The Unchangeable Word Of God

You may be seated. We are very thankful that the good Lord has given us a cool evening for this service. The cloudy weather, they're predicting thunderstorms tonight, and it's a nice, cool evening. We thank the Lord for that.

I'm very grateful for what our Lord has done in this little five days gathering here at Lakeport, and for the fine fellowship that we have enjoyed with my friends, associates, and myself, of your fine cooperation, your love, your gifts, your support. We just simply do not have words to express what we think about it.

And I asked the boys as I come in (the ushers were out there at the back, was counting the evening offering), and I just asked them, so I'd know for sure, if there was sufficient funds to pay all the bills. And they said there was. So, thank you very kindly for your support. And they said there was enough left that they put a love offering for the foreign missions. God bless you for that. Someday, you may not see it here, but someday, in the other land, you will find out—if God helps me to get back overseas—them souls that's saved will be credited to you. Maybe you're not called to go, but you can help someone who is called to go. And together the rewards will be shared in glory.

And when you see over there, like I had the vision, and see them people walk up to you, and where all things are made perfect, throw their arms around and say, “Dear brother, if you hadn't have helped that night in the meetings, Brother Branham couldn't've went and I wouldn't have been saved. But because that you helped....” Now, what would money do you any good there? See?

So, I know it's a sacrifice. It really is, because times are not good like they used to be. But I tell you, friends, if you could only see the conditions overseas. Every American, no matter if he's a beggar on the street, he's a millionaire to what some of those people are. You just don't realize how poor those people are in India and around. They're the poorest of poor. When I go there of a evening and see them packing out those people on those ... just a white thing, sheet or canvas throwed over them, take them up to a big salamander and dump them in. They don't know who they are; they just died on the street, beggars. And there's no John 14, and “Across the other side...” and beautiful songs sang, and flowers, and funeral services. No, it's just simply the best way that ... cremate them, get rid of them; that's all. So those people are people who Jesus died for. And they've got just as much right to know about God as we have.

When I come home and look around and see the big, fine churches and the fine-dressed people, and then I go over there and look around and see them poor little fellows laying there starving to death, and never even knowed there was a God. And you say, “A God,” they say, “What God?” Thousands of them, you know. So they don't know. And then, just give them a pamphlet or tell them about another God, that won't work. The missionaries has found that out. That won't work. They've got to see something visible that they can lay hold of.

I was talking at a Kiwanis not long ago, speaking, and it happened to be that the man that ordained me in the Missionary Baptist Church was present. I'd just gotten back from Africa. And I was telling him, I said.... Speaking about the conditions in Africa, and how their economics was balanced and ... unbalanced, rather, and how that the natives, and how they were getting along. And told him there's coming an uprise just as sure the world. The communistic party's getting in there and starting it, so there will be an uprise.

And, so ... and how I felt about it, and talking about the tribes, the native tribes.

And I described the little bushman, and the different ones, and how they would eat just anything they could find, no matter if it had maggots in it. That was just more meat, so it didn't bother them. So then.... And these mosquitoes hanging on their legs, that's malaria mosquitoes. Not this kind that buzzes around and says, “You're my cousin,” you know, and rams the stinger in you. They're not hypocritical; they just ride on there and you got malaria. But it won't hurt them. They've built up inoculation through the years.

And I said, “Well, if one'd light on us, we'd die.” If we lived, we'd have malaria for at least fifteen years. And you ever seen anybody with malaria fever, you sure wouldn't want it. Pass out for days after days, in a coma and everything, and then—very hard.

Then I said then, in eating.... And there was a doctor sitting there. And he said, “Reverend Branham,” he said, “those people are not human, you see?”

I said, “Oh, I beg your pardon, doctor.” I said, “They're just as much human as you and I.” Absolutely. I said, “Only thing, that we've just got it all, and keeping it from them.” And I said, “You give me....”

The wildest tribe in Africa is the bushmen. They didn't even know they were human themselves. The English government found out.... You know how they found out they were human? They run into a little place, like a little bunch of bushes, and they started shaking like that, and there was nothing. Look all around, everything had disappeared. Look out in the sand, a few little dark heads moving like this. They'd covered themself up in sand, watching to see which way they went.

And the only way they knowed they were human, many years ago.... The first way they knowed they were human.... Would you like to know how they knowed it? They had dogs. A dog won't habitate with nothing but a human being. It will not live with nothing but a human. And that's how the English government knew that they were human.

Now, you give me one of them little boys that's born, when he's only two days old, or six months old, let me have him, a little bushman (he doesn't know his father, his mother, none of his tribe, know nothing but just kill and eat), and when he's eighteen years old, he's smart, educated, just as shrewd as he can be. See, he's got a mind, he can think, he's got a soul. But you can pump all into an animal you want to, and you'll never make him think. He can't think, he's got no soul. He is human.

Then after them saying that, they kind of stepped on my toe a little bit, because Jesus died to save that little bushman, the same as He died to save me. And it's my duty, it's our duty, to see that he gets the gospel. God's going to hold us responsible for that, if we don't take it to him. Yes, sir. God will require our hand. You know the watchman on the wall, if he doesn't warn, then the blood's required at his hand.

And then the doctor.... We was talking a little bit and a minister raised up, and he begin to say about his missions over there. And he was the one who said that I was going to turn out to be a holy-roller.

And I said, “Doctor, you know a few years ago, you told me the night that I saw that angel up there, you asked me if I hadn't been eating some red pepper and had a nightmare, and I said, 'If that's the attitude of the Baptist church, I will give my fellowship right now with it, see,' I said, 'because God called and it will be so.'”

He said, “You with a grammar school education, is going to take the gospel overseas, when thousands of missionaries has got diplomacy?”

And I said, “I don't care what they got, God's sending me.”

And he said, “How you going to do it?”

I said, “That's up to God to do it; it isn't me. It's up to Him. I'm just telling you the truth.”

I said, “You remember that, sir?” I said, “I want you to know. I met our missionaries over there. I will tell you the strength of it. Here come the natives in packing a mud idol under his arm with a tag on him, a Christian. I said, 'What about that?'”

Sidney Smith, the mayor of Durban, he said, “I can speak that one's language there.” Said, “He's got a tag as a Christian, packing the mud idol, sprinkled in animal blood.” Said, “Let's ask him.” Said, “He's a Songhai. I can speak the Songhai language.” I said.... Said, “Call him anything you want to.”

I said, “Thomas [I thought that would be a good name],” I said, “Thomas, are you a Christian?”

“Oh, yeah, yep.” Spoke in his language, interpreted. He's a Christian.

I said, “What are you packing that idol for?”

“Oh,” he said, “if amoyah [amoyah means 'an unseen force, like the wind'] if amoyah fails, the unseen god, this one won't. [That's a Christian, you know!] This one won't fail.”

And I said, “Well, how do you know that?”

He said, “Well....” His daddy packed this same idol. And one day the lion got after him. And he sat down, built up a little fire, and said the prayer the witch doctor told him, the lion run away.

And I said, “I'm a lion hunter. And I know one thing, that any animal's scared of fire. The prayer of the witch doctor didn't run it away, the fire run it away. It's afraid of the fire.”

“Oh, well.” He'd play safety first and pack that anyhow. See,

that's Christianity.

Go out there, a lot of missionaries. When they bring them in, put them down in the diamond mine, seventeen hundred feet under the ground, to work their taxes out. They come back out, and they have to dance every once in awhile, you know. When they have a dance, missionaries go down and give out tracts to a man that don't know which is right and left hand. Yep.

I said, “What happened? What you call fanaticism, what you called a holy-roller, I seen thirty thousand of them break their idols on the ground and receive Jesus Christ. Naked women covered their arms and walked away from the place.” I said, “That's what they're looking to see.” They don't care about some little pamphlets. Their god's got just as much power as any other one you talk about, see.“

But when it comes to something they can see that'll dumbfound their gods, and stop their witch doctors, and paralyze them in their tracks, and see, then they believe that there is a God that can act. That's the Gospel that the heathen has to have, that's all. Our education and ethics will not work with the heathen. He's got to see something, he's got to know it's right.

Same thing in India. We found out.... One of the magazines packed the article just recently, when our honorable brother Billy Graham was challenged by that Mohammedan and Billy tucked down. Now, I don't blame him. I would've done the same, but I would have, as a Christian, said, “That's not in my line of preaching. I preach salvation. You believe that God ... that Ishmael was the son of Abraham [which he was] the blessing. Let me talk to you on what I know about. I can prove to you that Isaac ... through Isaac come the blessing and not through Ishmael.”

If I would have been a doctor of divinity like he was, I would have challenged him on that.

But, I'd say, “I do not have gifts of healing and things, but we got brethren in the Christian religion, Oral Roberts and so forth, that can be brought on the scene right now, that can produce it. And it is the truth.” I'd have held up for my standard of Christian religion.

But then a paper came out, and you seen in “The Herald of Faith,” it said, “Why didn't he challenge the meeting ... what about down there at Durban, South Africa, that afternoon?”

When the Mohammedans was sitting there and saw the acting ... when that Mohammedan woman come on the platform, the Holy Spirit told her, said, “You're a Mohammedan, why did you come to Me?”

She said, “I thought You could help me.”

And I said, “Did you ever read the Bible about what Jesus did, how He knowed the secrets of their heart?”

“Yes.”

I said, “What do you think about that?”

“Well,” she said, “I believe that Jesus got on a horse and rode up into glory, went up into glory. He's a prophet.”

I said, “No. He was crucified, died, and rose again, and His Spirit lives here today.”

“Oh, I don't know about that.”

I said, “What if He returns and does the same that He did then? Would that prove it to you, if He will act right here through us the same way He did when He was here on earth?”

She said, “Yes.”

I said, “Did you ever read the New Testament?”

“Many times.”

And I said, “Well then, if He will reveal to me who you are, what you are, and what you're here for, and what you've been, and what's going to happen to you, will you accept it?”

She said, “Yes.”

Thousands of Mohammedans sitting out there. And I said, How many of you Mohammedans will accept it?“ And when the interpreter said it, hands went up. And the Holy Spirit begin to move and told her who she was, where she come from, what doctor she went to, what his name was, talked about it like that, and said she had a cyst on her ovary. And she was healed at that time, the glory of God fell, and ten thousand Mohammedans accepted Jesus Christ as personal Saviour.

Yes.

That afternoon I don't know how many more come; they estimated there ten thousand. And that afternoon, when that boy, not even mentally right, led by the chain around his neck, when the Holy Spirit told him how was he was born, and he was born that way, told his mother and father, who was sitting out in the audience (around a hundred and fifty, two hundred thousand people), and said, “Your brother, you're thinking of him; he's out there in the audience. He was riding on either a white goat ... or, a yellow goat or a dog, hurt his knees. He's walking on two clubs. But, thus saith the Lord, he's healed.”

And about a city block up through the fairgrounds, here he come packing his clubs, screaming, jumping up-and-down as hard as he could, healed. Taken us about a half hour to get him quietened.

Then when I looked back and I seen that man in a vision standing there on his feet, normal as he could be.... He walked with his hands and feet like that, not even mentally right. When I talked to him, he wanted to do a dance for me, tribal dance. And then I looked and I seen him standing there, I knowed that was it. When you see that vision, it won't fail.

Then I noticed the audience. I said, “How many here...? Here's a man here, a poor crippled-up man, look what condition he's in.”

There'd been a British doctor there, on the little crossed-eyed boy. He said, “Mr. Branham, what did you do to that baby?”

I said, “Never done nothing.” I said, “Never even prayed for him. They sent him up on the platform.”

Said, “I put him on the platform.” Said, “He was cross-eyed when he come by here. He goes off over there and he isn't cross-eyed.” Said, “You done.... Did you hypnotize that baby?”

I said, “Doctor, did the English Medical Association give you license to practice medicine? What about you British is doing all that hypnotism?” I said, “Why don't you straighten his eyes?” I said, “If hypnotism will straighten eyes, you fellows better start practicing hypnotism.” I said, “You knowed he was cross-eyed there.”

And Brother Baxter come up and was taking him away. And I said, “Let him alone. Let him talk.”

And he said, “You'll just cause a riot out there now, taking time with that man.”

And I said, “Well, just a minute.”

He said, “I want to ask you something.” Said, “I believe there's a God; He's in them lilies.”

(And, oh, you women ought to have seen them lilies, Calla lilies eighteen inches across, like that, beautiful yellow and white ones, wild, growing right out of the jungle. And the platform was all full of them.) And I said.... He said, “There's God, some kind of a life, in that lily. But is He tangible enough to make that cross-eyed boy eyes come straight?”

I said, “You picked him on the platform, took him off over here.”

He said, “Is that God present?”

I said, “Yes, sir. He's here now.”

He walked right out to the microphone (great big hanging mike like that, because we had to speak for two or three city blocks each way and back that way a city block of more, thousands of people times thousands), he said, “I now accept Jesus Christ as my personal Saviour.”

Well, I met him at Durb... at Johannesburg when we was leaving. I heard somebody hollering, “Brother Branham!” That, you know, cockney English talk they have. Run out there on a ramp when they had the lines drawed. And the whole ... the police lined up-and-down like this so the people couldn't get out there. And they brought me up in a car and set me off. And I got out there, and he said, “Brother Branham!” He broke through and run out there, throwed his arms around me, begin speaking in tongues. He'd been called in the mission field.

Oh, how I like to tell Dr. Davis and them that.

I said, “What you call fanaticism won more souls to Christ in one meeting, and the tens of thousands times millions of dollars we put on missionaries for the last fifty years in Africa.”

That's right. That's it. Let's make it count, brother. These dollars belong to God, and let's make it count for the kingdom of God, to people who really need it.

That boy, when he stood up, I told him, I said, “Stand up. Jesus Christ has made you whole.” He didn't know what I was talking about. And the interpreter told him, he still wanted to do a dance. I got a hold of the chain and lifted him like this (he had a collar around his neck like an animal). And when he raised up, he was so completely.... First time in his life ever stood on his feet. The big tears run off his black belly like that, and there he stood, mentally right, standing on his feet.

Thousands times thousands fell on the ground. And they estimated twenty-five thousand outstanding miracles took place right then. No more had to be prayed for. They got off of cots, stretchers, wheelchairs, everything else.

And the next morning, there were seven big van loads, these great, big, long African vans, piled full of crutches and wheelchairs. And they was coming down the street.

Sydney Smith, the mayor of Durban, come to the window and said, “Look out in the street.” Here they was, been in tribal wars, peaceful with one another, walking down the street, singing, “All things are possible, only believe.” Oh!

We can't have that kind of meeting in America. We know too much. We know more about it, you see. We're too smart for that, you see. Go ahead. We just miss the blessings, that's all.

Now, you people can have that, sure. You can see it happen here. But, I mean the nation, like that is there. God bless you.

Brother Kopp, are you here tonight? Brother Kopp, Brother Leroy Kopp, he's been here in the meetings. I wanted to compliment him on that article he wrote, “The Jews Seek Signs?” He was talking about my ministry in there. And if you're here, Brother Kopp, and listening to my voice, I surely ... I'm coming to Israel.

The Jews wants to see the sign of the prophet. They believe the Messiah will be a prophet. They still believe it.

How many ever heard of Lewi Pethrus? Sure you did, the head of the Stockholm church, Philadelphian church, greatest Pentecostal move in the world. And he sent a million New Testaments down.

How many ever seen the Look and Life magazine, showing them airplanes coming in, packing those Jews from down in Iran, all down in there, just about two or three years ago? That's the way they got the article “Three Minutes Before Midnight.”

Now, when they give them them Testaments (they read from the back to the front, you know, how Yiddish is wrote) and they said, “If this be the Messiah—He promised this—let us see Him do the sign of the prophet. The Messiah will be a prophet. Let us see Him do the sign of the prophet and we will receive Him,” oh, my, that got my heart stirred. Right on the same grounds where the Holy Ghost fell the first time.

You can't have intellectuals. You ain't chopping God in four or five pieces and giving Him to a Jew. He's got to know he's got a God. So then.... So he.... The intellectual will never work with him. No, sir. He's got to know it.

And so then, I thought, “Won't that be wonderful, if I'd draw about five hundred of them together out there and say, 'Get out among you. Bring some men up here. See if Messiah still is the prophet.' And right on that same ground where they accepted the Saviour, then ask them to raise their hands and receive the Holy Ghost.”

What a time. You know what? That will end the Gentile dispensation. The Gospel will go the Jews. They'll missionary their people with it. Israel is a nation. We're all nations, but Israel is a nation. And the kingdom will return back to Israel someday.

As Isaac said to Joseph, “The vine will come back over the wall someday.” That's right.

Now, thank you very much, each one of you, for your kindness, all your fine cooperation. I want to thank the Full Gospel Businessmen's Chapter, for I believe this is three ... two or three times straight they've sponsored me being here. The fine cooperation of you ministers. God ever be with you all. May the chapter grow, may your churches grow, may the Lord get glory out of all that's done or said.

I have to leave early in the morning now for Tacoma, and then from there over to Yakima. And I'm waiting for the time to get overseas, just as soon as I possibly can, to make a world tour amongst the outcasts of Europe, and Asia, and the East, and the Far East, and so forth, to preach the gospel.

If I happen not to get back again, I will meet you across the border yonder. If you go, and I get back again to see you (I hope I will), but if you go before I get back then, I still want to tell you: I will meet you across the border with the same testimony I got now, Jesus saves and heals. He's the same yesterday, today, and forever. God ever bless you.

If I can be a benefit to you, a help, drop me a card, letter, anything. Here's prayer cloths laid up here. If you don't have one up here tonight, and you want one, just write me at Post Office Box 325, Jeffersonville, Indiana. Put one in your Bible on Acts 19. In case of emergency, lay it on your sick and afflicted. No charge to it, not a thing. Sometimes people send me a little money to help me pay for stamps. I pay hundreds of dollars a week for stamps. But sometimes they.... You don't have to; that's not necessary. But if you do, that's what they do with it.

And it's all controlled through the Tabernacle. There's nothing comes to me. It's all through the Branham Tabernacle. That's the way it's always been. I've always testified to you, back and forth many times, that all remunerations from the.... I get a salary, and all the remunerations from the meetings goes into the Tabernacle, and it's used for foreign missions. That's right. To help spread the Gospel, for nothing else but spreading the gospel, that's all. And the Lord bless you.

And I want to ask you a favor before I start to preach to you just for a little while. I promised to pray for everybody with a card, and I think we've got several here. Billy give out a whole, full bunch of them awhile ago, he said. So I want to run them through the line and pray for them. And now we want to get a little something to build up some faith. How many of you will pray for me, somebody who really needs it? Thank you. As I go, I'm just in a change now between one ministry and the other. And it always starts a little something. And now, I'm waiting on the Lord. And you be sure that you pray for me. I really need it.

Brother Rhodes, did you give your testimony here about how God has healed you and things? You should have done that. And it's a great testimony. We love this brother. My wife's scared to death of him—the only man that ever got her on the platform. She was sitting down there, a little backward, timid. She don't even want me to say she's in the meeting, you know. And then, very bashful, and Brother Rhodes said, “We've got Sister Branham here tonight. Walk right up on the platform.”

She said, “I'm scared to death of that man.”

If there's any praise to go to the Branham family, let it go to her. She is the one that deserves it, my wife, one of the finest Christian women I know in the world. She's among the elect, I'm sure. God ever bless her gallant soul. Her rewards is great on the other side.

Now, before we approach the Word, let's approach the author by prayer. How many wants to be remembered tonight as you raise your hands?

Our heavenly Father, we are taking time. We don't know what'll happen between now and the next time we meet. We may be across the river in the other land. If that be our lot, Lord, then may we all be present at that day. I pray Thee, most gracious God, that there will not be one person missing on that day. May everyone be there, every person that's here tonight, every sinner may be saved, every saint may continue on, holding out until the end comes. May the backslider come back into fellowship again. Let him know that he's not gone, he's just slid away by his sins, and the slime of the devil's talk has slipped him off the highway. God is willing tonight to bring him back.

Bring fire in the church, Lord, Holy Ghost fire. Heal the sick and the afflicted. Bless those who are needy, every hand that went up. Almighty God, You know every need they have. They are precious in my heart. And if they're precious to my heart, how much more precious are they to Your heart, for You gave Your life for them. And in returns, Lord, You anointed me and sent me out to preach glad tidings of this good message of the Lord Jesus to them, by showing signs and wonders of His resurrection and His soon appearing. We thank You for this, Father.

And we pray that tonight when the service is over, there will not be one sick or feeble person among us. We are so happy tonight, Lord. Where many wheelchairs, four or five of them, set here at the beginning, we don't see them tonight. We know that some of them is walking around. Some of them is testified of their healing. People on crutches, those who are sick and afflicted, stomach trouble, heart trouble, are now enjoying good health. That means so much to me, Lord, so much to them, to know that we see the signs of the King in the camp. Grant, Lord, that He will always remain with us. And we will love Him and serve Him until we see Him face to face.

Bless the words now we read and may it be a lamp, a light unto our path, to guide us closer to Him. We ask in His precious name. Amen.

Let us turn tonight to two Scriptures that I've selected for the closing service. And one of them is Luke the first chapter, and the other is Matthew 24:35. Let us read, begin reading Luke in the first chapter of Luke, beginning at the twenty-sixth verse. Now, listen close as we read:

And in the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent from God to a city of Galilee, named Nazareth.

To a virgin espoused to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David; and the virgin's name was Mary.

And the angel came in to her, and said, Hail, thou ... art highly favoured, the Lord is with thee: blessed art thou among women.

And when she saw him, she was troubled at his saying, and cast in her heart ... in her mind what manner of salutation this should be.

And the angel said unto her, Fear not, Mary: for thou hast found favor with God. [Praise be to God!]

And, behold, thou shalt conceive in thy womb, and bring forth a son, and thou shalt call his name JESUS.

And He shall be great, and shall be called the Son of the Highest: and the Lord God shall give unto him the throne of his father David:

And he shall reign over the house of Jacob for ever; and of his kingdom there shall be no end.

Then said Mary unto the angel, How shall this be, seeing I know not a man?

...the angel answered and said unto her, The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the power of the Highest shall overshadow thee: therefore also that holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God.

And, behold, thy cousin Elisabeth, she has also conceived a son in her old age: and this is the sixth month with her who was called barren.

For with God nothing shall be impossible.

...Mary said, Behold the handmaid of the Lord; be it unto me according to thy word. And the angel departed from her.

Matthew 24:35:

Heavens and earth shall pass away, but my words shall never pass away.

I want to speak tonight, the Lord willing, upon “The Unchangeable Word of God.”

I wonder if Miner Arganbright is in the building, Brother Arganbright. I have seen him at a couple of the meetings, and I had a message for him. But I believe.... Oh, yes, I want to be sure to see you, Brother Arganbright. I want to meet you October the 20th. He understands that language. Why they ever called this man Miner, I don't know. I will disagree with his father and mother, only unless it would be in his statue. Because, he's got a heart like a giant.

How many knows Brother Arganbright? I don't say this in his presence; I was going to say it if he wasn't here. Fine brother and his sweet little Irish wife. I've been in their homes; I've been with him in the darkness and the places. A mighty sweet fine Christian couple. I believe that she's from around near somewhere here. She was in the meeting too. I don't know whether she's here tonight or not. Everybody that knows her, she's a sweetheart to all. To her son-in-law, or children, all the neighbors, everything on what we call Zion's hill down there, she's the sweetheart of the hillside. So we are glad that Brother Arganbright is numbered among those who are redeemed, and our Sister Arganbright. May the Lord bless them greatly.

Now, it was about sunup. I suppose it was a pretty morning. It must have been along about this time of year, about July. The baby was born in April. I know tradition says December, but that's totally impossible. That's a creed. He couldn't have been born in December and shepherds on the hillsides. Six or eight foot of snow there in that time. So, He was born in April when all young life usually comes forth, along that time.

She was on her way to the well. And as the little maid strolled along the street with the little crock with two handles on it under her arm, she was walking to get the morning water. And it must have been very early, and it was on Monday, I suppose. And maybe she had to make several trips, because, usually, Monday is wash day. Is that right, sisters? That's the way it is at our house. And every day, so ... with a bunch of children.

But, usually they call it Blue Monday because of the women washing on Monday. I used to call it Blue Monday because I had to pack the water for about a half a mile from a spring, pour it in an old, big old kettle outside, and then chop wood and lay it under.... Oh, my, I'm glad they got hydrants nowadays.

And then, as she was making her way down the street, she was thinking of the day before, of the subject that had been talked about by her and her betrothed husband (or engaged husband), as they sat on the porch, as their custom was, after the services of a morning, as they went to church there in Nazareth. And they went out, sat out on the porch, after the midday meal. And Joseph, her to-be husband, was a carpenter. And he built fine buildings. But now he was building one that had to have a special care to this one, because he was taking his pretty little bride to this one.

And we will say that from the porch, front porch where they were sitting, it perhaps was facing the south. And the sun would be around on the other side, and the morning glories around the little porch made a shade. And they could look across the valley and up on the side of the hill where this little house was being erected. And all the doors had to have just a certain touch, that Mary would not have to shove hard; she could just push it, and it would latch together easy. Joseph wanted to see to this. It must have the special little touch to it.

And each Sunday, their custom would ... sit out there and look across the valley, and talk about how the little gate must have a heart shape in it, because they were in love. And the little table, how it must be built, and their furniture was going into the house.

And as they sat there this day after the meal was over, and Anna, the widowed mother of Mary, said, “Children, you go on out on the porch. And I will do the dishes today.”

And as she was doing the dishes, and Joseph sat back and bragged on the cooking, of course, and they was looking across ... they was remarking about the sermon they heard that morning.

“Oh,” Mary said, “Joseph, did it not thrill your heart when the rabbi spoke of the great God who is over our people? Did not it thrill you when the rabbi taken his text from over in Genesis ... or, Exodus about the thirteenth chapter, where He said that pillar of fire of the angel of God would go before them? And how that God met Moses, the great prophet, in that pillar of fire, and spoke to him on the backside of the desert. And Jehovah was so mindful for His ancient people, Israel, that He could not forget them. And how He said, 'I've seen their toils and their sorrows. I remember my Word. And I've come down to deliver them.'”

“Oh,” she said, “Joseph, did not that thrill your heart when the rabbi said, 'God said, ”I remember My Word, My promise.“'”

“Oh, it did, Mary. It thrilled my heart. And how he went down there in Egypt, this great prophet, showed great signs and wonders, and brought them out to the Red Sea, and Jehovah just opened up the Red Sea. When they were hungry, God blowed in quails and fed them. When they were thirsty, they spoke to a rock, got water from there. And all that they had need of, Jehovah seen that it was cared for. When they got sick, and was bitten by serpents, and had sinned, Jehovah had Moses make a brass serpent and put it on a pole.”

“What was your interpretation of that Joseph, my dear?”

“Well, Mary, I believe that that meant that there would be a sin offering someday, that that brass serpent, the brass meant that the serpent itself was sin already judged. And that brass was divine judgment, and divine judgment would be upon One someday and would be an atonement for healing forever. That brass serpent meant that, I believe.”

And as they sat there and talked, but she said all at once, “But did you notice, he ruined his sermon? Right at the end of his sermon he said, after telling how great Jehovah was, 'Now, all those days have passed away. Jehovah doesn't perform miracles anymore. There is no such a thing as God's ever making healings for the sick or doing anything like that. Jehovah just expects us to be good Pharisees, and to go to church, and to pay in our tithings and our offerings into the church, and build Him a nice place, and go there and sing hymns every Sabbath morning and worship Him. And that's what Jehovah expects these days.'

“You know, Joseph, I could hardly agree with the fine rabbi on that. I believe if He ever was Jehovah, He's still Jehovah. If He ever was almighty, He still is almighty.”

You know, God always has a remnant of the people that's going to believe Him somewhere. He always has a remnant, someone He can lay His hands on—always has and always will.

Then, as she journeyed on a little farther, she remembered also as they sat out there on the porch and was talking, it was their custom to read the Scriptures on Sunday afternoon. So she goes back into the building and gets out the little basket and brings out the scrolls. Them days it wasn't in a book like this; it was scrolls, one chapter by Isaiah, and Jeremiah, and all put on leather on a scroll, and rolled up and put into a basket. They didn't have paper in those days, so they put it on leather that had been tanned out.

So, she said, “Joseph, you choose the scroll for this afternoon's reading, this Sunday afternoon.”

And he said, “Oh, Mary, you reach in and get it, dear.”

And she reached her pretty little hands in as her eyes flashed. She picked up the scroll and hand it over to him.

He said, “You know, Mary, I would like to hear you read.”

And she had Isaiah. And she read down in Isaiah, and begin reading till she come to Isaiah 9 and 6: “Unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulders: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counselor, mighty God, the Prince of Peace.” And she stopped.

And she said, “Joseph, you are well-learned in the Scriptures. What was the prophet speaking of when he said this, 'Unto us a son is born'?”

“Well,” Joseph said, “Mary, I believe he was meaning the Messiah, the coming Messiah that Moses spoke of.”

“Well,” she said, “Joseph, how would the Messiah be? Will He be another God? Or will He be...? What relation will He be to God?”

Joseph said, “He will be God manifested in the flesh. God will be made manifest in this Son that He will create.”

“Well how will He create this Son?”

“Oh, my dear Mary,” Joseph must have said, “you know, Isaiah also said in 7:14 there, that a virgin shall conceive and shall bare a son. And He will be Immanuel, God with us.”

Oh, her pretty eyes must have flashed. And as the evening draw close to dark, they made ready to go to church to hear another message from the rabbi. And the scroll was put away.

And as she walked along that morning, she was thinking on those things. And she turned the corner. And when she turned the corner, I believe a light must've flashed. And she looked up and the beautiful Galilean sun was rising. She must have thought it was flicker from a shining rock or some piece of metal well-polished. They didn't have glass in those days, I don't think. So they must've thought something. But a light seemed to flash before her. She looked around; she seen nothing. And she started on.

You know, it's as we think of Him, that's when He draws close to us. “Draw nigh unto me, and I will draw nigh unto you,” saith the Lord. If we could keep our mind off of the things of the world, and so much foolishness that we have no business thinking of, “let the meditation of my heart be acceptable unto Thee, O Lord.”

It was at the first Easter, when the two apostles, Cleopas and his friend, was on the road to Emmaus, as they were talking about Him, that He stepped out of the bush and begin to talk with them; and then made Hisself known to them by performing a miracle, just like He did before His crucifixion. And they hurriedly run back and said, “Truly the Lord is risen, and has appeared to us.”

Now, Mary was thinking of Him. And as she went on, all of a sudden she raised her head again. She was positive that time. Right standing before her was a great light, perhaps the same pillar of fire that had led Moses through the wilderness and the children of Israel. Walking out of this light, perhaps brighter than the sunlight, came the great archangel Gabriel. And he said, “Hail, Mary [other words, ”Stop!“], blessed art thou among the women, for you have found favor with God.”

Oh, what a salute! It frightened the little virgin. It would frighten you when an angel....

Someone said to me, “Brother Branham, when you see that one appear, who is he?”

I said, “I don't know, I never asked his name. I'm too scared what he's talking.”

You say, “Well, I'd have asked him.” No, you wouldn't. You can't think of nothing, you just stand still.

Oh, what a feeling she must've had—with her bucket, going to the well to get water, and there in the path was that angel standing there and telling her she had found grace in the sight of God!

And He begin to tell her a story. He said, “You remember your cousin, Mary? Her name is Elisabeth. She is the wife of Zacharias the priest. And Zacharias the priest was old, and his wife was old; but they were real servants of the Lord, they were waiting for the consolation of Israel, the coming of the Messiah.”

See, God's got a remnant somewhere, somebody's watching and waiting. Always been, always will be.

They were watching day by day. And they kept all the commandments of the Lord. But Elisabeth was barren. She had no children. Them days it was a disgrace not to have children; now it's a disgrace to have children.

It's changed. They'd rather buy a little dog and give it the love of a child, and lead it around, and put it in the car, and ... oh, my! That stinking thing. Pat it, and play with it, and then make a pan of biscuits. I don't believe in that; I tell you that right now. A dog's all right, but his place is out in the barn, not in the house. So then anyhow—I'll hurt your feelings now if I don't watch, so.... All right, anyhow, let that go. So much ... maybe that's my own opinion.

But she was wanting a baby, and her husband was old, and she was past the age of bearing. And Zacharias' order at the temple was to burn incense while the people were praying. And while he was burning the incense, on the right side of the altar came the angel Gabriel. Did you notice in the Scriptures in Luke there it says, “On the right side of him ... the right side of the altar?”

Did you ever notice when on my healing services, I bring the people from my right? Because the angel of the Lord always comes on my right side. I want him to meet the people, so they'll have the anointing when they come up here, that He can tell them and bless them.

Right side of the altar stood the angel of the Lord. And he said, “Zacharias, God has answered your prayers.”

See what kind of a home a angel comes to? A home that keeps the commandments of God, a home of people that walks upright before God. If you want the honor of an angel visiting your home, have a home ready for him to visit, prepared and ready under the blood of the Lamb. The angels of the Lord come to such places.

Notice, you can't walk with the world and expect God to walk with you. Angels won't visit you or nothing else, but the world, because you cannot mix God and the world together. They will not mix. God's holy, separated from the world. And the only way He will ever see you is when He looks through the blood. As I said the other morning, red through red looks white. He can't look through a creed, He can't look through a denomination, He can't look through a handshake, or a water, He has to look through the blood! And when He looks through the blood, your red sins looks white to Him. The blood of Jesus Christ cleanses from all sin.

Oh, precious is the flow

That makes me white as snow;

No other fount I know,

Nothing but the blood of Jesus.

As Eddie Perronet wrote:

All hail the power of Jesus' name!

Let angels prostrate fall;

Bring forth the royal diadem,

And crown Him Lord of all.

Because He was the only One, the only potentate, the only mediator between God and man; there's nothing else will take the place. His blood is the only thing will make atonement, God's only way; He's the only mediator, the only one is through Jesus Christ.

Now, and when Zacharias, under the shed blood of the lamb, standing there, and he said, “After this day here.... I'm Gabriel, stands in the presence of God.” And he said, “You're going home, and your wife will conceive, bear a son, you'll call his name John. He will be great, and he will turn the hearts of the children of Israel back to the commandments of God.”

And then, when Zacharias.... Think of it now, a preacher, a priest in the temple, read the Scriptures, plenty examples that such as that had happened before. There was Hannah was a woman that couldn't have a child, and God gave her a child. There was Sarah. At ninety years old God gave her a child. That had happened before, but he questioned it.

He said, “How could this be? My wife's old, and I'm old, and how could it be?”

The angel spoke quickly and said, “My words will be fulfilled in their day. But because that you've doubted me, doubted my word, you'll be dumb till the day the baby's born. But my words will be fulfilled.”

Hallelujah!

God keeps His Word; it's unchangeable! If this Pentecostal church refuses to praise God, God could raise up Methodists, Baptists, or something else to praise Him. If the Pentecostal church turns the message of God down, God can take Catholic, atheists, infidels, or anything else, and raise them up for a name to Himself. And God's Word will be fulfilled.

There'll be times when the Spirit will be poured out from on high. “There'll be.... Young man shall see visions; old men shall dream dreams. There'll upon my handsmaids and maidservants will I pour out of my spirit, showing signs in the heaven above. And all these things that's been spoke of will come to pass.” God said so. Amen.

You want to have the form of godliness and deny the power thereof, go ahead; that's fulfilling the Scriptures. But God said, “These signs shall follow them that believe; In my name they shall cast out devils; they'll speak with new tongues; they'll take up serpents; or drink deadly things, it'll not harm them; if they lay their hands on the sick, they shall recover.” Somebody, somebody's going to do it. God's Word's unchangeable. That's right.

“My Word shall be fulfilled, because I'm Gabriel that stands in the presence of God; but you'll be dumb and can't speak no more, because you've doubted. And you'll never be able to do it until the day the baby's born.”

And then, this angel knew about that. The same angel, six months later, was sent to little Mary and told her about it. Six months later. Now, little Mary said.... Now, she never questioned Him, she just said, “How will it be, because that I know not a man?”

He said, “The Holy Ghost shall overshadow thee. [Oh, I like that!] The Holy Ghost shall come up over thee, and you shall conceive in your womb and bear a son, knowing no man. But this son shall be the Son of God. And he shall save his people from their sin. And he will take the throne of his father David, and he will reign for ever and ever, and peace shall never cease.”

Talk about peace, they say, “Well, He was the Prince of Peace.” Yes, and every man accepts has eternal peace in his heart.

The world may be at war, and there may be wars in saying this; He never said the world would. The kingdoms of this world belongs to the devil. Every one of them's controlled by the devil.

The Bible says that this United States and all the rest of the world is controlled by the devil. That's the reason we fight and go on. But when Jesus comes and sits on the throne of His father David, perfect peace shall reign in every heart. O God, for that day to come!

When Satan took Him up and said, “If thou be the Son of God, do this. And if thou....” Took Him to show Him the kingdoms of the world, all the kingdoms would ever be, said, “They're mine; I do with them what I want to. I will give them to you if you'll bow down and worship me.”

Jesus knowed in the Millennium He'd fall heir to that. He said, “Get thee behind me, Satan: for it is written, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, him only shalt thou serve.”

Oh, my, wonder why trouble. “Bless our country.” Sure, I believe in that, our leaders and things like that, but it's still dominated by Satan. The Bible says so. All these strip things going on that you hear about, just remember, brother, we are looking for a city to come whose builder and maker is God. Right. We're looking for a kingdom to come. It isn't Germany, it isn't Switzerland, it isn't the United States; it's Christ and the kingdom from above.

Jesus said, “If my kingdom was of this earth, then I'd have my people to fight for me. But my kingdom is above. And I could call my Father and straightway he'd give me twenty legions of angels.” Amen!—when one angel could destroy the whole world.

Covet not this world's vain riches,

That so rapidly decay,

Build your hopes on things eternal,

They will never pass away!

These wars, we take these young kids out, just the cream of the crop. Because they don't know no better, knowing discipline, army discipline, stick their head up over the hill and let somebody shoot it off. Die like a hero. They gladly do it. Run up there and one shot down, another shot down, another shot down. The nation forgets them, unless their family ... come back to this here, and whatever they come back to. You see what I mean, many of the soldiers.

But a man, seldom will you ever find one that'll lay down his life for the cause of Christ. He won't even crawl out of his shade tree and go to church, won't even get out from behind the television long enough to attend a Wednesday night prayer meeting. That's right! Amen. It's a shame, disgrace.

That's the reason angels don't visit the churches. That's the reason the angels don't visit homes. We've got to get down to deep sincerity of this thing. The angels of God are here on earth tonight just the same as they've always been.

The Holy Ghost has been here ever since the resurrection of Jesus Christ and the coming forth of Pentecost. He's appeared through ages all down, getting a remnant of people together. The rest of it is cannon fodder, I will just tell you that now. It's the fodder that'll make the smoke out of torment. Yes, sir. It will take a borned-again experience, washed in the blood of the Lamb, sanctified, filled with the Holy Ghost, or they'll never make that rapture, according to this Word. Yes. That's exactly what the Scripture says.

A young lady out here in Oregon was trying to discuss with me one time. She belonged to a church that Mary was the boss over. And she said, talking about, said, “I'd hate to know that I'd....” Said, “You mean to tell me that during the—in the heaven that these bunch of idiots like was carrying on up there last night when you was preaching, if that will be the people that will be ruling in heaven?”

I said, “That's what the Bible says.” She said.... I said, “Your blessed virgin Mary had to go up to Pentecost and receive the Holy Ghost and act like them people did last night, or she'd have never went to heaven.”

She said, “That's not so!”

I said, “Let me show you right here in Acts 2 whether it's so or not. Mary got so drunk, she staggered like she was drunk—on the Spirit—and acted like a drunk person on the day of Pentecost. And if God didn't let Mary go home to heaven anything less than that, how in the world are you going to make it without that?” That's right. “Let you belong to any church you want to; you'll have to have the same experience, the same thing, exactly.”

She said, “Well, I wouldn't want to be there.”

I said, “I don't think you have to worry very much about that.” That's right. “I don't think you have very much to worry about.” I said, “Now, go on and write up a real dirty article of it in the paper, and I will tell you this, 'Thus saith the Lord,' you mark my words down, between this and two months from now, dying on the side of the road in an accident, you will remember the words I told you.”

And she never wrote nothing. That's right. She played a wise trick there. I seen her dying, laying in a car accident. God was giving her a chance then. But she was smart enough not to write nothing. There wasn't nothing in the paper; they just let it go. So that's a smart idea. She only saved her own life by it. See, God's still God.

God said, “It's far better for you that a millstone hanged at your neck, and you drown in the depths in the sea, than even offend one of these little ones that believe in me.”

What is that? Well, you say, “I'm a little one that believes.”

The Bible says, “These signs shall follow them that believe.” God makes a distinction, He gives a mark on the people. If he believes, these signs shall follow them that believe. That's right, the believer. Not that say they believe, or not the supposed believer, but the real believer.

I want to belong to a church that's got them signs and wonders following it. That's where I want to have my fellowship, right under the blood of Jesus Christ, where angels, and powers, and Holy Ghost, and God works back and forth through His church, through His people, showing signs and wonders.

Why, it's the greatest thing I ever knowed in my life. It's part of heaven on earth. A people that'll take God's Word. If you haven't got the Holy Ghost in you, how can you take God's Word? The Holy Ghost in you will say “Amen” to every Word God wrote. That's right.

If the Bible said, “Jesus Christ the same yesterday, today, and forever,” if you got the Spirit in you, it'll say, “Amen!” If the Bible said, “These signs shall follow them that believe,” and your church said that was for another age, the Holy Ghost in you will say, “Amen, God's Word's right. Every other man's word is a lie.”

If Peter said on the day of Pentecost, “Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of your sins, and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost. For the promise is unto you, and to your children, and to them that's afar off, even as many as the Lord our God shall call,” and your church says, “The Holy Ghost ceased back with the apostles,” you'll say, “Let every man's word be a lie! and God's be true!”

The Holy Spirit will agree with His own Word. It's for you, and for you, and for every genera.... As long as the Lord's calling, the Holy Ghost is still there to baptize every saint and every believer. Amen. God's unchangeable Word.

As I was preaching the other night, that ... or, “Why?” A scripture, or the verse, of “Why?” Why. God's going to ask, “Why?” You're going to give an account for it.

Is there no balm in Gilead, no physician there? Saint Peter wrote ... he was the doctor, Simon Peter, he wrote out the prescription on the day of Pentecost. Do you believe that? When they said, “Men and brethren, what can we do?” he wrote out the prescription for the balm.

Don't try to fool with it. Don't try to take something out of it and say, “The days of miracles is past, there's no such a thing as the baptism of the Holy Ghost.”

You take some of these quack druggists would take, or quack doctor that would take a prescription that a real doctor had wrote that would cure a disease, and a quack doctor or druggist take something out of there, what is it? In there there's a lot of poison. And there's enough poison to kill the germ, enough antidote to keep it from killing you. If you take out all the antidote, the poison'd kill you. You kill your patient.

That's what's the matter with a lot of these churches today, so formal and ungodly. They kill their church by taking the prescription and making a dogma out of it and not leaving it the way God wrote it. Hallelujah! I believe God's eternal Word is just as real as it ever was. I proved it over and over and over and over, and I know it's the truth. Amen!

Zacharias stayed right there on the platform, and the angel left him, and he was stricken dumb.

Now, the angel said, “Your cousin, Mary, is already six months, as it is to be with a mother.” And said, “Now, this holy thing that's born in you, will be the Son of God.”

You know what Mary said? I wish we had more Marys here now. Mary said, “Behold the handmaid of the Lord; be it unto me according to your word.” Oh, my.

She never questioned. She never questioned. And another thing, she never waited till she felt life. She didn't wait till she was positive. She didn't wait till she'd seen that something ceased by her. [Break in tape.]

Glory! That's good enough when God says so, that settles it eternally. That Word was good enough for her. She said, “Behold the handmaid of the Lord; be it unto me according to thy Word,” and started to rejoicing over it. Not wait ... see, she had to believe the impossible. She had to believe something that had never happened. That's what we have to do. We have to believe the impossible to see new life. Amen.

But when you believe the impossible.... If the doctor says you've got cancer and you're dying, you've got to believe the impossible to see a new life take a hold of you. Amen. If the doctor says you'll never walk, you've got to believe the impossible to see new life come into you, new life in them fibers. O God, bring forth a hand, a new arm, new lungs, new stomach, whatever it is! God will do it if you'll take Him at His Word.

Now, she had no evidence of it at all, only His Word. Oh, I like that. I think right now, stop just a minute. As I said, I don't preach to everybody that lives right on the highway. I have to go down the lane sometime to pick up somebody.

Remember the harlot, Rahab. She didn't.... When the spies brought the report about Joshua being a great man of God, and God had told him how, “I will be with you as I was with Moses”— She'd heard of how all the Amorites and so forth down in there had fell victim, and how he'd killed Agag and so forth, Moses had.—but she never said, “Wait a minute till I see Joshua. And let me see him perform some kind of a miracle, and then I will believe.”

No, sir. The word of the spies was good enough for her. Hallelujah! She become the great-great-great-great-grandmother of our Lord Jesus Christ, too. That's exactly right. She married an officer out of Israel, and out of that come a son which was Boaz. And out of Boaz came Jesse; out of Jesse come David; out of David come Mary. Hallelujah!

Why? A Gentile, uncircumcised, with a heart and ear, believed the message and received it without any evidence at all. She heard that there was a God that could....

Oh, I feel religious! She believed the message, she took God at His Word, her name's immortal. The great grandmother of our Lord Jesus Christ. Because she took God at a word.... And look she had to come out of, being a harlot in the city.

Oh, what can wash away my sins?

Nothing but the blood of Jesus;

What can make me whole again?

Nothing but the blood of Jesus.

Oh, precious is that flow

That makes a harlot white as snow;

No other fount I know,

Nothing but the blood of Jesus.

No church, no creed, no denomination, no this, no that, just the blood of Jesus Christ is all will make you white. Amen. Now, I'm not fussing about your churches, I'm not fussing about your creed, I'm trying to tell, “Don't put your hopes on that.”

Don't say, “I'm a Methodist and that settles it.”

If you're a Methodist and washed in the blood of Jesus Christ and filled with the Holy Ghost, God bless your heart. We're surely one hundred percent brothers and sisters. Yes, sir. Baptist, Presbyterian, Catholic, Lutheran, whatever you might be.

But when you say, “Well, I'm a Methodist,” “I'm a Baptist,” that don't mean a thing. Jesus said it wasn't so from the beginning. That's right. He knows nothing else but His own blood. God will recognize nothing else but His own Son. And that's right.

“This is my beloved Son,” said God at Mount Transfiguration; “hear ye him.” Amen.

Jesus said, “He that heareth my words and believeth on him that sent me has eternal life, and shall never come into the judgment but's passed from death unto life.” On that rock I stand tonight, no matter how I feel or what the devil says. Right. God's Word. “Heavens and earth will pass away, but that Word will never pass away.” Amen.

I trust His Word. Nothing else I know but His Word. That's what I believe in. And I don't go how I feel. The devil would make me feel sometime I wasn't saved; and the devil make me feel I wasn't healed. I don't care what he says; I can beat him on that Word every time. I say, “It's 'Thus saith the Lord.' Look at that, boy! Yes, sir, you can't move that.”

Jesus defeated him the same way. He said, “It is written.” He had power to send him back into hell, but He didn't do it. He showed that Satan could be defeated right there on the Word of God. Every time Satan met Him, He defeated him on the Word of God. God's eternal, everlasting Word is true. Yes. Amen. I like that. Know that you have a sure foundation.[Brother Branham knocks on pulpit]

She never waited for anything else. She got the Word of God in her heart, and she was going around testifying she was going to have a baby before she had any evidence of it or not. Now notice, for a young woman to have a baby without being married, that'd be a disgrace. She didn't care about the disgrace; she had God's Word.

So many people tonight say, “Oh, if I'd had to get down there and boo-hoo and cry— If I'd ever have to speak in them tongues— Oh, not me! Oh, well my mother would turn me out. My society, why, they'd never play cards with me again.”

Don't worry. If you do that, you won't play any more cards anyhow. That's right. You don't have to worry about that. And your societies will be a bunch of trash to you. That's exactly right. Because there will only be one society: That's the blood of Jesus Christ, and the redeemed from the foundation of the world. Hallelujah! That's the society of Jesus Christ. Amen.

Blood-washed, talked about, despised, rejected, cast out, called idiots, everything else. But that don't take away the promise of God. God remains the same yesterday, today, and forever. And no man is no better than his word, and His Word sticks just as good now as it ever did, to every man that will believe it.

She said, “Behold the handmaid of the Lord; be it unto me according to thy Word.” I can see her little brown eyes light up like the stars of heaven, she going around saying, “You know, I'm going to have a baby.”

“Oh, Mary!”

“Yes, going to have a baby.”

“Are you and Joseph married?”

“No. He will be the Son of God.” Amen. Nothing like that had ever happened before. But she didn't care whether it had ever happened before anyhow. She had God's Word, God's promise. That's good enough. She didn't care about the shameful part of it, she had God's Word for it. That's exactly.

Look in the temple that day when she dedicated Him. Here He was coming, and all the mothers coming around and little needle-worked clothes and things like that on the little babies, and there all of them said, “Uh-oh, look at there, there's that Mary. See, that baby was borned out of wedlock. Stay back from him, stay away,” and stayed way back from Him. He was wrapped in swaddling's cloth; not needlework, swaddling's cloth.

And when He was laying in there, if I'm told right, that's the yoke on the ox that they put in the stable in there, that they had stuff that kept it from rubbing his shoulder. They claim that's what Jesus was wrapped in. Not even clothes to wear, no place to lay His head, come to the earth through a borrowed womb, over a manure pile, went out and had to borrow a grave to be buried in, and then we think we're somebody. Oh, my!

The God of heaven, who could create bread and fish and make water into wine, who made heavens and earth, and took the place of a humble ... poorest among all. Washed the feet of the disciples. The very dust that He created He washed. The very dust that He created He was made out of, put His tent down here and lived among us in a body of flesh, crossed His cast, come down from God out of heaven and become man in order to strike the heart. That's a super sign.

It's a real sign. You talk about signs; when Jehovah was made flesh and dwelt among us, a sign that ought to strike the heart of every man to know that God's so humble. “God, precious, tender, laid aside His splendor, Stooping to woo, and win my soul.” As Booth-Clibborn wrote the famous song, “Down From His Glory.” Oh, my, I'd like to hear that sang in glory! “The great Creator became my Saviour, And all God's fullness dwelleth in Him.” How I love that!

In this day when they try to make Him a prophet, try to make Him just a man—He was more than that! He was Emmanuel.

And there He was. As she run out, and begin to tell everybody what had happened, oh, how God had blessed her. And she happened to think, “Elisabeth, my cousin, I haven't seen her for years. So I think I will slip up and see her.”

So she run up to see her, as I said the other night. And when she got up there to see her, she'd hid herself several days, because she was a ... didn't show herself then like women do now. And so, she run in a place and hid herself back.

See these ladies. Excuse me, sisters, please do, just a minute. Just lay your conscience aside a minute. You listen to your doctor. I ought to be as much; I'm your brother. But a woman out here to be mother, walking around with see them little old shorts and things like that, it's a disgrace to the nation, to the flag, to human race, to anything else. A cigarette in her hand, walking like that. Oh, my, my, my!

If this is the Holy Spirit I have, you'll have very little chance to ever make it even to the door. And that's right. God hates that! Yes, sir. That's the lowest thing a woman ever done when she started smoking cigarettes. And you husbands that will let her do it, well, I've got my opinion of you. That's exact. You're not the boss of your house, no indeed.

I don't say my wife won't do it; but when she does, she won't be Mrs. William Branham. That will be one thing sure. Yes indeedy. I don't say my daughters won't do it, but you just look up their back and see how many blisters is on them when it gets through. That's exactly right. I don't say they won't do it; I don't know. God holds the future. I hope I don't sire something like that. That's right. I don't know what will happen.

But listen, when.... The worst fifth columnist there in the nation is a cigarette-smoking mother. I get statistics from the government. It says that eighty percent of the mothers that smoke cigarettes has to put their babies on cows' milk, if they smoke. If they get the nicotine poison from the milk, they don't live eighteen months. Think of that.

Sabotage? Oh, as I've always said, “It isn't the robin that pecks the apple that hurts it, it's the worm at the core that kills it.” That's right. It's our own dirt and filth around....

Them cigarette companies try and make women think they reduce. It's giving you a TB and cancer. Don't the doctors tell you that? Don't listen to all this. How they take that stuff and put it out there on television, and then write it off out in the United States government taxes, and then take a preacher and send him to penitentiary for not paying taxes on something another he's.... Oh, my, we're ripe for damnation! There's nothing left but judgment. That's right.

She isn't very old. Revelations 13 said this nation wouldn't live very long anyhow. You know that. The little lamb raised up, and never did come a ram like the rest of them. It died in its youth. That's right, when the ecclesiastical power and civil powers met together with those two little horns of the ram, they united church and state. And we're almost doing it right now. It just depends on which way the wave blows when they have another election. And we're almost at it right now. Just let it go ahead.

You might think I'm a fanatic, but you write it down on the little piece of paper somewhere and stick it away in your Bible, and watch one of these days. It's coming. She might be right at the door. You better pray! You better get right with God! The hour is at hand!

And we see, “Nations breaking, Israel awakening, The signs that the Bible foretold; Gentile days numbered, with horrors encumbered; Oh 'Return, O dispersed, to your own.'” Oh, my! Get away from these things of the world and get to God as quick as you can. It's the only hope that we have, the only thing that's left. Every nation is ready to be blown to bits; the end time is at hand. And there's no other thing that can last, nowhere you can put your hopes but on the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ and the righteous [unclear word]. Amen. How true that is.

Mary went up to meet Elisabeth. And I can see Elisabeth back in there knitting these little booties, you know, and getting things ready for the baby. But you know the funny thing was, the baby had never moved. It was six months with her, with the mother, and that's altogether sub-normal. We know that. About three to four months, and this is six months and little John had never moved. And she was back there fixing little booties. And I hear some of them say, “I see a woman coming.” Maybe somebody on the outside.

And Elisabeth raised up the curtain, she looked. She said, “I ought to know that woman. Ever who it is is awful happy.”

You know, something about a Christian is awful happy. There's something about a man that's ever met God; there's something happy about the woman or a man.

Here come little Mary. She was only about eighteen years old. Her little eyes was sparkling, her little cheeks rosy. And here she come just as hard as she could come. Oh, she was just rejoicing and praising God.

And as she got closer, Elisabeth looked good and she said, “Well, if that ain't Mary, my cousin.” Now, you know that John and Jesus were second cousins. So she said, “Here comes Mary, my cousin.”

And she run out the house, got her little shawl and put around her. She run out, and she met Mary, and threw her arms around her and begin to hug her.

You know, I wish people loved one another again like that. Don't you? Oh, my, they're cold, aren't they? Just as cold as a wart on a pickle. I never seen anything in my life like it. Oh, it's terrible! Nobody has any more friendship.

Brother Arganbright, you remember long years ago when we used to have the farm, and something went wrong with the neighbor over there? He got sick, and we'd go over and cut his wood, and get the corn in, and plow the corn, or whatever it was. We helped take care of one another. Now you don't know your neighbor's dead till you read it in the paper or somewhere. That's right. We don't have no more love one for another.

And we come along, like I said not long ago, people don't even act right to one another. I was going downtown. (She will get me for this, my wife.) So I was going downtown, this lady said, “Hello, Sister Branham.”

I looked over at her, and I said, “Meda,” I said, “that lady spoke to you.”

She said, “I spoke.”

I said, “How did she hear it when I couldn't hear it sitting here? And I know my ears is good, my hearing's all right.” I said, “How'd she hear you?”

She said, “I smiled.”

I said, “Oh, my!” A little old silly grin.

Now, that ain't speaking. No, sir. I like a good old-fashioned pump-handled handshake like that. I like to feel it.

Like Paul Rader said when he left his home one day. He said him and wife was having a little fuss at the table. You all remember the late Paul Rader that died down here in California? The graveyard of preachers, Los Angeles; all go in there and die.

So then, when they come to a place there, when he left—said he left his wife, and they was having a little spat. And said usually at the door he'd kiss her good-bye, go on to the gate, and then they'd wave good-bye. Said that morning, he went to the door, and she kind of had her head down. Said he kissed her good-bye, and went out the gate, waved back good-bye.

He started down the street, and he happened to think, “What if she'd die? What if something would happen to me? She's the dearest woman on earth; how I love her. I remember when I promised her at the alter I'd live true to her. All these things here, I'd always love, honor, and cherish. Oh,” he said, “God begin to deal with my heart. Back I went, through the gate, into the door, opened up the door and said, 'Faye, where you at?'” Said, “Here she was [you know how a woman can do, you know] standing behind the door and kind of crying.”

Said he looked over at her like that, pulled up her chin, and give her a great big kiss on the lips, turned around, said, “Bye.”

Said, “Bye.”

He run out the gate, looked around again. And said he looked back, she's standing at the door, and he said, “Bye.”

She said, “Bye.”

Said, “She said it just like she did the first time, but the last time had a feeling in it.” So that's just why I like a handshake, one's got a feeling in it.

That's the way I like religion. Amen! One's that's got a feeling in it, that you've passed from death unto life, and the Holy Ghost is witnessed it to you, that you are sons and daughters of God. Something with a feeling in it, something that makes you know that it's real and you've passed from death unto life.

Here some time ago down in Florida, I went down there to visit this little boy, called “Little David.” Say, I believe I see Brother what's-his-name back there, Morris, from down at the Tabernacle. Is that right? You remember the night our tabernacle was too little, and we had to go over, our auditorium, and swap with Little David? Little David got a big auditorium, and we had too many for our auditorium, so we just swapped. And he come over, and we went and took his.

I said, “David, let me pay for that ... or, Mr. Walker, his father.”

Said, “Never mind, never mind, that's all right, Brother Branham. Go on.”

And Little David got down at Florida. And, course, that's one thing about the Pentecostal people, they ... the ox knows his stall, the masters know the.... “The ass knows the crib, but my people doth not know.”

When they had that Little David that would've won thousands of souls, but he come from another organization. So the other organization had to have a Little David, another organization, another organization—all of them got Little Davids. As soon as God give a gift of healing, the other one had to have it, this denomination had to have it, and that one had to have it, and that one. Oh, my! They just don't understand, that's all.

They'd've took that little boy, them old Christian daddies would've got around him and pushed his head down a little, he didn't get puffed up.... That little boy was a preacher. Not, “Mama, you little Jesus born on Chris.... What was the next, mama?” No, no, that little boy took a text and handled it like a preacher. And if all of them would got around and not let him get puffed up in his head, he'd have won tens of thousands of little children to Christ. But no, each one had to have a Little David.

There was Mrs. Willet and them down there, with all kinds of Little Davids, and two pages to put Little Davids. So he asked me if I'd come down, he was hung up. And I went down there, and they had some kind of duchess or.... What is it? Is that right, duchess? Some kind of a woman, that duchess, I don't know what it means, but she was a great woman. And oh, thousands were around there to be prayed for. That's when Brother Bosworth came in.

And somebody come to me, Brother Lindsay did, and said, “Brother Branham [I believe it was Brother Lindsay or Brother Moore, one], said, ”the Duchess wants to see you.“

I said, “The who?”

Said, “The Duchess.”

I said, “Who's the Duchess? and what is a duchess?”

And he said, “She's a great woman. Some kind of great something, you know.” And said, “She owns this ground out here.”

I said, “See her, and let these poor sick people lay here? And about two thousand trying to get to me to be prayed for, me leaving this afternoon, and see a woman that's well and healthy and let them poor people lay there?” I said, “No, sir. I will see these sick people if I've got time to see another one.”

“Oh,” he said, “but, Brother Branham, she will be standing at the door when you walk out.” Said, “It won't take much of your time. She just wants to meet you.”

“Well,” I said, “All right.”

And as I went out, here stood a great big woman with enough jewelry on her hands to send a missionary around the world fifty times preaching the Gospel. And here she come, and she had a pair of specs on a stick. She had it held out like this.

And she said, “Hello.” She said, “Are you Doctor Branham?”

I said, “No, ma'am. No, ma'am.” I said, “I'm just Brother Branham.”

And she said, “I am chaw'med to meet you,” and held her hand way up like that.

I got a hold of that big old fat hand, and pulled it down, said, “Get it down here so I'll know you when I see you.” I tried to get her.... Oh, I tell you, brother, oh, I never.... What's the use of putting on what we call (excuse the expression), “Putting on the dog,” when you aren't nothing anyhow? Oh, if our American people can't put the dog on!

Brother Arganbright, I've got a good notion saying what we seen in Switzerland, bring ... that woman coming down there with all with all this ten-cent store jewelry. We was having a good time till Miss America come in, set a poodle dog on the table and I.... Oh, it's enough to make you sick. I didn't enjoy that steak that day too much, Brother Arganbright, down there at Lausanne. I never.... It just make you sick. Oh, she's Miss America. The cigarette—the doctor must have told her to stay as far away from it as she could. She had it out like that. And that great big stick out there, trying to “put on the dog.” Oh, I never seen such in my life. What of it?

I was passing through a museum not long ago, and they had the estimation of a man's body laying there. And it was just about enough white-wash to sprinkle a hen's nest, and the man weighed a hundred and fifty pounds. And just about enough calcium and potash.... Anyhow, estimated altogether, a man weighing a hundred and fifty pounds, you know how much he's worth? Eighty-four cents.

And you'll put a twenty-dollar hat on eighty-four cents, a five-hundred-dollar mink coat on eighty-four cents. Turn your nose up in the air, if it'd rain it'd drown you, trying to think you're somebody when you're not. You're nothing but eighty-four cents, that's all.

Oh, my, you go down at the restaurant and get a bowl of soup, and there'd be a spider in it, you'd sue the restaurant. Then you'll let the devil cram cigarettes and tobacco and sin down your throat to damn that soul that's worth ten thousand worlds. And then talk about civilization. Oh, my! The wheel's turned backwards again. Yes, sir.

Them boys standing there looked at that, and one looked at the other and said, “Jack, we're not worth very much, are we? Eighty-four cents.”

I said, “Wait a minute, boys. You've got a soul in there that's worth ten thousand worlds. That's right.” He never value....

Dust thou art, to dust returneth,

Was not spoken of the soul.

Lives of great men all remind us

And 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,

A forlorn and shipwrecked brother,

In seeing, shall take heart again.

Oh, I like that so well, the Longfellow's “Psalm of Life.”

Mary, when she was coming up there (back to my text), and the little cheeks was blushing, and her eyes—she knowed she was close to the house. Right up along the road, testifying to everybody she was going to have a baby.

Here come Elisabeth out with her little shawl on her and said, “Mary!”

And she said, “Elisabeth!”

And they begin to hug one another. Oh, my. And she said, “I am so glad to see you, Mary.”

She said, “Yes, I'm glad.”

She said, “I see.”

She said, “Yes, that is right.” She said, “I'm to be mother.” She said, “My husband, Zacharias, is all dumb.” Said, “He can't speak. He met an angel.”

She said, “I understand.” Amen. She knowed what it was all about.

She said, “But you know, Mary?” She said, “I'm just a little bit worried.”

Said, “Why?”

Said, “It's six months with me as a woman to be mother and there's never no life yet.” She said, “I'm just a little bit worried.”

And I can see Mary with them little eyes. She said, “But you know, I'm going to mother too.”

“Oh, you and Joseph got married?”

“No, me and Joseph isn't married. No.”

“Mary, my cousin! You're going to have a baby before you and Joseph gets married?”

“Yes.” Amen.

“Oh, how is it going to be?”

“The Holy Ghost is going to overshadow me. He's already done it. Oh, and in my womb is going to a baby which is going to be little Emmanuel. And he said I shall call His name Jesus when He's born.”

And as soon as she said, “Jesus,” little John begin to shout and jump, jump up and down, hard as he could go, up and down. Oh, my! And the Holy Ghost come upon Elisabeth; and John, the Bible said, he was filled with the Holy Ghost in his mother's womb. Oh, my, yes. God keeps His Word.

And listen, if the first time that the name of Jesus was ever spoke through human lips made a dead baby come to life and jump for joy in his mother's womb, what ought it do for a church that claims to be borned again of the Spirit? Amen.

How can a killer cancer stay there, how can a killer cataract? How can a deaf or dumb spirit bind you, when “In my name they shall cast out devils”? Hallelujah!

Just don't doubt. Take His Word like Mary did and start rejoicing. Will you do that? You that's going to prayed for tonight, will you, as soon as the name of Jesus is called on you, will you begin to leap for joy saying, “Praise God. It's all over now. Hallelujah, it's all gone now?”

Go out of here—if anybody says, “How you feeling?”—“Wonderful, wonderful, just fine and dandy.”

“Why? How do you know you're healed?”

“God said so. That's all.”

Like they said to Abraham, “How do you know you're going to have that baby?”

Said, “I want ten yards of Birdseye. I want some pins. I want some booties.”

“What? Well, you're an old man, your wife's old.”

“Don't make a difference; going to have a baby.”

“How do you know you're going to have it?”

“God said so.” First month passed. “Sarah, how you feel?”

“No different.”

“Going to have the baby anyhow, God said so.”

Ten years passed; twenty years passed; twenty-five years passed. “How do you feel, Sarah?”

“No different at all.”

“Praise God. We're going to have the baby anyhow.”

“How do you know?”

“God said so.” That's enough. When God said it, that is enough. Abraham called those things which were not as though they were, because he took the Word of God wherein He's able to keep His promise. And we being dead in Christ, take on Abraham's seed and are heir's according to the promise. And we can't trust God for fifteen minutes. We can't trust Him from the time we leave here to the time to get off the pulpit, you're already doubting it. And now, where's the rapture coming from? Abraham's seed.

When you follow the commandments of God and take God at His Word, these signs shall follow them that believe. God sent gifts and everything else and proved to us that He's with us. When we lay hands on you, believe it with all your heart. Go off the platform, “It's a finished work. God said so.” Amen.

Said, “You're paralyzed and can't even move a finger.”

Say, “I'm already healed.”

“How do you know?”

“God said so. God said so.”

“Brother Branham said so.” No, I never. God said so. God said so, and God's Word is true. Nothing else can stop it. God give us more Marys tonight and people who will take His Word. Let us bow our heads now as we pray.

Is there one in the building, before we start the prayer line, would like to say, “Brother Branham, I wished I had the Spirit of God in me, would make me take every word of God and say it's the truth. I wished I had the Spirit of God in me that would make me say, 'God said so. That's all there is to it.'

And every promise in the Book is mine,

Every chapter, every verse, every line.

I'm trusting in His love divine,

For every promise in the Book is mine.“

Would you raise your hands and say, “Pray for me, Brother Branham?” God bless you. Oh, my. Over the building, it's tremendous.

Is there a sinner that doesn't know how to trust Him, would dare to come here? Now remember, I'm not one of these pathetic, calling-altar-call preachers. I believe the Word does it, or it don't do any good anyhow, see.

I believe if you know the Word, and you believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, you walk right up here tonight, and turn around this audience, and say, “I'm convinced that Jesus Christ is the Son of God. I now accept Him as my personal Saviour.”

There's plenty of water down here in the lake, and the Holy Ghost is waiting. That's right. That's the way to come. That's the way to come. Yes, sir, if you believe, the minute you believe and accept Him as your personal Saviour, stand up before men and witness it. He said, “That quick I will witness it before my Father and the holy angels.” That's true.

Will you come now? While we wait just moment while the music continues to play.

Lord Jesus, I pray Thee, Lord. I don't know the audience. Thou does, Lord. Help now, Lord, if there's one here, so that I will be sure at that great judgment day that they won't point a bony finger at me and say, “If you'd only called that night.” I'm giving to them the opportunity now, Father. It's their soul that's at stake. Let them come forward now and confess their sins and believe on Jesus, Thy Son, accept Him as their personal Saviour.

The very Jesus that was conceived in the womb of Mary when Jehovah, the Almighty God, overshadowed her, and brought a blood cell into her womb, mixed with the egg that was in the woman, brought forth, not the blood of a Jew, or the blood of a Gentile, but the blood of God. Through that holy, unadulterated blood, saved us from our sins.

Grant, Lord, that if there be a sinner, You know their heart, I don't, let them come now while we're waiting.

While on others Thou art calling,

Do not pass me by.

Saviour, (If I never see you again, here's

your opportunity.) my humble cry;

While on others Thou art calling,

Do not pass me by.

[Brother Branham hums.]

Would I seek Thy face;

Heal my wounded, broken....

[Brother Branham steps away from the microphone; and begins the prayer line]

This man, this woman, and this Indian boy, three precious souls. We have the victory now. They have come up here tonight, because that God called them. Now, Jesus said, “No man can come to me except my Father calls him first.” Is that right?

“My Father has to call him first. And all that comes to me, I will in no wise turn out. And will give him everlasting life and will raise him up at the last day.” Is that what God said? That's His promise.

“Now, he that's ashamed of me before men, I will be ashamed before him at the judgment, the Father, and the holy angels. But he that will stand and confess me before men, him will I confess before my Father and the holy angels.”

These names that's just now been given to me, God has put down on the book of life. “He that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me, has eternal life, and shall never come to judgment; but has passed from death unto life.” You believe that?

Now, these my friends, your friends, are no longer that; they are brothers and sisters in Christ Jesus.

If there's some ministers here, of the locality here, that knows these people, I want you to come forward now, any minister that's in the locality where these people are from, come up and give them the right hand of fellowship, and take them to your church and carry out the prescription that was given in the Bible for them. Is there a pastor here, that you're ... one of the churches that knows the people?

Are you people local here from this community any where through here? You're not from here. All right. They're not from this locality here then. Are you, my brother Indian boy? you're not from here either? Not from here. How many of you welcome them into the kingdom of God as brothers and sisters? raise your hand. God bless you. As you return now to your home, will you go to a nice church and tell the pastor you got saved? Will you do that? You will, sir? You will, sister? God bless you. Oh, that's fine. Let's sing “Blest be the Tie that Binds” now for them as they go to their seats.

Go now. If I never see you again this side of the river, I will see you there. As they pass by, shake their hands.

Blest be the tie....

Oh, that just makes me feel so good. Just think, that right there's worth thirty thousand worlds according to the Bible. Each soul's worth ten thousand worlds. Oh, isn't He wonderful?

I believe God's going to call that Indian boy to be a preacher. The lady said she was from Hot Springs, Arkansas. And when I was there at the meeting, having a rough time if there ever was, she said that light.... How many seen the picture of it now? We got it here, I guess you all been by. That light, she saw it come above me, while I was preaching there; and her husband said she was out of her mind, she didn't see it. She did see it. And it stuck with her on till now. She's become a Christian now. God bless you, sister.

That same halo of God's grace is over you now. It'll lead you to the promised land. That's what it's sent for. Amen. Amen.

All right, where's Billy Paul? What prayer cards did you give out? Is he here? C 50 to 100. All right. Who has C 50, raise up your hand, so we can be sure to get them all in; we're going to call them.

You want me to tell you something? There's people in here tonight got some faith. This is the best faith I've found since the meeting started. I can see visions breaking over the people right here now.

If thou canst believe, all things are possible. Just have faith and don't doubt. He's wonderful isn't He?

See this elderly man sitting here, suffering with hardening of the arteries? And have a little bit of hard of hearing. If you'd believe there, sir, with all your heart, God will make you well. Amen.

Here's a woman sitting right over here praying for her daughter that's not here, that's got sinus trouble. If you believe with all your heart, lady. You touched Him, see. Have faith in God.

[Blank space on tape.] Gall bladder trouble.... You believe that God will make you well? Man sitting next to her with heart trouble, you believe that God will make you well? It'll be done. Accept it, both of you. You have prayer card? You don't? You don't have to have one, see. He knows your heart; that's what you was praying about. Is that right? Raise up your hand so the audience can see that it's true. Raise up your hand. All right. Right here.

See how it is? The Holy Spirit's here. You just have to believe Him. Is that right? “If thou canst believe, all things are possible; if you can believe.”

I'm watching the discernment. Let the discernment line be out there. I'm just going to pray for these. I see something taking place. Amen.

The stomach trouble's gone, sir, you can just quit praying over there. Believe the Lord healed you. God bless you. Do you believe it? You was praying, “Lord, let him please speak to me tonight. I have no way of getting there.” Your stomach trouble's over. Go home and get well, now. Jesus Christ makes you well. Sitting there praying just as hard as he could, and I seen that light move around over him like that, see him refuse food. You're all right now. Go, be made well.

I see a woman sitting here. She's holding her prayer card in her hand, sitting right there. I doubt whether she hears me; she's hard of hearing. But if she'd just accept her healing, it's right over her right now. She has bad blood too; it's artery trouble in her arms and things. That's right. This elderly lady, short bobbed hair, green looking dress on, holding her card in her hand. If you'll believe right now, you won't even have to come on the platform. Can you hear me? All right, that did it. Amen. That's all right. She don't have to come now, just tell her she don't have to come. Tell her, somebody there, she don't have to come. You're all right. God bless you.

Oh, praise the Lord! I like to see that. Poor old woman sitting there, nobody looking after her, nobody paying any attention to her, but God saw her. Amen.

That brother sitting there with his hand up in the air, just praying. You don't have a prayer card, do you, sir, out there? No, you don't need it. You're all right anyhow. Go on home, you'll be well.

Now, is He still here? What did they touch? The hem of His garment. They didn't touch me, they touched Him. Now, see, their faith saved them. Does that make Jesus Christ that one we was talking about, borned of a virgin birth? He isn't dead, He's alive. Is that right?

You say, “Brother Branham, how do you do that?” It's just a gift. You just relax yourself before God and.... Just like this microphone, that's a mute. That microphone cannot speak by itself. Neither can I speak.

How do I know you? Everybody that I said anything to just awhile ago, whoever it was, raise up your hand if I'm strangers to you. Everybody that was just called, the Holy Spirit called, raise up your hand if.... There you are, see. There's what He's called, and I don't know none of them.

How many in this line that I don't know? Raise up your hands, you know that we are strangers to one another. I don't know any of them, see. So I'd be a mute; it's the Holy Spirit speaking through here.

Now, God can use a man for His microphone. Don't you think so? If you can just get dumb enough to yourself. Let God do it. That's right: that's the way. Amen.

All right. Has that.... Anybody come in? Any of the rest of the ninety or from a hundred? All right. Let's start the prayer line. We will wait till we get these through, see.

Now remember, in the prayer line, you have seen the discernment, them out there that doesn't have a prayer card. Haven't you? Do you believe that makes the anointing on me now of the Holy Spirit? Does the Bible say this is God's Word true, “If they lay their hands on the sick, they shall recover.” Is that right?

Now look, awhile ago when the Holy Spirit was falling, that was the blessings of the Lord. Now, this that you see operating this way is the power of the Lord. That's blessings. Don't get blessing and power mixed up. You can have a blessing and not power enough to cure a toothache. But power of the Lord is to manifest God. See what I mean? The power of the Lord. Now that was people out there that doesn't have a prayer card. Now, here's one with a prayer card.

You're the lady that's in the prayer line. All right, come here and stand right here before me. Look on me. I say that like Peter and John passed through the gates called Beautiful. Now, I never seen you in my life. We're strangers to one another. God knows us both. If God will tell me what you're here for, will you believe me to be His prophet? You will. How many of the rest of you out there will? Look here, here's my hand, here's God's Bible. As far as I know, I never seen the woman in my life. I might have been going down the street somewhere, out here and seen her going past, or in her automobile. I mean, to know her. She says that she doesn't know me; I don't know her. Is that right, lady? If it is just raise up your hand so the people see.

Here we are. Now, what is the power of God? What is the sign of Jesus Christ? Jesus said, “The things that I do shall you also.” Is that right? And what did He say in Saint John 5:19? “I do nothing till the Father shows Me.”

Now, in the Bible when Philip come to Him, He knowed that he'd found Nathanael under the tree. He told the woman at the well what her trouble was. A woman touched His garment out in the audience, and went out there. He told her He's the high priest that can be touched by the feeling of our infirmities. He's the same yesterday, today, and forever.

And the Bible said that the Word ... “In the beginning was the Word [How many knows that?], the Word was with God, and the Word was God. And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us.” Is that right? Now, let me be catch you. Hebrews 4, the Bible said, “The Word of God is sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the sunder of the bone and the marrow, and a discerner of the thoughts of the mind.” Jesus perceived their thoughts, because He was the Word. Is that right?

Now, God used men for His agents. Is that right? Always, God used a man to be His agent. Jesus was God's agent. Elijah was God's agent. John was God's agent. Now, if this age God's has a witness, Lord, let me be Your agent. Then let ... [Blank space on tape.] ... what's wrong with her. Let her be the judge whether it's right or not. That ought to settle it with the congregation, is that right?

Look this way, sister. Now, if I can get myself relaxed ... you just believe on me. Like Peter and John said, “Look on us.” You know what I mean? Just pay attention to what I'm saying. Not knowing you, never seen you, total strangers. If God will tell me your condition, you'll know whether it's true or not. Then will it help you? Will it help you? It wouldn't heal you, but it'll help you have faith to be healed, if you're sick. I don't know that you're sick. I don't nothing about you. I've never see you.

But you are here because you've got some trouble in your neck. It's a growth in your neck. And then, I believe the doctor has pronounced something another wrong with the ... in the tongue. No, it's saliva, saliva gland. That's right. All right, Mrs. Rogers. That's your name? Now, you return to your home happy, because you're going to be well.

All right. Do you believe with all your heart? All right, then have faith as we pray for the people. You all help me now. Them visions have already making me weak. You see, I can't.... How many knows that visions make you weak? When Moses went down, he didn't put his.... I'm talking just a minute to get my strength back now, see. You go somewhere else; you're in another world. You see what's happened, what's taking place: what was, what is, and what will be, see. Moses performed that miracle one time and all Israel believed him.

I'm your brother that Jesus Christ sent, witnessed by a light hanging over me years ago. Even when I was born, as a little boy, at the age of twenty-one when I become a minister, He vindicated down on the river before ten thousand people. It went on the Associated press. I come to you and told you about laying hands on the people, and seeing the gift operate, told you that it would come to pass “you'd know the secret of the heart.” Everything exactly the way He said it and has been prophesied has come to pass. Is that right? All that was in my first ministry, raise up your hands if that was prophesied would come to pass?

The Bible said, “If there be one among you who claims to be a prophet or spiritual, and what he says comes to pass, hear him, for I'm with him.” Is that right? That's the sign of it.

Some of them said, “Well, Brother Branham....” Here not long ago, someone said, “Brother Branham's all right when he's discerning, but his theology's wrong.”

That just shows you how much you know about what a prophet means. I don't call myself a prophet, you do. The Word of the Lord came to a prophet. What is a prophet? Is a witness to foretell, to show a vindication that he is a diviner of the divine Word. The Word of God came to the prophets. Look that down and find out that's not right.

Now, to you standing in the prayer lines, we will just lay our hands on you. You're going across so I get every one of you and there's some more cards. I believe somebody else out there has cards, don't you? Is there some more we took up that's straggling, I believe from A's and B's? One-two-three-four-five-six-seven, seven cards left. All right, we're going to put them right in the end of this line. Bring them right on through.

But now, as we start praying, how many out there, to this audience, will raise your hand that you will be praying for these people to? All of you, all of you pray now. We want.... What if this was my sister? It's somebody's sister, somebody's daughter, somebody's child. Let's pray now, all of you with your heads bowed.

Now come, sister. Father in heaven, in the name of Jesus Christ, that name that made little John rise from the dead, jump in his mother's womb, may it heal our sister. Amen. All right.

Come, sir. Believe Him now with all your heart. Come. You believe? O God, in the name of Jesus Christ, heal this precious man. Amen.

Now, you know I know what's wrong with you. But it don't do no good to tell you, because you know what's wrong, don't you? But you believe that God will heal you anyhow? Then that old cough will leave you, and the asthmatic will be gone, you'll go on and be well. All right, come believing now. Our heavenly Father, I bless my sister and call over her that name that caused little John to jump in his mother's womb. Grant it, Lord, for the healing. Amen. God bless you, sister.

Come now. You believe with all your heart? You know that I know what's wrong with you. O Lord, I pray that You'll heal our sister, as I lay my hands upon her in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen. Go rejoicing now, being happy.

Now, brother, you believe He will do it? In the name of Jesus Christ, at that name, all sufficient, “In my name they shall cast out devils.” Here's my hands. “Lay hands on the sick, they shall recover. These signs shall follow the believer.” Lord, You've proved that I do believe You. So I pray for him in Jesus' name. Amen. Go happy. Your stomach's all over.

Do you believe, sister? Lord God, in the name of Jesus, I lay hands on my sister. I'm a believer. You said, “These signs shall follow them.” Let her be healed in Jesus' name. Amen.

Come, sister, believing with all your heart. Now, Father God, as a believer, along with this great church of God here tonight, laying hands upon our sister, and condemning the sickness, and asking for her healing in Jesus' name. Amen.

“The prayer of faith shall save the sick, God shall raise them up.” Our heavenly Father, I lay my hand upon my sister and ask that in the name of Jesus Christ that You'll heal her and make her well. May she go and be healed, in Jesus' name. Amen. Just go happy now, rejoicing. It's all over.

Father God, in the name of Jesus Christ, may my sister be healed. I pray for her through that all sufficient name of the Lord Jesus. Amen. Go rejoicing saying, “Thank you, Lord.”

Now, what I don't get is why don't you rejoice and praise God when you come through? Now, that's what I can't understand, church. Don't you know that God's just as much God one time as He is another? See?

Now, someone said to me not long ago, said, “I don't understand it.” Well now, listen. You know I'm not bawling you out, don't you? You know I'm trying to get a truth over to you. Do you believe that? You realize that. There wasn't a one pass but what I seen what was wrong with them. If I start into a vision, what does it do? It just scatters them, and there you are, see. The people go by, they'll come by and say.... “Yeah, yeah,” and you catch it, see. “Well, no, I never got it.” That's the reason they give prayer cards. If you don't, you'll come right back in the line again, come back again. It just weakens your faith each time, go weaker and weaker, weaker and weaker.

Just as soon as you pass by here, like you're passing under the cross. You're not passing by me; you're passing by Him. He knows you, knows all about you. He could tell anything He wanted to. Do you believe that?

Here, you lady. I'm a stranger to you. God knows you. You believe He can tell me what your trouble is? If He would, would it help you? You're praying for somebody else. That's right. Your husband. Your husband has internal trouble. He has serious head trouble. He's a veteran of the war. He was hurt in the war. He has severe headaches. You're from a place called Fort Bragg. Your name is Mrs. O'Neil. Take that handkerchief and put on him and believe on the Lord Jesus Christ he'll be saved. A dark shadow shadows you. Go believe now, sister, and he will be healed in Jesus' name.

Now, do you believe? Have faith. Now see, it nearly kills me. Come believing, sister. In the name of Jesus Christ may he be healed. Come. In the name of Jesus Christ may you be healed. In the name of Jesus Christ may she be healed. Amen. Come, brother.

Now, do you believe?

You believe God's going to tell about your healing? Tumor. That's right. You know how I found that out? Look here. Now, put my hand on yours. See how it swell up and turned red? See them little white things running over it? That shows that your condition is a tumor. You're for an operation. You believe? Now, watch. Let me show you my other hand, see. It isn't on my hand there. Now, put this back there. There it is. Now, to you old-timers, you see that? That's exactly. Now, watch it. Do you believe me with all your heart? I can make it leave you, but I can't make it stay away. Now, so that you'll thoroughly understand, take this other hand here. Lay your hand over on here. Now, my hand looks just as normal, doesn't it? That's your left hand. Now, take your hand. Now, put this hand on. There it is. It doesn't look normal there does it? Now, put mine on—still normal. Put yours on; there it is. Swells up, turns reddish-black, little white things running over it, going, “Htrrr, htrrr.” That's that tumor, see.

It's a multiplication of cells alive in there, something to kill you. I can make it leave, if you'll believe it'll stay away. All right, you watch my hand. Better bow your head on this. This is casting out something.

O Lord, hear the prayer of your servant. Answer my prayer, Father. Tumor, you devil, leave the woman in the name of Jesus Christ. Come out of her. There it goes. Now, sister, now look at my hand. It's all gone now, isn't it? The tumor's dead. Go on your road rejoicing saying, “Thank you, Lord.”

Anybody ever seen that done before? See, God never takes a gift. Here, look at this woman here. Let's see your hand. Yes, sir, stomach trouble. Got it in your stomach. Look here at my hand. See how it swells? Watch, now take your hand off. Did it turn back normal? Now, put my hand on like yours. Doesn't bother it. Now, take the other hand. Doesn't bother it. Now, take this hand and put it on there. There's your ulcer. See it there? All right. Now will you believe if I take it off of you by prayer, you will believe it'll stay away; you'll go ahead, and eat your supper, and be well?

Lord God, I challenge this devil not for miracles, but this is the last night of the service, that the people might know that You're God. Glorify your name among them, Lord. Satan, leave the woman in the name of Jesus Christ. There it goes.

Now look at my hand. Now put your other hand on. Is that normal? Now put this same hand back. Now, you seen what happened awhile ago. Now, put that hand back. There is it. Now, your stomach trouble's well. Go on your road rejoicing.

Just have faith, that's all, see. All gifts work. And He told me the other day, “Just speak the word; and it'll be done if you'll get the people to believe you.” Now, how many ever read my book? The angel of the Lord said to me, “You'll be give....”

I said, “The people won't believe me.”

He said, “You'll given two signs. One, you'll take their hand and tell them what's wrong with them. They won't believe that, then you'll tell them the very secret of their heart, and they'll have to believe that.”

Brother preacher from down there, do you.... Wasn't that what it was when I was at your meeting? Here it is, all of it in there. Now, God said, “Just speak the word. Pray for the sick. It'll happen.” That's true.

In the name of Jesus, heal this man, Lord. Amen. Go believing now, sir. Make it be well with all your heart. You was here awhile ago for salvation. Now, Lord, make her well in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen. She's Your child. Believe on it.

Come, sister. That old back trouble will leave you. Go on your way rejoicing, saying, “Thank you, Lord.” Come. In the name of the Lord Jesus, heal my brother. Grant it, Lord. Amen. In the name of Jesus Christ, heal my sister. Grant it, Lord. In the name of Jesus Christ, let the Holy Ghost that's anointing now heal my brother. Amen.

God bless you, honey. In the name of Jesus Christ, may this girl be healed. Amen. Come, sister. In the name of Jesus Christ, let the power of Satan leave the woman. Amen.

Don't you believe just the same now for them as you do for the others? Sure you can believe it. If I tell you what's wrong with you, would it help you? All right. It's your back and your feet. It's a pinched nerve. You got somebody on your heart you're praying for. It's a friend that's paralyzed. That's “Thus saith the Lord.” Now, did it help you? Go believing. Amen.

See, just have faith; believe. In Jesus' name, be healed. Amen. Just have faith, don't doubt. In the name of the Lord Jesus, be healed. Come, sister, believing. In the name of Jesus, be healed. Come, sister, believing with all your heart. In the name of the Lord Jesus, be healed.

Can't you understand that's the Holy Spirit saying that? In the name of the Lord Jesus, be healed. Come, sister, believe now. In the name of the Lord Jesus, be healed. You believe that? It left you right there. Now, sister, if they'd all have faith like that, it'd be all right. You're free now; go.

Come, sir. Look, you were sitting there awhile ago rejoicing when I was preaching. That's right. I noticed you back there. I believe He come on you when I said awhile ago, “If they'd just have this much faith.” It was on you. You're suffering with a back trouble. You're suffering with a chest trouble, got trouble in your feet. It was caused from a great fall you had. You was healed before you come in the line. Go on your road and rejoice and be happy in the name of Jesus.

Come, sister, believe. In Jesus' name, may she be healed. Amen. Go rejoicing now. Don't doubt. Believe now. All right. [Blank space on tape.] But she's made it. You believe she's going to be healed? I condemn this demon that's done this evil to the sister. May she go from here tonight and be a well woman to testify to the glory of God. In the name of Jesus Christ, I ask it to leave. Amen. Now ... [Blank space on tape.]

Stand to your feet every one of you and give God praise. O Lord God, heal these people, that these handkerchiefs represent. Heal the audience here. May Satan not be able to make one of them doubt, but may they every one be completely healed. Come out of here, Satan. I challenge you in name of Jesus Christ that you take your hands away from these people.