TIME OF TRIAL AND OF BLESSING
Dr. William Soto Santiago
Friday, July 5, 2013. Cayey, Puerto Rico.
Good evening, dear friends and the brethren present, ministers present and also those in other countries. May the blessings of Christ the Angel of the Covenant be upon you all, ministers and their congregations in the different countries, and may He open the Scriptures to us in this occasion, first Saturday of the month. In the Name of the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.
Greetings to the reverend Andres Cruz Gallegos, who is with us today. May God bless you Andres and keep you and may He use you greatly in His Work in this end time.
And greetings also to you Miguel wherever you are at this moment. May God also bless you and use you greatly in His Work in this end time. In which time we are seeing the promises being materialized according to how they were spoken, because those prophecies are the Word of God for our time, and we must be wide awake spiritually in order to see those promises becoming a reality gradually.
There were always struggles at all times when the promised Word was being materialized in each age and in each dispensation; therefore, thus it will also be in our time.
In past times some were in favor of It, and others were against It, some were friends and some were enemies; and that’s how it has to be in our time also.
Therefore, it is history being repeated: The Word coming to the people being opened, some people believing It, and others doubting It; this is speaking of all the human beings that live on Earth, because not everyone is a believer, there are believers and unbelievers on the Earth.
It is as the parable of the ten virgins: there are wise virgins and there are foolish virgins that do not have the oil of the Holy Spirit. There is wheat in the world, in the field, which is the world, and there are tares in the world; therefore, some will believe, and others will not believe.
But the important thing is for you to be part of the believers and that you see Word promised by God being materialized gradually in the end time.
The Scripture tells us in First Peter, chapter 1, verse 3, and on:
“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which according to his abundant mercy hath begotten us again unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead,
to an inheritance incorruptible, and undefiled, and that fadeth not away, reserved in heaven for you,
who are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.
Wherein ye greatly rejoice, though now for a season, if need be, ye are in heaviness through manifold temptations:
that the trial of you faith, being much more precious than of gold that perisheth, though it be tried with fire, might be found unto praise and honor and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ:
whom having not seen, ye love; in whom, though you see him not, yet believing, ye rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory:
receiving the end of your faith, even the salvation of your souls.”
May God bless our souls with His Word and allow us to understand It.
“TIME OF TRIAL AND OF BLESSING.”
In each dispensation and in each age of a dispensation, we find the believers passing through different trials, but we also find the believers receiving the blessing corresponding to the time granted to them to live.
For instance, we find in the time of the prophets, to whom came the Word, and they spoke It, which Word came directly to their soul and spirit; and when they spoke It, It was the Word of God for the people; in the meantime, it is the divine thought coming to the heart of each prophet messenger of God.
When it is spoken by the prophet messenger of God, then it is fulfilled. And when it is fulfilled there are always persons that will doubt, but there will be persons that will believe. Those that will doubt, the people that will be doubting will find no explanation to what was spoken and will say: “Its impossible.” As those that were sent as spies: twelve spies were sent by Moses to investigate how the promised land was, let’s say to draw a map, to make a map concerning the land, to see how the land was, if it was a good land, or a bad land; and to see how the people that lived there were: if they were tall people, strong people, or if they were short and weak people, so to make a plan for the battle.
Those that were sent were twelve princes, and ten of them returned saying: “We cannot enter it; it is a land that eateth up the inhabitants thereof; and all the people that we saw in it are men of great stature. !It is impossible! And we were in our own sight as grasshoppers, and so we were in their sight.” They were the giants of the time of Noah, which came from the lineage of Ham, among which was Cush, in it was also Nimrod the son of Cush and all those persons that were giants; from there later on came Goliath.
Now there were two of the spies that said to the people to be still, and to those that were giving a bad report, because when the people heard the ten spies that were bringing a negative report by saying how the land was and the giants that dwelled therein, and that the land eateth up the inhabitants thereof, the people became discouraged.
There are people that should not open their mouth, because with their unbelief the discourage the people, because they do not look at what was promised but rather they look at what their eyes can see; and they cannot conceive that that which was promised by God can be fulfilled.
But Joshua and Caleb told the people to be still, they were discouraged and troubled, and they say to the people: “!We can! !We can conquer the land, we can enter it, we can obtain it! !God has promised it, God will fulfill it!” And that’s how it was because God had promised it.
Every promise made for each stage of the people of God, whether it be under the dispensation of the Law or under the dispensation of Grace, it has to be fulfilled for the time that promise was assigned. We have seen it throughout history.
For instance, for the time of John the Baptist was promised that a forerunner would come announcing and preparing the people for the Coming of the Lord; and there he was, it was John the Baptist. That was the promise for that time: a forerunner announcing that the Messiah was among them.
And John would say: “I do not know Him, I do not know who He is.” But when we inquire, further on, after he baptized Him, he said: “I saw the Holy Spirit coming upon Him, rested upon Him and remained upon Him. The One who sent me to preach and to baptize, said to me: “Upon whom you see the Holy Spirit descend upon him, it is He, He is the One who baptizes with Holy Spirit and Fire.” Of whom John said: “He that comes after me is greater than I, of whom I am not worthy to unloose His shoe latchet.” And He was John’s cousin; but he did not know that He was the Messiah until he saw the Holy Spirit descending upon Him.
And that was the greatest promise: the Coming of the Messiah. John was a great man, but the One who came after him, was greater. That’s why John would say: “The One who comes after me, is greater than I, of whom I am not worthy to unloose His shoe latchet.” That is found in the first chapters of Matthew, and also in St. John chapter 1, verses 27, to 36. That’s why he said: “Behold, the Lamb of God that takes away sin.”
And now, there were people in His favor, and there were people against Him, and they became enemies of the Word of God made flesh at that time, that Word being quickened, being made a reality.
For that reason is so important to follow or to do according to the words of Christ who said: “Search the Scriptures; for in them ye think ye have eternal life: and they are they which testify of me.” (St. John 5:39).
The written Word of God testifies of that which is to come, because it was already prophesied; and when God is to do something is has to be according to that which He promised. That’s why we can recognize the things God is doing, because it is first written here in the Bible. In order to fulfill what He has promised He becomes manifested.
Notice Jesus, when He was twelve years of age He went with Joseph and Mary along with their relatives to Jerusalem, as they did each year, and He stayed at Jerusalem. Joseph and Mary left with their relatives, for they went every year to celebrate Passover at Jerusalem; and they left without knowing, without being aware that Jesus was not among them; and three days later they became aware that He was not with them and they returned to Jerusalem where they had seen Him for the last time, which was in the temple; because when someone loses a certain thing, he must remember when was the last time he saw it, and where he saw it; and you return to that place, and you begin to search from that point.
They returned to the temple and there He was: in the temple, speaking with the doctors of the Law, and they speaking with Him; and they marveled of the knowledge that child had. He was the Messiah and they knew it not. He became the Messiah, of course, when He was anointed by the Holy Spirit after John baptized Him and the Holy Spirit descended upon Him. Meanwhile He was not known as the Messiah, because what Messiah means is the anointed One, the Christ.
And now, three days later they find Him in the temple. The last three ages have already transpired: the Lutheran age, the Wesleyan age, and the Pentecostal age, and the Lord has disappeared from them, they do not know where He is at.
He has to be found in the Temple. And the Temple of the Lord is no longer at Jerusalem, that temple was destroyed.
The Temple is the Mystical Body of the Lord, the Church of the Lord Jesus Christ, for it is the Church that has the promise of Christ which said: “I will always be with you until the end of the world.” And it is to His Church that He promised to come. And He comes for His Church.
Therefore, the people go to Church to seek and to worship the Lord, and to hear His Word. And He is in the midst of His Church; because the Word is in His Church. He said: “Where there are two or three gathered in my Name, I will be there.”
Where will you find Him? Where there are two or three gathered in His Name, believers in Christ, in other words, in His Church.
Now we can see where Christ is: He has been in His Church.
We find that His Church has grand promises. Just as His Church and also the members of His Church as individuals have passed through different stages of trials, of sufferings, but also of blessings (even in the days of Jesus, which were the most difficult ones), in our time there are also stages: seven consecutive stages are traveled in the stage of gold, in the Cornerstone Age of the Church of the Lord Jesus Christ in this end time.
Therefore, in those seven consecutive stages that the Church travels, which are traveled in His Church in this end time, there will be trials but there will be also blessings.
When we hear the Word, God is blessing us with His Word, and when the Word comes and we believe It, It becomes flesh in us, and It becomes a part of us.
And that’s how the different stages have transpired consecutively for the end time; with which the Church will be crowned in this end time with the resurrection of the dead and the transformation of the living; and every believer as an individual will be crowned with the adoption, with the Holy Spirit transforming our bodies and giving us glorified bodies. And thus we will be perfect like our heavenly Father, and thus we will reach total perfection in our soul, spirit and body.
We already have eternal Life, our soul has eternal Life, our spirit also, but we lack physical eternal Life, and so, by not having physical eternal Life yet, our body gets older; and if we do not receive the visitation of the dead in Christ and the transformation of the living soon, our bodies will die physically.
But the promise is that there will be a group of believers in Christ that will remain alive and will not taste death but rather will be changed. And those who were alive at the different times had to be waiting for that promise, believing that they were the ones that were going to be transformed. Because in the time granted for the person to live he should be waiting for the Coming of the Lord, and the resurrection of the dead and the transformation of the living.
Now, there are great promises and signs for one to know which is the time in which it will come to pass. It would not come to pass in the first, second, third, fourth, fifth, sixth or seventh age, because those ages already transpired and the resurrection of the dead in Christ and the transformation of the living did not come to pass. And now only the Age of the Cornerstone remains, to where we have ascended, as it happened with the previous ages, the Church ascended from one age to the other as a ladder, which ladder represents Christ; and consequently, the Church is the Mystical Body of Christ wherein those stages are fulfilled.
We have ascended to the Age of the Cornerstone, the golden Age of the Church, where we are waiting for the Coming of the Lord with His believers that departed in past stages, which will resurrect in glorified bodies; and when we see them we will be transformed.
We will eat with them as Abraham ate with the Angels that visited him, and as the disciples of the Lord Jesus Christ ate with Him after being resurrected.
As we see, they thought He was a spirit, they were very scared. And Christ tells them: “See, I am not a spirit. Notice, a spirit does not have flesh nor bones as I have. Do you have anything to eat? They give Him a piece of fish and a honey comb, and He ate before them. In the resurrection in the glorified body one can eat; it is a special body, inter-dimensional.
We also find that with that body and in that body, we will be as the angels of God, says Christ, that do not marry not are given into marriage. We also find that that body does not need means of transportation: it can travel from one place to another without any problem, passing through the dimensions, it passes from one to another. What science has been searching for, notice, Christ did it, He had it, and the prophets also.
He said to His disciples, or to the women that saw Him resurrected: “Tell my disciples, tell Peter and the disciples, that I will see them yonder at Galilee; to go there.”
We can also see that after the persons are resurrected, and the believers transformed, at that time they gathered, Christ spoke to them about the Kingdom, in other words, He preached to them; the Scripture says that more than five hundred persons saw Him resurrected; in other words, they also had cults, where He preached to them concerning the Kingdom; which shows that when the dead in Christ are resurrected in glorified bodies, and we be transformed, we will still have meetings. And the resurrection of the dead in Christ and the transformation of the living will take place in the midst of meetings. In other words, we will be serving Christ and hearing His Word and obtaining faith to be changed in this end time.
And also the reverend William Branham said concerning a vision that was shown to him of a Great Tent Cathedral, where the Third Pull, which is the creative Word being spoken, where great things will take place, He showed him all that being performed in a Great Tent Cathedral.
Therefore, in a certain place among the believers that have received the Message of the forerunner…because in the Message of the forerunner is announced all that which God is to do, the Message of the forerunner foreruns the Coming of Christ and all the things that are to take place, and it foreruns all the things that are to take place in the midst of the Church of the Lord Jesus Christ. If it speaks of a vision where it was shown to him a Great Tent Cathedral: in a certain territory the Church of the Lord Jesus Christ would be constructing a Great Tent Cathedral, because the physical part is granted to the Church of the Lord Jesus Christ; and that is Christ in Holy Spirit working by means of His Church.
We are the hands of Christ in which hands are done the physical labors that are to be done; therefore, there will be a Great Tent Cathedral, in which the Third Pull will be fulfilled.
For how long will that Great Tent Cathedral be functioning? Not that It will break afterwards, but rather after our departure while being in a revival atmosphere.
Now, we do not know how many months or years we will remain having activities and enjoying the blessings of Christ in the fulfillment of the Great Tent Cathedral. But it will be fulfilled, !yes indeed!
There the rapturing faith, to be transformed and rapture, we will obtain it under the Third Pull; because the Thunders, which is the Voice of Christ coming with the little Book opened in His hand and crying as when a lion roars (in Revelation 10), gives us the faith, the revelation of His Coming, so to be transformed and taken by Christ to the Wedding Supper of the Lamb.
We will go through trials, but we will receive great blessings. Every believer in Christ has to be tried, his faith has to be tried.
Some people do not even reach halfway in their trials, they lose their faith because it is not grounded in the Word, they have no concern in knowing that which Christ has promised for His Church in this end time. Or if they hear it, they do not believe it, their faith is weak. Therefore, since faith comes by hearing the Word, you must be more attentive to the Word of the Lord so faith increases. If not, your faith will diminish and you will lose your faith and hope, and will say: “This is not going to be fulfill, and much less among us.
But the person remains hearing and reading the Word, reading about the things that are promised for our time, your faith will increase daily, and each day you will be more firm in what God has promised for His Church; you will also grow spiritually until arriving as an individual to the stage of gold of your life as a believer in Christ, which will come to be the cornerstone age in you as an individual.
It is important to know these things so that you as an individual may also arrive to the golden age in your life, the corner stone age, which is the age of 50, because 50, represents or is the jubilee year, the 50th year is jubilee.
And now it is important for the Church of the Lord as a Mystical Body of Believers may reach that age. Notice what the reverend William Branham says in the message The stature of a perfect man, page 5:
“Now, we are approaching the Seven Seals. We’ve just finished the seven church ages, and this is a message on teaching that ties the man in that’s going to be redeemed by the Blood of the Lord Jesus, and is going to be in that church age–that eternal church age at the end of the Seals.”
There we can see that the eternal age is the Age of the Cornerstone which comes after the seven Church ages; therefore, that is the Age wherein the Church receives the faith to be changed and taken by Christ to the Wedding Supper of the Lamb, it is the Age wherein the revelation of the second Coming of the Lord will be opened to the people; the greatest mystery of all the Bible will be revealed to the Church of the Lord Jesus Christ in the same order that the revelation came to the Church in each age.
God will always have instruments in His Church from age to age, messengers to whom the revealed Word comes in each age, the revealed Word comes to the relevant messenger of each age; and he then speaks It to the people and that Word is materialized forming the part of the Mystical Body of Christ for that time. That’s the way in which the Word comes to each age to be fulfilled.
This time is parallel to the time of the First Coming of Christ. Already the forerunner of the second Coming of Christ came and departed, he left his Message; his Message was the most important thing he brought to the people. Therefore, according to the Message that was given him for the people, which foreran the Second Coming of Christ, thus will be fulfilled the Second Coming of Christ with the saints believers in Him which departed being resurrected. Everything will be fulfilled as it is promised.
Therefore, in the measure that every believer in Christ sees the vindication, the materialization of the promises of God, the vindication of what God has promised being fulfilled: he receives blessing, he receives faith, his faith increases; and the person is quickened and grows spiritually in the knowledge of God and His Word.
“TIME OF TRAIL AND OF BLESSING.”
We are now in time of trial and of blessing relevant to the Age of the Cornerstone. Already the time of trial and of blessing for past ages has ended, now the time of trial and of blessing pertains to us in the golden stage of the Church, the Age of the Cornerstone in order to obtain the victory in this end time, the great victory of love divine, wherein the saints believers in Christ that died will come, and in glorified bodies they will appear to the believers of this end time; and we which remain will be changed, according to the promise given by Christ in First Corinthians chapter 15, verses 49, to 58, and also First Thessalonians chapter 4, verses 11, to 18, and Phillipians chapter 3, verses 20, to 21. And there is yet more Scriptures, as St. John chapter 5, verses 17, to 29.
Those are the Scriptures that speak to us about the resurrection of the dead in Christ and the transformation of we who remain alive. Those Scriptures are to be fulfilled in the time in which we are living.
Therefore, hold on tight to those Scriptures so They become materialized in you, so that They become flesh in you; and when They have become flesh in you, They have to be fulfilled in you. Hold on tight to Them with the powerful hand of faith.
Therefore, let us be alert to all those promises, watching in the measure they are being fulfilled, and not letting their fulfillment go above our heads; because there is life in them, in those promises when they are fulfilled.
We are living in the Word of God for the present time, in the Word of God pertaining to the end time, to the Last Day, the golden stage of the Church, the Age of the Cornerstone, which is the Age of Adoption.
That’s why the reverend William Branham tells us to look upward. Christ Himself said: “Lift up your heads, for your redemption draweth nigh.” Page 74, in the middle of the third paragraph, says:
“We’ve got a ministry coming that’s just exactly like the life of Christ. What does that ministry identify? The Coming of the Lord…Look at the Lutheran Church under justification, coming freshly Catholicism. Look at it moving, then look at Wesley coming a little closer into sanctification, weaving into the Scriptures. Look right in between the Wesley, then the next thing come in was the Pentecostal age. And the Pentecostal age with the restoration of the gifts, spiritual gifts (that is the seventh age or stage of the Church). Now look at the age coming now, right up to the Headstone. See what I mean? The Coming of the Lord, the made known; God in all creations is waiting for the Church to positionally find its place.”
To find that stage, the place where She must be; the place She has to be to receive the Word for that stage, for that age, so that Word becomes flesh in Her as a Church and in every believer in Christ; because there is where the blessing is for the rapturing faith, the blessing of our transformation is there, and the blessing of going with Christ to the Wedding Supper of the Lamb is there.
Because what the Holy Spirit will be speaking, which is the Final Trumpet sounding the Gospel of Christ which gives us faith to be transformed and taken by Christ to the Wedding Supper of the Lamb.
It is in the stage or Cornerstone Age wherein the prophecies of the Last Day must be fulfilled.
That’s why the Tent Vision could not be fulfilled in the time of the reverend William Branham. That time was the seventh Church Age, and then a gap opened between the seventh Age and the Age of the Cornerstone. But the promise of the Tent Vision is to be fulfilled in the stage or age of the Cornerstone, which is the Age parallel to the First Coming of Christ; and thus must be in the Age pertaining to the Second Coming of Christ; and consequently, all those promises relevant to the Last Day will become a reality.
Christ Himself will resurrect the believers that died, and those that remain will transform. Therefore, let us be as Christ says in St. Luke chapter 21, verse 27, that when we see these things come to pass to lift up our heads to Heaven, to lift up our heads because our redemption draweth nigh. The redemption is the transformation of our body, the redemption of the body.
Therefore, let us lift up our heads to Heaven and let us remain with our heads lifted up to the Age of the Cornerstone. From the seventh age one has to lift up the head to look to the Age of the Cornerstone and to ascend when the call is made by Christ to His Church. Thereafter we will go with Christ to the Wedding Supper of the Lamb.
“TIME OF TRIAL AND OF BLESSING.”
This is a time in which the faith of each believer will be tested; and every believer in Christ is called to hold on tight to Christ the Word, without faltering.
Whoever stops believing he harms himself; therefore, whatever you do not understand for the moment, you will understand it later on.
Pray to Christ, keep reading the Bible, keep reading the messages of the reverend William Branham and the messages of our time, so that your faith increases and each day you be holding on tighter to the Word of God promised for our time. And thus to be ready for our transformation.
We are living in a glorious time, although a time of trial, also of great blessing. Our faith must be tested; because if it is not tested, then it does not increase, and it is not known who believes and who does not believe.
Remember there are four kinds of people: which are represented in the parable of the sower that sowed seed, in Matthew chapter 13, verses 1, to 23.
A part of the ground is represented being by the wayside, persons that are represented in that kind of ground, by the wayside. Other persons are is represented in stony places. Other persons are represented in a ground filled with thorns and briers, and things like that, things that do not allow the Word to grow, which was sown in the heart of the person.
But there is yet another ground, which is the good ground, the good earth, which represents the believer, in whom the Word is sown, and since it is good ground, there the Word sprouts, grows and brings forth good fruit. That’s the difference between the four grounds, that the fourth ground is the good ground: the believers in Christ in whom was sown the Word, It sprung up, It grew, and brought good fruit: some a hundredfold, some sixtyfold, and some thirtyfold; but everyone represented in the good ground, brings forth fruit.
Therefore, it is important for you to know in which of the four groups you stand. You should be as the good ground. That’s the goal and desire of every believer in Christ: to be good ground, wherein the Word that was sown will bring forth fruit, and consequently, will have the blessing of God.
Because the good ground that brings forth good fruit is blessed by God, but the ground that brings forth thorns is to be cursed and burned. That’s what St. Paul says in the book of Hebrews, or letter to the Hebrews chapter 6, verse 4, and on, it says:
“For it is impossible for those who were once enlightened, and have tasted of the heavenly gift, and were made partakers of the Holy Ghost,
and have tasted the good word of God, and the powers of the world to come,
if they shall fall away, to renew them again unto repentance; seeing they crucify to themselves the Son of God afresh, and put him to an open shame.
For the earth which drinketh in the rain that cometh oft upon it, and bringeth forth herbs meet for them by whom it is dressed, receiveth blessing from God:
but that which beareth thorns and briers is rejected, and is nigh into cursing; whose end is to be burned.
But, beloved, we are persuaded better things of you, and things that accompany salvation, though we thus speak.”
In other words, the good ground receives blessing, the bad ground which produces thorns and briers is to be cursed and at the end will be burned. It is speaking of people, which are typified in good ground and in evil ground.
Therefore, it is important to be aware of the time that has been allotted for us to live and to be aware that we are living in a time of trial and of blessing.
Trial comes, and blessing comes; therefore, to receive a blessing, a trial comes first, and your faith must be rooted within your soul, and it must be based in the Word of the Lord; because faith comes by hearing the Word of God.
So then, onward always, holding tight to Christ, without leaving Christ our Savior; so that the blessing of Christ may come to our soul, so that everything He has promised for us as believers in Him, may become a reality in us, and soon we will be transformed. I do not know which year, but it is a promised that will be fulfilled.
Therefore, I am holding real tight to that promise and to the rest of the promises of blessing for the believers in Christ; and for that reason I speak to you about these blessings, so that you be holding tight to Christ also, and they be materialized in you in order for you to receive the blessings that Christ has for His Church in this end time.
It has been for me a great privilege and blessing to be with you ministers and Churches of the different countries, and with the ones that are present in this first Saturday of the month of July.
Remember that the days begin in the evening. Saturday already began at sunset; therefore, the activity of ministers and collaborators continues to be on Saturday, Saturday evening. We are in the evening of Saturday, according to the Jewish calendar.
May God bless you greatly and use you greatly in His Work, and may He strengthened your faith, and may you be holding tight to Christ and rooted in the Word of the Lord. And may your faith continue to grow more and more, and may the blessings of Christ continue to come within your soul more and more, and within my soul also. In the Name of the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.
May the blessings of Christ the Angel of the Covenant be upon you all.
Continue having a happy evening, and we will meet again Sunday, God willing, in the morning personally.
I leave with you the reverend Jose Benjamin Perez, for him to continue and to conclude in this evening.
May God bless you, and keep you all.
“TIME OF TRIAL AND OF BLESSING.”