<TITLE>05. Par 15-17</TITLE>L-15 I can watch those little groups as the Galileans come and the ones from the different parts of the world who came. Why did they have--come together? Because they were kindred spirits. Now, the rest of the religious world of that day, they didn't know what it was all about. But these people who had things on common grounds, who had seen Jesus, and knowed His nature, and knowed what to expect of Him, they were coming together making themselves one unit, because they had--they knew Him.
Now, that's what's happening today. There's many people who goes to church. There's many who recites a creed. There's many who studies the Scripture. But there's some who know Him. Not to know the creed isn't salvation. Not to know the rules of the church is not Eternal Life. Not to belong to the church is Eternal Life. Those things are good. But yet to know Him is Eternal Life, to know Him the Person, Christ. That's where Eternal Life lays, is knowing Him personally yourself: Know His nature, know what He does, how He acts, and then when you do that, you'll have a knowledge of His Word, what He wants you to do. That's where faith comes. You cannot go step out half--halfway thinking He might do it, or He probably will do it, perhaps He will. You've got to know exactly it's His will. You've got to believe it with all your heart.

L-16 A person come to me recently and said, "Brother Branham, do you really think it's wrong for a man to smoke cigarettes as a Christian?"
I said, "Why did you ask me? That proves that you're condemned or you wouldn't have asked the question." If there is a question in your mind, get away from it. You cannot walk by faith with a question mark in your mind. If you're a Baptist and got a question mark, Pentecostal, got a question mark, Presbyterian with a question mark, get that question mark out of the way. Know Him, then there's no question to it; you know you've passed from death unto Life, because you know Him. His Spirit dwells in you; you take His nature; His Word is alive in you; everything He said is "Amen."
You'll not say, "The days of miracles is past, and no such a thing as Divine healing," with the Spirit of the living God Who wrote the Bible in you. You can't do it. He will vindicate Himself. Then when you see such things going on, you'll not criticize that, you'll glorify God, because the very Spirit that wrote them and is performing them will bear witness of them. That's the Spirit of the church of the living God, the living God living in the living church. And they are dead to sin and trespasses, and have been awakening in His likeness and moved by His Spirit. Therefore, no matter what denomination you go to, if you are borned of His Spirit you have His nature in you.

L-17 They knew His nature. So they were remembering that He had made a promise. And those who know Him and know when He promises anything, He keeps His promise. He said, "Heavens and earth will pass away, but My Word shall never fail." He keeps His promise. And those who are natured like Him, has His nature in them, believe that with all their heart. That's the true seed of Abraham that we were speaking of last night.
If the Bible said, "He was wounded for our transgressions, with His stripes we were healed," the true seed of Abraham says, "Amen, that's the truth," because the Spirit of God is in them and they witness to the truth. They don't take what things look like; they take what God said about it.


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