New Ministry (William Branham)

You can find this sermon at ChurchAges.net

1 Thank you, brother.
Good morning, friends. It's certainly a privilege to be here this morning in the Tabernacle when we're already packed now.
And waiting for the big meeting to start in San Jose this week, in San Jose, California. We're going to leave immediately after the service for the West Coast. And then we will be down at Coconut Gardens for about two days also, the Lord willing, with the Christian Businessmen. And we're expecting a great time in the Lord on the West Coast. They got eighty-two churches in the sponsorship, and both associations of the San Joaquin and the valleys through the West Coast. And so we're at the fairgrounds there. If some of your friends you know that would like to attend some of the services, we'd be glad to meet your friends and your relatives.

2 And we're expecting... I have a greater expectation this morning than most any meeting I have ever been on yet, because I believe that we're just at the eve of something fixing to happen. I've looked forward to it for a long time. And I believe that we're right on the verge of it now, for something that God is going to help His children a little further up the road.
You know, the Bible said that when the enemy comes in like a flood, the Spirit of God would raise up a standard against it. And when God gives His church a blessing, and they move along in that blessing so long until it becomes common to the world, then they begin to run it down. Then the Spirit of God comes in and raises up a standard again. And there is a breaking forth of a revival, or something.
And our great hopes is this: That one of these days, the Spirit of God will send back Jesus Christ to the earth. And then, it'll be perfect then. That'll be the real standard.

3 Now, they're just standing around the walls and things, and all over the building. I met a man coming in when I parked my car, and he said... I said, "I'll leave it sitting here with the key, then you can move out anytime you want to."
He said, "Well, I tried to get in; I couldn't find no place to stand."
And our church is far too small for a meeting. But leaving this morning, and we announced it last Sunday of being here, and would come to pray for the sick, and to give you some instructions on what we have just seen taken place. And there has been more, by the grace of God, added to it for this morning.

4 Now, we have preached, and others before us, of the near coming of the Lord, the soon coming. And we believe that it's growing closer. Of course it is, day by day. But if we'd stop and think that one of these days, we're going to hear it the last time, and then the Lord Jesus will come.
All the earth, the trees, all nature, the people, the church, everything is groaning, weeping, holding on, waiting for that day for His coming. Nature knows it'll stop suffering then. And people know they'll stop suffering then. Death will lose its last grip, and the grave and hell will be swallowed up in victory.

5 I was so glad this morning to meet this little pastor here that played us the music and sang, from Sellersburg. One of the brothers has been speaking about the revival going on up there. And I guess they've already announced it and so forth. So that's very fine. May the Lord bless them up there and every effort that they put forth, is my sincere prayer, for the Kingdom of God.

6 Now, the Word of the Lord is most precious to us. We know that. So today, I believe that we're so close to the coming of the Lord, and the fields are so needy...
I've just been talking to some of the brethren. I believe a great deal of my ministry will be designated overseas now. We're planning on Africa right after Christmas, and over into Australia, and many of the places. The Lord is moving now and opening up the ways for us. We've had invitations around the world for a long time. And we may be able to take that right after Christmas now, if you all will pray for us.

7 Now, I have here before me the Word of God laying open. Now, I've opened back the pages because physically, by the help of God, I'm able to do that, to pull open the Bible. But I am not able to open the contents. There's only One who can do that; that's God alone. He was the One who wrote it by His Holy Spirit. And He's the only One that can open the Bible to us. And I trust that He will open our hearts as we read it, and will make it known to us. I will be just as briefly this morning.
First, I want to do as I promised to do, to tell you all what has just happened in the last few days concerning the changing of my ministry. And then I've got a short text; then we pray for the sick. And I believe there's baptism, because I seen the pool is filled.
But before we go farther, let us bow our heads just a moment now in prayer. And I wonder how many people in here that are conscious that you need God, and would raise up your hands to God and say, so much as doing so, "Remember me, Lord. I have need of such-and-such things."

8 Let us pray. O Lord, quietly... We realize that we must come quietly into the presence of God, for he that cometh to God must believe that He is, and a rewarder of those that will diligently seek after Him. And we come in the quietness of the Spirit to Thy throne, O God.
And we lift up our hearts before Thee, and say, "Search them, O Lord." And if there be any unclean thing in us, remove it, Lord, as far as the east is from the west. And if there be any iniquity in our hearts, something that would hinder our prayers from being answered, we pray that You will let the blood of the Lord Jesus move every stain from our spirit and our heart. For it is written, "If I conceive iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear me."
And Thou did see the hands as they went up, that to our physical eyes represented their hearts' need. We pray, O Lord, that You will answer each and every one of them. There's many needy.

9 And we would ask in the congregation of the people this morning, that You would remember this San Jose meeting coming. Help us, O Lord, as hundreds of miles of snow and ice lay before us to travel. But we're going in the name of the Lord to try to do all that lays within us to help Thy people, Lord. Help the lost to find You as their Saviour, and helping the weak and the blind, and smoothing out the way for others that'll follow us.
Bless our little church and its pastor, our Brother Neville, all the trustees, the deacons, and the laity, and all the teachers, and all that is affiliated, not only that, but all the churches that's represented here. For those young men who are holding forth at Sellersburg, we would ask, Lord, that Your hand would stretch out to them, Lord. May You raise up a mighty church of the living God in Sellersburg. Grant it, Lord.

10 Heal the sick; give sight to the blind, strength to the feeble, and salvation to the needy. As we read of Thy words this morning, may the Holy Spirit come, get into the Word, and quicken it to our hearts. Bless those who are to be baptized. May they be filled with the Holy Ghost when they rise from the water, giving glory to God. Get glory unto Thyself, Lord.
And as we have gathered this morning for the purifying of our souls and our thoughts, may we leave this Tabernacle this morning with a more determination than we ever had to serve You. May we live congregated together, closely woven and bound by the Holy Spirit, until that day when we meet in Your House in glory around Your throne, where millions will be singing, "Hosanna, Hosanna." May we all be there without the absence of one. Grant it, Lord. Until that time, keep us healthy, happy, and filled with Your Spirit, serving You. These things we ask in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.

11 May the Lord add the blessings as we read now in the book of Saint Mark, the eleventh chapter, beginning with the first verse. And then, after just this little quotation ... or, exhortation, then I will go to our text. This is reading for what I'm wanting to tell you.
And when they came...
I beg your pardon; I want to begin at the tenth verse to save the time, the tenth verse of the eleventh chapter.
Blessed be the kingdom of our father David, that cometh in the name of the Lord: Hosanna in the highest.
And Jesus entered into Jerusalem, and into the temple: and when he had looked around ... upon all things, and now eventide was come, and he went out into Bethany with his twelve.
And on the morrow, when they were come to Bethany, he was hungered.
And seeing a fig tree far off having leaves, he came, if haply he might find any thing thereon: and when he came to it, he found nothing but leaves; for the time of figs was not yet.
...Jesus answered and said unto it, No man eateth fruit of thee hereafter for ever. And his disciples heard it.
And they came to Jerusalem: and Jesus went into the temple, and began to cast out them that sold and bought in the temple, and overthrowed the tables of the money changers, and the seats of them that sold doves;
And would not suffer that any man should carry any vessel through the temple.
And he taught, saying unto them, Is it not written, My house shall be called of all nations the house of prayer? but you have made it a den of thieves.
And the scribes and the chief priests heard it, and sought how they might destroy him: for they feared him, because all the people were astonished at his doctrine.
And when evening was come, he went out of the city.
And in the morning, as they passed by, they saw the fig tree dried up from the roots.
And Peter calling to remembrance said unto him, Master, behold, the fig tree which thou did curse: it is withered away.
...Jesus answering said unto them, Have faith in God.
For verily I say unto you, That whosoever shall say unto this mountain, Be thou removed, and be thou cast into the sea; and shall not doubt in his heart, but shall believe that those things which he saith shall come to pass; he shall have whatsoever he saith.
Therefore I say unto you, What things soever you desire, when you pray, believe that you receive them, and you shall have them.

12 What a gracious promise. And it is absolutely the truth. This stumped me (or as I should use that expression) for a long time. How could that be?
And one time, when I first started preaching here at the Tabernacle many years ago, I run on to the word of "hell." And I run the reference to it many times, and it referred to hades in the Greek, which meant "the grave." And I didn't know what to say, because I do not want to be responsible for men's souls at the day of the judgment. So I searched it and searched, until I found what was the truth. For about four or five years, I would not touch the subject of "hell," until I found what was truth about it.

13 And then, this Scripture stumped me even more, because it was outstanding: such a promise being made by none other than Jesus Christ. And when He said to His disciples, "What things soever you say, you can have. If thou shall say to this mountain, 'Be plucked up and removed into the sea,' and will not doubt in your heart, but shall believe that what you have said will come to pass, you can have what you said."
Oh, if we could weigh those words: "You can have what you say," not what I say, but what you have said. "You can have what you said."
For years, I lingered over that. I went to every lexicon, commentary, every translation, even to the Douay version. And every translator translates it the same: "You can have what you say."
So I know that if it's written in the Scripture... To me, all Scripture is truth. And if I can't rightly divide it, it's still the truth.

14 So I believe sometimes that God just lets us see things when it's time for us to see things. He withholds these blessings. Like, the blessings that we're enjoying today, our forefathers did not enjoy those. It wasn't season for them.

15 And I could remember when the Holy Spirit that night, when I returned back to this same desk from the mill where I'd been praying, and told many of you people sitting here, that He had charged me by His Spirit, a commission to all the world: that the lame would walk, and the blind would see, and that kings and monarchs would be calling for prayer. And it would start a revival among the brethren that would sweep around the world before the coming of the Lord.
It was hard to believe that. It was hard for me to believe it. But that's what's happened. It's just did that thing, till today Holy Ghost revival fires are burning the world around. India, Africa, Asia, all into Europe, and everywhere, Holy Ghost men, filled with the Spirit, is burning the world up with a revival of the power of the risen Christ. Lame walk, blind see, deaf hear, dumb speak, all kinds of marvelous miracles are taking place, because God promised it. And God's promise is true.

16 And when I began to ponder over this, I could not but ask the One who was speaking to me. I was insufficient.
And I suppose God had to pick some little unconcerned illiterate person, because, in that, God takes something that's nothing, something that's been cast out... That's what makes me love God's people so. They cast them out as holy-rollers or illegitimate people. But that's when God's ready to pick them up then and do something with them. And it pleases Him. That shows that He's God: takes nothing and make something out of it, takes a sinner like me, and makes a Christian. The hand of God!

17 I questioned Him of the ability. And He told me that I was to pray for sick people. And the commission was: Get the people to believe and be sincere, then nothing would stand by the prayer. Many of you here remember that, has printed it in literature across the world.
I questioned, how could I do that when I had no education. He said, "There'll be two signs be given you as was given to Moses." And one of them would be about like Moses' hand: He changed it from leprosy to healing, and... And then the same taken place about putting my hand on the people. And then how that that made itself manifest. Then He said, "You'll know the very secrets of their heart."
And I said, "That is why I'm here."
He said... Then He explained the Scriptures to me. And oh, from that time, the Bible become a new Word to me. I had a different look on it, a different view of it. Something happened.
Then a little later, He said, "Then if you'll be sincere, stay humble, keep away from money and stuff," said, "then it'll just keep blessing you, and you'll keep climbing."

18 How many times we look at men who climb up in great ranks, like, and get high names. But sometimes, that's not what God calls high. Do you remember when John came preaching? The Bible foretold that every mountain would be brought low, and every low place would be lifted up, see. And when it come, you would think it would be coming out of heaven with fiery chariots. But what was it, but a poor man dressed in a piece of sheepskin wrapped around him; and out on the banks of Jordan, preaching, on the muddy banks, not even in a church. But God called that great.
And when Jesus said to the disciples that there wasn't one born of a woman as great as John the Baptist... You take all the kings, and David the prophet and all of his great splendor, and Solomon; they didn't even touch John. And yet, he didn't even have a place to lay his head.
So you don't have to be rich and mighty in this world to be great in the sight of God. You only have to be humble in your heart. God calls that greatness; he that's great enough to humble himself. That's a great person, that'll take the blame for everything, that'll humble himself. That's greatness.

19 Then we find that this, what God said. Then it was pronounced from the pulpit here the first time. It done just exactly what it said it would do.
There come up... The Pentecostal church caught revival. And today, the Pentecostal church is the fastest growing church in all the world. Last year they registered (That doesn't include us and these out of the denominations.) one million, five hundred thousand conversions last year, which covered all the rest of Protestantism put together and Catholicism too. Catholicism only had, I believe, four hundred and seventy-five thousand, something like that, converts around the world. But Pentecost had a million, five hundred thousand. God's making His church ready.
Men of no education, low degrees, rise up in the power, anointing of the Spirit, go out without any education or anything, and proclaim the unsearchable riches of Christ. That's what's great in the sight of God.

20 And we notice then that all these things set fire, and the Holy Spirit was true to His Word. After about five years of taking the people by the hand... Then one night in Queen City, in Regina in Canada, a man walked across the platform, and there, laid his life just as open as it could be before the Spirit. There was discernment as He promised.
And that's been around the world. It's printed in many, many languages, pretty near all around the world, till all the world knows about it. Then the enemy come in and made fun of it, and said it was mind reading, and there was impersonations come of it, and everything else. But in the midst of all of it, God moved right on just the same. God stayed true to His loyal promise. He will every time.

21 Now, we find, later then: One day, I was going a fishing, down at Dale Hollow with some men, Mr. Wood and his brother. And they were Jehovah Witnesses, and just had been converted and baptized into the faith. And while we were fishing over against the bank... I've told you the story many times.
Mr. Wood said, (Banks Wood, one of our trustees here now.) Said about some old sister that used to feed them a slice of homemade bread and butter. She belonged to the church of God. And said, "Lyle," to his brother, "we ought to go up and tell her that we got saved."
You know, there's just certain things that we can say that takes ahold with the Holy Spirit, just certain things that pleases Him just right. And when we say that thing...
I want you to notice: "What you say." If we could just find what to say! Your words judge you. Your words condemn you, or your words will bless you.

22 And unconsciously, Banks must have said the right thing. For no more than he said that... I was sitting in the back of the boat, fishing with a flyline for little blue gill fish to put on the line for bait, for we'd run out of bait. And I was catching these little fish, and putting them in the bucket for the trout line. And when Banks said that, all of a sudden, something struck me. He said the right thing. And the Holy Spirit spoke out and said, "Thus saith the Lord, you'll find in the next few hours there'll be a resurrection of a little animal."
I thought it would be a kitten that I thought my little boy had squeezed too hard and squeezed the breath out of him, and had dropped him on the floor before we left. I thought that's what it would be.
But to our surprise, the next morning... While we were sitting in the boat... I know Banks is here. I guess Lyle is. Is Lyle here, Banks? If you are, Lyle, raise up your hand. He comes down with us all the time.

23 He caught a fish with a long hook, and he caught a little blue gill fish. And it swallowed the hook all the way down. And he took ahold of the little fish, and instead of just taking the hook out of his mouth, he was caught so deep till he just pulled it. And he pulled the stomach, and the intestines, and the gills and all, right out of his mouth. And he just threw it out on the water, just a little fish like we had been fishing with night before, and had cut up a hundred of them or more for bait.
And the little fellow quivered four or five times and tried to work his little mouth; but he couldn't, because it was filled up with gills and so forth. And Lyle said, "You shot your last wad, little fellow."
Well, I went ahead fishing, thinking nothing about it. Then (God does things so strange) all of a sudden, I felt there coming Something down over the top of them woods. The Holy Spirit moved down and said, "Stand up!" Said, "Speak to that little fish, and it shall have its life again." It'd been laying there dead for a half hour, done floated back into the weeds.
I said, "Little fishy, I give you your life in the name of the Lord Jesus." That little fish turned over, flipped up, and went out through the water just as hard as he could go.

24 I stood there, not knowing what to do. Brother Banks Woods said, "It's good for us to be here."
And Lyle said, "That meant me, because I said that thing to him, 'You've shot your last wad, little fellow.'" And he got all excited.
I said, "No, it isn't." I was trying to console Lyle. I said, "That isn't so."
And then the Scripture came to me again. I had at least a hundred little spastic children on the list to pray for, many people, leukemia, and cancer, and tubercular being eat up, blind and deaf and dumb. There's page after page at my house full of them. And it looked like that a merciful God would've granted that instead of using His power on a little old insignificant fish. But He remains God.

25 Why didn't He use His power on the lepers at the gate instead of the little fig tree? What is it to do? God wants to show that He's concerned. He knows all things. He's God over the fig tree. He's God over the fish. He's God over creation. He's God over all things. And there's nothing too little or too insignificant but what He's interested in.
So that would give us to know, though we be little and insignificant, God's interested in us doing something for Him. He likes to display His glory.
And that stuck with me so hard that I could hardly rest day and night. That's been two years ago. And constantly, it has haunted at me. And I'd say, "Oh, I just can't say nothing about it, for I can't place it in the atonement."
"Whatsoever you say, it shall come to pass. You can have what you say."
And I've stood here at this same pulpit and tried, and run on the Scripture, and refrain from it, and go back, because I was afraid to use it.
You cannot have faith unless you know what you are doing.

26 Some fellow come to me not long ago, and he said, "Brother Branham, do you think it's wrong for a Christian to smoke tobacco?"
And I said, "What are you asking me for? If there's a question in your mind, leave it alone. Don't never..."
You can't have faith unless you're perfectly sure that you're right. When all shadows has drifted away, then you can have faith and confidence. And I could not walk out there and preach that scripture, not knowing what I was talking about. But yet, I knew it was of the Lord.

27 Many of you people bear me record, that for the last two years, you've constantly heard me from this platform say that there's something, something somewhere. And I'm reaching; I know it's close at hand. I just can't seem to grasp it.
I say, "I hit a scripture; I don't know what to do, because Scriptures..." Though you might put an interpretation... If someone would've asked me, I'd've said something to them, and walked away, and turned it off on something else. But to face the issue...
Just like we've got to face the issue: Is the baptism of the Holy Ghost right or wrong? We've got to face the issue: Is Jesus Christ the same yesterday, today, and forever? Is it right or wrong? We've got to face it. We must know that God's Word is always true.

28 So on it went, and up and down, and I'd get it in my mind, and I just couldn't get it away. And everywhere I'd go, it would constantly come to me. "If you say to this mountain, 'Be thou plucked up and cast into the sea,' and don't doubt in your heart, but shall believe that what you've said will come to pass, you can have what you have said."
I thought, "How can it be, Lord. That would be me saying it. It wouldn't do no good, for it would be me saying it. So I can't say nothing but what You've said, and I just say that by the Scriptures."
And all things rested in the atonement. There's no blessings outside of the atonement, because we are sinners outside of the atonement. If it was just a universal thing for everybody, then everybody would be saved. But it's your attitude towards the blessings of the atonement that brings the blessings to you.
Like salvation. As far as God was concerned, I was saved when Jesus died. But it'll never do me no good until it's revealed to me that He's the Son of God, and I've accepted Him as my Saviour. And every scripture is the same way.
Divine healing is for you if God will reveal that to you that that's for you. But you can't just stumble at it. It's got to come by revelation. And when it's revealed that "By His stripes you were healed," there's nothing Satan can even do, as our young brother from Sellersburg said, "All the devils couldn't move it." Sure. When something is revealed...

29 Notice. Then in this last fall, many have said to me, "Why is it, every morning when you're home you grab your rifle and take out to the woods to hunt?"
I want you to know that He's God of the woods just the same as He's God of the city. He's just as much God out there as He is here. And God always deal with men according to their capacity. Like David, by the still waters and green pastures, because he was a shepherd, and different ways He has revealing... And something...
I'd get up of a morning to go out to the woods real early (around four o'clock) to squirrel hunt. And my wife even said to me, she said, "Billy, don't you never get tired of going hunting?"
See, this battle is won alone. My wife doesn't understand it. I don't understand it. But it's a fight. You have to stand alone. Nobody can stand with you. There's just room for you and Jesus.
Misunderstood? Sure. Even to my little girl there, Rebekah. She said, "If I ever marry a man, if he even mentions going hunting, I will not marry him." Said, "I know what my mother's been through: Husband out and gone in the meetings; as soon as he comes home, grabs an old rifle or a fishing pole and heads to the woods."
I said, "Would you rather he do that, or would you rather he'd grab a deck of cards or some blond and take off? And I just draw your opinion."
When I come back that day, she said, "Daddy, I apologize for that. I'm going to marry a man like you that likes to hunt, then I'm going to hunt with him." She said, "I'll go out with him."
I said, "Well, that's all right too. I wish you could talk to your mother a little bit about it."

30 But it's something in the woods. When I first learned of God, I wanted to repent. I didn't know how to repent. I didn't know how to talk to Him. So I sat down and wrote Him a letter and asked Him to forgive me. And I didn't know how to do it, so I knowed that I'd felt something out in the woods. And I tacked it on a tree, so when He come down through the woods in a place I'd saw Him, that He could read this and would understand what I meant: that I was sorry I hadn't served Him, and I wanted Him to forgive me my sins. Then I got ashamed of myself and took it. I said, "If He's a man, He will understand as a man; He's my Creator."
And I got down in the shed and begin to speak to Him like a man, and He answered me back like a man.

31 Then, it was on the... I got some dates set down here. On October the twelfth... On the fifteenth, deer season was opening over in Wyoming. On the twelfth was the last day I could hunt. And we were going to leave on the twelfth ... I mean, on the tenth. We was in the woods, which was a Saturday. Sunday, I preached, which was the eleventh. On Monday, Brother Sothmann and Brother Roberson back there, and all of us, we left for the meeting ... or, for the deer hunting over in Wyoming.
On that morning of the tenth, which would be... Then on the eighteenth, the season would close in Indiana. We would have no more squirrel hunting. So I said, "This will be the last time I can go out." And we'd gathered a bunch together, and I strayed them around the woods. And I went way back up into a place where I love to go at Salem. Season was late. Squirrels were few. I'd been out several times, just getting one squirrel at a time.

32 So this morning, I made my way to the same woods. And the wind rose, and it begin to blow. And anyone who hunts knows that's a bad morning. I hunted all the woods through without seeing one squirrel or hearing one. I went down into a creek bottom, and started up to find another little scope of woods. And as I drew near this little woods, there was a lot of walnut trees and locust trees. The leaves all off of them, just a bare thicket.
Along beside of two sycamore trees. Now, squirrels don't hang around sycamores. But right up from it, I seen looked like I caught the glimpse of a squirrel going up through the woods, but he was running fast. "Well," I said, "there's no need of hunting. Here's people out here. The farmers picking their corn right around this little woods. The squirrels would not be here."

33 So I sat down between the two trees, and propped my feet upon one and leaned back against the other in the warm sunshine. I thought, "I will just take a little nap. Then I will get Brother Banks, and Brother Sothmann, and the boys as I go back, and down the road." And as I sat there... [Brother Branham coughs.] Pardon me. As I sat there under the tree, just got snugged down, and the warm sun shining on me, Something said, "If you say to this mountain, 'Be thou plucked up and cast into the sea,' and shall not doubt in your heart, but believe that those things that you said will come to pass, you can have what you've said."
I said, "Well now, there's that Scripture in my mind again." I said, "I've got a while here, about an hour before I have to go get the rest of the boys, so I will just study that Scripture." And I said, "Now, how could that apply." I said, "Here's the only way it could've been. That those disciples lived the other side of the atonement. The atonement was later, about, oh, several weeks later, before the atonement was made. Jesus gave them power the other side of the atonement, like He did the prophets."
And when I said, "prophets," Something struck me again. "What was the prophets?"

34 Then I begin to think of it, about what He did with the prophets. And it got... After I was speaking there for awhile, inside myself, just thinking, till I become so conscious of Something near, till I was talking to Someone.
And something said to me, "That's in the atonement, for if a man or a woman is so consecrated and surrendered to God, that God just moves in and uses their voice, and it isn't the man speaking, it's God that's in him speaking..."
I thought, "That's right."
Something said to me, "Who do you think... How do you see those visions on the platform? How do you see those visions out here? What is it? Do you think it's your own wisdom, that you could predict something that would happen every time to the letter? Do you think it's you speaking? Would you think sometime when the Holy Spirit gets into a message, and you don't know what to say, what is it speaking then? What is it when a man will speak with a tongue that he doesn't know nothing about it? What is it that will interpret that same tongue, neither one of them knowing anything about it? Is it the individual, or is it the Spirit of the living God?"
I said, "That is true. I see it. It's God that's speaking, and all the church needs is a step closer to Him, a more of a consecrated life to live with Him."

35 And while I was sitting there just for a moment or two, thinking on this, I caught myself talking to Someone. And I heard Something say, "Ask... Say what you will, and it shall come to pass."
And I said, "What do You..." I said, "Who am I talking to? Who are You? Who's standing here in these bushes that I can hear that Voice talking to me? Who are You? Speak out to me." I got all excited and jumped up from between the trees; I said, "Speak to me. Who are You? I can't see You." I looked for that light there; I could see nothing. I screamed out, "Who are You? Where are You? What You want with me. Lord, where are You?"
Something moved back and said, "Say what you will, and it shall be given to you."
I said, "Lord, are You changing my ministry? Is this the change You've been speaking of? Is this what it's coming to? Is this what it'll be, something in that little house that I saw in the vision. Is this it?"
Just then, a reel deep, sweet anointing of the Holy Spirit raised me like off of my feet, and said, "Say what you will, and it shall be given unto you."

36 I stood there amazed. It left me; I had nothing. I thought, "Well, what could I say? There's no sick people here. There's nothing here. I'm in the woods. What could I say? What could I do?" And I thought, "Am I loosing my mind? Have I studied so hard till my mental powers are cracking up?"
And just then, I heard it just the same as you hear me, said, "Aren't you hunting, and you have no game?" Said, "Speak anything that you wish."
Well, I thought, "Since God said, 'Prove all things,'" I said, "Lord God, if that be You, and this is a sign that You're fixing to change my ministry from those visions to something greater I've looked for so long," I said, "let it come to pass that You'll answer my prayer."
And I stood there a little bit. And I thought, "What did He say? He didn't say, 'Pray'; He said, 'Say what you will.' Just say it, and your words will materialize. Say to this mountain, and it'll do just as you say."

37 So I put my shoulder against the tree. And I'm used... Got my rifle set for fifty yards to drive tacks. So I looked around to see a tree at fifty yards. And the one that was fifty yards away up out of the leaves, I said, "It's almost total impossible for a squirrel to come to that tree. Right near them farmers there picking their corn." I said, "But there will be a red squirrel come out on the end of that limb and sit down there, and I will shoot him from here."
And no more than I'd said it, there was a squirrel. I trembled a little, and leveled down, and shot the squirrel, walked over and picked it up. I was shaking all over. I said, "Maybe that just happened that way." You know how people can doubt. But you want to be sure. Don't do nothing unless you're positive, and then you know what you're doing.

38 I rubbed my face a little, and I looked, perfectly eye shot. So I went up and sat on the side of the hill, and I said, "Lord, it is written in Your Word 'that the mouth of two or three witnesses, let every word be established.'" I said, "If that was You, forgive me of my stupidness. But I pray Thee to give me another squirrel like that." And I said, "Then I will believe You, that it's You. And the devil won't have any room to say that it just happened that way."
So I sat down. Just in a moment, here come that (I call it) super-anointing, swept over again, and I was almost off of my feet, and said, "Say what you will, and it shall be given you."
I looked through the woods until I found another tree some fifty yards away, had a lot of brush in it, and grape vines and things wrapped around where squirrels seldom ever take a tree like that. I said, "And there shall be another young fox squirrel sitting right there."
And I took my finger down and looked around through the woods, and looked back, and there sat the fox squirrel looking right at me again. I shot that one, picked him up. And I thought... Oh, I was trembling. I thought, "Think, the great mighty God of heaven is here in the woods, and He's confirming to me in my own way, hunting here, that He's going to do just exactly what He told me fifteen years ago."
I watched a little bit. I said, "Lord, it shall happen again."
He said, "Speak the place where it'll be."
I said, "I will make this radical." I said, "That old snag sticking out there by the side of the field, bare, slick and white." I said, "There shall come another red squirrel, and he will go out on the end of that snag and look out over the field at the farmers. That'll be that way." I looked back and there was no squirrel there. I looked for about five minutes, there was still no squirrel. I said, "Well..." I said, "Two squirrels is fine." I said, "Two's a witness. I'll believe it like that."
And Something said, "But you said there would be one."

39 I waited another five minutes, nothing. And it kept quoting in my heart, "You said there'd be one." I waited and waited.
Something said, "Are you doubting?"
I said, "Not one bit."
And I no more than said that, till out that limb went the red squirrel, stood and looked at the farmers. God's my judge standing here. I shot the squirrel. Went over and picked him up, and walked through the woods till I was way hours a past picking the boys up, to see if there'd even be one more anywhere. And there wasn't. Then, I come home and told you about it.

40 And then on November the seventh, I was down in Kentucky. I was with Brother Wood's brother-in-law, standing there, Charlie Cox (standing there at the pilaster), and with Brother Tony Zabel, one of the deacons here in the church (Are you here, Tony? He's here somewhere.), Brother Tony Zabel, and also, Brother Banks Wood. And we were up in the mountains, hunting.
And I started into the woods, and squirrels were very scarce, no... The leaves deep on the ground. And I started up into the woods. And Something said to me, "How many squirrels do you want this morning?"
I said, "Well, I've got a hundred and fourteen this year, a hundred and seventeen." I said, "If I had three more, it'd make a hundred and twenty. That would make just an even number to stop on." And I said, "another thing, it would give me six to take home." Which I love them better than any meat there is to eat. And I said, "If I could just get three more..."

41 I walked on up through the woods a little farther, and oh, there was none. Good hunters like Charlie and them got one. And I said, "Well, I..."
Something said, "Say to it. Speak the three squirrels, and you'll have it."
I said, "That's happened once."
So I stood by the side of a little tree, late in the afternoon on a side of a ridge. And that anointing come so great till I could hardly stand on the ground, and said, "Speak! What you say, don't doubt and you can have what you've said."
I said, "I shall get three squirrels."
He said, "Where will they come from?"
I said, "One will come from that way, one from that way, and one back this way." Make it radical. God don't care how radical that it seems. He's God of circumstance.

42 And while I stood there for about ten minutes, I could hear no shooting around, ... the rest of the boys around anywhere. I happened to look to my back. Way up in the woods, about ninety yards, I thought something was on a stump. I watched it. After a while, it jumped off; and it was a gray squirrel. So far: all the way across the hollow and up on top of the ridge. When it come along by the side of the tree, I shot it. It was about ninety yards, and it killed it. I said, "There's one. I might as well turn and look this other way for the others, because they're coming."
See, God has a way of bringing things to you, making you sure what you're talking about. That anointing was off of me then. Well, I waited and watched this way for about a hour. Nothing happened. I was getting cold. I thought, "Surely, if that is the Holy Spirit that's telling me those things, it will be just exactly; because when the anointing was on me, I spoke that word, and it'll have to be that way."

43 Now, listen real close to this. And this is going to be a tape recording that'll go all over the world.
Now, and then to my left, I kept watching. After a while, I looked upon a tree. Coming around a beech tree, there come a gray squirrel. I said, "Just exactly that way. That's right, Lord."
I turned down, raised up to shoot him, and there come another squirrel. I said, "There's two. Just exactly. Make my three." And I raised down, shot the first squirrel.
The other one run under a log. I could see him cutting on a hickory nut or something, under the log. The log was about that high at the end, raised up about a foot. I could see the squirrel. I killed the first one. I said, "Now, I will get the other one."
And I leveled down, put those cross hairs right over his ear, not over forty, fifty yards away, and shot and hit the log. And the squirrel never even got excited. I put another bullet in it. And he turned around and went down the log, and went to the other end. Well, I leveled down and took the best aim I could. And I'd only missed five shots all year. So then, I leveled down, right perfect shot, and touched the trigger again, and I hit about four inches above him. I said, "I must have knocked my scope out."

44 And then I watched again. The squirrel run up and went right out in the side of the woods, broad-sided from me. "Well," I said, "I knocked my scope out. I will just shoot him broad-sided then in the chest cavity." And I raised up and put the cross hair... I thought, "Maybe I've got cold and shaking." I thought, "I wasn't cold and shaking when I shot the other one." So then ... just the same about a minute or two apart...

45 And I got a hold of a bush and put it in my hand, and held the gun real tight, and put it on the chest cavity of the squirrel, and pulled the gun off. And I shot a foot under him. And I pulled to get another shell, and... Gun was empty. While I was loading, I said, "I will get him if he will stand there." And when I got it, the squirrel went on up through the woods.
I stood there. I thought, "What? There's three shots straight missed, and I've only missed five out of a hundred and fourteen." I said, "How could it be that my gun would be out."

46 And just then, it come to me. "You can't shoot that squirrel that way. He must come from that way." God's Word is perfect. Couldn't shoot him from the south; he's coming from the north. "Well, I said, "I will just turn around this way then and watch north till he comes."
I put more shells in the gun and watched. The little... I said, "If he comes, he will have to be awful close." I don't like to shoot one close; it isn't sport. It isn't nice to do it. So one was... The thicket there... I said, "Well, I will have to get this one from the north, because I said that way." So I stood this way, watching.
I said ... I guess ... got late. I said, "A quarter till four. Now, at four o'clock, I will have to leave, because ... with them two, because the boys are waiting for me." And so I waited a little while. Four o'clock came, three minutes after four. I said, "Well, I'll go get my squirrels." I went up and got the squirrels, come back. So dark, I could hardly see in the hollow.

47 I started down the hollow. And as I was going down the hollow, it was dark. And I'd passed the place where I'd been standing, Something said to me, "Aren't you going to go up there and get that squirrel?"
I said, "How could I see him now?" With a little telescope sight, little bitty fine target scope. Hardly enough light to see a few feet in front of me. I said, "How can I see it?"
He said, "But you said that there would be another one."
Oh, I wished I could just make that ... somehow I could get ... see what that ... what that really means, friends. See, under that anointing, it wasn't me that said it, it was God that said it.
And I walked a couple of steps. Said, "Turn and go back towards the north. Your squirrel's there."
I went, turned. And I said, "Lord God, I won't doubt a bit." I started walking back towards the north. Now, there are those sitting here that knows this: Started walking back towards the north. And way up on the ridge, fifty or sixty yards away, a squirrel run up the tree. Just enough light that I could see him. I searched with my scope all up and down the tree; no squirrel I could find. After while, I thought I seen a knot on the tree, way up there. So dark. I said, "Well, I will try that anyhow." And I shot. And when I did, a squirrel run around the tree and run down. I heard it hit the ground. I thought it jumped off. Same time that happened, about twenty feet from it, one run up a white oak. I said, "He run down one and run up the other one. Now, surely, Lord, You won't let me miss him after I've already said under that anointing that this would be, and You're confirming my ministry. This'll be six times that You've confirmed it to me." The number of man, six times. I said, "You won't let me miss him."

48 I looked all up and down the tree. And way up in there I thought I seen some leaves. I seen something moving in it. I raised and shot. And the squirrel dropped to the ground, stone dead. Up the hill I went, rejoicing and happy. I went to the first tree over to my left, and there laid the squirrel. "Well," I said, "I know I got that one, but I wasn't sure of this one." I said, "Then, Lord, You give me one for good measure."
I goes over to find the other squirrel; he wasn't there. And I looked and I looked, and I searched under leaves, and raised up little pieces of chunk, and tore open an old log. And there wasn't but one log laying within thirty yards. And I tore it all to pieces, looked under the sides, and held my hands in the leaves and felt. There was no squirrel there nowhere.
On up, there's a big old snag on top of the hill. I went up to that little snag, and there's a little bitty hole. And I felt in there, and I thought I felt my squirrel raising up and down. I said, "Well, I can't get to him. So in the morning, I will bring the boys back and get it." I got to go tell them. And I went down to Brother Charlie. Stopped the hole up, went down to Brother Charlie and them, and told them.

49 We went over to their house that night for supper. We was rejoicing in the presence of the Lord. And before going to bed, Brother Charlie there asked Brother Tony Zabel (back there) to lead in prayer.
Now, I don't say this to conflict or to hurt Brother Tony. He is one of the finest Christian gentlemen that I know of. But to just show you how the Lord works. Tony, in his prayer that night, said, "Lord God, let it be known to us that our brother's telling us the truth, that tomorrow he will find that squirrel in the stump."
I never said I'd find a squirrel in a stump under the anointing. I said, "I shot the squirrel." Of course, I couldn't get the squirrel. Because if I did, that'd made more than I'd said. Just exactly what I'd said under that anointing, that's what God produced. So I didn't say nothing about that.
See, that's how a lot of times people say, "Brother Branham said so-and-so." When Brother Branham says anything, that don't have nothing to do with it. But when God says it, that's eternally true.
But Brother Tony didn't get it. He said, "If that squirrel is there, then we will know our brother's told us the truth."

50 Brother Woods, Brother Charlie, all of them picked it up. We said nothing. I slept with Brother Tony that night. The next morning at the table, we were talking about... Oh, it was a horrible day. And Brother Tony said, "Well, there's one thing. Brother Branham will probably get his out of the stump this morning, out of the tree."
I said, "Brother Tony, I never said the squirrel was in there. I said I could feel it. When it raised up, it was dropped."
He said, "It'll be there. It'll be right in the stump."
We went on up. And when I left the car, I started to turn back again, and say there's something wrong. I'd better tell Tony now, because if that squirrel isn't in that hole, in that stump, I come back with no squirrel at all, then according to the way he prayed last night, he will still believe I told a lie. I said, "God, You know with my Bible that I've told the honest truth." And God knows that's the truth, said just the truth.

51 And I went on. Something just drove me on. And I went walking up through woods, hunting. I kept thinking, "What if that squirrel isn't in there." He gave me his hunting knife so I could cut the hole bigger to reach in and get it.
And something said to me, "If it isn't there, or if it is in there, what makes a difference?"
I said, "He wouldn't believe me. He prayed and said that if we find the squirrel, he will know that our brother has told us the truth."
And that great anointing come, said, "Just say the squirrel will be up there, and you'll get him."
I thought, "Surely, Lord, surely. This will be seven times straight while this anointing's on me." I said, "Is that You?"
He said, "Say what you will!"
I said, "I shall find that squirrel." The anointing left me.

52 I hunted on till nine-thirty. And what we was supposed to do coming down and go get some dogs. Then they thought they were. And I went up the hill at nine-thirty, looked in the hole, felt around, cut. There was no squirrel there at all in the hole. I felt all around. Now, what I was picking up was little fine grass roots or roots of trees. I'd pick it up and feel it, and it'd fall off the stick when I run the stick and pull it up like that. I thought I was picking up the squirrel, and it was sliding off the stick, but it was little roots and things: no squirrel in there.
I thought, "Now, what will I do?" I said, "Here it is nine-thirty, I've got to go back." I picked up my rifle and started down the hill.
And something said, "Did not you say you'd find the squirrel?"
I said, "Where would I find him?"

53 God, being my solemn Judge with His Word here, and I'm a man of fifty years old, a preacher of the Gospel, standing in this pulpit, something said, "Look under that little piece of bark."
I said, "Lord, I wouldn't doubt You for nothing." I walked over and picked up the bark, and there was no squirrel there. I thought, I...
But just before I did it, something said, "What if he isn't there?"
I said, "Oh, he will be there." And I picked it up and there was no squirrel there. I looked down with amazement. I saw a little bitty piece of gray sticking out from under a leaf. I pulled it up, and there laid the squirrel, making it just exactly right what He had said to do.

54 Down the hill I went and told them about it. And we rejoiced. And when I come to the car, Charlie standing right there, Banks, they were talking. "Wasn't that strange that Tony would say a thing like that in his prayer, as well as he loves Brother Branham? And why would he doubt his word and say that?" See, he just had to say it that way, for God knew that I'd stand in the pulpit this morning and claim the same thing.
You've got to watch what man says, and then what God says. What God says is true.
Then I thought, "Well, praise be to God." And I went down. We had a great time, come home.

55 Brother George Wright for years has made the Communion wine (And I'm closing.), has made the Communion wine for the church. Brother Roy Roberson (back there) called me, and said, "Brother Branham, let's go down and get the Communion wine from Brother Wright, which is sitting here, him and his family.
Now, listen to this close as we close. Oh God. We got to Brother Wright's early in the morning, and as usual, a big welcome out. And we talked about the wine. And then little Edith, the little crippled girl sitting there, which I've loved, like we do here at this Tabernacle (Not only me, but this Tabernacle), like she was our own sister. The Wright family has been the oldest family. One of them was the Slaughters' here, Roy Slaughter and them. And the Wrights, or Mrs. Spencer, them were among the oldest that's been in the Tabernacle. I think the Wrights has been coming here for some twenty-five or twenty-six years.

56 I've prayed and I've prayed for that little girl. I've prayed to see God heal her. And I've seen afflictions even greater than hers healed. And I've fasted, and I've prayed, and I've longed, and I've sought the Lord with tears for the healing of that little girl. Poor little fellow was afflicted when she was just an infant, perhaps infantile paralyses, that's drawed her little hands and feet.
She's suffered for many years. And when we prayed the first time for her, she stopped suffering. That's twenty-six years ago. When she gets a stomachache or a toothache, just as soon as I go to pray for her, I know the Lord's going to take it.
But that affliction. And I've seen her sit here in the building when other cripples would get up and walk away, and afflictions and so forth, and wonder, "Why don't that little girl walk? Lord, appear over her. Let the Angel of light overshadow the child, so I can speak 'Thus saith the Lord.'" If it was up to me, I'd speak it. But it ain't up to me. It's up to Him.

57 And I watched it. And we come back; she wanted a rabbit. Brother Wood and I went out and killed two rabbits, brought them back for her. She had dinner ready, Mrs. Wright and them.
And during that time, Sister Hattie Mosier... She just lost her husband. I married the couple some years ago. They got two fine children. And Brother Watt was killed. His own boy found him under his tractor mashed to death. And the little boy had a break, and something happened to him. Brother Wood and I went down one night and stayed into the night, where his mother and uncle were staying with him. And the Lord let him be well. And he's sitting present this morning.
His mother was interested in him, that teen-age, just begin to get out with the world, fifteen years old or something, and his little brother coming on twelve, thirteen years old.

58 Sister Hattie Wright... All of you know... We call her Wright, her name's Mosier. But she's been a loyal person, a little old housewife, lived in two rooms way back up into the hills, out there with a shovel and a hoe, trying to hoe the cockleburs out of a corn patch to keep her little family together. She's worked faithfully.
When I was sitting at the table eating dinner, I'd been explaining what faith was. I said, "If... Faith's like this: If I'd see a vision of Brother Shelby sitting so-and-so, and each one the way they was..."
And Sister Hattie was sitting way back out toward another room. She didn't have much to say, never does.

59 And then while we were talking, I said, "If the Lord showed me a vision that something was to take place, then I could say it. That's what raises my faith." I said, "When the Lord shows me what'll take place, then I've got confidence it shall be that way, when He shows me."
I said, "I'd come right here, if that little sickly girl sitting there, and the Lord showed me she was going to be healed, I'd come out here and stand in the tracks, see if everything was just exactly the way He said it, and then say, "Thus saith the Lord, Edith, rise up and walk." I said, "You'd see those little legs unfold, them little hands unfold, and she'd get up from there and walk to the glory of God." I said, "If it would come like that..."

60 I'd been telling them about this experience. And I said, "Do you know... I want to ask you something." Brother Banks Wood was sitting next to me at the table. And next sat the... Then Sister Hattie was sitting way back, and the boys was sitting here, and Mrs. Wright, and Mr. Wright, and Shelby sitting back to my left.
Now, listen. Don't miss this. Show you the sovereignty of God. And while we were talking, I said, "I want to ask you something. What put those squirrels there? There's no squirrels in the woods. I'd hunted and hunted. And I'm not the best of hunters, but I've hunted since I was a little boy. And I'd hunted close, and they were in the most ridiculous place, and then the most ridiculous way I could call them." I said, "What put them there?" I said, "I wonder if it is that my ministry is fixing to take a change, that the God of Abraham is confirming His promise as He did to Abraham."

61 When He was up on top of the mount, and he needed a sacrifice for it instead of his son, Jehovah-jireh performed a miracle and placed a ram. A hundred miles back, he was three days' journey. And any ordinary man can walk twenty-five miles a day. And then he lifted up his eyes and saw the mountain far off, and then went to the mountain, and went up on top of the mountain. Wild ram back in there, a sheep, wild animals would've killed it. And then upon top of the mountain where there's no water, how did that ram get up there? What happened? God needed a sacrifice to prove to Abraham that He was Jehovah-jireh. The very God of creation spoke a ram into existence. Now, it wasn't a vision. He killed the ram and blood came out of that animal. It wasn't a vision; it was a ram.
I said, "That same God..." Hallelujah! That Jehovah-jireh, He's just as much Jehovah-jireh today as He was on the mountain with Abraham. He can still produce an animal to His glory. These squirrels was not a vision. I shot them; blood came out of them. I dressed them and eat them. They wasn't visions; they were squirrels.

62 I said, "That same Jehovah-jireh, trying to get His promise over to me, in my thickness and dullness of mind. He could speak my need into existence the same as He could speak Abraham's need into existence."
I'd no more than said that until Sister Hattie (sitting there crying now) ... hadn't said a word. And she said, "That's nothing but the truth."
She said the right thing. She said just like Banks said down there. I heard her voice as it swept by my ears, like up into the woods. Mrs. Wright sitting back there with her little girl was trying to interpret what Edith said. I couldn't hear Mrs. Wright.
And that super-anointing swept over me, said, "Tell Hattie that she's found grace in the sight of God." Who would've thought? Said, "Tell her to ask whatever she will, then you speak it by this gift into existence. Whatever she asketh, speak it into existence."
I looked at Sister Hattie. The first time it was ever performed on a human being. I said, "Sister Hattie, ask what you will. God's going to give it to you."

63 What do you think of that? Does it give in to you? Seven times He had confirmed it by an animal. Seven is God's complete number. Here's the first time on a human being. And what did He choose? Some great aristocrat? A great noted minister? A poor little widow woman that could hardly write her name. God knows what He's doing. Said, "Ask what you will."
Hattie said to me, "Brother Branham, what do you mean?"
I said, "Ask anything your heart desires, and it shall be produced right here, that you'll know that the Lord God of heaven answers, and His Scriptures are true." My first time with a new gift, my first anointing... I could hardly hear.
And she looked around. We'd been talking about her little crippled sister. I said, "Oh, don't doubt," in my heart, "within a few minutes, little Edith will be jumping to the glory of God."
Hattie looked around, all around and she said, "Brother Bill, my greatest desire is for the salvation of my two boys."

64 Why, there couldn't have been a greater thing. She could've asked for ten thousand dollars; she'd of got it. What if it'd been some millionaire, would have asked for another million. God knowed what she was going to ask for.
Sister Hattie, at least seven or eight witnesses standing there... All you people that was present when that happened, raise up your hand, everybody in the building was present that happened. One, two, three, four, five, six, seven. Seven of them, eight of them, eight of them was present when that happened.
I said, "Ask anything you want to, because God's give it to me to give to you whatever you want."
She said her boys was beginning to go off on the teen-age tantrum. And she said, "The salvation of my two boys..."
I said, "By the will of God, by the power of God, I give you, in the name of Jesus Christ, your desire." And her two boys shook under the power of God, and that whole building trembled. Banks fell into his plate. Shelby grabbed... And Hattie screamed till you could hear her for two blocks. And them two boys with tears rolling down their cheeks received exactly what they asked for right then.
Oh, the first time it was ever used on a human being. "Ask what you will, and it shall be given unto you." Her boys sitting there with her this morning.

65 What would she have asked? What if she'd asked the healing of her little sister? What if she'd asked that? The little girl would've been healed, but her two boys lost. What if that poor widow, who had just told me that she tried to give to this church fifty dollars on a pledge to help build a new church, and Brother Roberson wouldn't take it; would only let her give twenty of it...
And I said to myself when she was speaking, "I will give her back the twenty."
But God said to me, in my heart now, not by vision, in my heart, "When Jesus was standing, watching a widow put in three pennies where there was thousands of dollars laying, what would you have done."
I said, "Well, if I'd been standing around, I'd said, 'We don't need it, sister. We got plenty of money.'"
But Jesus never said it. He let her go on and do it, because He knowed what was down the road. So help me, God, as my solemn Judge, God knew that was down the road for her.

66 And I was run my hand in my pocket to get my pocket book to give her her twenty dollars back and say, "Sister Hattie..."
But He said, "Don't do it."
Then, a few minutes, when the question was brought up about Jehovah-jireh, she said, "That's nothing but the truth." And it come from a poor widow woman's heart, God knowing she'd ask the greatest thing could be done.
As long as there is a heaven, when the stars is gone, when there's no more moon, no more earth, no more sea, them boys shall live on through eternity with the same Jehovah-jireh who gave the immortal promise. His promises cannot fail.
I'm looking forward for the coming of this meeting down here in San Jose. Oh, if it'll just break forth.
Now, when the anointing strike, "Ask what you will." I have a perfect assurance that when that strikes, and whatever God puts to be asked, it'll be just exactly that way. It has to be. "For, if you say to this mount..." See, it isn't you speaking. It isn't you; it's God. It's you so submitted to God.

67 Now, watch the prophets of old when we're closing. The prophets of old, when they seen the coming of the Lord Jesus, they were so in the Spirit till they spoke as if it was themselves.
Look at David in the Psalms, twenty-second Psalm, crying, "My God, my God, why hast Thou forsaken me?" Not David, it was Christ eight hundred years later. "All my bones stare at me. They shoot out their lips at me. They wag their heads, said, 'He saved others, but himself He cannot save,'" David speaking that as if it was himself, but it was the Spirit of God in him, Christ, speaking forth.
Oh, God, be praised. Moving into His church in the fullness of His power, moving among His people, spreading out His great wings of mercy, may He be praised.

68 I haven't time for my sermon. Let us bow our heads just a moment. Is there one here this morning, or how many of them is here that knows that you're not prepared at this time to meet God, would you raise your hands, and say, "Pray for me, Brother Branham." We can't bring you to the altar, because the altars are packed. God bless you, brother; to you, sister; you, brother; you, and you back there, all around; you, young lady; you, my brother. Way back in the back, all around, God sees your hands.
If He can bring a ram into existence when there is no ram, if He can bring animals into existence, if He's concerned about a little fig tree growing on the side of the hill, or a little dead fish laying on the water, how much more does He know your desire in your... Sure He does. He knows that you need Him. "Ask and you shall receive. When you pray, believe that you receive what you ask for." Was that the Holy Spirit that raised your hand? If it was, then the anointing is on you. Then pray and believe God, and you shall have what you've said.

69 Heavenly Father, as this day is growing near to the midday, and I've been at length here this morning on this story of Thy divine grace, according to Your Word... It is written in the Scriptures that Jesus, our Lord, said, "He that believeth on Me, the works that I do, shall he also." And we know that those works are true. You could discern the thoughts of the people. You told Peter who he was, what his name was, what his father was. You told Philip when he brought Nathanael ... or, told Nathanael, rather, that You saw him under the tree before he come. You told the woman at the well how many husbands she had. Oh, there is nothing hid from You. You knew all things. And that was Your works. Then we see You say to that fig tree...
O Lord, I believe the hour is soon coming that when the loaves and fishes will be multiplied. There'll come a mark of the beast soon. There'll come a confederation of churches, and they'll put out a sign---a unionized church---that no man can buy or sell. And Your church, it won't bother them, for Your Holy Spirit shall lead them and feed them as You did Israel in the wilderness. You are God. Don't let us miss that, Lord. Let us remain faithfully. Let us be true.

70 Now, I don't know just when this will take place again, Lord, maybe this morning again. Maybe it'll happen again in the Tabernacle today; trusting that it will, Lord, trusting that You'll put faith in the people's hearts, and know that I haven't misled, or said one thing wrong. I said it just the way it come, to the best that I know in my heart, Lord, watching my words and weighing them, knowing that You have confirmed that to me, as I have said, seven times, and knowing immediately after that, on the first human being I ever spoke to, she got the desire of her heart the moment she spoke.
Now, Lord, there's many desires in here this morning. You'll have to anoint Your servant, Lord. If You'll just send the anointing, and let me have it this morning. If anyone should need, You just speak it to me, Lord, when they speak, or whenever ... whoever You wish, and let it come to pass. And now, I know that what's said then, it'll not be me; it will be You, Lord, speaking.

71 I submit myself to You. And before I leave from this ministry, the old type of the visions and so forth, at this altar where I dedicated my life anew, from preaching the Gospel to signs and wonders. I dedicate myself again this morning to You, Lord, for service. The first time this has been told, the first time, Lord, that it's been manifested, here sits the witnesses. O Lord God, if there is anything You can use this old hull of mine for, I am Yours, Lord. Take me, and mold me, and fashion me, and do something, Lord, that'll honor and glorify Thee.
Spread it out amongst other ministers. Send it to the four corners of the world. The hours are getting late. Jesus is coming. Bless Your people together. Save the lost. Every one that raised their hands here this morning, save them, Lord. Give them the Holy Spirit. May their lives be dedicated to You.
This little church, Lord, the pastor, and every pastor here, every evangelist, teacher, every member of any other church; O God, as a body of people, we give ourselves to You. Take us and use us, Lord. We are Yours, and expecting to come to You someday in peace.
Now, if there be any sick or afflicted, may they be healed this morning. May Thy grace and eternal blessings rest upon them, as we pray for them by laying our hands upon them, and praying, may the Holy Ghost come and perform the work that He's ordained to be done. Grant it, Father. Through Jesus Christ, we ask this blessing. Amen.

72 I have told you the honest truth. Just as God has revealed it and has did it, I have honestly told you the truth. And now, I am earnestly seeking and desiring your prayers. I realize that a man of my age, fifty years old...
The other morning, I said to the wife, "I'm already fifty, honey. If I do anything for the Lord, I got to hurry."
She said, "Bill, God trained Moses eighty years." And said, "He can train you for another fifty years to get one day's service from you. He's got a purpose for you, so just stand still."
I thought that's a lot of wisdom: Stand still. God moves every hand just according to His great plan. Just be still. Don't try to over ... to try to push. You get ahead of Him then. It's a whole lot better to try to follow than it is to lead, because He's the leader.

73 Now, to my little church here, my little flock that's been so faithful, and has prayed for me all out across the world: I believe there's another worldwide shaking coming. These things I've told you is the truth. At the day of the judgment, I will face you yonder with the same story, just as true as I'm standing here.
Now, I'm sure you all could see what it is. It's a coming of a greater, deeper anointing of the Holy Spirit. How to get into it, I don't know. Only thing I know, it takes God to put you into it. So you just live as sweet and humble, and close to God as you can. Don't doubt Him. Just believe that everything's working just to the good for you, and everything will work around all right, see.

74 Just remember, you are a sheep; He is the dove. And the dove leads the lamb. And the lamb and the dove has the same nature. The dove is the most gentlest of all the birds of the heavens; a lamb is the most gentlest of all the beasts of the earth. So see, their spirits would coincide with one another. Now, the dove could not come on a wolf (see); it wouldn't stay there. The wolf is a killer. The lamb is gentle. So you see, it's the lamb and the dove, and one leading the other.
And you see where the dove led the Lamb to? All the way to Calvary for crucifixion, and He opened not His mouth. When they spit on Him, He never spit back. When they smacked Him, He never smacked back; He just went right on, knowing that He was ... for the glory of God, He was doing the will of God.

75 Sister Hattie, we're close around the same age. Brother George Wright there, her dad, and her boys, and mother, Shelby; I want to say this: I guess you wondered why I got up and walked out of the house as quick as I did. I have never... I've been where thirty thousand raw heathens was saved at one time (South Africa), come to Christ. I thought that was the greatest anointing I ever felt. It never in no ways compared with that down at George Wright's the other day. I have never felt anything like that. The whole room just seemed to be just a light of the glory of God.
Now, Sister Hattie's very quiet, and pious little woman, never raises her voice about anything. But you could've heard her scream a city block when the Holy Spirit struck the building. Everybody, everybody there felt it. It was wonderful. We may live a long time. But Sister Hattie, as long as there is a memory in our mind, we will remember that, Sister Wright.

76 Now, that the people might know that I told that just exactly true, would you raise up your hand, Sister Hattie, so it... Sister Wright and you all was there, just so that you can see. See, there they are. Stand up, Sister Hattie. There's the little widow woman that the miracle happened on, the first, bypassing all the peoples of the world, for that thing to happen first to that poor, little, humble widow woman upon a hillside up there, trying to raise a crop of corn out of crawfish ground out there to take care of her children. That's the one that God honored the first time since the days of Jesus Christ, and said, "Ask what you will."
I said, "I challenge anybody, in the name of the Lord, when that Spirit strikes and says that, I don't care what you ask for, it shall be granted."

77 You know why the plutocrats didn't get it, or the big folks like that? Is because God knowed they'd ask things that was no good for them. He gives it to people who He knows will ask the right thing. And what more could that woman... What more... Just tell me anything she could ask greater than that. Her mother and father's saved; her little sister's saved. All the family's saved except the two boys at that time. They wasn't saved.
They're poor people. Shelby told me his constant income for a good crop, he netted six hundred dollars a year, working till the boys... About my age, and he's all broke down, everything, and he's working to take care of his daddy and mother, and they're old, and trying to take care of his little afflicted sister, but he's saved. Brother Wright, all of them is saved. But them two was not saved. And Hattie asked the salvation of her children. As long as there's an eternity, she could've asked for ten thousand dollars and have got it. She could ask whatever she would. But God knows what you're going to ask before He ever places the anointing. That's right.

78 Sister Hattie, is it right, that I said, "Ask anything that you wish. Anything your heart desires, ask it, Hattie." Is that right, Sister Hattie? "Ask anything you want to; makes no difference what it is, ask it. God has said to me, 'Just speak what she's asked for, and she will have it.'"
He said, "Ask it now, just anything you desire." And she did it.
Oh, brother, sister, do you realize the day we're living in? The most glorious time, when God of heaven will put amongst human beings to ask anything you will, and He will give it to you. It's too deep for my mind, I know that. But I hope that my heart can contain as much of it as I can. It just... I have lived on it. I have thrived on it. I'm going westward on it. I'm entering meetings on it. I'm living on it. And God's words here is right.

79 Now, as far as I know, that's the last thing to happen. I don't know nothing else, what it could be, just to give to human beings, "Ask anything that you desire. No matter what it is, just ask it, and it'll be given to you."
And could you see the wisdom? How many believes that that woman asked the greatest thing could be asked? Let's see you... Could you imagine, a woman with a afflicted sister, could've asked for her healing, a woman that's poor, and her mother and daddy poor, and all of them poor, could ask for money, and got it. She could've asked for years added to her life and got it. But she asked the greatest thing that could be asked, the salvation of her unsaved family, and got it. Amen. That's the main thing: Got it by the same God that give the promise. God, oh how I love Him.

80 Now, we're going... Is there any sick here to be prayed for? Raise up your hands.
A woman called a few nights ago (There's three of them, I believe, from California or something, they told me.), that said, "We've come two or three times. And you give out prayer cards, and our numbers are not called." I made her a promise if she'd stay over, that I'd just pray for the sick this morning.
How many's been in here when we've had the discernment and things? Oh, all of you, I suppose, everybody here. We know that that's true. We're moving beyond that now. Oh, praise be to God, we're moving beyond that now.
Maybe it'll come to pass. I don't know what God will do this morning. But you people that are sick and afflicted, I'm going to ask you just to come a few at a time. Let these on this side here come up so we can pray for these on this side first. Maybe I can catch it like that. Come right up here, sister. Just line right up here, 'cause we haven't got... We have to send them back down the same aisle on account of them getting back to the same place.

81 I could tell the way this little fellow talked this morning, he believes in divine healing. I know he believes in the power of God. Is there another minister here this morning that's a minister who believes that God heals the sick? If there is, let him come up here if he will, and come here stand with us while we pray for these sick and afflicted. Any of you brethren that believes that God heals the sick. God bless you, sir, come right ahead; we want you to come right here with us.
Now, we do not know what the Holy Spirit may do. The Holy Spirit may at this time perform just like He did down at Sister Wright's the other day. I trust that He will. I don't know. You understand... How many know... Well, there's not many of you left here, when the visions first started. I don't know what time they'll come, what they'll do. Everything is in the will of God, and has to be controlled by God. How many knows that? God could not give men things to control themselves. If they did, then (You see) it wouldn't be God. It wouldn't be God; it would be... I want you to think here, friends, in this little lowly place, but how the Lord has absolutely, Brother Mike, beyond any shadow of doubt, has blessed us, and performed, and done just exactly what He promised He'd do.

82 How many ever heard of super sensory perception? Many of you has. It's just nothing but mythology, spiritualism. But you know, they can't... Them things are not lasting. They don't hold on. They can never get any material. They'll sit down there and have... They say, "There's a spirit; there's a spirit." And they try and take a picture of it or something. They can't do it. See, it's just... It's not there. It's psychic, mental, see.
But what God does is perfect. When Moses throwed down his rod, the magician throwed down his rod too; they was both turned to serpents. Is that right? But what happened to Jannes and Jambres' rod? Moses' rod swallowed it up. And when Moses picked up his rod, it was still a rod. But where was their rod? Inside the rod of Moses. See, you couldn't see it.
When God does anything, He makes it real. Now, they tell me the Holy Spirit... You know, they say, "That's people just worked up. It's mental. Them visions and things, that's just a mental telepathy."

83 Well, when George J. Lacy examined that picture there, when that Angel of the Lord... Many of you standing here has seen it on the river, and many times. He said, "Brother Branham, the mechanical eye of this camera don't take psychology." Said, "The light was there." There it is. It's everlasting. It's true.
So you see, It's the same Angel of God. Now, watch it. The nature of it proves it. When He was here on earth, it dwelt in the Lord Jesus Christ, who was God made manifest. And now, Jesus said, "A little while and the world won't see Me no more. Yet you'll see Me, for I will be with you, even in you, to the end of the world. And the things that you do ... that I do shall you also."
Now, watch it when it comes... A man can say anything. But when God backs it up, that makes it truth. Now, watch the nature of that Angel. When He gets a person so submitted to Him, He does the same thing that Jesus did when He was here on earth, because we are sons and daughters of God, if we're born of His Spirit, see. And it ain't no mythical thing. It's got evidence to prove it. It shows that it's right. So our salvation is absolutely perfect.

84 The God of heavens, who had all the prophets to speak of the coming of the Lord Jesus... And Jesus, when He come, He fulfilled every prophecy. Many of them was fulfilled at the cross: "Wounded for our transgressions," and what David said, "My God has Thou forsaken me." But when God sends a prophet, a prophet speaks; God makes that truth, if it's God. That's what He said to know them. If they spoke, "and what they said come to pass, then believe them, for I'm with them." If it doesn't, then they're not. They're false prophets. He said, "But to mark them, see whether it come to pass."
Now, look. If God, who spoke in the holy prophets, talked about the coming of the Messiah to the glory and honor of God... If I know who would be president next fall, and would tell it, that would be prophecy. That's right. But God doesn't prophesy like that, just to ... oh, just to be playing. God does something to glorify Him, see.

85 But when the Messiah come, and when the Messiah left... I want to ask all you Methodists, Baptists, Presbyterians, Catholic, Lutheran, Pentecostal, Nazarene, Pilgrim Holiness, all of you; I want to ask you something: Don't you think that that King of the prophets, Jesus, would've knowed how to set up His own church? If all the prophets spoke of Him, and pointed to Him...
What kind of a church did He set up? When He left, He said... When he was here on earth, He told Peter, "On the revelation of the Word of God," He said, "upon this rock, I will build My church, and the gates of hell cannot prevail against it." Isn't that right? All right. When He was... Before He left, in Mark 16, He said, "These signs shall follow them that believe." Did He say it? "In My name they shall cast out devils, speak with new tongues, take up serpents, drink deadly things." He also said, "The works that I do, shall you do also." Is that right? That's the signs that's to follow His church. It's not a denomination. It's a set up organization, ordained of God, Holy Ghost filled, heaven born church that comes out of all denominations, a real believing bunch of people.

86 These ministers standing here are just along with me. We're men. He's God. But we're here to represent Him. We're here to tell you that God has sent us to do this work, to lay hands on the sick. "These sign shall follow them." Them signs, all signs that He spoke of will follow the believer. Here they are following. They follow.
And God is no respect of persons. What He did for Hattie, He will do for you. What He did for the blind, He will do for you blind. What He does for the deaf, He will do for you. Anything that He's done for anybody else, He will do for you, if you will only believe. Is that right?
Now, Brother Teddy, I want you to play, "Only Believe." And as these people pass through the line, then we will get the other side. We're going to come through, all of us laying hands on you, praying for you that your diseases will be cured. And it can... And I don't know what God's going to do. I'm just standing here right now, not knowing what to do. I'm just going to pray for the sick like I promised somebody that I'd do, just pray for...
Last Sunday... You remember, I told you last Sunday was the Revelation and so forth. This Sunday I'd pray for the sick.

87 Let us pray now. Lord, we stand here as Your servants. We stand before Your people. We're here. We don't know what You'll do. You might speak with tongues. You might interpret. You might give a vision. You might cause me to take someone's hand for a revelation. You might speak and give the authority to say whatever You will. I don't know what You're going to do, Lord. And maybe, You want us to lay hands on the sick. We don't know what it is; we're just wanting to please You, Lord. We're standing here as Your servants, and these are Your people. And we're trying to help them according to what Your Word says do. We're trying to follow Your instructions. And I pray Thee, Lord, that You'll give to us that what we have need to minister to the people, through Jesus Christ's name. Amen.
I want all the rest of you keep your head down and pray, while Brother Wood, if you'll... And minister brothers, I believe we stand right there. How many of you? Four of you here. All right, two on each side there, and I will stand right at the head of the line right here, see. Just one moment. Come over here, Brother Beeler. Now, that's it. Stand right along there. And as they pass by, all the congregation... Now, if you little boys would move back a little so they can walk out. Now, as you all pray, go right straight to your seats. Then in a few minutes, I will call for the other side.

88 Now, every one of you, not only ministers, but all of you ought to pray for these people. You don't know what God might do for you while you're praying for somebody else. What if you'd say the right thing? Here's a woman standing here that's so sick they have to hold her up. What if your prayer would be the right thing, just like Banks said the right thing, like Hattie said the right thing? What if you'd say the right thing, and your pray would cause God to come down and do something? See, this is not just one person; this is the church of the living God, everybody. Now, everybody be in prayer.

89 [Brother Branham gives instructions to the ministers.]
[Break in tape] ... these handkerchiefs, Lord, little cloths that are going to the sick and afflicted, different places. And may they be blessed, Father, to the honor and glory of God, in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.

90 All right. The Lord bless you, brother. Well, from Oregon. San Jose... Well wonderful. God bless you. I hope... I hope that it'll just be one of the greatest meetings. Thank you, my brother. The Lord bless you.
Isn't this like heaven? When you think of preaching the Gospel and souls raising their hands to Christ, sick and afflicted passing through the line, baptismal services, fellowship, brotherhood; that's just a little bit of heaven dropped down on earth. You know, I feel like what the apostle said that time, "It is good for us to be here." We don't need but one tabernacle. We love to be here for the service of God.

91 Now, each of you people that come through the line this morning, was prayed for, just remember that the same God that granted all these things that you have heard done around the country... And they are true, just as true as they can be. And all these ministers here, and what's been done in their ministry, what's been done in the ministry the Lord has given me. We have stood here with sincerity, with all of our hearts, pray and laying hands on you, just exactly what Jesus said, "These signs shall follow them that believe: If they lay hands on the sick, they shall recover."
Now, it's just... There's only one thing to keep it from not happening, that would be for you to disbelieve it. Jesus said, "Come unto Me all you that labor and heavy laden, I will give you rest. Whosoever will, let him come.
Now, there's only one way for you to miss it. God's Word's true. One way for you to miss it, is not come. Isn't that right? That's the way for you to miss it. God said, "These signs shall follow them that believe: If they lay hands on the sick, they shall recover." There's only one way for you to miss it; that's disbelieve it. If you'll believe God's Word, God will keep His Word. You see, that would be... That's the first, initial... That's the way to pray for the sick: pass them through, lay hands on them, or anoint them, or anything that God said way...

92 But after all of that, for God to let you know that He's in the midst of His people, He shows signs and wonders. And see, it's the wonders and miracles of the living God to do the things that He does do. Now, He's wonderful. Don't you think so?
Now, the brethren are making ready in there for the baptismal service. And it'll just be quickly. And now, those are to be baptized, the women go to the room... Isn't that right, the women over there? The women over here, and the men on this side.
While we're making ready for baptismal service, I want to read a Scripture in the next few minutes. And we will be... I know some of you, you're limbs are bound to be hurting from standing up. And if you can stand just a few moments longer, you'll see a beautiful sight when you see the immersing of these people.

93 I want to read some Scriptures now, found in the book of Acts, the 2nd chapter while they're making ready for the baptismal. I think there's only about two or three to be baptized. Won't take but just a moment. And I want you to listen close now. I'm going to begin reading out of Acts 2, the 28th verse, beginning reading.
Thou has made known unto me the way of life ... the ways of life; [It's in the plural.] thou shall make me full of joy with thy countenance.
Men and brethren, let me freely speak to you of the patriarch, David, that he is both dead and buried, and his sepulcher is with us to this day.
Therefore being a prophet ... [How many knows David was a prophet? Sure. He was a Psalmist and prophet.] Therefore being a prophet, and the knowledge that God had sworn with an oath to him, that of the fruit of his loins, according to the flesh, he would raise up Christ to sit on his throne;
He seeing this before spake of the resurrection of Christ, that his soul was not left in hell, neither did his flesh see corruption.
This Jesus has God raised up, wherefore we are all witnesses. [Doesn't that sound like today? We are witnesses of these things. I could say this morning, Hattie, the rest of you, we're witnesses of these things.]
Therefore being at the right hand of God exalted ... having received of the Father the promise of the Holy Ghost, he has shed forth this, which ye now see and hear.
For David is not ascended into ... heaven; but he said himself, The LORD said unto my Lord, Sit thou on my right hand. [You remember last Sunday, how we spoke of the prophets, all of them great men, how they had to die. But One come, the Royal Seed.] Set thou on my right hand,
Until I make thy foes thy footstool.
Therefore let all the house of Israel know assuredly, that God has made this same Jesus, who you ... crucified, both Lord and Christ.
Now when they heard this ... [That Jesus was both Lord and Christ.] Now when they heard this, they were pricked in their hearts, and said unto Peter and ... the rest of the apostles, Men and brethren, what shall we do?
Then Peter said unto them, Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost.
For the promise is unto you, and to your children, and to them that are far off, even as many as the Lord our God shall call.
And with many other words did he testify and exhort, saying, Save yourselves from this untoward generation.
Then they that gladly received his word were baptized: and the same day there were added to them about three thousand souls.
And they continued steadfastly in the apostles' doctrine and in the fellowship, and ... breaking of bread, and with prayers.
And fear came up on every soul; and many wonders and sign were done by the apostles.
And all that believed were gathered together, and had all things in common;
And sold their possessions and goods, and parted them to all men, as every man had need.
And they, continuing daily with one accord in the temple, ... breaking bread from house to house, did eat their meat with gladness and singleness of heart,
Praising God, and having favour with all the people. And the Lord added to the church daily such as should be saved.

94 Now, just while they're coming to the water... You let me know when ... goes to the water.
That you might know, that sovereign grace reigns with God. I want to go back. I just can't help from placing something else in. Did you know, those two boys, that woman's children that were saved, God knew that before the foundation of the world, and their names were actually put on the Lamb's book of life before the foundation of the world? The Bible says that? And it only had to work till this minute... Did you know God knew that we'd be standing here, ten million years before the world was ever founded? Did you know He knew we'd be standing here this morning? The infinity of God knowed every fly, every gnat, every time they'd bat their eyes, and how much tallow they would produce. Before the world was ever formed, God knew it.

95 Now, you say, "Well, if He knows it, then why are you preaching?" That's part of God's program. Preaching is His program. When He looked upon the apostles, He looked upon the harvest. He said, "The harvest is ripe, and the laborers are few. Pray the Lord of the harvest that He will send laborers into His harvest." How many remember that? Well, why would they have to pray to the Lord of harvest to send laborers into His harvest, if the Lord of the harvest was standing there knowing it would be done? Why? God has so arranged it, that His...
Now, listen to this. God has so arranged it, that His program cannot move without you and I. And as long as we're not doing what God leads us to do, we're paralyzing His program. But when the church moves by the anointing of the Holy Ghost, then we're in God's will, doing His program.

96 Oh, as soon as I return from California, the Lord willing, what the Branham Tabernacle needs is a revival. They need a revival and a filling of the Holy Ghost. And that's the great need of the Tabernacle, some of the finest people in the world comes here. But what we need is the baptism of the Holy Ghost. I feel it, can tell it. And as soon as we return back, if the Lord willing, we're going to have a revival for that very purpose: That the ministry of this Tabernacle, and other people are seeking the Holy Ghost might come and receive Him, Baptist and everything else. Prayer meetings in here to receive the Holy Ghost. That as [unclear words] the will of God and move on with the program of God as it moves on.
The Lord bless you. I believe they're ready now at the pool.
You take hold of getting them. And I will go in there pray for them...