¹
Our heavenly Father, I want to express if I can this morning, how in my
heart I feeled towards One, the holiest of Holy coming down to the
earth and to redeem a sinner like myself. And I'm sure that these
ministers that's present now can feel the same way, that it was by Your
grace that we have been made the ministers of this covenant that Thou
has given with Adam's fallen race. And we are here this morning,
Father, gathered for no other purpose but to know and to–to study to
know, rather, the will of God and what we must do to make Christ real
to the people of this generation. Knowing surely that in the day of the
judgment we will be brought face to face with this generation. And,
being ministers, we will be judges. And the people to which we have
spoken to, and their attitude towards the Word that we bring them, will
determine their eternal destination. Therefore, Lord, in that day we
would be a judge for or against the generation that we preached to.

²
Father, God, please, through Jesus' Name, let us not say one word that
would be wrong. But may we have sincere hearts and open mind that we
might receive the things that's Yours, that we might be able to go out
into our different fields of work after today, and–and be better
equipped because of our meeting with You this morning. Grant it, Lord.
Won't You come and be our speaker and our ears, and our tongue, and our
thoughts? Let the meditation of my heart, thoughts of my mind, all that
is within me, and within these my brethren and sisters, may it be
acceptable in Thy sight, Lord, that we might be so filled and charged
with Thy Spirit of Your Presence here, that the room would become…
the room, not so much the building that we are sitting in, but the
building that we are living in, become altogether a cloud of the glory
of God. We might leave here this morning so filled with the Holy Spirit
that we would be more determined than ever before in life to carry the
message to the dying generation that we're living in. Hear us, Lord,
and speak to us through Thy Word, for we ask it in the Name of Thy Son
and our Saviour, Jesus Christ. Amen.

³
I wish to read, this morning, a–a portion of Scripture found in the
Psalms, the 105th Psalm. I wish to read just a portion. You that keeps
down these Scripture readings, I see many of them had been, were
ministers and so forth. It's good to read the Word. (And now, what time
do they usually leave, about twelve o'clock? What say? Thank you,
brother.) Psalms 105:

May the Lord bless the reading of His Words. I have a few Scriptures
written out here somewhere that I was going to refer to perhaps along
the road.

⁵
I wonder today who's going to be the next President? The election's
coming up, you know. Who's going to be President this next term? What
if I knew? There's only One that does know, and that's God. And what if
God would reveal to me who's going to be the next President, and I
stood here in Phoenix and made a prediction that such-and-such a man
would be the next President of the United States? And they would place
that in papers and so forth, and I would hit it right on the dot. It
would be perfect, and it would be all that I had said would come to
pass. But what good would it do? What good is it anyhow if I–if I
should do such a thing? The papers would advertise it, and it would go
out maybe, if such a person could make such a prediction and it would
be true, all the newspapers and magazines would–would pass on it.

⁶
But you know that God doesn't do things like that; God doesn't use His
power and His gifts for foolishness. It's going to be, whatever's
President, it'll be President. And to know now which would be President
wouldn't help us one penny. It wouldn't do us one bit of good to know
who's going to be President. So therefore, God doesn't do those things
like that.
And then if I made such a prediction as that, and it come to pass, and
the newspapers packed it, and the magazines, then it would be to my
glory. People'd say, "Look what a great prophet Brother Branham is. He
told us long before it happened just who would be President." And that
would be to my glory. But God doesn't want… He's not interested in
working things to my glory or to–to any other man's glory. He's
interested to work things to His glory, something that will profit.

⁸
Like Paul said, "If we speak with tongues and do not have an
interpreter, what good does it do? We only glorify ourselves," and
that's–or "edify ourself." That's kinda out of the line for God. God
wants to be edified Himself. And we're to not seek self-edification,
but to edify God with all we do.
So therefore, I believe this morning, if I knew who he would be and
exactly when he would be elected, and oh, how many votes he'd be over
or under, or whatever it might be, it wouldn't do one bit of good to
tell it. It'd be best for me just to keep it still if I did know it,
not try to publish it, because there would be–there would be no reason
for me to do it. 'Cause it's going to be anyhow, and it doesn't make us
that much difference who's going to be President.

¹⁰
But God, when He uses His gifts, He uses them for His own glory, and
for the glory of His people, for the glory of His church, for the
edifying of the body of Christ, and for the glory of the Kingdom of
God. That's why He gives these things in His church, why He has
teachers, prophets, evangelists, pastors. They are for the edification
of the Church and for the glory of God. The prophet is not to get out
and mingle with the world and try to take a gift like Balaam did and
make havoc, or–or money out of it, or something. If he's a prophet,
he's supposed to reveal God to the church and stay out of the things of
the world. It's all for the glory of God.

¹¹
Now, we do have… And I think it's a good thing for us, as ministers,
to follow our order, when we see such things in the world as we see
today. And we have an order from God, is for the discerning of spirit,
trying the spirit. I believe that that is a very great lesson for the
church today, is to try the spirit of anything, have discernment of the
spirit. I do not think that we should ever, by any means, ever try to
judge a person by the denomination they belong to, or by the group that
they are assembled with, whether they be Methodist, Baptist,
Presbyterian, Pentecostal, or–or whatever they are. We should never
judge the man by the denomination that he belongs to. We should always
judge him by the spirit he has (See?), the spirit. Whether he's latter
rain or former rain or inner, outer rain, or no rain, or whatever it
might be, we should never judge him by that, but by his spirit. We are
to discern spirits. Watch what the man has in mind, what he has–what
he's trying to achieve. If the man, by a gift, no matter how great the
gift is…

¹²
Now, I want to get this to the church this morning, which in the
different denominations you are still the church of the living God
together. And this is the thing I want to get to you (See?), that we
are really not divided. We are the stones that's cut in different
forms, all to the glory of God.
Now, there is so much in the day that we live in pertaining to gifts.
So many people judge people by gifts that they have. Well, I believe
that these things are gifts. I believe that what we see take place is
gifts, and they are God-given gifts. But we–if we do not use them in
the right way that God intended them to be used, then we can do more
harm with the gifts than we could if we did not have the gifts. The
other night I made a statement at the pulpit, saying this, that I would
rather see brotherly love existing among the church, if we didn't have
one case of healing or anything else. See, we must know what these
things are for.

¹⁴
Now, if a man comes and he has a great gift, no matter if he belongs to
our denomination or another denomination, don't judge him by what
denomination he come from, how he dresses, but what you want to see is
what he's trying to do with that gift, what purpose he has. If he's
trying to take his influence and build himself a great name out of it,
I'd have discernment of spirit enough to know that's wrong. No matter
how great a teacher he is, how powerful he is, how intellectual he is,
or how his gift operates, if he isn't trying to achieve something for
the benefit of the body of Christ, your own spiritual discernment would
tell you that that's wrong. No matter how accurate, how perfect, how it
is, it's wrong if it isn't used for the body of Jesus Christ.

¹⁵
To achieve something, maybe he's got a great gift that he could draw
people together with a great intellectual or a spiritual power, that he
could draw people together, and maybe he's trying to take that gift and
make hisself famous so that he'll have a big name, so that other
brethren will look up to him as some big person. Then that's wrong.
Maybe he's trying to–to edify a certain thing here that he wants
everybody else to get out of the picture and let him and his group be
the picture. That's still wrong. See?

¹⁶
But if he has a gift of God and he's trying to edify the Body of
Christ, then I don't care what he belongs to. You're not discerning the
man, you're discerning the spirit, the life that's in the man. And
that's what God told us to do. Not one time was we ever commissioned to
discern the–the man's group. But we was constrained and commanded by
God to discern the spirit in the man, what he's trying to do, what the
spirit in his life is trying to lead him to. And then if we can find
out that he's trying to lead the people (not to break them up, but to
bring them together) and to bring the church of the living God, not all
to one denomination, but to a understanding, a fellowship, a unity of
spirit. Then if he is former rain or latter rain, or whatever it is,
his spirit and his purpose is right. And the spirit that's in him, no
matter what move he belongs to, the Spirit that's in him is trying to
point the people to Calvary, away from himself or away from anything
else, but his only achievement he has is to point them to Calvary. He
doesn't care whether he's even knowed or not. He doesn't care whether
even his own movement… which is fine (See?), it's good, if he is a
Methodist, or a Presbyterian, or a Roman Catholic, or whatever he wants
to be by denomination.

¹⁷
But what is he trying to do, the purpose of his heart that he's trying
to get? Then you can see what's in the man's life, whether his motives
is for his–his denomination, whether it's for hisself, whether it's
for worldly fame, whether it's for big names, to say, "I predicted
that, come just exactly to pass." Now, you see that's wrong right
there, to begin with. But if he's trying to use what God's give him, as
a teacher, as a prophet, as a seer…

¹⁸
A New Testament prophet is a preacher. We all know that. Just any
minister that's a preacher is a prophet, a New Testament prophet, if
he's prophesying, preaching, not to try to edify himself to make a big
name, or to edify his organization. Which, he should be in an
organization. Here I am without one, but yet preaching you should be.
That's right. Every man ought to have a church home. You ought to have
a place, not just to float about from pillar to post, but have
somewhere that you go to church and you call it your church, somewhere
you pay your tithe, and somewhere that you help support the cause. Take
your choice, but then don't never disfellowship the other man because
he don't belong with your group. See? Discern his spirit and see if
he's got the same purpose in heart, then you got fellowship one with
another. You're working for one great cause. That's the cause of
Christ. I think that that is absolutely true.

¹⁹
Now, if we will notice the motives and objectives of the Old Testament
prophets, them men had one objective, and that was Jesus Christ. They
had one thing that their whole theme of the Old Testament was built
around the coming Messiah. They–they did not go out and do things just
for money or for fame. They had one thing, they were anointed with the
Spirit of God, and they predicted the coming Messiah. And those men
were so anointed with the Spirit until they sometimes acted like the
Spirit that was within them, they spoke seemingly of themselves. Watch
how the Spirit of God made them men act.

²⁰
We'll take, for instance, Moses, the great prophet, how that that man
had no selfish objectives at all. He could've been the king of Egypt.
He could've had the world under his feet. But because that he was a
prophet at heart, he refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's
daughter, choosing rather to suffer the persecution and the trials of
Christ, esteeming the treasures of heaven greater treasures than them
of Egypt. He forsook and denied himself of the worldly fame, of the
luxury and the–the things that life offers. He had to look beyond
that. See, he–he could've been that.

²¹
Just take the minister today: if he has the baptism of the Holy Spirit,
and he knows that if he preaches that Word, it's going to cut his fame
down; it's going to put him in a little bitty church somewhere, or
maybe out on the street. But he knows that something in his heart is
burning. He sees the coming of the Lord. He doesn't care whether that
he has a big church or a little church. He doesn't care whether he has
today's food or not no food. He doesn't care whether he has good
clothes or doesn't have good clothes, He's only mindful of one thing,
and that's the very Life within him crying out. He's trying to achieve
something for the glory of God, and that man, in doing so, will act the
very Life of the Spirit that's in him. Do you follow me? He'll act it
out.

²²
Look at Moses when he come to a time that he displayed, all his life
was the Spirit of Christ, for Christ was in him. Christ was in Moses by
measure. Now, if we notice, he was borned in the time of persecution.
The children was killed to try to get him, just exactly like they did
Jesus. And we find out that when he come to a place that the children
of Israel had disobeyed in such a way until God was angry with them,
and He said to Moses, "Step aside and I'll destroy the whole group of
them, and I'll take of you and raise up another generation."
Moses threw hisself in the path of God's judgment and said, "Take me
before You take them." In other words, "Before You can get them You'll
have to come over me."
That's exactly what Jesus Christ did. When God would've wiped the whole
face of the earth off with these sinners, you and I, but Christ threw
Hisself in the path. God could not do it; He couldn't come over His own
Son.
And when God seen that Spirit in Moses, hanging in the judgment like a
cross there, "You can't come to them; You'll have to take me first,"
see the Spirit of God in Moses? When he could've been king of Egypt,
when he could've had every luxury in the world, to be popular, when he
could've been the great king of the world at that time, but he chose to
suffer the persecution and the affliction, for he esteemed the reproach
of Christ greater treasures than that of Egypt…?… See, he threw
hisself in the way. Why? It was God in Moses did that. The normal
thinking, intellectual man would never do that, he would take the easy
road. So no matter how much a fanatic Moses seemed to be, he was
trying… You see, he was a true prophet of God, because he was trying
to achieve something for the Kingdom of God.

²⁶
Now, with his great gift of prophecy he might've been a wise man, could
have stood up in Egypt and said, "Now wait, I'll prophesy so-and-so.
I'll say so-and-so," and as with his prophesy. But it's… and, oh, he
would have been world-famous. But that wasn't in his heart. It couldn't
be in his heart.
So if you see a person with a great gift, trying to do something to
glorify themselves, your own discernment of the spirit tells you that's
wrong. But Moses was trying to achieve something for the glory of God.
No matter how bad it was; how evil it looked, how much it was talked
about, the Spirit in Moses directed him straight to the line of duty:
the Spirit in him.

²⁸
Look at Joseph; Joseph was… When he was born, he was loved of the
father and hated by his brethren: perfect type of Christ. And the
only… He was a blood brother to them, the same father. But the reason
his brethren hated him without a cause, because God had made him a
prophet, spiritual, a seer. And they hated him for that very purpose.
But Joseph could not help it, because God had made him that way.

²⁹
And watch the Spirit of God in Joseph. Watch what he did. He even acted
the part of Christ. He was hated of his brethren, loved of his father,
because of the Spirit made the difference. He was a spiritual man. He
saw visions; he interpreted dreams. He did not do it for his own glory.
He did it because there was something in him: the Spirit of God. He
wouldn't have went out there by his own self, and have been thrown into
a ditch, and have his poor old father to grieve all those years, sold
for nearly thirty pieces of silver, taken up from the ditch, and became
the right-hand man of Pharaoh, the king of earth at that time. And in
his prison house there was a butler and a baker, and one was lost and
the other one was saved, by his predictions in the prison house.

³⁰
And did you notice Jesus when He came, He was loved of the Father. And
the father gave Joseph a coat of many colors (the rainbow, a covenant).
And the Father God gave his Son Jesus the covenant, and then the Jewish
brother hated Him without a cause. He had no reason to hate Him; He was
spiritual, and He was God's Word made manifest. He come to do the will
of the Father; He come to fulfill the Scriptures. He came to bring them
peace, but they misunderstood Him, and hated Him without a cause. They
didn't stop to try to see what He was trying to achieve. They just
judged him because that he didn't agree with them. They made… "He
makes Himself so-and-so. He makes Hisself God." He was God. God was in
Him. The Bible said God was in Christ, manifesting Himself to the
world. He was the God of glory manifesting the glory of God.

³¹
Look at Moses; he couldn't help throwing himself there. He didn't do
that hypocritically. He did it because God was in him. Neither could
Joseph help being what he was, because it was God in him working or
displaying himself through the man: never did he do it for self-glory.
Any man that… If those priests would've only had the discernment of
spirit, as I'm speaking to you this morning, regardless of how much the
world talked about Him, they still would've knowed if they'd have
looked to the Word, if they would've seen His purpose. He was always
doing that to glorify the Father. He said… They said, "Oh, this man's
a great healer, He does these things like that."
He said, "I can do nothing till the Father shows Me. It is not Me that
doeth the works. It's the Father that dwelleth in Me; He doeth the
works." He never took the glory.

³⁴
Neither would any servant of God take glory. Neither would any servant
of God take a gift of God and try to glorify himself, or anything else,
but his right achievement is to do something to the glory of God.
That's why you see the same thing today. We must have discernment of
spirit to see a person what they're trying to do. Are they trying to
glorify God? Are they trying to glorify themself?

³⁵
Now, the Spirit of God working in men makes men act like God. No wonder
Jesus said, "Is not it written, 'Ye are gods'? And if they called them
God to whom the Spirit of God came to, how can you condemn Me then,
when I am the Son of God?" If you could see the Spirit of God in Moses,
which he was God. Moses was a god. Joseph was a god. The prophets were
gods. The Bible said they were. They were gods because it–they had
completely surrendered themselves to the Spirit of God, that they were
working for the glory of God.
And when a man is so anointed with the Spirit… Now, let this go real
deep under the fifth rib on the left side. When a man is anointed of
the Spirit of God, his habits, his actions, and everything is God
moving in him. Sometimes he's misjudged.

³⁷
Look at David, in the 23rd Psalm he cried, "My God, my God, why hast
thou forsaken me?" as if he was, if David was the man. "All they that
pass me by shoot their lip out at me." He was so anointed with God, he
was so perfectly surrendered to God, and the anointing was on him in
such a way and when he cried by the Spirit of God, if somebody'd been
standing there and say, "Why, look, he thinks somebody is shooting
their lip out at him. Why has God forsaken him?"
It wasn't David; it was the Spirit crying out through David. "My God,
my God, why hast thou forsaken me? My bones all stare at me. They have
pierced my hands and my feet."

⁴⁰
Well, somebody said, "Listen to that hypocrite up there. Who's hands is
pierced? Who's feet is pierced?" That's the intellectual.
But one who had discernment of spirit knew that that was the Spirit of
God in him crying out. When a man is anointed of the Spirit of God,
he's got the action of God; and the action of God is never to break us
up. The action of God is to draw us together for we are one in Christ
Jesus, and God's purpose is to bring us together. "Love one another."

⁴²
Now, that great prophet, we see the Spirit moving in them, Jesus called
them gods. He said they were gods. Now, when the Spirit come to them by
measure, but when It come on the One, Jesus, which was the Son of God,
It come to him without measure. The Fullness of the Godhead bodily
dwelt in Him, for He was the perfect example. He was God of Glory
manifesting the glory of God to the people, God in Him going about.
Watch His life, all the Old Testament, He was the theme of the Old
Testament. All the old prophets back in the Old Testament cried out,
not to themselves; they cried out under the Spirit of God, making them
act like God in so much that they were called gods, and then the
Fullness of that Spirit was manifested in Jesus Christ.

⁴³
Look at David when he was dethroned as the king of Israel, rejected by
his own people, going up Mount Olives, north of Jerusalem, and he
looked back over the city and wept because he was rejected. What was
it? It was the Spirit of Christ.
Five hundred years later, the Son of David, Jesus, set on the same
mount looking over the city as a rejected king, and cried, "Jerusalem,
Jerusalem, how oft would I have gathered you (your different
denominations and everything) as a hen does her brood, but you would
not. How oft would I have did it."
Now, the same Spirit that was in David, that was manifested in fullness
in Christ, is in the Church today crying to the people, "How oft would
I have gathered you." And when you see separations and–and differences
and–and brotherhood broken up, and Christian life, one against the
other, then it makes the Spirit of God in your heart cry out. You're
trying to achieve something, a true prophet of God, a true teacher is
trying to bring the church to a unity of spirit, a unity of spirit,
that they might recognize God; trying to achieve it no matter what
denomination they belong to or what about it. We have discernment of
spirit to discern the spirit that's in the man to see if it be the
Spirit of God or not.

⁴⁶
Now, we notice when He was here on earth, how He went about doing good.
I noticed another thing that comes in my mind. Did you notice when
David was rejected as king? He went out of the city, and a little
Benjamite, Benjamite, which was supposed to have been a brother to him,
should've been sorry because he was rejected, but what… He was a
crippled man. And he drug along there with his crippled condition,
throwing dirt on David, and calling him all kinds of bad names, and
cursing him in the Name of the Lord, cursing King David in the Name of
the Lord, this little old crippled-up Benjamite. Watch the Spirit of
God and the spirit of the Devil working.

⁴⁷
Now, if you notice, he was crippled. It represents the spiritual
crippleness of the people today that would make fun of the true Spirit
of God in Christ manifesting Itself. That was the Spirit of Christ in
David being rejected as a king. And today, when the people make fun of
the people who has received the Holy Spirit and trying to achieve
something to draw Methodists and Pentecostals, and Baptists and
Pentecostals, and Presbyterians and all together as a unity, as a Body
of Christ, and they see the Spirit working, and say, "Well, look,
that's a Pentecostal. Away with him. I know one went off with another
man's wife. I know this one got drunk. I know this one did this. I know
this one did that." All that, but they're big enough to hide their own
things; they can hide it. But David was exposed. Why? He had the Spirit
of Christ in him.
That guard said, "Shall I take the head of that dog that would curse my king?"

⁴⁹
Watch the Spirit of Christ in David, "Let him alone, for the Lord has
told him to curse me." Do you catch that? "Let him alone; the Lord has
told him to curse me."
Instead, today we want to get up our fists and fight him (See?), chop his head off, "Yeah, get him out; he don't belong to us."
"Let him alone; the Lord has told him to curse me." That little cripple running along there, throwing dirt on David…
That's what they do today on the Spirit of Christ. "They're a bunch of
holy-rollers. Why, they're a bunch of this. There's nothing to them.
There's nothing to Divine healing. There's no such a thing as Angels.
There's no such a thing as prophets." All those things, "The days of
miracles is past," throwing dirt. But let them alone. But when David
returned in power (Hallelujah.), when he come back as full king of
Israel… Don't worry; this Jesus, Who's Spirit we have today, acted
His part out, will return again in a physical body, the second time, in
glory, in power, and majesty.

⁵³
That little dirt-thrower fell on his face and begged for mercy. "Let
him alone," the Spirit of Christ in us. Don't excommunicate him. Let's
remember that all these things has got to come to pass. We've got one
thing to do: move on. God promised that He'd make everything work
together for good to them that love Him. Let's keep the discernment of
spirit, keep the objective right. We're here to serve God, each one
fellowshipping, going along and serving God. If the man's got the wrong
kind of an objective, then what will happen? See?

⁵⁴
Now, we find out that the Spirit of God was in Him. All the old
prophets spoke of Him. All the Spirit in portion, every little portion,
wasn't glorifying hisself (true prophets), all the true prophets was
manifesting Him, speaking of Him. And everything they said was
fulfilled in Him. Showed it was the Spirit of God in them, it was
fulfilled. What was it? God speaking of Himself. See? God manifesting
Himself through these prophets.

⁵⁵
Not taking glory, "Who'll be the next President? Who'll be this?" And
hit you on the head, "Tell us who hit you and we'll believe you." That
isn't it. It's something to manifest God. It isn't something to make
Brother Weathers here, or Brother Shores, or Brother So-and-so out
there, a great man, and make him a greater than the rest of the men of
his group, make him the greatest man in Phoenix. It isn't to make
William Branham something great. But what is it to do? It isn't to make
Oral Roberts something great, Billy Graham something great. But it's
the hearts, we're trying to achieve something for the Kingdom of God.
It's manifesting God. All gifts and things doesn't make one greater
than the other; it just makes us all working together for the
perfection of the body to bring us together as one people, as a people
of God. But when you see them going contrary, don't curse them; just
let them alone, somebody has to do it. But wait till Jesus comes in
power.

⁵⁶
Now, we see all those prophets speaking. Every one of them was
glorifying God and the coming Messiah. And when they got in the Spirit,
they acted, and spoke, and lived the life out just like the Messiah
did. If it did that side the cross, speaking of His coming, how much
more will it after His coming, will put the Spirit of the Messiah in
the Church to act, do, work, and live like the Messiah? It's the Spirit
of God.
Discern that spirit; see whether it is of God or not; see whether it
acts like Him, see if your emotions… If somebody kicks up something
against you and throws dirt upon your life, when you know you're as
innocent as you can be, and you know that you've got the Spirit of God,
don't try to separate yourself, Don't try to act mean towards them.
Don't curse them. Just walk on, knowing that God did that to give you a
test to see how you'd take it. He'll have to come to it anyhow.

⁵⁸
As I said the other day, I believe in Brother Fuller's church, of the
bicycle rider in Canada. Well, all of them thought they could outride
this boy, this little old sissy. And he's the only one that couldn't
ride without holding the handlebars.
I'm glad I like the old handlebar riders, take ahold of both sides of
the Cross and say, "Nothing in my arms I bring. Let me hold to the
cross, Lord; I have no intellectuals. I have nothing. Let me just hold
here, look way out yonder."

⁶⁰
And they had a twelve-inch plank to ride for a city block to get a
hundred-dollar Schwinn bicycle. All those boys who could ride without
holding, go downtown and get their mother's groceries and come back
without even touching the handlebars, they every one begin to look.
They wasn't used to holding to the handlebars, and they fell off. But
this little old boy got on there and held the handlebars and rode it to
the end. They asked him, said, "How did you do it?"
He said, "Here's where you make your mistake, fellows. You're all
better riders than I am, but you were looking here," and said, "made
you nervous to see what… You was trying to balance yourself, and you
fell off." Said, "I never looked here at all; I watched the end and
kept steady."
That's what we're to do. Don't look to these little things now, "Did
this one do this or that one do that?" Watch the end and keep steady.
Christ is coming. Watch the end; just keep steady. Don't notice what's
going on now. Watch what's going to go on out yonder at the end time,
when we're going to have to stand and–and give an account for our
lives.

⁶³
David wasn't watching that little old Benjamite throw dirt on him; he
was crippled anyhow. He never noticed him. He wouldn't even let the
guard cut his head off, said, "Let him alone; God told him to do that.
God told him to curse me; let him alone." For David knew that someday
he was returning in power. That Benjamite would have his time.
Yes, that's it. The Church will rise in triumph. I was just sent to
pray for His sick children anyhow. That's all I can do. Wherever they
are and what church they are, it makes me no difference. I'm trying to
pray for His sick children, trying to manifest the gift for His glory.
That's the reason I never did belong to anything.
Now, remember, that's all right. See, I'm not–I'm not saying that now.
I want you to get me clear that I believe that God's got Christians in
every church, His children. He's never questioned me on that. I just
sent to pray for the children, and to do these things, and to manifest
Him,

⁶⁶
Now, you see, Jesus and these prophets, everything that they spoke of
had to be true, for it was the power of God in them, God Himself
speaking through them of His own Self coming to His own glory.
"Who's President? Who's going to, is going to? Are we going to have
enough rain this year?" That don't mean nothing. Something to the glory
of God, something to set the church in order, something for the power
of God; not to make yourself a name, but to make the glory of God
manifested.

⁶⁸
Now, we notice that all those prophets and all they said about Him,
everything come to true because He was the theme of the Old Testament.
Jesus, the Messiah, coming Messiah, was what every prophet looked
from–from Adam to Mi–Malachi. Every prophet spoke of the coming of
the Lord. Each one put his part in, because he was anointed of God.
That's all he could speak of.
Now, wish we had more time on it. But watch. Everything that they said
come to pass. Looky here. Let's just take some of the things the
prophets said.

⁷⁰
"A virgin shall conceive and bear a child." Did it happen? Sure. "His
Name shall be called Emmanuel, Prince of Peace, Mighty God, everlasting
Father." That's what He was, exactly, the "everlasting Father." No man
shall be called father, on this earth, but God is your Father.
All right, now let's see again. "He was wounded for our transgressions;
He was bruised for our iniquity; the chastisement of our peace upon
Him, with His stripes we were healed." Pilate's judgment hall, while
the very man, having His back lashed like that with a cat-of-nine-tail
whip, didn't realize that the Scriptures said it would be that way.
They didn't have discernment of spirit, those priests who said, "Away
with Him, away with Him."

⁷²
And on the cross when they shot out their lips, and things like that,
when they heard Him crying, "My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me?" They
didn't have discernment. See, they couldn't discern the Spirit. That's
what David was speaking of in the 22nd Psalm; they shot out their lip
not knowing they were doing it. Just the same as that Benjamite did to
David. See, he thought David was all wrong 'cause he didn't agree with
him on his principles of running his kingdom. He didn't understand that
it was the Spirit of God in David doing it.
That's where we must discern today, the spirit of a man. What's he
trying to do? What's he getting at? Not what group he belongs to, or
what this, that, or the other, whether he's a white man, black man,
yellow man, or whatever he is. Let's see what he's trying to achieve,
and take that: see what he's trying to do for the Kingdom of God. If
he's got odd ideas to ours, that's perfectly all right if he's trying
to achieve something for the Kingdom of God. Discern that in him. If
he's wrong, and true in heart, God will bring him around to the truth
of the thing after while. Let him alone; let him alone; see what he's
trying to do.

⁷⁴
Now, we see here, then we find out in His–in His death, when He died
at the cross, and crying all the things the prophets spoke of Him,
"They pierced My hands and My feet." There it was fulfilled. The
prophets was right. They thought it was themselves or cried like it was
themself, but it was manifested in the cross.
"He–He was numbered with the transgressors." That's what he was done.
He was with the transgressors. "In His death He made His burial with
the rich." He did; He was buried in a rich man's grave. "I will not
leave His soul… He will not leave my soul," said David, the Spirit of
God in David speaking out. "He will not leave my soul in hell, neither
will He suffer His holy One to see corruption," like as if David would
be the holy One. It wasn't David, it was the Spirit of God in David
crying out. See, the Spirit of God in the man crying out.
Someone said, "Listen to that old hypocrite up there."
He wasn't; it was the Spirit of God in him crying out. See, the Spirit
of God manifests itself, "Not leave His soul in hell, neither will I
suffer My holy One to see corruption."

⁷⁷
Now, brethren, in closing may I say this; our time gets away. But look,
may I say this in closing with these Scriptures here. Let's see. If a
man, that all the Old Testament theme was about Him, all the holy
prophets anointed with God's Spirit, if all that and everything that
they said was fulfilled to the letter exactly in Him, surely that great
Person called the Son of God ought to know how to set up the New
Testament church. Don't you believe that? He ought to have a conception
to know how to set up the New Testament church.

⁷⁸
The first thing I want to call to your attention over here in Matthew,
16th chapter, that when He–He is speaking then, when He come down and
was talking to the disciples. He said, "Who does man say I the Son of
man am?".
And they said, "Some say You're Elias, and some say You're So-and-so,
and some say You're So-and-so, and like that," different ones.
He said, "But Who do you say that I am?"
And Peter said, "Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God."
He said, "Blessed art thou Simon, son of Jonas, for flesh and blood has
not revealed this to you, but My Father which is in heaven has revealed
this to you. And–and I say unto thee that thou art Simon, or–or
Peter, and upon this rock I'll build My church, and the gates of hell
can't prevail against it." Now, there was speaking of the church. Now,
watch closely, and if I'm wrong, God forgive me and you forgive me.

⁸²
Now, the–the Catholic church says that that was a stone laying there,
Peter, and upon Peter He built the church. Now, we know that that's
wrong. We Protestants disagree with it.
But we Protestants said, "It was Himself that He built Himse–a church
upon, Himself." But if you'll notice, I want to disagree with that,
friendly. It wasn't that. It was upon the spiritual revelation of
Himself. See? "Flesh and blood… You never learned this in a seminary,
as good as they are. You never learned this by some church creed, as
good as it is. It's all right, but flesh and blood has not revealed
this to you. It's not a intellectual conception of how you can make
your speech, how you must bow yourself, how or what great thing you
must do here on earth. That isn't what it is. It isn't build a great
thing or do a great thing. What it is is a revelation of the Word of
God. He was the Word. "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was
with God, and the Word was God. And the Word was made manifest and
dwelt among us."

⁸⁵
He was… That was the revelation of the Word of God; the Spirit in
Peter revealing by spiritual revelation that He was the Son of God made
manifest, the God of glory manifesting the glory of God. "Upon this
rock (spiritual revelation of the Word) I'll build My church." Why? If
them prophets was under God, speaking by the Holy Spirit that that was
the Son of God, the same Spirit on this side reveals right back the
same thing. You see it?
"Flesh and blood," you can't learn it in a seminary. You learn
your–get your D.D. and your Ph.D. and the L.D., or… Them's all
right, wished I had it. That's right, but still that's not It. You
don't have to have it, yet it's good to have it. You can be this plus;
but if you have to rub out the plus, take this. This is that. If this
ain't that, let me have this anyhow. I want this, this.

⁸⁷
"Flesh and blood has not revealed this to you." You never learned it
through the educational line. You never learned it through
denominational lines. They're fine; education, denomination is fine.
That's part of it. But people are laying too much to that and they're
leaving the spiritual discernment. See?
"Flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but My Father which is
in heaven has revealed this to you. And upon this rock I'll build My
church, and the gates of hell can't prevail against it. "Will never be
able to prevail," showed they would be against it.
Now, watch and see where the gates of hell is against. It ain't against
the denomination. The government recognizes that. It ain't. The world
recognizes our denominations, all of them. We have the right, each one
of us as American citizens, we have the rights of denomination, which
is fine; we appreciate that. But that's not what the gates of hell's
against. It's against the spiritual revelation of Christ being here
now, the same yesterday, today, and forever. That's what it's against.
"The gates of hell shall be against it, but it shall never prevail."

⁹⁰
There you are: spiritual discernment. Regardless of who it is, it's my
brother as long as he's trying to achieve the same purpose that I'm
working for. Let him be prophet, let him be pastor, let him be deacon,
let him be so-and-so, let God honor him this way, that way, whatever it
is, dishonor me, whatever he wants to do, but yet that's my brother.
We're working for the same thing. We're sending our–our–all of our
works into the same Kingdom yonder. He's working for the same thing I
am. Spiritual discernment, spiritual revelation of God. Looky here, if
you want it.

⁹¹
Jesus… I preached the other night somewhere, maybe down there, "It
Wasn't So From The Beginning." We have to go back to the beginning to
find our text now for just a moment. At the beginning there was Cain,
intellectual, built a fine church (we would say), made a fine altar,
offered up a sacrifice, prayed, sincere, gave thanks, paid his tithe,
everything just as religious as Abel was.

⁹²
But Abel (There was no Bible in them days.), but by spiritual
revelation he seen that it wasn't fruits of the field that caused us to
sin, it wasn't apples that they eat. See, it wasn't apples, revelation
told him that. And it wasn't the fruits that caused him to come out of
there. It was life, the separation of life; so he went and got a lamb
and offered it in his stead by faith, which is spiritual revelation.
Amen. The revelation of God, spiritual revelation, it was revealed to
him. It isn't the fruit; it isn't apples; it isn't peaches, plums, and
pears. It was a separation of life, so he went and got a life and
offered it instead of fruits.

⁹³
Fruits is what you–your works of your own hand, what you do there:
"I'll go and build this. I'll go do this. I'll support that." That's
good. He had an altar just the same as the other one did. Both of them
had altars. That was good.
But it was the re–spiritual revealed truth of the thing, for the
Spirit of God revealed it. And upon that rock, the rock that Christ
died on, the Rock of ages, upon the rock that Abel's lamb died on…
That little Abel, as he put his hands upon that little lamb, and its
little white wool being bathed as he took a–a rock, they didn't have a
lance in that day, and chopped its little neck like that and hammered
it. And the poor little thing dying, the blood bathing his hands, and
his little wool all bathed with blood, and bleating and crying.

⁹⁵
What did it speak of? The Lamb of God, some four thousand years later,
spiritually revealed the church turning Him down. And the people called
Him Beelzebub and a devil, because all the prophets had spoke out. They
denied the prophet. Oh, He said, "You build their sepulchers, and you
put them in there, you whited-walls," He said to them. Without
spiritual discernment, not knowing that that was the Lamb of God, that
He was supposed to be that way and act that way, because He was
fulfilling the Word of God.

⁹⁶
And the Holy Ghost Church today, acting the way they do, doing the
things they do, they're fulfilling the Word of God. Hallelujah. See,
Peter said, on the day of Pentecost, "This is that." And he said, "It's
unto you and to your children, and them that's far off, even as many as
the Lord our God shall call."
Them same inspired prophets said the evening Light would shine, there'd
be a former and latter rain together as in the days of grace. Looky
here… What is it? The former rain's coming over, and the latter rain
is past due. Then it's lapped over, and it's together, the former and
latter rain together, the Holy Spirit made manifest by the power and
the resurrection of Jesus Christ. There you are, coming together, the
former… God's grace… He said, "As it was in the days of Noah." His
grace was long- suffering. Here it is today, long-suffering, a lapover
brings a cloud from the old days and a cloud from this day together.
The former rain run in first; the first rain we've had, now here comes
the latter rain coming over, the former rain coming over the latter
rain, east and west meeting together, both rains falling together,
Divine healing plus the Angel of God revealing the secrets of the
hearts and bringing everything to pass. Oh, looks like true born
children of God would see that. There you are, the Spirit revealing.
Revelation, that's what Jesus said the church would be built upon.

⁹⁸ Well, then somebody might raise up and say, "Why, sure, we So- and-so, we're built upon that."
Let's
take His Word a little farther. The last commission to His church, He
said, "Go ye into all the world and preach the Gospel to every
creature." All the world… How long is it to last? All the world. To
how many? Every creature. "He that believeth and is baptized," not the
church, "he" is a personal pronoun. "He that believeth…" the
individual.
As David duPlessis said about the grandchildren, there's no
grandchildren in the Kingdom of God; it's children. Your father was
Pentecostal and you're just coming here to this church because he come
here to–to Eleventh and Garfield, received the Holy Ghost, just
brought you in as a grandchild, you're wrong. God's got to reveal
Himself to you.
And no man can call Jesus the Christ by intellectual conceptions. No
man can call Jesus the Christ because he feels sorry for his sins and
comes and repents. No man can call Jesus the Christ, only by the
re–that revelation of the Holy Ghost making it known to him. "Upon
this rock I'll build My church, and the gates of hell will never
prevail against it." There's the revelation. There it is, what He's
built His church upon.

¹⁰²
Who did it, Peter? No, no, no. Who did it? Christ said, "The revelation
of God, the Holy Spirit would bring it to you. A little while and I'll
leave you, but I'll pray the Father and He'll send you the Comforter,
will bring these things to your remembrance." Is that right? What He's
doing this morning. And will what? "Show you things to come." The Holy
Spirit in the church in the last day…
Now, you say, "Brother, hallelujah, that's my church."
Wait a minute. Jesus said, "This will all men know you're My
disciples…" in St. John 13:35, "This will all men know you're my
disciples, when you have love one for the other." The Spirit- revealed
Truth of the Kingdom of God to come, looking out to the end yonder
seeing what the prophets cried about, see what Jesus spoke about, and
here the same Holy Spirit in you crying right back, "That's right.
That's right." What is it? The spiritual revealed truth. I love my
brother regardless of where they go to church, whether they're former
or latter, or no rain at all, as long as they're in the Body of Christ,
trying to achieve, not something for a certain purpose to–to manifest
yourself on earth, but the purpose for the Kingdom of God and the glory
of His coming, to reveal and make known His soon appearing.

¹⁰⁴
Now, in closing, we want to think of this. "Upon this rock I'll build
My church," correctly. And then we find out over in John 14:7, He said
this, "The works that I do, shall you do also. The works that I do…"
What kind of works did He do to make Hisself known? You remember about
Peter (Don't you?), what we been talking about, Philip, the woman at
the well, predicting it not to go to the Gentiles, but would be in the
last days, as He said, "As it was in the days of Sodom, so shall it be
in the coming of the Son of man." There's a revelation written in
mysteries like this to the outside world, to the world that knows
nothing about It. But you precious brethren, you precious sisters, you
are not children of the darkness; you're not children of the night; but
you're children of the Light, walking in the Light as He is in the
Light; then we have fellowship one with another, while the Blood of
Jesus Christ, God's Son, cleanses all our sins from all of us. There
you are, the servants of the Lord…

¹⁰⁵
Jesus… As I quote my Scripture over here, I got Mark 16, yes, Mark
16, He said, "Go ye into all the world." Here's what kind of a church
He set up: the last commission to the Church, "Go ye into all the
world, preach the Gospel to every creature. He that believeth and is
baptized shall be saved. He that believeth not shall be damned." Now,
look here, look at this spiritual discernment. "He that believeth and
is baptized." He never exactly said which way, but we want to fuss
about that (See?), the other thing. See? "He that believeth and is
baptized shall be saved." Whatever he wants to be baptized, that's up
to him. If his achievement's for the Kingdom of God, come on, brother,
we're marching on with the same Spirit. If I'm wrong, then you'll tell,
it'll come out that way. And if you're wrong, it'll be that. But our
hearts and our motives and our objectives is for the Kingdom of God
yonder. Yonder we are, we're pointing to Calvary.

¹⁰⁶
Me and my i–ideas, why, I got… I ain't got a brother likes cherry
pie as well as I do, but we're brothers. See? None of them likes to
hunt and fish like I do, but we're brothers. See what I mean? I got my
own ideas, but that don't make him not my brother; his father's my
father; his family's my family. There you are.
The patriarchs all differed one from another, but they was of one
father and it should work to one thing, and they rejected the main one
in there because he was spiritual. Don't you see it, brethren? Can't
you see what I'm speaking of?

¹⁰⁸
Now notice, and we're–in closing, "Go ye into all the world, preach
the Gospel to every creature. He that believeth and is baptized shall
be saved. He… [Blank.spot.on.tape–Ed.]…?…
And these signs shall follow them that believe; in My Name they shall
cast out devils; they shall speak with new tongues." What is it?
Spiritual revelation. See? "They shall speak with new tongues. If they
take up serpents or drink deadly things, it shall not harm them. If
they lay their hands on the sick, they shall recover." That was what
the new church was. That's the kind of church that Jesus Christ, this
great One that all the prophets cried out would do. We find His Spirit
comes over here and predicts that His Spirit in the people would come
right back and do the things that He did.

¹⁰⁹
May I close in saying this. I got about a dozen more Scriptures here,
but we haven't got the time. See? But listen at this. May I close in
saying this. Every true borned again prophet of the Lord, preacher,
Sunday school teacher, seer, apostle, missionary, whatever he might be,
his whole heart is set, and he's so filled and anointed with the Spirit
of God, so anointed… Whatever his office is, whatever it might be, to
preach, or to teach, or to evangelize, or to see visions, whatever it
is, he'll do it for the Kingdom of God. And the Spirit of God will
speak right back through the man and manifest it's the Kingdom of God.

¹¹⁰
Then we… Me as a Baptist, I see you Pentecostals, you're my brother.
You don't belong to the Baptist church; I did. That's the only church I
ever did belong to, was the Baptist church. But that don't stand in my
way; I see what the Spirit of God is with you. I see what you're trying
to do. Well, if me, a Baptist, can feel that way, surely the
Assemblies, the Church of God, the United Pentecostals, the
Independents, and all of us brethren together ought to see that we're
trying to work for one purpose. Let's have spiritual discernment.

¹¹¹
Now, listen. In closing I'll make this last remark. Many are sick and
weakly among you, and many are asleep, spiritually dead, because they
don't have discernment of the Body of Christ. This sick body that we
got… God help us to have spiritual discernment of that revelation of
the Kingdom of God and of the love of God in our hearts, shed abroad by
the Holy Ghost, to try to put our arms way out, say, "We are brethren."
See what I mean? And every little gift that you have, don't use it to
try to make it some great something for ourselves, let's make it for
the Kingdom of God to work with everyone to try to uplift the cause of
Jesus Christ, for His coming is soon. Do you believe it?

¹¹²
I'm so sorry to keep you so long. Brother David will be here tomorrow
to teach you the Scriptures, but right now let's bow our heads just a
moment. [A brother speaks in another tongue. A sister gives an interpretation–Ed.]

God bless you. Your pastor.