|
Thoughts by Bro.
Ernest Hawtin
[from LETTERS TO THE CHURCHES book 1]
THE TRUMPET SOUND
1/24/1966
An unmistakable voice has sounded loud and clear to
prepare the way of the Lord in these last days. It is the voice
of the prophet, William Branham, who passed from the scene
of physical life on Dec. 24, 1965. I must write to the saints in
view of his ministry, as a prophet has such a vital connection
with every phase of Church life, and our relationship toward
him must be right, in order for that which takes place in the
future to be right.
In the first place, allow me to quiet your fears as to the
manner of his death. A long list of prophets will blend their
voices in confirmation that a premature, and usually violent
death, is the treatment they will receive at the hands of Babylon, the world
religious system. (Luke 11:49), Therefore also said the wisdom of God, I will send them prophets
and apostles, and some of them they shall slay and persecute: That the blood of all the prophets, which was shed
from the foundation of the world, may be required of this generation; From the blood of Abel unto the blood of Zacharias,
which perished between the altar and the temple; — (Luke
13:33), for it cannot be that a prophet perish out of Jerusalem.
Jerusalem below is typical of the World religious system, the Jerusalem above of
the true Church. It was a threefold proof of his calling as a prophet — to be killed — by a car
driven by a member of the Earthly religions; and last that he
died on the eve of a great Feast of Babylon, and the next
day, without knowing it, there was rejoicing, and making merry,
and sending gifts one to another, and Babylon was glad that
a prophet who had tormented her had been killed!
Let us rejoice in the sure trumpet blasts that prepared
the way of the Lord. I paid a visit of honor and respect to this
prophet some years ago. The main thing he told me was
that God had sent him to prepare the way of the Lord. He
recalled how God had made this real to him. “One day,” he
pondered, “I was in a prayer meeting, and a lady began to
prophesy, saying, ‘As John the Baptist was sent of God to
prepare the way of the Lord for His first coming, so will you
be sent of God to prepare His way for the second coming.'” As a further
witness, he then proceeded to tell me of a miraculous incident which happened when he was out in the
woods one day, when a bird spoke out with a human voice,
and as though he had been listening to the lady’s prophecy,
repeated it word by word! I could never doubt that this is what he came to do.
This work of preparation is now finished.
For 400 years the prophetic trumpet had not sounded!
There was no prophet in Israel. The minds of the people
were filled with the ordinary course of religious life — the synagogues, the scribes, the Pharisees, and the Sanhedrin, the
supreme council of the Jews. 400 years of sinking sands, a
great valley of no revelation; on the other hand were mountains of glacial-like deposits of the doctrines and traditions of
men. Then a trumpet like voice sounded out, John the Baptist, Prepare ye the way of the Lord (Matt. 3:3, Mk. 1:3, Lu.3:4). He was not sanctioned by the Sanhedrin, but he was
sent of God, and men began again to hear the voice of the
Lord. The preparation is not the coming of the Lord! But He
could never come without preparation. Always at the dawn
of a new era, great changes take place. This necessitates a
Divinely appointed prophet to prepare and introduce these
changes. The valleys of neglected Truth had to be raised, and the mountains of
doctrine and tradition had to be lowered. John opened the way for a growing revelation of Truth,
and when He who was the Truth came, He ministered to a
people who had already been introduced to Truth. John
sounded out as a first blast on the trumpet that the only credentials needed was to be sent of God. Many other blasts
followed such as his consecrated life in the deserts, his
tastings, manner of dress, his strange new baptism, his message of another to come who would baptize with the Holy
Ghost, and with fire. He did not compromise the Truth, even
for a king, and established again the usual destiny of the
prophets in imprisonment and death.
The prophet who is the subject of our discourse has paved
the way to many important beginnings. When he came, it
was to a religious world, which had for leaders thousands of
ministers who had satisfied the requirements of some theological institution, but no knowledge of the call of God. They
had their licenses to preach, but he appeared in the midst of
them with the most convincing credentials from Heaven, “An
angel appeared to me, and God sent me.” With many other
convincing signs he constantly proved his Divine Calling, and
not even his enemies, or the most skeptical of people could
possibly doubt.
As I have mentioned the Angel, I should say that this
was also a very important first, unknown to the religious World
of today, but he sounded a clear note concerning the possibility of Angelic visitation. As a result, humble people now
such as Elizabeth, Mary and Zacharias, could rejoice that
Heaven and all its hosts were very near, so close in fact, as
to be just on the other side of a thin veil that separates the
natural from the Spiritual. Though thousands doubted that
such a visitation could be possible today, yet now that the
way has been prepared, other visitations would not cause
much surprise, and would seem very much in order.
He prepared the way for Spiritual Gifts. Through the ages
God had always had His methods and modus operandi of
bringing His healing power to poor and needy humanity. I
am the Lord that healeth thee. (Ex. 15:26). Many had been
used mightily in the prayer of faith. Among these there were
men such as Smith Wigglesworth and Charles S. Price,
whose deaths followed one another in close and timely succession. Then, immediately following, appeared Bro.
Branham on the scene with the declaration of a Gift of healing to all peoples. A definite affirmation such as this had not
been known in our day’ What a cataclysmic revolution took
place everywhere he went! As though this sweeping change
in the church concerning Spiritual power was not radical
enough, he declared it was only the beginning of the restoration of the gifts of the Spirit. A reformation of this magnitude
should be known as far greater than in Luther’s day, but likely
will not be reckoned as such by this perverse generation.
What of other manifestations of the Spirit that had been
a blessing in the past? Must these now be discarded as
wrong, or merely fleshly? About these things I sought the
Lord, and He said to me, “What I have said or given in the
past is just as much of God, as that which is given in the
present, but there must be a steady growth as we near the
harvest, first the blade, then the ear, and after that the full corn in the
ear.” Even this great gift of which we speak matured and grew in operation and power, until it was at the
last, scarcely recognizable from its beginning. Anything that
is of God is capable of growth, expansion, and change. This
brings us to another important word that the prophet impressed upon me at the time of my visit to him. “I do not
have a gift, but the gift has me.” Immediately we can recognize this declaration as a Word of Wisdom. At first he came
with the affirmation that he had a gift from God, which in itself
is a fragment of the Divine. As this heavenly seed grew within him, it became of
sufficient energy to cause the human tabernacle that housed it, to take a
secondary place, and become subservient to the power of God. Rather than the human manipulating the Divine, now the Divine controlled the
human!
He told me how the mind of a seer was constructed, so
as to have the equivalent of another mind other than his own (presumably the
mind of Christ), into which he was translated, and was then in the Spirit where
he saw visions — hearing, seeing and sensing eternal things that pertained to another dimension. In his willingness to define and describe
this phenomenon, he eagerly expounded on it. “I don’t just
know how this all takes place,” he explained, “But all of a
sudden, — l’m gone — and I am in the Spirit.” At this juncture he closed his
eyes, and gave way to a slight stumble, pitching forward from one foot to the other, expecting to fall into
the arms, the everlasting arms of the Lord. On this occasion, he was not going into the Spirit, but wanted to elucidate
for my benefit, as effectively as possible, some of the operations of the Holy Spirit in his life.
This seems to many to be a very sovereign way for the
Spirit to work. Surely the Sons of God will know the movings
of the Spirit in an unmistakable manner. The Son can do
nothing of Himself, but what He seeth the Father do: (Jn.5:19). A true Son must see what the Father is doing, and
then do likewise. This moving of the Spirit within us should,
I believe, become more definite as we progress in the things
of God. In (John 11:33) the meaning of the word “groan,”
which is translated elsewhere with the meaning of “straightly
charged” or “murmured against”, signifies that He was censured, chided, or charged by the Holy Spirit to execute what
the Father had in mind in the raising of Lazarus from the
dead. This pressure troubled Him, and continued (vs. 38),
until the will of the Lord was fully made known to Him. This
sovereign leading of the Spirit was responsible in the raising
of Lazarus from the dead. This same power caused Him to
sit on the well, while the disciples went to buy bread; it worked
as He told them to go and loose the colt on which He was to
ride; or when He explained how to find the man at whose
house the passover was to be eaten.
Yes, we are thankful that the way has been prepared.
Now that this work is finished, the Church finds itself out there
in the front lines. This preparation ministry faced the enemy
as an individual, and did his work with great proficiency.
Because of the work that God has been doing in the Body,
we face the enemy, not only as individuals, but also as a
Body. The greatest of God’s works to be done in the last
days is through the Church. It is the fullness of Him that
filleth all in all (Eph. 1:23). He intends to make known through
the Church, the manifold wisdom of God, and demonstrate
His power to principalities and demons through the saints.
Let us gird ourselves for the Battle, putting on all the armor of
God. He that shall come will come, and will not tarry. (Heb.
10:37). The way has been prepared!
The above is an exact re-print of a message dated Jan.24, 1966 — 1 month after Bro. Branham’s death. The purpose is to show, especially to the young people, our position
then regarding
the message and the messenger.
|