Witnesses

Amen. Thank you. Shall we pray?

Our heavenly Father, we thank Thee tonight for the Lord Jesus who is so dear to our hearts, who brings this wonderful fellowship to us by His grace, and we pray tonight that He will send the Holy Spirit, the Dove that ascended from heaven, and may we be so meek as the Lamb tonight, that He might abode with us and ... abide with us, rather, and would stay with us tonight and help us to do His will. This we ask in Jesus' name. Amen. You be seated.

I am very happy to be in this Lane Tech High School auditorium tonight in the service of the Lord Jesus and to meet these friends from Stockholm and the brother from Mexico. Were you in the meetings at Mexico when I was there? I thought I had seen his face. That's where the little baby was raised from the dead, you know, and it was quite a stir in Mexico.

Hoping to be back again with you soon in Mexico. And so ... some glorious day when we cross over the great divide, why, we will see many friends no doubt that we've met all over the world. And you people in Chicago will have a great part in this, because you have prayed and helped support in every way that you could possibly to send us those places, and praying for us to success of the Lord.

And now, to be here tonight and on the platform. I don't deserve.... Brother Joseph, he just loves me. These strangers here that's never been in the meeting before, he tries to say some good things about me, because he loves me. But remember lay them over on the Lord Jesus. It's His grace.... But Brother Joseph is a very good friend of mine, and he sure loves me and believes the ministry that the Lord has granted me to speak in His name.

Now, tonight we want to talk a few moments about Him, for He is the center of our subject. He's the center of our life. He's the very fountain, the inexhaustible fountain of life. He's here with the waters of life to pour freely upon every hungry heart that'll desire His blessings.

And now, there's many churches, of course, that have to dismiss to produce this type of a crowd here tonight. And I want to say to the pastors and all, it's certainly appreciated and to be here in this fine convention with the Philadelphian Church sponsoring. I believe it's kind of an international brotherhood or something of that type. I speak.... The Independent Assemblies of God Fellowship. So I am happy to get to speak for them.

And I always like to meet where brethren are met together on one common ground. That's always been my vision, that when the church comes together, bone by bone, then the sinew skin will come on. And the Spirit of God will move and will cause us to stand up on our feet and walk like Christians.

Now, remember the services coming on. I suppose they've made all those announcements. Straight to the service so we won't keep you long, as possible.

I wish to read some out of God's Word, God's eternal Word. How I love It. And now the messages which are not very much, but some people might say, “I like those,” or, “I would like to have it cause I was there.” Gene and Leo—Gene Goad and Leo Mercier, my friends—are sitting here with recordings and can produce them, and others are taking recordings also along here.

Can't hardly see. A brother taking my picture as I come in out there, I was looking right in the camera, and everybody was kind of, like blackout to me, and I ought to have knowed better than to look into that flash bulb. But I just.... Fine little boy and he wanted the picture.

So now, in the Scripture tonight of the Acts of the Holy Spirit in the apostles, and in the first chapter we read these words as a text tonight, and may the Lord grant us the context of these words, and then we shall pray for the sick.

Beginning at the 5th verse of the first chapter of the Acts:

For John truly baptized with water; but ye shall be baptized with the Holy Ghost not many days hence.

When they therefore were come together, they asked ... him, saying, Lord, wilt thou at this time restore again the kingdom to Israel?

And he said unto them, It is not for you to know the times or the seasons, which the Father has put in his own power.

But ye shall receive power, after ... the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem,... in all Judea, and in Samaria, and to the uttermost parts of the earth.

It was said to me a few days ago, that God had taken all the power away from His church, of divine healing and of miracles: divine gifts and callings of the Holy Spirit ceased with the apostle's age. I said to my dear friend, I said, “I am a believer in what God says in His Word, for He said, 'Let every man's word be a lie but Mine be true,' and I can show you in the Bible where He gave that power to the church, but I can never find any place where He ever taken it away from the church. So it is still the same divine promise.”

We are to speak tonight, God willing, for the next few minutes, upon the subject of Witnesses. “You shall be My witnesses, both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea, and Samaria, and unto the uttermost parts of the earth.” That is to everywhere. “Ye are to be My witnesses after the Holy Ghost is come upon you.”

And now, there was.... The Gospel must be witnessed to all the earth, beginning at Jerusalem, and to go through Judea, Samaria, and all over the earth. And according to statistics of the church, we have only witnessed to one-third of the earth to this time. Two-thirds of the earth has never known or heard the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. What a disgrace for two thousand years of commission given by the Creator Himself, and we have been so neglectful, until two-thirds of the population of this earth has never heard the name of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Now, in order to be a witness, a witness must first be qualified. In the courts of our land, in the Supreme Court, and all the courts of justice, a witness must be first examined before he can be a witness. And if the courts of our land in justice would require an examination before becoming a witness, then how much more will the God of heaven require an examination and a qualified witness before we are recognized in His sight as a correct witness.

So He gave this commission to the disciples ... or, the hundred and twenty, that they should wait at the city of Jerusalem until they were qualified to be witnesses.

There was a certain specification that they must meet before they could be qualified as a witness, and this witness was to be ... this qualification was to be the coming of the promised Holy Spirit to fill the church with unction. And the word unction comes from the Greek word, dynamite, where it means “an explosion.” They must receive something first before they can be a witness.

God never sends a man until first He has made this man a qualified witness. Now, in the courts, before you can ever be a witness, you have to either be an eye or an ear witness. You can't say, “Well, somebody said, somebody said, somebody said.” They'd throw your case out right now. They will not receive that. Any attorney knows that, that you cannot be a witness unless you have seen it yourself. Not what somebody else said. You have to see it and hear it, either see or hear, before you can be a witness.

And God did the same thing at the day of Pentecost, when they heard the Holy Spirit coming like as a rushing, mighty wind, and they saw tongues of fire sit upon each of them. They were both eye and ear witnesses, that God had fulfilled His promise in sending the Holy Spirit to the believer.

Now, God-called witnesses are always qualified witnesses. When God spoke to Noah in the antediluvian world, before the destruction, He spoke to him and told him to prepare an ark for the saving of his household. And Noah with only the witness that God was God, that there was somewhere in an unknown world to the human being, that there was another place where an intelligence lives.

He was a witness, and therefore, being a witness, he moved with fear and prepared an ark. And the building of the ark was a testimony to his faith, that he believed that there was a God, and this God would keep His promise. For He moved, not having any clouds ever pass the sky, never had rain ever fallen from the skies, but God told him in a voice, that He was going to destroy the world with water, and it was going to rain. And Noah gave testimony of this thing and confirmed his testimony of his belief by building an ark for a rain that had never yet fallen: witness that he believed.

And it's a very beautiful picture today of people who have never yet seen God, and maybe has never yet seen a move of God, but yet with reverence to His Word, move up into the realm. There are people sitting here tonight, perhaps, that's dying with cancer, with heart trouble, that's never seen a healing service where they prayed for the sick. Maybe come out of churches who, in their theology, that condemns the very thoughts of divine healing, but yet something within them is moving them out to take a stand tonight for divine healing, yet has never seen a miracle performed; but there's something....

It's coming to God to believe. And he that cometh to God must believe that He is, and a rewarder of those who diligently seek him, to reward those. They're coming tonight though never been a witness, but coming to take their stand as a witness, before anything happens.

They will be called to the platform to stand here before their fellowman, maybe they'll return to their church with criticism, maybe to go out into the street to be mocked by their doctor or something of that, to be represented in a bunch of people that believes in such things in this modern day. But they are moved like Noah was; and yet without any sign, they are coming to be a witness of His healing power. Not only that, but a witness of His resurrecting power and of His Holy Spirit baptism.

The ark itself stood as a testimony to Noah's witnessing, for Noah went into the ark when the rain started ... or.... Before the rain started, Noah was found safely in the ark, for he witnessed to it. And he not only witnessed to it, but after he had witnessed, God by grace took him in the ark, and secured him, and shut the door behind him. You see it?

God, not willing ... not willing that any should perish, but certainly would take care of His witness who had heard His Word, and believed His Word, and moved with fear and prepared a way. A beautiful type of those today that are witnessing of the coming of the Lord and the rapture of the church.

Someone said, “Brother Branham, how are those bodies that's been dead for thousands of years, laying yonder in the dust of the earth, how are they going to take life again?”

I don't know, but there's one thing: I'm a witness tonight that there is a God. I witness tonight that He lives, and I know that He's true and He keeps His promise. How thankful we should be to have this privilege of being a witness.

Daniel, the prophet, in the lion's den ... he was a witness after he had went through this great ordeal. He truly gave a witness to those pagans, that there was a God who could deliver. And he firmly took his stand as God's witness. For Daniel was a prophet, and he knew that there was a living God. And they told him, “Don't you pray to any other god but to this great image,” said the king, and all the proclamation was signed that they should never pray to any other god for a certain amount of time, but to the king's god.

And Daniel knowing that it was just an image and a make-belief, Daniel was God's true, outstanding witness that there was a real God who could deliver. And when it come to the showdown, he was thrown into a lion's den, because he was God's true witness.

Every ... (Here it is.) every true witness of God sometime will be put to the showdown (Amen), will be put to a showdown to prove. Oh, how God loves to do it when He can find a real witness, and it proves God. Like Job of old, when he proved that he was genuine.

And when the lions came to destroy the prophet, after he had been a true witness that there was a living God, an angel, perhaps of fire, unfolded the veil from the beasts' eyes, and when they rushed to the prophet, they backed away, because God is a consuming fire, and animals are afraid of fire.

When God appears, He usually appears in fire. And as they rushed to the prophet to consume him—hungry lions—they saw the fire around the prophet, and they stood their distance. And Daniel in his trueness of the witness of the living God gave testimony the next morning, that there is a real true and living God who can deliver from the lion's den. He testified to it, and God gave him the opportunity, and he proved out a hundred percent.

The Hebrew children was a witness that God could deliver from the fire. When the furnace had been het seven times its heat.... And had been thrown into the fire because they refused to give glory to any other god but the unseen God.... God wants us to take Him at His Word. And they refused to bow down to the image, and they went into the fiery furnace; and God made their testimony to witness that He can deliver from fire.

As science said that there was a certain explosion in the air at that time, that taken a certain atom (always trying to disprove it) ... that it was a certain explosion that happened by the solar system; and just so happened to be that at that time a certain element that came into the air that was over Babylon at that morning, that caused all the heat to go out of the fire.

I said to the man that told me that, “I believe that you are right, but the God of heaven was there to take the atom out of whatever it was to vindicate His witness.” God's able to do all things.

Moses was a witness. After all of his teaching of his mother, and though as good as it might be, he was a witness to God after he had seen something. He was on the backside of the desert herding his father-in-law's sheep, when all of a sudden, he saw a fire and a bush that was not consumed; and walking into the presence of this, he saw the fire, and he heard with his ear a voice that said, “Take off your shoes, Moses, for the ground where you stand is holy ground.” Said, “I've heard the cries of My people, and I've come down to deliver them.”

Moses could go to Egypt as a one-man invasion with this one sure thought in his mind and that only. No matter how ridiculous it looked, Moses was God's witness after he had seen and heard God. He was a witness of it.

I was talking some time ago to a scientist, that when Joshua, the great warrior, who stood by the river of Jordan, that separated Israel in the wilderness from the promised land.... The great stream that's always believed among the peoples that represents death, that we cross the Jordan to the promised land, as Jesus gave us in John 14. Just the separation is the death line.

And when Joshua, who had stood and heard Moses teach, and had heard Moses the prophet, and had saw the great signs of God worked by His prophet, one day while encamped, (a great military man), and had all Israel gathered at the bank. They had come out, because God had give them a promise, and He had performed many miracles, but they were down at the end of the road. It taken the hand of God. And, as I said this afternoon in the service, how God loves to get His people just in that condition. Shows you ... He can just show them His power and love.

I heard a man speak the other day ... or, wrote a book, a famous man. I would not call his name, because he ridiculed me. There was no need of disgracing him. He said he didn't believe me. Well, that's all right. I don't ask him to believe me. I ask him to believe the Lord. And he said, “Here's one reason.” Said, “I have never seen William Branham, but I know he's false.”

Well now, that would be a pretty bad testimony. The law produced something better from that. They didn't judge a man till they heard him. So yet, he said, “I had a man to come to me and say, 'I want you to pray for me, Dr. So-and-so. I have a kidney trouble.'”

He said, “How long have you been bothered by it?”

Said, “Thirty years altogether, but I was healed for two years, and it come back on me again.”

And the man said, “How.... What doctor did you go to?”

Said, “Well, in Louisville, Kentucky, a fellow by the name of Brother Branham was praying for the sick. And the man never seen me in his life. But he looked up in the balcony, and told me who I was, and told me I had been suffering with this kidney trouble for many years, but he said I was healed.”

Well, the doctor of divinity said, “Were you healed?”

Said, “Two years I never had one sign of it, but it come back on me again.” He said, “Therefore, you see William Branham is false.”

I called him up long distance, and I said, “Sir, I want to ask you something. If a man had pneumonia tonight, and the doctors come and could give him no hope, give him some penicillin. Tomorrow he comes back, and finds out he's well on his road to recovery. In two or three days from now, the man has passed a physical examination that he's perfectly normal, no symptoms at all. He goes out and works for two years. Again takes pneumonia and dies. Was the man healed at the first place?”

I said, “You don't class divine healing. Where you get your mistake, you try to put divine healing on the same basis as salvation. You can't do that, because when you are borned again, you are forever a new creature. You become absolutely borned again a new creature. But when you're healed, you're not a new body, but the Holy Spirit living in here, the old covenant providing divine healing, and we have a better covenant, and divine healing was included ... or, provided for, in the atonement.”

So I said, “Of course, Lazarus was raised from the dead and died again, but divine healing is one of the benefits that we enjoy by being Christians. David said, 'Forget not all His benefits, who forgives all of thine iniquity, who heals all of thy diseases.' It's the benefits that we draw from God by being a believer.”

And as Joshua, crossing over, he heard the voice of God, that told him to get everything ready in order, and he would cross over Jordan. He was a witness. He wasn't afraid. He sanctified the people, and had them to wash their clothes, and get ready. And the priest stepped into the water and got wet feet, but before they got to the middle of Jordan, it was all dried away. They were witnesses that God would keep His Word. Amen. They stepped in with wet feet and walked twenty yards and had dry feet in the middle of the ocean ... or, in the middle of the Dead ... or, Red ... or, the Jordan. Amen.

Oh, that's God. God keeps His promise. Just be a witness. Step in. Don't be afraid. Joshua had never heard of anything like that.

A scientist told me one day (the same man) that there was proven in the solar system that a certain star passed over a certain star, and it caused a great wind to blow back the river.

I said, “Very strange, but I believe that might be true, if it can be scientifically proved, but God moved the stars over.” Amen. How He does it, that's up to Him, just so He does it. How can He do it? It's not my question to.... It's not my business. It's not me to try, or you to try, to question; it's accept what He said. You can't prove it. You can't prove God. But there's lots of things that I can't prove. I accept it anyhow, because we see it working, and he's a witness.

John the Baptist, when he came forth he was a witness. Something was going to take place. He didn't know just where the Messiah was, but he knowed, according to the Scripture, and according to what he had heard. For in the wilderness One told him, “Go baptize.” That's what he heard. And what he saw was the Spirit of God coming like a dove, and he bear record, saying, “This is the Lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world. For He that sent me to baptize in the wilderness, said, 'Upon whom thou shall see the Spirit descending the remaining the same shall baptize with the Holy Ghost and fire.'”

He was a witness, because he both seen and heard. He was a correct witness of God, and he was in line with the Word. John didn't know just exactly now, when Jesus was going to appear. But listen! John knew that it would be in his day, for He knew that he was a forerunner of the coming of the Son of God. For he said, “There stands One in your midst, whose shoes I'm not worthy to bear, will baptize you with the Holy Ghost and with fire.” He was a witness, because he had heard, and then he saw, and it confirmed his testimony.

When Jesus was here on earth, the woman that came to Him at the well, she could be a correct witness. She went to the man, and she saw Him with her own eyes, and she heard Him with her own ears tell her something that she knew that no man knowed nothing about, that she was staying ... or, had five husbands. And she was a true witness when she went into the city of Samaria to tell the people there what had happened.

The woman who had a blood issue, she was a witness that He was the Son of God. When she said within her heart, “He's divine. He's not a human in one sense of the word, for He's a virgin born, and if I can touch His garment, something in me tells me that I'll be made every whit whole,” and she touched His garment. She felt something. In her heart she says, “It's gone,” and she noticed the blood issue had stopped. She was a witness.

Lazarus, he had died and had been dead four days. His body was molded. He was in a cold cave—way they bury in the Orient: put them in a hole and put the lid over them, like a cellar, small cellar. And they had buried him, and he was dead. His body was corrupted. In four days his nose had already fallen in, but at the banquet that was given, Lazarus was a witness that Jesus can raise the dead.

I'm happy tonight that there's people here who can witness the same thing: “I once was lost, but now I'm found; I was dead, but now I'm alive.” A witness of His resurrecting power that can take a vile sinner, and can transform their whole being; and can take their notions, and their ideas, and their thoughts, and change them into a eternal hope that rests upon the ability of the second coming of the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen. And can take a cancer-ridden dying man or woman and raise them to health again.... That's a true witness that He can raise from the dead.

For I was once dead in sin and trespass; and you were once dead in sin and trespasses. And we who were once dead in sin and trespasses has he quickened us. And the word quick means “resurrect” from our old forms of life to a new and living hope that lies within our hearts, waiting for the coming of the Lord Jesus the second time, in glory. How happy we should be for this great hope that lies within us, and to be able to give an answer to every man that would ask us of this hope that lies within us.

Many were witnesses of His day. And at His cross when He was dying, the Pharisees, they should know what the Word said. The Word gave witness when He was killed on.... He was a Passover Lamb, killed at the Passover time. He gave witness. The Word spoke of Him. When He healed the sick, when He raised the dead, when the lame leaped like an hart, It was the Word. Oh, my. Can you receive it?

It was the Word giving witness that this is He who's been promised to the world: the Saviour, the Messiah. It gave witness to His Deity, that He was more than a man the night that the seas hushed itself and rocked away, like a crying baby hushes in its mother's arms. When He said, “Peace, be still.”, it was giving way, nature testifying that He is Deity, none other than the Creator Himself, not a mere man, not a prophet, but God manifested in flesh. He was God.

All nature today gives witness to Him. Watch the sun set in the evening, giving witness to His death. Watch it rise in the morning, giving witness to His resurrection. Watch the flower die in the wintertime, giving witness to His death. Watch it rise in the spring, giving witness to His resurrection. Watch all nature. The nature and the Bible harmonize perfectly together as a witness.

When He was hanging on Calvary, how the Jews ought to have known. When the Romans started to break His legs and broke it not, it was the Word giving witness that there wasn't a bone in His body was broke. When they looked upon Him, and seen the parting of the flesh in His hands, and in His feet, and a pierce in His side, it was the Word giving witness: That's the Son of God. That's the sin offering. That's the Lamb that takes away the sin of the world.

When He was dying, He gave witness that He was dying. He died so, until the sun gave witness that He was dying ... that He was dead. It failed to shine. Its smaller brother, the moon, gave witness. If you study the Bible and realize at that time of year, the moon and the sun are both shining at the same time. And the moon would not shine, because it gave witness that He was dead.

Still the lesser brother, the stars gave witness that He was dead. The sun had hid its face and blushed from the sin of men on the earth that God had created, who had mistreated their Creator in such a way. It blushed itself to darkness and hid its face. Its brother, sun and moon, stars would not shine, because it witnessed He was dead. And the earth itself gave witness that He was dead; it had a nervous prostration, until a shiver run over its back, until the cartridges out the great mountain shook loose. A chill run over it, but the very Creator who made it had died for the sins of it on Calvary's cross.

And what would happen if the very Creator had died? He was dead. Pilate signed His death warrant. “Take Him off. He's dead.” The Roman soldier who pierced His side gave witness, “He's dead.” The soldier set a seal by the order of Pilate, “He's dead,” and put a guard, that no one could come and pack Him away. They all witnessed, “He's dead.”

He was a man of sorrow, acquainted with grief. He was the Lamb that taken away the sin of the world. He was the One who died to save all nations, colors, creeds. He was dead. He died like a man never died. He died the death of all men. He died that we might live. He was wounded that we might be healed. Our iniquity was upon Him, and with His stripes we were healed.

He died, but on that final Easter morning, when the Word must bear record again.... On Easter morning when the last star had gone out, the angels of God come down the corridors of heaven and rolled back the stone; and He raised from the dead. He rose up for He said, “Destroy this temple, and I will raise it again on the third day. And the sign of Jonah will be given to this generation. As he laid in the belly of the whale three days and nights, so must the Son of man lay three days and nights.” He gave witness to His resurrection.

Little Mary, the mother, with her heart broke, when she went to the grave and peeped in, turned around weeping. And there stood One by the side of the garden, when the great white dove was moving around cooing through the garden. When she said, “They have....” “Mary, why weepest thou?”

And she said, “They've taken away my Lord, and I don't know where they've laid Him.”

He said, “Mary.” She was a witness that He'd raised from the dead and was still alive. Said, “Go tell My disciples and Peter that I'm still alive, and I'm going to meet them over in Galilee.”

A few days after that when a tired, discouraged little bunch of fishermen, out in a boat, and had caught no fish all night long, when there stood a stranger on the bank, said, “Children, cast your net on the other side.” And when He who controls the seas and the fishes, who made them all with the speaking of His word, sent that net so full of fish, that it begin to break. There was a witness that none other than He that died at Calvary a few days before was alive and was standing on the bank. And when they got there those fish was cooked, and fried, and biscuits ready and laying on the coals waiting for them to eat. They were a witness that He was alive.

Now, He said, “I want you to do more than this.” He said, “I want you to go up yonder to the city of Jerusalem. I want you to be a real witness.” And when a hundred and twenty climbed the steps and waited for ten days and nights, all of a sudden there came from heaven, a sound like a rushing, mighty wind, flaps and licks and tongues of fire fell from heaven, and it sat upon each of them, and they were all filled with the Holy Ghost. Out into the street they went as witnesses.

A few days after that Jesus met with them and said, “All powers in heavens and earth is given unto My hands. Go ye into all the world and witness to Me to every nation. These signs shall follow them that believe you. In My name, they shall cast out devils. They shall speak with new tongues, and if they shall drink a deadly thing or take up serpents, it will not harm them. If they lay their hands on the sick, they shall recover, and ye are My witnesses.”

A few days after that Peter and John passed through the gate called Beautiful. There laid a man crippled from his mother's womb, and when they called over him that all-sufficient name of the Lord Jesus, that crippled man was a witness that Jesus lives. He leaped like a hart, as Isaiah said he would, because He lives.

This Saul who drew out great threatenings to the church was on his way down to arrest a bunch of people. Oh, in his heart how cross he was, how indifferent he was. The disciples had chose Matthias to take Judas' place, but God chose Saul to take Judas' place.

And on his road down, about in the middle of the day, there appeared before him.... He had to be a witness, and a great pillar of fire appeared before him, with such a radiant light till it smote him, and he fell to the earth blind. He saw it with his eyes, and a voice came from it saying, “Saul, Saul, why persecuteth Thou Me?”

He said, “Who are You, Lord, that I persecute?”

He said, “I am Jesus, and it's hard for you to kick against the pricks.” Saul became a witness of the resurrection of the Lord Jesus. To all the Gentile world he is a witness. He both saw and heard. He was a correct witness.

One night upon a waterlogged ship this same man when all hopes was gone saw in a vision of an Angel standing by his side, who told him not to be troubled; for he was coming to a certain place with the ship, and it was to be wrecked, but no one would be lost. In the midst of trouble after both hearing the voice and seeing the Angel, ran on the deck and said, “Be of a good courage for the Angel of God whose servant I am, stood by me last night. Said, 'Don't fear, Saul. Thou must be brought before Caesar. Lo, God has give all that sail with you.'”

He was a witness. No matter what it looked like. The storm was still on; the lightning a-flashing and devils sitting on the waves with glistening eyes and showing teeth, “I'll have him after awhile.” But little did they know that the Angel of God was riding in that little cabin with Paul down there, for he was God's witness.

In the early centuries after the dark ages, it was Martin Luther who gave witness one day, in the first reformation after fifteen hundred years of dark ages, who took the Catholic communion, the kosher, and throwed it on the floor and said, “It is not the body of the Lord Jesus,” and protested it, because God had witnessed to him that that was wrong. The body of Christ is His borned-again church, and it's not a communion. And he stood in the midst of chaos and gave witness that God still lives.

It was John Wesley, a few hundred years later, after Calvin had come into England and had sewed the England church up to a place that they had said, “Revival days are gone.” It was John Wesley who bore witness that revival days are still here, and God was with him.

Not only that, but I say this (I'm looking down at the audience now.): Here not long ago standing yonder on the Ohio River, so gone and so unqualified, a poor boy trying to do what he thought was right for the Lord Jesus. There before thousands of people, the pillar of fire moved from the sky, come down there and said, “As John was sent for a witness before the first coming, this message you'll take will be a witness to the whole world for the second coming. That'll be proven,” He said.

Fifty years ago a one-eyed colored man, humble in his heart, with no education, along with a group of faithful saints, waited yonder on Azusa Street until the power of God fell from heaven as a witness that God in the last days had poured out His Holy Spirit upon the western world: caused a great revival.

A few months ago in Joliet, Illinois, a blurry-eyed, wretched, young woman walked the street as an alcoholic, who five different doctors had give her up in the Alcoholics Anonymous. She was a miserable wretch, who cut her coat with a razor blade and packed whiskey under her arms, as one of the given-up type.

One day yonder in Hammond, Indiana, where a revival was going on, the Holy Spirit spoke to her yonder, and called her and told her who she was; and He not only healed her body and her desire for alcohol, but saved her life; and tonight she's sitting here before me a beautiful, young woman clothed and in her right mind, with no whiskey at all. What is it? It's a witness of the resurrection of Jesus Christ.

I, who was laying yonder dying one night, when the best of doctors told my daddy I had three more minutes to live, when the grace of God came down and saved me and healed my body. It's a witness that Jesus Christ lives and reigns today just the same as He did then.

I'm holding here in my pocket a picture, one of the most outstanding things you've ever seen. Here's a little boy who's standing here. You can't see it perhaps from where you are. His little navel is about the size of perhaps of a football. His little stomach is just about like a barrel, a good sized keg. The child looked to be three or four years old was laying there, as his mother's picture. Was brought into a meeting when doctors and all had give him up and said, “It can't be done. He's dying.”

But I asked this resurrected Lord Jesus, and He came down in His infinite power, after praying and touching him, in a representative way of His own sacred hand. Here's his picture now, perfectly normal and well. It's a witness that Jesus Christ still lives, reigns, has the same power to heal, save, and to do as He did in the beginning. It's a witness.

Time would not permit how thousands of things has happened, how that He comes into our midst and unfolds the secrets of the people's hearts and does the very same thing that He did when He was here on earth. It's a witness that He liveth. It's working in cooperation with His Word.

For the Word said, “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever.” He said, “You'll be My witnesses in Jerusalem, and all Judea, and to the uttermost parts of the earth. Ye shall be My witnesses.” Chicago, Illinois, and where more. His witnesses, after the Holy Ghost is come upon you, after you have seen His presence, have heard His great message, have accepted His Word, have been borned again by an experience. You have witnessed that He lives and is not dead.

You are His witnesses to make your stand with Congressman Upshaw, who being an invalid in a wheelchair for sixty-six years, wheeled around in a cart. When he stood up, his own big crutches would come over his shoulders with a broken back from seventeen years old, who was wheeled in yonder in California one night. When my brother had brought me to the platform when the Holy Spirit turned (I never heard of him in my life) and told him just how he was hurt, how it all taken place, and said, “Thus saith the Lord, you're healed.”

He said, “You mean that I am healed?”

“Yes, the Lord Jesus has respected your faith.” What was it? The same Lord Jesus giving witness that He lives. Not only that but he sprang from his chair, throwed aside his crutches, and run to the platform touching his feet like a young man at eighty-six or eighty-seven years old. God giving witness.... Oh, do you want to be His witness? “Ye shall be My witnesses.”

Here some time ago in a middle western state, there was a great evangelist by the name of Daniel Curry, and when he died, or as he thought.... One night in a dream, he thought he died and had taken up to heaven. And when he came to the gate, the Angel of the gate met him and said, “Who art thou?”

And he said, “I am Daniel Curry. Your humble servant is now finished his journey on the earth as a minister of the Gospel, and I am now coming to claim my place in heaven.”

He said, “May I look first? I must see whether your name is here or not.” So he went in and got the book (in the man's dream). He came back and he said, “Daniel Curry, your name is not here. I cannot let you in.”

Well, he said, “I have been a minister.”

He said, “Sir, I am very sorry, but your name is not here, so, therefore, I cannot bring you in.” He said, “Now, would you like to appeal your case to the great white throne judgment?”

He said, “Sir, that's the only thing I can do.”

And all at once, he said, he felt himself leaving, and he went through space for a long time. After awhile he came into something where it was light. It kept getting lighter and lighter, till all of a sudden he came to a stop. There was no certain object the light was coming from, but he was in the presence of a great light that shined a million times brighter than the sun. He said there he stood trembling, and he heard a voice that said, “Daniel Curry, in your lifetime did you ever tell a lie?”

He said, “I thought I'd been an honest man, but there'd been many things I recognized in the presence of that light that I had told that was shady.”

He said, “No. I am sorry, but I have told lies.”

Said, “Daniel Curry, did you ever steal when you were on earth?”

He said, “I thought I always was honest about my deals,” but said, “in the presence of that great light I realized I had done some things that was shady.”

I just wonder, friends, what we will feel like when we stand in the presence of that light. There'll be a lot of things that you think is all right now, but it won't be all right there. That's true. You may be ever such a good man or woman, but when you stand in that presence....

And then He said, “Daniel Curry, was you perfect on earth?”

He said, “O Lord, no, I wasn't perfect. Lord, I am so sorry. I wasn't perfect on earth.” And said, “Listened any moment for the great eternal, everlasting blast to come from that presence and saying, 'Depart from me into everlasting fire which is prepared for the devil and his angels.'”

Said, “Standing in that state with every bone in me out of joint and trembling,” he said, “I heard the sweetest voice that I ever heard in my life, sweeter than any mother's voice I ev er heard and,” said, “when I turned to look, I saw the sweetest face that I ever saw. It was sweeter than any mother's face that I'd ever saw.” He said, “And this one said, 'Father, put all of Daniel Curry's account over on Mine.' Said, 'For while Daniel Curry was on earth he stood for Me, and now in heaven I'll stand for Daniel Curry.'”

God, that's what I want Him to do. His grace I plead; His mercies I need. Oh, what can I do, but I want to stand for Him now, that on that great day.... And I want to be His witness now that on that great day, He'll stand in my stead and say, “Father, put all of William Branham's sins upon My account, for he stood for Me on earth.” And I'm sure you want the same thing.

Shall we bow our heads just a moment. And while the piano is playing softly, I want to ask this question: Would you like to be His witness? Would you like to hear Him say, “Take all the sins of this person and place them upon My account, for down on earth in Chicago one night, they took a stand for Me; and now I will stand for them.” Would you like to do that, sinner friend, or backslider?

If you'd like to show to God while every head is bowed and every one in prayer.... Would you like to say to God tonight, “This night I'll take my stand, God. For You I'll testify of Your goodness if You'll just save me now. I'll raise my hand.” Or, “Heal my backsliding. I'll raise my hand and say, 'I will be a witness for you wherever I go, until I meet You in glory. And I want You to stand for me then.' Well, I'll put up my hand now as a witness. I want You to stand for me, Lord.” Will you do it?

Anywhere on the bottom floor? How many here wants to raise your hand? That's right. That's right, all together now, raise your hand. God bless you. All over the bottom floor, raise your hand. “This, Lord, I signify that I now take my stand for You.”

All on the top floor, up in the balcony, raise your hand, saying, “By this, God, I now take my stand for You. I'll be Your witness wherever I go.” Raise your hand. God bless you up there. That's right. God bless you.

He sees your hand, no matter who you are. “I'll now take my stand. This I do in Christ's name. I now take my stand as Your witness. I believe You, Lord. I'm here tonight. I've never seen any certain phenomena. I have never.... Somehow I never seen a miracle, but I am believing You now. Something strangely is touching my heart. I want my soul happy. I want to take my stand for You. I want.... I look at nature. I see it takes its stand for You. You declare it in death and resurrection.”

Did you ever go out (while you're praying), did you ever go out on a morning after a dark, dismal night? Look hanging on the clothes wire. Look hanging on the grass blade. Look hanging on the leaves; it's little dew drops. Oh, they're so miserable looking, quivering as the cold, chilly winds are shaking them, but just let the sun start to rise. Watch how they shine. They're glistening. Why?

You know, they were once up in the sky, and the going away of the sun brought them down. But they've been up: They've had an experience. They are a witness that there's an atmosphere to live in above this earth, and as soon as.... The sun is the one who draws the dew back up into the skies again. They've once been up, and now they're down, and they see the sun rising. So they know they're going up again, so they're happy and reflecting the light of the sun—little dew drops.

My blessed little child, as your father in the ministry (though you may be older, but still you're my child), I have preached to you the Gospel. And you're dropped down. You were made to be a son and daughter of God, and maybe you've wandered away; but the Son of righteousness is here with healing in His wings. And don't you want to reflect His light, knowing that you can be lifted up now, and lifted up to your rightly position to be God's daughter, God's son? You do.

And now, while we pray, I want you to accept Him, and believe, and stand for Him now, and He'll stand for you at that day. At the end of the service, after the healing service, we'll ask you to come forward, maybe.

Now, our heavenly Father, faith cometh by hearing, hearing of the Word. And now, many are here tonight who's raised up their hands—dozens—that they want to make a stand tonight. They're tired of this old tramping around through the world, and they make a stand tonight for the Lord Jesus.

And we pray, God, that You'll give them grace and courage. May you lighten their burdens and give them of Thy divine love; and let them know that in this perplexed and distressed time, when all the Bible has just practically been fulfilled, waiting for the coming of the Lord.... May they now at this eleventh hour give their complete being over to Jesus, that Thou will bless them and make them witnesses of You. And in that great day, may You stand for them.

When we're standing at the river that morning, which is dark and dismal, and when the sun begins to rise across, reflecting the cross through the rock of ages, God, may we be safely packed across into the arms of Him who loved us, and may He stand for us in the presence of the great light of God at that day.

And now Lord Jesus, continue with us and heal the sick and bless the meeting, for we ask it in Thy holy, and reverent, and beloved name. Amen.

Just one chorus of that, if you will:

Softly and tenderly Jesus is calling,

Calling for you and for me,

See on the portals He's waiting

and watching,

Watching for you and for me.

Now, lift your heart to Him now.

Come home, come home,

Ye who are weary, come home;

Earnestly, tenderly, Jesus is calling,

Calling, O sinner, come home!

May the merciful God of heaven shed forth His love by the Holy Spirit in each heart. Be humble, meeken yourself like a lamb, so that the Dove of God can rest upon you. I love you. Someday I'll have to stand in that great light there and give an account for what I've said and done.

Now, my beloved friends, to this part of the service I am extremely thankful to, that the Lord Jesus that now saved more than maybe fifteen or twenty people in this building tonight is here to manifest Himself, and for you to be a witness that He lives and He's not dead. Jesus raised from the dead. He is not dead. He is alive forevermore. Nineteen hundred years has passed since they nailed Him to the cross, and tonight He's just as alive as He was when He walked the shores of Galilee teaching the Gospel.

He said, “The things that I do shall you also.” Now, I won't testify to that. You all know, but if Jesus has raised from the dead, the very things that He did when He was here on earth, He will do it again, for He's here tonight in the form of the Holy Spirit.

See, Jesus has moved from the corporal body into the celestial, into the body that where it's unseen with the eye. There's another world. There's angels here. It's not way, way away somewhere else. It's right here. The Angels of God are encamped—don't move away. They're encamped about those who fear Him. They are here.

Someone asked not long ago, “Brother Branham, will I know my mother there? Will I know my baby?” Well, bless your heart, you'll know your mother and you'll know people that you never did know. Mount Transfiguration proved that. Peter, James, and John had never seen Moses or Elijah, but they recognized them in a moment, when they were under that divine power. Somehow we'll be.... We'll share the blessings with God.

Now, I do not claim now, friends, in healing—praying for the sick—I do not claim to be a healer. I'm not a healer. I am your brother, a servant of the Lord Jesus, who prays for you, see.

If I would say you have a tumor and would ask you to my room tomorrow and would perform an operation, the medical association would have me arrested. They should've done it, because I know nothing about that. That's the doctor's business to do that, see. That's up to him. I know nothing of his profession, and perhaps he knows nothing of mine, but if we're both sincere....

I think the world has become very critical on many things. The osteopath will say to the chiropractor, “There's nothing to him.”

The chiropractor will say to the medical doctor, “There's nothing to him.”

The medical doctor will say to the surgeon, “There's nothing to it. Don't be cut on. Do this.”

Friends, when people say that, when we know surely that they all help somebody. I think it's the wrong motive. If we were right in our heart.... All of them nearly is against divine healing. But if we were right in our heart, with no selfish motives, and trying to help our fellowman, we'd group our arms around one another and be brethren, trying to help somebody to make life a little better for them. I truly believe it.

Now, the Bible said that God set in the church apostles, prophets, teachers, evangelists and pastors. He never did say where He set out of the church apostles and prophets.

They say, “Oh, He's still got teachers, and evangelists and pastors.” But what about prophets and so forth. It's still just the same. God doesn't change.

Now, when Jesus was here He said, “I can do nothing in Myself.” Did He say that? Saint John 5:19, “But what I see the Father doing, that I do.” So therefore, He could discern the thoughts of the people. He could tell just as the Father told Him, like the woman at the well and so forth. And He didn't heal nobody. He claimed.... He said, “It's not Me that doeth the works, it's My Father that dwelleth in Me.”

And while walking in a few moments ago with Brother Wood with his arms around me, I was thinking of dear Brother Wood. When I was in Shreveport, Louisiana, the Lord woke me up one night and showed me a vision. Said, “Tell Brother Wood to be careful. He's going to get hurt.” And how that faithful, that man....

He had a boy with a drawed up leg (His wife and them are sitting here somewhere tonight), and with a drawed up leg. He was a Jehovah Witness, and his wife was, (I believe) a Methodist. And when they come to Louisville and saw what the Lord could do, they just.... He quit his job (He was a contractor) and followed the meetings.

And here in Ohio—Cleveland, Ohio—after a year later nearly, he was sitting back there with his boy, and his wife with a big tumor, and his wife ... and his boy with a crippled up leg from paralysis; and the Holy Spirit turned and said, “The man sitting right back there, the little boy with the yellow sweater on, they come from Louisville, Kentucky. He's a contractor. He has a wife that's got a tumor, and a little boy that's crippled from paralysis. His leg is drawed up. 'Thus saith the Lord,' Rise up you're healed.”

They didn't know what to do. In a moment the little boy stood up perfectly normal and well. He don't even know which leg was hurt. And then that same Lord Jesus....

He moved, and moved over next door to me. Has been my buddy. After Sunday, he'll be the book salesman here in the meeting, he and his beloved wife.

And then a little later when I was at Shreveport, the Lord told me, “Tell Brother Wood to watch.” And he was helping some Methodist preacher to build a little miracle mile like, and he was watching his car. Thought he didn't know what it would be and all of a sudden cut his thumb plumb in like that, the end of it off. And by the grace of God, it was brought back together again and healed.

And how I was standing there, and a few days ago while together, I said, “Brother Wood, I'm fixing to have something happen to me.” The Lord Jesus had told me just exactly. I said, “Something's fixing to happen to my little boy, Joseph. He's fixing to have a little sick spell,” what it would be. Just exactly and just to walk with the Lord. He don't tell us all things, but what He does say is perfect the same.

That same unknown world to the world is still alive tonight. The Lord Jesus Christ, the author and finisher of our faith and the blessed Creator of all eternity, still lives and reigns, and is here tonight in this meeting, just as alive as He was when He was here some nineteen hundred years ago. May the Lord bless you.

Now, we'll call some people to the platform for prayer, and now I.... 1 to a 100. All right. Let's have prayer card number 1. What letter? U's. U number 1 to come forward. Who has prayer card U number 1, number 2, number 3, number 4, number 5, number 6, number 7, 8, 9, 10? Stand those up and.... And now, when you get your card ... when it's called, just move out.

And you know, I was thinking today, before leaving the meeting, if I don't get all the people prayed for in this manner, and they can't accept it, I'm going to have a night one of these nights, maybe tomorrow or next night something like that, that without discernments and so forth I want to bring the people across and pray for them anyhow, just in a line of that type and to see just what our Lord Jesus will do.

Now, my way of praying for the sick.... Now, I want your undivided attention just for a moment. Most people lay hands on the sick, and that's the old tradition of laying hands. That was the Jews. The Jews believed in laying hands on the sick. The Gentile believed in, “Say the word, Lord. My son will be healed.” Is that right? See? The Jew said ... Jairus said, “Come lay your hand on my daughter and she'll live.”

But the Roman said, “Just speak the word, and my servant will live.” Now, that's a higher plane. That's a higher.

Like when Paul ... the disciples after the resurrection while the disciples were standing there. “Oh, the Lord has risen indeed and has appeared to Peter. He's appeared to this one.” And here come those from Emmaus, saying, “The Lord has risen indeed and met us on the road.”

Thomas standing there said, “Nope, nope, nope. I don't believe it. Nope. I have to touch His hands. I have to touch His side before I'll believe.”

God's a good God, as Oral Roberts usually says. God is a good God. He'll bring Himself.... Although that's His initial way, He'll bring Himself down and give you the desire of your heart. Don't you believe that? Then God came down and said, “Thomas, come here. If it takes that for you to believe, come here.”

And Thomas come over and touched His hand, said, “Now, You're my Lord and my God.”

Now, listen. He said, “Thomas, because you've touched Me and so forth, you believe.” Said, “How much greater is their reward, who has never seen, even, and yet will believe.” That's what I'm trying to get the people to believe, regardless of anything. Believe it anyhow. Faith is the victory.

Now, have you got ten of them there? Let 10, 11, 12, 13, 14 and 15 stand up if they will and come there, if you're able. Now, we'll form this prayer line, and then we'll start right praying.

Now, I'm going to ask you something while these are being formed. Now, anyone knows that if there's anything that I could do to help those people, I'd be glad to do it. I would. That's from my heart. Knowing that someday in the presence of God I've got to stand, and if I could do anything to help them, I'd be glad to do it. I can't. Only thing I can do is speak the word that Jesus said here.

And then if I speak the Word (now, listen), if I speak the Word in the way it's written, then God is obligated, just as much obligated to His Word now as He was to Noah; is that right? Just as much obligated as He was to Daniel; is that right? Just as much obligated as He was to the disciples; is that right? He is obligated to His Word to confirm it. You see what I mean? Now, you believe Him, and God will do the rest.

Now, when you see that He has raised, then look here. You see a person maybe come to the platform. Something's wrong with them. I don't know. They might be crippled or something. You've heard. Now, that's faith cometh by hearing. Then you see the Holy Spirit move in by a miracle and say to this person like He did the woman at the well.

“Go get your husband.”

She said, “I have none.”

Said, “You got five.”

Why, she said, “Sir, I perceive that You're a prophet.” Now, listen. She said, “We know when the Messiah cometh, He'll do these things. He'll tell us these things,” but she didn't know who He was.

He said, “I am He that speaks to You.” That was the sign of the Messiah. Is that right?

When the Jew met Him, Nathanael.... Philip found Nathanael, and when Nathanael come, Jesus looked at him, when he come up. He said, “Behold, an Israelite in whom there's no guile.”

Said, “How did You know me, Rabbi?”

Said, “Before Philip called you, when you were under the tree, I saw you.” How could He see him thirty miles around the mountain the day before when he was under a tree? He and Philip come up together. Said, “I saw you when you were under the tree.”

And what did that Jew say? “Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God.”

He said, “Because I told you this, you believe? You can see greater things than this.” Now, that was Messiah then. That was the sign of Messiah then. Is that right? How many Bible readers knows that was the Messiah's sign to both Jew, Gentile? And.... Well, then if He's the same yesterday, today, and forever, it'll be Messiah's sign tonight. Isn't that right? The same Messiah. May He grant it, is our prayer.

Now, Father God, on the eve, and laying here before me this darling baby's picture who was here swollen so, and malignancy and whatever just bloat the little fellow, and he didn't even look like a human, but the touch of the Master's hand did the work. Will You please tonight, dear God, do the same tonight to every person in here?

And now as I have been Your witness by the Word and declaring to this audience, thousands sitting here, that You have raised from the dead, and You're the same, and You are here to be Your own witness tonight to confirm Your Word. For You come in the body of flesh (in a corporal body), You said, “That it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophets.” You confirmed Your own Word by coming; and now, Father, come again into our lives and confirm Your work that You're still here, and the same yesterday, today, and forever. In Jesus' name we submit ourselves to Thee. Amen.

Brother Joseph, I wish maybe if you could.... These pictures, if you could put them right down here somewhere, so the audience tomorrow night, and they might drop by and see that picture on that. It's such an outstanding thing.

How many's ever seen the picture of the Angel of the Lord that was taken yonder? I was going to mention that tonight, but time would not permit it. How that God gave witness. Amen. He's the same pillar of fire that followed the children of Israel. When He was here on earth, He said, “I came from God, and I go to God.”

When Paul, after His death and ascension, Paul (Saul then) met Him on the road to Damascus, and what did He look like then? The same pillar of fire that led the children of Israel. “I came from God. I go to God. A little while and the world won't see Me no more. Yet ye shall see Me, for I will be with you, even in you, to the end of the world.”

Now, He is here tonight, or He said something that He can't back up. And to think that someone would say that God put affliction upon people to make them be His servants. Oh, friend, that's an error of the devil. If God made you afflicted so you could be patient, and He could show His mercy to let you suffer, then when Jesus come, He absolutely protested what God did. He healed every one He come in contact with. Then He done exactly what God made the people sick for His glory, and Jesus come down and healed them. Then He took the glory off of them by healing them. Could you imagine that? No, sir. Not at all. Jesus don't want you to suffer.

Listen, friends. People who say that.... The pagan of Africa can produce a better god to the people. No wonder we got Communism. God don't want you to suffer. He wants you to be well. He died for that purpose. He don't want you to suffer. He wants you to be well, and He's made one basic thing: if you'll believe. He sent His Word. He sent His Son. He sent His prophets. He sent law. He sent everything and today sent the Holy Spirit to continue the ministry that Jesus did when He was here on earth.

Here's a woman standing before me. She's a colored woman. And if this ain't a beautiful picture of a Bible scene, I don't know it. Here is a colored woman, a white man, the only difference. We're both human beings, the same blood. “God made of all nations one blood.” The only difference is the country she was raised in, the country I was raised in, an Anglo-Saxon, and her an African down where the sun's hot and up where it's not—the difference, color of our skin. We're both human beings bought by the blood of Christ.

But today in a lot of the country there's a segregation between colored and white, and there also in Jesus' day was a segregation between the Jews and the Samaritans. And when Jesus met a woman in the time of the segregation, He said, “Bring Me a drink,” to the Samaritan woman.

He did, didn't He? And she looked around and seen Him being, as we'd say, a white man (which He was a brown man, a Jew, but the segregation). Said, “It's not customary for you Jews to ask Samaritans such, for we have no dealings one with the other.” See, she was still back in the old line of thought.

He said, “Woman, if you knew who you were talking to, you'd ask Me for a drink, and I'd bring you water you don't come here to draw.”

She said, “The well's deep, and You have nothing to draw with.”

He said, “The water that I give is eternal life springing up.”

She said, “Well, our father's worshipped in this mountain; you say at Jerusalem,” and He said.... Went ahead, the conversation went on till He caught what her trouble was.

Now, remember, He was on His road to Jericho. Is that right? But He had need to go by Samaria. Wonder why? The Father sent Him up there. Now, here was a woman. He didn't know what was wrong with her. He didn't know her trouble. The Father sent Him up there, so the woman come out. Now, the Father sent me to Chicago. Here's a woman here. I don't know nothing about her. She's a colored woman, and I'm a white man. We know nothing about each other. I don't know you. You don't know me. So here we are.

But as the Lord Jesus spoke to the woman, finally He found what her trouble was. He said, “Go, get your husband.”

She said, “I have none.”

Said, “That's right. You got five. The one you have now is not your husband.”

Now, look what she said. “Sir, I perceive that You're a prophet. Now, we know (we colored people know) that when Messiah cometh He'll do these things, but who are You?”

He said, “I am He.”

And she left the water pot, and run into the city, said, “Come, see a man that's told me the things. Isn't this the very Christ?

[Blank spot on tape.]

You have a Christian Spirit. That's right. Now, you could've been a atheist or an infidel. But as soon as you walked up and I contacted your spirit, I seen you was a Christian, 'cause it was welcome. You see? The Holy Spirit which now has me anointed in this Word, it verified that You are a believer. If It wouldn't, you'd have stood off from me, but I know that you're a Christian. That's a miracle in itself. That's right. 'Cause you could've slipped up here as an unbeliever or a skeptic. See what I mean? But the Holy Spirit knows who you are.

“Behold, an Israelite in whom there's no guile.”

He said, “When did You know me, Rabbi?” See?

Now, audience, if the Lord Jesus.... Let her be the witness. If the Lord Jesus will come down here and will reveal to this woman what her trouble is, and what she's here to see me about, will all of you believe that He's raised from the dead and in here? May He grant it. And you said you would.

Now, you know I can't do this. I've nothing in me to do it with, but the woman is now.... She's been extremely nervous. She's bothered with a nervous condition. That's one thing wrong with her, because she has some bad news she's just received. She's got a growth, and that growth is in the stomach. And it's serious, and she wants God to remove the growth. That's “Thus saith the Lord.” Is that true? Do you believe now? Could I heal the woman? No, sir, but He who's here who knows these things can do it. Let us pray.

Our heavenly Father, laying my hands upon this woman, because the last words You said on earth was, “They shall lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover.” And I ask for this sister's healing in the name of Thy beloved Child, the Lord Jesus, who taught us to do this. Amen. God bless you, my sister. Go, and may God's peace be with you and get just what you asked for. Amen. God bless you. Brother Wood is.... That's all right.

How do you do? Now, we can see the lady's got a hearing aid in her ears. You hear through this aid. Can you hear me now through the aid? All right. Now, I want to talk to you. 'Course somebody would say, “Well, she's deaf or got a....” That's right. You can see that. That's right. The mystery is not now to tell you your deafness, but maybe it might be something else. I don't know. God does. But now for the glory of His Son, the Lord Jesus, do you believe He's raised from the dead and is alive?

We are strangers to each other. I don't know you. You don't know me. And this is our meeting ground for the first time in life. Now, here we stand together as man and woman, two white people together. God's no respect. What He did for the colored woman, He can do for you. He's no respect for colored or white, brown, yellow, whatever it might be. He's God, the Creator of all creatures. We believe that.

And now, if the Lord Jesus will reveal to me according to His Word. “The things that I do shall you also. I do nothing till the Father shows Me. What the Father shows Me then He says it.” That's the reason He could tell the woman she had five husbands and so forth. The Father showed Him.

[Blank spot on tape.] knowed all about that, because the Father showed Him. The woman that sat in the audience, and could touch His garment, and go back and sit down. He knowed what her trouble was. He asked who did it. Now, if He'll reveal to me something else besides your hearing that you might've done, or had not done, or something, you'll be witness whether it's the truth or not. I'm before the public. Not knowing you, it'd have to be somehow supernatural.

You are a believer. You're a believer. You are a Christian woman. And the Lord bless you for that. Now, there's something else that's wrong with you. I see an examination or something being proved that you have some sort of a nerve condition, that the nerves in your body is dying. The nerves are becoming inactive. You have trouble in your side; your right side is where your trouble is. That is right, isn't it?

And that you might know that I be God's prophet, and His Spirit is here on me now, you also have a condition of the colon and bowel. The doctor said, “It has fallen.” Is that true? It is truth.

Now, I cannot heal you, but He who here that knows you, and has got me anointed to tell you, and use my lips to speak to you, and my eyes to see a world, and see standing here by you a great light that hangs near you, now, who's doing the speaking. Not me. It's another Being. I'm just submitted to it. Now, do you believe if I should ask Him—that your case is beyond doctor's help—that He will heal you? Will you bow your heads while I pray for the lady.

Now, heavenly Father, in the name of the Lord Jesus, the precious Son of God, take away the affliction, and make our sister to be well. Doctors have tried, and they have failed; but there is not failing in God. And I pray, Lord, with all my heart in humility and sincerity that You'll take the affliction from our sister's body, through Christ, the Son of God. With every head bowed just a moment.

Now, how long have you been that way? A long time, but you love Him, don't you? You may raise your head. All right, just seeing this thing out of her ear, see. You hear me now. She hears now. All right. It's all over. You're healed. Your faith in the living God that's here present now has made you whole. Amen. God bless you, sister, you may hear. Amen.

See, He don't only tell, but He knows and performs. I've never seen Him fail anytime. He doesn't fail. There's no failing in the Lord. Now, if you'll just be reverent a few minutes longer. Let us pray again for the sick and now be real reverent. Just be seated a little bit longer and we'll.... Let's try to get all of them through if we possibly can. Just be.... I know I'm holding you late, but just a little bit longer.

How do you do, sir? You were sitting on the seat just a few moments ago down there, and when I spoke to a lady next to you, it kind of shook you a little. And I seen that the light was hanging over you, the Angel of the Lord, which perhaps maybe at this time you're not familiar with.

But we are standing again, sir, as Philip who went and found Nathanael and brought him back to the Lord Jesus. We are strangers to each other, knowing not each other, never met before as far as I.... We're perfectly strangers. Are we? Then the Lord Jesus who knows all things, and can do all things, and does all things well; if He can reveal to me something like He did to Nathanael, when Philip brought him, telling him, “Behold, an Israelite in whom there's no guile.”

He said, “How did You know me, that I was a believer.”

He said, “Before Philip called you, when you were under the tree, I saw you.” That's the Scriptures. How many knows that to be true? Now, I'm trusting that the Lord will do something like that for this man, and it would do wonderful.

A lady just contacted the Holy Spirit just then. She's a colored woman, and she's suffering with low blood pressure, and she sits on the outside row with a red hat on, right over there suffering with low blood pressure. That's right. Raise your hand, lady. Isn't that right? There you are. The Lord bless you, sister. The woman touched His garment and went off and sat down. Jesus said, “Who touched Me?” Everybody denied doing it; but Jesus looked and found her, said, “Thy faith has made thee whole.” Amen. Have faith in God. When Jesus came, as the music is saying, all things were charged.

You've had a strange life. Somebody got a prayer card for you. That really is against the rules. They're supposed to get their own prayer card, but somebody got a prayer card for you, because you was supposed to follow in a cab coming over here to the meeting. That's right. You have been very sick. You've had an operation, and that operation was on the kidney, and it was a tumor, and the doctor said it was malignant. That news spells death.

You feel strange now, because it's not me, sir. It's Him. You're in His presence. You were a Catholic. Used to be a Catholic, and kind of give it up. That's right. Do you believe that Jesus Christ, the Son of God lives and reigns? You believe that He will make you well? Do you accept Him? You do. Come, right here.

Dear heavenly Father, in the mercies of the Almighty, that this poor dying creature stands here in Your presence now, knowing that He has to stand death someday. I pray that You'll be merciful to Him and spare His life, and with hands laid upon him as Your humble servant.... And the doctor's done what he could do, but I pray that in Christ's name, that You will heal the man and let him live for Your glory. Through Jesus' Christ's name I ask the blessing. Amen.

God bless you, sir, don't.... Well, that's the divine gift, you see. I seen it shook you, but that's what it was. It was malignant. Only God can make it well. Now, go and believe. If the doctor'd be honest with you, he'd tell you the same thing. God bless you.

A lady also laying dying with cancer. When the demon left the man.... I don't say it'll stay away. The woman's laying on a cot over there, and she's got cancer, too. And when she heard the death pronounced to the man, something struck her. That's right. Wasn't it, lady? Cause the cancer turned loose at that time. That's right. If you can believe, you have one chance to live. That's through the Lord Jesus, and He's not a chance. It's the truth. And He's here to make you well, if thou canst believe. Have faith in God.

Bring the lady. Reverent just a moment. There's a man sitting right there on this end of that little row sitting there, got an ulcer that he's praying for; and he wants God to heal Him, and he's just touched the Lord Jesus just now as I looked to him, for there stands the Holy Spirit, the light, hanging right over him. Sir, do you believe that Jesus Christ can make you well? Brown suit on, do you believe that Jesus will make you well? God bless you. May you receive your healing.

Being that you're so faithful, a poor woman sitting there next to you, she's praying for her husband who has a mental condition. That's right, isn't it, lady? I see a vision of the man. That is right. Rise up to your feet and accept Jesus as the Healer of your beloved husband. May He add His blessings to you.

The lady right on out the end of the row, the colored lady sitting there looking at it and admiring it. She's got sugar diabetes, and she wants to be healed too. If the lady will believe, she may receive.

You're here for a deep purpose. You're here for someone else, which is your son. When I spoke to that lady about her husband being a mental case, that's what you're here for. It's for a mental case. It's your son. He's a mental patient, about thirty-five years old. That's right, isn't it? And you want me to lay my hands on you, that you can take the blessing to him. That is right. Come forward, lady.

Satan, may God in heaven bring such predominating faith unto His people, that they will resent you and know that you are defeated; for Christ's taken and all the powers that You had, at Calvary. Leave these people, I pray in Jesus' name. Amen. God bless you, sister, and may His grace be granted.

Now, just a moment. I see a colored lady sitting right back here. She's got lung trouble, and if she will believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, be made well. You can have it. Amen. Don't doubt. Believe.

One sitting here in front. She has a trouble too. I see a woman that's bothered about her husband, and that man is ... that man's in a veteran's hospital, and he.... Something happened just recently. It was this last week. He had something like a stroke that hurt his brain, and he's in a hospital, and he can't remember even who you are. That's right.

And you have written some sort of a letter to be mailed to me, or sent to me concerning it. That's right, and you in this has asked me about ... something about a landlord that won't receive money, that you're about to be put out of your home. That's right. That is right. Have faith in God. Amen. Believe on the Lord Jesus. Don't distrust Him, but believe Him.

Would you bring the patient? I know you not, lady. The Lord Jesus knows you. Are you all believing? Do you believe He's here? Now, if thou can.... You have growths all through your body, don't you, lady? You believe that Jesus can make you well, and take those growths away from you, and heal you? If you do, okay. If you just have faith. That's what you have to have; but believe.

Are you believing God'll heal the lung trouble? You are? First I thought you were setting here. There's a light looking woman sitting here, but I find out it's the lady over here, got something up like that. That's right. It's you. Stand up just a minute to your feet. See, you're kind of light colored, and this lady here was light, but I thought it was strange she had something white on, but then I looked she had something red on. I thought, “No, it's the woman with something white.”

And I looked down there, and there the Angel was standing by her. That's it. She wants that to be confirmed. Praise the Lord. Amen. Oh, isn't He wonderful? Are you His witness now? Do you see? Do you hear? God is here.

Now, this lady before me ... I don't know her. She's a stranger. I have never seen her. She's a stranger to me, but if the Lord Jesus will reveal to me what you're here for, will you accept everything that you ask for? Will all the rest of the audience of one faith believe? Will you with the little boy, you with the heart trouble, you with all kinds of diseases and so forth, will you believe? Have faith. Now, may He grant it. I don't know.

I see the lady trying to do something, and she's fumbling with it. She's all nervous. That's what her trouble is. She's nervous. Been that way for some time. Is that true? Now, how would I know that? Something has to reveal it. Is that right?

Now, just to show you. More you talk to people, more will be said. Now, watch just for the lady. Now, maybe He will. I don't know. Now, this is only His grace, but I've spoke with Him. The Father shows the Son just as He will, and He will show His servants just as He will, to continue the ministry of His Son, until His Son returns. That's the Gospel.

Did I say I was a healer? No, sir. There's no other man that's a healer. Christ has already performed that. No man can forgive your sins 'less you sinned against him. Sins has already been forgiven at Calvary. You believe that? The whole debt of sin was paid. All healing was paid at Calvary. You've just got to believe it. Accept it.

I believe that I see you coming again ... nervousness moving up. Say. Seems like that you're not ... you're not in this place. No, you're not from here. You're from somewhere else, a rolling country, hilly country, where there's a lot of coal mines. You're from Pennsylvania. That is right. And you got that handkerchief in your hand, and it's a man's handkerchief, and you are fixing to give me that handkerchief to pray for your husband, who is not a Christian. He's unsaved, and you want me to pray for him, and you're going to put this handkerchief under his pillow, that he might be saved. That's true. Isn't it? Amen. Hand it here.

Holy God, who knows the secrets, as Daniel said, “There is a God of heaven. He knows the secrets of all men's hearts, who can reveal.” And we realize, Lord, just as the Gentile kingdom was issued in with unknown languages, writ on the wall, with a prophet who could discern and foretell; the Gentile dispensation is ceasing with unknown languages, and a handwriting on the wall, with a prophetic gift back into the church, as it come in in the days of King Nebuchadnezzar, going out in the last days by the head of gold issuing in, going out through the feet of iron and clay.

Thou reveals the secrets of the heart, and we're thankful to be living in this day as Your witness. And we're witnesses tonight that Jesus still lives and reigns, then He heals and knows every secret in every place of the heart, every compartment. God grant the desire of this woman's heart, and I bless this handkerchief for it's intended purpose in Christ's name. Amen.

Our heavenly Father, in humility we bow our hearts before Thee. Why not just now.... And the grace of God, the Holy Ghost here, bearing record that You've raised from the dead, and we are Your witnesses. Tonight we know beyond a shadow of a doubt, that Jesus lives. He's here. He knows all things, and He's doing just as He said He would do.

And now, Father God, I pray that You'll let Your great blessings and Your power overshadow this group of people who's sitting here sick and afflicted, and may everyone of them be healed by Your power.

May they now, like the Roman saying, “Just speak the word, and my child, my mother, my father, my wife, my baby, my husband, my wife, whatever it might be, may be healed just now. Speak the word.” And, Lord, this we do speak the Word of God, that says, “In My name they shall cast out evil spirits,” and in Jesus' name we cast away by faith, sicknesses and diseases from the people, and their superstitions, and unbelief. And may the Holy Spirit just now heal every person in Divine Presence.

With our heads bowed and our hearts open before God, would you now upon the strength of seeing the revelation of the Lord Jesus being made manifest.... Are you now willing to know that It's Him that's talking to your heart and saying, “Now, I want you to stand for Me. I've raised from the dead, and I've proved that I'm alive.” Would you walk up here, and if God will hear my prayer to make the deaf hear, the blind see, the cripples to walk, and these afflictions to leave the people, won't He hear a prayer when we pray for your soul?

Oh, how could you walk out of here tonight with unbelief in your heart? The Bible said, “Go ye and disbelieve no more, or worse things will come upon you.” I wonder with our heads bowed, as the organ is playing gently. I want to ask that all that wants to stand for a witness of the Lord Jesus Christ, and say while He's here and in His presence, “Tonight I want to take my stand for Jesus.” Would you stand up to your feet just now? “I want to take my stand for Jesus.” God bless you. Just look over the audience. “I now take my stand. On Christ the solid Rock I stand, all other grounds is sinking sand. All other grounds....

I want to go on record in heaven tonight that in this audience here in this great city of Chicago, in this high school auditorium, I want to go on record that I stand for Jesus Christ and for His righteousness.“

Up in the balcony, would you make a stand for the Lord Jesus, saying, “Tonight I take my stand, solemnly, right now in the presence of God, because the Word of God, and the witness of. I have both seen Jesus heal the sick, and heard Him reveal the secrets of the heart, perfectly without one flaw or shadow any way about it. I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, has raised from the dead and is present now, and I stand in His presence to take my stand as a believer, and to serve Him the rest of my days.” Just stand now while we offer prayer.

Look at this audience who's making this gallant stand. I pray that at the end of life's journey, that Jesus will stand for you in heaven tonight on the recording books of the book that the angels record, that you, whoever you are, your name will be written indelible, cannot fade away. Your name will be written in glory, and Jesus will stand for you at that day.

Are you convinced that He is the Son of God, the only true Potentate and Son of God? Do you solemnly believe it with all your heart? Do you believe that He's raised from the dead, according to the Scriptures and He's right here now omnipresent, right here with us now? The living God as we raise our hands to worship Him, as we take our stand solemnly for Jesus and righteousness.

O God, our blessed Father, put down on Your book with the indelible writing of the blood of Thy Son, the Lord Jesus, every name that's standing tonight on their feet and for those who cannot stand, that the recording Angel will put their name on the Lamb's book of life, never to be erased out again.

Thou hast said, “If you'll bear witness of Me before men, him will I confess before My Father and the holy Angels.” And tonight, Lord, as hundreds and thousands are standing to their feet just now to receive Jesus Christ, and taken a new fresh stand tonight to be remembered to God, and a reconditioning of their soul, and a new covenant that they'll stand for you in righteousness, and desiring You to stand for them in that great and terrible day of the Lord, which is shadowing the earth today.

God, grant that each one will be saved, filled with the Holy Spirit, and healed. Grant it, Lord. These blessings I pronounce to the people as Your servant. And You said, “The effectual, fervent prayer of righteous men availeth much.” And we know that we are not righteous, but we do not stand in our self-righteousness. We stand in the righteousness of Jesus Christ, because He sent us to declare these things and has come, not only.... He said, “As the Father has sent Me....” And the Father that sent Him went with Him. He said, “The Father has sent Me....”