You can do something. Jesus said, 'By this My Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit' (John 15:8). No matter how humble our station in life, we can influence the lives of others. Somebody is hearing the words we speak, and watching how we conduct ourselves.
Unbeknownst to us, others are watching, and listening. People are so insecure nowadays. There's so much evil in the world. For love of money, not principle, the media have exposed much uncleanliness and hypocrisy within the false church system - the fruit of carnal doctrine.
Unfortunately, bad news sells, and they have no zeal to research the Word to discover the faith of Jesus Christ and expose man-made traditions which are the root cause of this evil. Consequently, their viewers, listeners, and readers tend to identify the virgin invisible Church, which is the Body of Christ, and not a building or a denomination, with Satan's harlot church. So it's up to you. People will only know the true living God as they hear and see Him in your life. Children of God, will recognize the Life of Christ in you, and ask how they too can possess that security.
John Warr was an 18th-century apprentice shoemaker, who determined to be a faithful witness for Christ. Another apprentice was hired, and John repeatedly talked to him about spiritual things. The new worker, however, didn't want to be bothered. Then one day he was caught exchanging a counterfeit shilling for a good one. In his guilty humiliation he asked john for help and prayer. Through the faithful witness of John Warr, that man put his faith in Christ, and developed into a committed disciple.
The young apprentice was William Carey, who later became a remarkably fruitful missionary to India. Carey's life and ministry had a tremendous influence on the cause of worldwide gospel outreach in modern times.
Jesus said in John 15:8, "By this My Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit." This should not be discouraging to Christians who can't preach, sing, teach, or go to the mission field. They shouldn't see themselves as in a situation that makes fruitful service impossible. The Church is a team, a Body. It's comprised of many different members, each with his own gifts and abilities. And not every one can carry the ball at the same time.
Take courage from the example of John Warr, whose impact on a co-worker brought glory to God, and untold blessing to multitudes of people around the world. And it still is.
Witness for Christ with your life as well as your lips.
Peter said that in the last days there would signs in the heavens above. And in the earth below, great things would be taking place, like flying saucers and mystic lights.
Jesus commanded His church to lift up their heads in that day, and look up, for the unseen Christ will be appearing pretty soon. But Christ's "appearing" is not the physical Coming of Jesus. The Man from Galilee does not return until after the destruction of all life at Armageddon, and the saints will all be with Him. Christ's appearing is the manifestation of the Word. Jesus said, 'these things shall you do also'! So if we only walked by sight, we'd be children of darkness. I'm so glad to know there's a Light that shines in every believer's heart unto the day of their physical redemption.
The wise men were watching that heavenly Light. The prophet said, 'There shall come a star out of Jacob'. And they followed It to Christ. They said, "When we get to Jerusalem, church headquarters will tell us all about this mystic, Heavenly Light that's leading us. But church headquarters knew nothing of It.
This Star, this mystic light passed over all the observatories for two years. They even kept time by the stars, the four watches. No historian wrote of it. No one knew anything about It. Yet It was there. And these wise man, with their gifts, followed It half way around the world. May that same Light come into every heart listening to this program today.
You know that Light has appeared today. Many times, in doors, out of doors - around the world. The disciples were told, 'This same Jesus, which is taken up from you into heaven in a cloud, shall so come in like manner'. In Matthew 24 Jesus said this would be the Sign of His parousia: His arrival and subsequent presence. It was manifested above Tucson on February 28, 1963 as a huge rainbow-colored Cloud 26 miles high, and 30 miles across. It looked like the head of Christ wigged as a Judge, looking down upon the earth.
It was prophesied months before it happened how it would look like a triangle. The May 17, 1963 issue of LIFE Magazine carried a photographic article. Earlier It had been photographed in Houston, like a halo, above Brother Branham's head. It's the same Sign (/photos.htm).
We imagine Heaven is so many billions and billions and billions of light years beyond that, till it's not even thought of. How would we get There? We'll travel like a thought, it'll be so fast. In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye. If you could think of Heaven, that's how quick you'd be there. After He was resurrected, Jesus walked right through the walls, through the doors, and stood, and ate boiled fish and honeycomb.
Einstein scientifically proved that if two objects were coming toward each other fast enough, (now they'd really have to be going fast, like a billion miles a second), but they could pass through one another, and without disturbing anything. Hallelujah, speed! No sooner than life has gone out of this body, and we'll be in the Presence of God.
We only know time, meters, and kilometers of the three dimensions of this earthbound system. People are going to find out some day, that they're not seeing a hundred and fifty million years of light space; they're just going right around in a circle. You'll find out one of these days, that when you go to heaven, you don't fly off somewhere else, you're still right here, in another dimension faster than this.
Television proves that. Cowboys are chasing Indians right through this room; the US Fleet is fighting the Japanese Navy in your room right now. Your television set can capture those light waves and project them onto a screen. So there are other dimensions our mortal senses cannot reach. They are real, and they're recorded. It's like throwing a pebble into a pond. The splash of displaced water disappears in an instant, but the ripples bear record right around the pond. And everything we say, and do, is recorded in another dimension. The veil of flesh is what keeps us out of His Presence.
Look, we're not dead substance; we're alive. If this desk had the life in it that's in my finger, and had an intelligence to move it, the desk could move like my finger moves. We're not made of timber and steel. We're made of cells, and life, and fiber; and there's a spirit here that controls it all. Just look how fast it has to travel. Look here; my hand touches that. Now there has to be a negative and a positive reaction. As soon as my finger touches that, it feels it. Immediately it reports to my mind, and my mind says, "That's cold." And that information goes back. See how quick that is? Faster than a thought, quicker than anything. What is it? There's something alive in there, and the nerve speaks to the mind. See what I mean? The nerve touches it, feels it, and tells the mind, "it's cold." The mind says it's cold, because it's felt by the nerve.
In the first resurrection, the saints will change in the atoms as fast as a thought. Now at the first resurrection, the living will remain, and there'll be a wakening time for those who're asleep in Christ. Not those who are asleep in sin. They sleep right on. They won't wake for another thousand years. But the saints who are sleeping in the dust will be awakened first, and these corruptible bodies will put on incorruption in the rapturing grace of the Lord.
When they get together, then we which are alive and remain shall be changed. These mortal bodies will not see death, but all of a sudden, there'll be a sweep over us, and we'll changed - turned back like Abraham was, from an old man to a young man, from an old woman to a young woman. And after awhile you'll be traveling like a thought, then you'll see those who've already resurrected. Oh, what an hour! Then we'll be caught up with them to meet the Lord in the air.
Don't lie to one another, tell the truth.
My young friend had just told me a huge lie, and I wasn't going to let him get away with it. He actually seemed glad when I stopped him. Shaken, he confessed to a weakness for lying, and asked for help.
What was interesting is how his lie had developed. It started with a little exaggeration. But it grew and grew until it culminated in an unbelievable whopper.
If you have a problem with lying, here are four good reasons for changing your behavior:
God's Word commands us not to lie. The ninth Commandment says, 'You shall not bear false witness against your neighbour'. We find it repeated in the New Testament where Paul says, 'lie not to one another, seeing you've put off the old man with his deeds' (Exodus 20:16; Leviticus 19:11; Colossians 3:9).
Lying is often an attempt to cover our feelings of insecurity, but in the long run it makes us look worse, not better. Remember how Abraham, and later Isaac lied, by declaring their wives were their sisters? They sought safety in lies instead of seeking protection in the truth and God's Word (Genesis 12:10-20; 20:1-18; 26:6-16).
Lying does not work. People lie to protect themselves or to cover their tracks. The only protection and covering is the blood of Christ. God always makes sure the truth comes out. 'Your sin will find you out'. 'He that perverts his ways shall be known' (Numbers 32:23; Proverbs 10:9).
Lying creates a trap. One lie leads to another. We forget what lies we've told and to whom we've told them. We finally get caught and are embarrassed. When a liar is caught in a trap of his own making, he sometimes becomes violent like a cornered animal.
Jesus said, 'You are of your father the Devil, and the lusts of your father you will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaks a lie, it comes naturally: for he's a liar, and the father of lying' (John 8:44).
Exaggerations and lies are habits born out of insecurity and fear. Call on the One who is the Truth. He'll help you to conquer that habit, and enable you to tell the truth.
If you always tell the truth, you'll never be trapped by a lie. And remember, God will never bless a lie. We know we can stand firm on the promises of God without fear, that His Word can never fail, and because He's infallible, God cannot lie.
There was a woman and a man, who sold some property, and sought to make a bit of a name for themselves among the congregation, saying they'd given all the proceeds to the Church. They lied about it. They said, "We sold our ground for so much."
But there was a man standing there who was a prophet. He said, "Why has the Devil put it in your heart to lie to the Holy Ghost?"
The shock of being exposed killed the man. When his wife Sapphira came in. He asked, 'Did you sell your place for so much'? She'd conspired with her husband, so she said, 'Yes, for so much'.
So he told her, 'The feet that buried your husband are at the door, and shall carry you out'. The condemnation of knowing they were wrong shocked them, till they died on the spot. Just think of that. The Holy Spirit said, 'You lied, and did such and such'.
When they saw that discerning Spirit moving, and telling them all about themselves, and what they'd done, the critics hushed. 'Fear came on all that heard these things'. But today, they're brazen.
When Peter pointed them out and told them what they'd done. Down they dropped. My! Listen to this. Right after the death of Ananias and Sapphira - Acts 5:12-13, 'By the hands of the apostles were many signs and wonders wrought among the people. And of the rest durst no man join himself to them'. I believe it's the same Holy Spirit today.
The biggest lie ever told, had a lot of truth in it. And the first one, the lie Satan told Eve was ninety percent Truth. But beneath it was a lie that condemned her, and ruined the whole of creation. I've heard men bypass parts of Scripture to justify theology. But if this part's right, that part's right! You have to watch that. It's got to be Truth here, and Truth there, Truth here and Truth there, every bit of it the Truth, lining up the same all the way through. We've got to put it together and make it fit through the whole Bible.
'Let God's Word be true, and every man's word a lie'.
Jesus is the Word. So He only said what was right, and the Father told Him what to say. He said so in John 8:26, 'I speak to the world those things which I have heard of the Father'. He couldn't lie for He was God. 'The Son can do nothing of Himself but what He sees the Father do'. God was in Christ, reconciling the world to Himself.
He said, 'I am the WAY, the TRUTH, and the LIFE'. He is the Word. In Him is no darkness, no lie. Let's watch as God vindicates Him. Gravitation loses its power. His feet begin to come up from the earth. There's light beneath His feet. He rises higher and higher, higher and higher. Gravitation lost its power, just as death lost its power. He was the center of gravitation. He was the creator of gravitation. He held gravitation at His own command, as He held death at His own command.
"All power in heavens and on earth is given unto My hand. Go and I will go with you. As the Father sent Me, so send I you." The Father that sent Him, went with Him, and was in Him. And the same Christ that sends us, comes with us and will be in us unto the end of the world. "And the things that I do, shall you also; even more than this, for I go to My Father." The infallible Words of the living God can never fail. They're God's Words.
If we're going to manifest the Sons of God, and have part in the first resurrection, we will not lie, because we'll be one with the Word, Who 'was manifested to take away our sins; and in Him is no sin'. Jesus prayed, that we may be one, as He and the Father are one. 'I have no greater joy than to hear that my children walk in truth'. radio048.html