But you know that God doesn't do things like that; God doesn't use His power and His gifts for foolishness. It's going to be, whatever's President, it'll be President. And to know now which would be President wouldn't help us one penny. It wouldn't do us one bit of good to know who's going to be President. So therefore, God doesn't do those things like that.

And then if I made such a prediction as that, and it come to pass, and the newspapers packed it, and the magazines, then it would be to my glory. People'd say, "Look what a great prophet Brother Branham is. He told us long before it happened just who would be President." And that would be to my glory. But God doesn't want-- He's not interested in working things to my glory or to any other man's glory. He's interested to work things to His glory, something that will profit.

Like Paul said, "If we speak with tongues and do not have an interpreter, what good does it do? We only glorify ourselves," and that's--or "edify ourself." That's kinda out of the line for God. God wants to be edified Himself. And we're to not seek self-edification, but to edify God with all we do.

So therefore, I believe this morning, if I knew who he would be and exactly when he would be elected, and oh, how many votes he'd be over or under, or whatever it might be, it wouldn't do one bit of good to tell it. It'd be best for me just to keep it still if I did know it, not try to publish it, because there would be no reason for me to do it. 'Cause it's going to be anyhow, and it doesn't make us that much difference who's going to be President. But God, when He uses His gifts, He uses them for His own glory, and for the glory of His people, for the glory of His church, for the edifying of the body of Christ, and for the glory of the Kingdom of God. That's why He gives these things in His church, why He has teachers, prophets, evangelists, pastors. They are for the edification of the Church and for the glory of God. The prophet is not to get out and mingle with the world and try to take a gift like Balaam did and make havoc, or--or money out of it, or something. If he's a prophet, he's supposed to reveal God to the church and stay out of the things of the world. It's all for the glory of God.

...And I think it's a good thing for us, as ministers, to follow our order, when we see such things in the world as we see today. And we have an order from God, is for the discerning of spirit, trying the spirit. I believe that that is a very great lesson for the church today, is to try the spirit of anything, have discernment of the spirit. I do not think that we should ever, by any means, ever try to judge a person by the denomination they belong to, or by the group that they are assembled with, whether they be Methodist, Baptist, Presbyterian, Pentecostal, or whatever they are. We should never judge the man by the denomination that he belongs to. We should always judge him by the spirit he has (See?), the spirit. Whether he's latter rain or former rain or inner, outer rain, or no rain, or whatever it might be, we should never judge him by that, but by his spirit. We are to discern spirits. Watch what the man has in mind...what he's trying to achieve. If the man, by a gift, no matter how great the gift is.

Now, I want to get this to the church this morning, which in the different denominations you are still the church of the living God together. And this is the thing I want to get to you (See?), that we are really not divided. We are the stones that's cut in different forms, all to the glory of God.

Now, there is so much in the day that we live in pertaining to gifts. So many people judge people by gifts that they have. Well, I believe that these things are gifts. I believe that what we see take place is gifts, and they are God-given gifts. But if we do not use them in the right way that God intended them to be used, then we can do more harm with the gifts than we could if we did not have the gifts. The other night I made a statement at the pulpit, saying this, that I would rather see brotherly love existing among the church, if we didn't have one case of healing or anything else. See, we must know what these things are for.

Now, if a man comes and he has a great gift, no matter if he belongs to our denomination or another denomination, don't judge him by what denomination he come from, how he dresses, but what you want to see is what he's trying to do with that gift, what purpose he has. If he's trying to take his influence and build himself a great name out of it, I'd have discernment of spirit enough to know that's wrong. No matter how great a teacher he is, how powerful he is, how intellectual he is, or how his gift operates, if he isn't trying to achieve something for the benefit of the body of Christ, your own spiritual discernment would tell you that that's wrong. No matter how accurate, how perfect, how it is, it's wrong if it isn't used for the body of Jesus Christ.

To achieve something, maybe he's got a great gift that he could draw people together with a great intellectual or a spiritual power, that he could draw people together, and maybe he's trying to take that gift and make hisself famous so that he'll have a big name, so that other brethren will look up to him as some big person. Then that's wrong. Maybe he's trying to edify a certain thing here that he wants everybody else to get out of the picture and let him and his group be the picture. That's still wrong. See?

But if he has a gift of God and he's trying to edify the Body of Christ, then I don't care what he belongs to. You're not discerning the man, you're discerning the spirit, the life that's in the man. And that's what God told us to do. Not one time was we ever commissioned to discern the man's group. But we was constrained and commanded by God to discern the spirit in the man, what he's trying to do, what the spirit in his life is trying to lead him to. And then if we can find out that he's trying to lead the people (not to break them up, but to bring them together) and to bring the church of the living God, not all to one denomination, but to a understanding, a fellowship, a unity of spirit. Then if he is former rain or latter rain, or whatever it is, his spirit and his purpose is right.

And the spirit that's in him, no matter what move he belongs to, the Spirit that's in him is trying to point the people to Calvary, away from himself or away from anything else, but his only achievement he has is to point them to Calvary. He doesn't care whether he's even knowed or not. He doesn't care whether even his own movement--which is fine (See?), it's good, if he is a Methodist, or a Presbyterian, or a Roman Catholic, or whatever he wants to be by denomination.

But what is he trying to do, the purpose of his heart that he's trying to get? Then you can see what's in the man's life, whether his motives is for his denomination, whether it's for hisself, whether it's for worldly fame, whether it's for big names, to say, "I predicted that, come just exactly to pass." Now, you see that's wrong right there, to begin with. But if he's trying to use what God's give him, as a teacher, as a prophet, as a seer--

A New Testament prophet is a preacher. We all know that. Just any minister that's a preacher is a prophet, a New Testament prophet, if he's prophesying, preaching, not to try to edify himself to make a big name, or to edify his organization. Which, he should be in an organization. Here I am without one, but yet preaching you should be. That's right. Every man ought to have a church home. You ought to have a place, not just to float about from pillar to post, but have somewhere that you go to church and you call it your church, somewhere you pay your tithe, and somewhere that you help support the cause. Take your choice, but then don't never disfellowship the other man because he don't belong with your group. See? Discern his spirit and see if he's got the same purpose in heart, then you got fellowship one with another. You're working for one great cause. That's the cause of Christ. I think that that is absolutely true.

-- Brother Branham
March 8, 1960