India Trip Report

... to be assembled with such a nice people, and I am.... I feel very honored to be assembled here with this group of men and women this morning. And while we were eating breakfast, as it seems to be that I always think of this.... I hear each one give their testimony. And sometimes, I heard a man right up here at the end of the table say.... I said something to him last night or something. It's one of those men. I believe it's the man sitting right there. And a lady over here said that I prayed for her. Now, that seems that I dreamed it. It's just way back. It's something that I may try to explain it the best I can in a few moments.

But as I sat here and thought of the doctor there, his testimony, at the jail services.... And this man is a Methodist from my mother's church, and the Church of God there, the brother said. And the different ministers....

The young fellow over there, and this brother here, just so many of you, all of you, our colored brother here.... And how that it just gives you something. And I think as we sit here this morning, as men and women, we have one motive, and that's to further the cause of Christ. That's why we are here. And we are not divided, though our denominations may mean different, but we are all one in His grace. [Blank spot on tape.]

I spend much of my time.... My mother's mother came from the reservation, and there's been something in me that loves the outdoors. As you know, I'm a hunter, and I've rode and done much riding. My father was a rider. And up in Kremmling, Colorado, back on Troublesome River, we had.... The Hereford Association grazes at the Troublesome River Valley. And I've rode much in years back in there. And we have a drift fence where all the Association rides their cattle in. If you can raise a ton of hay, you can graze a cow on the Arapajo Forest. And I've noticed the ranger standing there as he counted each man and his brands that went by.

And as I sat there many times with my leg over the horn of the saddle watching him, and seeing him count those cattle as they go through, I see them come through with the Tripod; that was ours. Turkey Track, that was another ranch up the river. The Diamond T, the Lazy R, and many different brands. Everything went through, and they had different brands, but every one of them was Hereford.

That's what I think of today, see. We might be different branded, but we're all Christians at heart. Nothing goes in there unless he's a registered Hereford. He can't go through the gate unless he's a registered Hereford. And we can go in the gates, no matter what we are in brand, as long as we are born again Christians.

And looking across the table here and seeing some of the men that, perhaps maybe just a little older than I, and some of you men even that's younger than I, were preaching this marvelous full Gospel, as we call it, before I came in on the scene. And to hear the remarks and the respects that (I realize you don't say to me as a man; you're giving them to God for His kindness of His gift) that I am with you in ministering.

But did you realize this road that's so smooth that I'm riding on now, you men laid it when you were on the street corner with a guitar years ago and were kicked about from pillar to post? You men and women laid that foundation that I'm only trying to build on. And here I stand as one born out of season, just a young man in the age of the ministry that you're in. And here, you're letting me speak to you, when really you are the one who laid the foundation, see.

Then I look this morning and see these aged men and women as they have preached when I was just a little Baptist preacher or maybe before there, and accepting me as your brother. And what a feeling it is to get together where people don't think that you're a devil, or a spook, or something, that you're a brother, and they understand it. And it just makes me feel so good. I have to be, I want to be, and it's in my heart to be loyal to my calling. And then when I see someone welcome you, then you know how it makes you feel, see. Oh, such a love that flows to a brother like that, and sister. When you feel that something that you know that comes from God, that you're trying to give to the people, and with a heart they just embrace it. How it makes you feel to them. You see, it's just something.

And as I look around the table here and think this is a breakfast. I don't know whenever we will be like this again. We may never in this life be like this again. And I thinking of nine o'clock and the business, one of the businessmen sitting there said ... come over and said, “I must leave at nine, Brother Branham, because I've got some Christian things,” he had to do for Christian people. And I thought, “Well, just a little while and then we will be separated again.” But as the poet said, “We'll still be joined in heart, and hope to meet again.” You sing that old song, many of you, “Blest Be The Tie That Binds.”

And I thought, “Will we meet again then?” Yes, brethren, we'll meet again. And it will not altogether be a breakfast. We're told it'll be a supper. And when at last, when it's all over, and our toils are finished, and we come up into His house, and we're going to eat supper with Him, drink the fruit of the vine and eat anew in His kingdom.... When I think of the time when it's all over.... We're in the heat of the day now and toiling hard, and when it's all over and I look across the table and see you men, oh, what a feeling that's going to be when we look at each other. And I know that it's all over, and we'll, no doubt, reach across the table and kind of grip each other's hands. A little tear of joy will run down our cheeks, then to think the King in His beauty shall walk out, wipe all tears from our eyes, say, “Don't cry anymore, children. It's all over. Enter into the joys of the Lord.” That's a time that I look forward to. That's when I look at that time to hear Him say, “It was well done, my good and faithful servant. Now, enter into the joys of the Lord.” What a time it will be to see the gray hairs fading out then to young men again, to know that we will live and reign with Him forever.

Now, today in this privilege that we have of being together.... Some, the brother here I believe is from Canada, and from different ... Tennessee, and this little group is around from every little crevice. And to see us sitting in one accord like this, it would just be a time for Pentecost again, see: For a fresh anointing which I feel that the Pentecostal blessing is in here.

Someone has often said to me, “Brother Branham, do you belong to the Pentecostal church?”

I said, “Pentecost is not a denomination. Pentecost is an experience that men receive everywhere. And it isn't segregated from the rest of the churches. It's a blessing that should be in every heart. And men do hunger for that.

And Brother Vayle said we was having a ministerial breakfast this morning, and some of the brothers and sisters were going to gather in for a little time of fellowship. And, you know, it was such a wonderful thing, till as a soldier, I left my sword at home. So.... I just.... That's my Bible. And so I knew that we were ... be seated together in heavenly places anyhow, in Christ, and I thought maybe this morning for just a few moments' talk.... I guess we should be cleared out in the next few moments. But being that you brethren are ministers, and far more capable of speaking the Word than I am, because I am a spare tire.... See, just.... You know what you use a spare tire for, you see. So we don't have any puncture this morning, so we don't necessarily need the spare tire.

But I thought I would try to report to you upon some things that our heavenly Father is doing in the places, which I thought would be more of a interest to you brethren, than to try to take a text or something and talk to you from.

And the text that I would think in my mind, if there'd be any, would be Mark 16. And what a marvelous text it is. It's the last commission to the church. When God first commissioned His church, Christ in Matthew 10, He gave them power over unclean spirits and to heal the sick and so forth. That was His first commission. His last commission was to go into all the world and preach the Gospel to every creature. Now, men try to say that day is finished. But there's only one-third of the world has ever heard of Christ so far. To all the world and to every creature. “And these signs shall follow them that believe,” said Jesus.

And I know it's not good, and I don't think that the Gospel deserves to be told jokes, so I wouldn't want you to class this as a joke. But just something that comes to my mind of a recent event. There was young boy who went off to school to get his education to be a minister, which was all right if it's the right kind of a school that'll teach him the right things. And so many of our.... Well, I have.... You know I have no education. I have a seventh grade education, so I can't speak before men of your caliber and use the right words, but I hope the Holy Spirit will let you know what I mean.

The schools that's just so formal and indifferent, they're kind of a social gospel like and they don't teach the full Word of God. The boy'll probably be better off to stay home and stay on his knees.

But this young fellow in his schooling.... His mother taken sick while he was gone, and she got very ill with a pneumonia. And so she.... They sent word to her son to stand by; he may be called home at anytime, for the doctor said that there was nothing he could do. He gave her penicillin, and put her in an oxygen tent. She still was fading away. And the boy was ready to leave from a famous college and come home to his mother. And all of a sudden he got a telegram that she had recovered and was all right.

And so on the vacation time, the young gent come home to see his mother. And he come in; he said, “Mother, I would like to ask you something.” Said, “When you were so sick,” said, “what happened all at once? What did the doctor give you to make you get well so quick? I was all ready, packed my suitcase, when I got the telegram that you were well.” And said, “You never did explain it to me.”

She said, “Honey,” she said, “just down the street and around the corner in kind of the lower part of the town, of course,” said, “there's a little mission around there, a place called Full Gospel.” And said, “There was a lady said that she felt real definitely led to come and see me. And she asked me if I believed in prayer, praying for the sick. And I told her that, of course, if the Bible said so, I believed it. And she said, 'Our pastor prays for the sick.'” So said, “They sent the pastor up, and he read to me out of the Bible in the book of Mark the 16th chapter and said, 'These signs shall follow them that believe.'” Said, “He prayed for me and laid hands on me.” And said, “Honey, the fever left me, and I got well.”

Oh, he said, “Mother, of course....” Said, “You're not associating with them people anymore, are you?” And said, “They are from a lower caliber than what we belong.”

And, “Oh,” she said, “Praise God, honey,” she said, “it's just wonderful. I go to the mission now.”

“Oh,” he said, “Mother,” said, “Why, you shouldn't do that.” Said, “You must understand that those people are more the illiterate type, you see.” He said, “You shouldn't do that.”

“Why,” she said, “well, hallelujah, son.”

He said, “Mother, you shouldn't say that.” He said, “You're beginning to act like those people.” He said, “You shouldn't say that.” And he said, “Now, you see,” said, “as far....”

She said, “Well, honey,” said, “They have divine healings.” And said, “There's services. And oh, you should see how the Lord blesses them.”

“Oh,” he said, “Mother,” said, “Now, that Scripture he read to you from Mark the 16th chapter....”

She said, “Yes, here it is. Right here. The Bible said so.”

“Oh,” he said, “you see,” said, “those ministers of that caliber,” said, “they're not educated.” And he said, “Us better scholars understand that Mark 16 from the 9th verse on is not inspired.” Said, “It was just added by the Vatican and so forth.” Said, “It's really not inspired.” Said, “There's no history that says that it was added or put in there.” And said, “It was just added. From the 9th verse on is not inspired.”

And she said, “Well, hallelujah.”

And, “Why,” he said, “Mother, the very audacity,” he said, “why you are.... Why,” he said, “It's.... Why, I'm ashamed of you.”

She said, “I was just thinking something, son.”

Said, “What was you thinking, mother?”

“Well,” said, “if God could heal me with that Scripture that's not inspired, what could he do to me with that which really is inspired?” I think that's just about the way it is, you see. That it is inspired.... And it was a great thing that happened.

Did any of you ever know Morris Reedhead? Met most.... I guess some of you are. He was the vice-president of the Sudan missions of the Baptist. You might.... You knew Reedhead, didn't you? And Don Wells, after he had received the Holy Ghost, and you know Don Wells, there from Chattanooga. Surely, he's got the biggest Baptist church there is down there. He'd received the baptism of the Holy Ghost under Reedhead. And Dr. Reedhead came to my house, and he said.... Now, he said, “Brother Branham,” he said, “I want to ask you something.” And some Jewish brother.... And they were with some men from Ohio. This Jewish brother had a business here in Ohio. I forget what his name is, which was a personal friend to Hyman Appleman. And so they came to my house and he said....

Now, 'course being a Baptist.... Now that's no throw, see. Now, remember the reason that I just kind of stuck with the Baptist church was the sovereignty of the local church what I think is apostolic, you see. Not as the Baptist, we have in there.... I don't even attend the fellowship, but in the Baptist church is not a denomination. It's not supposed to be. It is now, but it was not supposed to be a denomination. It's a brotherhood. And it's the sovereignty of the local church. And if God is ever going to get a message to His man, His elder, which is according to the Bible, the highest office in the local church is the elder. And now, coming through, the elder has to go to the state presbyter, and the so forth, and on back to the bishop. And then it's wrote, “We believe this,” period. That's all.

As Dr. Boze said here one time, “We wrote our ritual (or ever what it is—their belief); we end it with a comma. We believe this, plus as much as the Lord can show us.” So, that's the way I kind of like that.

And then in this.... Dr. Reedhead came in. He said, “Now, Brother Branham, being a Baptist former, surely you knowed something about our message.”

I said, “Yes, sir.”

He said, “Now, when I was a little boy of seven, the Lord called me.” And I think Dr. Vayle here is a.... You know Dr. Reedhead, well know him.

He said, “As a little boy, I was called to the ministry.” He said, “Then I studied, and I longed, my little heart longing for God.” He said, “Then when I finally got my BA,” said, “I thought, surely I'd find that thing that I wanted right there in my BA.” And said, “But when I got my BA,” said, “I didn't get what I wanted.” He said then when he had his other degrees give to him, he said, “I thought maybe that in each of these degrees I would find Christ.” He said, “And with honorary degrees and so forth,” said, “I could almost plaster your wall with them.” He said, “But where is Christ in it all?” He said, “Has the teachers been wrong, Brother Branham?”

I said, “I wouldn't say that.”

See, I wouldn't want to take something, because people that put that confidence in you to support your ignorance by the crutches of saying something like that; I wouldn't want to do that. I said, “No. I wouldn't want to say the teachers was wrong and, so forth. But Christ doesn't lay in BA's or DD's or LD, see. Christ lays and dwells in a humble heart,” see.

And he said, “I tell you what I'm here for.” He said, “Sometime ago, a young Indian boy, who had been schooled and was going back to India to be a help to his nation....” He said, “This young Indian when he was going back, I said to him, 'Sir, why don't you....'” He was a Hindu. He said, “Why don't you just forsake that old dead prophet you got, Mohammed, and accept Jesus of Nazareth, a resurrected Christ?”

Well, he said the Mohammedan looked kind of down, and he looked up he said, “Kind, sir, what could your Jesus do for me any more than what my prophet can do?” Now, Christian brethren and sisters, listen to this. Said, “What could your Jesus do for me any more than my prophet can do?” Said, “One wrote a book that you call the Bible. You read it and believe it. The other one wrote the book called the Koran. We read it and believe it.” He said, “Now, both promised life after death and we both believe it.” He said, “Now, what could your prophet, or your Christ, do for us anymore than our prophet?”

Well, Dr. Reedhead said, “Well,” said, “your prophet is laying there dead in the grave.” And perhaps, maybe some of you travelers have seen the same as I. They keep a white horse at the grave, and have for right at two thousand years, expecting Mohammed to rise and conquer the world. The horse guard changes every so many hours. And he's in the grave. And he was a believer in God. Only the Mohammedan priest, when he rings the big bong on top of the building, he says, “There's one true and living God, and Mohammed is His prophet.”

We say, “There's one true and living God, and Jesus is His Son.” And that's the difference.

And so, he said, “Now, what could your Jesus do for me any more than he?”

“Why,” he said, “our Jesus raised from the dead, and your prophet is in the grave.” He said, “That's the difference.”

“Why,” he said, “did He raise from the grave?” He said, “I'd like to see you prove it.”

“Oh,” he said, “Why, the tomb's empty.”

Said, “Oh, in India, we got thousands of those.” Which they have. That's right, they claim. Virgin births? Oh, my, my. You could stack piles of literature that high on virgin births and so forth. And there is more virgin births besides Christ. Every bee that's borned, almost, after the second droning is virgin, no male contact at all. And why the virgin birth is such a question in people's mind, when there's virgin birth all along. Well then, Christ was the virgin born Son of God. And so then, we....

He said, “Then I said to him, 'Well. You see....'”

He said, “Now, what could your Christ give to me any more than what my prophet has given?”

Well, he said, “Now, we can prove He's raised from the dead.” Said, “We can prove it.”

“Well,” said, “I'd like to see you do it, and then we will believe it.” Uh-huh.

He said, “Well, He lives in my heart.”

“Well,” he said, “Mohammed lives in mine.”

He said, “But you see, we got joy, and gladness, and we can have the victory, and....”

He said, “Now, just a moment, Mr. Reedhead.” Said, “The Mohammedan religion can produce just as much psychology as Christianity can.” And now, brethren, you know that's the truth, see. Said, “We can be just as....”

Oh, I've seen them when they would, at the feast of the prophets, when they'd even take a lance and run through their nose up like that, and pull it back, not even a drop of blood. Shout and scream and go on and everything, oh, sure, certainly. And see, much of psychology; that's right. Even in Africa, where they had the devil worship, where they drinking blood out of a human skull, and call the power of the devil.... And why, it was a hideous thing to be around even, see. How the witch doctors challenge you right out there. You better know what you're talking about. You can play it here and just act like it. But when you come face to face with the thing, you better know what you're speaking of, see.

That's what I'm trying to say to my brethren this morning. Brethren, we had the churches bubble dance long enough, you see. We got to get down to something real, see. Them things are all right. It's the joy of the Lord many times instead of the power of the Lord, see, see.

So then, Mr. Reedhead said, “Well,” he said, “Now....”

I mean, the Hindu said, “You see, Mr. Reedhead,” he said, “Mohammed never made any promise to his followers: only life after death.” But said, “Your Jesus made other promises. He said that you teachers would do the same thing that He did.” And he said, “Then, perhaps maybe, if you people could prove that, then we would believe He raised from the dead.”

“Oh,” and Mr. Reedhead said, if you all know Him.... He taken him to this same Scripture, said, “Oh, I guess you're referring.... Seeing that you've read the Bible.”

Said, “Oh,” he said, “I've read it through and through many times,” the Mohammedan said.

He said, “Well, perhaps you're referring to Mark 16.”

He said, “That's just one of them.” That's just one of them. How about Mark 11:24, and so forth, and others? Saint John 14:12, many others, you see, where he said that the Scripture, Christ made these promises? Said, “We Mohammedans are waiting to see you Christians produce that, then we'll believe that your Jesus raised from the dead.” He said, “Until that, don't try to sell a Mohammedan your psychology, because we got a better,” see.

And he said, “Brother Branham,” he said, “I kicked the dust like that with my feet and changed the subject, knowed I wasn't speaking to a fellow that was just a overnight man. He knowed what he was talking about.”

And he said, “You produce what your Bible....”

And so Mr. Reedhead said, “Well, if you're referring to Mark 16,” said, “we find.... We really know that some ... that part of the Scripture, especially, isn't inspired.”

You've heard it, brethren. And they try to throw off Mark 16 there. Even in the Scofield notes you read, the footnotes, and many of the scholars try to throw that out. And you know what that Mohammedan said? He said, “It isn't? You mean from the 9th verse on, is not inspired.”

He said, “No. It isn't inspired.”

Said, “Then, what kind of a book is your Bible?” He said, “All the Koran's inspired.”

My, what it is, brethren, is men challenge the faith who knows where they're standing positionally to call that thing to a showdown. That Bible's either every word inspired or it's none of it inspired. If this isn't, and that isn't, what part can you believe? Believe it all or don't believe any. You're either my brethren this morning or you're not. I'm your brother or I am not. There's no half way between with God. We are either here for a purpose to further the cause of Christ or we're not, see. And that's the way the Scripture should be taught and practiced and believed.

And he said, “I said, 'Someday, I would come visit you,'” and said, “Here I am.” He said, “Is there such a thing as receiving the baptism of the Holy Ghost?”

I said, “Yes, sir.”

He said, “When can you get it?”

I said, “When you want it,” see.

And Morris Reedhead has received the baptism of the Holy Ghost and even having healing services himself. And there it is, brethren. The world, the two-thirds of the world that has never heard the name of Christ....

He said, “Now, you've had two thousand years to prove that Jesus raised from the dead, and one-third of the world has heard it in two thousand years.” He said, “Let Mohammed raise from the dead, and the whole world will know it in twenty-four hours.” He's right.

Whose fault is it, brethren? Whose fault is it? Now, if you'll excuse me.... If you scholars and.... To myself, I am not an educated person. May I say this? It's our fault (That's right.), because we've done vice-versa what Christ told us to do.

Now, we know that it's nice to have churches. That's wonderful. We know it's nice to have denominations. They're wonderful. It's nice to have seminaries. It's wonderful. But Christ never told us to build any seminary or anything like that. He said, “Preach the Gospel.”

And the Gospel isn't Word only, but through power and manifestation of the Holy Spirit, which would produce the signs of Mark 16 when He said, “Go into all the world; preach the Gospel to every creature. These signs shall follow them.” The Word itself is dead until it becomes into a action and produces life.

And except a corn of wheat fall into the ground, it abides alone. And then when the Word is brought into a heart of faith, that makes that every promise in the Bible live again, see. It's got to live. It's a germitized Word, and it must live if it's received in the right place. Under the right conditions, every seed will live again, if it's put under the right condition.

And brethren, may I say this with reverence and respect to you as my brethren, knowing that maybe before night we will all stand at the judgment seat of Christ in heaven.... And look, may I say this: That it's the atmosphere always that brings forth the product, see.

The hen, the actual way for a hen to have her chickens, is for the hen to lay the egg and then cover it with her body. And that makes the warmth of the hen's body hatches the egg. But you can put it under a ... in a incubator. It's the same warmth and atmosphere, see. It'll produce that chicken just the same. And I don't care whether it's under the Methodist, or the Baptist, or the Presbyterian, the atmosphere of the Word.... If the Word, which is the egg, and if the right atmosphere.... If it's in a Presbyterian or wherever it's at, it'll produce the same results. It'll produce the born again child. You know that is right, brethren. Whether it's under the Pentecostal, the Full Gospel, or wherever it is, it's the attitude that we take towards God's divine Word.

Now, many of you has heard of John Sproule. He was a good friend of mine. He said at Alsace, Lorraine, one time when he was being taken out by the guide through a garden, and he saw a great statue of Christ. And said he stood off and criticized it. He said, “What was the sculptor meaning?” Said, “Looky there. Why, there's no sufferings. There's nothing. It just looks like plain, just a....”

And while he was criticizing it to his wife, the guide walked up and said, “Mr. Sproule, perhaps you're criticizing the work of the sculpture.”

He said, “Yes, I don't see why he hung that up there. It doesn't look anything like it would show any sufferings of Christ.”

He said, “Sir, it's the way you're looking at it.” He said, “Now, it's got an altar down here.” Said, “Now, you come down here now, kneel down.” And he kneeled down. Said, “Now look up.” Oh, he said his heart would break. There was the features of the suffering and all of Christ when he looked up. He said, “You see, sir. It's the way you're looking at it.”

And that's the same way it is by the Word of God, brethren. It's the way you're looking at it. If you stand off and look at it from an observation and a point of criticism to say, “This guy hasn't got it, and that guy hasn't got it,” it won't work. It's to get down and look up to. That brings the results. Then you have a different attitude, and a different attitude towards your brethren, and a different attitude towards the men who's striving for the same thing that you're trying to strive for, see. It breaks down all barriers then.

And now, I don't want to over talk you, and I hope I'm not boring you, but just a little testimony here of the Lord Jesus and His goodness and mercy, so that you will know that this marvelous Gospel hasn't changed. Christ still lives, brethren.

And the thing that you men are so earnestly contending for this morning, why, it's just as real today as it ever was. He hasn't.... It's just the same Word of God that Paul preached, that Peter preached, that the prophets had, and so forth. It's God's eternal Word, and it can never fail because it's God.

And someone was speaking this morning about the African campaign in the book (I believe Brother Boze and many of the others), about an article I believe that someone read or something. It started the wheel rolling or something. Well, however.... I thought, maybe, I'd just give you a little testimony of something that happened; and if you read that article, and knowing what happened, I thought I would drop over to something of a testimony that happened in India. Maybe you're interested in our Lord's work, because we're just laborers out here in the harvest that's gathered in this morning under the tree for a little rest and a time of fellowship together.

I had been very much constrained to go to India. And yet, as many of you might know, the Indian trip wasn't the success that it should've been, because I failed to follow the leading of the Holy Spirit, and never recognized it after He give me a vision to go to Africa first and then to India.

And some of the brethren said, “Oh, just.... We can't get Africa together, so.... Brother Roberts has just been down there, so take off to India.” And under the influence of my brethren, well maybe taught.... But no matter what someone influences you, if God has told you something different.... And now, judge it by the Word (see), by the Word, and then go.

You know, we're not supposed.... As prophets together, we are to help one another, but never tell one another what to do. Many of you has read II Kings 13, no doubt. Where what got in trouble there, and a lion killed the prophet because that he listened to the.... A real true prophet, because God had commissioned him. God comes first always. And then let that be.... If you know whether it's God or not, judge it by the Word always. If it's not just exactly with the Word, be leery of it, see.

We're living in a horrible time, brethren, when this Jannes and Jambres withstood Moses, see. Now, it's predicted. We can't stop that, brethren. And our American people, being so much on the television frolic, and the fantastics, and our Hollywood evangelistic types, and a lot of show ... [Blank spot on tape.] old-fashioned, back woods, sassafras preaching, you know. I don't like this color and stuff that they.... To appease the American.... Even in other countries, as you missionaries know, they say to me over there, “Isn't there any nice women in America? All your songs are so vulgar about your women.” And all of our things, it's.... I'm not calling any names (This is brethren), such as the Arthur Godfrey, and the Elvis Presley, and all that there nonsense that's produced and put out. To the American people's minds is contaminated with such stuff, and then it even gets into ministry and they try to flower the pulpit. Did you realize that's exactly what Cain done? You know where that come from? Cain. He had an altar same as Abel did. He worshipped just the same as Abel did, but he beautified it.

Notice what Satan did; Lucifer in heaven wanted better and a more beautiful kingdom, did you see? It's always been that way.

Did you notice Moab up on the mountain and Israel, the holy-roller, down in the valley? See, how that both of them had seven altars, seven sacrifices, both of them with seven bullocks, and both of them with seven rams, speaking of the coming of Christ.... Fundamentally, they were just as right, Moab was, as Israel was down here. But, brethren, where Balaam failed to see, was the signs and wonders following these believers down here, you see. God was in the camp. They had a smitten rock, a brass serpent, a pillar of fire. The supernatural was with them, and so has it been all along; and predicted as Jannes and Jambres withstood Moses, so will this in the last day. We got to have it.

But I got better hopes of you brethren here this morning, that you'll be men of God who stay with the Word of God. And let everything else fall right to left, but stay right with that Word. Don't move. No matter if you're a doormat out there, be a good doormat. Don't try to compete with someone else or do this. Just get right in the Word, and stay right there, and God will positionally place you into His kingdom, where you can be the best.

What if my finger ever taken a notion, because it wasn't an eye, it wouldn't be a finger anymore? I would hate to lose that finger. Though my eye may be more valuable, but I love that finger. It's a part of me. You understand what I mean? I'm sure you do. So whatever office, whatever it might be, be whatever you are. Where God has positionally placed you, stay there and be as loyal to that Word as you know how to be. God will bless it. If He takes a notion for something else, He will place you where He needs.

But I'm afraid that many times in our moves our.... Many of our brethren, just as humanistic as they was when there was a mixed multitude went up with Israel. Why, so when the Israelis went out of Egypt, there was a mixed multitude, and they went.... The phenomena had been done, and that's.... It's a human element. And if we can just get away from that human element.

And that's what, this morning, the breakfast means to me, sitting here as you men.... Perhaps Dr. Vayle might've invited all he could get a hold of to come to the breakfast. But because that the Lord moves in the supernatural, oh, it's spooky. “See, I ain't got nothing to do with that. I wouldn't degrade myself to associate with such.” Did you know that was the attitude of the Pharisees? Did you realize that that's what they did?

Do you know, God never takes His Spirit? He takes His man, but never His Spirit. His Spirit comes from.... The Spirit was on Elijah, come upon Elisha, come upon John the Baptist, and so forth. And the fulfilling of all of it was in Christ. He had the Spirit without measure, and that.... And do you know, the devil takes his man, but never his spirit? His teacher? His theologian? Just comes right on down, all the way from Cain, all the way down through the Bible, just right on down, rotating.

But brethren, in regards to that, as many times as I have questioned it to go into places to hold meetings, where I think that men, usually of a Bible education of a scholar, that certainly would stand on the Word of God, and see fantastics come in of all kinds of things that was.... Just as the Bible said, and people with scars in their foreheads, and blood in their faces, and all kinds of oils running from their hands, and all kinds of fantastics. And they'd come in like that, and you know, people would flock to that? And I thought, “Oh, God, and the unadulterated Gospel being preached and just a few would listen.”

But He said to me, “What is that to thee? Follow thou Me,” see. That's right. These things has to be, see. So then, we're living in that day.

Brethren, let's keep our eyes on Calvary. Keep our hearts single with the Word. Preach the Word; be in season, out of season. Hold to that unchanging Word and stay.

When we landed in India, under difficults, the bishop of the Methodist church come to meet me, and many others. And they told me that my setup was wrong, coming in, that the wrong group had sponsored me and so forth, and wanted me to turn my sponsorship from them over to this other group. And I said, “Brethren, as a man of honor, I must keep my word.” That's right. I've been falsely advertised many times in different places, but brethren, the reason that's happened is because I don't have any paper of my own. I don't have a television program. I don't have this or that. I've tried to keep myself where that I could come to a little church, or a big church, or wherever the Lord would lead me.

Now, someone said the other day.... I don't know whether I've told you or not. I was speaking in a place where a man said, “Now, we ask Brother Roberts to come.”

He said, “You're too small.”

Ask another brother to come. “You're too small.”

And another brother, “You're too small.” Because they just a little church.

And said, “But Brother Branham come.”

I happened to be in the room and heard that, so I walked out. And I said, “Listen, brethren, the brother was very nice in saying that, but the reason Brother Roberts didn't come, not because he didn't want to, but because a man that is under an obligation, as Brother Roberts has....”

Now, God knowed I didn't have the intelligence that Brother Roberts got to know how to put a program together, but look what that man has to have if he stays on television. Look what that man has to have if he stays on radio. Look at the obligation that man's got. And because that he has to have a lot of money, don't condemn the man for that. The bootleggers take it out yonder, and what they do with it, and other things take place, help the man. He's God's servant, and he's trying his best to spread the Gospel in a way that I couldn't do it. Each one has a ministry, see. Each one has his ministry.

I said, “And Brother Roberts and these other brethren would be glad to come, but they can't because....” But I said, “Myself? God knew that I didn't know much. So He just let me where I could be little and wouldn't have to have any money, and I can just go along. Then if He wants to send me over there, He has to let somebody back me up and send me. So if He wants me to go, I can go, because He'll put it on somebody's heart to sponsor me for that one time. So that just settles it, you see.

So then, in here, when we hit to the place, they said, “Drop your sponsorship.”

And I said, “No. As a man of honor, I must keep my word.”

“Well,” they said, “you're going to do a lot of harm in India.”

I said, “But look....”

Said, “Turn and go back.” And they begin to tell me, oh, about how it would do hindrance and so forth.

But I said, “Look, wash women, washing over a washboard has sent me over here. Men who's worked in the factory with their dirty greasy hands has went down in their pockets and took a dollar out to send me over here. And fathers with little children, maybe, that needed shoes, took the dollar that would've bought the shoe for the baby and sent me over here.” I said, “Gentlemen, in my Christian heart, I couldn't look them in the face again, to know that I'd misuse the money that was sent over here to come preach the Gospel to these people.” I said, “You forgive me if in some of your politics and so forth, if I've got mixed up. That I didn't know. That was the manager. I had nothing to do with it. I just come.” I said, “But I come to preach the Gospel and to help the needy.” I said, “I have some money here in my pocket that I must give personally to the poor, 'cause people has give it to me to give to the poor personally, and I must do it.”

I shall never forget it when I went out in the street, and got the dollars changed to rupees, and started into the street, why they almost had to get the police to get me. It was a.... Oh, my. You'll never know what those things look like till you get there once and see the poor and the.... But here's what does it. Here's the idea.

And ministers, listen to this. Let us draw just a picture. Here's the old man sitting there with the little loin cloth on him, a little tub, a little puddle of water. He takes his water from there to drink, and his wife totes it to the house if she's going to wash the dishes, or what more, or cook. And he has a few stalks of food that he's growing. And we tell him that we are brothers. His skin is dark, and the white man comes over. And when we come over and get off of the boat in a great big golden stripped Cadillac and drive down the street, and the beggar brother lays on the street and asks for a coin (I seen it with my own eyes: the snootiest...), how the American people turn their back.

I seen something one day that astounded me. A little boy with a toe about that big, about that big around, dragging his little club foot; a man with no arms from leprosy. And so, I was throwing rupees out to see what they would do with it. I thought, “Billy,” said to my son, “how would that poor man ever pick it up, and them screaming, mothers with their little babies, and their little bellies swelled out like this was starving to death. She'd do anything. She don't mind dying, but, oh, feed that baby. There's four hundred and seventy million of them. And almost four hundred million beggars. And here we are today, dressed in.... God's servants sitting here and fussing and arguing about little difference in our organization, and millions dying everyday out there that's never heard the Gospel one time.

When I throwed my films on the other night and seen those poor little African boys there, that had never had a decent meal in their life, and their little arms mangy and naked, and all kind of conditions, holding their hands up and wanting me to tell them of Jesus once more before leaving.... And then to think that we would argue about whether we should be this way or that way, or whether we should be Presbyterian or Baptist. Oh, shame on us, men of God. How we differ and split in ideas, and such as that going on, and Jesus died. That little boy has got just as much right to eat good food and wear good clothes as my children has or your children has. He's a product of God, that God created, and he's God's creation.

And it's not right for us with our great fine churches, and building millions of dollar churches, and putting tens of thousands of dollar pipe organs in them, and the missionary begging for money to go to the field to bring the Gospel, and preaching the Lord's coming soon. Brethren, something is wrong. You know that is right.

And look here. I'd like to say something to you with reverence and respect. What may.... India's going to turn communism pretty soon if you don't watch. Why is it? Because that we have put the penny march for the missionary to go over, and give our money to the bureaucrats and so forth like that, and the dives and things in this nation. And we have been weighed in the balance and found wanting.

When that man sits there and his arms folded, and this man come by and shun him and walked past.... And yet the missionary tries to tell him that he is our brother. And would we treat a brother like that because of his color? Because of his nationality? Oh, brother. Don't you see that same arrogant spirit gets amongst denominations and denies Christian brotherhood in the same way.

We are the products of God, every one of us, and we should be brothers, closely knitted together by the Gospel. In our motives, and our ideas, and everything, we should give to God for the relief, and the furthering of the Gospel, and the bringing together of a brotherhood and the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ.

That afternoon the mayor of Bombay.... They'd estimated tens of thousands times thousands had gathered in. I felt like a hypocrite, if I'd have come home without preaching to them at least a few times. So they told me ... there'd been a lady over there before me that had done something, and got some people ... two men killed in a riot. And so they wouldn't let me have the meetings outside the city. It was against the city ordinance, unless I go and went plumb up to Delhi, New Delhi. And there's where I'm going this year, the Lord willing, where they got a amphitheater there, they can put a million people in it. And so they estimated nearly half a million would've been at this meeting here in Bombay. Oh, they were from everywhere, strowed on the roads like it was in Africa and so forth.

Brother, where the carcass is, the eagles will be gathered. Jesus said, “You are the salt of the earth. But if the salt has lost its savor (till, 'I'm a Presbyterian; that settles it.' Or, 'I'm a Pentecostal and that settles it.'”).... Then it's lost its savor,“ see. Salt creates a thirst. And thirst can only.... Salt can only be a savor as it contacts. You just be salty. God will make the world thirsty, if you'll be salty. That's right.

And then in the meetings as they come, that afternoon they asked me if I would come to represent the Christian religion before a gathering in the Temple of the Jains. Some of you missionaries, I may not pronounce that right. I forget how it's spelled, J-e-i-n, double “n” or something like that. Jans or Jens, it's a religion. And that afternoon, many different religions had gathered there, because they knew I was coming. And there they taken their shoes off and walked into this heathen temple. And as I walked in there, and they sat on the pillows; and there sat their pope ... or, their big man, with his feet pulled up, and the monks there with their whiskers pulled out and pulling the hairs from their head. Little mops they were making, because they mop the street. Afraid they'd step on an ant, or a little bug, and it might be their papa or mama, or their uncle or aunt, and.... Reincarnation, they believe in. And I looked all over that place, and I seen their different peculiar dresses that represented their different religions. And I thought, “Oh, Jesus. What would you do if You walked in here?” See.

Them were men. They eat like we do. They have wives like we have. They have blood like we have. They might could save our life with a blood transfusion, as Christ saved all of our lives by His blood transfusion. They have children. They're products of God. They're just.... They just got all mixed up because of false teaching, because we failed with the Gospel, see. Now, if we go over and pass out tracts.... Tracts is wonderful. I have nothing against it, and I'm for it, but that ain't what Christ said. If we go over and teach theology, that's wonderful, nothing against it. That's what we should do. But we got to have more than that for the heathen, going to take more than that. We sent missionaries in there for years. That's right. And what have we gotten? Nothing to count for.

Speaking at a Kiwanis here recently, when Dr. Davis, the one that ordained me and laid hands on me at the Missionary Baptist Church, as a little preacher.... And the night that I saw the vision of the Lord when He told me about the message, and I went and told Dr. Davis, he said, “Preach the Gospel around the world, with a grammar school education. I suppose you believe that, Billy.”

I said, “With all my heart, Dr. Davis.”

He said, “Billy, you need a rest, son.” Said, “Maybe you better go home and rest.”

I said, “Dr. Davis, I don't appreciate that.” I said, “I've been a loyal member of the Baptist church,” but I said, “I'm loyaler to my Lord Jesus.” I said, “I shall give up my fellowship then. Now, you'll always be my brother, but I won't attend another fellowship meeting if that's the attitude the Baptist church takes of an Angel of God that compares with the Gospel. And Paul said, 'If one comes teaching anything else, let him be accursed.' But this Angel declares the true Gospel on the Word. And Dr. Davis, I want you to defy it somewhere with the Word.” He couldn't do it.

He said, “Billy, did you eat something for supper that night? Did you have a nightmare?”

I said, “All right, Dr. Davis.”

But not long ago, sitting in a Kiwanis meeting where I was speaking, there where doctors and so forth was sitting, Dr. Davis was present. And how he told me, said, “You'll go to be a holy-roller the first thing you know, Billy.”

When I had the privilege of standing there, I said, “Dr. Davis, greeting you, but what you call fanaticism, our Baptist church has spent millions of dollars in sending missionaries into Africa. Where did I find them? Out at the compound. That's right. Out there where there's a few of the people that's gathered in from the tribesmen, and has come in, and have done something that they would not be associated with their tribes.

They have a stricter religion than what we practice Christianity. If they do anything, if a girl's found immoral or something or other, she can't no longer stay in the tribe. No, sir. She takes off tribal paint, and she goes into the city; she has to make her way the best she can.

And one of the tribes, if she's found guilty, she has to tell who done it, and they're both killed together. They have a stricter than what we do, and them heathens. And to see them walking with their little....

I said when I went into Africa, our.... Many of them, find them with ... and our Baptist people, with a little idol under their arm. Said, “Well, if amoya....” Amoya means “an unseen force like the wind.” “If He fails, this won't. Papa packed it, and he set it down, build up a little fire, and the lion went away when he said the prayer.”

I said, “The lion never run because of the prayer. The lion run because of the fire.” I said, “I'm a hunter. I know that animals are scared of fire. It never had nothing to do with it.” And so he.... But oh, he'd take it anyhow.

But that afternoon when they seen the God of the Bible, brethren, come down into action, thirty thousand raw heathens broke their idols on the ground and received the Lord Jesus Christ, see. That's the idea: not passing tracts, but preach the Gospel, demonstrate the power of the Holy Spirit. You men have it in your reach. It's in you.

Now, watch. And in India that day, when they went into the temple, and they got up to.... They begin to speak, the different ones, and they begin to belittle Christianity. How said.... Now, they had a lot of good points. Certainly they do. They had a good point. One of them said, “How do you, who call yourself religious, Christians, that believe in a God; and all your science is used to create atomic bombs to blow one another up. And then call yourself religious.”

I said, “You have a point there. That's right. But all that create atomic bombs are not Christians.” That's right. I said, “That is right. We Christians would never blow one another up, born again Christians.” But you can see their point. That's just one of them (You see.), what their points are. But they kept saying, “Our religion was before this, and your Christ....” Said, “Christ come over....” The Indian belief, that Christ learned his philosophy from a Buddhist priest (see) and all that....

So I had to stand up. I'd have been a traitor to Christ if I hadn't. I don't care what kind of a temple I was in. I raised up and I said, “You're in error. And how could you ever ... could I ever teach to you a blood sacrifice, when you won't even kill a gnat?” I said, “How could you ever accept a blood sacrifice?” I said, “I ask you to be at the service this evening.”

And that evening when they'd all gathered, and the rajahs on their pillows and the religious leaders.... And we.... Taken me two hours and something, beating through the crowds to get in, with the Boy Scouts, and the all different.... I guess they looked like Boy Scouts, some kind of a ... I guess, it's national guards or something with their sticks and things to get you through the crowds, through the places, till we got to a place where I could speak from. There standing in the place, with an interpreter, and the poor lepers laying piled on each other....

Oh, what a sight. Some with no arms, and eyes eat out and their ears gone, and such a mass of humanity, and suffocating, and nighttime coming down, packing them on top of their head and dumping them in a salamander, with no John 3:16, or “I am the resurrection and life,” saith God. Mortal beings that Christ died for, thousands of them dying. They pick them up on the streets like cord wood and cremate their bodies, no ceremony or nothing, know who they belong to. They just dump them in. That settles it.

And we are arguing whether we should do this or do that, or how we should tie our shoes, or what kind of a tie we should wear or something. It's a disgrace, brethren. It is. And all of our human.... If the church is only governed by man's theology, then it don't take the Holy Ghost. That's right. But the church is not to be governed by human theology. The Holy Spirit is to run the church. We're not to be filled with education and man's theology; we're to be filled with the Spirit of God, and to be led by—not the bishop—by the Holy Spirit, or not by any denominational leaders, but by the Holy Spirit, brethren.

There's the failure. I'm not saying this arrogant. I'm saying this in brotherly love to absolutely make a point straight and to show a truth. That's what I'm trying to get to you, is a truth. There's not a denomination in the world that I wouldn't take off my hat, let it be Jehovah Witness or Roman Catholic, that I wouldn't take off my hat. Anybody that names the name of Jesus Christ in respects, how I respect that brother and stay by him as long as breath stays in my body. But I'm saying, we're segregating our people and making differences, when we shouldn't do that. We should be together. They were all in one accord in Acts 2.

And, brethren, just in closing, may I say this, because I'm overtime now. I'm sorry to keep you this long. I didn't mean to do it. But to a point.... That night at the church, the brethren, when we were all standing there on the platform, you couldn't hear yourself think. You know how it would be. There was hundreds of different tribesmen and everything else in there. And they were scattered all down the roads, expecting me to stay for two weeks, when I could only stay three days, because the mobs was so great they couldn't place them in the city, and they asked me that I'd have to go somewhere else, because they couldn't take of it, you see. It was just terrible. And I told them, “I will return by the grace of God.” And I will.

So that night, standing.... I was watching for the Holy Spirit. You've read my story of Africa, all of you, in the book. Waited till that crippled man with his hands down when he walked like an animal, you know, when the thirty thousand received Christ.

I waited and a man come through, which was a leper, the first one. You couldn't give out no prayer cards. My, the boys tried to give prayer cards, and their clothes was tore off of them, see. So I said (just like it was in Africa), just let the missionaries pick out.... Go down and get some from this tribe, and some from that tribe, and some from this tribe, two or three out of each one, and stand them up.

And then when we were standing there, and they'd.... The officers had picked up some to bring through, which they could, some more able. There come through first was a man, a leper, and standing.... Many times, as you see in the meetings, it calls the people's names and where they're from. Now, that shouldn't be spooky to you, brethren. That's the Bible. It's a little contrary to the modern conception of it; but so was Christ contrary to the modern conception of that day. And we know that history repeats itself.

And there, I'd see their name; I couldn't pronounce it. I could just spell it out as I seen it. It'd tell them what they were and so forth. I would pray for the person and pass them through. And you remember, it's nothing that I can do. I'm just a man, see. It's something. That isn't me that does the talking. I have nothing to do into it. It's your faith that's doing it, you see.

Yesterday afternoon Brother Joseph happened to come into a place, into my room where I was at, just a little before going to church, and happened to be that at three o'clock I start praying. And Joseph sitting there, a friend of mine, we've been together for a long time. There come a vision by Joseph, because we love one another. And the times that we've been together, never has there been, but the Holy Spirit revealed something to Brother Joseph that.... There he is; ask him (see), showing just what had taken place and so forth. Isn't that right, Joseph? See, it's something.... There's more happens outside than there is in the church, see. But it's the people in the church using God's gift, see. It's just as I explained it to doctor, I believe, yesterday.

Would you bear me just another minute? So, you have a right to know this, brethren, sisters. You have a right to know this. You're here; you're shepherds. I don't blame you from holding back. You're shepherds. I don't blame ministers, Baptist ministers, and Presbyterian ministers, and so forth—anything—from seeing something, holding back, because they are shepherds. They're feeding a flock, and they've got to watch what their flock eats. But what a shepherd ought to do.... The Pharisees were shepherds too, but they should've looked to the Scripture as Nathanael did and as the woman at the well of Samaria, and look at the Scriptures and seen what day they were living, and said, “This is the food,” see. But now, look.

The Bible said (before I finish my story on India, 'cause I want you to get that) ... the Bible said that Christ ... God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself. God and Christ were One. They were One. And not as they were one as your finger, as we've had frictions on that too, when it ought not to have never been. And today, we hold grudges. I don't think the preachers do. It's the congregation. Did you notice the order of II Timothy 4? They shall heap for themselves together teachers, having itching ears, and be turned from the truth, the Word, to fables, fantastics, and so forth, see. I don't think it's the ministers. I've gathered with hundreds of them. I see them reach across the table with a different denomination, shake one another's hands, and be brothers, see. It's the sheep that's bleating wrong, see.

Now, God gave Christ the Spirit without measure. Is that right? The fullness of God was in Christ. He was God Emmanuel. We know that. There's no doubt in our minds of that. Just like as I said yesterday, “The whole ocean full of water, all the waters from the ocean was in Christ. But this little gift that you see working here, is just a teeny, little teeny bit of—like that—on the spoon laying there, just a drop.” I can see it. But in Christ was the fullness of God. We have it by measure. He had it without measure, the Bible says, see. Without measure, no ... He's just unlimited. He has the Spirit of God.

Now, the subject is water. Now, one day, when God, knowing that His Spirit dwelt fully in Christ, He wanted to use His gift that was in a man the corporal body called Jesus, which was His dwelling place. The body is a tabernacle. God was tabernacling here on earth. Do you believe that, brethren? In the body, Christ.

Now, God wanted to use His gift, so He showed His Son to leave the home of Lazarus and Martha and them, and to go away for several days, because Lazarus was going to die. And after the appropriated days that the Father.... Because Jesus said, “I do nothing in Myself, but what I see the Father doing,” John 5:19 as I referred to it many times. Jesus only did what the Father showed Him. Is that right? The Bible said it was. Jesus said so, and that settles it. Now, then, when God picked up His gift and took it over here and stayed away, until the amount of time was finished, and He looked over to His disciples, and said, “Our friend, Lazarus, sleepeth.” He knowed the time was fulfilled.

He said, “Well, if he sleepeth, he doeth well.” He's taking a sleep, a rest.

He said, “He's dead. And for your sake, I'm glad I wasn't there.” Because they'd be trying to get Him to pray for him, which would be contrary to the will of God. See, we've got to follow God, as the sister said of her husband, “The footsteps of the righteous is ordered of the Lord.”

Now, He said, “I'm glad I wasn't there, but I go wake him.” You get it? Look at the grave; He said, “Father, I thank Thee that Thou has already heard Me (see), but for these that stand by I said it, ”Lazarus, come forth.'“ And the man that had been dead four days stood on his feet and lived again. We believe that to be authentically the Word of God, the truth.

In a few days, a woman, a little woman, insignificant, probably a little farmer's wife who is perhaps in the time of menopause, had an issue of blood, come through, and she believed that that was God in there. She believed that that was God. So she said, “If I can only....”

As Brother Roberts has said many times, “Get a point of contact.”

“If I can only get my point of contact, I'm going to touch His garment, and I will be made whole, because I believe if I can get any touch of that, God's in there,” see. And when Christ was touched physically, materially with the woman's hand, God inside gave a witness.

He said, “Who touched Me? Who touched Me?” Everybody denied it, but being the fullness of God in there, He looked around with that discernment. He could perceive their thoughts. Is that right? I want to ask you brethren something now while we're together. What is the difference of perceiving a thought or reading a mind? You see, the mind readers, the psychic readers, are.... All those things would've been real gifts of God, but they're perverted. The devil can't create nothing. He just perverts what God has created. What is righteousness? What is sin? It's righteousness perverted.

I want to make a point. Excuse me, sisters. You married men, it's legal and righteous: you have a wife that you have married, and in the legal procedure of human life, you can live with your wife, make love to her, and she is your wife. And that's just as legal, and the Bible said, “The bed is undefiled.” But the prostitute, or the unrighteous woman, can be just the same thing that your wife was; but to go with her is to pervert what's righteousness into unrighteousness. You understand what I mean? Now, I thought maybe that remark would get you to where you can see what I'm speaking of.

Unrighteousness is righteousness perverted. The devil cannot create. That's the reason the devil can't heal. Only God can create, and He's the only One that can heal, see. The devil can pervert, but cannot create.

So then, the woman touched His garment, and she was satisfied. She run off, and Christ looked around over the audience until He found the woman, knew what her trouble was, and then she confessed it that she ... what she had done.

Now look. He said, “I perceive that I got weak.” Or virtue.... virtue is “weakness.” Taken virtue from you.... Now, what happened? God used His gift. God used His gift, and He.... When He used His gift: Christ never said a thing about being weak when He raised the dead man had been dead four days. God used His gift. But here, the woman used His gift, not God, the woman drawed from Christ ... through Christ, drawed from God through Christ.... She used the gift of God that was in Christ, you see.

Now, the question's going to arise, “Why does Brother Branham get weak when you leave the meeting?” I'm sure you can understand now. Here, as I said to the brother the other day, we're all little boys, and we're at a circus. None of us has got money to go in. But it happens to be, that maybe that I would be a little taller than you. You're a little stronger than I.

And God made us all different, because He's a God of variety. Do you believe that? He makes big mountains and little mountains. And He makes deserts, and He makes oceans. And He makes white flowers, He makes blue flowers, and He makes red flowers. And He makes little men, big men, red-headed, black-headed, blue-headed. He makes yellow, brown, black men. He's a God of variety. He's not a Sears and Roebuck Harmony House. He's a God of variety, see. Now, He makes a variety, because that's what He likes. I like the way He likes. I like it because He likes it. And when He's in here, you like the things that He likes. That's the reason I love nature in its primitive condition.

Now, we notice. Now, there's a.... Maybe He made me just a little bit taller. Now, I can't help because I was taller. You can't help because you're stronger. You can do things for Him that I can't do. I could do things for Him that you can't do. Oral Roberts, myself, you, all the rest of them, we are all different one from another, but we're all brothers, see. We're all brothers for the same purpose.

Now, maybe that we want to see this carnival. Now, all you brothers saying, “Brother Branham, hey, you're the tallest.” Maybe can see visions; that's just a gift. I never made myself thus. He made it that way. That don't make me any different from anybody else, or you different from me. We're all the same material, but it's the way God has made us.

Well, now, you say, “Way up about this tall is a knothole. It's way above my head.” Now, you say, “Brother Branham, what's in that build.... What's coming on over there?”

“I don't know.”

“Well, jump up and see.”

Well, I'll reach up and grab a hold, and I'll squeeze, and pull myself up, and I look through there. “Whew.”

“What do you see, Brother Branham?”

“An elephant.”

“Oh, you did.”

“Uh-huh.”

“Look again, Brother Branham.”

“Oh, my.”

“All right.” Jump up and grab it, hold by my fingers. “What do you see, Brother Branham?”

“A giraffe. Whew.”

Yeah, that's on the platform, see. That's you, like this woman, your faith pulling from God; that's forcing a vision. See it? It's you doing it. That's what we do. That's what the woman done. It weakened, see. It weakened Him, because it was the woman doing something herself that took the virtue.

Now, what if the strong man, the owner of the circus, he walks by and says, “Hello, Billy.”

I say, “How do you do, sir.”

“What are you doing?”

“I was looking through this knothole.” Oh, yeah.

“What else did you see, Brother Branham?”

“Oh, my. Looked like he could be satisfied with wanting me to tell him there's a elephant in there.”

What if this person here.... It's a strain. That woman's coming. Here she comes. There's something meets you. It bursts. It's a woman doing it, the man doing it, before me; it's not me. It's her doing it. I'm just standing there yielding myself. This things a dumb mute unless some live voice is speaking in it. That's the way we are. There's an organ and a piano, but it's silent till somebody plays it. And that's us; that's me. I can't do that, see. It's you using God's gift, see. That's in the meeting. It shouldn't be.... I shouldn't be doing it. It's just God. If you notice, I say, “It's God permitting,” see.

That's not a gift of healing. Oral Roberts has the gift of healing. I do have a gift of healing like you ministers, to bring the people up there and pray for them. But that's just a faith, just a bulldog faith that takes a hold and like that, but sometimes you let things go by, see. But this way, it's a prophetic gift that searches that soul, see. And you know.

Maybe five hundred wouldn't go through. That's right. But when one comes through, he's combed down. You've been in the meetings and seen them how sin, and say, “That man sitting right yonder, you lived with him, you did this over here and so forth.” You've seen it in the meetings and know it, see. It's right, see. You can't take them just as fast as.... You have to watch. It's the people's own faith. Now, here's someone from here. Here's someone out here. Here's someone over here. See what I mean?

Now, that's.... Now, what if the ringmaster comes by? Now, I'm just.... “Oh, Brother, two people has done went through and told them this. What else did they have?”

The first one'll stand there, “Yes, I got cancer.” That's right.

“What do you see?” The person....

“Cancer. Oh, yes. Was that right, sister? I don't even remember. It's just....”

“Yes, that's right.”

Well, where she ought to say, “Thank you, Lord. I accept it now as my healing,” and walk away, they'll wait a little while, see. Something else then. Here it goes again. Here it goes again.

The audience sit and say, “Well, that's pretty nice.”

But in Africa they don't say that. In India they don't say that. When they see that, “Oh, hallelujah,” they say. “It's real,” see. And away they go. Twenty-five thousand was healed at one prayer in Africa. Seven van loads of crutches and wheelchairs was moved out on one prayer. They believed it. They wasn't indocumated with all of our theology and our embalming fluid that we put into them, you see. They were.... They would believe. When they seen that crippled man raised up and all.... Most of them knowed him there in the Songhai tribe ... or, the Zulu, rather, and when they seen that, that settled it, brother. They just left their crutches and things, and walked right out praising God. That was it.

But oh, we say, “Now, wait a minute. Wait a minute. That could be mental telepathy. Oh, that could be hypnotism—hypnosis. I tell you; Dr. Jones said I better be careful about that.” Oh, no, see. Therefore we can't get nowhere, see.

That's the reason that our hearts go for that country. That's when I'm among brethren, I say, “Brethren, if you're not called for a missionary, get somebody in your church that.... Do everything you can and support somebody that is over there.” Do something about it, see. You can't be wrong in being a missionary. The general orders is “Go into all the world.”

Now, here comes the ringmaster by. Said, “What are you doing, Billy?”

I say, “I was looking through the knothole,” see.

Or, “What do you want to see? Well, I want to show you something, Billy.” He picks me up by the nap of the neck, raises you up here and he says, “You see over yonder how that takes place? It goes down here, and there's where this tent is, and that's where this is.”

“Oh, yeah. Uh-huh. Yeah, that's it. Uh-huh. I see what you mean, uh-huh.” Now, when he sets me down, I'm not tired. Didn't bother me, see. But when.... See, there's the difference. When God used His gift, and took Jesus away, and told Him what was going to happen, and He raised the dead man, He never said nothing about being tired. But when the little woman touched His garment, He said, “Virtue went out from ... a blood issue.” You see the difference? It's God using His gift, man using His gift.

Now, Christ had the Spirit without measure. Now, that was Christ, the whole ocean. This little gift that's in your servant here, brother, is just a little drop out of the ocean. It's in measure. But remember, the same chemicals that's in the entire ocean is in that spoon, that little drop. But it's not as much of it, see. And so our ministries are the chemicals that's made up in the great economy of God. And God can use those chemicals the way He wants to. It's just not as much of it. But altogether, it's more of it than was in the one. See, the fullness of God is in His church. But we have the Spirit with measure ... by measure.

Now, that's what makes the weakness. That's what it is that takes place. That's the reason that I don't stay long on the platform. That's the reason they watch me. I faint almost. Now, it seems like stepping off the world. You're coming out of another world. You're coming down here. But what does it declare? There is a land beyond the river, brother. Beyond any shadow of doubt, we're not in any kind of a fiction. We're not in some kind of a mythical, voodoo hypnotism. It's the resurrected Christ proving Himself.

Standing that night on the platform after three or four had went by, here come a blind man and he stood. Then I'm closing. There was a blind man came by. And he was blind. It called his name, told him who he was. And then, under that anointing, you can feel the spirit; I can feel it in the meeting there where.... You can tell where that darkness, coldness, indifference is setting (you see), like that. But I used to, I'd call them out. I'd say, “What are you disbelieving for? You so-and-so, you Presbyterian preacher.” And the first thing you know, if you root up the weed, you pull the wheat with it. So it's best just to leave it alone, see. Just go ahead, do your work. “What's that to thee. Follow me,” see. Just do what you're supposed to do and then go ahead.

So then, I didn't mean altogether Presbyterian. Many times, Pentecostal preachers (That's right.), unbelievers, just as much as there is anywhere else, brethren. That's right. So then, when the.... Now they'll come to you. That's what hurts. They'll come to you, “Brother Branham, we love you.” And you know that's wrong. See them right there and watch that spirit, feel it. Just sit and talk to the man a few minutes and watch that vision work above there. I'd rather not see it. I'd rather not know it. I want to believe his testimony's right. See, it creates something in you. What would I call that? Well, it's something that.... It creates a distrust that you don't want to have. You want to love them anyhow, you see. And then that's the reason sometime, I'm a little misunderstood and think that I'm an isolationist. I'm not. I love my brethren, see. But, I want to have ... keep that love in my heart. I never want it to be broke, see. Every man loves me, and I love every man. That's the way it is, you see. I want to do that.

Then, and when this man came, It told him who he was. Said he was a beggar, and he was a worshipper of the sun. (You've heard of it.) And told him that he had been blind twenty years. White as my shirt, his face. That was right. He said that was right. And as I looked to the audience, there sat the rajah, ever what it was, and them people there. They thought it was the working of a telepathy or something. You could tell it. And I said, “Is there a doctor present that would like to examine the man?” Which there was no doctor. You could see he was totally blind, you see. And I said to him, “Sir, there's nothing I could do for you.” See, I done told him who he was, and that was right. Told him he had two children, and that was right. Told him how long he had been blind; that was right. And told him that he was seeking relief for his eyes, a healing. And that in his heart, he said that he would serve any God that would make him well, see. He would serve any God that would make him well. Now, here's what I say for your ... that you know your God now, brethren, see. Any God that....

And there they sat with at least fifteen different religions sitting around: worship a fly, worship of cattle, worship of this, worship that. You know how India is. It's just full of superstitions. And there they sat in that condition, all around. And I thought, “Oh, God....” And I said, “Now, here is the man. He's blind. There's nothing I could do to help him.” I said, “God knows that.” And as I looked, he appeared with his eyes looking around (you know), in the vision, rubbing his eyes and smiling.

Oh, brethren, oh, I only wish I had the vocabulary now or the something within me to let you see and know what that means: such a feeling, see. It's no longer a faith I have to use. It's a drama. God has already said it. All heavens and earth will pass, but His Word won't. All the devils out of hell couldn't stop it now. God said so, see. That settles it.

Like what He told me yesterday morning up there. Oh, I don't care: let the waves roar. That has nothing to do with it. The little boy in Finland, oh, the many places, when God has said so, that settles it. It's “thus saith the Lord” then, see. Watch it.

I thought, “Oh, God, how I thank You. You're still Jehovah. You're still the Almighty.” Then I knowed my position. I know where I was standing then. I don't care how many devils that he sent up, there's no failure then. God has done said so. You feel like Elijah on Mount Carmel, standing out there when he hollered to the prophets of Baal, “Maybe he's gone on a trip. Maybe he's pursuing.” Elijah said, “I've done this, Lord, at Your command.” He knowed exactly what was going to happen. That's the reason he could say it.

Oh, brethren, our religion is not a fiction. It's not some Santa Claus story. It's a real living Jesus. Don't be afraid to put Him to the test on His Word, because He will keep His Word. That's right. He'll keep His Word.

There when I seen that, I thought, “Oh, God. As it was in Africa, now You're going to do it in India.” And I turned to the audience. I said, “Gentlemen of the religions of India.” I could not address them as brethren, because they wasn't my brethren. “Gentlemen of the religions of India, you were telling me today in your temple down there....”

Oh, how God always makes a way. Yes, sir. Don't fight. Just let Him have the way. Just let Him alone. You just walk on. Follow Him.

I said, “Today I was astonished in your temple, when you told me how great your gods was and how fictitious mine was. How that the man never died; he got on a horse and rode up to heaven.” I said, “But he died, and yeah, He rose again.” I said, “Here stands a man of the worship of the sun, who testifies of being blind for twenty years.” And I said, “He is now here seeking his sight.” I said, “Surely, the God who made him, the Creator who made him,” I said, “could give him back his sight.”

I said, “Now, of course, you Sikhs, and you Jains, and Mohammedans, and Buddhists, and so forth, you say that he's wrong.” But I said, “What would you do? You'd say, 'Come over to me.' What would you do? You'd change his way of saying his prayer.” I said, “What would you do? You would only change his philosophy.” I said, “You would have him to worship something else, or do something, a change of his way of praying.” I said, “We have the same thing in America,” I said, “but that wouldn't help the man.” I said, “You'd only proselyte him.”

And I said, “If he come over here to change from a worshipper of the sun, which you say.... He worships the creation instead of the Creator. That's what he did, and through ignorance he did this. But what would you do if you made him a Jain? What would you do if you made him a Mohammedan?” I said, “Why, he would be no better off. He's still blind, and you would only change his philosophy, his way of praying, change his idea, change his denomination.” I said, “We got the same thing in America. All the Baptists wants to covert every Methodist he can to the Baptist church. And every Methodist wants to covert the Baptists and the Baptists, the Presbyterian, the Lutheran. The Pentecostal wants to take them all.” And I said, “That's the way it goes. But I said, ”What is it? It's purely psychology.“ It's right. But I said, ”We have one God, where you all have many.“ But I said, ”That's the way it is in America. They're proselyting, and pulling, and fussing, and everything trying to get all to come this, all to come to this, a build a million more in '44 and all these slogans and things like that.“ I said, ”What is it? It's pure human psychology in building up of organizations.“

And I said, “I challenge....” Excuse my emotions. “I challenge the Buddhist priest to come forth and give him his sight. If you'll do it, he will be a Buddhist from this on, and I will, too.” I said, “I challenge the Mohammedan priest to come forth and give him his sight. He will be a Mohammedan from now on, and I will, too.”

Oh, brother, our God lives. Here in America, you don't come face to face with these things. You have to get into them lands to really.... There's where they're watching, see. There's where you've got the showdown. Oh, you can say, “I can prove.... I belong to a big organization.” That has nothing to do with it, brother. That's right.

I said, “I challenge any religion here to come and give him his sight, and he'll join your religion, and so will I.” I said, “Surely, the Creator who made him, if He's seen that he's worshipped the creation instead of the Creator, surely He would bring him back to his right conditions, to bring him right, if He did this through the ignorance of his worship.” And I said....

That was the quietest crowd I ever talked to. Thousands, just as far as you could see, laying there on each other, and piled together. It was quiet. Every man sat on his pillow, of the great priests and things. No man made a move.

I said, “Then, gentlemen, why don't you say something?” I said, “Today in the Jains temple, you told me how little Christianity was, and how it was in the minority.” And it is. Mohammedans are greater, and we're about third or fourth, taking Catholics and all of us together. “You told us how little we was. But now, how big are you?”

Oh, we knowed then. I would've never said that, brother, God knows that, if that vision hadn't have been there. No, sir. But God had said so, and that settled it. That was the same thing that took place in Africa. Certainly, I knowed it wasn't me no longer. I was just His mouthpiece. There it was.

That's the same thing that took place in Finland when He raised the dead boy. You've read the story. Certainly, that's right. He's God. He don't tell His servants all things, but when He wants to use you, He can put His hands on you, take you here and do it. If you'll just be humble and stay in your position, He can make more glory out of it, than all the diddle-daddling along you can do or I can do. That's right. Abide in your calling, and stay there till God's ready to move you somewhere. That's right.

There, when he stood there, I said, “It's awful quiet.” I said, “Why? Because you can't do it and neither can I ... [Blank spot on tape.] The God of heaven, Jehovah God has raised up His son, Christ Jesus, who has stood here by me this night and showed me a vision that this man is going to receive his sight, and it's 'thus saith the Lord.' If God doesn't give that man his sight, I'm a false prophet.” And I said, “Then my religion I'm representing, I'm falsely representing Christianity. But if God has said this; then if He does it, how many here will forsake your superstitions and serve the living God who can restore the sight to the blind?” And as far as you could see, those hands raised in the air, see.

There's the showdown. That's the proof. As the old saying, “The proof of the pudding is the eating thereof.” There it is. Not our theology and not our psychology, but the proof of the real true Creator who made the heavens and earth. And as the Holy Spirit brooded us from the earth, surely the brooding of the Holy Ghost can restore us back to our right condition.

And there standing in that place, turning then with a heart just as sure and as much faith as I believe I could walk to that microphone. Yes, sir. Because, not because it was me. No, brethren. That had nothing to do with it. It was Jehovah God ready to move on the scene. That's right. And He'd just showed me by a vision, through a gift. And He wanted to use it at that time. Surely before a bunch of heathens that He would use His gift. There, standing there, walked up to the man and put my hands upon his face, like that.

And I said, “Heavenly Father, You who showed the vision a few moments ago,” I said, “I feel like Paul of old when he was on the ship, and said, 'Be of a good courage.' See. For I know that You'll give this man his sight, because Thou has said so. And I have spoke Your Word and with all the wisdom I have, I have made each one promise that they would receive you as personal Savior if You would do this. Now, God, the God who made the heavens and earth, now You who raised Jesus from the dead, as we can stand and see gravitation lose its power, for He's the center of gravitation has He raised that cold form body out of the grave and sent Him into glory. Now, let it be known that You're God this day. I ask it in the name of Jesus Christ.”

When I held my hands there, and when (the prayer of course, wasn't interpreted) when I dropped my hands, the man looked. He let out a scream. He grabbed me around the waist. He grabbed the mayor of the city and begin hugging him and kissing him. He was just ... could see as good as any man sitting in here. I'm telling you: a frantic, a scream went from those people, and the whole thing went into a turmoil. Two or three hours later, they got me through the crowd with a army there trying to push them back. I had no pockets in my coats. My shoes was gone. They'd pulled every clothes off of me, nearly stripping me, screaming and crying. And the next day with sorrow I had to leave India, with a promise that I'd be back again.

But, brother, the commandments of Jesus Christ is just as true today, and just as vital. He's just as much resurrected today as He ever was. He is the same Lord Jesus, and He's with us today. Don't be afraid; trust the Lord. That's right.

Let us pray. Heavenly Father, as men and women are sitting here together, who we are associated in this same blessing. And as I'm so happy to stand today to tell them what their great Saviour is doing in other lands to men who doesn't ... hasn't had the privilege of the great visitation of the Holy Spirit.... I pray that You'll bless these men and these women.

O eternal God, these ministering gifts that's in this group this morning, they belong in Baptists, and Methodists, and Presbyterian, and Pentecostals, of different phases and things. Oh, God, may this fellowship that we have this morning in one thing common, may this never leave them.

And may, whatever position You have placed them in, and ordained them into eternal life, and given them their positions, may they serve reverently. For some glorious day, Jesus shall come, and all the sorrows and troubles of this world will be taken away, and we shall see Him. We will have a body like His own glorious body. And when we sit together over yonder on the other side, oh, what a day it will be. Oh, may each minister in here, may his pulpit, may his sermons, may his ministry be inspired greater. Grant it, Lord, if I have found grace in your sight.

And as my brethren stand here this morning. Oh, I pray that each of these ministers in here, these ministering spirits, that, God, hear my prayer. And I pray that You'll purge that gift that's in them. If they're preachers, make them better preachers. If they're evangelists, make them better evangelists. If they're teachers, make them better teachers. If they're pastors, make them better pastors. God, grant that they will be filled with the Spirit of God, and will be energized by the great super vine, that'll give them life eternal, and power to minister with, and to touch the needy world as it so needs today.

Forgive us of our shortcomings. Forgive us our narrow minded beliefs and little sectarian ideas, and let us be baptized into one big brotherhood, into one big fellowship, that the kingdom of God might be furthered by our coming together this day. We ask it in Christ's name. Amen.

I am sorry to keep you long, brethren, but it's way late. It's half past ten. No, it's quarter till eleven. I'll pay the extra. I am sorry, but I love you.