Be Not Afraid

Just remain standing a moment while we bow our heads before the Lord and offer prayer. While we have our heads bowed, I wonder how many in here would like to be remembered in prayer before God? Just raise your hand in your request. Let us pray.

Gracious and holy Father God, we humbly come into thy presence with thanksgiving on our hearts, because that You so loved us that You gave your only begotten Son that whosoever believeth should not perish but have eternal life. O God, there's those who have received this great blessing of promise. How thankful we are, Lord. And our hearts are burning for others to receive this joy unspeakable and full of glory that's been given to the human race. There are those that are sick and needy tonight, Father, laying here, afflicted and smitten, stricken. God, it's a sick world; but Thou did make a provision for us, Lord, for it is written, “He was wounded for our transgressions and with his stripes we were healed.”

Now, Father, we are just as servants here trying to give the people thy Word, and that they might see and understand. And we know that all things are possible to them that believe. And make it so real to the congregation tonight that there will not be a feeble one in our midst when the service is over; not be one sinner, all be saved inside and out. May the cots be empty, the wheelchairs emptied up, every person with heart trouble, cancer, dying.... May there be a jubilee time over the cities and around about through the valley. Start an old-fashioned revival that'll sweep up and down this coast, Lord, because of your presence tonight. Establish our hearts and our faith on Thee, for we ask it in Jesus' name and for his sake. Amen. You may be seated.

I deem this one of ... the great privilege of being here in this auditorium at the fairgrounds tonight. And I was sorry that last night how we had to rush and hurry right through because of the alert at the armory, and we did not get to even get a foundation. You know, our great adversary, the devil, if he can't catch us in one way, he'll try it another. If he can get all the people in one accord, then he thinks by [unclear word]. So, then he'll do something else to upset the meeting some other way, so that we cannot exactly be quiet and listen, and watch, and believe, and then see the works of the Lord.

So grateful for this auditorium tonight. Sorry to see hundreds of people standing, but we are just ... I'm truly.... The association is doing all that they know how to do to make room for people to be seated.

And I believe [unclear words] I guess it deserves a try over. Don't you think so, folks, to try it again? Maybe we can get a tent and put it out here somewhere, that'll seat twenty, thirty thousand people and really stay for three or four weeks; and we really get acquainted and know one another. And if the Lord be willing, what we ... you've given me the welcome, and I appreciate that; and if that be the will of the Lord....

I always want to follow his leading just where He goes (meetings), and then we know we're right. I'll tell you why. If you run into trouble somewhere, and then if you're not sure of your leading, then Satan can say, “Well, here it is.” But if you know you're led, you can lean right back again and say, “I come in the name of the Lord, so just move back.” That's all, see, and He'll have to do it, if the Lord sent you.

And in the foreign fields, when I go over there where we have so much of witch doctors and things to contend with.... But when you know that you are led to do it—the Holy Spirit led you to do this—then the opposition's nothing then. You stay right on the ground, just stay right there, and move on until victory comes.

And, so, tonight I trust that I won't keep you too long. I want a little Scripture reading, and then.... We're going to have an awful time getting a prayer line up here, I see, with both doors packed, to bring.... But all who have these prayer cards, hold them. I tell you under these circumstances sometimes.... Come to the outside, and a young fellow said to me, said, “Brother Branham, they're just packed in here, same as it was the other place.” Said, “We haven't got the room.”

I said, “Well, the only way I can really....”

I'm here for one purpose: for the glory of God. That's first; and for the salvation of souls, second; and to try to see the sick healed, third. So that's.... And I never come to take the doctor's patient. No. I've come to pray for the doctor's patient, the pastor's members, my friends, and just pray for them.

And now, I thought maybe we would do this: Sunday it's an afternoon service. That way it will be warm and the people won't mind, maybe, standing back on the outside.

But if tonight and tomorrow night, if we can bring—by the grace of God through the Word of God—the realization of the presence of God, see, then when we start the real prayer line, (line up the hundreds, or whatever it is to be prayed for), I believe then we'll get the results, see. In other words, it's building. Like a minister building his text around a certain subject, and then laying it out as a [unclear words], driving it down; a carpenter fitting his boards, then nailing it on. And that's what we want to try to do, because we have no reason to be here if it wasn't trying to do something to help people. That's why we're here.

Look, if healing.... As this young man laying here on this stretcher, that precious little darling sitting on the wheelchair, little tot, this poor old mother laying here on the stretcher, that lady sitting there on the chair, some man out there dying with heart trouble, some mother eat up with cancer, well, if I could do anything to help them, wouldn't I be an excuse for a minister if I could do something and didn't do it? I don't have no place back here, friends, if I would do that way. If I could—I say this, it sounds strange—but if I could take a quarter and push it with my nose through this city to heal somebody, I'd do it, see. I would do it. I know what it means to be sick, I've been sick myself. And then where I found where the doctor said that I could never be well and never live, and then found something that I lived, then I want to tell everybody else about it, you see.

And I'm, then, trying to follow the leading of the Holy Spirit, the way He would set us, just where we could get the very best results in this little short time that we have.

Now, it really takes longer to stay in the meeting than what we're doing here, because many times people rush in and doesn't understand. Then they go out and the first little out-of-the-way feeling they have (no matter how much you try to tell people) they'll still rely on that feeling. It's just one of the senses that they operate. “If I feel better, I'll believe it,” see. But that has nothing to do with it. Then if we can be there long enough in the meeting with the people to make them see what the reality of it is, and how to stay with God, then we get the good results, is when you do that.

So, now, I trust that you'll linger with me, and know that I'm in my room praying and seeking God every hour that I can, to try to do what I can for the kingdom of God, and for you while I'm here with you.

Now, tomorrow night, remember, and then.... Now, if your prayer cards are not called, hold them. We are obligated to pray for the sick people that we give prayer cards to. So, we're morally obligated to do that, and we'll do it by the grace of God—and everybody, if we possibly can, see. That's the motive. Now, if we was to be here several ... maybe two or three weeks, well, we could just start with so many and so many till we'd finally dig right through it. But, if ... the boys will try not to give out too many prayer cards, just as many as we think we'll have ample time to take up, take up as many through the night as we can.

Now, I was going to say something last night. This sounds strange in another city. I took my suits into a cleaners to be pressed—and I've lived out of a suitcase for about fifteen years now, and suits wrinkle up. And I had to put my two suits down to be pressed, and if them little ladies that paid for that press job is here, I thank you, sisters. I went in; they wouldn't let me pay for it. Said two sisters are there that I'd prayed for, and the lady said they come [unclear word]. Now, that's real sweet, I appreciate that. That's real nice. Of course, it's just a suit of clothes; but I trust that if something you wanted, God will honor your faith, you see, by doing so, see—in just a suit, see. So, I appreciate your faith and belief that I've been telling you at least ... been telling you the truth, to be honest with you. And thank you, very kindly.

I said to the lady, “Let me give them the money.”

Said, “No, they wouldn't stand for that.”

So, if you're here, thank you. It was the Star Cleaners down at the city where we just come from.

Now, I thought on tonight a subject of a testimony meeting, out of the Bible. And I want to read for a text out of St. Matthew the fourteenth chapter, the twenty-seventh verse.

But straightway Jesus spake unto them, saying, Be of good cheer; it is I; be not afraid.

Now, I want to take a subject for this testimony meeting of “Be Not Afraid.”

There's two elements that control the entire human race in the world: one of them is fear; the other is faith. It's either fear or faith controls every nation, every denomination and every individual. It's either fear or faith that controls you.

Now, it must have been about the setting of the sun. The sun was going down, and the little boat had stuck on the bank because the disciples had climbed aboard. And the big strong man—which we believe to be Simon the fisherman—well acquainted with boats and the lake, because his occupation was to fish.... And now, as he began to take his big brawny arms and back, and pushing the little boat off the bank, climbed aboard, and sat down by the side of his brother Andrew, and picked up his oars. In them days the boats were either propelled by the oaring, or blown by sails. And I believe that sometimes the air ... if they had a strong wind, they could also run up the sail.

And it must have been about a crowd about like this on the bank. Maybe.... Oh, I mean, congested like this, but perhaps many times this many—I'd think there's about five thousand. And they were standing on the bank, waving. They were bidding these servants of Christ farewell.

Now, I believe if we make this story form, so that you'll see that I'm not getting out of the Scripture.... The Scriptures is what we believe in. And when God has made a promise, then God must stay with his promise. He cannot leave the promise and remain God.

Perhaps they were, oh, out a few hundred yards, and they'd make a stroke or two with a two-hundred oar. And as they had to do it in team work, bring the little ship as they sail along, cutting the water in the quiet Galilee Sea, as calm upon the sea at the sundown. And on the shore the people were waving, asking them to come back again, visit them. And as the last one dimmed out, the last farewell, the disciples must have rowed pretty heavy, then, knowing they had quite a tussle to cross that sea through the night to get over on the other side.

After it got just about dark so they couldn't see the people anymore, it must have been the young John that stopped rowing and (maybe not as used to oaring as the rest of the hardened seamen was) stopped and brushed the hair back from his face, and taken a little breath—a little time to breathe, to kind of catch their breath from oaring so hard, trying to get as much across as they could before it got dark.

And I imagine they started a testimony meeting, and young John must have said something like this: “My brethren, after today I don't believe there could be any of us ever think that we're following a deceiver. I believe, in my way of thinking, He proved Himself today to be exactly what we expected Him to be. Say, did you brethren notice today, when that crowd of hungry people that had thronged around Him to hear the Word of God, and to see how they pressed and pushed to get around, and some of them hadn't eaten all day.... And those mothers, how pale they looked with their little babies, and nursing, and so forth, and the sick pressing around....

“But when He asked for that ... fishes, and I seen that little boy, and he brought that little ... five little biscuits, or two little pieces of fish up there. And He set them all down by fifties upon the grassy hillside. And I myself wondered what He was going to do when He just had one little lunch that some little boy ... perhaps playing truant from school, run off, and he heard the crowd, and he went up on the hill to see what was taking place. And it so fascinated him, he just forgot about his lunch. He wanted to see what this great speaker was saying, watch what He was doing.

“And when I noticed Him take that bread—that little pieces of biscuits—hold them up and bless them, when I seen Him break that bread, and put it over into the hands of we brethren, and reach back off of that same biscuit, and get another piece of biscuit.... And when He reached back again, there was another piece of biscuit already grown and baked and seasoned, ready for eating.

Do you know what, brethren?“ He might have said something like this: ”It reminded me of the Bible stories that I used to hear my mother tell me about.

“When I was a little Jewish boy, I remember my pretty little mother, and how she used to tell me, 'Honey, when our people came up out of Egypt, we were slaves one time. And when we had a great prophet rise up among us—Moses, who God sent to us to help us be delivered from our afflictions of the bondage.... And Moses, of course, could not make bread, but when we had two-and-a-half million people out in the wilderness, where there was no wheat or nothing to make bread out of, Jehovah rained bread down out of the heavens for us.'

“And I used to wonder. I'd say, 'Mother, has Jehovah got a big bunch of angels up there and a big lot of ovens that He bakes this bread? Where did He get this bread at, Mama? Or could we look up in the skies and see the fires from his oven each night when they were baking it?'

“Mother would've probably said something like this, 'No, son, you're too young to understand. Jehovah don't have to have ovens. Jehovah's a creator. He just creates the bread, and it falls down to the earth.' ”

Young John, when he was standing up in the boat testifying to the brethren, confessing his supreme faith in Jesus, said, “He must have been some connection with Jehovah, because He created bread like Jehovah did. So, to me, He truly is the Messiah, because He's the Son of God; He can create and make bread and do just as Jehovah did. So that settled it with me when I seen Him break that bread and those fishes, and not only just raw fish, but it was cooked fish ready to eat.”

I'd like to ask my listening audience tonight, what kind of an atom did He turn loose then, when He had cooked fish and cooked bread and took five biscuits and two little fishes and fed five thousand people and took up basketsful left over? What did He do? What would science say about that today? What kind of an atom, or molecule, or whatever they want to call it, was let loose then? But He did it. And little John was convinced that the Bible stories that Mother told him about Jehovah, that same Jehovah was manifested in a man called the Lord Jesus Christ, because no one else could have done it. He was the creator.

Well, Simon, you know how he is. He's always ready to testify. And just like any other normal Christian who really knows God, knows the Lord Jesus, is ready to give his testimony right quick. And as we spoke something about him last night, I might rehearse his testimony. He said, “Why, brethren, when I used to seine this sea here with my father years ago.... And I know you all knew my dear old Pharisee father, how he was a great man of church and believed in God. Always of a morning before we'd go to fish—we depended on it for a livelihood—he'd have me kneel down with him and pray out here on the bank for our fish for that day, and God never did let us down. I remember when his hair begin to turn gray, and I knew soon I was going to have to depart with my old dad.

“One day, I remember, he took me, sat me down on the brail of the boat, and said, 'Simon, my boy, I want you to remember this. All Israel has looked for the coming of the Messiah. And as the time draws near, each man has always thought that he'd live to see the day He would come. And I've thought the same, but I'm getting old now, and I suppose I won't get to see it. But Simon, as a Bible believer, as a believer in Jehovah, I want to instruct you, my son.' ”

That's a good thing for a dad to do, or a mother. I wonder today if we put more time on instructing our children in the things of the Lord than we do about hot rods and other things, we wouldn't have so much juvenile delinquency. It is true. Suzanne Wesley was a mother of seventeen children. She didn't have no pushbutton dishwashers, and spigots to turn on to get water. And yet with all those children, she could spend two to three hours a day in prayer around those seventeen children. From that little nest of little birds came forth a John and a Charles who stirred the world. We need more mothers like that, with time to teach their children about God. I stood by her grave not long ago in London, when I was there to pray for the king; and standing there with my hand on her grave, I said, “God, rest that precious mother. I know You have.”

And there buried close to her, of course, is Bunyan of Pilgrim's Progress, and so forth, and William Cowper. Then over in the church yard John lay—the remains of his body into the dust.

Then Simon said, “Dad has told me many times, 'Now, Simon, son, just before the coming of the Messiah, there's going to be a great stir among the people, and the enemy will put out many a false thing, calling it Messiah. And I want you to remember, Simon, my boy, that the true Messiah ... what He'll be, and what He'll look like, and what He'll be like. The true Messiah will be according to the Bible, to what our prophets has told us. Moses said, ”The Lord your God shall raise up a prophet liken unto me.“'”

And he must have reached over and touched Andrew and said, “Andrew went first to hear Him. I couldn't believe it when that ... what John was down there preaching, predicting there was coming a Messiah. To me it was just another go-on. But one day Andrew come told me that I should come see this man at least, listen to Him once. And I had in my heart what Father told me and what the Scriptures had said, that this Messiah would be a God prophet. And when I walked up into the audience with my brother Andrew, quickly He turned and looked right at me in all that crowd. Must have been that He knew that I was thirsting. [God usually comes to those who are thirsting and really wanting to get a hold of Him, desperately.] And He must have looked at me. When He did, He said, 'Your name is Simon and you're the son of Jonas.' That settled it with me, for I knew that my Father told me that the Scripture said that the Messiah would be a prophet. And this man not only knew me by name—who had never seen me—but He knowed my father also. Told me I was the son of Jonas. That settled it.”

Philip, he must have took the floor about that time. Now, these are Christ's own disciples that were having a testimony meeting. Not the outside world; those who lived with Him and sleep with Him and dwell with Him and knows what He is, heard Him talk and speak.

Philip said, “Simon, that convinced me also, because I've read the Scriptures all my life and been taught them. And I knew, as a Jew, that we're taught to believe our prophets, and the prophecy truly said that the Messiah, the Son of God, would be a prophet like Moses. When I seen the sign of the prophet done, then I knew that was Messiah, because it had been hundreds of years since we've had a prophet. [I think around some four hundred years since Malachi.] And I knew that that was the next thing to appear, was the Messiah, and that was Him. So, I ran around the hill to my friend Philip [as we took him last evening] and found him.”

Philip found Nathanael, rather, under the tree, praying, and said, “Come see who we've found: Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph.”

He said, “Could there be any good thing come out of Nazareth?”

He said, “Come see. Come find out for yourself.”

And as he come around the hill, he told him what had been happening, saying, “You know Messiah will be a prophet. We know that.”

“Oh, yes,” said Nathanael, “I know it will be ... He'll be a prophet.”

“Well, I've seen Him do those very things, without a shadow of doubt. I know that. I've seen it, I've tested it, and I know it's true.”

“Well, I'll just come see then.”

Around the hill they went. When they got into the presence of the Lord Jesus, He looked down to Nathanael, said, “Behold an Israelite in whom there is no guile,” when he come into the line.

And he said, “How did you know me, Rabbi, teacher? You've never seen me in your life. How did you ever know me?”

He said, “Before Philip called you, when you were under the tree, I saw you.” Now that's what the Scripture says.

Philip, being a Bible student, that knowed that that was what the Messiah was to be like, he said, “Rabbi, Thou art the Son of God. Thou art the King of Israel.”

And Jesus said, “Well, because I've told you that, you believe? You'll see greater things than this. If you just believe that much, you'll see greater than that.” First you got to believe it.

Now, and then it must have been young James, or one of them sitting there, said, “You know, one day.... We all know Rebekah. That's the wife of the businessman of Jericho, Zacchaeus. He runs a tax outfit down there, collects taxes. And we know that Sister Rebekah had prayed so hard for Zacchaeus to receive Jesus, and told him all the things that she'd seen. But the Rabbi had told him that He was ... nothing to Him, because He wasn't recognized among the clergy of that day. So he would not accept Him.

“So, Zacchaeus.... You remember his testimony at the Full Gospel Business Men's breakfast that morning, when he come in and told us about what happened? He said he got down there to see Jesus and there was too much of a crowd.”

And somehow another where Christ is, it's just.... “If I be lifted up, I'll draw all men unto me,” all those that's drawable. “All the Father has given me will come to me.” And he said Zacchaeus, seeing that him being small in stature, as he testified, he could not get to see the Master. So, he runs down to another corner, knowing which way He was going through the city, and he climbed up in a sycamore tree, and he said, “Now, I'll just sit up here on these ... where two limbs meet.”

That's a good place to sit, where two ways meet— that's your ideas and God's Word. Where your ideas and his meets, that's a good place to rest just for a few minutes, decide on which way you're going from there.

And he sat down, and he said, “I remember that my wife told me about this here Galilean being a prophet. Now if He is a prophet, I'm going to believe Him; because I know that our Bible said, 'If there be one among you who's a prophet, and I, the Lord, will make myself known to him, and what he says comes to pass, then hear him. I'm with him. But if it doesn't, then don't hear him.' So, I know ... and do not believe, as my rabbi told me, that a man that was born as poor as he was and with a name like he's got and was not raised up to be a rabbi.... And all this here supernatural stuff he talks about, I don't believe it. So, I'm going to wait, and when I see him, I'm going to give him a piece of my mind.”

So, as he got to thinking about what Rebekah told him, “Well, maybe he is a prophet; but if he is, I'll just get my opinion, then I'll go back and tell Rebekah, because there's too many.” So, he got up on the limbs and pulled all the leaves around him, covered himself up so he couldn't be seen, camouflaged himself.

After a while, they heard a noise coming around the bend. There's something strange: where Jesus is, there's usually a noise of some sort. I don't know why, but it always.... Just like Aaron going in with the pomegranate and the bell, if he don't make a lot of noise, why, they didn't know he was living. And I think that's what's the matter with the church today. It's got so dead, we don't hear nothing no more. So, where there's life, there's noise.

Now, and we find out that.... He said then when Jesus came around the corner, and he got to look at him.... He'd fixed himself a little camouflage so Jesus couldn't see him, so he had a leaf. He just pulled this leaf down to look out, because he didn't want to see him, a business man of the city, sitting up in a tree. That would be kind of embarrassing, you know. And this holy roller coming in, anyhow, you know, with the name that he had, that would hurt his business if they seen him associating himself with a fellow like that. And so.... But he wanted to find out what Rebekah had been talking about. So, he sat up there. He kept his leaf up. And said, “I hear a noise, so maybe after awhile he'll come along.”

He heard the noise and he looked around the corner. There come the great big, burly fisherman saying, “Folks, I'm sorry. Our brother is very tired. He's on his road out now. He's got to go to Jerusalem.” He said, “Would you all just stand aside and give him room to get out?” There was a lot of diplomacy and kindness.

Other disciples following along, saying, “Folks, I wish we had time, but we just haven't.”

And after awhile when he turned the corner, then Zacchaeus turned down his leaf and begin to look, seen him coming along like that. And, you know, I don't believe that any man could look right at Christ and ever feel the same again. I don't believe he could. Something began to touch him, and saying, “You know what? I just ... maybe Rebekah was right. But I'll get a good look at him, and then I'll hear him some time. Because he doesn't know me—I'm a business man here, and he just entered the city, so he doesn't know me, doesn't know nothing about me, and he doesn't know my condition. So I'll just sit up here in the tree.”

And He come along, and when He crossed over the sidewalk, come down, got right under the tree, He stood and looked up; said, “Zacchaeus, come down; I'm going home with you today for dinner.”

“Oh, you remember?” said James. “That settled it with me. I knew that He was that prophet that Moses spoke of, because we had just entered the city. How did He know he was up in the tree, and how did He know his name was Zacchaeus and all about him? That settled it to me, because the Bible said that he would be a prophet.”

“Well, then,” another one spoke up and said, “what about blind Bartimaeus, when we went out of the city, when.... There he was, sitting out there dreaming of the days, he said, when he had his sight; how his mother had told him about the great day of Jehovah once spoke for the people, but he'd been blind all these years; and how, when we come out of the city, the people making fun of Him, and the priest hollering, 'You who raised the dead, we got a graveyard full of them up here. Come up and raise them up.'”

See, God don't clown for people. Jesus just does as the Father shows Him, and that's all He does, He said. St. John 5. You know, they still have them evil spirits in the world today though. They'll say, “Let me see him heal this one. Let me see him heal that one.” See, that's the same evil spirit. They just don't know.

The same one said, up there on the cross.... Before He got to the cross, when He was tempted, he said, up there, said, “If thou be the Son of God, perform a miracle here before me and turn these stones into bread and eat, and I'll believe you,” see.

Jesus said, “But it's written, man shall not live by bread alone,” see. He didn't clown for Satan.

And when they had Him in the courtyards, put a rag over his face, wrapped it around his eyes, and took a stick and hit his precious head, said, “If you're a prophet now, and can tell us ... if you're that Messiah prophet, tell us who hit you on the head.” He never said a word.

The powers and gifts of God are not to show off with; they're to serve God by. They're for the glory of God to do something to help somebody; not to come out like a stuffed shirt, and saying, “Me, my great....” That's not it. When a man does that, he's little in my sight. Who is great? One—God.

Then, it might've been then, immediately after that, that Andrew might have said this: “But, brethren, remember the time when He sent us into the city, He told us that morning He was going down to Jericho but had need go by Jerus... or, go by Samaria—from Jerusalem up around Samaria and then to Jericho. Remember how tired He was? And all day we said, 'Why don't you take meat? Why don't you do... ?' He said, 'I'll wait here, and you go in and get yourself food.'

“Now, while we were gone and we got the food to return.... Remember? We come up, and we found out—when we had gotten there—there was a woman on her road up; and there He was alone with a woman of ill condition.” She was a foul woman, a woman that we'd call today of the street, a red-light lady. She had ... her marriages was all mixed up, and she was living with men without being married to them—very foul person. Them days they wore a garment had to prove that.

“So, when we seen ... come up ... you remember we slipped in behind that bush, that little wall, and see what He would say? That's what settled it with every one of us.

He asked the woman to bring Him a drink, and she said, 'We've got segregation here. We don't ... it's not customary for you Jews to ask we Samaritan women such a thing as that.'

“He said, 'If you knew who you were talking to, you'd ask me for a drink. I'd give you water that you don't come here to draw.' Remember how the conversation went on?” What was He doing? The Father, He said, in St. John 5:19....

And listen to this, brethren, sisters: Jesus Christ, the Son of God, never took credit for healing anybody. He said, “It's not me that doeth the works. It's my Father that dwelleth in me, He doeth the works.” Then notice what taken place. In St. John 5:19, He said this....

He'd went through a pool of Bethesda; there laid great multitudes (many more people than is around this place tonight) of lame, blind, halt, withered, crippled. Now, the Scripture says that—lame, halt, blind, withered—and here He comes.

Just a few days before that, a woman had touched his garment and was made whole. Here He comes, garments full of virtue, walking, passed by the mother with the waterhead baby, passed by the blind man. And if you ever taken the history of it, the angel come down and troubled the water. You know what troubled waters are: current going one way and winds blowing it another way. It's a dangerous water. And they believed it was an angel, and ever who was stepping into the water had enough faith stopped that moving of the water, and they got well of what disease they had. And they laid there by the multitudes. Many of them didn't believe that, but those who believed it, it was healing for them. God's always had a way of healing his people. So, those stepping in first....

And I've read books on it, where they said that they'd even stab one another, trying to rush in and get in there first; because as soon as the first one stepped in with enough faith to pull the virtue of the angel away, then he didn't come back maybe for a month or two, another season. And they laid there constantly waiting. What patience!

And Jesus walked right around them—blind, deaf, lame, halt, withered—never said a thing, till He come to a man laying on a pallet. How many of you Californians know what a pallet is? Well, what part of Kentucky did you come from? I was raised on one. Just lay something down on the floor and lay down. Laying on a pallet. He might've had a prostate trouble, or he might've had TB. Whatever it was, he'd had it thirty-eight years. It was retarded, it wasn't going to kill him, he could walk. And Jesus knowing (watch) ... Jesus knowing that he'd been in this condition all this time, He said, “Wilt thou be made whole?” Why not the blind man? Why not the crippled man? But, see, He was directed. Now, watch his answer.

And he said, “I have no one to put me in the water. While I'm coming, somebody in better shape than me outruns me and gets in there, see, gets in ahead of me.” He could walk, he could go; but there was some there couldn't walk, see.

And we'd say He had compassion? Human sympathy is not compassion. Know the will of God is compassion, see.

So, He said, “Wilt thou be made whole?”

He said, “I have no one to put me in the water. When I'm coming, someone steps ahead of me.”

He said, “Take up thy bed and go unto thy house.”

He never questioned one more thing, for Jesus knowed he wouldn't question. Picked it up and put it on his back and went on.

Jesus was questioned about it. Let Him do the same thing today and He'll be questioned about it.

Someone will say, “Here's old brother So-and-So. He's a good old man, belonged to church all of his life, selling pencils on the corner. Make him whole. Why did you pass him by?”

Watch Jesus put the answer to them. The same day, when they caught him, asked him the question—St. John 5:19—“Verily, verily, I say unto you, the Son can do nothing in himself, but what he sees the Father doing.” How many knows that's the Scripture? The Scriptures can't fail.

So, Jesus could only do what God showed Him in a vision to do. And that made Him a prophet. More than a prophet; He was a God prophet. He was the God of the prophets.

Some people today try to take divinity away from Him. His sign as Messiah was a prophet sign. But in redemption, He was God. The virgin Mary, a woman, virgin, knowed no man. The Holy Spirit overshadowed her and created a blood cell. That blood cell brought forth the Son of God. He neither was Jew nor Gentile; He was God. “We're saved,” said the Bible, “by the blood of God.” The blood comes from the male sex. The hemoglobin comes out of the male sex.

You people ... here it's springtime out here. I was watching today a little bird up in the bush making himself a nest. Oh, they'll make them a nest. Well, that old mother bird could get on that nest and lay a whole nest full of eggs. If she hasn't been with the mate, they won't hatch. That's right. She might sit on them and be so loyal, turn them eggs just as loyal, and starve herself to death, till she's so poor she can't fly off the nest. If she hasn't been with the mate, they won't hatch. They haven't got no blood cell in them. The life comes from the blood. Life is in the blood.

Like churches today.... You can ... we got the biggest churches we ever had, most members we ever had, best dressed we ever had, best fed we ever had, more money than we ever had; more sickness than we ever had, because we got more unbelief than we ever had. It's just ... there's only one thing to do. Them eggs will lay right there in them nests and rot; and so will church members if they haven't been with the mate, Jesus Christ. It's time to clean the nest and get back in there—somebody that's got faith and been filled with the Holy Ghost, got living faith and a living God, been with the mate, Christ Jesus—something that will hatch, something that'll bring forth life.

Sure,

Jesus could only do.... He said—and the Scriptures are infallible—He said, “I do nothing within myself until I see the Father doing it first.” Now, He said He saw it. See. “Verily, verily, I say unto you the Son can do nothing in himself but what he sees the Father....” Look back to the Emphatic Diaglott, see if the word isn't right: see. Look at it. Even to the Douay version, all the versions give it the same way. “Till I see the Father do it.... The Father worketh. What the Father does, He shows me; and I just go and act it out for Him.” That's the way every prophet of the Bible done, was to see by vision what to do. And that was the sign of the Messiah in that day.

And if that's the sign of the Messiah in that day—at the closing of the Jewish dispensation, and He promised He'd do the same thing in the last days—it's time He arrived.

We're at the last day. The world's in a nervous prostration. She's ready to be blowed to pieces, because they have rejected, denied; and the Holy Spirit has wounded their hearts, and God....

Like a lady in a ten cent store here a few weeks ago in Louisville, Kentucky. She had a little boy, and she was going around showing him things. Said, “Look, dear. Look, dear. Look, dear.” And the little boy just sat and stared. And after awhile she just fell over on the counter and began to screaming. And some of the people in the ten cent store went to her, and said, “What's the matter?”

She said, “It's my little boy.”

She said, “It can't be so. The doctor said he was better, but he isn't.” Said, “A few months ago the little fellow just started staring.” And said, “I can't get his attention to nothing.” Said, “Everything that a little boy his age ought to look at,” said, “I'll shake it before him, and he'll just sit and stare.”

You know the church—the Pentecostal church—has got somewhat the same way. God's shook everything in the Bible before them, and they still just sit and stare. There's something wrong. It's time to arise, and wake, and call on God. Remember, if God predicted in his Bible that this would be the Laodicean church age when things would take place this way, now, let's believe Him.

As Andrew goes on with his story, just for a moment or two longer.... Andrew said, “You know, He told the woman....”

Now, she was a Samaritan. There's only, as I said last night, there's only three races of people on earth: Ham, Shem, and Japheth's people. If we believe the Bible, they all sprung from them three sons. That's Jew, Gentile and Samaritan.

You remember Peter was given the keys to the kingdom? Where did he open it up? At Pentecost to the Jew. Went down to Samaria. Although Philip had went down and preached to them the baptism of the Holy Ghost, and baptized them, and they were ready to receive it, but Peter had the keys. Come down and laid hands on them, they received the Holy Ghost. Then at the house of Cornelius, the Gentiles, Acts 10:49, we find out that Peter was sent by a vision up. “And while he yet spake these words, the Holy Ghost fell on them.” From that time on, the Holy Ghost was to whosoever will, let him come. But he had the key to the kingdom.

Now, notice them three races. (Now, as I said last evening ... I had to hurry, reason I'm repeating this in another way tonight. I had to hurry. You were nervous, and they were telling us “alert,” and so forth. Now that you're calmer tonight and quiet....)

Notice, the Jews were looking for a Messiah, and the Messiah was supposed to come and declare Himself to be the Messiah. Now, do you think Jesus come unscripturally? He wouldn't have been Jesus. He wouldn't have been the Son of God. He had to come according to the Scripture; but not according to the thoughts of the churches of that day. He was different from the thoughts of the church, their doctrine about it. But He come according to the way the Scriptures was written. And that's what I'm trying to bring back to your memory tonight—the same thing. He comes according to the way He promised to come.

Now, remember. If God is ever called on the scene to act.... And the way He acts first, He has to act every time afterwards the same way, or He did wrong when He acted first. So, if that was the way of making Himself known in that day to the Jews and to the Samaritans who were looking for a Messiah....

No Gentile was looking for a Messiah. We were Romans and Greeks, and worshipping gods of iron and steel and marble—like a lot of them are still doing —and like that, with a club on our back.

But now, after two thousand years of theology and teaching, now the Gentile church, the elect church, is looking for the Messiah. Now, He'll have to act when He's coming this time just like He did that time. He'll have to do the same things because the Word said He would do it.

Now, so that you'll see that our Christ is not dead.... He's with us, living in us, right here with us now. And now, if I can get you to see that, then it's a very easy thing for you to accept your healing. It isn't about my hands being laid on you. I'm a man. It's his hands. Find Him.

Now, notice, when they listened, and heard the conversation.... Now, this is a woman of ill fame, now, in Samaria. She was a bad woman, so they were listening. And when they heard, He said, “Go get your husband and come here.” Now, He talked to her long enough to catch her spirit. He said, “Go get your husband and come here.”

She said, “I don't have any husband.”

“And you remember, brethren,” Andrew might have said to the rest of the brethren. Said, “You remember how we all thought, 'Oh-oh, oh-oh, here's one time He's caught, because He tells her that she hasn't got a husband?' Said, 'Go get your husband and come here,' rather. Said, 'Go get your husband.' He's telling her she's got a husband, and she says she hasn't got a husband. She's contradicting his word. Now, what's going to happen?

Remember how we all stood with our ears pricked up, and the chills going over us? What's the matter? We wondered, had our master been caught in a trap? Now, He tells the woman she's got a husband and she says, 'I haven't got a husband.' Remember how we thought?

“Then what did He...? Just as cool as He could be, He said, 'Thou hast said well, because you've had five, and the one you're living with now is not your husband.' The scene changed right quick.

“And what did this woman say to Him? 'Sir, I am a Samaritan woman. I may be living in sin. I got [a little something like this] ... but I know the Scriptures. I come out of a home that taught the Bible. You must be a prophet. I know ... we're taught, all Samaritans are taught, that there's a Messiah coming who'll be the Christ [means the anointed one]. And when He comes, He'll tell us these things. That'll be the sign of the Messiah. You must be his prophet.'

“Jesus said, 'I am He.' ” There never was a man that could say that but Him. Right, or never will be. “I am He.”

And she left her water pot and run into the city, and said, “Come see a man (told the men in the street), come see a man who told me what I've done. Isn't this the very Messiah?”

If that was the sign of Messiah yesterday, and He's the same yesterday, today, and forever, it's the same today. He's got to be.

“Yes, we remembered that, how that the woman said that.” And how that the Bible said that all the city believed Him to be the Messiah because the woman told the people in the city that they never had met before, and the conversation.

“He said, 'Go get your husband.' ”

And she said, “I have none.”

“He said, 'You've got five.' And you men know that that's the kind of a life I've lived, and that convinced me that He was the Messiah, because He knowed the secret of my heart.”

Now, listen. Does not the Bible say that in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God ... and the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us? Now, to you Bible readers, does not the book of Hebrews tell us, in the fourth chapter, that the Word of God is sharper than a two-edged sword, piercing to the ... sunder of the marrow of the bone, and a discerner of the thoughts of the heart? The Word. And when the living Word, which is Christ, comes into our midst, is not it still a discerner of the thoughts of the heart? The living Word—Christ—the living Word.... He is the Word, and He's the living Word. This is the letter Word; and when the letter Word is brought with the living Word, it's sharper than a two-edged sword and a discerner of the thoughts of the heart. Jesus looked upon his audience and perceived their thoughts.

Some of them stood by and said, “He's a fortune-teller. He's Beelzebub, a devil.”

Jesus said, “I'll forgive you for that, calling the Spirit of God an evil thing, an evil work. I forgive you for that; but some day the Holy Spirit's coming, and you speak one word against that, it'll never be forgiven you, in this world or the world to come.” Then what is blaspheming the Holy Ghost? See, call the Spirit of God an unclean thing. It's blasphemy. That's what blasphemy is: calling the Spirit of God an evil spirit.

So, you see, when the people shouted, and spoke in tongues, and so forth—and this nation has constantly called it a bunch of holy roller and heretics and everything else—you see why she's ready for judgment? Now, the Bible said....

Now, to you Pentecostal people, the Bible said, “If you have a gift of speaking in tongues, then when the unlearned comes in, and the first thing you know you all speak with tongues, they'll say, 'You're all mad.' But if there be one among you that's a prophet that will reveal the secrets of the heart, then they'll fall down and say, 'Truly, God's with you.' ” Well, if you believe in speaking in tongues, don't you know what the furtherment of it is? Don't you know what a higher blessing is? Don't you see the Holy Spirit? What makes you speak with tongues? Do you do that yourself? No, sir. The Holy Ghost does it, if you're sincere. Is that right? The Holy Ghost does it. That's the same thing that's set in the church: First apostles, prophets, teachers, pastors and evangelists. It's the Holy Spirit, the living Christ that's not dead, but alive forevermore.

They have the picture of it down here where it's been taken. It was taken over here in California here recently, taken.... George J. Lacy of the FBI examined it, and so forth. You've seen it, and everything—a pillar of fire. Same pillar of fire that's took in Germany and Switzerland, all over the world, where it's been taken. Now, what is it? If that.... How many knows that Jesus Christ was that pillar of fire? Well, when He was ... in St. John 6 when He was being questioned, He said ... about Abraham, about his age, He said.... “Well, now,” they said, “You mean that you seen Abraham and you're a man not over fifty years old?”

He said, “Before Abraham was, I AM.” Then, He was that pillar of fire, the angel of the covenant. In other words, the logos that went out of God. He was the pillar of fire that led the children of Israel through the wilderness. And that pillar of fire, the logos, was made flesh and dwelt among us. And He said, “I come from God and go to God.” And after his death, burial and resurrection, Saul.... He met Saul on the road down to Damascus and struck him down with a light. None of the rest of them saw it, but Saul saw it.

[blank spot on tape]

... came out of the wilderness, bringing the children of Israel. Then come dwelt in a man—fullness of the Godhead bodily—and performed these kind of signs as the Messiah. And if that same pillar of fire, that same Jesus, that same Spirit comes back into his church universal, won't it do the same thing? “He that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also. Yet a little while.... In the world, you'll see no more,” He said, “yet ye shall see me for I, I, will be with you, even in you, to the end of the world.” Jesus Christ the same yesterday, today, and forever.

You see what I'm trying to do, friends, is let you know that the Jesus that made the promise in the Bible is right here with you, right here now.

Now, if you'd walk up to Him and He had on this suit that He gave me, and He would say ... you'd say, “Jesus, will you heal me?”

You know what He would say to you? “Well, my child, I did that.” He can't do it again.

If you're redeemed out of a pawn shop, how can you be redeemed the second time? He brought you out. He was wounded for your transgressions, and with his stripes you were healed. See what I mean? Your healing's already completed, your salvation's completed. The only thing you have to do is just receive it. What does it make any difference who lays hands on you, or what does this, that, or the other? Everywhere you're at, just believe it, that's all, receive it. It's God has to give it to you.

There's the reason that I don't take too much time. The American people are taught the old Jewish custom of laying on of hands, which is all right. But that wasn't the Gentile way.

Well, Jairus said, “Come, lay your hand on my daughter and she'll live,”—a Jew.

But the Roman said, “I'm not worthy that you come under my roof. Just speak the word,” see.

He said, “I'm a man under authority. I say to this man, 'Come,' he comes, and that one, 'Go,' he goes.” He knowed that everything.... Under him was a century—century of men, which means a hundred. That hundred men was under him. What he said they had to do. What did he recognize in Jesus Christ? That all sickness and diseases was under Him, under his control. “Just speak the word.” Amen. There you are. You don't need hands laid....

And what did Jesus say? He turned around and said, “I never found faith like this in Israel.”

Well, that's the kind of faith we want here in California, that kind of faith—“Speak the word.”

That's all it needs. Not some man say, “Well, glory to God, Brother So-and-so laid hands on me; I felt something go through me.” You might have felt his hands laying on you, but you're [unclear words] see.

Jesus never did say, “Did you feel it?” He said, “Did you believe it?” That's right. Did you believe it?

It's not a feeling affair; it's a believing affair. He that believeth, right where you are. I don't say you don't feel something. I know I've felt some strange feelings, but I never did rest my faith upon a feeling. I can't build my doctrine upon a sensation. I've got to build it upon “Thus saith the Lord,” by the Word of God. And that's the reason tonight....

And then if it's built upon that Word and there's enough faith in that to make that Word be made manifest.... Jesus died and gave his life that He might sanctify a church, that He could be universally, around the world, all the time in his church. It's Holy Spirit here.

When ... Jesus was God made flesh; the fullness of God was in Him.

He had the Spirit without measure; we have it by measure. Now, what if you go out here and pick up a spoonful of water out of the ocean. Well, that's what Jesus had, the whole ocean; but you and I have got a spoonful. That's the difference. You never miss it. He don't have to have us, but we have to have Him. But if you took that spoonful of water and took it down to the laboratory, the same chemicals that's in the entire ocean is in that spoonful.

And with God on the day of Pentecost, when He come down like a rushing wind, did you notice He was a pillar of fire? But did you notice He separated Himself from that pillar of fire, divided Himself amongst his people, and cloven tongues of fire sat upon each of them—God separating Himself to his church! No wonder He said, “Wherever two or three are gathered in my name, I'll be in their midst.” “If two will agree upon anything and ask, I'll give it to you.” What is that? When a little fire here and a little fire here—each one of you is a part of God —when we come together, it's the body of Christ uniting! God separating Himself, giving part to me and part to you and part to the next fellow, so we can all live and have eternal life. And now, that eternal life comes from the word—the Greek word, as I said —Zoe, which means “God's own life.”

Now, must have been while they were testifying of this, all at once Andrew must have sat down and Satan must have looked back over through the dark cloud (I'm closing now), and he saw them gone off without Jesus. That's just as good as he wanted. And now, my brethren, my sisters, let's just look now right straight in faith. They had gone off without Jesus.

I believe that that's what's happened to the church to make up this Laodicean church age. The church has gone off without Jesus. We've gone off on great tantrums. We've gone off to a place to where we've got a big building program, see who could build the biggest church. We've gone off on educational programs. We've gone off on denominational programs. We've gone off on all kinds of programs. And what have we hatched out? We've hatched out a bunch of denominational children. That's right.

We're building our things upon ... of our denominations. “Don't associate with them over there. Don't have this over here. We're the denomination. We got all the truth.” Remember, brother, the blanket's stretched all ways, see. It goes over the other fellow too.

But we drawed boundaries and separated ourself, just like the Baptist and Methodist and the rest of them did. You used to talk about the cold formal Baptists; now it's the cold formal Pentecostals, see. Baptists are warming up. Notice, how.... Now, it's true, we've hatched out denominational children. We've hatched out educational children. We've formed Bible schools. Perfectly all right, but what have we got to...? Told them ... to give them a Bachelor of Art, or PhD, and a LLD.

And even some of our great denominations, before they send a missionary—a Pentecostal, now—before they send a Pentecostal missionary overseas, he has to be examined by a psychiatrist to see if his IQ's high enough. That is a stain on the name of Pentecost. Pentecost is not an organization; Pentecost is an experience all people can have, Methodist, Baptist, Presbyterian or whatmore.

Who is to decide whether he's a missionary or not, the Holy Ghost or some worldly psychiatrist? God gives the calling. Peter's education wouldn't have qualified with that. The Bible said he was both ignorant and unlearned. But the Holy Ghost ... it pleased the Holy Ghost to make him the head of the church. He and John, both ignorant and unlearned. But there's where we are. The devil saw us go off on a big tantrum like this, and he says, “Here's my opportunity.” That's the same thing he done then.

So, he raised up over the mountains and begin to blow his poison breath. He said, “There they are, huddled out yonder in the middle of that sea. They're testifying of what has been. Now, it seems they haven't got Him anymore now. He's not with them no more now.” And watch the Laodicean church age. Of all the church ages—seven last church ages—the Laodicean, Jesus was on the outside of his own church knocking, trying to get back in. Now, there's where we've come to.

And so Satan has been blowing his poison breath around, you know, saying, “Whew, whew. Days of miracles is past; there's no such a thing as that. Don't you believe that kind of stuff. It's mental telepathy.” They're leaving the Word. You just examine the Word and see if it isn't right. Then see if God does give him that Word and confirm it, then it makes it right. When God says so, that settles it. Now, “Days of miracles is past, got formal.

Just talk about our churches now, what we're going to do and our great programs we got. See, he's seen without, and the little ship begin to blow, was tossed; and we find out all hopes was gone for a revival. Just about like that today. God sent a Oral Roberts across the country, He sent a Tommy Osborn across the country, He sent one after the other—wave after wave after wave after wave—and here we still sit without revival. What's the matter?

But remember, He hadn't gone too far.

When He seen them go off, He knowed what was going to happen. And that's the reason He knowed here to predict the end at the beginning. He knowed the Laodicean church age was going to push Him out, so He made preparation to meet it. “Those who I love I chasten and rebuke. I stand at the door and knock. If any man will open and let me in, I'll come in and sup with him,” if you'll just open up and let Him in.

And when the winds are blowing, and it's contrary, and we see it's hard to move, that's the way they were. But He'd climbed up the highest hill there was in Galilee, highest hill in Palestine maybe. He was up on the mountain—higher you go, farther you can see. And He climbed up there so He could watch over them. And when He seen them in distress.... He was high enough that He could see them. And when He was here on earth, He realized that we was coming to this condition. So, He didn't only climb the mountain of Calvary, but He climbed on past the moon and stars until He sat down at the right hand of the majesty on high. And his eye is on the sparrow, and I know He's watching this meeting tonight. He hasn't gone too far; He's watching you.

When the little ship's tossed about.... This boy here, his little ship, yours, yours, out here, all around, your little ship's tossed about. “The doctor says I can't get well, I'm paralyzed, I got cancer, I'm going to die.” He knows that. But his eye is on the sparrow. He redeemed you. He paid the price. He was wounded for your transgressions; with his stripes you were healed. The preparation's made, and He climbed up to the ramparts of glory and sat down at the right hand of God on high, watching over you, ever living to make intercession. The Bible said He's standing there, a high priest that can be touched by the feeling of our infirmities, the same high priest that was here on earth. The same yesterday, today, and forever. If you'd touch Him, He'd act like He did when He was on earth. He's the same yesterday, today, and forever.

A woman touched his garment, went out and got in the crowd and sat down. She didn't get in the line. The rest of them was in the line. She didn't get in the line. So, she touched his garment and went and sat down in the audience. And He turned around, said, “Who touched me?”

And the apostle Peter rebuked Him and said, “Everybody's touching you. Why do you say a thing like that?”

He said, “But I got weak. Virtue's gone from me.” A vision ... something happened.

It's a certain kind of touch. All big programs today is not touching Him. It takes an individual's heart to touch Him. Yes, sir. Somebody that'll believe and lay aside their superstitions and believe Him. “Somebody touched me.” Said, “I got weak. Virtue, strength went out of me.” And He looked around over the audience until He found the little woman, told her her blood issue she'd had, “Your faith hath saved you.” See, thy faith has saved —sozo—saved; same word physically, or spiritual, see. “Thy faith hath saved thee.”

Now, if He's the same high priest and He's the same yesterday, today and forever, if you would touch Him, how would He act? If He's the same, He'd act the same. I challenge this audience tonight to believe that story to be true. See if He isn't still the same high priest. See if He doesn't act tonight like He did when He was in Galilee. See if He doesn't do the same thing. We're not playing church—too late in the hours, the sun's setting. It's time to be realistic, time for men and women to throw off their church cloaks, lay aside your denominational rags and look to God and have a Pentecostal revival in the Pentecostal church. Touch Him and see if He's still the high priest. I challenge that to you. Believe it, and see what happens.

So He come walking to them on the water. The last hour, all hopes gone. What happened? As soon as they seen Him.... Just the same as they did then, they're doing today. The only thing that could help them, they was afraid of it. They thought it was spooky, He was a spirit. And the same thing today. You Baptists, you Methodists, you Presbyterian, Catholic, you Pentecostals, Oneness, Threeness, Fiveness, Assemblies, Foursquare, whatever you may be, you're God's children. But don't be afraid; God promised He would do it. If He could speak tonight and He'd say as it was then. When they were all scared, they said, “We see a spirit. It looks spooky. There's something strange about it.”

Said, “Do not fear, it is I.” The same yesterday, today, and forever. “Be not afraid, it's I.”

Won't you, church, tonight let Him in your little bark that you're sailing over life's solemn main? Won't you just open up your heart and say, “Lord Jesus, I believe You. I'm willing. I know that scripture. The man's told me what is the scripture. I know that the Bible said, 'You're the same yesterday, today, and forever.' I know these things.”

We ain't got time to get all into it tonight. We'll keep on going tomorrow night into it and on and on, see—just keep on showing and proving it, friends. What you have believed has been true, but we're living along up the road a little further now. That's what the trouble with the Christians.

You know science don't take what science said two, three hundred years ago. It was a French scientist said, about three hundred years ago.... Proved it by revolving a ball around the earth. And he said, “If any persons could ever go the terrific speed of thirty miles an hour, scientifically prove that gravitation will take you off the earth.” What about Ricky and his hot rod? They are going around about several thousand miles an hour. Do you think they look back to see what that scientist said? No. They're still going on. They're moving on. But the church, they say, “Let's see what Mr. Moody said about it. Let's see what Mr. Wesley said.” Them men lived in their age. That was all right for that age. But we got not only a scientific tree to climb, we've got untapped resources of the bountiful blessings of God which is not limited to our limit.

“Whatsoever you ask the Father in my name, I'll do it.” Every promise in the Book belongs to you. When you're saved, He gives you a check with his name wrote at the bottom of it. Don't be afraid to fill it out, because the bank of heaven will recognize it if it goes through the Pentecostal clearing house. That's right. See if you got something there on deposit yourself, see, that you're recognized. If you've got identification to show that the check belongs to you —it's only for believers now—if you got that identification, why, God will recognize your check. That's right. No matter what you ask for, any redemptive blessings belongs to you....

Now I've spoke to you at length, and I know your limbs are cramping, you elderly people. And young and all, standing inside and outside around the doors, God reward you richly. I'm your brother. There isn't ... I haven't got one speck of healing power; nobody else has got it. There's not a doctor got any. No medicine's got any. There's not a medicine in the world that will heal you. There's not a doctor that's in his right mind that will tell you that. Mayo Brothers said they don't have a medicine that will heal. If I cut my hand with a knife, they haven't got a medicine in the world will heal that knife cut. Any medicine that will heal a knife cut (my hand) will heal it on this desk or in my coat.

You say medicine wasn't made for your desk or the coat; it was made for your body.

Well, then if I cut my hand, I fall down dead, you embalm me and make me look natural for fifty years, give me a shot of penicillin every day, and all kinds of salves, and sew up, and everything else, fifty years from the day the cut will look just like it was when it was cut. If it heals the human body, why don't it heal it?

Well, you say, “Sure, life's gone out of it.”

Well, tell me what life is and I'll tell you who God is. That's right. It's God. Medicine does not build tissue. It takes life to build tissue. That's right. And your attitude towards God is what does it.

Someone said to me, “What about penicillin for a bad cold?”

I said, “It's like having a house full of rats. And you put out rat poison to kill them. It don't patch up the holes; it only kills the rats.” That's right. It kills the germs. That's true. Medicine might kill the germ, but it don't build the cells that the germs tore down. That takes God to do that and Him alone. “I'm the Lord who heals all thy diseases.”

What if you broke your arm, run in, said, “Doctor, heal my arm. I want to crank ... I'm working on my car here, I want to finish up.”

He'd say, “You need mental healing,” and that would be right. He might set your arm, but God has to produce the calcium and the life matters and things to heal it together. It takes God.

We have nothing that'll heal. No medicine heals; God heals. And your attitude towards God, the one that does the healing.... And we can't figure out yet what the life is. We know the mucous the life comes in, but we don't know what the germ of life is because it's a spirit; and there's no glass can see a spirit. There you are. So, that's the one that does the healing.

Will you believe on Him tonight? If He will come in the audience tonight ... just a little group....

We'll call somebody up here. I think they give out a bunch of cards last night. 1 to 100, I believe, in A. We got a few of them; we had to hurry. But tonight, if we'll just call some people out here and let the Holy Spirit begin to move, here at the plat.... If He will; I don't say He will. And then if He'll go out into the audience and begin to move out into the audience and do the very same thing out there, you without prayer cards, as He does here with prayer cards.... You just touch his garment and see if He isn't ... if He isn't the same High Priest. How many would believe it? If you'd see what I've talked about tonight come to pass, raise up your hands all over the building. Now, bow your heads.

Our heavenly Father, this is as far as any man can go, would be claim the Word. Now faith cometh by hearing and hearing of the Word. Here lays people on cots, stretchers, wheelchairs. There's some out there that's dying of heart trouble, cancer. No doubt but there's all kinds of diseases in here. Father God, there may be unbelievers sitting close. There may be unconverted sitting close. If they are, Father, if they see your presence move down to prove that You're the God who made the promises in the midst of us, surely if You'll do that much, we'll believe the redemption story that You did die for our transgressions and with your stripes we were healed. Grant it, Lord. I commit myself, this audience, all into your hands.

And, Father God, I love You for your Word. I love this wonderful audience of people who has listened attentively. They've stood, cramping, their legs are stiff and sore. But hear me, Lord, please.

When this crowd leaves this fairgrounds tonight and starts back to their home....

Lord, one day after You had been crucified and buried, they thought it was all over. You were dead and buried and that was all. There were two men, Cleopas and his friend, was on the road down to Emmaus. Somebody walked with them all day long, speaking to them about the Word of God. They didn't recognize who it was. But when He got in that night, He got them inside the building and closed the door, He did something before them just like He did before He was crucified. They recognized it, because no one else did it that way. They knew that it was Him. And quickly He vanished out of their sight—behind the curtains somewhere and was gone. Light hearted, they run back to tell the rest of the disciples, “Indeed the Lord has risen.”

Will You tonight do the same thing, Lord? Will You come in our midst and perform and do just as You did before You was crucified, that this audience might know that You are their God and their Saviour, and You've been the one that spared them and blessed them? And may they realize.... If You'll do something like You did before your crucifixion, they know that You're not dead but You're alive forevermore, as the Scripture says You are—the same yesterday, today, and forever. If You'll do that, Lord, we'll all return home, saying like they did, “Did not our hearts burn within us as He talked to us along the way?” We ask it in Jesus' name, Amen.

Surely God will help us tonight with an audience like this standing patiently ... [Someone from the audience makes an announcement about a car blocking another brother who needs to get to work, and asks that it be moved.] Thank you. Yes, brother. All right, that's fine. If you'll be so kind. I see someone going out, so I guess the brother will be out all right. Thank you.

I held you so long tonight, but I'm only trying to ... see, if you just jump in, not knowing what you're doing, then what good does it do, see? But I want to get you to a spot to where you can see that it's the Scripture. It's the fulfilling of the Scripture. Now, last night we took the subject where He was Messiah, was to appear in the body of believers in this last day to perform and do the same thing He did then.

Now, I believe we.... Where did ... we started from number one last time, called about fifty. We called just a few out from number one. We just keep calling around among them till we get them all up here.

Let's start tonight somewhere else. Each time, we told you ... I told the minister brothers that we'd start from somewhere each night, the same card, somewhere each night. Let's start, let's say, from eighty. That will be ... eighty, and see if we can.... How many can we stand here? We can stand about fifteen or twenty people perhaps. Who has prayer card 80? Raise up your hand. Prayer card.... And you want Jesus to heal you, raise up your hand, all that don't have a prayer card.

All right. Now, while the ushers are lining them up, now just a minute....

That prayer card hasn't got one thing to do with it. How many has ever been in a meeting before and knows that's true? Raise your hand. Sure, that has not one thing to do with it, not one thing. Now, you sitting out there that hasn't got a prayer card, you just pray and say, “Brother Branham doesn't know me. Lord, he told me a while ago that You were a high priest that could be touched by the feeling of our infirmities. Now, I'm going to touch You. I'm forgetting about Brother Branham standing there, but I'm going to touch You. My faith looks to Thee, Lord. I want to touch You.” Don't get hysterically about it—nothing will happen. Just common, just common faith.... Just say, “Lord, let me touch You.” Then you say, “Then how would I know that I touched you? You have Brother Branham to turn around and tell me, just like when a woman touched You through your Son Jesus. Brother Branham and that minister there are your adopted sons, see. But they're taking the Son's place while He's up there making intercession as the high priest.” He's our elder brother. Did you know that? Sure, and we're God's children, too, by adoption by Him.

Now, if everyone just won't move for a few minutes now.... Just be real quiet for a few minutes. Believe with all your heart. All right.

Now, how many in the building is strangers to me, you know that I don't know a thing about you? Raise up your hands. The entire audience. There's not one person that I can see in this building that I know except my ... I seen my friend Welch Evans here a while ago from Georgia, sitting back up here, way back here. That's him, he and his wife, he and Fred Sothmann (one of the trustees of my church, Jeffersonville, sitting right back out here, somewhere), and Brother and Sister Simpson sitting by him. That's the only people in this building I know outside of Brother Borders, Brother Gene Goad right here; and, well, my friend was here, but he isn't here now. That's all I know, see.

Now, if I do not know you, I would ask this question.... Now, we're taking our time, because if you ever once get it in here, something's going to happen. Now, if Jesus is the same yesterday, today and forever.... Does the Bible say that? Say “Amen.” All right. Now, how many knows that He has already redeemed you from sickness and death? Say “Amen.” Well, He couldn't redeem you again, could He? Now, if He was standing here Himself, He couldn't do one more thing about it than He could [unclear word] through you and I. “He that receives me receives Him that sent me.” He that receives You receives Me.“ Is that right? ”He that receives me receives Him that sent me.“

Now, if you'll just receive the Holy Spirit, the message of it.... I've quoted you the Bible, see, just telling you what He did and what He promised, in a little drama so the little children.... Because I think this little thing sitting here and many other there, little thumb-sucker babies sitting there watching, and my heart burning for them and everything....

Now, if this God who made the Bible, who wrote the Bible.... Do you believe God inspired ... the Bible is inspired, God's Word? Do you believe it? You believe it with all your heart? All right, it's God inspired Word. Then if it's God's inspired Word, then, if the inspiration of God is here with us to make this Word live to prove that He's here, surely you can receive Him. Is that right?

Now, I want to know, you in this prayer line, every one of you that is strangers to me—that I know nothing about you—raise up your hands. That's all strangers. Everybody's strangers. Now, remember, I am not a healer and no other man is a healer. God is the healer. That's right.

Now, if Jesus was standing here now, tonight, right here with this suit on that He gave me, and if He wanted to declare Himself, how would you know it was Him? He'd act the same way He did when He was here on earth. Is that right? He'd do the same things. Then, you would know then that He was the Messiah. I'm not the Messiah. No other man is the Messiah. He is the Messiah, but his Spirit dwells in us, see. It's not us, because I, for myself, now....

Which one? All right.

Now, I don't know the woman. Never seen her in my life. She raised her hand a few minutes ago, said neither one of us knowed each other. Here's my hand—Bible laying open here —I don't know her. I never seen her. You don't know me. Here we are, strangers.

Now, here's a very beautiful picture of St. John 4. Here's a panoramic like the well there, the public well at Samaria. Now, every person in here be ready to receive it, and this would settle it right here. You be ready, you be ready, you, you, all that's around here just be ready, see; because if you can see Him come in and do exactly like that, shows that He's not dead. He's alive here watching his Word. And your little bark's all tossed around, see. Then believe Him. Just accept it. Don't be afraid. He said, “It is I, be not afraid.” Now, remember that, “Be not afraid, it's I.”

Don't be afraid to take Him at his Word. Say, “I believe You, Lord. I'll get well.” Just do that.

“Be not afraid, it's I.”

Now, listen. If this woman and I are perfect strangers and have never seen one another, if I am anointed with the Holy Spirit and could tell her something in her life like Jesus did the woman at the well, whatever it might be that's in her life (we've never seen one another), it has to come through some spiritual power. Is that right? We know that. It would be a miracle. How many know that? A miracle is something that can't be solved out. All right. Then, if it would take place, how many of you would believe it was the Christ, the Holy Ghost, the same. All right, then just receive it. But her and I together never seen one another in our lives.

Now, for the glory of God, in the name of Jesus Christ, I take every spirit in here under my control for the glory of God. Now, be reverent, be in prayer, quietly.

Now, lady, I want to speak to you, just as Jesus did to the woman. Now, you might be here for sickness, you might be here for somebody else, you might ... I don't know, see. It might be finance. You're just a woman standing here. That's the same way that the woman met our Lord. Now, and He talked to her a little while.

Now, you have to take my word for this. I couldn't prove this by the Scripture. But He had need go by Samaria and He said He did nothing till the Father showed Him, so it must have been this way. The Father sent Him up to Samaria. All right. Only thing He knowed to do was go up to Samaria. He thought He'd get alone, so He just sent the disciples away. He waited. A woman come up, so that might be the one. So, He sat there and began to talk to her. What was He doing? Contacting her spirit. Now, if He'd went down there and said, “I am the Messiah, I am the Messiah”.... It'd be better for her to tell it, see. Let Him declare Himself to this woman. God works in mysterious ways. And He told that woman something was in her life.

Well, she said, “You must be a prophet. I know when the Messiah cometh, He'll tell us this.” She said, “He'll do these things.”

Jesus said, “I'm He.”

Now, He promised the same works, and especially in this age.

Now, if you were sick, and I said, “I have the gift of divine healing....” A gift of divine healing is nothing but faith in divine healing. That's all it is—have faith. Everybody has faith in divine healing has a gift of divine healing, because that's all it is. Now, that don't make them a divine healer, no more than it makes a man that believes in salvation a divine saviour, see. It's just he believes in it. I believe in it, too. But I'm not a gifted person like some of the men, like Jack Coe and many of them brethren was, just real.... I guess God deals with them in their ways, and Brother Roberts in his ways, and me with my ways. We just got ministries, that's all.

God set in the church apostles, prophets, teachers, evangelists, pastors [unclear word] and then nine spiritual gifts in the church.

Now you say, “Brother Branham, what are you trying to do?” I'm trying to contact your spirit. Jesus sent me to this city. I was led here.

Now, here's a woman had a number on a prayer card, way up in ... I forget where I called ... fifty or seventy-five or somewhere around, ever where it was. You just happened to be that woman standing there. All right. Now, not knowing one another ... now, what am I trying to do? Contact your spirit. And if the Lord God ... if I said I had a gift of healing, laid my hands on you and say, “Praise the Lord. Hallelujah! You're going to get well,” that would be all right. Go believe that, you'd get well. I believe it. God will honor your faith. But what if He comes and tells you something that you have been, then tells you what you will be? You know what has been—whether it's the truth or not—something that you have done in your life, way back here, or whatever He does, or something on that order. Then it would make the same Messiah. The audience wouldn't think it; they'd believe it and just accept it.

Now, may He grant it.

Now, if the audience can still hear my voice, that pillar of fire that you see on the picture is standing right between me and the woman. I see her; she's moving away. She looks years younger than what she does in person standing close to me. She's moved back to ... she's had some sort of an operation, and that was on her throat. It was a goiter. That's right. If that's right, raise up your hand. All right. Now, do you believe with all your heart? Now, let's just talk to the woman just a little bit longer, see, just a little longer, see, so that you.... The people thinks, “You guessed it.” See what else He'll say.

Yes, I see her now, again. It's a surgery on the throat. That's been quite a while ago, and the thing's come back again. You got it again. That is right. But, see, he's hid from the doctor, but he can't hide from God. God knows right where he's at. It's a life, the multiplication of cells growing, smothering, just like you was a little baby in the womb of your mother growing. But this has no form; it's just spreading out. It's a devil, choking spirit, that's right.

That you might know, there sits a woman sitting right there, throat trouble too. That's right. What did you touch? I don't know you, do I? Never seen you in my life. But that's what you're suffering with. See, I could feel that one spirit calling to the other one, like that, across, see, like that—just crossed up. If the Holy Spirit would tell me who you are, would it help you? Would it help the audience? Miss Harrison, you can go home and be well. Your faith saves you.

Is Jesus Christ the same yesterday, today and forever? Now, here was a woman standing here with a prayer card; that one sitting out there in the audience, see. Now, it's totally impossible for me to do that. You say, “Brother Branham, tell me.” I can't do it. I don't know. You just touch Him and find out. That woman sitting there was praying, and that spirit.... Then you start praying and see what happens. You just believe it. Don't you doubt it. You believe it with all your heart and just see what happens. Have faith.

We are strangers to one another. We were born probably years apart. But if the Lord God will reveal to me something in your heart that you might know that it is ... it's his Word, that this message that I have preached tonight, that's his Word. And if that dwells in my heart then the Word of God is a discerner of the thoughts and the intents of the heart. Is that right? Just like it was when it was made flesh in the Son of God, it's the same thing in our flesh, today, the church.

So, I couldn't do it by myself; it takes you to do it, too. Takes them out there. It takes somebody else out there to have the same anointing, see. It'll work; but maybe they might not be able to speak it out, because this is a gift, see. And I was born ... gifts and callings are without repentance. I was just a little bitty baby boy, the same thing that happened right along, all down through life [unclear word].

You're sick, because you've been consulting a doctor about something. Right. And that's throat trouble, also. And now here's the analysis of it. You be the judge. It's in the voice box, and it's a ulcer inside the voice box. It was; it isn't now. Have faith, just have faith.

We are strangers to one another, lady. I don't know you. If God will reveal to me what you're here for, you believe me to be his prophet, or his servant? You will? It's a hernia. Had some trouble, haven't you? But the surgeon ... operation, kind of a question on cancer. Now, it's come to a hernia. That's true. Do you believe that He heals you? Then go on. God will make it well. God bless you.

Have faith. Do you believe? Out in the audience there, just be real reverent. I don't care where you are, I ask you as your brother, in the name of Jesus Christ, to believe this to be the truth. Watch what happens. Just pray and say, “Lord, let me touch You.” See what happens. I believe.

Now, it makes me so weak, just so weak. How many would understand that? Sure. If the Son of God.... Just one person touched Him, and He said strength went out of Him. What about me, a sinner saved by grace? But it declares He's here. It declares his presence. He's here. Do you believe that ... you standing up, all around, do you believe it? Just have faith and believe it. Now, when I get about three of these, you let me know, so.... I got other meetings coming.

I'm a stranger to you. I do not know you. But do you believe me to be his servant? If you were standing here, and our Lord was here in a physical form.... He's here spiritually, because it's the Holy Spirit that come down on Him like a dove. And now, it comes on us like a fire. You are a believer. I don't mean a hitchhiker; I mean a believer. Then do you believe me to be his servant? If I will be able to tell you by the Spirit of God what you're here for, you'll believe? Sinus. That's a terrific thing. If that's right, raise up your hand. That's right. But that's not all that's on your heart. You got something else on your heart you want me to tell you about. He's got an ulcer on the legs. Take that handkerchief that you wipe your tears with and put on, and the ulcer will leave him. Go believing.

How do you do, sir? We are strangers to one another. I have never seen you before, and we are strangers to each other. But the God of heaven who raised up his Son, Jesus Christ—who ascended on high and sent gifts back to men, and He set in the church apostles (which means missionary), prophets (that means seer), pastors, evangelists, so forth, He still remains to be God. If God will reveal to me what your trouble is, will you receive me as his prophet, or his servant? Will you do that? All right. Will the audience do the same thing? (Is this three yet? Well, just ... we got this one here.) Something strange about the man, I can't make it out. Let the Holy Spirit reveal it as I speak with him. I hope my voice is loud enough you can hear it.

It goes beyond ... now, here it comes to the man. The man's in a terrible condition. He's at the hour of death almost. He's shadowed for death with a cancer. And the cancer's in his throat. That is right. You smoking cigarettes. That's hard on the throat. Will you quit them? Give it up? Another thing, you're not a Christian; you're a sinner. Will you accept Him as your Saviour for your soul? The apostle Peter came. He was a sinner too. If God can reveal to me your name and tell me your name like He did the apostle Peter, will you believe that it's the Christ of God who loves you and saves you now? You'll take my word that your sins are forgiven? You will? Mr. Davidson, then you go home and get well. Have faith in God.

I keep feeling something come in out there from somewhere—you think I'm reading your mind. I'm not.

Here, just touch my hand, lady. If I will look this way and tell you what's your trouble, you'll know whether it's right or not. Is that right? Then your cancer will leave if you'll believe it. Will you believe it? Raise up your hand if that's so. Then go, have faith.

Come, lady. Will you believe, lady? If God will reveal to me, looking this way, what's your trouble, will you believe me to be his prophet, or his servant? You believe me to be his.... Thank you. Then go eat your supper, that stomach condition has left you.

If I tell you before the lady comes, she has the same thing.... Got a nervous stomach. You've had it for a long time. Go eat. Have faith.

Do you believe, with heart trouble, you sitting there? Then go, praise the Lord. Don't doubt.

Heart trouble; God will heal that heart trouble. Go believe, with all your heart. God heals arthritis, too. Do you know that? Then go believe. Do you believe God can heal your asthma and make you well? Go rejoicing. Do you believe God can heal your diabetes and make you well? Keep on going. If that other lady can be healed of asthma, a young girl like you can be healed, couldn't you? Don't doubt, have faith.

Do you believe it?

The whole audience is becoming milky like [unclear word]. That man sitting over on the right, sitting there, looking at me.... I caught it a few minutes ago when the lady had.... Believe, your faith saves you. Go repent.

Do you believe with all your heart? Do you believe God will heal that diabetes? You started to get up a while ago; I could have told you then. Don't worry, it's over.

What about you sitting next to him, there. That bless you, too? The man sitting next to you. Do you believe God will heal that high blood pressure and make you well? All right.

The lady sitting next to him has diabetes too. You believe He'll make you well? What about the man sitting in the uniform? Do you believe you'll get well? Come here. In the name of the Lord Jesus, go be healed.

You're trying to get a hold of yourself. Everybody's telling you that anyhow, but nervousness is a terrible thing. You're always afraid to put your foot ... because it starts from right there. Is that right? You're on the spot now. Your nervousness is gone.

Do you believe with all your heart?

Some of you out there pray, believe. Here. Here's a woman sitting before me. She's praying, but she's not praying for herself. She's praying for her mother, a mother in an insane institution. You wondered if I was going to get you, wasn't you? You was the one had the contact, because you was praying for your mother. Raise up your hand, woman sitting here, sure. I challenge you to believe it. I challenge you to believe it any way you want to. Do you believe it?

How many else in here... ? How many in here don't know Jesus as their saviour, would like to know Him right now as your saviour? Raise up your hand. You don't to know Him as your saviour. Stand up on your feet. You don't know Him as your saviour, right now, while He's present, stand on your feet, everywhere in the building. Stand on your feet.

You know He's present, don't you? I'm coming [unclear words] this altar. Jesus Christ, God's Son, is here to forgive you of every sin. Would you accept Him? Not what you feel; but upon the basis that He died for you, and you know that you're in his presence now, and you believe that He died for you and you want Him to be your saviour—will accept Him upon those grounds? Raise up your hands to Him.

Heavenly Father, You said in the Word that “no man can come to me except my Father draws him first.” And these people in their spirits know that they are wrong, and so they've accepted You as their saviour. I pray, Father, that You'll grant that to them right now. They've accepted You. You said, “He that comes to me I will in nowise cast out. Come unto me all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I'll give you rest.” You said in St. John 5:24: “He that heareth my words and believeth on him that sent me has everlasting life, and shall not come to the judgment but is passed from death to life.” They're yours, Father. They're the tokens of this meeting.

With your heads bowed.... If you believe that God hears my prayer, I want you to walk up here. You come right out of the aisle. You that raised your hand, come up here and stand here, right up around the altar. Move right down this way, just a minute, every one that wants Christ, right now come right down here.

..............................

But that thy blood was shed for me,

And that Thou bidd'st me come to Thee,

O Lamb of God, I come, I come.

Every church member that doesn't know Christ as your saviour and you want to know Him, why would you turn Him away right now, when we see that He's right here, present? If God hears my prayer, and opens the eyes of the blind, makes the lame to walk, He's here; He'll forgive your sins, too.

If He knows your heart and tells you on the platform what's wrong, He tells me out there there's still more that ought to come. He's speaking to you, I don't have to call you—because I'm getting so weak I can't hardly stand here. Come right quick, will you, so I won't have to wait any longer? Come, right now.

Just as I am and waiting not

To rid my soul of one dark blot.

To Thee whose blood can cleanse each spot,

O Lamb of God, I come, I come.

Just as I am, Thou wilt receive,

Wilt welcome, pardon, cleanse, relieve;

Because Thy promise I believe,

O Lamb (come, my brother; come, my sister)

I come, I come.

Just as I am, Thou wilt receive,

Wilt welcome, pardon...........

Come everyone, come now. If you're not too sure, come now. He's right here at the platform. Before God, I tell the truth: that pillar of fire, that angel of God, who knows the heart of every man, is right here now.

Lamb of God (You'll never be any closer

until you see Him coming.) I come.

(If there's any question in your heart,

come now.)

Just as I am and waiting not,

To rid my soul of one dark blot.

To Thee whose blood can cleanse each

... (Have you been prayed for?)

O Lamb....................

................. wilt receive

Wilt welcome ... (Come on, little lady.)