A Study in Leadership Pt.2
ISAIAH 53:3/6
3 He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief: and we hid as it were our faces from him; he was despised, and we esteemed him not.
6 All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the LORD hath laid on him the iniquity of us all.
MATTHEW 11:28-30
28 Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. (Coming to Christ and following His way will always lead us into rest)
29 Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me (Becoming yoked with the word, His word as a lamp unto your feet and a light unto your path PSALM 119:105); for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls.
30 For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.
A Study in Leadership Pt.2
The word yoke = a wooden crosspiece that is fastened over the necks of two animals and attached to the plough or cart that they are to pull.
(Show slides)
“My yoke is easy, and my burden is light” – being in union with Christ is to be in agreement with His word, that is what yokes us with Him, and then He promised us that he would share the weight of our burdens and help us pull the heavy loads of life – our burdens become lighter when we are yoked with the Lord – He will not let us pull a load that we cannot bear because he will take up the strain upon Himself because of our being yoked with him.
But when we are yoked with sin and unbelief, then our burdens become much heavier and harder to bear.
*Jonah unattached himself from the yoke of Christ when he fled to Tarshish from the presence of the Lord, and that didn’t go well because he ended up being swallowed by a big fish – that was a much harder burden.
Recap from last week…
ISAIAH 53:6
6 All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way (our own leadership – unyoked from Christ); and the LORD hath laid on him the iniquity of us all.
**From last week we saw how that Isaiah 53:3 (in that the word of God is despised and held in low esteem) is connected to verse 6 showing us that when we have a low esteem and respect for the word of God then we are not yoked with Christ the word, then that is what causes people that go their own way – in other words, we esteem our own limited knowledge, experience and reasoning in higher regards than the wisdom of the Lord by the leadership of the word.
ISAIAH 55:8-9
8 For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the LORD.
9 For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.
*Even in the knowledge of these scriptures, many Christian people still subconsciously esteem their own thoughts above the thoughts and the leadership of the word of God, because deep down in their hearts they haven’t yet climbed high enough in their faith and in their relationship with the Lord to be able to trust Him above their own better judgement based on their own personal human thoughts.
**Once there was a great angel called Lucifer, and one day he also had some of his own great thoughts of how he would become unyoked from God and go his own way, and then that would lead him into far greater things of ease and prosperity than that of doing the will of God…
ISAIAH 14:13-15
13 For thou hast said in thine heart, I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God: I will sit also upon the mount of the congregation, in the sides of the north:
14 I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will be like the most High. (...he 5 “I wills”)
15 Yet thou shalt be brought down to hell, to the sides of the pit.
So Lucifer had great plans for his life and his future destination, but we see here that God is telling him of his end from the beginning, in other words, the pathway choice that Lucifer would take against the will of God would cause him to end up in a destination that was not the intended place that he wanted to end up. His self-leadership led him to a destination to the sides of the pits of hell. (Self-leadership by disobedience to the word is the road that leads to the pit)
- Eve thought her burden would be lighter if she unyoked herself from God and yoked up with the serpent, she thought that her load would be easier to bear, and by having her own way it would lead her to a better life than that of what God’s plans and ideas would lead her.
***If we take the life story of Joseph in the book of Genesis, we fine that God showed him his end from the beginning, he knew for sure what his end would be just like in Isaiah God told Satan what his end would be, but the events that came in the middle of Joseph’s life between the beginning and the end was kept a secret from him because God knew that it would be discouraging for him to know - that part of the story could only be to told to him by it being unfolding to him chapter by chapter as he lived it out, so that was the revealing of the mystery part of the journey that was required for him to get to the destination that God had promised him.
**His end wasn’t a mystery to him because God had shown it to him in a dream, and his beginning wasn’t a mystery to him because that was already in his past, but it was the pathway choice that God caused him to walk through in the middle of the story that was kept from him – the pathway that led him to peace and prosperity was a rough one – the harder way.
That is why the seven church ages which was the middle and pathway journey part was kept a mystery from the bride of the 7 church ages because it was a rugged way.
JEREMIAH 29:11
11 For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith the LORD, thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you an expected end.
Good News Translation
I alone know the plans I have for you, plans to bring you prosperity and not disaster, plans to bring about the future you hope for.
From the cradle to the grave – life is a journey of events like a story drama unfolding in real time, “and your life is the story” So as believers of the word of God and this end time message, we know our own destiny and how the end of our own story ends because we have been told it by God from the beginning. So we know then that it is the middle part of the journey of our lives that is so hard for us to understand because the pathway in the middle of our lives looks like it’s the wrong pathway to the promised destination, it looks like God’s leadership is wrong, and we often question “how can this pathway lead us to such a great ending that God hath promised, and this is what we saw with the story of Joseph.
ROMANS 8:13-14
13 For if ye live after the flesh, ye shall die: but if ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live.
14 For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God.
**When you choose to follow the Lord and be yoked with Him, then the leadership of the Holy Ghost in your life will lead you down pathways of your own life’s story that can be very difficult for you to understand as you are traveling along because it is not an easy road, many things will seem to go wrong and it looks like that the destination is going to end at the opposite place to where God has promised it to end, but those are the pathways that God leads us on in order bring us to everlasting life because it is in the journey that we are made ready for and prepaired for the great things that God has for us at the end of the road.
*It was the prison house that prepared Joseph for the throne. But Joseph no doubt misunderstood the pathway his own life, but in the end it was that pathway that brought him to the promised destination and also brought about the saving of millions of people lives during the seven years of famine.
*It was brother Branham’s rough upbringing that prepared him for the work that God would call him to do when he got older. But for many years, even after he became a Christian, he misunderstood his own life, but in the end it bought about a great victory in the resurrection of a people to the word for this age.
*It was Jonah’s time spent in the prison house of the whale belly that prepaired him for the work that he had to do in going to Nineveh and becoming a prophet to the Gentiles and saving them from Judgement - On and on we could go through all the lives of the bible characters.
*It was Naomi’s “back luck” that caused her to return back to Bethlehem at the time of barley harvest so that Ruth could come into union with Boaz and bring about the full redemption of all that their family had lost.
*It is in the journey that we misunderstand and question the plan and leadership of God for our lives, and this is quite a normal thing for us humans to do because God’s thoughts and leadership ways are much higher than ours.
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.
The reason that there are few that “find it”, is that to the natural mind, it seems like the wrong pathway to take, as humans we always want the easy pathway for right now, and so we consider it to be the wrong leadership that will take us down an unpleasant pathway of struggle and pain, and that was the problem with the rich young ruler, the pathway that would led to eternal life seemed to his reasoning a very unpleasant one, and the thought of what it might cost him was too much for him to accept, in other words the journey seemed to him like it would be too unpleasant – but we know now that if he had chosen the harder way, then a huge portion of heaven would have awaited him.
MARRIAGE.AND.DIVORCE_ JEFF.IN V-3 N-13 SUNDAY_ 65-0221M
44 And, here, all three notes exactly the same, of French. And here is the way it reads. This is the original notes taken, note taken right off. This is Danny's note, hisself, he packed in his pocket. Course, it went in the Christian Business Men, and so forth.
Because thou hast chosen the narrow path, the harder way; thou hast walked in your own choosing.
Thou hast picked the correct and precise decision, and it is My Way.
Because of this momentous decision, a huge portion of Heaven will await thee.
What a glorious decision thou hast made!
This in itself is that which will give and make come to pass the tremendous victory in the love Divine.
Remember that he wanted to leave the ministry and go out into the woods and live away from the responsibility of the ministry, but he chose the right way, which also was the harder way.
So we learn from this that the pathway to the heavenly city is not the pathway of the easiest choice of flowery strewn pathways all our lives through.
God hath not promised
Skies always blue,
Flower-strewn pathways
All our lives through,
God hath not promised
Sun without rain,
Joy without sorrow,
Peace without pain.
But God hath promised
Strength for the day,
Rest for the labour,
Light for the way,
Grace for the trials,
Help from above,
Unfailing kindness
Undying love ...
**In the message “Leadership - 7th December 1965”, brother Branham takes the story of the rich young ruler and shows us how he continues to proper and be blessed under his own leadership.
**So if we study the natural life’s journey of the rich young ruler, we will notice that after he rejected the leadership of the word in his life, in his case, his pathway continued on being very pleasant and prosperous, but the problem was of where his own pathway choice led him to at the end, because we know that the end of his story was a bad one – it did not end happily ever after, but if he had followed the leadership of the word then his destination would have been different and he would have had eternal life with abundant joy – so we want to look a little deeper into this story.
LUKE 16:19-25
19 ¶ There was a certain rich man, which was clothed in purple and fine linen, and fared sumptuously every day: (Notice that this is not stated as a parable - the message of this hour shows us that Jesus is looking into the future life of the rich young ruler and is telling us at the beginning of what happens to him at the end because of his rejection of the leadership of the word – he was convinced that by being unyoked with Christ and going his ways would give him an easier life here on earth, but then in the life after death we see that his burden becomes heaver and much harder to bear and he is not at rest)
20 And there was a certain beggar named Lazarus, which was laid at his gate, full of sores,
21 And desiring to be fed with the crumbs which fell from the rich man's table: moreover the dogs came and licked his sores.
22 And it came to pass, that the beggar died, and was carried by the angels into Abraham's bosom: the rich man also died, and was buried;
23 And in hell he lift up his eyes, being in torments, and seeth Abraham afar off, and Lazarus in his bosom.
24 And he cried and said, Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus, that he may dip the tip of his finger in water, and cool my tongue; for I am tormented in this flame.
25 But Abraham said, Son, remember that thou in thy lifetime receivedst thy good things, and likewise Lazarus evil things: but now he is comforted, and thou art tormented. In other words – having a soft life here on earth wasn’t conducive to developing his character for him to become a citizen fit for heaven; we see a little later on that he starts arguing with Father Abraham.
LUKE 16:26-31
26 And beside all this, between us and you there is a great gulf fixed: so that they which would pass from hence to you cannot; neither can they pass to us, that would come from thence.
27 Then he said, I pray thee therefore, father, that thou wouldest send him to my father's house:
28 For I have five brethren; that he may testify unto them, lest they also come into this place of torment.
29 Abraham saith unto him, They have Moses and the prophets; let them hear them.
30 And he said, Nay, father Abraham (in other words, you are wrong about that): but if one went unto them from the dead, they will repent.
(***Notice his argumentative spirit that he had taken with him to the other side - he still thought he knew best, he still exalted his own thoughts above the thoughts of the word of God, in other words his character was never changed while he was on earth, and that is exactly what following the Lord down that harder way would have done for him, it would have dealt with this problem in his spirit, and that is what trials do for us, God uses them to deal with our character problems so we will become fit citizens for the kingdom and life that is to come)
31 And he said unto him, If they hear not Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded, though one rose from the dead.
Notice how this rich young ruler’s life also influence his other five brethren, so that one day they would also end up where he was. ***That is why when people leave following the Lord they influence many others, especially of their family members to do the same.