Actors Pt.2
II CORINTHIANS 4:3-7
3 But if our gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost:
4 In whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them. (People can see with their natural eyes, but they are blinded to the truth because the god of this world has blinded their minds by all the glitter and the glamor of Hollywood and all the fake news and the false religions. And so people don’t know what truth is anymore because there is so much that claims to be truth that isn’t truth. This world is in a terrible condition of apostasy today because of people being blinded to the light of the word of God)
5 For we preach not ourselves, but Christ Jesus the Lord; and ourselves your servants for Jesus' sake.
6 For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness (Genesis 1:3), hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. (The light of the knowledge of the word hath shined into our hearts by the message that God has sent in this generation to his elected bride – that’s the revealing of the son of man to you and I personally – it is the rising of the SON light in you and I)
7 But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power may be of God, and not of us.
*There is a great power attached to truth, and it is this power of truth that God has placed within us that he will keep us by in this hour (the power of his word revealed to you). This is a great treasure that you possess within you.
Actors Pt.2
We want to continue our subject from last week on “Actors” along with our subject of “Recognising the Supernatural Part of Your Life” that brother Branham was showing us in the message “God hiding Himself in Simplicity then revealing Himself in the same” that he preached just before the opening of the seven seals.
*Over that passed few weeks we have been studying on how that the greatest ongoing supernatural event of your life is the revealing of Christ to you personally by the light of the truth of this hour.
God has been faithfully leading you over the years into more and more truth of the revelation of himself in such a humble way that many of us may not even recognised that this is what has been happening – yet this is the supernatural part of your life that is such a great thing.
JOHN 16:13a
13 Howbeit when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth:
***When God opened the seven seals in 1963, that was the third pull, the revealing of the word, but he did it in such a humble way, yet it was such a great event. And so this same third pull event of the opening of the word has been going on in your life for many years on a personal level, but God has done it for you in such a humble way that you miss seeing it in your own life of how great of a supernatural thing that that has been in your life, because it has also been God hiding Himself in the Simplicity of the events of your life then revealing Himself to you in the same events.
**So this subject of Actors connects in contrast with this because man loves a public show more than he loves a humble event - he loves Hollywood, he loves a big act and a big performance – that is what man calls great, but God calls it foolish.
I KINGS 19:11-12
11 And he said, Go forth, and stand upon the mount before the LORD. And, behold, the LORD passed by, and a great and strong wind rent the mountains, and brake in pieces the rocks before the LORD; but the LORD was not in the wind: and after the wind an earthquake; but the LORD was not in the earthquake:
12 And after the earthquake a fire; but the LORD was not in the fire: and after the fire a still small voice.
**When the sun rises in the morning, that is the greatest event of the entire day, but we notice that God does it in total silence – The rising of the sun is a silent event.
But when man thinks something is great, he starts up the 12 piece band and clashes on the cymbal’s and makes a big show and turns the volume up as loud as he can, and everyone is impressed and calls that great, but God calls that foolish because it’s just a loud noise vibrating the airwaves.
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. (Carnal comparison of ourselves with others is an unscriptural idea – for by grace are ye saved through faith, and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast. Christ stands in your place to represent you before God regardless of how good you live or don’t live)
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. (We see how the approach to God and the attitude difference between these two men was completely different – the Pharisee looked much better on the outside than the publican, but the publican was honest from his heart, and God had more respect to him than the Pharisee)
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.
**Big shows are mostly not associated with humility, they are associated with big shows of acting a performance that is designed to impress.
*From last week we found out that people are attracted more to the performance of the real thing being acted than the real thing of the original event itself, because acting seems greater and appeals more to emotions and has a greater entertainment value than that of real life.
***Like with Winston Churchill’s “we’ll fight them on the beaches” speech, when an actor acts that speech out, it is with a far better performance value than the real event of when Winston Churchill gave that speech himself, because humans like big shows. But if we really want to see God, he does not reveal himself in big performances and big shows, but in the still small voice of his word of truth.
***This is why this message “God is simplicity” was such an important message that was placed strategically by God at the beginning of the seven seals, because if we don’t understand how God deals in simplicity, then we will miss the greatness of what took place at the opening of the seven seals, and then we will also miss the greatness of what He has been doing in our own lives because we will miss seeing God in the way of what he calls great and not what we call great.
*People fail to see the supernatural part of what God is doing because they are too busy looking for a great public show of signs and wonders, they want to see the big miracles and the spectacular public performances of healing and so forth before they will acknowledge that God is moving, and so that is why they miss seeing him, but the greatest event is the shining of the light of his word into your soul.
II CORINTHIANS 4:6-7
6 For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness (Genesis 1:3 – the seventh seal, the coming of the light to you personally), hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. (The face is the person, not the shoulders, or the neck, but the might God fully unveiled before us)
7 But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power may be of God, and not of us.
***If God has revealed His word to you of the truth of this hour, then that is the greatest thing of what He calls great. He esteems that far greater than all the miracles and signs and wonders (those thing are great too), but the greatest thing of all is when the SON rises in your heart by the light of the knowledge of the glory of God, and he does that in silence and in such a humble way in your life that you often will even question it because there is no great performance associated with it that you can boast about.
*That is why you can never judge God by a performance; you must always judge the things of God by the word of God.
***So this word Actors, brother Branham connects it to the people that lived in Jesus day of what the Pharisees were. Just like this day is full of Hollywood actors also.
And so as the performances of the Pharisees deceived the people in Jesus day, so do the Actors of Hollywood and also the religious TV evangelist Actors of this day also deceive the people by their outward performances.
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.
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 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.
**A stony heart will keep you shallow in the word; it makes you so that you cannot receive the deeper things of God.
MATTHEW 13:3-6
3 And he spake many things unto them in parables, saying, Behold, a sower went forth to sow;
4 And when he sowed, some seeds fell by the way side, and the fowls came and devoured them up:
5 Some fell upon stony places, where they had not much earth: and forthwith they sprung up, because they had no deepness of earth:
6 And when the sun was up, they were scorched; and because they had no root, they withered away.
They had no root - they had no deepness of earth.
A root supports the growth of the plant at the top of what you can see on the outside, but if there is not enough root of the depth of the word within the earthen vessel, then that life cannot come from within because there is not enough root, so it forces people to act something on the outside that is not actually what they are on the inside. So this is why we want to get the word real deep on the inside of us so that we won’t have to try put an act on on the outside.
**If any of us struggle with this, then the answer is to allow God to take away the stones from within our hearts and to soften our hearts, and let more of the light of the revelation of this hour to go down deeper within us – this is the power that will keep us in this hour, it is the word deposited in earthen vessels.
**We don’t want to be Hollywood actors in this hour; we want to be genuine believers of what God has sent in this end time hour.
II CORINTHIANS 4:3 opening scripture
3 But if our gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost: (So if it is revealed to you – then it is revealed to you because you are saved, and that is the grace of God to you)
GOD.HIDING.HIMSELF.IN.SIMPLICITY.THEN.REVEALING.HIMSELF.IN.THE.SAME_ JEFF.IN SUNDAY_ 63-0317M
25-5 {147} … The very promise of the last days, the very evening Lights that was to shine, we are privileged people to see that. And where the high-polished world, it's hid from them...
Jesus said to God the Father; He said, "It pleased You to hide it from them.
170-1 PERGAMEAN.CHURCH.AGE - CHURCH.AGE.BOOK CPT.5
I wonder if we are sufficiently impressed with the Word in our midst.
***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