Hear Ye Him

Thank you, very much. May be seated. So glad to be here at the church again tonight, where we.... The church is not exactly a church building, but a church is where the people have gathered at. And we are trusting to the Lord God that He will give us of His great manifold blessings tonight.

So I was thinking yesterday on having ten days of service, and I see they begin to bring the sick back out again. Now, how many would like to have a healing service tomorrow night? Would you be interested in another healing...? That's fine. All right, then we will have the boys to give out the prayer cards early tomorrow afternoon ... or tomorrow evening, rather, about.... What time do you start? Seven o'clock is when you open up. About seven o'clock tomorrow afternoon....

And then see how many of the people can get out now for the prayer service for the sick, and we will do everything we can to pray for every person that we know how to pray for, or can pray for.

And now, last evening we were speaking on discipline in the church. And I think, if we could just get the church in a real spiritual attitude, then there will be a revival really and it'll be so much better for our prayers for the sick. As long as our conditions are slumping, then we just don't seem to pick it up like we should. But when everybody is just prayed up, and keyed high, and great expectations.... I've walked to the platform, and many times, be five and six, seven thousand people and not be one feeble person left just as soon as you walked out on the platform. Every one get up out of wheelchairs and cots and stretchers and everything, walk right away, because they just.... You're under such expectations.

Now, that was in the days of the early beginning of the ministry before there was anyone else on the field. And it just ... it's been kind of let down for a while. And so then, everybody was.... It was new, and the people were just expecting anything. Now, if you'd have the same expectations, you get the same results. You see?

Because it's God that heals the sick, see. A man could not heal the sick, because it doesn't lay within a man's power to heal sick people. Doesn't lay within a doctor's power to heal sick people. A doctor does not heal the sick. He only gives aid to the sick. God heals all the sickness, see. A doctor can set your arm if you broke it, or sew up a place if you've cut it, or move a tooth if it's bad, or appendix out, but he cannot heal the place it come out of. Healing is multiplication of cells that grows and mends. And it's life does that. And God is life. And so, that's how healing is done. It's through the grace and mercies of God.

And the human body is so fixed, if you would.... God knew that we were going to have accidents, and know that we'd be cut on, and so forth. I was told some time ago by a physician, I believe it was, that this new operation they have for the heart where they put those plastic valves in the heart when they've been eat out like with rheumatic fever, that I don't believe there's another place in your body that they could do that, just on that place that that plastic valve would cover over by the rest of the artery in the heart, that would take a hold like that and hold. Other places in the body would push it right off. See, God knowed that that operation would be necessary.

If you'd cut your hand, cut the arteries in two.... And if, on a water pipe, if you stop up a water pipe somewhere in the city, watch. Something's got to blow out somewhere. It'll back up. But God has so arranged it so that that blood will bypass that and go right on just the same. If it wasn't, it'd back to your heart and it'd kill you just in a second. If you ever just cut the least vein, it would kill you just in a second. But God knew that we was going to hurt ourselves and so forth, so He prepared our body for that purpose.

So now, we want to know that it's all the goodness of God. And as our gracious brother Oral Roberts has well placed it, “God is a good God.” He certainly is. And now, we know He's a good God, but we don't want to depend too much on that. Remember, He's a God of justice too. Because His holiness makes Him justice, and His laws must be met, His requirements. And so then, if He is a good God, He has to be good.

Many times we get mixed up on what goodness is. We get mixed up on what sympathy is, compassion. Watch this just a moment for compassion. How many believes that Jesus Christ was compassion? Why, certainly He was.

Now, He went down to the pool of Bethesda, and there laid multitudes. It takes two thousand to make one multitude. So there was multitudes of people laying there, lame, blind, halt, withered, waiting for the moving of the water. And Jesus looked around through that multitudes of people until He found a man that was ... well, he wasn't crippled. He said, “When I'm going down to the pool, somebody steps in ahead of me.”

His disease, he'd had for thirty-eight years; it wasn't going to kill him. It was retarded, perhaps TB, or prostate trouble, or something. And he was laying on a pallet. And Jesus made him whole, and walked away, and left that great mass of people withered, and halt, and lame, and blind (Is that right?), and yet had compassion, a compassionate Savior.

Did you notice what He said when they asked Him about it in the nineteenth verse? He said, “Verily, verily, I say unto you, the Son can do nothing in Himself, but what He sees the Father doing, that doeth the Son likewise.”

Compassionate is to do the will of God. And that's what real Christian compassionate is, is do the will of God. We mix it all up today. We try to put the human element to it.

Like in love, we try to use love, God's love, like we do human love. You cannot fall in love with God like you do your wife. You cannot fall in love with God like you do your husband, or your girlfriend, or boyfriend. It's two different loves altogether. Even in the Greek words are different. One of them's called Phileo; that's the love you have for your wife. That kind of love would make you kill a man over. jealous.... But the agapao love, which is a godly love, instead of killing the man, it'd make you pray for his sinful soul. That's right. That's how much difference it is.

And we get the human element mixed up with the Christian, godly element, and then we just get a mess out of it. Because we only know by inches, feet, miles, and so forth, by ounces, and pounds and so forth; that's all we know. We're time people. God's eternal; He has no inches, no miles, no yesterday, nor tomorrow. It's all eternity with Him. And we try to bring God's great infinite mind down to our little finite mind. And, oh, we just get mixed up. So the best thing in doing, is reading His Word; and remember that His Word will not contradict itself.

I've been in the ministry thirty-one years, and I've offered any kind of a year's wages for anyone that can show me a Scripture that contradicts the other one that cannot be straightened by the Word of God. That's right. When people tell you the Word contradicts itself, you tell them they don't know what they're speaking of.

God's wrote it in riddles and parables so that He could hide it from the eyes of the wise and prudent and reveal it to babes such as would learn. Jesus thanked the Father for doing that. Is that right? Because you don't know it like reading a newspaper; it's a spiritual revelation. And it's revealed to them who are interested in learning it.

Now, you'll never learn it by school; you'll never learn it by theology. It's got to be known by a revelation, because the entire Bible, and the whole plan of salvation, and everything in the Bible, and salvation is based upon revelation of Jesus Christ. Did you know that?

When they came off the mount, He said, “Who does man say I the Son of man am?”

Some of them said, “You're Elijah, Moses, and the prophets, and so forth.”

He said, “But who say you that I am?”

And Peter said, “Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God.”

He said, “Blessed art thou, Simon, son of Jonas, for flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father, which is in heaven, has revealed this to you. And upon this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell cannot prevail against it.”

Now, the Roman Catholic church says that He was speaking of Peter, means “little rock.” If that's so, He backslid right immediately after that. So, you see what kind of a church you'd be in.

So then, the Protestant church said He built it upon Himself. Now, if you'll notice the Word, it was not upon Himself, the rock. No, it was up on the spiritual revelation of Himself that was given to Peter.

The same thing that took place in Eden. How did Adam.... How did Abel know that it was a lamb instead of fruit of the field? Spiritual revelation, see. It's always been spiritual revelation.

“Upon this rock I will build My church, and the gates of hell cannot prevail against it.”

Oh, let me say this tonight, Christian. There's where so many people are failing to see the message of God. There's where so many people are failing to see the truths. The Bible becomes a riddle to them.

Someone told me not long ago, a great man, oh, he said, “John must've eaten some (I believe) red peppers, something, and had a nightmare on the isle of Patmos.”

I said, “Shame on you. That's sacrilegious to say such a thing as that against the Word of God.” I said, “It's every bit the true, unadulterated plan of God.”

But it's just putting yourself to the Spirit of God and let Him reveal it to you. He will reveal it to babes such as will learn. When we get to a place that we confess that we know nothing and just let His Spirit work His will through us, then He will teach us. But when we know so much that He can't teach us, then we can get nowhere.

And I say today, if there ever was a time that this nation ought to be called to prayer, nation over.... Not just for one hour. No, not for a few moments silence prayer somewhere; it needs a day in and day out, week in and week out prayer meeting, all over the nation, until God answers, and we close up every bootleg joint, take away every tobacco company, did away with all the sin there is, make women put on clothes again, and make men act like gentlemen, and get back to the church an old-fashion prayer meetings like we used to have. That's the only way we're ever going to have peace. And I know they won't do it (See?), because the Bible says they won't do it. And they won't do it.

We'll just have to face the end time. And to you, the church tonight, make yourself ready for you don't know what minute or hour He may appear.

Let us bow our heads now, just before we open up the gracious Word of our Lord to read.

Truly, our heavenly Father, You know every word, and every thought is recorded. And we see, today, and our hearts are zealous of the great church of the living God, as we see the hour approaching of the coming of the Lord, and know that You have predicted that the church would be lukewarm. You'd spew it from Your mouth, because it was neither hot nor cold. O God, that's why the true servant of God, his heart cries out for revival.

We think of the great men crossing the nation today, putting their whole life into it, all that they have, oh, trying to call to the church to get back. And that's the warning of God. And Father, I pray tonight that in the name of the Lord Jesus, that You'll send a revival here at Klamath Falls and throughout this country, that'll be a soul-saving revival, that will be a church stirring revival, that all the saints of the living God will start praying and fasting.

For it is written, “If the people that are called by my name shall assemble themselves together and pray, then I will hear from heaven.”

Grant it, Lord, tonight that that slumpy, cold, indifferent feeling that people are getting in the church, just knowing that they're coming to church, and that they belong there. God, break up that old, selfish feeling, Lord, and satisfied falsely. We pray that You'll give them the satisfying portion of a re-baptizing of the Holy Spirit and fill their hearts and soul with fire.

May there be great healing campaigns and revivals all across the country. May the sick be healed. We look here tonight upon the people that are laying here on stretchers and cots, and those are back in the audience with heart trouble, cancer, Lord, trying to accumulate faith somewhere to be healed. Let them know that You are the healer of all of our afflictions.

“Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy-laden; I will give you rest.” Grant it, Lord, tonight. And may the people tonight feel the unction of the Holy Spirit. May it take a hold of every heart. May it be so clear to us tonight, that there will not be one sinner in our midst or one backslider. May there not be a sick person left, or a feeble person, at the end of this service. Grant it, Father. Bless Thy Word.

Then as we speak to the discipline of the church, Lord, we pray that You'll anoint the words. And may it be found good in Thy sight. For we ask it in Jesus' name and for His sake. Amen.

For a text tonight, I want to take just a portion of the seventeenth chapter of Matthew and the last few words of the fifth verse:

This is my beloved Son; ... hear ye him.

And if the Lord willing, I want to use, or draw a context, from them last three words of fifth verse: “Hear Ye Him.” Three words.

Like I said last evening, these are very small texts, but it's all that we to know. It's of value. If we'll just do as this little text bids us to do, there will not be one disappointed person in this building tonight. Just hear ye Him. Whatever He says do, you do it. And then, if you're sick, hear ye Him. If you're sinful, hear ye Him. If you need something, hear ye Him. He has all that you have need of in this journey. He has it for you waiting to give it to you. The price is already paid. There's no price to pay for it; just hear ye Him. Listen to Him, what He has to say.

Thinking of small, just that, enough Scripture right there, those three words would be enough to send a revival all the way around the world and save every person there is in the world.

Some years ago, I read a little article in a magazine that was advertising, I believe it was Sinclair gasoline or some noted brand of gasoline. And they said that one gallon of Sinclair gasoline in a certain type of a machine, if it could be built sturdy enough, would lift the sphinx ten inches off of the ground.

And I thought, “Oh, how the Sinclair company likes to brag on the power of their gasoline, and what a little bit can do a whole lot.”

But I thought tonight that one drop of the blood of Jesus Christ can lift every sinner that there is out of the miry clay, and set every hospital free from sickness, close up every jail and penitentiary, deliver every insane institution of its diseased people and afflicted, make joy all over the world with one drop of the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ.

And then coming to a meeting and choosing a little text like this.... Remember, I do that with all that's in my heart by prayer, trying to find just what I would think the Holy Spirit would lead to teach, or to talk about.

I've often said, if I could only hold one drop of the literal blood of our Lord Jesus in a charger, how I would hold it in my hands, and press it to my heart, and cry out, “Oh, Father, I now hold the blood of the Lord Jesus against my heart.” What a thrill, and a joy, and a blessing it would be for me to hold, in a little glass or something, one drop of the blood of the Lord Jesus!

But you know, in His sight, I've got a greater than that tonight. I've got against my heart tonight you people, which is the purchase of His blood. He thought more of you than He did of His own blood, because He gave it that He might sanctify you and bring you into His presence. Oh, it's the small things. It's not the big things that we do; it's the little things that we leave undone.

I was speaking last evening about the little postage stamp. And I was telling about the king, George, the late King George of England, as he come through British Columbia and was in Vancouver.

All the schools turned out to see the king. And the Canadian people wanting to be royal to their ... or, loyal, rather, to their king. They give all the little children a little British flag to stand on the street. And when his majesty, the king, went by, they'd wave these little flags to show that they were behind him and they were his subjects. And the teachers turned all the little fellows out. And after the king passed by, all the little children in a certain school returned but one, little, tiny tot of a girl.

And the teacher was very much upset. So she called all the older children, and she said, “What became of little Martha?”

And they couldn't find her. They said, “Well, she was in the group of us.” But they couldn't find her.

And the teacher hysterically ran into the street and began looking for this certain little girl that did not return. And after everybody was gone, the streets was cleared, following the king, singing “God save the king.” And they found this little girl standing behind a telegraph pole with her little head leaned up against her hands just crying her little heart out.

And the teacher picked her up. And she said, “Martha, honey, why are you weeping?” Said, “Did you not get to wave your flag at the king?”

She said, “Yes, teacher, I got to wave my flag.”

She said, “Well, then, did you not get to see the king?”

She said, “Yes, teacher, I got to see the king.”

She said, “Then, why are you weeping so, honey?”

And she said, “You know, teacher, I saw the king. But I was so little, he didn't see me.”

That's not so with our King Jesus. I don't care how little you are, how little you do, you cannot do the smallest thing without Him knowing all about it. He knows every little heartache, every little pain that you bear, every little disappointment you have, no matter how little it is. He still knows all about it.

You know, our Lord, He meets in realms of men. Sometimes He meets in great groups of men. Sometimes He meets with few. We have record of Him meeting with five hundred one time after His resurrection. And then we have where He met with the seventy, and with the twelve, and even with the three. And then we have times where He will meet with just one. That's what makes Him God to me, is because that He is humility.

I've had the privilege of doing much traveling and meeting great men. When I meet men that tries to be great that's ... you can always class that man; there isn't very much to him. Great men, they try to make you think you're the great one. But it's men that wants to be great, if you'll just chase it down to the bottom, you'll find out it's a stuffed shirt. Now, that's not.... I don't mean that to be flat.

A group of Methodist brethren that just received the Holy Spirit came to my church, and—where I used to pastor—and they was great men, lived up in Indiana. And they had said, “Brother Branham, after we've received the Holy Ghost, we've been reading some books.” Said, “Should we wait on the Lord and seek the Lord to tell us our ministry?”

I said, “Don't you do it at all.”

He said, “Well, the book said....”

I said, “But wait a minute, brother.”

If you ever take men that's so zealous that they want to always be doing something, God couldn't trust that person. If you'll notice in the Bible, the man that God used was the man was trying to get away from all of it. That's the one that God used. Take, for instance, Paul, Moses, and so forth, trying to run from the very cause.

If a man's ... God would give man to do a certain thing, and he was so zealous of it, the first thing you know he'd be so swelled out. But if a man doesn't want to do such, maybe God can use him for a while, anyhow. If you just can get something out of him.... But men that usually wants to go, and blast over the world, and tear it down, usually God can't trust him because he can't.... He wants to do it himself. He gets into his own way with it. If a man don't want to go, then God almost has to drive him into it. That's the type of man that God usually uses in the Scripture.

I said, “You just live for Him, and love Him with all your heart, and He will place you in the place that He desires for you to be.” That's right.

We try to take one another's places; we can't do that. We must always abide in our calling, where God has called us to.

Now, we would like to say that on this Scripture reading tonight on the seventeenth chapter.... When you go home I wish you to read that chapter through.

Now, we find that Jesus was fixing to do something great on.... A great occasion was fixing to happen. And when God gets ready to do things great, the first thing God usually does is make it known in the heavens above first. He always declares His works in the heaven before He does on the earth.#66 Like at the birth of the Lord Jesus, who was the first ones come, what declared it first? A star begin to sweep across the skies. The magis come all the way from the East to Jerusalem from over in India, the three magis.

When I was in India, you still see them the same way, set right on the street, what they call the wise men, or the magis, star gazers, as some of them call them.

But God always declares things in the heaven before He does on the earth. And this was a special occasion. Peter, later on in life, referred to it as the Holy Mount.

Now, I don't believe that the apostle meant that the mountain was holy, because it was just a mountain. Battles had been fought there and everything. It wasn't a holy mountain. But it was a holy God on the mountain, not the holy mountain.

We hear so much today about the holy church or the holy people. There is no holy church or holy people; it's the Holy Ghost in the people that makes the holiness. It is not the holy church or the holy people; it's the Holy Ghost in the church.

Now, on this occasion, God chose three to give witness. He took aside Peter, James, and John. And if you notice, always when He went to do something great, He taken those three. Wonder why? Peter, James, John: hope, faith, and charity; the three greatest of the gifts of God: hope, faith and charity. John, of course, being love was charity; and James is hope; and Peter was faith. And He taken hope, faith, and charity to give ... to find out ... or to place in them what He was going to do.

Now, we find out that when He went up to this place, which later was called the “holy mountain”, or “the holy place where God was”, we find that up there, when they got on the mountain, God had three out of heaven to bear record. Upon the mountain was Moses and Elijah and Jesus. Then here on earth was three earth creatures: Peter, James, and John. And there was Moses, Elijah, and Jesus, three witnesses of heaven, three witnesses on the earth.

When God gets ready to do something, He always has a witness of it. I'm so glad today that we can look around before the coming of the Lord and see the witnesses of His appearing, seeing the signs in the church of the near approaching of the Lord Jesus Christ, seeing it word by word fulfilled. Even the last sign that was to be given to the church before the appearing of the Lord Jesus, it's working in the church right now. The last thing....

Remember, He said, “As it was in the days of Sodom, so shall it be in the coming of the Son of man.”

Look what the sinners was doing in Sodom. Look what the Angel of the Lord did when He come down to bear record of it. Watch what the three angels did, all three of them. Look at the world today in its sin. Look at the church today in its condition like Lot. Look at the called-out church having a struggle like Abraham was. The man or woman today that tries to live for God has a struggle to keep on going. You have to press into the kingdom of God.

Oh, it's a pity. But let us look at it. Notice, down there was the sinner. Look what the sin was. Men had so defiled themselves until they had no more common use for the wife. Look at the world today. So much sin has crept into the church and into the nation till it's honeycombed with sin. That's right.

I know this sounds old-fashioned. A minister taking me not long ago aside and said, “Brother Branham, do you know why your ministry is not the greatest ministry in America today?”

And I said, “I don't care what it is in America; I want to know what it is on the books of heaven, up there, what it is there.”

He said, “I will tell you, it's because that you rebuke the people in such a way.” Said, “You bawl them out, and it hurts them.” Said, “If you'd just stop doing that, then,” he said, “your ministry would grow and so forth.”

I said, “Sir, let me tell you something. When it comes to a place that I have to compromise on the Word of God, then I'll stop and leave the field and let God call somebody else to do it.” How can you hold your peace? If you go to be honest, be honest. Tell me one in any age.... Tell me. I said, “You called me a prophet, I don't call.... You said yourself that. You was the one that said it. And then if the Lord anoints me for something, how could I hold my peace then?” How can you do it? Somebody's got to cry out against it. That's right.

God's able to raise up children unto Abraham from the stones. But we must be honest and tell the truth about it. Did you notice.... Oh, certainly, the ministry in America does nothing like it does overseas. Certainly not, because America is a burnt over territory. She's finished. It's raked over and back and forth.

Jesus said the kingdom's like going to the one that took a net and throwed into the sea and gathered from it. Sometimes he had crawfish; he had serpents, and lizards, and frogs, and fish. After while, you don't get nothing but a net full of lizards and frogs. All the fish is already in.

So, we just seine until the last one is seined out, and then Jesus will come. How do we know who they are? You just throw the gospel net and draw it. That's why I come here with my brethren, stand on the corner somewhere and throw the net with them, reach out with my ministry and pull it and say, “There they are, brethren.” What is it?

Now, but this is a burnt over territory. Did you notice back there when I first come to you in Oregon? People was coming from everywhere, thousands times thousands crowding in. Oh, it was fine. I was just going along praying for the sick. But when I come back and begin to lay the truth down, laying the gospel down, oh, many turned aside.

Compare that with the days gone by with our Lord. When He was healing the sick and the afflicted, many people come to Him. When He fed five thousand, many people came. But when He begin to sit down and tell them the truth, what happened? All of them begin to turn away. The seventy even turned.

And He said to the disciples, “Will you go also?”

And Peter made those great words that said, “To whom shall we go?” See?

But now, that didn't stop His miracles. He went right on. A few days after that, He opened a man's eyes that didn't even have eyeballs in the sockets. His miracles got greater but the crowds got less, and He become more less popular until they crucified Him on the cross.

And if we had the Spirit of God, it'll be exactly the same way, because the Spirit of God is the same, and the people remains the same. That's right.

Now, we find out that He was taking these to bear record of what He was going to do. There's certainly something going to happen when God calls His witnesses together. And what He was going to do there, what we call, was the placing of a son.

In the Old Testament, we find out that when a man had a great kingdom and he had a son born into his home, then that son, of course, was a son as soon as he was born. But yet he had no inheritance until he was positionally placed in ... adopted into the family. They call it adoption. Now, that sounds strange.

But now, here's where the Pentecostal church, to my opinion, got off, or stopped, instead of going on. Now, I am Pentecostal, too. And if I didn't have the Holy Ghost, I wouldn't be standing up here telling you about it. And if I didn't love you, I wouldn't be telling you about it.

But look, when a child was born, in the old orthodox home, well, the father had lots of work to do. So, he.... The son was a son as soon as he was born.

Well, that's what the Pentecostal church, as soon as it was borned, or any other church, when it's borned in the kingdom of God, it becomes sons and daughters of God. But we stopped at that. When the Pentecostal church received the gift of speaking in tongues and interpretation, they stopped at that. That's no place to stop; that's the place to begin. Why, we got untapped resources everywhere. All things are possible to them that believe. Every promise in the Bible belongs to us.

The trouble of it is, we can go to our fellow citizens of the kingdom of God, our Methodist and Baptist brethren. You can tell them about divine healing, the power of God; they'll refer back to what did Moody say about it, what did somebody else say about it, looking back.

We can say to the Pentecostal brethren, “Well, what we got back yonder when our forefathers got it fifty years ago....” Don't never look backward; look forward. Keep looking forward. Science don't do that. Science is going to find God before the preacher does, if we don't watch it, in his researches. That's right.

Now, science, some three hundred years ago, a French scientist said, proved it by rolling a ball around, like the earth, and said, “If a man (scientifically proved it), if a person could go the terrific speed of thirty-five miles an hour, gravitation would take him off the earth.”

Now, you think a modern science would listen to that? Certainly not. He's going two thousand miles an hour now. And he's not even stopping at that; he's going on. And we try to look back to see what somebody else said.

All things are possible to them that believe. We've got the untapped resources of God at our hands to display God. We are sons and daughters of God. When God made man, He made him a god. He gave him a dominion over the earth. But his fallen estate dropped that. But what they lost by Adam, it was restored by Christ.

He said, “If you say to this mountain, 'Be moved,' and don't doubt in your heart, but believe that what you said shall come to pass, you can have what you've said.” All things! “Whatsoever you desire, when you pray, believe you receive it and you shall have it.” Amen. He restored to us all that was lost in Adam.

But today, we just think going to church, putting our name on the book, being immersed or sprinkled, or whatever it is, shake hands with the congregation, with the pastor, that settles it. And then we come up to Pentecost. We receive the Holy Ghost; it fell upon us, and we begin shouting and praising God. And the power of God came down, and we spoke in tongues, heard them interpret it, make great quotations, and so forth, and prophesies. That sounds fine, but we just stop. That's just the beginning. Just keep moving on; just keep going on and on and on. God is depending on us.

When this son was born in the home, positionally it was a son, a son of the father. But now, what did that father do? He didn't have time to be with that one son; his business was great. So he hired a tutor or a raiser, teacher. And he searched the land until he found the right kind of a man, because that was his child. And he wanted that child brought up right, because that child would inherit everything that he had someday. But, he looked out all over everywhere, until he could find the right type of a man, not one these men that's trying get a feather in his hat, tell a lie, or, “Oh your child's doing all right” when he wasn't. And he'd have to report the progress of that child. Now, that was placing a son.

The ministers here understand and know what I'm speaking of, the placing of a son, Paul in Galatians and so forth, the placing of a son, the Old Testament.

I think King James had that idea, the translators, when he said, “In my Father's house is many mansions.” A house was a domain. And in the father's house.... Like in the Old Testament, in the father's house he had many servants. And he went to these servants, didn't have time to teach his son, so he got someone else to teach it for him, a right man.

And that's what God was showing us here on what we call Mount Transfiguration, what He was doing Himself. God never asked a man to do anything that He wouldn't do Himself. Remember that. God would not ask you to do nothing unless He did it Himself.

So, notice. Now, when this son was ... begin to come to school age, this tutor would go with this son, and stay with him, and bring message to the father how the son was progressing. If the son was dilatory, not about the father's business, then how that tutor must be ashamed to walk up in the face of the father and say, “Sir, I'm sorry to say, but your son is not doing too well. He just won't ... he won't learn; he doesn't care.”

Well then, God, when He left the earth here, His church, He selected a tutor for His church. He got a raiser, someone who would be honest, who would bear the truth, the right kind of a raiser. It wasn't some archbishop, or pope, or general overseer. He sent the Holy Ghost to be the overseer and the tutor of the church. But we adopted bishops and everything else to be tutors of the church. It isn't God's program. The Holy Spirit is our teacher. The Holy Spirit is a tutor of the church. We've adopted every kind of an idea, all kinds of schools and theologies and everything, when the Holy Ghost ought to be leading us.

Now, that's the reason where the church is in the condition it is tonight. It's being man led and not Spirit led. Sons and daughters of God are led by the Spirit of God. The Spirit of God is to lead the church. Now, man might say anything, but the Holy Spirit will tell the truth on you.

Now, tonight, how do you think that the Holy Spirit must feel when it has to come up before the Father and say, “Father, oh your church, hmmm. You know what? Your church, half of them don't even come to church on Sunday. No, on Wednesday night they stay home to see 'We Love Suzy' (ever what that is on television, you know). They love the things of the world more than they love the praises and power of God.” That's right.

I haven't got nothing against television. There's nice things on there. But when a Christian will stay home from church to see some silly play like that, there's something happened in that person's life. The Holy Spirit's went out somewhere. You're not about the Father's business.

What do you think He does when He comes up before the Father and has to say that His daughters, His children, His lovely daughters is wearing these immoral clothes, what they call shorts? His daughters....

I said that not long ago and a woman said to me; she said, “Listen, Brother Branham.” She met me in the back of the building. She said, “Listen, Brother Branham, I don't wear shorts.”

Well, I said, “That's very good.”

She said, “I do wear slacks.”

I said, “That's worse.” That's right.

The Bible said it's an abomination for a woman to put on a garment that pertains to a man. God don't change. He made a man to look like a man and a woman to look like a woman. But today men are so sissified, they don't know how to dress. That's right. And women, God's daughters, smoking cigarettes, the greatest sabotage that the world ever had.

I'm not afraid of Russia whipping America. America's whipping herself. It ain't the robin that pecks on the apple that hurts it; it's the worm at the core that kills the apple. That's what's the matter with the churches and the nation today. It's sin at the core ... away from God.

Some lady said to me; she said, “Brother Branham, they don't make any more clothes. We have to wear them kind of clothes.”

“Sister, they still make goods, and they make sewing machines. There's no excuse for it at all.”

What's the matter? It's an unclean spirit got on them. It used to be wrong for our Pentecostal women to cut their hair. Now, you hit something, didn't you? What happened? Some of them used to say they had headaches, a lot of headache.

You know, the Bible said if a woman cuts her hair, she dishonors her husband. A dishonorable woman.... It's not right to live with her. I don't mean you're mean; but I mean that the devil and some sissified pulpits, that ought to be out there with a hog caller instead of a preacher, ought to get out and tell the truth about it so that you'll know what's the truth. Is that right, brethren?

I used to have an old Methodist friend that used to sing a song:

We let down the bars,

We let down the bars;

We compromised with sin.

We let down the bars,

The sheep got out;

But how did the goats get in?

What's the trouble: they let down the bars, the old-fashioned standard of the Holy Ghost that leads the church and guides it into all truth. Now, that's the truth. That might be old-fashioned; it might hurt a little bit.

You know, when I was a little boy.... There's one thing I can't stand yet, is castor oil. I can just smell it and I will be sick for a week.

When we was little kids, Mama used to go down there where they'd ... at the shop, butcher shop, get meat skins. And she'd boil them ... or broil them in an old dishpan and get the grease to make the hoecakes, we call them ... corn cakes. And we'd have black-eyed peas, turnip greens, and it was pretty good eating.

But when we just have that dinner, breakfast, and supper, then it.... We'd, every Saturday night, all of us little kids would have to take a bath. I remember Mom bring us in, have a big, old cedar tub. And they'd start with the baby got a bath first. And there was ten of us. I got the last one, the same water, just add a little more, warm it up. And then, all of us kids in school had to take a dose of castor oil.

Oh, when it come my time, I'd hold my nose. I'd say, “Mama, Mama, please don't. Oh, it just makes me so sick.”

I remember that little old southern mammy of mine, she'd say, “But look, Billy, if it doesn't make you sick, it doesn't do you any good.”

And that's the way I preach the gospel. If this makes you sick, it might stir up some of your gastronomics of the Bible and get things started. That's right. That's right. We need the old-fashioned gospel; we need the power of God, the Holy Ghost back in, and all the Hollywood and television stars moved out.

You know, lady, I want to say something to you. I'm going to get to the men, just a minute. But, lady, I want to say something to you. Did you know that's an unclean spirit come on you? Do you know a little lady goes down the street all sexy-dressed, do you know that woman's going to have to answer for committing adultery? Well, she might be as pure as a lily to her boyfriend, or to her husband. But the Bible said ... Jesus said, “Whosoever looketh upon a woman to lust after her hath committed adultery with her already in his heart.”

And then, if you dress like that and some sinner looks at you in that way, at the day of the judgment when he answers for committing adultery, it'll be with you. And it'll be your fault, because you presented yourself to him. You might not come back tomorrow night, but you're going to hear it one time, see. That's right. That's right. It's a evil, unclean spirit.

And what do you think the Holy Spirit thinks when He comes before the Father to say that His children are acting like that?

Years ago, down in the South when they used to take the colored people and sell them for slaves.... That never was right. No, sir. God made man; man made slaves. And they used to come by and buy them poor people just like you would out here on the used car lot, just get a bill of sales and sell them. There used to be brokers that come by and see those people. And they'd take those great, big burly men away from their wife and breed them to a bigger woman, or something or other, and bring a better set of slaves.

Remember Abraham Lincoln when he took off his hat and pounded his hands like that, said, “That's wrong and someday I will hit it.” God give us a president like Abraham Lincoln again. Yes. When he said that, he was right.

I remember sometime ago, here in Illinois, I was at a museum. And I seen an old, colored man going along there, a little rim of hair around the back of his head. He was looking through a museum, and after while, he stopped, and he looked. He stooped back and begin to cry, and tears running down his face. He was praying. I watched him for a few minutes; I walked up close to him; I said, “How do you do, Uncle?”

And he said, “How do you do?”

And I said, “I'm a minister.” I said, “I would just like to know why you were praying. What excited you?”

He said, “Come here.”

Looked in under a little glass and there laid a dress. I said, “It's a dress. I don't see nothing so outstanding about that, wouldn't make a man jump back and say a prayer.”

He said, “But look. I've still got the marks of a slave belt around me.” He said, “And that's the blood of Abraham Lincoln; and the blood of Abraham Lincoln took that slave belt off of me. Wouldn't it excite you too?”

I stood back, and I said, “If the blood of Abraham Lincoln would excite a slave from taking a belt off of him, what ought the blood of Jesus Christ to do when it's preached in its power before a church that claims to be borned again. What should it do?”

One day when they were.... [Blank spot on tape.] And they'd take whips and whip them to make them work. And they noticed one young man in this certain plantation. They didn't have to whip him. Brother, he had his chest out, his chin up, he was right about it.

And this broker said, “I'd like to buy that slave.”

“Oh, but,” the owner said, “he's not for sale.”

He said, “Well, he's so much different from the rest of them.”

Said, “Yes, I have learned that.”

“Well,” said, “I suppose he's the boss over all of them.”

Said, “No, he's just a slave.”

He said, “Well, maybe you feed him better than you do the rest of them.”

He said, “No, they all eat out there in the galley together.”

He said, “Well, what makes him so much different than what the rest of them is?”

And the owner said, “I wondered that for a long time, too. But I come to find out, over in the homeland where he come from, his father is a king of the tribe. And yet, he's an alien in another country here, away from home, but he knows he's the son of a king. And he conducts himself like one.”

Brother, sister, if an African man in an alien country could conduct himself, behaving to a son of a king, ought we not as sons and daughters of God to act like it and conduct ourselves as sons and daughters of God, when our Father is the King? Then the women ought to dress like daughters of God. That's right.

And men.... Oh, my. Any man that will let his wife wear shorts and smoke cigarettes, I got little opinion of him being a man. That's right. He's supposed to be the head of the house. It shows who's boss around there. That's exactly right. Yes, oh.

Man ain't measured by muscles; that's beast. Man's measured by character. I've seen men that weighed two hundred pounds and all muscle and didn't have an ounce of man in him. Throw a baby out of a mother's arms and ravish her. That ain't a man; that's a beast. That's brute. Man is character. There never was a man like Jesus Christ.

But the Bible said there was no beauty that we should desire Him. Probably a little, bitty fellow, stooped in the shoulder or something. We all hid as it was our faces from Him. But there never was a character like that. That's what real man is. You don't measure a man's muscles, but by the bags of the knees in his pants where he's been praying. That's the way you measure a man, by character. It's true.

Oh, how the Holy Spirit must blush to come up before the Father saying, “You know what? Your servants are compromising. They're beginning to say, 'The days of miracles is past. There's no such a thing as divine healing. And we don't need all that shouting, and speaking in tongues, and gifts. Let's just be a church.' Took all the glory from the power in the church and maybe turned it into an organization of some sort.”

That's all right. But as long as the organization stays with the power of God, God bless that organization. That's the reason I'm Pentecostal today, because I think it's got more power of God in it than any organization I ever seen. But when the Pentecostal power leaves the Pentecostal church, I will go with it. That's right, certainly. Stay with God.

When the Israelites followed, they followed the pillar of fire. Every time it stopped, they camped right under it. Martin Luther was the first one to see the fire leave the Roman church. And he went out with the fire under justification. “The just shall live by faith.” He built his organization, put down all of his creeds and dotted it, a period. “This is all. We believe this is Lutheran.” First thing you know, the pillar of fire begin to move out. Luther couldn't move with it. Why? Because he's already got his creeds set up. His church is organized. Everything's around it.

John Wesley saw it. Sanctification, the second work of grace, and away he went after it. And he burnt the world down, brought justification to England and America. All the great men.... One of the greatest revivals we ever had was the Wesleyan revival, numbered among of the greatest we ever had.

But what did they do after they found sanctification? They built their organization under it, drawed a little pen, “We Methodists believe this, and this, and this, and this, and end their doctrine with a period. That's what we believe.”

The Angel of the Lord moved out. Well, the Methodists couldn't go with it. And the Pentecostals saw it: The baptism of the Holy Ghost, the restoration of the gifts. Here they went just as hard as they could go, left the Methodists right in the shade; Pilgrim Holiness, Nazarenes, and them who wouldn't go on; went right on with it. And when the.... First thing you know.... Now what's happened to Pentecost? It's built it a little club.

But the pillar of fire moved right out. Let's follow it. Take our churches, take our brethren, let's take Lutheran, Baptist, Methodist. Pentecost, I've said, is not an organization; Pentecost is an experience. I was a Baptist, and I got the Pentecostal blessing. There's Methodist, Lutheran, and all sorts here that's getting the Holy Ghost; Catholics, Jews, infidels, anything that'll come and believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and accept Him in the fullness of His power.

He's the tutor of the church. He's the One. Let the Holy Spirit live in the church and make way. That's when you'll have real meetings. Listen to your pastor. Let him not, let.... See, if the devil can't keep you from seeing the real thing of God, he will push you off the deep end with it, like that. He will make you go to a fanatic. You don't have to be fanatical. There's too much real and real genuine to have to be a fanatic. My, the whole Pentecostal skies are full of it.

But listen to your pastor, a good God-sent man, a teacher that'll send and tell you just exactly what to do, because himself is anointed with the Holy Ghost. And watch him; he will stay right smack with the Word. Exactly what the Word says, he will stay right with it. And God will bless that Word. I don't care where it's at; He'll bless it because He promised He would do it. That's right. He will stay.

You stay right on the Word. And that Word is life. And every time you receive the Word, you receive life. Take it into your heart and believe it as your own possession. Every promise is yours. God gave you a checkbook when you received the Holy Ghost with Jesus' name wrote at the bottom of it, for whatsoever you desire. Are you afraid to fill it out?

“Ask what you will in my name, God will give it to you.” I like that. Oh, my, stand there with just unadulterated faith. Ask and believe, and it shall come to pass. That's the way to do it.

Now, when the father would walk up before, or the tutor would go before the father.... Now, remember, He will not get some guy that'll just try to pull strings and straws and, “Well, I will tell you, he's a good fellow. He's a good payer in the church, and we can't put him off the deacon board, though he's been married three or four times. But we just can't do it, because if we do, he's the main support to the church.” He's a hindrance to the church, absolutely.

What we need today is a real, genuine, cleaned-up, Holy Ghost-filled church, packed up with the Holy Ghost, ready, filled, and unctionized with God's Holy Spirit. Yes, sir. I believe that if we fail to preach it, God will raise up the Baptists or Presbyterians or somebody to do it. He certainly will, because He's going to have a church there without spot or wrinkle. He will do it.

So, brethren, let's just shake ourself, and rise out of the dust, and shake ourselves, and get in the grand, old gospel way and march up the highway. That's the only thing to do is “Onward Christian Soldiers.” No time to slack, or be easy now, let's start going for the kingdom of God.

Now, we find out then.... What if this boy was a fine boy? Oh, how the tutor must have enjoyed to walk up before the Father and say, “Father, I am so glad to tell you. You know, that boy of Yours is just exactly like You are. You know, he will read Your Word, and he will say, 'That's just exactly the truth. That's what my Father said. My Father can't lie. I believe it just the way He said it.'”

Oh, how the Father must say, “That's my boy.” See? Now, that's what God wants to do to us.

Now, if that boy was born (now listen), if that boy was born in the home as a son but he did not become a right boy, would not follow his father's instructions, would not be about his father's business, that boy was always a son. But he never did have any inheritance. Did you know that? He never got any inheritance. He was just a castaway. He was always a son.

And when you get the Holy Ghost, you're God's son or God's daughter. That's true enough. But if you don't obey God, walk in the light, walk in the Word, believe God, then you won't have any inheritance. Well, that's just exactly the way God does it yet.

Now, notice this. Now, what if the boy was a righteous gentleman? He just loved his father. He loved to be about his father's business. He liked to see all the vineyards straightened up just right, every man at his post of duty. And he found a man shirking. He walked over to him and put his arms around him and said, “The other day, why, Father, he walked over there and he seen this man was shirking on the job. So he walked over and put his hand on his shoulder and said, 'Sir, you are my father's servant.' See? And begin.... Just like you would've done.”

Oh, father say, “You know, I really like that boy. That's my son.” As we call it in America, the chip off the block, you know? “He's my boy. I'm proud of him.”

You know what happened then when that boy become a certain age? That boy was adopted into the family. Now, what did they do? They took him out in a public place, put a special robe on him, and had a ceremony. And all the people of the city gathered around and looked. And then they looked upon this boy, and the father had a ceremony of adoption. After.... Oh, don't miss this. After that son was adopted, his name on the checkbook was just as good as his daddy's.

There's where God's trying to get His church. Just say to this mountain, “Be moved” and it will move. Authority! Sons of God! The whole creation's groaning, waiting for the manifestation of the sons of God, waiting to a spot to where that the sickness will be a “Arise!” and it will be that way. The blind will receive their sight. Deaf and dumb; we pray for them now, but then you'll command it. Didn't say, “These signs shall follow them that believe, they shall pray for the sick.” He said, “They shall cast out devils.” Not, “I will”: “They will.”

“If you say to this mountain (not ”If I say“) ... if you say to this mountain, 'Be moved,' and don't doubt in your heart! What we need is adoption. Sons and daughters needs adoption.

But how can the church (the Pentecostal church, and the Methodist and Baptist churches) be adopted until they come to discipline? We've got to be disciplined first. God could not trust this power with the church. It's hard to tell what you would do.

How could a father trust his business with a boy that might simply pollute his whole inheritance? He couldn't do it. The church has got to come to a place to where it's disciplined. God's on that work right now: discipline.

Now, he took that son out, and he made a ceremony. And he said, “This is my son, and I adopt him into my family. Whatever he says, I say it, too.”

Now, God was doing the same thing there to Jesus. He was doing just exactly what He required them to do. Jesus had pleased Him. And He took Him up and took three earthy witnesses, Peter, James and John (Hope, Faith, and Charity), brought Moses and Elijah down to witness this great adoption. And what was He done? The Bible said that He was transfigured. And His raiment shined like the sun, a special robe. Amen. A special robe, a special anointing!

And when they looked up, they saw Him shining in the glory of God. And a voice said, “This is My beloved Son; hear ye Him.” Oh, my!

What God wants to do with the church tonight, wants to do with an individual, is find somebody. Finding.... The Holy Spirit is searching to find men. He can take him out to a certain place, speak to that person, anoint them and give them something special, great powers and gifts to work His will and to do His will.

But how can He do it, when He's constantly has to come and say, “Oh, it's terrible. They just run after this. They run after error. They won't go to church. They....” Look what a condition the church is in.

So, if God can't do it to the body, He will pick out individuals and do it. God's able of the stones to rise children to Abraham.

Notice, just as soon as the first supernatural pang happened, Peter was so much like the world today. As soon as the supernatural was done, the great miracle was done.... Well, just like in the days of Moses, there was a mixed multitude.

Moses went down into Egypt. And when he went down there, what happened? He done some miracles. And when he did, the believer and unbeliever all come together, because miracles excites the people. And there was a mixed multitude went with them, and that same mixed multitude polluted the camp. Amen. [Unclear words] ... or what?

That was the very thing that ruined Israel in its march, was that mixed multitude. And if that wasn't the very type of today, I don't know what. A mixed multitude, mixed believers and unbelievers.... Take them into the church, just as long they'll come and be baptized, that's all that's necessary. Brother, you're supposed to be dead before you're buried. Mixed multitude.

And Peter got all excited. And he said right quick as soon as he seen the supernatural. H said, “Let's build here three tabernacles,” right quick. Same thing Luther did, same thing Wesley did, and same thing our Pentecostal brethren, all of us did.

“Oh, we will make a Pentecostal this, and a Pentecostal this, and a Pentecostal this. We will make our organization. And well, these believes He's coming on a white horse.”

“Well, we don't. We believe He's coming on a white cloud.”

“Well, let them go; they're not of us.”

Oh, there you are. The supernatural done. And then here come.... The Lord gives some gifts and sent some men out not long ago, our gracious brother Tommy Osborn, and Brother Roberts, and some of them. And when they went out and the supernatural begin to be done, they just couldn't stay in their organization and move on. The first thing you know, they had to go make them a latter rain, and a former rain, and a inner rain, and an outer rain, and oh, my, my; rain, rain, rain, rains.

What is it? The supernatural's done, and a mixed multitude starts. That's right. It excites the people. A mixed multitude goes with them.

Now, listen. While Peter was yet speaking, he was still speaking when he said, “Let us build three tabernacles; one for Moses, and one for Elijah, and one for Jesus.”

And before he could even get through speaking.... Watch what the Scriptures says: “While he yet spake, the voice spoke out of heaven and said, 'Forget it.' [Otherwise, 'This is my beloved Son. Hear ye him.'] Don't hear Moses.” I'm glad of that. I'm so glad. Moses represented the law. The law couldn't save nobody. The law was a policeman. The law condemns and put you in a jail; it couldn't get you out. Grace brings you out. But the law puts you in jail; it condemns you. Grace brings you out.

Then he said, “I will build another tabernacle. We'll build one for all those who wants to keep the law and let them go over here. And they'll have an organization over here, the law keepers. Then we'll have those who believes in a prophets.”

Now, what did Elijah represent? He represented God's justice. He was a mighty prophet. He went up on top of the mountain. The Lord sent him up there. Somebody got to meddling with the Lord's business, telling him where to go and what to do.

And Elijah raised up and said, “If I be a man of God, let fire fall from heaven and burn them up.” And a fire come down and burned up a fifty. Well, they went back and told the king.

He said, “Oh, what that was, they probably is a heat storm, you know, or something or other. They struck by lightning. I'll send another fifty.”

So he sent another fifty, and Elijah raised up and said, “If I be a man of God, let fire fall from heaven and consume them.” And another fifty went. Wasn't no heat storm that time, you see. See, they just didn't understand. But it was God's justice.

I don't want His justice. I don't want His law. I want His mercy. Mercy's what I plead. Oh, Lord, don't judge me by no law. I will be condemned; I can't stand. Don't give me justice; I ought to be.... I ought to go to hell, because I'm a sinner. But, Lord, give me Your mercy, Your love, Your grace.

God said, “This is My beloved Son. Hear Him (not Moses, not justice, not the law). But hear Him; He's got mercy for you. He's got gifts for you. He ascended on high and give gifts to men. And God's did just exactly what He did with His Son when He adopted Him there.

“Now, in otherwise, don't hear Me no more. I'm God, but I've adopted My Son. No man can come to the Father but by the Son. Hear ye Him.” Oh, my, how God wants to take His church today and adopt it. He's give it birth; now He wants to adopt it. But we just won't stand still. If it raises up amongst the Methodist, the Baptist will have nothing to do with it. It raises up amongst one church, the other one won't have nothing to do with it. It's a twist and a twirl. Why? It's a mixed multitude. It's still the same thing.

What we need today is a coming together, and a prayer meeting, and a staying there until God sends the adoption of the Holy Spirit, brings the Holy Ghost down and places in the church apostles, prophets, teachers, evangelists, pastors. That's what we need. That's what the church needs. It won't compromise; it'll stay with the Word, a church that won't flirt with the world, a church that will have nothing to do with sin, that'll turn it's back on sin, that'll walk in the holiness and beauty of God, living for God. Live or die, what difference does it make, as long as I'm for God. What difference does it make?

God's trying to get that in the church. He's trying to do it. He does it now and then just to show the people that He's doing it. And why is it, when God shakes those gifts before the church, and then the church, like I said the other night, like the baby with the woman in the ten-cent store seems to not even paying attention to it?

Friday, Saturday, Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, five nights.... This great, big area here and two hundred empty seats in a twelve hundred auditorium. Hungering and thirsting for righteousness.... See what I mean? I'm not scolding you. But I'm just bringing you a truth. That's it.

You know what's the matter? It's because that people will come to church. The people today wants entertainment. They've been.... American people is so entertained, that that's what they have to have. That feeds the spirit that's in them. It's an entertained spirit. You have to entertain them.

God don't entertain people. He rebukes people. Judgment begins at the house of God. And when it comes to the time that the church has to have soup suppers, and dances, and bunco games, and all kinds of nonsense of rummage sales to pay their preacher, God have mercy on that church. That's right. Hmm!

We need the Holy Ghost in power and adoption, that our ministry will speak out. Amen. But the people, when they go to see something, they go to see a certain ministry. “Here this brother's got a certain ministry.”

Well, they go over and say, “Oh, yeah, that's pretty good. Uh-huh. It's okay. Well, okay, where we going tomorrow?”

Something else, see. It don't even attract them at all. They've just seen so much of the goodness of God, until they just haphazardly walk away from it.

It reminds me of an old English story. Said one time there was a man who had read about the sea, how beautiful it was, how magnificent the great, salty, briny waves would leap, and the gulls would fly over. And what a wonderful thing; he had never saw the sea. And so, one day he got enough money till he was going to the sea. He come down through the interior, till he got close to the seashore. And he met an old salt (and that's a sailor) coming from the sea.

And he said, “Where goest thou, my good man?”

He said, “Oh, I have read of the sea. I'm going to the sea. I'm going to look with my own eyes, upon it's beautiful, magnificent waves as they break and the big, salty, white brine. I'm going to smell the salt air and fill my lungs full, then hear the scream of the sea gulls and so forth.” Oh, how he was so elated to know that he was going to get to see the great body of water.

So, the old salt looked at him and said, “Well, I was born on it fifty years ago. I don't see nothing that's so alarming about it.” See? He had saw it so much, until it become so common to him, it wasn't pretty anymore. It wasn't nothing to it. He just stood there, and rocked over the waves, and paid no attention to it.

Now, that's the way the church has got about God. We see the Spirit of God in a revival fall, and shake people, and get up out of wheelchairs. And the lame walk, and the blind see, and the Spirit of God fall into the meeting, discern the very thoughts in their hearts. And great prophetic things will go forth, that's perfect every time, just exactly. And the church say, “Well, that's all right.” Big wad of chewing gum, sitting there, you know, “Yes, that's all right. But we're going to see Lucy tomorrow night, and we just ain't going to.... (See?) The pastor wants to condemn us. Let him condemn us. We will go over to this other denomination, if he wants to condemn us. We will go over and join the.... If they run us out of the church of God, we will go with the Assemblies. They run us out of the Assemblies, we will go at the Oneness. Run us out of the Oneness, we will go at the Twoness. And.... Run us out of the Twoness, we will go at the Threeness. And we got plenty of room, see.”

Yes, you got room. But, brother, there's just room for Christ and you if you want to come to Him. Oh, God have mercy on the church of this day. I will stop after tonight, because I don't want to make you angry. But I just had to use these nights to drill this into you, to let you know that the church is in a terrible condition. It certainly is. Our zeal.... We're just slothful, you know, just sloppy like. God don't want us to be like that. He wants us....

I think of this:

Tell me not, in mournful numbers,

Life is just an empty dream!

The soul is dead that slumbers,

And things are not what they seem.

Life is real! And life is earnest!

And the grave is not its goal;

For dust thou art, to dust returnest,

Was not spoken of the soul.

I like this certain verse of that Psalm of Life:

Lives of great men all remind us

(Paul, Peter, James, John)

Lives of great men all remind us

We can make our lives sublime,

With partings leave behind us

Footprints on the sands of time.

Footprints that perhaps another,

While sailing over life's solemn main,

For a forlorn and shipwrecked brother,

In seeing your footprints shall take

heart again.

How many drunkards would see the footprints of a drunkard that was converted and living saintly and godly? How many women would take hold when they seen a royal woman stand up, dressed like a lady, and act like a lady, and going to church, and her whole heart give to God? That's when you're sealed. That's when you're marked. Everybody knows you.

You're the salt of the earth, but if the salt has lost its savor. It's henceforth good for nothing, be cast out under ... trod under foot of man.

“God, let the Pentecostal church live,” is my prayer. Let Him bring us into a place.... I wished He'd do it right here tonight. I wished He'd take this group right in here tonight and adopt us, adopt us as His sons and daughters. We're born His sons and daughters, but let Him adopt us as sons and daughters. What a powerful meeting this would turn out to be. How God would set gifts in this church right here tonight that would.... Why, by this time day after tomorrow night, there's something.... Everybody around here would know something was going on over at this schoolhouse here. It certainly would. They would know it, because that the Spirit of God was living among the people.

Oh, how I want to do that. Don't you want that, every one of you? Don't be angry with me by just getting so rude with it. But as I've always said, my brother here says (he's a carpenter), “If you don't drive a nail down hard, it won't hold; it'll shake right loose.” So, I hope this don't shake loose. I hope it stays right there, right there. And you hold right on to it with both hands.

It reminds me, years ago I used to go up in Colorado in the early seasons to hunt. And I like to hunt elk and deer. And I'd take my vacation. And one day, I seen a scene up there that I've never forgotten. Been several years ago, I was up on the rim behind the Continental Divide. And there's what they call the Troublesome River. I used to ranch in there in the ... at the east and west fork forms of Troublesome River, and Hereford Association grazes the valley. If you can raise a ton of hay, you can put a cow on the pasture. And each ranch is cut up with so many tons of hay, and you (I guess that's the same way you have it here in Oregon) you put your cow in the pasture.

And I used to go up there at the round-up time, when they was taking the spring cattle and drive them up. And there was a drift fence dividing from private-owned property to government. And I would sit there, my leg across the horn of the saddle, and watch the ranger when he was standing there, watching those cattle go through.

Now, ours was a tripod, and Mr. Grimes up there was a diamond bar. And, oh, they had twenty or thirty different ranchers had run their cattle through.

Now, I noticed that rancher never did pay much attention to what brand was on the cow. You know what he looked at it? He looked for the blood tag in the ear, see. The genuine Hereford or he couldn't go on that pasture.

And I think that's the way God's going to do at the day of judgment. He's not going to care whether you belong to the Assemblies, or to the Church of God, or to whatever you belong to. He's going to look for that blood tag, brother. And if that's on there, you'll go in. If not, I don't care what brand you're wearing, you'll be turned down. That's all.

So, one day up, way up in the mountain, the old rancher I were very good friends, good hunter. And he'd took the pack horse and went over on the west fork. And I was down on the east fork, what we call Corral Peaks. And it hadn't snowed yet ... or enough to stay on. It was early. And the snowstorms hadn't come, so the animals were up high.

And I tied my horse and got a day's journey up around close to timberline. And so, it come up, one of those autumn, October storms. And then maybe it'll rain just as hard as it can rain, and then sleet, then snow, then the sun come out, and then rain again. (You know how it is in the fall.) And it come a storm. And I was way up high, timberline; too dry to find tracks.

So, I got behind a tree and just kind of hunkered myself behind a tree like this. (If that's an awful expression.) But, I was standing behind the tree to set my rifle down. The storm went past. And after the storm went past, it turned cool while the storm was going on. And it rained real hard. And after the storm, I was standing there thinking about God.

I thought, “Oh, God, how wonderful You are.” I always see God in nature. That's where you see Him. I thought, “You're so wonderful, Lord. Oh I wished You'd just come down upon me here and let me go home from here.” I thought, “Let....”

When I die, say the Indians' prayer over me when I die: “Lord God, great Spirited Father, may He wander down the long game trails and meet His loved ones on that side.”

I thought, “Yes, Lord, let me go to a land like this when I leave this world.”

And I was just standing there; the storm let up. And I was studying real hard, so I raised up, looked around. And I happened to notice, that I looked out across that way towards the west, towards Oregon this way, and the crevice in the mountains, getting late in the afternoon. The sun coming through there like a great big eye, like God: “His eye is on the sparrow.”

I thought, “Oh, God, there You are in the sunset.”

And then I looked and where the rain had froze on the evergreen, there formed a rainbow, coming across the valley. Way up on top of the mountain the old, gray wolf howled. The mate answered it down in the bottom. The old, bull elk begin to bugle. He'd got lost during the time of the storm like that. You talk about deep calling to the deep. Oh, my.

I thought, “Why would I ever have to leave this place? This is home to me. I wish I could stay here forever.”

I felt like Peter did, “Let us build three tabernacles, and just stay here. This is the place to stay.”

I heard God in that wolf call, calling to his mate. I thought, “Yes, God, that's You calling to me.” I heard the elk the same way, seen the rainbow come across, and I thought, “Rainbow means the covenant. You're Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end, the both ends of the rainbow, He that was and which come, root and offspring of David, the morning star, the lily of the valley, the rose of Sharon.” Oh, my, what all He was.

And I thought, “In the rainbow, a covenant, as they seen Him in Revelations 1, there to look upon as a rainbow, as first and last. Benjamin to.... And from Reuben to Benjamin, first and last and all....” It just.... Scripture just pouring in, I thought, “Oh, God, You're so great. You're so great.”

I begin stomping my feet up-and-down, and around and around that tree I went, just as hard as I could go, just as fast as I go, screaming, “Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Hallelujah!” Just running like that. I stopped; and I said, “Oh, God, how great You are. Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Hallelujah!” Oh, I was like the whole Salvation Army up there. I was having a good time. I wasn't paying attention to what anybody else. Why, I was thirty-five, forty miles from civilization. I was shouting to the Lord.

You don't believe Baptists shout? You ought've heard me. So I was a running around that place, just as hard as I could go, a-shouting the praises of God. I thought, “Oh, how wonderful. How I would like to stay here, Lord. Oh, if I never had another campaign, just stay right here with You, till You come and get me. How wonderful.”

But, just like Peter and them was on that day, down at the bottom of the mountain was a sick boy to be healed. So I know I had to go back in a few days. And I was standing there. And all at once, a little, old, pine squirrel (I don't whether you have them here or not).... Oh, he's the blue coat policeman of the woods, the noisiest thing I ever heard, jumped upon.... There's an old blow down there, and he jumped up on the stump and begin to going, “Chatter, chatter, chatter. Chatter, chatter, chatter. Chatter, chatter, chatter.”

And I thought, “What you so excited so about, little fellow? Why, you're not big enough to do anything. So what are you hollering about?” I said, “What are you carrying on about? Or, did I scare you? If you didn't like that, watch this a little bit. Let me show you how I really can carry on.” And around and around the tree I went again. I thought, “How do you like that?” I said, “Oh, my, our Creator's wonderful. You ought to praise Him.” But I noticed he wasn't watching me. He'd cock his little head sideways, and that eye bugged out on his cheek, you know, looking down like that.

And after while, crawling out of there.... The wind had forced down a big, brown eagle. Oh, they're a beautiful bird. I like an eagle. And he jumped up on that. And I thought, “Oh, that's what it was. Uh-huh. That's what you was carrying on about. You was scared of that eagle.”

That big eagle jumped up on there, and oh, what a mammoth, big fellow. Them big, gray-looking eyes batting around.... I thought, “Lord, why did You call my attention from the rainbow, and from the wolf, and all this, just for this here? What's godly about that eagle?” And I thought, “I don't see nothing godly about that little old squirrel. And I don't see nothing godly about the eagle. What's so godly about him?”

And I begin to notice. I thought.... I looked at him; I said, “Did you know I could shoot you?” I said, “Here sits my gun; I could shoot you.” He knowed better than that. That didn't bother him a bit. I thought, “Aren't you scared of me? Was you scared because I was shouting like that? That was our Creator. I just praise Him. You ought to, too.”

And I just.... Somebody come in the woods, they'd thought they had an insane person out there. But I didn't care. I was having a good time. I was worshipping the Lord. That's what's the matter with you, you got too much starch and too much fear. We need God. We need to recognize that there's nobody here but me and God. That's all. That's all. And that's right.

We begin to wonder, “What's the neighbor going to say about me?” Well, live right, and the neighbor will know what's coming off anyhow when they go with you.

So then, I listen to that little old squirrel, you know. And I watched him there. And that eagle.... I thought, “What makes you so sure of yourself?”

And I begin to notice him. He'd make them big wings, you know, them feathers, ruffle them like that, you know, kind of straightening them out. I thought, “I see. Uh-huh. You got confidence in them wings. You know before I could get my hand on that rifle and it to my shoulder, you'd be in that timber there and I never even see you no more.” See?

And I thought, “If you can have that much confidence in them wings, because God give you wings to escape danger, how much ought the church of God to have in the power of God that can make them escape sickness, and diseases, and troubles, and death, and hell, and fly away to God someday in the arms of the Lord Jesus.” Just.... I thought, “He just keep feeling. As long as he could feel them wings in running order, he was all right. He knowed where he was standing.”

And yet the Holy Ghost can fall upon the church, and they'll draw it back out. “Oh, I don't know. If you pray for me again, maybe it'll be all right.” See? That's just.... Oh, my, it's awful.

I watched him there a little while. I will tell you what happened to this fellow. I watched him a little while, looked there, and I thought, “Oh, I admire you. I see You in that eagle, God.”

And so, after while, he wasn't as afraid of me, and he'd seen.... I admired him. I admire anything that's got some backbone to it. I hate to see a person come to church and just, oh, all praises and everything, go back out and ashamed to testify on the street, ashamed to ask the blessing on the food that you eat in the restaurant, or.... Oh, my. Cowardly, God can't use a coward; He wants men. He wants to take that wishbone out and put a backbone in there.

Like old Buddy Robinson said, “Lord, give me the backbone the size of a saw log. Put plenty of knowledge in the gable end of my soul, and help me to fight the devil as long as I got a tooth, and then gum him till I die.” So that's the kind of a testimony we all ought to have. You remember Buddy Robinson, many of the old Nazarene brethren?

Now, I looked at that old eagle and I thought, “Well, you know, you're really a gracious bird. I like you real well. I preached about you many times.” And I said, “I sure like you real well.”

He got tired of listening to that old pine squirrel going, “Chatter, chatter, chatter. Chatter, chatter, chatter,” like he was going to tear him up. Why, he couldn't do nothing; he's too little. He got enough of it, so he just made one big bounce, flopped his wings about twice, and then I cried.

I stood there and the tears running down my cheeks when I watched that eagle. How God must've placed him there for a purpose. He never flopped his wings. He just got above the timber, about twice, and then he just knowed how to set his wings in that wind. And every time a gush of wind would come up, he'd go a little higher, a little higher, and a little higher, till he become just a little spot.

He left that little, old, earth-bound pine squirrel sitting there saying, “Chatter, chatter, chatter. Days of miracles is past. No such a thing as the Holy Ghost. All there ain't no.... This speaking in tongues is all wrong. No such a thing as Pentecost. That was way back yonder a long time ago.” He just knowed how to set his wings in the power of wind. How ought the church know how to set your faith in the power of God, not jump from one church to another, but ride away on the glory of God, until you're past the hearing of this, “Days of miracles is past. No such a thing as the Holy Ghost.” Nonsense!

What do you think about that, lady? You believe that to be the truth? Do you believe that too, sister? If you do, you can fly away from them stretchers tonight if you want to.

Just.... It ain't: go to this meeting, go to that one, have this one pray for you, that one pray you, this certain preacher, that certain evangelist. Just set your wings. Set your faith. “I shall not be moved.” Hallelujah! And every time the Holy Ghost comes in, ride up on it; go higher and higher and higher and higher.

That's it. You believe that with all your heart? If you believe it, brother, just know how to set your wings. God promised; God can't lie; God's all truth. If I could heal you, I'd do it. I can't heal nobody. I don't believe there's anybody else can heal anybody. But it's you, yourself, you, yourself, that's got faith in God. The Holy Spirit's just been falling constantly in gush over this building tonight (You believe that? Sure.), even rebuking and chastising His church and cleaning it out. That's what God wants to do.

The old beaters of gold.... You know how they used to know it was real, good gold? They would take that gold, and would beat it, and beat it, and turn it, and beat it, till they beat all the dross out of it. You know how they know when they got the dross out of it? When they seen their own reflection in it, then they knowed that all the pyrite and stuff was out of it. All the rock and the materials was out. It was pure gold when the beater could see his reflection.

That's the way Christ is doing to His church. He's beating it, and turning it, and beating it, and turning it, and beating it. How dare a preacher to be sissy enough not to tell the Word of God and tell men and women when they're living wrong. Tell them it's wrong to wear these immoral clothes. It's wrong to smoke cigarettes. It's wrong to stay home from church. It's wrong to go to gambling, and racing, and carrying on the way the church is doing today, and playing lotteries and things. God forbid when I have to do that. No, sir.

Beat that thing until.... Jesus beats it with the Holy Ghost until He sees His own reflection in it. Then you can see the works of Christ being performed in the church; then she's ready for the rapture; pure gold. Do you believe that, all of you?

All right, how many sick people is in here? Raise up your hands. You said you was believers didn't you? All right, I'm going to ask you to do something. You two pastors, want you go come down to this cot. You two pastors, want you go over to this cot. Show you it ain't man. Amen.

Now, these men are men that believe. These others do also, but I chose those two. Two is a witness. All right. How many of the rest of you believe now? All right. Now, is God's Word right? Sure it is. It's right. Now, the prayer of faith shall save the sick. Is that right? These signs shall follow them that believe. Is that right? Now, if that isn't right, then you're not saved. The same God said it, see. So you're not saved; there's no heaven; there's no hereafter if that isn't right.

“These signs shall follow them that believe: if they lay hands on the sick, they shall recover.” Now, every person that's a believer.... It didn't say these signs shall follow ministers. “These signs shall follow them (whoever they are) that believe: if they lay their hands on the sick, they shall recover.”

Waiting for prayer for the baby, are you, sister? Was the baby sick or something, you wanted it prayed for? The baby is very sick. You a minister, brother? All right, go put your hand onto that little red-head baby down there. I'm looking around to see if I can see somebody else that's wants hands on them.

All right. Now, usually we take discernment. And we could have that right now, too. Oh, sure, certainly. That's just all right, if we believe it. But you have to believe it. “If thou canst believe, all things are possible.”

Now, remember that if we pray and ask God sincerely, this church.... Now, we're a unit; we're together. If we ask God sincerely, then God's obligated to take care of what we asked. Is that right?

“If you ask anything in my name, I will do it.” Is that truth? Just wait. Is that truth? Sure. I will trust my soul with it. I have done it. Thirty-one years, I've lived in expectation on these ... on Saint John 5:24. If you want to read it, just think of a handful or two dozen eggs, see.

Saint John 5:24: “He that heareth My word and believeth on Him on that sent Me has eternal life, and shall not come into the judgment but is passed from death to life.”

I believe that. As a young boy, I become a minister, just a boy. I preached ever since. Give my life for the gospel. I wished I had a ten thousands lives to give for it. It's really wonderful. I enjoy it, every bit. Now, you can.... If that isn't so, then ... if that isn't so, then this other isn't so. If this isn't so, then that isn't so. If this is that, then that's this, see. So we're ready. Are you ready to pray?

All right, now, every person in here, I want you to lay hands on somebody by you. And brethren, I want each one at the foot and one at the head of these stretchers here, lay your hands on the little ... and on the little boy there, on these people. Now, let's stand.

Oh, my, I just love this kind of a moment. Just something.... Everybody breathless like, “What's going to happen?” Watch what happens. If you just turn.... Just let your faith go now. Just let your faith come right down and say, “This sister's going to be healed. This one's going to be healed. That man, this woman, this, and this, and that one, and that one, they're all going to be healed. They're going to be healed. This is going to be the end of it. Tomorrow, there's going to be so much difference in them people, why, my, it's going to be wonderful.” Don't you believe that?

What are we? The church of God. How do we know now, that God won't adopt every one of us tonight, while we're doing this. We're obeying His commandments.

Now, each one of you, just like it was your.... Don't pray for yourself now. You pray for the person that's got their hands on you. Now, let's bow our heads, every one now, with their hands on each other. I want all of you to repeat this prayer after me.

Almighty God, creator of heavens and earth, author of everlasting life, giver of all good gifts, My Father, give to me faith for the person whom I have my hands laying on. Let me believe with all my heart that this person is going to be healed by Your power. If I have sinned, disbelieved You in any way, forgive me. I will give You all praise and all the glory. I promise this in Jesus' name. Amen.

Now, keep your heads bowed. Now, you know what you've said. Now, you said that. Now, that's the prayer that God puts through your lips to the person. Then remember, the other person prayed the same thing for you. Now, shut yourself in with God. There's nobody in here but you and God now. Just by faith, feel that virtue of God come moving down into those sick bodies. The Holy Spirit, you felt Him a few minutes ago. Feel Him right now? That moving, that soothing feeling moving through you, charging your body, that's His healing power.

Oh, God, Thou art near. Great Jehovah, Thou art everlasting God. Send Your Holy Spirit now, Lord. Let each person in here be filled with Your power, that they'll move from hand to hand, from place to place, till all that's sick may be made well. Then they'll know that healing doesn't belong in a man; it's God. They're praying one for the other.

The prayer of faith shall save the sick. God shall raise them up. If they have did any sin, it shall be forgiven them. Grant it, Lord. Hear our prayer. I'm praying for all them. I'm praying for my minister brothers and each one that's got their hands laying on somebody, that the Holy Ghost will be so real to them, that they'll be able to feel the power of God. And it'll give them such courage till this will be our hour of adoption for this group of people, that they'll be adopted into the powers, into the regions of the Lord Jesus Christ, that the power of God may surge through each one now, and each one of them be healed.

Oh, You are near, Lord. You are here. I know beyond the shadow of doubt that You're here, and Your power is now moving in, blessing. What You blessed will be blessed. What You say will be done. What You put in their hearts, that's the way it'll be. Let it be, Lord.

We charge Satan. Thou devil, thou art incriminating, evil power that's bound these people. You that's done this evil. You've lost the battle. Jesus Christ died, and yea, rose again on the third day, and stripped you of every legal right you have. You're nothing but a bluff, and we're calling your hand on it tonight, Satan. You evil spirit, turn these people loose. We charge thee, in the name of Jesus Christ, that every doubt will sweep away from these people right now, and the Holy Spirit will come into their bodies and set every one of them free from sickness, and from disease, and from torment, and from afflictions, and from evil powers. Oh, Satan, you are defeated. In the name of Jesus, you are defeated. You are lost. You are nothing but a bluff and we called your hand. Come out, we say, we charge in you Jesus' name to leave this audience. And all the sick and afflicted be made well to the glory of God. Hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah!

I can, I will, I do believe.

I can, I will, I do believe

That Jesus heals me now.

That great Physician now is near,

The sympathizing Jesus,

He speaks the drooping hearts to cheer,

No other name but Jesus.

If you couldn't move a finger, move it now. If you couldn't hear out of one ear, put your finger in the other one. Or no matter what you are, you'll never do no better until you exercise your faith. Give God a chance at you now. Give God a chance to do something for you. The prayer of faith's been prayed, hands has been laid on you.

And now, by the commandment of the Lord Jesus, I command that the devil leave you and every one of you be made well. Amen. You believe it?

Everybody that believes this, stand to your feet and accept your healing now in the name of the Lord Jesus. Amen. That's it. Hallelujah! That's it. Don't doubt. Stand right up. Amen. Praise the Lord. You can take these and they'll be well, too. Don't doubt. Come right out and be free. Praise the Lord. That's good. Amen. Let's raise our hands now, and give God praise, everybody. I pronounce you healed in the name of the Lord Jesus.