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CHARACTER
EXPECTATIONS_ CLEVELAND.OH
THURSDAY_ 50-0810, E-17 Now, I just
love to carry my Bible. When I was a little boy... Maybe Sunday, or
Sunday week, I want tell my life story, how that... They'd tell me I
looked like a preacher. And I'd...?... on my face till I wanted
to...?... I didn't want to look like no preacher, Bible under my
arm. I thought that was a sissy. But I find out, friends, it's takes
a real man. I wanted to be a man that was six foot tall and weighed
a hundred and ninety pounds. I wanted to be a real man. But see, I
couldn't...?... little.
But look, you can't judge men by the size of his statue. I've seen men that weighed two hundred pounds, didn't a ounce of man...?... Man is judged by character...?... man...?... And then be a man after the heart, a man after God's heart, and God will bless you.
EXPERIENCES.3_ PHOENIX.AZ
SUNDAY_ 47-1221, E-114 I talked to
Brother Sharritt. There's another man I don't want to leave out.
Listen. I think Phoenix is blessed with a man like John Sharritt.
What do you all think about it? Amen. Is that right? Let's give him
a hand too, 'cause he's been a brother to me. That's right. A
very... And now... Yes, Brother Gibson, I couldn't forget his wife.
That's right. She's a lovely little character that doesn't have
nothing to say, but just, "Well, yes." She's a swell cook.
And she's been to me like a sister, and like a brother, and I'm very
thankful for them and their little children.
GOD.REVEALING.HIMSELF.TO.HIS.PEOPLE_
CLEVELAND.OH SUNDAY_ 50-0813E, E-26
And He walked, and He looked up to me with kind... He looked
pathetic to look at Him. And He looked like He was a man of... Well,
I just could not picture His characteristics of His--of His
character in His face. He looked like a Man that was sympathetic,
kind-hearted. But yet He looked like a Man, if He'd speak, it would
be that way.
So I looked at Him, and He looked at me. I was so scared that I--I was biting my thumbnail till it was almost bleeding. Listen, friend. You'd be too. Don't think you wouldn't. And I was right and...?... like that. He said, "Fear not."
ATTITUDE.AND.WHO.IS.GOD?_
CLEVELAND.OH TUESDAY_ 50-0815, E-23
Now, the believer today. Most people, say he's a good man, he pays
tithings to the church; he's a good member. That's very fine. That's
a moral life. Now, no one could speak evil of that. But that's not
what I'm talking about. Jesus judged a man a believer, a different
type of a character.
Jesus, the last Words that He said when He left the world, "Go ye into all the world and preach the Gospel to every creature." Is that right? "He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved. He that believeth not shall be damned." Is that right? Now, every church will come that far, but what about the rest of it? He said, "These signs shall follow them that believe." Do you believe it? "These signs shall follow them that believe: In My Name shall they cast out devils; speak with new tongues; take up serpents, or drink deadly things shall not harm them; if they lay their hands on the sick they shall recover." And He was taken up from the midst of them, and the disciples returned with great joy, and preached the Word, everywhere, the Lord working with them, confirming the Word with signs and wonders. Is that right?
ANGEL.OF.THE.LORD_ TOLEDO.OH
WEDNESDAY_ 51-0718
E-27 And I was staying at the Rice Hotel. Doctor Bosworth... how many knows the Reverend Mr. Bosworth? Nearly all of you do. Wonderful character, I thought he'd be known up around in here. And he came to the room, and he's seventy-three years old. He said, "Brother Branham, look at this paper today." A great big column in there. Oh, he just... the minister ripped me. He said, "Let's challen... let's take that challenge."
RESURRECTION.OF.LAZARUS_ ERIE.PA
SUNDAY_ 51-0729A
E-2 Christians do not die. There's no Scripture in the Bible that says Christians--Christians die. A man that... A person that lives in pleasure is dead while they're living. Death means separation, separation from God. And sinners are not se... Sinners are separated from God, but Christians never separate from God. They just leave the body here to be with the Lord. And Paul.. I like it so well when he went away. He was a great character to cut up. Do you remember how he used to carry on, any of you know him? He was always cutting up. There was... He'd always pulling some kind of a little joke to someone. And he said when he was... They had the little Moody Bible Institute, they had a choir there singing. And they had the shades pulled down in the room, and they were singing "Nearer My God To Thee." And Paul looked around and he said, "Say, who's dying? Me or you?" He said. Said, "Raise them curtains there, those shades, and sing some real good fiery Gospel songs." And so they begin to sing "Down at the Cross." And he said, "That sounds better."
ISRAEL.IN.EGYPT_ JEFF.IN IC
1-34 WEDNESDAY_ 53-0325, 154 Now
watch, when everything heaped up in Joseph. What? A perfect man, the
one who was born of his father, loved of his father, hated of his
brother... Now, look quickly now, 'cause I got to hurry; and give me
your undivided attention. Loved of His Father, hated of His brother:
the Lord Jesus... Watch Jesus acting out in every character in
there. Look at Joseph, the perfect one. Oh, we could spend weeks on
him. Look, hated of his brother, loved of his father. Why? He was a
spiritual man. He saw visions, could interpret dreams. He was
spiritual. His little old... His brothers said, "Nonsense. Get
away."
CRUELTY.OF.SIN_ JEFF.IN V-25
N-4 FRIDAY_ 53-0403, 140 Watch
what it cost our heavenly Father. Look what He did now.
And there come Cain, and he made his offering. He worshipped. He went to church. He's just as good as the next fellow. Esau was the same. Esau, in his character, was a better man than Jacob, more of a gentleman. He loved his father; and the things that he done. But God chose Jacob.
DEMONOLOGY.2.RELIGIOUS_
CONNERSVILLE.IN DE 41-78 TUESDAY_ 53-0609,
33 Every famous picture before it's ever hung in a
hall of art, it has to be hung, go through the hall of critics
first. The man who painted that...?... Or, pardon me, I can't call
his name, painted the "Last Supper," anyhow, it cost him
his lifetime. He painted that picture. It was about twenty years, or
ten years, I believe, between painting Christ and Judas. And did you
realize in that famous picture, that the same man posed for Christ,
ten years later posed for Judas? That's right. He did. Ten years of
sin, from a great opera singer to take the place of Christ, come to
the place of Judas. You don't have to take ten years; it takes ten
minutes, will do the same thing to you. It'll change your character
in sin. But anyhow, that picture went through all the critics.
EXPECTANCY_ OWENSBORO.KY
SUNDAY_ 53-1108E, E-7 I just have a
moment or two to speak to you, but I have such a love in my heart
for Him, till it just seems as I would just have to speak a word or
two for Him.
I'm thinking of the text that I just read, of this aged old man by the name of Simeon. He was a priest at the temple, of a great age, about eighty years old, and a--a great, a name of honor among all the people around the place. And what a--a person he was, what a--a character, renown, man of honor. And it was revealed to him by the Holy Spirit, that he wasn't to see death until he seen the Christ.
EXPECTANCY_ OWENSBORO.KY
SUNDAY_ 53-1108E, E-19 Here it is. If
I'm getting this right, so is it today. A man or a woman who really
tries to live a Christian life, and abstain from the things of the
world, the world backs off and says they're a fanatic. Every man
that tries to trust God, his fellow man will call him,
"Goody-goody," or, "a sissy," or something like
that. Sissy? I don't judge man by the callous in his hands, it's by
the bag of the knee in his pants, whether he bows and prays or not.
Men's not judged by statue, he's judged by character. I seen men
that weighed two hundred pounds, and didn't have an ounce of man in
him: ravish a mother with a baby in her arm. A man's judged by
character, what he is inside.
GOD'S.PROVIDED.WAY_ W.PALM.BEACH.FL
TUESDAY_ 53-1201, E-53 Brother, that's
the truth. I may not be able to say it the way I ought to say it,
but I say it the way it's in my heart. It may be barefooted, but
it's--it's--it's time that man handled the Gospel, not sissified it
with a pair of rubber gloves on. Tell them the truth. That's right.
They might hate you here, but they'll love you at the judgment bar.
That's right. We not sissying around. The Gospel of Jesus Christ is
not sissified; it's the greatest thing that a man ever done.
God--God never judges a man now... Somebody say, "Isn't he a man?" He's got shoulders that wide and arms that big. He might be a brute, but he might not have a ounce of man in him. That's right. You don't judge man by muscle, you judge man by character. I seen men that weighed two hundred pounds and would throw a baby out of a mother's arms and ravish her for his own beastly lust. That's right. You don't judge a man by the callous in his hand, but by the bags in the knees of his pants where he's been praying. Hallelujah. That's what we need today, some more men like that, got real godly old fashion Holy Ghost conviction.
WITNESSES_ PHOENIX.AZ
WEDNESDAY_ 54-0303, E-50 I think...
I'm saying this with, humbly with grace in my heart towards you. In
visions I've seen Him twice. Hope I see Him again before I die. And
twice, two years apart... There's no artist could paint His picture,
character, looked like a man that when He would speak, the world
would break in two, and yet, so humble, when you look at Him, you
could cry to look at Him. See? So I don't think the artist could
catch that. But anyhow, we love Him. And He loves us. And the
whole--His whole being is love. And when He was here on earth, He
was a perfect, obedient Servant. He was obedient even to death
because of His love. He was the Father of mankind, and how could He
do anything else but love them and die for them, being the Father of
mankind?
SEAL.OF.GOD_ JEFF.IN V-26 N-4
FRIDAY_ 54-0514, 121 God takes
His man, but never His Spirit. He taken Elijah, and HisSpirit come
upon Elisha; several hundred years later, it come upon John the
Baptist; predicted again in the last day.
The Devil takes his character, but never his spirit. That same religious teacher that condemned Jesus Christ because of His miracles and signs and wonders, and differed with Him on the Scripture, was flat enough to come and tell Him about it. That same spirit lives right down in ecclesiastical teachers today, for it's foreordained of God to come into that condemnation. That's what the Bible said. "Men of old, foreordained to this condemnation, to turn the grace of our Lord into lasciviousness." That's exactly right. In Jude the 3rd--the 3rd verse of--of Jude, you can find it. That's right.
GOD'S.PROVIDED.WAY.OF.HEALING_
CHICAGO.IL MONDAY_ 54-0719A, E-27
Now notice, and no man can have faith for healing until it's
revealed to him by the Holy Spirit, that he's going to get well. You
might stumble at it. You might go through life living a--a good
Christian life. You might belong to some church. You might have a
fine membership. You might be a moral character, and all of that,
but brother, that still isn't Christianity. Christianity is when the
Holy Ghost has taken full possession of you and you're led by the
Holy Spirit. No matter how good, how moral, how good a church
member... Cain was just as good as any church member. So was Esau,
fine cultured gentlemen. So was Cain, very religious, believed in
God, made sacrifice, built a church altar, made--done all the things
that's religious, and God refused him. No man can say Jesus is the
Christ, only by the Holy Ghost.
Peter has been justified and believed on the Lord Jesus Christ. He'd even preached the Gospel, but Jesus told him, "After you are converted, then strengthen your brothers." See? "After you are converted..." Conversion is the Holy Spirit that moves the old nature out, and the new nature comes in which is the Holy Ghost. And when a man has truly been borned of the Spirit of God, he has Everlasting Life. Jesus said so. "He that heareth My Words, and believeth on Him that sent Me (No man can say it, except by the Holy Ghost.)... He that heareth My Words, believeth on Him that sent Me, hath Everlasting Life, and shall not come into condemnation or judgment, but has passed from death unto Life." That's what He said. I believe Him, don't you?
MANIAC.OF.GADARA_ CHICAGO.IL
TUESDAY_ 54-0720A, E-52 And I see Him
in His work as He was tossed there in this little old sea. And one
soul was in need over there. We never have a--a record of anyone
else being helped in the land of the Gadarenes, but this one maniac.
Poor fellow, I think of him being out there in--in that condition,
perhaps one time a good citizen, a good man.
Let's dramatize it a moment in his character. I can imagine seeing him as a fine fellow. But the first thing you now, some of the crowd come along and got him to get away from church, or go away from God. Next thing you know, the devil had him on the next step; he started drinking. One drink, one devil. Just kept on, backsliding, going away.
ELIJAH_ PHOENIX.AZ TUESDAY_
55-0301, E-9 And Elijah passing through this
country, she taken notice to him that he was a holy man, a man of
God. What a lesson we could get out of that, that we--our walk and
our associations with people, that people would recognize that we
were children of the King. God help us to be that way.
I believe the Scripture says that, "We are written epistles read of all men." And Elisha so conducted hisself around in that Gentile country there, that this Shunammite woman realized that he was truly a servant of God. His character, his conduct, and the things that God did by him, that she recognized him to be a servant of the Lord. So she wanted to show some kindness to him. So she had him come over for dinner, or whatmore, give him a little offering, help him pay for something. Treated him kind, not because she wanted any reward.
REDEMPTION_ SAN.FERNANDO.CA
SATURDAY_ 55-1119
E-5 But, I have met Doctor Teeford, and--and Rolf McPherson, and those fine men there, Doctor Cummings, and some fine men. And I met Mister Kopp at... Leroy's the boy's name. I forget. He used to own the place where Brother Jaggers is now, the World Church. That's where my old brother that's just went upstairs, Congressman Upshaw. Willy Upshaw was healed at the church, which is now the World Church when Brother Kopp was there, after being an invalid on crutches, and wheelchairs, and cots for sixty-six years, I believe it was. And his widow, a very fine Christian woman... How many ever knowed Brother Upshaw? Let's see your hands. Well, bless your heart. A wonderful character, he's gone on. And I'd say the same thing if he was setting before me, or if he was in--somewhere in Los Angeles tonight: he was really a fine brother. And the Lord blessed him and used him in a great way with his testimony of healing, being a man of his caliber. That night at the Temple there, when the Holy Ghost gave a vision of him walking after being an invalid sixty-six years...
GOD.HATH.A.PROVIDED.WAY_ JEFF.IN
SUNDAY_ 56-0108
E-10 Like the traveler that fell coming from Jericho, from Jerusalem to Jericho, and they took him to the inn, the little provided place, and they poured some oil in, and give some money, and he got well. And the lord said, or the man said, rather, "If there's anything more than this, when I come by, I'll--I'll make it right, when I come by again on my next journey." So we know that God has a provided way. In the character of Abraham, this morning speaking or taking him as a basic thought, he, to my opinion, is one of the most outstanding of all the characters of the Bible, and one of my favorite characters to bring to the people for an example.
MIGHTY.CONQUEROR_ JEFF.IN
SUNDAY_ 56-0401
E-44 There was no beauty we should desire Him. He was marred above every man. He was probably a little skinny, spindly looking Fellow, didn't look like the King. Many times that people judge people by the way they dress or by their statue. Man is not judged by how big he is and how strong's his muscles; man's judged by character and character alone. I've seen men that weighed two hundred pounds and didn't have an ounce of man about them. Man is judged by character, what he is in his heart. And Christ was not judged by physical strength, but He was judged by character. And never a man ever lived like Him, or never a man could ever die like Him. Never a man could ascend up on high like Him, because He was God. "I am a no man." He made of Himself no reputation. Did you ever think? The man that made an artificial eye, made a reputation. The man that made false teeth, made a reputation. The man that made a wooden arm, made a reputation for himself, but the Man Who made the original eye, the Man Who made the original arm made of Himself no reputation, but become a Servant, a Bondsman unto men who were sinners that He might win them back.
INFALLIBLE.WORD.OF.GOD_ CHICAGO.IL
FRIDAY_ 56-0406
E-19 And a man's character is shown in his works. Or a man shows his--his character by his works. We know that. Just like a contractor, a contractor shows what he is by his work. For instance, if we was going to have a great building built here in the city of Chicago, the first thing the officials of the city board would do, they would try to select a contractor. Just not any one that run in and said, "Well, I can do the job, all right," they're going to get a contractor that's got a reputation. And now, because if they didn't, maybe another contractor would underbid that contractor. But he would put in the building bad material, and perhaps he would build it thousands of dollars less. And then we come to find out that the building collapsed. The first storm hit it, it went down. What do you think the city would think about that contractor? It would ruin his reputation forever. That's right. |