<TITLE>10. Par 40-43</TITLE>L-40 Jesus said, "Blessed are they that do hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be filled." It's a blessing to even thirst. But the devil has tried to make you think of something else. But the thirst was given you by God.
Listen. How dare you take that blessed holy thirst that God gave you to thirst after Him and try to satisfy it with the things of the world, with television programs, with drinking, with big sprees. The devil has perverted instruments of his own and taken that thirst that God give you to thirst for Him, and making you thirst after the things of the world. And every thirst that you have should be for Him. Certainly. That's life.

L-41 You say, "Now, I know the Bible better than you do, Brother Branham." You don't have life by knowing the Bible. You don't have life by joining church. You don't have life by being baptized. You don't have life by knowing your catechism. You don't have your life by being a minister. To know Him is Life, not to know the catechism or your church rules, but to know Him is Life.
And that thirst that God give you, isn't to be spent on a church either. The devil if he can't make you go to dances, and drink, and live immoral, and those things, he's perverted it to make you join church. And that's still perverted, because joining church doesn't give you life.

L-42 But the only way you can have Life is to take that thirst and satisfy it by the drinking at the Fountain that never runs dry, that beautiful Holy Spirit that rains from God out of heaven. That's the way you find Life is to know Him; not know His Book, but to know Him; not to know your church, but to know Him; not to thirst to satisfy the pastor, but to satisfy the Lord. That's that holy thirst. That's what it's in you for. And would you quench that with things of the world. It's death. It's perverted.
Did not the Bible say, "If you love the world or the things of the world, it's because of the love of God's not even in you."? That great holy thirst. You can't satisfy it by joining the church. There's no satisfaction in joining the church. You're trying to sear your conscience and fill your heart with lust. Come out in the open; confess your sins, and thirst for God's righteousness. "Because Thy lovekindness is better to me than life, my lips shall praise Thee." Think of it.

L-43 David also wrote in, I believe the 47th Psalm, being a woodsman, he said, "As the hart thirsts for the water brook, my soul thirsts after Thee, O God." As the hart, the deer, panteth for the water brook, my soul thirst after Thee.
Now, being acquainted with the outdoors, and in Africa, and in the jungles, and the eastern countries where this Book the Bible was written, they have over there great herds of wild dogs, wolves. And David was acquainted with these animals.
And a little deer, when these wild, savage dogs run into a herd of deer... They have long fangs, and they... One of their choice spots is to grab the deer is just behind the ear, sink those fangs in, and then swing his weight. When he does it, he rips the deer's neck. That's all of it. The deer goes right down.


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