There is a Will to do God’s Will
Spiritual Building-Stone No. 187
I John 2:17 b: “But he that doeth the will of God abideth for ever.”
Let’s listen,
what God’s Prophet said about it:
Now, there's one way to get into the (human) body. How's this body controlled?
Now, watch real close now and you get your pencils ready. Here's the gate
on this side that goes into the body: one, two, three, four, five. Now, you
got that drawed? Now, the first gate over here is, see, smell, hear, and taste,
and touch or feel (either one it wants to be, doesn't matter). Now, that's
the senses in the body. Is that right? Now, we got a soul after you get through
this. The senses is outside; that's the outer system.
Now, in here there's one, two, three, four, five, five attributes in the soul.
Now, you want to write them down? The first one is imagination, imagination.
The second one is conscience. And the third one is memory. And the fourth
one is reason. And the fifth one is affection.
The soul is imagination, conscience, memory, reason, and affection, is the
senses or the attributes, or like the senses of the soul. And the soul is
the nature of the spirit that's on the inside, 'cause the soul only puts out
an atmosphere of what's on the inside of you. It takes the place of sanctification,
the soul is, sets in the same category there. All right.
Now, to this gate (spirit) there's only one, one gate, that's called "self
will." You're the boss of what goes in there. And what does it do? What
is this? The body must be washed, the laver; sanctified, at here; filled with
the Holy Spirit here, and this becomes God's judgment seat again, where God
sets in your heart, if you do something wrong, say, "Oh, my, I did wrong."
Some people say, "It don't condemn me to wear short hair," the women.
"It don't condemn me to wear manicure or makeup," or whatever it
is. "It don't condemn me to go to dances. It don't condemn me to tell
a little white lie. It don't condemn me to play bridge at my bridge party."
You know why? You ain't got nothing to condemn. "That don't hurt my conscience."
You got no more conscience than a snake has hips. So you just... You ain't
got no conscience; there ain't nothing there will hurt you. You're of the
world.
But I challenge you to let Jesus Christ come in here and try to do it one
time. Brother, you'll be so condemned you'll back off and shake your head
from that thing just as certain as I'm standing here, 'cause He's holy. Listen,
I'm quoting the Scripture, "If you love them things (That's the world.),
things of the world, it's because the love of God's not even in you”.(I
John 2:15).
"How is self-will? Why will you call that self-will, Brother Branham?"
Because it puts a man and woman back again just like Adam and Eve at the garden
of Eden, On what? The two trees? Self-will, this one is death. This one is
Life, self-will. Free moral agency... God placed the first man, Adam and Eve,
right here on free moral agency. He places you the same place. And the only
way that you can get this thing fixed in here is your own self-will. Hallelujah.
Your self-will. You have to will to do God's will. You have to get rid of
your own will to let God's will come in, for this is the only channel that
leads to the heart.
Oh, you can join church, you Baptists and Presbyterians. And you Methodists
and Pilgrim Holiness can come to sanctification. But you have to will to do
God's will, self-will, to let the Holy Spirit come in here to bring forth:
“These signs shall follow them that believe (Mark 16:17-18); In My Name
they shall cast out devils. They shall speak with new tongues. They shall
lay their hands on the sick, or take up deadly things, and so forth. These
signs shall follow them that has let their will become My will, and the works
that I do shall they do also.” (John 14:12). I hope you don't miss it.
There's a will to do God's will. You see what I mean? [1]
Then how do we
get into this? Now, remember, there was a veil, a veil that hangs between
the holy and the holiest of holies. In the holiest of holies is where Christ
comes to set down on your heart's throne. Christ is enthroned. He comes through
justification (is that right?); sanctification; "And then by one (water,
by one church, by one creed) by one Spirit," from here are we all baptized
into one body which is the body of Christ (I Cor. 12:13). By the what? Holy
Spirit (Eph. 4:4-6).
Who comes in? Methodists, Baptists, Presbyterian, Pentecostals, whosoever
will. That veil, you know what that veil is that veils your heart from it?
Are you ready? The veil is called "self-will." Do you get the picture
now? The senses out there, the senses on the body and the senses to the soul,
and the veil between that and the holy place, the holiest of holy... And the
only way that you can get in there is to have self will “For whosoever...”
(Rev. 22:17). What? Whosoever shakes hands? Whosoever is immersed? Whosoever
joins the church? Whosoever passes his letter? Whosoever does? No. "Whosoever
will come beyond the veil..."
Let Christ come to the senses; say "Well, I ought to. I don't want to
go to hell; that's one thing. I'll join church." All right, Lutherans.
"Well, I will tell you what; I believe I ought to live a different life,
what I can," sanctification at the altar. All right, Methodist.
All right, then whosoever will, let him pass the riven veil. Oh, glory be
to God. I'm on the other side. Hallelujah to His Name. Oh, my. Whosoever will,
let him tear down the curtains of his own will and let God come into his heart.
There's Christ on His judgment seat in the human heart. What is to happen?
You say, "Oh, I can tell dirty jokes; it don't condemn me." Why?
You ain't got nothing to condemn. No one's there to take it out. No one's
there to condemn you. "Well, I'll tell you," the women say, "I
can have short hair; it don't condemn me." No wonder. See? "No,
I can wear shorts, I can do this. I..." The man said, "It don't
hurt me to smoke cigars." Said, "And it don't hurt me to play some
cards and shoot some dice," and whatever they do. "It don't hurt
me." And they still belong to the church. See? "Don't hurt me to
do this." Why? Why? There's nothing there to judge you.
But when Christ comes in, you've created an altar on your heart and your sins
are taken daily. The great Saint Paul said, “I die daily (I Cor. 15:31).
Nevertheless I live, but not me live, but Christ liveth in me.” (Gal.
2;19-20). There's the inner veil. Oh, brother, sister. [2]
The outside man
is a physical being which is controlled by six senses, or five senses, rather.
The inside man is a spirit man which is controlled by five senses: Conscience,
and love, and so forth. The outside man: see, taste, feel, smell, hear. But
the inside of that spirit is a soul, and it's controlled by one thing: your
free will. You can accept what the devil says or accept what God says. And
that'll determine what spirit's in there. If it's a Spirit of God, it'll feed
on the things of God, and it won't feed on anything of the world. Jesus said,
“If you love the world or the things of the world, it's because the
love of God's not even entered this inner part.” (Romans 5:5). Satan's
deceived you. “And man shall not live by bread alone but by every word
that proceedeth out of the mouth of God” (Matt. 4:4).
Has God lost control, or is He just permitting another agency to control?
I wonder. The true answer to this question is... To my opinion, there is two
opposing spirits in the world today at work. Now, there can't be no more than
two, two heads. And One of them is the Holy Spirit at work; the other one
is a spirit of the devil, and in this last days in deception. Now, I'm going
to base my thoughts right on here for the rest of the text, the rest of our
message.
The two spirits, one of them God's Holy Spirit, the other one the devil's
spirit working in deception. The people of the earth are now making their
choice. The Holy Spirit is here calling out a Bride for Christ. He's doing
it by vindicating His Word of promise to Her for this age, showing that It
is Christ. If the finger's supposed to move in this age, the finger will move.
If the foot's supposed to move in this age, the foot will move. If the eye
is to see in this age, the eye will see. See? The Spirit of God, as It's growed
into the full statue of God is... The age that we're now living in, the Holy
Spirit is here vindicating the Message of the hour. And the Holy Spirit is
doing this, so that the people that believe God will be called out of this
chaos. The devil's unholy spirit is here calling his church by the error,
as usual, by perversion of the Word of God like he did at the beginning. [3]
Now, they repented
and were baptized, and come out to walk in a new life, in a new land, in a
new journey, amongst new people, and the hand of God upon them. But it finally
come to a place in this walk that they had, that they was not satisfied with
their walk of grace. They had to come to something that they could do themselves
(Exod. 19:7-8).
And they, if they would've continued on... The promise wasn't given them under
the law. The promise was given before the law, without any conditions to it,
“I have given you this land; go on over into it” (Joshua 1:1-2).
But before they got to that promise, they decided there was something they
must do themselves.
Now, that's where people think today of Divine healing, or some any other
work of grace of God, that there's something that you have to do. You, there's
nothing you have to do but believe, just believe God.
And, that, we still find that among human beings. We're prone to be that way,
"There's something we've got to do." We feel that, that we've got
to have something into it also.
You do have something into it; that's your surrender of your own will, your
own ideas to the will and idea of Almighty God, and it's finished. That's
all there is. Just take His promise, don't think of nothing else. Walk by
it, and God does the rest of it. [4]
But remember, He will give you the desire of your heart. He promised that. You know that? He promised to give you the desire of your heart. And let your desire be the Word of God. Let your desire be His will, never your own will, His will. If you ask Him for something, He don't give it to you, say, "Thank You, Lord. You know what's good." (Ps. 78:18-32; Num. 11:4-35; Num. 22:9-22) [5]
God is sovereign.
And we see here what David done in the Scripture reading of I Chronicles 13.
His intentions were good. But God does not give us merits on good intentions.
There's only one way to serve God; that's by doing His will at His command.
And God, being sovereign, there's no one to tell Him what to do or how to
do it; He does it the way... He knows the right way to do it. And that makes
me feel good. And it ought to make all of us feel good, and I'm sure it does.
For one would have it coming this way, and one have it going that way, and
one the other way...
But one great thing again about God, He's not left us, now, without knowing
what's the Truth and how to do it. He wouldn't be just to punish us for doing
something that we didn't know how it was going to be done, and then let us
stumble into something. He's not that kind of a God. He's a God that speaks
a Word and expects His children to believe It. And therefore, He knows what's
best, and when to do it, and how to do it. We have our ideas of it, but He
knows. [6]
Now, we lose
our glory, if we lose faith. Now, if we get away from faith, then we take
the church into an intellectual realm. And many times, it's been thought amongst
people, that because a congregation was large, and they had great churches,
great steeples, and a great lot of well-dressed and groomed peoples, and a
lot of finances, that they could afford such things, we many times, thought
that this certain church must be inspired. Or we've often referred to different
ministers, who get out on the field and have great gatherings of crowds, and
we think, sometimes, that they are the signs of inspiration. But that's not
altogether the truth. That's human inspiration.
But the real inspiration comes by doing the will of God, whether it is a one
or just a handful. Whether it is a big church or a small church, it matters
not. Whether he is a great eloquent speaker or just a man that hardly knows
his ABC's, it doesn't matter. It depends on the message that he brings, whether
it is inspired by the Word of God or is it inspired by intellectuals conceptions
of human inspiration.
Some people can be inspired because of an eloquent speaker. That doesn't make
it right. Sometimes they're inspired, because the man is so trained, till
he could put his point over. That doesn't mean that it's of God. See? It's
only through God's everlasting, eternal, blessed Word can we receive inspiration,
and that's given by the Holy Ghost. By faith we receive it. [7]
Always remember,
church; God's Words are true. I believe the right mental attitude towards
any Divine promise of God will bring it to pass, if you can look at it in
the right way. But remember, here's been my standard in life. I have tried
to do this. The first thing, I want to find out whether it's the will of God
or not. Then I know it's God's will. The next thing, is my objective to it
and my motive in doing it. Then if it's the will of God, and my objective
is right, and my motive is right, I have faith that it'll be done. Because,
first, it's the will of God and my objective is to glorify Him, and my motive
is to give Him all the glory (to please Him). See? So there's no selfish motives
about it. If you have a selfish motive it won't work. If your objective is
to make money for yourself or something, why, you'll never succeed. And then
try to do something outside of the will of the Lord, then it won't work to
begin with (John 7:17).
So there is genuine faith, but you must come into the real channel of God
to have that genuine faith. There's human faith, then there's faith of God
(Gal. 2:19-20; II Cor. 4:13). And you must have a godly faith to believe.
Now, then to have godly faith, you must have the mind of Christ in you. Then
that's how God projects to you visions, revelations, and all these things
comes by the mind of Christ being in you. You get it? "Let the mind that
was in Christ be in you.” (Phil. 2:5). [8]
Did you think
that in this Russia, they have got a false Pentecost? They are. That's the
work of the devil. They're trying to force all men into communism, where every
man has everything commonly. Do you know that was the condition of the Church
under the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost, that the people sold their
possessions and laid them at the feet of the disciples, and they distributed
them to every man as they had need (Acts 2:42-47)? And now the devil's come
around, and got into the world and made a political power to force man to
that.
God does not force man to do anything. You do it on your own free will. He
can warn you, throw a barricade across your path, but you walk your own self
with your own decision in His Presence to make Him your Saviour. But Satan
has perverted God's plan to his own plan. [9]
Now, if you want
to do right, I'm so glad tonight to tell you that there is a City of refuge;
that's Jesus Christ. If you don't want to do wrong, the enemy's after you,
then there's a way of escape; and that escape is Jesus Christ. There's a place
where you can come and let off the steam (Num. 35:6-34; Jos. 20:1-3).
But if you love to sin and you don't want God, then the enemy's going to overtake
you somewhere. You can't come to Christ, because you don't want to.
And when this man comes to Christ, this place of Refuge... When a man come
in in the Old Testament, the first thing, he had to come upon his own free
will. And that's the way you have to come to Christ. [10]
You're going to walk under your own free will. [11]
Now, the Lamb
in the time of intercessory back here, He knew that there were names in there
that was put in there from the foundation of the world (Rev. 13:8), and as
long as them names have never been manifested on earth as yet, He had to stay
there as Intercessor (Rev. 5:1-10). Do you get it? Perfectly predestination...
See?
All right, He had to stay there, because He came to die for those that God
had ordained to Eternal Life (Acts 13:48). See, see? By His foreknowledge
He saw them, not by His own will. His will was that none should perish (I
Tim. 2:3-4), but by His foreknowledge He knew who would and who would not.
Therefore as long as there was one name hadn't never yet been declared in
earth, Christ had to stay there as an Intercessor to take care of that name.
But as soon as that final name had been splashed in that Clorox or bleach,
then His intercessory days was over. "Let him that's filthy be filthy
still. Let him that's holy, he's holy still” (Rev. 22:11). See? And
he leaves the sanctuary, and then it becomes a judgment seat. Woe unto those
outside of Christ then. [12]
Remember, I can't
force you to come against your own will, but I believe this might be the time
all that what you've looked forward to, it might be fixing to happen right
now.
And this could be; I hope it's not. It could be the last time you'll ever
be called. Remember, He won't always strive. He'll call, then He'll turn from
you, never to come again. [13]
References:
[1] Rev. Chap. 4 Pt. 3 Throne Of Mercy, 61-0108, par. 224-225, 227-232
[2] Rev. Chap. 4 Pt. 2 The 24 Elders, 61-0101, par. 272-278
[3] The God Of This Evil Age, 65-0101m, par. 53, 55-56
[4] A Paradox, 65-0117, par. 71-75
[5] Does God Change His Mind, 65-0418e, par. 151b
[6] Trying To Do God A Service, 65-0718m, par. 29-30
[7] By Faith Moses, 58-0720m, par. E-17
[8] The Queen Of Sheba, 61-0219, par. E-8
[9] The Unity Of The One God In One Church, 58-1221e, par. 39-40
[10] Letting Off The Pressure, 62-0513e, par. 81-83
[11] Thy Loving Kindness, 58-0228, par. E-73 b
[12] The First Seal, 63-0318, par. 59
[13] Jehovah Jireh 3, 64-0404, par. E-87b