Men of Vision, Achievement

JESUS CHRIST THE SAME CHICAGO IL 55-0116E

E-10 In this time Jesus had done great things in these early days, in His early ministry. He was misunderstood as most everyone.

Did you ever come to think of it, that most men who ever do anything great for the Kingdom of God stand alone? Did you ever think of it? You have to stand by yourself. Jesus stood alone; and all down through the ages other men who stood alone: Finney, Sankey, and Calvin, Knox, even to Abraham Lincoln. That's right. Stood alone... Men who do great things, men of vision, men of spiritual understanding, stand alone. And I think that's because that Jesus had to stand alone Himself.

JESUS CHRIST THE SAME CHICAGO IL 55-0116E

E-11 Now, the one principle of us being here... trying to help you. And the only way that I know, Christian friends, to help you is to get your faith, the best that I can by the Word of God, centered on the will of God for you. See?

If you can only see that it's God's will to do these things for you... It's God's will to save you all. It's God's will to heal you all. And He will certainly lead you into deeper depths and higher heights, if you'll just trust Him.

Don't be satisfied with your fire built here from last night. Let's build it a little farther up the road tonight. Never build it in the same place. You can't stand still. You're either backsliding or going forward.

INTER VEIL STURGIS MI 56-0121

E-87 Over here in Illinois, I was walking in one time to a--a--a museum. And I seen an old Negro there, just a little white rim around his head of hair. He had his hat in his hand, looking around everywhere. He got up at something; he stopped; the tears rolled down his cheeks. I seen him saying his prayer. I watched him a little bit. I walked over to him. I patted him on the shoulder. I said, "Uncle. I'm a reverend." I said, "I would like to ask you one thing." I said, "What excited you to make you pray?"

He said, "Come here, parson." Said, "Look at there."

And I couldn't see nothing, I said, "Just a woman's dress."

He said, "But you see that blood on there?"

I said, "Yes."

He said, "That's the blood of Abraham Lincoln." Said, "There's a scar here on my side from a slave belt." He said, "That blood taken a slave belt off of me. Wouldn't it excite you too?"

I put my arm around him. I said, "If the blood of Abraham Lincoln would excite and stir a slave to emotion from coming off the slave belt, what ought the Blood of Jesus Christ preached under the power of the Holy Ghost, do to the Church of the living God?" Yes. Certainly. It's true.

Men of vision, men who understand, men who take God at His Word... We've got to do that, friend. We must believe God and act like Christians.

GOD KEEPS HIS WORD STURGIS MI 57-0115

E-67 By the grace of God, I started. And now, what's happened? The revival fires are burning on every hill around the world. When old Goliath was slain and Israel saw, they drew their swords. That's what's happened. Men of vision, Methodist, Baptist, Presbyterian, Lutheran, Pentecostal, whatmore, when they seen that God had poured out His Spirit in these last days, that signs and wonders were taking place, and the bones had done rattled, and shook, and kicked over the chairs until they all got together, but now sinew skin is on them, and they're standing up like a great mighty army. And men begin to pull their swords, and say, "God, if--if Goliath the biggest can be slain, then we'll cut too." And they're cutting right and left, from east, from west, from north to south; and a great revival has swept the whole world. When the...

When they said, "It can't be done. It can't be done. It can't be done," but God did it anyhow because He promised it.

He said, "The things that I do shall you also; greater than this (or more than this) shall you do; for I go unto My Father." When He was here on earth, He didn't claim to be a great person. He claimed only to be the--the Son of man when He was here. He was the Son of God, yet He was the Son of man through Mary. He was the Son of God by Mary. He was God Himself by Spirit. God in Christ, heaven and earth reconciled together, when earthly man borned of a woman, and the Spirit of God dwelled into Him. When the lamb and the dove came together, heaven and earth kissed each other. And that's right on that great day.

PERSEVERANT VICTORIA BC 62-0729

E-37 I think of the father of our nation, which is called George Washington. I always had a lot of respect for Mr. Washington because he was a Christian. And before Valley Forge, when he prayed all night long in the snow until he was wet above his waist, and his soldiers, two-thirds of them didn't even have on shoes... They had their feet wrapped with anything they could wrap them with, and it zero weather, and the river froze over.

That night he prayed until he was wet plumb up around his waist. He caught the vision from God. And the next day, he was very persistent. He crossed the river regardless of the... The ice gorges didn't stop him. And three musket bullets was shot through his coat, and he walked on to victory. Why? He was persistent. He prayed until he caught a hold of God, and knowed what God had said. That's it. He could be persistent for the achievement.

And the first thing, your achievement is only by your motive and your objective. Your motive has got to be right and your objective has got to be right. If your objective is right, and your motive is wrong, then it won't happen. You've got to have the right objective and you've got to have the right motive. And then take it upon the leading of the Holy Spirit in your heart and stay with it. God will bring it to pass.

ONCE MORE CHICAGO IL 63-0804A

89 But, notice, Samson thought there must be a--a possibility. He caught the idea.

But the sad part is today, the church don't catch that. They don't realize that there is a possibility of a revival. They don't realize the possibility. They haven't caught the vision yet. They just set.

"Oh," they say, "now, Brother Branham, what are you doing?"

Oh, I know you clap your hands, and have great big gatherings, and glittering with worldly tinsel. You have to go to the biggest places. You have to have the most, best entertained. You have to do this, that, or the other. Your pastor must be a seminary scholar with a doctor's degree. Or, you can't tell your neighbors down there that your pastor's some little guy out of the corn field out there, that got saved. He's, "Our pastor is Doctor LL.D. So-and-so." To me, that means he's just that far away from God. That's all, just that far away, for intellects always takes him away. Oh, you're shining with scholarship.

TO WHOM SHALL WE GO JEFF IN 60-0604

E-37 Now, one more thing I want to say for the sixth thing. He... Or the... Yes, the sixth thing: He is the only lasting Achievement. Tell me anything that you could get, that s--cou--you could achieve would be eternal, outside of Jesus Christ. Build a fine home; get a million dollars; be the most popular woman in the country; strongest man that ever walked on the streets; be the world's record prize fighter; whatever you want to be; see if you don't windle and twindle and die! That's right. It won't take but a few suns to do it. So the only eternal Achievement there is is Jesus Christ. There...

If He's the most and the best that we can achieve for, let's--let's make that our achievement then. Let's be sure that we get Him. You might be a preacher; you might be a pastor; you might be a deacon; you might be a church member. But if you have it in your achievement...

You might achieve and say, "I won't stop till I become a preacher." "I won't stop till I become a deacon." "I won't stop till I become a church member." Them things are all right, honorable. But listen here, brother. Don't you stop short of Jesus Christ, or you haven't got an eternal achievement. Because your pastor... that... Your work of a pastor will soon fade away; your work as a deacon will soon go; your church membership will be long re--dismissed from the minds of the people just a little while to come. But if you've achieved Jesus Christ, then you've got Eternal Life and you'll can never die.

PERSEVERANCE JEFF IN 62-0218

48 Jesus said over there, "The works that I do shall you do also. A little while and the world (kosmos) sees Me no more. (That's the world order.) They see Me no more."

Many church members, fine people going to church, living under that thought that they're all right... Why, you're not all right as a church member. You're a citizen. You might try to do right, but, friend, let me tell you, you must be borned again. You don't come into the church... You don't come in the church by shaking hands, you don't come in church by church membership. You come into the church by birth.

I've been in the Branham family fifty-two years; I--they never asked me to join the family to make my name a Branham. I was borned into the family of Branhams. I'm a Branham by birth.

And that's how you're a Christian, by birth, when you're borned of the Spirit of God. Persistent, yes, that's when you can achieve something. All men down through the ages has always been able to achieve what... They're persistent if they're--if they have faith in what they're trying to achieve. It depends on what your achievement is. Depends on what you're trying to do, whether you're persistent or not, how much faith you got in what you're doing. We must have faith in God. We must believe God.