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THE SIMPLE THINGS
CHILDREN.IN.THE.WILDERNESS_
PHOENIX.AZ SUNDAY_ 47-1123
E-2 I started Friday or Saturday morning. I was supposed to be here last night, and I just got in about a little bit ago. And so, eighteen hours layover. And I didn't get through till just a few moments ago. And I haven't slept any since night before last. So I'm pretty tired. And supposed to be so many. And night before last, I prayed for almost three thousand people, just alone in one night. So anybody imagine how tired. But it's always good to get to Phoenix. I tell you; there's something about this place that I really like. The other day, I had just a few moments with some of the brothers to run up on the mountain and look down. Up... Out from the place where I'm staying. And I went up there and looked down; I thought, "Oh, how heavenly, how..." You people are blessed with a wonderful city here. And I think it's the most simple place that I know of, the most heavenly looking place. The trouble of it is, we just don't appreciate it enough. That's right. This world's a wonderful place that God has give us, if we can just take care of it. See? But we don't do that.
INFALLIBILITY.OF.GOD'S.WORD_
CHICAGO.IL WEDNESDAY_ 56-0404, E-37
But then what you do out of that, they go out and get some pitch out
of another log. And they beat it real hard. Now, if you just took
that gopher wood and set it in the water, it would water soak and
die just in a few minutes, or--or immerse--submerge beneath. If it
would just that way...
But you see, God takes the foolishness of the preaching of the Gospel, He takes the weak and humble people to show His power. He takes the uneducated to confound those who got this big education. He takes the simple things to confound the wise. So He takes this old gopher wood here that was just so light and like balsam... And if you'd set that thing in the water, they'd say, "My, my, that thing will sink right now." Well, now that's the way they say, "Now, what could that bunch do, or this say?" You heard them remarks.
DIVINE.LOVE_ PHOENIX.AZ
TUESDAY_ 57-0305
E-10 Could you imagine a man standing surrounded by a thousand Philistines with armors and spears, as Samson stood and picked up the jaw bone of a mule and slayed a thousand. God does things so simple. Could you imagine a great army on one side of the hill, a great army on the other side of the hill, and the army on the opposite side were the Philistines versing Israel with so many more, and they had a challenger over there by the name of Goliath. He was many times bigger than any other man. And he was making his challenge. And all Israel, with all their training was scared of him. And God choose a little old ruddy, warty looking guy by the name of David, with a little sheepskin coat on him, and a slingshot packing in his hand, to slay that giant and take over. God uses simple things that seems ridiculous in the sight of the world, He does that to show His great power. God did the same thing when He sent His Son to the earth. Born in a manger, come to the world with a black name to begin with as a illegitimate child, but He produced one of the greatest shocks this world has ever had.
STAND.STILL.AND.SEE.THE.SALVATION_
CHICAGO.IL SATURDAY_ 57-0629, E-26
Just a few days ago, as I was telling you, down yonder in a little
old lake in Kentucky, a little dead fishy laying on the water for a
half hour, I saw God make that death stand still, and a simple
little fish... If you don't think you're more than a fish; how much
more is a man than a fish? But God wanted to show He'd take the
simple things and show that He was still the resurrection and life.
He made death stand still over that fish and he received his life
and swam away again.
UNITED.UNDER.ONE.HEAD_
MIDDLETOWN.OH WEDNESDAY_ 58-0326, E-2
Those little handkerchiefs like that, that's perfectly all right to
lay them up here. We'll pray over them and we will have a great
blessing in doing it, and God has always honored it. Such little
simple things as praying over a handkerchief...
There's a young man here, a ministers brother's son from South Africa, who was in my meetings down there. And I was at Cape Town, and we had about eight big grass sacks full of mail. We didn't have time to minister to each. And I was praying over those sack-fulls of mail. And the paper said, "Brother Branham is rather superstitious. He was praying over the mail." It's Scriptural to do so. It's the Word of the Lord.
WHY.LITTLE.BETHLEHEM_ JEFF.IN
V-19 N-13 SUNDAY_ 58-1228
39 And when we get faith like that, and begin to think of, "Who is behind all this? What is the main spring that's turning this great e--economy of God's?" We find it's the Holy Spirit. Not left into the hands of man to do things; but in the hands of the Holy Spirit. And He is the main spring, that if He can get the rest of the instruments, it'll work just perfectly and keep exactly God's time. And then we see that and we wonder in our mind then, if we look at great things and how that we would have them; and then it gives us a lot of consolation today to think, that maybe if we are a little group of people, maybe if we are insignificant to the world and to the bigger churches of denominations, yet God uses those little simple things sometime.
WHAT.WENT.YE.OUT.TO.SEE_ UTICA.IN
THURSDAY_ 59-1001
E-35 Mercy, when I think of that, it wakes me to something. What must we do? I said to the wife the other day, "Honey, I'm fifty years old. I can't be here much longer." Then I walked out; I stood there in the woods. I went out hunting. I stood there in the woods a little bit. I thought of that, "Fifty years old, what's the matter?" Then something said and say to me, "God could train you for fifty years to do a fifty minute work." Whatever the training's been, God knows what He's doing. He trained Moses eighty years to get forty years of service from him. God's training His people. God's training His Church, if we're only willing to let God have His way and to--to do that thing which is right, if we're only willing to submit ourselves unto Him. That's the thing to do. God takes the simple things.
WHAT.WENT.YE.OUT.TO.SEE_ UTICA.IN
THURSDAY_ 59-1001
E-36 Sometimes you might think that you're in a minority here. The minority... God usually is in the minority. But brother, when He gets ready to move, He shakes the majority with the minority. He's God. He takes the simple things. Where did He get the stuff to make the world with? He spoke and said, "Let there be," and there was. He took a preacher without an education, raised in the wilderness on grasshoppers and honey, with no clothes hardly around him but a piece of sheepskin and shook the regions. And his name's immortal today. What went ye out to see?
WHAT.WENT.YE.OUT.TO.SEE_ UTICA.IN
THURSDAY_ 59-1001
E-37 God takes simple things. He took a man one time that didn't know hardly his abc's. He took a man, when a thousand Philistines run upon him, and he grabbed the jawbone of a mule; and took a simple jawbone from a mule's mouth and slayed a thousand armored men. Oh, that's our God, Who rides the waves of high. A jawbone of a mule and slayed a thousand men... That same God one time, when a great boaster of a Philistine stood on the other side of the river and defying the armies of Israel, God took a little old drawed up, scrawny looking boy with a simple sling shot in his hand (Oh, God, a sling shot, a string with--hooked to a piece of leather, a little old sling shot), a simple thing like that and slew a giant and whipped an army.
WHAT.WENT.YE.OUT.TO.SEE_ UTICA.IN
THURSDAY_ 59-1001
E-38 God takes simple things. It doesn't take great things; it takes simple things used right. Now, it ain't altogether simple things, but it's got to be used right. Every man lived in the wilderness wasn't a John. Every man car--carried a sling shot wasn't David. Every man picked up a jawbone of a mule wasn't Samson. But when it's used in the anointed hands of a servant of God... Moses defied the armies of Israel--or the armies of Egypt with a dry stick in his hand. Amen. Moses, one day a coward, with Gershom and Zipporah behind the desert, when once anointed from the burning bush, with a dry stick in his hand, a wife setting on a mule, and a kid on her hip, eighty years old and the whiskers blowing, went down into Egypt and took over. Simple, one old man, eighty years old with a dry shepherd's staff in his hand, defied the whole armies of the world, and conquered, come out.
WHAT.WENT.YE.OUT.TO.SEE_ UTICA.IN
THURSDAY_ 59-1001
E-39 Depends on what you do. Now, you've got the humility here. You've got the Gospel here in Utica. You may be, as I said, in the minority. But what do you come to hear here? Do you come just to say, "I go to church?" Do you come just to hear our gracious brother? That's all good. But let's do something more than that. Let's come to take Christ. Let's come to leave here tonight with Him. Let's go out to defy everything that's wrong, cut away. Jawbone, whatever it is in your hand, fight with it. God use simple things with anointed hands. You've got simple works, a simple little city, a simple little people, a simple little church, a simple Gospel, but it's anointed. God so the great mighty Jehovah, Who thundered in yonder, Who made the stars, and the solar systems, Who made the earth out of things which does not appear... Spoke it into existence.
WHAT.WENT.YE.OUT.TO.SEE_ UTICA.IN
THURSDAY_ 59-1001
E-40 But when He come to visit mankind, He didn't ride down on golden chariots, but He chose to come to a--a little hillside stable, and His birth was in a cattle manger: simple things. But from that manger came Emmanuel. What went you out to see? What strikes the world today? What's the greatest calling card in America? What's the greatest calling card of the world? What's the greatest thing of all ages and all times? Is the Life and the Spirit of a Baby that was born in a manger in a stable on the side of a hill. Simple things, simple things...
POSSESSING.THE.ENEMY'S.GATES_
JEFF.IN V-11 N-6 SUNDAY_ 59-1108, 66
Do you believe that to be truth, solemnly believe it to be the
truth, not one waver of doubt in your heart? Now just remember this,
the working of the Holy Spirit is so simple that it confuses the
intellectual mind. The most simple things that I've every... I've
seen the Holy Spirit do this; I'd say things that, why, I wouldn't
think about it being that way. If I had to use my own mind, I'd say,
"Well, that couldn't be right." But it always is right. He
does things just so simple. And He does things to make Hisself known
to His people. God is with His people. He's in the midst of His
people. He loves them, and He wants to do for them, and to help
them, and to just let them know not what He will do, but what He has
done. He's already done it; it's yours. It belongs to you. It's a
free gift from God our Father to His Church.
CONVINCED.THEN.CONCERNED_ TEMPE.AZ
THURSDAY_ 62-0118
E-102 Was there any sick people in here to be prayed for? Raise up your hands. Last night we had a little prayer line run. All right. Now, I didn't come to the church this time... I didn't come, you know, giving out prayer cards, and--and bringing the people up, and maybe get six or seven, ten, or something another like that, and be so weak they almost have to pack me out. I just come to praying, laying hands on the sick, and things like that, and going on. 'Course it can be done the other way. That's just up to the people (You see?), or up to God, rather, whatever God wants to do. But He is God; I don't care where it is. Just the simple things of... Brother Welch, when that snake bit you, there was no vision about that, was there? Just laid hands upon him, that was all, 'cause He's God.
GOD.IN.SIMPLICITY_ JEFF.IN
SUNDAY_ 63-0317M
21-3 {117} He asked a little girl one day, who was coming from Sunday school, why did she waste her time on doing such a thing as that? She said, because she believed that there was a God. And Mr. Dorsey said that... He said, "Child, you are so wrong to believe in such a thing as that." And said that the little girl stooped down and picked up a--a little flower out of the--off of the ground, pulled it from its petals, and said, "Mr. Dorsey, could you tell me how this lives?" There it was. When he begin to search back... He could have said to the child, "Why, it's growing in the earth." And then the questions could revolve back: "Where'd the earth come from? How'd that seed get here? How it happen?" On and on and on and run it on back until he seen... See? Not the great glamorous things that we think about, but it's the simple things that God is so real in, the simplicity.
GOD.IN.SIMPLICITY_ JEFF.IN
SUNDAY_ 63-0317M
22-2 {122} And otherwise, He said in Isaiah 35, I believe. He said, "Though a fool should not err therein..." It's so simple. And we know that God is so great, till we expect it to be some great something, and we miss the simple things. We stumble over simplicity. That's how we miss God, is by stumbling over simplicity. God is so simple until the scholars of these days and all days miss Him a million miles; because in their intellects, they know that there's nothing like Him so great. But in His revelation, He makes it so simple they go plumb over the top of it and miss it.
GOD.IN.SIMPLICITY_ JEFF.IN
SUNDAY_ 63-0317M
56-2 {361} Now, He hid Hisself in the death of Christ, but manifested Himself in the resurrection, oh, my, so forth. You can just--we just--we... There's no end to it. Just keep saying... But there you are. To refuse to say there's a sunshine is to go into the basement and shut your eyes from light. That's right. And remember, the only way that you can be wrong is first to refuse right. And to refuse to open your eyes, you'll live in darkness. See? If you just refuse to look, how you going to see? See? Watch the simple things. It's the little things that you leave undone, not the big things you're trying to do--do. Oh, my. Then look here.
VICTORY.DAY_ SIERRA.VISTA.AZ
SUNDAY_ 63-0421
E-30 And therefore (See?), we... It's been said, "Fools walk with hobnailed shoes where angels fear to trod," and that's really true. We walk over the simple things. We walk over God. We walk over a--a orchid, looking for a daisy. Now, that's it (See?): walking over the orchid. And if we just simplify ourselves, get down, and... No one could look at even that vine out there. What is it? God. What is it? It's volcanic ash with a life in it. Turn and look away. There's a mighty tree standing there, cottonwood, I believe. What is it? It's a volcanic ash with a different kind of life in it. This kind of life made a--made a tree. That kind of life made a vine. See? And what are we? Volcanic ash with life in it. What made us what we are? We would just be no more than that. But God put Eternal Life in us. And then we become subjects of God. Then we're--we're watching, focus the Word then to God. But man never gives the inside man a chance to explain what is right. Therefore, that's what causes the trouble.
GARNETT.PEAKE'S.FUNERAL_
CAMPBELLSVILLE.KY MONDAY_ 63-1118
E-16 Now, that might be hard to think or to comprehend at once. But let's think of it, being that we got this here before us this afternoon. Now, here's the flowers. They're expressing what they come here on earth for, to help cheer the--the weary room this afternoon, where this lovely young brother lays asleep. And those flowers, we notice... Like you women here in Kentucky... I--I'm from here myself. And--and I notice you plant your flowers around your house, and--and the summertime, they bloom up so pretty and brighten up your home. And then, maybe in the fall of the year, all of a sudden a frost hits them. That's death. Now, whether they're... Already the petals are dropping, or whether they're young flowers, or whatever they are when frost strikes, it takes them all. That's death. It's no respect of person, ability, age. It just strikes. And where it hits, it takes. Then we notice the petals drop from the little flower then. And out of the flower drops a little black seed. And now, this may seem juvenile, but that's the way you find God, is in the simple things, not the--the complicated things. God has made it simple, if we just could see it. |