A Greater Than Solomon Is Here

Good evening, friends. Happy to be here tonight just enjoying a little handshake, and a fellowship with my old friend, Brother G.H. Brown—I haven't seen in years. He's one of my first colleagues of Arkansas, when we was at 505 Victor Street there. I remember, Brother Brown, the night that the lady down in the basement on her back—crawling on her back, with her ... lost her mind, and she was very bad condition. Later on I found her over around Jonesboro somewhere, in her right mind, with her husband, and just as normal as she could be.

A brother I just met here (just shook his hand), he was talking about it being in a certain place his wife had a goiter, I believe, on her throat. She was healed in a meeting. She's still healed. God is wonderful, isn't He? We're so thankful for that. We should be (which we are) the most happy people in the earth—God's people, carefree in the way that we're not afraid of death. You know, Christ conquered everything, even death—even the fear of death. “O death, where is your sting? Grave, where is your victory? ... But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.” How we love Him for that.

This little sister, from Florida I believe he said, or somewhere here, that sang that song “Down From His Glory”.... That's my favorite song, wrote by our friend, Brother Booth-Clibborn. I think it really expresses His supreme deity today, in the day that people try to make Him just a prophet, or some leader. And I think that expresses what He is, and I really like that song.

Now, you know, it's so ... the bad part about these things, these meetings are not long enough. We just get to meet each other, and say hello, and then have to leave again. But I certainly look forward to coming down.

I'll tell you a little something. I didn't say that for a hint the other night, about me having that bucket of sorghum molasses that little bear got into. But somebody tonight paid me back. They sent me a jar of sorghum molasses. Thank you. And I'll see that the bear don't get that. I'll have my wife bake me a pan of biscuits and I'll get right into them. Yes, sir. I sure like sorghum.

Billy, my son, just told me, said, “Daddy, they taken for you a love offering.” I told this preacher that I didn't want that. See, I didn't come for that, people. I come to help you, to try to. But there's no way of me giving it back. And if anybody knows anybody here that's real bad off—somebody, widow woman, or something—they got it. So, thank you very much.

You know the Bible said, “Insomuch as you have done to the least [that's me] of these little ones, you have did it to me.” And I pray that God will bless you for that, and that He'll ... He will.... I tell you, if no person's bad off, takes it, I'll put it to the mission work for the foreign fields. I go over myself, so I know it's used right.

And so then ... try to bring this wonderful message—of the grace of God that's been brought to us in these last days, the message—the best that I know how to bring it. And it's the same message I preached many years ago. I haven't varied from it one inch, because you can't. If I would, I'd have to get out of the Bible, see. So it's from the Bible.

And I believe that in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God ... and the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us. And Hebrews 13:8 says He's the same yesterday, today, and forever. I believe that.

Now, was speaking to you today at noon on a gospel message.

I was glad to see Brother Tracy Bootleyer here, and the brother over here, and I.... You know how I feel to stand up here. I kind of squeezed away from that preaching tonight, on account of all these fine ministers being here. So, I'm just going to talk a little about the Lord Jesus on His ... the great revelation of Him today, and about His power to heal the sick. And my son came over awhile ago and give out some prayer cards, and we want to pray for the sick tonight. And you've got men here that can preach the gospel. They have all this week. And I'm here to try to do my part to show my appreciations of your loyalty to Jesus Christ by praying for the sick.

And now, before we open the Book, let's speak to the author of the Book.

Some time ago there was a man said to me.... I was talking about a certain subject in the Bible, and it was a very deep subject which there's a lot of dispute about, and ... on the logos and so forth. And he looked over at me.... And I was with Brother Jack Moore, and we was coming down Cross Lake in Shreveport, Louisiana. And this man looked over to me, and he said, “You just don't know your Bible.”

I said, “Well, I know the author real well.” And I'm sure if I love Him, and know Him real well, He'll reveal His Word to me. So let's speak to the author now as we bow our heads.

Now, while we get quiet.... And remember, in our hearts now, is there a request tonight among us that you'd want God to remember that you're praying for this certain thing? maybe a loved one to come to Christ tonight? maybe somebody to be healed, or some other request? Hold it in your mind, and raise up your hands to God, say, “Lord, remember my request.” It's all everywhere. What a needy world this is!

Lord Jesus, we come approaching Thee in that all-sufficient name, knowing this—that we have been promised that our prayers will be heard. Said, “What you ask in my name it shall be given.” And we bring all these requests tonight up before the great, pearly white throne where the bloody sacrifice lays, who forgives all of our sins and heals all of our sickness. And we are most grateful to Thee, tonight, for this grand privilege that we have, and with the Word of God which cannot fail. Though heavens and earth pass away the Word can never fail, and the Word is God. He has promised that He would hear, and would answer our requests. Now, we are sure that we get what we ask for. My hand's up, too, Lord. Answer tonight our requests.

We want to thank You for what You have been to us in this convention, back down through life. And we also thank You for what You are to us to be in the future, and in the hour of our death if You tarry. We know You'll be the old ship of Zion, You'll be the glossy wings, You'll be the morning star that lights up the valley of the shadow of death, you'll be the one that'll pack us over the river into that great promised land. We are satisfied of that, Lord.

Tonight sitting in our midst are men gray and stooped with age ... many years ago (when I was a sinner boy) was standing on the street corners, and fighting the good fight of faith for this very message that we're trying to contend for tonight. Father God, we're grateful these men are still a-living as testimonies of this great faith that was once delivered to the saints. May we ever contend for it, and be loyal to our post of duty, until Jesus comes.

Now we ask You to bless the words that we read and what we say tonight. May it fall into a fertile ground that'll bring forth a service that there will not be one sinner in this building that'll leave here that will not be saved. May every sick person be healed. May there not be one feeble person among us at the end of the service. I know that's a great mountain that stands before us. But You said in your gospel according to St. Mark 11:22, “If you say to this mountain, 'Be moved'; and don't doubt in your heart but believe that what you've said will come to pass; you shall have what you've said.” Now we believe that.

You said, “When you stand praying, believe, forgive.” And we pray that You forgive us our trespasses, as we have forgive those that trespass against us, that there be nothing to hinder our prayers from being answered.

Lord, may ... if it so happens that we never meet again like this in another meeting—maybe a year from now, whenever it will be—we know there's coming one great meeting we're all going to be there. And that's the wedding supper. O God, may there not be one of us missing on that time. Until then keep us healthy and happy to serve You. In Jesus Christ's name we ask it. Amen.

Now, to pray for the sick.... I don't get off to preaching. As I've said, it's a different anointing—same Spirit, just a different channel you're traveling through. And now I want to read a familiar passage of scripture and a few scriptures here I'd like to refer to just before we call the prayer line. And I know it's hot, and I don't want to keep you long.

And I know a closing of the meeting, a great week, and how you're all filled up to the capacity, now, and going home to have a great time. Don't go home just to have a great time, to enjoy the blessings of God; but go home to take what you have learned and pass it on to somebody else. And may the children of this meeting, that was borned again in this meeting, next year bring great-great-great-grandchildren with them—meaning that you have won somebody else, and they won somebody else, and they won somebody else over to the Lord.

Now let's turn tonight to St. Mark [Matthew] the 12th chapter. And I want to start reading from the 38th verse of St. Mark [Matthew] 12, reading down with the 42nd verse inclusive. And usually, as it's a custom, many times we stand when we read the Word of God. But being that you're so packed in tonight, we'll omit that, and just sit reverently and listen to the Word. If you have a Bible follow me as I read.

Then certain of the scribes and of the Pharisees answered, saying, Master, we would see a sign from thee.

But he answered and said unto them, An evil and an adulterous generation seeketh after a sign; and there shall be no sign given to it, but the sign of the prophet Jonas:

For as Jonas was three days and three nights in the whale's belly; so shall the Son of man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.

The men of Nineveh shall rise in the judgment with this generation, and shall condemn it: because they repented at the preaching of Jonas; and, behold, a greater than Jonas is here.

The queen of the south shall rise up in the judgment with this generation, and shall condemn it: for she came from the uttermost parts of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon; and, behold, a greater than Solomon is here.

I might use this for a text: “A Greater Than Solomon is Here.” If we read the back parts of the Scripture preceding this, we find that it kind of links in with what we were saying last evening. When Christ came on earth He came to His own, and His own received Him not. And those Jews were instructed by the Scriptures of what kind of a character that the Messiah would be, and the Messiah was to be a prophet, according to their laws. Moses said, “The Lord your God shall raise a prophet up like me; and to him the people shall cling. And if they won't hear him they'll be cut off from the people.”

See, the Scripture never leaves any age without a clear-cut identification, that we might know what hour we're living in.

Even in St. Matthew 24, Jesus, speaking of the end-time, He said, “Now learn a parable of the fig tree.” And He said what would be the sign of the three questions: What time will these ... not be one stone left upon the other of the building? What is the sign of your coming? and the end of the world? And He answered all three questions.

Many times people put them all three as one question, but they asked Him three questions. He answered them three questions. But He give along there a sign, because the Jews seek after signs. And why do they seek signs? is because they were bidden to do so. The Jew always believed in the supernatural,

even under the law—that when there was a dreamer, or a prophet, that give a message that was a little bit misunderstanding, or they wasn't too sure of it, they had a way of finding out whether that message was right or not.

They taken this dreamer, or the prophet, down to the temple where the Urim Thummim (that was a breastplate that hung ... was over Aaron's breast) that represented all of the tribes of Israel.... And this prophet prophesied, or the dreamer told his dream. And no matter how real it seemed, if that dream, or that prophecy, did not reflect a supernatural light (kind of a conglomeration like a rainbow) across that which was called the Urim Thummim, the message was turned down.

The natural must answer by the supernatural, and the supernatural must answer by the natural. Therefore, in the Old Testament the Urim Thummim was a test whether the words were true or not. That was under the Levitical priesthood. But God never left us without a Urim Thummim, because His Word tonight is a Urim Thummim. No matter how nice the message sounds, or how well the dream sounds, yet if it doesn't flash across the Urim Thummim, God's Word, it's my advice to leave it alone—because God doesn't testify it, because this Book is a complete revelation of Jesus Christ.

Now, Jesus had come and had performed just exactly like the Scripture said he would do. And when the apostle Peter (as we spoke last evening), being instructed by his father, by the teachers, that there would be a rising of the Messiah and that this Messiah would be a prophet.... Now, for four hundred years since Malachi, they'd had no prophet. And here was a man that when He walked up—not dressed any different, not like some well-renowned priest or clergyman—but just an ordinary man.... And he wouldn't know this Messiah by how He dressed, but they would know Him by the life that was in Him.

And when Jesus looked at him and said, “Your name is Simon, and you are the son of Jonas,” then the apostle was ready to surrender, because that he knew that Jesus did not know him. Not only did He know him, but He knowed his father also. So he knew that was the sign of the Messiah.

We followed also Philip to get Nathanael, brought him over—which was a staunch man, great, learned in the Scripture. We find that ... perhaps that Philip instructed him on the road over, what had happened. But when he come to Him, He called him, said, “Behold an Israelite in whom there is no guile.”

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

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

And he said, “Rabbi, you are the Son of God, the King of Israel.”

And then, to the nation of the Samaritans, there's this little woman in Sychar—how that her, in her condition as a ill-famed woman.... But when that gospel light spread across her path, and He told her of her sin and what she had done, she said, “Sir, you must be a prophet. And we are instructed, and we know that when Messiah cometh, he'll tell us things.” That was the sign of the Messiah.

Then we learn that He did not do that sign before the Gentiles, but prophesied that it would be done here in the last days by the Holy Spirit, and to blaspheme it would be unforgivable.

As He said it would be like it was at the days of Sodom, when we found out that the representation of God in a man—a human being that eat flesh of a cow, or calf, rather, and drank the milk from the cow and eat bread.... And he called Him “Elohim,” the great God, the creator.

God was made flesh in the form of Jesus Christ, and today He is in His church in the form of the Holy Spirit—still God. And that man in flesh represented, at the end-time before the Gentile world was burnt by fire, that God would be in human flesh doing the same thing to vindicate Himself to the Gentiles. And we saw Him come among us last night and do that thing.

So....

Now, Jesus was upbraiding these people, tonight, because of their unbelief, because they should've been Scripturally taught. But the traditions of the day had drawed the people from the Bible, the Scripture. Jesus said, “You with your traditions has made the commandments of God of none effect.” And I wonder, tonight—if He would stand upon the soil of the United States—if He wouldn't say the same thing to many tonight. With the traditions of men you've took the commandments of God and have made them of no effect by preaching that ... just, the days of miracles is past, and so forth, as they do; having the form of godliness that the prophet said would be in the last days, but denying the power thereof.

We find in this that He was upbraiding them because they were constrained to look at signs, and believe signs.

Noah give them a sign. God always in every age dealt with man through signs, because He is supernatural. And where supernatural God is there's bound to be supernatural things going on. Then we find in the days of Noah, those who believed his message and come in was saved; and those that rejected his message perished. He give them a sign of building an ark. In the days of Moses, God speaking through human lips could call flies, fleas, frogs, close the heavens, make it dark, by a prophet that was thoroughly a-vindicated. Those who believed, and come out of Egypt across the dividing line of the Red Sea, was saved. Those who was on the other side perished.

And Jesus was telling them.... They called Him “Beelzebub,” claiming that He was reading the people's mind, or some.... Today they'd've said, “It's a mental telepathy.” But any intelligent person who knows any iota of mental telepathy knows that the things that we see cannot be mental telepathy.

The other day in Tucson, there was a little Baptist brother and he was ... went out, bringing my little Rebekah home from school, packing her books. And he went to the meeting. He calls his father—a missionary down in Mexico, a fine man, a colleague of Billy Graham—and he said, “Daddy, hurry home right quick. We have seen the power of the Lord Jesus made manifest.”

He said, “Son, what's the matter with you, calling on long distance?”

And he told what happened.

He said, “That can be seen in any cheap carnival.”

And the young man sat there a minute. He said, “Daddy, I love you. You've been my daddy and you've tried to raise me right. But I wonder if we could switch the switch back to the time that Jesus of Nazareth done the same thing, on the shores of Galilee, if you'd be willing to call it a cheap carnival.”

The man left his post of duty, and came, and was convinced.

You see, Jesus was trying to tell them, “If I do not the works of my Father, then don't believe me. Who of you can condemn me of sin [which is unbelief]? If I haven't fulfilled all the words that was written of me, then you can point your finger at me. But I've done just exactly what the Scripture said I would do.”

Oh, if the church could only take that stand tonight, as a representative of Jesus Christ, and say, “Where are we short?” God, I want to live to see the day that the church of Jesus Christ can be one in purpose, and heart, and body, standing in the full anointed power of the Holy Spirit, to perform and work like Jesus Christ did, with God in them too!

Now, He begin to go back and upbraid them. They knew that God in all generations sends gifts. And when God sends a gift to the earth and it's rejected, that nation, or that generation, goes into judgment. And if God sends a gift and it's received, that generation is blessed. I was thinking, tonight, as I was coming over, thinking on this, that what would it be if all America tonight believed the gift of God that we have received?

Jesus here refers to the time of Jonas (or Jonah is really what it really is). And many people condemn Jonah, and they say that Jonah was a ... you say, “He was a Jonah.” He did this, that, because Jonah (we think) got out of the will of the Lord.

But let me try to justify that tonight.

The Bible said, “The footsteps of the righteous are ordered of the Lord.” Sometimes He makes us do things very contrary to what we think. But we're always ... if we're following the leading of the Spirit, we're always in His will. God does what He wants to. He raised Pharaoh up for the same purpose, and called ... said He loved Jacob and He hated Esau before they were ever born. Now, God's purpose must be fulfilled. Can the potter, or the clay, say to the potter...? as we find in Romans 8 and 9.

Watch. We find here that Jonah was commanded of God to go down to Nineveh to preach, and to say that within forty days that city would perish because.... Nineveh was a great city, full of sin, a heathen country. They worshipped idols. Their occupation mainly was the fishing, because they were beside the seashore. And their occupation was to fish. And Jonah, instead of taking a ship ... and perhaps the ship wasn't going out just at that time, but he took a ship to Tarshish.

And we find and understand the trouble that Jonah got into out there on the sea. I believe that all that was ordained of God. The sea got troubled, and Jonah said, “Tie my hands and throw me overboard.” And God had a fish prepared (which we call a whale) to swallow the prophet up.

Few years ago I was in Louisville, Kentucky. They had a whale or the bones of one upon a flatcar. And this little Ricky was standing there with his glasses over his nose, and seemed to have more education than he had intelligence to control. He was trying to explain about this whale.

He said, “You know the old legend of the Bible, that a whale swallowed Jonah.” He said, “That's just a legend,” said, “because that ... you see you could hardly throw a ball through his swallow it was so small. And he could not have swallowed a man.”

That was just too much for me to stand. I said to him, I said, “Sir, I want to correct that.”

He said, “What's that?”

And I said, “You see, he might ... that whale might not've been able to swallow him, but the Bible said that God prepared a fish. It was special-built. God made him big enough to swallow him.” I just felt I'd've been a traitor to the Bible if I hadn't've give my testimony, show the colors, 'cause people was standing there laughing. I tell you it was a different thing when that was said, see. It wasn't so funny. Then I said, “You don't know the Scriptures. The Scriptures said God prepared a fish. He made this one special.”

Like a little girl one time going from church, said.... She was happy, her little hair combed back, and she was having a great time singing the praises of God. And an infidel on the corner said, “What you so happy about, little lady?”

She said, “I just got saved. Going to heaven.”

He said, “What's that you got under your arm? Is that a thing they call the Bible?”

She said, “Yes, sir, it is.”

Said, “You don't believe that?”

Said, “Every word of it.”

Said, “Well, I guess you believe that story about a whale swallowing up Jonah.”

She said, “Yes, sir. I believe it. If the Bible said that Jonah swallowed the whale, I'd believe it.”

And he said, “Now, how you going to prove that the whale swallowed Jonah any other way but by faith?”

She said, “When I get to heaven I'll ask Jonah.”

He said, “Then what if Jonah isn't there?”

Said, “Then you'll have to ask him.”

So, it just went to show what was going to happen. He went the other way, and that about expresses it.

But I believe that the whale swallowed Jonah.

Now, with the hands tied, in the belly of the whale, way out upon the sea about forty fathoms deep.... Now, you women know by your little gold fishes, a fish prowls through the water to find its food. And after it finds its food and fills its little belly up, he goes down to the bottom of the bowl and rests his little swimmers there, see. He's resting. His swimmers holds him up. And now he's relaxed, because he's tired from prowling.

Let's think this big fish did the same thing. When he swallowed the prophet he goes down to the bottom. His great heavy weight of many tons lays down on the bottom now, with the prophet in his belly. And the prophet was still alive. He swallowed him up, and Jonah must have turned over down in the belly of the whale. And you know, everywhere he looked he could see the whale's belly.

Now, I've often thought of.... People say, “I was prayed for last night, but my hand's no better.” “I was prayed for and I don't hear any better.”

Well, you're looking at symptoms. As long as you look at that.... If your pastor prayed for you, anointed you with oil, or whatever system he uses of God's Bible, you must believe it. You got to believe it.

Now, I don't think that any of us ever had as much symptoms as Jonah had; for every which way he looked, it was a whale's belly. But you know what he said? He said, “They're lying vanities.” He's not going to believe it. He said, “Once more will I look to your holy temple.”

Now, Jonah knew that when Solomon dedicated that temple, God vindicated His presence at the temple by coming in as a pillar of the cloud; and went in and went over behind the holy place, upon the mercy seat over the ark, and settled down.

And Solomon prayed, “Lord, if thy people be in trouble anywhere, and will look to this holy place and pray, then you hear them from heaven.”

Now, if Jonah under those circumstances could have faith in a prayer of a man, a human being that later backslid, and over a temple, that was built by the hands of man, that God came into, and was delivered from such symptoms as that; how much more ought we tonight under our little circumstance, right in the midst of the presence of the great God Hisself, where we see people healed, saved, and filled with the Holy Ghost! Don't look towards a natural temple but look to the temple in heaven where Christ sits at the right hand of the majesty of the power, with His own blood to make intercessions upon our confession. We should be ashamed of our weakness. Now, until you can have better faith than Jonah had, don't criticize him.

Notice. Then we find that God, under that prayer and that faith.... He could have put a oxygen tent there. I don't know what He did. But he stayed, according to Christ's own words, three days and nights in the belly of that whale.

And then, let's think of it about.... It might have been about eleven o'clock in the day. All the fishermen was just about ready to go in for their midday lunch, and they was about taking up their nets. And these heathens worshipped animals, and the god of the sea was a whale. And just about the middle of the day here come the sea god, coming in. The whale licked out his tongue and the prophet walked right out of his mouth! No wonder they repented! Sure. Because the god spit out the prophet. And he went through the streets saying, “Within forty days this place shall be destroyed.” See, God knows how to do things.

Now, they asked Jesus for a sign, and He told them that a wicked and adulterous generation seek after signs. Now I know there's an interpretation that He was meaning them. That's true. But I'm going to just carry it on having a compound meaning. When did we ever have a more wicked and adulterous generation than we have right now? A wicked and adulterous generation. They'll say to you, go out on the street, “Say, are you a divine healer?”

“No. Christ is.”

“Well, if you're a healer—you believe, you say you're a healer —I know a guy down here that's sick. Come heal him. I know.... You say you raise the dead? A man died and you raised him up? We got a graveyard full of them down here—prove it to us.”

Remember that's that same old devil that said, “If thou be the Son of God, command these stones to be bread.”

It's the same old devil that put a rag over our Lord's eyes in the palace that morning, covered up his eyes. And they took a stick—those drunken, brawling soldiers—and hit Him on the head with it; and then passed the stick one to another, and said, “We understand that you know the secrets of hearts. We understand that you're a prophet. If you're a prophet, prophesy and tell us who hit you. We'll believe it then.”

See, that's that same old devil, see. God don't clown for nobody. It's the same old devil that said, “Come off the cross. Let's see you perform a miracle.” That devil lives today.

And Jesus said that a wicked, weak, adulterous generation would seek after a sign, and they'd get it. “For as Jonas was in the belly of the whale for three days and three nights, so will the Son of man be in the heart of the earth.” Then what kind of a sign was He speaking of? A sign of the resurrection.

And after two thousand years of gospel preaching, two thousand years of criticism, the Bible has rode through all of it. And tonight Jesus Christ is in our midst in the power of His resurrection, doing the same things He did when He was here on earth. This is that weak and adulterous generation.

St. John 14:12, Jesus said, “He that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also.” “Yet a little while and the world [cosmos, order] will not see me any more. Yet ye shall see me.” That's the unbeliever world, world order, order of church “won't see me no more. Yet ye shall see me [the believer] for I will be with you, even in you to the end of the world.”

And this wicked and adulterous generation that we got on earth—of making fun of the original Word of God, making fun of the church—he receives tonight a sign of the resurrection; because the things that Jesus Christ is doing today in the church, there's not a person in the world can do it outside of Jesus Christ. And it's a sign that He's alive tonight. He raised from the dead two thousand years ago, and He's just as alive tonight as He was when He walked in Galilee. Sign of the resurrection.

Then we notice on down, He refers to Solomon's time. He said, “The men of Nineveh repented at the preaching of Jonas, and there's a greater than Jonas here.” He said, “And as in the days of Solomon, how the queen of the south come from the uttermost parts of the world to hear the wisdom of Solomon, and a greater than Solomon is here.” See, they couldn't understand it. They were dense. Isaiah said, “They got eyes and can't see; ears and can't hear.”

I'm going to say this with love. Pentecost, it's almost getting the same way. The thing that God promised passes right over us, and we just let it go. What's the matter with the Pentecostal people is this: they've seen so much of God.

Reminds me of an old proverb, or story I read once, of an author who had wrote about the sea. And he said he never had seen it. Like we understand that Stephen Foster, the beloved folk-writer, wrote about the Suwannee River, and never seen the Suwannee River. And this writer had wrote about the sea and had never seen the sea. One time he took a trip to the sea, and on his road he met an old sailor—old salt, coming up with the gray whiskers on his face and his corncob pipe in his mouth. He said, “Where goest thou, my good man?”

He said, “I go to the sea.” He said, “I'm a poet.” He said, “I just want to see it. I want to see its white waves, as the briny waves bounce upon the blue. I want to see a reflection of the sky in the blue water, smell the salt in the air. I want to hear the gulls as they holler and scream, as they go back and forth across the water.”

The old salt took his corncob pipe from his mouth, and spit. He said, “I was borned on it sixty years ago. I don't see nothing so charming about it.”

Why? He had seen so much of it, it become common to him. And that's what's the matter with you Pentecostals. You see so much of the praises and blessings of God till it slips right through you. We must be reverent with these things, and respect everything that God gives to us.

Now. The days of Solomon, as any theologian, scriptural man knows, that that was the golden age of the Hebrews. They had no wars. They ... it was almost like a millennium to them—great day. They built the temple. All nations feared them. They was afraid to do anything, because they know that the people was with one heart and one accord. God gave them a gift, and they believed it. They accepted it. And with one heart and one accord they worked with it.

Oh, if we, the people of America tonight, of all the Presbyterians, and Methodists, and Baptists, and Pentecostals ... tear down your traditions that your denomination's built around you, separating brotherhood, seemingly not having the faith. If we could get out of that old shell that we're in, and could come together and accept the gift of God upon the basis that He gave it to us, it would be the best bomb shelter that I know of. I'd rather stand behind that—the promises of God—than all the bomb shelters that they could build. How ... what a nation, what a revival there would be! How the other nations would be scared to do anything about it!

God's give us a gift, but we make light of it. We try to bring it over in one little bunch, and say, “We got it, and you ain't got nothing else to do with it, because you don't see through my glasses.” We mustn't do that. It's not right. As long as the devil can make you fight one another he don't have to fight. But when you see that uniting of the powers of God gathering His church together from the four winds of the earth, then you're going to see something take place.

We find that in the days of Solomon God gave him a gift of discernment. It was a great gift, a gift to discern the thoughts and so forth, with wisdom. And the people rallied around it. They made him king, and you know, he become the talk of the world. Everybody talked about Israel. Now they didn't have telephones, and televisions, and things then. They carried news from lip-to-ear. And every ... people coming through would see this great gift of God working, and people would ... why, they'd tell everybody, and his fame went world-wide. And all of them had no wars, no trouble, because they accepted the gift that God give them.

We all, tonight, we Presbyterians, Methodists, Baptists, Pentecostal sections ... could all just throw away our ideas and come back and see what God said about it, and how He said it was supposed to be given. He can't change it. The way it fell on the day of Pentecost, that's the way it fell at the house of Cornelius. And every time it ever fell, it fell the same way, under the same prescription that Peter wrote out in Acts. And that's still the way it stands. It's got to stay that way. Any other way ... there's not another place in the Bible where they ever received it any other way than carrying out that prescription of Acts 2. That's exactly. That's ... if we get it today that's the way it's got to come.

But in sincerity men do receive God and believe Him. But if they would just.... Then they pull theirselves off, and “We got this, and that's all there is to it.” Then they separate themselves. Then they won't take no new revelation. They organize it. “This is it. This is our doctrine,” end with a period. If you'd have a denomination ... would end your doctrine with a comma, “We believe this, plus as much as God'll show us,” then that's all right. I'll go for that. But never with a period, 'cause God's God, and time is moving on.

We're always trying to look back and see what Moody said, what Sankey said, what Finney said, what Wesley said, what Luther said. Them were men of that day. Science don't look back and see what science said. Why, three hundred years ago a French scientist proved that if a man would ever go the terrific speed of thirty miles an hour, gravitation would take him off the earth. Would you imagine a modern science saying that today? He's going about two thousand miles an hour—trying to find something to keep from melting steel so he can go four thousand miles an hour. They don't look back and refer to him; they look forward.

But the church is always looking back. Let's look up! for their powers are limited; and we have unlimited power, for “All things are possible to them that believe.” Real genuine faith will punctuate every word that God give with an “Amen”; not, “Well, it was for another generation.” He's the same yesterday, today, and forever.

Now we find that Solomon.... The news spread so great till it went all the way down into Sheba. And they had a queen down there. She must have been a nice little lady. She would govern over her people. And you know, they began to tell her that there was a great God up in Israel, and He'd anointed a human being with a gift of discernment that was superhuman—that no man could have wisdom like that. It had to come from a God. And you know, faith cometh by hearing, hearing the Word. And it struck her heart, like it did the little immoral woman at the well last night. It struck her heart, and she began to desire to find out about this. I think it behooves any of us when we find out where eternal life lays, 'cause we're trying to live.

Well, every caravan came through she'd probably stop and bring them into the palace. “Did you pass through Palestine?”

“Yes. We have some ointments, and some jewels, and things from there.”

“Well, is it true about that great gift of their God?”

“It's the truth. I seen it in operation.” See, faith cometh by hearing.

And then she began to thirst. She wanted to see it herself.

Now, she had a lot of difficult to go through. The first thing, she was a pagan. Another thing, she was a queen. And no doubt, to do this she'd have to go to her own priest to get permission to go up to hear this. So I can imagine.... If I sound sacrilegious, I don't mean this. Now I'm just going to give a little drama here. I can imagine her going down to the priest and saying, “Holy Father....”

“Yes, my daughter?” said the priest.

“I have been hearing news that up in Israel they've got a God up there that's anointed a man with His own discernment and power.”

“Now, listen, daughter. If the great gods would ever move, it would move among us. [You know, they don't have to all be pagan priests to believe that.] If they'd ever moved, He'd do anything in our organization. It wouldn't be amongst them others, see. After all they're a bunch of holy rollers. [Well, I oughtn't to've said that, see.]

“But you know, they're not very much. That's just a bunch of fanatics that tell all kind of stories about crossing the Red Sea, which is nothing but legends. So you can't believe that bunch up there, because they're just a bunch of radics. Now, if there's any power, it's in the great god Dagon, or some of these here.”

I can hear the little woman, think a minute. She said, “But you know, they tell me that this God that they've got up there is a real God.”

“Why,” he said, “daughter, that's a real god.”

“But they tell me that this God up there has got life.”

See, when something's really gripping at the heart God'll talk with you, if you'll just keep talking. “Take no thought what you'll say. It'll be given to you in that hour.”

Then said, “They say this God up here is a God that loves His people. Then He comes down, and He's making Hisself known through His people.”

“Aw, there's nothing to that. Listen....”

“Well,” she said, “now just a minute. I'm going up.”

“If you go up, well, you'll bring disgrace. Don't you attend that revival, because we're not cooperating, you know. So you mustn't do that, see.

And you know....“

She said, “My great-grandmother served that idol, that statue; and my grandmother, and my mother. All my people served them statues. And there hasn't one of them showed one speck of life. They're just.... I don't care how many scrolls you can read, and what more—they haven't showed one speck of life. And they say this is life. And this is ... I'm concerned about it.”

“Well,” I can hear him say, “now, look. If you go up there I'm going to have to excommunicate you. I'm going to take your ... you're a charter member here, you know. And if I ... and you got some dignity. And you'll lower your prestige if you go amongst a group like that.”

“Well, let it be prestige or not....”

You know, when God goes to gripping at somebody's heart there's nothing going to stand in their way. They're going to get there anyhow, and God's going to see to it. I don't care if it's husband, wife, child, preacher, pastor, whoever it is, when hunger comes for God....

Now, we find the little lady, when she got ready, she said, “Well, I'm going anyhow.”

“But we'll excommunicate you. Your name will not be on here.”

“Well, you just might as well take it off, because I'm going.”

So, now, but she had to pay a price. So many of us don't want to pay the price. We'd rather hold on to some creed. Now, the woman no doubt had studied the scrolls of this religion. She'd seen that that was the nature of God; and that God, the all-wisdom God, was gifted to a man; that God Himself was expressing Himself not through some dumb idol, but through a man; how that paganism is a perfect type, or anti ... or type of Christianity; how that the pagan worshipper will fall before an idol and prostrate himself in such a way that he believes that that idol talks back to him.

Like the Navajo Indians: they had the turtle for a rain god, with mud on his back. And they made that an idol—make an empty shell. And they would call out, and they could hear their own voice echo. And they thought that was the rain god talking back to them.

What a difference it is to Christianity though. We prostrate ourself before a supernatural God that's not an idol. And we are filled with Him and become His idol, His living image of Him, working, walking on the earth as a living representation of the God that we serve—God in us. It is contrary to paganism.

They fall before a Mary, or Joseph, or some saint, or something another like that that's been dead for years. But you see, the Holy Spirit comes into the living being—not into a dead idol, but into the living being; and works through that living being —not through an idol. Ye are the temples of God.

So we see that God doesn't change. He does the same thing tonight as He was doing in the days of Solomon. He give Solomon this gift.

And we find out now the little woman has to get ready. Now, she had many things to confront her. She had a lot of circumstances, and a lot of hindrance; but not her faith. Her faith didn't have any.

Now she thought this, “I'm going up there. And if I go, and if the thing is right, I'm going to support it. If it isn't right, I can bring my gifts back home.” You know, she ought to have talked to some Pentecostal people. Right. That's right. Go out here and call yourself Pentecost, and support radio programs that make fun of the thing you believe in; when it belongs among your own people to help support the program of God, see.

Now. But she took the money, gold, and frankincense, and so forth, and she loaded some camels.

Now, another thing, she had a dangerous journey. Remember the children of Ishmael was in the desert, and they were robbers. How easy for that bunch of robbers to fall in upon this little queen with a few eunuchs along as guards, and slay those and take all this treasure. But you know, when you are hungering and thirsting for God, you don't see any danger. You don't see nothing. You're trying to get to God, and God always sees that you arrive there. She wanted to get there. That was her heart's desire, so God was going to see that she got there. Now she never thought about the danger.

You don't think about the danger, you don't think about the criticism, you don't care what somebody else says. If your heart's hungering for God, the only objective you have is get to Him. Don't make any difference how you have to get there; it's get there. Now she had that same objective.

And now, no doubt she got all the scrolls, and was reading up as she went along. They must have traveled at nighttime because that Sahara Desert—that direct rays of the heat—is very, very hot. And just think, she had ... how long a distance she had to go to see the wisdom of Solomon. If you measure it on your map, it's a long ways down there—about three hundred miles. And you know how long it took her? Now, she didn't go in an air-conditioned Cadillac; but she went on the back of a camel. And it took her ninety days—three months—to get there.

No wonder Jesus said she'll stand with this generation and condemn it. Some of the people live across the street won't even darken the door where the same thing goes on. That's right. No wonder she'll stand in the judgment with the generation now, and condemn it. No. When we got air-conditioned Cadillacs, and trains, and planes, and every way.... God just put it right in our hands, and still we won't do it. And she come all that distance to hear the wisdom of Solomon, and a greater than Solomon is here—the Lord God Himself.

Notice.

Then we find out that she started across the desert reading those scrolls. Finally she pressed on until she got there. She probably come up into the yard, the palace yard or wherever it was, and pitched her tents (which was customary in them days) with her little maids, and her eunuchs pitched. And then, let's just think the next morning the bell rung, and all the trumpets sounded, the singing went on. And she got in, and got her a seat way back in the back. She'd come to find out whether it was truth or not. She wanted to find out for herself. She wasn't willing to sit way down there. If she heard this great thing she wouldn't take what somebody else said about it. She wanted to find out for herself.

Like Philip told Nathanael in our lesson last night: said, “Could anything good come out of Nazareth?” or come out of.... (I'll think of the place in a minute, where He come from....) Said, “Could anything good come out of Nazareth?”

Said, “Come and see. Don't stay there and criticize. Come find out for yourself.”

If we could only do the same thing tonight. Come see! Take your Bible, check what you see going on. “Search the scriptures,” Jesus said; “for they are they that testify of me.” He is the Word, and the Scriptures itself is the Word; so it testifies of Him when the Scripture becomes life to you, when it's made manifest in you.

Now we find out that she'd read the scrolls, and she knowed the nature of what Jehovah was—all wisdom. And when she pitched her little tents, took her gifts back in the corner—find out whether it was right or not. If it's right, it's worth everything she's got. If it isn't right, take it back.

And I think the same thing tonight. If this plan of salvation that we're contending for is right, we owe everything that we got—our life, our time, our everything else. If it isn't right, then find out what is right; 'cause you just got this one life, and it'll soon be over. Search the Scriptures first and see if it compares with the Scripture.

Then we find this little woman gets her seat way back in the back, like all newcomers try to do sometimes. And after the trumpets sounded, Pastor Solomon came in, sat down. The meeting started, the prayer cards was called. (That sounds bad, but I'm trying to make a point.) And she found out. Now she said, “I'll see what this wisdom is.” So when the first patient, however it come—or whatever the question was—come before Solomon, he revealed it. She said, “Say, that's right.” Now she didn't want to say, “You know that man has telepathy, I believe.”

Her heart began to hunger; she began to believe, day by day.

Finally it come her time to stand before him. She had some secrets, too. And when she come up before Solomon, the Bible said that there was nothing in her heart withheld from Solomon. He revealed every secret in her heart. And when it was done on her, she stood as a pagan before the people, and she said, “All that I heard is true, and more.” She said, “Blessed are the men that's here to see this thing going on every day.” Oh! She had no more breath in her hardly, when she seen that others had it performed on them and she had it performed on her. And she believed God.

No wonder, no wonder that Jesus said that she'll stand with this generation! when there He was standing there, doing the very same thing only more of it, and more powerful signs, and they were standing there saying, “Show us a sign from heaven.” Oh, how blind can people be!

He said, “She'll stand in the judgment with this generation, and condemn it.”

And then, after two thousand years of gospel preaching, and the Holy Spirit pouring out in this last days upon the people the gifts of the Holy Ghost, and promise that this great discernment would come back into the church again.... What would she do to this generation when she stands there—after her time plus two thousand years of gospel preaching in this last days—to see gifts—not gift, but gifts—of the Holy Spirit?

She surrendered her life to Christ. Why?

(I have to close 'cause I don't ... I want to pray for you.)

Friends, see, they said “Show us a sign.” We want ... that's what's the matter with the Pentecostals. You're looking for something, and one of these days it's going to be too far. It passed right by you, and you didn't know it. Remember, in the days of Elijah they didn't know him. In the days of John the Baptist they didn't know him. And he was spoke of in the Scripture, that he'd be ... “I send my messenger before my face to prepare the way.”

And even the disciples come to Him and said, “Why must Elias come?”

He said, “He's already come, and you didn't know it.”

They didn't know Jesus was the Christ until He was dead and buried. They didn't know that Irenaeus, one.... (Or

I'll say this, that all people know.) They didn't know Joan of Arc was a saint of God till they killed her. The Catholic church burnt Joan of Arc for a witch, because she seen visions, and prayed for the sick, brought the dead back to life. And the Catholic church called her a witch and burnt that woman to the stake. And about two hundred years later they woke up and found out that she was a saint. 'Course they done great penance. They dug up them priests' body and throwed them in the river. Nonsense!

But watch out! It might happen among us, that the thing might come and be clearly identified by God and the Scripture, and by science and everything else. It would pass us and we know it not; then stand in the last day clearly identified.

Man is still the same. Man is always praising God for what He has done, and they're talking about what He will do, and ignoring what He's doing. That's the nature of man.

Let's look at Him, what He's doing now! He's Jesus Christ the same yesterday, today, and forever—the same Jehovah God that was made manifest in Him. “At that day you'll know that I was in the Father and the Father in me, I in you and you in me”—God condescending from a pillar of fire to a man; and from that man's sacrificed life the blood that cleanses us and come down into us to fellowship again, to pull out a church for a Eden again. Why?

Now, quiet just a minute. What did this to that woman? She was a professed religionist, but her heart was hungering to see something real. She wanted something real. And if you're hungering to see something real, God'll show it to you. You always find what you're looking for.

It reminds me, as all you people know that I.... I was talking to my friend back there, Brother Brown, awhile ago. I remember (Sister Brown's here somewhere, he said. Bless her.) how I lived with them people down there in them first days of my ministry. And Brother Brown is kind of a full-fledged brother to me 'cause he likes to hunt. Sister Brown bought him a new Browning automatic shotgun. I asked him if he still had it. He said, “Yes.” I'm going to convert him to a rifle one of these days, get away from that old splatter thing.

Now notice. But in hunting, I used to go up in the North Woods to hunt deer, way up New Hampshire and Maine. It's the home of the white-tailed deer. And I had a partner up there I hunted with, and he was a fine hunter—about a quarter-blood Indian. And you didn't have to worry about him; you ain't going to lose him. He knows where to go to. And he was a fine hunter. We'd separate, and places we'd meet, across them White Mountains and great jungles.... But we'd find one another. And we wasn't trail walkers; we hunted.

And I loved to hunt with Burt. He was a dandy hunter, but he was the meanest man I ever seen. That man had a heart in him like stone. He was cruel. He had eyes looked like a lizard, and he was just mean—just simply mean.

And he used to like to shoot fawns—that's the little baby deer—just to make me feel bad. He'd kill these little fawns, and I'd say, “Burt, aren't you ashamed to do that?”

He'd say, “That's just the way with you preachers. You're too chicken-hearted.”

I said, “Burt, that's not chicken-hearted. That's being cruel.”

Now, it's all right, the sex of the deer or the size.... If the law says you can kill a fawn, go ahead and kill it. Well, Abraham killed a calf and fed it to God. Wasn't nothing wrong with a baby deer; but just to kill them and leave them lay there just to be mean, that's murder. I don't like that, and I'd tell him.

I'd say, “Burt, you're my friend, and I like you and you're a good hunter. You're a good gun man, good shot—dead shot.” I said, “I love you. But you're cruel.”

And he said, “Aw, Billy, if you wasn't a preacher you'd be a good hunter.”

And I said, “Listen, Burt. You can be human about this.” I said, “That's wrong.”

He said, “You....” I was a game warden for years, you know, and he said, “You stayed in conservation too long.”

I said, “No, I never.”

And so, one day I went up there to go hunting. It was a little late in the season. I'd been holding some meetings. And the snow had already come, about six inches of good tracking snow. And I met Burt. He said, “Say, Billy, I got something new for you.”

And I said, “What?”

He pulled out of his shirt a little whistle, and he blowed this little whistle and it sounded like the little baby deer calling for its mammy—you know, just a little fawn, that little bleat they give. And I said, “Burt, you don't mean to tell me that you'd do that.”

He said, “Aw, get next to yourself, preacher.”

So the next day we went hunting. We usually take a sandwich, and take a little bottle of hot chocolate, 'cause it's got sugar in it, you know—kept us warm. It gets awful cold up there along that time of year. So we ... the season was in, and when you fire a couple of guns.... You talk about Houdini being escape artist, he was an amateur beside of them deers 'cause they could get away right now—crawl under brush piles or anything—and then feed at night if the moon was shining. Then if they didn't, they'd starve before they'd come out, 'cause they knowed it was death to get out there.

And so, the season being in, people'd been hunting for a couple weeks,

and we walked all morning long and didn't even see one track. Long about noontime he was walking ahead of me. We was going up to the top of the notch and then separate, and come back two different ways and come to the camp that night, maybe get in nine, ten o'clock. And ... we'd killed a deer we'd hang it up, so both of us go back the next day and help get it in.

So we was going up to separate. We hadn't got to above the timberline yet. And about eleven-thirty or twelve o'clock Burt kind of stooped down. Snow was getting pretty deep up high on the mountain, and he kind of stooped down. And I thought.... He reached back. He didn't say very much. And he reached back there, and I thought he was going to get his lunch, and I went to get my lunch.

I thought, “Well, we'll eat. Here's where we separate, and he'll go around this way, and I'll go the other way.

And he sat down.

It was in a clearing about twice the size of this building, just a little ... what we call a little park-like of grass. Never seen a track all morning. And he sat down there beside of this ... under some trees, kind of a little snow bank. Reached down like this, like he was going to get his thermos bottle, or his sandwich, started to pull it out; and I reached for mine.

And he pulled out this little whistle. He looked up at me with them lizard eyes, and he blew this whistle. And when he blew this whistle he could really make it work. It sounded just like a little fawn. And when he did, to my surprise, right across that clearing a great big mother deer stood up. That's the doe, the female—beautiful animal, big, brown eyes and them ears sticking up.

And he looked up at me like that, and kind of that silly grin, looked up to me like that, put his whistle back. I thought, “Burt, you won't do that.” And I seen the.... He blowed it again real little, light.

And now that's unusual for that deer—that time of day, eleven o'clock in the day—come out. No. What was it? Her baby was in trouble. She raised up. I watched her behind this bush. And he blew it again. She made two or three steps forward, coming right out into the open. That's altogether unusual. Yes, sir! She wouldn't do that. No, sir!

But what was it? Her baby was in trouble. And she walked a few steps farther, them big ears. She turned sideways. Old Burt looked up to me, and I thought, “Oh, oh.” I seen him put that shell up in the barrel of that 30.06, and let the lever down, raised up. And that cross hair of that scope come right across her heart. And when he raised his gun, the deer saw the hunter. She turned, and he blowed that whistle again.

You know, usually that deer would be gone. But not her. Why? She was a mother. She wasn't putting on something. On the inside of her she was born a mother. Her baby was in trouble. Though she knowed it would cost her life, she didn't care. She was a mother. She wasn't putting on some kind of a act. It was genuine, her life. She was mother.

And I seen the hunter pull his rifle, and he was a dead shot. And I turned my head. I couldn't look at it. I thought, “How can that cruel-hearted man blow the heart plumb through that precious loyal heart beating for her baby? How can he blow her heart out of her?” And I knowed that that big hundred and eighty grain mushroom bullet would sweep her heart plumb through her at that distance.

I thought, “How can he do it?” And I turned my back to keep from looking at it,

and I started praying. I said, “Heavenly Father, how can that man be so cruel? That precious mother, she can't help that. She isn't putting on a show. She's genuine, and she's a mother. And she's caught, trying to find her baby though it cost life. Her baby's in trouble.” And I was praying to myself, listening any time to hear that hammer fire, fall, and that gun blow.

And I was just standing there holding myself like this, praying. I waited, waited. The gun didn't go off. I waited just a moment, and I turned around to look, and it was going like this.

He couldn't hold the gun still. I looked around at him; he looked up to me. His expression was changed. Them lizard eyes had dropped to something else. Tears was dropping off his cheeks. He throwed the gun on the ground. He said, “Billy, I've had enough of it. Lead me to that Jesus you're talking about.”

There on that snowbank that afternoon I led that cruel-hearted man to Jesus Christ. Why? Because he seen something real, something that wasn't put on, something that was genuine.

Oh, this hungering world is looking for something real, something that's not put on, something that's genuine, that's borned of God, that comes from the Bible. Wouldn't you this afternoon, mother, brother, wouldn't you, Christian, like to have Jesus Christ so in your heart ... as much of the Spirit of God in your heart that would drive you to do such loyal things as that deer did her baby? Wouldn't you like to be that kind of a Christian? Would you like to have that type of salvation that would ... you'll ... death or nothing else ... that just the love of God in your heart, like she had the love of her baby?

Now, the only way it could be.... You can't do it by joining a church; you can't do it by putting your name on a book. It's got to be real. It's got to be genuine. It's got to be a birth. It's got to change you from just a make-believe to a genuine Christian. You said, “Do you think the love could be that great? Do you think He could love me?”

He said, “A mother might forget her suckling babe, but I can never forget you. Your names are engraved on the palms of my hand.”

God came to the earth in the form of man and unfolded Himself—stretched His tent, from being Jehovah God to become man, to stand the shame and curse: little Jehovah God in a manger under a pile of manure down there, crying in a manger; God, the creator of heavens and earth standing there in human flesh, to take the death of your sins upon Himself that He might free you to be more of a Christian than what that deer was a mother. How can you reject such matchless love? Then besides that, He wrote His Word. That's enough.

... you couldn't take my word, you'd have to ... it'd be all right. But not Him. He ascended on high, and give gifts back to men. He come back in the form of the Holy Spirit, same God, to open your heart by the atoning blood.

“Be ye therefore perfect even as your Father in heaven is perfect.” None of us can be that. I don't look at what I am. I'm not worthy. You're not worthy. Who is worthy? I don't look at what I am; I look to what He is. He's the one that was looked at. He is my sacrifice. I'm not worthy to stand here as a minister. If I counted my worthiness I'd be in hell. So would you. But we don't look to what we are.

You say, “I couldn't do that. I couldn't call. I couldn't touch God's garment. I couldn't do this....” Oh, you can! Look what happened. He died in order that you could do it, that you could be saved. That's genuine. Would you like to be like that? And like to be remembered in prayer? Raise your hand, say, “I would, Brother Branham.” Let us bow our heads.

With our heads bowed, come sweetly, humbly now. We haven't room here for an altar call. There's not even an altar. But the Bible said, “As many as believed was baptized.” Altar call come in the Methodist day, which is all right. But in the time of our Lord and the apostles, they believed unto life. You were saved by faith through grace. And if you haven't got that experience tonight, brother, sister....

Women, if you haven't got enough grace in your heart tonight to know that the Bible teaches that you should stop bobbing your hair, wearing shorts, and make-up; if you haven't got that much grace in your heart tonight, and you know the Bible teaches it, you should. He can't change.

You say “I don't wear shorts; I wear slacks.” That's worse.

God said, “A woman that'll wear a garment pertains to a man, it's an abomination to God.”

And you men that can't stop gawking and looking at women immorally dressed—the idols of the day—you men that hasn't got enough real grace in your heart to make your wife and kids quit doing such a thing as that, the love of God isn't anchored in your heart. Don't be called a son of God; you're still in Sodom—a man that can't take over his own house, as God ordained him to do. And you deacons that's married two or three times, you men that run out on your wives and try to hold your profession, you women that cross the other way, you people that hide behind the cloak of the church—your denomination won't have nothing to do with the next fellow (let him be Christian or not); if he don't belong to your crew you'll have nothing to do with him—shame on you.

May God display real tonight to you. May you come to Him sweetly now and say, “Lord, forgive me for my sins. From this night henceforth I'll serve You.”

You that love television programs, that you'll stay home to see some immoral movie star, like “We Love Suzy,” or watch some of that other stuff that they have—stay home on Wednesday night to watch television instead of coming to the prayer room—the love of God's gone from your heart. You do that, and still you hold your membership. The love of God would drive you from that, drive you to your church, to your brother and sister, to come together and sit in heavenly places and listen at your pastor preach. And that.... The revival, or the camp, is ending now. If that still remains in your heart, let us pray together now that God'll remove it.

Lord Jesus, we come with humble contrition. We come with penitent hearts, Lord. We're all guilty. We trespass against thy commandments. We transgress the laws of thy love that saved us. The church itself has went off on tantrums, and building programs, and all kinds of stuff, and left the prayer meeting, and the Holy Spirit for something on once or twice a week, when it should be in our hearts and mind constantly. Forgive us, Lord.

Forgive our ministers, Lord, who will stand in the pulpit and be ashamed to proclaim the full gospel of Christ. How that many of them.... Today the whole world has become a Sodom. Many ministers sitting in their parish tonight, and tomorrow, or in their study trying to find words, and run across the Word of God and see the sins, but are afraid to say anything about it because they'd be excommunicated. The deacon board will have them up, and they'll be turned in to headquarters and be taken out, when they know they ought to preach against sin. It's a Lot again. The sins of Sodom vexed his righteous soul. But men hasn't got the courage, just like Lot. He didn't have the courage to stand up. I pray, God, you forgive us for things like that.

May we be as Paul of old: “I've not shunned to declare to you the whole counsel of God.” Forgive us all, Father.

As this simple little story of that cold November day on top of that mountain there, how that man, tonight a deacon in the church up there, a loyal Christian, because a mother deer come forth and displayed something so real....

You said, “If they hold their peace the rocks will cry out.” I pray, Father, that You'll give us something so real tonight that'll attract our attention to Christ, to let us know that He's in the midst of us tonight. Penitent hands went up, hundreds of them. Forgive them, Lord.

Now I'm reminding You, Lord, of the scripture that You said, “No man can come to me except my Father draws him first.” How could they raise their hands unless You draw them? When they raise their hands they break every scientific rule. Gravitation holds their hands down, but there is a spirit in them, and a Spirit by them, that said “You're wrong. Raise up your hands,” and it defied the laws of gravitation to raise their hands towards the Creator—“Have mercy on me, God.”

You said, “All the Father's given me will come to me. I will in no wise cast them out. I'll give them eternal life and raise them up at the last day.” You said, “He that heareth my words and believeth on Him that sent me has everlasting life, and shall never come to the judgment, but's already passed from death unto life.”

[Blank spot on tape.] ... to the kingdom of God to make loyal members of the body of Christ. And their churches of these ministers may grow and grow with members borned again in the kingdom of God. Bless my brethren, that whoever they pray for be healed; the gospel they preach not fall upon hard, rocky ground, but upon tender hearts.

Oh, grant it, Lord, that the kingdom of God will soon be established in the earth. You're coming for your delegates. One day the Lamb is going to leave the sanctuary, come forth to take the book out of the hand of Him who is the deed owner of it. When man transgressed and the book of life went back to its original owner, man, all life, was lost and there was no man in heaven or on earth that was worthy. But a Lamb come forth—a bloody Lamb that had been slain since the foundation of the world. He come and took the book of redemption and opened it. God, may my name be there. May every name here be written there, Lord, that's been redeemed in this great plan of redemption. Grant it, Father.

And now we give them to you. I commit them to you. And if there's any here that's never been baptized in Christian baptism, may they come forward by the act of faith and confess that they're wrong, and be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of their sins, and be filled with the Holy Ghost. Grant it, Father.

Will you hear us, Father, on this prayer as we humbly present it to you in the name, the all-sufficient name that all heavens and earth is named: Jesus Christ. Amen.

There is a fountain filled with blood,

Drawn from Immanuel's veins,

And sinners plunged beneath that flood,

Lose all their guilty stains.

Lose all their guilty stains,

Lose all their guilty stains;

And sinners plunged beneath that flood,

Lose all their guilty stains.

Don't you love those old songs? Aren't they wonderful? Penned by the Holy Spirit. I just love them. I think jubilee songs are fine, but I like this old songs of the blood, songs of the faith. Let's sing another verse the old-fashioned country way, the way we sang it back on the hills years ago. “The dying thief rejoiced to see [his last chance] that fountain in his day; there may I, though vile as he, wash all my sins away.” Let's close our eyes and sweetly sing it to Christ.

The dying thief rejoiced to see

That fountain in his day;

And there may I, though vile as he,

Wash all my sins away.

Wash all my sins away,

Wash all my sins away;

And there may I, though vile as he,

Wash all my sins away.

Oh, don't it make you feel all scrubbed out inside? Just feel the sweetness of the presence of God. “Now ye are the sons of God.” Now we're lifted up in heavenly places in Christ Jesus, with all authority, heavens and earth given to us. Did you ever think of that? Somebody says, “Have you got any power?”

“No. But I got authority.”

It's like the little policeman standing out here in the street—little fellow, the cap pulled down over his ears, weigh about a hundred pounds, a badge sticking on him. And here comes a bunch of cars down the road doing a hundred miles an hour, and each one of them four or five hundred horsepower. He couldn't stop a one of them—but let him hold up that hand. He's got authority. That's what makes the brakes squeak. It ain't his power; it's his authority.

And we've got authority by Jesus Christ. That's the reason devils scream. Not because we have power; but we have authority. The Holy Spirit is here—God's authority. “The works that I do shall ye do also,” Jesus Christ the same yesterday, today, and forever. I believe Him.

Now we're sitting in heavenly places in the presence of Christ, lifted up above the cares of the world into a realm of faith. What could happen here tonight? There could be another Pentecost. There could be such a thing happen right here tonight, like it was in Acts 2. That's right. Christ is here. If we could get the hardness of our hearts away.... Is He with us? Is it truth? Is Christ in our midst? He promised to be. How would you know Him? Not by the way he looked; but by the works He done. That's what He promised, and He said He would do it. God help us tonight, that when we leave here my prayer is—and I just say it with my eyes open to you people—I pray that you'll see something so real, that God'll do something so real tonight until you'll say, like those who came from Emmaus, as you go to your homes, “Did not our hearts burn within us?”

See, they were....

Jesus had been crucified, dead, buried. A rumor had been He'd raised again. And He walked with them all day and they didn't know Him. He's walked with many people; they didn't know it. That's who kept you from having that wreck coming over here. That's what healed your baby—Christ. Maybe you didn't recognize it.

But one night He got them at Emmaus, Cleopas and his friend, and they shut the doors. Then He done something, just the way He did it before His crucifixion. They knowed it was Him in His resurrection. Quickly they went to tell others. May He do something tonight, like He did before His crucifixion, to us, that we, when we go from Emmaus, that we might tell the others our hearts burned within us. May we see something real—not so much of some new doctrine or something, but the doctrine that we know made manifest by the power of God.

Last night I called a prayer line. Come up, crippled lady and so forth healed—testimonies, just amateur. We've just got to be here a little bit, not enough hardly to know you. In there I could catch feelings of people saying, “He's reading their minds.” I tried to turn my back to the people and show you it wasn't reading minds.

Many of you old-timers here in Arkansas remember when I used to take hold of a person's hand? how He told me that it would come to pass then that “If you'll be sincere you'll know the very secret of their heart”? You remember that, all of you? and the things that He's done? World around, everywhere.

Don't forget “Life's” Magazine, now, last month's. See where He predicted what would happen. And there, standing there (witnesses here tonight that wasn't there).... Even science knows nothing about it. They're wondering why it could be; but it is.

Now look, I'm going to take a new scripture tonight. The Bible said that Jesus Christ is a high priest that can be touched by the feeling of our infirmities. Is that right, brethren? That's the scripture. Now, if He is a high priest that can be touched by the feeling of our infirmities, now, if you touched Him He would act (if He is the same as He was), He'd act as He did then, 'cause He can't.... That's the only way you'd ever know Him is by His action, see.

Any hypocrite can put scars in his hand, blood or whatmore. But a life is what tells it, see. I could take a tree and tie leaves on it out here of a different tree; but what kind of fruit does it put forth?

Now, Christ's life lived in you, then if that first life that come out of that branch.... Now, He has no hands now but yours and mine. He has no voice but mine and yours. See, the vine doesn't bear fruit; the branch bears fruit. And if the branch that bore in the first limb that come out of that grapevine ... as I said, they wrote a book of Acts behind it. If it ever puts forth another original vine, you'll write another book of Acts behind it. It'll be the same Spirit 'cause it's the same life in the entire vine. Every branch that bears will be that.

Now, I want you to notice something. As we sit here, how many of you believe that Christ is here? How many of you sick? Raise your hands. How many of you believe that you have faith enough that if you'd touch His garment He'd act in the same way? I ain't going to call no prayer line; just call it ... just right ... come from here. That's quite a challenge, but you got a lot of faith and I believe God'll honor it.

Now I'm going to look over the audience, and I want to see if there's somebody that I know in the audience. I know Brother Tracy Bootleyer sitting there. This brother here, I got acquainted with these ministers right along here, one minister back in the back there. Outside of that, upon the authority of my Bible, with it over my heart (I don't swear 'cause the Bible said not to do it), but with my Bible over my heart. I lie not. I don't see one more person that I know, outside of Jim McQuire. And if ... I'm not sure—that's a brother that I met at the Tabernacle the other day. I just met him. I forget what his name is. He does work at the Tabernacle at Jeffersonville. Is that right? That's the only person that I know, that I can see that I know.

Now, if Jesus was here and you wanted to be healed, and you'd ask Him, “Lord, will you heal me?” here's what.... If he was standing here with this suit on that He give me, He couldn't heal you. He's already done it, see. It was finished at Calvary. The whole world was saved, the whole world was forgiven, everything happened at Calvary, see. He was wounded for our transgressions, with His stripes we were healed—past tense, see. Now the only thing you have to do.... It'll never do you no good unless you believe it. Not feel it—Jesus never did say, “Did you feel it?” He said, “Did you believe it?”

I've seen people put their hands, say, “Feel it, feel it, feel it.”

He never did say that. He said, “Did you believe it?” Faith, see.

Notice. Now, if He is that same high priest He'd have to act in the same way. No matter how much He would anoint me, He's got to anoint you, too.

Say, I do see a man that I know. There's Mr. Way, the man that dropped dead in the church the other day that God brought back to life, sitting right there, and a minister sitting by him that I know, sitting right there by him. But otherwise.... Yes, I believe I see this brother.... This is his brother, that I met down there with the Blackwell family today, praying in the home.

But you people who believe Him, and believe that you can touch Him, I'm going to ask you something. Now, I'm your brother—just a man, just like your husband, or your brother, your pastor—just a man. And now, there ... it's not out in some dark room like some devil; and the devil don't do that anyhow. Did you ever hear a devil preach the gospel? get souls saved and healed? If Satan can cast out Satan, then his kingdom's divided against himself, Jesus said. No. But right here, you look and believe that Jesus still remains that same high priest that He was. And you say, “Lord Jesus, I'm sick”; or, “I got a sick mother sitting here, a brother in a home”; “Lord, I can't pay my debt. Help me”; “I confess all my sins. I'm a sinner. I want to get right with God”—something another.

Ask Him. Touch Him as a high priest, and see if He doesn't act today like He did then. That shows He's with us.

Now, I believe He will do it. I don't.... He's never failed me yet in all these years. I believe Him. But you can understand what a challenge that is. But it ain't.... If somebody said, “Aren't you afraid?” No, sir. How can I be afraid, and Him right here by me? It's His words, not mine. I'm just saying what He said. That's my confession. Confess means say the same thing. The Scripture, which is God—God in letter form—the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us, and the Word still is God. And the Word said He's the same yesterday, today, and forever. It's up to Him to confirm it. It's worth me to believe it. Now you believe it.

Now I want each one of you then, quietly, silently to offer a prayer to God, and say, “Lord God, help me. I know that little old stoop-shouldered man standing up there don't know nothing about me. But You know me. And if You'll just do ... and repeat a scripture for me tonight, like the woman touched His garment....”

He didn't actually feel the touch of the hand, because as I told you the Palestinian garment's loose—underneath garment, thick, big heavy robes. He didn't feel it. And He said, “Who touched me?”

And Peter rebuked Him, saying, “Lord....” Why, he took Him and rebuked Him for it. In other words, “It sounds insane for you to say it. Everybody's got their arms around you, patting you on the back. Who touched me?”

He said, “But virtue's gone from me.” Somebody touched with a different touch. Can you make that touch tonight?

I surrender myself. Now, remember. I am a total mute to these things, outside the kingdom of God. It's just like this microphone. This microphone can't speak; it can only speak when something speaks through it. And we are just like that microphone to this. I don't know you. But it takes something to speak through here. And you believe it, and have faith in God, and God will grant it. Do you believe it? Now just believe, have faith, and don't doubt. Believe on the Lord God. Now just pray. Be real reverent, and just see.

Now, heavenly Father, I've been speaking at length. There's people sitting here who are eternity-bound people, every one of us. Our heads are bowed to the dust where you took us from. And if you tarry we will return to that dust. These spirits and souls that's in us must return to You for the judgment. Now, heavenly Father, we pray that You'll honor your Word tonight. I've spoke of you. Now speak that I have said the truth, Lord. I am your servant. I commit myself to you. And if there be someone in here, Lord, that has that type of faith that could bring forth the manifestation of Jesus Christ to show that the sign that He promised—the last sign to the Gentile church—it would take place.... The elect church, like Abraham's group called out.

We see Billy Graham, and those men, down there in Sodom, calling them out. But we remember the one that stayed with Abraham give them another sign that the coming Son was at hand. Lord, let us see that sign tonight, as the man had His back turned to the tent and said, “Why did Sarah laugh?”. Jesus said it will repeat again just before the coming of the Son of man—God manifested in the flesh, in human flesh, through the power of the Holy Spirit, the blood of Jesus Christ. Grant it, Lord. I commit this, myself, to you for your service. Speak, Lord. Your servants are listening.

Now in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, I take every spirit in here under my control, for the kingdom of God's sake, for the works of it. [Someone speaks in tongues.] You may.

Now let the Holy Spirit act.

Now, is the things that I have said right, or are they not right. Is He remaining Christ? Did He keep His promise that “Wherever two or three are gathered together I'll be in their midst”? “A little while and the world out yonder will see me no more; yet you'll see me for I [the personal pronoun] will be with you, even in you.” “The works that I do shall you also; more than this, for I go to the Father.” Is it true?

I see that light hanging over the little colored girl there. She is improving. Just remember, she's going to be well. You come from way away from here. You have to sacrifice to get here each night. But don't fear about the child. You found grace with God. She was called the other night. Just believe.

Here. Has anybody ever seen that light? Raise your hand if you have. You've seen a picture of it. Don't you see it? Look here, look here—that light, amber-color standing right here. Don't you see that? Moving, right here. It's over a woman. She's suffering with diabetes. She's praying. She believes. God, don't let it leave her. She's going to miss it as sure.... Mrs. Davis, believe with all your heart. There you are. I never seen the woman in my life. Here's my hands before God. Ask her if those.... Is that true, lady? Wave your hand like this, if that's true.

Now, who did she touch? Not me. She's twenty yards from me. But she touched the high priest, Jesus Christ. Just have faith. Don't doubt. Do you believe?

Here. Look here again, right here, some woman praying. She's suffering with stomach trouble, something wrong with her legs. Oh, God! Mrs. Cotton, believe with all your heart. Receive your healing. Jesus Christ makes you whole. God in heaven knows I never seen the woman in my life. What did she touch? Isn't that the same high priest? Why are you suspicious? Don't doubt. Have faith in God.

Somebody back in this district, you pray, believe. He's God all over. Here's a lady sitting here praying. She's not praying for herself; she's praying for her son. He has stomach trouble. He's not here. He's in another state. He's from a city called Pontiac, Michigan. Don't fear. He had an ulcerated stomach from a nervous condition. It's left him. Your faith touched Him.

That you might know, here sits a man here, the one that plays this guitar, ever what it is here, suffered with a stomach trouble, too. The devil thought he got by with that, but he didn't. You're healed, sir. Jesus Christ made you well. Do you believe with all your heart? “If thou canst believe, all things are possible.” You believe it?

Little fellow here sitting praying for his wife, with his hands up—she's suffering with a asthmatic condition. If you believe that God'll heal her, brother, she'll be healed. Amen.

Jesus Christ the same yesterday, today, and forever. Ask them people. I never seen them in my life.

Way back over here sits another woman. She's got tumor on the breast. Oh, may she not miss it! Mrs. Patterson, accept your healing. Rise to your feet, give glory to God. All right. I never seen the woman in my life. God in heaven knows that.

What about on them stretchers down there? How about the woman there ... hold your head down, the one.... There sits a woman sitting there. She's on a cot. Do you believe me to be His prophet, His servant? There's a light hanging over that lady. She's suffering with a heart trouble. If you lay there you'll die. Rise up in the name of Jesus Christ. Take up your bed and go home, and you'll get over your heart trouble.

Do you believe God? How many of you believe Him? Listen, my friends, a greater than Solomon is here—the high priest that can be touched by the feeling of our infirmities. Do you believe Him? If that isn't the work that Jesus Christ proved Himself to be Messiah by ... is that what the Scripture says? Say, “Amen.”

By the way, you. You're facing a nervous breakdown. Get away from it. Flee for your life. Run quickly. Lay the things that's in the past in the past, and look to God. You're a minister of the gospel. You ... I talked to you this morning. You didn't know what it was, and I didn't know what it was. But I see it now. You're coming to a breakdown. Devil's putting everything in your mind, trying to get you turned against ... even against me. That's right. That's “thus saith the Lord.” Forget it. Tell him he's a liar. Accept it right now, and that'll leave you and it'll never come back again. You'll be a free man. I challenge you to believe these things.

The man come to me this morning. Ask him. I didn't know. But I see it—right here it is before him. Look at that dark shadow just moving in and out. But now the thing's left him. That's right. Hallelujah! Jesus Christ the same yesterday, today, and forever.

While the Holy Spirit's here, here's handkerchiefs. Let's pray, while you hold in prayer.

Heavenly Father, we are taught in the Bible that they taken from the body of St. Paul handkerchiefs and aprons. Unclean spirits went out of the people and they were healed. And while we are conscious of your presence here.... We realize that we're not St. Paul, but you're still Jesus. And it wasn't him in the beginning; it was You, the faith in the people when they seen him prophesy and knowed that God was with him. Lord, you honor the people's prayers again today by the same means.

One writer said when Israel was on its road to the promised land that the Red Sea cut them off right in the path of duty to the promised land. God looked down through that pillar of fire with angry eyes, the Red Sea got scared and moved back, and Israel went on to the promised land. God, tonight the people wants that promise, “I would above all things that you'd prosper in good health,” and sickness has cut them off.

May You look down tonight through the blood of Jesus Christ. And as these handkerchiefs are laid upon the sick in commemoration of this great anointing of the Holy Spirit—Christ manifesting Himself here, beyond a shadow of doubt the same Jesus showing us that He's still alive and raised from the dead—may the sickness get scared when these tokens are laid upon the sick. May he run back and move away, and the people be healed through Jesus Christ's name.

Quietly. The Bible is right. And if Jesus is willing to come here and make this so manifested to you, so perfectly, beyond any realm of psychology, beyond any realm of emotion—a perfect miracle.... A miracle is something cannot be explained. I can see where a man could be a little lame in his foot, and can jump up under an emotion. Right. But who could tell him what he's done, and where he's come from, and what's happening, and what will be? And I challenge you, it's never missed a time in the tens of thousands times thousands around the world. We got a lot of impersonations. I know that. That has to come, carnal impersonations. And that don't ... that just makes the real thing shine better. That makes Jesus Christ real.

Here He is tonight. He's in our midst, the same Holy Spirit that you received. And He let you speak with tongues and do the things that you've done. That same Holy Spirit's giving you that Sodom sign, to get out of that kind of stuff! The hour of burning of this world is at hand! A bomb lays yonder with a number on it. Flee to Christ quickly.

Scriptures, the last words that fell from his lips: “These signs shall follow them that believe. If they lay hands on the sick they shall recover.” You believe that?

I'm going to see if you believe it. I wonder if we could run a good old-fashioned Arkansas fast-line here for a minute. Would you believe it? Would you like to see that? hands laid on you? Would you like to have that? I don't know how we'll govern it. I doubt we could do it. Do you think we could? I don't know how we will, but we can try, if you'll be reverent.

Let those that's in there.... What? Section by section. All right. Let those that are in the back there, that's holding those prayer cards, step right out front in that line there. Right section.

Now, I want you to know my brethren, sisters, that you don't have to wait for some special evangelist to come by. No, no. Your pastor has the same.... Now, he may not be able to have that prophetic gift. That comes one in a generation. But look. He has the same rights to pray for you that I would. That discernment doesn't heal you; it only brings you God ... conscious that you're in the presence of God.

But ... evangelist goes to town, does all the praying, all the baptizing. Then the people, when he leaves, the pastor's.... Well, the people think their pastor's nothing. Your pastor is a man of God. He's led you safe this far; he can take you on. He's an instructed man of God.

And I want you, each one of you, if you come through this prayer line and you don't believe this, stay out of it. You'll get worse. But if you really believe it when you pass under anointed hands, of God, I want you to go home testifying to the power of God. Leave out of here shouting, and praising God that it's all over. I want you to do it.

I want these pastors to help me. I want Brother Moore, and Brother Hooper, many of these brothers here that I know, and these fine bunch of pastors here to stand and just form me a little line right along here. This is the way we did it. I haven't done this for years. But while the Holy Spirit's still on me.... I just seen something happen just then. While He's still here, while I can, and while they have the same anointing and the same authority (that's all), we're going to lay hands on the sick. And the Bible said ... they lay hands on the sick; they shall recover. The Bible said so. That's God's Word.

Come out here, brethren. Come out here, and form me a line right along here. I'm going to stand with these brothers.

Now, when you come out, you people in this place, as you go out, go right out around the building, come right back in again. And now I'm going to ask someone to stand here—maybe that little brother here. Come here, and you check these lines, if you will, or some brother that can stand here, and call them by section. Let the ministers now—the ministers, anointed servants of Jesus Christ—just stand right along here.

I've got a couple of brothers here that's from Jeffersonville, some of my associates from little sister churches from the Tabernacle: Brother Don Ruddell (Great success in praying for the sick. Don, are you here?); Brother Junior Jackson, a Methodist preacher I just baptized in the name of Jesus Christ and he received the Holy Ghost. This other was a Church of God minister.

I want you brethren that prays for the sick around the Tabernacle come stand in this line with these brothers. That's all right, isn't it, Brother? That's okay, isn't it? Sure. All right. Come stand around.

Where's Brother Wilber Collins at?—another minister, Methodist minister, just received the Holy Ghost and baptized. I'd like for him to come.

His little boy the other day was dying with rheumatic fever, and the doctor said, “Don't even let him raise his head high enough to put a tube in his mouth.” I'd come from Tucson to preach the seven seals. And when he did, he picked that baby up out of the bed and brought it over there. And no more got it in, and the Holy Spirit said, “Thus saith the Lord, take the baby home. He's healed. He'll play with my little boy.”

Here's the brother standing right here now. His wife's in here. I guess Mikey's sitting here himself. Right. Where you at, Mikey? Where you at? And the doctors (there he is), ... a mystery. The doctor said br... the health authorities run that child in. The doctor went and examined him. He scratched his head, said, “There ain't one speck of it in him.” What is it? Jesus Christ the same yesterday, today, and forever.

Friends, the reason I called these men—they're ministers, they're pastors. They're men that's called to pray for the sick the same as I am, or any other man. And I want you to know that your pastor has authority to do this. You don't have to wait for Oral Roberts, or Jack Jones, or me, or nobody else. Jesus Christ is omnipresent. You believe Him. Your pastor's called to do that.

You never been baptized, after this meeting consult your pastor. Get right with God. If you ain't received the Holy Ghost, go to his church—he'll instruct you on what to do.

Now, as you pass through, pray. And I want each person in here, each individual, I want you to pray. I want you to just march through the line. We'll stand right here with this bunch of men, laying hands on these people. This pastor's going to stand here and call the rows. And when you pass by and these anointed hands.... I'm going to pray for you now, and they're going to pray for you. And when they lay their hands upon you, remember you're just as healed as you would be saved.

The Bible said, “Repent and be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sin, and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost.” That's God's promise. He'll do it, if you believe it; but if you don't believe it, it won't work. And He said, “These signs shall follow them that believe. If they lay their hands on the sick, they shall recover.” It's done when they lay their hands on you, if you believe it. Do you believe it? Do you believe tonight that you've seen just as much real as that mother deer could produce, to see Jesus Christ manifest Hisself among us? If you believe He's here, say, “Amen.” Then here He is.

Let us bow our heads now. Here's my prayer for you with all my heart.

Heavenly Father, I love You. You're my life, You're my hopes, my God, my King, my healer, my keeper. Not only that, but I express the feelings of every believing Christian in here. That's what You are.

Here stands men—some of them standing here, themselves sick. I know they are. I seen your Spirit hanging over them a few moments ago, knowing them sick ministers. But their heart goes for their congregation of people, forfeiting their own place to stand here in the prayer line to pray for their sheep. God, bless that man. Bless each one of them.

As we stand here as your representatives, this night, of this truth—Bible truth—may each one of these men be so anointed that the Holy Spirit will ... when they lay their hands upon the people there'll be such faith strike that person until they will accept the God-given gift of healing that you've promised them, Lord. And may each one come through be so charged with expectation that they'll know that they're passing beneath the shadow of the cross, where the blood of Jesus Christ atones for their confession. And His great august presence here with us now, that proves that He's not dead—He's raised from the dead and living among us. Then our hearts will burn as we go to our different homes tonight saying, “Did not our hearts burn within us as He spoke to us along the way?”

I ask that your power will give such faith in these next few minutes to these sick people, that there'll not be a feeble person in our midst.

I challenge every devil that has these people bound. Upon the authority of God's Word, and the presence of Jesus Christ, who shed His blood to make every word a reality to every person that would believe, Satan, you are defeated. Your time is at hand. Leave these people, in the name of Jesus Christ. Come out from them. We move the act of God by laying hands upon the sick, and they shall recover.

[A brother sings “Only Believe” as Brother Branham and ministers lay hands on and pray for the sick.]

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

Our hearts in Christian love;

The fellowship of kindred minds

Is like to that above.

When we asunder part,

It gives us inward pain;

But we shall still be joined in heart,

And hope to meet again.

Heavenly Father, in the name of the Lord Jesus, may this be ... contact of each other's hands, of ministering brothers; that the Word of God grant that the virtue that raised up Christ from the dead, and has kept Him with us for these two thousand years, may find [blank spot] souls for eternity, and may heal the sick in our midst.

... Jesus Christ, for these handkerchiefs and these parcels. May the power of God be upon them in Jesus Christ's name.

Now let the entire congregation that believes with all your heart that Jesus Christ has ... will keep His Word.... If He kept His Word for two thousand years, and said this would happen at the end-time and here it's happened, He'll keep His Word that said, “If they lay their hands on the sick they shall recover.” Do you believe it? Do you accept it? Then let's raise our hands together and give praise to God.