From the Prison House to Father’s House
II CORINTHIANS 12:9-10
9 And he said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities (In other words – He boasted and rejoiced in his weakness and frailty and feebleness), that the power of Christ may rest upon me.
10 Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in necessities, in persecutions, in distresses for Christ's sake (We are often discouraged by all these negative things in our lives, because we think that for us to be victorious, that it has to come by human strength, this is what we are taught in this world. In other words, you need to be strong in order to be strong, but Paul is teaching us something that is the opposite to human reasoning): for when I am weak, then am I strong.
JUDGES 6:14-16
14 And the LORD looked upon him, and said, Go in this thy might, and thou shalt save Israel from the hand of the Midianites: have not I sent thee? (God has sent a prophet to this generation also, and God is now with the people of whom he sent that prophet to)
15 And he said unto him, Oh my Lord, wherewith shall I save Israel? behold, my family is poor in Manasseh, and I am the least in my father's house. (Gideon thought that he needed to be a strong person in order to be used by God to bring victory for his people, not realising that it was in the realisation of his own weakness was where the secret of God’s strength lay)
16 And the LORD said unto him, Surely I will be with thee, and thou shalt smite the Midianites as one man. (In other words, “If I am with you, then it will be as if you were only fighting one man”.
*The LORD is also with His bride in this hour, and when the Lord is with you, then regardless of how weak you think and even know you are, you are still stronger than all the powers of the enemy combined (you are invincible) because you have discovered the secret of invincibility which is “The sword of the Lord and of Gideon” You and the Lord = Invincibility. But like Johnny Crow who still thinks he’s tied to the farmer’s stake when in reality he has been set free. The only prison house remaining for Johnny Crow was the one in his own mind, and this was the same for Gideon, God had sent a prophet, and the mighty Angel of Revelation 10:1 had descended from heaven with a message of deliverance, and now the only thing left for Gideon was for him to come out of the prison house of his false belief about his own weakness. His weakness was the answer to the victory that lay ahead.
From the Prison House to Father’s House
We have been studying on this subject “Coming out of Self-Doubt and into the Revelation of your Real self” – we want to continue along that same pathway for a little bit further.
**We know that at the time of the gathering of these three powers that God had sent a prophet just like we have seen him do in this day, and then after the prophet’s ministry was over, then we see that it was the LORD himself that began to speak and to deal directly with Gideon to help him to come out of his personal self-doubt of thinking of himself as a weak and defeated individual.
***Gideon’s challenge was to come into union with the thoughts of what God had told him that he was for that hour– and so this story of Gideon was written for us in this end time hour of when there would also be three powers gathered against us in this day (Religious power, Political power, and Demon power) and so this story is showing us how God is dealing with each of our lives in order to bring us out of the prison house of the thoughts that we have of our own weaknesses and into the victory of what has been promised for this hour – out of the prison house and into Father’s house where all things are possible to them that believe.
JUDGES 6:36-40
36 And Gideon said unto God, If thou wilt save Israel by mine hand, as thou hast said, (Look at his doubts of the promise of what God had said to him - even though God had told him that he could, Gideon still wasn’t convinced that he would be able to defeat this innumerable army as if it were only one man because he had been to school and he could do the math, and he was looking at himself and of his own weakness, and so he was trapped in a prison house of his doubts against the promise of God because of his weakness, and so now God was having to deal with his life by experiences that he placed along his life’s journey in order to reveal that with God all things are possible – “when I am with you , all things are possible”)
37 Behold, I will put a fleece of wool in the floor; and if the dew be on the fleece only, and it be dry upon all the earth beside, then shall I know that thou wilt save Israel by mine hand, as thou hast said.
38 And it was so: for he rose up early on the morrow, and thrust the fleece together, and wringed the dew out of the fleece, a bowl full of water. (First it was a sacrifice being consumed by the touch of an Angel’s staff, then it was a fleece wet with dew and the ground dry, then it was the ground wet and the fleece dry, then it was a dream and the interpretation of that dream in the enemies camp - all these things God did for Gideon along the way – God knows exactly what you need along the way also.
*First it was an angel appearing to William Branham on the banks of the river, then it was the first pull, then it was the second pull, then it was the third pull, then it was the speaking into existence of animal life, then it was the speaking the storm out of existence, then it was seven mountain peaks, on and on we see how God deals with His children to bring them out of the prison house of their doubts and into the reality of the supernatural – the supernatural is becoming natural for the believer)
39 And Gideon said unto God, Let not thine anger be hot against me, and I will speak but this once: let me prove, I pray thee, but this once with the fleece; let it now be dry only upon the fleece, and upon all the ground let there be dew. (God wasn’t upset with Gideon, he knew that Gideon needed help with his faith, to come out of his reasoning based faith of doing the math, and into a word based faith of what God had promised – and God knows that you need help with your faith also, and so this is what God has been doing with us under the three pulls of the Son of Man ministry of this day)
40 And God did so that night: for it was dry upon the fleece only, and there was dew on all the ground.
**And so God will do things in your life by the events of your life in order to take you out of your reasoning and doubts and into a confidence of who you are in your relationship with God in this hour, knowing that when you are weak then He is strong and His promise is sure - that is the story of all the lives of all the believers that have gone on before, and that is the story of your life also.
PSALM 90:9 (A pray of Moses) we read this last week…
9 For all our days are passed away in thy wrath: 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 God is the one who is writing the story of your life by the placing of certain events along the pathway of your life. Like we see how God wrote the story of Joseph’s life by the events that He placed along the road of his life.
*Many events of our lives take place in the outside material world (we travelled to the certain place, and we saw the certain sight), and it is those things that affect our lives, but when those events have passed, then they become the stories of our lives, and it is God who is the master controller of all of the circumstances of all those events. And so there is nothing in your life that happens to you that is not in the full control of God’s great plan, but to us, we don’t understand the story that He is writing in our lives unless we understand the pattern of the prison house to the Father’s house.
*We see the same pattern in the life of Ruth – her destination was Boaz’s house.
*Rehab’s destination was Salmon’s house from a prison house of prostitution.
* From last week we saw that God had created (millions of year before) an entire mountain range with the exact pattern of Brother Branham’s life written on it. God knew every junction and every turn and up and down of William Branham’s life because God was the one who wrote the story of His life to begin with, and so God had placed this mountain range in the pathway of Brother Branham’s life to show him how much he really cared for him, and to help him to come out of his self-doubt because he wanted to leave the ministry and go out into the wilderness – this is 1963 just after the 7 seals. The momentous decision that he had made was to stay with it, and that is also our momentous decision also in this hour.
*God used a fleece for Gideon; He used a dry rod for Moses, a mountain range for Brother Branham. And so this is what he is also doing for you and I, because He is the same yesterday, today, and forever – and so we must become aware of this in our personal lives or we will miss seeing God working with us.
ISAIAH 42:6-7
6 I the LORD have called thee in righteousness, and will hold thine hand, and will keep thee, and give thee for a covenant of the people, for a light of the Gentiles;
7 To open the blind eyes, to bring out the prisoners from the prison, and them that sit in darkness out of the prison house.
**Between Jacobs’s house and Pharaoh’s house was the prison house – that is the pattern of the journey of every person whose destination is the Father’s house.
*We are on a journey from Fathers house to the prison house, and then back to Fathers house again, because we came from God and we are on our journey back to God again - we see that story told in the story of the prodigal son. From his father’s house to the pig pen and then back to father’s house again, but now with a revelation in his heart that he never had before.
*So by this we can know for sure that before we can go to Father’s house, we must first go through the house of the pig pen of this life, and so the troubles of this life is the stage that we all find ourselves in at this time – we are not back in Father’s house yet, we are still in the pest house of this world.
**We know that Job went through a great prison house experience in his life. He lost his business, he lost his children and his health – but when he came out of that prison house experience, and then his end was blessed greater than his beginning - he came back with a revelation of the resurrection in his heart.
SPIRITUAL.ADOPTION_ JEFF.IN SUNDAY_ 56-0923
E-5 …And there it is, just one thing after the other, and sickness on every hand (He is speaking about the prison house of this life). I'm so glad there's a way out. I'm so glad that we don't have to stay here forever too, aren't you? What would we do if I had to live in this pest house forever? I'm so glad that there's a open door. And that's all that the earth is, is just a pest house. It's... Just as soon as you think we're running all right, then here comes something else along, and get here, here comes something else. But I'm so glad that there's a way out. So happy that the Lord Jesus has come and made a way for us, a way of escape.
***This world is a prison house, a pest house as brother Branham calls it, and so this condition applies to each of our personal lives like we saw in the dream of Brother Branham of the people of God bound up in the prison house of hell beating their heads against the ten inch steel bars, and we know that it was only the voice of the prophet that set them free from that prison house, and that voice is this message that we believe – and so God has sent us a message to set us free from the prison house of this age of this insane world.
WORKS.IS.FAITH.EXPRESSED_ SHREVEPORT.LA V-7 N-1 FRIDAY_ 65-1126
And people, out of their mind, twisted arms and legs, beating their head like that. And she was crying, saying, "Deliver the people, Brother Branham." Said--said, "Help us, we're in trouble." (That’s this neurotic and insane age we are living in) She herself, I know her, she belongs to the... I believe the Church of Christ, or the Christian church, called Church of the Brethren. So she...
31 I looked around, and I said, "I wished I could." And go on, looking around; and I... my little, bitty body and--and them great, big iron bars; and those poor people in there. And you couldn't get to them, them iron bars was setting close together. And I looked, and they were beating their head like they were out of their mind. (Notice - an age that would almost send you totally out of your mind – we have arrived at this point, this is the prison house age if there ever was one)
32 And I seen some lights flickering around in there. And I looked up, and there stood the Lord Jesus with a--a--a lights of rainbow around Him. He was looking right straight to me, said, "Deliver those people." And He went away.
33 And I thought, "Well, how could I deliver them? I--I haven't got strength enough in my arms to break those bars."
34 So I said, "House of hell, give away to the Name of Jesus Christ."
35 And all the creaking and popping, and--and the rocks a-rolling, and--and bars a-falling; and people running, screaming, "Delivered!" and screaming at the top of their voice, and was all delivered.
So when we really look into this story of Gideon in Judges Chapters 6-8, we find that Gideon was bound by his own thoughts of weakness and defeat because of the conditions of the time, he thought that his weakness was a disadvantage when in fact it was the very thing that God was looking for.
*He believed that he was a coward, but according to the voice of the Angel, he wasn’t a coward. He believed in his heart that he was weak, but according to the LORD, he was actually a mighty man of valour because the Lord was now with him – and so the message of the Angel was dealing with how Gideon thought about himself – he had to change the way he thought about himself of how that his weakness was a hindrance.
**So the work of the Angel was to bring Gideon into a true faith of who he was, and what he was called to be for that hour under the leadership of the Angel.
***And so (as we have mentioned in our previous lessons), the prison house that the angel of the Lord had to deliver Gideon from was the prison house that he was trapped in in his own mind.
***Gideon thought that he had to be strong for victory to come, but he didn’t realise that his weakness was the key to what God wanted to use.
PERFECT.STRENGTH.BY.PERFECT.WEAKNESS_ JEFF.IN V-8 N-1 SUNDAY_ 61-1119
56 The important thing, one of the important things that we must master... Now, remember this, and especially you young preachers, and lay members alike. There's one thing that we've got to master if we expect to fulfill God's desire in our life; that is, we have to master the thought of human ability. If we ever get to a spot where we think that we can do it with our own intelligence and our own abilities, we've got to master that in such a way that we can get rid of the thing and lay it aside so that God can use us. That's right.
II CORINTHIANS 12:9-10 (opening scripture)
9 And he said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me.
10 Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in necessities, in persecutions, in distresses for Christ's sake: for when I am weak, then am I strong.
**Many times God will pick the weakest person that He can find to do His greatest work, and if they first think that they are strong, then he has to work on them to get them weak first.
**Abraham thought he had strength of himself to bring about the promise of God, so God had to wait until he was 99 years old and his strength was all gone.
***He had to get Moses weak first before he could use him for greatness. He had to get Gideon weak first before he could use him to bring deliverance to Israel. He had to get Joseph weak in the prison house first before he could use him to save the gentile world by his prophetic gift.
**He had to knock the apostle Paul off his high horse to get him weak first before he could use him to write much of the New Testament, and so this is why God has to allow you to become weak first until you know that it is not by might nor by power, but by My Spirit saith the Lord.
***And so you must never look at your weakness as a bad thing, because your weakness must first fit the prescription of the word before the prophecy of the victory of this hour can be realised.
15-3 THE.REVELATION.OF.JESUS.CHRIST - CHURCH.AGE.BOOK CPT.1
Now remember this. Christ in the True Church is a continuation of the Book of Acts. But the Book of Revelation shows how that the antichrist spirit would come into the church and defile it, making it lukewarm, formal and powerless. It exposes Satan, revealing his works (attempted destruction of God's people and the discrediting of God's word) right down to the time he is cast into the lake of fire. He fights that. He cannot stand it. He knows that if the people get the TRUE REVELATION of the TRUE CHURCH and what she is, what she stands for and that SHE CAN DO THE GREATER WORKS, she will be an invincible army. If they get a true revelation of the two spirits within the framework of the Christian church, and by God's Spirit discern and withstand the antichrist spirit, Satan will be powerless before her. He will be as definitely thwarted today as when Christ withstood his every effort to gain power over Him in the desert. Yes, Satan hates revelation. But we love it. With true revelation in our lives, the gates of hell cannot prevail against us, but we will prevail over them.
***As believers of the message, we have already entered into a marriage covenant with Christ, and so that makes us joint heirs of everything that Adam lost by virtue of the marriage covenant.
The title deed is legally back in our possession again by the opening of the seven seals, we have eaten the message of this hour, we have become one with the book, the title deed that Adam once had inside of him is now inside of us.
*Remember the revelation of this hour is the title deed of what Adam lost because he lost fellowship with God, the mighty God became vailed to him, but now that same God has been unveiled in this hour to His bride, and so now that legal ownership of what Adam lost is now back in our possession again.
JUDGES 7:1-8
1 ¶ Then Jerubbaal, who is Gideon, and all the people that were with him, rose up early, and pitched beside the well of Harod: so that the host of the Midianites were on the north side of them, by the hill of Moreh, in the valley.
2 And the LORD said unto Gideon, The people that are with thee are too many for me to give the Midianites into their hands, lest Israel vaunt themselves against me, saying, Mine own hand hath saved me. (In other words – “you are not weak enough yet – I need you to become weaker in order for my strength to be made manifested through you”)
3 Now therefore go to, proclaim in the ears of the people, saying, Whosoever is fearful and afraid, let him return and depart early from mount Gilead. And there returned of the people twenty and two thousand; and there remained ten thousand. (The message world got smaller all of a sudden)
4 And the LORD said unto Gideon, The people are yet too many (in other words, I need you to be even weaker then this - you are still too strong of yourself); bring them down unto the water, and I will try them for thee there: and it shall be, that of whom I say unto thee, This shall go with thee, the same shall go with thee; and of whomsoever I say unto thee, This shall not go with thee, the same shall not go.
5 So he brought down the people unto the water: and the LORD said unto Gideon, Every one that lappeth of the water with his tongue, as a dog lappeth, him shalt thou set by himself; likewise every one that boweth down upon his knees to drink.
6 And the number of them that lapped, putting their hand to their mouth, were three hundred men: but all the rest of the people bowed down upon their knees to drink water.
7 And the LORD said unto Gideon, By the three hundred men that lapped will I save you, and deliver the Midianites into thine hand: and let all the other people go every man unto his place.
8 So the people took victuals in their hand, and their trumpets: and he sent all the rest of Israel every man unto his tent, and retained those three hundred men: and the host of Midian was beneath him in the valley.
***300 men armed with no weapons but only trumpets, vessels, and lamps against a mighty army of 3 great united powers – how much weaker could they have been against such a great army? How the math looked so against them to the human mind, yet they were mightily victorious.
*Joseph was at his weakest point in the prison house before he came into his greatest victory.
*Moses was so weak that he was arguing with God about how he could not even talk properly, but that is where God needed him to be before he could use him for greatness.
***The prison houses in your life are design by God to bring you into a weak enough place in order for God to be able to exalt you to the highest place.
It is your weakness that makes way for God’s strength to be manifested in your life.
“From the Prison House to the Father’s House”
“for when I am weak, then am I strong”