You have got to learn how to accept God
Spiritual Building-Stone No. 123

St. John 1:1-3, 12-13,
"In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made. ... But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, [even] to them that believe on his name: Which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God."

Let us listen to what God's Prophet has spoken:

It's the Holy Spirit today hunting out honest hearts that will believe that message. Everything in the Bible that was promised is to that believer; and when you accept it in its fullness, then God knows that you'll do it; He gives you the abstract to that (the confirmation by receiving the Holy Ghost). And then, every promise that's made is in your possession, and the Holy Spirit's there to quicken that to you. Oh, my. What kind of people should we be? How wonderful to see that God's great Holy Spirit here to do that power. Think of it.

A little boy that never walked, would try to walk down this aisle here, he'd fall down a dozen times and be wore out 'fore he got there. But anyone who knows how to walk, an athlete, would walk right down that aisle and never even notice doing it. Well, he had that to start with; that's what he is now.

Well, that's the same way with preaching Divine healing or anything else. As you go along, you begin to learn. If you don't learn, there's something wrong. See? You've got to learn, and you've got to learn how to accept God and what it really means.

Now, "faith" is a "revelation from God." Now, "faith" is a "revelation." There's where I want to stay there just a moment. It's a revelation. He has revealed it to you by His grace. It's nothing you did. You didn't work yourself up into faith. You never had faith; it's give to you by the grace of God (I Peter 1:13). And God reveals it to you; therefore, faith is a revelation. And the whole Church of God is built upon the revelation (Mat. 16:17-18).

To speak a word, is a man; confirm a word, is God. To say something, is one thing; God to do it, is another thing. God don't need any interpreter, He does His Own interpretation.

Now, we're fixing to have a prayer line, to pray for the sick, God willing. And we know that there's no one, no man, no woman, no human being, no angel, that can heal you, for God has already did it. He made the preparation, the only thing you have to do is receive it.

There's no man, no angel, no nothing, not even God Himself, can forgive you for your sins. It's already done. Jesus did that at the Cross (Eph. 1:7). But it'll never prosper you anything, or profit you anything, until you accept it.

Now, if I was our Lord Jesus standing here, and this woman was sick, you know I could not heal her if I was the Lord Jesus? I couldn't do it, 'cause I had already done it. Now, how many knows that's true? Certainly. He's already forgive every sin. He's already healed every sick person. He's already appropriated that Blood at the Calvary. The price is already paid. It's all paid (I Peter 1:18-20). But the only thing you have to do is to accept it, believe it, and accept it. And you cannot accept it, until first you believe it. See? Believe the Gospel.

Now, that's where people think today of Divine healing, or some any other work of grace of God, that there's something that you have to do. You, there's nothing you have to do but believe, just believe God.
And, that, we still find that among human beings. We're prone to be that way, "There's something we've got to do." We feel that, that we've got to have something into it also.

You do have something into it; that's your surrender of your own will, your own ideas to the will and idea of Almighty God, and it's finished. That's all there is. Just take His promise, don't think of nothing else. Walk by it, and God does the rest of it.

Then they wanted a law. And God always gives you the desire of your heart; He promised to (Exod. 19:1-8). But we find out, when they turned one step from the side of what God originally promised them, then that was a thorn in the flesh until the law was taken away, until Jesus Christ came and was crucified to take away the law (Gal. 3:13; 5:1-6). It was a thorn in the flesh.

And anything that you try to do within yourself, it'll always work to your dishonor. It'll work to your disadvantage. Just simply believe God, and that settles it. What God promised, "I'm the Lord Thy God Who heals all thy diseases (Exodus 15:26). If there's any among you sick, let them call the elders of the church" (James 5:14-16). He promised the works that He did, would be done in His church (John 14:12).

I believe that Jesus Christ redeemed you from a life of sickness just as He redeemed you from a life of sin. If the old covenant had healing in the old atonement of the blood of lambs, and goats, and heifers had healing in it, how much more is this better Covenant got healing in it from the Blood of God's own Son, Jesus (Heb. 8:6-10).

Now, you're already healed, every one of you. But the only reason that you can't accept it, maybe, is that you want to go through a routine of laying on of hands. That's all right. But that doesn't heal you. You're healed by your faith in a finished work that God did for you at Calvary (Isaiah 53:4-5). Your healing comes through that. Now, the Holy Spirit has led you here tonight. Why? You believe in healing. If there's a fountain open somewhere, He's obligated to lead you to that. Now, the next is yours.

It's a mysterious thing. You're born into the mystical Body of Christ. That's how you get into it.

I Corinthians, 12th chapter (Verse 12-13). One Body... How do we come into that Body, how do we get into it? By one Spirit we're baptized into one Body. And when in that Body, free, guarantee of the resurrection. "God placed upon Him the iniquity of us all" (I Peter 2:24; John 1:29). Not by "one handshake," not "one church letter," but by one Holy Spirit, Jew, Gentile, yellow, black, white, have all been baptized by one Spirit into that one Body, through the Blood of His Own covenant. "And when I see the Blood, I'll pass over you" (Exodus 12:13), and are free from death, free from pain, free from sin. "He that's born of God, does not commit sin, 'cause the seed of God remains in him and he cannot sin" (I John 3;9). No sin... "Be ye therefore perfect, even as your heavenly Father is perfect" (John 5:48), Jesus said. How can you be perfect? You can't do it. You was born in sin, shaped in iniquity, come to the world speaking lies. But when you accept Christ as your sin-bearer, when you accept Him by faith, you believe that He saved you, and He died in your place and took your sins, then God accepts you and baptizes you into the Body and cannot see no more sin. How can I be a sinner when there's an atonement on the altar for me?
And when God accepted me and baptized me with the Holy Ghost, He had confidence in me that I would not sin willfully. Amen. I would not sin willfully. Therefore, His Son made an atonement for me, and I cannot be a sinner as long as I'm justified and He's took me in His Body; I'm redeemed with Him. Not what I do, but what He did for me. That's the Gospel.
Ephesians 4:30, says, "Grieve not the Holy Spirit of God whereby you're sealed until the day of your redemption."

A famous Baptist preacher said to me, not long ago, said, "Brother Branham, Abraham believed God, and it was imputed unto him for righteousness. What more could he do but believe God?" He said, "We believe we receive the Holy Ghost when we believe."

I said, "But you're wrong; you're honestly wrong. Paul said in Acts 19, to those Baptists who had a good pastor up there, a converted lawyer, 'Have you received the Holy Ghost since you have believed?'"
He said, "The original doesn't say that."

I said, "It does say that. I've got the "Emphatic Diaglott," and it does say it in every translation, both Greek and Hebrew. He said, 'Have you received the Holy Ghost since you believed?'" (Eph. 1:13-14). I said, "Abraham believed; that was true. But God give him a sign that He'd accepted his faith, by give him the seal of circumcision." That's right. He'd accepted him, because He give him a sign that He'd accepted him (Rom. 4:1-12).
If you say you believe, and haven't received the Holy Ghost yet, God hasn't sealed you yet, hasn't had enough trust to trust you yet. When you come to God, God seals you with the Holy Ghost till the day of your redemption (Eph. 4:30). And that's the message of the church. Amen.

There's one thing I want to be honest with you about, my friend. The same way God heals is on the basis of service to Him. See? It's on the basis of service to Him. We must accept our healing on the basis of: we will serve Him after we are healed.

Now, the Bible said, "Confess your faults one to another (James 5:16). Pray one for the other, that you might be healed." See? It's on the basis you'll serve God. Many of you here, perhaps, are in dying condition. And you must die if something doesn't take place. Then I want you in your heart...
Now, we might anoint you with oil; we might pray over you, your pastor, and I, pray a prayer of faith, do everything we can. But it won't do no good until you yourself enter into fellowship with Christ. See? You got to come to that fellowship that, "I, Lord."

You're not saved tonight; you been saved; you were saved nineteen hundred years ago. And now, maybe tonight you'll accept that salvation, but it's already paid for; the debt has been cleared up. And the Devil that put you in the pawn shop, Jesus came and redeemed you and opened up the doors, and the only thing you have to do is walk out and claim your liberty. That's all. You have a receipt from God that the debt is paid. Jesus said in His last Words, "It is finished" (St.John 19:30). Every redemptive blessing was completely finished. God's great wrath on sin, when He became sin for us (II Cor. 5:21; Isaiah 61:1-3), the debt was settled (Col. 2:13-15).

Satan has no more power, only as he can bluff with it. If he can bluff you into it, all right, you'll have to have it. But legally he has no power at all; every power he had was taken from him at Calvary. That's where the price was paid. He is nothing but a bluff. If you want to listen to his bluff, well, all right. But you don't have to; you are free tonight. He has made you free.
And now if something in the Word can make you realize that you are free by His grace, or if something, realize, and the Word makes you understand, or some act of God, that it included you, it includes us all, then you just accept it on those basis, and you're free also. You don't have to feel any different; you don't have to feel anything at all. It's not based upon... Jesus never did say, "Did you feel it?" He said, "Did you believe it?" It's faith. That's our faith, is an arm, a mighty arm that holds the sharp two-edged Sword of God (Heb. 4:12-13). And that sharp two-edged Sword will cut every promise free, if that arm of faith is able to yield that Sword. Some people has very weak muscle trouble and they can just maybe cut off a little scratch, enough to join a church. Others can come into justification. Some can go all the way to the baptism of the Holy Spirit. A great strong arm, holding this Bible, can cut every promise free. That's right. So be strong in the Lord (Eph. 6:10).

Now, I can look at wheat, here laying on my hand; I recognize it's wheat. I can say that it's wheat. I can show it to the ground, and if the ground could look, it'd say, "Yep, that's wheat. I believe it's wheat, every word of it." But that wheat can never produce wheat, until this wheat falls into the ground and dies itself. Is that right?

That's the man looking, fundamentally, saying, "Yes, I believe healing. I believe it's right. I believe it's the Word of God. I believe it's for the believer. And I believe that I got faith to receive it." But until you receive it... Get what I mean? Then when you receive it, you rejoice (I Thess. 1:2-7). The Word's in there; it's settled; all doubts is dead; all the husk is dropped off; and new life has sprung up, growing into healing for yourself. That's when you really get your healing. That's where healing comes from. Faith cometh by hearing, hearing of the Word (Rom. 10:17).

Oh, I wish we could just get that much right there, if you could just... If you could just grasp that much. Not a mental belief; but from the heart.
Then there's no one, nothing anywhere, could ever shake you away from it. When something's anchored, that settles it. You could no more deny that than you could deny you was a human being. See? It's just the real part. We must believe it.

Now, I want to say this, that I am not a Divine healer. People call me that, but I am not. No man is a healer. If a man comes by and says he is a healer, you watch that fellow: something wrong. Neither am I a Saviour. I could not be a Saviour just as well as I could not be a healer, because He, Christ, was wounded for our transgressions, with His stripes we were healed. It's a past tense (Isaiah 53:4-5).

Every sin in the world was forgiven when Christ died at Calvary. You believe that? There's a Blood atonement on the altar for the sins of the world. But it'll never do you any good until you accept it and confess it. And He can never work on it until first you say, and have by faith accepted it.
Then He's a High Priest to make intercessions upon our confession (Heb. 4:14-16; 3:1-6). See, He can't move, He's bound; there's nothing He can do, until first you accept it and confess it; and from your heart you believe it. Then it touches Him, and then He can go to work on it and make intercessions for you. There you are.

Now, remember, every redemptive blessing has already been purchased. The price is paid. There's only one way that you'll ever be able to receive it, that's to believe it and to accept it. He's the High Priest of our confession. The Hebrew says there, the Hebrew letter says, "He's a High Priest of our profession." To profess and confess is the same thing, of course. He's the High Priest of our confession. Therefore, He cannot do anything for us until first we confess that He has done it. And then when we confess it, then He is the High Priest, a Mediator to go to work on that and make it right. So we pray, trusting in God tonight, in His kindness and mercy, that He will give to us His abundance of grace tonight. And now remember; you must accept it.

A sinner might come here at the altar as a young man or woman at the age of fourteen years old, and they'd bring you your meals here, and you'd cry to the Lord until you were ninety years old, you'd never be saved. You've got to first accept what He done for you. See? You've got to accept it yourself. Then when you accept it, then He is a High Priest, Mediator, to make intercessions upon your confession of what you believe.

Genuine faith knows no defeat. It's already done. It's already over. God said so, and that finishes it. You see? God said so.

Now, that's the same thing anytime. When you really believe it, that touches Him. Now, that little woman that touched His garment, she said, "If I but just only touch His garment, I'll be made whole." (Mark 5:25-34). And she did it. And when she carried out what her faith wanted her to do: touch Him, He felt it. See? And He turned around. He spoke to her. Now, He's the same yesterday, today, and forever. If you would just only believe Christ. Believe Him. Let your faith touch His garment.

And He, right now, is the High Priest that can be touched by the feeling of our infirmities. We all know that. And if He's the same yesterday, today, and forever, He'll have to act today as He did yesterday, if He's the same High Priest. Now, won't you believe it? Just have faith in God.

We read in Hebrews 10:19-22,
"We have boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus, By a new and living way..."
Not the old way, "By a new and a living way." That was the dead way, an order of law; but now we enter by grace, through the Holy Spirit. Oh, I hope you can see it. Nothing that you could do, the law was works, "touch not, handle not, taste not, eat no meat, keep sabbaths, new moons," all forms of worship, what man did. But in this "new and living way," it's nothing that we can do. It's what He does for us, by grace. We just accept it. Christ takes away the sin. We believe It, hear the Gospel, believe It, accept it. And then if we truly accept It from the depths of our heart, God gives us the Holy Ghost as a Witness (Eph. 1:13-14).

Then the Holy Spirit witnesses to you that your sins are gone, and you're dead to the world. You rise in newness of life, to walk a new life, to live a new life, to live in the power and the Presence of God, not to be carried about with everything no more; but to walk after the Spirit as sons and daughters of God. Romans 8:1, said, "There is therefore now no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus, that walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit."

There's a vast difference in looking at God's Word, and receiving God's Word. Them that receive the Word, not them that examined It, but them that received It, God added to the church, such as be saved. Three thousand souls received the Word (Acts 2:37-41).

Now, you can hear the Word preached. You can look at It and admit that it's right. Cain did; all the others did. But just where the word fell, brought forth. Them that received it, gladly was baptized. See? Receiving the Word... (Mark 4:20; Mat. 13:23; Luke 8:15; John 17:6-8; Acts 2:41; John 1:12-13; I Thess. 1:4-6).

Now, when you receive the inspiration that Jesus Christ died for your sickness, it's that very hour that you're healing has come. That's right. When you receive from heaven, that Jesus died for your sins and you have accepted it, you don't need any prayer for you then. You've already accepted it. It's settled.

Now, we can preach the Word, explain the Word. But you have to receive the Word. Oh, hallelujah. That's what sets it afire, brother. When you receive it, the revelation, something slips out of the unseen world yonder, comes rolling down through a mystical channel somewhere into your soul, that says, "Now I see it." Your eyes brighten; your lips that hung down, straighten up and smile. Every muscle in your body seems to rejoice. Something's going to happen. Something... You don't need to be in a prayer line then. You've got it then.

Here's all it is. It isn't emotion, though emotion accompanies it. Just like what I said: Smoking and drinking isn't sin; it's the attribute of sin. It shows you don't believe. See? But when you truly believe in your heart, and you know that... on the basis of where you are setting there you accept it with all your heart, something's going to happen, right there. It's going to happen. Then you can stand as a witness to it, that something happened (Rom. 10:8-10).

All the Word that God has spoken, It must be fulfilled." God cannot say anything without having it fulfilled. When He has spoken It, it is a finished work. It's already finished when God speaks It. God never speaks until He's ready for it to be; and, when He speaks, it's just as well as already happened (Isaiah 55:10-11; Isaiah 46:9-11).

Now, if that wouldn't give us a basis to put our faith on. When God speaks a Word, it's already finished. And what about His promises that He's given to us? Everything that He has said, it's already a finished work. So therefore, when we receive His Word into our heart, it's already done, it's completed.

Reference:
"Easter Seal", pg. 19
"Works Is Faith Expressed", par. 98-105
"What Is The Attraction On The Mountain?", par. 156-158
"A Paradox" (65-0117), par. 72-77
"Led By The Spirit" (59-0407), par. 88-90
"Five Identifications Of The Church" (60-0911E), par. 132-141
"Way Of A True Prophet", par. E-110
"Beyond The Curtain Of Time", par. 88-89
"Just One More Time, Lord" (63-0120E), par. 14-16
"God's Provided Way Of Healing" (54-0719A), par. E-31, E-28-29
"We Would See Jesus" (62-0712), par. E-17
"Calling Jesus On The Scene" (64-0319), par. E-4, E-52-53
"Unpardonable Sin", par. 34
"Broken Cisterns" (64-0726E), par. 66
"The Sixth Seal", Seal's Book pg. 443
"It Becometh Us To Fulfill All Righteousness" (61-1001M), par. 83-84

Spiritual Building-Stone No. 123 from the Revealed Word of this hour, compiled by: Gerd Rodewald, Friedenstr. 69, D-75328 Schömberg, Germany
Phone: (+49) 72 35 76 13, Fax: (+49) 72 35 33 06

There's coming one with a Message that's straight on the Bible, and quick work will circle the earth. The seeds will go in newspapers, reading material, until every predestinated Seed of God has heard It.
[Bro. Branham in "Conduct-Order-Doctrine", pg. 724]