Ern Baxter Joins the William Branham Crusade!

I have purchased a new CD-Rom from the wonderful "Revival Library" run by Tony Cauchi of Newfrontiers down in Southampton. It is an amazing historic collection of "The Voice of Healing" magazines from 1947 to 1966 - tracing the Healing Movement.

It's interesting - the Healing Movement is often criticized by cautious people who were put off by certain excesses or at times heretical statements made by some of the men and woman leading the Movement. But the actual miracles of healing don't seem to be denied. And I want to read and learn how these men and women were used of God so that we can not copy their mistakes but see these signs and wonders come back!

One comment on the back of the CD-Rom caught my attention particularly concerning Gordon Lindsay. It says;

"God raised up Gordon Lindsay to be a catalyst and chronicler of the revival and the Voice of Healing magazine was the vehicle he employed".

I have often wondered what my calling from God is - and I probably feel most affinity with this; "chronicling" through my transcribing. Now all I pray is that God will begin a move of His Spirit to chronicle! But I wanted to show one article in particular that is of special meaning to me:

Ern Baxter with William Branham

Just couldn't resist a final quick post and a link to a site I discovered set up I think by supporters of the late William Branham. It's called: "Believe the Sign" and there is a seperate page devoted to Ern Baxter and his involvement with William Branham. They very kindly link to the website that is hopefully being still developed with Pete Day - "Ern Baxter dot com" and make reference to an interview with Ern that I published about Branham.

The photo that they published was also of great interest to me - it is Ern Baxter standing deep in thought in front of a ministry car for William Branham. The website very honestly makes note of the fact that in his later years Ern Baxter seperated himself from Branham's doctrines yet never, ever (a point I had to argue and battle with some of the elders at my home church in Dunstable who were trying to claim that Ern Baxter didn't support Branham) argued with the verifiable and authentic miracles that he witnessed while travelling with Branham.

Here's a video that I published some time ago - of an interview with Ern where he was discussing William Branham:



Why do I make mention of this? I mentioned yesterday that Rob Rufus provokes me by his relationship and continual encounters with the manifest Presence of God and the resulting signs and wonders that follow the message of grace that marks his ministry. I have found a video on You-Tube of testimonies from Kings Church in Eastbourne following Rob's visit that we were able to be at (Pete, Scott and myself along with Nick and Malcolm):



The difference to me - the unfolding revelation that is clear to me marking us out as different from the days of William Branham and the other healers of the 1950's is that in those days people flocked to those men and women seeking a miracle from them. And God blessed them graciously! But what I feel passionately now is that Rob Rufus among many others have opened up the truths of the Scripture to us to show that we ALL are responsible for seeing signs, wonders and miracles following OUR ministry and OUR witness.

The question is - will we accept that we are the righteousness of God in Jesus Christ and as such are equipped by God the Holy Spirit to go out and make His Name famous among the nations!?

Rob Rufus Prophecies A WAVE OF GLORY!!

I have just finished transcribing Rob's sermon from Sunday morning (that my friends Julie and Aaron were at!) and WHAT a sermon it was. "There is a Flood of Glory Coming!!". The whole sermon was essentially a prophecy. Rob was describing what he was seeing in the Spirit realm and it MUST MUST MUST be read or heard. I beg you. Rob contends that a Spirit pseunami of gigantic proportions is coming and the question is are we ready?

I am so glad I allowed the MP3 to carry on playing while I put the finishing touches to the sermon and published it. Because after singing a few songs, Rob brought this prophecy;

"This is what the Lord is saying right now to people in this house.

"In the past revivals, only a few men and women rose up in signs and wonders and mighty miracles. They were so attacked and persecuted and targeted by the devil that many of them never made the end of their ministries. Most of them were destroyed by the on-going persecution. For to Me they are heroes. Some of them died alcoholics and some of them went into immorality. People who judge these people are absolutely insane".

We don't know the pressure that was on them 24 hours a day as they tried to pioneer and step out and do things but they were attacked by the major parts of the Body of Christ - they were attacked by the majority of the church. Yet they led hundreds of thousands - some of them millions - to Christ in their short lives. Oral Roberts made it through and is still alive today in his late 80's. He has led 10's of millions to Christ and has laid his hands personally on over 10 million people. Multitudes healed of cancer, cripples and blindness.

William Branham - a great signs and wonders healing evangelist but did not finish his race. One of the greatest ministries seen on the earth - William Branham. Yet he got into pride and was killed in a car accident in 1965. Kathryn Kuhlman died long before her time of exhaustion. Amiee Semple McPherson brutalised by men and criticised by the Pharisees. Jack Cole died and went mad. A A Allen criticised as an alcoholic. These are all heroes. I don't understand the courage it must have taken them to step out into a cynical world that hated them and mocked them and the church sat in their comfortable religious pews - large churches of thousands and mocked these saints of God who stepped out in miracles.

Those big churches were not worthy of the people I am talking about. Synagogues of the freed men. But what is going to happen in this revival - this is what the Spirit of God is saying;

"The glory will cover so extensively over the earth that there will not be an island that won't be covered. There won't be a city or a town or a village that won't be impacted by this wave. There will be so many believers rising up in signs and wonders that God will use so many and miracles will happen so frequently that the devil won't know who God is going to use next! He won't know who to target because millions will rise up in the supernatural and millions from synagogues of the freed men all around the world are going to break out of the religious governments of control and will come out of religious camps and find churches of grace and places of freedom that open themselves entirely to the glory of God.

Communities of believers that say we will not be offended at who God uses - neither will we have unbelief but we will open ourselves entirely to the glory of God and there will come millions from around the earth and will rise up and there will be an army of signs and wonders children and teenagers and men and women and old and young - all moving in signs and wonders and raising the dead, blind eyes, angelic visitations, visions and prophesying! Children and men and women and old and young - the devil won't know who to attack and if they attack one they are attacking us all! No one will be isolated in this wave of the glory - no one will be in signs and wonders on their own but millions are going to walk in them. There will be no big names or big name ministries - this will be the people of God!".

Now we have prophesied about this for a few decades but the truth is it has come now! It has come! It is not a season - the seasons are over! This is a new climate - a new dimension! This is the glory of God in the nations of the earth!".

Whether you agree or disagree with this prophecy, you cannot deny that something exciting is happening in heaven and is about to come to earth. God has great plans for His Bride - the Church and He will see them presented to Him glorious! And I am finally coming to the stage when I am so grateful to be alive NOW and have stopped wishing that I could go back and be alive during the Dales Bible Weeks 1970's or the Healing Revivals or whenever. I am alive NOW for a purpose! Come Lord! Let the fire fall!

Ern Baxter on William Branham, Word and Spirit

I have been re-visiting again the series of interviews Ern Baxter gave shortly before his going to glory. They were called "Life on Wings" and the transcript of the interviews is available courtesy of my old friend Mark Heath. I was listening to the third session in the series which dealt with in particular Ern Baxter's association with William Branham. Dewey Friedel asked Ern Baxter about Branham and some of his concerns with him. Ern answered the question and went on to sum up very well the concern we should still have today for not abandoning either our commitment to the Word of God or our love for the Person of the Holy Spirit.

I have posted the transcript of the section below the video clip in case Ern is not quite clear in the video quality.



Baxter:

Well I would probably say, and I say this without prejudice and I say this with a deep affection for William Branham. I think that Brother Branham probably walked in all the lights that he had, he certainly was not what you and I would call a theologian. He was a man who had some rather strange views of the Scripture. The one thing that kept me at his side was that he had a great love for the Lord Jesus and I felt that any man, who placed the lordship of Christ where he placed it, was a man I could associate with. Many of his other doctrinal views – we controverted again and again. I think as in the Latter Rain and as in Pentecost and as in the charismatic dimension, and many people don’t understand me when I say this because I have been in all of these things, when an evangelical or a non-charismatic criticises Pentecostalism and the charismatic dimension and William Branham, I say, “Woo – now just a minute, I want to talk to you!”.

Because I started speaking in tongues in 1932 and I have never been ashamed of that. I have never opted out of my charismatic dimension while I have been pursuing what I hoped was sound doctrine. And a man coming out of the evangelical realm criticising the charismatic dimension – well I’m going to have to take up for the charismatic. But then having done that, I want to say to the charismatic, “Where’s the Word dimension?”. And one of my deep concerns that I have held almost all my life is that it is the Word dimension that seems to get short changed in the charismatics –

It’s the Spirit dimension that gets short changed in the evangelical realm and my life long dream has been to see these two come together in some kind of permanent union – we’d blow the world into the kingdom of God!".

Who IS Ern Baxter?

It occured to me that I have been running this blog for two years and there is precious little about the person of Ern Baxter. Maybe some visitors to the blog haven't heard about him. Maybe some visitors only know of him only in connection to the Shepherding/Discipleship Controversy or his friendship with William Branham. I searched through the internet and there isn't much in terms of biographical detail on Ern Baxter so I have gathered together my books and attempted a draft at one. It is destined to end up on our new and forthcoming website - Ern Baxter dot com. I have submitted it to my friend Pete and so will eventually have alterations but thought it would be of interest here and now. I have put the biography of my sources at the end of the article.

Physical Beginnings

William John Ernest Baxter was born 1914 in Saskatchewan, Canada. He was born and baptised into a Presbyterian family. His mother had some dealings with a Holiness church and following his father’s conversion they went into classical Pentecostalism. Their city was visited by a Scandinavian itinerate minister who was blessed by signs and wonders accompanying his word. While in the Baxter’s home city, he taught on the Baptism of the Holy Spirit. Ern Baxter’s mother was the first in those meetings to receive the baptism of power. Ern recalled seeing his father help her into the house drunk in the Spirit – an unusual event as she was so strictly tee-total! Later in his teenage years Ern went through a period of backsliding from the legalism of religion and became seriously ill from pneumonia through excess. Two events brought him back to God – a miracle of healing and the words of a friend;

“Ern, being a Christian isn’t about what you do for God, it’s about what God in Christ Jesus has done and will continue to do for you”.

On the 24th May 1932 he entered full time service for God as a musician travelling across Canada with an apostle.

Charismatic Beginnings

While travelling Ern and his companion came to a conference held in Trossachs in Canada. It was there at 3:40am on July 2nd 1932 that Ern Baxter received the Baptism of the Holy Spirit. Trossachs was an unusual conference for the delegates were not Pentecostal in the classic sense – they were very biblically orientated with a hunger for the experience of the Holy Spirit. This was Ern’s first exposure to what was to become a central passion in his life and ministry – Word and Spirit or Reformed Doctrine and Charismatic life and power. The morning after he had been baptised in the Holy Spirit God spoke to him and called him to the ministry; “I want you to preach My Word”.

Ministry Beginnings

Ern Baxter noticed that many following the Trossachs conference made choices to follow either the Word or the Spirit and to compromise that balance or tension. He himself initially attempted to do the same as there was no clear role model to hold Word and Spirit in proper tension before. He spent some time ministering within classic Pentecostalism but found his Reformed theology was not acceptable at that point. It was then he received an invitation to a small independent Baptist church in Vancouver in British Columbia, Canada. It was here he put into practice those principles that he had experienced at Trossachs and built the largest church in the city and area.

William Branham

In 1947 Ern and his church began to hear about an unusual travelling evangelist called William Branham who was filling the largest arenas in America with dramatic displays of the power of God. God promised Ern at that time; “You will meet this man”. On the grounds of that promise he refused several arranged meetings with Branham. However it was William Branham himself who approached Ern and told him that he had been praying and had met the angel of the Lord who had appeared to him and told him to invite Ern Baxter to become his companion and manager. They worked together for seven years. While Ern saw some of the greatest miracles, signs and wonders during his time he began to become concerned at the error that was coming out from the Healing Movement. In 1957 Ern found it necessary to withdraw from ministry with Branham.

Movements of the Spirit

One of the remarkable features of Ern Baxter’s life was that he lived through no less than four major movements of the Holy Spirit in the 20th century – the Pentecostal Movement (which began in Azusa Street, Los Angeles), the Healing Movement, the Latter Rain Movement and eventually the Charismatic Movement (which began involving Dennis Bennett, a contemporary of Ern Baxter’s). The Latter Rain Movement has also been shrouded in controversy. It started in Ern’s home town of Saskatchewan, Canada and was started by men who were hungry for God and for genuine gifts of the Holy Spirit and as these men prayed and fasted God visited them sovereignly in power. Ern went to their second convocation in Canada and said;

“I never saw such a concentration of the power of God”.

However like the Healing Movement, the leaders of the Latter Rain seemed to show disregard for the disciplines of the Word of God and it too declined into obscurity. When Ern read of the beginning of the Charismatic Movement his initial reaction was one of cynicism from having seen this before but he went on to meet Dennis Bennett who had been moved up to Seattle. As the Charismatic Movement spread throughout the world Ern was privileged to be in the position of being an experienced man of God who had seen the mistakes of the past but still hungered for more of the Presence and Spirit of God.

Ritch Carlton, Ern Baxter’s Administrator wrote post-humously of Ern;

“ … A seasoned, mature man of God who laboured in Word and doctrine and who spent the majority of his life travelling in public ministry. He was involved in most of the major moves of the Spirit experienced in this century … He was a witness to Christianity’s divisions – from the inside and the outside. With disappointment he cried “Where is the Church?”. He knew that the Church is God’s instrument in the earth to declare His glory and righteousness. He loved the Church”.

Many other church leaders have become disillusioned with Pentecostal/Charismatic excess and have responded by calling for no use, effectively becoming functional cessationists. Ern Baxter did not give in to such a temptation. Rich Carlton wrote;

“Above all else Ern still believed that God had a purpose for the Church in the earth that would be realized in ultimate and complete victory”.

Maturing in the Spirit

Ern Baxter is possibly most known for being part of what was called the Shepherding/Discipleship Movement. While there is no denying that excess and harm was indeed present in this movement, the original vision and heart of the five men who led the movement were for God’s highest best and so that moves of the Spirit of God would be maintained and heightened. Don Basham, Derek Prince, Bob Mumford, Charles Simpson and Ern Baxter all came from different theological and religious viewpoints and backgrounds yet realised that there is nothing biblical or healthy in independence. In no way whatever did any of the five men support unbiblical heavy shepherding but they did call for a need for accountability and discipleship. The five men held several major key conferences at Montreat and at Kansas which attracted many thousands of men – suggesting that their message was meeting a need. The Kansas City Shepherds Conference in 1975 was especially historic – attended by some 40 to 50, 000 men. Ern Baxter closed the conference preaching possibly his most historic message – “Thy Kingdom Come!”. Many men testified to seeing angelic manifestations and signs and wonders. The sense of unity brought an awesome and heavy manifestation of the anointing of the Presence of God.

Worldwide Influence

Ern Baxter had a major influence not just in the United States but also across the world particularly in Australia and the United Kingdom. He came to the United Kingdom in 1975 and preached keynote addresses at the main charismatic conferences – the Lakes and Dales Bible Weeks. Professor Andrew Walker wrote of; “the powerful influence of an American, Ern Baxter”. The Bible Weeks were run by UK charismatic leader Bryn Jones and his team of apostolic churches. Andrew Walker wrote;

“Baxter’s influence was sensational; the audiences went wild every time he appeared … during the first Bible Week at the Great Yorkshire Showground in 1976, Baxter was the great attraction and as in the previous year excitement was at fever pitch”.

Ern’s ministry did not just affect Bryn Jones’ churches. Terry Virgo, the father of the Newfrontiers family of churches wrote;

“Ern Baxter was a powerful prophetic preacher, able to paint a huge picture of the magnificent end-time church. He was deeply rooted theologically, very widely read but also profoundly steeped in a powerful Pentecostal background … the influence of Ern Baxter and his friends was growing even greater in the USA and their monthly magazine New Wine became their radical trumpet voice was now being read all around the world”.

Ern did not limit himself to being “simply” a conference speaker. He believed deeply in the principles of discipleship and took on 12 men – pastors – to care for and to teach and support where he could. Each of these men would travel over to meet him in his home firstly in Mobile, Alabama and then in San Diego, California to spend time hearing him teach. He too travelled as much as his health would allow supporting and visiting his “sons” and their churches. He did not only teach from his experience but from a massive library of 9, 000 plus books and journals that are now housed in a Memorial Library in Mobile, Alabama under the auspices of Charles Simpson Ministries.

By the end of his life, Ern was taking an interest in imparting all that he had learned to younger men – his “Timothys”. It is surprising therefore that more of Ern Baxter’s ministry has not been published. It is our sincere hope that this website may be a small step towards this prophetic statement of Charles Simpson’s being fulfilled.

“Ern has a profound preaching and teaching ministry. He is a preacher’s preacher. It is important that the taped and printed records of his ministry be preserved and propagated” – Charles Simpson, New Wine Magazine – November 1986.

Bibliography

“Autobiography and Introduction” – by Dr Ern Baxter – from the tape series – “Things Most Surely Believed Series” – Alethia Ministries audiotapes.

• “A Daring Biblical Approach to God’s Agenda” – by Ern Baxter – Destiny Image, PA (1995).
• “A Statement” by Charles Simpson – from New Wine Magazine – November 1986 – CGM Ministries.
• “A Demonstration of His Glory – A Personal Report of Ern’s Recent Ministry in Great Britain” – by Dr Ern Baxter – from New Wine Magazine – December 1977 – CGM Ministries.
• “Restoring the Kingdom” – by Andrew Walker – Eagle Books, Surrey (1998).
• "Restoring the Balance between the King, the Kingdom and the Holy Spirit” – by Ern Baxter – Destiny Image, PA (1995).
• “No Well-Worn Paths” – by Terry Virgo – Kingsway, Eastbourne (2001).

Counterfeit Power is Real - Where is the Genuine?

I've just come back from an extremely interesting night shift where I was privilidged to work with a lovely South African nurse. As is common with nights we got chatting quite deeply around 4am and I was interested to learn something of the culture in South Africa - particularly in relation to religion. Although she was an atheist, she told me quite a lot about the culture of witchcraft down there. I was fascinated in her story - particularly as she wasn't a Christian - but deeply believed in the presence of supernatural power.

She told me that witch-doctors in South Africa have the power to kill, drive insane and injure anyone who offends them or upsets them. I learnt that all they need is a footprint of the person they are targeting and that is enough to use in their magic. She told me that a number of witch-doctors can take tyre prints off the tracks of cars and they have the ability to cause those cars to crash or have their brakes fail. The point is - this power is real and it is tangible.

What occured to me was how would John MacArthur's dispensational cessationism fit in down in that sort of culture? How would that lovely South African nurse have reacted if I had told her that there were only three periods of miracles in the whole of history and that has ceased now that the Word of God is complete and supernatural power does not and cannot occur unless it is a freak sovereign initiative of God? I am pretty sure she would have laughed at me - as she has direct contact with people who have fallen foul of the witch-doctors. I asked her whether the witch-doctors ever did anything "good" with their magical abilities and she told me virtually never. It is always designed to harm or worse.

My point is this. Counterfeit power is real and present in cultures outside of the West. Why would Satan bother to counterfeit spiritual power if true and God-glorifying power does not exist today? Why would Paul warn his readers that false apostles and prophets and miracle-workers will rise up in the last days and we are to "test all things" to prove whether they are of God - why would he warn that if there was no geninue apostles and prophets and miracle-workers? If the only supernatural power that is present in the world (as MacArthur suggests) is false, Satanic and of the flesh then there is no testing required! It is all false.

Surely the only possible option is that there is indeed true supernatural power and anointing present in the world today and MacArthur is incorrect. Surely if Satan is busy influencing the witch-doctors in Africa and South America with counterfeit spiritual power then he knows that God is more than capable and willing to anoint His Church to walk in true, good, God-glorifying spiritual power that will indeed cause terrorist suicide bombers to fall down on their knees and be turned from haters to lovers!

It bothers me, irritates me and angers me that the only spiritual power that this South African nurse knew of was evil power manifest by these witch doctors. I wish she had been at Brighton when Rob Rufus was ministering! I wish she knew of men like William Branham who could discern names, addresses and diagnoses with his gift of knowledge. I wish that there was a corporate spiritual anointing and power upon the Church that would cause these witch-doctors (like Simon the sorcerer) to come and say "Let me give you money for that power!".

Wake up Church! Satan has had the monopoly on spiritual power long enough!

Let me urge you again to go and read Peter's excellent blog; "Filling the Vacuum". There is indeed a vacuum to be filled and the world is crying out for a true, genuine spiritual power and anointing to come and prove that the Gospel and the Word of God is true! Not Words alone - but POWER!

Pete Day, William Branham, Rob Rufus and the Glory!!

I along with many others have been waiting eagerly and somewhat impatiently for Pete Day to post another blog. Before I talk about a couple of his latest posts, I want to pay tribute to this guy. I feel privilidged to know him probably better than many other bloggers and so can get away with saying something biographical about him - as he never would himself! Pete pastors a church in South London and has done so faithfully for a number of years. He takes the main responsibility for preaching and teaching and doesn't have any apostolic support within the church (yet). I have been a witness to many of the struggles that he goes through daily. He truly is a pastor/teacher - a gift to the Church from the ascended Christ - and he takes his calling from God extremely seriously. His heart has been to see the Word and the Spirit unite in glorious combustion ever since I have known him (which is mainly why we became such good friends) and he is working that out in daily church life in London.

By the way - he is blessed to have a faithful, loving wife - Margaret - who is a dear friend and runs her own unique blog here! It's well worth a visit!

So for him to run a blog alongside his daily ministry is quite an achievement and I want to pay tribute to that (unlike me who doesn't really have anything else to do but blog!). I have mentioned before that I think the legalistic temptation in blogging can be to churn out anything just so that visitors will not get disappointed and that all-desireable hit counter keeps going up! Pete on the other hand takes blogging just as seriously as his preaching and teaching ministry. He won't fill blog after blog with any old quote or blog he has found in a few minutes of searching. In that sense he really is a truly prophetic blogger. He doesn't want to blog "just anything" unless God gives him a word to bring to the readers who visit his blog. Therefore when he does publish something - let me assure you it is a MUST-READ!!

His latest post is called; "Filling the Vacuum". It bears some similarity to a post he blogged last December called; "Signs Following". Actually these two blogs are quite reminiscent of Rob Rufus - because the theme and the focus is the glory of God. The inspiration for this most recent post came from a community meeting in South London that he attended. Rather than sucuumbing to the fatalist mentality that characterises too many Christians today, Pete (in true prophetic manner) questioned the Lord as to the real nature of the problem and the word he was given from God was; "Vacuum". There is nothing fatalistic about a vacuum because a vacuum by nature demands something - it demands filling!

What I love and what thrills me about this post is that Pete is absolutely unapologetic about what many of us who believe in and long for a "Charismatic Resurgence" have been writing about. There is NOTHING optional about charismatic life in the church! The reason why it isn't optional is because charismatic life in the church is designed to impact the community. Pete says;

"While we must have Spirit-saturated meetings, we need to receive God's word, and be drenched in His presence, these things are not an end in themselves ... The purpose of the cloud of glory is not only to make us feel good, but to transform the whole community. We are to be drenched in the cloud of glory, but He goes with us into the highways and byways of the streets around your church and around your home".

There is much, much more to charismatic church life that simply arguing about the validity and presence of the gifts of tongues and prophecy today. We need to argue these things to be sure - for the Word of God is at stake - but we need to move beyond these arguments and move into the cloud of glory. Yet there is nothing "selfishly ecstatic" about the cloud of glory as men like John MacArthur would accuse. Pete writes;

"So let us get the light, get the glory in our worship meetings, in our prayer meetings and then let us get out and take the glory with us!".

The whole nature of the cloud of glory falling upon is - is that we might go and take it into the community! Surely the greatest tragedy facing the Church universal today is not the behaviour of charismaniacs (as they are scornfully called) but the fact that there can be local churches meeting in the middle of communities who are totally unaware of their presence.

I love Pete's final paragraph - because it is in essence a prophetic vision of what WILL come to pass. I believe it!

"Imagine meeting with young gang members and having word of wisdom that sets them free. Imagine serving in a homeless shelter and seeing people delivered from the power of alcohol addiction. Imagine serving in a hospital and seeing whole wards healed by the power of God. Imagine visiting the elderly and by the patience and compassion that God gives you, hearts are softened and people come to the Lord. Imagine advising parents from God's Word how to parent, and them seeing the reality of God, as His principles work".

So why does this tie in with his post in December - "With Signs Following"? Well it is dealing with a concept that I really believe will characterise the church as God continues to restore and revive and reconstruct His glory as it spreads across the whole earth as He has promised in His Word. Many men and women have written off William Branham because of his later teachings but Ern Baxter did not, and as a result neither have Pete and I in many discussions we have had about Branham. In that post Pete really sums up the result of many of our conversations and asked this;

"We may have sound theology, but do we have the power of God in our midst as Branham experienced? ... Ern makes a startling comment - "Branham never once made a mistake with the word of knowledge in all the years I was with him. That covers, in my case, thousands of instances." ... And that is the challenge. Where is this kind of power and intimacy with God that means we hear Him clearly?".

Rather than focusing on Branham's error, how about we become stirred by his successes when he was being used so powerfully of God. This is EXACTLY what Rob Rufus urged us to do in his third and final session at "Together on a Mission 2007". Both Pete and myself were very stirred by his words about William Branham and the "lost anointing" that is still to be claimed in the earth. Rob taught us that it isn't God's intention to take that anointing away from the earth because Branham and others misused it eventually but it is His intention for the corporate Body of His people to rise up and claim it and use it. That - I think - was the focus of Rob Rufus coming to Brighton. It wasn't about a man coming - so that we might all seek the anointing off him. Rob came to impart something of his faith and vision for the glorious end times for the Church to us who were listening.

It's interesting to note that although men like John MacArthur teach that there were only three periods of miracles in the Word of God - and so therefore cannot be any gifts of miracles since - while they are very happy to pick apart Branham's theology, I have yet to hear them deal with the fact that as Ern Baxter said - Branham never "missed" in his use of the Word of Knowledge.

Pete ends that awesome post with these words;

"Let us stop picking holes in the people God used in past years. Let us instead humble ourselves before the Lord. Yes, let us get our theology right and be men and women immersed in the Word of God. But let us cry out to God for a fresh visitation. Only His almighty power can transform our churches and our society. And let us hunger for the kind of gifting and anointing that shakes the gates of hell for our Lord's glory".

I have posted two videos of William Branham here - so that anyone interested can actually see his awesome gift of healing and miracles in action. There is a clip in the first video near the end where you can here him clearly tell a woman her name, address and diagnosis - before going on to declare that she is healed.

Let me echo Pete's cry that we stop picking holes in servants of God and fall on our knees and cry that God will release that heavy level of anointing upon the earth so that the nations will have no option but to declare that Jesus Christ is Lord!