Ascension Brother John Stevens

Brother Mita speaking... You know we look around and we see a lot of what I would call... how can I say this, because I don’t want to be negative but you know, we see a lot of young people that don’t flourish in the ways of the Spirit of God, for whatever reason... they just go their own way. The kids grow up, and everyone has to have their own experience. It is just so nice to see Annie growing up in this message and staying true to what her convictions are. We do have people that stay true to God, I’m talking about young people, who become mature people, and go on with God. We pray that some of our young ones can get themselves serving God... and we pray and we commit them to the Lord. It’s always nice to see young ones growing in the Lord and staying faithful to Him. Amen.

Well, I’m not going to hold Brother John up... he’s going to preach for us. We want to pray for him too. He’s going to Australia following the conviction of his heart to go and spread the message, so could we just say a little prayer for him and Sister Kay, as they are going to be travelling away. What day are you travelling brother? Saturday afternoon. Okay we’ll just say a word of prayer.

Lord God it’s a pleasure to pray for Brother John today. He’s been a good companion and friend to us. He’s looked after us in so many ways in this little fellowship. We so appreciate him and have enjoyed every moment of it Lord. We’ve had some good times and some rough times, but altogether Lord it’s beautiful that we could be together and just appreciate one-another. We feel his warmth and love for you. God it’s a privilege to pray for him right now, anoint him mightily, and may he feel the power of your Spirit more than ever before. He has journeyed far over many years... let this trip be so special. Every trip is special, but take it up to the next level Lord, for those people that are preparing and ready, that would hear him speak... you prepare their hearts. We ask also for Sister Kay, that she would have a nice and fruitful time with her husband amongst the people over there in Australia, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen. Brother John welcome... Let’s welcome Brother John. Thank you.

Good morning everybody. Oh, that was nice, thank you very much, I really appreciate that. It’s a great God we are serving isn’t it? I love the atmosphere here this morning, it’s just beautiful, and sometimes when you are always busy it’s hard to worship the Lord, but it was just nice this morning. I didn’t have to play the piano and I was just able to sit there with my wife. Sometimes you sit out the back freezing there and getting nervous, knees knocking together and thinking ‘I haven’t even got a message, I don’t know what I am doing’. But this morning it was really nice to come out and feel the love and the atmosphere of the people. That’s pretty precious and you are an amazing people.

The prophecy said we’re in hard times, and we feel the hard times... we feel the pain, even in our bodies many times. You can bow down to that if you want to, but I promise you it’s not going to make it any easier if you do. It’s better to keep going and press the battle... physical pain or spiritual pain, trials even in your own self and your own nature... just keep pressing the battle because there is a God, and He is closer to you than you think He is. Because we still harbour our little old concepts, many times when we pray we’ve got this concept of God ‘out there somewhere’, but he’s closer than a brother. He’s a friend that’s closer than a brother. I’m just really happy. I enjoyed that singing, Brother Mark... that was a lovely worship and all you saints of course. You can’t worship without all the saints being there. It was really nice.

I’ve been having quite a nice time last week with Brother Mita and Brother Howard, just doing things together and sharing and it’s been really nice... it’s really nice. I listened to what Brother Mark said this morning, as he was talking about the lion and the lamb, and you know the angel told John that the lion had prevailed and when he turned around he saw a lamb. That was all in symbols... when we saw the symbols in reality what did we see? We saw a man. So there was a lion and a lamb in a man. That’s pretty awesome really, because that same Lion and that same Lamb are in you because we are ‘messengers of the same message’.

I’ve got a little thought this morning and I’ll get straight into it. I want to talk about the ‘Ascension’ and my text, from Genesis, is ‘They shall be one flesh’. We need to know how we’re ascending. People have got this concept that ascension is shooting up in the air. It’s a concept, and that’s because when you want to go up, you climb up the ladder... and when you want to go down you go down. I have to tell you it’s not always a geographic thing. It’s not always a geometric ascension. It’s not geography and it’s not geometry. It’s an awareness. It’s an opening. It’s something that happens inside of you, in spite of

yourself and many times you don’t even know what’s happening until someone says something and it shocks you.

All those things are called births or a new birth or an opening of your awareness. There’s something that’s already there... that’s the Light coming on isn’t it? You didn’t suddenly get the Light. It was always there, but when somebody said something... said the right Word to you, it quickened to you. Unless the light’s in you it will never quicken to you. You can tell the people the same thing over and over and over and over again, if there’s nothing in there to be anointed or switched on it will never happen.

I was thinking about elevation in terms of ascension and that it’s not necessarily vertical. Brother Mita had some pictures up here last week about a cake. And you know there was an ascension there with the cake because really, it started fifteen years before. Someone cut the tree down to make the cardboard. Twenty years before that, somebody planted the little tree in the ground... a little wee thing and then people came along and sprayed it and watered it. It was all to do with ascension, so you could eat the chocolate cake, because the ingredients had to come to you wrapped in a packet inside a piece of paper and everything. It all had to be manufactured and brought together, so there were a lot of things that went on behind the scenes.

Those forestry workers didn’t realise they were planting that tree to make a ‘Hershey’s Chocolate’ packet, but there was a whole scheme of things that went on there and that was an ascension. Every time it moved one step further forward, you were getting closer to eating the cake. So if we hold that thought in our mind when we think about God and what He is doing for us that should really excite us. It should really really excite us.

So the cake... it was just the ingredients. I suppose you can just eat the ingredients if you want to. Mix in your mouth a bit of cocoa and a bit of baking powder and a bit of... (Brother John imitates eating the ingredients) It doesn’t sound very nice does it? So there was a process to bring all those ingredients together into one flesh, into a one-unit item, so that you could appreciate it, and that is what we want to talk about... this process. It’s a process you know.

Humility... Brother Branham said humility... the way up, the way down is always the ways up.Matthew 23

12 And whosoever shall exalt himself shall be abased; and he that shall humble himself shall be exalted.

He that will humble himself, God will exalt. He that exalts himself shall be abased. The way down is the way up for the believer. Humble yourself before God. When we think now what happened in the Garden of Eden, Adam was God. He was God on the earth. But until he put on flesh and came down and began to suffer and struggle as a man, He didn’t know what He was. He didn’t know the attributes that were in Him. He could have had it all written in a book and everything like that, but that will never touch it until it becomes experimental and alive, see?

So the way down is the way up for a believer. Jesus had to be glorified. How did he get glorified? Would he have been glorified if he didn’t come down here to the flesh? He couldn’t be glorified. He had to come down to the flesh, and as He got nearer and nearer to His ultimate trial, Calvary, He said “Father glorify yourself in me, glorify the son now”. He began to pull it on to himself, the glorification. He knew He had to be planted into the earth before He could ascend.

The flesh is a great thing. For years we have been putting the flesh away, trying to overcome the flesh and have struggled with the flesh, only to find out that it’s the greatest thing we’ve got. We found out that we had to come down here in order to go up. We realised we could not go into a higher level until we came down, then it put a whole different perspective on what God is doing.

I Peter 5 6 Humble yourself before God so that He may exalt you in due time.

Now that’s important. The ‘due time’ is important. God’s got a due time for exaltation... after you have abased yourself, He will exalt you.

We want to eat the cake. You can’t eat the cake until it’s cooked. When the cake’s cooked and it’s on the plate, it is ‘due time’. Yum, get the cream, get the spoon and let’s go... its due time. That cake’s going to get glorified. That cakes going to move into a higher dimension. Do you realise that? It’s going to move out of the animal and pastry kingdom into the human kingdom, so it’s an elevation... an ascension. Amen, praise God. It’s due time for the cake to be glorified.

Genesis 1 26 Let us make man in our image, in our likeness...

See, He’ll look just like us. Keep this process in mind always... it’s a process.

People think that when Adam arrived on the scene, that was the’ man in God’s image’ prophecy fulfilled, but I have to tell you, it was just the beginning of the process... it was just the beginning. We are coming up to the fulfilment of that scripture in this day, here. Now man has finally come into God’s image. It took six or seven thousand years but God didn’t lose sight of His plan. You don’t get the cake if you’re half way through the mixing process and call it quits, and go and sit on the phone for three hours, or go down town, or throw the stuff in the rubbish. But God is not going to do that, He’s going to go all the way. Amen. He began the good work in you and will see it through to it’s completion. So He created man in His own image.

27 ... the image of God created he him, male and female created he them.

He looks just like God. He’s in God’s image and He’s Male and He’s female. Now, today, we know what the Male is don’t we? We used to think I was a male and my wife was a female but we find out that she’s male and I’m male and she’s female and I’m female because we’re both in the image of God and therefore both attributes are now in each of us. We understand that. We don’t use the male/female thing to beat up on our spouses, our husbands or our wives. In fact as we understand it more, we love them that much more. The male represents the Word-man and the female represents the flesh-man. You’ve got a male, brothers, and all you sisters have got a male too. How many have got the Holy Ghost? Then that’s the male. How many have got flesh? How many of you brothers have got a female? Absolutely, because you are a two-fold being.

And God wanted flesh. If He didn’t want flesh, why did He scoop up a handful of dust and breathe the breath of Life on it? He could have solved all of what we think is a great problem, if He didn’t do that, but He wanted it, and He did, it because He had a plan, and it was not a problem. The only problem He has is getting us to trust Him. He is not in a hurry you know... God’s not in a hurry. We’re always in a hurry because we want to see something perfect, straight away, but always wanting to avoid the process. People leave school and they want to be bank managers the first day. Well you can be a bank manager, or a brain surgeon, but you have to go through the process. When I left school and went into my apprenticeship in the printing industry, as a Linotype Operator, the beginning of my process was sweeping the floor, making the tea and filling the rag bins. That was my job.

I had to get my ‘School Certificate’ to get that job, but gradually, gradually, gradually I become top in my trade... which doesn’t exist anymore. There is a process. I become top in New Zealand. I received the UEB Industries Award for Excellence in my printing trade, but I had to start sweeping floors. Now if you get all uppity and “this is not happening fast enough” you would never get there. It’s a process, and God always takes you through a process. Sometimes it’s hard. I got put in the rag bin lots of times because I was a bit ‘lippy’, you know... they would throw me in the rag bin and shut the lid and come back and get me in a hour. It was good, and it was part of the process... it’s a beautiful thing, you know, development is. Praise the Lord.

When you’re making bread, you’ve got to get the dough and give it heaps and bash into it and knead it and crunch it and the dough’s going ‘ooh, ahh, ooh, ahh, ooh, ooh’... but you are not going to get a good loaf of bread unless you really give it heaps. Is that right Sisters? You’ve really got to knead it because when you knead it, you’re releasing the gluten and that’s what holds the whole loaf together. It’s all a part of the process.

Genesis 221 And the Lord caused a deep sleep to come upon Adam, and he slept; and He took one of his

ribs, and closed the flesh instead thereof; 22 And the rib, which the Lord God had taken from man, made he a woman, and brought her unto

the man.

Now here’s God... Adam... discovering something that was already in him. Adam didn’t know it was in there and it took a process to release it. God (the Word-man) came and took a part of Adam (the flesh-man) out of him. Why did He take it out? Because He wanted the fall. At first Adam was just Spirit Man, and couldn’t fall... but God wanted a fall... God wanted it. What we call ‘the dreadful thing, the fall’, has been the greatest thing that could have ever happened, both to God and to the human race. It was not an accident... it was a plan. It was a great move of faith on Adam’s part to leave all that security and love

in God, to walk out into the unknown, and take on the sex scheme. That was a great move of faith on Adam’s part... on God’s part. Adam was God.

Adam couldn’t come to an elevated state without coming to the flesh first. That was a step of elevation. Now he couldn’t take a rib from Spirit Adam. God had to bring him to the flesh before he could get Eve out of him, because Spirits don’t have ribs. In order for God to progress the revelation, He had to bring Adam down here into a body of flesh and blood, to take a rib out to produce the by-product. The flesh, the carnality, is a by-product.

I preached... I think it was about 2003... a message called ‘The Evolution of God’ and I still believe that is true... that God is dealing with attributes of His own nature... like evil. He said “Can there be evil in the city and the Lord has not done it?”, and “I am God, I create both good and evil”, but God wants that dealt with. He wants it harnessed and controlled. So He brought us and locked us in this little dimensional ‘hickey’ called time... Brother Branham called it a ‘hickey’, and we can’t escape from it. We‘re locked in time. We’re in a ‘time-warp’, a time dimension so that God can deal, through His people, with that attribute of Himself that’s hindering what He sees as absolute perfection, where there is no evil.

Do you know that in everything you see you’ve got to have contrast? We live in a world of contrast. If there’s no contrasts... all you have is white paper here... you wouldn’t be able to see a thing. The contrast makes the ink stand out on the paper. It takes contrast even for me to see your face. There’s got to be a contrast of shadows and light. To see a picture or read a book, you have to have contrast, otherwise there’s nothing to see. It’s just pure white. So God was creating a little contrast... and we have it everywhere. We have it in politics and we have it in our legal system... it’s called the ‘adversarial system’. We have the two sides and they contest one-another with the object of producing a fair result for everybody. That’s the aim of it.

We also know that it’s not terribly successful because the more money you put on one side or the other, or the more rebellion you put on one side or the other, has the tendency to distort and unbalance the process. The process is actually a Godly process, but man interferes with it... the adversarial system... but God created it and He uses it. It’s throughout nature. If there was no adversary you wouldn’t be able to see where the doorway was. You wouldn’t be able to see where your food was, let alone pick it up to eat it. Without the bee stealing the pollen from the flower, we would have no tomatoes. It takes contrast and opposition to develop the picture. It always it does.

22 And the rib, which the Lord God had taken from man, made he a woman, and brought her unto the man.

She was in Adam all the time, yet unexpressed. So it took an elevation of Adam... he had to come to the flesh. We know that it was an elevation because he was now unfolding... something that was previously veiled inside him became expressed. He was getting the chocolate out of the packet now. He’s starting to pull the chocolate out of the packet so you could mix it up. Eve was already in there. She was in there when Adam was a Spirit man because ‘male and female made He them’. But in order for God to bring Eve into expression, He had to bring Adam to the flesh to take her out of him. Amen, I like that. It took God to expose what was in Adam. Doesn’t He do that with you all the time? He does that with me all the time. Little things come my way and I see a strength... or an attitude... in there, He’s exposing something for me.

When Adam fell... when Adam went ‘wrong’, God came down and said “Adam where art thou?” Brother Branham said God knew where Adam was but He wanted Adam to recognise where Adam was... and that’s also a part of the process. If you’re going to go somewhere, you need to know where you are standing before you begin your journey... if you don’t know where you are on the map, you could easily go in the wrong direction, and if you don’t know where and who you are in the Word, you will also easily go off course and lose your way.

If you’re mixing away there and you haven’t put the eggs in, you’ve got to recognise the time when the eggs go in. You’ve got to know when it’s time for the salt, the sugar, the cocoa and all that. It’s got to go in the right time you know. It’s no good throwing the egg on top of the cake just before you eat it. “I’ve put eggs in that cake. Look... you can see them”. You know what I mean and what I’m saying. There’s a time and there’s a due season for everything. God’s the master baker and He knows what He’s doing... He knows what He’s doing because He’s got elevation... He’s got ascension and elevation in His mind.

23 And Adam said, this is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh: and she shall be called Woman,

I like that, ‘woe-man’... she is woe, man. Haha... after me telling you to keep away from that thought.

Well, my wife is not a woe-man, she’s my best friend and I love and salute her. She provokes me and keeps me in the Word all the time and I thank God for that, and that’s a type of your Spirit Man too. When you get your flesh-man in the right place, you’ll say “Come on friend”... your Theophany and your flesh-man working together as one... both Spirit and Word working together. That’s what God wants. He wants our Word-man and flesh-man to work together, so He can have the pre-eminence. He can be number One... Christ can be number One in your life, so that everything will come into harmony and you’ll just go and serve the Lord with all your heart. Adam said... I like this... this is where I got my text from. Adam said... God said...

24 ... therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife: and they shall be one flesh.

One flesh, one unit... flesh and blood and Spirit and purity, unwholesomeness and wholesomeness in one unit. How beautiful is that, and God loves it you know... He loves it. We get upset by it but God loves it. That’s what He wanted because He’s got a plan. In Ephesians, Paul quotes Adam’s message, and he was taking it into a higher understanding... an elevation. He said,

Ephesians 530 ... for we are members of his body, of his flesh, and of his bones.

That’s what Adam said, she is now flesh of my flesh, bone of my bones, blood of my blood. Now here’s Paul saying the same thing.

31 For this cause as a result of this man shall leave his father and his mother, and shall be joined unto his wife, and they two shall be one flesh.

32 This is great mystery: but I speak concerning Christ and the church.

Where’s Christ? Where’s the church? They’re right here. Oh, there’s a great mystery here then. What happened in the Garden of Eden? Is this what God produced in the Garden of Eden? Adam was in Eve all the time.

33 Nevertheless let everyone of you in particular so love his wife even as himself; and the wife see that she reverence her husband.

Now that ought to change your attitude to your flesh realm. Your wife is the flesh-man and he doesn’t always do what you’d like him to do, but what do you do? Hate him? You know Brother Parnell got in trouble with this and Brother Branham did too... I’m going to show you this a bit later on.

Brother Branham got into trouble with the same thing and we’ve all been in trouble with the same thing. If we bring it out you’ll see it, and also, hopefully, you’ll see the answer. The scripture has already given us the answer. It’s not a new message is it? Paul preached way back 2000 years ago, it but we understand it now. We can read that scripture and we can understand ‘it’s a great mystery’ but he’s speaking concerning me. ‘Christ and the church’... the male, the Word-man, and the flesh-man... that’s you. It’s a great mystery... you are a great mystery. You are the mystery of Jesus Christ revealed today.

God’s building a building and there’s lots of things... I put these pictures in here because I just want to provoke your thinking and show how your anticipations create different things that you might imagine are going to happen, which are not really in the plan. We’ve got here a timber rack in the middle, we’ve all seen those. If you go down to Bunnings or go to Carters Timber or something, they’ve got a big rack and it’s got all the bits, different shapes and sizes and different preservative treatments... and you go into the shop and it’s got all the screws and stuff like that but those are just ingredients, like cocoa and butter and egg. And it depends on what you want... if you’re looking to build a house and someone buys the material and turns up with a boat, you’re going to be upset because it wasn’t what you had in your mind.

Someone sees that sheep there and he’s thinking “Oh, my, there’s nice wool on that. it will make me a nice jersey”, and he comes home and it turns out to be roast dinner. So you know, it’s all the same thing, it’s all the same ingredients, but it’s what you do with it. There’s all those nice bolts of cloth there and the sister looks at it and says “Oh, I’d like a nice dress made of that”. She gets someone to buy the material and they come home and they turned it into all those curtains. It’s still the same ingredients, but it’s what you do with it that’s the important thing, and what makes the difference. As with God’s Word, it’s what you do with it. All the ingredients are there, but what do you do with it? That’s the important thing.

So you’ve got a construction, and you’ve got a pile of materials. It depends on what you are looking for and what your anticipation is what you’re going to produce with them. Like the lady, living in poverty, whose son had been sending her lots of money, ‘though she thought it was just pretty pictures. Her potential was unlimited but it took someone to come along and say “Oh, those are bank notes; they’re not just pretty pictures”. She had lots and lots of resources but her anticipation was a little bit confused. She didn’t understand what it was that she had. She had everything and I have to tell you, you’ve got everything in you, everything that you’ll ever need as a human being in the physical body... everything that you’ll ever need was laid in there when your mother and father came together, the genetic blueprint was developed, and those two parts met together and produced you.

Everything to make up Brother Mark was in that union, when Brother Ray and Sister Caroline conceived him. He’s never had to go to the doctor to get his arms screwed on. And they didn’t have to go on a certain day and say, “Right... It’s time to get your eyes. We are going to pop your eyes in now Brother. I think you are big enough to be able to see now”. That’s just silly isn’t it, but people do that with the Word all the time. But everything... when the original Spoken Word seed came into you, as with your natural seed... everything that you will ever be and could ever be was planted in you then. It’s in your genetic blue print, and it’s what makes you what you are.

That’s why, Brother Parnell talks about preaching to the soul. I believe that’s what we are doing when we are drawing on those attributes that are already in you. We’re not showing you what you should do and shouldn’t do. All you’ve got to do is believe. If there’s one thing that you can do other than believe, then Jesus died for nothing. The only thing you can do is believe, and if you keep believing and walking in it, he said “Watch more unfold”. What do you mean watch more unfold? Is there more out there? No, no, it doesn’t unfold out there, so get that thinking out of your head. You’ve got the bowl in front of you. You are the bowl someone is stirring. Just keep stirring and watch more and more unfold. Everything... all the ingredients are in you. The only place it’s going to unfold, is in you. It’s not going to unfold out there, it unfolds in you. Praise God.

God knows what the materials are going to produce... He knows what He wants to produce and He knows how He is going to do it. He knows what you are capable of, both on the good side of your nature, and on the bad side. And do you know what? It doesn’t faze Him because He knows that even the bad things, He’ll take them and make them work together for your good... if you are His. That’s what the scripture said, and I’m not going to say anything different. It might take a lot of skin off your knees along the way but He’s still God and He’s still sovereign and He’s still the Master chef. He knows what He’s doing. Many times we think we know what He wants done so we put our hand to it, and even with one-another. We try and modify one-another’s behaviour and I know I’ve said this before, I think that really, that’s the true adultery – when you try to handle another man’s flesh realm, because that’s His wife. If you have to do it... you can influence. We know about influence and it’s good to influence... positively influence one-another and provoke one-another to good works.

We are in another day now and Brother Branham said “I wouldn’t do it the way I used to”... bashing one-another up all the time, just come alongside, be a friend, and love one-another. Be nice and kind and do good and positive things, and you watch God start going to work. That’s true... as true as I stand here. That’s true... and it’ll change you. You can influence one-another and provoke one-another to good

works, but don’t beat one-another up. That won’t produce anything. It hasn’t produced anything for 7000 years... just a lot of smart-aleck, pumped-up, self-elevated, self righteous people, who think they’ve got everything because they’ve got the right smile and are wearing a pretty tie or something. But we want it done inside... we want it done on the inside of the inside. This is not a dress-up religion now. This is not a dress-up gospel. This is the true gospel that will get down where you are, where you live, and make you examine why is it that you want to do those things that are not pleasing to God. It will make you an overcomer of all ungodliness in you.

We’ve had a prophet that came and told us what God likes. Remember last week, in the Book of Esther, how Memucan and all those seven chamberlains... they stood up there and they told Esther “These are the things that the king likes. He likes these things”. She didn’t even argue about it. She said “Oh, he likes my hair uncut... oh, okay, I won’t cut my hair... and he likes me to wear this, he likes me to wear this... oh okay that’s good, that’s what he likes, I’ll do it”, because she had respect for the messenger. She wasn’t fussing about whether she should or shouldn’t or if she did or didn’t like it. Herself, she mightn’t have liked it, but the revelation of what that message was, that it was Memucan, the seventh angel speaking to her, caused her to want to do whatever he said.

She didn’t have to be beaten up by any of the ministers. She wasn’t beaten... “Oh, you’ve got to wear this, you’ve got wear that”. He said “This is what the king likes and if you want to find favour in His sight, this is what He likes. He really likes that. He really likes a fine spirit. He really likes it when you don’t get angry when you’re upset when someone does something you disapprove of. He really likes that even though He knows that inside you’re hurting but He really likes it when you can be nice to that person”. And we know it’s hard sometimes isn’t it... it’s hard to be like that? We all know. Brother Mita and I have had some ‘ding dongs’, and that’s okay. It’s good because that’s what’s teaching us. ‘The good decisions and the good responses that we make today are as a result of the bad ones we made yesterday’.

You see that’s what we are talking about. We are mixing; putting more... another bit of egg, it needs a bit more egg because it didn’t bind together properly, you know. There was a little bit that flew apart there... a bit more... bind it up more, you know. The strong bonds of love will overcome all these things. We don’t want to be anything that God doesn’t want us to be. We want to be pleasing to God. We just want to say “Oh Lord, here am I. Let me be what you want me to be”.

And we know that we can go through all those outward signs as well, cut our hair perfectly and everything like that and yet still not be acceptable to God, because we are not doing it with the right motive. But if we love God, and we want to do it like Esther did... we saw it in that Book last week... Oh that was so good, Brother Mita, that message... it was so good. All she needed to do was to listen to what the messenger told her and do it. I don’t know how He could make it any easier. If we’ve got a spirit of love for God then that’s what we want to do. Amen. We want to be pleasing. We want to please Him in everything that we do. Amen.

So we try and handle one-another, and we even try and handle ourselves. We try and straighten our own selves up and that was Brother Parnell’s problem. I’m going to come to it in a minute. That’s the struggle he had, that he was so frustrated, because you can’t straighten yourself up. If you could straighten yourself up, Jesus Christ didn’t need to die and pay the price. You don’t need a kinsman redeemer, you can do it yourself... “Go straighten up you fellows. Harden up”. It doesn’t work. We need our Lord and you know, He’s just that close to you... He’s that close to you. Oh, I need Him anyway I tell you, I need Him. It’s God’s mind we need to understand. Amen. Hallelujah.

Sometimes God even wants that condition to be there, and we try and fight with something He’s doing in our lives. We think our children are going off on a certain area and we get angry and upset with them because they are doing this certain thing... but God wants it to happen because He’s the Baker. He knows when it’s time to put the little sprinkle of salt in. He knows when it’s time to put the baking powder in. He knows it’s time... “I’d better put the oven on now or it won’t be up to the temperature I need. I’m nearly ready... get the oven on and put it on 150 there... just get it right, you know”. God knows what He’s doing and we think “What, it’s not time yet what are you putting the oven on for, you haven’t done this, you haven’t done that. What do you think you’re doing”. To me, that’s an evidence that you’re not in the right place yourself, because your hands should be so full, dealing with your own mixture and your own thing, that all you are then is just so much in love with God and with your brothers and sisters that you’re an influence on them and an inspiration.

Brother Mita is a great inspiration to me you know. We have some good times together and I really appreciate it... good times in the Word. Sometimes we don’t even know what we are talking about, but it

doesn’t matter because by bouncing those things off one-another and just influencing one-another to good things, and to do good things and positive things, it’s great. Instead of looking for trouble... if you want to find trouble, Brother Branham said the devil (your carnal mind) will sure show it to you. There’s plenty of it out there. There’s plenty of it in here if we want to go looking for it, but our focus is not on the trouble. Pharaoh saw mud-daubers but Moses saw them already in the Promised Land. That’s the difference. It’s God in you.

God knows what to look for and He knows how to handle it. Many times why we get into trouble is because we are trying to handle our own flesh realm and trying to overcome ourselves, and it causes stress... it causes frustration and it makes us angry so that we can’t even handle one-another properly. Like Brother Branham said the way you was before the New Birth, you couldn’t even get on with yourself. I know what he’s talking about because I was like that... but He’s moving us along, you see. The mix... the dough’s nearly ready Annie. He’s getting it all mixed up. It’s really good... it’s really, really good.

Let’s go over and have a look at Samson. Many people think that they are led by the Spirit of God, and Samson’s parents thought they knew how to handle the situation better than God did... and they had all the quotes. They had all Moses’ message quotes out there, brother. Moses was the prophet with two signs in his hand, the one who called an Exodus, gave them C.O.D., ‘Ever Present Water from the Rock’, ‘Spiritual Food in due Season’, ‘Marriage and Divorce’ and ‘Israel at Kadesh Barnea’... so they could really lay it down about who he ought to marry and who he shouldn’t marry and everything like that. They had all the quotes brother... page, and paragraph number, and they probably had them all printed out on a sheet and kept waving it in front of Samson’s face all the time.

So let’s go to the scripture and have a look. They, his mother and father, had the written Word but Samson, because he was a Nazarite from the womb, had something that they didn’t have. You people are a group of Nazarites here this morning. You’ve got something that the ‘message’ world doesn’t have and that’s why they can’t handle this. Because we are the Sons (and daughters) of God and we are led by the Spirit of God. We don’t have to be led by the Spirit of God... we are... and many times we are led by the Spirit of God and don’t even know we are led by the Spirit of God.

We were doing a little job over at Brother Stan’s place the other day and I made what I thought was an error of calculation when putting up the rafters and I thought “Oh no, the roofing iron was supposed to go underneath, like Stan wanted”. He wanted it to go in underneath the soffit, so I thought “Well, we’ve gone too far now, it’s a bit of a major”. We would have to lower the window and everything if we are going to do that, so we would have had to go back to square one. Anyway, I thought “We’ll just proceed a little way... a bit further, and then if we have to we’ll come back and alter it”, but when we put the iron up it was exactly perfect. If we had done what Stan wanted the iron would have been four inches too short and would of ended on the inside of the wall instead of on the outside.

We’re talking about Spirit leadership, and that’s just a little natural thing, but I’ve seen that in the past and I’ve learned now, to just go quietly. The reason I’ve learned is that I’ve been so sure that I’d made a mistake, I pulled all apart and did it the way I thought it should be done and when I got to it, it didn’t fit. So I had to take all apart again and put it back the way I had it when I thought I’d made the mistake, and it fitted perfectly... so I have learned that. You find that with the Word too. Many times you’ve got wait. You might think “This doesn’t fit there”, but don’t you go cutting bits off to make it fit. You just wait for Gods time and it will fit perfectly. You are not supposed to cut bits off the Word. Don’t add or take away... it’ll fit perfectly when it’s the season for it. When it is due time its going fit exactly the way it’s supposed to fit. Amen.

I’ve learnt that little lesson just through natural things and we know that life is a great university. Brother Branham said it was a great university... the University of Life. Nature was his university. He’d been to university. He said “I’ve been to university”. How many gardeners here? If you’re a gardener brother, you are in university, I tell you. The things you see out there, it’s just so awesome. I think “Oh my goodness how can people not see God, it’s just too incredible”. Amen. Hallelujah.

So many times people have got the quotes and that and they think, when they are full of all the quotes, that they are following the Lord. And that’s good as far as it goes, but if that’s all that they’ve got then they are really just following ink on paper. But Samson... he had that something extra. He had a little bit extra. I don’t think Samson really knew because it was just his lust that was working on him... Samson’s own lust, we’ll just have a look at the story.

Judges 14

1 And Samson went down to Tim’nath and he saw a woman in Tim’nath of the daughters of the Philistines.

Tim’nath means ‘portion’... you know that place is where Judah went to have his way with Tamar. Now Tamar was a very special woman too. And the shearing floor at Tim’nath, that’s where Judah took Tamar. Tamar was all dressed up as a prostitute and she took Judah because she wanted the seed so badly and Judah had messed her up with his sons and all that.

Judah had another son, Shelah, and wouldn’t let Tamar have him, but in that place, that portion, that’s where she got her portion. She wanted the work done on the inside. She wasn’t happy with seed falling on the flesh... on the ground, like Onan and Err were and died as a result... she wanted it on the inside of the inside of the inside. She was interested in and focussed on moving the life forward. She wasn’t interested in Pentecostal religion where they get the seed on the ground.,. their flesh... and all the smoke goes up the whistle and the hooter and everything and they go out all revved up... but their lives aren’t changed. Tamar was one that wanted a life-change. That’s where she took seed at Tim’nath, and got her portion and her body changed. Preserving the seed meant more to her than her reputation did.

Let’s go back to Samson, and the woman he desired.2 And he came up, and told his father and mother, and said, I have seen a woman in Tim’nath of

the daughters of the Philistines: now therefore get her for me to wife.3 Then his father and his mother said unto him...

They got out all Moses’ message quotes. They went and got their C.O.D. Book out, they got the Seals out and they said “Look Sam, all these nice message girls we’ve got here, nice, with long hair and everything, so good, why don’t you go and get one of them, from among our people? Why do you have to take one of those uncircumcised Philistines? What’s the matter with you boy?” But this man... a Nazarite from the womb... he had “Thus saith the Lord”, and He was led by the Spirit of God.

His mother had dedicated him to God the day he was born and he served God all of his life. Here he is serving God by going off into adultery with a worldly, unbelieving woman. He was serving God.

3 ... and Samson said unto his father; get her for me; for she pleaseth me.What’s he saying? I’m lusting after her, I want her so bad. Is that what he is saying? That’s what I read. If you’ve just got quotes, you’re certainly going to run into trouble there.

4 But his father and his mother knew not that it was of the Lord... that he sought an occasion against the Philistines.

Why? Because the Philistines were the ones that were stopping the people from entering into the Promised Land and God doesn’t deal with things the way we deal with them. He’ll let you go along with it and then let it blow up in your face.

That’s what He is doing here. He wanted Israel to have a total inherence of the Promised Land and not to be dominated by these uncircumcised Philistines. Amen. Hallelujah. Praise God. Samson’s mum and dad were trying to use message rules to make him behave himself, but God was happy with his behaviour. He was doing exactly what God wanted him to do, and the Bible tells us ‘it was of the Lord’. What does that mean? ‘It was of the Lord’. God wanted to smite the Philistines. He wanted to return to Israel their inheritance and this was part of the process... Samson’s evident misbehaviour, was part of the process.

Who hardened Pharaohs heart when they were in Egypt? That seemed a mean thing to do, didn’t it... hardening Pharaohs heart? But that was part of the process to get them out of Egypt, and if Pharaoh had compromised with them too much, they would have stayed there. Sometimes we wonder why the preaching in the message can be very firm and straight, because if you compromise too much, the people become comfortable and they stay there. So you know, sometimes you’ve just got to lay it out the way it is, not against people though... I’m not talking about people... I’m talking about spirits and preaching to the soul. Satan has got a soul too. The soul is the nature of your spirit you know, and it depends on what spirit you’re following.

Sometimes you’ve got to preach really hard against those things to wake the people up, so that Pharaoh (the flesh-man) will finally get so sick of it, he’ll give up. It’s a part of the process. Unfortunately, you can’t get the yolk out of the egg without cracking it. That’s a fact.

Romans 813 If ye live after the flesh, ye shall die but if ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the

body, ye shall live.

The flesh is the letter that kills... if you live after the flesh, by obeying the rules and trying to bring your body into subjection you shall die... obeying the rules. That’s why Paul said in

Galatians 31 O foolish Galatians who hath bewitched you...

It’s foolishness to do this... many in the message think it’s so good to do this, and by force of will-power bring their flesh into subjection... but God said “It will kill you”. He’s got a plan and a process, and He wants you to be subject to the Word... but He’s got a way of doing it and it’s not by your human effort. He goes on and says

3 ... having begun in the Spirit, are ye now made perfect by the flesh.

See that... the Spirit gives life and the letter kills. Beating your flesh into subjection with the letter of the Word or by trying to control it with your own will-power, is actually living after the flesh, and has fleshly gratification as it’s motivating force. Consider this scripture...

Colossians 2 23 Which things have indeed a shew of wisdom in will worship, and humility, and neglecting of the

body; not in any honour to the satisfying of the flesh.

Paul is saying that this ‘outward show’ is really ‘disguised carnality’. Look at the Pharisees. You couldn’t fault their lives. Brother Branham said they were spotless, and you couldn’t fault them, but they were working after the flesh. Jesus told them they whitened the outside, but didn’t fix the inside. They didn’t have the Spirit, so they tried to please God by bringing their flesh realm into dominion to the written Word, but in doing so, they became stuffed shirts. They worked on their own elevation and ascension, and all it produced in them was self-righteousness, and we see it in their attitude.

Instead of allowing the Spirit of God to elevate, advance and ascend them, they tried to do it themselves, by their good works, and their frustration and bitterness because of the struggle, perverted their nature so that they were judgemental, they were critical and found fault in everything and everyone. You will find people in the message like that today. They find fault with everything and everyone, because they haven’t got into the Spirit yet. When you get into the Spirit of the Word it is different than the letter of the Word because the letter will kill you... and that’s what it is supposed to do.

Paul said “I didn’t even know what sin was until the letter came... ‘till the Law came... and it killed me”. But when grace came it set us free. Once the Law has done it’s job and killed us, we come to the end of our endeavours, where we can receive grace, and ‘the Spirit that gives life’. Amen.

13 ... but if ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live.14 For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God.

It doesn’t say ‘you should be led by the Spirit of God’... because we have seen people... you’ve all seen people... I’m going to say something that you’ve all seen. There are people who sit around and try to obey the letter of the Law to prove that they are of God. That does not prove that they are of God. That absolutely does not prove that they are of God.

The Pharisees were very good at it... they had more fruits of the spirit than Jesus had. They could obey the letter of the Law better than Jesus could. They didn’t do one (visible) thing wrong in their lives, or they were stoned. But there’s Jesus eating with dirty hands and everything like that. They had all Moses quotes. ‘You’ve got to wash your hands six times and three times face forward and backwards and two times sideways and everything like that, and then use the right kind of ‘message-approved’ towels and everything’, while Jesus had black tack and grease all over his hands off the log-hauler; He had bits of wire sticking out of his fingers, skin off and blood everywhere, sitting there eating His sandwiches and drinking water out of a puddle. What a barbarian. These guys were so ‘letter-perfect’ and everything yet didn’t recognise the perfection that was standing in front of them.

That was the greatest perfection because there was a flesh body filled with the Spirit. That’s what God wants, you know. He wants the flesh body filled with the Spirit. Amen. Hallelujah. You don’t have to try to be led by the Spirit do you? Was Samson led by the Spirit? Absolutely, yes. He didn’t mention one quote anywhere did he? He was just so radical brother, that’s right. He just saw that girl and he was going to have her at any cost, and that was the Spirit of God leading him. That’s a bit scary isn’t it? It scares me brother, I tell you.

Kay and I this morning... on our way here, we were talking about ‘This is that’, in the sense of on the Day of Pentecost, when they came out and said “This is that scripture... this that you are seeing in front of

you now, is that which was spoken by the Prophet Joel”, or “This is that which was spoken by Hosea”. “This is that that was spoken by Moses”. Jesus said “You say you believe Moses... he spoke of me”. In other words, “I Am Moses’ prophecy. ‘This is that’. I Am that which was spoken by Moses”. Now they didn’t sit round on the Day of Pentecost and read and study up Joel’s prophecy. “Okay boys, let’s start talking in tongues... come on brother, dream a dream... hey, we’d better start getting in the Spirit”. They didn’t read it up and imitate it. They just did it, and when it happened they compared it with, and recognised it as the scripture, now living, and not just ink on paper. The Word had become flesh in them, and they saw it.

The happening came first, and then they were able to compare it. They didn’t study it and try to do it and say that was the Spirit. If they had done that, they would have had it ‘back the front’, and we’ve all seen that. Who’s done that? I’ve done that in my experience. I’ve tried to do that, but I’ve given up because it doesn’t work. All my life I’ve tried to be miserable but I had to give up, it didn’t work. That’s funny, but it’s the same approach. Getting in the Spirit and being led by the Spirit, is an automatic process. If the Spirit of God is in you, you are led by the Spirit of God irrespective of what you see. When you are always comparing what your carnal action is with what your perception of what life should be bringing forth, you are not being led by the Spirit. You’re being deceived and you’ll end up like those ‘foolish Galatians’.

Adam was led by the Spirit. The letter of the Law said to Adam ‘Thou shalt not eat of the tree’. Well what did Adam do? He did the opposite. He went and ate it, exactly what he was told not to do. That’s what God wanted him to do. He was led by the Spirit. He had ‘Thus saith the Lord’. He was God in flesh... Adam was God in the flesh. He was the first Christ. If Christ was the Second Adam, then Adam was the first Christ. Is that right? Exactly. He knew what God wanted done with the Word. He’d seen the plan of redemption written in the stars, and he knew what God wanted. Amen. He was led by the Spirit. Hallelujah. Praise God. Praise God.

The message ‘The Spoken Word is the Original Seed’, is the first place where our prophet talked about ‘Pick up your pen and write’ and it’s really, really good. I just want to share a little portion of it here, from the Church Age Book, that’s related to what I am talking about and it’s pertaining to you. The hand of God wrote

Pergamean Church Age - Church Age Book - Chapter 5172-2 The bride has the mind of Christ, for she knows what He wants done with the Word. She

performs the command of the Word in His name for she has thus saith the Lord. Do you realise that? Everything that you do is thus saith the Lord. Everything that you do pleases God.

You know that’s a bit hard sometimes isn’t it but when you look at what Samson did, that was pleasing to God. When you look at what Adam did, that was contrary to the letter. When you read the letter that was very alien to the letter... it was contrary to the letter. It looked like he was going right off. And Samson was going right off too, but he was actually following the Word, not the letter of the Word but he was following the living Word. That’s right Brother... he was the living Word. The scripture was written after he did it... not before. He wasn’t following anything. The scripture was the history of what happened. Amen. Hallelujah.

When the Word is quickened by the Spirit it comes to pass, like a seed that is planted and watered and comes to full harvest, it serves its purpose... just like the chocolate, the eggs, the baking soda, the salt, the sugar, the little chocolate chippies and everything that you might be putting into the cake. When it’s time it will fulfil its purpose, in due season, and we’ll alI sit there and eat it... yummy. That’s what God wants to do.

172-3 ...Those in the bride do only His will. How many of you can say that? Absolutely you can. You might look back with your photographic memory that recorded every little thing that you perceived to be wrong and say “Well I did this there, I did that there, I did this over here”, but Brother Branham said “They do only His will”.

Are you in the bride? Then what... are you going to call the prophet a liar? Not me. If I can’t understand, I’m just going to say what he said

172-3 ...They do only His will; no one can make them do otherwise, they have thus saith the Lord or they keep still.

Now the question begs here, how conscious are they that they have thus saith the Lord as they go about their daily lives, yelling at the children, washing dishes and clothes, banging nails, selling products, undoing bolts and dropping gears on their feet, but that’s thus saith the Lord. That’s what he said here.

172-3 ...He did not complete his work while in his earthly ministry so now he works in and through the bride.

It’s the wife today... because we are moving it on. I’m moving it forward now. This is what Brother Branham was saying back then, and I’m applying it, the repeatable prophecy, for today.

172-3 ...She knows that for it was not yet time for him (to put the icing on the cake)... to do certain things... (it wasn’t ‘due time’ yet)... that he must now do. But he will now fulfil through the bride, (through the wife)... that work which he left for this specific (due) time.

For this ‘due time’. That’s a due time. Hallelujah, in due season.

You see, men have different ideas of what the Word means. Remember, they came to Jesus and said to him “If you’re a prophet, how come you don’t know what kind of woman this is over there? You’d know she’s a hooker and she’s been living with all these fellows and all that. If you’re a prophet, how come you don’t know that”? Well, I’ll tell you something... He knew what kind of a woman she was. He knew exactly what kind of a woman she was and He knew that inside that hard shell was a seed... a germ of life. He knew she was elected, so He said the right thing to her and that changed her. All the church leaders wanted to do was drop rocks on her. Do you see the difference? They both had the same quotes... the difference was Jesus had the Spirit of the quotes and they had the letter of the quotes.

What a great thing God’s done for us brothers and sisters in letting us understand the revelation of Grace in this day and what it means to us personally... in our personal lives... day to day. It’s the only way you can put up with yourself sometimes isn’t it?, but it also empowers you to know how to help others. Hallelujah. Jesus knew what kind of woman she was. He knew she was the elect lady, but the followers of the Exodus prophet’s message just saw a bad lady that should be stoned to death... and “If he was a prophet, he should know these things”. I have to say, that if they had any insight at all they should have said “My goodness... he is a prophet and he sees something that we’re not seeing here. We’d do well to sit down and be quiet”.

When he said to them, “You search the scriptures, for in them you think you have eternal life. They are they that testify of me”. Brother Branham said “That was a good challenge. They should have gone away and searched the scriptures, but what did they do?” They went and asked the priest”. He got the books out and couldn’t find it in the letters. You won’t find it in the letters because the letters hadn’t been written yet. The letters had shoes on before they were written down, and that’s what made the difference. The Pharisees couldn’t understand that. When the believers put shoes on and walked around and said “I am that”, and “This is that”... they couldn’t understand it. Praise God. They had their book of rules. They had pages and paragraph numbers and everything like that. They had everything but they didn’t recognise the Word when it was standing there in front of them. Hallelujah. They saw a loose, immoral woman and Jesus saw election, predestination and redemption. He saw a transformation. He saw the cake finished... the icing on it and everything. Amen.

Now I’m going to come to the little bit on Brother Parnell now. It’s in ‘The Visitation’ and you’re familiar with it. He was told to “Do it differently... If I was to come back, I wouldn’t do it the same”. Brother Branham said he “wouldn’t do it the same”. Do it with love and not with rules. If you really want to kill the serpent, don’t use the gun... use the stick... the stem out of Jesse. Amen. Hallelujah. Preach to the soul... what does that mean? What does it mean to preach to the soul? I believe it’s to preach to that part of you that can receive it. That’s the part that we want. The part of you that can’t receive it... we’re not interested in that. It’s going to take care of itself... but there is a part of you that can receive, it even though you mightn’t be able to materialise it.

Just follow this thought and watch what happens, because Brother Parnell had the same trouble, and I’m going to show you Brother Branham had the same trouble too... and I know because I’ve had the same trouble and I know that everyone of you has had the same trouble. Brother Parnell said...

‘The Visitation from the 6th Dimension’; New York City, April 11, 2002 I have tried to live a good life...

How many has done that? You’ve tried. How many have failed? Let’s see your hands. A lot of you are just like Brother Parnell then.

... a life that is an example to all of the people. I’ve consecrated myself wholly to the Lord.

See he’s trying to divorce his old nature but we have already read the scripture which said “Those that God has joined together, let no man put asunder”, because God is put it there for a reason. When God’s

finished with it He’ll take care of it. You’ve got to believe that. You mightn’t like it, and you might struggle and tussle with it all the time, but God’s got it there for a season and for a reason.

I’ve consecrated myself wholly to the Lord and tried to continually do what pleases Him. He was doing it by trying to divorce his old nature. That’s what Cain did. He tried to use his works to bring approval... because that’s the Cain side... that’s one part of your nature. Its Cain isn’t it? One part of you is the first birth – the natural birth.

Is there something else that I need to do?

There was nothing he needed to do. The prophet told us “If there is one thing you need to do”... and he told us this for forty or forty five years in the ministry, “Only believe, only believe, all things are possible, only believe”. He didn’t say go and polish yourself up. He said “You go and try and polish the spots off a leopard, they get brighter all the time”. How many knows that is true? I tried to clean my spots off but they just get bigger and bigger... so stop it. It’s not going to work. Do it differently. If he came back he’d do it different. We are doing it differently this morning by God’s Grace.

Is there something else I need to do because it seems I am so far separated from Him all the time.

Now that was just a lie. That feeling was lying to our precious Brother Parnell. How many has had that feeling?

I have had it many times, in spite of the fact that God told me, the day He saved me, that He will never leave me nor forsake me – and I’ve got to keep pulling that up all the time. He didn’t say I wouldn’t leave or forsake Him, and that doesn’t actually matter. It doesn’t even enter into the picture, it’s just that after a while you get so sick of not having an awareness of the presence of the Spirit of God in your life, that you stop doing the stuff, and thinking the way that displeases Him. As you want more and more of God in your life, just turn away from iniquity... stop it, quit it... and you watch what God will do in your life. That’s simple, isn’t it?

My heart is in turmoil and my spirit is in a rage constantly seeking favour.Did Brother Parnell have favour? When did he get favour? He got it before the foundation of the world. He always had favour.

We were talking before about all those things and attributes being in you... in your genetic blueprint. When you received the New Birth -- when you said “I believe the gospel”, something happened. How many knows that’s true? It happened to you, and something went into you there at that time? That’s what we’re talking about. Why was he constantly trying to receive favour? All he needed, and this was what was going to happen next, was for someone came and tell him that he already had favour. Is that preaching to the soul? I think that’s preaching to the soul... telling you what God has already said you are and made you to be. It’s awakening the man that’s already inside you. If He’s not in there, all the shouting and good behaviour will never wake Him up.

We all know about our problems. Think it not strange, Peter said, considering all things that’s happening in your brethren which are in the world... satan will try to overcome you with your first birth, and that’s what you are to resist, steadfastly... the second birth will cause you to do it.

I Peter 4 12 ¶ Beloved, think it not strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you, as though some

strange thing happened unto you:I Peter 5

9 Whom resist stedfast in the faith, knowing that the same afflictions are accomplished in your brethren that are in the world.

They all have the same problems as you have. Do you know why? Because you’ve got a human nature and if you’re just trying to clean up your human nature you’re just trying to polish up a pig. He still is the pig. All you need to do is get him to fall so much in love with the New Nature that he’ll just want to do whatever Memucan tells him to do. Just fall in love with Him... hmmm. I feel in love this morning, don’t you? Hallelujah.

The revelation that Brother Parnell is about to receive... this revelation as Brother Branham was talking to him... didn’t give him anymore acceptance than he always had. He wasn’t suddenly more acceptable than before... it was just revealed to him the acceptance that he already had. See? Because “You never were saved on any particular day”, Brother Branham said, “You were always saved”, but one day somebody came along and said a Word to you... you believed it, and something happened. How many

knows something happened? Something happened to me, hallelujah! I was there when it happened. Praise God. Brother Branham had this same thing which troubled him too.

Maybe I’ll just read this bit here first and then I’ll tell you what I saw in Brother Branham’s experience. Brother Branham smiled at me and he said, “You are looking at it all wrong Brother Parnell, the Lord has decided that all things are accomplished and it’s His mind you need to understand”.

When were all things accomplished? When he sent a message... when stood there at 8th and Penn Street, in March of 1963, he terminated a whole 2000 years of church history and he opened a New Day. An uneducated, Kentucky hillbilly, with Grade 3 schooling, ended 2000 years of churchianity. Now that’s not a popular concept, but that’s exactly what happened. In the same way that Paul, a sarcastic, hook-nosed little Jew did to the Old Testament.

In Acts, Paul and Barnabas said the people judged themselves unworthy of eternal life, so the gospel was to go to the gentiles. They cut themselves off by rejecting the Word in it’s due season.

Acts 1346 Then Paul and Barnabas waxed bold, and said, It was necessary that the word of God should

first have been spoken to you: but seeing ye put it from you, and judge yourselves unworthy of everlasting life, lo, we turn to the Gentiles.

Now we know there is an overlap period and we know that Grace will always exist for people that will come to this. I don’t want to terminate anything but God already has terminated some things, and He’s the only one that knows. So if you find anybody that can hear anything you say, there is got to be something inside of them... they will quicken to what you say and it will change them. If there is nothing there, you can talk as much as you like and nothing is going to happen.

That doesn’t mean you have to hate them does it? You don’t have to be angry with them or upset with them. They are more likely to get more angry and upset with you than you are to get angry and upset with them. Brother Branham continues to speak to Brother Parnell...

... Remember in Isaiah 40, the Lord changed His thinking about Israel to Son of ManMinistry and the warfare was over. They were forgiven and their sin was no more, even though Rome still ruled.

All the soldiers were still running around there. They were still demanding their taxes, the same conditions were prevailing... outwardly, nothing had changed, but God’s mind had changed. So then, what do we need to do? To accept the change we need to take on the mind of Christ, and that will bring the whole thing into line for us, and put us exactly where God wants us to be.

They were forgiven and their sin was no more even though Rome still ruled and even though they still had all their religions and isims, its God mind made the difference.

I’ll finish this one here. They had no more sin. You have no more sin Brother Parnell. (You have no more sin people.) Preach to the soul of the people and don’t worry about the other realms. Your flesh is redeemed.

Did you get that? Brother Parnell is no different than you and me, he’s just one born a little out of season to us, because he’s a Voice for the Day, he’s a leader in the message, and God has His leaders and His messengers. Amen. We have people that draw plans and we have people who swing hammers and they are all important. You don’t get a building without having them both. It’s no good drawing plans... you can draw plans till the cows come home, but unless you get someone who gets the saw out there and goes and gets the lumber, get’s the nails and starts banging away, you’ve just got plans. So don’t ever get the idea that one part of this body is any more important than the other. Amen.

We see one-another’s face... when I think of Brother Ray, I think of his wonderful smile and his beautiful head of hair that he’s got, because I’m jealous of that, you know. But you know, we see his face more than anything else. I don’t know if I have ever seen your little toe have I Brother Ray? No I don’t think I have, but I’ll tell you something... that’s as much a part of Brother Ray as his wonderful face is. So we are all One in this thing aren’t we? We are all in a Body and we are all One. Amen.

Your flesh is redeemed and your Spirit realm is exactly as it should be. If I could come back... Did he come back? Where is he? Where’s Brother Branham? Where’s Moses and Jesus? We are every one of us is here this morning. Amen.

If I could come back I would concentrate on the soul of man, minister to the soul and the other realms will take care for themselves.

When Brother Branham was out hunting... I’ll share this little thing that I saw in Brother Branham’s life... He had this burden on his heart and he was out hunting. He was going to shoot some deer for the brothers... Brother Woods and them, and he was just about to shoot one, then he remembered “No, no I promised the Lord I wouldn’t do this anymore... I will just get one for me”. Then, he said, he was standing there and heard this noise, pat, pat, pat, pat, and he wondered what it was. He was looking around, and it was his own tears... his own tears were falling on the leaves, pat, pat, pat... and he was crying. Then the Spirit of the Lord come alongside and said to him “You remembered your promise”, and Brother Branham said “Yes Lord”. The Spirit said “I remember mine to. I’ll never leave you nor forsake you”. Brother Branham’s next statement... can anyone tell me what it was? It’s so beautiful. He said “The burden left me. It’s never been there since. May it never be there again”. So even Brother Branham was struggling with unbelief, exactly the same as we do... in spite of all that he had preached... because he and we are human. We’ve got a human realm. He had a battle going on inside of him.

How great is our God to come in and tell us that we are perfect. We know that we are not perfect because we’ve got the photographs. “I saw you doing that...”, but God said I am perfect. “Your flesh realm is now perfect. Your flesh realm is now in a condition to take a rapture”. You are now already raptured. Oh brethren... oh my. It depends whether you believe what you see, or whether you believe what God said, because most times you can’t believe them both... there’s a little conflict there. Hallelujah.

It’s like a shrub oak... Brother Branham talks about a little shrub oak and he said “I don’t have to go out there at the end of the year and pull all the leaves off it, just wait till the new life comes and it pushes them off”. Isn’t that what he is saying here? Get that new life, keep encouraging that new life, don’t worry about waiting for people to die, encourage them to live... encourage them in every good thing. Bless them, and tell them how great this message is and anything that you think is not really convenient for their experience, just gently try and influence them away from it... but above all love them, and love them, and love them and watch what happens... watch what happens... you watch what happens. Hallelujah.

Ascension... we are talking about ascension... going up. The way up is the way down. We had to come down first though.

Ephesians 49 (Now that he ascended, what is it but that he also descended first into the lower parts of the

earth?How could Jesus ascend unless He descended? Paul’s talking about Jesus here. He descended first into the lower parts of the earth. Where was the lower part of the earth He descended into? The angel came down and planted Him in Mary’s womb... Jesus came out of Mary’s womb... that’s the lowest parts of the earth.

10 He that descended is the same also that ascended up far above all heavens that He might fill all things.

Ascending... Psalms 139... I think this is just beautiful. You know the woman is the lowest parts of the earth. Not our sisters. We’re not talking about the woman being the lowest thing on earth. Brother Branham said “She’s lower than a sow hog”. We’re not talking about you sisters. We’re talking about the flesh realm and we all have a woman, that if you let it, will take you places you don’t want to go. I know, because I’ve been there. It will take you places you don’t want to go and it’s a battle to struggle back again, but it’s good for you... it’s good for you. It knocks a bit of skin off, and bruises your pride. So the flesh is the lowest parts of the earth. The flesh. Not the woman, our sisters. They are all Kings and Priests... our sisters are, they are Kings and Priests. Amen.

Psalms 13914 I will praise thee; for I am fearfully and wonderfully made...

This awesome process that began back in God’s mind before the foundation of your world, He knew one day He was going to bring Sister Nancy, Sister Sarah... in the back part of His mind, He was getting all the ingredients and assembling them together. Before He could get Sarah He had to get Ernie and Nancy to arrange all this... so He got them altogether to have a love affair and next thing, there’s Sarah. What an amazing... don’t you think? Look, look, I mean it’s beautiful. Look at all the kids and everything now. All those were laying in there when Ernie and Nancy came together. They didn’t know anything

about that. Talk about being led by the Spirit, my goodness. They wouldn’t have those wonderful children.

We wouldn’t have our children if I wasn’t led to be with my sweetheart there. The minute I saw her I knew I was going to marry her. I hadn’t even spoken to her. A Voice said to me “That’s your wife over there”. I said “What? Who said that”. How beautiful is our God. Oh Brother, I just... I don’t know. What a wonderful process.

14 ... I am fearfully and wonderfully made: marvellous are thy works; and that my soul knoweth right well.

15 My substance was not from hid from thee...My revelation... my faith (substance)... you put it in me. I was a part of God right back then... that revelation that was going to be quickened at a certain time. There was something in me that was going to take that.

15 ... was not hid from thee when I was made in secret, and curiously wrought in the lowest parts of the earth.

How could you get here? How could any of us get here without that process?... from the lowest parts of the earth, in all that muck and mess and everything.

16 Thine eyes did see my substance, yet being unperfect; and in thy book all my members were written, which in continuance were fashioned, when there was as yet (or at that time) there was none of them.

Why? It wasn’t due season but in due season they materialised. That’s God’s vision. My substance yet being unperfect. Why? You hadn’t suffered yet... because you are to be made perfect by the things which you’ll suffer, and you can’t suffer while you are in the Theophany up on the clouds playing your harp. You had to come here... you had to come here to experience the trauma, the anxiety, the struggle of natural life, through birth and death. Hallelujah. Praise God.

This is what started my thought going here. I was listening to Brother Mita preaching, and it would be a good message for you to read if you can do so... it’s called 1

‘Seed Sowing’. I thought it was really a very beautifully-constructed message, and this is the thing that struck me out of this here, in Revelation 12...

Revelation 121 And there appeared a great wonder in heaven; a woman (a mother, a called-out church)

clothed with the sun (the father, the Logos)...So there’s oneness there... a woman standing in the sun... she was clothed with the sun.

1 ... and the moon (the law, the lesser-light, the world church, physical body) under her feet...This woman... she’d elevated. She’d ascended. She’d ‘come up higher’. She was in the sun (wrapped with the revealed Word)S, standing upon the world-visible church. She was above the church.

1 ... and upon her head a crown of twelve stars.2 And she, being with child cried, travailing in birth...

Is that what Brother Parnell’s was doing? “I tried to live right, I tried to”... He was crying, travailing in birth. Well what gave him the birth? “Your flesh is now perfect”. A prophet came from beyond the curtain of time and said “You are now perfect”. That brought him to a birth. What happened to Brother Branham? The Voice of God said to him “You remember your promise, I remember mine. I’ll never leave you nor forsake you”. It quickened him; something happened to them that was greater than what had happened to either of them before, because they were never the same afterwards. Have you been the same since this revelation came to you? I haven’t. It’s so incredible. What a privileged people we are. Look how many of us there are here. The whole world is crying for this, and how many of us here this morning? I hope you don’t take this lightly.

2 And she being with child cried, travailing in birth and pained to be delivered.

Hallelujah, the government was on her shoulders. What does it say there, a crown of twelve stars. She is actually Him. Amen.

3 And there appeared another wonder in heaven; and behold a great red dragon...Now I always thought that was a bit funny, didn’t you? How have we got this red dragon, this flesh system, in heaven, isn’t that what the scripture says?

3 ... a great red dragon, having seven heads and ten horns, and seven crowns upon his heads.4 And his tail drew the third part of the stars of heaven, and did cast them to the earth:

The tail of the dragon is producing ‘the trail of the serpent’... we know the tail of the dragon... that’s how we all got here. We all came here through the tail of the dragon. That’s the only way we can get here. How many of you came any other way? Did anybody come any other way than through the flesh system... by the instrumentality of man through the tail of the dragon? We all came here the same way. Praise God.

4 ... and did cast them to the earth...

How did he cast them to earth? When they were born you came down here and started eating veggies and stuff like that and you’re consuming, drawing off the sixteen elements, off the first three dimensions. Hallelujah.

4 ...and the dragon stood before the woman which was ready to be delivered, for to devour the child as soon as it was born. Hallelujah.

5 And she brought forth a man child, who was to rule all nations with a rod of iron: and her child was caught up unto God, and to His throne.

It doesn’t say that the dragon didn’t eat the child. The traditional thought is that child evaded the dragon and was caught up to God... but I’m saying to you this morning that the only way that child went up... ascended... to God was through the dragon. It had to be devoured... the dragon had to devour the child and the child had to overcome the dragon. Where is the throne of God? Where are the overcomers seated?

There’s no other way to ascend, because the way up is the way down. He had to come down. What happened in the Garden of Eden with Adam and Eve? There’s the woman of Revelation 12, Eve, the mother of all living, the Heavenly Jerusalem, the mother of us all, travailing in birth, as a result of a sowing from Adam’s tail... from the tail of the serpent. Adam... which simply means red... the red dragon brought forth the flesh-and-blood system because he knew that was God’s provided way of ascending the human race. The red dragon, Adam and Eve’s and Cain and Abel’s flesh bodies, consumed the celestial man-child as it emerged from the woman standing in the sun, and immediately began to release all the glory that God had inside of Him... salvation... healing... provision... love and grace – all the attributes which had never yet been revealed or needed, were now released. Hallelujah!

God could have put us there in perfection, but He already had all the angels up there, singing “Glory, hallelujah, praise God, praise God, hallelujah” all day long... “Mighty is our God”, all day long... but they didn’t know what they were singing about. In order to prove and to give them the experience to know what they were talking about, they had to come down here into a body of flesh and battle their way through the elements, through all the struggle, because God wanted to experience it. God wanted to experience the flesh, and He experiences it in us... and the more of those experiences of life and struggle you have, what an empathy and a compassion that gives you for people who are unable to overcome these things. It should open your hearts, open your lives, and not cause you to release condemnation... it should cause you to give people more grace. Amen. Hallelujah.

The dragon experience is a part of being caught up to God. Jesus had to have it. Jesus came down, although he was virgin-born because he had a specific role to play in the plan, but in every other respect, he came exactly the same way as we did. He came through the womb of a woman, born in the same process and everything because he could not ascend until he had descended first. That’s the pattern... that’s the pattern in the scripture. You can’t even get a bean unless you put the thing down in the muck. Like our Pastor said, you put the chicken manure and everything all over it. That’s where we’re at. Our new birth puts us as virgin-born too, so we are now where Jesus was... He said “that where I Am there you may be also”.

Where did the prodigal son discover grace? He took his Theophany (his inheritance) went down into world and squandered everything, ending up in the pig pen slopping around in the muck with all the hogs and everything, and then gradually he began to come back to father’s house. He appreciated the difference now. He could sing ‘Amazing Grace” now. Hallelujah. Oh, how beautiful, how beautiful. See... this understanding... when you get the understanding of what the Lord has done for you, is what is catching you up to God. You already had it inside... just like a seed... every plum that would ever be on the tree was in the seed. The fruits are inside of you already, but it just needs the quickening power. It needs the Spirit of God to quicken and turn that on and you will lift up into that dimension. Amen,

So embrace your dragon Brothers and Sisters. We’ve been ‘caught up’ to God. The child, when it was born, was caught up to be with God. How was it caught up? It was caught up through the dragon experience. The dragon caught it up in the flesh-and-blood experience. The prodigal son’s whole thought

now, as the Word was being preached and was working through his experience, ‘caught’ his whole thinking ‘up’ until it was in line with what was on God’s mind... he was ‘caught up’ to God. Doing it his way put him in the pig pen, but God took that experience to reveal what was really inside of him all the time. Hallelujah.

Let us make man in our image. We have two triune beings... omniscient, celestial God, the Father, Son and Holy Ghost, above... and the terrestrial Body, Soul and Spirit, earthy, in the first three dimensions, and a gradual blending as one surrenders to the other... until we came to where we are now. There’s your true Israel, saints. Here we are this morning. That’s what God wanted. He wanted to have the pre-eminence. Don’t you love Him this morning? Don’t you just love God? I just love God. I can’t help it I. I just so love this Word and I’m just so grateful for my Pastor and Brother Parnell and for my wife and all you other wonderful people that just say little things that encourage and lift me up and lift one-another up. I am really, truly grateful to God for it and I cherish it every time it happens because it is really precious. Maybe we’ll just have a quick word of prayer.

Gracious Lord, we are so happy this morning for the things that you have done for us, and we know in the flesh we didn’t deserve anything, except that you had a plan... you had a thought in your mind Lord, and your plan is perfect. You saw this day... that’s what you longed for Lord, and when you said “Let us create man in our own image”, you were thinking of those pyramids there Lord. You were thinking of a blending... a blending of natures... of a natural nature and the Supernatural Nature. How grateful we are to you that you’ve allowed us to see these things in this day Lord. It’s just so awesome. It stirs our hearts night and day, we think about it all the time, and we just want to surrender to what you’ve done, more and more every day.

We know you’re going to take us over completely because you promised... we know that you’re going to take more and more control of our beings. We are the only manifestation that you have here on earth today Lord, and just as Brother Parnell expressed when he met Brother Branham, our desire is to be a testimony, an inspiration, and an influence for good. I think about his website Lord... he said five million people went on there last year. That’s just so awesome and how we thank you for that Lord. May you continue to bless and prosper it Lord. May the people focus upon you and see Jesus only. Take our eyes off our failings, and off the failings of one-another, or someone that we consider to be better than the others. Deal with all that stuff Lord, we want to build a Body here this morning Lord, a true tabernacle that you can come and live in and take control of.

We love you with all our hearts and thank you for this time Lord. Thank you for these precious people. Thank you For Brother Mita and Sister Rose and for the great work they have done in this little place over thirty years, and for keeping this little assembly together Lord... and I know that hasn’t been easy. Sometimes it’s just easy to turn tail and run, but they didn’t do that Lord, and we thank you and them for that. Thank you for making them that way Lord. Bless them abundantly, always, and meet all of their needs always. Make us willing to help and do all that we can to inspire one-another, in Jesus name we just commit all these things. And also we remember our Sister Sita in Melbourne this morning Lord, as

the saints pray together, and her dialysis and things that she is having difficulty with in the hospital. I pray that you lay your hand upon her even this day, right now Lord, and change that situation for her. We pray and thank you in Jesus name. Amen and Amen.

I was talking to Brother Fa’alele last night and he was asking “Is Brother Mita coming? Is Brother Mita coming?”, so you are welcome to come brother. You’ve been invited. He’s told all the saints that “The ministers from New Zealand are coming”, so I can’t just be the only one, can I? But anyway, saints think about that... if you can help in any way. We’re all pretty strapped for cash and we just leave that with you and if God makes it possible, I would dearly love Brother Mita to come... dearly, dearly, dearly love him to come.

So we’ll just leave that with the Lord. I just say just what’s on my heart. We’re financially struggling but everything that we get... every little penny that we earn; we try and put it in and save it up for the mission field. You know we are only old-age pensioners but we able to save enough to pay for our fares by God’s grace. On our pension we are able to save enough. So we thank you for that. I’m not asking you for money but maybe we could help Brother Mita or something. I don’t know... I don’t know what I am saying, well, I know I just would love him to come and I know Fa’alele would love you to come, Brother.

I’m going to sing you a song...

13-0630 Ascension - John Stevens

Reference

1 13-0421 The Trail of the Serpent - Part 15 - Seed Sowing