If God be with us, then where is all the miracles?

You can find this sermon at ChurchAges.net

1 Thank you, Brother Neville. Good evening, friends. Back again. I never got but four hours in this morning. That's a shame. And after speaking four hours, you ought to be so tired of me you'd run me out of the platform.
[Brother Branham's brother, Doc, says, "That reminds me. Someone said today that you always has got a bunch of these things left over that you never get to. But tonight, Honey, you can just have all the time that you want to, so you don't have to miss none of it."] I got about half the Bible wrote out here. [Someone says, "You got the whole night to preach."] We got several precious brothers here. We want to hear them.

2 How many enjoyed the service this morning, of the... ? Actually, four hours. I don't know what that tape went to.
My sister called me up after the service, and she said, "It must not have been nobody else." Said, "It must have been just to me. I said [to her husband, Junior], said, 'What'd you think?' 'Oh,' he said, 'I've heard Brother Branham do better than that.'" She said, "Then I was sure it all come to me," she said.
I believe she is back there, or I would tell it on her, but I'll just let it go. Delores, where you at? She isn't here. Well, I'll tell it then. She said, "I've been guilty of using just a little bit of, you know, make-up; cutting just a little bit." Said, "That's over." She realized she wasn't dead yet, you see. You got to die. So, titling it the message for the New Year's... May the Lord grant His blessings.

3 So nice, tonight, to see so many in. Brother Graham Snelling, I just got in in time to hear him closing out that old song, "And We Shall Go To Dwell On Zion's Hill."
I guess there is nobody in here ever remembers little Rabbi Lawson. Anybody remember him? Yeah, two or three of you. Brother Graham and Brother Slaughter, that made me think of Brother Lawson. Remember how he used to sing? Little bitty fellow. I called him "Rabbi" because he wore a little flat black hat. He was a Pentecostal preacher. But, great big tortoise-shell glasses, and I said, "You look just like a rabbi." And so we always called him "Rabbi Lawson," a wonderful little brother. And he was so old, he'd come stooping in. (Got run over by a car, and stiffened up his knees.) He would hang his crutch ... or, his walking cane on this side here. I'd sit down in a chair, and when he'd get over there to that part, "The wheels of mortal life shall all stand still," he'd pick up that old cane, reach over his shoulder, and hook it right around my neck, and bring me right up like this, put his arm around me, and say, "Then we shall go to dwell on Zion's hill."

4 Anybody else in here ever knowed Rabbi Lawson? Just a few of you. I want to say this, then. A strange thing happened to him. He was a real little preacher, fine brother. And he didn't have no big charges---that wasn't his mission. But I believe he lived true to what he was put in charge over, that's the main thing.
And his wife thought he wasn't making enough money preaching, so she wanted him to get a job. He studied the Bible all the time. So, one day she got so angry with him, she just grabbed the Bible right out of his lap, took it over and raised up the stove, and stuck it in the stove and burned it. A few months after that, she was putting up some Christmas lights; fire of the Christmas tree caught her and burnt her up, right in the same place. See, you reap what you sow. "Touch not my anointed, do my prophets no harm," see.

5 Thing about the Word of God... Them people that had the accident out there, and then Satan tried to destroy their... I just seen them raise up back there, just then, to let someone in. Their trailer, practically everything in that room, burnt to a crisp. I was out there. The only thing that existed, I think, was a blessed old Bible and, I think, my book and Brother Osborn's. Everything was burnt to a crisp in their trailer. I picked up the Bible; it's just smoked a little on the outside. I told the sister and brother that someday, the Lord willing, I would like to take that from the pulpit here, and preach on the text, "Heavens and earth will pass away, but my Word shall not." When it's all gone, the Word is still there. Isn't it wonderful how God cares for His Word? And then let that Word be in you, He'll take care of you. That's right.

6 During the time of the flood I was preaching here one night, left my Bible. The '37 flood came overnight, almost, and swept through the Tabernacle, picked up this same pulpit, raised it right up (there was none of this ceiling in here then), and set it right against the ceiling. The Word being under the pulpit, instead of it sinking, it floated---took it right up to the ceiling. And I rowed all around over here in a boat. And then when the waters went down, it came down and was laying right here at the same chapter I was reading out of, after the flood. "Heavens and earth will pass away, but my Word shall not." That's right. He's wonderful, isn't He?

7 Honestly, I want to get away from here real quick, because they got so many fine ministers. I thought I'd call them all to the platform, but we haven't got seats for them; because, I've seen several since I've come here, in the audience, that perhaps has a message tonight. We want to hear from our pastor, from different ones, the message they have on their hearts for tonight. And I'll just be real brief, and try to say a little something.

8 And then we're starting something tonight, or something happening tonight, if God willing, that we have never did since I've ... in my lifetime. Just thought of it the other day, and called Brother Neville, and he thought it was a grand idea. Instead of all the commotion of blowing whistles, and hollering, and carrying on, and drinking, and the New Year's carousing, and so forth like that, we are going to come to the altar and take communion at the midnight. And each one of us, as we listen to the words tonight from these different ministers, let us be real reverent.

9 Now, last Sunday night I gave a Christmas message. And I said to the church, to the people from Georgia and the different places, "Don't come," because it would knock their children out of Christmas. They look for it; they're just children. And I would get the tapes for you. Now, you that didn't get to come, the tape is at my expense. Just let Brother Wood and them know, and I'll take care of it for you, and get the tape.

10 And now, tonight, I just want to first say this one thing, before I read my text.
And probably, in preaching, we'll be right up almost to midnight. And then we're going to, about fifteen, twenty minutes before twelve, we're coming out and bring the kosher out---the Lord's Supper, the paschal lamb---and set it out here, the kosher, and then give thanks to God, and stand at the altar with bowed heads and hearts, and take the communion of the Lord. And I think the room is full of recorders in there, and so forth. I don't know whether we're... What say? They'll be out by that time, so we won't have to omit feetwashing too. And tomorrow is Monday, and some of the people from out of town have plenty of time to go home. And trusting that God will bless you now.

11 And this will probably be the last time I'll get to be with you, until I come back from out West. I'm going out to Arizona, perhaps going to Louisiana first, and then on to Arizona and California. And then as soon as I get back, I hope to be with you again. Until that time, pray.
I never made any itinerary. I believe I see Brother Borders tonight in the meeting. I called attention for him this morning. And he keeps a record, and he presented a book to me the other day of all kinds of invitations. But somehow during this time the Holy Spirit said to me, "Go one place, and when you're finished there, I'll tell you where to go from there." See, just lead right on like that, what to do next. So, we must be pretty close to the line, when He starts doing that, you see; just know wherever somebody is calling and waiting.

12 Not for New Year's resolutions, because we don't make them. Don't do no good; you break them. I seen my daddy throw that plug of tobacco away every New Year's night---to watch where he throwed it, so he could get it the next day, see. And that's about the way it goes. Let's not make resolutions. Let's ask for mercy and grace, ask for God's mercy.

13 And if I don't get a chance anymore, to the giving of the communion, probably in a hurry at that time, this is one thing I desire to do: one of my desires is to see a church without spot or without wrinkle, that the Holy Spirit... Brother Graham, this has been the longing of my heart, to see a church that's so filled with God until sin can't abide in it anywhere, the Spirit of God calling it right out, wherever it is. I want to see that.
And one thing that I desire, the one great vision from the Lord that I've always desired to have from the Lord, He give it to me the other morning, about ten o'clock in the morning. And that satisfied my desire. For years and years, since I've been a minister, I've longed to see that, and it finally come to pass, and I'm very grateful to God. I haven't said nothing about it, just got it wrote down. And I know it's just exactly what I've been asking for all the time.

14 And now, I pray and trust to God, and tonight anew I dedicate my life to Him, over His pulpit. That one great desire in my life is to be more humble before God and before His people. Knowing that that's one of my major mistakes, is having to deal with the public in such a way, it's took a lot out of me that used to be there. I trust that God will restore again that joy that I once had. Not as I lost my joy, no; but I mean I want more of it, more ... more humility to serve the Lord. This coming year, I promised God if He'll let me live and give me health and strength, I will try to be a servant to God and a brother to men with all my heart.
God bless you now. Let us bow our heads just a moment.

15 As the world, Father, rocks around the equator, as we are told, now it will start again now moving back towards ... from the shortest day of the year to the longest. Just a short time and the whistles will be blowing, the people will be screaming, the bells will be ringing and the old year is gone, and a new year comes on. Father, we thank Thee that Thou has let us see this year of 1961. And we pray You'll forgive us for all of our sins that we committed through this year. And if there has been one thing that we have did that has been good, Thy name be praised. For it was not us, the unworthy, but it was Thee, the Holy Spirit, that finally pushed its way into our life, over our rebellion condition, and did something that magnified God. We are grateful that He did it. Father, we have prayed tonight that He would press us aside every time, and let the will of God be done in our lives.

16 And tonight, as our sister churches, their pastors are sitting here (our Brother Graham, and brethren from different parts of the country, Utica, Sellersburg, and Georgetown, wherever it may be), precious souls has gathered together from many, even states, tonight, to help us in this great jubilee here that we are celebrating; and has turned the time to the singing of songs, praying a prayer, and of listening to the Word of God. Fill every heart. Move back every doubt. Take away every fear. Take away all worry. And let the Holy Spirit move into our hearts and plant the Word. Let us be the field that the Word will fall in that will bring forth fruits in the coming year. Grant it, Lord.

17 Help me now, as it's my time, the lot falls to me at this time, to speak. I pray that You will anoint the words that is said. And may they go out under the anointing of the Holy Spirit with expectations, Lord, to bringing people that doesn't know You to You; and those that are there, may they have more faith to serve Thee. Grant it, Lord. And help my voice. Having a bad cold and being tired from a four-hour message this morning, I pray that You will help me. Help all of us, and condition us now for the coming service and the communion.
Bless this church and its pastor, our Brother Neville, its trustees and its deacons, and may they serve more gallant this year than any time before. Thank You for their service and their gallantry. How they stood by me when I needed someone to stand by me! Brother Neville and Brother Roy Roberson, and all the precious brethren who stood by us in the times of trouble, and under the leadership of the Holy Spirit, made decisions in the best that they knowed how. And the decisions that they have made has been proven to be in your will, for You have blessed their decisions. God, continue to be with them. Help us all together now. We ask in Jesus' name. Amen.

18 Now, to you who take texts ... and trusting that you'll be praying for me ... and for a few moments, I'd like to call your attention to a portion of scripture found in the book of Judges, at the sixth chapter, beginning at the seventh verse. I would that you would listen quietly and listen to the Word.
Can you hear me in the back all right? Raise up your hands if you can. Fine. And if they watch, ever who engineers this microphone, will watch that it carries on. Is the tapes coming in?

19 Judges, the sixth chapter, the seventh verse. Now listen close, because I'm going to refer to this in a few moments.
And it came to pass, when the children of Israel cried unto the LORD because of the Midianites,
That the LORD sent a prophet unto the children of Israel, which said unto them, Thus saith the LORD God of Israel, I brought you up out of Egypt ... brought you forth out of the house of bondage;
... I delivered you out of the hand of the Egyptians, and out of the hand of all that oppressed you ... drave them out from before you, and gave you their land;
And I said unto you, I am the LORD your God; fear not the gods of the Amorites, in whose land ye dwell: but ye have not obeyed my voice.
And there came an angel of the LORD, and sat under an oak which was in Ophrah ... pertained unto Joash the Abiezrite: and his son Gideon threshed wheat by the winepress, to hide it from the Midianites.
And the angel of the LORD appeared unto him, and said unto him, The LORD is with thee, thou mighty man of valour.
And Gideon said unto him, Oh my Lord, if the LORD be with us, why then is all this befallen us? and where be all his miracles, which our fathers told us of, saying Did not the LORD bring us out of Egypt? but now the LORD hath forsaken us, and delivered us into the hands of the Midianites.
And the LORD looked upon him, and said, Go in this thy might, and thou shalt save Israel from the hands of the Midianites: have not I sent thee?
If it be so pleasing to God, I wish to take a text there upon, I believe about the fourteenth verse, where it said, "If God be with us, then where is all the miracles?"

20 Now, we are all acquainted with the judges of Israel, and how that they had done the Israelites. The Philistines, the Midianites, the Amorites, and all the different ones had come in like locusts and just eat up what they had, and take it out, and go on. But did you notice? They could not do that until Israel first fell away from God.
The devil can't set a foot on you to hurt you until first you get away from God. You must first remember that. Check when anything happens, see if you are in the faith or not, see that if you're right up to a place with God; then, remember, the devil can do you no harm, you're in Christ.

21 And this place here, we had just left the... A few years before this had been the prophetess Deborah, and Barak; and how that she had prophesied and told them what to do, and it was just exactly right (Barak, the great warrior), and how that they made a song of the triumph over the enemy. But as soon as they got out of the twist, right straight back into the rut they went again.
If that isn't the picture of the church today! Just as soon as it gets out of one twist, right into another one it goes. But time had come for action, and that's the same now. The time has come for action. The time had come when playing church had come to a halt with God. There's no more playing church; we must get down to business. And I trust that that same God will place this upon the heart of the people tonight, that it's time for a halt of playing church, playing religious, playing righteous, and now it's time for action.
As I was speaking this morning upon the subject of what the new birth was and how we come to it, surely that still sinks in your heart. Now the time has come to act upon what you know to be the truth. You cannot act with faith until first you know what you're doing. You've got to first know what you are doing before you can have faith to do it.

22 Someone said to me one time, a noted doctor, was talking about a miracle that had happened among ... a sick person. And he said to me, "Preacher, don't you believe, if you told them people to go out and touch a tree or a post, the same thing would take place?"
I said, "No, sir." I said, "Because you cannot have faith in touching a tree or a post."
Faith is not that loose. It's got to be based upon some noted fact. You've got to know something about what you are having faith in, before you can have faith in it. So, we first must know how and what---what God's desire is, what God's plan is, and how to approach God by that plan. And then we can walk up boldly to the throne of grace, and plead what the plan is promised us.

23 Now, they had been playing church. Just as soon as they got out of one twist ... God delivered them. Then, instead of really going on and serving God, seeing His mighty hand, they twisted right back out into the things of the world again. And so the time had come when God called a halt. And it must be that way.
And I think it's time to call a halt now. We have twisted the Word of God to fit every organization there is in the world. Every plan that ever man has schemed to do... We've twisted the Word to make it this way, and twisted the Word to make it that way, and twisted it some other way to make it to fit a plan. But the time has come to halt. Stop your playing church! The time has come when people say, "If you can just get enough Spirit to dance in the Spirit, if you can get enough to see lights before your eyes, or a sensation to run down your back, or some quiver, some shake, some emotion---you've got it!" You've got something, but I wouldn't say just what you had till I seen what kind of fruit it growed.
As we went through it this morning, you can't expect a baby to be born a man. It's got to grow to it. And we grow in Christ to the full stature. Not somebody get converted tonight, and tomorrow go to preach the gospel. We grow up into manhood, into the stature of Christ.

24 Now, we find that when God's people gets in trouble, God always sends them a prophet with the true Word to bring them out. It's never a time that God's people ever gets in trouble, unless God sends them His Word; and His Word, as we had this morning, come to the prophets. And how you test it is to find out whether it is according to the Word. If it's according to the Word, then God's Word becomes alive.
Now, many might say, "This is the prophet of our church." "This is the prophet of our church." And two of them, contrary one to the other one, something has got to be wrong.
We all must speak the same thing. Then we must speak not contrary, but exactly with this Word. That's how a true prophet is tested, whether he has got the Word. The Bible said, "If their testimony is not according to the law and prophets, there is no light in them." That's right. It's got to be according to the Word.

25 And God always, in every case, sends the people a true servant, a true prophet that will bring the true Word of God. And the Word of God is what delivers the people, always.
Now, if we would go back and read the seventh to the tenth verse, we find out in there, in this seventh to the tenth verse, that Israel had turned away from God, and had gone back into the world again. And there came out of nowhere ... don't even give his name. I don't guess the prophet was interested in his name. He was interested in one thing: God had anointed him. It didn't make any difference whether he was classed one of their denominations, or something else, whether he was a bishop or an archbishop. The only thing that he was interested in was that message on his heart. And he called the people back to repentance, and an understanding that their God was a God of might and a God of deliverance; God of miracles, that snatched them out of the hands of the Egyptians, opened up the Red Sea, and fed them in the wilderness; and a God of might who could take the land from someone else and give it to them. Amen! That was a true prophet. He was anointed, and he was the voice of God to them people. He spoke that it must be so, because they were in trouble.

26 These Midianites and Amorites, and so forth, had all come over and eat up all their land. And so the enemy had challenged, and he must be met! Their armies couldn't do it, and their priests couldn't do it, and their churches couldn't do it. So, it took the Word of God to meet his challenge.
The enemy speaks today. The enemy tries to say that the days of miracles is past, that there is no such a thing as the baptism of the Holy Spirit, and this is only emotion, it's only a work-up. So the enemy has challenged, and his challenge must be met! The only way we can meet the challenge of the day, when the denominations call the people away and put them in this organization, that organization, let women cut their hair and wear make-up, and men of all kinds of lives live as trustees and deacons; and pastors in the church, because they got some PhD or LLD is the requirement...
Jesus never did require a man to have that. Jesus' requirement was: "Wait in the city of Jerusalem until you're endued with power from on high; then you are a witness to me." That meets his challenge. That met the enemy's challenge. That met it in that day; it will meet it in this day.

27 Now, I want you to notice, in seven to ten, we see the prophet coming. From one to seven, we see the people falling away; and from seven to ten, we see the prophet coming and giving the people the remedy. Notice, we don't know where he come from. It never said there was a man, a Pharisee, who had been a priest for a while. It never give his background. Them prophets, they rise up from nowhere.

28 Look at Elijah. Elijah was the last, and the sixth, of the great prophets, of the mighty prophets. What we know about his background is nothing. We don't know what school he went to. We don't know what kind of a family he was out of. The only thing we know, that God was with him! And he come forth, and he left just about as mysterious as he come forth. He come out of the wilderness from nowhere, and went back in the wilderness, and caught up in a chariot of wind, and took up into the heavens, with fire. He come mysteriously, and he left mysteriously. He had no theological background. We don't know where he come from, who his father was, who his mother was, who his brothers and sisters was. The only thing we know, he was a man of God. God taken him out of nowhere, and used him, and took him back into somewhere, in His presence. He was a man of God.

29 And here comes a prophet out for that hour, and gave them the Word of the Lord. Remember, He never give them some man-made theology. He said, "I am the Lord that brought you out of Egypt, showed my mighty hand, showed my power." I'd imagine Gideon was sitting right there listening at him. "I am the God that did these things. And I've done all this for you, and yet you've not obeyed my commandments, and all this you have not done."

30 Now I want you to notice another thing that might encourage you. Immediately after that prophet's message, the Lord appeared on the scene. Amen! As soon as he gave his message, the Lord appeared under a tree. The Lord came after the message of the prophet, sitting under a tree. The prophet gave... The people fell away, got off in their isms. God sent His prophet. Soon as the prophet got through with his message, the Lord followed the prophet's message---for deliverance!
Oh, we are living in a grand time. Immediately when the prophet went off the scene, what happened? The Lord came on the scene! As soon as John went off the scene, the Lord came on the scene! Very strange how God works, but He does it---works in a mysterious way.

31 We read the scripture here, where Gideon, scared, out by the winepress, thrashing out enough wheat before the Philistines or the Midianites found him. Him and his daddy, out there getting a little grub for their winter's food, thrashing it out secretly so they couldn't find them, because they just come in like grasshoppers and took all they had.

32 That's the way the devil does. We get a little church started, everything going fine. How many preachers don't know this to be the truth? Just about the time everything is going along fine, some old imposter will come right amongst that group and tear it to pieces. That's right, snatch the church right from a man, if he can do it, see. That's the devil---come in like grasshoppers and take out what's been given. Now, when...

33 Gideon certainly was a scriptural man. When the angel of the Lord said to him...
And if you notice, it wasn't the angel of the Lord. Here it said, "And the Lord," capital L-o-r-d. It was not an angel; it was God. It was a theophany in a man, in the form of God, like appeared to Abraham back in the wilderness, and looked like a man; so, therefore, being a messenger, He was the angel of the Lord.
And He appeared to him. And He said, "Thou mighty man of valour," said He was going to take him and deliver Israel by him.

34 And Gideon asked that question. What a scriptural man that was! That's the kind of man that God comes to---somebody who knows. Gideon said, "If God is with us, if you are the messenger, then where is the miracles that the prophet told us about?" He knowed everywhere God went, His miracles followed Him. He knowed that wherever God would be, miracles would be there.
And how can you expect God today to work in amongst people who doesn't even believe in miracles? How can it be?
And He called him "the mighty man of valour." Said, "Now, by this, you're going to deliver Israel."
Now, that looked like a man sitting there, and it was a man. And he looked at Him and he said, "Nay, my Lord, if God is with us, then why is all this trouble upon us? And where is the miracles that we are told about? Where is the things that God used to do?"

35 Now, there is a good way to trust whether the messenger is right or not. If he has a form of godliness, he will deny that power to do those miracles. If he is a messenger from God, he'll not only speak of it, but he'll have it to produce it, and to show that the God that he talks about is with him and in him.
He said, "If God was with us, where is all of His mighty miracles? Because we understand..." Listen how scriptural Gideon was. In otherwise, he said, "If... We understand that God is a great God of mighty workings. He's a great God of miracles. And if He is for us, and if He is with us, and He is the same yesterday, today, and forever, where can I see His miracles? Where can I see this God in action? Where is He at, if He is for us?"

36 The mighty man of valour could refer back to the old Word and know it's right, because he knowed this, that God is a supernatural being. And wherever a supernatural being is, He'll do supernatural signs, because the supernatural is in Him. You just can't get out of it.
How can you stand in the face of wind without having wind blowing? How can you get in water without being wet? Water is wet. That's the chemical of it. It's wet. And when you get in water, you're going to get wet. Right.
And when you get in the presence of God, the supernatural, there is going to be supernatural signs and supernatural workings of a supernatural God.

37 Therefore, he said, "Where is the working, where is the miracles, if God be with us?"
Glory! That's it! See, where God is, miracles are. Where God is, the sign of God is there.
And Gideon, very scriptural, said, "Where is these things?" In other words, like this, "I am a man [maybe] of fifty years old," he would say. "And I have heard them talk about a God that worked miracles. And I have went to church, and I have believed the priests, and I've believed the prophets. And I believe the written Word, all the scrolls. And I read in the scrolls where God, when He come among His people, something taken place." And Gideon didn't know but what that was a man sitting there under this oak tree. Amen. That's all he knowed. He was a man. He said, "Now, if God is with us, where is His miracles at? We want to see them."
How scriptural that is! For where the supernatural is, God and His sign would be with Him. Where God is, the sign of God is with God. We know that. If He is in His people, they will do His signs. Just exactly.

38 That was the question that Gideon had. "Where is God? If there is a God, if there is God with us, then let me see where His sign is. We're told that He does perform them; and if this great task lays before me..."
Maybe the old man standing there, and he looked like an old man... The Bible said he had a staff in his hand. Read on, the sixth chapter, when you go home, or tomorrow sometime.
He had a staff in his hand---an old man, looked like, sitting under a tree. And he called him "the mighty man of valour." And he said that God was going to do this thing. And he said, "God is with you."
He said, "Then where is His miracles? If the supernatural God is here, where is the supernatural works of God?"

39 That could be easily said tonight amongst our churches. "Where is that God that once lived? Did He die? Is He gone? Is He pursuing? Is He off on a trip?"
No, sir. He's the same yesterday, today, and forever. And if we say we are of God, then let's see where God is. Let's see the signs of God. If this Tabernacle stands for God, let's see God moving among us. Let's see souls being born in the kingdom. Let's see lives be straightened up. Let's see the sick, and the blind, the deaf... Let's see His mighty works being performed, God in our midst!
"If God be for us, where is His miracles at?" He asked the question.

40 Now, if God is with His people and in His people, he cannot ... that person cannot help but do the same thing that God did, because it's not the person anymore; it's God in the man. If that man sins, then God is not in there. If he loves the world, then God is not in there. And we know that God has no dealings with sin. Now, I'll give you a scripture for this, just in a moment.
Jesus, when He was on earth, He was asked the same question. They wanted to know, "You, being a man, and make yourself God?"
When He healed the man with the palsy, He said, "Thy sins be forgiven thee."
He said, "Now, wait a minute! You, being a man, and forgive sins?"
He said, "That you might know that the Son of man has power on earth to forgive sins or to heal; which is the easier, 'Take up your bed and walk,' or say, 'Thy sins be forgiven you'?" And then He spoke to the man, and he got up and walked away.
And the Pharisees questioned Him,

41 and Jesus said, "If you don't believe me, believe the signs that I do." See, they were told that there would be a prophet like Moses raise up, and He would be the Messiah. And He said, "If I do not do the works of my Father, then don't believe me; I'm wrong. But if I do the works of my Father, and you don't believe me, then believe the works. What does the works do? They tell you who I am. They testify of me. They are my witness. Not my credentials---that I belong to the Presbyterian church, or the Pentecostal, I can show my fellowship card---but the works that I do, the signs of God, the signs of the Messiah, they are the ones that testify of me."

42 Jesus said in St. John 14:12 (if you was going to put the scripture down), St. John 14:12, "He that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also." Amen!
What is it, brethren? If God be for us, where is His miracles? If God be in us, what's the matter with us then? Something wrong somewhere---yes.
Jesus said, "If you can't believe me what I say, watch what testifies for me, for they are the one that gives witness of me. The Lord your God said there would be a prophet rise up like Moses, and whosoever shall not hear this prophet would be cut off from amongst the people. The Messiah was to have a sign following Him. And if that sign of the Messiah don't follow me," said Jesus, in so many words, "then don't believe me. But if the Messiahic sign testifies of me, then believe the sign. Because if you think I'm wrong, the sign is right, because it's scriptural." Hallelujah!

43 That's where Gideon wanted to get to. That's where Gideon was standing. "Oh, if there be a God that's with us, we want to see the sign that He is a God, that He is the same God, because He'll do the same signs." What did God do?
Gideon said, "Wait, and I'll go get an offering." And he went out and killed a cow ... or, a lamb, and he boiled it. He brought bread, and he brought the lamb, and set it down.
And the angel said, "I'll wait here." Prove all things. Test it by the Word. And he said, "I'll wait here," maybe two or three hours.
Gideon come with the broth and with the bread and with the meat. And the angel said, "Now you'll understand by this. This will prove it."
He poured the broth out upon the ground for a drink offering. And he took the bread and the meat and laid it on a rock where he was thrashing at.
And took the stick from his hand, like an old man, a staff, and touched it. And when he touched it, the smoke went out, and the sacrifice was consumed. What was it? He took him back to the Scripture to prove what He was---

44 the same God that was with Elijah on Mount Carmel, the same one I talked of this morning.
When you lay your soul upon His brass altar of judgment, what takes place? He's the same God; He'll take the sacrifice. You've offered it in sincerity upon His altar. He'll consume that sacrifice, and the world will be gone out of you. Just the smoke will fall away, the sacrifice will be gone. Yes.
"If You be God, and You are the God of the Bible that our fathers tell that performed miracles, let me see You perform a miracle, or let me see some sort of a miracle, that I know that God has met with me."

45 Now, may I say this. If God still remains God, if God is the same God He was in the days gone by, you don't have to go up and shake hands with the preacher, you don't have to go up, put your name on a book. Them things are all right---nothing against it. Then you go back and become a church member with your name on a book, and they give you a letter, and you pack it. As soon as something goes wrong there, you blow up like I don't know what, and you take it over to the next church. And as soon as something goes wrong over there, then you'll take it to the next church. You see, you haven't done right in the first place. If God remains God, lay your sinful soul on His altar, and He'll touch it with His Word and His power; and the world will be gone from you, and then you'll be a new creature, if He remains God.

46 He was God of the Old Testament, He was God of the New Testament, He's the same God today. "Yesterday, today, and forever."
And you know then, down in your heart, that a supernatural work has been done by a supernatural being. When you once drank and smoked and lied; and you women loved the world so much, you kept wearing your make-up, and your long ... or, short hair, and doing other things you did; and you find out that something happens, and all the devils in hell couldn't make you do it again. Something happened, a God of miracles performed.
What did He do? Changed your vile heart, changed your desires, changed your nature. A supernatural work by a supernatural God made a creature of time to a creature of eternity. Amen! Took the world out of you, and put Christ in you, the hope of glory, and you're filled with His Spirit, ready to meet Him.

47 If God be God, where is His miracles? If God is with us, where is His miracles?
If God is with the Methodist church, why is all the women still wearing bobbed hair? If God is with the Baptist church, then why does the pastor still smoke cigarettes (many of them)? Why do they still deny the power of God to heal the sick and to raise the dead, and to speak in tongues and interpret tongues, and gifts of prophecy? Why do they still deny it, if the God of the Old Testament and the God of the New Testament is still the same God? If the God of the New Testament, the Holy Ghost, is still the God the Pentecostals claim, why don't they break down their walls of partition, and fussing at one another, and become born again Christians? Sure. No, one won't even speak to the other one. See, the sacrifice hasn't been consumed. They go through sensations. They've done that all their ... all through the ages, under idols, they done sensations.

48 But the God of the Bible---that's the God same yesterday, today, and forever---burns up the world and all the differences, makes us new creatures in Christ. Yes. Jesus said, "These testify and tell you who I am."
The thing of it is, the reason we got all these things, is because we still let denominational differences, creeds, fusses, popularity, and devils of the world blind us from the real truth of God. That's right.

49 Many a person has been deceived in receiving the Holy Ghost. As I said, they've got doctrines today like Elijah's garments, and all these other things, manifested sons of God, and all these different isms, and so forth, in the world today. People fall blindly on there and go through some kind of a sensation, raise back up with an arrogant spirit, indifferent, fussy, high-tempered. That's not the Spirit of God. Still continue right on, out of order, don't know what church order is, don't know how to behave themself in the house of God, no manners, no audacity at all, no feelings towards God, all they think about is "my church." It shows they received a church spirit and not the Spirit of God, because it knocks all that out of you, burns it up. Sure.
See, they say, "Where is He?" We got a right to.

50 But look, if the clouds are hanging over the sun, the sun is always shining. The only thing that keeps it from shining on you is clouds. And if you get rid of the clouds, the sun will be shining. Amen!
Brother, get away from all of our sin and our doubts and our flusterations. The Son has been shining since the day of Pentecost! The Holy Ghost is just as great today as it ever was. But our denominations has smothered over the Word of God in saying, "It's for some other day. Oh, divine healing will be in the millennium." Or, "Divine healing was back there; it isn't pertaining to today."

51 How can He be the same yesterday, today, and forever, and still divine healing gone? How can the power, how can... ? The Bible set in order first apostles, prophets, teachers, evangelists, pastors, for a vindication that the gospel still lives. God sends them right among us, and we turn our back on it. God doesn't fail; it's the people has failed.
"Where is the miracles then among us? Where are they at?" God was talking to this man, getting him ready to go out.
Move the clouds out, the sun is always shining. That's right. When doubts are gone and things are made right, miracles will be there just as sure as the Son is there.
The sun, by the command of God, shines every day! It's there because God commanded it there. And as long as there is day and night, the sun will hang there. Sure. Not all the time you see it, because clouds has it covered up. Fog, clouds, low or high, covers it up, but it's always there, see.

52 And the only thing you want to do to see miracles, today if you want to see the miracle of God, just move all your doubt away. Move all your creeds away, move all your denominationals away, and there the Son is automatically shining.
It's the commandment of God, for it said, "He is the same yesterday, today, and forever." So, as long as He is to be there forever, He's there! No question about it, He's there. Where is the miracles? What's hindering the miracles? God sent Christ, Christ is alive forevermore. "Wherever two or three are gathered together in my name, I will be in their midst." Amen! "Lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the world." There He is---His promise!

53 What's the matter then? We've let the clouds of doubt, greed, temper, selfishness, denominations, and other things break in on us, break in and take us away from the Word. Say, "Them was somewhere else," denying Christ, denying the baptism of the Lord, of the Holy Ghost, denying the Christian baptism of the name of Jesus Christ, other things, all kinds of things that our creeds has broke us away from the Bible.

54 But isn't it a strange thing, a miracle, that in the face of all of it, Brother Way, in the face of all the denominations, in the face of all the critics, the Bible still remains the same? How did it ever weather the storm? God is determined to judge every man by the Bible. And the Bible is the Word, and the Word is Christ. Everyone, every man, will be judged by that.
Take the clouds away, then what happens? The sun is right there. The only thing you have to do today, say not, "O Jesus, come and heal me! O Jesus, give me the Holy Ghost!" Just take the clouds away---He's already there. He come nineteen hundred years ago, and He is still there. And He'll always be there! "I'm alive forevermore, the same yesterday, today, and forever." That's right.

55 Now, Gideon and those people there, before they could see, or could ever go ... see these miracles of God, there was a condition that had to be met. To see the power of miracles, they had to believe. They also had to believe and obey the prophet's word to see the miracles of God. Now, remember, before that they could see the miracles, they had to obey what the prophet said.
And before we can see the miracles of God, we've got to obey what the prophets said. The Bible is the prophet to us. That's right!

56 If a man---no matter how much he calls himself God's prophet, of the Baptist, Methodist, Pentecostal, whatever he may be, whatever he calls hisself---if this Word isn't living in him, he isn't a prophet. He might be a prophet, but a false one. True prophets speak of this true Word, and then puts God just exactly the same God, the same power, the same words, the same everything, the true Word.
Now, they had to believe. They had to believe the prophet's word and obey it before they could see God's miracles.
And today, you can't go here under false make-up, saying that "Jesus is not the same yesterday, today, and forever; the days of miracles is past; and there is no such a thing as the baptism of the Holy Ghost," and expect to see God's miracles. You've got to obey it! And when you obey it, God takes care of the rest.

57 If you could brush all the clouds back, the sun is already there. It just hangs there. The sun doesn't move, we're told. The sun remains in its same place.
And Christ remains! That's right. We move away from Him, but He remains. That's right. The only thing you have to do is turn yourself back around and face Him once, and you see what takes place. Face Christ. Not face the church, not face the creed, not face the titles. Face the Christ! Not face the seminary; face the Word! Christ is the Word. Sure, it is. That's exactly.

58 Obey the Word. To us... They had to obey the Word. And to us, we've got to obey the Word.
If you'd like to know that, I've got a scripture wrote here said, "If ye abide in me, and my words in you, ask what you will," see. What was it? If God's Word is in us and abides in there, it just speaks for itself. "Ask what you will, and it will be given to you." Now, that's found in John 15:7, if you want to mark it down. See, Jesus said, "If ye abide in me, my words abide in you."
Not today one thing; tomorrow, next day, something else; and backslid, and over here, and down here, and down there. It shows you never got nothing to begin with.

59 Oh, you say, "I spoke in tongues." Fine, but still you never got nothing, see. You say, "I danced in the Spirit." All right, but still I don't know what kind of spirit you danced in, see.
If you're one thing one day, and the next week another thing else; and the next little pecker-wood comes along, pecks on a hollow tree, you run after it; and the next one over here, mission-trotting, don't know where you do belong, then Christ don't abide in you. His words isn't there, because it's stable; you never turn to darkness!

60 As I preached the other day on "A Paradox," when Joshua stopped the sun, Becky back there said, "Daddy, he couldn't stop the sun." Said, "The world would stop. He stopped the world."
I said, "He stopped the sun." God don't make any mistakes in His Bible."
Said, "How could he stop the sun? The sun don't even run. The sun stands still."
I said, "But that missile out there wasn't what he was talking about. This sun that was traveling and making it light across the earth, that's the sun he stopped."
I don't know what God did to bring it to pass, but he stopped the sun. The sun was going this way---the sun on the earth, the reflection of the sun. That missile out there, we couldn't see in a million miles of it, or millions of miles. But the reflection of the sun that was traveling across the earth, from day to night, that's what Joshua commanded to stand still, and it stopped. A paradox is something that's unbelievable, yet true. So that's unbelievable, yet true.

61 How can God take a sinner---arrogant, high-tempered, fussy man---and make a saint of God out of him? How can He take a woman that's so low till the dogs wouldn't even turn to her on the street, and make a saint of God out of her? I can't tell you. But He did it! It's a paradox. Sure is. All God's great works are paradoxes.
"If ye abide in me, and my Word in you, ask what you will, and it'll be done unto you." St. John 14 ... or St. John 15, pardon me. St. John 15:7. All right.

62 Back to Genesis just for a moment. Noah had to meet the conditions. Noah had to believe God's Word, and act upon it before he could see God's miracle. That's right. Noah, the great prophet of Genesis, had to believe God's Word and act upon it before he seen God's miracle. It had never rained, you know, never had been no rain.
And what do you think they tell us? That that age was a greater age than we live in now in science. We cannot build the pyramid again, or the sphinx. We do not have the ways of making a mummy; we can't make it petrify like that. We cannot put coloring in cloth to last like they did back there. We don't even have those things. And that's something our modern science can't even find. But they had it!

63 We don't have engineers like they had. That great pyramid in Egypt is so perfect in the center of the earth, no matter where the sun is, there's never a shadow around it. We couldn't put up a structure like that. We don't know how to do it. Neither could we build a pyramid. And up in there, up around the capstones and in there, laying almost a half a city block high in the air, there is stones that weighs billions of tons---hundreds of tons, rather---hanging up in there. All the machines we got in the world couldn't lift them up there.
They tell me it would take sixteen flatcars to load the leg of the Sphinx on it. How did they get it in there? How did it happen? They were smart scientists.

64 And what do you think they said to a man, a fanatic, supposed to be a prophet, that said, "There is water coming out of the skies"?
I can hear them say, "We take our instruments and shoot plumb into the stars, and there is not a drop of water between here and there. Where is it at?"
Noah could come back with this: "God told me it's going to rain." That's enough. That settles it. God said it was going to happen, so that's just what's going to happen. All right. (I must hurry, other brethren waiting.) Noah, he said, "It's going to rain."
"How do you know?"
"It's the Word of the Lord. It's 'thus saith the Lord.'"
"What are you going to do about it, Noah? Just walk around and preach about it?"
"No, sir. I'm going to make ready for it," see.
"Oh, that would be a miracle! The days of miracles is past."
"Just hold on, you'll see it after a while." Yes, sir.
What did he do? He built the ark before the rain fell. What was he doing? Acting on the promise. Amen! I feel kind of Pentecostal right now, feel religious.

65 Yes, take God at His Word, act upon the promise, regardless of what takes place. It's up to God to do the rest of it. Just start knocking the clouds! "Lay aside every weight that so easily besets you." Lay aside all your doubts, your fears, your denominations, your creeds, and anything that's contrary to the Word. Jesus Christ is just the same yesterday, today, and forever. Just lay your creeds aside, lay your denominations aside, lay all your doubts aside, all your flusterations aside, and just keep on. First thing you know, you'll move the last chunk, and He'll be standing there. You'll meet Him.

66 Noah said, "When I get the ark built, He'll come. The rain will start falling."
"The day that you get the ark built?"
"If it waits fifty years, I'll be sitting in the ark, waiting for it. It's coming, because God said so!"
See, first thing, he had to prepare himself. He knowed that God was a God of miracles, so he couldn't doubt Him. God had spoke to him, and he knowed it.
When God speaks to you out of His Word, in your heart you know it. When all the world is gone from you and the things of the world is dead, you know it. When... If you love the world or the things of the world, you still know in your heart you're not right. It's true. So, when everything is gone, then there is nothing else to do but meet God. He'll be standing there. He remains.

67 As the sun (s-u-n), so does the S-o-n remain just the same yesterday, today, and forever. That s-u-n that shines is the same sun that shined in Genesis, the same sun that shined on Elijah on that mountain, the same sun that went down on the day of the crucifixion. Hallelujah! It remains the same. And the same Son of God is the same yesterday, today, and forever---the same in power, the same in love, the same in signs.
What is today a sign of a Christian? "Oh, he goes to church, puts his name on a book, he has a letter." That's not the sign Jesus said.
He said, "These signs shall follow them that believe. In my name they shall cast out devils, speak with new tongues. If they take up serpents, or drink deadly things, it'll not harm them. If they lay their hands on the sick, they shall recover."
If God be with us, where is His signs? Sure, get back to His Word. Signs will take care of itself as soon as we get back to the Word.

68 Noah, before he saw the miracles of God---like Gideon wanted to question about---he had to first act upon the Word of God. Gideon had to act upon the Word of God.
Everybody else has to act upon the Word of God. Before I could ever say that there was a God, I had to act upon His promise; then He manifested Himself. If you want healing, believe Him! Act upon His Word---it'll come to pass.
Moses, before he ever could see God's miracles, he had to first act on God's Word. He knowed he had heard his mother say he was born an odd birth; he was hid in the bulrushes. She told him that God had called him and chose him.
And he thought, "Well, me being a fine military man, I can just go out here and slay this Egyptian and hide him in the dust. And I can do whatever I want to. That's all it takes." But, you see, that's what he was trying to do. That was his idea. He had never seen that God that performed the miracle to keep him through that time.
But one day, after he was eighty years old, he was herding sheep, going down a pasture, maybe a path where the sheep had been running. And an old herdsman going along there with a crooked stick in his hand, beating alongside of the trail; maybe a little lame, at eighty years old; whiskers hanging down to his waistline, perhaps, gray as the sheep that he was herding---and he saw something! O God! It was mysterious to him.

69 I hope I can show you something tonight. And we got a pool of water here, ready.
He saw something he had never saw before. And he said, "I better investigate it." So, he turned aside, and the Word of the Lord came to him. Glory! Hallelujah! The Word of the Lord came to him. Now, before he could go, he had to act upon the Word of the Lord.
And remember, the Word of the Lord always performs miracles. He said, "Where will I know that you are with me and sent me?"
Said, "What's in your hand?"
He said, "A dry stick."
"Throw it on the ground!" The first command God give Moses: "If you want to know that I am God, you got a stick in your hand, throw it on the ground."
Gideon said, "Where is the miracles of God?"
He said, "Lay that bread on the altar; I'll show you who God is." And he touched it with his staff, and the smoke went up, and it was consumed.

70 Moses said, "Who will I say that sent me? How do I know that You are God?"
He said, "What you got in your hand? I'm the Creator of life. I'm the miracle-working God." And before Moses could ever see the power of God that performed all the things, first he had to obey God. He throwed the stick on the ground, it become a snake. Whew! Oh, my! What? It's obedience comes first, before you see His miracles!

71 These so-called churches around the countries today say, "Well, where is all the miracles? We'll give a thousand dollars for anybody that will produce a miracle." You poor, deliberated, backslidden, twice dead, plucked up by the roots...
How are you ever going to see a miracle, until you become one? Glory! A miracle of God's grace---to take an unbelieving doubter and fill him with the Holy Ghost! Jesus said, "Except a man be born again, he can't even see the kingdom of God." If you want to see a miracle, become one. Let God work on you first. He's got some overhauling to do, some different lenses to put over your eyes, because you are blind, dead in sin and trespasses, spiritually blind, double dead. Right! God has to give you life, touch your eyes so you can see, perform a miracle, and make you a miracle---and then you can see the miracle-working God. That's the first thing.

72 Moses had to believe Him. Moses had to act upon it, act upon what God's Word said. He wanted to see whether that was God or not. He said, "Well, Moses, act upon what I tell you."
Now listen here tonight, brother, sister. If you want to know who God is, just act upon what He says here. "Repent, every one of you, and be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ," and you'll become a miracle. That's His promise. That's what He said. Act on His Word, "and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost; for the promise is unto you and to your children."
"Oh, that's just for the apostles."
"And them that's far off, and even as many as the Lord our God shall call." That's where the promise is to.

73 Act upon His Word, and you'll see a real miracle. Something will take place when you act upon His Word. Like Gideon did---he did what He told him to do! Like Noah did---he did what He told him to do! Like Moses did---he did what He told him to do!
Said, "Throw down your stick!" In other words, "Get rid of everything that's around you!" Amen. "Let Me have it!"
Say, "I got an awful temper." Give it to God; He knows how to quieten it. "I got a lot of lusts." He knows how to take it away, see. Just put it in His hands and watch what a miracle can do. That's right. All right.

74 Moses had to work on the Word of God before ... or, obey the Word of God before he could see God's miracles. But after he once saw it, brother, there's nothing going to stop him then.
I see him the next day with Zipporah sitting on this mule, and little Gershom on his hip ... on her hip, rather, whiskers hanging down like that. Brother, that face was smiling, them eyes a-dancing up towards the sky. From a sheepherder to a mighty man of God---a man of valour, going down to deliver. Look at Gideon! What happened? Yes, sir, going down with a crooked stick to take over a nation. He did it. Sure, he did. God told him to.
No matter how unreal it seems, you just do what God tells you to do. You'll find out that His Word is still the same. Just get the clouds back, the Son is already shining.

75 Joshua, oh, that great conqueror! Oh, the successor of Moses, a man that God loved, a mighty warrior, a man that God loved! God told him, "As I was with Moses, so will I be with you." But before the walls fell, Joshua marched according to the chief captain's orders---around the wall thirteen times---before the power of God ever struck the thing. He marched around the wall and sounded the trumpet, according to the Word of God that the chief captain told him out there when He met him. He marched according to the Word of God. What did he do? He acted upon the Word before he saw the miracle.

76 You know, just to sound a trumpet don't shake down a wall that you can run chariot races around---sounding a trumpet. But God said, "Just march around the walls seven times, and the last day march seven ... thirteen times. And as you go around the wall, at the last time, let the priests go before with the ark, and sound the trumpet. And when the trumpet sounds, the walls will shake down!" What did he do? He saw the miracle of God after he acted on the Word of God.
Where is your miracles? Act on his Word first.
How could the walls be shook down and leave one little house standing, a harlot's house? Because she acted on the Word of God. Why did the rest of them die, and she live? She acted on the Word of God, and she saw the miracle of God. That's the way to find it---act on the Word.

77 The Hebrew children at the fiery furnace. What did they do before they saw the miracle of God? They acted on the Word of God. They knowed He was God. They knowed He was the God that had brought them up out of Egypt. They knowed that He was the same God that always was, that He had to be the miracle-working God.
And He had give them a commission not to bow to idols. He don't change. "Stay with My Word! Don't you bow to idols!"
What did they say? "Our God is able to deliver us from this fiery furnace. But, nevertheless, we're going to act upon His Word!" There it was. What happened? Then they saw the miracle of God, that God could withstand the fire.

78 You are sick? Act upon His Word, see if He heals. If you're a sinner and want to be filled with the Holy Ghost, come repent and be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ, and act upon His Word. See what happens. If you still got the world in you---and you women still wearing short hair, you still wearing make-up, you men still with tempers, and fussing about your denominations---if you want to find out if He is still God, act upon it and lay yourself upon his altar. See what takes place. He's God. You have to act on His Word first.

79 Daniel, before he saw the miracle of God could deliver him from the lions' den, the first thing he did was act upon the Word of God.
The proclamation went forth, "If any man prays to any other god besides this idol for so many days, he'll be throwed in the lions' den." No man could pray to any other god but to the king---he had to be god---for thirty days.
But what did Daniel do? He acted upon the Word of God. Because, when Solomon dedicated the temple, he prayed. He said, "Lord, if Thy people be in trouble anywhere, and will look to this holy temple, then You hear from heaven." That's right.

80 Daniel acted first. The threat was, "You're going into the lions' den." But Daniel acted on the Word of God. He knowed that God was still God, just like Gideon did. He knowed that God, if He was still God, then where is His miracles? And Daniel knew he was a prophet, he knowed he loved God, he knowed he was His servant, and he knowed God was able to deliver him from them lions. But if he was in trouble, under a threat, he turned his face towards the temple and prayed three times a day, just exactly. He acted upon the Word of God, and God filled him so full of the Holy Ghost till the lions couldn't eat him. That's right. That's right. He acted first upon the Word of God.

81 Jonah, in the belly of the whale, acted first upon the Word of God. He knowed he was gone, as far as physical. His hands was bound, his feet was bound. This preacher to the Gentiles was throwed out of the ship, into the whale's belly, and down to the bottom of the sea. Now, what a condition he is in! But first he turned hisself over, in the vomit of the whale. Seaweeds was wrapped around his neck, where the whale had been eating these weeds and things to put vitamins in his body, his vitamin pills---and then he got a preacher in there. But this preacher came to himself! Hallelujah!
Oh, brother, preacher, come to yourself tonight! Get away from them old creeds and things, and come back to a living God, to a living Word.

82 He came to himself; he rolled over. You can't hide a saint from his prayer. He turned over, and he looked. Everywhere was whale's belly, all around him---east, north, west, and south. And he realized that he was in the whale's belly, and down in the bottom of the sea, and a storm on the sea. All hopes was gone when he was in the ship; and now he was in the whale's belly, farther away from hope than ever. And when only he could see the belly of the whale, he said, "They are lying vanities. I won't believe them anymore, but I'll look towards your holy temple." The holy temple---wasn't looking down. He said, "It's up there, so I'm looking towards it."

83 Then he seen God's miracle. Somehow, oxygen came into the whale. He just breathed normally for three days, and took a nice little rest and ride, so he could take this forty days' journey across ... the wicked city down there to preach the gospel. Got all freshened up with some new oxygen out of heaven. It couldn't come out of the whale, and it couldn't come out of the sea, so it had to come from God!
Oh, breathe on us tonight, Lord, that oxygen of the Word of God, in the power of his resurrection! that we can stay alive in this last wicked day. Breathe upon us, O Holy Spirit! That's it, brother. Breath, Lord; fill us with oxygen!

84 Like I told you this morning about the duck, as soon as he smelled the water, there wasn't nothing could keep him away from it. All the cluckings of the hen, and everything else, he went straight to water, because he was a duck.
Now, if there is any of you got duck nature, we got a great big pool back here, see. If you can smell, if you've got a whiff that God remains God, if you've got a whiff from heaven tonight, that God keeps His Word and He's a miracle-working God, and you haven't received the Holy Ghost yet, smell the water---the first thing He said do. Certainly. Repent from the bottom of your heart and lay yourself as a sacrifice on the altar, and you will be consumed of the world, and born again of the Spirit, and be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ. He'll fill you with the Holy Ghost. Go through the right process. Not come shake hands with the preacher and put your name on the book, but die so dead that you don't know the world no more.

85 Abel died on the same altar with his lamb. And the only way you are ever going to get right with God is die on the altar with Christ until everything becomes blackened around you. Die there, and when you raise again, you'll be a new creature in Christ. Sure.
Jonah had to believe God's Word and act on it first. Now, he was probably laying with his face down when he went down in the whale's belly, because they just pitched him over---just scooted right down the whale's belly. The whale said, "Well, we'll go down to the bottom of the sea now."
And I wonder what that whale thought in those three days. A funny thing was going on. Now, you see, the building of the whale didn't appreciate it. Neither does the church denominational organization appreciate it. But, oh, how Jonah loved it! Sure. Sure, he loved it, because it was fresh air that God was fanning on him, and he was staying alive. God, fan the fresh air on us!

86 If Jonah could perform a miracle like that by believing the Word of God ... to a natural temple where a man that finally backslid (Solomon) had built, but asked God in prayer to bless ever who looked to that temple and deliver them out of their troubles wherever they was... And Jonah could believe under those conditions, how much more can we believe tonight to look to heaven, where not a backslider, not a man that died and stayed in the grave (like Jonah ... or, like Solomon was then), but a living God who sits at the right hand of the majesty, all power and authority, and preaching the Word and sending forth the Holy Ghost as a witness. Amen. Believe the Word of God, you'll see the miracles of God. But you have to believe it first. Certainly was. Yeah.

87 Gideon, after he had seen this visitor sitting under the tree ... and Gideon kind of questioned him at first. He said, "If God still remains God, if God be with us, where is His miracles?" And this visitor sitting under the tree, what did he do? When he touched that sacrifice with his stick that he had in his hand, it was consumed. And he knowed that was the action of God, so he knowed then that the visitor under the tree that looked like an old man sitting there was the Word made flesh. Hallelujah! It was the living Word. He knowed that that was the living Word, because it was acting and living in present tense. Glory to God, brother!

88 Pentecostal is fine, but it's a painted fire if you haven't received it yourself. Not a past tense; a present tense! What good is a God of history if He isn't the same God today? As I've often said, what good does it do to give your canary bird vitamins to make his wings grow, and put him in a cage and keep him there? What's the use of teaching that there is a God of power, and then denying the people of the privilege of serving Him? Amen. Certainly. Nonsense!
Why you got all these seminaries around, like a big incubator hatching out preachers?
I always felt sorry for an incubator chicken. He really didn't have any mammy. He never knowed where he come from, nobody to mother him. He come out mechanically.
That's about the way with a seminary preacher that only knows theology. He might be as smart and polished as any scholar could be, he might be able to preach in many different languages, but if he don't know who his parent is... !

89 As I said not long ago, if any thing is an ignorant thing, is a mule. He don't know who his papa or mama is. He's a hybrid thing. See, he don't know what papa, mama ... he don't know where he belongs. That's like some of these hybrid Christians, so-called, bred in by denominations.
But a good thoroughbred horse is pedigreed. He knows what it's all about. And a good thoroughbred Christian knows where the storehouse of God is. They know that they are born of the Word. The Word is made flesh in them. Every word that God says, they don't differ with it. They say, "It's right! Amen and amen!" They punctuate it with an "amen," every time. "Amen! Amen!" Something in them punctuates it, Himself.
"Jesus Christ the same yesterday, today, and forever."
"Amen!"
"He that believeth in me, the works that I do shall he do also."
"Amen!"
"Go ye into all the world, preach the gospel to every creature. He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved. These signs shall follow them that believe."
"Amen!"
The old hen said, "Cluck cluck cluck, the days of miracles is past."
"But, honk-honk-honk, I smell the water!"
That's right, see. Why? You are putting God to the test. See, that's it, God first. Act upon His Word, and see if it's right. That's true.

90 John the Baptist was following right along his line of duty, when just a boy. We don't have much record. His father was a fine man but disbelieved God. God was determined to bring him through Elisabeth ---this baby.
So He told her she would conceive this child. And he doubted it, and He struck him dumb. I'd imagine the heart of the John the Baptist's parents, Elisabeth and Zacharias, was kind of grieved, because they knowed they were old. And this promised child that had been born ... that God had performed a miracle and had brought this child into the world when they were old and past age... They knowed, and their hearts were grieved because they couldn't live long enough to see him perform his great work of God. But they dedicated him to it! Glory to God! Somewhere beyond the stars and moon, they could look down and see it. They would never see this little boy. They died when he was just a child yet, a young fellow, a boy. He left his home and went into the wilderness. There he was brought up under the power of God.

91 God told him, "You're the voice of one crying in the wilderness. I'm sending you forth. Go and cry!"
How John must have waited each day, as he run the snakes in the rocks, kicking the stones. "Oh, I can't wait!"
"What are you waiting on, John?"
"Just, I want to hear His commission, that's all. Get out of the way, snakes!" They'd take for the rocks. That's the reason, them Pharisees come out, he said, "O you generation of vipers, take for the rocks!"

92 I say the same thing tonight. You generation of vipers, take for the water! You know what I'm talking about. These tapes ... this is taped. It'll go all over the world. Take for the water if you want to see God's miracles!
John following right along, a fine-looking fellow come up. He said, "Maybe that's Him." He looked. "No, that's not Him. No. God gave me a promise."
"John, you say the Messiah is alive today?"
"Yes."
"Where is He at?"
"Here on earth somewhere. I don't know where He is, but I'll know Him when He comes."
"How do you know?"
"God told me what to look for."

93 "How do you know you're going to get healed when you're prayed for?" God told me what to look for. "How do you know you're going to receive the Holy Ghost?" I follow His Word. He told me what to look for, I know what's coming next. Do you know what's coming next? If you'll obey God's Word, His promise comes next. He can't lie; He's God.
"What's next?"
John said, "I'll see Him when He comes."
They said, "Oh, look at this fellow coming here. That ... he's got a crown on his head. That must be the Messiah, driving those horses."
Said, "That's not Him."
Walked right up to him, said, "It's not lawful for you to have your brother's wife!" He knowed there was something wrong there. Walked up to him and told him---that was Herod, you see. And, oh, it made his wife so mad. She hated him as long as she lived, see.

94 John kept looking. He said, "Oh, I'll know Him when He comes."
"How do you know?"
"God told me I would see a sign, and it would be a Messiahic sign. I'll know the Messiah because the Messiah sign will be there."
God knows His church. He said, "These signs shall follow them." Not "They'll belong to the Methodist, Baptist, or Pentecostals," but "These signs shall follow them that believe." He knows believers.
Sometimes you say today, "Are you a believer?"
"Oh, I'm Methodist." Well, that shows you're not a believer then, see.
"I'm Pentecostal." That still shows you're not a believer.
When you're a believer, you believe God! Everybody knows it. You are sealed by the kingdom of God, and a seal is on both sides of the page, both coming and going. See, you can tell them.

95 All right.
He said, "I'll know Him when He comes, because there will be a sign. I'll see the Messiahic sign." One day he looked...
Oh, brother! Why? He was looking for it, that's how he recognized it. I hope that sinks in. Are you looking for Him? Are you watching for something to take place? Then know the Scriptures!

96 Now, all them priests standing around there was five times smarter than John. We don't have record where he went to school one day. But there stood priests, that their great-great-great-great-grandfathers were priests. There stood men there that knowed every inch of that scroll---all the prophets and Genesis, and all about it. But, you see, John was looking for a sign, a Messiah! He knowed if that was God, there would be something supernatural about it. That's right.
So is it today! If you're a Christian, there is something supernatural struck you. If it didn't strike, you're deceived. You still live the same life you once lived, still love the same things you still loved at the first, you still love them, you are deceived. That's right---not a son or a daughter of God.

97 Then we find out John was standing there one day, and they say (reading in a little story of him), said that John was on one side of the river. They done backed him up on the other side. That's the way they do a servant of God---back him out of every denomination, every organization, everything else. He didn't have a pulpit to stand in, but he was in mud up to his knees. He didn't have a tuxedo suit on and his collar turned around, either. No, sir. He had a piece of sheepskin draped around him, probably looked like a wild man standing out there.

98 And them priests said, "Do you mean to tell me that there will come a time when this great temple, our great organization, will fall?"
He said, "Sure, it will."
"How do you know it?"
"How do you read the Scripture? There is coming a Messiah, and that Messiah will take away the daily sacrifice. Daniel said so! The prophet said so!" Hallelujah!
Oh, I feel more religious all the time! (I got to stop.)
"How do you know it?"
"The prophet said so."
That's how Micaiah knew that he couldn't bless Ahab---Elijah done cursed him. That's all. He had to stay with the Word. You want to see the works of God, you have to follow the Word of God. He knowed it couldn't happen.

99 So, what happened then? He wanted to see the works of God. John said, "I'll know Him when He comes."
One day he was standing there. He said, "Yes, there will come a time that the daily sacrifice will be taken away. The Messiah will be the daily sacrifice, and the abomination that maketh desolations will set in."
"Rabbi, where do you get that? That's contrary to our creed."
But it's not contrary to God's Word. There's a prophet, because the Word of the Lord was with that prophet. That's right.
And he said, "Behold, there stands the Lamb of God, that takes away the sin of the world!" An ordinary, little, stoop-shouldered fellow standing there, come walking down towards the river, walking along with Lazarus---just an ordinary man, dressed like ordinary men. No priest, no turban, no crown, no nothing. Just a poor boy, carpenter, come walking down---with his hands full of splinters, maybe---come walking down.
"Do you mean to tell me... ?"
"What? Can't you see Him? There. Behold [means "look up to, esteem"]! There is the Lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world."

100 Some of them said, "Well, you know who that is? That's that carpenter's son. Now, we know that guy is not no prophet." But, He was. He was. He knowed. "Why? He don't know what he's talking about." Yes, he did. "How could he tell Him any different from any other man?" The Messiah will be different. "How will we know it?" John saw something they didn't.
Depends on what you're looking at. What do you see tonight? Do you see a great popular man, a great denomination, and everything fall into your laps? Or, you just take the way with the Lord's despised few? Do you see the Bible? Do you see God's Word? If you're born again, you'll see it. Until you are, you can't see it.

101 Here He come. He said, "He that told me in the wilderness..." Oh, brother! "He that told me to cry... I've been crying here for six months, plumb up into Enon and everywhere here, up-and-down this Jordan---wading this mud, fussing with you preachers, kicking your denominations around, standing on your sore toes---but the thing is here. I see it!"
"How do you know?"
"The same one told me to be a voice crying in the wilderness---God had raised me up for that purpose---said upon whom I shall see the Spirit."
John knew Him. What did he do? He preached the Word first, obeyed the Word, and he saw the sign of God. And, remember, it's not recorded that any other person standing there saw it. John saw it alone. It depends on what you're looking for. Why? John was obeying the Word. Priests and them wasn't obeying the Word. John was obeying the Word, his commission, and he saw it. (We'll hurry quickly---got to.)

102 Martha at the grave. She had met the Word of God. She believed it. Before she could see the miracle of God, she had to believe the Word of God and act upon it. She said, "Lord, if you would have been here, my brother had not died."
He said, "Martha, I am the resurrection and life. He that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live. And whosoever liveth and believeth in me, shall never die. Believest thou this?"
She said, "Yea, Lord." There you are---acting. "I believe."
"What do you believe, Martha?"
"That Thou art the Christ that was to come into the world."
Said, "Where've you buried him?"
Got down at the grave, and there He was standing there. Said, "I want to see if she really believes that I am the Word." Said, "Take away the stone."
She went to acting on the Word. She had to, to see death turned to life.
And the only way you'll ever be able to see death turned to life is take His Word and act upon it.
If you're a sinner, take His Word and act upon it, then you'll see the miracle of God. You become a miracle of God.
If you are sick, take the Word of God. Doctor says, "You're going to die," take the Word of God and act upon it. That will bring new life.

103 Oh, my!
Sorry to keep you so long. Just a couple more, then I'll quit. See, just a couple more. Honest, I will. I'm sorry to take my brothers' time. See, just leaves them two hours for it.
The woman at the well, she was a sinner. She had five husbands. She come out there one day to get some water. She started to draw the water, and she heard a man say, "Woman, bring me a drink."
She looked around, and she said, "It's not customary for Jews to speak to Samaritans. I am a woman of Samaria. And it's not customary. Why would you speak to me?"
He said, "But if you knew who you was talking to, you would ask me for a drink."
"Why," she said, "the well is deep, and you have nothing to draw with." Said, "How you going to get a drink?"
And He said, "The water that I give will be a fountain of water, a gusher, bubbling up in the soul."

104 She said, "Now, wait a minute. You're a Jew. You worship at Jerusalem, and our fathers worship at this mountain," and so forth.
He said, "Believe me! The hour is coming, and now is, when you neither worship at Jerusalem or in this mountain. But God is a Spirit, and they that worship Him must worship Him in the Spirit."
No doubt the little woman said, "Now, wait a minute. Who is this fellow, anyhow?" He wanted her to know who He was, because she had to introduce Him to the Samaritans. "Who is he?" she said.
He talked to her a few minutes, and He said, "Woman, go get your husband, and come here."
Said, "Now he's acting smart," see. She said, "I don't have any husband." Oh-oh!
Then the stick went on the sacrifice. Something happened. What happened? She seen the miracle of God. Said, "You've said the truth, because you've had five; and the one you're living with now is not your husband. So you told the truth."

105 She turned! She knowed that God, to the people, had been dead for years. Their priests and rabbis, and so forth, they had talked about a God; but was promised in the Bible that there was coming One.
She said, "Sir, I perceive that you are a prophet, see. We know that the Messiah cometh. (Now, let me be sure of this.) We know that Messiah cometh. (I'll ask him this, and I'll see what his word is. A man can't tell me that, that don't know God.) We know that Messiah cometh, who is called the Christ. And when He comes, this is the thing that He'll do when He comes. We're looking for Him."
He said, "I am He."
That was enough. That was enough. She run into the city. She said, "Come see a man that told me the things that I have done."
Before she could bring that message, she had to first see the miracle of God. Before she could see the miracle of God, she had to take God at His Word. That's exactly right.
Oh, my, how we could go on! Let's get another one.

106 Pentecost. After they had walked with the Word, after they had seen the Word, after they had believed the Word, but before they could see the miracle of Pentecost, they had to obey the Word, see. "Go up to the city of Jerusalem," said the Word, "and wait there until you're endued with power from on high."
Now, what if eight days passed, Matthew looked over to Mark, and said, "You know what? I had a little funny feeling the other day; that must have been the Holy Ghost. He told us to wait up here. See, that must have been it."
"Oh, let's wait another day."

107 The ninth day comes on. "Well, now, He told us to go up here nine days ago. Surely ... don't you believe we've received it? I believe we got it when we believed Him. Don't you think so?" Oh, you good Baptists! Said, "I believe we got it, because He told us to come up here. And you know what I believe? I believe, as soon as we got up here we obeyed what He said."
But what did He say? He didn't say, "When you get up there, you'll get it." He didn't say wait five days or nine days. He said, "Until..." That's it. "They that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength."

108 What do you do? Take His Word, act on it and stay right with it. Each day, stand toe-to-toe with Satan with it: "It's written! It's written! It's written! It's written! It's written! It's written! It's written!" It's got to come to pass! You're acting upon the Word, see; then you'll see the miracle of God. That's right. But first you have to act on it.
They went up there and they obeyed the Word. They stayed there.
The ninth day come. I can hear Peter say, "You know what? What do you brethren think?"
Mark might have raised up and said, "You know what, brethren? Let's just accept it by faith, because we're obeying." No, you're not fully obeying.

109 You said, "I was baptized in the name of Father, Son, and Holy Ghost." That ain't fully obeying. You say, "I joined the church." That's not obeying, see. "I repeat the Apostles' Creed." That still isn't obeying. "Oh, brother, I quit my lying and stealing. I don't do anything mean." That still ain't obeying.
It's got to be a birth. There's got to be something happen. You've got to die, and something be born in you.
Oh, after so many days they waited, nine days passed. They said, "Let's just accept it and go on with our ministry. The world is a-dying out there. Why should we wait any longer?"

110 I can hear Peter say, "But, you know, something tells me that it ain't right yet. That ain't just exactly obeying the Word. See, if we expect to see the miracle that God promised us---of sending the promise of the Father upon us---we've got to wait here until something happens. Because the Scripture said that it would come in this form: Joel said, 'I'll pour out my spirit upon all flesh. Your sons and daughters shall prophesy. Upon my handmaids and maid servants will I pour out of my Spirit. I'll show signs and wonders in the heavens and in the earth.' Isaiah the prophet said, 'And with stammering lips and other tongues will I speak to this people, and this is the sabbath day that they should enter in. For all this, they would not hear it.' Now, brethren, we couldn't walk out here like that, without seeing any experience at all, see. We've got to have something, because He said, 'Wait here until you are endued with power.' Now, I haven't got any more power than I did when I come in here. I've been here all night, I've been here the next night, I've been here nine nights. I'm just the same as I was when I come in here. He told us we would receive power, so let's just keep on waiting."

111 Then, all of a sudden, when they fully obeyed the Word of God, then they saw the miracle of Pentecost. They saw fire fall in the building. That pillar of fire come down in amongst the people, and big licks like cloven tongues sat upon each of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and began to speak with other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance.
Something happened. When? When they made their decision that they had already received it? No. When they fully obeyed the Word of God, they saw the miracle of Pentecost. So is it today. You got to do the same thing.

112 Now, friends, I really will close on this one. I ain't going to turn another page. All right, next man get ready, when I say this.
Now, although called everything that can be called bad... Holy-roller, Pentecostal, church-breaker, hypocrite, Beelzebub, dreamer," everything that can be called, we are called. But what do they do? Call you what? "Dreamer, Beelzebub, false prophet, Jesus Only," everything else that can be called, everything bad that could be called.
But by believing the true Word of God, His true prophet of the Word, what do we do? We see the things that we see.

113 Oh, they'll come from the East and West,
They'll come from the lands afar,
To feast with our King,
to dine as His guest;
How blessed these pilgrims are!
Beholding His hallowed face
Aglow with love divine;
Blessed partakers of His grace,
As gems in His crown to shine.
Jesus is coming soon,
Our trials will then be o'er.
Oh, what if our Lord this moment
should come
For those who are free from sin?
Oh, then would it bring you joy,
Or sorrow and deep despair?
When our Lord in glory comes,
We'll meet Him up in the air.

114 Why? We're acting upon His Word! Amen. Call anything you want to, we see the sign of the Messiah in our midst. We see the pillar of fire! Can't deny it. Call us anything they want to, God is here. Science has took the picture of it. Why? Obeying His Word. It's never been done in history, but yet the mechanical eye of the camera says it's Him; there is a light struck the lens. Why? Taking God's Word first! Let the denominations kick you out if they want to. Let them all turn their back on you if they want to. But act upon the Word of God if you want to see the miracles of God!

115 Jesus promised, "As it was in the days of Sodom, so shall it be in the coming of the Son of man."
That angel came down, God manifested in a human body, turned His back to the tent, and said---not knowing who Abraham was, pretendingly---said, "Abraham," not Abram. He'd just changed his name a couple days before that. "Where is thy wife, Sarah?" Not S-a-r-a-i; S-a-r-a-h. "Where is thy wife, Sarah?" Called him by his fatherly name, and her by her princess name. Oh! Who was He? Abraham knowed right then who that was.
He said, "She is in the tent behind you."
He said, "I'm going to visit you, Abraham. [I] I'm going to visit you according to my promise that I give you, because you've waited now all these years. Twenty-five years you've waited for it. You stayed right with the Word, acting upon the Word. You denied that you even belong on the earth. You become a pilgrim and a stranger. You are seeking a city to come, whose builder and maker is God. I promised you that through this child that would be brought forth, that you'd be a father of many nations. I promised it. You've acted on the Word, now you're going to see the miracle of God."
"How will I see it, my Lord?"
"Where is Sarah, thy wife?"
"In the tent behind you."
Said, "I'm going to visit you according to the time of life."
And Sarah laughed within herself, said, "How can me, an old woman, and my lord old, too, ever have pleasure again?"
He said, "Why did Sarah laugh?"
He had acted upon the Word of God. He was seeing the miracle of God.
Jesus said, "As it was in the days of Sodom, so shall it be in the coming of the Son of man." See, act upon the Word of God, and you will see the miracle of God.

116 What was it? When we stood here, not long ago, preaching the church ages, brought them down, and that little sign that's over there, drawed them here on the board. And right in this audience, before more people than is sitting in here now, just as soon as I got through speaking, a light glowed down, and went back yonder and hung on that wall. And a shadow came over it, while everybody looking at it, and measured off those church ages just exactly the way they're there. How many is here now that was here that day? Raise your hand. Looking at it with your own eyes! What was it? First, believing the Word of God, preaching the Word of God, receiving the Word of God, and we saw the miracle of God confirming the Word that it was right.
Oh, Jesus is coming soon,
(all together)
Our trials will then be o'er.
Oh, what if our Lord this moment
should come
For those who are free from sin?
Oh, then would it bring you joy,
Or sorrow and deep despair?
When our Lord in glory comes,
We'll meet Him up in the air

117 (amen).
Why? We are believing on His Word, keeping the oil in the lamp, it trimmed and burning. Letting your light so shine that other men could see your good works, your fruits, glorify the Father which is in heaven. And what will happen? Believing the Word of God and acting upon the Word of God, we'll meet Him up in the air. Not a shadow of doubt! God bless you.
I'm going to quit---about one-third through. I'll finish it some other time, the Lord willing. "If God is with us, where is his miracles?" Do you believe it?

118 O God, let us see a coming year. Let us see a coming year till our hearts will not be satisfied with a church denomination or a creed, with a handshake or so-called religion. Let us not be satisfied till we feel the miracle-working power and God taking, in our own hearts, taking the world out, and forming Christ. Now, not tonight, and tomorrow start doing something else; but grow in Him, up to His stature. We grow up to Him, until we meet Him. Let's bow our heads.
Room, room, yes, there is room,
There is room at the fountain for thee;
Room, room, yes, there is room,
There is room at the fountain for me.

119 Our heavenly Father, with humbleness of soul and spirit, hoarse in my voice, and these few cut-up or broke-up words, Lord, I pray that You will take them and patch them together---not knowing how to do it, but just saying what come in my mind. Place it down in the heart of every person, and let them see and believe it with the attitude that it was presented. And, Father, it'll make reasonings for them, it'll bring Christ to them. Bless us tonight, Father. We wait, acting upon the Word of God.
Bless these brothers, Lord. Forgive me, Father, for taking some of their time. I pray that You will anoint them with the Holy Ghost in such a way that the power of God will fall through the building here, and sinners may come to the altar and weep their way to Calvary, and that sick will be healed, and great signs and wonders will be done, and we'll see the miracle-working power of the living God. We wait for that, Father, in Jesus' name. Amen.

120 Praise the Lord! Do you love Him? If God be with us, let's see His sign.
Where is the sign of the Messiah that's the same yesterday, today, and forever? If that Messiah is the same, He'll have the same sign. Where is He at? What organization does He belong to? What organization can we go join up with and find the Messiah, His sign? What house can we enter to find it? Think of it.
Sorry, Brother Neville.