Bible Believers' Newsletter #480
"We focus on the present Truth – what Jesus is doing now. . ."
ISSN 1442-8660
Christian greetings in the precious Name of our Lord Jesus Christ, and an especial welcome to our new subscribers. We are pleased you could join us in fellowship around God's unchanging Word.
Once again our guest contributor is Evangelist Brother F. F. Bosworth, waiting in the unseen sixth dimension for Christ's end-time Bride to make herself ready for the Wedding Supper of the Lamb. His subject is "Looking at the Unseen, or the Mental Habit of Faith," and his conclusion is, to see the unseen is possible only through faith in Jesus Christ. This is one of the teachings Brother Branham mentioned and preached Himself in 1950.
This Newsletter serves those of like precious faith. Whoever will receive the truth is welcome to feed their soul from the waters of the River of Life. Everything here presented should be confirmed personally in your own Bible.
Your brother-in-Christ, Anthony Grigor-Scott
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Bush in "Fantasyland"
"President Bush is rushing to deploy a technology that does not work against a threat that does not exist," Cirincione says. "Iran is at least 5 to 10 years away from the capability to build a nuclear weapon and at least that far from having a missile that could hit Europe let alone the US. And anti-missile systems are still nowhere near working despite $150 billion spent since the 1983 Star Wars program started and years of phony tests staged to demonstrate 'progress' and 'success.'" . . .
"President Bush so fervently believes in something that doesn't exist that he jeopardizes – again – our real security interests. The fact is the Czechs don't want the radar, the Europeans don't trust his explanations and deplore his unilateralism, the Congress has already cut the funds on purely programmatic grounds. This was a dumb idea before, now it is yet another foreign policy disaster". . . In The Rise of US Nuclear Primacy, published in Foreign Affairs last year, Keir A. Liber and Daryl G. Press wrote: ". . .the sort of missile defenses that the United States might plausibly deploy would be valuable primarily in an offensive context, not a defensive one — as an adjunct to a US first-strike capability, not as a stand-alone shield. If the United States launched a nuclear attack against Russia (or China), the targeted country would be left with a tiny surviving arsenal — if any at all. At that point, even a relatively modest or inefficient missile-defense system might well be enough to protect against any retaliatory strikes. . ."
"President Putin thinks the US policies represent a new imperialism. Now, he sees President Bush trying to build permanent military bases on Russia's borders. Putin isn't afraid of 10 interceptors but he has to worry about what comes next — any Russian leader would. He doesn't believe President Bush and many Europeans don't either. This issue feeds into the mistrust of America that Europeans feel on a host of Bush Administration policies from global warming to Iraq". . .
"Politics drives this deployment decision," Cirincione says. "Bush Administration officials are trying to lock in the program before they leave office. They are trying to build bases they hope the next president will find impossible to shut down" . . . President Bush has fallen neatly into Putin's trap. They may have to invent a new name for this gambit."
Full story: thenation.com
Comment: The image of the beast that "exercises all the power of Imperial Rome, and will cause the earth and all who dwell therein to serve Papal Rome" (Revelation 13:12).
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Putin’s Censored Press Conference
June 10, 2007 – Russian President Vladimir Putin gave an hour and a half-long press conference which was attended by many members of the world media. . . (Read the entire press conference archived here). . .
The meeting gave Putin a chance to give his side of the story in the growing debate over missile defense in Eastern Europe. He offered a brief account of the deteriorating state of US-Russian relations since the end of the Cold War, and particularly from 9/11 to present. Since September 11, the Bush administration has carried out an aggressive strategy to surround Russia with military bases, install missiles on its borders, topple allied regimes in Central Asia, and incite political upheaval in Moscow through US-backed "pro-democracy" groups. . . . The Bush administration’s belligerent foreign policy has backed the Kremlin into a corner and forced Putin to take retaliatory measures. He has no other choice. If we want to understand why relations between Russia are quickly reaching the boiling-point; we only need to review the main developments since the end of the Cold War. Political analyst Pat Buchanan gives a good rundown of these in his article "Doesn’t Putin Have a Point?" Full story: informationclearinghouse.info
Comment: Ezekiel 38-39, Zechariah 14 and Revelation 13 are unfolding before our eyes.
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Katrina and the Question of Scalar EM Weather Weapons
Scalar technology which has been blamed for hurricane Katrina is now suspected as the cause of drought across much of southern USA. Meanwhile those interesting folk who brought us two World Wars, AIDS, 9/11, Y2K, and other hoaxes, have activated a further phase of the Report from Iron Mountain on the Possibility and Desirability of Peace, which like The Protocols, was presented as satire but is in reality the revelation of the method. Their agents are now pushing the hoax of climate change as if it were caused by industrialization and not scalar warfare calculated to hasten deindustrialization and world depopulation. Now any change in weather, be it mild winters or cool summers can be attributed to "climate change." Whatever the weather, the news is very bad, and it seems Iran may be learning a lesson in just how "bad" weather can be in face of recalcitrance.
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The Stranger
A few years after I was born, my Dad met a stranger who was new to our small town. From the beginning, Dad was fascinated with this enchanting newcomer and soon invited him to live with our family. The stranger was quickly accepted and was around from then on.
As I grew up, I never questioned his place in my family. In my young mind, he had a special niche. My parents were complementary instructors: Mom taught me good from evil, and Dad taught me to obey. But the stranger. . . he was our storyteller. He would keep us spellbound for hours on end with adventures, mysteries, and comedies.
If I wanted to know anything about politics, history or science, he always knew the answers about the past, understood the present and even seemed able to predict the future! He took my family to the first major league ball game. He made me laugh, and he made me cry. The stranger never stopped talking, but Dad didn't seem to mind.
Sometimes, Mom would get up quietly while the rest of us were shushing each other to listen to what he had to say, and she would go to the kitchen for peace and quiet. (I wonder now if she ever prayed for the stranger to leave).
Dad ruled our household with certain moral convictions, but the stranger never felt obligated to honor them. Profanity, for example, was not allowed in our home. . . Not from us, our friends, or any visitors. Our longtime visitor, however, got away with four-letter words that burned my ears and made my dad squirm and my mother blush.
My Dad didn't permit the liberal use of alcohol. But the stranger encouraged us to try it on a regular basis. He made cigarettes look cool, cigars manly and pipes distinguished. He talked freely (much too freely!) about sex. His comments were sometimes blatant, sometimes suggestive, and generally embarrassing.
I now know that my early concepts about relationships were influenced strongly by the stranger. Time after time, he opposed the values of my parents, yet he was seldom rebuked. . . And NEVER asked to leave.
More than fifty years have passed since the stranger moved in with our family. He has blended right in and is not nearly as fascinating as he was at first. Still, if you could walk into my parents' den today, you would still find him sitting over in his corner, waiting for someone to listen to him talk and watch him draw his pictures. His name?. . .
We just call him, "TV."
He has a younger sister now. We call her "Computer."
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Looking at the Unseen, or the Mental Habit of Faith
by F. F. Bosworth
"We look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen: for the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal" (II Corinthians 4:18).
Our text suggests to us eight great things.
I. THAT WE ARE LIVING IN TWO WORLDS
The material realities which we see with our natural eyes, exist in the midst of the far better realities which are unseen.
There are two worlds – the world of sense, and the world of spirit: and the world of spirit surrounds, enspheres, and interpenetrates the world of sense. Both worlds occupy the same space at the same time. Many speak as though the world of sense comes first, and the world of spirit comes after; whereas the world of spirit is all about us now, though the veil of sense hangs between.
Many imagine that we dwell in time here, and shall dwell in eternity hereafter; while the fact is that we dwell in eternity here, though we take a little section of it and call it "time".
The Scriptures teach us that the unseen realities – the best of all realities, encompass us now. What sights might every one of us see at every moment of our existence, at every turn of our path, had we only eyes with which to see them!
The "Seen" exists in the Midst of the "Unseen"
The "seen" exists in the midst of the "unseen," the "temporal" in the midst of the "eternal." Faith, based on glorious and eternal facts, serves the Christian for eyes, and enables him to see and enjoy what others cannot see.
God, the greatest and best of all realities, and the Creator of them all, is everywhere; yet sin-blinded eyes see Him not. God, who is infinitely real, is nonexistent to those who are blinded by "the god of this world".
The servant of Elisha was greatly stricken with fear because of the Assyrian hosts at Dothan because he had not yet formed the habit of looking at things invisible. He had no perception of spiritual forces. Elisha, on the other hand, was kept calm by seeing the invisible host. Such a man is a match for ten thousand others, because with two clear eyes on the unseen forces of the living God, he can say cheerfully: "Fear not, for they that be with us are more than they that be with them".
The Scriptures tell us that "Moses endured as seeing Him who is invisible" (Hebrews 11:27).
Many are occupied with the matters that belong only to the material side of life, expecting that after death, in some way, they will be brought into contact with the unseen things. But in this text Paul makes an appeal for life as in the presence of these two empires, the seen and the unseen; because every day the heart beats in both, and a man cannot alienate himself from the one and stand solitary in the other. Thank God that while we are living in this changing world, we are at the same time living in an everlasting universe of unchanging and eternal realities!
Eternal Things are Present Things
The Apostle does not say that he looked at future things; the eternal things which filled his vision were also present. The present things which he looked at and enjoyed were eternal. We, too, can now look at unseen things, because they are closer to us than the things seen. The visible world is not always before us; darkness comes on and we are in solitude; but the world of thought, and the great invisible realities are still with us to be seen and enjoyed.
While the Christian, for the time, forgets the invisible, his thoughts of God, of Christ, of truth, of righteousness, of love, of the perfect and beautiful in life, engage his whole attention. The natural man is blind. He does not realize the fact that there are just as great realities in the realm of the spiritual as there are in the realm of the material.
The Scriptures tell us that the natural man cannot know the things of God. The reason is, that every contact he has made is only through his central nervous system and his five senses – sight, hearing, touch, taste, and smell. These senses belong to the physical body, and they can only contact matter. The purpose of the five senses was never to reveal God to man; man was to know God through his soul. God created man a spirit being but gave him a physical body with its five senses through which he was to contact the natural world, which was to be his home.
Invisible Things are Real Things
What a mistake to suppose that invisible things are not real! The facts are that visible and material things could never have had an existence unless the invisible was first here, and was real enough and wise enough to create the visible. The far superior invisible realities and personality were here before the visible or material were created. "The things which are seen" by the physical vision were created by the "unseen." This fact surely proves, the reality and the superiority of "the things that are not seen." The best part of man himself is his invisible personality – his soul.
If you ask: How can unseen things be real? I ask you: What about yourself? Your body can be seen, but no natural eyes have ever seen you.
The invisible God is a Spirit – a Person, and so are you. You are a much greater reality than your temporal body. Nothing is more of a reality to you than your invisible self. What is more real to you than your mind and your own thoughts?
Your whole life is occupied with them. You have never seen them; but they are as real to you as your body.
Surely the Creator is far greater than the universe which He created, so I am more interested in knowing and loving the Creator Himself than anything He made.
Compared with the reality of the great unseen world, all that can be seen with the natural eyes is scarcely a shadow. The poorest vision in this world is the optic nerve, because it is blind to everything but temporal things. I have heard physically blind men saying "Praise the Lord" in nearly every sentence they uttered, because of what they were seeing among the eternal realities which are invisible to the optic nerve. Many sympathise with the physically blind while they themselves have a much worse form of blindness; for they have never seen the superior things which satisfy the soul.
Truth is invisible, and yet it is the only thing that can set us free. "Two and two equal four" is an invisible fact. Character, honesty, love, happiness and virtue are all invisible, but they are eternal realities. They can only be seen with the mind.
Senses are not essential to Spiritual Joy
The five senses are not essential to spiritual joy. Christians, when they have lost their five senses through physical death, instantly become happier than they had ever been before because then they are "absent from the body and present with the Lord".
Some people are so miserable they try to get rid of their five senses by committing suicide.
If a material body were essential to the highest happiness, then God the Father would create for Himself a physical body.
Angels are happy, yet they are without material bodies. Jesus tells us that Lazarus after he died was happy with Abraham. Instead of making them happy, what men have contacted by their five senses has often made them unhappy.
Things not less real because Unseen
Because you do not see things with the natural eye, does not make them any less real. Suppose you close your eyes so that you cannot see the things around you, this does not do away with them. If you think it does, then open your eyes and you will see the things which were unseen a moment before.
The angels at Dothan would have been none the less present if Elisha’s servant had not seen them, just as the Assyrian troops would have been none the less there if Elisha had not seen them.
Things both temporal and spiritual are real whether you see them or not. The new power of Elisha’s servant to see the chariots and horses of fire sweeping around Elisha did not create these spiritual forms or beings. His new sight could not create, any more than his blindness could destroy these supernatural realities.
The angel host which Elisha saw, the spiritual warriors of God, was the great reality, while the army with banners which Elijah’s servant saw was but a shadow.
The Bible is full of this kind of thing, and this is God’s effort to impress upon the world the great facts of the invisible and the eternal.
II. THAT MATERIAL THINGS ARE INSUFFICIENT
The common occupations of the world, the keen and ever-increasing competition of business, the cares of home, have a most pernicious effect upon us, unless some counterbalancing influence is brought to bear. They make us grow intensely secular in thought and feeling. They beguile men by insensible degrees into the belief that what we see are the only realities. They drag men down to the very dust.
The Great Corrective
The great corrective of this state of mind is to look away to the better things which are not seen. The very remembrance that all around about us there is a region of spiritual existence – a world which, though unrealized by the senses, is as real as, yes, more gloriously real than the solid earth on which we tread, will help to keep the soul from injury. Within that invisible region lie all of our supreme interests. God is there; and Christ is there; and all the gracious influences which save and sanctify the soul are there.
The unseen magnetic pole controls the needle of the compass and enables the mariner to navigate the pathless ocean; even so only the unseen God can rightly guide us. Thank God we are not shut in on all sides by solid walls of matter; there is an existence outside and independent of it! The Christian feels a spiritual existence within him which no philosophy can explain away. We are conscious that we ourselves are spirit and not flesh. We have a body, but we ourselves are not visible. The invisible in man thirsts for the invisible, without which he cannot live.
Two Kinds of Rest
There are two kinds of rest – one for the body, the other for the soul; two classes of enjoyment those derived from things, and those drawn from thought; and for the unseen sources of enjoyment and rest, men thirst.
More than a hundred thousand people who were living in physical bodies yesterday are today absent from the body, and are face to face with the eternal realities which many of them did not recognize yesterday. If temporal things only have been their aim, if their enjoyments have been pleasures only of sense, they are now, since death, like living creatures taken from their native element. By making things "seen" their portion, they are now exposed to destitution. The good things which they have seen are gone.
Things Seen do not Satisfy
Because there is more in man than what is seen; because the invisible in man thirsts for the invisible outside and beyond, we say that the good things seen are not enough for us. We need living bread, water of life, raiment which waxes not old, houses not made with hands, treasures which moth and rust do not corrupt, "fullness of joy," "pleasures for evermore," perfect peace and undisturbed rest. These are not to be derived from things temporal. Worldly things, wealth, honor, happy homes, all cry, "Heaven is not in us." "The things which are seen are temporal." This common truth has long been in our Bibles. God wants it written in our hearts.
Let us hold the good things seen with a slack hand. They are temporal, and they will be taken from us, or we will be taken from them; if we grasp them firmly the removal of them will shake us from head to foot; but if we hold them lightly, when they are taken away, we will stand unshaken. Let us all enjoy our glorious heritage and our portion in that which is unseen and eternal. We may thus enjoy the foretaste of heaven every day.
True Philosophy of Life
The true philosophy of life is the philosophy which turns the eye of the soul towards a present eternity. All should realize that the life that transcends the senses is the real one, and not the life which is simply in the senses.
We have five gate-ways of knowledge to bring us into contact with the visible world; but that world is but a symbol of the other; it is not the great reality. The life, therefore, which deals only with those things which can be measured and weighed, is the life which is making the most serious of all blunders.
You cannot go very far in existence without realizing the sweep of such forces as love, faith and hope, and these at once draw you away from the material.
Oh how many people are living as though there was nothing so permanent as the tangible and visible; and nothing so elusive and transient as the invisible! This is an eternal blunder, the opposite of the truth. Man’s true life is above the level of the senses. If we neglect this truth, we cannot truly live.
In proportion as we trust in that which is seen, we are weak in its weakness, and insecure in its uncertainty. Our affections are sure of their object only as they entwine themselves with the unseen.
III. THAT GOD HAS MADE THE TEMPORAL AND VISIBLE THINGS TO BE TYPES
OF THE SUPERIOR INVISIBLE AND ETERNAL THINGS
Paul rejoices that the invisible things of God, even His eternal power and Godhead, are from His creation clearly seen.
In Romans 1:20 he tells us that "the invisible things of Him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead; so that they [the heathen] are without excuse".
The material things which God has created are types and images of the most effective and most glorious truths of Christianity. The rising and setting sun speak to us of a day that never ends. What are all human relationships but types of unseen realities? Are not fatherhood and motherhood drawing and wooing the heart to the Infinite One, Who is our Heavenly Father? The waters and springs which quench our thirst, point us to the "living water" which satisfies the soul. The bread that feeds our bodies points us to Christ the "Living Bread." God uses the growing corn in its various stages, the tares growing with the wheat, the lilies in their beautiful clothing, the clouds and the sun, and countless other things as illustrations of the better things which are eternal.
God aims to compel Us to see Eternal Things
It is a continual object in all God’s management, temporal and spiritual, secular and Christian, to bring us into positions where we can see, or rather be compelled to see, the eternal things of His government.
God’s scheme of providence is adjusted so as to open the windows upon us continually in "this earthly house of our tabernacle," through which the "building of God not made with hands" may be better discovered. Our complaint, therefore, that temporal things hide the eternal and keep them out of sight, is like a man complaining of telescopes hiding the stars, or window-panes shutting out the sun, or even eyes themselves obstructing the view of things visible.
Paul looked on material things just as one looks on a window-pane through which he studies the landscape without. So we are to live in these temporal things as in glass houses, looking through them into the grand realities which are eternal. The true use of the temporal things puts us under the constant all-dominating impression of things eternal.
Temporal and Eternal Related
There is a fixed relation between the temporal and the eternal, such that we best realize the eternal by rightly using the temporal. Paul saw even the temporal things a great deal more penetratingly than any mere worldly mind could. He saw far enough into them to discover their transitory consequences, and to apprehend just so much more distinctly the solid and the eternal things represented by them.
The Son of God Himself came out of his eternity to be incarnated among these earthly scenes, to live in them, and to look upon them with human eyes, He thus hallowed these things, making them the types of eternal realities.
The Visible reveals the Invisible
Every existing thing or object in the created empire of God, all forms, all colors, weights, magnitudes, come out of God’s mind covered all over with tokens, saturated all through with flavors of His intelligence. They all represent God’s thoughts, the invisible things of God; and an angel coming into the world, instead of seeing nothing in them but only temporal and temporary things, would see God expressed by them just as we are expressed by our faces and bodies.
God is turning our experiences always in such a way as to give us the more inward sense of things, acting always on the principle that the progress of knowledge is but a progress out of the matter view into the mind view of things. All the laws and classification of objects are thoughts of God made visible in them so that all the growth of knowledge is a kind of spiritualizing of the world; that is, a finding of the eternal in the temporal.
IV. THAT ETERNAL THINGS ARE VASTLY SUPERIOR TO TEMPORAL THINGS
The transitory character and the uncertainty of the things which are seen, and the certainty of the things that are not seen, should encourage us to set our hearts on the things which are eternal. What we cherish most in temporal things are often taken from us; but no such uncertainty prevails in regard to the eternal things; they are as firm and sure as the everlasting hills.
The Apostle Paul, having divided in his mind all existing things into two classes, temporal and eternal, seems to have asked himself: "Which are the best? Which shall I take as the objects of my pursuit?" He decided upon the invisible things, because of their great superiority. He prefers them because they are more enduring.
When in Christ, we obtain immortality. What matters it then to us what things are? Will they abide? Will they?
Visible Things not equal to Capacity of Human Soul
As to the intrinsic value of the two classes of things, the disparity is inconceivable. Visible things are not equal to the capacity of the human soul. All temporary objects put together cannot afford the soul a happiness equal to its capacity. But when we take a survey of invisible things, we find them all great and majestic – not only equal but infinitely superior to the most enlarged powers of the human, and even of the angelic nature.
When men are tempted to any unlawful pleasures, how they would shrink away from the pursuit of them had they a due sense of the misery incurred and the happiness forfeited by them. When men’s hearts are eager after things below, had they a suitable view of eternal things, all these things would shrink into trifles. Paul counted them but refuse in comparison with Christ and His blessings.
A suitable impression of eternal things would alter the aspect of things in the world. It would turn the capacity of the world into another channel.
V. THAT LOOKING AT THE UNSEEN BRINGS GREAT BENEFITS
The mental habit of Spirit-filled Christians – the habit of looking at the unseen, removes the obstacles out of the way of infinite benevolence, which then showers upon them the blessings which are a foretaste of heaven. A steady contemplation of invisible realities brings repose to the spirit amidst the ceaseless changes of life. The sense of things eternal gives endurance to bear the pains of present discipline. God keeps those souls in perfect peace whose minds are stayed upon him.
Afflictions Temporal, their Resultant Glory Eternal
The most grievous things should not make the Christian faint. The afflictions of Christ’s disciples are all temporal, but the good wrought for them by their afflictions is eternal. "The peaceable fruits of righteousness" remain after the blossoms are destroyed. The fire of the refiner is transient, but the refinement, thank God!, endures.
If we are Christians, our light afflictions, as Paul regards them, are only temporary; our prisons have no everlasting doors. Our circumstances may be complicated, but all are working together for our good. What a glorious fact! While we are looking at the things which are unseen even our afflictions increase our glory.
If nothing seen by any man is neither his hell nor his heaven, no consuming fire here need be unquenchable. Thank God, there is a fire-annihilator – a Brother able and ready to raise us from the pit! When sorrow surges against us, when difficulties spring up as mountains before us, we are able to smile at them all, because we know that they are short-lived, and because we have a vision of things which never perish. This vision of the perishable nature of these temporal things, and of the enduring quality of the things in the spiritual realm, enables the Christian to triumph over all things on the earth. He becomes, as Paul says, "more than conqueror".
Though Powerful Temporal Things are Transitory
The power of things visible is great when they have our attention. It was a supreme point of view that the Apostle had attained. The material things which so impress the natural man, Paul looked upon as only transitory. He looked up with other than the physical vision, saw God, and declared Him "eternal".
This insight of Paul’s was evidence of spiritual attainment. He shows that his soul had been struck through and through with heavenly truth. This experience, however, was not peculiar to the Apostle, for he says, "while we look" – including the Corinthians to whom he was writing, "and to all that in every place call upon the name of the Lord." This spiritual insight belongs to all Christians, but of course more perfectly to those who are more perfect. The glory of the Gospel is that it brings these transforming truths to the minds of men continually and irresistibly. It addresses faith, revealing the eternal nature of invisible things.
True Greatness a Result of Seeing the Invisible
No man is great in any department who does not see the things that are invisible. Only when he looks above the material and grasps great principles, has the statesman any depth of observation. Then he sees when others see not. The poet, thus inspired, beholds what others do not see, when he looks upon the storm which seems to tear and split the very heavens over head.
Looking at the unseen gives confidence, and even joy, amidst the sorrows and afflictions of life. Paul heaps one word upon another in order to describe his many buffetings: "In labors more abundant, in stripes beyond measure, in prisons more frequent," and many more such things: but his vision of the "far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory" which these things were working out for him caused him to say of all his buffetings, "These light afflictions." He looked straight through all these visible things to the glorious things which are not seen, as you would look through your window at a beautiful landscape. The sense of the eternal is the key to the Christian position. To quicken that sense, to develop it, to intensify it, is the master purpose of all religious training. This is our aim in speaking to you on this subject.
It is wonderful and glorious what looking at the unseen will do for us! It puts God to work creating within us that which is well-pleasing in His sight. It transforms us into the image of Christ from one degree of glory to another.
How to understand the Visible
If we want to understand the visible, or to get the highest good out of the things which are seen, we must bring into the field of vision the things which are not seen. Those who look at the things which are eternal have the true measuring rod and standard by which to estimate the duration and the intensity of the things which are present. By letting the steady light of eternity and the sustaining pressure of "the exceeding weight of glory" pour into our minds, we carry with us a standard which will lighten the pressure of the most crushing sorrow, and set in true dimensions everything that is visible.
There is nothing that makes man’s present existence so utterly contemptible, insignificant, and transitory, as to blot out from his sight its connection with eternity. If you shut out eternity from your life in time, then it is an inexplicable riddle. If you think only of that which is visible, you will be utterly puzzled. Should you take faith away from the world where you stand, the eyes of your heart will be smitten with blindness – a blindness which is worse than physical.
Seeing the Unseen prepares One for Eternity
Looking at the unseen is the condition on which time prepares us for eternity. The Apostle is speaking about the effect of affliction in making ready for us an eternal weight of glory; and he says that it is done while, or on condition that, during the suffering, we are looking steadfastly at "the things which are not seen." But no outward circumstances or events can prepare a weight of glory for us hereafter unless they prepare us here for the glory.
When a Christian suffers reproach or contempt for Christ’s sake, a due estimate of eternal things fortifies him with undaunted courage. A realizing view of eternal things animates us in our devotion. Paul gained what no historic research or scientific insight alone could discover – an apprehension of the unseen by the exercise of faith. Power of character comes not from intellectual training, or from association with the greatest men of the race, but by conscious relation to God, by reflecting the glory shining from above. Looking at the unseen imparts to us a devout appreciation of God and an intelligent recognition of His providential control of the world’s affairs.
Paul saw this unseen power in other lives, and felt it in his own. He knew, and so do we, how this indwelling life and love blazed forth in suffering martyrs and in the toiling missionaries, and was a power more real than a city, or a sea, or a mountain. He saw the greatness of immortality; and how infinitely great it is!
Looking at the Eternal lifts One above the Transient
By looking at the things that are unseen the human soul can rise from the transient to the eternal. Looking attentively at these eternal realities, regarding them habitually, realizing the fact of our being surrounded by them, and acting in relation to them, elevates and dignifies all things. The world and the man are no longer merely material; life is no longer temporal and unimportant; for everything is capable of being associated with these eternal, infinite, unseen things. There is no littleness even in the follies and vices of society, when we regard their relation to God and to eternity.
Seeing the Unseen an Incentive to doing One’s Duty
Looking at unseen things affords the Christian a glorious reason for the fulfillment of duty, and the resistance of temptation. "Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy might," because the principle is an eternal thing.
Temptation is nothing to the man who sees that it is merely the bubble rising to the surface of the stream, and knows that though it looks beautiful for the moment, in the sunbeams that are falling upon it, it shall perish and pass away, but that he has to do with things real, God-like, and enduring. Looking at the unseen is the great secret of the inward life, by which we may bear sorrow, and get good out of everything which may come upon us.
VI. THAT TRUE CHRISTIANITY BEGINS AND ENDS WITH THE INVISIBLE.
It has to do with the invisible God, with the unseen Saviour, and with another world.
The glory of the Gospel is that it is saturated with the unseen. A quiet lake, over whose bosom not the faintest breeze is felt, seems like a mirror suspended between two immensities, the one seen above, and the other in its liquid depths. Just so the Gospel shows the realities of both worlds as in a mirror.
The Secret of Paul’s Power
In our text, the Apostle discloses the great secret of his life and power. He was one of the world’s greatest benefactors; and yet the world repaid him with contempt, stripes, and imprisonment; but all of his sufferings fitted him for his work. He lived close to God, weaned from all low and selfish aims, and was filled with zeal.
The Church does not exist primarily for charity or for education; but to bring men to Christ, and then lead them to see the source of all true permanence.
No man is what God intends him to be until he grasps the invisible. In the great railways there are many branch-lines, but there is a trunk-line into which all the branch-lines run, and the trunk-line of the Apostle Paul was the invisible. Paul was kind to all he met, he took an interest in everything that he saw, he was gentle to everybody, and was willing to help everybody, he admired everything that was worth admiring; and still his trunk-line was toward the invisible, the everlasting; and all his earthly plans and joys ran into that and served him.
Earthly Affairs must be adjusted to Heavenly Affairs
We have our earthly affairs to attend to; but all must be arranged in relation to the everlasting. This will not make one less attentive to earthly duties. It is said of the lark that while up in the air it can see the smallest things on the ground below. So the man soaring in contemplation and looking toward the everlasting God will attend to all the little duties which come upon him every day, and enjoy them.
Looking at the unseen should be the mental habit of all Christians. Paul takes it for granted that every Christian man is, as the habitual direction of his thought, looking toward those things which are unseen. The immensely superior value of the things not seen require that they shall be first in our attention and in our esteem. On the same principle on which we readily sacrifice one dollar to gain a thousand dollars, or would be willing to endure five minutes of pain if it would secure to us a whole life time of comfort, we must admit that the transitory things which are seen ought to be subordinated to things which are abiding.
Revelation tells us that our life which is lived here among things which change and pass away, is also surrounded by what is permanent. It teaches us that the relationships in which we shall enter the spiritual realm will never be broken; that the good we attain will never be in danger of being lost. Among the visible things nothing is constant, while the eternal things are like God Himself – fixed and secure.
A True Metaphor
It is the truest of metaphors that "the soul has eyes as well as the body." With your physical eyelids closed your soul is all the freer to gaze on the world within – the world of thought and feeling. Paul employed more than his body in his various activities; the energy that he exhibited was sustained by his keen gaze on spiritual realities.
Let your heart be set on human beauty, and it is but a question of time when you will be weeping over its loss. But, thank God! if your affections are fixed on charms and graces of character, you will find them again unchanged, imperishable, and eternal.
VII. THAT FAITH IS LOOKING AT UNSEEN THINGS AND ACTING UPON THEM
Men talk about "blind faith" and "enlightened reason." The history of the world proves the reverse. Reason is often blind; faith never, because it sees that which is perfect reason for believing. As far as the optic nerve is concerned, "faith is the evidence of things not seen." But when with the mind we see and act upon the unseen realities, faith is the evidence of things seen.
Walking by faith is really walking by sight, for we see God, we see His promises, we see His faithfulness, and are so fully convinced by these great facts that we act upon them. Faith is the most rational thing in the world, because it is based on the greatest and best of facts and realities.
Faith is produced and grows by looking at the Unseen
Faith is produced, increased, and accomplishes its wonders "while we look not at the things that are seen, but at the things that are not seen." As a condition of salvation, God said, "Look unto Me, all ye ends of the earth, and be ye saved." When the serpent of brass was put upon the pole, it is written of those who were dying from the serpent’s bite, "Everyone that looked lived".
What it means to "Look"
The word "look," which stands for faith, is a very peculiar one. It means a steady, fixed gaze. You may walk through a garden with some friend and see the trees and flowers and walks, and as you pass through your friend says to you, "Did you see such and such a tree?" Turning back, you look at that tree until it is impressed upon your mind. You had seen the whole garden before, but you had not "looked" at anything in particular.
Our text represents the Christian in an attitude of attention. The word "look" signifies to "look at earnestly," intently. The word "look" is more than merely seeing; you can see things and yet have your mind wholly occupied with other things. The word "look" in this passage means that we are looking with our minds occupied with what we are seeing. So you see the Scriptural statement that "faith is the evidence of things not seen" (because they are not material) is true only of natural sight, while to our spiritual vision it is the evidence of things seen. Faith is believing only what we see with our spiritual vision. Paul shows that the mental habit of a Christian is walking by faith, and not by sight, meaning that we walk by spiritual and not by physical sight. The Apostle’s statement, "The just shall live by faith," is another way of saying that they shall live by looking at things unseen.
"The Word is God," says John. It is God speaking. It is always a present tense fact. God’s Word is the healer of both soul and body; it goes to work when we so believe it that we act upon it.
Mental Assent is not Faith
We must distinguish between mental assent and faith. Mental assent is acknowledging the truthfulness of the Word, the integrity of the Word, without acting upon it. Mental assent is standing outside the bakery window looking at the cakes and pies; it is not possessing. The promises of God which cover your case are of no value to you until you act, upon them. The man who wishes to be strong in faith, and free from doubt, must feed his faith constantly; he must study and meditate upon the Word of God, which is the only food for faith, with the same persistence, regularity, and liberality as he feeds his body.
Faith is both Negative and Positive
Our text as well as many others show us that faith is both negative and positive. "While we look not at the things which are seen" is the negative side. "But at the things which are unseen" is the positive side. We cannot look in opposite directions at the same time; so if we are to be under the domination of eternal realities, we must refuse to be influenced by the things that are seen. When Peter saw only Jesus, he walked on the water; but when he looked at the waves he began to sink. The wind and the waves could not hinder him until he looked at them.
True Faith makes Us more than Conquerors
The words of our text were written by the Apostle Paul who was thoroughly tried by the antagonisms of this world’s wrong. But by refusing to look at this world’s wrong, and by looking at the unseen things, he was "more than conqueror".
If we follow Paul’s path, we see it is shadowed by storms; but his gaze is fixed on the unseen. Paul steadied his life by the standard of a Divine righteousness. He thus gives us the creed of life which is to be lived by those who recognize God, and are living in a more enduring realm than the domination of the visible. Everything in the life of a man of faith tends toward the invisible; his life is arranged on that plan; it is his aim to secure the invisible.
VIII. THAT IT IS OUR DUTY TO PASS BEYOND VISIBLE THINGS AND TO LOOK AT
AND ENJOY THE THINGS WHICH ARE UNSEEN
It is our privilege to look away from the seen trial to the unseen support. This is what Elisha’s servant did after Elisha prayed, "Open the young man’s eyes." The young man’s eyes having been opened he looked away from the Assyrian hordes to the hosts of God, even the horses and chariots of fire.
We have the glorious privilege of looking away from the seen reflections to the unseen substances. The visible is a parable of the invisible. Things temporal are types of things eternal. How many people stop short with the parable! How many begin and end with the types! The best of realities they do not reach.
One Gravitation against Another
It is a glorious privilege to be occupied with eternal things; for by looking at the unseen God’s righteousness peaceably draws its fibers around our nature and draws us upward. It is one gravitation against another. The earth would hold you, but God’s righteousness counter-works the earth and wings you Godward.
It is our privilege to look at the glorious and abiding things until they are far more precious to us than material things. Creation changes, the Creator is the same. If all material things should vanish, I would still have the Father of my soul for my portion.
Failure to look at the Unseen Weakens
Failure in the matter of looking at the unseen is the reason for so much weakness in the lives of modern Christians. The things which are seen will soon lose all the value which they now appear to possess. Gold cannot procure a plaster that will heal a wounded conscience, a bandage that will bind up a broken heart, or a pillow that will ease a dying head.
Pitiable beyond expression is the case of the dying sinner. All his joys are past. But on the other hand how glorious are the prospects of the faithful in Christ Jesus! Their trial is ending, but the eternal triumph is commencing. Oh what an infinite disparity there is between an eternity of the most perfect happiness and a few years of unsatisfied delight with the things that are temporal! In heaven, the rivers of pleasure flow untroubled without a drop of sorrow.
The thing which is eternal is Revelation (the contact of the Divine mind with the human mind), the impartation of heaven’s high purposes; the revelation and the impartation of the nature of God.
How to see the Invisible
Every man whose duty is real to him, is looking at the things unseen. If it is hard for you to look at the unseen, then come closer to God. Here is a man who is striving hard to see the object he is working at. If he would take a few steps nearer to the light his striving to see would not be necessary. A man may have difficulty trying to see the stars from the basement of his home. He has this difficulty because of the houses which surround his. If he would go to the top floor of his house, what an expanse there would be before him without the slightest effort.
The Secret
The secret of looking at things unseen and finding it easy lies just here – take up the right position. The right position is the spirit of reconciliation. Unless you take this position, a cloud is lying between your soul and God. If you would see the unseen things which are eternal, come out into the sunshine of God’s love.
Dwell on the unseen things that you already see and you will see more. Look steadily at the unseen things of duty which are the most real and weighty to you, and it will not take long for a tender and brave conscience to come in sight of the greatest things.
Sorrow for sin visits all men, but only some welcome it; but the wise recognize it as among their best friends.
It is in the darkness of life that men see the stars of heavenly guidance.
Think much of Christ as He appeared on earth. He was the invisible made visible. He is the bridge between the seen and the unseen.
To see the Unseen is possible only through Jesus
It is of importance to see that the look at the things that are unseen is only possible through Jesus Christ. He is the only window that opens out and gives the vision of the best things – the things which are eternal. Jesus is the Columbus of the New World. It is only in Christ that the look which our text enjoins is possible. With Christ, we can positively know the things which, without Him, we can only believe.
My friend, since there is to be a total separation between you and the things which are seen, how important that you recognize them as only "temporal"! However attractive they may appear, this is unavoidable but that your connection with them must be brief. It is in this world that we are to deal with things eternal. nl480.htm
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Brother Grigor-Scott is a non-denominational minister who has ministered full-time since 1981, primarily to other ministers and their congregations in other countries. He pastors Bible Believers' tiny congregation, and is available to teach in your church.
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Thursday, June 14, 2007
Friday, June 8, 2007
The Christian Confession: How to obtain all Redemptive Blessings
Bible Believers' Newsletter #478
"We focus on the present Truth – what Jesus is doing now. . ."
ISSN 1442-8660
Christian greetings in the precious Name of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Please study all of the links in this Newsletter to confirm what we are saying with authoritative source material.
David warned, "Today if you will hear His Voice, harden not your heart, as in the provocation, and as Israel did in the day of temptation in the wilderness" causing the names of all unbelievers twenty years of age and over to be blotted from the Book of Life. Brother Branham warned us the world is going insane because it has rejected God and His unchanging Word.
He warned us of fascist government in the United States. Enabling legislation has been enacted and a time line set for the United States, Canada and Mexico to form one totalitarian Judaeo-communist government or North American Union. Jesus promised He would keep the saints of the Philadelphian Age from "the hour of temptation." He kept His Word as they have all passed on to glory (Revelation 3:10). He also promised that not only those over twenty, but "all whose names are not written in the Lamb's Book of Life will serve the beast" and be blotted from the Book of Life, or die as martyrs of the Cross in "the hour of temptation" we know as the great tribulation (Revelation 13:8-18; 17:8).
Judas is entrenched within the circle of this end-time Message. Jesus called Judas "friend" — so did Brother Branham. And in case you blinked, George II declared May "Jewish Heritage Month".
"He has warned us against these last days and these kind of people, that they'd be so much like the real thing that they would, absolutely would, deceive the very elected ones. What is that? That's the Judases. . . Ministers sometimes claiming to be servants of Christ, and when the Word is thoroughly identified to be vindicated for that day, that it is the Message of the hour, and they'll sell out their popularity to their denomination just exactly like Judas did, betray Jesus to the Pharisees and the Sadducees. That spirit don't die" (Three Kinds of Believers, p. 29:219-220, 238).
On October 2, 2006, the US Supreme Court rejected an appeal by evangelical Christian students challenging a California seventh grade history course requirement. Students had to adopt rules as Muslims for three weeks using Muslim names, reciting Muslim prayers in class, and memorizing and reciting a passage from the Koran. What do you think would have happened if Muslim students had been required to become Christians and recite Christian prayers?
Brother Branham said, "Now, if Russia had accepted the Pentecostal blessing seventy-five years ago when the Holy Ghost fell in Russia, they wouldn't have been Communists today. Now, seventy-five years ago they had a great revival in Russia. God come among them, and they had great revivals way into Siberia. And what did they do? They rejected it, and today the country is gone and the churches can't have church only under permission. And they are doomed into judgment and is gone off on this wild tantrum of Communism, sold out to the Devil."
(God is withdrawing His grace from our apostate once Christian nations, raising His protective hand and allowing us to fall subject to law. Not the righteousness of His Law of sin and death, to which He submitted Israel for chastisement and their higher benefit, but the unrighteousness of the man-made law of Israel's persecutor, Esau, unto perdition).
"Fifty years ago the Holy Ghost fell in England. Just after that come George Jefferies, and F. F. Bosworth, and Dr. Charles Price, Smith Wigglesworth, those great warriors of the faith, fifty years ago, and offered England the Holy Ghost revival. But what did they do? They laughed at them, put them in jail, called them crazy, thought they'd lost their minds. The churches refused the people to come hear them. And they healed the sick, and cast out devils, and done great works. And because of that England as a nation rejected the Gospel, her sins is knowed throughout all the world. There's hardly a more of an apostate nation in all the world, even including Rome and France, than England. She's a mother of apostasy. Right where Finney and many of the great men preached in the Haymarket, and Charles G. Finney and Wesley, and on down. . . And she turned it down" (Is Your Life Worthy of the Gospel? p. 10:45-46).
"I'm thinking tonight of an old man laying yonder, in his last hours of this life, called the other day and wants me to preach his funeral. . . That's my good friend F. F. Bosworth, a godly saint going to meet his Maker. And he said, "This is the happiest time of my life, Brother Branham. I'm so happy to know that I'm going to meet Him; I can't hardly sleep at night". . . not one mark did I ever hear anyone say about F. F. Bosworth. God, let my end be like that: a memorial of the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ" (Time Tested Memorials of God, p. 13:86-87).
Our guest contributor Brother Bosworth is in the sixth dimension with the New Testament saints in their theophany bodies, waiting for the last member of Christ's end-time Bride to be sealed into the Body, for without us they cannot be glorified. I trust he would be pleased his ministry is yet speaking to the saints of this Capstone Age. His subject, "The Christian Confession: How to obtain all Redemptive Blessings" is a timely reminder and instruction to those who have heard His Voice today to maintain tender hearts free from guile.
Brother Bosworth believed Brother Branham was "a man sent from God." In fact, he became a member of the Branham team. His was a commanding presence, was brilliant in the pulpit, and his messages were clear and full of revelation.
F. F. Bosworth learned to preach under the late Alexander Dowie of Zion, Illinois. Here his famous book, "Christ the Healer" was hammered out on the anvil of experience and Bible instruction. In the 1920's and 30's great crowds attended his Healing Crusades. He was also a pioneer preacher in radio ministry. Evangelist Bosworth had one of the most powerful ministries of the 20th century. Let us embrace the godly wisdom of our sainted elder Brother and be encouraged in training for the 'third pull' and the manifestation of the Sons of God, for the time is short.
This Newsletter serves those of like precious faith. Whoever will receive the truth is welcome to feed their soul from the waters of the River of Life. Everything here presented should be confirmed personally in your own Bible.
Your brother-in-Christ, Anthony Grigor-Scott
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What Congress really approved: Benchmark No. 1: Privatizing Iraq's Oil for US Companies
May 26, 2007 – Retired Army Colonel Ann Wright says the supplemental bill Congress passed to continue funding the Iraq war is really about "stealing Iraq's oil - the second largest reserves in the world. The "benchmark," or goal, the Bush administration has been working on furiously since the US invaded Iraq is privatization of Iraq's oil. Now they have Congress blackmailing the Iraqi Parliament and the Iraqi people: no privatization of Iraqi oil, no reconstruction funds."
Full story: truthout.org
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Has Newt finally read this Newsletter?
July 15, 2006 – Former US House Speaker Newt Gingrich says America is in World War III and President Bush should say so. In an interview in Bellevue this morning Gingrich said Bush should call a joint session of Congress the first week of September and talk about global military conflicts in much starker terms than have been heard from the president. . ."
Full story: seattletimes.nwsource.com
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Bilderberg Conference 2007, 31st May to 3rd June 2007, Istanbul
As a pivotal point in spiritual history, command centre of the Holy Roman empire and a major objective of the crusades, Istanbul (Constantinople) is a most significant place to meet. Particularly in a time in the epic East/West War on Terror battle when the Western military adventures in the Middle East have hit the buffers – a fact that will be in the forefront of Bilderbergers' minds.
As the so-called war on terror, so favoured by Bilderberg, teeters on the brink of disaster and credibility, their task this year, should they choose to accept it, is to bolster the expansion of the US Empire and bring about 'regime change' in Iran by whatever means necessary.
How fitting then that those royalty, bankers, media moguls and politicians who believe they are destined to rule the world chose this city for their dark plans to establish the corporate elite global empire. Think big, think Bilderberg! . .
Full story: bilderberg.org Dennis Cuddy
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Blair's Protection of Elite Paedophile Rings spells the End for His Career
The controversy is certain to topple the Blair government, which has already issued a D-Notice to gag the press from revealing the names of known paedophiles within the British executive, including at least two senior ministers. . . Some commentators, mindful that one of Tony Blair's closest confidante's is a practising paedophile, are even suggesting that this particular scandal, and not Blair's repeated lies and fabricated reports in regard to Iraq, may well prove the downfall of a government mired in sleaze and corruption. . .
The rumours and allegations concerning Lord Robertson's ties to Hamilton, and the possibility that the American intelligence services may be blackmailing Tony Blair into continued support for a US invasion of Iraq, have been given fire by internet investigator and intelligence expert Michael Keaney. . . An additional, and potentially explosive, aspect of US leverage over Blair is the FBI's investigation of users of child porn websites which has already claimed a number of high profile scalps. . . Full story: redwatch.org.uk
Comment: "As it was in the days of Lot. . ." (Luke 17:28-30).
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All Hell breaks out as Pagans given Go-Ahead for University Gathering
May 27, 2007 – The University of Edinburgh has granted permission to the Pagan Society to hold its annual conference - involving talks on witchcraft, pagan weddings and tribal dancing - on campus next month. Druids, heathens, shamans and witches are expected to attend what is a major event in the pagan calendar. But the move has enraged the Christian Union, which accuses the university of double standards after banning one of its events on the 'dangers' of homosexuality. Full story: scotsman.com
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Road to the Driverless Car
"The fourth of seven consecutive visions God revealed to Brother Branham in 1933 showed the great advances in science that would come after the Second World War. It was headed up in the vision of a plastic bubble-topped car that was running down beautiful highways under remote control so that people appeared seated in this car without a steering wheel and they were playing some sort of a game to amuse themselves. . . They got it now, a magnetic power, radar control. Just set your radar to where you're going, it takes you yourself; you don't have to steer it". Full story: cnn.com
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The Holy Alphabet
A lthough things are not perfect
B ecause of trial or pain
C ontinue in thanksgiving
D o not begin to blame
E ven when the times are hard
F ierce winds are bound to blow
G od is forever able
H old on to what you know
I magine life without His love
J oy would cease to be
K eep thanking Him for all the things
L ove imparts to thee
M ove out of "Camp Complaining"
N o weapon that is known
O n earth can yield the power
P raise can do alone
Q uit looking at the future
R edeem the time at hand
S tart every day with worship
T o "thank" is a command
U 've see His parousia coming
V ictorious in the sky
W e'll run the race with gratitude
X alting God most high
Y es, there will be good times and yes some will be bad, but...
Z ion waits in glory. . . where none are ever sad!
"I am too blessed to be stressed!" The shortest distance between a problem and a solution is the distance between your knees and the floor. The one who kneels to the Lord can stand up to anything. Love and peace be with you forever.
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The Christian Confession: How to obtain all Redemptive Blessings
by F F Bosworth
Many people fail to receive what they pray for because of the lack of understanding about confession.
In Hebrews 3:1, Christianity is called a "confession." The Greek word here translated "profession" is the same as the one usually translated "confession".
What Confession Means
In the Greek language this word means "saying the same thing." It means, to believe and say what God says about our sins, our sicknesses, and everything else included in our redemption.
Confession is an affirmation of a Bible truth that we have embraced. Confession is simply believing with our heart and repeating with our lips God’s own declaration of what we are and have in Christ.
In I Peter 2:24, the Holy Spirit says: "By His stripes ye were healed." We are to believe and say the same thing. When our affirmation is the Word of God, He watches over it to make it good (Jeremiah 1:12).
Confession is faith’s way of expressing itself.
"The High Priest of Our Confession"
In Hebrews 3:1 we are commanded to "consider Christ Jesus the Apostle and High Priest of our confession." As our High Priest Jesus acts in our behalf according to what we confess, when it is in accordance with God’s Word.
Paul tells us that he preached "The Word of Faith," that "if thou shalt confess with thy mouth, Jesus as Lord, and shalt believe in thy heart that God raised Him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation" (Romans 10:8).
We have here
The Relation of Confession to Manifestation
Notice that the confession — saying the same thing that God says — is by faith, that is, believing and confessing before experiencing the result. The confession comes first, and then Jesus our High Priest responds with the New Birth. It is not salvation unto confession, but confession unto salvation – confession before possession.
There is no such thing as salvation without confession.
Faith is acting upon God’s Word; and this always puts God to work fulfilling His promise.
What are We to Confess?
Few Christians today have recognized the place confession holds in God’s plan for our appropriation of His blessings. Whenever the word "confession" is used, many instinctively think of confessing sin, weakness, and failure. This is only the negative side of this great question. Our negative confession of sin was only to open the way for the positive confession "Unto salvation" — of a whole life-time of believing with our heart and saying with our lips everything God says to us in His promises.
Confessing unto salvation in its initial form, and then in each of its successive forms. First in the form of the new birth, then in the form of every blessing promised us in the Word of God. The Christian is to act on every phase of his salvation that he knows about. We are to believe with the heart and confess with our mouth to the extent of "The Word of Faith" which Paul preached. He preached "all the counsel of God." He preached "the unsearchable riches of Christ." He said that he "kept back nothing that was profitable" unto them.
All that Jesus did in His substitutionary work is the private property of the individual for whom He did it. So throughout our Christian life God wants us to believe with our heart and say with our lips all He says that we are in Christ. We are not to ignore or neglect our legal standing in Christ, for it is the basis for the acts of faith which puts God to work fulfilling His Word to us. We are to confess or whisper to our own heart, "In Him I am complete." When we know that God in His Word says, "I am the Lord that healeth thee," we are to believe it and confess it with our lips, and then Christ will act as our High Priest and make it good.
We are to confess that Calvary was our "Emancipation Proclamation" from everything outside the will of God, and act accordingly. We are to confess that our sicknesses were laid on Christ, and that we are redeemed from the curse of disease. "Let him that is weak say, I am strong".
Our confession includes:
The whole of Scripture truth;
All that Christ’s sacrifice provided.
All that Christ’s High Priesthood covers;
The whole of God’s revealed will.
We are to confess that our redemption is complete. Satan’s dominion is ended; for Calvary has freed us. Like the slaves of the south, we are to believe that we are free on the basis of our Emancipation Proclamation, never on the basis of our feelings, or on the evidences of our senses.
Remission is the wiping out of everything connected with the old life. We are a "new creation." The old things have passed away, and all things are become new.
Of course we are not to say to others that our healing is manifested before it is. God does not say that. But you can say to those who ask you, "I am standing on the Word of God".
Wrong Confession
We never rise above our confession. A negative confession will lower us to the level of that confession. It is what we confess with our lips that really controls us. Our confession imprisons us if it is negative, it sets us free if it is positive. Many tell of their failings and their lack of faith. Invariably they go to the level of their confession. Confessing lack of faith increases doubt. Every time you confess doubts and fears, you confess your faith in Satan and deny the ability and grace of God. When you confess doubt, you are imprisoned by your own words. "Thou art snared with the words of thy mouth, thou art taken captive with the words of thy lips" (Proverbs 6:2). When we doubt God’s Word it is because we believe something that is contrary to that Word. Wrong confession shuts the Father out and lets Satan in.
We are to refuse to have anything to do with wrong confession. When we realize that we will never rise above our confession, we are getting to the place where God can use us.
Disease gains the ascendancy when you confess the testimony of your senses. Feelings and appearances have no place in the realm of faith. Confessing disease is like signing for a package that the Express Company has delivered. Satan then has the receipt from you showing that you have accepted it. Don't accept anything that Satan brings. "Give no place to the devil." "If any man speak, let him speak as the oracles of God" (I Peter 4:11). In Ephesians 4: 29, we are commanded to speak only "that which is good to the use of edifying." We are not to testify for the adversary. We are to act faith, speak faith, and think faith.
A spiritual law that few recognize is that our confession rules us. It is what we confess with our lips that really dominates our inner being. Make your lips do their duty. Refuse to allow them to destroy the effectiveness of God’s Word in your case. Some confess with their lips but deny in their heart. They say, "Yes, the Word is true," but in their heart they say, "It is not true in my case." The confession of your lips has no value as long as your heart repudiates it.
The Right Mental Attitude
In Philippians 4:8 the Holy Spirit says, "Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true [the Word is true], whatsoever things are of good report, if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things".
The Holy Spirit says in Proverbs, "As a man thinketh in his heart, so is he".
In II Corinthians 5:5, the Holy Spirit says, "The weapons of our warfare are mighty. . . bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ." We are to "cast down reasonings" and give the Word of God its place in our minds and on our lips. We are to have "the mind of Christ".
Jesus remembers when He bore our sicknesses, and the Holy Spirit commands, "Forget not all His benefits: who forgiveth all thine iniquities; who healeth all thy diseases".
God’s spiritual and physical transformations are to come to us "by the renewing of our minds . . . present your bodies [the home or laboratory of the five senses] a living sacrifice . . . and be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect will of God" (Romans 12: 1).
"Casting down Reasonings"
In II Corinthians 10:3-5, the Holy Spirit tells us that "We do not war according to the flesh [or senses]: (for the weapons of our warfare are . . . mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds)".
What are the strong holds? "Casting down reasonings, and everything that is exalted against the knowledge of God [or Word of God], and bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ".
Faith is not based upon sense-governed reason, nor upon things men can see, unless the thing they see is the Word of God. Faith deals with facts. The Word of God has no speculations, no theories, just declarations of facts. The Word is a present tense living Voice from heaven. We can act on the Word as we would if God had just spoken to us. The Word is the Father speaking - it is a part of Himself.
Sense-governed reason is a stronghold which we must pull down if we are to be men and women of faith. The battle of faith is with the sense-governed reasonings of the unrenewed mind. Sense-knowledge is faith’s worst enemy, because it will not give the Word of God first place. It admires the Word but does not practice it. It is a battle, and a difficult one, to give sense-knowledge a second place and the Word of God first place.
In "the fight of faith" there is but one weapon, the sword of the Spirit – the Word of God. Reason must give place to the Word. Faith leads us where sense-governed reason cannot walk. Self-governed reason has never been a mountain climber.
Reason would have conquered had Abraham listened to it. But he believed God in the face of all the evidences of sense-knowledge. Our whole struggle in the faith-life is to take the Word of God instead of the word of man, and that we act upon it independent of any evidence that the eyes can see, or the ears can hear, or the body can feel. Your fear to act upon the Word is unbelief gaining the ascendency. When faith gets reason’s place, Satan is defeated. Abraham could consider his body as good as dead without its weakening his faith (Romans 4:19). Reason must give place to the Word. We are to think God’s thoughts instead of man’s thoughts, so we will be inspired by the Word of God rather than by the word of man.
Ephesians 6:4-18 gives a picture of our spiritual warfare. Faith’s armor is truth - righteousness - peace - faith, and the Word. You cannot see or feel or hear or smell or taste righteousness or any of the things in our armor. The Christian confession has not one physical thing in it.
In Galatians 5:16-18 God says, "Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfill the desires of the flesh [senses], for the flesh [senses] war against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the senses; for these are contrary the one to the other".
"Hold Fast your Confession"
"Having then a great High Priest, Who has passed through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession" (Hebrews 4:14), the confession of our faith in the redemptive work that God wrought in Christ.
I am to hold fast to the absolute integrity of the Bible.
I am to hold fast to the confession of the work of Christ in all its phases.
I am to hold fast to the confession that "God is the strength of my life".
I am to hold fast to the confession that "Surely He hath borne my sicknesses and carried my diseases" and that "by His stripes I am healed".
God says this, and we are to believe and say the same thing.
We are to know what our rights are as revealed by the Word, and then hold fast to our confession of them.
When you know that Christ "took our infirmities and bore our sicknesses," hold fast to your confession of it.
When you read, "Greater is He that is in you, than he that is in the world," hold fast to this confession.
We are to hold fast our confession of what Christ has done for us, in order that it may be done in us. We are to hold fast to the confession of our redemption from Satan’s dominion.
We are to hold fast to our confession in the face of all contrary evidence.
God declares that "by His stripes I am healed." I am to confess what God says about my sickness, and hold fast to this confession. I am to recognize the absolute truthfulness of these words in advance of any visible change. I am to act on these words and thank God for the fact that He laid my sicknesses on Christ, the same as He did my sins.
Healing is always in response to faith’s testimony. Some fail when things get difficult because they lose their confession. Disease, like sin, is defeated by our confession of the Word. Make your lips do their duty; fill them with the Word. Make them say what God says about your sickness. Don't allow them to say anything to the contrary.
Believing God’s Word with our heart implies our having "put off the old man" with his habit of judging by the evidence of the senses. Faith regards all contrary symptoms as "lying vanities," as Jonah did, and puts the Word in the place of the senses.
Our only problem is to keep in harmony with God’s Word and not allow the senses to usurp the place of the Word. We cease to live with doubting Thomas who says, "Except I shall see. . . I will not believe." We are to prove Christ’s Words, "Blessed are they that have not seen, and yet believe." The Word is lifeless until faith is breathed into it by your lips. Then it becomes a supernatural force. Make your lips harmonize with the Word of God.
Jesus' High Priestly Office
Jesus' High priestly ministry meets our every need from the moment of our new birth until we enter heaven.
Why are we to hold fast our confession? Because Christ is the High Priest of our Confession (Hebrews 4:4).
Because Christ is a "great High Priest".
Because Christ is a "merciful High Priest".
Because Christ is "touched with the feeling of our infirmities".
Because Christ "ever liveth to make intercession for us". He is always ready to give us "grace to help in time of need" (Hebrews 4:16).
Our Success is Assured
Because Jesus is "the High Priest of our Confession." When you confess that "by His stripes I am healed" and hold on to your confession, no disease can stand before you. Just thank the Father and praise Him whenever a need confronts you that is covered by redemption, and it is yours. Faith is thanking God from the heart for healing that has not been manifested but that we are as sure of as if it were manifested.
The confession of your lips that has grown out of faith in your heart will absolutely defeat the adversary in every combat. Christ’s Words broke the power of demons and healed the sick. The Word will heal you if you continually confess it. God will make your body obey your confession of His Word; for "no Word of God is void of power" (Luke 1:37).
If I dare say that Psalm 34:10 is true, "They that seek the Lord shall not want any good thing," and stand by my confession, God will make good all I have confessed. Nothing will establish you and build your faith as quickly as confession.
Confess it in your heart first.
Confess it out loud in your room.
Say it over and over again. Say it until your spirit and your words agree.
Say it until your whole being swings into harmony and into line with the Word of God.
Christ’s Words are filled with Himself, and as we act on them, they fill us with Christ. We are to obey as we would obey Jesus if He stood visibly in our presence.
Confessing Christ as Lord
When coming to God for salvation in its initial form, and then in every other form afterwards, our confession of and surrender to Christ’s Lordship is required. In Colossians 2:6, the Holy Spirit says, "As ye have therefore received Jesus as Lord, so walk ye in Him." "To this end Christ both died and arose, and revived, that He might be Lord both of the dead and of the living" (Romans 14:9). Appropriating faith for the fulfillment of any promise implies our surrender to Christ’s Lordship. It is while we are surrendered to Him as Lord over our lives that He is ready:
To heal us;
To baptize us with the Spirit;
To give us "zoe" — God’s own Life in abundance;
To be within us a fountain springing up unto everlasting Life;
To make our legal standing our experience;
To manifest His Person in the form of every blessing promised;
To be Himself our strength, our portion, our all;
To give us the unlimited use of His Name;
To enable us to cast out demons in His Name;
To anoint us for preaching;
To enable us to lay our hands on the sick for their recovery, etc.
Your success and usefulness in the world is going to be measured by your confession and by the tenacity with which you "hold fast" that confession under all circumstances.
God can be no bigger in you or to you than you confess Him to be.
In the face of every need, confess that the Lord is your Shepherd and that you do not want.
SUPPLEMENTAL REMARKS
THE CHRISTIAN CONFESSION
The greatest of all secrets of getting God’s promises fulfilled, is to confess — to say what God says to us in each of His promises.
While Jesus was being tempted, He defeated Satan by saying, "It is written" and then by repeating His Father’s Words. You can defeat Satan in the same way. When you persistently confess, or repeat God’s Word, to Satan, as did Jesus, Satan must depart (Matthew 4:3-10).
Satan stands utterly helpless before the Word of God when it is "in our heart and on our lips," because then God is always watching "over His Word to perform it" (Jeremiah 1:12).
When Satan finds that we have discovered the secret of using God’s Word against him, his defeat is certain, and he knows it. However, he does not want us to know it.
Romans 10:8-10 shows us that "The Word of Faith" — The Promise of God — is to be in our mouth and in our heart before the promise is fulfilled to us. Then it is that Christ, "the High Priest of our Confession," manifests His faithfulness by fulfilling the promise. This establishes the fact that a promise of God in our heart and mouth is our Confession.
"CONFESSION (saying what God says in each of His promises) is made UNTO salvation" — salvation in the form of every blessing for which we have "The Word of Faith".
It is while we are still sick or in pain that we are to get "The Word of Faith" (I am the Lord that healeth thee" or "With His stripes I am healed," etc.) "into our mouth and into our heart".
The appointed way to get rid of sin, sickness and pain, is first to get "The Word of Faith" (or what God says) into our heart and on our lips. This is faith, and this is Confession.
We are to keep on believing and saying, "With His stripes I am healed," as long as we believe Jesus is "The faithful High Priest of our CONFESSION".
It is not telling a lie to say what God says about your body. For instance, to quote, "With His stripes I am healed," while you still feel pain. You are to say what God says to get rid of the pain. To quote God’s Word is not saying that you do not feel pain, but you are simply ignoring the pain you feel and confessing the Word of God to get rid of the pain. Keep on believing and repeating "The Word of Faith" until you are well. Then you can testify that the pain is gone.
The fact that Jesus "is the High Priest of your Confession" is proof that the Confession must come first. This is one of the most important messages regarding a life of health for soul or body that can be declared to you. You will treasure these truths for years, and will find that this secret of correct confession will assist you in obtaining and retaining the fulfillment of any Bible promise that you may find needful.
It is our Confession which causes "the High Priest of our Confession" to grant us what we believe with our heart. Believingly speaking God’s Word regarding any promise He has made, is confessing it. We are always safe when we are confessing the truth. It then becomes the truth that sets us free. When you are sick you can boldly confess, "With His stripes I am healed" (I Peter 2:24) and God will always cause you to become what you confess.
In Romans 10:6-8 the Holy Spirit says, "Say not in thine heart, Who shall ascend into heaven? (that is, to bring Christ down from above:) . . . The Word is nigh thee, even in thy mouth and in thy heart: that is, the Word of faith, which we preach".
You do not have to ascend into heaven to be with Christ, for He is in His Word. He is not separated from His Word when it is "in your mouth and in your heart." He is "The Word." His Word in your mouth and in your heart is His Personal presence officiating in the work of redemption — fulfilling His Word.
God’s way for our appropriation of salvation in all its various forms is to get His Word into our mouth and into our heart. In this way the Word always becomes "the power of God unto salvation [in the form of any promise fulfilled] to EVERY ONE that believeth." Then He always watches "over His Word to perform it" (Jeremiah 1:12).
God’s Word in our mouth and in our heart is equivalent to His VOICE, and excludes all reason for doubt. It is then that the "seed" is in "good ground" where it ALWAYS brings forth fruit. There can never be failure when we thus get into harmony with God’s Word. It is in this way that we prove Christ’s Words to be "Spirit and Life," as He says they are. "I am the Lord that healeth thee," "in thy mouth and in thy heart" will do away with "all sickness".
When Mary said unto the angel Gabriel, "Be it unto me according to thy Word," that was "The Word of Faith" in her heart and in her mouth, and it turned the Words of the angel into creative power and gave the world a Saviour. All your blessings have been the result of "The Word of Faith" in your heart.
God’s Word in our heart and in our lips is as effective as when God said, "Let there be light," and as when "the worlds were framed by the Word of God." Mary said, "Be it unto me according to Thy Word," with faith, in the face of the humanly impossible. This was "calling the things that be not as though they were," as Abraham had done.
Every promise is God speaking to us, so instead of neglecting them, let us say with Mary, of each promise, "Be it unto me according to Thy Word." We will thus prove that "No Word of God is void of power".
The Right Attitude
The right attitude toward any Divine promise will always bring about its fulfillment.
All that Moses had to do was to get the dying Israelites into the right attitude toward God’s Word to them. The result was mass healing (Numbers 21:9).
The right attitude brought healing to "every one" of the sick brought into the streets of Jerusalem (Acts 5:15-16). The right attitude toward the Redemptive Name, JEHOVAH-RAPHA, brought mass healing to all the sick in the entire nation of Israel (Psalm 105:37).
The right attitude healed the souls of 3,000 sinners on the day of Pentecost – all at the same time (Acts 2:41).
The right attitude toward the Word of God can save or heal a million people – all at the same time.
Mass healing for both soul and body is what God has provided and what the Holy Spirit accomplished through an enlightened and Spirit-filled Church.
The wrong attitude made it impossible for Jesus Himself to work any miracles in Nazareth (Mark 6:5).
The right attitude toward any Divine promise or redemptive declaration is to have "the Word of faith. . . in thy mouth and in thy heart" (Romans10:8).
The right attitude switches you into the divine current from God’s power house, which is always in operation. Every radio is dumb until it is connected with the electric current.
A promise of God in our heart and on our lips always becomes "the power of God unto salvation," in the form of each promise fulfilled.
Every blessing promised in the Bible is included in our salvation. Christianity is a series of divine promises fulfilled. We can all get the rest of God’s promises fulfilled in the same way we got the first one fulfilled.
How You can start Your Healing Now
It is not after but before your healing of soul or body begins that "The Word of Faith," to be effective in your case, must be "in thy mouth and in thy heart".
God begins and continues our salvation, from the time of our new birth until we are full grown, by responding to "The Word of Faith" which He finds in our heart and on our lips. The Psalmist says, "All His work is done in faithfulness" (to His promises). The sure way to put God to work is to believe and say what He says to you in His Word.
Since Jesus "tasted death for every man," the Redemptive Name, JEHOVAH-RAPHA, translated, "I am the Lord that healeth thee," is God speaking to you personally. Therefore reverence for, courtesy to, and confidence in Him require that you answer back to Him, "Yes, Lord; You are now healing me".
It is your privilege and duty to believe and say what you know God is saying to you in His promises.
God is always, JEHOVAH-RAPHA. That is, He is the Healer all the time, night and day. He is at this moment healing every one who has His Word in their heart and on their lips. You can put Him to work on your case at once, by simply believing and steadfastly affirming with your lips what He is saying to you in His Word.
God takes every problem which is covered by a Divine promise as soon as it is definitely "committed unto Him." Jesus said, "He that cometh unto Me [for any blessing promised], I will in no wise cast out".
God’s promises always become effective on our case, when we believe them and steadfastly affirm them with our lips.
And "NOW" is always "the accepted time" — the time that God accepts.
Accept God’s Present Tense
When God speaks to us through His Word in the present tense, we have no right to change His statement into the future tense.
Coming to Him "today" for the healing of either soul or body, while not expecting the healing to begin until some time in the future, is the sin of unbelief. It is changing God’s declaration from the present to the future tense.
You will thus tie God’s hands and delay your healing by putting hope in the place of faith. Hope is future, faith is now.
God’s present tense declarations are not to hope, but to faith. His promises are called "The Word of Faith;" and they are all prescribed for our heart and our lips as soon as we know what they are.
We are not regenerated or healed by hope, but by faith, which is always "NOW." It is wrong to procrastinate to the future what we should do today.
God is waiting for you to "gladly receive the Word" as a present tense fact in your case, just as you did in the matter of forgiveness. Nothing else is believing God in the Bible sense.
All the sick in an entire nation, by taking the right attitude, made God’s declaration, "I am the Lord that healeth thee," a present tense fact. "There was not a feeble person among their tribes" (Psalm 105:37).
"The Word of Faith" in our heart and on our lips, is "seed" planted "in good ground," where it always produces.
By His Redemptive Names, God is speaking to us continually; therefore, until your healing is complete, continue the affirmation, "You are healing me now".
Jesus lays down the condition, "If My words abide [continue] in you." His Words here are the equivalent of the command in Hebrews 4:1-14, "Hold fast thy confession." The Holy Spirit also, in Proverbs 4:21-22, says to those needing healing, "Let God’s Words not depart," but "keep them in the midst of thine heart; for they are health to all thy flesh".
After definitely committing the matter of your healing to God, you are not to accept any thought or utter any words contrary to your affirmation of what God is saying unto you by His Redemptive name, JEHOVAH-RAPHA.
God has been waiting for this to be your attitude toward Him as your Healer.
Have Your Own Faith Life
The sinner, who is spiritually dead, must believe "unto righteousness" — the healing of the soul – the new birth – the greatest miracle.
Christians expect sinners so do their own believing for this greater miracle. Then why should Christians, who are spiritually alive through their own faith, depend on some one else to do their believing for the lesser miracle – the healing of the body? Why should not Christians, who are spiritually alive, have as much faith for the healing of their body, as sinners must have for the healing of their soul?
Moses required each person to do their own looking at the type of Calvary. It was look or die.
God wants us to appropriate every other phase of our salvation, in the same way we appropriated the first phase.
After we have gotten the first promise fulfilled, which gave us God’s Life, why shouldn't it be still easier, after being made spiritually alive, to get God’s other promises fulfilled?
If, to get rid of sin, sinners must believe and say what God says, why shouldn't Christians believe and say what God says, to get rid of sickness?
No Christian should go through life depending upon the faith of others. In Hebrews. 6:11-12 we are told that "EVERY ONE" should be "followers of them who through faith and patience [steadfastness] inherit the promises".
In Romans 4:12 the Holy Spirit speaks of Christians as those "who also walk in the steps of that faith of our father Abraham." All Christians should learn to treat the promises which God has made to them, in the same way that Abraham treated God’s promise to him. And we are told in Hebrews 6:15 (Moffat's translation), that it was "by steadfast faith Abraham obtained what he had been promised".
The Holy Spirit speaks of God’s promises as "exceeding great and precious." And they were made for your heart and lips, as well as for those whom you ask to pray for you. By inspiring the Scriptures, the Holy Spirit has worded your affirmations for you. Learning how to use God’s promises is a much greater blessing than your healing. Living and walking in the Light of the Word is the most beautiful and thrilling experience known. And nothing is impossible when we give the Word the same place we would give Christ if He were physically in our presence.
In the Great Commission (Matthew 28:19-20), Jesus said: ". . . teaching them [all converts] to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you".
It is the purpose of God that every babe in Christ shall go on to spiritual manhood.
Jesus said, "He that believeth on Me, the works that I do shall he do also." He also declared that believers could cast out devils, and lay hands on the sick for their recovery.
By practicing the important truth discussed in this instruction, you will find yourself ever going forward in the glorious program of God for your Christian life.
Help your minister and others by giving them a printout.
(Some of the thoughts expressed in the first part of this booklet were brought together by permission from the writings of Rev. E. W. Kenyon, Author of "The Father and His Family," "The Wonderful Name of Jesus," "In His Presence," "Two Kinds of Love," and other writings. Kenyon Gospel Publication Society. nl578.htm
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Brother Grigor-Scott is a non-denominational minister who has ministered full-time since 1981, primarily to other ministers and their congregations in other countries. He pastors Bible Believers' tiny congregation, and is available to teach in your church.
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"We focus on the present Truth – what Jesus is doing now. . ."
ISSN 1442-8660
Christian greetings in the precious Name of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Please study all of the links in this Newsletter to confirm what we are saying with authoritative source material.
David warned, "Today if you will hear His Voice, harden not your heart, as in the provocation, and as Israel did in the day of temptation in the wilderness" causing the names of all unbelievers twenty years of age and over to be blotted from the Book of Life. Brother Branham warned us the world is going insane because it has rejected God and His unchanging Word.
He warned us of fascist government in the United States. Enabling legislation has been enacted and a time line set for the United States, Canada and Mexico to form one totalitarian Judaeo-communist government or North American Union. Jesus promised He would keep the saints of the Philadelphian Age from "the hour of temptation." He kept His Word as they have all passed on to glory (Revelation 3:10). He also promised that not only those over twenty, but "all whose names are not written in the Lamb's Book of Life will serve the beast" and be blotted from the Book of Life, or die as martyrs of the Cross in "the hour of temptation" we know as the great tribulation (Revelation 13:8-18; 17:8).
Judas is entrenched within the circle of this end-time Message. Jesus called Judas "friend" — so did Brother Branham. And in case you blinked, George II declared May "Jewish Heritage Month".
"He has warned us against these last days and these kind of people, that they'd be so much like the real thing that they would, absolutely would, deceive the very elected ones. What is that? That's the Judases. . . Ministers sometimes claiming to be servants of Christ, and when the Word is thoroughly identified to be vindicated for that day, that it is the Message of the hour, and they'll sell out their popularity to their denomination just exactly like Judas did, betray Jesus to the Pharisees and the Sadducees. That spirit don't die" (Three Kinds of Believers, p. 29:219-220, 238).
On October 2, 2006, the US Supreme Court rejected an appeal by evangelical Christian students challenging a California seventh grade history course requirement. Students had to adopt rules as Muslims for three weeks using Muslim names, reciting Muslim prayers in class, and memorizing and reciting a passage from the Koran. What do you think would have happened if Muslim students had been required to become Christians and recite Christian prayers?
Brother Branham said, "Now, if Russia had accepted the Pentecostal blessing seventy-five years ago when the Holy Ghost fell in Russia, they wouldn't have been Communists today. Now, seventy-five years ago they had a great revival in Russia. God come among them, and they had great revivals way into Siberia. And what did they do? They rejected it, and today the country is gone and the churches can't have church only under permission. And they are doomed into judgment and is gone off on this wild tantrum of Communism, sold out to the Devil."
(God is withdrawing His grace from our apostate once Christian nations, raising His protective hand and allowing us to fall subject to law. Not the righteousness of His Law of sin and death, to which He submitted Israel for chastisement and their higher benefit, but the unrighteousness of the man-made law of Israel's persecutor, Esau, unto perdition).
"Fifty years ago the Holy Ghost fell in England. Just after that come George Jefferies, and F. F. Bosworth, and Dr. Charles Price, Smith Wigglesworth, those great warriors of the faith, fifty years ago, and offered England the Holy Ghost revival. But what did they do? They laughed at them, put them in jail, called them crazy, thought they'd lost their minds. The churches refused the people to come hear them. And they healed the sick, and cast out devils, and done great works. And because of that England as a nation rejected the Gospel, her sins is knowed throughout all the world. There's hardly a more of an apostate nation in all the world, even including Rome and France, than England. She's a mother of apostasy. Right where Finney and many of the great men preached in the Haymarket, and Charles G. Finney and Wesley, and on down. . . And she turned it down" (Is Your Life Worthy of the Gospel? p. 10:45-46).
"I'm thinking tonight of an old man laying yonder, in his last hours of this life, called the other day and wants me to preach his funeral. . . That's my good friend F. F. Bosworth, a godly saint going to meet his Maker. And he said, "This is the happiest time of my life, Brother Branham. I'm so happy to know that I'm going to meet Him; I can't hardly sleep at night". . . not one mark did I ever hear anyone say about F. F. Bosworth. God, let my end be like that: a memorial of the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ" (Time Tested Memorials of God, p. 13:86-87).
Our guest contributor Brother Bosworth is in the sixth dimension with the New Testament saints in their theophany bodies, waiting for the last member of Christ's end-time Bride to be sealed into the Body, for without us they cannot be glorified. I trust he would be pleased his ministry is yet speaking to the saints of this Capstone Age. His subject, "The Christian Confession: How to obtain all Redemptive Blessings" is a timely reminder and instruction to those who have heard His Voice today to maintain tender hearts free from guile.
Brother Bosworth believed Brother Branham was "a man sent from God." In fact, he became a member of the Branham team. His was a commanding presence, was brilliant in the pulpit, and his messages were clear and full of revelation.
F. F. Bosworth learned to preach under the late Alexander Dowie of Zion, Illinois. Here his famous book, "Christ the Healer" was hammered out on the anvil of experience and Bible instruction. In the 1920's and 30's great crowds attended his Healing Crusades. He was also a pioneer preacher in radio ministry. Evangelist Bosworth had one of the most powerful ministries of the 20th century. Let us embrace the godly wisdom of our sainted elder Brother and be encouraged in training for the 'third pull' and the manifestation of the Sons of God, for the time is short.
This Newsletter serves those of like precious faith. Whoever will receive the truth is welcome to feed their soul from the waters of the River of Life. Everything here presented should be confirmed personally in your own Bible.
Your brother-in-Christ, Anthony Grigor-Scott
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What Congress really approved: Benchmark No. 1: Privatizing Iraq's Oil for US Companies
May 26, 2007 – Retired Army Colonel Ann Wright says the supplemental bill Congress passed to continue funding the Iraq war is really about "stealing Iraq's oil - the second largest reserves in the world. The "benchmark," or goal, the Bush administration has been working on furiously since the US invaded Iraq is privatization of Iraq's oil. Now they have Congress blackmailing the Iraqi Parliament and the Iraqi people: no privatization of Iraqi oil, no reconstruction funds."
Full story: truthout.org
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Has Newt finally read this Newsletter?
July 15, 2006 – Former US House Speaker Newt Gingrich says America is in World War III and President Bush should say so. In an interview in Bellevue this morning Gingrich said Bush should call a joint session of Congress the first week of September and talk about global military conflicts in much starker terms than have been heard from the president. . ."
Full story: seattletimes.nwsource.com
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Bilderberg Conference 2007, 31st May to 3rd June 2007, Istanbul
As a pivotal point in spiritual history, command centre of the Holy Roman empire and a major objective of the crusades, Istanbul (Constantinople) is a most significant place to meet. Particularly in a time in the epic East/West War on Terror battle when the Western military adventures in the Middle East have hit the buffers – a fact that will be in the forefront of Bilderbergers' minds.
As the so-called war on terror, so favoured by Bilderberg, teeters on the brink of disaster and credibility, their task this year, should they choose to accept it, is to bolster the expansion of the US Empire and bring about 'regime change' in Iran by whatever means necessary.
How fitting then that those royalty, bankers, media moguls and politicians who believe they are destined to rule the world chose this city for their dark plans to establish the corporate elite global empire. Think big, think Bilderberg! . .
Full story: bilderberg.org Dennis Cuddy
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Blair's Protection of Elite Paedophile Rings spells the End for His Career
The controversy is certain to topple the Blair government, which has already issued a D-Notice to gag the press from revealing the names of known paedophiles within the British executive, including at least two senior ministers. . . Some commentators, mindful that one of Tony Blair's closest confidante's is a practising paedophile, are even suggesting that this particular scandal, and not Blair's repeated lies and fabricated reports in regard to Iraq, may well prove the downfall of a government mired in sleaze and corruption. . .
The rumours and allegations concerning Lord Robertson's ties to Hamilton, and the possibility that the American intelligence services may be blackmailing Tony Blair into continued support for a US invasion of Iraq, have been given fire by internet investigator and intelligence expert Michael Keaney. . . An additional, and potentially explosive, aspect of US leverage over Blair is the FBI's investigation of users of child porn websites which has already claimed a number of high profile scalps. . . Full story: redwatch.org.uk
Comment: "As it was in the days of Lot. . ." (Luke 17:28-30).
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All Hell breaks out as Pagans given Go-Ahead for University Gathering
May 27, 2007 – The University of Edinburgh has granted permission to the Pagan Society to hold its annual conference - involving talks on witchcraft, pagan weddings and tribal dancing - on campus next month. Druids, heathens, shamans and witches are expected to attend what is a major event in the pagan calendar. But the move has enraged the Christian Union, which accuses the university of double standards after banning one of its events on the 'dangers' of homosexuality. Full story: scotsman.com
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Road to the Driverless Car
"The fourth of seven consecutive visions God revealed to Brother Branham in 1933 showed the great advances in science that would come after the Second World War. It was headed up in the vision of a plastic bubble-topped car that was running down beautiful highways under remote control so that people appeared seated in this car without a steering wheel and they were playing some sort of a game to amuse themselves. . . They got it now, a magnetic power, radar control. Just set your radar to where you're going, it takes you yourself; you don't have to steer it". Full story: cnn.com
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The Holy Alphabet
A lthough things are not perfect
B ecause of trial or pain
C ontinue in thanksgiving
D o not begin to blame
E ven when the times are hard
F ierce winds are bound to blow
G od is forever able
H old on to what you know
I magine life without His love
J oy would cease to be
K eep thanking Him for all the things
L ove imparts to thee
M ove out of "Camp Complaining"
N o weapon that is known
O n earth can yield the power
P raise can do alone
Q uit looking at the future
R edeem the time at hand
S tart every day with worship
T o "thank" is a command
U 've see His parousia coming
V ictorious in the sky
W e'll run the race with gratitude
X alting God most high
Y es, there will be good times and yes some will be bad, but...
Z ion waits in glory. . . where none are ever sad!
"I am too blessed to be stressed!" The shortest distance between a problem and a solution is the distance between your knees and the floor. The one who kneels to the Lord can stand up to anything. Love and peace be with you forever.
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The Christian Confession: How to obtain all Redemptive Blessings
by F F Bosworth
Many people fail to receive what they pray for because of the lack of understanding about confession.
In Hebrews 3:1, Christianity is called a "confession." The Greek word here translated "profession" is the same as the one usually translated "confession".
What Confession Means
In the Greek language this word means "saying the same thing." It means, to believe and say what God says about our sins, our sicknesses, and everything else included in our redemption.
Confession is an affirmation of a Bible truth that we have embraced. Confession is simply believing with our heart and repeating with our lips God’s own declaration of what we are and have in Christ.
In I Peter 2:24, the Holy Spirit says: "By His stripes ye were healed." We are to believe and say the same thing. When our affirmation is the Word of God, He watches over it to make it good (Jeremiah 1:12).
Confession is faith’s way of expressing itself.
"The High Priest of Our Confession"
In Hebrews 3:1 we are commanded to "consider Christ Jesus the Apostle and High Priest of our confession." As our High Priest Jesus acts in our behalf according to what we confess, when it is in accordance with God’s Word.
Paul tells us that he preached "The Word of Faith," that "if thou shalt confess with thy mouth, Jesus as Lord, and shalt believe in thy heart that God raised Him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation" (Romans 10:8).
We have here
The Relation of Confession to Manifestation
Notice that the confession — saying the same thing that God says — is by faith, that is, believing and confessing before experiencing the result. The confession comes first, and then Jesus our High Priest responds with the New Birth. It is not salvation unto confession, but confession unto salvation – confession before possession.
There is no such thing as salvation without confession.
Faith is acting upon God’s Word; and this always puts God to work fulfilling His promise.
What are We to Confess?
Few Christians today have recognized the place confession holds in God’s plan for our appropriation of His blessings. Whenever the word "confession" is used, many instinctively think of confessing sin, weakness, and failure. This is only the negative side of this great question. Our negative confession of sin was only to open the way for the positive confession "Unto salvation" — of a whole life-time of believing with our heart and saying with our lips everything God says to us in His promises.
Confessing unto salvation in its initial form, and then in each of its successive forms. First in the form of the new birth, then in the form of every blessing promised us in the Word of God. The Christian is to act on every phase of his salvation that he knows about. We are to believe with the heart and confess with our mouth to the extent of "The Word of Faith" which Paul preached. He preached "all the counsel of God." He preached "the unsearchable riches of Christ." He said that he "kept back nothing that was profitable" unto them.
All that Jesus did in His substitutionary work is the private property of the individual for whom He did it. So throughout our Christian life God wants us to believe with our heart and say with our lips all He says that we are in Christ. We are not to ignore or neglect our legal standing in Christ, for it is the basis for the acts of faith which puts God to work fulfilling His Word to us. We are to confess or whisper to our own heart, "In Him I am complete." When we know that God in His Word says, "I am the Lord that healeth thee," we are to believe it and confess it with our lips, and then Christ will act as our High Priest and make it good.
We are to confess that Calvary was our "Emancipation Proclamation" from everything outside the will of God, and act accordingly. We are to confess that our sicknesses were laid on Christ, and that we are redeemed from the curse of disease. "Let him that is weak say, I am strong".
Our confession includes:
The whole of Scripture truth;
All that Christ’s sacrifice provided.
All that Christ’s High Priesthood covers;
The whole of God’s revealed will.
We are to confess that our redemption is complete. Satan’s dominion is ended; for Calvary has freed us. Like the slaves of the south, we are to believe that we are free on the basis of our Emancipation Proclamation, never on the basis of our feelings, or on the evidences of our senses.
Remission is the wiping out of everything connected with the old life. We are a "new creation." The old things have passed away, and all things are become new.
Of course we are not to say to others that our healing is manifested before it is. God does not say that. But you can say to those who ask you, "I am standing on the Word of God".
Wrong Confession
We never rise above our confession. A negative confession will lower us to the level of that confession. It is what we confess with our lips that really controls us. Our confession imprisons us if it is negative, it sets us free if it is positive. Many tell of their failings and their lack of faith. Invariably they go to the level of their confession. Confessing lack of faith increases doubt. Every time you confess doubts and fears, you confess your faith in Satan and deny the ability and grace of God. When you confess doubt, you are imprisoned by your own words. "Thou art snared with the words of thy mouth, thou art taken captive with the words of thy lips" (Proverbs 6:2). When we doubt God’s Word it is because we believe something that is contrary to that Word. Wrong confession shuts the Father out and lets Satan in.
We are to refuse to have anything to do with wrong confession. When we realize that we will never rise above our confession, we are getting to the place where God can use us.
Disease gains the ascendancy when you confess the testimony of your senses. Feelings and appearances have no place in the realm of faith. Confessing disease is like signing for a package that the Express Company has delivered. Satan then has the receipt from you showing that you have accepted it. Don't accept anything that Satan brings. "Give no place to the devil." "If any man speak, let him speak as the oracles of God" (I Peter 4:11). In Ephesians 4: 29, we are commanded to speak only "that which is good to the use of edifying." We are not to testify for the adversary. We are to act faith, speak faith, and think faith.
A spiritual law that few recognize is that our confession rules us. It is what we confess with our lips that really dominates our inner being. Make your lips do their duty. Refuse to allow them to destroy the effectiveness of God’s Word in your case. Some confess with their lips but deny in their heart. They say, "Yes, the Word is true," but in their heart they say, "It is not true in my case." The confession of your lips has no value as long as your heart repudiates it.
The Right Mental Attitude
In Philippians 4:8 the Holy Spirit says, "Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true [the Word is true], whatsoever things are of good report, if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things".
The Holy Spirit says in Proverbs, "As a man thinketh in his heart, so is he".
In II Corinthians 5:5, the Holy Spirit says, "The weapons of our warfare are mighty. . . bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ." We are to "cast down reasonings" and give the Word of God its place in our minds and on our lips. We are to have "the mind of Christ".
Jesus remembers when He bore our sicknesses, and the Holy Spirit commands, "Forget not all His benefits: who forgiveth all thine iniquities; who healeth all thy diseases".
God’s spiritual and physical transformations are to come to us "by the renewing of our minds . . . present your bodies [the home or laboratory of the five senses] a living sacrifice . . . and be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect will of God" (Romans 12: 1).
"Casting down Reasonings"
In II Corinthians 10:3-5, the Holy Spirit tells us that "We do not war according to the flesh [or senses]: (for the weapons of our warfare are . . . mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds)".
What are the strong holds? "Casting down reasonings, and everything that is exalted against the knowledge of God [or Word of God], and bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ".
Faith is not based upon sense-governed reason, nor upon things men can see, unless the thing they see is the Word of God. Faith deals with facts. The Word of God has no speculations, no theories, just declarations of facts. The Word is a present tense living Voice from heaven. We can act on the Word as we would if God had just spoken to us. The Word is the Father speaking - it is a part of Himself.
Sense-governed reason is a stronghold which we must pull down if we are to be men and women of faith. The battle of faith is with the sense-governed reasonings of the unrenewed mind. Sense-knowledge is faith’s worst enemy, because it will not give the Word of God first place. It admires the Word but does not practice it. It is a battle, and a difficult one, to give sense-knowledge a second place and the Word of God first place.
In "the fight of faith" there is but one weapon, the sword of the Spirit – the Word of God. Reason must give place to the Word. Faith leads us where sense-governed reason cannot walk. Self-governed reason has never been a mountain climber.
Reason would have conquered had Abraham listened to it. But he believed God in the face of all the evidences of sense-knowledge. Our whole struggle in the faith-life is to take the Word of God instead of the word of man, and that we act upon it independent of any evidence that the eyes can see, or the ears can hear, or the body can feel. Your fear to act upon the Word is unbelief gaining the ascendency. When faith gets reason’s place, Satan is defeated. Abraham could consider his body as good as dead without its weakening his faith (Romans 4:19). Reason must give place to the Word. We are to think God’s thoughts instead of man’s thoughts, so we will be inspired by the Word of God rather than by the word of man.
Ephesians 6:4-18 gives a picture of our spiritual warfare. Faith’s armor is truth - righteousness - peace - faith, and the Word. You cannot see or feel or hear or smell or taste righteousness or any of the things in our armor. The Christian confession has not one physical thing in it.
In Galatians 5:16-18 God says, "Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfill the desires of the flesh [senses], for the flesh [senses] war against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the senses; for these are contrary the one to the other".
"Hold Fast your Confession"
"Having then a great High Priest, Who has passed through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession" (Hebrews 4:14), the confession of our faith in the redemptive work that God wrought in Christ.
I am to hold fast to the absolute integrity of the Bible.
I am to hold fast to the confession of the work of Christ in all its phases.
I am to hold fast to the confession that "God is the strength of my life".
I am to hold fast to the confession that "Surely He hath borne my sicknesses and carried my diseases" and that "by His stripes I am healed".
God says this, and we are to believe and say the same thing.
We are to know what our rights are as revealed by the Word, and then hold fast to our confession of them.
When you know that Christ "took our infirmities and bore our sicknesses," hold fast to your confession of it.
When you read, "Greater is He that is in you, than he that is in the world," hold fast to this confession.
We are to hold fast our confession of what Christ has done for us, in order that it may be done in us. We are to hold fast to the confession of our redemption from Satan’s dominion.
We are to hold fast to our confession in the face of all contrary evidence.
God declares that "by His stripes I am healed." I am to confess what God says about my sickness, and hold fast to this confession. I am to recognize the absolute truthfulness of these words in advance of any visible change. I am to act on these words and thank God for the fact that He laid my sicknesses on Christ, the same as He did my sins.
Healing is always in response to faith’s testimony. Some fail when things get difficult because they lose their confession. Disease, like sin, is defeated by our confession of the Word. Make your lips do their duty; fill them with the Word. Make them say what God says about your sickness. Don't allow them to say anything to the contrary.
Believing God’s Word with our heart implies our having "put off the old man" with his habit of judging by the evidence of the senses. Faith regards all contrary symptoms as "lying vanities," as Jonah did, and puts the Word in the place of the senses.
Our only problem is to keep in harmony with God’s Word and not allow the senses to usurp the place of the Word. We cease to live with doubting Thomas who says, "Except I shall see. . . I will not believe." We are to prove Christ’s Words, "Blessed are they that have not seen, and yet believe." The Word is lifeless until faith is breathed into it by your lips. Then it becomes a supernatural force. Make your lips harmonize with the Word of God.
Jesus' High Priestly Office
Jesus' High priestly ministry meets our every need from the moment of our new birth until we enter heaven.
Why are we to hold fast our confession? Because Christ is the High Priest of our Confession (Hebrews 4:4).
Because Christ is a "great High Priest".
Because Christ is a "merciful High Priest".
Because Christ is "touched with the feeling of our infirmities".
Because Christ "ever liveth to make intercession for us". He is always ready to give us "grace to help in time of need" (Hebrews 4:16).
Our Success is Assured
Because Jesus is "the High Priest of our Confession." When you confess that "by His stripes I am healed" and hold on to your confession, no disease can stand before you. Just thank the Father and praise Him whenever a need confronts you that is covered by redemption, and it is yours. Faith is thanking God from the heart for healing that has not been manifested but that we are as sure of as if it were manifested.
The confession of your lips that has grown out of faith in your heart will absolutely defeat the adversary in every combat. Christ’s Words broke the power of demons and healed the sick. The Word will heal you if you continually confess it. God will make your body obey your confession of His Word; for "no Word of God is void of power" (Luke 1:37).
If I dare say that Psalm 34:10 is true, "They that seek the Lord shall not want any good thing," and stand by my confession, God will make good all I have confessed. Nothing will establish you and build your faith as quickly as confession.
Confess it in your heart first.
Confess it out loud in your room.
Say it over and over again. Say it until your spirit and your words agree.
Say it until your whole being swings into harmony and into line with the Word of God.
Christ’s Words are filled with Himself, and as we act on them, they fill us with Christ. We are to obey as we would obey Jesus if He stood visibly in our presence.
Confessing Christ as Lord
When coming to God for salvation in its initial form, and then in every other form afterwards, our confession of and surrender to Christ’s Lordship is required. In Colossians 2:6, the Holy Spirit says, "As ye have therefore received Jesus as Lord, so walk ye in Him." "To this end Christ both died and arose, and revived, that He might be Lord both of the dead and of the living" (Romans 14:9). Appropriating faith for the fulfillment of any promise implies our surrender to Christ’s Lordship. It is while we are surrendered to Him as Lord over our lives that He is ready:
To heal us;
To baptize us with the Spirit;
To give us "zoe" — God’s own Life in abundance;
To be within us a fountain springing up unto everlasting Life;
To make our legal standing our experience;
To manifest His Person in the form of every blessing promised;
To be Himself our strength, our portion, our all;
To give us the unlimited use of His Name;
To enable us to cast out demons in His Name;
To anoint us for preaching;
To enable us to lay our hands on the sick for their recovery, etc.
Your success and usefulness in the world is going to be measured by your confession and by the tenacity with which you "hold fast" that confession under all circumstances.
God can be no bigger in you or to you than you confess Him to be.
In the face of every need, confess that the Lord is your Shepherd and that you do not want.
SUPPLEMENTAL REMARKS
THE CHRISTIAN CONFESSION
The greatest of all secrets of getting God’s promises fulfilled, is to confess — to say what God says to us in each of His promises.
While Jesus was being tempted, He defeated Satan by saying, "It is written" and then by repeating His Father’s Words. You can defeat Satan in the same way. When you persistently confess, or repeat God’s Word, to Satan, as did Jesus, Satan must depart (Matthew 4:3-10).
Satan stands utterly helpless before the Word of God when it is "in our heart and on our lips," because then God is always watching "over His Word to perform it" (Jeremiah 1:12).
When Satan finds that we have discovered the secret of using God’s Word against him, his defeat is certain, and he knows it. However, he does not want us to know it.
Romans 10:8-10 shows us that "The Word of Faith" — The Promise of God — is to be in our mouth and in our heart before the promise is fulfilled to us. Then it is that Christ, "the High Priest of our Confession," manifests His faithfulness by fulfilling the promise. This establishes the fact that a promise of God in our heart and mouth is our Confession.
"CONFESSION (saying what God says in each of His promises) is made UNTO salvation" — salvation in the form of every blessing for which we have "The Word of Faith".
It is while we are still sick or in pain that we are to get "The Word of Faith" (I am the Lord that healeth thee" or "With His stripes I am healed," etc.) "into our mouth and into our heart".
The appointed way to get rid of sin, sickness and pain, is first to get "The Word of Faith" (or what God says) into our heart and on our lips. This is faith, and this is Confession.
We are to keep on believing and saying, "With His stripes I am healed," as long as we believe Jesus is "The faithful High Priest of our CONFESSION".
It is not telling a lie to say what God says about your body. For instance, to quote, "With His stripes I am healed," while you still feel pain. You are to say what God says to get rid of the pain. To quote God’s Word is not saying that you do not feel pain, but you are simply ignoring the pain you feel and confessing the Word of God to get rid of the pain. Keep on believing and repeating "The Word of Faith" until you are well. Then you can testify that the pain is gone.
The fact that Jesus "is the High Priest of your Confession" is proof that the Confession must come first. This is one of the most important messages regarding a life of health for soul or body that can be declared to you. You will treasure these truths for years, and will find that this secret of correct confession will assist you in obtaining and retaining the fulfillment of any Bible promise that you may find needful.
It is our Confession which causes "the High Priest of our Confession" to grant us what we believe with our heart. Believingly speaking God’s Word regarding any promise He has made, is confessing it. We are always safe when we are confessing the truth. It then becomes the truth that sets us free. When you are sick you can boldly confess, "With His stripes I am healed" (I Peter 2:24) and God will always cause you to become what you confess.
In Romans 10:6-8 the Holy Spirit says, "Say not in thine heart, Who shall ascend into heaven? (that is, to bring Christ down from above:) . . . The Word is nigh thee, even in thy mouth and in thy heart: that is, the Word of faith, which we preach".
You do not have to ascend into heaven to be with Christ, for He is in His Word. He is not separated from His Word when it is "in your mouth and in your heart." He is "The Word." His Word in your mouth and in your heart is His Personal presence officiating in the work of redemption — fulfilling His Word.
God’s way for our appropriation of salvation in all its various forms is to get His Word into our mouth and into our heart. In this way the Word always becomes "the power of God unto salvation [in the form of any promise fulfilled] to EVERY ONE that believeth." Then He always watches "over His Word to perform it" (Jeremiah 1:12).
God’s Word in our mouth and in our heart is equivalent to His VOICE, and excludes all reason for doubt. It is then that the "seed" is in "good ground" where it ALWAYS brings forth fruit. There can never be failure when we thus get into harmony with God’s Word. It is in this way that we prove Christ’s Words to be "Spirit and Life," as He says they are. "I am the Lord that healeth thee," "in thy mouth and in thy heart" will do away with "all sickness".
When Mary said unto the angel Gabriel, "Be it unto me according to thy Word," that was "The Word of Faith" in her heart and in her mouth, and it turned the Words of the angel into creative power and gave the world a Saviour. All your blessings have been the result of "The Word of Faith" in your heart.
God’s Word in our heart and in our lips is as effective as when God said, "Let there be light," and as when "the worlds were framed by the Word of God." Mary said, "Be it unto me according to Thy Word," with faith, in the face of the humanly impossible. This was "calling the things that be not as though they were," as Abraham had done.
Every promise is God speaking to us, so instead of neglecting them, let us say with Mary, of each promise, "Be it unto me according to Thy Word." We will thus prove that "No Word of God is void of power".
The Right Attitude
The right attitude toward any Divine promise will always bring about its fulfillment.
All that Moses had to do was to get the dying Israelites into the right attitude toward God’s Word to them. The result was mass healing (Numbers 21:9).
The right attitude brought healing to "every one" of the sick brought into the streets of Jerusalem (Acts 5:15-16). The right attitude toward the Redemptive Name, JEHOVAH-RAPHA, brought mass healing to all the sick in the entire nation of Israel (Psalm 105:37).
The right attitude healed the souls of 3,000 sinners on the day of Pentecost – all at the same time (Acts 2:41).
The right attitude toward the Word of God can save or heal a million people – all at the same time.
Mass healing for both soul and body is what God has provided and what the Holy Spirit accomplished through an enlightened and Spirit-filled Church.
The wrong attitude made it impossible for Jesus Himself to work any miracles in Nazareth (Mark 6:5).
The right attitude toward any Divine promise or redemptive declaration is to have "the Word of faith. . . in thy mouth and in thy heart" (Romans10:8).
The right attitude switches you into the divine current from God’s power house, which is always in operation. Every radio is dumb until it is connected with the electric current.
A promise of God in our heart and on our lips always becomes "the power of God unto salvation," in the form of each promise fulfilled.
Every blessing promised in the Bible is included in our salvation. Christianity is a series of divine promises fulfilled. We can all get the rest of God’s promises fulfilled in the same way we got the first one fulfilled.
How You can start Your Healing Now
It is not after but before your healing of soul or body begins that "The Word of Faith," to be effective in your case, must be "in thy mouth and in thy heart".
God begins and continues our salvation, from the time of our new birth until we are full grown, by responding to "The Word of Faith" which He finds in our heart and on our lips. The Psalmist says, "All His work is done in faithfulness" (to His promises). The sure way to put God to work is to believe and say what He says to you in His Word.
Since Jesus "tasted death for every man," the Redemptive Name, JEHOVAH-RAPHA, translated, "I am the Lord that healeth thee," is God speaking to you personally. Therefore reverence for, courtesy to, and confidence in Him require that you answer back to Him, "Yes, Lord; You are now healing me".
It is your privilege and duty to believe and say what you know God is saying to you in His promises.
God is always, JEHOVAH-RAPHA. That is, He is the Healer all the time, night and day. He is at this moment healing every one who has His Word in their heart and on their lips. You can put Him to work on your case at once, by simply believing and steadfastly affirming with your lips what He is saying to you in His Word.
God takes every problem which is covered by a Divine promise as soon as it is definitely "committed unto Him." Jesus said, "He that cometh unto Me [for any blessing promised], I will in no wise cast out".
God’s promises always become effective on our case, when we believe them and steadfastly affirm them with our lips.
And "NOW" is always "the accepted time" — the time that God accepts.
Accept God’s Present Tense
When God speaks to us through His Word in the present tense, we have no right to change His statement into the future tense.
Coming to Him "today" for the healing of either soul or body, while not expecting the healing to begin until some time in the future, is the sin of unbelief. It is changing God’s declaration from the present to the future tense.
You will thus tie God’s hands and delay your healing by putting hope in the place of faith. Hope is future, faith is now.
God’s present tense declarations are not to hope, but to faith. His promises are called "The Word of Faith;" and they are all prescribed for our heart and our lips as soon as we know what they are.
We are not regenerated or healed by hope, but by faith, which is always "NOW." It is wrong to procrastinate to the future what we should do today.
God is waiting for you to "gladly receive the Word" as a present tense fact in your case, just as you did in the matter of forgiveness. Nothing else is believing God in the Bible sense.
All the sick in an entire nation, by taking the right attitude, made God’s declaration, "I am the Lord that healeth thee," a present tense fact. "There was not a feeble person among their tribes" (Psalm 105:37).
"The Word of Faith" in our heart and on our lips, is "seed" planted "in good ground," where it always produces.
By His Redemptive Names, God is speaking to us continually; therefore, until your healing is complete, continue the affirmation, "You are healing me now".
Jesus lays down the condition, "If My words abide [continue] in you." His Words here are the equivalent of the command in Hebrews 4:1-14, "Hold fast thy confession." The Holy Spirit also, in Proverbs 4:21-22, says to those needing healing, "Let God’s Words not depart," but "keep them in the midst of thine heart; for they are health to all thy flesh".
After definitely committing the matter of your healing to God, you are not to accept any thought or utter any words contrary to your affirmation of what God is saying unto you by His Redemptive name, JEHOVAH-RAPHA.
God has been waiting for this to be your attitude toward Him as your Healer.
Have Your Own Faith Life
The sinner, who is spiritually dead, must believe "unto righteousness" — the healing of the soul – the new birth – the greatest miracle.
Christians expect sinners so do their own believing for this greater miracle. Then why should Christians, who are spiritually alive through their own faith, depend on some one else to do their believing for the lesser miracle – the healing of the body? Why should not Christians, who are spiritually alive, have as much faith for the healing of their body, as sinners must have for the healing of their soul?
Moses required each person to do their own looking at the type of Calvary. It was look or die.
God wants us to appropriate every other phase of our salvation, in the same way we appropriated the first phase.
After we have gotten the first promise fulfilled, which gave us God’s Life, why shouldn't it be still easier, after being made spiritually alive, to get God’s other promises fulfilled?
If, to get rid of sin, sinners must believe and say what God says, why shouldn't Christians believe and say what God says, to get rid of sickness?
No Christian should go through life depending upon the faith of others. In Hebrews. 6:11-12 we are told that "EVERY ONE" should be "followers of them who through faith and patience [steadfastness] inherit the promises".
In Romans 4:12 the Holy Spirit speaks of Christians as those "who also walk in the steps of that faith of our father Abraham." All Christians should learn to treat the promises which God has made to them, in the same way that Abraham treated God’s promise to him. And we are told in Hebrews 6:15 (Moffat's translation), that it was "by steadfast faith Abraham obtained what he had been promised".
The Holy Spirit speaks of God’s promises as "exceeding great and precious." And they were made for your heart and lips, as well as for those whom you ask to pray for you. By inspiring the Scriptures, the Holy Spirit has worded your affirmations for you. Learning how to use God’s promises is a much greater blessing than your healing. Living and walking in the Light of the Word is the most beautiful and thrilling experience known. And nothing is impossible when we give the Word the same place we would give Christ if He were physically in our presence.
In the Great Commission (Matthew 28:19-20), Jesus said: ". . . teaching them [all converts] to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you".
It is the purpose of God that every babe in Christ shall go on to spiritual manhood.
Jesus said, "He that believeth on Me, the works that I do shall he do also." He also declared that believers could cast out devils, and lay hands on the sick for their recovery.
By practicing the important truth discussed in this instruction, you will find yourself ever going forward in the glorious program of God for your Christian life.
Help your minister and others by giving them a printout.
(Some of the thoughts expressed in the first part of this booklet were brought together by permission from the writings of Rev. E. W. Kenyon, Author of "The Father and His Family," "The Wonderful Name of Jesus," "In His Presence," "Two Kinds of Love," and other writings. Kenyon Gospel Publication Society. nl578.htm
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Brother Grigor-Scott is a non-denominational minister who has ministered full-time since 1981, primarily to other ministers and their congregations in other countries. He pastors Bible Believers' tiny congregation, and is available to teach in your church.
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