The Law Having A Shadow

All things are possible, only believe.

Only believe, only believe,

All things are possible, only believe.

Good evening friends. And shall we just bow our heads while we're standing to speak to our Lord. Our heavenly Father, we're so grateful to Thee tonight, for this privilege that we have of gathering here in this lovely, big, Philadelphian church to meet a group of worshipers and our dear, beloved pastor, Brother Boze, and many.... [Blank spot on tape.]

And good evening, great Philadelphia church, and all of its members, and staff workers. And it's certainly a privilege for me to be here tonight, to speak to you in this service. Very warm, but that's what we like: a warm meeting, nothing like one.

Thanks to our dear, beloved brother for the token of welcome here, also: for the flowers that was given to brother and I. You know, flowers preach sermons, did you know that? That's right. It's an expression of love, what flowers is. But they preach a sermon, too, because they're something that God has made and they're beautiful.

Now, I was at Indianapolis last week, and the Lord met with us there with a wonderful meeting. And your dear pastor, who is always such a close bosom friend to me.... You know he loves me when he knows I'm wrong. That's what makes him such a good friend. No matter.... A lot of times I say, “Joseph, I wished I could do that, my brother, but I just can't do it.”

And some things that's really legitimate, and don't make any difference what you have to do, Joseph don't care. He's just all right anyhow. You know, anybody could be your friend when you're in the right. But when you're in the wrong, he's still your friend; that's a real friend.

I remember we used to have a little poem in school. Many of you my age can remember it, I suppose. I don't get, just the last part of something about:

A man of words and not of deeds,

Is like a garden full of weeds.

Something on that order. And dry weather friends is very many, but real friends that stick as close as a brother, they're appreciated, and very, very fine. We appreciate it; I appreciate it.

Now, we're on our road tonight, to leave in the morning real early, about the break of day, if we got some of the hot weather to Minneapolis. The Christian Businessmen's breakfast is Saturday morning at the Legion Hotel. There we're to meet several delegations. Some from down in the place where Brother Joseph's been wanting me to go for a long time. They got a delegation coming there from Egypt to find out about meetings in Egypt.

And then from the.... I believe another group of.... Got the YMCA to have a delegation meet there, from Non-Pentecostal Ministers of Greater Minneapolis, and many other different things. And the meeting is going to be a very strange one. As far as advertisement, no one's advertised to speak. Well, I have the breakfast. But all the rest of it is just to be the way the Holy Spirit leads. And it's supposed to be Mr. Roberts, Tommy Hicks, and many of the other wonderful brethren that's on the field. Just to sit in the meeting, and what the Holy Ghost says, “Do,” go do it.

I believe that ought to be pretty good, don't you? I just think that's right. Get the formal out of it, and let God have a chance one time, to say what He wants to say. We preachers always saying what we got to say, then let the Lord have a chance to say ... [Someone from the audience says something.]

And our good friends from South Africa, they say, will be there also. I understand they may be here in the meeting tonight. [Someone says something again.] Tomorrow night.... They're to be here tomorrow night. These men, I met one of them which set up, I believe, the Johannesburg meeting, or the Dur... I believe the Durban meeting; a very fine brother. And so I understand one of their greatest among the influential speakers. And if they're to speak here tomorrow night, it would behoove all of Chicago, that can pack this little place in, to be here tomorrow night, to hear....

They got pictures; I don't know whether they'll be showing those or not. They got the pictures of some of the Zulu tribes and The Heathen Rage, and many of those things which would be very interesting in meeting these brethren. And that's tomorrow night, is it, Brother Joseph? My, I'm sorry.... [Brother Boze introduces the Masarino family.] Well, that's very fine. Well, Brother, Sister Masarino and family, we're certainly glad, I am, to have you here, I know, along with this congregation.

I was a little late getting in tonight, but some minister introduced me to United Brethren Church the other night and said, “Friends, the late Mr. Branham.”

I said, “That's right.” I said, “I was even about two hours late for my wedding. Now, if I can just be a few years late for my funeral, well, it'll be all right.”

So, I had to hurry, but I got to hurry up and hear one of their songs, I believe—the door was part of the way open when I was in the pastor's study—of “Onward Christian Soldiers.” And I tell you; that was really wonderful. I've heard much of them; I'm sure you'd be enjoying their music.

Everybody knows what I told you, “Look for me up in heaven,” didn't I? You know, the river of Life comes out from under the throne of God. It comes down, and turns a bend, and goes down this a way, towards Glory Avenue, just where it turns. Well, all the angelic choir and the musicians will all be over on that hill, a singing and playing their harps. And over on this side of the hill, I hope there's a little tree so I can just lean back against it and soak it in till I can really get enough of it.

I really love singing and music. I know we all do. How many knows what the order of battle is for the Lord? You know what the first thing went before the battle? Singers and musicians went forth singing, not weeping and wailing. They went forth singing; then after that come the ark of the covenant. So they went before the ark. And then after that come the fighters. So that's a good thing. It's a very Scriptural order for a religious service. The first thing the music, then the Word, then the battle. So it's all ordered of the Lord.

Hear these brethren. And now, pray for me much, if you will. I've got some real vital decisions to make at Minneapolis, of the future plans for meetings. And I certainly ask.... Say, I believe I'm kind of secondarily associate pastor here, is that right? And so I ask my church to pray for me.

I believe John Wesley said that the whole world was his parish, is that right? So, that's the way it is. I feel that you're my brothers and sisters in Christ, and I certainly appreciate the time of fellowship with each and every one of you.

Now, I love the Word so well. I just love to talk on it. And tonight I thought maybe it would be appropriate, for just a little while, being hot, that we just have a good old-fashioned, Sunday school lesson on Thursday night. Wouldn't you like that, just to teach a little from the Word? I like Sunday school, and I like the teaching of the Word.

And coming fast, and had to hurry, I didn't get a chance to look over anything; so when I went in the study, I happened to come over to this Scripture. And all that you have Bibles, let's turn over now to the book of Hebrews, and the 10th chapter, to begin with: very beautiful setting here for great teachings of the Lord.

The book of Hebrews was to the Jews, separating law from grace, as Paul wrote to them here. There'd been many disputes in the church whether they should eat meat, or whether they should associate with the Gentiles. And I think Paul, writing this epistle here to the Hebrews, is one of the most outstanding letters in the book. It's.... To me it's great, because it's showing the law and grace. It's separating the two.

And now, may the Lord add His blessings to His Word, and come and visit with us. And now, be much in prayer as we go to try to teach. I'm not a teacher. And my gift in the church is praying for the sick.

And say, by the way, we're talking of that: how many was over at the Indianapolis meetings? You remember the ... I believe they said the last night, a mute girl or something another.... How many remembers little Rosella .... What is her last name? The alcoholic with.... Griffith ... Griffith. Is she here tonight—Rosella? She's from Joliet. And Rosella, she called me a couple nights after that, and I believe she either taken the girl from a mute school there or was with her while she was there.

The girl was born deaf and dumb, never heard or spoke a sound in her life, and the Lord Jesus gave her a perfect hearing and speech right at the platform before most ten thousand people. Isn't He wonderful? And now, the.... [Brother Mattsson-Boze asks to speak.] Yes, Brother. [Brother Mattsson-Boze gives a testimony of a man healed of cancer.] Uh-huh. I got a letter of that in my office; that was right. [Brother Mattsson-Boze gives a testimony of a lady healed, having a tumor.] Isn't He wonderful?

I really believe that the people are just now beginning to understand what I've been trying to tell them for many years about this, of healing. The man (I picked up one of the letters as I passed the office) and he was sitting there, he had a paralyzed arm, and his hands had growed down until his fingers ... he couldn't even move them up to trim the nails from them anymore. And they was turning into his hand. He'd have to have surgery to cut them out.

And he said that while he was sitting there, he said, “I'll send you a picture, Brother Branham, both before and after.” And said, “I just caught the idea.” Something happened in Indianapolis that had never happened before. After going through a long prayer line and just weak enough till I could hardly move, then all of the sudden, something picked up. And I looked up here, and here was a vision of people kind of streaming down the line.

And you who were in Indianapolis know there's hundreds times hundreds circled down to that altar and gave their life to Christ. He said he was sitting there like that. He said, “You know, I now understand what the man's talking about.” And he begin to feel something tingling and a burning in his hands. And it was his fingers just coming open like that and open went his hand; he was healed. “And see, on the road....”

The man said, that had the cancer on his back, and it just went away, see. The idea ... the people just now beginning to see. They've been used to laying on of hands, and putting water, holy water, or something on, you know, or something.... Them's all right, but that's secondarily. The initial way, and the right way is just like you receive the Holy Ghost.

“While Peter yet spake these words, the Holy Ghost fell on them that heard it.” They were ready. And it's massive healings; it's not great long worn-out prayer lines. It's right while the presence of the angels of God and the Holy Ghost to bring perfect deliverance for anything.

The world's got to be evangelized all at once. We got to go. Two thirds of the world never even heard of Christ. And we've got to hurry and do it. You don't have time just to bring up a hundred tonight and tomorrow night all wore out. It's just right now the whole group see it in massive. And in Africa there was twenty-five thousand healings in one prayer. Think of it.

And the other night on the platform.... I don't want to start this testimony, so I better switch to the Word quickly. But that you might know why on my heart.... These brethren's coming tomorrow night, very strange. I've been feeling to go to Africa. Difficulties has rose, not because of myself, but others that's connected with me, as Brother Boze understands.

And I was coming, dedicating a church, and some of them come up, said, “Brother Branham won't you have a little prayer line?”

I said, “Well, brother, I sure will.” I said, “I can pray for the sick; there isn't many.” A little church seat about two hundred people. A little brother just come out of great tribulations and a drunkard's life and got saved, and went away to the Church of God and was dedicating a wonderful little church—the name of Cash, Junior Cash, at Charlestown, Indiana.

Someone come out, said, “What do you mean?” A minister, he said, “I got a church that seats nearly fifteen hundred people, and I heard by telephone that.... And here you are back here and you didn't come to my church. And here you are back here in the swamp, to a little brick structure ... or, concrete and it's sticking sideways.”

Then I said, “You don't need help; he does.” That's the one that needs help.

And in the line, coming down, (just praying for the sick), I seen a girl, a colored girl. And we know the dark race of people, the colored people, comes ... their native home is Africa. Just like the yellow man is from China, the Anglo-Saxon from Ireland, England, so forth, Swedish. When they separated from Eden ... or, from Babylon, some of them went down into hot countries, and some went in neutral countries, and some went to way up in the north. And some was bleached white, and some got brown, and some yellow, some black, but they're all of one blood, and that was Adam's.

God of one blood made all nations. Each man, the black man, the yellow man, the brown man, the white man, you put the plasma from the blood, it's all the same, just the same. It's just the way the climate's colored the people.

And in seeing the time coming close when.... I got a vision wrote in the back of my Bible of going to Africa. They brought this young Ethiopian girl. And as she was coming up, I noticed she was swinging her leg. And she was kind of a ... what we call kind of a slim, thin girl, about fifteen, real skinny, well dressed little lady. But I noticed her working her mouth, just like that, and the tears running down her cheeks.

Well, I wondered what's the matter with that child. Well, when Mr. Cash come to the platform, her mother was behind her; he said, “Brother Branham, the girl has a severed nerve from an automobile accident, that bursted (or something another) the nerve from her hearing and speech. She will never speak or hear again.” And said, “It was an automobile accident.” And said, “In doing so, it also done some other nerve that the doctor had to tie off which makes her ... with her leg like that; it's stiff in her side.”

Well, I said, “That's sure too bad; poor kid. My heart goes out for her.” And I said, “Bring her here and let me pray for it.”

So, as she was coming, I looked up over top of that girl's head (no visions had come), there was that tall grass, little mounds of ant hills and things like typical of South Africa. The grass a waving.... I could hear the wind blowing even. I knowed something had taken place. That left me; I didn't know what to say. I stood there a few moments. I said, “Now, friends, I want to make this clear. I just saw come before me a vision for Africa.”

I said, “Perhaps maybe somebody's on their road here, or maybe He wants me to go over; it's time for the vision to be fulfilled, which will be exceedingly greater than the other one was.” And so then I said, “Heavenly Father, we don't seek signs.” How many knows what seeks after signs? “A weak and adulterous generation.” Is that right? We don't want to be classed like that.

But I said, “We're not, but yet You give signs. And I'm asking You to do it. I prayed and wanted to know what about going and so forth, when to go and so forth. But now, if this girl standing here and that vision has broke, if You want me to be ready to prepare for Africa, will You give this little child, poor little thing here, and a Christian.... Although the doctor says the nerves was severed—it has to be a work of creation—would You just give her back her perfect soundness? And that'll be a sign between You and I, that I must make ready for Africa.”

Not knowing that sailing right then was these brethren that'll be here tomorrow night, to make arrangements for the African campaign, knowing nothing of it. And when I took my hand from the little girl, she screamed, “Mother, looky!” And she was as perfect and normal as she ever was in her life.

And there was some people there from very formal churches, denies the very existence of the Holy Spirit. Great denomination in the world today would argue with you at the drop of your hat or fight either one, that there was no such a thing as miracles. A great group of those people walked up there, one by one, husband and wife, and shook my hand, said, “Brother Branham, we have believed in miracles, but this confirms it that God is. Because this girl's from our neighborhood.” There you are. That's right. So, God still rules and reigns. Amen. Oh, how we love Him.

“The law, having a shadow of good things to come....” Listen to that, “The law having a shadow of good things to come....” Now, if we would have to type, which I do do much typology. So then the law was a shadow, so all the law could not have been darkness. There has to be a certain percent of light in the darkness to make a shadow. Is that right?

So many people, in quoting the 23rd Psalm, they misquote it by saying, “I go through the dark valley of the shadow of death.” Now, if it was a dark valley, it wouldn't have any shadow. So you see, death itself's under the law.... To David, death now only is a shadow. There's a lot of light in death. Now, if it was all darkness, my, that would be horrible, but death is just a shadow. So there has to be light mixed with the darkness to reflect the shadow. Isn't it wonderful, knows what the struggles in our [unclear words].

How many knows Brother Bosworth? Oh, how the meeting he had in Chicago. While in Indianapolis, his wife called me, said, “Brother Branham, your old friend is dying.” Said, “He's got death rattles in his throat all day. And we've tried to locate you everywhere. He's under a oxygen tent, unconscious. And he's rattled in his throat all day. I believe he'll be gone before morning. And, Brother Branham, we want you to preach his funeral.”

I said, “Sister Bosworth, don't speak of that. Let's speak of something else.” And we went over and fell on our knees before God, and announced it to the church that night of thousands of people. And the next night Brother Bosworth called me up and talked to me on the phone. Yes, sir.

He said, “Brother Branham, I'd like to be with you in the Cadle Tabernacle, in a revival.” Said, “Maybe we can go in the next couple of years sometime.”

Oh, I love that courage. No shadow, no negative; it's all positive with that old teacher. He knows right where he's standing. And every reader of the Bible knows that all that death can do is to put a shadow or a spook before you. But it cannot hold you. Christ burst forth all those thunders of darkness and freed those that were in paradise in the shadows, and they're in the positive now in the presence of God our Father. What a thought, not only a thought, but a truth, that God has made manifest through His Word.

All the law did was foreshadow Jesus Christ. For in Him is perfection. And if I was going from the sun and there was a sun at my back, it would cast a shadow. I could look at that shadow and pretty well guess what I would look like. Whether I was a flying fowl, or four-footed beast, or whatever it would be, it would cast a shadow.

And the law only casts a shadow of the coming of the Lord Jesus. On over here in the next chapter of Hebrews—the 11th chapter—how Paul speaking there, told about the great heroes of faith, how they escaped the edge of the sword and was.... And the mouths of the lions were closed, and great wonderful things was done as the people lived under the shadow. And to do all of that by faith, how much more ought we to be able to do today when the ante-shadow is here, when Christ has come, and fulfilled all the law, and has become a real, living, resurrected, glorified Christ in our midst? What kind of a people ought we to be?

Why, I believe the time will soon arrive, that when healing will be ... a miracle healing will be such a common thing. We've got to get some rapturing faith in the church to go away from here one of these days.

“Law having a shadow....” how it foreshadowed all things. We could go back, if time would only permit, and get the great things back all through the coming of the ark at the flood, how Moses down in Egypt, and many of the great characters in the changing of the dispensation, how the law, by the word of the law had supremacy, and how that everything else give away when God's law stretched over laws.

Now, if God's Word through the law spoke and taken the initiative, how much more ought the Holy Ghost in a human being that's been born again by grace and called of God, how it ought to be the power that was behind that Word when it was pushed forward by the baptism of the Holy Ghost. What it ought to be today. The Word having such a great effect, knowing that, “Heavens and earth will pass away, but God's Word will never pass away.” And the law was God's spoken, written Word. Watch! It was kept at a sacred place. It was sprinkled on top with blood, had a crown laying on top of there to show that it was the King's Word. And all those shadows, as today ... the blood being sprinkled on the believer where the Word of God goes forth come the believer.

And what an affect it ought to have today, when that sprinkled by a lamb's blood and this sprinkled by the blood of Jesus Christ, our own conscience from sin and defilement. What a forceful thing the law ought to be! That's where I find the weakness of the Full Gospel church, is not having faith in this wonderful Word that they have received.

Let's stop here just a moment, go back, listen for a few minutes, what that Word was. This Word that we're reading from this Bible tonight was not only in its existence from the pen of Saint Paul, and Luke, Mark, and John; this Word that we're reading out of this Bible was spoken before the world ever come into existence. Amen. Only thing they did, was just write down what God had already spoke. The Bible said, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.”

Now, let's take a little imaginary trip, before the world ever began. Do you know Jesus was the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world? Now, just take away the curtains, and let's look into it just a moment. Then that'll give you courage for anything you have need of. As long as you find it written here, just take a hold of it, God will make it right.

Think of it, the world as it turns in a cycle: eternity. Just eternity is like a perfect circle; it has no corners or no end. If I started with a perfect circle here tonight going around and around on this desk, it might cut through the desk, through the floor, through the earth, the billions of years and eons of time to come, it would still be going on, a perfect circle, endless. That's the way that God was in eternity at the beginning.

Now, we can't credit Satan to be a creator; he just perverts what God has already created. God created you to be perfect, and Satan perverted you to imperfect. God allowed you to be to your wife a sweetheart, legally married. But to love someone else is to pervert that true love, that you should have for your own wife. Satan does that.

Your love ought to be to Christ, undefiled. But Satan perverts that love to something of the world. He perverts it. So then when he perverted good to wrong, and taken the angels with him, a little block fell out of a perfect circle of eternity, and dropped down to a place called time. It come in right here, goes around, and goes out right over here. Time.... Eternity exists right on down through time.

Now, when Christ saw what Satan had done, when God saw it back here at the beginning of time.... Notice now, while God at the beginning was no wiser, or no less wiser than He is tonight.... God is infinite. You believe it? God is infinite. Then He can never change.

Now, we get a little smarter as we get older. The whole world gets a little smarter. You used to go to church in a model-T Ford. Tonight you can have a V-8 in the same thing. Used to be the only way you could get across the ocean was an old ship with sails on it. Tonight a jet plane will take you across. See, we get smarter. But not God! God was perfect at the beginning, and He'll be just as perfect at the end.

Now, here's what I love. Listen at it now. If God is infinite, and perfect, and cannot make a mistake (Are you following me?), if He cannot make a mistake, then the way God acted in the beginning when a crisis arose, He's got to act the same way when the same crisis arises, or He acted wrong when He acted back there. You see it?

Then if God said something, He's got to stay with that, in order to be God. Amen. That would make a Methodist religious, wouldn't it? Look at it. God's got to stay with His Word. You believe it, say, “Amen.” He's got to keep it. Then if a crisis arose on earth, like the people dying in the wilderness, and God erected a brass serpent for their healing, because the doctors and so forth was with them, if they had any.... None of their remedies of Egypt could not cure their sickness, so God had to act.

And if a crisis has rose today, where we got more sickness than the world's ever knowed, diseases like cancer, heart trouble, that the doctors can't touch, then God's duty bound to act the same way He did then, or He acted wrong when He acted that time. Certainly, common sense would prove that if it wasn't even written in the Word. He has to be the same.

So when God speaks a word, forever it's part of Him. It can no more fail than God can fail. If one word of God can fail, then God's not infinite, neither is He omnipotent. If He has to take it back, then He becomes a mortal like I am. That's right. But when He speaks, it's perfect. Amen. Oh, that's what I like: perfect. And we are perfect with the Word.

The law having a shadow of good things to come, and not the very image of the thing.... Those sacrifices which were offered year by year never made the comer unto perfect. Jesus in Saint Matthew's Gospel said, “Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father in heaven is perfect.” How you going to do it? How can you do it? How can you be as perfect as God is perfect? But that was a commission ... or, a commandment by Jesus Christ, to be as perfect as God is in heaven, perfect.

Then you say, “Who can be saved?” Hold it just a moment. Let's find out how that perfection is made. Now, God, back there in the beginning, when He foresaw down through this streak of time, and He knew they would have to have a remedy to save those which was desiring to be saved.... Those who hungered to be up there in that realm, He had to make a way to redeem those people back again.

If He was infinite at the beginning, there never was a flea, frog, fly, or anything else ever come on the earth but what He knowed it before the world was ever formed. Amen. Think of it. He knew you; He knew me. In order.... Knowing that our hearts would hunger and thirst after Him, He had to make a remedy. His great love, and His great power, and His great law constrained Him to do so. He couldn't do nothing else in order to be God, but to make a way.

So when He looked down through the stream of time, from this end of the fall here, up to this end of the fall, you know what God did? God did nothing else but speak right then of Jesus Christ's coming, His own Son, which He was tabernacled with on earth, came down out of the heavens, was made flesh and dwelt among us, redeemed us, went right back up, and standing up here on the other end. And all that great highway that Isaiah saw, across the place, across the span of time; Christ is standing at the other end, the receiving end.

Here I was illustrating a little something for the kiddies the other night, and was telling about the father of Moses and the mother, and how they was giving the little baby back ... committing it back to God Who gave it to them. I said, “Now, if you save your soul, keep it, you're going to lose it. If you give it back to God, you'll keep it.” And it's spoke five times in the Bible. Now, and I said, “If the father and mother of Moses kept him, they would lose it; if they'd give him back to God, they'd keep him.”

And how that that day when they pushed him out in the flags and bulrushes, how God rose from His throne, great robe drop around Him, walked out there, and He said, “Come here, Gabriel, all you angels, come out here. Look down here; I've got somebody believes Me. I give it to them, and they're giving it back. They can't keep it, because the witches of hell will get it.” Them old women going around busting their little heads, and throwing them, and fattening up the crocodiles on them....

Said, “We'll.... If we keep it, they'll kill it; we'll lose it. But if we give it back to God, we'll keep it.” And in this little bark that you're sailing in tonight, you've got a precious thing in there; it's a soul. If you keep it, you'll lose it. Go on keep it, go on out to the world and act like the rest of them; you'll lose it. But if you'll give it back to the One who gave it to you, you'll keep it. Amen. Just believe Him.

And they put this little baby in the ark and pushed him out. I can hear God say, “Gabriel, come here a minute.” Call ten thousand angels on marching orders, and line them all up and down the Nile. “You see that not any crocodile comes near that. And when he gets into a whirlpool, see that it gets out all right.” You're going to hit many whirl-pools in this life, my brother, but if God has called angels on marching orders to take care of it, don't worry; He'll get you out of it. Amen.

Notice, and the little ark was pitched. I can imagine why they put that tar on it, you know, like that on the street. Old crocodile starts to stick his nose up there; what a smell! He backed off. And we watch him; all at once, he becomes flusterated, and away he goes. Why? Gabriel's sitting up on top of that ark, floating down the river. That's the reason they couldn't touch it. It had been give back to the One that gave it.

And that's the way it is tonight; God lets His angels have watch over us. “The angels of God are encamped about.” They don't go back and forth; they stay here. I like that. “The angels of God are encamped about those who fear Him.”

I can hear Gabriel say, “But, Lord, where are You going to be at all this time?”

“I'm going to be on the receiving end, down at the other end.” He'll be down there to receive it when it gets there. There's where He's standing tonight: on the receiving end. He is standing on the portals of glory, on the receiving end, to receive His children. And someday, when life is over, He'll reach down and wind the end of that highway of holiness around His hand, give it a big pull. And when He does, where she's broke here, He'll lift every saint right back up into that realm of eternity again, and she'll roll on through the ages. He's on the receiving end.

What you scared about? Afraid He won't do it? Yes, He will. As sure as there's a God in heaven, He'll do it. And He's on the receiving end. Oh, my. Look at it.

There when God stood there, and He said, “Here's My program.” And now, a word.... “In the beginning was the Word....” Now, a word is a thought expressed. Now, God was thinking about it. Now, it was just a thought. But when He expressed it, it became a word. And when it's once expressed, He can't take it back. He's got to stay with it.

So therefore, the Bible plainly says that Jesus was the Lamb of God slain before the foundation of the world. For the moment God spoke it, He was slain in heaven at that time. The only thing He had to do was materialize. Only thing He had to do was come out to a head. Four thousand years later before He was ever slain actually. But when God spoke it, it was so perfect, it had to be, and it could be recorded as a document in heaven, because God said so: had to be.

No wonder He said, “Thy seed shall bruise the serpent's head.” Now, you say, “That was Jesus.” Let me tell you something. How many Christians here, raise up your hand, born again Christians? Sure that's just all of you. All right, did you know that the same time He was slain, you was accepted? Did you know that?

Oh, you say, “Brother Branham, I got saved about a week ago. Glory to God, new name written down in glory.”

Wait a minute! Don't want to be different, but the Bible makes it different. The Bible said over in the book of Revelations that in the last days, that the antichrist would be very religious. And he'd go around just like a religious person. And he would deceive all upon the face of the earth whose names were not written in the Lamb's book of life from ... where? The revival? From the foundation of the world.

The same time the Lamb was spoke to be slain, and the blood stain was appropriated then, your name was associated with it at that very time, and put in the Lamb's book of life. The only thing you had to do, is run out to the time that God called you by the Holy Ghost, and, “No man can come to Me except My Father calls him. And all comes to Me, I will give him everlasting life and raise him up at the last day.” Whew.

Wish I was twice my size, maybe I could tell twice as much. Think of it: that before the world ever was formed, when the Lamb's book of life was spoke back there, your name was associated with the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ. Whew! What you scared about? He's up there on the receiving end; He's got His angels here watching over us. Ha ha! [Unclear words] stick his nose up and say he's going to do something.

If you want to jump out of the ark, go ahead. But I like to stay right with it. “Lord, You said so; this is Your Word. When You spoke it back there, when You spoke my association with it, I'm staying in the Word; He said so. What is the Word? The prophets said.... The Holy Spirit come down, and just spoke the Word through the prophets as they wrote it on the book that God spoke before the foundation of the world. ”In the beginning was the Word.“ Amen.

[Blank spot on tape.] ...redeem at Calvary everything that He ever possessed, Christ took it back to the church and give it to His church. All that God was He poured out in Christ, and all Christ was He poured out in the church. “And I'm with you, even in you to the end of the world: Jesus Christ the same yesterday, today and forever.”

Oh, church of the living God, how can you “moof” over little old things that's so insignificant? Why don't you put your faith in the Word of the living God? And look at men back there of old—the shadows—like Abraham and them: “Call those things which were not as though they were.” God said so.

When Abraham back there under the law was probably asked, “Man, what's the matter with you, a hundred years old and your wife ninety and say you're going to have a baby?”

“Glory to God, yes, sir.”

“Well, man, you're crazy! Must be something wrong in your head. You better go to the doctor. There's something wrong with you, Abraham.”

“No, there's not. I just got a change of heart.”

What if a man a hundred years old and his wife ninety today would walk up to doctor office and say, “Doc, we want to get the maternity room all fixed up. My wife's going to have a baby.”

Doctor'd say, “Well, I tell you, sir, if you'd just walk out in the room a few minutes....” He'd ring the bell, “Psychiatrist, come here quickly, bring your handcuffs.”

Sure, because the wisdom of God is foolish to the world, and the wisdom of the world is foolish to God. But those who could ever get anywhere with God's got to take God's Word and say it was so. Hey, brother, that'll defeat the devil anywhere. That'll heal every sick person that's in this building. That'll give everybody here the baptism of the Holy Ghost; it's your promise.

Why are you here? If you're here as a real believer, you're sitting here wanting to serve the Lord, God's obligated. You could not have that desire in your heart, unless God created it in there. You used to didn't do that, but God created it Himself. Each one of you.... Maybe there's sick people here, say, “I wished I could be healed, Brother Branham. I been suffering with a stomach trouble for years, or headaches, or something like that.”

God's here to do that. See, it's not God; it's you. See, He's here to do it. His Word is real, if you could just lay hold of it and say, “That's truth.” The reason it is.... See, the reason that you was saved easier sometimes than you are healed, is because you was elected before the foundation of the world.

Your name was put in the Lamb's book of life, and that strain as a son and daughter of God, still hold on you. Oh, you was out in sin, you just scratched your head and wondering, “You know I ought to do that. There's something I.... Well, I'll do it a little later.” Finally it rolled around; there you was.

Now, healing is included in this. You believe in healing or you wouldn't come to hear about it. Now, if you could lay a hold on it just the same way you did for your salvation, you'd get the same results. Got to.

Now, the law, having a shadow of good things to come, can never make the worshiper perfect. Now, why couldn't it? Because there was nothing there to perfect him with. The law was a shadow. In the Old Testament when they went to make an offering, the man brought a lamb. He took it up there, and he confessed his sins, put his hands upon the head of the lamb, and told God that he was sorry for what he done.

The priest cut the lamb's throat, the jugular vein here, and the little fellow begin kicking, bleeding, dying, his hands was bathed all over with blood, and he felt the quivering and pain of that little lamb, laying there suffering. He kept his eye on it; it'd shake and suffer, and shake and suffer, like that. And he'd think, “That ought to be me. What a horrible fellow I am!”

Now watch. Then the man went right out of there, not perfect; he couldn't be. Because when he did, he went out of there with the same desire in his heart to go do the same thing that he did when he went in there. Still had the same.... Why did he have the same desire? Because, why? The blood cell had been broke in the lamb, which was a shadow of the Lamb of God.

Now, when that blood cell was broke and bursted open, the life that was in that blood cell, or in the lamb, which consisted.... Coming from one blood cell, it all come back to one master blood cell, that was from the germ, which was the pollen from the fe... from the male. And when that blood cell was broken, this life was separated here. The life that was in that blood cell could not come back on the worshiper. No, sir.

Because how could a animal without a soul ... how could the spirit of a brute come back and coincide with a human spirit? It couldn't do it, because it didn't have no soul; it was an animal. Now, but when a worshiper....

Watch here. In the next chapter over here in Hebrews, it said (the next couple of verses below here), “For if the worshiper once purged, would have no more conscience of sin. And He by His own sacrifice has perfected forever those that are sanctified.”

Perfected for how long? Forever. Then what is the Holy Ghost, friend? We've allotted it to too many things. You Lutherans, oh, my, you think because you join the Lutheran church, “The just shall live by faith,” Luther says, “We got it.” But they found out they didn't. You Methodists, when you got sanctified, and shouted, you clapped your hands, and run up-and-down the aisle, you thought you had it. But come to find out, you didn't.

The Pentecostals, when they could speak in tongues or dance in the Spirit, they thought they had it. But they found out they didn't. That's right. All those things are all right, but that ain't it. It's the Person, the Holy Spirit Himself, the resurrected Christ.

And when you lay your hands by faith upon God's accepted and provided sacrifice, which was absolutely perfect.... There's the body of Christ. And out of Adam's side come a rib that made his bride. And out of the side of Christ came the blood, water, Spirit for His bride.

And how do we get into that body? “By one Spirit we're all baptized into one body.” And Romans 8:1, “There is therefore now no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus, that walk not after the flesh but after the Spirit.” They're like Abraham; they call those things which were not as though they were, because they are dead to the things of the world and alive again in Christ Jesus by the baptism of the Holy Ghost. Amen.

That might've had hay seeds on it and sassafras, but it'll save you as sure I stand in the pulpit. Amen. Notice, “The worshiper once purged has no more desire of sin.” No more conscience; the word conscience is “desire.” Look and see if that ain't right. Conscience is what's in it, in there making your desires. Your conscience is to do it, and your conscience is not to do it; it's your desire.

So then, if the worshiper, under the law, could not be purged, because that the lamb was only a shadow, and he went away with the same desire, yet it was speaking correctly to the right Lamb coming. And then, when God sent His Lamb, and He died, and the worshiper then coming, putting his hands by faith upon the bleeding locks of the Lord Jesus, and can in your heart appreciate that He was the only thing that could ever come and redeem you, and you'd be lost and gone to hell....

And then to appreciate His love for you when you were unlovable, appreciate His foreknowledge of you, that you'd have the heart to do it, and appreciate His leading of the Holy Spirit to bring you to that place He puts it. And you lay your hands upon Him by faith, and renounce your own life as a sinner, and accept His life instead, the blood of Jesus Christ then cleanses you. And the life that was in the blood cell of Christ, which was none other than God Himself, the Holy Spirit, comes back into your life, and coincides with your body, and you act and walk a Christian life till the day you leave the world. And the devil couldn't touch you if he had to. Amen.

Every promise in the Book is yours then. He can't do it. Why?

The blood cell. Where did it originate? Where did it originate in the lamb, the little sheep? Where did it originate? From the male sheep. It was a sexual desire. It was sinful. After God had pronounced this, He made it permissive, but never the perfect. “God made man out of the dust of the earth and breathed the breath of life into him, and he became a living soul.”

But then, tampering: Women become that instrument to bring life, and that's the reason it has to go back, the body. The soul then must be taken care of first to originate the beginning of a new life. Did you realize that? Now, the lamb—when its life broke at the place where it was sacrificed, the worshiper with his hands bloody and realizing he was a sinner—was a shadow yonder of Calvary.

But the worshiper could not be made perfect, because by the life that come out of the lamb, he could not be taken back in the lamb's body, because he was a human. The lamb had a different nature. It's nature was different. Now, if the lamb's life could come back to the worshiper, he'd go back out and eat grass and act like a lamb, because he was a brute. So he could not be made perfect.

But in this place, where the worshiper is once purged from his sins, the very life that was in that body comes back and baptizes this individual into the Holy Spirit. And this Lamb was not born by sexual desire, where that original blood cell started. God Almighty created it in the womb of Mary. No man had nothing to do with it.

And that one blood cell where God brought Himself down, and come into this blood cell, and growed out a body called Christ, and come in the fullness of the Spirit and lived in Him.... Then when that blood cell was broke there for sin, every man coming to Christ and purged by that blood has no more conscience of sin, and is perfectly anchored in Christ until the day of your redemption.

Ephesians 4:30 says, “Grieve not the Holy Spirit of God, whereby you're sealed until the day of your redemption.” Amen. Oh, that makes the devil go, when a believer realizes where he is, what he is. “Oh, there's no good in me, Brother Branham.” That's right. I never was any good and neither was you. There's nothing we could do about it; that's the good part of it. But when you can just recognize that, that you're no good, then you'll not trust in your own goodness.

If there's one thing you could do to merit it, you'd have something to brag about it. “Lord, I've sought You day and night.” But you can't say that to Him. He said, “No man can come to Me except My Father draws him.” And God seeks man and not man seeking God. So you don't have one thing to say, but, “God, it was Your grace that did it.” And then as long you're accepted in the Beloved, how can God bring you into judgment, when He's already judged Christ in your stead?

How could you have to suffer for your sins, when Christ has already done it? God would be a two-timer and a awful person (That's right.) when it was thoroughly paid by Jesus Christ and you accepted it. And as long as God accepted Christ, He accepted you with Christ. And when did He do it? Before the foundation of the world, when He spoke it into existence, He spoke you redeemed with Him.

And your names was written in the Lamb's book of life before the foundation of the world. And then you're scared. Whew! “Oh, if I could just keep holding on.” I quit that a long time ago. I never did even try it in the first place. I just turned loose and let Him do the holding.

Someone said when I was sick that time, when I got over it, said, “Brother Branham, did you keep your religion during your sick spell?”

I said, “No, sir, it kept me.” That's the difference. And that's what happened.

When God brought an Israelite in.... Abraham believed God. Talking to a very outstanding, one of the great Christian leaders in the world today, one of the greatest, Pastor Boze and I in his room the other day speaking on that.... See, it's not what we did; it's what Christ did. It isn't what I'm going to do; it's what He's already done.

I know I'm no good, never was, never will be. But then in the presence of God I'm absolutely perfect, because it's not me. He never sees me; He sees Christ. I'm in Christ. And my name was associated with Him at the foundation of the world. I'm just waiting for the cord to be drawed up. And we'll go, some of these blessed days, to meet Him in the air.

Someone said, “Brother Branham, ain't you afraid?” You know many times, way back when I was a little boy preacher, oh, the people use to come ask me, “Brother Branham, why if that be so, well then I can just do anything I want to.”

I said, “That's right, sure.

Do anything you want to. If evil's in your heart, then you've never been to Calvary.“ That's one thing sure.

I always do what I want to. God lets me do what I want to, and I'm so glad of it. If I did what the devil wanted me to do, it's hard to tell what I would; but if I do what I wanted to do like I did before I was saved.... But now, there's a new Spirit in there. And it's not the spirit of a lamb, neither the spirit of William Branham; it's the Spirit of Jesus Christ that makes me love the unlovable and makes me do things that I thought I never would do. It's Him.

Why, if it was me, you know what I'd say tonight? I'd have called up Mr. Boze and said, “Say, boy, look, I've been up for two nights; I haven't had a bit of sleep.” I ain't slept but about two hours in the last two nights, going, coming, and people at the door and everything else. And way in the night, and try to lay down a few minutes, and get you up again, and it's broke, and then that goes away; here's another one. Sure, I'd stayed home.

But there was something in me that wasn't me, said, “You're supposed to be in Chicago tonight.” And it was twelve-thirty at home. About two hundred and eighty miles to drive through that traffic. I said, “Lord, I'm going. You help me.” And He did. I got just in time. I was here.

See, it's something in you. “There is therefore now no condemnation (can't be) for those that are in Christ, for they don't walk after the lust of the flesh; they walk after the Spirit.” And if you love the Lord, you want to do everything you can to please Him.

Why, let's take it this way so that the unlearned would understand. If you love your wife right.... I love my wife real good. My! Well, what if there was such a thing: if some other woman would come up and say, “Billy, I love you too.” And she'd be a real pretty girl and say, “I love you.” Well, she won't do it, but if she would, see.

You know what I'd tell her? I'd say, “Look, Sister, kneel down here a minute; I'll pray with you a little about it,” see. Why?

Well, you say, “Bill, you're in Africa, Asia, somewhere; your wife would never know it.” That might be true. And if she never did know it, I'd know it, see. I would know it.

And another thing, if I love her the right way.... You say, “Well, she loves you so much she'd forgive you.” That may be so, too. But I love her too much to do it, see. That's grace. Not nothing I done, but it's just my love for her. And that's the way our love is to Christ when we been born again and realize that we are sons and daughters of God; it ain't me have to this and have to.... Paul said, “All things to me are lawful, but not all expedient.”

So it isn't some law that I have to preach the Gospel; isn't some law that I have to do this; it's because I love Him so much. I just love to do it. And if you love Him like that.... As long as I love my wife like that, she don't have to never worry. And as long as she loves me like that, she don't have to worry.

We don't go around to one another, “Now,” she'd say, “now listen here, Mr. Branham, tell you something right now. You're going away on this trip. Ahem! I'm going to lay the law right down to you. Don't you run around on me, young man. Hunh-uh. Don't you do that.”

Well, after she gets done laying down the law, then I turn back and I say, “Now, my fair lady, let me tell you something. While I'm gone, don't you have no other husbands. Don't you do this and don't you do that.” Well, we don't say that. Sure, I just love her so much, my trust is in her. And she just loves me so much, she's the same way. So I say, “Goodbye sweetheart; keep praying for me.”

“All right, dear, I will be praying for you all the time. Hurry back.”

“All right.”

That's all of it, see. She ain't got no big, “Well, you have to come and be this way, sprinkled, and confirmed, and brought to this, and that, and these, and that, and all these different orders, and things like that. If you don't dance with your feet crossed this way, it ain't right; you have to dance with your feet crossed this way.

A young lady come to me here some time ago when women wore those skirts that they call “scandal skirts.” And she come to me, and she said, “Brother Branham, I want to ask you something.”

I said, “Yes ma'am, sister.”

She said, “Do think it's wrong for a Christian girl to wear a scandal skirt?” Said, “Do you think I....”

I said, “What in the world does a Christian girl need with a scandal skirt?” If she's a Christian, she'll be so far away from that thing, until, why, it'll be as dead to her as.... Her love is for Christ and not to be a “scandaler.” That's right. That scorches the shorts, don't it? That's right.

If you love the Lord, you'd be doing something else besides that. Now, you can preach all the liberation of women or men, what you want to, but that'll never change the Bible. God's Word is true, and that's to you Pentecostal people too. Yes, sir. Oh, you let down the bars some way, something happened.

Used to be it wasn't the way it is now. It's just because the weakness of the pulpit and just because you got mixed up in things. If the Holy Ghost taught you better back then, your mammy, and everything, and then you start doing this today.... The Holy Ghost don't change. It's just the same every time, every time, every time.

You know what I'm beginning to think: that a lot of times people get one another's ghost, instead of the Holy Ghost. You watch them the way they act. You go into a church where the pastor is kind of a flighty, wild fired up Moabite, watch the congregation be the same thing.

Brother, I'm telling you it behooves you to get down and pray to God until that real Christian spirit moves into your heart and it settles all problems. You know the Bible said, “There'd be a famine in the last days, not for bread and water alone, but for hearing of the Word of God.” That's right. And that's as true as it can be, friend. It's a shame.

For it never makes the worshiper.... For then they would not have ceased to been offered. But because that the worshiper once purged, he'll have no more conscience of sin. It's all gone.

Now, the worshiper once purged.... How does it do? When the life of the sacrifice comes back to the worshiper, then it's meekness, patience, gentleness, long-suffering, goodness, faith. See what I mean? Now, what did we Methodists do? We wanted to shout and get it. What do we Pentecost, we want to do? We want to speak in tongues and get it. But that's not it. That's not the fruit of the Spirit.

No, no, the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, long-suffering, goodness, patience, meekness. There's not one visible evidence of it, not one fleshly; it's all in the supernatural realm. That's right. It's the hidden force that's in you. The life of Jesus Christ coming back on you, the worshiper, as you laid your hands upon His head and confessed that you was wrong.

Now look, a good Baptist brother said the other day, said, “Brother Branham.” Not the other day; it's been a couple years ago. He said, “What, didn't Abraham believe God and it was imputed unto him for righteousness?”

I said, “That's right.”

Said, “What more can any man do but believe God? What more can he do but to have faith?”

I said, “That's all he can do. That's all Abraham done. But God give Abraham the seal of circumcision as a confirmation that He had received his faith.” And I said, “Then when all the old things pass away, everything becomes new, when you make your confession, and believe, and accept the Lord Jesus, and you become meekness, patience, gentle, and faith, to believe God, believe divine healing, believe the whole Bible, believe everything that God said, then that's the evidence that you've been saved. God has circumcised your heart, and taken away all your unbelief, and you believe in God then.”

What is the word “sin”? Sin is “unbelief.” Jesus said in Saint John the 4th chapter, “He that believeth not is condemned already.” You don't have to do anything; you're condemned already. Now, drinking, committing adultery, and that, that's not sin. You do that because you're an unbeliever. You're an unbeliever to begin with. That's the reason you do those things.

Now, if you once get right with Christ, those things will just ... they're circumcised at the altar. When you confess it, God just takes it away, and puts the life of Himself in you. And then you're in Christ and you can't come to judgment.

Jesus said in Saint John 5:24, “He that heareth My words and believeth on Him that sent Me has everlasting life, and shall never come into judgment, but has already passed from death unto life.” He can't bring you to judgment; you're already judged. And when the Holy Spirit comes back to make you live this different life, with God's seal of His circumcision on your heart to prove that you've stopped your drinking, smoking, gambling, cursing, unbelieving, and not believing in divine healing, the works of God, and has received God. And it's a seal that everybody knows about it from now on.

You once come in the house like ... oh, my, angry and kick over something, and oh, my, how you carry on. Like the old man that got converted one time, they said he got saved. I ain't saying this for a joke; I'm just saying it so you.... I don't believe in joking, but you might see what I mean. He come up the road, and he was singing; he used to curse, and carry on, and hoop, and holler. He went to a little old meeting and got really saved; he come back up the road singing, “Jesus Keep Me Near The Cross.”

When he got close to the door, said, the old hound looked over there and said to the old cat near the corner, said, “Listen to that, would you.” He always kicked them off the porch and everything said, “I'll bet he hasn't got it.” Said the cat, “You lay here, and I'll lay here; we'll see if he's got it or not.”

When he got so close, they couldn't stand it any more. So under the house went the dog and around the house went the old cat. He went back out and went down to the barn. He'd always knocked the chickens around, beat everything up: mean, just the devil in him. So, the old rooster said, “He used to get so mad at me when I crowed to get him up in the morning, I'll try him out.”

So, he let out a great big crowing, and flew; he couldn't stand it no more. The old cow said, “Now, I'm in a awful fix. He's got me with a halter on me, tied me around a post, and I have to stand it.” All the fowls and things gathered around said, “Try him out.” Said, “The only thing you have to do is switch him with your tail right across his face and watch what happens.” Said, “We'll see if he's got religion or not.”

Old cow thought it was hard to do. But as he started singing, “Jesus keep me near the cross,” just a milking away. The old cow took her tail like this, and she swatted him in the face like that. He patted her on the back and said, “Bossy dear, your old soul.” He said, “Bless the Lord, you didn't mean to do that.”

They all said, “He's really got it.” Now, that's right.

That's what the evidence is, brother; you've passed from death unto life. And all the things that you once done, passed away, because the life of Jesus Christ has put the Holy Spirit into ... controlling you a new creature. And once purged has no more desire of sin as long as you live on earth.

So, if you're constantly weak and falling up-and-down, remember, you might have a mental acception of it, but never an experience of being born again, when meekness, gentleness and patience takes the place of this mental theology.... Oh, you say, “Look here, Mr. Branham, I study the Bible. Our pastor and so forth.... I took Bible lessons.”

Yes, the devil has too. He knows more about it than you'll ever know. That's right. But there's one thing: he can't get the Holy Ghost. You can. That's right. So as long as ... if he can't get to you.... For you are dead, your life is hid in God and sealed by the Holy Ghost. Umm. How could he ever get you? The first thing, you're dead. Did you ever hear a dead man tell a lie? Did you ever hear a dead man fuss back at you? Stand at the casket and fuss at him all night, he'll never say a word. Why? He's dead.

And you reckon yourself dead, and your life is hid in God through Christ, and sealed by the Holy Ghost. The only way the devil could ever get you, he'd have come through the same washings that you came through, and receive the same Spirit you did, and then he'd be your brother, see. So he can't get you. It's you that's never come to Christ right in the first place. You get to a place, say, “Well, I still.... Brother Branham, you know the Lord never did sanctify me from this.”

If He sanctified you from one thing, He sanctified you from all of it. He takes your whole soul, body, and spirit. That's right. Don't be deceived, brother. “The man who despised Moses' law, died without mercy under one or two witnesses. How much more sorer punishment ... thought worthy, who's trod the blood of Jesus Christ under His feet, and called the covenant wherewith he was sanctified with an unholy thing, and done despite to the works of grace....” There you are.

The Bible said, it's impossible for that man to do that; said, “If a man's once been enlightened and made partakers of the Holy Ghost and tasted of the powers of the world to come, it's impossible for him to fall away, to renew himself again unto repentance.” So if you're constantly on the up-and-down, remember brother, you have never correctly ever come to Jesus Christ yet.

The Bible says, “Love not the world, neither the things of the world.” And if you love the world, the love of God's not even in you [unclear words]. You're only emotionally, mentally worked up for some kind of a churchanity, some kind of a theology that's been taught you, and never in your life have you ever come face to face, and met Jesus Christ, and been born again. For if you once fall in love with Christ, the world dies right then for eternity.

For you're sealed by the Holy Ghost until the day of your redemption, and you're dead, and your life is hid in God through Christ, and sealed there by the Holy Ghost. Your destination is determined right then, when you're sealed by the Holy Ghost.

Take an old freight car: When they load it, after this has been just put in it and that put in it.... Well, the car might—if it could've been human, then it could do it—would jump up-and-down on the track say, “Oh, look where I am.” You're not born yet, boy.

Before the Holy Ghost is ever put up here on you, before the seal's ever sealed that car, till its destination, the inspector comes by. He looks the whole thing over; he examines and sees everything's fitly tight. The trouble of it is today: We've had in our Pentecostal churches too much overhet religion. That's right. That's right. Instead of coming back to the old-fashioned, blood-washed Gospel of Christ (That's right.), we have too much emotions, too much mental into it, and psychic emotions, instead of being really settled down and saved. 'Cause you can watch it when the Holy Spirit comes in a meetings and presses the Word, the people don't know how to receive it. If that channel was open, the Holy Ghost would run right to it just as quick; it's like water seeping its way through a crack in the dirt. Amen. You believe that?

What we need today is a good old-fashioned breaking up. Watch that prophet going down to the potter's house to be broke up and remolded. That's what the Pentecostal, Full Gospel church needs today is a good old-fashioned breaking up, coming back to be remolded again. Do you believe that? Let us pray then as we bow our heads.

Our heavenly Father, just seems so good to stand here in the Philadelphian church and feel the response of the Spirit and know that the Word is sinking deep into the peoples hearts, to realize that they're receiving it, and it's life to them. Oh, how they love it. And it just feeds my soul to see the people respond to this Word, though I have not the ability to put it out the way that it should be.

But, Father, I pray that it'll help somebody. That the person who's weak-kneed, just stumbling along, lift up those weak and feeble knees, straighten up those hands that hung down; may they be lifted up and rejoice, because there's no need of us living a defeated life, going along....