A Study in Leadership
ISAIAH 53:3-6
3 He is despised and rejected of men (This is specking of Christ - the word “is” is presentence, in other words, in each age Christ is despised in whatever form he reveals himself for that age. When he was in the form of Jesus of Nazareth, they despised, rejected, and crucified him, if he is in word form in the revealing of the son of man in this age, then he is again despised and they have rejected and crucified the word again); a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief: and we hid as it were our faces from him; he was despised, and we esteemed him not.
4 ¶ Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted. (God became a man in order to feel what it is to be a weak human being so he could truly be one with our sufferings and qualify as our high priest to intercede on our behalf)
5 But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed.
6 All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the LORD hath laid on him the iniquity of us all.
PSALM 92:5
5 O LORD, how great are thy works! and thy thoughts are very deep.
ISAIAH 55:8-9
8 For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the LORD.
9 For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.
A Study in Leadership
ISAIAH 53:3
3 He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief: and we hid as it were our faces from him; he was despised, and we esteemed him not.
New International Version
He was despised and rejected by mankind, a man of suffering, and familiar with pain. Like one from whom people hide their faces he was despised, and we held him in low esteem.
**The attitude of the fallen human nature toward Christ has never change over the centuries – he was despised and looked down on when he walk the shores of Galilee, and He is also despised and rejected by mankind in this age (as in all other ages). Today people still regard the word of God in low esteem, and so no one would chose to be led by something or someone who you would hold in low esteem.
And so we find out that this is what Eve did in the beginning, she held the word of the serpent in a higher esteem than the word of God - In other words, what started the human race along the pathway that led to death was when someone held the word of God in low esteem and chose to give a higher respect to what seemed like a better way of reasoning to the human mind.
ISAIAH 53:6
6 All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the LORD hath laid on him the iniquity of us all.
**We see then how that the first part of Isaiah 53 in that the word of God is held in low esteem is connected to this verse of Isaiah 53:6 showing us that when we have a low esteem and respect for the word of God, then that is connected to a people that go their own way – in other words, do their own leading.
So we can see that to go your own way, you must first reject the word of God in some way shape or form, and the reason that people reject the word of God is because they despise it and look down upon it, in other words they esteem their own leadership above the leadership of the word of God.
ISAIAH 14:12-15
12 How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! how art thou cut down to the ground, which didst weaken the nations!
13 For thou hast said in thine heart, I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God: I will sit also upon the mount of the congregation, in the sides of the north:
14 I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will be like the most High. (the 5 “I wills”, he had an iPhone, an iPod, an iPad, a Mac computer and an Apple TV – 5 “I’s”, who needs God when you have all of that to keep you busy)
15 Yet thou shalt be brought down to hell, to the sides of the pit.
So we see that the scripture is telling us of his destiny because of him wanting to exalt himself above the leadership of the word. In other words, “I have no need to be under the headship of the word of God, I will ascend above that and exalt myself above even God himself. – “HELLO”, welcome to this end time age. Lucifer’s self-leadership led him to the sides of the pit of hell. Who needs to heed the word of God and to trust the Lord to lead and guide you when you’ve got a mac computer and you can just look it up on the internet and exalt your own knowledge and will above the humble word and will of God.
From the cradle to the grave – life is a journey of a series of actions and events, like a story book drama unfolding in real time, “you are the story” – and we cannot read ahead of the story of our own personal everyday lives to know what happens next – but as believers of the word of God and this end time message, we know our own destiny and the end of the story of how it ends.
***If we take the life story of Joseph in the book of Genesis, we fine that he knew his beginning, and God showed him his life at the end, so from the beginning, he knew his end just like in Isaiah God told Satan of his end, but the events that came in the middle of Joseph’s life between the beginning and the end was kept a secret from him - that part of the story had to be told to him by it being unfolding out in his life (he had to live it out), so the living it out was the revealing of the mystery part.
His end wasn’t a mystery to him because God had shown it to him in a dream, and he knew all about his beginning because that was in the past, so it was the leadership part in the middle that was the mystery that had to be unfolded and made known. That is why the seven church ages was kept a mystery from the early church but now revealed in this age at the end – because that was the middle journey part to brings us to this expected end.
We know that God knows every little future event and junction of our lives from the cradle to the grave and beyond.
We all know our beginning because that is in the part and we can remember, and as believers we all know our future because of what God has promised us as believers, so it is the middle part of journey that is often so hard for many to understand because the pathway in the middle of our lives looks like it’s the wrong pathway because it is so unusual and hard to understand how that this path of life that we are on can lead us to such a great ending as God hath promised.
GENESIS 37:5-10
5 ¶ And Joseph dreamed a dream, and he told it his brethren: and they hated him yet the more.
6 And he said unto them, Hear, I pray you, this dream which I have dreamed:
7 For, behold, we were binding sheaves in the field, and, lo, my sheaf arose, and also stood upright; and, behold, your sheaves stood round about, and made obeisance to my sheaf.
8 And his brethren said to him, Shalt thou indeed reign over us? or shalt thou indeed have dominion over us? And they hated him yet the more for his dreams, and for his words.
9 And he dreamed yet another dream, and told it his brethren, and said, Behold, I have dreamed a dream more; and, behold, the sun and the moon and the eleven stars made obeisance to me.
10 And he told it to his father, and to his brethren: and his father rebuked him, and said unto him, What is this dream that thou hast dreamed? Shall I and thy mother and thy brethren indeed come to bow down ourselves to thee to the earth?
The message “Leadership” preached 7th December 1965 in Covina, California, it was a Tuesday, and it was the last message brother Branham preached before he was taken of this earthly scene (Leadership and then Communion), because we know that what took us out of Eden at the beginning was the rejection of the leadership of the word, so if we are to go back to Eden again in the millennium, then just before we go back to Eden in our relationship with the Lord first before the millennium, then as individuals we must all come back into true Holy Ghost leadership again because that is what they fell from in the beginning.
**So in this message “Leadership”, brother Branham takes the story of the rich young ruler.
And so if we study the natural life journey of the rich young ruler, we will notice that his pathway in life continued on being pleasant and prosperous even after he had rejected the leadership of the word, but the problem was of where his own leadership led him to at the end because we know that the end of his story was bad. So by his own leadership - by looking up the internet on his iPhone and having respect to smart men and taking their advice, the middle part of his life was a relatively prosperous pathway, but it took him to the wrong destination at the end.
PROVERBS 14:12
12 ¶ There is a way which seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death.
LUKE 12:15-24
15 And he said unto them, Take heed, and beware of covetousness: for a man's life consisteth not in the abundance of the things which he possesseth.
16 And he spake a parable unto them, saying, The ground of a certain rich man brought forth plentifully:
17 And he thought within himself, saying, What shall I do, because I have no room where to bestow my fruits?
18 And he said, This will I do: I will pull down my barns, and build greater; and there will I bestow all my fruits and my goods.
19 And I will say to my soul, Soul, thou hast much goods laid up for many years; take thine ease, eat, drink, and be merry.
20 But God said unto him, Thou fool, this night thy soul shall be required of thee: then whose shall those things be, which thou hast provided?
21 So is he that layeth up treasure for himself, and is not rich toward God.
22 ¶ And he said unto his disciples, Therefore I say unto you, Take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat; neither for the body, what ye shall put on.
23 The life is more than meat, and the body is more than raiment.
24 Consider the ravens: for they neither sow nor reap; which neither have storehouse nor barn; and God feedeth them: how much more are ye better than the fowls?
ROMANS 8:13-14
13 For 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.
14 For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God.
**The leadership of the Holy Ghost in your life will almost always lead you down pathways that are not the easiest to understand nor are they the most pleasant roads to travel on, but those are the pathways that lead us to life because it is in the journey that we are made ready and prepaired for in our character for the great things that God has for us at the end of the road.
JEREMIAH 29:11
11 For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith the LORD, thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you an expected end.
Good News Translation
I alone know the plans I have for you, plans to bring you prosperity and not disaster, plans to bring about the future you hope for.
To Be Continued...