Actors
Recognising the Supernatural Part of Your Life Pt.3
LUKE 18:9-14
9 ¶ And he spake this parable unto certain which trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and despised others:
10 Two men went up into the temple to pray; the one a Pharisee, and the other a publican.
11 The Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself, God, I thank thee, that I am not as other men are, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this publican. (Notice how he is comparing what he thinks is his good conduct as opposed to what he assumes is the publican’s conduct (A publican was a tax collector – harsh, greedy, and often deceitful, and yet Jesus was a friend of publican’s - Zacchaeus was a publican). So carnal comparison of conduct is something that goes on a lot among Christian people also, and so we have to be careful not to subconsciously fall into this trap of benchmarking ourselves against others by our conduct – it is the word we measure ourselves by, and the word says that the blood of Jesus Christ cleanses us from all sin)
12 I fast twice in the week, I give tithes of all that I possess.
13 And the publican, standing afar off, would not lift up so much as his eyes unto heaven, but smote upon his breast, saying, God be merciful to me a sinner. (Look at the attitude difference between these two men – maybe this Pharisee was the good one who was living a very upright life before God, and maybe the Publican was the one living a life that was not at the level that he should have been living – so this is showing us something about how it was not so much their good living, but what made the difference was to do with their pride and humility, that was the deciding factor)
14 I tell you, this man went down to his house justified rather than the other: for every one that exalteth himself shall be abased; and he that humbleth himself shall be exalted.
LUKE 11:37-39
37 ¶ And as he spake, a certain Pharisee besought him to dine with him: and he went in, and sat down to meat.
38 And when the Pharisee saw it, he marvelled that he had not first washed before dinner.
39 And the Lord said unto him, Now do ye Pharisees make clean the outside of the cup and the platter; but your inward part is full of ravening and wickedness.
**In other words, they were acting on the outside something of what they were not on the inside.
Actors
Recognising the Supernatural Part of Your Life Pt.3
We notice in the bible that one of the characteristics of the bride is that of her willingness to serve especially when it comes to the things of the Lord.
- We see how Abraham hurried to serve the Lord at his appearing in Genesis 18.
- Then we see how Rebekah was willing to serve Eliezer by fetching him water and even went beyond the call of duty to water his camels also.
- Then we see how that Ruth was serving in Boaz’s field when he first saw her.
- Then brother Branham tells the story of the orphan girl who was serving by washing the dishes when the ranch owner’s son was attracted to her - he saw this character of service in her that he didn’t see in the others.
*So we always want to have a willingness of our service toward the Lord, especially when it comes to serving within the body of Christ. It is a great privilege for us to serve the Lord in this hour.
*In the past few weeks we have been looking at this subject of “Recognising the Supernatural Part of Your Life” in conjunction with the message – “God hiding Himself in Simplicity then revealing Himself in the same”. And so we want to now look at this subject of “Actors” within the series of this same study of “Recognising the Supernatural Part of Your Life”.
**We see that Jesus’s day was full of actors that looked better than the real thing of what was an ordinary life – people are attracted to acting more than real life because real life doesn’t seem as spectacular as an actor’s life.
*People want to act out a person’s life of what they behold on Television because their life seems far more exciting – some hero type of person, not realising that the person that they are trying to act is also acting themselves of someone else who is not an actor but the real person, and so it is the real person that is the genuine article, but the real person’s life (as he was living it) would seem boring unless it is acted out with a much greater level of showmanship and drama.
**Children will try to act out different characters that they are impressed by on TV or some movie that they saw. But that is all it is, it’s just an act, they are not that person, they can at the best only imitate that person but they can never be that person and if they were that person in real life, it would not look anything like the actor on TV who is acting it out with drama.
When Winston Churchill gave his great speech in real life at the House of Commons on June 4th 1940 at the beginning of WW2 - "We shall go on to the end, we shall fight in France, we shall fight on the seas and oceans, we shall fight with growing confidence and growing strength in the air, we shall defend our island, whatever the cost may be.
"We shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills; we shall never surrender”
When you listen to this speech in real life, he doesn’t speak it with all that great of a performance – but if you ever hear it acted out by actors, the acting of this speech by an actor is far more appealing and more moving that the real speech spoken by the real person.
So people are attracted to performances that are acted out more than the real thing of the original, because it appeals to their emotions more and has a greater entertainment value than that of real life.
Recap a little from our last service…
Brother Branham preached this message “God hiding Himself in Simplicity then revealing Himself in the same” on the Sunday morning of the 17th of March 1963, and then on the Sunday evening he preaches “The breach between the church ages and the seals” and then the next night (Monday night) he begins with the first seal until he gets to the following Sunday night of the 24th of March 1963 when he preaches the seventh seal. Then on the 12th of April 1963 he preaches “God Hiding himself in Simplicity” again in Albuquerque New Mexico, so we see that the seven seals is enclosed within these two messages of “God hiding Himself in Simplicity then revealing Himself in the same”, showing us that the mysteries of the 7 seals were hidden from the public by the humble way that God does things so that the people miss seeing it because of the way that he does it is not spectacular in the eyes of man – if Hollywood would rein-act this, they would make it far more of a grand public performance of a great drama, but in real life, God leaves all that out, and that is why people fail to see the real great things of what God is really doing.
*In other words - God does the greatest things of life and the revealing of his word in a way that to man looks like nothing is really happening. And that is why, when you hear people say that nothing is happening in the message, it is because they don’t understand how God is working in the simplicity of the events of the everyday lives of believers – they fail to see the supernatural part that God is doing every day in the lives of the believers of this message.
***They fail to see the supernatural part of what God is doing because most people are looking for great public performances of signs and wonders, they want to see the big miracles and the spectacular out poring of the Holy Ghost anointing like Azusa street of a big public performance before they will acknowledge that God is moving, and so that is why they miss seeing him.
THE.SEVENTH.SEAL_ JEFF.IN SUNDAY_ 63-0324E
564-4 {305} Now, how did I know the other day, last Sunday, a week ago today, when I was preaching on "Be humble, be humble; remember God deals in little things." I didn't realize what it really was talking about, and now I see it. It is in such a humble way. You'd think that something like that would be revealed to the Vatican, or, but it comes just like John the Baptist. It comes like the birth of our Lord in a stable. Glory to God. So help me, the hour is at hand. We're here. Oh, my.
**This is why the message “God in simplicity” was such an important message that we needed to understand before the seals were preached so that we would be able to recognise the great supernatural things that were taking place during the opening of the seven seals, because the opening of the seven seals was by far the greatest and most supernatural event of this end time age, but yet it was the least appealing as a performing act to the public – there was no stage act involved as it was with the first two pulls. And people respond favourably to acting and performances far more than almost anything else – because acting is almost always far more spectacular that the real person of who the actor is acting out.
THE.SEVENTH.SEAL_ JEFF.IN SUNDAY_ 63-0324E
525-3 {3} I'd like to add this, that of all the services I've ever had in my life, I believe this week has been the most glorious time of all my life in services. No matter what I have... I've seen great miracles performed, of course, before in healing services, but this is beyond that.
*The third pull was way beyond the healing power of the 1st and 2nd pull, yet there was no stage act involved as it was with the first two pulls because we know that the 1st and 2nd pull ministry was just to attract the attention of the people for the main event of the revealing of the mysteries of the word by the same prophetic gift.
The same one that was revealing the secrets of the hearts of the people’s lives to them in the second pull was now going to reveal the lives of the elect of this age that had been sealed up in the bible from Genesis to Revelation.
THE.SEVENTH.SEAL_ JEFF.IN SUNDAY_ 63-0324E
565-2 {307} …... See, one... First bunch of little birds, feathers all beat down. You remember them? and they all flew eastward. And the second bunch were brighter, bigger birds, looked like doves, pointed wings; they flew eastward: first pull, second pull. Then the next was Angels.
**Notice how he is comparing the second pull with natural birds of nature like a bunch of little birds and doves, but then the third pull would be supernatural Angels, and there is a very big difference in comparison between common birds of nature and supernatural angels, and so this is showing us how much greater the third pull ministry was compared to the first and second pull ministry, but sometimes even believers of the message will still subconsciously esteem the 2nd pull of the discernment of the hearts a greater thing than the opening of the mysteries of the bible because of its public performance value.
LUKE 11:37-39 Opening scripture…
37 ¶ And as he spake, a certain Pharisee besought him to dine with him: and he went in, and sat down to meat.
38 And when the Pharisee saw it, he marvelled that he had not first washed before dinner.
39 And the Lord said unto him, Now do ye Pharisees make clean the outside of the cup and the platter; but your inward part is full of ravening and wickedness.
**In other words, they were acting on the outside something of what they were not on the inside.
MATTHEW 23:25-28
25 Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye make clean the outside of the cup and of the platter, but within they are full of extortion and excess. (This word “Hypocrites” (of what Jesus referred to as the condition of the Pharisees), in the Greek means “the acting of a stage player” Actors)
26 Thou blind Pharisee, cleanse first that which is within the cup and platter, that the outside of them may be clean also.
27 Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites (actors – they have learnt to act different on the outside to what they are on the inside)! for ye are like unto whited sepulchres, which indeed appear beautiful outward, but are within full of dead men's bones, and of all uncleanness. (In other words, what they were showing to others of what they were on the outside was completely different to the person they were on the inside – this is a pandemic of what has taken over the world today. The condition of the world that Jesus had to deal with at his first coming (that was full of actors) is also the condition of the world that would also exist at his second coming of this day. The world today is full of Hollywood actors and fake people that have learnt to act something on the outside that is different to what they are on the inside – Tic Tok and all this nonsense, everyone has become an actor, and that is what has taken over the world instead of the revelation of Jesus Christ in the heart of the person)
28 Even so ye also outwardly appear righteous unto men, but within ye are full of hypocrisy and iniquity.
Like the Pharisees, in this age, people have become so used to acting something on the outside (that is different to what they are on the inside) that it begins to mess up their brains to a point that they almost don’t know who they really are and then when they are presented with vindicated truth, they reject it because to them, Hollywood looks far better.
PRIDE_ CAMPBELLSVILLE.KY SUNDAY_ 55-0807A
E-22 Oh, my, this Pharisee must've had some kind of a motive behind this. What is a Pharisee? What does the word Pharisee mean? We don't use that word very often in Kentucky. What does the Pharisee word mean? In the Greek, it means "a actor, someone who acts." Oh, I hate that, somebody acting, trying to put on. I despise such a thing.
Many times people are trying to act like the other fellow. Listen, you quit trying to act like the next fellow, and just act out your own convictions and you get along better. Be yourself. That's right.
You see so many little children going to the picture show, come back home and want to act like the actress. Shame on you. In Hollywood, Los Angeles, I have many services out there, and I find out that the most of the people that's growed on the whole environment of the American people to act. We're great actors, Pharisees. There they are; you'll see them; they're before the screen so much until they're always acting.
E-23 In the American people through television, and through picture-shows, they have seen so much of the put on, till they become put-ons themself: too bad. And we get it in church, actors. Hmmm. God don't want them. Far be it from us to be actors. Be yourself; God wants you to be that way. I despise seeing someone trying to do something that they cannot do.
PRIDE_ CAMPBELLSVILLE.KY SUNDAY_ 55-0807A
E-24 I love good old fashion Pentecostal singing (That's right.): where you forget the piano and the organ, where you don't have to get into some kind of ritualistic, put on program. Where you raise up your hands with the tears running down from your cheeks, whether you could sing do-ra-me-fa-so-la-ti-do, or not, and just sing in the Spirit. From the heart you give praise to God. All out of the program, you have to get out of man's program to get in God's program (See?), get out of it.
Oh, my, deliver me from being a actor. Be what you are; God will bless you. You even down see sometimes ministers will do that. They will get in the pulpit, and make their voice very big. "I have now received my degree..." like it'd run shivers over you. I feel sorry for them. People don't appreciate that. Just be yourself, people will appreciate you more.
THE.UNWELCOMED.CHRIST_ CHICAGO.IL SUNDAY_ 55-1002
E-10 But something's wrong with the picture when this Pharisee, now, to my opinion, the crow... But he--he's trying to bring Jesus down there to have--like he wanted fellowship with Him, but there's something wrong. It just won't work.
The first thing... You know what Pharisee means? The word "Pharisee" means, "actor." The Greek word for Pharisee means "a actor," somebody who acts, puts on. You know, America's so full of that anyhow, actors.
I preach in Los Angeles. My next meeting is down in Los Angeles. And I noticed there, you take the people, the screen people there, the movies and so forth. They're before the camera so much, till they're acting like somebody else, impersonating somebody. And they do so much of it before the camera, till when they get on the street, they're still actors.
You know, that's not only in Hollywood; that's in Chicago too. You just look at televisions and movies and things like that, then you try to act like that. You Pharisee, quit doing that. It's not right. You shouldn't do that. I don't like that stuff. I like--I like to be original, don't you? Just be yourself.
E-11 And you know, a lot of times that's among preachers. But that's true. Actors, they get in a pulpit, and then they get a pulpit voice, "Well, you know, brethren."
"Oh, you Pharisee, quit acting like that. Go, be yourself. People will like you better if you just be yourself."
Oh, but they have a pulpit voice and then a street voice. I like for them to be just on the pulpit like they are on the street. Be the same person; don't be a Pharisee.
THE.IMPERSONATION.OF.CHRISTIANITY_ JEFF.IN SUNDAY_ 57-0120M
E-30 Jesus said, "You hypocrites, how can you speak good things, for out of the abundance of the heart speaketh the mouth." If you don't speak according to what's in your heart, your heart thinks one thing and you speak another, that makes you a hypocrite.
The very word "Pharisee" means, "actor." They acted out their religion for they had a stony heart.
God help us to not have stony hearts.
***The greatest supernatural act of this end time age is what God has been doing in your own life all these years of him revealing himself to you, but because it has not been a public show, it makes it hard for people to recognise it, especially in their own lives.
Actors