Thou Son Of David, Have Mercy On Me

Let's just remain standing just a moment for prayer. How many would like to be remembered tonight before God?

Our heavenly Father, we are so glad that You answer prayer. So glad to find after many years, meeting the people from way back in '46 and '47, still healed—when they were dying with cancer, crippled, in wheelchairs, blind, couldn't see. And here they are here shaking my hand, saying, “Brother Branham, I was crippled. I was blind. I was given up with cancer and I've never had a sick day since.” O Lord, we know that could only be your grace to them. We're so happy for this, and we pray, God, that others that are suffering today will remember that You are the same yesterday, today, and forever.

We pray that You'll bless us tonight as we fellowship around the written Word, that the glory of God might come into our midst. We're so glad to hear the results of last night's meeting—receiving the Holy Ghost and being saved. O Lord, how we thank You for these things. We pray now that You'll bless us in the further part of the service as we wait on Thee. In Jesus' name we ask it. Amen.

It's such a privilege to have a nice audience like this to speak to, and it makes it so easy for you to believe God when these ... takes place like this. Now, I've been for a few nights preaching, and ... just the gospel, 'cause I think if a person is healed.... If they live very long, they'll probably get sick again. But if you're saved, that's eternal. You have eternal life. And it's getting so late in the evening lights that I feel that one great thing is needed most of all. That's salvation.

And divine healing is merely.... Just like Brother Bosworth used to say, divine healing is the bait that you put on a hook. The fish doesn't see the hook. He just takes the bait and gets the hook. So that's the way it is. People see the supernatural, the phenomena of supernatural, God healing the sick. And then they reach for that and the first thing you know they're right in the arms of the Lord Jesus with great faith to believe. And then they become a Christian, have eternal life.

Now a great percent of our Lord's ministry—about 80% of it or better, I think it was—it's estimated about 80% of his ministry was divine healing. So He did that to catch the eyes of the multitude, and also to show that He was their Messiah. He showed them Messiahic signs to say that they ... were Messiah.

Now last night I believe Brother Arganbright asked the audience about how many would like to continue on in preaching services, or how many'd like to go and have just healing services. And I think about, oh, just a very small percentage of them for the healing services. But however, if we'll open our hearts to God, God will do it any time, see. We just see it like that.

A little tired tonight. I have anywhere from one to three services a day, you know. So time I get here I'm pretty near wore out to begin to start. So I was up at the old Pisgah Church this afternoon, or the Pisgah Home—whichever it's called—and I tell you we had a glorious time. I found out that some of the old timers off of Azusa street is up there yet in that church, worshipping ... the old Azusa street.

I seen them old women and men sitting there. I just wanted to get my arms around there and hug them, you know. They look so sweet. I think a real young child, or an old person, you know.... They seem to be helpless the second time, and I really.... I like to get with a young person and try to stir them on the right road; and then get to the old person and find out how many ditches he's crossed and how he crossed them; then I'll know how to cross them, when I get there. So, I like the young and old and in between too.

I like everybody. I can say that from my heart. If I knew tonight that I had an enemy.... I may have. I perhaps have. But if I do, I don't know just who it is. If it was, I sure wouldn't go to preaching till I went first and made that right, see if I could get it straightened up, 'cause we're not supposed to have anything against anyone; or if anything we can do, let no one have anything against us. And now if.... It don't say, “If you have ought against a brother”; but “If the brother has ought against thee.” You go to him, see. “If he has the ”ought.“ And that way, well, we live peaceful.

Brother Goad here, a precious boy.... Sometimes someone says, “What's the success of your service, Brother Branham?” Of course, it's Christ. “How do you hold up so, and just keep going night after night?” My boys, the people that's with me.

This boy here goes sometimes days without even eating, laying on his face, crying to God for help for me. Now God just can't turn that down, see.

My wife at home, my children, my loved ones; people, my friends, fast and pray. There's the success. See, every one of us.... All of us can't preach, and some of us can't do one thing, another. But we can all do something, and that helps out, you see.

Just like this watch here. It's got a hand on it that tells time. Now I wouldn't know how many times that little thing switches back and forth in there to tell what time it was. The hand tells. But if that little wheel hadn't been jumping back and forth like that, it wouldn't be any hand here to make any time, see. I wouldn't know where it was at. If there wasn't a winding spring to wind that little thing up there, why, it wouldn't be jumping back and forth, see. So everything has to work together. All the church has to pray, and all the laity has to pray, the deacons and the trustees and the pastor; then all together we come into the presence of God like that, as one great unit.

See, now, say for instance, that piano will make a sound. How do I know? How do I know it will make a sound? Well, I believe it will. That's my faith. Now what would you do to make a sound on that piano? My finger would have to touch it. All right. Now, first thing, my head, my mind, has to think of it; my heart has to tell me whether it will or not. That's by faith. Now, say, my finger, it's a great thing. My eye, that's the prophetic side, the seeing. Well, now, if I just sat and looked at that piano, say, “Well, it'll play,” that doesn't make it. Now, see, I've got to make....

My feet's got to work. Now what if my feet say, “Well, I'm not the eye, so I'm just not going to do anything about it.”? Well, my feet says, “I'll take you over there.” All right, here we go, see. My feet are taking me over. Now. Now, I am over here. Well, my eye's still looking, but it can't touch the keys. See, just [unclear words] touch the keys, but it takes the finger, see. And, see, if the nose'd say, “I will,” that won't help. The eye say, “I'll try to hit it,” won't help, see. It's got to have my finger. So with everything working together [Brother Branham plays a note on the piano], I have it, see. That's it.

Now, what is faith? How many senses are there to the human body? Five. See, taste, feel, smell, hear. Is that right? Well, now, faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things you do not see, taste, feel, smell, hear. Is that right? It's the sixth sense. If I had another week I'd preach on some of those things—the sixth sense—or in a healing service rather. Now, it's just ... I could....

Come here, Brother Borders. Now let me show you. Have you ever heard people say, “Seeing is believing”? How many ever heard it? Oh, you've heard it, “I'm from Missouri. You know, you got to show me.” And now there's a man standing before me. He's got brown hair, wearing kind of a brown-looking suit, brown tie with a white shirt on. How many believe that? See. Well, now I've got one sense that declares him there. That's my sight.

Now, step back just a little bit. All right. Now, it's impossible for my sense of sight to say he's there, but I know he's there now just as well I know I'm looking at him. Why? I can't see him. You want to argue with me he's not there?

Now you say, “You might've got Brother Buntain up.” Oh, no, no, no, no. It ain't Brother Buntain; it's Brother Roy Borders.

“How do you know it is? You just got a hold of a man's hand.”

You haven't switched men on me. He's got a real wide wedding band on, see, and I know that's him. So I know that's.... Now, I cannot see him, but yet I know he's there just as well as if I was looking at him. So seeing isn't believing, is it? No, no, uh-uh, not this time. Certainly not, because feeling is believing. Is that right?

Well, now. See now, what is (thank you) what is faith? Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the direct evidence of things you do not see, taste, feel, smell or hear, see. That's it.

You say, “That church's white.”

Well, what if I'd tell you, “That church's red”?

You'd say, “Wait a minute, Brother Branham, that church's white.”

Well, I say, “No, it's red.” Well, now, the only way it could be.... Could it be possible it could be red? Yes. If you was color blind it might be red, see. So seeing wouldn't be believing yet, see.

But your faith.... When faith is positive, you cannot be too positive. Like if you're sitting in a ... given a trial, in a trial. Then you look through a window and seen an accident, it's hard for them to take your evidence 'cause you might have had an optical illusion. You never seen it that way, see. And sometimes you think you're positive right.

Did you ever go down the road and see a mirage on the road? Looks just exactly like it's water. I read in the paper here some time ago where a bunch of ducks thought it was water—must have seen it through their eyes—and lit right on the road. It killed them all, see, because it was a mirage.

Many times human beings sees a mirage, and they think, “Oh, this is just it.” Wind up killing themselves, see. See them out in the desert when they ... out in there prospecting. They get out of water, and their canteen's gone, and they have no water. And they begin to see mirages and they think it's water, and they run and fall down and begin to throw—think—water up on them. And what is it? Heaping hot sand.

And that's the way the devil does sometimes. He shows you a false mirage. And you think it's something great, but when you get there you find yourself just heaping hot sands and sin upon you more and more. Don't go after the devil's mirage; let your faith anchor right in the Word of God. Stay right with it, see, like that. It's got to pull out, see.

That sixth sense will defy any of the other five. We do with the five's all right as long as they agree with the sixth. But men wasn't given to live by the five senses, to let the five senses guide him. He was given, prone to, born here to be led by the sixth sense. That's what God give him the sixth sense for. That's God's place in the heart to lead us. So we are led by the sixth sense, if we'll just let it.

Now, if the sixth sense says that the Word is wrong, then you're not in the sixth sense, see. That's the five senses. But the sixth sense will believe things that the five senses doesn't declare. It's kind of complicated but it's true, see, that the sixth sense is what we're guided by.

I was just out there just a few moments ago. Prayed for a dear old woman that's been laying there for four days waiting to be prayed for. Such a thing. I tell you, I just feel like I ought to change it to a healing service somehow, to see the Spirit of God move on like that. And that poor old thing.... I caught her by the hand, and I seen what was wrong. Well....

What did you read now? Luke, yeah. All right. Now, I want to take a text out of that, the Lord willing. Now, if God is willing, tomorrow night I promised.... I want to preach on the seal of God. Do you all like teaching lessons like that? The seal of God, and then the mark of the beast the following night. And tonight I want to take a text out of this for a subject, out of where he's read here, St. Luke the eighteenth chapter. And he read from the thirty-fifth to the forty-third verse, inclusive. Now I want to take the thirty-eighth verse for a text: “... thou son of David, have mercy on me.”

Let's take it more like a little drama tonight. I'm tired a little bit in my throat, and let's just have a little drama of it for a few moments.

Our scene opens on a cold, spring morning, and it's at the walls, the old torn-down walls of Jericho. And there is a man sitting there which we know to be a beggar called blind Bartimaeus, or Bartimaeus. It would be either one, be pronounced all right. And so in that day there were many beggars.

And all night long he had tossed and rolled. He couldn't sleep. Many of us know what them kind of nights are—just no rest at all. And he'd roll from one side of the bed to the other and there was no rest for the poor old fellow. And he'd got up late, so he'd come to his post late. Therefore, if they're not there early, the merchants and so forth coming in....

There's so many beggars and people—incurables, like blindness, and leprosy, and cripples (and so forth), and people that were poverty stricken. And about the first beggar they met they give him a coin, and that just about settled it. That's all they could afford for the day.

So he'd come to his place late. Let's say it's up about eight o'clock in the morning, and he should've been there about six. But the reason he's late was because he missed so much sleep. All night long he'd rolled and tossed and couldn't sleep. And he was dreaming all night that he could see again. He dreamed that he had his eyesight. And he'd wake up, he'd go back to sleep.

You know I believe God warns us many times in dreams. Don't you think so? He always has, and He promised in the last days that He would show visions and let them dream dreams. And let's think of Bartimaeus, and he dreamed that he had received his sight and he could see again.

So when he got there that morning he was late, and all the merchants had done gone into the city—the great city of commerce as it was. All of them had went in, got early at the market places to sell their goods and so forth. So perhaps he'd have to do without that day. He wouldn't have his coin for the day to eat by.

And I can just imagine, as many times we've pictured him: his old, ragged cloak on, like that, and his little old shriveled-up arms, and the beard all over his face, and that gray; and blind along the road, kind of trying to get to the place to where he'd sit down and beg. Each one had their own private place where they begged.

That's a pitiful thing. I've been in India and watched them there where.... There's 470 million people in India and, honest, I'd almost say 400 million of them are beggars. Just everywhere is beggar, beggar, beggar. They each have their post and their place, and some kind of a little enchantment that they do to attract the attention of the tourists. And, such a pathetic sight.

And then we find him sitting there. And after a bad night, well, he seen there was no one there, so he thought maybe he would sit down on a rock. You know the walls had been torn down in his day from where Joshua had went in, and big rocks was laying out to one side. So he must have found his way out by the side of the northern gate that leads up towards Jerusalem.

And he sat down there in the sunlight, and he was thinking, “Well, it's coming on springtime now, and I believe I'll just sit here in the warm sun. I'm chilly this morning and my clothes are thin. I'll just sit here in the warm sun for just a little while, and maybe there might be one left out that I could get my coin. If I don't, my family will be hungry today.”

And as he sat there he begin to think about his dream. “Last night I dreamed that I could see. Oh, how the skies must look pretty. The hills are beginning to bloom again.”

Then his mind goes back to the time he was a little boy when he used to live around the bank there on the Jordan, and along in that early spring, why, there used to be the big buttercups would come up, and the little flowers. How, a little boy, how he used to roam over the hill and sit down and pick those flowers, and lay out there of a morning and think of how pretty the skies was, the big white clouds coming by in the springtime; and how the green was coming up, how blue the sky; and the Jordan in her swelling time, the snow coming down out of Judea, and how the flowers was blooming.

Then he would hear a familiar voice that we all like to hear, a sweet voice of a mother, calling, “Bartimaeus, my little one, your lunch is ready.” And then when his father was in the field somewhere working, how he'd come in, how that little Jewish mother would wait on the steps for him, and pick him up in her arms and hug him and set him down to his dinner. Then after he'd got through, go out on the porch. And he used to sit out on the porch and how his mother would rock him, and he'd have to take his afternoon nap.

So, how she'd rake the hair back out of his eyes, and he'd look up and see those pretty, big, soft eyes of a mother; and how she would kiss his little cheeks and say, “Oh, how I thank great Jehovah God for a nice little boy like you, Bartimaeus. You know, Bartimaeus, when you were born I dedicated you to Jehovah. I've always believed that Jehovah would use you some day, Bartimaeus—He would use you for His glory.”

And then he'd think, “Here I am sitting here blind, not over maybe a mile from where I played and seen. And how could Jehovah ever use me? I'm blind. There's no hopes for me.”

But we don't always know, you know. God works in mysterious ways his wonders to perform. If we commit anything to God, and believe it—like our children or whatever more—let's believe that God will answer that prayer. Today before I left to go away, the phone constantly ringing, and the mothers with their children and saying, “Now pray for them.”

I said, “Now, just commit them to God. That's all you have to do. And don't put your hands on it anymore. Let God have it.” If you're going to do something about it, then God'll stand back and let you go ahead till you get finished. But when you commit it to God and let Him have it, then He'll do it. You just believe Him. Just stand back, and don't work, but believe. That's where grace is imputed for righteousness, if you believe that God will.

Then he said, no doubt, in his heart that he remembered how mother used to read him Bible stories. You know it used to be mothers had time to read their children Bible stories. They don't have it no more now. They got to get the new car, or get out and go to the ladies' card party, and everything.

Mothers ... used to be they had to pack their water from the spring and boil it on the outside. I remember my mother had a great big old iron kettle, and do her washing outside, and.... She had more time, now, than a modern mother does just to push a button, like that: do her washing, dishes, everything else. Just push a button. But, I don't think our modern conveniences has got us anywhere. And what it is, it's made us awful lazy, killing us with heart trouble and everything else.

Susanne Wesley had seventeen children. And with them seventeen children back hundreds of years ago, she could still take from two to three hours a day, in all of her busy schedule, to read the gospel and pray for her children. What happened? She had a John and a Charles out of there that turned the world upside down.

Susanne Wesley: I stood by her grave not long ago and put my hand on the stone. I said, “God, give America some mothers like that.” That's right. She produced a Charles and a John Wesley. Charles gave the world some of its best gospel songs. And John, oh, my! He was surely a firebrand snatched from the fire. That is right. What a great man of God that he was.

Now, but today with all of our modern convenience, and instead of reading the Bible to her children, will turn the television on and let them look at something that's not even fit for them to look at. Now, that's right. That's right. And another thing, we'll give them these little old comic books, and little old story books off of some drugstore mantle that oughtn't to even be sold to make kindling wood out of, or fire out of. And yet we poke all that kind of stuff down our children's necks.

Why, the American.... I'll bet you there's ... nearly every boy in America can tell you who Davy Crockett was. But I imagine there isn't one third of them can tell you who Jesus Christ is. That's right. Oh, the Lone Ranger, or somebody like that, or some movie star, they know all about it because it's laid before them.

And the Bible is the book that's put away. And when the minister comes they dig it out, and dust it off and lay it up like that. It's never read. What we need today is some good old-fashioned mothers to take their children back to prayer. That's the best remedy I know of to cure juvenile delinquency—that's right—is good old honest mothers.

I hear them talk about the illiteracy of the Kentucky mothers up around the part of the country where we come from, up there. Now they may be.... They might not know right and left hand. But you let one of their girls come in one night with their hair all turned inside out, and her clothes all off of her, and lipstick smeared all over her face and like that; and some little half-drunk, sallow, cigarette sucker bring her daughter in around daylight. I tell you, she won't be able to get out of bed for three months. I'll just guarantee you that now. Yes, sir. And you talk about illiteracy! We need more of them kind of mamas. Yes, sir. Yes, sir. That'll bring back discipline.

In our home we had the ten commandments. They hung over the door. Hickory was all ten of them, out on the end like that. And I tell you, we got our education off of that. That's right. I can see my father yet reach over and say, “William....”

I'd say, “Oh, my!” I knew what was coming. But I'm glad he did it. That's right.

Bartimaeus would think of his precious little mother, how she used to tell him Bible stories about what the Lord did. She'd say, “Bartimaeus, you know, we Jewish people, by God's choice.... He chose us to be his people because we loved Him and served Him. Bartimaeus, you may live to be a great man some day. I'm expecting you to be the king of Israel. I want you to....”

Every mother's anticipations is for her child to be something great, and that's what she should be. And she said, “I have prayed. And when I knew you was coming to the earth, when God placed you under my heart, well, I gave your little life to God. And you know I want you to serve this great God. I'm going to tell you how great He is, Bartimaeus.

“And you know, we were coming up out of Egypt. We were slaves once, and He brought us up out of Egypt”—how He opened the Red Sea, fed the children of Israel out of heaven by manna, blowed in meat (quails) for them, give them water out of a rock in the desert, and all the great things He done. And, oh, his little bright eyes would just....

He'd say, “Oh, Mama, does that still great Jehovah live?”

“Oh, yes, darling. He's just the same as He ever was. He's still Jehovah.”

He used to love that story, and tell about how that the children of Israel used to.... Said, “Right down there at the old fiord.... One day the great, mighty Joshua crossed right down there with the children of Israel. Just around the city where we go get our groceries down there at Jericho, Joshua crossed right there—the great, mighty warrior, the servant of God.”

How Moses stood yonder on top of the mountain, looked over into the swelling tides of the river, and how that the unbeliever thought, “This is a good time. We're safe. God is a poor engineer, pick this time of year to cross.”

But God sometimes just takes the worst hour to prove that He's God. Yes, sir. Look like He'd taken them when the river ... brought them up there when the river was low. Naw, that ain't it. He just wants to prove to you He is God. He likes to manifest his glory. Oh I just love that. I just love that, to see and know that He's God.

Then one of the stories that little Bartimaeus liked so well was the story of the Shunammite woman, because it had a little boy in it, you know. There's a little boy in there that.... And she'd tell about that great, mighty prophet Elijah, how that God made him such a great mighty prophet. He lived out in the wilderness and didn't have many clothes, and he wrapped a piece of leather around him, and how he was a great, mighty man of God. He lived under the anointing of God.

And he'd pass through a certain city, and there was a Shunammite woman there. And she was a kind woman, and she loved God too. Although being a Gentile, she loved God. And I might say that she might have said to Bartimaeus, “You know, Bartimaeus, we are chosen of God. But someday there'll be a great Messiah come. And when He comes He'll be the one that'll call all nations, because.... This Shunammite woman.... God is lovely to all those who will be lovable. He wants to come and help those who wants to be helped.

“And, Bartimaeus, this great woman, she'd see this holy man pass through the city. So she wanted to show some favor to him because she loved God, and she knowed this was his servant, and she wanted to help him and do something for him. So she'd see him coming, and she would go out and bid him to come in and stay with them.

“So her husband was rather a rich man. So one day she said to her husband, 'You know dear, this great, holy man of God comes by here, and he goes up there to a cave where he's living, up in Mt. Carmel. So as he passes through here, I believe it would be good if we built him just a little room on the side of our house. I believe that would be real nice if we'd do that, because both of us believe in God, and He is God, and that's God's representative. That's the highest order in the earth now of God is his representative.'

“So her husband said, 'I think that'd be fine.' So they built the little house on there.

And one day when Elijah and Gehazi, his servant, came by and they seen this little room built on there and went in. They had them a nice little bed there, and a little stool and some water and everything.

“So said, 'Go ask this Shunammite what could I do for her. She's been so kind to us, maybe we could return the kindness. Maybe she'd want me to speak to the king, or maybe she'd want me to speak to the chief captain or someone.'

“But you know, Bartimaeus, what that woman ... she didn't ask for nothing. But when Gehazi came back, he said, 'I'll tell you, Elijah, the great prophet of God, the woman is barren. She has no children. She's never had any children.' ” Say, “Bartimaeus, you know any mother wants a sweet little boy like you are. That's the reason Jehovah's so good to me to give me a little boy like you. And that poor mother wanted a little boy like you.

“So Elijah said, 'Go tell her to come stand before me.' And so, no doubt but Elijah had a vision of what to do. So then when the woman came in, he said, 'According to the time of life, you're going to bear a son.' And she went out.

“And you know what, Bartimaeus? That mother received a sweet little boy—just a little Gentile boy, just like you're a little Jewish boy. How that mother loved that little boy. How she must have thought he was the sweetest little thing.

“And when he was about eleven years old, one day he went with his papa out in the field to do the harvest. And I believe he must have got a sun stroke because he began to say, 'My head, my head.' He got sicker and sicker. So the father being real busy with the hired hands, he had a servant to take the little fellow in, and laid him on his mother's lap. She kept him on the lap till about noon, and the breath all went out of him, and the poor little boy died.

“Now, but Bartimaeus, I want you to notice what this Gentile woman, now, what she did. She took him in and laid him on the bed of the prophet. Now, there's a wonderful revelation, see. She didn't take him to his own bed, neither did she take him to her bed, or the father's bed. She took him and laid him on the prophet's bed, in the chamber where the prophet had slept.

“And then she said to her husband, 'You saddle a mule.' And 'You go forward for me now,' told the servant, 'and don't stop. If anybody salutes you, don't salute them back, but you go straight to the man of God up at Mt. Carmel.'

“Now,” said, 'Now,' her husband said, 'it's neither new moon, or neither is it Sabbath, so the man of God won't be there.'

“She said, 'All will be well.'”

I like that, when you got that real hold on faith, stay on that. That's a good lesson for all you little Bartimaeuses now. Look, and then said, “Go forward. Don't stop for the social calls and things. Just go forward. Just keep on going. Don't stop till I bid you stop.” And of course, when he got close to Mt. Carmel, when the prophet....

You know, God don't reveal everything to his prophets. We all know that. He just reveals to his prophets what He wants them to know.

And now when he got close, Elisha walked out—probably old and maybe a little dim in sight. He raised up his hands and he said, “Here comes that Shunammite, and she looks like that she's worried. But God has kept it from me.”

So he said to Gehazi, “Go out and call to her.”

But she was pretty well speeding on. When she got there he hollered, “Is all well with thee? Is all well with thy husband? Is all well with thy child?”

And watch what that woman said. “All is well.” See, she knew that God was in that prophet. That's right. She knowed that was the highest order God had in that day.

I think that's where Martha got the idea. She must have read that story. When her brother Lazarus died, she knowed if God was in that prophet, God was certainly in his Son. That's right. So she went to Him and said, “Lord, if thou would have been here, my brother would not have died. But even now whatever you ask God, God will give it to you.” I like that. I like that. See, that startled Him. See, “Even now whatever you ask God, God will give it to you.”

This little boy sitting here with this mashed-up foot, another young fellow sitting over here, seen them both shouting last night. Must be Pentecostal boys. Must have God in their heart. You say, “Brother Branham, I'll probably never walk again. The doctor says I won't.”

This one over here with heart trouble, this one with whatever it is, whatever your trouble is, you say, “Well, the doctor says I won't. I won't never be able to get over this. I got cancer.... I got tumor.... I got so-and-so.”

“But even now, Lord, whatever you ask the Father, He'll give it to you.” That's it. Even now, whatever you ask God, God'll give it to you. That must have been where Martha got that story.

The Shunammite woman said, “All is well.” Now, she wasn't asking for the boy, but she knowed that God was able through this prophet to tell her why He took the boy, and that would satisfy her. If He could tell why He took the boy, everything was all right. So she was before God's representative, and all things was well.

I imagine little Bartimaeus's eyes would just brighten. “Mama, mama, come on. Tell me what happened.” You see, little boys get hasty. They want to find out what the end is.

Well, the great prophet, after she revealed to him and told her her story, what.... The little boy had died and was laying in the chamber, now the prophet said to his servant, “Take my staff and go lay it on the child.” Now, I think, again in the New Testament, that's where Paul got the idea of taking handkerchiefs and aprons from his body.

Now Elisha knew that everything that he touched was blessed. But if he could get the woman to believe it, that was all.... If he could get the woman to believe the same thing, a miracle would have happened just the same as ever, if the woman would have had faith in what Elisha told her to do. But the woman's faith wasn't in the staff.

Now I kind of like the way she said it anyhow. She said, “As the Lord liveth and your soul never dies, I'm not going to leave you.”

I like that. Determined to hold on. That's it. If you start out for God, hold on until the Holy Ghost comes, until everything that you've asked for takes place. Just don't give it up. “I'll not leave you. I'm on your hands, Lord, till you answer me.” That's the way to do it.

You know Jesus taught it like that. He said the unjust judge, you know, how he wouldn't avenge the widow of her enemy. But he said, “To get her off of my hands I'll go ahead and avenge her of her enemies.” Well, how much more will your kind heavenly Father be willing to give you. But now watch. He said, “Seek and you shall find, knock and it will be opened, and ask.”

Now if you notice it isn't just “Lord, I want it.” “He that asketh ... seeketh.” Keep on seeking. Keep on knocking. Just keep on, on. You've arrived there, so just keep on knocking till it happens. “I believe it, Lord. I'm on your hands. I'm on your hands.”

Remember the Lord healed me of stomach trouble. The devil said, “You haven't been healed.”

I said, “Just stick around and listen at me testify, then. If you want to hear God be praised, just stick around and listen at me awhile.” He got tired and went on away. So he'll do it.

The other day he tried to give me a bad cold. He handed it to me, and I give it back to him. He handed it to me again. I give it back to him again. And we just fought on it for three or four days, and finally it went away. So there you are, see. Just keep handing it back to him. Just don't receive it. Give it back to him. Give it back to him. That's the way to do it. Just be determined. Hold on.

That's the way she did. She said, “As the Lord liveth and your soul never dies....” Now, see, she believed he had a soul that wouldn't die, see. “As the Lord liveth and thy soul liveth [see], I'm not going to leave you. I'm going to stay with you till I find out what happened.” So he couldn't get her off his hands. So he just had to gird up his loins, and here he went.

I notice when he walked into the room.... Look what that prophet had to come against. He didn't know what the Lord was going to do. There was the father, screaming at the top of his voice, all the people around the neighborhood screaming. That fine little boy, this lovely family, was dead, laying in the chamber, all hopes gone.

Now what did Elisha do? Just like Jesus did—put them all out of the house. Got away from where it was at—like Jesus did when Jairus's daughter was dead. And watch what the prophet did. He didn't have to go out and seek and pray, pray up and get ready. No, I believe we should stay prayed up all the time, don't you think so?

Here not long ago there was a little Irish woman coming over on a ship, they said. And about thirty, forty miles out, somewhere out of New York harbor, there come a terrible storm. And the little ship didn't think they could make it. They sent out SOS. And so they told them the storm was getting worse and worse. If they could storm it for thirty minutes, they'd reach the harbor. But if they couldn't, they'd be in the bottom of the sea. So all the jazz music stopped and they began to pray and play, “Nearer my God to Thee,” and so forth.

But this little Irish woman, she walked up and down the floor screaming and shouting. “Hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah!” she said.

The captain said, “Did you understand me?”

Said, “Yes, sir. I understood you.”

Said, “Well, why don't you pray?”

She said, “I'm already prayed up.” So that's it. Be prayed up, ready. That's the way we have to do it. And she said, “I'm so glad.” And she started shouting again.

The captain said, “What you shouting about?”

She said, “You said if we held out thirty minutes we'd be in New York. If we didn't we'd be in the bottom of the sea.”

Said, “That's right.”

Said, “I'm on my road from Ireland to see my daughter in New York. I've got one in glory, and thirty minutes from now I'll see one of them.”

If the ship went down, she went up. So that's it. You can't lose, see. So she was just shouting anyhow. She knowed in thirty minutes she'd see one of her loved ones. Oh, that's it. Be prayed up.

Old Elisha, when he got on the ship ... or, got on the platform of the little place where she had built him, he walked back and forth across the floor. And he walked to and fro, the Bible said, in the room. And then after he felt the Spirit come on him, he went and laid himself upon the baby, and just laid there with his flesh upon the baby.

And then he felt the baby was getting warm, so he got up, walked back and forth again through the room to and fro. Come back and laid himself on the baby again. And it sneezed seven times and come to life. He picked up the baby and said, “Call the Shunammite.” And, oh, how little Bartimaeus liked that.

He begin to think, “Oh, when I used to hear my mother tell those stories!” About that time he heard something clicking, of a little mule coming. Must be kind of a rich man, because most of the travel was on foot or by.... Rich people rode a donkey, and the army used chariots.

And so he said, “This must be a wealthy man that's coming in late.” So he raised up, threw aside his garment, run out and said, “Alms for the blind. Alms for the blind, please.”

And the little mule stopped and he heard a real grouchy voice said, “Out of my way, beggar. I am the head of the Ministerial Association of Jerusalem. They tell me that there's going to be a.... I'm the servant of the Lord. They tell me they got one of these here so-called prophets coming in down here today—sees visions and so forth. They're going to have a healing service. I'm going to gather the whole council down here today. I've got to get these ministers together to see that we'll have none of that nonsense around here. Out of my way [unclear words], of the Lord.” Down the street went the little donkey.

And so Bartimaeus thought, “Well! And that's the servant of the Lord.”

Well, he made his way back trying to find out where the rock was. Finally when he found the rock, the sun had moved over a little bit and it become kind of chilly. The shadows of the wall was on the rock, so he moved out a little farther and he said, “Well, I guess I have no coin for the day. So maybe I'll just wait a little while, and maybe I'll sit down again. Maybe I'll continue my daydreaming of when I was a little boy.”

Then he remembered, too, that his mother told him that years ago that that great prophet Elijah and Elisha, the one that took his place, two mighty men of God come right down that same cobbled street, arm-in-arm with one another, going down to the Jordan to open the Jordan up. Oh, my! Passed right by within thirty feet from where he was sitting.

But, alas, the priest told him, “All the days of miracles are past. Jehovah doesn't heal the people anymore, you know.” That spirit never did die out. “Oh, Jehovah don't do those things no more. We're just supposed to live good, and pay our tithes, and go to the church at every meeting, and then.... That's all we're supposed to do. But Jehovah doesn't.... He was Jehovah back there, but today He's not concerned about it.”

Oh, what a mistake! He's always concerned. If He ever was concerned, He's still concerned. Yes, sir. He cannot change his motives. He cannot change his attitude. He's still Jehovah. I don't care how many says that He's changed. It's people's changed, but He hasn't changed. The reason that we don't see Him doing those things is because we won't let Him do it. He's willing.

We think we'll exhaust his bountiful blessings. We think, “Well, I asked God to give me my daily bread. I shouldn't ask Him too many things.” Oh, my!

Could you imagine a little fish about that long, way out in the middle of this ocean, saying, “Wait, I'd better drink of this water sparingly. I might run out some day.”

Could you imagine a little mouse about that big under the great garners of Egypt, saying, “I better allowance myself to one-half a grain of wheat a day. I might run out before next harvest.” My! Well, just multiply that by a hundred billion, and you try to exhaust God's goodness and mercy.

He's trying to force his way into you—everything He can. Ask abundantly that your joys might be full. He wants his people to be happy, asking great things, believing for great things. You are a city sits on a hill—high ambitions, expectations. Well, mercy, if we see the blind receive their sight tonight, I want to see the dead raised tomorrow night. Yes, sir. And I'll just keep on believing for greater things.

When the church begin to receive the Holy Ghost and speak in tongues, why did you settle down on that? My, just keep moving on. Go on to the promised land. We're on our way to the promised land. Sure, just don't take just one thing. Say, “Well, we'll just.... Have you spoke in tongues? Well, you haven't got a great blessing till you got....” Well, you ought to be a million miles up the road from that right now. Sure—greater things, high expectations. Certainly.

Now, we find out now that Bartimaeus had been told that the days of miracles was past. So he said, “Now, what if I was sitting here, instead of hearing that man who called himself this day the servant of God...? And what was that he said? He was going down to see about something, and what...? Wonder what's going on down in the city. Well, anyhow, the days of miracles is past.”

And that's the kind of servants Jehovah has today? It's a lot different from the one that Elijah was, and Elisha. Now if I'd have been sitting on this rock, when Elijah and Elisha passed down by there, going down to the Jordan....

“And not but just a little piece below where I'm sitting that great prophet took his coat off, his cloak, folded it together and struck the Jordan, and she give way.” Amen. Hundreds of years after Joshua had did the same thing. Amen. That showed Jehovah was still the same as long as He can get somebody to believe He's the same. Yes.

Then after he'd got on the other side....

Now he was weary. He had fussed with Jezebel and them till he was ... about her painting up and carrying on, till he was tired. He was going home. And so the young prophet had to take his place. So he knowed just across the river there was a chariot hooked to some bush over there somewhere, and he was going to take a little ride up home, see.

But the young prophet was watching for his new ministry, seen what this old one was doing, so he knowed he had to take his place.

So the young prophet caught his vision, and seen him go up; caught his garment passed back down. Picked up the same garment and struck the Jordan, said, “Where is the God of Elijah?” Oh, my! And she opened up again. That's right.

Where is the God of Pentecost? Where is the God that was in Jesus Christ? What's the matter with the ministry today in the churches?

I guess you read that piece in the paper they just sent me. Somebody from the church here sent it to me, where this Episcopalian minister up here said the virgin birth was only a myth; and there was no such a thing as garden of Eden, and all that stuff like that. That man don't belong in the pulpit. No, sir.

Now, that's what's the matter with it today. That's what ... take.... Great educated people like that stand up, and they get so much education they ain't got gumption enough to know how to hold it. That's all. What we need today....

Paul said, “I never come to you with excellency of word or education. I come to you in the simplicity with the power and demonstrations of the Holy Ghost, that your faith would rest upon the resurrection and the power of God,” and not in some smooth words, or something of some so-called bishop, or something.

Now, we find out that just a little later, as Bartimaeus sat there a little longer, wondering what would take place.... Then he remembered that, too, just below there, not five hundred yards from where he was sitting, that great Joshua (oh, my!) that great servant of God who took Moses' place, that come across the Red Sea; and come across also with only two of the old group in the wilderness back there that believed that they could take the land. They looked at the Word of God. They believed the Word of God. Nine of them said, “Oh, we can't take it. We look like grasshoppers up beside of them. The cities are all walled. It's an impossibility to do it.”

But not that fellow! No, sir, brother. He said, “We're more than able to take it.”

Why? It depends on what you're looking at. If you're looking at your crippled hand, it'll stay that way. If you're looking at your tumor, it'll remain that way. Look away from that. Look at the promise of God. It depends on what you're looking at. Christians look at the unseen. Abraham called things which were not as though they were, because God said they were. That's the way real Christians do. No matter what the world says, what it looks like, that has nothing to do with it. It's what God said about it is what does it. Yes. What was....

God told them way down in Egypt, “I give you that land.” But He didn't say, “I'll go out there and sweep it all out, and garnish the houses, and hang up the curtains, and everything. You all just move in.” No, no. They had to fight for every inch of ground they took (that's right, fighting), and take it by every fight, every inch. But He said, “Everywhere the soles of your foot lands, that's possession.” Footsteps is possession.

That's the same thing it is today. Divine healing belongs to us. The Holy Spirit belongs to us. It's our property, but you'll fight every inch of it. Yes, sir. But, brother, footsteps is possession. Just keep fighting. Take it. The devil say, “The days of miracles is past.”

Say, “You're a liar. God said He's the same yesterday, today, and forever.” Take it over. Everywhere your foot steps, that's possession. That's right.

Joshua come right on across the river with them, camped out there. Oh, blind Bartimaeus said, “What if I would've lived in that day? Why, as soon as I seen them priests walking, and Joshua with that sword up in the air, walking across, why, I'd have went down there and said, 'Great Joshua, pray for me.' And I believe I'd have got my sight if that great man would've prayed for me. Sure. But, alas, Joshua's gone; and God, I guess, is gone. And all the days of miracles is past, so our priest says. So I guess it's just hopeless. There's nothing I can do. So.... Hopeless.”

Then he said, “You know what? After they compassed the walls around Jerusalem many days.... One day Joshua, that great warrior, was taking a little walk out one afternoon, studying the strategy of how to take that walls of Jericho—how he was going to do it. He seen that scarlet streak hanging down of Rahab. He was going to spare that house—watching it.

And all at once he looked, standing out there before him, and there stood another man with his sword drawn. Joshua pulled out his sword, and he run to meet him, challenge him in a duel. He said, “Are you for us, or are you for our enemies?”

He said, “I'm the captain of the host of the Lord. I'm the Lord's captain of his host.” Joshua threw down his sword, took off his helmet, and fell at his feet.

Blind Bartimaeus would've said, “Oh, if I would have lived in that day, I'd have run up to that captain of the Lord's host, and I'd have spoke to him.” Little did he know that that same captain wasn't a hundred yards from him, coming right through the city then—the captain of the Lord's host on his road through the city.

You know, it's when we begin to think about Him, that's when He appears. It's when Cleopas and them was thinking about Him when He appeared. It's always when.... “Let the meditation of my heart and let all my thoughts, and let all my songs, let all that I am just meditate on Thee, Lord, day and night.” That's the way to get God close to you. Quit thinking about what the Joneses is doing, and what you're going to do next week, and all these things. Just keep, just let....

“Fill my way every day with love as I walk with the heavenly dove. Let me go all the while with a song and a smile. Fill my way every day with love.” That's right. Go right on down the road no matter what ... school keeps or not. If we don't, we'll turn the teacher out. Just go right on believing on the Lord, see. Keep the meditations upon God. Think on these things. The Bible said, “If there be any praise, if there be any virtue, think on these things.”

Well, our thoughts are always negative. We come in the prayer line.... I notice we come in the prayer line.... “Oh, if He'll tell me, if this... ?” Oh, my, you never get nothing like that. No. You're so negative to begin with. Come like that.... “Come to the fountain filled with blood drawn from Emmanuel's veins, where sinners plunged beneath the flood lose all their guilty stains.” That's it. Come with faith believing. “He that cometh to God must believe that He is, and a rewarder of those that diligently seek Him.”

I'm not going to go through Oral Robert's prayer line, then go through Tommy Hicks's prayer line, then go through Osborn's prayer line and Allen's prayer line, Branham's prayer line, So-and-So's prayer line, go to this church and that church. Why, you're just wasting time, that's all. That's all.

The thing to do is just say and make up your mind that it's God, and God said so, and I'm going to meet his requirements and that settles it forever. Amen. God said so. Go after my pastor, say, “Pastor, the Bible tells us to call the elders, anoint with oil, pray, and the prayer of faith shall save the sick. That's all I have to know.” Amen.

I got a letter back from a little woman in Germany not long ago. She'd been crippled about fifteen years of arthritis. Couldn't move. I sent her a handkerchief. We send thousands of them a month out. And so, she got this little letter. (We got a prayer chain around the world.)

So she read this, and she said, “Now it says on here, 'If your pastor isn't there, or if he's an unbeliever don't call him, see. But if there's a neighbor somewhere that is a believer, call the believer. Confess all your faults. Ask God to forgive you of everything you done. Get everything right. Then pray. Put the handkerchief on your underneath garment over your heart. Then believe.' ”

So she met all the requirements that was sent to her. And when she did, she put her hand over her heart. She said, “Now, old man devil, you've been in me long enough. Get out.” Here she come walking. It's just that's simple. It's just that simple to believe.

Here in Arizona, we was out to the Indians, Apaches. I always felt sorry for the Apaches. And there they was out there that night. It looked like an army sitting out there, and I begin to speak to them about the Lord. And you know an Indian. He's kind of a odd fellow. He's like a mule: he won't eat out of the wrong stall. So he listened to it, and he thought it was fake first. And then he brought....

I called for the prayer line. Well, I heard somebody out there holler “Gloria a Dios.” That was my Spanish friends. I knowed they'd have a prayer line if they was around, because they always got faith to believe. But this was for Indians only.

And I looked around there, and the first thing.... The Assembly of God woman back there, she had a little mission. I was standing up on a ... steps like this, and all of them was sitting out around. It was a beautiful sight. And so she had some back in there.

They brought the first woman out. Soon as she come out—great big wide wrists. She had a little baby on her back, this little papoose back there. And I looked at her. I thought I'd try to find favor. I said, “How about giving me the baby?” She wasn't going to do that. So I was just catching her mind.

I said, “Now [to the interpreter],” I said, “she has a venereal disease, but it's....” So the interpreter said that. She looked at me real strong. I said, “Now, it wasn't caused from immoral living, but the way she had to live, in dirt and filth like that.” Well, she nodded her head that was right. I prayed for her.

Next was glaucoma of the eyes. The Indians has much of it. And prayed for that one. Next come out was a little girl, and she kept her head down, like that. And I said, “Now....” She was a little bitty fellow, about like that. It happened to be one of the chief's daughters. I said, “Now, the little girl,” I said, “she's had a fever, and the fever made her go deaf and dumb. She can't speak or hear.”

And the interpreter said that, and the mother, “That was right. Every bit of it was right.” Them Indians then began to look around at one another, you know. They began to see something they'd never seen. So I said, “Now, I cannot make the girl to speak and hear. That takes God.” But I said, “This is just the sign that He's here, that his presence is here. He has us anointed.”

And so I took the little girl by the hand. I said, “Heavenly Father [they don't interpret the prayer],” I said, “let this deaf and dumb spirit leave this child.” And I got down to her and I done like that [Brother Branham claps].

She turned around and looked at me with them big black eyes, and I said, “You say, 'Praise the Lord.' ”

She said [unclear words] something another like that.

I said, “She'll talk better.”

Her mother said, “Her talk heap good right now.” And away she went. So then ... “Her talk heap good right now.”

Then the next was a mother. Then the next was a little old boy come out there. And I said, “Well, do you believe that God...? Do you speak English?” No, she didn't speak English. I said, “Do you believe that God will heal the little fellow?” And she reached down and got him by the top of the head—they're real rough, you know—and his little old hair just as coarse as a mane on a horse, so ... hold him like that. I said, “He's got crossed eyes. Do you believe that God...?

She heard the interpreter say, “crossed eyes,” so she just got him by the nap of the head, pulled his little head back, little eyes setting right in like that.

I said, “Now, if you'll believe that God'll straighten his little eyes,” I said, “then God will do it.”

So to the interpreter I said, “Now get it slow.” They haven't got no sentence or punctuation. They start real low, and go high, high, low. They just.... You know how the Apaches are. They're kind of a rough set of Indians. So then they said, “Yes,” that she'd believe.

I took the little fellow up by.... He was just like trying to tame a bronco. And I had a piece of chewing gum. I put it under his nose and let him smell it, you know. Then I got him like this, got him in my arms, got the little fellow up in my arms like this. I said, “Don't interpret this.” I said, “Heavenly Father, these poor people.... This is really true Americans.”

And that's right. We're not Americans. Huh, uh. We're not Americans. We're aliens that come and took the land away from them. They're real Americans. God gave them this land; we took it away from them. I think it's a stain on the flag the way we treat them. That's right. Sending money over there to Japan and all them places, to blow it back at us like this; and our Indians laying out here starving to death.... It's not right. Sure, it isn't right.

And then I looked, and the poor little fellow. I had him on my shoulder. I said, “Lord, let me find favor with these people. Straighten the little fellow's eyes.”

I was watching like this. I seen a vision come before me, his little eyes was just as straight. I said, “Now....” He had his head over my shoulder. I was patting him. I said, “Now to all of you [hundreds and hundreds sitting everywhere],” I said, “now, if this baby's eyes are not straight, then I'm a false prophet, see. If they are straight, then I've represented Jesus Christ to you. I can't help what the government does to you.” But, I said, “I know Jesus will treat you right. Now you see if this is right or not.” I took his little head around. You talk about a prayer line! I had one now! My, there was a stampede.

And then the next one coming was an old Indian woman, and she had a.... She was to be next and, oh, you just had.... You couldn't beat them down. And there was an old Indian woman come out. She had two broomsticks with a piece of goods wrapped around a thing she had under her arm here, and she was trying to get out. And there was a little Indian boy jumped up on there, and he was trying to cut in ahead of her.

And we couldn't make him understand because he couldn't speak English. And Brother Moore—many of you know Brother Jack Moore—he just got him by the side, and packed him over it. And I noticed the old woman. She come up close like that. They were believing then. Oh, you talk about a prayer line!

So there it is, coming up ... like that. I watched her moving these two crutches like this. And she'd take that foot, you know, and set it out; then the other one like that, just barely could move. I guess she was eighty years old. And she looked up at me when she got right close to me. And them great big deep cuts in her cheeks. My mother's a half-breed (I don't know whether you know that or not) but she's got them big deep cuts too.

And I looked when she come up like that, and the tears cutting away down through them little pale-looking eyes. I thought, “Somebody's mother.” And she just looked up at me like that. And I thought ... before I prayed for her, I thought, “O God, look at that little chin shaking like that, little old thing.” She looked at me. She started smiling. She just got one crutch and put it there, and handed it over to me, and went walking off the platform. See, simple faith, just to believe.

I was going to try to pray for all, but, oh, my, it was along about.... I had to stop the discernment then. So along about three or four o'clock in the morning, they was coming through wet, plumb up around like this—just as wet as they could be. And I said, “What's the matter with them?”

Said, “Well, they thought first you were false.” She said, “Now, they're going out in the desert and getting their loved ones. They're not going down to the fjord. They're just wading right across the river with them, like that.”

So here come an old man, gray-headed. He was on a board and had two sticks across it. And he had his legs laying across two sticks and his arms across the two sticks, and he was shaking like this with the palsy.

And so there was a great big fellow standing there, handsome-looking great big Indian, his lips just as blue as they could be, and wet. And I said, “Aren't you afraid you'll take pneumonia?”

He said, “Nope.”

I said, “You talk English?”

Said, “A little.”

I said, “Aren't you afraid you'll take pneumonia?”

“No.” Said, “Jesus Christ has take care of me. I brought my dad.”

I said, “That your brother?”

“Yep.”

I said, “If I pray for him, do you think he'll get well?”

“Yep.”

“He speak any English?”

“No.”

I said, “Pass him by.”

They put him by. I laid my hands upon him, his old head shaking like that. I said, “Father, he worked many hard days for these boys. They've honored him now, bringing him across the river this time of the morning to be prayed for. I pray that You'll heal him.” I said, “Take him home. Bring the next one.”

First thing you know, I heard everybody hollering, screaming. Looked. The old man had the board on his own shoulders, going around waving at everybody, like that. That's what it is. It's just simple faith to believe God. It's not some hocus-pocus. It's just child-like faith. See, we've sprang plumb away from it trying to explain it. Just believe it.

That's right. That's the way with this great mighty captain of the host of the Lord. He was there that night, the same as He was there. And you know there's something another about it. Where Jesus is, you always hear a lot of noise. I don't know why, but it's that way. Wherever you find Jesus you find a lot of noise.

[Blank spot] shoving and screaming, some of them hollering one thing, “Hosanna! Hosanna, to the prophet of Galilee!”

Others saying, “Away with the imposter. Get him out of this city. We don't want him here.” Some throwing overripe fruit at Him, and probably eggs the same way, you know, then going on.

And he said, “Who passes by?” said Bartimaeus. “Who is it passing by?” And they crowded over him, and they shoved him back. And maybe after awhile they shoved him down. He sat down, felt back for his rock again. People.... He'd hear somebody saying one was for Him; one was against Him. Same way it is today: some for Him; some against Him.

Directly he heard that priest that he'd heard go in. Said, “Hey, you, the prophet. You, the one that said you raised a dead man named Lazarus. We've got a whole graveyard full of them up here. Let's see you go up and raise one. We'll believe you. Until you do that, you're a false prophet.”

He said, “That's that same man told me he was going down to stop it. What's this all about?” see.

And he'd say, “Somebody tell me! Somebody help me! Somebody help me, because.... Who's passing by? What's all this noise about?”

Nobody would listen to him, and after awhile.... It must have been a young woman. She seen the poor old fellow laying there, and she picked him up. She said, “Sir, are you hurt?”

“No, ma'am.” Said, “I wish you would tell me. What's all the noise about?”

“Oh,” she said, “Jesus of Nazareth passes by.”

“Why, who's Jesus of Nazareth?”

“Are you not an Israelite?”

“Yes.”

“Well, you see, I am a servant of Jesus of Nazareth.” You know there's something about Jesus of Nazareth's servants: they're always willing to help somebody that's in need. They're always willing to stop and help somebody that's in need. God's servants does that. She said, “I'm a believer of Jesus of Nazareth. Now you know, this Jesus of Nazareth is the son of David.”

“The son of David? Why, I remember.... I was just sitting here thinking of.... My mother told me that the son of David would come some day.”

“Yes, that's He, the prophet of Galilee.”

“A prophet?”

“Yes.” Said, “You remember that man down here in town they call Zacchaeus, the businessman?”

“Yes, I remember him very well. Uh-huh, he's given me coins before.”

“Well, this morning.... You know Rebekah, his wife?”

“Yes, I remember Rebekah.”

“Well, Rebekah has been praying. Knowing that Jesus was coming to the city, why, she was praying that her husband would receive Him as the Saviour.”

“Yes, go ahead, speak on.”

“Well, this morning, Zacchaeus was going out to see Him, and he didn't want Jesus to see him. So he run down to the corner of Hallelujah Avenue where it turns on Glory road down here, and he got the garbage can and set it down, climbed up a sycamore tree, and sat down where two limbs crosses.”

“Uh-huh.”

“And Rebekah told him, 'Now you are a Jew, and you know that when the Messiah cometh, He's going to be a prophet. He's going to be a god-prophet, 'cause Moses said, ”The Lord your God shall raise up a prophet liken unto me.'“ But, you know, you know Zacchaeus, how....

“Well, he's one of the businessmen here of the city. He leans pretty heavy with.... Him and the rabbi plays cards together, and they have their.... You know, things are pretty well. So the rabbi, and all of them said not to believe on that fellow because he wasn't a prophet.”

So Zacchaeus wanted to see if He was. So he climbs up in this tree, and he got all the limbs, and he drug them all around him like this—camouflaged himself. And he had one great big palm leaf that he raised up so he could see Him when He turned down there at Glory Avenue, you know—to see Him come around.

“So there he sat up here in the tree, all perched up, and nobody knowed he was up there. And he said, 'Now, I'll see if He's a prophet. And I'll look in his face—I'll know whether He's a prophet or not. I know what a prophet ought to look like.'”

And around the corner come all the disciples. And here come the great big fisherman, saying, “Would you stand back, please? Our master is very tired. We're sorry we have to do this, but would you stand back just a moment and let Him through? He's going up to Levinski's for dinner, so you'll have to ... at the restaurant up here, see, so you'll have to stand back. I'm sorry we have to do this. [I hope there's not a Levinski here. So then ... anyhow, I told you it was just a drama.] So, going by and telling, you know, 'Step back just a little bit.' And here come the others.

“He raised up his leaf and he looked out. Said, 'Uh-huh. What's them? Oh, that's supposed to be his disciples Rebekah told me about. Uh-huh, I'll wait just a minute.' Then after a while he raised up the leaf again, said, 'Now let's see if I'm covered up good. Yeah, I'm sitting on two limbs.'”

That's where two ways meet and that's where a lot of people sit: where yours and God's ways meet. That's right. Got to make a decision from right there.

“So he was sitting on this limb, you know. And he looked, and after awhile he seen kind of a vacant space, and after awhile he looked, coming around the corner. He raised up his leaf real easy and looked out, peeked out from under the corner of it. And you know what? He looked Him in the face.

“And as soon as he seen Him in the face, he said, 'There's something a little different about that man. I can hear him the way he talks, and how compassionate he was. He was different. But you know, I'd have to know that He was a prophet, because if he ain't a prophet then he's not the Messiah, because Moses told us that Messiah would be a prophet.

“ 'So I've got him fooled now. I got a good look at him. I'm going back and tell Rebekah. You know what I got a good notion doing? Jumping out of this tree and really giving him a piece of my mind. [You know how....] I believe I'll tell him that all the days of miracles is past, 'cause Levinski said so, and all the rest of them. Rabbi Jones and all of them said so, you see, so I know. I believe I'll do it. But I just better sit still, because I'm covered up right good.'

“So He walked....” Said, “And what is your name, sir?”

“I'm Bartimaeus.”

“Well, Bartimaeus, He walked till He got right under the tree. And when He got under the tree He stopped, looked up, said, 'Zacchaeus, come down right away. I'm going home with you for dinner.'

“Bartimaeus, could you believe that was the son of David?”

“Oh, yes. That will be what He'll do. Where's He at?”

“He's done gone way down the street there now.”

He jumped up and threw down his coat. “O Jesus, Thou son of David, have mercy on me. Have mercy on me. O Jesus, Thou son of David, have mercy on me. Yes, have mercy on me.” His last chance—there He was passing by, done gone by, and how would He ever hear that poor old blind man? Insignificant.

And the people said, “Sit down, sit down. Don't be hollering like that. Sit down. He's gone down the road.”

Then it must have been that Bartimaeus said, “He's the Messiah. I know He is. The only way that I'll ever be able to catch Him now, if He's down there.... I know that Messiah, when He comes, He'll tell us all things. We know that He'll be a prophet.” So he must have fell on his knees and said, “Jehovah God, if that is the Messiah, that's your Son. I pray that You'll stop Him. Oh, let Him have mercy on me.”

And Jesus stopped. What was it? Not his voice stopped Him, but his faith stopped Him. Watch, “Thy faith has saved thee,” see.

Watch. With all the burdens of the world, He was going right up to Jerusalem to be crucified. He knew it. All the burdens and sins of the world. Every sin that was ever committed, or ever would be committed, rested upon Him.

Think on his heart. Even the eggs and fruits and things that was thrown at Him, all the screams of “Come up here and raise some dead. Show us a miracle. Let us see you do so-and-so if you're the Messiah. Let's see [that bunch of the ministerial association of Jerusalem, you see ... or, of Jericho]. Let us see you do something. See, I told you, there's nothing to it.”

He don't mind devils. He don't yet, you see, so.... He just does as the Father shows Him, He said.

But that old blind beggar was saying, “Oh, thou son of David,” and He stopped. Brother, I'd like to preach to you sometime, “And He Stopped.” Yes, sir. He stopped, and when He did, He turned around. Now, his voice.... He didn't hear it, of course not. But his faith stopped Him. His faith stopped Him. And they brought him. He said, “What would ... that I would do for you?”

He said, “Lord, that I might receive my sight.”

He said, “Thy faith has saved thee.” See, if he had faith enough to stop Him, faith to touch Him.... Don't you see how that compares with the rest of the Scripture? If he had faith enough to stop Him, well, then he had faith enough to accept his healing. “Thy faith has saved thee. Thy faith did it.” And He went walking on with his head towards Jerusalem (Oh, my!), going on towards Jerusalem.

I can see blind Bartimaeus standing there, saying, “He told me ... He told me my faith. What faith? The faith that I believe that He was Messiah. How could He have heard me, and me sitting way back there two or three hundred yards against that wall? And all them screaming and carrying on, and people acting the way they were, how... ? Why, I had enough faith to believe, and I stopped Him, and He told me.... Say, I can see my hands!” And the Bible said he followed Him then, rejoicing and praising God.

The faith of one blind beggar stopped Him on such a mission as that. The faith of one person here tonight can bring Him from glory right to this building. Sure it will. He can heal you. He can give you deliverance.

I read a little story on blind Bartimaeus ... before I close. My time is gone, but I'd just like to say this before I close, and we'll make the altar call. Now, notice just a moment. I read a story. It perhaps was fiction. Maybe it was, I don't know. But I was reading on blind Bartimaeus, said he'd been blind since he was a young boy, that he went blind. But he was married and he had a wife and a little curly-headed girl that he'd never seen in his life.

And said one night he got sick. And they told, the story did, that he had some turtle doves that would get out there. They'd do little tumbles over one another, and that would attract the attention of the passerby. They'd watch them little doves go do little tumbles over one another, and the people would stop and laugh a little bit, then give him a coin. That's the way they still do it.

And so his little girl got sick. They had the physician out, and the doctor said, “Well,” said, “there's too high a fever on the child. I don't think the child's going to live, Bartimaeus. We have nothing to break that fever, so I don't believe the child is going to live.”

And Bartimaeus just said.... Maybe he stepped out along the side of his little adobe hut and stood out there, and he said, “Jehovah, if You will just heal my little girl and don't let her die, I promise You tomorrow I'll make You a sacrifice of my two little turtle doves.” See, something you have to give up. People think today just because they do a little something.... No, it's something that really hurts, something you have to dig a way down to get. That's the kind that God sees. “I'll give You my two little turtle doves and just go ahead without them.”

And said next morning the fever was gone. He went and offered the two turtle doves.

Said some time later his wife got real ill. And so the physician came and said, “Why, I believe she's going to die. I don't believe she'll ever be well, Bartimaeus,” after waiting on her for a while. And said, “No, my medicine won't help her. She's going to die.” So he went outside the house again.

And you know these dogs that lead people today? I forget what they call them. Seeing-eye dogs. They lead. But in them days they had lambs that led them. And so Bartimaeus had a seeing-eye lamb. So he said, “Lord, if you will heal my wife, and don't let my precious companion die, well, I promise You, tomorrow I'll give You my lamb.” And the next day his wife was better.

So he was going up to offer up the lamb. And said the priest said, “Where goest thou, blind Bartimaeus?”

He said, “I'm going up to the sacrifice to offer my lamb to Jehovah. I promised Him that I would give Him my lamb because He healed my wife.”

He said, “Oh, Bartimaeus, thou cannot offer that lamb.” Said, “I'll give you some money, and you go buy you a lamb, and then offer that lamb. Buy that at the exchangers out in the courts.”

He said, “Oh, priest, that is good of you. But I never promised God a lamb; I promised Him this lamb. [”I'll bring somebody else, I'll do a good deed,“ but what about yourself, see?] I promised God this lamb. [”I promised God if He'd only show me his presence I would believe Him with all my heart. Not Miss Jones would believe Him, but I'd believe Him with all my heart.“ That's it, you see.] I promised Him not a lamb, but this lamb.

He said, “Bartimaeus, thou cannot give that lamb. That lamb is your eyes.”

He said, “If I keep my promise to Jehovah, God will provide a lamb for blind Bartimaeus's eyes.”

On this cool spring morning, God had provided a lamb for blind Bartimaeus's eyes. “Thou son of David, have mercy on me.”

That same Lamb is provided for every sinner, for every sick. God has provided a Lamb for our spiritual eyes, and for our physical eyes; for our physical condition, for our spiritual condition. He's Jehovah-jireh that has already provided a Lamb for our blindness; that we might ... seeing the world, we might see it no more and look to Him; being sick, that we might know that He is the same yesterday, today, and forever. Let's bow our heads just a moment for prayer.

Is there a sinner here would like to say, “Brother Branham, remember me. I cry out, 'O Jesus, Thou son of David, have mercy on me. Have mercy on me. I want to receive my spiritual sight. I want to see You as You are, the true Son of God. Have mercy on me, Son of David.' ”? Would you raise your hands to Him? God bless you. God bless you. God bless you. Up in the balcony, raise your hand, say, “I want to see Him, O Lamb of God, O Thou Son of David.” God bless you, my brother, way back up there in the balcony.

Someone else, some of the young folks? Hear my little story about little Bartimaeus when he was young. You know, your mother, perhaps, dedicated you to God, too, when you were born. See, Bartimaeus finally fulfilled the commission that God had laid out for him when his mama dedicated him. May be tonight that your little eyes will come open, young folks, and you'll see the Lamb of God. “Thou Son of David, have mercy on me.”

Would you raise your hand, someone else? “Have mercy on me, thou son of David.” God bless this young girl. God bless this young woman. God bless this lady sitting here. God bless this little boy over here. “Thou Son of David, have mercy on me.” The man over here, yes, God bless you. Someone else over to my right. “Thou son of David, have mercy.”

Your faith can touch Him, bring Him right down here to you just the same as Bartimaeus did. He's not in any.... He'll stop and leave heaven to come to this Assembly of God church tonight to show you mercy, if you'll just have the same faith that Bartimaeus did. “Thou son of David, have mercy on me.”

Would there be another somewhere in the building that hasn't raised their hand? There's been about ten or twelve raise up their hands that they wanted to have mercy upon them, “Thou son of David.”

I noticed last night there was a little girl sitting here. Looks to be about ten years old. She raised her hand a few moments ago. She wanted Jesus. About the age of my little Becky, I guess, at home—my little Rebekah. And I noticed the little girl come up last night, when she stood at the altar. No more than she'd stood there, she started speaking with tongues. Someone told me, some of the brethren, that she was running all over the church, speaking in tongues and singing in tongues and everything. How the Lord blessed that little child.

Get her when her heart's young and tender, before she's pulled it through old True Story magazines and the filth of the world, got her little heart all callused. I like to see little ones come. God.... You dedicate your life to Him. He'll do something for you too, Honey. He sure will.

Someone else now before we pray? “Lord, Thou son of David, have mercy on me.”

Our heavenly Father, I give them to Thee. They raised their hands. They're your children by faith in Jesus Christ. They know that You're here, Father. They know that You are the Son of God. They believe now that because that You spoke to their hearts that they're ready to receive You as their Saviour, because You had to speak first.

“No man can come to me,” said the Lord Jesus, “unless my Father draws him first. And all the Father has given me, will come.” And now, Lord, they come tonight upon the basis of the shed blood of the Lord Jesus. And as their priest, or their pastor, or servant, I pray, Father. My prayer of faith goes to You.

And to let them know that they are saved, I'm quoting to You your Word. You said, “He that heareth my word....” I've constantly quoted it for the last hour or more. “He that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me, hath [present tense] everlasting life and shall never [never] come into the judgment, but has already passed from death to life.”

Father, that's what You said. They raised their hands that they believed it. And they believed it, they've received it. So now I know that You have given them eternal life, and You'll raise them up again at the last day.

You said You would do it. You promised You would do it, and You're God and You keep all your promises. Your promises are “Yea,” and “Amen,” so You cannot go back on your promise. You said You would do it and You promised to do it.

Now, Father, I pray that You'll give them courage to let them know that that Spirit that was near them, saying, “Child, you're wrong. You should receive me tonight. I'll stop in my great busy schedule and turn around and say, 'Thy sins are forgiven thee. Go and sin no more.' ” As you have said so many times, You have said it to them tonight, because they've made their decision.

Now, Father God, I pray that You won't let one of them.... I don't believe that they raised their hands just for the saying of raising their hands. I believe they were sincere; they really meant it. And now I commit them to You, and ask that You forgive all their sins. I'm interceding for them with all my heart, that You will forgive them their sin—every sinner in here, that You forgive all their sins.

Father, this little group, I want to meet them there on that great day of the rapture when we get together; see them come running from nation to nation, getting together. “We which are alive and remain shall not hinder them which are asleep.” The trumpet shall sound and the dead shall rise first, and then we'll meet them and then be caught up together with them to meet the Lord in the air, and forever be with Him. Lord, I know that You said that in the book of Thessalonians, the 5th chapter, and I know it's true. And I'll meet them before we meet You. So we're so happy for this.

And we believe now—I believe with all my heart—that because they raised their hands, and because that I've prayed and asked and followed the leading of the Spirit the best that I know how, that they are forgiven of their sins. Now they're happy for it, Lord. Now, there's one more thing You asked them to do. “He that will confess me before men, him will I confess before my Father and the holy angels.”

This will be a night that they'll never forget. These young folks, of remembering that little Bartimaeus listened to his mother's story, and know that someday God used him. And this is the hour that You're using them, using them and taking them into your kingdom.

The older ones that raised their hands, they was the ones, perhaps like Bartimaeus later on, that was blind, but received his sight, his spiritual sight. Now, Father, I pray that You'll let them become your children tonight, and will join some good church and be baptized by Christian baptism, and receive the Holy Ghost. Grant it, Lord.

Now with your heads bowed, I'm going to see and ask: you that were deeply sincere, if you believe me to be God's prophet (or his servant, rather), if you believe me to be his servant with all your heart, and you believe that I've quoted you the truth.... You heard the Word: “He that heareth my words [St. John 5:24] and believeth on him that sent me....” I preached the Word; you believed on God. And you raised up your hand that you was a sinner, and you did not want to be a sinner any more.

Then God said, “No man can come to me except my Father draws him.” Then what drawed your hand up? God. You made your decision. All right. Now what did He say? “He that comes to me I will in no wise cast out.” Then you are a Christian, if you really meant that. You young boys and girls, and you older, in your middle age, and your teenage—all of you—you are Christians when you believe it.

Now, there's one thing yet you have to do. If you really believe that with all your heart, I'm going to ask you just to stand on your feet, and say this ... by standing up.... You don't have to say one word, but just stand up that you might witness to the people that “I now confess all my sins, and accept Jesus Christ as my Saviour.” Now you that accept Him that way, stand up to your feet.

What about it, little girl that was sitting here? Do you believe He's your Saviour? That's right. Stand right there, honey. The little boy over here. All right. You in the back, you up in the balcony, the little boy and girl in the balcony, fine. Anywhere in the building now that accepted Jesus as your Saviour, stand up. “He that will testify of me before men, him that witnesses me before men, him will I witness before my Father.”

Now there's some of you older people raised your hand. Here's one, two, three, four, I'm looking at four children standing up on my little story tonight of Bartimaeus. Now, what about some of you older that raised your hand? See how their little hearts are tender? They believe and so they stand up, stand up to accept Him. Do you believe they're forgiven? Sure they are. Certainly they are.

Now, some of the rest of you that wants to accept Him and say, “I'll publicly make a witness.”

The Bible says as many as believed was added to the church. Do you believe that Jesus forgives your sins tonight? Stand up to your feet with these children. How many will do it right now? All right. God bless you. The boy in the wheel chair, this boy here, this girl here, this lady. That's good. Fine. Someone else say, “I accept Him right now.”?

Now, no feeling. “I'm not looking for feeling. I'm looking because He promised me, 'He that heareth my words and believeth on him that sent me hath eternal life and shall not come to the judgment, but has passed from death to life.' Upon those ... basis in your confessed sin, and recognizing that you are a sinner, and will rise and accept Him as your Saviour, rise up. One, two, three, four, five, six.

Isn't there one more? One more that I could pray for you before you sit down? Is there one more? Any of you out there in the hall? God bless you, lady. That's wonderful. All right, is there another? God bless you, sister. All right, is there another? There's seven. That's a perfect number. Now let us bow our heads. Just remain standing.

Our heavenly Father, your Word cannot fail. It's eternal. You said, “He that heareth my words and believeth on him that sent me has everlasting life.” You said so, Lord. And ... will not come into the judgment or condemnation at the judgment, but has passed from death unto life, because they have believed on the Lord Jesus Christ; that He died in their stead, taking their sins; and to their unrighteousness they are made the righteousness of God through Jesus Christ.

There they are, Father. They're the trophies of the message. They are here. They are your children. Now I may never be able to shake their hands in this earth. But, Father God, upon the basis of your Word I believe and accept your Word that You are God, and You cannot lie and your Word is eternal. I claim them for the gospel. I claim them, for God's sake through Jesus Christ, remitting all their sins.

And, Father, pray that You'll guide these children unto eternal life. Guide them to the baptism of the Holy Ghost. Baptize them, Father, into the Spirit and power of the body of Jesus Christ, that they might see with their own eyes that You are the son of God. They have believed it by faith now and accepted it, and upon those basis You said they were saved. I pray for them, and commit them into thy hands in the name of Jesus Christ.

Now, as you see the people standing (raise your heads), the ones that's standing I want you to shake their hands as they sit down. Up there in the balcony, them right here, you Christians near them now as you're seated, just shake their hand, say, “God bless you.”

Shake this little boy's hand here. God bless his little heart there. Some of you mothers sitting there, right here, that's right. God bless you. God bless you, brother, with the broken foot there. Don't worry, you'll be all right. I knowed that a couple nights ago, so just don't worry about that. You're all right. Up there in the balcony, all right. It's all all right. Oh, isn't He wonderful? “Jesus, thou son of David, have mercy on me.”

Say, “Brother Branham, do you believe that to be the truth?” Well, certainly I believe that to be the truth. I wouldn't stand here and preach something I did not believe. I get in trouble all the time by preaching things I do believe. That's what it is. But I believe it because God said so, and that settles it to me. I believe that those people, that little girl and little boys and these people here called Him from glory just the same as blind Bartimaeus stopped Him on the road. Do you believe that?

How many of you is sick? Raise your hands. Sick and needy. Amen. How many believes that that same God... ? All right. Something struck me then. He's here. The angel of the Lord that you see in that picture, God being my judge—at the day of the judgment you'll find out—He's right here now. That's right. The angel of the Lord is here. Somebody, somewhere, somewhere is suffering. They've got faith. Something's moved. Somebody has done something somewhere, or done something. He wouldn't have come like that, and me trying to hold this to a gospel service.

Do you have any prayer cards? You don't. Well, you don't need them. You don't need them. You have faith and believe. If I've told.... You young converts here, being He's here.... Oh, friends, you'll never know what a feeling that is when He strikes you. You know what you're talking about then. That's right. Yes, you know what you're speaking of. Oh, I'm just as positive as I can be. You have faith now. Just believe.

Sarah sat in the tent, and she said.... Within herself she laughed, and the angel turned and said, “Why did Sarah laugh, saying within herself that this couldn't be so?” Is that right? How about the woman that touched his garment and He looked? Don't you believe He's that same high priest tonight? You young converts, I want to prove to you that that one that you touched.... Sister honey here, you and the sister sitting here, and the brother, the little boy, and that little boy and girl sitting over there—I want to show you that it was the same Lord Jesus that made the promise. Oh, my. Oh, I wish I could feel this way all the time. Have faith in God. Pray, all of you. Just be in prayer.

I'm going to turn my back to you. What that angel of the Lord did, to show you we're in the days of Sodom, and show you we're at the last days; that this country here is a modern Sodom; to show you that the angel of the Lord is still the angel of the Lord. Now you have no prayer cards, so we won't have no prayer line. But you don't have to have prayer cards. The only thing I ask you to do is believe that I've told you the truth, the gospel truth, and it's God.

Now look at these ministers back here. Do you believe this, brethren? With all your heart? Do you believe the gospel I've been preaching is the truth? God bless your hearts. There's an awful good feeling behind me, faith of you brethren. A lot of times this week I've chopped and cut and everything else. I don't want to think I've hurt you. I love you. You're my brethren. But you yourselves know that the church is moving away. We got to bring it back, bring it back. We've got to bring it.

Now, here it is. There's a woman before me. I'm looking right at her. Somebody out there is touching the high priest. I see what she looks like here. Just a minute. Somebody touched Him, just the same as the woman touched our Lord Jesus. That's what this woman done, and I'm just acting in his place, you see. Are you understanding? Now it'll be.... I'll catch it just in a moment. It comes from.... Now, somebody touched Him. Each one of you is praying. Believe now with all your heart. Sit real quiet, believe.

Yes, sir. It's a lady sitting right over there in the corner. Yes, that's right. You have a prayer car... ? No, I know you don't have a prayer card. I don't know you; God does know you. See, all of you look this way. Can't you see that light hanging over the woman there? See that little ... just right above her. See that mystic looking light hanging right above her there? Now watch, it's opening up. The woman has been examined by a doctor of some sort, and they told her she had a growth. Some sort of a.... She's pending an operation but she won't receive the operation. She's trying to trust the Lord for her healing. If that's right, raise up your hand, lady.

Now, you young converts.... That lady sitting right next to her there, she seemed to be a.... That light moved right over to that lady sitting right by her. There it is again. I thought it went back to the lady, but it went to that lady. She's a believer, a Christian believer. She's got some kind of a ... like an allergy, a breaking out on her hands. That's right.

I don't know you, do I, lady? You don't have any prayer card, of course. Do you believe that you're going to get well? Do you believe that was God? Do you believe that I can tell you what you was praying about? Do you believe that? ... by God. (Keep quiet, keep quiet, sit down, please.) You believe? Mrs. Bossler, do you believe now that you're going to be made well? God bless you. That's who you are, isn't it?

What about you, little fellow, sitting right here? Here it is right here to you. Do you believe? I see you're kind of stooped in your shoulders. That's right. But there's something else besides that's wrong with you. If God will tell me what's wrong with you, will you believe me to be his prophet, his servant? It's a stomach trouble you're suffering with. That's, “Thus saith the Lord.” That's right. Not a ulcer. You're just nervous, and upset in your stomach, is what's doing it. That's exactly. If you believe with all your heart....

Do you believe? Now be real reverent. Don't move. You see, each time you move that does something. Be reverent. What about somebody in this direction here? It's come over here, now it's going over here. Do you believe? (When we get three or four, say something.) Have faith. Don't doubt. I just have to watch wherever I ... I wish I could just say this or that. I can't. I just have to watch. Faith is so unconscious to people.

Little lady sitting right there, looking at me. No, right behind you, sister, yes. Got trouble with your eyes. That's right. Do you believe He'll heal you of that? If you don't, you'll lose your sight. It's getting dimmer all the time. You just believe with all your heart. Do you believe God can tell me who you are? You know I don't know you. Mrs. Johnson, you can go home and be well.

The lady sitting right next to her. You had to get up and go away a few minutes ago. Satan tried his best to rob you from this. Do you believe God can tell me about your trouble? Would you accept me as his prophet, or his servant? Do you believe that with all your heart? I don't know you. I never seen you in my life, but you really got a contact with God right now. Right. You're very seriously ill. That's right. It's a gall bladder condition. That is right. Another thing, you have enlarged heart. That's exactly right. Mrs. Miller, raise up your hand if that's right. Go receive your healing. Jesus Christ makes you well.

I challenge you to believe that. I just ask you to believe it. All right. Have faith in God. Do you believe Him? “Jesus, thou son of David, have mercy on me.” Do you believe Him with all your heart? Then hear me, listen.

How many believers is here? Raise your hand. All right, if you're a believer, now put your hand down. Every one of you is believers. How many are sick? Raise your hand. All right, believers, lay your hands on one another. I'll quote the same words. “These signs shall follow them that believe.” This is it. Do you believe it?

Now you pray for somebody. You lay your hands on somebody that's by you, around you. Up there in the balcony. Yes, believe. That lady sitting out there in the middle there, suffering that nervous condition. All right. That's it, sister. I don't know you, never seen you in my life. Is that right? You get nervous, have for years. Christ heals you, makes you well. Way up there in the balcony. Amen. He heals every one of you if you'll believe it. Now pray for one another. Lay your hands on each other.

Heavenly Father, the faith of this people brought the Lord Jesus Christ in the form of the Holy Ghost back into their midst tonight, saving the lost and healing the sick. O Lord, they are believers. They got their hands on one another. They believe that You are the same yesterday, today, and forever, and the same God.

“O Jesus, thou son of David,” they're screaming out. May the power that raised up Jesus from the grave raise them to their feet from the testimony, shouting and praising the glory of God. May they stand like Bartimaeus, looking at their hands till they see that the power of God has healed them. Grant it, Lord.

Keep praying, keep praying, just keep praying. O Lord, there's only one thing could keep a spontaneous healing service ... and that would be unbelief. I've noticed around over the crowd as I look out through here, Lord, see that little streak of dark trying to hold back that glorious light yonder that's circling around, trying to find its way down through that darkness to touch somebody. O Father God, give me strength, give me faith. May the people understand that You have proved, Lord, that I'm telling them the truth.

You said when You was here on earth, “If I do not the works of my Father, then believe me not.” If I do not the works of my Saviour, then may they believe me not. But, Lord, You are doing the same works that You did when You were here on earth. O Father, I pray now that they do believe in a portion. Give me faith to break that blackness from over them, Lord, that that power and light of God might fall upon every soul in here, that it might heal every one of them.

Satan, you're exposed. Why, you're a devil, and you're trying to hold this group of people. I challenge you in the name of Jesus Christ, come out of them people and leave them alone.