Conference With God

It's most certainly a privilege for me to be here tonight, way down here in Tifton, Georgia, but little did I know that I was going to have the privilege of coming out here to this church. But we're happy to be here. Just got in a few moments ago, and we see that the room, outside and inside, is kind of packed a little. So, tonight we thought we would have a little time to get acquainted, to kind of understand each other, because we've got two more nights of service to come. Had my first time—I suppose, as far as I know—to shake hands with Brother Perry, the pastor. And we come on the invitation of our gracious friend and brother, Brother Evans.

And we had a little time off while we got to get down this time.

We're fixing to leave now for overseas for a big part of the world in the next few months. Right after this we go into the Caribbean Islands and from there into South Africa, back into Switzerland, Holland, England, on up into Norway; come back, go over into Australia, Sidney and Melbourne; up back into India and through that way, coming back through the Holy Lands, the Lord willing, this coming year. So, we had a time that we could just go around and visit, maybe people that we had not met yet.

And Brother Welch Evans, being such a precious brother, and had asked me several times to come down, and I was down here not long ago to visit him at his home. And I tried to catch two or three of your fish around here, but I don't know how well I done—I don't think very good. But I wanted to come back to meet the Christians and I thought this would be a good opportunity, to spend these two or three days down here with you people.

Mostly my ministry is praying for the sick. No doubt but what through the papers and magazines, and so forth, that you've heard of the goodness of the Lord Jesus, how He has healed the sick and done great wonders and signs. Coming up tonight we seen it would be almost totally impossible to line up a prayer line—there's as many on the outside around as there is on the inside. Tomorrow, they're getting an auditorium, or trying, at the high school or something. They'll be telling you about it. I think they're getting together on it now, where we can be lined out so we can have prayer lines and pray for the sick the next services, beginning tomorrow night. Wherever the services will . . . we'll try to run over and give out some prayer cards, and line the people up so you can come by number, as it's been a system in our services always to do that.

So, that'll be announced tomorrow perhaps, and they'll have a sign out here if it is, just where the services . . . what auditorium it will be in tomorrow night. And if you come over here, they'll have a sign sitting out there. If we have to continue here, why, you come right on over—about six o'clock, or seven, or whenever it is, six-thirty, seven—and we'll give out cards. And then if we have to back out and start over new again, why, we'll get the people lined up to where we can pray for them. Like this, it would be very hard, but we'll manage some way.

Now, how many ministers is in here? Could I just see you raise up your hands? That's very fine. Well, greetings to you, my precious friends in Christ. Now, in talking on. . . . That's about the youngest preacher I ever seen—there's one here about two years old raised up his hand. I thought little David Walker was about the smallest one I ever seen, but this has got him beat. Well, that's mighty fine, son. I've got one at home about like that. Claims he's going to be a preacher, but if he does, he's going to have to reform a lot. He was real bad the other day. He did something—put both of his little sisters on a chair—and you fathers and mothers know what I mean. I said, “Son, you kept promising me for a long time you was going to be good. When are you going to be good?”

He said, “When I get to be a preacher.”

His mother said, “You'll have to be that or you won't be a preacher.” They can get right next to your heart in their little witty things that they say.

Now, tonight, it's chilly outside to me. I thought I was coming down here to go barefooted again, but I'd get froze if I did that, so. . . . Many are standing outside all around the building and so forth. Many . . . some out in their cars and cars still coming in. So, we're just going to not keep you long; just speak to you, and try to bring up a faith to you that when it comes time for the prayer for the sick that you'll be able to receive it.

I think that divine healing is something that you must approach reverently, sanely, because it is the work of God. Now, God can never go against his own laws and rules. He'll always work according to his rules. It's just like, if you (I've said this many times), if you had a hill over here, and a great artesian well just blowing water up in the air, and you had another hill over here and it had a crop on it and the crop was burning up for water, now, you could stand on this hill and holler to that water, “Come over here, come over here and water the crop,” it'll never do it. Certainly not. It'll never do it. But if you'll work according to the laws of gravitation, you could bring that water right over on the hill and water your crop. But you have to go through a law to do it, and it'll work perfect every time.

If you were out here in the field tonight, and it dark as it is, and you'd say, “I'm a scientist, and I know that there's enough electricity in this air to light up this field and show me how to get out of here. O Great Electricity, I know you're here. Scientific research shows it; you're right here in the air. [Separate the cold and hot air and bring it together, you got electricity.] And now, just light up the way because I'm lost.” You could scream till you got hoarse, and it'd never light up. But if you'll work according to the laws of electricity, it'll light up the way, see.

Now, that's the way it is about God. Divine healing has been misused many times, but there is a way. There is truly divine healing, but we got to work according to the laws and the commandments of God to get to divine healing. It's there.

Sometimes you wonder why some are healed and others are not. Well, it's because one can come by the way of the law, and the other tries to make a shortcut. But God don't have any shortcuts. We all come the same way—no respect of persons with God.

So, tonight, I thought I'd just speak to you to kind of get acquainted with you. And I'm new to you and you're new to me. But yet, we're not strangers. We are precious brothers, sisters, of the faith that's in Christ Jesus. We are pilgrims here and strangers. We're sojourners together, looking for a city whose builder and maker is God, there where we long to be, and we're journeying together that way.

Now, before I read just a little portion of Scripture here, a verse or something that . . . let us bow our heads just a moment, inside and out, if you will, precious ones, while we speak to our precious Lord.

Our gracious heavenly Father, it is indeed a great privilege that we have tonight to come and call You our Father, knowing that we have passed from death unto life, because God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish but have eternal life. And we're so glad, Lord, tonight that we are partakers of His grace and of this eternal life. Nothing that we have did or nothing that we could do that would merit such a blessing, but it's by the sovereign grace of God. And we humbly accept it, and believe it and are anxiously telling others of God's way, a provided way to escape the wrath of God at the day of the judgment and be a friend to Him, to enter into His presence with washed souls through the blood of His Son, Christ Jesus.

We're also taught by Thy most gracious Word, Lord, that He was wounded for our transgressions; and with His stripes, we were healed. Oh, tonight, as we think of it . . . when David cried out and said, “Bless the Lord, O my soul: and all that is within me, bless his holy name. Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits: Who forgiveth all of thine iniquity and healeth all of thy diseases.” How happy we are tonight, Lord, to know, with this blessed assurance that we have, that there is dividends that can be drawn on the policy.

And we are praying tonight, Lord, that You will bless us in an outstanding way. As I look, standing, out the windows, as they come down (the rows of automobiles), and seeing the precious hungry hearts standing out there with their heads bowed and waiting for a blessing from God, or to hear something that would speak peace to them or would encourage them along the journey. . . . We ask that You bless them, and those who are standing around in the floor and around the walls and the aisles, sitting, some in cars. O Lord, may there not be a hungry soul leave without being filled by every desire that they've come for. Grant it, Lord.

If there is any in divine presence who is sick and needy, may they leave this meeting tonight well. If there is any without hope, without God, without Christ, may they go with a cup running over with joy that they have found Jesus, the inexhaustible fountain of eternal life. Grant it, Lord. Hear our prayers and speak to us through Thy Word, for we ask it in Jesus' name. Amen.

Over in the book of Isaiah, I wish to read, just a moment, a portion of the Scripture. I'm going to take the first chapter and the eighteenth verse. We all know it, but I'd just like to read it.

Come now, . . . let us reason together, saith the Lord: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be . . . white like snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool.

It's a very familiar old scripture text. And I just thought on it as I come down today; and was thinking of that is a striking thing—when God, the creator of heavens and earth, would invite his creation—mankind—to come reason with Him. What an honor to have God to give an invitation. You know, He didn't have to do that, but He did it.

And He invited whosoever will may come. He just didn't select a certain person, or a certain group, or a certain denomination, or a certain color. He said, “Whosoever will, let him come.” And then I'm sure that that means every one of us has a right. That does me better tonight to know that, than it would have been if the Scripture said, “Let William Branham come,” because there might be more than one William Branham. But when He said, “Whosoever will,” I know that it includes me, and it includes you, and we all have a right to the tree of life.

There is many things that we could be honored by. A certain minister might invite us to a certain church, and it would be an honor. A certain society of the city might invite us to their place, and it would be an honor. Or, I'd say this: what if our beloved president, Dwight Eisenhower, invited the best Democrat there is in Tifton to come visit him? Though he differed with him in politics, it would be an honor for him, because President Eisenhower is calling. And I'd say this: if he did do such a thing, we would boast about it all over the country, that President Eisenhower invited us to come to the White House to talk over matters with him. Why, the newspapers would pack it, the radio would be filled with it, the television would blast it everywhere, because that President Eisenhower invited us to come to the White House to talk it over with him. What an honor! We surely would not turn it down.

But think, that God invited us! The God of heaven invited you and I—poor finite people, poor—and invited us to come to Him and talk it over, of eternal life. “Though our sins be as scarlet, yet they shall be white like snow.” It's beyond anything that I could ever imagine, that God trying to reason with the creation that He made. But He invited us to come, and He certainly has been turned down by many people. And if we do turn such an invitation down, then we could not expect to be blessed at his coming at the judgment. In other words, God's saying something like this: “Come, and let's just sit down and talk it over.” I like anything like that.

Some time ago in Phoenix, Arizona, there was a couple of Indian girls came into the meeting, and sang a song at the stadium out there, and said, “I would like to talk it over with Jesus and tell Him all of His mercies.” And I thought of that song and of this scripture—I'd like to talk it over with Him.

Reminds me of an old colored man, one time, was singing a song; and just before he got through . . . or got started singing, he said, “You know,” he said, “I told the Lord a long time ago that when it come my time to go that I didn't want no trouble down at the river. If there's anything wrong let's talk it over now.” And I think that's just about as good expression that I could find. I don't want no trouble at the river. It's going to be a dismal morning. When that ship pulls out, I want to have my ticket in my hand and know that it's covered, know that everything's all right, because there won't be no time to talk it over then. Better talk it now.

God said, “Let us reason this together.” Reason . . . if you're sick, let's reason it out with God. If the doctor said that you can't get well, then let's take the case to God and sit down and reason it out with Him. “Lord, I've done wrong. But if You'll just let me get well, I'll serve You all my life.” Just talk it over with Him. I think it'd be a good thing for us to do that before the services tomorrow night: have a little talking it over with Christ. In other words, God says, “Come let us have a conference together, meet in a conference, and let's talk that out.”

Usually. . . . We hear so much lately about conferences being held everywhere, and what is a conference? We heard of here some time ago. . . . Many of you people of my age remember in the World War II, they had what was called the Big Four Conference, where the Big Four free powers of the world met together in a conference. And then they had the Geneva conference. They had the Paris conference. Mr. Eisenhower has just been to the free world, having conferences. And God calls for a conference. All these great rich things in the Word of God. . . . It makes us rich people to know that God has given us an invitation to come talk it over with Him before the time.

Some time ago, there was a poverty-stricken woman here in the States, and her estate, of her financial condition, was so low till they were going to have to bring the county to help her out. And when the investigators came and said to this certain woman, “How come that you are so poor till you have to ask the county to give you help?” And she gave the story of her husband being dead and left her with one son, and this son became a businessman and had went away to India. And she had not had a penny from him for so many years, but she'd had some of the sweetest letters that she'd ever read. And said, “Maybe he is in such a condition that he cannot help me, and he's such a sweet boy,” said, “I don't want to ask him for anything.”

And said, “You mean that your son, a businessman, has only sent you letters, and that's all he's sent?”

And the blessed old mother pulled out her little spectacles, and put them over her nose, and said, “No, he's sent me some of the prettiest pictures I ever seen.” And she goes to her Bible, and she fumbles through her Bible for a little bit, and she picks out a great big package of little pieces of paper and laid them down to the investigators. Said, “Just look what pretty pictures.”

And when the investigator had read them, they were bank drafts. She was worth thousands of dollars, and she didn't know it.

That's the way it is tonight with most people. If we'd just take our fingers through the Bible of God's promises, we are more than millionaires of the riches of his grace. Though no matter what we have done, “Come let us reason together,” saith God. He's give us the promises, but we just think the Bible is something that just the preachers should read, or that certain people just have all the reasoning of it. It's for whosoever will. Every promise is just as good today as it was the day it was wrote in the Bible.

God calling his people for conferences. What is a conference for? Why does it happen? It's when an emergency arises. That's when the nations get together that's on a common ground. They believe in a certain thing, and they come together by common mutual agreements. And then, they select a certain place to have this conference, usually somewhere that it's pretty and some place that they can feel relaxed together, because they must be at their best to make their agreements. Then, when their agreements are made, then they . . . well, the thing they do then, after these agreements are made, they go to work upon them.

And that's the way God holds his conferences. Let's go back and think of a few conferences God has held prior to this one tonight. The first conference I'd want to speak of just now for a moment, we would call it the Conference of Eden. Word had just reached heaven that God's child had fallen from grace. He'd sinned, and there was a state of emergency called. God had to bring angels and come from heaven, because his own child had fallen and disobeyed his laws, and it was death penalty for disobeying these laws. God had to come in a state of emergency, like any conference is held. Something must be done or all is gone to chaos. His own creation. . . .

And God selected a certain tree. And He called Adam and Eve together, and brought them up and held a conference with them. And when He had come to a decision, He made a way of escape for his mortals. And He said, “Thy seed shall bruise the serpent's head and his head shall bruise thy heel.”

And there was another time that I can think of, of a conference was called by God, and we would call this the Burning Bush Conference. God had remembered that He made a promise to Abraham, and not only to Abraham, but his seed after him; and we are Abraham's seed. Being dead in Christ, we take on Abraham's seed and are heirs according to the promise. God remembered that He made a promise that those seed would sojourn in a strange land for four hundred years, but He would deliver them. And the prophet that He had chosen—and had born him in the world a prophet—instead of taking God's way, he went the intellectual way. He'd gone down into Egypt and had been schooled and had a great education, learned all kinds of military strategy, and then tried to take it over in his own way of doing it.

There's only two ways to do anything, and that's the right way and the wrong way. And that's our way and God's way. Our way is always forever wrong; God's way is for always right. No matter how foolish it seems to us, how simple it is, God's behind it. There's nothing can stop it. God speaks it, and his laws and his ways operate perfectly.

So, we find God calling to Moses, or seen Moses, a runaway prophet. Moses thought surely that he was strong enough, and he was enough military minded to deliver the children of Israel.

Now, I want you to get something here. God, when He made man, give him five senses; and those five senses are see, taste, feel, smell, and hear, as we all know. Those five senses was not given to a man to guide him. That was given to a man to contact his earthly home—see, taste, feel, smell and hear. And that's your earthly senses, and they were not given to you to guide you.

But, God sent the Holy Spirit, and He's your guide—the sixth sense—that makes you believe things that you can't see, taste, feel, smell or hear. That sixth sense, something that rises up. . . . And only one class of people has that sixth sense—that's believers. Hebrews 11:1 said, “By faith . . . and without faith it's impossible to please God.” So, God gives man faith, and faith is the sixth sense that makes you deny anything that's contrary to His Word.

He gave Moses that faith—that sixth sense—when he was seventy-five years old and Sarah sixty-five. Her womb was dead. He'd lived with her since she was about seventeen years old, no children. He was seventy-five years old, as good as dead, and God told him he was going to have a baby; and he called anything contrary to it as though it wasn't, for he was fully persuaded that God was able to keep every word He said. He didn't just wait from one night till the other; he waited twenty-five years before it ever happened. But he never failed one time. He staggered not at the promise through unbelief but was strong, giving praise to God. He had a touch of that sixth sense. He called anything contrary to what God said as though it wasn't. What God said was true, and after twenty-five years the baby was born.

Oh, I know it seems silly to the human mind. Could you imagine an old man here in Tifton of a hundred years old, and a woman ninety, going down to the doctor to make arrangements to have a baby? Why, the doctor would say, “The old man's kind of touched in his head. There's something wrong.” That's right. In the case of Abraham, he'd took God by His Word. And it's always crazy to the carnal mind,

but it's a precious treasure in the mind of God, in the heart of God, that He can use that person. Until we get to a place that we do not rely upon these five senses of contact earthly home, and walk by faith, for the just shall live by faith. . . . Moses needed that touch. He tried to do it intellectually.

That's what's the matter with the churches of our day. We're trying to do it through schools. We're trying to do it through denominations. We're trying to do it through education and reformation. What the church needs is a new birth, a baptism of the Holy Spirit, the touch of the sixth sense that sets the soul on fire for God, that touch to bring them out of that rut. When they begin to say, “the days of miracles is past,” then “there's no such a thing as divine healing,” God needs to touch that church, call a conference. Why would we doubt His Word?

EX3:2,4,24

So, He called a conference with Moses, and He selected a place, a burning bush. And at that burning bush He talked to Moses, and said, “I remember my promise, and I'm sending you down yonder where you made a failure. But I'm sending you right back to take up where you left off, but this time it's going to be different.” Moses, a coward, running from God. . . . Oh, sometimes when you get in contact with God and have a conference with Him, and He touches you and brings down that sixth sense—that power—it makes you do things that the people think you're crazy.

Look what a difference. A coward running over behind the bushes to herd Jethro's sheep one day, he met God in a conference at the burning bush; and the next day, here he goes down to Egypt—an old man eighty years old, white-haired and beard hanging over his face, his wife straddle of a mule with a kid on her hip, stick in his hand, the white beard a-blowing.

“Where you going, Moses?”

“Going down to Egypt to take over.”

A one-man invasion—but the thing of it is, he did it, because he'd had a conference with God. And he got a touch of something that changed his mind. He forgot his theology and took God at His word. Said, “We're going down to take over.”

Be like one man going over and take over Russia, the greatest armies in the world. But he did it, because he'd had a conference and talked it over with Christ. That's what we need tonight.

The Pentecostal Church tonight needs a conference—a calling together—to talk it over with God, to send back the old-fashioned Pentecostal power, the Holy Ghost back in the church, and liven up the faith, and give the meetings that used to be.

It was quite a conference. But then when he . . . there's another type of conference. After a man has followed the commission of God, as Moses did, and brought the children of Israel out of Egypt, and was on his road to the promised land, directly in the way that God told him to go—and then he come up against an obstacle. That's what the church has done tonight. That's what many of us have done in our lives. We come up against something. But if it's in the way of promise, if anything stands in the way of promise, we've got a right to hold a conference.

Here was Israel, Moses leading them, the pillar of fire going before them; and here was the Red Sea, cutting them off from Palestine. Right in the line of the blessing, here come the Red Sea, and Pharaoh's army behind them, and the mountains on either side. Even nature would scream out for mercy. “Oh,” Israel said, “we would to God that we'd died down there at the fleshpots of Egypt. Just as soon died down there as to come out here and be slaughtered by Pharaoh.” But Moses, that great leader, had had a conference with God before, knowed what it meant to be in a tight place.

A lot of people that's half-born, part-of-the-way born, grand-sons. . . . As David DuPlessis said the other night, “God don't have grandchildren; He only has sons and daughters.” But when it comes to a place that a grandchild that's just brought in because his mother was Pentecostal, or his daddy was Pentecostal, he becomes part of the church. . . . No, sir. He's got to be born just like his daddy was, because God doesn't have grandchildren. He's got to have the experience. You can't go in on Papa's experience or Mama's experience. You've got to have your own experience. That was their birth. You have to have a birth, too. God don't recognize grandchildren. He doesn't have any. They're all sons and daughters. You say, “Well, I was born . . . my mother and father was Methodist and I was took into the Methodist church.” That's all right. But you're a grandchild until you're born of the Spirit of God. Then you're not a grandchild.

Now, God remembered His promise. And He'd sent Moses, and they'd led the children up to this place. And right in the line of duty of leading the children of Israel, obstacle come in the way.

You on the outside tonight, many of you sick, maybe you're real servants of Christ and you've did what was right—the best of your knowledge—but a cancer crossed your path. Tumor, blindness, deafness, crippled, something crossed your path in the line of duty. Then it's time to call a conference. It's time to do something about it.

Moses goes over behind a rock, and he stayed there till he got marching orders. What are you going to do, fall back on Pharaoh? He said, “Speak to the children of Israel that they go forward.” God's army always marches forward; there's no retreat in it at all. No retreats in God's army. He doesn't have such. We go forward.

And he walked to the Red Sea, and when he did he raised the staff of God before the Red Sea, and she opened up, and they crossed over on dry land. God makes a way of escape. Many are the afflictions of the righteous, but God loves to deliver them out of them all. And all that live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer the persecutions. The conference was held, orders was given, and they went marching forward.

There was another conference. (We could call many, but them poor people standing out there shivering.) Listen, there was another conference called. That was in Gethsemane one night, when Christ had pleased God, until He called a conference and said something like this, “Do you want to go through with it, or will you turn back?”

And the decision was made, “Not my will, but Thine be done.” What a conference. “Not my will, but Thine be done.”

There was a conference called also at Calvary. There was a conference called in Pilate's judgment hall: “Who will stand with their back turned to the whip?” For the prophet said, “He was wounded for our transgressions; by his stripes we were healed.” The conference was called, and Jesus took the place because He was the only one that could take the place. No one else could do it. And He did it because He loved us. He's willing to talk it all over with us tonight for anything that He suffered for there, for He took our place. “The chastisement of our peace was upon Him; with his stripes we were healed”—a past tense. He'll talk it over with us.

Then I want to speak briefly of another conference. There was another conference called. What kind of a church should the new church be, the Christian church? Should we run it by So-and-so, or how should we do it? What kind of a church should it be? Should it be a denomination, or shall it be affiliation, or shall it be this, that, or the other? Or shall they just be a selected something? So, there was a conference held in heaven. Always when there's conference, the whole world sits and waits.

Here some time ago a minister said to me, he said, “When Mussolini was making his . . . holding this conference in time of the Second World War, when all the world, everybody, was concerned. . . .” Some people fussing because they didn't have sugar in their coffee, enough sugar, and men dying on the field! We're an ungrateful people. And he said he was walking the floor; he didn't know what to do, watching, and listening to this cast that Mussolini was making, how he was going to invade, and so forth, such things that he was talking of. And said somebody knocked at the door, and he went to the door. And said a modern beatnik standing there, with the hair hanging down his neck, and whiskers on his face, and said, “I want you to go downtown and help me to sell my poetry. Nobody wants to talk about it.”

Said, “Come in, my man, and sit down a minute. I'm so interested here. There's a conference going on, and I'm waiting to hear what the outcome is going to be, because it means much to our nation and our young boys who'll have to die on the field.” Said, “I'm interested to hear what the outcome of this conference will be.”

That beatnik run between him and the radio, and kept saying, “But my poetry is more important.” Oh, my! He just took him by the arm and led him to the door.

When we're waiting on a conference. . . . Tonight, we should be waiting on the conference—God to decide what's going to happen in Tifton tonight, who's going to believe the report? What's going to take place in the next two or three days at Tifton?

While these people went up to the upper room. . . . One hundred and twenty—with Mary and Simon Peter, and the rest of them—went up into an upper room, a little stairway leading on the outside of the temple to an old storage room, where little grease lamps was burning. For they'd been commanded by the Lord Jesus, “Wait ye in the city of Jerusalem until you're endued with power from on high. I'm going up into glory, and we'll hold a conference, and I'll tell you then how the church has got to be run.” While they were gathered in one place and one accord, wondering what kind of a commission they would have, to go and commission to all the world that all peoples must have this Christian church and the fellowship that it would create. . . . While they were assembled in a little place no bigger than this here, about a hundred and twenty people, all of a sudden there came a sound from heaven like a rushing mighty wind, and it filled all the house where they were sitting. The conference had been held, the decision had been made.

Brother, sister, don't misunderstand me. That's the exact way that the Christian church has to be held, if it's the Christian church. God's conference decided; and the Holy Ghost come on the day of Pentecost, and so staggered those people with the power of God until they staggered like drunk men and women. That's the results of the conference. After they'd been filled with so much power and so much joy. . . . Peter standing up in the midst of them said, “These are not drunk, as you suppose, seeing it's just the third hour of the day. But,” he said, “this is scriptural. This is that which was spoke of by the prophet Joel.”

I've often made this statement, “If this isn't that, I'll just keep this till that comes.”

“This is that which was spoken of by the prophet Joel; And it'll come to pass in the last days, saith God, I'll pour out my Spirit upon all flesh: Your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, . . . upon my handmaids and maidservants I'll pour out of my Spirit; and I'll show signs in the heaven above and in the earth below, pillars of smoke and vapor.”

Yes, there was a conference held.

And then a few days (about ten days) after that, they'd started through a gate called Beautiful—two men, Peter and John. And there laid a man who was crippled, or he was lame, from his mother's womb. And that proves that they were Pentecostal preachers—they said, “Silver and gold I have none. I don't have any money, but such as I have. . . .”

That's what Pentecost needs today—what they had. That's the lack in the church today. Not only Pentecost, but Baptist, and Presbyterian, and Methodist—that's the lack of all of us. “Such as I have, give I thee. In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, rise up and walk.” Picking him up by the hands, and he received strength, and began leaping and praising God as he entered the temple.

The Pharisees come out and said, “They can't have such a meeting in the city because it would only bring a bad results.” So, they brought them together at the Sanhedrin court and beat them unmercifully, and put them before the jury of the Sanhedrin court. And when they stood at the court. . . . And they said, “We perceive that they are both ignorant and unlearned.” No seminary did they ever have an experience from. “But we had to take notice to them that they'd been with Jesus, because the same things Jesus did, they were doing. We had to take heed that they had been with Jesus.”

Oh, that's what the church needs today—such a power that they'll have to take heed that you've been with Jesus. That's my heart's desire, to live a life that people knows that Christ lives within us.

Oh, what a time.

Then when they let go, when they beat them and told them not to preach no more in the name of Jesus, they threatened them further; and then let them go. Being let go, they went to their own little group. When they come together, men were coming from other places, saying, “We've suffered like manner. What must we do?” So, they held a conference. That's the way to do it. That's good sound sense. “We've been threatened, and we've been this, and we've been beaten. Let's hold a conference.” And when they were assembled together, they all got down on their knees in this conference and prayed with one accord. Said, “Thou, God, it is written in the Scriptures, 'Why did the heathens rage and the people imagine a vain thing?' Give to thy servants all boldness to speak, and power to stretch forth the hand of thy holy child Jesus to show signs and wonders and healing.”

And when that conference was over, orders came; and it shook the building where they were assembled together—the power of the Holy Ghost. And they went forth preaching the Word everywhere with boldness, stretching forth the hand of Jesus Christ upon the people by faith and healing the sick.

God wants to talk it over with us tonight. What's the matter? We've lost something somewhere, if them things are not still going on. He wants to hold a conference with us, talk it over. Now, I'm here to join in with you in this conference.

Now, there's just one more conference that I'd like to speak of just before closing, and that's this one: the Conference of Judgment. You might not attended the U.N. You might not have been at the League of Nations in their conferences. You might not have been at the general conference of the Assemblies of God, or the general conference of the Church of God, or the general conference of the Methodist, or whatever conference. You might not have been at the Big Four, you might not have been at Geneva. But there's one thing sure—you're going to attend this last one. We're all going to be there, and we're going to give an account for everything that we've done. And when the Scripture comes before us: “Though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be white like snow. Come now . . . let us reason together, saith God,” what are we going to say at that time?

Oh, someone might say this. . . . I'd like to say this to people inside and out. You might say, “But, preacher, I'm just a poor man. God don't really need me.” Oh, yes, He does. There's a little place in God's heart, says the song (and it's no more than a song; it's yet true), that no one else can take that place but you. God speaks to you. It's you—you're the only one that could fulfill that spot in God's heart. He waits for you. He wants to talk it over with you. He wants to have a conference with you. Come and reason together before you have to meet this judgment, because it's going to be terrible then. And you can't talk it over then. It's too late then.

You say, “But I'm just a bum.” I don't care what you are. “I'm a drunkard.” “I'm an immoral woman.” “I've did wrong, preacher.” “I've lived untrue to my marriage vows.” Or, “I've done immoral things, I've drank, I've smoked, I've gambled, I've stole, I've lied.” I don't care what you've done. God called you, said, “Come let us reason together. Your sins may be like scarlet; they'll be white like snow, if you'll just come let us talk it over a little bit. We need you.”

Some time ago, there was in the city (well, I better not call the name) but there was an old bum, looked to be an old tramp on the street, that was run over by an automobile. Oh, his bones were broken, and his arms broken, and his face all mashed, and the blood running out, and he was knocked unconscious. So, the authorities called the ambulance, and they rushed him up to a certain big hospital, and the emergency bell rang, and the doctors. . . . They said, “It's an emergency, you must run to the ward quickly.”

And when the doctors came together, they looked, laying there on the . . . stretched on the table, blood running from his eyes, nose, mouth and ears. The old man seemed to be unconscious. They shook him; and they looked him over a little bit, and said, “Oh, my! His legs are broke, his arms are broke, his ribs are broke.” They said, “Let's have a little conference, talk this over.” During the time of the conference, the old man come to. And the doctors holding their conference, they said, “He's nothing but a bum. It's not worth our time to fool with him.” And when they come back, said, “Just wrap him up.”

The old fellow turned over, and he said, “I am worth something.” He said, “God loved me so much till He gave His only begotten Son that I might have eternal life. And, surely, I'm worth a few minutes of your time. I've preached the gospel on the streets and everywhere for fifty years.” Said, “I'm worth enough for you to mend my legs and put them back together, or something.” Said, “God loved me and He gave his Son for me, and I am worth something.”

Sure. You've got a soul that's worth ten thousand worlds.

Talk it over with Him tonight, friend. Just a few words will mean so much. Let us bow our heads just a moment now.

I'd like for each one of you to think in your heart, “Am I worth anything?” Sure, you are. God loves you. Look what He gave for you. “Well, how do I know He will receive me?” The very thought of you recognizing that you're wrong is the fact that Christ is dealing with you.

He said, “No man can come to me except my Father draws him first.” That shows that God's right near you and drawing you. He wants to hold a little conference with you there in your seat or standing around in the aisle, the wall, or outside leaning against the building, or out in your cars. The Holy Spirit. . . . “Oh, I know it seems simple. I've heard that before.” But it's the truth. He wants to hold a little conference with you now, and just talk it over with you.

Maybe some of you is sick, and you're wanting God to heal you, and you'd say, “Oh, God, what's the matter with me?” God wants to talk it over with you. Now, search out your heart, just see what's wrong. While we have our heads bowed, I wonder how many that I could see (Don't have to see; God sees you, if you're in your car, outside, or in the building.) would just quietly with your heads bowed now, and your eyes closed, would just raise your hands, and say, “God, I'd like to talk it over with You tonight.” God bless you. Oh, outside, everywhere, wherever you are, “I would just like to talk it over, Lord.” God bless you. Some twenty or thirty hands up in the building. I can't see through the darkness outside or in the cars, but God knows every one of you.

If you'd like to talk it over, well, let's call a conference right now, for Jesus said, “If there is just two or three gathered in my name, I'll be in their midst,” and here's about thirty inside. “I'll be in their midst, and we'll just talk it over.”

There's insufficient room for an altar call, to come up to an altar. But wherever God has talked to you, speaks to you, that's where He wants to talk to you at, right in your sins or in your unbelief—which is sin.

There's only one sin—that's unbelief. You lie, steal, drink, because you do not believe. If you was a believer, you wouldn't do that. So, there's only one sin, and that's unbelief. Maybe you belong to a church that doesn't believe the full Bible. That's still sin. “He that believeth not is condemned already,” said our Lord.

Let's talk it over with Him now. Let's keep our heads bowed, and you pray right there where you are. Say, “Lord, I've did so-and-so and such-and-such, but You promised me. You'll say like You did to Moses, 'I remember my promise and I'll come down to deliver you.' ” If it's sickness, say, “Lord, maybe I've did wrong. If anywhere. . . . Oh, yes, I remember a certain thing I did, Lord. I'll go make that right.” Let's talk it over with Him; then by His stripes you're healed.

Now, heavenly Father, as legs are aching and feet hurting, bodies are chilled by the cold, chilly air, and I've spoke at length, but I'm thinking, Lord, of that heartache and that chilly Jordan to cross one of these days, when we come to the end of life's journey. Then, it's going to be a terrible time. I'm thinking of the sick people, perhaps standing around with heart trouble, and with tuberculosis, and many other afflictions, maybe cancer and . . . oh, they're sick and needy, and they've sat listening. But they're having a little conference with You now.

There may be those who have never accepted You, and they've sinned, and they've did wrong, and they've disbelieved the gospel. Or, maybe, they have went to church and made a public confession, but has not yet been born of the Spirit because that they've thought, well, it was a fanatic term for Christ. God, I pray that You'll talk it over with them. Speak to their hearts, whatever they have need of.

They raised their hands, and You said in your own Word that “No man can come to Me except my Father draws first.” Then, You also said, “All that the Father hath given me will come to me, and I'll raise him up at the last days.” You promised it, Lord. St. John 5:24, You said, “He that heareth my word and believeth on him that sent me, has everlasting life, and shall never come to the judgment; but has passed from death unto life.” That's your promises, Lord. It is written in the Scripture that “He was wounded for our transgressions, bruised for our iniquities, the chastisement of our peace upon him, and with his stripes we were healed.”

Lord, remember your promises tonight, while we're holding this little conference. May the power of the Holy Ghost that raised Jesus from the grave, may it come upon every person that's hungering and thirsting tonight. And may this little talk be sufficient, Lord, to rise them to new health. Give sight to the blind, both physical and spiritual. Give soundness to the wretched, weak, trembling bodies, O Holy Spirit. Give peace and comfort to the troubled soul, and forgiveness of sin to those who are out of the way. Grant it, Father; and Thy name shall be praised for it, for now we can bring them to Thee, and they ask. And now we commit them to Thee as trophies of the service and of the message. We give them to Thee in the name of Jesus Christ, Thy Son.

While we have our heads bowed now, think it over. Talk to Him just a little bit, inside and out. “Lord, I have sinned. I have did wrong, and I'm worth something. I'm worth so much till You sent Jesus; and He died that I might be saved, and I might be healed, and that I'd have good health. And You said in your Bible, 'I would above all things that you'd prosper in health.' I have a right to it, Father, and I want to talk it over with You just now,” (inside and out,) and ask Him to do these things for you, and I'm sure He will do it. He's here now to make you whole, and to save you from your sins, and to take away all your iniquity, and to blot out all your transgressions, and heal all your sicknesses and diseases, and make you well. Just let Him do it.

While we have our heads bowed, and we're waiting on Him to fulfill every promise, while you're standing at the burning bush, now, I'd like for the church, you that . . . keep your heads bowed, inside and out, and let's sing a hymn. You know, in the Scriptures they sang a hymn and the Spirit of God came upon the people. I know here's one we all know: “I love Him, I love Him, because He first loved me.” We are sure that you know that song. Let's sing it quietly together, now. Maybe we can do without the music, sister.

I love Him, I love Him,

Because He first loved me,

And purchased my salvation

On (That's for healing or sin—my salvation.)

I love Him, I (Just think of his goodness)

Because He first loved me

And purchased my salvation

On Calvary's tree.

[Brother Branham hums “I Love Him.”] With His sweetness around you, and you continue singing, do you believe His presence is with you? If you do, raise up your hands and say, “From this night on, I pledge myself anew now. I'm accepting my healing, I'm accepting my plead of salvation. [inside and out] I believe that Christ, the Son of God, will now take care of all that I have need of.” Can you raise your hands while we sing quietly again with our heads bowed? “I love Him.” Every need that I have, I believe that He'll supply it while this conference is going on. Outside, in the cars, if you're sick, crippled, raise up. If you're blind, turn your head towards heaven and look at the light. If you're deaf in one ear, put your finger in your good one.

. . . . . . . . salvation

On Calvary's tree.

[Brother Branham and audience hum “I Love Him”] Oh, that blessed sweetness coming up near the bush now. Feel the effects of the fire on the bush, the Holy Spirit warming our souls to faith.

And purchased my salvation

On Calvary's tree.

I love Him. . . . . .

If there's sin in your life, confess it as sin. Tell God you're sorry of it. He'll take you right now. Can you feel the presence of the bush, while you're knelt there by faith in His presence?

And purchased my salvation

On Calvary's tree.