<TITLE>23. Par 98-101</TITLE>L-98 So now (You see?), the--no minister's got any rights, no matter how smart, how much theology he knows, and how well he knows the Bible, he's got no business in the pulpit preaching the Gospel until first he has met God; not presuming that "I ought to go out. I'll make a better living, and Hope I won't have to work too hard." You're mistaken there, brother, if you're really a preacher. Now. But, "I'll... and people will be this way, and I'll be popular amongst the--the neighborhood where I am, and things like that. And I think it's the right thing to do." That's not it.
A call of God is something you don't presume. It's something... An actual experience, something that you've talked face to face with God, and you know you're commissioned to go do it. "Surely I'll be with you." You don't presume nothing. You just believe it. Yes. Don't presume it.

L-99 Just don't presume "I'm running all right." Wait for a Christian personal experience. Don't claim the Holy Ghost when you see yourself still dilly-dallying in the world. Don't do that. Don't... You--you'd be better off if you just forgot about it. See? If you forgot... "Well," say, "Brother Branham, I--I got shivers over me one day." That--that--that--that might be all right too. See? But you say, "Well, I--I danced in the Spirit. I'm--I spoke with tongues; I--I might've done these things." That's fine. Yes, sir, that's all right.
But if that life hasn't straightened up, if you men still smoke cigarettes, tell jokes, take sociable drinks, lie, cheat, not honest with your neighbor, not even honest with your family (See?), and claim to have the Holy Ghost, don't you testify that no more, brother.

L-100 And you women that hasn't the common decency to let your hair grow out, like God told you to... That's right. The Bible said that a woman that'll bob her hair dishonors her head, and her--that dishonors her husband. And you that'll wear these little old garments like the rest of the world wears, the Bible said that he that... "a woman that'll put on a garment that pertains to a man is an abomination," filthy in the sight of God. And then you claiming to have the Holy Ghost? You're presuming you've got It. But when you get It, It cleans you up. That's right, makes you different.
You that claim you have the Holy Ghost, and you that's got long hair, and wear your dresses neat and everything like that, and you'll stay home on Wednesday night to watch a program, a television program, instead of going to church to prayer meeting, you're presuming you got the Holy Ghost. For when the Holy Ghost is in there, the love of God is so constrained in you, till you just can't stay away from the people. See? You that has to be forced to prayer...

L-101 What if my wife... If I told my wife... And if I marry--I was married, I told my wife that I--I loved her and that was a lie, and when it really come to the showdown, we--it's--it's an artificial love, I'm just, I'm--I... It's not really the truth. See?
It's just like you can wear artificial teeth; if you have no teeth. That--that's all right. You have to have something to chew with, so you get artificial teeth. Them--them teeth's all right to substitute until you--you get more. But that--them teeth is not connected with you. They're not connected there. They're all right. They're a substitute, but they're not connected with you. They'll not come in the resurrection 'cause they're not connected with you. That's right.
If you had an arm cut off, you put on an artificial arm; it's a substitute, something--wear a glove--and so, that's--that's all right. It's perfectly all right (See?), to do that. But that artificial arm will never come. Nothing artificial will ever come in the resurrection. And neither will an artificial Christian ever rise in the resurrection. You're not connected with Christ.


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