HOW GOD HAS DEALT WITH DECEPTION

There came a time in the first Age of Christianity, when a man and his wife had consented to do certain things like the other saints were doing; and a little later they covenanted between themselves to keep back a little bit of what they had pledged for a rainy day. That very thing displeased God and He struck both of them down dead. Though it might appear to some a small thing, but because they had covenanted together with the rest of the believers, to sell all their excess property and give the money to the Church for distribution to others that were in need; and they kept back part of it while pretending to give it all, their deception displeased God to the point He had to take the breath of life from them. When Ananias came in and his deception was confirmed, he dropped dead. Let us read it: for it is a serious matter to be deceptive with God. (Acts 5:1-5) “But a certain man named Ananias, with Sapphira his wife, sold a possession, (2) And kept back part of the price, his wife also being privy to it, and brought a certain part, and laid it at the apostles’ feet. (3) But Peter said, ANANIAS, WHY HATH SATAN FILLED THINE HEART TO LIE TO THE HOLY GHOST, and to keep back part of the price of the land? (4) Whiles it remained, was it not thine own? and after it was sold, was it not in thine own power? why hast thou conceived this thing in thine heart? thou hast not lied unto men, but unto God. (5) And Ananias hearing these words fell down, and gave up the ghost: and great fear came on all them that heard these things.” A little later, the same thing happened to his wife. I have heard people in this movement brag, I am just waiting for the return of the days when we can have the Ananias and Sapphira kind of discipline. Yes, they say that but little do they realize, they might be that very kind of people that would end up on the drop dead part of it: because they have run up and down the road of life with their mouth’s yakking, and much of the time belittling the people who refused to take part in the quotes they all use constantly. Well saints, God knows what He is doing and He is going to do it the right way. It may look like a lot of foolishness to a lot of people in the world; but what is taking place is a work of God, so we do not have to be overly concerned about what people like that, say about us. I have come to the place, if it looks foolish, yet it is morally and spiritually decent, then Praise God, come on with it. Hallelujah! If the sides bulge out on this building, and if they have to haul them home in a semi, Praise God anyhow. As long as those who are hauled home are going to be in the rapture when Jesus comes, then praise the Lord! We can haul them home if we need to. The important thing is, just get them in here, and under the power of God. Excuse my expression, but I really mean it. I want all the young ones to realize, as you come to the assembly, we may come and start a service in our usual way: Bro. Allen may start us with a song, or with prayer; but I ask that we would every one sit here in an attitude of worship and be willing to be sensitive to the Spirit. If somewhere along the line, whether it is when there is prayer being offered, or a song being sung, you feel the Spirit hit you and feel compelled to give in to that Spirit, please let the Spirit of God have His way. That will only be the beginning of something for that particular service, the way God wants it. Let us not sit here with our minds and spirits all cramped up with ideas, like, If so and so will dance, I will dance with them. Look, when I was a little boy growing up in the hills, I used to dance the old country way. If we were at a picnic it would not be very long until somebody would be asking, Where is that little Jackson boy? They would pick me out of the crowd and get me up there, because they knew how I was: Just the whine of a fiddle, or a banjo, and my feet were ready to go. I just grew up like that. That was part of my nature. Of course, with the Spirit of God, it does not necessarily take music to really get you going. That is why I sometimes hold back a little myself, I do not want it to look like I am the same old kid I was fifty or sixty years ago. I can say this, when you feel that Spirit urge, it is something that gets inside your legs and you have a hard time keeping still. I will give you a little illustration of what I am speaking of. Years ago, when we were still in the old building down on Market Street, Bro. Temple was playing the guitar. (He was the only guitar player we had back then.) He was sitting there, playing the guitar, and the Spirit got into that song we were singing; and all of a sudden his foot started dancing. He was still trying to play the guitar, but that foot was just going all over the place. When that happened, somebody got to laughing in the Spirit; and before long it had hit everybody. He never got out of the chair, but he could not hold that foot still. In a little while, there were people lying on the floor. Yes, to the world it would look very silly. They would say, What is he, a clown? No. Always remember, God has chosen the foolish things. Things that you and I might belittle, to confound the wise and prudent, the educated people who are above that sort of thing. When you were in the world you would pay five dollars to watch some clown with a big nose glued on, say a lot of funny things just to make you laugh, then go home and talk about how much you enjoyed it. Well when God wants to do something, it does not cost you a dime. It is free. I want you everyone to know, There is such a thing as a laughing spirit, people laughing uncontrollable in the Spirit. It is not derogatory no disrespectful to God either. Before this is all over, some of you will probably be screaming with such joy, laughing and carrying on, and you will not be able to stop it. I have seen it like that. You are going to wonder, Did this really happen to me? Yes, this can happen to any of you. If you have never been in a service when someone was laughing in the Spirit, you would have a hard time visualizing it; but I have to say, Up the road somewhere, you are going to see some things that are very new to you. God still has a category of things He can tickle you with, and He does not have to tickle your ribs: He just gets inside of you like that. I have said all these things because I want us all to prepare ourselves for whatever the Spirit of God may see fit to do among us. Every day you live, let your heart be filled with praise and thanksgiving. Let us come to the assembly prayerfully believing that God will move upon us in some way. He may move in you, He may move in someone else; but if it turns out to be someone else, do not feel bad because it was someone else instead of you: JUST START REJOICING BECAUSE HE IS BLESSING SOMEONE. I GUARANTEE YOU, IT WILL COME YOUR WAY SOONER OR LATER. WHEN YOU FIND YOURSELF GETTING HAPPY BECAUSE HE IS DOING SOMETHING FOR A BROTHER OR SISTER, IT WILL NOT BE LONG UNTIL HE WILL KNOCK ON YOUR DOOR; AND ONLY THE LORD HIMSELF KNOWS WHAT YOU WILL BE FEELING, OR EXPERIENCING, BY THE TIME YOU GET READY TO GO HOME. YOU ARE GOING TO BE SATISFIED IN YOUR HEART EITHER WAY. Let me say to you young people, Whether it is in the barn meeting or here in the church building, GOD IS NO RESPECTER OF PLACES. HE LOOKS FOR HEARTS THAT ARE SINCERE AND OPEN TO HIM. I realize there is a realm of the anointing that God can lift you into from time to time; and I encourage every one of you to yield to such an anointing. If we are standing, or sitting, singing a congregational song, and you feel the anointing hit you, (I am saying this to respect the Spirit of God because I do not know in advance what He is going to do.) please, if something gets inside of you and you feel that anointing so that you begin to sing in another language, I ask you, Please do not quench the Spirit in it. Give yourself over to the Spirit of God. You just do not know what God will use it for, in the way of opening up the avenue for others to join right in. Keep in mind, when Peter was at Cornelius’ house, while he was yet preaching, the Spirit fell on all of them. That goes to show, they were sitting there, they were hearing something, and they were believing it. God is looking for that hungry attitude. The Holy Ghost just fell on the whole group. Whether it is singing in the Spirit or taking off in a dance, I beg you not to quench the Spirit, waiting for someone else to respond first. I will not interfere with you. I came here to see God work. I am thankful to the Lord for the truth He has allowed us to have these past number of years; and I will continue to be just as thankful to see Him blessing us with this anointing. I would say also, Do not reject what more experienced people who have walked with the Lord through the years, may say to help you along. Some people have taken the attitude that they do not need anyone to teach them. They read 1st John 2:27, and think that eliminates the preacher and everyone else; but I am here to tell you, Every last one of us sooner or later are going to have to bow our heads and listen to someone tell us something that is right. That is why God put men in various offices in the first place. Sure, God can speak to you by audible voice; but how often does that occur? He does not need angels, and He does not need man; but that is His established order. That is His way of accomplishing His purpose. There are times He will speak to a sinner by an audible means; and it brings him or her to a point of repentance, but from there, sooner or later, that person will have to rely upon what some man teaches him or her, if they are ever to get beyond that point. There is no such thing as people saying I am going to follow God and turn around and belittle some preacher that can be instrumental in helping them walk with God. When people start talking like that, most of the time it is because there is jealousy in them. I realize the religious world will say a lot about the followers of Bro. William Branham, calling them Branhamites; but I remember the apostle Paul writing, Follow me, as I follow Christ. Those early Christians were followers of some man that taught them how to follow the Lord; so why should we be different? There is no such thing as a man picking out what he wants to believe and saying, This is my belief, this is how I will follow God. Some do that; but they are not walking with God. God ordained that there should be a five fold ministry in the Church; and I see no way for anyone who rejects that ministry, to be made ready for the rapture.

WORDS TO REFRESH OUR MEMORY

I am going to try and answer some questions for some of you before we bring this message to an end; but first I want to remind you of a few things we have covered up to this point. I do not attempt this, thinking I know everything: You will remember that I stated in the very beginning of the message, that I myself am still learning. I hope we all are. I want to us to learn the right way though, because some of the things I feel I do know, I have had to learn them the hard way. Nevertheless I am thankful to the Lord for everything He has taught me. I know if you learn things by experience, they will stick with you all your life. Those things will keep you steady when everything else seems to be upside down and going haywire, in total chaos. Those are the times when you need something that has already been vindicated to you, to guide you, as you are faced with making important decisions. The reason we have been on this message we titled, “The Bride’s Anointing,” is because it is very evident that there is a move of the Spirit in the Church today, not just in one place, but in different places throughout the world; and we need to know how to yield ourselves to His anointings. I was talking to Bro. Govender over in South Africa the other night and he said, Bro. Jackson, I just want to relate to you some things that are taking place. (The things that are going on, there is virtually no laying on of hands or any preliminaries to them: It just seems like that is the way the Spirit is working.) He told about the Sunday service. One particular group of people that are Branham message people, but are the type that have to go by quotes and say exactly what Bro. William Branham preached, their services (Bro. Govender’s) have been going later than usual lately, in fact they are taking all their allotted time because the building they are in, they have to be out by a certain time. Some of the people, as they are leaving, the other group, they can hear the shouting and everything going on. They said every time they hear what is going on, it is sort of like an electrical magnetic current drawing us to that. This past Saturday there was a sister from another congregation, they knew the lady, but he said, Bro. Jackson, you know the Indian people are very conservative. (That is true, we have noticed that in our times of being there.) Nevertheless he said this sister came to church on that Saturday evening. She came into the service, and he said you would have to know this woman to understand fully; because there was no way you could get her to show any kind of emotion in the presence of many people: That was just her makeup. He said, We just started worshiping the Lord, just like we always did, without any idea or thought of what might take place. All of a sudden the Spirit of God hit that sister and lifted her out of that seat and the next thing anyone knew, she was dancing across the front of the church. About that time another sister in the congregation was picked up and both of them were dancing across the front of the church. It just set the place on fire, knowing that there was no way you could have gotten those two individual people to demonstrate like this unless something had gotten inside of them and lifted them up and carries them like that. He said, It is just wonderful: We never know what is going to take place next. I do not claim to have all the answers; but here is how we have to look at some of these things, Whatever God has in mind, I know one thing, We have just begun to see the very beginning of what God has in mind. God is just slowly making an introduction of Himself in this way, more or less just to try people. God already knows what He is going to do: It is you and I that do not know what He will do next. It is up to you and I to learn the principles by which He operates. I have no doubt there are yet many things He will do in our midst, things we have never even thought of; so we need to learn how to cultivate His anointing presence. I like to relate all of it to the different sections of the little chart we have been using. First though, it takes the convicting power of the Spirit of God to bring us to a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ. We cannot become a Christian just any time it seems convenient for us: There has to be that conviction of sin and our need for a Savior first. When that comes, and we yield to the wooing of the Spirit, we are ready to experience what the apostle Peter spoke of in Acts 2:38, when those Jews that were experiencing that convicting presence of the Spirit asked, (Acts 2:37) “Men and brethren, what shall we do? (38) Then Peter said unto them, Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost.” That is God’s formula for our salvation experience, repent, accept Jesus Christ as your Savior, get baptized in His name and you are a proper candidate to receive the baptism of the Holy Ghost. There is no need of you looking at any of these gifts of the Spirit, or any of these manifestations of the Spirit in you until you have first met the qualifications and understood what that is that gets inside you, convicts you, makes you feel miserable and willing to let God have control of your life. You may try to put off the first part, run from it for years, and seek satisfaction some other way, but if you are a predestinated seed of God, foreknown of Him from before the foundation of the world, sooner or later He will bring you to a place of surrender. That is when your life begins to take on meaning, really for the first time: Because apart from God, there is no meaningful satisfaction. When the Spirit of God comes into your life, He is there first of all to be your comforter and guide you into all truth. That is the scripture we have in column one on our chart, (John 16:13) “Howbeit when He, the Spirit of truth, is come, He will guide you into all truth: for He shall not speak of Himself; but whatsoever He shall hear, that shall He speak: and He will shew you things to come.” In John 16:7, Jesus referred to Him as the Comforter; and truly, He is just that: He will direct your attention to all the wonderful promises written in the Bible, that true believers may partake of. Then, after He is in you, and you are in Him, you have all these things we have listed in the other columns of our chart, that you may partake of, all the manifestations of the Spirit and the gifts of the Spirit, all of which when properly entered into, make you into a vessel God can use in service in the body of believers. The manifestations make you feel good; but the gifts of the Spirit are for service in the body. When it comes to these, there are many things we must learn in order to glorify God in what we do. In the apostolic hour, when the Holy Ghost was poured out upon the 120 disciples gathered in the upper room, they already had in their minds the words Jesus had spoken in their hearing. There were many things spoken by Him, that they did not understand: but they did understand the last words He spoke to them, (Luke 24:49) “And, behold, I send the promise of my Father upon you: but tarry ye in the city of Jerusalem, until ye be endued with power from on high.” They did not know exactly what the promise of the Father was, but they understood the last part, “Tarry ye in the city of Jerusalem, until ye be endued with power from on high;” and that is exactly what they did. Not one of them knew what to look for. He did not say, You will feel like such and such, nor, You are going to hear the sound of a rushing mighty wind blowing, nor anything like that: He just said, WAIT UNTIL; and that was sufficient for the 120 who received this experience as a result of obeying His last words to them. They went to the upper room and stayed there until that promise was fulfilled. We read about it in the second chapter of Acts. I am sure of this also, As they sat there that number of days until that Spirit of truth came, they all learned that it does not pay to be in a hurry: because God is not in a hurry. He knows exactly what He is doing and why He is doing it. It is you and I that get impatient and want this and that immediately. Therefore one of the things He will teach us as we are willing to follow Him is, that we have to learn to wait upon Him, if we are ever going to be a vessel He can use in service in the body. Therefore when we begin to think of being filled with the Spirit, within the initial filling of the Spirit we can say there are many things we can experience. This is how God will make His entrance into your personal life. You may not experience all that is listed on the chart, but sooner or later you are going to experience some of those things. That is why it says in 1st Corinthians 12:7, “But the manifestation of the Spirit is given to every man to profit withal.” (That applies to every person that is baptized by the Holy Spirit, not just to men.) To profit withal does not mean that we will profit over here, (pointing to manifestations column of chart) it is what we learn here, that determines how we will be found capable of serving the Lord in the body later on. Our service in the body must be in perfect harmony with the word of truth we have received; so at this time, I will answer some of the questions I know some of you have about this.

QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS

I know I said some things concerning these anointings, how people can feel so many different ways and so forth, so let us now go ahead with these questions and try to clear your minds. The first one is, (Bro. Jackson, I am a sister who has felt the anointing to lay hands on, and pray for another brother or sister in times past. I am not sure how to respond to it: as I have never seen another sister do anything such as this. Would it be wrong for me to do so? If so, what should I do when I feel this anointing come upon me?) Go pray for the person. Go pray for the person: You will never know until you do it. That should answer it. Now it is asked in another question similar to that one, (What about in the service, would that be a proper thing to do?) Whoever wrote that question, I believe if I were you, I would ask the Lord, Let me feel that anointing when I can go get in my car and drive across town, or five miles down the road, or wherever and pray for the person I feel led to pray for. I have a reason for saying that. This is my reason: If what you feel is of God, sooner or later God will cause that anointing to make a way for itself. When He puts this body together, it is not going to be Him haphazardly throwing pieces together just any old way. Every person, every member is going to be schooled in what they will be anointed to do. That schooling is a process of how God deals with each individual and how that person learns to respond. If I was this sister, and I felt urged at times to pray for a certain person, then I would say, Lord, I will not do it here, in public; but when that person gets home, I will go pray for him or her, which ever the case may be. Keep in mind saints, It is not where you are that is important, it is what you do with it, and the motive in your heart as you do it. If you approach this thing that way and there is a vindication that you have obeyed God, definite proof without any doubt, then I would have to say, That is a good sign that the next time you feel that way it should be all right to follow the anointing. Just do not wait until the preacher is preaching, then stand up and say, May I go pray for a brother, I feel so urged to do so? Either do it during the song service, or after the end of the service. Just stand up and say, Bro. Jackson, I feel urged to pray for a certain person. I am sure if God has anointed you to do that, and if you have no desire just to be seen in it, then you should not care whether there is a million people around or not, just as long as you and the sick or depressed person and God is aware of it. Everything any brother or sister may have in this area, that is really God invested, sooner or later it makes its way into the body: God will see to that. He does not bestow those gifts and anointings upon anyone in vain. Everything He does is for a purpose. The next question, Is it normal to have fear when you feel the anointing of God come upon you? I would have to say yes to that: If it is the real anointing and you have never felt it before, you just want to hide somewhere, get under a chair, not me Lord, not now anyway. That is just the way it works. It was like that with me and I have heard others say the same thing. That is the best I can do in answering that question: The Bible does not tell us what effect the anointing will have on us as individual’s. I answer like this because I have been through all of that. As God begins to anoint a person for a certain purpose within the structure of these nine gifts, if that anointing has never been there before, He will anoint you in a way that will get your attention. That is why many times you feel scared to death when it comes on you, and He will more or less deal with you in this manner until you as a person, through this type of dealings from HIM, learn that it is the Spirit of God anointing you for service to Him in the body. You learn when He wants you to do a certain thing, and as you learn that, after a while that fear begins to leave you. He does not make you want to go hide all the time. There can be a certain sensation you feel when the anointing comes upon you that will make you aware of His presence in that way. Sometimes it may be a nervous trembling sensation. It always has to be something that the person in their emotional makeup does not normally feel just in worshiping the Lord. Because we are talking about feelings, I want to say this, It is true that our soul’s salvation is not a feeling: We receive that experience through exercising our faith to believe in the finished work at Calvary on our behalf, when the Lord Jesus Christ hung there with a crown of thorns upon His head, nails in His hands and feet, and His blood spilling out upon the ground. When we read what Isaiah and the apostle Peter wrote concerning what was accomplished there on that old crude cross, we learn that Jesus’ death there not only paid our sin debt so we could be brought into fellowship with our heavenly Father, it also paid the price for our healing. The stripes He received across His back were for our healing according to the scriptures. Therefore those provisions must be received by faith whether you have any great sensations at the time or not. (1 Peter 2:24) “Who His own self bare our sins in His own body on the tree, that we, being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness: by whose stripes ye were healed.” That is what Peter said about the price Jesus paid at Calvary. Now let us read what Isaiah wrote about the same thing. (Isaiah 53:3-6) “He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief: and we hid as it were our faces from Him; He was despised, and we esteemed Him not. (4) Surely He hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem Him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted. (5) But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon Him; and with His stripes we are healed. (6) All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the Lord (the Father) hath laid on Him (Jesus, His Son) the iniquity of us all.” When Isaiah wrote that, it was a prophecy; but when Peter wrote his Epistle, this was already an accomplished fact. No saints, we do not necessarily look for feelings in these; but when it comes to serving the Lord in the realm of the Spirit, there are feelings that go with it. Otherwise I would have to say that what I have observed through the years was not what it looked like. Through the years, as I watched Bro. William Branham minister, he would stand there on that platform; and the minute he would get under that anointing everything changed. No matter how many times he would look at people and discern the conditions and things in their life, whether many or few, usually when it was all over, you would find the man staggering. He was reeling around like a drunk man; but I assure you, What made him like that did not come out of a bottle. No one gave him a fifth of whiskey to drink. No. That was the affect the anointing had upon him. Just do not bother to tell me there is not a feeling to it. There is a feeling, a sensation. There is an inward effect it has on you, and that is for you to know recognize His presence, not just so you can run up and down the street, I feel like this, I feel that. Do not be so carnal that you conduct yourselves like that. That is for you to know. There are too many counterfeits running the road of life, that just want to get in front of you and put on a show. That is what causes the world to make fun of the whole thing: Some people just do not realize that they are casting pearls before swine, when they rehearse before unbelievers everything that goes on in a meeting of the saints. It is the devil’s business to try to put a dark cloud over the whole picture, so let us be wise enough not to help him do it. The main thing is that we learn to walk with God. This thing of fear is nothing new: It is as old as time itself. We read in the Old Testament how when the Spirit of the Lord came on the prophet he feared so, he even fell as a dead man. It took an angel to come and touch him to give him the strength to bear up under this anointing for whatever the Lord had called him to. Let me say also, When you read the word Lord, in the Old Testament, it is referring to Elohim, the Creator, not Jesus, His Son, unless it is a prophecy pointing to Jesus.

QUESTION ON INTERCESSORY PRAYER

Bro. Jackson, you made mention Sunday night of intercessory prayer. What if in laying hands on someone and praying for them, this type of prayer starts? Is this out of order? First, intercessory prayer is many times misunderstood. Intercessory prayer is usually not so much for some person, it is usually concerning problems you know nothing about. How many understand what I am saying? It usually concerns problems you do not know a thing about. It can involve a group of people, it can involve circumstances that a congregation or group of people is going to be faced with and yet at that time no one knows it. It is God’s way of putting an anointing for intercessory prayer on a person to pray for something: They just feel compelled, or urged to do so. They do not know why: They just yield to it. It is not necessarily praying for some person who is ready to die, nor anything like that. No, it is usually concerning a problem that nobody knows very much, if anything at all about. Therefore this thing of intercessory prayer, what is it? It is a condition whereby the intercessor is found travailing in prayer; and many times not really knowing why. There are not very many people that are concerned about finding out what it is, that would even want intercessory prayer if they knew how it makes you feel inside. That feeling inside of you can go on for days at a time. Like I just said, You do not know why it is there, it is just a feeling that is urging you to get away somewhere and pray. May I say this also, When that feeling is upon you, you do not wait until you are here in service to yield to it. Intercessory prayer is also called travailing in spirit. It is something that has been done a lot of times in the Pentecostal circles, but keep in mind, intercessory prayer or travailing in spirit is not a display that is to be out in the open: It is a private thing. Bro. Jackson, why do you say that? The next time your sister is expectant, roll her in here and let her travail here in the presence of everyone to give natural birth. Do you see what I am getting at? Does that mean anything at all to you? When a woman is travailing, what is it? She is in a child bearing state. She is in travailing pain to give birth to something. Does the doctor put her on display down on Main Street? My point is, This is not something for public display. What you see up here on the chart is for public display; but not all of it necessarily has to be. On the other hand, no one wants to stand in a delivery room and hear a woman screaming, going through child birth. I hope people understand what I am saying. No less than three times in my lifetime, I have had that urging come upon me; and I have to say this, I am glad I was where I was, when I did get away to yield to it. I did not want anyone to hear me, the way I sounded, and the way I felt. Did not the apostle Paul say in the Roman letter, that intercession is something different than just praying for some known need? (Romans 8:26-27) “Likewise the Spirit also helpeth our infirmities: for we know not what we should pray for as we ought: but the Spirit itself maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered (or understood by mankind). (27) And He that searcheth the hearts knoweth what is the mind of the Spirit, because He maketh intercession for the saints according to the will of God.” In other words, travailing prayer is usually not in words to be understood by man: It is more like sounds one would make when suffering terribly. You do not know why you are saying what you say: That is just how you feel. It is an agonizing feeling down in your soul. That is why you do not go on Broadway and put it on display, nor do you want to stand in front of a congregation and expect every one to stop what they are doing and listen to you. I am not going to walk down a hospital corridor and stand in front of the delivery room to hear a poor woman crying and agonizing in pain. I remember one time in the Corydon hospital when my wife was there in the delivery room to give birth to one of our children. There was another woman there at the same time. She was in very much pain, suffering terribly. The doctor was in there and her husband came out; and he found out that I was a minister; and as he stood there wringing his hands, knowing not what else to do, he said to me, Would you please pray for my wife? she is in a terrible condition. You could hear that poor soul screaming at the top of her lungs. Saints I am saying these things, not to discourage anyone; but because a lot of people think they know what intercessory prayer is; and I am afraid they do not know. If you want to get some idea what true intercessory prayer is really like, just go to a hospital and stand in front of a delivery room where you can hear those women agonizing to give birth to a child. That is about as close as you can come to knowing what it is like without actually experiencing it. There is an anointing for prayer, but that is not intercessory prayer. It is an anointing that can operate in various ways. Many times it will drop on someone in here. There are some people that just seem to be anointed to pray. You can ask them to dismiss or lead in prayer and an anointing will hit that person and it seems like they open their mouth and there is no end to the meaningful words that flow: while in intercessory prayer you may not even have words. You may not have anything but groanings, or maybe crying. You are pleading with God: Whatever it is Lord, take care of it. When that takes place, somewhere that travailing will give birth to something. A need will be met somewhere; and the one travailing does not have to know what it is. When the condition is satisfactorily taken care of, the burden of travail will be lifted from you. Too many times people say, What is it you want prayer for? Tell me, I need to know so I know how to pray more specifically. That is not necessary. If you do not want to tell me what you are standing here for, you do not have to: I know that God already knows all about it. I would rather say, Lord, here is a soul, a brother, a sister, that has a need. Lord, you know what was said, you know exactly how to touch this need. Now Lord, just touch the situation and meet the need. The great Creator does not have to have every detail explained to Him in order for Him to meet a need that is brought to Him in prayer. When an individual is anointed to pray, they will not have to search for words. It just flows out. That kind of prayer has as much effect in fulfilling the plan of God as anything anyone could do; but that itself is not what one thinks of when travailing in the Spirit is mentioned. Here, is basically the same question. What is the difference between intercessory prayer, and travailing prayer? It is all the same. I believe we have sufficiently answered it already.

SINGING OR WAILING IN THE SPIRIT

Someone wants to know the difference between singing and wailing in the Spirit; so let us deal with that. Singing in the Spirit is not to be thought of as just so many groans or sounds put together. What I mean by that is, It is not a travailing type of thing. Singing in the Spirit is more or less a rejoicing experience. I remember how Sis. Mayfield used to sing in the Spirit. That was not intercessory singing. That kind of singing is worship. It has no association with intercession. On the other hand, I must associate wailing in the Spirit with intercession: It is in no way associated with singing in the Spirit because it is an expression of grief. You may say, Bro. Jackson, where do you get that idea? Have you ever been to the Western Wall in Jerusalem? That is where it first began to take place. When Titus finally gained an entrance into Jerusalem and the temple lay in smoldering ruins and every word of Jesus had been fulfilled, all that was left standing there was the Western Wall to the court. As he took all the thousands of healthy Jews that were left alive away from there, and left only the old, the sick, the crippled and the maimed to weep over the plight of their condition, then there at the last place that is commemorative of the Holy Place, they stood wailing. What is wailing? It is crying with grief. They were crying with grief because of their plight. Many times, that is what you find at a funeral, a person standing over the casket of their loved one just wailing with grief. Now I ask you, Do you enjoy going to a funeral home and witnessing that? No. You do not: So I hope if you ever feel like that, you will not think that is to be a part of the worship service. Please. I say these things with respect. There may be a short burst of it: I will not question that; but I will have to question it when a long term display of this kind of thing begins to be a repetitional thing. You do not go to a funeral home just to hear someone weeping and wailing over the loss of a loved one; and neither would you come to Church expecting to hear such a thing in the Spirit, when you do not like to hear it in the natural. There is nothing wrong with weeping over the loss of a loved one: I just used that for an example, to help you understand the point I want to make. In a worship service, why would anyone want to participate in something that would be an undesirable experience for most everyone present? It is just a matter of getting everything in its proper place and time. That is the best I know how to answer those questions. We do not want to rule out anything that is of God; but we do need to learn what is acceptable in a worship service and what needs to be done somewhere else. Above all else, we should never do or say anything with the thought of drawing attention to ourselves; and I do not believe true saints of God will, once they learn some of the things we are talking about. Furthermore these comments are not meant to establish any kind of strict rules: they are for the purpose of helping each of us have an enjoyable time of worship and praise together without having to endure something that should be done somewhere else. There is no expression of joy in travailing and wailing. I hope this is rightly understood by everyone. Now while we are on the subject of proper conduct, I want to relate something that happened several years ago when we were in the old building over in Clarksville. We had a moving of the Spirit within the church and the gifts began to operate. There was a sister that came about three times with Sis. Hollman. The first time she came we were well into the song service when all of a sudden she stood up and began to wail and groan and carry on. She went on a couple minutes like that and went off into speaking in tongues, half of the tongues were expressed in wailing. I sure did not feel like anything was to come out of that, so I waited and waited; and there was no interpretation. The next week she came, the same thing happened again. I said, if she comes another time, and does that again, I will have to say something. I said, I will allow it three times before I touch it; but if it does not change its presentation, I will have to speak to the sister. Well the third time she came, just about the time the song service was almost over, she stood up and went through the same procedure. When she was finished I said to her, I want to say this to you in a nice way. I have no doubt you feel the anointing of God. I have no doubt the gift of speaking in tongues is of God; but I think you have something mixed up in the anointing and you are presenting it with the wrong image. I said, First of all it does not take a wailing spirit to give forth a message in tongues. If you are going to speak in tongues, stand up under the anointing, speak it and sit down, or else interpret; but if you are going to wail and cry like this, then stay at home until you get that out of your system before you come to church. She never did come back anymore. She moved from this area to St. Louis Missouri. Then, about a year later I received the nicest letter from her, apologizing. She said, Bro. Jackson, I am the sister that came to your church and did such and such. She expressed how long it had been and the things she had done, and that I had rebuked her. She then said, Bro. Jackson, I want to thank you. I see now that I had a lot to learn. I thank God I have learned and I see the light. I respect an apology like that.

DIVINE ORDER IN THE CHURCH

Another question is, You have mentioned divine order: Is divine order in the Church the order as led by the Holy Spirit? Absolutely. All of this is. The nine gifts of the Spirit are all listed in chapter 12, of 1st Corinthians. When Paul wrote 1st Corinthians 12, 13 and 14, you see how in the 13th and 14th chapters he began to deal with the situation at hand, as the Corinthian Church had more or less drifted into a practice of certain behavior. Yes, no doubt in that Corinthian Church there were so many of them anointed and filled with the Holy Ghost they had a hard time expressing their individual feelings. Somewhere in all of that enthusiasm and zealousness they had allowed themselves to drift into a pattern of just letting the Spirit have its way, so to speak. We all need to learn to allow the Spirit to have His own way; but I assure you, His way is for every vessel He fills, to learn how to yield to that anointing in a proper way, and at a proper time. We all have to realize, that somewhere it has got to come under whatever Paul said in 1st Corinthians 13 and 14. That is why when he talked about, If any man speak in unknown tongues, what did he say? Let him pray that he may interpret, or else keep silent in the Church. We will read a few verses. (1Corinthians 14:26-28) In verse 26, Paul says, “How is it then, brethren? when ye come together, every one of you hath a psalm, hath a doctrine, hath a tongue, hath a revelation, hath an interpretation. (Notice the last part of that verse.) LET ALL THINGS BE DONE UNTO EDIFYING. (27) If any man speak in an unknown tongue, let it be by two, or at the most by three, and that by course; and let one interpret. (28) But if there be no interpreter, let him keep silence in the church; and let him speak to himself, and to God.” Well Bro. Jackson, if he is anointed, how can he just keep silent? Well, there is another scripture in the 14th chapter that will shed more light on this subject. When Paul was through dealing with the gifts of tongues and how they should be exercised, he went right into those that prophesy. He said, in verse 29, “Let the prophets speak two or three, and let the other judge.” Then he said, (30) “If any thing be revealed to another that sitteth by, let the first hold his peace.” (Which if you put it all together, means this, Do not let any one person think he is going to monopolize that particular realm of what the Holy Spirit is doing.) “For ye may all prophesy one by one, that all may learn, and all may be comforted.” But notice this next verse, (32) “And the spirits of the prophets are subject to the prophets.” That means the spirit of the one doing the prophesying is subject to him: He is not out of control with it. Now verse 33, is the clincher, so notice, (33) “For God is not the author of confusion, but of peace, as in all churches of the saints.” We cannot allow ourselves to be out of control, when it comes to the operation of these gifts, or you would have wholesale confusion. Therefore if it happens, you have to know it is not according to the plan and purpose of God, for God is not the author of confusion. The spirit’s of the prophesiers are subject to the prophesiers, which means the anointing of God, when it comes upon anyone, is present to operate such and such a gift when the proper opportunity comes. if you enter into a service and you are worshiping God in the right spirit, you may feel the anointing to speak in tongues; but that does not mean that you should just start speaking as soon as the anointing comes, regardless of what is taking place: You wait for a proper opportunity, then you speak. You cannot force someone else to interpret your tongues either: There can be certain things interfere. I will give you an example of what I mean. It happened at the Branham Tabernacle years ago. That is why I have said, I had to learn some things the hard way. I did not have anyone to teach me, other than the school of trials and hard knocks. You pick up things and learn as you go along. More than half of those characters sitting there that day did not want anyone to speak in tongues in the first place. Therefore it was not an environment that would induce people to even want to speak in tongues. However on this particular occasion, at a Sunday night service. (Bro. Glenn knows what I am talking about.) I felt that anointing all over me. When Bro. Neville was through preaching, I gave a message in tongues. There was a sister there that had the gift of interpretation. I expected her to stand up and interpret. We waited and waited, but she did not respond. Finally Bro. Neville said, Let us continue on. As soon as he closed the service, here came Bro. Glenn up behind me and put his arm around me and said, Bro. Junie, pray for me: When you gave that message in tongues, I felt the anointing come on me and I knew the words to speak, but you know how it is here. I was just afraid to give it out. These things happen at times, if you are in an environment of people where you have all these contrary spirits. It can create fear. Sometimes it causes people to be afraid, where one will yield to the Spirit and another will not. Right here is where you get all these situations that take place. Sometimes a person can come into a congregation they think is a gifted assembly; so they worship God and get in the Spirit and feel the anointing, not knowing the congregation. Maybe it is not a gifted congregation. They feel the anointing so they might give a message, and if for some reason they themselves do not have the interpretation, there is not going to be any interpretation. Well my point is, As we learn to recognize our anointing, and as we learn to walk with God in the Spirit, we are going to find that God has put His church together in a way that it is going to click and operate just exactly the way He wants it. There is not going to be any more hope so, or maybe so. It will all flow together. Now having said that, we come back to this, When the apostle Paul said in the 14th chapter, For the spirits of the prophets are subject to the prophets, he is talking about the spirit of those that are gifted to prophesy; because they were referred to many times as New Testament prophets. We can find that in the accounts of Silas and Agabus. Therefore that anointing is subject those that are gifted. It is up to them to discern and to choose the right time and place to yield to the Spirit and allow the anointing to express what it is upon them to express. That is why Paul laid down divine order in that fashion.

GIFTS OF HEALING

We talk about the gifts of healing, as we see in 1st Corinthians 12:9, and you will notice that does say gifts of healing, plural. What does that mean? First we have to realize gifts of healing is not to be interpreted that if someone has been called to pray for sick people they are walking around with a bucket full of gifts. What it means is, there are certain people that God has chosen, because of certain reasons usually known only to Him, to pray for sick persons; and there is an anointing that comes with that calling. Really, that gift is recognized because of the anointing. Also, those who are chosen of God to exercise those gifts of healing do not just walk around and heal every sick person they come in contact with. They are anointed at a particular time, to go and accomplish the intended purpose. They may just be anointed to go pray for one person and if they pray for forty others after that, it is very possible that nothing at all will come of it. There are gifts of healing: That is a fact; but those who have those gifts cannot just reach down in a bucket and take them out and pass them around. Many times the person God uses in this way will be someone who has come through a serious sickness them self. I have a stack of the Voice of Healing magazines; and there are many testimonies of people back in the early 1950’s when the great deliverance move was going on, people that were on death beds and God miraculously healed them. After that, that person was anointed at various times to go pray for sick people. It is an anointing that God gives, and it is for His purpose. It comes on the person for the expression of healing at that particular time. As the Bride of Christ really begins to come together into that bond of unity the Bible speaks of, and the entire body begins to become functionable, this is where we are going to begin to see the body produce the results of what truth is supposed to be building in us. We are not going to work all week and get our minds so cumbered with cares of the world, and then come to church so worn down we have to sing for half an hour to get ourselves built up in the Spirit enough for God to anoint us. Out there where we spend our time in normal daily activity, is where God means for some of these gifts to be expressed, just as much out of the church as in the church. If you do not believe that, I say to you, Just stick around and watch how God will work not too far in the distant future. He will have His yielded vessels. As for the anointing itself, everything God anoints you for is for a purpose, whether it is to pray for someone, or whatever. If it is inside the assembly that you receive such an anointing, please do not think you are going to be anointed to stand there for 15 minutes praying for one person while everyone else just waits. Do not even think like that. You do not read in the Bible where Jesus prayed that long for any one person. Many times He just said, You are healed: Go and sin no more. Just a few words. When God speaks audibly, it is usually just a few words; but when man speaks, it takes half a day and then sometimes you wonder if you got it all said.

PRAYING IN THE SPIRIT

How can someone say they are going to go and pray in the Spirit? Well, I do not consider that to be an expression we should use lightly. Whether you are praying in the Spirit or you are praying because you feel the necessity to pray, it is still prayer. That night Jesus went to the Garden of Gethsemane to pray, He went because He felt the need to pray. I want you all to listen carefully. When that man knelt there in the garden and left his disciples to watch, every word that came out of His mouth was an expression of how He felt. He agonized. He agonized because He was facing death. You will see how Paul referred to it in Hebrews 5, and you will have to say He was definitely not anointed of the Spirit to pray like that: He was praying like that because of how His own spirit felt. His own emotional feelings were expressed there in prayer. He was giving vent to them before the Father. “Father, if it be thy will, grant this cup to pass from me.” That was His expression. He was starring death in the face. There is one thing sure, when you are praying in the Spirit, that is when the anointing takes over and it just feels like you open your mouth and words flow out. That is the Holy Ghost in you that is praying that way. There is no reason for anyone to think they will be anointed to pray like that every time they go to prayer. There are always times you will go to prayer when you actually feel as dry as a bleached out bone and intercessory prayer is far from you; but you go ahead and pray anyhow. Now I am going to say something that may be misunderstood: But try to follow what I am saying. I was born on a farm, I was raised up on a farm, and I still live on a farm. Almost every day I go into a bedroom where there is a bed I slept on as a boy, a bed my grandmother gave me. Books and everything lay strewn on that bed. I go in there to pray and read: I can spend an hour praying and reading the Bible and many times I will come out without being able to say I have definitely been impressed or dealt with in any measure whatsoever. Does that mean that I should not keep up that practice? Not at all: Because I know if I only wait until I feel like going in there, after so long like that, there will be no anointing at all. On the other hand, when I leave that bedroom and get to walking around, or get on a tractor to move a bale of hay and feed the cows, then something in my spirit starts rolling around just like a tape recorder. I have come in for dinner and sat down at the table, and not even realize that I am not saying anything until my wife looks at me and says, Why are you so still, are you preaching? Yes. At times like that my mind is just going right through all of it and scriptures are coming to me. I am not saying that is the way it has is to be for everyone: I am just telling you how it is with me. I am just one particular person and that is the way God deals with me. That is the way I have to walk with God. That is the way I listen to God; and ten thousand preachers could not convince me that it should be any different for me. That is my way, and I see no reason to change; but every individual must find their own way of communicating with the Creator: I cannot do that for anyone else. There is a particular way God wants to walk and talk with every one of you, and you with Him; and if you will find that way, you will find that there will be a wonderful communion between you and your heavenly Father. No one else can give you an exact prescription for place and posture, so you can communicate with Him in that intimate way: You find that yourself. I know I have told this many times before, but I want to tell it again, because it shows how human traditional feelings can attempt to rule you. Years ago, when we were in a little building in New Albany, on State Street, different preachers would come along and preach for us. They would always take that verse of scripture, “Pray ye therefore the Lord of harvest, that He will send forth reapers into His fields.” At that time we had been working there for about three and one half years, and you cannot know the times I felt so condemned in myself, saying, Lord, they are going to hell out there and here I am playing around with about a dozen people. I think there were at least two different times I had made up my mind, that on a certain date, if there are not more people come in here, I will just lock the doors and do something else: I have already been here three years, looking at the same faces week after week and seeing no results, so surely I need to be doing something else. They can go somewhere else and do just as well. Yes, I had made up my mind, I am going to close the doors; but when that day came, something just like a hand pushing, would cause me to go on. Then before very long, Here came another missionary saying the same thing, and I would fall under that condemnation again. I would come to the same decision, but would never carry it through, because somehow I would always be nudged a little to carry on. My point in saying that is this, There is a way that God will deal with every true child of His, so you just have to find that way. You have to get to the place that you know what is God and what is not of God, when your mind is flooded with thoughts. In the year 1957, I made up my mind, Lord, somewhere there are people I need to go to with this gospel. Many times, I have combined wheat, sitting on the tractor, crying because of the way I felt about reaching other people. If people could have seen the tears on my face in those times they would have said, What is wrong with that man? Is he crazy? Why is he crying like that? You cannot know exactly how I felt inside. I would think, Here I am in America, with opportunity to have everything I need; and there are poor people out here in the world, going to hell, that have not heard a thing that could help them. Finally, in the fall of that year, I made a decision: During the month of December, just before Castro took over Cuba, we went to Florida; and then spent the whole month of December in Cuba with Missionaries. I took the whole family with me, and we went three hundred miles into the interior, with the Canadian missionaries I have told you about. We had our own interpreter while we were there; and it gave me an opportunity to see first hand what it is like to live in the mission field. After spending one month there and seeing how things were, I came home realizing I was not yet ready for that kind of work. I did not know what the Lord had in store for us; but I did come back home with contentment in my soul. However I want you to know, I prayed earnestly for the perfect will of God during all of that time, but just had to do as we did. We went through 1958, and 1959. Then in March and April of 1959, God gave us a moving of the Spirit in that old building and here came more people. From that moment on, the congregation started growing. I did not realize then, what I know now. I had no idea that our ministry would ever be as it has been. We print the Contender that has gone around the world. It is going into every place outside China. It is in Hong Kong now. I hope it does go on across the border to the interior of China; but that is in the hands of God. At least, I now see what God had in mind all along. My point in saying these things, is to let you know there is a schooling process God will bring you through, before you ever get to where you are going with Him. It is not through a denominational Bible school either: It is not how you can quote the Bible, or tell stories from the Bible: It is how you begin to understand certain things, and how you let the anointing of God lead and direct you. If you can submit to that, and fully accept it, it may cover a long period of time before you will see the outcome, but I just have to say, I thank God now, for the way He dealt with me. As for the question about praying in the Spirit, I have given you this little personal experience to try to help you see the workings of the Spirit of God. Praying in the Spirit, where the Spirit just takes control, is an anointing itself. You do not choose the time when you are going to pray in the Spirit. You just go to the bedroom and say, Lord, I came to talk to you. Do not think, Lord, I came here for a special reason: I want to pray in the Spirit. If you allow yourself to start talking to God like that, He might just let you get as dumb as dumb can be about spiritual things. Only His anointing is going to help you say words you never realized could be said; and you do not just pull down the anointing at will. Remember, God cannot be used like a vending machine. In the light of what I feel this move of the Spirit will become one of these days, one thing is definite, God is not going to allow anyone to use Him like a vending machine: It will remain to be a situation where saints will completely submit themselves to His will, without dictating to Him what they are willing to do each time they come to Him in prayer. He will either run the whole thing according to His plan, or He will have no part in what we do and say. If our carnal mind is in control, it will be just another program of mortal mankind; and no matter how much good you seem to see from it, you will never see God blessing it like He would those things He is allowed to control. We just have to get it settled, Do we want the perfect will of God in our lives, or are we going to be satisfied just to run a mediocre program?

GOD’S PROGRESSIVE PLAN IN ACTION

I have been continuing to read the various writings concerning the move of the Spirit in the early years of this century, as God, little by little began to restore to Christianity the things the Church of the living God had been stripped of coming through the ages of time. I have been reading here of the Azusa St. move, and Topeka Kansas, the Welsh revival and the other moves of God of that period of time. During that long period called the Dark Ages, Christianity had been almost completely stripped of true revelation of the word of God, so in all of those moves, God restored some particular truth, or truth’s to them. With Luther, it was a nugget of light concerning personal faith in walking with God. There was an anointing that went with each revelation God restored. No, it was not the fullness of the Holy Ghost at any time; but what they received was sufficient for that hour. Then came Calvin and Knox, and John Wesley. John Wesley’s revival produced some of the manifestations that Pentecost experienced; but remember, what they received was still nowhere close to being all that the Holy Ghost is. That is why, as we come to what we call the Pentecostal move, starting at the beginning of the 20th century, their revelation only went so far. It really started in Topeka Kansas, January 1, 1900. Topeka Kansas was the introduction, the prelude to what Azusa Street would become three years later. It was almost like the situation where the house of Cornelius in Caesarea, was the introduction of what God was going to do for the Gentiles some time later at Ephesus, as is recorded in the 19th chapter of Acts. When we can see the manifestations and things that went on, and begin to see the picture it all portrayed, it causes you to realize that a sovereign God is in control of everything that is worthwhile. All of those people that were instruments God used in the beginning of either Topeka or Azusa Street were just denominational people. At Topeka, they were all Methodists. At Azusa Street, you had Nazarene people. What is the difference between Methodists and Nazarenes? Hardly anything. Both have more or less the same framework of teaching. However the point is, whatever the last major thing was that God did, that is where He will pick up the next time. That is the element of people He will use to go on to the next point. It will not be the same generation of people, but it will be people that make up that same framework of truth: That is the point. As you think about the Methodists of the Topeka, hour, there were many years between them and John Wesley’s hour. As Bro. Bartleman wrote of the Azusa Street hour, he emphasizes how the people came together and prayed for the Spirit to have the right of way. Sitting there were Baptists, Presbyterians, a few Catholics, a few worldly hard heads, some Nazarenes and independent Holiness, people with all kinds of minds and thoughts concerning the word of God. You would just have to say, What a conglomeration for the Spirit of God to move through! All of them had been sitting there with their own ideas: But then the Spirit moved. First, the Church of the living God was far from being subject to the divine order Paul spoke of in his Corinthian Epistle. You would not have found that in the Methodist church of that hour, would you? Neither would you find it in the Nazarene, nor the Baptist, nor the Presbyterian, nor the Catholics. No. But the point is, as God began to move among them, here came all those manifestations, shouting, dancing, shaking, drunkenness, trembling, stammering lips, the whole assortment until finally, speaking in tongues. God put emphasis upon the fact that the hour is approaching, that the supernatural must be back in the Church, and must be given right of way for its proper course. I was reading the other morning, where it spoke of how preachers in Los Angeles were as plentiful as the old dried bean shells of last year’s crop of beans. They could make all kinds of noise when they come in, trying to talk, and would not wait upon the Spirit for anything. It told of one particular fellow that came in, how you could hear him everywhere. He was a loud mouthed preacher, that was going to tell the people what they really needed to do, to get this thing done right. All of a sudden his mind went blank. He just stood there until he finally fell flat on his face: as if God was saying to him, Oh shut up! What else can you make of it? Out of that era, came a Pentecostal move; and some Pentecostal churches, ninety years later, made up of different generations, would like for God to repeat the same hour. They would like to just come together and wait; and never have anything to offer the people. Remember, when God restored those certain truths through this, it was evident that a lot of tongues were expressed. Prophecy came into the picture, as well as some interpretations of the tongues; and sometimes, gifts of healing also came into the picture. They had all of that; but God’s universal Church was still not in order. Many of these things were misunderstood, as to how a body of people should function with them. It has always been that way when God would do something different than what the people were used to. Anyhow along about the year 1908 and on to 1912, God tested that whole thing by dropping a revelation in their midst. He had already restored predestination, eternal security and sanctification of the believer, so it was time to restore baptism in Jesus name and the revelation that God is ONE, and NOT THREE PERSONS; and that entire bunch ran from it and said it was of the devil. They had all been singing, shouting, praising God, speaking in tongues and talking about the wonderful works of God; but when God dropped that revelation, brother it blew the thing sky high. That goes to show this is a manifestation of the supernatural, all of these gifts; but revelation is an expression of the Spirit of God that affects the intellect, and either worldly wisdom, or spiritual wisdom are going to come into operation and affect it. If spiritual wisdom is predominate, sooner or later it links up with that; and when true revelation and that, link up together we are getting close to where the finished product should be at. Anyhow we know what came out of the oneness Pentecostal movement. They began to be absolutely convinced, We have the right thing. Well they were on the right track; but they were not home yet. Oneness Pentecost had a truth, which was, God is ONE and water baptism should be administered in the name of Jesus Christ: which is the only Bible way to baptize believers. They had that much right of course; but when they got to the point where they believed they had all the bride of Jesus Christ would ever need, and they organized around that revelation and became just another denominational church, they were right back in the same trap the devil had trinity Pentecost in. They became very proud: believing that they were right where they ought to be. Years ago, I was talking to Bro. William Branham, shortly after we started going to church at the Tabernacle. He took us out to dinner one Sunday; and that gave me the opportunity to ask him this question. I was just a green horn Methodist that did not know very much, so I said, Bro. William Branham, what is the difference between what I hear referred to as oneness, and the trinity? Well Bro. Junie, it is like this, oneness is a group of Pentecostal people that believe in one God and that He is not a trinity of persons. They believe in water baptism in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. The trinity have the same experience of speaking in tongues, but they believe there are three persons within the Godhead. Then he said, Now you can look at it this way: The oneness people have a beautiful revelation, but they have lost a lot of the love they had for humanity; therefore it sometimes looks like God just lets them struggle along with what they have. On the other hand, the trinity side of this experience is without the revelation of the truth; but at least the trinity side has a feeling of compassion for lost mankind. This was back in the 1950’s. He went on and said, That is evident by the fact that the trinity side of Pentecost will support our meetings, while the oneness will just stand back and look on. Now that brings our attention back to a vision he had prior to that. It went like this, He saw himself walking down the road of life, and all of a sudden there was another trail that began to blend in with the pathway he was on. Here came a beautiful lady with a banner across her chest, a banner like you see on the Miss America contestants; and on that banner was MISS ASSEMBLIES. The pathway she was on came right in with the one he was on and she just reached her arm out and linked it with his arm and they went down the trail a good distance like that. After a while he said Miss Assemblies began to pull her arm away. Finally she just slipped her arm completely free of his and went her way. Just as that happened, he saw another trail coming along to the side of the one he was on, and when he looked closer there was another beautiful lady with a banner across her chest; and this banner had on it, MISS ONENESS. She walked out and engaged her arm with his arm and walked just a short distance like that and then did the same thing Miss Assemblies had done, pulled her arm free of his and went her own way. That all adds up to this, Neither one of them, as an organization, was the true Church. Each of them were just a movement of people to which God had instilled a truth; and that movement was to carry that truth until there was an hour of time when God would do something more with it. That is why God had to send that man as a messenger to this Age. He came with a message that pulled predestinated people out of all those denominational movements and brought them to a revelation of truth that encompassed the measure of truth they already had. All of this picked up right where God moved last: which was in the oneness revelation. His messenger picked right up in the same message the oneness had. The big difference was, he saw that the organization was not it. That is why they turned away from him. When he began to speak against the organization of religion, they could not tolerate that. Nevertheless his message picked right up where they were at that time and went right on with it. It is the purpose of God to put all this truth together apart from denominational ties; and we are everyone going to learn some things we need to know. We are all going to learn together. A lot of us are going to learn things we have never learned before. We are going to see things we never saw before. Once this universal body of people has reached the point that God sees she is clothed, and she is empowered, and she is what God wants her to be, He will take her out of this world. I have no doubt when we talk about divine order, discernment and things of that nature, that as this moving of the Spirit gets the people together all over the world, in the various groups, and it is beginning to be evident to outside religious realms there is a move of God on, naturally you know what that does, here they come to investigate; so divine order will have to be in place to keep things under control. They will want to get in on it; but they will not have the necessary ingredients to operate within the realm of the Spirit without allowing their human nature to throw everything out of control, so it will be necessary for someone to hold the line. It will be just like that man wrote about Azusa Street: Here they came from out of every hole there was: They wanted to get in on what was taking place. They were not satisfied just to get in on it though, they also wanted to help run it. Just because Bro. Seymour would lay flat on the floor many times and just pray for the Spirit to move, they thought there should be someone get up and yak, yak, yak. The point is, Back then it was tongues; but I believe from now on, as we walk with God, knowing there are a lot of spirits motivating people in the religious world, we could not allow what could take place. Let us just say to illustrate, that we come together like they did at Azusa Street, and we are sitting in here, just praying and waiting for the Spirit to move. I am going to use this setting for an illustration, We are just going to come here and lay on our face and pray for the Spirit to have His way, without anyone getting up to preach or anything: Well most anything could come in here, out of any kind of religious background, and since there is so much in the Pentecostal church world today, so many thinking they have so much to offer, they can get up and rattle and rattle and rattle. They are claiming to have the same experience you do, only they hear about this as something of a fresh anointing and it excites them. My point is this, If there are some of these spirits on the prowl, and knowing some of these characters are nothing but religious show offs, why should they be allowed to come in here and make a nuisance of themselves? God would not be pleased to allow them any such liberty. About the time they open up with some of their big ideas, someone in the congregation will speak up, My brother, the Spirit tells me you are not in the Spirit, you are in your flesh, if I were you I would sit down, or else leave the building. If the person doing the talking is in the Spirit, the person that did show off will be making an exit. Either that, or they are going to stay and accept something that is right. I believe this is where we will see everything work in divine order, and God will deal with each person so that the body begins to express itself in unity. As God puts this together, I have to believe we will see something beautiful: because it will be what God wants His Church to reflect to the religious world. That is why He showed off the Jerusalem Church to Jerusalem Judaism. Also, God led the Gentile Church in such a way there at Ephesus, in the midst of that pagan city where there were worshipers of Diana and all that stuff, they saw in that city of Ephesus that there was a Church of Gentile people so empowered by the Spirit of God, that even those false brethren that came saying they were apostles from the Jerusalem Assembly were exposed. It was not long until that Ephesian Church knew exactly what spirit those men were of. That is why it talks about it in the book of Revelation. If it was that way in the book of Revelation, that the Ephesus church knew these false characters when they came around knocking on the door, then I have to say we are coming right back to what they had at Ephesus and even more. We are living in the end time, when God is going to complete the whole plan He has been perfecting one step at a time. Therefore it would not make any sense at all, for the end time Church that is to be perfected, to come short of something the Church in the beginning had in operation. It is not a situation where we have to sit and wait for someone to come in and make a fool of himself. It is just that the true Church of the living God will be in a place with Him, that anyone who comes in with the wrong motive will not have to say very much before you are all going to know that what he has is not of God. That is what these gifts are for: so true children of God do not have to depend upon carnal shrewdness. I hope all of you understand why I am using these examples and illustrations. I confess that I am still learning and I am yet going to learn even more. Therefore if I go through an experience to learn, then please do not argue with me and say, I think you are wrong, Bro. Jackson. If I have had to learn it through a hard experience, then I will have to say to you, If you do not believe me, then go find something else to play with.

Now having said all of this, let me remind you once again that there is intercessory prayer, and there is travailing in the Spirit, but intercessory prayer and travailing in the Spirit is not for public display. I hope you understand what I mean and accept it to be right. I certainly would not want to sit here and listen to someone travail in the Spirit for an hour and half or two hours, crying, agonizing, begging God, Do something for this one or that one, when you do not even know what they are praying for. Most of the time you do not know yourself. It is a hidden thing; but God has placed a burden there that you just have to yield to. Again I will say, There can be a burden for any certain situation; but when it comes to travailing prayer I have to say, It is not a thing for public display. It is something you do in the bedroom, in your secret closet, or wherever you go to be alone with God. Some go to the woods somewhere, or on the back side of a corn field. I myself have got in the car an drove to a place to pray, simply because where I lived at one time, the landlord lived upstairs. Many times, there was not a place for me to get away from the house and pray without him snooping around and listening; so I got into my car and drove to the back side of the place behind a corn field and hid myself in the car; and have sat there and cried, and prayed until two o’clock in the morning. If any coon hunters came by during that time, they never stopped to say anything to me. I just know that I felt the need to get away somewhere and pray; and that was how I did it. Anyhow saints, we all have a purpose in life; and if we are to be in the bride of Christ, we need to learn how to communicate with Him that is the author and finisher of our faith, and of all that we are and ever hope to be. We are going to see some things we have never seen before; and we will learn from every experience we have; so let us all keep our eyes and ears open to observe what God is doing in our midst. I thank Him for His grace. He is on the move; and He is going to put the finishing touches on His true Church, as the universal body comes together in unity around His word. Amen.