The ministry of Christ

You can find this sermon at ChurchAges.net

1 Thank you, Brother Bush. [Break in tape.]
Good afternoon, friends. Very happy to be here this afternoon. And again in the defense of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, to bring the good tidings, the good news that Jesus raised from the dead, living among men today, His church. The same Jesus that was yesterday will be today and forever. He never fails.
And now we're very thankful for the progress of the meeting in these last few nights, and how the Lord has been blessing. And testimonies coming in from all kinds of diseases, afflictions, and so forth; are being healed right out in the audience even. Besides up here, and the things, right out there. Some of them write in, say, "Well, you know I had a baby, it had braces on, I took it home, took the braces off, it could walk." And just ... see. There's many times that I can't call everything that's going on out there; I just speak now and then.
And I notice in this middle part here, there's a light back there, but right in here, sometimes I see it standing in there, but I can't see just who it is and where it's at, so I just wait till it moves somewhere else. But I know the people are being blessed and I'm so thankful for that.

2 And now, usually in our meetings, on a Sunday afternoon, it's usually given over to me to speak from the Word. I'm not a speaker, by what you'd call a speaker. I just haven't got much of an education---very, very, little---but I love Him and I like to say about Him what I know to be the truth.
I know there's many of my friends here from Fort Wayne. I remember one night at the Fort Wayne meeting, I was back over ... just come in and there was a man there who knew all the angles, or, especially in grammar. He said to me, he said, "Brother Branham," said, "your grammar is very poor."
I said, "Yes sir, I know that."
And he said, "My, you make some of the awfullest mistakes."
I said, "Yes sir, I know it." I said, "Well, my father dying, I with my mother and ten children," I said, "I had to go to work. I've worked all my life," and I said, "I didn't get an education."
"Oh," he said, "that's no excuse; now you're a man."
I said, "Yes sir, that's right."

3 He said, "You could take a correspondence, or something, brush up on that grammar."
And I said, "Yes sir, I guess that's right." I said, "But after I started out into the meetings..."
"Why," he said, "it's a shame, all those people, and the thousands of people you speak to, and use the word his and hain't and..."
And I said, "Well, they seem to get along pretty good."
He said, "Well," he said, "I tell you," he said, "for instance, tonight you made one awful mistake." Said, "I'd like to correct you."
I said, "All right, sir."
He said, "You said all the people coming up to this 'polpit' tonight."
And I said, "Yes sir, ain't that right?"

4 He said, "No." He said, "You should've said 'pulpit.'" Said, "The people would appreciate you more if you'd said 'pulpit' and not 'polpit.'"
So I said, "Brother dear, I love you, see." But I said, "Look, them people out there don't care whether I say 'polpit' or 'pulpit,' they want me to preach the Gospel and see what [unclear words]." That's right. So that's just about it.
I used to remember, when I was first ordained---Baptist church. You know how a young preacher is, especially the Baptist. I hope there's some here. Oh, we got our Bible under our arm, you know, and we were Reverend. So I used to go down the street with my Bible and somebody'd say, "Are you a minister?"
"Oh, yes, sir."

5 So, I kind of like that name. So, it reminded me of one time when... My father used to be quite a rider; he got hurt. He would break horses and he'd ride the rodeos; very fancy rider and a very good shot with guns. And so he said... One day I remember, at home, I wanted to be like my dad. And we had an old plow horse. And, a lot of you fellows around here is off the farm, aren't you? So you know what an old plow horse is. I'd plowed that old fellow; he's old to begin with. And I'd plow him way late in the evening; dad wanting me to take him out so I wouldn't hurt the old fellow. And I had a little old watering trough down there, a log hollowed out. Did you ever see one? Say, then I'm not the only country boy around here today, am I? An old watering trough and an old pump where you used to pump the water.
And I'd get all my little brothers and set them along on the side of the barnyard fence there. And I'd get this trough full of water, and after the old horse got a drink. Dad would be back out working somewhere else. I'd go in and get his old saddle and get me a handful of cockleburs and push up under it, pull down the girth and climb up on this old horse.

6 Poor old fellow's so old he couldn't ... and stiff and tired, he couldn't get his feet off the ground, so he just stand there and bawl, you know. And I'd take off my hat and swing back and forth; I said, "I'm a real cowboy." And all my little brothers sitting there, you know. I just seen too many movies, that was all.
When I was about nineteen, I told mother I was going up here in Indiana to a Boy Scout Reservation, Greens Mill, to camp. I run off and went out west, went to Arizona. I thought, I'm a real rider. I'm broke now; why not get me some real money. So I heard there was a rodeo. So I got me a pair of Levis, went out there and looked around. I found out where the corral was, where they was bringing out the horses. I looked, setting alongside that fence and there was a whole bunch of disfigured cowboys, just bow-legged and all range-worn; and I thought Say, that's where I belong. I climbed up on the fence, sat up there.

7 They had a horse they brought out. The caller went forth and told who he was, and how famous a bucking horse he was. Somebody was going to ride him. So they brought some famous rider out, and he had to catch-as-catch-can as he come through the bull shoot. So when I was standing out there, and I seen this fellow drop off in the saddle, great big long-legged fellow, looked like he'd be a good rider. Just as he hit the saddle, boy, that horse made about two jumps, done a sunfish, and the rider, saddle and all went off. And when he did ... when he come down, the pick-ups got the horse and the ambulance come got the rider. The blood was running out of his ears and his eyes, nose, mouth. So this fellow come by all along the fence where all them cowboys, supposed to be riders, was all lined up. Said, "I'll give any man fifty dollars (that was depression), give any man fifty dollars who will ride him for thirty seconds."
Nobody... Everybody kept still. He rode right down in front of me. "Sir, are you a rider?"
I said, "No sir." Ha-ha-ha-ha. I realized that wasn't my old plow horse. Ha-ha-ha. There's a difference in him.

8 When I used to go around, you know, and say I was a preacher, one day I was over at Saint Louis, Missouri. There was a little Pentecostal preacher there named Rev. Robert Daugherty. And that fellow was in a tent meeting. And he preached till he got plumb out of breath, his knees was buckled together and he'd catch his breath (you could hear him a city block away), come back preaching. Somebody said, "You a preacher?"
I said, "No sir." Ha-ha-ha-ha.

9 My old slow Baptist ways just don't think of it that fast, so I just have to do the best I can. But I love Him.
And I love to get this time in the afternoon. In the evening services it's always about the sick. Talking, and it's something that'll ... dealing with sick people, and it's another anointing, a different anointing. It's an Angelic Being standing near. And it breaks over into another dimension.
Today someone was walking up in a restaurant, was telling me about being healed and how sick and horrible they'd been and how well they was. Why, I didn't remember the person. Another person was telling me about---he come from a Houston meeting, an elderly man---how that he'd had sclerosis or something another wrong with him; his liver had been bad for thirty years. He said, "Brother Branham, that very same night, every bit of it left me." And I see the old man sitting right over here now, that's right. He said, "And every bit of it left me." He's been well ever since. Said, "Do you remember me?"

10 You know it seems little when you say, "I do not." I don't want to say that, but I just don't remember it. If you go to telling it to me, why, it seems like I dreamed it. They was telling me about some paralyzed woman laying there was healed the other night. I just don't remember it. It seems like I dreamed something about them.
Now this afternoon, I'll read a little text and speak a little bit just on a familiar subject. I was going to speak this afternoon on: Contending For The Faith That Was Once Delivered To The Saints. And being that I made a mistake, I announced the meeting ... I thought I was to be here at two-thirty. Maybe if we stay over next Sunday I'll speak on that on: Contending For The Faith Once Delivered To The Saints, if the Lord willing.
And now, today I want to read some, maybe a little familiar place here in the Scriptures, found in Saint John the 11th chapter, where a man had died and he was raised from the dead. Do you believe that Jesus is still the same Lord today that raised this man from the dead? He is, friends; that's truly. He's the same Lord Jesus.

11 And this whole Bible, to my opinion, the whole set-up is a dramatic story: just starting out of Eden, coming out through the gate, on out, the way of the cross leading right back again. Just all one big picture God has placed out in His mind. I can imagine seeing God before there was even a foundation of the world, before there was a moon, star, anything, seeing Him set in the space yonder. And in His mind He drew out that picture, what it would all be. And everything He just spoke and said, "Let there be." And everything just begin to come into its place. Isn't He wonderful? To think of that!
And then seeing in His great sovereign love to come down and save lost sinners like myself and you! I can't understand. No wonder the poet said: "Love of God, how rich, how pure! Fathomless and strong! It shall forevermore endure, saints and angels song."
Beginning at the 11th chapter and the 18th verse, I'll read some Scripture:
Bethany ... now Bethany was nigh unto Jerusalem, about fifteen furlongs off:
... many of the Jews came to Martha and Mary, to comfort them concerning their brother.
Then Martha, as soon as she heard that Jesus was coming, went and met him: but Mary sat still in the house.
Then said Martha unto Jesus, Lord, if thou had been here, my brother would not have died.
But I know, that even now, whatsoever thou will ask ... God, God will give it to thee. (Isn't that wonderful right there?)
Jesus said unto her, Thy brother shall rise again.
Martha said unto him, I know that he shall rise again in the resurrection at the last day.
Jesus said unto her, I am the resurrection, and life: he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live:
... whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall not die. Believest thou this?
She said unto him, Yea, Lord: I believe that thou art the Christ, the Son of God, which should come into the world.

12 Shall we bow our heads just a moment.
Our Heavenly Father, we are now standing here this one more day this side of eternity ... or, the coming of the Lord, I should have said. And knowing that perhaps in this audience is people who have never accepted Thy beloved Son yet as their personal Saviour.
Coming down through the parks, seeing the swimming pools full and half-dressed young ladies laying, stretched out in the parks, not concerned; and realize that that beautiful body that they're so adoring is going to skin worms crawl through it one of these days, and their soul will have to face God in judgment. I pray, Lord, something will be did this afternoon that'll cause people to wake up and to realize that we're near the end.
We thank Thee for what Thou has done for us through this week, for making the deaf to hear, the lame to walk, and the many mighty signs and wonders that Thou has performed: truly indisputable, unadulterated---the power of God moving among mankind in this last day.

13 This people has gathered here under this canopy today to worship Thee. Many of Your children are getting weary Lord; they see these wicked prospering. May they look at David, when You spoke to him and said, "Yes, I've seen the wicked spread forth his great bay tree." But said, "Watch him at the end, that's when it all tells. That hour when the death angel comes into the room, the fog begins to float into the room and we know we're going down through the valley. Then what about it?"
God, bless Your children today, lift up their faith, bless their souls and may they rejoice in the God of our salvation. May the sick be healed; may many that's sitting here that's sick and afflicted catch the Holy Spirit in their heart and their faith illuminate today and be carried away. Grant it, Father.
Now help Thou me, Lord, Your unprofitable servant. And speak as never before through Thy servant. For we ask it in Christ's name. Amen.

14 I know that they'll go start giving prayer cards about six o'clock and we'll have to get away early enough. Won't take but a little while to speak to you, while you pray.
How many Christians are here this afternoon? Let's see you. Well, that's wonderful. Oh, about almost one hundred percent. Now, our text, our reading this afternoon, is concerning the beginning early ministry of our Lord Jesus Christ. He had just become popular. If you notice Him, in His first year He was very popular, then there become a sag in the second year, and then they crucified Him.
First, it was all new, it had tinsel on it, everywhere. Everybody come to see this wonderful Man who could know the thoughts of people and do things that the Father had showed Him to do: make the blind to see, the deaf to hear. They never heard such. But then the religious leaders of the day declared Him to be a devil. (I think I stand too close to that microphone.) And they declared Him to be a devil. And, of course, as people are taught about, so will they do. (Is that all right, or better? All right, I was just thinking, I don't want to make you deaf.)

15 So, they found out then that their religious leaders did not believe Him. So then He become very unpopular. Just among the poor class of people, the common. The Bible said, "The common people heard Him gladly." But the kind that had big social standings and plenty of things of this world and much money, they didn't pay any attention to Him. Well, Doctor So-and-so said "He was a fanatic, He was a demon, and so there was nothing to Him. So they just kept away from Him. They went to their own groups. Well, birds of a feather, that's true.
But those who believed Him and loved Him, was with Him. And one of those families was a boy by the name of Lazarus, and two sisters. One was named Mary and the other Martha. Now we're told by historians that Lazarus was a scribe, that he wrote and reprinted the copies of the law. And if anyone knows how strict that was, one crook in the word would mean something different. So it had to be perfectly, and had to be an honest, renown, holy person that would write that. So he had to be a good character, and a good religious standing.

16 And Martha and Mary, we're told, had done needlework, made tapestries for the temple and so forth. Them being on earth alone, their parents was gone. And at this time Jesus' foster father, I suppose, was gone---Joseph. And Jesus had come to dwell with them. And He become so famous till His work was just about scattered to a place where He had to go away.
Now, He was living ... it had come to season. Everything comes right in its season. Do you believe that? Everything... You plant the wheat in the fall of the year, in the spring of the year it brings itself forth ... or, God brings it forth. And you plant the corn in the spring and in the fall you harvest it. Everything has its time, just like His life: it had its beginning, it had its best part, and it has its shadow as He close.

17 Our ministries become the same, brethren. It has our best, our beginning, our middle part, the best, then close. Your life starts as a baby, then in your adolescence, then the middle age, then closes. Same as the sun rises in the east, sets over in the west; everything it's beginning and ending.
Every time that God is ready to do something on the earth, He always, first, before He sends judgment, He sends mercy first. And when man spurns mercy, there's nothing left but judgment. Is that true? If you won't accept mercy, then there's nothing left for you but judgment. So God, before He does anything, He always foreshows the people. If you'll believe it, I believe that our being here in Connersville this day is a foreshadow. God doesn't do things just to be a clown, He isn't. He doesn't put on shows. He does it for a purpose; every word goes right to its place. Not one jot or tittle can fail. It stands forever.
I think of that Scripture: "Thy Word is confirmed in heaven forever." Nobody doubts it in Heaven. It's we mortals that doubt it. Everything in Heaven believes His Word. What God says, that settles it. "Thy Word is settled in heaven forever." It's already settled.

18 Now, notice! Then just before the coming of Jesus, which had been prophesied from the Garden of Eden, John the Baptist was prophesied to come. And Zacharias (I want you to notice the family now.) a religious, holy man. Something awful had happened in their family: they had a ... wanted a baby. Them days it was a disgrace not to have babies; today it's a disgrace to have one nearly. How it's changed! People don't have time to raise children.
Now listen! This is my afternoon to be with the Lord here in the services. I just say what He tells me to say. But it's a sad day when they created wash machines and dishwashers and everything; they give the women all this time to lay around barrooms and things and drink and smoke cigarettes and run around over the country. That's right. 'Come busybodies, idlers, plenty of time, nothing to do. It'd be better if you had the scrub brush and back in the wash with these kind of wash machines, the way my mother used to do it. That's right.

19 Now I'm not... Not only that, but men, they have to set the time up so they can get out and play golf or something like that. Take a little exercise, get some of the fat off of them. What a pity! And the rest of the world starving to death. You think we're not going to receive damnation for these things? Sure, we will. I've left the nations and the poor little children wringing their hands and their eyes and crying, their little dirty faces like that, crying for a piece of bread. In America sometimes in the afternoon, or mid-afternoon, a eight-dollar plate, and half of it raked off in the garbage can to feed to the hogs. It's not right! And, brother, the time's coming when God will make us pay for those things, too.
But this man, Zacharias, and Elisabeth his wife were righteous people, holy; prayed all the time. And now it come time for Isaiah's prophecy to be fulfilled, yet it had been spoke eight hundred ... or, seven hundred and twelve years before: "There will be a voice of one crying in the wilderness."

20 Watch the prophetic wheels of God: just the time that prophecy's ready to be fulfilled, the other called will be there when that one gets there. Jesus will be here just exactly on time. The church will go up just exactly on time. Won't be nothing fail. Just as God has ordained it, so will it be.
Now, watch these people. God came down on the earth, no doubt, to look around to find somewhere that could produce the fulfillment of His Word. And He found a man by the name of Zacharias, who was righteous. God always waits to get the low and deprived and the outcast. That's the reason I love Him: He picked me up. The poor of this world, that's humble in heart and willing to learn.

21 And He found Zacharias, yet faithful at his post of duty, waving the incense. And when he went in to burn the incense this day---Zacharias now an aged man, his wife way past the age of bearing---the Angel of the Lord stood on the right-hand side of the altar. And as Zacharias turned and looked at Him, it was Gabriel, the Archangel. Look! God may send many angels. All of us has guardian angels. The children of God... Jesus said, "Take heed that you despise not these little ones; for their angels always behold My Father's face which is in heaven." That true? Be careful what you do against Christians. Said it would be better to be drowned in the sea with a rock around your neck than to bring even offense to one of them. Be careful, see.

22 Now, He sends many angels, but when you hear of Gabriel coming down from glory, it's not just a minor thing, something major's fixing to take place. Gabriel ... (here it is now) Gabriel announced the first coming of Christ. And Gabriel will announce the second coming of Christ. Amen. He's the Archangel, standing at the right hand of His Majesty in glory.
And here this priest, standing there, maybe praying and waving this censor, as the people was praying outside. And he looked, and there stood Gabriel. What a feeling! But he told Zacharias ... he said he had found favor with God. And said, "Now Zacharias, when you go home after the days of the ministration here---the altar---then when you go up home, back up in Shiloh," he said, "you're going to be with your wife, and she's going to conceive and bear a son." What a message!

23 Now watch. A man be so set in his ecclesiastical ways, yet knowing he was standing in the presence of an angel, said, "How could these things be?" Why, in other words, "They can't be. My wife's fifty years old, or sixty. Why, I've lived with her since she was a little girl, seventeen, eighteen, years old, and she's past the age of bearing. These things can't be."
Watch! I like this. God's determined to fulfill His Word. (Next Sunday I get on that election and calling, there.) Notice. He said, "I am Gabriel, that stands in the presence of God, and my words will be fulfilled in their day. And because you've doubted, you'll be dumb till the day the baby's born. You'll call his name John."

24 Say! That's really something, isn't it? Watch now. Do you believe that Angel's dead? No, sir. he's listening in this afternoon. Watch. And then the first thing we know, we find the people all wondering why he was staying so long, so they come to take a look at him, and they found him beckon his hands. They perceived that he had saw a vision.
He goes home. And just as Gabriel said, so was it. Elisabeth conceived. Hallelujah! God's Word said so, it's got to come to pass. So Elisabeth, being old, plumb maybe many years past the menopause. But watch. That priest doubted that would be so. He had plenty of examples where it happened before. But yet he doubted in his own case.
Now you say, "I see this one get healed and that one get healed, but as far as me, I don't know."
Why, it's for you too!
You say, "I know this one is awful happy since they received the Holy Spirit, but I'm just afraid the neighbors will make fun of me."

25 What do you care what the neighbor says. God ain't making a clown out of you; He's making a saint! What does God say about it? Don't make any difference what the neighbor says; it's what God says. Amen. You know, I begin to feel religious already. I do. The Holy Spirit ... I believe He's here this afternoon to bless His people.
Oh, I think, that how I seen Zacharias then doubting that, but after a while Elisabeth conceived. She hid herself six months, for she had conceived and she was bringing forth this child. And six months later... Let's turn our views now somewhere else, down to Nazareth, the meanest city in the world. Worse than Connersville, Jeffersonville, or any of them. Oh, it was horrible.

26 Now notice. Let's kind of give a little drama here. Let's imagine it's Monday. That's the woman's worse day, usually. It was when I was home; I had to pack the wash water and everything. I believe my mother's present this afternoon. I see my brother over here a few minutes ago. And I imagine she's present.
And how I used to have go cut them old locust limbs and pull it in and stick it under the fire and boil the wash water in an old ... big old kettle on the outside. My! Remember she used to cook preserves. And I used to get in there; I'd sweat, you know, in the summertime, those little yellow gourd tomatoes. They're pretty good, you know, make preserves out of. Put them between hot biscuits on a cold morning. I tell you, they're fine. And she'd pour it in and I'd say, "Ah, Mama, that fire's hot enough."
She said, "Oh, they're not hot enough yet." And they just a cooking and a steaming.
I said, "Well, why are they not hot enough?"

27 She said, "They have to go to popping before they're right. Popping." Said, "Just keep pouring the wood till they go to popping." Bubbling, you know, the air coming up, popping.
I thought that was a pretty good illustration. Reminds me of a good old Holy Ghost meeting. You're digging up some wood, just keep throwing it on the fire till they start popping. That's right. Getting ready for sealing away then. Before you can get the iron hot, get it ready to make something else out of it, you have to get it hot! Put it under the anvil, beat the sparks out of it and let her go a molding out. God's got to get a meeting warmed up first; He's got to get your heart turned towards Him! Then God can go to making something out of you and molding you into sons and daughters of God in the pure unadulterated faith.

28 Now notice! I can see Mary coming home with a (was an oriental type) with water on her head, coming from the virgin springs, going up along the street, going on the street. She cut up through the alleyway, maybe where she lived, maybe a little shack over on the side. Very poor, living with her widowed mother. And on the road up on this Monday (wash day), she was walking along, but she was a virgin. No matter how mean the city was, she was a virgin; she trusted God. And all of a sudden a great light appears before her. And standing beneath this light was Gabriel, (Hallelujah) the Archangel. Amen. (Don't let that scare you; amen means, "so be it." All right, the Archangel standing there, and He said, "Hail Mary, blessed art thou among women. Thou hast found favor in the sight of God."

29 "What? Me? from the meanest city in the country? A little old poor girl lives back here in the alley? And yet I found favor with God?"
Said, "Yes, you've found favor with God."
It frightened the little virgin. The salutation of this Angel, a light hanging over him. And there he stood in the light saying, "Hail."
It'd frighten you. It'd frighten anyone. Now I want to look, and watch him as he's talking to her. He said, "Thou has found highly favor before God, and thou shall bring forth a Child and shall call his name Jesus."
"Why," she said, "how will these things be?"
Said, "The Holy Ghost shall overshadow thee." Amen. "And that holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God." Now remember. Do you believe that? God is a Spirit.
I was talking to a fellow some time ago, he said, "You don't really believe that's the truth, preacher?"
I said, "Yes, I do."

30 He said, "Now look, that was just a little slip-up," said, "Joseph was going with this woman ... that girl." He was a widower, four children. And said, "Now look, he was going with that woman, I believe there's just a little slip-up, don't you?"
I said, "No, sir! I believe He was the unadulterated Son of God, born a virgin birth."
Said, "How could it be?"

31 And come to find out, the man didn't believe in God. And he said, "It's against all scientific rules, Brother Branham; it can't be." He said, "Look. Wheat won't even grow without a pollen. Neither will corn. There's no ... can reproduce without both male and female." He said, "Even the trees has to be bored and changed and so forth. And the pollen, by bees, brought from one to the other, male and female, or they will not grow." Said, "It's against all scientific rules."
I said, "But this is God, the creator of science."
He said, "It just can't be."
I said, "I want to ask you something. You don't believe that there is a God?"
He said, "No, sir." Said, "I don't believe that was any virgin birth, and I don't believe there ever was such a thing or ever will be such a thing." Said, "That man Joseph was His father."

32 I said, "I want to ask you something. Do you mean to tell me then that it's totally impossible for a man, for the great Creator God..."
He said, "There is no such a thing."
I said, "All right, just follow me." I said, "You believe it's impossible for the Creator God to bring forth this Baby... You'll admit He had an earthly mother, I will too. But it'd be impossible without Him having a... Well, let's say He had a earthly father."
Said, "That's right."

33 I said, "I want to ask you then, how did the first man get here without either father or mother? Let him be tadpole, pollywog, monkey, whatever you want to call him, how did he get here? According to your statement there, he had to have both a pappy and a mammy both." That's right. I said, "Who was his?"
He hasn't answered me to this day, and he can't. God created this Child. Yes, sir. I believe the blood cell comes from the male sex. That's true, we know that. Many of you people here are farmers. Your hen can lay eggs the whole summer; but if she hasn't been with the male, they'll never hatch. That's right.
The birds building their nest now, and the old mother bird can build a nest out there in a tree and lay a nest-full of eggs and never be around the male, and she can set on that nest and hover those eggs and turn them and turn them, and get so poor she can't even fly off the nest keeping them warm. But unless she's been with the male bird, they'll lay right in the nest and rot. They're not fertile because the germ of life comes out of the male.

34 Puts me in the mind of some of these old cold formal churches you got around here. Got a nest full of eggs, you just huddle them around, call them deacons and brother, you might as well tear the nest up and get something else. They don't believe in divine healing, they don't believe in God. They've never been with the male to get a touch of life, that's the reason. That's the truth. Just might as well dump the nest out and start over again. That's right. No matter how much deacon, and you polish him up and call him this, that, or the other, or pat them on the back, or put their name on the church book, they're still dead in sin and trespasses until they're born again. Yes, sir. That is truth.

35 Now, notice. Back quickly. God the Father, a Spirit, over-shadowed the little virgin; and God the Father, the Creator of all things, created a blood cell in the womb of that woman and brought forth the Son, Christ Jesus, God's tabernacle on earth. Amen!
Then we are saved not by sexual blood, but we're saved by creative blood by God's own blood Himself. He was the blood that was shed on Calvary's cross. There's why I have faith in salvation and divine healing, because it was God's own blood that was poured out through His Son's veins on Calvary's cross. Amen. That's why we can stand in the face of opposition and say, "It's right!" You know where you're standing if you get back to the basic facts to find out what it was. We're saved through the blood of God.

36 Now, this little virgin was all excited. Notice. Here's what I like about Mary. Amen. Instead of doubting like Zacharias, that preacher, she said, "Behold the handmaid of the Lord; be it unto me according to Your Word."
She didn't try to figure it all out like he did. "Why," he said, "now look, my wife's old" and so forth like this. We had plenty of examples! Look at Hannah at the temple. And look at Sarah. Many of the old women had had children by God's blessings upon them. And he had plenty of examples. But she had to believe something that had never happened.
But here's what I like about Mary, before she felt life, before any physical outward demonstration, before there was one thing ceased in her body, before she felt life or anything, she started out testifying that she was going to have a baby. Hallelujah! God give us some more Marys that will take God at His Word! God had said so through His Angel. Didn't make any difference what everything else took place, she was going to have the baby because she took God at His Word. Amen.

37 If we had that type of people here in this audience this afternoon, there wouldn't be a sick person among us. Take God at His Word and start rejoicing. She went around telling everybody. "I'm going to have a baby."
"How do you know you are?"
"God said so."
A virgin. Hallelujah! Amen! I like that. All right. She took God at His Word and started rejoicing. She couldn't stand still, she had to go tell somebody. Everybody that ever comes in contact with God has to tell somebody else. Yes, sir.
And away she went. The Angel told her about Elisabeth. And Elisabeth was her first cousin. She had to go find Elisabeth. So way up through the streets of Nazareth and out into Judea and up in the hilly country she went to find Elisabeth, to tell her about what was going to happen to her. So she knowed that Elisabeth was already to be mother---it was six months with her. And so they were going to have a rejoicing time together.

38 And now look, I can see Mary coming up to meet Elisabeth, and there come Elisabeth out to meet her, she seen her coming. And she run out, I imagine, and throwed her arms around her and hugged her and begin to kiss her. "Oh, Elisabeth, I'm so glad to see you."
And, "Mary, I'm so glad to see you."
That's the way they greeted one another. They had love for one another. You don't see that no more now. It's all about faded away. Love. You know, brother, isn't it awful? People don't care for one another no more. Why, it used to be when we was out in the country, had our farm, and when somebody would get sick in the neighborhood, why, we'd go over there and cut their corn or cut up the wood and bring it in, and do anything we could to help them.
But they don't do that no more. The only way you know your neighbor is dead is when you read it in the paper. You don't know nothing about it. Brotherly love is ceased. Isn't that the truth?

39 I was riding along with somebody the other day and there was a woman going down the street and knowed my wife. And so she said, "Hello."
And I said, "Did you speak to her?"
She said, "Yes."
I said, "I didn't hear you."
She said, "Well, I turned around and smiled."
I said, "That's not it, a little silly grin." They go around, "Hah." I don't like that.
I was coming out of a meeting here in Miami---Brother Bosworth ---and there was some Duchess down there, she was back in behind a little flap of the tent there. Brother Bosworth said, "The Duchess that let us have this place wants to shake your hand, Brother Branham."
I said, "Well now, she's no more than the rest of them," see. I said, "She's just a woman."
He said, "Well, I told her she couldn't talk to you, but if we was going through the place like that," said, "well, she could shake your hand."
I said, "Well, that's up to you."

40 So after the preaching service that Sunday afternoon, I walked back there and she had on about enough clothes you could put in an aspirin box. And here she come. She had a pair of specks out on a stick, holding it out like that. Now you know good and well, that nobody could see through specks that far away from them, like that, holding it out like that.
And here she come with her head up like that, looking through those specks. Bracelets all up and down her arms and earrings hanging down like stirrups on the devil's saddle. So she started walking down through there like that, with them specks over her eyes, and she said, "Are you Doctor Branham?"
I said, "No, Ma'am." I said, "I'm Brother Branham."
She said, "Well, Doctor Branham, I'm charmed to meet you."
Had that big fat hand up like this. I grabbed it; I said, "Well, get it down here so I'll know you when I see you again."

41 All that stuff, put on! There's nothing to it. It's nonsense! Sure, who are you anyhow? Walk around with a fifty dollar coat on and nose stuck up if it would rain it'd drown you, and think you're something! You're six foot of dirt. Your soul ain't saved; you're lost! No other way out of it. But that's the world today. Oh, we're somebody, we belong somewhere. Then make fun and call people holy-rollers. Oh, my.
I could see Mary run out and grab Elisabeth and them together, they put their arms around one another. And I can hear Mary say, "Oh, Elisabeth, I am so happy and delighted to see you." She knew she was to be mother. And she said, "I have heard that you're to be a mother." Let's dramatize this a minute, now.

42 I can hear Elisabeth say, "Yes, Mary, that's right, but I'm worried."
"Why?"
"Why, it's six months with me as a mother and there's no life yet." Now that's altogether subnormal. About two or three months. So she said, "Six months and no life, I'm worried about it."
"Why," she said, "I wouldn't be worried. Now listen, I know you're going to be a mother, because the Angel has told me so. But the Angel appeared to me also, and said that I was going to have a son, knowing no man, and I will call His name Jesus."
And just as soon as that name of Jesus went forth first through the mortal lips of a being, that little dead baby in the mother's womb received the baptism of the Holy Ghost and begin to leap and jump for joy. That's right!
Brother! If it'll make a dead baby in the womb of a woman jump for joy, what ought it do to a born-again church? Certainly. When Jesus' name was first spoke through the lips of a mortal! Amen. Talk about demons screaming and coming out, sinners weeping! That name, you can't sling it and half-way reverence it and then have power with it; you got to believe it and reverence it! God will grant it.

43 Now, said, "As soon as thy salutation," said, "Blessed are..." the Holy Ghost jumped on the mother. Said, "Whence cometh the mother of my Lord? For as soon as thy salutation come into my ears, my baby leaped in the womb for joy!"
Talk about shouting something new, huh, why, it's the oldest religion in the world! The shouting religion. Why, thousands of years before the world was ever founded, God asked Job one day, said, "Where was you when I laid the foundation of the world, when the morning stars sang together and the sons of God shouted for joy?" Talk about something new, we just got a new case of the old time kind, that's all. Certainly. Shouted for joy! What a time! My!

44 What type of baby was this to be, when this John was born? My! I see him come forth out of the wilderness ... not with his collar turned around in the back and having fried chicken three times a day. No, sir! He had an old sheepskin wrapped around him, a camel skin belt on, but he preached repentance! And he stirred the regions all around. He preached Christ.
And, brother, when Christ is preached in its simplicity, yet in its power, it'll stir the nations every time. When Christ the living God has been brought to reality to the people. Certainly. It's always been. God's power has always been with His people through all ages. Last night, striking along, the children of Israel, I thought there, when they come to a place, sometimes we get baffled. When they come to Kadesh-barnea they were baffled. God made a way for them. When they was at the Red Sea, God opened up the Red Sea.

45 Look at them. They come out of that country without one thing but a little pan full of bread on top of their head. You don't have to wait till you quit all your meanness; come just the way you are. That's the way you want. Say, "Well, when I'll get rid of this, and when this or that, I'll come." Come now, just the way you are.
Notice. When they got across on the other side, the bread gave out. God always provides a way. That night when they went to bed, I can see the prophet go out and pray. The next morning when they woke up, they looked all around over the ground, and there was manna laying all over the ground, like hoar frost. It tasted like honey and wafer. And they went out and begin to pick it up and eat it. Oh, it was wonderful---manna. Very beautiful type of our manna today, the whole wilderness journey was. And look at them. God supplied their needs ... or, manna. And then when they were... "Tastes like honey in the rock," they said. Did you ever taste it? The heavenly manna coming down from God out of heaven? Sweeter than any honey I ever tasted.

46 So then, the first thing you know, the people thought they wouldn't have to be rationed, so they just go out and get enough to last them a long time. That's the way people go to church: once on Easter, think you got enough for the next year.
A pastor told me not long ago, in a certain big evangelical church, he said, "Rev. Branham, I always bid my people a very Merry Christmas, A Happy New Years, on Easter." Said, "I won't see them any more till next Easter."
You know why? The people tried to do that there. But they found out they had to get a new case every day. The kind that they got and kept over... Some of the people went and done it anyhow, and they found out that it become contaminated. Wiggletails got into it. Was no good.

47 That's the way of a lot of our experiences today, even in Pentecost. Got a lot of wiggletails in it. It's time to get rid of the thing. Not what we did forty years ago; what we do today. What's my experience with God today? Contamination. Say, "Well, twenty years ago I had a wonderful experience." What about now? "Well, I believed Him a long time ago." But what about now?
Now notice. I love this. He said, "It tastes like honey." It reminds me of David. David was a shepherd. And the shepherds in old times used to carry a little script bag on their side like this. And they put honey in there. They eat some of it themselves. But when a sheep would get sick, they go to a limestone rock. They take some of this honey and rub it all over the rock. And then the sick sheep, they'd bring him up near the rock, and the sick sheep would go to licking on this honey to get the honey off, and he'd lick the limestone out of the rock and it would heal the sick sheep.

48 Just reminds me: Brother, I got a whole script bag full of honey here this afternoon, and I'm going to put it on the rock Christ Jesus and you sick sheep go to licking on it, and I'm telling you you'll find Christ. Amen. I ain't going to put it on a church now; I'm going to put it where it belongs, on Christ Jesus where your healing power and salvation belongs. And you sick sheep go to licking right fast and see if you don't get well right quick; on the Rock, Christ Jesus. They lick, lick, lick, lick, and the more they lick... There's something about a rock that's got a cure to it.

49 In old times they used to have a mad stone. And every time someone would get dog bit, they would ... mad dog bit, they would take this fellow and stick him against the stone. If he stuck, he got well. If he didn't stick, he died. I know a Rock, the Rock of Ages, that every sin-sick or physical-sick person can come to that Rock of Ages and stick against it, hang on to it, [unclear word]. God's under obligation to bring you to the healing virtues of Calvary---flows through that Rock Christ Jesus today---that'll heal every sick person there is. Yes, make every sinner whole, bring joy to the downcast, on Christ Jesus.
What we need today, brother, around this country is not a religious gathering; we got so many of them through the country now. A certain evangelist passed through the country not long ago, very well known among the nominal churches. He went to Boston and another place up there where he said within six weeks time they had twenty thousand converts.

50 A group of laymen and ministers went back to find the cards, and about two months afterwards they couldn't find twenty that would stuck out. Why? They didn't go far enough. They didn't stick to it. That's what's the matter. What we need today is a good old fashioned Saint Paul's revival, in the Bible, Holy Ghost preached back in the church again. That's right, my brother, sister.
Reminds me of when my brother and I here. One day we were out on a creek. We were little boys. And we found one of these old terrapins. You know what they are here in Indiana. Funny-looking fellow, you know, the way he swings his legs and walks. And we thought that was the funniest thing, so we went up to him. He said, "Whew." Pulled right back up in his shell.

51 Puts me in mind of a lot of people who don't believe in divine healing. Let the campaign come in the city, say, "Whew, don't you go out there. Ain't nothing to that bunch of holy-rollers." See, there it is.
So I said, "Wait, I'll make him move." And I cut me a limb off the tree and I really poured it on him. Never done him a bit of good. You can't beat it into them. They just won't take it. I said, "I'll fix him up." I took him down to the creek and I stuck him down in the water. Just a few bubbles come up and that was all of it.
Brother, you can baptize them this way, that way, head forward, back up and down three times, four times, what you want to. They go down a dry sinner, come up a wet one. Still a sinner.

52 You know what I done? I built me a little fire and set the old boy on it. He moved then! What we need today is not church joining and arguing about baptism, is the Holy Ghost and fire that'll make any church move. Get the Holy Spirit back in the church and the apostles and teachers and so forth into their places, and let the Holy Ghost go to reigning on a church like that and see what takes place. Signs and wonders and miracles will follow it. Sure it will.
I know you think I'm crazy. You're going to call me a holy-roller after this, so you might as well get started now. Maybe I am. But if you felt like I did, standing here, you'd be doing the same thing.
Notice. God promised to bless His people. How did I think of that manna ... (before we leave it again.) It was a type. All the things of the old was a type of the new. And I see there where the Holy Spirit rained the manna down. That was to last them. That manna never ceased through the entire journey.

53 And now watch. The manna kept falling. Now, Moses told Aaron, "Go out and take up several omerfuls of it and put it back in the Holiest of holies around the ark. That after this, that every priest," get it "every priest coming into the priesthood could have a mouthful of the original manna that fell in the beginning."
Now, it never come contaminated back there, it was in the Holiest of holies. And every priest that come into the priesthood, when he was ordained a priest, they'd get a handful of manna and give him a good mouthful. And he got a taste of the original manna that fell in the beginning.
What a type that is of the Holy Spirit. When God, on the day of Pentecost, poured out the blessings of the people, they were all locked up in a little room---a hundred and twenty---the women and men together, praying. And suddenly there came a sound from Heaven like a rushing mighty wind, filled all the house where they were sitting. Cloven tongues set upon them. They were filled with the Holy Spirit. Out into the streets they went, giving testimony and praises of God.

54 Now watch. That was our manna that's to carry the Holy Ghost church down through the age till Jesus comes. Hallelujah! Notice. How long was it to last? you teacher who don't know your Bible. Peter said... When they begin to stagger and scream, the outside ecclesiastical full Gospel phenomenal ... or, fanatic world come up to him and said, "These men are drunk!"
Could you imagine? You listen, Catholic friends, and the rest of you. The blessed virgin Mary was among them! And if God wouldn't even let the mother of God the Son, come into the kingdom of God until she got so full of the Holy Ghost till she acted like a drunk woman, how are you going to get in anything less? What's it going to be? Think it over yourself. The Bible said Mary was in there. The very mother of Christ had to go to Pentecost and stay there in the city of Jerusalem until she was so full of the Holy Ghost till she staggered like she was drunk! Amen! That's truth! That's the Bible.

55 When they were out there, and Peter, the little coward, stand up on a soapbox after he'd been filled with the Holy Ghost ... or, a stump or something. And they were all laughing, said, "Look at that bunch of holy-rollers. Look at them up there; they act like they're drunk, just staggering."
Was you ever in one of the meetings? Wonderful! That's right.
Look at Moses, a type of it. When they crossed through the Red Sea, and on the other side Moses looked back and he saw all the taskmasters drowned. Just the type of us coming through the blood of Christ, cleansing to sanctifying power, set aside from sin. Looking back and see all the smoking, drinking, card parties, picture shows, all the low life things of the world, dead in the blood of Christ. Moses raised up his hands and begin to sing in the Spirit. Miriam, the prophetess, picked up a tambourine and went down the bank, jumping and beating the tambourine and dancing. And the daughters of Israel followed her, beating, singing, dancing. If that ain't an old-fashioned Holy Ghost camp meeting, I never seen one. Amen. Singing in the Spirit. Dancing in the Spirit. Amen.

56 Look, brother, when they were all having a big time, and the last side was scoffing, laughing, making fun of them, Peter stood up on his soapbox, or stump, said, "You men of Judea, let this be known unto you, and hearken to my words: For these are not drunk like you suppose. This is the third hour of the day," the saloon's not even open. Said, "But this is that!"
Brother, if this ain't that, I'm going to keep this till that comes. Amen. Said, "This is that, that was spoke of by the prophet Joel; It'll come to pass in the last days, saith God, I will pour out My Spirit upon all flesh: your sons and daughters shall prophesy, and upon my handmaidens and maid servants, will I pour out of My Spirit: And I will show signs in the heaven above, the earth below, pillars of fire, and vapors of smoke: It shall come to pass before the great and terrible day of the Lord shall come, that whosoever shall call upon His name shall be saved."
They were pricked in their heart and said, "Men and brethren, what can we do?"
Peter said, "Repent, every one of you and be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of your sins, and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost."
What? The manna. We got a pot full of it, going to put up there. It'll be for your children, to your children's children, to them that's far off, and as many today that wants to receive the Holy Ghost. We got the same manna!
What? They won't receive something that looks like the Holy Ghost, but they've got a mouthful and a heart full of the original manna that fell on the day of Pentecost! God's got it laid up for every generation! Hallelujah! Amen! It brings the same results: staggering like drunk men, filled with the Spirit, signs and wonders. Amen. Whew, I feel religious.

57 Notice how that God blessed, promised that He'd be down. It's for who? For you! "...for your children, your children's children, for them that's far off, even as many as the Lord our God shall call." Connersville, Indiana, wherever it may be. If God's still calling, He's still giving to every priest. Are we priests? A royal priesthood, holy nation, coming to God, offering spiritual sacrifices. What? The fruits of our lips giving praise to His name. I'm slobbering a whole lot this afternoon.
You know what's the matter? I just got over in Canaan, I'm eating some of these new grapes, I'm getting drunk as I can be. Amen! It causes you to slobber. All right! Oh, it's real.
Oh, how I see what type of baby this must have been. Jumped in his mother's womb before he was born and received the Holy Ghost. He wasn't going to be no hypocrite; he was going to have what he was talking about. So he came on, preached the Holy Ghost.

58 There he stood there, and preached... (We'll have to hurry, I see my time gets away so quick here. Now I'm just getting feeling pretty good.) But look. I notice there for a little while...
Then came Jesus. We all know of His birth, when He was born, His ministry. We'll get quickly to the text now. Watch Him coming along.
The first thing you now, He begin to get so popular till He had to get away from the home of Lazarus. And when Jesus went out of Lazarus' home, sorrow and sickness come in. And when Jesus leaves your home, sorrow and sickness is coming in. Now, in this case, it wasn't because He was forced away or driven out, He'd had a vision and God was sending Him away.
So then Lazarus got sick. Could you imagine the critics of Jerusalem then? Said, "Uh-huh, where's his buddy at? Where's that divine healer?"
"Well, we have sent for Him, and He ignored it."

59 Oh, my! Sent for the pastor; he ignored him to come. What would you do? "Oh, bless God, I won't fool with that old pastor any more. I'll go over here and join the Assemblies, or I'll join this one, or I'll join that one."
That's the reason you can't get nowhere. That's right. Now, they never told me to say this, but, brother, if you can't have faith in your pastor, get rid of him. That's right. Your pastor can help you today if you've got faith in him. But you've got to believe him. Believe him to be a man of God. Sometimes he can't come every time you snap your fingers, not supposed to. He's supposed to follow what God says do. That's right.

60 Now, but... They said now... They sent again. And when they sent again, why, He just went farther. My, what a condition! Lazarus really got sick, and he died. They took him out and embalmed his body. Took him over and laid him in the grave. Jesus knew then that he was dead. So, He told His disciples... You're acquainted with the story. Here He comes back to Jerusalem. Now, I can hear some of them say, "Yeah, we hear that holy-roller is on His road in here, that divine healer again. Boy, he's done dead. Oh, if He'd a been here, He'd a healed him." Sure.
But little old Martha... I kind of like her. She'd been so dilatory about things, but you notice, all the time while Martha was so much about doing things, Mary set at the feet of Jesus and listened. It's paying off now. So, here she takes off... She heard that Jesus came. So, here she come down through the streets. I can imagine and see the critics saying, "Where you going now? What's it all about this time? Going out to see Him, I guess."

61 She just pressed right on through, never paid any attention. She got out to where Jesus was. Now, naturally, she had a right to upbraid Him, looked like, to say, "Why didn't You come to my brother?" Listen close. "Why didn't You come when we called You? Now, we left the church, we left everything, we left our priest, we went against his will, we kept You in our home, we paid You of our money, we fed You with our food, we give You clothes; and when my brother was sick, we sent for You and You turned Your back on us and went away."
Every bit of that would have been the truth. But, brother, let me tell you something now: it's your attitude towards any divine gift, your approach to that attitude determines what you're going to get out of it. You just come to God in the wrong way. Jesus just come walking into the city.
But she didn't do that. She ran out to Him and she fell down at His feet and she said, "Lord." That's what He was. "Lord, if Thou would've been here my brother would not have died."

62 Oh, I like that, she knew that was God's Son. Now, I think where she got that, she must have read back in the Bible where there's a woman one time, a Shunammite. And she didn't have no children and Elisha blessed her and she had a baby. And the baby got about ten or twelve years old, and one day, (I think the little fellow must have had a sunstroke) about eleven o'clock in the day, and he come in hollering, "My head, my head." And the father sent him back. And he went in, and at noon the baby died. And she'd built a little place there for the prophet to stay in.
And watch that mother, how appropriate. She took the little dead boy, packed him up in the prophet's room and laid him on the prophet's bed. Good place to lay him. She said, "Saddle a mule now, go forward, and don't you stop less I bid you." Now, I like that.
All right. Her husband said, "It's neither new moon nor Sabbath, so the prophet will not be there."
She said, "All will be well."

63 Now, God don't reveal everything to his prophets; you know that. So, Elijah was standing up there by his cave, and he looked, he said to Gehazi, he said, "Here comes that Shunammite." Said, "She's weeping; something wrong with her. And God has hid it from me, I don't know." See, He don't have to tell him.
So, the Shunammite run right up and Gehazi run out to her, Elijah said, "Is all well with thee? All well with thy husband? Is all well with the baby?"
Now, here's where I like. She said, "All is well."

64 There it was. She knew that was God's prophet. She knew if she'd ever get to that man, that she'd find out why her baby died. So, everything was all right. She knowed God was in His prophet. That's right. So, she fell down at his feet, and she revealed her secret to him. And he said to Gehazi, "Gird up your loins, and take my staff: if anybody speaks to you, don't you speak: but go lay this staff on the dead baby."
Now, there's where I think Paul got taking handkerchiefs off his body. Elijah knew that everything that he touched was blessed. Now, if he could get the woman to believe it. But her faith wasn't in the staff, her faith was in the prophet. She said, "As the Lord liveth, I'll not leave you, I'll stay right with you."

65 So, Elijah thought he might as well gird his own loins up. So here he goes. And Gehazi went on ahead of him. He returned back and said, "There's no life in the baby; he's dead."
So, Elijah comes up to where ... the dead baby laying there, and the mourning and crying going on. Watch him. He goes into the room where the baby is. He walks up and down the floor. I like that. One. "Lord, what will You do?" Up and down the floor. Everybody outside wailing and hysterical, screaming and going on. He just walked up and down the floor.
He went and laid his body... A man... The Bible said we're subject to like passions as he was. A man, not an Angel; a man, a prophet. And he laid his body upon the dead baby. And he laid there awhile. Put his lips against its lips, his nose against its nose, his forehead against his forehead, his hands against his hands, and he laid there. Elijah, I think, would be a little old skinny man; so he laid right over the baby.

66 He raised up. He felt the baby; he was getting warm. He walks back and forth again. Hallelujah! God was in his prophet. So, he walked back and forth again. He went and laid his body over the dead baby again, and he sneezed seven times. Said, "Take this baby and go bring the Shunammite here." The baby come to life.
Now, wish we had time to get in them seven sneezes, but we got to hurry. Look, friends, Mary ... no, Martha, no doubt, had read that story and she knowed if that Shunammite woman knowed that God was in His prophet, surely God was in His Son! She recognized---the Shunammite woman---recognized God's gift of the prophet. And she approached him right. And Mary was recognizing God's gift in His Son. So she run up to Him, she fell down, (now, listen closely for a minute), she fell down by His feet and said, "Lord, if Thou would have been here, my brother would not died. But even now, whatever You ask God, God will do it."

67 The boy laying out there, done been dead four days, skin worms crawling through his body. Contamination: the nose had done dropped in in that much time. "But even now, Lord, whatever You ask God, God will do it."
I imagine there's people here that's been to every doctor there is in the country around here. The doctors' probably give you up, said, "You're a hopeless case." "But even now, Lord," whatever you ask God, God will do it.
Could you think that? That changes hearts. He looked at her, said, "Thy brother shall rise again."
She said, "Yes, Lord. I know he will raise again in the last day; he's a good boy. He will raise in the last day, the general resurrection."
Watch Him. He wasn't very much to look upon; the Bible said, "No beauty, we should desire Him." Probably little thin fellow. He straightened His little body up; He said, "I am the resurrection, and life: he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live: Whosoever liveth and believeth shall never die. Believest thou this?"

68 She said ... watch it, every wheel coming right to itself. A woman desiring something of God, standing before Him, wholly anointed, and telling, "Yes, I believe that You are the Messiah. I believe You are the Son of God. You're the Lord of the harvest. I believe that whatever You ask God, God will do it. God promised to do that in the Messiah, so I'm asking You, and I'm here before you right now. Even now, Lord, whatever You ask, God will give it."
Watch it. He said, "Thy brother shall rise again."
She said, "In the last days."
He said, "I am the resurrection, and life: he that believeth in Me, though he were dead, yet shall he live: whosoever liveth and believeth in Me shall never die. Believest thou this?"
She said, "Yes, Lord: I believe that You are the Son of God, which had come into the world."

69 What do you think about this this afternoon? Do you believe this is the Holy Spirit? Just take the same attitude towards it. Find out what happens. Whatever you have need of, God will give it to you if you'll recognize that to be the Holy Spirit. The trouble of it is, you don't know what to think about it. Go loose every shackle and say, "It's real!" Yes, sir.
She said, "Whatever You ask God, God will do."
And He said, "Thy brother shall rise again."
She said, "Yes, Lord, in the resurrection."
Now watch. Said, "Where have you laid him?" And here He goes.
A person said to me some years ago, said, "Brother Branham, do you mean to tell me you believe that Man was divine?"
I said, "Yes sir."
Said, "I can prove that He was only a man."
I said, "He was more than a man."
"Oh," she said, "He was a prophet." That's what some of this here shallow teaching today's got people in.
Said, "Brother, He was either God or He was a deceiver. He was a liar."

70 He said, "Why, He wasn't divine, Brother Branham," said, "He couldn't have been. I can prove to you by the Bible that He wasn't divine."
I said, "If you'll prove it by the Bible, I'll accept it."
She said, "All right." She said, "In Saint John the 11th chapter, the Bible said when Jesus was going down to the grave of Lazarus, that He wept." Said, "That proves that He was a man; He cried tears like a mortal."
I said, "Sure He cried, but He was a God-Man." I said, "When He got down to the grave of Lazarus, He might have cried like a man. But when a man had been laying there four days, dead and rotten, laying in the grave, and He rolled back the stone and the stink of it around everywhere, and He stood there---that same Man had been crying---and spoke and said, 'Lazarus, come forth!' And a man that'd been dead four days and his soul four days' journey somewhere, rose and stood on his feet, that was more than a man! That was God speaking through His Son. He was a God-Man."

71 Sure, He was a Man when He stood up there that night, all night on the mountain fasting and praying. And the next morning He come down, looked around over at that tree trying to find something to eat, and there was nothing there for Him to eat: no figs on the tree. He was a Man when He was hungry! But when He took five biscuits and two little fishes and fed five thousand, that was more than a man. That was God in His Son. Right.
He was a Man that night when He laid out there on that boat, after been preaching and healing all day long till He was so tired. I guess ten thousand devils of the sea swore they'd drown Him that night. That little old ship out there on that sea like a bottle stopper, the devil said, "We got Him now." It bouncing up and down like that, and Him so sleepy and weary, never even woke Him up!
But when He... The disciples woke Him. He was a Man laying there asleep, but when He put His foot upon the brail of the boat and said, "Peace be still," and the winds and the waves obeyed Him... Hallelujah! Believest thou this? Yes, sir.

72 He was a Man when He was hanging on Calvary, screaming and crying for mercy, "My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me?" And every muscle in His body quivering, the life blood dripping down! He was a man! They buried Him and He died like a man. But when He rose up on Easter morning, He was more than a man! He proved He was God! Hallelujah!
A woman touched the hem of His garment, was made perfectly whole. Believest thou this?
I believe Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today and forever! Believest thou this? I believe the signs and wonders that He did on the earth, is being done right here day and night. Believest thou this?
I believe the Holy Ghost is right here now. Believest thou this? I believe that whatever you'd ask God right now, you'd get it. Believest thou this? Hallelujah! You think I'm crazy. All right! Let me alone, I'm happy.

73 The Holy Ghost is here! Believest thou this? I believe every sick person could be healed right now. Believest thou this? I believe every sinner can be saved. Believest thou this? Jesus Christ is here now! If you believe it stand to your feet, let's give Him praise right now. Everybody. Everyone pray.
Almighty God, come, Lord Jesus, send Your Holy Ghost power. Bless the people, in Jesus Christ's name.