Oneness with God – Message Study
GENESIS 24:53
53 And the servant brought forth jewels of silver, and jewels of gold, and raiment, and gave them to Rebekah: he gave also to her brother and to her mother precious things.
Notice – Rebekah was in possession of Isaacs’s gifts along with other members of her family, but she was not yet in possession of the giver of the gifts who was Isaac himself – that would require a marriage covenant, a higher level of relationship. This in type represents the Pentecostal age of a period of when the gifts were given out at Azusa Street, but the elect of God had not yet come into a marriage union of a oneness with God.
GENESIS 24:58
58 And they called Rebekah, and said unto her, Wilt thou go with this man? And she said, I will go.
Notice the very next stage after the gifts had been given out, and before the marriage covenant could take place, Rebekah had to first be willing to follow a man all the way to an unseen bridegroom – it is important that we see the order of these events, because this is a prophecy of an end time people who will be willing to follow a man to an unseen bridegroom also.
GENESIS 24:63-65
63 And Isaac went out to meditate in the field at the eventide: and he lifted up his eyes, and saw, and, behold, the camels were coming.
64 And Rebekah lifted up her eyes, and when she saw Isaac, she lighted off the camel.
65 For she had said unto the servant, What man is this that walketh in the field to meet us? And the servant had said, It is my master (notice how their first meeting is in a field, just as Boaz first met Ruth in a field, and it is in this field that Eliezer is revealing to Rebekah who Isaac is – Eliezer is not giving out gifts anymore, but he is now revealing to Rebekah the giver of the gifts – from gifts to a revelation of the giver of the gifts. And this is the difference between the Pentecostal age of what they represented and the bride age of what we represent. That is why our emphasis is not on receiving the gifts, but is on receiving the revelation of who the giver is and then uniting with the giver in a marriage covenant): therefore she took a vail, and covered herself.
66 And the servant told Isaac all things that he had done.
67 And Isaac brought her into his mother Sarah's tent, and took Rebekah, and she became his wife; and he loved her: and Isaac was comforted after his mother's death.
Oneness with God – Message Study
We want to go into a little study of this message “Oneness with God” preached by Brother Branham on the Sunday morning of the 11th of February 1962.
He preach a whole cluster of very powerful teaching sermons around this time period such as “The Spoken Word is the Original Seed” and “The Greatest Battle Ever Fought” and “ The Restoration of the Bride Tree” as well as others.
*When we listen to or read this sermon, our spiritual ears have been trained (by our many years of being in the message) to pick up things that maybe the first-time listener would not pick up on.
We are under an eagle anointing of an eagle age, and God has given us an ear to be able to hear what the spirit is saying through the messenger to our age, and so this is the angle that we want to approach this subject, in that we want to look a little deeper into this than what is spoken of at a surface level.
In our opening reading of Rebekah at the well and the Eliezer call of what we should all be very familiar with this story in Genesis 24, we notice that there is a definite order to the events of the story – and this order is not just a random happening, but God was in every detail of it to show us a mystery of this hour.
*First the gifts are given out, and then Rebekah makes the decision to leave her family (a type of the church denominational families) and to follow Eliezer to an unseen bridegroom.
Then the camel ride through the wilderness at the complete mercy of this man Eliezer.
Then came the revealing of the one who the gifts had come from by the man that she had willingly followed (this took place in a field – a field is where seed is planted), and then the marriage to Isaac of which she then (by the legality of the marriage covenant) come into the full possession of access to the sum total of all Isaac’s gifts.
So now Rebekah is not seeking gifts anymore, because she is now the joint owner to all that Isaac possesses.
**For each step of the journey for Rebekah (from the well of where she first met Eliezer, to the field of where he introduces her to Isaac), she is always with Eliezer, but once Eliezer reveals Isaac to her, then it’s all about the marriage of Isaac and Rebekah - Eliezer is now off the scene because his work is over, and a oneness of a marriage union becomes the climax of the entire purpose of everything that had taken place up to that point.
ONENESS_ JEFF.IN V-10 N-2 SUNDAY_ 62-0211
18 And it is the only grounds of fellowship that God has ever laid down for Himself and His church, is the oneness of Himself in the people. That's the only grounds of fellowship. And the only way that you can have those grounds is by a union to be united with Him forever. Just like when you unite with your husband, the woman to unite with her husband, it is a vow until death.
So right at the beginning of this message “Oneness with God”, Brother Branham is likening a natural marriage relationship to the oneness of how God and man are to also become one. And so this is giving us a key that that will help unlock a greater clarity for us to be able to understand this subject of Oneness with God – this is a trail that we need to follow in order to hunt down the fresh kill of the meat of the word for this hour.
**A correct marriage relationship between a man and a woman (of the way that God meant it to be) shows us a picture and an example of what our relationship should look like with the Lord, especially in this season now of when the marriage of the Lamb has come.
*If we don’t know what oneness between God and man is meant to look like in this hour, then how will we ever know if we have arrived or not.
ONENESS_ JEFF.IN V-10 N-2 SUNDAY_ 62-0211
14 Now, the first man and first woman in the garden of Eden was in perfect harmony with God, so much that God could come down at any time He desired and talk lip-to-ear with Adam and Eve. Now, that is perfect oneness: God and His creation, God speaking lip-to-ear with Adam and Eve. And they were so perfect in harmony with God till they were one with God. God and His family was one.
Any man and his family, a correct, good, noble, obedient family is one with another: any family. And if there's something in the family that moves them apart, then it's not right; the family's broken somewhere. They should all be one: father with mother, mother with father, children with parent, parent with children, all in agreement. And when you see that, you'll see one lovely picture.
16 That's God's purpose. And His purpose as Father supreme, was to be one with His family, earthly family, Adam and Eve. And the only way that they could be one with the family, or with God, was because God's nature was in them. So that made them with God's nature in them, then with each other and God, they become all one. Isn't that a beautiful picture, God in His family, Father over all, supreme, no death, no sorrow, no heartaches, no nothing, just joy unspeakable: never to be sick, never to have a heartache, just one with God. What a picture. Because the very nature of God was in these people. And therefore, what they did, they followed just in line with God, and God with them made them one.
**This nature of God dwells in the subconscious realm of man – it is the spirit of God’s nature living in the heart of man, and out of that is produced every motive of his heart, and every thought of his conscious mind.
***So Malachi 4’s ministry was sent by God for the purpose to bring us into a oneness with God – a marriage relationship between God and man, of this nature of God back in the heart of man again, and that is a far greater level than to just receive a few of His gifts. The temptation to show off with gifts is very great, and this is why I believe that God will often hold back on some of these things because of a lack of maturity of character that people have to be able to handle the power of it.
***When Rebekah married Isaac, she got the giver as her possession, and because of the marriage covenant, she also gained legal ownership to every gift that Isaac owned.
*Boaz gave Rebekah 6 measures of barley as a gift, but when she became Boaz’s wife, she owned the whole field of barley.
Why would you be seeking the gifts of the giver when you are married to the giver and own the whole thing.
REVELATION 19:7-9
7 Let us be glad and rejoice, and give honour to him: for the marriage of the Lamb is come, and his wife hath made herself ready.
8 And to her was granted that she should be arrayed in fine linen, clean and white: for the fine linen is the righteousness of saints.
9 And he saith unto me, Write, Blessed are they which are called unto the marriage supper of the Lamb (Notice – you must first be called unto the marriage by a voice, and that voice is the voice of the seventh angel, and that seventh angel was a man in this generation, and so like Rebekah you have to make a decision to follow this servant of the one who has been sent by God to get a bride for Isaac, and to reveal who He is to you, no other ministry can do that for you in this end time hour – that is the message of the hour that we believe and are following. Marriage requires a marriage celebrant – it requires a man to be involved). And he saith unto me, These are the true sayings of God.
**I briefly looked up the role of what a “marriage celebrant” is required to do.
*A marriage celebrant must perform the marriage ceremony. He must first be qualified to carry out the ceremony, and there are certain legal requirements that must be met within the process of the ceremony – for example.
*The celebrant must perform the ceremony in front of at least two witnesses.
*If your witnesses speak a different language to you, you will need to get an interpreter. The interpreter will have to sign a declaration before the ceremony that states that they will interpret what you say accurately.
*During the ceremony, each party must say a specific phrase similar to “I, Bob, take you, Sheila, to be my legal wedded wife”. And “I Sheila, take you, Bob, to be my legal wedded husband” – notice how that a marriage is a covenant by words. It is the agreement of words that marries two people.
*Your spouse-to-be and the witnesses must sign registration forms – there has to be a willingness to go all the way through with the ceremony.
And this is what we saw with Rebekah (of which Eliezer acted as the marriage celebrant in type) she was willing to go all the way through to the marriage covenant with Isaac – this is what the bride of this hour must be willing to do also.
Are you willing to go all the way through into a oneness union with God in this hour? For myself – I desperately want this.
If you keep following Eliezer, then that’s where he will lead you to.
ONENESS_ JEFF.IN V-10 N-2 SUNDAY_ 62-0211
12 The word "oneness" means "to be one with: oneness, united," And now, this is quite a subject, and it--it deserves a lot more attention than I'm able to give it, and more than most any person on earth could be able to give. But I would like to express to you my opinion of it, and with what God will give us. Now, in this it's teaching doctrine. And to the brethren who may hear this tape, I trust that it will not be an offense, but it will be to cause you to take this very considerably, under consideration, rather, that you would study it prayerfully, carefully, and weigh it out in the balance of God's Word to see whether it be of God or not.
One of the last sermons Brother Branham preached in 1965 was the message “Leadership”. You will be led by someone, even if it is your own deceptive heart – so you must decide who you will be led by, of what you will make your absolute in life.
To be continued - the Lord willing.