Can the Holy Spirit abandon you?

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William Branham taught that the Holy Spirit would leave a person under certain conditions.

What William Branham taught

"... whenever you go to thinking you got a right to do this and do that, the Dove just takes Her flight and goes on away. Then you don't have It any more. Now, she's not very far from you this morning, church. She's setting right out there on the limb of peace, waiting for your nature to be changed."

So what is the Dove (capital D) he is speaking of? Is it the Holy Spirit? If it's not, then who cares if the dove goes away... but if it is, can you lose the Holy Spirit? And is the Holy Spirit a 'She"?

What the Bible teaches

The book of Hebrews tells us:

Keep your life free from love of money, and be content with what you have, for he has said, “I will never leave you nor forsake you.”

Tim Keller puts it this way:

Never will I leave you. Never will I forsake you.” In the Greek, there are five negative particles in that verse. Therefore, it’s a little hard to translate it, but let me give you a literal translation. God says, “I will never, never, never, never, never leave you alone. I will never forsake you. I will never, never, never, never, never forsake you or leave you alone.

Quotes of William Branham

Now, another thing the lamb is, the lamb is willing to submit its rights. Now, God wants us to be lambs, but there's so many times that we don't want to submit our rights, forfeit our rights. So many of you say, "Well, I've got rights, Brother Branham." That's true, but are you willing to forfeit your rights? Are you willing to give your rights that God could lead you? That's what's the matter with our churches today in the great majority, that the gentleness of the Lamb of God... We are supposed to be lambs; we have become everything else but lambs. And that's the reason, as soon as we get that attitude, the Dove of the Holy Spirit takes Her flight and leaves.

If the Lamb of God would've made the first snarl like a wolf, or would've done anything contrary to what the gentle Dove would've permitted, the Dove would've took Her flight. She'd have left in a minute. And that's the reason today that we're wondering what's the matter with the Pentecostal church. It's because we have taken on a different nature. We've taken on a nature that, "We want our rights. We're going to do what we know that's right to do." And we become arrogant. We become hostile. We become indifferent. We let temper come in. We let selfishness come in.

Come back to a lamb; come back to be gentle; come back to know nothing; come back to just submit yourself to Christ. Don't try, don't try to know nothing. Just walk meekly, quietly, humbly, gently, and the Dove will lead you. But whenever you go listening to that gossip, whenever you go to getting that temper up, whenever you go to thinking you got a right to do this and do that, the Dove just takes Her flight and goes on away. Then you don't have It any more. Now, she's not very far from you this morning, church. She's setting right out there on the limb of peace, waiting for your nature to be changed. Amen.

That's the way the Christian is. That's the way God represented Himself, in a--in a--in a dove. See, because... and the... Jesus was represented as a Lamb. Always in nature you'll find God. And God likened us unto sheep that has to be led. Did you ever notice there, I preached a sermon on it sometime ago? That the Dove coming down on the Lamb, to lead the Lamb, and It led Him to the slaughter. The--the--the Dove! Now, if that Lamb... That Dove could not have descended upon any other type of animal, because they both had to be of the same nature. See? If the Dove would've lit upon a wolf, and he would have snorted or growled, the Dove would have took Its flight.

Well, that's the same way now. And our ill ways, the Holy Spirit just takes His flight and goes away. It's got to have the same nature. The bird of the Heavens, the dove; the meekest animal on earth, the lamb; they can agree together. And when the Holy Spirit comes upon us and makes us new creatures, then He can lead us. But we try to live the same old life, it won't work! It just won't work.

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