Thirsting For Life

...a few moments for prayer. Let us bow our heads. And while we have our heads bowed, I want each of you to pray especially for a sister that's been brought here from the hospital, near death. And ask God to be merciful at this time. Maybe we can find favor with Him now for her.

Lord, Thou art God. You were God before there was a world. And when there is no world, You will still remain God. And we come to Thee to confess all of our faults and our sins and our errors, asking that You forgive us, and to cleanse our heart and minds from any shadow of unbelief.

And let Thy Spirit come so near at this time, that You would heal this dear sick woman that we are praying so sincerely for. Only You alone, Lord, can do this. And let it be so, Lord. We love You, and we are.... We say as the boy's father, “Help Thou our unbelief, Lord,” that we might be strengthened in this hour for this prayer, that it might go to Thee, in so much that it would touch the hem of Thy garment. May, turning, You speak to her, and let her live for the kingdom of God's sake.

And we pray for others who are in Divine Presence, and those who are in the Presence in radio-land. Let Thy healing Spirit be upon them. And forgive us of our sins and all of our trespasses, and give us of Thy Word tonight that we might feast upon it. For we ask it in Jesus' name. Amen. You may be seated.

We are starting in a new week here at the Angelus Temple, and trusting that we have favor with Almighty God to continue on.

Billy was telling me that there has been many people in the building who has prayer cards. I, probably some nights, didn't take them up. And there was several of you having prayer cards, and some from other meetings that's still carrying prayer cards from former meetings.

I thought tomorrow night, if the Lord willing, you who know who is holding prayer cards, we will take up all the prayer cards tomorrow night in a prayer line, starting prayer service tomorrow night for the sick. And we appreciate if you'll tell the peoples who hasn't been in the prayer line yet, and have a prayer card, that they will be here tomorrow night for prayer service for the sick.

Usually, I don't run every night in the prayer line, because of the discernment, like, it has such an effect upon me of weakening. And I have several meetings. If it was just this one, it would be different. But I go from this to another, to another, and overseas, and....

And when I left home, I think there was around four hundred major cities in the United States calling now for meetings, just here in the United States, beside practically every nation under the heavens: Africa, India, Australia, New Zealand, Siam, the Islands, Europe, Asia, everywhere, just calling, begging, signing petitions, and the officials of the cities signing for meetings.

And my greatest ministry is overseas. But I don't want to go over there asking the peoples to pay my way and things. I go along here, and just as the people give to me, I save it, as much as I can, till I accumulate enough to go over, so I can pay my own way with the American money, to those poor people who doesn't have enough to eat. I know missionaries tonight that's preaching the Gospel in the jungles on two meals a week with no shoes on their feet. Now, how could you expect me to live in luxury and such as that going on. Why, they'll stand in the day of judgment and condemn us for the things that we have, and yet, we should divide.

I keep my meetings little, as you see. I don't have no broadcast, or no television programs, and nothing big. I keep it small, so I can work every penny of money I can over to the fields, and do all that I can. My expenses are pretty heavy.

At my office there, we take in thousands of letters, and got four phones in there going. I've seen the time that as many as sixty-four long distant calls an hour, twenty-four hours around. And so, you can see, sick and afflicted calling. And that's national and international. I just got through calling Germany, listening to Germany this afternoon. And from different parts of the world, they call. And my expenses runs me at home about a hundred and fifty dollars a day, just for my offices and things at home. And then, I have about ten different offices across the country where I have to have my mail translated and sent back into the fields again. You see, where Germany, and Switzerland, and Finnish, and all different languages, that we have to have somebody to translate it to send it back. So pray for me. And I come some rough miles, and I'm sure I got some rough ahead of me. So just keep praying, and looking up, believing.

Now, tomorrow night we're going to start a series of subject. I'm going to start tomorrow night on Genesis the twelfth chapter, and run Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday on building and teaching faith—just to follow our dear Brother duPlessis' morning service—building faith on the life of Abraham. And try to run three night's series of subjects on Abraham's faith.

Tomorrow afternoon at two-thirty, I'm at the Pisgah Home Church. I believe it's on 60th street, or somewhere. I'm mistaken probably on that. I don't know the city too well; they have to come get me. That's tomorrow afternoon at two-thirty. Then tomorrow night back here to begin this series of subject.

Now, tonight I thought maybe we would have a little short subject, and see what the Lord would have us do. I wish you to turn tonight to Psalms 63, if you would like to read behind me as I read.

I think the reading of the Word is grand, because no service is complete without first reading God's Word. Now, He never promised to bless my word, but He did promise to bless His own Word. So my word will fail. His Word will never fail. So therefore, I think each night, if we can read just a little verse or two out of His Word, it makes me feel that maybe that.... If the Holy Spirit doesn't get a hold of what I'm trying to say, He's already said it anyhow in what I read. So it would be worthwhile.

When I first read this piece of Scripture, I begin to wonder what must David be talking about. It kind of.... That's what got me to thinking, when the greatest thing, I believe, that anyone could have, would be life. I cannot think of anything any greater than life. That's why we preach and try so hard to express: you must be born again. This life must be changed.

I got a letter today, and perhaps the person is present, from a young colored lady, very, seemingly by her letter, very highly educated woman that came to the meeting. And she asked me not to express ... or to say this doctor's name, because.... I understand. Certainly, it would cause other doctors to call this fellow and criticize, and so forth.

But the young woman has been examined, and there were two great big places in her side. And, she being a Presbyterian by faith, she just never thought too much about divine healing. But those two large growths, way larger than grapefruits, had turned to be malignant. And it was so advanced, the doctor said there was no way for an operation, that it couldn't be saved. Somehow, from the X-rays, or whatever they had done, it showed the advancement of the two places. And her sides were so sore, she couldn't even stand her clothes on them hardly.

And so, she came to the church, and she'd heard. You know, faith cometh by hearing. And she knew she was dying. So she came to the church, and said, “I read the Scripture.” I will try to quote it just as close as I can. And maybe tomorrow night, if you'd think, I will bring the letter and not read the woman's name, but show you.

And she said that she.... When I was reading the Scriptures, she said, “O Lord, let him turn to me and speak to me.” And said, no more than she had said it, I laid the Bible down and looked at her. But then, I didn't speak. In a few moments, said, she called again, “O Lord, let him look at me, for if You don't heal me, I must die. My life is ended.” And said that I turned again and looked. And then said that toward the end of the service, I said, “'You there with the tumor, stand up, for Jesus Christ has made you well.'” And she said she looked around to see if there was anyone else around her. And said I said, “'You, with a certain dress, [or something like that] on, stand up, for Jesus Christ has healed you. '”

And she goes to her doctor after that. Those two big places went down, and she went to the doctor. And the doctor said, “It must have been a perfect operation, for there was no sign of it, none whatever.”

And there's no doubt that the woman is in the building tonight. I got the letter.

And 'course, I don't play upon things like that. I just say that to God's glory. I don't have magazines to publish such, and so forth. But I know one thing: the people are being healed. I've got great piles of letters that has come in, and phone calls of people that's left this place and this meeting, and been healed of serious diseases, that their lives has been spared by the grace of almighty God.

So life is a great thing. We all want to live. And when I hear David speaking here in the Psalms, and saying, “Because Thy love kindness is better to me than life. My lips shall praise Thee, and I long to see Thy power like I have seen it in Thy Sanctuary. My soul thirsts after Thee in a dry and thirsty land, where no water is.”

Now, when I begin to think that, I thought, “There must be more than one meaning to life, because, what could be greater than life?”

Your life controls you. Your life makes you what you are. It operates your motive. And it's just you. And it controls you. If you got a good heart, good spirit, you have good life. You have a evil heart, evil thoughts, evil life.

Like some years ago down in the South in the days of slavery, they used to take the human beings and sell them—the colored people—as slaves. And they would go to the big plantations, and they had brokers that would come by, and buy up these slaves for a certain amount of money, and take them and sell them, make profit off of them, just like they do used cars or something today.

Think of how evil that was, to take human life to which Christ died for, and to sell it, make it a slave. God made man; man made slaves.

And there was a certain broker came by an old plantation that had many slaves on it. And so, the slaves were away from home. They were stole out of Africa and was brought over here and sold. And they knowed they'd never go back to the homeland no more. They were sad. They didn't want to work. They had no ambition. And so they would sometimes take whips and whip those people to make them work, just like you would a horse or an animal.

And this slave buyer came by and he looked over his slaves to see how many he could buy. And he found there was one young fellow there; they didn't have to whip him. He had his chest out, his chin up. He was right up-and-at-it all the time.

And so, the broker said to the owner, “Say, I would like to buy that slave.”

But the owner said, “He's not for sale.”

“Well,” said, “what makes him so much different from the rest of the slaves?” Said, “Perhaps, maybe he's a boss; you've made him boss over the rest of them.”

And the owner said, “No, I never made him boss. He's just a slave.”

“Well, said, ”maybe you feed him better than you feed the rest of the slaves.“

He said, “No. They all eat over there in the galley, all of them together.”

Then the broker said, “What makes this young fellow so much different from the rest of them?”

And the owner said, “I wondered about that for some time.” But said, “You know, one day, I found out. Over in the homeland where they came from, this young fellow's father is a king of the tribe. And though he's an alien and away from home, still he knows he's a king's son, and he conducts himself as a king's son.”

And I thought, if a slave being away from home, knowing that he was a son of a tribal king, how much more ought the children of God to conduct themselves like sons and daughters of God while we're in this alienated world. How we ought to embrace these promises of God. How we ought to cherish those things and hold them dear. It doesn't become a Christian to operate hisself around unbelief. A Christian should have his chin up. He should be ready to believe anything that God says, no matter what it is. It'll keep the morale of the rest of them up. We are sons and daughters of God. And we ought to conduct ourselves like that.

Some people think that life only lays in how much money you can get while you're here on earth. That's not life. And some of them has 'lotted it to pleasure, how much big time they can see, what's company they ... society they can join, or what lodge, or something they can do. They figure that that's life. If you could join the Four Hundred, or get in the book of Who's Who. So many people try to get into that book of Who's Who.

My name will never be there. But I've got it on a better book, the book of life in glory where God ... in God's Who's Who. I was borned again one day, then my name was put on God's Who's Who.

Now, I know that sitting before us is a great dark chamber. And every time our heart beats, we get one beat closer to that chamber. And it's called death. And someday it'll take it's last beat, and I got to go in there. But there's one glorious hope that I have, that this: I know Him in the power of His resurrection, that when He calls, I will come out from among the dead, that great day.

I don't want to go like a coward. I want to wrap myself in the robes of His righteousness, entering in there, knowing that I know Him as a personal experience and been borned again of eternal life. If I never have a friend on earth, I want to know Him. If I don't know His Word too well, I want to know Him.

Some time ago, there was a fellow at Ft. Wayne, Indiana, said to me, he said, “Brother Branham....” We was behind the stage at the Ft. Wayne Gospel Tabernacle. He said, “It's a shame, your grammar.”

I said, “I know it's awful.” I said, “I didn't get an education. There's ten of us children, and dad died, and I had to take care of the other nine.”

And he said, “That's no excuse. You're a man now.”

I said, “But I'm so busy praying for the sick people. I don't have the time.”

He said, “A man that would speak to the audience as you do and use the grammar you do....” And he said, “Last night you said on the pulpit out there,” said, “you said, 'All you people, come up here to the pole-pit.'” He said, “Those people will appreciate you more if you'd say, 'pul-pit.'”

I said, “Brother, I don't believe that. Them people don't care whether I say 'pul-pit' or 'pole-pit,' so I live the life, and preach the Gospel, and produce what God talks about in the power of His resurrection.” That's what people are looking for—honest hearted people. Just.... Life.

Some time ago, I was in a large city in another nation. And we'd had a great meeting at a big ice arena. And that night when I was going into the hotel, there was a certain lodge in America here, was having their big convention up there at this hotel. And that afternoon, I never seen so many drunk people in my life, hardly, at one time. And so then when, that night, when I come home, there was just whiskey bottles all over everything, and they were just having themselves what they called “a big time.”

It's too bad that America has sold out to such stuff as that. And it's the worst in the world.

Now, I've just about traveled the world over, been in many nations several times. But where I believe they need missionaries worse than anywhere else in the world, is the U.S.A. That's exactly right. An educated heathen is harder to deal with than one that has no education, because he thinks he knows everything when he knows nothing. I don't mean to be rude, but I want to be honest. It's the truth.

In Puerto Rico a few days ago, we were staying at—I was—at about a fourth class hotel, because I don't believe that a Christian should have everything swanky. Jesus didn't even have a place to lay His head. And yet, we have to drive Cadillacs to be spiritual. Why, there's something wrong.

And there was an old man there that kind of hangs around with the Christian Businessman. I don't know just what his name was. And we were over to another great hotel. Oh, it was a mammoth and a beautiful place; hundreds of dollars to stay in that thing a week. And the old fellow's about eighty years old, a retired railroader. And there was the Puerto Rican people, normally looking people, dressed. Here come the Americans in, half dressed, naked, half drunk, staggering. The old man looked around at me, said, “Prices are higher over here, but life is lower.” And that's just about the answer.

It's a disgrace sometime the way ... get into another country and see the way these people act, that come from this country. As much as you've had the Gospel preached to them, and then act like that, why, you'll receive double damnation at the day of judgment. Why, it's a shame.

I got on the elevator that night, and the whiskey bottles all on there. And I said to the little fellow, I said, “Looks like the glass company had a ... sure a big day.”

He said, “I never seen such in my life.” Said, “I don't want to say nothing about it, because you're an American.”

I said, “Yes, but sometime action like that makes me ashamed of it.”

So he stopped up on a certain floor and let me out. And when I got out of the elevator and started towards my room, I heard somebody whooping and hollering. And I looked, coming down through the room ... the hall, and here come two young women, perhaps mothers, both had wedding rings on. They looked to be in their late twenties. And they just had on one little underneath garment, with a bottle of whiskey in their hand. And men so drunk trying to get out and grab these women, them pulling and falling.

And I got back into a little place and kind of stopped for a few minutes. It made me so ashamed. And I seen them coming through there, and they stopped right out in front of me, and one of them took the bottle, and took a great big drink, and handed it to the other one, pulled up that little underneath skirt, and threw her foot out, hollered, “Whoopee, this is life.”

I walked out in the middle of the floor and caught them both by their hand. That's why I know they both had wedding rings on. Perhaps a husband home somewhere baby-sitting. And it's just as bad with the men. Sin is sin on either side. And it's all corruption. “Oh, just having a little clean fun,” they said. Clean fun? That's sin.

God will make you pay for it. God will make the nation pay for it. It'll make the individuals pay for it. We sell people whiskey and stuff, and cigarettes, and giving them cancer, and telling them this, that, and the other, and then we wonder what's the matter.

And here they come, and I held their hands like that, and I said, “I beg your pardon. You said, 'This is life.'” I said, “This is death. It's only death dressed up.” It's true.

And this girl looked around, said, “But we don't mean no harm.”

I was trying to hold her up. I said, “Looky here. I am....”

Said, “Won't you take a drink?”

I said, “I am a preacher, a gospel preacher.” Then they started jerking back. I said, “Kneel with me here in the floor just a minute. You'll sober up and go home to your children.” They jerked away, and down through the hall they went, falling over one another. Not fit to be in their own home with the shades pulled down, the way they were dressed. And then they called that “life.” That's death. Certainly is.

And the world is so crowded down today, calling big times, and.... You've got so much of it out here on this West Coast, so much glamour. And I noticed it's creeped into the churches, trying to glamour the church. The church is not glamour; it's a place to preach righteousness, holiness, and purity, and the sanctifying power of the Holy Spirit in the human life. Oh, it's a disgrace. What makes a person do that? Why? Is this...?

And then if Satan can't blindfold you to do that, he will do something else for you. He will let you feel that you're want to be religious. Then he will let you go over and shake hands with the minister somewhere, and put your name on a book, and think that you're religious.

I said to a young girl one time, coming on the platform, I said, “Are you a Christian?”

Why, she felt stepped on. She said, “I will give you to understand I belong to Such-and-such a church.”

I said, “That doesn't have anything to do with it, not a thing.”

One said ... asked them one time.... Brother Bosworth asked a young girl, I heard him on the platform, said, “Are you a Christian?”

She said, “I will give you to understand I burn a candle every night,” like that's got anything to do with it.

To be a Christian means to be Christ-like, borned of His Spirit, cleansed by the Holy Ghost and fire, a new creature, created in the likeness and the power of the resurrection of the Lord Jesus.

What makes people want to do that, is because it's their make-up; they can't help it. God made them to thirst. He made a man.... When He made up the man, He made him to thirst. But He made him ... put that thirst in him to thirst after God. And how dare any man or woman to try to satisfy that holy thirst in them with the things of the world. You got no right to do it. God made you to thirst for Him. And you'll never be satisfied until you drink from that fountain that's filled with blood drawn from Immanuel's veins, where sinners plunged beneath the flood, and lose all their guilty stain. You just can't satisfy yourself.

You go out and get drunk, and you come back, and you have a headache. The next morning you get up and you start; and the next day, throw it in again. So nervous you can't hold yourself together, smoke one cigarette after the other, and knowing not that you're heaping coals of fire into it. Why, every one you smoke will make you that much more nervous.

And what does a.... What does that? It's the devil. God's the One can quieten your nerves. God's the One who can give you that satisfying portion; that's His Spirit. The reason that you do those things, is because you're substituting those things for the real thirst that God put in you for the Holy Ghost. “Oh, come unto me all ye that are weary and heavy laden, I will give you rest.” He's the fountain of life. My expression of Jesus Christ, He is the inexhaustible fountain of life, that a man may drink and be satisfied. That's what you're made like that for. That's why you got that thirst in you.

And then, if he can't make you drink, and the doctors can scare you to death of cancer in the throat from cigarettes, then he will let you join a church and just go ahead living for the world. He's still got you. You're still not satisfied.

There cannot be a satisfaction outside of the new birth. A man was made for that. God made you up that way. And you'll never be satisfied until you quench that thirsting with the Holy Spirit. When you take one drink from that fountain, you become a new creature. Old desires pass away; all things become new to you. Then that satisfying portion of the baby, like laying on its mama's breast, it's drawing from her its life. That's the way Jesus is. That portion is Him.

The Christian has no right to brag on what denominational church you belong to, and try to call it satisfying. My mother was a certain-certain, and I'm that too. That doesn't have nothing to do with it. And no one has any right to try to satisfy that holy thirst and hunger in their soul with the things of the world. You're only perverting the very gracious thing that God put in you. God made you to thirst so you would thirst after Him. And you pervert that and listen to the devil, and thirst, and try to satisfy that thirst with the things of the world. Jesus said ... or the Bible said, “If ye love the world or the things of the world, the love of God's not even in you.”

See how short we are today? See why people tonight can be a church member, and stay home in the time of a revival to watch a television program? They'll stay home to watch a carnival, or to hear a political speech or something. It's because they are thirsting, but they're trying to satisfy that thirst with the things of the world.

If you just open up that heart one time to God.... David said in another Psalm, he said, “As the hart thirsts after the waterbrook, so my soul thirsts after Thee, O God.”

No wonder we can come to a meeting, see the manifestations of the power of God, and then go away, and say, “Oh, well, there was nothing to it.”

Mama used to tell me, “You can't get blood out of a turnip.” If God's Spirit's in you and you see God's Word fulfilled, it'll make you rejoice. Something has to move.

When Jesus came into the city, He said, “If they hold their peace, the rocks will immediately cry out.” Something has to move when the Spirit of God comes riding in.

David was a woodsman. He knowed what the woods was. He knowed how the animals.... Oh, I hear him write of the shady green pastures and the still waters. He could appreciate it, because there he found God.

Who could look at a flower and say there's no God? Did you ever notice how its little seed comes up in the spring, a pretty little blossom comes on it? And after a while, frost hits it. It dies, bows it's little head. And then, God has a funeral procession for His flowers. I don't know whether you know that or not. But He does. The fall rains come and cry tears down out of the sky, and it buries that little seed. The cold winter comes in my country, and freezes that ground for maybe a foot deep. That little seed freezes, the pulp runs out of the little seed, the petal's gone, the flower's gone, the bulb's gone, the seed's gone, the pulp's gone. But just let that sun start rising in the spring time again. That little flower'll live again. Certainly. And if God made a way for a flower to live again, how much more has He made a way for a man in His own image to live again?

David studied nature, and his heart longed. And one day, so crying out for God, he said, “As the hart panteth for the waterbrook, my soul thirsts after Thee, O God.”

I'm a hunter, and I suppose I'm talking to many of them. And anyone knows, if you ever shoot a deer and wound him, if that deer can get to water, you'll never catch that deer. He will drink water, go up over the hill, come back, drink water, go up over the hill. That cold water will stop his bleeding, and you'll never catch him.

And David had been noticing in the country that he lived in.... Like in Africa, they have wild dogs. And these wild dogs are something like our wolf. And they have two blood fangs that hangs down over the sides of their mouth. And they're very cunning in their catching of deer, just like the devil. And usually they see the deer. And if one little deer will wander off to himself, that's a real place to get one.

That's what I think about sometime, God's little deers sometimes wander off from the fold. There might be some here tonight that's wandered away from the protection of the church, and the protection of the loved ones who'd pray for you and help you to come back to God, keep you straight, come to the church and listen at the Gospel. There may be some in radio-land that's wandered away.

And then, you watch these killer dogs—hounds. They start slipping up real easy, like a cat. And they go a little piece.

And there's something about it, that those deer can almost sense that there's something wrong. They raise their little head; they get nervous.

There's not a person in my hearing tonight.... There's not a backslider but what knows that since you left the fold of God, that you've been nervous and upset. There's something wrong.

A many a little girl, listening in tonight, that's had a good mama, and a daddy that's tried to teach her right. She's out in some dive somewhere or away from God. And as she's trying to satisfy that thirst in her heart with some of this modern teen-age rock-and-roll, which is of the devil....

And that's for some of you preachers that lets it be preached in your churches too. Any church that gets low enough to have to entertain their young folks by rock-and-roll, change the sign on the front of your door ... not a house of God.

Just recently, I was in a place, and I was in a hotel, and the YM... or YWCA was across from me. Why, I had to close the window blinds, and pull them down to study the Gospel, for the teachers teaching rock-and-roll, and this old booglie-wooglie, or ever-what you call the stuff. It's a shame. What does that “C” stand for? It's supposed to stand for “Christ.” Trying to satisfy yourself with that kind of a stuff when it's of the devil and will damn your soul. Certainly. A real borned again Christian won't do them kind of things. It's true.

And so, these wolves get up close to where these sheep are. And many of you little ladies out here tonight listen to that ... what they call the “wolf call,” you know, they have a whistle. And you think you're smart. Little lady, you don't realize what danger you're in. And they get real close. And they watch the deer till they get a chance. And that's all....

A boy that would squeal like that, and whistle, and holler at girls on the street is not fit for a decent girl to go with. Now, that's a great big mouthful. But I'd rather be honest here than be condemned at the judgment. I'm going to tell the truth. That's all I know, is to tell the truth.

What the church needs tonight is back to the Gospel, back to the old-fashioned Gospel, back to the saving knowledge, and that thirst. If you love God with all your heart, soul, and mind, you wouldn't be out there in those kind of places.

So sweet to trust Him and believe Him. He's the satisfying portion. He's your Life.

And those big old wolves, or dogs, when they see the deer.... Now, they got a technique in doing it. They get just as close as they can. And then they run, and take those fangs and throw them in the deer's neck, right behind the burr of the ear, and then just swing their weight. And those great big fangs, like lances, when the wolf's weight comes down, just cuts the little fellow's throat; he makes a few jumps and he's finished. Then that's all of it. And a few minutes, it's covered over with dogs just tearing it to pieces, just chunk after chunk, tearing it out.

Listen, sister and brother, I didn't mean, you young folks, to hurt your feelings when I talk about what you call your pleasures. I don't want to hurt you; I love you. But little sis, you're a little virgin and never been out in these parties, just let it get started one time, and the hounds of hell will cover you over. They'll pick every moral thing there is about you away from you. You'll be nothing but a.... No matter how much you repent, and how bad you try to get right back, that mark will follow you to your grave. Stay away from them. Get out of it. God's got something for you to thirst after; that's Him. He will give a satisfaction. And those things'll be so dead, you won't even hear them.

Now sometimes, the dog misses the deer's throat. Then he's got another place to catch the little deer, and that is in the flank. Now, the flank is the middle—or balance part—of the deer. The hindquarters are heavier than the front-quarters, and with the loin throwed in, neck and so forth, it makes it about balanced up. Then if the dog or wolf can catch it in the flank, and starts swinging it, he will soon throw the deer down. And the same thing happens: It's covered over with dogs in a few minutes, just picking it to pieces.

But when this lead dog, the one that's the leader of the pack, that most popular rock-and-roller.... You know what I'm talking about. If he can only get the hold, now if he ever grabs.... If that deer's real smart and knows how to get out of there, she will give a little quick jerk to one side, and her little tender body will let that dog's mouth pull this whole chunk of flesh out, if it's quick and can maneuver quick.

Oh, my advice is to you, sister, brother, if he grabs you, maneuver quick; jump towards heaven as hard as you can. Get away from it. Pull out. Don't have nothing else to do with it. Get away from it quickly.

If you're fixing to put your first cigarette in your mouth tonight, or take the first drink, or go to the first rock-and-roll party, or tell mama the first lie, get away from it. It's the devil.

And then, when he jerks out, the blood flies. And if the little deer's real fast on foot, which they are faster than the dog, it can run for what life it's got until it gets away from the pack, over the hills and jumping through the places where the dog has to travel through the bushes; it just leaps right over the top of the bushes, running just as hard as it can run. And then, after it's got away from the dog....

Maybe there's some listening to me tonight that's done that, just got away from it. What're you going to do? What's the trouble?

You see that little deer? I've watched them a many time. They put their little head up in the air, and they're just panting. [Brother Branham imitates panting.] They just got to find water. They just got to find it. They're bleeding. They're dying. Every time their heart beats, the blood pushes right out of them; that chunk's out of their side. And if they don't find water, they'll die right away.

And you can imagine the sincerity and the honesty of that deer. He will run to the top of the hill; he will look, panting. [Brother Branham imitates panting.] He will look somewhere else, just panting as hard as he can. He's got his nose up; he's smelling for water. He's got to find water or he will perish.

And brother, if this Angelus Temple.... If these people are here tonight would thirst after God like that, there'd be a revival break through here in a few minutes that would sweep the country over.

“As the hart panteth for the waterbrook, my soul thirsts after Thee, O God.” When you get to a place you got to have Him or die.... You can't go on without Him. He's your life. You must have Him. You're just about finished, and you're looking, trying.

Jesus said, “Blessed are they that do hunger and thirst after righteousness, for they shall be filled.” Filled with what? Not creeds, not denominations, not amusements of the world, but filled with the Holy Ghost which is our satisfying portion, that gives us that life that satisfies.

The God of heaven's in this building tonight. The God that created the heavens and earth is here tonight. That's what makes Him God to me. He had the highest place in heaven and took the lowest place on earth. He come from the highest heaven and went to the lowest hell. He become you that you, who, through His grace, might become Him, sons and daughters of God. And He's in the building tonight. Night after night He represents Himself.

The church has been preached to death. People come usually to the church, they say, “Well, we will go to....” Just go because it's a duty sometimes. Sometimes they go because there's certain ministers, great men in the land today that can really bring out a sermon. They go to hear that.

But what we really ought to go to church for is to find Christ. Let's go to church to worship till you can expel all your guilt and shame, and throw all the world and its gloom out of your heart, and let Christ come in, God's satisfying portion. Then you'll have eternal life.

His Spirit is here. His Spirit wants to move in this church. Let us bow our heads. [A sister speaks in tongues, another sister interprets.] Scripture says, if one speaks with tongues, and there be an interpreter, see.... If there's no interpreter, then it's just with nothing. But if there be an interpreter, then that's God speaking, a voice to the church. How thankful we are for the kingdom of God. Now, the Lord Jesus is here.

I want our sister to get ready for the organ here, for just a few words: “There Is A Fountain Filled With Blood Drawn From Immanuel's Veins.”

While she's chording it, and you in radio-land, I wish you could be here in this Angelus Temple to feel that settling down, that awe, the Spirit of God. Think of it, out there.

Then the Bible said, “If one comes in unlearned and someone speaks with tongues and there's no interpreter, he will think you're barbarians or so forth. But if one prophesies and reveals the secret of the heart, then all of them will fall down and say, 'Truly God is with you.'”

God is in our building. God is in our midst tonight. God is in His holy temple. He's trying to urge you to come to Him. Don't be satisfied with being a Baptist, a Methodist, or a Pentecostal, or whatever you might be. That's all right. Them denominations are fine, see. I respect every one of them, every denomination. I send people back to their home church. It isn't the denomination I'm kicking against; it's how worldly we've gotten in here, see. Come, be a Christian, then go to any church of your choice. That's the thing. It's be a Christian is what we're talking about. If you like the Baptist church, go to the Baptist church. Be borned again in the Baptist church. If you're Catholic, be borned again, and be in the Catholic church. Presbyterian, do the same thing. But first, before you go back, get the Holy Ghost. Be borned again, and you'll be an enlightenment. You'll help others to come, if you just believe it.

[A sister speaks with tongues. Blank spot on tape.] Scripture's right. That would be the Holy Spirit speaking. Just the same as this is here. The little lady sitting here wiping her face right there, has got heart trouble. Yes. You believe the Lord will heal you now, sister? sitting there on the end of the row right down here with heart trouble, you believe that God will heal you? If you can believe it with all of your heart, God will do it for you.

The lady sitting back there praying for her loved one, that's real nervous, sitting right back there, you believe God would heal that loved one? The Bible said, “If thou canst believe, all things are possible.” Do you believe it?

Complications—sitting to the left of that post there. If you believe it with all your heart, God will grant it to you. God is God. Do you believe that?

Right down here with the glasses on, a lady sitting with a trouble with her head. You believe that God will heal you, sister? All right. No, sitting right here. She's got a [Blank spot on tape.] had on glasses, gray and in the front, looking right here. You believe God will heal you, sister? Yes, you. Raise your hand up there. That's you. No, the lady right back there. You don't have it now. It's left you. It's gone from you. Amen.

If thou canst believe. All things are possible to them that believe. Do you believe it? The Bible said, “If you can believe.” Oh, He's so real.

This minister sitting right down here, wondering; he's scared about cancer. If you'll just have faith and believe, you won't have that cancer. If thou canst believe, that is, if you can believe it.

Sitting way back here, there's another minister sitting there. He's got his wife and child. The child's got asthma; his wife's up for an operation. That's right. That's you raising your hand, you're right. Put your hand over on the child. The child.... Mother and father, put your hands together, on one another. O Lord God, Creator of heavens and earth, let it be known this night that You're God. I pray that You'll heal them. Grant it, Lord. There is Your Spirit making itself known to us. Grant this healing of all the people. Now, may they be physically healed and spiritually healed in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.

[Blank spot on tape.] “There Is A Fountain Filled With Blood.”

There is a fountain filled with blood,

Bow your heads now, reverently, quietly. Think it over. Sinner friend, while you have your head bowed, and you out in radio-land also, would you just stop and pause a minute in this hustle and bustle of life? Do you realize that you may not be among the living in the morning? And if you don't possess this eternal life, you're lost. Jesus said, “Except a man be borned again, he cannot even see the kingdom of God.”

Come, sinner friend out in radio-land, and receive Him just now as your personal Saviour, won't you do it? Bow right in the room where you are, or.... Don't make any difference who's around you, don't be ashamed of Him. He won't be ashamed of you on that day. Just kneel right down wherever you are.

Dad, you and mother there that maybe hasn't raised your children the way you should—maybe that's the reason they're out in the world tonight—why don't you just go over where mother is now, and put your arm around her, and say, “Dear, it's true. We've been as a prodigal, wasting our substance with riotous living. We can never be satisfied like this. Let's come to Christ tonight.” Do that, won't you, friend, out in radio-land?

And to you here in this visible audience, how many of you'd say, “Brother Branham, remember me in prayer. I want to consecrate myself to God.” Raise up your hand, all over the building everywhere. My, my.

Is there a sinner or a backslider here that has felt the snarl of the wolf, the bite of his fangs, would like to come right down here and stand here while we offer prayer? It just seems like a little thing, but it's a great thing. I'd like for you to come down here. I'd like come down to shake your hand. You sinner friends, come right down here. Let me walk down and pray with you, here will you? God bless you, lady. Walk right over here. That's good. One soul worth ten thousand worlds.

While we sing now, every sinner come.

Come on down. Come down, sir. God bless you, son. God bless you, sir. That's the way.

That's right, ladies, come right on. Are you thirsting? You're trying to find something to satisfy? That's good. Come right on down. That's good.

Come on, sinner friend, right out of the balconies. Come right down along the sides like this. Like to shake your hand as you pass this platform here.

Come, sinner and backslider. Won't you come down now and kneel at the altar? Come right.... Here. Great group of them has knelt around the altar here since we made the call to you in radio-land: Men, women, young and old.

Now, while she's chording that song again, I wonder tonight... I really feel that there should be more than this. We're very grateful for these sinners that's knelt here at the altar. They're tired of trying to satisfy themselves with just a little old something another of the world. They're sick of it. They're just all washed up, as the worldly expression, but they're just finished with it. They want something real. They're going to receive it. The very God that knows your heart, knows that that's true. God bless you, lady. That's right. Come right on down there. Won't you come?

Now, there may be church members in here that belongs to some churches here in Los Angeles, other places. You've been here this week and last week, and watched the Holy Spirit move. Now, that's the very thing that's telling me in my heart now that you need to come down here. Won't you come? God bless you, lady. God bless you. That's right. Come right on out. Move right out of the audience and come down here.

I'm waiting, holding off just a little while longer. Who would raise up their hands, say, “Brother Branham, I know I'm wrong. Pray for me to have courage enough for me to come.” We don't believe in going back and getting people now. I don't do that; if the Holy Spirit can't convince you enough that you're wrong, to come down here and be right....

Now, what if just now, you'd feel something moving, this Temple would go to falling in, or an earthquake had struck this city, or a bomb had struck somewhere, it's just turning to powder, you're going to be gone. What would you do? Are you all ready to go? God bless you, lady. God bless you, sir. That's right. God bless you. A whole family coming. That's good. Come. That's right. God bless you, lady. Come right on down now to the altar. This is the most gallant thing that you ever done, was to come to Christ.

If you're not sure you're right with God, don't wait too long. There's going to be a resurrection one of these days, and Jesus is coming. You say, “I've heard that for a long time, Brother Branham.” But this may be the last time you ever hear it. Remember, this may be the end of the time for you tonight. You may never have an opportunity. Before morning, you may be pressing a dying pillow, and the veins cooling off in your arms. Come. That's right. That's right. Come right out. That's good.

You say, “Brother Branham, you're scaring the people.” No, I'm not. I'm telling you the truth. You've got to meet God. You're going to either meet Him here or meet Him at the judgment in His anger. You're meeting Him here while He's pleading to you. You meet Him then, He's your Judge; now He's your Saviour. Won't you come while we sing one more verse?

And you of church members, we're not asking you to join the Angelus Temple. We'd love to have you here; that's true enough. We got wonderful church people here, and fine pastors, and so forth, a nice building, and it's a just a wonderful church. We love to have you here. But if you don't want.... If you want to go back to your own church.... We don't want you to leave your church; we just want you to come and be sure that you're right with God, see. That's the thing we're trying to do, is you to be right.

The hour is coming, and now is, that when we can't play church no more. It's God working in the church. We must have it. If your soul is thirsting for something, and you've been trying to satisfy it on a creed, try to satisfy it on something else, leave that tonight and come down here, won't you? Come down now while we sing again. All right. All together.

Won't you come out? Come right on now. I invite you. Remember, the next time you hear my voice may be at the judgment. Remember, I've offered you Jesus.

If you wonder how these things are done, the interpretation of the Spirit, how it discern spirits, come on. Come into God now. Fill your heart with it.

How many in here ... how many in here wants to make a consecration to God, raise your hand, say, “I'd just love to come up a little closer to God.” Now, you come down. Come right down, all you that wants to re-consecrate yourself, to feel God's Spirit in your life, more, greater.

Maybe you're seeking the Holy Spirit. You've already come and confessed your faith, but you want to receive the Holy Spirit, want to re-dedicate yourself. We're wanting a revival to continue on. Come right on down now, will you? Come right down around the front here. That's fine. Oh, that's fine. Coming from everywhere, young and old alike, moving right down.

Radio land, now, you should be here to look at this. Just people coming down every aisle. Watching the sincerity, some crying.... Oh, this is what I love: to see people coming to worship my Lord, see people, men and women who are thirsting for righteousness. “Blessed are ye, when you do hunger and thirst for righteousness, for you shall be filled.”

There is.... That Fountain's filled with blood right now. If you're not just where you ought to be, you Pentecostal, Baptist, Presbyterian, Methodist, whatever you are, come right now, won't you? That's right. Come with the rest of them. You won't be by yourself. They're just packed all up and down here now, around.... The altars are full, and the seats around is full, and they're still coming down. Just keep coming. Keep coming right on down.

Don't let the hounds of hell sap your precious life. If you'd jerk far enough to get away from him, he will catch up with you again. Don't you let him do that, them old poison things in you. Find the water. Find the water, the water of life. Jesus is that water of life. Come right on down. That's it.

Now, let all the personal workers gather right around these people. Each one in here that's a personal worker, gather right around these people now. We're going to have prayer. That's good. That's fine. Come right on.

Now, my friend, I want to tell you something—you here in the visible audience and you in radio-land—this is one of the greatest times of my life. The rest of you may be seated for a moment, if you will.

When I was just a young preacher, there was a young lady asked me if I would go to a dance with her. She was a preacher's sister. I told her, “No.”

She said, “You don't drink, you don't smoke, you don't go to dances. Where do you have any pleasure?”

I was holding a tent meeting. The next night there was an altar call about like this, people gathering around. I motioned to her. She come up where I was. I said, “Sister, this is more pleasure to me than all the things of the world, is to see sinners coming, kneeling, bowing, consecrating their life unto God.” Deep consecration, that's what I like to see. Surrendering your lives.

Now, each one of you here at the altar, you are ... and out in radio-land, you bow now for prayer too. There might not be a personal worker out there in radio-land, but there's a Holy Spirit there. He's the One to direct you.

Now, each one, pray in your own way, confess your wrong, and ask God to be merciful to you, and He will certainly do it. Now, with your heads bowed, everywhere, I'm going to ask Brother Duffield to walk up here and ask the prayer for you in radio-land, and for you here at the altar. God bless you now. While all bow your head, and let's all pray for these people that's at the altar—while we have our heads bowed everywhere. Now, be ready in radio land to accept Christ while our Brother leads us in prayer.