El-Shaddai

Los Angeles, California, USA

59-0416

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...our heads for prayer. Almighty God, it is with grateful hearts that we bow before Thee tonight, to offer to Thee the very adoration of our heart for ever sending Jesus to the earth, that we might be redeemed and have the privilege someday of looking upon Him who saved us. We are here tonight, we have gathered in His name; for He has promised that wherever two or more would gather in His name, He would be in our midst, and then, if we would agree upon anything that it would be granted. Lord, we are perfectly in agreement tonight: that if there be any in this building that is not saved, may they be saved tonight, or any listening in, in radio-land, may they be saved tonight. Heal all that's sick and afflicted, and get glory to Thy name; for we are Thy servants, and we are here to serve Thee to the best of our knowledge. Now, we commit ourselves and our spirits, our thinking, and all that we are, we commit into Thy hands for Thy service. In the name of the Lord Jesus, we ask it. Amen.
You may be seated.
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I've been sitting in the car, enjoying the band that played; and Mrs. Piper, always how we enjoy her message in songs. And then to hear Brother David speak, which is always an inspiration to me, to hear that warrior of the Lord speak what he thinks about the Lord Jesus. Now, he's having services here every morning at, I believe, around ten o'clock.
And I was talking to the tape boys, and they're taking tapes on it. And they said that they would save every one of them for me, that I could hear them all, after we get to a place where I can have the opportunity of hearing them. And I'm sure he will do you good.
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Brother duPlessis, I have knowed him now for some years. He's known me longer than I have known him, for he would be in the meetings and I wouldn't know it. But I know his family, and they're all fine Christians.
When I was in South Africa, his brother was my interpreter, a fine Christian gentleman. And I like David's spirit. Now, he's gone, so he don't hear me. But I like his spirit, that gentle, right straight to the point, compromising for nothing, but yet gentle with it. I like that.
You know, Jesus wasn't a sissy by no means. He wasn't just a feminish type person; He was man. But yet, He could speak right straight to the point, but yet with gentleness. And I see a person that can do that, I just think of the Spirit of Christ being in them.
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So Brother DuPlessis is preaching again tomorrow. And I think tomorrow night, he was telling me, that he has to leave. I was sorry I didn't get to talk some with his wife. She's one of the nicest ladies. We met her at the breakfast the other morning; and such a nice lady she was, real typical Afrikaans woman.
The Lord willing, I hope to be in South Africa this year with Brother David in another big campaign, where I think that the queen campaign that I ever held for the Lord was there—where thirty thousand raw heathens accepted Jesus Christ as personal Saviour one afternoon. Thirty thousand tagged raw heathens, blanket natives, and never had heard the name of Jesus before, as far as I know. And now, they wasn't all natives. Some of them was ... they claimed about ten thousand Mohammedans (See?) was in that group.
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Now I was talking to a missionary years ago, and he was talking about that one precious jewel. He'd been in the mission fields for so many years and had won one Mohammedan. They're the hardest there is to win, because they're from the old Medo-Persian that alter not. And their religion is tops, and they say it's the best, and you just can't change them.
But when.... You see, where I think we've made our mistake, we haven't did as Jesus commanded us to do. See? See, we've went and made churches, and had denominations, and had schools; and that's all right. But Jesus never exactly commissioned His church to do that. Was to preach the Gospel, heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse the lepers, that's the commission. See? And we've done other things besides that. And that's the reason the Gospel hasn't got out the way it has. Back to the general orders, brethren. That's right. Back to the order.
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“When I....” Jesus said, “If I be lifted up, I will draw all men unto me.” And that's why I go through America here, is trying, without taking an offering, just the free will people, whenever they want to give me something, till I get enough money together to take off over there to win a few thousand souls to Christ. Then at the day of the judgment, you'll be credited for it, because the Lord commissioned me to go, and you're helping me to go. So that'll make us all in with it on that day.
Won't you be glad to know that that day, when it comes, and it's all over? And what a great time it'll be then to sit down....
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I can start anywhere, and get off of a plane, and there'll be people there at the airport, “Brother Branham, you remember me? You prayed for me so and so.” Get on a train; somebody walk through, say, “Are you Brother Branham? Why, I was healed in your meeting of cancer, ten years ago.”
And I just think what it'll be when we sit down on the banks of the river on the other side. And here we just say, “Yes, I remember that meeting, the Lord bless you. Good bye.”
But there, we will just.... I want a date with each one of you people when we get over there. I want to sit down with you for a thousand years a-piece (See?), because we ain't going to have no time when we get there, see. So we will just.... Be just a little few minutes chat, just a thousand years a-piece with you, and we will talk it all over then. Be wonderful.
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Now, speaking of tapes and so forth, some people has been asking me, “Where can we get the messages?” Now, these messages here hasn't been very much, because it's hoarse, and I've been tired, and lots ahead of me, and things that the world knows nothing about. But we have got some messages where I've had in my Tabernacle and things, where we were rested.
I think we've got five hundred different sermons all in tape. And the boys has that at the table with ... so forth. And they just sell them for just a little over the cost of the tape. They let them have just for the handling charge, about. And you're more than welcome to get them at the desk. I've been getting little notes, “Where can we get the messages?” So that's where you get them, at the book table at the concession.
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Now, we was having a glorious time last night, or I was, anyhow. I was just.... Puts me in a mind last night when we.... I just remember going out and seeing the church standing, screaming, and praising the Lord.
I was just thinking about one time I'd.... I love to fish so well. And most all preachers like to fish, you know. That's where they ... Peter seen the Lord one time, and the apostles, when they were fishing. I think that's the reason preachers like to fish. I don't know about eating the chicken, now, they all like ... about that crowing of the rooster.
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But I was way up in northern New Hampshire, and I was fishing for those little brook trout in the native home of the white-tailed deer. I was three days back in the mountains with a pack on my back, and I'd put me up a little tent, and had a stove in there where I could keep warm a little at night. It was early spring.
And so I'd been fishing up along a stream, a-catching plenty of fish. That morning when I left early, way before sunup, I took my fly line and went up. And I took a hatchet so I could some—a little hand axe, so I could cut some of the willows away. A big hole down there where I knowed some big trout was laying, and I couldn't whip that fly into it just right.
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So I'd caught a nice mess of fish, enough for breakfast, and I was on the road back, and I heard a noise. I looked around the little bushes I was coming around, and my little tent was torn all the way to the ground, a little pup tent. And there were.... An old she bear, an old sow, and two cubs had got in there. And they had rim-wrecked that tent till it was just torn to pieces. It isn't what they eat; it's what they destroy. And I had an old stove pipe in there, and the old mother bear would just hit that just to hear it rattle, you know, just.... And I noticed they'd just tore up everything.
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And she heard me when I come around the corner; the ground had a little frost in it yet. And she looked up, and she cooed to her cubs, and she run off. Well, one little cub took off with her, just a little fellow, you know, just a little bitty guy, cute. And so they run off. And because the other cub didn't come, why, she kind of stopped, and she went to calling to that cub, cooing to it, kind of sounded like a bird making a noise. And she.... And this other little cub sat. He had his back to me all humped up like that. And he was doing something; I thought, “Well, he must have found something; he's tearing into it.” So she cooed again and acted like she was coming back towards me.
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Now, you know, you go to fool around with her cubs, sometimes they'll scratch you. So I had a hand axe in my hand; an old rusty pistol laying in the tent, but it was tore up. And I didn't want to kill the old mother. It would leave two orphans in the woods, and I didn't never want to be guilty of that. Well, I looked for a tree to see how I could get up that tree right quick, you know, if she come.
So I thought, “I'm going to see what's the matter with that little fellow.” And he was just so interested, doing something; and he had his back to me so I couldn't see him. I kept my eye on her, because she kept cooing. So I walked around sideways till I got to where I could see the little fellow. He had my bucket of molasses open. So I....
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I love pancakes. I know I got a lot of brethren and sisters out there that love them too. And I had me a bucket of molasses, and.... You know, I don't believe in sprinkling; I baptize them. I'm a Baptist. I really pour it on. Plenty of molasses, you know.
And this little fellow had opened up that bucket. They love something sweet anyhow. And he had his little paw in it. And he'd sock his little foot down like that, and lick like that as he brought his paw up just over his face. And he'd sopped that bucket out as clean as it could be. He was molasses from the top of his head to the bottom of his feet. And I hollered, “Get out of there!” like that. And he turned around and looked at me, and the molasses was in his eyes; he couldn't see. That was one of the cutest sights I ever seen—no camera, of course, at that time.
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And the old mother kept cooing to him. And I thought, “That's right. See, there's no condemnation to him. Why, he had his hand in the molasses bucket plumb up to his elbow.”
That's about the way we did last night. We wasn't paying any attention to what anybody else was saying; we just had our hand in the molasses bucket, just molasses all over.
And the strange thing was, when that little fellow got over to his mother and his little brother, well, they begin to lick him, because licking some of the molasses off.
I hope you got enough on you last night, till they've licked all day long on the testimonies that we had last night.
Oh, there's great things if we will just watch God in nature, how He works. So amazing. Climb to the top of the mountains, and sit there, and take time off, and just worship the Lord. It's really good.
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Now, the Lord willing, Sunday afternoon, I promised to try to tell my life story, Sunday afternoon. It'll be the first time for years and years. And Saturday morning is the businessmen's breakfast at the Clifton's cafeteria. If you can't come—it's always packed out in there—if you can't come, tune in on the radio, because they really have a great time.
And then Sunday afternoon and Sunday night, back here again. And, of course, if you're strangers and going to be in the city, why, come around to the Temple if you haven't got anyplace to go. We'd be glad to have you here for the Sunday school services. I'm sure you'd have your soul fed.
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Now, we are going to open the Word of God. And I wish to read just one verse, found where we was reading this last night. We finished up on the 20th verse of the fourth chapter of Romans, of reading. Tonight, I want to read the 21st verse. And then last evening we started at the 11th chapter of Genesis and come over to the 16th chapter of Genesis, and just hitting the high places of the life of Abraham. Now, we read here:
And being fully persuaded that ... he was able to keep that which he had promised.
If God has made a promise, God will keep that promise. “Being fully persuaded that that what He had promised, He was able to perform.” God keeps His promise. And Abraham was fully persuaded. No matter how ridiculous it looked to the carnal mind or anyone else, it looked all right to Abraham, because Abraham never looked so much at what the promise was, or how ridiculous it was, he looked at Who gave the promise. It depends on what you're looking at.
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And now, we will background just a little bit to get to the spot where we wish to tonight. And then tomorrow night, we aim to climax this studying of Abraham, the Lord willing.
Now, I'm a long ways from being a theologian or a teacher. But what I know about Him, I like to tell others, because it means so much to me. And I hope that'll mean as much to you to hear it as it does to me to speak it. And then we will all be blessed.
Now, we found out last night, that Abraham was just an ordinary man. He was a man that God looked at and seen his heart. Now, that's the way God looks upon man; He looks upon the heart of man. Man looks at the outward appearance; God looks on the heart. So no matter how poor you are, how unqualified you seem to be, how uneducated you are, how illiterate you are, that has nothing to do with it. God looks at your heart. Always remember that. It's in the heart God deals with.
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A few nights before, we took the subject. In the garden of Eden, the devil chose the man's head—by intellectual. God chose his heart—by faith. And if you walk by faith, you have to believe things that you cannot see or even reason with your mind. We cast down reasonings. When God says anything, we don't look at it no more intellectually; we let it soak right down into our heart and call anything contrary to it as though it wasn't. We look at what God said, Who gave the promise.
That's where the world's so tangled today. It's too much intellectual preaching. Instead of Spirit-filled churches worshipping in the Spirit, they're listening to intellectual messages. And you can't reason this out. There's no way at all to do it.
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I was thinking.... Wish I had another week here in the Temple, I'd like to get into something of a subject that I have in my heart of the restoring of the true church of God—what the palmerworm ate, and the caterpillar ate, and all these different bugs. It's the same bug, just different forms of its life. And it eat all away. And what they have eaten and made up all these man-made things, God will never restore by them. He's going to grow it right out of the stump. “I will restore, saith the Lord.” It won't come out of any creed. It'll come out of God: “I will restore.”
These palmerworms, and cankerworms, and so forth, that's eat on God's heritage, has eat it down to a stump. But it will not come through these, or neither will He use them. He will come right from the stump, right up with it. “I will restore, saith the Lord.” And He's going to restore a faith in the people.
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The last book before Revelations, in the little book of Jude, said, “I gave all diligence to write unto you of the common salvation, and it was needful for me to write unto you, and to exhort you, that you should earnestly contend for the faith that was once delivered unto the saints.” They'd fallen away from it. And if they'd fell away then, thirty-three years after the death of Christ, how much more have they fallen away tonight?
But God will restore that church to its former condition. I believe it. “I will restore.”
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And then, we've got to get back. And that's why I was teaching on Abraham, to let you know.... The greatest thing I find in the church tonight, amongst the people, all the churches (when I say church, I mean all of them), I find two different classes of people. I find fundamental people who positionally know their position in Christ, but they haven't got any faith for it. Then I find the Pentecostals, who's got a lot of faith and don't know who they are. So then, it's just like a man that's got a lot of money in the bank and can't write a check; and the other one can write a check and hasn't got no money in the bank. If you can get them two together. If you could get the faith that's in the Pentecostal in the fundamental people—or get the Holy Ghost, I mean to say, that's in the Pentecostal people—in the fundamental believers, or get their position, let the Pentecostals know their position, just as the fundamental knows it, there'd be something happen.
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But the trouble with the people today, those who have the Holy Spirit, they just ... they don't know what to do with it. They blow it all out in steam, instead of making it work for the Lord. They shout it out, and praise it out. That's all right, but let's put it to work. Let's make it work for the Lord.
Like Benjamin Franklin, when he caught electricity, he begin to scream, “I got it! I got it!” But just to say he had it because he felt it, he had it; but it'll never do no good till he puts it to work. Now look what it does.
And the Holy Spirit will light up the world with the Gospel just like electricity did, if we can put it to work. But you've got to let the Holy Spirit work. People today are ... people are entertained.
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If you'll notice on the platform and different places, everywhere—not only here, anywhere—the people will come by, they expect.... They've had too much of this here high-pressured, latter-day divine healing campaigns. It's exactly right. People saying, “I got it in the hand! Whew! Feel it? Feel it? You feel it?” No, you don't feel it. You might feel your hand, but that's all you feel. That's right.
Jesus never did say, “Did you feel it?” He said, “Did you believe it?” Not, “Did you feel it?” You believe it. Faith is not feeling. Faith is something that you don't feel; you have no senses will declare it, only that sixth sense, that faith that knows it. You don't feel, taste, smell, or hear it; but you know it. Because Jesus said so, that settles it.
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If I could ever get a message sometime that would shake the people away from all this here Hollywood evangelism, and get them down to the Bible to “Thus saith the Lord,” then something will happen. And that's what I've longed to see. We've had a stir here in the Temple, but I'd like to see a revival in the Temple.
Now, a revival is not bringing in new members. A revival is reviving what you've already got. That's what we need, is a revival.
Did you ever see the sea have a revival? Sure. When it goes to leaping and jumping, and the waves a beating, there's not one drop of water more in it than it was when it was perfectly quiet. But it's got a revival, throws all the trash up on the shore. That's what it does.
And that's what the church needs tonight, is a revival to throw all the nonsense out of it, and throw it out on the shore, so they can get back to Gospel solid apostolic foundation.
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That's what the Bible said, “Come and buy of me gold, pure gold, tried in a fire.” The old beaters used to take the gold when they beat it, and they would beat that gold, and turn it over, and beat it, beating the dross out of it, until the reflection of the beater, he could see it in it. Then he knowed he had the dross out of it.
And that's the way God takes the Holy Spirit, and takes the Christian and the church, and beats it with the Gospel, and back and forth, and back and forth, until it reflects Jesus in it. The Holy Spirit can see the works of Jesus going on in the church, then things begin to go fine.
But there's too much dross in the church today. Too much ... now, they're fine people, the best in the world, the cream of the crop. But the church needs to make itself ready. Get ready. The Bible said, “And the bride had made herself ready,” as I preached on it at Pisgah the other day.
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Now, Abraham was a man that God gave the promise to, made the covenant absolutely unconditionally with Abraham and his seed. And if you're Abraham's seed, you're absolutely heirs of the promise just like Abraham was. See? And Abraham's faith, if you're Abraham's seed....
Now, it doesn't mean physical seeds, because them are Jews. But as Paul said, that which is a Jew outwardly is not Jew. It's a spiritual Jew inside. A Jew, a real spiritual Jew, is a man who believes God's Word just like Abraham believed it, and calling anything contrary to it as though it was not.
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Now, that's the kind of a church.... If we could get that type of church, if we could get this group right here tonight under them kind of a conditions, there'd be a revival break in this place here that, why, twelve o'clock, one o'clock in the morning, five o'clock in the morning, they'd be walking these floors in this building all night long praising the Lord. There'd be a revival break out here that the newspaper men would be standing in the door in the morning. Just scatter across the world, everywhere, “A revival broke out in Angeles Temple. There's something like the day of Pentecost going on.” God wants that. He wants it, but He can't wake His children up. He can't get them to realize that.
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Now, we left Abraham last night at the confirmation of the covenant, and how He would do it, how that He would ... God would take His own Son and make Him a sacrifice, like He showed Abraham. Nothing that Abraham could do to do it, just keep on believing. God had already promised a son. Now, He didn't say, “Now, Abraham, if you'll do a certain thing, I will send my Son.” He said, “I will do it. It's already done.”
Jesus was the Lamb of God slain from the foundation of the world. And did you ever think this? Your names was not put in the Lamb's book of life the night you give your heart to Christ. Did you know that? The Bible said, “Your name was put in the Lamb's book of life from the foundation of the world.” God's foreknowledge.
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What are you scared about? What you so scared? You're afraid. Seem like that you just can't step right out there and toe the line with the enemy; or call anything the devil says is a lie, let God's Word be true. See?
You were chosen of God. You didn't choose yourself; God chose you. When did He choose you? Before the foundation of the world when the Lamb was slain. Now, the Bible says that. The Bible said in Revelations the twentieth chapter, I believe it is, that the antichrist in the last days deceived all that dwelt upon the earth whose names were not written in the Lamb's book of life from the foundation of the world. How long? Since the foundation of the world, when God with His foreknowledge seen you and put your name on the book. When the Lamb was slain, you were slain with the Lamb. Hallelujah! My!
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People are scared. “Oh, if I can just ... I—I'm afraid ... I—I might make a mistake.” Make a mistake? You can't do no worse than just sit and do nothing about it. Get up and be going. Get the job done. Make some kind of an effort. You've got to move. When the Holy Spirit begins to move on a person, he ought to walk with his shoulders back and his head up, praising God. Sure. Because it's God that spoke the Word, it's God that give the promise. But we just look over the Word and we say, “Well....”
It's just like an old fisherman, one time, was coming from the sea, and there was a man going down to the sea. And the man wanted to.... He'd heard about the sea; he'd never seen it. He'd read about it, he thought it was wonderful, so he said, “You know, I believe I will take a rest and go down to see its great briny waves, how they flash, and the deep waters reflect the blue skies, and the gulls, and smell the salt air.” He said, “It will be wonderful!”
And while he was going, he met an old salt, sailor, coming from the sea. And he said, “Where goest thou, my good man?”
He said, “I go down to the sea.” And he begin to tell him how wonderful it must be.
Said, “Aw, there's nothing to it.” Said, “I don't see nothing so thrilling about it. I was born on the sea sixty years ago, and I've been on it ever since. I don't see no thrill about it.”
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You see, he had been in it so much until it lost its thrill. And that's the way with you people. You've seen the working of the Holy Spirit so much, till it's lost its victory ... or, you've lost your victory over it. It becomes a common thing. God begins to show things, and move things, and the Spirit hits you, and the Word comes forth, say, “Yep, that's pretty good. I sure believe that's the Word of God.” Oh, my! It should thrill us! Should be fresh every day (Yes, sir!), just new to us all the time, just thrills us to feed and feast on the Word of God.
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God promised Abraham there just what He was going to do. So we took the covenant, how they made it. Tore the contract in two, one person made ... took one part of the contract, the other person took the other part of the contract.
Now, when this contract was finished, they had to come together, and both pieces of the contract had to dovetail. You see? You write a contract out and tear it, and then try to duplicate it one time. You'll never do it. See, because it's just the tearing of the paper and everything, it has to fit perfectly.
And when God made His contract with Abraham's seed, He took His Son, Christ Jesus, to the cross. Do you believe that? Then He took Him there and tore Him apart as a sacrifice, lifted up His body from the grave, and set it on His own right hand, on His throne in glory; and sent back the other part of the contract, the Spirit, to the church to fill the church.
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No wonder Jesus said, “The works that I do, you do also.” His works were continued. How long? “Go ye into all the world. He that ... and preach the Gospel. He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved; he that believeth not shall be damned, and [conjunction] these signs shall follow them that believe.” How far? To all the world. How many? To every creature. How could the apostles do it? It hasn't been done yet. So the commission still stands the same.
“A little while, and the world won't see me no more.” That Greek word kosmos means “world order.” “The world won't see me no more; yet ye shall see me ('ye,' that's the church), for I (personal pronoun) be with you, even in you, to the end of the world (not the end of the apostles, but the end of the world); and the works that I do shall you do also.”
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“If ye abide in me, and my Words abide in you....” Now, abide means to “stay there.” If you take God's promise in your heart, “I'm the Lord that healeth thee,” get it in your heart, let it stay there. Don't ever take it out; let it stay there. Act on it. “If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask what you will, and it shall be done unto you.” Oh, my! That's the real truth. “If ye abide in me (the Holy Spirit, Christ), and my words (My promises, all) abide in you (stay there), just ask what you will, and it'll be done to you,” because it's got to do it.
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Then we find Abraham believed God. And then when he was about ninety and nine years old (that's lacking one year in being a hundred) little Isaac hadn't come yet. He was still praising God for it, for he knew God made the promise. God has to keep that promise. God has to keep His promise in order to be God! Oh, if I could ... if that could soak down on the left side below the fifth rib and then hang there. See? When God makes a promise, God is duty bound to keep that promise. He can't altar it. He can't change it.
We're finite. We can say, “Well, I will be there.” We should say, “If the Lord is willing.” But see, we're finite. We can say things and make mistakes. But He's infinite, and He cannot make a mistake.
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And anytime that He does anything, it's done perfectly. It can never be any better. And the way He ever act is perfect. If a sinner, the first sinner come to Him and repented, and God accepted his repentance, if the second sinner comes, He's got to act the same way He did the first time. If a man come to Him for healing, and God healed him upon the basis of his faith, the next time a sick person comes, He's got to do the same thing; or He did wrong when He healed the first man, He made a mistake. God will have to stand, say, “I made a mistake by healing the people back in the days of the apostles, because I don't heal people now.” Could you imagine God almighty saying something like that? Never! It's not God; it's us! Nothing wrong with God. It's us, our faith: if you can believe it.
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Every preparation's made. Healing is already atoned for. Sins are already atoned for. All things are ready. Come! That's right. The wedding supper's set. Excuses are made. But He said, “Go into the....” The last call was go get the sick and halt, a campaign of healing just before the wedding supper. Now you see where we're at. “Go get the lame, the halt, the blind, out of the streets, and highways, and hedges, and bring them in. Heal them, and let Me show My mercy to them, then they'll believe Me.” That's right. That's God's last call. Supper call is healing, the last call.
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Now, after Abraham, when he was ninety and nine, we come now to seventeenth chapter, the next chapter of Genesis. And God appeared to him again. And when He appeared to him this time, He appeared to him in the name of almighty God. The Hebrew word there is El Shaddai, which means.... El means “God, the strong One” from Genesis 3, “the strong One.” El, “God, the Life-giver.” Shad, s-h-a-d, means, “breast,” like the woman. Shaddai means, “breasted,” plural. And God appeared to Abraham in the name of “God, the strong breasted One.”
What a thing, to appear to an old man a hundred years old, and his body as good as dead, after He had made him a promise that he was going to have a baby by his wife Sarah, and her ninety. Think of it.
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Now, what a promise. “Abraham, you are old. Your strength is gone. And for the last twenty-five years you've trusted Me. But now I want to tell you what My name is. My name is the breasted One, the strong One. I'm the breasted God.”
Now, watch. Not “a breast God,” but “breasted”—both for spirit and body. Wounded for our transgressions, with His stripes we were healed. The breasted One, the strong One, the strength-giver.
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You take a little baby, when it's weak, and run down, and dying. The mother takes the little baby in her arms, lays it up to her breast. The little fellow's fretting and crying. But just as soon as it begins to nurse on the mother, what's it doing? It's pulling the mother's strength into its own body. It quits crying, starts laughing. It's satisfied.
And God, when a believer can take a hold of God's promise, God, through Christ, pours His strength into the believer's body. And while he's recuperating, he's satisfied. Hallelujah! The believer, nursing from the Word, the breasted One, the New Testament and the Old Testament, nursing from God's promise. As he takes God's promise of healing, salvation, whatever it is, he's laying on the bosoms of God just as satisfied as he can be. Nobody can shake him away from there. He's holding on for dear life and nursing God's strength into his body. Hallelujah!
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If you've been the wickedest woman in this country, your name is not fit for the dogs to bark with, let me tell you something. If you take a hold of God's promise, and lay a hold of that and live, and God will pour His strength into you, till you'll be so sainted till everybody will know you're a Christian. Yes, sir! If you've been a bootlegger, gambler, whatever you might be, that doesn't matter if you'll take a hold of that breasted God. And all the time you're nursing, your little old feet's a moving, your hand's are moving. What is it? You got growing pains. You're coming out of it. The breasted One, the strength-giver, the all-sufficient One.
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“Abraham, you're old. You're just like a little baby. Why, you have no life in your body, and you're just ... your body is good as dead. But I am the breasted One. Just take a hold of My promise and just keep nursing.”
He nursed for twenty-five years. We can't nurse ten minutes, and then call ourself Abraham's seed. “Hallelujah, I'm Abraham's seed.” Take a hold of God's promise and stay with it! Just stay there, nurse the Satisfier.
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When a man hears (faith cometh by hearing), hears that Christ died for his sins, and he's accepted because God's knocked at his heart—he's got an invitation to the wedding supper—then he just takes a hold with all that's in him and nurses and nurses; until his spirit begins to grow, he's filled with the Holy Spirit, he becomes a real born-again Christian.
A man that's sick hears that He (faith cometh by hearing) God is the healer. You just take right to the other breast and just lay right onto God's goodness, drawing His promise, pulling it from the Bible, every day, reading it, believing it, taking God, praising Him, satisfied that you're going to be perfectly well.
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There's a little woman was here last night in a wheelchair. I don't know whether ... I don't see her here now. I went down to pray for her last night, a couple nights ago. She got up out of the wheelchair and went walking down through there. And some man wanted to help her; said, “Get away from me.” She went walking on. Last night when I went down to pray for the wheelchairs, I thought I'd pray for her. She said, “Brother Branham, the Lord's already healed me.” She said, “I'm just sitting here resting, going to be up in a few minutes.” Said, “I've walked four or five times today. I'm getting better all the time.” She's probably sitting out in the audience somewhere tonight, or some.... She's not here in a wheelchair anyhow. Why? She took a hold to that breast of God! and she's nursing back her strength! Certainly.
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Oh, I'm so glad to know that man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God. He feeds His little ones, pours His strength into His believers through His Word. “Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every Word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God.” Then when the believer comes, he comes up to El Shaddai, and he leans upon His bosom, and he just draws His—he draws God's strength right into his own body by believing His Word. Oh, blessed be the name of the Lord!
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Now, He said, “Abraham, though you're old, your age is past, and you're so old—you're a hundred years old—you believed the promise. But I'm the breasted God, I'm going to pour My strength right into you. (We're going to find out tomorrow night whether He did it or not.) I'm going to nurse you right back to strength again. You just keep believing that promise.”
“Lord, I've had it for twenty-five years.”
“Just hold on. Stay with it.”
And Abraham believed God! He believed that it was the truth. And he knew that Sarah now nearly a hundred years old, yet he was going to have that baby by her, that God promised twenty-five years before. Not one sign of baby yet, no signs of anything natural would be happening to the woman, so she could be. She was many years past menopause: ninety years old, she goes in menopause at forty. There you are. And sometimes, forty-five, she's over. And here she is ninety! Oh, my. And then we're Abraham's children. Uh-huh. Abraham's children.
Then what happened? Now, this is not fiction. This is the Bible. It's God's truth, His promise. I've tried it and tested it, and I know you can take God's Word, and He will make it right with you. He will bring it to pass.
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Now, here she is. And the first thing you know, Lot got down in Sodom and got all mixed up again. And after God had made that promise to Abraham that He was El Shaddai, the strong One, then he pitched his tent out into the plains under an oak tree.
And one day, it was right in the heat of the day, about three or four o'clock in the afternoon, I suppose, when the western sun was shining down hot there in Canaan. And the direct rays of that heat can raise blisters quickly. And he was sitting out there in the tent door with his head down, perhaps studying or thinking about God. And he raised up his eyes, and he seen three men coming. And somehow, Abraham wanted to be friendly. So he thought them fellows walked kind of strange, yet dusty from the road, and ordinarily dressed, and they come walking up. And Abraham went out and invited them.
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In other wise, something like this: “Sirs, you're tired. Your feet must be weary. Now, I have a nice shade tree here. Won't you come in and sit down here under the shade tree? And I will fetch a little water, and I will wash your feet for you. It'll refresh you. Get you a good cold drink, then you can go on your journey.”
They said, “Go ahead, Abraham. Go ahead, sir. Whatever you've said, why, let it be that way.”
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I can imagine seeing Abraham run down through the little tents, you know, like that, and got to the big tent. He said, “Sarah, pour out three buckets of meal right quick, kneed it, get all the lumps out of it, and make some cakes on the fire. Somebody's out there. There's just something about them fellows that seems strange to me. They're not ordinary preachers.”
So he run out to the back of the tent, and there's a little corral out there where they had the calves, and he felt till he got the fattest one, and give it to his servants, said, “Go, dress it right quick.” And he went back out, and Sarah baked the cakes and give them to Abraham. And he come out and give them the cakes, and they sat down to eat.
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Now, think of it. They were eating veal chops, drinking milk, and having corn cakes and butter: pretty good diet. So he had them all out there eating. And I can imagine Abraham getting a fly bush (I don't guess you all ever know what a fly bush was) and shoo the flies off, you know.
How many knows what a fly bush is? Well, look at the Kentuckians here. We never had a screen door till just a few years ago. We always had an old fly bush. And I guess it was my time on Sunday dinner to stand and shoo the flies. A little old log cabin, no windows in it, and just door you pushed together. And the flies would come in, so you'd have to keep them shooed out all the time.
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So, I can see Abraham standing there with a fly bush, a-shooing. He kept looking down to them, he said, “Now, these are strange fellows. They're dusty, traveled far.” And after a while, when they got through eating, why....
Strange that them men were eating. They were dressed in ordinary clothes, dust on their clothes, eating meat, drinking milk, and one of them was God Himself. That's what the Scripture says. Abraham called Him Lord, capital L-o-r-d, Elohim, the great Jehovah God.
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I know many of the writers try to say that was a theophany, so forth like that. But that wasn't so. He was eating meat, and drinking milk, and eating corn bread. That's right. He was absolutely a man, sitting in human flesh.
Someone said to me not long ago, said, “Billy, you don't mean to tell me you believe that was a man.”
I said, “Absolutely! It was God in flesh.”
He said, “Where did He get that flesh?”
I said, “The great Creator of heavens and earth, two angels with Him. The Bible said they were two angels and God Himself.”
“Why,” he said, “where did He get that body?”
I said, “What are we made up of? Sixteen elements: petroleum, and calcium, potash, and cosmic light. Well, God just said, 'Come here, Gabriel. Come here, Michael. We're going to take a little trip down and see father Abraham.' Reached over there and got a handful of calcium, and a little potash, and cosmic light, and ”pfft,“ breathed it together like that, and stepped into it, and talked to him.” Hallelujah! That's our God! That's the reason I believe Him in the resurrection.
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My wife said to me not long ago—I was combing these two or three hairs I got left—she said, “Billy, you're almost bald-headed.”
I said, “I haven't lost a one of them.”
She said, “Pray, tell me where they're at.”
I said, “All right. You tell me where they was before I got them, I will tell you where they are waiting for me.” Amen. That's right.
Brother, I'm telling you, I believe in the resurrection! God will speak one of these days, and we will come forth in His image and in His likeness—men and women. Not angels, but men and women. God made angels. We will never be angels, we wasn't made for angels. Men are made men. God made man. He intends him to be man. It's God's pattern.
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And He made this body, and He stepped into it, and eat, and disappeared right before Abraham: God, Himself, Elohim. And there He was, talking to Abraham.
And He said, “Now, Abraham, where is Sarah thy wife?” A stranger, how did He know he was married? How did He know he had a wife, and how did He know her name was Sarah? You see the same Holy Spirit in the building here at night, saying the same thing. A stranger, dust on His clothes, in human flesh, said, “Abraham, where is Sarah thy wife?”
“Oh,” he said, “she's in the tent.” And the Bible said the tent was behind Him.
And He said, “Abraham, you think I could keep anything from you, seeing that you've believed God all this time?” Said, “I'm going to visit you next month, just according to the time of life by Sarah.”
And Sarah, in the tent—she never laughed out loud, but it said, inside of her, inwardly—she smiled to herself.
And the Angel with His ... the man, in human flesh, eating cakes, eating bread, and meat, with His back turned to the tent, said, “Why did Sarah laugh?” He'd never seen her. He knowed who she was, knowed he had a wife, and knew what she was doing in the tent. Hallelujah! If that ain't our God, I don't know why. “Why did she laugh when she was in the tent?”
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Notice. That was just a few hours.... One more message was preached down in Sodom, and that was to make ready to get out, and then the fire from heaven fell. Is that right?
Now, see, that's the way God acted. When Jesus came at the end of the Jewish dispensation, He said ... done the very same thing. Is that right? When He went to the Samaritans, He did the same thing. Now that we're at the end of the Gentile age, He's got to do the same thing. He never did it till right at the last of the age, at the closing.
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Now listen what Jesus said, “As it was in the days of Sodom....” Oh, let it sink in! “As it was in the days of Sodom, so shall it be in the coming of the Son of God.” The Spirit of God in human flesh, in His church, revealing and making manifest the sign of the Messiah as He did in that day, as He did in the days of Christ, as He is at the end of the Gentile dispensation, just a few hours before the bombs fall, before the world will be destroyed.
Great men, scientists, generals, and so forth, are saying that the next war will only last about three minutes. Russia's got them timed right for Hollywood and Vine. He's got them timed for Lakeside Drive in Chicago, and for New York City, and for everywhere. Them bombs are setting ready. We got it timed right on Moscow and different places. It just takes one person to make a mistake to pull one of them off sometime. And what happens? The Bible's fulfilled then. That's the only thing that's left.
Can't you see what God is doing, friends? Can't you pinch your ... not your hands, but pinch your spirit with the Word of God, and believe it!
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God promised that before Christ would come, that the Spirit of God would be made manifest just like it was in Abraham's time! Why? Now remember, He never did that down in Sodom. He did that to Abraham. That's why the message don't get the right of way like it should have; it's only to the elect, the church world, Abraham's seed!
Oh, you children of Abraham, surely you're not that blind. Don't think I'm speaking of myself. That's a lie. I would say it, that would be me, I'd be a liar. I'm speaking of the Spirit of God in our midst, doing the same thing, the Angel of the Lord!
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You've got the picture of it here. Science has took its picture —the scientific mechanical eye of the camera. George J. Lacy examined that picture from Houston that night. He said, “Brother Branham, I have said sometimes that you were ... it was psychology, so they told me, that you could read the minds of people, that you was a great mind reader.” Said, “I knowed better than to say that.” He said, “I thought it was psychology. But,” said, “the mechanical eye of this camera won't take psychology.” Said, “The light struck the lens; the light's there!”
What is it? The same Pillar of Fire that followed the children of Israel. It's the same thing here today, the same Christ. Any Bible student knows that the Pillar of Fire that led the children of Israel through the wilderness was the Angel of the covenant, Christ, the Logos that went out of God in the beginning. And when it was made flesh and dwelt in a human body here on earth named Jesus, look what it did then. Look what it did when it come down in some flesh and talked to Abraham. Look what it did when it was here on earth, that walked in Galilee, what it did. Well, here it is back again tonight, dwelling in all of us, the universal church, doing the same thing: Jesus Christ the same yesterday, today, and for ever. Now, to clear in your minds. I feel it, “Christ is not a light.” Christ is the light.
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Christ, when He was on earth, He said, “I came from God.” Is that right? What was He then? The Pillar of Fire. “I go to God.” Did He say that? After His death, burial, and resurrection, Paul was on his road down to Damascus, and all of a sudden, a great Light struck him to the ground that blinded his eyes. The others didn't see it. Paul saw it. And He (They heard the voice.) and He said, “Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou Me?”
He said, “Who are you, Lord?”
He said, “I'm Jesus.” What? The Pillar of Fire again to fulfill His promise. “I come from the spirit world; I go back to the spirit world.” The flesh was only brought here for a sacrifice to redeem us sinners, that we might be worthy by His grace to enter in, because we're invited to come in.
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Seeds of Abraham, can't you see this is your hour? Can't you tell this is the time that God is calling you? We ought to repent!
What the church needs tonight is not new members. Why, the United States is combed over and over and over by so many evangelists, until it's just burnt territory. That's the truth. America has absolutely sinned away its day of grace. You mark it down on a book. You'll never have a universal revival in America. It passed that about three years ago. It'll never be a revival. Some of you young people, mark my word down for that. There'll never be a nationwide revival, no more, like the Billy Sunday days and so forth. You'll have little spurt-ups like that till Jesus comes, but it'll never be.
God has turned from it and gone to the foreign nations. There's where the people come. One sign from the Lord there and thousands will run to the altar, of heathens. And it can be done over and over to this bunch of Americans, that's been taught this way, that way, and all confused, and never stop to look in their Bible.
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You know, the Bible is the Word of God. It's given to the people to feed on.
You got so many ways drawed up. “It's got to be this way; it's got to be the way my church says.” “It's got to be the way my church says.” When Jesus come the first time, it was altogether different from what their churches was saying. And it'll be altogether different from what they're saying today when He comes again.
Because He said, “I've hid this from the eyes of the wise and prudent, and will reveal it to babes such as will learn.” If you're willing to learn, take the Bible and search the Scriptures. “For they are they that testify of me,” said Jesus. “In them you think you have eternal life, and they testify of me.”
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You know when He come His ministry was so supernatural, till it blinded the eyes of the preachers of that day. They couldn't see it. They said, “Ah, Him telling the people what's wrong with them, and telling them their names and things, that's a devil spirit in Him; it's Beelzebub.”
Jesus said, “I will forgive you for that. But someday, the Holy [break in tape] ... is coming to do the same thing. One word against it will never be forgiven in this world or the world to come.” Watch Sodom.
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Now, He said, “As it was in the days of Noah,” blasphemers and so forth, and “as it was in the days of Sodom....” Sodom is when the fire fell. Fire's going to fall this time. Not water, fire. The fire will fall from heavens, the Bible said so. Those volcanic gasses that's up there.... Some of these days, they're going to push one of them missiles through there; it's going to set a chain around like that, perhaps, and that's the way it'll come.
It's at hand. We know it can't be much longer. Science says three minutes longer before midnight. The clock will strike one of these hours. And it'll be gone within just a few minutes. The world will be on fire. But before that happens, the church is going to glory. Then if the end of time is that close, the coming of the Lord is closer.
So what are we doing? We're sitting watching these things. We go home, say, “Wasn't that amazing?” That's not the way to do it. Grab up the Scriptures and start through it with prayer on your heart: “Lord God, is it that close? Help me, O Lord, to know Thy Word.” And search it, and lean over it, and stay with it, and miss a few meals, and pray to God, and you'll come back to the church so charged with the power of God, things will go to taking place around here. We've got to have it.
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We see the marking. Abraham.... See how that was given to Abraham? Abraham seen that sign before the fire fell in Sodom. And Abraham's seed will see the same sign before the fire falls in the modern Sodom of today.
God help you people! I love you! I don't mean to be rude. I don't mean to be scolding, you people in radio-land, and you people here. I'm not trying to scold you. But I want to wake you up! It's going to be past before you know it. The day of visitation, and you knew it. Did not Jesus sit and look over Jerusalem, and His Spirit ... He wept and said, “Jerusalem, Jerusalem, if you'd have only knowed your day. If you'd have only knowed it! But it's past now.” And sometimes down in my heart, I feel the Holy Spirit just weeping for the people.
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Oh, I feel ... I'm tired, I'm weary, I'm wore out. Wife said, “You can't go another time, Honey. You're just about to fall. You've ministered all day; you've been week after week. You look awful. You're so nervous, you can't sit at the table. You're on the middle of the floor at night with a pillow in your arms, praying for it.” Said, “You're so nervous; stay home, honey, before you die!”
I said, “But, sweetheart, them precious souls out there to which Christ died for—I must do it!” That's why I'm here. I love you. God, reveal that to the people, is my prayer. I'm not here to be seen; I'm here because I love you and I'm trying to shake you with the Gospel out of that formal-motive condition that the people are in.
Get back to God! All night prayer meeting, revival in your home, revival in your soul. Get back to believing God, acting on His Word, taking His Word and believing Him. You're the seed of Abraham! God's give you the promise. God showed you the sign. Watch that Spirit.
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Not me, I'm a man, just flesh that He picked up back yonder in the gutters of sin. But if He was going to get somebody righteous, who would He get? There's none of us righteous. One can't pray for the other one. One can't call the other one this, that, or the other, because we've all sinned and come short of the glory. But God made a promise that He would do it. He's going to use somebody. You can just depend on that, because He spoke it, and His Word has to be fulfilled.
He knowed it before the foundation of the world what He would do. Certainly He did. He knowed just the hour, and what He would do, and how the message would go through, and how they would turn their backs to it, how they would slothfully daydream and walk away, how some would receive it and burn in their hearts with it.
Because that those things are done, people try to think back and say, “Ah, that's just a man. That's just a telepathy or something.” They said the same thing in His day. “If they called the master of the house Beelzebub, how much more will they call them that's his disciples?” How could they call it Beelzebub, unless they be doing the same thing that they called Beelzebub.
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Here you are.
We're in the last days. You're in the last hours; not only last days, but last hours. Think of it, friends, while we pray. Bow your heads. Radio-land, God bless you out there.
This is a serious moment. It's a time of decision. It's a time when you have to do something for God. I'm not speaking.... Of course I'm speaking to the sinners, but I'm speaking primarily tonight to the church—to the church. This has been year after year that this thing has moved through the nation. The end is at hand. The signs have been done.
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He said, “Watch the fig tree when it puts forth its buds.” Said, “Consider it, and how that the fig tree puts forth its buds. When you see it, the fig tree and all the other trees putting forth its buds, you know that summer's nigh.” Now look here. The Jewish nation's having a revival; the Catholic church is having a revival, the Baptists under Billy Graham, the Methodists under Jack Schuller, the Pentecostal under Oral Roberts. All the trees are putting forth their buds. The time is at hand. No certain person we can say in Israel, because God deals with Israel as a nation. The Gentile worlds is individuals.
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Let's pray now. Seek God. The thing that God said would take place, and He give the example to Abraham your father. And if we're not Abraham's seed, you're lost; because the promise was made to Abraham and his seed. The promise was given absolutely without condition. Now wake up, and let us pray.
Now, you in radio-land, you the seed of Abraham out there, you that's sick and needy, you there at the bar room, pool room, wherever you may be, riding in the automobile, find you a little place now just for a minute. Let's pray. If you're sitting at the table, eating, and the message is coming into the room, just bow your head a few minutes. Lay your hand on the table and say, “God, be merciful to me. I don't want to be lost. Something's speaking to my heart right now.” Say, “And, Lord, let it be me.” If you're in the restaurant, then make God the promise now while we pray, and then slip out somewhere, get out of the pool room, wherever you're at; pull your car off the side of the road somewhere and park it safely, then get down on your knees. Slip over home right quick, get down in the bedroom, say, “Lord, I want to talk it over with You.” Oh, it's later than we think. Let's be ready.
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And you here at the church, you Christians, oh, you Abraham's seed, you stars of the morning, you who come from the dust of the ruts of sin, that God's made you shining stars to shine by the side of the Bright and Morning Star, shake yourself, rise up, get the dust off of you. Let's believe and know that God is here while we pray.
Eternal God, that brought again Jesus from the dead and has presented Him to us as a sacrifice sufficient to take away all sin, we pray, Lord, for those out there in radio-land who are bowing at this time, and ask that Your mercy, O God, will save them. Let them know that that little strange feeling that they have in their heart, it's You talking to them, for You said, “No man can come to me except my Father draws him first. And all that will come to me, I will give them eternal life and will raise them up at the last day.” You promised that.
O the great Seed of Abraham, through Who we are blessed, the Lord Jesus Christ, grant tonight, Lord, that if there be any there, which I believe there is, may they make that great surrender to Thee just now. As we have been reading of Thy Word and seeing Your promise, and hearing the words of the Lord Jesus say, “As it was in the days of Sodom,” God manifesting Himself through mankind, showing signs of supernatural move. And then years later, the great Moses promised that when that One come, that He'd be a God-prophet; and when the Israelites, the true in heart, saw Him, they knowed He was the Messiah.
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When the woman at the well was told of her sins, she said, “You must be a prophet. We know when the Messiah cometh, He will tell us these things.”
And Jesus said, “I am He that speaks to you.”
Then she could run into the city and say, “Come, see a man who told me the things that I've done. Isn't this the sign of the Messiah?” And You promised that same thing would visit the Gentiles just before the world would be destroyed by fire like Sodom was. And here are the seeds of Abraham seeing that same thing happen.
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Lord God, be merciful! And quickly, Lord, shake them. Let them not look at flesh. That same flesh that God dwelt in disappeared in a little bit after that. It vanished, because God only used it. So will the flesh that He's using now, will vanish one of these days. It'll go back to the dust of the earth if Jesus tarries. But the Spirit of God will live on forever. Lord, let people see this. Heal the sick and the afflicted. Be merciful, God, and save the lost. Bring back that wandering boy or girl, man or woman tonight; bring them safely to the fold of God. Grant it, Lord.
And in this visible audience, may the Holy Spirit get a hold of hearts here and wake them up, and may great faith be accumulated in this building, that the people of God might see the works of God, and believe on God, for it's this purpose that these things are wrought, through the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.
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I want to see Jesus some day, don't you? When I reach that strand on the far-off land, I want to see Jesus; don't you? How many knows the old song, “I Want To See Jesus, Don't You”? It's a beautiful old song.
I remember one morning, waking up, and going in to my little old stove, and trying to make a fire. And the thing wouldn't burn, and I was sitting there. Oh, I was cold, and frost all over the floor, little old cabin, and I was trying to get the fire to burn. The wind was down the chimney, and it wouldn't do it. Sister Cadle come on from Indianapolis, singing, “I Want To See Jesus, Don't You?” I sat down there on that cold frosty floor, raised up my hands to God, I said, “Lord, let it be now that I will see Him. I'm sick and tired of it. I'm homesick now. I want to get out of it.”
Sometimes people get feeling that way. Sometimes that God permits that to happen just to make us lonesome, make us want to see Him, hungering and thirsting to see Him.
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Sitting right back down this row here on the left hand side, there's a person sitting there, a lady, praying. She's got cancer. If you'll believe, lady, that God will heal you.... That light's over you, sitting right back here. She's sitting right behind my daughter-in-law there, Loyce. If she will just believe with all of her heart, right back there towards the end, you can be healed, if you believe it.
Right down here. Lady looking right at me, right here. She's suffering with high blood pressure, sitting right out there at the end of the row. If you'll believe.... Yes, you put your hand over on her.
And because you did that.... You yourself back there, you have varicose veins, sitting next to her. That's right. Raise up your hands, so that they'll see that who I'm tal.... All right. Now, you're healed too. You can go home and be well. Amen.
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Can you believe? Look. Way back there, a man. There's that Light. I'm looking right straight at it. The man has something wrong with his hands, and something wrong with his knees. He's got epilepsy also. Just come from a hospital. If you believe, back there behind that man, you can be healed if you'll just accept the Lord Jesus. All right.
You believe the Lord Jesus Christ is here? You believe He could reveal things, like He did the Angel of the Lord when He was in that man of flesh? If I'd turn my back and you'd pray, you believe He could do the same thing? You believe it? You would accept it's the same Christ then, the same Holy Spirit that was in that human flesh that talked to Abraham? You believe that? Some of you women, then, pray.
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Let it be, Lord, for Your glory. Let it be. Let someone pray, Lord, someone that I know not. Let it be tonight, that these people will see that this message is truly the truth. Let it be, in the name of the Lord Jesus.
There's a woman, right directly behind me. She's suffering with a female trouble, and she's up for an operation. She's a young woman. And she's just recently become a Christian, because it looks real bright around her, sitting right back over here in the aisle. You believe with all your heart, with your head down, there? Stand up on your feet now. I do not know you, do I, lady? We're totally strangers, is that right? You and I? Everything was said is the truth?
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The same Angel that was on that man that had His back turned to the tent that knowed about Sarah, knowed about her. The same God is here tonight. Abraham's God, speaking the same thing to Abraham's children! Do you now believe? With all your heart?
Now, I tell you, is there a sinner here that doesn't know God, but feels strange in your heart, would you want to come down here now without any persuading? Are you convinced? Come down here just a minute. Come here, sinner friend. Let us pray. A sinner that doesn't know God, will you come?
Is there a backslider that would like to come back to God? Come down here just a minute.
Now, I'm going to use, in that next few nights, just altogether on healing; but I want a revival. I'm not satisfied. I want to see the Spirit of God moving.
Children, look, how many believes I love you? Raise up your hands. You know I'm not scolding you. But you've got too much Hollywood around here. You've got too much fashions of the world. You got too much care. Break out of that! We need a revival! Amen. My, my! You need God, people, you need to wake up! We're at the end of the road; judgment is here! Amen.
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Oh, I wished I.... Brother Duffield (you're one of the nicest men I ever met) Brother duPlessis, I wish there was some way I could let the people see what I'm talking about. We've got to have a wakening right quick or you're going to miss the rapture, friends. It could happen at anytime.
How many would like to make a consecration to God, raise up your hands. Stand up on your feet. Consecrate yourself newly to God. How many feels you need a consecration, raise up your hands.
How can I do it? How can I, friends? I can't do it. You say, “Brother Branham, would you see some more visions?” If you won't believe that, you wouldn't believe it anyhow. That's exactly right.
Them visions make me weak. I'm trying to build up enough strength to finish up this week through Saturday and Sunday, the biggest healing services we've ever had. That's why I'm holding my strength back for, for them nights to put everything I've got right into it.
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Here's people that's coming up now, to giving their life to Christ. Some of the personal workers, walk with them. You come. Somebody else that needs Christ, walk down here at the altar.
I tell you, friends, as I said the other night: You've heard so much mighty rushing winds, and so many earthquakes, and so many shaking things, till you're failing to hear that last one. What was that last? A still small voice. See? That's something in your heart that says, “Oh, yes. Yes. There it is! I see it!”
Oh, if we could wake up to that! That's what we need. Who could pray a prayer that would dedicate these people over? I don't believe there's a minister in the world can do it. You have to do it yourself. It's you have to do it.
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How many now will lay your hand over on somebody else, and pray for them that they'll be consecrated to God? Don't pray for yourself, pray for the next fellow. The person standing next to you, pray for their consecration. That's it. Now, that's the way. Pray for somebody else. Do something for somebody else. That's the way to do it. Say, “Lord, consecrate my brother, consecrate my sister. Pour down Your Spirit upon them.” That's it. You pray now. That's the way to do it. Consecrate yourself to God. And if you feel the power of God in your life, raise up your hands and say, “Thank You, Lord. I'm making my promise now to You.”
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O Lord God, Creator of heavens and earth, send Thy Holy Spirit upon this group, and fill this place by the baptism of the Holy Ghost. Grant it, Lord. Pour out Your Spirit. Condemn the people of unbelief; and send down faith, power, joy, peace, satisfaction. May they come to El Shaddai, take a hold of His breasts, and draw the strength and power of God, through prayer, back into their souls and in their bodies. Grant it, Lord. Hear the prayer of Your servant. Grant it as they're praying and believing, and acting, and believing this is the seed of Abraham, knowing that the Holy Ghost is present. Amen.
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“I Will Praise Him.” Oh, wonderful.
It doesn't take too much prayer; it just takes some believing. You've prayed a whole lot; start believing, laying aside every weight and the sin, the unbelief that does so easily upset you. How many borned again Christians are here? Raise up your hands. Just look. Oh, that's wonderful. Let's sing now. Close your eyes. Raise your hands. How many feels better right now, feel like you got some faith down in you, feel like you could blow the lid off and go on, feel that you're Abraham's seed?
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The little organist is giving us the tune, “I Will Praise Him.” Let's lift it up high, and raise our hands to God, and sing,
I will praise Him, I will praise Him,
Praise the Lamb for sinners slain;
Give Him glory, all ye people,
For His blood has washed away each stain.
All together. You Methodists, you Baptists, Pentecostals, all together now, come on.
I will praise Him, I will praise Him,
Praise the Lamb for sinners slain;
Give Him glory, all ye people,
For His blood has washed away each stain.
Now, while we sing it again, I want you to turn around and shake hands with somebody in front of you, behind you, your side, saying, “Praise God, Christian. Praise God, Christian.” Say, “I feel better. I feel like traveling on now.” Say it while we sing. Now, come on.
I will.... (Up in the balcony, now come on.
Get the starch away now.) I will praise Him,
Praise the Lamb for sinners slain;
Give Him glory, all ye people,
For His blood has washed away each stain.
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Now, while preaching hard, and having to shove the Word out there just as hard as I knowed how to do it, you don't think I was angry with you, do you? You know it was just trying to build up your faith. Is that right? Raise up your hand if you believe that. God bless you. I will sing it with you now with our hands up.
I will praise Him, (Hallelujah!) I will
praise Him,
Praise the Lamb for sinners slain;
Give Him glory, all ye people,
For His blood has washed away each stain.
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All that believe every Word of God, all that feels that you can lay upon the bosom of El Shaddai and draw any promise from God that you desire, say, “Amen.” Say it real loud, “Amen!” That's right. Amen means “so be it.” We can do it. God bless your loyal hearts. All right. Let's bow our heads now for prayer. All right, Brother Duffield.