Coming out of Self-Doubt
and into the Revelation of your Real self… Pt.3
PSALM 81:8-16
8 ¶ Hear, O my people, and I will testify unto thee: O Israel, if thou wilt hearken unto me; (God has a hard job trying to get people to listen to him)
9 There shall no strange god be in thee; neither shalt thou worship any strange god. (gods dwell in people – a god is an internal thing)
10 I am the LORD thy God, which brought thee out of the land of Egypt: open thy mouth wide, and I will fill it. (God was the one who brought them out of Egypt with a powerful hand, and so He is saying that why should you now put any other god before me? – the reason for that is because many people cannot understand the wisdom of the way God leads us through the journey of our lives.
Israel wanted a God who would take them straight from Egypt to the promise land without going through the red sea. We would maybe like to have seen Joseph to go straight from his father Jacob’s house directly to Pharaoh’s house without going through the prison house – but the only way to get to Pharaoh’s house was through the prison house, and the only way to get to the Promised Land was through the red sea.)
11 But my people would not hearken to my voice; and Israel would none of me.
12 So I gave them up unto their own hearts' lust: and they walked in their own counsels. (Self-leadership that tries to avoid pain along the journey of life. We think that good leadership is when we can avoid trouble and pain along the journey.)
13 Oh that my people had hearkened unto me, and Israel had walked in my ways!
14 I should soon have subdued their enemies, and turned my hand against their adversaries.
15 The haters of the LORD should have submitted themselves unto him: but their time should have endured for ever.
16 He should have fed them also with the finest of the wheat: and with honey out of the rock should I have satisfied thee.
We must realise that the desire that we all have for a destination of peace and prosperity, that God has placed that in our hearts, just as he promised a land flowing with milk and honey for Israel, but they had to go through a Red Sea first, and just like the outcome that Joseph was promised when he was 17 years old - God brought him into the reality of that outcome, but he had to go through a prison house first, and so the prison house is a stage of the journey of where there can be a lot of self-doubt concerning the outcome because to the human mind and intellect, the conditions look so contrary to the promise.
Coming out of Self-Doubt
and into the Revelation of your Real self… Pt.3
***Your belief in yourself of who you are is a very powerful thing.
*We find in our story of Gideon that he was believing that he was something that he actually wasn’t.
He wasn’t a coward, but he believed in his heart that he was, he wasn’t a weakling, but he believed in his heart that he was.
*At the time of the gathering of these 3 powers, and because of the circumstances and conditions being so contrary to victory, we find that Gideon was full of self-doubt, and he was caught into this cycle of this self-fulfilling prophecy of the belief that he had of himself, and his unbelief was keeping him trapped in that condition like in a prison house – and so the Angel had to first deal with Gideon’s wrong thoughts of himself by revealing to Gideon the truth of who he really was.
JUDGES 6:12
12 And the angel of the LORD appeared unto him, and said unto him, The LORD is with thee, thou mighty man of valour.
Words and truth are very powerful things. That is why that truth and understanding can bring a person from chains into freedom very quickly – it doesn’t have to take years for a person to come out of a negative condition, a person can be set free very quickly from something that has held them captive for many years just by the revealing of truth.
**There was a young girl that Brother Branham tells us about that had got herself into a very negative mental state and ended up in an institution (we know this story from the message) and when the Holy Spirit revealed something about her life from her childhood, then very quickly that bought her out of her condition and into her right mind – and so we see that it is the changing of our false beliefs about ourselves that is the thing that has the transforming power to change our lives – and this is how the Angel is dealing with Gideon, and this is also how this same Angel is dealing with us in this day under the same conditions.
ROMANS 12:2
2 And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.
**So the exposing to yourself of your wrong self-belief is a very powerful thing, like the woman on the “Twentieth Century Prophet” film, she had been called a witch by a man professing divine healing, and her mind had brought into that lie, but when a prophet of God under discernment revealed that to her and told her that that was a lie, then that is what set her free right there and then - when the truth about herself was revealed to her.
THE.TWENTIETH.CENTURY.PROPHET_ CHICAGO.IL 53-0800
E-18 …You've got a lot of trouble on your heart. And you got heart trouble, to begin with. Is that right? There's a whole lot of blackness. I see a black sheet keep following you like that. Oh, it's a lie. Somebody's told a lie on you, and that was a man was professing Divine healing. [The sister says, "Yes, sir."--Ed.] He said you was a witch. ["Yes."] Is that true? And you--you got a whole stir in your church, or something another, about it. Isn't that right? Your pastor's sick right now. He has got polio. Is that right? ["Yes, sir."] Sister, don't pay no attention to what them people tell you. They're a lying. And the only thing's wrong with your heart is that nervous condition, got your heart worked up. Go on home in peace, and God bless you. You're all right. God bless you. You're not a witch.
PSALM 90:9-10 (Moses wrote this psalm as a prayer)
9 For all our days are passed away in thy wrath (like a sigh – life seems to be a constant struggle): we spend our years as a tale that is told. (Your life is a story that is told from the beginning of your life to the end of your life, and a story ceases to exist unless it finds its way into the thoughts of the minds of people, then that story takes on a spiritual life.
**Many of the events of our lives take place in the outside material world, but when those events have passed and become history, then they take up residency as thoughts in the minds of people (“We went on a certain holiday and stayed at this certain place and we went fishing and caught this certain fish and it was so big, and then we went out for a nice dinner to this certain place, and then we saw these certain sights” and on and on), and so these series of events in the outside material world now become stories and thoughts your mind as the tale of your life, and thoughts are spirit – and so this is the realm that we all live our lives in (we spend our years as a tale that is told), in other words – we spend our years in this realm of the thoughts of our minds of the stories of the events of our lives.
If you listen to really old people, they’ll tell of the stories and the memories of their lives because they are now at the end to their life story)
10 The days of our years are threescore years and ten; and if by reason of strength they be fourscore years, yet is their strength labour and sorrow; for it is soon cut off, and we fly away.
As William Shakespeare said – we have our entrances and our exits on the stage of life, in other words, Human life in this world is compared to the stage of a theatre where actors appear, enact their roles, and quit, and fly away as Moses writes.
*But that story of our lives has a purpose and a meaning known to God.
**So when we look at the events of the life of Gideon and the life of Joseph, those events happened in a time that has long since pasted, but their life stories remain with us today, and so it is your life story that lives on after you have gone, and so when we look at all these people’s lives in the bible and we read the stories of their lives, we see that there is a purpose that God wants to use these stories to reveal truth to us.
**The only way for God to reveal Himself to you is to do so by his thoughts expressed in His word, it is God’s word that reveals God to you – but when we talk about the bible being the word of God; it is full of the stories of people and their lives, and in the New Testament many parables which are also stories, so God teaches us by stories, and God is revealed by stories, and everyone loves a good story because God made us to love stories.
**And so there is a mystery of the story of your life of how that God is writing the mystery of his own life in your life just as he wrote of Himself in the life of Joseph and Gideon and Ruth and all the lives of all the people in the bible – and so you must realise that the same story that is written in their lives is the same story that God is writing in your life also – so if they had a prison house in their lives before they came into peace, then there will also be prison houses in your life story also just as there were also many prison houses in Brother Branham’s life story.
FAITH.IS.THE.SUBSTANCE_ OAKLAND.CA SATURDAY_ 47-0412
E-4 …And by the way, day after tomorrow night at the other auditorium, I'm to give a little sketch of my life story; that is, if you'd like to hear it. Would you like to hear it? Let's see your hands. That's--that's just fine.
THE.RESURRECTION.OF.LAZARUS_ CLEVELAND.OH SUNDAY_ 50-0813A
E-8 Next Sunday afternoon, the Lord willing, if we get to stay over for next Sunday, I wish to tell my life story next Sunday afternoon from the platform here. Then on the 20th of August 1950, he preaches “My Life Story”, then again on the 15th of April 1951 he preaches “Life Story”, and then he preaches it again in Toledo Ohio, 22nd July 1951, and then again in 1952, and 1955, and 1959 – so his life story was a part of the mystery of God of the message of this hour showing us that all of our lives also have a part to play in this same great mystery of God for this hour.
**So our first birth brought us into this world by the way of our human bodies, but when we heard the eagle scream of the truth for our day, then the gene of God that was in us was activated and recognised the truth, and then that spirit of truth that has activated the gene of God that is in you will continue to lead you and guide you into the full truth of the word for your age – and so it is that continued leadership in your life that is the evidence of the new birth.
*People in denomination only have a church birth. They are born of denominational doctrine. But the Spoken Word is the original Seed – the original word reveals the original Christ – any deviation from the word cannot connect God and man in fellowship again, because that is what separated God and man in the beginning.
*This is what has come back to us in this day – being born again, not of corruptible denominational seed, but of the incorruptible seed of the Word of God that abideth forever.
**That’s why the new birth will bring you into a recognition of what part of the Word you are. Church birth only puts you in religious activity and makes you belong to a certain church and work in a church program. But God has revealed His own program to us for this Hour: “Come out of her My people.” a bride being called out of organization to come into union like Rebekah.
***So you have to see yourself the way God is seeing you in this hour.
Gideon had to come out of his self-doubt and into union with the thoughts of God concerning who he was.
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.
**Everything that God does has a reason and purpose behind it, and that ultimate purpose is to bring you to an expected end, and in this day, that purpose is to bring our lives into the maturity of the revelation of this hour in order for us to be ripened grain to be taken up in the Rapture?
**If a person is not seeing their lives in that way yet, it means that the message has not become clear enough yet in the way that it should because the Message is God’s thoughts coming into your mind and becoming one with your thoughts. You have to fly beyond the realm of operating in the carnal human thinking of a reasoning based faith, it has to be the mind of Christ of the Angel’s thoughts in you.
***And so this Angel that came to Gideon was the mind of Christ coming down to Gideon to reveal to Gideon who he really was for that hour.
That is why in this bride age, the secret that was in the back-part of God’s mind is now being put into the heart of the Bride, and now she literally has the mind of Christ.
*The title deed included the revelation of God unfolding Himself to Adam, that unfolding part was lost by Adam – and so it is the mighty God unveiling and unfolding himself to his bride in this day that shows us that God has restored back what Adam lost – fellowship with God, eternal life, and dominion over the earth.
**So like we saw with Ruth how that the stage of the wheat and the stage of Ruth’s life was the same from the field all the way to the garner, and so when we see Gideon threshing wheat, then we know that Gideon himself is also being threshed - he himself is going through a beating time in his own life behind the same wine press, and so this is the time when this angel appears to him in order to bring him out of his self-doubt and into a realisation of who he really is.
IF.GOD.BE.WITH.US.THEN.WHERE.IS.ALL.THE.MIRACLES_ JEFF.IN V-15 N-1 SUNDAY_ 61-1231E
53 Now, I want you to notice another thing that might encourage you. Immediately after that prophet's message, the Lord appeared on the scene. Amen. As soon as he gave his message, the Lord appeared under a tree. The Lord came after the message of the prophet…
... And if you notice, it wasn't the Angel of the Lord here. It said, "And the Lord," capital L-O-R-D. It was not an Angel. It was God.
**So we see the story of Gideon is the story of our own lives- it is showing us in parallel exactly the time that we are living in now.
***So Gideon found himself at harvest time at the time of when these three powers had gathered against him, and we notice that this is the time when the Lord Himself appeared to him in order to bring him out of his inner turmoil and self-doubt and into the victory of what he was truly called to be.
*Many of us have suffered with insecurities and self-doubts and a host of other mind battles - all these types of struggles are common to all of us.
***But we know that truth will bring a person into a relationship with Christ. Truth will unveil the Mighty God to you so that you can see His character and see His ways, and see His commitment to His people of this end time hour who have believed the prophet that He has sent in this generation.
*This is where your confidence and your security must rest in – it is you knowing the power of the one who has got you in his full interest and control, and that he is here to take you out of your self-doubt condition by the message that he has brought to you, and then when you receive that message, then it becomes the sword of the Lord and of Gideon – so it is an invisible union between you and God that brings you into the full victory of this day.
**After God sends a prophet, then the LORD Himself appears, and then there comes a union between God and man – the sword of the LORD and of Gideon – Gideon comes out of his self-doubt and into a union by his agreement of the thought of God concerning himself.
JUDGES 6:12
12 And the angel of the LORD appeared unto him, and said unto him, The LORD is with thee, thou mighty man of valour. This same angel of the LORD is with us also in this hour – and he is declaring, “thou mighty end time bride of valour”.
*God wants to make that personal for each of us, and so you must realise that this is what he is dealing with in your walk with Him.
**Sometimes ministers in the message may only have an emptying out message, they are gifted with that, and we certainly need every gift, and so maybe that is the highest level they are called to work with, and so we thank God for every ministry.
They tell their people about Elijah and the Son of Man ministry of this day, and they get people out of organization, but then they maybe don’t know how to go any further to take their people into a confidence of what God has promised them for this hour – and so that is why we need the help of other ministries within the body of Christ to feed us with stronger SON light, because we are not operating under a one man ministry but a 5 fold ministry of the entire body of Christ, and it is Christ in the fivefold ministry operating through that channel to show you who you really are in this hour and to bring you out of your self-doubt.
*The end time bride has to come out of denominations by the calling of the voice of Malachi 4’s message, but then she has to come into the knowledge of what her position is, and what her rights and privileges are – so as believers of the message we all as individuals have to come into the revelation of who we really are in this day – and into the knowledge that we have entered into a marriage covenant with Christ that makes us joint heirs of everything that Adam lost.
**We know that God wrote the story of Brother Branham’s life in nature millions of years before he was ever born on the earth.
STANDING.IN.THE.GAP_ JEFF.IN V-6 N-7 SUNDAY_ 63-0623M
148 I stopped and looked up on the mountain, and I seen those seven hills. Now, here, if you want to see something. There was seven peaks on top of a mountain, one mountain, that run for several miles. The last mountain before you go into the other country; no more mountains after that. And it was running from east to the west, the mountain set, and it was snowcapped on top.
149 The first two small peaks, and then a large peak; and then another small peak, and then a larger peak; and then a small peak, and then a great, large, long, snowcapped mountain. And I said, "Lord, I do not understand what that means."
150 He said, "How many peaks are there?"
151 I said, "There is seven."
152 "How many letters is in your name?" B-r-a-n-h-a-m, M-a-r-r-i-o-n B-r-a-n-h-a-m.
153 And there was three outstanding peaks. He said, "Those three peaks are the first, second, and third pull. The first one was your first part of your ministry, small hill; then your first pull, pretty high." You know, sign in the hand. Then there was a little interval in there, the time that I was taken off from being too tired. Many of you remember it. And then come the discernment, the second pull. Now I've had another, about a few years here of just kind of little peaks, see, back like my ministry wasn't yet, and then come the third one.
154 Three is a number of completion, see, the third one. The next peak was five, number of grace. And the next peak was seven, the number of--of perfection, the end. "Six days shall you labor. The seventh is the Sabbath," the end of the week, the end of time. See? And I stopped and I showed it to Billy. And I looked at them.
155 He said, "That, let that stand. If there is ever a doubt in your mind, remember this place, come back here."
156 And Billy punched me on the shoulder, he said, "Daddy, look eastward!" And how it ever happened, I don't know, but there on the east side of the road was that burning dump. Miles and miles from any kind of a city, an old rubbish heap dump laying there on the left-hand side of the road.
157 I am returning to the field. Amen. Old or young, live or die, I'll obey God until death shall set me free.
*So we see here how important it was to God to bring encouragement to his self-doubting prophet – he wasn’t doubting God, he was doubting his own calling and position – many times it is the hardest thing for you to see your own calling and position.
*When we think of the millions of years that it took God to shape those mountains to fit the life of his 20th century prophet, he is showing us something of how much effort he puts in to dealing with each one of us in order to encourage us in the believe of what he has made us.
***So God will go to very great lengths to deal with your life personally as an individual in the way that he has made you, and that is why you must never try to make someone’s else’s experience the benchmark to compare your own experiences with, because God might use a mountain range and a burning dump for Brother Branham, and then he will use a fleece with Gideon, and then He will use a big shining light for saint Paul that knocked him of his high horse.
*God will deal with every man in a different way, and He will deal with you in even the smallest of the details of your life.