God's Provided Approach To Divine Fellowship

Our heavenly Father, we come into Thy Divine Presence tonight, in the Name of the Lord Jesus, Thy loving Son, offering ourselves, Lord, to Thee, as living sacrifices, dedicating ourselves wholly to Thy cause and to Thy great Gospel in this last days, as Pentecostal believers, as a worshiper of the One true and living God.

How we thank Thee today, that Thou hast made for us a refuge in a time of trouble, a tower that we can run into and be safe when the storms are raging, and the winds are high, the lightning flashing, yet, we can rest just as surely on the promise of God as a baby would feel secured in his mother's arms. We're so glad to have that.

We thank Thee for this full Gospel fellowship of these businessmen, for their stand in the last day of uniting the body of the Lord Jesus together. We pray, Lord, that this convention will rise constantly until we see the coming of the Lord.

We pray for Brother Oral Roberts, Your noble servant. And as we walk into this building tonight, and see what the faith of one man can do, we thank Thee for him, Father. And we pray that You'll bless his ministry. Wherever he goes and what he does, may it prosper in Your hands.

Bless every minister that's here, all the children of God. Pour out Your Spirit upon us tonight, and correct us and bring us into a—a greater fellowship than we've ever known before with Jesus Christ. Grant it, Lord, for we ask it in Jesus' Name and for His sake. Amen.

I want to take the subject tonight, “God's Provided Approach To Divine Fellowship,” take that for a subject, if I should call it that: “God's Provided Approach To Divine Fellowship.”

All day long, I—everything seemed to be different, this certain day. I don't know... Looks like, there's times like that comes in life, when people just begin to see things a little different than what they once seen them. This had been an unusual day: the weather, even, seemed strange. I was noticing, as for my first Bible I ever knew was grand old mother nature. If you'll just follow that, you won't be too far off the road, watching nature, how it works. It was that, that led me to God, knowing that there was a God... watching nature.

I was coming down the mountain, looking out upon the beautiful Lake Umbagog, which leads out into the Androscoggin River. I noticed the robins all seemed to be getting together and giving their little chirping songs.

Once in a while, you would hear the snort from the male deer. And looked like that they were getting ready for something. It was coming winter, and they were getting ready to yard.

As I plowed on down through the underbrush to meet my friend where we'd parked a canoe, there was a—he was setting on a log, waiting. And I noticed out into the Lake Umbagog such a great swarm of ducks. I never seen so many, hardly, in my life. And Burt, my friend, said, “What do you make of that, Billy?”

I said, “Well, they are getting ready to fly south.” I said, “That's the reason that sun set this afternoon... Did you notice how, before it peeped over the mountain, how that it looked so red. It's getting ready to snow, Burt.” And some kind of a special instinct, that God has put in animal life, to make ready, to get ready to move, flying time come. I said, “Did you notice the birds today, and the—the robins and so forth? They're getting ready for their winter flight, also. The deers are getting ready to yard, because that there's coming a storm.”

And as we dipped our paddles into the lake and started down, I believe every duck all up-and-down the Androscoggin River had come into Lake Umbagog getting ready for the flight. And all of the quacking, only as ducks can do, just carrying on... And Burt said, “What do you think they're talking about, Billy?”

I said, “They're having a little time of fellowship before the flight.”

And then, as this Indian friend and—of mine and I, moved on down the river to our certain camp, and the moon begin to get pale, as we knew the storm was coming in, our paddles begin to make a little ruffle in the water then, as the waves begin to rise. I thought on this: 'Surely, sometime before we take the flight, we'll have a time of fellowship, when all churches can come together on one ground and all have a time of fellowship before we take the flight.“

And years passed. I was the local Baptist pastor at that time at Jeffersonville. And—and as years passed on, I come into this great Full Gospel Businessmen's Fellowship.

Then I begin to notice that how that they would spend their money and go from place to place and meet across the nation, yes, and the world. And when they come together, they were no differences among them. They were not one, saying, “I belong to this certain assembly,” and another, “a certain assembly.” They all had things in common. So I thought that must've been what I was thinking of that night, of a fellowship, a getting together before the flight starts.

Now, I noticed them there, in this great Pentecostal move, there did not seem to be any condemnation among them. You meet them in the hotel room, they'll throw their arms around one another right in the face of the—of the celebrity or whatever it is, and hug each other, and praise the Lord, and cry a little while, and shout a little while, and just act like they do anywhere else. And I thought, “You know, that's real. That's—they's something about that.” The women, likewise.

It just seemed to be a great fellowship. And I wondered, “Wonder what causes that, and why is it we all can't do that? Why is it all people, all human beings, can't feel that way? No condemnation, just as free as you can be...” I thought, “Well, why can't everyone be that way.”

Now, I believe we can, but there is—and the reason that we do that first, is because that there's something in the human life that desires that, something that calls for it.

Today on the plane, coming from Louisville down here, I—taken me two and a half hours of flying and take me all day to make it: delayed planes. And a maybe God had a hand in it. When I got on at Louisville, there was a young lady got on the plane, and set down by me, and she said, “Do you mind if I set here?”

I said, “Not at all.”

And as we went on, they was serving lunch on the plane. And I prayed when... And she said, “Are you a minister?”

I said, “Yes, ma'am, I am.”

And she said, “I am a believer too.” And she told me of her certain denomination.

I said, “That's nice.”

And I noticed we had a little package of cigarettes on the plane, and I watched to see what she would do about it. So as soon as the dinner was over, she begin undoing that package of cigarettes. And she fumbled one a little bit, and she stuck it towards her mouth. And she took it down again. And after while she lit it up. She said, “You don't mind if I smoke?”

I said, “You don't mind if I tell you I do?” I said—I said, “I—I—I do, because...”

She said, “Why?”

I said, “I can't understand why a nice little lady with a personality that you've got, would have to do a thing like that.”

She said, “Oh, I get satisfaction out of it.”

I said, “That's only a substitutionary satisfaction. If you would just take what I tell you, and would turn your life completely to God, there's something that you're missing, and you're trying to make cigarettes fill up that longing that's in your heart... give you a false satisfaction which will soon give you cancer or degrade your body and you'll be gone.” And I said, “God made a person to thirst, to thirst after Him. And then if they do not accept that, then the devil gives them a false conception of pleasure and they try to satisfy it with the things of the world.”

She'd made about two little draws off the cigarette, and she said, “I'm twenty-two years old.” She said, “My engaged boyfriend is thirty-two.” Said, “He told me (I've been overseas for three months.)—he begged me to smoke no more.” And she said, “This is the first time that I have smoked—missing the plane.” And she said, “Sir, I take this promise now.” She put the cigarette out, got... [Blank.spot.on.tape] Man...

God loves to fellowship with His creature. In the garden of Eden we are told, that when man walked in the uprightness of God, God came down in the cool of the evening and fellowshipped with His children. Then, one day there was a voice came up in the Presence of God and said, “Those Your loved ones, Your children, has fallen, and they have sinned and have did that which was wrong.” You know what...?... God didn't just select some Angel to go down and look it over, to see if it was so or not, or a certain Cherubim of the heavens, but God came Hisself, crying, “Adam, where art Thou?” God, Himself, come crying for His lost child.

When He found Him hiding in the bushes, behind sewed fig leaves, He said, “Who told you you were naked?” And he could not come out and have fellowship no more with God.

Now, if there is a true fellowship... And God is love, and love demands a fellowship, like the young couple. When the boy meets the girl, and he says to her... He thinks she's so pretty, and—and she's fond of him, they want to have fellowship, a real fellowship. But before they can have this fellowship, there has to be an agreement. Before they can enter into wedding, wedlock, there has to an agreement for this certain fellowship. And it's based upon the truces or their pledges to each other, and then holy wedlock. And then we enter into a life-long fellowship. But before we can enter into that fellowship, there has to be a—an agreement first.

And when fellowship was broken between God and man, there had to be some sort of an agreement, some sort of an arrangements to restore again that lost fellowship. And God found the plan; and it was through the blood of an innocent victim, that God restored man back to fellowship with Him again.

There's been many substitutes tried. Adam tried it. We've tried to educate people to it. We've tried all different forms, but there's nothing that brings man back into fellowship with His Maker but the Blood of His Son, Jesus Christ. It's the only appropriation God has, is the Blood.

An innocent victim died for a guilty person. That brought the fellowship back to God and man again. Then Adam, covered by this Blood, could stand in the Presence of God and worship again. Oh, I love that. There's something about it, when you speak of Blood. Blood has life. Without the shedding of Blood there's no remission of sins.

You can have everything in the world. You can have any kind of a thing that you wish to, any object to worship, any creed to live by, but you can never come into fellowship, Divine fellowship with God, until first you come under the Blood. That's God's holy, and ordained, and provided way for human beings to fellowship with Him, through the Blood of His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. That was God's plan. It's still God's plan. It will forever be God's plan. No other plan but through the shedding of the Blood...

The Old Testament... In the journey, Israel from their homelands, going over—or out of Egypt, rather, going to their homelands, on their way over, God made a preparation through the Blood.

We want to think now on the 19th chapter of Numbers. God told Moses and Aaron, “Go, take a red heifer...” Now, the symbol of red, many times is a bad color or danger, but red also means an atonement. “Go get a red heifer, all red, not a spot on her.” She represented, of course, Christ. And this heifer must never have a yoke upon it's neck. If it ever was yoked, then it is—it's condemned. It must not be yoked up with the world.

That's the way the church is today. Christ, when He came, He never yoked Himself with the world. He stayed with God, and He was not yoked up with the world. The church that worships God today, is yoked with Christ, under the Blood.

Then we find that this heifer was to be killed in the evening time in the presence of all of the church. Eleazar was to catch her blood upon his fingers, and walk towards the door of the tabernacle, and sprinkle the blood seven times, or otherwise, put seven stripes over the door of the congregation. Then the heifer was to be burned: hoofs, horns, hide, flesh, and all. And in this burning of the heifer, it was to be mixed with hyssop (hyssop, I believe the better word for it... pronounced that way), hyssop, scarlet, and cedar wood.

Now, scarlet in the Scripture, was wool off of a ram's back that was dyed red, representing the Lamb that was slain before the foundation of the world... Was to be mixed into this, because this would be the waters of separation to cleanse the unclean worshiper, that he might be presented in the Presence of God. What are we basing? Trying to find the real true way to genuine fellowship with God. We've tried to do all kinds of things to make it educate, organize, but there's only one Divine plan, that's the Blood. Outside of the Blood, there's no fellowship. There's not even a cleansing of sin, until we get to the Blood.

Now, notice then, this wool, dyed red, represented Abel's ram that he offered on the block of stone in the garden—outside the garden of Eden for his sins. When he took its little head, and held it back, and hacked it with the piece of rock (I don't suppose they had any knives or lances in that day), and hacked its little throat until the blood gushed out all over it's little wool, and it died, bleating, crying...

It symbolized the Son of God, some four thousand years later, hanging on the cross, bleeding, his locks, bleeding, and He was dying, crying, “My God, my God, why hast Thou forsaken me?” That was the scarlet that was put into the waters of separation.

And then cedar wood... Cedar wood is red over white. Red through red makes white. You look through something red at something red, it makes it white. A symbol, that when God looks through the red Blood of His Son, the Lord Jesus, at our red scarlet sins, they become white as snow. “Wash me in the Blood, and I'll be as white as snow.” No other thing could you ever have.

I appreciate the old Salvation Army song:

Oh, precious is the flow,

That makes me white as snow;

No other fount I know,

Nothing but the Blood of Jesus.

That's the fountain that's filled with Blood drawn from Immanuel's veins; when sinners plunged beneath the flood, lose all their guilty stains.“ The red through red... And then the hos—hyssop...

I found—searching to see what hyssop was... Hyssop is just a common weed found in Egypt, and also it's found in—in Palestine. And sometimes it grows out of the walls where the dirt... It's just a common ordinary weed with a little blade on it, with a little white flower.

And hyssop was always used to sprinkle the Blood. In the days of the passover, Moses commanded to take hyssop, and dip it in the blood, and s—splash it upon the door post and on the lintels, the applying of the blood.

And hyssop, being just a common weed, in this great waters of separation, represents common faith. The believer coming, must not be some supernatural—oh, I don't know what—some kind of a fellow that's so highly educated till he—he got—knows all—more than Webster does. And he doesn't have to be any great theologian. He just has to use common faith, the hyssop. Pick it up anywhere. And it was all mixed together and burned. And then it was kept outside the courts that the unclean, before he could come into the fellowship... And remember, God always did and never will any other place, but meet man under the Blood. That's the only place you have fellowship with God is under the Blood.

You're only approaching until you get to that place. All Israel gathered where the sacrificial lamb was killed. And under that blood they had fellowship. Outside the blood, there was no fellowship. Always has been God's provided program to meet man under the Blood. It's 'cause He looks at man through the Blood and sees him white. Outside of that, he's a sinner. Nothing—you couldn't clean yourself; there's nothing you could ever do to make yourself any better. You cannot re—reforms and so forth, do what... Just like a leopard trying to lick his spots off of him, it just makes it brighter.

And all of our self-made ideas that we're just as good as the next man, we are not until we've come beneath the Blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. [Blank.spot.on.tape] That's right. That's God's only place of meeting man, under the Blood.

Then when Israel come to the place of worship, all going... And a unclean person come first. He had to come to the outer courts. And this blood—or this water of separation, which is called by the New Testament, we are washed by the water of the Word. The Waters of Separation is the Word of God. Faith cometh by hearing.

And this man coming in, was sprinkled with this waters of separation.

Then like the sinner comes in and listens to the Gospel, he begins to realize condemnation. He's a sinner. He realizes that in this water of separation is the scarlet. Someone died for him, an innocent substitute, to bring him into fellowship and relationship with God again. He realized that he's out of the way by the preaching of the Word. I say this: That the Gospel yet, in it's simplicity, preached in the power of the Blood, is the greatest drawing card the world's ever knowed.

The nations are hungry today for power. I seen some time ago, where a certain gasoline, under a certain condition of a certain stipulate, would lift the Sphinx off the ground two foot. And they were bragging about their gasoline.

I was reading the magazine on the plane, and I threw it back and said, “Yes, but praise God, I know something more powerful than that: that two drops of the Blood of Jesus Christ will lift the sinner that's lost and gone, take a prostitute off the street and make a saint out of her, take a drunkard out of the gutters out yonder and make a saint of God, a preacher of the Gospel. That's what's the power of one drop of the Blood of the Lord Jesus. Amen. That's what the world needs to know—power today.

God's got a provided way. And when the Gentile or the unclean person desired fellowship with God, the first thing he had to do, was come first to the waters of separation, then be sprinkled.

Now, what did that represent or type? The believer today, the man that wants to believe, comes to the church and listens to the Gospel. Christ died for sinners.

In there, the red, the scarlet, the hyssop then... he applies that with common faith that a—that a two year old child could use. Just believe on the Lord Jesus Christ.

There's so much of it today; there's so many of us. If someone says, “What can I do to be saved?”

“Quit your lying, quit your stealing, quit your smoking, quit your drinking...” I believe they should do that too, but that doesn't answer his question. You're telling him what not to do; he wants to know what to do.

Paul said to the Philippian jailer... He never told him to “put up your sword and do all this and the other.” He said, “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved, thou and thy house. Believe. Have faith.”

“How can I have that faith, Brother Branham?” It's just as simple as reaching, getting the hyssop to 'ply the blood. Believe it for yourself. Believe that Christ died for you. Believe that He was the innocent One that died in your place as a sinner, and guilty. Same applies by Divine healing: just simple faith to take Him at His Word. Oh, if they try to complicate it... They try to make it so great.

That's why the great revival broke out in England. The Anglican church had it so complicated, only the educated could understand it. And God, when the church gets in that condition, God always sends a revival of simplicity and breaks the thing to pieces. That's right. That's what we need today is the simpleness. That's what the nation needs today, is the simplicity of faith in Christ to surrender themselves unselfishly with their whole heart, soul, and mind, and all they are to the Lord Jesus. Just simple, you don't have to learn nothing at all; just believe that Jesus died to give you the blessing. Then it's yours by faith as soon as you pick up the hyssop faith and apply the blood, something happens in every man's heart or woman that does that.

Amen. I feel religious right now. Yes, sir, because I know that that is the truth. If it saved me, it'll save anybody. The Blood of Jesus Christ...

Here some years ago they had the religions of the world met... I was reading it in a book. They had this Lady Maccabee from Oklahoma, here, that's rested out here on—might have been in Tulsa or one of these places... She was running through the street, driving a stage coach, smoking a cigar, breaking the speed limits with a stage coach.

And when they... All the religions, different religions raised up and told their part of their religion, how great it was. The Mohammedan priest told how great his religion was. The Buddha told how great his religion was.

A certain little minister (I can't call his name now.) was representing the religion of America, Christian religion. And when he got his time to the platform, he told the story of this great, foul woman, how low down she was till even they didn't want to get around her to even get close enough to her to tar and feather her. She was so immoral; she was so degraded; there was nothing could help her. Then he said, “Gentlemen of the religions of this world, can your religions produce anything that would cleanse the hands of this certain vile person?”

Everybody set still, right on the end of their seats. No one said nothing.

Then he jumped in the air and screamed and kicked his heels together. He said, “The Blood of Jesus Christ won't only clean her hands, but it'll clean her heart and make her as pure as a lily.” The Blood of the Lord Jesus Christ takes away sin, and cleanses us from all of our iniquity, and makes us new creatures in Christ Jesus. Nothing else will do it; creeds, forms, or nothing else will take it's place. It's been tried, but it takes the Blood.

That's the only place for Divine fellowship, is under the Blood. That's the only remedy God knows. He based it... He's infinite. What He says first, he has to always remain with that through His program.

Now, when they'll come to the courts, realizing that they're defiled, setting in the congregation, knowing they're wrong, by faith they apply the Blood, believe it, accept it, the water—the washing of the water by the Word, cleanses them then and makes them ready.

Now, here's where the thing comes, here's where the point comes. Most people says, “When I believe, that's all I have to do.” Now there's where the rub comes. The man that's hit the water's of separation could not yet enter into the holiest of holies. He could not yet come into the congregation. He accepted it, believed it, and believed it was for him, and he was sprinkled with the waters of separation, but as he went journeying on towards the place of fellowship, the first thing he had to meet, there at the door, was seven stripes for the seven church ages: God in all ages. Nothing but the Blood... And he had to know, that going on before him went a sacrifice, bleeding. He had to recognize the Blood before he could come in the congregation.

Now, when he come under this blood, then he walked into the congregation, into the Presence of the Shekinah Glory of God and then was in full fellowship, worshipping under the Blood.

What a beautiful picture of Christ at Pentecost, bringing His church into full fellowship.

It's like the young couple that I was speaking of. When they get married, that's not the whole thing. They haven't done nothing but taken a ceremony. The minister has only said, “I pronounce you husband and wife.” It's not ready yet. What does he do? He takes her to his house that he's prepared for her.

Now, many people here might disagree with me by this, but you don't live but in a three room house. Oh, you may have many other rooms, but you've really only got three rooms. That is the kitchen, the living room, and the bedroom. You may have three or four bedrooms and you may have a kitchen and a dining room and so forth, but really a person only lives in a three room house.

You live in a three room house in your body: soul, body, and spirit. God lived in a three room house: Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. Everything is in a three. And a three is a triangle.

Take a triangle and shine a light on it, well, where three meets in one place, will produce seven different colors. Seven different colors is a rainbow. The rainbow is a covenant. Oh, it just keeps going on and on and on and on. On, because in that, God made a covenant through these three things: the hyssop, scarlet, and so forth. And the Light of God shining upon this, makes a covenant, a covenant that God made.

Now, when the woman is brought, the young bride (oh, how he loves her), but yet, they're not truly in full fellowship yet. Now the first thing... What is the kitchen to do? Is where you eat. That's like it is in the first courts of the church. You eat here. Come, set on the back seat, listen to the Word, and the first thing you know you begin to, “O God, that meant me.” You accept Him as your personal Saviour; by faith you grasp it. Then you begin to eat the Word. You begin to—to feel that you have accepted Christ as your personal Saviour. You begin to feast upon the Word; you enjoy It. Where used to you'd get up and walk out of the building if preacher didn't say something just suited you—not right. You'd get up and walk out. But after you once accepted Christ, you've been separated then. The waters by the Word of separation separated you from your evil thinking.

Then the next thing comes is into the—the living room where you take your little bride. She takes her veil off. You're coming a little closer. Then when you do you put your arms around her, talk to her, embrace her... That's how it comes into the fellowship of the Lord Jesus. Before you do, you are separated from your sins. Then you embrace the Lord's Gospel. You embrace the—the written Word. You believe It with all your heart. “God, it doesn't matter what You want me to do, whatever you have planned in my life, I'm ready now to receive it.” That's in the—the living room. Then, still you say, “Isn't this far enough?” No, sir.

The next room is the bedroom. Then when you go to this bedroom, then it's—you come into fellowship and relationship. You become into a relationship, then you have complete fellowship, because you cannot have complete fellowship until you become relationship. Anyone knows that.

And listen. So is it with the church today. We got too many people; we got too many of them that's ashamed to go into complete relationship with God to new life and new birth. If we're the Bride of Christ, then why can't we go into relationship, then all the shameness and backwardness and all's gone from us? If we come into complete relationship, been borned again, I don't care... The President of the United States could be standing on the street; you'd shout, “Hallelujah, Praise the Lord. Hallelujah.” You don't care, because you're come into a relationship. You're borned again. You're a new child. You're in the Shekinah Glory with God, fellowshipping with Him. That's what the ch... What we need today, brother, is a worship under the Blood, a worship in complete relationship, to die out.

What if the little bride said, “Now, wait a minute. I—I—I just... I don't know... I don't know if married life consists of such things.” She would never come into fellowship with her husband. She could never come into relationship or fellowship until she first comes into relationship.

That's what's the matter with the church today, that say, “Oh, I don't believe in that there kind of religion that makes you shout and call it 'heartfelt religion,' and, I don't believe in such things as that.” No wonder you've never come into it yet. You come into it and really get under the Shekinah Glory of God, when the power of the Holy Ghost is falling down upon you, you'll know something happened to you, that you've passed from death unto Life and become a new creature. God is first.

How was it... Charles Finney, that time that made the statement about how he used to... He was... I believe it was Charles Finney, that... He'd been preaching, or someone... (It might not have been him, I've just read it somewhere.) That he was a preaching. He had sermons and two little women was praying for him that he would get the Holy Ghost. And he told them he had the Holy Ghost. And one day he went out behind the—his office to pray and knelt down where an old tree had blowed down. And while he was praying, why, a stick broke and he thought someone was coming up. And he jumped up and said, “Hmm, hmm, hmm...”, looked around. He thought somebody's there and see him praying... Then he set down and he said, “If I was talking to my boss in the office, I would like for anybody to see me speak to my boss, but here I'm ashamed of somebody to see me speak to my Lord.”

There he come under conviction, threw off his cloak of malice and hatred and strife, and fell on his face, and cried out before God, until God filled him with the Holy Ghost. Then something happened. Then he was different. He got the starch out of him. Something taken place, because he come into that Shekinah Glory, into the relationship with God and fellowship Divine.

That's the reason I like these full Gospel conventions: You hear the people cry and shout and praise the Lord, because they've come into a fellowship, a Divine fellowship of the Holy Spirit. God... Whenever you get rid of that, you're gone back to Babylon and you might as well bury yourself. That's exactly right. When we get to a place to where we get away from that Shekinah Glory, that praises of God, that an—fresh anointing that breaks down all the religious barriers and things and makes us one in Christ Jesus, free from all condemnation... That's what we need tonight. That's what the church... That's Divine fellowship.

That's what I've found in these conventions is places where men and women, they don't—they're not ashamed. They're not ashamed of the Gospel. They're ready to testify, sing about it, shout about it. I've even heard them speak in tongues, once in a while. Don't hear too much of it no more, but once in a while they do.

Oh, don't you never lose that. If you ever lose that, to a place to where you get ashamed to go into relationship with Christ, let Him dwell in you, God in man, making Himself known to the people by His Spirit, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a peculiar people, odd, different from the world, sanctified by the Blood and set aside from the things of the world... Amen. That's old time sassafras preaching, but it would save a man from sin. It'll clean a person up and make them a new creature in Christ Jesus. It won't whitewash, but a mill—It'll wash you white. It'll take all the shameness away from you, take the backwardness away from you.

I've seen a little woman so bashful the—the insurance man come to the door, she'd backed her head away. Let her go down to the altar and come into that Shekinah Glory of God, she'll stand there and testify that'll shake the shingles on top the house. Sure, why? She's in Presence of God; she's met somebody that's real. Life has become a new thing, and she's no more cowed down by the world, because she's in Divine fellowship with Christ. “For me to live is Christ,” said Paul. That's what I call real spiritual...

Now, you cannot do that by your creeds. You cannot... Creeds will never satisfy a hungry soul. They're all right. I've nothing against them, but what we need today is Divine fellowship. There's only one way to get it: through the Blood, into the Shekinah Glory.

In the Old Testament, the high priest went in once a year, once a year, and that, bearing the blood before him. He was anointed. Oh, I like to study that, how he was anointed with the—with the anointing oil. I believe David cried, “How sweet it is for brethren to dwell together in unity. It's like the precious anointing oil that was on the—the beard of Aaron, it run all the way to the hems of his garment.”

Oil makes things run easy, soft. You know, when a man gets really anointed and ready for God, he's just flexible. You know when he's not, he sets back real stiff, you know, just—oh, I don't know, just like a...

I always felt sorry for a mule. A—a—a mule was the dumbest thing I ever looked at. You can whistle to him, call to him, and he will just set and stick them big ears out and look at you. He don't know the gentleness like a horse does. See? He—he—does... He hasn't got that much gumption. And another thing, a mule, he doesn't—he doesn't know where he come from. Don't you never say God ever made a mule. That was man did that. No. Don't you put God guilty of something like that. That was cross-breeding, the—the mare to the—the jack. But don't you never—don't you never lay that onto God. God wouldn't do a thing like that.

No, sir. You know, I like a pretty pedigreed horse. You know a pretty pedigreed horse, he's really nice, and he knows who his papa was. He knows where his mama was. He knows exactly where he's standing. But an old mule don't know who his papa was and his mama was... And here's another thing about it. He cannot cross hisself back again. He's ruined for life.

Puts me in the mind of a lot of... It puts me in the mind of a lot of people that call themselves Christians. Talk about the Blood of Jesus, and they set with their ears out, set there like bug eyed. They don't even know what the call means. That's right. You don't know who your papa was or your mama was. But I'm telling you, if you've ever come under the real Divine fellowship, been baptized with the Holy Ghost, you know Who your Father was. You know where you're standing. You know the Blood that cleansed you. You know the Holy Spirit that borned you and give you new life. You know where you come from. You know Who your Father is.

We got too much mule religion today, I believe. I—I really believe it, with no dishonor.

The high priest, once a year, went in one time a year with the Blood before him and worshipped in the Shekinah Glory, all anointed. (Oh, I love that.) Anointed, walking... And he had garments on that had a pomegranate and a bell. And he had to walk with that in such a step, that played, “Holy, holy, holy unto the Lord. Holy, holy, holy unto the Lord,” packing the Blood before him as he went.

What a beautiful picture of the church today. Walking into the... And you know the reason he made them bells? The people on the outside didn't know whether he was alive or not unless he was making some noise. I'm telling you, brother... mmmmm. Our dead church, that don't make any noise. Ah, something's happened. Yes, sir. They haven't entered into that holy of holy. God is—everywhere you find God, you find a lot of noise. It's exactly right. When Jesus went into Jerusalem, they broke down palms; them Galilean peasants begin to sing, “Hosannah, to Him that cometh in the Name of the Lord.”

Some of those Pharisees said, “Oh, that makes chills go up my back. That's sacrilegious. Oh don't you do... Make them hold their peace.”

Jesus said, “If they hold their peace, the rocks will immediately cry out.” Something has to take place when Christ comes in. Some [ Blank.spot.on.tape]

But He took the Blood to the mercy seat. And only He, alone, could go in once a year. But when Jesus died, on the day of the atonement, He rent the veil in two. Not only the high priest, but whosoever will may come any time into the Shekinah Glory of God by the baptism of the Holy Ghost, into a real Pentecostal fellowship (Amen), into a place in the Presence of God, where the power of God cleanses us from all unrighteousness. We become new creatures in Christ Jesus. The Holy Ghost falls upon us and all of our backwardness and shameness, we become into a relationship with God. Isn't the Church the Bride? Well, shouldn't the Bride be bringing forth children crying, “Abba, Father” ? What's the—the matter? No wonder we can't produce ourselves any more, if we ever get away from that Shekinah Glory, get away from there and don't know Who your papa is, don't know who your mama is, out from under the Blood, “Pentecostal grandchildren” as David duPlessis called it... God don't have any grandchildren. No, sir, God only has sons.

Some of it's like I said here some time ago (We was talking about David.), said, “People come in. The Methodists come in. They were born sons of God. Then their children, they take them to church, and well, 'Because I was a Methodist, then my children's a Methodist.'” Now, that's not really children; that's grandchildren. See?

But now, God don't have any grandchildren. Every man, every woman, every boy, girl's, got to have an experience of entering into the holiest of holies and being borned again. It's too bad the Pentecostal church is getting that way too. We got some Pentecostal grandchildren. Let me tell you: God don't have any. The church has it, but God don't have it. Every man that comes to God's got to come through the Blood. Every boy, every girl has got to recognize that something went before them to die for them before they could come into that Shekinah Glory, be clean from a life of sin, and become new creatures in Christ Jesus. Amen.

How He entered into this holy place, the Holiest of the Holies to offer this Blood... Job, the oldest book in the Bible... Even before Genesis was ever wrote, Job lived on the earth. And you remember Job—all of his troubles, all of his trials, and his friends even accusing him, his friends against him, yet, Job maintained the—the—the promise of God. He maintained a fellowship in the hours of trial, insomuch that he cried; he said, “I know my Redeemer liveth.”

When he was suffering and even his wife said, “Job, why don't you curse God and die?” Job was under the Blood. He'd offer the burnt Sacrifice (which he knowed he was righteous, because that's what God required); he'd come under the Blood and had Divine fellowship with God. Even in the last hours of his great temptation, he cried, “Though he slay me, yet I'll trust Him.” Amen.

That's what the church needs today, is a know-so fellowship under the Blood of the Lord Jesus Christ; even death can't even darken it out.

I've stood by their bedside and watch them die with a cold handshake. I've seen them stand there and die, shouting the praises of God, because it had fellowship. They knowed where they were standing. Oh, how I could go through experiences of knowing, of experiences I've seen with people, how they...

Don't never, don't never try to get to God, anything other than under the fellowship—under the—to fellowship with God but under the Blood. That's the only way. God knows that's the only way God will recognize. You must first be washed by the water of the Word, then cleansed through the Blood, and enter into the Shekinah Glory, go into there, into the fellowship. Then you know where you're standing at.

Daniel, another one who had purposed in his heart, he wouldn't defile hisself with the king's meat, when he was taken down into Babylon. He maintained his fellowship in the presence of lions that was ready to kill him, yet David—Daniel held his fellowship; and God sent an Angel and stood by him that night, and blinded the eyes, and shut the mouth of the lion; because Daniel had fellowship with the supernatural. Daniel had fellowship with the God of heaven, because he was under the Blood. That's how he maintained his stand.

The Hebrew children, right in the middle of the fiery furnace, no matter what you'd do to them, you can't scorch that fellowship away from them. You can't throw them under enough trials to make them deny it.

A man that's ever been under the Blood of Jesus Christ and become filled with the Holy Ghost, all the devils in hell couldn't root it out of him. He knows where he stands...?... I know you think I'm crazy, swinging my hands, but if you felt like I did, you'd jump up in your seat and do the same thing.

But listen, brother. A baby that's born and it don't cry, don't whimper, there's something wrong with that baby. It's born dead. That's right. That's what's the matter with their—too much of the churches today, too much of the people call themselves Christians; they are born dead, stillbirth. It's no good. What they need... You know what the doctor does when one don't make a whimper, he picks him up, and turns him over, and gives him a couple of good raps; and he lets out a squall. That's what the church needs today, is another good old-time Holy Ghost baptism, shaking of the church, till it'll spank all the world out of it, get it back to real Pentecostal blessing. A real preacher that'll stand up and take the Gospel and beat the whole—the gold, and like the old beaters used to...

They'd beat the gold, and turn it over, and beat till all the dross was out of it. How did he know it was ready? When he could see his own reflection in it, then he knowed the gold was ready, the dross was out of it. That's what the Holy Spirit does by the Word. It beats all the world out of the church, until the reflection of Jesus Christ appears into the church in the people. When God can see His reflection of His power, like He did on the day of Pentecost, when He sent the Holy Ghost down, and the power of God made the people drunk like new wine, when they said, “What, are these men full of new wine?”

He said, “This is that which is spoken of by the prophet Joel: ”It'll come to pass in the last days, saith God, I'll pour out My Spirit upon all flesh. And your sons and daughters shall prophesy. I'll show wonders in the heavens above and in the earth below, signs, and Pillars of Fire, and smoke, and vapor. It shall come to pass before the noble day of the Lord shall come—notable day—whosoever call upon the Name of the Lord shall be saved.“

What we need today is a beating, the Gospel, back in the church to straighten the church up to pull it out of the kinks that it's in and come back under the fellowship of the Blood again in this Shekinah Glory, into a Pentecostal experience like it had back many, many years ago, like we used to have years ago. What we need... Like we did in the days of John Wesley, way back in the days of Calvin, Knox, way back, all the way to Pentecost... What we need is a relationship again, with God, till men are willing to die out to themselves in the secret chamber with God, until new life is produced, until they become a new creature. Let a man do that, if he's a little old coward, he will go out and win souls. Because why? He's become in Divine relationship with God in the secret room to himself, with him and God he's anointed, and went in there with tears rolling over his cheeks and saying, “God, give me the Holy Spirit. I don't care if it costs my wife, my children, my girlfriend, my—ever what I am, just fill me, Lord, till I can stand in Your Presence and feel the Shekinah Glory moving, surging over me and through me.”

Think, when this Mr. Iverson, Ned's father, wrote that famous song, “Spirit of God, Move in Me,” that's what we need. Move fresh; fall upon me, Lord. Stand there until God takes you in to a holiest of holies, shuts the curtains behind you, and shuts the world out, and shuts you up with Christ till you don't care who's around, what else about it; you're walking in the Spirit, led by the Spirit, doing the things the Spirit would have you to do, saying the things the Spirit have you to say; then's when you come into Divine fellowship.

May God grant that to everyone. Yes. The Hebrew children, right in the middle of the fiery furnace, they still maintained their fellowship. The fiery furnace didn't stop it, certainly not. They still had just as much fellowship as they ever had.

Little Stephen, after he'd come under the Blood, stood there and preached until his face shined like an angel. I don't believe it shined like one of those lights. Certainly not. An angel isn't—that don't always have to mean a shining light. An angel is a messenger, somebody that knows what they're talking about. I believe when Stephen stood up there that morning at the Sanhedrin courts, when they had him, trying to condemn him and so forth, he said, “Which one of your fathers hasn't condemned the Holy Ghost or turned It away? Which one of them didn't...” said, “You stiff-necks, uncircumcised in heart and ears,” knowing it would cost his life... What did he care? He knowed what he was talking about. Why? He'd come under the Blood, and been up there at Pentecost, and was under Shekinah Glory; and he didn't care what anyone said. Death didn't mean nothing to him. He was so sure and so filled with the Spirit, till they begin to run up on him and gnash their teeth and bash—break his head in with the rocks and things like that. Even death didn't even hide his fellowship. He raised his hands and said, “I see Jesus.” Amen.

Whew. Now, you don't believe Baptists shout? I'll show you in a minute. Let me tell you brother. Even death could not—could not hide it. Death could not do nothing. You couldn't hide him from the fellowship, because he still maintained that perfect fellowship with Christ, even when the rocks was beating his head in. He...

And Paul standing there (Saul, it was then,) holding his garments, looking at it... It never did get away from him. He seen that that man had something, although he was so full of creeds and theology and learned stuff, till... He looked at that man, and he seen that man had something that his creeds didn't produce. He seen the glory of God upon his face when Je—or when Stephen looked up and said, “I see Jesus, standing at the right hand of God,” still having fellowship in the hour of his death, because he come by God's appropriated way, by the Blood of Jesus Christ, and had entered into the Shekinah Glory, where real fellowship was, real fellowship. The praises and powers of God...

Romans 5:1 saying, “Therefore, being justified by faith we have peace with God,” fellowship restored. Oh, I love that. Fellowship with God, peace restored back, why? Through the Blood of the Lord Jesus.

In my own city, in Louisville, Kentucky, some few months ago, there was an old fellow over there. They thought he was just an old bum. He a—he'd give out tracts and things down on the street. And he was crossing one day. He lived in a little old shanty down close to the slummy part of the city there, in a—what we call the Haymarket. And he was a—lived down there, but he done a great work, going around giving out little tracts. It's true, his clothes wasn't always as neat as I guess they could have been; he was an old bachelor.

And he was crossing the street one day, and a automobile just struck him, and just—I—look like broke every bone in him, rolled right over him. And they got him in a ambulance, in a police ambulance, and taken him up there to a certain hospital. And they begin to examine him in the city hospital. They looked at his bones, and so many bones, they... And they put the x-ray over him and found out he was all broke up. And the doctors went to hold a little council, a little fellowship among themselves, over in one corner. They thought the old fellow was out. They said, well, the doctors come to this decision; “It's not worth our time. After all, he's nothing but just a bum, and there's no money in it. So he's nothing but just a bum, so why would we waste our time here, all day long, trying to patch up that old bum?” And they thought there wasn't... They decided they just cover him back over and let him go.

But when they walked over there, he wasn't as dead as they thought they was. He said, “Just a minute, gentlemen,” he said, “I am worth something, too.” He said, “I was worth so much, till God sent His Son that He might die in my place and give me a grace and a fellowship with Him.” He said, “Fifty years ago I embraced that to my heart (real fellowship with God)” he said, “and right now it's sweeter than it ever was in all my life.” Said, “Sure, I'm worth something, God so loved me that He gave His Son for me. And He shed His Blood that I might come into a fellowship with Him in His sufferings and in His Presence.” And he said, “I have maintained that all these years. And now it's sweeter than it ever was.” You can imagine the embarrassments on those doctors faces at that time.

Sure you're worth something. Each one of you is worth something. God gave His life for you. Why can't you give yours for His? Why can't you dedicate yourself and time. Altogether, come... If you stay away... If—if you don't come the right approach... Now, if you just go and start—turn over a new leaf, that won't work. You've got to come God's way: Come under the Blood, then get into the Shekinah Glory in the Presence of God then you can worship the Lord God. Sure.

Some nineteen hundred years ago, over Calvary... Let's take a little view for a few minutes as we're passing on. It was one horrible morning. Oh, there never was a morning, and never will be like that. They'd been a trial that morning—a mock trial—in the courts. And a innocent Man had been condemned. And I see now—hear an old something bumping over the street, going out towards Calvary. And as I look, there was a little Fellow... The Bible said, “There's not no beauty that we should desire Him.” He had a cross on His shoulders, and the Blood streaked across His back, and a—a mocking crown of thorns on His face, and the spittle of the cruel drunken soldiers hanging off his face, dragging down the street, the old cross dragging out the bloody footprints of the Bearer. As He starts up the mountain, I see His garment just soaked in Blood, splashing against the sides of His leg, a sight that no man that ever knowed what that meant could look at it and it remain the same. There He was.

Oh, the devil always doubted Him. The devil thought He was just a prophet. The devil was sure then, that that was just a prophet, because “How could God ever let somebody spit in His face? How could God ever be beat into—into a pulp?” Why, it was the same reason it couldn't be a prophet. It couldn't be an Angel. It had to be God. Who come to hunt His lost child in the garden of Eden? Did He send an Angel? Did He send a prophet? He came Hisself. That's how God came manifested in the flesh in the Person of His Son, Jesus Christ.

Here He goes up the hill, pulling the cross. And that bee of death begin to buzz around Him. Then I—I—you know, “I seen Him up there, he...?... quoted some Scripture to me, but I'm sure now, He's nothing but a man, because, look: Could God let somebody spit in His face and get by with it?” He did it for your sake. He did it. He didn't have to do it, but He did it for my sake and your sake. He did it, that He might sanctify and cleanse us from sin, He might give us an example of how to be humble and how to live right, how to offer the other cheek, or go the second mile, or—or give the coat to the brother that needed it. He practiced what religion was, Jehovah's religion... He—He—He had it in Him. And there He was, going up the hill.

And I can see that old bumble bee of death, whirling around Him, looking Him over good. Said, “Look at there. Could God ever be that? Could that be Emmanuel? Certainly not, it could not be. He'd never let somebody spit in His face, and put a mocking crown of thorns over His head, and give Him a false scepter in His hand, and beat His back into a pulp. You know that's nothing but a prophet. He's done me a lot of trouble, so I'll certainly get him in a few minutes at Calvary.”

Let me tell you, brother, when he made his buzz and stung Him at Calvary, something happened. When he anchored that stinger into Emmanuel's flesh... You know when a bee stings deep, he pulls his stinger out when he come. And when he stung that time, he stung more than a prophet, he stung Emmanuel. What was it? He left his stinger in there.

Today, to the Christian believer that comes under that blood that he shed there at Calvary, under the Divine fellowship, the real full Gospel Pentecostal fellowship, with the Pentecostal blessings, and Pentecostal signs, and Pentecostal live, Pentecostal attributes... When you come under that, death doesn't have any stinger any more. It can buzz and buzz.

I know a cruel hook-nosed Jew, at one time bitter and indifferent, stoned Stephen... Was on his road down to Damascus one day, and fell under the power of God. What happened? He came into the place till he come into that Divine fellowship with the Son of God.

And one day down in Rome they was building a sacrifice block to cut his head off, for public execution, under the Roman government. And when he was ready to die, that bee come down and started humming around him. But you know what he said, he said, “Oh, bee, where is your stinger? Oh, grave where is your victory. But thanks be to God Who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.” What was it? Even in the hour of his death, he still maintained that fellowship that he'd found up there in that Pentecostal blessing.

Every one of the Pentecostal disciples that was up there, maintained that fellowship right on down through trials, tribulations; nothing could separate them from the love of God that was in Christ. And today, there's only one basis for real genuine fellowship. That fellowship is full Gospel fellowship. When a man has come through the waters of separation, recognized the Blood for the cleansing, and come into the Shekinah Glory, then you're in real genuine Pentecostal, full Gospel fellowship. Then you're not ashamed of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, for it is the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believeth.