In other words, It says, “This One made Him visible; come and look at
Him.” And they said, “Ah, he is Joseph’s son. Who needs him? The
illegitimate fellow comes in here; tries to tell us what to do. Never
did like him in the first place.” Well, they didn’t even
investigate.

	One fellow said, “Listen,” he said, “Why, does our law condemn a
man before it hears him?” 

	“Oh,” they said, “Shut up. Are you one of his people? Well, no
prophet comes out of Nazareth down there.”	

	Why, he never came out of Nazareth. He came out of Judea. Ha, certainly
he did. They didn’t bother even looking. My, my, my. I can just see
the same bunch of Jews around us tonight.

49.	(16)	For by him were all things created, that are in heaven, and
that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones,
…dominions, …principalities…

	Isn’t that wonderful? The whole thing belongs to Him. Of course, the
devil is using them right now, but that does not make them not God’s.

(16)	…all things were created by him, and for him: 

(17)	And he is before all things, and by him all things (are
maintained).

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

(19)	For it pleased (God) that in him should all fulness dwell.

50.	Now, let’s look at verses 16-17. It says here:

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

(17)	And he is before all, and by him all things consist. 

	Verse 19:

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

	For in him all the fullness of the Godhead was pleased to dwell. That
is what It says about Him Who has the preeminence.

	Now, first of all, (Now, watch.) one as preeminent as ‘this One’…
Look at this: “All things made by Him in heaven and in earth, visible,
invisible, dominions, principalities; all of them created by Him. He is
before all things, and all things by Him consist.” Well, listen; one
person that preeminent, how could He not have the preeminence by very
right of fact that He is preeminent? Well, come on.

51.	Brother Branham said, “A little old policeman down there in
Louisville, he just about so you could spit over his head, without even,
you know, even raising your head...nothing to him…stand there, scrawny
little fellow with a big old yellow or white mitt, standing in
traffic—big old five ton truck come roaring down the road with ten
more tonners—pulls up his hand, that truck goes scr.e.e.c..h. Why,
that fellow does not have any power to stop that truck. But look what is
behind him.”

	You say, “Oh boy, that guy he... I will stand beside him. Yes, sir,
Mister Cop, yes, sir, Mister Policeman. Yes, sir. Oh, yes.” 

	He just gave you a ticket. 

	“Oh, yes, Mister Policeman. Oh, yes, Mister Policeman.”

	Why? Because he is the law. What about this One here? You talk about
preeminence. How can He not be preeminent? Because He is preeminent. I
do not care what anybody says, He is. How could anybody be preeminent
who was not by virtue already preeminent? You are putting up a
boogieman, and imposter, a foul thing. You cannot make a crude thing
take the place of the high thing, like maybe Mark Twain’s The Prince
and the Pauper—got the two kids mixed up because they looked alike.

52.	I’ve got news for you: You are not getting Jesus mixed up with
anybody. He is preeminent. Let’s prove it. Same thing over here in the
Rom 11:36.

(36)	For of him, and through him, and to him, are all things: to whom be
glory. (That One preeminent.)

	See. Now, listen. The creature could never approximate the creator. And
you’ve got a Roman Catholic Church and a protestant hierarchy. God
have pity! Somebody stands there with a little old creed and dogma and
come against the Word. 

	“My church says so.”

	Who cares about your church? Gee. I was a Presbyterian back in Canada,
then they joined the Methodists. And the Methodists took our
Presbyterian Church and made it so filthy ungodly; you never saw such a
mess, because the Presbyterians believed in salvation, and the Methodist
preacher believed in nothing but a sort of temperance. And he wasn’t
very temperate, or he’d quit his diet and got a little thinner. He was
so big you could not even look around him. Maybe like the old Methodist
lady in our town that was a prohibition lady, and when she was dying
they looked for her booze bottle to give her stimulant. They finally
found it. If I was against liquor that much, I wouldn’t have a booze
bottle around.

	Methodist, Baptist… What has that got to do with it? See. The
creature could never approximate the creator. Where is your preeminence
now? One man flaunts himself against the other. Hah? The hand against
the foot...not even the hand against the foot; this is directly against
Almighty God.

53.	Now, how exactly will He, Who is preeminent by virtue of His Own
stature, be preeminent in the Bride, because it sounds like even this
preeminent One could be in a bit of danger as to not be preeminent? 

	Sure, I will tell you. He will do it by revealing Himself to her. What
does He bother doing in the first place? Does He reveal Himself in order
not to be preeminent? He reveals Himself in order to be preeminent. And
He reveals Himself to her in such a way that He will be everything to
her because He is everything to her, because all things are by Him and
to Him and for Him. See? All what makes Him naturally preeminent, will
be revealed to her and entrusted to her, so that He will be all things
to her.

	Now, that’s staggering. This is what the prophet tried to get across,
and I am just a copy-cat tonight because I do not know if I am getting
it across either to me or to you. I am going to be honest. I am not up
here to lie to you. I am very candid.

54.	But He has become all things to the Bride. As the Scripture says,
“He is all things to the church,” because He is all things by virtue
by what He is, you see.

	Now, that is exactly what we read over here in Eph 1:22-23. Reading It
again.

(22)	 And hath put all things under his feet...

	Well, if everything is under Him, He is the preeminent One. 

	I had a vision of Him once. Oh yes, I did. And He appeared in a
creature form, the likeness of a man exactly as Ezekiel saw Him, except
He wasn’t on the Throne. His feet were on the earth. He was—now I am
going to show you something, as God is my judge; my hand representing
the earth as a ball, because it is a ball. I saw it in a ball. Here was
God in stature like this. 

55.	Now you examine yourself. How big you are in the light of three
billion people over the 25,000 mile circumference of the earth, and God
being this much bigger. Just how big are you, then, when you compare
yourself to God? 

	Yet that One is all things to you and me. He has made Himself
available; the preeminent One has revealed Himself. And in the
revelation, He has not withheld Himself by saying, “Look, but touch
not or taste not,” He said, “Look and touch and taste.” See?

	Ah, yes, He does. Yes, He does. Hebrews 6 says He does it at the end
time. And many will go even that far and still reject the preeminence in
favor of a creed or a dogma or some miserable church.

56.	Now, further, “let us reason.” I say ‘reason’. I am going to
use human reasoning, yet not human reasoning, but Scriptural. In other
words, free our minds and think.

	When Christ was here on earth, what did He express? The answer: He
could and did express nothing but what He was, which is the
Word—Elohim. Now, listen. And since He has come back as the Holy Ghost
two thousand years ago, and has been here two thousand years, what has
He possibly expressed? He has continuously expressed what He is, which
is the Word.

	Now, watch it: justification, sanctification, restoration of the gifts,
fully restored baptism of the Holy Ghost. Who is He? Revelation says.
“He is Faithful and True. He is the Word of God.” See. That’s all.
That’s all He can express.

57.	So, to the Bride, He will express the fullness of the Godhead, and
being all things to her, He will gain the preeminence, for He is her
Head. Right? He is preeminent, He’s the head. That’s what the Bible
said up here: “He came to be the head of the Church.”

	What do people do, look at your feet when they want to talk to you?
They look at your eyes, look at your head. See? Now, listen to what the
prophet said, “Christ in you makes Him the center of life of the
Revelation.” Now if you are Bride, you’ve got Christ in you. That
make Him the center of life of the Revelation, because He is the
Revelation and He is the Life. 

58.	Now, listen. As Christ in the Bible makes the Bible the complete
revelation of Christ, (Now Christ in the Bible makes the Bible the
complete revelation of Christ. It does.) Christ in you makes you the
complete revelation of the whole thing. But what are you here for? For
Him. Who gets the preeminence? Christ.

	See? Sure, He got the preeminence, because He is the preeminent One.
Sure, He is the preeminent One because He is all things to the Church.
How can you believe in anything but a Word-identified Life? 

	“Oh yes, I admire that man and think he has got such a great
spirit.” 

	…But he’s off the Word.

	I got news for you: you can admire him, my brother, but do not ask Lee
Vayle to do it. No, no, brother/sister. Don’t ask me. Here is the
preaching I am doing that I go asked Bro. Branham…I kinda wish he’d
take away by prayer. But the prophet wouldn’t do it. See? Don’t ask
me to be caught away. 	

59.	And what Bro. Earl in his message last night could have brought out
was to me was one of the most important words in the Church Age book,
because Bro. Branham penned it in, in his large, bold hand writing
concerning Laodicea, “There will be a repeat of all diabolical
cunning.” How cunning would I be if my spirit was rough, hard, tough?
But if I was sweet, sweet, sweet, sweet, sweet…sweeter than the
prophet. 

	I’ve got news for you, honey: you are all woman, as far as I’m
concerned. Now, listen to me. Eve was not raped. She was seduced, which
means she was lulled by the beauty of the thought of the lovely act to
become a part with an anti-God theme. And you admire a man’s spirit
who is against the Word? Not Bro. Vayle. God hates those who hate His
Word.

60.	Now, listen. Everything that Christ was, manifested and revealed on
earth, He is pouring into the Church so that what He revealed will not
die, or lay dormant, but the revelation Itself will come to life and
express Itself in the Bride.

	Why did God reveal Himself? So that you would know that He is the
preeminent One. If you cannot see Him as the preeminent One,
brother/sister, there is something wrong with somebody’s eye. If
you’ve got a God that is so weak that, when He made Adam and Eve, He
did not know what they would do, then He had no business doing
something. He could hardly be omniscient, and the Scripture says He is. 

	Brother Branham cataloged, or categorized, that infinity of God and His
omniscience to such a place that he said, “He knew how many fleas
would be in this world, and how many gnats, and how many times they’d
bat their eye.” I don’t think I want to try to compute that on a
computer.

	Then, with that Life expressed, He has the preeminence. It has to be
for His life and her life. She doesn’t have one of her own. The Bible
says, “Christ is her life.”

61.	You know, it is a funny thing, but today the people are so sorry for
our dear, sweet ladies that are so run down by these furious, mean
husbands. 

	“Why, she has got to go to him for everything. She can’t breathe
without going to him. She cannot think, but he has got to think for
her.” 

	Oh, I got news for you: Jesus looks down and He says, “You cannot
think either. I am supposed to think for you.”

	Now you are getting used to the real, old Vayle because this is how I
act in the pulpit when I am trying to get my point across, because it is
the only way I know how. Because if I said it real sweet, you would miss
the point and go right over your head, but this way you didn’t miss
the point. If a husband is the head, he’s preeminent. And if God is
the head, He is preeminent. And, if He claims to be preeminent, He’s
got to be the Head.

62.	I want to tell you something, sister: your life is not your own. You
have not got a life of your own. Period. There is no such thing as a
female life. It’s all in the man. The Bible says so. The woman does
not have seed; the man has. I’m going to tell you, that’s the way
the Bride is. I’m not running down women now, because Bride is female,
and that is what I am trying to show you. You can’t show me wrong
because, you see, I’ve got the prophet, plus I got the Bible. For the
man not of the woman, but the woman is of the man. The very life that
she got is from Adam. There is no female life. It was all male life, but
it was divided so they could have children—propagation. 

	Her body is his body. That is right. Where did that ‘body’ come
from? A Word? Or a creed or a dogma? Shaking somebody’s hand, or
talking in tongues? Yeah, Glory to God, something really happened.

63.	“You know, Bro. Vayle, when I took that communion, that changed my
life.”

	I got news for you: you got the wrong change. Her works are His works.
Yeah, oh, how we love to talk about works. You know something? I’ll
give you a little secret. I have been mouthing off across the country. I
shouldn’t use those bad expressions about myself, been talking around
the country, because this is serious. I am not trying to make a joke.

	A couple of years ago, I had one of the most disappointing experiences
of my life, when I really had attempted to do right by the people where
I lived because I felt so sorry for them, being quite a few in number
without no pastor. 

	I went one day, (And it is all on a tape recorder.) and I said,
“Look, there’s so many of you and you hunger for help, and I simply
can’t feel your burden and run home to you all the time. I was even
leaving places on the field to get home because I loved them. And I
said, “Would you like me to help you get a pastor?”

	And they said, “Yeah.”

	Now, you know, I should not have said that. 

64.	What have I got to do with putting a pastor, helping pastors, or
anything? I’ve got no right to try to do God a service. I am not a
pastor. I know my life. Listen to me. I teach. Could you think any
congregation could stand me the way I teach before you, like I do now
before you, for an hour and a half or two hours to three, two and three
times a week? Do you think the kind of spirit I carry on me to get my
points across, but I am sweet when you set down to talk your problems
and could cry and do anything with you I could? You think I am a pastor?
I am no more a pastor than nothing. I would rip up the wheat with the
tares, and I do it. Don’t be shocked.

	Are you shocked? Let’s go home now and forget it. I’ve got nothing
more to tell you. You ain’t even born again. I am telling you what the
prophet said. I am not a pastor; I am a teacher. I’ve got to stay on
that road. And the minute I dare to put my finger on anything that was
outside of my calling, though my heart was full of love, my works were
no longer His works. They were Lee Vayle’s, and I paid the price of a
heartbreak for it.

65.	You think I don’t love people? I sometime do... Not all the time.
I’ve got to be honest. Not trying to be funny, just got to be honest.
I wouldn’t lie to you. Why would I lie to you? Anybody can lie. You
are foolish to lie. It’ll catch up with you. 

	But there are times when I want to help people. I opened a door for man
after man. Each one cut my throat and betrayed me, and I went to God and
I said, “Why?”

	And He said, “A man’s gift makes room for him. You don’t make
room.”

	Then I wondered. I realized why it was the prophet never opened any
doors. You think he did, but he didn’t. The prophet didn’t say,
“I’ll make this door for you; I will make that door.” I made my
own. You know how I made my own? Nobody could write the Church Age book,
so I laid everything on the altar, gave up my whole living and said,
“I will do it, if I can,” and I did. He didn’t open any doors. And
I go home and wonder and say, “Why doesn’t he open a door? Why
doesn’t he do something for me?”

66.	The prophet, being a prophet, knew a man’s gift made room for him,
and he told me several years before, “Bro. Vayle, you are like me, you
got a little gift of teaching; I got a little gift of healing. Nobody
wants your little gift of teaching. Nobody wants my little gift of
healing.” 

	I said, “That sure sounds nice to you, but it is pretty hard on me.
What do I do?”

	I know he was getting along pretty good with his little gift, but I
wasn’t doing so hot with my little gift. He said, “Doc, you know you
are no pastor.”

	I said, “I know that. What will I do?” 

	He said, “Do what I am doing.”

	So, I said, trying to get a little hint, you know, a little handout
sort of thing...little push, pat on the back, a little lift up in the
air. I said, “What are you doing?”...as though I didn’t know. 

	And he said, “Well, you just go down the road, one step at a time. As
the Lord opens the door, and when you are through that door, you wait,
and the Lord opens another door.”

	So, I have been going down the road waiting for God to open doors. And
He has got so many doors open now, I don’t know which one to go in
first.

67.	Now, how are you going to do the works of God, if the headship is
not in Christ?...it’s your own head, your own ideas? The prophet
taught us these things—doing God a service apart from His Will: there
is no service outside of divine Orders by this Word. 

	And you say, “Well, church order is for some other church.”

	“I am glad you said that, but, of course, this church that Lee Vayle
goes to...”

	I don’t care about you. You go ahead and fall on the excoriating
wrath of a prophet of God that said, “They are bastard children when
they turned away.”

	You call ‘sweet’ lovely, what you want to call it. I’ll say what
the prophet said. That’s right. I used to do a lot of discerning at
one time. Friends right here might have known that years ago—a lot of
it. Bro. Branham one day said, “Lee, you got a lot of good discernment
and a lot of bad, too.” He said, “You’ve had some error.” He
said, “The gift is mine. Nobody but me has that gift. And anybody that
tries to have it, shows what they are: under a false anointed.”

68.	Now, come on. I’ve got... Some of you people look amazed. I got
news for you: be a little bit more amazed. I can tell you a lot of
things. They were amazed with great wonder at Jesus, and He was amazed
right back at them. Hah? Doing God a service! His works, brother/sister,
is His Word.

	“Many will come in that day and they say, ‘Lord, Lord, we cast out
the devils.’” 

	And He will say, “Depart.” 

	And you will say, “Hold it, Lord, hold it, hold it, please listen:
Your Word said ‘to cast them out.’ We obeyed Your Word.”

	He said, “You misunderstood my Word. I told the women to stay home,
to be wives, and raise kids, and the older ones to teach their daughters
to love their husbands,” because husbands must need that little
special love, because they are not too lovely. And the girls are a
little fuzzy, too, because the Bible says, “Husbands be not bitter
against your wives.” What gets in women that makes men bitter?

	Preach it, Bro. Vayle. You’re sure off the subject, but it sounds
good. Don’t mean to sting you; just mean to talk to you a little bit.
See.

69.	His works, brother/sister, must be within the framework of the Word,
because He said, “Which of you can confute me of one Word, and where
do you find I AM off at one time?” But on that day He takes the same
Word, and they are defiled by handling the Word. And what about some of
you men that weren’t even called to preach? I hope you are not here.

	Her mind is His mind. The prophet told me in 1964, he said, “Bro.
Vayle,” his eyes hazy, too many visions, too great a burden. He said,
“Bro. Vayle, I wish I had people around me who could take the burden
off me, to just let me be with God and His thoughts.” He said, “I
can’t even go home but my thoughts are disrupted. One thought coming
to my mind disrupted may take me a month to get that thought back.” 	

	A prophet of God, and you and I want to get the whole thing and think
we know the whole thing in this little time we have had, when a prophet
of God might take months for one thought to come back. And people around
here saying they got it all figured out? Oh, come on. Don’t tell Bro.
Vayle that.

	Now, you look in the mirror and tell yourself, “Honey, I will pat you
on the back and say, “Very sweet of you; that’s nice of you. God
bless you,” but don’t tell me.” Her mind is His Mind, and it is
all Word identified, or it is not God.” Yet I have heard of people who
say they believe this Message over whom Bro. Branham once even
prophesied, went running to a church where there was tongues and
interpretation for further prophesy. The process of preeminence is the
process… [a 3 second blank spot on recording]

70.	You say, “Bro. Branham, what do you mean when you say “the Son
of man revealed in human flesh”? What do you mean?” 	

	He said, “The Son of man revealed in human flesh is the Bride in
every Age.” That is what the prophet said. He meant what he said.

	Do you realize who the Son of man is? He is the Prophet; God is His Own
Prophet. God is the Prophet because the prophets were prophet by virtue
of the fact of the Prophet in them. That is right. God is His Own
Prophet. That is why Bro. Branham said, “The Elijah for this day is
the Lord Jesus Christ, Himself; not a man, but it will come by a man.”

	Now, listen. Then, if the prophet Christ is revealed in the Bride,
because that is the Son of man, see, that makes the Bride all
eagle—not a chicken amongst them. Listen, and if they are all eagles,
it makes them all one with the Word, Who is the great Eagle, (See.) Who
reveals the Word—God revealing Himself. It has to be so.

71.	Listen to Acts 3:25: (Oh, it is only 10:00—two more hours and you
will be out!)

(25)	You are the children of the prophets, and of the covenant which God
made with our fathers…

	That is how they are the children, is by the Word of God. How could you
be a child of the prophet? 

	You say, “I’ve got to have the seed of the prophet.” 

	That is right. The prophet does not have his own seed. He’s a eunuch,
because the Word is all together in his mouth, not his head. Paul said,
“This Word I received not of myself, nor was I trained by men,” but
he said, “This Word came by revelation.” See? Now, he said, “I
have begotten to you in Christ by the Gospel.” So therefore, we are
the children of the prophets on the grounds that we are ‘born’ of
the Word.

72.	Now, listen. Let’s go to Peter, if I can find It. I always have
such a trouble finding things. Listen. 1 Peter 1:23:

(23)	Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible,
(which is) the Word of God, which lives and abides for ever (making you
eternal).

	You say, “Well, Bro. Vayle, can you be born again any other way?” 

	Oh, you bet you can. You can be born again of a creed and a dogma.
Certainly. You can be born again through a process at the altar.
There’s a lot of ways to get born again.

	There is only one way to get really born again, and that is by the Word
of God. But what is the Word of God? It is the vindicated, revealed Word
of God. And you’ve had Seven Church Age Messages, and now at the end
time we’ve got the great One. Now, if the prophets had that Word and I
am begotten... Now, listen. If the prophets had that Word and I am
begotten by the Word of that prophet, then I am part of that Word; and,
if I am part of that Word, I am part of Christ.

73. I ask you a question: Who are you supposed to revere in your home?
Your father. He is the preeminent one by virtue of the fact that he is
the preeminent one. See. Now, therefore, He will get the preeminence,
because we are of the Word as He is of the Word. And since God decreed
that like begets like, how can we be unlike Him, Who is the Word, being
part of that Word and the very genes and attributes of God will be in
us? And I know that certainly sounds awful far away, but,
brother/sister, either God lied or He didn’t lie. See.

74.	Now, Abraham considered not his own body not dead, but he believed
what God said. Remember; faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the
Word of God. Remember, the eagles hear the ‘scream’ and the chickens
hear the cluck. And the cluck will take you to the manure pile, and the
scream will take you to glory.

75.	Now, listen. Absolutely ‘reborn by the Word’ will give the Word
preeminence, because that’s why you are reborn. Now Bro. Branham said,
“If I was an apple tree, and somehow, if the sap of a peach tree could
get into me, I would bear peaches.” You would get preeminence through
the peach sap, the life. Therefore, by absolutely being reborn by the
Word will give the Word preeminence, and that means that Christ has
gained His right place of glory in the Bride. 

	So, “I’m going to give God a lot of glory.”

	Not unless it is in the Word. 

	As Christ the Word has preeminence, He will express Himself through
that Bride who is Word also. 

	You cannot have a chickadee expressing himself through a pussy cat.
That is not vulgar; it is just the truth. Bro. Branham said, “If the
cell starts with a dog, you don’t add a cat and a horse or something
else.” It has got to be Word, Word, Word, Word, Word. The Bride is
Word.

76.	Now, listen. I think of all the facets or the manifested
characteristics of Christ: “in Him was love.” That’s right. “God
so loved the world that He gave His Only-begotten Son.” See. God loved
that poor widow...raised her son. God loved that man at the
water...raised him up. God loved Martha, Mary, and Larazus…raised him
up. He certainly did. He loved us...proved it. 

	But in Him was also judgment. And the very God that was the God of love
went down to the temple one day, and He cast out those money changers
and those that sold things.

77.	I’m going to tell you my version of that, and I think I am right.
The Bible said if you lived too far from the temple and you cannot bring
your first-fruits, all the offerings, you sell them and turn it into
money. Then you go to the temple and you turn it back into whatsoever
your soul lusted after and there you give it back to God.

	Now, these people did that, and these people in the temple in the
courtyard, they had the money there; they had the animals there; they
had everything there, as I understand according to the Word of God, to
help these people obey the Word. But listen to me. Here is what was
wrong: they thought that they were going to get to heaven by what they
were doing, when the Way of Heaven stood there. And because they could
not recognize Him, and because He made it so plain in His love and His
anxiety to help them because His heart was tore up, and they turned Him
down and said, “You are nothing but a bastard child,” He took those
whips. That loving God, He took chunks of rope. 

	Have you ever been burned by binder twine? Ooh, that is a good one. Let
a chunk of rope come across here and rip you. Oh, all the little mean
bits of jute get in there and the blisters come. It’s one of the
rottenest types of wounds you can get. He went slash, whip, slash. A God
of judgment. 

	Oh, brother… “He’s got such a sweet spirit. Oh, hallelujah!” 

	My brother/my sister, this was God and His Word. I hope we have
backbone as the squeeze comes down, my brother/my sister.

78.	He is also God of mercy. He said, “I will have mercy on whom I
will have mercy.” How much mercy was there in that day He went down
and raised the widow’s son? Oh, you couldn’t estimate it! How much
mercy that day He looked upon that fainting crowd and said, “I cannot
send them away. I will multiply food for them?” Infinite mercy.

	How much mercy did He show that day when poor old governor of the feast
was going to lose face, as the Eastern customs have, because he hadn’t
supplied enough wine. They were just going to murder him socially.
Everybody felt sorry; even Mary felt sorry. She said, “Son, I hate to
ask you, but I love dear old John, and he is going to lose face. Now,
you wouldn’t like to lose face if you just miscalculated. Of course,
‘you’ don’t miscalculate. Could you do something for him?”

	And Jesus said, “Yes, I will do something for him. I hate to see a
guy embarrassed.”

	Look at the infinite compassion and mercy and tenderness that morning.
Reached down... Listen, I am going to use vulgar language: literally
made booze for a party so a man wouldn’t lose face. 

	You say, “Bro. Vayle, it was grape juice.”

	Don’t ‘Bro. Vayle’ me. You don’t even know Greek or anything.
It was wine, and it could make you drunk, because the people went to the
governor and said, “What are you doing anyway? How come you saved the
best to the last? Why were you... What you want to do is give the good
stuff and then you get them so boozed up they don’t know the
difference between horse meat and fresh fillet of steak of a good
Hereford out there. You just give them the old raw hamburger made out of
a dog, so to speak. Give them the rotten booze. They won’t know the
difference. They can’t tell stale hamburger from a good fillet mignon.
Make people drunk.” That’s right.

79.	Then one day He went down and people were dying: cancer, leprosy,
TB... One fellow there had a little bit of arthritis, for thirty-eight
years or so. He said, “Do you want to get healed?” 

	The fellow said, “I would sure like to, but the trouble is, nobody
gets me down into pool while the water is being troubled.”

	He said, “I didn’t ask any questions about that. I just said, ‘Do
you want to get healed?’” 

	Well, he said, “I would sure like to.” 

	“Take up your bed and walk. You’ve got it.”

80.	In Him was the giving of law. He was the One Who came down on Mount
Sinai, Who stooped and wrote. He was the same One that came down in
human flesh and stooped and wrote in that sand. 

	Where the Law once condemned, He came down in mercy and washed it all
out. Then He came back here and said, “The Law said, ‘You shall not
commit adultery,’ but I will say unto you, ‘I am going to magnify.
You look at a woman and lust after her, and you want her, in your mind
you are having an affair.’” He said, “You have done it; you are
condemned.”

81.	In Him was power and authority, and the Bride will have all that,
too. What was in Christ must be revealed in the Bride. Here will be men
amongst us, so loving and so sweet, they will lead us right to the Word
and keep us right to the Word. But there will also be men among us that
will be loving and so sweet who will take us right from the Word. And we
will say, “Isn’t he sweet?”

	Listen, ladies, I am going to hit you again, because you type the
Bride. How many women honestly know in their heart he was a rascal, but
“Oh, how I loved him.” Ha, ha, ha. You know what I am talking about.
I am spelling it out because it is in the whole world. I have heard time
after time, time after time, in the mouths of both men and women,
“What a wonderful guy he was, but what a louse.”

82.	Supposing somebody took you off the Word, which is Christ...
Supposing somebody added to that Word. I am not saying people
shouldn’t be sweet and loving. I’m saying they should. But listen,
my brother/my sister, Satan transformed himself to an angel of light.
And is it any thing to be wondered about if his servants also transform
themselves? What is a wolf in sheep clothing but a fellow that acts
like, looks like, and pretends to be, perfectly a sheep? But inside he
is that Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil to take you away from
God. Remember; Adam and Eve were cut down by a Tree: the Knowledge of
Good and Evil. It was the same tree they hanged Jesus on.

83.	Shun it, my brother/my sister. It may look pleasant to the eye; it
may be pleasant to the taste, and you may be happy. But I am going to
tell you something: I have seen those sweet, sweet, preachers, and
I’ve seen the people that have listened, and I’ve gone around and
said, “Did you hear him say this?” 

	And they said, “He never said it.” 

	Their ear was to the door already. The awl had been punched through.
And when the Doctrine came, it was wrong. They never recognized it.
I’ve got three preachers at least in this audience that can testify to
the truth, and I can name them by name, but the people love the sweet,
sweet. Let me tell you, brother/sister: flattery will get you
somewhere—just where it got Eve. His sweetness will not seduce you and
lead you astray if he is a man of God.

84.	Show me where Jesus’ love and sweetness ever made him deny the
judging authority of the Word. That is right. I recall Jesus rising in
anger and judgment against those who were off the Word and making him a
liar. I recall Moses, the same man who said, “Lord, blot me out, if
you are going to take them,” the same man when he was forbidden to
take his place as the rightful leader in the Word where God placed him,
he rose up in anger and said, “Kill them, God.”

	Now, I am not here to say, “Let us take up a club, and let’s go
around killing people.” It didn’t say, “Let’s get mean with
people and take the club and beat them.” I am just showing what the
Bible says. People don’t understand what Jesus manifested. The same
thing has got to be in the Bride.

85.	Meekness is not milk-wash, milk-toast. Meekness is standing up to
anything and everything for the Word of God—not being violent with the
sword to do something about It, but standing for It. Brother Branham
said, concerning that first Church Age, “Those false apostles came to
Ephesus, and they tried to get in there and insinuate their…

	The people said, “Hey! You are false.” 

	“What do you mean, ‘We are false?’”

	We just gave you the Word test and you flunked it. I can see in the
Bride those who hew us out. The prophet said, “We are hewed out.”

	‘Hewing out.’ Let me see, that means, “Oh, tweet, tweet.” Oh,
yes, ah, “little…” [Bro. Vayle makes sounds like someone chipping
very carefully away on wood.]

86.	Oh, come on. You ever hewed wood? Man, I used to have the best old,
double-swing action you ever saw...put that old long-handled double-face
ax up there, take my wrist like this, and get on my own kind of power
drive. Wham! I didn’t get very far sometimes, but I sure whammed her.
I am going to hew me out some fire wood, bless God.

	That is what Bro. Branham said the prophet does—not pounding at
people with blow. That would make a man a hypocrite. If l get up here to
bang you around, I would be a hypocrite. But if my nature’s one, and
someone’s nature is one, to stand firm and hard with the Word, don’t
fuss with that guy’s nature, call him a wrong spirit, and this and
that. He’s only got a wrong spirit when he is trying to beat you over
the head and make you go his way instead of lining you up with the Word.
Because, listen; I don’t care, brother/sister, when I leave this
place, which way you go. 

	Now, I don’t mean that hard. I mean it is not my responsibility, once
I have delivered my soul, which way you go. I have done the best I can.
See, nobody is going to hammer you; nobody is going to pound you. 

87.	I see the power and virtue of Christ in the true Bride as an adjunct
to the Word, not replacing the Word and voiding what God is doing in
this hour.

	How many gifts in the church are being manifested today to void the
Word of the hour? How many people you know are being fooled because
someone has got a healing ministry, discerning ministry? “Well, that
is God.” 

	Yes, it is God, but everything that is of the devil is also of God.

	I illustrate many times: if I’ve got a fist here with a bit of
string, not much. I am not very strong, but if you were drowning in the
river, and had a hold of a little branch, this hand of mine can take and
grab your hand and pull you to mercy, or it can grab your wrist and pull
it off and watch you drown.

88.	All power is of God, even that which the devil uses. You can take
the very power of God, and you can take the very Word of God and pervert
them both and use them against God’s Kingdom. You can take this
Message, too, and ride on Bro. Branham’s coattails and make something
of yourself instead of directing people to the Lord Jesus Christ. Gift
without the Word is not a sign of the indwelling Christ. It is simply a
sign of God amongst us. 

	Brother Branham was challenged by one of the greatest men of the day.
You can automatically figure in your mind who it was. He said to Bro.
Branham, “You’re ruining your ministry by preaching the Word the way
you are.” 

	And Bro. Branham said, “Any man’s ministry that can be ruined by
the Word had better be ruined.”

	People fuss at us because we say, “Put the Church in order and the
gifts in the building by themselves, then the gifts get ruined.” If
the Word ruins your gift, it is a good thing for you. 

	A lady stood up in the meeting one day and ready, itching to give a
second message in tongues, when the first one was flatter than a fritter
and ruined the meeting. 

	And Bro. Branham said, “Shut up, and sit down.” 

	And the preachers took him aside and said, “You grieved the Spirit of
God.” And he said, “Any time the Word grieves any spirit, I am for
it being grieved.”

89.	I will tell you something about a little story. I had to set a woman
down in the church one night in Ohio. I did it very gently. It wasn’t
a woman. It was a man with a very with a high pitched voice. Brother
Branham said.... Now, it’s cute little story, but it is true. Brother
Branham said, “Lee, I want to thank you the way you put that person
down. It was really bothering me." He said, “That woman was out of
order.’’

	 I said, “Ah, ha! You got fooled, too.”

	He said, “What do you mean?” 

	“It was not a lady,” I said, “It was a man with a high pitched
voice.” I said, “Well, I am a little amazed at you agreeing.” I
see it. You know, we would talk about those things. 

	“Well,” he said, “You know, Baxter put some lady down once and he
really was rough.’’ 

	And he said, “I did, too.”

	I sort of started laughing in his face, and I said, “Ha, ha. No, you
never sat anybody down in your life.” I said, “You could not do
it.” I really meant it. It tickled me.

	He said, “I did, too.” He said, “You can ask...” He told me
this woman, and he and... “I said, woman, shut up and sit down.” 

	Well, you know, you’d wonder how a person like that could say such a
thing. Somebody else come along and say, “Well, I couldn’t say such
a thing.” 

	Brother Branham called people in Edmonton, Alberta, ‘a bunch of
moss-backs’. You know Who told him to say that? The Holy Ghost told
him to say that.

90.	Now, here we are in this, in these gifts in this ministry here.
Somebody said, “Well, I cannot put them in that room back there
because it killed them. You stand up and you stop a thing and you kill
the spirit.” 

	What spirit are you talking about? What ministry are you talking about?
See?

	Now, listen. I see Him today giving His Word revealed by a faithful
prophet. We saw it. I see Him teaching the Bride by faithful teachers,
whose aim is only the Word. I see faithful shepherds, who are pastors.	I
see them giving mercy according to His Word, as It says in Romans 12,
because there is a ministry of showing mercy. 

91.	People have got an idea there are only nine gifts. There are
hundreds of gifts. One is to exhort. I don’t know if there is an
exhorter here. How do I know? You ought to know for yourself. I can’t
tell. There is somebody here, no doubt, who gives in simplicity.
You’ve got a gift. Somebody who shows mercy, somebody who helps,
somebody who teaches. See, all of these things are here. They are all in
there because they were in Christ and now in the Bride.

	I see many members of this one Body manifest and manifesting this Word
which is Elohim, which is Christ, Who is God, for the Bride is the Body
of Christ, and He is living His life through her—Elohim, the Word,
manifesting in her and through her, in creature form, and we are those
creatures. And God, forming Himself in human flesh, has been doing it
for two thousand years in a Bride form, like He was doing years before
in the Old Testament.

92.	How dare anyone say he is a Christian and be off that Word? Now,
where is your church that lets women preach, teach a man, wear slacks,
and shorts, and cut her hair? It is not in Him because the Word is not
in them, (See.) because listen: if Christ is in you, you’re in the
Bride, and if you’re in the Bride, Christ is in you. Then, if you’re
in that, then, you’re in the Word and the Word is in you. Then, if
that is in you, that’s got to come out. At least you have got to be
trying to see that it comes out. See.

	Now, where is the church? We’ve got plenty of them, whose men won’t
stand up and be separated unto Jesus Christ, even if he is the glory of
God, as It says in 1 Corinthians, “For man was created in God’s
image for His glory.” Sure, he lost it, but in Christ it’s regained.
See. Where are those men who stand up with Christ the Word and not some
church? How many of those men stood with Bro. Branham on that day?

93.	The Life that is in the Bride is the very Life of Christ. There has
to be manifestation and fruit, or the Life does not come from Him. Yet
it must be one with that Word. For every service rendered apart from His
will	and worship is reduced to idolatry.

	You say, “That is a strong statement. What about, where did Bro.
Branham get it?”

	I will tell you where he got it. I got it when he said, “These
Methodists, Presbyterians, are just like the witch doctor.” I am not
fussing with these denominations and the people in there. I am showing
you what he said. There has to be that.

94.	Now, listen. Every redemptive attribute of God is in the Bride
through Christ indwelling her, or she is not born again. That’s right.
She is a prisoner completely to Him and the test of her subjection is
the parallel of the Word for what she believes and how she acts. In
fact, we can go further and say the fruit must be born of the vindicated
Word, or it is human fruit and not of God. God must produce in her by
His Word or her product is a hybrid.

	Listen to what the prophet said about the Bride who gives Christ the
preeminence: “The person pregnated with the Seed of God, the Word in
her, so surrendered to the Word of God that the Word and the Word alone,
manifests itself in this person, a person, a prisoner to an
individual.” Who is the individual? Jesus Christ the Word.

95.	Now, watch her bring forth sons, all by the Word. Not creeds and
dogmas; not a lodge member amongst them. How completely her identity is
lost in her husband as seen in Songs 4:9-10. Let’s just see what she
is here. Now:

(9)	Thou hast ravished my heart, my sister, my spouse; thou hast
ravished my heart with one of thine eyes, with one chain of thy neck.

(10)	How fair is thy love, my sister, my spouse! how much better is thy
love than wine! and the smell of thine ointments than all spices!

	He is calling her a sister, who is a spouse. The sister is the wife,
just exactly as Adam and Eve, for Eve came out of Adam, and being
co-produced with him, like unto him, was a sister as well as a spouse. 

	Here we find this Bride so identified that she is of him—so
thoroughly identified they have a double relationship. To have a double
relationship as wife and sister means that they had the same father. The
word ‘father’ means ‘source’. Now then, who are we of? You are
of God, little children, (See.) the very image of Jesus Christ is His
Bride.

96.	Now, see the preeminence that He has. Who could speak of being a
Bride and qualify that statement any other way than mentioning His
attributes that were displayed and employed to bring us to Him? How
could we ever talk of anything about the Bride? You couldn’t, without
talking all about Jesus. Christ has so demanded the preeminence that no
one can even talk about a Bride, unless it talks about Him.

97.	Now, where is your Roman Catholic Church and your protestant image?
God restoring the Kingdom to the rightful owner, those that He planned
the Kingdom for originally. 

	Would you believe it, but restoration goes all the way back to Genesis.
It certainly does. Who went looking for those two sheep that were lost
in Eden to restore them? God did: Elohim, that Word. Who redeemed them
from eternal separation and loss? Who gave the Lamb? Who sacrificed a
creature form, looking to the form of God in human flesh that would
bring them back to the image? God did. 

	What were they clothed with? A creature form. Oh, what are you and I
clothed with. If it weren’t for the creature form, the blood of God in
Jesus Christ our Lord having been poured out on this earth and poured
out on us, we wouldn’t make it. The man Christ Jesus receiving
preeminence… God did it. Yes, He did.

98.	Now, but why did He have to do it? Because Eve fell from the Word
and caused Adam to do likewise. She filled her mind and, then, her womb
with hybrid seed. Adam and Eve embarked on the long disastrous journey
of bringing God’s children into the world, not by the Word, but by the
flesh.

	But listen. The antidote was the revealed Word; God Himself being the
antidote. He has made him, who has known no sin, to be made sin for us
that we might become the very righteousness of God by our union with
him. And now six thousand years of restoration must go by, for it would
take that long for all the Bride to come into existence. 

99.	Notice something: not only were God’s own children now lost in
that fall under sin, but there was another seed in the land: the seed of
Cain, the son of the serpent by Eve. And there was no restoration
promised for the serpent seed: only the seed of Adam. “As in Adam all
died, even so in Christ all come alive.” That’s Bride and
resurrection at the White Throne Judgment.

	And the seed became mingled—Adamic and serpent, but God redeemed His
Own by election. See, “The purpose of God stands in election,” for
every predestinated son was restored back to God, and He did it by the
Word. He revealed Himself in various ways and manners to bring in the
elect until one day He came in flesh and the Word became flesh. He died
on Calvary and the Blood was shed and the Life in the Blood came back
upon the elect.

	Now, listen. I am telling something different here, so watch it. The
Blood was shed and the Life that was in the Blood came back upon the
elect, who were buried in Jerusalem there, and there was a mighty
resurrection from the dead. You prove me wrong. How did they get out of
the grave? The same Life that took him out of the grave, the same Life
that was shed, (“I lay my life down and I take it again.”) that same
Life came back and raised the dead.

100.	Now, listen. Then the same Life that raised the dead, came back on
a living Bride at Pentecost and here was another perfect Eve for the
last Adam. But we know how that she fell, too. The fall was so complete
the Church died and laid buried in the fourth church age, the Dark Ages,
like Christ, laid in the ground.

	But now, God promised restoration, and He started a reformation by
Luther. Now, listen. Life, which is the Holy Spirit, was poured out in a
measure by the Word: justification, for the preaching of the Word of
justification brought Life because the Word is Life. A further
measure—greater, was poured out under Wesley as he preached
sanctification. This brought more Life to the Church. Then, under
Pentecost, a greater revelation—the restoration of gifts, there was
more Life poured out through the study of the Word. Then came full
restoration which was promised us in Acts 3:19-21, and so on, down there
“Where the heavens must receive Him until the restoration of all
things spoken by the mouth of all the prophets since the world began.”
[3:21]

	Now, when the world began, who was the first prophet? God was. Who is
the last prophet? God, the last Prophet. What is the Word of all the
prophets? It is God’s Word. And there is going to be a restoration.
Then there is more Life, because the Spirit, the Word, is Spirit and
Life.

101.	Now, listen. By the vindicated ministry of Elijah, by the
vindicated ministry of Elijah, the Word has returned to resurrection
power. (I am just going to talk.) Listen: “Behold I show you a
mystery.” He is talking about the Resurrection, “We shall not all
sleep, but just the same we’ll all be changed in a resurrection, in a
moment, in a twinkling of an eye, at the last trump.” [1 Cor 15:51-52]

	What is ‘the last trump’? It tells you what it is. The last trump:
‘the Voice of the last Messenger’. “For the trumpet shall sound
and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall all be changed.
For this corruptible must put on incorruptibility, and this mortal must
put on immortality.” [1 Cor 15:52-53]	 You see, what we are doing? We
are coming into a resurrection through the revealed Word.

	You say, “How do you know it?”	

	Because Bro. Branham said, when he was in the mountain, he said, “I
looked up and something hit my hand. It was a Sword. And I said, ‘What
is that?’ And a Voice said, ‘It is the Sword of the King’.” 

	Now he said, “There is only one ‘the King’ and that is God.” He
said, “That is the Word of God.” And he said, “Bring on Your Holy
Vesture,” with the Word of God standing by which is a direct prophesy
right here in 1 Corinthians 15: “That we must be vestured with the
Word of the living God.” And, if we are going to be vestured to get
eternal Life, then that’s the power of the Resurrection that has been
poured out in the Word of Almighty God tonight. See. The vindicated
ministry. 

	The Bible distinctly said, “If Elijah doesn’t come, then I will
smite the earth with a curse.” It says nothing about a resurrection,
but let Elijah come, there’ll be a Resurrection and a Rapture.
Certainly. Now God has again manifested Himself. The Headship and the
Body has become One. 

102.	A man came from India. We had it out by this time. We were friends
for a while. He said, “Bro. Vayle…”

	I could see anger on his face.

	I said, “Come on, spill it. You’re mad. Get it off your chest.
Don’t fool with me.” 

	He said, “Bro. Vayle, I want to tell you. What is the body made
of?”

	I said, “Many members.” 

	“No. What’s it made of?” 

	I said, “Don’t fool with me, brother. The Scripture says ‘many
members’. He hasn’t got a head? Huh. Where’s the Bible say the
body’s head, trunk, and limbs? There is your theology right there.”
The [one word unclear] took the man’s mind. I knew what he was trying
to say.

	I said, “If you’re referring to the headship of the Word, the body
does have a Head.”

	“Oh, I mean the Holy Spirit.” 

	I said, “Lay off of that. I’ve been through Latter Rain. I know
what you are trying to tell me. Get your own leading. You get this and
that and palm it off on God. Go back to what the prophet said, “The
Headship of the Word has come.” The Body has joined itself to the Head
when we are speaking concerning the Word—not the physical return of
God incarnate in flesh. The Headship and the Body has become one unit.

103.	Now, listen. Now, watch carefully. As the ‘fully revealed’…
Now, please listen to my language, and don’t move. As the ‘fully
revealed’ and entirely fulfilled Word, which was Christ, brought about
a resurrection two thousand years ago and so brought back Christ to give
Life to the dead, so now, Christ the Word has been restored to the Bride
Tree, to give her a Resurrection. Now, watch: the ‘fully revealed’
Word is Christ fully fulfilled—not fulfilled until Calvary, not
fulfilled until that Word was filled that said, “Thou will not leave
my Soul in hell, nor suffer my Body to see corruption.” [Ps 16:10]
When that was done, it was fulfilled, and when He came forth He brought
a Resurrection. And when Rev 10:7 is fulfilled, It has got to bring a
Resurrection. You think It won’t? Let me tell you this,
brother/sister: they crucified that Word to themselves a second time,
and the Life that pours out has got to come back.

	What is that first that they crucified? The former rain. What does it
come back as? The latter rain. Now, just getting ahead of myself,
perhaps, here on the latter rain.

104.	Now, notice those elect in the graves at Jerusalem had to wait for
the fullness of God in Resurrection power to come, so they could be made
perfect. You’ll find that in Romans where It says, “The Son, Jesus,
the Son of God, with power…according to…the Resurrection of the
dead.” [Rom 1:4] Also the living elect, we are waiting for the same
Resurrection power to make them part, (Now, listen.) of the same
resurrection.

	You didn’t catch it. I said, “Those at Pentecost became part of
that same Resurrection of the dead when they came out of the ground,”
That’s right, “because He said He was the Resurrection and Life,”
and if He raised them by His Spirit of the Resurrection, then what did
they have but Resurrection Spirit?

	What are they but part of that Resurrection? Now we have the proof that
“He rose and led captivity, captive.” Then, if we are part of Him,
we are part of the Resurrection. You talk about restoration,
brother/sister... Remember, He, Jesus, is the Resurrection. And if a
part, and if a part of the Resurrection... See. They were part of it.
And if we are a part of that Resurrection… (We have to be, if we are
part of Him. It won’t be otherwise.) And when the full power of the
Resurrection came, Bro. Branham said, “There could have been a
Rapture, but the Bride was still in the forming stage.” They had only
taken the first little bit and the rest would have been left.

105.	Now the same thing is today after Seven Church Ages. The dead are
waiting for the Resurrection power to bring them out of the earth and
the same power in the Bride to take her off of the earth. That’s
right.

	Now, if you are weary, you can get it on tape, but I’ve got to
finish, though. James 5:7. Listen. 

(7)	Be patient therefore, brethren, unto the coming of the Lord, behold
the husbandman waiteth for precious fruit of the earth, (He’s waiting
for the bodies to come out of the ground, because if they don’t come
out of the ground, He can’t come. See. It’d just spoil the whole
thing.) and has long patience for it until He receives the early and the
latter rain. 

	All right. Let’s go to Joel. That is over here before Amos, I
believe. Joel 2:22:

(22)	Be not afraid, ye beasts of the field for the pastures of the
wilderness do spring, for the tree beareth (their) fruit, the fig tree
and the vine do yield their strength.

	Now, what’s that? That is Rom 8:21 where the earth is crying for
restoration, which she will get. Now, listen. To us:

(23)	Be glad then, ye children of Zion, and rejoice in the LORD your
God: for he hath given you the former rain moderately…

	Who are the children of Zion? Who is Zion? New Jerusalem. Who is New
Jerusalem? Bride. Paul said so in Galatians. Right? Now He’s given the
former rain moderately.

	He has. In other words, there has been a moderation throughout the two
thousand years of God giving His Word, but He will cause to come down
through the rain, the former rain and the latter rain in the first. The
word ‘month’ does not belong there, because it is not the first
month. He tells you what He is going to do: He is going to give you the
Word all over again in complete revelation. And this time you can have a
Rapture which you couldn’t have before, because the Bride is
completed.

106.	Now, listen. [Joel 2:24]

(24)	…ahe floors shall be full of wheat, (When is that? That is
harvest time, judgment time.) …the vats…overflow with wine and oil. 

(26)	And I will restore to you the years that the locust…( and so on,
ate up).

	In other words, God bringing restoration. He tells you how He is going
to do it, and this is going to bring about the Resurrection. 

	Okay, let’s go to Hosea, a little further back, Hos 6:1-3. Now,
watch.

(1)	Come, and let us return unto the LORD (our God): (I will send a
Elijah so you can return.) for he hath torn, and he will heal us; he
hath smitten, and he will bind us up.

	He sure did. His Word just stripped us right down. After two days He
will revive us. (The two thousand years are up.) In the third day He
will raise us up (Resurrection time), and we shall live in His sight.
You won’t die; you’re going to live. Then shall we know, if we
follow on to know the Lord: His going forth is prepared as the morning,
(His Coming, the first part… He is coming down as the latter rain upon
the earth.) the latter and former rain on the earth.

107.	Now, “God,” Bro. Branham said, “started the latter rain back
in 1906 and brought in the former rain in order that the latter rain
could be completed.” And now the Spirit of God falling upon it is
going to bring forth a Bride for a Resurrection. It is going to bring
the dead out of the ground, because unless this power returns to us,
Bro. Branham said, “The dead can’t come out.”

	Now then, if the former and latter rain has come, then God brings forth
in a Resurrection. It has to be. We are not guessing anymore,
brother/sister. We are not guessing anymore. We have arrived. That’s
right. It is the fulfillment of God: the fully revealed and anointed
Word that has come forth. Certainly. Either the Word of God lied or It
didn’t lie.

108.	 …For God poured out a measure of His Spirit upon the Church,
dead in creeds and dogmas, and He did it under Luther: justification,
under Wesley: sanctification, starting in the Seed form, starting in a
Seed form, a Resurrection. See? A fourth measure, under the end-time
measure, the end-time ministry, and that is the last measure. See. And
now the full mystery of God is revealed.

	Once the revelation is in the Bride… And remember; only the Seventh
Church Age Bride is living; all the rest are dead. Now, once this
revelation, this Word, is in the living Bride, (That’s our day. See.)
she becomes so one with the Word, that she is the Word. Now you are back
to restoration. Then the Resurrection power is completely manifested,
and the dead come forth; the Bride is changed and taken up into a
Rapture.

109.	So, brother/sister, we stand today with full assurance of
redemption by a vindicated and proven Word. The ‘Spirit of the
Resurrection’ is growing. That’s right. It certainly is. The
river… Now, listen. The river pouring from Ezekiel’s vision of the
sanctuary: there was water to the ankles: justification, water up to the
knees: sanctification, water to the loins: restored gifts: water to swim
in. 

	Now, listen. The water from the temple becomes Jordan. 

	“I don’t have to cross Jordan alone.” No sir, “Jesus died all
my sins to atone.” I want to tell you, brother/sister, in the darkness
there shall be Light.

	And a river of the Spirit of God revealed shall flow from the
sanctuary, and we will cross over Jordan as the waters scattered by
Elijah’s mantle. “It shall be light about evening time.” That’s
right. That’s where we are. This is not some idle tale I am telling.
This is what the prophet taught us: (See.) the Holy Spirit pouring forth
in fullness by the Word.

110.	Then somebody says, “Well, it doesn’t much matter about the
Word. We are all just good friends.” 

	Yes, we are all good friends, but it does matter about the Word.

	“Oh, it doesn’t matter about the Word; just love each other.” 

	Love each other, but it does matter about the Word. Oh, brother/sister,
listen to me: let’s understand it. When we became united to Him by His
Spirit, did we come to make His dirty, or did He make us, our spirit,
His Spirit? Then, listen. If He is the Word, then He made us Word. There
is no room for error. There is no room now to go around saying, “Well,
this is sweet, and that is sweet. Hallelujah!” That’s… You’ve
got a creed and a dogma. There is a wrong spirit on you; something wrong
somewhere.

111.	Now I can’t stand for all this Word because I don’t understand
it all. I stand for all of it, even though I don’t understand it, but
I mean I can’t defend and preach what I don’t understand. I am not
responsible for that. If God doesn’t show me certain things, I will
never preach it. But I know what He taught me here, because this is
taken from the “Mystery of God Revealed” as preached in 1963. I’ve
got to put it in my own words because I could not use his.

112.	Now, listen. All those that were in Him before the foundation of
the world are about all in. Almost all the Bride is here. Brother
Branham said, “Could they all be in?” Could be. See, they are coming
in, thank God. 

	Soon He will come bodily, Godhead in human flesh. I believe the Supper
is ready. Already we are feasting as eagles at the fresh killed carrion.
I believe only the Bride will be there in the Resurrection for the
prophet said, “Nothing outside of this Message will come to life.”
Then nothing outside of this Message does have any life. And if you are
still looking for these sweet, little things, you are like the Nazarene
Church that Bro. Branham saw: the pastor kissing a dead corpse. 

	Are we with Pentecost today, sweet little pussy cat, as Bro. Branham
saw Pentecost: you pat her on the back and she purrs? You rub the fur
this way, and she spits at you and claws you? 

113.	Come on, let’s get down to business. We are eagerly awaiting for
the full manifestation of the redemption and the full restoration
because the Book of Redemption has come down to us. The pages have been
opened, and there, in the Word of Life, we saw our names being revealed.
Nothing can stop the Resurrection and the Rapture now, my brother/my
sister. The die has been cast, and you will no more stop this
Resurrection of the Bride going than anything. They will never stop her.

	The Bible says, “In the days of this great King of whose kingdom
there is no end and His government and peace shall increase,” It says
on earth here in the days of the four kingdoms, we are going to stand
here and own it all, and be caught away because we don’t even want it.
We are going to come back to a new and renovated earth. Blessed be the
name of the Lord! 

114.	It is impossible to do so—to stop this Rapture. It is impossible
to do so, for God is faithful Who has promised. And Bro. Branham said,
“Thus it is spoken, thus it will be,” three times. He is the Word,
and He is coming into greater preeminence than ever as the Bride
believes that Word. She is restored through that ‘same’ Word, He,
faithfully witnessed by His Word and manifested to be so, see, right in
the Resurrection.

	Some people came to Bro. Branham before he died and said, “Bro.
Branham, should we sell all we get and get trucks and follow the
tent?”

	He said, “See that you are in the Resurrection.”

	The earth shall soon be cleansed and the Bride come back for a glorious
honeymoon with a preeminent Groom. Oh, the purposes of God, three-fold,
and all of them being fulfilled. One having been absolutely, truly
fulfilled as I understand the Word because the prophet said he would not
be gone until his ministry was finished, and he said he wouldn’t be
back. You can to do what you want with it. I just quote, and you can
quote something else, but I take this little thing I think here.

115.	How great is Jehovah, Who has revealed Himself to us and made
Himself known in order to gain the loving preeminence of God. Now,
listen, brother/sister; if I know the heart of anybody that even thinks
he is born again, there’s one thing he wants to do and that is make
God everything. See. I have often said, and I could say it without fear
or shame, that if I really felt that I had given God real glory, if I
really could feel that I gave Him preeminence, I would gladly go to the
Lake of Fire having known that I did that much. 

	Preeminence. How could we have the Spirit of Christ and not want what
He wants? How could we have Him the Word and not be one with that Word?
How could we not be faithfully judged, because judgment has begun at the
house of God, and many people turn it down? Brother/Sister, the Word’s
amongst us with judgment and mercy and grace and power, and all that God
poured into Christ has been poured, and is being poured into the Church,
until finally the Resurrection is upon us and we are changed and caught
away, traveling like a thought as we go down the road to glory. 

116.	How great is Jehovah, Who has revealed Himself to us, made Himself
known to gain His loving preeminence, and now we are on the last stage
of restoration. What a grand homecoming that will be for the elect!

		“Oh, they come from the East and West. (Sing it.)

		They come from lands afar,

		To feast with the King, to dine as His guests,

	How blessed these pilgrims are! (Are you beholding His face?)

	Beholding His hallowed face... (How? What makes it shine? It’s that
Word.)

		Blessed partakers of His grace, 

		As gems in His crown to shine.

		Oh, Jesus is coming soon...

		Oh, what if our Lord this moment shall come

		For those who are free from sin?

		Oh, then would it bring you joy... 

		When the Lord in glory...

		We will meet Him up in the air.”	

	Let’s rise.

		“Oh, how I love Jesus, Oh, how I love Jesus, 

		Oh, how I love Jesus because He first loved me.

		I will ever adore Him, I will ever adore Him,

		I will ever adore Him, because He first loved me.”

117.	You know the song writer said, “How can I help but love Him
so?” You know that is the truth. When you saw Bro. Branham and, if you
knew how he loved Jesus and how the Lord was so real to him... I believe
that is a picture of what we are going to have in this life before we
depart this earth—the complete reality of Jesus Christ where we know
nothing but Him: we have His mind, we understand Him, we are known in a
sense as we are known. We know Him in the sense that He knows us.

	I know it is not complete because there is no full manifestation until
we’re in the Resurrection, because we can only take so much. We can
only understand God in this creature form as He revealed Himself. But
brother/sister, just to think, if we will only let our minds go away
from our normal ways and get rid of the Laodicean spirit of being
encumbered with so many things that distract us and get right to the
pure gold of God’s Word, and realize that, what the prophet said, was
true… What a tremendous thing that God should reveal Himself the way
He did it. How condescending, what time He took, how He sacrificed, what
He did for us to come down to our level that He became us that we might
become Him.

118.	Now, if this is true, surely He should have the preeminence. We
should be a slave and a prisoner to Jesus Christ, not concerning our own
ideas, but what the prophet taught; not drawing your own conclusions,
but what he said, because he was vindicated. Surely God revealed him, as
what you might call a ‘first fruit’, a demonstration, you see, of
what was in this life.

	Now I don’t say we are going to be prophets going around doing what
Bro. Branham did. I’m talking about a life. What he had to convince us
was God revealing Himself, was making us know, until today we are at the
full assurance of faith, brother/sister. We are ready according to what
the prophet said. He opened those Seven Seals, brought rapturing faith.
We got enough for the ‘going away’ and the ‘catching away’.
These things are our joy; not some sensation, not some demonstration.
This is our life because it is reality. Why? Because it’s vindicated
by God, where nothing else is. Now we love it... Now, how can we not
love it? How can we not praise Him? Let’s before we go home, let’s
sing once again: “Oh, how I love Jesus”.

		“Oh, how I love Jesus,

		Oh, how I love Jesus,

		Oh, how I love Jesus, 

		Because He first loved me.”

	

	Let us pray. Kind, heavenly Father, we know not what else we could do,
except to hide this Word in our heart, to water It daily by our
thoughts, Lord, until our thoughts become fully revealed thoughts of
thine. I know nothing else we can do.

	I don’t know, Lord, that an altar call would do anything, other than
just further demonstrate we have a desire to have this for which we
pray, but, Lord, You’ve given us something richer and deeper for this.
And that is You not only gave us the Spirit of God to reveal the things
of God to us, but you gave that same Spirit that you might ever bring to
our remembrance all those wonderful things that He has revealed.

	Oh, blessed Spirit, hide us away in the cleft of the Rock tonight. Help
us to close out our minds entirely and our very lives to everything,
like the prophet did, until we stand one with the Word of God. That is
all we want: unbroken thoughts, unbroken communion, unbroken desire. Oh,
let the meditation of our heart, the words of our lips be Thy meditation
and Thy Word, oh God. Our heart pants after Thee, Lord, as the hart
pants after the water brook. We would be like Thee, oh Lord, completely
to and joined to Thy image, oh God. We would be one with Thee, not,
Lord, presumptuously, but because we desire, because Thy Word said,
“come.”

	Oh God, tonight, if it were in my power, Lord, if it were my power...
But it is good thing it is not in my power because it could fail and I
could be wrong... But looking to Your power, Lord, consecrate everyone
tonight that is in this room as a Bride to the Holy Groom. Consecrate
each one as a Virgin-espoused sister to Him, Who would have the
preeminence. Oh God, I pray, take away all unbelief and everything,
Lord, which smacks of indifference, or the filth of the world, Lord, Oh
God, an evil spirit upon us, any iniquity, Lord. I pray. God, cleanse us
tonight.

	In the face of what You have done, how can we be anything, Lord, but a
holy vessel to You. Lord. Tonight we look at ourselves, disgusted. Lord,
we do not have a thing of ourselves. God, if you can hew us out, hew us
out, Lord…that cistern, unbroken cistern, that holds the Word of Life,
and that manifests that God has not come down in vain in creature form
to lift us to the very glory of Almighty God. Oh tremendous, tremendous,
that God should take a creature and lift him up to become one with Him. 

	Oh God, may we respect You tonight. Lord God, have pity and quicken us
Lord. Take the Sword of Your Word tonight, divide asunder joint and
marrow, soul and spirit, oh God, every carnal thing from spiritual until
we are spiritual indeed. Let the flesh become Word, oh God, and the Word
become flesh, until the former living Word goes back to where It was, oh
God, progressing into the complete revelation to Christ illuminated in
the Bride. 

	Lord God, tonight I don’t believe I’ve prayed in vain. The best of
my knowledge, Lord, I’ve prayed according to what the prophet had
said. Lord, will You do it tonight? Will you give us grace to believe
it, and to accept it and to wait in faith and courage, in comfort, in
consolation which has already come that, according to the Word of God
that has been spoken, it will be done unto us. 

	As the prophet said, “I don’t call you churches or saints anymore.
I call you Bride.” Oh, hallelujah! God, grant tonight that the
revelation be sealed to each one of us: God, Who revealed Himself, God,
Who gains preeminence, God, Who restores.

	Now, unto the King eternal, immortal, invisible the only wise God be
all power and honor and glory through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

	[A brother comes to announce a need for prayer for a brother who
couldn’t get his breath just a moment ago.]