De Witt Tabernacle Teaching Series
“The
Body Change”
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)