THE GIFT OF DISCERNMENT, WHAT WAS IT FOR?

C.W. WOOD     MAY 2016

A PERSONAL NOTE TO OUR READERS:  In the months that have already passed in this year of 2016, we have not been physically able to answer all the letters we have received from you Wonderful, Faithful People.  This note is to each of you Personally, hoping that you will all feel our heart-felt thanks for your Faithfulness in years past.  We pray daily that our Strength will continue to be renewed as the Eagle, and your Prayers are much needed and Appreciated!  As our nation continues to thumb its nose at the God of Heaven, we are amazed that the Lord’s Grace still holds back the total destruction that has been Promised!  But it will come, even as it is Written, and our burden is to warn and compel the multitudes all around us, to turn to Christ Jesus and repent.

   In the meantime, Sackcloth and ashes, worn over the Robe of Righteousness is Proper dress for the Bride!  When the death angel visits the United States, he will not harm those who are Sighing and Crying over the Sins they See.  God be with you all and we do expect to See you Soon.                                            Br.C.W. Wood                                                                                                                           

      Many of us Message Believers, who have listened to, or read many of Br. Branham’s sermons, have missed the Lord’s number one motive for Placing the Gift in His Prophets.  I want to give what I believe is God’s great and loving Motive for it.

   It was to remove Forever the doubts in our minds Concerning His Will to heal all People who will simply understand that it is His Will to do so,  although this fact is taught over and over in His Holy Word.           

   He looked down on our Modern, Scientific age and Saw the doubts and fears that we are confronted with.  He Saw the terrible suffering that His Creatures are enduring, and His great heart, full of Compassion, Planned a way to Prove His desire to heal all who needed it.  All He asks of us is that we understand that His Gift of Discernment in the Prophet   was to Prove His Willingness. 

   I am speaking mostly to Message Believers now, those People who are Pressing toward the High Calling, which is to the Bride of Christ.  We do understand that the Gift in Br. Branham did not heal anyone!  But it was sent to Show His overflowing desire to heal all that the devil was oppressing. (Acts 10:38)

   His motive in operating the Gift was to raise the level of Faith in us to the Place where we will receive the Fact that we are healed.  Once we fully understand that He wants each of  us “Personally” to be well, then our healing has started.

   We do know, don’t we, that there is no such thing as Faith until we know God’s Will in the matter?  The Gift was to Prove His Will  for those who could not just simply take His Written Word for it.  Our unbelief has not stopped His Unending Compassion.  When Thomas had heard that Jesus had risen from the grave, he said, “I won’t believe it until I have more proof.”  This unbelief did not stop the Lord, He said, “Come and put your hand in my wound Thomas.”  And so was it today when the People could not believe that God’s will was always to heal those that came to Him.

   He went further than His Written Word to Prove it.  He stood on the Platforms of the world with His Prophet, and read the thoughts of those before Him, even Predicting the Future without a Failure!  The Lord did not do this just to show His Power.  He did it to Prove that He was there, backing up His Prophet’s word, who was Preaching that God wanted them well.

   We, in the Message, more than any other people, should know what the Gift was for.  But sad to say, many still linger in darkness, wondering if His Mercy included them also.

   I would ask you to think with me a few minutes on the stripes our Lord bore in Pilate’s Judgment Hall.  There, before He was nailed to the Cross, He drank great draughts of Pain and Scorn for the healing of our Flesh.  As to His Flesh body, it shared with His mind in a grief that never could be described.  He was in an Agony before He ever got to the Cross.  To describe the Fleshly Sufferings of our Lord is not easy, and I confess that I have failed, but will you remember with me that His Soul Suffering continues today as He watches us refuse His Love and extended Mercy for our Soul and our body.  When I say that we refuse it, I mean that we don’t receive because we don’t understand how or  why  He would want to do it for Someone like ourselves!

   I will give some Scripture that I believe will help us to understand why.  In Hosea 11:8-9, we read----Verse 8 “How shall I give thee up, Ephraim? How shall I deliver thee, Israel?  How shall I make thee as Admah?  How shall I set thee as Zeboim?  Mine heart is turned within me, my repentings are kindled together.  Verse 9  I will not execute the fierceness of mine anger, I will not return to destroy Ephraim: for I am God and not man; the Holy One in the midst of thee: and I will not enter into the city.”

   In these verses God is speaking of Himself and giving us an insight into the Unexplainable Nature of His Love and Mercy.  He gives as His reason for not destroying Ephraim is because He is “God and not man.”

   He tells us that He has greater Grace, greater Longsuffering and greater willingness to Forgive than any man could ever have.  In a  thousand ways, God is greater than man, and we, in these bodies can never enter into that realm with Him.  He is more tender, more forbearing, and more ready to forgive our Sins than any man could ever be.  What man can’t do because of our shallowness and the limits of our goodness, God can and will do because of the height and depth of His Measureless Love

   Here we See a most Powerful Revelation of our Lord’s Character, and it is a revelation that we all need.  When God can find no reason in man for showing mercy to him, He still finds a reason for displaying His Mercy, because He looks for it in His own heart.  He did not say, “I will not destroy Ephraim” because it turned out he was not as bad as I thought at first.  No!  He knew all about the people at His first glance.  He did not say he would spare Ephraim because He saw something hopeful in them.  No!  His reason for extending  mercy  was    in Himself.   He gave as His reason, “I am God and not man” It was not what Ephraim was, but what God is.  He had mercy on them because He is God and not man.  Guilty One, our hope of Pardon lies in the Character of God and not in us.  Our hope of healing lies in His great Compassion and not in our ability to earn or deserve it!!!!  It is Written “I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion.”  Again, He is looking inside His own Character for a reason to help us.

   And so, I preach on this one theme to hammer away on this one nail, that God has within Himself reason for Saving and Healing us.  I will stay on this one truth, that there is hope for guilty Sinners to be healed and saved and if that be true for Sinners, how much more is it true for us who have repented and are trying to Serve the Lord.  And so, we Confess our Sins and receive the Revelation that the one we have to deal with is God and not man!

   Think of the most Patient Person you have ever known.  Think of how many times they have Shown a forgiving spirit to those who have offended them.  But when the offense is repeated time after time, even the best of the People will finally ask, “Lord, how oft shall my brother sin against me and I forgive him, till Seven times?”  Jesus answered, “Until seven times Seventy.”  We are still alive and breathing today because our God is God and not man.  We have offended Him far more often than seventy times seven, yet He has not destroyed us!  We are living monuments of His Divine Character and can truthfully say, We are spared because of God’s Divine Mercy.  If He had charged our Sins against us, we would have been dead long ago, and waiting for the flames.

   He came down in His Prophet and Proved beyond Question His Will for  us  is   prosperity and health.  How many times have we Message People heard   Br. Branham make remarks like this, “Now, if you will understand that God wants to do it, He will heal every sick person in this great Auditorium.”  And there was times when the Lord did exactly that!  Were they all Christians?  That is very doubtful.  Had any of them Kept all of God’s Holy  Law  Standard Perfectly?  The Bible says, “for whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in one Point, he is guilty of all.”  And so it is Plain that no one has ever Earned God’s blessings.  He blesses us because He is God and not man.  He blesses us because He has Promised to do so, and because “He watches over His word to Perform it.”

  So many People have the testimony, that they are “TRYING” to believe God!  What a slap in the face that must be to our Great King.  We believe a husband, or a wife, and a trusted friend, then look up to our Creator, out of whom all Faithfulness comes, and Confess that we will try and believe that He is not a Liar!