Suffering: Difference between revisions

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:''and the day of vengeance of our God; to comfort all that mourn; To appoint unto them that mourn in Zion, to give unto them beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness; that they might be called trees of righteousness, the planting of the LORD, that he might be glorified.'' (Isaiah 61:2b,3)
:''and the day of vengeance of our God; to comfort all that mourn; To appoint unto them that mourn in Zion, to give unto them beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness; that they might be called trees of righteousness, the planting of the LORD, that he might be glorified.'' (Isaiah 61:2b,3)


By closing the book, Jesus was telling the people that the "day of vengeance" and the "comfertor" were still to come.  All of this restoration is for the glory of God.   
By closing the book, Jesus was telling the people that the "day of vengeance" and the "comfortor" were still to come.  All of this restoration is for the glory of God.   




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<div style="border-bottom:1px #B87333 solid; text-align:center; font-size:140%; padding:1px; margin:1px;">William Branham talks about suffering</div>
<div style="border-bottom:1px #B87333 solid; text-align:center; font-size:140%; padding:1px; margin:1px;">William Branham talks about suffering</div>


The following quotes are a very short sample of what [[William Branham]] had to say about suffering.  For more of his teaching on this subject, it would be best to read his life story, which tells of his own sickness, the death of his wife and daughter, his search for truth, and his childhood as the son of an alcoholic.
William Braham often taught that suffering comes as a result of not following the will of God.  He also taught that God punishes others for the mistakes of important people.  


'''Working together for God'''
:''And--and there, friends, is where my sorrows started. I listened to my mother-in-law in the stead of God. He was giving me the opportunity. And there this gift would've been manifested long time ago, if I'd just went ahead and done what God told me to do. But instead of that, I didn't want her to be angry, and I didn't want to hurt nobody's feelings. And so I just--just let it go like that. Just walked, I just said, "All right, we won't go." And right there, the sorrows started. Immediately after that, my father died. My brother was killed a few nights later from that. I almost lost my own... I lost my father, my brother, my wife, my baby, and my sister-in-law, and almost my own life within about six month's time. And just started going down. My church, pretty near everything went down, down, down. Hope taken sick.  Just right after that, the 1937 flood come on.''  (Life Story, Phoenix, Arizona, April 15, 1951)
:''Look at the world in the condition it's in: poor suffering humanity. Help everybody you can. Everything that helps is of God. Let's help; let's do everything we can and pray for men. The thing to do, brethren, is get our arms together, both medicine, doctors, hospitals, nurses, church, and all together, and put our faith in God and move forward. That's what we need. God's going to ask us why we didn't do it some of these days.''  (WHY_  BLOOMINGTON.IL  THURSDAY_  61-0413)
 
:'' I pulled some branches off the trees, walked back out there, where those ministers was standing. And threw it over their feet like that, and said, "THUS SAITH THE LORD, if we go down, even to Klarksdorf, you'll suffer the results. You got me here. I haven't even got money to pay my way back. You--you got me here, and I can't go back, 'cause I couldn't go back. He told me to ahead to Johannesburg. You got me sewed up here." I said, "You'll see, as Paul said one day, you should've listened to me." See?'' (July 13, 1952) ...''You see, when I was over there I disobeyed God and I picked up ameba.'' (June 9, 1953)
 
'''The price for rejecting God's word'''
:''Now, then when Moses went down to deliver them, why, they--they refused him, rejected him. And it cost them forty years more suffering.''  (MOSES_COMMISSION  HOUSTON_TX 01-10-50)
 
:''God was "Long-suffering, not willing that any should perish, but that all might come to repentance." {FOR_HIM_WILL_I_ACCEPT HAMMOND_IN 07-18-52)


William Branham learned this doctrine from his first pastor, [[Roy Davis]], who wrote:


'''Promise of freedom from a dying wife'''
:''As a direct result of my failure to listen to God on matters so deeply important to us both and to the world in general, I went through the very fires of hell.'' (Roy Davis, October 1950, The Voice of Healing, Page 14).   
:''I said, "Hope, Hope, honey." I said, "Speak to me once. Well, just speak one time, won't you." I was shaking her. Friends, if I will live a hundred years, I'll never forget what happened. Those two big brown eyes looked up at me. She was so weak she couldn't say nothing. She was smiling. She took her finger and she motioned. And I got down, and she said, "Why did you call me, honey?" And I said, "Well, they..." I said, "I don't know." She said, "Oh I--I was in another land." She said, "It was so peaceful. I wasn't suffering."  (LIFE_STORY  LITTLE_ROCK_AR 02-00-50)
 
'''Promise of freedom from sickness'''
:''There's a real power of the Holy Spirit that delivers the sufferer from his suffering. …It will change a cancer-eaten person, when a lovely doctor has done all he could do and burnt with radium and x-ray and everything; it'll bring that person to normal health again'' (I_WAS_NOT_DISOBEDIENT_TO_THE_HEAVENLY_VISION  ZION_IL 07-18-49)


:''What if the express agent would come down to your house and say, "How do you do, are you Miss John Doe?” “Yes.” “Well, I have something here for you." And you looked at it, it'd be a great big box full of rattlesnakes. Well, what a present. There's your name tacked on them. "These are yours." Are they? In one sense they're yours, in another sense they're not. Now, you say, "I don't want them.”
If you read the book of Job or listen to Jesus' teachings, you will learn that suffering and sickness are not a sign of being out of the will of God. Suffering is not a sign that people are being punished for their sins. Rather, suffering is a sign of our insufficiency and mortality. Suffering can be relived by prayer, by wisdom, by friendship, and by many other means. The instruction of the apostle Peter is to follow Jesus in his suffering, bringing glory to God when we bless those who persecute us. Eventually, the love of God will eliminate suffering.
:''“Well, they're yours; your name's on them." Well, that's one way it's yours, but still it isn't yours till you sign for it.
:''And if you don't sign for it, he will have to take it back. You might see all your symptoms, the devil says, "Here it is; here's your cancer; here's your heart trouble; here's your crippled condition." Refuse to sign for anything the devil brings. He will have to take it back. Say, "I refuse to have it. I just won't have it, no, sir." He will have to take it back in the Name of the Lord. If you believe it, and confess it, and say, "I've accept Jesus Christ as my Healer," there's no affliction or disease can stay on you. Stay right with it.'' (The Second Miracle, Erie, PA, 07-29-51 evening)