Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. Many will say to me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and in your name drive out demons and perform many miracles?’ Then I will tell them plainly, ‘I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!’

Matthew 7:21-23

Holiness must be our standard for all that we do.  At the end of the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus describes the distinction He will make on that day.  Those rejected will be those practice lawlessness, who work iniquity.

If there is one thing that is for clear from Western Christianity, it is that greater resources and greater audience do not guarantee a greater Kingdom impact.

We must be clear–not all that is done in the name of Christ is the will of the Father who is heaven.  Paul writes, in 1 Corinthians 3:12-13, that each person must build with either gold, silver, and precious stones, or wood, hay, and stubble.  Each man’s work will be tested by fire on that day, and only that which remains will be rewarded.  We should take care how we build, lest we run, or have run in vain.

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Then I seemed to go into still another higher dimension. The fishing line I had in my hand turned into a shoestring, about one-half an inch in diameter. I was holding a baby’s shoe, with eyelets about an eighth of an inch in diameter. I was trying to put this half-inch shoestring through one of the eighth-inch eyelets, and I had broken many threads in the shoestring. The Angel of The Lord was still standing in front of me, and he asked sternly, yet kindly, “What are you trying to do?” I answered, “I am trying to lace this shoe.” He said, “You are using the wrong end of the string.”

I looked down at the other end of the string and noticed it was reduced and bound with a metal tip that would easily go through the eyelet. I said, “Oh, I’m sorry, Sir, I hadn’t noticed that I was using the wrong end.” He said, “You can’t teach babies supernatural things without causing carnal comparisons!”

Portion of a vision given to William Branham

In understanding this portion of this vision given to William Branham, the most important part is the lesson at the end.  You can’t teach babies supernatural things without causing carnal comparisons.  Jesus indicated that the same was true as He was departing, saying, “I have many more things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now.” (John 16:12).

This lesson was important for the work of William Branham, and it is important for us to understand the principle as we enter into the deeper things of God today.  Let us consider the parable presented by the angel of the Lord.  As we are faithful with what we have (someone else’s revelations), perhaps God will be so gracious as to give us our own.  Only, let us go on to maturity, holding fast to the head, not forsaking the Word.

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For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life.  For God did not send the Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world might be saved through Him.  He who believes in Him is not judged; he who does not believe has been judged already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.

This is the judgment, that the Light has come into the world, and men loved the darkness rather than the Light, for their deeds were evil.  For everyone who does evil hates the Light, and does not come to the Light for fear that his deeds will be exposed.  But he who practices the truth comes to the Light, so that his deeds may be manifested as having been wrought in God.

John 3:16-21

This seems to me one of the most commonly referenced and the littlest truly studied passages in the Bible.  It is one of the best tools for evangelism, for it sums up the entirety of the message of Jesus in one little place.  It may be that it is just this writer’s perception that it is one of the littlest studied passages, it maybe that so few people do much in depths studies in the Gospels or otherwise, or, it may just be that it seems that this section is so commonly understood, it must, of course, be understood already.  When we come to think over these words, we can wrongly assume we understand them all.  Yet, as there is no shadow of turning in God, it stands to reason, that if we could plumb the depths of any passage, without taking it grossly out of context, and know the fullness of the weight of the words in the realm of Heaven, we would know Him much better than we know now.  Suffice to say, these words are spirit, and they are life.

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 Who is blind but My servant, or so deaf as My messenger whom I send?
Who is so blind as he that is at peace with Me, Or so blind as the servant of the LORD?

Isaiah 42:19

When all around fades, and the only thing left is Him.  When all background noises, and all distractions are stripped away, and you are only His flame (Psalm 104:4).  When you see nothing but His purpose, and hear nothing but His voice.

There are many ways to move in the Kingdom’s power, but Jesus didn’t just come with a few simple nuggets, a few quick keys that might improve your ability to flow in the Spirit.  His teaching wasn’t “pointers” for ministry, it was a yoke (Matthew 11:30).

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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.

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When any one heareth the word of the kingdom…

Matthew 13:19 (portion)

When someone hears a word of the Kingdom, something responds, this can no longer remain the same.

In the worst case, the word is misunderstood and stolen quickly away, yet, in other situations, a greater degree of change occurs.

Consider one of the more well known “Words of the Kingdom”, “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten son, that whosoever believes on Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”  (John 3:16).  This is more than words on a page.  When Jesus spoke, he said His words were Spirit and they were life (John 6:63).  There was a content in the content, a message in the message.

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Now there is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.

Romans 8:1

And according to the Law, one may almost say, all things are cleansed with blood, and without shedding of blood there is no forgiveness.

Hebrews 9:22

There is no condemnation for a believer.  For the sinner, condemnation is assured (John 3:18), but for those who are justified by faith, we live in the freedom of Christ (Galatians 5:1).

So we have a distress.  We find that we do sin.  And, this may bring guilt, pain, shame, regret.  Yet, these are not the right of the New Testament believer.  We come to a conjunction, a crossroads of choice.  Do I believe the Scriptures, or do I believe the pain of the shame, the guilt, and the condemnation.

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Then, from my right side, behind me, came the same voice of The Angel of The Lord, who had spoken to me since I was a child, saying: “I will teach you how to fish; but you must keep quiet-don’t say anything about it!” I answered, “I will.” He said, “Fasten on your lure.” This I did. Then he said, “Now, to catch those big fish you have to go way out in the deep water.” I swung and cast with all my might, and the line went out its full length. He said, “That was good!”

. . .

I got so excited trying to show the ministers how to fish that I jerked the lure completely out of the water, catching a fish about the size of the lure, seemed as though the skin of the fish was stretched tight over the the lure. I wondered how I would ever get it off!

(William Branham’s Third Pull Vision, excerpt)

William Branham was a man sent by God.  He was a prophet, but he was also a man.  When he spoke for God, he never made a mistake, but, in the day to day of his life, he admittedly made a few (as he points out himself, especially as regarding certain personal decisions).  He was no more infallible than the young prophet in 1 Kings 13, who, after he delivered a true word from God, was deceived by an older prophet who deliberately lied and deceived him to eat when he had been told not to.  That prophet, a true prophet, whose prophecies were later fulfilled exactly, made a mistake in his personal life (not his prophecies), and died prematurely because of it.  The same is true of William Branham.

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And as you go, preach, saying, ‘The kingdom of heaven is at hand.’  Heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse the lepers, cast out demons. Freely you received, freely give.

Matthew 10:7-8

The late Derek Prince pointed out that there is no authentic call to evangelism without the power of healing and deliverance.  There is no legitimate preaching of the Gospel without its appropriate demonstration.

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When we look at the Gospel, we see good news.

Despite the cost, despite the hardships, despite the pain.  Despite anything.

When we look at the life of absolute surrender, the life of absolute submission, and absolute loss of this life, it is only a most extraordinary gospel that can still be good news in the wake of this.

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