Abraham

Now remain standing just a moment, and we will bow our heads for prayer.

Our heavenly Father, that is our testimony tonight: We believe that He lives. And we thank Thee for this wonderful gathering tonight, knowing that the Lord Jesus has come to meet with us. And we pray that your blessings rest upon us this evening. Pour out those blessings.

And, Father, before us here lays these handkerchiefs; they are going to the needy, the sick, the afflicted. While Your blessed Holy Spirit is around this place, we pray that You will look down upon this [unclear word] place, and will anoint each of these handkerchiefs with Your blessed presence. Go with it to the sickroom. And may they be liberated because of the gathering together tonight. Grant it, Lord. Give us an outpouring of Thy blessings, a double portion tonight. Heal every sick and afflicted person, and when we leave this building tonight, may we say like those from Emmaus, “Did not our hearts burn within us, because He talked with us?” Grant it, Father. We'll give Thee all the praise and the glory, for we ask it in the name of Jesus, Thy beloved Son. Amen.

Be seated. Long may this house of God stand. It's been a pleasure being here this week. Understanding that tomorrow we're to go into the Music Academy. And we had a wonderful time this week in your fellowship. And God bless all the people, and Brother Hutchison here, and may this little church grow and prosper in the Lord is my prayer.

We had a wonderful time of fellowship this morning with the Christian Businessmen of your beloved city here. Had a fine time. I believe that was the New York chapter, wasn't it? The New York ... the greater New York Chapter. And so we certainly have enjoyed the wonderful welcome that you've given us, and the presence of the Holy Spirit has been wonderful.

Such a wonderful audience to speak to. I've held you late each night, because you're so nice to sit and listen and take in the things of the Lord; and so we're so happy for that and for you tonight.

Now, we're going to turn to His blessed Word, the Book of all books, the Bible, and in the book of Romans the 4th chapter beginning with the 17th verse. I wish to read a portion of this Scripture, and go right into the Scripture reading; and while the anointing is so good in the building, perhaps make also a (Thank you, sir.) make also a little.... Tonight, the Lord may come and heal all the sick while we're speaking, and we hope so.

Remember, that we base divine healing upon the finished work of Christ at Calvary. Every redemptive blessing lays right there in the Redeemer, see. All paid for, and nothing you have to do but to believe it, accept it as your own personal property.

May I say this while you're turning to Romans 4: Every Christian, when you're born again, God gives you a checkbook for everything that you have need of, with Jesus' name wrote at the bottom of every check. It's yours. Don't be afraid to turn it in, 'cause the bank of heaven will honor it. It certainly was a blood-bought gift that God gives to you freely.

Now, New York is known for one thing ... many things, but one great thing: it's known for its fine apples you raise up here. Wonderful apples New York has. And I received an invitation for Elizabeth today, and I thought that was Elizabethtown when I looked at it, and Elizabethtown is where I taken one of my first big game hunts from Elizabeth over to Newland in the Adirondacks; and up in there they have beautiful fruit: apples.

Now, did you know, as you people understand, that that little apple tree, when it's just about three-eighths of an inch high, that every apple that'll ever be in that tree, that you'll ever pick off of it, the hundreds of bushels is right in it then? If it isn't, where does it come from? Every leaf, the hundreds of pounds of leaves that'll occupy that little tree is right in it then? Do you know that? Every blossom is right in the tree right then, every color is right in the tree? All that that little tree will bear through its stay here on earth is in it when it's just a little slip about like that. If it isn't, where does it come from?

We lose the value, a lot of times, of things by trying to look at it in the way of material, see. What is it? That little tree is set out. A little slip is set out, and you have to water it, and it has to drink, and it has to drink more than its portion; and it just drinks, and the more it drinks, it drinks till it pushes out limbs. Then it pushes out leaves. Then it pushes out buds. Then it pushes out apples. It just keeps drinking and pushing. And that's the way that we are.

We are planted in Christ Jesus, the inexhaustible Fountain of life, and we just drink and push, drink. Everything that we need when we're filled with the Holy Spirit, every healing, everything that we have need of in life's journey is given to us right then. It's all your personal property. Just drink, that's all. Look and live. That's right. Then you can easily see the resurrection, can't you?

My wife said here sometime ago (I was combing what few hairs I had left.), she said, “Billy, you're getting bald-headed.”

I said, “But, honey, I haven't lost a one of them.”

She said, “What?”

I said, “I haven't lost a one of them.”

She said, “Well, tell me where they're at.”

I said, “Well, I'll ask you one thing. And you answer me, and I'll answer you. Where were they before I got them? They come from somewhere, and wherever they was before I got them, they're there waiting for me to come to them.”

What's your body made out of? Potash, calcium, a little petroleum, cosmic light, atoms. Well, God just gathered them together, and (Whew) blowed in them and that was it. That was all of it. There you were (see), and you just turned back to what you was before you was in form like you are now, so the resurrection's just calling them back. And let me give you a beautiful thing, some of you that's getting old like I am, see.

Did you know, when you just first married your wife, remember how she looked, how pretty? Remember how dad looked? One morning you got up and you looked at those beautiful eyes of mother and you said, “Mother, there's a little wrinkle coming around your eyes,” see.

She said, “Yes, dad, I begin to notice a gray hair or two.” What is it? Death set in, see. But when you walked down to the altar as young in your twenties, why she was your sweetheart and your bride. Remember how each looked? How straight Dad stood and now he's stooped over? See how mother was? Look at her now, see. But then when the picture was drawed, God said, “That's it right there; that's the way I want it. Said, ”Come on, death, but you can't take them till I call for you to.“ So then death set in, and gradually you started dying. But in the resurrection all the deaf, dumb will not appear in the resurrection. It's what God did.

I asked a doctor that some time ago. I said, “Doctor, is it true that every time I eat I renew my life?”

He said, “That's correct. You make blood cells.”

I said, “Every time I take in food then I renew my life.”

He said, “That's right.”

I said, “Why is it, when I was sixteen, every time I'd eat I'd get bigger and stronger, and after I passed about twenty-five, the more I eat I get older and weaker? Prove that to me scientifically. Pouring water into a glass out of a container and the glass is filling up, and then all at once, the more you pour in the farther down it goes.”

He said, “Well, that couldn't be explained.”

I said, “Yes, it can. It's an appointment God has made.” That's right. You're going to have to die and meet the judgment. But you see, then in the resurrection all that death done to you will be taken away, and you'll be back young again, see. If you had black hair here on earth, you'll have black hair in the resurrection. If you had blond hair, you'll be a blonde-head in the resurrection.

See, God.... A lot of people tries to make Him a Sears and Roebuck, Harmony House, but He isn't. God is a God of variety. He has big hills and little hills. He has plains, rivers, mountains, grassy spots. He has little trees, big trees, white flowers, blue flowers, red flowers. He has.... He's a variety and His people are variety; and He makes it all to His pleasure. Look at the earth. You can see what God loves, and that's what it'll be in the resurrection. Oh, I'm so glad of that, aren't you? To think that someday we'll see Him as He is.

Someone said not long ago, said, “Brother Branham, will we know.... Will I know my mother?”

“You'll not only know your mother, but you'll know every mother. You'll know everybody.”

“Oh,” he said, “now, that's ridiculous.”

“Oh, no, no. On Mount Transfiguration, Peter, James and John had never seen Moses or Elijah, but when they was under that inspiration, they recognized them as soon as they appeared; and had never seen them.” Is that right? But we'll know one another. Don't you worry about that, you'll know. Well, that wasn't what I was going to talk about, but I'm going to read some out of the Scripture.

But I just love Him, don't you? And love is.... Just makes you feel so at liberty, and so free, that you know that there's not.... All the fears and scares are gone, and it's all over, and we've received Christ, and He has received us. And we got the assurance of eternal life, and the resurrection and glory, and to live through the Millennium, and to go with Him into the new world.

And why, there's not a thing to be worried about, but we should be just so happy, just singing like the birds all day long. But instead, we walk along, you know, and fears and doubts. Wonder what God thinks of us (see) sometimes, and besides all that to make the Bible positive, He appears right here, even in this little church, nightly proving Himself alive, working among us like this. What a beautiful thing.

All right, now just before we go to the Word, let's have just a word of prayer.

Now, heavenly Father, this is Your Book, and we know that we can raise the pages back and forth. We can turn them from place to place, but there's only One who can open it. And John seen it one time in the revelator on the Isle of Patmos when he had the revelation of the Lord, and he wept because there was no man in heaven or in earth was worthy to take the Book, or to open it, or to loose the seals thereof. But there was a Lamb standing in the midst, One had been slain since the foundation of the earth, and He come and took it out of the right-hand of Him that sat upon the throne, and He opened and loosed the seals thereof, because He was worthy.

O worthy Lamb, will You loose it to us tonight, and open the seals thereof, and let us have an inside view, just look past the curtain of time. Grant it, Father. Move in our midst, forgiving us of our sins, and healing our sickness, and preparing us for the service of Thy dear beloved Son while we're here on earth. For we ask it in His name. Amen.

The 17th verse of the 4th chapter of Romans:

(As it is written, I have made thee a father of many nations,) before him whom he believed, even God, who quickeneth the dead, and calleth those things which were not as though they were.

Who against hope believed in hope, that he might become the father of many nations, according to that which was spoken, So shall thy seed be.

And being not weak in faith, he considered not his own body now dead, when he was about a hundred years old, neither ... the deadness of Sarah's womb:

He staggered not at the promise of God through unbelief; but was strong in faith, giving glory to God;

And being fully persuaded, that what he had promised, he was also able ... to perform.

And therefore it was imputed unto him for righteousness.

Now it was not written for his sake alone, that it was imputed to him;

But for us also, to whom it shall be imputed, if we believe on him that raised up Jesus our Lord from the dead;

Who was delivered for our offenses, and was raised again for our justification.

Now, the Lord add His blessings to that Word, and on the first verse of the 5th chapter, we read:

Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ:

Speaking tonight on this vital subject, and we'll try not to keep too long if we have to stop and continue tomorrow night on it so we can get the prayer, the line started. Last night we missed the prayer line, but the Lord gave us the victory anyhow here in His blessed presence. He never disappoints anyone. There's no disappointment in the Lord Jesus Christ. How thankful we should be for that.

Now, listen close. To go back to get the background.... I like to go back and pick up the background, to get a foundation for what we're fixing to say. So we're speaking on Abraham. In order to get the foundation of Abraham, we'd have to go back to Genesis about the 12th chapter and begin where Abraham was first mentioned.

And Abraham was just an ordinary man just like you and I, and he wasn't any extra good man, reason that God called him, but God called Abraham by election.

Now, if you'll notice in the Old Testament, which you have a pastor here far more able to explain these things than I, but Abraham is justification ... or, Abraham is election, rather. Isaac is justification, and Jacob is grace, and Joseph is perfection. There's nothing against Joseph in the Scriptures. He was a perfect type of the Lord Jesus in every way.

So in Abraham is election. God calls men by election, foreknowledge. “No man can come to Me except my Father draws him first. All that comes I will give them eternal life and raise him up at the last day.” That settles it. I'm so happy to know this one thing, friends: That Christianity has no negative nothing to it. It's everything absolutely positive. A man that becomes a child of God has a positive hold on Calvary, and Calvary has a positive hold on him with the assurance by Almighty God, by an oath to Himself that He will raise him up in the last days, take him to glory. There's not no “if” or “and” or nothing. It's something that's positive.

Now, you can be mentally worked up or emotionally worked up and just imagine you're saved, but when your spirit bears record with His Spirit, and your life compares with God's Bible, you've got a pretty good conception it's all as at peace. That's right, but if it don't compare with that, then you'd better come back again, see. If you don't love Him with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, if sin doesn't just make you tremble at the thoughts of it, you'd better come back (see) and be sure. No matter....

You might've danced in the Spirit. You might've spoke with tongues. You might've put your name on every church book in this city. You might've been baptized three times forward, backward, sprinkled. That won't have one thing to do with it, not one thing. You've got to be born again, see. It's something that takes place, a regeneration, and you become a new creation. Old things are passed away, and all things become new. You have a new look on everything. The birds sing different. Your enemies that you once couldn't stand, you love them. You really love them, and everything's changed. Then you know you've passed from death unto life.

Now, not by keeping a code, not keeping creeds, not doing this: not by good works are we saved, but by His grace, His mercy. We're already bought. The price is paid for. Nothing you can do about it. You can no more save yourself than a leopard could cleanse its spots. All the washing and going through would just make them brighter. Yes, sir. You never chose God and never did seek God. God seeks you. It's against human nature.

Could you imagine telling a pig that he's wrong because he drinks slop? Certainly not. If he could talk, he'd tell you tend to your own business. All right. That's right. But now, but when that pig's nature is changed, he won't drink no more slop (see), if he gets a lamb's nature. But it's got to be something converts the pig before he'll ever have that kind of an attitude. There's got to be something on the inside of him change him. Not because you wash him up and put him in a better place to live; he's still a pig, see. You've got to change his nature, and then his desires change with his nature. Now ... or, his nature changes his desires—better place.

Now, Abraham was just an ordinary man that come down with his father. Perhaps his father might have been an idolater, 'cause they come from Babylon. And at first Babylon was called “The gate to heaven,” and next was called “confusion,” because of Nimrod. And this might hurt just a little bit, but is it all right? Hair is gone, so I guess I'll say it.

Did you notice Nimrod was the first man to begin organizations? That's right. And the first ones this side of Calvary was the Catholic church, still Babylon carrying on. Babylon appears in the first of the Bible, middle of the Bible, and the last of the Bible. And every cult and everything that we have today—if you'll watch the nature of it, and go back in history of “Hislop's Two Babylons” and many things back there—and watch each one of those seeds was planted in Genesis, 'cause Genesis is the beginning. It's the seed book of the Bible. And watch these cults today how they move and how they act, and go right back in Genesis and find out if it doesn't start right off that same way; and now we're in harvest time (see) of everything.

Now, Abraham came down to the land of Chaldea to the city of Ur to dwell there, and they probably lived a pretty fair life in those days. He probably picked berries for his breakfast, and go in the bush and kill an animal for his noon day, and then eat some more berries at night, and so forth; they faired pretty good.

But one day while Abraham was walking around at seventy-five years old.... And he had married his half-sister, Sarah, when she was just a girl. And she was sixty-five years old. She was ten years younger than Abraham. And Abraham walking around. God called Abraham by grace, by election. He called Abraham and chose him among all the men in the world. God called Abraham, because He wanted to give to Abraham His covenant.

Now, you know what a covenant is? And now we want to speak on the covenant just for a few minutes. God made His covenant with Adam, and Adam broke His covenant. And when God makes a covenant with man, man always breaks the covenant with God. So God by foreknowledge knew that there had to be some preparation made to save man. God made this covenant with Abraham unconditional.

Now, that may be a little strong, but He made it unconditional. Before Abraham did anything to merit, God said, “I have already finished it. Nothing, Abraham, you have to do with it. I have done it. You're coming to Me in an old age, and I've already saved you. And not only have I saved you; I'll save your seed after you.” Not if you'll do something, if you will, or if you won't. “I have.” A finished work. God already done it.

Say, “Brother Branham, why are you hitting on those things at night?” Is the reason of this. If you can ever get the scare out of the church and let them realize who they are and what they are positionally, healing will be the simplest message could be preached, or anything else. But you're scared. You're afraid. You don't realize that you're sons and daughters of God; and now, not we will be. We are now sons and daughters of God, not way off in the future. And we won't some time in the future set in heavenly places; now we're seated in heavenly places, right now. And now we are the sons and daughters of God. It does not yet appear what we shall be in the end, but we know we will see Him, for we will have a body like His. We will see Him as He is.

But now we are the sons and daughters of God, and the covenant is made to Abraham and to his seed after him. Now, notice. Now, God didn't tell Abraham, “If you'll do this, or if you'll do that.” He said, “I have.” So the whole covenant is grace altogether and no works about it at all.

Now, you say, “That has an awful Calvinistic swing to it, Brother Branham.”

That's right. It does, and Calvinism is all right as long as it stays true to the Bible; but when it gets off on the wrong limb, then it's no good. Arminianism, holiness, is correct as long as it stays in Bible holiness, not your holiness but His Holiness, see. It's not my holiness; I'm not depending on my holiness, I have none, but I'm wholly trusting in His holiness, see. It's He's the One who did it. Not my works, but His finished works that I rest assured that I was received into the Beloved and when the Beloved was received by God, God received me in Christ; that settles it, see. No negative, no ifs and ands. It's a finished work.

And now, when God called Abraham, him being seventy-five years old, and He said, “Separate yourself from your kindred.” It's strange how we change that today. God calls for separation. We call for mixers. That's right.

The people when they're choosing their pastors, you that do so; oh, they want a little slick fellow, you know, that'll take a sociable drink, and not condemn smoking and a few of these things here. A good guy that'll mix with the crowd. But God wants separators. God calls for a total separation from the things of the world. “Come out from among them,” the Bible says, “and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and I will receive you.” See, not a mixer; a separator. The Holy Ghost spoke, “Separate me Paul and Barnabas to the work.” A separation. God segregates His people, the right from the wrong.

Notice. Now, Abraham was to separate himself and to sojourn in a strange land that he knew not of. Isn't that a beautiful picture today? When God by election calls you to His Beloved, then immediately God speaks to you to separate yourself from the old crowd, the pool rooms, the stitch-and-sew parties where they tell jokes and carry on: a separation.

And then He asks you to go in among strange people that you used to think was strange. They spoke a strange language. God calls His people on those basis, and Abraham.... The covenant was given to Abraham and only through ... to Abraham and his seed is the promise made. Remember that. Only to Abraham alone and his seed. Why, you say, “Us Gentiles was left.” Oh, no. We being dead in Christ take on Abraham's seed and are heirs according to the promise, if we have the faith of Abraham.

Now, here it is. Watch. A separation first thing from the things of the world. God speaks, and you move, and then He calls to dwell among strange people. Go to church to them people that sing and praise the Lord. One time you bowed your head and walked away, if you're in the presence where your mother was doing it. But where God calls you, you stand right with mother and your face shining like the morning sun and give a praise.

Why, I seen a little woman many times that was so bashful they couldn't talk to an insurance agent that come to the door, with their head bowed, so timid. After once receiving God, could stand in the midst of a church and give a testimony that'd shake the shingles off the top of the house almost. She's been somewhere. Something's happened, see. Notice how God calls.

Then sometimes God does things in the most ridiculous way to the human eye. Did you ever think of that? How God takes the foolish things to confound the wise, how He takes the things that you'd say was silly, turn right back around and confound the mighty and wise.

Look, for instance, Moses, just for a moment. (Off our subject, but I can only speak as I feel it.)

Moses had been trained as a military man and had been brought up with all the knowledge of the Egyptians. Pharaoh's daughter's son who was a heir to the throne, and then in his knowing also, besides that, that he had a divine call. And when he tried to act upon his education and upon his ability, what happened? He slew a Egyptian, looked this a way and that way.

Now, a man of God don't have to look and see whether anybody is looking or not. A man of God looks this way and that way; not this way and that way, see. So, Moses right there give it away. He was to liberate the children of Israel, but he was out of God's program. And the church is God's instrument of the earth to liberate the sick and the afflicted, but they're out of the program by their homemade theologies, and not the Bible and the Holy Spirit.

Now, Moses after God had to give him forty years more of teaching.... Eighty years old! Could you imagine how ridiculous to the carnal mind this would be? Here was Moses in the presence of the burning bush, was better equipped in five minutes in the presence of God, than eighty years of schooling had give him. Amen. I hope that don't hurt, but I hope it really sinks in, see.

In the presence of God five minutes gave him more knowledge of God and better equipped him, than eighty years of schooling. Brother, we don't need so much theology; we need kneeology today. That's true. Five minutes in the presence of the burning bush. Eighty years he'd shunned; forty years on the desert running. And five minutes in the presence of God at the burning bush he was ready to go. There you are.

And notice, here he comes, an old man eighty years old, whiskers plumb down to his belt line, with a stick in his hand, his wife sitting straddle a mule with a kid on each hip, the winds blowing. “Where you going, Moses?”

“I'm going down to Egypt to take over,” a one-man invasion. Why, the carnal mind would've said, “Crazy.” Egypt had the whole world whipped down at that time with tens of thousands of horsemen and chariots. Be like one man say, “I'm going to take over Russia.” —more, greater then. But here he goes. Could you imagine? Oh, here comes Moses, them little old thin wrinkled arms, an old crooked stick in his hand beating the ground, dragging this little mule, and his wife sitting on there with a child on each hip, just a singing the praises of God. Some said, “Moses, where you going?”

“Going down to Egypt to take over.” Why? He wasn't scared. He didn't learn that by some theology. He didn't learn that by some book reading, but he had been in the presence of the burning bush. That was the difference, and the thing of it was, he did it. Not what he said, but he went and done it. He went down and took over, and destroyed Egypt, a one-man invasion, but he'd been in the presence of God.

Now, that looked ridiculous to the carnal mind. When they wanted water, it would've been ridiculous to go to a rock. What about the spring, but God said the rock, see. God takes the foolish things to confound the wise. So don't think you're too big, brother, and know too much. You might have to get a whole lot of that to know Christ, see. So, look at Moses.

And now, let's turn back to Abraham. God told Abraham, “Now, you're an old man seventy-five years old. You've lived with your wife since she was a girl, little child, little sixteen or eighteen-year-old girl, and now she's sixty-five (forty, fifty, sixty ... about twenty-five years past menopause), but I'm going to give you a child by her.”

As I said last night, could you imagine when Abraham went down to the doctor to make arrangements for the birth of this child at seventy-five and his wife sixty-five? Why, today they'd want to place him in a mental institution, see. But he bought up all the clothes and whatever it taken for the baby. Why, I can hear them say, “The poor old fellow; he's getting old now, it's something slipped, see. You just watch that.” The carnal mind thinks that, but what was the difference? Abraham had been in the presence of God. He had the revelation. He had the covenant, and he knowed that God would keep it.

In our reading here tonight; he, in the presence of God, spoke like God, and he called those things that were not as though they were, for he was fully persuaded that God was able to keep that which he had said.

And may I stop here just for a moment to.... This lovely audience tonight. Someone said to me said, “Brother Branham, aren't you afraid that sometime you'll make a mistake when on that discernment?”

No, sir. Why? It's to fulfill the Word of God. Jesus said, “These things that I do, shall you also.” And in the presence of God, God made the promise, and God's obligated to His promise. And no matter how ridiculous it looked for a sixty-five-year-old woman to bring forth a baby by a man seventy-five years old, and how the scientists and doctors would've thought that was impossible, but Abraham believed it. And not only did he believe it, but he made ready for it. I like that. He acted as though it was already over.

Anybody that ever got anything with God, took God at His Word, and acted as though it was absolutely finished, for when.... Here it is: For when God speaks the Word, It's already finished. That's right. God's Word is forever confirmed in heaven. Oh, my, I like that. Already finished; as soon as it leaves the lips of God, it's a word, and it has to materialize.

When little Mary coming.... The virgin, coming from the spring that day with the kettle over her head, or a pot of water. Maybe it was Monday, the washday, but when the great Angel, Gabriel, met her and said, “Hail, Mary.” Means “stop.” “Blessed art thou among women, because you found favor with God.” And he told her that she was going to have a baby, knowing no man.

Now, if you.... About a few months before that, he had met a preacher by the name of Zacharias, and he told him he was.... His wife was getting old, (so probably in her late forties), and he told him that he was going to have a baby by his wife, and that preacher doubted it. Said, “How could these things be? My wife's old and so forth.” After he had been praying for that all the time, but he questioned when he had many examples: of Hannah at the temple, and he also had of Sarah (here we're speaking of), but he failed to believe it.

But what did Mary say? She never questioned it. She said, “Behold the handmaid of the Lord. Be it unto me according to thy word.” And what did she do? She never waited till she was positive. She never waited.... You're a mixed audience, you'd listen to your doctor, and I'm your brother, but listen. She never waited till she felt life or anything else that she was positive. As long as God said so, that was enough for her to have it. She took God at His word, and begin testifying that she was going to have a baby before she had any evidence other than the Word of God. You see? She was Abraham's seed. Just as soon as God says so, and you read it in the Bible, take Him at His Word, and start thanking Him for it.

When the Holy Ghost fell on the people at Pentecost, they'd took God's Word. He never said, “You wait up there two days, three days, ten days.” He said, “You wait until,” and they were up there thanking Him and praising Him for His promise when the Holy Ghost came. Take Him at His Word. Thank Him for it. If you need healing, you need liberation from anything, receive it, believe it, take His Word, thank Him for it, and call those things which are not as though they were—if they're anything with God's Word.

Now, how's this woman sixty-five years old and a man seventy-five years old going to have this baby? but God said so. And they made arrangements for it. Now, Abraham failed to do like the human being. Now, if the covenant would've been on conditions right here his.... First thing, his daddy give him a lot of trouble. Then his father died, and then instead of separating himself, he took a big bunch along with him. That's about the way we do. You know what I mean. All right. I won't have to speak that, 'cause I believe you caught that. All right.

Next thing what taken place? There was Lot. When God said, “Separate yourself from everybody,” the walk with Christ is an individual walk. You walk, you stand alone with you and God alone. Not you and the pastor; you and God alone. Not you and the deacon. Sometimes you and your wife, you and your husband; but you and God alone. You stand alone on your convictions. Salvation is not a church affair; it's an individual affair.

Church is a gathering place where we come in one common grounds and worship God. But salvation isn't because you've joined the church, it's because you've believed on the Lord Jesus Christ and accepted Him as your personal Saviour; and then you have to do more than that, now. It isn't just a make-believe.

Some very good Baptist friend of mine.... You know I'm a Baptist myself, but I'm a Baptist that got the Holy Ghost. Look. So look. He said to me, said, “Brother Branham, you're speaking of the Holy Ghost.” He said, “Well, we receive the Holy Ghost when we believe.”

I said, “Oh, no. That's not what Paul said. Paul in Acts 19 said, 'Have you received (talking to Baptist people, Apollos' converts (Yes, sir.), the converted lawyer) He said, 'Have you received the Holy Ghost since you believed?'” That's right.

Why, he said, “Brother Branham, Abraham believed God, and it was imputed unto him for righteousness. What more could a man do but believe God?”

I said, “That's all he can, but God give him the seal of circumcision as recognizing his faith.”

And you say you've got faith, and God's never give you the Holy Ghost yet to seal it, and the Holy Ghost is the seal of God. Ephesians 4:30 says, “Grieve not the Holy Spirit of God whereby you're sealed until the day of your redemption.” And if you say you believed and never received the Holy Ghost yet, then God hasn't recognized your faith. But God gave Abraham a sign of recognition of his faith by circumcision, and He gives you a sign of the recognition of your confessed faith in Him—professed faith—when He gives you the baptism of the Holy Ghost to seal it as a finished work. How long? Until the day of your redemption, not till the next revival, but till the day that you're redeemed from this earth. Amen.

A finished.... A seal represents a finished work. The boxcar's loaded and the seal is on it: it's completed; it's finished. It's bound for its destination. Woe to anyone who'll break the seal. Amen.

Oh, I feel real religious tonight somehow. I really do. Notice, where's the Word? See, the Word brings life, and Abraham.... Then what happened? Lot.... There become a quarrel, and then after Lot was separated.... We don't have time. I watch that clock there, but we don't have time to get.... We just hit the high spots now for a moment.

Notice. Then when Abraham's herdsmen and Lot's herdsmen got to arguing with each other, Lot was already backslidden in his heart, and he went towards Sodom; and you know the end of him. But Abraham as soon as he had done what God told him to do to separate himself from his kindred and everything.... Now, you say, “What about Sarah. Him and Sarah's one. You and your wife are one, see. But now, and Sarah was in the covenant with him, 'cause she was the wife.

But notice. When he separated himself from Lot and Lot's wife.... I imagine Mrs. Lot wanted to belong to all the lotteries and everything going along through the country, you know. So she was a hindrance to him.

And the Bible said, “Let us lay aside every weight and the sin that so easily beset us, when we're in this journey. Let us run with patience the race that's set before us, looking to the Author and Finisher of our faith, the Lord Jesus Christ.”

Notice, then when he got separated from Lot, what did God appear to him in again? After he separated himself and done what God told him to do, then God come to him. And when God tells you to do anything, you'd better go do it, or you might not see Him no more for awhile, see. Do what God tells you to do. That's your next move, is to obey God.

Then when he got himself separated from Lot, then God appeared to him and said, “Abraham, you made a nice choice. You told Lot to take his choice.” And Lot went down towards Sodom, because, oh, the big time's down there. Oh, my. They had all kinds of games and races and big times at night, and a place to watch television if it would've been such a thing, and all the ... everything, you know, and just take it easy. That's the way people like to go with the waters of least resistance, like you're going to live here forever. You're not.

And notice. Then when he did, Abraham took the poor and barren land, but when God appeared to him, He said, “Abraham, stand up. Look to the east. Look to the west. Look north and south.” Said, “Every bit of it I'll give to you.” Said, “Now, Abraham, I want you to walk through it.” Amen. Excuse me for being just a little undignified tonight, but “walk through it. It's your possession. It belongs to you.”

Every person that comes to Christ, every promise in the Book belongs to them. Go through it. Find out whether healing belongs to you, whether salvation, or the baptism of the Holy Ghost, or whether Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever. When you possess anything and it belongs to you, walk through it. Amen. Brother, I love it. Investigate.

You know, it's like a great big arcade, and there's everything in it. You know, it is a big arcade of God's blessings, and by one Spirit we're all baptized into this arcade of God's blessings. I'll go along and look at this. That's mine. I turn around and look at this. That's mine. Look over here. That's mine. Look over here. That's mine. That's right. It's all mine. “Every promise in the Book is mine, every chapter, every verse, every line. I'm trusting in His love divine. Every promise in the Book is mine.” It belongs to me. It's your property, if you'll do it. Anybody that does it. God promised it. [Someone speaks in tongues and another interprets.] Amen.

Every promise is ours, isn't it? Every gift belongs to us. Christ belongs to me. I belong to Christ. You belong to Christ, and Christ belongs to you. You're a part of Him. You hear what he said? Every promise, everything in the Book. Everything, all right. God making a promise. He gave it to Abraham. He gave it to his seed. Separate yourself. Walk alone with God and find out if that isn't true. God made the promise.

Now, and then when he did, He said, “All this is yours. Now, something seems just a little too high for you. If you're in your arcade, and something is up on a shelf, you never.... You don't know just exactly.... ”Maybe I could....“ Why, get you a ladder and climb up. Look at it; it's yours. And the best ladder I know of is prayer; that's right. Climb right on up. Just keep praying. God, did You make that promise? It's Your Bible. Is it for me? ”Whosoever will, let him come.“ Amen. You find yourself right up there looking into it then. God made the promise. God's obligated to His promise. Amen. Do you believe that?

Now, one more look; quotation. [Someone speaks in tongues and someone interprets.] Amen. We thank the Lord. Blessed be.... Amen. Now, if I understand the Word right (see), this would be God that was speaking, you see. So now maybe He would want me then to call the prayer line, I'll finish my sermon tomorrow night (see) if He do it. Now, let's bow our heads just a moment for prayer.

Now, heavenly Father, we wonder if I might not have been speaking right, or what was it, speaking of Yours, but seemingly that something You broke in. So, Lord, You promised the blessing according to that interpretation to the people, and we pray now that in the manifestation of Thy love and power, will You shed forth Your blessings upon the people? And if it's time for the prayer line then, make it known, Lord, in a mighty outpouring of Thy blessings.

And now, forgive us if we're wrong. We pray that grace will overshadow us, and that we'll be working in Your divine providence tonight, that Your power and blessings will be upon us and will keep us. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.

Now, how many's sick and needy tonight? Let's see your hands now. How many's needy? All right. That's good. That's wonderful. All right. Now, I want to say something just before we call the prayer line. Look, if Jesus Christ has raised from the dead.... How many believes that He has? All right.

How many has never been in one of our meetings before? Let's see your hands. Just a very few tonight. All right. You know the order of the meeting. Now, it's my contention that no man can heal. Not even a doctor claims to heal. Now, I've been interviewed. You read the “Reader's Digest” about a year or something ago, it was in October a year ago or something like that, on the healing of little Donny Martin, that Mayo Brothers had give up. And they brought him to the platform in California, and there the vision showed the little boy was healed (see), and they packed a big article of it, and I was at Mayo Brothers for an interview. All right.

They say, “We do not claim to be healers. We only claim to assist nature. There's one Healer. That's God.”

Let me show you something just how simple it is. Watch. For instance, I'd cut my hand tonight. I'd use this illustration. I cut my hand. Now, there isn't a medicine in the world that can heal that cut, not a one. Now, that's true. Any medicine that'd heal a cut in my hand would heal a cut in my coat. It would heal a cut in this desk, see. It would heal a cut on the floor. Why, you say, “Brother Branham, medicine wasn't made to heal your coat, and your desk, and so forth. It was made to heal your body.”

All right. Now, I cut my hand, and I fall down dead. They embalm my body to make me look natural for fifty years, and let the doctor come and give me a shot of penicillin. Put in sulfa drugs. Pour in Tincture Methiolate. Sew it up, and if my body, won't decay for fifty years, that cut will be just exactly like it was when it was cut. Is that right? Well now, if medicine is made to heal a human body, why don't it heal it?

Well, you say, “Brother Branham, life is gone out of it.”

Oh, that's different, isn't it? You tell me what life is and I'll tell you who God is, see, see. Medicine only keeps clean while God builds tissue. He's a Creator. Now, healing is a creation, and there's no one....

And I want to ask some of you brethren here that believes that Satan can heal. If Satan can heal, he's a creator. He has to. And what have you got then? Satan can't create. He never created nothing. He can pervert, but not create, see. There's only One Creator, and that's God alone. And any healing can't come by man or nothing else. It has to come by the Creator alone.

What about if I was just cranking my T Model Ford, and I broke my arm? And I run in and say, “Hey, doctor, heal my arm right quick. It's broke. I've got to finish cranking that Ford.”

Why, he'd say, “You need healing somewhere else.”

Well, that's right. Now the doctor.... What can he do? That would be the thing to do. Go to him. He'll set my arm, pull the bones back, put it under x-ray and see it. Put a splint on it. It isn't healed. It's no more healed than it was when I went in. He sets it and leaves it for God to heal. God's the only One can do it. “I am the Lord who forgives all your iniquities, who heals all your diseases.” Healing is alone in God, alone can heal. He's the only Creator, and the only thing that can heal.

Now, the doctor can remove a tooth. Who stops the blood? A doctor can cut appendix. Who heals the hole where he cut? He can cut out a tumor, but who heals the cut? God's the healer. He removes the tumor, and God done the healing, see. God is the only Healer, never a hospital, never a doctor, never medicine. If a doctor tells you that he's the healer, you can imagine he's a quack. And when a preacher tells you he's a healer, he's a quack too. That's right, because there's only one healer. That's God, and that's right—God.

So there's need of thinking also how much oil if it runs out by the gallons, and you claim that's divine oil, it's an antichrist spirit dealing with you, 'cause what happened to the blood of Christ if that's got anything to do with it, see. It's absolutely not. It's fantastics, and the devil in the world today, like Jannes and Jambres withstood Moses such.... That's not in the Bible. There's no such as that. If God wanted you to pour out oil, He'd have made you Texas oil well, or an olive tree, or something, but He made you a human being to preach the Gospel and to bring the message to the people of salvation of the finished work of Jesus Christ. Amen. That might be strong, but it's the truth. I'd rather be honest here and tell you the truth than have to answer for it at the day of judgment for you. That's right.

Now, healing belongs alone to God. It's the finished work of Christ at Calvary. Don't forget that, church, whatever you do. And every blessing that's in everything that you lost in the fall, Christ redeemed back to you at Calvary. It's been finished two thousand years ago. Every person that's ever healed, every person that's ever saved was saved when Jesus died at the cross and finished the work. He screamed to the Father, “It's finished”: All of it, the complete plan of salvation. And now we have the earnest of our salvation.

Now, divine healing is not on the same basis as salvation. Divine healing was included in the atonement truly. The old atonement had divine healing, and the new one is much better than the old one. So if it's better, it's got to be better in every way, but divine healing.... Salvation of the soul, you become a new creature—eternal life. You don't have eternal health by healing, but it's an attribute. It's the earnest of your resurrection. If there's no divine healing, then there is no resurrection, see. But now, what is it? It's your own personal faith in a finished work of Christ at Calvary.

Now, what does He do? The first initial way is just like we were going a few minutes ago. Hear the Word; and faith cometh by hearing and hearing of the Word. God wanting to be kind to you. He sends gifts in the church. Some of them is what we heard awhile ago: speaking with tongues and interpretations. God sends wisdom, knowledge, gifts of healing. Then He sets in the church apostles, prophets, teachers, evangelists, pastors. All those things are for the perfecting of the body of Christ, that we might have all the differences combed out of us and how the Holy Spirit....

You know, the Bible said, “Come and buy of Me the gold tried in the fire. In the old days when they used to try gold, they beat it. And they'd take gold and lay it down, and beat it, and beat it, and turn it over, and beat it, and beat it, and beat it, until all the dross was out of it; all the dirt was out of the gold. And the way the beater could tell: he could see his own reflection in it. Every time he'd beat and beat until he could see himself in the gold, he knowed the dirt was beat out.

And that's the way the Holy Spirit does to the church. It beats the stuff out of us, the indifference, the dross, and things that don't belong into us that Christ's image reflects back into His church ... or, He reflects Himself in His church, because the Bible said in Hebrews 13:8, “He's the same yesterday, today, and forever.”

Now, we mustn't walk at this or go at this with a half-hearted attitude. We must go with a full surrendered attitude. We must come to the church and listen to the Bible, and if anything is brought out of this Bible, believe it. If it's not out of the Bible, then it's up to you. But the Bible is God's foundation plan. It's His plan of redemption. It's His plan of healing. It's the plan of everything that He has, is laid out right here; and the Bible said, “Woe unto him that will add to or take out.” This is it. I believe the Word.

I've been into churches, and watched how people, a lot of times, in churches ... watch how the pastor acts. The church will act that way. Friends, I say this (not as sharp talking), but I say it as a servant of Christ to be honest with you. Many times they get one another's spirit instead of the Holy Spirit (see); and that's the reason when you act.... It makes them act alike.

Notice, but that's the reason when I come to you, I know nothing but the Bible. I want you to have the Spirit that's in the Bible, which is the Spirit of Christ; and that's the reason I try to stay in the Word and get nothing but what's in the Word (see), and bring it to the people.

Now, Christ is alive tonight. If He isn't alive, then the Bible's wrong and you're lost; you're in the world without God, without hope; and when you die, you're finished.

But if Christ is alive tonight, and you believe in Him and He has accepted your faith as you have confessed in Him, then you ought to be the most happiest person in all the world, because your salvation is paid for. You're secured safely in the arms of Christ, sealed. You are dead. Your life is hid in God through Christ and sealed by the Holy Ghost. How can the devil ever touch you, see? For you are dead. Your life is hid in God through Christ and sealed by the Holy Ghost. That's the Scripture.

You are just as bound for heaven as Christ went to heaven Himself, and you're free from judgment. Christ took our judgment, and God could not judge you again. He would be unjust to send you to judgment. He'd be untruthful to send you to judgment, because He judged Christ in your stead; and He was bruised for our iniquities; and there when He judged Christ, He let us go free, because Christ took our judgment.

Jesus said in Saint John 5:24, “He that heareth My words, and believeth on him that sent Me, hath (present tense) eternal, everlasting life, and shall never come into the judgment, but's done passed from death unto life.” That's the Scripture. Then God could not be just and judge you. We will never stand at the judgment bar. I've already stood one time, and I realize how guilty I was, and I asked forgiveness, and He accepted me; and my judgment's been paid on Calvary, and everyone of yours the same. We have nothing to fear. Everything is in Christ. Christ has....

To make it sure, He knew infidelity, and unbelief, and skeptics, and so forth, would rise in the last days. He was God. He could foresee. He knew the mind of God as God revealed it to Him. He said, “I do nothing till the Father shows Me.” Everything Christ did, He did it by a vision. That's right. No miracles did Christ do on earth without first seeing a vision from God. He said so. Now, He just didn't go around at random and do this and do that and do this. You got the wrong conception of Him.

The Bible said.... Jesus said Himself, “Verily, verily, I say unto you, the Son can do nothing in Himself,” see. “I can do nothing in Myself, but what I see the Father doing, that doeth the Son likewise.” Now, it's either right or wrong. To me it's right. It's God's Word, and that settles it.

Watch His life, everything along, everywhere. It was always the Father showed Him. He worked right straight to do what the Father told Him. He said, “Now, these things that I do, shall you also, for I go unto My Father. A little while the world won't see Me no more. Yet you shall see Me, for I will be with you, to the end of the world. I'll even be in you to the end of the world.”

Christ has died, suffering in the flesh, put to death for our sins and sickness. He ascended up on high to the right hand of the Father, and the Spirit that was in Him returned back into the church, as He was the first Son of God and we are joint-heirs with Him in the kingdom, by being the adopted children by His adoption, and His plan of salvation that He introduced to us, and give to us by His grace. And tonight we are a part of God and can no more perish than God can perish. I give.... “He that heareth my words, believeth on Him that sent Me has eternal life.”

And any Bible reader or scholar that would want to question that, see if in the original that isn't said “Sozo” there. That's right. Sozo means “the life of God Himself is in you,” and you can no more perish than God can, and “I will raise him up at the last day,” said Jesus. Amen. 'Cause that life is in you.

Here some time ago I was sitting talking to an old Methodist preacher, an old, good friend of mine, and we were talking. And the Agricultural Hour come on. The little 4-H Club of Louisville, Kentucky, was talking about where they had invented a machine that could turn out grains of corn that looked so perfect that it makes just the same kind of cornmeal that the original corn would make. It would make the same kind of cornflakes, and to take a handful out of the sack that the machine made and a handful out of the sack that was growed in the field and mix them together, you could not tell them apart. You'd take them into there, and you'd cut them open. They had the same amount of moisture, the same amount of calcium, same.... Every chemical was just in it exactly the same.

They said, “There's only one way you can tell them: bury them. The one that man made has not a germ of life in it and will lay there. The one that God made has life in it, and lives again.”

I said, “You'd better hold my hand, preacher; I'll embarrass you here as sure as the world.”

There's two men can go to church and both of them act like Christians and so this.... They're deacons on the board together, pastors in the pulpit together, whatever you might say, but one of them has life, and the other has not. And those that's got eternal life will raise in the resurrection with the Lord Jesus Christ, because Christ has raised from the dead, and He's alive among us tonight; and He is not dead.

And our religion of Jesus Christ is not a vain philosophy but it's a living, present-tense fellowship with the Holy Ghost, and Christ right here in the church tonight, performing, and doing, and pressing in shape, and healing, and manifesting Himself to prove He's alive among His people. Hallelujah. How wonderful. Let us pray.

Heavenly Father, now the Word.... Faith cometh by hearing and hearing of the Word. We pray tonight that You'll manifest Yourself and let this audience, Lord.... Someday we've got to answer at the day of the judgment. If You will just come tonight and do the same things that You did, then it would have to be a demon-possessed person that would turn their bowels of compassion away from Calvary, and walk away, and say it was wrong.

It would be like the Pharisees that stood on the day when they seen Jesus performing the work and told Philip and Nathanael when they come up, where he was before he come, and told Peter a few minutes before that that his name was Simon. He was the son of Bar-jonas. And the Pharisees wanted to tell him he had Beelzebub. And we know that our Lord said, “I will forgive you for that, but when the Holy Ghost is come and does it, it'll never be forgiven if you speak a word against it.”

And Father God, we pray tonight that You'll give the sheep Your bread tonight, the bread of life. These who are struggling here in Boston, this great big fabulous city, where sin heaping on every side, bootleg joints, mother's boys strewn out across the street here drunk, and how that these big churches with their big spires standing up there, Lord, and failing. O God, oh how it burns in my heart when I think of their cold, formal, indifference, and how they stand stiff and starchy and warn the people against coming to hear Your message and so forth.

O God, I pray that You'll burn into this city. Send an old-fashioned revival after the closing here, and sweep it from coast to coast, from shore to shore, that they'll know that You have raised from the dead.

Feed Your hungry sheep, Lord. Oh, how many of these people sitting here tonight, old men that's preached the Gospel for years, that's stood by looking for the time to come when God would restore these things. How that women have sat here, they've prayed and read their Bible and stained it, how they've been called out of names —holy-rollers, and all kinds of fanatic names—and how they've been tossed about, but still with a heart looking to You.

O Christ, manifest Yourself tonight to them. Let them know that their faith is in not vain, but that You live and You see every move and action and know everything in their heart. Grant it, Lord.

And when the service is closed, may we bow our heads, and give praise to Thee, and worship Thee, and make ourselves ready as far as we can, to go, and to serve you, and to do everything that we know that's in our power that's to do right. Permit this to us tonight, Father, through Thy grace, and in the blood; and in the name of Jesus Christ we ask it. Amen.

I don't know why I just can't close, look like somehow, but now, my dear friends, now may the Lord Jesus bless. Now, we're going to call a prayer line to pray for the sick. I've clearly explained to you: I cannot heal, and I believe no one else can. The only thing that you can do is accept what I've told you.

Now, it said ... the Bible has said (That wasn't my subject tonight.), but Christ is alive. If you're the seed of Abraham, you're bound to recognize it. “My sheep know My voice.” Certainly. Jesus said that and so when.... If you're the seed of Abraham, you'll recognize the Spirit of Abraham, of Christ, which come through Abraham by the flesh. So then may the Lord grant to you tonight that your eyes of understanding will be opened. And if you're here tonight as a lukewarm church member, I'm not criticizing you, mister, my brother. I believe you to be a Christian if you've confessed Christ, but just in a lukewarm state.

You, my sister, I'm not criticizing you, but I'm trying to tell you: Stop that little, old, formal way you're living in. Come into Christ. Be anointed and go out and do something for Him. Don't leave your churches. Make a real, on-fire Christian in your church. That's what it is. God will take care of the rest of it for you.

If you'll just simply accept....

If you're a sinner and never have accepted Christ, won't you do it tonight? I'm saying this, because I'm trying to find favor with Him, that He will come down and perform what we're asking about, what we're going to ask Him to do: to appear here on this platform. Not as a (Oh, what would I call it?) as a stage show; never. That's not the attitude. That's not the spirit I'm speaking in.

I'm speaking to represent Jesus Christ to a dying world to let them get their faith centered in Him to know that our religion of Christ and the Bible is not some fictitious book, or some ... a book like the Koran, or some other book. It's a living Book with a living Christ. It's a living church. God grant that He will do it.

Now, I forgot to.... Prayer cards. Did you give out prayer cards? Okay. How many? One hundred and what? What's the letter? “I.” All right. Let's start with number 1 then. Who has prayer card number 1? Raise up your hand right quick now. We'll call the prayer line. 1, all right. “I” I believe, did someone...? All right, “I” then. “I” number 1. I think there's some more letters out, but we'll start with “I” then. “I” number 1. Who has it? Raise up your hand. The lady back there. Come here, lady. Number 2, would you raise your hand?

Look at your neighbor now while I call their number. They may be deaf, can't hear; or they may be crippled can't walk. And so, number 1, number 2, raise up your hand quickly if you will. Prayer card number 2, would you raise your hand quickly? You have it, lady? The colored lady there, is it number 2? Number 1. I-1? Now, there can't be two I-1's here. Billy, you'd better check the lady's card.

All right. Number 2 then. Who has number 2? Raise up your hand? Up in the balcony? That boy? All right, sonny, come right here. Number 3, would you raise your hand up high so I can see you? Number 3, the man here. All right. Right out there, sir. Number 4? Would you raise your hand quickly? You have it, lady? Number 5? All right. Number 5, here, lady. 6? 7? 8? Raise your hand. 8? Prayer card number 8, raise your hand, please. All right. 9? All right. 10? 11?

Just raise your hand real quick. We can get them up here quick, if you'll just be quick. Look at your card. Look at your neighbor's card. Look around and see somebody with a card in their hand. Look at it. Look at this little boy here. Has he got a card? I see he couldn't walk. Has he got a card? Has it ever been called yet? All right. Just watch his card. All right.

Number, I believe, that's 7 or 8; 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15. Let those get up and come. See if they can all get there, 'cause if they lose their number, why, that doesn't mean now for any other purpose but just to keep you lined up, my dear friend.

How many here doesn't have a prayer card and you believe Jesus Christ will make you well? Let's see your hands. And you believe Him. Anywhere, I don't care where you are. Just believe it. All right. Now, while they're watching the line there to line up. I believe I called 15. All right. Was 15 my last number? All right. Now, see if they've got there, and then we will.... All right.

Look. If Jesus Christ has raised from the dead, the Bible said in Hebrews 13:8, let's quote it together: “Jesus Christ, the same yesterday, today, and forever.”

Now, what was the sign that He was Jesus Christ in the New Testament, foretold by the Old Testament, and produced, or made manifest, in the New Testament? Would you like to know? All right. We'll just take a couple, just a little bit here.

When a Jew found Him, in the Jewish religion, a real true Orthodox Jew found Him, He recognized Him to be the Son of God, the King of Israel. What did Jesus do to make Him recognize that He was the Son of God? He told him that he was a believer, and an honest man, and told him that he saw him praying under a tree before he come. How many knows that's right? And what did the Jew say? “Thou art the Son of God. You're the King of Israel.” Is that right? That's what he said.

Peter recognized it when he come and Peter said.... Brought him before the Lord and Jesus said, “Your name is Simon, and your father's name is Jonas, but,” said, “I'm going to name you again. I'm going to call you Petra,” which means “a little stone.” I wonder what the apostle thought.

“How did He know who I was, and what my name was, and what my daddy's name was?”

And when ... He knew that this Hebrew had come from around the mountain, and the day before, Jesus said, “I saw you under a tree.” How could He see him thirty miles around behind the mountain? But He saw him, as He said, “I can do nothing except the Father shows Me first. What I see the Father do, that I do also.” That was the sign of the Messiah. Is that right?

Is the little boy there the first patient? Oh, you are. Come here just a minute. Here's another illustration. Here's a man and a woman standing here, for the newcomers. Now, there was a sign of this, one time in the Bible. There was a woman who recognized Him to be the Christ, in the Bible. She was a Samaritan, and one day Jesus was going down to Jericho, but the Father told Him, “Go up to Samaria.” Now, here's Jericho. Here's Jerusalem, and over there's Samaria. So going to Jericho He went the round-about way, way up here to Samaria, for He said He had need. He said He did nothing till the Father showed Him.

Now, watch. He sits down on the well, and He sends the disciples away. That's perhaps what His vision called for. Would you believe that? He did nothing till the Father showed Him. Well, when the woman.... When all of them went away, a woman come out. We believe her to be a prostitute, a woman of ill-fame, about noontime. She come out to get a jug of water, and when she got the jug up, got her water ... perhaps starting to lift it up on her head, Jesus, a middle-aged Hebrew man, sitting over to one side, said, “Bring Me a drink.”

Well, she looked around and said, “It's not customary for you Jews to ask Samaritans such. We don't have any dealings with each other.”

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

And she said, “Well, you've got nothing to draw with.” She said, “Now, we know that our father, Jacob, dug this well, and he gave it to us, and his cattle drank from it. And you mean you're greater than our father, Jacob?” She said, “We worship in this mountain and you say at Jerusalem.”

And the conversation went on at length, Him and her talking together. And finally when He caught her spirit, He said, “Go get your husband and come here.”

She said, “I don't have any husband.”

Said, “That's right. You've got five, and the one you've got now is not yours, so you said well.” Is that what He said? Now, watch what she said.

She said, “Sir, I perceive that You are a prophet.” Now, what is a prophet's spirit. What I talk about the big diamond last night with the many glistening lights off of it. God is a main, and these are just gifts out of God: prophets, teaching, evangelists, it's just lights from God. “I perceive that You are a prophet, 'cause You didn't know me. You wouldn't know what my trouble was, and that's my trouble. But we know that when the Messiah cometh....”

Do you believe Jesus was the Messiah, the One that's the same yesterday, today, and forever? But watch this Samaritan woman. See what the Hebrew recognized Him that.

She said, “When the Messiah cometh, He'll tell us all things. We know that He'll do these things when He comes, but who are You?

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

And she dropped the pot and run into the city and said, “Come, see a man,” she said, “that told me all things.” Now, He didn't do that. He just told her one thing, but if the Father would've showed Him more, He'd have told her more; but she was all excited. It would excite you. And she wanted to tell the men, “Come here. Let me show you. Here ... here's the man told me the things that I done. Come. Isn't this the very Messiah?”

In other words, “Gentlemen of this city, don't you recognize that that's the sign of the Messiah, and He's sitting out there at the gate.” There you are, see. “He's sitting out there. Come, see.”

And they went out to find out. He never done anything like that to them, but His talk. He was right with the Scripture, and they knowed that that was the Messiah. So He didn't do any more miracles because He knowed that Philip was going down there to hold that revival after Pentecost, see. So He just let the miracle alone till Philip come down.

Now, notice. Now, if that was the sign ... if that was the works and the sign of the Messiah yesterday, and if He's raised from the dead, it's the sign of the Messiah tonight, if He is the same yesterday, today, and forever. Is that right? Now, how many would believe that? Would your raise you hand if you'd say I've actually.... All over the church, no matter who you are, you'd believe? All right.

Now, some didn't raise your hand, but, of course, you wouldn't believe anyhow, see. So if an Angel rose from ... a man rose from the dead, Jesus said, and would come back, they still wouldn't believe it. Is that right? You're just fulfilling prophecy, because no matter if one did raise from the dead, and if He did raise from the dead, and this night in this church, that Scripture that Jesus said is fulfilled: “Though one raise from the dead, they would not believe it.” And He's raised from the dead and proving Himself to be here and still you don't believe it.

Now, have faith and believe. Now, the lady, I suppose, to me is a stranger that I never seen in my life. We're strangers, are we, lady? Now, if that's right, raise up your hand. I never seen the lady in my life, knowingly. God knows that. I know nothing of her, and it's a hard matter. I'm going to ask the sister if she will chord, “Abide With Me” softly, if you will.

Now, let me say this. I felt warned to say it. What happens to unclean spirits when they go out of a person? They try to find a place to get into; and in the Bible times, did they go into unbelief? They sure did, and we've seen it happen thousands of times.

Now, this woman standing here, I don't know her. She might be here as a deceiver. If she is, watch what happens to her; and if she's here for sickness, I pray God will heal her. If she's here for finances, whatever it is, if she's a woman that owes a great debt, and they're going to foreclose on her, I pray God give her the money. If she's got domestics affair, I pray that God will help her. I don't know. God alone knows.

But if she's standing here, and if I could do something for the lady and wouldn't do it, then what kind of a person would I be as a minister? I wouldn't be worthy to be called a minister. You believe that, lady? But I couldn't do nothing for you, lady.

But now, I'm going to change this picture now. Just take yourself back in the Bible time and say.... Now, like that scene I was just talking about, the Christ at the well. Now I'm not the Christ, and she's not the Samaritan, but it's a man and a woman again that never met before.

And now, if He's raised from the dead and will do the same things that He did when He was here on earth, He would know you. If it's for sickness, He would know what your sickness was. He could tell you that, but to heal you, He couldn't. He's already did it at Calvary. It would be your faith, and then it would be your personal faith in His resurrection, and His benefits for You at Calvary, and His resurrection for your justification. Do you believe that? You do.

And if God in heaven will send down His Spirit.... And the only things I can do, lady, is just surrender myself to Him. And He has to do the talking, 'cause I don't know nothing about you. And if He will speak and tell me what you're here for (Now, you know what it is.), or something like He did in the Bible, would you believe it to be Him? You know.... And the audience, would you believe it?

Now, here we are, not in a dark room. We're here before at least a thousand people. And it's been done before five hundred thousand people. See? But not some dark room, some witchcraft, and muttering, and guessing. It's God Almighty. He's permitting His blessings to come to us, see.

What is a soothsayer? What is a fortuneteller? It's a perverted spirit, that the devil has taken that person who could've been used for God and perverted it into the devil's work. What is sin? It's righteousness perverted, not nothing the devil created, something different. It's what God created, and the devil perverted it, see.

Now, I trust that He'll help you, lady. Now, you'd know it would be some kind of.... It'd have to be a supernatural, wouldn't it? Then whatever it would be would determine what you'd get from it—your approach. When the woman that went to Elijah to ask about her baby.... If she'd come up there critical, she'd have never got what she asked for.

The Roman soldier that put a rag around Jesus' head, and hit him, and said, “Tell us who hit you.” He didn't get anything, not even an answer. But the woman that touched His garment, she got an answer, didn't she? It was her approach (see), and it's your approach and anybody else's approach; and it's my approach to Him. If I said I did this within myself, I'd be telling a lie, see. So I approach and tell God. It's Him permitting me to do this, and it's not for my sake. No, sir.

I keep my meetings little and like that to keep from even having big meetings and things. I don't have radio, television. I just let it go, see. 'Cause I don't want to be something in the picture of the world. I want to be God's servant to speak when He tells me to speak, see. And say what He says say, that when I come there that day, I want to hear Him say, “It was well done.” That's what I want to hear. That's what I live for. If it wasn't for that, I wouldn't have my little babies and things sitting down yonder tonight and crying for me, see. I'd be down there with them. I'm here to try to help somebody, for the glory of God.

Now, you say, “Brother Branham, what are you doing?” I'm speaking to you like Christ spoke to the woman, and now if Christ will grant it, may He do it.

I can see the lady, as she's.... As our Master said, He saw him under a tree. That was Nathanael, and I can see her standing weeping. She's suffering with kind of a real nervous condition and her head bothers her all the time. That is right, and it was some sort of a shock that did that, but I see you weeping. You're.... Oh, it was ... your husband has just deceased and went home. That's right.

You're not from this country. You've come from another state here. You're from a state where there's a lot of hardwood trees. It's Pennsylvania. That's right. God bless you, my sister, and God bless you, my believing audience. Let us pray.

Our heavenly Father, Daniel said of old, “There is a God of heaven that can reveal the secrets of the heart.” And truly it was no other than the Lord Jesus who stood in the fiery furnace with the Hebrew children, that was in the den ... a light standing there. And those lions was afraid of that pillar of fire, the Angel of the Lord. And You're a light today, bringing light to Your church to walk in.

And I pray, Father, that You'll bless this woman and give to her the desire of her heart. Grant it, Father. I bless her as Your servant and Thou has said, “Whatever you bind on earth, I will bind it in heaven,” and God, I ask that the devil be bound and will torment this woman no more, and may she go in peace in Jesus Christ's name. Amen.

God bless you, lady. Whatever it was your desire is.... 'Course I'd have to find the tape to know what it was. Go and believe you receive it, and you shall have it. Do you believe? All right. Be reverent.

Now, in the audience, are you believing, you out there that's praying? A little boy, A little laddie, I sure don't know you, and you look like a fine looking little fellow to me. Little hair slicked down, little brown eyes, reminds me of my Billy when he was little. This little lad here, a dear little child; you know Jesus of Nazareth took little fellows like that into his arms, and He blessed them and said, “Suffer little children to come to me. Forbid them not, for of such is the kingdom.”

So therefore if Jesus.... Do you love Jesus, do you, sonny? And if He was here tonight and had on this suit that He gave me, He would ... I believe He would bless you, if you'd ask Him to, and He would give you the desire of your heart, I believe.

But the first thing He would ask you, if you believed that He was the Messiah, that He had died for you and had rose again. Don't you believe that? Well now, Jesus went up into heaven—His body, corporal body. That's the body He lived in, and it's all scarred and bruised for our sins and for our sickness, and it sets on the throne of God; and the Spirit that was upon Him has come back to the earth, and it dwells among the people. And Jesus sent Brother Branham here to help you to believe on Him.

Now, if Jesus was here, He could tell you what was your trouble, couldn't He? Well, you know Brother Branham don't know you, but Jesus does know you, because you said you loved Him, and He loves you. Now, if He will tell me what you're here for, will you believe it's Him, and will love Him and believe Him with all your heart?

Now, with this little innocent child, surely you people would believe, wouldn't you? Now this, if God will do it, should be convincing to everyone. This child, little innocent boy standing here. I don't know what he's here for. He might be here for somebody else. I don't know. Maybe it's some kind of trouble he has got at home or some.... I don't know. I don't know what he's here for, but God does know the child.

Now, I certainly would hate to stand here as a deceiver to that child. I certainly would; but I only stand here God permit me to help the little fellow to love the Lord Jesus and believe in Him. And surely you adults ought to believe. But you know, the Bible said in one place over there, that in the great Millennium, talking about the innocence, like a little child would lead the animals around. That's simple-like little faith. Now, the little boy is not one of those critics that would stand off. He just opens his little heart. That's the reason Jesus could come in.

The little boy is in a bad, serious condition. The little boy's trouble is in his ear. That's right, isn't it, sonny? It's your ear. It runs, running ear, and I see that they're making ready for an operation for you right away for that. That's right. Right away you're going to have it. They're going to operate on you, and Mommy, your mother, is sick too. Isn't she? And she has something wrong with her blood. Isn't it? It's a poisoning in her blood, like something similar to gangrene in her blood. The doctor's pretty well shook up about it. That's right. That's right, isn't it, son?

You're not from here. You're not from Brooklyn. You're from a place called Long Island. Isn't that right? And you live like a place called Bayshore. That's right. And your name, your first name is Joseph. Isn't it? Your last name is like ... starts with a “B.” B-E-N-T. That's your first beginning of your word. Isn't it? Huh? B-E-T-T.... I see. It fades from me just a moment. It passed from me. Somebody turned in the building, and I didn't get just what his last name was. B ... Cortt. That's right. That's right. Isn't it? That's right. Amen. You believe? Now, it's up to you, friends, whether you believe or not. Come here, sonny.

God in heaven, have mercy on the child. Excuse all the unbelief, Lord, and let Thy mercies rest upon the child, and grant that this child will receive exactly what he come for, as I bless him in Jesus Christ's name. Amen. God bless you, honey.

Now, you know that Brother Branham don't know you, but whatever was said on there. It's on the record there. That was truth, wasn't it? If it was, raise up your little hand like that. All right. Go on your road rejoicing now and be happy and make a real good man.

Are you believing? Or would you still sit in gross darkness and unbelief, seeing that the Messiah lives with you tonight, trying to help you, trying to bless you. How sad it is. How dense unbelief is.

Is this the man? How do you do, sir? I suppose we're strangers to each other. We're strangers. I don't know you. Never seen you in my life, but there's Someone present here who does know you. And if He knows you, then He could, if He would permit me to, to be able to help you somewhere, sir.

I don't know you. But, if He could tell me what you're standing here in front of me for, would you believe it and accept it as Christ trying to help you, permitting me to do this by a divine gift, which was ministered by an Angel of God? It would be.... It wouldn't be contrary to the Scripture, would it? It would be with the Scripture.

You're very nervous, aren't you, sir? Nervous, and you got weak eyes that you want prayer for. Isn't that right? You got weak eyes. And by the way, you're a preacher too, and I hear you say something, like “Gracias.” You speak Spanish or something. That's right. You're a pastor of a church. That's true. Isn't it?

Now, do you believe me? Here's another thing. A desire of your heart has been to meet me for a while. That's right. I'm not reading your mind, but that's your heart. That's right. Well, I'm glad to know you. God in heaven, grant to my brother who's standing in Your presence, our Creator, the Messiah, of God who we love. We pray that You'll give to our brother the desire of his heart and fulfill everything that he asked for in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen. God bless you, my dear brother. God bless you.

Have faith in God. Don't doubt. Believe. Now, just a moment. Be just as reverent as you can be. The lady. It's another picture again like the Bible picture. Do you believe that? There's a lady looking right up towards the heavens over there. She wears a little flower, a little thing on the side of her hat, kind of a greenish looking dress. That's you that shook your head just like that. You were praying and asking God for me to turn and tell you so you can be helped. Isn't that right? You've got trouble in your side. Isn't that right? Just raise your hand now if that's true. Now, you're helped. Your faith touched Him, not me. I don't know you.

I challenge you to believe it. Amen. In the name of the Lord Jesus just believe it and find out if it's right or not. Anywhere, up in the balcony, wherever you are; just have faith in God. Oh, what a feeling. Now, we don't go by the feeling, but His presence. Oh, how.... It just looks like if you just ask anything, it'll be done. Just have faith and be reverent.

And now to you, lady. I suppose we're strangers to each other. We never met each other in life. I know nothing of you, and perhaps you know nothing of me, only just what you've read and being a minister. But you're here for some purpose; and if you're here for some purpose; I don't know what it is.

And, lady, I've got a mother at home tonight. I'd be home with my mother if I didn't think God sent me up here to New York, and I certainly wouldn't want to come here and tell you some false thing about myself, that I could do to help you. I wouldn't do that, because I'd be lying; but if God will permit me to, I might do something in His name that would help you to believe on the finished works of Christ, and receive it. Do you understand? I trust that you do, and that God will grant to you your desire.

If God will let me know what you want to ask God, like it was in prayer, if God will let me know, or maybe say what you've been praying about, your prayer. What's been in your heart.... You think of something else if you think about telepathy, see. You just let God tell me what you've been praying about. Let it come through prayer, and you know whether you asked it or not. May He grant it, and that surely would take the superstition from the unbeliever.

You've been praying for God to help you of a severe nervous case you've been having. That's right. You've prayed for that both day and night. You're praying for a son also, and that son isn't here. He doesn't even live in this city, and that son is suffering with a heart condition. Not only that, but one of the other things you're praying for for him, He's not a Christian, and that's the thing that's on your heart.

However, I see another boy with you, and he's a kid about ten years old, and he's a preacher. And here, the one of your desires of your heart—you be the judge—you are wanting me to lay hands on that boy to bless that boy for his ministry. That's “thus saith the Lord.” Do you believe? Now, you be the judge. Is that true?

Come here, sonny. The little boy's got his hair combed back, is it? I seen him, smooth-faced boy. Come here, sonny. Mother's prayer is to be answered tonight. God bless you, my little brother.

Our heavenly Father, I lay my hands upon this boy as Your little servant, and perhaps someday I'll have to leave if Jesus tarries, and I pray that You'll bless this child. It's the desire of his mother's heart. And I pray that You'll anoint him. May he never go into error, but may he be a minister all the days of his life, to preach the Gospel and to win souls to Thee.

Bless his dear mother and the other things whatever it was that You revealed tonight that she has need of. I pray that You'll grant them, and with my hand on the son and on the mother, I pray that, in Christ's name, that You'll give to them the desire of their heart, in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ I ask it. Amen.

God bless you, sonny, and receive what you called for, and God bless you; and God bless you, mother, and give to you the desire of your heart. Go happy, rejoicing. The promise is yours. Amen. God bless you, honey. If thou canst believe, all things are possible. Now, real reverent just a moment, as we're moving along in the meeting.

Now, how many knows the lady? Is anybody here knows the woman? Sure. All right. You know I don't know the lady. Ask her if I ever knowed her or anything. Knowed nothing of her, but whatever it was, the only way I know it's on this recorder down here. It's a vision. It's Christ permitting you all to know that He's raised from the dead. This is not some fiction. It's the truth.

Now, here is a lady standing here before me, like another place that the Lord to a woman, and where I believe.... Was there a man in the line tonight? Say that man just was told him. What kind of a man was it? Was it a man in the line tonight? You, sir? Was you the man that was in the line prayed for? All right. Now, when the Lord spoke to you, why, He knew you just like He knowed that honest, sincere, religious man called Nathanael. And He knowed something about Nathanael, where Nathanael was, or what Nathanael done, and He knows the same thing about you. See? He can reveal it.

Now, here's a woman. He knows the woman. I don't know the lady. I've never met you in my life. There's not a way for me to know you. But now, if the Lord Jesus will speak again, will it take all the superstitions and doubt from you? Now, remember, He's permitting this. This is His grace to you and to me (see), by permitting a divine gift to operate. Not me. I don't have one thing to do with it, just my mouth is all, and my surrender ... my will surrendered to His. That's all it is. You are the one that's doing it, not me. God's permitting it, but you're doing it.

Now, if I don't know you, never seen you. Then if there's something you're standing here for, God can reveal it to me. Can't He? And if He will, would you believe it come—His permitting will —to help you? Would the rest of the audience believe the same? Does anyone know the lady? Would you raise your hand anybody that knows her? Yes, there's people here that know her, all around. Then you be the judge whether I know her or any way of knowing her. She's just a lady standing here, but do you believe Christ knows her?

Now, Christ loves everybody, and He wants everybody to love Him, and this is His kindness to you, that You might love Him, and believe Him, and have faith in His finished works for you.

Now, be real reverent. I know it's getting late, but if you'll just stand for just one more, and don't move around, I'll appreciate it, see. You are a spirit. If you wouldn't, you'd be dead, and your spirit sometimes when unbelief becomes so dense, it hinders. You remember Jesus Christ. Well, you say, “Brother Branham, that's psychology.” Is it? Then why did Christ take the man out of the multitude to heal him? Then why did Christ put all the unbelievers out of the house before He could raise Jairus' daughter? See, the eye is the gate to the soul, and when you're looking this way, and classing it something else, as I know you are—some—see. Then that's a hindrance. God be merciful to your unbelief, see.

Now, but, lady, as I say, you and I standing here, it's for your good. Christ would bypass the critics to get to you. That's right. You believe that. Now, I don't know you. Never seen you. Know nothing of you, but I know that there's a shadow at you. It's evil, and you're very nervous, upset, and you're worried in your mind, because I see you under an operation. I believe it's up in this way in the breast. It's removing of a growth, and it hasn't done very good; but, lady, Christ knows all about this. That's true, wasn't it? I just want to look at you again. I seen it, and I just want to see. You say, “Look at me?” Yes.

Elijah said to Jehoshaphat and the King, he said, “If it wasn't I respected the presence of Jehoshaphat, I wouldn't even look at you,” see. And that means look to see what he could see for him.

Christ is the healer. The doctors has failed, but Christ is the healer, sister. You're a desiring little woman. Your heart desires. You want to do right and live right. It's in your heart. You've give birth recently to a baby, but this disease struck you after the baby was born. That's right. Just so that you'd know that I be His prophet: You belong to a church: the Baptist. He loves the Baptists too.

Now, do you believe that His words are true saying, “These signs shall follow them that believe: If they lay their hands on the sick, they shall recover.”? Will you covenant that, with you and I tonight before God, that God will spare you? Will the audience pray with me for the lady? Would you come here, sister dear?

Our kind heavenly Father, as this dear, little mother stands here desperately in need, and she's made her way against the oppositions, but she's come tonight asking for a blessing; and, O Jesus, the Son of God, I pray, all that I know how, the prayer of faith for our sister. And may I speedily hear from her that the enemy has departed from her, and that she is on her way to recovery.

Thou demon, yes, you escaped the doctor's knife, but you can't escape God's power. As the servants of God, we adjure thee in the name of Jesus Christ to leave the woman and come out of her, that she may be well for the glory of God. This we ask in Jesus Christ's name. Amen.

I want you to write to me. Now, you're going to get sicker in a few days. Just real upset, you see. If it dies, your bloodstream's got to purify that, and it's just a dead growth laying there. You get real upset, but don't lose your faith. Stay right with it. Write to me in about two or three weeks. God bless you. Let us say, “Thanks be to God.”

Now, look. Here's a lady here. That you might get that out of your mind, and so that you'd know it's not a telepathy. Lay your hand over on mine, lady. Just as a way of.... All right. I don't know you, do I? I'm looking this way. I'm not reading your mind. If God will reveal to me what your trouble is, will you accept it, and believe that Christ will make you well? If it's true, you'll know. You have a female disorder that God wants ... that you want God to heal. It's got a drainage to it; it's the bathroom; and you know that's right, you know no one is in there but you and God alone, and it's a female disorder.

If that is right, take your hand off of mine and raise it up. See, you think it's telepathy. You don't even know what telepathy is, see. All right, sister. Your faith saved you. Now, go on your road and rejoice. Amen.

Do you believe out there in the audience? Just a minute. I want to ask you something. I challenge your faith. Jesus was touched one time by a woman, and a woman that touched Him, He turned, and she denied touching Him, but He knew her anyhow, and He told her about her what had happened. Now, the Bible says.... I'm trying to make this—if God will permit it—just as Bible days.

Now, the Bible said that Jesus is the same today. Is that right? Well, if He is the same, He's the same in principal, power, everything that He was. Is that right? And can we....

Does the Bible say that He is our High Priest? Is that right? And the Bible says that He could be touched by the feeling of our infirmities. Is that right? Not then, now. Well, if He has already paid the price (Now, watch. Don't let the Bible contradict itself.) ... If He has already paid the price for redemption (remember) and the healing is complete (Now listen, scholars.).... If healing has been completed, and the Bible said He is sitting at the right hand of God the Father as an intercessor upon our confession, and He can be touched by the feeling of our infirmities, how would He help us? Now, solve that one out, will you?

If He's already finished the work, and He can be touched by the feeling of our infirmities, what takes place? It's His revelation returning it back like we see now, proving that He's raised from the dead. Look and live. Believe as we look over the audience everywhere. Take away your unbelief and be reverent. Just be reverent.

You without prayer cards again, put up your hands everywhere you are. I'm asking God for something. Everywhere.... Well, it'd be ... I guess it'd be everywhere. All right. Just bow your heads, or just pray. Look this way. Pray, whatever you want to, it doesn't matter. I cannot.... It takes Him and your faith. Your faith can touch Him. That's the only way I know. I don't know a soul out there. I just wait for Him as you pray.

Yes, I see the light, the pillar of fire, as I call it, that followed the children of Israel, is standing over a lady with her hand up, from the ill effects from an operation. Isn't that right, lady? Sitting right out there on the end of the row. Do you believe? You had an operation, didn't you? And you're suffering from an ill effects. If that's right, raise up your hand. That's right, lady. Do you believe me to be God's servant? You do?

What about the colored lady sitting next to you? Would you stand up a minute, lady, the colored lady sitting next to her? Do you believe me to be God's servant? Just to contact your spirit (You see); you don't have to be up here. So that you'd know, that the calling in the prayer line, whether you're here or there makes no difference. Would you like to get over that intestinal trouble and be made well? Do you believe that God would heal you of that intestinal trouble that you have? If that's right, raise up your hand. All right. Be seated and believe on the Lord.

The lady next to her, what do you think, lady? Could you touch His garment? There's a white lady sitting next to her. Do you believe with all your heart? God heals diabetes the same as He heals anything. Do you believe that? With all your heart? That's right, sit down and receive your healing.

What about you lady sitting next to her? Do you believe with all your heart? Raise up. That's right. Do you believe me to be God's prophet, servant of God. All right. You got sinus, head trouble, your head. That's right, isn't it? Sit down; receive your healing in Christ's name. I want to ask you something. Your husband sitting next to you there. How would I know he is your husband? But I see you together at your home. Stand up, sir. You want to be healed? You think Christ can heal heart trouble and make you well too? If you do, raise up your hands. That's what you had. Go home and be well in Christ's name. Do you believe? Do you believe that the risen Christ is here?

I'm going to ask you something right now. My mind is changed on something. I want to know how many here that's a sinner and wants God to save you? It's time for you to come to the altar. You backslider and cold, lukewarm church member, your place is at the altar before the judgment of God strikes you. I call you to the altar. Everyone of you that's cold and indifferent, and wasn't able to meet Christ, and you without the Holy Ghost, and if God will hear my prayers and point things out to me here, He's pointing to me and you tonight that you're in need of Him, and you know who you are. All over the building, if God will hear my prayer and open the eyes of the blind, make the deaf to hear and the dumb to speak, surely He will hear my prayer for your spiritual condition.

And now while we bow our heads for a moment of prayer. I'm going to ask every person in here that desires these things from God to move up here before me here, so I can pray for you, so I can single you out instead of sitting way back in the crowd. I'm asking you in Christ's name to do it, while our sister will play, if she will, “Almost Persuaded” while we bow our heads.

Our heavenly Father, why You want me to do this, I don't know, but something, there may be somebody here at the end of the road. I know You're never wrong. You're always right. And the Angel of the Lord seems to speak into my heart and say, “You stand here. I will give you strength, And You call this altar call. And don't commit it to the pastor tonight, but you call it.”

And Lord Jesus, I'm doing just as You have bid me. And You know every one in here. You speak to their heart now, when they know that the risen Lord Jesus, the One they'll stand before at the judgment, is right here now, and bring ever sinner and every backslider to the altar.

And may the lukewarm church member, and those who have the cold confession, and they recognize that it's You here, and not a man, not Your servant; but it's the God of heaven who is here. The critic, and all, may they come and repent right now, and call for mercy, while we're praying, Father. Grant it in Christ's name.

With our heads bowed, we're going to sing one verse of “Almost Persuaded.” Every Christian praying. The rest of you make your way here quickly, because it's not me doing this. This is the Holy Spirit, the work of Him.

Almost persuaded (I call. Do you need the...?... God bless you. That's right. Yield right now in the line...?...)

Almost persuaded, Christ to receive; (Just bow right where you are. Just come right down the aisle.)

Now some soul to... (...?... God dealing... Just make your way right down. We'll wait for you. Come right on. You know you're needy.)

Some more convenient day, On Thee I'll call.

Come, won't you? Christians, if you're in good standing with God, good fellowship, pray now. You never seen Him do this before. I was stopped by the Holy Spirit. Something said there's people in here that'll be lost if you don't call tonight. Maybe it's yourself... The anointing just dropped off of me all at once and the altar call come onto me. It's God. Come on to the altar.

No matter who you are, you're in the Presence of God. He's speaking to your heart. Now, He's the One doing the talking. He was just talking here with me awhile ago. He's there with you, talking now. That's Him.

Father God, may not one fail. This may be the last time they'll be able to make a decision. May they come, humbly, sweetly, to Christ tonight.

Every saint of God be desperate in prayer. God seeks the eternal destination of the soul, just now.

Come. Come. All things are ready. Come, whosoever will, let them come and drink from the water, the Fountain of Life, freely. Come, church member. Come, businessman. Come, backslider; come to the Lord. Come, sinner friend. Whosoever will, let him come.

God bless you, young man. Just what you was supposed to do. You're the one I pointed to in the balcony. I'm glad that God spoke to your heart so definite that you had to come. There's a blessing for you tonight, the rest...

Once more...

Almost pers... (Come on now. As a servant of the Lord, I ask to come.)

Almost persuaded, Christ to receive;

Seems now some soul to say, Go, Spirit, go Thy way,

Some more convenient day, On Thee I'll call.

A lot more of them are needing to come...?... right now. His resurrected power setting here, moving out in the audience and telling the people just like He did when He was here on earth. And now He's left me. He said, “You make the altar call. You so much...

I'm going now to call out there. You just give the invitation.“ I'm obedient to Him. I'm giving the invitation; it's Him speaking to you. He isn't right here with me now. He's out there with you, calling you.

Once more. All right, brother. Once more. Everyone pray now. All right.

Almost persuade... (All right. Come right...?... you are...?...)

Today;

Almost persuaded, turn not away:

Jesus invites you here, Angels are lingering near,

Prayers raise from hearts so dear, O wand'rer come.

While a calming, sacred quality in the church just now... I seldom ever seen that done. Right here at the closing of this meeting in the church, and the Holy Spirit dropped right from that healing line right out over here. Look swarmed around this altar here. God knows what He's doing. It's better... Obedience is better than sacrifice, and hearkening to the fats of lambs. God making His call, maybe there's someone in their final call. How do I know? Here's young ladies, young children, old gray headed, white, brown, colored, yellow, all different kinds of people bowed around this altar here with their hearts bleeding out to God. They're convinced that Christ is raised from the dead and the great white throne judgment is just before us, in your Presence now. Confess your sins and they'll go on before you and not bother you in the judgment.

I want ministers, if they will, especially in the church, no matter what denomination you're from, I want you to come stand around these people here. Let the ministers come right around them while we're going to pray. And I believe that God tonight's going to do something that you've never seen done. Wonderful. Just look at the clergy coming, would you, to be—pray with them.

God grant that every one of them be saved, filled with the Holy Ghost: God's blessings resting upon them. May they anointed.

Now, you be real reverent while the rest of them are coming. Don't be leaving. If you can, possibly helping just to wait a minute. I promised to pray for these people. I keep my promise. I know God...?... prayer line what would happen. He told me to make this.

Now while we bow our heads, every Christian, ministers and all, stand around now. Soul, did you come because God has bid you come? “He that cometh to Me I will in no wise cast out. I'll give him everlasting life and raise him up at the last day.” That's God's promise. The same Holy Ghost that called you here, is right with you now. And when we pray, you ought to confess everything you've done that's wrong. And if you desire the Holy Spirit, raise your hand to Him and believe that God gives It.

I want you pastors passing by, laying hands on them. And may God pour out His Spirit here like a rushing mighty wind and fill every person setting here, and an old fashion revival break out among the people...?...

Almighty God, the Author of Life, the Giver of every good gift, send Thy blessings upon this people. God, I pray that You'll dismiss every sin, every unbelief, and let the Holy Ghost come into their hearts just now and reign supremely. And may every sin be remitted. I stand in the breach for the people. I ask...