The Holy Spirit - What it is and is not

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Satan seeks to destroy Bible truth in the church

The Holy Spirit will always bring us back to Bible truth.

JOHN 16:13   Howbeit when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth:

Undedrstanding the Bible is the best proof of the Holy Spirit baptism.

There have been 7 church ages.

In the first four church ages, from AD 33 to about 1520, church organizations destroyed the truth as best as they could. Bible-based truth basically died out in the fourth church age, called the Dark Ages or Middle Ages.

The lampstand above symbolizes the loss of truth during the first four church ages.

The church reached the pits of brutality and perversion in the fourth church age, the Dark Ages where the Bible was banned and disregarded in favour of church traditions.

The loss of truth was EVIL as it moved away from the central lamp that the apostles established in the first church age.

When God decided to restore the truth He would reverse the order of the letters in EVIL to enable the church to LIVE. Then the movement would be towards the central lamp of the apostles.

True Christianity is based on faith in the resurrection.

So, in the last three church ages, 5, 6, and 7, God would resurrect the truth out of the mess of the Dark Ages and restore it back to the original faith of the apostles who established the first church age.

The Holy Spirit will always try to restore us back to the origial beliefs of the apostles.

Satan set out to pervert and destroy the truth in four different misleading and corrupt stages of his demonic spirit.

Understanding these first four stages will teach you what the Holy Spirit never does.

No natural insect has these four abnormal stages, so God chooses four insects to illustrate these successive deviations from the truth.

JOEL 1:4   That which the palmerworm hath left hath the locust eaten; and that which the locust hath left hath the cankerworm eaten; and that which the cankerworm hath left hath the caterpiller eaten.

1. A mysterious and unknown palmerworm of religious deception that pulled the early Christians away from what the apostles wrote. Man-made opinions and human leadership took control, called Nicolaitans. The elevated clergy oppressed and dominated the laity or congregation. That is not how the Spirit works.
2. The destruction of political violence that attacked the church from the outside like locusts as Roman emperors oppressed, persecuted, exiled, and finally killed Bible-believing Christians. Within the church, Bible-believers were also oppressed by the emergence of one man as the bishop of a city. This caused widespread damage to the apostles’ original idea that a small local church should be run by a group of elders, not by a one-man-leader or pastor.
3. The subtle emergence of unscriptural words like Trinity and unscriptural terms like “God the Son”, “Father and Son are of the same essence”, “One-God-in-three-Persons”, and “Good Friday” at the Nicaean Council in AD 325.  All this was aided by intense political pressure from the Roman emperor Constantine to force all the bishops to conform. The mysterious, unknown cankerworm of unscriptural and pagan error then introduced Christmas around AD 350.  Then it made the Roman emperor Theodosius call Damasus, the bishop of Rome, by the title Pontifex Maximus (or Pontiff) in AD 382 which made Damasus the high priest of the Babylonian mysteries. So subtle was this mystery cankerworm of doctrinal deception that even Protestant churches believe these Roman Catholic ideas of Trinity, Good Friday, and Christmas.

Much destruction was caused by political violence that compelled obedience.

Dissenters who wished to remain Scriptural were oppressed, persecuted, exiled, and finally killed by the official church. That is not how the Spirit operates.

The Holy Spirit prefers to be gentle.

II TIMOTHY 2:24   And the servant of the Lord must not strive; but be gentle unto all men, apt to teach, patient,

Having got the unscriptural Trinity into the church, the church leaders were able to lead the people further and further away from the Scriptures.

4. The caterpillar of Roman Catholic church-organization built up a horrific structure of error by banning the Bible, torture (the Spanish Inquisition), and slavery in Africa and South America. Crusades were launched to eliminate the Moslems from Palestine and non-Catholics from southern France like the Albigenses who were wiped out in a twenty-year crusade. The nearby Waldenses had to flee into the wilderness of the Alps for safety.

Tens of millions of non-Catholics were killed in the Dark Ages.

Ruled by the Pope, Europe in the Dark Ages was cold, dark, dirty, terrified, and superstitious.

This was the final product of human leadership and man-made organized religion.

The restoration of truth shows us how the great Holy Spirit works

God works in the same way with individuals as He does with the church.

By 1520 God was going to launch a Reformation starting with Martin Luther in Germany.

At each stage of the Reformation, the Holy Spirit would send a messenger to turn the church a little closer to the written Word of God.

The main activity of the Holy Spirit. Making our beliefs more Scriptural

JOHN 4:24  God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth.

The Holy Spirit always refers to the Scripture. Not to the person who is speaking.

If we are guided by the Holy Spirit, we will not refer to ourselves and what we think. We will refer to what is written in the Bible.

The Holy Spirit had to cancel out four big errors from the first four ages in order to restore the Truth of Scripture.

JOEL 1:4    That which the palmerworm hath left hath the locust eaten; and that which the locust hath left hath the cankerworm eaten; and that which the cankerworm hath left hath the caterpiller eaten.

A brief summary of error.

Palmerworm. The mysterious Nicolaitan spirit whereby human leaders conquered and oppressed the laity or congregation, taking them away from Scripture.

The locust symbolized the destructive power of war and bloodshed as the pagan Roman Empire killed 3 million Christians by AD 312.

The cankerworm of false doctrine that sneaked in at the Nicaean Council of AD 325 when the Trinity was introduced and forced onto the church.

The caterpillar of a centralized religious organization that sucked the spiritual life out of the church in the 900-year-long Dark Age and replaced Bible truth with a brutal and dictatorial tyrant called the Pope.

Let us look at God's plan for restoration.

JOEL 2:25   And I will restore to you the years that the locust hath eaten, the cankerworm, and the caterpiller, and the palmerworm, my great army which I sent among you.

Notice a difference.

The restoration starts with the locust, not with the palmerworm which was far too subtle for Martin Luther to combat.

The tricky palmerworm would only be exposed at the end when William Branham revealed the hidden mysteries of Scripture.

So the first spirit of error would be dealt with last. It was a very subtle spirit of error.

The church needed a lot of education or teaching before they could know enough to cope with the real subtleties of the Devil.

About 1520 God used Martin Luther of Germany to launch the Reformation with the first main step of Salvation by grace, through faith. This was the fifth church age.

Freed from the tyranny of the Catholic Church and all of its salvation by works and paying money, the peasants of Germany now sought political freedom and a violent struggle began. 100000 peasants were killed.  This was a huge blow to the Reformation. People realized that political violence was not a good idea. Violence was not God’s way. God was starting to undo the damage of the spiritual locust that symbolized violence, by revealing the futility of violent destruction.

The Roman Catholics began a savage Counter-Reformation and armed conflict swept through many countries. The final end was a brutal and horrific 30 years of religious war that ended in 1648 with both Catholics and Protestants totally exhausted. Germany was devastated by the fighting.

God had finally shown that the political violence of the destructive spiritual locust was not the way.

The church getting involved in the political issues of the state had not been a good idea.

The sixth church age saw John Wesley preach holiness and outreach.

He wisely told Christians to stay out of politics. Soon after his death, the great missionary age began around 1792 when William Carey founded the Baptist Missionary Society and went to India in 1793. The missionaries spread through the world and most of their time was spent preaching repentance and holiness. Thus, many of the wrong doctrines that were crippling the progress of the Protestant churches were left behind when the missionaries entered strange countries. Salvation puts an emphasis on Jesus rather than the Trinity. The missionaries spent their time emphasizing the basics of salvation rather than being involved in deeper doctrinal disputes. The Baptists restored baptism by immersion of adults in water rather than sprinkling babies.

The churches in Europe were too involved with their intense doctrinal disputes. But the missionaries rescued this age from spiritual stagnation by applying their great energy and incredible self-sacrifice to the saving the far-away heathens.

This age did not have enough truth to solve all the disputes anyway.

The Holy Spirit reveals a deeper insight into the Scriptures.

This was necessary to dismantle the stranglehold that the Trinity had on people's thinking.

The three manifestations of God

Towards the end of this 6th age, the truth began to emerge that the Lord Jesus Christ was the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. The true water baptism started.

As the Father, Jesus was above the Jews in the Old Testament.

As the Son, He was Emmanuel, God with us. Jesus was with the Jews.

COLOSSIANS 2:9   For in him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily.

As the Holy Ghost, a portion of the Spirit of Jesus returns to dwell in the heart of each believer.

Three manifestations of God.

"Father, Son, and Holy Ghost" mean that God was above the Jews, then with the Jews, and then in the church.

I TIMOTHY 3:16   And without controversy great is the mystery of godliness: God was manifest in the flesh,

The cankerworm of wrong doctrine was best overcome by energetic evangelistic efforts, that did not count the cost, to reach out to the lost. This was another attribute of the way the Holy Spirit works.

The church would have to wait until the ministry of William Branham from 1947 - 65 before the mysteries of Scripture would be revealed. Only then would they be able to understand the deeper issues and teach Bible doctrine just from Scripture verses rather than man-made quotes.

The seventh church age started in 1904 in Wales and then with the 1906 Pentecostal revival in Azusa Street in Los Angeles, California. The supernatural power of God was restored.

But the caterpillar of religious organization strangled this move. The Pentecostal churches denominated by 1917 and the majority stayed with the Roman Catholic Trinity.

That was the year that Lenin began the Communist revolt in Russia. Russia, the king of the North, would be built up by God to eventually destroy America in a nuclear holocaust. But first, a cruel, beautiful woman must rule America. Probably the Roman Catholic church. As a sign of the times, Kamala Harris is now Vice President. The end is approaching.

America’s two big mistakes. Denominating the Pentecostal revival and then rejecting the end-time revelation of the deeper Bible mysteries that William Branham revealed between 1947 and 1965.

Thus, the seventh church age had two steps.

Man-made denominational rules clamped down on the Pentecostal restoration of the gifts.

Different Pentecostal denominations exercised the same Spiritual gifts but attacked each other over doctrines. They made a real mess of Genesis, Daniel, and Revelation. Their 7-year Tribulation, Christmas, Eve-eating-an-apple, and their insistence that nobody had the Holy Ghost unless they spoke in an unknown tongue that nobody understood, ensured that they strayed far from Scripture.

Pentecostals would continue to demonstrate spiritual power but the cunning caterpillar of organized denominational religion had sucked most of the deeper truth out of the Pentecostal movement.

They simply did not have a revelation of the deeper Bible mysteries and thus could never correctly resolve their doctrinal disputes, just by using the Bible. They had to keep quoting their human leaders.

Their Bible schools kept their trainee-pastors well indoctrinated in their specific denominational errors.

Now they rely heavily on drum-beat music to build up a “spiritual” atmosphere. Drums are never mentioned in the Bible but are an essential element in the disco music that entertains and whips up emotions in today’s churches. This is artificial spirituality that can be called “bubble dancing”. People jump around while the beat-music plays, but stop when the drum music stops.

The drum was never part of the spiritual worship in the Bible but it came to centre stage in the 1950s when rock-n-roll music swept the world scene.

Then church learned from the world in order to be popular and entertaining. That is not how the Spirit works. The disciples on the Day of Pentecost had no drums.

65-0711  ASHAMED

Way back in the jungles of Africa, on safari hunters, they had to take high-powered radios to hear Elvis Presley, Pat Boone, and them guys with that rock-and-roll and twist. And the natives, trying to see them act along, jerking their head and acting like that, the natives stood and looked at him. But, you see, they're not Americans like Pat Boone, and Elvis Presley, and Ricky Nelson, and them guys are. They're not Judases of that type, but they're... See, it's a spirit. And the spirit is not only in America, it has spread itself out over the world, to bring them to the battle of Armageddon. They act like that, whether they are... Whatever nation they come from, Africa, India, wherever it is, that vulgar and stuff has spread all over the earth, by just one man starting it.

This reminds us of the 2020 coronavirus pandemic. It started in the wild animal market at Wuhan in China and then spread around the world in a few months. Thus a wrong idea can spread rapidly.

Now we get to the tricky stage of the seventh church age.

Pentecost launched the seventh church age. They got the supernatural power but then lost direction and headed back into the denominational systems with their man-made rules and doctrines. This will see them eventually back in the Roman Catholic camp.

Today the church will either return to the church of the apostles who wrote the New Testament or to the centralized church organization of the Roman Catholics.

The Roman Catholics have a one-man dictator as the head of the church, called the Pope. Thus, this model suits the modern churches with their pastor-is-the-boss-of-the-church denominations.

From the above diagram we can see that there are two stages to the seventh church age.

Pentecost moved from the 6^th to the 7^th church age.

But then the 7^th church age Bride has to be restored back to the first church age.

This is the most important step in our modern age.

If you do not end up believing what the early church believed then you have been fooled and will join the foolish virgins in great Tribulation.

The palmerworm was where error began in the first church age, according to Joel.

And now that we are heading back towards the first church age beliefs, who is the wrong spirit that we encounter?

The mystery palmerworm.

The same spirit that began the wreckage of the first church after the apostles had died.

The subtle, hidden palmerworm was the first enemy in the Ephesian church, the Nicolaitans, who elevated a man to be in charge of each church.

And that is what has splintered the message churches at the end time.

Each message-pastor has his own opinions which his church has to believe, or else.

Truth is now a matter of geography.

If you live in a certain area, a certain pastor claims to be in charge and you have to believe what he says.

If you lived in another part of the world, a different pastor would claim to be in charge there and you would end up believing something different.

That is simply preparing people for great Tribulation, not the Wedding Supper of the Lamb.

1947 was a crucial year for the church and for the Jews

The second stage of restoration, after the Pentecostal revival in the church age of the Laodiceans, began in 1947 when the United Nations agreed to give the Jews a portion of their Promised Land back.

In the same year, 1947, William Branham became the first preacher to record his sermons so that we all now have access to the “voice of the seventh angel” who restored the truth in the 7^th age back to the beliefs of the first church age.

REVELATION 10:7   But in the days of the VOICE of the seventh angel, when he shall begin to sound, the mystery of God should be finished, as he hath declared to his servants the prophets.

This is the final move of the Holy Spirit.

Please remember, in the seventh church age we were promised the voice of the seventh angel, not the voice of God.

REVELATION 6:7   And when he had opened the fourth seal, I heard the VOICE of the fourth beast say, Come and see.

“I heard”. John is referring to himself as an individual, not a church.

God wants us to hear and believe the truth for ourselves.

We, individuals, like to hide in a church with our herd mentality and just believe what the church says.

There are four beasts around the throne in Revelation Chapter 4.

REVELATION 4:7   And the first beast was like a lion, and the second beast like a calf, and the third beast had a face as a man, and the fourth beast was like a flying eagle.

The lion represented the apostles with the original truth. The ox was the beast of slaughter in the Dark Ages representing the tens of millions of the saints who were killed. The man represented the Reformation wisdom that translated the King James Bible and restored salvation by faith as well as holiness and outreach.

The eagle had the wings of Pentecostal power as well as the incredible eyesight or insight into Scripture which was revealed by brother Branham.

The eagle was the fourth beast whose voice was recorded on tape recorders.

But the original decline of truth in the first church age happened secretly during the “silent years” between AD 70 and AD 120.  There is just a sad lack of actual documents written during those years. Somehow people started to  “join a church” (unscriptural) and “belonged to a church” (unscriptural) and “went to church” (unscriptural). All that did for them was to get them to forsake Scripture and end up in the Dark Ages.

They ceased to have an individual experience with God and they stopped thinking for themselves.

Then they believed what the church said and not what the Bible said.

They repeated man-made quotes like parrots instead of proving their beliefs from the Bible for themselves. Then they fell.

"Come out of her My people" cries the Holy Spirit

The fourth beast is the flying eagle that is able to move through the Heavenly realm and see a much deeper insight into Scripture. The eagle represents the Holy Spirit of God.

“Come and see”.

“Come” out of her my people. Whatever church you are in.

“And see” the real truth and depth of Scripture that is hidden in the symbols and patterns of the Bible.

REVELATION 18:1   And after these things I saw another angel come down from heaven, having great power; and the earth was lightened with his glory.

An angel is a messenger.

REVELATION 18:2   And he cried mightily with a strong voice, saying, Babylon the great is fallen, is fallen, and is become the habitation of devils, and the hold of every foul spirit, and a cage of every unclean and hateful bird.

This sounds like brother Branham condemning all the organized church systems.

REVELATION 18:4   And I heard another voice from heaven, saying, Come out of her, my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues.

This is the secret of coming out of the church systems. Some call it the third exodus. The exodus of the Bride out of the church systems.

It is not because a man told you to come out. This is not a man talking to you.

It is because “another voice from Heaven” spoke to your heart.

The inner voice of the Holy Spirit.

Is the Holy Spirit able to speak to you personally and illuminate the Bible verses to you when you hear the Scriptures revealed?

You do not have to follow your pastor. (“My pastor” is unscriptural).

You do not have to agree with the church that you fellowship in. No disciple ever said, “My church”.

God is looking for individuals who believe what the Holy Spirit says because it is written in the Bible.

It must be a personal, inner conviction in your own heart.

Not some human quotes that you have learned off by heart and are unable to prove just from Scripture.

I KINGS 19:11   And he said, Go forth, and stand upon the mount before the LORD. And, behold, the LORD passed by, and a great and strong wind rent the mountains, and brake in pieces the rocks before the LORD; but the LORD was not in the wind: and after the wind an earthquake; but the LORD was not in the earthquake:

:12     And after the earthquake a fire; but the LORD was not in the fire: and after the fire a still small voice.

Three great and spectacular events. But in the end, only the still, small, inner voice counted.

Luther hit the Catholic church like a hurricane or strong wind.

Wesley's holiness and the missionary age struck the Devil like an earthquake as souls were saved in far-away heathen countries.

The fire of Pentecost launched great revivals as the supernatural power of God returned.

But all these dramatic stages were preparing for God's final plan.

The understanding of the Bible mysteries by you so that the still, small voice of the Holy Spirit can speak to you and guide you, as an individual, from the open pages of the Bible. So that you can stand on your own feet and believe according to the convictions of your own heart. Not just believing what others say when they have no Bible proof.

The Holy Spirit makes you understand the Bible to give you faith

The Bible pages are only open to you when you can understand them.

You, personally, being able to prove what you believe just from Scripture.

You, personally, being able to accept and love the revelation of Bible truth when you hear somebody explain it to you.

That is how the Holy Spirit guides and enlightens each individual.

JOHN 16:13   Howbeit when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth:

Brother Branham revealed the truth of how to understand Scripture between 1947 - 1965.

Now each of us must gain that understanding for ourselves, with the help of the Holy Spirit.

Teaching us the deeper truths of Scripture. That is an essential aspect of the Holy Spirit.

59-0702  WHERE  HAS  THY  STRENGTH  GONE  SAMSON

But in the garden of Eden, the devil chose the man's head. God his heart. And now the devil comes into the intellectuals and has brought his religion to intellectual. You'll know--never know God intellectually; you've got to know Him by a new birth, being borned again which comes from the heart.

The pride of life, the lust of the flesh, what the eye can see... But when God comes in, He goes into a man's heart and makes him believe things by faith that his eyes cannot see, "for faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen."

We must believe something because the Bible says it, not because some man says it.

But there is a price to be paid for the Holy Spirit

The whole saved church is represented by wise and the foolish virgins.

MATTHEW 25:5   While the bridegroom tarried, they all slumbered and slept.

At the end, all the churches (including the message-churches) are fast asleep.

MATTHEW 25:6   And at midnight there was a cry made, Behold, the bridegroom cometh; go ye out to meet him.

The Coming of the Lord will start with a huge disaster and calamity.

A “cry” speaks of warning and anguish.

“Go you out”. The situation is so severe that everyone realizes that they have to go out of their churches.

Most probably, a huge earthquake will shatter the world's economic system.

Think what would happen if Los Angeles sunk into the sea. California is America's richest state and would be crippled. With America's huge debt burden, they would be in serious trouble. Only the wealthy Catholic church could take them over if they made a covenant with the Jews for their Stock Exchange money.

That’s when Christians will finally wake up to the fact that their pastors have fooled them, making them foolish virgins. Saved but fooled into unscriptural error.

MATTHEW 25:7   Then all those virgins arose, and trimmed their lamps.

Trimming is painful. Cutting off the burnt carbon in the lamp’s wick. Everyone will begin to trim the church errors and unbelief out of their minds. They will begin to clean up their lax and complacent lives. We humans are not good at changing our minds. We hang on to our old ideas. Only a severe fright and shock will cause us to change our ways.

MATTHEW 25:8   And the foolish said unto the wise, Give us of your oil; for our lamps are gone out.

The foolish churches have always rejected the wisdom of being Scriptural. They hang onto their quotes and their pastors’ opinions and interpretations of the quotes.

It will take a massive disaster to shake them out of that complacent self-satisfaction and self-righteousness. Then, to everyone’s shock, they will appeal to the rejected Bride for help.

But then, amidst the turmoil, the seven Thunders will utter their mysterious voices and the Bride will have a full-time struggle to follow the deeply hidden truth that is revealed by the seven Thunders. But the Bride will be used to looking for Bible truth on their own and not depending on a pastor. They will know enough of the Bible to be able to pick up the clues. The Holy Spirit enables people to stand on their own feet and think Scripturally for themselves.

The foolish virgins will be helpless. They have never stood on their own feet. They are unable to only believe what is in the Bible. Their knowledge of the Bible has shrunk. They rely on following their church group and being told what to believe by their pastor. That leaves them helpless when their eyes finally open to the inadequacy of their church beliefs.

MATTHEW 25:9   But the wise answered, saying, Not so; lest there be not enough for us and you: but go ye rather to them that sell, and buy for yourselves.

“Buy” the oil. Buy the Holy Spirit. In other words, there is a price to be paid if you want the Holy Spirit.

The price of rejection. The price of being disfellowshipped.

The price of being ostracized, opposed, exiled from the church, criticized, and being shunned by those who were once your friends.

Look what Jesus says to the last church age.

REVELATION 3:19   As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten: be zealous therefore, and repent.

Those whom He loves are guilty of believing and doing so much wrong that He has to strongly correct and hammer them. Our errors are such that we deserve a good hiding.

We are involved in so much error that it is not enough to just repent as if we have just made a few mistakes. We must be zealous (or continually keen) to repent because our mistakes are so many.

But we are unaware that we could be wrong. Church-goers are convinced that they are all right. Despite being in 45000 different types of denominations and churches that are all different.

REVELATION 3:17   Because thou sayest, I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing; and knowest not that thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked:

We think that we have it all and need nothing more. But we do not know how Bible-ignorant we are.

REVELATION 3:20   Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me.

One of the saddest verses in the Bible.

The church is supposed to lead us to Christ. But Jesus stands outside the end-time church door.

Jesus appeals to individuals, not to a group.

Jesus is the Word of God.

The best translation of the Bible is the 1769 King James Version.

Christians do not want to accept It as Infallible and as the Absolute Truth.

The Holy Spirit will never criticize in any way, any verse or word used in the King James Bible.

If you criticize the King James Bible as faulty in any way, then you criticize Jesus as having some fault.

If you criticize Jesus, Who is the Word of God, in any way then He moves outside your church.

Bible teachers teach from the Bible by joining up Scriptures

The Holy Spirit can give you a flash of inspiration in order to understand some Scripture. But that inspiration will always be in line with the rest of the revealed Scripture.

No man today can claim that you have to listen to him.

If he does not prove his point from Scripture then you must not believe what he says.

I JOHN 2:27   But the anointing which ye have received of him abideth in you, and ye need not that any man teach you: but as the same anointing teacheth you of all things, and is truth, and is no lie, and even as it hath taught you, ye shall abide in him.

God put teachers in the church. But we do not need a man to teach us. Sounds contradictory.

That means the teacher must teach us from Scripture. Then it is the Bible teaching us, not some man.

You must believe something only because the Bible says so.

A man must not be the source of your knowledge.

“I believe what a certain person said”. That is not the correct path to truth.

That person must prove to you from Scripture what he is talking about. You then believe it because the Bible said so, not because the person said so.

63-1110   HE  THAT  IS  IN  YOU

Believe all the Message. Believe That. If it isn't, if it isn't written in the Bible, then don't you believe it. But if It is in the Bible, then the Holy Spirit that's living in us is duty bound to perform that if we believe It.

There are many Scriptures that we may not be able to understand but then God can use someone else to show us the meaning.

54-0515  QUESTIONS  AND  ANSWERS

You say, "Well, glory to God, the Bible said when the Holy Ghost is come you don't need any teacher; He's the teacher Hisself." Oh, brother. How can you be so little from reading the Scrip... Why did the Holy Ghost set teachers in the church then?

Say, "I don't have to have anybody teach me; the Holy Ghost teaches me." It does through a teacher. He set teachers in the church.

A genuine Bible teacher will teach people from the Bible by connecting up the relevant Bible verses to explain the revelations of brother Branham.

The Holy Spirit uses people to teach others the truth, but the person who speaks must not refer to himself as the source of knowledge. He must always refer back to the Scripture as the source of knowledge.

JOHN 16:13   Howbeit when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth: for he shall not speak of himself;

No person today is infallible. All people can do today is reveal what is written in Scripture.

I CORINTHIANS 12:28    And God hath set some in the church, first apostles, secondarily prophets, thirdly teachers, after that miracles, then gifts of healings, helps, governments, diversities of tongues.

When God originally set up the church he did not refer to pastors.

A pastor binds his church to his own opinions. That is why we have 45000 different types of churches and denominations. Pastoral care is to help people with personal, family, and work problems.

Pastoral care is to develop a person’s faith in Scripture and to encourage them to trust more in their personal relationship with Jesus. Not to rely on the church or on some man.

“Pastors” is only mentioned once in the New Testament as God never intended them to develop deep Bible doctrines. Especially when they start a discussion with, “I have a quote” rather than saying, “It is written”.

“Apostles and prophets” have a double meaning.

Men today can be apostles sent out to establish people in the faith that was written down by the original apostles.

People may have a prophetic ministry that correctly warns us of future events that are about to happen.

Brother Branham had a unique prophetic ministry in that he had to reveal the end-time mysteries of the Bible.

In addition, “Apostles” refer to the New Testament and “prophets” refer to the Old Testament which both find their meaning in Christ as He fulfills the Old Testament and gives purpose to the New Testament.

The emphasis on apostles and prophets means that the church must first be based on Scripture, the New and the Old Testaments, which are the foundation of faith. And all Scripture must point to Christ, not some man.

EPHESIANS 2:20     And are built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner stone;

The Holy Spirit will ensure that we must measure against the Corner stone (Jesus), and must not measure by our own standards. Our pretensions die with us.

The Holy Spirit will thus always be Scriptural.

The Holy Spirit will always point to Christ, Who is the Corner stone of the Word.

So, when the Holy Spirit teaches through some man, that man will keep proving his point from Scripture.

Thus, if a man teaches you, you do not end up quoting the man. You end up quoting the Scriptures that he taught you from.

Equally, if the Holy Spirit gives you a flash of inspiration about some Scriptures, then the people you speak to must be convinced by the Scriptures that you referred to. They must not be intimidated by the forcefulness of your personality nor be impressed by how slick and eloquent you were.

They must be impressed by how Scriptural you were.

EPHESIAN  CHURCH  AGE  -  CHURCH  AGE  BOOK  CPT.3

And the church corporate has never learned this lesson from the Scripture nor from history. Every time God gives a visitation of the Holy Spirit and people get free, after awhile they bind themselves right back to the very thing they came out of. When Luther came out of Catholicism, the people stayed free for awhile.

But when he died, the people simply organized what they thought he believed and set up their own creeds and ideas and repudiated anyone who said opposite to what they said.

They went right back to Catholicism with a little different form. And right today many Lutherans are ready to go all the way back.

Oh, yes! In Revelation 17, that old whore had many daughters. These daughters are just like mother. They set the Word aside, deny the work of the Spirit of God, subjugate the laity, and make it impossible for the laity to worship God unless they come through them or through their pattern, which is nothing but a blueprint of unbelief from Satan himself.

Notice.

They went outside the Scripture and imposed their own beliefs.

The Holy Spirit never does that.

Pastors say, “If you do not believe what I am saying, (which is his interpretation of some quote), then leave”.

The reason he speaks like that is that he cannot prove his belief from Scripture.

And the people are too intimidated to object.

That is not how the Holy Spirit works.

EPHESIAN  CHURCH  AGE  -  CHURCH  AGE  BOOK  CPT.3

Where can you find the 'vicar of Christ' in the Word? No one takes His place, yet it has been done and people accept it.

Where can you find that 'added revelation' is accepted by God, especially revelation contrary to one already given? Yet they accept it and rest on it.

Satan wants to put some man in the place of Christ.

You cannot make the quotes of brother Branham take the place of Scripture.

The quotes are only useful if they explain the Scriptures.

63-1110    HE  THAT  IS  IN  YOU

Believe all the Message. Believe That. If it isn't written in the Bible, then don't you believe it. But if It is in the Bible, then the Holy Spirit that's living in us is duty bound to perform that if we believe It. Is that right? I know it's hard. See, nothing comes easy.

The Holy Spirit will only make you believe the quotes that illuminate the written Word.

William Branham can never take the place of Jesus nor be co-equal with Jesus.

Jesus is the Way, in other words, the Path that we must walk along.

Brother Branham was a signpost which indicated the direction that we should walk in. We thank God for the signpost which gave us direction by revealing the mysteries of the Bible, but we do not stop and worship the signpost. We keep walking.

The Holy Spirit operates in a two-way relationship.

The revelation of the Bible mysteries attracts our attention as the True Bride wants to understand Scripture. Then God is attracted to those who love the revealed mysteries because those people love how God thinks.

63-0630  THE  THIRD  EXODUS

Listen to the Bible, the Voice of God calling to you in this day.

When we are attracted to understanding and keeping the Word  of God, then God begins to notice us.

65-0429  THE  CHOOSING  OF  A  BRIDE

While, the true Bride attracts the attention of God, by keeping His Word.

It must be a personal, inner conviction in your own heart. That is how the Holy Spirit works.

Not some human quotes that you have learned by rote learning.

For all eternity God will be explaining His thinking to us, so He is only interested in those who love His thinking as it is revealed in Scripture.

Growth in the Spirit is like water getting deeper

Consider a tree and a river of water to understand the different stages whereby God works in the human heart.

A tree can symbolize a man.

PSALM 1:1   Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor standeth in the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful.

:2   But his delight is in the law of the LORD; and in his law doth he meditate day and night.

:3     And he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that bringeth forth his fruit in his season; his leaf also shall not wither; and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper.

When Jesus dealt with a blind man, the man got a great surprise.

MARK 8:24   And he looked up, and said, I see men as trees, walking.

The blind man had gained a spiritual insight that would allow him to see what a man really was.

With that spiritual insight, no man who was a hypocrite would ever be able to fool him.

A tree stands upright even when it is dead. It just has no leaves which are the symbol of life.

This is like taking a spiritual look at a sinner. He seems fine and well but is spiritually dead.

As a result, he stands outside the River of Life.

But his spirit looks like a dead tree with no leaves.

EZEKIEL 47:3   And when the man that had the line in his hand went forth eastward, he measured a thousand cubits, and he brought me through the waters; the waters were to the ankles.

Then the man gets saved. This is a simple process that does not require much knowledge. Just repent and accept Jesus Christ as your personal Saviour.

The water is shallow. His knowledge of Scripture is very limited. But he is in the River of Life and green leaves are starting to show on his spiritual tree.

Even this shallow water is enough to save his soul from hell.

EZEKIEL 47:4   Again he measured a thousand, and brought me through the waters; the waters were to the knees.

The saved man learns to be holy. There are more leaves on the tree of his life. The water is deeper, he knows more of the Scripture.

Again he measured a thousand, and brought me through; the waters were to the loins.

Saved, living holy, and Spirit-filled.

Much deeper water. He draws more Life from a deeper knowledge of Scripture.

Even more green leaves plus the fruits of the Spirit.

GALATIANS 5:22  But the  fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith,

:23   Meekness, temperance: against such there is no law.

Then comes the last stage of his spiritual renewal.

The Holy Spirit will guide him to His place or position in the great Body of Christ, the true church, which has been building up for the last 2000 years.

EZEKIEL 47:5   Afterward he measured a thousand; and it was a river that I could not pass over: for the waters were risen, waters to swim in, a river that could not be passed over.

There are no more dead branches. No more areas of ignorance in the Bible.

The mysteries of Scripture which brother Branham revealed can now be known to him as he swims around in the depths of God’s Word.

“a river that could not be passed over”.

Christians "pass over" or ignore all the Scriptures that they cannot explain or that contradict their theories.

That way they can wade through the shallow parts of the Bible and reach whatever conclusion that they want to.

Once you reach a deeper understanding of Scripture then you cannot walk where you want to. The water of the Word becomes too deep. You see insights that the churches have missed.

So, once God's Holy Spirit is guiding you to your place in His spiritual Body, then you cannot pass over the river to your preferred destination. Your deeper understanding of those Scriptures that others cannot understand will guide you, often to where you would rather not go.

The water of the revealed Word will now sweep the individual to where God wants him or her so that person can be ready for the Coming of the Lord.

The Spirit makes us part of God's Big Plan

The individual is no longer just concerned with improving his or her own life but has also become far more aware that God wants the individual to be restored back to the beliefs of the first church age.

That person now wants to be part of God's Big Picture. 

Only when the seventh church age believes what the first church age believed will Jesus be able to return.

I THESSALONIANS 4:16   For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first:

The “voice of the archangel” will produce the resurrection.

64-0119  SHALOM

… then, "time shall be no more." When that Angel, of Revelation the 10th chapter, puts one foot on land and one on the sea, and a rainbow over His head, He swore, "time shall be no more." When that time comes, you will rise up from among the dead. While the rest of them lay there, you will go in.

MATTHEW 19:30   But many that are first shall be last; and the last shall be first.

”First” and “last” are used interchangeably. Thus, there will be no difference between the first and the last church ages at the time of the resurrection.

The main work of the Holy Spirit in our day is to reveal the mysteries of Scripture so that we can be restored back to the truths of the early apostles.

Compare the spiritual rebirth of a person to the natural birth of a baby.

Step 1 is the conception. This represents justification, when the person repents and accepts Jesus as his or her Saviour. This is where eternal Life starts as it takes a portion of the Holy Spirit to dwell in our hearts and start us serving God.

Step 2 is the growth of the baby in the mother’s womb.

This represents sanctification as the person gives up their bad habits and grows in holiness.

The measure of the Holy Spirit in the heart grows.

There is a definite life in the developing baby.

A surgeon performed an operation on a baby while it was still in the womb. Just before he sewed up the womb, a little hand came out to grab his finger, as if to say, ”Thank you”.

Step 3 is the actual birth. This represents the new birth, the baptism of the Holy Spirit.

There is now enough Holy Spirit in the heart for the individual to be controlled by God.

Step 4 is finding your place or position in the Body of the Lord.

Now Christ can reveal His full Word to you and get you to believe and do what He wants from you in order to restore you back to the first church age.

You have become a living stone in his great Body of believers that stretches back over 2000 years. Jesus alone knows where you fit into this spiritual Temple.

I PETER 2:5   Ye also, as lively stones, are built up a spiritual house, an holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God by Jesus Christ.

Each saved person is part of the priesthood of Melchizadek.

In the Old Testament, there was an Aaronic priesthood of preachers between the people and God.

Jesus did away with that at Calvary.

There is a five-fold ministry in the church.

EPHESIANS 4:11    And he gave some, apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers;

:12   For the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ:

But these ministries do not act as a priesthood between the saved Christians and God.

All saved Christians are priests as they act as a priesthood between the unsaved sinners and God.

The only people with authority in the local church are the local elders. A local elder need not be part of the five ministries.

But that does not diminish his authority in the local church in any way.

57-0908  HEBREWS  CHAPTER  FIVE  AND  SIX.1

Show me by the Bible what's greater, in the Bible, than a local elder to a local church? That's right, yes, sir, the sovereignty of the local church, each church in itself.

I TIMOTHY 5:17   Let the elders that rule well be counted worthy of double honour, especially they who labour in the word and doctrine.

All elders are worthy of double honour and are thus equal, but not all elders labour in the word and doctrine.

The only one above us, as priests, is the High Priest, Christ.

Brother Branham, who was the end-time prophet, said:

62-0318  THE  SPOKEN  WORD  IS  THE  ORIGINAL  SEED.1

And he set down to me, and he said, "Shall I regard you as 'father,' or as 'reverend,' or as 'elder'? Or what would you want me to regard you as?"

I said, "If you love me, call me 'brother.'" And he, in respects, did so.

Nobody in the Bible was ever had the title “Pastor” attached to his name.

The only title before our names should be “Brother” or "Sister".

The Holy Spirit wants to drive us through life like a car

Compare the working of the Holy Spirit in a person’s life to driving a car.

You are born into a physical body that you move around in.

As an analogy, a person gets into a car that they drive around in.

Many friends, mainly bad influences, get into the car with their wrong advice.

1. Salvation is when you see Jesus standing on the side of the road and you stop to give Him a lift.
2. The presence of Jesus in the car makes all the bad friends get out and go away. Holiness.
3. The Holy Ghost baptism is when you realize that the only sensible thing that you can do is to hand over the steering wheel to Jesus and thus let Him drive you around.
4. Finding your place or position in the spiritual Body of the 2000-year-old church. This is only possible if Jesus alone can guide you to where He wants you to be. But fasten your seatbelt. It can be a rough journey. There will be much opposition.

The target that Jesus aims at is to restore you to the beliefs of the early apostles in the first church age.

The seed that is harvested at the end of the last church age has to be identical to the seed that was planted by the apostles in the first church age.

So, the guidance of the Holy Spirit today will always be to get us to do things and believe just like the first church did, as is written in the Bible.

The common error will be when people are distracted by their specific circumstances and surroundings and they will seek to modify, or change, or ignore, or reject one or more Bible verses. As a result, they will end up doing or believing something that the early church neither did nor believed.

Well-meaning people project their own error and unbelief.

Then you will know that the Holy Spirit does not operate that way.

It is not the Holy Spirit guiding them in those decisions.

A messenger from God will always speak from the Bible.

64-0823  QUESTIONS  AND  ANSWERS.1

But those who can accept the Word in Its fullness, not me preaching It, because It's the Bible says so. Those who accept that is free, because they--the Word's already been judged.

62-0318 THE  SPOKEN  WORD  IS  THE  ORIGINAL  SEED.2
Now, all these things I've said, if they don't jive with the Bible, or dovetail with God's Word, they're wrong, they're wrong,

61-0108  REVELATION  CHAPTER  FOUR.3

"My sheep know My Voice." And the Voice of God is His Word.

60-0804  AS  THE  EAGLE  STIRRETH  UP  HER  NEST

We know the Bible is right; that's not my voice; that's God's voice, speaking

The Holy Spirit always refers back to the Bible.