DEWITT TABERNACLE TEACHING SERIES

 

“A SUPER SIGN FOR OUR DAY”

 

By C.W. Wood                      February 2011

 

 

            So-called incurable diseases are raging today! Experts are predicting that soon, 3 out of 4 people will have some form of cancer! But, there is good news for those who believe that God sent an End-Time Prophet. We are not to fear cancer, or any other disease. Our Lord sent an angel from Heaven to give Br. William Branham two supernatural gifts of mercy. They would be signs from God, sent to prove that He has never changed His mind about healing His People.

            This sermon is about God’s will to heal “all who will simply believe” that he wants to do it. But we must become convinced that this is His will and plan, to heal all who understand that He wants to heal them. We can believe many wonderful things about our Lord, but still not be healed! We can believe that is a perfect person, perfect in love, power, knowledge, wisdom and patience. We can believe He is a Healer, but yet not be healed! We can believe He healed our neighbor or the one who sits beside us on the church pew, but still not be healed our self.

            What is the problem? Here it is, in all of its ugly un-truth: The Devil has taught us, and often through the pulpit, that we must meet a long list of qualifications before our Lord will grant us our own personal healing! In other words, we have been taught that we must reach a certain place in our spiritual growth before we are in-line to be healed. This is a doctrine of demons, and it keeps multitudes of Christians from being healed. Perhaps you will see it more clearly if I say it still another way.

            We have been taught that we must somehow earn our healing. And, even as the teachers say, “We can not earn it,” they still imply that we must come up to certain standards before God will heal us. Dear Message Believers, and all others who love the Lord Jesus, I want to burst this bubble of doubt and unbelief. God only has one requirement for healing and that is so simple that we have overlooked it for too long. All that He requires of us is that we simply believe that He wants to heal all His sick Children, all the time and everywhere.

            But, what about all the requirements that we read about in the scriptures? Are they to be ignored? Certainly not! After the Lord has healed a person, the healed one will have to give his life over to the Lord and meet the requirements that God puts before him. If he does not do this, then no doubt, he will sooner or later lose his healing.  

            In Luke 17, we have the story of ten lepers that comes to the Lord for healing. They all ten were healed, but only one returned to give thanks and praise to the Lord! Question? Did not the Lord know that only one of them had a thankful Christian heart? Surely He knew it! But yet, all ten had been standing afar off, according to the Scripture, and they had no doubt witnessed many healings! Therefore they had come to believe that those that He prayed for got well!

            Dear Friends, that’s all we have to do today, just go before Him, knowing that all He requires is for us to believe that He wants to heal us! He will heal us and by this token of His love, draw us to Himself, giving us a chance to be saved, or if we are already saved, make a better Christian out of us. At least in some cases, seeing is believing. They may have had friends that they knew were no better off spiritually than they were and they had seen them healed by this man out of whom flowed such great compassion, and at least for the moment, those nine lepers believed He would heal them also. And, He did! Probably without them realizing it, they had met God’s simple requirement. They believed that He would heal them also.

            That is what gets us healed today. Just understand that He wants to heal us in spite of our failures! Then be ready to meet all His requirements.

            Now we need to discuss the Gift of Discernment that God gave to Br. William Branham. It was the ability to read the thoughts of the people and tell them their past, present and future! This was done thousands of times, as we well know, without one failure. The question is, “Why did the Lord give His Prophet that gift or ability? What was it meant to do? As this writer sees it, it was for two main reasons. One reason was to show the Bride which man, out of the multitudes, had the message that we were to follow. The second reason was to once again prove His will to heal all who simply believed that He wanted to do it! Healing is given out in the form of Gifts, “Gifts of Healing” as seen in II Corinthians 12:9. We do not try to earn Gifts! God sets no worldly price on a Gift of Healing. It is free. He freely gives it, to all who will receive it. All who serve Him after they are healed can keep the Gift.  Now we are down to the foundational part of this teaching. God showed the Prophet things about the people that only God could have known. And, it was to let them know that there was someone greater than a man there on the platform. That someone was Jesus Christ, and He was there in the form of the Holy Ghost to prove that it was His will to heal all who would believe that He wanted to do it.

            The discernment was a sign to cause us to accept that great fact! The fact is, He wants to heal all of His Children that need it! We must believe that our loving Father will heal us in spite of our many sins and failures. Yes, we must walk every hour with a repentant heart, receiving His forgiveness and refusing to accept condemnation. And, in this way, we are promised to recover from sickness that is allowed to come our way.

            Ps. 103:1-5 is our Assurance Policy that covers us fully from head to toe!

            Ps. 103:1-5, “Bless the Lord, O my soul and all that is within me, bless his holy name.

            2. Bless the Lord, O may soul, and forget not all his benefits:

            3. Who forgiveth all thine iniquities; who healeth all thy diseases;

            4. Who redeemeth thy life from destruction; who crowneth the with lovingkindness and tender mercies;

            5. Who satisfieth thy mouth with good things; so that thy youth is renewed like the eagle’s.”

            In His sermon, “He Cares, Do You Care,” Br. Branham speaks of the Gift of Discernment and what God used it for. We will read some of his statements.

            QUOTE: HE CARES, DO YOU CARE, PAGE 36, “Could God save you against your will? Certainly not! He can’t heal you against your will; you’ve got to believe it! Now, what would be this (What would this Gift be for)? If He can prove…if God will let me, by a Divine Gift, show you that Jesus Christ is here with us! (Ready and willing to heal anyone that will believe He wants to.)

            QUOTE: HE CARES, DO YOU CARE, PAGE 38, “If He will explain to me why you are here, will you and the audience believe with one heart then?” (End of quote)

            Believe what, Prophet of God? Here is the crux of the whole matter! Will you believe that He is here with us, operating the Gift of Discernment, to show us that anyone who believes He wants them well can be healed!

            QUOTE: HE CARES, DO YOU CARE, PAGE 38, “He is doing this (operating this Gift) because He cares for you.”

            QUOTE: HE CARES, PAGE 40, “You can’t heal them, Lord, you can’t do what you have already done. You have already healed them, and this is the only thing that can be done to make them believe (Br. Branham speaking of the Gift of Discernment, It’s to help them believe God wants to heal all.)” (End of quote)

            In the above quote, the Prophet speaks of the one requirement that God watches for before He can heal us. He worked the Gift of Discernment to show the people that He was there with His Prophet, ready to heal, save, and fill with the Holy Ghost all who would believe that He greatly desired to do it! It’s still His will today. But, it’s not enough to believe in Divine Healing! You must believe that He wants you personally to be healed and that all He is waiting for to start the process is for us to believe He wants to do it! The Gift was proof of His willingness! God will heal a lost person if they will believe He wants to! He will give you a chance to come to Him and serve Him and He will use healing as “bait on the hook” to draw us to Himself. His love for us is too great to be understood, but we can believe it and watch it work in our lives. Healing is for all who will simply believe that God wants you to receive it.

            QUOTE: HEALING THE SICK, BY T.L. OSBORN “Wherever healing is taught as God’s provision for all, faith is always imparted and the people are always healed. This method never fails. Faith cannot fail.

            But faith cannot be exercised when one is undecided as to whether or not God will heal all. If He will not heal all, then we are forced to consider in every case: “I wonder if God wills to heal this one? Or, is this one of the unfortunate ones whom God wills to remain sick and to suffer?” How could we ever pray the prayer of faith with such uncertainty in our minds?

            Let it be a settled fact: It is God’s will to heal you. You have a right to healing as well as forgiveness when you believe.

            God said: “I am the Lord who heals you.” (Ex. 15:26) If God said this, and God cannot lie, He meant it. What God says is true. So, healing is yours.

            Healing is part of the gospel and is to be preached “throughout all the world and to every creature, to the end of the world.” (Mark 16:15; Matt. 28:20).

            Being part of the Gospel, the divine blessing of physical healing is for all.

            Is it still the will of God, as in the past, to heal all who have need of healing?

            The greatest barrier to the faith of many seeking healing in our day is the uncertainty in their minds as to it being the will of God to heal all.

            Nearly everyone knows that God does heal some, but there is much in modern theology that prevents people from knowing what the Bible clearly teaches--that healing is provided for all.

            It is impossible to boldly claim by faith a blessing which we are not sure God offers, because the blessing of God can be claimed only where the will of God is known, trusted, and acted upon.

            There is no better way to know the will of God than by reading the Gospels, which record the teachings and the works of Christ. Jesus was the physical expression of the Father’s will. His life was both a revelation and a manifestation of the unchanging love and will of God. He acted out the will of God for us.”

            (What saith the scriptures?) “When Jesus laid His hands on every one of them and healed them, He was revealing and doing the will of God for all people.

            “Lo, I come, to do your will, O God.” (Hebrews 10:7)

            “I came down from heaven, not to do my own will, but the will of him that sent me.” (John 6:38)

            Everything Jesus did for needy humanity during His earthly ministry was a direct revelation of the perfect will of God for the human race.

            QUOTE: CHRIST THE HEALER BY F.F. BOSWORTH, Perhaps no one could be more conservative than scholars of the Episcopalian Church . Yet, the commission appointed to study the subject of spiritual healing for the body, after three years of study and research in both the Bible and in history, reported back to the church: The healing of Jesus was done as a revelation of God’s will for humanity. Because they discovered that His will is fully revealed, they reported further: No longer can the church pray for the sick with that faith-destroying phrase, “If it be your will.”

            Mr. Bosworth goes on to say: “The message taught in the Gospels is one of complete healing for spirit and body, for all who will come to Him. Many today say, “I believe in healing, but I do not believe it is for everyone.” If it is not for everyone, then how could we ever pray the prayer of faith?

            Among all those who sought healing from Christ during His earthly ministry, there is only one who prayed for healing with the words, “If it be your will.” This was an outcast leper, in Mark 1:40 , who did not know what Christ’s will was in healing.

            The first thing Christ did was to correct this uncertainty by assuring him, I will.

            It is no longer, If it be your willit is God’s will.

            The leper said: If you will, you can. Jesus answered; I will (Mark 1:41 ).

            Let that settle it forever with you: God will heal the sick. If He wills to heal one, then He wills to heal all.

            He is not willing that any should perish. (II Peter 3:9)

            James asks: Is any sick among you? (James 5:14). Any includes you if you are sick.

            Of those who were bitten by the fiery serpents, the Bible says that as many as looked to the brazen serpent lived. (Num. 21:9) Even now, as many as look to Christ as redeemer are saved – are healed.

            When it comes to the benefits of Christ’s redemptive work, all are on an equal basis.

            The words whoever and whoever will are always used to invite the unconverted to be saved.

            The words as many as, everyone, all, and any are used to invite the sick and the diseased to be healed.

            The benefits of redemption are for you. If God healed all then, He still heals all; that is, all that come to Him for healing.

            Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and today, and forever. (Hebrews 13:8)

            Great multitudes followed him, and he healed them all. (Matthew 12:15)

            As many as touched (him) were made perfectly whole. (Matthew 14:36)

            The whole multitude sought to touch Him: (and He) healed them all. (Luke 6:19)

            When the evening came, they brought to him many that were possessed with devils: and he cast out the spirits with His word, and healed all that were sick: that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by Isaiah the prophet, saying, Himself took our infirmities, and bore our sickness. (Matthew 8:16-17)

            Christ is still healing the sick, in order to fulfill the Prophet’s words: Himself took our infirmities (weaknesses), and bore our sicknesses (diseases).

            Always remember we are included in the our of Matthew 8:17, and God is bound by His covenant to continue to heal all who are sick and weak, in order to fulfill Isaiah’s words.

            My covenant will I not break, nor alter the thing that is gone out of my lips. (Psalms 89:34)

            When the sun was setting, all they that had any sick with various diseases brought them to him; and he laid his hands on every one of them, and healed them. (Luke 4:40)

            Healing was for all in those days, and Christ the Healer has never changed.” (End of quote)

            But, even with all this Word, and much more that we have quoted, our merciful Lord, looking down through time, saw that we would still have a problem in believing that He wanted to heal us in spite of all our failures! So, He ordained that His Prophet, William Branham, would be given the great Gift of Discernment. God would work it when Br. Branham was having a healing line. The Lord used it as His proof that He was there to heal all who would understand that He wanted to do it. The requirements in order to keep that healing would come later! But the gracious Lord will give every person the chance to be healed. All we have to do is just come to Him and believe that He wants us well.

            Friends, that is not hard to do, once we have His Word about it in our hearts! The Gift did not heal, but it was done to show His will about it. Somehow a lot of us missed the revelation of what the Gift was for! But, thank God, we are seeing it, and it would be hard to over emphasize the fact that all we have to do today is: Believe that it’s His will and plan to heal everyone that believes the promises about it. Amen!

 

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