Perseverance

Greetings to this fine audience here tonight—Sister Webster and Brother Green, and all the audience—the members of this assembly. It's always a privilege for me to come to the house of the Lord, and then tonight to be back again in one of the Foursquare churches of his.

I remember years ago, when I first came to Los Angeles, I'd heard of Sister McPherson. But she had done climbed the golden stairs before I become in the way.

And when I went to Los Angeles the first time I went up to Forest Lawn. I heard she was buried up there, and I went up and stood by her grave, and bowed my head and gave thanks to God for a noble life. Since then I have seen the Foursquare sign in nearly every nation I've missionaried in. I've had the privilege of being in the Temple waiting in her waiting room. Before she'd go to the pulpit ... she had a room there, and I've sat there many nights while speaking at the Temple and think of the hours that she might have meditated before entering the pulpit—the sacredness of opening up the Word of God. To be here tonight with some of the followers that's trying to keep that message alive.... God be with you, bless you.

And then to be back with Brother Green, a precious dear friend, Brother and Sister Green. And when I was out there awhile ago and met him, I told him how much I enjoyed that message in song the other day that ... up there at the Businessmen, about ... “The Name of Jesus,” or something, he called it. They don't have it recorded yet. I told him, “Let me be the first customer,” it was so ... such a beautiful song.

And I thought they might sing for me tonight when I got down, and my wife and children are back there to listen at it. And I'm sure they enjoyed it, too. And his voice is not ... it's really familiar around our place. I've got many of his recordings. When I get feeling real bad I go in—I have one of those record players—and I put on a whole bunch of his records and just sit back, and listen to them. I want to say to the wife back there, I just got some more of them now. I certainly enjoy them. They are a haven of rest, just to hear them gospel songs, to know that they are sang not from some mechanical trained voice, but coming from the heart of a real Christian.

He told me he had some out there yet tonight. I want my wife and them to look it over, and see if there's any he's got out there we haven't got, and be sure to pick them up. I think they have them out in the vestibule, and they're....

You know, the main thing is.... What I think about singing, I like these ... I like trained voices but I don't like an over-trained voice. Then you just see how long you hold your breath—till you get blue in the face—and you're not singing nothing anyhow. But I like good old Pentecostal singing, where you just open up and sing. I like that. And Brother Green has that, he and Sister Green. And so we're ... know that ... that's backed up by these choirs, and so forth; and it's very fine to know that these things we can get ahold of them.

Now, Brother Green and I first met, I believe that I can think of, I believe it was in Kansas City when we used to have the conventions out there. How I used to sit out.... They said, “Well, it ain't time to come on yet.” But I'd wait out in my car, and I wanted to be sure to hear that singing, when he and Sister were singing.

So I told him out there, I said, “I trust that some of these days when I've crossed over the river....” I love singing so well, and I just can't sing, that's all. I've always wanted to sing, and I just can't do it. And I used to try to sing a song at the church, “Old-fashioned Meeting in an Old-fashioned Place,” and I'd mess it all up. I'd just take my wife's hand when I got home, and I'd say, “Honey, I'll never try it again, so help me.” I'd just get everybody else all messed up.

But one of these days I'm going to sing. And I've always thought, maybe over on the hillside, where the river of life runs down along by the throne, when that great choir of all the redeemed—those great voices will be on that hillside singing. I hope there's a little shade tree over on the other side. If you want to see me, just come around there. I'll be sitting there listening at them.

Then when you get over in your palace some morning, and walk out on the porch of your palace.... And way down somewhere down there, in the woods, there's a little shack built somewhere. Walk out on your porch and hear somebody singing, “Amazing grace, how sweet the sound,” you'll say, “Oh, Brother Branham made it, because there he is. He finally got there.” So I'll be able to sing then. Until then I just have to make a joyful noise to the Lord.

Aren't we happy? We haven't got a thing to worry about, not a thing. We've anchored in Christ, sitting in heavenly places, caught up in rapturing grace right now, sitting in his presence in heavenly places in Christ Jesus. Death itself can't touch us. Anchored away, nothing can bother us—just simply secured and waiting for his coming. And we're grateful for this.

Now, I've got about 150 miles to drive tonight, and ... after the service. And with a fine crowd like this, it takes me a long time to get started; and then twice that long to get stopped. So I try to get right into ... say what I planned on saying as quick as possible. I want to thank the pastor and associates, and all, for this opportunity to come here to give my testimony of his grace tonight in this fine congregation.

I climbed some time ago up on South Mountain, looked down over the valley. And I thought of about thirty-five years ago when I first entered this valley. How this city has grown—just got just spread out all over the Maricopa Valley here. Just as far as you can see is city. I was sitting there with my wife, and I said, “You know, honey, perhaps about three hundred years ago there wasn't nothing raced through here but coyotes and javelina hogs, and so forth, around through the country. And then man came in, and began to build. Then civilization began to spread; then sin and violence set in.”

I thought, “Wouldn't this be a wonderful place?” I've always thought someday I'd like to live in Phoenix. And then I ... looking upon the valley, I could almost in my heart feel like weeping, that what a beautiful place it would be if it was here without sin.

How they've taken just the desert and converted it into a living quarters! Today we were riding up around on the head of the Camelback—lovely homes up there, almost like you're entering paradise. And then it would be beautiful, but sin is here: everywhere whiskey joints, immorality, just everything that's wrong—all kinds of devices and traps of the enemy to trap human souls.

My wife said, “Then why are you here, Billy?”

I said, “Honey, it's black. But you know, there's ... all through that darkness down there there's little spots of light. That's God's chosen. And I'm here to put my shoulder with theirs, put my heart with theirs, my voice with theirs, and cry out against the darkness.

That's why I'm here in Phoenix again.“ May God in heaven help us.

And after the night is over, and our little meeting is passing through the city—from church to church, amongst all the denominations of the full gospel, and to end it up with the Businessmen's convention over at the Ramada—I trust that we'll leave a mark across here that will mean that in the little light that's been scattered that many souls will find Christ, many sick people of the faith will be healed. We already begin to see a ... showing results.

And I trust tonight, if there's any would come in here tonight under this care of ... the shelter of this place, that something will be said in the song, testimony, or the reading of the Word, or something, that'll cause you to go out the door a different person than you come in. Help us all to do it.

And now before we approach the Word, let's approach the author by the way of prayer. Let us bow our heads just a moment. With our heads and hearts bowed before God, would there be a request among the people tonight that you have something special that you'd like to ask the Lord to help you in? Just raise your hand, and way down in your heart say, “Lord, you know what it is.” Thank you. God bless you.

Our heavenly Father, we are coming now in that all-sufficient name, the Lord Jesus, knowing this: that He promised, “If you ask the Father anything in my name it'll be granted.” We come first to confess that we have erred, we have did wrong, and there's none of us good, not one. And we're coming to confess our sins in the name of the Lord Jesus. We're asking for pardon.

And Thou did see the hands of the people that was raised up tonight, and You know what was beneath that hand, what they had need of. And I'm offering my prayer with theirs, laying it upon thy altar, and asking for mercy—that You, Lord, will give mercy, and will answer each and every request.

We want to thank you for this church, for its pastor, and for all the laity, and all the deacons and the trustees, and all that comes. Bless them, Lord. And we know that our meetings and coming together would altogether be in vain, if You didn't meet with us.

So we pray, heavenly Father, that we have the assurance now that You're with us. Continue, O Lord, to be with us through the night. Help us. If there by chance would be those who have come in from the street, or the hedges and byways of the world, that's been in their life indifferent toward You, may this be the night that they'll say that all-sufficient “Yes” to God in surrender, give themselves over to Jesus Christ.

If there be sick among us, Lord, Thou art the great physician who has never lost a case. We think of the day that we're living in, when sickness and gross darkness is covering the earth. But we think again that when You were leading your people, Moses brought them out of Egypt taking them to the promised land, and all down along the journey for forty years. And when they entered the promised land there wasn't a feeble one among them.

How many physicians tonight would like to look in upon the prescription that Moses had, that kept all those people healthy for forty long years! And yet, You have not hid it. You've made it known to us all, and it's written here on the pages, so simple. “I'm the Lord that heals all of thy diseases.” May we realize that tonight, Lord, the sick and needy, and know that there's not a disease but what you are the remedy, the double-cure.

Bless the reading of thy Word. And may our hearts now come down to the seriousness of the meeting. From our hearts being filled with joy over the singing of the gospel, and testimonies, and so forth, we're just so grateful. Now may we hear thy Word. And speak to us, Father, and bless these few notes that's been prepared for the evening, for we ask it in his name, and for his glory. Amen.

There's many people who, coming to the service, likes to always mark down what a minister has to say, or read from the Scripture. And if you do that, I want you to turn with me tonight for just a little reading found over in the book of St. Matthew's gospel, the 15th chapter, the 21st to the 28th verse. I would read this:

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, ... 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 to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.

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

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

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

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

If I would call this a text, I would like to speak just a moment, or for a few minutes rather, upon the subject of “Perseverance.” I thought, being that Mrs. McPherson and the church has always stood so gallantly for divine healing, and we cannot preach the full gospel without preaching divine healing because it is part of the gospel....

I remember as a little boy reading an article in one of the magazines—“Life,” or “Look,” or some of those magazines (I was just a young lad)—of them making light of Mrs. McPherson of preaching divine healing. And they said that she had a trick that she did. Said women that had goiters, she put a pin under her finger and the women put a balloon under her garment. And then Mrs. McPherson would lay hands on the woman, would stick the pin into the balloon, and would deflate the balloon.

I was a sinner, but I had better sense than that, to think such a thing. If the pin stuck the balloon it would burst. So I said, “No doubt but what that woman is suffering persecution.” And then, since I have become a worker in the vineyard I realize what she had to stand. Standing for truths, you're always hated of the enemy.

The word “perseverant” means to be, I think, according to Webster, persistent—to be perseverant, persistent in making a goal. And every person on earth, or that's ever been on earth, that ever achieved anything had ... that amounted to anything, had to be perseverant. You've got to be sure first what you've got your faith anchored in. Now, faith is just not a thing that's so easily floated around at some kind of a—we would call it in a street expression—a hocus-pocus. Faith can only have its right position when it's placed upon something that's steadfast.

If I told you to go out and put your hand on that tree and be healed, you could doubt that. So ... why? We have no background to anything. You'd only have my word. And if I told you that washing in a certain water out here in the valley would bring healing to you, it would depend on how much confidence you had in me. And faith cometh by hearing. Hearing what? The Word of God.

Therefore, if this be the Word of God (and it is), what it teaches we can rest upon it. God cannot change. God must forever remain God. His word must be just as true in this age as it ever was in any age.

Now, we are finite. We can say something this year, and maybe even tomorrow have to alter it, because we're not too sure, because we're finite. We're just presuming. And presume means to venture without authority. But when God says anything, it's perfect. He don't have to alter it.

Abraham staggered not at the promise of God through unbelief; but was strong, giving praise to God because he knowed that He was able to perform, or to keep, or to do that what He had promised. Then if God's ever called on the scene for a decision ... and the decision that God makes first it has to forever remain the same. It can never change. It cannot be altered, because He's infinite; and anything that's infinite never had a beginning or an end. So He cannot take it back next year, and say “I was wrong.”

And then, if that was his decision, then every man that makes that same ... comes to that same decision that God made for one man upon the basis of his faith to believe it, He's got to meet that same thing every time a man believes it. God's got to act every time the way He acted the first time, or He acted wrong the first time. And who can accuse God of acting wrong? God's got to ever remain with his decision.

“If thou canst believe....”

Now, to achieve anything you've got to set a goal and say, “This I believe,” and tie yourself to it; and keep going, moving up closer to it, knowing that you've ... it's there—knowing that there's something there that you're coming to.

Like it was said, the little boy with the kite. Holding the string in his hand, he said ... the man said, “What are you holding, son?”

He said, “My kite.”

He said, “I don't see nothing but a string.”

He said, “But there's a kite on the end of it.”

The man looked up, said, “I don't see the kite.”

The little boy said, “Neither do I.”

He said, “Well, how do you know you got a kite?”

He said, “I can feel it tugging at the end.”

Well, that's the way faith is. “Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.” As long as you set your faith on it, and then anchor to it, you're coming to it. No matter if you can't see it or not, you know it's there anyhow. You're tugging at it, and it's pulling you. Any man that's ever done anything worthwhile has set a goal, and then been persistent, perseverant to make that.

Great men....

George Washington (“the father of our nation” is called), when he come to Valley Forge.... After all night in prayer—until he was wet with the snow up above his hips, kneeling in the snow—the next morning he crossed the Delaware full of ice. Why? He was perseverant. He had the answer. Nothing was going to stand in his way. Although three or four musket bullets went through his coat, but it never hurt him. He tried ... he wanted to achieve something, and he had prayed through on it, and he was perseverant. Nothing stood in his way.

Could you imagine Noah in his day, how perseverant Noah was? Now, he was just a farmer, and they lived in a greater day of scientific research, perhaps, than we have today, because in those days they built pyramids. And if any of you have had the privilege of being at the big Egyptian pyramid and seeing the Sphinx and so forth, why it's amazing to see. How they ever did get those boulders up there in the air almost a city block high—they weighed thousands of tons! Today we could not reproduce it. We don't understand.

They had something.... They had a dye. They had something they could embalm a body with that would make it look quite natural for thousands of years. We don't have those arts, colorings, and so forth, that they had. A great scientific age.

But one day, while Noah was out in the field, maybe fixing his crop, God appeared to him, and told him, “Make ready for the saving of your household, and build an ark. And it's going to rain.” Now we all know that the antediluvian world it had not rained. And now, that didn't cope with the scientific thinkers of that day. His message was contrary.

No doubt that smart scientists could have come to him and said, “Now looky here, Mr. Noah. Now we got instruments that we can shoot the moon, and we can do all these scientific researches. And there is no water up there! And how is there going to come any water down from there, when there's no water up there to come down? You're foolish. You're doing something that there's nothing to. There's no water up there.”

But Noah could say, “God said that it would rain, and that settles it. God said so.”

A hundred and twenty years he was persistent in the face of the scientific world of his day, still claiming his message was right because it come from God. He had a goal to make, he had a message to take care of, and he was persistent in doing so. No matter what the rest of the world said, Noah heard from God. That's all that mattered to him. He had heard the voice. He was sure it was God, and he was making ready something that seemed very silly to the world. But yet Noah knew that God would keep his word.

Should that not be a lesson for us today, in the hour...? As Jesus said, “As it was in the days of Noah, so shall it be at the coming of the Son of man.” A message that's silly to the world, they don't understand it; but yet those who've contacted the Holy Spirit knows that He will return again.

I can see the people as they pitied poor old Noah about how much fun he was missing, and of the world and the things that's going on; but Noah, still persistent, held right on.

One day God said to Noah, “All right, you've done your part now. Now come into the ark, you and your household.” And they noticed the birds began to fly in, and the animals began to go in two-by-two. Noah and his family went in.

And there's always borderline believers, I call them—people that'll come to church. They'll enjoy a message, maybe from the choir, or from the singers, from the minister, or a testimony. They'll enjoy it. But to come in and be part of it, they just won't do it. They like to listen; but they won't be part of it. They do not want to be identified with them. They want to stay off to one side. That's always been, and no doubt there was in that day.

Then when the ark door was closed many of those people said, “Well, let's go up and stand around. Now, if it comes to pass that, for instance, the old man was right.... We all kind of thought that the old fellow was a little bit off, but I enjoyed listening to him preach standing there in the door. And now we know that something closed that door. Now, he's a good old man. And if it would happen to be some water come down up there, why, he'd take us in.”

You see, you don't want to trust ... you don't want to strain God's goodness. You want to be sure that you just come in while you got a chance to come in. Then the first thing you know, the first day it....

Look at how God puts a strain on his people sometimes. I'd imagine the first day Noah said to his family, “All right. Now we'll climb up into the upstairs. Now in the morning the skies are going to be dark. Never was dark before. We've never seen it. Rain's going to fall. Lightning will sweep across the skies.” And the next morning up comes the sun. No sign. All day long Noah and his family looked. Well, things went on just exactly the way they did.

I imagine the borderline believers said, “Aw, the old fellow was wrong.” They went on back downtown—eating, drinking, and being married.

I imagine his family. What a strain it must have been on the man. But he didn't give up and start knocking on the door, and saying, “People, pry the door open. I was wrong.” Why? He knew he had the truth, and he held on to it. If it didn't rain today, it will tomorrow. That's it.

All right.

Then the second day come, and we notice the sun came up. It crossed over, just like it did every day—no sign of rain. Still he was persistent. On to seven days Noah was sitting right there. Said, “If it didn't rain today, it will tomorrow.” See, he was anchored. He was persistent—perseverant—because he knowed that God said so, and it had to be that way.

Now, finally on the seventh day, when he looked out the window, the skies were blackening, the wind was blowing across the hills, the trees were bending over, people were screaming, not knowing what to do. And after awhile great big drops of rain began to break down for the first time, striking upon the streets. The sewers filled up, all the little springs broke up, the water began to rise. People got into their boats, and they sank. The winds were rough. And it got deeper, and deeper, and deeper. After awhile it began to come up on the ship. He watched out the window.

Finally, the people screaming.... There was no way for him to reach out and get them. He was way up in the upper story. They'd sinned away their day of grace. There was no more left for them. It was too late then. Finally.... What a feeling it must have been to Noah, when he watched out on the street and seen all the little boats, whether they were God-constructed or not!

You see, people think that today—they can construct their own ark. They can make their own salvation. You can't do it. God made the salvation for us, and we've got to accept it. Just a man-constructed ark will not stand. Anything that man can achieve that's contrary to the will and the Word of God, it will not stand.

But how it must have been when Mrs. Noah and her daughter-in-laws and sons, and so forth, when they seen this water coming up on the ark—and yet the ark was still sitting flat.

But after awhile they felt it cut loose. She was floating! Oh, Noah knew that all of his ... what he had tried to achieve, what he had done, his message was paying off then. It was cut loose. He was leaving the earth. Like it is when a man will stay (not come up and shake hands with the pastor, put his name on a book), but when he will stay there until he feels something cut loose inside of him, and he begins to float out yonder by faith—knowing that his sins are past and he's anchored his soul in Christ, and there's something raising him higher and higher. Persistent, perseverant.

Moses was very perseverant. After he'd went down in Egypt and killed a man.... And with all of his education and his training, and yet he done the thing wrong because he trusted in what he could achieve by his education, and by his own.... We're told that he was a military man. And what he'd been trained to do, we find out that it failed. And when it failed, he wasn't perseverant on that. He run to the wilderness for forty years.

But one time he met God in a burning bush, took off his shoes. He saw the glory of God. He seen a dry stick turn into a serpent and go back to a stick again. He saw a leper hand be healed by the power of God, and he heard the voice of God speak to him. Nothing was going to stop him then.

I've often described him (I hope it's not a sacrilegious way), an old man eighty years old, with his wife sitting straddled a mule with a young-un on her hip, the next day; and the beard hanging down, the stick in his hand, going ... his eyes set up and towards the sky, and a white beard blowing. And somebody say, “Where you going, Moses?”

“I'm going down to Egypt to take over.” A one-man invasion! It looked kind of ridiculous. But God's ways to the carnal mind is ridiculous; but it's precious to those who's anchored in it. They know what they're talking about. They press on.

Oh, what a thing that must have been! Noah, or

Moses rather, going down to Egypt (a nation that had the world scared, about like Russia today), a one-man invasion—an old man, eighty years old, with his wife sitting on a mule, and a crooked stick in his hand, going down to take over! The thing strange about it, to the world, he did do it! He took over. God only has to have one man, one person somewhere that's tied to Him—someone who knows where they're standing and is perseverant. The persecutions then, difference doesn't bother him at all. Going down to take over, and he did it.

It looked very ridiculous when there stood a man some fourteen feet tall or more (I believe his fingers fourteen inches long), with a spear in his hand like a weaver's needle, probably half from here to the door out there—standing over and challenging Israel. There was Saul on the other side, head and shoulders above his army of trained men, all of them well-trained—and bluffed. That's right. And the devil wanted to proposition with them.

That's the way the devil does when he thinks he's got the best side. “Come over. Let's not have no bloodshed. Just two of us. If I whip your man, then (we'll) you'll serve us. If he kills me, then there'll only be one of us die instead of armies of us.” What a proposition he can make! Everybody was scared to death.

And it looked ridiculous to see a little stooped-shouldered kid come up with a little sheepskin wrapped around him, a slingshot tied on his side, with some raisin cakes in his hand, to see his brothers. That devil made his boast in the front of a man of God one time, and he called his hand on it. Why? He knowed who God was.

He said, “I ... you mean to tell me that you'll let the armies of the living God ... let that uncircumcised Philistine defy the armies of the living God? I'll go fight him.” Oh, my! Why? He was persistent.

His brothers said, “Aw, we know you're naughty. Go on back home with them sheep Dad told you to watch. You just come up here to see the battle.”

You can't outtalk a man of God, when something's done happened to him. So he goes up to Saul. Saul, I imagine, scratched his head and looked down. He said, “I admire your courage, son, but that man is a warrior. That man is a warrior from his youth, and you're nothing but a youth and don't know nothing about (a sling) or, about a spear, or how to duel.”

Oh, but watch him introduce something. “Your servant kept the sheep for his father.” And he said, “One day a bear came in and he took one of my father's lambs, and I went after him, and I slew him. And then a lion come in and got one and took him out. And I went after him, and I slew him. Now,” he said, “the God that give me the victory over the bear and over the lion, how much more will He give me the victory over that uncircumcised Philistine that's defying the armies of the living God?”

Saul said, “But you're just a kid.” He said, “You haven't got nothing on—just a little sheepskin. Wait, I'll put my armor on you.”

So he took him and put his armor on him. Could you imagine? The Bible said he was ruddy, a little bitty ... maybe 110 pound man putting on a great big armor of a man that weighed about 250, about seven foot and something tall. He was all mashed down. Could you imagine that?

David looked down. The shoulders about that much too far out, and it looked like a skirt on him, hanging way down like that, his breastplate. He found out that the ecclesiastical vest didn't fit a man of God. Said, “Take the thing off of me. I don't know nothing about it. But let me go with what I know is right.” There you are! He went in the power of the Spirit.

I believe it was Hudson Taylor once said to a Chinese missionary.... This Chinese boy said, “Mr. Taylor, I have felt my call in Christ.” He said, “Shall I go now and study to get my Bachelor of Arts, and then for my Ph.D. and all I have to have, my doctor's degree?”

Mr. Taylor said, “Go now, son. Go now. Don't wait till that time comes. You'll waste away too much of your life.”

I think that's right. I agree with Mr. Taylor. Go now! I'm not trying to support my ignorance now, by trying to say we don't need education. That might have its place. But education without salvation has no anchor. It's all sails, and no anchor. Go when the candle's lit. Don't wait till it's half burnt up. Go when you light it. If you don't know nothing no more than how it got lit, tell others how it got lit; and maybe they'll get lit too. So just as soon as the candle's lit, go tell everybody how you got your candle lit. And maybe they'll get lit off of you, see.

Notice. Certainly David was persistent, because he knew.

Samson was met on the field one day with a thousand Philistines around him. And he looked all around. He wasn't a trained man that knew how to duel. But when he turned his head he felt that covenant, them locks, strike his shoulders. That's all he had to feel. He got ... the first thing in his hand was a jawbone of a mule, and he beat down a thousand Philistines. Why? He was persistent because he knowed that God had made a covenant with him of those seven locks. As long as they hung in their place nothing was going to bother him.

Oh, brother, sister, how the church of the living God ought to stand tonight persistent. As long as we can feel the covenant of the Holy Spirit, the blood of Jesus Christ cleansing us from all sin, we should never let nothing stand in our way. Persistent, certainly.

John, the great prophet that was spoke of to raise up, when he was in the wilderness he was told by God.... They was looking for a messiah, of course—four hundred years before they had had a prophet. But God told him in the wilderness, He said, “Now, they'll try to tell you, 'Dr. So-and-so is the guy ought to be the messiah, if you're to announce him. Why, he's the best person in our congregation.' And they're going to say, 'Well, the high priest's grandson up here, he's the guy should have it,' and so forth. But look, John, this is a real job. You've got to be sure. So I'm going to give you a sign. Upon whom thou shalt see the Spirit descending and remaining upon, that'll be the one that'll baptize with the Holy Ghost and fire.”

John stood there, watched over the congregations as they come. And he ... everybody coming this, that, and the other. But he couldn't see Him. One day, while standing debating with the priest saying, “You mean to tell me the time will come when the daily sacrifice will be taken away?”, he said, “There'll come a man...,” and he looked. There it was!

Said, “Behold, there's the lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world.”

He knew it because God had told him “upon whom thou shalt see the Spirit descending....” He knew it. He was persistent.

Back to this little woman. We just got many things we could say about different ones that was perseverant, persistent, holding on to achieve. I've got a little slogan that.... I say it quite a bit—it might be good for you to take it. “A winner never quits; and a quitter never wins.” Just think of it: a winner never quits, and a quitter can't win. You must hold on. And before you even start, be dead sure you're right. And then be persistent. Let nothing move you. Go on. I've had quite a bit of experience of that, and you know it. But I know this one thing: when you're dead sure that you're in the will of God, when you're dead sure you're centered in Calvary, nothing's going to move you. You're there.

This little woman, she was a Greek, and a Syrophenician. And she'd heard about the fame of Jesus. Now, how does faith come? By hearing, hearing of the Word. She'd heard of Him. And you know, she might have had a lot of things to hinder her by her being a Greek. Faith cometh by hearing. We know that. And she had a lot of things to hinder her. But faith finds a source no other knows anything about. Faith finds this source that no one can explain it. It's something that you know. Others can't see it; but faith sees it. Faith sees that, where the natural eye doesn't see it. But the inside eye sees that thing.

Now, she had a need of Jesus. She had ...

first thing you have to do if you're going to find Christ, you've got to know that you've got a need of Him. When you think that you just don't need Him, then you'll never find Him 'cause you won't search for Him diligently. Did you notice that scripture where it says, “Seek and ye shall find; knock and it'll be opened.”? Actually that's just not knock like [Brother Branham knocks on pulpit] and it'll be opened.

He that's ... not just say, “Well, I went out, Lord. Here I am. You want me?” No, that's not it. He that seeketh, he that knocketh—continuation. It has to compare with the rest of the Scriptures, like the unjust judge and the widow. She constantly knocked on his door. She was persistent. If he turned her away today, tomorrow she was on his hands again.

That's the way you want to get God. Be on his hands every morning, every night, every day, all the time constantly. Just keep seeking, keep asking, keep knocking. Just don't knock a little while and get tired, and go away. Just keep standing there. “Lord, I'm here and I'm not going to leave. I'm on your hands now. I'm going to stay right here. You getting tired listening? I'm having a great time knocking, 'cause I know You're coming.” That's when something happens. He has to get you off of his hands, so He comes out to answer you. Now faith finds this.

His word is a sword. The Bible says in Hebrews 4:12 that the Word of God is sharper than a two-edged sword. Now there's only one thing that can hold this sword. That's the hand of faith. The hand of faith is the only thing that can yield this sword of (faith), sword of the Word. Now, you might have a weak arm—just enough to pick it up for justification, you're so weak. Maybe that's all you can cut through. But this sword of the Word will cut free every promise that God made in it, if they got a good strong arm of faith holding it there.

“I believe God for my healing.”

“I believe God for my baptism.”

God made the promise, and faith holds this sword. It'll cut her out of the rock yonder. Every promise of God can be cut free by the Word of God, for it is a sword.

She had many hindrances, but her faith didn't have any.

You might have a lot of hindrances. Every person that starts out to meet Christ will find you got a lot of hindrances, but your faith don't have any. Faith don't have no hindrance. Faith has hairs on his chest, great big muscles. Reasons raise up and said, “You know it's reasonable....” Faith pulls his muscles back and sticks out his big chest, and says, “Shut up! Sit down!” And reason jumps over in a corner and takes his stool. Right. Faith's got muscles, and he means what he says.

That's what we need tonight. That's what the Foursquare church needs, that's what the Pentecostal group needs, that's what the whole world needs. That's what I need; that's what you need. And we ought to be ashamed to admit it, but we need a faith that will hold God's Word and say it's true; meet the devil, and say “thus saith the Lord.”

I was reading the other day where a man said the devil got before him, and said he was just a little bitty old devil. And he said, “Boo!”

Said, “I jumped back.” And said, “He said 'Boo!'

“I jumped back every time he'd holler 'Boo!' And I'd jump back and he'd get bigger and I'd get littler.”

And said, “He kept saying 'Boo!'” Said, “I'd get smaller each time when I jumped back, and he'd get bigger.”

Said, “I knowed I had to fight him after awhile.” Said “I looked around, thought what.... I found the Word of God.” Said, “I'd hold it in my hand. And the devil said 'Boo!' and I said, 'Boo back!'”

And said, “When I said 'Boo back!' ... every time I said 'Boo' he got smaller, and I got bigger.” That's it! You've got to fight him sooner or later.

You know that people don't believe there's a devil. I run into him all the time, head into him every day. Any other believer does. Yes, you've got to fight him sooner or later, so you might as well start right now. There's only one thing he's afraid of, is that blood and that Word. Faith holds it. It's strong, marches on.

Now, we find out this little Greek woman, as I said, she had many hindrances—but her faith didn't have any. Faith don't have any hindrances. They might have said to her, “Do you know you're a Greek? You're a Greek. You know, you don't belong to his denomination. Don't go down there to that bunch.” Now that's one of the hindrances, see. But if you got faith, you're going anyhow. It don't make any difference what denomination He's in—just so He's there.

She had a need. She had a daughter that was dying with epilepsy. And she had to get to Him, because the doctors couldn't do nothing for her—can't do it yet. So she had to get to Jesus. She'd heard that He'd heal those kind of cases.

“Well,” they said, “He's not ... He never come with his revival to your denomination.” That didn't hinder her. That little woman had faith. She was persistent. She just passed that group. Her faith pulled her away from it.

Oh, if they could just do that today. Somebody says, “There's a meeting tonight down at the Foursquare church.”

“Well, it don't belong to your denomination. You better stay away from down there.”

Just press right on through. Your faith takes you right on. See, faith has no hindrance. It goes anyhow. Nothing's going to stop it. As I said, it's brawny, big muscles. It's got the floor; rest of them's scared of it. Yes, sir. They'll run from it like smallpox. They just get plumb away. They haven't got nothing to do with that. When big faith raises up and says, “I know who I believe and I'm persuaded,” that's it.

There might have been another group that come along, say, “The days of miracles is past. There is no such a thing as that. That's a bunch of holy rollers down there, them Jews. We're Greeks. We're smart. We're intelligent group of people. We give the world art, music, and religion, and there's no such a thing as that.” But she was persistent. Days of miracles wasn't past for her, because something had done told her down here that it wasn't, and that Jesus had what she was looking for. And she was determined to get to Him. Regardless if her denomination sponsored it or not, she was going anyhow. She was going to get down there. She was persistent, still persistent. Days of miracles might be past for them; but it wasn't for her.

That's the way it is with every believer. Them people say the days of miracles....

A man told me some time ago said, “I don't care what you'd say Mr. Branham,” said, “I don't believe there is such a thing as divine healing.”

I said, “Certainly not, to you.” It wasn't for unbelievers; just for those who believe. That's right. It wasn't sent to unbelievers. It was sent to believers. You can't enjoy it, because you know nothing about it.

He wanted to tell me there was no such a thing as the Holy Ghost. I said, “You're just about thirty-three years too late for that.” I said, “I know better. I've done received it.”

“Ah, nonsense.”

I said, “It might it be to you, but not to me. It's real to me. It's life, something anchoring.” He come too late to tell me that.

They've come too late to tell us about divine healing. We done been healed. We done been filled with the Holy Ghost. We done got rapturing grace. Amen! It's too late for any of those things. They might as well shut up! We done got it. Our faith can say “Sit down! I know what I'm talking about.”

“Well, Doctor....”

I don't care what Dr. So-and-so said. The Bible said it, and I've got faith in that book in my hand. And my faith holds it out there. Jesus is coming. I believe that I received the Holy Ghost because I see Him living in my life. Amen! It's according to the Word. Nothing ... a manifested revelation, a perfect vindication of the Bible being right, and Jesus Christ the same yesterday, today, and forever. Let them laugh that away. They can laugh all they want to.

We'll just be as persistent as they was, when Noah was, Moses was. All the rest of the impersonators raising up—

Jannes and Jambres threw their rod down, turned into a snake. There was those men, just as honorable as they could be, did exactly what God told them to do, and there come a bunch of impersonation of them—throwed down their rods. Only thing they could do was stand still and see the glory of God. Amen. God'll stand by it.

If He sent you and you're sure of it, you're going to achieve the work that God predestinated for you to do. You'll stand there, and God'll take every carnal impersonator away from you. Right. Stand there. You can be persistent, because you know who you have believed and what's right. Examine your revelation with the Word. If it's contrary to the Word, leave it alone. If it's with the Word, God's bound, duty bound, to keep his Word.

Now, there might have been a bunch of ladies standing down on the corner, you know. And they said, “Here she comes. Now she's got that kid up there that's got epilepsy, and Dr. So-and-so said that there's no cure for epilepsy. And here she is, going down to that off-brand denomination down there, for that fanatic prophet to come up here and heal that child.” So they said, “We ought to stop Suzy [I hope there's not a Suzy here], but we ought to stop Suzy and tell her, because she's been a good woman. There's nothing against her life.

But we ought to stop her. And the only thing that I know to do.... She's passed by everybody else, so she won't break this barrier. You know what, Suzy? Your husband will leave you because he's a trustee or a deacon on the board. And he'll leave you sure as the world if you go down there.“

She was still persistent. She went right on. See, faith don't know no hindrance. It must get there.

Then she passed another group that said, “You know what? When you return back defeated, and find out there's nothing to it, everybody in the neighborhood will laugh at you.” That didn't even make her ears turn red. She was persistent. She went right on. I like that. I like that persistency.

Then here stood one of the deacons, and said, “If you go down there, you know what they're going to do? Put you out of your church 'cause you've associated yourself with them holy rollers, or them people.” Said “You know [Excuse me. Ought maybe not said it, see.] you've associated yourself with them. You'll get put out of your church.”

She was still persistent. Faith knows no defeat. She had one thing to achieve, and that was get to Jesus. She had a need, and He's the only one that had that need.

And I'm saying this tonight, brother, and sister: I'm fifty-three years old. I've been serving Him since I was about twenty. He's met everything that I had a need of. And when it comes to the hour of my death, I'm sure what I need right then—two wings to reach across the river—He'll be there. Don't you worry. I know He'll be there. I'll just stick the old sword back in the sheath, and take off the helmet, and lay it down upon the river when I ... bank, when I hear the dashers. And I'll scream “Send out the life-boat! I'm coming home this morning.” It'll be there. Yes, sir! The morning star will come down and light up the way. Across the river we'll go. Yes, sir. Amen!

She was persistent. She had an achievement. She knew that she had to be perseverant in order to get to Jesus, so she had to pass by everything. Finally she arrived. Now, finally got here. Everything's fine now. And then here come another hindrance. The very man that she had professed to have confidence in, the man she tried to get to—Jesus—He said, “I'm not sent to your race. [Oh, my! Would that not have made us Pentecostals blow-up. Hmm, hmm, my!] I'm not sent to your race.” Whew! That was a shock. But do you know what? Faith knows no shock.

And then again He turns around.... After all these things she'd passed through, and her faith holding, that she knew that Jesus could give her her desire.... And she went through every one of these barriers, and when she got to Him, then turned down flat. “I'm not even sent to your race.” I can imagine her standing there and her eyes gleaming. She'd ... she was in front of Him then. That's all she had to be. And said, “Besides that, your race ain't nothing but a bunch of dogs.” Oh, my!

What if He'd said that to you? You'd have said, “I'll take my papers from this Foursquare and go over to somewhere else. I'll never go back there again. I'll take it from So-and-so....” Oh, yes! Yes, sir.

But still she held on. Oh, see? Faith knows no defeat. Ain't nothing going to stop it. Though Jesus said to her, the very one she'd come to, said, “I'm not sent to your race, and they're nothing but a bunch of dogs.” Whew! But what? She had a hold of real faith. Faith knows no defeat, I don't care what it comes from. Knows no defeat, because she had faith. Still she held on. Oh, I love that.

She was not a hotbed plant, a hybrid, like some of them today —

these hybrid religions we got today, you know. They ain't no good. Everything now's hybrid, hybrid. Even they got hybrid churches, hybrid Christians—took in by shaking of hands. Oh, they can dress better, and maybe use better English, and so forth like that. Ain't got no life in them.

You take a big fine ear of corn hybrid, maybe it's twice as pretty as the other one. Plant it, it'll die. Ain't got no life in it. That's right. We don't want nothing hybrid. We want the genuine thing. If you haven't got it, stay there till it comes. Why accept a substitute when the Pentecostal skies are full of the real? Nothing hybrid—it won't stand.

You have to always spray a hybrid plant to keep the bugs off of it. That's the way with some of these hybrid Christians. You have to baby them, and pet them, and promise them they'll be deacon or something else. Keep some of the worldly bugs from them of unbelief. “They'll get out of the church.” Kick them out anyhow. They never was in.

You can't join a church. You might join a lodge. You can join the Methodist lodge, Baptist lodge, or Pentecostal lodge. But if you ever come to Christ, you'll be born into the church—that's right—the mystical body of Christ. Others are lodges. That's right. That's all right, nothing against them, but you're born into the church of the living God by the Spirit of God. You can't join it at all. And when you're born in there, you got a birth—you're not a hybrid no more, a hand-joiner, or a hitchhiker. You know a hitchhiker is always thumbing. That's the way. “Well, I know. But Dr. So-and-so....” No, no. That's it. That's it. That's exactly.

She was persistent. She wasn't a hybrid. You didn't have to spray her all over with perfume, make her right. She stood there.

Part of our crop today, too many of them's hybrids, just.... Something like David duPlessis, I believe, once said, “God has no grandchildren.”

Trouble with our Pentecostal movement, we're getting Pentecostal grandchildren. They come in because their fathers and mothers were Pentecostal. We take them in on the cradle roll, and they come up without the experience, and there they say they're Pentecostal too. No, sir.

God don't have grandchildren. He ain't Grandpa; He's Father. Right! And if you ever get to heaven you'll pay the price like your mother did, your daddy did. Amen. That might sound crude, but it's truth. It's a crude way of making a point, but you understand that kind of English, I'm sure. If it isn't very good English, it gets the point what I'm trying to say, if you just listen to it. Yes.

She wasn't a hybrid, she didn't have to be sprayed over, and babied now. “Well now, sister dear, I tell you, well....” Oh, no. No, sir. And no matter what knocked her down, she said, “It's truth, we're nothing but a bunch of dogs. It's true that we're not worthy of it.” Oh, my. She admitted that He was right.

I'm going to say a great big mouthful. Get ready. Every time genuine faith will admit the Word's right. And any time that something says that the days of miracles is past, or something against the Bible, it's not genuine faith. The faith will always admit truth. You must stay with the Word. No matter what anything else says, what anybody else says, it's the Word's right. “Let every man's word be a lie, and mine true ... Ever who'd add to or take away from the same will be taken his part out of the book of life.”

God's going to judge the world by a church? Which one? Catholic? Six hundred and sixty-five different denominations? How's He going to do that? God's going to judge the world by Jesus Christ. And Christ.... “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God ... And the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us.” God and the Word is the same. This is God on print. You've got the Holy Spirit? Plant that seed in there. It brings it to life, breaks that life forth, and manifests and vindicates it.

Jesus said in St. John 12, “He that believeth on me [St. John 14:12, rather], the works that I do shall he do also.” So it always admits to the truth. Oh, my!

But you know, she said, “That's true. We ain't nothing but a bunch of dogs, and we're not ... You really wasn't sent to us. But Lord, I'm not looking for all the bread the children had. I'm only searching for crumbs.” Oh, my.

Now did you notice people? They want to get this ... get healed, and get the Holy Spirit the way they think they ought to have it. “Now, I'll come down, brother, if you'll bring me up and take me into a room where nobody will see me, and you lay your hands upon me, and bless me, and put the Holy Ghost in me. I'll accept it.” Oh, no.

Naaman wanted to accept his healing like that one time. But Elisha told him to get out there in the old muddy Jordan and dip seven times. I can just see him get off his chariot (oh, a great man), hold his nose. Here he comes out in the water tip-toeing like a cat in molasses, you know, coming out like this, you know, getting out like that to get down in the water. He said, “I hate to do this,” hod-dod down. (Some people come to the altar like it was a sickening affair for them. Yes. “Oh, I don't want to do that.”) He ducked one time, and said, “I still got leprosy.” The prophet said seven times. Right! Until he obeyed the Word completely, until you obey it completely....

Had a good man standing on the bank, said, “The prophet said seven times, father. Just keep on dipping.” That's it. If you don't get it the first night, just dip again the next night. Just keep on till you get it.

Now remember. She was like Rahab, the harlot, this little woman was. She'd never seen a miracle. She'd only heard about a miracle. What will she do in the day of judgment to us? She'd never seen a miracle. She was a Gentile. She'd never seen, but she'd heard. And we've both seen and heard, and still doubt. Oh, my!

She was like Rahab, the harlot. When the spies come over she didn't have to say, “I'll tell you. You bring Joshua over and let him hold a service for me, and I'll see the way he grooms his hair, and the way he talks, and the etiquette he uses at the pulpit. And I'll see whether I can accept him or not.”

She said, “I have heard that the God of heaven was with you, and the only thing I ask is to be spared.” There you are. That little woman was really persistent. She held right on. “Just spare me. I'll do anything that you want me to do.” Oh, there you are.

That's it.

This little woman, no matter what the difficult was, she was persistent. Oh! She had the right approach to the gift of God. She had the right approach—humility. She fell down at his feet, and she had humility. She didn't stand up and say, “Now You wait just a minute. You know we people are Greeks; You said we were dogs. Just a minute here, sir. Do You realize that we're the masters of art, and we're the masters of so-and-so, and such-and-such?” She never thought of that at all.

She just admitted that He was right, and fell down at his feet, and said, “Help me, Lord. I'll just eat the crumbs. If my daughter can't have a whole slice of bread, will You just let her have the crumbs if she's a dog?” Oh, my. There you are.

Would we be satisfied with just the crumbs if the Holy Spirit should reveal to somebody tonight you're healed? Would you be ready just to take the crumbs? Or would you want God to walk over and raise you up, and give you some kind of a feeling? If you'd just say in your heart, “My sickness is over,” you haven't got it no more. “I believe that I'm going to be healed from tonight on.” Would you take the crumbs?

Or would you want everybody to come up and lay hands on you, and pour oil, and go through the regular ritual like that; or are you just looking for crumbs? God'll honor that.

You know, many of the disciples had seen Him after his resurrection. Thomas said, “No, I won't believe it. I got to put my hands in the prints of his nails in his hands, and in his side. Then I'll believe it.”

He said, “Come here, Thomas.” Said, “Touch me.” And he did.

He said, “My Lord, and my God.”

He said, “Thomas, because you have seen, and felt and everything, you believe.”

“Yes, Lord.”

He said, “How much greater is their reward who has never seen, and yet will believe.”

Are we ready? Are we Gentiles like that Gentile woman? Was she an example to all of us?

“Just give me the crumbs, Lord. Just let me hear some man.... I've never read the Word, but tell me that You heal the sick. That crumb will be enough for me. I believe it. Let me hear somebody say, and read it from the Word, that the Holy Ghost.... Peter said on the day of Pentecost, 'Repent, every one of you, be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of your sins, and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost. For the promise is unto you, and to your children, and to them that's far off, even as many as the Lord our God shall call.

' Lord, I feel that that's right.“ That's a crumb.

Come on. That's all you have to do. Come! Are we ready to take the crumbs? Are we ready to humble ourselves? She was. She was ready to humble herself. Faith always admits the Word right. Faith is always humble. Faith humbles itself. Now, she was just looking for the crumbs.

Watch what Jesus said. “For this saying, for this saying [I'm willing to take the crumbs, Lord], for this saying, thy child is whole. You have your request because you believe it.”

Faith admits that the Word of God is right. Faith admits all these things. Martha, Mary, down through the Bible we could call many—the Shunammite woman—many things and cases that we could call. We haven't got time to. Of this ... I've got about five pages here, written of people, now, who approached for crumbs. But let's by-pass that just a minute. I feel the Holy Spirit close. I don't think it's necessary.

Let me just give you one little experience. The Businessmen wrote the little thing up in their ... the little article not long ago in their magazine. And remember, when you make a printed matter you better be able to back it up. We have it, a documented statement from the doctor.

I was noticing in the church tonight quite a few Spanish people. I was in Mexico City, and we were having a glorious meeting. I'd been there about three nights. There was a man that I called Mañana. He was supposed to get me at six o'clock, and would get me about nine. And I always ... because he was so slow, I said he was “tomorrow.” And when we got out to this big ring where I was preaching, they had to take me up on a ladder up here, and then let me down on ropes down on the platform.

The night before there had been a Mexican man that had come to the meeting. And the old fellow—raining, as it was—and he come to the platform blind. And he came down. I looked. And I had good shoes on, and a good suit; and the poor old man—he was bare-footed, his trousers all ragged. And I tell you ... my interpreter was.... You people know him, Brother Espinoza, up here in Sacramento, California, Pentecostal brother. He was interpreting. We'd had about, in the two nights, I think around about thirty or forty thousand converts from Catholicism to Christianity and the Holy Spirit.

And this old blind man come across the platform. And if you don't feel for the people you're praying for, there's no need of praying for them. You've got to feel yourself in their place. And I thought, “If my old daddy would've lived he'd have been about the age of that old man. Here he is. He's got no shoes.” And he had no shirt on, an old coat—ragged, dusty—and an old hat in his hand sewed up with cords. Probably the old fellow never had a decent meal in his life. And then, how cruel fate had been to him. Here he was, staggering in blindness, and his eyes was white.

I looked at the old fellow, and I just put my arms around him (and Brother Espinoza wouldn't interpret the prayer), and I said, “Heavenly Father, if I could give him my shoes, I'd slip out of them so nobody'd see them, give him my coat, send him on the road. But he's much larger than I. But God, have mercy on him. Give him back his sight.”

He hollered “Gloria a Dios!” I looked around. He could see as good as I could.

The next night there was a rack, or rick, as far as this building is long, about this high with nothing but just old shawls and old ragged clothes. The economics of Mexico is poorly balanced. Maybe Pedro gets (he's a brick mason), he might get sixteen pesos a day, but it'll take four days' work to buy him a pair of shoes. But he'll have to save enough out of that to pay several pesos for a grease candle to burn on a million dollar gold altar for his sins. That's what boils me,

seeing those precious people.

They come there at nine o'clock at morning—no seats to sit down. They leaned against one another like sheep in a pasture. Raining. Them women standing, their hair streaking down soaking wet, wait all day in the hot sun or rain, just to hear the Word of God. Oh, what will they do when Phoenix rises in the day of the judgment with them, when fine churches everywhere you can't even herd them in? There she stood, or he stood rather, with his sight.

That night when I got in it was raining hard. Brother Jack Moore (many of you know him), Brother Espinoza, several of the brethren, was on the platform. And Billy, my son, he usually gives out prayer cards. And he couldn't speak Spanish to those people, so he had to let Mañana do it. But he just went around to see that Mañana didn't sell a prayer card. So that's where we had to watch him, on selling a prayer card. So he just watched him, and he'd walk up and watch, and see that he'd just hand the prayer card to So-and-so, and like that. So he said....

Come to me.... I got to preaching. Great big pile of them clothes laying up there. How they ever knowed which belonged to who, I don't know. So they were ... I was ... just got to speaking, and Billy tapped me on the shoulder, said, “Daddy, you're going to have to do something with that little woman out there.” Said, “I've got almost three hundred ushers, and they can't even hold her,” a little bitty Spanish girl about so high, a beautiful little thing. She had a dead baby in her hands under a blanket.

And he said, “Mañana give out every prayer card.” And said, “She has no prayer card, and there's ... the line's been standing formed there for the last two hours waiting for you to come.” And said, “She wants to bring that dead baby up here, and we can't hold her off.”

Well, she'd come right over top of them ushers, run right under their feet, or anything. She was persistent. She wanted to get there. She had seen that blind man healed the night before. She was persistent.

I said, “Brother Moore, she don't know who I am. She don't know which is which. You just go down there and pray for the baby. That'll settle it.”

He said, “All right, Brother Branham.”

So Billy got him by the arm like it'd be me, so went on down across the platform. I turned around and I said, “I'm very happy to be here tonight.” And the meetings are not strange to you people here in Phoenix. Right before me I seen a little Mexican baby—no teeth, laughing—and a vision setting out here. I said, “Wait a minute, wait a minute, Brother Espinoza. Get to the....”

“What's the ... what's the matter?”

I said, “Get to the microphone.” I said, “Tell her to come here.”

He said.... “Daddy,” Billy said, “you can't bring her over all them prayer cards.”

I said, “Get her here. I just saw a vision.”

So he called her, and they get back. And here she come with a quilt in her hand like this, and a little baby laying in there—been dead since early that morning, died with pneumonia—a little bitty fellow about that long. And here she come, the tears running down her cheeks, her little black eyes, her hair hanging down, very charming little lady. She run to the platform and fell on her knees, and began to cry, “Padre....”

I said, “Stand up just a minute.” I thought, “Lord, what if it ain't that? What if that wasn't that? I don't know. I just seen a little Mexican baby—little, no teeth, his little gums—and it was laughing at me, sitting right out there.”

And she was crying. And I put my hand upon the wet blanket, and it raining then. And I said, “Heavenly Father, this little woman—no doubt in my mind but what You're answering her.” I said, “I saw the vision, that You know to be truth, of a little baby. I'm only accepting it by faith that it's this baby. I don't know the woman nor the baby, but something ... You're worked on both ends of the line.” And I laid my hands upon it.

And when I did, it kicked and screamed just as loud as it could scream. The mother jerked the blanket off of it, and there it was alive in her arms. I said, “Brother Espinoza, don't mark that down, but send some good loyal person.” And she was telling it in Mexican that the doctor pronounced her baby dead with pneumonia that morning about eight or nine o'clock, and here it was after ten that night. And I said, “Send and get a written, documented statement from the doctor that pronounced it dead.”

And the Mexican doctor wrote a statement and signed it: “I pronounced the baby dead, no respiration or nothing, in my office this morning at nine o'clock.” And here it is ten o'clock that night. And the next morning the baby was in the doctor's office to be examined. Normally again. Why? Because the little woman was persistent.

Faith knows no defeat. If there's five thousand standing there in the place, nothing takes the place. Her church could turn her out, her neighbors could laugh. But a God that could open the blind eyes of a man the night before could raise her baby, because He's the same God yesterday, today, and forever.

And if this group of people here tonight—crumb searchers, if you are—the very God that brought you here, that could lead you to a place like this, the God that saves you, the God that could fill you with the Holy Ghost, that same God can wipe away every bit of the sickness and sorrow, whatever it is, in your hearts tonight, if you believe that. Persistent, perseverant.

Reach and grab that little crumb of faith now, saying, “Lord, thank You for it. Here I come.”

The neighbor will say tomorrow, “You're not healed.”

Say, “Oh, but I am. I am. I found a crumb last night down at the Foursquare church. Something anchored within me. Nothing's going to stop me anymore. I have it.” Let us bow our heads just a minute.

Are you needing a crumb tonight? Could you take the crumb, and be persistent with it—the little crumb of faith that come to a little Gentile Greek woman, never seen a miracle in her life, a heathen idolater? But she heard that it'd been worked on someone else. She'd never seen it, but she believed it. And all the disappointments she had, yet, upon the basis of something in her heart telling her that her child could be healed.... You know, when she got home she found her daughter laying upon a bed. The spell had gone from her. Not only for herself, but for her daughter who wasn't present....

Do you need a crumb tonight? If you do, would you just raise up your hand and say, “Lord, just a crumb is all I ask.”

Our heavenly father, look at those crumb-seeking Gentiles. Times hasn't changed yet, Lord. They've heard. They've heard that You heal the sick. They've heard that You fill with the Holy Spirit, You give rest to the weary. O God, grant that these that tonight is crying like that precious little lady of many days ago, “Lord, truly we're not worthy to receive the blessings like thy people Israel. But we only seek a crumb that falls from the Master's table.”

And tonight we have showed the great food that You've fed your church. And tonight we have not only crumbs, but we're invited to the table. We don't really have to take the crumbs, but we're glad to get them. But we're invited to the table tonight. Jesus has his table spread where all the saints of God are fed. He invites his chosen people to come and dine.

Grant tonight, Father, that each one who has a need, that need will be met.

And while we have our heads bowed, and our hearts, in humility before God, I just wonder how many people in this building tonight that is not saved, that if Jesus should come and the world would meet its end tonight, and you'd.... You're willing to take the little crumb of faith that's been placed in your heart, and come to the table tonight, presenting your little crumb of faith before God, and would like to do so, would you just stand up and come down here, and let us pray for you here at the altar? Would you just come without any delaying? Just walk down. God bless you, my brother.

Would someone else come? The Lord be with you, my sister. Just come here. Would there be someone else here that's wanting a crumb, would just come down to the Lord's table? Say, “Lord, I'm not worthy to come. I'm a dog. I'm just ... I'm not worthy no more than that woman was, but I'm coming just for a crumb”? Would you come, sinner friend? Come. Might be your last time.

You see how the world's getting today? People don't want to come anymore. You can't hardly persuade them. The gospel looks like it's going to the fields. God bless you, my good brother. God bless you. That's wonderful. Just stand right here just a moment.

Someone else take the side place here, and say, “I stand with this man.” Lord bless you, son. God bless you, that's right. Come right down. Say, “I want a crumb, Lord. A crumb's all right for me. Something touched my heart. Now I'm coming down.” God bless you, son. God bless you, my brother. Stand right here.

Someone else feel a little crumb in your heart of faith, that would entice you to come to the table now? Would you come down with these four young men standing here waiting? I preached about a woman tonight, and it's men that's coming. What about it, sister? Won't you come, too, for the crumb? Have you got that little bit of faith that tells you that you're wrong? Say, “Well, I don't know what a crumb is, Brother Branham.”

The crumb is that in your heart, now, that tells you you're wrong. You should repent. Come on, won't you? Rise up, and come sweetly, quickly, to the fountain filled with blood? Won't you move out?

“I'm wrong, brother. Pray for me.” Come down. God bless you, brother. God bless you. Someone else? “I want just a crumb, Lord. This little crumb in my heart. I'm coming now to present it.” Will you come?

Now is there any here that's backslidden, gone away, and you'd like to come? Will you come now? Some without the Holy Spirit, you have not received the Holy Ghost? Oh, friend, if this light's been made so real to you in the last days, won't you come stand too? This might be the time that that great desire in your heart—something telling you, “I believe the Lord's going to give me the baptism of the Spirit tonight. I want to come stand.” Come around the altar. Will you do it? Stand with us for prayer, you that feels a little crumb that “I need the Holy Ghost.” If a man can come all the way from Ohio, fly down here in a jet plane (God bless you, Brother Grant), a Presbyterian can fly from Ohio down here in a jet plane to stand at the altar, what about the people in Phoenix? God bless you, my sister. Stand right here just a moment. Won't you come?

......drawn from Emmanuel's veins.

Won't you come while the fountain is open tonight, just filled with good things of God? I wonder, while we wait just a moment, surely there's more than that in here that'd be willing to take crumbs. Certainly there should be. Won't you come? Just do as I'm asking you once. Just take it sincerely in your heart, say, “I'm coming down. This is my time to come. I'm coming anyhow.” God bless you, sisters. That is very good. We're waiting now patiently for you to come. Let's bow our heads now while we're waiting. Sing this hymn of the church:

There is a fountain filled with blood,

Drawn from Emmanuel's ... (Won't you

come now? Won't you take your

crumb and come?)

...........beneath that flood

(If you want the Holy Spirit,

won't you come, come in now?)

Lose all their guilty stains,

Lose all their guilty stains;

And sinners plunged beneath....

(Come, friend.)

Lose all their guilty stains.

The dying thief rejoiced to see

That fountain in his day;

And there may I, though vile as he,

Wash all your sins away.

God bless you, my brother. That's the way to do it. I wonder if the ministers here now would come stand up here with us. Ministers in the building, come stand around here with us a minute now, instructors who's interested in lost souls.

...may I, though vile as he,

Wash all my sins away.

I wonder if there's ministers here, instructors in the Word, that would like to come. Remember, eternal destinations is being decided right now. Here's about seven, or eight, ten people standing here, and you know what that means. One soul's worth ten thousand worlds. We mustn't take this lightly.

Now you that's sick, and wants prayer of faith prayed for you, would you just stand right where you are. That's sick and needy. That's good. Now my minister brothers, that's right. Lay your hands over on these people.

Now, you sick people stand kind of close enough together that you can put your hands on each other.

Now the Bible said to you sick, “These signs shall follow them that believe.” You have to be a believer, or you wouldn't be standing. “If they lay their hands on the sick, they shall recover.” You know that's right. That's the scriptures that can't fail.

And to these penitent ones coming to the altar, my brothers and sisters who comes to the altar tonight, mortal beings that knows that you've got to face God sometime: the Bible said some men's sins go before them, some follow. You're confessing yours tonight, that your sins will go before you, and be forgiven through the blood of the Lord Jesus.

And you here seeking the baptism of the Holy Ghost, God made the promise over in Acts 10. We read, “While Peter yet spake these words the Holy Ghost fell on them that heard it,” they were so hungry. Now you're hungry, and you brought that little crumb up here. Now let's take a real full meal of God's blessings. All of it's for you.

Now, you people who believe in prayer, let's just bow our heads together and pray now, and believe. Now just forget who's around you. Know that there's nobody around you but Jesus Christ. And each one pray the way you do, the way you're used to praying. And brethren, lay your hands on these people, and let's believe now the Holy Ghost is going to come and perform these things that we're asking for.

Our heavenly Father, we do not feel that we're standing here in vain. We thank Thee for these souls. We know that You're here now to save them. I pray that you'll grant it, Lord. May their faith look beyond the shadow. May these seeking the Holy Ghost that's got believers' hands laying on them, the sick and the afflicted, may the power of God move into this building up and down these aisles, and through these people and save every sinner. Fill every believer with the Holy Ghost, and heal every sick person. Grant these things, Lord. I believe that You are here, and You are the same yesterday, today, and forever. Your promises cannot fail.

We believe that. You commissioned your church, and they went up to the city of Jerusalem. They went to the upper room, and were there continually praising and blessing God. And all of a sudden there came from heaven a sound of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled all the house where they were assembled. Thou art the same, and you're able to do the same. Let the power that come down on the day of Pentecost baptize this group of people tonight in the power of the resurrection of Jesus Christ. This prayer I offer in Jesus' name for these people, for the glory of God.

Raise up your hands now. The prayer of faith has been prayed, the prayer of faith of forgiveness. Raise up your hands and say, “Praise the Lord.” Just start praising Him, and blessing Him. Just confess your sins. Believe with all your heart. Raise your hands up to God and say, “Thank you, Lord Jesus. I believe this minute You give me the Spirit of the Lord, You'll baptize me with the Holy Ghost, and give me the blessings.