I just love teaching. Oh, my. I–I–I think it’s wonderful. It gives the basis and settles the church.
And in preaching, now, there’s some people that are preachers. They can pick up the Word with inspiration, and sway It out there in places. That’s watering the Seeds that the teacher has taught. See? Now, you got to put some Seed in first, and then water It. And the watering comes from the preaching of the Word.
There’s a great vast difference between a teacher and a preacher. See? It’s two different gifts of the Spirit altogether, two different gifts. And I humbly say this, but I haven’t a gift of either.

But mine, as of usual, is praying for the sick. That’s what the Lord called me to do. And then, in this time it gives a relaxation of my mind to study on something different, not having Divine healing services, just–just teaching the Word. And oh, we get along pretty good here. We… I remember, you put up with me for a long time, about twelve years around here, on it.

–William Branham, The Seven Church Ages (54-0512 p16-19)

The Bible is clear when it comes to judging the motives of one’s heart out of our own fleshly, soulish pride.

 Judge not, and ye shall not be judged: condemn not, and ye shall not be condemned: forgive, and ye shall be forgiven:

Luke 6:37

Unless by the Spirit the Lord reveals the heart of another, the fate of another, or the motives, we must not give way to soulish judgment, wisdom of the flesh, or the like.

That William Branham was a prophet of God was evident by his life and the signs and wonders that followed.  He had an angel, occasionally even photographed (and scientifically verified at that), that accompanied him and led him in his healing campaigns.  Consider the reaction of those in Paul’s day to the possibility of someone hearing from an angel or spirit.

And there arose a great cry: and the scribes that were of the Pharisees’ part arose, and strove, saying, We find no evil in this man: but if a spirit or an angel hath spoken to him, let us not fight against God.

Acts 23:9

While it is true that the enemy can disguise himself as an angel of light, just as his ministers can disguise themselves as ministers of righteousness, it must be pointed out that a true angel of light is a good thing, even as a true minister of righteousness is.  In Paul’s day, it was enough to stop the Pharisees from wanting to get after Him, in the possibility that he had actually heard from an angel.

Yet, the Bible makes it clear that we should learn the wisdom of heaven, and that we should imitate the faith of the righteous before us.

While William Branham was a prophet, he was also a man in need of a savior, Jesus Christ.  He was a gift to the Earth, even though towards the end of his life, he forsook his call and spread doctrinal confusion with what he taught.

Consider a moment, this man of God.  In a day when the level of the demonstration and undestanding of the supernatural was low, He came upon the world and within six months was known throughout the world.  He led healing services, at the command of God through the angel, for eight years, until, towards the end, as he began to do more of the teaching in the meetings and as other healing ministries increased as a result of his divine spark of faith, the crowds began to dwindle and budget shortfalls began to be felt in his own ministry.

He nearly left the ministry at this point in 1955, until he received another vision of a future crusade, indicating that he should continue on with his work.

The above quote is from a sermon shortly before this, in 1954.  The anointing in which William Branham operated in taxed him greatly, and he could only stand to minister, generally, to fifteen or so people before the strain upon his body was too much to bear.  His talk about giving his mind a rest undoubtedly was both in response to studying for one subject as well as the physical taxing that it had upon his mind and nerves to operate in this high level of gift service after service.

Yet, his calling, as he attested to later in his life, was not directly to preach, but was to bring divine healing, that is, healing from God, to the church.  To a church that had nearly lost her way in terms of the light and power of the Gospel, he was to bring a message to the church of the power and presence of a real God that would prepare the way for the second coming of Christ.

If we look at the effect of His work today, his name is nearly forgotten.  Those who do reference him are generally strict adherents that see no errors in his ways, or small camps of prophetic folks who still regard him as a prophet despite his errors.  Though he wrote books, they are generally not remembered.

Yet, remembered or not, his legacy remains.

Much of the modern faith teaching today was helped to be sparked or fueled by William Branham’s campaigns.  The faith of the gospel was being restored by his work, so that men began again to believe that God really was in their midst.

Much of the healing movements of today note William Branham not as the only doorway for a ray of light from Heaven, but as a particularly bright one, and one that has been unmatched in many centuries.  Of all his true prophecies, those where he spoke “Thus saith the Lord” (remembering that he as a person made many mistakes), none of them failed, excepting, of course, those that were complicated by his untimely death at the end of 1964.  How or if those will be fulfilled is up to God to answer, as even the prophecies given to Israel were conditional to their obedience.

But consider the mind of God in this.

The healing was a strain upon the physical man, William Branham.  To operate in a gift of grace, although it is the power of God, often takes great strength to allow that much of Heaven to pass through a man.  For William Branham, it was only for a short period of time each night that he actually did ministry, which led many to want to go elsewhere where they would be individually prayed for.

Teaching gave his mind a relaxing.  To do something different, to preach and to teach, actually built William Branham up.  So too, when anyone preaches, and is energized by the Word, this is even attested to today.

Then too, the issue of the healing was complicated by several other factors.  The people became interested in the signs and miracles themselves.  At one point, the angel of the Lord warned him that if he focused only on the big miracles to get the faith in the room up, people would need a miracle in order to believe.  Unfortunately, we too see some of this today remaining.  When you begin to talk of miracles, people immediately want to see legs grow out, the dead raised, the dramatic, visible, and extraordinary miracles take place, but not everything that God does is grand and showy.  Some is, but what isn’t would be missed if we are only trained to see the large.  If we miss the one hundred subtle things of God and only catch the one or two grand ones, we have missed most of what God does, and hence, who He is.

As people increased in their demand to see the dramatic signs, the pressure upon this man of God also increased.  His directors encouraged him in it, as they, too, felt the pressure to perform.  Yet, William Branham was upset with the people seeking signs.

Then said Jesus unto him, Except ye see signs and wonders, ye will not believe.

John 4:48

Jesus, too, struggled with the desire of people to see the miraculous in order to believe.  Yet, today, many would stumble over this verse wondering what there is to believe for.  After all, in the minds of many, isn’t the purpose of believing to see the signs and wonders?  Yet, this was not the heart of Jesus, and as William Branham went on, he, too, was grieved over the people desiring only a miraculous sign, and not pressing on further beyond it, to find that place, that realm, that domain from whence it had come, the Kingdom of Heaven and of God.

Yet, contrary to what William Branham taught, Jesus did not transition from a “signs and wonders” ministry to a “teaching” ministry because of this.

Consider the purpose of Heaven.

William Branham was sent by God to restore people to a true, spiritual relationship with their Father God.  He taught that it was not in an organizational church, but in a living faith that produced the miraculous, whether small or great, simply because the signs, wonders, and miracles followed him (Mark 16:17).  This was his message.

He exhorted Christians to leave their organization structure, which were more in line with anti-christ, religious doctrine, creeds, dogmas, and church manuals, and to leave them for the truth faith, a faith that is substance and proof.

While he was 100% wrong on many subjects, and he fell into the same error as Alexander Dowie a century earlier of thinking himself the only anointed voice, and his followers have attempted since then to even make William Branham equal with Christ himself, something he never did himself, he was right in his dissemination of the religious spirit in our age.

To this day, there is not a clearer voice than what was written concerning this subject than William Branham’s explanation of the Nicolaitine and Balaamism doctrines, as well as that of Jezebel within the church in his book on the Exposition of the Seven Church Ages.  Yet, even here, it is filled with so many other personal doctrines, not accepted in the wider body of Christ, that to read through the book, unless I am wrong in my own estimation, comes through as reading through some of the most drudgingly painful discourse of error to be nearly immediately catapulted to some of the clearest revelation and teaching on the religious spirit and the spiritual dynamics of the human mindset towards organization, structure, and the arm of the flesh empowered by darkness that I have ever found.

In this day, so much of the prophetic, restoration portion of the church is focusing, whether they realize it or not, on this one issue.  Many swing to the left and many to the right, but William Branham, through the clutter and the dung of the rest hits it head on.  He exposes the satanic work and infiltration into the church through organized religion  with a clarity and accuracy beyond anyone else in his day or ours.

The gist of the argument could be summarized as this.

There are essentially two different motivating spirits behind those organizations called “church”.  One is Christ Himself, where is the head, all grow up into Him in true faith and righteousness and truth.  It is the only one that is free.

The other is called organization, structure, hierarchy.  It is called religious tradition, creeds, dogmas, and doctrines.  It is called the mind and power of man.

This is evidenced today in our church cultures.

So much of what is done in church cultures actually works directly against faith.  We are bound to an organization, the church, the youth group, whatever, to what is seen, where Faith works only on what is seen.  Instead of using faith in the unseen, people are trained to see the visible, the organization structure, which is the visible, which then of necessity blinds the mind with unbelief in the supernatural.

As motivational leadership and social pressure mounts, people are not trained to learn from and respond only to the moving of the Spirit, but rather to the thoughts, emotions, and praise and condemnation of men.

This plays directly into the woundedness of men’s hearts, especially in a modern society where the family is disintegrated, and begins to direct access to the spirit of Jezebel to come in, right on top of the very woundedness left by the needs that a true mother never filled.  Men are trapped as infants, and never allowed to lead, lest they violate some non-Biblical, societally enforced stigma against them to be some non-male, sensitive, stereotype that is neither godly nor Christ-like.

Men are not brought up to be leaders, led by their own conscience before God, but rather to be controlled, manipulated, and hog-tied by invisible cords of pleasure and displeasure, tied, and bound, and sacrificed upon a Baal alter called church, all the time, their spirits within die, and women and other men under its control clap their hands and call it “Christian”.

But William Branham saw this.  He came and hit the deal head-on with the real solution, which was Faith–A Faith that was a real substance, and real proof within himself.

When he stood in faith, he knew right doctrine.  When he stood in faith, he knew God Himself, without having have someone else’s instruction or approval.  When he stood in faith, he was himself.

He was fully within his own mind and head, and not someone else’s.  He Not what someone else wanted him to be, not what the devil of religion, and not what the anti-christ of religion wanted him to be.

Yet, here is also where he may have failed.

His call was to demonstrate faith.

He was called to walk in the miraculous, to demonstrate the power of the unseen realm.

But, even in the teachings of Jesus, this is not the end, nor is this even something to exult or rejoice in.

And the seventy returned again with joy, saying, Lord, even the devils are subject unto us through thy name. And he said unto them, I beheld Satan as lightning fall from heaven. Behold, I give unto you power to tread on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy: and nothing shall by any means hurt you. Notwithstanding in this rejoice not, that the spirits are subject unto you; but rather rejoice, because your names are written in heaven.

Luke 10:17-20

Many people miss the mark because the seek the sign, either to watch or to be demonstrated through their own hands, but Jesus always looked higher, to the realm of Eternity.

When William Branham applied his fishing line, his preaching, to the waters of the peoples, many people only caught the doctrine, as if that was sufficient.  The got so wrapped around the bright and shiny, even to the point where they stretch3ed out their whole self over the size of it.  But, they didn’t catch his Faith!  Surely, Branham was hunting for his rainbow fish, his trophy fish.

James writes that faith without works is dead (James 2:18), but doctrine without faith is deadly!  In his vision of what he had been doing, he saw a small fish that had swallowed the lure whole, so that its entire skin was stretched out over the lure.  He wondered how he would ever get the lure back out of them.  God’s desire through William Branham was never that they simply believe his doctrine, but that they might see with their own spirits the working of faith, the presence of the Kingdom and its King, and hence be saved.  Never as a principle to learn, but as a guidebook to enter into the experience themselves.  Whether from eternal damnation or even simply from their own stagnation.  It was God’s desire not that they wrap themselves around the doctrine, but rather the faith and revelatory realm and Kingdom which were in operation in the man who preached and demonstrated the miraculous signs.

The signs were not the end, as even William Branham attested to, but they were only to be the demonstration to the audience that God was in their midst, and there was more than met their eye.  It was to show the people that God Himself was present, the very God that they supposedly celebrated and worshiped in their own churches was living, active, and more real than they could possibly imagine.

Yet, while many did begin to see the faith that William Branham operated in, many also got side-lined with other issues.  Many focused on the physical demonstration, rather than the Divine reality from which they manifested.  Many got caught upon the material, rather than the immaterial, the seen, rather than the seen, being forced back into the same unbelief out of which God through William Branham sought to free them.

And, this is the crux of the issue.

It is only the living, active relationship with our God, and our relating to Him, that has any merit spiritually.  There is absolutely no merit, no benefit (only harm), and no glory in any physical form, any saint, any liturgy, or any form, except as it directly aids in the former, the relationship with God.

Men will always have forms, simply because we need to assembly peaceably and orderly.  Someone will  always be the usher, and someone will always clean the bathroom, even if the meeting is only five people!

But, the moment any governmental seating, any model, any liturgy (or the purposeful lack of one of these in reaction against seeing the wrong in others) is elevated in our consciousness to a level of spirituality, we have become carnal  in our thinking (or, perhaps, never left), and we perform no service for God.  It is merely our soul, and what believe spirituality to be, and it is not what God counts, which is worship in Spirit and in Truth.

The moment we elevate anything of the natural order or form or mind of man and attribute it to being of pleasing to God, we have erected an idol, and we worship another, whether we like it or not.  It is merely unbelief, the belief in the seen over the seen, where God demands faith in the invisible, in the Spiritual realm, in Him alone.

Only what flows directly from the true relationship we have with God alone, and the interaction with that, and what is necessary to facilitate that, including jobs, children, vehicles, buildings, and the maintenance thereof, including rest, is of any merit before Heaven.  That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is Spirit.  We must step out of the flesh, and into the Spirit, hating the one, and clinging to the other, or we will die.

For if you live according to the sinful nature, you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the misdeeds of the body, you will live,

Romans 8:13

Jesus said it plainly.

And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent.

John 17:3

It is only knowing Him, which is by Faith alone, that we have Eternal Life, and are pleasing unto Him.

Many in our churches, although they are true, sincere believers, are more in bondage to the system, to its masks and religious constraints, than they are to the Spirit of Christ.

William Branham brought it out very clear.  There are only two systems here, and they are as different as black and white, night and day.  To trust in one is death, for it is anti-christ, but Jesus is life evermore.

And, here is the need for the the Healing Ministry.

William Branham walked in a faith realm, because it was his gift.  He had to get saved, just like the rest of us, but his level of faith and his calling were such that he operated in a very high level of ministry both because of the gifting as well as because of the measure of faith that had been allotted to him.

William Branhams’ life was not his healing ministry.  When he did stop operating as much in the healing gift, although it appears that this was contrary to his calling, he did not die spiritually, because his life was anchored Beyond the veil, his life was from another place.  His eyes were upon the unseen, rather than the seen.

But, that place, that realm, that dimension called Heaven was what was borne out by his miracles.

Because of his faith, because he touched heaven with his sincerity, humility, and faith, miracles happened, simply because a man believed and prayed.

The signs helped the faith of the many who came to watch, but it was simple faith that produced the healing every time.

This invisible, intangible (to the natural senses, although it is discernible), and seemingly elusive thing called Faith was what mattered.  It was the faith that mattered, because by faith alone can we see and enter into the Kingdom.  The Kingdom is the goal, and as William Branham exercised and demonstrated his faith through the signs that confirmed it, many others were able to grow in their faith, and so enter more fully into the dimensions of the Kingdom that God had for them.  Not everyone had to operate in the same way that Branham did, for the gift was not the Kingdom, but whatever gifts God has for any individual at any time will only ever be accessed through the Spirit, by the self same Faith.  In this way, Branham was to inspire the faith of many, that they might further see and thus enter the heavenly Kingdom, which might then be expressed through whatever avenue God chose (for example, through the gifts of the Spirit Paul mentioned).

Jesus put it this way, that unless you hate your life here, in the visible, earthly, and soulish dimension, you could not be His disciple, one of those who operated, functioned, and moved in the Spiritual, higher, heavenly dimension and dispensation of which He was its Chief.

This was what the crowds missed, that Branham was bringing through the signs.  That, not of the miracles themselves, but of a relationship with a living and true God, by living in His Spirit, and belonging to the Heavenly Realm.

But, as we still see today, anyone can bring the message against the spirit of religion, and this is useful to a point.

Many people have and still are bringing the message of faith to the church, and to a measure, this can also be a benefit.

But, what is the ultimate benefit we are after, other than the Eternal.

The flesh rots, and the material corrupts, but the Word of God is Eternal.  You might heal a leg today, and it will be useful and profitable, and it is right to do, but better that the man receive his leg and the God who made it, by entering deeper not into the doctrine of faith, but rather it’s substance!

But, it was that William Branham operated a living relationship with the unseen God, seeking the heavenly benefit and profit greater than the material and earthly one.  For, as we have seen today, to use spiritual principles to obtain a primarily material profit is prostitution, carnal.  And as God judged those who did so in William Branham’s day, He will do so again to those of that seed today.

But, here and directly here, is the reason for the divine healing.

So much as men look for a sign, they are perverse.  Yet, divine healing, God’s healing virtue and power, strikes at the very heart and condition of a man in the fullness of the compassion of the Father, so that those who see it are moved to take another look.  Like with Jesus, we ought to take notice when God’s healing power is being manifested through a person.  Jesus Himself said that His message should at least be heeded on account of the miracles which no one else had ever done before.

But, as clear as William Branham was about the distinction between the two, it was the healing gift, it was the compassion of heaven manifested through the life of one that believed in something greater, namely God Himself, that was the true demonstration.

It was always the invisible.  Man in his fallen state is bound to the Earth, and the to demonic spirit realm, but in God alone is true light brought forth.

The healing was the bridge between the glorious realm of the Kingdom of Heaven and that of those still in their sin and those bound by the anti-christ, religious organization which was dead.

When the healings were brought forth, there was no denying them.  They swept the world as a sensation.  Yet, a sensation is of the flesh, and so, properly, the hook was within, to pull them into the deeper relationship with the living creator, with the Man, Jesus Christ.

It was God’s compassion to heal and deliver, but it was not the essential of the Kingdom, worship was (Luke 10:42).  Legs appearing and cripples being healed was not essential, but devotion was.  All demonstration comes from this place, and true faith always leads to it, through the repentance and faith that it yields.

To differentiate between the two kingdoms, that of dark and that of light was not enough, for it was the healing gift that provided the heavenly demanded proof that God does was in our midst, and that His power is available upon the Earth for men and women today, to whosoever believes and calls on His name out of a sincere and pure heart, full of truth and devotion.

What was often missed then, and is often missed today, is the simple belief in an invisible, ever-present and all powerful God and His Kingdom.  When we need a miracle to see that, we are blinded by the flesh.  Whether the presence of the Kingdom produces signs and wonders and miracles, or whether it merely provides money to pay the rent for a struggling family, or a release from sadness and depression, or an eternally endless host of other possibilities of the Kingdom of Heaven manifesting in our lives, it makes no difference.  In the Kingdom, He is enough to supply all of our needs according to His riches in glory.  Had we been school to need the miraculous in order to believe that the invisible Father is within, we would simply miss that tender affection, and ever present love and devotion, and the subtle nuance and ever present leading of His Spirit.

And we have known and believed the love that God hath to us. God is love; and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God in him.

1 John 4:16

This is how we know we are in Him, that we love one another.

Where exactly William Branham got off the trail I am in no position to judge, yet it is apparent that he did, and God preserved Him through his untimely death and his message through the many audio and written documents of his life, including the supernatural photos with William Branham’s angel.

He was absolutely right in his division of soul versus spirit, not deviating to lawlessness nor departure from the spirit of the Law of God in his approach to holiness and Christian life, but the message that stops there stops short of the demonstration necessary to impact the souls of those hearing 0n the same level that Jesus did.

And, likewise, as a warning for all those who would come after him, the demonstration that is its own end, that results in a rejoicing over anything other than our names being written in heaven alone is flawed and defected, for it has not rightly seen Him that is unseen, and brought forth a message of compassion and mercy from the throne, but after the excitement of the flesh and the demonstration of a show, all these works stop short from inviting a soul into the fullness of the inhabitation of God within the human tabernacle.

May his legacy and calling be renewed in another people, that men might again seek the Lord and cleave to Him always.  May the call to the invisible, unapproachable, and infinite God be sent forth, in light and truth, not that we might have signs, but that the thing the sign points to might be our only aim.

In His Most Holy Name.