Ewald Frank

1985-10-27 14:00, Zürich, Switzerland

aired on 2025-05-25

Isaiah 64:5: “Thou meetest him that rejoiceth and worketh righteousness, those that remember thee in thy ways.”

Now I would like to read some scriptures, starting with Isaiah 64, Isaiah 64. Here we read from verse 5:

(5) Thou meetest him that rejoiceth and worketh righteousness, those that remember thee in thy ways.

When God comes to meet us, when he shows us his favour, when he speaks to us, when he reveals his Word and his will to us, then we have the proof that we have found grace in his sight.

And the grace of God is that he lets us know his ways.

If this Word that we have just read applies to us, then the Lord is coming to meet us today.

He is coming to meet you and me, to reveal himself to you and me, so that the things we read in the word become our personal experience with God, and not just the report of the experiences that others have had with God.

We all have the right to have the connection to God, and to have our personal experiences with God.

We all have the right to experience the guidance and leading of the Holy Spirit, which will always be according to the Word of God.

The Lord meets those who rejoice in doing righteousness, those who do not do it out of compulsion, not out of necessity, not out of fear of punishment, but who serve the Lord with joy, who follow Him with joy.

The Lord wants to make such people out of us who are skillful in walking in His ways, who take pleasure in hearing His word and doing His will, "those that remember Thee in Thy ways," not in our ways, but in the ways of God.

We may remember Him and realize that He has already remembered us beforehand in order to bring us into His ways, for that is the grace of God.

How can we remember Him in His ways, if He has not first brought us into His ways by grace, if He has not first worked obedience and faith in us?

Verse 8 says:

(8) But now, O LORD, thou art our father; we are the clay, and thou our potter; and we all are the work of thy hand.

(9) Be not wroth very sore, O LORD, neither remember iniquity for ever: behold, see, we beseech thee, we are all thy people.

The church of the Living God stands under forgiveness, under reconciliation; it stands under the blood of the Lamb, completely redeemed and pardoned before the face of God, justified and sanctified, consecrated to God for time and eternity.

However, there must be a personal experience for each individual who accepts the divine offer of grace for themselves in faith, and then it will be revealed.

In Isaiah 44 we read from verse 21, Isaiah 44 from verse 21.

(21) Remember these, O Jacob and Israel; for thou art my servant: I have formed thee; thou art my servant: O Israel, thou shalt not be forgotten of me.

(22) I have blotted out, as a thick cloud, thy transgressions, and, as a cloud, thy sins.

We have seen and had such a thick fog in these days; I also on the journey here. There was no visibility; all cars drove slowly.

Here the Lord says:

(22) I have blotted out, as a thick cloud, thy transgressions.

And when the fog is gone, the sun shines. The sun of righteousness has risen with salvation and healing under its wings.

How good it feels when the sun suddenly breaks through! You can hardly see before, and later you can see clearly.

May God let us recognize that it has happened.

He has blotted out our transgressions that have brought such a fog over us. We had no clear view; it was cloudy. We couldn't see the sun. The Lord has taken it all away.

As he says here:

I have blotted out, as a thick cloud, thy transgressions, and, as a cloud, thy sins: return unto me; for I have redeemed thee.

He has done it. We are allowed to return in faith. And immediately after that it says in verse 23:

(23) Sing, O ye heavens; for the LORD hath done it: shout, ye lower parts of the earth: break forth into singing, ye mountains.

(24) Sing, O ye heavens, for the Lord hath done it.

When our Saviour died on the cross of Calvary and cried out, "It is finished" [John 19:30], at that moment God and humanity were reconciled.

At that moment our guilt was resolved, forgiveness, grace and salvation were granted to us. No one is lost because they have sinned. Those who are lost are only lost because they do not want to believe that their sin is forgiven.

Do we understand that?

No one is lost because he has sinned. The one who is lost is the one who cannot believe that his iniquity and sin have been forgiven and blotted out.

How many can believe that the Lord has forgiven us by grace?

Amen, all of you, of course.

How many can believe that our sins have been blotted out like the fog, that the sun has risen on us by grace?

Not our merit, no, God has called us, and that is why we have come.

In the same chapter, Isaiah 44, we read from verse 24:

(24) Thus saith the LORD, thy redeemer, and he that formed thee from the womb, I am the LORD that maketh all things; that stretcheth forth the heavens alone; that spreadeth abroad the earth by myself.

It is he who works all things in all.

Even today, right now, he wants to work in us through his Word and his spirit. He wants to reveal his will to us through his Word. It is not people who make God's will known. God has already made it known to us in his Word.

Verse 26 says:

(26) That confirmeth the word of his servant, and performeth the counsel of his messengers.

God has sent his servants and messengers at all times, has made all announcements, and ensures that everything is fulfilled at the right time.

Isaiah 45, verses 2 and 3 say:

(2) I will go before thee, and make the crooked places straight: I will break in pieces the gates of brass, and cut in sunder the bars of iron:

(3) And I will give thee the treasures of darkness, and hidden riches of secret places, that thou mayest know that I, the LORD, which call thee by thy name, am the God of Israel.

What a marvellous word, and the beauty of it is that it is true.

That God opens doors and allows us to enter. He paves a way before us. What seems impossible before us He can smooth so that we can walk without stumbling.

I will open doors before you, and make the crooked places straight.

(3) And I will give thee the treasures of darkness, and hidden riches of secret places, that thou mayest know that I, the Lord, has called thee by thy name.

This Word reminds me of the opening of the seven seals. It reminds me of the special ministry that God gave to our beloved brother Branham. Of what was hidden from others, what was shrouded in darkness.

And let us remember how many in past centuries have read the same Book of Revelation that we read today, but have not had a revelation about the revelation because the time had not yet come.

God always gives light at the right time for what he has promised in his Word for the specific time, and what he then also fulfills.

God has given us a great privilege. It is no longer a sealed book, but an open book with a revelation of Jesus Christ and a revelation of the word and will of God.

And then at the end comes the revelation of the sons and daughters of God. The whole creation is waiting for the children of God to be manifested. [Romans 8:19]

And that will also happen.

Now we read verse 8 in Isaiah 45.

(8) Drop down, ye heavens, from above, and let the skies pour down righteousness: let the earth open, and let them bring forth salvation, and let righteousness spring up together; I the LORD have created it.

Let the heavens pour down blessings. We are living in a time when God will once again shake heaven and earth. We live in the time in which the last part of the plan of salvation must become a divine reality in the church, and this involves both the word and the work of the Holy Spirit.

Where the Word of God is proclaimed and believed in truthfulness, the Spirit of God begins to work in those who have received it.

(8) Let the heavens pour down blessings from above.

How often have we sung "Showers of blessing." We long with all our hearts for such a breakthrough to come from God, which is beyond all doubt and no one needs any more private lessons, but all are inspired in step by the same word and by the same Spirit of God, to go forward together so that the rest can still find fulfilment.

(8) Let the heavens pour down blessings from above.

Also this afternoon God wants us to know that the heavens are open and that God's blessing is pouring down. The wrath of God has subsided on Golgotha, God looks at us in love, in grace and in mercy.

Another word reminds me of Zechariah chapter 10, in which the promise is given, very familiar to us all, Zechariah 10, verse 1.

(1) Ask ye of the LORD rain in the time of the latter rain; so the LORD shall make bright clouds, and give them showers of rain, to every one grass in the field.

Especially the first part of the verse: "Ask ye of the LORD rain in the time of the latter rain."

We know that there was an early rain, the seed that was to sprout in the first Christian generation was watered with the rain of God, and the word bore fruit, it came forth, and the Lord was able to confirm it.

The same must now happen with the word of divine promise now at the end. The rain of God must be able to fall on the seed of the word in order to bring forth what has been promised in this Word.

James said it very clearly once again in the New Testament. In chapter 5 from verse 7 we read, James 5 from verse 7:

(7) Be patient therefore, brethren, unto the coming of the Lord. Behold, the husbandman waiteth for the precious fruit of the earth, and hath long patience for it, until he receive the early and latter rain.

(8) Be ye also patient; stablish your hearts: for the coming of the Lord draweth nigh.

When we consider that almost 2000 years have passed, and that God so inspired these men that they wrote what is now true and happening in our day. They were taken across time and placed in the days in which we now live.

At that time the coming of the Lord was not yet so near as I have just said. It was almost two thousand years ago, but now, now we notice it in the signs of the times, in the fulfillment of Bible prophecy, and that is why even then the Lord made sure that everything we need to know was written, so that when the time came we would be enlightened by God, find the right scriptures to have the spiritual orientation, and be able to believe and trust the Lord.

(8) Be ye also patient; stablish your hearts: for the coming of the Lord draweth nigh.

And before the return of the Lord can be, a mighty spiritual rain must fall on this sown seed, so that it can sprout and bear fruit, as the word of the Lord says.

In verse 9 we are then given the admonition:

(9) Grudge not one against another, brethren, lest ye be condemned: behold, the judge standeth before the door.

In the very last period, and I believe this with complete conviction, it will be as it was in the beginning – pure and holy, without falsehood, without lies, without deceit. We will have pure lips and pure hearts before the face of God. No one will set a trap for another, no one will twist a word, no one will misunderstand.

This absolute divine harmony must come about among all the redeemed, before they can be united with the head, with the Redeemer, and only God can bring this about in us, we cannot do it ourselves.

But you remember what brother Branham heard back then: "Only perfect love enters there into glory," and this perfect love includes perfect redemption, perfect forgiveness, perfect justification, perfect sanctification. Everything that comes from God must be perfect, because God is perfect.

What we have in part may be piecemeal, but then we have the promise that perfection will come. At the very end, the perfect must be revealed.

First, God reveals his perfect will to us through his perfect word, and then he gives us the strength to be obediently available to him, to believe and to be ready to go forward, and not even to grudge one against another.

If someone has something against his brother or against his sister, how are we to enter into the presence of God? How should God hear? How should he answer? How should he reveal himself?

The Spirit of God has often been grieved through carelessness.

How often have we hurt one another?

And in former times it was indeed so among believers, that no one let the sun go down on wrath, as it is written to us in Ephesians [4:26]:

(26) Let not the sun go down upon your wrath. Be ye angry, and sin not.

How it has all changed. People no longer feel as they ought to feel. No more heartfelt compassion and all that should be is no longer fully there.

But we are so grateful to the Lord that he restores.

And I just have to emphasize it: Brother Branham and Paul, whoever all the men of God were, they not only carried and brought a divine message, they lived out the nature of Jesus. The Word became a divine reality in them.

What use is the knowledge that goes to our heads, leaving our hearts empty and perhaps sometimes filled with other things which can be against each other.

God wants to make people out of us who are in contact with God just like those to whom the Word came. So we who have received the same Word and it has become a living revelation to us, so we too should have fellowship with God in the same way and the connection to him should be fully restored.

In the Book of Acts chapter 3 is the well-known Word that Peter, also led by the Spirit, already spoke at that time. Acts chapter 3 verses 19 and 20:

(19) When the times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord,

(20) and he shall send Jesus Christ.

Let us note that the time of refreshing must come first and only then can the Lord return. And before this rain and the time of refreshing can come from the presence of the Lord, the sowing of the Word must first take place.

Many would like to run ahead of God, but it became clear to me anew on the last journey that God can only begin the final things, I call it the last round, when those who are to have a part in it have been called out of all peoples, tongues and nations.

And that is why it is our task to carry the divine message, this final call to all the world and to familiarize God's people with what God is now doing according to His Word.

I believe that the Lord is making history of salvation in our day.

I believe that this last message must reach the ends of the earth so that the people who are destined for it will have the opportunity to make their decision and hear it.

How overwhelming it is to realize that God, beyond our thinking and planning, is opening doors, paving the way to call out.

And the beautiful thing is, we do not represent an organization, we believe wholeheartedly in our beloved Lord who died for us, who rose again on the third day and who lives, who walks among the seven golden candlesticks, who had His messengers and spoke through them.

And we have the privilege of believing what they have spoken in the name of the Lord. So Peter also spoke of this right at the beginning:

(19) That times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord, and he shall send Jesus Christ, which before was preached unto you:

(20) Whom the heaven must receive until the times of restitution of all things, which God hath spoken by the mouth of all his holy prophets since the world began.

I think of the Pentecostal preacher in Bahrain who came to see me in the hotel and asked, "What do you teach, what do you believe?"

I told him briefly, but then after the last service he said, "Brother Frank, I wasn't familiar with the scriptures, but what you preached is God's Word." And the important thing is, that we don't just preach anything, but preach it in an orderly way.

God is a God of order, and that is the beauty of it, not a cloak and dagger operation, here a little and there a little, passing right and left, but the core of the divine message, to walk the path in the center without deviating to the right and to the left, without fanaticism, in a balance before the face of God.

The children of God should be the most pleasant people on earth. No one should be more pleasant than the children of God. You should get on well with them, they should be nice to deal with.

But how is it sometimes in reality?

We are unpalatable.

Why is that? It shouldn't be like this.

But when we recognize it, we come to God and say, "Lord, we want to be transformed into your image."

And then he does it. It is then not our will and not our endeavor. We let him work powerfully in us through his Spirit, even this afternoon. We don't make a plan, we don't make a program, but we want to be inserted into God's plan and into the divine program.

And believe me, just as in the beginning all ministries functioned in direct harmony in the body of Jesus Christ, so it must be in the end. No matter what task someone has to do in the kingdom of God, one thing of God will never be set against another, no.

Where the Lord works and can come to have his right fulfilled, everything of our own ceases and divine harmony is established – firstly in each individual and then of course in the church as a whole, and especially among those who preach the word.

I have said this before, during the time Brother Branham was ministering, there were so many who patted him on the back and said, "You are a special man of God". We all know, Brother Fendler is here, all of us who have been in the meetings have witnessed what God has done.

But what happened afterwards?

Everyone went in their own direction, built their own work in the midst of the kingdom of God, and so the people of God were not led and guided to this divine unity, because the ego, their own ego, was still really strong in the foreground.

Every time God does something, it is in accordance with his Word.

Whether Peter, whether Paul, whether John, whether James, whoever ministered, preached, wrote, everything was guided by the same spirit and harmonized, one complemented the other.

This is how the ministries in the church will be in the end. Unity cannot come about in any other way than the way God has ordained.

Before this can happen, we must all, and I gladly include myself in this, we must all come to an end with everything of our own, so that God can begin with us.

Only then, when he is the one who can give a commission and send, only then can we speak in his name.

He said, if anyone is received whom he sends, he said of him, "He who receives you receives me." [Matthew 10:40]

No one will go by themselves, on the contrary. We would rather stay at home. But we must go, because we are sent with the most precious message of all times, a word from God for this final generation.

All the promises summarized and placed upon the lampstand, complete restitution of all that God has promised us in his Word. God has promised us times of refreshing before the return of Jesus Christ.

This time of refreshing had to be preceded by the message in order to restore all things, for so it is written here by our Lord:

(21) Whom the heaven must receive until the times of restitution of all things, which God hath spoken by the mouth of all his holy prophets since the world began.

We want nothing new, we want the old gospel. We want the Word of God, pure and holy, as it was left to us.

God will only confirm his Word, not our opinions. He will only fulfill the promises he has made. But we must believe them first. We must receive them first. Whenever God does something, he first sends the promise, and then he fulfills the promise in those who have received it.

He said that he will send the times of refreshing. He said that he will restore all things.

And then the question is, have we let God put us in our place?

Have we found our place in the kingdom of God?

If not, then may God grant us the grace to do so very quickly.

I am convinced that we all have a very deep desire within us to please God, to do God's will in order to experience the fulfillment of the promises. That is what our hearts implore and what we ask for, that the Lord may come into his own.

This afternoon we can also come to him as we are and say, "Lord, have thine own way with us."

We don't want to be a pious club or form a new denomination. There are already too many of those.

We only want one thing – to be found in the word and will of God.

We want to recognize with a clear view under the anointing of the Holy Spirit what God is now doing according to his Word.

And let me emphasize that too, it's not even enough to just talk about Paul and great men of God up to our time, we need to keep up with what God is doing now.

What he did 20 or 30 years ago was marvelous, was glorious, but time is moving on.

The church of the living God must prepare herself and be ready to enter the land of promise.

As in the days of Moses there was the bringing out and then the word was carried in the ark of the covenant.

It became so great to me. No new message, no new interpretation, no new direction, the same direction. With the word of the divine promise in the ark of the covenant they went forward and they experienced the fulfillment of the promise.

We can say this to the glory of God: We have not added a single interpretation to the divine message, with all our heart we believe it as it was left to us. We will not interpret it in the future either, but we will carry this precious word in a fine and good heart.

May God make us people after his own heart and then everything will go well.

What use are all new interpretations if they only create new problems, cause new divisions and indicate new directions.

No, that's not what God wants.

God wants one direction and that is his direction.

I believe that we are now consciously experiencing the continuation of what God has begun. It's not just that we say "Yes, God has done this and that through brother Branham." We see how the message, the call is now being given throughout the world and that the people who belong to it are being called out.

The completion can not even take place before then, because that is what it says in Matthew 24 verse 14:

(14) And this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations; and then shall the end come.

And Revelation 10 verse 7:

(7) But in the days of the voice of the seventh angel, when he shall begin to sound, the mystery of God should be finished, as he hath declared to his servants the prophets.

The same Spirit of God who spoke through prophets, the same Spirit of God revealed all these things through the prophetic ministry. And the same Spirit of God guides us into all truth and we are established and grounded in it and can go forward.

And the beauty of it is, if we believe what God has promised us, we will never be disappointed.

If we believe what people say, we will always experience new disappointments.

God has arranged it so that no one who trusts him, who believes him, who believes as the scriptures say, will be put to shame.

A true child of God will never be able to depart from the Word of God. No, we remain in the Word and the Word remains in us.

Jesus said, "If my words abide in you, and you abide in me, then you are my disciples indeed." [Jn 8:31] And this is important.

Every revelation is in the Word of God, only it was hidden and has now been revealed, but no one can add anything to the completed testimony of the Holy Scripture.

As I said before, when the time comes, God reveals it and lets us know, so that our faith can be anchored in these promises of God, so that when the time comes, we can witness the fulfillment and realization, and for this we can be thankful that God has kept us sober and sane.

Many, if they hear or know anything, they go crazy and the balance is lost.

Blessed are those who submit to God, who believe His Word as it is written and who expect that even the last promises will become reality.

I am waiting for it. And as certain as God has promised it, it will certainly happen.

The way was prepared at the first coming of the Lord and the same has happened now. It is written of John that he "made ready a people prepared for the Lord." [Luke 1:17] And the same is happening now. People who are pleasing to God are people who walk with God.

But it is written in Amos 3, "How can two walk together unless they agree?"

Our walk with God is only a reality if we agree with God. And if we agree with God, then we agree with His Word. And this agreement I wish for myself and I wish for all of us.

If there is anyone among us today who has not yet had an experience with the Lord, dear heart, the proclamation of the gospel as the message of joy and salvation remains the core of our proclamation despite everything else we love and value.

We call out in the name of the Lord, "be ye reconciled with God" [2 Corinthians 5:20], receive and accept with all your heart the salvation that God has given us in Christ. Press through to the certainty of salvation. Press through to the new life in Jesus Christ, our Lord.

Our God is rich in mercy. [Ephesians 2:4] With him is forgiveness. He gives full salvation.

Let us claim it for ourselves today and say, "Lord, I thank you. You have redeemed me. I belong to you. You have paid the price for me. You have accepted me. I belong to you for time and eternity."

May God bless us all.

Amen.

Let us stand and pray.

With all my heart, I thank you for your precious and holy Word, faithful Lord.

Earthly, tired, and weary, spiritually refreshed and strengthened.

I thank you for all open doors and hearts, for all who accept your word, for Lord, with it they receive and accept you in truth.

Faithful Lord, I thank you for all my brothers and sisters with whom I have contemplated your word here together, and also for all those who will hear later.

Oh, faithful Lord, we have believed and recognized that it is you who began and who will finish. Faithful Lord, you have given us promises that are so deeply rooted in us. We believe them, and we ask you to grant us the time of refreshing soon, Lord, so that your word may sprout and your church may stand on her feet of faith to be at your disposal. May you bring about this complete unity in your word, in your will, and in your spirit in all of us.

Faithful Lord, we thank you sincerely that you have honored us to hear the hidden mysteries, to have them transfigured by the Spirit, and to believe them without interpreting them.

Lord, our God, we pray for those who still have an inner struggle to go through. Beloved Lord, come to meet them. May they see you transfigured on the cross, how you had your arms pierced, and your side opened, and your precious and holy blood flowed for our reconciliation and redemption and forgiveness.

Beloved Lord, Your blood covers my guilt, it makes us bright and pure, as the song goes.

May our will have been placed entirely in your will. May your ways be our ways, and your thoughts our thoughts, your life our life, and your word our word. Beloved Lord, bring us into this complete harmony with you and with one another. Make an end to all sighing and all complaining. May the accuser of the brethren give way.

And may the Lord reveal himself as the risen one, as the one to whom all power has been given in heaven and on earth. O God, the enemy must let your people go. You demand it, and we hear the call, and set out.

In your ways we will remember you, for you have remembered us.

I thank you again for the last journey, for the open doors, faithful Lord. We lay before you the whole Islamic world, which is beguiled and deceived. We ask you, because with you there is no respect of persons, grant us grace again, and do something extraordinary to draw the attention of those who hear and believe to you.

We are at your disposal, Lord, take us, take us completely, cleanse and sanctify us from head to toe, thoughts and hearts, that our will may be placed and embedded in your will.

To you, the Almighty God, we give thanks together, that you have blessed and preserved us.

We commit ourselves to your grace, hallelujah, to your marvelous and glorious name.

Amen.