De Witt Tabernacle Teaching Series

“The Body Change”

The Final Testing of our Faith

                           By C. W. Wood               September 2001

In these last hours, as the world marches headlong into the terrible Battle of Armageddon, there are a few people scattered around the earth who are watching for another great, supernatural, climatic event. There is to be a resurrection of those people who died filled with the Holy Spirit of Jesus Christ. From the days of Christ 2000 years ago, up to the present time, those who died filled with the Holy Ghost Oil will come forth and be given supernatural bodies.

          I Thes. 4:16, “For the Lord Himself shall descend from Heaven with a Shout, with the Voice of the Arch Angel, and with the Trump of God, and the dead in Christ shall rise first:” (And be given supernatural bodies)

          When these who have been in the grave rise, there will also be those who are alive at that time, and who are filled with the Holy Ghost. They too must receive a body change. I Cor. 15:49, “And as we have borne the image of the earthly, we shall also bear the image of the Heavenly.” I Cor. 15:51, “Behold, I show you a mystery. We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be CHANGED.” Verse 52, “In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last Trump. For the Trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we (Those who were alive and remained) shall be changed.”

          It is the body change of those who are alive and remain at the time of the Resurrection, that we wish to make the topic of this sermon. We wish to show, by the help of the Lord, and by His Prophet’s Message, that there will be a GREAT AND FINAL TESTING OF THAT FAITH WHICH THE SCRIPTURE SAYS THE JUST MUST LIVE BY. The test is that they will have to exercise the faith to see God change every mortal cell in their bodies from mortal to immortal. Not just faith to change a few diseased cells in some part of the body, as in the case of a sickness, but they must have faith for a complete changing of every cell.

          God has set forth a LAW OF FAITH in His Word and no man who receives anything from the Lord can bypass it.

          James 1:6-7, “But let him ask in faith nothing wavering, for he that waverth is like a wave of the sea, driven with the wind and tossed. For let not that man think that he shall receive anything of the Lord.”

          Heb. 11:6, “Without faith it is impossible to please God.”

          Rom. 1:7, “The Just shall live by faith.”

          Gal. 3:11, “…….for the Just shall live by faith.”

          Heb. 10: 38, “Now the Just shall live by faith, but if any man draw back, My Soul shall have no pleasure in him.”

          Jude: 3, “…..We should earnestly contend for the faith that was once delivered to the saints.”

          I John 5:4, “For whatsoever is born of God overcometh the world. And this is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith.”

          Many more scriptures could be given to prove that the Lord expects His own to live by faith IN HIM. When He comes, He will find faith in many things, but very little in He, Himself. He will find faith in all kinds of worldly programs, with men trusting other men for their welfare, but remove all their worldly crutches and the faith that was said to have been in God disappears with the crutches. Therefore, the admonishment given by Paul in II Cor. 13:5, should be before our eyes every waking hour, for the Rapture of the Bride is upon us. “EXAMINE YOURSELVES, WHETHER YE BE IN THE FAITH, PROVE YOUR OWN SELVES……”

          Our Prophet, William Branham, taught that we must have Perfect Faith in order to receive a Body Change and be raptured. Some in the Message are not aware of this.

          QUOTE: PERFECT FAITH PAGE 28, “The Word made flesh. The Word operating in human flesh, by physical signs, by material signs, by scriptural signs, perfectly, TO BRING YOU TO A PERFECT FAITH, FOR A PERFECT RAPTURE.” (End quote)

          QUOTE: PERFECT FAITH PAGE 24, “Love and faith has to go together, they are kinfolks……Love produces faith. WHEN SATAN TEMPTS US, WE ARE TO RESIST HIM WITH A PERFECT FAITH IN A PERFECT WORD; like Jesus did…..We’re to have PERFECT FAITH in this PERFECT WORD.”

          QUOTE: PERFECT FAITH PAGE 20, “When a man lives by faith, and walks by faith, I mean substance faith, he is isolated from the entire world and becomes a new Creature in Christ. THERE NOW, YOU’RE GETTING INTO BRIDE MATERIAL. YOU’RE GETTING INTO RAPTURING MATERIAL. Not just the pastor now, not just the deacons, trustees, that means laity, EVERY INDIVIDUAL walks in a world with God alone.” (End quote)

          Notice that the Prophet said it will be, “An individual matter between us and the Lord!” We can pray for each other now, and the Lord honors our prayer, but do we realize that the time is soon coming when God is going to look into every INDIVIDUAL heart for that Perfect Faith. In the hour when our bodies are to be changed, every individual will be required to have his own faith. Friends, this is a solemn statement the Prophet made. Let us see if it fits the scripture.

          Will there really be a time when we can no longer pray for each other, but be required to have our own individual faith? In Mat. 25:1-10, is the parable of the Ten Virgins. Ten Virgins took their lamps and went forth to meet the Bridegroom. Five were wise and five were foolish, the wise had Oil, but the foolish had none. At midnight, the cry was made, “The Bridegroom cometh.” All the Virgins arose and trimmed their lamps. All were expecting to go in the Rapture. There is nothing wrong with expecting to go in the Rapture, but we must be certain we are ready to go. We must be sure we have the faith for a body change.

          Here is the great point! The Foolish said to the Wise, “Give us of your Oil.” The answer that the Elect gave the Foolish had always puzzled me until recently. They said, “Not so, we can’t give you any Oil.” I have wondered why the Wise (Bride) were so hard-hearted as to not share what they had with those Foolish who were in desperate straits. After all, the scriptures say, “Love your neighbor as yourselves.” It was not that the Wise were hard-hearted, but that the time had come when every man must have his own faith. The Foolish had slept through the Bride Revival. They had been warned time after time that their “Faith in Man” would not work for the Rapture. Faith “In God” is all that will work in that hour.

          The Bride had tried over and over to convince the Foolish Virgins to turn loose of the world and trust Christ Jesus, but they had stubbornly held to their belief that God was in the worldly programs. And in our parable, we see that although the Bride was not hard-hearted, there was nothing they could do to help the Foolish at that late date. They could not, at the last moment, give them of the Oil that they had. God had set a time for the Rapture, and all who were not ready must enter into the Great Tribulation.

          In that last hour, father cannot pray for his children, wife cannot help husband, nor husband help the wife. Children cannot help parents, nor the pastor help the church members. The church members cannot help a pastor. It will take a personal revelation from God to the individual. It was not that the Bride WOULD NOT help the Foolish, it was rather that they COULD NOT, the door was shut.

          Rapturing Faith has to come a little at a time. It will not be developed overnight. We have to be weaned from the Milk and learn to eat Meat. He is NOW teaching us knowledge, what we are in Christ Jesus, where we came from, and where we are going back to. Rapturing Faith comes over a period of time, and time had run out for the Foolish Virgins, even as Christ Jesus said it would in Rev. 10:6. He swore that “There would be time no more.” Jesus swore that Time would end for the people who refused to live by the Message that would come forth when the Seven Seals were revealed. Though many would believe it “Intellectually,” only a few would ever seek the kind of faith that was once “Delivered unto the saints,” and it will take this kind of Perfect Faith for a body change. It will be a faith that is ANCHORED IN THE WORD that tells of God’s plan to make us righteous.

          Those who receive this righteousness by faith will have learned that God did truly set before them an “Impossible Standard” which was His Holy Law and that in their Flesh they could not always keep it. They will understand that God purposed in His plan that they should live in flesh and be unable to attain to righteousness by keeping His Holy Law. They will have followed in the steps of Father Abraham and found the same thing he found pertaining to his flesh.

          Rom. 4:1-3, “What shall we say then that Abraham our Father, as pertaining to the flesh, hath found? For if Abraham was justified by works, he hath where of to glory, but not before God. For what sayeth the scripture? ABRAHAM BELIEVED GOD AND IT WAS COUNTED UNTO HIM FOR RIGHTEOUSNESS.”

          The Bride will see the “Plan of God” and all the promises God made pertaining to it. They will make the Cross the foundation for their Perfect Faith. They will trust in what God has already done to make them righteous, and flee from any plan of their own to make them so. Their faith will therefore be perfect because a Perfect Person made the plan and then fulfilled it Himself. Because the Plan was perfect, those who trust in it are also made perfect. The Bride will strive with all that is within her to live by God’s Holy Law, but when her striving is over, she will flee from claiming righteousness by her works.

          Rom. 4:5, “But to him that worketh not, but believeth on Him that justifieth the ungodly, his Faith is counted for righteousness.” She will claim the “Blessedness of the man unto whom God imputeth Righteousness without works, saying, blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven, and whose sins are covered.” (Rom. 4:6) The Bride will lay hold of II Cor. 5:21 and believe that, “He who knew no sin was made sin for us” and that now she is as righteous as God. She will believe this even in the midst of her many failures to keep the Holy Law perfectly.

          While the enemy attacks and condemns after every failure, the Bride will claim to be “Holy and without blame before Him in love.” (Eph. 1:4) Though she still walks in flesh, she will not war after the flesh (allow the flesh to condemn her). The weapons of her warfare are not carnal (believing she can live perfect in flesh), but mighty through God (God’s Faith) to the pulling down of strongholds. She will “cast down imaginations and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God.” (II Cor. 10:3-5) Though she will feel deeply the fiery darts of condemnation, she casts them out, trusting always in Him whose own Blood was shed to make her, “Accepted in the Beloved.” (­Eph. 1:6) The Bride clings for dear life, Eternal Life, to the promise that no one can “Lay anything to the charge of God’s Elect.” (Rom. 8:33) Not that the flesh is innocent, but rather that One came to “Destroy the works of the devil,” which works were the sins of our flesh. (I John 3:8)

          At the body change time, the Bride will be the group of which it is said, “Whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin; for His seed remaineth in him: and he CANNOT SIN because he is born of God.” (I John 3:9) The true meaning of this scripture is a well of faith springing up in the Soul of Born- Again people. While the “Law of Sin” remains in the flesh, the Seed of God lives in the Soul, and in her heart she can never love sin again. Therefore, because God “Looks on the heart,” the Bride is given credit for what is seen there. The Prophet said we “Look at what we desire to do and to be.” We greatly desire to keep the whole Law, but the contaminated blood in our veins renders it impossible. But, thanks be to God, the Blood in the veins of Jesus was not of Adam’s linage. His Father was God and God’s own blood flowed in Christ. Because of this, He was able to keep the Perfect Law in our place and then offer His life as the Perfect Sacrifice.

          At the first, when teaching that the Bride must come into a Perfect Faith, the natural mind will experience doubts, and even fear that such a faith is impossible. But, here again we rely, not on our own selves, but on the Perfect Plan made by our Lord. He did in no wise require such a faith and then make it impossible for us to enter into it. This faith of which we speak is as simple as studying the Plan of God in which He rendered us incapable of living the Law, but then fulfilled His own Law of Sin and Death in our place. The sin debt is paid in full, and woe be unto the Christian who lets the six hours of horrible suffering that took place on the Cross, be to no avail. Woe to the Christian who does not claim Perfect Righteousness because of the Blood of Christ.

          The Bride will not commit the terrible sin of failing to accept the “Gift of Righteousness” as seen in Rom. 5:17. She understands that the One who made the plan of Redemption is perfectly satisfied with it and the way it was carried out.

          How could our God be anything other than satisfied with the Plan of Redemption, when He is the One who made it, and He is the One who carried it out? Down to the last second that Christ (God) hung on the Cross, it was His doing. He did not cry “It is finished” until He was totally satisfied that He had paid our debt in full, and that He could legally declare us righteous.

          For us to be declared Righteous by God himself, means that we are SIN FREE (II Cor. 5:1), and to be standing before God with no sin charged against us (Rom. 8:33) is to be without condemnation. (Rom. 8:1) And to be with out condemnation is to have reached the place of Perfection that our Lord Jesus spoke about in Mat. 5:48, “Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in Heaven is PERFECT.” All of these declarations are to be taken hold of by the hand of faith, a PERFECT FAITH in the Plan of a PERFECT GOD.

          It pleased our Father God to come down and be “Bruised” in our place. Is. 53:10-12, “Yet it PLEASED the Lord to bruise Him: He hath put Him to grief….” Verse 11, “He shall see of the travail of His Soul, and shall be satisfied: by His knowledge shall my righteous servant justify many: FOR HE SHALL BEAR THEIR INIQUITIES.” It pleased our Father God to be “Smitten” in our place. Zech. 13:7, “Awake, O sword, against My Shepherd, and against the man that is My Fellow, saith the Lord of Host. SMITE THE SHEPHERD.”

          He, who hung on the Cross, was no ordinary sufferer. He was the Great Judge Himself; the One who had judged our sins and then declared the payment that must be paid. He who made the Law of Sin and Death had come down to fulfill its judgment against our sins. He who hung there was THE SHEPHERD HIMSELF, come down to release His Sheep from the Curse of the Law. He who hung there satisfied HIMSELF that the Law had been fulfilled. He who hung there until He died, is not longer dead, but He sits on His Throne, making sure that no sin is being charged against His Elect, for it was He, Himself, that justified them. (Rom. 8:33)

          To believe the Plan of God, as laid out in His Holy Word, is to have Perfect Faith for the soon coming Rapture. This Faith will not only bring us healing now to any part of our body cells that may be afflicted, but in that final hour, it will cause every body cell to be CHANGED from MORTAL to IMORTAL. Without that child-like faith in the Plan, we will miss the Rapture, for there will be nothing any man can do for us in the final moment. There will be no medicine we can swallow that will change our cells from head to toe. There will be no shot we can have ready to be injected that will produce it. There is no operation we can schedule that will change us into supernatural beings. One thing, and one thing only, will avail on that day. It will take Perfect Faith in Jesus Christ who made the plan of Salvation, then carried it out for us.

          Knowing how short of that Perfect Faith the End-Time Bride would be, God sent the Messenger of Mal. 4:5, who would bring the mysteries beforetime hidden under the Seven Seals, and through these Revelations would restore us back to the Faith of our Pentecostal Fathers. We will close with some statements of this Seventh Messenger confirming this:

          QUOTE: THE END-TIME EVANGELISM PAGE 31, “The End-time Evangelist’s Message is from Mal. 4:5. It’s RESTORING. The Message and Messenger, both, will have to be a Restoration of the Faith. Jude said, in the Book of Jude, just about 30 years after the Crucifixion, he said, ‘Brethren, I give all diligence to write unto you of the common faith, that you should earnestly contend for the Faith that was once delivered to the Saints back there.’ Malachi said, for the last days, the last Prophet of the Old Testament, that ‘Before the great and terrible day of the Lord shall come, I will send to you Elijah the Prophet. AND HE WILL RESTORE THE FAITH OF THE CHILDREN BACK TO THE FATHERS, JUST BEFORE THE DESTRUCTION TIME.’ What is it? It’s a Message that goes forth, a Message and Messenger of the last days, that’s not to bring them to a Creed, but to jerk them out of those creeds and BRING THEM BACK TO THE ORIGINAL FAITH OF THE FATHERS, THE PENTECOSTALS, WHERE THE CHURCH IS TO BE IN THE LAST DAYS. Not the Mosaic Fathers, but the Pentecostal Fathers.” (End quote)

          QUOTE: THE END-TIME EVANGELISM PAGE 39, “Now we’re going to end right here by saying this. The End-Time Message is to get the Bride ready and prepared for the Rapture. What can it do? According to Mal. 4, is bring them BACK TO THE FAITH OF THE FATHERS, THE PENTECOSTAL PART, IN THE RESTORATION TIME. I will restore saith the Lord. That’s real event, end-time evangelism.” (End quote)

          The cost of this faith is a life separated from the world, and dedicated wholly to the Lord. No matter how sincerely we believe the Message, only those who obey it “Shall know of the doctrine.” (John 7:17)