Wars and Rumours of Wars
REVELATION 12:7-9
7 And there was war in heaven: Michael and his angels fought against the dragon; and the dragon fought and his angels, (Civil war in heaven)
8 And prevailed not; neither was their place found any more in heaven.
9 And the great dragon was cast out, that old serpent, called the Devil, and Satan, which deceiveth the whole world: he was cast out into the earth, and his angels were cast out with him.
MATTHEW 24:3-8
3 And as he sat upon the mount of Olives, the disciples came unto him privately, saying, Tell us, when shall these things be? and what shall be the sign of thy coming, and of the end of the world?
4 ¶ And Jesus answered and said unto them, Take heed that no man deceive you.
5 For many shall come in my name, saying, I am Christ; and shall deceive many.
6 And ye shall hear of wars and rumours of wars: see that ye be not troubled: for all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet.
(This word “rumours” = report – like news reports “wars and news reports of wars”.
7 For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom: and there shall be famines, and pestilences, and earthquakes, in divers places.
8 All these are the beginning of sorrows.
Wars and Rumours of Wars
War is the perversion of peace.
We know that war originated in heaven before it came down to earth to become human wars.
And we also know that what started the first war was deception through beauty and “reason” based wisdom. Beauty can be very deceptive. In advertising they use beauty to sell things. If a new model of car is released, they’ll put a half-naked woman in front of it to boost the sales, because beauty is used to persuade you and to convince you.
EZEKIEL 28:13
13 Thou (Satan) hast been in Eden the garden of God;
We know that in heaven, Lucifer was next to Michael (Christ), and he was created the most beautiful and the most powerful of all the Angel’s. And he used the beauty that God gave him to help him convince a third part of heaven’s angels to join him in his rebellion against Christ.
**And just as Lucifer was next to Christ in Heaven, we also find that the Serpent was next to Adam in Eden. And the serpent was the most intelligent and the most beautiful of all the animals in Eden, he was created more beautiful than Adam.
***In eden the Serpent’s role was to be a help to man – a servant to man as Lucifer was created to be a help servant and a help to Michael, so that is why the serpent in Eden was by far the most intelligent of all the animals and also why he could talk and communicate with man. And that is why that down through history man has always made slaves of other men because the beast that God made to serve man was removed.
***So this beauty of what Satan used to help him deceive a third part of the Angels in Heaven is also the same beauty of what he used to deceive Eve in Eden.
And what he used to deceive Eve in Eden is also the same beauty and reasoning against the word of what he uses to deceive the people of this age in Satan’s Eden.
Remember that Lucifer wanted to build a more beautiful kingdom than that of Michael’s.
**People are far more inclined to accept something they are told as truth from someone who is intelligent and looks good, then someone with just a seventh grade education.
ISAIAH 53:2
2 For he shall grow up before him as a tender plant, and as a root out of a dry ground: he hath no form nor comeliness (Splendor – majesty, glory); and when we shall see him, there is no beauty that we should desire him.
**Beauty and worldly wisdom is used by Satan to deceive.
MATTHEW 24:4b-5 “Take heed that no man deceive you”. For many shall come in my name, saying, I am Christ; and shall deceive many.
False Christs are false anointed ones – they are truly anointed, even by the genuine Holy Spirit, BUT WHAT IS PROCEEDING FROM THEIR LIPS IS LIES.
REVELATION 12:3-4a
3 And there appeared another wonder in heaven; and behold a great red dragon, having seven heads and ten horns, and seven crowns upon his heads.
4 And his tail drew the third part of the stars of heaven, and did cast them to the earth:
**Not a TAIL as in an animal’s tail, but the TALE (story) that he told, the fake news he reported.
QUESTIONS.AND.ANSWERS.ON.HEBREWS.3_ JEFF.IN COD SUNDAY_ 57-1006
310-624 Now, if you'll notice when those beings were in heaven... Now, over in Revelations 11--or the 7th chapter, I believe--or no, no, it's the 12th chapter, He gives a picture of the woman standing, the moon at her head and the sun--or, the sun at her head and the moon under her feet. And the red dragon stood to devour the child as soon as it was born; and he took his tail and pulled a third of the stars of heaven and cast them to the earth. Did you notice that? Now, that doesn't mean that Satan has a--a long tail that he hooked around people, but the tale that he told, and pulled a third part of those stars. Those stars were Abraham's seed.
**War in heaven or war on a national level between nations can begin in exactly the same way of how war can start on a family level or even on an individual level within yourself. (Last week I mentioned about maybe preaching on your misunderstood life)
***At some stage of our lives we have all suffered from war within ourselves (our minds) because of our own misunderstood lives, because we all at some stage have misunderstood our own lives – the things and the events that happen in our lives, and that misunderstanding within ourselves will cause us to have unrest and warfare within, and often it can be the greatest battle ever fought, and that battle will take peace away from within us.
Look at brother Branham experience and the early years that he misunderstood his own life – the inner peace was removed from his life because of the misunderstanding of his own life.
HOW.THE.ANGEL.CAME.TO.ME.AND.HIS.COMMISSION_ CHICAGO.IL FOOTPRINT.BOOK MONDAY_ 55-0117
140 I said, "Honey, I--I want to tell you something." I said, "You call them up and tell them I won't be out there this afternoon." I said, "Meda, sweetheart," I said, "I know in my heart I love Jesus Christ. I know that I've passed from death unto Life. But I don't want the Devil to have anything to do with me." And I said, "I can't go on like this; I'm a prisoner." I said, "All the time, when this thing keeps happening, things like that, and these visions coming, and so forth like that. Or, whatever it is," I said, "it happens to me." I didn't know it was a vision. I didn't call it a vision. I said, "Them trances like," I said, "I don't know what that is. And, honey, I--I--I--I don't want to fool with it, they--they tell me it's the Devil. And I love the Lord Jesus."
141 "Oh," she said, "Billy, you oughtn't to listen to what people tell you."
142 I said, "But, honey, look at other preachers." I said, "I--I don't want it." I said, "I'm going to my place in the woods. I got about fifteen dollars, you take care of Billy." Billy was a little bitty boy then, a little bitty fellow. I said, "You--you take... That's enough for you and Billy to live on, a while. Call them up and tell them I'll--I'll may be back tomorrow, and I may not never be back. If I ain't back in the next five days, put a man on in my place." And I said, "Meda, I'll never come out of that woods until God promises me He'll take that thing away from me and never let it happen again." Think of the ignorance that a man can be!
143 And I went up there that night. Went back in the little old cabin, 'fore it was next day; it was kind of late. I was going to go up to my camp the next day, up on the... farther around the mountain, or the hill, rather, and get up in the woods there. I don't believe the F.B.I. could find me up there. So this little old cabin... I had been praying all that afternoon and 'fore it got too dark. I'd pray, was reading over there in the Bible where It said, "The Spirit of the prophets is subject to the prophet." I couldn't make that out. So it got too dark in the little old cabin.
144 Where I used to trap when I was a boy, had a trap line through there, and go up there and fish and stay all night. Just a little old dilapidated cabin sitting over there, been in there for years. Some tenant might have had it before it all come to that.
145 And so I--I was just waiting there. And I thought, "Well." Got along towards one o'clock, two o'clock, three o'clock in the morning, I was walking up and down the floor, walking back and forth. I sit down on a little old stool there, a little... not stool, a little old box of a thing. And I set down there, and I thought, "O God, why do You do this to me?" I said, "Father, You know I love You. You know that I love You! And I--I--I don't want to be possessed with a devil. I don't want them things to happen to me. Please God, don't never let it happen no more."
146 I said, "I--I love You. I don't want to go to hell. What's the use of me preaching and trying, and putting my efforts forth, if I'm wrong? And I'm not only taking myself to hell, I'm misleading thousands of others." Or, hundreds of others, in them days. And I said... I had a big ministry. And I said, "Well, I--I don't never want it to happen to me again."
147 And I set down on this little stool. And I just sitting, oh, kind of in this position, just like that. And, all at once, I seen a Light flicker in the room. And I thought somebody was coming up with a flashlight. And I looked around, and I thought, "Well..." And here It was, right out in front of me. And old wooden boards on the floor. And there It was, right in front of me. It's a little old drum stove sitting in the corner, the top was tore out of it. And--and right in here there was a--a Light on the floor, and I thought, "Well, where's that? Well, that couldn't be coming..."
148 I looked around. And here It was above me, this very same Light, right there above me, hanging right like that. Circling around like a fire, kind of an emerald color, going, "Whoossh, whoossh, whoossh!" like that, just above It, like that. And I looked at That. I thought, "What is That?" Now, It scared me.
149 I heard somebody coming, [Brother Branham imitates someone walking--Ed.] just walking, only, it was barefooted. And I seen the foot of a Man come in. It was dark in the room, all but right here where It was shining right down. And I seen the foot of a Man coming in. And when He come into the room, walked on up, He was a Man about... looked to weigh about two hundred pounds. He had His hands folded like this. Now, I had seen It in a Whirlwind, I had heard It talk to me, and seen It in the form of a Light, but the first time I ever seen the image of It. It walked up to me, real close.
150 Well, honest friends, I--I thought my heart would fail me. I... Just imagine! Put yourself there, It'd make you feel the same way. You're maybe farther along the road than I am, may have been a Christian longer, but It would make you feel that way. Cause after hundreds and hundreds of times of visitations, it paralyzes me when He comes near. It sometimes it even makes me... I almost completely pass out, just so weak when I leave the platform many times. If I stay too long, I'll go completely out. I've had them ride me around for hours, not even know where I was at. And I can't explain it. Read down here in the Bible, and It'll explain It, what it is. The Scripture says so!
151 So I was sitting there and looking at Him. I--I kind of had my hand up like that. He was looking right at me, just as pleasant. But He had a real deep Voice, and He said, "Do not fear, I am sent from the Presence of Almighty God." And when He spoke, that Voice, that was the same Voice that spoke to me when I was two years old, all the way up. I knowed that was Him. And I thought, "Now..."
152 And hear it. Now listen to the conversation. I'll quote it the best that I can, knowingly, word by word, 'cause I'd hardly remember.
153 He... I said... Looked at Him like that. He said, "Do not fear," just as quiet, said, "I am sent from the Presence of Almighty God, to tell you that your peculiar birth..." As you know what my birth was up there. That same Light hung over me when I was first born. And so He said, "Your peculiar birth and misunderstood life has been to indicate that you're to go to all the world and pray for the sick people." And said, "And regardless of what they have..." And He designated. God, Who's my Judge, knows. That, He designated "cancer." Said, "Nothing... If you get the people to believe you, and be sincere when you pray, nothing shall stand before your prayers, not even cancer." See, "If you get the people to believe you."
154 And I seen He wasn't my enemy, He was my Friend.
Notice that the very thing he thought was an enemy of his life was actually his friend.
AT.THY.WORD_ NEW.YORK.NY FRIDAY_ 51-0928
E-69…What are you setting there, colored lady, with your hand up? Do you believe I am God's prophet, that He sent me to help you? Do you believe that I will be able by God to know what's wrong with you? You've had a misunderstood life, haven't you? Many times, many heartaches and trials you've went through. I see something, dark streak hanging down a long road behind you.
Notice - “A dark streak hanging down a long road behind you” – this is true for many of us, and especially for the believers of this hour, that is why God sent a prophet to help you as God sent an Angel to brother Branham to help him understand what he misunderstood of his own life.
**I believe that you will find out one day that everything in your life has been in the full and complete control of the Lord because the footsteps of the righteous are ordered by the Lord.
ISAIAH 14:12-17
12 How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! how art thou cut down to the ground, which didst weaken the nations!
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 wanted to rule in the hearts of man, but the heart of man was meant to be God’s place – God made that place in the heart of man for himself, for his nature to be resident, but we see the nature of the wicked one that rules in the heart of many – that is why we need the new birth because your first birth came with a fallen nature)
15 Yet thou shalt be brought down to hell, to the sides of the pit. (There is no bottom to the pit, only sides)
16 They that see thee shall narrowly look upon thee, and consider thee, saying, Is this the man that made the earth to tremble, that did shake kingdoms;
17 That made the world as a wilderness, and destroyed the cities thereof; that opened not the house of his prisoners?
LUKE 10:17-18
17 ¶ And the seventy returned again with joy, saying, Lord, even the devils are subject unto us through thy name.
18 And he said unto them, I beheld Satan as lightning fall from heaven.
Light and darkness cannot abide together – they have to separate.
Eve was taken in by how attractive the news reporter was, how could she not believe him when he was so handsome, while Adam was just a plan and common man like Noah was against the news reporters of his day, and like Christ was when he came.
ISAIAH 53:1-3
1 ¶ Who hath believed our report? and to whom is the arm of the LORD revealed?
2 For he shall grow up before him as a tender plant, and as a root out of a dry ground: he hath no form nor comeliness; and when we shall see him, there is no beauty that we should desire him.
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.
Beauty combined with worldly wisdom can be very deceptive. A man can be destroyed by a beautiful woman more easily than anything else. Look at kind David, he killed Goliath, he defeated the armies of the Philistines, and then he was defeated at the sight of a woman.
THE.GOD.OF.THIS.EVIL.AGE_ JEFF.IN V-4 N-9 SUNDAY_ 65-0801M
79 Show me one place in the Bible that Cain was ever called Adam's son. The Bible said he was "the son of that evil one," serpent's seed. No, the cover has been took off now, brother. The pyramid has been opened, as the revelation showed.
80 Notice what he will do, his thoughts. He thought God dwelled in worldly beauty. He did that in Heaven. Sin never begin in the garden of Eden; it begin in Heaven, when Lucifer, the son of the morning, exalted himself in beauty, and wanted a more beautiful kingdom than that of Michael. And he thought that God dwelt in beauty.