ASK, SEEK AND KNOCK FOR THE OUTPOURING OF THE HOLY GHOST
<And I say unto you, Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you.
For every one that asketh receiveth; and he that seeketh findeth; and to him that knocketh it shall be opened.
If a son shall ask bread of any of you that is a father, will he give him a stone? or if he ask a fish, will he for a fish give him a serpent?
Or if he shall ask an egg, will he offer him a scorpion?
If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children: how much more shall your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask him?> Luke 11:9-13
I feel so blessed to hear the words of the Lord!
To think of Him standing before the people in His day and speaking such
glorious words. Sometimes, I believe our minds ought to be transported to
the streets of
John 6:63 <…the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life.>
WE TOUCH HIM BY OUR SOULS – YIELD TO THE SPIRIT
We can only touch Him with our souls. If He was on earth, we could reach Him by our hands and shake His hand and say, “Lord.” That is the physical part of it. This body in itself (this physical man) cannot touch the Lord, because He is in spirit form. You have to touch Him by your spirit. The song says, “Reach out and touch the Lord as He goes by.” You touch Him by your spirit; touch Him by your soul.
You cannot touch Him as long as you do not apply the things that you have heard and have known for many years. As one brother said, “We know it, but we just forget it.” Yes, the enemy has a way of coming and stealing a little bit every day—just a little hairline; and by the time you wake up, you forgot what you were doing one month ago, two months ago, three months ago; but we should not let these things slip.
It is so wonderful when we can touch Him; before the minister comes here, we touch Him with our soul. “Jesus touched me and made me whole.” The little songwriter said, “My God is real, I can feel Him in my soul.”
How do you touch Him with your soul? You cannot touch Him with your soul as long as you are gazing around or your mind is on the job, or is upon some disappointment you had recently. You could not touch the Lord just by worrying about your failures. You are to come in here and try to touch Him with your soul. How do you touch the Lord with your soul? It is a very simple thing.
We had the example of a great prophet, Brother Branham, who touched the Lord. He knew how to touch the Lord. In that film, “Deep Calleth to the Deep,” you notice he was waiting on the Lord. We ought to observe all of these things. When you meet a man that you consider to be spiritual, observe everything that he does.
When Brother Bob was around me, I observed everything that he did; I even peeped into his notebook! You heard the story? I wanted to see how he was putting his notes, so I went into his room and sat down in his bed where he had his notes. So while I was watching there, he did like that, and he closed his books! He did not want to give away his secrets. So we observed that man.
A prophet is not without honor save in his own country and in his own house. Sometimes that means a preacher. You see they appreciate that servant of God so much in another country. They long to get a little time to sit down and talk with him, shake his hands, and different things like that. It is too bad that after the men of God depart and go their way, then we realize how valuable they were. We say, “Boy, we should have been around that man more.”
I believe that to touch the Lord with your soul is even a little lesson in itself. If you noticed, when the prophet of God was going to call this prayer line, all in a sudden, he just got very quiet and relaxed. You do not know what he is doing, but a prophet of God is built up in such a way to push back his own spirit and yield his soul to the Holy Spirit. Then he realized that that Angel of the Lord was not there yet. He started repenting. (Touching the Lord with your spirit, you come in repenting. “On bended knees I come,” humbling your hearts.)
A very notable thing that Brother Branham said there that blessed me was,
Quote: E-46 Now, of course I wait for Him. Whether He will help me tonight, I do not know. And if I have said anything boastfully, or anything that I said out of the way, may God forgive me. I wouldn't mean to do it. Deep Calleth to the Deep 54-0624.
With all the success that he had in his ministry all those years, he tried not to show off and boast. And then the prophet of the Lord turned around and said, “Is the organist here somewhere? Would you kindly come and play for me, Only Believe?” (E-47) He kept on praying.
You see while that man of God is praying and talking
to the people about the trip in Africa,
Quote: E-48 Well, that's what you have to watch. God has put a curse on somebody for something, then you come along and take it off, you get in trouble like Moses did. That's right.
“He's here, the Holy Spirit. Now, in the Name of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, I take every person in here under my control for God's glory. Deep Calleth to the Deep 54-0624.
Now, that is so marvelous that Brother Branham could touch something with his spirit and understand in the Spirit. The whole congregation there, never seeing anything or hearing anything. The prophet of God said, “He is here, the Angel of the Lord, the Holy Spirit.” Now he could have gone into action.
That is what the Lord is training us for. He is trying to acquaint us with His Spirit. You see, you cannot touch the Lord by coming in here and having your mind on the natural. You have to do certain things and apply yourself in order to be pulled up into that realm of the Spirit. Brother Branham called for the organist to help him to enter into that dimension.
Remember Elisha was angry one time, and he could not find the Spirit in that anger. What did he do? He called for a minstrel. A minstrel is a musical band out of the army. They brought them over, and they started to play the music. That changed the temperament of Elijah from anger and softened his spirit; his soul started reaching out to touch the Lord. He reached out there, touched the Lord, and prophesied. “Dig this valley full of ditches. Thus saith the Lord, I will fill them with water.” [II Kings 3:15]
Oh my Lord, I do not know how people could not want to see those days again! Just repeating the stories has such an impact. I want to see those days; and we will see it. I assure you we will see it and we will see much more than that.
John 14:12 <…greater works than these shall he do; because I go unto my Father.>
You touch the Lord with your spirit, your soul. That is not only for the preacher. The preacher might touch the Lord in a greater way because he is ministering the Word, which is the greatest anointing. The highest order is the preaching of God’s Word. But you could touch the Spirit. You might have a need; you might have some little problem: lust problem, anger problem. Oh my! There are all kinds of problems in this flesh.
Romans 7:18 <…in my flesh, dwelleth no good thing:>
If you do not want that in your flesh, no matter how bad you are, you yield to the Spirit, and come in there with the right attitude: reverence, respect, adoration for the Lord, then you could touch Him with your spirit.
You cannot touch Him in your spirit with your eyes open gazing around, and your thoughts somewhere else. You have to get into that dimension. You close your eyes and you meditate, and as you think upon Him, you find a certain part of you rising.
I do not know if you have experienced that. I believe that we are Christians; most of us have experienced that. You do not yield yourself to the Lord with your eyes open and watching like that. You are not going to fool anybody. My Beloved, you just get before the Lord in your prayer closet. This is for your prayer closet and for the House of God. You must come with that reverence. “Hallowed be thy name.” As you yield to Him, I think the best way is to close your eyes, shut yourself off from all imaginations and all thoughts. As you stay in the Spirit, keep your mind upon the Lord. Let Him be the center of your thoughts.
Quote: E-50 Make Him in your--center of your thought right now, the Lord Jesus. Deep Calleth To The Deep 54-0624.
Quote: E-59 My, what a faith bank in the building. It looks just real milky out over the building. You are certainly in the Spirit of the Lord now. Anything could happen. Deep Calleth To The Deep 54-0624.
Faith rises in the spiritual realm. As you yield yourself to the Lord, shut yourself off even from the bench that you are sitting on and the person next to you, yield yourself and let that spirit rise. It is your soul trying to contact God. As you rise in that Spirit, then my Friends, you start feeling something moving. Now that is your soul touching the Lord. You make spiritual contact because your soul is a spirit being, and it is touching the Lord’s Spirit.
When that touches there, you must know. Yes, you feel different. A humble, sweet feeling comes over you. Oh my, you cannot hold up! You think you are a man, but when you come into the Presence of the Lord, it breaks the heart. The tears start to flow, and even though you try to hold it back, your heart is breaking. That is the Holy Spirit. That is what we need. There is a measure of that Spirit right now for everybody.
The reason that you young people (and even older people) get into trouble is that you are not yielding to the Spirit enough. Let Him come and anoint you and put the Holy Ghost in you. You have to ask the Lord for the Holy Ghost, that is what Jesus is saying here.
He says, “How much more would the Heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask Him?” The reason that you are having problems, and you are overcome by the desires of the flesh is because some of us never asked for the Holy Ghost and it never reached down far enough to sanctify us and to cleanse us. Some of us, no doubt, sit here dry and do not have the Holy Spirit because we never asked. You have to ask, Brethren. That is what the Lord is saying here. He said, “Ask me for it.”
James 4:2-3 <…ye have not, because ye ask not.
Ye ask, and receive not, because ye ask amiss, that ye may consume it upon your lusts.>
So when you come to the house of the Lord, if you are having problems in the flesh, I say “flesh,” but anything in the world that you want more than Eternal Life and the Lord is “lust of the eyes”, and “lust of the flesh;” and you want to overcome, you just sit right there and do what Brother Bruce says. Find a little corner somewhere in the woods, or in the house, or on the bed, and you just yield yourself to the Holy Spirit and say, “Lord, give me more of your Holy Spirit. I don’t want to be the kind of person that I am. Lord, come inside of me; take away my own thoughts and my own desires.”
That is what I did as a young man. I had no pastor to teach me; I had no guide, until I borrowed your pastor, and that was many years after. All that I learned from the time that I gave my life to the Lord was through my desire for life and yielding. As I yielded to the Spirit, the Spirit of the Lord came upon me, right away. As I opened the Scripture and start speaking to people, there would be a visible manifestation that came over me, and they would notice that the Holy Spirit was upon me.
Beloved, that is what you need. It is true that we are expecting the great Outpouring of the Holy Spirit, the Fullness, the Capstone to come, but without the Holy Spirit, you cannot live another day. You will be in the natural, and will start desiring natural things and will feel so natural. You just mix among unsaved people a little bit and don’t pray up as you are supposed to pray up, and see how natural you will start feeling! I tell you, you do not feel like a Christian.
You must yield to Him. There is an approach; there is an attitude; there is a way to get into that dimension. And as you get into that dimension, you climb higher and higher, higher and higher. You find the Spirit of the Lord moving; you forget everybody and just bow your heads and close your eyes. You just yield to the Spirit, one step at a time. Let your spirit climb. I hope you understand what I am saying. If you had a little experience of that, you will know what I am talking about. What happens to some people is that they rise a little bit, their spirit start rising, and then they stop it.
I Thessalonians 5:19 <Quench not the Spirit. >
You let it drop back. Some child cries out here, and you come out of it. The music stops and you stop. We do not pray to the tune of the music. We pray and yield to the tune of “yielding to the Lord.” Our spirit rises but many of us sometimes do not know and we stop it right there. You have to yield to the Spirit; keep climbing, my Beloved. That is going to get so great one of these days until you are completely submerged by the great Outpouring of the Holy Spirit. That soul is going to climb, climb, climb, until it climbs right up, breaks the sound barrier (spiritually speaking), then you are ready for the rapture. That is how great that is.
Without that, I cannot preach. Without that, the people cannot sing. No, you do not understand when that is happening and how it is happening. But in order to speak to you under inspiration, a minister must yield to the Lord in such a way and he contacts the Spirit. Then, when he contacts that Spirit, he is speaking to you from a different dimension, all entirely.
You want to know, “How can he say those things that touch me as an individual?” It is not me; it’s the Holy Spirit. “How could he bring that out tonight?” I do not know. It is the Holy Spirit. All that I do is contact the Spirit. As the inspiration flows from that contact that we make with the Holy Spirit, then He brings the right thoughts, and we speak the words of the Lord.
Like we spoke last night and understood what we never understood before: how the people came into one heart and one accord and one unity to go up to the Upper Room to receive that great Outpouring of the Holy Spirit. Would you believe that I never knew that? Now, Who brought that? The Holy Spirit. When you come and tell me, “Brother Bruce, that was great and that was wonderful!” In my heart, I say, “Thank you Lord,” because I positively know that I never had that formulated or figured out. In fact, all the messages that you heard here, would you believe that I never preplanned them? I never preplanned them home, never preplanned them here. I waited until the last moment, right in the evening, even like this one. I said, “Lord, what would you have for your children today? Put it upon my lips.” I applied the same method to receive this message of “How to Contact the Lord.”
That is why a preacher should not be running here and there, doing this, doing that, hours before he comes to the pulpit. He waits upon the Lord, then gets quiet and meditates a little bit with the Lord. No big emotional thing, no kind of a Pentecostal affair: “Hallelujah, praise God, Hallelujah.” No, that is works. The things of the Lord are so small; and it happens in such a humble and simple manner that people do not know what is going on.
You wait upon the Lord; you get quiet; cut yourself off from wife, children, noise and everything that will disturb you, clear that out of the way. A little thought starts coming out here, a next little thought comes there; a little thought comes again. Then, right there, you remember, “But that is in the Scripture.”
Sometimes, that revelation comes first and then you go to the Scripture. When it starts coming, pull the pen out, jot it down before you forget, because there is a demon coming to take “the seed by the wayside.” So you jot that down quickly, and then you wait on the Lord for the rest of it. It may not be altogether a picture, but then as you come to the pulpit, you have to apply faith.
The Lord sometimes does not give you a picture. He makes you exercise faith until you reach the pulpit and makes you stand up there, and you don’t have a picture. Then by faith, read the Scripture, start speaking what you have, and then everything comes together. I believe that most of the preachers could relate to that. The Lord is so good to us. I want to encourage your hearts to continue in the same approach.
You have to understand that you come to the Lord and in reverence and in respect, you want to touch God. “I want to touch God with my soul.” You can only touch Him so much. You keep on yielding to the Lord; and as you yield, you will be surprised to know what the Lord could reveal to you and what the He could help you to do.
In that yielding, right then as you touch the Holy Spirit and you start feeling sweet in your soul, say, “Lord, take away this naughtiness from me. I know that it is wrong. Lord, take this out of my heart.” It might be a little sister. “Lord, take away this from my heart.” “Reach out and touch the Lord as he goes by.” As He passes by you, make contact with Him. You call out like blind Bartimaeus, “Thou son of David, have mercy upon me.” You will be surprised to know what could happen to you in service, you could walk out as a new person. I believe that we who have passed that way could relate to all these things, but sometimes we forget. We come in; just wait and hear songs. That is not all! We come in and wait for the preacher, “Well, I find he is taking long to come out today.” No, there is a certain groundwork that you must do!
One credit that I must give to you, Brethren, is that if the Lord will cause His servant to touch Him by his spirit, many times it takes the prayers of the saints. Now according to how much you are calling for that blessing, that is what the Lord is going to bring to His servant. You have to keep on praying. I had no knowledge of the greater part of that message concerning “Upper Room Heart’s Condition,” that the Lord’s Prayer was actually telling them how to receive the Outpouring of the Holy Spirit. <Thy kingdom come.> I never knew that. I never saw that in my life.
I came in there, Brother Kenny, so humble, just left his chair and said, “Brother Bruce, take my chair.” I sat there, pulled out that pen, and immediately the Lord whispered that little word to me, “Upper Room heart’s condition.”
That came out supernaturally. I never
premeditated all the messages that I preached to you, Friends. I never
said, “I’m going to
When you do your part: pray, touch the Lord for yourself and get up into that realm of the Spirit, it makes it so easy for the minister. It is a wonderful environment to preach in. When I walk out in a Holy Ghost atmosphere, I have no fear; I have no doubt that the Lord is already blessing us in what I have already spoken. He wants you to know these things. So let us continue to yield unto the Lord, just as you yielded tonight and in the prayer meeting.
Now the Lord made a Promise to us; that is true, but
the thing is that you have to keep on asking Him for it, “Lord, give us this
Promise.” The Lord actually taught the disciples how to pray for the
Token to come in the Lord’s Prayer. The Token is the
A man cannot truly pray the Lord’s Prayer until he conditions his heart. I am talking about truthfully saying the prayer, applying the prayer. After the Lord prayed, He specified the condition.
Matthew 6:15 <But if ye forgive not men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.>
That prayer was actually teaching the disciples how to pray for the Outpouring of the Holy Spirit. First, before they could have prayed that prayer, they had to have their heart conditioned by forgiveness, by unity, by love, by doing the other things that the Lord said in His commandments. You see, that was an important prayer. I never knew that the Lord’s Prayer was telling them how to get the Outpouring. I knew it was connected with the Outpouring by saying, <Thy kingdom come>, but never understood that.
Now Brethren, the Lord does things so simple. You would think that He would do that with great jumping up and shouting. It does not work like that! Like the man of God said, “The Lord does some things so simple. When the sun shines in the morning, it pulls up so much water from the earth without a sound. But look at these man-made pumps; the amount of noise, and they didn’t pull up very much water, after all. But the sun shines out and you see the vapors come up.”
Susie was asking me, “What is all this mist about? How do they have so much mist in this place here, Daddy?” We are not used to seeing that very much and I understand what she was asking. I said, “Well, the rain fell; the sun came out; the humidity built up; and these are water vapors that are going up into the heavens and they will become clouds.” The Lord does those things so simply. He brings the rain without making a set of noise.
So-called Pentecost is full of noise and they achieve nothing. They are like these man-made water pumps. The Holy Spirit comes so serene and holy; the music starts playing. The quality of the Holy Spirit amongst us here surpasses all that so-called Pentecost has. The Holy Spirit does things so simple. The sun just comes out, all that water vapor goes up there and forms the clouds, and then you have a rain. Apply that spiritually.
It seems like nothing is happening here, but the Holy Spirit is moving and then it has to move with you. Come, and dedicate yourself. You don’t have to go on a seven day fast, or a twenty-one day fast. All that you have to do is to cleanse your heart and mind, and make Him the center of your thoughts. Like I said, bow your heads, close your eyes, mind your business and reach out to the Lord, by your soul, by your spirit, and touch Him. You will know when you touch Him, don’t be afraid. Glorify Him. Worship Him when you touch Him; stand still, be reverent. Even if you are in the parking lot, and you think the right thought, and you find that Presence come upon you; be reverent, stand a moment; glorify Him; magnify Him. “Hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come”.
That prayer was directly teaching the disciples how to pray for the Holy Ghost. Now I proved that just now by reading these Scriptures. After giving all the lesson by this parable, the Lord went on to say,
Luke 11:13 <… how much more shall your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask him?>
Brethren, I have preached this Bible for a long time, but I understood something last night, which I want to highlight, just a little bit. Time and time again, I preached, “Ask, Seek, and Knock” when we want something from the Lord, but I now understand that this admonishment is directly connected with the Outpouring of the Holy Spirit. Now we took that Scripture and applied it for everything otherwise. “Ask, seek, knock for healing”, for something we need from the Lord: wife, husband, and all kinds of things. It works. But what I am saying is that the most important emphasis that the Lord laid is to receive the Holy Ghost.
This “asking, seeking, and knocking,” and all the examples that the Lord gave, have to do with asking for the Outpouring of the Holy Spirit. Isn’t that marvelous? The very tail end of the Scripture in the eleventh chapter, thirteenth verse, our Lord emphasized the Holy Spirit. In other words, He said, “If you want the Holy Spirit, you have to ask for it.” That is what I am saying, Brethren.
If you cannot get ahold of yourself when you are having problem, Sisters, Brothers, old, young, or whoever you are, then ask the Lord. Tell Him you want more of Him. Live in the Spirit and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh. How are you going to live in the Spirit until you have the Spirit? You must have the Spirit. Call on the Lord for the Holy Spirit. Let the Holy Spirit come down and anoint you, get down into your soul.
When it gets down into your soul, it brings the New Birth and Holy Spirit. It will strengthen you; It will change your desires and change your mind. Then as you continue to serve the Lord, you get more and more and more of His Holy Spirit. The more Holy Spirit you get, the more you understand how to serve the Lord, how to please Him. Everyday you get stronger. The more you hear the Word of God, the more revelation you get, the more Spirit that you have in you. Oh yes!
John 6:63 <…the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life.>
Then the more Word you hear, and the more you understand, it’s the more revelation that you have, and the more Spirit you will have in you. He spoke the Word of God; and by the time it hit somebody’s ear, and they believe that and accept that, it turns into Spirit and it gets down inside of you. How marvelous is that?
Each one of us is not going to get that by just saying, “I’m coming to church,” and sit down. No, Friend, you have to meditate when you come; you have to knock, you have to ask, you have to seek. See what I mean? That is what the Lord commands you to do. If you want to be born again, if you want the Holy Spirit in you, you want divine revelation, you want the Token, you want the Holy Spirit in any form, you have to beg Him for it. Do not forget the greatness of the Holy Spirit; that’s God Himself. It is a wonderful article to have. In all the stories that the Lord gave there, He was emphasizing to ask for the Holy Spirit.
Beloved, if you are
going to get this Outpouring up here in
Come in there, Brothers and Sisters, and keep on thanking the Lord for this Outpouring that is coming. It is the answer to all things. You have to centralize your mind and soul upon one thing, and that is eternal life. As you center your mind on Eternal Life and the Outpouring of the Holy Spirit, no matter what trial comes, no matter what trial goes, if husband wants to go, wife wants to go, children want to go, or whoever wants to go, that is up to them, you are after life. You are after the Token.
Now if you have some kind of hookups in your life where you are caught between a wife and the Word of God, or husband and the Word of God, children and the Word of God; or some article of the world stands between you and God, Friend, you are going to have problems. You have to remove that obstacle. You cannot live between the Lord and something in the world. You have to make up your mind which way you want to go. If your husband is a problem, “Cut the arm off.” If children are a problem or friend is a problem, “Take the leg off.” That is what Jesus said. If something else is a problem, He said, “Take the eye off.”
Mark 9:45 <…it is better for thee to enter halt into life, than having two feet to be cast into hell.>
That simply means
that you will enter the
Anything that troubles your faith, that is where you stop growing. If you are halted between opinions, halted between some trial and you do not know if you are going this way or you are going that way, listen to me. You made a decision to walk the straight and the narrow way, many years ago. It should not be a matter of decision now, it should be, “I am going this way, regardless of who wants to go.” As I oftentimes say, “There is not a human being to stop me from my purpose of gaining eternal life, nobody big enough, or nobody great enough. No sir! Even my life is not good enough.” Jesus said,
Luke 14:33 <So likewise, whosoever he be of you that forsaketh not all that he hath, he cannot be my disciple.>
Luke 9:24 <For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: but whosoever will lose his life for my sake, the same shall save it.>
I read that many years ago while I was just a little fellow, and I realized that the Lord meant business. I said, “Yes, Lord; I will lose my life for Your sake, and I know that I will find it. I would not save my life.”
Some of us save our lives too much. We are alive to self and this world; alive to husband, alive to wife, alive to children. We are alive to a lot of things in this world. You are saving your life and you are going to lose it.
Hebrews 6:9 <¶ But, beloved, we are persuaded better things of you…>
If you did not mean business with the Lord, you would not be here tonight. You would not tarry for all those years waiting on the Lord.
The Lord told them to “Ask, seek, and knock.” It has to do with the Holy Spirit; that is the main thing. If you ask Him for the born again experience, He will give it to you. If you ask Him for the Holy Spirit, He is going to give it to you. If you ask Him for the Outpouring of the Holy Ghost, then my Brother, turn and say, “Thank you Lord,” and keep on thanking the Lord until it comes. That’s the thing.
This same thing that the Lord told them here, we saw in action. After His resurrection, He said,
Luke 24:49 <… tarry ye in the city of
“Ask, seek, and knock” went into action immediately. They went up there; they asked, they sought, they knocked, they praised, they worshipped and they sang. One day passed, nothing happened. A second day passed, nothing happened. A third day passed, fourth day passed. It did not seem like anything was going to happen. Like the prophet said, “One fellow might have arisen: ‘Don’t you think we already received it by faith?’ Peter said, ‘No, sit down!’”
Do you remember that happened in
They were in the Upper Room for something real, reality. They went up there and applied this asking, seeking, and knocking. They were not just going to sit down as wallflowers. I am applying that to whosoever hears the Promise of God. When you hear the Promise of God, you just cannot have in your mental conception, “Yes, there is an Outpouring coming one of these days.” No. You have to go into action. That is what I am trying to bring to you. You have to go into action in different areas.
They went up there five days, six days, seven days, eight days, nine days. My Lord! We are waiting up here for a long time. Yes, more than nine days, but it is going to come. It will come because the Lord made that Promise; it is not man. They went up and heard a sound from heaven. My, I tell you, it shook the whole building; caught everybody by surprise. It is a deafening sound, the sound from heaven as a mighty rushing wind! The room probably was closed when they heard this wind just swirling around faster, and faster, and faster; and fear struck the congregation! They feared the very thing they were asking for. I assure you, you will be scared to death. But, as scary as it is, I still want it. If I die, I die! Yes, we want it. So they went up there asking, seeking, knocking, until the Holy Spirit came in Its fullness.
Beloved,
that same thing will repeat. We believe with all of our hearts that this
revival and Outpouring will take place in
These messages are coming supernaturally to
you. I know it will benefit others in different places, who have now
heard of this vision and Promise. They do not know from whence It
is coming. They do not know how It is coming. They do not
know how to prepare. They do not know what kind of condition their
hearts should be in to receive this Holy Spirit. Now all these are
lessons here. The Lord led this way that while I speak to you, others
could benefit. The Lord has not commissioned me and has not given
me the green light to go to these places that are asking for us. “If you
cannot come, send Pastor McGahee; send Pastor Renner. If you cannot come,
Brother Bruce, send some of these fellows from down in the
Luke 24:49 <…but tarry ye in the city of
Acts1:8 <But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto me…>
We are waiting on Something. Oh, my Lord! Send Your Power soon, Lord!
So the true meaning of all that the Lord said in that parable (Luke 11:5-13) has to do with the Outpouring of the Holy Spirit. That is why He applied these words: “Ask, seek, and knock.” What He was telling them is to “Ask, seek, and knock for the Holy Spirit Outpouring.” That is the prayer He taught them over there.
<Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth…> Matthew 6:10. Now this is directly connected with the Outpouring of the Holy Spirit.
Many people wait for the rapture; they wait to see the third pull ministry; they wait for signs; they wait for wonders; but I want to emphasize that everything that is to happen to the Bride of Jesus Christ is locked up in the Outpouring of the Holy Spirit. Friend, if the Outpouring does not come, you cannot have a revival for the Bride; you cannot have the Spoken Word Ministry of “Speak the Word” Power; you cannot have the dead rising from the grave. Then you cannot have this body translated to go in the rapture. Do you see how important it is? It takes Power to do it.
What is the matter with people? How do they expect to go in the rapture? In the Church Ages pages 376 to 380, Brother Branham said that there must of necessity be a return of dynamic Power, like the Day of Pentecost, to keep this thing moving.
The followers of Malachi 4 are dead around the world. We need Power. How are we going to do these things? We need Power. Everything is locked up in the Token.
If you see the emphasis Jesus placed here on the Holy Spirit. He said, “Ask, seek, and knock for it.” He gave a parable of the importunity of a certain man. Read the parable and you are going to see that friend could not get those loaves from that man that was sleeping on the basis of friendship. Jesus said, “Though this man be his friend, he would not rise up and give him the bread, but he will give him the bread because of his importunity.” That is the friend’s desperation, and persistence. So friendship was not going to get this man the bread. No. The friend stood up there and would not give up. The other time, the man dozed away. He said, “Man, I want the bread.” He said to himself, “Listen to me, let me pull off my covers, go down, give him the bread, and get rid of this rascal bothering me at one, two o’clock in the morning!” You see? It is the persistence.
So Jesus is trying to bring that out; not because “I am the friend of Jesus, and Jesus is a friend of mine,” that you could just sit down and wait for the Token, and you are going to get it. It is a matter of importunity. It is a matter of desperation. It is a matter of troubling the Lord.
Now the Lord wants you to trouble Him. If you are sick, the Lord wants you to trouble Him. Tell Him that morning, noon and night, “Lord, I got prayed for and I am waiting on the healing. Lord, I want you to heal me.”
Now a good example of great importunity is the woman with the daughter that was possessed of a devil. The Syrophenician woman, a Greek, was not even in line up for the blessing. Boy, I tell you, that was persistence! She just came out there, <Lord, my daughter is grievously vexed with a devil. Would you please heal her?> The Lord told her, <It’s not meet that I take the children’s bread and cast it to you Gentile dogs, a Greek dog like you.>
My, what will a person do today? Brother, do you see where your attitude is important? The Lord tests us upon our attitude every moment of the day. Look how humble that woman addressed him again, <But Lord…> Oh my, my, my! She was so desperate; she was not hearing those insults. Beloved, she was tired of seeing that daughter foaming by her mouth, busting her face, jumping in the fire, kicking the wall. She did not care what she had to do in order to bring deliverance to that child; and she took the insults. She said, <True, Lord. What you are saying is true.>
See Brethren, when the Word comes against you and cuts you, you have to maintain that same attitude. “True, Lord; that is the truth. Your Bible said not to do that. Deliver me from this sin. Deliver me from this weakness.” Do not fight up. She said,
Mark 7:28 <…Yes, Lord: yet the dogs under the table eat of the children's crumbs.>
Jesus turned right around. That was importunity. That was persistence. Beloved, she was not entitled to anything. Think of that, a person that was not entitled to anything; and not only that, but driven away. “Go away, you dog.” “True, Lord, true. What you are speaking is the truth, yet the puppies eat from the crumbs that fall from the children’s bread. I’m going to eat the crumbs and I’ll be satisfied.” It attracted the Lord; it touched the Lord. Her faith touched the Lord; her soul touched the Lord in that condition. The Lord said, “Because of this saying…” (See that? Your attitude!) “Because of this saying, go, and your daughter is healed.” The Spoken Word went forth. The Bible said she went to the house and found the child healed, lying on a bed.
My God, imagine the torment that child was in, butting her head, screaming day and night. She went to see the child calm as ever, lying on the bed. I am sure that woman had the attitude to be saved when the grace of God came to the Gentiles. I am sure she would have remembered the Lord and what He did, embraced the grace of God and became a sister in the Christian Church, because she had the right attitude.
You might be thinking today, “Oh the Covenant is not in effect, and the great Outpouring of the Holy Spirit hasn’t come yet; I think I have to suffer under this sickness.” Not so, my Brother! She (out of the covenant) received her healing! She was not even in the covenant; she was a Gentile dog. Because of that faith, attitude, and respect, that child was healed! Yes, sir. It is true when the Outpouring comes, we are going to have miracles, signs and wonders, and everything, but we could eat the children’s bread right today. All those who were prayed for, you could eat the children’s bread.
You know what “the children’s bread” is? The healing is the children’s bread. He said, “It is not meet for me to take the children’s bread and cast it to the dogs. This is only enough for the children out here.”
Oh sometime, read the stories and check it in a different gospel. They have little variations that bring out certain words that bless your heart, and chain all of these things together. Let us master the Bible, Children. Young men, let us master the EODH books. Let us master the message of the hour. You will be called upon to give that out one of these days.
Now what the Lord was saying there about such importunity, He was trying to stir up the people’s hearts that they should be anxious for the Holy Spirit. I love that word “anxious.” Martha was anxious one time about cooking and washing and so on. He said,
Luke 10:42 <Martha, Martha, thou art careful and troubled about many things:
But one thing is needful: and Mary hath chosen that good part…>
In other words, Mary is anxious about the right thing. She was anxious about hearing the Word, being prepared for the great Outpouring of the Holy Spirit.
Friends, what I am trying to get over into this message, is that we should not go to sleep and just become relaxed in our minds, in our lives, and in our services about the Promise that God made us. We have to keep reminding Him. We have to become anxious for it. We must become more anxious for that Promise of God, more than anything else in the world. We must be able to teach our children to be anxious for that Promise because everything is locked up in that Promise. You must be anxious for it. You just cannot say that the Token is coming, and just be casual going along, “Yes, the Token is coming one of these days.” No, my Friends. Jesus is not saying that. Jesus is saying to knock, and ask, and to seek for it.
From the time you hear that Promise of God, your whole mind and soul should be set upon that Promise, and you should not forget it. You should not come to that place where you lose your vision, where you lose your anxiety, where you lose the desire to see that Promise come on the scene. Anytime the church reaches in that condition, they are slipping into the Laodicean lukewarm spirit. We do not want to be lukewarm about this Promise. No. You have to be on fire. You have to be looking for it every day. You have to be anxious about it. “Lord, I want to see that come to pass. Lord, I even find it is taking long. Oh Lord, hasten that day; hasten that hour. Every time I come to service, Lord, I am expecting it. I want You to send that Promise. Lord, when I see the sicknesses, when I see the distresses, when I hear the things that are happening upon the earth, Lord, bring Your Promise. I want the Promise. Lord, send the Promise.”
Every heart should be set in that order. That is what Jesus is bringing out here. You cannot pray down the Promise, but you have to be anxious for it. As you get anxious for the Promise, then your heart and your soul is on fire. You are red hot, contrary to the Laodicean spirit. You are fire-bright for the Promise of God. When you are fire-bright for that Promise of God, then obstacles that come your way are secondary. Some of them will pain you, but you walk over these things with ease. Why? “I want the Promise of God.”
This asking, seeking, and knocking had to do with the Outpouring of the Holy Spirit. After you catch this vision, Friends, and you realize the value of this Promise, then if you are really asking, seeking, and knocking, then you will try to set your life in order. Those who have heard that Promise for the first time overseas, I am instructing you just as we have instructed these people for many years: when you hear that Promise of God, you have to set your life in order.
These families that are assembled here have moved from
other states in
How can you say that you are seeking the Lord and move away from the Word of God? How could you go and reside in another country for one year and then come back? How could you serve God being in a foreign country? You cannot! No, you have to be around the Word of God; you have to be prepared. These people are here; they have moved from all parts of the country because of a certain common goal: to receive the Token; and the Token they will receive.
So you set your life in order. When you set your life in order as the head of the home, then set your home in order. If you do not set your life in order, and have a television covered with a blanket that you get up and watch in the middle of the night, then you are a dead hypocrite. Your life is not set in order. If your life is not set in order, your family’s lives would not be set in order—your house cannot be set in order.
There are hypocrites like that, Friends. They will command their children what to do, but then they watch sports on a television. If you have a father or a mother who claims to follow this message but is stealing a chance to watch sports on the television, you have a hypocrite father or a hypocrite mother. Do not follow their footsteps, because you are going to end up in hell with them. That is the truth of it! How could a man set his life in order, his house in order, and be doing such nasty things, taking chances out there: going to the Oval (stadium), going to the sports field out here, looking at television, running off with a woman, lusting after a next woman, and claiming that he is coming after the Token. His heart is not right!
So first, you set your life in order; then set your
home in order; and if you are a minister, start setting the church in
order! That is what set this church in order. It’s the Promise of
God. That is what set
Set the church in order! Down in
That is the order that the man of God set here. He was not a chicken-feed preacher, Friend. He came up there, looked you straight in the eye, called your name out and exposed your sin. Whoever wants to leave, leave! He said, “I’d rather preach to five and get this Outpouring, than have a hundred hypocrites under my ministry!” I believe the same thing.
He has produced brave brethren. He has produced ministers in the same fashion. He has produced people with the same kind of desire, same kind of boldness, even because it is the Word, you see. This Promise of God changed many things.
Ministers over there, get the women to dress right! You cannot get the Token to them until they dress right and live right. You cut every long-tongued woman’s mouth with the Word of God! Silence these gossipers in the house of God! Silence the preacher’s wife who thinks she is superior over all the congregation and could pass on instructions when her husband is not there. Silence that woman! Yes, we are preparing for the Token. Don’t just say, “I believe this Outpouring, and I believe EODH;” you have to set the church in order!
Get the tight dresses off the women. Those
pictures that you sent to me from
Holiness standards are recorded in EODH Book 6. I tell you, it made havoc throughout the world. When they see that believers should not watch television, have high heel shoes, or cut your hair, some of them screamed, “You mean to say that the prophet said all of that, and we were doing that? We repent!” (My God, the Lord could do some things.)
Those who applied “ask, seek, and knock” went up to
the Upper Room. They applied exactly what Jesus said. Down in the
house of Cornelius, he applied it. He got it. Then down at
IF CORNELIUS & GENTILES RECEIVED TOKEN, WE CAN GET IT
Look, at that great man called Cornelius. His heart’s condition was right; he was a righteous man, though he was a Gentile. The Lord gave him a vision to send down to get Peter; and Peter came there, and those people’s hearts were just set right. They were anxious to receive something. They saw this miracle man arrive that Cornelius told them about. Imagine, when Peter came into that yard, how many people were looking at him as “an angel who came from heaven.” They were Romans already, and it was not too hard for them to make a man a god. As he was walking, everybody’s anxiety just started to build up.
Then he started to speak the words of Life about Jesus
Christ. He would have started at John the Baptist and said, “There was a
man sent from God whose name was John; and after him followed the
Messiah. He went to
They believed and they were anxious about the Promise of God. While Peter yet spake the words, the Holy Ghost fell upon them! It happened just as it happened in the beginning. So there was another sound from heaven, and the Pillar of Fire appeared, divided, and went over upon the people. Those raw heathens, who heard the Gospel for the first time, so yielded, agonized, asked, knocked in their spirit, and so sought the Spirit, until they receive it immediately, even before the water baptism! Isn’t that a miracle? They had only three to four days to prepare their hearts.
I say if they could receive it, my Brother, we could get it too! We have been waiting for it for a long time, and if they could get the great Outpouring of the Holy Spirit (without water baptism), we could get it too. They had faults; they had failures, my Brother. The Lord forgave them for all of that, right away, and they received the Holy Spirit. I believe that could happen again.
Yes, but this asking and seeking and knocking has to do with the great Outpouring of the Holy Spirit. I will just refer you to these Scriptures.
Everybody that did not obey the Lord to ask, seek, and knock, failed to receive the Holy Spirit. Judas was one of them who did not take heed to the Lord’s Prayer, and though he had the great opportunity to receive the Outpouring of the Holy Spirit, he missed it.
Now, we heard of a man in one of the parables who came in without a wedding garment. That wedding garment represents the great Outpouring of the Holy Spirit upon a man. He thought that he could have come in by his interpretation. The Lord asked him,
Matthew 22:12-13 <…Friend, how camest thou in hither not having a wedding garment? And he was speechless.
Then said the king to the servants, Bind him hand and foot, and take him away, and cast him into outer darkness; there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.>
That man did not want to pay the price. He did not want a pastor; he did not want to sit down under the Word; he did not want to follow the plans that the Lord laid down through His prophet, through EODH, and what we are bringing out here. He thought, he was good enough to make the rapture. The Lord caught him: “I’m going to put you through the tribulation now, just like Judas.” He came right up to the Token and did not apply what I am saying here to “ask, seek, and knock, and make it the center of his thoughts and actions.”
Listen to me there
in
Now you who are not anxious for it, you had better start asking the Lord to show you the value of this Promise, so that the Lord could put that anxiety inside of you. Come into the house of God, meditate, pray, seek the Lord (just as I told you); and don’t forget: ask Him. Ask Him until His ear is sore, (if His ears do get sore). He says,
Isaiah 59:1 <¶ Behold, the LORD'S hand is not shortened, that it cannot save; neither his ear heavy, that it cannot hear:>
It does not matter how much you ask Him. Those of you who had been prayed for, keep on bothering the Lord. He wants you to bother Him. He wants you to tell Him everyday, “Lord, but I’m waiting for the healing. Oh Lord, I’m feeling a little more sick, I’m waiting!” Behave like that Syrophenician woman. Be humble about it, and tell the Lord, “Lord, we have been waiting on this Promise a long time, I am getting tired!” Yes, Brother McGahee, just tell the Lord, “I’m getting a little tired Lord; my throat, it’s even wearing out, Lord.” Yes, we want the Token! Congregation, you bother the Lord.
We are waiting on you. The world is waiting
upon this revival in New England, Friends. The world is waiting upon
this Outpouring that is to take place here in the East. Let us get
busy! Let us get anxious for the Promise of God. Amen.