Our Pathway in Life
PSALM 119:103-105
103 ¶ How sweet are thy words unto my taste! yea, sweeter than honey to my mouth!
104 Through thy precepts I get understanding: therefore I hate every false way.
105 ¶ NUN. Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path.
This is the scripture that we finished with last week in our subject “Wisdom and how to operate it”. We operate wisdom by obeying the word, even if it is contrary to our own reasoning – we are to live our lives by the word and not by our human reasoning. “THY WORD is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path”
The word of God (apart from human reasoning) is the light that shines upon our pathway of life to show us the way.
JOB 12:5
5 He that is ready to slip with his feet is as a lamp despised in the thought of him that is at ease.
Our Pathway in Life
Everyone has a life story, a pathway of events that happen in your life along the way - places you’ve been, who you married and the work that you did in life. All these events make up your life story of the pathway that you travelled along in this temporal life’s journey toward your eternal destination.
Our lives here on earth are very temporal – we actually have no guarantee to the next breath.
PSALM 103:13-17
13 Like as a father pitieth his children, so the LORD pitieth them that fear him.
14 For he knoweth our frame; he remembereth that we are dust.
15 As for man, his days are as grass: as a flower of the field, so he flourisheth.
16 For the wind passeth over it, and it is gone; and the place thereof shall know it no more.
17 But the mercy of the LORD is from everlasting to everlasting upon them that fear him, and his righteousness unto children's children;
If we look back into the lives of great men that have lived in the past, and if we would study their lives we will find that many of their early hardships and seemingly misfortunes that they encountered along their pathway in life often turned out to be the very things that was the catalyst for their great success later on in life.
That is why we should never despise a person that is going through hardship and trials and defeat, because many times it is God at work moulding that person’s character for a purpose of greatness later on in life.
Look at the hardship that brother Branham was raised in and had to suffer in his early life, but it made him into what he was for the work that he was to do for when he got older.
Opening scripture:
JOB 12:5
5 He that is ready to slip with his feet is as a lamp despised in the thought of him that is at ease.
International Standard Version
The carefree are thinking, 'I have contempt for misfortune,' Those who are about to stumble deserve it.
Another translation says = "A person who has an easy life has no appreciation for misfortune. He thinks it is the fate of those who slip up.
It wasn’t that Job had slipped up; it was that God was at work in his life because Job was intended for great things in the future, but at first he had to go through the prison house experience.
Joseph was also a man that was also deemed for greatness, but he had to first go through the prison house experience also.
**There are very few men of real greatness that ever escaped the difficult times of life’s training ground of hard knocks.
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So we are speaking on “Our Pathway in Life”
There are many meanings to the word “life”. There is botany life, animal life, bird life, fish life, a sinner’s life, a Christian life, there is temporal life, and then there is eternal life.
For human beings there are many variations of pathways in this temporal human life’s journey – no two life stories are identical, but in the end there are really only two destinations of two ways that the scriptures speak of – the broad way and the narrow way.
MATTHEW 7:13-14
13 Enter ye in at the strait gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat:
14 Because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it.
This is speaking of eternal life – a temporal life’s pathway that leads us to eternal life – it is a narrow way, this word Narrow = to suffer tribulation, to have troubles, afflicting and distress, it is not the first or easy pathway of choice.
In February the 11th, 1961, at a Full Gospel Business Men's breakfast, Danny Henry spoke these words in French over Brother Branham.
Because thou has chosen the narrow path, the harder way, thou has walked in your own choosing.
Thou hast picked the precise and correct way, correct decision, and it is My Way.
Because of this momentous decision, a huge portion of Heaven awaits thee.
What a glorious decision thou has made. This in itself is that which will make, and come to pass, the tremendous victory in the love Divine.
***In making the right decisions in life by choosing to obey the word, you are choosing the correct pathway that will lead you to eternal life and a huge portion of heaven – it cannot be any different for us. Eternal life is the greatest thing of all.
THIRSTING.FOR.LIFE_ PHOENIX.AZ FRIDAY_ 60-0304
If we should take a trip tonight, and go up into the heaven, and I'd meet with father Abraham, and I'd say, "Abraham, what is the most glorious thing that you have ever known? What is the most essential thing that you have ever known?"
Abraham would say to me, "Life Eternal."
Then I'll take a little trip, and we'll go again, and we'll go up to the great Archangel, Gabriel, Who is the messenger of the covenant to the Jewish people, Who stands at the right hand of God, one of the highest order of Angels in the heaven. And I would say to Him, "Gabriel, Thou art a mighty Angel. You are loved of God, and You've been here for aeons of time, and You, perhaps, know everything in the heavens, and where everything is placed, because You're one of God's right hand Angels. And You know the great secrets of the heavens. You sounded the trumpet at the coming of the Lord Jesus. You announced His first coming, and You shall announce His second coming, so You must be a mighty man or a mighty Angel. I want to ask You in all of God's treasures, what is the greatest thing that You have found among His treasures?"
I can see Gabriel bring himself to attention, and say, "The greatest thing that I have found in God's treasures since He created Me is Life. God made Me to live for eternal, for eternity. And Life is the greatest thing that there is."
E-21 No matter how rich you might be, no matter how popular you might be, no matter who you might be, the greatest thing there is that any man can achieve in this earth, is to achieve Eternal Life.
Though you be king and potentate, though you rule the world for a million years as king and young men, and you fail to find Eternal Life, you've lost the greatest thing that anyone could lose.
E-22 I've often said if I can be a young man of twenty-five years old, if God would appear on the platform tonight, and say, "I will turn you to twenty-five years of age. There you'll remain for a million years, and I'll make you the king over all the universe. Everything will be at your command. Or I'll give you a hundred years of misery and woe, and trouble, and sorrow, but at the end of that hundred years, I'll give you Eternal Life. But the end of the million years, you are lost."
Oh, I'd say, "Lord God, I don't have to wait any longer to make my choice. Let me have the hundred years of misery and woe, any kind of a death that you choose for me to die, only, Lord, give me Eternal Life. For though I own the whole world and was king for a million years, at the end of that million years, I become a hell bound creature for eternity. But no matter how bad my lot is here, at the end of my life, if I've got Eternal Life, I live on in the blessed Presence of God forever and forever."
II CORINTHIANS 12:2-4
2 I knew a man in Christ above fourteen years ago, (whether in the body, I cannot tell; or whether out of the body, I cannot tell: God knoweth;) such an one caught up to the third heaven. (Paul is speaking of himself when he was caught up beyond the curtain of time into the third heaven)
3 And I knew such a man, (whether in the body, or out of the body, I cannot tell: God knoweth;)
4 How that he was caught up into paradise, and heard unspeakable words, which it is not lawful for a man to utter.
**So we see that Paul in the scriptures never gave us any detailed information of his experiences beyond the curtain of time, so this remained a mystery until this end time age when another man that was also caught up to that same place and came back and told us exactly what it was like after we leave this earthly robe of temporal flesh.
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24 And Heaven... or this place, wherever it was, I don't know what to call it. He referred to it there as "souls under the altar." But when it was, I have never... There's no way to explain how great that is. There is... Now, you just have to take my word, I'm just a man. See? But these visions that's always come to pass just as I have told you, and you know they every one has been true, that is true also. Whatever you do, if you miss everything else (health, strength, your eyesight, whatever it is), don't miss That. There's nothing can compare with it. It's... There's no--there's no word in the English language, that I know, that could express it. If you'd say "perfect," it's beyond that; "superb," it--it's beyond that; "sublime,"... There's no--there's no words that I know that could express it, because it was so...
If we are true believers of this eternal life that God himself has promised to us though his word, then this should be by far worth more to us than anything else that we could ever amount to in this lifetime (even if we became the richest man on earth), so then because of this knowledge that has been made known to us by the ministry and revelation of this hour, our whole purpose in life should be set toward that pathway and goal of eternal life.
II CHRONICLES 20:20b …Believe in the LORD your God, so shall ye be established; believe his prophets, so shall ye prosper.
Prosperity comes by believing God’s prophets.
If we really believe what a prophet of God has told us in this hour – if we truly believe his report, then we should make this eternal life our ultimate focus and goal while we are in this temporal life.
MATTHEW 19:16-22
16 ¶ And, behold, one came and said unto him, Good Master, what good thing shall I do, that I may have eternal life?
17 And he said unto him, Why callest thou me good? there is none good but one, that is, God: but if thou wilt enter into life, keep the commandments.
18 He saith unto him, Which? Jesus said, Thou shalt do no murder, Thou shalt not commit adultery, Thou shalt not steal, Thou shalt not bear false witness,
19 Honour thy father and thy mother: and, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.
20 The young man saith unto him, All these things have I kept from my youth up: what lack I yet?
21 Jesus said unto him, If thou wilt be perfect, go and sell that thou hast, and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven: and come and follow me.
22 But when the young man heard that saying, he went away sorrowful: for he had great possessions.
We see that this young man wanted to be certain of himself attaining eternal life in the future, but yet he was not willing to suffer a little in this life, he did not want to go by the narrow pathway of a prison house experience now in order to have eternal life. He chose to be led by his own human government of reasoning apart from the leadership of God which to him seemed a pathway in life that was contrary to his own human reasoning.
366-5 A.RESUME.OF.THE.AGES - CHURCH.AGE.BOOK CPT.10
And Jesus said concerning His bride in that first age,
"I have somewhat against thee, because thou hast left thy first love. (Their love for the leadership of the word apart from human reasoning) Remember therefore from whence thou art fallen and repent."
Revelation 2:4-5.
The church was in that first age already a 'fallen woman.' As Satan had gotten to Eve before Adam, even now had Satan seduced the church, the bride of Christ, before the 'marriage supper of the Lamb.' And what specifically was in her midst that caused the fall? What but Revelation 2:6, "THE DEEDS OF THE NICOLAITANES." (To rule over the people by the leadership of man) Already that first age had turned from following the pure Word of God (as individuals, when we turn away from following the pure word of God as the leadership for our lives, then we are also heading for the dark ages spiritually speaking in our own personal lives). They turned from God's demand of a church absolutely dependent upon Him (depending entirely upon God to fulfill His Word from start to finish apart from human government) to Nicolaitanism, which is organizing a human government within the church which as all governments do, legislate for the people (the people always vote for the easiest and most pleasant pathway that is often contrary to God’s way). They did exactly what Israel did. They took the expediency of human government instead of the Word and the Spirit.
***So with the rich young ruler – it was his own human government within himself that took preeminence over the word of God in his choice of pathway – that is why it is called the broader way, and it is the way that the majority of people go.
**So what we see happening at a church age level where human government was chosen above the leadership of the spirit and Word of God, this also happens at a local church level and also happens within an individual at an individual level.
“The Butterfly Effect”
The Butterfly effect… it is the idea that something as small as the flutter of a butterfly's wing can ultimately cause a hurricane halfway around the other side of the world. It is the realisation that even the smallest step that you take in your life can change the course of your life immensely.
For want of a nail the shoe was lost,
For want of a shoe the horse was lost,
For want of a horse the rider was lost,
For want of a rider the battle was lost,
For want of a battle the kingdom was lost,
And all for the want of a horseshoe nail.
The lack of one horseshoe nail could be insignificant and unimportant, or it could cause the loss of a war, there is no way to predict which outcome will occur.
ZECHARIAH 4:10a
10 For who hath despised the day of small things?
God works in the small and common everyday things of our lives
**When we ask God to lead us and control and direct our lives, it is mostly by the small and unnoticeable things that God works by to lead us and to guild us in our pathway in life, and this is why we mostly can’t see Him directly at work because he is working at a level of what seems to us to be the insignificant things that we don’t think are important but that actually have a huge effect on the outcome of our paths in life.
He even takes our mistakes and makes them work out right, because he makes ALL things work together for our good, even our bad decisions and mistakes.
So wives - if your husband is a godly man that is trying his best to serve the Lord and obey the word of God, and he makes some seemingly bad decisions in life that don’t work out for the best, then don’t beat him up about it and threaten to take over the leadership of the family, because God is going to actually work that all out for the good in the end if you will just have patience.
Opening scripture:
JOB 12:5
5 He that is ready to slip with his feet is as a lamp despised in the thought of him that is at ease. In other words "A person who has an easy life has no appreciation for misfortune. He thinks that it is the fate of those who slip up”
Sarah thought that Abraham was slipping up in his leadership, and that it was about time that she took over and she decided to give Hagar to him to be his second wife, and look what a mess that made of everything.
ROMANS 8:14
14 For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God.
If we were to take the opposite – “For as many as are led by the human government of man’s reasoning, they are the sons of …?)
Being led by the spirit of God will not always take you down pathways of what seems to be human success in this temporal life’s journey, but that is God’s way for your life.
**William Branham’s life story showed us clearly how that God brought him through many personal failures in order to fulfil His great purpose that he had call him too, and in the end, he was one of the greatest and most successful man that ever lived – it cannot be any different for us.
How do we operate the wisdom of God along our pathway in Life? - By taking head according to the Word of God apart from human government.
We put far too much emphasis on human government and not the word of God – we must resist the temptation to follow the crowd down the broad way of human government, only our obedience to the leadership of the word will bring us to true and lasting success and also to life eternal.
JOSHUA 24:14-15
14 Now therefore fear the LORD, and serve him in sincerity and in truth: and put away the gods which your fathers served on the other side of the flood, and in Egypt; and serve ye the LORD.
15 ¶ And if it seem evil unto you to serve the LORD, choose you this day whom ye will serve; whether the gods which your fathers served that were on the other side of the flood, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land ye dwell: but as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD.