The Greatest Gift in the Bible

You can find this sermon at ChurchAges.net

1 Thank you. You be seated. So glad to see this wonderful crowd of people out this afternoon. I think it's just about as many as we've had any night. Usually the Sunday afternoon meetings are not very much, because, well, people just kind of go out on Sunday afternoon and have a little quietness to themselves, but it still shows that there's an interest, the people here that love the Lord. So I'm so happy for this.
I was just talking to Brother Carbol here, and he was... We was talking about the fine music and singing that I was just enjoying as I come up and was speaking to my friend, Brother Rasmussen, back behind the curtain.

2 And now, the meetings will continue on beginning Tuesday night. Brother Carbol and his evangelistic party continues right on. And this fine music and singing, plus preaching, praying for the sick, and so forth, will continue right on. I'm sure they've announced it already where it would be, Brother Carbol. And so, you can continue to enjoy these fine blessings.
And just a while ago before, I'd got a letter from a little friend of mine from Anchorage, Alaska, and he almost beat his letter here. It was fifteen minutes, his letter was, ahead of Brother Fandler. He's in here somewhere. Has been a very, very good friend of mine from Switzerland.

3 And we can certainly remember his conversion and how the Lord called him out and what he was. And he was one time a pretty rough fellow. And he thought it was kind of a hoax or a little make belief. And he got somebody and put them in a prayer line, that he knowed. And the Holy Spirit not only told the man who it was, but told him who the little fellow was that brought him. So, that fixed him just right. And we've been great friends ever since.
Ernie, where're you at? Would just stand up or something or raise up your hand, or somewhere. He's in here somewhere, Ernie Fandler. He's just a little bit bashful. Yes, way up in... Oh, my! Who could see you way up there? Brother Ernie and his lovely wife, and two lovely little boys. I've been in their home when they were in Shawano, Wisconsin. And they're on their road back there again, coming down from Anchorage, Alaska. And he said he was going to try to get here, but how he drove that two thousand miles of rock, and road, and mud... You ought to've seen his car, by trying to get here to enjoy the service. That's loyal, isn't it? That's really loyal.

4 And now, tonight is to be the healing service again. And we're expecting Christ to do the exceeding abundant tonight. And this afternoon was given to an evangelistic service, and then so I could speak right away, and then we have time to go home and have your lunch and to be back again. Very busy this morning. The Lord has been dealing wonderfully with individuals that I have come in contact with this morning. He's showed visions and straightened out lives and so forth. He's wonderful. We all love Him, I'm sure.
And if there happens to be someone here from Calgary, we've got all those invitations and so forth, and they're all appreciated, but I... And maybe be before winter sets in that I can get back to Calgary for a little meeting down there, maybe like Wednesday through Sunday. They said they could get the stampede grounds, but not after it gets too cold. It's not ... I don't believe it's been heated in the wintertime. So, maybe we can get back. I've got to come over to Idaho this autumn. And maybe from there I might drop up and spend that weekend with the people at Calgary and have some fellowship down there.

5 It certainly is appreciated, all the fine cooperation with these ministers here, with no more invitation than they've got. Just... Brother Freddie Sothmann, which I've learned to love as a dear beloved brother. He come over here. Brother Fred's not a minister, but he loves the Lord with all of his heart. And I tell you, you couldn't find a finer man than Fred Sothmann. He's just one... He's not in here now and that's the reason I can say that, see. And he's just one fine man.
I'm sorry. I... Didn't Billy take you to the back of the room? Fred, Billy wants to see you behind the curtain there. I was supposed to've told him that and I thought he went off the platform. I'm sorry. Your sins will find you out, won't they? I honestly thought he was back there. Billy wanted to see him back behind the platform concerning something about tapes, Leo, something, someone wanted a complete meeting on a tape or something.

6 Now, while he's gone I can talk. He certainly has been a real brother to me. And he come down and the best he could do: get the ministers and tell them we were coming. The reason we try to do this: If you have a sponsorship, well then, that certain denomination that sponsors it, the other denomination feels they have nothing to do into it. But if you'll just come...
Here's my motive: I'm planning on, God willing, making one great big push this next summer in the States, if God willing, and Canada. I'm ordering a tent to seat somewhere around eight to ten thousand people, and we want to find out locations that we can put this tent up and not stay just for four or five days or a week. We want to stay four or five weeks, teach, so I can have the afternoons, and so forth, and lay the foundation down real closely.

7 And then sometimes when evil spirits gone out of a person---many times they don't know that---they don't know what to do. Well, they don't ... and some of them say, "Oh, I got sick, or..." Well, you're supposed to get sicker. They don't know that. When, like a growth on the inside of you... Now, we're not dealing with that growth. The doctor deals with that when he cuts it out. But what we're dealing with is the life in that growth. That's the life.
Now, for instance, like cancer. Cancer is one of our great killers. Well, now, cancer has a life. And it's another life besides your life. And it's growing, spreading. Now, the Bible calls it a devil. Cancer is called by the medical name, which come the word "crab" with legs and spreading out. But in the real term it's a devil, and a devil is a tormentor.

8 And he's set in your body, comes from a little cell that has been bruised, or usually, and the little cell backslides and can sometimes cause your life. That's a big word for a Baptist to say, "a backslider," isn't it? But just the same, when a cell backslides, it'll interrupt every cell in your body, if the devil can get into that little cell.
Now, the devil cannot create. He cannot create one thing. He can only pervert what God has already created, see. Sin is righteousness perverted, see. Sin is nothing... The devil couldn't even create sin. He can just pervert righteousness, see. Cause there's only one creator: that's God. And God alone can create. But the devil takes what God has created and perverts it. God created you to be sons and daughters of His. The devil gets into you and perverts you to his way. And that's what causes the trouble.

9 Now, a cancer: When this life has gone out of the cancer, it's dead. But the growth is still there unless there's a miracle performed. Well, that growth is hanging there, no life in it. It's dead. What would a piece of meat that big in your body, and (plain old southern way of speaking) it rotten, in your body, well, then your heart beats and every time it beats, your blood goes through the heart and purifies the bloodstream, and it picks up the dead substance of this cancer body, and it'll set in a fever. You'll be sicker than ever. And that probably... You'll feel good for the first seventy-two hours, for about seventy-two hours, then a body corrupts.

10 Like, if you shot a deer today or an animal, you'd throwed it on the scales and weighed it and told the boys, "That deer weighs so-and-so." Be careful, in the morning it won't weigh that by many pounds, see.
If someone dies, the undertaker removes false teeth, or artificial eye, or something, because when it shrinks it'll pop out. But you just let that body lay there for a few days, then it gets bigger than it ever was.
Watch a little dog or something, little animal killed on the street, how it's bigger, it swells up in a few days. Well, that's what taken place, that cancer that's on the inside of you, growth, tumor. You just get sicker. And the person say, "Oh, I lost my healing." If they're not trained to know how to lay hold of faith...

11 Now, look, God in the beginning knowed everything, and when there was nothing, not even light nor nothing, God just said, "Let there be..." And He held right to His Word and His own Word created the heavens and the earth. Just by a mental conception He had... He was going to have it and He just said, "Let there be..." And His own Word become creation. And the ground that you sit over today is nothing but the Word of God made manifest. That's right. Anything that God speaks, it's absolutely got to produce it. Just can't keep from it.
Look at Jesus when He come off the mountain. He was hungry and He looked on the bush for something to eat, and there was nothing there. He said, "No man eat from you from henceforth." And just went on. Never screamed over it, He just said, "No man eat from you." One of the apostles heard it. And when they passed by the next day, that tree was withered, see. He spoke His Word and not one bit of doubt but what it was going to be that way, and the life went out of the tree. It has to. God said so.

12 That's what I was speaking on last night in Abraham. When the Word is spoken by God, just lay hold on it, and it'll create just exactly what it says it'll do. But you can't do it in doubting and jumping and up and down. You just got to hold on to it. Stay with it. God will make it manifest.
And I think if we had about a month to stay in a city of this size, and let all the ministers, and so forth, and the cooperation, everybody, all churches, I believe ... and have prayer meetings, and let people come and hear the instructions for two or three services before they're even prayed for. Then when they come to the platform, they're ready, see, to receive their healing.
And I believe we could have a real revival right here in this city, because I see just coming in here, just blast right in and blast out, and to see, to tell how the Holy Spirit is taking a hold right here now, it would mean something.
So, this meeting will, as I say, continue on with our Brother Carbol here, after we're gone. I pray that it'll be one of the greatest meetings he's ever had, because he's been such a real wonderful brother to cooperate and do everything he can to help the meeting along.

13 Now, let us pray. Blessed Lord, as we come into Thy divine presence this afternoon, with joy in our hearts because we are fully persuaded that Jesus Christ is God's Son and that He raised Him up from the dead according to the Scriptures, and has vindicated His everlasting life in our presence this week. We have seen Him in His great master work, alive, just the same as He was before the generations back of two thousand years ago.

14 And oh, how our hearts rejoice to know that the Bible is the truth, and God still loves His people. And He has visited us in this last days, to call from the Gentiles, the unworthy ones, a church, a people for His namesake.
And I pray, Father, that this day that You will, in this hour that's coming up in this preaching service, that You will just anoint us in such a wonderful way, that our hearts will be moved deeper, and more grounded in your love and faith than we ever was. And may each of us, as we leave this exhibition grounds this afternoon, have a better determination in our heart to serve You, than ever before in our lives.

15 It's getting late. The Son of man will arrive one of these days, and we must work while we have light to work in. And help us, Lord, to lay aside every weight and the sin that does easily beset us, that we might run with patience the race that's set before us, looking to the Author and Finisher of our faith, the Lord Jesus Christ.
Open the Word to us today. And may the Holy Spirit sanctify the lips that speaks. And may He take the Word of God and give it to every hungry heart just as we have need. For we ask it in His name and for His glory. Amen.

16 There was a little slogan sometime ago out, "It's later than you think." I have a reel. I should have brought it. This would be a beautiful place to show it right here of: Three Minutes Before Midnight. Did anybody ever see it? I have that, and I was almost converted over when I seen that. Not meaning it in that way: converted over. It just stirred my soul in such a way.
You know, if you want to know what day of the month it is, look at your calendar. But if you want to know what day you're living in according to the time cycle, watch the Jews. That's God's calendar of time.
And the picture starts of where these Jews are coming from down in Iran and the Look magazine carried big articles of it. Those Jews were so primitive that they had never even seen a steel pointed plow. They plowed with old wooden sticks, as they did two thousand years ago. And when those big planes let down and picked up those Jews to bring them back to Palestine, it fulfilled what the prophets said they'd be ... when they come back, they'd be brought back on the wings of the eagle.

17 And when they was unloading them there from the ships and from different parts of the world, from the East and West, the North and South, as they were coming---they were packing their old ones on their back, their elderly mothers, and grandmothers, and fathers---on an interview stepped up and said, "What are you returning homeland for, so you could die in the homeland and be buried?"
They said, "No, we come to see the Messiah."
Don't run over that too lightly. Remember, the Jewish people was declared a nation nineteen and forty-six, on April ... or, May the sixth, on nineteen and forty-six, and the Angel of the Lord appeared to me on April ... on May the seventh, nineteen and forty-six. And the oldest flag in the world, the six-point star of David, which has been down for over two thousand years, flies again over Jerusalem. We're at the end time.

18 When those Jews come in, they had never heard of such a thing as Jesus. And many of you Norwegian and Swedish people here, the Philadelphian Church of Stockholm, Sweden, sent down thousands of Bibles, New Testaments, to these little Jews. And the Jews, as they would read this Bible, they said to the ones standing by them, "If this be the Messiah, Jesus is the Messiah, let us see Him do the sign of the prophet and we will believe Him." The Jews seek signs; the Greeks, wisdom.
What a beautiful setup for the ministry, the Lord has given me. I was in two hundred miles of Palestine recently. And I had my ticket to go on over; I thought, "This is the hour." And the Holy Spirit called me from a plane at Cairo, Egypt. I went out behind the place and prayed and He said, "Don't go now."

19 I'd love to see the day when we get in there and take all those thousands of Jews and say, "Now, is it true that if He performs the sign of the prophet, the resurrection, you will accept Him? Go look yourself out some men then and bring them in here. Let's see if He's the Messiah, the same yesterday, today, and forever." And when the Lord would do as He's doing here, I expect to see tens of thousands of Jews come to Christ at one time.
And when God turns to the Jew, the Gentile day is finished. That's correct. We're at the end time. When those Jews get the Holy Spirit, they will revive the world again, because they're real on missionaries. And God promised that they still got three and a half years left yet. And I believe we're at that time. So pray, as we move on in faith towards Christ.

20 The reading of the Word this afternoon... Reason I was kind of talking a little, the people kept coming in the doors and getting their seats. I was waiting till they get settled.
Psalms 163:
O God, thou art my God; early will I seek thee: my soul thirsts for thee, my flesh longeth for thee in a dry and thirsty land, where no water is;
To see thy power and thy glory, so as I have seen thee in thy sanctuary.
Because thy lovingkindness is better than life, my lips shall praise thee.
And I said this afternoon ... or, for this afternoon, I wanted to speak on: The Greatest Gift In The Bible. And how many in the audience this afternoon could think of any greater gift that God could give to man than eternal life. There is not one gift that could be given greater than life. Life is the... That is the sublime gift. It's the greatest of all gifts, for where there is life, there is joy. And God alone has eternal life.

21 And when we take the setting of the Scriptures this afternoon, David, the prophet and the beloved Psalmist, how he loved to sing; the inspiration come upon him and he would write the hymns. And I've often thought, Jesus when He was here on earth, He referred to David, "Did not David say in the Psalms...?" Well, then the Psalms is also prophetic.

22 And I wonder what it will be when He comes, if this great marvelous song that we sing today of the redemption stories and of the coming of the Lord... I think of that song they used to sing and play it on the music, something about:
You've heard of little Moses in the bulrush,
You've heard of fearless David and his sling;
You've heard the story told of dreaming Joseph,
And of Daniel and the lions we often sing.
And there are many, many others in the Bible,
And I long to meet them all, I do declare!
And God's own Son will be the leading One
At that meeting in the air.

23 Oh, I want to see that in reality. And I believe that we will see it, and I believe that songs are wrote under inspiration. And David here, being a wanderer in the woods, and he looked at God through nature. You can only see God... My first Bible was nature. How oft have I watched the great birds of the air and the sunsets.
Here not long ago I was up in the mountains. And I was elk hunting. And it was in the early fall and the snow hadn't come deep enough to run the elk herd down. And I, perhaps, was forty, fifty miles from a living soul, just alone.
We used to sing a song:
There's times I'd like to be all alone
with Christ my Lord,
I can tell Him all my troubles all alone.

24 And it's good for men to get out alone, way up in the mountain, not so much to kill the animal, but just to be alone. And the storms up there come in the fall and they ... it'll rain awhile, snow awhile, and the sun will shine: kind of a changing weather that high in the mountains.
And I'd left my pack horse way down the mountain and went to the timber line. I was walking along there, thinking, watching for the elk tracks and signs. And all at once I heard a roar, and I looked; there was a black cloud coming, and I knew then it was coming a storm. I dropped down a little further in the timber, and I run into a blow down; so I just got behind some trees until the storm was past.

25 And when the great winds twisted, and the trees moaned and groaned under it, I begin to think, "What's them trees moaning and groaning and frolicking about?" God sends the wind for some purpose, and it only pulls the roots loose so it can have room to dig deeper.
That's the way God does with a revival in His church. He just shakes us about to loosen us up so we can grow deeper, get a better hold. So, shaking and moving of the Spirit loosens us up.
And while I was amazed as I was watching even the little flower, thinking of how it died in the winter, and it would probably be seventy below zero there. The little bulb was gone, the flower was gone, the little black seed fell out of it, it perished and the pulp was gone, but somewhere in that soil laid a germ of life that all the scientists in the world could never find it.
But just as soon as that warm spring sun begin to beat on that ground, that little flower stuck its head up and praised the Lord. And if God made a way for a flower to live again, how much more has He made a way for a man to live again.

26 I was thinking while I was standing there, of an old Methodist preacher friend of mine. We were having fellowship around a little dish of ice cream one day at Henryville, Indiana, and the little agricultural program was on from Louisville, Kentucky.
And the 4-H club had invented a machine that would put out a grain of corn just as perfect as one you could grow in the field. And you could take a handful out of the sack growed in the field, handful out of the sack that the machine made, and mix them up, you could never tell them apart again. One would make the same cornflake as the other, the same corn bread the other, same amount of calcium, moisture, the heart in the right place in the center of it, the skin on the outside.

27 Then this speaker goes on to say, "The only way that you would ever be able to tell them is to bury them, and the one the machine made would rot and never be no more. But the one that God growed in the field had a germ of life in it, it lived again."
I thought, "What a beautiful story. There's two men sitting on the same seat in the church, both of them deacons, or pastors, or whatever they may be, or two of the laity, both of them going to church, both listening at the same message. But one has life and the other does not." It takes the hand of God to do something for men. If you're born again, got the Spirit of God in you, you've got to live again. No matter how good you are, how religious you are, if that Spirit of life is not in you, you'll perish. And there's only one eternal life and God has that.

28 And as I watched in my amazement standing there, my gun sitting against the tree, I looked over; I heard a little old pine squirrel. I think you have them up here in Canada, little bitty fellow, just like the Irishman's owl, all fuss and feathers. Oh, what a noise he was making, like he was going to run everything out of the woods, chatter---chatter---chatter---chatter. I thought, "Well, maybe I excited you, little fellow."
And I looked out across the way, and the sun was coming out from behind the great crevice in the mountain and was shining against where the evergreens had caught the water; and the cool breeze behind it that high had froze it. It was icicles, and it formed a rainbow across the valley. Then I said, "O God, here You are. You're in the rainbow."

29 And then I heard an old male elk, got lost in the storm, bugle, over on the side of the hill. And there's something about that that just sets my soul afire. And an old wolf howled on the side of the hill, and its mate answered it in the bottom.
My mother's a half Indian. And there's just enough about the outside that I love. I thought, oh, what a wonderful place to be, hearing God in the elk herd, hearing God in the wolf call, seeing God in the flower, God in the wind, God in the trees, God is everywhere. Just look around. You get Him on the inside here, you can see Him out there.
And I looked at that little old chipmunk or squirrel, and I thought, "You noisy little fellow, did I excite you?" And I might as well tell you the rest of the story. I got so enthused ... or (I wouldn't say that), inspired, until I set my gun against the tree, and around and around and around that tree I went just as hard as I could go, screaming to the top of my voice. Why, if somebody would have come up on the woods, they'd thought they had someone out of the insane institution there.

30 But what was it? God was near. I was praising Him with everything that was in me, for there He was in the rainbow, there He was whispering through the woods, there He called to me through the wolf, and He answered over yonder in the elk. Why, you could not hold your peace in a place like that. So, I was more noisy than the squirrel was. I didn't care. I was worshipping the Lord, way back up in the very tip of the Rocky Mountains.
And as I stood there, that little fellow got louder and louder, just a jumping up and down. And I thought, "I didn't want to excite you, little fellow." And I kept noticing him cocking his little head sideways and looking down like that. I thought, "Maybe he's not looking at me."

31 And while the storm was going on, he had... The storm had forced a big eagle down in this blow down. And that's what he was afraid of, was that eagle. The big eagle jumped up on the log, took those big velvet eyes and looked at me and looked at the little squirrel.
And I thought, "This is strange. I hear God all out there, then when would this interrupt me. Why was my sacred worship interrupted? Why did you do it, Lord, let it happen?" And I begin to notice the big eagle. "Now, God could You be in that eagle?"
And I noticed him, he wasn't afraid. God don't like cowards. God give him two wings. And he had confidence in his God-given gift. He knew that he could be in that timber before I could grab that gun. But I wondered why he wasn't afraid. He kept feeling, you know, with his feathers. You know how they do with their wings: see if they was all in working order.
I think if the church come together, and got their spiritual wings all working order...

32 And he kept watching me. And after awhile, he wasn't afraid of me, but he didn't like all that chatter---chatter. So he made one big jump and he flopped his wings about two or three times. He was beyond the timber.
And then it come to pass that I seen what God was trying to show me. This great big, mammoth master of the sky, he just spread forth his big wings like that; he never flopped one more time. He just knowed how to set his wings in those wind waves, and he just lifted up, up, up, until he became just a little spot.
I said, "O God, I'm about to have a spell again. That's right. It isn't join the Methodist and then leave them and go to the Baptist and over to the Nazarenes. It's just knowing how to set your faith in the power of the Holy Spirit and be lifted up. Just ride the waves as it comes in, on up above the shadow. Give me fellowship with Thee for in the light I see the fountain and the blood that cleanseth me."
He left that little old earthbound squirrel sitting there saying, "Days of miracles is past. No such a thing as the Holy Ghost. You can't get well if you have..." all these things like that. He just set his wings and flew away from it. God give us wings like an eagle. "Days of miracles is past. No such thing as divine healing. Nothing but holy-rollers." Chatter-chatter here, and a chatter-chatter there. Just as earthbound as they could be.

33 He never paid any attention, and he got sick and tired of it.
I hope this church does the same thing. Just set your great wings in God's promise and let the Holy Spirit pack you out of sight of it till it just becomes like a sounding brass and a tinkling cymbal.
In nature, God lives in nature. David was a great man of nature. He studied it. He found God there. He knowed how God could help him kill a bear, could kill a lion with his slingshot. And that's why he could write these songs.
But the strange part of the song is this: "Thy love-kindness is better than life." Did you notice the setting of the Scripture. "Thy love-kindness is better than life to me, so I will praise Thee. And my soul thirsts for Thee in a dry land where no water is."

34 Then I couldn't understand what David was talking about. When I first read that I thought, "What was the prophet meaning?" "That Your love-kindness is better than life." What could be better than life? Nothing. So, I drew this conception: that there must be two different kinds of life. Life has a compound meaning. It means more than one thing.
Now, many people think that drinking, smoking, gambling, running around, dancing, they call that life. But that is perverted life. That's death. It certainly is. The devil has perverted that life, and you think it's life, but it's death. That life gets so miserable. What the people call today "life," it gets so miserable until they take a pistol and blow their brains out. That couldn't be life, what God was speaking of.

35 Many young ladies think if they can get down in town, get enough money to buy some kind of little old sexy looking clothes to walk down the street with all prettied up, and the boys will whistle the wolf whistle at her, her with a cake of chewing gum in her mouth, and she said, "This is life." Sister, you're wrong. It's death. The Bible said, "The woman that liveth in pleasure is dead while she is alive."
And the man thinks that because he got a raise in his wages, and he can buy a better car, wear a little better suit, "Boy, I'm living now." If you haven't got Christ, you're dead. It's perverted life.

36 Here sometime ago, I was in a great city, in this wonderful, beautiful, God-given Canada... I don't have to say this, but I've said it many times: If I was a young man, I'd want to become a citizen of Canada. It's got more to offer. I like Canada. All my world travels, there's no prettier spot I ever seen in my life, than Banff and Jasper. I've been to Jungfrau, Eigeroy, and Monkebude, and all through the Swiss Alps, and Germany, and all around the world, but Banff and Jasper has got anything beat the world has got to offer.
Maybe the Lord will let me live there in the Millennium. I hope He will. Where you all are enjoying now, and I hope we're together then. Oh, it's beautiful.

37 And I was in one of your great cities, and in one of the great mammoth hotels that some kind brother had put me up in. And I was going home one night from a meeting, and I went up to about the fourth or fifth floor. And there was a bunch of Americans up there, from the States, that was having a certain lodge, but I'll not call the name.
But a lodge, a certain lodge, was having their jubilee, or convention there. Well, I'd noticed some funny actions in the people that afternoon before going to church. But when I got back that night, walked out of the elevator on the top floor, oh, they were having one of the awfullest drunken parties I ever seen. And here come two nice looking women, perhaps in their twenty-five or early thirties, coming down the floor with nothing on but their underneath garments. Each had a bottle of whiskey, and men pulling them from one room to the other.

38 I just stooped back into the shade. And they both had on wedding rings. Now, they call that clean fun. That's filthy sin. Right. Maybe a husband at home taking care of the baby, thinking their wife was out somewhere with a nice crowd of people having a dinner and a little sociable get together, and it turns out into a drunken bolis. What a horrible thing. What does God think about that kind of living?
And I watched as some old man, maybe twenty years older than one of the young women, grabbed her in the wrong place on her body, and jerked her into the room, and all the carrying on. I stood there and started to pray. In a few minutes here they come out, the old man was so drunk he couldn't even hold the woman. And when they come back out, one of them stood there and took the rest of what clothes she had on, off, and took a drink of whiskey and throwed up her foot, and said, "Whoopee! Boy, this is life."

39 I just couldn't stand still any longer. I rushed out and grabbed the woman by the arm. I said, "Lady, it's death. It's not life." They dropped whiskey bottles and away they went. But they thought they were having a good time, but they were dead.
Now, David said here, "My soul longs for You, like in a dry land where there's no water." Now, God created a man to have a thirst. Your makeup ... you were made to thirst. God made you that way. You cannot help it because you thirst. God made you to do it. But God made you to thirst after Him. That thirst was put in you, not to go to the devil's places, not to thirst after Hollywood or fashions of the world, but that thirst was given you to thirst after God.

40 Jesus said, "Blessed are they that do hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be filled." It's a blessing to even thirst. But the devil has tried to make you think of something else. But the thirst was given you by God. Listen.
How dare you take that blessed holy thirst that God gave you to thirst after Him, and try to satisfy it with the things of the world: with television programs, with drinking, with big sprees. The devil has perverted instruments of his own and taken that thirst that God gave you to thirst for Him, and making you thirst after the things of the world. And every thirst that you have should be for Him. Certainly. That's life.

41 You say, "Now, I know the Bible better than you do, Brother Branham." You don't have life by knowing the Bible. You don't have life by joining church. You don't have life by being baptized. You don't have life by knowing your catechism. You don't have your life by being a minister. To know Him is life. Not to know the catechism or your church rules, but to know Him is life.
And that thirst that God give you isn't to be spent on a church either. The devil, if he can't make you go to dances, and drink, and live immoral and those things, he's perverted it to make you join church. And that's still perverted, because joining church doesn't give you life.

42 But the only way you can have life is to take that thirst and satisfy it by the drinking at the fountain that never runs dry, that beautiful Holy Spirit that rains from God out of Heaven. That's the way you find life: is to know Him; not know His Book, but to know Him; not to know your church, but to know Him; not to thirst to satisfy the pastor, but to satisfy the Lord. That's that holy thirst. That's what it's in you for. And would you quench that with things of the world? It's death. It's perverted.
Did not the Bible say, "If you love the world or the things of the world, it's because the love of God's not even in you." That great holy thirst. You can't satisfy it by joining the church. There's no satisfaction in joining the church. You're trying to sear your conscience and fill your heart with lust. Come out in the open, confess your sins, and thirst for God's righteousness. "Because Thy love-kindness is better to me than life; my lips shall praise Thee." Think of it.

43 David also wrote in, I believe, the 47th Psalm, being a woodsman, he said, "As the hart thirsts for the water brook, my soul thirsts after Thee, O God." As the hart, the deer, panteth for the water brook, my soul thirsts after Thee.
Now, being acquainted with the outdoors, and in Africa in the jungles and the eastern countries where this Book, the Bible, was written, they have over there great herds of wild dogs, wolves. And David was acquainted with these animals.
And a little deer, when these wild, savage dogs run into a herd of deer... They have long fangs. And they... One of their choice spots is to grab the deer is just behind the ear, sink those fangs in, and then swing his weight. When he does it, he rips the deer's neck. That's all of it. The deer goes right down.

44 And if the deer... He cannot catch him in the jugular vein here, as we call it, he's got another choice place. He grabs him right in the flank. And he'll grab it with his teeth like that, and when he swings his weight, he throws the deer off his feet. And the dogs cover that deer and rip him to pieces just in a moment.
Now, many times the deer, when the dog grabs him in the side or up here, if he gets too tight a hold, well, he'll ... sometimes the swinging of the deer will make the chunk of meat pull out. Then the animal has the meat in its mouth, and if there's no other dogs standing to cut it off, it can sometimes escape. But it's bleeding. The blood is a pouring from the little fellow.
Now, if any hunter here knows anything about hunting, if a deer can get to water, he can live; but if that deer can't get to water, he's dead. And David knew that. And he said, "As the hart panteth for the water brook, my soul thirsts after Thee."

45 Could you imagine, the hounds has just grabbed and pulled a big chunk out of his side, his blood---life---is running out. The little deer stands sniffing for water, the hounds are just behind him. He's got to find water, or he'll die.
David said, "That's the way my soul thirsts for Thee. Oh, I must have You, Lord, or I'll perish." If you only knew, sinner friend, that the hounds of hell is right behind you crippled and wounded by sin, and you've got to find Christ or perish. When that sort of a desire gets into a man's heart, he will find Christ, when you get in that shape.

46 "As the hart panteth for the water brook. I must have it. I'm wounded. If I don't have it, I'm gone." And when you get to a place that you want Christ so bad, you must have Him or perish---you can't sleep at night, you can't eat, you've just got to find Him, blessed are you when you hunger and thirst after righteousness---you'll find eternal life.
May God help you this afternoon to have that thirst for that life, for there's only one life that'll last forever, that's eternal life, and given only by knowing Jesus Christ and the forgiveness of your sins. "He that heareth My words and believeth on Him that sent Me, has passed from death unto life, and shall never come to the judgment." You've done passed from death to life: what it means.

47 Some years ago I was talking to an Indian guide that had got lost on the desert. His name was Tim Coy, very well-known guide. And he got lost out on the desert in the Arizona's, and he couldn't find his way back. And his horse...
If you was ever lost... I've been lost. The nose becomes raw and bleeds where the sand boiling up. Your tongue becomes so thick you can't speak, your lips turn inside out and crack all over. Then the devil shows you a mirage.
That's something... You go down the road and you look like you see water. When you get there, it's not water. That's the way the devil does to church members and sinners. He tries to show you something pleasant.

48 And many times the tourists that wander off the road and get into the desert to pick some flowers, then all of it looks alike and they can't find their way back. And before they die, they see those mirages. And they run to it, jump into it, and thinking they're throwing water over them, but they find they're only throwing hot sand on their head. And a long time before death, the great vultures come from the skies and pick their eyeballs out while they're laying on the desert.
How oft does people, sinners, and church members, and pretenders, when the devil shows you a mirage where you can be popular if you dress so and so and go with the crowd and so forth, the buzzards of hell pick your eyes out to the Gospel a long time before physical death ever strikes you. You go to a meeting, say, "I don't believe in that stuff." Why, the buzzards of hell has picked your eyes out. That's your spiritual sight.

49 Tim said that he come down. He was a Christian man, a very renowned Christian man. He said, "I got off my horse, I'd prayed and I'd prayed for water." Said, "I'd lost my way and I couldn't find no where." Said, "After awhile I come upon a path where it looked like either buffalo or something had run."
And said, "My old horse, her name was Bess." And said, "She begin to nicker, and I got up on her, tried to ride again, and she was too weak to pack me." And said, "I'd walk a little piece following this..." Said, "I was told that sometimes them paths led to a water hole."

50 And said, "I started to ride her, she was too weak." And said, "Then I was all excited and trying to get down the path, and..." Said, "The first thing you know, I found myself stumbling and falling. I was too weak. I was gone." Said, "I climbed back into the saddle again, started."
And said, "Over to my right, there was a little dim trail that led off to the right." Said, "My old horse Bess tried to take that trail." Said, "I said, 'Come out of there, Bess. You can't take that trail. This is the trail. It's wider. It's better. More of them went this way. This goes to the water.'" And said, "She started nickering and trying to go the other way."

51 Said, "I had a pair of wheel spurs on. Before I knew it, I was just cutting her to pieces with these wheel spurs, trying to make her go down that broad path." And said, "Then she started, she stumbled and got to her knees." And said, "I jumped off of her and I looked at her. She was standing there about ready to perish, looking down that little trail, and was nickering, and the blood running out of her sides where I'd cut her with those spurs."
Said, "I stood there a little bit, and I thought, 'Oh, what will we do. We're no better off.'" Said, "I rubbed her on the face and I said, 'Bess, I've often heard that animals had instinct, and maybe the big wide path don't lead to the spring.'"

52 Brother, I tell you now, "Broad is the way that leads to destruction, many there be that go in thereat: for straight is the gate, and narrow is the way, and dim is the trail, that leads to life, but few that'll find it." Don't go with the crowd. Go with Christ.
He said, "Bess, you've carried me through this desert, and we've been buddies together. And you've carried me safely this far; I'll trust you the rest of the way."
Not comparing the Holy Spirit with a horse, but, brother, the blessed Holy Spirit has kept me all these years, I'll trust Him in the valley of the shadows of death. I'll just take this great experience I've got, to take me on.

53 She started down the trail. Said he hadn't went five hundred yards until he plunged into a great stream of water, sat there enjoying the blessings of water. Said he jumped into the water, him and the horse both, throwing water over their head and screaming to the top of his voice. His life was spared. Said he took the old horse and washed its nose out and everything, just... It was such a blessing. She had brought him safely to the water.
This trail might seem a little dim, but there's a fountain at the end of it, filled with blood, drawn from Emmanuel's veins, where sinners plunge beneath the flood, lose all their guilty stains.
Said while he was enjoying this getting refreshed, him and his horse, he heard someone speak. And he looked around, and there stood a man intoxicated. And he looked and there was some smoke coming up. He said, "Who are you?"
And he said, "Come out of the water." And he come out. Took him over to the camp; they had some venison cooked.
And he said, "I'm Tim Coy, the Indian guide. I've been lost for several days out here, and my horse just led me to the water."

54 He eat the venison, enjoyed it. They were all drunk, four of them. Well, they said, "We thought this was the fourth of July; we were celebrating." Said, "We've been over here on the Sierra Nevada Mountains. We struck a claim and we got gold here with us, plenty of it. We're going back to be rich men."

55 He said, "Celebrate with us, Tim. Get the jug, Shorty." And they got the jug of whiskey, pulled the stopper out, said, "Have a drink, Tim."
He said, "No, I don't drink, sir."
And he said, "Oh, you don't?"
He said, "Sir, I never took a drink in my life. Thank you for the venison, but I'll be going on." And said, "It's not the fourth of July anyhow."
And he said, "You mean you never drank?"
He said, "I never drank in my life."
He said, "What do you say, boys? Let's make this Indian guide take his first drink with us. Hurrah! That's the way." They was having life, they thought.

56 So one fellow, little crooked-legged cowboy, picked up a thirty-thirty rifle and jacked a shell into it, took the jug in his hand, he said, "Tim, if our venison is good enough to eat, then our whiskey is good enough to drink." He said, "You either take a drink of whiskey, or take what poison we got at the end of this thirty-thirty." Now, they're not kidding. You know how a drunk is.
Tim said, "Boys, I don't want your whiskey, but before you pull the trigger let me tell you my story."
He said, "I hail from the bluegrass country of Kentucky." Said, "Many years ago in a little old log house," said, "a little bed laying in the corner of the house with fence rails made a bed (That's the kind I was borned on), and shucks for the mattress," said, "as the morning light creeped across the bare floor of a little cabin, a mother laid dying."
And said, "A little barefooted boy of only five years old toddled around in the house, the only person there when a godly Christian mother was going to meet her Maker."

57 And said, "My mother called me to the bed, put her arms around me and said, 'Tim, God will send somebody here to you sooner or later. Mother's going Home. But I want you to promise me something, Tim. Your father died with his boots on. He died a drunkard. And that's the reason we've been in poverty. But promise me, Tim, as your mother, that you'll never take a drink as long as you live.'"
And he said, "When the breath left her body, and I pulled my little baby hands from her clenched hands," said, "sirs, from that time to this, I've never tasted whiskey. But I have served the Lord with a pure heart." Said, "Now, if you want to shoot, just go ahead."

58 And about that time, a pistol roared, and when it did, the jug in the hand of the man bursted. Out of the canyon just behind, stepped a little fellow, well-scarred and beaten, tears running down his cheeks, both guns sticking out.
He said, "You don't know me, Tim, but I know you." Said, "None of you know me." Said, "There's a price on my head. I'm an outlaw." Said, "I followed you all the way from the Sierra Nevada Range, and watched you here with that gold. And I thought when you got drunk enough, instead of putting a bullet in you, I'd just go down and knock you everyone in the head and take the gold. I was waiting till you passed out drunk, but, Tim, I, also, come from the bluegrass country of Kentucky."

59 Said, "I promised a dying mother the same thing, but I'm sorry I broke the vow." But said, "I'm sure she heard my pistol as it echoed through the big canyons of Heaven, I sign the pledge. From this hour I'll never take a drink, Tim." And with the group of outlaws and the prospectors together, Tim led them to the fountain of life.
Brother, men that's ever meant anything has accepted that fountain of life. While we bow our heads just a moment... Sinner friend, you might've made promises too. You might think you're living good, but, "The wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through knowing Jesus Christ as your personal Savior."

60 Before we pray, I wonder in this great audience of massive people in here this afternoon, if you sinners will just lift up your hands to God and say, "God, by this... I promised my mother, my daddy, my sister, my wife, someday I'd meet them in Glory. I want to raise my hand while you put my name on the book of life in Heaven. And I'll do it by lifting my hand. I want to drink from that fountain of life."
God bless you, sir. God bless you, sister. God bless you, sister back there. Any other on the main floor here? God bless you over there, sir. "I'll raise my hand. I want to come to the fountain." [Gap in the audio.]
There is a fountain filled with blood,
Drawn from Immanuel's veins,
And sinners plunged beneath that flood,
Lose all their guilty stains.
Lose all their guilty stains,
Lose (Come right ahead now, everyone
that desires to come.) ...... stains;
And sinners plunged beneath that flood,
Lose all their guilty stains.
Listen on this verse now.
The dying thief rejoiced to see
That fountain in his day;
And there may I, though vile as he,
Wash all my sins away.
Wash all my sins away,
Wash all my sins away;
And there may I, though vile as he,
Wash all my sins away.

61 [Gap in the audio.] You believe? [Gap in the audio.] ... I'm not mistaken, but aren't you associated with that prayer card? You got it ten years ago here. Actually you never got it. Your wife got it. I never seen you or the prayer card. But I seen that prayer card over the top of your head just now.
Now, you've come with that stomach trouble and things, to be healed, and that nervous condition you're suffering with. You've come, now you have it. You was prayed for, but now you've come and you've got it. Now, by obeying Christ, that's what was lacking. That's right.

62 Blessed be the name of the Lord. Why couldn't I bring that prayer card last night? Because it wasn't right. There's a prayer card. Ten years ago this week, I was here, not knowing it. On the seventh day of August, nineteen and forty-seven, this prayer card was given right here in this room and was kept until a few nights ago.
And now the owner of it presented it in the prayer line the other night to some of the ushers or somebody, it come back to Billy Paul, Billy Paul give it to me, and as I come here, never knowed the man, never seen him in my life, there was that prayer card hanging right there.

63 All right, brother. You got what you ask for now. Christ is your Savior. When you accepted Him as Savior, He healed you also. There you are. Your nervous condition causes stomach trouble and heartburns and sour in your mouth. That's right. It's all over now. You're going to be well.
If that ain't grace. Give us a chord: Amazing Grace. Everybody. How many knows that great song? I want the ministers to come here and stand by these sinner friends---not sinners now; they're not sinners. They've come confessing. Let the ministers of this city come around here so they can take them now to their churches. Come on, ministers, whoever you are, welcome these men and women, boys and girls, along here to your church. All right, all together.
There is ...zing grace! how sweet
the sound,
That saved a wretch like me!
I once was lost, but now I'm found,
Was blind, but now I see.
Listen.
'Twas grace (all of us) that taught
my heart to fear,
Was grace my fears relieved;
How precious did that grace appear
The hour I first believed!

64 Now, let this audience sing this next verse, all together. Open up your lungs and sing it to God. Through many dangers, toils and snares, I have already come; it's grace that's brought me safe thus far, it's grace that'll take me on. How many Christians here trust that this afternoon, with your hands up? All right. Good. Let's sing it with our hands up. All right, everybody together.
Through many dangers, toils and snares,
I have already come;
'Twas grace that brought me safe thus far,
And grace will take me home.
Now, shake hands with your neighbor standing by you there, say, "God bless you, neighbor." The Methodist, Baptist, Presbyterians...

65 Now, you penitent ones at the altar, do you actually now accept Christ as your personal Savior? Raise up your hands. Every person at the altar accepts Christ as personal Savior. Now, I want you to turn, facing the audience and these ministers here. You at the altar, turn right around this way towards the audience. Now, raise your hands to the audience that you accept Christ as personal Savior.
Jesus said, "He that heareth My words and believeth on Him that sent Me has everlasting life." That's the life I'm talking about. You just now got it. "You will in nowise come into condemnation; but you've passed from death unto life. He that will confess Me before men, him will I confess before My Father and the holy angels." That's truth, isn't it?

66 Now, ministers and all the Christians that welcome them into the body of Christ as fellow citizens of the kingdom, raise your hands as a welcome to them. Blessed be the name of the Lord. Let us bow our heads now while I pray for these here.
Father, we're so happy today, that through the fruit of the message, brought sinners to the altar and they accepted You as their personal Savior. Now, according to Your Word, their name is on the book of life, and there is nothing can rub it out. "I will in nowise cast him out. He has everlasting life, shall never come to the judgment or condemnation; but is done passed from death unto life."

67 And they've confessed You with their hands up toward You to these other citizens of the kingdom in this great fellowship of Christ, that they too have become this afternoon pilgrims and strangers to the things of the world. They've passed from death unto life. Now, He said, "He that will confess Me before men, him will I confess before My Father and the holy angels."
So glad to see You work this miracle here before them just now: To see that prayer card over that man there. O blessed and eternal God, You waited for this hour, and this is the hour that he can rejoice. We pray that if there be any more sick along this line, that You will take all the diseases out of their bodies. You who can save their soul, can certainly heal their bodies. And they're thirsting for it. And I pray that You will grant it.

68 Bless this church together. Take them into Thy loving arms and keep them until the day that we all meet together. And as we sit at that great table that evening for the Lord's Supper, Thou hast said, "I will not no more eat the fruit of the vine until I eat it, drink it anew with you in My Father's kingdom."
And on that great day, when that great table is set, and all the redeemed of all ages are sitting across the table from each other, we'll shake each other's hands. Oh, I want to see millions there, Lord, that I've led to You, and hear them say, "Brother Branham, I'm so glad that you come."
Then as we shed a little tear for joy, the King in His beauty will come out, take His nail-scarred hand and wipe all tears from our eyes, say, "Don't cry, children, it's all over now. Enter into the joys of the Lord."
Send them into the harvest field here, Lord. And may they win others. For we ask it in Christ's name. Amen.