(Singing:)  "The Glory of the Lord is being revealed . . .  Let the River flow . . ."

Just a moment, let's raise our hands and just quietly worship the Lord where you are.

We worship You, oh Lord.  We glorify You.  We acknowledge You in this house.  Hallelujah.

(Tongues)  Hallelujah.

(Singing:)  "Surely the Presence of the Lord is in this place . . ."

Do you believe that?  Give the Lord a great handclap of praise.

Let's turn in our Bibles this morning to the Book of Psalms -  Psalm 106, beginning in verse 32.

We want to welcome those of you who are in the house of God this morning.  It's so good to see every one of you.  We had a wonderful time in the Word last night.  We trust that God will minister to you again this morning from His Truth.

We are making some progress with the webpage.  The webpage is back up.  We want to thank the Lord for that.  And we're just glad that there was a copy of it so that it could be posted, or else everything would have been lost.

You know, the enemy must be very mad, extremely mad, about the revelation that the Lord is giving.  Hallelujah.  Amen.

So we want to welcome those of you who have made it.  You fought through and got on the streaming.  They're putting the list up, and we'll just greet everyone real quickly while you're turning to Psalm 106.  I'm going to begin reading in verse . . . perhaps verse 32.

So some people have pressed through, haven't they?  Let's praise the Lord for that.

I want to continue with where we left off last night - Psalm 106.

If you read the 106th Psalm, it is the history of the nation of Israel, the people of God - how they were brought through the wilderness, how God supplied their needs, how the enemy rose up to tempt and to hinder, how there were many who complained and murmured and grumbled and provoked the Lord.  And so many different things were going on.

We started speaking last night from a theme concerning . . . in Romans 11, verses 1?8 . . . a spirit of stupor.  We read about those who it has not been given unto them a heart to perceive.  They have not received of the Lord eyes to see and ears to hear.

It's a very serious place to be in.  I thank God that I understand this morning that for some it is a temporary condition.  But I also recognize that for others, it is their permanent state.  They'll never have a heart to perceive.

I want you to know that this is not a time to play with God.  He is confirming His Word all over the world - even through men and women who don't know the Truth as you and I know it, but they do have a sense to hear and the ability to see as seers and prophets.  But gifts and callings of God are without repentance.  

And many of them, if you knew their doctrine you would be shocked.  You'd be surprised.  You'd be amazed.  You wouldn't want to know what their fundamental doctrine is ? most of them Trinitarians.  Most of them baptize in titles.  Most of them have no real understanding of the hour that we're living in historically and through the ministry of the Seventh Angel messenger.  

And yet they're having Words from the Lord that are so . . . they're dovetailing and they're pulling something out that is necessary for the hour we're living in.

And so to know the Truth . . .  to know that this is the Truth and to reject it is serious business.  To know that the Message of the Hour is right and to continue to play around with denominations, it's a serious thing, because there are many out there who have not been given a heart to perceive.

If you can perceive what God has done in this day, you belong unto the Truth, because many cannot even perceive it.  They don't even have eyes to begin to see it or ears to begin to hear it.

Verse 32.

32.  They angered him also . . .

I'm going to go back just a little bit just so you'll kind of get the idea.  Verse 25.

25.  But murmured in their tents, and hearkened not unto the voice of the LORD.

26.  Therefore he lifted up his hand against them, to overthrow them in the wilderness:

27.  To overthrow their seed also among the nations, and to scatter them in the lands.

28.  They joined themselves also unto Baal-peor, and ate the sacrifices of the dead.

29.  Thus they provoked him to anger with their inventions: and the plague brake in upon them.

30.  Then stood up Phinehas, and executed judgment: and so the plague was stayed.

31.  And that was counted unto him for righteousness unto all generations for evermore.

32.  They angered him also at the waters of strife, so that it went ill with Moses for their sakes:

32.  They angered him also at the waters of strife, so that it went ill with Moses for their sakes:

Who was to blame?  But who paid the price?  How serious.  The people were to blame, but Moses paid the price.

33.  Because they provoked his spirit, so that he spake unadvisedly with his lips.

That word "unadvisedly" means "to babble angrily."  He spake unadvisedly.  He babbled in anger with his lips.  And it cost him something.  It cost him the personal inheritance of his generation.

Another generation, another people, another leader came along and inherited the promises of God that were given to a prior generation.  It's serious.

Father, I thank You this morning for the holy Presence of God that is in this house.  I thank You that You have ministered to us by Your Spirit.  I thank You that the hand of conviction is in the building.  I thank You that the Angel of the Lord has come to witness Your Word in our hearts.

And I pray that You will give us a heart to perceive.  Give us eyes to see.  Give us ears to hear.  Give us a determination in this hour and a made-up mind not to let this opportunity slip between our fingers.

BaShem Adonai Yeshua HaMashiach, in the Name of the Lord Jesus Christ, we pray.  Amen.  And the Church said, "Amen."

You may be seated.

Again, a very serious Word ? something that we're all familiar with, something that's mentioned several times in the Bible.  Let's study.  Let's just study a few moments.

Turn to Exodus.

You got to hear a lot last night that I never intended for you to hear just yet.  So we have to go back and stick a little closer to the subject, if possible, this morning.  

Exodus 17.  If you've got your Bible, you can turn there.  If not, they'll put it up on the screen in a moment.

Verse 1.  

1.  And all the congregation of the children of Israel journeyed from the wilderness of Sin, after their journeys, according to the commandment of the LORD, and pitched in Rephidim: and there was no water for the people to drink.

2.  Wherefore the people did chide with Moses, and said, Give us water that we may drink.  And Moses said unto them, Why chide ye with me?  wherefore do ye tempt the LORD?

3.  And the people thirsted there for water; and the people murmured against Moses, and said, Wherefore is this that thou hast brought us up out of Egypt, to kill us and our children and our cattle with thirst?

4.  And Moses cried unto the LORD, saying, What shall I do unto this people? they be almost ready to stone me.

5.  And the LORD said unto Moses, Go on before the people, and take with thee of the elders of Israel; and thy rod, where with thou smotest the river, take in thine hand, and go.

6.  Behold, I will stand before thee there upon the rock in Horeb; and thou shalt smite the rock, and there shall come water out of it, that the people may drink.  And Moses did so in the sight of the elders of Israel.

7.  And he called the name of the place Massah, and Meribah, because of the chiding of the children of Israel, and because they tempted the LORD, saying, Is the LORD among us, or not?

I want to refresh your memory for just a moment.

The children of Israel were chiding.  They were complaining, and they were almost mocking Moses and his leadership because they were thirsty.  And they had already forgotten God's quick provision for them, His supernatural escape strategy that He had revealed to bring them out of Egyptian slavery.

And now they were thirsty and they began to blame the man of God for their thirst.  

This is still a very common practice in the church of the living God where we become dissatisfied.  And rather than to seek out the cause of our dissatisfaction, we lay blame on somebody, anybody, whoever happens to be in the way . . . Amen? . . . other than ourselves.

But I want you to notice that God ignored their chiding and their complaining, and He provided water for them regardless of their attitude and their spirit.  

God said, "I want you to go, Moses.  I want you to take the elders of Israel, and I want you to take the rod that You used to smite the river, the water.  And I want you to go up there to Horeb, and I want you to strike the rock."

And the Bible said that when he struck the rock, water began to flow out of that rock.  And there was enough water that all the people were able to drink, and their camels, and their donkeys, and their children, and whatever else they had.  

(I didn't mean to put children in the same category as donkeys and camels.  But I was just trying to go down the list.  I got it a little bit out of order.)

But everybody had water to drink.  And it all came from the rock.  And God blessed.  He provided, even though the people were complaining.  They didn't have the right spirit. They didn't have the right attitude.  But God said, "They're My people and I love 'em, and I'm going to give 'em to drink anyway."

But then we read in some other places where some other things took place.  This was the first time.  But we know through the Scripture there was another time.  Let's look at that just a moment.

Numbers, chapter 20, verse 12.

12.  And the LORD spake unto Moses and Aaron, Because ye believed me not, to sanctify me in the eyes of the children of Israel, therefore ye shall not bring this congregation into the land which I have given them.

13.  This is the water of Meribah; because the children of Israel strove with the LORD, and he was sanctified in them.

Verse 7.  

7.  And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying,

8.  Take the rod, and gather thou the assembly together, thou, and Aaron thy brother, and speak ye unto the rock before their eyes; and it shall give forth his water, and thou shalt bring forth his water, and thou shalt bring forth to them water out of the rock: so thou shalt give the congregation and their beasts drink.

9.  And Moses took the rod from before the LORD, as he commanded him.

10.  And Moses and Aaron gathered the congregation together before the rock, and he said unto them,
Hear now, ye rebels; must we fetch you water out of this rock?

11.  And Moses lifted up his hand, and with his rod he smote the rock twice: and the water came out abundantly, and the congregation drank, and their beasts also.

Two separate times, God provided water from the rock.  The first time God said, "Strike the rock," Moses struck the rock and God supplied the water.  The second time God said, "Speak to the rock."  

You need to understand this morning that the order is changing.  What used to work will not work any more.  We're moving into a higher level in the Spirit, and God is revealing a new order of ministry.  

He's revealing a new order of administration and government in His kingdom.  We're moving from the realm of Churchianity to the realm of Kingdom ? Kingdom, the Kingdom of God.  

The emphasis will never be again on the church because the church is a broken thing.  It's broken.  And it will never be glued back together.  God is no longer putting forth effort to build a church, but He is building a Kingdom in this hour.  

And it's not any kingdom that we can lay exclusive rights to.  It's not a kingdom that we can control, but it is the Kingdom and the dominion of the heavenly Bridegroom, the Lord Jesus Christ.  And all of hell is against seeing that Kingdom established.  

I've said this before, but we're in that hour of growing up.  We need to shut up and we need to grow up, as quickly as we possibly can, because God wants to use us.  He desires to use us.

And it's a sad thing what was happening here.  Moses allowed the people to so overwhelm his spirit that he babbled out of anger.  And the Bible said that our yea should be yea and our nay should be nay.  Anything other than that can certainly be judged as profanity.  That's what the Bible said.

We need to watch our language because our language is a reflection of our mentality.  If all we ever talk about is carnal things, it's because we have a carnal mentality.  

If all we ever talk about is the world, and what's going on in the world, and what the culture of the world is, it's because we have a worldly mentality.

But if we begin to have a spiritual mentality, we're going to begin to communicate one with another the spiritual aspects and principles of the Kingdom.  Amen.

This is where we've missed it a lot of times.  It wore against the spirit of Moses.  Did you know, this happening is mentioned over and over again in the Old Testament.  

And in the New Testament, it's called "The Provocation" because Moses was provoked by the people.  And he allowed them to provoke him in such a manner that he babbled with anger.  He just let out a spill of angry words that changed nothing.

How many of you know angry words change nothing?  They may temporarily make you feel a little better.  You call it "letting off steam" or "letting off pressure," or whatever you may want to call it.  It may make you temporarily feel a little bit fixed.  But it absolutely accomplishes nothing.

And because Moses allowed the people to push him into a corner to the place that he murmured, he babbled these angry words, God was not sanctified among the people.

God wanted to show Himself powerful, and He wanted Moses to talk to the rock, and from the rock, water was going to flow.  And God was going to get the glory and be sanctified and set apart among the people.

But Moses cheated God.  (I want you to hear this.)  Moses cheated God out of the glory.  Moses with his angry words drew the attention of the people to himself.  And because they were looking at Moses and listening to his angry words, they were not able to look upon the glory of God.

God is a jealous God.  He won't share His glory with another.  A lot of people are not going to be used in this thing that God is doing because they want credit and they want glory for everything they accomplish.  

And if they're not recognized enough, then they get their feelings hurt, and they pout, and they lick their wounds, and they carry on and go into the throes of depression, and so forth, and etc.  

And it really boils down . . .  In some situations, it boils down to needing to be validated.  And I want to tell you something.  When we grow up spiritually, when we come to the place that God is calling us to in this hour, we don't even receive from the validation of men.  It doesn't even mean anything to us when people validate us.

What we're working for, and what we're striving for, and what we're living for is that "amen" that doesn't come from the earth.  It doesn't come from flesh.  We're striving for heaven's amen.  We want to hear an amen that echoes from the portals of heaven where God says, "Amen.  You did a good job.  Well done.  I'm with you.  I'm behind you."

God's not going to raise up a generation of men-pleasers.  He's going to have a generation of those who dare to please God even if it doesn't please the crowd.  This is where we're headed.  

Moses missed it.  Number 14, we read . . .  Let me give you this verse - Deuteronomy 1:37.  Moses said,

37.  Also the LORD was angry with me for your sakes, saying, Thou also shalt not go in thither.

God was ready.  In Numbers 14, you can read about it.  God was ready to kill the whole nation.  But Moses interceded on their behalf and he prayed, "Pardon, I beseech Thee . . ."

And in verse 20 of Numbers 14, God said,

20.  I have pardoned according to thy word:

("Moses, I have changed My eternal plan here, and I have pardoned the people that I was willing to kill because you stood and interceded on their behalf.")

God was wanting to reveal a new structure and strategy for ministry.  He was really wanting to reveal the power of the Spoken Word.  But Moses was distracted by his own reactions and the people's chiding.  And he struck the rock in anger.  

And look what God did.  He didn't embarrass the prophet.  He allowed water to flow out anyway, but oh, at what an awful cost.  What a high cost Moses had to pay.  

And this is serious, and we all know this story.  But I want you to look at it now in this perspective.

Remember, this was a people who had not been given a heart to perceive, eyes to see or ears to hear.  They did exactly what any generation will do that have not been given a heart to perceive, eyes to see and ears to hear.  

They did exactly what they had to do.  They did exactly what God knew they were going to do because they had not been given a heart to perceive, eyes to see and ears to hear.

And Moses already knew it because God had already spoken to him and said, "I've not given them a heart to perceive, eyes to see or ears to hear."  

The sad thing is Moses had already been warned about what kind of people he was leading.  He knew they couldn't hear.  He knew they couldn't see.  He knew they couldn't understand, and he still got upset when they didn't understand, when they didn't see, and when they didn't hear.  He knew that's the kind of people they were.  God already told him that's what kind of people they were.

Anybody with me?  But he got upset anyway.  And in his frustration he beat the rock.  

We heard Brother Branham preach this in "Speak to the Rock," and several other places.  And he talked about Pentecost.  And we could look at it this way.  Here they are going around the mountain one more time.  One more time around the mountain, and we ought to be able to get back to where we want to be.

We just make one more lap around the mountain, perhaps we'll come back to the old-time power of Pentecost.  Everybody wants the power, everybody wants the fire, everybody wants the healing, everybody wants the deliverance, but nobody wants to pay any kind of a price.

The Spoken Word is not going to come to those who are unsanctified and unseparated.  The power of the Spoken Word is going to come on those vessels that are yielded.

Katherine Kuhlman used to say, "God is not looking for golden vessels.  And God is not looking for silver vessels.  God is looking for yielded vessels."  Can you say, "Amen"?  

It doesn't matter this morning whether you're made of gold or silver or clay, or mud for that matter.  God is not looking at you based on what you're made of, what your structure is, what your personality is, where you came from, what your upbringing is or your background.  

God is looking at you based on your measure of yieldedness.

God wants to bend you.  God wants to flow through you.  And we're giving Him a hard time about it.

Verse 22 said:  (Numbers 14)

22.  Because all those men which have seen my glory, and my miracles, which I did in Egypt and in the wilderness, and have tempted me now these ten times, and have not hearkened to my voice;

Verse 23.

23.  Surely they shall not see the land which I sware unto their fathers, neither shall any of them that provoked me see it:

24.  But my servant Caleb, because he had another spirit with him, and hath followed me fully . . .

I want you to know something.  A few minutes ago I said, "Who did the sinning?  The children of Israel.  Who paid the price?  Moses."  

Well, you know that's not the whole truth.  The whole truth is the children of Israel tempted Moses.  Moses failed the Lord.  And not only did Moses pay the price, but a whole generation of people were not able to receive the promise that had been given to them because they didn't have a heart to perceive, eyes to see, ears to hear.  And they everyone . . .

Everyone.  Somebody say, "Everyone."  (Is this too loud?)

Every one of them fell in the wilderness except "my servant Caleb, who had another spirit."

Watch out now.  I'm going to get on something.  I think Brother Enzo was mentioning recently that 120-year cycle from a beginning in a conference that seemed to be a springboard for the restoration of healing and Pentecostal power held in London, England.  

A very significant man was in that conference, and his name was A. B. Simpson.  I've known about his ministry.  I've read his books.  I have four or five books written by A. B. Simpson in my library ? some on divine healing and some on the restoration of the power of God.

He later founded the Christian Missionary Alliance Church that has been one of the largest missionary organizations in the history of the world.  But it came about because of his great hunger for people to rise up and claim the power that the early church had.

And in 2005, it was 120 years.  And we've all heard how Paul Keith Davis has said that he was standing in Moriah Chapel in Wales at the end of the 100th anniversary of the Welch Revival, and how the Lord spoke to him and said, "Moses, My servant, is dead."

Those of you that have heard his ministry, you'll know that he has clearly stated that Brother Branham's ministry was a type of that Moses ministry, a prophet who would gather the people together and give them the Word that would bring them out of Egyptian slavery and bondage.

We know that Brother Branham received a Word from the Lord that a portion of his commission was a "Joshua Commission."  And I believe that.  I believe that the Joshua Commission that was written in his Bible . . .

You know what was written in his Bible?  He wrote it there in his Bible.  I've seen the Bible.  He wrote it there.

I believe that it was a symbol, or a tithe, or a token of those who would sit under his ministry and receive the Voice of God to this generation.

And I want you to know that there was only a small number of people who recognized what God was doing in that day.  Many people . . .  

Listen, many people went.  Many people saw the signs, many people saw the miracles, many people ordered the record albums and read the booklets, but only a handful of people were able . . .

And to that handful of people, Brother Branham was a Joshua.  To that handful of people who recognized there was a message behind the sign, there was a voice behind the sign . . . to that small remnant of people, Brother Branham fulfilled the commission that was given to him as a Joshua.

But to the majority of people in his ministry, who heard his ministry, he was a Moses.  And the Lord said last year, 2005, "Moses, My servant is dead" - meaning that an old cycle, a 120-year cycle of restoration, everything that the caterpillar . . .  (I'm not trying to re-preach brother's message.)

Everything that the caterpillar, and the locust, and the palmerworm, and the cankerworm hath eaten away . . . it has been restored.  

I want to tell the devil, I want to tell the world and I want to tell you if you care to listen, that the Bride-tree has been restored.  Everything that Satan has taken away from the Bride, it has been restored because of the message that God has delivered in our day.  

To multitudes of people, William Branham's ministry was a Moses ministry.  To a small remnant of people, William Branham's ministry was a Joshua ministry.

"But Moses, My servant, is dead."  

120 years, a Moses cycle, has ended.  And we are entering into a new cycle that will have a new model.  It will be based on what God has already done.  But it will be so supernatural that all of our thoughts and ideas about it won't even begin to cover the expansiveness and the effectiveness of what God is about to do.

I don't know if anybody is listening, but I'm going to speak on it anyway.  Hallelujah.

You know what today is?  I had to be reminded.  I was in Israel a couple of weeks ago and I studied it, and I realized then that I would be home on this Sunday.  But I had already let it slip my mind.

Somebody came in last night and said, "Do you know what tomorrow is?"  Other than a couple . . . does anybody know what today . . . what kind of an anniversary today is?  Today is what?  May 7th, 2006.  May 7, 1946, something happened.  

Sixty years ago today, the Angel of the Lord appeared to a little humble man that God had begun to deal with in visions and in dreams.  And he had gone to his little Baptist pastor who had told him it was of the devil and he should do everything he could to stop these visions.  

He went to some of his Baptist preacher friends and they warned him.  And they told him, "You're headed down the wrong road.  You better get free from that.  You better shake free from that as quickly as you can."  

He had gone off on a hunting trip.  And coming back through, he saw bumper stickers.  And even on the bicycles there were stickers that said, "Jesus Only."  And he wanted to know what was going on.  

There was a large convention of two of the largest Apostolic Church organizations at that time.  Black . . . one was black and one was white, the P.A.W. and the P.A.O.W. ? something like that.  Now, one of those movements has grown into the large black Pentecostal denomination, The Church of God in Christ.

He went to the meeting.  He'd spent all his money.  You heard him say that he had just enough money to buy some old, stale, day-old rolls from the bakery and he drank water out of a fire hydrant that was being flushed out in the downtown.

He took his seersucker pants off.  He slept in the old vehicle that he had.  And he pressed his seersucker britches between the seats, the folding seat of the car.  And he went to the meeting.

And when he went in there was an old black preacher who was preaching.  And he said, "You don't have enough room for me to preach up here."

He was old.  Brother Branham said he was old, but he was kickin' up his heels.  He was jumpin' around.  He was praisin' the Lord.  He was talkin' about, "Where were you when the morning star, the stars of the morning, leaped for joy?  Where were you?"  You know - from Job.  And you know that story.

You know how that he was given an opportunity to introduce himself and minister a little bit.  And people were inviting him to preach all over the country ? him, a Baptist preacher.  

And he went home and told his wife and family.  And his mother-in-law . . . she said, "You better not get mixed up with that trash."

And he didn't take his opportunity to fulfill any of those invitations.  And the great flood of the Ohio River came.  And his wife and little girl died from complications of the flood.  

And you know the story.  He wanted to die.  He tried to take his own life.  He grabbed a hold of a live electric wire.  He was a lineman for the electric company.  And he grabbed a hold of a live electric wire hoping and believing that it would kill him.

But he lived.  He was so desperate that he told his wife one day . . .

(I'm not sure that I've even got the place marked here.  Yeah.)  

"Oh," she said, "Billy . . ." (This is his wife talking.)  "Oh Billy, you oughtn't to listen to what people tell you."

"I said, 'But, honey, look at other preachers.'  I said, 'I don't want it.  I'm going to my place in the woods.  I got about fifteen dollars; you take care of Billy.'

Billy was a little boy then.  He said, "That's enough for you and Billy to live on awhile.  Call them up and tell them I may be back tomorrow, and I may not never be back.  If I ain't back in the next five days, put a man on (the line) in my place.

"And I said, 'Meda, I'll never come out of that woods until God promises me He will take that thing away from me and never let it happen again.'"

He was so disturbed over those visions that he was going to go and hide away until the Lord took them away from him.

He said, "Think of the ignorance a man can be.  I went up there that night, went back up in a little old cabin floor.  It was next day, it was kind of late; I was going to go up to my camp the next day, farther around the mountain . . .  I don't believe the FBI could find me up there.

"So this little old cabin . . .  I'd been praying all that afternoon and 'fore it got too dark.  I'd prayed, was reading over there in the Bible where It said, 'The spirit of the prophets is subject to the prophet.'

"I couldn't make that out.  So it got too dark in the little old cabin where I used to trap when I was a boy, had a trap line through there, and go up there and fish and stay all night: just a little old dilapidated cabin setting over there . . .

". . . I was just waiting there.  I thought, 'Well.'  Got along towards one o'clock, two o'clock, three o'clock in the morning; I was walking up and down the floor, walking back and forth.  I set down on a little old stool there . . . and I thought, 'My God, why do You do this to me?'  I said, 'Father, You know I love you.  You know that I love You.  And I don't want to be possessed of the devil.'"

How terrible.  This preacher made him think he was possessed of the devil because he was seeing visions.  He said, "'I don't want to be possessed of the devil.  I don't want them things to happen to me.  Please, God, don't never let it happen no more.'  I said, 'I love You.  I don't want to go to hell.

"'What's the use of me preaching, and trying, and putting my efforts forth if I'm wrong?  And I'm not only taking myself to hell; I'm misleading thousands of others.'  Or hundreds of others in them days.  And I said . . .  I had a big ministry.  And I said, 'Well, I don't never want it to happen to me again.'

"And I set down on this little stool . . . kind of in this position, just like that.  And all at once I seen a Light flicker in the room.  I thought somebody was come up with a flashlight.  

"And I looked around, and I thought, 'Well.'  And here It was, right out in front of me.  And old wooden boards on the floor, and there It was, right in front of me.  There's a little old drum stove setting in the corner; the top was tore out of it.  And right in here there was a Light on the floor, and I thought, 'Well, where's that?  Well, that couldn't be coming . . .'

"I looked around.  And here it was above me, this very same light, right there above me, hanging right like that, circling around like a fire, It's kind of an emerald color . . ."

Anybody know what color an emerald is?  Not red.

". . . going, 'Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh' like that, just above it like that.  And I looked at That, and I thought, 'What is That?'  Now, It scared me.

"And I heard somebody coming, just walking, only it was bare-footed.  And I seen the foot of a Man come in.  It was dark in the room, all but right here where It was shining right down.  I seen the foot of a Man coming in.  And when He come into the room, walked on up, He was a Man about, looked to weigh about 200 pounds.  He had His hands folded like this.

"Now, I'd seen it in a Whirlwind; I'd heard It talk to me, and seen it in the form of a light, but the first time I ever seen the image of It.  It walked up to me real close."

He said, "Well, honest, friends, I thought my heart would fail me.  Just imagine.  Put yourself there," he said.

"'Cause after hundreds and hundreds of times of visitation, it paralyzes me when He comes near . . .  I almost completely pass out, just so weak when I leave the platform."

"So I was setting there and looking at Him.  I kind of had my hand up like that.  He was looking right at me, just as pleasant.  But He had a real deep voice, and He said, 'Do not fear; I am sent from the Presence of Almighty God.'

"And when He spoke that voice, that was the same voice that spoke to me when I was two years old, all the way up.  I knowed that was Him."

"He said, 'Do not fear,' just as quiet, said, 'I'm sent from the Presence of Almighty God to tell you that your peculiar birth . . .'  As you know what my birth was up there."

(He's telling this in a sermon.)  He said, "As you know what my birth was.  That same Light hung over me when I was first born.

"And so He said, 'Your peculiar birth and misunderstood life has been to indicate that you're to go into all the world and pray for the sick people.'  And said, 'And regardless of what they have . . .'  And . . . He designated cancer.

"Said, 'Nothing . . .  If you get the people to believe you, and be sincere when you pray, nothing shall stand before your prayers, not even cancer, (See?) if you get the people to believe you.'"

He said, "What did I know about healings and things like that, those gifts?  I said, 'Well, Sir, I'm a poor man.'  And I said, 'I'm among my people.  I live with my people who's poor.  I'm uneducated.'  And I said, 'And I would not be able; they'd not understand me.'  I said, 'They wouldn't hear me.'

"And He said, 'As the prophet Moses was given two gifts, signs (rather) to a-vindicate his ministry, so . . . are you given two gifts to a-vindicate your ministry.'

"He said, 'One of them will be that you'll take the person that you're praying for by the hand, with your left hand and their right,' and said, 'then just stand quiet, and there'll be a physical effect that'll happen on your body.'  And said, 'Then you pray.  And if it leaves, the disease is gone from the people.  If it doesn't leave, just ask a blessing and walk away.'

"'Well,' I said, 'Sir, I'm afraid they won't receive me.'

"He said, 'And the next thing will be, if they won't hear that, then they will hear this.'  Said, 'Then it'll come to pass that you'll know the very secret of their heart.'  Said, 'This they will hear.'

"'Well,' I said, 'Sir, that's why I'm here tonight.  I have been told by my clergymen that those things that's been coming to me was wrong.'

"He said, 'You were born in this world for that purpose.'"

"And I said, 'Well, Sir, my clergymen told me that it was the evil spirit.'  And I said, 'That's why I'm here praying.'

"And here's what He quoted to me.  He related to me the coming of the Lord Jesus in His first time."

And I'm not going to read every bit of that, but it went on.

He called it many times, "How the Angel Came to Me."  May the 7th, 1946, sixty years ago today, what happened?  An Angel came and commissioned him, told him what his ministry would be like.

Are there any witnesses here (yes) who can tell that it happened exactly like the Angel said it would?

I'm gathering a list of testimonies, little excerpts of words that have been spoken about his ministry by some of the greatest men that have ever lived.

Oral Roberts had one of the greatest healing ministries the world has ever seen.  And I found some of the quotations all of these different men have said.  

Ern Baxter, who was once working with Brother Branham, this red-headed Canadian preacher . . . and he explained it and described it.  He was standing there.  

He said, "I saw Brother Branham take their hand in his hand, and I watched these manifestations come on his hand.  It would either swell up, or it would turn red, or sometimes it would turn white like leprosy.  

"And Brother Branham would look at his hand and by what he saw on his hand, he would tell them what their disease was.  And if their faith touched God, that breaking-out or pusy-ness or swelling, it would disappear.  And he'd say, 'All right.  The spirit has left you.  The disease has left you.  Go your way and be healed.'"

And thousands of people were healed that way.  And he had that ministry for quite some time.  And then God changed the course of his ministry, and he began . . .  He didn't need the hand anymore.  He didn't have to hold people by the hand anymore.  They would just come before him, and he would tell them the very secrets of their heart.

Sometimes he would read their mail.  Literally, he would tell them what kind of a letter was in their purse.  He would tell them their name.  You should hear some of these prayer lines.  He would tell them their name.

He would say, "There's a . . .  Yes, ma'am," he said, "Your name is Burns.  No, Burke.  Burke, Burke.  You're not from here.  You're from another state.  And I see that you live in a house next to a little depot.  And I see that you've been diagnosed with such-and-such.  But go your way.  Do you believe?  Do you believe what the . . . ?  Oh, then go your way, and you're made whole."  

And thousands and thousands of people received their healing.

It was a Moses ministry to the multitudes, but to a small remnant of people, he was also a Joshua because his ministry took them farther than just sign and miracles and healings.

Sixty years ago, the Angel appeared to that man and told him what his ministry would be.  In 1965, his earthly ministry ended.  We're here over forty years later.  There has been a generational gap.  

I believe that the Lord has told me that in the same manner, in the same way, that the Angel came to commission Brother Branham sixty years ago today . . . I believe that before we leave this house, there will be a commissioning take place in the Spirit that will set the course for the final cycle of God's dealings with men.

I believe that same Angel of the Lord is with God's people today.  We can't go forward by always looking backward.  But we cannot know who we are without knowing where we have come from.

And God is raising up people to go out and tell the stories, to tell the testimonies, to share the Message, to tell what God has done.  And it pales to compare with what God wants to do.  

It will not be the same ministry model.  It will not be the same way ? one man mightily used of God, multitudes coming to see one man perform the works of God.  

It will be a multi-membered Bride raised up with the same power, the same anointing, the same calling and the same commissioning.

Brother Branham was only a Joshua to a small remnant of people.  But you and I are entering into that time of the Joshua commissioning.  And we will not go forth in the anointing of Moses.  We will go forth in the anointing of Joshua and Caleb.  It is a different anointing altogether.  

The anointing of Moses was a gathering anointing, a calling-out anointing.  But the anointing of Joshua and Caleb is an anointing to possess and to overcome all of the enemies that stand between you and the promises of God in your life.  

In order to inherit the promise, you've first got to defeat the enemies.

Where are you at?  Where are you at?  The giants have to be killed.  The Canaanites have to be displaced in order for you to then go in and possess.

You see, the promises that were given to that first Moses generation - "I'm going to give you a land.  Wherever your feet trod is going to be yours.  You're going to possess this land.  It's flowing with milk and honey.  And I'm going to do this, and do that, and do the other" . . .  It was promises made to that Moses generation.  But they failed to receive the benefit.

I recognize, you know . . .  In all that God has done, in all that God has allowed, in all that God has blessed, in all the ways that you have been blessed, it is not how you respond to the Spirit that determines what takes place in your life.

Anybody can jerk.  Anybody can cry.  Anybody can fall in the Spirit.  Anybody can be blessed when the Spirit of the Lord is in the building.  But it is not your response to the Spirit that's going to determine your destiny.  It's going to be your response to what?  The Word.  

I told you about that tent revival I preached many years ago in South Carolina where a woman came in almost naked.  It was a wonderful meeting, mostly black believers.  We were having such wonderful time.  

But a woman came in, far away from God.  And people were dancing and jumping and worshipping the Lord.  And I mean, they were a having a glory-time.

And the next thing I knew, that woman was right up in the middle of them, jumping just like they were, clapping her hands, jerking around just like everybody else.  And she was in such a fix that she was falling out of her dress.

Finally, some old mother walked over to her and said . . .  They told me later what she said.  She said, "You need to tuck everything back in, honey, and go sit down."

She tucked everything back in and went and sat down.  And later she responded.  I preached a message later.  The service was mine.  I preached a message.  And God touched that woman's heart, and she responded to the Word that was preached and came forward and received her deliverance.  Now she's married to a minister of this Message.  

It was not because she responded to the Spirit.  Because when you get in a crowd where everybody is moving and worshipping, it's easy to get under that inspiration.  Just go to some of these churches that live like the devil and see how they carry on.  When the Spirit of God moves, anybody can get up and move just like they do at a rock concert.

That is powerful and wonderful, and we need it.  And I hope we have more of it.  But it is not how you respond to the Spirit that's going to determine what God does in your life.  It's how you respond to the Word.

That woman wasn't delivered because she danced and shouted and jerked around.  That woman was delivered because her heart had the right response when the Word of God went forth.  Her heart responded properly to that Word.  And God delivered her because of it.

We've got to watch how our hearts respond to the Word when it's going forth because that's what determines our deliverance and our destiny.  

Isaiah was sent to a people, in chapter 6, and then told what he should prophesy to them.  And he was told, "They won't have eyes to see.  They won't be able to hear anything you say.  But you must be faithful to tell them anyway."

That must be pretty discouraging for a preacher, huh?  

I want to give you one other verse here before we move into something else maybe.  I know it's late.  

When God gives a message, not just a sermon, nothing can take the place of that.  

Matthew, chapter 13, verse 13.

13.  Therefore speak I to them in parables: because they seeing see not; and hearing they hear not, neither do they understand.

14.  And in them is fulfilled the prophecy of Esaias, which saith, By hearing ye shall hear, and shall not understand; and seeing ye shall see, and shall not perceive:

15.  For this people's heart is waxed gross, and their ears are dull of hearing, and their eyes they have closed; lest at any time they should see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and should understand with their heart, and should be converted, and I should heal them.

16.  But blessed are your eyes, for they see: and your ears, for they hear.

17.  For verily I say unto you, That many prophets and righteous men have desired to see those things which ye see, and have not seen them; and to hear those things which ye hear, and have not heard them.

What a powerful Word.  Here we have all the way through the Bible God saying, "They don't have eyes to see.  They don't have ears to hear.  They don't have a heart to perceive."

And here these disciples gather around the Lord Jesus.  And He said, "Blessed are your eyes for they have seen, and blessed are your ears, for they have heard.  And many prophets and righteous men have desired to see those things which ye see, and have not seen them.  And to hear those things which you hear, and have not heard them.  But I've let you see them," the Lord was saying.  "And I've let you hear them."  

When I read something like that, it makes me feel so privileged.  We're so blessed to be able to see and hear and have a heart to perceive.  We live every day and rub shoulders every day with people who have no eyes to see, no ears to hear, no heart to perceive.  

And yet God has loved you so much that He's revealed His Word to you.  He's extended His mercy and grace to you.  He's elected you and chosen you and called you for this hour.

Blessed are your eyes, for you have seen.  Blessed are your ears, for you have heard what prophets and sages and holy men have longed to see and hear, and yet have not heard.  And yet God would reveal these things to us.

I want to close with two verses of Scripture from the Book of Isaiah, 32, verse 3.

3.  And the eyes of them that see shall not be dim, and the ears of them that hear shall hearken.

Isaiah 35:5.

5.  Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf shall be unstopped.

These two verses of Scripture, Isaiah 32:3 and Isaiah 35:5, are Scriptures pertaining to the King, the Messiah, coming.  And when the Messiah comes, the eyes of them that see shall not be dim and the ears of them that hear shall hearken.

When Messiah comes, the eyes of the blind shall be opened and the ears of the deaf shall be unstopped.  

Remember that both Moses and Paul said, "They have eyes, but they don't see.  They have ears, but they don't hear, until this day" - unto this day, even to this day.

But I want to tell you something.  There is coming a day when the eyes of those chosen of the Lord, the elected, His people, His Jewish nation . . .  Their eyes have been blinded, but there is coming a day when Mashiach comes, their eyes are going to be opened, their ears that have been deaf are going to be unstopped, and they are going to see and recognize their salvation.

And before that happens, before that happens to Israel, it has to happen among us.  Our eyes have to be opened.  Our ears have to be unstopped.  Because the promise was given to a Moses generation, but it wasn't a reality until a Joshua generation came on the scene.  

Everything that God promised Moses and his followers never happened in the ministry of Moses.  It only began to come to pass in the next generation.  

Did God lie?  Did God not keep His promises?  No.  A whole generation of people forfeited their promises.  Hear me.  They did it because they murmured against the prophet.  

A whole generation of people forfeited their promises.  And their children and grandchildren inherited the promises that had been given to them, but they failed to receive them.  They forfeited them.  

They passed them on because they couldn't get their deliverance, they couldn't get their freedom.  They couldn't seem to manage to get eyes to see and ears to hear and a heart to perceive.  So a generation followed.

The very same thing has happened in this last cycle as we've come now to the end of everything, the consummation of the ages, the end of the end.  The very same thing is happening.  

God sent a Moses with a Message.  And that Moses brought precious promises that were to come upon the Bride of Christ in the last days.  

And only a small remnant of people received it and became a part of that Joshua commissioning that God had given to the prophet.  

Some people were not able to receive the promises because they fixated on the messenger.

You cannot hear the Message if you fixate on the messenger.  You cannot hear the Message if you fixate on the messenger.  You cannot hear the Message if you focus on the mouthpiece.  

"Look what a mouthpiece.  Look what a mouthpiece.  Look what a mouthpiece.  Look what a messenger.  Look what a messenger.  Look what a messenger.  Look what a sign.  Look what a sign.  Look what a sign.  Look what a ministry.  Look what a man of God.  He was just like Jesus.  He never . . ."

I'm not telling you I believe this.  I'm telling you what a generation declared.  Be careful.  I'm just telling you what was declared.

"He never made a mistake - not one mistake.  He never made a mistake.  There was no sin in him."  Some went so far as to say that in April, Christ was born.

I have in my files Christmas cards that have come from India in April with a log cabin on the front saying, "Christ Branham was born," that celebrate the birth of Christ Branham.  

You can't receive a Message if you fixate on the messenger.  You can't understand and perceive and receive a Message if you focus on the mouthpiece.  You'll fall into error every time, every time, every time.  You'll make your pilgrimages back to see if there's any possibility that we can raise the mouthpiece from the dead.

But I want to tell you something.  If Brother Branham were raised from the dead and stood in this house this morning, he could not declare anything any different to you than what you have heard.  He couldn't.  

And yet there are people who have fixated on the mouthpiece, on the messenger, who are waiting on him to raise from the dead.  They are waiting on a physical tent, a physical return.  And because of their behavior, many of them continued in their sin, not trusting Christ for redemption, but hoping that one day Brother Branham would bring deliverance to their lives.

So some of them continued to live in adultery.  Some of them continued to lust for other men's wives and had them - had them, took them, prophesied.  I can give you facts, but I'm not going to this morning.  

But there are people in this building who have been around these things long enough.  We know the good and the bad and the ugly.  

You see, there are people in this place that know what it was like for women to go down to the lake and try to drown themselves because their husbands who believed this Message had decided . . . or who said they believed this Message had decided that there was an impurity in their wife that they had lived with all these years, so they were going to put her away and take a younger wife.

And there are people in this building that knew those kinds of situations and knew the wife that ran down to the water and tried to drown herself.  

I went into the mental institution to pray for a woman whose husband had brought in another wife and said, "I'm going to have two wives because Brother Branham said, 'many does to one buck.'"  He was describing the animal kingdom, you nincompoop.  

Any man who wants more than one wife is a raging idiot.  It's strange enough to want one, but it's terribly peculiar to want more than one.  

I don't even like to focus on these kinds of things, but I knew I came this morning with a mandate from the Lord.  And I had to tell you why that we're living here sixty years after a prophet received a commission, forty-something years after he left the scene, and we have still not inherited the promises that were given to his generation.

We can no longer claim to be a part of the generation of William Branham because, I'm telling you, the years are taking us into another generation whether we want to believe it or not.  We're being pushed into another generation.  

And I could go on and on and on and tell you the uglies.  And it wouldn't glorify God.  But I've told you enough to serve a purpose.  

There was a generation of people who forfeited their rights to full adoption.  There was a generation of people who forfeited their rights to spiritual adoption.  There was a generation of people who forfeited their rights to the power of the Spoken Word.

On Independence Day, we went to a park called Neot Kedumim ? six-hundred and something very, very beautiful acres between Jerusalem and closer to the airport, almost to Lod, privately maintained, beautiful trails, paved nature trails that go out through the woods and the fields and take you, depending on what trail you take, past ancient real . . . not reproductions, but ancient winepresses and ancient olive presses and ancient terraces.  

And they planted every plant that they can find today that's mentioned in the Bible and every tree that they can find today mentioned in the Bible.  And it's late spring in Israel and everything is still in bloom.  And it's just a beautiful place.

And we walked along almost to the end of our trail, an hour-and-a-half to two-hour trail . . .  And we walked almost to the end of our trail and there was a pool of water.  They called it Solomon's Pool.

And all along the trail that we chose were verses of Scripture on signs from the Song of Songs.  So it was spiritually romantic to read these because it talks about the love of a bride for her bridegroom and the love of a bridegroom for the bride.

We came to that little pool of water.  And the children were sitting there throwing little pebbles in.  And finally, they took crackers and started feeding it to the little minnows.  And I just walked by myself around the little pool, all the way around to come back to meet them.

And there were signs all along the way.  And I came to a date palm that was small.  They're slow-growing.  It was small.  And it was in full bloom.  And I took pictures of it.  I have them.  The blooms of a date palm are about that big, white, and they're very, very beautiful.  This was a female.

There is a beautiful tractate in the Mishna, which is the recorded oral law, that talks about the longing of the female palm for the male.  You see, it's like a kiwi.  You can plant kiwi all day long, these kiwi vines, but you're never going to have a kiwi without you have a male vine and a female vine growing close enough together in the same proximity that either the wind, or a bumble bee, or a bird, or whatever else would be able to come . . .

And it's . . .  You see, most flowers are male and female together.  You know that, don't you?  Most blooms are male and female together.  Most flowers are both male and female.  

And the stamen that comes out of the center of the flower is the male part of the flower.  And on the end of the stamen is the pollen.  And it takes that pollen getting down into the center of that bloom to produce fruit.  

You can have a bloom that will dry up and fall off and never produce fruit unless the pollen that's on the end of that stamen falls into the right place of that bloom to produce fruit.  

But the date palm and the kiwi and many other plants are completely separate.  And there are male kiwi vines and female kiwi vines.  And evidently there are male date palms and female date palms.  

And I read this tractate from the Mishna, and it was really . . .  it did something to me ? the longing of the female date palm for the male.  The problem was the male date palm was growing in Jericho, hundreds of miles away.  And this female date palm was lamenting because really . . .

This sounds a little silly.  I hope you don't laugh.  She was unfulfilled.  She wanted to produce dates.  And she was unable to produce dates without the necessary ingredients to produce dates.  And the necessary ingredient was held in the male date palm that she was longing for down in Jericho.

I started thinking about that.  

And somebody said, "Oh, that's so strange.  Only you would think of . . . only you'd try to make something out of that."

Well, that's what Sister Anita was up here singing about.  Did you not hear her song?  "I feel the pull.  I feel the call.  I'm burning with passion because of something pulling me, calling."  (Tongues)  Deep calling to the deep ? a longing, the Bride longing for the Bridegroom.

And then I walked all around.  And each little plaque I read did more and more for me.  And finally, I came to a little plaque that was another tractate from the Mishna, and it talked about the woman's authority in the chuppah.  And it says that the chuppah doesn't belong to the man, it belongs to the woman.

How many of you know what the chuppah is?  The chuppah is the spreading of the bridal chamber in Jewish weddings ? modern and ancient.  

But in ancient times, walls, curtains, were put up around the chuppah.  And it was where they pronounced their vows, one with another.  And later, it became the bedchamber for the honeymoon where the marriage was consummated ? in the chuppah.

And because men wear the tallit, I would always have associated the chuppah as a man's thing because we all understand the order of humanity and sexuality.  And we understand that the male is dominant, both in humanity and in sexuality.  And this is how . . .

But this is not at all how God saw it.  And it is recorded in the Mishna that the bridegroom was not allowed to come into the chuppah unless he was invited by the bride.  

I thought about that female date palm longing to be fulfilled.  I thought about that great Cloud of Witnesses longing to come to the fullness of what they've waited for all these years.  I thought about all the promises that were given to a past generation, but they fixated on a man.  

I want to say this, even though some may disagree.  I promise you I'll love you regardless.  I will not be offended if you don't agree.  But I want to tell you what the Spirit of God has taught me recently.  He's taught me that the rebellion of this generation of people cut short the life . . .

You see, I've come to a different understanding about death and life.  And I don't mind to tell you I came to this understanding through a revelation that was given to Paul Keith Davis that's been mentioned already in this pulpit about a friend who was so young, and so anointed, and so powerful in Alaska.

But he died.  His life was cut short.  And they were so grieved.  They couldn't believe it.

And he said, "We couldn't make it for the initial funeral, but we left and flew to Alaska for a memorial service and tried to deal with it."  And he had this experience.  

(I'm sorry.  Here some of you hadn't been in so long, and I have been gone a month, and I'm holding you so terribly long.)  There's something here for me.  

He had this experience.  He was riding on a . . .  Did you tell this, Kary, already?  He was riding on this subway train of some kind.  And he looked and saw his friend, Steve, sitting there.  And he said, "What are you doing here?"

And all of a sudden, sitting beside him he recognized the spirit of death like a skeleton dressed in black - wicked looking thing.  

And when he saw that he said, "What are you doing here?" to his friend Steve.  Then he looked and saw this spirit of death, and he said, "Wait a minute.  What am I doing here?"  

And God started teaching him a lesson that led into a revelation concerning the martyr, Stephen, and how his life was cut short.  But because of that God allowed the enemy . . .

This is what we . . .  It's a complete different thinking for me.  It's a complete thinking for me.  You don't have to believe it, but for me, it's right.  It explains so many different things.  

We always say, "Nobody is going to die unless the Lord is ready for them.  And nothing is going to happen to you unless God, you know, does it."  

And this is all true.  But there's another way of looking at it.  Sometimes the . . .  God can allow the enemy.  We've always known this.  God can allow the enemy to do things.

And don't you know that if God would have wanted to, He could have raised up Stephen and made his body like rubber so that everyone of those stones would have bounced back and hit those heathens in the head.  But God stood back and allowed the devil to cut Stephen's life short.  

Was it the perfect will of God?  I don't think so.  But God permitted it.  What was it going to hurt Stephen?  Nothing.  He was going to be in the Presence of the Lord.  Cutting his life short wasn't going to hurt him any.  It was going to promote him quicker to glory.  

But standing there holding the coats . . . They laid their coats . . . those who stoned Stephen, laid their coats down at the feet of a young man whose name was Saul.  

And God just reached down and took that unfulfilled destiny of Stephen.  All the things that Stephen would have accomplished, could have accomplished, but his life was cut short, God just basically . . .

Paul Keith . . . I like the way he explained it.  He said, "Basically, God just said to the devil, 'Okay, okay.  You can take him.  You can take his life, but this one is going to cost you something.  I'm going to remember this.'"

And you know how God remembered it?  He remembered it by taking that anointing and placing it on a young man of destiny, on a young man whose name was Saul.  

Although he grew up and followed a different path, one day God's destiny for Saul caught up with him on the road . . .  Hallelujah.  

One day that Angel who comes to announce our destiny came and caught Shaul on the road to Damascus and announced his destiny.  

"Oh, Saul, it's hard for thee to kick against the pricks."

"Who art thou, Lord?"

"I am Jesus, whom thou persecutest."  

Struck him blind and sent him down to a little hardly known man of God, Ananias.  God disturbs Ananias and says, "Go to the door.  Get ready.  I'm sending Saul.  And you're going to lay hands on him, and he's going to receive his sight."

And Ananias is thinking, "Saul has killed.  He's killed oh so many Christians, some friends of mine.  If he gets mad at me, he'll kill me too."  

All God wanted to do was use Ananias to lay hands on Saul.  He received his sight.  He became Paul.  And you know the rest of the story.

So for me it's all right.  It's all right that Stephen's life was cut short.  It's all right that God allowed Stephen's destiny to be cut a little short because God took up for it.  He made up for it, didn't He?  And He raised up a mighty, mighty, mighty, mighty ministry.  

I believe Brother Branham's life was cut short - not because of something he had done, but because of what the people had done.  And it's all right with me.  It's all right with me.  

Tommy Osborne said at Brother Branham's memorial service, "This was the greatest prophet who had lived since Bible days."
  
No wonder people were in shock.  God was still using him.  The history books sometimes talk about how his ministry was waning away.  

God was still using him in powerful ways in '65.  God allowed . . . because listen, God's jealous and He won't let people share His glory.

Brother Branham went off the field because of people's behavior.  But he later came back on the field.  You know the stories.  His life was definitely cut short.  And a whole generation of people forfeited the promises that had been given to them for their day.

But if the cutting of Stephen's life short caused a greater harvest in the ministry of Paul, then could it be that God allowed the enemy to cut that prophet's life short because God had a greater plan?  

What He does this time, no one will be able to fixate on men because it will be so multiplied.  It'll be carried out by a many-membered Bride - so many men and women moving under the Anointing of God, fulfilling God's plan in their lives for a very quick, short work.

And God spoke to me and said, "Today I'm going to release a commissioning over this Joshua generation."

And all the promises that were made to a prior generation and were forfeited, they fall on us.  They hang over our heads this morning.  All that God said He was going to do and couldn't do in the prior generation, it hangs over our heads this day for us to reach up and say, "I'll take that.  I'll surrender my life.  I'll lay my will before you, oh God.  And I want to do Your will."

I'm getting too full.  

Musicians are coming.

Thank You for eyes to see and ears to hear.  Thank You that You've given to us a heart to perceive.  Thank You, Lord.  

Today the mantle is falling.  Elijah's mantle is falling.  Will you see it?  Will you recognize it?  Will you pick it up?  It's the passing of the baton.  It's the changing of the guard.  It's a re-commissioning.  Will you see the mantle?  For in that mantle are the promises of prior generations, unfulfilled destinies.  Will you pick it up?

Nobody's asking, "Where is Elijah?"  No one's asking, "Where is William Branham, where is A. B. Simpson, where is Jack Coe, where is Amy Semple McPhearson, where is Katherine Kuhlman, where is Roland Buck, where is Smith Wigglesworth, where is John G. Lake, Alexander Dowie?"  

No one is asking, "Where is Elijah?"  When we pick up that mantle, we only have one question.  "Where is the Lord God of Elijah?  Where is the Lord God of William Branham?  Where is the Lord God of all of this great Cloud of Witnesses?"

Let's come.  Let's come this way just a moment.  I know it's so late.  

Marybeth, go to the piano, would you please?  I want you to play some of that beautiful music, that soothing calm music you play to calm me down.  (Turn that up just a little, brother.)  

Let the Lord make you aware of His Presence.  (Tongues) Not our will, but Yours.  We see the mantle falling.  We have to capture it.  We have to possess it.  For in it are those promises.  We've got to have it.  

Let's worship the Lord.  Let's worship the Lord.  (Tongues)  

I can't really guide you at this point.  I can't really tell you what to do, what to say, what to pray.  I have to leave you to do it on your own.  Whatever's in your heart to do, do it now, right now, right now.  However you feel to pray, pray.  However you feel to communicate with God, do it now.  Whatever you need to ask for . . . but do it now.

(Tongues) The Lord said there was a re-commissioning.  Some of you are stepping today in the Spirit from one generation to the next.  You may be sixty years old plus.  But in the Spirit, God is letting you . . . if you're willing, He's letting you move from one generation to the next.

He's letting you come from a Moses generation into a Joshua generation.  He's letting you do that right now regardless of your age.  It may take a little adjusting to your mentality.  

Go ahead, let's get it.  Let's get it.  (Tongues)

I didn't know it was so late.  My.  (Tongues)  Look what's at stake.  Look what's at stake.  (Tongues)  Oh, our loved ones.  Our loved ones, oh God.  (Tongues)  

Mine, mine, mine.  Not because we're worthy, but because we're chosen.  Not because we deserve it, but because we're elected.  We receive the mantle.  We receive the mantle.  I receive the mantle.  (Tongues)

Power and authority, a double portion of the spirit of Elijah.  (Tongues)  

If you recall, for a long time now the Lord has not allowed me to lay hands on people very much at all.  After a lot of prayer, He finally told me why.  Because there is a portion, there is an Anointing, that's being stored up.  And there's coming an hour that it needs to be released.  And until that time, we receive for ourselves.  

Without any point of contact, without anybody touching us, we just come boldly to the Throne of Grace and we say, "I'm taking the mantle up.  I'm receiving the promises of the past generation.  I'm taking the authority that's being given.  I receive my double portion - not because I've been anointed with oil, not because someone has laid their hands on me, but because my faith has reached up to claim the promise.  It's mine."

It doesn't make for as much as an exciting prayer service, or altar service, without ministry of laying hands, and so forth.  But it's part of the new order.  We're taking God at His Word - laying aside fear, receiving power.  (Tongues)

Lord, we receive Your commission for the Bride's ministry.  We receive Your commission for the double portion of Elijah Spirit.  We receive Your commission for the final harvest.  

I heard it spoken recently that this harvest is not the harvest that some people think it is.  This is not the harvest of grain, this is the harvest of harvesters.  This is the harvest of laborers who will then go and take the final harvest.  Some even received a Word that one in five were being chosen for harvesters, for laborers.

As Brother Branham went to that cabin asking You, Lord, to take this gift away from him, You didn't come to take away the gift.  You sent Your Angel to commission him, to announce his destiny, to tell him what he was called to do.

And though he was poor and uneducated, You called him to stand before kings and potentates to minister Your Word of healing and deliverance.  We receive a commission.  

We may not know every detail.  We may not know all that it entails.  But we receive Your commission in our lives, Your calling.  We recognize that You have called us, separated us, set us apart.  And we receive our calling.  We receive our commissioning.  We are ready, Lord, to do Your will, whatever it takes, whatever it involves.  We are ready to do Your will.

Who is the Lord speaking to?  The Lord is speaking to someone.  You can share it now.  The Lord's speaking to someone, you have an opportunity to share it right now.  Anyone.  

(Tongues)  Hallelujah.  Anyone.  (Tongues)  

I want to allow you to minister one to another quickly.  Lay hands on someone near you.  Pray that God will give them faith to receive the destiny that the Lord has given.

(Tongues)  Everyone needs someone agreeing with them.  (Tongues)  Oh, yes.  Lord, release us to do Your will.  Hallelujah.  No matter the cost.  (Tongues)  

We're going to sit at Your feet and learn from You.  We're going to sit at Your feet and learn from You.  We're going to sit at Your feet and learn from You, oh God - learn from You.  

Who wants to come and pray in the microphone?  Who has a prayer you want to pray, a declaration you want to make in the Spirit?  Who wants to come and verbalize something?  

Is there a brother who will just come and declare something in prayer over the microphone?  Somebody just come and claim the inheritance for us.  Let's not linger.  If there's someone, come on.  

Brother Greeley:  Father, I receive the mantle of the double portion.  I've seen the prophet Elijah.  I heard his voice.  And I've received a mantle as it fell back to the earth.  

And I receive the mantle of the double portion, in the Name of Yeshua.  

Say yes, yes, Lord.  I receive.

Brother Shelley:  (Tongues)  Lord, we receive.  Oh, yes.

(Singing:)  "Show me Your face, Lord . . ."

Are you ready?  Would you be ready?  Would you be ready?  

"Show me Your face, Lord . . ."

Just embrace one another just a moment.  Hallelujah.  Yes, Lord.

Oh God, gird up my legs that I might stand in this holy place.  

"Show me Your face, Lord,  
Your power and Your grace.
Oh, I know I will make it to the end,
if I can just see Your face . . . ."

I so appreciate this community of believers.  I so appreciate what the Lord is doing in your lives.  I love Jerusalem.  But I'm so happy to be at home this morning among you.  

God has something so outstanding, and it is not off in the future.  We're walking in it.  We're walking in it.  Oh, it's going to grow and increase, but we're walking in it.  Hallelujah.

Brother Enzo, did you have something you wanted to share?  It's so late now, it don't matter.

Brother Enzo:  We went to . . .  Last week, when we went to see Paul Keith Davis, somebody had talked about a revelation that they had received about the gates of the enemy, how in times past the people of God had sheltered themselves behind gates.  But now the people of God were going to break down the gates because of the enemy.  The enemy is hiding behind gates, those strongholds.

And while they were speaking, this Scripture came to mind because the Lord spoke this to me in the prayer chapel a while back.  And I just want to read it.  It's Isaiah 45.

1.  Thus saith the LORD to his anointed, to Cyrus, whose right hand I have holden, to subdue nations before him; and I will loose the loins of kings, to open before him the two leaved gates; and the gates shall not be shut;

2.  I will go before thee, and make the crooked places straight: I will break in pieces the gates of brass, and cut in sunder the bars of iron:

3.  And I will give thee the treasures of darkness, and hidden riches of secret places, that thou mayest know that I, the LORD, which call thee by thy name, am the God of Israel.

Brother Shelley:  Wonderful word.  Let's praise the Lord.