From that time

You can find this sermon at ChurchAges.net

1 Thank you. Let us remain standing just a moment, while we bow our heads for prayer. If there's a request tonight, let it be known as a lifted hand to God for request. Our heavenly Father, thou seest the hands and knows what's in their heart, knows what we have need of; and Thou hast promised that You'd be a very present help in the time of trouble. And we pray that You'll deliver them from every trouble. Grant it, Lord.
We thank You for what You are doing in the land today. Around the world the great mystery of the gospel is being unfolded to the thousands of people believing that You're getting a church ready to receive at your coming. I pray, Father, that there'll be many out of this city that will go in that great rapture that we're looking for at any time. Grant it.
Bless us together now, as we've assembled in Jesus' name, asking God in his name to be with us. We're in your hands, Lord. Do with us as you see fit. Amen.

2 I certainly deem this a grand privilege again tonight to be standing here with the people, and believing that God will undertake for us again tonight. And may his rich grace ever rest upon us. A marvelous thing last evening, when we seen Him heal the people along the way. And we gave that night over for prayer for the sick. We usually try not to take too much time for the sick. We pray each night. All's included. The main thing that we try to do is to let people see that Christ is not dead, that He is alive. And if we can just see, the One who made us all these grand promises is here to confirm those promises.
Now, what you see here in the meeting, when we have those nights like that, it's really... There's no way to explain it. I was just standing out there when a couple sisters came up, three of them, I believe. And one sister looked down, said, "Brother Branham, I want to thank God for his mercy to my children tonight, loved ones. Coming up, a car turned out and it turned over, and everything. But never even had a scratch. They're right here now, sitting on the front steps trying to hear the message from the outside. Amazing grace! Sometimes, as it was, as I said last night ... coming from Emmaus... He walks with us daily, and helps us. And yet, maybe we don't recognize it till just at times.

3 Now, visions is something beyond anything that anyone can explain. It's the infinite God who knows the end from the beginning, and predict the end; and tell what the end will be because He knowed every thing, and still knows everything. There is nothing that He doesn't know. And He doesn't know any more now than He did at the beginning, because He's infinite. Do you believe God is infinite? If He isn't, He isn't God.
So then, just think. Here's just... You can't break down infinity. It's just like... To be infinite is just like to be---what would I say---eternal. Eternal never did begin, so it never ends. Did you ever think of that? And everything that begins has an end, see. And things that has no end is things had no beginning.
And that's the reason that we have to have eternal life. We are part of God's life, which the word eternal ... brethren knowing that it comes from the Greek word of "zoe", which means God's own life. That's why we become his own children, see. It's eternal life in us. The life that's in us never did begin; it never can end. It can no more die than God can die, because it's eternal. There's only one thing eternal, and that's God. And we become a part of Him because we become sons and daughters of God. How wonderful to know that God has promised.

4 We just need more time in revivals. Some day I hope to get a tent that I've been wanting to get for so long. And I ... and so we can stay a little longer, so we can get all the funny feelings away. People don't want to be like that, but they just actually are that way, see. We do ... we gather together as a group of people just wherever we come from, different denominations catch us, whatever.
Then, when we come into congregations like this, then you see something mysterious happen. It absolutely kind of shocks us. And so, it ... mainly with ministers. Not with these, but with ministers mostly. They're shepherds, they're guarding their sheep, see, and so they're watching every little thing. You can't blame the man, see, because he's got to understand first.
But the thing... If a man just firmly criticizes, and turns it down, then there's something wrong there. If a man won't give a consideration to look it through the Bible, and search it out... Look, that's the way the Pharisees done our Lord.

5 Did you know every prophet that ever raised on the earth was never received by the people? Every messenger God ever sent was never received, and they didn't know who the messenger was until he was dead and gone. Now, that is right.
You Catholic people here, how did you fail to know Joan of Arc? Many of you school children remember it. That woman was a woman of God. She prophesied, she was a spiritual woman. And do you know what your church done? Burned her as a witch. That's right. Of course, two hundred years later you done some repentance. You dug up those priests' bodies and throwed them in the river, when you realized she was a saint, see.
Always the past. They never knowed Patrick. And the people think St. Patrick was a Catholic? About as much as I am. Watch where his schools are up in Ireland. No crosses and crucifixes with him. He firmly denounced the pope. But, of course, they try to make him with the church, but it's wrong.
I come from a Catholic family. I know what I speak of. I got "Facts of Our Faith," and all those books that I've studied, as much as you could study. And so... But those things, see, they go by. They never knew Elijah, they never knew John, they never knew Jesus till after his death, burial, and resurrection. And now, the Holy Spirit falling, and they won't know it (just like in the days of Noah) until the flood comes, and takes them away (that's right), the great flood comes in.

6 But if those Pharisees would've just sat down, and reasoned... Jesus said to them, "You stoned the prophets. You whitened their walls (or polished their sepulchers) and you're the one that put them in there," see. "But which one of the prophets that God sent that your fathers didn't stone?" see, and those ... so forth. We've got to sit down, and think it over.

7 There was them kind of like Nicodemus, the secret believer, come by night, slip around. Said, "Rabbi, we know you're a teacher comes from God. No man can do the things that you do except God be with him."
Look at little Jairus. He maybe acted like he didn't believe in divine healing, till his little daughter was laying at the point of death. God has a way of pulling that out, and making you show your color, see. And then come right down to the spot, he was a believer. And it just had to come to a spot to make him see it. God is so good to us, and we're thankful for men and women, like sitting here tonight (I am), that believes the gospel, believes in divine healing, watching.

8 I've always said about our organizations, I believe in them. And I believe that they're fine; they serve a purpose. But you see, when we make an organization, 90% of us when we make one we put down, "This is what we believe," period. If you'd say, "This is what we believe (comma), plus as much as God will add to us," that's all right then. That's fine, see. That's exactly.

9 When the pillar of fire moved, Israel moved with it. And in the New Testament, when it began to move, just exactly like it did in the Old Testament, moved the same way... Israel had to follow that pillar of fire, and set the tent up under it. And when it begin to move in this last ... at the reformation, Martin Luther saw it.
And then, as soon as Luther was over, they built an organization around Luther's work. God moved right out from under it. And Wesley saw it, and away he went. After Wesley, and Asbury, and many of the others, when ... after their time, then what happened? They built an organization under it. God moved right out from under it, went right on, see.
And now, we Pentecostals are doing the same thing. You can't organize the Holy Spirit. You can't do it. We believe in organizations to keep brotherhood, and so forth. It serves a good purpose. But always stretch the blanket out to get the other brother, see, and hold your heart open to get what God is ready to send down upon us. That's the way to do it. That's real brotherhood. And so I like that. If I could ever see a time that the Pentecostal church...
Now, Pentecost is not an organization, Pentecost is an experience. I know almost as many Lutheran and Baptist and Presbyterian that's got the Pentecostal experience as Pentecostal people who call themselves Pentecostal. So, Pentecost is an experience.

10 Some time ago... I'll start there, and then get away from my message, or... Just give me time to say this. Will you bear with me? It's good.
I was in Minneapolis, Minnesota. That's a great Norwegian country. And I was having a meeting, and we were at some great building, and I was there right in the wintertime, or springtime. And I stayed at a little cheap hotel down... I believe that Christians shouldn't have everything just so swanky. Jesus didn't have a place to lay his head, see, and we try to have to have the best, and so much security and everything else. Shame on us, see. But a little hotel...
And that ... one night when I come in from the church... The next morning I went out, had breakfast, and when I come back there was a twenty-two page letter in a little pigeonhole to me. How the man ever knew I was there, I don't know. So I read it. And, oh, you talk about good criticism, it was good! And I appreciate that. I certainly do. Any man that's really got a point, and wants to criticize, that checks us up. You know, a criticism makes a good product, see, when we're willing to receive it, test it.

11 So, this man had give me the awfullest bawling out. He was a dean of a college, and he said, "You was talking last night about being in the ministry twenty-five years (it's thirty-one now)." But he said twenty-five years. Said, "I was in the ministry before you were born." And he said, "And some... I've seen some mighty strange things." And said, "I drove last night fifteen miles through a blinding snowstorm; thought I would see a servant of Christ. And what did I find but a polished-up soothsayer."
And he said... And he wouldn't call me "brother"; he just said, "Branham." That was all right. So he said, "And the very idea! The theology, the rottenest I ever heard in my life." And he said, "For instance, you said this, that Satan could not heal." Said, "A man that stands before as many people as you do, and make such a mistake as that!" Said, "Why, it's terrible."
He said, "Now let me tell you something, young man." He said, "Over behind our seminary here," a place ... said, "there's a woman's got a familiar spirit." And said, "She has a big apron on." And said, "People come there for divine healing." And said they ... and she goes, and feels all over them, like that with her hands. And said, "Then, the first thing you know, they drop money down in this apron."

12 Now you could see right there, it's unscriptural, and not right to begin with ... anybody with any knowledge of God, see. And said, "Then she takes, and pulls some hair out of the back of her neck, plucks some blood from their veins, and wraps this hair in it. Walks down to a little creek behind the place, throws it over her head into the creek."
And said, "Then, she starts walking towards the people. And if she's constrained to look back," said, "the people ... the disease comes back on the people. If she doesn't," said, "then, why, the disease doesn't come back."
And said, "We have watched that." And said, "A certain percent of them get well." And said, "The very idea of you saying that Satan could not heal!" Well, he went on with a whole lot.

13 And I thought, "Well, if he took enough time to write me twenty-two pages, I ought to write him at least two pages back, as an answer. So I set down the best that I could. I can't even read my own writing, so... And I scribbled him off a little something. And I said, "Precious brother..." I had to call him that. Any man that had been preaching for fifty years ought to be regarded as brother, preaching the gospel, no matter how it's been. And I regarded him as my brother.
And I said, "I certainly appreciate, and esteem highly, your long years of ministry for our Lord." And I said, "I certainly am thankful to God to let you live at this good ripe age, and the things that you've done," and so forth. And there was another brother with them. So then (of this college)...
Then, first thing you know, I said, "But the ... what strange thing is to me," I said, "that you criticize me so much upon saying that Satan could not heal." I said, "Now you said Satan could heal. Jesus said if Satan can cast out Satan, then his kingdom's divided." I said, "Now who am I going to believe? You, or what Christ said? Satan cannot heal. Christ said so. He's working against himself. He cannot heal."
But I said, and I... "To try to explain, if you'll forgive me," I said, "to a dean of a college, or a great man like you, that I would like to tell you, being a missionary, I've seen people come to idols, and get healed. La Salle, Lorraine, France, there's an idol of a woman. And down in Paris I seen where they had a woman---dead woman---there, and they'd rubbed a whole stone off behind her to keep plagues off the city. I've seen all those things.
"And I've seen people in America, who call themselves divine healers, and say, 'I got healing here, and healing this way, and healing in this...'" I said, "It's the same thing, see. Healing is in Christ." Exactly.
But I said, "The people ... I don't doubt but what those people got well. But here's what happens. Divine healing is based upon faith. And those people coming to that witch that you're talking about, of course they get it. They think they're approaching God through that witch, and upon the basis of their faith God heals them, see. They... Certainly. You ... if you've got faith enough to believe it, it'll take place. That's exactly right.
But I said, "The strange thing to me, that a dean of a Lutheran college would base his faith upon an experience instead of the Word of God." I said that Satan could not heal. "It's their approach, believing they're approaching God through the witch, and through the idol, and so forth. It's innocent people that's believing, that God heals."

14 Well, about a year after that I was back there for the Christian Businessmen in a meeting. And another precious brother, Dr. Aegery, of the Bethany College, wrote me a letter, and said he'd like to have me over there. I was afraid to go, because I knowed those intellectual giants. I had my little grammar school education could not stand with theirs. And he invited me, and I said to Brother Moore, "If you'll go with me, now, to get me past my education... I'll bump you on the knee with mine, and you take over from there." And so, he agreed to go.
So we sat at the table. They set us a nice table down in the gymnasium room. Lovely little Lutheran women served our fine dinner, very fine. And when ... Dr. Aegery sat next to me, and he said, "Now Mr. Branham..." When we got through, he said, "I want to say this one thing. I apologize ..." what the man said. Said, "Now, but I..."
I said, "That was forgiven at the beginning."
And he said, "We are hungry here at Bethany." Said, "We are ... there's a great..." The students, if they can't pay their way, they've got hundreds of acres of corn and stuff they raise, and work their way through college. Very fine school. And he said, "We are hungry. We're studying about God." And said, "We found in there a couple of years ago about the Holy Ghost, and how it worked."

15 And said, "We went to the Pentecostals that claimed to have it." And said, "We seen them kick over the chairs, and knock out the windows, and so forth." He said, "What have they got?"
I said, "The Holy Ghost."
And he said, "That?"
I said, "Sure. They got so much steam they have to blow it out the whistle. They won't put it to action, let it go to working." I said, "That's all. There's so much steam, blow ... builds up, they have to get it someway." And I said, "They just..." If you'd put that same power, that same thing in action, in faith, with God's Word, and go to moving it, see, instead of just blowing it out, see... It's the Holy Spirit builds it up in there.
And he said, "Well, then what do you think we Lutherans has got?"
I said, "The Holy Spirit." And then he stopped, and looked at me. And I thought, "Lord, if You ever helped me, You do it now." Thought, "I sure got myself..."
He said, "Well..."

16 I thought, "If You'll just help me, Lord..." He's always did it, amongst witch doctors and devils, and around the world, and tight places.
And he said, ...
I said, "Well, listen, sir."
He said, "We went to ... flew over to Los Angeles, to a man that wrote a book on all the gifts." And said, "When we got there, he said, 'I don't ... I ain't got any of them.' Said, 'I just wrote about them.'"
He said, "Well, we could do the same thing here, because... He took it right out of Scripture. We want to see it. That night when we come down there, and seeing that, we'd done made up our mind it was wrong. And that's the reason we called you a polished-up soothsayer."
I said, "Well, I forgive you for that, as I said." But I said...

17 He said, "What have we Lutherans got?"
I said, "The Holy Spirit. Now, listen." I thought I'd talk in his own line so he would know. I said, "One time a man got a great field ready, and he planted a crop of corn. He kept watching it, day after day, until one morning he went out, and there was two little blades growing up." You know what corn is when it comes up. I said, "The man stood up on his porch, and said, 'Praise God for a crop of corn.'" I said, "Now, did he have it?"
He said, "Well, he had the starting of it."
I said, "Then, we'd say potentially he had it. By and by those... That was you Lutherans at the beginning." And I said, "By and by those leaves growed up, and a tassel come out of them. That was the Methodist."
And I said, "Then the Methodist looked back down to the Lutherans, and said, 'I have no need of you. I'm a tassel. You're not into it.' But you see, it had to use ... back ... the leaf also because ... for the pollen to drop in. And out come a ear, Pentecost, with the original... Like it was at the beginning, the grain that went in the ground, it was producing a grain." I said, "Now, we got a lot of fungus on the ear, but we got grains, too." That's right. I said, "Like it was at the beginning."
I said, "That's why I'm among the people. They're God's people." And I said, "You see, the Pentecostal church is the advanced Lutheran church, because the same life that was in the leaf made the corn." And that's right. And he caught it.

18 He scooted back his plate, and got up. He said ... looked down to his associates, all the students, and so forth, and the deans, and the body, and he said, "We here at Bethany are hungry for the Holy Ghost." Said, "Brother Branham, what shall we do to receive it?"
I said, "Turn your face from the table, go over against the wall, and kneel down against the wall, and be real sincere."
... went down and laid hands on them. Forty some-odd received the Holy Ghost right then. And now they got better than four hundred in that school, doing all kinds of signs, miracles. What is it? That's Lutheran Pentecost, see. Everywhere, everywhere the Holy Ghost... We cannot bind this down and say, "We Pentecostals has got it." God's broke that boundary, and went on out in there, and got everything that there was. "Whosoever will, let him come," see. It's for the people.
Pentecost is an experience. Roman Catholic, Jewish Orthodox---whatever they might be---Chinese, Buddha, everything: the gospel is for whosoever will, he may come.

19 Oh, I just love it! and just love it! Oh, how I love it! And I know that God is able at the last day to raise up that which He has said that He would do. I believe that. I believe in the general resurrection, that those who died back there in the Lutheran faith at the beginning will not ... these ... will not prevent these... The trumpet of God shall sound, and the entire dead in Christ shall rise. That's right.
I believe the church comes to its perfection constantly, coming up. And as the enemy comes in like a flood, the Spirit of God raises a standard against it---greater, and greater, and greater building up. Now it's right down to that last thing, what I was talking about last night. Oh, I believe that He will come. And I believe that these old frail bodies of ours will be changed, and made like unto his own glorious body.

20 ... preaching on how He turned Abraham and Sarah back there to a young man and woman to have that baby. Saying that, some time ago, I was combing these two or three hairs I have left. My wife said to me, she said, "Billy, you're almost bald-headed."
I said, "But I haven't lost a one of them."
She said, "Then, I pray you tell me where they're at."
I said, "Honey, tell me where they were before I got them. Ever where they were then, they're back there now waiting for me to come to them." Amen! That's right. That's ... even the hairs of your head is numbered. Not one of them shall perish. That's exactly right. What are we made out of? We're made out of sixteen elements. That's potash, and petroleum, and cosmic light, and so forth. And that's just what God's got right...

21 He's a great contractor. Before He ever had a human being on earth, He laid out the material, like a contractor building a subdivision. He was going to make man in his own image, and give them the earth to stay. And they were lesser gods than He was.
Jesus said, "Your law says that you are gods." That's dominion---king's dominion over the earth. He could do anything he wanted to. And sin come in, and now woman brings child. And when it does, that child must die, see. It's exactly. It's a perverted birth. But then when the new birth comes in, it corrects that perverted birth and gives it eternal life through the Father, Jesus Christ.
Oh, brother! Jesus said, "He that heareth my word... He that eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up again at the last day." Amen. "All the Father has given me will come to me," and nothing is lost. Amen. He'll raise it up again at the last day. Death or nothing else can separate us. We're always in the presence of God. How I love that!

22 Little quotation... I very seldom ... don't say very much. I just talk a lot, and don't say nothing. But sometimes... I'm not like the brother preachers here who are scholars, and knows how to set those things in order. But sometimes I say something, and it helps me a whole lot, anyhow. And not long ago I said something that's very profound to me.
I was thinking of the assurance of our going over. And then... We notice that one time God's children were slaves, down in Egypt. They throwed them bread, molded, rotten. Whatever it was, they had to eat it. They ravished their girls, they killed their sons, anything they would... And them was the people of God. That's right. Now. And so they were slaves, and they could not help it.
But one day coming down out of the wilderness come a prophet, with a pillar of fire over him. And he told them the Word of God: that there was a land flowing with milk and honey, that God had promised Abraham he'd take his children to. And this prophet was a-vindicated of being of God by the signs and wonders that he did while he was in Egypt. And the people believed this man.
And he come out of Egypt---the children of Israel did---and came to the place of Kadesh-barnea, which any scholar knows that Kadesh-barnea, one time, was the judgment seat of the world. There's where Israel met her judgment, when she failed to believe the sign that they'd brought back of the grapes and things from the land.

23 Now remember. Nobody had ever been in this land in their group. They'd heard of it. Faith cometh by hearing, and God made the promise. Do you get it? God made the promise, and here come Moses, the runaway prophet, in there with vindicated signs, and proving that it was God taking them to this land that they'd never seen. What a perfect type of today. None of us has ever been over. Notice.
When they come to Kadesh-barnea, the judgment seat, they had a great warrior among them named Joshua, which means Jehovah-saviour. Joshua. Now, he crossed over Jordan into that promised land, and returned back with the evidence that it was a good land. He had grapes; two men packed a bunch. They could taste the heavenly things from over in the promised land, the good land flowing with milk and honey. They come back to prove that the land was truth, that God's word was exactly what Moses had said it was through the inspiration of God. It was there.

24 They could have their own homes. The occupants... Of course, they had to fight every inch of the road they took. God told Joshua (and Joshua won) that "everywhere the soles of your feet sets, that's possession." That's the way it is today. Everywhere the soles of our feet sets, it's possession. Just keep walking. Footprints means possession. Just take it.
Now remember, they had to fight every inch of the way. Some people can just take the two-handed sword, and fight just a little bit of shadow away. Some can cut through to divine healing, every promise of God with it. That's right. The Word is a sword, and takes faith to wield that sword (that's right), faith in the promised Word.
Now we notice that when... They come back, and they said they could have their homes and so forth. Israel crossed over into the promised land, built homes, raised their children, lived in peace. All the rest of the nations respected them. What a wonderful thing! But finally, up on the hillside ... become dotted with graves. They got old, died, buried.

25 Then one day came another great warrior, the greatest of all of them---Immanuel. He come down, and He said, "This is not the land. But in my Father's house is many mansions. If it wasn't so I would have told you. And I'll go and prepare a place for you, and return again to receive you unto myself." Notice.
He came to his Kadesh-barnea, Calvary, where He stood the sin-judgment for all of us. The penalty of God's judgment was met in justice when Christ died at Calvary, paying the price of sin for all of us. And He crossed over in a Jordan, as we know it, the Jordan of death, over into the land; and returned back on the third day, like Joshua did, bringing the evidence that after a man dies he can live again. There's life beyond death. He proved it.
And now ... He said, "For the earnest of this, the down... [You know what the earnest of anything is---the down payment.], go up there to the city of Jerusalem and wait. I'm going to send you the earnest of your salvation." Amen. Now I begin to feel religious. And they waited until they received the earnest.

26 Now, even to this day, that same Holy Spirit that has lifted us up from a life of sin where we once lived... And we're already dead in Christ, buried, and raised with Him in his resurrection, and sitting now in heavenly places with Him (Amen!), watching Him work among us. Why? Why ain't I out yonder amongst the denominations? Because it's those that are dead and buried in Him, and raised with Him in his resurrection...
And now---not we will be---we are now in heavenly places in Christ Jesus, looking back to where we once come from---a direct evidence that we received part of it because we're dead, and our life is hid in God through Christ, and already raised again in the resurrection with Him. Amen! Oh, my! Like an old colored sister said... Excuse me, my colored friends---I'm going to put it the way she did. She was very Southern. She said, "Well, I wants to make a testimony tonight, doctor."
"All right. Go ahead, sister."
She said, "I want to say this. I hain't what I ought to be," and she said, "I hain't what I want to be. But there's one thing sure. I hain't what I used to be." Yes, sir! She knowed that she had raised up somewhere. Amen.

27 What is it? The evidence that we are now dead. Our life is hid in God through Christ, sealed by the Holy Ghost, and raised with Him, and sitting in heavenly places watching Him. Think of it! No power; but authority. We don't have power; we have authority. Christ has the power. He is the power, but we have the authority.
Don't have to be very much. Take a little old cop, standing out here on the street, and his pistol packing way down on the side, bending him sideways, and his cap sitting down---pulling his ears down---and cars going down the street, doing sixty miles an hour. He hasn't got power to stop one of them. No, sir! Why, some of them three or four hundred horsepower, whizzing through there.
But just let him walk out there with that star shining, raise up that glove, whistle. You hear brakes scream, and everything else. He ain't got no power; but he's got authority. Amen. Hallelujah! That's where the church is tonight. It's got the authority because it's raised in Christ. Authority!
Now, if the cop'd say, "I'm afraid to get out there. I don't know. My office might not back me up," they'll keep on whizzing by. And I tell you even death itself squeaks its brakes when that authority raises up in the name of the Lord Jesus. "In my name they shall cast out devils, speak with new tongues, take up serpents or drink deadly things. Lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover."
I love Him, I love Him,
Because He first loved me;
And purchased my salvation
On Calvary's tree.

28 Father God, we give these testimonies just to help the people. Now settle our minds, Lord, as we approach thy Word. Grant, Lord, that the Holy Spirit will take the next few words now, and sink them into the hearts of the people, and there may come forth the joy bells of heaven ringing in every heart. We ask it in Jesus' name. Amen.

29 In the gospel of St. Matthew, the 4th chapter, and I want to read the 17th verse:
And from that time Jesus began to preach, saying, Repent: for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.
Now, for about twenty or thirty minutes of your time... "From That Time." I want to use that for a text. "From That Time," three words. Now there is times, and things that happen, that changes the whole course of our life. We know that. We're all aware certain things take place along life's journey, that changes the whole course of life for us.

30 Now, like as a child. You might have said when you were a child that certain things happened. I had a man at home... These visions that you see here at the platform are merely ... they're really...
They are visions, but not the real vision. They are ... that's you doing that. It's not me; it's you. You're doing it yourself. You're not conscious of it, but you're doing it. You can't explain God. Anybody ... you have to believe God by faith. When you can explain God, it's no more by faith. No one can explain Him. But it's like when... Jesus was God's gift to the earth.

31 But when ... one day Lazarus'd taken sick. Before he took sick, God told his Son, "Leave," and told Him all that was going to happen, for He said, in St. John 5:19, "The Son can do nothing in himself, but what he sees the Father doing." Now that has to be truth, or He lied. And you can't make Him lie because He's God, see. So the Father sent Him away.
They sent to Him to get help for Lazarus, but instead of coming, He just ignored it. He knowed what was going to happen, so He went on. They sent again, and He ignored it again. Finally He said, "Lazarus is asleep."
And they said, "He doeth well."
And then He told them in their language, "Lazarus is dead, and for your sake I'm glad I wasn't there. But I go wake him."
Now He met Martha, and Martha said, "Lord, if You'd been here my brother'd not died. But even now whatever You ask God, God'll give it to You."

32 And at the grave, look. Father'd already showed Him. He said, "Father, I thank Thee. Thou has already done these things. [But He prayed for an example.] I say it for these that stands by. Lazarus, come forth." And a man that had been dead four days raised again out of the grave. We believe that---the gospel. He never said nothing about being weak. But a little woman touched the border of his garment, and He said He got weak.
What was it? That was the Father using his gift. And that took Him up, and showed Him what was going to happen, and what was coming to pass, and so forth. And then that was it. He went ahead, and just acted out his drama.
But this woman, she ... and her faith was using God's gift. She said, "If I can just but touch Him," see, and it was the woman... Jesus didn't know who it was that did it. He said, "Thy faith [not I have, but your faith] has saved you," see. "Thy faith." Not his faith; her faith. And that's the reason it made Him weak.

33 Now in the meetings and those who go out and follow around, and know just how the Holy Spirit ... these things here, it might make you be suspicious. But if you'd get out one time and watch what happens, and just to see how it foretells exactly...
And I ask anybody anything that I ever said in all my life, but what exactly happened just the way it said it would. That's right. I tell it months and months ahead, just exactly. How many was here when I first come through Washington years ago? You remember, I'd have to take the people by my hand, and stand there and hold them, just to know what it was. And I told you all then that He told me if I'd be sincere, that I'd know the very secret of their heart. How many know me predicting that? There it is, see. Did it happen? Just exactly, see.
And I'm waiting right now. Why am I holding these meetings like this? I'm stalling, waiting to see what the next move is. That's exactly. I don't know which way to move. I'm going to the mission fields after this, just wondering, because I know we're right at the end, see. How close I don't know, but I believe we're at the end.

34 Certain things happened. When I was a little boy He spoke to me. Said, "Don't never smoke or drink, or defile your body. There's a work for you to do when you get older." It's in the book back there. You may read it. And my mother and them, they thought I was just nervous.
And then it went ahead, and two days---three days after that told how that bridge would cross the river, just below our place now. Sixteen men would lose their life on it. And they wrote it down. And twenty-two years from then it happened just exactly, and sixteen men lost their life. It's never been ... out of the thousands of things, but what it's been perfectly right, see. That's right. See, things happen when you're a child that impresses.

35 Now time, as time goes on ... from time to time things happen that leaves an impression on our life. For instance, like we say, the immoral woman. I've had them in confession. I had one not long ago. It was the most pathetic case. In a home we sat there, and they...
People call in, come in from all over the world. A trustee of our church... And some of them are in this building tonight. They know it's true. There's about three hundred on the waiting list, and they come in from Africa, from Asia, from Europe---from everywhere I've been---waiting, watching. They write back and forth until they get the time. And we sit right there until the Holy Spirit reveals everything, then tells them just what to do, and how to do it. And never one time has it ever failed, see.
That person comes in and waits. Maybe it's something in their life. They know the plan of salvation, and things, but there's something they don't know what to move or do. And they wait there months, waiting for it to happen, see.

36 And I had a woman came one time. It wasn't at the home, it was at a meeting. And the woman... I went into the ward where they had the insane in jackets, and that was... Walked in there. And they couldn't be out in the public. They were in straitjackets, and some of them had to have guards over them.
And then, when I walked in, a lovely young woman was sitting there---pretty young girl. And I said, "How do you do?"
She said, "How do. Are you Brother Branham?"
I said, "I am." And I said, "Well, I just don't know where to start."
She said, "I wish you would start with me."
And I said, "You?" I said, "Are you a patient?"
She said, "Yes, sir."
I said, "This is just for the insane."
She said, "That's what I am." I said... She said, "Would you listen to my story?"
And I said, "Certainly, ma'am."

37 And what that woman told me! Young---about twenty-five years old, twenty-two or twenty-five, something like that, I judge. A very pretty woman, and looked like would make any man a lovely, beautiful little queen. And she told me that when...
She was raised up in a Christian home. And when she did, she started going with a boy that smoked and drank. And one night there was a spiked drink given to her---not exactly with something to knock her out, but with something that she didn't ... well ... it was something ... immoral act. She thought she'd throwed her life away.
She become an alcoholic, she become a prostitute, she was picked up, and sent to the Good Shepherd's Home when she was only about fifteen years old---Catholic institution. Changed her religion from what she was unto a Catholic. Come back out, thought she'd be all right. Said the same thing happened.
Then she was picked up. She was getting of age then. She was picked up, and spent two years in a woman's penitentiary. And there they thought they'd fixed it all right then.
Said when she come out, she said, same thing again, started right over again.

38 And I said, "Well, now, lady, it's... You're just trying to turn a new leaf. That won't work." And I said, "It may sound old-fashioned, but," I said, "I want to ask you something." I said, "Don't you never expect to be married, a pretty woman like you, and have a husband, and babies like any normal woman?"
She said, "Yes, but who in the world would have me?" And she said, "What could I promise a man?" Said, "I get temper fits that I'd fight, and swear, and drink." And said, "I'd get on a drunk, and wouldn't come home for a month." Said, "What would a man want with a woman like me?"
And I said, "He wouldn't. But," I said, "did you ever think that instead of it being just something, as a school, or turning over a new leaf, or something could help you, that it's the devil?"
And she said, "Mr. Branham, I've always believed that." She said, "Now they say I'm a delinquent person."
I said, "I don't believe it. I believe the devil has got a hold of you."
And she said, "I've always believed that."
I said, "Now, the only way to get rid of a devil is in prayer." And I said, "Now let's get down and pray."
And she prayed. She prayed there a while. I prayed with her, and she looked back up, and she said, "Oh, Mr. Branham, I believe I'm going out of here to be a different girl."
I said, "No. You're going to go out the same way you come in, see. You're just simply taking it on a mental conception." I said, "You've got to get down to business, sister, with God."

39 And we got down there, and started praying. After a while she struck something. Then she turned, and the tears running down them cheeks out of them big brown eyes, she said, "Brother Branham, I'll never do that again." Oh, she'd found something then.
She's married now, and got two or three children. She's never drank from that day since. She's never smoked. See, something happened.
But you see, it started when she was just a girl---a wrong act. A little boy, maybe a little modern Elvis with a block haircut, and out there thinking he's so cute, or something like that. And the first thing you know, get a girl wound around him like that, and then do a trick like that. That's a modern Judas! That's right. Now, she didn't aim to, but it started as a child.

40 The drunk, I've met many of those that said, "Brother Branham..." down the skid rows and so forth.
When I was in New York not long ago ... I won't have time to tell it, but how that I picked up a drunk. He was the president of a bank that I could look at from where he was. Said, "I come home one night. I found a 'Dear John' letter. I thought I'd drink it away. Here I am. Could you give me a quarter to get a drink?" And there you are. They didn't aim to do it.
The cigarette smoker, that woman that smoked her first cigarette: she didn't mean to become a tobacco worm. That boy---the first time you smoked that little cornsilk cigarette, you didn't mean to become a cigarette fiend. The first little sociable drink you taken, you didn't mean to become a drunkard. See, you don't mean to, but it started because somebody influenced you to do it. That's it.

41 Oh, of the stories of these thirty-one years around the world, and around, and around, hearing the confessions, and things, that'd raise the hair on your head. To think of the things that ... hear them confess of what they've started, how innocent they was, and how beautiful sin looks, and how attractive it looks to be. But it's a way of death. Don't go in it. Whatever you do, shun the very appearance of evil.

42 The liar: he never ... he thought he'd tell a little lie to his mother. He went and ate some coffee, and went and blowed his breath in his mother's face. "See, I never ... I never smoked, mama." But you lied.
A red light flashes, "Don't do this, little boy." It's not easy to go to hell. You have to fight your way to hell. Every time you do wrong, there's a little red light drops down in you, and the countdown comes. "Little boy, don't do this. Little girl, don't do that." See, it's something happens in you. But you fight right over it.

43 You pass by the church, and you hear the people singing the gospel songs. You really want to go in. But, oh, my! You light up another cigarette, and shake your head. What are you trying to do? You're fighting your way right through every barricade.
God don't send you to hell; you send yourself to hell. Break every barricade, run every stop light trying to make yourself go to hell. And then say God's good, and won't send you to hell? You're sending yourself to hell. God sends nobody to hell. It was created for the devil, and his angels---not for you. But you fight your way right into it, men and women do.

44 You see them...
Wonders of God. Some people'll do that just because of theology, some church creed, or something. You'll walk away and shun God, to keep from receiving the Holy Ghost. You see people down at the altar praying, see them women get up, and men, their faces washed with tears; and screaming, and walking up and down the building; some of your friends on the outside laughing.
You say, "If that's new birth, I don't want nothing to do with it. Our church believes in new birth and we just put our name on the book." You're afraid of it!
Let me tell you this. I don't care what kind of a birth it is, it's a mess. If it's in a pigpen, or in a hospital room, pink decorated, it's a mess. And the new birth is nothing less, but it takes that to bring life. You've got to die in order to be borned again. It's true.

45 Notice how that God warns, "Don't lie." Then every New Year you'll sign a pledge, "I'll not do it any more." Oh, you got good intentions. Certainly. Hell's paved with that---with good intentions. You don't think that ... you think that's the way to do it, just presume that that's the way you should do it. Every New Year just say, "Well, I'm going to make my New Year vows. I'll write them all out." And before two days is up, you've done broke half of them. See, you can't do it.
Throw away your pack of cigarettes, and watch where they light. Throw your bottle out somewhere, and be sure you don't break it. Set it up on a shelf, and say to wife, "I ain't going to do it no more." Say to husband, "I'll never drink no more."
But you watch what you do with it, because you go right back to it, like a hog to its wallow, and a dog to its vomit. It's got to take something different. You've got to die out to the creature that you are, see. Yes, sir.

46 It starts off as an innocent child, maybe in a good Christian home. But there was somebody who come along. Some little sneaker come along and twisted you off of the right road. You can mark the time when it started, when you first started lying; when you first started stealing; when you first started drinking; when you first started doing anything was wrong.
Before you can ever accept wrong, you've got to deny the right. You've got to deny right before you... You've got to deny God's truth before you can ever accept anything wrong. That's exactly right. Notice. Now in New Year's, you change and you say, "Now, it's... I'm going to turn a new page." You have good intentions. Certainly. I believe the nation has good intentions.

47 I can just barely remember as a little boy about five years old, when the first World War broke out. I know my father came up the road driving two horses in a spring wagon, and he had a sack of beans, and some flour (he'd been to the grocery) sitting on the seat. And I heard him get off the wagon, and come in.
And mother said (way down in the city miles below), said, "I heard the whistles all blowing."
He said (her name was Ella), said, "Ella, they've declared war." And he was about twenty-two years old. Said, "You know what that means? I'm going."
And I picked up that sack of beans. I said, "They come after my daddy, I'll hit them with this sack of beans." I was so little, but I...
He said, "Now they tell us, if we'll go on overseas and fight this war, there'll never be no more wars." And said, "Here's Billy. He may have to go some day. There's Edward. He might have to go. There's Melvin. He might have to go." And said, "If I go and help fight, and get them get free again," said, "they tell us there'll never be no more wars. And it'll settle wars when they have this great World War."

48 They had good intentions when they were saying that, but they come right along again with another one. Yes, sir.
They formed what they call the League of Nations after awhile, a police. They said, "We've got the idea now [good intentions]. We've got the League of Nations. And when we do, we'll police all the world by that." You can't do it. It fell right through.
They've got the UN now. It ain't worth the charter it's wrote on. That's right. Certainly. When they won't accept prayer, and take every other way out but the way of God, well, how long can it last?
They got good intentions, but it just don't last. It certainly does not. It'll fall to its bottom, and go into history, to dust. Well, you see where it is right now. The whole world's a-shaking, and what good is the UN doing? It's just a name. That's right.
No nation was ever made to rule over another. God made man, and man made slaves. We're not to be slaves; we're to be brothers. That's what the gospel teaches us---to be brothers.

49 Here come along the church with good intentions. They thought, "We'll make this great denomination. We'll educate our preachers, we'll have them very polished and everything. And they'll learn the people, and there'll not no more be illiteracy in our country."
And what did we do? We got a bunch of educated heathens, unbelievers again to the Word of God. Everything that... Man has always tried to achieve something by himself. He's never been able to do it. Nimrod tried to make a tower that he could climb into heaven. It fell into dust. Nebuchadnezzar built a city. Immortal, eternal, he thought. It went to dust.
The Americans, jealous of their sister England, built a ship called the Titanic that couldn't be sunk. God with his mighty hand showed the world it cannot stand.
The French thought they could live in sin, and make the Siegfried line. What good did it do? Germans walked right around behind it, and took it.
Germans built a Maginot line, said, "We've got something that nobody can get into." And the Americans blowed it out with bombbusters. Right. It goes to show that man's achievement amounts to nothing, because he's corrupt in his thinking, and he cannot stand. What is it all? There's something in there shows there is an eternal city, though. That's right.

50 Young married couple, when they got married, I've had them on confession. Many times catch them in the prayer line, and they say, "Well, Brother Branham, John and I got married. We was going to make a home. And it was all right, till one day an insurance collector (or a book salesman) come to the door, and he asked if I could come in just a ... if he could come in for a few minutes. I let him." And from that time, see, there it started.
A man can say, "Brother Branham, I had a good wife. I had a good family. And one day we hired a new office girl."
"I was down in the park. I met a little lady, she had on shorts. She walked up to me." From that time, see...
There's a time where you start. Yes. There was a time when all this stuff started. There was a time when death started. That's when Eve, strolling one day down through the garden of Eden met Satan. And Satan... When God had his church...

51 When men go to war they study things to combat. When they first put the helmet on a rookie, he thought that was the awfullest thing he ever had; and pack a ninety-pound back ... a pack on his back. But when he got out there in battle, he needed every implement.
When he put a helmet on him, that meant he was going to have ... need that helmet, because there's going to be shrapnel. He never had it before, but he had to have it then, because it was needed. They'd studied it.
Each year they study something different, get something greater, because the old becomes obsolete. Our fine planes that we had in the last World War are junk, billions of dollars worth of them. The old steam engines, obsolete. Certainly. The guns that we used---first, the old Krag Jorgensen, and the Springfield, and then up to the modern Garande. And now it's an atomic missile. They're all obsolete. We're trying to find ... keep finding something better.
But when God began to fortify his man, He gave him the best thing, and he never has to change no more. He give him his Word. Amen. There's his fortress, God's eternal Word.

52 And when the enemy come around, spies... We got English spies here, and we've got spies in England. All over the world we got spies; and they got spies from all over the world in here. What are they trying to do? Find what we've tried to achieve.
And the devil works the same way. He comes in to try to find something---what God has did---and then try to find something to counteract it. But God never has to change his, because He give them his Word at the beginning. He's infinite. He cannot change. And it's still his Word today. Never changes from his Word. There He is in his Word. His church is fortified by the Word. His first person was fortified, Eve. But when she stopped just for a minute to listen to Satan's tactics...

53 What is the tactics of Satan? Reasoning. "It's just reasonable." And when you hear anything that reasons against the Word, get away from it. It's the devil. I don't care how old-fashioned it is, how strange it looks, when God said so, that settles it eternally. Get away from anything that reasons against the Word.
"Oh, it's reasonable today we don't need divine healing, because we got fine doctors." Get away from that.
"It's ... oh, just the twelve apostles received the Holy Ghost. It..." Oh, why did Peter say it's for you, and for your children, and to them that's far off, "even as many as the Lord our God shall call"?
A fellow said it was just for back there. I said, "You're too late. I done got it down here," so we know it's right, see. Anything that reasons against the Word of God... Said, "These signs shall follow them that believe." How... "Go ye into all the world ... preach the gospel to every creature. He that believeth ... [in all the world at all times], these signs shall follow them that believe." How far?
I can show you where God put divine healing in the church. Now you show me where He took it out, by the Word, see. The miracles and signs, and the Holy Ghost, He's the same Jesus yesterday, today, and forever. Certainly.

54 Now notice. If Satan could ever get Eve just to reason that that Word was... Said, "Now surely you'll not die. Oh, sure, God has said... That's exactly right. But surely..."
That's the first thing that he won by, and that's the thing he still knocked the human race down by---reasoning. He kills the human race by reasoning against his Word.
And great seminaries and things raise up, and they put their minds together and reason, and things like that. I don't care how many minds there is, let every man's word be a lie and God's be the truth. Right.

55 Notice. God deals with an individual. And notice, but every time there's a certain thing, from that time. From the time that Eve listened to the reasoning of Satan, death came into the world, and has reigned ever since. Remember, don't forget that spot that Eve...
There was a time when there was no death on earth. There was a time when men didn't have to die. But because that Eve reasoned, listened to Satan's reasoning against God's word, death begin to reign from that time on. And it reigns yet today. But let me say this, in the face of all of it. There is a time, and a thing that can happen that will never change. It's eternal.
There is something that can happen in a human life that can never change, that is eternal. That's when a man meets God. That is eternally settled, when a man meets God. Borned again of the Spirit of God, he has eternal life. Now we believe that with all of our heart.
And remember, when that man---a human being---or that woman, that boy, or that girl, ever meets God and is changed, he's never the same. He's changed from that time on. That's right. He'll never be the same. No matter, he might get away from God; but God'll never get away from him. Everywhere you go you'll be haunted day and night if you ever meet God, till you come back again. That's right.

56 A backslider's the most miserable life there is. And so, it'll haunt you day and night. How many times have we heard their confessions, and things. How miserable, how wretched, all that! If they did ... They know they have to reap exactly what they sowed. And remember, you plant one grain, and get a whole ear full of them, see. So we know that there is going to be plenty of reaping for what sowing you've done. But the man that ever meets God is never the same. Let's take a few men, now, before we come to the spot we want to.

57 Let's take, for instance, Abraham. He was just an ordinary man. He come down from Babylon with his father, and he lived ... dwelt in the land of the Chaldeans, in the city of Ur---probably a farmer, an ordinary man. He was no special man. He was just a man, and he found grace in the sight of God.
And God told him---when he was seventy-five years old---that He was going to make him to be a father of nations, and that He was going to give him a child by his wife Sarah, who was sixty-five years old at that time. And Abraham believed God, and it was imputed unto him for righteousness.

58 Abraham was changed. And look, when a man meets God... God called Abraham, and He told him He wanted him to separate himself from all of his unbelieving kindred. And when God calls a man to work for Him, He calls you from total annihilation from all the things of the world, and the sins of the earth. Separation.
God never did bless Abraham till he fully obeyed Him. He took his father. The old man was always a hair in the soup or ... excuse that expression. But he was always wrong, and Abraham... And then he got Lot. And then he finally went down there. And after Lot separated himself, then God said to Abraham, "Rise and walk through the land. I've give it all to you. It's all yours," see. He never fully blessed him till Abraham fully obeyed.
And you'll never be able to get anything from God, and have favor with God, my brothers and sisters, wherever you are, until we fully obey the Word of God. You make yourself miserable by just half-heartedly approaching it. Yes.

59 But when Abraham met God, he was a changed man. He was from that day on. He acted kind of funny, run around... I can imagine Sarah, going around sixty-five years old, made some little booties, and got some of the Birdseye, and a bunch of pins, and said, "Well, we're going to have the baby." And then, when the regular time come around, I can hear Abraham say, "Darling, how are you feeling? It's about that time."
"No different."
"Glory to God! We're going to have the baby anyhow." Two months passed, "Darling, any different?"
"No, not no different."
"Glory to God! It's a greater miracle than it was last month. We're going to have the baby anyhow."
Five years passed. "How you feeling now, dear?"
"No different."
"Hallelujah! We're going to have the baby. It's five years---more miracle. Glory to God!"
Twenty-five years passed. "How you feeling, Sarah?"
"No different."
"Glory to God! We'll have it anyhow."
"How do you know?"
"God said so!"
He met God, and was a changed man. "He staggered not at the promise of God through unbelief, but was strong, giving praise to God." Now we're supposed to be Abraham's seed, if we have that kind of faith. What God says is the truth. When a man meets God, always his Word is the truth. If a man that says that he believes God, and denies this Word, there's something wrong, 'cause the Holy Spirit is God, and the Holy Spirit wrote the Bible. And how could the Holy Spirit be in here, and wrote the Bible, and then turn around and deny it? Something wrong somewhere.

60 I tell you, a genuine Holy Spirit experience will punctuate every sentence of that Bible with a "Amen." Right. Regardless of what anybody else says, it'll certainly do it, because it's the Spirit of God, the writer of the Bible. And the Spirit ... the Spirit of the Word is the Holy Spirit. That's what quickens it. The letter killeth; the Spirit giveth it life, see. Gives the letter---just the printed letter---life; makes it manifest, brings it to pass exactly what God promised.
Abraham was a changed man, strong, all the time giving praise to God. No matter how much he did, he staggered not at the promise of God through unbelief. Why? He met God. He was a changed person.

61 One time a runaway prophet in his intellectual conception of what God was, knowing that he was a called man, had all... He could even teach the wisdom of Egypt, and could teach their teachers wisdom. But run away, married a beautiful little Ethiopian girl, living out there behind the desert, all settled down. The burden of the people was gone.
That's what's the matter with the churches in the world today. We've lost the burden. There's no more prayer meetings. There's no more ... seems like it's dead. I'm not scolding. I'm just making a true statement, brethren. You all know that. You see it in your churches. We ... it's something's happened. There's just no interest no more. Something's wrong. The fires went out. In the old Roman temple of Vesta when the fires went out, the people went home. Business was over. Oh, kindle the fires again, the fire on the altar of our heart! Yes. Oh, get God back in our midst! "Get God back!" is our cry.

62 Now, Moses done lost the burden of his people. He'd failed with his intellectual conception of the Word. And he was walking around on the backside of the desert one day, and there was a fire in a bush. That light that had followed him was in the ... was going to follow him was in the bush. He walked up to the side of that bush, took off his shoes, and a voice said, "I have seen the affliction of my people." There's somebody still interested. That's God.
He said, "I've seen the affliction of my people. I've heard the groaning by reasons of the taskmaster, and I've come down. I remember my promise." Hallelujah! He can't make a promise unless He remembers it. Amen. He always ... God eternally remembers his promise. God makes a promise; God always remembers his promise. And He said, "I remember my promise to my people, and I've come down to deliver them. And I'm sending you." Amen!
Moses said, "Who am I?"
He said, "You're going."
He said, "But I can't speak."
He said, "Who makes man to be dumb, or speak?" Amen! Don't reason with God. Just take his Word.
Let me tell you, one day there He said, "Surely I'll be with you."
He said, "Show me your glory."
He showed him divine healing, showed him how to perform a miracle. He was ready to go. Yes, sir.

63 Now look what a difference. One day a defeated intellectual giant on the backside of the desert, with the domestic job of feeding his father-in-law's sheep. And the next day we... I tell you, when you meet God it does something to you. It makes you act crazy to the world. Look at him the next day. He takes his wife Zipporah, sets her a-straddle of a mule, and a young'un on her hip; and his beard hanging down about like this, and his bald head shining; a crooked stick in his hand, the whiskers blowing, hollering, "Glory to God! Glory to God!" Old man eighty years old.
"Where you going?"
"Going down to Egypt to take over."
"What?"
"Going down to Egypt to take over!" A one-man invasion. Why? He'd met God. And the strange thing of it, he did it. He took over.

64 God only wants one man that He can fully get in his complete control---that's right---one man, that'll fully surrender to Him. "I'm going down to take over." What a ridiculous thing. An army, like in them days, had the whole world conquered. A bigger army than it, would be, today, like going to meet Russia. Had an old crooked stick in his hand.
"What are you going to do it with?"
"This stick and the power of God. Here I go," the whiskers a-blowing back and forth, and an old man eighty years old.
Why didn't he do it when he was a young warrior? See, God had to knock all that intellectual out of him. He had to take him on the backside of the desert and mash him down, and crush him down, and bring him back; and appear to him to show him what He was. When he met God he was a changed man. Kind of makes people today act kind of funny, too, when they really meet God. But they know where they're standing.

65 Reminds me of when we used to brand calves. My mother used to say... When we used to ride the round up, we'd brand them calves. She'd say, "Oh, Bill, how can you!"
I'd heat the irons a lot of times, pack the irons. I couldn't have nerve to put it on the calf, but... She said, "Why are you doing that?" Said, "That's horrible." Said, "What do you do?"
I said, "Well, we just hog-tie him, hold him down there, and slap the branding iron on him." And I said, "Just burns right into his skin. And put a little tar on it, and turn him loose." I said... He has a running fit almost. He just kicks, and hollers, and bellows, and goes on. But brother, he knows who he belongs to from then on. That's exactly right.
That's the way it is by the Holy Ghost. If God can ever get you still long enough to put a brand on you (hallelujah!), seal you into the body of Christ by the Holy Ghost, you know where you belong.

66 We're living in a great day of hybrid. I was reading a piece in "Reader's Digest" not long ago, this hybrid stuff... I was coming down, I seen it said, "Hybrid corn," great big corn, fine ears. It's no good. It ain't worth nothing. It's a damage to you. Hybrid beef, hybrid---everything's hybrid, hybrid, hybrid. It's no good. Take your hybrid corn, try to plant it over again, see what you get. It's no good.
Even got hybrid religion today, too. That's right. That's true. They took it at a denominational confession instead of a Holy Ghost experience. Hybreeding. What does hybreed do? Makes a better looking ear, but it ain't got no life in it. That's the way it makes a better looking church, but no life in it---hybrid. That's right.

67 Science disprove their own ... or prove their own theology, that man came from a single cell, by doing it. He can't evolute himself up higher, and higher, because as soon as he once crossed his breed he's done, right there.
You take a mule. A mule is the most ignorant thing there is. I always felt sorry for him. There he stands. And look, he don't know who his papa and mama was. His mama was a horse, and his daddy was a jack. So he don't know who he was. He don't know whether he's either a horse, or a jack. He don't know. He's a cross breed. He can never breed himself back. He's finished.
Like some of this mule religion we got today. A mule is the lowest down thing. You'll sit and you say something, or another, to him like that, and he'll stick his ears out and "Haw, haw, haw," see. He don't even know what... There's no gentleness to him. He's just a mule.
You can sit and talk about God's great signs, and the Holy Ghost. Them old mules sitting out there say, "Haw. Days of miracles is past. No such thing as the Holy Ghost." You cross-breeded intellectual! I'm not getting mean, but I'm just telling you what it is. Oh, he don't know who papa or mama was.

68 But oh, I like a real thoroughbred horse. Oh, he's gentle. You can teach him some sense. Now I like a real thoroughbred Christian, that's borned again of the Holy Ghost---not one was Methodist yesterday, Baptist the next day, and Presbyterian the next day, and something else this day, every time something goes wrong in the church. But a genuine Holy Ghost borned again, he knows who his ancestors was, he knows who his papa and mama was, he knows where he come from. He's borned of the Spirit of God. Hallelujah! You can flash the Word of God upon him and quickly he sees it. Yes, sir. "Amen!" he says. Now, what a fine thing he is, a specimen. But all this here hybreeding, yes...
Moses, being a thoroughbred Christian now, a believer, goes down into Egypt. Acts strange, very strange. But he knows what happened, because there was a time where he met God. Yes, sir.

69 There was a time also when... I'm thinking of somebody else that met God---was a little virgin. She had something to believe, Mary. Never been a baby born in the world without a father and mother. We know that. So, we find out that Mary, a little virgin, on her road down to the well one day, a great light shined before her. She looked, standing there in the light, and there stood Gabriel, the archangel. Said, "Hail, Mary. Blessed art thou amongst women." Told her just exactly what was going to happen.
A few days before there he had met a priest, and her cousin's husband, Zacharias. And he was standing at the altar waving incense, and Gabriel appeared and told him that he was going home to be with his wife, and have a child; and was going to call his name John.
That priest said, "How can this be? I'm too old. It can't happen. No, it can't happen."
He said, "I'm Gabriel, that's sent from the presence of God. My word will be fulfilled in their day. You'll be dumb till the baby's born." But here he comes to this little virgin.

70 Now, Zacharias would've had plenty of examples, for he'd found out that there was Hannah. She had a baby when she was old. Sarah had a baby when she was old. Plenty of examples in the Bible, but still he was callous from it. But Mary had to believe something that'd never happened, but she had met God. Said, "How will it be?"
He said, "The Holy Ghost will overshadow you. That thing that'll be born in you will be called the Son of God."
She said, "Behold the handmaid of the Lord." What? She had met God. She couldn't hold her peace. I imagine she took that jug back to the house, and took out testifying everywhere---and her little cheeks flushing, saying, "I'm going to have a baby. I'm going to have a baby," up into the hills of Judea.
She heard about her cousin, Elisabeth, was going to have a baby up there. And so, I can imagine... You know, she'd kept herself penned up now for quite a while. She was about six months with Elisabeth. There's six months difference between John and Jesus. And so, she'd been penned up for about six months---stayed in, not like some of these women today.

71 Excuse me. You'd listen to your doctor, and I'm your brother. But see, these women that's to be mothers out here with these little shorts on, and... It's a disgrace to humanity. Honest, I don't believe a dog would do that. And there ... these women out here acting like that... It's the most pitiful thing I ever seen in my life---most ridiculous thing.
And then some boy see your girls out like that... And then let them insult them. And then you want to send them to penitentiary. You're the cause of it, by sending her out like that.
And you men let your wife go out like that. Shame on you! You got no more respect for your wife than that? Now, no, I don't want to get on that.
Notice. That's a bad thing for me. Now ... I lose too many friends. But I know I'm staying in friendship with Christ, because it's written right here. That's exactly right.

72 And here, Elisabeth had hid herself. And then when little Mary... I can see her coming up the path, hard as she can, you know. And Elisabeth was back there making little booties, and crying, because little John, you know, is six months, and he was dead. He hadn't never moved in the womb yet.
Here come little Mary up, and she runs in. And Elisabeth pulls back the curtains in the little adobe window up there, and sees Mary coming. So... They were cousins. She ran out to meet her, and throwed her arms around her, and said, "Oh, honey, I'm so glad to see you."
"Oh, I see of course you're to be mother."
"Yes, I'm to be mother." Said, "But I'm a little scared." She said, "It's six months with me as a mother, and there's been no life yet, and I'm just a little bit worried."
Mary, with her little eyes sparkling---little sixteen or eighteen-year-old girl, said, "I'm going to have a baby, too."
"Oh, you and Joseph is already married? I'm glad to hear it."
"No, we ain't. We're just engaged. We've never been married yet."
"And you're going to have a baby? What's the matter? What about this?"
She said, "Yes, I met Gabriel, the angel. I met God. And He told me that this holy thing will be called the Son of God. And said I should call his name Jesus."
And just as soon as... The first time that that word "Jesus Christ" was ever spoke out of a mortal lip, a little baby in the womb of Elisabeth become alive, and began to leap and jump for joy. That's right.
And her faith... Said she was filled with the Holy Ghost, and she said, "Whence cometh the mother of my Lord? for as soon as thy salutation come into my ears, my baby leaped in the womb for joy."
And if the first time that "Jesus Christ" was ever spoke by mortal lip made a dead baby come to life, what ought it to do by a church that claims to be borned again of the Holy Ghost? Amen. Why? They'd met God. Something had happened.

73 Oh, sure was that Simon Peter. That man had been taught by his father that when Messiah cometh, He'll be a prophet. And Simon was a fisherman. But one day when he walked in the presence of Jesus Christ, and He said, "Your name is Simon, and you are the son of Jonas. And I'll call you Peter from now on," he knowed that was the Messiah. He was a changed man from that day on. He was going to catch men instead of fish---made him fishers of men. Because he had met God, he recognized it to be the truth. He met Him.

74 It was Paul, Saul of Tarsus, who was on his road down---ecclesiastical, taught under Gamaliel, the great teacher---knowed all the ins and outs of the Pharisee religion, and so forth. He was on his road down, arresting all those holy rollers that was carrying on like that---had papers in his pocket to arrest all those that was down at Damascus.
And all at once the great pillar of fire swung around him, and he fell to his feet. Oh, he got up a different person. Why? He had met God. Something had changed him right there, when he heard Him say, "Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me?"
Said, "Who are you, Lord?"
He said, "I'm Jesus, and it's hard for you to kick against the pricks."

75 There was a blind man one day, sitting by the roadside begging. But he met God. He was sitting there thinking about... Where old blind Bartimaeus was sitting (he was thinking), down there at the river several hundred years ago, Joshua---that great warrior---crossed with Israel there on dry ground, in the month of April, when God took his mighty hand and held the waters up.
"Oh, if I could've only lived in that time, I would have walked down there, and said, 'Joshua, pray for me.' But alas, the priest tells me days of miracles is past.
"Oh, just think. Right down this road, this cobblestone road where I'm at, there come Elijah and Elisha, arm-in-arm, walking down to the Jordan, to clear the Jordan up. If I'd only been living here in that day, I'd have walked out and said, 'Prophets of the Lord God, pray for me.' But alas, the days of miracles is past, the priest says.

76 "And think, when Joshua was fixing to encamp ... encircle these walls around Jerusalem, on one of the stones that I'm now sitting on... One day when he was out looking around, watching the walls around, why, there come... He seen a man standing with his sword drawed. Joshua, the warrior, great general, pulled his sword, run towards him, and said, 'Are you with us, are you with the enemy?'
"He said, 'I'm the Captain of the host of the Lord.' Joshua threw down his sword, took off his helmet, and worshipped at his feet.
"Oh, if I could've only seen that great captain. I would have said, 'Great Captain of the host of the Lord, I'm a blind man. Have mercy on me. Oh, how He would've done it if it had been... But alas, the days of miracles is past."

77 How little did he know that not a hundred yards from him stood that same Captain of the host of the Lord, for He is the same yesterday, today, and forever. He heard a noise. Something strange---everywhere He's at, there's noise goes on.
People say, "You make too much noise." This is the quietest place you'll ever live in. If you go to heaven, even the angels are singing day and night, "Holy, holy, holy unto the Lord." If you go to hell, it's weeping, and wailing, and gnashing of teeth. This is the quietest place you'll ever live.
And there, when Jesus come by, somebody pushed him down and so forth, and run over him. He went by.
And I can hear the ministerial association all standing out there say, "Hey, they tell me you're a prophet. They say you raised a dead man. We got a graveyard full of them up here. Come raise one for us; we'll believe you." See, God don't clown for nobody. No, no. He could've... But his precious head set towards Jerusalem, and Calvary, bearing the sins of the world, He walked on---overripe fruit throwed at Him, and everything else.

78 And somebody pushed him right out. I imagine it was a young lady come up, said, "Sir, what's the matter, poor, ragged beggar?"
He said, "Lady, I'm blind. And there was somebody just passed by here, and they were screaming one thing and another. What was it?"
"Sir, I'm one of his disciples. Have you never heard of the young prophet of Galilee?"
"No. What young prophet?"
"Well, you know our law promises that when... There will come one day a Messiah, and the Son of David is coming. And when He does, you know, the great prophet..."
"Oh, is that Him? That's Him? Then He's raised up?"

79 He couldn't have heard him with all that noise, thousands. If you go there, Jericho, and see where he was sitting, and where Jesus was when He stopped, it's impossible for Him to hear him.
But his faith stopped Him. "Oh, Jesus, thou Son of David, have mercy on me."
With all the screaming one thing, and another one, "Hail the prophet! Hail the Son of God!"; and the other one saying, "Away with the impostor, Beelzebub, fortune-teller," so forth, all that mixed crowd... But his faith...
And the Bible said, "Jesus stood still." Oh, I hope to preach before I leave here on "Jesus stood still." Oh, my! Some day time will stand still. And He stood still. His faith touched Him---one little old blind beggar. He turned around, and He asked ... requested what he wanted. And he said, "That I might receive my sight."
He said, "Your faith has saved you." Hallelujah! From that time on he could see. Why? He met God.

80 There was a maniac one day up in Gadarea, who was cutting himself. And they bound him in chains, and his power of ten times an ordinary man could break the powers of them chains. I always thought, if he was so perfectly under the influence of the devil... When the devil takes a hold of a person insane, it takes men and men to hold him. He breaks them chains, completely surrendered to the devil. If he could break chains, how much more could we break, completely surrendered to God? How much more powerful is God's power than the devil's?
And there he was, this poor maniac. And he was always out there in the graveyard, cutting himself with stones, and attacked everybody. But one day he met God. Things changed for him. After that he was clothed, in his right mind. Why? He had met God.
A leper stood by the gate begging. One day Jesus of Nazareth passed by, and he said, "If thou will, thou can make me clean."
He said, "I will. Be thou clean." And from then on he was clean.

81 There was a little old immoral woman, as we talked of last night, slipped out to the gate ... out across the gate, and out to the city well, to get some water one day. Down in her soul laid a scripture that when that Messiah come what He would be. And she was a prostitute; she was an awful woman. She'd had husbands, and living with one then, not married to him. So you know she was a woman of ill fame. And when she saw Jesus, and heard Him say, "Go get your husband," she said, "I have none."
Said, "You've said well, for you've have five. And the one you're living with now is not yours."
She said, "Sir, I perceive that you are a prophet. And we know when Messiah cometh he'll tell us these things."
What did He say? He said, "I am he that speaks to you."
She was a changed woman. Look. When she went into the city... It's absolutely unethical for a woman of that type ... or a man to listen to her. But she'd met God. Something had to listen to her. That's right. She had come in contact with God. Something had to listen!
When a man really meets God... I imagine we could see some of them people here was on these cots last night, and wheelchairs sitting around here. Ask them today. They come in contact with God. They'll be changed from that time on. Something happened. From the time that God speaks, something happens. Anything that comes in contact with God, from then on it's changed.

82 Now a minute. Death come in contact with Him one time. Right. Now we're closing. Death contacted Him. You know, the devil never did believe that was God. He always thought it was some just ordinary prophet. But he didn't realize what it was. He didn't know that was Emmanuel, that that was the flesh and body of God, that He was made flesh and dwelt among us.
When he had Him up there on the mountain that day, he said, "If thou be the Son of God, turn these stones into bread." See, that same old devil still lives today. They had Him down there in the courtyard that time. They knowed He could perceive the thoughts of the people, so they put a rag around his face and took a stick and hit Him on the head. Said, "Now, if you're a prophet tell us who hit you."
He never opened his mouth. He doesn't clown for the devil.
Up on the cross... Said, "If thou be the Son of God, come down and we'll believe you."
That same old devil lives in people today, same thing. "If you do, let me see you do this. Let me see you do that."
He said, "I do only what the Father shows me.

83 So one day when they had Him... Let's take a little drama as we close. It's a terrible day. The sun looks funny. There never was a day like that; never will be. Oh, it's a horrible thing. The debt from Eden has to be paid. Horrible day. And we begin to notice early in the morning. We're standing upstairs. I hear a noise. Let's go raise the shade and look. Coming down the street I hear something going, "bump, bump, bump." What is it? It's an old rugged cross.
I see a little woman run out in front of them, saying, "What has He done? What has He done but preach the gospel? What has He done but heal the sick?"
I see a rough hand smack her in the mouth, and say, "Sit down. Would you people believe that woman prostitute before you'd believe your priest?"
She couldn't speak her piece. His time had to come for something else; the cross dragging up. He had a robe over his shoulder.

84 As He starts up the hill, I notice little bitty red spots all over his coat. Wonder what they are? His little weak body, a crown of thorns on his head, mockery, spit hanging all over his face---what had He done to deserve that? That's the penalty He was paying for me, for you.
Look at them little spots. Let's watch them a minute. As He drags on up, his little body's frailly, and them whipping Him, and making Him go on, He's pulling this big old cross up the hill. After awhile I notice all these little bitty spots begin to get bigger, bigger. After awhile they all run into one great big spot. I hear it splashing against his leg. He's going down. He's getting weaker and weaker.
I can see everything. His disciples gone, who's standing by Him? Nobody---forsaken by God and man. Here He goes up the hill.

85 Then I see death walk up and say, "Ah-ha. I got him. I've proved that he isn't God. I've tempted him. I've took out there... If he'd been God, he'd have turned them stones to bread. How could he've stood there in that yard, and let them soldiers spit in his face, and put a rag around his face, and tell him to tell who hit him. Why, if He'd have been God, he'd have knowed that. I know he isn't God." He never did believe it.
As He goes up the hill, I see that bee of death come out, go to buzzing around Him, sting Him ... to sting Him, humming around Him. The first thing you know, it begins to wonder. What was it? Death was coming around. A buzzer, like an insect. A bee.
But you know what? If a bee ever anchors his stinger deep, he pulls his stinger out. He can't sting no more. He had anchored it in many a prophet, he'd anchored it in many a righteous man. But that time, when he anchored it in God, he pulled his stinger out. Death lost its stinger.
No wonder one come in later, said, "Oh, death, where is your stinger? Grave, where is your victory?" Thanks be to God! When he anchored that stinger of death in Emmanuel's body, it pulled the stinger out.
Today we can walk in the face of death. And the bee can buzz, and make a noise; but it never will fright us. No, sir. He has no stinger. The sting has been gone. Why? Death met God. And when it met God, it took the sting out of death. I'm glad to meet Him. Aren't you glad? Let us pray.

86 Heavenly Father, when I think of that blood pouring out of Emmanuel's veins, the old rugged cross dragging out the footprints of the bearer, as it goes up Calvary... Satan, seeing that old mockery, gobbish spit hanging on his face, he said, "That can't be God. That can't be Emmanuel. So I'll stick my stinger in him. I'll have him pretty soon."
But, oh, how he lost then. When the sting of death contacted God, it lost its stinger. I'm so glad today, Lord, knowing, too, that I've got to come down to that road. But death'll lose; done lost its stinger. I'm free tonight. Hallelujah! I'm so glad that I'm free.
The sting of death is gone. Death may come and buzz, it may come and threaten me, it may come to pull me away. But like one writer said, "God harnessed it to a buggy. It can only pull me in his presence where I long to be," where every believer longs to be.
So death has no stinger. It become a victory. Thanks be to God who gives us the victory through Jesus Christ.

87 While we have our heads bowed, everyone in prayer, how many in here that knows if you were dying tonight that you've never come in contact with God so definitely till you could take every word for being his Word, and that you're obeying every word; and you know that if you're doing wrong, you know that death would have a sting for you, because you'd wonder whether you'd really be saved or not?
I'm not going to call you up to the altar. I'm just going to ask you where you are. If you will, and believe tonight, that God will take away that sting of death from you through Jesus Christ, and you want to accept it that way, raise up your hand. Say, "I want to meet God."
God bless you back there, sonny boy. God bless you. God bless you up in the balcony. God bless you down here. Up in the balconies, God bless you, young men. God bless you way back there. He sees your hands. Everybody praying. That's an altar call. God bless you, sitting here, sir. You might've done a many good thing in life, but that's the greatest thing you ever done.
Remember, when you raised your hand you broke every scientific rule. Science says that gravitation has to hold your hand down. But you raised up your hand, showing that there's a power in you to make a decision. And that you did, raised up your hand. Mean that from your heart, and something will happen.

88 Someone else raise up your hand, say, "Remember me." God bless you, sister. God bless you, sister. God bless you, brother. God bless you. That's good. Up in the balcony again, let's get way up there. How many up there? Oh, soul! Church member that don't know God? God bless you, little man out here in front.
Somebody else? Raise up your hand, say, "Oh, all I know, I belong to church. All I know, I've shouted. All I know, I've spoke with tongues." Oh, brother! I've heard devils dance in the spirit, and speak in tongues, and shout, and that don't... "By their fruits you shall know them." Certainly.
The rain falls on the wheat and the weeds together. Certainly. They both rejoice at the rain. That's right. Makes them both happy. And it falls right in a bunch on the hypocrite and on the Christian, too. But if your life doesn't come up with God's Bible, then you'd better put your hand up, and say, "God, be merciful to me, and make me what I ought to be. His grace can make me what I ought to be." God bless you, young man, God bless you, lady. That's good. God bless you.

89 Don't want to hurt your feelings, but how can you women sit here, and know that the Bible tells you that it's wrong for even you to cut your hair, that you dishonor your husband when you do it? You prove yourself as a woman of the street when you do such a thing. And because of the angel, you should have long hair. What angel? The angel of the covenant, the angel of the messenger of the day, the seventh angel which is sounding today.
Then still know that you're wrong? Your Adam might've let you go ahead and act wrong, Eve, and say it don't make a difference. It certainly does make a difference. Every commandment of God is right. Eve only turned her ... just aside for a minute. If you're wrong, admit you're wrong. Your own life proves you're wrong.

90 Someone got after me, not long ago, said, "Brother Branham, why do you say that to them women, about their dressing?" A great man. Said, "I'll lay my hands on you, and pray for you."
I said, "If you let me lay my hands on you, and pray for you." I said, "Listen..."
He said, "Why don't you leave them women alone? People regard you as a prophet."
I said, "I'm no prophet."
He said, "People regard you as that. Why don't you teach them how to get great spiritual gifts, and things?"
I said, "If they haven't got the common decency to learn their ABC's, how do they ... will know how to learn algebra if they don't even take their ABC's?"
ABC is "Always Believe Christ." Take his Word first. Let it be first in your life. If you can't do that, how are you going to learn anything else? How's the Pentecostal church ever going to rise above things that it knows ... that'll lay in your way as long as you live? Now you mark it, and find out if it doesn't.
Remember, if that don't haunt you as long as you live... And if one sin kept Eve ... or made all this... Every sickness, death, and sorrow come from one woman, just reasoning it was all right.

91 It's your American privilege, you say. Oh, yeah. If you're a lamb, a lamb forfeits his right. He don't have but one thing---wool---and he forfeits that. If you're a lamb you'll forfeit your American rights, to serve God.
Say, "I can dress the way I want to. It's none of your business."
It's not me, brother, sister. It's the Bible. God made a man, and made him dress like a man; made a woman to dress like a woman; made them act different, and made two covenants with them, and everything else. It's always been.
The light has come. Your Adam might let you get by with it. But, brother, God won't, 'cause that's his Word. Now, you men sit around and do such things as that. Aren't you ashamed, brother, deacons? Men who say they're men of God act like that, when...? That's just the very first primer lesson of it. How can you go into deep things of discerning the Spirit, and things like that, if you don't even take the first thing?
Meet God, and find out what's different. Find the difference. It'll make you act right. It'll do something to you. It'll change you. Now, the Bible says that.
You women wouldn't put on manicure, or makeup, whatever you call it, for nothing. The Bible says nothing about that. But look what you're doing now---something the Bible does say not to do, see.
You ... probably you men wouldn't get drunk for nothing in the world; then have two or three different wives living, be deacon in the church.
Proselyting. "Compass seas," Jesus said, "to make one proselyte."

92 You say, "That's an awful way to make an altar call." Brother, if people don't come by the Word of God, what's these pathetic stories? You've got to come recognizing you're wrong.
Now, are you willing under the power of God, under your own condemnation, to say that "I'm wrong, I raise up my hand. Look at my own life, and see that I'm wrong. I'm a church member. I go to church. I try to be loyal, but I see I've made ... I've missed the mark. I'm ready to surrender, and say that I'm coming back to the Bible grounds of this thing. I raise my hand." Raise up your hand. God bless you, sir. That takes decency.
God bless you, lady. God bless you. God bless you, sir. That takes real men. Someone else? God bless you, my brother. That's right. God bless you. There's at least three hundred people here should do that. That takes a whole lot of them. But God bless you, sir. That's honesty.

93 Say, "I'm just making my decision. I'm saying right now, 'From now on, God, I'm going to be branded inside and out. I'm going to be a real Christian. I'm going to believe all this Word.'"
Or, "I ain't going to believe any. I'm going back in the world."
You'd be better off. That's right.
You can't tell Christians from the rest of them. They're all just about alike. What's supposed to be the church is getting such a bad shape. Come on. God's got to get a bride ready (exactly), making her ready. "The hour of the ... has come, and the bride has made herself ready." Are you ready? Are you ready? I ask one more time. In Jesus' name, are you ready? Thank you, sir. God bless you.

94 Our heavenly Father, these who have raised their hands, some two dozen or more, let them have peace. Let them know that you're ready to pull all the guilt of sting out of it, and to set them free tonight with the Holy Ghost. God, bless these churches.
Here's a fine group of people, God. They sit here for so long, listening, waiting. Then why does Satan come right around and blacken their mind, just when the time comes for them to accept? And you've proved yourself so definitely here. How can it be?
But God, let no man's blood be upon my hands. I am free. I pray, Father, that You'll grant the mercy of God upon these. I give them to you as sincere seed that the light of God has shined upon. Life struck quickly, and they raised their hands, and said, "I'm wrong. I recognize it. I'm ready to do right. I've done wrong, and I'm ready to mend my ways right now, and come to God." Grant, Father, that they'll grow into great statues of Christians.

95 We hear tonight about so much decisions. What good is stones without a stonemason? People wants more members in their church. Will you make a decision, roll up a stone? That's a confession. Certainly. But what good is that stone, if there isn't a stonemason there with a sharp two-edged Word of God to shape it into a son or daughter of God, to make it fit into the building? We need stonemasons, stonecutters by the Word of God, to cut the confessions into real genuine pillars of the church of God. Grant it, Lord.
May the sharp knife of God circumcise all the world away from every one of us, and make us new creatures in Christ Jesus. The hour's coming. Little do the people know that these hours are here, great things are going on. And now, the people has... Just like people of long ago, Lord, they've passed them, and they didn't know it.
Grant that every one of these will be saved. May they find some of these fine churches here, these ministers. Maybe if they belong to one of them, may they go to their pastor, and say, "Pastor, I've been wrong. I'm straightening my life up. I'm coming now to be a real member of your church. I'm coming now to be a light. I'm not going to blow so much out the whistle, but I'm going to put it to work. I'm going from house to house, from place to place. I'm going to bring others into this great fellowship of Christ. I'm going to go on the street corners. I'll pass tracts. I'll do anything that I can do.
"I'll talk to my neighbor, my milk man, my paperboy. Everybody that I can, I'll speak to them in a tender, sweetness of the Holy Spirit. I'll be so salty, till I'll make them thirst to be like me. God, grant it. Oh, not like the rest of the world, but be different---changed---made like daughters of God, sons of God. Grant it.
I give them to you in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen. Now may the God of heaven look upon you.

96 One time ... want to tell you a little story before leaving, because I had to cut so hard. In the south they used to sell slaves. And they'd come by, and buy them just like you do a used car on the lot. You get a bill of sale for it, just like you would. Human beings. It never was right. God never intended men to be slaves.
And there'd be brokers come by, and buy big healthy slaves, and breed them to heavier women, and things like that---make better slaves.

97 One time there was a great plantation, it was told me, that they had many slaves. And a broker come by, said, "I'd like to look over your slaves."
Said, "I've got about a hundred here. Look them over."
And he noticed them all. They were sad. They'd been brought from Africa. They'd never go back. They whipped them and make them work, because they didn't want to work. They were sad. They were away from papa, and mama, husband, babies, and all. They never would see them no more. They was in a strange land. They never would see their loved ones no more.
But they happened to notice one young fellow there. My, his chest was out, and his chin up. They didn't have to whip him around. He was right on the mark every time. That broker said, "I'd like to buy that slave."
He said, "He's not for sale."
He said, "What makes him so much different?" Said, "Is he the boss over the rest of them?"
He said, "No, he's just a slave."
He said, "Perhaps you feed him better than you do the rest of them?"
He said, "No. He eats out in the galley with the rest of them. He's just a slave."
He said, "What makes him so different from the rest of them?"
Said, "I once wondered myself. But I come to find out that over in the homeland his father is the chief, the king of the tribe. And he knows that he's a king's son. He conducts himself like one."
Friends, we're in a sinful world. Women, you're daughters of the King. Brothers, you're sons of the King. Let's conduct ourselves as sons and daughters of the King, right in this world. Don't be like them, fashion after them. We're different. We come ... we're from another ... we're aliens here. We're pilgrims. Let's conduct ourselves, act different, be different, be like up there in heaven.

98 Some few days ago wife and I, before we come out here, went to a supermarket. We found a woman had a dress on. Meda said, "Isn't that strange, that lady?" She said, "Billy, I want to ask you." Said, "I know some of them women. They sing in choirs here in these denominational churches." Said, "Why is it our people...?"
I said, "Honey. Look, look. We are not of the world, see. When I go to Germany, Germany has its way of doing. I go to Finland, it has its way of doing. I go to other nations, they have their way." And I said, "America, it has its way."
But I said ... she said, "Well, aren't we Americans?"
I said, "No, honey. We're not Americans; we're Christians. We're living here, certainly. As a nation, this is ours." But I said, "We're from above. Then our women must act like up there. We must conduct ourselves like up there. That's the reason we don't act like the people of the world. We're different."

99 We should be, friends. We should be different. You know that. I don't mean to hurt you, and I don't mean to hurt your feelings. I mean to only be honest as a servant of Christ.
You can't pull punches. You can't be a public puppet, and then be a servant of God. You've got to be either honest with God, or sell your birthrights to people. And mine's not for sale, and I know yours is not neither.
So let's preach the Word, believe the Word, stand on the Word, live by the Word---that's right---and be real Christians.

100 The Holy Spirit's here. Do you believe that? How many of you has got prayer cards? Raise your hands. It's too late to have a prayer line. You without prayer cards that's sick, needing something, raise your hands. Without prayer cards? Have faith. Now, you believe.
Now looky here. Now, if I happen to call somebody that's got a prayer card, I want you to tell me so, because you'll get in the prayer line. These without prayer cards won't. I want your reverence just two minutes, three minutes. All I could say would mean nothing. One word from Him would mean more than all I could say in a million years---one word from Him.
Now, do you believe what I'm preaching is the truth? about men back to the Bible, back to God, and the Word is made flesh in us, dwelt among us here? and the church is shaping itself and receiving now its last sign?
We've had miracles and signs, and speaking in tongues, and on up through, on up through. But you remember, the Bible said, the prophets said, "There'll be a day that won't be called day nor night. But in the evening time it shall be light." How many knows that scripture? Sure. All right. Watch.

101 Civilization has come from the east, and followed the sun west. Is that right? It's at the West Coast now. If it makes another move, it's back east again. I'd like to preach on that---when east and west meets. Notice.
The s-u-n dawns in the east, and it travels across the horizon and sets in the west. The same sun that rises in the east sets in the west. Is that right?
Now, the prophet said there'll be a day that couldn't be called day nor night. It's a dismal day, foggy day. We've had a day of that. Man's knowed enough to join church, accept Christ as saviour, and to join a denomination. That's just as much light as he had.
But remember, it's evening time now. Civilization's on the West Coast, and the same Son, S-o-n, that shone in the east at the beginning is now shining in the west at the end: Jesus Christ the same, yesterday, today, and forever. See? It shall be light in the evening time---Christ coming out, perfecting his church.

102 How many knows there's a difference between the appearing of Christ and the coming of Christ? It's two different words. Now's the appearing; the coming will soon be. He's appearing in the midst of us, doing the works that He once did, in his church. Now, you're part of that church, and by grace you believe, "I am a member of that church."
Now I'm not a preacher. You know I'm not. I have not the education to do it. Sometimes I feel reluctant standing here by men of God, who's called to that office. There are apostles, prophets, teachers, pastors, and evangelists. Not all are apostles, not all are prophets, not all are teachers, not all evangelists. I'm standing here...
But my ministry is a different ministry from pastor, or teacher. I'm not. And if I say things wrong, brethren, forgive me. I don't mean it. This is my ministry, see, to declare Him, that He's here.

103 Now, some of you here... As a gift of the Holy Spirit, it's just something... I can't make myself relax. It's just like pulling into a gear. But when He does it, then every spirit is subject. And I watch, and I can only tell what I see. And any Bible reader knows that that's exactly what's promised, and did come in Christ; and promised in the last days, and all we've said about it. And oh, my! I've got five hundred and something tapes on different sermons on it, see, just touching the age of it here. But it's true.
No matter where you are, believe, and let Him speak. And if I speak I can say wrong, because I'm a man. But if God comes around, and confirms what I said, then that's truth.
God said, "If there be a prophet among you, and if he says ... what he says comes to pass, then you hear it," because the Word of the Lord came to the prophets. And if there ... and if it doesn't come to pass, then don't believe it.
Now, if I come here and say, "Now, I'm going to heal you," then I've lied right there, because... You're ... every one of you is sick. Whatever it is, or sinners, or whatever you are, you're already forgiven. You're already healed. If Jesus was standing here with this suit on that He gave me, He could not heal you, or save you. He's already done it. How many knows that's the truth? At Calvary the price was paid. You just believe.

104 Somebody ... now let's call out, kind of in sections. Somebody over in this way without a prayer card, just pray, say, "Lord God, I can't believe that that man'd stand there, and tell me something wrong. I've read the Bible, and I know what he's saying's the truth. It's so hard for me to receive it, Lord. But honestly, I believe it. I believe. And help me now.
"And he says that You are a high priest that can be touched by the feeling of our infirmities, and I have infirmities." Or someone, "I'm ... my husband sitting here,"---"my wife."
I noticed last night, when a husband'd get up off the cot, the wife would run to him; the wife get off, the husband... See him out in the yard there praising God. How sweet it was, see, praying for someone.
Say, "I'm praying, Lord God. Help me to know. Help me. Let me touch your garment. Then if that man... That man don't know me, and I don't know him. If he speaks back, and tells me---like You did in them days, told the people---then I know that You're living. It ain't that preacher; it's You."
Now please, just for two or three minutes be quiet and pray. Sit still, don't move. Just pray.

105 Now, there's a woman, she's... You can raise your head, if you wish. And if you'll look, look standing right here, right inside this little hallway, see that yellow, amber-looking light circling around? It's right over a woman. There He is, right through the door. Now it's coming near her, near her. She's realized. She was praying. It's coming near.
The woman surely this time can recognize that something's going on. She's praying for a loved one, a relative that has cancer. Also a mother, and the mother's got heart trouble. She realizes now the Holy Spirit's near her. She's not even from here. She's not even an American; she's a Canadian. Have you a prayer card? You do not. We're perfectly strange. Is that right? But you was standing there praying, and all at once something real sweet begins to happen, like something coming over you. Is that right? And what was said true? Raise up your hand, if all that's true. Now go question the woman.
Now sister, it's left from around you. I trust that you have your request. Whatever it was, God grant it to you.
Now, I want to ask you something. How... Just figure it out. There's a perfect miracle. There's a woman. I have never seen her in my life; she's never seen me. We're strangers. And here the Holy Spirit comes down, and she touches Jesus Christ. And by a divine gift, standing there, or sitting there praying, and it comes right around and reveals to her just exactly. There it... She's thirty or forty feet from me. She couldn't touch me; she touched Him.

106 Somebody this a-way believe. Without a prayer card. You without a prayer card, raise your hand so I'll... You that haven't got a prayer card, raise your hands. Some of you in these stretchers here, or something, raise your hand. All right.
Let's look at this man here. You don't have a prayer card, sir? You're a stranger to me. I do not know you. What do you think about what I've preached about? Do you believe Christ's the Son of God? You believe He is? Now, you being a man that I've never met before in my life... But do you believe that when Jesus was here on earth, He (The Bible said that the Word is sharper than a two-edged sword, and even a discerner of the thoughts of the heart.) could perceive what's wrong?
If the Holy Spirit can tell me something about you (you're just a man that's sat down there), and can tell me something about you---what you're wanting, what's wrong with you, something you've done or something like that---you'd know it'd have to come from a power somewhere, wouldn't it? Would you believe it to be Christ? You would. Would you accept it that way? You must, or die, because you're shadowed to death. It's a cancer.
But if you'll believe with all your heart, with all that's in you---because you can't live... You can't return. The doctor can do you no good now. You're past that. But if you'll believe God with all your heart, you can get well. Do you believe it? You do? Then rise up from your bed. Don't doubt in your heart. Don't doubt it at all. Go home---take your bed and go home. Jesus Christ will make you well, if you'll believe it. God bless you.

107 What was it? You have a prayer card there? Well, you'll be in the prayer line then. What about you? Have you got a prayer card? You believe me to be his prophet? You do? I don't know you, but you're... What's the matter? You're all broke down, like a nervous breakdown, complications. Everything's wrong with you. Isn't that right? And truly, right now you feel fine. It's the Holy Spirit over you. Do you believe me to be his prophet? Will you obey me as his prophet? Then stand out of that stretcher on your feet in the name of Jesus Christ, and go home, and be well.
Wait, I want to ask you something. You don't have a prayer card, do you? You don't need it. You're well. You can go home now, and rejoice.
How many of you believe with all your heart? Then, everybody that believes stand up on your feet, and accept your healing. Stand up in the name of Jesus Christ, and believe that you're healed. I commit you to God for your healing in the name of Jesus Christ. May God grant it for you. Amen.