Understanding our Hereditary Pt.5
PHILIPPIANS 4:8
8 Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things.
We know that this was the advice that Paul gave to combat the influences of negative thoughts that we are so often bombarded with as believers because negative thoughts produce negative traits in our lives.
In this day, Brother Branham explained to us about the rattle snake of a negative hereditary trait that you may be struggling with to overcome, and how that the snake will want to bite you if you keep poking a stick at it and rebuking it, but if you would just ignore it and walk away from it, then that is the way to overcome it like his advice with the person with the suborn spirit.
I CORINTHIANS 13:9-11
9 For we know in part, and we prophesy in part.
10 But when that which is perfect is come, then that which is in part shall be done away.
11 When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child: but when I became a man, I put away childish things.
The greatest weapon that the enemy has used against the people of God is to put opposing thoughts contrary to the word into our minds because thoughts are seeds that grow and multiply. That is what the devil did with Eve – he put thoughts into her mind that opposed the word of God, and that is how he fought and won the battle in Eden by sowing corrupted seed – it was in Eve’s mind were the battle in Eden was fought and lost, and that is the same battle that we are fighting in this day.
*Satan will study your life to see where the weakness of your human hereditary traits lay, and like Delilah seeking out Samson’s weakness in order to take away his defence, this is what Satan is trying to do with each one of us.
- So we have been going through this study series of “Understanding our Hereditary” to help us to see these things clearer in our lives of how we can overcome the enemy by our confession in the word of God.
Over the past few weeks we have been looking at this time of the changeover period of a child’s thinking of blind obedience, to an adult’s thinking of personal choice – God wanted us to have free will of personal choice as a free moral agent, he doesn’t want us to be robots in our relationship toward him.
**So this changing over phase from a child to an adult can be a very vulnerable time of where the devil can really use this time as an opportunity to mess up a person’s life.
*** We saw how that God ran into trouble with this problem with his very first daughter Eve.
When she came into this change over phase of a greater mental maturity in her thinking, it was at this time that she started to question the word of her father and began to form her own ideas based on her own reasonings and perception – and just like many teenagers, she began to think she knew about things better than God did and that her way was better.
**Eve’s home in Eden had been such a happy place for many years, but after life had gone along for a while we see how that the maturity of her thoughts and understanding had begun to advance greater, and like a lot of young people when they are just young children they simply just believe everything that father and mother tells them, but as they grow older, then they begin to mature in their thinking and they begin to question things that before they had never questioned – and that is because they are beginning to think deeper thoughts and this is just a normal part of growing up, and so this was the time of when the devil took advantage of this and Eve got herself into trouble (right at this time of this changing over period from childish thoughts to adult thoughts) – sometimes even adults can have childish thoughts, so it is not always to do with age.
*Then we saw the same thing with sister Meda Branham (Brother Branham’s wife) who was trying to hold on to a relationship with her daughter Rebekah as of what she had always had with her as a child, but Rebekah was now advancing into a stage where she was coming into her own conviction of truth just like we saw of how that Eve came to this same place of where she had to decide for herself of what was right and wrong – We all must come to a place of where we choose what we believe and own that belief personally, and that is why you must wake up to the fact that you must never put your trust in your own reasoning (That is what the prodigal son did – he thought he knew what was best for his life but he was terribly mistaken).
You must learn quickly in life that you can never put your trust in your own reasoning powers - your trust must rest solely in the eternal word of God.
**So when we look at how God handled this situation in Eden with his first daughter Eve, and of how He decided to allowed her to do what she really wanted to do (even though it broke his heart to see it happen), and now this is the same advice that Brother Branham is giving to his wife concerning their daughter Rebekah (we went through that in the last service).
**Then with this background we want to look at the parable of the Prodigal son, because in this parable we see the same thing happening because the father is making a way for the son to go down his own chosen path of what the father knew would lead him into great loss and sorrow and poverty and hunger, but then eventually repentance, and then after that would their relationship be restored, and restored in a way that would be far greater than what they had ever had before, not just a relationship like it was when he was a good little boy growing up under his father’s headship and domain, but a much greater relationship of father and son that could not have been made possible without the events of pain and suffering that this young man had gone through on his journey back to father’s house.
***Remember that as soon as he had left his father’s house, that he was on a journey back to his father’s house again.
LUKE 15:11-32
11 ¶ And he said, A certain man had two sons:
12 And the younger of them said to his father, Father, give me the portion of goods that falleth to me. And he divided unto them his living.
(If we stop and think about the tensions that must have built up in this family over the prior months to bring the father of this son to this place of a decision of where he decided to raise the money of half of his entire estate (of what the family farm was worth) of what his grandfather and maybe even his great grandfather had worked that land for generations to build it into a great farm, and then the father of this son came to a place where he decided to pay out half of what the farm was worth out to this youngest son knowing full well that he would waste it all on riotous living – and so there is a great lesson of God that is hidden in this story, because this is really the story of man’s relationship with God, and how that God was also willing to lose the world to sin and death for a season in order for man to come to his own senses so that his relationship with man could be renewed)
13 And not many days after the younger son gathered all together, and took his journey into a far country, and there wasted his substance with riotous living. (That is what mankind has done for that past 6000 years – wasted his life by living in sin and trying to be happy while being separated from Father God)
14 And when he had spent all, there arose a mighty famine in that land; and he began to be in want. (Good times often don’t last very long in life because there are cycles of boom and bust, daytime and then night time, and that is just life in this would, and that is because of sin and the fall – that is why when you are being blessed financially make sure you put some of that away into something real just like Joseph did in the time of plenty, so that you will have something to help you through in the time of famine - these are bible lessons for us)
15 And he went and joined himself to a citizen of that country; and he sent him into his fields to feed swine.
16 And he would fain have filled his belly with the husks that the swine did eat: and no man gave unto him.
17 And when he came to himself (The whole purpose of the cost of what the father had lost because of his wayward son was for this one purpose that this son would come to himself in his own free moral thoughts of his own thinking, in other words, come to his own revelation of the truth that his father knew all along, and of what his true relationship should be with his father. This was the secret that the father knew all along, he knew that it would take this harsh experience of loss and hardship and failure for this boy to wake up to his senses and come into an understanding that he could have never come into by just being told by the words of the wisdom from his father’s lips – Eve didn’t learn by being told by God either, and many times we as adults don’t learn by being told by what God tells us in his word either, we have to also experience the loss and the pain and the suffering and the shame and the pig pen before it really becomes true knowledge to us also), he said, How many hired servants of my father's have bread enough and to spare, and I perish with hunger!
18 I will arise and go to my father, and will say unto him, Father, I have sinned against heaven, and before thee,
19 And am no more worthy to be called thy son: make me as one of thy hired servants. (Look at the contrast of what he was before of when he had put his family through all the stress of having to find the money to be able to pay him out half of what the farm was worth just so he could go and waste it all on riotous living, what a selfish boy this was, what poor character he was made our of, this was something that had come down to him from an hereditary trait from some selfish granddaddy or some other selfish family member of his family, this was not an attribute of the heavenly father God.
***So if you will notice here that this story is about the process and the price that the father was willing to pay in order to bring his son into the right relationship with himself and the family)
20 And he arose, and came to his father. But when he was yet a great way off, his father saw him, and had compassion, and ran, and fell on his neck, and kissed him.
21 And the son said unto him, Father, I have sinned against heaven, and in thy sight, and am no more worthy to be called thy son.
22 But the father said to his servants, Bring forth the best robe, and put it on him; and put a ring on his hand, and shoes on his feet:
23 And bring hither the fatted calf, and kill it; and let us eat, and be merry:
24 For this my son was dead, and is alive again; he was lost, and is found. And they began to be merry.
25 Now his elder son was in the field: and as he came and drew nigh to the house, he heard musick and dancing.
(Notice the contrast between these two sons and the hereditary influence that had affected these two boys differently and how their father dealt with each boy differently to overcome these things and bring his sons into peace with the family again)
26 And he called one of the servants, and asked what these things meant.
27 And he said unto him, Thy brother is come; and thy father hath killed the fatted calf, because he hath received him safe and sound.
28 And he was angry, and would not go in: therefore came his father out, and intreated him.
29 And he answering said to his father, Lo, these many years do I serve thee, neither transgressed I at any time thy commandment: and yet thou never gavest me a kid, that I might make merry with my friends:
30 But as soon as this thy son was come, which hath devoured thy living with harlots, thou hast killed for him the fatted calf.
31 And he said unto him, Son, thou art ever with me, and all that I have is thine.
32 It was meet that we should make merry, and be glad: for this thy brother was dead, and is alive again; and was lost, and is found.
***The most important thing to the father was not the marring of his financial position, but it was the relationship with his son that he wanted to see restored at any cost – and so this is showing us of how God deals with us also in life because this is the story of redemption.
***And so many of us have maybe inherited certain traits from our forefathers that will influence our thoughts in ways that are not in full alignment with the word of God, and so that is where we need the spirit of God to hone those things out of us, and these are some of the ways that God deals with these things in our live to take what is maybe a wrong trait, and then use it as a tool to bring us into the right relationship with Himself just as we saw how he did this with this hereditary trait that the prodigal son had inherited.
**So we have been looking at different angles of this subject over the past few weeks because we want to know how to place these things into the spectrum of how God deals with us in our everyday lives and to understand how that God will actually use these negative things of our hereditary weaknesses as tools to deal with us in His moulding of the character of our lives as his sons and daughters.
**Remember that these things have nothing to do with God judging our sins (because Christ took all of our judgement as sinners upon himself and paid the full price for our sins at Calvary – you cannot pay for your own sins when Christ has already paid the full price), but as believers, these things have to do with the struggles of our everyday lives and our relationship with God as his sons and daughters.
Let’s look at another slightly different angle of this in this case that brother Branham told us about in the message “A Paradox.
A.PARADOX_ CHICAGO.IL V-21 N-3 THURSDAY_ 63-0801
16 For instance, I believe that every born-again member of the Body of Christ is a paradox in themselves. I believe each one of you Methodist and Presbyterian and Lutheran, that never had experienced the baptism of the Holy Spirit, was in some formal church that did not believe in the genuine new Birth, and has now received the baptism of the Holy Ghost, is a perfect example of a paradox. Because, something happened to you, that changed your whole being, and anyone could look at that and know what a paradox is: a miracle.
17 Unless that happens, you cannot be a Christian. There must be a paradox, for you to become a Christian. Cause, no one can--can change a spirit in a man, and give him new Birth, outside of God. God alone is the only One can do it. And it's a miracle how that God can take a man's thinking, and his ways, and his life, and everything, and change it from what it was, to what it can be, what He can make it.
18 For instance, a few days ago, I was called in on a--a scene, or on a--a little something going on. There was a fine young man, very fine boy, he was going with a little girl, very fine little girl out of a fine family. And this boy, all of a sudden, came up with some kind of an idea, and he just walked away. He did something wrong to the little girl, and much as promised her to do a certain thing and then didn't do it. And instead of coming to the girl and apologizing, like a--a gentleman should do, he, it just wasn't in him to do it.
19 And the father and mother called me to the scene, and said, "We would desire to know what is wrong with our boy."
20 Now, it's not easy to do sometime, but you must be truthful and honest. Therefore, the boy was a Christian, as far as a believer. He had repented and had been baptized, and had his position among the believers, but yet had not received the baptism of the Holy Spirit, no matter how much he thought he had.
21 You thinking you have, and having It, is two different things. You might be able to try to say you have, and you might be able to show some evidence of some emotion; but unless your life is vindicating what you're professing to have, you still haven't got It. No matter how many emotions, how much you jump, run, sensations, speaking in tongues, or shouting, or whatever you might lay it upon; which is all right, I believe in all that, too; but unless your life copes with your testimony, then you haven't got It. Cause, the fruit of the Spirit vindicates what you are, just like the fruit of any tree tells what it is. Jesus said, "By their fruit you shall know them."
22 Now, this young fellow's parents. His mother is German. No reflection on the German, but there is a strain in that family. And, that is, they'll just sit, and you can talk to them, and they'll just stare you right in the face. They got... This girl's sister, the mother of this boy, her sister. I have come down the street, many morning, and this young lady be setting out in the yard, and I'd say, "Good morning, to you." She'd just look at me. And I'd stop, and I'd say, "Sure a fine morning." She would just stand, look right at you; an intelligent woman. And I'd say, "Come up to see us sometime." She'd just stand and look. Well, her brothers are that way, father and mother is that way.
23 Now the father of the boy, is strictly an Irishman, moody, and high-tempered, high-strung. That's his whole family like that, except one other out of the family, converted. Now in this, this boy...
24 This father and mother, both are Christians, filled with the Holy Ghost, and they have brought this young man up in the way of the Lord. And now the young man is about seventeen or eighteen years old, something along there, very fine kid, and he's--he's been a real model boy at home, nice kid. And he's got a brother that's just vice versa.
25 But the girls, the mother's family, lives close to the... a fine church. But do you think they'd ever come over there? No. And they know It's right, but it's just not in them to--to ask forgiveness or ask pardoning. They just won't do it. It's just not in them.
26 Now the genes in the father and the mother of this boy, no matter how much they are converted, still remains the flesh that's been interbred out to this boy. Therefore, the boy has got a complex in him, just like from his mother's family, and they are not forgiving, they will not apologize, and that's where that boy stands.
27 Now, I said to the father, "No matter how much you've raised him up..." I said, "Now look at you, out of your family: all of them, drunks, and--and fighting, and shooting, and cutting, and so forth."
28 "Now look at your family," to the mother. "They're a bunch of people, just set there and won't speak, very independent, and so forth, irreverent to religion. But," I said, "it's not you. You're the only one of all your sisters and brothers, and you are sweet, kind, and forgiving. What does that? And you're tree, part of that family tree, yet you have received the Holy Ghost. That's the thing that made you tender and sweet. It's not your people anymore, it's your Christ that lives in you."
29 I said to the boy, "Look at your family, practically all of them are drunks, and so forth." I said, "And how moody, and--and high-tempered and high-strung, but you're not. You're kind, forgiving. What is it? The Holy Spirit. You're no more what you are; it's Christ in you." I said, "Now that same thing has to happen to your son."
30 And the father raised up and said, "My son went to the altar. He was baptized correctly, in the Name of Jesus Christ, and water baptism in the pool." Said, "I know my son has come to Christ."
31 I said, "That may be all right, all the outward motions. He might be identified as a believer with the believers. But until he is regenerated, born again, I'd advise that young man to never marry a woman. He'll make Hell on earth for her, until that gentle, sweet, forgiving Spirit of Christ comes in. Then that will be a paradox in itself, to take the very nature of a boy that's bred between father and mother. And yet, in his intellectuals, he is trying his best to overcome it. He can't do it. He'll never overcome it. Christ will have to overcome it. When he lets Christ in, then he's already overcome then. It'll be a perfect paradox, when a man is born of the Spirit of God.
***So this is another angle of this subject that we are dealing with – in this case we see that this hereditary trait of this family cultural spirit required the Holy Spirit to come into this boy’s life in order to change him even though he was trying hard to be a good person. Many times that can also be the answer, it is the spirit of Christ that washes these things from us and changes our thinking when we expose our minds and hearts to the word of God.
**Remember – how did Eve have the spirit within her changed from faith to doubt? It was when she exposed her mind to the words and the spirit that was in the serpent, then it began to affected the way that she thought about God and His word – and after a while, that spirit of unbelief began to enter into her mind and into her heart though the words of the serpent, and then that spirit was passed on down and was inherited into the entire human race.
**But I believe that in this end time age that God is putting an end to all these spirits of doubt for the believers of this hour by the words of the spirit of the truth that has come into the bride of this hour.
The spirit of truth has come into a people in this hour by the Holy Spirit being released back upon us by the light of the evening time message.