19-0313N. BTL

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[This Message was preached on the night of 13th March 2019 at a place in Bungoma, Kenya by Brother Joshua. It is 1 hour 31 minutes 57 seconds long.]

 

Alas! And did my Saviour bleed,

And did my Sovereign die?

Would He devote that sacred Head

For such a worm as I?

 

At the cross, at the cross where I first saw the light,

And the burden of my heart rolled away,

It was there by faith I received my sight,

And now I am happy all the day!

 

Was it for crimes that I have done,

He groaned upon the tree?

Amazing pity, grace unknown,

And love beyond degree!

 

Well might the sun in darkness hide,

And shut his glories in,

When Christ, the Mighty Maker, died

For man, the creature’s sin.

 

But drops of grief can ne’er repay

The debt of love I owe;

Here, Lord I give myself away

‘Tis all that I can do!

(SoW No. 146/IJL. No. 55.)

 

May the Lord richly bless you. Before we pray, maybe, I will read a Scripture in the Book of

Acts 1: 4-5;

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And, being assembled together with them, commanded them that they should not depart from Jerusalem, but wait for the promise of the Father, which, saith he, ye have heard of me. For John truly baptized with water; but ye shall be baptized with the Holy Ghost not many days hence.

Amen.

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I have felt to say something a little about The Promise of God. Jesus says, “Wait for the Promise of the Father,” meaning there's a Promise which only the Father gives. God’s promise to Abraham was two-fold, and first, it was that he should be heir of the land of Canaan. It was given to him and to his Seed. And though we may have other minor promises, which might have been fulfilled elsewhere, yet the major one was Canaan’s land, the Promised Land, which was finally inherited by the Children of Israel. Secondly, Abraham was promised a Seed that would multiply as stars for multitude. This was fulfilled in shadow form in Isaac. These two faces of the promise to Abraham were a mere shadow of the true promise.

 

Then in the New Testament, the Promise advances into the earnest, which is more real than the shadows of the Old Testament. This is The Promise of the Father. And since the same word Promise is used in both dispensations, then it means that the two Promises are similar; for the Old Testament was a type of the New Testament in everything, so also the promise given to Abraham was only a type of the true Promise.

Jesus tells His disciples to wait in Jerusalem till they receive the Promise of His Father before to do anything else. It means it was all they needed to become what they were expected to be; it is that Promise, with nothing else outside it.

It is a free God-given Promise with an all-inclusive inheritance! It leaves out nothing, and it lacks nothing! This means that when you receive that Promise or Covenant, then you will have received everything! It is a free Promise holding everything! It is given unto all that believe Him. The only condition laid for the receiving of this Promise is faith. Therefore, all that you stand in need of is included in that Promise based on the Covenant.

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Despite its being such a sublime Promise, yet nothing is so scaring to the carnal man as that promise – that is to both religious and non-religious people, all are scared of the Holy Spirit. For many can easily identify themselves with God religiously. And slightly less than that can identify themselves with Jesus; some Jesus whom they read about in the Bible. But very few can reach out to receive the Holy Spirit. Nevertheless, the Holy Spirit is the Promise of the Father that carries everything that everyone stands in need of! Yet many are scared of Him. Many do not wait to receive him. Many have no desire to seek for Him, yet in him are all the promises of God. Everything in him is yea and amen. All that God promised you come to you through the Holy Spirit.

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Why is it so? A wonder of wonders, isn't it? Many own and worship God in some way, though wrongly! Few own and receive Jesus correctly! Then much fewer own and receive the Holy Spirit rightly! So, the world over, the number of true worshippers drastically reduces at an increasing rate, as one descends from the institutions of God, Jesus, down to the Holy Spirit. Why is it so? Some evil must be working in men to scare them away from the heart center of all eternal riches! For many of them stand in awe when the Holy Spirit sweeps by! They think that the Holy Spirit is something very scaring, something quite odd. Yet the Bible says: God above us (The Father), God amidst us, or with us (Jesus Christ the Son) and God in us (The Holy Spirit)! Why would one be scared of God being in him or her? It defeats reason, leave alone understanding!

For Jesus said that if one kept His commandments, then God will come to indwell him as the Father with Jesus as the Word – both in him by the Holy Spirit.

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Jesus answered and said unto him, If a man love me, he will keep my words: and my Father will love him, and we will come unto him, and make our abode with him. John 14:23 

 

So, whoever loves Jesus keeps His commandments. Now, the commandments here doesn't mean the laws, but the promised Word. Therefore, to keep His commandments is to receive the Word which He has promised for your day! Thus, when the disciples went to Jerusalem, for to wait for the Promise of the Holy Spirit to be sent to them, they were keeping God's Commandment! And keeping God's Commandment is believing on Him for what He has promised!

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Whoever receives the promised Word is the same that keeps it, and it is counted unto him for righteousness. He is justified by that faith like Abraham was. Abraham believed God's commandment (promises) given him of becoming a father of many nations, the Land of Canaan for an inheritance. And his faith was counted for righteousness unto him. To believe God's promises is all that God required from Abraham.

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Therefore, if God has promised you something, and you wait on Him for it; you'll be fulfilling and keeping His Word! You simply believe and wait for its fulfillment! That is why Jesus told his audience in Matthew 11:29, "Learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light."

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And once you receive God's Promise, it will do wonders for you! It will make you what God has purposed you to be, without you adding or removing anything from it! He has put all the needful mechanics and dynamics for you in that Promise! Hence, all your struggles are null and void! Your struggles are the very undoing, manifesting your unbelief in Him! They are your works which He has commanded you not to do in His day! Your works or struggles of trying to make yourself better before Him are the servile works that pollute His Sabbath day – called Today. Yes, Today, when you hear His voice, do not harden your hearts!

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All our works are servile because they are of the law and not grace! They only work to undo the effect of God's Word in us. That is why God laid the foundation of the Gospel in the Church Ages based on His Grace, even as preached by Paul and all the true messengers that came after him: The likes of Luther, Wesley and on … on …up to Branham. They were emphatic on the same Grace, though the Church has always fallen back to the law of carnal traditions from men. The Gospel only works fully in you when you receive the whole of it and not part of it!  And if God has promised you Heaven and all the good things that are therein, what is so hard for Him, to make you fit for the same?

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The Fullness of all things is in the promise; it needs no subtraction or addition, the promise fully provides for your eternal assurance. Once you receive the promise, it's done for you, because it's an embodiment of all eternal things. Yes, all these virtues that constitute Christianity such as goodness, righteousness, holiness, humility, meekness, faithfulness, lowliness, love, temperance, faith etc. are all wrapped in that one Promise of the Father!  That is what the Father has prepared for your justification. And all He commands you is to believe and receive it. Receive what? The Holy Spirit! How? By hearing and believing the promised Word being revealed and preached today. That Word is the seed and the Holy Spirit comes to quicken it. Then it manifests itself in you.

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Therefore, as long as you have believed and you are waiting for it, you're already as good as what God has determined you to be, your physical state notwithstanding. God demands nothing else from you! All He demands is for you to believe His promised Word! Once you welcome His promised Word in your heart and you fully surrender to it, you have done all that you can do. The rest will be done by that Word as the Holy Spirit quickens it. Amen!

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Yes, you want to be Holy? It is the Word of promise to make you holy! You want to be justified? It is the Word of promise to justify you! You want to add on your faith virtue, and on virtue knowledge, and on knowledge temperance, and on temperance patience, and on patience godliness, and on godliness brotherly love, and on brotherly love charity? The Word of promise does all that for you! What do you do? You lay all your heart on the Word of promise being fulfilled today and believe it with all in you and the rest follows suit! That is what it means by being saved by grace:

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But God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us, Even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, (by grace ye are saved;) And hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus: That in the ages to come he might shew the exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness toward us through Christ Jesus. For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them. Ephesians 2:4-10 

 

Look at what Jesus says:

Which of you by taking thought can add one cubit unto his stature? Mat 6:27 

 

Yea, if you can’t add a cubit to your physical frame, how can you ever add a cubit to your spiritual workmanship! Growing into the stature of a perfect man is done only by the power of the Holy Spirit upon the promised Word being fulfilled in your day! Your own effort avails nothing! The works of the law out of your struggles can never add any measure to your spiritual stature! It takes the Holy Spirit by the Word of promise! It is none of your struggles! It is all the work of grace! It is all done in Christ for you. All you have to do is to receive it as you hear and believe the Word which God has sent to do exactly that for you!

 

Hallelujah! All was done for you by God in Christ Jesus before the foundation of the world, all you have to do is to receive it. How do you receive it? By hearing and believing on the Word of promise being revealed and preached today! No amount of historical teaching will avail for you anything! It must be a fresh revelation from the throne of God today! It is such a message that provides grace for you to be saved freely. That Word has God’s workmanship for you. It is the seed to grow in you and cloth you in God’s workmanship. By that Word you grow to perfection by the power of the Holy Spirit.

 

Let that sink deep into your heart: that God does not demand anything from you of what you know or don't know! You just waste your time, imagining how you should make yourself a better Christian! Let it be nailed down in you, because the devil and your mind are your great deceivers, if not false prophets! You may see the light of the Message and rejoice in it greatly; but before you make three or four steps forward, you begin listening to the devil, who then beguiles you that you're not just in the right state; and that you should do this and that, for you to be a Christian. That is nothing but whoredom against God's Word! How? You have began listening to some other fellow around you; and having tasted his fruit, you think it is sweet and pleasant, or good enough for food? That is how the Galatians were beguiled from the truth of the Gospel of the grace of God in Christ. There is only one source of your salvation and perfection, and that is the promised Word working in you by the Holy Spirit. Anything else is a mere religious illusion!

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For once you begin taking other suggestions that either add or subtract from God's Seed-word, you're committing whoredom! Remember that all you need to do to be just, righteous, perfect, holy and a man in God's image, is to receive the Promise plus nothing, and minus nothing! Therefore, what you should do is to accept it, believe it and wait for its fulfilment! Yes, spend all your time believing the Promise being ministered to you by the Holy Spirit today, and you would have done God's Perfect Will and work of keeping His commandments! Stay right there with the promised Word for this hour! Seek to hear more of what God is speaking this very hour! That spoken Word of this hour has all you need to be a saint of God! Hear it, recognize it, believe it and walk in it and it will do for you all that you need! Hallelujah! God’s Word of promise is His arm that works wonders in you! Oh, if you can only hear, recognize, believe and surrender to it! What a saint of God you will become!

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This is because that Promise has everything in itself. God does not need your assistance whatsoever to make you what He wants you to be! Therefore, let that Message shine brightly enough in you, to remain a strong anchorage in you, a great pillar and ground of truth in your Christian pilgrimage. That's all that God is demanding from you! Yes, a lighter yoke than air, and easy for you to bear. Just believe His prophets today, that you may be established as you wait in Jerusalem for the Promise of the Father! That is all, and it is the only Commandment He gives you. He doesn’t burden you with anything else. Quite a light yoke for you!

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And they rose early in the morning, and went forth into the wilderness of Tekoa: and as they went forth, Jehoshaphat stood and said, Hear me, O Judah, and ye inhabitants of Jerusalem; Believe in the LORD your God, so shall ye be established; believe his prophets, so shall ye prosper. 2Chronicles 20:20 

 

But how can they believe Him unless they hear Him first, and that is why God speaks in every generation; for you only believe as you hear Him speaking. And what God speaks to you today is the same that has power to convert you. You can never be converted by history! That is why the devil builds all his religions on the history of what God did years ago, and by that he deceives many. For he knows very well that such historical lessons can never change a soul! But you are commanded by God to wait upon Him to receive His promise for your day.

 

God has never stopped sending His prophets with “thus saith the Lord.” God will always have a mouthpiece on earth! God’s mouthpiece is not the church; it is a vindicated prophet living today.

 

And so long as you go to Jerusalem, joyfully testifying that you're going to receive the Promise of the Father, it does not matter whether you have done anything wrong or not; you will receive the Father's Promise! However, once the promise is received, the Holy Spirit will iron out the evil acts by and by.

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Remember the law was added because of transgression so that it can check and reduce evil in the world. The law ensures that people are not carefree and left to do anything they want. Otherwise, the law is not for any righteousness, salvation, safety or improvement of one’s spiritual stature. It is for the world not for the Christian. But the word of Promise is for the Christians, even the elect! And once you receive that Seed-Word that begets you as a child of God, it remains alive in you! It doesn't rot, but it begets you and remains there as the center of your heart. That is why the Scripture says that whoever is born of God does not sin because His Seed remains in him. Now, sin is unbelief against God's Word! Thus, once you have received the Word of God in you, you cannot sin anymore; it is the only precious thing that you should maintain and retain. You should not accept anything else contrary to that Seed!

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So, there are two phases of the Promise: the Promised Seed and the inheritance. Yes, that Promise of the Father has two things in itself. Firstly, the Seed to beget you anew in the state of being able to multiply – for you to be virtuous and fruitful. And secondly, to give you an inheritance. That is the same promise that God gave to Abraham in the Old Testament. It is the same Promise that Jesus told His disciples to go and wait for in Jerusalem. Therefore, as you believe in that Promise, earnestly praying and waiting for its fulfilment, you're kept and conducted in the way God wants you to be shaped. Your faith in that promise is the only thing that makes you please Him.

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Now, to wait in Jerusalem means to watch and pray for the promise of your day – desiring, hungering, and thirsting for the fulfillment of the Promise. And by this conduct, you're doing the works of the Father, which do not require your struggles or labours. Remember, it is the Holy Spirit that accomplishes God’s work of Salvation in you! For the Father and the Son come in you to accomplish His Will right from within you.

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Don’t forget it, that the Holy Spirit makes you quite Pentecostal and a Heavenly-bound Christian! He clothes you in the real Spiritual manners, and in the real atmosphere and nature of God. It is the Holy Spirit that undoes the devil! He lays the subtility and the lies of the devil naked, to his shame; such that, the devil lacks where to hide. That is why the devil is so scared of Him (The Holy Spirit) and works very hard to make people scared of the Holy Spirit for no reason. The truth is that, once people welcome the Holy Spirit, then that marks the end of the devil's hold on them! His throne is overturned, and he goes tumbling.

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And to sum up this Message, I would like you to ask yourself this question:

What is contained in the Father's Promise?

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And if you want to know what is contained in this Promise that the Father has for you, and nothing else; then get this: it's that the Father in His own Son comes to indwell you as the Holy Spirit! So, when you receive the Holy Ghost, you receive the Father, the Son and the inheritance! In the New Testament Churches, the believers were receiving the earnest of the inheritance, but now, we are waiting for the fullness of that inheritance – the Lion, the Ox, the Man and the Eagle!

The seed promised to Abraham was Isaac, who represents the Jesus that is promised to you. The land of promise to Abraham was Canaan, which represents the Holy Ghost, our inheritance. The Land of Promise and the Seed are one because the Seed manifests all that we are to inherit. Now, what else besides the above do you need?

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Therefore, I finish by doing what Jesus did to His disciples: commanding you not to depart or swerve to anything else; but wait in faith with praying, desiring, longing, watching till the Father's Promise is fulfilled in you. You should believe that it is the only thing you need to be in the image of the Son and that it is His commandment for you. Now, when you have done all that, then you would have answered His call. You will therefore be justified in His eyes like Abraham, because you will have done God’s Will towards you.

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That is why He has kept insisting upon that faith since it is the only thing that will make you what He wants you to be.  Thus, Salvation is by promise through faith, and by His grace and His own Work in His own provided way; so that you come up in the right image. Therefore, let us believe in Him; and once we get the promised Word, we should rejoice in it, like Abraham. It should be our joy, our great hope, our great encouragement, our great relief, our freedom, our liberty, our happiness and our merrying. It should be such daybreak, as we hold and wait on that. It should be a happy and blessed day. It should be a glorious day, as we wait for it.

 

Glory, glory hallelujah,

Glory, glory hallelujah;

Glory, glory hallelujah,

His truth is marching on.

 

 

Thank you, Heavenly Father, because Your Word is true. It is not a law. For if there's any law, then it was given to those who are in the flesh. And if the law speaks anything, it is to those that are under it, so that every mouth should be stopped. But the righteousness of faith is above the law. For by faith, people like Enoch were caught up, even when the law had said to Adam that he'd return to the dust of the earth, because he was taken from it. Yet the law had no power on Enoch because he lived by faith, which thing is higher, supreme and the more perfect way that is pleasing to God.

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Thank you, Heavenly Father, for providing that way of faith for us. That we should not regard anything else but your Word of Promise, for us to be shaped uprightly. So, grant it, Heavenly Father, as I commit all of them to you. I believe that you have helped them to see that you're not demanding any effort or labour from them, but faith alone. For who can perceive that and fail to rejoice all day long? Yes, just to rejoice in the liberty and the finished work of God by Jesus Christ!

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We thank you, Holy Father, because you have maintained that grace towards us. And have made it so real that we should serve you in that faith that perfects us. Father, that is our hearts' desire.

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I praise you; worship you and honour you. May all glory and blessings be unto you. In the name of Jesus Christ, we pray. Amen…

 

 

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