Jehovah-Jireh

It's indeed a privilege to be here tonight. I'm only sorry that it's the closing night of our little meeting. And it's been one of the high spots of my life, and I don't say this just because I'm standing here, because it wouldn't be right. I could just say the Lord bless you, and go on. But I mean this, that this has been one of the nicest little meetings I ever had in my life, in all my ministry of many times (five or six times) overseas and a bigger portion of the world, by the grace of God, I have been privileged to minister to. And this is one of the nicest little meetings I ever met. I tell you, friend, you'll travel the world over, but you'll not find Southerners everywhere. That's right. That's right. Very nice and always kind.

And I want to extend to them, to this minister, Brother Littlefield, and Brother Hall, and the other ministering brothers, whoever they are, my very hearty thanks and a “God bless” to them. And to the rest of the ministers here, you brethren, who are cooperating in the meeting, I certainly give my blessings to you. May your ministries increase, and may this be a great thing. To the missionary brother, that's going to the islands after this, God be with you, brother and go with you, is my prayer.

And now, to all of you people who has made this possible, we thank you, each one; with all my heart, I thank you. Then I want to extend a handshake and a “thank you” to a very fine man, the principal of this school, a real gentleman, if I ever met one, and I thank God for such men. I'm thankful to the board, this school board, who has give us the privilege of being here and ministering in this school. I pray that every pupil that comes to this school will be saved and filled with God's Spirit, along with the board. And may a great home be in heaven for every one of them at the end of a long journey through life.

I want to thank the mayor of the city for his kindness, for the cooperation of the police force. I have seen them around the place. I got to shake hands with one of the young men, a very gentleman, indeed. And I thank each one.

And for all your kindness, and the hotel that furnished me a room, the Cherokee Hotel. The motels across the country, they have donated as many rooms as they could—free—to the people. This is a lovely place to live. It certainly is. If the weather is bad, I could put up with any kind of weather to associate with such people. That's right. I don't say that just to be saying. I mean that from my heart. A country is what its people is. They make the country to live in. And I thank each and every one of you from my heart.

I was told by my son, in coming in, and the pastor, that they had taken up a love offering for me. Now, that wasn't necessary. Frankly, I asked the pastor when we come down, not to do it; and if he did, to turn it over to his own work or some fund here in the city. I didn't.... It just kills me to have to take money. I've stayed free from it. I never took a offering in my life, myself.

I remember in the Baptist church where I pastored for twelve years without one penny. And one time I got to a place.... I'm a poor man. If I'd have took the money had been offered to me, without taking an offering, just offered to me, I'd be a multimillionaire. But I refused it. I had rather have friends than money. I love my friends. And I'm thanking God for them.

Now, I am trusting the Lord will bless you. Now, the minister would not stand ... Brother Littlefield would not stand still for that. He said, “Brother Branham, you're under expense. And we appreciate that, but it must go to you.” Then I accepted it in the name of the Lord. What it was, I don't know, yet. I could tell you soon as I find out. And we'll let the pastor know when he counts the offering. And I will assure you, by the best of my knowledge, every cent will be spent for the right things, because I know it come a portion of your living.

Now, I have three children, and a wife, and a office to run, where I send thousands of letters a month around the world. And my expenses runs me close to a hundred dollars a day, whether I'm in the services or not. And now, I've said I'd try.... I don't have no radio, television programs, and things to cost a lot of money. I've kept it real little, so I could visit little churches; where the brethren who has the bigger ministry, they couldn't do it. They couldn't afford it.

After this next meeting, I am going to.... I go to now to.... I go up to northern Indiana to West Bend ... or South Bend, Indiana, and from there I go to Sturgis, Michigan, in a tabernacle for two nights' meeting that seats about thirty people. That's correct. Thirty people. My next meeting after that is with the Baptist people in Lima, Ohio, in an auditorium seating many thousands. After that, I go to Madison Square Gardens, Phoenix. And then from there, I go to the ministerial association in California in the big Oakland Auditorium. I don't know how many thousand that seats. But you see, if you don't have no big outlets, no big program, you don't have to have very much. And if God wants you to go to a big place, He supplies the money. So that's just the way I like to live, is just by faith.

And I thank you, and God's rich blessings to you all. It's so good to.... I oughtn't to preach tonight, because it's getting late, but you're such a wonderful audience, and any minister.... It wouldn't take very much of a preacher or I couldn't do the preaching, but of an audience like you who are praying and support the Word with your prayers, it's easy for anybody to preach in a place like this. I really believe that Billy Paul could preach right here. Where you at, son? Ha-ha-ha. And he's so bashful, he keeps his head down when he's talking to me, almost. But I believe he could do it. It's very easy, because it's the Holy Spirit.

Brother Hall, I certainly appreciate you and all your kindness and I pray that God will bless you. This Brother Hall, the evangelist here, I believe, and he's a wonderful brother. I love him more as I meet him. And Brother Littlefield and to the rest of the ministers, God be with you.

Now, let's bow our heads and talk to the Author of this Book. There's one thing that I say, “I may not know the Book too well, but I'm glad I know the Author.” Our heavenly Father, to Thee we give praise and glory for all that You have both done and let us see done. We thank Thee for all we have heard, for faith cometh by hearing. How my heart was warmed when I seen that basement and them people down there, each one—mothers holding their babies, and old people—and sitting around in this rainy night, just waiting for a minister to lay hands on them. God, that moves my heart. And I know it does Yours, because mine is stony and Yours is a heart of love and God.

Laying here on the pulpit tonight lays a handkerchief or two that's going out to the sick and the afflicted. I don't know where they go, Father; Thou does. And I pray that You'll bless this. And we're taught in the Bible that one day when Israel was on its road by faith, journeying to the promised land, because it was God's promise that He would take them to that land. And they didn't know how they were going to get there; they just took off. And as the enemy does, he trapped them. And there they stood: the mountains on one side, the sea—Dead Sea—in front of them, Pharaoh's army behind them. Nature itself quivered for them. A slaughter indeed, but they were walking in God's provided way.

All of a sudden, one writer said that God looked down through that pillar of fire. Why? His path went through that Red Sea. And the sea got scared, and it just rolled back its banks, and Israel crossed over on dry land. You're still Jehovah God.

And when these handkerchiefs reach the sick people, I pray that God will not look as through the pillar of fire, but through the blood of His Son. And may the enemy—the sickness, the disease, the affliction—get scared of this token, because it's sent in Christ's name. And may he move away and may the sick people cross to the good land of good health. The promise of God, that above all things, prosper in health....

God, I pray that You'll grant it. And now, unfold Thy Word to us, Lord, and give great faith in this pressing, trying hour. In Jesus' name I pray. Amen.

Now, to the pastors, I want you to know.... Making this statement, I've just said, “I have nothing to sell, no radio programs, nothing.” Not to get your address, because it's hard for me to get enough help to answer my letters. But if you desire a prayer cloth.... Usually they have them piled.

In Mexico just recently, I had one of the meetings down there. How many heard of the Mexican meeting, where the little baby was raised after dying that afternoon at two o'clock and was raised about nine o'clock that night? Why, the Mexican papers and everything flooded it everywhere, and that night, there was people.... There was piles that high of old coats and hats. How they ever knowed them, I don't know. Laid them there for me to pray over. And God gave a blind man his sight, and it just.... Was there three nights, and there was twenty thousand came to Christ at one time. I said, “No evangelical, no Catholic, just those who has never come, let them come.” And they estimated twenty thousand in one altar call. Now, the Lord Jesus loves the people.

And now, if you want a prayer cloth that I have prayed over, just write me at Jeffersonville, Post Office box 325, or just William Branham. Now, there'll be a form letter come with it. Now, that's right. That was a mimeographed letter by a secretary. But the prayer cloth, I've prayed over it.

If I believed in some minister brother and his ministry, and my baby was sick, and I had faith in the man, I'd want him to pray over the prayer cloth. That's right. I'd want him. That's right. And I do unto others as you'd have others do to you. So I pray over it, the prayer cloths. And they'll be sent to you—no charges. No charges for nothing, just send and you can have one freely.

Now, in the blessed old Bible which I know to be God's eternal Textbook, I wish to read just a portion of Scripture. And I'm going to try to stop just exactly at a quarter till nine, if I possibly can, so we can start the prayer line, run just as long as we can and then.... before dismissing.

And I will say this before we start preaching: God bless you all. And if He will do that, that's all you need. I want to ask you one more thing, excuse me. I'm fixing to go overseas, I guess, right away. Mr. duPlessis and them called today to get the overseas meeting ready. If I go, and you hear I'm overseas, will you pray for me? Thank you. I will remember a good bunch of southern saints of God praying for me. And I need it there, for every witch doctor and everything else stands to challenge you, but our God has always come out triumphant and rode over the enemy every time.

Now, in the book of Genesis the 22nd chapter, 7th and 8th and 14th verses I wish to read, and then go right to talking on the Scriptures, and then we will turn right back and have the prayer line. This is for your faith. Now, faith cometh by hearing the Word of God. That's right. Now, that's why, how we build faith. Now, faith is not based upon shifting sands of men's theology, but it rests upon the eternal Rock of God's Word. God said so and that settles it. And Isaac.... Let's see. I believe I put the wrong place. Yes.

And Isaac spake unto ... his father, and said, My father: and he said, Here I am, my son. And he said, Behold the fire and ... behold where is the ... burnt-offering?

And Abraham said, My son, God will provide for himself ... a burnt-offering: so they went ... together.

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

Now, may the Lord add his blessing. And my text is Jehovah-jireh. Now, God appears in seven compound redemptive names. Ministers know that. His first redemptive name is Jehovah-jireh, “the Lord will provide a sacrifice.” His second redemptive name is Jehovah-rapha, “the Lord that healeth thee.” And He has.... Lord, the shield, the buckler, Lord.... In seven different compound redemptive names God appeared to the human race. And all of those redemptive names was brought into Christ Jesus through that one eternal name that all the heavens and earth is named after that one name.

Now, for our context, we're speaking on Isaac, the promised one, and Abraham, the father of nations. Through Isaac came the blessed seed that was pronounced from the garden of Eden ... or, prophesied. And out through him came the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, I know that many of you has been waiting here now for (I was told) ever since real early this afternoon, holding your seat. And at that, I would be unright to not bring God's Word in some measure to you.

Now, in the beginning when God met Abraham.... Now, who was Abraham? Now, I want to.... I've chosen this little talk so that it'll take the fear away. There's only one thing tonight to keep every person here from being saved, filled with the Holy Spirit, and delivered from every affliction and every disease. Only one thing; that's you're afraid. That's the only thing. For every seed will produce just exactly what it's promised to, if it's set in the right ground.

You people here in Tennessee are known for your apples, fine apple orchards and peach orchards, and around Georgia, and the different places, your fine fruit down here in the south. I want to ask you something: Did you know when you set that little peach tree out just about one-half-inch tall, when it was that tall, that every bushel of peaches that you'll ever take off of it, your children will take off of it, and your grand-children will take off of it, do you know every bushel of peaches is in it right then when it's just a little bitty thing about like that? If it isn't, where does it come from? Where's them peaches come from? Who puts them on the tree? How did they ever get there?

You just set the little slip out, and then you water it, and it drinks from the earth. And it's got to drink more than its portion. It drinks and drinks, till it just can't drink no more, and it pushes out limbs. Then it drinks some more, it pushes out leaves. Then it drinks some more, and it pushes out blossoms. Then it drinks some more and it pushes out peaches. Then it drinks some more it pushes out more peaches. It keeps drinking and pushing out. You see what I mean?

And now, that's the way that Christianity is. When a man, or a woman, or a child, is borned of the Spirit of God, then everything you have need of in this world and the world to come, is given to you when you receive the Holy Spirit. And you're planted in Christ. And to my estimation of Christ, He is the inexhaustible fountain of life. And you just are planted in Him, and drink, and drink, and push out, and drink, and push out, and drink, and push out. For everything you have need of, is in Him. The only thing you have to do, is get thirsty and go to drinking. And it'll produce just exactly what the seed is. If it's a promise, God promised to do it. God's obligated to it, and He will do it.

Pushing, shoving.... Something comes in, as we spoke in the tabernacle this morning: that main spring in the middle of the watch that makes every movement click to perfect time. And when the Holy Spirit comes in, there's something that moves. You can't understand what it is. It's a supernatural Being inside you, moving, controlling your emotions, making you scream when actually you feel like running. But you'll shout when you don't know what you're doing. You'll praise God just automatically. There's something happens. It's that main spring, the spring of God's grace in the middle of your heart, controlling you, making you shun from evil, accept life, get away from doubt, have faith. That main spring will make you cast down reasonings, accept God's Word. It's a-moving, ticking, going around and around, and making your whole emotion come right in control with God. What a marvelous thing!

The Holy Spirit brooding over you, as He did a bleak earth one time, and fruits come up out of the bleak earth. When the Holy Spirit drove together the calcium, and potash, and moisture, and whatever texture it taken to make flowers, and fruits, and beasts, and animals, and mankind, the Holy Spirit brooding in connection with God, and these things came to pass. What more will it do over a borned-again man now, for his health or whatever he has need of, of God's eternal promise. Sure, it makes you emotionally.

When I was a game warden in Indiana for seven years, I used to come to a certain spring when I would go hunting. And I looked at that old spring, and I said, “Spring, you're the happiest spring I ever seen. You're just a bubbling all the time.” Oh, it was good water. It kept fresh all the time, because it bubbled from way down in the ground. And it kept all the stagnant part bubbled away. That's a good thing. Just keep bubbling. So I sat down one day to talk to this spring, and I said, “Mr. Spring, why are you so happy?”

And if he could've spoke back to me, he'd said, “Brother Branham, I am always happy.”

“Well,” I'd say, “what makes you bubble? Maybe it's because the deer drinks from you once in a while.”

He'd say, “No.”

I'd say, “Maybe it's because the bear drinks from you.”

“No.”

“Well, maybe what makes you bubble is because you know that each year I come by here and drink from you myself.”

“No.”

I said, “Well, what makes you bubble?”

He'd say, “Brother Branham, it isn't me bubbling. It's something behind me pushing me and making me bubble.”

So that's the way a man is. When he takes God into his heart, there's something that pushes him, pushes out. It makes you believe. Why are you here tonight? For curiosity? I do not believe that a right-minded person would come out on a night like this for curiosity. Are you coming to show your clothes? No, sir. I don't believe that a person would do that, come out on a night like this and sit eight hours in a tabernacle like this, congested and jammed together in one of the overflow crowds all over the place. You wouldn't do it for curiosity or to show clothes. It's because that something in you is leading you to do it. That's it.

If I had never read the Bible, I'd still believe tonight that there is divine healing for you people. David said, “When the deep calleth to the deep, at the noise of Thy waterspout....” In other words, when the deep is calling.... Now, listen, when the deep is calling, there's got to be a deep to respond to that deep. Here, before there was a fin on a fish's back, there had to be a water first for him to swim in, or he'd've never had the fin. Before there was a tree to grow in the earth, there had to be a earth first, or there'd be no tree to grow in it.

Here some time ago, I read in a newspaper, where a little boy eat the erasers off the pencils at school. His mother didn't know what to think of it. So, she found him, one day, sitting on the porch eating a pedal off of a bicycle. It was rubber. She taken him down to the clinic to have him examined. And the doctor, after a thoroughly good examination, he said, “The little boy is lacking sulfur.” He lacked sulfur in his body. Now, therefore they had to give him shots for it.

But now look, if there's something in here calling for sulfur, first there has to be a sulfur out there to call, before there can be something in here to call for sulfur. In other words, this is a ... the whole glorified.... I hope I haven't got you tangled.

Look. Before there can be a creation, there had to be a Creator to create that creation. And as long as you're here tonight to be healed by God, by divine healing, there has to be a fountain open somewhere or you'd never have that desire. There's got to be something. If there's something calling for healing from God, there's got to be a God to answer to it. That's right.

The Indians, when we met them here, they fell and worshipped the sun. In Africa they worship idols. What is it? There's something. They're human beings, and there's a call for God. Now, the main thing is let the Indian know who God is, let the Hottentot know who God is, and to let you know what healing is. That's the main thing. Get in the right channel and then you can do it. And God has give it freely to every one of you. It's yours by divine promise.

Now, God called Abraham, not because he was Abraham; God called Abraham by election. Abraham was no good man, no better than anybody else. He probably come out of the group of idolaters down from the tower of Babel where they worship roots of the ground, and they had a woman up there, and she had all kinds of curious arts she practiced, if you've ever read the history. And there's where the first organized church ever begin was in Babylon, by Nimrod: organized all the cities and they paid tribute and so forth to that one place.

Now, Abraham's father brought him down from Babylon, and they dwelt in the city of Ur in the land of Chaldea. And Abraham was just an ordinary man like you and I, just an ordinary man, but God.... Oh, I want you to get it! God, by foreknowledge called and elected Abraham. He knew his heart. He knew him before the foundation of the world. And Abraham only fit into God's program. And Abraham's wife was named Sarai which was his half sister.

Now, when Abraham was walking in the fields one day (or wherever he was), God called Abraham. He was seventy-five years old, and Sarai was ten years younger, making her sixty-five years old.

Now, anyone knows that the woman at sixty-five was past the menopause at least fifteen years. He married her when she was just a little lassie. And now, they'd lived together as husband and wife, and Abraham being seventy-five years old, and God called him and give him His covenant unconditionally.

Man always breaks his covenant with God. When God made a covenant with Adam in the garden of Eden, he broke it. Every time, man breaks his covenant. Give him the law, he broke it. But God was determined to save man, so He made the covenant with Abraham unconditionally. Not, “If you will;” He said, “I have.” I like that. Not, “If you'll do this, if you'll do that....” I know that has a little Calvinistic swing to it, and I am a Calvinist as long as Calvin stays in the Bible. But when he goes off on eternal security and them black sides over there, I'm an Armenian from then on. I'm with any church as long as you stay in the Bible. When you get outside, that lets me out. But they both got a picture, but they both got Scripture, and they both went out on limbs and hung themselves (That's right.)—the holiness and the Calvinists.

But God called Abraham, not because he was a good man; He never had any “ifs” into it at all. He said, “I've saved you, and I've saved your seed beside you. I've given you this land, and you'll come to me in old age.” Brother, that settles it. God said so. Abraham didn't have to do a thing but abide right in the covenant. That's all, just stay right there. And if God saved you, the only thing you have to do is just abide in His grace. That's all. Stay right there. Don't have to worry about whether the river's going to raise, or whether the wagon's going to rock, just stay in the grace. Stay in Christ.

Now, He gave it to him unconditionally. And I want you to notice He said, “Through you, I'm going to make you a father of nations,” and he had no children, and perhaps he was sterile and his wife was also sterile. Now notice, year after year they had lived together as a young couple and no children, and here he is seventy-five and her sixty-five; and He said, “Abraham, you're going to have a baby by Sarai.”

I can see Abraham go down and say, “Sarai, go buy a big bunch of Birdseye and get the pins ready, we're going to have a baby.” Why, could you imagine a man seventy-five years old going down here in the city and saying, “Hey, doc, I want to make arrangements now. My wife's only sixty-five and I'm seventy-five, we're going to have a baby.”

Why, the doctor'd say, “The old fellow has slipped in his mind.”

But Abraham, the Bible said, believed God and counted those things which were not, as though they were. He didn't take consideration his own body dead nor the deadness of Sarai's womb. He just never staggered with unbelief, but was strong giving praise to God, for he was persuaded that He who made the promise was able to keep the promise. Amen.

And now, you say, “Oh, Brother Branham, if I can only be like Abraham.” Just a minute. All right. “If I could only have the covenant like Abraham had it, unconditionally, oh, that would take all the scare out of me.” Just a moment. God never only gave the promise to Abraham unconditionally, but He gave it to Abraham's seed in like manner: unconditional. “I have saved you and your seed after you.”

Well, you say, “I am a Gentile, Brother Branham.”

Wait a minute! “We being dead in Christ take on Abraham's seed, then are heirs according to the promise.”

You say, “Brother Branham, I sure did a whole lot to get saved.” No, you never. “I sought God.” No, you never. God sought you.

“No man can come to Me, except My Father draws him first. And all that comes to Me, I will give him everlasting life.” That makes the devil get real “fidgety” as we call it here in the south. God's promise, give to His people.

I've always said, “You don't know who you are.” That man sitting by you is a son of God. That woman sitting by you is His daughter. And we are sons and daughters of God, sitting together in heavenly places right now in Christ Jesus, Him working with us, confirming the Word with signs following. Not, we will be in the millennium; we won't need healing in the millennium. Now is when we need healing. Now is when God is Jehovah-jireh to provide anything that we've got need of, for we're Abraham's seed under the covenant, through the death, and burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Amen. That'll make a Baptist shout. That's right.

Think of that. My, I really feel religious when I think of that: saved by the grace of God, not by my own will, but by His will; not by my own desire, but He changed my desire. My mind was once away from God, was changed and brought to God. I could no more make myself do that, than a leopard could lick his spots off. No, sir. It taken God to do it. It taken God to bring you here tonight. It taken God to save you. And God is doing everything He can to show you His goodness to you. Oh, I hope you see it.

Now, I can hear him go down and get ready, say, “Come on, Sarai, we're going to have a baby.” You know what? The first month he said, “How you feeling, Sarai?”

“No different.”

“Oh,” he said, “Hallelujah, going to have it anyhow.” Second month, “How you feel, Sarai?”

“No different.”

“Praise God! We're going to have it anyhow.” First year passed, “What about it, Sarai?”

“No different.”

“Glory! Going to have it anyhow.” Ten years passed. “How you feel, Sarai?”

“No different.”

“Praise God! We will have it anyhow.”

“Why?”

“God said so. That settles it.”

The Bible said that he got stronger all the time. Now, we say we're Abraham's seed. “Lord, will You heal me tonight? I accept You as my healer.” Well, you know in the morning, “I don't feel any different. Maybe I never got healed.” You're a poor example of Abraham's seed. Right. Abraham called those things which were as though they were not, for he took God at His Word. And a true seed of Abraham will do the very same thing, for it was the same Holy Spirit. Right.

No matter what it looks like, if it's contrary to God's Word, call it a lie. You look at symptoms. “Well, my hand's no better. I took Him for my healer, but my hand's no better.” It'll never get no better as long as you look at that. Don't look at that; look at this! Here's what you look at. You look at that, you got your heart out of this. Call this as though it was, and take this as though it were. God said so! Amen! When God says it, that settles it for eternity. God said so. Stay with it.

Now, calling those things which were not as though they were, and he believed God. He said God is able to keep His promise, so he stayed with it. And God said, “Now, Abraham, being that you become My servant, I want you to separate yourself from your people, from your kindred, from all that unbelief.” You know, sometimes when we're prayed for, it's a good thing to do. Living in an environment of unbelief will certainly do you a lot of harm. God calls for separators.

You know what? The Christian church got so when they choose their pastor, it has to be a little fellow with a big bow tie on, and real curly hair, and smell like a polecat nearly, with perfume, and because you think he looks nice and can stand in the pulpit and say, “A-a-men,” so pretty, you call that your pastor. The trouble of it is, the Christian church today, we've got too much imitation Hollywood evangelism! That's exactly right! I like the old-fashioned, backwoods, sky-blue, sin-killing religion that cleans up, sanctifies, purifies, and makes holy! That's right. That's what we need. They used to laugh at the old-fashioned, hellfire and brimstone preacher. God, send us some more and take a lot of this Hollywood evangelism out of us. Now, that's not skim milk, but it'll do you good.

My mama, when I was a little boy, we was raised poor, she used to boil meat skins in a little bread pan and get some grease to put on the corn bread, make us some corn bread. We had it three times a day, little corn pones, some black-eyed peas, about all we lived on, sorghum molasses. And you southerners know what that is.

So, I remember every Saturday night we'd take a bath in the big old cedar tub. The first one got a good bath. The next one just a little water added. And then, every one a big dose of castor oil. Eating food like that, you just had to. I got so sick of that stuff. I'd start, and I'd hold my nose, and I'd say, “Mama, it makes me so sick.”

She said, “If it don't make you sick, it don't do you any good.”

And that's the way preaching the Gospel: If it doesn't sicken you up right good, it doesn't do you any good. Right. The Gospel, we need old-fashioned, backwoods religion again: Peter Cartright and old St. Paul's revival, and the Bible Holy Ghost preached back into the church again (Right.), a cleaning from the pulpit to the janitor in the basement. You know that's the truth.

So notice, Abraham took God at His Word and called those things that was contrary to God's Word as though they were not. Somebody say, “Now look, Abraham, here you are a hundred years old and Sarai's ninety. You know her womb is dead. You know your strength is gone.”

He said, “Don't talk to me. God said I was going to have it, and that settles it.” Amen. I like that. That puts the devil back in hell where he belongs. That puts God out here in front marching on. Seed of Abraham, being dead in Christ....

(My time is up already. That thing.... Something's wrong. Maybe it's me.)

But you know, the seed of Abraham believes God. There's something in them. A man says he don't believe in the supernatural, he don't believe in the Holy Spirit, don't believe in divine healing, how can he believe except there is something in there to believe with? When he's borned again, he will believe it, because he is a son of God: the Creator who created all things and made the world by His own Word. The very dirt that you're sitting over tonight is nothing in the world but God's Word made manifest.

God said, “Let there be.” And it was. He believed His own Word. Every material thing come from the supernatural. God spoke the world into existence. If He didn't, where did He get the material to make it with? He made it, because it's His Word. He spoke it and said, “Let there be.” And it was. And when God says anything, if you'll accept it and hold onto it....

Chronologists tell us the world is millions of years old. Doesn't make any difference how old it was; He could've spoke it in two minutes or two million years. That fits in His program; but He made it. Oh, I love that. I just like to push that in Satan's neck to let him see that it's God's Word. God said so. That settles it!

Abraham said.... God said, “Separate yourself, Abraham.” As I said, God calls for separators; we call for mixers.

A certain church that I was at not long ago, they was voting in their pastor. And they said, “Now, we can't have him, because he is an old crank. We want somebody who'll go swimming with us, the girls and boys together, who'll take a little sociable drink, let us have dances in the basement.” Huh! You just.... I don't know what to tell you. You're sure in a bad shape.

You see, sometime your choice is not God's choice. One time God was going to choose a king to take Saul's place from backsliding. And so He told the prophet, “Go up to Jesse's sons. I chose one.”

So Jesse said, “Oh, that's wonderful.” He goes out, brings his great big tall son, seven-foot tall, a little man standing there with a cruse of oil in his hand. He said, “Now, this man will look beautiful with that crown on his head. Look how them long robes will look. Don't he look like a king when he walks, anyhow?”

“That's him. Bring him up here.” So the prophet said, “We'll just pour the oil on him.”

But when he went, God said, “I've refused him.”

He brought the next one, great big strong fellow. God said, “I've refused him.”

“Well, they're the biggest boys I got. Well, they're the only ones who'd look right with the crown on their head. They're the only ones who are straight enough to walk like a king.”

God said, “I've refused them.”

Well, he brought six of them. Might've said, “Haven't you got another one?”

“Oh, yes. I've got a little old naughty fellow back over here herding some sheep, but I'm sure he wouldn't look good as a king.”

Said, “Go bring him up here and let me see him.”

And as soon as little old David with a little sheepskin coat on, a little slingshot in his hand, walking along, tottling up like that, stooped shoulders, perhaps a little scrawny looking boy, the Holy Ghost said, “That's My man!” He knowed what was on the inside of him. Man looks on the outside; God looks on the heart.

So, no matter what the outside world said, Abraham called those things that were not as though they were, because God said so, and he separated himself. He never was blessed. God never visited him until he separated himself, even from Lot. Lot come up, started arguing, fussing over the pasture of the ground. Abraham said, “Look east or west, north or south; you take one way, and I'll take the other.” (That's a Christian spirit.) “I'll take the worst side if it has to be. Go ahead. We're brethren. Let's not argue. You want to belong to the Assemblies, I'll belong to the other one. So, we will just let it go. We'll be brothers.” I just feel extremely good tonight, somehow. All right. Watch!

Then, Lot took the easy way and Abraham took the rough way. “I will take the way with the Lord's despised few.” That's what the poet said. That's what we want to say.

Now, listen closely, if you will, just for a moment. Notice, then as they went along, after he separated himself from Lot, God appeared to Abraham. And if you want him to appear to you, separate yourself from your unbelieving associates. Get out of that bunch of stitch-and-sew parties, that their telling dirty jokes in, so forth. Get away from that thing. Associate with people who believe like you, who love you, who love the Lord. That's right. Separate yourself.

Then when he got himself separated, God said, “Abraham, look to the east, to the west, to the north, to the south. All this is yours. I give it to you.” Said, “Walk through the land. See what you like about it.”

That's good. I like that. When I separated myself from all different kinds of “isms” and that other, “Days of miracles is past,” the Holy Ghost said, “You know what? Every promise in the Book is yours. Just look through it and see what you got.” Amen.

You know, it's like a great big arcade. You know, we're baptized in this big arcade. If it all belonged to me, I'd go around pull this drawer out and see what I got in it. Belongs to me, mine. I get on a.... Look at this, look in this corridor, back in here, test these things on this bench. I like to look around and see what I got. [Blank spot on tape.] ... at it once in a while. And if something looks a little high, I'll just get me a ladder and get up there, examine the thing, see what it is, look in every crack and corner; it belongs to me.

And that's the way you are when you become a Christian. Every promise in the Book is yours! Page through it; see the good things God has got for you! Don't stay in the little cold tater and wait; get a whole big gastronomical jubilee. God's got it here for you. Amen. Hold onto it. God said so. That settles it!

Abraham looked through the land. It all belonged to him. Then he got to be a hundred years old. My, looked like all hope was gone, not to Abraham, though. I can't hear some of them say, “Uh-huh. Look at the old fellow.” Abraham wouldn't listen to that. He believed God anyhow.

And God called him out, and He said, “Abraham, I am El Shaddai. I'm the Almighty.” Now, the word El Shaddai comes from the word “bosomed,” means like “the woman, the breast.” “I am El Shaddai,” the breasted God, God with two breasts, like the woman. What does the woman do with the breasts? The baby that's sick nurses the breast. And when he does, the little fellow may be weakly; he may be sick; but he leans on his mother's breast and nurses her life through the breast, nurses life to himself and strength to himself through the mother's breast.

And notice, that's the way God was to Abraham: said, “Abraham, you're an old man. You're a hundred years old, but I am the breasted One. Just take a hold. Lay right there. Stay with it. I'm your Creator. I'm the breasted God.” Not breast, but breasted: salvation and healing both. Amen.

“He was wounded for our transgressions. With His stripes, we're healed.” And He's still El Shaddai, the breasted God who forgives all of your iniquity, who heals all of your diseases. And that's breasted is New and Old Testament. Take them either one. Hold on to God's eternal promise and nurse from the Word of God your physical or spiritual health.

The breasted God.... And not only that, but the word means “the satisfier.” The little baby, while he's a nursing, he's not only getting strong; but he's satisfied while he's nursing. He quits fretting. He quits stewing, fussing. He just lays against the mother's bosom, and he just rolls his eyes around, and says, “I am getting bigger and better all the time.” No more crying....

And that's the way you are when you once get a hold of the promise of God. You start nursing from that promise your strength. “Everyday, I'm getting better and better. Praise the Lord.” But you that's not Abraham's seed, why, you're going to look at your symptoms. “Oh, look here, I'm no better.”

You know, a man that had a good case of symptoms was Jonah. If there ever was a man that had a right to have symptoms, it was Jonah. You know, he was backslid, and he had his hands tied behind him, his feet tied on a stormy sea, and throwed out, and a whale swallowed him and went to the bottom of the sea. Now, any fish that feeds goes back and rests its swimmers on the bottom of the ocean ... or, on.... Feed your goldfish and watch them go right down and rest their [unclear words].

Now, he swallowed this preacher on a stormy sea, when the boat was about to sink, and he went right down, this big fish, and laid down the bottom of the sea, many fathoms deep, laying there resting his swimmers. And Jonah was backslid, hands and feet tied, and in the belly of a whale, vomit all over him, sea weeds wrapped around his neck in the bottom of the ocean. Brother, there is nobody here that bad off.

But what did Jonah say? Everywhere he looked, it was symptoms. He looked this way, was whale's belly. Whale's belly this way. Whale's belly that way. Everywhere he looked was whale's belly. You know what he said? “They are lying vanities. I refuse to look at them!” He said, “Once more will I look to Your holy temple, Lord.”

For he knowed when Solomon dedicated that temple, he said, “Lord, if Thy people be in trouble anywhere, and pray, and look towards this temple, then hear from heaven.” And he believed Solomon's prayer. And if Jonah under those conditions, with that kind of symptoms, could look to a earthly temple, where a earthly man who later backslid, and could believe and be delivered from under those symptoms and refused to see them, how much more ought you, who are filled with the Holy Ghost? Don't look toward your earthly temple, but a heaven where Jesus sits at the right hand of God with His own bloody garment making intercession on your confession. And thousands are being healed everywhere. I refuse to see anything contrary to God's Word. “God said so; that settles it. I'm Abraham's seed and heir to all things.” Oh, my.

Get that down, not in the intellect, but get it down in your heart one time and watch what the devil does. You'll see his red light going over the hill. That's right. He can't stand that.

Now, I want you to notice; He said, “I'm El Shaddai.” How

beautiful.

He said, “Lord, how're You going to do this?”

(I can't get to my text, the end of it, because next time I come down, I will finish this up. It's too late.)

Said, “Lord, tell me how You're going to do this.”

Said, “Come out here, Abraham. I'll show you what I'm going to do. I'll just show you right here what I'm going to do.” He said, “Get Me a heifer of three years old, and get Me a sheep of three years old, and so forth. And bring them out here and slay them.” And Abraham went and got the heifer, and the ram, and the goat, and cut them apart. And he got a pigeon and a turtledove. Wish we had time to go into that. Any Bible reader knows the turtledove represented healing. God cut in his dispensations, split them, but not in healing, never.

Notice, He always had a way of healing. Even when they had judges, and they had all kinds of dispensations, but God continually on to heal. But he cut the beast, the three beasts, but he didn't separate the turtledove or the pigeon. And he put them down. He kept the birds off of them. Now, watch how God told him what He's going to do.

Now, when the sun went down, He said, “Now, Abraham....” A deep sleep come on Abraham. Now, what is it? “Abraham, you haven't got nothing to do with this. This is My doing. I'm going to do this, because you wouldn't keep it. So I'm going to do it anyhow. Abraham, going to put you out of the picture. You go to sleep.”

And Abraham went to sleep. Then the first thing he saw was a horror of darkness. What does that mean? That means death. It's due to every sinner. Every person has to face death. A horrible darkness come before him. “Though I walk through the valley of the shadows of death.” The next thing he seen was a smoking furnace. What's that? Hell. Every sinner will go there, every unrepented soul will go there—hell. And then a little white light. And watch. It went between each one of those pieces, back and forth. Said, “Abraham, that's what I'm going to do. That's how I'm going to do it.” What was He doing? He was making His covenant with Abraham.

Now, in America, when we make a covenant, what do we do? We go down, have a little bite to eat at the table, and you get up, and say, “Will you do it, boy?”

“Yeah.”

“Shake.” There you are. That's a covenant: Shake hands on it. That's the way we Americans make covenants.

What do they do in Japan when they make a covenant? They go down and talk it over with each other, then get a little cruse of salt, and they pitch salt on one another. That's a covenant in Japan. So what was a covenant in the orient in Abraham's time? They went and killed a beast, and they took this beast and cut it apart, and they got in between the beast and wrote their covenant, what they would do. And then they took this piece of paper and tore it apart. One man took one piece and one the other. They raised their hands to heaven and swore that if they broke this covenant, let their body be as this dead beast. That's how God swore to Abraham He'd keep this covenant.

Now notice, when they come together, these two pieces had to dovetail to make that covenant affirmed. It had to be the same piece of paper. It had to.... Whatever it was, skin it was on, it was torn and it had to come just exactly the same together.

Now, what did God speak there? Oh, you can't doubt no more if you see this. It'll take all doubt away from you. It was God showing forth through Abraham's seed what He was going to do to the world. A little later on, He turned Abraham and Sarai back to a young man and woman, showed what He's going to do to all of us.

Dad, you may be old, and mother, you may be old, but I will give you the promise out of God's Word, in the resurrection you'll be young again. And I will give you the promise of God's Word, you'll never be an Angel. You're going to be a human. God made you a human, not to destroy you, but to raise you up. Sin made the destruction, but life makes you eternal. You'll never be an angel. If God had wanted you to be an angel, He'd have made you an angel. He wanted you a man and woman, so He made you one

You remember when you walked mother down at the altar and how pretty she looked, how dad looked with his slick hair combed back? One morning you woke up, and mother's pretty eyes had a wrinkle under them. Dad, you had some gray hairs coming. What was the matter? After about twenty-five years old death set in, gradually taking you down. That's what death done. Someday it's going to take you. But it can't hold you. And in the resurrection everything that death ever done will be taken away, and you'll come forth a new man, young, beautiful, and a young beautiful woman. That's “Thus saith the Lord” out of God's Word.

That's Abraham's seed is going to gather on the face of the earth; not angels or spirits flying through the air, but men and women, eating, drinking as they did here, without sin, without death, without old age or anything. You don't realize what a beautiful promise God's done.

So He took His son, made Him a form of sinful flesh and took Him up to Calvary. (Listen close now.) Took Him to Calvary and there God wrote His covenant with the human race. Oh, brother, see it. He took the Lord Jesus, the Emancipator of this proclamation, and He took Him to Calvary, and He ripped Him apart. He took the body up to heaven, set it on the throne and sent the other part down, which was the Holy Ghost. And that same Holy Ghost is here on the earth, making up the body of Christ. And at the resurrection, it'll have to be the same genuine Holy Ghost that fell on the day of Pentecost, that was in Christ Jesus will have to be in the church to come into that covenant, and then you're Abraham's seed and are heirs of all things! Amen. God swore that He would do it. He made His promise He would do it. He gave a covenant He would do it. He raised Christ from the dead to prove He would do it. He sent the Holy Ghost down to continue the same work that Jesus did when He was on earth to prove to you that we have nothing to be scared about.

No matter anything contrary to that, it's a lie. God's Word is eternal truth. Hold on to it. Lay on to it. Stay with it. It's life. Believe it with all your heart.

Listen, sinner friend, have you ever accepted that? I just wish I had about two hours on this. It's too short. But look, did you ever accept it? If you haven't, now is the time to do it. If you cannot, you can by no means come into God's kingdom with a different torn experience, some church you've joined, some lodge you belong to. It's good to belong to a lodge, good to belong to church. I have nothing against that. Maybe upon the merits of your education may.... That's good. That's fine. Maybe upon the merits of your mother. That's fine. But you yourself have to be in this covenant with God to ever dovetail with that same experience. You'll have to be in God's covenant.

In closing, sometime ago—forty, fifty years ago—there was a great evangelist crossed the middle eastern country, a famous man. His name was Daniel Curry. You might've read of him. One night, he had a dream, and he dreamed that he died, and he went to heaven. And when he got up to the gate, the gatekeeper come out and said, “Who approaches this gate?”

And he said, “I, Daniel Curry, approaches this gate. I'm an evangelist, and I am approaching this gate. I have won many souls to the Lord Jesus, and I'm approaching this gate for I have my eternal reward in heaven.”

And the gatekeeper said, “Just a moment, Mr. Curry.” He goes and he looks all through the book. He comes back; he said, “Mr. Curry, I am sorry to inform you, but your name is not here. I cannot let you in.”

“Oh,” he said, “you must be mistaken, sir. Look again.”

He did. He said, “I am sorry, but you cannot come in,” he said, “because your name is not here.” He said, “The only one thing you can do now, if you wish to, you might appeal your case, if you wish to, to the great white throne judgment.”

“Oh,” he said, “if my name is not there, I have no choice. I must appeal my case to the white throne judgment.”

So he said he begin to move out into space. He went on and on. Said it started getting lighter and lighter and lighter. After while, it got so light, till it was coming from no certain place, but just a great light, million times lighter than the sun. And said he got just slower and slower. After while, it stopped. And he heard a great voice blast from somewhere in the eternities, said, “Daniel Curry,” He said, “did you ever tell a lie when you was on earth?”

And he said, “I was just getting ready to say, 'No, my Lord,' but said in the presence of that light, I seen there was many things that I'd misrepresented.”

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

He said, “I was getting ready to say, 'No, Lord, I've been an honest man, an evangelist,' but,” he said, “in the presence of that light I thought of many shady deals I'd pulled.”

Brother, you might not think much about it now, but in the presence of that light.... Go look.... A whole lot of things that.... You think, “But I belong to church, preacher. That's good enough.” But in the presence of that light, you're going to need more than that. You will.

He said, “Daniel Curry, was you perfect when you was on earth?” And said, “I said, 'No, Lord. I wasn't perfect.'” And said. “There was a silence. I was getting ready to hear the great blast.” He said, “My bones were pulling loose, as it were. Now, I'm going to hear that great blast, 'Depart from My presence, for only perfection can come in here. Depart into everlasting fire which is prepared for the devil and his angels.'” Said, “As I listened to hear that,” he said, “I heard the sweetest voice that I ever heard. No mother could speak like that voice.” And said, “I turned to look.” Said, “I saw a face sweeter than any mother's face. I never seen anything,” he said, “that could compare with that face. And He walked close to me, put His arms around me, and said, 'Father, no, Daniel Curry wasn't perfect on earth, but in earth, he stood for Me. Now in heaven, I will stand for him.'”

I wonder, who will stand for you. Let's pray while we think of it. Think it over. Who will stand for you? Heavenly Father, in this solemn moment, I grant to this little audience that's waited and listened, and stood in the rain, been sitting in the seat for long drawed out hours, may every one just now think this over, “Who will stand for me? Who am I standing for?” And Father, as this solemn moment sweeps over our beings, knowing that we all have to stand there.... “It's appointed unto man once to die and then the judgment.” Oh, how I want Him to stand in my place. And I might have to stand there before morning, and we don't know who here may have to stand before morning, but there's one thing we know, we will all stand by and by. And let this Spirit of the Holy Ghost touch every heart in this moment of deep sincerity as we bow in Thy presence.

And now with your heads bowed and your hearts bowed in prayer, we have not a room for an altar call around here, to bring you up, but you don't necessarily need that. The only thing you have to recognize, that you're a sinner and you need Christ. And if you recognize that tonight, friend, and you want Him to stand for you, will you make a stand for Him tonight? For He said in His Word, “He that heareth My Word and believeth on Him that sent Me hath everlasting life.”

I wonder while we are praying, every Christian, will the sinners in here put up your hand to God, not to me...? While every eye is closed, let the Holy Spirit alone with myself watch this. Would you put up your hands and say, “God, by my hand raised, I mean I'll stand for You tonight. I'm making my stand right now.” How many hands shall I see up at this time? God bless you. Bless you.

Up in the balcony, someone up there saying, “Brother Branham, I—I'm not a Christian. I go to church, but I realize I'm not a Christian. I really, when it comes time to stand for Christ, I haven't got the grace, the audacity to do it. I just turn around. When they tell jokes I don't try to straighten them out, those vulgar things they say at the office and the neighbors say them when we are at our little parties and so forth. I—I—I'm not a—I'm not a Christian, Brother Branham. And God knows that, and I'm going to raise my hand tonight, and say, 'God, be merciful to me. I will be a Christian. And I will make my stand tonight, and I want You to stand for me when the hour of my death, when I cross the river.'”

Will you raise your hand, someone else? Just put it up now. God bless you. Someone else? “I now will accept Christ, and I know He will accept me, if I will only make this gallant stand at this time, and by God's grace, I will keep my promise to Him.” Someone else? As you raise you hand, “I now will do it.”....

All right. Let us pray now for those who raised their hand. Father God, I commit them unto Thee, and I pray that You will, this hour.... I know You have. Your Word can't fail. You said, “No one can come except My Father draws them, and all that comes, I will give them everlasting life.” You promised that You would raise them up at the last day. When this body is destroyed and turned back to the elements of the earth, You'll gather it together someday in a young man or woman. And there the immortal Spirit shall be breathed into their nostrils, and they will live with mother and dad, and with the saints on high, and we will live together forever. Grant it, Lord. I pray in Jesus' name. Amen.

The Lord bless you as you made your stand. God seen you. He knows your heart.

Just a little late. I'm always just a little late. But now, I have at length, yet nervously, spoke and never got to my text. I just take too much time, I suppose. And it's awfully hard for me to pray for the sick after doing that, because preaching is one anointing, but to see visions is another anointing. Preaching brings joy. Visions takes the strength out. That's you doing it. But how many is in here that's never been in one of my meetings before? Let's see your hand. My, would you look?

All right, now we're going to call the prayer line together. But just before, I want just a moment to the people. Now, I do not claim that I am a healer. I don't believe there is anyone in the world that's a healer, whether he's a minister, evangelist, or a doctor, or a chiropractor, whatever he may be; he is not a healer. God is the only healer. Mayo brothers say that they are not healers. They assist nature, set bones, sew up wounds, take out bad parts, but God's the healer. God is the only healer.

Jesus Christ never claimed to be a healer. He said, “It's not Me that doeth the works. It's My Father that dwelleth in Me. He doeth the works.”

Do you believe that? All right. Now, I want to ask you something then. Now, what is healing? Healing (listen close) is your personal faith in a finished work at Calvary of the Lord Jesus Christ; what God did by Him at Calvary purchased your salvation and your healing. The men and women that raised their hand a few minutes ago to be saved, they wasn't just saved then. They were saved nineteen hundred years ago at Calvary. They just accepted it then as a gift from God.

I used to be a blind man. I could not see for astigmatism shook my head. I walked like this with big glasses; had to be led around. But now, I can read newspaper print five feet from me. What is it? Just the grace of God. I accepted Jesus as my healer. I was turned down by doctors for three minutes of life to live many years ago. Said I would be dead—told my father—in three minutes. The Lord Jesus appeared to me. I accepted Him as my healer, being a sinner boy, not knowing; and today, after many years, I'm in perfect health so far as I know at forty-seven years old. Now, it's because of His grace. He died for that and I accepted it. It's my personal property. It's your personal property.

Now, do you believe the Bible says that Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever? Hebrews 13:8. Does the Bible say that He is a High Priest that can be touched by the feeling of our infirmities? If Jesus is the same yesterday, today, and forever, I want to ask you something. And yesterday, did He say He'd heal the people? No. He said, “I only do as My Father shows Me.” Saint John 5:19. This is for the newcomers. “Verily, Verily, I say unto you, the Son can do nothing in Himself.”

When He passed by thousands of crippled, lame, blind, withered at the pool of Bethesda, multitudes. And I am taught according to the Greek dictionary that it takes at least two thousand to make a multitude. So multitudes laying there of lame, halt, blind, and withered waiting for the troubled water.... Jesus walking right through them people, never touched a one, and went to a man laying on a little pallet, that perhaps had, oh, prostate trouble or tubercular (It was retarded.) and said, “Wilt thou be made whole?” Left the rest of them, healed that one and went away.

When they questioned Him, He said, “I do nothing in myself.” How many knows the Bible says that? He said, “What I see the Father doing, that doeth the Son likewise.” Did He say it?

Philip came to Him one time and got saved, and He went and found Nathanael under a tree. I've quoted this for two nights. I don't know why I come back to it. We could just keep going through the Scriptures, so many places. You Bible readers know that. But when he walked in the presence of Jesus.... This seems to be a key note right here. When he walked in the presence of Jesus, Jesus said, “Behold, an Israelite in whom there's no guile.”

He said, “Rabbi, when did You know me?”

He said, “Before Philip called you when you were under the tree.” That's thirty miles around the mountain. How did He see him thirty miles around the mountain?

What did this man say? “Thou art the Son of God.” That was a Jewish attitude. I mean the real believer Jew. “Thou art the King of Israel.”

He said, “Because I told you this, you believe?” Said, “You'll see greater than this.”

Many times He told the people who they were when they come to Him. He knowed where a fish was, had a coin in his mouth. He knowed where two mules was hitched, where two ways met. Many things as the Father would show Him.... A woman touched His garment, and went out, and sat down, or stood up, or wherever she was. Jesus said, “Who touched Me?”

Peter said, “All of them's touching You.”

He said, “But I felt My strength go out of Me—virtue.” And He looked around, and He found the woman, and He told her she had a blood issue. And He said, “Thy faith has saved thee. I never done it. I never seen no vision. But your faith has saved you.” Is that right? “Your faith!” And she fell down at His feet and confessed all.

Now, she touched Him. Do you believe you could touch Him tonight? If Jesus is the same yesterday, today, and forever, He's got to have some way to touch Him. And the Bible said that He's a High Priest—Hebrews. He's the High Priest of our confession. He can be touched by the feeling of our infirmities, not “He was”; “He is!” You can touch Him the same way.

Now, if He has risen from the dead, He's the same in principal, the same in power, the same in attitude; He's just the same Jesus or this Bible is wrong, and I'm a false witness, and these ministers are false witnesses, and your testimony is false.

There is hundreds of religions. And Brother Cook sitting here.... Thank you for your book, Brother Cook. I was looking at it awhile ago. It was sent to my room. Thirty Seven Years In India. He could tell you something about false religions by the hundreds, denying Christ. But there's only one of them and that's the religion of Jesus Christ can prove that He is living, not by psychology, not by emotion. We clap our hands and shout, and so does the Mohammedans, so does the Buddhists.

The Mohammedans work themselves in such a frantic, till they can take splinters and run through their fingers, don't even feel it. Take a lance at the feast of the prophets, run through their nose, and up through their heads like this, and draw it back.... Take a spear....

Standing right there in Lausanne, Switzerland, and took a spear ... or, a sword and run it through him like this, and had a doctor there to examine it, and poured water on this end and it run out the other end and pulled it back through his heart without bleeding a drop; frantic, worked up. That's right. But they can't heal. They can't take away sin. They can't prove the resurrection. They can prove psychology, but not resurrection.

So there's all kinds of isms. But there's one genuine Christian religion, and Jesus Christ is the Author of that faith, and He died, and rose again, and He said, “The things, the works that I do shall you do also; more than this shall you do (I know the King James said, 'greater,' but you look and see if that isn't ”more.“)—more than this (because He'd be in the church everywhere).... More than this shall you do, for I go unto My Father. A little while and the world will see Me no more. Yet ye shall see Me. I will be with you, even in you, to the end of the world. Go ye into all the world and demonstrate the power of the Holy Ghost to every creature. These signs shall follow them that believe.” How far? All the world. How many? Every creature. Two thirds of the world don't even know the name of Jesus tonight. The Gospel's still in force, and will be till Christ comes. Then the Spirit, the contract, will be lifted with the body, and the redeemed by the blood will come together in husband and wife, as King and queen, will sit on a throne of David and rule the earth.

Now, if that's right, and if Jesus will come to this platform and in these people, and will produce the same kind of life and do the same things that He did here on earth, will you accept Him for your needs? Will you raise your hand to him? Say, “I will accept Him for my need.” All right. The Lord bless you.

Now, “Brother Branham, are you afraid to make that kind of a statement?” No, sir. He promised it, and it's His promise. No matter anything contrary to it, I say it's a lie. God said so. That settles it. It's a gift. And He, by yielding yourself to the Spirit of God....

God is the same. Jesus is the same. He works the same. He lives the same. He acts the same. He acts in you as He would if He was here on earth. And what did He say? “Ye are the vine.” Is that right? I just wanted to see if I could catch you on it. Ye are the what? Branches. “I am the vine.”

Now, the vine doesn't bear fruit, does it? Who was He talking to? The church. “I'm the vine. You are the branches.” The branch is energized by the life of the vine; therefore Jesus has no lips tonight on earth but mine and yours. He has no eyes but mine and yours. He has no hands but mine and yours. He energizes us, and we bring forth His life, as He brings it through us. Whether it's preaching the Gospel by lip, whether it's seeing vision by eye, whether it's whatever it is, laying hands on the sick, whatever it is, it's Christ working through the branches of His church, every office literally electrified by His presence.

Isn't it wonderful? Here we are. Now, I've either told the truth or a lie. If I've told a lie.... God will never have nothing to do with a lie. You know that. If I've told the truth, God is obligated to vindicate it is the truth.

Let us pray. Now, heavenly Father, I pray that You'll help me and help this audience. No matter how much I would believe; they have got to believe too, because it's their faith that operates Your presence, that gets from You whatever they desire. You went to Your own country, full, without measure, the fullness of the Godhead bodily, and men and women didn't believe You. They said, “Why, he's uneducated. Where did he get this schooling? What did he come from? Why, where did this wisdom come from? Isn't his father with us, the carpenter, and his mother, and his brothers, and sisters, aren't they all here?” And the Bible said, “Many mighty works He could not do because of their unbelief.” And You're the same yesterday, today, and forever. God take all unbelief from us, and let us submit ourselves to the Holy Ghost, and to have a great climax to this meeting, that every sick and afflicted person may be healed. God, grant it in Christ's name. Amen

Now, we'll call the prayer line, God willing. We will have to hurry. Don't get nervous though, because that just upsets everybody. Be quiet. What we been calling from in the prayer line? You got the cards. All right. What is it? All right. Well, let's just start anyhow. Start number 1. Who has prayer card number 1? Let's line people up right quick. Say, did you give out 1? All right ones. All right. All right, want E's. All right. E? Was that it?

Is your card E, sister, E-1? F-1. All right. F-2, raise your hand quickly now, right quick. F-2, would you ... 2? 3? 3? 4? [Blank place on tape.]

One of them is a fundamental and the other one is a Pentecostal. The fundamental positionally know what they are in Christ, but they haven't got no faith. The Pentecostal received the Holy Ghost and got plenty of faith, but don't know who they are. If I could ever get them together.... Like a man's got money in the bank, but he don't know how to write a check. The other one can write a check and ain't got no money in the bank. So, if you could ever get them together, fundamental faith and Pentecostal people, or Pentecostal faith and fundamental people, the millennium would set in. The church would rise to its feet. God would get glory, see.

Now, the gift of prophecy has to be judged by judges before it could be announced to the church. It might be on this one tonight, that one tomorrow night, that one the next night, that one.... It's a gift in the church. But a prophet is born from the mother's wombs a prophet. The Bible said that John the Baptist, being a prophet, seven hundred and twelve years before he was born Isaiah saw him and said, “He's the voice of one crying in the wilderness.” Is that right? Moses was born a prophet, had no choice of it.

I believe it was Zechariah, the Bible said God told him, “Before you was even formed in your mother's womb, I knew you and sanctified you, and ordained you a prophet to the nations.” See? “God in sundry times in divers manners spoke to the fathers through the prophets, but through in this last day through His Son, Christ Jesus.” So, it's a gift that comes to the church that we prophesy, speak with tongues, interpret tongues, lay hands on the sick.

Wished I had time to tell you the miracles that I've seen done: People, little lay members go lay hands on the sick, and they be healed, where the Spirit strikes them and warns them to go do it. They obey.

Now, let us be real reverent. Sonny, if you will, could you play, “Only Believe,” just a moment? There's something about the song. I've heard it sang now in pretty near every language under heaven, where thousands of heathens that war at one another get together and sing, “Only Believe.” “Only Believe,” it was wrote by my friend, Paul Rader, who's gone on to heaven. In his gallant death in California, when the little Moody Bible Institute sent a quartet down there to sing, and they were singing, “Nearer My God to Thee.” How many ever knew Paul Rader, heard of him? Sure. He had a sense of humor.

By the way, his friend too, F. F. Bosworth may follow me in this meeting, or Tommy Osborn. If they do come in here, receive them in Christ. They are real, real brothers. The pastor has been saying, asking maybe he could get a hold of them to come continue on.

Now, listen. When Paul was dying, he said, “Who is dying? You or I? Raise them shades and sing me some snappy Gospel songs.” So when they went to singing, Paul said, “Where's Luke?” Luke and Paul stuck together about like Billy Paul, my boy, and I. They were together. They were brothers. They called Luke. Luke was in the next room. He didn't want to see his brother die. So he said, “Where you at, Luke?” Luke come over, and he took hold of Paul's hand. Paul said, “Luke, we've come a long ways together, brother. But think of it: In five minutes from now I'll be standing in the presence of Jesus Christ, clothed in His righteousness,” and squeezed Luke's hand and went to meet God.

Let me go like that. That's right. Let me go like that when my weary days are over.

Paul wrote the song when I was having a big meeting in Ft. Wayne, where he wrote the song in that room. I couldn't keep from crying when I heard it come in. I could just see Paul. I will see him again someday.

All right. Only believe, all things are possible. Let's watch coming from heaven now; down through the corridors comes the Lord Jesus. I've spoke for Him. I've closed the Book. It's His time to speak. If He vindicates what I say is the truth, you disbelieve it, you're a sinner. Remember, “Go ye and,” what no more? What is sin? Unbelief. Go ye and disbelieve no more or worse things will come upon you. So don't disbelieve. Only believe.

For the sake of time, let's hurry and get the people coming. The lady standing here is a stranger to me as far as I know. We're strangers to each other. I do not know her, but I'm glad it's a woman to be first tonight. I'd like to give a little Bible picture. How many.... [Blank place on tape.] institution tonight. We're not playing church, friends. It's church. God's mercy. We're at the end of the road. This is the signs of the last day. Now, may the God of heaven help us tonight so that you'll be without an excuse at the day of judgment. And God knows that this is only done, if He will. I have no way of saying He will, but if He will react His life again tonight right here, so you'll be without an excuse, and you who love Him will rejoice and be happy because your religion is right and your Christ has raised from the dead. The Lord bless.

Now, lady, I.... Ever who's at the microphone, if you probably step it up, the engineer, just a little, because if the anointing which is now striking me, if it.... I don't know how loud I talk, because it's another world. Now, if I said, “Woman, you're sick.” That might be right. That'd be guessing. “And you're going to be healed.” You'd just have to guess at that. That's something that I tell you will be, which you have no way of knowing. But what if He tells me something that's already happened? Then you know whether that's truth or not.

Now, when the Lord Jesus came to a person.... Do you believe, lady, that He has raised from the dead? And you believe that He is just the same in every attitude and everything that He always has been? And if He tonight.... You're standing there with something that you've come here for. And you know, I don't know. But if He will reveal to me what you've come for, just the same as He told that woman where her trouble was. If He will tell me where your trouble is, you'll know whether it's the truth or not. And if He will do that, will you accept and believe then, knowing that your brother has no way of knowing those things? You'll know it'll have to be supernatural. So it'll be your attitude, what you judge it to be.

You're aware that something is going on, because between me and the lady is a light moving back and forth. It's because I keep talking, the reason it doesn't settle on her. But I've never seen the woman. I don't know her.

Something happened. I don't know just what it was. I don't think it was the Angel, because it was a light. But if somebody snapped a camera, don't do it. See, this Angel is a light. I'm trying to watch it. And it jerked me from the vision then, you see. Don't do that. I know you didn't mean to, but (see), you can take pictures before this, but not now, see. It's gone from the woman, see. I was talking with her and it.... She was moving from me, and then a light flashed, and I thought the Angel went to the audience. And then I looked back, and it was a bulb. So, please now. Be real reverent.

Let us talk again. What am I doing? I'm trying to do the same thing that Jesus did when He talked to the woman. He said, “Woman, bring Me a drink.” Wonder why He said that? Why did He send His disciples away? Father sent Him up there. And He sent His disciples away. Why did He contact the woman's spirit? He said, “Woman, bring Me a drink.”

She said, “It's not customary for you Jews to ask Samaritans such. We have no dealings.” There was a segregation, just like the colored and white today.

But what did He say? “If You knew who you were talking to, you'd ask Me for a drink.”

“Why,” she said, “the well's deep, and You have nothing to draw with. And our father Jacob dug it and drunk from it and you say in this mountain in Jerusalem....” The conversation went on. What was He doing?

There was a man filled with the Spirit of God. There was a woman with a need of God. He was contacting her spirit to know her need, and that's exactly what I'm doing now.

Now, if you'll believe, it'll.... You, yourself are the one controls it, not me. I'm just trying to get you to center your thought on Christ. And if God will do this, all of you will believe, will you do it, with all your heart? May He grant it.

I can see the woman coming from somewhere else. She's not from this city. She's from out-of-town. And she's talking about something. And that's about her.... It's a growth, and that growth is in the breast. That's the truth. And you're afraid it's a cancer. You prayed that God would let you get in this line today. And by the way, your husband has something to do.... He's a preacher. That's right. And your name is something like B-r-e-n-n-e-n, Brennen or something like that. That's right. Now, do you believe? Do you accept Him with all your heart? Now, come here.

Our heavenly Father, in the name of Thy Son the Lord Jesus, knowing that this woman is shadowed for death, I pray that You'll grant tonight that this old evil thing that's bothering her.... Oh thou, devil, you are defeated. You're exposed. Come out of the woman. I adjure, thee, by the living God that you depart from her. Amen.

God bless you, sister. Go, and don't doubt. It's free from you, now. Don't doubt.

How do you do. Well, you and I are strangers too, I suppose, to each other. I don't know you. But someone here who knows you, and He's the Lord Jesus. I am His servant. I perceive that you are a Christian. You're a Christian, because your spirit seems to be.... The Holy Spirit here seems to be welcoming as my brother. You're a Christian. And you come to me for something, for help. And if I could do it, I would. But I'm just your brother, a gift of God to you, and I just yield myself, and the Holy Spirit might be able to help you, if you'll believe me.

I see you're really extremely nervous. You're upset about something. I tell you; it's a spiritual condition. You want a lift from God. That's right, brother. And there's something else, that you might know. You got trouble with your feet, and that's athletic feet. That's right. And you're a preacher. That's right. That's “thus saith the Spirit.” Now, do you believe? Come here.

Dear God and Father, I bless this man in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, and ask that you will make him well. In Jesus Christ's name. Amen. God bless you, brother.

Little lady, sitting there with your hand up like this in the second row, right back there, you're praying for a spiritual uplift too. Isn't that right? It's a spiritual condition. You're aware that something is going on there, aren't you? Looks like, audience, you could see that. Can't you see that light come, an emerald color hanging right over that lady? There it is. She's praying that God will help her and give her spiritual help, for she's seeking such from God. That's true. Just believe. Raise up your hand, lady, to God, way up high. Will you take that same hand and lay it on the lady next to you who has arthritis and wants to be healed?

It's over, sister. That you might know, the lady sitting next to her, do you believe, lady? You're praying for a little boy. Yes. Raise up just a minute. There's a boy sitting here looking this way praying too, and his spirit is coming in. The lady with the little white hat on, yes. I want to see you. Stand up. Look this way just a moment. Do you believe me to be His prophet? If God will reveal to me what you are praying for, will you accept it? Well, his stomach trouble will end then. Do you believe with all your heart that Jesus will make it well and will do the things that you've asked for? If you believe it with all your heart, raise up your hand. With all your heart, you believe it. Now, bow your heads.

Our heavenly Father, I pray that in Christ's name, that You will give to her the deep desire of her heart as we condemn the devil in Jesus Christ's name. Amen. The Lord bless you. Now, have faith

You, lady, do you believe with all your heart? I'm a stranger to you. It's just from everywhere. Now, be real reverent and everyone in prayer just a moment. You're all human. You all got spirits, and everyone's just pressing now, see. And visions are just coming from every way. It's hard to hold them.

I want to talk to you, lady, just a moment. Look at me. Look on me. I mean that like the Scripture. Peter and John passed through the gate called Beautiful, said, “Look on us.” That don't mean to look to them for ... just to give attention.... You got trouble with your legs. That's right. Now, being that I've got your spirit under the control of the Holy Spirit, there's something else on your heart. That didn't satisfy you. I see some kind of, like a ... it's a water, great big waves a rolling. It's a ... it's the sea. You are interested something.... It's somebody that's over seas, and that is a son. And that son is in Italy, and that son has a stomach trouble and is supposed to be operated on right away, and the boy is a sinner, and you want prayer for his soul, “Thus saith the Lord.” You believe?

Dear heavenly Father, in the name of Thy beloved Child, the Lord Jesus, I lay hands upon the woman and ask that she receive that what she asked for, in Christ's name. Amen. Go, don't doubt Him, lady. It's light around you now where it was dark. You can receive what you've asked for. Do you believe? Have faith in God. Don't doubt. Amen.

He said, “I can if ye believe.” All right, young fellow. Do you believe God? Do you believe Jesus Christ is God's Son, He raised Him from the dead? Do you believe the work that you now see going on, you believe it comes from God? You believe me to be His servant? You believe the Word that I preached is the truth? Then I can help you, if you believe that. For He promised it.

You're suffering with a nervous condition. You've had it since a little boy, since you was a kiddie in school. You got real scared one time somewhere coming from.... It was a dog or something that crossed your path. That's been many years ago. That's right. Reading your books in school, you held them close to you because you are near sighted. You read too close to you. You should push it away. It's been pushed back by your teacher. That's years ago. Also, you've got someone here in the building that you are interested in. It is your mother. You believe that God will tell me what is wrong with her? Would you accept it? She's got asthma trouble. It's right. Do you believe me to be His prophet, now? You're praying for your wife also, aren't you, son? You believe God will tell me what's wrong with her? She's got something wrong with her fingers. They get yellow and swell up on the ends, and the fingernails drop off. That's right, isn't it? Now, do you believe? Then go and receive as you have believed; so be it unto you in Christ's name.

How do you do? Do you believe with all your heart? I don't know you, lady. You're aware of that, but God knows you. He knows all about you. You're standing for someone else. That's your daughter. She has a horrible female trouble. I see her going into a hospital and coming back out, but I hear a doctor say she has to be operated again. That's right. You don't believe that. You accept Christ now for the healer? Come, as you stand for her.

O Christ of God, I condemn the devil and ask that this woman receive her blessing she's asked for in Christ's name. Amen.

Have faith in God.

How do you do, sir. I don't know you, but there's somebody does know you. That's God.

Up in the balcony in the middle row, sitting back there, sir, with that stomach trouble, you believe God will heal you, make you well? The man with the white shirt on, kind of a blue looking tie, gray headed, sitting there with a stomach trouble, praying, got acidity of the stomach, ulcerated, raise your hand up, sir. There you are. You're healed. Jesus Christ makes you well. Amen.

Do you believe? Have faith in God.

Been working hard, haven't you. Got a poisoning from it, a cement poisoning, Mr. G. H. Whitner. Return home; it's going to leave you, sir. Your faith has made you whole. Amen. God bless you, brother.

You believe, lady? You touched Him, little lady with the red dress on. You were praying, wasn't you, sister? Yes. Now, there He is. He's standing by you. You're suffering with a lady's trouble, a female trouble. That's right. Say, by the way, you're a minister, a woman preacher. You're not from this city. You're from Alabama. By the way, you've got a sister you're praying for. She's not here, but she's there, and she's got epilepsy. I see her fall with the spirit. That's the truth. Have faith, lady, and believe God, and you can have what you ask for. Amen.

You believe? If thou canst believe, all things are possible.

You're from out-of-town too, but do you believe? You're scared, aren't you. You are to be mother, and the reason you're scared, you got a rupture; and you are afraid of this baby whether it'll be right or not. Wondering if you won't doubt, Mrs. Hoffman —Huffler, then you can be healed. You believe it? How does He know your name and know who you are? Do you believe it with all your heart? All right, Mrs. Huffler, you can go home and bring forth the baby in peace.

God Almighty, I bless the woman in Jesus Christ's name. Amen.

Do you believe God will heal that blood condition, take that diabetes away from you and make you well? Do you believe it with all your heart? Then go on your road, believe with all your heart, and be made well.

You're young to have arthritis and things, but God can heal you. You believe that with all your heart? Then, go and believe with all your heart, be made well. Come here; I want to lay my hands on you as you pass by.

Jesus of Nazareth, heal the woman, I pray. Amen. Have faith in God.

Your disease kills hundreds, but God can heal you of heart trouble and make you well. You believe that? There's many out there suffering with the same thing.

There on the front row.... No, it's not you; you're standing for a friend. They live in Georgia. Got heart trouble. If you believe with all your heart, you can be healed too.

The man with the red shirt on looking at me, you are praying, aren't you, sir. You want to be healed, don't you? You are a preacher of the Gospel, and you suffer with a nervous trouble; and you were just praying to God, “God, let him speak to me.” If that is right, raise up you hand, Reverend. You have received your healing; go in peace.

Likewise you, sister, don't doubt nothing, but believe with all your heart.

You need some blood. You're anemic; your blood, passing before me, is thin. But do you believe that you and I can go to Calvary and get a blood transfusion by the Lord Jesus?

Heavenly Father, I pray, Thee, that Thou will heal the woman....