22-1121P_THE BATTLE OF THE MIND PT-2

Mar 9:17  And one of the multitude answered and said, Master, I have brought unto thee my son, which hath a dumb spirit; 

Mar 9:18  And wheresoever he taketh him, he teareth him: and he foameth, and gnasheth with his teeth, and pineth away: and I spake to thy disciples that they should cast him out; and they could not. 

Mar 9:19  He answereth him, and saith, O faithless generation, how long shall I be with you? how long shall I suffer you? bring him unto me. 

Mar 9:20  And they brought him unto him: and when he saw him, straightway the spirit tare him; and he fell on the ground, and wallowed foaming. 

Mar 9:21  And he asked his father, How long is it ago since this came unto him? And he said, Of a child. 

Mar 9:22  And ofttimes it hath cast him into the fire, and into the waters, to destroy him: but if thou canst do any thing, have compassion on us, and help us. 

Mar 9:23  Jesus said unto him, If thou canst believe, all things are possible to him that believeth. 

Mar 9:24  And straightway the father of the child cried out, and said with tears, Lord, I believe; help thou mine unbelief. 

Mar 9:25  When Jesus saw that the people came running together, he rebuked the foul spirit, saying unto him, Thou dumb and deaf spirit, I charge thee, come out of him, and enter no more into him. 

Mar 9:26  And the spirit cried, and rent him sore, and came out of him: and he was as one dead; insomuch that many said, He is dead. 

Mar 9:27  But Jesus took him by the hand, and lifted him up; and he arose. 

Mar 9:28  And when he was come into the house, his disciples asked him privately, Why could not we cast him out? 

Heb 11:1  Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. 

Heb 11:2  For by it the elders obtained a good report. 

Heb 11:3  Through faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that things which are seen were not made of things which do appear. 

Heb 11:4  By faith Abel offered unto God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain, by which he obtained witness that he was righteous, God testifying of his gifts: and by it he being dead yet speaketh. 

Heb 11:5  By faith Enoch was translated that he should not see death; and was not found, because God had translated him: for before his translation he had this testimony, that he pleased God.

 

Heb 11:6  But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him. 

Eph 6:10  Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord, and in the power of his might. 

Eph 6:11  Put on the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. 

Eph 6:12  For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places. 

Eph 6:13  Wherefore take unto you the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand. 

Eph 6:14  Stand therefore, having your loins girt about with truth, and having on the breastplate of righteousness; 

Eph 6:15  And your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace; 

Eph 6:16  Above all, taking the shield of faith, wherewith ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked. 

Eph 6:17  And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God: 

Eph 6:18  Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, and watching thereunto with all perseverance and supplication for all saints; 

THE BATTLE OF THE MIND 2

38 Worry has no virtue to it, at all. Yeah, just—just—just skip worry, and accept faith.

39 Someone said, “Well, now, what if you’re going to be shot in the morning, wouldn’t you worry?”

I said, “No, don’t think so.”

“Why?”

I said, “Worry couldn’t do nothing but make me worse.”

“Well, what good is it going to do to have faith?”

I said, “It might deliver me.” And that’s right, see.

40 So worry has no virtue to it, at all, but faith has all virtue. Believe!

Now worry sometime cause it.

41 And another thing that cause it among the people, is getting between two opinions. That’ll cause amnesia. And it gets you to a place where you—you, actually, what you’ve done, you’ve lost your reasons. You’ve lost your mind. You can’t make…You don’t know who you are. You can’t identify yourself. You can walk around, eat and everything, but, you, still you can’t identify yourself. You have got your scholarly education, you can…same education you had, but you don’t know where it come from, you don’t know who you are, where you belong. That’s amnesia, so we are told.

    64-0411 - Spiritual Amnesia  Rev. William Marrion Branham

71 Many people come to me, many times in the prayer line, and stand there and say, “Oh, Brother Branham, I have plenty faith. I’ve got faith like to move mountains.” And, yet, they haven’t any faith. They hardly have enough faith to get to the platform. But they are conscious of one thing, that they do believe. They are believing intellectually with their mind. And their mind will never bring them to God. Your mind is reasonings. And God has no reasonings.

72 If you can reason it out, your mind will tell you, “Now looky here, the doctor says I can’t get over that. It’s impossible.”

73 Now, the doctor, with his intellects, with his intelligence, with his knowledge of medical science, he has told you the best of the travel of his mind. And you take in your mind, and using the same thing the doctor has told you, you…God can never touch that line, as long as you reason. But let’s put down reasoning. God never made us to live by our intellect. We live by the Holy Spirit that’s in our soul, that says “no” to any reasonings that’s contrary to God’s Word.

74 When God’s Word says it’s so, there is nothing in the world stands in Its way. Then when you do that, you’re getting down on the right side of God. You’re getting down till you can ask what you want to, and it’ll be given to you, ’cause there’s nothing between there. There’s no reason. Let’s cast away those reasonings. They stand in your way. Get your mind out of the way. And don’t you say what you reason, what you see, what you think. Say what God says to be the Truth. And that can only come from the inside, from the heart, not from the intellects.

18 Now, Paul speaking here of the valley, or the shadow, rather, the law, being a shadow of good things to come, could never make the worshipper perfect. Then he goes on to show what the perfection is. Now, it’s a strange thing that this is so much thought of people; they say, “Well, I’m weak; my faith is not very much; I’m not a very good Christian.” That’s just what the devil wants you to say. You’re just talking his language right then. See? You mustn’t never say that. Don’t never let your testimony be negative; let it be positive all the time. “I am saved. I have God in my heart. I believe Him with all my heart.” Do you believe in Divine healing? “With all of my heart.”

Let your—your testimony always and your thoughts, everything…Never permit a negative thought to come in your mind if you can help it. When it starts that, don’t entertain it. Well, you say, “I can’t help the thoughts from coming.” Well, that’ll be like the farmer that said he couldn’t stop—he couldn’t stop the birds from flying over his place, but he could sure stop them from roosting.” So that’s a—that’s a good thing. You see? You can’t help the thoughts when they come, but don’t—don’t—don’t entertain them; just pass it on. “No, sir. Jesus Christ is my Saviour; all things are mine by God. And I—I’m going to keep them. I’m going to testify of them.”

And God can only bless you as you confess that He has done it for you. See, He’s the High Priest of our confession. Is that right? Hebrews 3. He said that He’s the High Priest of our confession. He can only do for us as we accept it, and believe it, and confess it.

67 You know, I heard someone was in a meeting here, some time ago. Someone said, “Just let your mind go blank now. Just look right straight up towards the skies. Let your mind go blank. You’ll get an experience.” And no doubt but what you do. That’s right. But, you get an experience, but what an experience? You see, when you do that, you just open your soul to Satan. He’ll give you something. That’s true.

68 But, I think, a person coming to Christ should come with all the intelligence they got, and quoting in their mind, when they come to Him, every promise in the Scripture. Keep your mind alert, when you come to Christ. Don’t let it go blank. The devil will make you do anything. See? They’ll give you a sensation. He can do that, too. But you want an experience, something that the Bible teaches, something that’s real.

A CARNAL MIND

ROMANS 8:6-7

  6    For to be carnally minded is death; but to be spiritually minded is life and peace.

  7    Because the carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be.

1 COR 3:1-3

1.  And I, brethren, could not speak unto you as unto spiritual, but as unto carnal, even as unto babes in Christ.

 2    I have fed you with milk, and not with meat: for hitherto ye were not able to bear it, neither yet now are ye able.

 3    For ye are yet carnal: for whereas there is among you envying, and strife, and divisions, are ye not carnal, and walk as men?

134 Isn’t that just the modern Christian today? Oh, let the healing take place, and they’re shouting the victory. Let the Power of the Holy Spirit fall, and they’re shouting the victory. And those who are really filled with the Holy Ghost, remains that way down through life’s journey.

135 But the man that’s still walking with the carnal mind, let a little discouragement come up, something go wrong, and they go away, saying, “Well, I thought it was all right, but, oh, my, look at it now. I thought that little church would never fail. I thought this person…” You got your mind on the wrong thing. See? Put your mind on Him that can’t fail. Let your conversation not be about your church, but about your Lord. That’s the One. Not about your neighbor, but about your Lord. Let your conversations be of Him.

17 A little girl, she looks like, she was an alcoholic. And she was in one of the greatest Protestant churches in the states the other day giving a testimony. And the people wept when she told them how that she’d been brought from a drunkard’s grave, where five of the best doctors in the nation said, “She’s hopeless.” The A. A., Alcoholics Anonymous give her up as a hopeless case.

And when she come to the platform, the Holy Spirit said, “Rosella Griffith, you are an alcoholic and so-and-so and such a things has happened. But THUS SAITH THE LORD…” And she was delivered. She gave her testimony. The people wept. And after while somebody said, “Oh, she was a darling child, but she’s Pentecostal.”

Don’t you see that old man-made green-eyed devil? Oh, you can’t polish it up. It’s still sin and unbelief. I don’t care if it was a Jehovah Witness, or any other kind of a witness, as long as God’s there I’ll be with it. Correct. When God moves in the Spirit, His children moves with It.

Someone’s recorder…I’m sorry. I’m not excited, but I feel real religious. Oh, there’s just something about it gets all over you. The Word…Not all over you, but all in you, It moves every little fiber inside of you.

Man works by his head and looks by his eye. See the devil said to the woman, “Oh, the tree is pleasant.”

She said, “It’s good to look at.” See that same devil, if he can get you to stop just for a minute, he can make you reason it out. He can make you think with your mind. But God doesn’t use a man’s head. God uses his heart. God works on his heart while the devil works on his head. God chose the heart. The Bible says, “As a man thinketh in his heart, so is he.”

93 Just around the corner, when you get to thinking about Divine healing, get to thinking about Christ, keep Him on your mind. “If there be any praise, if there be any virtue,” the Bible said, “think on these things.”

94 If any thought comes by, “Well, maybe it couldn’t be so. Maybe it…” Get it off your mind right quick. Think on things that’s positive. Never let a negative thought pass through; just, or, don’t let it stop, anyhow, if it starts through. Keep your thoughts positive: Jesus.

95 Don’t think, setting here in a wheelchair, you, that you’re hopeless, helpless. You’re not. Don’t let that negative thought ever pass through, or, don’t let it anchor. You can’t help it from going through your mind (That’s right.), but don’t let it stop.

96 Like the old farmer said, “I can’t keep the birds from flying over my place.” But he had a double-barrel shotgun, said, “I can sure keep them from roosting.” So you do the same thing, and you too. See? Don’t let them roost. Let them pass right on through.

97 Now, here’s the shotgun to use. Both New and Old Testament, it’s a double barrel. It’s very good, too. I’ll tell you, It keeps them all away.

77 But, your mind accepts It. It grasps It. What is your mind controlled by? Your spirit. And your spirit catches the Word of God, and that’s the thing that’s got Life in It. It brings Life into you. Oh, brother! When that takes place, when Life comes down that channel, into you, the Word of God is manifested in you. “If ye abide in Me, and My Words abide in you, then ask what you will and it’ll be done for you.”

78 Then what does that do? From the middle of the heart, which is the soul, from there goes forth, feeding every channel. The trouble of it is, we’re standing in here with a lot of doubt, trying to accept what’s out there. You’ve got to stop that; and come down that channel with the true Word of God, and then it goes out, itself, automatically. It’s what’s on the inside. That’s the thing that counts, is the inside.

Satan’s approach is from the inside.

79 Now, you say, “I don’t steal. I don’t drink. I don’t do these things.” That has nothing to do with it.

80 See, it’s the inside. No matter how good you are, how moral you are, how truthful you are, those things are respected. But Jesus said, “Except a man be borned again.” See? There’s got to be something happen inside. If you don’t, that’s artificial put-on, for down in your heart you desire to do it anyhow. It’s can’t be artificial. It’s got to be real.

81 And there’s only one avenue that that can come down, and that’s by the way of free moral agency, come into the soul, by your thoughts. “As a man thinketh in his heart, so is he.” “If you say to this mountain, ‘Move,’ and don’t doubt in your heart, but believe that what you have said will come to pass, you can have what you said.” You get it? There you are. See? There’s the battlegrounds. If you’d only get that started, first.

86 It’s got to come down the line of free moral agency. You, yourself, let the Word of God…You don’t come because your mother was a good woman. You don’t come because you’re a good neighbor. You come because that God calls you to come, and you accept Him on the basis of His Word. That Word is what means everything. That Word! If you can get everything out of the way, all conscience, all senses, and just let the Word come in, that Word will produce just exactly.

89 Well, that’s what’s the matter with our pentecostal Faith today. We’ve let too many things hinder It, the Faith that we been taught, the Holy Spirit that’s been living in us. We’ve let too many things, looking at somebody else.

90 And the devil is always trying to point you to somebody’s failure, but he tries to keep you away from the real testimony that’s genuine. He’ll point you to a hypocrite, some time, who went out impersonating something. He didn’t do it, because he was impersonating. But if it come from the true source of the Word of God, “Heavens and earth will pass away, but My Word cannot pass away,” It’s got to stay there.

You see it, sis?

91 It must be accepted in the mind, then It’s believed with the heart. Then the Word of God becomes a reality, then every senses of soul and body is just scoured out with the Holy Spirit. Then your sense of God, your conscience of God, everything that’s godly, flows through you. There’s not a doubt anywhere. There’s nothing can rise up.

92 There’s nothing can come up in the memory, and say, “Well, I remember Miss Jones tried to trust God, and Miss So-and-so. Miss Doe tried to trust God for healing, one time, and she failed.” See?