According as his divine power hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness, through the knowledge of him that hath called us to glory and virtue: Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises: that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust. (2 Peter 1:3-4)

See, the world, we've escaped that now. He's addressing this to the church. There's not a person in here that loves God, but what wants to become more like Christ. Every Christian. I'm an old veteran. Look at Brother and Sister Kidd here; they're probably oldest in the building. But if I'd ask them, "What is your hearts' desire?" It'd be: "Closer to God." When you learn of Christ, there's something about Him that's so loving, you just try to get right into Him.

Excuse this expression: I told my wife here not long ago, both getting old, and

I said to her, "Do you love me like you used to?"

She said, "I certainly do."

And I said, "You know, I love you so much till I would like to take you and pull you inside of me, so we could just be really be one." Boy, now multiply that by a hundred million, and then you'll find out how that the believer who falls in love with Christ wants to get into Him, because it's a love. And here He's going to show us how that through these promises we might be partakers of Christ's Divine nature. These mortal bodies, how that we can be partakers.

A young man asked me the other day, said, "You think I ought to get married,

Brother Branham, to such-and-such a girl?"

I said, "How much do you think of her?"

He said, "Oh my, I just love her."

I said, "Well, if you're not going to live without her, you'd better marry her then. But if you can live without her, you better not, but if it's going to kill you, you better go ahead and get married." And so what I was trying to get to him, this: that if you love her so much... Now, right now before you're married, everything's just fine and dandy. But after you get married, then the toils and trials of life come in. That's when you've got to be so in love that you understand one another. When you're disappointed in her, or she's disappointed in you, you still understand one another. That's the way it is with Christ. See, we've got to be so in love with Him till when we ask for something, and He doesn't give it to us, that doesn't shake us a bit. Why? And the only way you can do that is become partakers of His Divine nature. Then you'll understand the reason He can't give it to you: partakers of His Divine Nature.

( Stature of a Perfect Man )