Demonology, physical realm, part 1

You can find this sermon at ChurchAges.net

1 Now I won't... [Gap in the audio] This is the first time I've ever did it in any of my meetings since I've been on the field. This is a new time. Brother Baxter's gone, and--and Brother Bosworth's in India or in Africa; and Brother Baxter, I don't know where he's at. He's gone somewhere, and the rest of them's out and gone. And Billy and I are here alone. So we're just having a great time, just rise, playing and eating. So, we--we kind of feel like that maybe we can... with the help of the Lord, we could carry the meeting right on through ourself. That's the reason I'm so glad to see it go over a little bit, for that one reason. I believe the Lord will help us do it.
Now, you know, there's... I love my management. I have some lovely brethren: Bosworth, Baxter, Lindsay, Moore, all that's got five of them. Baron Von Blumberg. They're just very fine men, but there's just something about, when you get a group of men together, one has one thing, one has another. Sometimes that's contrary to what I think myself. So I--I--I feel like I'm just free now and we can just have a big time (Uh-huh.), just roll up our sleeves and just dive in and eat. I--I think about rolling up your sleeves, and having a big time... [Gap in the audio]
My first Bible was nature. I learned God through nature. And I could fish. My, I love to fish. And you like to fish, sonny boy? If you like to fish, and love your mother, you're going to make a good boy. And even my conversion didn't taken it all out of me. So one day I was up in the mountains a-fishing away. Now, this is just for the benefit of this little boy. And I was fishing up there in the mountains. And for the other little kiddies, of course, setting around... And I was fishing trout. And, oh, it's wonderful in the springtime. I go along like that. There was a trout just in the next hole, you know, like that, and just praising the Lord and having a big time, shout sometimes, drop my line down. I believe in shouting. Amen, I sure do. 'Cause I know something gets a hold of me, and it just does something to me.

2 So I'd been gone quite a little bit that morning, and when I come back, the strangest thing... There's a lot of bear in the country up there in New Hampshire. I had a little camp up there where I fish at. And I had a little old tent setting up, a little old pup tent I'd been living in. And a black bear is the most mischievous thing there is. So an old mother bear and a couple little cubbies had got in there, and had they made havoc of my tent.
Now, what do you think I ought to have done to that bear, little girl back there with that red hair, back there? I ought to have got after him really, shouldn't I?

3 But here's what she done. She come in; she tore my tent down, and she scattered everything out, and eat up all my food I had there, and she was just doing fine. So when I come up, away she went. And she squealed to her cubs, and one little cub run off with her. And the other one wouldn't run; he just set there. He had his back turned to me, like this, and he was doing something. And I didn't have nothing in my hand but a little old hand axe I'd been chopping around with some elders down there. Well, she run off about far as, oh, I guess that telephone pole out there, and she set down. She squealed to this little old bear, and he didn't pay any attention to it. He just kept setting there.

4 I thought, What's that little fellow doing? I walked up a little closer. And I was afraid to get too close, afraid she'd scratch me. So I couldn't see a tree, and I know she could climb too, and I didn't want to get too close to her because I know the nature of bear. So, I went just a little bit closer. And you know what happened?

5 Now, I like pancakes. How many of you boys like pancakes? Oh, boy! Oh, old boys too, I seen them put their hands up. We all like pancakes, and I just love them, and I like to pour honey on them. Being a Baptist, you know, that's what keeps us straightened out, you know, is the honey, you know. So, and listen, I don't sprinkle them; I really baptize them. I really pour it on where it's really good and heavy. I don't just sprinkle a little bit here and there. I really pour it on them, get them all filled up with honey.

6 And then, you know, I had a bucket of honey up there, half a gallon bucket of honey. And bears are very fond of honey. So this little fellow had got in there and got the lid off that bucket of honey, and he was sitting there like this, with this little bucket of honey under his arm like this. And he didn't know how to eat it like you would, you know, so he'd just sock his little paw down in and lick it like that, and lick it. And he turned around to look to me and his little old eyes was all matted together, his little belly was just as slick as it could be, with honey. He was just sitting there ducking his hand down and licking honey like that just as hard as he could lick.
Oh, my! I thought about a good old-time Holy Ghost meeting, when we just get the bucket open, stick our hand down in the jar and lick away. Just keep on, you know, just licking away.

7 And you know what the funny thing was, though? After that little fellow got as much as he could, he let the bucket down and run off out there. And you know what happened? The mother bear and the other little bear got to licking him---getting the honey off.
So, well, maybe our meeting will be something on that order, I hope. So we can just keep telling others, and the glory of God falling upon us. All right.

8 I'm glad to see the little children out. I like to tell you something like that. And maybe tomorrow afternoon, we have more time and we can talk a little more. And we'll talk to Dad and Mother now about something.
And we're going to talk on Demonology. In Psalms 103:1 to 3, we read these verses. Most every minister, clergyman, or Bible reader, knows them by heart.
... Bless the LORD, O my soul: and all that is within me, bless his holy name.
Bless the LORD, O my soul, and forget not all of his benefits:
Who forgiveth all of thine iniquity; who healeth all of thy diseases;
I want you to notice there, it was an all: "Who forgiveth all of thine iniquities, who heals all of thy diseases." Now can we bow our heads just a moment.

9 Now, Heavenly Father, we thank Thee this afternoon for being out here. We thank Thee for these little children that's sitting around. They're the men of tomorrow, and women, if there is a tomorrow, if Jesus tarries.
And now, Father, we pray that You'll bless us now as we're talking now on Your Word, and about the great enemy we have: Satan. We pray, God, that You'll let us put a front out, a mechanized unit here of the power of God, that'll withstand him tonight in every inch of his ground, Lord. And show him that he don't have no legal rights at all, that Christ defeated him in our stead there at Calvary when He died. And He spoiled principalities and robbed Satan of every power that he had.
And, God, give us wisdom and understanding now, to know and to explain to the people how that they might know how to be healed and to defeat Satan. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.

10 Now for a few minutes we're going to speak on Demonology. You hear so much about demons. Now, tomorrow afternoon we'll probably finish up. I wanted two days of this week anyhow, to preach on this. Just ... or two days for afternoon services, to talk on this.

11 Now, the first thing, what a demon is. You hear so many people talking about a demon. Well, now, a "demon, devil," all comes from one word, and in the English it's called "tormentor." A fellow that torments is a devil, a evil one. Now, the Bible today is, to most, to many people, is some old back book that Grandpa and Grandma read, or something like that. "There's not much to it; it's for the old folks," and so forth. But that's wrong. It's for everybody. And demons are tormentors that torment us.

12 Now, there is demons that comes into the soul of man and that is, in the phraseology, that would be in the... I'd say this, though, the demon that comes into the soul is something that torments the soul.
Many times you can see a person maybe of insanity. Now, they may be yet a converted person, filled with the Holy Spirit, and yet be totally insane, see. That's right, that has nothing to do with the soul. It's a tormentor, something that torments them.

13 Now, all sickness, we have to find first, that all sickness came from the devil. God is not the author of sickness; no sickness comes from God. God sometimes permits Satan to put sickness on you as a whip to bring you back to the house of God, when you disobey Him. But sickness, in its beginning, come from the devil. Could you imagine a person would believe that God, our Heavenly Father, would be the author of such a thing as sickness and death? Well, no, He isn't. He never was, never will be. God permits death because of disobedience. God permits death. As one writer said, "All that death can do, God harnessed it to a buggy, and it pulls us into the presence of God (a believer)." But the word death means "separation."

14 Jesus said, "He that heareth My words and believeth on Him that sent Me, hath everlasting life." He said, "I am the resurrection and life. He that believeth in Me, though he were dead, yet shall he live. And whosoever liveth and believeth in Me shall never die." And we pack the bodies of each other over the saintless of our graves. "But he shall never die."

15 Now, if you'll watch when He spoke of Lazarus, He said "Lazarus sleepeth."
The disciples (men like we are), they said, "Oh, if he sleepeth, he doeth well." He meant taking a rest---what they thought.
But He come and talked to them in their language. He said, "He's dead," what you believe. But said, "I go wake him." Wake him, see. When you're...
Death means "separate." Now, if one of you should ... one of your family die or something, he is (if it's converted), they're not dead. They're dead in the humanistic standpoint. But they're just separated from us, but they're in the presence of God. They're not dead, and they can't die; it's impossible for them to die. Jesus said, "He that heareth My words and believeth on Him that sent Me has everlasting life, and shall not come into judgment, but has passed from death to life." So he can't die. Anything that is immortal---eternal---it can't perish. It's imperishable life. He's got It because God has give It to him. And not meritorially; it's unconditional. God gives it to him.

16 God calls. No man can come to God except God called him. Jesus said, "No man can come to Me except My Father calls him ... draws him." Is that right? So it's God in all. Maybe tomorrow afternoon we'll get a little bit more on that, 'cause I want to get this thing of disease to you so that you'll see that.
There was a time when we become germitized in our great-grandfather. You know that. Doctor knows that. Well, you do, too, you Bible readers. You know the germ of life started in your great-grandfather to becoming a germ, and come out through your grandfather, then into your father, then to your mother and where you are now. That's right. The Scripture even teaches that. Here's the Scripture for you if you want. I believe it said that Levi paid tithes when he was in the loins of Abraham, which was his great-grandfather. Is that right? But, see, the germ become back there.

17 But your souls were made up before the foundation of the world, when God created man in His own image. Spirit of man... Not a man in His own image, but man in His own image, see. And then He made them male and female before He ever had a man in the dust of the earth. Wish we had a chance this afternoon to take our time and go back into that. Just see how God... Now it's between the line, but when you see it, it comes right up with the line, see. How that God back in the beginning, what He did there. And how He moved down into the earth, and how that He made man in His image. And then God turned around, was made in the image of man, to redeem man.

18 Now, when God made man in His image, he was a spirit-man. And it was then there was no man to till the soil. Then He created man out of the dust of the earth. Now, chronologists and so forth, and these people that search and get old bones and so forth, and believe in evolution... I believe in the right kind of evolution. Man evolutes from himself, but not all from one cell. No, sir. Because a bird has been a bird ever since God made him a bird, and a monkey's been a monkey, a man's been a man. That's right.

19 Now, I was talking to a doctor here a while back in Louisville. He said, "Why, Reverend Branham..." I was talking about how the natives of Africa, how they eat, just go down by the ... Oh, some of the awfullest things you'd ever see, how they would eat! Just pick up things that's contaminated, and maggots in it, just shake them around, maggot and all. Don't make any difference to him, see. Drink anything, don't make any difference what it is. He said, "Well, Brother Branham, them people are not human." I said, "Oh, yes, they are. They sure are human."
I said, "The closest thing to a human being, in the beast line, is a chimpanzee. And you've tried for four thousand years to get one mutter out of that chimpanzee, and he can't do it," I said, "because he can't think. He has nothing to think with. Oh, you can learn him little things---like a horse, 'gee' and 'haw.' Or put on glasses, or smoke a cigar, or balance himself on a bicycle, ride a horse, or something like that. But it's just like 'gee' and 'haw' to a horse, or to a dog, or something like that." I said, "He's an animal.

20 "But you let me go back in Africa, to the wildest tribe they got, and that's the little tribe of the bush-man." And I said, "Probably his great-great-great-great-grandfather never saw a white man nor nothing. The only thing that he knows ... He don't even know which is right and left hand. The only thing he knows is eat, and he eats what he can get his hands on. If it's human flesh, anything else, don't make any difference to him, just so he eats. But let me get him at five years old, and at fifteen years old he'll speak good English and have good education. Why? He's got a soul; God made him a human being. And he's got just as much right to hear the Gospel, at least once, as we have of preaching around here all over America, to people over and over and over, and begging, persuading and everything. Let him hear it one time, and watch him scream and run to the altar real quick," see. Yes, sir!

21 And that's what my heart is, brother, today. When I think of Africa, and them poor, little, black hands raising up, saying, "Brother Branham, one more time about Jesus!" Oh, mercy! There's something in me digs and burns. Just as quick as I get money enough up, I get over there too. That's what I do with every penny I get, everything---God knows---besides just what I can eat; and most people give me my clothes. And just what I can barely live by myself, just as close as I can. I throw it right into a missionary funds (which the government has arranged; I don't even pay income tax on it), till I get up three or four, five thousand dollars. And I take across over there and preach the Gospel to the people, that I know at that day I'll have to answer. And I'll know what I answer for.

22 I used to, when I'd go in a city, I'd hold a big meeting back when they had lots of money. And they had great campaigns and thousands of dollars---I'd give it over to the Red Cross and so forth. Now, no slam to them, but coming down the street in a four-thousand-dollar car, with a big diamond studs on, smoking a cigar, and five hundred dollars a week on the money that sick people ... No, sir! No indeedy! And on these ... and as soon as you get out of the city, they said, "a holy rollers" and everything like that, and making fun, and downing the religion that we're standing up for. No, sir!

23 I take it myself, and (before God as my Judge), I put it in the Gospel work yonder. So I know that on that day when I have to give an account for my stewardship, it's given correctly. That's exactly right. Because I realize, as I treat the people, I'm treating God. Just my attitude towards you is my attitude towards Christ. And your attitude towards me is the same thing (that's right) towards Christ.

24 Now, to see a people like that... And see how that a human being then with an immortal soul now---that can't die, can't perish, can't do nothing but have everlasting life---that God, sovereignly, in His own will, gave it to you. And now, then, now...
Let me correct this just a little bit, or say something. Somebody's going to go away and say, "Brother Branham is a Calvinist." No, I'm not. I'm a Calvinist as long as Calvinist is in the Bible. But when Calvinist gets out of the Bible, then I'm an Arminian, see. I believe in holiness, and I believe in Calvinist, too. But both of them... One run out on a limb and went this way, and one run out on a limb and went that way. If it wasn't for the book of Ephesians to bring it back and put it in the right place, where God did, we'd all be all mixed up. But they both got a doctrine, but they go to seed on it, each one. That's the holiness and the Calvinists, too ... the Arminian. Now, Calvinists have something true. I believe that the Calvinistic doctrine...

25 I believe this, in security: I believe the church has eternal security. Any reader of the Bible knows that, because God's already said it would appear yonder without blemish. Is that right? Then it's going to be there. Is that right? The church is eternally secured. Now, are you in the church, is the next thing. If you're in the church, all right, you're secured with the church. But you better stay in the church. And how do you get in the church? By shaking hands? No. Putting your name in the book? No, sir. "By one Spirit, we're all baptized into one body." And that body God judged at Calvary (was the body of Jesus Christ), and we're baptized into that body by one Spirit. We have eternal security as long as we're in the body of Christ; nothing can separate us, nothing can touch us. If you go out, you go out by your own will. But just as sure (if you're in the body of Christ), as sure as Jesus rose from the dead, you'll rise, too. God has already done that.

26 You can't sin. Oh, I might be a sinner in your sight, but if I'm in Christ, God don't see it. Because his sin's atoned... His blood atoned for my sins there, see. I can't sin. "He that's born of God does not commit sin, for he cannot sin. The seed of God remains in him," see. He's willing to... If he's made some mistakes, sure, he's right then willing to confess it. If he's a real Christian, he will do it. If he holds it back, he shows he ain't got nothing in the first place. That's right. He hasn't got nothing to begin with. But if he's a real Christian...

27 Right here, you plant a grain of wheat in the ground, it'll always be a grain of wheat. Cockleburs may be all around it, and everything else, but it'll be a grain of wheat as long as it stands. Is that right? And if a man's really born of the Spirit of God, he isn't in and out, and back and forth, and out yonder in the world and out here. No, sir. No, no. You're not a cocklebur one day and a grain of wheat the next day. God don't have that in the field. Yes, sir. If you're born of the Spirit of God, you're a Christian from that time until ... till you go away, and then you're immortal with God. That's right, if you're in the church.

28 Now, now let's talk about the death side. Now, how could a person on that estate, in that kind of a condition, ever be sick? Because that your body is not yet redeemed; your body is not redeemed. No matter how much ... how good you are, and how saintly and how holy, how much Holy Spirit, that's only your soul. And your soul is not completed yet. It's just got the blessing, the promise of God, which is the earnest of our salvation. But now if we have no earnest of our resurrection, no divine healing, then I'll have no assurance or nothing to prove to me that there is a resurrection.

29 Just like if Christ doesn't live in my heart, if I have to take it from some kind of a psychological thing back yonder, have to believe somewhere like that, well, then I'd be a little skeptical of it. And that's the reason over in Africa when they come, here come missionaries up, bringing thousands of those natives, and they was packing little old mud idols and everything else, is because that they had just heard the psychic side of the Bible. That's right. In my own churches, Baptist, Methodist, Presbyterian, all that went in there, but when they seen the power of God come in demonstration, that settled it! They knowed then that God was God.

30 Well, now, what starts this sickness? Now, the first thing, it's a spirit before it becomes a disease, just the same as you was a spirit before you become a human being. Now I'm going to take Brother Willett here as an example. Brother Willett, there was a time when you and I wasn't nothing. And then the first thing, God gave us a life. And let's take, say, if I take your body down this afternoon... You're made up of a bunch of cells, held together with atoms. And now, someday them atoms will be destroyed, if Jesus tarries; you'll go on back. They'll be just like they was in the beginning, go back into the air. But when your spirit returns, those atoms will gather together again with this spirit and bring forth another Brother Willett just like that one, only younger---when he was at his best.

31 When a man gets past about twenty-five years old, he finds a few wrinkles under his eyes, and some gray hairs coming in. It's going to be, because death's after you. And one of these days it's going to take you. No matter who you are, it's going to take you. But it gradually... You'll get in a corner here, and God will get you out of that corner, and you get in this corner here, death will almost have you, and over here; but after a while it'll get you. But then, what death can do, it takes its full toll, and then when it's done all that it can do... When God gave you this life, and you was at your best at about twenty-three, when you come into the resurrection, you'll come back just exactly like you was when you was twenty-three years old, or twenty-five, before death set in. Death will have everything that it can do. It set in there, but you'll come right back the way you were.

32 Now, if each one of your cells in your body... Let's take it down now. You come cell after cell, cell after cell, and lay it apart here on the platform. After each cell in your body, you'll come down to one little tiny germ where you began. Can't be seen with the natural eye; you have to look under scope glasses. I've seen the germ of life under a microscope. It looks like a little bitty thread. And the first thing starts is right in the spine; it's like a little knot. That's the first little cell accumulates on top of a cell.

33 Now, if I had to take that one single little cell that every one of you come from, one little teeny cell germ... What is a germ? A germ is a little teeny ... the smallest of cell. Well, what's after that? Now, I've took you down from every piece of you, down to this one little cell, and I haven't found you yet. I just got your cells laid out. Well, then, next thing, blood cells and flesh cells, and whatever they are (laying them all out here,) but I haven't got you yet. Now, I'm down to one germ now. Well, I'm going to take that little cell apart. Now, where're you at? Your life. And the life makes the first cell which is a germ. Then everything after its nature: Dog after dog, bird after bird, man after man. Developing cells, cell on cell, cell on cell, comes up to where you are (human being), developing of cells. Now, that was ordained of God to be so.

34 But now, what about a cancer? Let's talk of him a little bit. Now, God gave you your life. And say, here you are today, here I am. There's nothing on my hand, but there might be a cancer on my hand sometime. Well, how'd that cancer get there? Let's see what that cancer is; let's take him apart. Let's go take him... Now, he's a bunch of cells, too. Did you know that? Tumor, cataract, any of those things are cells. They don't have no form. Some of them spreads out, and some look like a spider. And some run streaks, a red cancer, just like long red threads that runs through. And then there's a rose cancer which usually comes on the breast of a woman, like pancakes laying on one another. Then they go spraddling out. And they just grow anywhere.

35 Sometimes tumors are lopsided this way, long, oblong, and everything. They have no form, because they're after a spirit which has no form. But it's a developing of cells; it's a bunch of cells that... Say in you right now is a tumor, or a cancer; it's developing cells. Growing, growing, growing, it's eating, sucking your life from you, living on the bloodstream. Cataracts take the mucus of the eye and grows right over it, covers himself over, shut your eyes off. Some of them comes and never gets... Like tubercular, that comes just in little small germs. There's nothing to the size of it. The same size germ makes an elephant, makes a chigger. Nothing to the size of the germ.
And some of them take body form, some never does. And some never goes into cells. Some become spirit, torments the soul. We'll try to get that part (I'll leave that part for tomorrow afternoon if I can) where that soul-spirit comes, and how down under here it...

36 Now, friends, I'm not telling this from some kind of a psychological; I have dealt with demons for years, and you know that. If you only knew the thing, after the services is over at night, what goes on sometime. You don't know. Remember, when you come against a spirit, you better know what you're speaking about. Just don't stand there and carry on, 'cause it ain't going to do any good. But when actually a demon has to obey you, you'll recognize it. It ain't how loud you holler; it ain't how much oil you put on. It's what's back here that he'll recognize: The truth. Jesus just said to him, "Come out."See?

37 Remember, the disciples had been kicking and twisting, and trying to cast him out, and everything. They said, "Why couldn't we cast him out?"
Said, "Because of your unbelief." Said, "Come out of him." The boy fell and had the hardest fit he ever had. See, they recognize authority.
Look at those boys down there, those vagabonds who seen Paul casting out devils. They said, "We can do the same thing," (some priest's sons). So they go down and say, "We can cast out devils." Acts 19. They went down to a man had epileptic fits, and said, "We adjure you by Jesus, come out of him." The devil said... "Now, in the name of Jesus who Paul preaches!"
The devil said, "Now, I know Jesus and I know Paul, but who are you?" You know what happened. Jumped on the men, tore their clothes, and they had the fits themselves, and run out into the street.

38 Them same demons live today. So, there is a lot of fanaticism. This is the church deceiving. There's a lot of fanaticism in the land today called divine healing that ought to be shut up. That's what brings reproach upon the real cause. That's why you have such a hard struggle. There's a lot of stuff called religion today that ought to be shut up. Nothing but cults! That's what makes the true church of God have such a hard struggle with it. But we're America, and that's the way it'll be. God says the wheat and creepers and briars grow together. Don't try to pluck them up; let them grow together. But by their fruits you know them. There's no fruits, why, there's no life, there's nothing there.

39 Now, watch this cell. Let's say, for instance, like a lot of time a red cancer usually hits in the womb of a woman, female bruises and so forth. Now, let's take that fellow down now, on his cells---this cancer. Now, a cancer...
Everything in the natural types the spiritual. Are you aware of that? Everything in the natural types the spiritual, regardless.
For instance, like this: When we're born in the body of Christ, there's three elements it takes to bring our birth. And that's the three elements that came out of the life of Christ when He died. There come from His body: water, blood, Spirit. Is that right? Three elements. That's the elements we go through when we're born again: justification, sanctification, baptism of the Holy Spirit.
Now, that can all be in one act, but it takes... But you can be in a justified state without being sanctified. You can believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and still carry your filth with you. But you can absolutely live in a both justified and a clean, holy life, and without the Holy Ghost.
See, the Bible (I John 5:7) said, "There are three that bear record in Heaven, the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost ... the Father, Word, and Holy Ghost" (which was the Son), " and these three are one. And there's three that bear record in earth, the water, blood, and Spirit, and they agree in one." Not one, but agree in one. You can't have the Father without having the Son; you can't have the Son without having the Holy Ghost, for they are inseparable: one. The trinity is in a one.

40 I don't hear it around here, but you hear it a lot across the country: One of the greatest things in the Pentecostal groups is the mix-up in that one simple thing. And I've had their heads right together and prove to them they both believe the same thing. It's the devil between them, that's all. If that great Pentecostal church would throw down them little old traditions and unite themselves together in one blessed church of God, the rapture would come. But as long as Satan can keep you broke up, all right. That's his way of doing it. And they absolutely believe the same thing. One say, "Well, this is that."
I said, "Well, if this is that, then that's this." So there you are. So, it's all the same thing. But there you are in that triune, trinity of God. Now, God in His oneness: God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Now, we don't say "our Gods," as heathens. It's "our God," see. It's the threefold Being of God.
Now notice. Now, Satan is in a trinity also. And his powers are in trinity.

41 Now,but notice then the water, Blood and Spirit produces the new birth. Is that right? Now watch. That's what represents the new birth. What represents the natural birth before the new birth come, why, you mothers? When a baby is born, what's the first thing? Water. Next? Blood. Next, see, that makes the life, see, makes the person. Water, blood, spirit.

42 Now, a cancer, let's deal on him for our next... We got about five minutes left, I guess. About the next five minutes, let's deal on cancer. What is that fellow? What does he represent? He's a scavenger. He represents the vulture, eats dead things. And a cancer comes from a bruise mostly, where a cell has been hit and it breaks up. And a little cell in there becomes backslid. Oh, that's a big word for a Baptist, ain't it? All right, but it backslides---that cell. I'm a Baptist that believes in backsliding.

43 Someone said, down here in an Arkansas meeting the other day, said, "Brother Branham," said... It was a fellow (Nazarene) had been healed. He had his ... walking over town with his crutches on his shoulder. He said, "You know what?" Said, "When I first come here," said, "I heard you preach, I thought you was a Nazarene." He said, "Then I seen the most of the people were Pentecostal, and somebody told me you were Pentecostal. Now you say you're a Baptist." Said, "I don't get it."
I said, "Oh, that's easy." I said, "I'm a Pentecostal Nazarene Baptist." That's right. All right. No, we are one in Christ Jesus by the Holy Spirit making us one. That's right.

44 Now, notice. This little cell backslides when it's bruised. It begins... Other little germs run forth to give it ... lies in there, and that's what pus comes in a sore. That's teeny little soldiers fighting for your life. They run up there to hit that poison---them demon powers that's trying to collect in there---and give their lives. That's what ... that's a bunch of little dead soldiers---that pus that's in your blood, that's in a sore, that give their life to save yours.

45 Now, once a little cell rejects in there and this demon gets started, he starts growing, he begins to multiply cells. He's building a body just exactly like your babies begin in your womb, and like you did in your mother: Cell on top of cell, cell on top of cell, cell ... any way, anywhere, just... They have no form of nothing like a human being after its nature. It's just out of a spirit; it just grows any way. And it begins cell on top of cell, cell on top of cell.
And now, the first thing you know, you begin to get weak and feel sick. You go to the doctor and he'll examine you. Maybe he can't find it. If he does, maybe he'll cut it. If he can cut it clear, all right, he's got it. But if he can't cut it clear, then (if it's in the throat or somewhere where it can't be cut clear) one little speck of it will live right on. See, because it's not like you'd cut your hand off and settle it, or anything, or you cut off... What I mean, if you'd cut the main body off, and leave your hand there, why, it wouldn't live. But, see, that has not the form of life like you have; it's a demon power a-moving.

46 And now notice. You call them... The doctor calls it a "cancer." God calls it "a devil." Look at today. They just give it... Where did the word cancer come from? It comes from a Latin word which is used in medical terms, meaning the "crab." A crab that you'd see along the seashore that's got all them legs. That's the way that it does---it reaches out, spreads out. The word cancer is "crab". And it gets in and just keeps taking a hold and sucking blood as it goes, like the octopus or something.
Why, a tumor, cataract, and other diseases, every one of them comes from a germ. And that germ has to be a body. And before it can be a body, it has to be a life. Before it can create or germitize and make more cells, it has to be a life. Is that correct?
Now, where did that cancer come from? Where did that come from? It wasn't on you here some time ago, but now maybe, it's on you. Where did it come from? It's another life, different from your life, living in you. And it's tormenting, sapping your life. That's the reason Jesus called it "a devil".

47 They call epilepsy today, they say "epilepsy." Why, epilepsy, in the Bible, Jesus called it a "devil." When the man come with the boy that fell on the ground, and frothed at the mouth, and everything, He said, "He has a devil, and oft time he throws him in the fire and the water."
Now they've polished his name up and called it "epilepsy," but he's a devil. And Jesus said, "Thou devil, come out of the child!" Exactly. Now, epilepsy is usually caused from a kidney trouble. Maybe you get into that a little later, see. It causes an epilepsy, a uremic.

48 Now, notice. In this, then, that cell sits there. It's a devil; he's building a life. He's growing, becoming greater and greater. He's got one duty to do---that's take your life. That's what the devil sent him for, to cut your days short of threescore and ten.

49 Now, I salute every doctor. Yes, sir. Every medical science, God bless them for the help that they've done for people. That's correctly. What would you do in the world today without it? I thank God for medical science. I thank God for my automobile. If God hadn't let science make me an automobile, I'd have a hard time walking up here. For electric lights, and for soap to wash my hands with, and toothpaste to scrub my teeth with, certainly. I thank Him for everything, because all good things come from God.

50 But let me tell you: There's not one speck of medicine ever did cure any sickness. And there's not one doctor (not unless he's some quack)... But a real doctor will tell you that they do not claim to be healers. Right at Mayo Brothers, many of you... I've been interviewed there two or three times. Of patients that come from there, incurable...
You read the Reader's Digest, the November issue? How many read the November issue, that article of mine in there on Reader's Digest? See? And they had me up there to interview... That baby they give up; said it couldn't be done. But the Holy Spirit spoke to me and told me how it would be done, and it was done. All right. Now, they called me up there. And right up over the door where Jimmy and them ... "Mayo" used to be, there's a great big sign says, "We do not profess to be healers. We only profess to assist nature. There's one Healer, that is God." They're the best in the world. Now, we have a few quacks, yes. That's right. We have some quack preachers, too. All right, so that goes on both sides.

51 Notice. But any man that claims that he's a healer, he's a storyteller, 'cause he can't do it. For the Bible said, "I'm the Lord who forgives all your sins and heals all your diseases."
I've been to studies. And in my room, some of the best of doctors across the nations has come. You don't know the back of the life, friend, to know what's been... And things I don't tell out in public; men come secretly. Don't you think there ain't a lot of Nicodemuses yet in the world. There sure is; thousands of them. They look on that and come in the meeting, sit there with a T-shirt on (something another like that), with polished names that you'd be surprised. Sit right in the meeting. In a few days slip around and call in by secretly, and send someone in for an interview. And say right out, say, "Brother Branham, I believe that's the truth." They're human just the same as we are. Sure. And every man's desire... And they look beyond that dark veil yonder he has to go through someday.

52 But them cancers and things are absolutely devils en-formed in a body of flesh, moving up, taking your life.
Now, if I would do like the doctor---if I could cut it off, lay it on the ground... Or, just like say, for instance, you was a cancer yourself on this earth. Now, here's divine healing. If I wanted to get rid of you (in the way of the doctor's way), I'd just keep have to rub your body or something another till it just all vanished off the earth. There wouldn't be no more of it; just like the doctor takes the growth off of you. But in the form of divine healing, if you was a cancer, I'd just call your life out of you and you'd go on. Your life would leave you, but your body would be here just the same as it was.

53 Now, there's where sight and time is God's worst enemy in divine healing. I don't know whether Brother Baxter ever gets to these things in the meetings. I sit down, explained it to him and Brother Bosworth over and over. But here's what's happened. I doubt whether many of the people get it, because after a while you begin to find the people coming back, saying, "I had my healing, Brother Branham, for two or three days, but it kind of ... it left me." I find it ... I think it's because they don't set the meeting right; the people don't understand.
I've had men to come to the platform and be totally blind (cancers or cataracts over their eyes), and read this Bible after being prayed for, walk down. In three or four days be just as blind as they was in the first place. What happened? Anyone knows that when the life has gone out of any flesh, it shrinks for a while. Is that right?

54 Anybody ever, here, kill a deer or a cow, or anything like that? Sure. All right. You weigh it tonight, you hunters out here, friends of mine. You kill the deer and you throw him on the scale, tell the boys how much he weighs. Watch out! In the morning he's going to be several pounds lighter than what he was.
When a human being dies, the undertaker, the first thing, takes the false teeth or an eye, whatever it is in there; takes it out, because it shrinks. It'll push out, because the human body shrinks. Every other flesh shrinks. When the life's gone out of the cell, it begins to move down and shrink. It'll do that for about seventy-two hours, and then it'll start swelling.
Let a little dog get run over out here on the road. Let him lay there in the sun for about three days, and watch what happens. He's a bigger dog than he ever was; he swells up. Is that right?

55 Well, that's the same thing takes place when a demon is cast out of a sick person. The first few days: "Oh, I feel wonderful." Then begin to say, "I'm sicker than I ever was. I've lost my healing." Just as sure as faith took it out, unbelief brings it right back again. As faith kills it, unbelief resurrects it. Jesus said, "When the unclean spirit's gone out of a man, he walks in dry places and he returns back with seven other devils." And if the good man of the house isn't standing there to protect that door, he'll come right on in. And the good man of your house is your faith. Say, "Stay away!" That's it.

56 But now you watch a patient that's healed, an ordinarily ... unless it's an outstanding miracle. Which, divine healing and a miracle is two different things; divine healing is one thing and a miracle is another thing. But an ordinary run of divine healing, when the unclean spirit's cast out---a cancer devil when it leaves the person, oh! Or, say, we'll take something so you can see more visual. I'll say the cataract. What happened when that man... If you'll notice a blind person (I don't know whether I've ever had any here or not yet), cataract eyes. I'll let them stand for a few minutes. Why? So that shrinkage begins to take place. Tell them to come back, give us a testimony. Oh, my, they can see wonderful! "Oh, my! Just... I can see things! Yes! I..." What's the matter? Life is gone; the body of the cataract is shrinking.
Well, it will do that way for a couple days. Say, "Oh, I'm getting so well."

57 And after a while they begin to get a headache; don't feel so good. Get up the next morning, "I'm losing my sight again."
Some of them said, "Uh-huh, he just was worked up. That bunch of holy rollers got you worked up." Don't you believe that! That's a lie of the devil. If you believe that, you'll go right back blind again. But if you'll just hold on, say, "No, Lord, I believe."
Then what happens? That body swells for so long; it covers over that sight again. That cancer in the body will swell. You'll become hurting and aching again. Then you'll get horribly sick, terribly sick. Why? That big growth of dead flesh in you is laying there, dead.
You go back to the doctor and he'll say, "Oh, that's nonsense. There's a cancer right there. I can see it." Sure, it's there, but it's dead. Hallelujah!

58 Now, the bloodstream has to purify the body. Every time the heart pumps, it throws the blood around the body and it picks up that infection. Sure, it'll make you sick. What if you had a chunk of meat hanging in you somewhere, or long as a snake, or something big around as your finger, and hanging in there, and it was dead? That much dead meat hanging in you, and it's rottening? Well, of course, your bloodstream has to keep that pure, as it pumps through. But there's the dead body---the thing hanging there---because the life is gone from it. The power of God, through faith, drove it out. He's a demon; he has to leave.

59 But the reason... The people's not instructed. They go away, give up, and that same devil standing right there to take over again. When God tells you anything on this platform, through His Spirit, when under inspiration, don't you doubt that, or a worse thing will come upon you, He said. For Jesus said, "The last estate of that man was seven times worse than it was at the first place." Is that right? When the unclean spirit went out of a man, he walked around in dry places, come back with seven other devils.
So don't you disbelieve! Stay right with it; mean it from your heart. Say, "No, sir! I'll not be moved! No matter how sick I get, that doesn't have nothing to do with it." Then, the first thing you know, you're being ... getting cleared up. Everything will be all right then. See, it's dead. The operation that the doctor would have taken from you, that same growth is laying in you, with no life in it.

60 You say, "Life in it, Brother Branham, will it take my life?" No, sir. That life is a separate life from yours. I've just showed you that you are a life and become a being, and it's a life and becomes a being. And you're of God, and it's of the devil. You see what I mean? Demonology. Now, you ought to see what that thing looks like when you stand and look at it.
Oh, my, I'm sorry, it's almost three-thirty. I'm sorry. Look, friends. Oh, what this world needs.

61 I've been about seven years teaching across America, having these healing services. I just got a good notion to start back across the country teaching the Bible on demonology---how the people can understand what to do. And that's the reason they go to these meetings a lot of times and fellow... If you don't understand, the people come out and many times...
Now remember, that fellow that come and said he had a gift of divine healing... The gift of divine healing was in you, if you got healed. It's you, the one. Any gift operates by faith. And no matter how much gift of divine healing I got, I believe it with all my heart. But you could stand here, and if you haven't got the same kind of faith, it don't do you no good. I could pray for you for hours and weeks and months. It isn't the preachers with the divine healing. It's you that's got the gift of divine healing, that believes in being healed. Because it's by faith. By faith...Every operation of God is by faith.

62 The whole armor of God is by faith. We haven't got one natural thing of this world. Everything of the Christian church is a faith act. Look at the armor of God: Love, joy, peace, long-suffering, goodness, meekness, gentleness, patience. Is that right? Everything supernatural; nothing natural. So we don't look at the things natural, because we're operating supernatural.
And the only way we can base it is faith, is on what God said was the truth. And we look at the unseen. And we call those things which are not as though they were, like Abraham did. Amen! Abraham called those things which was not (like God did) as though they were. Being a hundred years old, staggered not at the promise of God through unbelief.

63 I could just imagine that, couldn't you? See Sarah get up of a morning. God said, "Abraham!" Said, "Abraham, you're going to have a baby."
Sarah got up. Say, "How you feeling, Sarah?" This is a mixed multitude, but listen. "No different."
"Well, glory to God, we're going to have it!" Go get the Birdseye, and the pins, and everything. Get ready. All right, another month passed, "Sarah, how you feeling?" "No different." Year passed. "Sarah, what about it?" "No different." Ten years passed. "No different." Twenty-five years passed. "No different."
Abraham, instead of getting weak, he got stronger and stronger. He knowed it was going to be more of a miracle all the time, because he believed God. And he staggered not at the promise of God through unbelief. He said, "We're going to have it!" And one morning the womb of Sarah begin to swell and little Isaac was born, because Abraham believed God. And he looked at the things ... counted those things that was not as though they were....

64 Not by feelings, not by sight. You don't walk by feelings or sight. It's by faith. And when God has pronounced anything, said, "Whatever things you ask, when you pray, believe you receive it, and hold onto it." God said so; it's got to be so! Amen. Demons!
Faith in the Father, faith in the Son,
Faith in the Holy Ghost, three in the One.
Demons will tremble and sinners awake.
Faith in Jehovah will anything shake.
That's right. Oh, my! Certainly it is! Have faith in God. Look to Him. Don't you move. Stay right there. God said so!

65 And demons! What are they? They're spiritual beings. Now, the doctor says, "You got cancer, you got TB, you got cataracts, you got pleurisy, you got this." It's a devil! It's a life, and behind that life is a spirit. How many knows and can see that a cancer, cataract, it's a spirit, got life in it? Well, nothing can have life without spirit, so there has to be a life to operate that somewhere.

66 Even that tree there has life in it. All the science in the world couldn't make one blade of grass. Did you know that? They make something looks like it, but they can't find the formula of life. That's God, see.
Jesus said to the tree, "Cursed be you. You don't have any fruit, and you'll never have any."
They passed back by there. It was about eight o'clock that morning. Passed back about eleven o'clock as they was going to dinner, Peter said, "Look at that tree! It's dead from the roots up." Why? Jesus rebuked the life that was in that tree (that was in the roots) and the whole thing died. Hallelujah!

67 That same Christ can rebuke a cancer from the roots, and the whole thing will die. That tree was standing there just the same as it was hours before. But you find that the leaves begin to drop off. And then see the bark begin to peel off, and begin to wear away. Day after day and week after week, and after a while, there wasn't even one speck of that tree left. Hallelujah! Cancer, tumor, cataract, or anything else, will have to go when Christ speaks. He cast out devils. He said, "In My name, they shall cast out devils, speak with new tongues, take up serpents, or drink deadly things, it'll not harm them. If they lay their hands on the sick, they shall recover."

68 You love Him? I'm sorry I kept you an hour here this afternoon, setting here. You love the Lord? Well, what's going to happen now if--if you accept Christ as your Healer, and believe in your heart that something has happened to you, and you believe you're healed? Are you going to believe that you're healed? Don't let the devil pin nothing else on you. Just keep on. "Doctor," say--say, "doctor, how does it look?" He said, "Why, it's still there."
In your heart you know; you know what's happened. First thing, he will say, "Say, wonder what happened to that thing?"
Then say, "Look, doctor, I'm going to tell you. Here's what happened: Jesus Christ healed me. That's right. Jesus Christ healed me."

69 All right, let's bow our heads just a moment. And Brother Willett, would you come here just a minute, brother?
Now, heavenly Father, we're thankful for the Blood of Christ. And maybe sometimes that Thy servant, Lord, doesn't use wisdom, by speaking so long. But I maybe feel like Paul that preached all night one night. A little fellow fell out of the window and got killed. And that apostle with the Word of God in his life, went and laid his body over the boy; life come in him and he lived again.
Dear God, I realize that the sunset of--of this great civilization is now setting, way past spent, the middle of the day's gone, the evening shadows are falling. Great Light is breaking forth from the Kingdom of God to take its place of this gross darkness coming on the earth. God, I realize I'm getting older every day. Let me go, Lord; give me strength; help me to tell this great truth everywhere. Help us tomorrow afternoon that we'll understand more.

70 And, dear God, bless this little audience this afternoon. Tonight, when they gather in for the healing service, may every man and every woman get to one another and go to talking, and saying, "Now, here, don't have any more doubt. We understand where it comes from now. We know it's a devil. We know when he leaves... He has to come at the command of God; he has to. God's done said so; he has to leave." Then may they go out happy, rejoicing, claiming their healing. Nothing, let nothing, stand in their way any more. Just go, believing.
And, God, may this little church here (and these cooperating churches) have a revival after this meeting, Lord, that'll just pack it through, and many hundreds of souls be brought into the kingdom of God. Grant it, Father. May men and women here (from across the nations and other places), may they take the Message back to their churches, and may they have an old-fashioned revival. Grant it, Lord. Forgive us of our sins now. Help us to be Your servants. In Jesus Christ's name. Amen.

71 I wonder, while you're setting here, is there a sinner in the building today, would say, "Brother Branham, remember me in prayer"? Will you--will you raise up your hand? Is there a sinner person? I don't... God bless you, lady. Is there? God bless you, sir. And you, and you, and you, God bless you. I wonder if you... Now, this is to you.
See, I don't believe in going back in the audience. I--I don't criticize others who do it. I don't believe in going in the audience and trying to pull someone. See? No man can come except the Father Who drawed him. See? That's right. You'll just pull him up there against his will. See? But if God knocks at your heart, you're the greatest privileged person in the world. You just don't know how many people I've talked to...