Would the Bride of Christ have a ministry before the Rapture?

Questions 194 (COD Page 840)

 Would the Bride of Christ have…Would the Bride of Christ have a ministry before the Rapture?

233  Sure. That’s what’s going on right now, see, the Bride of Christ. Certainly. It is the Message of the hour, see, the Bride of Christ. Sure. She is consist of apostles, prophets, teachers, evangelists, and pastors. Is that right? [Congregation says, “Amen.”–Ed.] That’s the Bride of Christ. Sure. She’s got a ministry, great ministry, the ministry of the hour. It’ll be so humble.

234  Now remember. How many was here, at the first, when I…Last Sunday, see, remember what I preached on? Humility. Oh, don’t forget that. I’m going to stop a minute, to warn that again. Remember, when God predicts anything great to happen, the people are looking so far away, by their wisdom, till they miss what happens. When God says anything is great, the world laughs at it. “That bunch of ignoramuses!” That’s right. But when the great world, and the great high church, said, “Boy, that’s glorious!” God says, “A bunch of ignoramuses!”
So, see, you have to watch. I don’t mean it maybe of that way, exactly that way, but that’s the way it is.

235  Look! Here was a great, holy Orthodox church, “We know the Word. We’ve got schools. We got seminaries. We got our man so polished! Why, for hundreds of years we’ve been loyal to Jehovah. We are the Church. We’re the Sanhedrin. We got the Council of Churches here. Both Pharisees and Sadducees, and all the denominations, gathers up together,” like we’re getting. See? “We’re all in one, the–the Council of church.
We are the big shots here. We know that Scripture. What is some little, ignorant guy down there on the river, with a beard hanging over his face, and a piece of sheep skin, telling us?” Certainly, they wouldn’t listen to It.

236  But the Bible said, in Malachi the 4th cha-…or the 3rd chapter, “I’ll send My messenger before My face, to prepare the way for Me.” Seven hundred and twelve years before
there, John…Oh, the great prophet of Isaiah stood there, and said, “There will be a voice of one crying in the wilderness, ‘Prepare the way for the Lord, and make His path straight.’” That’s right. And said…and Dav-…Oh, many of them! Said, “Every high place will be brought down.”

237  Oh, they said, “There’ll be a…When this man comes, he’ll point his finger, and he’ll move mountains. Oh, and all the low places, the ditches, will be brought up. Then all, that’s all the rough places, will be smoothed out. Brother, we’ll plant corn in every field around here. And, oh, we’re going to do great things when this man comes.” See?

238  They was expecting God to take the crank and turn it on, bring the corridor down, say, “Come on down, you great forerunner of My Messiah.” And then as soon as he is gone, they pull it back up, and his ministry is over. They crank it down again, and put it right down here beside the seminary, and say, “All right, My beloved Son, walk down and tell them.” See? Oh, my!

239  Look, when he come by. Whatever happened? Here come a man that knowed none of their schools. Didn’t even have a fellowship card. Oh! Didn’t have no credentials. No. Nobody ever knowed he ever went to school a day in his life. You couldn’t even tell it by his talking. He didn’t even talk in terms of a…of ecclesiastics. He talked about serpents, axes, and wilderness, and–and–and things like that, see, trees. He talked not in the terms of the ecclesiastical set of the day, or this day or any other day.

240  He come “sassafras,” as we call it here in Indiana. He come out of the bushes somewhere. Didn’t even have a shave, and the hair standing out on his head. I don’t imagine he taken a bath; once every two or three months. Right. He never wore pajamas at night. He never rode in an automobile. He never brushed his teeth. Oh, my! What a guy this was! Certainly not.

241  Here he come, stomping down through the wilderness, like that, said, “I’m the voice of one crying in the wilderness. Prepare the way for the Lord, and make straight His path!”

242  Some of the teachers stood and said, “Huh! Say, fellow, have you got your…We can’t cooperate with you in this campaign. Here, we can’t do this. Well, where is your–where is your card? Where is your identification?” He just ignored them. He had a message, so he just went on with it, you see, preaching just the same.

243  They said, “Why, wait! Well, if we go down there, we’ll take the bishop down, today, and see what he says about it. We’ll go down there if we know. That’s the heads of the church. And we know that he’ll have to recognize that. If he’s of God, he’ll recognize our bishops.”

244  Put them all down there in a row, and stood out there, the dignitaries.

245  He said, “You generation of vipers! You snakes in the grass!” Collars turned around, and “holy fathers,” and so forth. “Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? You know your hour is at hand. Don’t you think that…You say, ‘Well, we belong to this, that.’ I tell you, the God that I serve is able to rise children to Abraham out of these stones.” Oh, my!

246  Now he going to take up his vice versa, from ecclesiastical speech. “I say the ax is laid to the root of the tree! Therefore every tree that don’t bring forth good fruit is hewed down and cast into the fire! Oh, I indeed will baptize you with water, unto repentance, but He is coming after me. The moon will be turned into blood! And, oh, my, He will thoroughly purge His floors! And He’ll take the–the chaff and will burn it with unquenchable fire, and He’ll take the wheat to the garner. He’ll separate the weeds and the wheat.” Oh, my! What a message!

247  They said, “This guy? Huh! What’d he say, what–what– what time it was? Oh, ignorance! We got the man right up there, Brother Jones. He is the guy will do that, if there’s anybody in this age. Bishop So-and-so will do it; Holy Father So-and-so.” Oh, my! See? God in simplicity, see, working in simplicity.

248  Then, first thing you know, he is standing there one day, and he said, “Yes, He is standing in your midst!” He was so sure he was that runner. He knowed who he was. That’s the reason he could shake the hide off of them. Said, “Now, don’t tremble, but just go ahead and continue on. You soldiers, you obey your masters. And if you done any evil, you take that…”

249 “What shall we do? Shall we quit doing this? Should we stop doing this?”

250  He said, “Just go on like you are. Continue on. Continue on. Go ahead. If you’re raising potatoes, raise them. See? You soldiers, don’t do no violence. And–and you do this. And whatever you do, just continue on as you are. Obey your masters, and so forth.” “Rabbi, what should we do?”

251  “Just continue on as you are, see. But there is One in your midst, that you don’t know.” He knowed that, the hour of his message. He knowed he was to introduce that Person. He knowed He was there. “One in your midst! You don’t see Him. Things are going on, you know nothing about.” And so, then, “There–there is something going to happen,” he says, “you see, and He’ll be here. And I’ll know Him.”

252  And finally, one day, he said, “Behold, there He is! There is the Lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world!” Said, “And my time is up now. I’ve introduced you to Him. I must decrease now. I must go off the scene. He’ll take over from here.” “The Millennium will be on, right away, see, and the–the time at hand.” Then when He come, when…

253  Even John said, “He is going to, oh, He’s going to shuck the hide off. He’s going to–He’s going to separate the wheat from the–from the chaff, and He’s going to burn it up. And He’s going to thoroughly purge His floors, and His fan is in His hand!” But what was He? Little, bitty…

254  Now, they had it all drawed up, “Oh, man! He’ll have a spear that’ll reach a mile long. He’ll stand back over here in Palestine, just stand up there and just…on one of these white clouds, and pick up all these Romans, like this, and cast them into hell. Just keep on doing like that, see, till He gets them all over.” Why, they had that all fixed up. And when it was, a little Lamb come moving out among them, meek and gentle, pushed around this way and that way.

255  Even John said. Now look at John, the prophet; he said, “Go ask Him. Is actually He the One?” So humble, till that prophet missed it. Said, “Is He the One, or do we seek for another?”

256  Now, He never give him a book for them disciples, in–in Matthew 11. Come and asked Him, when John’s disciples… John was in prison. So he had been all so scrupled up till he…I believe it was Pember said, “His eagle eye got filmed over, down there,” you see. He could…He–he done come down to the earth; he had been up in the air. But when his prophecy was over, he dropped back down to the ground again, see, ’cause, put him in prison, you see. He didn’t have no use for them big wings anymore, so he just laid down there. But he flew higher than any of the rest of them.

257  Let me show you something. God used him. And Jesus knew, you see, ’cause that was the–that was the incarnate God there. See? He was…So, He–He said there, He said… Now, He never give him a book on how to behave himself in jail; He say, “Now wait a minute. I’ll write a little essay here, and you take back and tell John how to behave himself when he’s in jail, for My sake.” See? No, He never said that.

258  He didn’t say, “Go tell John that he ought to have got his Ph.D. degree before he come out.” See? If he would, he’d have been with the rest of them; he’d have been a rejecter. John was honest and asked the question.

259  And He said, “Just wait till the meeting is over, and then go show John what happened, then he’ll know. If you tell him what’s going on, then he’ll know.” See? See? “Just go let him… Tell him. Tell him it’s…He is in prison and couldn’t be here. But–but you sat in the meeting, and you seen what happened.
You go tell him.” So, then, disciples said, “Very well, Master.”

260  And over the hill they went. Jesus sitting on this rock, just watch them till they crossed over and went up over the hill.

261  He turned around to the congregation, said, “Who–who did you go out to see, in the time of John?” See? Said, “What went ye out to see? Did you go out to see a man that’s got his collar turned around, and soft clothes, and highly-polished and educated. Is that the kind of man you went out to see?” Said, “No. You know what them kind are? They kiss the babies, and, you know, work in kings’ palaces. They, that–that’s not the type John was.”

262  “Well,” said, “then, why did you go? To see a man that’s been given a ministry and will hook it right into an organization, or something like that? Shaken with every…Then, if the–if the Oneness don’t want him, he’ll go over to Trinity? And if the Trinity don’t want him, he’ll go to the church of God, anywhere? Is that the kind of man you went to see, shaken with any reed? Oh, no. Not John.”

263  He said, “Then what did you go to see? A prophet?” He said, “And I say that’s right. But I’m going to tell you something that you don’t know; he was more than a prophet. He was more. If you can receive it, this is who that was written of, in the Bible, see, back there, the Scripture, ‘I’ll send My messenger before My face,’ Malachi 3, see, ‘and he’ll prepare the way before Me.’” See?

264  And they didn’t understand. Even the disciples didn’t get it, see. That’s right. Oh, my! Simplicity! Be humble, see. Go right down…When God promises something big, see, it is big in His sight.

265  Now, if you want to always keep this in mind, I want you to…You keep this in mind. And when this happens, then you can change it. You reach down and pick up one of these little spring flowers that’s coming this year, or get a common blade of grass and hold it in your hand, and say, “I’m going to hold this now, and see that something, so simple, has made this. And I want to see the brain, that can send a rocket to the moon, make this blade of grass.” You’ll always have it. You can rest assured on that. You’ll always have it. See? The blade of grass has life in it, see. It’s so simple and humble.

266  You see, if a man is a big man, all right, but if he’s big enough that he can become simple, see. He’ll find God. But if he don’t become simple, he’ll never see Him. So you got to become simple. Now verse…

William Marrion Branham
63-0324M Questions & Answers On The Seals