<TITLE>28. Par -</TITLE>L-42-7 Now, if you've got that kind of patience after God gives you a promise, and you see it in the Bible, "It's mine," then wait. Then if you've got that kind of patience, add it to your faith. You see how high you're getting now? You're getting way up here now. All right. (The clock hand's getting way around too, isn't it?)

L-43-1 All right. All right, add this to your faith, always putting Him before you, remembering, it was He that promised. Wasn't me promised; wasn't the pastor promised (our Brother Neville); it wasn't some other minister promised; it wasn't some priest or pope, wasn't no man of the earth; it was God made the promise. And God's able to keep everything He promised.
All right. If you've got that kind of faith to know that God promised it... Say, "Brother Branham, I'm sick. I need healing awful bad." Accept it. It's a gift given to you. Yes, sir. If thou canst believe, "Well," you say, "I do believe." Then forget it. That's all. It's all over. See? Have patience.
If you've got patience... If you're not, you're crumbling off this building here. See? It'll knock all the rest of it down, that one thing. You've got to have that. Don't add it, because it'll wreck your building. If you haven't got patience, if you haven't got virtue to add to your faith that you say you've got, and if you haven't got any faith, and try to put virtue on it, it'll break your faith down. So you say, "Well now, wait a minute. Maybe this is all a mistake anyhow. Maybe God isn't God. Maybe there is no God." See, it'll break the thing right in two. See?

L-43-4 But if you've got genuine faith, then put genuine virtue to it, then genuine knowledge, then genuine temperance, then genuine patience. See, you're moving right on up the line. All right.
Fifthly, add godliness. Oh, my. Godliness to be added... What does godliness mean? I looked in four or five dictionaries and couldn't even find what it meant. Finally, I was down at Brother Jefferies there; we found it in the--in a dictionary. "Godliness" means "to be like God."
Oh, my. After you've got faith, virtue, knowledge, temperance, patience, then be like God. Whew. You say, "I can't do that, Brother Branham." Oh, yes you can. Let me just read you a few Scriptures here just a minute: Matthew 5:48. We'll take this one and see what it sounds like: Matthew 5:48, and see if you're supposed to be like God. You know the Bible says, "Ye are gods." Jesus said so. Why? All the virtue... All the things that's in God's in you. Matthew 5:48 "Be ye..." (Jesus speaking in the beatitudes) "Be ye therefore (p-e-r-f-e-c-t, what's that?) perfect, even as your Father in heaven is perfect." You got way up here now 'fore you have to do that. All these things has to be added first. Then when you get up here, He's asked you now to be perfect, godliness, sons and daughters of God. That's right. How many things I could say along that line.

L-44-1 Let's turn to Ephesians 4 and find out over here what in the Book of Ephesians it says about this thing too, about how we should, how we should do. Ephesians the 4th chapter and begin with the 12th verse: Ephesians 4 and begin with the 12th verse. All right, let's begin up here at the 11th verse.
And he gave some apostles; and some, prophets;... (Remember last night: don't try to take the other man's office. See?)... and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and some teachers;
For the perfecting of... (God... Does it read like that? The perfecting of what? Saints. Who are the saints? The sanctified ones, the ones who started from down here.)... perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry:... (The ministry of Jesus Christ)... for the edifying of the body of Christ: (For the edifying, building it up, edifying...)
Until--till we all come into the unity of the faith, and the knowledge of the Son of God, into the perfect man,... (Unto the assurance, oh, my.)... unto the measure of the statue of the fulness of Christ:


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