Matthew 10:1-8 (kjv)
1 And when he had called unto him his twelve disciples, he gave them power against unclean spirits, to cast them out, and to heal all manner of sickness and all manner of disease. 2 Now the names of the twelve apostles are these; The first, Simon, who is called Peter, and Andrew his brother; James the son of Zebedee, and John his brother;
3 Philip, and Bartholomew; Thomas, and Matthew the publican; James the son of Alphaeus, and Lebbaeus, whose surname was Thaddaeus; 4 Simon the Canaanite, and Judas Iscariot, who also betrayed him. 5 These twelve Jesus sent forth, and commanded them, saying, Go not into the way of the Gentiles, and into any city of the Samaritans enter ye not: 6 But go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.
7 And as ye go, preach, saying, The kingdom of heaven is at hand. 8 Heal the sick, cleanse the lepers, raise the dead, cast out devils: freely ye have received, freely give.
Matthew 17:14-21 (kjv)
14 And when they were come to the multitude, there came to him a certain man, kneeling down to him, and saying, 15 Lord, have mercy on my son: for he is lunatick, and sore vexed: for ofttimes he falleth into the fire, and oft into the water.16 And I brought him to thy disciples, and they could not cure him. 17 Then Jesus answered and said, O faithless and perverse generation, how long shall I be with you? how long shall I suffer you? bring him hither to me.
18 And Jesus rebuked the devil; and he departed out of him: and the child was cured from that very hour. 19 Then came the disciples to Jesus apart, and said, Why could not we cast him out? 20 And Jesus said unto them, Because of your unbelief: for verily I say unto you, If ye have faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye shall say unto this mountain, Remove hence to yonder place; and it shall remove; and nothing shall be impossible unto you. 21 Howbeit this kind goeth not out but by prayer and fasting.
Excerpts from the Sermon 'Perfect Faith 63-0825E' by William Branham Preached at Branham Tabernacle Jeffersonville, IN
"Now, now we see, at first the disciples didn’t have this Perfect Faith. They didn’t have it, because they’d had Christ, walking with Him; but then afterwards, Christ was in them. And so, you see, it’s hard then to have this Perfect Faith without the Holy Spirit; It has to bring it, It does. Now, you say, “The disciples didn’t have Perfect Faith?” No; for they had an epileptic child there, that they were trying to cast this devil out of him, and they couldn’t do it.
52 And the father seen Jesus coming, and he said, “We have
brought my son to_to Your disciples, and they could not cure him.”
See?
53 And afterwards, the disciples asked Jesus, saying, “Why could
not we cure him?”
54 And Jesus said, “Because, of the lack of faith, of your unbelief.”
That’s right. “Because of your unbelief at...”
55 Now remember, they had the power. Jesus had given them power to heal the sick, to raise the dead, and cast out devils, just a few days before that. They had the power, but not the faith to use the power. Now, there’s the Branham Tabernacle! There’s the Church, the Bride, today! The Holy Spirit is here with the power, but you, haven’t got that faith to move it. See what I mean? It takes faith to move it.
56 Here: I got a shell that I hand-loaded. I know what it’ll do by
ballistics, like the Word, but I’ve got to fire the gun. The fire has
to get to the powder. The powder’s got the power, but it’s got to
have the fire to light it off. And the same thing, the powder’s in the
shell, but it needs faith to charge it and throw it out. That’s what it
takes, see, Perfect Faith to ignite the power of the Holy Spirit which we have now, since He’s come upon us; faith to ignite, to see great things, is to.... the faith, something that presents it to you.
57 With a heart full of joy, you walk into the sickroom, knowing
exactly what you’re going to say. Walk in there and know what’s
going to happen, something’s already been revealed, and you know
it. And you walk in, “In the Name of Jesus Christ, rise up from there. THUS SAITH THE LORD!” There you are; that’s Perfect Faith. If there’d be ten million people standing there saying it wouldn’t happen, you know it’s going to happen anyhow, ’cause you know it. It’s going to happen. Regardless of what anybody else says, you’re the one that’s got the faith.
58 Could you imagine, Joshua, he’d call the elders of Israel together and said, “Uh, brethren, we are the servants of the Lord, I would like for you to say a ... ask the Lord if it’d be all right if_if He’d give us a little more sunlight, see, and hold the sun a little while”?
59 Nah; he had need of it (and without prayer, without anything),
he had need of it, and he just commanded the sun! He said, “Stand
there! I have need, and I’m in the service of the Lord, and He sent
me over here to do this job, and I’m doing the best that I know how,
and the enemy is routed, and they’re out in here; if I let the sun go
down, they’ll get together and cause me more trouble. So, stand still! And, moon, you hang there!” Amen; she hung there for twenty-four hours.
60 Now, if the world’s turning and he holds it up, and the sun
stayed in a place and it don’t run, what happened then? Now, you
made yourself an infidel, if you say of this; and then if you don’t,
you sure do fool with science, ’cause they said if the world stopped,
it dropped. So now what? And if you say God’s Word is not right,
then you’re an infidel. See? But it happened, that’s the main thing. I
don’t know the mechanics of it, but it happened!
61 I don’t know the mechanics of the Holy Ghost, but I know It fell
on me. I_I can’t tell the mechanics of It, but I know the blessings
of It. That_that’s all I_I care to know about, is the blessings of the
Holy Ghost. And mechanics, He works them. That’s His secret.
62 This boy could not be healed, because...The disciples had power; Jesus gave them power to heal all manner of sickness, to cast out devils, to cleanse the lepers, and to raise the dead. He gave them power, but they didn’t have faith to operate the power that they had. And then they questioned Jesus and said, “Well, now, why couldn’t we do it?”
63 Now, remember, they had the Word; and the Word was Flesh
then. And the Word told them, “I give you power.” Amen! “I give
you power.” And they had the power, but they didn’t have faith to
operate the Word that was in them. See what I mean? But Jesus had it, He was the Word, and He had faith that what He said would happen. He said, “Oh, bring him here. How long will I suffer you?”
64 He had faith, with His power. How did He? He said, “I can do
nothing in Myself.” Why? He relied upon what He was; He relied
in knowing that He was the Word. And He had faith in God, Who
made Him the Word. He was God (the Word), and they was in Him,
and that give Him faith because He understood His position. He
knowed what He was, because the Scripture had said He was this.
And here every Scripture tied in, to prove that He was exactly what
the Scripture said He would be, and He knew what He was.
65 Therefore, He relied upon what God had made Him. And if He
did that, then can’t we rely upon what God made us as believers?
“These signs shall follow them that believe!” He had faith in what
He was. And if you are a believer, you have faith in what you are:
you are a believer! And if you’ve got faith in God, the Bible says
over here in... “If our_if our hearts condemn us, then we can’t
have faith; but if our hearts don’t condemn us, then we have faith, we have confidence towards God.” If you want to read that, found in Saint John 3:21. I got the Scripture written down there.
66 Now notice, Saint John...I mean First John 3:21. Notice....if our hearts condemn us not, then we have confidence towards God.
67 But as long as you’re doing things that’s wrong, you can’t
have confidence towards God. So, you see, you can...you’ll
automatically know that you’re wrong. You automatically put
yourself back there a sinner, by knowing that you’re wrong. But when your heart don’t condemn you, and you know you are a believer, and there’s nothing between you and God, you can ask what you will and know that it’ll be given, because it’s the Word that’s given to you just like it was to those disciples.
68 Now, the only thing you have to do then, is have faith in what
you are. Have faith in what the Word says you are! And Jesus had
faith in the Word of God, that said what He was, “It is written of
Me.” Didn’t David, in the Psalms; and the prophets, and all of them
speak of Him? “I am the Bread of Life that come from God out of
Heaven.” Amen! “I am that Tree of Life from the garden of Eden.
I am all these things, I AM THAT I AM.” And He knew with that
Perfect Faith, that He was the anointed Messiah, that the Spirit of
God was upon Him. He said, “Now, I, in Myself, do nothing; but it’s My faith in God.” And God was in Him, the Word made manifest. And when the Word of God comes in you, It’s made manifest, for you are a believer. See? And a believer is “the faith of God that moves in you.”
69 You like that? I_I_I like when you...I like teaching of where
the...how to...what faith really is.
70 Knowing Who He was, without a shadow of doubt, He knew
He was the Son of God. He knew it, for the Word identified. The
Word of God identified Who He was. He said, “If I do not the
works of My Father, then don’t believe Me; but if_if I don’t do
them works, don’t believe Me. But if I do, then believe the works,
for they are the manifested Word promised.” Oh, if you could just
wake up to that, a minute! You see, the Word Itself identified Him,
Who He was. And He said, “Who can condemn Me of sin?” In
other words, “Who can show Me that My life and My works don’t
fulfill exactly what Messiah should do?” Nobody could say nothing; for He was. Then He had faith to believe, then; of whatever He said, it would happen.
71 Then He turned around and said, “The works that I do, shall
you also. A little while, and the world seeth no more; yet you shall,
because I’ll be with you, even in you. Take no thought what ye
shall say, for it’s not you that speak, it’s thy Father that dwelleth
in you; He’s the One Who does the speaking. And It’s not Me, It’s
the Father That dwelleth in Me, He doeth the works.” See what I
mean?
72 Now, the identification of a Scripture Christian, these Words
said Jesus: “These signs shall follow them that believe.” Now, how can you call yourself a believer, a people, and deny those Words? How can you call yourself a believer and deny any of this Word? See? You can’t do it. You’re not a believer, therefore signs can’t follow, because you just accept what you want to believe and let the rest of It...you won’t_don’t believe It. But you got to take the
whole thing, and believe It. And when you truly believe (not make
believe, but really believe), then these signs follow them that believe.
73 Oh, could you compare a Christian today with them Christians
of long ago? How them disciples walked in the power of the Spirit,
moved by the Holy Ghost, do it. Just a prisoner, as I preached on
the other night, a prisoner to the Word and will of God; he couldn’t
even move until God moved him. Wouldn’t you like to see a Church rise like that? It’s going to; going back. It’s_it’s got to come. That’s right. It’s go-...It’s on its road now, I believe.
74 For the Word identified, identified Himself, what He was; and
the same Word identifies us. See? “If a man loves Me, he keeps
My commandment. And if he says he loves Me, and keeps not My
commandments (that’s all of them), he’s a liar, and the Truth’s not
even in him.”
75 You say, “Well, I don’t believe all...” Well then, that...you’re
just an unbeliever, that’s all. If the Bible said so, that makes it right,
that settles it Eternally. What the Bible said, is the Truth.
76 Notice where He said to us, “If ye abide in Me, and My Word in you.” Saint John 15, “If ye abide in Me,...” See, have faith in Him. “Ye abide in Me, and My Word abides in you, then you ask what you will.”
