Episode 223: The Family Altar Audio Devotional – Day 189

Episode Summary:

The eyes of the Lord are upon the righteous, and his ears are open unto their cry. The face of the Lord is against them that do evil, to cut off the remembrance of them from the earth. The righteous cry, and the Lord heareth, and delivereth them out of all their troubles. The Lord is nigh unto them that are of a broken heart; and saveth such as be of a contrite spirit. Many are the afflictions of the righteous: but the Lord delivereth him out of them all. (Psalm 34:15-19)

26 And if we will just draw from this conclusion this morning. And that’s what we’re here for. We’ve heard the Easter story, over and over, and read it back and forth; and today, on your radio broadcasts, you’ll hear different ministers approaching it. But what I thought, for my little group this morning, the Lord has given me, I would approach it from a different standpoint if I could, coming to a place of: Why do we come to these troubles? What makes these things come? Why should a Christian ever be perplexed? Why would not everything, just run perfect for a Christian? But it doesn’t, and we know it.

27 And sometimes we have more troubles when we become a Christian than we did when we were sinners. Course, It is written, “Many is the afflictions of the righteous, but God delivereth him from them all.” God promised many afflictions, strange feelings, and strange things that would be beyond our understanding, but it’s always done for our good. We just can’t understand it, because, if we did, then it would not be a faith to us; we would go with an understanding. But we do it, and we have it, and we believe by faith, His Word, that it’s going to work some good thing for us. If we could grasp that today, on this—this morning. If we could grasp that all of our troubles…And there is none of us immune from them. And if we could realize that those things are for our good!

28 It is written, in one of the Scriptures in the Bible, that, “Trials are brought upon us, are more precious to us than gold itself, for it is God giving us these trials.” After we become His property, our confession and our baptism, and our promise to walk in life for Him, then every trial that comes upon us is to perfect us for His glory. It’s to bring us to a place where God can make Himself more real to us than He was before the trial come.

29 I want to join in this morning with Job, to say that I’ve lived long enough to know that’s the Truth. I have seen it in my own life, that every time a great situation rises, that I can’t get around it, or under it or over it, God makes a way, and comes out glorious. I just wonder how His grace ever does it, but He does it.

30 And remember, in all these things, Satan tries to make us nervous, and upset us, to get us to think, “Oh, why did this happen? Why couldn’t I have been like this?”

31 A few days ago when I come out of the most prettiest, and most gorgeous place I ever saw in all my life, it was the great building of our brother, Oral Roberts. When I seen that solid marble, and not a window in it nowhere, but how it was fixed! And I’ve been in Hollywood and I’ve been in kings’ palaces, and I’ve been in everywhere that could be, hardly, around the world, and all the swanky, lovely places and home, but I never seen anything, any place, to compare, with it, nowhere at all. How the little aluminum wires weave the—the inside together, and, oh, I have never seen anything so gorgeous in all my life. When I walked through there, and took my hands and rubbed those pole pilasters, and—and the great granite; all in the form of a trinity of the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, the—the carvings of it. All those things! I had just come from Brother Tommy Osborn’s, and seen his great, mighty work there for the Lord.

32 I stood on the outside, looked back at that building, and I thought, “God, surely I have become a hypocrite, surely I have become an outcast, somewhere; for, these men’s ministries come off of mine.” And I thought, “What? Maybe I am so untrusted, Lord, that You couldn’t trust me with anything like that. Even the little, few dollars that You let me pay for the campaigns and things, now they’re trying to send me to the penitentiary for it. And why am I such a hypocrite, or why am I such an untrusted person?”

I was on the ash heap, as Job was of old.

33 When I stood outside there, with just couldn’t hardly get my breath, from such majesty; that a poor boy born in a dugout, a Pentecostal, could do and bring that into that great mammoth building. And I thought, “O God, maybe I am not worthy.”

34 Just then a little Voice came down through those corridors, and said, “But I am your portion.”

35 Then I thought, “O Lord God, oh, just let that stay that way, then, Lord. I…because I wouldn’t have the intelligence to carry on a great work like that for You. And I am an—an illiterate person. But, as long as You are my portion, I am Yours, and You will lead me. I could not lead myself. But, O Lord, lead me!”

36 It’s those crucial hours that press us on to those sacred sands. It was in the Bible. And remember, no matter how great the distress is, Satan cannot take your life until God has finished with you. There is nothing can happen to you unless God permits it. There is no evil can come unless God permits it. And it’s for your good He is working that. Let’s think.

60-0417s – “I Know”
Rev. William Marrion Branham

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