Jehovah-Jireh

Good evening, friends. Very happy to be here tonight in the service of the Lord. And happy to see all you people out.

We was just a little late getting in, tonight. So I was praying and they were knocking on the door, but I couldn't hear them. I was kind of lost away in prayer. That's a good way to be, isn't it? Talking to our lovely master.

Now, this is the third night of the services, and we trust that everyone has been blessed by the Holy Spirit since the meetings has been going on. Phoenix ought to be in good condition for a city-sweeping revival in every church. Brother Roberts has just left, God's servant, and he always has a good revival, and the Lord has been with us, so far, in this revival, so, my, every church ought to be helped now. And I believe they're having a revival or two, around the city now.

The First Assemblies of God, I believe it is, is having a revival, and morning meetings also, by some evangelist. And I don't remember just what the brother's name is now, but I heard about it. Brother Hagar? [Someone says, “Hagan.”] Hagan? Brother Hagan is holding a revival at the (Is that the First Assembly?) First Assemblies of God. And I've met their pastor, a fine man. And he had this meeting already stationed, the reason (or staged, rather), because he said the reason they couldn't come in to this meeting. It never hurts when it's a tourist town, like this. My, there's plenty of people going to church. And he has a morning service too, over there, about nine or ten o'clock.

And you strangers in the city, drop in. Hear the brother. I've never met him, but he's my brother anyhow, whether I've met him or not. And then, I think these other revivals, that I don't know nothing of, we'd be glad to announce them from the platform, if they'd turn them in.

And we're trying our best to get our part of seeing the bride make herself ready for the coming of the Lord. That's our alternative. And the Lord be praised for it.

And now, everybody feeling real good, tonight, just all prayed up, and ready? Oh, that's just fine.

And now, there's some handkerchiefs here, that I want to pray over, before we start. The handkerchiefs.... Yes, sir, brother. These handkerchiefs represent sick people.

I remember one time in Africa, I believe it was, we had, I believe it was around twenty-one sackfuls was to be prayed for, thousands of handkerchiefs. Someone said, “Brother Branham is a very fine fellow, but,” said, “he's very superstitious. He prays over handkerchiefs.” But it was.... It's not superstition; it's trying to do something that our brothers before us did, and help the people.

We're taught in the Bible, that they'd taken, off the body of Saint Paul, handkerchiefs or aprons. I believe Paul had Scripture for everything he did, don't you think so? Because he certainly wouldn't be unscriptural with it.

And I believe he got that from where Elijah said to his servant, Gehazi, I believe it was. When the Shunammite woman's baby had died, he said, “Take this staff, and go lay it on the child.” Elijah knew that everything that he touched was blessed, if he could just get the woman to believe the same thing. But her faith wasn't in the staff; it was in the prophet, so.... But I think that's where Paul got it.

Now, we know we're not Paul, neither Elijah, but we know that we still serve the same God. And they were men just as you are, “Men subject to like passions,” the Scripture says, “as we are. And they prayed earnestly....” and God respected them.

God sends someone that people can have confidence, as a point of contact, to contact Him. We're thankful for a Father like that, aren't we, children, all of us? Loving and kind, trying to do everything that lays within His power to get us to believe, and accept Him on His term of love.

Now, these handkerchiefs here, perhaps out in the desert, there, somewhere, and across the country, is sick children, mothers, and fathers, really sick. They put these in here, with all sincerity. I see a little bib, here, says, “Baby.” What if that was my baby? What if it was yours? Somebody's baby, and they're looking for this to come back. Let's pray.

Heavenly Father, we come to Thee in the simplicity of faith, believing that what we ask, we receive, because we ask it in Jesus' name, who promised us if we'd ask the Father anything in His name, that He'd do. And we believe Him. And I pray, heavenly Father, that Your blessings will rest upon these handkerchiefs, and little bibs, and pieces of goods here. You seen them when they brought them. And I pray, Father, that You'll bless each and every one. And may these handkerchiefs and little articles here be sanctified. May the Holy Spirit watch over them, till they get to their destination.

This little baby, when this is placed upon it, whatever the trouble may be, may Satan move back. We're taught in the Bible, that when Israel, on their journey to the promised land, came up to the Red Sea. They were walking in God's provided way, moving, led by the Angel of the Light, and when they got to the Red Sea, it was in their way, keeping them out of the promised land. One said that God looked down, through the pillar of fire with angered eyes; something trying to prevent His perfect will to be done. And the sea got scared, moved back, and opened up its waves, and Israel walked across on dry land.

Father, when these handkerchiefs and so forth, reaches the sick, may God look back again, through the blood of His Son, the Lord Jesus, with angered eyes, upon the enemy, and may he get scared and move away, because of this token. And may they go to the promise of good health and strength. With all the sincerity of our heart, we send it for this purpose. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.

We're so happy to know that the Lord Jesus has never left us; neither will He ever forsake us. He's the same blessed Lord Jesus from eternity to eternity. Never failed, and He's just as real today as He was in the days at Galilee.

Where I am staying here in your lovely city, with a very lovely people there, and they were.... Yesterday morning there was something happened. There was a vision came to me in the room. Visions just don't just come at the platform. This is just a little part of it. And in the room a vision came, and I went to the table where the sisters was sitting present now was. I said, “I saw a vision of a little girl, just about so high, blonde headed, and she's destined to die today in a wreck in a black automobile.” I said, “He had told me to pray for the child, that this would be bypassed.” And I have. I said, “It's thus saith the Lord, you'll hear of it in the next two or three days.”

And the same hour, the lovely little girl of that home, was out in an automobile, where, just barely escaped death, was brought back safely. How our heavenly Father, just marvelously.... Then we were sitting just awhile ago, talking about it. Those things happen all the time, different things.

It's a sure sign, that our Lord has risen from the dead; He lives among us, and He loves us all. He loves all the Methodist, here; He loves all the Baptists, all the Presbyterians, and all the Pentecostal, and Nazarenes, all. He loves everybody.

Little denominational barriers keep our fellowship apart, but God loves us just the same. We're His children. His grace overrides the whole thing, and He loves us all. Whether we are white, brown, yellow, black, it doesn't make a bit of difference to Him. We all come from one person, Adam.

Each one of us, whether we're white, brown, black, or yellow, we could transfuse blood to each other, and save each other's life by a blood transfusion. But I'm so thankful that One come, who was made different from all of us, and through the transfusion of His blood, we live forever: the Lord Jesus, who was neither Jew nor Gentile, He was God. God's own blood was in Him. He was a created blood.

Wasn't through any man. The Holy Spirit overshadowed Mary, and she conceived, and brought forth Jesus Christ, the Son of God, which was.... The blood coming from the male, was God's own blood, that we're neither Jewish blood or Gentile blood; it was the blood from Immanuel's veins. So we're so thankful for that. Breaking down all the middle walls of partition, and bringing us into one lovely fellowship together.

I see some of my Indian friends are sitting back in tonight. So thankful they are here. And God helping me, I think, Saturday, I have services on the reservation. Be one of the high spots of my life, to get back to the Apache, I think it's the Apache Indian reservation, for a service.

I never forget the last night there, talking to the Indians. I guess, maybe they don't even understand English (maybe some of them in here), but when I tried to speak to them, and tell them that Jesus loved them.... Remember friend, that's the real American. That's right. How.... They have feelings; they're not made out of sawdust; they're human beings, love the Lord, and the Lord loves them.

So I remember speaking to them. I called for a prayer line, no one raised up. Usually, you can't keep them out of the prayer line. This way, no one wanted in the prayer line. And I heard some of the Spanish friends.... (Say, by the way, where's our little Spanish choir, and those little ladies who sing for us? Wish we could get them together again.) And I heard them say, I don't know whether, “Gloria a Dios.” Is that it? It's something like that. “Gloria a Dios,” or....

And I thought, Oh, oh, we'll have a prayer line, 'cause they're around. So they had great faith. And then in the process, a few moments, the Lord ... after we got.... The missionary brought some out of a little place there. I was standing on a balcony, preaching. And they brought someone out. It was a lady. And the lady, I believe, had a social disease, not because she was immoral, but just the way she had to live. And she was so startled to hear me say that. How did I know that? That kind of struck her.

The next was a little girl (the best I remember) was deaf from a fever. And the Lord Jesus healed her, and she also couldn't talk. And she was mumbling off something. And I said to the interpreter, “She'll talk better.”

He said, “Hmm, her talk heap good now.” 'Course I didn't know what....

So there was ... there was a little cross-eyed boy then healed. Then I really had a prayer line, like a stampede, everybody getting in the prayer line.

I remember the next one that came, Brother Moore, here, I believe, helped you along the road. A poor, old woman come up to me. She had broomsticks with a piece across, and with rags wrapped on it for a crutch. And when she came, her hair hanging down, she looked up at me, and her poor, old wrinkled face, ditched in with cares of time, the tears running from her dimmed eyes, making their way, down through those trenches in her face. I thought, Somebody's mother.

She looked at me. My, such a flow of faith, love, and respect. She never asked me to pray for her; she just looked at me, got a hold of one crutch and the other one, handed them up to me, straightened up, and went, walked on away, just like that. The simplicity of faith....

We, the white people, we try to figure it all out, see how it's going to be done. They don't try to figure it out; they just believe. So easy.... Wonderful. You know, I think we ought to forget a lot we've learned (Don't you think so?), so we can just serve the Lord.

Now, tonight, I want to read just a little Scripture and speak to you.

By the way, they said, I had a wonderful altar call last night. I'm so happy for that.

This is something new. I never made my own altar call before, till this time. And I am very thankful that the Lord is giving me souls. That's the main thing. That's the reason our meeting is going on as well as it is, is because that children are being born in the kingdom. God wants us to....

He'd rather see one child born in the kingdom, than all the people that's laying here to be made well tonight. It'd be worth more. He loves to heal His children, but He wants to give them more than that. He wants to heal their souls, so that in the resurrection, He can just give you a immortal body, where you'll never be sick no more, crippled any more, or blind, whatever it is. That's the way He wants to do for you.

Now, in the Scriptures, in Genesis 22. Turn quickly now, if you want to read with me, just a little text, as it was, to speak. A clock is just ahead of me, so I can watch, and we want to start our prayer line just at nine, if the Lord willing. So we will read, now, from Genesis 22, the 7th verse, and then the 14th verse ... 7th and 8th verse then the 14th.

And Isaac spake unto Abraham his father, and said, My father: and he said, Here am I, my son. And he said, Behold the fire and the wood: but where is the lamb for the burnt offering?

And Abraham said, My son, God will provide for himself a lamb for the burnt offering: so they went both of them together.

The 14th verse, now.

And Abraham called the name of the place Jehovah-jireh: as it is said to this day, In the mount of the LORD it shall be seen.

Shall we just bow our heads a moment now, while we speak to the Author. Our heavenly Father, receive these words that's been read from Thy holy Scripture tonight, knowing that they are immortal; they're eternal; they will never die. The Lord Jesus said, while here in His earthly pilgrimage, He said, “Heavens and earth will pass away, but My words shall never pass away.”

So we know, that as long as there's a ages rolls on, beyond the time that is to come, these verses that was read tonight, will be gone on, and on, and on, and on. They're endless, because God chose them and placed them in His Bible. Will You take them tonight, upon this basis? You said that Your Word would not return to You void, it would accomplish that which it was purposed for. And Thou knowing the purpose of our hearts, then, Father, may it find a resting place in every heart tonight.

And may those, who are out of the way, not knowing Thee, as a personal Savior, never received the Holy Spirit, pardoning of sin, being born again, justified by faith, pray, Father, that it'll sink deep into their hearts, and they will come lovely, humbly, to the cross and be justified in Thy sight.

And may those who are here, Your children, who's already accepted You, laying here on cots, stretchers, bound in wheelchairs, hopeless, helpless, as far as the world is concerned.... Some sitting out there with heart troubled, may die at any minute, packed out in a moment of time, without hope, God, may Thy Word place in their heart.

The promise is in there, “Whatsoever things you desire, when you pray, believe you receive it, you shall have it.” And may Him, and His wonderful, resurrecting power come here tonight. Speak, Lord. Get glory out of the service. For we ask it in the name of Thy beloved child, the Lord Jesus. Amen.

May God in heaven, bless His words tonight and His people together as we approach on the Word, talking about Jehovah-Jireh.

Now, God has seven compound, redemptive names. Jehovah-Jireh is the first: Jehovah-jireh, the Lord will provide Himself a sacrifice. Jehovah-rapha the Lord that healeth thee, and on down; Jehovah-nissi, the buckler, the shield the peace. Seven compound redemptive names that was revealed by Jehovah, and all those compound, redemptive names gathered up in one lovely, big name, Jesus Christ. And in there rests all the fulfilling of the compound, redemptive names of Jehovah.

Now, God speaking in sundry times and divers manners, to the fathers by the prophets, in this last day has spoke to us through His Son, the Lord Jesus. Our belief....

If there be any strangers in our gates, tonight we want to welcome you. But here is the basic thought ... or, the basic motive of us being here in Phoenix, tonight, is this: that we believe that the Scripture teaches, according to the Scripture, Christ rose the third day, according to the Scripture. He is not dead. He is alive forevermore.

And we believe that the Scripture teaches that Hebrews 13:8, that He is the same in principle, same in power, same in compassion, same in works, yesterday, today, and forever. And everything that He was then, He is now, and will always be.

We believe that He taught before He left, of His going away, that the unbelievers would see Him no more after His death. But He promised that the believers would see Him, for He'd be with them, even in them to the end of the world. So the world has never met its final doom yet, and Jesus is still with us today. Isn't that a wonderful, glorious, marvelous hope that we have, knowing this, that Christ rose from the dead? Now, if we can only find what He was yesterday, we'll know what He is today, and will be forever.

Here, to the strangers I say this: When He was here on earth, He didn't claim to be a great person; He was just a humble man, no beauty we should desire Him. He didn't look in His statue like a king, but He was King of kings.

And the works that He did, He claimed that He did none of them by Himself. He said, “I am never alone, the Father's always with Me. It's not Me that doeth the works; it's the Father that dwelleth in Me; He doeth the works.” He said, “The Father worketh; I worketh hitherto. I can do nothing, but what I see the Father doing. And whatever the Father does, He shows Me, then I go do it.” Saint John 5:19, you'll find that. “The Son.... Verily, verily, I say unto you, 'The Son can do nothing of Himself, but what He sees the Father do, and that doeth the Son likewise.'”

And we find out, that in His journey, He had.... Power was given to Him, because He was the anointed God. And they had power, that the people out in the audience of Him could pull from Him, virtue.

A woman touched His garment, went out in the audience. She was satisfied; she'd touched Him. So He turned around, looked all around; everybody else touched Him, but she touched Him with a different touch. He said.... Looked all around, finally said, “Who touched Me?” Said, “I perceive that I'm getting weak, or virtue has gone out from Me.” And He looked around till He found the woman, and said, “Thy faith has healed thee.” I believe He's the same today.

And then when they brought someone to Him, He talked to him....

And He saw a woman at the well; He begin to speak with her awhile. He didn't know what her trouble was. The Father just told Him to go up, instead of going straight to Jericho, go up around Samaria. It's way up on the hill; it's different. So He went up around Samaria, sat down, and sent His disciples away, according to what the Father had showed Him.

And He sat there and waited till this woman came out. Then when the woman came out, He said, “Bring Me a drink,” just to catch her attention. And then, when He begin to talk to her, why, He found where her trouble was; He said, “Go get your husband.”

She said, “I have none.”

Said, “You got five.”

And she said, “I perceive that You're a prophet. Now, I know when Messiah cometh, He will do this.”

He said, “I am He that speaks to you.”

She ran into the city, saying, “Come, see a man who told me all I ever done.”

And I believe that Philip come up and stood in the meeting; no way at all for Jesus to know anything about him; he was just standing there. Brought Nathanael up, a stranger; went over, another day's journey somewhere and picked him up, found him praying under a tree. When he come, he stood in the audience of the people. Jesus looking around, like that, seeing the people, He looked out till He found Nathanael (first time He'd ever seen him in His pilgrimage) and He said, “Behold, an Israelite, in whom there is no guile.” In other words; an honest man; truthful.

He was astonished, the little Israelite, and he said, “Whence knowest Thou me, Rabbi?”

He said, “Before Philip called you, when you were under the tree, I saw you.” My, that sure shook him, didn't it?

He said, “Thou art the Son of God. Thou art the King of Israel.”

Jesus said, “The things that I do, shall you do also; even more than this shall you do, for I go unto My Father.” I know the word is “greater” there, but if you'll look at it, it's “more.” No one could do greater. He stopped nature, raised the dead, healed the sick, and so forth. “But the very same things that I do, shall you do also; even more than this, for I go to My Father.”

He could only be in one place when He was in the body. Now, He can be in the body of believers, completely the world around. And I believe that He is the same yesterday, today, and forever. May He grant those blessings to us tonight.

Going back, now, to our text, of Jehovah-Jireh; The Lord will provide for Himself a sacrifice.“

Abraham. I just love to speak of Abraham, because it was Abraham to whom the covenant was made. The promise was made to Abraham, and not only to Abraham, but to his seed after him. Not his seeds, because he had many sons, but only to one seed, which came through Isaac. Through Isaac came Christ. We, being dead in Christ, take on Abraham's seed, and are heirs according to the promise.

And I believe, sensibly, that I can prove by the Bible, that the seed of Abraham are those who have been born again of the Spirit of Jesus Christ, 'cause Christ lives in the believer. That's right. You have Abraham's seed when you have the Holy Ghost. That's right. It was through that promise.

And now, that promise wasn't made ... or, give to you by your own goodness; it was God's election and calling that brought you to it; nothing you ever done to merit it. You never sought after God; God sought after you and give it to you on the basis of sovereign grace; nothing in the world that you could do, nothing you could do about it.

What if a pig wanted to be a lamb? It wouldn't do him any good. He's just a pig; his nature's a pig. Well, that's just the same thing it is, by you want.... “Well, I believe I'll become a Christian.” You couldn't do it if you had to. God has to do it. You might clean up your life. You might do one thing, pay good tithings into the churches. You might even build a synagogue. You might do all these things, but you can't cleanse yourself from sin. It's like a leopard trying to lick his spots off of him; he only makes them brighter. So.... The only way a leopard can be changed, is for somebody to pick him up and dye his hide, and then he's changed.

And the only way that God can do anything with you, or you can be changed from a sinner to a Christian, is to be plunged beneath the fountain filled with blood, drawn from Emmanuel's veins, where sinners plunged beneath the flood, and come out something besides a sinner (Amen.), lose all their guilty stain. That's it.

Now, Abraham, God called him by election. He wasn't any better than anybody else. He came down, out from Babylon, out of the.... Perhaps, maybe, his father and them might have been an idol worshiper, for all I know. It was in Babylon, and Babylon was the beginning of idolatry. It was established by Ham's children, which was Nimrod, and finally ... first was called “the gates of paradise,” later called Babylon, “confusion.” There's where idolatry was set up, and perhaps Abraham's father might have been an idolater.

But he came down into the land of Shinar, in the city of Ur, and there they had sojourned in there, and God, by sovereign grace, called Abraham. Not Abraham calling God; God called Abraham and give him the covenant. Now, to my Arminian brethren, this may shock just a little bit, but He give it to him unconditionally (That's right.), not “If you'll do this, if you'll do that....” There's no “ifs” attached to it. “I have done it.” Amen.

In the garden of Eden God made a covenant with Adam; Adam broke it. Every time God makes a covenant ... or, man makes a covenant with God, he breaks it. But this time God's determined that He wasn't going to let His children be lost. He made the covenant wholly unconditional, told Abraham, “I saved you, and now you're coming to Me in an old age, not only you, but your seed after you have I saved.” My, that....

One of the greatest curses on the Full Gospel Church, is not positionally knowing what they are in Christ Jesus. I've always said, “I meet two classes of people. And one of them is the full gospel, and the other one is the fundamental.” Fundamental knows where he's standing positionally, only he's never been born again, just the fundamental teaching alone, so he doesn't have any faith. And the full gospel has been born again but don't know where he stands. So it's just, if I could ever get Full Gospel Pentecostal faith and fundamental believers, or either fundamental believer ... fundamental doctrine in the Pentecostal faith, we'd have it made.

It's like a man that can write a check, but he hasn't got any money in the bank. The other one can write ... can't write it, and when they can write a check, hasn't got no money in the bank. The man that can't write a check has money, but he don't know how to write the check. That's the way it is. What's he going to do? One's got money in the bank, but he can't write a check. The other one can write a check, and ain't got no money in the bank. Then what can he do? You got to get those two together.

And if we could ever get the scare out of the people, that's something ... oh, I don't know; you're wanting a little “touch me,” or hocus-pocus. God's Word is your basis. God said so. Just laid it out there perfect. That's where we believe it, see. It's not nothing.... “Oh, if I can do this or that.” It's not what you've done; it's what God has done for you. Yes, sir.

People say, “Oh, if I can just keep holding on.” It ain't you holding on; it's whether He held on or not. It ain't what I am; it's what He is. It's what He represented me as. God don't see me as I am. If I'm in Christ, He sees Christ. He don't see me no more, for I'm dead. My life is hid in Him, sealed by the Holy Spirit, covered by the blood. You get it?

Then God takes the faith that Abraham had, and placed it in every believer by the Holy Spirit. You get it? Now.... Then you begin to believe all things, hope all things; that's when the Gospel goes to work in the heart.

It's not nothing, no great.... I think people makes it too complicated by giving it some great big lectures, big long words, and.... What does the common class of people know about them big words? What would I know about it? Nothing. No, sir. I just like to see it just really in its simplicity. Yet it's the most powerful thing that the world's ever knowed of, is the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Just accept it upon the basis of the shed blood of the Lord Jesus; come and believe Him. That's the whole thing right there.

That's what gives visions. He told me He would do it, and He does it. That's all. Just believe it. He told you He'd heal you; just believe it. That's all. He said He'd save you; just believe it and watch what happens, see. That's all.

Now Abraham, God called him, give him the covenant unconditionally, told him He'd come to him in an old age, He'd save him and his seed after him, and told him he was going to have a child. Abraham, then, was about seventy-five years old. Sarah ten years younger than Abraham, made her sixty-five years old. That'd be forty, fifty, sixty ... be twenty-five years past menopause. They married when they were young, and all this time they'd lived together as husband and wife. And now God says she's going to have a child by him. But the Bible said, “Abraham staggered not at the promise of God through unbelief, but was strong, giving praise to God.” He knowed God was going to do it.

Could you imagine what would happen in Phoenix today, if an old man, the age of Abraham and Sarah, would go down to the doctor and say, “Now, doctor, we want to make room at the hospital, 'cause we're going to have a child.”

Well, the doctor would say, “Ahem, excuse me, sir,” and would call the psychopathic ward to come pick him up (see), 'cause they'd say, “Something's wrong.” Every man that truly steps out and trusts God is misunderstood. That's right.

Hannah, at the temple, she was praying, and you know what? Even the priest thought she was drunk. She didn't go up to Shiloh, up there, to see what kind of hats the women wore, or who had moved, and all about the neighborhood talk. She went up there for one purpose: that was for God to take away her reproach. And she prayed. She didn't care what the people thought. And they misunderstood her.

And he said, “Will you always be drunk?”

She said, “I'm not drunk, my lord, but I'm praying, 'God, take away my reproach.'”

Watch the prophet. Said, “The Lord give to thee thy....” She raised up and blessed the Lord, and went home, and had the child. That was all. That's how simple it is: taking God at His Word. Oh, isn't He wonderful?

Abraham went about.... I can imagine they made preparations, got everything ready for the baby. And day after day, Abraham would say, “Sarah?”

“Well, Abraham, there's no difference, just....”

“Well, praise God, we're going to have it anyhow.” See? Why? He based his faith upon the Word of the Lord. No matter how long it takes, God said it, so that settles it. Oh, if you could only do that.

You in these chairs, on these cots, and on your crutches, and sitting here, heart trouble, and cancer. If you could only base your faith, “God said so.” That settles it. That's all there is to it. “I am the Lord that healeth thee.” That settles it.

If doctors.. I happen.... The doctors are all right. They do what they can do, but there's things that they can't do. So, if it's past the doctor, then He's the Lord. The doctor might help you, just aid nature, but God has to heal you. Doctor can't heal you, don't claim to. He can set your arm, but God has to heal it. He can pull your tooth, but God has to heal it, see. Sure. Take your appendix out, but God has to heal it. He can't build tissue. God does that. Notice....

So Abraham knew that he was going to have the baby by Sarah, because God said so. That's a very good basis for faith: God said so. Years passed, months passed, God just kept on blessing Abraham, and he went on. And Abraham kept testifying he was going to have a child by Sarah. And as days went on. I can....

But here's one thing God told Abraham to do that he didn't do. I don't know whether you ever noticed this or not. God told Abraham to separate himself from all of his kindred and walk alone with Him. And Abraham failed to do that. He took his dad along with him, his nephew, had a little party along.

And if you'll notice, God never did give the promise to Abraham until absolutely, he annihilated himself from all of them. Is that right? The old man was all right, but he's always a thorn in the flesh. And then Lot, look what he did: always trouble between the herdsmen and so forth. When Abraham got to be a hundred years old and Sarah ninety.... Think of it; about twenty-five years or better, they'd waited on the promise, that they was going to have the child. Abraham still believing, “Going to have it anyhow.” And instead of getting weaker in faith....

Now, we, if it don't happen right now, oh tomorrow, we'd say, “You know, I ... I.... Last night I thought I was healed, but today, I don't know; I feel as bad as I ever did.” See? How can God do anything for you like that? You call yourself a seed of Abraham then? The seed of Abraham don't take that “no” for an answer. The seed of Abraham believes it anyhow, regardless of how you feel. That's right. It's not by feeling; it's by faith.

Jesus never did say, “Did you feel it?” He said, “Did you believe it?” That's the thing. “Did you believe it?” That's the main thing, if you believe. “All things are possible, not to him that feeleth, but him that believeth.” Put the word where it belongs. Oh, I begin to feel religious, right now. Think of it. If we can take God at His Word, believe it, that settles it. God promised it; that's all that's necessary.

Now, I want you to notice this now. Then when Abraham got to be nearly a hundred ... or, around a hundred years old, God appeared to him in the 17th chapter of Genesis, and He appeared to him in another name. Abraham said, “God, I believe You, but how are these things going to be?” Now, I'm old, and Sarah, the strength has dried up.“ He's an old man, and it's like, she's an old woman. She's ninety and he's a hundred. Now, how is he going to have the baby?

And God appeared to him in the name of the Almighty God. The regular Hebrew word for it is El Shaddai, which means, El, “God.” Shaddai comes from the word ... or, Shaddai, rather, which means “breast.” Now, not.... He come, otherwise, as the mother, the woman, as “the breasted One, the all-sufficient One.” “I am the One that.... I'm the all-sufficient One; I am the strong One.” That's all I have to know.

“How you going to do it, Father?

“I am the strong One.”

“All right, Father.”

“I am the El-Shaddai; I am the Bosom. I'm the breasted God, breasted God.” Like the baby when it's sick or underfed, undernourished, the mother takes the little fellow in her arms, and she puts it to her bosom, and it nurses her strength. And the strength of the mother goes into the baby, and the baby gains health. The Almighty, He's still the Almighty, the El Shaddai.

And when the person.... Now, watch. It wasn't the “breast” God, but the “breasted” God. Both, why? Two resources: “He was wounded for our transgressions, with His stripes we're healed.” Whatever you have need of, both for physical and spiritual, He is the breasted, strong One. Amen. Brother.... “I am able to keep that which I've said.”

Abraham, knowing that God was able to keep His promise, for He was the strong One, none like Him in the heavens, nowhere.... He's able to keep His promise. Sometimes I make a promise and can't keep it. But when God makes a promise, He's able to keep it—The Strong One. “Now, Abraham, I know you're old; you're in the second childhood, as it was. You're just a little old baby. All your vital organs are drying up. Your flesh is all flabby, and Sarah the same way, but just lean over on My bosom.”

And not only does the baby draw its life from the mother's breast, but it also is satisfied while it's a drawing. Amen. The little fellow quits crying. The mother wipes away its tears from its eyes. And the little fellow lays over on the mother, and just nurses itself back to strength.

Oh, sick people, you sitting here tonight, cots and stretchers, and wheelchairs, come up to El Shaddai, take a hold of the Word, there go to drawing, go to smiling. “I'm the Lord that healeth thee. All heavens and earth will pass away, but My Word shall never pass away.” See it? Start drawing from there, and watch what happens. Feel if your strength doesn't begin to come back. The first thing you know, you'll be satisfied. “Yeah, I believe He's going to do it.” He'll do it. Just lay right with it. Stay with it. God will do it, for He's El Shaddai, the strong One, the all-sufficient One, the satisfier. Amen.

Any seed of Abraham ever hears the Word of God, that satisfies him. That's right. If God said so, don't argue about it. Just believe it. That's all. I love that, don't you? God, the satisfier; how that we draw from Him and are satisfied, while we are drawing.

For salvation, we grow in grace of the Lord Jesus Christ; we accept Him as a personal Saviour; God pulls us up to His bosom. “My little child, I'll see that you get strong. Don't worry about that. Just stay right here, and believe on Me, and just read My Word, and drink from Me. I'll give you all the strength that you need.” Isn't that wonderful?

Say, “Father, I'm sick. Are You the El Shaddai?”

“Come up to Me, and I'll nurse you right back to strength again.” Satisfied about it, no matter how long it takes, still satisfied, “God's going to do it anyhow.” That's what he said. So Abraham....

It didn't make any difference how long, whether it was five minutes, or whether it's fifty years. Now, after he got older, Abraham got stronger all the time. He said, “Lord, You could've give the baby twenty-five years ago, but now, I'm a hundred. How much more a greater miracle is it, that You do it now, than You would just a few years ago.” God, just letting him get old to prove, show him, what He was going to do. Oh, I just love that, how He did it.

And if you notice what He did.... I believe the last time I was here, I taught on that, what He did to Sarah and Abraham, how He turned them back and made a young man and young woman out of them again. Do you believe that tonight? Sure, He did. God don't just patch up anything. He does a real job about of it. Yes, sir.

Sarah could not have had the baby like that, so instead of just making her womb fertile, and strengthen the milk veins, and so forth, like that, giving her heart a little stimulation, so she could have the child, He just breathed upon her, and all the wrinkles left; the gray hair turned black again, and her youth renewed, and her eyes brightened up, and she was the prettiest woman in all the country. Amen. That's what He did.

And Abraham, stooped over on his cane, his big long beard, straightened up; the humps went out of his shoulders; the beard turned black again; his eyes begin to shine; he became a man, about twenty-five years old. Took his wife, and got on a camel, and took off for a three hundred mile journey. Oh, my. What about it? That's the Word of the Lord. That's right. And He said to Abraham, He'd show what He would do to all of his seed. Wait till we get our glorified bodies. I tell you, it's going to be marvelous, isn't it? No sickness, no old age; what a beautiful thing.

See, God, when you was born, He started painting a picture. You started getting older, and when you get up about twenty-five years old, the picture's completed. He said, “All right, death, come on now.” First thing you know, you wake up of a morning, and notice, you say, “Mother, you got wrinkles on your....”

“Yes, dad, and there's a gray hair coming too.” What is it? Death set in. Just keeps crowding you down. After a while, it'll finally take you. But in the resurrection, every thing that death done will be taken away. The picture will.... Then you'll come back in the resurrection, to perfection. Amen. And an atom, that creates a blood cell, will make a perfect one (Amen.) without sin, can't be destroyed, never get old. Oh, what a....

“How do you get it,” you say? “What ... what are ... what are you selling, preacher?” I'm selling insurance. Don't you want a policy? Here's the only one way you can come, on the basis of the shed blood of Christ. If God knocks at your heart door, God's calling you. And the very minute.... Here it is. The very minute you believe it, and receive it, you have immortal life. God said so.

Look. Romans 8:20 said, “Those who He has predestinated into the covenant.... (You couldn't come without yourself. 'No man can come to Me except My Father draws him.') Those who were predestinated, He has called: those who He has called, He has justified: and those who He justified, He hath glorified.” Then in God's presence you're already glorified, waiting. Isn't that marvelous?

And now, while we're waiting for our redeemed bodies, we are sitting together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus, the Holy Spirit moving upon the believer, great powerful baptisms going forward, the world on the outside, laughing, God working with them, healing the sick, showing visions, all kinds of signs and wonders, the evening sun going down. The Christian's looking up. There he gets his 'drawing nigh.' The atomic bomb's hanging in, over there, the world all shaking and don't know what to do, and the Christians shouting the praises of God: “Come, Lord Jesus.” My, Isn't that marvelous?

How can a fellow have the blues and believe something like that? Can't do it. The blue days are all over. Amen. All the weariness and sadness is passed away now. Can't do it. God said so; it's got to be. Just as sure as there's a God of heaven, we got to do it. God's done said so. He promised us, called us, elected us, knew us before the foundation of the world, and predestinated a church to be there without spot or blemish.

You're in the church you've got the predestination. You got eternal life. How do you get in the church? “By one spirit, we're all baptized into one body, seed of Abraham, heirs according to the promise, dead ... dead in Christ, and heirs according to the promise.” In Abraham's promise we're his seed, God working with us, proving, confirming the Word with signs and wonders following.

The world's saying, “It's not so; it's fanaticism.” They've said it all down through the age, they're still saying it, always will until Jesus comes. He said, “The world won't see Me no more.” That don't only mean the gambler and bootlegger; that means a lot of times preachers. That's right.

Notice. But God told Abraham now, after the little fellow was born.... Before.... I just got to bring this again. Maybe it won't hurt to look at it again. It just keeps coming in my mind. How did God do that, when after Lot, fixing to separate there from Sodom, and the Angel come and talked to Abraham. He had things kind of poor. He took the poorest of ground. He gave his brother the best of it. And then, when the Angel come, and spoke to Abraham, and told him, “About this time, according to the time of life, I'll visit you....” And Sarah, back in the tent, laughed.

The Angel said, “What'd you laugh for?”

Said, “I never laughed.”

Said, “Oh, yes, you did.” He's still the same God. That's right. So he said.... God had made the promise. No matter what Sarah done or what about it, God made promise. So He's obligated to His promise.

I just imagine, a few days after that, after Sodom and Gomorrah, and the destruction, then Sarah begin to turn back to a young woman and Abraham a young man, and they went down.... Now, I know you can't read that just in them kind of words, in the Bible, but if you notice, they took a journey to Gerar. Now, let's just imagine this, and just see how.... You know the best way to read the Bible, is not just like a newspaper, and say, “Well, tomorrow it'll be cloudy, and rainy, and so forth.” The thing to do it, is become in love with the Author.

Someone said not long ago, said, “Brother Branham, if you'd just get some ... a little bit of your grammar fixed up, and a few of these things there....” Said, “You ought to take some night schooling and so forth.”

I said, “What I need is some night prayer meetings.”

He said, “Well, you.... I tell you, you'd learn more about the Bible.”

I said, “I may not know so much about His Word, but I know the Author, real well, so that's the best thing. As long as you know the Author.” Know Him in the free pardoning of sin, by the renewal of His.... Him bringing His immortal life, and placing it in our mortal bodies, giving us the blessed assurance that someday we will see Him as He is, for we will have a body like His. Isn't that marvelous? Think of it.

Then, notice again. Here's Sarah, now. Let's just take it the way you'd read it in the Bible. Now, you know, she's a little bitty, great great-grandmother, as it was, ninety years old, little dust cap, and a little white shawl over her shoulder, a little cane in her hand, walking around. Abraham, real old, a hundred years old.... Oh, say, “Brother Branham, they didn't get....” The Bible said they were well stricken in age, well stricken, old.

And as soon as God told them what He was going to do, they took a journey plumb to Gerar. And now, the king, Abimelech, down there, was hunting a sweetheart. And when he found this old grandmother, real, real old, a little dust cap, he said, “There's the one I've waited for.” Now, doesn't that sound awful? Why, it would be. Watch.... It ain't what you read, right here; that's it, of course, but read between the lines.

When I get a letter from Mrs. Branham, she said, “Dear Billy, I'm sitting here tonight. I ... I'm thinking much of you, and I.... We had a nice day today.” See, that's what she's saying, but in between the lines, I know what she's meaning, see. Why? I'm in love with her. That's the reason I know what she's talking about. I just love her so, I can just tell the way she talks, what she means. A lot of times, she means a whole lot more than what she writes. Amen.

Well, that's the way it is with God. Just get in love with Jesus. Then He just takes the Word. And where the man just reading it as a point of something another to argue about and fuss about.... You just read it, and God just comes down and makes love to you [unclear word], see. Shows you things that you don't even really see it in there, just look like it just pulls itself out.

He said, “I've hid it from the eyes of the wise and prudent, and revealed it to babes, such as will learn.” Babies.... Just make yourself humble. Get off all your great, big education. It's too bad we ever got into it, isn't it? That's right.

Here, a few days ago ... a few weeks ago, it is, I was standing by a great church, great, master church. And they were telling me, they said, “Look at this fellow over here. He's a latter-day saint,” ... or, no, “latter-day rain. And oh, looky there. He's got all the people all pulled up, and everything like that.” And it was a full gospel church.

And I said, “You know what happened?” I said....

“Oh,” he said, “Look, he's a latter day rain.”

I said, “So was you in the beginning. Luther was a latter-day rain to the Catholic. Wesley was a latter-day rain to the Lutheran. Pentecost was a latter-day rain to the Methodists. Just all kind of latter-day rains. Isn't that right? You know what's the matter? Your church gets all cold and formal, God moves out of it and lets you sit there, starts somewhere else. That's right.

Now, I'm not a latter-day rain; I'm just your brother. I don't care whether you're first rain, second rain, middle rain, all rain, or no rain, it don't make any difference to me. I love you just the same, and we are brothers.

He said, “Well,” said....

All this big church said, “Our best members went over there.”

I said, “They did?” I said, “What'd they go for?” I said, “That man came over and pull them away?”

“No.”

I said, “Well, what'd they go for? You said they's your best members.” I said, “'Cause they were hungry. If you'd quit teaching so much theology and calling each one, 'Doctor, PhD, DDD,' and get God back in the church, get some little old boy with a pair of overalls on, and long hair, go to preaching the Gospel, it'd be different.”

Now, that's right. I don't care if he don't know his ABC's, or split peas from coffee. Let me tell you, brother, as long as he knows Jesus Christ, he may talk through his nose, and holler “hit” and “hain't,” but as long as he's got God with him, something will happen in your church, I'll tell you that. I'd rather have that, than all the PhD's and everything else; that's psychology. I want to know God in the power of His resurrection. That's right. Now....

He said, “I guess you're about right.”

I said, “You're not far from the kingdom now.” Amen.

So that's true, friends. We just think all about all the best class: “Our minister must be a student; he must be this, that, or the other.” To me, he must.... The Bible requirement: he must be filled with the Holy Ghost. That's the main thing. Now, go look yourself out among you, so many men (even for your deacons) with the Holy Ghost.

Notice Abraham then and Sarah, as they started down to Gerar. And this little king fell in love with Sarah. And Abraham.... Think of it now. Oh, my. If this won't kind of hit a holiness pretty hard. Abraham, backslid to begin with.... God told him, “Don't you leave the land.” The drought come on; he left it anyhow. God told you to do something, you didn't do it, you're backslid. So Abraham was backslid. Any Jew that left Palestine was backslid; that's their land of promise.

So he got down there, and he also told a lie. He said, “That's not my wife; that's my sister.” Scared of his own hide. Went over there and sat down, and let.... That king took her over there, 'cause he knowed that he'd have to kill him in order to get his wife, 'cause he'd done fell in love with that great-grandmother. So he got over that, and you know that couldn't be. Well, my, she's a beautiful young woman.

So they took her over there, and dressed her all up, put earrings on her, and everything, getting her ready for the wedding the next day. And Abimelech stretched himself out on the bed that night, after praying awhile, thanking the Lord for his nice bride he was going to have the next day. And the Lord appeared to him, said, “You're just as good as a dead man.”

He said, “Why?”

Said, “You got a man's wife.”

He said, “Well, Lord, didn't.... You know the integrity of my heart. Didn't he tell me that was his sister? And she said, 'That's my brother.'”

“That's the reason I kept you from sinning against Me.” Said, “But, look, her husband is My prophet.” Hallelujah! What was he? Now, because you did a little something wrong, you're not lost. Repent; come back to God.

There Abraham sat out there, backslid, and telling a little white lie. But the little white ones are big black ones. Look.... Said, “Oh, yes. That's my sister,” and so forth, and backslid, sitting out there, scared of his own skin.

And God said, “But no matter who he was, that's My prophet. I have give him the promise. I called him by election.” He may be backslid now; that didn't give him a chance to lie. But God said, “I'll deal with him for that.” But anyhow, “He's mine. And you take him his wife back, or everything you got is going to die.”

My, he rose from there, and grabbed that woman, away he went. Yes, sir. He's going to make things right, some restitution. That's what we need tonight, a bunch of that kind of revival to break out across the country.

Oh, after the little Isaac was born, become the loving heart (the daddy, now, about a hundred and fifteen years old, Sarah about a hundred and five) God said, “Now, Abraham, I want to tell the people down in the age to come, just exactly how I'm going to do this. I told you I'd make you a father of many nations; all the world would be blessed through your seed. Now, you're a hundred and fifteen years old, or about somewhere there; Sarah's a hundred and five, and you waited all that time. Now, I want you to take the only hope that you have that I'll keep My Word, take him up there, and kill him.”

My, Abraham wouldn't tell the mother, 'cause he knowed her old, it would worry her. But his faithful old heart, he saddled up a couple of mules, put some wood on it, took his son the next morning, rose up, and went three days journey. Then he looked up, saw the mount way off where God showed him in the vision, where to go to. He said, “That's the mountain.” Far off; done had gone three days.

And then, when he got over there (I love this.), he said, “Now, you wait here, while the lad and I go yonder to worship. The lad and I will return.” Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. How is he going to return, when he was going yonder with a knife sticking in his bosom, to lance the life out of his own boy on the altar. But God, through Abraham, knew that He'd give him to him as a shadow of death, He was able to raise him from the dead. Abraham the.... “I and the son will return.”

“How are you?”

“Not my business to figure out how we're going to do it, but God will make a way. God will do it somehow.”

How are you, if you're dying with heart trouble, how are you going to get well, when the doctor says that you can't live another week? “I don't know, but God will provide. God will make a way somewhere.”

As he throwed the wood on little Isaac's shoulder, and climbed up the hill—a type of Christ.... (Wish we had time to go into it, but we're pressed right now.) So up the hill went Isaac. He said, “Father,” he said, “here is the wood, and here is the fire and the altar, but where is the lamb for the burnt offering?”

He said, “My son, God will provide for Himself a lamb.” Oh, my, you see it? Something had to happen. “God will provide. I told the boys you and I'd be back. God told me to come up here and kill you, but God will provide. Somehow I don't know how I'm going to come out, but I'm just walking on. God will provide.”

I love that, don't you? His faith didn't fail. He didn't stagger, reached over and got his son, tied his hands and feet; his only beloved son. God in Abraham; you see it? God in Abraham could.... God could take His own Word through Abraham could trust Himself. And if you've got the Holy Spirit, surely God could trust His own Word, as your healer, as your Saviour.

So he tied the little fellow's arms, and threw him up on the altar, and reached back, stroked his hair out of his face (Think of it: only son.), pulled the knife out of the sheath, laid his little head back, like that. There's jugular veins that come across his throat. His trembling hand.... The crucial moment come: His only son. Perhaps reached down and kissed him, not knowing just what would take place, but he was trusting God. That's Abraham's seed does the same thing. When the last moments come, they still take God at His promise.

Reached down, got the knife, pulled it back, just started to stab his little boy into the throat, and about that time, the Angel grabbed his hand, and said, “Abraham, stay thy hand.” Amen. “God will provide Himself a sacrifice.”

And about that time, a ram bleated, hooked with his horns in the wilderness. Where'd that ram come from? Look. Abraham was three days' journey from civilization. An ordinary man can walk about thirty miles a day. I can. And an ordinary man can walk thirty miles a day. Then he lifted up his head and saw the mountain far off.

Watch the impossibilities now: perhaps between ninety and a hundred miles away from civilization, and then again, the ram was up on top of the mountain, where there's no spring, nothing for him to drink, nothing for him to eat. And the ram appeared on the scene in the crucial moment. For He's Jehovah-jireh, He can take care of the circumstances and the emergency. Isn't He?

And he took the ram and slew it in his son's place. Who was that ram? Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God, slain from the foundation of the world. It wasn't a vision; the lamb wasn't a vision; it was a real lamb. He picked it up and killed it, the blood run out of it. Hallelujah! You see it? It was a real ram. God spoke it into existence in one minute, it was took out for a sacrifice the next minute. God can do all things. He can meet the crucial moments. He can provide when there's no other way to do it. He's Jehovah-jireh, “the Lord will provide Himself.”

How you going to get well, when the doctor says you can't. He's Jehovah-jireh, “the Lord will provide the healing.”

“I'm a prostitute. I'm a harlot. I'm all these bad things. How can God save me?”

“God will provide Himself a sacrifice.” And He did at Calvary, when every type was met in the antetype, when Jesus Christ died for the sins of the people and the healing of their bodies, when He died at Calvary. Oh, if we could see that, friends, it would really make different people out of us.

Here not long ago, I was watching.... Was talking to some ladies today, about it. Makes your attitude different, when you really see it. Now, just a moment, I'm closing, winding up the service just now, ready for the healing. Look this way. I just feel the Holy Spirit just moving all through the building now.

Here sometime ago, I was up in Ohio, in Akron, or somewhere up there, in Ohio, having a meeting. And we were eating at a little Dunkard restaurant. Nice little ladies, all cleaned up, and they were ladies, every whit of them. And they was waiting on us. It was a pleasure to go there and eat in that nice place.

Well, Sunday came; they went to church, closed up their place. Just across the way.... I was out in the country, a ways of the crossroads. Crowds was so great, couldn't stay right around the city. So I went across.... The boys had went in. I had to preach that afternoon. I'd been kind of praying all morning. And all of them had gone to the meeting, Brother Baxter, and all. And I thought, I'm so hungry; I'm going to get a sandwich.

I went up, walked down the road a little piece, and went into an ordinary little restaurant, little road place. And when I walked in, behind the door, the door shut behind me real hard. And I looked, and there stood a policeman with his arm around a woman, playing a slot machine. And gambling's illegal in Ohio. And I thought, The law, the very law.... And the man was my age, perhaps married and had a family at home. I thought, Oh, my, corruption, filth.

I looked back at a table back there, and some young boys, and a lady, about ... little, young lady, about eighteen, twenty years old, they ought to've been in Sunday school somewhere. Those boys drinking, back there, and, oh, the way they was abusing that girl. And her standing there, and letting them do it.

And I happen to look over to my right, and there was an elderly woman sitting there with little clothes on—she oughtn't to have had on—real old, about sixty-five, maybe better. And she had a purple make-up on her mouth, and on her toe nails. And her arms (poor old thing) was flabby. And her hair was boyish, bobbed and little kinky curls up on it. She was trying to light a cigarette—drunk and two drunken men with her.

And I thought, Oh, God, how can You look at such as that? I thought, My little Sarah and Rebekah going to have to be raised up in a world like that? God, why don't You destroy the thing, take it all off. I—I—I don't see how You can stand it, to look at such a thing as that.

I was standing there criticizing her. The two drunks with her got up and went out, to be gone just for awhile. And just then, I felt something moving on me. I went back, and sat down at a little booth to the side; nobody paid any attention to me yet. It was kind of dark in the corner. And there, God gave me a vision, and changed my mind, of things.

I looked there, and I saw a world. And around the world was, just like a red streak, just a spray. Something said, “This is the blood of the Lord Jesus, who died to save sinners. That's the reason that God can't destroy; He can't see her. He can't. Every mortal being has a right, and has a right to accept their salvation, until they die and go beyond that blood. They don't have to stand in judgment; they're already judged: ”The day you eat thereof, that day you die,“ but as long as you're here, you've got a right to the tree of life, if you'll accept it.

Then I looked, and above there, stood the Lord Jesus, in a vision. And I seen His thorns on His head, and the blood running down His face, and big mockery spit over His precious beard. And He was jerking His head, like that, every once in a while, jumping like that. I thought, What is that, my Lord?

LUKE23:34

And He said, “That's your sin.” And I seen that the blood of Jesus, to my own sins, was acting like a bumper. If it have went beyond that stream of blood there, that was around the earth, when He died to settle the sin question ... if it had went beyond that, then God would've killed me. But in order.... Just like the bumper to the car, to keep your car from being hurt, the bumper catches the lick. And the blood of Jesus catches your sins. “Father, forgive them, they don't know what they're doing. Father, forgive them.”

And I looked there; there my name laying there on an old book, wrote all kinds of things: “condemned.” I crawled up to His feet, and I said, “Lord Jesus, will You forgive me then? I didn't mean....” I said, “You mean my sins hurt You, like that?”

Said, “Yes.”

He took His hand and dipped it in His side, took His finger and wrote across the book, “Pardoned,” put it back behind Him, like that, put His arms together, and looked at me. He said, “I forgave you, didn't I?”

I said, “Yes, Lord. I love You for it.”

He said, “But why are you condemning her then? You're willing to condemn someone else, but look, you was condemned once yourself, and freely He pardoned you.”

That changed my motive. Soon as I got out of the vision, I walked over there to her. I said, “Madam, could I talk to you a minute?”

She said, “Oh, I have company.”

I said, “I don't mean it that way, lady. I'm a minister of the Gospel. I want to talk to you.”

She took her cigarette down; she said, “Yes, sir.”

And I said, “Why are you living like this?” I said, “You don't really, enjoy this. Are you a mother?”

She said, “Yes, sir.”

And she give me her story, and it was a heartbroken story, a picture of life's other side: disappointments and things. She said, “Sir, I was raised in a Christian home.”

I told her what the Lord Jesus rebuked me for condemning her and wanted her blowed up for something like that. I said, “Lady, I want to ask you, will you forgive me for having such thoughts about you?”

She said, “Certainly, son. Will you pray for me, that I'll be saved?”

I said, “Will you kneel down here?”

She said, “I will.” We turned that place into a prayer meeting. That's right. The woman got saved, see. God will provide, won't He? God will provide. He has already provided a way of escape for everyone.

Shall we pray, while we bow our heads, just a moment. Our heavenly Father, we come to Thee with all of our hearts to confess our wrongs, and knowing, us being the seed of Abraham, and yet, Lord, how Thou hast dealt with us wondrously, forgiving us our sins and trespasses. And tonight in this audience, after we've seen the simplicity of the preaching of the Gospel, how that Christ died for our sins in our stead, and to reconcile us back to God the Father, that we might, through His reconciliation, be brought back to a full sonship with God.... How we thank Thee.

Father, many are wayward, and they don't mean to be that way, Lord. Maybe some in here tonight, maybe drunkards, maybe people that's done stepped over the line, and went into immoral acts, and done everything that's wrong like that. But God, You still love them.

Now, will You save them tonight, Lord? Will You bring that poor, wandering, backslider ... no matter if he's sitting out, lied and condemned and feels maybe that he's crossed the separating line. No, he hasn't. You're Spirit's still calling. As long as it calls, You're wanting Your wandering child to come home. Won't You grant tonight, Father, that the Holy Spirit bring conviction in the audience and bring many wandering children to Thee. For we ask it in His name. With our heads bowed.

[Blank spot on tape] “...tonight, but it's You talking to me. This feeling in my heart, I know it's You, I'm raising my hand to You, Father, and ask You to be merciful to me, a sinner.” Will you do it, someone else? God bless you. That's right. Someone.... God bless you, lady. God bless you, sir. Up in the balcony to my left, “God, be merciful to me. I now accept Jesus as my Saviour. I'm coming, Father. Upon the basis of the shed blood of Your Son, the Lord Jesus, I come. I can't do nothing. I'm helpless, Lord, but I want You to know that I—I—I realize it's You talking to my heart now. And here I am, I'm raising my hand to You. You're speaking, and I'm raising my hand.”

To the balcony, to the right, would you raise your hand? God bless you, little lady. Someone else raise your hand? Say, “Remember me, God....” God bless you. Someone else? Say, “I'm raising my hand to God, our Father, that He will be merciful and pardon me.”

Is there a wayward backslider tonight, would raise your hand anywhere in the audience, anywhere? Say, “I'm coming, Lord. Take me back. I'm like Abraham; I have wandered away. I feel You tugging at my heart now. Here I am, Lord. I hold my hand to You, that I recognize Your voice. Once away, but I'm coming home now.” One of those in here, tonight? Just, all you do is let God see that you're honest and sincere. Don't grieve His Spirit if He's speaking to you. Say, “Here, Lord, here's my hand; I know it's You speaking to me. I raise my hand, ask You to be merciful to me.”

God bless you, lady. God bless you. God bless you. That's good. God bless you. That's wonderful. Recognize Him. Let's be real men and women, be honest with yourself.

Somebody in here, without the Holy Spirit, say, “I want to be remembered, Brother Branham. The Holy Spirit's speaking to me now. I want the baptism of the Holy Spirit, to be brought into the body of the Lord Jesus. I'm raising my hand to God that He will give me the Holy Ghost.” God bless this great number of people with their hands up, wanting the Holy Ghost. One night I want to just bring them all around the altar.

Just keep praying, raising your hands, so.... That's wonderful. I'm just watching the Holy Spirit. You know, friends, something is happening. Your attitude towards Christ has brought the anointing of the Holy Ghost upon me, and visions are breaking over the audience. I don't know as I ever seen it just this way.

You may raise your head now. God, be merciful to you. I just feel that you're going.... How many's sick in here tonight? How many feels better since you raised your hand to God? Let's see you raise your hand again, say, “I feel better.” Just look at the ones raised their hands everywhere, maybe thirty or forty. That's wonderful. God bless you, each one. I just feel real strange about this just now.

How many people in here that's sick, wants to be prayed for? Raise your hand. I don't care; you don't have.... That's without prayer cards or anything (see), just raise your hand, everywhere. Look, the Angel of the Lord is already over the audience. I want you to give me your attention and be reverent, real reverent. And I want you to look this way and believe.

If our Lord Jesus was standing here, surely He'd know how, and when, how to do things. Isn't that right? Now, don't move around if you can help it. Just be real reverent, just a moment.

I don't believe we'll have to call a prayer line. I believe He's going to heal everybody in here; I really do. I just have the strangest feeling. I just feel the Holy Spirit just pulling all over the audience. Now, I'm not a fanatic; you know that. I'm telling you truth.

Somebody start believing. How many has been in my meetings before and knows how it happens? Let's see your hands. How many of you believe it's the Spirit of the Lord? Move your hand, and wave it. God bless you. Oh, my.

Let's look this way just a moment. Up in here, somebody in those balconies, somewhere, start believing. Anybody up in there that wants to be prayed for and don't have a prayer card, wants to be prayed for, raise up your hand. Just pray, now. Look this way just a moment. God bless you.

Now, looks like the audience could see this. I wish that you could. That Light that you see in the picture, here it hangs right here, just a few feet from me, right in this direction. It's moving up towards the balcony, right in here, moving up. Yes, it's standing over a man; the man's sitting right up here with a white shirt on; hanging just above him.

I believe he's a Spanish man. He's got a little boy sitting by him. Did you raise your hand, sir, to be prayed for? Do you have a prayer card? You don't. Do you believe me to be God's prophet? God has honored you, sir. Your wife sitting there.... That's your little boy, and you want that little boy prayed for. If God will tell me what's wrong with your little boy, will you accept the healing? The little boy has stomach trouble. If that's right, wave your hand. Your little boy's going to be well; the blessings of God is upon him.

Have faith now, everyone. The God of Abraham is present. He's your God. Have faith; believe. Somewhere in the audience, believe.

I see it hanging over a man, standing right back here. The man has something wrong with him; he's praying right now. And in his mind, he's wondering if it's him is calling. The man has rupture. That's right. You're a stranger here. You've just come here recently, perhaps today. You came from California here. That's right, isn't it? God bless you. May you go back well. Have faith.

Kind of a heavyset lady looking to me, praying. It's not for yourself; it goes to a lady sitting next to her. Your mind went far away. You're praying for somebody else, too. I don't know you, but you're praying for a friend of yours that's crippled, or something. And that woman is.... That person lives in Missouri. That's right, isn't it? That's right. I see a lot of wavy hard wood and things, waving around. It's Missouri. God bless you.

There's a man setting right in behind you there, that walks on a crutch, or a cane, or something. He's turned around, looking at someone. You're suffering with diabetes also. Is that right, sir? You believe Christ heals you? Stand up; lay your crutches, leave it laying on the floor. When you go out, you don't need it no more; you're healed. Have faith in God.

Lady, you in the stretcher, I can't heal you. But you believe me to be God's servant? I don't know you, never seen you. You are suffering with a.... You've been sick before and you had a cancer, and you passed that cancer. A tumor's got you now. But you had faith. Someone else brought you. That's right. You thought, if you could ever get to my meeting again, you'd be healed. Will you obey me as His servant? Take up your bed, in the name of Jesus Christ and go home. Rise up, take your clothes and go home.

What about you? Having faith? Don't be excited; believe. Have faith in God, any of you. I don't care who you are; make you relax. Someone else raise your hand or something. Here, if you believe, look this way and say to God, “I really believe it to be the truth.” 'Course, I can only say as I see.

God bless you, lady. Now, you can take your belongings, go ahead home, rejoicing, saying, “Thank You, Lord.” If you believe with all your heart, you can go.

What about you, lady, sitting there in a wheelchair, looking at her? Do you believe with all your heart? Lady's hard of hearing, but the Angel of God is standing over her. Look on me. You've believe me? Now you hear me. You've had an accident. You broke your bone in the side, a leg or hip in there. You've been laid up a long time.

Then you had a stroke and paralyzed you. You believe me to be God's prophet? Do you believe me? Will you accept me as God's prophet? Stand up on your feet then. Jesus Christ make you well. Give her a hand there, mister. Stand her up on her feet, tell her to walk on. Rise up. Jesus Christ maketh thee whole. God bless you. Now, you go ahead home.

The rest of you believe? How many believes with all your heart? Stand up on your feet. Jesus Christ, the Son of God, will make you [unclear words].