What is the Sabbath today, and how do we keep it?
This month subject was triggered by the testimony last Sunday, the 29^th of September, of a young man who at the point of despair, at the point of no way out but just to even tries to keep alive. It was at that moment of darkest hour, that dawn came upon him. He was sitting on his bed, his wife sleeping beside him pondering and worrying what next, that he felt the presence of a being in the room. The presence was real as he began to be directed to take up his bible to read passages which suddenly stand out so clearly to him, diagnosing his condition and predicament but same time offering him the truly born again experience, the baptism of the Holy Ghost.  It was the day dawn of the morning, a new beginning that brings out the scriptures which I read today, Isaiah 55. He received the baptism of the Holy Ghost just as the way Brother Branham described his own experience. This was the promise of the Father in John 20:22, Acts 1:8 and Acts 2:39. Even as many as our Lord shall call even unto the utter most part of the world.

Isa 55:1-3

The sure mercies of David ?  What a promise. God never deserted David when he was persecuted by Saul, even after being anointed king and committed evil, which caused his kingdom to disintegrate. No, God did not desert David as He announced here, with sure mercies. That mercy was translated into his true Son, Jesus Christ, who shall reign in the Millennium years to come.  It was the Holy Spirit in David which inspired him to write so many psalms to praise God and speak about His mercies, goodness and loving kindness.
 
My last article, I spoke about googling for bible answers of which there was none particularly on the subject of “What is the Sabbath today?”  What you will get are probably some theological exposition of what the sabbath is and how it should be observed or that it is a particular day of the week set aside as practised by the Jews. But, oh the revelation which came in the scriptures when we listened to the sermon on the Hebrew series preached in 1957. A series of 7 sermons with questions and answers at the end.  The sabbath the Jews observed were not only for once but recycled every week whereas Paul said that when God finished His work, He rested on the seventh day and sancitified it. As our world history enters into the seventh millenium, a type of this REST which will never be recycled again because it is for Eternity. What is this REST is explained by Paul as we continue to look into the scriptures. Particularly when the prophet of God linked the verses in Mathew 11, Isaiah 28, Genesis 1 and Ezekiel 36.

As Christ died only once for all and became the High Priest of our confession, in like figure we also were buried with him by baptism into His death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the GLORY of the Father (Romans 6), even so we also should walk in newness of LIFE. When we are born into the Kingdom. As was Adam "born" into the world, he became the living soul, the first man of the earth who was to be our earthly father, but when Christ, the second man or last Adam, rose from the grave, we rose with Him into this resurrection of LIFE, and He was the firstfruit. We are identified with Him for He rested from His works when He declared on the Cross, "It is finished". He was the Lord of the Sabbath and when we accepted His sacrifice we are also identified in His resurrection. Ephesian 1:13 and 4:30 clearly said it is a finished work, a Seal until the day of Redemption of the purchased product. The Seal of the Holy Ghost signifies a finished work, ownership/authority and acceptance. We were like Ruth, who found her kinsman redeemer in Boaz and after he promised to take on the role of the redeemer, she was instructed to just wait (REST) for Boaz to follow through with the redemption of the inheritance of Elimelech, Naomi and herself, the Bride.
 

Isa 55:(6)  Seek ye the LORD while he may be found, call ye upon him while he is near:

 
We know that was exactly what Paul was teaching in the book of Hebrew and Jesus spoke about it, seek ye first the kingdom of God and ALL these things shall be added unto you. Not the other way round, to seek the goods of the world and forsake the Lord Himself as was the case of the rich young ruler, who can’t let go of his worldly materialistic goods for that pearl of great price in obeying the Word of God. That was the wine and milk more than gold and priceless.
 
We sang the song,"I gave Him my old tattered garment and He gave me a robe of pure white". What a priceless exchange. Yes, the Lord said, Come unto me all ye that are heavy laden and I shall give you REST (Sabbath).
 

Mat 11:28-30
(28)  Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.
 
(29)  Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls.
 
(30)  For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.
 

Indeed, His yoke is easy and His burden light, as we experience this reality of the Baptism of the Holy Spirit. Our young man who gave the testimony reminded us of the promise Brother Branham made to his dying wife, Sister Hope that he would carry this gospel till his dying breath. Throughout his lifetime ministry, he never went off this subject but continued to preach it and identified all the scriptures in the bible on this one single purpose of God dwelling in His church to fulfill His own Word and promise. As long as this gospel is preached, the promise of the Father is given according to Acts 1:8 even unto the end of the world. In fact in every sermon, he spoke of it and even in the discernment lines; he identified those who were seeking the reality of the baptism of the Holy Ghost. He spoke of the Dean of the Lutheran school and his 72 students praying for it in the school,  he spoke of Doctor Reedhead and the Archbishop of India visiting him at his home to earnestly seek it. They were not taking any chances. The prophet was there and they seized the opportunity to press into the kingdom. Now we can fully understand what Jesus meant when He said :

Joh 12:24
(24)  Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone: but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit.

And what fruit it brought. Men who already achieved some recognition and stature in the Christian domain realised they were merely professing Christianity and not possessing it. And when they contend for that faith, they realised the emptiness of this profession without true possession, the Baptism of the Holy Spirit and they were not ashamed to approach a seemingly unlearned man for the reality to bear this fruit promised by the Lord Jesus, for the very purpose that He died. And great was their reward when true possession came when their faith was expressed into action. They knew Brother Branham had the reality of it and was not educated into it, but like Moses, spoke to God "lip to ears".

WHY.I.AM.A.HOLY.ROLLER_  CHICAGO.IL  SUNDAY_  53-0830A
  E-68    "Beloved, I give all diligence to write unto you of the common salvation, that you would earnestly contend for the faith that was once delivered to the saints."
I say this today, if you believe me to be God's servant, you are now living in the day of the restoration of the faith that was once delivered to the saints, living under the power of the latter rain of the Holy Ghost Church that's raising up today calling great doctors and divinities of everything out of all the denominations...
Right in my house in this last three weeks, some of the greatest men, even to the Archbishop of India, over all the evangelical churches of India, has received the baptism of the Holy Ghost. Yes. Dr. Reedheadthe president of Sudan Missions was put out of missions to--a couple of weeks ago, because he received the Holy Ghost and spoke in tongues as the Spirit gave him utterance. That's right.
Doctor Donald Lee, the great Southern Baptist, set in my room the other day, and said, "Brother Branham, I have just been--poured out my heart and the Holy Ghost come upon me," and said, "I was walking in the room and I couldn't even speak English no more." What is it?
 

The time of redemption is here, brother,
Men's hearts are failing for fear;
Be filled with the Spirit,
Your lamps trimmed and clear,
Look up! your redemption is near.
That's right, we're at the end age.
It'll be light in the evening time,
The path of glory you will surely find.

 
Oh, yes, study the book of Hebrew and listened to the Hebrew series and you get that stimulation of revelation, the wine and the milk will flow freely as our eyes open up to see that God promised every believer this REST.
 
Heb 4:1-2

(1)  Let us therefore fear, lest, a promise being left us of entering into his rest, any of you should seem to come short of it.

(2)  For unto us was the gospel preached, as well as unto them: but the word preached did not profit them, not being mixed with faith in them that heard it.

 
Mixed that with FAITH by hearing, recognizing and acting on it. Hear those sermons with such titles as "the Lamb and the Dove", how that the Dove nature of the Holy Spirit can only come upon the Lamb nature, how the faith of Abraham made him wander in the wilderness in search of the City made without hands, how that we pressed into this same kingdom as told by our Lord to Nicodemus to be born again before we can see the kingdom of God. Listen to the sermon “Desperation” preached in September 1963 and hear why he said the “Token” message preached in the morning of the same day, was the highlight Message of his entire ministry!
 
DESPERATIONS_  JEFF.IN  V-4 N-1  SUNDAY_  63-0901E
  9      Now you people in the tapes in there, I would that--that... I think now I...
This morning, the message this morning was, to me, the highlights Message of my entire ministry;this morning, see, a highlight Message of my entire ministry. Someday I'll tell you how it come about. And I know that everything has worked for months and months and months, up to that one Message, moving up to come to that place. That was the capping-off time of it, you see. And it's a...
 
In the first exodus, God gave them the plan of their salvation, The Token which was the blood of an innocent lamb. This was the requirement to exit Egypt (a type of the world order), for it was a type that every household which displayed the token of the blood on the door post, were bypassed by the death angel and the firstborn son need not die. Not so in  pharaoh’s household, from his generals to the common men, they all died. I could imagine some of these Egyptians fearing the wrath of God would have also smeared some animal’s blood on their door post, but it was of no avail because it was not according to the Word of God for that hour. It must be the blood of the Passover or Pascal Lamb. No other animal blood will do. And the blood must be applied with the hyssop brush, hyssop being a common plant. God is identified in simplicity.
 
Today, we must apply the blood of the innocent lamb into our hearts, the blood of Jesus Christ and that is why it is by Faith. When we do that, the very Life that was in the blood, which blood being the chemistry and not the Life, must come back upon the believers. What is that Life? The Word of God made a reality in ourselves when we “eat of His flesh and drink of His blood”.
 

Isa 55:8-10
(8)  For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the LORD.

(9)  For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.

(10)  For as the rain cometh down, and the snow from heaven, and returneth not thither, but watereth the earth, and maketh it bring forth and bud, that it may give seed to the sower, and bread to the eater:

Compare verse 10 above with what the Lord said about the Holy Spirit.
 

Joh 3:8
(8)  The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh, and whither it goeth: so is every one that is born of the Spirit.

The seventy ordained to minister went away when Jesus told them to do it. He did not explain to them the meaning and they were offended because they were expecting Him to come into power with a great army to push out the Romans. His thoughts are not our thoughts, neither His ways, our ways.
 

Joh 6:66
(66)  From that time many of his disciples went back, and walked no more with him.

 
In John 6:63, the words that God spoke, they are Spirit and they are Life. In John 1, it also says, the Word is God. And in another scripture, John wrote that God is Love. There is no explanation needed. Just receive God the way the disciples were told to tarry in Jerusalem and wait UNTIL they were endued with power from on High!  Peter and his group of fellow believers could have simply went out to preach that Christ has risen but no, first they have to obey the Lord by waiting in Jerusalem UNTIL……not before. We have to count the loss of all things as dung, to learn the excellency of the knowledge of Jesus Christ.
 

Phil 3:8    Yea doubtless, and I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord: for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but dung, that I may win Christ,
 

Abraham believed God and it was imputed to him as righteousness but God gave him the sign of the seal of circumcision, which seal today, was what Paul called the Circumcision of the heart. I pity those who went out of balance with this word and spoke about the Law being a taskmaster so we have to let it go and simply embraced the grace that is offered giving the impression that it was to replace the Law. Is that the Word? Yes but not the full Word because the Word also say, I will put my laws in their heart. Why? How do God placed the Law into the fleshy tablet of the heart? What is circumcision but the cutting away of surplus flesh.
 

Heb 10:16
(16)  This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, saith the Lord, I will put my laws into their hearts, and in their minds will I write them;

 
Thus we got from Ezekiel the promise of how God will do it.
 

Eze 36:26-27
(26)  A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you: and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you a heart of fle