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Beloved in Christ, special greetings to all of you in the precious Name of the Lord Jesus. The year 1984 has come and gone. No opportunity we missed will ever return. Together we should face reality and be prepared for the final battle. Before the Lord takes His people home, great victories must be won. We are not on a picnic, but on the battle ground.

In Ephesians 6, from verse 10, Paul writes, “Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord, and in the power of His might. Put on the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.”

This Scripture passage is known to each and every one of us, but who has been aware of the reality thereof? We should ask God sincerely to help us, so we can defeat the enemy and fight the good battle of faith until we finally attain the victory. We are very grateful for the revealing of God's Word to us, also for all the mysteries that were made known through the prophetic ministry. But for this last battle we need the whole armour of God. We cannot be victorious by discussion with each other about certain doctrines and explanations; Satan is laughing at us, because we are wasting our time. We must unite with Christ and stand together against Satan and his devices.

Only if we realize that we fight against a defeated enemy, shall we have that scriptural faith and claim our God-given rights. In Colossians 2:13-15, we read the all-sufficient declaration, "And you, being dead in your sins and the uncircumcision of your flesh, hath He made alive together with Him, having forgiven you all trespasses, blotting out the handwriting of ordinances that was against us, which was contrary to us, and took it out of the way, nailing it to His cross, and having spoiled principalities and powers, He made a show of them openly, triumphing over them in it."

This happened when the Saviour died for us. It includes the total deliverance and salvation. Even before we were born, we were in God's mind and eternal plan – in fact, we were in Christ and died with Him, we were buried, and we also rose with Him. There is no need for any child of God to doubt the ever-valid work of redemption. The actual sin is unbelief; it leads to disobedience and is manifested as transgression. In such a case the person dies in that sin. To believe simply means: to acknowledge and embrace God's grace and pardon.

According to Ephesians 1:3, we were blessed with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ Jesus our Lord, knowing that we were chosen in Him from before the foundation of the world, having been predestinated according to His own will. On calvary all the claims which God's Word and Law required of us were sufficiently paid for. There can never again be a charge laid against the elect of God (Romans 8:33). Every claim Satan brings up is a forgery. The handwriting written against us, on account of all the ordinances which we could not fulfil, was torn up and nailed to the cross. Through the disobedience of Adam we were separated from God, but through the total obedience and fulfilling of every requirement by Jesus Christ our Lord, we were reconciled to God.

We should realize that all the powers of the enemy were disarmed at Calvary, and the redeemed were given the whole armour of God to fight the defeated forces of the enemy. It is very peculiar, but the evil forces are not yet at their final destination. They are still in heavenly places, and from there influencing whomever they can. If they came from hell, then they could not speak so religiously and piously as they do. But because they are in high places, they know those things pertaining to the Kingdom of God quite well.

Brother Branham has spoken on the subject The Greatest Battle Ever Fought. The influence starts in our minds and then continues to take advantage of us through actions. Eve listened to the serpent, who took God's Word but presented it in a changed manner. That is how all deceptions happen up to this day. A wrong teaching is always taken from a right one, because it must have a scriptural appearance. Otherwise believers would not fall into the trap. As certainly as the Redeemer has used God's original Word to defeat the enemy who was misusing and displacing the original Word, so we as God's people will only overcome by the Blood of the Lamb and by making the Word our testimony (Revelation 12:11). The enemy doesn't care who we are, but he will have to respect God's original Word and will have to bow to it. Therefore our God-given authority doesn't come by presumption; it comes only with the rightful use of God's Holy Word.

It is known to all of us that the ministry of the Lord Jesus Christ right from the beginning was the casting out of evil spirits, the healing of the sick and the deliverance of those who were bound. When He called the twelve and the seventy, He gave to them the same authority to cast out demons and heal the sick. Finally He emphasized it in His great commission. If we are to continue the ministry of the Lord and the apostles, we have to measure ourselves with the restored apostolic ministry of our dearly beloved Brother Branham. He did not come with words and doctrines only, but truly the Kingdom of God was manifested in power and demonstration of the Holy Spirit.

Before we can see a repeat of such a ministry, there has to come the recognition that we must have it. Then we come into a state of desperation, asking God to take this reproach from us and restore us back to where the church was at the beginning. The promises of God hold true right until the end. As a biblical church we must step into those biblical footsteps. There is a need for a new start, not through a new doctrine or method, not through a new interpretation, but through the old established biblical ministries. We must be freed from illusions that have nothing to do with proved reality. Not one of all the unscriptural assertions will ever become scriptural. If something isn't right, it is simply wrong; if it's not from God, it's from Satan. If we take an inventory and search our hearts, we should be able to detect the motives and objectives that are prompting us.

If we have received God's Life through the new birth, then we are partakers of His divine nature. As redeemed we will automatically display the virtues of the Redeemer. It's not something that we talk about, but which we possess. As we are placed in this final spiritual battle, we have to recognize by faith that Jesus Christ our Lord fought this battle in Gethsemane and went right on to Calvary to cry out, “It is finished.” We must recognize that at Calvary the great day of the all-sufficient Atonement has taken place and also that we were taken out of the kingdom of darkness and placed in the Kingdom of God. Our scriptural faith in Jesus Christ our Lord is the victory in itself by which we overcome all the attacks of the enemy. We shall notice that all wrong doctrines are caused by the influence of wrong spirits. They originate from reasoning of the mind, and scriptures are being misused to support those ideas.

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