Replenish The Earth

I want to read a little bit from the Book of Acts, the seventh chapter, and maybe we can go to the Book of Revelation; but I'd just like to read a little bit in the Book of Acts, if I could. It's so hot, I'm gonna have to get out of this coat. I know that. The seventh chapter of the Book of Acts. (Here Brother Pike reads the scriptures). And the Bible goes on to point out here that the Church was under a great persecution. You know, there's one thing that I'm sure would help the progress of the Christian Era that we live in, and that is, if we had a little persecution. If the Lord saw fit to let a great persecution come upon the church, we would find out that a lot of people that bicker and backbite and find fault and say things, wouldn't do that anymore. And people that are interested in houses and lands and things of the world would lose their interest. For, if the persecution got great enough, every man would seek his fellow that he might find strength, or somebody to lean upon that he might be able to continue on in the things of God. Some of you are very weak in the Lord. The Bible tells me that if you faint in the day of adversity, your strength is small. And I've noticed that some of you, if you have just a little bit of adversity, doesn't take much, just a little bit of adversity, whether it's from your neighbor, whether it's from your brother, or whether it's from the devil, you get real tore up. Nervous. Frustrated. All out of sorts. Your faith is soon shaken, and the Bible said, when you do this your strength is small. But, what we need to do is get down in God. I mean get down and mean business with God. Aren't you glad that you're in a church where people are willing to forget about the world, and forget about all that's in the world, and just have God on their mind all the time; day and night, have God on their mind? That's all that's important, is God. Pray, fast, study, seek God. Remember that we're changing over to another world. That we're not people of this world. But, we're Children of God, and we're strangers and pilgrims and that we're seeking a City whose Builder and Maker is God; and that we don't have to stay here in this world; that it's not our home. Aren't you glad of that tonight? I'm glad of that tonight. I'm thankful. I want to be around this kind of people. I don't want to be around folks that just go to church, you know on Monday and Wednesday and whenever they take a notion. Church is just a ritualistic to them. They might talk about things of God one minute and they might talk about houses and lands the next minute. But, I want to be numbered with the people like Peter and James and John and Paul, where everything that they think is God. Where you meditate in the laws of God day and night. You wake up in the morning meditating in the things of God. You lay down at night meditating in the things of God. All the time God's on your mind. That's all you care about. What a happy life. What a happy world. What a full assurance that everything will be well when you press your death pillow. But don't be carried away with the things of the world. Because I'll tell you something folks. You may have a little piece of property, you may have a little house. That's good. If God's given it to you, honor the Lord with your substance. You may have a good automobile, you may have a good education, you may have securities, you may have something in the bank, but just remember one thing that me and you are breathing real good right now. Breathing real good. We're alright. We're healthy. Like when I went to talk to my little brother, Charles. He was breathing just as good as I am. He was just whole, healthy. Wasn't nothing wrong with him. Just a minor thing where he had an infection of the kidney, talking to me, fully at himself, just like you are. But, I spoke to him, and turned around to go to the prayer room and in a little while he was dead. He had crossed over the river. I talked to my Dad, and in a little while I got word to come back. Before I could get to the room, my Dad had crossed over the river. Many people have crossed over. I've held peoples hands while they crossed over the river. See, your house, your land, your business, your desire, your plans and your purposes. They seem like something big but in one short moment, you can press your dying pillow and they don't mean nothing. When you start struggling for breath and you know that you're gone, if you've got any time at all to think, the first thing that you think is, God have I got anything over there in that world? Lord, that's where I'm going to spend my life. That's eternity. Lord, do I have any hope over there? Do I have anything on the other side? Have I made any preparations to where I can please Thee when I come over there Lord? That's what counts. Lay up your treasures in heaven where thieves don't break through and steal, where moth don't corrupt, for wherever your treasures are, that's where your heart will be also. Let your conversation be in heaven. You know, I made up my mind, many long years ago and this is the truth. Many years ago as a youngster, I said, Lord, some day I'm going to die unless You come back and You change me into Your glorious image. Some day I'm going to have to die and I said, Lord, I don't know what day it will be, but I know it will be one day. And I said, Lord, since I don't know what day it will be, that I'm going to try to live every day that I live on this earth, like that day is the last day. And so help me God, for many multiplied years, I've lived with that in mind. Every day I live like that will be my last day. When I go to bed at night, I consider the fact that that night might be my last night. I might pass over during the night. And I try to do everything that I know to be holy, to be pure, to be clean in my thoughts, in the intents of my heart, to my fellow man. Toward my people, toward my creditors, toward my brethren. I try, as Paul said, to keep my conscience clear all the time, void of offense toward man and God, that there's not one little iota between me and God or my fellow man. All the days of my life, I try to live like that. Because one day, I'm going to cross the river and what you think about me isn't going to count. What I think about myself isn't going to matter. What somebody else has said about me isn't going to matter. It's what God thinks about me when I stand before Him on that day! That's what counts. And that's the One that I'm trying to please. Now, I read to you tonight how that they suffered persecution. How that all these things come upon them. How their journey through the wilderness brought them heartaches. But how that God eventually raised up a great deliverer and brought them out. And how many of you understand tonight, that as we point you back to the board, to go back to Calvary, that Jesus was the Prophet that was like unto Moses that was ordained to come forth to bring the people out of the wilderness of the carnal mind? That He was the Proper Child that was to come into the world, and that what Moses did and what Israel did, was only a type and a shadow or a symbol of what Jesus Christ, the Prophet like unto Moses, was coming to do with the Church. How many of you understand that? Paul said, these things happen for our example. That is, because he had received the Revelation and understood that they're only types and shadows. How many of you know that you've been in a wilderness? Moving through a wilderness. Going through a wilderness of your intellectual reasoning. How many of you understand that some of you are still in that wilderness tonight? That you still haven't found your way out of it. You don't know where you're going. You don't know what you're doing. You don't know anything. I ask some of you, I say whatcha gonna do? I don't know. When you're like that, you're in a wilderness. If you don't know what you're going to do, you're in a wilderness. Is that right? The Bible said, I would not have you ignorant concerning the will of God. Every man should know the will of God for his life. If you don't know the will of God, then you're in a wilderness and that wilderness is your intellectual thinking. Now, we've got some people here that's not in a wilderness, because they do know the will of God for their life and they have found the way with God and God is beginning to talk to them and beginning to deal with them. But God has got a Moses to bring you out of the wilderness, and if you'll heed to Christ, that's like unto the Prophet Moses, then he'll bring you out of the wilderness. That's the only way that you can get out. Now, lets go back and talk just a little bit tonight. Usually the anointing is greater on Sunday morning than any other time. One reason is because I get up and I don't go to the breakfast table. I come to church. By the time I get here on Sunday night, I've already been to eat chicken or something. Not all the time, but some of the time. And even though that doesn't really matter, as long as you sat back there and you're hungering and thirsting for the things of God, God will still speak to us. But, a lot of times it's not as vivid as it is on Sunday morning. A lot of times it's hard to preach on Sunday morning, because I don't have anything in my belt line and under my belt, and I don't have any strength for vocal utterance. Sometimes on Sunday night I'm hoarse. It makes you hoarse if you don't eat a little something. But, I want to go back to Calvary, and I want to talk with you tonight and see if we can exchange a few thoughts and find out a little more about Jesus. How many of you've got time to listen? Has anybody got time to listen? Alright, again we go back to Calvary. Here, why Calvary? Why Calvary? Because Calvary is where the Prophet like unto Moses was. Calvary is the place where we want to be. Now, if I pick this thing up and it sounds a little loud, don't worry. I'll put it back down. Sometimes I do this because I'm a little hoarse. Sometimes I do it to stir up the man that's up in the control room. They cut me way down and I hang it down, I pick it up and then they cut me down. Then I put it out here, up and down, so I do that to kind of throw them off course, sometimes to where they'll work with me. Alright now, a lot of times they get in their own reasoning about that thing. Alright now, here back at Calvary, if you'll notice, going back to Calvary we find the Lord Jesus, the Prophet like unto Moses. Now, how many of you remember that over here in the Garden, that Adam was in the presence of God? How many of you agree that Adam was in the presence of God? I want to leave a thought with you tonight, if you can get a hold of it. I'm asked all kinds of questions. I said that this morning. All kinds of questions. Now, Brother Pike, how would we have reproduced? Would it have been by the spoken word? I tried to clear up a little of that this morning. Would we have reproduced by the spoken word? Did God make us just to be able to multiply and replenish the earth by just speaking people into existence? Did God do that? No! Somebody said, there you go again crossing Brother Branham. Naw! I agree with Brother Branham. I'm just telling you what I understand. God did not make us to do that. God did not make Adam and Eve to do that. God did not make man to speak people into existence. If God had a man to speak people into existence, then today we would be speaking people into existence, because God has his way in the good and evil. God does what He wants to and if God had not intended for it to be like this, you can rest assured it would never have been like this. In the first place, God made heaven and earth. Are you listening now? Now, God made heaven and earth. The Bible said, let one speak and the others judge. Is that right? Alright, God made heaven and earth in the beginning. How many of you remember the little text that we took about the beginning to try to show where the beginning was? Alright now, God created the heavens. God created the earth. Is that right? Alright now, when God created the heavens, God also created the earth. Now why did He create the earth? The Bible said, God made the earth to be inhabited. God said, Adam and Eve, multiply and replenish the earth. Now, somebody came to me one time and he said, Brother Pike, tell me something. If God said, replenish the earth, said, what does that mean? He said, there must have been a generation before Adam and Eve. That's foolish. When God said replenish, I made the statement here not to long ago, God could have said, Adam and Eve, I put you on the earth and when I put you here, that plenished the earth. That was the plenishing of the earth. I made the trees. I made the cattle. I made you, now you do some replenishing. Is that right? Now, I did the plenishing, you replenish. I planted a tree, you go plant another tree. I made you, you go make another human being. You follow me? I planted a seed. You go plant a seed. God made the earth and when He made the earth, He made Adam and He made Eve out of the spirit. Naw! Naw! He didn't do that at all. He made Adam and Eve out of the dust. Is that right? The Bible said, that God made Adam out of the dust of the earth. Now, come on now. Listen now. Somebody said, I sure wonder where that Garden is. I'd love to see it. It must be some heavenly something somewhere. It couldn't have been that. If it was that, then tell me why that God made man out of the dust? Why? Why? See, that Garden had to be just exactly what God said. It had to be a garden. There had to be some dirt somewhere, because the word "Adam" means red dirt. I guess that's why God's got us in Georgia. So then, He made Adam out of the dust. Is that right? There was some dirt there when God went to create. There was some earth there. You say, where do you get that, Brother Pike? Didn't Adam till the ground? There was some dust. Now, the Bible said that God put the garden in the East of Eden. Is that right? Eden was not the garden. Somebody said, I, I'd like to be in Eden, because Eden was the garden. Eden wasn't the garden. The Bible said, in the East part of Eden, He placed the garden. That's why it's called the Garden of Eden. You follow me? And this garden was placed there that Adam might be a keeper of the garden; and the Bible said, he was to dress the trees in the garden. Those kind of things. Is that right? He could eat of the fruits of the garden. But of the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge of good and evil, He said, thou shall not eat, for in the day thou eatest thereof, thou shall surely die. Is that right? Now, you say, why are you saying all those things? Here's why. We get some kind of idea; and I know, I've had the same idea before the Revelation of Christ came. I had the same ideas that some of you had. But, we get the idea that God made a garden somewhere, in the Spirit, set Adam up there in it, and then Adam fell out like a tumbler off of a table, and that he wound up on the earth. But, that's not what happened. God made Adam a man. Every bit a man. Somebody said, now, Brother Pike, you mean to tell me that God made Adam a man and you expect me to believe that a man lived in that kind of atmosphere? Well, Jesus was a man. The Bible said, He's the Man, Christ Jesus, and yet Jesus told Nicodemus, said I'm in heaven. If you'd wake up, you could see something. We can't see, because we're dull of hearing and we can't see good because we're following afar off. So then, God created the earth. And a place called Eden was on the earth and the East part of Eden, there was the garden. Now, you say, can you prove that? The Bible speaks of the river Gihon, Pison and so forth, the four rivers that run out of the garden. We've got a tape somewhere on it and what it meant. The rivers that run out of there. Euphrates and so forth. How many of you know that's true? These rivers come out of there. Now, the Bible speaks of these rivers and yet these rivers are on the map. Is that right? Go back and check your map and see if these rivers are on the map? If these same rivers are on the map, then the garden had to be somewhere on the earth. Is that right? You say, but Brother Pike, why can't we find it? I know why you can't find it. And if you've had the Revelation, you know why you can't find it. If you know where it's at then you know why you can't find it. Because you know where it went to. Is that right? Alright now, how many of you believe in the lost and found? We've got a lost and found department here. The devil took it away from Adam, and he lost it and we come along and found it. Jesus said, I come to seek and to find. Save. So then, here's Adam in the garden. Now listen real close, and I believe in my heart that if you'll listen real close, after this you won't never wonder about it any more. There is a truth. Adam was in the Garden. Here was Adam in the East of Eden. He placed man in the East part of the garden. There's a lot we could say about that, about the types and shadows of our day. But here's Adam in the east part of the garden. Now what did God intend for Adam? First, what was the garden? And where was the Garden? Alright, the Garden was in Eden. You follow me? Where was the garden? The garden was in the East part of Eden. Where is the garden right now? It's gone. Nobody's been able to find it. The Bible said that God set at that door of the garden a flaming cherub, like this, it's got a flaming fire, a sword in his hand, and the Bible said it turns every way. What does he do? He turns to keep the garden. Every way. Who is that flaming cherub? You don't know, do you? Said, I set there a cherub, a flaming cherub, turning every way to keep that garden. Is that right? Nobody can get into that garden, because if man could get into that garden, he could eat of the Tree of Life and he could live forever. Now listen, I went through a little of this one time before. When man partook of the Tree of Knowledge of good and evil, what was that? It was the hand of satan that caused man to partake of the Tree of Knowledge. What satan's plan was, in that he had been cut out of heaven, he wanted to get back into heaven, which is the presence of God. Wherever God is, that's heaven. And he couldn't do it. He was wandering through the dry places, seeking rest and couldn't find it. Now what could he do? He wanted to get back into the garden, so what did he have to do? There was only one thing that he could do. That was get into a human being. Because the human being was still in the presence of God. But now, look at his plan. If he could start with the beast which was the weakest of the species, move up to a woman, which was the next step, still weaker then from the woman, get into the heart of the man, he had the earth because God had given the garden to Adam. Is that right? Then he could set up a kingdom here on this earth. Through that he could finally figure out the stars, the orbit, all that God created. When He said He created the heavens and the earth, it indicated that He created the heavens that's above our head. If satan could do that, through a numerical order, like the world system goes on today, he could soon comprehend heaven and earth; get it under his control through the computer system, run it down to a 666 and through a television, computer and radar, control and see instantly everything in the world. Alright now, the first step of his great master plan was that if he could get into the heart of mankind, it's called the mystery of iniquity, where God's is called the mystery of Godliness. The reason is because they run side by side and satan is doing identically what God's doing, except he is working in his image and God's working in His image. Now, satan to get into the heart of mankind, wanted to get man to eat of the Tree of Knowledge of good and evil because unless he can educate man a man's no good to him. That's why he presses the people out in the world, to press you and send your children to school and to college. It's the worst thing you ever done for a child to send him to school and send him to college. He presses on you through the government, through every way to keep control of you. Like Daniel said, the powers, the winds, wrestling over the waters. If he can educate you to his system then he's got control of you. So he wanted to get Adam and Eve to the Tree of Knowledge. Once they knew good and evil, then he could enter into them, control them, take them over to the Tree of Life, let them eat of the Tree of Life and then they would be eternal and he would have God outwitted. And he'd have the world in his hand. He'd make a servant out of God Himself. You say, he couldn't do it. Through that system he could have done it, because God had obligated Himself to mankind. If you knew tonight how much God, the Eternal God, that cannot lie, that sware by Him Own Self to bless the seed of Abraham. If you knew how He had obligated Himself to mankind tonight, you wouldn't never fear again. He has made such great promises that can't be changed. He's obligated Himself to give you all things that pertain unto life. Every desire of your heart tonight. He said, I'll give you the desires of your heart. And obligated Himself by the death of Jesus Christ, here to give it to you. Bound Himself to you and satan understood and he could have made a servant and use it for his own glory. Somebody said, now wait just a minute Brother Pike. How do you sum it up like that? Isn't he doing it in the days of grace? Isn't he taking full advantage of the days of grace? The bunch of show boys that comes through the pulpit here, don't they rob you and take twenty and thirty thousand dollars away? Don't they treat you women like a bunch of prostitutes? Don't they deceive you? And yet, God works miracles because of the innocent heart that believes. It's done. Every day it's done. The men that set up yonder in the office, the big wheels of the earth, by grace they continue to rob you and there isn't nothing you can do about it. It's satan taking advantage. Satan got man as far as the Tree of Knowledge and then he meant to take him to the Tree of Good that is to the Tree of Life. That's why that he went through Eve because Eve represented the Tree of Knowledge and Death. Through the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Death or Life and Death. But Adam represented the Tree of Life itself. Is that right? The Tree of Life. Represented the Tree of Life. Now, in the representation of the Tree of Life the devil wanted to get into man. If he could have ever pulled the man down, he would have had it. But he never did do it. Somebody said, now Brother Pike you know that he brought Adam right into it. There is no record where Adam ever transgressed against God. You can't prove that in the Scriptures. Because Adam represented the Tree of Life and he represented Jesus Christ and there's no record where he ever sinned. The Bible said that Adam was not in the transgression. Is that right? But the woman, being in the transgression. Now, it couldn't be because Adam was a type of Jesus Christ. He was subjected to sin and vanity for the sake of his wife. Alright now, that was the Tree of Life, but that was the shot that he made. God came down. God looked around. God said, now man has become as one of us, he's become as a Son of God. Now then, man who is a beast has come to the knowledge of good and evil. He knows like God knows. And the Bible said, now lest he put forth his hand, partake of the Tree of Life and live forever; and it stops right there. Now, what did He mean? Said, put him out of the garden. Cut him off. In other words, now with that kind of knowledge of good and evil, if he can get to that Tree of Eternal Life, he'll live forever and the whole world will be corrupted and nobody can't do anything about it. Even God can't do nothing about it because He's bound by His own promise. So God, moving quickly cut him off from the garden. Man had the promise of God, the benefits of God and everything that could come from heaven, man had it. All things that pertain unto life, through Jesus Christ, by foreknowledge and the devil knew it. And if he could subject man to his leadership, take control of man, God could not break His promise. He had to let that promise continue on. Is that right? There was no way that God could have stopped satan. If somebody said, why don't God stop satan. God can do anything. God, if God could have stopped satan, He'd stopped him years ago. Come on. You can say Amen or Oh me! The Bible said it repented God that He'd even made man. Right then and there God would have wiped the whole thing off of the slate, but there wasn't any way He could do it. God was bound by integrity of His own foreknowledge. God had already in His own foreknowledge, in His plan, brought forth Sons of God. Abraham said, God it's not like you to destroy the just with the wicked. There was no way God could pluck up the tare without getting the wheat. He had obligated Himself by promise. Adam, I give you the garden. I made you heir over it. He can't alter what He said. He can't change it. I've give you all things that pertain unto life, but through the deceitfulness of satan you've lost every bit of it. Not because God took it from you but you let the devil take it away from you. The earth belongs to you. The meek shall inherit the earth. This earth belongs to us. It's ours! But, the devil's taking it away from us. The rich man sits up yonder and pushes the button and rides in the Cadillac. Has his good times and we're a bunch of servants to him and our children are the same way. Because of the carnal intellectual Tree of Knowledge or the mind of satanic forces and powers he's engineered things and had a power of integrity through his brilliance until he's got yonder in the White House somewhere. And he's the ruler. And the Bible said, the devils, the serpents have climbed up into the upper lintels and because of that he's enjoying all the things the Son's of God are to enjoy. You can't go down to the beach, down to the ocean, enjoy the beautiful tide that God made for you and your children because a bunch of naked people are down there. Because the mind of satan stripped them off in the garden. You understand what I'm saying? To show the nakedness that man had been stripped of all of his spiritual clothing of beauty and love. Put on thy beautiful garments Zion. Be clothed in the Body of the Lord Jesus Christ, for that's the restoration of all things to you. What the palmer worm got, I've restored it. So then, all of these things belong to you. All things that pertain unto life. What are things that pertain unto life? Health, happiness, no more trouble, no more headaches, no more sorrow, no more poverty, no more death to your loved ones, no more wrecks on the highways, no more nervousness, no more doubts, no more fears, no more poverty, no more despondency, no more tornadoes, no more nothing that's unlike God. That's unlike life. Satan has brought them things upon you. He's the prince of the powers of the air. He's the devil that caused all the problems. You say, I don't believe it! I brought it out here one night, the Bible said, how is it since you've laid down, that the whole earth is at peace? Said ever since you laid down Lucifer, the whole earth is at peace. No more tornadoes, no more wars, no more wrecks, no more problems. The Bible said, Satan bound for a thousand years and nothing shall harm in all of My Holy Mountain, saith the Lord. The God of Peace, the God of Happiness. Why do we sit around? Why do we stand around? Why don't we rise up like Son's and Daughter's of God? And the Bible said, they that know there God in the last days shall do great exploits. Why is it we don't rise up; quit wondering about those things? Quit wavering in our mind. Quit blaming things on God. God didn't do that. The devil did it. Stand up for your rights. Stand up for your faith. Have faith in God that you might eliminate those evils and draw the sweetness, the love, the power, the abundance of living into your life. Jesus said, I've come to give you abundant living, abundant life, health and happiness. I heal, I restore, I give life, I make alive, I bless you, I give you all things that pertain to life. But the devil comes to rob, to steal, to kill and destroy. Just like today, Charlie had a wreck. The devil planted a neat ittle trap, God suffered it, but he planted a neat little trap. Charlie run right head long into it. So, what happened? The law comes down and said, you got half killed or almost got killed, give me thirty-five dollars. Now, where does that come in? Why should you give the law thirty-five dollars because you liked to have got your neck broke? That's the law. The Law said, you almost got killed, give me thirty-five dollars. So they fine the man thirty- five dollars. It's a crazy sort of a situation. But we're caught in it. The devil does what he wants to. Is that right? Now just think it out sometimes Brethren and see if I'm telling you the truth. I've said this, just one thing here. I've said a number of things. If I back out in that road out there and a car hits me, it's just woe! If he don't kill me, the law gets me. Because it's against the law to back out into a public road. But I go up town and every few minutes I have to slam on brakes, because they park them into the stores to make the merchants rich and they're always backing out in front of you. You hit them, the law charges you another thirty-five dollars or whatever it is. It's a crazy mixed up world of confusion. It don't make sense. They sell whiskey, always selling booze to get a man drunk, because they say they've got to have the taxes. Then the cop down on the corner, he gets another thirty-five dollars out of him. So every way you go he's stripping him. Like the Bible said, they throwed the Good Man over in the ditch, he's wounded, he's bruised, they robbed him, they took everything he's got and nobody wants him. Said, put him down on skid row. But God comes along through some loving saint, pours a little oil and wine in the wounds. See folks, we need to rise up and take the kingdom. We need to rise up for our rights. We need to stop the mouth of those people out there. I don't care if it's a doctor. You ever preach a sermon to a doctor? I have. You ever told a banker where he needed to be living? I have. If you've never done it, you ought to try it sometimes. You ever told a school teacher or principal. You ought to try it sometime. Try to tell the sheriff, tell the judge, tell the law officer. God will set his fields on fire. Tell him. I told him. Needs to be told, he's meddling with my kingdom. He's meddling with that which God gave me. It don't belong to him. It belongs to me. Amen! God said, I give it to you. Now, if I was meddling with what belonged to him, I'd expect him to say something. But he's messing with what belongs to me. This world belongs to you. It don't belong to them. The Bible said, the kingdoms of this world have become the Kingdoms of our God. And we'll possess it forever and ever. His saints will possess it. Now they're just a bunch of squatters. Alright now, look at it like this, just a few more minutes now, let's see if we can get a few thoughts in. In the garden, Satan's master plan was to get him to the Tree of Life. Now, but he couldn't do it. God was to smart. God cut him off. Then He placed right there at the garden, He placed that flaming cherub. Now what is that flaming cherub? Turning every way, He said. You ever read the Scriptures where the Bible said, I'll make My Ministers a Flame of Fire? You ever read that? I've placed a flaming cherub there to execute judgement upon them that do evil. Is that right? Don't grieve Him. It's not profitable to you. You can't get back into that garden unless you die. Why do you have to die? Because the man, the beast part, the Adamic part, has to die. Because God will never let it back into the garden. Never can it get back into the garden. It's got to die. Because that's the carnal beastly intelligence. God won't have it. It's got to die. Now, where is the garden? Now, listen, God made the garden by doing just one thing. That's all He had to do. He picked out a part of the earth, overshadowed a little corner of it with the Shekinah glory of God and He turned it into a garden. The flowers begin to bloom and the trees begin to bring forth fruit. And the birds begin to sing because the sunshine comes down. When the sunshine leaves winter time comes and the death begins to appear. Now, the garden was nothing more than the earth, man standing on it and God with His Shekinah glory overshadowing that little spot. That's all it was. God made man out of the dust. He made him to have a wife. He made him with his male parts. He made the woman with her female parts. He made them to reproduce by marrying a man and a wife, coming together to multiply and to replenish the earth. He intended that from the beginning. He put them on the earth, overshadowed them just long enough to give them a taste of a heavenly world to where they would never forget it and educate every generation, until He could bring that generation into the full statue of Jesus Christ and put him back into that Shekinah glory. Not to overshadow it, but to let him be born of the Shekinah glory of God to where he would not only be in the presence of it, he would be born of it and the whole earth would be overshadowed with it to bring back the garden. That's all the garden was, was God the Eternal Spirit overshadowing the little corner of the earth, turn it into a garden that Adam might be in the presence of it and Eve might be in the presence of it. If God had not intended man and woman to reproduce, why did He make her a female to start with? Why did He make the man a male? There's no place in the Scriptures where God ever changed their form. They come out of the garden just like they were in the garden. That's why the beast spoke of Eve being naked. That's why. Or rather the Scriptures speaks of it. That's why. See, they were just exactly like God wanted them because He made them for that purpose. He didn't change them a bit. He never made them to speak each other into existence. Now, you say, there you go disagreeing with Brother Branham. No, I'm not disagreeing with Brother Branham. I believe that if a man could have stayed in the presence of the Shekinah glory of God, he could not have only spoke human beings into existence, he could have spoke monkeys into existence. He could have spoke stars into existence. He could have spoke anything into existence. But, I say that God did not intend it that way. God didn't make no mistake. God did not intend for it to be that way. He made man. He said, come and let us make man in our own image; which meant that God would start from the beginning of the creation of the world and work the six days, that's likened one day unto a thousand years, and during that period of time, the Sons of God, working with the Spirit would take a human form that's no more than a beast and change it into a Son of God, that that image might be preserved forever. And in the last part of that creation which is that thousand years of millennium, the Sabbath of God, then God would rest by restoring everything, overshadowing that day, bringing it back to the garden state, restoring every specie that was ever lost and when everything is fully restored, after the Church Age work days, then God would bring the morrow after the Sabbath which is the first day of the week. The resurrection in which Jesus rose, which would be the New Earth and the Heavenly Jerusalem and the Great Ancient of Days that would come down where all of the earth would be glorified and changed into a state of perfect glory; through the translating process of His presence. Now, God did just exactly what He had planned to do. Not one mistake. It was just an overshadowing, that's all it was. How many of you understand what I'm saying? I don't believe that some of you are getting into what I say tonight. On Sunday morning I can get your minds to where you're fresh. You're listening good, but I can get your minds to where your fresh and I can lead you on into some deep water. The Bible said, the Spirit of God searcheth out the things of God, yea the deep things, for great is the mystery of Godliness. Paul said, I'm a steward of the mysteries. Now, but you're listening real good, but I don't believe that you're able to get into some of the things I'm saying tonight. But, let me tell you this and I'm going to close. I'm not going to hold you any longer. I know I've got your attention. I could probably go on awhile, but I'm not going to do it. There's some things I'd like to say concerning this, but maybe on Sunday morning, when I get your minds fresh and you can get into it, maybe we'll get into some Revelation concerning it. But listen, God didn't make no mistake. You're just what God intended for you to be. Just remember this one thing, as of now, you are not in the image of God. Remember that. Every time you think about being in the image of God, remember this one thing, that God made Adam in His image because he was overshadowed with the Spirit. Unless you are overshadowed with the Spirit or born of the Spirit, you are not in His image. Now if you're overshadowed with the Spirit, you are potentially speaking, in His image by His foreknowledge because He see's you in the change of the body through the extensiveness of His Sight and Understanding. He see's you a finished product in Christ. But, as you are, you are in the image of the beast. For the Bible said, we don't know what He looks like, but we know we'll be like Him when He appears and as we have born the image of the earthly, which is the beast, so shall we bear the image of the Heavenly, which is Jesus Christ and if this tabernacle, the earthly one, be dissolved, that's made out of the dust like the beast, then we have another tabernacle, Jesus Christ's body, eternal in the heavens, that is in the Spirit, not made with hands. So then, we desire not to be unclothed, the Bible said, but rather to be clothed upon with our tabernacle from God. Why do we desire to be clothed upon with the tabernacle from heaven? Why did Peter use that term? Because in the garden we were unclothed, made naked because we're the woman, and we were made naked in the sight of God and the tabernacle that He gave us, which was the Body of Christ, eternal in the heavens, we don't have. Because that is the image of God. Because Jesus is the express image of God. He was the Son of God that God made in the garden. That's why He came as Adam. You understand what I'm saying? Then, if through the intelligence of the beast, that body was lost, that image was lost, that garment was lost. Then we who are baptized into Christ, have put on Christ, we're baptized into the Body, the Heavenly Tabernacle, clothed with our garment that was lost through the beast intelligence, found it through the mind of Christ, which is the change of the body, desiring to be clothed upon with our tabernacle from heaven. How many of you understand what I'm saying? Put on thy beautiful garments, Zion. For the garments is the righteousness of the saints. And the righteousness of the saints is, the Bible said, being not found in your own righteousness, but in His righteousness; for it is not I, but Christ. You understand? Lest your righteousness exceeds the ritualistic Baptist, the Methodist, the Presbyterian, the Jew's, you'll die in your sins. For lest your righteousness exceed that of the Pharasee's, you'll die in your sins. Though they fasted twice a week, gave tithes of all they possessed, you couldn't do any better in your ritualistic practices, your efforts, your works. You couldn't do as good. But, God said, there is a righteousness by faith in the finished works of Jesus Christ. That is the righteousness that surpasses the righteousness of the Pharasees. If you can lay hold on that faith, then you can make it. We will bear the image of the heavenly, being clothed with the tabernacle which is in the Spirit and that will work. As we'll go on by faith, it will change us. It's eternal. Eternal. The tabernacle that's eternal. That is, it doesn't never perish. That body, that tabernacle, that garment, eternally in the Spirit. It lasts eternally. So then, we move into that Body by getting into the Spirit, we're changed in the image that we might again bear the image to be made in His image. Come let us make man in the image Of God. Is that right? Who is the image of God? Jesus. Till we all come to the fullness of the statue, the full measure of the image of godliness. Let's stand together.

By Rev. George Leon Pike Sr.

Founder and first President of Jesus Christ’s Eternal Kingdom of Abundant Life, Inc.

Holiness Unto The Lord