Perseverant

Let's just remain standing just a moment for prayer as.... Before we go to prayer, is there any requests you'd like to make known by just raise up your hand? I'm sure He'll understand what's beneath your hand. May God grant it. Let us bow our hearts now before Him.

Our heavenly Father, we approach Thee again tonight in the name of the Lord Jesus, to give thanks and praise for all that we have seen and heard through the day, and for our health and strength, for being alive and on earth, and assembled here tonight in worship to Thee.

And now may the great Holy Ghost come among us tonight, Lord, and just work miracles and wonders. And we pray that You'll do for us like You did those at Emmaus that night, that when we leave here tonight may we go home saying, “Did not our hearts burn within us as he talked to us along the way?” Grant it, Father. Bless the reading of the Word and the text and the context. And we commit ourselves to Thee, Lord, with thy Word. Use us as You see fit. We ask it in Jesus' name. Amen. The Lord bless you.

We deem this a most grand privilege tonight, to be assembled here with you again in prayer. We've had a wonderful day. And I get just a little hoarse. I preach all the time, and so I'm ... kind of stay stirred up a little bit in the throat. But we had a grand meeting this morning at the fellowship, the Businessmen's Fellowship meeting at Clifton's Cafeteria. Had such a grand time. We always have it up there at Clifton's. It holds many memories for me. And I'm....

If that lady's here that paid for my breakfast this morning, sister, I want to thank you. I didn't even know the woman. She come in and went around ahead of me. And she set some rhubarb over there, so she knew I was a country boy, so she give me some rhubarb. And then when I went out, the waitress said ... the cashier said, “That lady just paid for your dinner ... or your breakfast.” I didn't know who she was. And if she's here, I sure want to thank her.

Yes, we have a great time there at Clifton's of a morning, and the Lord has did some great things. Brother Victor Deuc (I know I'm not pronouncing that right), LeDeux.... That's where that prophecy came forth from Danny Henry (I got it in my Bible here), which was a great thing. When Danny Henry, I ... just come up to lay his arms around me to pray with me and (after the service) and he spoke in French. And the interpreter of the U.N. happened to be in the building, and interpreted. And it was just exactly the thing that I was seeking from God. And so ... many things.

And I remember one thing. This is kind of good for you sisters, you know. I was standing waiting for Brother Arganbright, my precious brother in the Full Gospel Businessmen's chapter there, and he was coming in. And I'd never seen any of this here new stuff that the women wear on their face. And I seen a woman come up there that had green eyes, and red all around and over her face. And I thought, “That poor woman!” I looked back, and I thought.... I'm a missionary, and I've seen pellagra and I've seen leprosy, but I didn't know what was wrong with her. And I kept standing, looking, and I thought, “You know, I believe I'll go over and tell the poor woman....” I was going to go over and say, “Sister, excuse me. I pray for the sick. If there's anything I can do to help you, let me know.”

And here come another woman up, the same way. I said, “It must be ... maybe they got some kind of a show on, you know, or something another they're putting on.” Clowns, you know, how they paint, you know, and look like that. And ordinarily I wouldn't think a human being would want to disfigure themselves like that, a pretty woman would want to look like that.

And then they had that ... great big waterhead haircuts, you know, and kind of a ... it was the awfullest looking.... A pretty girl standing there, and mess her.... Well, what it is, it's that first lady idea, you know. And you know, Jezebel was the first lady of Palestine one time, too. So be careful what you pattern yourself after, see. Don't try and.... Try to look like God said. Let your hair grow out. That's what God said do.

Today after our meetings in Phoenix there was a little lady came up, and said, “Brother Branham, since the meetings,” said, “I let my hair grow.”

I said, “You're not far from the kingdom now.”

She said, “My sister had a wheelbarrow full of these shorts, and things. She was going to throw them in the garbage can, and the next sister come along and got them.” And said she ... said was finished with those things.

So I said, “That's all right. I believe the church will come back on its feet someday. If it keeps going like that, it'll get all right.”

I met a man not long ago that said, “Why don't you leave off of those women?”

I said, “Well, I don't know.”

He said, “People regard you as a prophet.”

I said, “I'm not.”

He said, “But they regard you as that. Why don't you teach them deep things, how to receive deep spiritual gifts?”

I said, “How can I teach them algebra when they won't even know their ABC's?” You know what ABC stands for, don't you? Always Believe Christ. That's right. That's the first ABC's. Let them learn how to do that, and then we'll teach something a little different, you know. And so, when we get that, why, we're coming pretty close to the kingdom.

Now, it's been a great day. I had a great time here last night.

Say, you know.... Did you try some of that toxin? It's all right, isn't it? You know, Peter told them how to be inoculated. And you know they acted funny, but they sure was inoculated, that was one thing.

We used to.... When we'd brand calves, you know, we'd take the branding iron, and slap it on them like that, and my! you talk about bellowing, and hollering! But he knowed where he belonged after that, that was one thing about it. That's the way the Holy Spirit is. It might make you holler a little bit, but you know where you're at after that. That's right. You're a thoroughbred from then on.

Anything I don't like is a cross breeding. I preached on that some time ago, and always said one of the awfullest things is a mule. That fellow don't know what papa and mama is. He don't know where he come from; he sure ain't going nowhere, 'cause he.... See, his mama a horse, and his papa a donkey, and he's a.... That proves science ... when they think that men kept getting greater ... and inter-breeding, and so forth, from animal life coming up....

Why, first time you cross the seed, it stops it right there. It can't go no further. You can hybrid corn, but you can't plant that hybrid corn back again. It won't grow. So you see, they just done found the thing condemned their own theory. So you cannot do that.

So.... But a mule—he's dumb. You know, you can just talk to him, and he'll wait all of his life to just kick you before he dies. And he ... you can tell him.... You can't teach him nothing; he's hard headed. You can try to be gentle to him, and he'll stick his ears out, you know, and holler, “Hawnk, days of miracles is past. Hawnk, there's no such a thing as that,” you know—just braying!

But a good thoroughbred, pedigreed horse you can just teach him anything. He knows who his pappy is, who his mammy is, who his great-grandfather and great-grandmother. He knows the history all the way back. And so is it with a good pedigreed Christian that's borned of the Holy Ghost. He don't have to say, “I was Methodist, Baptist; and I had to change to Presbyterian, Lutheran.” He was born by the Holy Ghost into the family of God, and the pedigree runs plumb to Pentecost with it. Hallelujah! Amen. I like that inoculation.

I was amazed at Sister Shakarian. Are you here, Sister Shakarian? Sister Demos Shakarian. This morning she was telling in the meeting.... At Phoenix we was having the banquet, the dinner ... banquet, or whatever you call it.... I get that all mixed up all the time. I used to have breakfast, and dinner, and supper. And now they got that dinner set up here for supper; and if I call that dinner, then what happens to my supper? I just can't ... I can't get the thing straightened out somehow, see. And it's just breakfast, dinner, and supper at our house. So, and that's all right. You know, you don't take the Lord's dinner. You take his supper. Isn't that right? So we're right on that, brother, whoever said “Amen” to that.

But we were having that banquet that night, and happened to be.... You have no control of what the Holy Spirit is going to do, see. You don't control Him; He controls you, see. When anybody goes in and says, “Now, you, so-and-so,” you don't know what He's going to do. You just have to wait. Then I remember, the Holy Spirit came down. And on that discernment, it's just like dropping into a gear. And the people don't realize it, but they are the one that's doing that. It's not me. It's their own faith.

I might try to give just a short moment or two of explanation of it, or try to explain it. You can't explain God, because you've just got to believe God. If you can explain Him, then you can no more accept it by faith, see; because you know all about it if you can explain it, but we accept God by faith.

But you see, in Christ dwelt the fullness of the Godhead bodily. Now he was God. We are a portion of that Spirit. It was give to us by measure; Him without measure. But if I took a spoonful of water, or a cupful of water, out of the ocean out here, it would be the same chemicals in that water ... would be in the entire ocean.

So that's the way the Holy Spirit is. When it's in us, it's not as great, but it's in a ... it's just the same Spirit, does the same things.

Then you notice one time when our Lord.... He said He did nothing till the Father showed Him first. And He had a friend named Lazarus, and He ... living with this friend. And the friend was going to get sick so the Father must have called Him away, and give Him a vision to leave.

He waited so many days. They sent for Him, He never went. He just kept on going. Then after the appropriate time was that the Father had showed Him would take for Lazarus to die, He said, “Lazarus is dead, and for your sake I'm glad I wasn't there. But I go wake him.”

And so, when He come to Martha and them ... we know the story. And then, when He raised up this dead man, He never said nothing about being weak. That was God using his gift.

But then, a little woman pressed through a crowd and touched the border of his garment, and He turned around—not knowing who it was—He said, “Who touched me?” And Peter rebuked Him, said, “Lord [in other words, he might have said this], why, that sounds very unusual for you to say that, when everybody's touching you.”

He said, “But I perceive that I have gotten weak.” And He looked all around till He found the woman, and He told her that her blood issue ... that her faith had saved her. Her faith—not his prayer, his faith; but her faith. That was her touching God through Him. That weakened Him. That was the woman using God's gift.

But when God used his own gift, He never said nothing about it, see, being weak.

Well, that's the same thing it is in meetings. It's people does that. If you don't believe it, it'll never work. It's your faith that does it. And therefore, that's what causes the things to happen in the audiences the way it does.

And that night while we was at the banquet, the Holy Spirit began to move across the audience and talk to different people, and tell them. And I noticed behind me there was a elderly woman standing this way. Just like looking into a television screen watching it happen—then just tell what you're looking at. Just the same thing, if you're looking at something, just like you was asleep and dreamed it; only you're not asleep, you're just looking at it. It's another dimension. And you go way back down what has been, and way out to what will be. That's God doing that.

Then, I noticed behind me, and it looked like it was coming from over in the corner, like where the lady was sitting there. And I looked back that way, and it was Sister Shakarian. And I thought, “That isn't her.” And I looked back, and here was the lady standing there. And I seen a cataract moving over her eye. And I looked back again, and it wasn't .... I knew it was too old for Sister Shakarian. It had no favorance at all. I thought, “If I speak to her, then the vision will come, if she's praying for someone.”

And what it was: this famous heart specialist from the West Coast here, which is Brother Shakarian's doctor, they had him there in the meeting. He's a Seventh Day Adventist by religion, by denomination. And Mrs. Shakarian was praying hard that something would take place, that the doctor would be able to be convinced that it was God. And he was her mother's doctor, that had found this cataract covering over her eye.

And there sat the doctor sitting along there, and Mrs. Shakarian over here at the ... where she was behind me; and there was no one else behind Mrs. Shakarian. And she was sitting there praying, “Lord, let something happen, now while the discernment is going on, that'll convince this doctor, that he might receive the Holy Ghost. He's such a great man.” And so he ... it said, “Mrs. Shakarian, you are praying for your mother, and a cataract is coming over her eye and she's going blind. But,” said, “I see a white mist moving from your mother now, going away. Thus saith the Lord, the cataract will leave.”

And she called her mother, and told her the next day. Within a few days, every speck of the cataract was gone. Her mother was normal and well. And the doctor that examined the woman, and found the cataract over her eye, examined again, and the cataract was gone. So it was....

So it goes to show that our God is still God. He's just.... And aren't we happy tonight to know that we have a heavenly Father who can move cataracts, move diseases? He's just God, that's all. So we're going to speak to Him in a few moments before we read his Word, being that we've been talking the way we have.

And then speak tonight. And now, tomorrow afternoon is the service, so all of our brethren and everybody can go back to their church. Now, in the morning.... There's several churches here represented, this ... my sponsorship of this meeting. Now these men believes in this type of ministry, or they wouldn't be sponsoring me and sitting here by me. And every visitor here that doesn't have their own church here, somewhere that they're attending, why don't you find one of these brethren here (I guess they told where they were from), and attend their services in the morning? I'm sure they'll do you good.

And it's my sincere desire that somewhere between here and tomorrow afternoon, there'll break out an old-fashioned revival among these churches here that will just be glorious and ... for this last day. We're trying to sow the seed, that when the Holy Spirit does fall, it'll fall on the right thing—it'll bring forth the right kind of a crop, as we're looking for these last days.

Then tomorrow afternoon is our closing services here. And then we begin up at (I think it's called Santa Maria, isn't it?) Santa Maria. And then we go from there to Grass Valley, and then.... And then, so on and on, and on up.

So then, if the Lord willing, I'm to be in.... Brother Williams, are you here? He was ... he.... About Brother Williams, yeah, Brother Williams is trying.... Said he had all Phoenix praying for me, that instead of going over in Tanganyika, and Kenya, and Uganda, and down through South Africa this coming January, February, March, and April, he was going to pray that we'd be over in Phoenix. And Brother Carl, I'll just go the way He leads me. You know that. The Lord bless you. Thank you very much for that sincerity.

And I hope now, tomorrow afternoon that everyone comes out, and we have a great rally tomorrow evening. I'll try to preach a little, if my voice is able, and we're expecting a great time tomorrow.

Now, I would like to read some of the precious Word here. And I want you to turn, if you're keeping tab (as we'd call it in the South) of the text that we're reading. I would like ... I've got some notes wrote down here, some scriptures. I'd like to teach just a little bit tonight on a subject found in St. Matthew, the 15th chapter. And let's begin with the 21st verse. St. Matthew, 15th chapter, and beginning with verse 21:

Then Jesus went thence, and departed into the coasts of Tyre and Sidon.

And, behold, a woman of Canaan came out of the same coasts, and cried unto him, saying, Have mercy on me, O Lord, thou Son of David; my daughter is grievously vexed with a devil.

But he answered her not a word. And his disciples came and besought him, saying, Send her away; for she crieth after us.

But he answered and said, I am not sent but unto the lost sheep of the house of Israel.

Then came she and worshipped him, and saying, Lord, help me.

But he answered and said, It is not meet to take the children's bread, and to cast it to dogs.

And she said, Truth, Lord: yet the dogs eat ... the crumbs which fall from their masters' table.

Then Jesus answered and said unto her, O woman, great is thy faith: be it unto her even as thou wilt. And her daughter was made whole from that very hour.

If it would be called a text, I would like to take one word for a text, and that is the word “perseverance.” Perseverance, Webster says is to be persistent, persistent in making a goal, to do something. To be perseverant is to persist. And before you can be persistent you have to have an idea what you're being persistent about.

And men through all ages that's ever tried to achieve something has been persistent. Men, in order to be persistent (I might quote again), is to know what you are after. And if you do not know, you're not certain of your standing. But when you thoroughly understand what it is, what you're after, and are satisfied you're going to do it, then you can be persistent—get really persistent, holding on.

I like the approach. I like people that's persistent when they are.... Realize, no matter if the man is wrong, but yet he believes that he's right. But now, when he gets to a place he's proven wrong, then to try to be per ... he cannot be persistent then, because he's done proven wrong. But when he is right, and then'll hold on to it....

I'm thinking of, tonight, of the great first president of this great nation that we so appreciate tonight, this great United States of America: George Washington, great man of faith, a man of prayer, a persistent man, very perseverant. And he knew what he was after. One night he prayed almost all night long, when it seemed like the odds was against him. And he prayed till they said his body was almost wet all over from kneeling in the snow—until he got an answer from God.

And the next morning, with half of his army with not even shoes on their feet.... Them was American soldiers with no shoes on, their feet wrapped in rags. The Delaware froze over in ice gorges. He was persistent that he could cross the Delaware, for he had heard from God. No matter what the opposition was, he had heard from God. Though three musket bullets went through his coat, nothing touched him. Why? He was persistent because he knew he was right, and his achievement that he was expecting was for the right thing.

No matter what condition those men was in, how cold their feet was, he could be persistent because he knowed he was trying to achieve something to help somebody else. And he had prayed till he'd heard from God. And he crossed the Delaware in the time of the ice floe.

I might call your attention for a few minutes to another man that could be persistent. And anybody can when you know what you're talking about. When a person doesn't know what they're talking about, then they don't know which way to go. That's the reason I think that if Christianity and your eternal destination depends on your faith in God, you'd better know whether you're right or not.

Noah, a great character—I'd like to speak of him for a few moments. He came from the lineage of Seth. If you notice, the lineage of Ham's children were all great masterpieces. They were scientists, great men, scholars, inventors, and great men that come through Cain. But through the other side came.... Seth's children were sheepherders, peasants, but real religious, that served the Lord and believed on Him.

And one day while Noah, perhaps a farmer out in the field.... The world had got wicked like it is today, till every intention of a man's heart was evil, and it even grieved God that he ever made a man. And God spoke to this humble farmer, and told him that He was going to destroy the world with water. Now, it had never rained.

Now, what a message that was for a scientific age! And when.... They claim now, that our science today will not compare with them of that day. They built pyramids. We couldn't do that today. We have no power to lift those rocks up there. And they had ... they could embalm a body that looks natural up to this day. We don't have that embalming secret that they did then, to make mummies. Coloring, and many things that they had then that we don't have now, and what a scientific age!

Could you imagine a man going up there, taking his family and building an ark, and saying that it's going to rain waters down out of the heaven, when there had never been a drop of water fall from the skies? Could you imagine the laughs, and scoffs, that came to that man in that day? How that the scientists would .... Science would come and say, “Looky here. We got an instrument we can shoot plumb to the moon and stars. And there's not any water up there. Where is it coming from? How's it going to be there? Show me where it's at.” The Word of God didn't stand up to their scientific quota. Neither does it today; but we believe it anyhow.

And Noah was persistent, very perseverant. I can imagine them taking the doctors, and bringing him before psychiatrists to find out what's the matter with the old man's mind. But it wasn't his mind; it was in his heart. And he had the Word of the Lord, and he knew that it was God.

And I can hear Noah say, “If there is no water up there, and God said it was going to rain water from up there, God's able to put water up there.” And his story held for 120 years, while he built away on the ark, very persistent. In the time of scoffers no one listened to him, but laughed and made fun of him wherever he went. But still, he held right on because he knowed it was the word of the Lord. He was positive of it.

I can imagine, when his street meetings come off, how that they laughed. Oh, they were religious then, remember—very religious. So was Cain, and he built an altar as much as Abel did. If religion is all God requires, he was cruel to condemn Cain, 'cause Cain done every religious act that Abel did. But he come in the wrong way. “There is a way that seemeth right, but the end thereof is death.”

But now, you've got to be sure that you're right. So we just can't gamble on this. There's no need of doing it. Christ has left the pattern so plain till we.... He said even a fool shouldn't err. You know whether it's right or not. And then, when you're positive you're right, Scripturally right, then you can stand there because ... and be very persistent with it.

Now, Noah, and his preaching—how that it must have been someone said, “That old man up there is still hammering away on a boat.” And they believed that any old boat would do, if it did come a rain, whether it was God-constructed or not. That's the way they think today. Any old church'll do, any old religious idea. Go join this; you don't like it, and they don't last there, go over to the next one, next one—any of them will do.

But God's got a constructed church that's built on the rock, Christ Jesus. And “all other grounds is sinking sand,” said Eddie Pruitt [Perronet]. That's right. “Upon this rock I'll build my church.”

The Catholic church said it was upon Peter. He backslid after that. The Protestant said it was upon Jesus. I differ with you.

He said, “Flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father which is in heaven has revealed this to you.” Then it was upon the rock of spiritual revelation of the Word. That's right. The same thing Abel had, how it was revealed to him. Instead of offering fruit like Cain did, he offered blood, for it was revealed to him. The whole church of God is built upon the spiritual revelation of Christ—who He is, what He is, and all about Him.

And now we find out that Noah stayed right with his subject. And I can imagine God one day got enough of their laughing and scoffing at Noah. You know, God can just go ... stand so much, and then his patience runs out. So He got enough of it, and He was going to do something about it.

And He said to Noah, “Go up there. And you see the animals going in the ark? You go right in after all the animals are in, and the door'll close behind you.”

And that morning the animals started coming in two-by-two. And I can imagine all the scoffers standing around saying, “Now, go on up there and live with your stinking animals. Get in there and shut the door with all the stink, and so forth, with those animals.”

That's the way they try to say it again today. But the man who knows what the ark is, no matter how much ridiculing is done about it, how much it's condemned or all about it, the man knows that he's led by God. That's right. Noah marched into the ark, and God's great mighty hand closed the door behind him.

Now I can imagine that, them seeing that, there was some people might've kind of been a borderline believer, said, “You know what? That old man could have been right.” Just the kind that hangs around the meeting, you know, and comes to every meeting. And said, “The old man....” But never willing to come in, never willing to accept it.

Then, like Hebrews 6 said, and like in the borderline believers of the Old Testament—just always watching, and looking around, and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth—here come these people, and stood around. “Well, if it starts falling waters out of there, we'll go up and knock on the door. And that is a good-hearted old man. He'll open the door and let us in. So, we'll stick around, and find out if the rain comes.”

I can imagine Noah climbing through the first floor, went up to the second floor, and went up to the third floor (come up through the Lutheran age, back to the Wesley age) and went to where the door was open in the top, where the light was—into the baptism of the Holy Spirit in the upper room, up high where the light come down. And of course, there was more light on the second floor than there would've been on the first floor. And that's the way it's come, always.

Now we find out up there.... I imagine Noah had gathered his family around, and said, “Now, when day breaks in the morning there'll be darkness all over the skies, and there'll be great rain falling, and the people will know then that I have prophesied the truth.” But you know, after you have followed every instruction.... Here's where I want you to look. After you've followed every instruction, then if something happens that it doesn't come out right, many give up. That shows they did not believe what they professed they was saying.

God tries his children. Now listen to the message. Noah, on the seventeenth day of February, according to the Word of God, entered that ark. And the next morning all of them was around expecting to see the rain start falling, but the sun come up just exactly like it always did. “Just a couple more hours, and it'll start. The rain'll start.”

The day passed, and I'd imagine Noah's heart begin to flutter. I could say something right here, but I'd better not. But you notice, he couldn't get out if he wanted to. He was sealed inside. “Grieve not the Holy Spirit of God whereby you are sealed until the day of your redemption.” God sealed the door behind him. And Noah sat there, and the night went past.

And the days, the onlookers'd come up and said, “Well, sure. Those scientists was right. That old man didn't know what he was talking about. It's not raining. And there the old fellow is in there locked up in that big old boat.”

Oh, what a great thing to be locked up with Christ! That's a real lesson. And the door was sealed behind him. He couldn't open it. Only the hand of God could open it.

Now, and the second day passed, and the third day, fourth, fifth, sixth, till a complete week passed. Noah sat and sweated it out.

Then, what lesson do we get from that? If God .... What if Mrs. Shakarian would have said...? When the Holy Spirit spoke, “Thus saith the Lord, there's a white mist going from her. The cataract will leave,” and it never left for about two or three weeks. But she kept sitting there saying, “It's got to be so. It has to be so.” God lets you sweat it out sometimes. But you must be persistent, perseverant, no matter how you feel, what you think, or nothing about it. Just hold on. If you really believe it, you will hold on. Stay right with your convictions. God promised it, and you feel it anchored in your heart, stay there.

Then, on the last day of the week, Noah woke up that morning, I suppose, clouds was all hanging around. They looked out through the upper window. Now, it wasn't on the side of the ark. God don't want him to look down this way; wanted him to look up that way. So it was in top of the ark. And as he begin to look, the clouds was hanging over, lightning was a-roaring, and the people begin to run up towards the ark. The streets begin to fill with great big drops of water. The sewers all filled up. Why, they thought they could pump it out, if some overflow come. But you see.... They got some boats out. But if it wasn't God-constructed, it sank. Nothing floated but the ark.

And you know the ark was made out of shittim wood. And if you ever know what that was, it's lighter than balsam. It's nothing.... It's just like a sponge, so light you could pick up a great big beam of it and hold it in one hand. And wouldn't it seem strange that God would construct his ark out of such a thing as that? [blank spot] ... and pour it into this to fill up the pores. And then it become harder than steel.

And that's the way we have to do, is empty out every creed, every thing that's in us, and every nonsense, and every ungodly unbelief; that the Holy Spirit might fill us, and seal every pore of our believing, every pore of our minds—until you won't notice whether it's your neighbor, or who it is sitting around you. You're sealed into the kingdom of God. Then you can stand the buffet of the waves as you go through a persecution.

Then the waters begin to climb up the hill, and the people begin to scream and knock on the door. But Noah couldn't even hear them. He was sitting way up in top of the building. And they perished. Every thing that breathed breath of air on the earth perished with.... And the very thing that killed the unbelieving world saved Noah.

That's the same as it is today. The stumbling block, the Holy Spirit, that's making the world where they don't want it, the things that they are turning down is the very thing that'll take the church up. The Holy Spirit will take the church in the rapture.

Noah was persistent because he knew God had spoke to him. No matter how long it took, or how many years, or whatever it was, he held on because he knew it was the program of God.

Moses, the runaway prophet, with all the intellectual conception that anyone could have, he was so smart till he could teach the Egyptians. And he tried to put over the program of God with his intellectual conception, and it did not work. And it won't work today. That's right. We are going at it in the wrong way, church in whole. We're trying to organize some kind of a program.

You hear the revival is cooling off. It's down to just a smolder. What's the matter? It's because we got our man-made programs into it. All they're concerned about today is, seems like, is joining church, bringing in new members, building some big buildings, supporting some radio program, or something like that.

We've lost that interest, really, of souls—that soul-travail that the Christian ought to have. We seem to lose it. I'm not talking about the real Christians. I'm talking about so many that profess to be Christians. Now, all you hear today is some big something, and people going into expenses of millions of dollars for great things. And then preaching that the Lord is coming in this generation? Why, the sinner on the street knows you don't believe it, or, your actions speak louder than your words when you do that. Certainly.

We ought to be from house to house, from place to place, preaching, and crying, and begging, and persuading, trying to get every soul in the kingdom of God we can—sending missionaries east, west, north, and south, and everything we can do, to get the people saved.

Now we find today, it's so much on decisions. You hear that all the time—making a decision. I want.... Decisions are confessions, confessions are stones. What good does it do to pile up a bunch of stones, if you haven't got a stonecutter there who can shape them in by the sharp two-edged sword of God into sons and daughters of God? Let them run around here with all kinds of women dressed like a skinned-down wiener, and call themselves Christians; and men letting them do it, and then calling themselves servants of Christ? And the church in the lukewarm formal condition that it's in, a form of godliness but denying the power thereof, and calling decisions?

We need stones cut into sons and daughters of God. What good does it do to roll up the stones if you're not going to have them cut? They've got to be cut and fit into the program of God, by gifts and callings, and placed into the church as they should be, must be.

Noah ... Moses and his intellectual conception failed just like the church in whole has today. The people go right on living. They come in, make a confession, put their name on. It's a letter, it's a letter. Bring your letter from here to there. It's not a letter; it's a birth! Get born again, and then you belong up there.

Notice. But Noah, as persistent as he was.... He had heard God. And one day this runaway prophet, back on the backside of the desert, he really come on them sacred sands, to where every minister ought to come. No matter how many doctor's degrees he's got, a professor of college, or whatever he may be, he has no business behind the pulpit until first he's taught on them sacred sands between him and God alone; that he's got an experience with God that no scientist in the world can ever hammer away from him.

They can take that Word and cut it any way they want to. The devil uses the Word. He proved it. He uses the Word to cut his own program out. But when a man has once been back there on them sacred sands, where nothing but you and God alone can stand, all the scientists in the world couldn't take it away from you, because you were there, and you met God, and you know what happened. No man....

Jesus wouldn't let them preach until they went up to Jerusalem and was to receive the Holy Ghost before they went preaching any more. That's the experience.

When Moses got that experience of that burning bush.... Persistent? Why, one little error, and he run out of Egypt. And notice, out of the will of God he went down there and killed one man, and it was held against him. And then, God went down with him and killed the whole nation, and it was a glory. That was the difference.

Now. Moses.... Sometimes when you meet God it makes you act funny. You really do. Now, Moses was once.... When he went out to deliver the children he was a young warrior, and strong. But we find out when he got to be about eighty years old, his whiskers hanging way down, and perhaps his bald head blistered nearly in the sun.... And when he.... The next morning after he'd met God in this burning bush, we find him with Zipporah sitting straddle of a mule, with her young'un on her hip—leading this donkey with a crooked stick in his hand, the whiskers blowing, his eyes set, just laughing and praising God.

Somebody said, “Where are you going, Moses?”

“I'm going down to Egypt to take over.”

What was it? A one-man invasion. But what? He was persistent because he had met God, and he knowed God said, “Surely I'll be with you.” And he did it. He took it over. Why? He could be persistent because God said, “I'll be with you.” Didn't make any difference what the obstacle.

When he got there, the first thing he met was somebody to try to impersonate the work that he was doing for God—the same thing. That's what you always....

As I said the other night here, or some other meeting, you always meet three classes: that's believers, make-believers, and unbelievers. And so, you find them everywhere. So here come these magicians up to try to impersonate with their supersensory perception, and they throwed down these serpents to try to ... or sticks, to make them serpents.

Moses had done all he could do. That's what God commissioned him to do, so he just stood still. Hallelujah! When you've done all you can do, then it's up to God to do the rest. Then Moses' serpent come around, and eat up theirs. Now you that believe in supersensory perception, what happened to them sticks? Amen! That's it. He was persistent.

Little old David one day, the littlest and the most insignificant one standing there.... Saul, the general, head and shoulders above all of his army—great big fellow—he challenged Goliath, or met his challenge, rather. Well, now, David, a little ruddy fellow, little, stoop-shouldered, with a little sheepskin vest on here, had a slingshot. But he was persistent that he could fight that giant. What made the spunk in that little fellow? He had something in him.

I was going down in ... I believe it was Georgia, somewhere down there. Was having (Rufus Moseley and them—many of you knew him.) ... And I was having a meeting down there in a football stadium. And I seen a little sign that always encouraged me. It said, “It's not the size of the dog in the fight, but it's the size of the fight in the dog.” So that's the way it is. You don't have to have a PhD, LL double LD, QST, or whatever it is. Only thing you have to have is a good old Christian spunk, with an understanding that God sent you.

Like I was saying this morning of Hudson Taylor, when a man told him—a young Chinese boy—said, “Mr. Taylor, I have just received Christ. It's burning in my heart. Now I'll have to have four years to get my B.A., and my doctor's degree, and so forth.”

Mr. Taylor said, “Don't wait till the candle's half-burnt before you try to show your light.” Said, “Go do it now.”

I thought, “Amen!” That's right. Don't wait around this, that, or the other. Great big schools of theology, they're all right. They was in days gone by. But brother, what we need today is not a school of theology; we need some lit candles.

Listen, if you don't know no more about it, go tell them how it got lit, and let them light off of that, and somebody light off of that. We'll have another return of Pentecost. That's right! Just as soon as it's lit, if that's all you know about it, go tell somebody else how it got lit. Sometimes these cemetery (or seminaries) takes all the light out of you. That's right.

Now. You're persistent. Just tell them how it got lit. Say, “I was standing there, and all at once the Holy Ghost fell on me. If you'll do the same thing, it'll happen to you.” Tell that much. If that's all you know just tell that. That's enough.

David, he knew that God had helped him with that slingshot to kill a lion and a bear. And he seen the condition. And the Lord was speaking into his heart that he'd give him the victory over that giant. So, he was persistent.

His brother said, “I know you're naughty. Go back over there, and herd them sheep.”

But God had a commission, and David was persistent until he slew Goliath.

Samson, with nothing but the jawbone of a mule.... And did you ever study how big those armors was on those Philistines? That helmet went over their head down over their ears, where they could knock the glance of a two-handed sword off. It was about an inch or an-inch-and-a-half thick of brass, down over their heads.

And you know what an old rotten jawbone of a mule would be. The first lick on top of a skull of one of them helmets would burst that old jawbone all to pieces. But David could feel back, and feel them seven locks. That's all he had to feel. And the Holy Ghost come upon him, and he beat a thousand of those Philistines down with that jawbone. He was persistent because he knowed that them seven locks stood for a covenant, and God was with him. He could be persistent. Yes, sir.

John the Baptist, we don't have much record of him. We know his father was a priest, and they were old, both of them. Elisabeth and Zacharias were well stricken in age. Must have been kind of hard on the family, because they knowed they wasn't going to live to see their son come into his ministry. But they knowed the promise was from God. They died, we are told.

And instead of John going like his father did—back to the same college and the same school, getting a Ph.D., and so forth, and learning—he had a job to do. Not kiss babies and marry the young and bury the dead. He had to hold a two-handed sword and be up the battle front, and he couldn't afford to take any seminary experience. He couldn't wait for all that, learn all how to shuffle out all the creeds. If that's what he'd have learned, that's all he could give to the people.

But he went out there in the wilderness and stayed, because he was to introduce the Messiah. So he stayed there till God told him what that Messiah would be. And if John wanted ... did that, how much more ought we to study, and see what the Holy Spirit's supposed to do in this day when He comes? How's He going to act? What's it going to be? Today, when we're scrupled up with all kinds of dogmas, and doctrines, and injections, and embalming fluid, and everything else.... And then we do that and then don't study. You just take it presuming. Presume is to venture without actual authority. Don't presume upon God. Take his Word for it, and go on. God's got the program laid out here. He foretold us by his prophets what would take place in this day.

John stayed out there until God told him how....

Now, of course, when he went out and said, “I am the forerunner.... I'm he which was spoke of by the prophet, Isaiah. I'm the voice of one crying in the wilderness.”

And now, no doubt but what some district presbyter, or some Caiaphas, or bishop, or somebody come by, and say, “You know, Bishop Jones over here, I've just always thought he'd be Messiah. So you know, I'm just sure....”

That's the same mistake that the church made with its new keys. Jesus gave Peter the keys, and the church had the keys. But what did they do the first time they used it? They chose Matthias to take the place of Judas, and it didn't work. There was never nothing said about him, but God chose a little high-tempered, crooked-nosed, ill-tempered Jew, and He said, “I'll make him over again and show what things he'll suffer for me.”

It's God has to do things; not man! So we find out that John could not afford to go down to get some seminary theological injection. So the thing he did was wait there, and God told him, “When you go out there, now, you'll have this, that, or the other. But don't you pay no attention to it. That Messiah will have the sign of a Messiah, and you'll see it. It'll be a Spirit will descend from heaven like a dove, and it'll go upon him. And that's the Messiah.”

And John was so persistent that He was going to come in his generation he never built no big schools. He never had no great seminaries, and invited people into them. What did he do? He was so sure that he said, “There's one standing among you now....” Amen. “You don't know him, but he's the one that'll baptize with the Holy Ghost. I know he's here.”

Hallelujah! How we can say the same thing tonight! By the signs of the Holy Ghost, we know that same Holy Ghost that fell on the day of Pentecost is here. Same thing—the same thing that God said it would do in these last days.

(Excuse me for not staying back here. But if you felt like I did, you'd walk, too. So....)

They ... John was sure, and he knowed what that sign of Messiah would be. So he absolutely was persistent that he'd know Him. One day He come walking down among them. He said, “Behold the Lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world.” He said, “He that told me in the wilderness to baptize with water, said, 'Upon whom thou shall see the Spirit descending and remaining, he's the one that'll baptize with the Holy Ghost and fire.'”

Now. Long ways to get to my subject, but this little woman that we read about, she was a Greek, but she'd heard of Jesus. And faith cometh by what? Hearing, hearing the word of God. Now, she was a Greek—of another nation. Now. But you know, though she wasn't in the belief of that (she was of a different race of people), yet, you know, faith finds a source that others don't see. Faith finds a source that others doesn't see, and her faith had found that source. Now, she knew that, by hearing, if she'd have got there what was going to happen.

The word of God according to Hebrews, the 4th chapter and the 12th verse, is sharper than a two-edged sword. We know that. And faith is what holds that sword. There's nothing else can hold the sword of the Bible but faith in God. That wields it. Now, you might be weak with your arm of faith. Maybe you can just cut out justification. Maybe you can just cut out enough to join the church. But a good strong arm of faith can cut through to the baptism of the Holy Ghost. It can cut through to divine healing. It can cut through to gifts, miracles, signs, wonders. It can cut every promise of God out of the skies, and claim it, because it's wielding the Word of God.

She had many hindrances, if you'd happen to go to thinking about it, but her faith didn't have any. That's it. If your faith don't have any hindrances, it's different. She had; but her faith had no hindrances. Faith doesn't know no hindrance. Faith only knows one thing: its goal. That's all.

Someone might have said to her, “Now, wait a minute. You are a Greek. You have no business....”

“You're a Methodist. You oughtn't to go over to them Pentecostals.”

“You're Baptist. You shouldn't go there, see.” But that didn't hinder her. She was persistent. She was very perseverant.

And there might have been another group come up to her and said, “Now, wait a minute here, darling. You know what? The days of miracles is past.” But that didn't stop her. Why? Faith had took a hold, and she was still persistent. She was going anyhow.

And then there's another group. Some of the women of her church might have come around, and said, “Dear, do you know what? If you go over there.... Your husband is a deacon over here. He'll leave you. That's all. There'll be a divorce in your family.”

But faith had caught a hold of something—the Word of God—and she went anyhow. She was perseverant. She wasn't going to take “No” for an answer. Faith had caught a hold of something. I wish it would do that tonight, every person here—faith take a hold. It knows nothing but truth. That's all.

Now. Well, there might have been another group that come up and said, “You'll be laughed at. You'll be called holy roller. If you ever go over there you'll be branded one of them.” But you know what? She was still persistent. She was going, regardless of what she was called. Faith had took a hold.

Now, there ... here might have come up a bunch of preachers to her of her own faith, and said, “You know [or the faith that her people belonged to]....” And would've said, “You know what? If you go, you'll be put out of your church.” But still she was persistent. She was going to get there anyhow, regardless of what anybody said. She wanted to get there.

Finally she arrived. Like Noah, she arrived. But when she arrived at Jesus, she thought all was finished then. And many times people think because that God blesses you, gives you a fine meeting, or gives you a big stir of faith right quick.... The Lord speaks to you, and call you out of the meeting you think, “Oh, that's just it.” But, remember, there's some disappointments there, too. God tries every child that comes to him, every son.

So, when she got to Jesus, she thought all'd be over you know, when she got to Jesus. But quickly He turned, with a great disappointment, and said, “I'm not sent to your race.”

Now, after she'd had to pass through every one of these barricades, and she'd hurdled them every one by her faith, and she'd got to this Jesus of Nazareth.... And as soon as she got there, and went to crying after Him, He ignored her, walked away. And then finally He turned around with a rebuke, and said, “I'm not sent to your race. I'm just sent to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.”

What a rebuke! If that had been some of our Pentecostal people, they'd have said, “Well, if that's the way He feels about it....”

And then, besides that, she said ... she recognized.... And He said ... another thing, He said her race was a bunch of dogs. Oh, my! The very audacity! Wouldn't that have shook a Pentecostal!

“Bless God, I'll go to the Assemblies now, or over to the Church of God, or the Foursquare. If you don't ... I'll leave the whole bunch, and go to the Baptist. If they won't have me, I'll go to the Presbyterian. I'll finally wind up a Catholic, I suppose,” see. Oh, sure. “They won't call me such a thing as that, say I'm a dog. No.”

Yes, called her a dog, said, “I'm not sent to your race of people. I'm only sent to the Jews. I'm not sent to you. And besides, your people is just a bunch of dogs.” Hmmm. But still she held on. Oh, my. I like that! Now I feel religious. Amen.

I like that. No matter what the obstacle was, she still held to that faith. That's when you got a hold of it, brother. Amen. All ... everything in the world couldn't shake you away from it then. That's right.

She held on. No matter what anyone else said, she held it. Even Jesus, Himself, said, “I'm not sent to your race, and you're a bunch of dogs. And I won't take the children's bread and throw it to you dogs.” Oh, my! But she still held on. I like that.

She wasn't a hotbed plant, some kind of a hybrid like the modern crop is today. What'd I say then? Notice. That's right. A hotbed plant has to be babied. You have to spray him all the time, pat him on the shoulder. But an old sturdy plant that come on out there with the power of nature, you don't have to spray him. And no bug's going to bother him either. Amen.

This hybrid stuff, have to pat them on the shoulder. If the Methodist don't want them, the Baptist will take them. If this one don't want them, the other one will take them. That's the reason they have no faith. She wasn't one of them hybrids (no, sir), a hotbed plant. She knowed what she was after, and she had a hold of something was going to deliver it for her. Amen. Amen! I like that. Yes, sir. She wasn't the modern crop that we have today. She stayed with it.

Notice. She also admitted that what Jesus said was the truth. Whew! My! “I am a dog.” Amen. Faith. Listen, Jesus was the Word. And if you've got genuine faith, a faith will always admit the Word is right. Faith will never argue against the Word. Amen. It'll stay with the Word. The way the Word said do it, that's the way faith will recognize it. I'm just going to let that soak a minute. Yes. Faith admits the truth.

She said, “It's truth.” She admitted He was right. Faith will always do it. See, she had a hold of something higher than the whole Jewish generation did then. She had something that she'd got a hold of that was ... wouldn't turn loose. There was something impulsing in her that she knew she was going to get her request. No matter if she was to be called dog, if she was to be called anything, kicked out, rode over, whatever it was, she had a hold of something that she knowed was going to deliver her request.

God have mercy on this sinful generation of people! Take a hold! If that be God's Word, every Word of it is the truth. Live by it, die by it. And a Holy Spirit faith will punctuate every promise with an “Amen.” That's right.

She held on to it. She said, “It's the truth, Lord. I'm not worthy. I'm a Greek I'm not of your people. And I'm a dog. And I'm not coming ... beg you to baby me, and have to lay hands on me.”

Like Naaman or some of them: “Surely he would have come out, and laid his hands on me, stroked away the leprosy.”

The prophet said, “Go dip in the Jordan.” Oh, my!

See, that's the reason people miss it. They want to get it the way they want it. God gives it the way He wants to give it. We want ... got one set way. We must go that way. That's all. But God does it his way.

She said, “It's truth, Lord. I am not worthy, and I am a dog. You just called me one. But the dogs eat the scraps that falls from the master's table.” She was willing to take scraps. How much different with us Pentecostal people.

You know what's the matter with us Pentecostal people? We've seen so much, till it's become common to us. We've been so blessed. That's what's the matter with us Americans.

I go to India, and see them little babies laying there, and their little bellies swelled up from hunger, and a mother laying on the street dying—in the places like that, and see the hunger and starvation. Come here, and see enough raked off in garbage cans to feed them; see these women go out, and pay eight dollars for afternoon-lunch, something like that; and nibble over it a few minutes and talk—some society of some sort—and dump it out in the garbage can. That would feed some hungry Korean children. And then we call ourself a Christian nation. We're fed well.

The Pentecostal people go around, and they go back, and they go through it; and see Oral Roberts' type of meeting—what God does with Oral; come back, and sees this other one, and this other one, and this other one—all God working. Then, first thing you know, they just sit back, and just take it common.

Like an old salt one time, coming from the sea, and he met a poet, an English poet. And he said to the poet.... The poet had wrote many poems about the sea.

And the old salt said, “Where goest thou, my good man?”

He said, “Oh, I'm going to the sea. I have never seen it, yet I have wrote of it from what I've learned of books.” He said, “But I've never actually seen the sea. I long to smell the salty, briny waves. I'd like to see the blue sky reflecting in its blue waters. I long to hear the scream of the seagull.”

The old salt, standing there with a big pipe in his mouth, spit, and said, “Well, I've lived on it for fifty years, and I don't see nothing so thrilling about it.”

Why? He'd seen it so much until he was ... it become common to him. And that's the way the people.... They see in this last days—when the Bible speaks exactly what the Holy Spirit, and what Christ will do at the appearing, just before the coming—and they see the thing taking place, and say, “Oh, pretty good. I guess that's all right.” Oh, my! It ought to shake our hearts! It ought to make us persistent to try to get the message to the people before it's too late.

“Lord, I'm wanting only crumbs.” Remember, she had never seen a miracle. She was a Greek. But she'd heard that there was a miracle, that Jesus performed miracles. And she knowed if He could perform miracles for one person, God was the creator of all things, and all people, and He could do it for her.

She never seen a miracle, but yet she was believing for one. And we see them day after day and night after night. She'd never seen it.

She was like Rahab the harlot when the spies come over. She never said, “Now, wait a minute. Let me go see Joshua. Let me see how he wears his clothes. Let me see how he combs his hair. Let me see him do some miracles.” She never asked for that. No. That's the reason she was justified, because she accepted it by faith.

She said, “I have heard. [Amen!] I want that God to be my God.” She heard. And when she heard, it was God's moving. And she knowed it was God because she'd seen the sign of a God that could conquer all the kings' powers in the world. She was ready to receive it. Yes. Oh, my.

Watch what that did to Jesus. He said, “For this saying....” For this saying. See, she had the right approach to God's gift. You've got to approach it right. When you're sitting out there, when you're in church, when you're at the altar, wherever you are, you've got to approach God in the right manner. Favor ... faith always admits the truth.

Martha, let's speak of her just a few minutes. Martha—we always think she was so dilatory, about getting her house cleaned when she was going to entertain Jesus. Mary, a little lazy side, just sat around and listened. Jesus, of course, said she listened to the better things. But Martha showed her color what she was, what was in her heart. She knowed that Jesus was the Son of God.

No doubt she'd read many Bible stories. She'd read about the Shunammite woman, and how the woman was past the age of bearing. And she had made a little chamber for the prophet, because she said to her husband, “I perceive that that's a holy man that passes by our way. Let us, I pray thee, make a little chamber on the side of our house, that he might be able to rest. And if we're not home, he can just go on in. He can have the key to the door.” And she was showing kindness.

And Elisha gave her a blessing, and told her she would have a son. When that son took sick at about twelve years old.... He must have had a sunstroke. He cried, “My head, my head.” His father had taken him in, or had him took in; sat on his mother's lap until noon, and he died.

Now look at the faith of that woman. She took him and laid him on the prophet's bed. Mm-hmm. What a place to put him, see. She laid him on that bed, and she said, “Saddle a mule now, and don't you stop until I tell you to stop.” And so she took off to the mountain, where she went to this cave where Elisha was.

God don't tell his prophets everything—just what He wants them to know. And Elisha looked up, and said to Gehazi, said, “Here comes that Shunammite. And I ... she's full of sorrow. I don't know what it is. God's kept it from me.”

He said, “Is all well with thee? Is all well with thy husband? Is all well with the child?”

Look at that Shunammite woman. “All is well.” Amen.

What? She was in the presence of a man, the agent of God, the man who could perform a miracle that'd take a woman of her age past bearing, and an old man like her husband, and bless them in the name of the Lord God; and see a vision, and tell her she'd embrace a child. And she did it. She knowed then that was a man of God.

So she said, “Let me go to him.” And when she got to him she said, “All is well.” Amen! All is well. And then she began to reveal.

And then Elisha, he told to Gehazi, said, “Take this staff,” because Elisha knowed that everything that he touched was blest. Now whether the woman would believe that or not, I don't know. I think that's where Paul, being fundamental, got the idea of laying handkerchiefs and aprons he took from his body on the people.

And then Elisha said, “Take this staff. Gird up thy loins. If anybody speaks to you, don't speak back, and go lay this upon the dead baby.”

But the woman's faith wasn't in the stick; it was in the prophet. The stick never told her so; the prophet told her so. And she was persistent. She said, “As the Lord lives, and your soul never dies, I'll not leave you.”

Oh, I like that! Bless God, if the people would take a hold of the Holy Ghost, God's agent in the earth tonight, and hold on to it like that! “I'm not going to turn it loose.” Might have to wrestle like Jacob all night, but you'll get your request. Hold on to it. Be persistent. And she held on, until she got her request.

Maybe Martha had read that story. And she knowed if God was in that prophet, that Jesus was the man of the hour then. And surely God was in his Son if He was in his prophet. So she goes out to meet Him. And when she met Him.... She could've upbraided Him, now, because she sent for Him to come. Lazarus had been dead four days, and was stinking. And she run out to meet Him. She heard He was coming. So she was persistent. She left the funeral procession, and run out to meet Jesus. Though He'd done turned her down, she went to meet Him. She was persistent.

And she run up to Him, and she 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, see. “Though he's dead, though he stinks, yet whatever you ask God, God will give it to you.”

Now, that's the way to get something done. Now that's the way you congregation ought to be about your pastor, see. That's when God will answer. That's right. You've got to approach God's gifts in the right way, with reverence. And ministry is minister gifts. They're gifts in the body—five spiritual gifts that's predestinated, and foreordained of God to the church. I know there's nine local gifts in the body, but these are God's office gifts—the office—apostles, prophets, teachers, pastors, evangelists. And we must respect them, if we expect something from God.

She ran right up to Him, and she 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. Although the doctor said this.... “But even now, Lord....” The doctor says you got cancer. “But even now, Lord....” The doctor says you can't get well. “But even now, Lord....” That's it. “Even now, whatever you ask God....” And He's sitting on the right hand of the Majesty, a high priest that can be touched by the feeling of our infirmities, ever living to make intercession. Oh, my! Oh, bloody clothes laying before the altar of God, high priest that can be touched by the feeling of our infirmities.

Your faith can touch Him. And He can take a office in the church, and speak right back through them lips, and tell you exactly that He'll do—the same work He did when He was here on earth. He promised to do it, and He's doing it. Amen! Why can't we be persistent? Certainly—with such as that, far more than she had.

Notice. Now, Martha, she said, “Even now whatever you ask God, God will give it to you.” Look at that. Though He'd turned her down, said, “Only thing I want you to do is just ask prayer. Whatever you ask God, God will give it to you.”

Listen to this. Boy, the cogs begin to come together then. Faith begin to meet with God. It's just like putting the negative and positive together—you're going to get light pretty soon. Now you notice what happened.

Now, He said, “Thy brother shall rise again.”

She said, “Yes, Lord. He'll rise again in the last days, the general resurrection. He was a good boy. He'll come forth.”

Then Jesus straightened up. See, things just begin to happen now. She was sweating it out, like Noah, and like this woman we're speaking about, this Greek—sweating it out.

He said, “I am the resurrection and life. He that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live. Whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die. Believest thou this?”

She said, “Yea, Lord. [Oh, my!] I believe that you are the Son of God that was to come into the earth. I believe that You are what you profess to be, the Son of God. Something's got to happen. I believe that you are the Son of God that was to come into the world.”

A woman met me some years ago, and was discussing that with me. She said to me, said, “Brother Branham, there's only one fault I find with your preaching.”

And I said, “Thank you. Just one fault, that's very good.”

And she said, “That is this: you brag too much about Jesus.”

I said, “Oh, my! If that's it, I'm so glad that I do.” I said, “I can't brag enough.”

She said, “But you see, Mr. Branham, here's one thing....” Her church doesn't believe He's divine; just believes He was a prophet. If He's just a prophet, we're all lost. If He's anything short of God, we're all lost. That's right. Certainly He was God.

And she said, “You make Him divine, and He wasn't divine.”

I said, “He was divine.”

She said, “You claim you believe the Bible.”

I said, “I do.”

And she said, “If I'll prove by the Bible He wasn't divine, will you accept it?”

I said, “If the Bible said He wasn't divine, I will; but you can't prove it.”

She said, “I'll do it.”

“I said, ”All right.“

She said, “In St. John, the 11th chapter, the Bible said that when Jesus went to the grave of Lazarus He wept. And if He was divine, He could not weep.”

I said, “Lady, your argument is thinner than the broth made out of the shadow of a chicken that's starved to death.” I said, “You haven't got any argument at all. Yes,” I said, “He was divine.” I said, “He was both God and man.” Right. I said, “He was a man when He was weeping. But when He stood by the side of that tomb where a dead man had been dead four days, and said, 'Lazarus, stand on your feet!' and a man that had been dead four days come back, that was more than a man.” Sure was.

He was a man when He come off the hill that night, hungry, looking on a tree to find something to eat. He was a man when He was hungry. But when He could take five biscuits, and two fish, and fed five thousand, that was more than a man. That was God, the creator. Amen.

He was a man when He laid on the back of that ship that night. Virtue'd gone out of Him, his lips cracked from preaching, his voice hoarse ... coarse. He was laying on that ship asleep until ten thousand devils of the sea swore they'd drown Him that night, when they had Him laying there on a pillow in the back of the boat, and the waves a-flashing back and forth couldn't even wake Him up. He was a man when He was asleep. He was a man when He was tired.

But when they wakened Him, and He stood out there and put his foot upon the brail of the boat, and looked up and said, “Peace. Be still,” and the winds and the waves obeyed Him, that was a ... that was more than a man. That was God in that man. He was divine. He was more than a prophet. He was a God-prophet—God in a man, Jehovah made flesh, to take the sting out of death.

Notice. He was a man when He cried for mercy on the cross. That's right. But on Easter morning, when He broke the seals of death, hell, and the grave, and rose again, said, “I'm he that was dead, and alive forevermore,” that was more than a man.

Everybody that's ever amounted to a hill of beans in this earth has been people who believed that, even to the poets. One said,

Living, He loved me; dying, He saved me;

Buried He carried my sins far away;

Rising, He justified freely forever:

Some day He's coming—oh, glorious day!

Eddie Pruitt [Perronet], who wrote ... being persecuted, wrote the inauguration song of his coming. He said,

All hail the power of Jesus' name!

Let angels prostrate fall;

Bring forth the royal diadem,

And crown Him Lord of all.

God was made manifest in the flesh. Certainly. Blind Fanny Crosby, what can you say about Him? She said,

Pass me not, O gentle Saviour,

Hear my humble cry;

While on others Thou art calling,

Do not pass me by.

For Thou the stream of all my comfort,

More than life to me,

Whom have I on earth beside Thee?

Or whom in heaven but Thee?

Amen. He was more than a man. He was God. Yes, sir. Martha was persistent until she got what she asked for.

Here a few ... about a year ago, one day I'd come in from the meetings, tired. I went down to speak at the little Tabernacle. A woman, may be sitting here tonight—if she is, I want her to raise up. She was from here in California somewhere. They'd brought her in and she had a tumor that was out like this. The tumor weighed fifty or sixty pounds. She was a terrible looking sight. Men had to pack her in.

Usually at the Tabernacle ... I'm real tired I don't pray for the sick. I just come in, speak to the church, and went back. If I'm not mistaken, some of the brethren are sitting here tonight—all the way from Jeffersonville that come down here—that helped pack the woman around. They said.... I went out through the back door. She was persistent. They told her, they said, “Brother Branham don't pray for the sick when he comes in like this. He's too tired. We don't call him. Wait a few days.”

She said, “I can't.”

And so, she got some of the deacons, or trustees, to pack her out the little back door. After I got through speaking, and went out, she caught me by the leg. She held on. Laid hands on her. And a few months from then she.... Here she is. Is that you, sister? There she is, standing right now. The tumor dissolved when I prayed for her. God healed the woman, when a bunch of men had to pack her out. What was it? Persistent. Perseverant. She believed, and she held on to it. That's what it takes. It takes something to be perseverant, something to hold on to.

It was Micaiah down there when Jehoshaphat and Ahab.... What would a man of God want to make an alliance with a hypocrite like that... ? He got in wrong company, just like a lot of people do. Get out amongst unbelievers, social gospel, such stuff as that, and you get yourself messed up. Jehoshaphat said, “We should go up to Ramoth-gilead. Why, sure. Naturally.”

All ... they went up and got four hundred well-fed trained prophets. They come up there and they said, “Go up. The Lord's with you.”

Hezekiah went and got him some great big horns. He said, “By this you'll push them out. [Because why?] Joshua divided the land and Ramoth-gilead belongs to us.” It sounded fine. See, it sounded all logical, fundamental. Said, “You'll just push them plumb back out of the land.”

You know, but there's something in a church, a man's heart, that's a man of God. Jehoshaphat said....

Look at there. There was four hundred of them, and all with one accord, giving one voice. He said, “Now I know that....”

“That's got to be right,” Ahab said. “Now we're Jews....”—Jezebel on the throne with him, see. Said, “Now look at there, four hundred Jewish prophets saying, 'Go up, thus saith the Lord.' ”

But that didn't ring a bell. Jehoshaphat said, “Haven't you got one more?”

“One more? What do I need with one more, when we got the whole seminary here, the bishop and all. What do we need with any more?”

“Well,” he said, “isn't there one more?”

Said “Yes, there is one more. But I hate him.”

“Oh,” Jehoshaphat said, “let not the king say that. Go get him.”

“He's Micaiah, the son of Imlah,” said, “but I hate him. He's always prophesying wrong against me, always telling me something.”

Oh, yes. He's trimming the corners down, getting the warts off, see. Everybody wants to be babied and petted. That's the reason it makes hotbed plants, has to be sprayed with goody-goody this, and goody-goody that. Christianity is rugged! The gospel's to be handled bare-handed, not with ecclesiastical gloves on. Right. Soft white gloves—that belongs to the women, not the preachers. Listen, brother. The Word's got to be handled just the way it's there. Not with some seminary dogma in it, but just the way it's written here.

So they sent the deacon board over, and told him, said, “Now, look, Micaiah. We'll take you back into the association if you'll just say the same thing the bishop and all of them says.”

He was talking to the wrong man there. Micaiah knowed what it was to trust God. He said, “As the Lord God lives, I'll only say what he puts in my mouth.” Oh, brother! Seminary or no seminary, cooperation or no cooperation, said, “I'll just say what God puts in my mouth.”

He took that night, and went back the next day. He said, “Go on up, but I seen Israel scattered like sheep, having no shepherd.”

And so this great big bishop smacked him in the mouth, and said, “Which way did the Spirit of God go when it went out of me?”

He said, “I saw God sit in heaven. The council was held. And I saw an evil spirit come up—a lying spirit—said, 'I'll go down and get in the mouth of them prophets, and make them prophesy a lie.'”

You say, “Well, now, brother, how could a man tell whether he was wrong?”

Why? Micaiah's vision was according to the Word. The Word of God had already been spoken by the prophet, and the Word of the Lord always comes to the prophet. And if the prophet Elijah had cursed Ahab, and told him that the dogs would lick his blood, how could he bless what God had cursed? So his vision was according to the Word.

A man wrote me a letter the other day. Said he was in the deliverance ministry. Said, “How can you tell whether it's God speaking to you, or the devil?”

I said, “Examine it by the Word. If it's not with the Word, then it's wrong, I don't care how good it looks.”

In the Old Testament they had a way to find out when a prophet was telling the truth, or a dreamer was dreaming right. They took him down to the temple, and put him before the Urim Thummim. And if that Urim Thummim acted, and those conglomeration of lights like a rainbow flashing off of that, God was recognizing that prophet to be truth, or the prophecy, or the dreamer. But if it did not, no matter how real it seemed it was wrong. It always answered—God give them supernatural.

I tell you that priesthood ended, and that Urim Thummim lifted; but we got a new one today, and that's this Bible. If a preacher, or anybody else, preaches any dogma or anything outside of that Bible, to me it's wrong. I don't care how real it looks, it's got to be wrong. It's got to line up with that Bible. Don't mix nothing with it. Just leave it the way it is. That's the way God has it, and that's the way we must accept it and believe it. Yes.

The blind man—sure, he couldn't argue theology with them. But he was persistent. He knew that once he was blind, and then he could see. Sure. He knowed that one thing, and he was very persistent. They said his father and mother.... They said, “Anybody that confesses this prophet of Galilee, we'll put them out of the church.”

And so this fellow had got a hold of something. Something had happened to him, and he was persistent. He could tell them. Now, he couldn't.... He said, “It's a strange thing to me now, that here's something that only God could do. And it hasn't happened in none of our churches down through the ages that I know of—a man born blind receives his sight. And you're supposed to be the leaders of the people of this day, and yet you don't know from whence he come? That's a strange thing.”

Brother, he had some real good arguing points there, I would think. Yes, sir. And people say today, “What is all this about?” And don't know (theologians, and so forth) that the Bible predicts this very thing to happen. Oh, brother, how persistent we ought to be.

Philip, when he stood there and heard Jesus speak to Simon, and call him Simon (said, “Your name is Simon. You're the son of Jonas,” and never seen him before), he was very persistent. He got a hold of Nathanael. And when Nathanael come, He said, “Behold an Israelite in whom there's no guile.”

He said, “When did you know me, Rabbi?”

Said, “Before Philip called you, when you was under the tree, I saw you.”

He got real persistent. He said, “Rabbi, thou art the Son of God. Thou art the King of Israel.”

The little woman at the well, she'd been looking for a Messiah to come. She'd heard all the theologians and back and forth, and she thought she might as well walk the street and be a prostitute, if that's the best they had. And she....

One day she come down to the well to get some water. There sat an ordinary man, looking about fifty years old, I suppose. And she looked at him. And He asked her to bring Him a drink. And she went into the customs, and said, “There's segregation,” and so forth.

But when He said, “Go get your husband, and come here,” she said, “I have none.” He said, “You've said truth. You've had five, and the one you have now is not your husband.”

She said, “Sir, I perceive that You are a prophet. We know when the Messiah cometh these things will be what He'll do.”

He said, “I'm he that speaks to you.”

Now, she wasn't according to law supposed to tell a man in the market places anything, because she was an ill-famed woman. But, brother, she was persistent, and she persuaded them in her perseverance until she said, “Come see a man.... Don't sit there, don't sit here, come see a man who's told me the things I've done. Isn't this the very Messiah that was promised? Said 'the Lord God shall raise up a prophet like unto me.' This is him.” She was persistent until she got the men out there, and they believed on Him.

Reminds me of a little story we had down in Mexico, where the Christian Businessmen's “Voice” had an article of it here not long ago. We went down there and the.... General Valdina was the one who had me down there. And so they got in a little trouble about the Mexican government bringing in a Protestant, and so ... by this military force. And so the bishop went over and said, “Sir,” said, “you know this man is not a Catholic?”

He said, “No, but,” said, “I guess he's a reputable person. Thousands come to hear him preach, they say.”

He said, “Oh, it's just the ignorant and unlearned that goes out to hear a person like that.”

Said, “You've had them down here for five hundred years. Why are they ignorant and unlearned?”

I guess that was a good shut-up. So they let us have a place out there, and thousands gathered in. And I was to be there about three nights.

One night on the platform, I looked, and here come a poor old Mexican brother, blind as he could be, his feet bare and callused all over, his old hat in his hand sewed with cords, his trouser legs tore off up there. I looked at him, dusty all over. He was coming along there holding his hat in his hand. He was mumbling off something to the man that was bringing him. When he got close to me, he reached down in his pocket and got out a little crucifix, and begin to say a “Hail, Mary.” I had him to put it up.

And so, he come up there, and I looked at him. I thought, “Here he is. Poor old fellow, probably never had a decent meal in his life. There he is now, looking ... not even shoes on. Here I stand with a good pair of shoes. Here I stand with a suit.” I believe this is the same suit Brother Carl Williams and his wife give me, and I was standing there. And I thought, “Here I've got a suit on.” I thought.... I put my shoulders.... I thought, “If it would fit him, I'll sure give it to him.”

I put my feet beside of his—it wouldn't fit him at all. I thought, “What could I do?” And I thought, “There he is staggering in blindness, poor old fellow.” You've got to feel for the people, or you won't do no good to pray for them. That's all. And I thought if my daddy would've lived he'd have been about that age.

I put my arms around him, and started to hug him like that, and I said, “Lord Jesus, there's nothing can help him but You. He hasn't got a penny of money, and probably never had a good meal, or a decent suit of clothes on in his life. And here he stands. And nature has been so cruel to him till here, he's blind. Look what fate has done for him. Oh, Lord God, have mercy on him.”

I heard him holler “Gloria a Dios!” I looked around, and the old man could see as good as I could. There he went off the platform rejoicing, hollering.

The next night there was a whole pile of old shawls and coats, piled up that high across the platform ... raining. Now them people didn't come and argue because I stayed until nine o'clock; I didn't get there till nine o'clock. And they come there at eight or nine o'clock in the morning, and leaned against one another—just leaned against one another—no place to sit down. Just stood in this big ring, and leaned against one another.

So when I got on the platform and got started speaking about faith, looking over this big pile of old shawls.... How they ever knowed who they belonged to, and hats, and coats, and so forth! I looked all down through there. And Billy come to me, and said, “Daddy, we've got a hundred or more ushers standing down there. And there's a woman got a dead baby standing there,” and said, “we ain't got enough ushers to hold that woman out of the line.”

“Well,” I said, “what size is she?”

And he said, “Well, she's just a little bitty thing.” And said, “But she's been standing here all day with that dead baby.”

And Brother Jack Moore (many of you know him), he was standing behind me. I said, “Brother Jack....” Brother Espinoza (many of you Spanish-speaking people know Brother Espinoza), and he said ... he was interpreting for me. And I said, “Brother Moore, go over there. She don't know me. Go over there and pray for her.”

And she'd go through them little old ushers there, she'd run under their feet, climb over the top of their backs, holding a dead baby in her arms. A little Catholic woman, and she was trying to get up there.

What? Faith cometh by hearing. She'd heard that blind man received his sight. She knowed if that was God, it was God for the living; God could raise the dead. It was ... the same God that could give sight could heal her baby, no matter what condition it was. That's it. She knew He was God, and she was trying to get up there. And so, Brother Moore started over to pray for the baby, and I turned around and began to say, “And as I was saying....”

Brother Espinoza interpreted, “Faith is the substance....”

And I looked and here in front of me was a little Mexican baby, little dark face, and little gums a-shining—little bitty fellow, just smiling, sitting right here in front of me. I thought, “That must be that baby.”

I looked around, and Brother Moore was trying to get down through the ushers, and I said, “Just a minute, Brother Moore. Call her back, ushers.”

The reason she couldn't come up, she didn't have a prayer card. Brother ... I called him Mañana, which means “tomorrow.” He was so slow and he'd just get down there, and stand around, and give the prayer cards out. And Billy went down to watch him, see that he didn't sell any of them, so, to see he got by. And so (he couldn't speak Spanish), so he give out all the prayer cards, and he didn't have anymore. And she was going to get through anyhow. She was persistent. She wanted that thing done.

And so, Brother Moore started back that way, and I said, “Wait a minute, Brother Moore.”

He said, “What's the matter?”

I said, “I don't know. Don't interpret, Brother Espinoza.” I said, “I seen a little Mexican baby standing, looking right at me, right out over the audience right here.” I said, “Let her come over here.” And so they never interpreted that.

And the little mother come walking up there—a beautiful little woman, about, oh, I'd say about twenty-five years old—just as wet as she could be, and her pretty hair hanging down in her face, and her eyes scorched with tears, and how ... there was streaks down her face. And she run up there, and she fell down on the floor, and begin to holler, “Padre.” I think it means, “Father.” Padre? And “Padre,” like that. And I said, “Stand up, stand up.”

And Brother Espinoza come over there, and I said, “When did the baby die?”

She said, “Nine this morning.” And that was about ten-thirty that night. And just as wet as ... the little blanket laying over like that, she had the little form—holding it out like this.

And I said, “Just hold still just a minute.” And so she stood, and I said, “Heavenly Father, I seen in vision a little Mexican baby. I do not know if it's this baby or not. But to calm the heart of this mother.... And that could have been a vision from You. That's the reason I'm here.”

I laid my hands upon the baby, and it went, “Whaa! Whaa!” and begin to kick its little feet like that. There it was alive, come to life! The persistence of the woman!

Brother Espinoza may be sitting present tonight. There's many ... Is that right? Is Brother Espinoza in here? He's ... all of you know him, and you can.... You know the story. What was it? That little woman—persistent! Oh, she knowed if God could open the eyes of that blind man, He could also heal her baby, bring it back to life.

And so I said to Brother Espinoza, “Don't you say nothing about that. Don't you do that now, 'cause the only thing I seen was just the baby there. I don't know what it means. You send a runner with the woman, and go to the doctor, and get a statement that that baby died, and he pronounced it dead.”

Brother Espinoza sent a runner with her, and went the next day to the doctor, and the doctor said, “I pronounced the baby dead yesterday morning. It died with pneumonia [or something like that] at nine o'clock.” The baby was dead, and now it's alive. Why? That's faith. I told you she was a Catholic; I was a Protestant. Faith caught a hold of something. Hallelujah! You've got to be persistent, perseverant.

[Blank.spot.on.tape]

You've got to know that God is still God, and God always was God. God will always be God. “He's the same yesterday, today, and forever.” Take a hold of it by faith and be perseverant. Don't turn it loose; God promised it. It's up to God to make it right. God made the promise; God will do it.

Let us bow our heads just a moment. I won't finish this up till some other time because it's—it's... I happened to notice it's getting a little late. Persistent, perseverant... [Blank.spot.on.tape.]

Tomorrow afternoon I'll put the whole afternoon praying for the people with them prayer cards. I just feel like that the Holy Ghost is here, and you got enough faith to move it. Do you believe that? Raise up your hands if you believe it. All right. It takes that to bring down the Spirit.

I do not see one person that I know in this audience—just the woman testified just now over there, that raised up that was healed with the large tumor.

And if I'm not mistaken.... I wanted to ask this last night. Isn't this Sister Upshaw sitting here? God bless you, Sister Upshaw. Her husband (you all remember Brother Willie Upshaw) [unclear words] the place that night, an invalid for sixty-something years in a wheelchair. God healed him, and he was healed until he went to be with Jesus years later. Outside of that, that's all that I know.

But you have a need of God. Now let's just stop, just take a minute to study for a minute. Now, how many of you there know that Jesus, when he was here on earth, when He came He was the Messiah of God, the anointed one. You believe that? How did the people know He was the anointed one? Because He did the sign of the Messiah. Now, they hadn't had a prophet for four hundred years, and Israel always believes their prophets.

The Bible says, “If there be one among you who's spiritual or a prophet, I, the Lord will make myself known unto him, and speak to him in visions, and so forth. And if what he says comes to pass then you hear him. But if it doesn't come to pass then don't fear that prophet because I haven't spoke to him.” Well, that's just only sense, see, that it would be.

Now, the Messiah, according to the Bible, was to be a prophet, a God prophet. Moses said, “The Lord your God shall raise up a prophet [in Deuteronomy] liken unto me.” And when He come, how did they recognize Him to be a prophet? Because He foretold things that was exactly right. He knew the thoughts that was in their heart. He told them who they were, what they was, what their needs was, what they'd done. Is that right? And they knowed that was the sign of the Messiah.

Philip said, “Thou art the Son of God, thou art the King of Israel,” when He told him about him. The miracle was performed on him. Now. In St. John the 14th chapter, and 12th verse, Jesus said, “He that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he also.

Now, if I told you tonight.... Let me show you about the weakness of the church condition. We claim to be Christians. If I said the spirit of John Dillinger was in me, I'd have guns and I'd be an outlaw, 'cause that'd be the nature. If I said the spirit.... If you put the life of a pumpkin vine in a grape vine, it'll bear pumpkins. Sure. It's the life that's in it produces. Put the life out of an apple tree into a pear tree, it'll bear apples, 'cause the life of the apple tree's in it.

Put the life of Christ in an individual, it'll bear the fruits of Christ, and the life of Christ. That's the reason He said, “He that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also.” Now look. Did he ever organize a school, a seminary? “The works that I do....” He said, “If you don't believe me, believe the works that I do. They testify of me.”

What works testified of Him?

Look at that little woman up there. She said, “I know when Messiah cometh He'll do these things. But who art thou?”

He said, “I am he.”

She went and said, “Isn't this the very Messiah? Isn't that what the Messiah's supposed to do? Come see a man who told me the things that I've done,” see. Well, if Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever, He is the same. Now the only thing is the corporal body. “Yet a little while, and the world [cosmos, the order of the world] will see me no more. Yet ye shall see me [the church, the believer], for I [and ”I“ is a personal pronoun], I'll be with you, even in you to the end of the world, consummation. I'll be with you, even in you to the end of the world.” Jesus Christ the same yesterday, today, and forever. Then if the Spirit of Christ is in us, He'll do the works of Christ. That's where my faith stands.

Now, you know that I'm not a preacher. I have no education. I can't preach. I don't claim to be. But my preaching is by a gift, confirmation of what preachers preach about. In my ignorance I guess God's just let me raise up like that—but, knowed my heart, that I love people, and love God. I want to do something.

And if I don't love you, then I don't love God. The only way I can serve God is serving you. We serve one another. “In so much as you've done to the least of these little ones, you've done it to me.”

What business do I have out here tonight? Why ain't I home? Why ain't I up the hills with my fishing pole somewhere? Down here for a deceiver, and going to meet God out yonder in judgment? Not me. I'll go fishing and go hunting first, and meet God in peace. Standing here with a deceiver....

It ain't popularity. You know I shun that. I don't have no big programs, and beg people for money, and all this kind of stuff. I never took an offering in my life. I keep my meeting where I can go to wherever God sends me, no matter if it's Timbuktu, or wherever it is. If He wants me to preach to 500,000, like in Bombay, He sends me over there. Somebody else sponsors it. If I want to go down here where there's just four or five people, I don't have to have any money. I want to be where God can use me. And every one of us that way wants to be where God can use us, see.

Now, He's God. And if He isn't the same God today that He always was, then He never was God. And the Bible says that He is a high priest. Is that right? And He can be touched by the feeling of our infirmities—a high priest living, ever-living, to make intercession for us, and can be touched by the feeling of our infirmities.

Now Mrs. Shakarian's testimony, hundreds of others, can testify the same thing. Now you know that I'm not Messiah. I'm your brother, the least among all of you. I was a Baptist preacher coming among you people, because the Baptists wouldn't receive it. And they told me I was off of my mind. But I know if God sent it, there's somebody somewhere to receive it. So that's why I'm here.

Now. It's just a gift. If God will just put me in that position, I'm just his mouthpiece. Now, these men are scholars. They've got training. They know how to put it together. I just have to splatter it out there any way, just by inspiration. But they know how to set it together, and make sense out of it. But I just have to reach up, and get it, and throw it; and reach, get it, and throw it. It's the only way I have of doing it.

But in this, a gift, if God will grant it, that He takes and moves, and speaks through here, just the same high priest. The woman that touched his garment.... And if He's the same high priest, the same yesterday, today, and forever, He'll act the same if He's the same high priest. Do you believe that? Now have faith in God. Don't doubt, but just believe.

Now, I want to know along here, you people that's sick, anywhere in the building wherever you may be, and knows that I don't know one thing about you, just raise up your hand. Now it's just solid. Now you pray. You do this....

Now this was promised. If I had time to take you back to where Jesus said, “Like it was in the days of Sodom, so shall it be in the coming of the Son of man....” Did you notice what kind of church that angel...? Sat by back, when he had his back turned to the audience like ... or back to the tent and said, “Why did Sarah laugh?” in the tent.

Now Jesus predicts right there that that thing will happen again. It ... God vindicated Himself that way to the Jews, to the Samaritans; but not to the Gentiles, 'cause the Gentiles wasn't looking for no messiah. Today we're looking for a Messiah, and the way He did it back there.... God is God. He can never make a decision and then change, and say, “I'll do something else.” And if He lets the church go in just on theology, without showing Himself visible among them like that, then He's doing something for them back there He didn't do for us. But He promised to do it. That's what I believe, and that's what He proves.

Now have faith in God. Be persistent. Say, “Lord Jesus, that little old bald-headed preacher standing there don't know nothing about me. But You do. Lord Jesus, without being nervous, all pressured-up, I come humbly. I confess every sin that I've ever done. I love You, Lord. Let me touch You, will You, Lord? I need You. Then You use his lips. If he's told me the truth, and I believe he has, use his lips and speak back, heavenly Father, and let me know. Speak to me like You did the woman that had the blood issue. I'll believe You.”

Will you do that? Will it make you persistent then, that you'd hold right on? All right.

Let's pray.

Now, heavenly Father, the meeting is yours. I cannot make myself.... I only ask, Lord ... I don't even ask You to do it. But if it be in your divine will, in your order, let it come to pass. No matter what I would say, one word from You will mean more than all of us could say, Lord, in a lifetime—just one word from You.

Now, I've tried through these thirty-one years of preaching to hold your name, to speak of You. And now, Father, Thou has never let me down at any time, and I don't believe You will tonight. So I pray that You will give us something, Lord, that the people might go home—the strangers with us—and say, “Truly, Jesus Christ is not dead. He's alive, because I seen Him working through human beings tonight, doing the same works. So it must be the same life.” And then they'll hunger for You, Lord, and come and confess You as their Saviour. Grant it, I pray, in Jesus' name. Amen.

... pulling back here. Just going ... pray for me. Just pray for me, see, Brother Jack here, Art Palmer. Sets right in quick. I like that. Oh, you don't know how I feel. By the way, have you bought your picture of it yet? How many ever seen the picture of that angel of the Lord? They've got it back there. You can get it. It was taken over here, and it's in Washington, D.C., in the religious hall of arts—only supernatural being ever photographed, a pillar of fire.

Years ago, when I was a little boy, when I was baptizing down on the river that day, just my first message in the Missionary Baptist Church.... I was baptizing five hundred. And that afternoon, on June, 1933 ... on June, about the 15th, here come that pillar of fire roaring out of the skies, like the pretty, sunshiny afternoon, and go right down there. The voice that shook the whole country round there said, “As John the Baptist was sent to forerun the first coming of Christ, your message will forerun the second coming.”

And that started the revival immediately after that. And there it's went across the nation, around the world, Pentecost reviving. And that's what has taken place, the second coming of Christ.

And now.... The newspapers packed it way up in Canada. It was on articles, and so forth, that went on the Associated Press. I kept telling people. Then finally the eye of the camera begin to catch it. And now they've got it back there.

Now, how many knows that that pillar of fire was Jesus Christ, the angel of the covenant? Sure. Sure. Now look. When He was here on earth He said, “I come from God, and I go to God.” Is that right? “I come from God, I go to God.” After his death, burial, and resurrection, Paul (Saul then) was on his road down to Damascus, to arrest some people that were making too much noise, shouting and going on.

So he was on his road down, and that pillar of fire come down before him. The people didn't see it. He saw it; them with him didn't see it. But a pillar of fire that struck him down blind, and he fell to the ground. And He said, “Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me?”

He said, “Who are you, Lord?”

He said, “I'm Jesus.” He come from God, and He returned back to God. And when that pillar of fire, the Spirit, was in a man's body called Jesus Christ ... performed those miracles. And He's the same yesterday, today, forever. And here it is.

The scientific world proves.... Like George J. Lacy, the head of the FBI that examined the print, as you know it. There's his write-up right with it like that. He said, “I've been your critic, Mr. Branham. But,” said, “the mechanical eye of this camera won't take psychology.” He said, “The light struck the lens.”

Now. Then if that Spirit don't bear the same record that Jesus Christ bears, then it isn't the same Spirit. But if it does, it's Him among us. Do you believe it with all your heart? Pray. Somebody in this district over here, just pray. Believe with all your heart.

The Holy Spirit's here. Now I take every spirit in here under my control in the name of Jesus Christ, for the glory of God. Sit still now. These diseases will go from one to the other. You know that. Just pray. Yes. Look here. Do you see that light over that man standing back there? a little glowing light right up over a man standing...? He's got back trouble. He's up for an operation on his back. Arthur, rise up, and receive your healing in the name of the Lord Jesus. Hallelujah!

Now I want to ask you something. I'm only a minister. What did he touch? He never touched me. He's twenty yards from me. If we are strangers to one another, sir, shake your hand back and forth, the man that was just touched then by God. If we don't know one another, shake your hand. What? But God did know him.

Right down the row from him there is a little thin Mexican woman. She's praying for her husband who's got a nervous condition. Believe, sister. He'll be well. You believe it? God bless you. We're strangers to one another. Just don't doubt. Have faith. You see what He is?

In the mouth of two or three witnesses let every word be established. Here, looky there. Look at that woman. There's a heavy-set woman sitting there. She's got an ulcer, bleeding ulcer, on her leg. It's on her left leg. And she was sitting there praying, “Lord Jesus, let it be me.” Is that right? Raise your hand up toward God. I don't know the woman. She's a stranger. If that's right, raise your hand.

If we're strangers to one another, how could I know what she's praying about? The same God that can hear prayer can answer prayer. It's God! Amen!

What about this woman sitting there with the cream dress on? Do you believe me to be God's prophet? We're strangers to one another, are we? If God will tell me what your desire is, will you believe it? You're seeking the baptism of the Holy Ghost. If that's right, raise up your hand. Receive that Holy Ghost in Jesus Christ's name. You believe with all your heart. Just have faith. Don't doubt. Believe the Word of God. Are you ready to believe?

Here, here it is. This man sitting here in this wheelchair. Sir, I'd give it to you; I just can't do it. But the light was over you just a few moments ago. Continue to pray.

Lady, sitting here, right here in front of me. She's just had an operation, a complete hysterectomy, female glands. It hasn't done well. It's bad. You believe that God can heal you? You believe me to be his prophet? or his servant? You do? You believe that God knows who you are if He'll let me call your name? Mrs. Cole, you believe with all your heart. You live at 700 block on East Maple Street, Glendale. Go home and believe, and Jesus Christ makes you well.

By the way, that's your mother sitting right behind you, and she's suffering. That thrilled her so much to see her daughter healed. You have a lump in your abdomen here, and you're praying to God that.... You believe with all your heart? Then you shall be made well. Have faith.

Here it is over this man [unclear word]. He's got faith enough to [unclear word]. You'll die if you sit there. That's all. You got fluid in your heart [unclear word]. God bless you. Amen! Let's say “Praise the Lord!”

I will praise Him, I will praise Him,

Praise the Lamb for sinners slain;

Give Him glory all ye people,

For His blood can wash away each stain.

Stand up on your feet.

I will praise Him, I will praise Him,

Praise the Lamb for sinners slain;

Give Him glory all ye people,

For His blood can wash away each stain.

There He comes back through. Do you believe He can save you? Come up to the altar now. Let's pray, you that want the Holy Ghost, come up.

I will praise Him, I will praise Him,

Praise the Lamb for sinners slain;

Give Him glory all ye people,

For His blood can wash away each stain.

Come on, sinner friend. Come on, you without the Holy Ghost. This is the hour [unclear word]. That man there with TB, get up, God makes you well.

I will praise Him, I will praise Him,

Praise the Lamb for sinners slain;

Give Him glory all ye people,

For His blood can wash away each stain.