The Unfailing Realities Of The Living God

Breedings, Kentucky, I have to be there at two o'clock for a funeral service to bury a Henry Branham, which is a cousin of mine. His wife died, and her last request, that I had her funeral service. And that's at Breedings, Kentucky. That's about a hundred and fifty or sixty miles, I guess, down, something like that, down south. And I—I'll have to leave a little early on account of getting down there.

And then, why, we get back then tonight and leave tomorrow afternoon. We're... I'm supposed to be in Tulsa for next week, at Tulsa, Oklahoma. But I won't get to go before Tuesday to Tulsa. And then we get back Saturday night; I'll be in by Saturday night. And then Sunday morning, next Sunday morning, about three o'clock, we leave for the west, and then we won't be back no more till this fall. I come back and get my family and things, and we'll be back sometime this fall, the Lord willing. And I certainly want to ask the church to pray for me.

And I wanted to get to see if I could be in. Let's see, this won't be communion night though, will it? Now, I was here the last communion night. But didn't get back for... I won't be here in time for this communion. It'll be next Sunday night will be the communion? I always like to keep up on that. See? Always, as you eat and drink this, you show forth the Lord's death until He comes again.

[Brother Neville says, “Brother Branham?”] Yes. [“Will you announce that, Sister Edith's birthday; we're going to have a little gathering down there next Friday night.”] Well, that's mighty fine. Sister Edith Wright has got one day younger. And she... They're going to have a little gathering down to her house next Friday night. Well, how nice. All right. Is the public invited? Public is invited to Sister Edith's birthday of... She'll be about eighteen; is that right, Sister Edith?

About like I said the other day, I said, “You know, I am just past twenty-five.”

And a fellow looked around, said, “Yeah?”

And I said, “My second time.” [Brother Branham laughs]

[Someone says, “Brother Branham?”] When? Be thirty-nine. My, that doesn't seem possible, does it? Thirty-nine. I always refer to her as just a little girl, you know, because when I first knew Edith, I guess that's... Edith, let's see, I've knowed you, I guess, about twenty something years now, I guess, twenty-five years, maybe twenty-eight.

Let's see, I been preaching about thirty-one years, I think; so I guess I knowed you right immediately after I started preaching: the Wright family. So, so thankful that I knowed those people. They've certainly been inspiration in my life.

And if the Wright family should pass on into eternity, and I was still living, I couldn't pass that place without taking off my hat to think of the great things that God has done on that hillside there. Oh, my. That's where, oh, everything just taken place down there. And I have seen there, taken place, of the Angel of the Lord making a visit for Georgie Carter. It taken the place where He led me on the hillside that night with the poison ivy stuff. And then He met me over there also in the vision, and shined down from the dogwood bushes. They... Oh, my, it just so many things has taken place.

Brother Wright laying at the point of death, when all the doctors had passed by. And his church members down there, telling him, “Go get your Divine healer now.”

Me setting up on the hill, crying for four days, praying for him. The Lord spoke a vision, said, “Go tell him THUS SAITH THE LORD. He'll bury the guy that's making fun of him.” And he did. Uh-huh. That's right. And all the things that's...

And then there where the Holy Spirit, for the first time in the history of—of the church, that ever seen it come to pass, when He'd spoke those squirrels into existence. Also gave Sister Hattie anything that she wanted to ask for, regardless of what it was, money or anything else, said, “It will be placed in your lap right now.” She asked for the souls of her two boys. And God gave them to her. And just so many things has happened down there on the hill. God bless them is my prayer.

Say, little Sharon Rose is sick here, little Sharon Rose Daulton. Where's Sharon Rose at? Is she? Just went out. All right, we're going...

[A brother speaks to Brother Branham] What say? [The brother speaks again] Well, you know what, let's pray for them now, 'cause I tell you what I got to do: as soon I can get through I want to get to... I got to get down in Kentucky, and I got... Well, if it's a hundred and fifty miles, I don't know. It's Breeding, Kentucky. I don't have any idea how far it is. You go all the way down the turnpike, and then about the same distance, or a little farther again, on over through, down by Brother Beeler's place, and on through that city, and another city, and another city, and another city to a little church that my grandfather built, a little Methodist church that I preached in twenty-five, thirty years ago.

And this lady's to be buried from there. She was a nurse. And she died suddenly, and her last request was—was for me to preach her funeral. And then some of my people come up yesterday and asked if I'd go do it, and I—I just couldn't turn them down, him setting there crying, saying, “It's her last request.” So it was hard, you know. And I just said, “Well, I want to go down at the church, and I want to see the folks there, and then take that too.” So I just have to kinda hurry to get it, so you understand.

Now, while they're getting, I believe, Brother Daulton... [Someone says, “gone to the rest room.”Oh, well, that's all right. That's just... We'll just wait a minute. Tell you, you bring little Janice up here. And anybody else that wants to come and be prayed for, that's all right. And we're...

How are you, Janice? My, here's—here's a fine lady. Come here...?... The reason she's so pretty; this is my sister's child. And I want to get back here so the people can hear me, what I say. Now, this little darling, she's got a healthy mother and a healthy father, but something happened to this child. She's delicate, real delicate, and little and thin, sweet as she can be, and a... 'Course, you know I'd think so. But something always is wrong with this child. Satan is trying to take the child. And maybe God has His hand on the child. See? We can watch, when you see Satan working, that's... Just watch; there's something laying there somewhere. Now, she's been sick for a few days.

I didn't go out there, because I didn't know whether she'd gotten well or not. I had to go to Florida and around.

And I... But she rises a fever. Ain't that right, sis? She has an awful fever comes upon her, and about a hundred and... A hundred and three, that makes five degrees of fever. The doctors don't know what it is. And they kinda think it's a rheumatic fever. But if it would be a rheumatic fever, that might leave her heart in a terrible condition, like her uncle died by. But I'm going to claim the life of this child for Jesus Christ. See?

And you know David, as I have said once before here, David said to Saul, he said... Saul wanted to give him an armor and a spear, to fight the Goliath, the giant. He said, “I—I—I don't know nothing about them things,” he said, “but let me have this slingshot, what I've proved. You see?” And he said, “A lion come and got one of my father's sheep. And I went after him with this slingshot, and I got him. And I brought the sheep back.”

Now, these are sheep too: lambs and sheep, God's sheep. Now, let's us go after them this morning as the Church of God to bring them back. Now, the doctor don't know what to do for the child.

And I think Brother Ed's little girl too, has got some kind of a developed asthmatic condition or something.

Well, I believe that Jesus said this: “I give you the keys to the Kingdom. Whatever you bind on earth, shall be bound in heaven. What you loose on earth, will be loosed in heaven.” We believe that with all of our heart. Now, God give us faith to believe it with all of our heart, as we pray.

Our heavenly Father, I hold here this little delicate flower of the Weber's family, sweet, tender, and delicate. And the physicians, they're faithfully; they are trying with all they know how to try to find out what's the matter with the child, but they can't do it. And I'm holding her hand, and I don't believe she's got any rheumatic fever. I believe, if it was so, You'd tell me. I believe it's Satan trying to beset this child's life. And we're claiming her this morning for the Kingdom of God.

Thou enemy of the human life, thou enemy of God Almighty, I come in behalf of this child to cast thee out of her. In the Name of Jesus Christ, you leave this little child. You may be able to escape the doctor, but you can't escape God. This prayer of faith is zeroed, in the Name of the Lord Jesus, to strike you in this child's body. And it shall strike that vital spot wherever you're hid, and you'll be uncovered and brought out. And the child shall live and be well, for we present her in Jesus Christ's Name for her healing. Amen.

Delores, I wouldn't worry one more speck about it. She's just going to be all right; and that's it.

Then we have a little Daulton here. Hi, there honey. What a sweet little thing. My, you're awfully heavy. Isn't that a little darling, a real little Irish-looking girl with blue eyes and black hair? And she's just a wheezing, her little lungs and everything. She's developed an asthma-like in her throat.

O Lord, a lion and a bear came in, said David, and got some of the father's lambs, and he went after them, and he was able to conquer that lion and that bear. And we come this morning as believers, like David was, in the God of heaven, Who made the heavens and earth, come for this child, in the Name of Jesus Christ.

And, Satan, you who have afflicted this child, you're going to have to turn her loose, for we command you to let the child go, so she'll be well. I rebuke thee, Satan: charge thee by the resurrection of Jesus Christ the Son of God, Who triumphed over you, and all your powers was spoiled. And you have no powers. And I triumph over you by faith in the Name of Jesus Christ, Who is the Son of God, Who charged us by Hi—this Gospel, that in His Name we should cast you out; it's a commission given by Christ. You'll leave her. For we charge thee, in the Name of Jesus Christ, to leave the child. And she'll be well.

Don't you doubt one bit, Sister Daulton. Don't you worry no more. God said so; that settles it...?...

Who is this little fellow? Oh, a growth over her eye. Now, she's almost a young lady. I don't know whether I can lift her up or not. But she's awfully pretty. Her name is Wilson, Lela, Lela? Lisa Wilson. Isn't she a pretty little thing? She's got a growth over her eye. Well, Jesus heals growths, doesn't He? It'll have to die. Well, it's—it's just a little fatty tumor; it's loose; it hasn't got any roots to it now. Let us pray.

O Lord, we bring this little darling to You, in the Name of the Lord Jesus, and hold her as an innocent child in the Presence of God. And the devil has done this evil to her, and would put her eye out with it if he could, but Thou art more than a match for him.

We charge thee, Satan, by the Name of Jesus Christ, Who triumphed over you and all your afflictions that you put on people. We charge thee, in His Name, by a commission given by an Angel sent from God, that you depart from this child, and she gets well, through Jesus Christ's Name. Amen.

Bless you, little Lisa. I wouldn't doubt at all no more, just believe it'll be all right.

All right, Sister Bruce. Now, you, if you will, these women standing here, would you all just move up just a little closer here, so the people can...?... Brother Neville, would you come, if you will, and anoint them with oil. I... In the place of your daughter, in place of your niece. Your niece, your daughter... And what's yours sister?...?... [Blank.spot.on.tape]... these statements are known to the people. 'Course our sister here is crippled; I see that. It's arthritis, is it, sister? A broken hip, and had a stroke.

This lady here has a pressure in the back of her head, like someone's hand pressing it.

Sister Bruce has hurt her leg, and she's also... [Sister Bruce speaks to Brother Branham] She's still in the hospital. Did you fall or something? That's one of our sisters here at the church. She was knocked off of an escalator, and she's really in the hospital. Is it broken? Oh, the leaders and blood vessels, and so forth. Then she's standing for some—some loved ones.

And these three ladies here are standing for loved ones, so that we'll know now when we pray. Now, let us bow our heads, everyone.

O Lord Jesus, these requests has been made known. And the Bible has said, “Make your requests known in the congregation of the saints.” Here are those who are praying for loved ones, who are some seriously ill, some mentally ill, denying that there is a living God, and—and other conditions. There's our sister here with a sprained leg in a serious condition, just went from the hospital here, this morning; a sister that's got such a pressure in the back of her head; and a sister that's got a broken hip and a stroke. They're all here, Lord. They're presenting their requests, and standing before the altar of God, with anointing oil shining on their heads to represent the Holy Spirit. I stand in the simplicity of the knowledge that I have of Jesus Christ and His Word, and I ask for each of them.

God, as I lay my hands upon them, may their requests be given to them. Grant it, O God, in the Name of Jesus...?... May it be so, Father, for our Sister Gertie, in the Name of Jesus. Also for Sister Bruce, Lord, may it be so, her request for her knee and her limbs. For our sister with the condition in the back of her head, may it be so, Lord, in the Name of Jesus our Lord and Saviour; she'll be delivered from it. May Satan take his hands from back of her neck. Grant it. And our sister who is both paralyzed, had a stroke, and got a broken hip.

Lord, some of these might seem very little, and some of them very great, but none of them is too small or none too great for You. You are God over all. And I pray and deliver them by a prayer of faith, each one of them, Lord, as Your servant, to break the powers of—of doubt or anything of trouble. I grant them their deliverance, in the Name of Jesus Christ. May each one receive exactly what they've asked for. And as this church, a unit of Your Body in prayer, we deliver them in the Name of Jesus Christ. May they receive it now for Your glory. Amen.

God bless you. Each receive it. Go, receive your healings and blessings.

Now, there's no doubt in our minds, is there? Not one doubt... God's going to do it? You believe it, everybody? God is going to do it. Every... He's not going to leave anything undone; He's going to do exactly what we asked Him to do. 'Cause He can't do nothing else and remain God. See? If we don't doubt, He'll grant it to us.

Now, don't forget to pray for somebody who really needs prayer. You all know who that is? It's me. Yeah, I'm the one that needs prayer. Standing in the breach now, and going on a great long series of meetings all through California, Oregon, Washington, and around in Oklahoma, and different places... People will be coming out of Canada and everything. And I have to stand in the breach with differences of ministers, and opinions, and powers of the devil, and the end—end-time approaching.

And just someone said the other day, come up to my house. It was a—a lady flew in from Germany, and another person come from so-and-so, said the Lord told them to come, and they, this, that, another. And somebody come across the street, said, “How do you stand it?” See?

I said, “Oh, it's His grace.” Amen.

Then I had to jump right in a plane, fly all night to California, or to Arizona, or, Florida. Come back, and got in a storm. The devil tried to down us, you know. And the Lord brought us in. Then the next morning, yesterday, I was supposed to leave for Bakersfield, California, on a minister emergency. And it just... I just couldn't do it; that's all. And, see, and then you get to some, and you—you don't know where to go from there. You see? It's... Here's this one, this one, this one, this one, this one, you know what I mean; and then which one? And it hurts some if you don't, if you don't see them all. You see? And you can't see them all. So just—you just have to wait, and the way you feel led, then just go.

I wanted to say a good compliment of our pastor. In the hospital last night on emergency, I blowed for Brother Wood and Charlie and them, it was around way in the night. A dying lady that was laying dying, her sisters and them was there. And she'd been unconscious for a while, woke up and accepted the Lord Jesus. I got to lead another man to the Lord Jesus down there in Florida, a sinner. And all hours of the night, and everything, on emergencies, you—you just have to follow a minister sometime to know. And I heard the nicest comments at the hospital about our pastor when he comes out there, how he visits the people and prays for the sick, and faithful at the post of duty. I—I appreciate that so much of having over this little flock, a servant of the Lord, who's faithful at the post of duty. You don't appreciate... You do appreciate him, sure you do, but we... There's just some way we can express it more (You see?) to a faithful servant of the Lord.

Someone asked me not long ago at Chautauqua, our last meeting, “Brother Branham, how do you carry on like that?”

And I said, “Here's Gene Goad, Pat Tyler, and a whole bunch of them like these fellows here, when I'm in one of those meetings, lay on their face, and fast for days and don't even eat, and pray and everything for me.” That's what carries me on. See? That's the strength. The help cometh from the Lord. Brother Daulton, oh, just so many of them, of friends that just fast and pray, refuse their meals and things, and fasting and praying.

Now, if Brother Gene, back in the back, is ready for the recording, now I'll... Brother Neville will continue on with the services just after a little bit. I want to speak just for a little while.

And now, if possibly I can get back, Edith honey, hearing your birthday party is on Friday night, if I can get back from Oklahoma in time, I'll be down (See?) on Friday night, if I possibly can.

And now, while we're gone, you all pray for us. And as it said in the Bible, “The Lord watch between you and me (See?) while we're apart.” And may He do that, and protect and bless you, and protect and bless me, and help us both to live the best that we can for His service, till we meet again. And I'll depend on your prayers while I'm out in the field out yonder to face the enemy. So you pray for us. All you ministering brethren, Brother Humes and Brother Beeler, and so many others of you here, just pray for me. You understand.

Now, we want to turn in the Book of St. John the 4th chapter, and I want to speak this morning, the Lord willing, on the subject called, “The Unfailing Realities Of The Living God.”

I want to read from the 14th verse, 23rd inclusive, of St. John the 4th chapter. We are breaking in upon a conversation now of Jesus talking to the woman at the well: St. John, 4th chapter, 14th verse, including the 23rd.

But whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up to everlasting life. (Now, the word there is really not everlasting; you'll see a little mark on it if it's in, if you've got a King James Bible. In the original, says, “to Eternal Life.” Everlasting is just awhile. Eternal is forever.) ... springing up unto eternal life.

The woman saith unto him, Sir, give me this water, that I thirst not, neither come hither to draw.

Jesus said unto her, Go, call thy husband, and come hither.

The woman answered and said, I have no husband. Jesus said unto her, Thou hast well said, I have no husband:

For thou has had five husbands; and he who thou now has is not thy husband: in that saidst thou truly.

The woman said unto him, Sir, I perceive that thou art a prophet.

Our fathers worshipped in this mountain; and you say, that in Jerusalem is the place where men ought to worship.

Jesus said unto her, Woman, believe me, the hour cometh, when you shall neither in this mountain, nor yet at Jerusalem, worship the Father.

Ye worship you know not what: we know what we worship: for salvation is of the Jews.

But the hour cometh, and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth: for the Father seeketh such to worship him.

In the days of Jesus of Nazareth when He was here on earth walking in flesh, He found the people in His day seeking a religion that would bring them deliverance. They wanted a religion that would deliver them from all their evils and their enemies. And Christianity met every challenge that they asked for. Christianity met everything that they needed, and everything that they asked for. It challenged every one of their needs, but they would not receive it.

And it's about the same as it is today. We find people today like it was then, seeking for a religion that'll do something for them, that'll—that'll bring some reality to them. And real true Christianity meets every one of those challenges, but they won't receive it. They just don't want it. The nature of the people today... I'm not speaking of the borned again church. I'm speaking of the nation and country in whole. They don't seem to want it.

If you want anything, you just can't rest till you get it. Jesus said in the beatitudes, “Blessed are they that do hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be filled,” if they hunger and thirst.

But today we are trying to give people something that they really need, and they don't want to accept it. They just don't want it. And the attitude of the people hasn't changed. And yet that is exactly what the world needs today, is the religion of Jesus Christ, deliverance from the things that they're fearing and dreading and have need to be delivered of.

In the days when He was here on earth, one of the reasons why that they could not receive Jesus of Nazareth, and believe Him, and—and get their deliverance, because it was too unusual for them. It was... He brought His deliverance. God had sent them deliverance. And it was so unusual to them, that they—they didn't want to accept it, because it didn't come just the way that they were used to receiving religion.

And it's a very outstanding conditions exists the same today, very striking to see the parallel of it. The people of today are wondering, “Where is the God that opened the Red Sea? Where is the God that made the lepers well? Where is the God that set the captive flee—free?” And yet it's right at hand, and they don't want to receive it. Why? The same reason they had. It's too contrary. It's unusual. They—they want...

In that day if He would've brought them creeds or some form that they had to go through, some rituals and so forth, they would've gladly received it. But because He brought it in the way that He did, the people didn't want to receive it in the form that He brought it.

That's the same way it is today, exactly the same. They—they want it, but they don't want to receive it on the level that God brings it. And that's the only way that God has of bringing it. And we cannot bring God down to our level of thinking. We've got to rise ourself to His level of thinking and meet Him on the grounds that He provided for us to meet Him on. See? They want deliverance.

They had all their denominational creeds, and the Pharisees, and the Sadducees, and the Herodians, and whatmore, all different forms and sects of religion. And each one, one had his that he didn't believe in no resurrection, or no Angel, or spirit. The other one believed in both resurrection, Angel, and spirit. And one believed in certain way you wash your hands and the way you do just like it is today. Now, if we could rise, Christ could come in some sort of a thing like that, well, the people would be glad to receive it.

But when He comes in His power of His resurrection to make people live, and act, and behave themselves, and to—to change their attitudes, to change their ways, to change their living; they don't want nothing to do with that. They want to live just like they want to live. And they want to continue right on living the way they've always lived, but yet be very religious, and go to a church and be a member thereof, that they can go on Sunday morning or whatever time it is; and have a fifteen minute sermon from the pastor; that will walk them away from there, kind of halfway satisfied that they've done their religion for the week. That settles it, go back and do anything they want to the rest of the week.

Now, God promised in this days what He was going to do. And I would like to ask anybody, any minister, anywhere, of one promise that God made the church, and what He said they would do, but what the real church is doing it now. But they don't want it. They don't want it.

Jesus brought God to human lives. God was made human. When Jesus was born, God became man, that He might become fellowship with man and in man, to (what?) achieve one purpose; that is, to bring to man what God is; not what a church is, but what God is. Jesus came that He might present God to man. And man didn't want it.

The Holy Spirit comes today in like manner to present God to man; but man wants to go to church. It—it—it drowns his—his—his thinking. He cannot—he cannot fathom it. And we must learn that God is not known by intellectual conception. God is known by the new birth, by the Holy Ghost, not by any other way. Jesus, the Bible has plainly quoted us that, “No man can call Jesus the Christ, only by the Holy Ghost.” And if you've never received the Holy Ghost, you don't know that He is the Christ, for that's the only way He reveals Himself.

You're not converted until you receive the Holy Ghost. The Bible said so. After Peter had both been saved and sanctified, give power to cast out unclean spirits, and to preach the Gospel, Jesus plainly told him he was not converted, until he received the Holy Ghost. And He said, “After you're converted, then strengthen your brethren.” That was on the night of the betrayal, that he was not yet converted. And no man is truly converted until he's been changed, and died to himself, and the Holy Spirit has control of that person. They don't want to do it.

Now, the Holy Spirit will not misbehave itself in one person, and behave itself in another. It'll make each person come into Its character (See?), because it's a Spirit that leads you. It brings—makes you subject to Its nature. You don't bring It subject to your nature; It makes you subject to Its nature. And the Holy Spirit makes you live and love to do it. Oh, how you love to give up the things of the world, when the Holy Spirit comes in. How it cleanses you and washes you, and puts a desire in you to—to—to follow Him, and a thirst, and a hunger for more of it, just bathing yourself. He brings realities.

Now, when God placed men here, and in the days of the Lord Jesus, He—He gave men a true road map to His power.

A road map is something that tells you, tells you which way you're headed. If you want to go... When we leave in the next few days... I've crossed this country so much, my old wife and I were amazed to think of it. For the last few years, you could mention where you want to go, I can tell you any road that leads to it, and within fifteen minutes of time you'll arrive, from here to California. I haven't missed it a time, in I don't know... Sometimes right on the dot (See?), calculating my time of what the driving time is, and the average of time. I've just been back and forth, and up and down, and back and forth, till you just know it.

That's the way God wants us to know His Word. We know it. We've traveled It. We've tested It. We've tried It, and you know where It leads to. Now, His road Map is His Bible. The Bible is the road Map that leads to the power of God; faith leads you to the power. Power produces the promise. We need power.

Now, a few days ago, when Sister Wood, and my wife and I, were setting in the room, speaking on the baptism... There's so many of our precious brethren here, that we are grateful to God that He's given the Holy Ghost, such as Brother Willard Collins back there, and—and I think Brother Hickerson, and—and their—their wives, and Brother Charlie Cox and his wife, and—and Brother Mike Egan back here, and, oh, how many more, that has received the Holy Ghost. And it's begin to be a talk among us. Oh, may it revive us to a spot that we'll go to searching, hungering, and pulling for realities of God. God is a reality.

Now, what does the road map point us to? They ought to have known. Jesus said in the days when He was here on earth, He said, “You hypocrites.” He said, “You can well discern the skies when you say it's low and red, that tomorrow will be foul weather; and if it's fair, you can discern the skies; but the signs of the time you cannot discern. If you would've known Me, you would've known My day...”

Did not the Bible say that these things would happen when He come? Did not Isaiah the prophet prophesy of it? Did not Jeremiah, Ezekiel, all the minor prophets speak of it, everything, that road map pointing right to that one destination? And when He come, they had creeded their churches and things until they failed to see the reality of what He come for: to bring God in man, to make God in man, to unite them together again.

Even Job in the days of his distress, he cried out, “Oh, if I could only see Him.” In other words, “If I could go to His house and knock on His door, if I could find someone who could stand in the breach for me.” He said, “I know I've not sinned. But yet, I know I'm righteous. I know that I have done nothing, for I'm standing on the burnt offering.” But he lacked reality. He had the form, but he lacked reality. He said, “Oh, if I could only find One Who could put His hands on a sinful man and a holy God,” and bring realities to him. While him being a prophet and in the Spirit, setting, scraping his boils, the Spirit of the Lord came upon him, the lightnings flashed, the thunders roared, and he screamed, “I know my Redeemer liveth, and at the last days He'll stand on this earth; though the skin worms has destroyed this body, yet in my flesh shall I see God.” There you are, the reality. “He will come someday.” Why couldn't... The old patriarchs that'd—back in there, that looked forward for that...

And Jesus said, “If you would've known Me, you would've knowed My day.” He come to unite God and man together. He come, that only One. An Angel could not have done it. No one could've done it but Him. He come to make God and man one.

He said, “At that day you'll know that I'm in the Father, the Father in Me; I in you, and you in Me.” He come to bring God and man together, where man was made a helper to God, and become a god himself of the earth. That's right. But he lost his origin, through sin, and the blood of bulls and goats could not make an atonement for this sin. But the Blood of Jesus Christ could do it. Oh, how...

See, He—He shows the road map. He—He proved it. The road map led right to it. “If you would've known Moses, you'd have knowed Me also. If you'd have knowed the Word...”

When Satan met Him, Satan tried to detour Him. He got the road map, Satan did, out, and said, “You see, here it says this here.”

He said, “But it's also written...”

Oh, there's lots of bypasses, this, that, or the other, “Oh, as long as I do this.” That's not it. You—you've got to find God in a personal relationship and experience. If you claim you have it, and still live for the world, then there's something wrong. The devil has detoured you on the wrong Scripture.

If we follow the road map, if it says “turn on highway so-and-so here,” turn that way. If Acts 2:38 said, “Repent, and be baptized in the Name of Jesus Christ for remission of sins,” it didn't turn left; you must turn that way. I don't care how it is; you've got to follow the road. If He said, “The promise is to you and your children,” that didn't mean for a age past. “As many as the Lord our God shall call,” is what It said. That's God's road Map. We must follow It. The road's marked out.

You say, “How will I know I'm on it?” The Bloody footprints of the Lord Jesus made the road, and the disciples laid on that same foundation. And the Holy Spirit directed them. Follow that road map.

On a few nights ago someone said, “Under discernment, Brother Branham's all right. But when it comes to his theology, he is all out.” Any person that would only know that the Bible teaches the very word “prophet” means, “a diviner of the Word.” Those signs are only an—an increase. Teachers, and so forth, can teach the Word. But when you see something coming that's supernatural and divining like that, only proves that that's the thing. That's God's Word.

Jesus of Nazareth, when He was here on earth, the people followed Him many times for fishes and loaves, and so forth, and what they could get out of Him. He let them go on. His popularity begin coming high once. And then one day He got the multitude together after He had fed five thousand, went over on the other side of the lake. A bunch gathered after Him, coming with Him. And He said, “Why did you come? Not because of the miracle, but because of the fishes and the loaves, that's the reason you come.” Oh, some of them thought they'd miss something, you know, if they—if they didn't go see what He done. But to touch it? No, sir.

Then Jesus, in that same 6th chapter of St. John, begin to lay the Gospel down, and they were offended at Him. And from that time, His popularity begin to decease, come down, “He wasn't the same One then.”

And just like a modern preacher or somebody, if they'd say, “Why, wait a minute here, you're—you're offending the people with your preaching. You—you mustn't do that.” Now, a modern preacher would say, “Oh, yes, maybe I'd better watch what the—the—the creed says.” See? Maybe I'd better look to see what the church says about it, 'cause they might turn me out.“

That wasn't our Lord. Our Lord come to do the will of God. He followed the Word. And anybody with God in him, will follow the same way. Did He stop? No, sir. Yet His—His popularity become decreasing all the time. Many didn't walk with Him no more. They went away from Him. The next chapter, some more turned. And the next chapter, some more turned. Where was He at? On the road to Calvary. But did He ever stop? No, sir. He never compromised with God's Word at all. He led straight on down the highway. He went on the road map. He... There was a road set before Him; that road He must trod.

Every borned again Christian has a road set before you. You've got to follow that road. God marks it out. It's marked by the Blood. And the Spirit always lives in the Blood, because through the Blood comes Life; Blood cell is the Life cell. Now, we follow Him then, and we see how the road map directs us, shows which a way we're going. It's always been. It's God's provided way for us. The Word is God's provided way.

When a man comes to a spot that he sees the Scripture, and because of popularity, because of some church affiliation, because of his people won't permit him to preach it, that man will never go on with God. You've got to come back and pick up that Word, regardless of what it is. If you don't, you're—you're off on a detour somewhere, and will sink in the miry clays of sin. I challenge any person.

And in my library up there we have all the ancient histories that I know of, “Pre-Nicene Fathers,” the—the—the “Ancient Writings of Josephus,” Hislop's “Two Babylons,” Foxe's “Book Of The Martyrs,” many, many other ancient writings. And there has never been a time that a church ever brought itself to a place where it stopped on its creed, that God ever raised it up again. She sunk right there into the miry clay. That's right. She never did go on spiritual, never did, and she never will. It isn't God's program.

God's program is the Holy Spirit. It's God's provided way of doing things. Now, notice this. In the days of Noah... God's program is always a persecuted way. That's the reason people don't want it.

In the days of Noah they had religion. They'd had it for two thousand years, like we've had Christianity. And there were critics just like there is now. And in the days of Noah what happened? We find out that Noah stood in that one door of the ark and built an ark which was contrary to any human imagination. It had never rained, never been a cloud in the sky. But God said it was going to rain. That was God's Word. God said, “Prepare an ark.” And Noah prepared the ark, and stood in that one door, and preached salvation. And that's the only remedy for salvation.

What a type it is today. There's one Door that leads to God, and that Door is Christ. Christ is the Holy Spirit that lives in us. And we stand in the Door of God's ark, of the Holy Ghost, and preach “This is the way,” the same blueprint that the rest of them come over.

Noah was God's provided way. In the days of deliverance out of Egypt Moses was God's way (See?), a supernatural ministry, a—a way. See, Noah had something that was different. Noah had some religion that was different from all the rest of them; he had the Word of God. And the people wasn't used to the Word of God. They had their creeds; they had what they wanted. So it was—it was the creeds they were listening to and not the Word. But Noah had the Word.

Moses had the Word. No matter what the rest of them had, Moses had THUS SAITH THE LORD. Look. What proved it? He done signs and miracles, and each sign and miracle had a voice. Now, God said, “If they won't hear the voice of the first sign, they will hear the voice of the second sign.”

Now, the people today, like they was in the days of Jesus, they're following the miracle. “Oh, He might do something that's a little different. I wouldn't see that done. Let's see if He can discern this one. Let's see if He can do it.” See, that's the way He does. They followed just for the fishes and loaves. But when it comes to repentance, being baptized in the Name of Jesus Christ, and receiving the Holy Ghost, they wouldn't put their finger on it. That's right. And then they condemn you.

And they condemned Jesus; they said—said, “Oh, you preach contrary to these.” That didn't stop Him. He moved right on.

A great minister the other day laid his hands on me, said, “I'm going to pray for you, Brother Branham, that you will never say nothing against the way these people are living in these churches.” He said, “Brother Branham, you're going to make them... You're going to make them all angry with you.”

I said, “How can I keep from it, when my innermost Spirit and my soul cries out against it?”

He said, “Well, I don't say nothing against it.”

I said, “You can't. You got millions of dollars programmed. You got to get their dollars. I don't have to have it.” The only thing I need is the power of the resurrection of the Lord. That's all we need, the Spirit. Stand on the truth. I don't care how many denominations goes against it; it's still God's Word. “Heavens and earth will pass away; My Word shall never pass away. Whosoever shall take away or add anything to this Book, the same will be taken out of the Book of Life, for him.” I believe it just the way the Map says it. That's it, God's way.

Moses had the signs. He proved that he was God's servant.

God always likes to work through men. It's God's program to work through men. Do you believe that? God works through men. He made man His helper on earth. He made man a lesser god than Himself.

Now, we've been through that in the teaching lately of Genesis 1:26, when He was El, Elah, Elohim, the all-sufficient, the self-existing One. And then in Him was attributes of Father, Son, Holy Spirit: not three gods, three offices in Him that He was to live in those dispensations. He was a Saviour; He was a King; He was a God. All these things displayed theirself. It's the attributes of God (See?), but in that, in Him at the beginning...

And when God made man in His own image, He put him on the earth as a lesser god. Jesus declared it when He said, “Is not it written in your laws, that you are gods? And if they called those gods who the Word of God come to (which was the prophets), how can you condemn Me when I say I'm the Son of God?” He said. See? They just couldn't understand it. See? But man was put here with a dominion over the earth. He had everything under his control.

What Adam lost, Jesus proved that He had restored. He stopped nature. He raised the dead. He—He done everything, “And the world is groaning today,” the Bible said, “for the manifestations of the sons of God,” for God to get into His children again in reality to make things real. And it stumbles the people.

If Satan can't keep the truth from them, he makes fanatics out of them; throw them off on this side and that side, and they get all kind of stuff, of bloods and oil, and sensations, which is not even Scriptural.

But stay on the blueprint. Stay on the highway. Stay with the Scripture. Don't leave It. That's why Jesus come, that man would not be deceived and go off the side, but stay right in the Word. The great Saint Paul said, “If an angel from heaven come and preached any other Gospel than this that's been preached to you, let him be accursed unto you.” Yes, sir.

Why, Satan come down in the garden of Eden as an angel of light and told Eve. Why, he—he never denied; he said, “Oh, well, that's all right. Oh, sure, God has said that; but, you know, you'll have more light.” We got so many Eve lights today, and Satan lights (See?), things. And the Bible said in the last day that the devil would make hisself angels of light. All these here creeds and denominations, and all this nonsense that goes on... Which, half of it doesn't even have any Scripture to it, hardly. That's right.

Stay on the highway. Stay on the road map. Go the way the disciples went; go the Word they preached. Live it. Testify, “I know it to be the truth.” Signs in the last days, God living in man. It's God's program.

God has to find somebody that He can trust, somebody that He can—He can have confidence in; and—and—and can have confidence in God, that can believe Him. You believe that, don't you? Sure. God has to find somebody who He can put His confidence in. And then when He finds such a man that He can put His confidence and His power in, a man that'll follow the road, that'll stay right on the map (See?), go right on till he comes to the place of power. Faith will lead him to that, because he's got faith in the Word. It'll lead him to the promise, and the promise... He'll lead him to power, and power will lead him to the promise. And then when he gets the promise and begins to manifest, what does it do? It blinds the eyes of the unbelieving, lukewarm, creed-serving brother. That's exactly right.

That's what it did there, back there in the days of Jesus. He said, “If I would not have come, you would not have knowed sin. But now that I'm here... (Amen.) Now, that I'm here, you have no excuse.”

And today, if God made His promise that He'd send the Holy Ghost in the last days and these things would take place, you could've doubted it; but now that He's come and doing it, the world's without an excuse. It's thundered across nation after nation, after place after place, till it's covered the earth. That's right. They're without excuse. They wouldn't have knowed it if God hadn't have come and brought it. But He's brought it to us now, and so then it's a realities, the realities of following the Word, following the truth. Stay with it.

“Oh, I go over here to the Baptist church,” they say, “we got the truth.” The Methodists say, “We got the truth.” Now, which one? You're both different; which one's got the truth. Go down at the Seventh-day Adventists, “We got the truth.” Go over at the Church of Christ, “We got the truth.”

Well, there's only one way to make Truth; that's stay with the Word. Somebody got off the Word somewhere. They have a portion of truth, then they go and put a detour in it. They hit the highway, and detour. Stay with the Word.

Speak to them about the baptism in the Name of Jesus Christ. “Oh, it doesn't make any difference.”

It does make a difference. Paul said, he commanded the people to be rebaptized again in the Name of Jesus Christ; He said, “If an Angel said anything else, let him be accursed.” It does make a difference.

What if Moses said, “I'll just take off my... I'll just take off my hat instead of my shoes. Hard to unbuckle my shoes, I'll just take off my hat and show respect”? God said, “Shoes.” And God required shoes, not hat: shoes, what He said.

God de—commands every Word of His to be fulfilled to the letter. It must be. You must do what He says do, for not one tot or one jittle will ever pass from it. “Heavens and earth will pass away, but My Word shall not fail.” It's got to stay. One—one jot or tittle shall not pass from It; It's all got to be fulfilled.

And now, man was God's subject. Man is what God works through. And then when man receives the truth, hits the right highway, and starts moving on, and find these realities moving on, what does it do? The unbelieving brother, he'll look at him; it's like he's... He—he can't accept it. If he does, he has to leave his church. If he leaves his church, he stands alone.

A minister said to me, right after that interview up there, a minister said, “Looky here.”

I said to them on the platform; I said, “If I am so wrong, there is hundreds of ministers here, somebody come and teach me what's right.” You didn't see anybody coming, did you? And you won't, because it's not there. [Brother Branham knocks on pulpit]

One minister, outstanding minister, I wouldn't call his name. He's a precious brother. He come, said, “Brother Branham, your ministry, sure, you can go ahead and do that. But if we accept that, if we accept that, our church turns us down, then where can we go?”

I said, “To the all-sufficient hiding Place, Christ Jesus. That's where you go. Go to Christ.”

“Well,” he said, “but our ministry...”

I said, “Your ministry is just as much as anybody's ministry, if it's of Christ, no matter where you have to go to.”

Said, “Well, if I'd baptize like that, they'd kick me out of my church.”

I said, “They did me. So then what difference does it make?” Just keep following the highway. Just follow the blueprint. Certainly, just keep going with it, no matter what they got.

Saul had a army trained. Saul had a great intellectual army. They—they didn't want Samuel; as I preached here some time ago, somewhere. They had that great army. Oh, sure. Samuel, and Samuel told them; he brought them up before they elected this king. God was their King.

And God's our King. Why do we want anything else besides God? Why would a Christian want anything else to lead him but the Holy Spirit? I don't know. I can't understand it.

And Samuel called them up. He said, “I want to tell you something.” Said, “Have I ever said anything to you in the Name of the Lord, but what come to pass?”

“No.”

“Did I ever take any of your money? Did I ever beg you for money?”

“No, you haven't begged us for any money. And what you said, the Lord brought it to pass. We know that.”

He said, “Then why are you rejecting God and want a king? You want to act like the world.”

And that's what Pentecost is doing today. It wants to make intellectual giants. It wants to take the power out of the church. It wants to make a denomination grow, bring more members in. That's nonsense. And when you bind a man to a creed, when you do that, you take the Holy Spirit away from him; He'll have to give somewhere. The Holy Spirit will move on; the man can't on account of his creed. Now, he said...

And then, of course, Saul trained his army. Oh, my. He had them Israelites just knowing every which way to knock a spear off, or to do anything. But one day there come a challenger, old Goliath. And, brother, it taken more than an intellectual training then. It took a man that knowed something about supernatural. But God had such a man. Thank the Lord for that. God's always got somebody. He always has. He had a man He could put His hands on: a little bitty old ruddy fellow out there, wasn't very much, but he come up there, and he said, “You mean to tell me that you'll let that uncircumcised Philistine defy the army?” And there was old Saul, head and shoulders above all of them. All of his intellectual training didn't do any good.

Now, the churches has done that. They got away from the Holy Spirit. They got away from the power of God. They got away from the leading of the Spirit. And we've got... We got sons of—of Kish too. We just had one of our great giants the other day over here in Africa was challenged by a Mohammedan on the Scripture. What happened? He took water like the other son of Kish; no disregards to our brother.

But they had a man who knowed that God could deliver. They brought that little old David up there, and he said, “I don't know nothing about your spears, and your intellectual training. But I know one thing. I know one thing. I went out after a sheep that was took by the enemy; God let me bring him back.” He said, “How much more will He make me, let me bring back this uncircumcised Philistine.”

What we need today is men and women who wants a reality (Hallelujah.), not a creed; a reality. That's what the world needs today, not creeds and fashions; we need realities in God. The world don't want it. The world don't want it. They won't—don't want to accept it. But the church has to have it. God wants you to have it. He's the God of realities. Yes, sir.

The other night I went with some friends who's present now, a group of them, out here to see this—this here “Samson and Delilah,” a Cecil B. DeMille's product. I heard so much about it. I thought I'd drive out, see what it looked like. When I seen that, I begin to wonder what God ever seen in a guy like Samson, in the days of judges.

See, God uses men. Do you believe that? But He can only... He can only use men when He can find men, when He can find somebody that He can use. There was a space in the days of judges, He couldn't find a man. Only thing He could do was just rise up one, and he'd go some way; and then rise up another one, and he'd go some way. He had no man that He could absolutely put emphatic confidence in.

And I wondered, what did He see in this Samson? Samson was like a lot of our leaders today, a lady's man, chasing around from place to place, after women. Like a lot of our leaders today, like a lot of our compromisers on the Word, let a woman lead them, put them in to be preachers and things like that. Oh, goodness.

I just ask any man to produce Scripture for a woman preacher. I can prove to you that in the Old Testament, as Paul said, “Even so saith the law.” I was looking in the chronology of the Old Testament yesterday, and I found in there that where they had special police, that a woman couldn't even come into the second or third court, let alone in the pulpit. They had special police in the temple to keep the Gentiles outside there, and the women next, and then come the Levites, and then to the holiest of holies. They couldn't even come to the second courts. That's exactly right. And today we've made women our idols. Too many of our leaders let pretty women and things like that in—induce them, let beauty of the—the spiritual woman, the church...

You know, a woman is a type of church. We're the Bride. The church is the Bride. There's a lot of brides. And yet, they let them women entice them. The ministers today let them churches pull them off from the truth. And what does she do? She cuts his hair; she cuts off his power; she has her way.

Not against my sisters, if God could've give a man a better thing than a wife, He'd have give him that. But not all women are wives, not all women are—or not all females are mothers. Not all that have children are mothers. I've seen some I had better respects for a dog, take their kids and set them out on the street, and lay out on... People coming out in these little old clothes and things on, and immorally dressed...

I seen a men going down the street. Yesterday. I was going downtown for something, there I seen man after man, walking down the street, with his young pretty wife, with little old clothes on, looked horrible. That ain't a man; that's a sissy. Anybody would let his wife dress like that, ain't much of a man. Oh, he may have muscles like; that's brute; that's animal.

A man is character. Jesus, the greatest Man ever lived, He was just a little bitty Guy, was no beauty we should desire Him, but there never was a Character ever presented to the earth like Jesus Christ.

I've seen some men weighed two hundred and fifty pounds, didn't have an ounce of man in them. When it come... [Blank.spot.on.tape]... never be as strong as a horse. Sometimes they haven't got a horse sense, so, a horse intelligence of things. Horse would know better. Now... Yeah, it's the truth. Well, now, you just try to let the male horse try to ravish the female and find out what happens. The horse has got better sense. You see? And man ain't got as much sense as a horse has when it comes to a lot of livings.

And we call an old sow, call her a sow, and an old female dog, a slut. And a lot of these pretty-faced women around here is lower in the sight of God, ten million times than an old slut dog or a sow. That's exactly. That sounds flat; that's the reason people don't like it. That's when Jesus told them the truth; they turned away from Him. But the hour has come, and now is, that the Father is wanting something to worship Him in the Spirit, and walk in the Spirit, and live in the Spirit, and tell the truth.

Truth always either sets free or binds. If you're bound, then you're not free. And if you're free, you won't be living that way.

You say, “Well, I've got the Holy Spirit,” and still living the same way you do? Something's happened to you. You never got the Holy Spirit that come on the day of Pentecost; It made you different.

“I don't believe in speaking in tongues. I don't believe in Divine healing. I don't believe in these things.” Then you never got the Holy Spirit fell on Pentecost. You certainly didn't.

How was you baptized? “I've been baptized.” How, in name of Father, Son, Holy Ghost? No wonder you act like the way you do. See?

Paul said, “Have you received the Holy Ghost since you believed?”

They said, “We've already believed. We're Baptists.” Acts 19, see if that's not so. “We are Baptists. We've been baptized unto John,” Jesu—he said, “the same man that baptized Jesus.”

He said, “That won't work.” Said, “You got to come be baptized over again, if you ever want to get the Holy Ghost.” You might get something that looks like it, something that acts like it, a little bit; but it ain't the real Thing, 'cause, you got to come and be baptized in the Name of Jesus Christ.“ And when they did that, he laid hands on them, and then the Holy Ghost came upon them. They thought they had it.

And I want to know, that brother here that's in the church, or where it was, said that the original Greek didn't say; “you receive the Holy Ghost when you believe,” said the gridg—Greek said that. I want you to know that that's wrong. That's a error; not even the Greek, not the Hebrew, or not even the Aramaic. It said, “Have you received the Holy Ghost since you believe?” Not when you believe. So ever who told that, you just don't know what you're speaking about, brother. See? No, sir. You receive the Holy Ghost after you believe, not when you believe.

The Holy Ghost is a gift of God that comes upon you, that changes you and makes you altogether different from what the world is and what the other people are. You're different. They... You don't have to dress any different; you don't have to put on a round collar and a long robe. You live different. You act different. The power of God is with you. The people know you. You're marked wherever you go. God knows His. He marks His. That's it. But you must come to the truth. See?

What was in that Samson, a woman chaser? Sure. He was arrogant, disobedient to his father and mother. They told him not to go down there with that woman, that Jezebel, but he wouldn't listen to them. What was it? Samson had strength. Now, listen. Samson was willing to submit his strength. Samson gave his strength to God, but he gave his heart to Delilah.

That's the way it is today. Now, many men will go away to a seminary and learn, oh, an intellectual giant, learn all the Greek and everything else; but when it comes to truth, he'll give his strength of his education to the Lord, yes, but his heart he gives to the church and not God. That's what's the matter with the people today; they want to follow their creeds. They don't want the reality of the Holy Spirit. They don't want to act any different than what they always act. But when you become a Christian, you are a peculiar person, a royal priesthood, a st—strange nation, odd people, do odd things and strange things, unbecoming to the world. And when you're in the world, you're unbecoming to God. One's vice versa from the other. One makes you act like they do in heaven, the other one makes like you do on the earth.

And if people want to act like they do on the earth, and then go on and say they're going to heaven, but what a disappointment that's going to be. Jesus said, “There'll be many come to Me in that day. They'll stand by the tens of millions and say, 'I've belonged to this, and I've did this.'”

And He said, “Depart from Me, you workers of iniquity. You served creeds.”

If you was led of the Spirit... All sons and daughters of God are led by the Spirit of God. They move by the Spirit, odd, strange. They stay right, and every action is with the Bible. They stay, all their doctrine stays right with the Bible. They won't vary on one thing. Where the Bible says it, they'll move right on into it. If they stop for a minute, they're trying to study and see which way to make; and then the Holy Spirit reveals it, and he moves right on. And he does the same thing, follows the same rules, lays the same foundation, the same God comes upon him, and the same wonders, and same miracles, and the same sign follows him, that followed Him.

He said, “If you can't believe Me, being a Man, believe the works that I do. Believe Me. If I do not the works of My Father, then don't believe Me.” See, there's works goes with this faith. “Show me your works by your—without your faith, and I'll show you my works by my faith,” said Paul. See?

Now, the—see, what was in Samson? He wouldn't surrender his heart. Today men think more of their creeds, than they—and people think more of their creeds. Well, now, I ain't saying nothing against churches.

I'm talking about Pentecostal, which this church leans towards Pentecost. It is not a Pentecostal organization. We don't belong to any organization, never intend to. We belong to Christ. That's right. And now, Pentecost is not an organization. Pentecost is an experience that people receive. Methodists receive it. Catholic receive it. Baptists receive it. Anybody can receive it, but it's an experience.

And there's thousands and thousands that call themselves Pentecost don't even know what the first message of Pentecost is. Before you can ever get started right, you got to get on the right foundation. You got to get on the Pentecostal foundation. What is the Pentecostal foundation?

When the inauguration of church was given on the day of Pentecost, when they seen them speaking in tongues, and the virgin Mary out there acting like she was drunk, and all the rest of them staggering around like that, they said, “What? What's this? Are these all drunk?”

Peter said, “These are not drunk, as you suppose, seeing it's the third hour of the day. This is that which was spoken of back on the—on the blueprint, back there on the road map. This is that which the road map said. Joel said we'd come to this place; we'd come to this junction, 'it shall come to pass in the last days (the last two days, the last two thousand years), saith God, I'll pour out My Spirit upon all flesh. Your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and upon My handsmaids and maid servants; your young man will see visions, your old men will dream dreams. I'll show wonders and signs in the heavens above, things like that.'”

They said, “What can we do to get this?”

What kind of a foundation you going to lay, Peter? You got the keys to heaven. He said, “Repent, every one of you, and be baptized in the Name of Jesus Christ for the remission of your sins and you shall receive the same Holy Ghost. The promise is to every generation that'll follow afterwards, to your children, and them that's far off, as many as the Lord our God shall call.” There's the foundation.

See, they—they'll come and give their—their... They'll go to ch—they'll go to school. Boys will go to school to learn to be a minister (Which is all right, nothing against that.)—to learn to be a minister; but you can't learn to be a minister. Minister's gift is a gift from God. Them apostles were smart and highly as educated as they could be, Jesus still... He... they wasn't, but He still wouldn't let them preach until they received the Holy Ghost. And when they got the Holy Ghost... Now, if you go to a seminary, and the experience that they got on Pentecost comes on you. Amen. But if you just come out through intellectual conceptions, and, well, a master of Greek and a master of—of art, and all these different things, a—a Bachelor's Degree, and all these other things. If you come out with those degrees, you're just giving your strength of your education. You want to give your heart to God. God wants your heart. Yes, sir. He give his strength, not his heart. Yes, sir.

God can only use what we give to Him. Now, there's a lot of you will say, “I'll give fifteen minutes on Sunday morning if the brothe... If you preach any longer than that, I'll just got to get up and go home.” Well, you got fifteen minutes on Sunday morning. That's what you give to God. Someone said, “I can maybe suffer a half hour. I don't know how I can do it.” Well, see, that's what you get, fifteen minutes, a half hour. See?

What can you give? God will receive what you'll give, but God wants all of you. He wants every bit of you. He wants all. He wants everything you are. He wants your life. He wants your testimony. He wants every minute you live. He wants you to live right, act right, talk right, do right. He wants everything perfectly surrendered to Him, that He can lead you, and guide you, and put you into places where He wants you to go, led of the Spirit.

But people today say, “Now, wait a minute, if my pastor preaches over twenty minutes...”

I've heard that a many a time. I've seen good pastors turned away from churches, because the deacon board said, “Now, look here, reverend, we hired you to come here. And we never hired you to come here and blast at us all morning. We want you... We—we've set the time of twenty minutes; the bell rings, and you better be through.”

You know, I—I—I'd like to have a church like that once. I'd like to have the privilege of telling them what I think about them, and what the Word says about them. Yeah. Why, if it took all day, just keep on preaching. See? God wants a complete surrender. Do you believe that? God wants a surrender. How can God show you realities before you surrender yourself to Him? You've got to surrender.

Listen. When you surrender all... You sing that song, “I surrender, I surrender all.” What about them cigarettes? What about that dressing? What about that temper? What about them other things that goes with it? What about that little character you got? What about that little snoopy idea? What about that rebuking anybody that baptizes in the Name of Jesus?

When there's not no place in the Bible where anybody was ever baptized any other way. I challenge anybody to show me where any person, at any time outside of the Catholic church when they started three hundred years after the death of the last apostle, where anybody ever used the name Father, Son, and Holy Ghost in baptism. Come, show me the Scripture or the history. It's a Catholic creed. It's not a Protestant. I can show you in the Bible where the Bible predicts that they would use His Name until that time, and come out with a false name that they're living, and—and they're dead. I can show you that by the Scripture. The Bible said they would.

Here it is brought right to their face, why won't people take it? Just exactly like they did in the days of Jesus. They don't want realities. They want a creed. They want something, go by, say, “I belong to this place. I belong to this assembly. I belong...” What?

You want to belong in heaven. That's where your affections ought to be, on things above. Jesus said, “Set your affections on things above, not on things of the earth. They're going to fail.” Stay with God. Stay with realities. God is a God of reality. He's always been in all ages. Any time that man ever walked with God, God become a reality that performed signs and wonders and miracles with His people. It's God's purpose to do so. Surrender all.

Right here in Louisville, Kentucky, not long ago, there was a very nice family of people. They had a sick baby; called to pray for it. The doctor walked out of the hospital. “And what about the baby?”

He said, “That baby's dying. There's nothing else can be done for it.” Said, “It's got leukemia.” Said, “The baby has to die.”

Thought, “O God, You ain't said that yet. You never witnessed that.” I went and talked to the parents, and the parents was crying and sobbing. Their—their—their baby was gone, as far as they knowed. But what did they do?

The doctor was right. He... Everything that he knowed to do, he'd done. Leukemia's a killer, and nothing can stop it. Said, “The baby's going to die.”

The old grandfather of that baby... You all know the case. And the old grandfather of that baby come along. When he heard me speak about the baptism of the Holy Spirit, he said, “I used to remember years ago, when an old preacher said there'd come a time that people would receive the Holy Ghost again, and signs and wonders would be done.” He went off in a little room to himself. He wouldn't stay with his son or his daughter-in-law no more. He stayed in there, crying and praying. When the old fellow walked out of there, the sweat hanging across his bald forehead, his eyes glistening, said, “That baby will live.”

Said, “What?”

He said, “Doctor, I respect you as a—as a man of science. I respect you and your intelligence that you've learned through medical research.” But said, “I prayed and I prayed, and I prayed until I surrendered everything I had to surrender, and the Holy Spirit said, 'The baby will live.'” It did. Why? He surrendered everything he had.

God got ahold of him and could talk to him, when he was willing to surrender everything. That's what we lack. You don't want to surrender your ways. You don't want to surrender your societies. You don't want to surrender the little clique that you belong to. You don't want to surrender any time; you've got to do this, that, or the other, instead of praying. You don't want to surrender things to God. God wants you to surrender.

Closing, I want to say this. A whole lot more here I'd like to say, but I haven't the time. God wants a complete surrender. When you surrender everything, then you'll find out what I'm talking about is the truth.

And if you say, I, “They would put me out of my church. They wouldn't let me preach.” What difference does that make? That's a scientific organization. What we're talking about is walking in the Spirit. God is a reality.

What if Moses would've said, “Now, wait. I'm learned in all the mastery of this, magicians, and so forth in Egypt. I can teach them Egyptians some—some—some tricks. I can teach them psychology. I can teach them ethics of—of many things. I'm a master of it.” But he had to forget everything that he ever knowed. And God just tore everything out of him; took Him forty years to do it. But when he met God face to face, he knowed there was a living God. He seen Him in the burning bush, and he talked to Him. He went down and done the job by himself; he didn't have to have an army. He went down with him and God. He followed the road map. He had God's power. He had God's promise. He had God's Spirit. He didn't need his ethics or his education.

When Jesus was here on earth, He had to hunt for again to find a man. He went to the up-and-up's, the educated and the intellectuals, could He find anybody? No, sir. They called Him Beelzebub, the devil. He could not find a one that would follow Him. What did He do? He had to take the best He could get. Isn't that a pity?

I've often thought this. And we're closing, church; listen to these remarks. I've often thought what—what—why—how we've deprived ourselves, how we've robbed God of His plan by not surrendering our lives completely to Him, everything that we have to Him. How that we have—have disallowed His—His program. How we've lingered, and have made Him to wait and wait, and wait, trying to find somebody that He could work through, trying to find a man somewhere that He could put confidence in, some man that would surrender everything, come in a sane, sensible way to God, say, “Father, here am I. I—I don't care; I'm going to follow the Scripture, the blueprint. I don't care what anybody else says, I'll stay with it,” and really mean it. “I don't care what it cost me, Lord. I'm nothing to begin with, but I want You to lead me. And let the Holy Spirit that wrote this Bible and made these promises, confirm it back through my life. I feel that You're leading me that way.”

“Here I am, send me,” said Isaiah in the temple, when he seen the Cherubims with wings over their faces, over their feet, and flying with wings. And they got a coal of fire and cleansed his mouth; then the Spirit of God come on him. Why can't we? God can't find men like that.

When He hunted for His disciples, “He came to His Own, His Own received Him not.” He couldn't find nobody. They was waiting for that. Today the world is waiting for Divine healing. But I don't care how much Divine healing you—you do, still they won't believe you.

Well, right after they turned Jesus down, when the seventy walked away, He even turned to those disciples, said, “You want to go too?”

They said, “Where would we go?” Peter, he said, “You have the Words of Eternal Life.” See?

And He went right out, and there was a man that didn't even have eyeballs in his sockets. And He made some clay and plastered his eyes, told him, “Go wash in the pool Siloam.” And, when he did, he come back seeing. Did that change them? Did His popularity rise? No. It went down, down, down. Why? He stayed on the road. He stayed on the road map.

It's the same today. They see signs, wonders, miracles, and everything performed, and they say, “Aw, that, there's nothing to that. It would've happened anyhow.” See?

He rose Lazarus from the grave, looked like that would've shook the whole nation. The Bible said He would do it. That was the signs that was to follow. When He stood to the Samaritan woman here and said, “You have five husbands.” That ought to have shook the whole world.

And He stands today in His people, and you've seen it time after time perform the same thing. And they say, “Aw. Uh-huh. Why, I guess that was all right.” See, just simply unconcerned, no surrender. Oh, they'll put a little time, go to church once in a while, and something like that. But when it comes to make a surrender, no, they won't do it: won't surrender. They don't want it.

When Jesus called His disciples, what did He have to do? Get the very illiterate type, men and people who couldn't even sign their own name. “Peter, John,” the Bible said, “they were ignorant and unlearned.” That's who He had to get.

But if the intellectual wouldn't, they wouldn't hear Him then, they won't hear Him now. They got their own course. They're on their own road. And they—they follow that road because they've been instructed that way, because their pastors, their—their bishops, and their cardinals, and—and popes, and whatmore, directed them on that road.

But the Holy Spirit will bring you back to Pentecost, every time; they did in the Scripture to everybody, and it will in this day to everybody. It'll bring you back to that reality. It'll bring you back to a baptism of power of the Spirit, that'll lead you and will never take one Word off the Bible. It'll stay right in the Bible. Where It says this, it'll follow right on through it. The Holy Spirit will. It brings a reality.

What did He do? He had to get these ignorant fishermen, didn't even have clothes, just something wrapped around them, fish-aprons, and so forth, no clothes; so ignorant they couldn't sign their name: unlearned, no education. But He found somebody. He had to get somebody. But He found men in that kind of a state, that was willing to surrender, that was willing... They had nothing else to hold. They didn't have any churches, any denominations and anything. They were just ignorant fishermen, sheepherders; didn't know how to write, didn't know how to read, nor nothing. But they had nothing to lose, and He got to them, and they surrendered. They said, “Whatever You say, Lord, we'll do it. We'll follow You.”

But when they completely surrendered and gave theirselves over to God, God gave them a Pentecostal reality. He led them up to Pentecost and give them the Holy Ghost. There where they there under the Spirit of God, making all kinds of foolish signs to the people, stammering, and stammering, and carrying on, and trying to... The Bible said. What was they on? They was on the highway.

The Bible said, “With stammering lips and other tongues will I speak to this people, and this is the rest of the soul. This is the thing that will come. Isaiah 28:18, read it. ”With stammering lips and other tongues will I speak to this people. This is the rest.“ Not Sunday ain't the rest day. The Holy Spirit is the Rest day. You Advent brethren, not the seventh-day sabbath is the rest. The Holy Spirit is the Rest. ”With stammering lips and other tongues will I speak to this people. And this is the Sabbath. This is...“ ”Sabbath“ means ”rest.“ This is the Rest to the soul; you have eternal Rest.

Like God, when He made the world, the seventh day, He rested after that. He rested; He went on resting. When we enter into God, we rest all the time; not from one Sunday to another. We rest eternal; we got Eternal Life. The Holy Spirit gives you Rest.

Now, they had a Pentecostal experience, a reality of God. They found something.

Let me say one more thing. Creeds does not satisfy a hungry heart. Creeds won't satisfy. If a man's hungering for God, you tell him, say, “Say the Apostles' Creed; join the church; put your name on here; be sprinkled or immersed,” or whatever you want to, that'll never satisfy a hungry soul. 'Cause they were predestinated of God to search for Life. They was once the angels; they was once an angel who did not fall. Two-thirds of the angels of heaven fell; that's these evil spirits working amongst people, very religious. You know the Bible says that. You was just not all always right here. You were once somewhere else.

Remember, sin didn't begin on earth. Sin begin in heaven, when Lucifer taken and made him... He said, “I want a denomination, make a great big thing,” went on the north country and set up a bigger thing than Michael had. And he was kicked out of heaven.

And those angels back there, them spirits... When that's the reason, “When this earthly tabernacle be dissolved, we have one already waiting.” See? And that's the reason our name was put on the Lamb's Book of Life before the foundation of the world. “All the Father has given Me, will come to Me.”

How can you? “You got eyes and can't see, ears and can't hear.” No wonder. See? There, all these things (See?) that God promised back there, it was all... And I said the other night that a man...

Jesus said. The beast that come upon the earth, the antichrist, being very religious, so close it would deceive the very elected if pro—possible... The great, how the great organization would start, and they'd have other organizations. The old mother harlot; and she had little daughters of harlots that went out, organizations. Said, “And they would almost deceive the whole world... It would deceive even the very elected if it was possible.” But it isn't possible; their names were put on the Lamb. “Those who He foreknew, He's called; those who He called, He has justified; and those who He justified, He has glorified.” So there's no more. You see? That's right. You can't come unless God calls you. It ain't him that willeth or him that runneth; it's God that showeth mercy. That's exactly. That's what the Scripture said.

Then, they don't want to hear that. Why? They're darkness. They want to follow creeds. “I'm just as good as you are.” There's nothing said about goodness. Nobody's good. It's God that's good. See? But are you willing to surrender to Him? That's what I'm thinking. Are you ready to surrender? See? It won't—won't satisfy a hungry soul. Listen.

When, Paul, how many knows that he was a—he was a theologian? Why, he was a intellectual giant. He sure... He was taught under Gamaliel, one of the best theologians of the day. But what did he say when he come to the church? Read II Corinthians 2:4. In II Corinthians 2:4, he said, “I didn't come to you with enchanting words, the wisdom of men of this world; for if I did, your confidence would be built upon man's wisdom (organizations, denominations). But I have come to you in the power of the Holy Spirit, the demonstrations.” Demonstration what? Showing signs and wonders by the Holy Spirit. “I come to you that way, that your—that your confidence, that your faith would not rest upon the wisdom of some big denomination of some church, but it would rest upon the power of the Holy Ghost and the resurrection of Jesus Christ.” The greatest theologian that ever lived said he had to forget everything he ever knowed in order to find Christ. And said, “I don't preach the intellectual things. I preach the simpleness of the leading of the Holy Spirit. And I've come to you preaching that.” Said, “I could preach the other way,” but said, “my works and my—my works isn't preaching like that.”

“Now, we'll see if we can't get a million more in '34,” '44, or whatever it is, their slogans. “We'll have so many members to join this year.”

He said, “I could do that. I had that so long, but I got away from it. I've come to you, not with an enchanting and swelling words of some theologian. But I come to you in the power and the demonstrations of the Holy Ghost, that your faith would be built in the Holy Spirit and not in the wisdom of some man.” Oh, my. God's looking for such men. God's looking today for men that He can get ahold of like that.

Not long ago in London, England, taking a little walk... And England is—the British Isles are so covered with people. In England you can't hardly find a place, hardly, but what's got a house on it, and they're raising their... Like in Germany, and so forth, they—they're the old countries, and the grounds are wore out, and they got a little garden. In Germany and places like that, you don't find in the back yard some nice mowed grass and a lot of trees. You find tomatoes and beans and potatoes, something to eat. They have to. And the grounds are so taken up till...

The little limey soldier that was taking me around, we went up over top the hill, Brother Baxter and I, and this boy. We come to a place that was a beautiful spot. There were trees, and the green grass, and everything. I thought, “Isn't that a pretty place.” I said to this limey; I said, “Sir, I—I would like to ask you a question. I see that your island here is so covered. Why would a large space here, for several acres, a beautiful spot with trees and a valley, and everything like that, why would you leave that, and no one would ever build a house here?”

He said, “Reverend, I—I want to say this. About two hundred years ago, there was an epidemic of blackwater fever broke out here in England.” And said that, “They had no serum, and the people died like flies.” He said, “The wagons, they tell me, come day and night. They couldn't even bury them. The clergymen would just come out here, once in a while, raise up his hands and pray, and go back. They throwed them all in this valley here. They couldn't even bury them.” Said, “They died, and they died, till thousands times thousands of children, grownups, teenagers, and everything died. And they just took them out there, and then they just took and sprayed dirt over the top of them when the plague had ceased.”

And he said, “You know what?” He said, “From that day till this, the Englishman is so sure he'll not plant his foundations on where a thing like that once was. He'll not plant his foundation upon things like... He'll never set his house on a place where death laid like that.” And I stood there a little bit, and I thought. No need telling him, he wouldn't understand it.

But how in the world, that a person will face so sincerely till if black fever, two hundred years ago, laid on that ground... But you're so suspicious, and so concerned about you got to live a little longer, and you might take black fever if you ever planted your house there. And then you'll plant your eternal destination upon some man-made creed that died hundreds of years ago, upon some theology, theology of some church that's been laying on a shelf for hundreds of years; not a thing, not a move of God in them, and everything else. And you'll stick your name and creed, and everything right on there, and go on living. Listen, friend, don't you do that.

“Upon this rock I will build My church, and the gates of hell can't prevail against it. The works that I do, shall you also. Lo, I am with you, even in you always to the end of the world; Jesus Christ, the same yesterday, today, and forever.”

God is a God of reality. Don't just take a creed. Don't just take a sensation. Take a reality. Take a real God, something that God is, a God of reality that gives you assurance. It gives you hope. It gives you faith. It gives you the Spirit. It gives you signs. It gives you wonders. It does in you just like it did in Christ. Because that was His purpose of coming: to bring God to man, and made God and man one.

But we took denominations and run Him out; took creeds and run Him out; and now we're on the bypasses over here. But there's a real true highway, and a way in the highway.

Now, to you Nazarene brethren, I'd like to say this. You say, “The blessed old highway.”

But it wasn't the highway, if you'll notice. Said, “There is a highway, and ('and's a conjunction)—and a way.” And the way is in the highway. Not all is on the highway going, but all that's in the way that's a-going. See? “There's a highway, and...” Read Isaiah 35, “There's a highway and a way.” See? The highway has got a center is in the middle of the road. And in the middle of the road is where. And then when the rain comes, it washes all the trash off on the side.

Now, if you'll watch, when a man's converted, he sets his eyes right straight on Christ. Now, if you don't watch, like I was preaching the other night, like in...

When Jacob and Esau was born, they were both born of a holy father and a holy mother, but they were twins: one, a carnal man, religious, went to church and was a good man, very good. Jacob was a little shyster, but he had his mind on one thing. That birthright meant everything to him, no matter how he had to get it. Because the Bible said that he was elected before the foundation of the world to look to that.

And today there's people, I don't care how much popularity they have to use, how much they have to lose, or what they have to do, makes no difference to them if they're called old fashion, no matter what they are, they got their eyes on Christ because they were elected to Eternal Life. And they plant right there on that. If it takes everything, if it takes everything they got, they plant there.

The other is a nominal man. He goes to church and he feels just as good as the rest of them, goes home. See, that's the Esau like. See? And the other one is a Jacob like. Now, there you are, both sides.

Plant your foundation in Christ Jesus. Be sure that it's in Him. How do you get in Him? By shaking hands, by sprinkling, by any, what? “By One Spirit (I Corinthians 12) we are all baptized into one body, one Holy Spirit.” Baptized into one Body, where nine spiritual gifts and four spiritual offices lay in that one body. In there God has set in the church, apostles, prophets, and so forth, in this church. In there there's gifts of healing, miracles, speaking in tongues, wisdom, knowledge, those are things that the signs follow the believer.

Why would you accept a... Why would you accept... What I can't understand, why would people want to get some old ecclesiastical weeds, when the Rock is full of honey. I—I just can't understand it.

Let us bow our heads. Would you like to be remembered in prayer, saying, “God give to me the desire of my heart. I love the Lord Jesus”?

Our heavenly Father, sometimes I—after the service I wonder. Why does the Holy Spirit just constantly pound to the church? How does He do it? Yet, men who are anointed of the Spirit cannot say what they want to say; they have to say what the Spirit says say. And we find that in the Old Bible, the beaters of the gold, the beater beat the gold, and beat the gold, and turned it over, and beat it, till all the dross was out of it; and he beat it so long, till he seen his own reflection in the gold; then he knowed it was pure. So does the Holy Spirit beat the church, turn it over, and condemn it for this and condemn it for that, until He gets all the dross, until the real reflection of Jesus Christ reflects in His people, that they have the same Life, the same signs, do the same miracles that He did, the reflection of the Holy Spirit in the people.

God, take my poor heart. Beat me, turn me around, any way You want to, Lord, but let me reflect Jesus. Let me reflect Him, Lord. Let all the people here today, Lord, let us all reflect You, Your loving life, Your obedience to the Father.

We've just told them that You fell in Your popularity. When You went to healing the sick, sure, You were great; people come to see You. But what was it? Loaves and fishes. And when You told them the truth of the Word, they were unwilling to walk in That, then Your popularity continually dropped. You continued on to do miracles, but Your popularity dropped.

You're a God of reality. You've always been that way. You change not. I pray, Father, that the church, and all the people here that raised their hands, will get a vision of that today. Let them see, Lord, that it isn't man. If we follow man, then we're miserable. But if we'll just follow the Holy Spirit, He'll lead us to every promise of the Bible. May everything be fulfilled in the people's lives here today.

I hold little babies' clothes, little jackets, handkerchiefs, parcels in my hand. We're taught in the Bible, that they taken from the body of Saint Paul, handkerchiefs and aprons; and unclean spirits went out of people and—and diseases were healed. The people today still see the same God. Now, we know we're not Saint Paul, but You're still Jesus. And it wasn't Saint Paul; it was Saint Paul's surrendered life to Jesus Christ. The Lord wrought special miracles, not Paul, the Lord.

Now, Father God, we believe that we don't know one thing, a lot of times criticized; washing feet, baptizing in Jesus Christ's Name, forbidding women preachers, believing in eternal security of the soul as Paul taught. Told the Ephesians they were predestinated before the foundation of the world to sons and daughters of God. Told the Corinthians that—that God hated Esau and loved Jacob before they was even born, before they had a chance to know right and wrong, because His—His predestination. His foreknowledge let Him know. And, Father, why do they fall out over such things as that, the baptism of the Holy Spirit, with signs and wonders as You've promised, the Bible saying You're the same yesterday and forever? Father, we don't mean to be different. But we—to—order to be Your servants, we have to follow Your Word. I pray, Father, that You'll let the people see that it's not to be different or be selfish, or try to be somebody that we're not. We're only trying to hold Your Word. Let everyone see that, Father.

And as I send these cloths to the sick, may each of them be healed, Lord. May Your Holy Spirit see this demonstration of faith, and may they go and be healed. Grant it, Lord.

Bless Brother Neville. Bless the church, together. Bless the Sunday school, and the teachers. Bless all the pastors here. Bless the visitors in our gates.

Lord, help me. I got to drive fast now to be yonder to try to console a heartbroken family, a hundred and fifty miles or more, down yonder in the country, just a little time to make it. Be with me, Lord. Help me. And may in this... Never, never do I like to speak over a person that's departed until I give those who are standing by a chance to receive You. God, grant that just many of those poor Kentucky people walk humbly up to that altar this afternoon in that Methodist church, and give their hearts to You. Grant it, Lord. Have mercy now.

Bless us, together. Heal the sick, and save the lost. We ask in Jesus' Name. Amen.

I'm going to ask Brother Neville to take the service just for a few minutes now to continue, and I don't know what he's going to do at this time. And you all pray for me, and I'll see you later. God bless you, Brother Neville. Sorry I have to go.