What does "Walking in the Spirit" mean?

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We cannot walk in the Spirit unless we know the mind of Christ.

I CORINTHIANS 2:16   For who hath known the mind of the Lord, that he may instruct him? But we have the mind of Christ.

We cannot tell God what to do. We cannot even understand what God is doing unless we have the mind of Christ to explain it all to us.

But God will not do anything that contradicts the King James Version of the Bible. That is His blueprint and His plan of action.

ISAIAH 53:1   Who hath believed our report? and to whom is the arm of the LORD revealed?

The Bible tells us what God does -- but only the Spirit of Christ can reveal this to us.

So the more we learn about the Bible, the better we understand the mind of God.

God's plan at the end time is to reveal the mysteries of Scripture so that we can follow what He is doing.

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; but whatsoever he shall hear, that shall he speak: and he will shew you things to come.

:14   He shall glorify me:

The purpose of the Holy Spirit is to glorify Jesus, not some man.

So if you are following a man, a prophet or a pastor, then you are not walking in the Spirit.

We only walk in the Spirit if the Spirit is able to guide us on how to understand the truth of Scripture.

We only walk in the Spirit when we understand for ourselves what the Bible is talking about.

If you have the mind of Christ you will know why He twice wrote in the ground with His finger.

Because that is why the Spirit came, to guide us into the truth.

JOHN 6:44   No man can come to me, except the Father which hath sent me draw him:

Jesus is the Word. The Spirit of God draws us towards the Word.

ISAIAH 53:1   Who hath believed our report? and to whom is the arm of the LORD revealed?

Who is prepared to believe only what is written in Scripture?

We are drawn towards the Word when the Spirit of God reveals what the Scripture means.

DEUTERONOMY 29:29   The secret things belong unto the LORD our God: but those things which are revealed belong unto us and to our children for ever, that we may do all the words of this law.

The seven Thunders, the Coming of the Lord, the seventh Seal, and the new name of Jesus were never written in the Scripture, and thus they remain secrets until they happen. They belong to God, and not to you.

If you think that the unwritten Scriptures have happened, then you are not walking in the Spirit.

The Holy Spirit can only guide you down the path of the written Scriptures that you do believe.

But the Spirit of God prepares the scene for us even before we are born.

GENESIS 25:21   And Isaac intreated the LORD for his wife, because she was barren: and the LORD was intreated of him, and Rebekah his wife conceived.

God is outside of time and sees the past and the future as one picture. So He knows all the decisions that humans will make. Because He can see over the curtain of time and know the end, He can tell us what the end result is going to be.

GENESIS 25:22   And the children struggled together within her; and she said, If it be so, why am I thus? And she went to enquire of the LORD.

:23   And the LORD said unto her, Two nations are in thy womb, and two manner of people shall be separated from thy bowels; and the one people shall be stronger than the other people; and the elder shall serve the younger.

ROMANS 9:13   As it is written, Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated.

This sounds unfair. Esau was a good man, but Esau of his own free-will despised his birthright. God knew he would do that. Thus God hated him for despising something of great value.

Jacob was a crook but he desperately wanted that birthright.

God was not that concerned over whether their lives were good or bad. That was secondary. God was more concerned over their attitude towards His Word.

The birthright was important.

What they thought about God's Word was more important than the quality of their lives.

You can only walk in the Spirit as far as you can follow and understand the Scripture.

Predestination simply means that God already knows the end product.

If we plant a bean seed, we know what the end product will look like, as the beans will hang on the plant.

Christianity involves uniting two opposites, free-will and predestination.

These two seem to contradict each other. But not really.

Free-will describes our human point of view because we are free to make choices. But we do not know the future and thus do not know the consequences of our choices.

Predestination is God's point of view. He already knows the end, as He is outside of time, and thus He knows the consequences of our free-will choices.

Free-will is concerned with the small puddle of our own lives, and the decisions we make for our own benefit, as we are unable to see the future.

This includes our desire to get saved and live a holy life, because that is obviously for our own benefit. We can be sure of being saved from hell while we swim around in our little self-obsessed puddle, but we can never be sure that we will escape the Tribulation by being ready to be caught up to meet the Lord in the air. This is often called the Rapture. We can never be sure that we are good enough to go as long as we remain in the puddle of our self-will.

Predestination is concerned with God’s Big Picture.

God has prepared a plan long ago in the past which is the only way to cope with the future that He can already see in advance. This is the mighty River of Life that flows from His throne in Heaven. Our problem, after getting saved, which allows us to call Jesus our Saviour, is to get into this River where we are controlled by God’s Will. Because only then can we call Him Lord. Lord means Supreme Boss. We are then totally under His control.

I CORINTHIANS 12:3   and that no man can say that Jesus is the Lord, but by the Holy Ghost.

The biggest positive that we have is to focus on God's promises. That He will guide us into all truth if we are prepared to believe that the Bible is the Absolute Truth.

We cannot win in life if we focus on "self". No human can meet God's standards.

So we need something else to focus on rather than our focus on "self" which always, if we are sincere, ends up with negatives like, "Have I got it? Will I make it?"

Focus on "self", for a genuine believer, will always reveal ourselves to be unworthy and inadequate. Why?

An interesting new scientific discovery shows that only 43% of a human is made from human cells. Lining our digestive tract or gut, and swarming on the outside of our skins, are more microbes such as bacteria, viruses, and fungi etc than what there are human cells in our bodies. The gut is connected to the brain by the vagus nerve which is an information superhighway. These microbes can influence our thinking and cause depression. For a long time people have been aware of a "gut feeling" that often contradicted the thoughts in their brains. It turns out to be a recently discovered scientific fact.

In a sense, more than half of you is not really under your control, and these microbes share a very complex relationship with our human minds. Depression and anxiety seemed to be linked in some way to these gut microbes.

Thus as persons, when we focus on ourselves, we are never good enough because more than half of a person is not actually human cells. We are more microbe than human. No wonder we feel inadequate.

Saint Paul was a Spirit filled man, but look how he described his microbe-riddled body.

ROMANS 7:24   O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?

If you want depression, keep looking deep into yourself. More than half of what you see is bacteria, fungus, viruses etc.  That is not going to make anyone feel good about themselves.

A saved person cannot rely on good works, because even heathens and atheists can live good lives and do good works.

What can a saved person then offer the Lord?

All a saved person can contribute are the motives of sincerity in trusting Jesus, despite our personal shortcomings, a genuine desire to love Jesus and repent when we fail Him, and a firm faith to believe all the King James Version of the Bible, and a determination to follow the Bible as best we can.

Once Jesus has called us, all we can actually do is try to stay faithful to Him.

The big issue is that we must want to do things His way.

We will fail, but that is why He shed His Blood. Our sins and shortcomings are endlessly washed in that Life-giving stream.

Wanting to be Scriptural must be our basic motivation.

That is how we walk in the Spirit. He guides us down the path of His Word.

It is not the outward show that counts, nor how successful we have been.

Many successful Christians follow Jesus because it makes them popular or successful. That is not the right motive. That is the basis of the prosperity Gospel -- believe and gain. Notice the emphasis on self.

Job was prepared to follow God even though he lost all, including his life. This is a much more inspiring example.

JOB 13:15   Though he slay me, yet will I trust in him:

It is the inner motive of wanting to follow Him that counts, even if we have not been too successful in doing that so far.

Even if we lose, even if we fail, we must still always desire to follow Him.

The main way to do that is two-fold :

1. First, die to ourselves so that we do not project our own emotions and opinions and ignorance on a topic. We must do our best to become a zero. We must realize that we do not count.
2. Secondly, our mission is just to reflect the Word of God.

Jesus, the Word, is the only One that matters. So Jesus, in modern computer terms, is a 1.

Computers convey all their information with a  1  and a  0.

No human knows enough to be a  1.   Only Jesus can do that.

We must regard ourselves as nothing. I am not interested in what suits me. I must want to do His will.

So all a person can do is surrender their self-will to Jesus, of their own free-will, because they want to do that.

A person who has died to themselves and regards themselves as nothing, becomes a perfect reflector of the Word of God.

All we quote is what the Bible says.

We do not point people to any person, just to Jesus.

Each person must focus on their personal experience with Jesus, as He is revealed in the Bible.

The mistake Christians make is that they get saved by having a personal experience with the Lord, and then they soon swap that for a church experience. Then they conform to the beliefs and expectations of the church people and they follow the church leader. Thus they have become second-hand Christians, no longer just standing on what the Bible says. They become scared to disagree with the church leader when he deviates from Scripture. People then become church-goers, defending their church, rather than being Christians who reflect only Bible verses.

Defending a church today is rather pointless as there are 45,000 different types of denominational or non-denominational churches. The chances of any church being the right one is 1 in 45,000. Very tiny odds indeed. To make it worse, Jesus describes the Laodicean church as blind, and He says that He stands outside the church door.

So the best place to meet Jesus is outside the church.

That is part of what is involved with walking in the Spirit.

The only original or personal thing that you can offer up to God as a sacrifice is your free-will.

Getting saved is straight forward as it involves no deep knowledge of Scripture. We simply have to repent sincerely and ask Jesus to come into our lives.

ACTS 2:38   Then Peter said unto them, Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost.

Receiving the Holy Ghost is more difficult to explain as it can happen in different ways for different people.

Let us look how God works in a person’s life.

JOHN 7:38   He that believeth on me, as the scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water.

JOHN 7:39     (But this spake he of the Spirit, which they that believe on him should receive: for the Holy Ghost was not yet given; because that Jesus was not yet glorified.)

Water gives life in the natural. The Holy Spirit gives supernatural life.

"Believeth on Me", refers to the thoughts in the mind or spirit that are produced by the faith in the human soul. These thoughts must be based on Scripture. Scriptural faith then motivates our actions or works.

The soul is a garden that is watered by the Holy Spirit. The Seed Word of God is planted in the garden of the soul. The Seed Word germinates the faith needed to control the spirit or mind. The thoughts of the mind bring the body under control.

JEREMIAH 31:12   and their soul shall be as a watered garden;

LUKE 8:11   Now the parable is this: The seed is the word of God.

Mind and spirit are used interchangeably in Scripture. Thus they mean the same thing.

ROMANS 8:27   And he that searcheth the hearts knoweth what is the mind of the Spirit,

EPHESIANS 4:23   And be renewed in the spirit of your mind;

I CORINTHIANS 15:38   But God giveth it a body as it hath pleased him, and to every seed his own body.

Once the Holy Spirit comes into our lives, then He begins to bring the body under subjection. Then we do not rely on our self discipline, which may fail. We rely on the fact that the Holy Spirit changes our way of thinking, and makes us want to obey His will.

ROMANS 8:10   but the Spirit is life

I SAMUEL 25:29   but the soul of my lord shall be bound in the bundle of life with the LORD thy God

The human soul is bundled up inside the spirit.

The soul is where the Word of God grows like a Seed. The soul is where our faith is anchored to the Word.

I THESSALONIANS 5: 23   And the very God of peace sanctify you wholly; and I pray God your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.

This is the order that it works. The spirit is the water that is poured onto the garden of the soul where the Seed of God’s Word is planted. The Seed Word germinates and illuminates our mind or spirit which is then able to bring the body under subjection to the Word of God.

When we are born we have a soul, but no supernatural in our human spirit. There is a vacuum there that readily attracts sinful activities but these things fail to bring any lasting satisfaction.

This endless dissatisfaction makes people become cynics or skeptics or atheists. Or we pursue eastern mysticism, or worldly pleasures.

But for some, this worldly emptiness drives them to repent of their sins and accept the Lord Jesus as their personal Saviour.

When this happens, God injects a small portion of His Holy Spirit into that vacuum that is around the soul.

Immediately, our old human nature or spirit starts to darken in our sight. The things we used to enjoy no longer seem right to us.

The Holy Ghost waters our soul which is like a garden, and the Word Seed suddenly begins to germinate. We find that we can believe the Bible and we also have a desire to learn more of Scripture. We fall in love with Jesus as we now have a personal relationship with Him.

ECCLESIASTES 3:21   Who knoweth the spirit of man that goeth upward, and the spirit of the beast that goeth downward to the earth?

The spirit of man goes up to the judgement seat of God when he dies because his soul, that has to answer for sin, is bundled up inside the spirit. The animal spirit has no soul within it and need not answer to God, as it thus cannot sin.

EZEKIEL 18:4…. the soul that sinneth, it shall die.

PSALM 49:8    (For the redemption of their soul is precious, and it ceaseth for ever:)

Redemption of the soul was purchased at Calvary, once for all.

JOHN 19:30   When Jesus therefore had received the vinegar, he said, It is finished: and he bowed his head, and gave up the ghost.

It was over. Salvation had been bought by Jesus.

There is nothing left for us to do but believe.

You cannot get saved today. Your salvation was purchased 2000 years ago at Calvary.

All you can do today, when you thought you got saved, was to recognize and acknowledge what God had already done long ago.

JOHN 3:34   For he whom God hath sent speaketh the words of God: for God giveth not the Spirit by measure unto him.

Jesus had the Spirit of God without measure.

For the rest of us, a small measure of the Holy Ghost comes into us at salvation, and then like any plant, it has to grow.

EZEKIEL 11: 19     And I will give them one heart, and I will put a new spirit within you; and I will take the stony heart out of their flesh, and will give them an heart of flesh:

This Spirit of God enables us to follow God’s Word.

EZEKIEL 36:27   And I will put my spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes, and ye shall keep my judgments, and do them.

We walk in the Spirit as It guides us through what is written in the Word.

As we learn more of Scripture and walk more closely in God’s ways, so His Spirit guides us and grows within us to reveal more of Scripture that we had not previously seen.

This growth of the Spirit within us is called "growing in grace".

II PETER 3:18   But grow in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.

I PETER 2:2   As newborn babes, desire the sincere milk of the word, that ye may grow thereby:

The Holy Spirit begins to clean up our lives and we live a more holy life.

The portion of the Holy Spirit within us has grown and thus the old human nature is shrinking and plays a less active role in our lives.

The Holy Ghost baptism is when we allow Jesus to take control of our lives. He is now our Lord as we listen to Him and obey from Scripture.

This is not legalism where we feel obliged to obey certain rules.

This is submission to God where we want to obey Him and do things His way.

We willingly hand over control of our lives to Jesus.

EPHESIANS 3:1   For this cause I Paul, the prisoner of Jesus Christ for you Gentiles,

A prisoner has no say over his life.

But because we are  human, our old self or human spirit never properly dies out and is always looking for a chance to revive and take over our lives again.

When this happens, we tend to call it backsliding.

Backsliding reduces the amount of the Holy Spirit in us, as we have free-will and can ignore the Spirit if we choose to do so.

Again, we need to repent and re-dedicate our lives to Jesus.

Then the Holy Spirit grows stronger and self shrinks again.

The Holy Spirit feeds on the Word.

If we replace the Scripture with human quotes and opinions, then we backslide spiritually into a state of Bible illiteracy.

Ask any church-goer to prove their doctrines from Scripture only. You will be shocked how little they know of the Bible.

The key process is that, from start to finish, it is the Holy Spirit working in the life of an individual. First the Spirit has to convict that person to repent. Then the Holy Spirit in that person guides them and cleans up their lives. That enables more of the Spirit to dwell within them, until the Holy Spirit is able to take full control of their lives. Then they are able to believe the Bible, if they want to. Most are just content to stay with their church doctrines.

That is what we call the baptism of the Holy Spirit.

Think of your body as a big taxi.

You drive around picking up all sorts of undesirable people. Then one day you see Jesus on the roadside, and you stop and pick Him up. This is salvation. Jesus is in your car. If you die, His Spirit will take you up to Heaven. Then all the undesirable people lose interest in you, and jump out of the car. This is holiness. Christ is cleaning up your life. Finally you realize that it is stupid for you to be driving Him around, and you hand over the steering wheel to Him. This is the Holy Spirit baptism when Jesus takes control of your vehicle. Then He drives you to wherever He wants you to go.

Now we come to the difficult part.

What does Jesus want us to do when He has taken us over?

So this is the part that we should always be aiming at, right from the beginning.

His Holy Spirit does not want to swim around in the puddle of our self-will.

This reduces us to an endless state of, "I want",  "I need", "I must have",  "Please give me".

He wants us rather to be in the great River of Life of God’s will.

To achieve this God wants us to change our focus completely.

Instead of looking at ourselves, and endlessly feeling unworthy, He wants us to rather look at His great plan for today.

We now look at the promises of God for our day.

MATTHEW 6:33   But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.

We need to stop concentrating on what we need in order to survive and live a happy life. We now prefer to rather follow what God is trying to achieve today. If we focus on His kingdom, His unseen River of Life that flows through our complex modern world, then He will add to us such things as we need for our survival.

Basically we try to fathom out what He wants and when we do that, then He will somehow look after us.

Here comes a big secret.

DEUTERONOMY 28:2   And all these blessings shall come on thee, and overtake thee, if thou shalt hearken unto the voice of the LORD thy God.

Something that overtakes you comes up on you from behind. That means you never saw it. You were never aiming for it. But God knew that you needed it. So when you took your attention off your own life and your own needs, then God stepped in and supplied them.

When you are not searching and pursuing your own needs then there is a good chance that you are seeking God’s kingdom. God generally requires you to do things that you would never normally have done on your own free-will.

ISAIAH 55:8   For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the LORD.

If you allow God to do your thinking then be prepared for the unexpected.

You have to let Him change your thinking if you are to be of help to Him in this modern day when, like the time at the judgement seat of Pontius Pilate, all men forsook Him.

God was a supernatural Spirit in the Old Testament.

When God dwelled in Christ, then the human attributes of the Holy Spirit were made manifest. God was both Human and Supernatural.

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

So when the Holy Spirit first comes into you at salvation it brings both human and supernatural qualities with it. Supernatural faith allows you to believe and build up knowledge of the Word. At the same time it brings into your heart the proper human spirit that God always intended you to have. In other words the Holy Spirit makes you into the new human being that God wants you to be.

There will be endless conflict between your new godly human nature and your old sinful nature or human spirit.

As your new nature feeds on Scripture then it grows stronger.

If you feed on TV, social media, entertainments, man-made doctrines, and an addiction to cell phones then your old nature will grow stronger.

Like two dogs in a fight, the dog you feed the most will win.

Jesus is not looking for heroes of the faith today.

He is just looking for people who want to understand Scripture and live by the King James Version of the Bible.

So what is the purpose of the Holy Ghost baptism in the last days?

God wants the final seed at the harvest to be identical to the original seed that was planted in the first church age.

The last church must be restored back to the teachings of the first church.

MATTHEW 17:11   And Jesus answered and said unto them, Elias truly shall first come, and restore all things.

God wants to guide us back to the Scriptural truths that the apostles taught to the early church.

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; but whatsoever he shall hear, that shall he speak: and he will shew you things to come.

So what God wants from us today is to finally know the truth that is written in the Bible so that we can be like the early church.

God wants us to know the truth of Scripture. To be able to read the Bible and understand it. No church age, after the first age was complete around 170 AD, was ever able to understand what the first church believed.

God’s desire for this last age is to have Christians who can believe just like the apostles believed.

Let us take a look at God's throne in Heaven.

REVELATION 4:6   And before the throne there was a sea of glass like unto crystal: and in the midst of the throne, and round about the throne, were four beasts full of eyes before and behind.

: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 fourth and last beast around God’s throne is an eagle. An eagle has amazing eyesight. It can see small details that everyone else misses.

II THESSALONIANS 1:3   We are bound to thank God always for you, brethren, as it is meet, because that your faith groweth exceedingly, and the charity of every one of you all toward each other aboundeth;

As we walk in the Spirit through the pages of the Word, so our faith grows.

God wants you to understand all the mysterious details in His Bible that other people just miss and then they dismiss them as irrelevant.

MATTHEW 16:9   Do ye not yet understand, neither remember the five loaves of the five thousand, and how many baskets ye took up?

:10   Neither the seven loaves of the four thousand, and how many baskets ye took up?

Jesus fed 9000 men, and then put the emphasis on the left over scraps that they rejected. Why?

Bread represents doctrine. These Jews would reject the Gospel at Calvary.

The rejected Gospel would be written into the New Testament by the disciples and given to the Gentiles during the seven church ages.

Then, during the Tribulation, 144000 Jews out of the twelve tribes of Israel, would get the Gospel that these Jews would be rejecting.

The number of baskets of scraps was 12 and 7. 7 church ages, and 12 tribes of Israel.

The two groups that God was going to save during the time of the Gospel.

In the Tabernacle was a seven-branched candlestick and 12 loaves of shewbread.

Also 12 and 7.

Your head is connected to your body by your backbone.

The top 7 vertebrae form the neck. The next 12 vertebrae hold your ribs.

Jesus is the Head of the church -- not the pastor.

He connects to His body by means of the seven church ages and then the 12 tribes of Israel during the Tribulation.

So the rejected scraps held a deep meaning.

God is dealing with the rejects in the end. Those who do not fit into the churches and are outside them in terms of their beliefs.

Walking in the Spirit means fitting in with God’s Plan at the end time.

But in Laodicea He stands outside all the church doors.

REVELATION 3:14   And unto the angel of the church of the Laodiceans write;

Notice. It is not the church in Laodicea.

REVELATION 2:1   Unto the angel of the church of Ephesus

This first church age was of Ephesus. That church age had the characteristics of the city of Ephesus.  It was supposed to be the example for every age. Its influence  was to spread down through to the end of the church ages and be the blueprint for the last church age of Laodicea. As such it was not in Ephesus. It was not confined to Ephesus.

Then for the next five church ages He speaks of a church that was confined to the character of a city. They had unique errors for their distinct age that were different to any other age.

REVELATION 2:8   And unto the angel of the church in Smyrna write

This church was in Smyrna. The Christians were heavily persecuted by the Roman Empire. They made the mistake of ruling their churches in the same way that the Romans ruled their empire. These mistakes were in this age.

So this was the church in Smyrna, today called Izmir.

A sad but interesting rerun of history. Early Christians were unjustly thrown into prison by the Roman Empire between 170 AD and 312 AD during the second church age.

REVELATION 2:10   behold, the devil shall cast some of you into prison, that ye may be tried;

On October 7, 2016. Pastor Andrew Brunson was arrested in Izmir and later transferred to a high security prison having never been convicted in a court of law. (Writing this in mid-2018).

The same "Christian versus Devil" struggle is still going on.

Jesus says the church in Philadelphia.

REVELATION 3:7   And to the angel of the church in Philadelphia

Except for Ephesus, all the churches are in their respective cities that had the characteristics for their corresponding church age. Each age had particular problem areas that were not shared by other ages.

So certain problems, and successes, only applied to that age.

But look how different Laodicea is. Laodicea means "people’s rights".

REVELATION 3:14   And unto the angel of the church of the Laodiceans write;

This is not the church in Laodicea, this is the church of the Laodiceans. In other words, the Laodiceans have made up their own churches.

They so strongly believe in their own rights that they have made up their own brand of church worship.

There are more than 45,000 different denominational and non-denominational churches in 2018. Not to mention a whole variety of different Message churches. Plus there are over 100 different translations of the English Bible. It is a real mess.

We are supposed to go back to the Book of Acts and the New Testament church.

But all our churches are full of man-made unscriptural doctrines -- think Trinity, Christmas, 25 December, denomination, pastor is head of church, a man’s quotes replace Scripture etc.

So Jesus is calling us out of our modern church experiences.

Conforming to the "Group think" of modern day "churchianity", we believe what others say as we are basically Bible illiterate and do not know what the Bible does say on those issues. We imitate the pastor instead of Jesus, and in the process become second hand church-goers. We repeat what the pastor says rather than repeating Scripture.

We thus basically believe what we want to believe.

We only listen to what we want to hear.

That is our right. Or so we think.

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.

God’s voice is His Word.

He appeals to an individual, not a group.

God wants our discussions with Him to be based on Scripture.

Walking in the Spirit means hearing the inner voice if the Holy Spirit.

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.

: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.

A mighty angel or messenger has warned us of the evils of our church systems. Babylon is a symbol of the Roman Catholic church that gave birth to her daughter Protestant churches. The Roman church elevated a man to be the head of the church. The Protestants copied this by elevating a pastor to be head of a church. This was an image to the beast. Playing copy cat to Rome.

REVELATION 17:1   And there came one of the seven angels which had the seven vials, and talked with me, saying unto me, Come hither; I will shew unto thee the judgment of the great whore that sitteth upon many waters:

This is bad. Roman Catholicism described as a harlot.

REVELATION 17:5   And upon her forehead was a name written, MYSTERY, BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS AND ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH.

This is worse. The Protestant churches were born from Rome. But instead of staying clean, they copied the mother. Now Rome is described as the mother of harlots. That means her Protestant daughter churches are also harlots.

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.

If you are walking in the Spirit you will hear an inner voice that contradicts the unscriptural beliefs of our modern churches.

This is not the voice of the angel, as this is an inner voice of the Spirit that warns against all the corruptions and man-made beliefs in this last apostate age where the Word, Jesus, is rejected from His church.

So if you want to meet Jesus, you can only do that outside the church.

The Lord’s final appeal is to an individual in the church, not to the whole church.

Notice, He does not speak of big groups.

He wants us to gather together. But only says He is present in very small groups.

MATTHEW 18:20   For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them.

Today this gathering of individuals can be over the internet.

MATTHEW 7:14   Because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it.

He keeps emphasizing a few. The problem here is that few find the truth.

MATTHEW 20:16   So the last shall be first, and the first last: for many be called, but few chosen.

At the end He wants the last church to believe just like the first church, so that there is no difference between the first and the last.

Many are called to this restoration by the end time prophet. But the followers of the end time prophet have split into numerous groups depending on how they interpret his quotes. Thus these "Message groups" are no longer Scriptural in their beliefs. Thus few individuals will be chosen as very few are prepared to be strictly Scriptural.

ISAIAH 1:9   Except the LORD of hosts had left unto us a very small remnant, we should have been as Sodom, and we should have been like unto Gomorrah.

Appropriate with today's emphasis on people's sexual rights, while the ten commandments and creation are banned in places.

LUKE 17:26   And as it was in the days of Noe, so shall it be also in the days of the Son of man.

Only eight people were saved out of the whole world. This is a grim warning to us.

The parable of the ten virgins is very famous.

A woman represents a church.

II CORINTHIANS 11:2   For I am jealous over you with godly jealousy: for I have espoused you to one husband, that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ.

A virgin is a clean woman, representing saved Christians.

MATTHEW 25:1   Then shall the kingdom of heaven be likened unto ten virgins, which took their lamps, and went forth to meet the bridegroom.

All saved Christians are waiting for the coming of the Lord. Each Christian has a lamp that shines out their particular version of what they think the truth is.

But light is not enough. Light has to reflect off some object so that it can be seen.

The object in question is the Bible.

So all Christians are going to face a final test.

Have you got enough Light to read and understand the written King James Version of the Bible?

MATTHEW 25:2   And five of them were wise, and five were foolish.

This immediately breaks Christians into two groups.

The first group is those individuals who believe the Bible is the Absolute truth, and who can read and understand it for themselves. Not endlessly having to say, "Ask my pastor" when their Bible ignorance is exposed.

Then the second group is all the other varieties of saved church-goers with their morass of different opinions. Foolishly believing that their specific church is the right one out of the more than 45,000 different church versions. That is called wishful thinking.

MATTHEW 25:3  They that were foolish took their lamps, and took no oil with them:

Foolish Christians cannot understand much of Scripture. They are happy to believe that the Bible has mistakes, myths, contradictions, and irrelevant verses that can be dismissed as unimportant. Then they supplement their ideas with scientific theories (which are guesses about the unseen) such as the Big Bang and Evolution. They just cannot pin their faith on the King James Version of the Bible. They prefer to pick and choose amongst the more than 100 other versions of the English Bible. Just as they had to pick and choose amongst the 45,000 different types of churches to find their so-called truth. They are simply walking in a dense spiritual fog. Sitting in church every Sunday becomes the basis of their salvation.

Why did they have no oil?

They were just church-goers. They never thought for themselves. They followed the leader, the pastor, who also had no light. That is why they were happy to be Bible illiterate. No one expected them to know much. They wore the same church mask that everyone else in their church wore. They were not interested in being Scriptural. They belonged to the church, not to Jesus. They conformed to the church beliefs and sought their approval from the church. They rejected Scriptural Christians as being fanatics to be avoided.

MATTHEW 25:4   But the wise took oil in their vessels with their lamps.

Oil is a symbol of the Holy Spirit. But the oil is to burn and provide light. Having the oil is a waste of time if it is not lit. If you carry a lighted lamp, that means you can see for yourself. You are not relying on anyone else. The Holy Spirit must be in you to grant this illumination. The wise thus study the Bible in order to unlock the mysteries and find out what is going on. That is what it means to walk in the Spirit.

So the proof of having the oil or the Holy Spirit is whether you have enough Light to read and understand the Bible. If you look at Bible verses and think that they contradict each other, or that there are mistakes in the Bible, then you do not have the Holy Spirit.

The evidence of the Holy Ghost is the ability to believe every Word in the Bible and recognize the deeper meanings when they are explained to you. The Holy Spirit gives you the ability to disagree with a church when it is unscriptural.

If you can recognize deeper Bible truths in the verses that the churches reject because they cannot understand them, then you have enough inner light to illuminate the Scriptures. This light can only come from the inner oil of the Holy Spirit Who is guiding you into all truth.

Those are the characteristics of a person who is walking in the Spirit.

Not seeking the approval or acceptance of church groups. Not wearing the mask that churches expect of you.

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

This is the most overlooked Scripture. All the saved Christians in the churches today are fast asleep. You (despite your denials), me, and everyone else. The word "all" means every single saved Christian. No exceptions.

Who is keeping us all asleep?

The pastors who preach to us each week.

They rock us to sleep with their "feel good" motivational talks about the love of God.

They mess up prophecies by putting them into the Tribulation. So who needs to know them? The Bride will not be in the Tribulation.

Or they put future events into the past.

Asleep means that in our complicated world we do not really know what is going on.

Christians said Trump was a bad guy who could never win the 2016 presidential election. All the polls showed that he would lose. Yet he won. Because God is in control, and He had a purpose for Trump.

So God is warning us, expect the unexpected. Times are changing.

Those pastors who claimed that Trump would lose just proved that they do not know how God thinks.

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

But there is coming a dramatic wake up call on a massive scale. It will wake up every saved Christian. Such a thing has never happened in the past.

The seven Thunders roar suddenly, mysteriously, and unexpectedly.

63-0320  THE  THIRD  SEAL

Now, that's what's the reason today that the revivals that we're supposed to have... We have denominational revivals; we haven't had a real stirring. No, no, no, no. No, sir. Don't think we got revivals. We haven't. Oh, they've got millions and millions and millions of church members, but not a revival nowhere. No, no.

The Bride hasn't had a revival yet. See? There's been no revival there, no manifestation of God to stir the Bride yet. See? We're looking for it. It will take those seven unknown thunders back there to wake her up again. He will send it. He promised it. Now, now, watch. Now, she was dead.

Brother Branham's opinion of the Message groups: They are dead.

Greatly in need of a wake up call.

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

Trimming their lamps means living a holier life. Cutting all the carbon (symbol of sin) off the wick.

We only do that when we are scared stiff. Then we cut out all the nonsense that so easily corrupts our lives.

Something vast, sudden, and frightening is going to happen on a world-wide scale.

63-0318  THE  FIRST  SEAL

And then there's coming forth seven mysterious thunders that's not even written at all. That's right. And I believe that through those seven thunders will be revealed in the last days in order to get the Bride together for rapturing faith; because what we got right now, we wouldn't be able to do it. There's something we've got to step farther; we can't have enough faith for Divine healing hardly. We've got to have enough faith to be changed in a moment and be swept up out of this earth, and we'll find that after a while, the Lord willing, find where it's written.

We can only be raptured when we are in a new body.

This is God’s final filter to separate out the true Bible believers. Seven Thunders that are not written must be somehow traced through the Bible in order to reveal to us how we must get our bodies changed.

But from the resurrection to the rapture of Jesus was only 40 days. So, in only 40 days, we will have to interpret clues that are hidden in the Bible.

Message pastors could not interpret the Bible well enough to know that Trump would win the 2016 presidential election. And the word "trump" is written twice in the Bible as a clue. They were misled by their false interpretation of a quote. So what hope have they got to understand the Thunders that are not written?

To make it worse they believe the Thunders have already uttered -- Brother Branham never said that. Thus they are not looking for the Thunders in the future, and will deny them when they do happen.

So the Tribulation is the end game for the foolish Message churches that are based on quotes, that have taken them away from the Bible.

Church-goers are so brainwashed with unscriptural doctrines that they will never get these ideas out of their heads in time. In addition, they are completely unused to thinking for themselves.

So in the chaotic and totally unexpected events that the seven Thunders produce, only those who could think outside-the-church-doctrines will be able to think for themselves, so that the Holy Spirit can guide them down the hidden path that leads to a new body.

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

Everything will be so different to what the church-going Christians thought, that they will finally realize that they have not got a clue as to what the Bible actually means. They have turned away from their leaders, because they are asking the wise virgins for help. The church pastors are in disgrace. Rejected by their own people, who now realize that the man-made church doctrines were completely false.

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": There is a price to be paid.

You have to be prepared to stand outside the church in order to learn from Jesus and His Word. But the wise had the illumination of the Spirit to read and understand the deeper mysteries of the Bible. This was simply because they had not been church-goers who played follow-my-leader behind the church pastor.

To be in the Bride you have to be able to think for yourself as well as having a desire to be Scriptural. You have to love the Bible enough to study it hard. The Bible is a thick Book that takes a lot of reading. It has many difficult passages that take time in order to be understood. There is no quick and easy path to success.

Then the seven Thunders utter.

This is a confused time. The resurrection of the dead. An earthquake.

MATTHEW 27:50   Jesus, when he had cried again with a loud voice, yielded up the ghost.

:51   And, behold, the veil of the temple was rent in twain from the top to the bottom; and the earth did quake, and the rocks rent;

:52   And the graves were opened; and many bodies of the saints which slept arose,

:53   And came out of the graves after his resurrection, and went into the holy city, and appeared unto many.

It was 40 days from the resurrection of the dead to when Jesus ascended to heaven. A short time.

In that confused and brief time, it will be impossible for you to track down the mysterious seven Thunders in order to get your new body, as well as trying to teach brainwashed Bible-illiterate church-goers how to understand the Bible which they know so little about.

Plus it will be a very scary time. One mistake and you are into the Tribulation. The seven Thunders will totally occupy our time. Only those who really love the Bible will unravel the seven Thunders in time to find out what they say.

MATTHEW 25:10   And while they went to buy, the bridegroom came; and they that were ready went in with him to the marriage: and the door was shut.

The foolish virgins try hard to be Scriptural. But it is driven by a motive of the fear of being left behind. They loved their church and their pastor more than the Lord. They did not really love the Bible. They were very condemning of the Bride who tried to be Scriptural. So God does not want them in His Bride. They will eventually make Heaven because they were saved. But not yet. First they must go into the Tribulation and be killed.

Just because they refused to walk in the Spirit.

The Spirit guides us to walk in the light of God’s Word and be Scriptural in what we do or say.

MATTHEW 25:11   Afterward came also the other virgins, saying, Lord, Lord, open to us.

"Lord, Lord". Notice the Trinity influence. They need re-education.

They will get it from the preaching of Moses in the Tribulation.

REVELATION 15:3   And they sing the song of Moses the servant of God, and the song of the Lamb, saying, Great and marvellous are thy works, Lord God Almighty; just and true are thy ways, thou King of saints.

They are saying that the Lamb is Lord God Almighty

The Lamb is the only holy One.

REVELATION 15:4   Who shall not fear thee, O Lord, and glorify thy name? for thou only art holy

So there is no Trinity as nobody else is holy.

If the Father and the Holy Spirit are separate People, then they cannot also be holy according to this verse. But the Holy Spirit is holy. So He cannot be a different Person to Jesus. Jesus is the Holy Spirit and He is the Father, as He is Lord God Almighty.

So walking in the Spirit means knowing the truth of the Godhead.

The Spirit will guide us into all truth.

MATTHEW 25:12   But he answered and said, Verily I say unto you, I know you not.

"Knowing" implies a close relationship -- like that of a husband and wife. Church-goers had their close relationship with their churches and their pastors. The Bible was not their Absolute, as they believed different versions and were happy to think that there were mistakes in the Bible. That meant  they thought there were faults in Jesus, because He is the Bible. So from their lips they loved Him in their statements, but from their hearts they were closer to their churches and their pastors. Now they were going to pay the price in the Tribulation.

MATTHEW 25:13     Watch therefore, for ye know neither the day nor the hour wherein the Son of man cometh.

Jesus is coming back in a human body, just like the one that He ascended to Heaven in. We do not know when He is going to return as the Son of man. But He will return.

We need to be on our toes.

Let us look at one final parable that will again show us that walking in the spirit is totally different to what we would normally expect.

LUKE 14:16   Then said he unto him, A certain man made a great supper, and bade many:

This represents the Wedding Supper of the Lamb.

LUKE 14:17   And sent his servant at supper time to say to them that were bidden, Come; for all things are now ready.

God sends an end time messenger who invites people to the wedding supper of the Lamb. God expects them to come the Scriptural way. So God reveals the mysteries of Scripture at the end so that the people will know how to be Scriptural. The invitation will only go out to saved Christians, not to the unsaved.

But all the saved Christians are so indoctrinated with unscriptural church traditions, that they cannot listen to the end time messenger who tells them to be Scriptural like the early church of the New Testament was. So the saved Christians reject turning back to Scripture.

LUKE 14:18   And they all with one consent began to make excuse. The first said unto him, I have bought a piece of ground, and I must needs go and see it: I pray thee have me excused.

One works on the ground during the day. This was no excuse to avoid a supper at night-time. This represents that church-goers are out of God’s will with their unscriptural traditions. Thus they take communion in the morning while still calling it the Lord’s supper, instead of the Lord’s breakfast.

They insist on making Christmas the biggest festival of the year, although the Bible never asked us to celebrate the Lord’s birth. The word "Christmas" and the date of 25 December are not in the Bible. The wise men went into a house and saw a young child. So they never took presents to the baby in the manger. Jeremiah Chapter 10 tells us not to decorate a tree with gold and silver like the pagans do. But church-goers love Christmas trees.

JEREMIAH 10:2   Thus saith the LORD, Learn not the way of the heathen, and be not dismayed at the signs of heaven; for the heathen are dismayed at them.

:3   For the customs of the people are vain: for one cutteth a tree out of the forest, the work of the hands of the workman, with the axe.

:4   They deck it with silver and with gold; they fasten it with nails and with hammers, that it move not.

Church-goers baptize in the name of Father, Son, and Holy Ghost but cannot tell us what that name is. Thus they believe in an unscriptural Trinity, an unscriptural one-God-in-three-Persons, and an unscriptural second Person of the Godhead.

In the process they reject what is in the Bible, the baptism in the name of Jesus Christ.

ACTS 2:38   Then Peter said unto them, Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost.

Rejecting a Scripture and calling it a mistake will condemn you to the Tribulation.

LUKE 14:19   And another said, I have bought five yoke of oxen, and I go to prove them: I pray thee have me excused.

The ox age was when the church threw out the Word of God. This started with the Nicaean council in 325 AD that introduced the Trinity. They kept changing the Word of God, which is the Light. Next thing they had a Pope in charge. Three people cannot have one name, so the Christian God lost His name. It got replaced by titles. But to this day Trinitarians cannot tell us what the name of Father, Son, and Holy Ghost is. Mess around with the Light, and it will go out. So the world went into the Dark Ages.

Five yoke of oxen represent the five foolish virgins who did not know enough Scripture to understand the seven Thunders that led to the Bride receiving her new bodies.

They keep interpreting the unwritten seven Thunders in terms of seven things that are written in the Bible. This is a mismatch.

LUKE 14:20   And another said, I have married a wife, and therefore I cannot come.

A woman symbolizes a church. This person is so in love with his church that he is not interested in the wedding feast. He offers no excuse. He is convinced his church is right. But his church stops him going to the wedding supper.

Through the muddled ripples of everyday events the tidal wave of prophecy moves silently, but quite irresistibly on. But it is picking up different people to what we thought, and leaving the saved people in the churches behind.

If you walk in the Spirit then you are quite happy to see God using totally unexpected people to fulfill His Word.

LUKE 14:21   So that servant came, and shewed his lord these things. Then the master of the house being angry said to his servant, Go out quickly into the streets and lanes of the city, and bring in hither the poor, and the maimed, and the halt, and the blind.

Then at the end time God begins to call in the rejects. The people that the churches do not want.

LUKE 14:22   And the servant said, Lord, it is done as thou hast commanded, and yet there is room.

LUKE 14:23   And the lord said unto the servant, Go out into the highways and hedges, and compel them to come in, that my house may be filled.

At the end God has to call in the ruffians and the criminals.

Obama was a polite and friendly man, and as a result was far too scared to upset the Muslims, and thus allowed the United Nations to condemn Israel two weeks before he stepped down from power.

Trump came in as a real ruffian that upset most people. But it took a ruffian to have enough courage to stand up to the Muslims. Trump then declared Jerusalem to be the capital of Israel.

So at the end, walking in the Spirit to fulfill the Word of God, comes the rejects, ruffians, and criminals.

Just the people that we would not believe that God could or would use.

The nice guys are too cowardly to stand up and oppose the enemies of the Gospel. So they let down the side.

The nice guys in this age of church-goers are too scared to be Scriptural. Too scared to stand up against the majority who insist on unscriptural beliefs.

Now comes one of the most chilling verses in the Bible.

LUKE 14:24   For I say unto you, That none of those men which were bidden shall taste of my supper.

None of the saved Christians in the churches are going to make the rapture. None of them will attend the wedding feast.

So it pays to be outside the churches.

That is where walking in the Spirit will take us at the end.

LUKE 18:8   Nevertheless when the Son of man cometh, shall he find faith on the earth?

ROMANS 10:17   So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.

So Jesus was not very optimistic that too many people would be Scriptural at the end time.

But if you believe the Bible and understand the Bible, and stand up for what you believe, then you must have the Holy Spirit that is guiding you into all truth.

Then you are walking in the Spirit.

Despite all the church-goers who disagree with you.