The Image Reflecting Back Pt.2
I CORINTHIANS 13:9-12
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. (When a greater light shines on a portion of the word, then your partial understanding gives way to a fuller revelation of truth)
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 Pentecostal denominational children of this age didn’t want to put away their childish things – so that is why they remained babies)
12 For now we see through a glass, darkly; (That is what Paul is saying of the time that he was living in back then, because the 7 seals that sealed the secrets of the bible would not be opened until 1963, so you couldn’t see the picture of the bible clearly before this – the mirror glass was obscure.
but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known.
ESTHER 5:3
3 Then said the king unto her, What wilt thou, queen Esther? and what is thy request? it shall be even given thee to the half of the kingdom.
The Image Reflecting Back Pt.2
Read verse 12 of 1st Corinthians again…
12 For now we see through a glass, darkly; “darkly” = means to have an imperfect vision of reality.
Right now we are living in an age of gross darkness that is the greatest darkness of spiritual ignorance of all the ages, and that is because the world has rejected the light of the word that God has restored in this generation through a vindicated prophet, and so the only thing left for the world is the propaganda of all the fake news – they are not feeding on the truth of the restored word of this hour, they are feeding on fake news and lies and the shifting opinions of ungodly men, and so that gives people an imperfect vision of reality, they can’t see clearly, and when you can’t seed clearly you can’t make good decisions, and so it makes the peoples of the earth believe in a million different things that are not based on the truth of the word of God – all these movements rising up - this life matters and that life matters, sure they matter, but the reality is that they are all heading for the judgement of the great day if they don’t repent – that is what really matters, but they are blind to this reality.
*But to those who have heard the voice of this hour, the truth has been restored so that an elected people can clearly see this age as it really is – like Pilate said “what is truth”? – Truth is the true revelation of the word as given by God that shines the light for the day that you are living in) but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known.
In other words, we are to come to know who we are in this hour the same way that God knows who we are in this hour.
**A child that is born as a baby doesn’t know who he is – his parents know who he is, but he has got to come to that same knowledge of who he is.
So when we look into the mirror of the revealed word that has been opened in this day, the bible has to become a new book to us by the opening of the seven seals so it can become a clear mirror that we can see ourselves and the stories of our lives reflecting back to us again from the scriptures.
**And that can often be hard for us to personalise this and to see that reflection on a personal level because many times we are so aware of our own weaknesses and failings, and so we doubt ourselves being what the word says we are because even though we know that we have been called in this hour like Rebecca was called by Eleazar, and like Sarah saw the judge of all the earth reveal the secrets of the hearts with his back turned to the tent just before Sodom was destroyed, and how God sent a prophet in Noah’s time, and all that believed Noah’s message went with him into the new earth, and on and on we could go, and we know that our lives fit all these prophecies of this hour, but then we still have self-doubt because we look at the weakness of our humanity and we wonder how it could be really so. Like how Satan just couldn’t believe that Jesus was the son of God because of the human weakness that he saw in him.
And so we see this struggle in Brother Branham’s own life as he displayed self-doubt as to his own calling because of all the troubles that he had gone through and his own personal struggles and weakness and lack of education and poor upbringing etc. – he wondered why God didn’t choose someone who was better for the job, and this is the same argument we also think about ourselves – so God had to help him with this doubt just as he does with us.
STANDING.IN.THE.GAP_ JEFF.IN V-6 N-7 SUNDAY_ 63-0623M
139 Now, and as Billy and I started on down the road, see, started going on down the road, Billy went to sleep again. And It said, "I'll give you an everlasting sign."
140 And I said, "Lord, what..." I waited a little bit and nothing happened. I said, "What is the everlasting sign, Lord?" And I waited a few minutes. And just then I looked over to see Billy; he was asleep.
141 And He said, "I'll give you an everlasting sign," again. He said, "Look westward from where you're at."
142 And I turned my head like this in the truck, to look; slowed down, you know. And, oh, my, the Spirit of the Lord! I felt like I could scream and cry. And I looked, and I just saw a mountain with white caps on it. I said, "I don't know, see no everlasting sign about that."
143 He said, "You're name is wrote all over it." (His He didn’t see big letters with his name written - it was the mystery of his life revealed in the mountain peaks that was his name written)
144 Oh, I thought, "What is that?" And I got real weak and I started stopping.
145 And Billy raised up and said, "What's the matter with you?" And I pulled my hands like this, perspiration dropping off my hand, and it snowing.
146 I said, "Billy, something is happening. At one time I know where I've done wrong. I know that I've failed God." And look like I could hear that song being sung, and see thousands of mixed people, lame, halt, blind, and withered; heard a choir, a voice of some great renown voice, singing:
Unclean! Unclean! The evil spirits drove him. (You know the song.)
Then Jesus came and set the captive free.
147 I could see the sick lines a laying everywhere, and I had to stop. Billy didn't know that was taking place. And I looked up.
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. (Think of how God had known every detail of Brother Branham’s life from the foundation of the world, and how that He had begun to form those mountains maybe five hundred million years ago and shaped them in such a detailed way over the millions of years just so that he could reflect his prophet’s life back to him that morning as he was driving past – God has also written your life somewhere in nature)
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."
God was helping him to believe in who he really was.
Those mountains were reflecting his life back to him to help him to see his true calling of who he really was in the word as the ministry of Malachi 4 and Revelation 10:7 and many other scriptures – and if he struggled with, this then we will too.
From last week we read the story of the little boy seeing his reflection in the mirror for the first time…
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274 And when the little fellow started to running through the house, he stopped. Little Johnny saw little Johnny. See? And he scratched his head, and little Johnny in the mirror scratched his head. He laughed, and little Johnny in the mirror laughed. He jumped up-and-down, and little Johnny jumped up-and-down in the mirror. See? He walked up real close. He thought it was a little boy he could play with, so he walked up. Directly, he pecked on the glass. He turned around, and his parents was watching him. He said, "Mama, that's me."
He came to the realisation that that was him being reflected back in the mirror because what he saw in the mirror was the same actions of how he was acting in real life.
***So this is the face to face in the mirror that Paul is speaking of in 1st Corinthians 13:12, so that when we look into the scriptures in this hour we can see the events of our lives being reflected back to us in the events of the lives of Ruth, and Esther, and Sarah, and Rebecca and many more throughout the entire bible – and then after a while it begins to dawn on us also that the word is reflecting back the actions of our lives as a people in this end time age and that you are that potion of the word being reflected back just as brother Branham was a portion of the word and as Jesus was the word also.
THE.MASTERPIECE_ JEFF.IN V-4 N-7 SUNDAY_ 64-0705
155 Notice, the Bride. If the Bride, in the beginning, was the Word, or the Bridegroom; and then if the Bride is taken from the Bridegroom, It must be the Word also. Notice, the Bride must be.
***So picking up from last week we found out that it was only when Esther was willing to lay her life down for her people, that it was only then that she also saved her own life – and we know that this was the spirit of Christ that had to have come into her under the ministry of Mordecai and Hatach, and so now she was reflecting back in the actions of her life the life and spirit of Christ, and because of that she had now come into a character that was fit to rule, and when the King saw this, then that was when he spoke those words for the first time that she could ask him up to half of his kingdom.
ESTHER 5:1-3
1 ¶ Now it came to pass on the third day, that Esther put on her royal apparel, and stood in the inner court of the king's house, over against the king's house: and the king sat upon his royal throne in the royal house, over against the gate of the house.
2 And it was so, when the king saw Esther the queen standing in the court, that she obtained favour in his sight: and the king held out to Esther the golden sceptre that was in his hand. So Esther drew near, and touched the top of the sceptre.
3 Then said the king unto her, What wilt thou, queen Esther? and what is thy request? it shall be even given thee to the half of the kingdom.
**He saw a character in her that he had never seen before – a character that was fit to rule because she had become willing to lay her life down for a cause that was greater than her own life.
***So this great trial that came to Esther was a trial for the purpose of developing her character to a place where she could receive a power that she had never known before – a power that could resurrect a whole nation of people from the grave.
PROVERBS 31:10-12
10 ¶ Who can find a virtuous woman? for her price is far above rubies.
11 The heart of her husband doth safely trust in her, so that he shall have no need of spoil.
12 She will do him good and not evil all the days of her life.
And so when Ahasuerus said to Queen Esther, "Ask any thing, even up to half of the kingdom”, He had observed Esther’s character too closely to give her that sort of power if he had thought she would abuse that power.
***Christ wants a people in this hour that He can give the Third Pull of the spoken word power to – “whatever you say, speak it in My Name up to half the kingdom”, but he must first see the right image reflecting back.
***Notice how when brother Branham’s wife (sister Meda) slammed the door in his face because their son Joseph had been naughty and sister Meda had become upset over it – we know that the protection of God that had kept that cist on the left ovary dormant, that it immediately began to grow – why? Because she failed to reflect the right image of the word of her position as to how a wife should act toward her husband – she wasn’t reflecting the correct image back.
But we know that when brother Branham prayed for her and interceded for her – then that was the right reflection because Christ also interceded on behalf for our sin also, and then when God saw the right image of his own character being reflected back by his prophet, then the spoken word power could be given – up to half the kingdom, because the right image was being reflected back.
****We remember that the secret of Esther’s power laid in her submission to the headship of the king and that she stayed in her position of being under headship unlike Vashti – but then we notice that she was not offered the spoken word power of up to half the kingdom until after she appeared in the king’s court contrary to the law of the land.
That was probably the first time in her life that she had ever broken the law, certainly to that level – and remember that she could have died for this, and that’s a very scary thing for a young girl.
****And so King Ahasuerus would have realised this, in that Esther had chosen to break the law of the land by entering his court uninvited, and he knew well that she would have known that that would have cost her her life if he had not shown her mercy, and so this was a character that he had never seen in her before because this took a great amount of bravery - if you had by chance caught the king at a time when he was not in a good mood, things may have gone very wrong for you.
*Remember how the three Hebrew children broke the king’s law by refusing to bow to the image of a man – we all know how the king acted on that occasion, but then we also see how the supernatural power of God followed that event. Remember also how Daniel broke the law of the land by praying to his God – but then we see how the supernatural power of God also followed that by shutting the lions mouths.
***So we see a pattern in the word that when the laws of the nation are changed to oppose the laws of God, and the true believers are willing to break the laws of the nation in order to keep God’s law even if their lives are put in danger, then we know that that is also the time when the intervention of the supernatural takes place and God comes on the scene in mighty power.
ESTHER 5:4-5
4 And Esther answered, If it seem good unto the king, let the king and Haman come this day unto the banquet that I have prepared for him.
5 Then the king said, Cause Haman to make haste, that he may do as Esther hath said. So the king and Haman came to the banquet that Esther had prepared.
We see how she had invited the king to her banquet at supper time – evening time – and we know that this was a banquet of wine, and wine is symbolic for the stimulation of revelation.
REVELATION 3:20
20 Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me.
***Have we been banqueting with the king at this supper time? – this is the real supper time and the real banquet of wine – but notice that it is not just the king she is entertaining that is present at this time, her greatest enemy is also present right there in her own house of banquet. Paul said that when he would do good, then evil was present, and that is why we often struggle because we know that we are at this great banquet of wine in this hour, but we also have this wicked Haman in our house also that we are trying to deal with – but this is the hour when the wicked Haman and his evil plotting is to be done away with forever by the kinsman avenger.
Christ is both kinsman redeemer, and kinsmen avenger in this hour – He is here to give back to the living decedents of the rightful owners of Adam’s lost inheritance the title deed ownership of the earth back to the rightful owners again.
***It was Michael Angelo that smote the image of Moses that he had spent so many years sculpturing and commanded it to speak because of how it was reflecting back to him what had been perfectly visualised in his mind.
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128 And I stood down in Los Angeles at Forest Lawn, one day, and my heart jumped. How many's ever been in Forest Lawn? There is a... the statue of Moses by--by... -angelo, I believe it is Michelangelo. And it's a perfect statue, all but on the right knee; there is a nick about a half inch deep. And the guide... I was looking, and he pointed it out to me. He said, "Michelangelo had spent a lifetime of trying to--to make... He was a sculptor, and he was trying to make the image of Moses. Back in his mind, he had in mind what Moses should look like. He had that in his heart, what Moses should look like. And then he spent his lifetime; chisel a little here, and rub it; stand back and look at it. Year after year after year, he worked on it. Finally when it was completed, and he stepped back and laid down his rag and his hammer, he looked at the statue. It was so perfect the image of Moses that he had in his heart, till he got so beside himself, he grabbed the hammer and struck it, hollered, 'Speak!"' It's called Michelangelo's Masterpiece. That great something in that sculptor, that vision that he had of what Moses ought to be with, was only portraying in type of the great Father God.
129 He had in His heart, before the foundation of the world, a Son, because He is a Father. But it was still in the genes of His Word. And He created a man, and He had to put him on free moral agency, but that man fell. But the great Sculptor, God, who made man from the dust of the earth, He didn't settle for that, He started making man again. And He made a Noah, he died drunk. He made a Moses that failed to keep His Word. He made prophets that run in the time of trouble. And He kept building and molding until after while He wanted a--a masterpiece, to reflect Him, His nature, what was in His heart what a son should be.
130 One day, down Jordon, after that Masterpiece had been formed and made, there He come sending down in a... on the wings of a Dove, said, "This is Him!" He, was so enthused with this Masterpiece until He struck Him on Calvary, that He would die, for the, rest of us was imperfect; that through the shedding of His Blood, He, might bring many masterpieces (being a Bride) to His Son. Masterpiece is scarred because the enthusiasm of God to see such a Masterpiece, He, struck Him for us all. See? There He died, to perfect we who are imperfect. The Masterpiece.
THE.MASTERPIECE_ JEFF.IN V-4 N-7 SUNDAY_ 64-0705
155 Notice, the Bride. If the Bride, in the beginning, was the Word, or the Bridegroom; and then if the Bride is taken from the Bridegroom, It must be the Word also. Notice, the Bride must be.
156 Why, why must the Bridegroom be the Word manifested, made plain? Is because the Bride and the Bridegroom are One. She is just a smitten piece off of Him. There is the Masterpiece. It was smitten. Say...
157 Michelangelo could not reproduce that again. He could not put it back.
But God is going to do it. He is going to bring this little Bride, that's smitten, right back to the side of the original Word. And there He is, there is the Masterpiece, the family back again in garden of Eden.
158 How is this Bride going to do this? How is this Wheat going to do this? Malachi 4 said, in the last days, it would be restored back, (what?) restored back like the beginning; take it back! "I will restore," saith the Lord, "all the years the palmerworm, and cankerworm, and all these other things has eaten. I will restore again." Malachi 4 said, "He will restore the hearts of the people, and the Faith of the people, back to the original fathers again." See? We see this right before us, Church. Where are we at?
159 Now, closing in a few minutes. I want you to notice real close of something that just happened.
Malachi 4 is to bring back, back to the original.
160 She is smitten from the church, from the church body; smitten with Her Master, for the same purpose. She is the Word. Just the same as Joseph was smitten from his brethren, because he was the Word. And Jesus was smitten from His brethren, because He was the Word. The church is smitten... The Bride is smitten from the church, because She is the Word. There is your stages again; one, two, three, see, just exactly.
161 The Word, living and in action, the Bible Bride, not some man-made bride; the Bible Bride, smitten and afflicted of God. "No beauty we should desire Her, but yet we did esteem Her smitten and afflicted of God." That's right. She stands alone. She is smitten from all the denominations, according to Revelations 3. She is smitten out of the Laodicean Church Age that She was raised up in.