DEWITT TABERNACLE TEACHING SERIES

 

HEALING FROM WITHIN

 

By C.W. Wood   April 2004

 

 

          In the message “The Greatest Battle Ever Fought” Brother Branham said, “The mind is the gateway to the Spirit.” Those who have faithfully studied his messages know that Brother Branham started out believing that the innermost man is the Spirit. Later, the Lord showed him that the innermost man is the Soul. If you recall, he drew a circle and put the Soul in the center of the circle.

          So we have the Outer Man (the flesh man, which includes the Mind), then the Spirit, then the Soul. We also know that the New Birth is the changing out of the Old Soul that we were born with, and having it replaced with God’s own Soul. I won’t go into detail about the teaching of the New Soul, because that is not the subject of our sermon. I will just give one statement of the Prophet then you can study the rest for yourself, in our sermon “The Death of the Soul” in Volume One of our Teaching Series.

          QUOTE: FAITH IN ACTION, CHICAGO , “If an Eagle can have confidence in the wings God gave him, how much more ought you to have confidence in the Holy Ghost that saved your Soul AND BAPTIZED YOU WITH HIS SOUL.” (End quote)

          I want to establish the fact that our innermost being is the Soul, and that when the Old Soul has been slain and replaced with a portion of God’s own Soul, then we have God, Himself living on the inside of us. This is what the New Birth is! We are made a New Creature. God has taken up His abode in us, and is running the ship, so to speak, from the engine room, or from our innermost being, the Soul.

          Our subject is “Healing from the Inside Out.” That is to say our healing comes from our innermost being, which is the New Soul, which Soul is God! God in us produces Divine Healing; it starts from the Soul and works its way out into the outer flesh-man. That is why the Scripture says in III John Verse 2, “Beloved I wish above all things that thou mayest prosper and be in health, EVEN AS THY SOUL PROSPERETH.” The Soul must prosper first, then Divine Healing comes forth from the Prospered Soul.

          You may well ask, “If the New Soul is a portion of God’s own Soul, then what need does it have to prosper.” I want to give some statements Brother Branham made that will explain this. If the Bible says the Soul has a need to prosper, then we must believe what the Word says. The revelation has to do with what the word “PROSPER” means. In the teaching Brother Branham gives on the subject, we will see that the Soul in us truly does run the ship (from down in the Engine Room), but God in the Soul waits for orders from above, from the one who is steering the ship (THE MIND). If we can catch the revelation in the Prophet’s parable I will give below, we will see that the man “SITTING UP HERE” that he made reference to, is “THE MIND.” The man in the Pilot’s House is the MIND, and the Man in the Engine Room is the SOUL, who is God in our New Soul. It is truly the Man in the Engine Room that runs the Ship (God in the Soul), but He takes orders from the man in the Pilots House. (The Mind)

          The Scripture says in Pro. 23:7, “As a man THINKETH in his heart so is he.” The MIND must make the decisions about what we believe! When the mind has decided to believe the Word of God, it must send the message (The Word) on down the channel into the Spirit (Some call the Spirit the subconscious mind). Until the Spirit has also been washed by the water of the WORD, there will be doubts there, and these doubts are passed on down into the Soul. (The Prophet said there is one of two things in the Soul, doubt or Faith.)

          The great revelation then is that we can wash out all doubts and fear from the Spirit and the Soul by THINKING WORD AND QUOTING WORD. Once the MIND has accepted the WORD as FACT, this information must be passed on down into the SPIRIT by this procedure, thinking and quoting Word. “As a man THINKETH IN HIS HEART SO IS HE.” All Born-Again people know that all Word of God is true. That is to say we know it in our INTELLECT. IN Mark 9:24 , when Jesus told the man that, “All things are possible to him that believeth,” he cried out, “Lord, I believe (with my intellect) help Thou my unbelief.”

          The WORD meditated on and spoken and testified about, will always, when continued in, wash all doubts, fears, and unbelief out of the Spirit and Soul. This is the meaning of the Scripture in III John Verse 2, “Beloved, I wish above all things that thou mayest prosper and be in health, EVEN AS THY SOUL PROSPERS.” Only one thing prospers the Soul, and that is God’s Word! The Word enters the Spirit and Soul through the gateway of the MIND. (See “The Greatest Battle Ever Fought”, page 20.) From the MIND it passes on down into the Spirit and Soul.

          For years the Church has underestimated the POWER IN THE WORD, perhaps because we don’t understand HOW it works to drive out fear and doubts. We don’t have to understand it, just know that it does, and begin to use it. Now we will give the Parables in which the Prophet taught the truth stated above.

          QUOTE: INNER MAN, CHICAGO 53 1212, “There is a Conscious and a Subconscious. If we start overseas by ship, and there’s a man SITTING UP HERE (in the Wheel House), he is the one who gives the orders. The man who goes down in the ship (the Engineer in the Engine Room) down here, well, He doesn’t see where He is going, but He just takes orders from above (Saying the Soul takes orders from above). Well now, he says ‘Steer to the left or to the right, or give the engine more and that (more power or less power) or whatever it is.’ HE JUST WORKS BY ORDERS.” (End quote)

          Please notice carefully what he said here! The man in the Engine room, the Man in the Soul, God, JUST WORKS BY ORDERS. He only works as we BELIEVE. Do you remember the teaching on how to believe? We believe by simply making a DECISION to believe, and God honors our decision, even while doubts are being fired into our minds by the enemy. (Read Matt. 4:1-7 where the enemy fired doubts into the mind of the Lord Jesus, but that did not stop Him from believing. He just answered the doubts with Word. We must do the same thing and understand that God is still counting us as Believers!

          CONT. QUOTE: INNER MAN, “But way down in the midst of us, here in the heart, is the subconscious, and it takes orders from up here (from the conscious mind).” (End quote)

          Then, as we have said above, the subconscious mind (the Spirit), when it has become convinced of the promises by the Word being continually passed down into it, it will send this message on down into the Soul, and the Soul is PROSPERED, and its power (God’s Power) is released into the whole man.

          QUOTE: EXPLAINING HEALING AND JAIRUS, WOOD RIVE, IL 54-0216, “For instance, like a man goes overseas. I’ll stop here just a minute (to explain). We’re going overseas and we get in the ship. Now the man that really runs the ship goes down into the bowels of the ship, the Engineer. BUT HE TAKES ORDERS FROM THIS MAN UPSTAIRS (the Conscious Mind). Well, what if he gives orders, ‘Two knots to the left.’ And the man down in here turns two knots to the right. (What if he said,) ‘Straight ahead.’ And the man down here in the ship runs backwards? But you see, they’ve got to be in harmony. You’ve got to be, or the ship will never move…….But you’ve got to be in perfect harmony with the will of God, the WORD of God. Your first conscious (your mind) with the Spirit of God, all that move together, and everything just clears the way, and you move out (The ship moves out.) You’ve got to do that.” (End quote)

          QUOTE: EXPLAINING HEALING AND JAIRUS, WOOD RIVER , IL 54-0216, “Now you say, ‘I’ve got Faith. The first thing, you have to have a base for Faith. That’s God’s Word. Well then, the man goes to school and he learns Theology. He reads it, says, ‘God said so.’ (He says,) ‘Yes I believe that.’ He believes it here in his mind. But he’s got a subconscious also. And that subconscious disagrees with this (the conscious mind) because when he starts to do it (trust God) he’s a little bit scared it won’t happen, and it won’t. That’s right.” (End quote) The Word has to correct the subconscious mind or spirit!

          QUOTE: EXPECTATIONS AND WHAT LOVE IS, PHOENIX 54-0228A, “Like the man crossing the sea. The man goes across the sea. The real man that drives the ship, he never sees where he is going. He’s down in the bowels of the ship. He’s the Engineer (making reference to our Soul, which is our innermost being). The man sitting up here on deck gives him orders from the man up in the crows nest.

          He will send down word, “Two knots to the left.” Now the man down here (in the Engine Room), He don’t see where he’s going, it’s just the Engine…….That’s the way at the Church, you’re going this way and that way. Yet now when the man up in the crows nest says, ‘Straight ahead,’ (and) the man here in the bottom (in the Engine Room) says, ‘Straight Ahead,’ she’s going to move.” (End quote)

          I pray we can see what he is trying to tell us. When the conscious mind and the subconscious mind, and the Soul are all saying the same thing, or when they have been rid of all doubts by being fed the pure Word of God, then God is going to move to send us our answer.

          CONT. QUOTE: EXPECTATIONS AND WHAT LOVE IS, “When God says, ‘By His stripes you were healed.’ (And) The man receives in his heart, says, ‘By His stripes we are healed.’ The subconscious acts back (and says), ‘by His stripes we were healed.’ (Then) Look out. Something’s going to take place. You’re going forward. Nothing can stop it then. You’re in full harmony. And not a wave, I don’t care what kind of waves would come; it’d never be contrary to your faith. (It would never move you from your faith.) You’d just move right on through. That’s right.” (End quote)

          Now, to take an overall view of what Brother Branham is teaching in his parables about a ship and how it is run, we will make the following statements. The conscious mind of a man is what gives the orders for the control of the man. What the conscious mind receives, and believes, is passed down into the subconscious mind, or spirit. From the Spirit, then the Soul receives either Faith or doubt. Pr. 23:7, “As a man thinketh in his heart (Mind) so is he.”

          How drastically important then are the thoughts that we entertain in our mind. What we think will eventually find its way out of the mouth in the form of words, and the Scripture says, “Death and life are in the power of the tongue; and they that love it shall eat the fruit thereof.” (Pro. 18:21)

          If the Mind is the Gateway to the Spirit and the Soul, and if we end up speaking the thoughts that we allow to remain in our mind, then can’t we see what the Scripture means that says, “As a man THINKETH in his heart (Mind) so is he?” We can never rise any higher than the thoughts we entertain, and the words we speak. Therefore, we are to, “Attend to God’s Words, and incline our ears unto His sayings, we are not to let them depart from before our eyes, and we must keep them in the midst of our heart, for they are LIFE to those that find them, and HEALTH to all their flesh.” (Pro. 4:20-22)

          When we learn to control our thoughts, we will also be controlling our words. To control our words and only speak in line with what God’s Word says, then we are passing the right messages down the channel into the Spirit and on into the Soul. God, who is the Holy Ghost, who is in our Soul in the form of the New Birth, waits for the right kind of orders to come down the channel to Him before He can move to help us. In more simple words, He must wait until we are BELIEVING in both Mind and Spirit. Then help comes from the Soul outward.

          Our Prophet taught us that it is our responsibility to win the BATTLE OF THE MIND. There is only one way to win this battle, and that is by carefully attending to the thoughts we allow to remain in our minds. All negative thoughts must be cast out, so that they do not pass down into the Engine Room. (II Cor. 10:5)

          QUOTE: THE GREATEST BATTLE, PAGE 20, “Your mind either accepts it or rejects it (the truth of the Word). That’s it friends. God, let none of them miss it. See? It’s your MIND that opens up the door, or closes the door, and listens to your conscience (sub conscience mind that doubts), and listens to your memory, listens to your affections (emotions and circumstances). But, when your mind closes itself to these things, and let God, the Spirit of His Word, come in, it blows the rest of the stuff out. Every doubt is gone, every fear is gone, every (wrong) feeling is gone. There’s nothing standing there but the Word of God, and Satan cannot battle against that! No Sir! He cannot battle against it. Now we know that’s truth.” (End quote)

          A good way to think of the functions of the conscious mind, the subconscious mind, and the Soul is to think of them as a garden. We are the gardener, and we are planting seeds of thoughts into our subconscious mind all day long, by the thoughts we entertain in the conscious mind. We may not even be aware of the fact that this is what we are doing, but the seeds we plant are based on our habitual thinking. Think of our subconscious mind as a plot of rich soil that will help all kinds of seeds to sprout and flourish. If we plant thorns, can we expect to gather grapes? If we sow thistles, will we harvest figs? Every thought entertained is a seed, either good or bad. That is why it is a matter of life or death that we take charge of our thoughts!

          Start now to sow seeds of peace, happiness, goodwill, and health. Think with conviction on these things, forming in your mind a picture of yourself in perfect health, with peace of mind, loving your enemies as yourself, and prospering in every way, and your Soul will prosper by your right thinking. Accept these things fully in your conscious mind. Continue to plant these good seeds and you will reap a bountiful harvest of the same kind of crop.

          When our mind thinks correctly, according to God’s Word, when you understand the truth of His Word concerning what He wants for you, then these seeds planted in the subconscious mind, or Spirit, will pass on into the Soul where God lives, and untie His hands so He can start to work. Most of us, with out realizing it, have habitually planted wrong seeds, and also without realizing why, we have reaped the wrong kind of harvest. But thanks be to God, we can change the kind of seeds we have been planting and change the harvest we have been reaping.

          Never finish a negative statement, but change it immediately, or else you have planted a thorn tree in your garden. Be sure we think like this, “Whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of a good report, if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, THINK ON THESE THINGS.” (Phil. 4:8)

          We have seen where the Prophet said we are like a Captain navigating a ship. We must give the right orders or the ship is wrecked. We must think the right thoughts and pass them on down into our Spirit and Soul, which governs all our being. “Only Believe” is the Law of God for or lives. Believing is a thought in our mind. Do not believe anything that does not agree with God’s will for us. He may test us and try us, but His final word is “Many are the afflictions of the righteous, BUT THE LORD DELIVERETH HIM FROM THEM ALL.” (Ps. 34:19)

          QUOTE: GREATEST BATTLE PAGE 15-16, “There’s got to be something happen inside ……It can’t be artificial, it’s got to be real. And there is only one avenue that that can come down, and that’s by the way of FREE MORAL AGENCY COME INTO YOUR SOUL BY YOUR THOUGHTS. ‘As a man thinketh in his heart so is he. If YOU say to this mountain, move and don’t doubt in your heart, but believe that what you have said will come to pass; you can have what you said. You get it? There you are, see? There’s the battle ground. If you’d get that started first (correct our thoughts). We’re so anxious to see things done, we’re so anxious to do something for God.” (End quote)

          God has a “Law of Faith.” Jesus spoke it when He said “According to your Faith be it unto you.” (Matt. 9:29) God’s Law, as expressed by the Lord Jesus, insists that we BELIEVE we are going to be helped. At this point, I would like to give you some food for thought. In almost every land there are shrines at which healings take place. I read a story of a young girl who worshipped at the feet of a forty-two foot tall statute of Buddha. She had brought two oranges as an offering to him. She chanted her prayer, asking that her voice be restored, which she had lost. Candles were lit, incense was burned, and her prayers were offered up. It was also said that the girl had fasted in preparation for the visit to the statue of Buddha. The result was a conditioning of her mind to the point of believing. Her voice was restored there at the shrine. Did Buddha heal her, or was it her believing?

          Catholics who worship the Mother Mary, and bow before her statue, have been healed of many kinds of diseases. There are certain pools of water, where people who bath in them are healed. In our own nation, people who have been given sugar-coated pills, by doctors carrying out an experiment, have been healed of diseases.

          In mid-evil days, it is recorded in the history of medical science, that people who became convinced that a mixture of fly dung and ground up antelope horn cured certain diseases, were healed when they took this terrible dose.

          My question is, did Buddha heal the girl? Did Mary heal the people? Did the water in the pools heal the people? Did the sugar-coated pills heal the people, or did the fly dung heal them? Do the dishonest preachers of today, who are only after the money, heal people? Some who attend their meetings are healed! We can’t say that many of these people were not healed, because doctors’ reports have confirmed it. Knowing that the above remedies do not, of themselves, heal people, we come to the conclusion that there is an underlying principle in all these cases. The principle is simply this; they all BELIEVED they were going to be helped.

Text Box: VISIT OUR WEB SITE (COURTESY OF BR. J.T. HISE):  www.dewitttabernacle.org. 
OUR NEW E-MAIL ADDRESS:
DEWITT-TABERNACLE@centurytel.net 

          Therefore it was not the remedy itself that healed, but their FAITH in the remedy. How much more then can we bow before our Lord Jesus Christ, with full confidence in Him, and receive our healing? “He sent His Word and it healed them.” (Ps. 107:20)