Thirst.

William Branham.

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Thirst.

Now, the word I want to speak from tonight, one word out of the Bible, and that is found in the second verse: “thirst,” the word “thirst.” I was looking in the dictionary. When I was looking up this word, I was thinking about a sermon one time I preached on, “Thirsting after Life.” And I took it out of the Psalms, too, when David said, “Thy statutes [I believe] are more precious to me than life.” Then I was looking, and thinking about that word, “thirst,” so I looked up in the dictionary to see what it means. And here is what Webster says: It's a painful desire, a painful ... when you want something so bad until it becomes painful to you.

Now, it's not an unnatural thing to thirst. Thirst is a natural thing. It's just simply something that God has given us that we could ... to give us a desire for something. Sometimes.... God has, also, has given you a control tower, something that sits inside of you that controls these different desires. And this thirst, this control tower that sits in a man's heart, is something that God give him to warn him of the desires that's needful for him.

Now, there is two different kinds of thirst. There is a thirst physically, and there is a thirst also spiritually. I would like to read this, what David said, again. “My soul thirsts for God, for the living God”: not some historical, or some something that happened some years ago, or some tale that someone told— but for the living God, a God that's ever-present. And his soul thirsted for that God, not for some historical something.

Now we find God gives the control tower to you, to give to you the things that you need. Now the control tower in you is what directs you. And this thirst runs in on this control tower and tells you what you have need of. Spiritually speaking, the control tower in the body and in the soul also.... There's a control tower in the body that tells you the need that's needed in your body. And it's brought to you by thirst. Also there's a control tower in your soul, that tells you the spiritual things that you have need of, something in your spirit. And you, by this, can tell what kind of a life is controlling you. When you can see what your desires are, then you can tell by that what kind of something that's in you that's creating this desire that you have. See, there's a certain thing that you thirst for, and it can tell you in your soul what this desire is, by the nature of the thirst that you have. I hope that you can understand that.

There is a control tower of the soul, and one for the body. And each tower is a warning caller for the needs of the other. Each one calls to the need, for what the caller is calling for. It sends out a wave of warning. For instance, the flesh thirsts to satisfy the desires that's in the body; and the spirit desires for the things that's in ... the soul desire is. And many times these war one against the other. We find there what's a great trouble today, that too many people try to live between those two desires. For one of them desires the things of the earth, the other desires the things of heaven.

Like Paul said, describes it in Romans 7:21, “When I would do good, then evil is nigh.” When you try— did you ever have that in experience, Christians?— that when you're trying to do something that's worth while, go to make an effort to do something that's good, then you find out that there is the devil on every hand just to upset you. Everything that you'd.... And that's one good thing that... I'd like to say this, that the Christians might know: that when you're... when you're starting to do something, and there is something always trying to upset you in doing it, do it anyhow. That's the devil there, trying to keep you from doing what's right.

Now, many times I meet people that's prone to be a little nervous. When they find out that they're trying to do something, and everything is just blocking it off on both sides, they say, “It might not been the will of the Lord,” see. Now don't let the devil lie to you like that. The first thing is find out whether it's the will of God or not. And then if you want to know whether it's the will of God, look into the Bible. There is the thing that sets you straight, is the Word of God. And then if you see it's in the Word of God for you to do it, like for instance, seeking for the baptism of the Holy Ghost....

Many times I run into people ... say, “Well, I sought for the Holy Ghost, and I just couldn't receive it. I don't believe it's for me. Every time I get down, I get sick. And I go to praying.... If I fast, I get sick. And if I try to stay all night, or stay up, I get so sleepy I can't get off my feet.” Remember, that is the devil, because God intends for you to have the Holy Spirit. It's for whosoever will.

Many times you find, when you're prayed for in a meeting for divine healing, then the next day you find out, no doubt, that the devil will make that twice as bad as it was the day before, see. Remember, that's just Satan trying to get you away from the blessing that God's got for you, see. Don't you listen to that fellow! See, always press right on.

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Now, we'll take some of the natural thirsting first. Let's take, for instance, thirsting for water as David said here, thirsting for the water. Thirsting for water—the body is in need of water. And if you don't supply that thirst, you'll perish. You'll dehydrate, and you won't live. If you can't get water to that thirst, to quench that thirst of the natural body, you will soon perish. You won't live long.

You can live longer without food than you can without water. Because, you can fast for forty days. Jesus did, I suppose without food, but you couldn't do that long without water. You would just simply dry up and die. You must have water. And the thirst that comes on you, why it's to show that the body is in need of something to keep it alive. The body's got to have the water in order to stay alive. You are eighty-something percent of water and petroleum, anyhow, and you've got to take these sources in to keep you alive. As I've said, if you neglect it you'll perish.

The thirst also is an alarm. It's an alarm clock, that thirsting. The soul sets off alarm clock, a little buzzer inside of you, that tells you that death has ... lurking nigh, that if you don't get water pretty soon you've got to die. And it gets louder and louder until, finally, you keep putting it off and you'll die. Because it's alarm clock.

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Now, there's a great lesson there, see, and David saying here, “As the hart panteth for the water brook, my soul panteth for Thee, O God.” Now that deer knows unless he finds water, he's gone. He just can't live. I've tracked them many times. After being wounded, when he hits a stream of water he'll cross in and get a drink, go up over the hill, come back down, cross, get a drink of water, and go up. You'll never catch up with him, as long as he'll follow that stream. But once when he leaves the stream, and if he can't find another water brook somewhere, you'll catch him right away. And, now, the deer knows that, so he'll stay right with the water, where he can get to it right quick. Now could you imagine a deer, with his nose up, he's been caught out somewhere, where there is no water.

And he says, “As the hart thirsts, or panteth [is a thirst], after the water brooks, my soul thirsts after Thee, O God. Unless I can find You, Lord, I'll perish. I can't go, unless I find you.” And when a man or woman, boy or girl, gets that kind of a thirst for God, he's going to find something, see. But when we come at it, just kind of halfway, “Well, I'll kneel down and see what the Lord does....” See, you're not really thirsting yet. It's got to be a thirst between death and life. And then something takes place.

The deer also, here, he's.... We find that he also has another sense, of smell, that sets off an alarm in him when his enemy is near. He's possessed, this little creature, with a sense to protect himself. And he's got a little alarm in him, a little something that he ... tickles his nose, when the enemy's near. You can get in the wind of the enemy, and he knows that you're there, and he's gone. Sometimes a half a mile away he can smell you and get away. Or the wolf or any danger, he is able to sense it, because that he's made up that way. He's a deer by nature. And that sense in him is just one of the God-given senses to him, to live by.

And now I thought, comparing the deer with a man that's thirsting for God.... Before the enemy gets there, there's something about a child of God that, when you once are born into the Spirit of God, receive the baptism of the Holy Spirit, there's something about the person that can sense the enemy. You can take a man when he's taking the scripture, and reading the scripture, and try to inject something to that scripture that's contrary to the scripture: a man that's filled with the Holy Ghost can sense that right quick. There's something out of the way. When he gets into a place, and that little certain sense in there, that.... It's done to protect your life. You mustn't ... you mustn't never go for anything unless it's exactly the Word of God. You must stay right exactly with that Word. And now ... and we are secured with that sense as long as we're in the Holy Spirit.

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There is another nature, natural, just a natural thirst, in that thirst of the soul. You might say, “Brother Branham, is that soul thirst, is that natural?” Yes, that's natural for a soul to thirst, and it's for.... God made you this way, that so that you would thirst for Him. He wants you to thirst after Him.

Now, God made you like that. He didn't have to make you like that, but He did do it. And if he hadn't have made you like that, so that you would thirst, there would be an excuse at the judgment bar, say, “I never did thirst for God.” But there is no excuse. You do. You'll make it somewhat. You might make it your wife, you might make it your car, you might make it something else, you might go to church and try to satisfy it. And I have nothing against going to church, but that isn't the satisfaction. It's to find God, the living God, the God of heaven into your soul that satisfies that longing and thirsting, that you long for. Now, for He made you so you could thirst for Him, for his fellowship.

Now, there's a genuine thirst for fellowship. Now, we like to meet with one another. We're doing that tonight. We meet here together tonight because we like to fellowship, one with the other. Why do we do that? Because there's something in us, that we want to meet one another. That's just natural. And now, we meet on a common ground here. That is, because we're all thirsting for God, see.

And then we meet here on this regular common grounds here, of fellowship. In the church tonight, here, might be many different denominational views, and so forth. But when it comes to that thirst, we can meet on a common ground: one ground, we all thirst. Some might believe in sprinkling, the other one in baptism, and one in pouring, or so forth. But when it comes to the thirst for God, we come on one mutual ground. And God made us so that we would do that, thirst for Him and for his fellowship.

Read the full account in...
Thirst.

As the hart panteth after the water brooks, so panteth my soul after thee, O God.

My soul thirsteth for God, for the living God: when shall I come and appear before God?

Psalm 42:1-2