The wisest man once told us that there is a season and a time for every purpose under the heaven. This cannot be any truer! Sovereignly, God moves, works, and progresses with time, He is never stagnant, and because He is God, He moves forward, not backward. Because we belong to Him and He’s working in and with us, it is important to comprehend, therefore, where we are in His time.
If we comb through God’s word, we will realize that there are promises and determinations of His mind, which will unfold and be fulfilled in their time. This is what God is doing, although He is working, He is not haphazard, He already has His blueprint that guides what He does per time. As children, we are neither to move faster than God nor slower, we follow Him as He leads. You need patience and trust to follow God’s timing and leadership.
Be ye therefore followers of God, as dear children; Ephesians 5:1
This big question before us, God once asked Adam in the third chapter of Genesis.
And the Lord God called unto Adam, and said unto him, Where art thou? And he said, I heard thy voice in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked; and I hid myself. Genesis 3:9-10
To decipher this question appropriately, you will need to know what you have been, what you are now, and what you are not. You know God desires to guide us, however before He could, He had to first guide Himself, and He guides Himself by His word. In the beginning, was the word and the word was with God and the word was God. And because He guides Himself by His unfailing word, there is no other way for us to be guided than by His word. But sadly, various people love to make themselves something, therefore, they seem to not be interested in God’s laid down pattern. For 400 years after Malachi, there was no prophet with prophecy in the land of Israel. This was enough time for some people to rise and draw folks to themselves building upon lies. The Bible spoke of Theudas boasting himself to be something and Judas of Galilee, but because they built upon lies, their foundation was too weak to stand the test of time, and God wiped them off. I can say here that a so-called servant of God can make you run ahead of God, or sometimes, keep you behind. It is the purpose of God that will ripen, not man’s.
At a point when God moved from the Old Testament, the people failed to move with Him. He sent John the Baptist to them, and because he knew that God has moved from the physical tabernacle to enter His prepared body -Jesus, he didn’t go to Solomon’s temple to preach his message. He was the voice crying in the wilderness. Let’s see the prophecy Malachi gave.
Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord: And he shall turn the heart of the fathers to the children, and the heart of the children to their fathers, lest I come and smite the earth with a curse. Malachi 4:5-6
The first part of this prophecy was John’s responsibility, he came in the spirit and power of Elijah to turn the heart of the fathers to the faith of the children. He indeed pointed them to Jesus, but not everyone moved as God moved. They loved the temple; they loved the shadow. Israel had this prophecy way back, before the silence of 400 years, through Isaiah the prophet.
The voice of him that crieth in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make straight in the desert a highway for our God. Every valley shall be exalted, and every mountain and hill shall be made low: and the crooked shall be made straight, and the rough places plain: Isaiah 40:3-4
God is so simple that you don’t need a college degree to know him, once you have His Spirit, you can understand Him. God speaks big, His promises seem so high that everyone will look up for their fulfillment, but He fulfills them in a very simple way. So simple that we miss Him almost every time. To see God, you must humble yourself. In fact, in the above prophecy, every valley (despised and insignificant to the world) shall be exalted, to tell you how God takes delight in simplicity, and every mountain (big men of the world who trust in their prowess and wealth) will be made low. When John came, he was preaching and baptizing the Jews only -Jews only because John was not sent to the Gentiles, he didn’t run ahead of God, he stayed where God stayed. That’s how God fulfills His purpose, there must be alignment, and as God moves, the church must move. The Bible did not tell us whether John baptized them in a name, this is because the redemptive name of God has not been revealed. Meanwhile, these were Jews, who believed only in Jehovah, they had their faith, believing that John was baptizing them to Jehovah.
Do you know that people came to push John, wanting him to move beyond God’s plans for his assignment? They came saying, ‘are you not the Christ?’ -to say to him that he should do something greater, he cannot continue to stay in the wilderness without recognition. But he knew better, he understood his assignment, and he intended to follow the blueprint, he faced them with boldness, ‘I am not the Christ -to say to them that, yes, God is going to do something greater than this, but my assignment is to prepare the way for that ‘greater’ coming, and I’m pointing that to you so that you can move with God when He moves. And indeed, God moved in Act 2, He revealed the His redemptive name (Jesus Christ), and people began to baptize in that name, and the promise that should follow came upon them -the baptism of the Holy Spirit. Let’s see a scenario in the Bible.
And it came to pass, that, while Apollos was at Corinth, Paul having passed through the upper coasts came to Ephesus: and finding certain disciples, He said unto them, Have ye received the Holy Ghost since ye believed? And they said unto him, We have not so much as heard whether there be any Holy Ghost. And he said unto them, Unto what then were ye baptized? And they said, Unto John’s baptism. Then said Paul, John verily baptized with the baptism of repentance, saying unto the people, that they should believe on him which should come after him, that is, on Christ Jesus. When they heard this, they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. And when Paul had laid his hands upon them, the Holy Ghost came on them; and they spake with tongues, and prophesied. Acts 19:1-5
Here, Paul revealed to them that God had moved from the baptism of John to the New Testament faith, having given a name for the remission of sins. Although there were nice and religious, they were humble enough to receive the words of Paul and moved with God as He moved. They were all re-baptized in the name of Jesus Christ and they received the Holy Spirit. Do you see how humility is useful when you want to move with God? Wait, have you received the Holy Spirit since you believe? Again, have you been baptized by immersion in the name of Jesus Christ? You have not moved with God if you haven’t, you are far behind! The word of God is powerful, steadfast, and settled in heaven. Believe the word, become the word!
Brethren, the second part of Malachi’s prophecy is fulfilled likewise, God brought forth William Marrion Branham in the spirit and power of Elijah, to turn the heart of the children to the faith of the fathers. In 1933, when he was baptizing, he heard a voice from God, “as John the Baptist was sent to forerun the first coming of Christ, you are sent with a message that will forerun the second coming of Christ”. He heard the voice alone, but this is not foreign to scripture, because it happened to John the Baptist as well.
The next day John seeth Jesus coming unto him, and saith, Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world. This is he of whom I said, After me cometh a man which is preferred before me: for he was before me. And I knew him not: but that he should be made manifest to Israel, therefore am I come baptizing with water. And John bare record, saying, I saw the Spirit descending from heaven like a dove, and it abode upon him. And I knew him not: but he that sent me to baptize with water, the same said unto me, Upon whom thou shalt see the Spirit descending, and remaining on him, the same is he which baptizeth with the Holy Ghost. And I saw, and bare record that this is the Son of God. John 1:29-34
Now, let’s see where we are in God’s time. This is the end of time. God is wrapping up this world, to hit His final target -His final target is the restoration of all things. But Jesus is supposed to descend with three things, which His church should comprehend because it encapsulates the mysteries of the restitution of all things. He will descend with a shout, the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God. Let’s discuss this.
For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: 1Thess. 4:17
THE SHOUT
Then shall the kingdom of heaven be likened unto ten virgins, which took their lamps, and went forth to meet the bridegroom. And five of them were wise, and five were foolish.They that were foolish took their lamps, and took no oil with them: But the wise took oil in their vessels with their lamps. While the bridegroom tarried, they all slumbered and slept. And at midnight there was a CRY made, Behold, the bridegroom cometh; go ye out to meet him. Matthew 25:1-6
And it shall come to pass in that day, that the light shall not be clear, nor dark: But it shall be one day which shall be known to the Lord, not day, nor night: but it shall come to pass, that at evening time it shall be light. Zachariah 14:6-7
But in the days of the voice of the seventh angel, when he shall begin to sound, the mystery of God should be finished, as he hath declared to his servants the prophets. Revelation 10:7
The scriptures above describe the same ministry of the SHOUT. It is called the ‘Shout’, the ‘Evening Light’, ‘the Cry’, and ‘Voice of the Seventh Angel’. What God intends to do at this period of the Shout is to awaken us and call us out of every dogma and creed of denominationalism, trimming our lamps and preparing us for the appearance of our Lord. The Shout is a message -a message of restoration -to restore us back to the Bible. Roman Catholic Church had corrupted the world and given her her cup, and everyone had partaken of her fornication, all of those that God raised during these periods such as Martin Luther or John Wesley were reformers, but according to the promise of God for the last church age of the Gentile, there should be an Evening Light that will restore the church back to the original faith of Jesus Christ.
There are people that argued that the message of the seventh messenger has Well, I have a question: The purpose of God sending this message of the Shout is to tell us to return to the Bible. Will that message end at the sound of the warning or the actual fulfillment is when those to who the message was sent are seen in the Bible? The message ended, believing that we are now in the Voice of the Archangel. How true is this? The seventh angel’s message will not be fulfilled at just the shout, “Back to the Bible”, the fulfillment of that ministry is when the church is seen in the Bible, and not in some doctrines of men. This tells you that the ministry of the Shout will not end at the sounding of the messenger -there must be continuity, when the church is seen perfectly in the word of God, then we can say that the essence of the Shout is being actualized. Therefore, the ministry of the Shout prepared a ministry that is called the five-fold ministry -for the perfecting of the church -because the church should walk in what she was restored to! Amen! The prophet came to restore us back to the Bible, from Genesis to Revelation, and the word of God cannot go obsolete, it cannot expire. Thus, the ministry of the Shout will not end because the messenger died, the death of the messenger cannot end the message -the message continues.
The ministry of the fivefold is not the fulfillment of the Voice of Archangel, rather she is a continuation of the Shout, to take every loosed end of what the prophet said and settle it by the word of God. William Branham was asked if the bride would have another message before the rapture, and he said yes, it is the humble ministry of the apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors, and teachers. This is where God is with the church. You shouldn’t run ahead of Him if you must be in the program. The message of the first and the last church age is the same, that is what the prophet came to do. After he has called us out of denomination to the truth of the Bible, the five-fold is in continuation, ensuring that the bride is established in that truth, to a perfection stage known to God. When that is accomplished, Jesus Christ would rise as the Mighty Angel with the little book in His hand, to cry with a loud voice, and the end will produce seven thunders, which is for the living bride. At this time, the bride is ready to be raptured. We will deal with this in the next sequel.
But this is where the church is, she is in her perfecting stage, under the message and ministry of the Shout. When it is time to move further, Christ will His church on. Do not run faster than Him, and don’t be left behind. Shalom.