A student is not above his teacher, but everyone who is fully trained will be like his teacher.

Luke 6:40

Imagine that your job is to teach blind musicians to water-ski…  You know everything about how boats work, how the water dynamics and the waves affect you.  You know about the tow-rope, the skis, and watching out for other watercraft.  It’s really not a difficult thing for you to do, or teach.  Only now, you’re dealing with people who don’t have a clue, and don’t have even an ability to have a clue.  Yet…

Jesus said that no one could see the Kingdom unless they were born again (John 3:3).  Jesus’ ministry on Earth was to teach and preach concerning the Kingdom of God.  When Jesus was faced with the throngs of followers early in His ministry, and told so by His disciples, He simply said, “Let us go somewhere else to the towns nearby, so that I may preach there also; for that is what I came for.” (Mark 1:38).  Early success and popularity did not distract Him.

Read more…

Beware of the false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly are ravenous wolves.

Matthew 7:15

Everyone knows that false prophets come in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly are ravenous wolves.  Cult watch pages abound with calling this or that minister a false prophet, and often simply serve to spark fear in everything of God.  Many of these are either completely cessationist (believing that all the miraculous power of God has ceased), or at least non-Spirit-filled.  They all generally deny basic doctrines such as speaking in other tongues (Acts 2:4) for the church today, and should generally be ignored (2 Timothy 3:5).  They do not enter the Kingdom themselves, and shut the door in the faces of those who are trying (Matthew 23:13).

What is the mark of a false prophet?  They present themselves as something they are not.  Moreover, Jesus called them ravenous.  Not every reference to “wolves” in the Bible is an evil reference.  When Jacob blessed his sons, he called his son Benjamin a ravenous wolf  as well (see Genesis 49:27 and surrounding chapter).

Jesus also cautioned about the yeast of the Pharisees, which in Luke 12:1 He identified as hypocrisy.

Read more…

It was not until after he had start preaching in 1933 that the Lord informed him of “the importance” of the ministry he would fulfill. While baptising converts in the Ohio River, the Pillar Of Fire descended from the skies and hovering over Brother Branham, a Voice spoke and said, “As John the Baptist was sent to forerun the First Coming of the Lord Jesus Christ, even so, you are sent with a Message to forerun His Second Coming.” Still, there was no indication of the “type” of ministry it would be or “how” it would climax.

On the Life of William Branham

One thing we must remember when dealing with God’s servants is that they are men.  They always have been men, and they always will be men.  Legitimate men and women of God were used, some with substantial flaws, all throughout the Bible.  And, while some ended well, some did not.  Of those that ended well, most of them also had serious issues along the way.  Of all the notable persons of the Bible, there are only a small handful of which very little negative was said.

1 Kings 13 tells of a true prophet of God who was deceived by an old prophet.  Why the old prophet lied to the young prophet leading him to get killed is not indicated in scripture, but it does call both of them prophets.  Yet, the young prophet, who was told not to eat nor drink on his mission from God, listened to the deception of the old, and was killed by a lion as a result.  He was a prophet; he delivered a right word from God correctly but got side-tracked and lost his life prematurely because of it.

Read more…

But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it.

Matthew 7:14

When it comes to revival, and revival meetings, in one sense, revival is easy…  Once the flow starts, the miracles happen, the atmospheres change, the going is good…  On another side, we sometimes don’t see a great degree of change in the people that are attending revivals in the short term.

Read more…

By faith we understand that the worlds were prepared by the word of God, so that what is seen was not made out of things which are visible.

Hebrews 11:3

The whole of the Christian walk is in the unseen, which manifests into the seen.

Read more…

Blind Pharisee!

Matthew 23:26 (first two words)

It is one of the saddest thing not to be able to see.  In the natural, it means you cannot see the natural creation.  Blindness in the spirit, of course, means you cannot see the spiritual creation, the heavens.

There is something about seeing in the spirit.  John was there, when he wrote his apocalypse.  Ezekiel was there when he saw his visions by the river Chebar.

Read more…

Seek first the Kingdom of God, and his Righteousness, and all these things will be added unto you.

Matthew 6:33

The Kingdom is invisible, in the heavens (John 3:3).  It is the unseen dominion, greater and more sufficient than the natural, which, from its excess, overflows into what we can see.

What we can see, feel, and experience is not the Spirit.  What we can see is not the Kingdom.  What we touch with the soul and body is but our response to God.

Read more…

What is one of the simplest ways to teach faith?  The Beatitudes.

Right here, the Teacher demonstrates one of the simplest ways.  As small as it is, it can grow to be the largest of all “garden plants”.

Take any dire situation you have as a Christian.  Take any lack, or any shortage, any place where your feel worn thin, and pressed hard.  Everyone encounters these, and even Jesus said that we would experience storms, even when we were built upon the rock.

Most Happy are those who are poor in Spirit, for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven.

Matthew 5:3

Read more…