The unconditional covenant that God made

You can find this sermon at ChurchAges.net

1 Good evening, friends. It's indeed a great privilege to be in the midst of such a fine group of people on this Saturday night. I thinking, as Brother Sharritt was bringing me down tonight, of how many places that people are in, evil places of drinking and carrying on tonight. But it goes to show that God has people everywhere; they crowd out to hear the Gospel of Jesus Christ, their love.
And I'm so thankful for you. And now, I'm here tonight to try to help you to have a solid faith in Jesus Christ by the gift of the divine ... a gift coming from God which was given to me by ... allotted by grace of the Lord to manifest Jesus Christ to you in His love. That's why I'm here tonight, to help you to believe on Him.

2 Now, the brethren was telling me to be sure to remember the handkerchiefs, each night to pray over the handkerchiefs. That's a great ministry of its own, praying over handkerchiefs. I send, I guess, around a thousand a week in different parts of the world. Certainly have great results. Thousands and thousands of healings come from laying on of cloths. It's just as Scripture as laying on hands. We send them all over the world.
And now, many ministers I know today (and maybe some of them are sitting present), has great radio broadcasts and so forth, and they say to people, "Write to me. We want to hear from you." It's to get your address, to put mail to you, see. Well now ... or, mail you. But, friends, I'm not saying this for that. It's hard for me to get letters to the people, you see.
But if you need a prayer cloth and you don't get it here, just write me at my home address and I'll send it to you. And I'll assure you, you won't be plagued with cards and mail, 'cause I don't have a broadcast to support. I work real closely. I don't have any great thing expensive. I don't get big expensive buildings. I try to keep the work just as humble, just as cheap. I don't try to go to big places. I just try to be just like the people that comes to me, see.

3 Of course, if we'd set it out in great big advertisements for a year ahead of time, and get every church in the country, and all, and swear up and down we wouldn't come unless everybody would cooperate, we'd probably start off with eight, ten thousand people or more, fifteen. But I can't do mine that way. I have to do just as He tells me. And if He says, "Go down here, there's four or five down here," I just as soon go. I'd rather go to four or five knowing He sent me there, than to go to a hundred thousand knowing that He didn't send me there, see, see.
My congregations and so forth is not as strong or as many as many of the brothers, or who are on the field today. But I don't have ... I don't have the advertisements out like the rest of the brothers do. Another thing, I don't have the cooperation as other brothers do, because I'm interdenominational and I have no church to back me up; just the friends of Jesus Christ is all I have, that's all. That's all I have.

4 Here some time ago, a very famous evangelist in the nation, who attracts literally tens of thousands to his meetings... One of my co-workers was standing, talking to him. Said, "Well," said, "I won't go to a city unless all the radius around and every church will close and have the meeting."
You take... The man would come to Louisville, Kentucky. There's four hundred Baptist churches alone in Louisville. Four hundred churches, and it's not a Baptist town. Asbury College is just beyond me. It's a Methodist town. But there's four hundred big Baptist churches in the city of Louisville.
There'd probably be five or six hundred Methodist churches besides Presbyterian and all the rest of them. You get a group like that together, you got some people to start with. But no disregards; that's politics. I'd rather go just where God would tell me to go, if I just had to see one person, see.

5 Philip was having a big revival down to Samaria, and the Lord called him out of that and sent him over to the desert to find one man---and a colored man, an Ethiopian. And he obeyed the Lord. And that's the way that I think we should do it, just wherever the Lord leads. Now, maybe the Lord leads people in other ways.

6 But now, I was here recently, right in a great revival where thousands of people were gathered in. Many of you... Maybe some of you was here, down here on your vacation now. It was the Kellogg auditorium in... Well, it's up in Michigan there ... Battle Creek. Battle Creek, Michigan. Was anybody there at the meeting that time? Yes. Up at Battle Creek, Michigan, where they... Yes, ever, someone was at that meeting.
And right when the place was packed and jammed out with people... I was pulled out to a lake one afternoon (a little lake, about half mile around it), and was back there praying, down in a bunch of bushes. I heard something going ... [Brother Branham knocks on the pulpit.] I looked up and I just went out; and I was sitting on a boat going down along the seashore.

7 And the Angel of the Lord come near and said, "Close the meeting now." Eight more days yet to go, yet. "Close the meeting now and turn aside to Minneapolis at once." Well, I went in and told the manager. He wouldn't believe it. He said, "You tell the ministers."
I said, "God knows how I love ministers; they're the shepherds of the flock. But there's a Master of all of us, I must listen to Him."
I got in trouble over that one time in Africa. You're acquainted with the story, perhaps.
I said, "No, I must go."
Brother Baxter said, "Brother Branham, you tell the ministers."
I said, "Well, you just get them up here." So, I told them, and they kind of felt ill towards me.
They said, "The Lord told us to make this for two weeks."
I said, "But the Lord told me to go somewhere else." See. And I said, "What the Lord told you, that's all right. But what He told me, I'll do." So I turned aside right there.

8 Mr. Baxter said, "What I'll do, we'll go into this week."
I said, "We're going right now." And now, if you want to know the results and what come out, you just write Rev. Gordon Peterson at Minneapolis, Minnesota, and find out why it was.
When I took a hold of the phone, if it had been five minutes later---yes, two minutes later---there'd been something happen in Minneapolis would have changed the history of the Pentecostal church---Minneapolis.
And I knew nothing about it until I got over there, and then the Lord revealed it. Go, first. He'll tell you after you get there. Just rise and go. And so you must follow the leadings of the Lord.
So now, maybe the Lord tells people to go set their meetings and have these... That's all right. If He does that... Just so you're minding the Lord, is the main thing. Everybody has things to do differently.

9 Now, remember tomorrow afternoon. The Lord willing, we want to speak tomorrow afternoon of: Fundamentalism Versus Full Gospel. And come out, as many as can; and it's a preaching service. And I spoke on this once before at a convention. And I was asked to do it again, if the Lord willing. I don't know, but if He will.
And then tomorrow evening is the last service of the Phoenix campaign, and you come early. I'll try to let you out early so you can get back.

10 As I come on down there, Billy was standing down there. Said, "Daddy, when they start singing and everything, it's hard to give the people their cards; one will be over here calling, one over here." Said, "Tell them to come early."
About five-thirty, six o'clock get your sick out here so they can get a prayer card at five-thirty. If the Lord willing, he and the brethren will be giving out prayer cards here at five-thirty tomorrow afternoon, from five-thirty till about six-thirty, or six o'clock or somewhere along there till they get the prayer cards given out. So, be sure to remember that.

11 And now, let's put our every effort... Tomorrow afternoon, I believe they announced that it's a missionary offering tomorrow afternoon. I never have anything to do with the money.
There's been three things that I have tried to keep away from all my life. And that's... One thing is money. That's one of the things that ruins a minister, is money. When you get your eyes on money, you've got them off of God. That's right.
Brother Moore, here, and Brother Brown has been with me all along. And if I ever heard of anybody in my meeting ever making one pull or string for any money, or anything... Just pass the collection plate. When the Lord won't supply my needs, then it's time for me to go home. But the Lord will supply. And if I can't trust Him for money, how can I trust Him for healing? How can I trust Him for anything else? See. I've got to trust Him.
And so, we just pass the collection plate. And if we don't get enough to pay... Then at the end of the service, when my campaigns over, they take up a love offering. I'm sorry they have to do that. If I had any other way of making a living, I wouldn't permit it. But I got three children and a wife and a lot of expenses. My expenses runs me about a hundred dollars a day, whether I'm preaching or whether I'm not.

12 So, it's my office affair at Jeffersonville. Several work in the office with letters and stamps and so forth, runs me about a hundred dollars a day. And some of the brethren, I suppose, they're...
I was hearing Mr. Billy Graham just on his broadcast alone is a thousand dollars a minute. That's for broadcast. How about the rest of the campaign, and the television? I wonder how much it costs to run that campaign.
But if somebody would happen to say, "Well, you watch these fellows come in preaching divine healing, they're just taking the money from the people." What about that? See. What's good for the goose is for the gander, you know. So, that's just right.
So, look at that. A thousand a minute for just a broadcast, see. All right. That's perfectly all right. No criticism for that, understand. Not a bit. The man needs it. God bless those who are helping him to do it. But just have to look at both sides of it, you know. As the man said, "That was very good, but there's some more to it." You see. So, that is right.

13 Now, then they take up a love offering for me, the last night of the service. And then, if there's not enough money has come in to pay the campaign free, then I take my love offering and pay that. Not ask the people. The love offering does that. I've never asked one of the managers.
Mr. Baxter, he gets a freewill offering when he's in. Brother Moore, there, won't take nothing. But Brother Baxter always taken one night's offering. That was a Saturday night. And I've never asked one of the managers here, Brother Bosworth, or any of them, to put in one penny. That's theirs.
But in my own offering and my wife, which is up there in the balcony ... or, just coming down, rather. She said ... she's a witness. And if you want to come to Jeffersonville, or anywhere you wish to, check it. I have never been guilty and will not, as long as God helps me, to ever use the Lord's money for anything that's not right.

14 And every penny of money that I get a hold of, every penny... If I'd have a love offering and... Say I'd have five hundred dollars in the love offering, or a thousand dollars of a love offering, well I go home to the office... If I don't need any of it in the meeting, maybe it's some left over, might run up two hundred dollars over, make it say twelve hundred dollars. And I go home and I ask my secretary, "How much do we need?"
"Well, you're overdrawn so much in the bank." I put that in to fill that up. Then I find out how much it'll be approximately to live on till the next meeting. Then what's left over of that, I put it in foreign missions. That's true. And for myself, I keep nothing. And most of my clothes and things are give to me. People give it to me. We live like ordinary people, when God in Heaven knows I'd be a multi-millionaire if I wanted to be.
But far be it from me to ever take the Gospel of Jesus Christ to commercialize it. Never in my life will I ever want to be guilty of such a thing as that. And I never want to be.

15 The next thing is... One thing for a minister is money, and the next thing is immoral living, which when I was a sinner, I tried to live clean and decent. And then the next thing is popularity. Usually when God blesses a man and gives him a little ministry, he begins to think he's above everybody else. And that's just the time he's on his road out. That's right, see.
You never... You're no more, no matter what God has made you, and if He's give you a ministry that's so big, or whatever it is, remember we're only men. It's God, that's all, that does it. And we must keep that kind of an attitude and love the people.

16 The Lord bless you now, and may He greatly increase your faith. Tomorrow at Sunday school, you visitors here visit some of these good Full Gospel churches. Take your place there, and just like you was a member. I'm sure they'll make you feel at home, everywhere.
This morning at a little meeting we had, I met a fine group of people. We got together with one heart and one soul this morning. It was supposed to be a ministerial breakfast, but it was a spiritual break... It was a ministerial breakfast, the right kind, the kind you don't eat at. You fast and preach the Gospel. So in that, we had a wonderful time. You got some fine men and women here in Phoenix.
God help you to be one accord. May that lovely Spirit that existed in that room this morning never leave Phoenix. May it stay right with you. Then you'll see a revival break in Phoenix that there'll be nothing around here can hold it. God bless you now.

17 And let's read some of the Word. And now, I want to watch my time, allow myself about twenty to thirty minutes. It's very hot in here. And I trust that God will bless you.
Now, remember the mailing address if you want a handkerchief, and it doesn't get in the mail or anytime, just write me Jeffersonville, Indiana, William Branham, and it'll come to me. And the Post Office Box 325, but you don't necessarily have to have that. I live in a little, bitty city. It's not big as Phoenix. And it's a little, bitty place with about twenty thousand people. And so, just write Jeffersonville, Indiana; it'll come to me.
The Lord bless you now. Before we... I might turn the pages back on this book, but there's not a man on earth or nowhere, outside of the Holy Spirit, that's able to interpret this Word. That's right. So before we try to read it---it's so spiritual and so divine---let's bow our heads and talk to the Author just a moment.

18 Kind Heavenly Father, we thank Thee tonight for people who are willing to come and sit in a hot building like this, and to make this sacrifice to come and be inconvenience to them. And come to hear the Gospel, the preaching of the Gospel, and to see the power of the resurrection of the Lord Jesus convict sinners of their sins and to bring them to reconciliation before God. And I pray, Father, that You will bless them for this effort.
Many poor sick people sitting here tonight, suffering, heart trouble, cancers, stomach troubles, TB, all kinds of diseases and afflictions. Of course, this crowd pushed in like this and the intense heat of the building, they're suffering as they sit here. O God, may the Holy Ghost come in His great power, like He did to the children in ... the Hebrew children in the fiery furnace, and put our minds so in condition to think upon Him and to listen to His blessed Word, until the heat of the building will fade away and we'll not think about it. But just that the power of the Holy Spirit might renew all of our faith and strength in God. Grant it.
Help the speaker, bless the hearer, sanctify the people, the Word. And may every one of the words of God, tonight, fall in the right kind of a ground that would bring forth a hundredfold. Comfort the saints, Lord. We're speaking so much to the sinner, calling them to repentance. Now comfort the saints also, Lord, and give them consolation to know that their faith is not in vain in the Lord Jesus. But we're moving on to that great Land. Grant it, Lord. And help us and bless us, for we ask it in Jesus' name. Amen.

19 Now, reading of the Word, I take my text tonight, if I would call it a text or Scriptural reading, out of Genesis the twelfth chapter. And also, if you'd want to refer to it sometime, over to Romans the fourth chapter would give you just an analyzed view of what I wish to speak on, the Lord willing.
And you're such a lovely group here at Phoenix. I hope that the next time that when I come back, it will not have to come for divine healing of the people. I pray that God will help me in such a way that I'll be able to come back just to teach or to preach the Gospel of the Word.

20 I've often... I was going to take this time now, just for the teaching of the Word. I'm not a teacher, by no means. But you don't know what a blessing it is to me to express my gratitude of Jesus Christ to an audience. How I like to adore Him, and how I like to praise Him before the people. And let the whole world, as it was, know what I think about Him. How marvelous. How wonderful He is. Now, listen to the reading.
Now the LORD ... said unto Abram, Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father's house, unto a land that I will shew thee:
And I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and I will make thy name great; and thou shalt be a blessing:
And I will bless them that bless thee, and curse them that curse thee: and in thee shall all the families of the earth be blessed.

21 Now, I want to take a text as this... We won't have time to go into it deep, because we only have around twenty minutes. But in this time I want to hit some of the high spots. Speaking on the subject of the Unconditional Covenant that God made with His people. I'm so happy.
Now, we're all acquainted with the Scriptures, you Bible readers. And listen close. Give me your undivided attention for a few moments.

22 Now, God after the antediluvian destruction, when He saved the household of Noah, Noah and his sons and their wives... Noah had three sons: Ham, Japheth, and Sham---Shem. And out of those sprung the generations of peoples that we have today.
We're taught in another phase that the three wise men that came to worship Jesus, consulting one another, found out one was from the lineage of Ham, one from Shem, and Japheth. Those three.
And Jesus said when this Gospel's been preached to Ham, Shem, and Japheth's people, then the end shall come. The three ancient fathers coming to pay tribute as they followed the morning Star to Christ.

23 Oh, something about the Word of God that when a man's speaking of it, he trembles. And another thing, it blesses his soul in such a way; it puts something in him that nothing else can do, because it's the Word: written Word, a seed that will bring forth in its season, just as God has promised it to do.

24 Now, watch closely. Then immediately after the antediluvian destruction, these tribes begin to tribe off. And we notice the first time that Babylon appears, it appears in Genesis, in the beginning. It appears in the middle of the Scripture, the Bible, and it appears over in the end of the Bible, in Revelations. The seed,: God willing, tomorrow I want to speak on that.
Babylon begins... As far as we know, the first time Babylon was mentioned, it was connected with idolatry. And then as we see it, and notice it connected there in idolatry, the tribes went to this place... First, Babylon was called, I believe, (I may misinterpret this word, I hope not) but it was either "the gates of paradise" or "the gates to heaven," the first interpretation of Babylon. Then it was called "confusion." And Nimrod established Babylon, which was an ancestor of Ham. And there, idolatry began.

25 Then down out of Babylon... Down into Shinar when Abraham's father and Abram... He was Abram, first. And then he taken with him Sarah, his wife, and Lot, the nephew. And while down in the Shinar there, perhaps lived a peaceful life. Went out probably in the morning and picked berries and eat them. Went into the bush and killed his proteins of food, a beast. And then at night eat some more berries, peacefully.
One day, Abraham no more than any other man ... maybe, as far as we know, coming out of Babylon, perhaps an idolater. But God by election... God does the choosing. We can't choose. God does the choosing. We have nothing to do with it.

26 Man said, "Oh, brother, I sought God. I sought..." No man never sought God. Not in a man to seek God. No man at any time or at any age ever sought God. It's just vice-versa. It's God seeking the man, not man seeking God. Jesus said, "No man can come to Me except My Father draws him." Is that right?
The very beginning... Man, when he fell from grace, his nature was changed. And he run from God and hid from God, and that's still his nature. A man can never seek God while he's a sinner. God has to seek man.
As I was explaining to some people today: just like a pig and a lamb. Well, the lamb could say to the pig, "Why, look, you're nothing but an old slop-eating pig." The pig would say, "Tend to your own business. I have no desires to be a lamb." And the pig could not change his nature no more than a sinner can change his nature. You're born in sin, shaped in iniquity, come to the world speaking lies. And there's not one good sound part about anybody. So who are you anyhow?

27 Sometimes, I notice people go out here... I was standing by a big museum here not long ago. And I seen the analysis of a human body. A man that weighed a hundred and fifty pounds was worth eighty-four cents in chemicals. Could you think of it? And then you think you're somebody. You're worth eighty-four cents. That's right.
Put a ten dollar hat on eight-four cents and think you're somebody. Wrap a five hundred dollar chubby around you and think you're somebody when you're eighty-four cents. You sure take care of that eighty-four cents, though, don't you? That's right.
But remember, in there you've got a soul that's worth ten thousand worlds. And you let the devil push that around anyway. Yes, that's right.
You take a person, some of these little feisty people out on the street... Don't know no more about God than a Hottentot would know about Egyptian knight. Oh, they belong to church. Wrap a five hundred dollar mink coat around them, stick their nose up in the air. If it'd rain, it'd drown them, thinking they're somebody. And what are they? Eighty-four cents. That's right. But you got a soul, remember.

28 Now, in the beginning... You say to that person, "You ought to be borned again." They say, "Tend to your own business, smart-aleck." Can't help it, just can't help it. It's a pig. Can never tell it to be a lamb, no more than you can ever become a Christian without God calling you.
Now what has to happen to the pig to make him want to be a lamb? Is something has to come down and change his being. Is that right? So who has to do that? You? Your whole nature's the other way. God has to do it. God speaks and your nature begins to seek after God. That's when God is dealing with you.
Before anything can happen out here to make you be a Christian, something has to happen in the heart here to turn you to Christianity. That's right. It's election. God does that.

29 The father Abraham was the first one, that I know of, this side of the flood that was called by grace, by election. God chose Abraham, not because he was Abraham, not because he was any good person. God chose him because he was elected. God did it.

30 Now, I want to say something. You can never make yourself something that you're not. If you're just impersonating Christianity, no matter if you're preaching the Gospel, you need an altar call in your soul. That's right. If you're just trying to act like that person that's a Christian, you're miserable yourself, knowing in your heart that you're not.
And if the fruits of the Spirit don't follow you---long-suffering, goodness, meekness, gentleness, patience---then you need an altar call in your heart. You just feared hell and started off trying to be a Christian. God has to call you to be a Christian. God called Abraham. He elected him.

31 Now, notice. When God calls a man... Now, look. Not because he was better than somebody else, but because God called him. Now, this is for Christians.
Notice. Then after God called him, He said, "The first thing I want you to do is separate yourself." That's what God does today: separation.
Most all the churches, when they're calling their new pastor... Over in the Baptist church, we used to see that. The people say, "Oh, that old preacher, he's old fogy. He tries to tell us this... We want a young fellow who can ... who's a good mixer." God don't want mixers. God wants separators. Separate yourself. That's right. God always calls for separation.
Said, "Separate yourself from your kindred, from your peoples. Separate from your associates. Separate from your habits. Separate from everything, and come out and stand alone for God." Amen. That's where the first man was called by election, that's where the last man's been called to do the same thing. Separate yourself from your associates, the things of the world. "Come out from among them. Be ye separate." He said, "Then I will bless you." If you want a blessing, separate yourself from the things of the world.

32 Notice, after he did that... Abraham, when God called him, was seventy-five years old. And Sarah, his wife, was sixty-five years old. Now, menopause sets in about forty, fifty, sixty. She was twenty-five years past the menopause.
God said, "I'm going..." Now, watch. "Now, Abraham, if you'll do this, if you'll do that." No. There's no ifs to it. God said, "I have." Amen.

33 God made a covenant with the man, and every time that God makes a covenant with a man, man can't keep his covenant. Man breaks it. He tried it with Adam. Adam broke it. Every time He makes a covenant... He made it with Israel through the law. They broke it. No man can keep it.
So God so determined to save the people, He made this covenant. He was determined to save man, so He made it unconditionally. He swore by Himself. Not having man to do anything into it. Amen.

34 What I'm trying to do is get to the Pentecostal people to let them realize who they are, see. If you only knew who you were tonight, there'd come such a spontaneous whirl of faith through here till there wouldn't be a sick person. There'd be no need of having a prayer line if the people that's here realize who they are. That's the only way you can do it.
How do you think it is in foreign nations, walking against demons and powers and everything? You have to know where you're standing. Satan don't care how loud you holler. Satan don't care how much you jump up-and-down. Satan will lay right there. But he has to recognize faith. It'll move him every time. So that's where it is today. The church has got the blessing, but they don't know it.

35 Now, God called him, and He gave the covenant to Abraham. Abraham separated himself from his people and went over into a strange land, crossed Euphrates. I believe they're given the word Hebrew. And he crossed over. Separated himself to walk in a strange land, among strange people, speaking strange languages. That's the way He does yet.
You'll come out from among your associates, walk amongst strangers that you used to not know, people who is strange to you. Yet, you find out they're precious citizens of the kingdom of God.

36 Notice Abraham after coming out. Now, he went and told Sarah, "Sarah..." They'd probably been married since they were young folks. Abraham, say twenty-seven and her seventeen, something like that. They had been married, but Sarah was barren. All through their young married life, no children. Here they are getting well stricken in age.
And now, God comes down and said that He was going to make His covenant, and He was going to give Abraham a child by Sarah. The impossible. He was going to do it.

37 Now, you know people around the country there thought Abraham had lost his mind because he believed God. Well now, I can imagine him going out and buying up all the Birdseye and get the pins ready and everything. They was going to have the baby. No matter how impossible it looked, God said so, and Abraham believed God. And it was imputed unto him for righteousness. Went on.
I can imagine Abraham thinking it was going to come right away, like people who's prayed for. Think, "Uh-oh, it'll happen right now." Not every time. Not every time.
I see after the first few days, Abraham says, "Well, how do you feel, honey?"
"No different."
"Praise God, we're going to have it anyhow. Going to have it anyhow."
Second month passed: "How do you feel, honey?"
"No different."
"Glory to God, we're going to have it anyhow."
"How do you know?"
"God said so." That's right.

38 And notice, the Bible said Abraham, instead of getting weak... If you went, was prayed for one night, and the next morning say, "Oh, I ain't no better. Well, I guess there's nothing to it." Oh, what a poor son of Abraham you are. That's right. Yes. Not much of a son or daughter of Abraham.
Abraham received the promise and believed it. And as it lingered, he got stronger and stronger. Going to be more of a miracle all the time. After twenty-five years, the baby hadn't come yet, and he still believed it. Amen. Oh, my! Why? God said so. God's got to keep His Word. He's got to keep it. He kept His Word.

39 Then years passed. Abraham and Sarah still believing they was going to have the baby. Why? God said so. God said, "I have saved you, Abraham, and I've saved your seed after you." Not only Abraham, but Abraham's seed also.
Now, I want you to know what Abraham's seed is. Abraham's seed is not seeds. It's the seed of Abraham which come through Isaac. Isaac through Christ. And we... Hallelujah! We being dead in Christ take on Abraham's seed and are heirs according to the promise. How's the covenant given? Unconditional!
Every one that God calls, chooses, elects, that person has the same promise Abraham has. Amen. Brother, if that don't shake us up right in the middle of Arizona, I don't know what does. You're Abraham's seed. Not what you do; what God has done for you. You're an Abraham's seed. And God...

40 Now, Abraham wanted to know a confirmation that He would keep this. Oh, I want you to notice this. Such a lovely ... so beautiful. He said, "How will I know these things, Lord, seeing that I'm old, nearly a hundred years old now? And how am I going to know that You're going to keep this with me? How do I know this covenant is going to be kept?" Here's what He said. Listen now.
He said, "Come out here, Abraham. And I'm going to show you what I'm going to do."
And Abraham took a heifer of three years old. He took a goat of three years old. He took a ram of three years old. And he split them in half, and laid them out on the bank. And then he took two turtledoves ... or, a turtledove and a pigeon, and he didn't separate those. Oh, my! I wish we had time to get this really for just a few more minutes. But we can't. Got to hurry. We will sometime.

41 Notice, he said, "Now..." To this... Why didn't he separate those? I wish I had time to go in and show you how law and grace was different, and so forth. But when it come to the turtledoves or a pigeon... And any Bible reader knows that that was the cleansing for healing. That was a healing, which in these covenants here are separated. But divine healing has always been in every covenant and every time; they're unseparated. They're laid in there, the pigeon and the turtledove.
These other laws and grace, and so forth, was divided. But this turtledove and pigeon was not divided. They were laid in whole. Then notice. Oh, I want you to get this. Oh, I feel real religious about this time. I believe a Baptist could shout once in awhile, if it got down to a place where he had to. [Brother Branham laughs.] Amen.

42 Notice, then at that time, God said, "Abraham, I'm going to show you how I'm going to do this." And He swore by it, swore that He would do it. Then watch what He did. He went out there and told Abraham... He put him to sleep. And Abraham (Watch the birds first) offered the sacrifices until the sun went down. He drove the birds off the sacrifice.
Then when the sun went down... Now, watch. God telling Abraham, now, "I'm going to show you, Abraham, that you or your seed after you hasn't got one thing to do with this. I'm doing this Myself by election." Hallelujah! Oh, my! Get it, Pentecostal people. Here's the foundation of grace. Here's the foundation of faith, and why we can have faith, an unmistakable faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.

43 Watch close, now. Then when He came down, the Holy Spirit, to talk to Abraham in the garden out there where he was laying on the hill, He put Abraham to sleep. "Now, Abraham, you haven't got one thing to do. All right. You're laying here now." And Abraham went to sleep. "You're out of the picture."
And the next thing... Now, what's God going to doing? He's confirming and giving a evidence ... close. He's giving a evidence or proof to Abraham how He's going to do this. Amen. How He's going to do it. Listen, if you want to be healed: how He's going to do this.
Then Abraham, "I'm shutting you out of the picture. I'm putting you to sleep." Then before Abraham come a black thickness after... Every sinner deserves to go to hell---blackness. Then after that, a smoking burning furnace. Every sinner deserving. "Abraham, that's what you deserve." But beyond that went a little white light. That little white light went right between those pieces of sacrifice, right back and forth. The white light moving, showing, making a confirmation, showing to Abraham what he would do someday through his seed Isaac, bringing on Christ for the supreme sacrifice.

44 Now, a covenant has always been a strange thing.
In China, when they make a covenant one with another, they take a little salt and throw it on each other. That's a covenant. When we make a covenant with one another, we say, "Shake hands, put her here." That's a covenant.
But in the Eastern Orients, during this time, when they made a covenant, they went and killed a beast. They split it open, and they stood between this dead beast, and they wrote out their covenant. "I hereby say that a certain-certain thing..." And it writes a covenant, their agreement.
Then they take this agreement and they tear it to pieces. One piece is given to one man, and one to the other one. And when this contract... They take an oath over this dead beast: "Let my body be as this dead beast if I don't keep this covenant."

45 Watch! God was then in Spirit. How could God be torn apart? But one day God was made flesh and dwelt among us: the Lord Jesus Christ, the Emmanuel. And then, there at Calvary, the covenant God wrote with us, He took the Christ to Calvary and tore Him apart, soul and body. And He took His body up to sit at the right hand of His Majesty, and sent the soul back here ... or, the Spirit on earth to make a covenant to carry out the Gospel.
And the same dovetail power that Jesus Christ had, He's the same yesterday, today, and forever. And the church is given a covenant. The covenant is the baptism of the Holy Ghost, which is the seed of Abraham: bringing Him to us. And then God making this covenant that every man that's called into the grace of God, by the Holy Ghost, has the same promise that Abraham had of eternal life. Look.

46 Now, you can't have a piece of paper that just impersonates it. You can't have a piece of paper that makes just something like it. It's got to be the same piece of paper. And the same Spirit that was on Jesus Christ has come back on His church, doing the same signs, the same wonders, the same Holy Ghost, the same power. It's the covenant that God has given to them.
And Jesus died there in the evening time when the sun was going down, confirming this covenant. And the Holy Ghost is on the church tonight leading the church, just like He was here
when He was leading Christ. The same way... The same ministry Christ had is in His church tonight. Same signs, same wonders, same Spirit, same kind of works that Jesus did here on earth the church has to do the same thing. If it's not, it is not the seed of Abraham. It's not the church of Jesus Christ. Can't be.

47 So, Pentecostal people, do you see that that's you? These others can't believe in that. They have nothing in them to believe with. But the trouble of it is, you've got it and don't know it. If the devil... If you can get it, and he can hide it from you and not let you know you've got, he's got you licked, see. You can't fail. There's no way of failing. You're Abraham's seed. God has sworn with an oath He'd take you in. Amen. There you are. He set His covenant. Hallelujah.
Jesus Christ is His covenant. And He tore Him apart at Calvary, received the body up, and sent the Holy Ghost back. And when the resurrection comes, the same Spirit that was in Jesus Christ is the only thing that'll raise this body up to go meet that one there. That makes them Husband and wife. You see what I mean?
The bride is the covenant people, unconditionally. God called you out of the world, gave you the Holy Ghost---the seed of Abraham. You are tonight with a blessed promise. Amen. My! Then if you're Abraham's seed, you have this promise in you. You believe God. Regardless of what takes place, the Holy Ghost makes you believe it anyhow, see.

48 The Spirit was upon Christ is upon the church, 'cause there's the bride and the Groom. And He taken the Spirit off... "A little while and the world seeth Me no more. Yet you'll see Me, for I will be with you even in you to the end of the world." The Spirit and the body is taken up.
Now, the same Spirit was on Christ has to be in you or it won't compare with this covenant. See what I mean? Well now, aren't you happy tonight that you're baptized into the church of the first-born of the Living God? that the very same Spirit that was in Christ is in the church tonight? and you are a part of it by the Holy Ghost? being dead in Christ, take on Abraham's seed and are heirs according to the promise?
What are we scared about? All devils in hell couldn't shake you. Nothing can shake you. We receive a kingdom that cannot be moved. Oh, my! Settle yourself on these thoughts one time and think of what God has said. Not your circumstance, not your ... nothing else but what God has said.

49 Abraham didn't look at anything ... the circumstances. He didn't think about them. He never thought about how old Sarah was and how old he was getting. He just remembered God said so. And that same Spirit is upon we, the children of Abraham, making us face the same thing.
How are you going to receive the Holy Ghost? How's the man going to speak in new tongues? How's the man going to do this? The natural mind can't receive it. But the seed of Abraham which is born again, and the seed of God ... the Spirit of God is in the seed of Abraham which makes him believe that, because God in him pushes right out and makes him ... don't look at these things. He's got another sense. That's right.
The sixth sense---that he believes it whether he sees it, tastes it, feels it, smells it. He believes it anyhow. That's right. That's right. Believes it anyhow.
Then when he takes that, then He begins to water it. When He begins to water it, it begins to grow. And every seed of God will produce just what it said.
Oh, will you stand me just a few more minutes, if you will? I just hate to butcher anything up like this, but look just a moment.

50 Abraham, later on, he become a hundred. That's twenty-five years later. Well, still saying, "How you feel, Sarah?"
"Just the same."
"Well, hallelujah. We're going to have the baby." A hundred years old, and he got stronger and stronger.

51 Someone say, "Hey, Mrs. Jones, I thought you got healed when you was prayed for, when the pastor prayed for you."
"Well, glory to God. He healed me." That's it. That's the idea. Keep on believing. You're the seed of Abraham, you will believe it that way. You can't help to believe it. It's in you. It's a nature. You have to believe it.

52 Now, watch here. Now, first thing you know, I see when he's ninety and nine. God appears to him to kind of confirm this thing (17th chapter of Genesis). He appeared to him in the name of El Shaddai. Which the El Shaddai is the Hebrew word which means "the breast" or "the breasted one," like the mother with her baby. You take a little baby...
Say now, "Abraham, I am El Shaddai, the Almighty God. Now, yet you're old; your strength's all gone. Sarah's womb is dead; she's ninety, little grandma-like now. A great, great, great grandma, ninety years old. She's awful old. The people's laughing at you and making fun of you. But I am the breasted One."
Like a mother to her sickly-fret baby. Now, when the little baby's all weak and run down, his strength's gone, the mother pulls it to her bosom and the child nurses his strength from the mother. The mother's strength becomes the child's strength as he draws it from her.

53 And so He said, "Now, Abraham, you're old, you're past the age, and Sarah's past the age. But I have to bless her through you, so you just lean upon My bosom and just keep nursing." Amen. Hallelujah. "I'll give you your strength. Draw it out of Me." Oh, my!
Now, watch. The breasted One! Not one, but two. "He was wounded for our transgressions, with His stripes we're healed." Just turn your head if you need healing. Amen, see. "I am the breasted God." That's what it means.
In so many words, "Abraham, I am the breasted God. Now, what I'll have to do, I'll give you eternal life by nursing from here. Now, I'm going to do some divine healing in your body if you'll nurse from here." Amen.

54 He's the same El Shaddai tonight. He changes not. And His covenant people has the same privilege to draw from the same resource that father Abraham had to draw, 'cause God swore by the same covenant that He'd give us the promise. Hallelujah! Oh, my! There you are. There's where my hope is built on nothing less but Jesus' blood and righteousness; when all around my soul gives way, He's all my hope and stay. On Christ, the solid Rock, I'll stand; All other grounds is sinking sand. There you are.
El Shaddai, the bosom, the breasted God. "If you need salvation for your weak soul, draw from this side. If you need healing for your body, draw from this side; for My covenant was with Christ, My Son. And in there He was wounded for your transgressions. And by His stripes, you were healed. I am the Almighty. Just lean up here and go to drawing from them promises."

55 Take them in your heart tonight and just start drawing from them. "God, You promised it. Lord..." Tomorrow I don't care how you feel, what you look like. "Glory, I'm drawing from that promise." Watch how strength begins to renew, how things begin to straighten out, how arms begin to move out, how eyes begin to brighten up, how hearts begin to beat normal. The breasted God. "I'm drawing. Well, I don't care how I feel, what I look like. I'm drawing from that breast."
"Lord, You've promised it. I'm the seed of Abraham. I am Your child and I'm drawing from this promise. It's 'Thus saith the Lord.' I believe You. Maybe I'm sicker than I ever was, I'm still drawing. I stagger not at the promise of God through unbelief, but strong in faith, giving glory to God for the promise that He said it would be so." Hallelujah!
I know you're going to call me a holy-roller, so you might as well get started now. I am. That's right. Oh, if it takes a holy-roller to get to Heaven, then I'm a holy-roller.

56 Watch. "I am the breasted One. Just draw nigh unto Me."
Now, I want to give you some consolation right quick, if I can in this, and show you now how God went... He didn't do no good as long as Lot hung around. That's right. He had to get rid of Lot. He called him to separate himself and he took Lot with them. And Lot was half backslid all the time anyhow.
So he went down there in Sodom and Gomorrah, and after he got rid of Lot down there... All the city of Gomorrah ... Sodom and Gomorrah was burnt up. Then God appeared to Abraham. He said, "Come out and look around now and see what you own." Amen.
Well, I like that. "Come out and look it over. Walk from the east to west. It's all yours. You took your way with the Lord's despised few, now you're heir of all of it." Amen. "All belongs to you now, Abraham. I give it to you. Unconditionally. You don't deserve it, but I give it to you anyhow." Amen.
Well, I don't deserve this, but He give it to me anyhow. So I'm going to walk east, north, west, and south, and see what I own in the kingdom of God. All things are mine. Amen. Let's get up and walk around, see how it looks. My, it feels good to take God by faith.

57 Doctor said you can't get well, but God said I could. So I'll just take that Word and that's the way I believe it. Yes, sir. "Oh, I'm still sicker than I was tonight." It don't make any difference. Just makes me stronger believe, be more of a miracle tomorrow night for me to get it. Amen. That's Abraham's seed. Don't stagger at the promise of God.
The doctor did all he could do, that's all he could do. But God hasn't done all He can do. Any job that's too big for God, I can't tackle. So I just commit it to Him and go on.

58 Notice. Now, we'll have to hurry. I just keep thinking about that clock and knowing you all have to go to Sunday school in the morning. Listen, just a moment. I want to give you a little consolation.
You know, do you believe the Bible's written so you have to read between the lines, as I've said? You read between the lines. The lines is right, but there's between the line.

59 Now, Mrs. Branham's sitting back there looking at me. When she writes me a letter, when I'm overseas, she says, "Dear Bill, I'm thinking of you tonight. I love you. And I'm sitting here with the children. Certainly miss you." Oh, that's what she's saying, but right in between there, I'm just thinking a whole lot more things she's thinking about. I love her. She loves me and I know how she writes, see. So that's the affair between us.
And when you come in love with God, you just read between the lines, see. He said, "By His stripes you're healed." Yes, Lord, I know why. Because, why? You couldn't turn Your own children down, see. You got sympathy for Your children. You see, you just read between the lines.

60 Now, watch. Listen closely now. And put on your jacket. I preached this about two years ago at a Bible conference one time, and, brother, I'm telling you my office was snowed over with letters and all the criticism you ever heard. Then I heard somebody picked it up and went and wrote a little book on it. So it got scattered out somehow.
But look, in the revelation. Notice this. People begin to receive it a little more now as they begin to settle down and look at it better, see.
[Gap in the audio.]
A mule, you know, backed up from the stall, it don't look right. That's all right. Just keep looking at it awhile. God will bring it to pass. He'll show you where it's at.

61 Now, want to give you some consolation, you dear old saints of the Living God that's struggled a long time and now are getting broke down, getting old. Now, I'm going to close just in about five minutes. Listen close now.
Here was Abraham, hundred years old. Sarah, ninety. God said, "I'm still going to give you that baby. I remember My promise. You believed it all along, and I'm going to give it to you."
Sarah laughed in the tent. The Angel of the Lord knowed what she talked about.
That wasn't the Angel of the Lord; that was God Himself. Abraham said it was. He had on clothes like a man, dust all over Him, come from a far country. But Abraham saw God face to face there. Why, He went out and look what He did. He eat meat. Abraham went and killed a calf, brought some butter out. And Sarah kneaded some bread and made some hoe cakes, brought it out. And the Almighty, with dust on His clothes, set down and eat a calf and drinking milk and eat hot cakes. That's the Scripture, if you want to believe it. That's right. He just disappeared right before Abraham. Oh, my! I felt where that went. But it's the truth.

62 Now He said, "Abraham, according to the time of life, I'm going to visit you." Sarah went ... on the inside. The Angel said ... or, the Lord said, "Why did you laugh, Sarah?"
She said, "I never laughed."
Said, "Oh, yes you did." He's still the same tonight, isn't He? He knows what's in your heart and what's going on. Sure He does.
"Why'd you laugh?"
Wish we had time to dwell a little longer on these things. All right.

63 Notice. Now here's Sarah. She got old, little grandma. And here was Abraham, long, white beard, a hundred years old. Now, to stop your thoughts before you get started in your mind, the Bible said they were both well stricken in age. And years before this, Abraham fell on his face and laughed when he thought the very idea of him as an old a man and his life gone like he was, to ever have a child by Sarah. Is that right? Now, they were old, both of them.
Now, we notice immediately after this when God made His covenant ... or, He showed to Abraham... Now, this is not written right in the Scripture, but read between the lines with me now.
Now, when He showed to Abraham what He was going to do, He made a manifestation of it to the people, to them. Now watch. Now, He told them He was going to bless them. Now, ministers, now kind of hold your guns down for a minute. But notice.

64 We know that God had to do something to the womb, anyhow, of Sarah, didn't He? She'd been barren all these years, nearly a hundred years old and was barren. Well, in order... It's a mixed audience, but you listen to your doctor, I'm your brother. In order to do something to make this, He had to recreate something in that woman's womb to make it fertile. Is that right? In order to do that, He had to stimulate her heart, because she couldn't go in labor like that---woman a hundred years old. Is that right? Couldn't do it. All right.
And another thing, what about the milk veins? God doesn't patch up anything. He made Sarah a new woman. He made her a young, beautiful woman again, and he made Abraham a young man again. He just turned them back to show what He's going to do in the rapture to us.
Oh, you say, "Brother Branham, ridiculous." All right, we'll follow them a minute.

65 We know immediately after that, they took a little trip and went down to Gerar. Is that right? Measure it on your map---three hundred and something miles by camel. Quite a trip for an old couple like that. Grandma here, a little stick and a little shawl, here she comes, and Abraham; three hundred and some miles down to Gerar. Is that right? The Bible said they went down there.
And you know the strange thing it was, after little grandma and them coming down there, and great, great, grandpa Abraham, long white beard, a little grandma with this little shawl on her. The king of Gerar was looking for a sweetheart---all those beautiful women down there. But when he seen Sarah, he said, "There's the one I want." Little grandma with a shawl over her shoulder, the most beautiful thing in the world. Ridiculous! Nonsense! She wasn't a little grandma. God turned her back to a young, beautiful woman again. That's what He's going to do to every one of you in the rapture. Yes, sir.

66 And I can see her now, the king looking all over of them pretty girls. Look. But when he seen Sarah, he said, "There's the one I've waited for." Could you imagine a little grandma: "That's the one I've waited for." No, she was a pretty girl, turned back to around twenty-five years old, something like that. Abraham a young, sturdy man again.
God's told him what ... He showed him what He was going to do---what the covenant is with you. What He done with Sarah and Abraham, He's going to do with you, grandmother, and you, grandfather---the same thing.

67 Now, watch. This King of Gerar fell in love with her. And Abraham lied. Said, "That's my sister." This is going to shock holiness people. Said, "That's my sister."
And the king took her over and he was going to marry her, and he got her over there, and fixed her all up, perhaps, and put on all the paint on her, or whatever it was that the others did. He was king. He did what he wanted to. And first thing you know, he might have manicured her hair, you know, or whatever you call that stuff you do on it, and fixed her all up. He was going to marry her. She was a good Holy Ghost woman, so she didn't use that stuff, see. So he had to fix her all up, so he wanted to marry her in his way.

68 So, we find out that night after he took his bath and laid and stretched his big feet out in the bed like that, He said, "Oh, my." Said, "Lord, I'm so happy You gave me this pretty girl." Ignorant all the time of the fact that it was another man's wife. And while he was laying there... Now remember, he was a righteous man. And so while he went to sleep, the Lord come to him and said, "You're just as good as a dead man."
Why, he said, "Lord, why am I as good as a dead man?"
Said, "Well, you got another man's wife out there." See God in His sovereign grace protecting that stream of blood which come Jesus. That's right. God will do it, don't you worry. He'll take care of the rest of it. You just let Him alone. Just commit yourself to Him; He'll take care of the rest. Said, "You're as good as a dead man."
Why, he said, "Lord, you know the integrity of my heart." Why, he said, "You know that she told me, 'That's my brother,' and he told me, 'That's my sister.'"
He said, "Yeah, I know it. I know it. I know the integrity of your heart and that's the reason I kept you from sinning against Me."

69 Look. Here's grace. "I know you're a good man, a righteous man, and everything. But I'll not hear your prayer. Her husband is my prophet." Think of it. A little liar, backslid.
You say, "Brother Branham, I done something the other day. I'm afraid the Lord won't heal me tonight." Oh yes, He will. Don't you get scared. You're a Christian, just sit still. Repent for what you done, go on, see. That's right, see. Say, "I backslid, brother." That don't make any difference. Repent and go on, see. You're scared.
The first little thing comes along, you turn your head one way. You think God's going to condemn you. Repent! That's all. Get right. You say, "Well, I..."

70 Now wait. There was Abraham, and anyone knows that God told Abraham not to leave Palestine. And any time that a person disobeys God, he backslides. Is that right? And because a drought come on, Abraham, instead of standing, facing the music, he went and done exactly what God told him not to do.
So if you do what God tells you not to do, you're backslid. So Abraham was sitting out there backslid and telling a lie. But God couldn't turn His child down. He give him the promise, unconditionally.
He said, "That's My prophet. You take his wife back and restore him. If you don't, you're as good as a dead man. And let him pray for you." Who? Hallelujah. Who? Not that 'holier than thou art,' but My prophet sitting out there. I'll hear his prayer." Hallelujah! There's the grace of God to the Holy Ghost church, and you don't recognize it.

71 The same thing that that hireling prophet Balaam seen when he looked down in Israel and he thought surely a holy God would curse a people that had lived with their mothers and all the things they had did, the ornery vulgar stuff. But He failed to see that smitten Rock, and that brass serpent going before Israel, making atonement.
That's what's the matter tonight. The people look down and say, "Pentecost did this, and Pentecost did that. And they're this way and that way." They fail to see the smitten Rock, Jesus Christ, going before them in the power of the resurrection of the Holy Ghost. It's still the covenant people.
I know they talked about you. Say, "This preacher run off with this man's wife." But over in their ranks they did the same thing. Don't tell me; I come out of it. I know it. They just got a lot of prestige to smother it down. And you have to stand and bear it. That's right.

72 But if you've got the Holy Ghost, you're God's child, you're Abraham's seed. You've got an unconditional covenant written in your heart by God Almighty Himself, who can't take it back. Amen. He swore that He wouldn't do it. Hallelujah! Every promise in the Bible is mine, every chapter, every verse, every line. I am trusting in His love divine. Every promise in the Book is mine.
God's children, unconditionally. You don't deserve your healing tonight. There's not a one of us in here deserves to even hear the Gospel. There's not a one of you deserves the grace of Jesus Christ, none of us. We're all rolled together. But God, by grace, has did it anyhow. That's right. There's none of you deserve your healing. Every one of you ought to die; me, too. All of us. We're not deserved to live on the earth. That's right. We're not deserving to look at God's creation.
But God has promised us and He cannot lie. He swore that He would do it. Healing belongs to us. Amen. Salvation belongs to us. The Holy Ghost belongs to us. Heaven belongs to us. Now we're the sons of God. Now we're sitting in heavenly places in Christ Jesus. There's nothing can harm us.

73 The same God was watching Abraham and his mistakes. God made Abraham pay for it. Don't you think he got by with it. But God didn't cast Abraham out. He just made Abraham repent for it.
And you think you're not worthy to be healed tonight. That's a whole lot... Now, the reason I'm saying this, because I know what you're thinking. That's the reason I do it in a nighttime, finding the way the Spirit of the church is moving.
Someone said, "Well, I'm just not worthy. I guess maybe I've done this." Get that out of your mind. Sure, you're not, and you'll never be, but Jesus is, and He's the One who gave it to you. He's the One who paid the price. "Whosoever will, let him come and drink freely from the fountains of the water of life." Life. God bless you.

74 Oh, I hate to butcher anything up like that, but I hope you get what I mean. God has made an unconditional covenant. He swore by the death of Jesus Christ. He sent the Holy Ghost back upon you to be a confirmation that the covenant is made with you. Brother, I don't want the devil to rob you out of that.
Don't think I'm crazy. I guess I may be, but let me alone. I'm happy crazy then. Look. Let me tell you something. I'd rather be this way than the way I used to be.

75 Listen. You are the covenant people of God. God tore Christ apart at Calvary, making the covenant, swearing by Himself. And He took the body up into Heaven, which will return someday, but the Spirit He gave back to lead the church. The same life that was in Christ Jesus is in the church tonight, by the Holy Ghost, doing and acting and performing the same things He did when He was here on earth. You've received it. You've got the covenant. It's written to you, swore by God. You can't fail. That makes the devil mad, sure does, when you realize who you are.
Don't fear about the child, sister. God has made it, so don't fear about the baby, sister. Don't do that. Just say, "God, I now accept that. It's my personal property. I am a believer. I fill out this check and say, 'In Jesus' name, I accept that.'" That's all.
And the devil say, "Well, you're no better."
"But, glory to God, I got it, anyhow." Amen.
Abraham... Tomorrow: "How are you feeling?
Well, you don't feel any different, but: "Praise God, I'm going to have it anyhow. God said so." That's right.
"How do you know?"
"I've got the covenant."

76 Now, to the covenant people He said this: "Whatsoever things you desire as a Christian, when you pray, believe you receive it, (just hold right on to it) it'll be given to you." Is that right? It'll be given. Just hold right on to it, 'cause God has swore that He'd do it. I'm hearing a confirmation. "I'm going away, going back to the Father, and then, the Holy Ghost will come and He will confirm everything I've said. He will be with you. He will continue this ministry on till I return again."
And here we are sitting in the building tonight feeling the same Holy Ghost that they felt on the day of Pentecost. The same Holy Spirit that led Abraham; the same Holy Ghost that performed the miracles in the early church; the same signs and wonders, the same Baptism, the same results. What we got to worry about? God swore that He'd do it. Can't lose. Can't lose, God said so. Don't make any difference what anybody else said. God said so. God bless you.

77 Our Heavenly Father, we thank Thee tonight because that You were so mindful of us that You gave us this covenant with Jesus Christ, the Son of God. O Father, let me someday have the way or the means that I could explain what I feel in my heart. And I pray that You'll bless this people here tonight. Lord God, let them not know that we're... We're not fanatics. Thou knowest that, Father, that we're not fanatics, yet, we're classed that way. But we love You and we believe You. And You are here confirming every thing that we've said is the truth.
So give us courage tonight, give faith, give leadership. And let the Holy Spirit, the real divine Leader of the New Testament, of the Holy Ghost church, may He lead us all into that perfect faith, perfect love one for another. Make us, Lord, so much in love that it'd be hard to leave the building. Just tie our hearts together as one, and may we be in one accord.
And may the same Holy Spirit that came on the day of Pentecost to go forth and to bring forth the seed of Abraham to the promise of God, may He do His work tonight, here in this building. For I ask it in Jesus' name. Amen.

78 I'm so sorry to keep you that long; honest, I am. But I just get started... I wish that I could have got an education or something to express myself the way that I feel it. I can't. I just can't, but my heart is burning up with it, and I try to get it out. I slobber a whole lot. I've been eating a lot of new grapes out of Canaan, that's what makes me slobber. So just don't pay any attention to that. So I love the Lord Jesus.
And I'm not here to be looked at. I'm here to represent my blessed Redeemer, Jesus Christ. And I'm not here with swelling words. I don't know any. I don't care to know any. Only thing, the biggest word that I know is J-e-s-u-s, and that's right. And He's the One I love. He's the One I desire to meet. He's the One that I desire to stand here and by His grace to represent Him by way of divine power.
If I could preach the Gospel like some men, I would probably quit praying for the sick and preach the Gospel. Being that I can't preach the Gospel, then the only thing I can do is pray for the sick. That's my calling. That's what I do. May the Lord bless you now.

79 I'm going to call a prayer line. And now, tomorrow you don't have to get up real early to go to work, you can... Let's have a little prayer line and everybody...
How many believes, now, that the Holy Spirit, the life of Jesus Christ is here on earth calling the seed of Abraham to repentance? Let's see your hands. Then if you are, you can't say... I can't say you are, and you can't say I am. I believe you are, and you believe I am. If we are, we've got an unconditional covenant. Is that right? That God by grace...
Not because you say, "Well, Brother Branham, I tell you, I paid a whole lot to a widow woman one time and give her some money. I know I'm saved." Hunh-uh. "I quit smoking, drinking and..." That's never what saved me. No, no. "I got saved because, brother, I felt like shouting." Hunh-uh. That don't make me saved. I'm saved because I met God's conditions. That's it, see. Look, I could quit drinking, smoking, gambling, everything like that, and still not be a Christian. Yes, sir.

80 Look. I said not long ago, preaching a message in the church, I said, "Stealing is not a sin. Lying is not a sin. Committing adultery is not a sin." I couldn't get much farther than that till a little old Methodist mother (sanctified, you know) raised up, she said, "Then, "Reverend Branham, what do you call sin?"
I said, "That's not sin. Unbelief is sin." That's the attribute of sin. You do that because you don't believe. Because you don't believe on Jesus Christ, that makes you ... then you can lie, steal. But when you're a believer, you don't do that, see. That's right. That's the reason that you do it is because you don't...
Jesus said, "He that heareth My words and believeth on Him that sent Me, hath everlasting life." You might say you believe. You might try to impersonate a believer, but when you really believe, that settles it. That's all. Just two things: faith and unbelief. That's the only two senses that's left to the supernatural man.

81 The natural man has five senses. The supernatural man, the spirit, has two senses. That's either faith or unbelief. You have to have one of them. If you're possessed with one tonight, you're a Christian. If you're possessed with the other one, you're not a Christian.
No matter if you never done a evil thing in your life, that you know of, you're still a sinner, 'cause you're born in sin. But it don't matter what you have done... You might be a prostitute on the street. If you believe in your heart Jesus Christ was the Son of God, repent and accept Him as your Saviour, you're a Christian and a believer. That's right, see. That's all. Them two things.
If you come up here tonight as a believer, you're going away healed. If you come as an unbeliever, you're going away the same way you come up. That's right. Is that right? Just have faith.

82 All right. Where's Billy? What prayer cards did you give out? I got all wound up here trying to talk and... What? O's. Well, how far? You had O's. Was it O's last night? You sure of that? O's---1 to 100 in O's.
All right. We've been calling about fifteen at a time. And so maybe, sometimes, I get to that sometimes... I have had time, I get twenty-five or thirty in a night. But it depends on how the visions work. If I just pass the people on through, I can get the whole group. But when visions start, then one vision will take more out of you than two hours of hard preaching. That's right. You just don't know where you're at, hardly, just break into another world and...
Look at Daniel. Said he saw one vision, was troubled at his head for many days. He was bothered, you know. And look, when many visions come, it's bound to make you weak.

83 All right. O-1 to... Let's take the last part of them tonight. That would be from 7... 85 ... 85, 90, 95, 100 ... be 85. Who's got O-85? See if... Raise up your hand. Anybody have O-85? The lady there? Come here, please. 86. Who has 86? All right, lady, come over here. 87. Who has O-87? Raise up your hand. O-87. You have it back there, lady? No. O-87. Who has prayer card O-87? The lady here?
All right. 88. Who has 88? Would you raise your hand? Who has prayer card O-88? Lady, would you come here? 89. Who has 89? Would you raise your hand? Somebody... Prayer card O-89? The lady back there? O-89. Come up here, lady, that's right. 89. 90. Who has O-90? Prayer card O-90? The man? All right. 90, 91. Who has 91? Raise up your hand. 91, 92. Who has 92? 92. Prayer card O-92? Would you raise up your hand? O-92---92. Let me speak again. Somebody speak in Spanish. O-92. Prayer card O-92? Would you raise up your hand?
Somebody look at the other fellow next to you, may be deaf. Look at the children here. One of the ushers come here. Are you an usher, sir, sitting there? Look here and see if these prayer cards of the children. Is anyone else... Look at the man's prayer card. O-92. We're missing O-92. All right. 93. Who has 93? O-90... You 92 or 3? 3. All right. 93. 94, 95. O-95, 96, 97, 98, 99 ... 99, 100. All right. Line up here. Now, did you get O...

84 What was that? Yes. All right. Brother Ballard.
[The brother makes an announcement: "A Mrs. Mel Rosenneck wanted at one of the hospitals immediately. But you call Broadway 6-2664. Mrs. Mel Rosenneck call Broadway 6-2664."]
Let's bow our heads. If that's an emergency, let's bow our heads.
Heavenly Father, if Your child is in here tonight and Satan is trying to do something evil, as Your church, as the body of Jesus Christ who has power to loose or to bind on this earth, we now claim that, and Satan cannot rob us from it because it was given by sovereign grace. And we ask that the woman, or the person that's in the hospital that's very sick or what's wrong, that the mercies of God will fall upon that person and Satan will be drove away, and the person will be made well. And bless that one who is here that's listened to the message, and when they get there anointed with this Spirit, I send it in the name of Jesus. Let them lay their hands upon the patient and may the spirit of life turn to the patient and they live, in Jesus Christ's name. Amen.
Don't fear. Ever who you are, when you get there, lay your hand on the patient and don't be afraid. Only believe. You shall see the glory of God. All right.

85 Excuse me, just a moment. Now, Christian friends, you all praying with me now with one accord? This is so hard. It may seem strange, but to change from preaching or getting in there, now you got to sweep back down to something else, to a divine gift. It's all of the Holy Spirit. One does this. One finger works this way. The ear, the nose, the eyes, all is a part of the body, but you're switching from one to another, you see.
Wonder if we could now sing Only Believe, if the musicians will, if they'll play just a little bit. Thank you, Sister.
Now, mothers, keep your children close. There's epilepsy here tonight. That's the one thing that gets from me---is epilepsy.
Now, have faith. Believe me as I teach you of Jesus Christ. Paul said, "Be ye followers of me as I am of Christ." Is that right? And if I tell you something... There might be men come through here. Everything drops through these cities, not only here, but everywhere. They have all kinds of this, that, and the other. I know it, Christian friends. But that don't take away from the real.
If a man speaks and God confirms what the man said, you haven't got any right to doubt him. But if a man speaks and God doesn't speak with Him, then you got a right to doubt the person, 'cause that's just a man.

86 And if I told you that I had powers to heal people, I'd be a liar. If I told you that I had any way at all of healing a person, I'd be a liar. But the only thing that I have is the gift of God, see. And that was given to me by grace, not for myself, but for you, see. And it's a divine gift.
As far as seeing visions, my Bible in my hand, Almighty God who stands here now knows that that's true. God shows me visions. That's exactly the truth. But now to heal, I have no powers. Nobody else does. There's no power in man to heal. The only thing we can do, we can pray. And prayer is the most forceful weapon that's ever put in the hands of anybody. So you pray with one accord now, while we hum this song. Let's hum it once, see.
[Brother Branham begins humming Only Believe.]
Just the effects of that. I hope you don't believe I'd be telling you a lie. But the Holy Spirit's right here now, right here. That's what's worried me all the time, keep me from speaking to people. Always thought it wouldn't shake back. But it is.
All things are possible.

87 Now, Father, for these handkerchiefs, people are waiting for them. And while I know that Your Spirit is here now... And this lovely group of people's listened, been sitting here since four or five o'clock in the evening, tired, but yet, they're waiting. The seed has been sowed. And now, Lord, while Your Spirit is on Your servant, I lay my body across these handkerchiefs. And I ask Thee, O God, to be merciful to every one of them and heal them.
And I know that the great Saint Paul took from his body handkerchiefs or aprons. And we know we're not Saint Paul. But it wasn't Paul, it was You, Father; the Lord Jesus who came and performed this and helped the people by having faith in Your servant. And they accepted Paul as Your servant. And tonight, Lord, these who believe that I have told them the truth, confirm Your Word, Lord, so when they get this handkerchief, they'll know that it's You and not Your servant. Grant it in Jesus' name. Amen.

88 Now with perfect reverence. And now in the name of Jesus Christ the Son of God, I take every spirit in the building under my control for the glory and the resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.
How do you do? I see you got one of the pictures. Well, that's very fine. I just want to speak with you a moment. And, I suppose, we're strangers to each other, so I don't know you. But our Lord knows you and He knows me. Let's talk on the picture just a moment, if you will. All right. You got the little story there how that happened, right here. Yes, ma'am. That was signed by George J. Lacy. He's one of the best on the research and fingerprints and things that I guess there is in the world. And that little pillar of fire, see there, sometime ago there was a miracle performed, with that. A lady put it in a picture. (Many of them put it in a frame---go to the ten-cent store. And they put it in a little frame and put this little thing behind it, if anybody asked about it.) And she had it setting on her desk at the hospital. And she was looking, not at me, of course, but at that pillar of fire there. And she claims ... this is her testimony. The doctor had give her up to die. She claimed that that pillar of fire come out of the picture and hung over her. And two days later she was dismissed from the hospital and went home well, see.

89 God just... She just... It was just her contact with that, you see. She just ... she just looked at that and believed. Now, we know to look at that any other way would be like idolatry. We wouldn't do that, see. It's not the picture. It's what it represents. You understand that. Yes, ma'am. And I hope that long time you'll have it and remember it. [Sister says, "Oh, I'll frame it."] Thank you. Thank you. And may God bless you. And may each time you look at it, you remember tonight at the platform, that that same pillar of fire that's on that picture, you're standing right in its presence now. Uh-huh. That is right. You're in its presence.

90 Now, then if that pillar... Me just a man and you a woman, we've never met before in life. But if I've told the truth, now, of Jesus Christ when He was here on earth... He didn't claim to be a Healer, you know. He only did as the Father would show Him. You've know that's the Scripture? You been in the meetings before? ["Not in this one."] Not in this one.
But you have heard then that how... When Jesus was here on earth, He said, "It's not Me that doeth the works." Saint John 5:19. He passed by the Pool of Bethesda and all those crippled people there. He just healed one. He wasn't crippled, laying on a pallet. He went away and left the rest of them. He was questioned. He said, "It's not Me. I can do nothing but what I see the Father doing."
Then He said, "The things that I do shall you also,"---promising the church. Is that right? Well then, that's Jesus Christ, resurrection, in the form of Spirit, here on earth today performing the works that He did when He was in the body.

91 Now, if He was standing here with these clothes on He gave me... Now, as far as your healing, if you're sick, that, I don't know. But if you're sick, He'd say, "Well, when I died for you, I healed you. Believe this?" Then He'd tell you, just like the woman at the well. He'd say ... could know what was wrong with you. He'd know where your trouble was.
Well then if He ascended up to Heaven, and His Person of the Holy Spirit is here tonight, then promising that He would do this, according to His Word, then He could tell me to do the same things that He'd do if He's standing here. Is that right? Now you begin to realize that something's taking place, see. That's it.
Yes, ma'am. Your trouble, one thing, of course, is your eyes. Your eyes are going bad. Then you're extremely nervous. Isn't that right? And here's something else that I see that the outside world can't see. And that is: You've got a tumor. And that tumor is on the left shoulder near the breast. Is that right? Go home now, you're going to get all right and be well. In the name of the Lord Jesus Christ.

92 Only have faith. Don't doubt, just believe. We're strangers, are we, lady? We are. We're strangers. But sitting down there in the audience, I seen you was building up a faith. You was believing on what I said about the unconditional covenant of God.
Now if we're strangers and know not one another, but God knows both of us. He knows everything that you've ever done in your life. He knows everything that I ever done in my life. And if you be my sister, a believer, and believe that God will make you well and will help you, I believe with all my heart He will, too. (Excuse me, just someone healed sitting down there. It left him.)
What do you think about this kind of religion? Sure, you do. Yes. Uh-huh. Thank you, sister. You know what I'm talking about, don't you? All right. I want to, if the Holy Spirit will let me... You know what I was talking about then, of your own religion, see. All right. But do you... If I be God's servant, then I'm truthful. Is that right? I'd be truthful. Then the Holy Spirit will confirm my words.

93 You're suffering with a throat condition. Is that right? And you haven't been able to swallow hard foods for a number of years, a much younger woman. I see you trying to get hard foods down. If God will let you eat, will you seek God till you receive the Holy Spirit, be bap...? You will. A Catholic woman. You can go now and eat your supper. You're healed. God bless you.
You say, "How do you know that?" Well, I don't know it. It's Him that knows those things, see. I know nothing, but He knows all things.
Now, if you could only see that light following the woman, that same thing. I beg your pardon. Lady sitting next to her there, with female trouble is the one. Isn't that right, lady? She sat down next to you. She was so anointed just then, you were healed with female trouble. You had female trouble, didn't you? All right. It's finished now. You can go home and be well, too. God bless you.

94 All right. I suppose you and I are strangers. Are we, lady? We don't know each other. All right. And just to talk to you just a moment now. If we be strangers, the Lord when He met the woman at the well, He begin to speak to her. Is that right? Tell her about different things in her life and everything.
Now, if we strangers, never met on this earth before, only God could... Well, He's the only One could reveal those things. Is that right? To be perfect, see. To be perfectly, He's the only One that can do it. But now, if God would let me know what you're here for, see... If He'd let me know what you're here for, then you'd know it'd have to come from some spiritual resource. It'd have to be spiritually divine to you, see. Well then, if that be true, then would you accept it as Jesus Christ's Spirit? Yeah, you should. Yeah.

95 Now, you all keep in one accord. You got some... You got a battle of little unbeliefs hitched around the wall tonight. Now, I want you to have faith, you see. It's a hard battle, see. If you just... Remember, I'm trying to represent the Lord Jesus Christ to the people, and it just keeps going from me.
Now, look this way, sister. Now, in Jesus Christ's name... Yes, there she is. You've ... you had some trouble not long ago. You had a burn of some sort. That's been about six or seven years ago, in the year of about '46 or '47. And that was an acid burn. Is that right? And you're having trouble with eating now. And you have a throat trouble and your eye trouble.
And you are a minister and you got papers of ordination, papers from an organization. Is that right? You believe me to be His prophet? Then in the name of Jesus Christ, go home and be well. I resent this demon that would hurt this sister. Amen. God bless you.
All right. Have faith now. What is this? Jesus Christ, the seed of Abraham, that the Spirit was taken off of the body and brought back to the church. Just exactly what I've been preaching about. All right.

96 How do you do? Do you believe me to be His servant, with all your heart? You have an extreme nervous condition. Isn't that right? You got... What it is, it's more like a mental nervousness. You get real gloomy. I see you beside yourself, almost, sometimes. Isn't that right?
And you're some connection with... You're away from here ... or, from away... No, it's a daughter. You got a girl that's away from here and she's at California. And she's anemic. Is that right? Go home, send her your handkerchief and both of you will be well. In the name of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Let's say, "Praise the Lord."

97 All right. Bring the lady.
You with my picture in your hand there, you're believing, aren't you? If God will let me know what's wrong with you, you accept your healing? You believe me to be God's prophet? You do. All right. You had a rupture, didn't you? All right. God bless you. May the Lord Jesus Christ make you every whit whole.
That's very kind of you, lady, to pick up that picture for her and give it to her. Look over this way to me. Because you did that and done her a favor, I shall do you one. You're sitting there suffering, too. And what's your trouble? I see you have ... something another. You shake a whole lot and then it quits, then you shake a whole lot and quit. Spasmatic palsy. You believe Jesus is going to make you well? You do. God bless you then. Go home and you'll never have it again. God bless you.

98 Do you believe, lady, with all your heart? Now, there's something... It's turning dark around where you're standing. You must be terribly sick. You're a nervous case, very nervous. And you got TB, you're tubercular. And the worst thing of all, you need Jesus Christ as your Saviour---not a Christian. Is that right? Will you accept Him as your Saviour now? He accepts you as His child and heals you of TB.
In the name of Jesus Christ, I cast away the evil and send her home to get well as God's child. In Jesus Christ's name. Amen. Your sins are forgiven you, lady. Some ministers baptize her. All right.

99 Would you come?
Let's say, "Praise be to God." Let the Spirit of God work in you.
How do you do, sir? Do you believe me to be God's prophet? We are strangers, are we, sir? I don't know you. Never seen you in my life. Know nothing about you; only God alone knows. Is that right? But to do something for you, I couldn't. But as a divine gift, and the anointing of the Holy Spirit by a divine gift which was sovereignly give at the hour of my birth, then your life could not be hid, for I take your spirit into my charge in the name of Jesus Christ.
Now, you're suffering... There's something wrong. It's in your ankle. And that's TB in the ankle. That's what the doctor said. Is that right?
Say, you're a Catholic. No, you was a Catholic. You just come into this way. You're studying this type of religion. Isn't that right? You used to be a Catholic and you just come into this, just now. Is that right? That is right. Amen.
Just a moment. So, to strengthen your faith, you do as I tell you. Will you do it? By the way, your name is Michael. They call you Mike, don't they? And your last name's Jordan. Isn't that right? And don't you live about 718 Garfield Street? Go back up there and rejoice. Jesus Christ has honored you, made you well.

100 You believe for your heart trouble, sister? You can be made well right now. You believe it? God bless you. You was healed when you walked up there. Jesus Christ made you well.
Do you believe, sir? While you were standing down there in the line a while ago, you felt strange when I turned around and looked at you, because... When there was somebody said something here on the platform, when I mentioned to that man or somebody, just a few minutes ago, who had TB, you had a funny feeling, didn't you? 'Cause you had TB the same time. I felt it go from you and I looked down and I seen where it was at. I knowed you was coming on in the line, so you were healed standing down there. You can go on your road rejoicing. God bless you. God made you well.
Now, I want to ask you something. When I was speaking to him, you had a real funny feeling, didn't you? That's when the TB left you, too. So you can go home and be made well. In the name of Jesus Christ

101 Believe? Oh, my! This is it! Here's when the King of kings walks among His delegates. Jesus Christ the same yesterday, today, and forever.

102 Do you believe, sir? You believe with all your heart? You want to get over that kidney trouble, accept and be made well? Raise up your hand and say, "I accept my healing." God bless you. And go and be made well through Jesus Christ's name. May it be so.
The little lady sitting right back there with that on her head, with that gall bladder trouble. You're healed, sister. Stand up. That's right. Your little friend there, she kind of liked that, too. Lay your hand over on her. She's got back trouble, haven't you? Something wrong with her back. [Unclear words.] You can go home and be made well, too. In the name of the Lord Jesus.
Now, do you want to go home and be made well? You want to get over that arthritis? Raise your hands up like this. Stomp your feet up-and-down. Go off the platform and be well. In the name of Jesus.

103 Come, sir. Do you believe me to be God's prophet, with all your heart? Will you obey me as His servant? If God will let me know what your trouble, then will you do as I tell you to do? Go eat you a nice big hamburger. You haven't had one in so long with that stomach trouble. You go eat it now and be made well. In the name of Jesus Christ. Hallelujah.
Kidney trouble's bothered you for years, hasn't it, mother? Is that the truth? God... The Son of God heals you and makes you well. And may you go and receive it, in the name of Jesus Christ the Son of God. Amen.

104 Believest thou this? Oh, what a feeling.
You don't have a prayer card, do you, sir? You don't? You don't have no prayer card? I keep seeing it hang over you. You want to get over that asthmatic condition? You believe God's going to make you well? Stand up on your feet then. Right. This man over... That's it. God bless you. You don't need a prayer card. You need faith. Hallelujah! Jesus Christ the same yesterday, today, and forever.

105 There's a lady praying. A lady sitting with her hand up. You with the white dress on, there. Touch her, she's praying. He heard your prayer then. Yes, ma'am. You had hemorrhoids and they've left you. God bless you. Is that right? Wave your handkerchief if it's so. All right. Go home now. You're going to get over it. He heard you when you were praying. He turned my attention. I see what He's asking for. So you receive what you ask for. God bless you. Amen!
See a poor woman sitting there, suffering. She's got liver trouble and back trouble, stomach trouble. Sitting right there. Isn't that right, lady? Been sitting... It's been robbing you for a long time, hasn't it?---emptying the gall duct, then goes in and makes sour and acid on the teeth. Is that right? Stand to your feet. Go home and be well. Jesus Christ the Son of God makes you whole.

106 Have faith in God. I challenge. All right. Have faith.
Just a moment. I feel the Spirit moving somewhere... Oh, here it is, sitting here. The woman's deaf. Bow your heads, everywhere. Somebody bring her over here. O Jehovah, in the name of Jesus I come. This evil spirit deafened the ears of this woman to cause her to walk before a vehicle to be killed or some evil thing. But he can't stand in Your presence. You said, when the deaf spirit went out of the man, "He can hear." And, Lord, she's unprivileged to hear the Gospel perhaps. But Thou can give her her hearing, so I condemn this evil spirit and cast this deaf spirit out of her. In the name of Jesus Christ the Son of God, come out of her.
Can you hear me, lady? Can you hear me now? Can you hear me now? How long have you been this way? I just wanted to hear you talk so they can hear. Can you hear me now? Say, "Amen." [Sister says, "Amen."] Say, "Praise the Lord." ["Praise the Lord."] I'm whispering. Here she is, a deaf woman. Now, look at her. Look at her. Say, "Amen." ["Amen."] " I love the Lord." ["I love the Lord."] Perfectly normal and well. You have female trouble, too. Is that right? Causing a drainage, see, from the bathroom. It was an abscess, but it's gone now. Go home and be well, Jesus Christ heals you. Hallelujah! Praise be to the Lamb of God.

107 Every person in here can be made well right now. Do you believe it? I can call another prayer line. I can, you know, what's the use of it? Why not believe Jesus Christ right now. If Christ has told me, and I've told you what He said and He's confirmed that I've told you the truth, what more do you need but to believe and accept what I've told you? Is that right?
If every one of you will believe Jesus Christ to be the Son of God and pull from that breast of salvation over to the breast of healing, and lay your head over on His bosom tonight and say, "I accept You, Jesus, as my Healer," you'll get well. I don't care what's wrong with you. Do you believe it?
If God can cast an evil spirit out of person by a person, can He by prayer cast the spirit out of everything in here? Will He hear my voice from the platform? All right. Lay your hands on one another while we have prayer.

108 O Jesus, my Master, my Lord and God, I pray for this audience of people. Thou art great, Lord. And we know that Thou art here. And I pray that You'll help every one, and may Your power come upon them. And now, Satan, in the name of Jesus Christ, come out of the people. Leave them and go from them, and may the power of the resurrected God of heaven, Jesus Christ, make every one of them whole.