I FIRST felt the call to Africa when I was in Houston, Texas, Rev. Bosworth brought me Miss Florence Nightingale's picture. (Many of you saw that picture recently in THE VOICE OF HEALING.) I received a cablegram right after that asking me to come to Durban, South Africa. I laid the picture down on the floor, and with my wife and babies knelt around it and prayed, "God, if You'll just heal that poor dear woman, I'll go to Africa and witness for You down there." I committed it to the Lord, and little did I know that it would turn out that I should go to Africa.
The woman was perhaps five feet eight inches tall, but her arms and limbs were so tiny and she had to be on her back continually. Tears were rolling down her cheeks and the nurses had to bend down to hear what she was saying. She said that she wanted me to ask God to let her die. She didn't want to live any longer. Well, after her praying and holding on to God so long, it was hard for me to ask God to let her die So I prayed that she would get well. While I was praying one of the sweetest things happened. A little dove came fluttering through the bushes and sat near the window He walked back and forth and cooed as he walked. Some of the ministers mentioned the dove, but before I could say anything, the Angel of the Lord came near. The blessing of God came on the woman. She was told that she would live and not die. Friends, that woman weighs about 155 pounds now and is in perfect health.
I had promised God that I would go to Africa if He would heal her. So, when the call came again I was ready to go. We went to New York and had a marvelous meeting in the St. Nicholas Arena. The place was packed out on the second night.
I had been told that no American subject would require a visa as long as he were going to British territory, nor would I need a typhus shot. However, when I was about to board the plane, they told me I had to have both.
The plane pulled off leaving me standing on the runway. Brother Baxter shouted, "Let me out of here. I'm afraid this thing will fall." However, we told him to go on to Africa and we would get there as soon as we could.
Some days later, we were permitted to leave for Africa and were about to land. There was a bad bank of fog and we had a broken instrument. For an hour we circled over the city. Everybody sat quietly. I was praying. When we hit the runway, everybody let out a big sigh. I said, "Hallelujah!" I was really glad to be on the ground again We were greeted in Johannesburg by many news reporters as well as about 30,000 people.
That night we went to the place of meeting. As far as I could see, through the lights, there was a solid mass of suffering humanity. I was very tired, being under the strain of traveling, but I had spoken for about five minutes when I looked down and saw a lady lying on a cot. Then the Angel of the Lord came near. The woman was told that she had been in an accident two years before that and had broken her back, that it had been wired and that the doctors had given her no hope of ever walking again. Her mother sat there nodding her head that it was right. Then, in a vision, I saw a young lady get up and walk. I knew she was going to be healed. I said, "Sister, in the Name of the Lord, you are healed. Her mother said, "Oh no, no! She can't get up, she'll die." But the young girl raised right up off the cot, then screamed and threw up her hands. The mother fainted and dropped on the cot that her daughter had just left.
Everybody began to look but just then back in the audience I saw a vision of a boy, a young fellow about sixteen, walking, bent over. I said, "Young man, haven't you a limb quite a bit shorter than the other" He said, "Yes sir." I then said, "I have just noticed you in a vision. You've come a long way, haven't you?" He said, "Yes sir." I then saw in the vision a car that they had driven over in. Just then I saw him walking back, and this time he was just as normal as anyone could be. I said, "Brother, in the Name of the Lord you are normal now." He had come from Durban and many people knew him. As soon as I had told him that God had healed him, he stood on his feet straight and came running down the aisle, with both legs exactly the same length. Well, that just set the place aglow.
The next night I tried to explain to the people about Divine Healing. I told them that doctors don't heal people, nor do they claim to heal people. They are just able to aid nature in the person who is sick. Only God is a healer. The next morning an officer in the Medical Association of Africa called me up and wanted to take me out to dinner. I couldn't go because I had t fast when I am under the anointing in a healing meeting. So they came down to the meeting and gave me the right hand of fellowship. My, the people that came! Looked as if they turned them al out of the hospitals so that they could come to the meeting.
I want to tell you about two Dutch Reformed ministers who came to the meeting One was for the services and the other against. The one who was against them said, "He is a hypnotizer as sure as the world." The other said, "No, hypnotizers don't heal people." "Well, then he is a spiritualist for sure. He must be of the devil, for how could he know those things that he is telling to the sick?"
The other minister who was taking up for me said, "This is the day of visitation! If you do not believe, you are going to regret it. This is the last revival from the Lord before Hid Coming. I am going to pray for your soul." He went out in the yard and knelt down under a peach tree. While he was praying, there stood in front of him the angel of the Lord, who said, "Go speak to him again" When the angel spoke these words a hand was laid on his shoulder, and he felt as if fire went through him. He went back to his friend and told him that he had seen an angel and that a hand had been placed upon his back. suddenly the other minister acted as though he had had an heart attack. There was a scorched place on the man's shirt which was just the image of a man's hand! The story came out in the headlines of the newspapers the next day. It showed the picture of a minister looking at the print of the hand of an angel on his shirt--scorched!
God gave us a marvelous right-or-way there. Great signs and wonders took place. Brother Baxter came the next day and said, "Brother Branham, we leave here in the morning." I said, "Leave here? We are having a wonderful meeting." He said, "Yes, they have us lined up to go to Kimberly." And he mentioned some other towns. I said, "Is that right? It looks like we ought to stay here. We have had such a great meeting. We are to be here for ten weeks you know."
The Lord then showed me in a vision that we should not make the move at that time. The Lord said, "Do not take that itinerary that they want you to take. Stay here for a few weeks and then you can go on to Durban." The Committee had made promises to certain ministers and it was hard for them to turn them down. "The meetings are set in order, and we will have to leave here in about two hours." they said. I got in the car but the Lord kept speaking to me not to go. I told the drover to stop the car that we must not go on, that we were getting out of the will of God; that whenever God speaks to me in this way, it never fails to lead to trouble if I do not obey His voice.
I then said, "Remember Paul of old when he said on board the ship, 'You should not have loosed from Crete.' If we go, we'll suffer for it." We got back in the car and went on to Klerksdorp. There were about 15,000 people out on the hill, many of whom were to be prayed for. I felt condemned, for it was a menace to the little city to have so many there. Then, just about half hour before the time to go to the meeting, there came up a tropical storm and almost drowned the great crowd of people there. At ten o'clock I still couldn't get out of the house, the wind was blowing so. You think that you have storms here. You ought to be in a tropical storm once. For hours it thunders and the lightning flashes constantly. When the others came back from the meeting that night I said, "I told you so." (Those are great words--"I told you so!")
A brother said to me, "Oh, it will be alright. Tomorrow we will have a pretty day. We have those storms quite frequently this time of the year."
Billy, my son, and I went to bed and the next morning we awoke to a beautiful day. That night about half an hour before meeting there came a blizzard. There was no meeting. About two o'clock in the morning they were still up discussing what they should do about it. They said that hundreds of dollars of advertising were out, and they were bringing in the natives for hundreds of miles around. My boy and I knelt down to pray. After awhile Billy went to bed, but I kept on praying. Almost towards daylight, the angel came and said, "You may go with them on their itinerary, but the whole party will suffer for it. This shall be the sign to you. They will come in a black car to pick you up, and you will be taken down a certain road. On that road there will be a native dressed in a white suit with a stick in his hand, standing near a eucalyptus tree by a bridge. He'll be striking at another man and your son will call your attention to it."
When I came out of the vision I went to Billy and woke him and told him what the angel had said. When morning came they sent for us in a black car, and we went up the road watching the scenery as we went along. Suddenly Billy jumped and said, "Daddy, look at that." There was that native with a white suit standing near the eucalyptus tree preparing to strike a man. I said, "You remember what I told you Billy?" The little fellow cried...to see it happen just like that. We had a good meeting that day.
In the next town the trouble started. Around twelve thousand people were in town and the local preacher wanted the meeting in his church which only seated a few hundred. They had to go down and get the race track to put the people in.
But there was more trouble. We hadn't been told that we were supposed to boil our drinking water. One by one our party got sick, and we were really sick.
We finally got to Durban, the town where the Lord told us to go in the first place. I guess there were 30,000 people there and many Hindu Indians. Now in Durban they got the big race track and the people were seated for three city blocks. People were hungering and thirsting for God.
Then Sunday afternoon was a great and marvelous day in my life. We walked out to the service. There was a storm coming over but the people never paid any attention to that. They just sat there and let the rain come on them, splashing their faces, but they never noticed. They were hungering and thirsting for that immortal life that God was giving them. Many strange things happened in that great crowd of about 100,000.
That afternoon the mayor of the city came down to see us. The people had seen the power of God and they were believing. Brother Bosworth said, "Brother Branham, if they could all get in here, there would be over 100,000." The militia was there, and they said that people were streaming in over all the hills.
We couldn't give out prayer cards; it was impossible. We told the missionaries to get three of each tribe and bring them in. And when we got to the platform, the first ones who came were Mohammedans. Some of them were very staunch Hindus. They had a red dot between their eyes. They had been "Blessed at the temple." They are hard to do anything with. Thousands of them sat in the audience, and their chiefs, many of them were around watching.
One of the first ones that came was a man with a crippled hand. The Angel of the Lord spoke and said, "He received that from a fall; he fell and hit a rock and hurt his hand. He has been crippled for a long time, but he's healed now!" When the interpreter repeated it, the man leaped into the air and was perfectly whole.
The next was a Hindu woman. She was told all about her life and what was wrong with her. The Hindus began to scream. They believe in reincarnation and thought the spirit of some Hindu god had come back to mortals. Brother Baxter had to go to the microphone and stop that. It was a thrilling time.
A little colored boy, with a great fat stomach (caused by a bad diet) came to the platform. He was cross-eyed. The Angel of the Lord told all about his life and his parents. The parents nodded it was right. The chiefs were convinced that something was going on that they didn't know anything about. The little lad was standing there and the missionary brought him real close to me. Then I saw that God had made him well, for his little eyes came just as straight as they could be.
A young British doctor who was sitting on the platform picked the little boy up. I heard Brother Baxter and Brother Bosworth trying to keep the man back. The doctor cried, "Preacher, can I ask you something?" I answered, "Yes sir." He asked, "Do you straighten everybody's eyes?" I replied, "I didn't straighten his." But, the doctor said, "His eyes are now straight. I was the one who brought him here. That boy was pitifully cross-eyed, but he is well now. Does everyone get healed that is cross-eyed that you pray for?" I replied, "No sir, it is according to the patient's faith in God." He looked at the little boy again, and tears rolled down his cheeks. He walked up to the platform and said, "I, too, want to accept Jesus Christ as my personal Savior then." Some of the missionaries took him over to them. When I was leaving Johannesburg later, he cried to me, "Brother Branham! Brother Branham!" I turned around to him and he threw his arms around me and cried, "I believe I am going to be a preacher!" I replied, "I believe that God is going to make one of you."
Next coming to the platform was a man that they had to lead by a chain. He had a collar on and walked like a dog on his hands and his feet. No one could no anything for him. God showed me at that moment that he had been that way since a child. His hips were way high. I can't tell you how the poor man looked. You can imagine his condition and appearance with no clothes on. Then a vision came before me, that he would be made well. I said to the missionary, "Stand him up." They stared at me. I said again, "Stand him up." They began to pull on him and the man stood up! He began to fall, then he stood straight and looked around. People began to jump to their feet and scream.
After the people had seen the mighty workings of God and Brother Baxter and Brother Bosworth preaching the Gospel with such force, it was impossible for them to get by without receiving the breath of Christ. When the altar call was made, it was estimated that 30,000 stood to their feet and accepted Christ at one time. I asked, "How many of you are ready to believe that Jesus Christ is the Immortal God? Are you ready to throw down your idols and are you Mohammedans ready to renounce all your superstitions? Which of your priests in the temple could give this man perfect soundness? Which of the idols that some of you pack in your hands, could heal this man? there isn't any power in them. But Jesus Christ the son of God, through faith in His Name, has made this man stand here whole today! Now if you're really sincere and you really mean this from the bottom of your heart, let all the natives break their idols and let the Mohammedans wash the red dot from their eyes."
It was like a dust storm when they broke their idols and took their aprons and washed the red dots from their eyes. They raised their hands and tears were rolling down their cheeks. Hallelujah! Brother, you can call it fanaticism if you want to.
There was a group of ministers who came to me five or six years ago and said, "Brother Branham, you are crazy. You'll never get that program over." I replied, "God says do it; that's all that matters to me. If He said, 'Do it,' it will be done." Standing there with the clergymen the other day, I said, "The thing that you called 'fanaticism' has brought more people to Christ than millions of dollars spent on a program without the power of God." That's right. Jesus Christ knew it would take these things to convert the heathen. You and I read and understand, and faith cometh by hearing. But a heathen has got to see power. He will serve a God of power. Paul knew that 1900 years ago. Out in the lands where he ministered, he knew that it took a God of power to convert the heathen. The Lord is just the same today. I believe the hour is approaching when Jesus Christ will come again. That is the reason that the gospel is spreading and thousands and thousands are getting saved at one time. When I think of that I want to say, "AMAZING GRACE!" God has done great and mighty works for us today!
A lady in America once said to me, "Brother Branham there is hardly any use to come to your meetings. You just throw out a few cards, and perhaps only twenty-five in a night get prayed for." There has always been a confusion in the minds of the people concerning this. Over in Africa the people understood right away. Just as soon as they saw a few miracles, that was enough for them. The only thing that we asked them to do, was to stand and repeat the prayer that we were praying and mean it from their hearts, and accept the Lord as their Savior and Healer. Thousands of people testified to their healing as a result of this mass prayer.
On the way back from Africa I began to question, "Lord, what must I do? Must I stay longer in a city to get to all the people who want to be prayed for?" While I was thinking on this, a terrible storm came up. We had traveled all night and it was now morning. I saw everybody acting nervous and I wondered what the trouble was. I asked one of the stewards, that was coming back and forth in the plane, what was the matter. The steward said, "You're a minister, aren't you?" I replied, "Yes sir." He then said, "I guess you don't mind dying, do you?" I answered, "Wait a minute!" He then explained, "We will be all right if we can hold out until we can get to a certain place up in Nova Scotia. We got into a storm a while ago, and we haven't enough gas to hold up much longer." We made it though and I surely was glad to get back on the ground. The rest of the passengers celebrated by opening up champagne, but we celebrated by worshipping God.
But after I got back home, I kept on praying about God's will for me in the meetings. I saw Brother Bosworth a little later, and I said to him, "Brother Bosworth, it was a wonderful time." He replied, "Brother Branham, it was the greatest in history." Then he continued, "I want to say something. Brother Branham, you're a brand new Branham now. You're ready to start anew." I said, "Yes, but I am not sure what God's will is for me, and I am not going out again until I know what He wants me to do."
I continued to pray. I had a battle with that amoeba in Africa. I asked the Lord to please help me. For months since I returned from Africa I have been praying and fasting. But week after week nothing happened and it seemed that God had turned His face from me. Then one night I went to bed late. Sometime after two o'clock the Angel of the Lord awakened me. The angel had in his hand some paper. He showed me that the paper had been marked on and he took the paper and threw it, and when it scattered out, it went way up toward the sky and he said, "It is clear!" Then I fell on my face again and cried, "Lord, I've prayed, I have cried, I have asked Your pardon for past disobedience. Please forgive me. I will never let anybody else cause me to disobey You, after You have told me what to do."
While I was praying, the angel came to my side and said, "You have been wondering about how to conduct your meetings." I replied, "Yes, Lord, I have wondered what I should do. So many have told me how. Some say do this and others, do that." The angel said, "It shall be shown you, as you are led by the Spirit."
Then the angel moved close to me. He picked me up by the arm and sat me down at Durban, South Africa, just as plain as if I were sitting there looking at that audience now. There I could see the great crowd spread along three whole city blocks.
Then the vision changed, and I saw another audience. I have never seen so many people. They looked like Indians. They had very few clothes on and they looked like people from India. Their hands were in the air and they were praising God. I asked, "Are these yellow people or black people?" Just then the Angel of the Lord spoke from the sky, and said, "There are 300,000 of them."
I believe it won't be long before the Lord will lead me into another meeting either in South Africa or India, and it will be three times the size of the meeting in Durban. I want to join my voice with St. Paul of old when he was on the ship and said that all would be well. When the hope of those on the ship was gone, Paul came up and said to the people, "Be of good cheer: for there shall be no loss of any man's life among you, but of the ship. For there stood by me this night angel of God, whose I am, and whom I serve, saying, Fear not, Paul; thou must e brought before Caesar: and, lo, God hath given thee all them that sail with thee. Howbeit we must be cast upon a certain island. Wherefore, sirs, be of good cheer, for I believe God, that it shall be even as it was told me."
I join my voice with Paul saying, "It shall be even as God showed it unto me." Brother, sister, the old-time Holy Ghost gospel message has almost swept around the world. The other day we were talking to a missionary that was returning from Korea and he told me he had buried his wife there. She had died of a fever, and he had buried her beside a river. He told of persecutions. But he also told of a great revival that had sprung up from somewhere and thousands had received the Holy Ghost. I believe with all my heart, we are near the end. Some Assembly of God officials said, "Brother Branham, we'll send you to India...not to represent the Assembly of God, but just to go down there, for the people in that land are hungry to see those things and when they come to Christ it might change the whole situation."
The situation will be changed, I believe, at the Second Coming of Christ. I am convinced, as God's servant, that there are people right here in this building tonight that will never die of old age. They will see Jesus coming. I believe the hours are crowding in. God is making His final call, and oh, if I could bet tell you some of the things that are pointing right down to that place now. If you are here tonight and are not ready to receive Christ, what have you to hold to now?
Let me make a prediction, not in the Name of the Lord, but of myself. Let me repeat that this is not of the Lord, but of myself. There are two things that are going to happen soon. In the political line, all sides are corrupt--every nation is controlled by the devil; the Bible says so. He took Jesus up on a mountain, and said, "All these things are mine. If Thou wilt fall down and worship me, I'll give them to You." Jesus knew that they would be His in the Millennium, but He didn't mention that. He said, "It is written, thou shalt worship the Lord thy God." "Rejoice all ye people of the earth for the kingdoms of this earth, have become the kingdoms of Our Lord Jesus Christ, and He shall rule and reign on the earth." Now notice there may be a change in the political field within the next year or so. And when it takes place there may be a panic. If politics change and the war situation becomes different, then you may see a panic the like of never before, and people will go crazy with fear. There is going to be a time of trouble such as the world has never known before.
I believe that God is giving this revival to get the people anchored to Christ for the great shock that is coming. If things go on a little longer, we're going to be bombed with the atomic bomb just as certain as I'm standing here. It will be one of these two things. We are headed for trouble. Remember this, if you haven't received Christ and been baptized with the Holy Ghost, don't let the sun rise until you have received!
There is coming a time when such things as plagues and germ warfare are going to let loose upon the earth. But the angel of the Lord said, "Hurt not the earth, neither the sea, nor the trees, till we have sealed the servants of our God in their foreheads." (Rev. 7:3.) Brother, Sister, the seal of God is the Holy Spirit. Ephes. 4:30 says, "Grieve not the Holy Spirit of God, whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption." Some might class me as a fanatic. God forbid that I should be a deceiver. Brother, this is more to me than life. But I believe that we are at the end of the road. I believe that something is preparing to take place. We are right i the middle of the greatest revival that the world has ever seen in all ages. Sure, Wesley had a revival in England. The Lutheran revival and the Welch revival were great movements of God. But this is a universal affair--it is everywhere. The Holy Ghost is moving everywhere. Maybe some of you are strangers within our gates. I admit that there are some things done in the name of Pentecost that I don't think are right. The Pentecostal people are human and like the rest of us, they make mistakes, but they have something the rest of the world needs--that is the Baptism of the Holy Ghost.
The Antichrist is the spirit of deception that will be so close to the real thing that it will deceive the very elect if possible. If ever there were a need to enter the door of mercy, it is now. Find out where you are standing. The hour is coming, brother, when there is going to be such confusion that you won't know where you are. While you can slip into the kingdom of God, do it now. Let Christ save you and seal you.
The other day a Jewish man, one of the greatest Jewish men of the nation, stood in my room--he was a missionary from Africa. He said, "Brother Branham, I want to ask you something. I have had so many degrees. I have had so many this and that. I am a member of a certain denominational church. I've looked around and I have been wondering. I've been taught so and so at school. But has the school been wrong? Have our teachers been wrong? We have read your book, A MAN SENT FROM GOD. Our hearts have burned for God." He fell across a little coffee table there in the room and cried, "O God have mercy on me through your Son, Jesus Christ. I want the Holy Ghost."
Yes, friends, God is calling you for the last time. Accept Christ. Get sealed by the Spirit of God. At this hour our nation is unconcerned. People have plenty to eat and to wear. But don't be deceived. A change is coming and it won't be long. Make your decision for things eternal.
I WANT to talk to you about healing. Do you believe that Christ is your healer? He's wonderful isn't He? Let us read some Scripture. "So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God." (Rom. 10:17) I believe that we are living in the fulfillment of the anti-type of the calling of the children of Israel out of Egypt, and their journey into the Promised Land. Today we are on the march. Do you believe that we have a promised land? Yes! "In my Father's house are many mansions: if it were not so I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you." Is that right? A promise to come again to receive you?
Now as Israel came out of Egypt, there were three stages of the journey--which is a beautiful type of the three stages of the church. As Joshua went in and took those cities that were already built, so will the meek inherit the earth. Now I want you to notice that God supplied everything that they needed for the journey--they just stepped out by faith believing, and they started on the road. Whenever they had need of anything, God provided it. When they had need of food, God sent in some quail. When they had need of water, Moses smote the rock. When they had need of healing, God had Moses to erect a brass serpent, and whosoever looked upon it was healed.
The children of Israel came out under sacrifice, an innocent substitute dying for a guilty person. The lamb is a very beautiful picture of the Lamb of God. There wasn't a bone in its body broken--just as the Bible said that there would not be a bone of the body of Jesus broken. Christ was killed by the whole congregation of Israel, who witnessed the killing of the Lamb. Israel said, "Let his blood be upon us." They were the ones that condemned Him. He was killed in the evening--as was the lamb, a very beautiful type.
I want you to notice a picture. When God was ready to deliver Israel He sent a man, Moses--a perfect type of Christ. However, Moses did not do the leading, only in the sense of this that he was the physical person used; God sent an angel. God was preparing Moses for a great work. First of all he had an odd birth. As soon as the people saw that he was a proper child and, not being afraid of the king's commandment, they hid him in the bulrushes, and Pharaoh's daughter raised him. There were three stages in Moses' life, the first forty years in Egypt, then forty years herding sheep in the back part of the desert, then the last forty leading the children of Israel out of Egypt and through the Wilderness. God had spoken to him, and he thought surely that Israel would understand that God had called him for the purpose of delivering the nation. But they failed to understand and so he went out to the wilderness, where he married his wife. God had him out there dressing him up for the work that He had for him to do. Moses had a temper, and he married an Ethiopian woman that had as much temper as he had. She proved that when she called her husband "a bloody husband." I imagine that they had some ups and downs there on the desert. Moses was getting a little training. We all need some of that, don't we?
Then when God was ready for him to go out, he appeared to Moses in the form of an angel in a burning bush, and led Israel. Listen to the words; "Behold, I send an Angel before thee, to keep thee in the way, and to bring thee into the place which I have prepared. Beware of him, and obey his voice, provoke him not; for he will not pardon your transgressions; for my name is in him. But if thou shalt indeed obey his voice, and do all that I speak; then I will be an enemy unto thine enemies, and an adversary unto thine adversaries. For mine Angel shall go before thee...." (Exodus 23:20-23) It was not "Moses, I am sending you to do this," but "Mine angel shall go before thee, and bring thee in" unto the place that is prepared...the promised Land.
Who was this angel? Let us turn to Exodus the 13th Chapter, and beginning with the 21st verse, read: "And the Lord went before them by day in a pillar of a cloud to lead them the way; and by night in a pillar of fire, to give them light; to go by day and night: He took not away the pillar of the cloud by day, nor the pillar of fire by night, from before the people." The angel was seen as a Pillar of Fire. That Pillar of Fire led the children of Israel, and whatever way the Pillar went, that is the way that they went. In the day time it turned to a White Cloud--in the night time, it was a Pillar of Fire. They followed it until it led them to the Promised Land.
Every night manna rained down from heaven. It tasted like oil and honey; like wafers with honey on it. Did you ever taste any?
It's marvelous! The Pillar led them by day and night. The Angel of the Lord went before them. Now I believe today that God is leading the Church out of spiritual Egypt, out of trespasses and sins. He has taken us through the Red Sea and liberated us from the power of the enemy. I believe in holiness, in the power of God that absolutely separates man from sin. That is a big word for a Baptist to believe. Certainly I believe in grace, but when grace comes in, it brings with it the fruits of grace, and you live differently. It's not what you think, it's what you are. I could think that I had a hundred dollars in my pocket, but if I didn't have it, I'd just e deceiving myself. That's the same way with a man thinking that he can live any way that he wants to and still the grace of God for lasciviousness. And that is disgrace instead of grace. I believe that when you come out of spiritual Egypt, confessing your faith in Christ, you pass through the Blood, which cleanses from all sin, and puts a new desire in your heart to serve God. After that the Holy Spirit leads you on the journey, just as the Angel of the Lord led the church in that day. Do you believe it?
Let us think for just a moment. If that were the Angel of the Lord that led the children of Israel, don't you believe that the same God Who lived in the day, is the same today? I want to tell you what happened in Houston, Texas. We were holding a meeting in the Sam Houston Auditorium and there was a hostile minister there that said I was a religious racketeer--had it printed in the paper. He said that I ought to be run out of Houston, and I think he wanted to be the one to do it. Mr. Bosworth came to the hotel room where I was staying and said, "Brother Branham, look at this, the very idea--call his hand on it." I answered, "Brother Bosworth, I've never seen a debate in my life, but what has caused confusion. God never sent me to debate. He sent me to pray for the sick, and that's what my duty is. I do not argue religion with anyone. It isn't supposed to be argued--it is supposed to be lived." Brother Bosworth remarked, "But Brother Branham, the public." And the next day the clergyman gave another big challenge in the paper and said, "They are afraid to accept the challenge, because their position cannot be proved Scripturally. There is no such thing as Divine healing in the Bible for this day. The days of miracles are past." Brother Bosworth came back and asked, "Brother Branham, are you going to put up with that?" I answered, "Brother Bosworth, there is no need of fussing with those people. Do you know that there has to be some of that kind--the Bible says that in the last day there would be some who would be scoffers. It also says that in the last days, perilous times would come, when men would be lover of themselves. They will come out of some seminary, boasting of their education and degrees...For men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, without natural affection, trucebreakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good, traitors, heady, high-minded, lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God; having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof; from such turn away." (II Tim. 3:2-5) I said to Brother Bosworth, "The Bible says there would be scoffers and we will have them." "But Brother Branham, it's the public that I am thinking about. Let me answer him if you do not want to."
I replied to Brother Bosworth, "I can't go down there and debate, for if I do, it throws me all off. I'm praying for the sick, thousands are attending, and hundreds and hundreds are being healed--why fuss with people? The proof of the pudding is the eating thereof. If God is healing the people, let those scoffers go ahead. Like Judas Iscariot, there are those who won't believe. The true and the false spirits are abroad in the world. There were Esau and Jacob, twin brothers. They had the same spirit individually as Cain and Abel. The person leaves this world, but the spirit remains. He took Elijah but left the Spirit, and it came on Elisha. It came on John the Baptist, and it will come again."
Brother Bosworth replied, "Let me go; I want to ask him some questions concerning Christ's attitude toward healing today. He can never answer them, not according to his teaching from the Bible." So I said, "All right." He then stated to the press that he would accept the challenge. The newspapers of Houston spread the news of the challenge on the headlines of the front pages that night people came from everywhere--by train, by bus, by plane. God showed me that when the showdown came, He would stand by me--that when the skeptics and demons stormed, He would stand by me, and they would be defeated.
The seminary preacher was a polished scholar who knew all the crooks and turns. I have always said a seminary preacher (not speaking of Bible schools that believe in the power of God) reminded me of an incubator chicken. It has no mammy to go to--it's hatched out by artificial heat. Such preachers may know reading, writing, and arithmetic, but know little about God. Their religion consists mostly of criticism of those who do know the power of God.
The seminary preacher went down to a commercial photographer and said, "I'm going to skin that old man, and when I do, I'm going to put some epsom salts in his hide, to watch it burn, and I want you to come over tonight with your camera. Take six shots of me when I'm on the platform." That night a great crowd was in attendance. The magazines and newspapers were represented at special tables set up for the reporters. Mr. Bosworth arose to speak. He said, "I saw in the paper a statement made that Brother Branham ought to be run out of the city. I should think that the city should spend the time running bootleggers and their kind out of the city rather than such a man as Brother Branham." There was a great cheer from the people and I saw that the seminary preacher did not have many friends in that audience. I was not sitting on the platform but was with my wife up in one of the balconies.
Brother Bosworth continued, "I have many statements that Christ's present attitude toward Divine healing is just the same today as when He walked the shores of Galilee. If my opponent can answer any one of these, then I'm willing to say I'm wrong and I will walk off the platform but it must be proved from the Scriptures. I'll ask the first question: Were the Redemptive compound names of Jehovah applied to Jesus..yes or no?" The seminary preacher would not answer him on this. For one of the redemptive names is Jehovah-Rapha (Exod. 15:26), which means the "Lord our Healer." If he were Jehovah-Jireh, meaning "the Lord will provide a sacrifice," and that is in effect today, so also must be the Redemptive names, Jehovah-Rapha. Mr. Bosworth went ahead coolly and reverently, until he sewed that man in and around the Scriptures, until there wasn't a place to move, and he knew it.
All he could do when he got up to take his side of it was to say that he did not believe in miracles today, but that at the time of the resurrection, the body would put on immortality. It was a weak argument--no proof from the Bible, and the audience showed its displeasure at his unbelief. Finally he said, "Bring that Divine healer forth--let me see him perform just one miracle on this platform." Mr. Bosworth answered, "Brother Branham doesn't claim to be a Divine healer. If teaching Divine healing makes him a Divine healer, then if you taught salvation it would make you a Divine Saviour. Brother Branham only points them to Christ, who is both the Savior and Healer." But he kept saying, "Just bring the Divine healer forth." Finally Brother Bosworth said, "Now I know Brother Branham is in the building, and if he wants to come and dismiss the audience, it's all right, but he doesn't have to."
Just as Brother Bosworth had said that, I felt something. I knew the Angel of the Lord was near. I said to those sitting with me, "This is the Lord." I started for the platform. The seminary preacher said, "Only the weak-minded believe these things," and something to the effect that his denomination did not believe in healing. (He was a Baptist.) Brother Bosworth objected with, "I beg you pardon--how many Baptist people are here who are in good standing with your church and who have been healed?" About a hundred stood. At this moment one of the seminary preacher's deacons got so angry that he swung at one of our ushers.
By that time I had reached the platform. I said to the audience, "I am sorry these things have to happen." The seminary preacher said to me as I turned to him, "As a man I admire you, but your teaching is wrong." I replied, "I can say the same thing about you." Then I turned back to the audience and said, "I was reminded this evening of our Master when He claimed to be a prophet; they said He was Beelzebub. When they caught Him, they tied His hands behind Him, and put a rag over His face, and hit Him over the head with a reed. Now they mocked, 'If you are a prophet, prophesy and say who hit you.' He never opened His mouth to say a word. He just let them go ahead. Even on the Cross His critics said, 'Come down and prove yourself.' That same spirit lives today. It's true I never claimed to be a Divine healer. I've spoken to millions of people, either directly or indirectly, and never once have I said that I was a Divine healer, but very much to the contrary, that I was not a Divine healer; only Christ is the Healer. I tell you a truth--God will never testify to a lie. I tell you a truth that God has followed me all the days of my life. That He spoke with me while a child, out of a tree, and many times later. But finally in the form of a man, or an angel, who walked up to me and told me that I was to minister to the sick, and that he was sent from the presence of God to tell me this, He also told me that I would go to all parts of the world and would pray for the sick. When I answered him and told him that I could not go because I was uneducated, and that they wouldn't believe me, he said that two signs would be given me, as two signs had been given to the prophet Moses. And when those signs were performed the people would believe. The angel then gathered himself up into a pillar of light and vanished from the room. I went on to say that many times since then a pillar or halo of light has been seen near me by hundreds of people when I was preaching. Many other things have happened. I have no way of proving these things myself; only God can prove them. God is truth; He cannot lie."
I continued on for several minutes: "Some people have become so ritualistic and formal that they fail to see the supernatural work. And they try to form their own opinions by figuring the thing out. But you can't figure God out--no man can." Just then I felt something. I bowed my head--the Angel of the Lord had come down. The photographer who had taken the pictures of the seminary preacher ran forth excitedly and took a picture. I might say that this photographer had been quoted in the paper as making very critical remarks concerning me. That night they went up to develop the negatives, as the clergyman wanted them the next day. The first one he drew out, after developing it, was a blank. He developed the others, but as he pulled them out one by one, they were all blank! When he pulled out the picture with me standing on the platform, there was a halo of fire rolling round and round. Next morning they rushed to the hotel to tell us what had happened. In the meantime, they sent the negative to Washington, D.C., to get it copyrighted. When it was returned, they took it to an investigator of questioned documents, a Mr. George Lacey. He kept it two days, giving it every scientific test, and then wrote out a statement, signed it himself, that there was absolutely no double exposure, that everything was in order, and the halo of light could not have gotten on the film by natural means.
One of the men who had doubted said, "I myself thought your work was just psychology, but Brother Branham, the mechanical lens of that camera will not take psychology--it was a supernatural light that struck that lens." If I never see you again--God has testified to the Christian world and to the scientific world that the statements that I am am king are the truth, vindicated by God. Where other ministers because of their education and wits are able to outwit the enemy, the only thing I have to rely upon is the power of God--but brother that's good enough for me.
I just noticed a few minutes ago, Congressman Upshaw who walked into the meeting. Until I was in California I had never seen nor heard of him. One night during the meeting I saw by vision a young lad fall and hit his back on a hay frame. I saw him later in high office. I testified in the meeting that I had seen this vision. The next night Brother Baxter saw this man. I looked and there sat the man who had been an invalid and on crutches for 66 years. Many of those years he had spent on a rolling cot. He has served as Congressman from Georgia for eight years, and later was a candidate for the presidency of the United States.
Brother Upshaw tried to get healed by the doctor, but failing he adopted a slogan, "Be not discouraged, and never give up." He wrote books and spoke in colleges throughout the country. Then after being an invalid for 66 years, God healed him. As I looked out in the audience that night, I saw a little colored girl that was paralyzed. Then I saw her with her doll under her arm going down the street, healed. I said to the mother, "Stand your baby up." And then the little girl who had been paralyzed for two years, from the shoulder down, was made perfectly whole. I then looked and I saw Congressman Upshaw with his striped suit on, going down the street, leaping and praising God and testifying to the people. I said, "Congressman, you're healed, in the name of the Lord." And here is Congressman Upshaw standing right here to give a testimony.
"It's the sweetest story ever told. I was saved 67 years ago when I was a country boy. The devil told me that if I became a Christian I would never have any pleasure in the world. He was a liar. I have had more joy in one week after I was converted than I ever had in my life before.
"Brother Branham has told you about the accident. I was seven years on a bed and five years on a rolling cot--the first time I ever came to Louisiana was on a rolling cot. Then I was 59 years on crutches.
"The first time I saw Brother Branham, I was on crutches. I walked into Calvary Temple on those crutches. My blessed wife was there and told me these words, 'When you appropriate faith you're healed.' Brother Branham said that night, 'Lay your hands on your loved ones you want to be healed.' My wife fell down on her knees and laid hands on me, while Brother Branham prayed, and the people were being healed all around. About that time they took Brother Branham out, but the pastor, LeRoy Kopp came back and said, 'Brother Branham said, "The Congressman is healed".' I laid down my crutches and started to run. That's all I have to say now, because I want Brother Branham to get started on the healing line."
That's wonderful, isn't it? Let's all say, "Praise the Lord." Now God has confirmed His truth to you. Will you believe the truth? Here is what it is: Jesus Christ died to save sinners and to heal sick people. He did it 1900 years ago. The deposit of His blood was put in for redemption at Calvary and there's nothing that man can do but point to it. Only your faith will draw dividends from it. Only you can accept it, and no matter how much anyone prays for you, it will never do you any good until you yourself accept it. Salvation has been provided for every sinner here tonight, but it will never do you any good until you accept it--then it becomes your personal property. Every believer here that is saved has a right to every redemptive blessing, and you have a right to draw on that which has been provided. You will never be able to overdraw. Some people say, "Oh, I just ask God for so much." Can you imagine that? Someone else said, "Brother Branham, it looks like we ought to let God rest awhile." I said, "God wants me to ask day and night." The longer you pump a well of water, the colder the water gets. Could you imagine little fish out in the ocean, saying, "I've got to drink of this water sparingly, because I might drink it all up?" Could you imagine that? That's just like thinking you could use all of God's blessings. They are higher than the sky and deeper than the sea. Could you imagine a little mouse in the granaries of Egypt saying, "I must eat of this wheat sparingly; I might run out," when tons of it were lying there? Why the little mouse couldn't eat it up in a thousand decades. Neither can you draw all the blessings from God. There's healing at the Fountain for everyone of you; it's just as fresh tonight as it was on Calvary's Cross.
By faith the elders obtained a good report. By faith, Abraham denied his own country, sojourneying in a strange land, dwelling in tabernacles and tents as did Isaac and Jacob, men that were heroes of faith. And down through time, God had always raised up those who had faith, while the people of the world have always tried to figure things out. Adam and Eve took of the Tree of Knowledge back there in the Garden of Eden instead of walking out and standing on the Word of God. Knowledge with humility always takes men away from God instead of to Him.
Not long ago I was in the office of a man in the juvenile department. He showed ma a map of the United States and the crime situation. He said, "The worst criminals often come out of the best society. They become so educated and smart that they figure that they can outwit the law." The same thing applies in the other realm. Man thinks he has figured out the Scriptures until he can explain all about the Atonement, and the power of God. You can't explain God. God is not known by knowledge. God is known by faith. You will never learn anything about Him except by faith. Don't try to match wits with the devil either; he'll beat you a thousand times. But when you humbly have faith, Satan is defeated right now. He that believes the simple promise, "What things soever ye desire, when ye pray, believe ye receive them," defeats the devil any time under any condition.
If when you came to the meeting tonight, you say, "Lord I believe this to be just as true as can be. I come knowing that You will do something for me," I assure you by the grace of God that you will go away rejoicing and happy because you received what you came for. I've seen it put to the test. I've never seen the time that God didn't bring us through victoriously and He will yet.
Someone said to me, "Brother Branham you might have come up against demons in Africa, but just wait until you come up against some of those Hindus. They say that when you get a group together down there, you will have something on your hands. They will do all kinds of tricks for a little money, and they despise a Christian." Say brother, I know in Whom I believe and am persuaded that He is able to keep that which I have committed unto Him against that day. I believe that our God rules the heavens and the earth and his power over all things. Demons, when they meet the power of God, will scream and come out.
I walked into a spiritualist den once, where they would raise tables in the air and do all sorts of things. It was the power of the devil pulling on the table. They said, "If your God is so string, knock the table down." I replied, "I can't do it, because I'm a human being, but the God whom I serve can do it." Then I said, "In the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, I command that table to drop to the floor," and the four legs almost dropped out from under it. God is God. "In my name they shall cast out devils." That scripture is just as true as the rest of the Bible. But don't you go into a medium's den unless you've been called to do it. You had better know what you are doing.
This morning Congressman Upshaw made this statement: "If a man is born of his father, then there is something of his father's nature in him." That's true. and if we are born-again Christians, we receive of the nature of Christ, and the things that He does, we shall do likewise. Jesus Christ was born into this world, the son of God. It was at the age of 30 that God spoke out of heaven and commissioned Him and gave Him His ministry. Christ had to prove Himself, and so likewise we grow in grace and find favor with God. When He can trust you, He will give you something to work with. But if you are unruly and not in condition to work, and cannot be trusted, God isn't going to give it to you.
God by His Spirit seals you into His kingdom, not until the next revival, but until the day of your redemption. When Jesus received His ministry, the spirit like a dove descended upon Him, and a voice spoke out of heaven, "This is my beloved son in whom I am well pleased." God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself. He saith, "It is not me that doeth the works, it is my Father that dwelleth in me." So it is not us, but it is the gift of God. I'm only your brother. That electric wire up there could not say, "I'm the one that gives the light." Turn the current off and see who gives the light. It's the current that gives the light. The wire is only the conductor of the current. I can only be the conductor of the gift of which he has sent down to this earth.
When the angel came to me I knew nothing of what he was going to say to me. But he said, "As the prophet Moses was given two signs to vindicate his ministry, so you will be given two signs." In Moses' time God appeared to him in a flaming bush. The first time the angel ever revealed himself to me was in a whirlwind in a bush. Now who was Moses but a man who finally failed God? God refused to let him go into the Promised Land with the children of Israel. It was not Moses who did these miracles, it was the Angel of the Lord. He led the children of Israel through the wilderness in a Pillar of Fire.
We have reached the end of the age, and God is sending forth His Spirit and has called a world-wide revival--a revival to revise those already in the fold! The thing that we need is to revive what we already have. Like the lake near the city--the other day it had a revival. The waves were leaping and the white caps were flying. That is what the church needs today--a good old-fashioned revival, to freshen up a little.
The Angel of the Lord has come down in these last days, an dit is the hour for things to happen. There are not enough devils in hell to stop it. It's going to go on. A few years ago the world condemned the Spirit-filled people and you had to eat corn off the railroad track to live. The big churches said, "It will wear out, there is nothing to it; it will be gone pretty soon." Yet a recent census showed that the Full Gospel church was the fastest growing church in America today.
Many of the large churches have failed God, and others letting the world come in are losing their power. Moses is a type of the church age, and Moses did not glorify God when he became angry and struck the rock twice. He glorified himself and God would not permit him to take Israel over into the Promised Land. Joshua and Caleb, who had been with him all the time, are the ones who took the church in the Wilderness over. Moses failed and died. The churches by their sectarianism are glorifying themselves and pushing Christ out. There are some "come-outers" but these are just as sectarian as the rest. All that are born of the Spirit are children of God.
We are in the last days. The Gentile church is getting its last and final call now. Got on the Rock. Don't be wayward children running to and fro after this and that--poor wayward children, tossed about by every wind of doctrine. They are just like a bunch of woodpecker chasers. Reminds me of a time when a fellow who went down to get a bunch of goats, and whenever he called he knocked on a stump to get the hogs to come. The hogs got so fat and pretty. Then a bunch of woodpeckers came through there and began to knock on every tree. The hogs nearly ran themselves to death. They got so poor they could scarcely walk. That's about the way the church is getting. Everything that comes along and knocks on the side of the tree--people follow after it.
Brother, Sister, quit being superstitious and settle down to the truth and fact. The truth is anything that God says about Himself. Regardless of what the preacher says, believe the Word of God for the work's sake anyhow. There were Peter, James and John. They weren't educated. The Bible says that they were ignorant and unlearned men. But the people had to take notice, because they had been with Jesus. People today go into a healing meeting and say, "Oh that's nothing but psychology." But in the midst of all of it Almighty God has confirmed it as truth.
A few years ago, the nominal churches said that there could never be another time of big revival again as in the days of Billy Sunday. Many articles were published that there would never be another revival. Now that the healing revivals have brought great numbers of people together, the denominations have been forced to enter into union revivals.
We're in the hour of visitation. Many take it all so matter-of-factly. What we need is an old-fashioned gospel spanking to wake us up. The Bible states over in Ezek. 9:2-4 "And, behold, six men came from the way of the higher gate, which lieth toward the north, and every man a slaughter weapon in his hand; and one man among them was clothed with linen, with a writer's inkhorn by his side: and they went in, and stood beside the brazen altar. And the glory of the God of Israel was gone up from the cherub, whereupon he was, to the threshold of the house. And he called to the man clothed with linen, which has the writer's inkhorn by his side; and the Lord said unto him, Go through the midst of the city, through the midst of Jerusalem, and set a mark upon the foreheads of the men that sigh and that cry for all the abominations that e done in the midst thereof."
If that angel came through this city tonight, how many people would he set his mark upon? How many are sincere and disturbed about sin, and dying humanity? How many lay on their faces day and night and cry for a revival, until their eyes are scalding with tears? Oh you say, "I go to church." That isn't even the beginning. Put a mark on those who sigh and cry for the abominations that stand in the midst of the city.
Perhaps my message tonight is a little too quick for you. Let me tell you brother, the hour is coming when you are going to hear more about that. The hour is coming when people will cry for the word of god. I feel this in my spirit, and I believe I have the warning of the Spirit of God. I see destruction is coming. I see saints sitting by, with an indifferent attitude, saying, "Well, I've got the Holy Ghost." Brother that is only the beginning. Wake up! Rise and shine! The hour is coming when the church is either going up or going down. The sifting has come.
How many people in your church or your community constantly sigh and pray because of the wickedness that is going on in the city? Think of your loved ones that are caught in it. Oh my, "Because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it." (Matt. 7:14) "...And broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat." (Matt. 7:13) As it was in the days of Noah so shall it be in the days of the coming of the son of Man. Eight souls were saved. Be careful! It takes more than a profession or a church record. It takes more than an old experience. It takes a dying out, a regeneration, a new creature in Christ Jesus, sealed unto the kingdom of God by the Holy Ghost. It makes you a new creature--loving, kind, sweet, meek, gentle, humble, forgiving. It is Christ living in you the hope of glory. You can't rub that seal out. You can get notary public seal, and you can rub it with an eraser, you can wash it, but you can't destroy the seal. The seal will be there as long as the paper is there.
When I started out with this message, the Baptist people said that I had lost my mind. But there was a group of people that I knew nothing about--that is you, you people! And, God by signs and wonders, has sent me to declare to you the power of His son Jesus Christ. I have done it reverently and give all praise to Him. God has declared that what I have said was the truth. He has shown it by signs and wonders. Remember, as His prophet, I'm warning every one that except you press into the kingdom, you're going to be left on the outside.
Did I ever tell you about the raising from death of the little boy in Finland? Down in Miami one day, I had seen a vision of a little boy. He was a stubby little fellow, was poorly dressed and had been killed in an accident. He had funny looking bobbed-off hair, with brown eyes and a flat looking face. They were preparing to take him to the morgue. In the vision I got down by the little boy and prayed, and the little fellow came back to life. You will remember I told you about this event that would take place a year before, right in this city. I told you that you would read about it in the VOICE OF HEALING some day.
When I went to London, the voice of the Lord told me that something was going to happen. We went on to Helsinki and had a marvelous reception. Thousands stood on the street waiting to get into the meeting. Then we went north to Kuopio, way up near the land of the Midnight sun. On my fast day I went to the top of a hill to a tower, and I kept feeling peculiar. As we went down the hill from the tower, a car in front of us was speeding, and two little boys started across the street. The car struck the little fellows, and one of them was thrown against the pavement giving him conclusion of the brain. The other boy went down under the wheels, and the wheels were spinning so fast that the boy was whirled out and against the curb. (Let a dog get hit like this and see what happens.) The first boy was picked up and rushed to the hospital. We didn't see him at the time, because the car hid him from our view. Those with us rushed out and got the other lad and brought him in our car. When I looked at the fellow, I though of my little Billy and I couldn't help but cry. We were aliens in a strange land of people across the sea. But I couldn't help but think, "What if we got news like that of our boy?"
When I looked at the boy again, I thought, "That child looks strange...I've seen that boy somewhere." I asked the minister of the church, where we had been preaching (he ws in the car) if the child belonged to his church. He answered that he didn't. I asked if the boy had been in a prayer line somewhere. (If I hadn't been so excited, I would have remembered the vision right away.) They told me he hadn't been in a prayer line. I thought, "There's something strange about that lad." While the car was going down the hill, I felt the child's pulse. He was just as dead as could be The blood was running out of his mouth, and his little body was so mangled and twisted. A dog couldn't even live after being hit like that. He was lying there so motionless and lifeless. He was gone!
I said, "Oh Mercy, it seems like I know the little boy." All of a sudden I felt something move. I remembered the vision, and kneeling down I asked the Heavenly Father to fulfill and bring it to pass that which He had said. Then the spirit of the lad came back to the boy and he was raised up. Today that boy is alive and healthy!
Arriving at the hospital, we learned of the other lad who had been hit and of his serious condition. After two days he was still unconscious. The parents of both children came to the hotel to see me. The father and mother of the first boy were so happy because the Lord had given life back to their son according to the vision that He had showed me. But the other parents looked at me and said, "What about our boy? Is he going to live?" I replied that I could not say. But they answered, "You have told the other parents that their boy would live; can't you say something for our boy?" I answered that I could say nothing until the Lord showed me. Then they began to weep.
I then asked the parents if they were Christians. They replied that they belonged to the church but were not saved. I asked them if God saved their boy, would they serve the Lord all their days and teach the child to do so. With tears they answered that they would. Then we all knelt and prayed. I said in my prayer, "Father, please have mercy on us and save their son." Then I returned to my room.
The news was brought to me about that time that unbelievers standing by at the scene of the accident, when the boy was killed, had said, "There is the 'Divine healer' from America whom they are all talking about. Now let us see what he will do." When they heard that the dead boy was raised, then they said. "Why doesn't he do something for the other boy who has been unconscious for two days?" That is what my interpreter, Sister Isaacson, reported that the people were telling the parents of the child that was dying in the hospital.
I then said to Sister Isaacson, "I can do nothing until God shows me what to do. That is what Jesus said in John 5:19. I can only pray." That night I prayed again for the boy. The report came from the hospital the next day that he was just barely alive, and life seemed to be going fast. The following evening, after returning from the service, I was in my hotel room. The Angel of the Lord came into my room. Before me were placed two Easter flowers, one leaning to the south and another to the north. That is just the way the boys' bodies fell when the car struck them. The one toward the north was the one they took up dead, and the Lord healed. The other one to the south was the smaller lad, who was still unconscious these three days. Then the flower toward the north sprang up at once, strong and alive, but the other one toward the south was fading away and dying fast. The angel made me to understand that the vision represented the two boys. Then he showed me two pieces of candy which had just been given to me before I came into the room. The angel said, "Take one piece and eat it." I did, and it tasted good. Then he said to me, "Eat the other piece." But the second piece did not taste just right, and I started to take it from my mouth. But the angel seemed to say, If you do that, the other boy will die." So I quickly ate the other piece. Then the flower was alive again in the other vision. When the vision was over, I hastened to the room of Brother Lindsay and Brother Moore. I said to my brethren, "Thus saith the Lord concerning the boy." Then I repeated the vision to the others of the party. I said, "God showed my another vision three weeks before in London, and it came to pass perfectly. so this vision also shall come to pass. The boy shall live." Sister May Isaacson, the interpreter, tried to call the parents of the boy and tell them what I had said, but they had gone to the hospital, for it had been told them that the boy was dying. But when they arrived at the hospital, they discovered that something had happened. The lad had awakened out of his unconscious condition. When they reported this to Sister May, she asked, "What time did this happen?" They said, "While were were watching for him to take his last breath, he suddenly became conscious. It was 10 o'clock at the time." When the doctors examined the boy, they reported that he would be all right. After checking the time of the vision, I found that it was just 10 o'clock when the Angel of the Lord had come into my room. The boy is now home, healthy and happy. All praise to the power of Jesus' Name. Let angels prostrate fall. Bring forth the royal diadem, and crown Him Lord of all!
Coming down that night in Kuopio, they had to bring me through the crowds to get me into the building. As I was being taken in, I heard a door slam a little girl come out. This little Finnish girl had on braces and crutches. The brace went from the toe of her shoe up over her back, and the only way she could walk was to use the brace as a leg, for her leg was lifeless. The strap across her shoe would move when she moved her shoulder, thus pulling her leg out. Then she would take her crutches and support herself. When I looked at the poor little thing, my heart went out to her.
Sometimes I would get a lot of cheap candy and go down town and give it out to the little children. They would follow me around the street...they were so thankful. I loved them! I later learned that this little girl was a war orphan. She looked at me, dropped her head, for she thought she had done something wrong. I stopped. I knew she wanted to come to me. She picked up my coat and kissed it on the pocket. She looked at me with her baby blue eyes, tears rolling down her cheeks. I saw a vision... and I knew the child was healed. I said, "Honey, you're healed." They pushed me on. That night the little girl came in the prayer line. I asked Sister Isaacson to interpret for me. I asked the girl if she wasn't the one I had met in the hall a short time before. I told her that Jesus respected her faith and that she was healed. I told her to go sit down, have her braces removed, and that she would be able to walk. Soon the little girl came running across the platform and up and down the steps, holding the braces over her head. When the people saw the miracle that had happened, some didn't wait to get into the prayer line but threw their crutches away and started to walk. The people were excited and said, "The Lord Jesus has blessed us!"
We Americans know too much. We have gone to college and they have taught us psychology. The Jews of old killed the prophets and then built their tombs. Is it possible that America fails to see the day of her visitation? We can discern the face of the sky, but why not the signs of the times? Certainly we are in a day of signs, wonders, and miracles. Those who fail to see the signs and accept them and believe, will go on to judgement.
DIVINE healing is the personal property of every believing child of God. The right mental attitude toward any of God's promises will bring healing in your life. Wherever you are, if you love the Lord, that makes you a Christian. But you can't love the Lord and do the things of the world, for God's Word says, "He that saith, I know him, and keepeth not His commandments, is liar, and the truth is not in him." (I John 2:4).
Divine healing is based upon, first, the word of God, secondly, the atonement, thirdly, your individual faith. The Divine gifts of healing don't give any man power to heal anyone he chooses. The laying on of hands for the healing of the sick is an act of obedience, taught by the Lord Jesus Christ, saying, "These signs shall follow them that believe...they shall lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover." (Mark 16:17-18) The healing is not in the individual, it is obedience to an act, just as being baptized in water is. However, the water does not remit your sins--the Blood of Jesus Christ cleanses you from all sin. The baptizing in water is an outward sign, showing that an inward work of grace has been done. And so, if you haven't repented of your sins, and accepted Christ as your Saviour, your baptizing doesn't mean a thing. Likewise, when a man says he has faith, and doesn't have the works to rise up and act like he believes it, it doesn't do him any good. Faith without works is dead just as the body without the Spirit is dead.
There are two classes of people that God is dealing with this day. One of them is the Fundamental group and the other is the Full Gospel group. To my way of thinking, the fundamental group stretches Grace to where it doesn't belong, and I think some of the other group stretch it the other way. But right in the middle of the road is the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ.
I believe in grace, but on the other hand I also believe in holiness. Isaiah said that there is a highway--the way of holiness. Any correctly built road is higher int he center than it is on the side, so that the trash can wash off. Now when a man is born into the kingdom of God, he's put right straight in the middle of the road, looking toward Christ, the Saviour. If he doesn't watch he'll gradual move over to one side where he'll get so cold and starchy, or he'll move over to the other side where he gets into fanaticism. But right in the middle of the road, is the true sane path of those who would obey the truth Gospel of Jesus Christ. It is a Gospel that you don't have to be ashamed of; it is the power and manifestation of the Holy Spirit. You can believe too much grace and get into universalism--do anything you want to and you're safe. That's wrong. Others believe if you should do this or that you are corssing the separating line forever. Lots of people think they have sinned against the Holy Ghost. All they need to do is to look to their Advocate, that's all; God will bring them back to grace. May God help us to keep balanced.
Divine healing is the same way. People say that in their hands is some kind of power for laying hands on the sick. I was amused recently--there was a lady in Sioux Falls that had seen the wonderful works of the Lord. Somebody sitting back near her, heard the woman say, "No doubt the man's true...but he is sure full of magic." To her it was some kind of a superstition as a rabbit's foot, ect. No, it isn't superstition, it is the blessing of God.
They tried to figure out Samson. He was born into this world to be a Nazarite. It wasn't his desire; it was God's will that he should be born a Nazarite. Peole tried to figure out the secret of his ministry. They said, "What kind of power has this man got? Is it a certain way he says his prayer?" The power of God has always stumped people. No person in this world ever has or ever will figure out the power of God. The mysteries of God are hidden from human beings. We accept it and believe it. The only thing that God does is make a manifestation of that power, and man seeing it, accepts it.
When Philip brought Nthaniel to Jesus, he was a little critical. But Jesus said, "Behold an Israelite indeed, in whom there is no guile." He said, "When did you know me, Rabbi?" Jesus answered and told him that before Philip had called him, He had seen him under the fig tree. Now Nathaniel could have said, "Now how did that fellow know that?" But Nathaniel did not doubt. He answered, "Thou art the son of God, the King of Israel."
The woman at the well could have said He was some kind of spiritualist because He was able to tell her that she was living out of wedlock. But no, she said, "I perceive that thou art a prophet." And Peter, when He told him to go down there and catch a fish, and get a coin out of its mough and pay the tribute, or when He told the disciples to go to a certain place and there should be a man carrying a pitcher of water, going to an upper room--they might have thought the same thing. But Jesus said He knew these things only as they Father revealed them unto Him. "...Verily, verily, I say unto you, The Son can do nothing of Himself, but what He seeth the Father do: for what things soever He doeth, these also doeth the Son likewise. For the Father loveth the Son, and sheweth Him all things that Himself doeth: and he iwll shew him greater works than these, that ye may marvel." (John 5:19-29)
These same manifestations are taking place today and men still marvel, trying to figure them out. We get too much education, instead of salvation. That's the way it was in the early days...the priest knew all the Latin words. Today we study the words but do not know the Author. Now God is here and as far as God is conscerned every sick person in the building is healed. Jesus paid that deposit at Calvary.
The Fundamental people look at the first three chapters of Ephesians and believe that they are sons and daughters of God because they believe on Him. If they would just read the next three chapters they will find out how they must live to keep their experience. Then there are other people who have lots of faith, but they just don't know who they are. If they only knew!
The Word of God is written by the Holy Ghost, and is hidden from the wise and prudent, but is revealed to babes. No man can understand it but by the Holy Ghost. Jesus said, "Except a man be born again, he cannot see..." The word "see" in this case means "to understand." You look at the things happening in these meetings and you say, "I just can't understand." You are looking with your eyes, but you understand with your heart.
This reminds me of when I was a little boy, when I used to go swimming. I had the least clothes of all the boys. I used a piece of twine for a belt, or a suspender, and a nail stuck through my overalls for a button. Did you ever wear any that way? I'm not the only country boy here, am I? Let's see the hands of those who have worn twine for a belt. Just look at that, would you? When we got to the swimming hole each one of us would try to be the first one in. I was usually first because I didn't have many clothes to take off. I jsut pulled the nail and flung the overalls in the air, and away I'd go. I'd signal to the boys, the temperature of the water. If I had up two fingers, the water was warm...come in. If I held up one finger, the water was cold. But brother you didn't know how the water was until you went in yourself. The same thing is true about the Baptism of the Holy Ghost. You can look at the manifestation and try to study it. But just get in it...then you will know; it will be a personal experience. Then you'll understand.
Now if I could ever get those people who know who they are, but do not have enough faith to write the check and draw on the deposit that Jesus deposited at Calvary, and then get the Pentecostal group who have enough faith, but do not know how to write the check...if I could only get those two groups together, we'd have a real church.
You say God isn't doing these things today. It reminds me of the story of the young lad who got put into jail for shooting gum balls with bean shooters at people. His mother went to the jail and inquired what he was doing there. The boy said that he had been picked up for shooting gum balls. The mother said, "They can't do that!" He replied, "They can't! They did it anyhow!" You say, "God won't do it." He does it anyhow. Taste of the Lord and see that He is good. "The proof if the pudding is the eating thereof."
NOW I want to address a few words to you from Isaiah 21:11-12. "The burden of Dumah. He called to me out of Seir, Watchman, what of the night? Watchman, what of the night? The watchman said, The morning cometh, and also the night: if ye will enquire, enquire ye: return, come." We are living in perilous times. There are wars and rumors of wars, and judgment is coming. This is the generation which shall see all things fulfilled. When Christ in Matthew 24, spoke of His Coming, the Cross was taking Him away, and the Gospel age was coming on. During that time the Holy Spirit was to come and make the people ready for the Second Advent. It would be the most glorious time of all when Jesus shall come the Second time in power and glory, to receive His church.
I realize that tens of thousands of people the world around are watching and weighing every word. I have to be very careful in speaking. I would not say anything that I would be ashamed of in the day of judgment. I want to speak to you from my heart. I believe that if God were here tonight in visible form, and spoke to us, He would direct our thoughts to say something about the Second Advent of Christ. The hours are growing dark. Great isms are sweeping the earth. The things that Jesus spoke of just before He went to the Cross, are taking place right before you eyes. The prophecies of the Old Testament and the New are rapidly being fulfilled. Many prophecies of Christ were fulfilled in the last few hours of His life. Now again we are in the hour of prophetic fulfillment.
Recently I was told that many of the Jews returning to Palestine had been reading the New testament for the first time. They say, "If Jesus is the Messiah, let Him perform the sign of a prophet and we will accept Him." I pray that when God permits me to go to Jerusalem, that His power will come down as it has here in America and in other countries. Jesus can prove that He is a Prophet, and can do those things that He did back there in the early days. I hope to see a revival that will sweep literally tens of thousands into the kingdom of God. Recently I learned that the six-pointed Star of David--some say it is the oldest flag in the world--is flying over Jerusalem tonight, for the first time in 2500 years. The Jews are the Fig Tree that Jesus spoke of in Matthew 24. We know that this generation shall not pass away until all these things be fulfilled. For we are the only generation that has seen the Fig Tree putting forth its buds. I believe that this generation shall see Jesus Christ come the Second time in glory and majesty.
When we see the unrest, strife, unsettled peace, men's hearts failing them for fear, perplexing times, distress between nations, all these things coming to pass, then it behooves us as in the days of Isiah, to look up and say, "Watchman what of the nigh?" In the days of old, the watchman, when it was dark, climbed the steps, went into the tower and checked the time by the stars as they passed. I can imagine in the city of Jerusalem, in Isaiah's time, a man on a warm night. He can't rest; he's longing to see morning come, and he cries out, "Watchman what of thenight?" I think that applies today. Men and women are living under the pressure of sin and its power, the devil deceiving them; there is a running to and fro, men's hearts failing them for fear, looking for those things coming upon the earth, and seeing God's Bible being fulfilled--again they cry out, "Watchman what of the night? What time is it? When will the morning come?" The watchman cried back"The morning cometh, and the night also."
It is time that we were crying out, "What of the night?" Distress is upon the land. Communism is sweeping over the ear th and there are wars and rumors of wars. They are talking peace, peace. But when they say, peace, then cometh sudden destruction. The world is ripe for destruction. When people refuse to know the truth, when they turn their back on the things of God, and call the power of God superstition and want a form of religion, I think it is time to have an old-fashioned God-sent revival like in the days of Elijah. Elijah looked up into the heavens three years and six months, and said, "The whole sky looks like brass." Brass is a symbol of judgment. The brazen altar, the brazen serpent--the serpent itself was in, and the brass, spoke of Divine judgment. Divine judgment was upon Israel because they were an unbelieving people that had turned their backs upon the true, living God and went to worshipping pagan gods and idols.
We are one of the greatest nations of the world; we have the best country in the world, but Communistic termites have eaten the foundation from under our nation, and today she is in a crumbling condition. Sin si abounding and darkness is settling everywhere. As in Elijah's time, women paint up their faces as Jezebel. A minister took me into a church to introduce me to his wife, and there she sat with bobbed hair with her big earrings dangling down. It looked like the devil himself were sitting around her neck and using them for stirrups of a saddle. He said, "Brother Branham, I want to intruduce you to my wife; she's a saint." I looked at him and thought, "She looks more like a 'haint' than a saint." The only woman in the Bible that painted herself up to meet man was Jezebel. Are you her daughters? That spirit still lives. God takes the man and the devil takes the man, but the spirit remains on earth. That same spirit from Cain and Abel goes right down to Christ and Antichrist. Remember what happened to Jezebel. She was fed to the dogs!
What we need these days is a good old-fashioned Holy Ghost meeting--a digging down and scrubbing up. The Bible warns us to beware lest a loot of bitterness spring up. Down in the country where I came from, there was a good spring, and I used to drink from it. I could tell that the water was good for it was clear. Sometimes a farmer's hog would get out and wallow in the spring, and cause it to be muddy. I tell you brother, sometimes something happens to the Holy Ghost church. It looks as if the hogs got into the stream and muddied it up. The Baptism of the Holy Ghost is to make one different, to act different and to look different.
God is a Separator in bringing His people out of sin. There in Egypt, God separated the people, making a difference between His people and the world--the Israelites and the Egyptians. Today God makes a difference between His people and the world. When a man is born again, the Blood of the Lamb washes away his sins. He then is separated from the world and he becomes a new creature in Christ Jesus.
In the Old Testament, Elijah was getting ready for a revival. What was the first thing that he did? He told the people to call all their idol worshippers to the mount. He then said, "If the Lord Be God, follow him; but if Baal, follow him." (I Kings 18:21) We have the same challenge tonight. What made Communistic Russia what she is today? Because those that professed religion were no different than those of the world. They got sick and tired of their gods and their taking the people's money and giving them nothing in return. Elijah said, "Come up here, you prophets of Baal, and you prophesy..., and let the God that answers by fire, be God."
It seemed funny to Ahab--Elijah standing there against all those Baal prophets. Ahab trusted in his sword, his army and his gods. Let me tell you something brother, the nation that will trust in its armor instead of God--cursed be that nation! I can see David and Goliath standing out on that hillside; Goliath had all the advantage over David. He was a warrior, he had his armor, his shield, and his spear. He said that he was the biggest man among all of them, and no man could whip him. That is just about the attitude of the nations today, when they get themselves all armored up with jet planes and atomic bombs. But there came little David against Goliath. Saul said, "Thou art but a youth, and he a man of war from his youth." David answered Saul, ">>>Thy servant kept his father's sheep, and there came a lion, and a bear, and took a lamb out of the flock; And I went out after him, and smote him, and delivered it out of his mouth; and when he arose against me, I caught him by his beard, and smote him, and slew him." He went on to tell Saul that if God gave him power over these, how much more would He give him power over the uncircumcised Philistine.
I'd rather trust God and have none of man's armor at all when atomic bombs start falling in the world! David walked out and let them put Saul's armor upon him. You can imagine the young lad with Saul's seven foot armor. That's the way they send a preacher out today. They take him down to the seminary and embalm him first. You know these old cold churches remind me of a morgue, with a lot of dead members in them. Then the ecclesiastical preachers put some sort of embalming fluid in them, and they stay dead too. I can see David out there with his great big old armor on, and I can imagine him saying, "I don't know anything about this thing; I have not proved it." I wish there were more to prove their experience. Salvation does not come by knowing geology, but by knowing kneeology. I can see David as he walked out there, and how the giant said, "Do you mean that you have come out here to fight me?... I'll give your flesh to the fowls of the air, and the beasts of the field." David replied, "You have come with a shield and a spear and a sword, but I am coming in the name of the God of Israel." The most powerful ammunition in the world is the mighty name of the Lord Jesus Christ! We find in the story that little David ran out with a sling and picked up five rocks, put them in his sling and went out to meet the Philistine. Five rocks, five fingers to sling it around...J-E-S-U-S... F-A-I-T-H. There it goes winding round and round. And when David turned it loose, it hit the target and the Philistine fell dead on the ground.
When Elijah said, "Gather your people out now; we'll see who is God," he rolled him up twelve stones. One stone was for each tribe of the children of Israel. And he repaired the altar of the Lord that was broken down. If ever the altar of the Lord needs repairing, it is today. The beer, the card tables have taken the place of the old-fashioned altar. The Methodists and the Baptists ought to do the same-repair the altar of the Lord in their homes. America will not be saved unless she rebuilds the altar in her homes.
We see perilous times coming. Trouble is on every hand. When we were in Finland they told us, "Look out America; it's coming your way." They told us about jet planes and underground hangars even on their borders. Trains that ran through that area had to have their windows blacked out. There may be a time in America when a million people will be killed in a few minutes time. Judgment is at hand. God does not destroy. God preserves. But man through his knowledge destroys himself.
In the garden of Eden there were two trees; one was the Tree of Life, and the other was the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil. When man leaves the tree of Faith and eats from the Tree of Knowledge, he brings destruction to himself. It is time to call out, "Watchman, what of the night?" As the watchman of the Bible climbed the tower to watch the stars, to tell the time of night, so we have a watchman who has climbed the ramparts of heaven, and has sat down at the right hand of God. Our Watchman is Jesus Christ, and He tells us that the night is coming.
Sometime ago I was out in Colorado in the mountains, watching an eagle. The old eagle was taking her little ones from the nest. She got her wings all set, and with the little eaglets mouths in their mother's wings, she flew down to a green, grassy field. The little ones began running around, chirmping, and eating grass and having a good time. The told mother sent right straight to the higest peak she could get to and she just sat there. She watched, looking everywhere to see of there was a coyote and or any other animal that would cause them harm. After awhile, she drew up her big head. (I was watching through binoculars.) Something was wrong; she was restless. She could smell a storm coming in the distance. Those northers come very fast. She threw up her big wings and flew down to the valley, to warn her little ones of the coming storm. Friend, Father is watching over us. He is watching the Church to protect it and to take it to be with Him when the storm breaks.
Christ has said, "I give unto you power to tread on serpents and scorpions, and over all powers of the enemy; and nothing shall by any means hurt you." (Luke 10:19) But there are many today that deny the power of God. The word says that it would be so; people would be highminded, heady, lovers of pleasure more than lovers of God...having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof...From such turn away." Now when that bird saw that storm, she spread her wings, let out a terrible scream, and down to earth she came. The little eglets put their feet on her big wings, and went straight into the face of that storm, then ran into the shelter of the rock. I began shouting and praising God. I thought, yes, Jesus sits watching over His little flock, and one day there will come a storm sweeping over the land. When the great persecution comes, and judgment falls upon the earth, then Jesus shall come upon the wings of glory, and we can flee to the Rock in the time of trouble. Hallelujah! "Watchman, watchman, what of the night." He said, "The morning cometh and the night also." It is always the darkest before the dawn. There is night just before the break of day. It is usually the darkest time when the stars shine the brightest. The early risers are the ones who see the morning star! Jesus Christ is the Morning Star! The Bible says that "He that overcometh will be given the Morning Star."
Some of the stars or planets shine by reflected light. Daniel says we shall shine like the stars, but it will be by the reflected light of the Sun of Righteousness. When you see the glory of God in the services, it isn't us shining, but the Holy Ghost shining through us. Now is the time to let your light shine in a world filled with darkness. Before morning can break, when the real light of the sun can shine, these stars reflect the power of the Lord Jesus Christ in these last days. God wants us to reflect His life.
The gold-beater used to take the gold and beat it with a hammer until the reflection of the beater showed in the thing that he was beating. When he got all the sludge out of it, all the dirt out of it, he could see his image in it and he knew it was real gold. The Holy Ghost, God's sledge-hammer has got the church, the jewels of the earth, the nuggets of gold, and is using Holy Ghost preachers to beat out the world. The sludge and dirt is falling away, but God is going to have a remnant, the elect, that are goin to reflect the power of the Lord Jesus Christ.
A missionary was crossing a desert and he met an infidel. The infidel said, Coyotes were here ast night. The missionary asked him how that he knew it. The infidel replied, "Here's the signs; I know they were here. And Jess said, "These signs shall folow them that believe" We know when a Holy Ghost revival is on, for we can see the signs. Jesus is here fr we can see the signs. The resurrected Christ is in our midst tonight, walking among the churches, the seven golden candelsticks, with the stars in His hands. Now is the time fr the stars to shine, and reflect the glory of the Son of God, and to show that He is the same yesterday, today, and forever.
There will be international peace, everlasting eace when the Sun of Righteousness shall arise with healing in His wings. The morning will break and then those who laughed at this message will be as those who lived in the days of Noah. They laughed at Noah but you can imagine how they looked when the storm came and the Ark was lifted up. The very thing that they scoffed at saved Noah. Today the thing that the world is lughing at will condemn the world. The Holy Ghost will be taken up, and those who remain on the earth will face judgment.
You who are letting your lights shine, when the time comes, will be with the stars. We are by the Cross of Calvary little pieces of the Morning Star, for we have become flesh of His flesh and bone of His bones, by being born into the Kingdom of God and filled with the Holy Ghost. Soon we will hear the cry, "Behold, the Bridegroom cometh, Go ye out to meet him." Watchman what of the night? The night is here--groos darkness upon the people. But the morning cometh also! Hallelujah!
HOW God desires tonight to fill this place with His goodness. He desires that the whole world will praise Him. Brother, it will be that way some day. One nation, one people, one flag, one language. That is what the world wants. But it will never be brought about by the atomic bomb. It will only be by the Second Coming of Christ. He shall set up a kingdom to which there will never be an end.
The question is: Have you accepted Him as your Saviour? Does He reign in your heart? If you really believe that Jesus is the Son of God and you accept Him in your heart, you will stand up before the people and witness that you are saved. You cannot be saved except by faith. If you believe and repent of your sins, God is under obligation to save you.
In that clensed state you are back to that place where you were when you came to the age of accountability. But that Adamic nature is there to make you want to sin again. It takes the power of the Holy Spirit to give you victory over it. It is a gift of God. But He is more willing to give than you are to receive it.
Last evening a great number filed into the prayer room to receive the Holy Ghost. There was a little lady praying and I asked her, "Have you been saved yet?" She didn't understand too well. As I talked to her, the Spirit of the Lord began to show me her condition, her life, and what was wrong with her. Now I said, "If God is here to show you what's wrong with you, isn't He here to save you?" That settled it. She lifted her hands and began to praise God.
I am going to read a little from the Old Testament. You know why I like the Old Testament so well? I have had no education, but if I read the Old Testament and know that these things are types and shadows, I shall understand the New Testament and the Second Coming of Christ. If there is a shadow on the wall, the person who casts the shadow will be like the shape of the shadow. The Old Testament was a shadow and a type of god's dealings with the Church today. That was the shadow. This is the real thing.
Not long ago in Bemton Harbor I was talking to a Jewish rabbi about a man who was healed after being blind for twety years. The Spirit of the Lord called him in the meetings and in a vision I saw him healed. I said, Sir, God has healed you," and he walked away just as blind as ever. He came back in a few minutes and said, "Say, I don't understand. You told me I was healed." I replied, "You are." "Well," he answered, "I can't see." I said, "I know you are healed; I saw a vision of your being healed." He answered, "It loks to me if I were healed my eyes would be opened." I said, "That has nothing to do with it; you eyes will come open." He replied, "What must I do?" I said, "Just begin to praise the Lord." So he did. The next night I could hardly preach. He was up in the second balcony and he'd jum up and say, "Everybody keep still. Praise the Lod for healing me." I'd get started again and he would go to shouting, "Praise the Lord for healing me." But still he couldn't see. I left the city but he didn't give up. He sold papers on the corner and would say, "Extra! Praise the Lord for healing me!" Well the old fellow went to the barber shop to get a shave. The barber got one side of his face shaved, and he was sort of smart-aleck and wanted to make some kind of remark about the services, so he said, "Say dad, I heard that you went up to see the 'healer' when he was here in the auditorium." The barber continued, "I heard you got healed, didn't you?" He was just making fun of him because he was blind, but John said, "Yes, praise the Lord for healing me." And his eyes came open in the barber chair. With a towel around his nick he started running down the street with the barber behind him. What a sight! He couldn't see perfectly, but he could make his way around, good. Now that man is in Michigan preaching Divine healing by faith.
The rabbi whom I was telling this to said, "Now I want to ask you something. Who healed this man?" I replied, "Jesus Christ healed him." He said, "Jesus Christ? Jesus wasn't the Christ!" I answered, "Oh, yes He is. Not only then, but He is now, and will be always." He said, "You can't make me believe that." I answered, "Well it is through His Name that this man received his sight." The rabbi asked, "Can you do that to every person?" I replied, "The same God that worked in the Old Testament is the one that is working now." Tears began rolling down his cheeks and he said, "God is able of these stones to raise up children unto Abraham." I answered, "Yes, He is." But the rabbi wouldn't listen to me. He said, "If I taught that Jesus were the Christ I would be beggin in the street." I answered, "Brother, I'd rather be lying on my stomach dronking water and eating soda crackers and preaching the truth than have all your splendor."
I want to read this Scripture to you from Joel 2:25-27. "And I will restore to you the years that the locust hath eaten, the cankerworm, and the caterpiller, and the palmerworm, my great army which I sent among you. And ye shall eat in plenty, and be satisfied, and praise the name of the Lord your God, that hath dealt wonderously with you; and my people shall never be ashamed. And ye shall know that I am in the midst of Israel, and that I am the Lord your God, and none else; and my people shall never be ashamed." I would like to take for my subject, "God Keeping His Promise. Joel is speaking here promarily of the Millennium when the Jews will be brought back to their inheritance. He spoke of the tree that was eaten out by worms and insects until it was no more tree, just a stump, but he promised to restore it again. When God says anything He will bring it to pass. So Israel may look for this, no matter how much they are scattered about the world. No matter how hard they have been beaten about for two thousand years, without a homeland, without a flag, cast out of Germany and Russia and other places, et the Jews will be restored again, because God has said so through His prophet. And it is coming to pass.
When God makes a promise He will always bring it to pass. He made a promise in Acts 2:38,39 "...Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus christ for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost. For the promise is unto you, and to your children, and to all that are afar off, even as many as the Lord our God shall call." That is one promise. In Mark 11:24, He said, "Therefore I say unto you, What things soever ye desire, when ye pray, believe that ye receive them, and ye shall have them. That is another promise. And every promise in the Book is mine, yours, and whosoever will. If God promised it, it cannot fail. It's got to come to pass. You say, What about me?" It's got to happen in your life if God promised it, and you receive the promise as from God. Brother, sister, I've tried that over and over again, and I know what I am speaking about.
For instance, back in the days of Abraham, God made a promise that his seed would sojourn in a strange land for 400 years and after that He would bring them out with a mighty hand, showing His greatness, and His Name and power before the heathen. God promised it. We are all aware how the patriarchs went down into Egypt, died there, and were brought back and buried in the Promised Land. Israel grew and waxed strong in Egypt. Though slaves, they were a strong people. The Israelite women were stronger than the Egyptian women. Israel bacame a great nation. The time began to draw night and things began to shape up for the fulfillment of God's promise. God sent them a man by the name of Moses. He was born of a peculiar birth and raised up in Egypt, and at the age of 40 slipped over into the land of Midia where he married a wife.
After 40 years in the back part of the desert, God appeared in the form of a Burning Bush. I can see him there in the desert herding his father-in-law's sheep. The sun was hot and Moses was walking along when al of a sudden God appeared to him in a Burning Bush. The Angel of the Lord had come into this Bush and it was burning.
Quit looking backward; look forward! Science once said that if a man traveled at the terrific speed of 60 miles per hour, it would take his breath. Now you never hear of science referring to that statement. A man can travel at 1600 miles an hour now, and they are not stopping at that. They are going on. But the ministry doesnt look forward like that. They look back to see what A.B. Simpson said, or what D.L. Moody said. What we want to know is what God said about things. Let's go! The whole field is yours. If ministers would get in the harness like inventors, who have made such intensive scientific research in order to help people, how much more we could help people if we could get moving. Gd said, "Whatsoever things ye desire when ye pray, believe ye receive them." There you are, look forward!
Now I can see Moses as he drew aside to look at the Bush. And after God saw He had Moses attention, He spoke out of the Bush. Moses was a man like we are. He saw that it was something supernatural. He drew aside to look at it. Now let me tell you something, Methodists, Baptists, Pentecostals and all of you--if the Methodist and Baptist churches back yonder had stayed in the will of God and kept moving on, feeding their churches, there wouldn't be so many cults today. Christian Scientists have gained thousands all over the country, even though they deny the Blood of Christ. They have enough psychology to attract the attention of people--and men made in the image of God are ever ready to tur aside to find something. I don't blame them. They sit around in cold, dry churches as dry as a dishrag that hasn't been used in a month. They are expected to chew on some old creed or something man has said. A church has got to be fed.
Man has something within Him that responds to the supernatural. God showed Moses supernatural works to attract his attention. Moses went aside, and God spoke to Him out of the Bush and said, "Take off your shoes. You are on Holy ground" And Moses took his shes off. Three things I want you to notice that God said here. "I have heard the cries of my people. I have seen their afflictions. And I have remembered my covenant." I have seen, I have heard, I have remembered my promise Hallelujah!
If God could see then, He can see now. If He could hear then, He can hear now. If He could remember then, He can remember now And if He remembers His promise to Abraham, He remembers His promise to Christ. Brother, you have to get that wishbone out and get a backbone instead. God remembers every promise He made. And He remembers His romise that you would lack nothing. In other words He signed in the whole book full of checks, and said, "Fill them out." But you are afraid to cash them. What's the matter, brother Go on and hand them in. See if God doesnt recognize them. He'll have to recognize the handwriting of His own Son, esecially when it's written in His own blood.
Notice, Moses said, Lord I can't go down there. Im slow in seech and can't talk very well." But after awhile God spoke, "As you go, you will see My glory." God wanted to show him His glory. He asked, "What's that in your hand, Moses?" He relied, "A rod." Moses threw it down. A miracle was performed. It turned into a serpent. He picked it up, and it was a rod in his hand again. Then God gave him a sign of healing. Healing is one of God's glories. It's in the supernatural realm. It's something that man hungers for...the miraculous, the supernatural, and man is still ma, people are still people, God is still God. He put his hand in his bosm, and God healed him of leprosy.
Now watch, that stick was no longer a stick. It was God's judgment rod that He was sending before him when he went into Egypt. And notice the hand that swayed God's rod had to be first cleansed. And that is the way it is today. If those Egyptians could have ever gotten the rod out of Moses hand, they woud have whipped him. Because it was the rod that he held up to the sky and turned it black; it was the rod that brought forth frogs, and flies and so forth. It was God's rod. And what the rod was in Moses hand, the Name of Jesus is in the Church's hand. The Word says, Whatsoever ye do in word or deed, do all in the Name of Jesus." "If ye ask the Father anythin in my Name, He will do it." The world wonders why it is in the condition it is in today. People in our nation go around and curse and blaspheme in that Name--hop do you expect God to honor their prayers? But I tell you when a prayer goes up from a true heart that has been cleansed, the devil trembles.
Whatsoever you ask in my Name--look, In my Name." It's the power of attorney. Its the authority that God have to the church. "In My Name ye shall cast out devils." Not I will, but ye will. And there's where it is. If when the sick erson is before me, and I can see that his heart is clean and his life is clear, every demon has to trembel. If there are things in the person's life, he has to make them right first. That Name had so much authority even before the Atonement, that the disciples came back rejoicing saying that even the devils were subject to that Name. That was before the Atonement was made. What ought it to be now, after that the Blood has been sprinkled and power and authority has been given by Jesus to the church! "Whatsoever ye ask in My Name, I will do it." God's rod was in Moses' hand, and His rod is in the Church's hand. When Moses saw that his hand had been cleansed, he put that rod before him, put his wife and children astraddle a mule, and towards Egypt he went--a one-man invasion! Can you imagine, an old man eighty years old, whiskers blowing in the wind, with a rod i his hand, with a wife and two children, going down to Egypt the mightiest nation in the word, to take it? To the carnal mind, it would be radical, it would be nonsence, but he had the promise, hallelujah.
Moses wife asks, Do you know where you are going Moses?" He answeres, "I know what Im doing." Oh my, the greatest nation in the world, and many thousands of trained men, but God said to go down and take it. Now that we have seen the glory of God, let's go down and take the enemy. The devil says we can't do it, but God says we can. Whom are we going to believe? David, as he stood before Goliath that day, knew that God would withhold no good thing from the man that walked uprightely before him. He looked over at the big boastful Philistine standing there, a great giant with his armor. David told the Philistine that he came armed iwth a spear, but that he, David, met him in the Name of the Lord first and marched in that Name. If you are sick tonight, speak the Name of Jesus and walk in it. If you want the Holy Ghost tonight, take the Name of Jesus and receive the promise. Watch what happens! I know what I am talking about.
Moses is on his way to Egypt. I can see someone over there say, Where's that fellow going?"
"I'm on my way to Egypt."
"What are you going to do there?"
"Bring Israel out." Can you imagine what a carnal man would have said? "Why that guy's gone crazy." But he had the promise. Maybe the doctor's already told you that the cancer is going to take your life. But you've got the promise, go on and receive it!
Here he goes to Egypt. He preaches the Gospel, tells them what must be done. And when he does that, there comes a day of decision of Israel. After hearing the word, there's a time of decision. You Baptists, Methodists, Pentecostals, Pilgrim Holiness, and all, you've got to make a decision. Its time for your church to make a decision. What are you going to do about it? Let's serve God. Elijah said, "Choose you this day whom ye shall serve." There's a time in every mans life when he comes to a crossing of ways--he has to go on our turn back. Israel made a decision. They marched out at midnight, fuly armed, shod with the helmet of the gospel. But no sooner did they move out than they enemy came after them. They were caught--enemy behind them, mountains on either side, and the Red Sea in front of them. haroah's army was pursuing, and there they were right down in the gap of death. But they knew they were on the road to the Promised Land. They had the promise, hallelujah! And we have the promise too-we are people of the promise. When that Red Sea got in their way, God opened it up and the eople marched through on dry ground. The uncircumcised, the unbeliever tried to mock them, tried to follow, but perished i the Sea. So it is today; those who claim or pretend to have the Holy Ghost, it isn't long before their colors show what they are made of. But those who have the real article of God, the born-again experience, move on. The romise is to thosw wh endure to the end--the same shall be saved.
The next thing they did was arrive at the waters of Marah, or bitterness. Some people think that after you have the Holy Ghost, you're sitting on easy street with no troubles at all. You're going to have plenty of them. When they came to the bitter waters, they couldn't drink. But now think--would you supose that God would lead His children into bitter waters? Sometimes He does. You may say, Brother Branham, since I got the Holy Ghost, everything has gone this way and that." We'll praise the Lord, that's good. Every son that cometh to God, must be chastened of God. If you can't stand chastisement, you are a bastard child, and not a child of God.
But notice, standing on the banks of the bitter waters was the remedy. They cut down a tree and threw it into the water, and the bitter and made sweet. God moves on. Some go through the water, some through the flood, some through dark trials but all through the Blood. God is still the same yesterday, today, and forever. At Marah, God gave the great promise of healing to the children of Israel. And there He revealed Himself as Jehovah-Rapha, the Lord that Healeth thee. (Exodus 15:26) "And said, If thou wilt diligently hearken to the voice of the Lord thy God, and wilt do that which is right in His sight, and wilt give ear to His commandments, and keep all his statutes, I will put none of these diseases upon thee, which I have brought upon the Egyptians; for I am the Lord that healeth thee."
A woman came to me that had stomach trouble and said, "I have had stomach trouble for many years, and when you spoke to me you described it perfectly." I then told her to go home, and eat anything she wanted, because she would be well. Sometime after she came to me again and said, "Brother Branham, I started to eat regularly, and when I did, it like to have killed me. That went on for days and days. I determined if I died, I'd still be trying to eat, for I knew I had God's promise. One morning my stomach was bothering me so badly I could hardly stand it. I was washing dishes, and all at once I became so sick that I began to cry. How could it be--how could it be ? But I said to myself, He has healed others. He will do it for me, I will hold to my testimony." As she said that, a real cool feeling went through her and she wondered wht it was. She kept washing the dishes. She began to feel encouraged and said to herself, "I'm going to drink a cup of coffee." She hadnt been able to drink it in years. There was a little oatmeal left, and she ate the oatmeal, and never had a bit of trouble. Then she tried some toast and butter. She waited an hour and still felt as fine as could be. She decided to go down the street and tell a neighbor what had happened to her. This neighbor had a growth on the side of her face, and this lady thought her testimony would encourage the neighbor to believe for her healing also. She had also been prayed for in the meeting. When she got there the neighbor was standing with her hands in the air praising God--the growth had left her face that morning. Do you know what it was? It was the Angel of the Lord passing through that neighborhood that morning confirming the word that had been spoken to them!
Remember Daniel and the Angel? Daniel prayed, and it was twenty-one days befre the Angel could get to him. But as surely as God's blessing is pronounced upon you and you believe it, it shall come to ass. It may take ten days, it may take five days, it may take more time or less. God is concerned over your case and has seen your faith. The blessing of God is stamped upon you, and you've got to receive it. The oly thing that will keep you from receiving it is to disbelieve it.
Text Luke 2:25: "And, behold, there was a man in Jerusalem, whose name was Simeon; and the same man was just and devout, wating for the consolation of Israel: and the Holy Ghost was upon him." In the days of the events of these Scriptures, conditions were something like those we are living in today. It was near the time of the First Cming of the Lord Jesus. Today every real Christian knows that the only hope of the Church lies in the Second Coming of Christ.
People had forgotten about the true faith of Jehovah in those days and had broken up into sectarian groups such as the Pharisees and Sadducees. But God has always had a remnant through all the ages. God has never left Himself without a witness. There has always been someone whom He could put His hand upon and say, "This is my servant." Sometimes it has gotten down to one person as in the days of Noah, or, Elijah.
As the church gets away from God, the ministry gets away from the simplicity of the Gospel untl the poorer people don't know what they are speaking about. God always brings the Gospel to the level of the common people. Don't you love Him for that? If it were just for the smart, the highly educated, where would the people like myself and many others be? If it took money to buy it, what would we do?
God had a remnat in the days of John the Baptist, He had Simeon the riest, He had Anna the prophetess, and Zacharias and Elizabeth, people He could put His hand on. Now Simeon was an aged man, but He believed that he would see Christ before his death, because God had given him that promise. Now when God promises anything, He's going to fulfill that promise. God puts Himself under obligation to fulfill His Word. He watches ovr His Word. He loves to reveal it to His people and find someone that will accept His Word and hold onto it until He can bring it to pass. Now sometimes when you pray, God does not immediately answer you, because there are hindrances in the way that revent Him from getting through to you at a certain time.
Look at Hannah, when she was praying at the altar. Even the priests thought she was drunk, and he walked up and asked her if she had not been drinking too much wine. But she said, "I'm not drunk, but I'm praying God to take away my reproach." The priest answered, "The Lord grant you a blessing." I believe that God could have placed a baby in her hands right then. But she was blessed, and she thanked God for her blessing, went home, and in the normal time, Samuel was born. God brought it around.
Many times God would do things for us if we would wait in faith. Daniel prayed 21 days before the angel got there. The only ones that get in a hurry are you and I. It's not God that gets in a hurry, but Saten tries to see to it that we get in a hurry. When God has promised anything, He's going to bring it to pass.
I can imagine this old priest Simeon going down the street, testifying and saying, "You know, the Holy Ghost met me and told me I wasn't going to die until I had seen the Lord's Christ." I can see the men on the street corner after he'd walked away saying, "You know there is something the matter with the old fellow. He's getting old and there is something sliping, up there." That's the way they think about a person when they begin to testify and hold on to God. It's foolishness to the carnal mind. But God will respect your faith if you will just have confidence and hold on. Simeon kept holding to the promise. He believed, and was expecting to see Christ before he died.
Then one day, on the hills of Judea a Baby was born, in a manger in Bethlehem. They didn't have any radio or presses in that day, so the only way they had to send news was by mouth to ear. Some people begane to say, "There's a young lady down there; she's been going with a man and she's to be a mother. Now look at that disgrace." But all the time, Mary know what the angel had spoken to her. She was asked to believe something that had never happened through all the ages. Many times we think it hard to believe God. But Mary had to believe for something that had never taken place before. There are people today with heart trouble, cancer, T.B., who are wondering, "Oh, if God would only heal me. If I could only have the faith to step out on the promise." Many people are healed of these diseases every year. But Mary had to believe something that never had happened before. She, a virgin, was to bring forth a child. When the angel came to her and said that she was to have this baby, she said, "Behold the handmaiden of the Lord." She didn't wait until she was positive. She didn't wait until she had symptoms, or until she felt life, before she began to testify. She started praising God right then, just as soon as the word of God anchored in her heart. And when you see that God means a certin thing, then believe it, accept it, and start rejoicing and thanking God for it.
You can say, "Lord You promised to heal me and I accept it. Thank You, Lord for healing me." That's the end of it. He'll bring it to pass. You say, "Lord, I believe it. Ill live for you from now on." That settles the matter. I think we ministers try to make it too complicated for the people. We are just common people. Up in Tennessee, I was standing one time in a large auditorium and I heard someone saying that a man that weighs a hundred and fifty pounds is worth about 84 cents. You sure take care of that 84 cents, don't you? You put a $10 hat on top of it, and wrap a two-hundred dollar fur coat around it and stick your nose so high in the air that if it rained it would drown you, taking care of that 84 cents--see what I mean? And you've got a soul that is worth ten thousand worlds, and you just let the thing go any way. Take care of your soul, my brother!
Back to the priest. They were making ready for the Coming of the Lord. Simeon believed that he was going to see the Lord before he died. And I can imagine him standing in the temple one day, when all the sacrifices were being made. There was a day of purification for the women who had brought their children into the world, and the sacrifice was two turtle doves for a poor person, or a lamb for a rich parent's offering. Let's look at the drama of it for a moment.
Down the line stood a group of mothers and I can hear them talking about a little mother standing away from them with a veil over her face. They were saying, "There's the woman. There she is." The baby was wrapped in swaddling clothes. The mother was standing there holding the little baby with a peasant's offering in her hand. Maybe the rest of the women wouldn't stand near her. But she had the promise and knew who the baby was, and that the child was God's Son. Mary knew where she was, and every born-again person knows where he stands, even if the world does think that he is crazy. There Mary stands looking at the baby. Back in the prayer room is simeon reading the Scriptures.
The people are passing by but little do they know that the Messiah is in the temple. Today, people think folds are crazy for worshipping God in the Spirit. They don't know that the same God--the God of the Old Testament, the God of the New Testament, is stil the God that moves among His people.
As Simeon sits there reading, the Holy Ghost speaks to him and sayd, "Simeon, rise up! You have been expecting something for a long time. You have been faithful to testify, although all seems against you. You are old but you were not ashamed to testify that I told you that you were going to see the Christ before you died. Now rise, He is in the Temple!"
I can see him rise up, tears rolling down his cheeks. The Holy Ghost leading him, he walks out along the line of women until he comes to that little virgin that was standing there with a baby in her arms. Taking the child into his arms, he lifts up his eyes and says, "Lord, let your servant depart in peace, according to your word, for mine eyes have seen thy salvation." God had promised it!
Way back in the corner was a blind prophetess with waited for the consolation of Israel. The Holy Ghost moved upon her and here she comes, winding through the people, until she comes to Christ. She also lifts up her hands and blesses God, and gives prophecies concerning Him. She had the promise that she was going to see Christ and she did! The same Holy Spirit that lived in the day lives today, and what He promises He will do. Now those of you who belive that there is Divine healing for your body--somewhere there is a fountain opened for your healing. "The deep calling for the deep." If there is a deep in you calling, there has to be a deep responding to it. Before there can be something in you calling, there has to be something to call to. If there were no GGod, there would be no desire to worship Him, but because there is a God, there is a desire in the human heart to worship Him. "A deep calling to the deep."
I've stood many times just worshipping God with joy when I see a sunrise, or a sunset, or great mountains. Awhile back I was down in Florida visiting, and they took me all around to see the crossways and the bayous and they told me that this certain place cost so many millions of dollars and another place cost so many millions. Some fellow was out cutting the grass, feather-edging it. There were swanky yachts, lights all over the palms. Somebody said, "Now isn't this beautiful?" I answered, "It is to those who think it is, but it's too artificial for me." I like to stand up in the mountains and see things the way that God made them. That's what looks pretty to me--not something that man has tampered with. I like to stand up in the mountains and see things the way that God made them. That's what looks pretty to me--not something that man has tampered with. I like to look up at the stars at night time--looks better than feather-edged grass or palm trees. I like to see what God has done. I like to see His beauty. Many times I have stood in the mountains to watch a rainbow, or nature, or the sun rising up like a great eye moving over the hills taking a picture, sending light, melting away the snow, or smelling the perfume of the flowers which has come from other flowers that have already gone. That's God moving everywhere. And if He moves in flowers, He moves in people.
I'll never forget a minister who told me that I had gone crazy when I told Him about an angel appearing. "Why," he said, "Brother Branham, do yu expect the Baptist Church to believe such things? We can't accept anything like that." I replied, "I never asked you to. I was just stating facts. God told me to go and I would be praying for kings and rulers, with great signs and wonders following." He replied, "What did you eat for supper tonight, Billy?" I said, "Sir, I don't appreciate that." He answered, "Nobody will believe it." I said, "Oh yes they will. God wouldn't have said it unless there were someone who would believe it."
That's right. There was a deep out in the Full Gospel people calling to the deep and there is bound to be a deep to respond to that call. If a man hungers and thirsts for that which is right, God will satisfy it. When the disciples were on the sea that night, the little old boat pitched up and down on the waves and they cried for help. But when they saw Jesus coming, they were afraid of Him. That is what the matter is with many people today. They cry to God for help, and when He sends something, they are afraid of it. Some say it is spiritualism...it is of the devil. The very thing that could help them they are afraid of! Oh my, what a day we are living in! If there is a hungering in your heart to be healed of God, there has to be a fountain somewhere, into which you can plunge. Now there is a Fountain and that Fountain was provided not a few years ago. It was opened 1900 years ago. And God has confirmed by thousands of signs and wonders that the Fountain is now open for every sick person.
How is it that people who were dying of cancer and other horrible diseases and were given up by the doctors, are now normal and well today? Others who were afflicted or were blind and now healed? How is this? I myself was one, when Mayo Brothers said I had just a little time to live. Once the doctors in Louisville examined me and said I had only three minutes to live. But I'm alive now and I weigh 150 pounds. Why? I believed God and expected Him to keep His word to me. God promised me the other night that when I went to India and some of the countries over there, that there would be 300,000 people at one meeting. I know that it will be that way. When God told me that there would be a little boy raised from the dead, I expected it to be that way. In Finland it happened. So it will be again. I am expecting it.
If you come to the meeting and say, "I am going to see about these things; I'll pass my opinion upon it when the service is over," or if you say, "I don't expect to see anything happen," it will be that way as far as you are concerned. You get just what you expect. If you came with a humble heart saying, "Lord, I want a closer walk with You, I want to know more about You, reveal Yourself to me," then you will get what you expected. If you expect a blessing, God will give you a blessing. If you expect no blessing, Satan will see that you don't get it. Some one said to me not long ago, "Brother Branham, I just don't believe it." I answered, "It wasn't for you in the beginning. It's just for believers." If you don't believe it, you won't receive it. If you don't believe in salvation, you can never have salvation. It's not he that guesseth or he that wondereth--it is he that believeth. And this believing is a continuation...not just saying that you believe now, but don't know about it in the morning. You have to believe in the morning too.
Don't ever depend on your emotions. The first thing that you have to find out is whether your confidence is built on solid Scriptures. If you think you are converted just because you got a good feeling at the altar, then when that good feeling leaves, your salvation leaves with it. If you believe you are healed just because you felt good when you were prayed for, then if symptoms should begin to return, and the good feeling leaves, you go right back sick as you were in the first place. The devil can beat you all day long about your feelings. But brother, when you are thoroughly taught in the Word that it is God's will, he'll never move God's word. He can't.
Jesus had all the qualities of God. He was Emmanuel. But when He met Satan, He just used God's Word. He said, "It is written." The devil took Him upon a mountain and showed Him the world, and said that he would give all these things to Him. But Jesus answered, "It is written." The Word of God defeated Satan, and will bring victory to the weakest of Christians. "It is written." That settles it. If it is God's Word, it is true. Divine healing is in God's Word, and no man can preach all the Gospel without preaching Divine healing. The Gospel is not in word only, but through the power and demonstration of the Holy Ghost. "These signs shall follow them that believe; In my name shall they cast out devils; they shall speak with new tongues." That is the Gospel in action. If you believe in that kind of ministry, if you believe that Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today and forever, He will give you the desire of your heart.
A man can stand in the pulpit and deceive you. He can tell you anything he desires to tell you, but that is only his word. But when God testifies that it is the truth, you have no right to dispute it. Fundamentally, there is no healing in a man. The healing is in Calvary, in Christ. And Christ has already accomplished every healing that He will ever do--it's already done. Healing as far as God is concerned is already appropriated. All you have to do is to believe it and receive it. Oh, how wonderful! Are you expecting to be healed?
Let me give you this one word. God promised in the last days that there would be a regathering of the people and great signs and wonders would be done. If He did it at the First Coming of the Lord Jesus, what about the Second Coming when all ages gather together? I'm expecting that the greatest things that have ever been done in the history of the world will take place. And we are the people that God is trying to deal with, trying His best to send out to do this work. God grant that we do not fail.
I want you to turn with me in your Bibles to John 11:18 and read with me to the 27th verse.
The Lord Jesus Christ had left His carpenter shop at Nazareth. His ministry had grown until now great crowds followed after Him, He had a friend by the name of Lazarus, and He was staying at the home of Lazarus, Mary and Martha. It's good to have friends. We should treat one another as sons and daughters of God.
The life of our Lord Jesus Christ was strange. Many of God's children to whom God has given His gifts have been reared strangely and led strange lives. Notice back in the Old Testament where the Scripture speaks of Christ's forerunner, John the Baptist. You Baptists know that we need some more Johns. Notice the manner of John's birth. Perhaps it was a minor angel that came to me; I do not know. But it was none other than the Archangel of Gabriel that spoke of the birth of John the Baptist. When God sends Gabriel, you may be sure that something is going to happen. Gabriel announced the First Coming of Christ. Perhaps he will announce the Second Coming of Christ. The angels of heaven are interested in us and what is taking place in our lives, yes, in what is happening this afternoon in this auditorium. If we were as interested in this meeting as they are, anything could take place.
God sent a forerunner of the First Coming of Christ in John the Baptist. I believe that He will send a forerunner of His Second Coming--and that forerunner will be the restoration of the Gifts to His Church. I believe it, Notice that it is already taking place.
Now the angel appeared to Zacharias, the father of John, and told him of the coming birth of a son. But Zacharias could not understand this. He was stricken in years and his life stream was dry. So he doubted. But when God has determined to do a thing, that thing shall come to pass, and none can hinder. I believe that God is going to bring out a blood-washed Church in which the gifts of the Spirit are restored. I don't know how it will be done, but I know that God is going to do it. So because Zacharias doubted, he was stricken dumb. He went home, He was not able to speak until the baby was born.
Then six months later the angel Gabriel came down to the city of Nazareth. It was probably as bad a city as they had in the world at that day. Nathaniel said, "Can any good thing come out of Nazareth?" Philip answered, "Come and see." Notice that the angel came down to this wicked city of Nazareth because one little girl in that city found favor in the sight of God. No matter where you are, if you can find favor in the sight of God, He will come to you. Then let us look at this drama a moment. Perhaps it was blue Monday and Mary was doing her washing. Perhaps she was carrying a pitcher of water upon her head as she was coming from the spring--a spring that still flows from the hillside of Nazareth. Perhaps she had just returned to her room when suddenly there met her the Archangel Gabriel. When the angel spoke he said, "Hail, thou art highly favored, the Lord is with thee: blessed art thou among women." It frightened the little virgin to see a mighty angel standing there. It would frighten you. It would frighten me. But notice the difference between Zacharias and Mary. When the angel appeared to that minister, that clergyman, he doubted the angel. But the little virgin believed the angel. Notice those who come through the prayer line, those who get healed, those on whom the miracles are performed. Often it is the children. They believe what you tell them. People read these smutty old true-story magazines and their minds are filled with such trash, how can they get healed? There has to be a certain simplicity to believe God. So it was that Zacharias could not believe. Yet it should not have been too difficult. The miracle promised to him had been accomplished before. Abraham had begotten a child in his old age. But in the case of the virgin, Mary, the birth of a child to a virgin had never happened before and would never happen again. Yet she believed. She took God at His word. She didn't wait until the baby was born, but she began at once to rejoice and praise God. You don't have to wait until you are prayed for to be healed. Start right now believing. God will keep His word. The people on the Day of Pentecost had been praising God for several days before the Holy Ghost fell. Is that right? You don't have to believe for anything very difficult. You are seeing healings taking place every day, surely you can believe for yourself. You know God's Word says, "They shall lay hands on the sick and they shall recover." Take Him at His Word. Don't say, "Oh, I don't feel any better." That doesn't count at all. Take God at His Word. Not what you feel or what you see, but what you believe.
I have often wondered what kind of a man John the Baptist was. He didn't come out of a school of theology, but he had taken a course in "kneeology." And he preached CHRIST! Christ is the greatest drawing card in the world today. "And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto me." John the Baptist was a man without fear. He wasn't afraid to tell the king that he was living with the wrong woman. John the Baptist did not preach about himself. He said, "I indeed baptize you with water, but there cometh one after me whose shoelatchet I am not worthy to unloose; He shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost and with fire." The Pharisees did not like John. They said, "Do you think that all our sacrifices and burnt offerings are to be done away with? Impossible!" But John replied, "A man shall take away the sin of the world." Remember the same flood that destroyed the antediluvian world, saved Noah and his household. And the same Holy Ghost that will catch away God's people, will condemn those who blaspheme the wonders that are done by Him. For blasphemy against the Holy Ghost hath no forgiveness in this world nor that world to come. The church that has gone through the hall of critics is going to be placed in God's Hall of fame. And the world can only stand by and say, "There she goes."
How did John the Baptist know Christ when he saw Him? It was by a sign. God had said unto John that "upon whom thou shalt see the Spirit descending, and remaining on him, the same is he which baptizeth with the Holy Ghost." (John 1:33) And you can know the church of Jesus Christ by the means of a sign. "And these signs shall follow them that believe; In my name shall they cast out devils; they shall speak with new tongues; they shall take up serpents; and if they drink any deadly thing it shall not hurt them; they shall lay hands on the sick and they shall recover." (Mark 16: 17, 18) If your church does not believe in this, find one that does.
Why was John the Baptist so great? Jesus said there was none born of women greater than he up until that time. Moses was great, Enoch was great, Elijah and Daniel were great. All these had spoken of the coming of Christ. But it was reserved unto John to introduce Christ to the world. He was the preacher that preached at the inauguration of the ministry of Jesus. He didn't have on broadcloth or have a D.D. after his name, but he did preach the baccalaureate message for the Lord, using the muddy banks of the Jordan as a cathedral. The Pharisees who stood by, refused to accept it. But God's work moved on anyway.
Notice that Jesus appeared on the muddy banks of the River Jordan. He moved out into the muddy water, was baptized by a man who did not have a decent suit of clothes to put on. That is what the world calls silly, God calls great, and what the world calls great, God calls foolishness.
You Look With Your Eyes and See With Your Heart
You know that you don't see with your eyes. You look with your eyes and see with your heart. Christ told Nicodemus, "Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God." Man cannot see the kingdom of God during this age with his natural eyes. He has to understand it with his heart. You cannot see the kingdom until you are in it. When I was a little boy I used to race with other boys to the swimming hole to see which one could get in first. I was so poor and had so few clothes, that I usually was the first one in the water. I didn't have to bother with a shirt or anything, so after I jumped out of a pair of overalls, I just dove into the water. If the water was cold, we would hold up one finger; if it was just right, we would hold up two fingers. Friends, I want to tell you this afternoon that I'm holding up two fingers; the water is just right. Come and "dive in" and receive the Holy Ghost blessing.
After Christ was baptized in the water and had received the Holy Ghost, He went into the wilderness and was tempted. After you have been prayed for, for your healing, you, too, will be tempted. Sometimes everything that you have had will try to come back on you. Jesus said that "when the unclean spirit is gone out of a man, he walketh through dry places seeking rest and finding none, he saith, I will return unto my house whence I came out. And when he cometh he findeth it swept and garnished. Then goeth he and taketh seven more spirits more wicked than himself; and they enter in; and the last state of that man is worse than the first." The devil always tempts people where they are the weakest. So Jesus was hungry and the devil tempted Him. Moses had a temper and the devil tempted him there. I don't know where he will tempt you, but he'll tempt you at the weakest spot. I used to box. I won the local bantam-weight championship, and was undefeated when I entered into the ministry. When I used to box, I was fast. I couldn't hit very hard, but I could get out of the way of the next fellow. I wouldn't watch his feet or his hands, but I would watch his eye. I would see where he was looking and I would cover up. Then when I found out where his weakest spot was, I would pound away at that. That's the way Satan does. He finds where your weakest spot is and punches away as hard as he can. If it's unbelief, he'll punch at that. He'll keep at it to weaken you.
After Jesus came out of the wilderness, signs and wonders began to follow Him. Now He used to stay at the home of Lazarus when He was near Jerusalem. But when He went a distance, He had to leave that home. So one of those times when He was gone, sickness moved into the home. And when Jesus leaves your home, sickness is going to move in. Disappointment, sorrow, and poverty will move in when Jesus moves out. In this case it wasn't because He was driven out, but because His work had called Him out. It was all for a purpose. The Father had already shown Him what was going to take place. They sent for Jesus to come and pray for Lazarus. But apparently He ignored it and went on. What would you do if you sent for your pastor some time to come and pray for you and he ignored it and went on? You'd probably say, "All right, I'll go over and join another church." Your impatience may be the very reason that the Lord can't do anything for you. Honor the man that is preaching the Word of God to you.
After a while Jesus said, "Our friend Lazarus sleepeth." The disciples could not understand, so they said, "If he sleepeth, he doeth well." Then He told them plainly in the only way they could understand, "Lazarus is dead." So back they went to Bethany. It was a dark hour in the home of the two sisters. Seemingly the Great Deliverer had failed. The doctor had picked up his grip and said, "There is nothing more that I can do for him." An audience gathered. The call for Jesus had gone out, but still He did not come. Darkness settled over the little home. Lazarus died. They took him to the grave and rolled a stone before his tomb. The first day passed. People from Jerusalem came down to the little home to mourn with them. The second day passed. The third day passed. The forty day passed. By this time the body of Lazarus began to corrupt. What a dark hour had come to the little home. Probably the darkest that they had ever seen. Maybe you've seen those dark hours, too.
But just as the darkest hour that the little home ever had, then Jesus came along. Maybe this is your darkest hour. Maybe you are sitting there wondering, "How am I going to get into the prayer line?" Maybe you have a cancer and the doctor has said that you're going to die. But remember, at the darkest hour, Jesus comes by. Yes, I had a dark hour when I was lying in a Louisville, Kentucky, hospital. The doctor told me that I had three minutes to live. But praise God, Jesus came along. Do I love Him? With all my heart. My devotion cannot be great enough for Him.
Martha heard that Jesus had come and she went to meet Him. She probably met some in the way who murmured, "That poor woman trusted in that preacher; now see what's happened. Now after Lazarus is dead, he comes back to town." But she went right on by. Don't let the skeptic and the scorner stop you. Go on like Martha did until you get to Jesus. She might have said to the Lord, "Look, we gave up a whole lot to follow You, and now this one time that we called for You, You failed to show up. We're disappointed." But if she had said that, the miracle would never have taken place. Instead she rushed up to Jesus and said, "Lord, if thou hadst been here my brother had not died; but I know that even now whatsoever thou wilt ask of God, God will give it thee." There are some who come through the prayer line, proud and with their heads up, But if you come through the line that way, you might as well not come. Although everything appeared lost to Martha, it seemed like she had a little feeling that something was going to take place. She said, "But even now, Lord." Maybe you say, "I've got a cancer." But cannot you also say, "But even now, Lord, You can heal me of this cancer." You say that you've been crippled for 30 years. "But even now, Lord, whatsoever thou wilt ask of God, God will give it thee." When will I get it? "Even now, Lord!" Listen, the same Christ that spoke to Martha is sitting at the right hand of God with all power in heaven and earth. Even now, Lord!
Jesus said to Martha, "Thy brother shall arise again." And Martha answered that she knew he would rise in the resurrection at the last day. Then Jesus said, "I am the resurrection and the life: he that believeth in me though he were dead, yet shall he live." Think of it! A little frail man on earth had power from Jehovah God to give life to the dead. He had the authority. He was the I AM, not I was. And then speaking a little further He said, "And whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die. Believest thou this?" This was the crucial moment. Martha couldn't understand what it all meant but she believed anyway. She said, "Yea, Lord, I believe that thou art the Christ, the Son of God which should come into the world."
Jesus saw the weeping and the sorrowing. Mary came and said, "Lord, if thou hadst been here, my brother had not died." Well, that was enough. Jesus, Himself, was moved, and was troubled. "Where have you buried him?" Something has to happen now. There He goes to the grave. A woman said to me one time, "That just goes to show that Jesus was just a human. Why, when He went to Lazarus' grave, He wept." Yes, I know. When Jesus wept at the grave of Lazarus, He was a man. But when He called the dead to life, He was God. He got hungry like a man. When He was hungry an looked at the fig tree for figs which were not there, He was hungry like a man. But when He took five sandwiches and fed five thousand people, He was God. Believest thou this?
Before Jesus spoke the Word for Lazarus to come forth, He prayed to the Father and said, "Father, I thank thee that thou hast heard me." Lazarus was still dead and in the tomb. Yet He was offering thanks to God that He had been heard already. Can you thank God for your healing before you see or feel anything? If you can, then that's faith. It didn't require any faith after Lazarus was raised from the dead. But it required real faith for Christ to thank God that His prayer was already answered while Lazarus was still lying motionless in the tomb.
Jesus then cried with a loud voice and said, "Lazarus come forth." And he that was dead came forth. I believe that had not Jesus said, "Lazarus," all the dead would have come forth from their graves. Brother, Christ is able to call you forth from your darkness and despair and give you new life in Him. Believest thou this? Then thou shalt be made whole.
When God promises anything, He's under obligation to fulfill it, if you will believe it. Now most people realize that God's Word is true. When God sends His representative, he has the authority to exercise the same power as God, Himself. If I went to Norway as an ambassador of the United States, I would have just as much power as the nation I represent. If we come as Christians, we have just as much power as the Kingdom of God that we represent. But we're afraid to use it!
I wish to read some Scripture beginning in John 4: 46, where he tells you about the healing of the nobleman's son. This is the second miracle which Jesus did when He came out of Judea of Galilee. If you will notice the context here, Jesus performed two miracles. One of them was spontaneous--the turning of water into wine. The other was that of the nobleman who asked Him to come and heal his son. Jesus disputed with him saying, "Except ye see signs and wonders, ye will not believe." The man said, "Sir, come ere my child die." Now Jesus did not grant the man his request, but said, "Go thy way; thy son liveth." He did not go down and pray for him. He did not grant his request the way that the nobleman thought he should. Nevertheless, the nobleman believed the Word that was spoken. Now if He had doubted what Jesus said, nothing would have taken place. He believed the Word, and the next day his servant met him and said, "Thy son liveth." The nobleman then asked when his son began to amend, and the servant replied that the fever left him the day before. The nobleman said that he believed, and his son got well.
A miracle is something out of the ordinary, something that is different. If I could bring a person from the audience and look at him and God would reveal something to me that is in his life, that I would have no way of knowing myself, that would be a miracle. It is out of the natural realm, the natural course. We usually think of a miracle as something such as a person all twisted up who gets healed in a moment of time. Then we say, "Oh, that's a miracle." But if someone accepts Christ as his Healer, and goes out and believes and gets well, they say "He got well," but they wouldn't class that as a miracle. But that is a miracle! The nobleman just believed the Word that Jesus spoke and his son began to amend from that hour. And the Bible calls it a miracle.
Many Holy Ghost people don't realize what the power of God is. They have limited the moving of God to a time of rejoicing, to the music, to the singing. That is the blessing of the Lord, but it is not the manifestation of the power of God. Now if God comes into this service and goes back into your life and brings out things that are a perfect secret to everybody but yourself, then that is the power of God. That is not mind reading. Often people are not thinking of these things, but the Spirit of God goes way back in life's journey and brings out things that had been forgotten for years. If you are a sinner, the things which are spoken are things to lead you to repentance, or, if you are a Christian, to build your faith for healing.
Jesus said, "Go and sin no more, lest a worse thing come unto thee." What is sin? Sin is unbelief. "He that believeth not is condemned already." If you don't believe, you are condemned. Is smoking a sin, is drinking a sin, is lying a sin? Night is night, and sin is sin, but unbelief is the worst sin. If you disbelieve, you are a sinner. If you are a believer, you are justified by your belief in Jesus Christ.
This ministry may seem strange to many. It may seem a phenomenon. Remember God has always done things that are different than what people thought they would be. Jesus' First Coming was altogether different from what the priests thought it would be. And His Second Coming may have deep prophecy teachers fooled so they won't recognize some of the things that will take place. God has hid His truths from the wise and prudent and revealed them unto babes such as will learn. It's "not by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit," saith the Lord. When the Holy Ghost is come upon you, He will bring these things to your remembrance, and will show you things to come. A lady came to me in this meeting and said, "Brother Branham, I was suffering from stomach trouble for at least ten years. I couldn't eat scarcely anything. That night when I came on the platform you told me all about these things." But it is God that reveals these things, not I. People say, "Aren't you afraid you will make a mistake?" I am not afraid that God will make a mistake. If I can get myself out of the way, He'll bring His presence down and anoint. It's my business to be here and it's God's business to take care of me when I'm here.
Many of you have read about what happened in Portland, Oregon, when Brother Lindsay was with me when the maniac ran up on the platform and boasted of what he would do. But the man fell on the platform before me in the presence of thousands of people.
When I was down in Texas a few months ago, some of the ministers said I was a hypnotizer. You remember how God took care of that. One night I left the auditorium alone. As I went upstairs, I heard a woman crying. I looked around and thought perhaps someone was hurt or was in trouble. I looked over in a corner and there stood two school-girls. They looked at me. They had their arms around each other and were crying. I walked back and asked if something was wrong, and if I could help. The girl said, "I've brought my friend from Lubbock, Texas, to the meeting. She has been given up by the medics and has to go back to the insane institution. I've brought her down here. I've prayed and prayed, and wondered if God would reveal something to you."
I had just come out from under inspiration but I asked God to show me. So in a vision I saw the girl roll and twist. I saw a white looking Buick car, with the top down, and the blonde and blackhaired girls riding. I said, "You were going over black top and almost got hit. Then you stopped at a place to get something to eat, and that girl started screaming." I told the black-haired girl that she came from a home that did not believe in Divine healing, and that her mother was an invalid. The girl nodded that it was all true and started crying. Then I saw the other girl in the vision going away normal. She was healed!
When the skeptics saw what had happened, they went to the girls and told them that I was Simon the Sorcerer and that the F. B. I. was coming to get me. The girls were frightened and packed up, getting ready to leave. I saw the girls and said, "You know that the Lord has healed you, don't you?" That girl that had been insane said, "How well I know it." I then said, "Come on to the meeting and don't fear what man will do." But they said, "Won't the F.B.I. be there?" I replied, "Maybe so, but they have come before and gone away believers." I have seen others oppose the meetings, some of whom are in their graves. God said, "Touch not mine anointed, and do my prophets no harm."
When I got to the meeting that night, I said to the ushers, "I understand that the F.B.I. is waiting to see me. I want Brother Baxter and all the party to leave the building, so that everyone can see that there is nobody giving me information." I then got up and said, "Now if I am Simon the Sorcerer, let the F.B.I. come to the platform and expose me." I said that as a challenge, and then sat still. I saw a real dark object move from one end of the platform and come across, go in the balcony and hang over two men, one with a dark suit and one with a gray. I said, "It's not the F.B.I., but two backslidden preachers there." They began to duck down. I said, "Don't duck down. You were going to expose me, but you are the ones who are exposed. Come on down out of there. Let God be God. If I am wrong, then let God strike me. If you're wrong, may God strike you when you leave. Let's see who is God. Come on down on the platform."
I turned around to the people and said, "They sit with heads ducked down." Then about that time the Holy Spirit began to move, and those two got up and ran out of the building. I didn't see them any more. Then the Holy Spirit began to move here and there. The power of God fell. Over in one spot sat a man trying to get up. I said, "Sir, you are from Tennessee, a Catholic by faith, and a backslidden Catholic at that." "Oh--," he screamed out. I said, "But Jesus Christ has healed you; stand up on your feet." Up he got and away he went under the power of God. I tell you Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever. He's still the same Lord Jesus. He can't fail! He's Christ.
I want to speak tonight on "The Leadings of the Spirit." Turn in your Bible to Genesis 22, where we have the story of Abraham and Isaac. Here God reveals Himself as Jehovah-Jireh. Jehovah-Jireh is God's first compound redemptive Name. The word means, God will provide Himself a sacrifice.
At that time Abraham was an old man and God appeared unto him and said, "Abraham walk before me, and be thou perfect." Abraham was 99 years old and his strength was gone. God told him and his wife, Sarah, who was old also, that they would have a son, and that through their seed all nations would be blessed. Could you imagine a man and woman of that age having a child? God loves the old people. Look what God had done for Brother Upshaw. The impossible is possible when God is taken at His Word.
The Lord appeared unto Abraham as Almighty God. The Hebrew word is El Shaddai, meaning "bosom." Abraham said, "I am an old man; my strength is gone." "But Abraham, I'm the Bosom. You lay upon My Bosom and I will give you strength that you may have this child." How wonderful! And the same God of Abraham is our God tonight. He is almighty God. I do not care how bad your case is. A cancer is no more than a toothache with God, if you will just believe Him and lay hold of His promise. When God gave Abraham that promise it was 25 years before He confirmed that promise. Think of that, 25 years!
Now if I should pray for the sick tonight and God would vindicate this service through signs and wonders, I shall ask you to believe and accept Jesus as your Healer. I ask you to believe it and hold on to the promise that you will be well. If you aren't well within the next few days, will you say, "I don't believe my eyes are any better," or, "I don't believe I can walk any better." That's the reason that you don't get what you ask for. When you accept God's promise, hold on to it! I don't care how long it takes. Stay with it. William D. Upshaw stayed with it 66 years and God confirmed it.
A few years ago I was in Mayo's clinic, after that break. Between the anointing and out of the anointing I hardly knew where I was. Those in the clinic looked at me, and said, "You are finished. You will never come out of it." But Almighty God came to me that night and said to me, "You are coming out of it, and you are going to be better than you ever were." I believed God, and tonight I'm in the best health I ever was in my life. I never weighed over 135 pounds before. Tonight I weigh 155. Yes sir, in better health than I ever was! It's not what the doctors say, but what God says.
Some time ago, I walked into a place, and there was an elderly man; his only son lay there dying. He had some kind of heart fever. The cardiograph showed the young man to be dying. The nurses had at first refused to let me in. I asked the doctor, "Are you a Christian?" He answered, "I am a Catholic." I said, "Would you let a priest in here?" He answered, "That's different; we would let him in to perform the last rites." I replied, "Yes, it is different. The priest would come in to give him the last rites before he died. I am going in to pray for his life." We argued it out. He finally dressed me up in a robe, put a mask on me, and made me wash my hands in some smelly stuff. Finally they took me into the room where the young man was.
The old father sat there and said, "Brother Branham, what shall I do?" I replied, "Just hold faith in God." I knelt down and stayed praying, but nothing happened. After awhile I saw a vision come before me, and I saw the boy get well. I said, "Sir, that boy shall live." He answered, "Thank you Lord, thank you." He and his wife put their arms around each other and started hugging one another and rejoicing. The nurse came in to make us leave. She said, "Sir, you don't seem to understand what the doctor said. The doctor said the boy was dying. He will be dead within a few minutes." The father said, "Hallelujah, Hallelujah!" The nurse asked, "Sir, don't you understand?" The father replied, "It's just you that don't understand." The nurse answered, "But look sir, it's all right to have faith, but when this cardiograph drops down like this, it never comes up again. The boy's respiration is gone; he's dying!" Then the intern came. He was going to put us all out; he thought we were arguing. But the father jumped to his feet and said, "You are looking to that machine, the cardiograph, and I'm looking to the Divine promise of God."
For eight hours the boy stayed about the same. The next day he got better. Now he is married and has a family. Hallelujah! It depends on what you look at, and how you look. All Divine promises will be fulfilled if we look at them right. God is still Jehovah-Jireh! He is still the El Shaddai!
Jesus declared that the Word of God was a seed that the sower sowed. When an apple tree is a slip about that big, every apple, every leaf, every blossom that will ever be in that tree is in it then. All the bushels of apples are already in that little tree. You take the little slip out and plant it, water it, and let it have the sunshine. The tree's duty is to drink, drink, drink, all that water. It drinks its allotted portion and it swells and pushes out. It will push out apples. They don't come from down. They don't come from up--they come from out of the tree. And every man that is planted in Christ Jesus, has every quality in him that he will need through life's journey. The only thing that you have to do is to be planted in Christ Jesus, and drink from His rivers of living water! He is the inexhaustible Fountain of Life, and every man that is planted by Him can drink and drink of His promises.
A sower went forth to sow seed, and some fell by the wayside. Jesus said, "Here is one, when he hears the word, just passes it by." People come to a revival and say, "It was a pretty good meeting." The devil comes right on and takes it right out of their heart, because they won't act upon it. Some of the seed fell upon the stony ground. These would convert the world overnight, but the first hard trial that comes along, they back off. Some fell among thorns, and the seed was choked. The cares of this life choked out the Word so that no fruit came to perfection. Some people when they have money in their pocket, and they get some good clothes, they become all swelled up--the thorns of worldliness and pride choke out the seed. But there is some seed that falls on the good ground and brings forth thirty, sixty, some an hundred fold.
You do a lot of cotton raising down here in the South. The first thing that you do if you want a good crop is to get the ground ready. You get all the cobblestones out, all the Johnson weeds, all the creeper vines, and the briars. You pull them up by the roots. If you don't pull the roots all out, you'll have trouble. So it is when you come to Christ. Sell out to God, then get the ground ready; break it up; get it moist and soft. Then go and buy the best seed that you can get to put in there. After you have done all this, don't go out every morning and dig it up to see if it is beginning to grow--do that and you'll never have a crop.
What do you do after you have planted the seed? You commit it to the earth and forget about it. It's up to nature to take care of the rest of it. You who want to get saved or healed, get all the creepers underneath, and all the stony places out, all the doubts thrown away, and then get ready to plant the seed. That seed is the Word of God. When you have done that, commit it to God, accept the Word in your heart, believe it, water it, and bless God, the victory is already here.
Don't dig down and pick up the seed again. Don't say, "Well, I'm no better today"--when you do that you drop back down again, and it just takes that much longer for you to be healed. Just believe it, and act like you're healed right now. God is under obligation to make His Word produce what He said it would, for it is the Word of God. The Word of God will defeat Satan any place, any time, regardless of conditions. When Jesus met Satan, He did not defend Himself with His divinity, but He used the Word of God. The weakest Christian has this power to get full deliverance.
God has said, "What things soever ye desire, when ye pray, believe that ye receive them, and ye shall have them." Any Divine promise that is accepted in a true heart and believed, and the seed left alone to grow, will produce just what God said it would. That's the truth, just try it once. It is a challenge that cannot fail, if one will not look at his symptoms but only at the promise. So many say, "Well, I don't look any better." Brother, it isn't what you see, but what you believe.
Suppose tomorrow morning the express man brought you a big package and said that it was for you. You looked at it and found that it was a box of rattlesnakes. You wouldn't want them, would you? Your name is on the box, but is it yours? In one sense it is and in another it is not. They're not yours until you sign for it. Though your name is on the box, and though you have the rattlesnakes if you wish, yet because you refuse to sign for them, the expressman has to take them back. Though he tries to get you to say that they are yours, they are not until you sign for them. Jesus doesn't want any disease upon your body, or any affliction. If the devil puts it there, don't receive it. If he does bring the symptoms, don't testify to them; don't testify to anything that the devil had brought. Just say, "Take it back, take it back, I refuse to have it." Watch what happens. "Resist the devil, and he will flee from you." (James 4: 7) He'll flee from you, not walk away. But as long as you say, "Yes, I still have it," the devil will surely let you have it.
I was speaking a little wile ago about when I was at Mayo's clinic. I was so sick I couldn't eat a thing. I couldn't drink water without it spurting through my nose and mouth. My eyes were nearly gone. Satan said, "I've got you now; you're finished." I replied, "But Jesus gave me the promise. Hallelujah." God is the best doctor. When there won't be any Mayo clinic, there will still be a Jesus. Let every Word of God be true and man's a lie.
I said to my wife, "Open a can of beans, give me a piece of that onion, I'm going to eat." I wasn't hungry but I knew I should be hungry. I hadn't eaten much of anything but barley water for months and I was tired of it. She asked, "How do you know that you are healed?" I replied, "Because God said so." She set the food on the table and I got some of those good beans and took a big bite of the onion. Just then the devil said,"Boy, when that hits your stomach, watch out." I answered, "Devil get out; God has healed me."
My little boy watched me chewing, and then said, "Daddy, the doctor said that it would kill you." I answered, "God will save me." When that food hit my stomach and started up, I got a drink of water and kept swallowing. I kept thinking, "I'm healed; God gave me the promise." I stayed right with it. My wife left the room. I got myself another helping of beans and started out again. It met the other coming up and it was pushed right back down again. The full victory did not come at once. But I stayed with it day after day. And Hallelujah, God kept His Word. Today I am completely healed. I can eat a T-bone steak or anything you want to give me. Because I believed the promise, God healed me.
If there was ever a time when people ought to be warned of the day that they are living in, it is now. This is the day when God is getting His people ready. There are two spirits in the world. One is of God, and the other is of Satan. Satan is getting his own ready, and God is getting His ready. The Lord has given each person the privilege of being a free moral agent to serve whomsoever he will.
I never attended a dance in my life. But if you were to go to a dance, you would have to get into the spirit of the dance. They play jazz music and get up a lot of rhythm in order to get everyone in the spirit of the dance before it can be a success. If you go to a ball game, you have to get into the right spirit of the game, before it can mean anything to you. If someone should knock a home run, and the fellow next to you should scream, and throw his hat into the air, it would mean that he had gotten into the spirit of the game. But to another man sitting there not in the spirit, it would not make any difference when someone made a home run, whether there were three men on base, or none.
That's about like a lot of folks who go to church. It doesn't make any difference whether anything happens at church or not. They just say, "I went to church." Brother, let's go to church to worship God. The Bible says that God is a Spirit and they that worship Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth. Now, it is possible to have a lot of truth and not enough spirit, but when you get the two together, both spirit and truth, you can worship God.
The world is living in the last days, the time of the ending of all things of this age. The world's history is about to close. The books are going to be closed, and when the last person that completes the Body of Christ is brought in, then the doors of mercy will be closed, and no one else can come in. That might happen tonight. Christ's Body will not be a freak body; it won't have six fingers on one side; it will be a perfect Body. Every member will be blood-washed, second-born, and eligible to all that God has provided for them.
As Satan said to Jesus, the kingdoms of this world are his. That is a hard thing to say, but every kingdom of this world is dominated and controlled by the devil. When Satan met Jesus and took Him up on a high mountain, showing Him all the kingdoms of this world, he said that he could do with them as he pleased. Satan knew they were his and Jesus didn't dispute with him that they weren't. If these kingdoms were ruled by God, there wouldn't be any more war; but as long as Satan is in power, then you can expect wars and rumors of wars until the prophecies are fulfilled that say, "Rejoice, ye heavens and ye holy prophets, for the kingdoms of the world have become the kingdoms of our Lord and His Christ, and He shall rule forever."
There will be no more wars after Jesus takes over in the great Millennium. But before these things come to pass, there must be a great preparation time. The world is coming into a spirit to fulfill all the prophecies. God-resisting people that love luxury and pleasure are here now. God said that in the last days, men would be lovers of pleasure more than lovers of God, trucebreakers, etc. I look out and I see the devil working, setting things in order for the greatest revival of blood-shed that has ever been known since the beginning of time. I am thankful, however, to see God also working in His Church.
God always prepares a way of escape for those who want to escape. You're not responsible for being born a sinner, but you are responsible for remaining a sinner. You were born in sin, and came into the world speaking lies. It's up to you whether you are to stay the way you are, or to walk in the way that is consecrated to God. Jesus says in Matthew 24, that as it was in the days of Noah, so shall it be at the coming of the Son of Man. Before sending judgment to the world, God sent Noah into the Ark for the saving of his household. Noah gave a message to the world asking them to come in and be saved, but they refused to believe it; they rebelled against it; they received not the message because they were in the spirit of their time. When Noah and his family entered into the Ark and God closed the doors of mercy, there was nothing left but judgment.
God have mercy upon you, men and women, if you don't know Christ, when that time comes. There will be a time when you will scream for mercy, but when mercy is rejected, there is nothing left but judgment. I can imagine that I see Noah preaching, and the people saying, "Fanaticism! Whoever heard of rain falling upon the earth?" But the very Ark that they laughed at was the thing that saved Noah. The thing that condemned the world saved Noah. He was safe because he was in God's prepared Ark.
God has an Ark prepared today--the Body of Jesus Christ which is His Church. That Body will be taken up from the earth, and God will destroy the guilty ones that have rejected Jesus Christ. It is ten thousand times worse to reject the Holy Ghost, than it was to reject God, the Father, in His dispensation. There will be destruction for the people without any blood between them when that Day comes.
Today is the day of preparation. Long years ago in the Old Testament when there were slaves, there was an acceptable year of the Lord, and when that acceptable year came around, there was a trumpet sounded and all the slaves could go free. The master that was above them could do with them anything he wished to, but when the acceptable year came around and the trumpet sounded, they could go free. But if they refused to go free, they would be taken to the temple and their ears would be put against a post and a hole bored through them, and they then they had to serve the master for life. Today the acceptable year of the Lord is here, and the Holy Spirit is going forth preaching the Gospel Jubilee of freedom.
When the Emancipation Proclamation was made, the slaves of the South were free by the hearing. Faith cometh by hearing of the Word of God. When a man sits and listens to the Gospel and sees the working of the Holy Spirit that's preparing the Church today and getting it ready for the time of rapture, and he refuses to let go of the things of this world, then Satan brands him, and he is sealed away from the Kingdom of God. There is a separating line you can cross after which God will never deal with you again. You'll be a servant of the devil for the rest of you days.
Daniel said that in the preparation time they would go to and fro and knowledge would increase. Man has gone further in the last hundred years than he has in the other 5900. Up till about a century ago, they sent a message by runner or letter. Today we have the telephone and television. In those days a horse was mostly used for travel and it went about twenty miles an hour. Today they have travelled 1500 miles an hour in a rocket plane.
Isaiah tells us that this day shall be a woman's day. I have nothing against women. I think that a good wife is the nicest thing that God can give a man. But the day has come when they act like a man, curse like a man, and smoke like a man; there's hardly any difference in them. Good women are fine, but when they get out of place they are the devil's tool. Don't get angry, sisters. I'm not going to hurt you. My mother used to give me castor oil on Saturday night. I would get so tired of tasting it, I would gag when I saw the bottle. And I would say, "Oh, mama, this stuff makes me so sick." She said, "If it doesn't make you sick, it won't do you any good." That's like the Gospel. It won't do you any good until you have a good Holy Ghost house-cleaning, and it may make you sick before it makes you well.
Satan tried for man in the Garden of Eden and couldn't get him. He tried for the woman. He put a question mark on the Word, and the woman heeded. Adam was not deceived. He walked out with both eyes open. He followed his wife. He knew where he was going. But she transgressed the laws of God. And since then, the best bait the devil has had at any time has been a woman. Some women who profess to be Christians act and dress shamefully. You'll know a tree by the fruit it bears. I am persuaded that if you have the Holy Ghost, you'll feel different, act different, and be different.
The devil's preparing his own for hell, and God is preparing His Church for glory. God doesn't look for mixers. The world wants mixers. God wants separators. The Holy Ghost separates. A separated church will cause a revival to sweep around the world.
Holy Ghost fire is what the Church needs today. I remember one time when my brother and I were walking out in the country, and we saw a turtle. It was a funny looking thing and I wanted to see it run. My brother said, "Let's go get him." But when we went after him he pulled back into his shell. That's just what a lot of folks do when you preach the Gospel to them. I got a switch and I said that I would beat the turtle, if he didn't come out and walk for me. But he stayed right in there; you can't beat them out. I said, "I'll fix him up," so I took him down to the water. I said that I would drown him or he'd walk. I pushed him down into the water, and a few bubbles came up. You can baptize them face forward, or backward, or any way, and a sinner is still a sinner. It will never do any good until his heart is changed.
Do you know what I did to get that turtle to walk? I got a piece of paper and some sticks and started to build a fire under him. He walked then! What we need today is not a new doxology or new songs to sing, but an old fashioned, Holy Ghost, heaven-sent revival that will make folks fall at the altar and get right with God. Then you will be men instead of wishy-washies. You who smoke cigarettes and let your wife smoke--you ought to be ashamed of yourself. Man is not measured by stature--he's measured by character. What we need today is some good old fashioned Holy Ghost conviction. Talking about juvenile delinquency--what the trouble is, is parent delinquency.
God is manifesting Himself, in His Church. He is getting the Church ready. One of these days she is going to be presented before Christ as a virgin. She will be dressed with needle work. The Finger of God has picked her out, and decorated her with jewels and Gifts of the Holy Spirit.
Show me any place in the Bible where God ever took the Holy Ghost blessing from the Church. When the Apostle Paul was on the road to Damascus, he took a tumble in the dust. The Holy Ghost came and he fell like a dead man. The others felt the power, too, and fell from their horses. When the prophet Daniel met with God, he fell on his knees, and was weak until a voice spoke to him and lifted him up, and he got on his knees and saw a vision of God. When a man comes into contact with God, he loses strength. The Holy Ghost comes in and man goes out.
God wants you to die out to yourself and to let the Holy Ghost come in. Jesus Christ hung on the cross, and died, then arose to a new life. You'll have to die to self, to rise a new creature in Christ Jesus. Die out to self and be born again by the Holy Spirit. When Stephen walked out there full of the Holy Ghost--not full of tobacco, not full of liquor, not full of Church creeds, but full of the Holy Ghost--he was like a house on fire on a windy day. The harder they fought against him, the more he burned. Even when the Council got him up before them one morning and gave him the right to defend himself, he never took that privilege; instead he defended Christ. He preached Christ and the resurrection. He asked them why they resisted the Holy Ghost like their fathers did. Then God came down upon His little prophet and lit up his face with a halo of light until he looked like an angel. But instead of accepting him as God's prophet, they scorned and condemned him and stoned him. But he looked up and said, "I see the heavens opened, and Jesus standing on the right hand of God." Then while those beams were shining over his face and the rocks were pounding upon his head, God picked him up in His arms, like a mother, and rocked him away to sleep--and he fell asleep in Jesus. Nothing more could harm him for he was in the arms of Jesus.
Some day Christ will return and Stephen's clod-beaten body will be changed and made like unto that of Christ Whom he saw standing at the throne making intercession. Not only Stephen, but every man and woman that is preparing himself or herself will meet Christ in the air when He comes. Do you love Him? If you don't know Jesus tonight, find Him right away. If you haven't got the Holy Ghost, press on...the day of preparation is here.
Beloved, in these last days, scoffers are arising as they did in the days of Noah. They are wise in their own conceits. But knowledge without God can destroy man. When Eve took of the forbidden fruit, she left the Tree of Faith for the Tree of Knowledge. At the first bite she separated herself from God, and through her, the whole human race. First, man discovered gun powder, then the atom bomb, and now he has the hydrogen bomb. He's ready to destroy himself and Satan is out there to help him. But God in His love is asking people to accept Him, and to believe on Him. His power is encircling the Church. His signs and wonders are appearing and the saints are washing their robes in the Blood of the Lamb. God is putting on the jewels: the Gifts of Healing, the Gift of Prophecy, the Gifts of Wisdom and Knowledge, the Gift of Understanding--the Gifts of the Holy Ghost!
A woman when engaged to a bridegroom, leaves behind everything, prepares for the wedding and is ready to leave, if necessary, for a strange land. Beloved, the Holy Ghost is calling people out everywhere, bringing them into the Church, and God is giving them the Holy Ghost, the Gifts of the Spirit, and soon He will take them to Himself. God be merciful, sinner friend, if you are not ready! Won't you come now and seek God with all your heart?
I am going to Africa for about three months, carrying out a commission that was given me. Here in America the meetings have been great...they have inspired others, not only in the Full Gospel groups, but in other groups as well...many of them are having healing services. After David slew the giant, I do not know whether he ever slew another Philistine, but others of Israel took courage and cut the Philistines to the gate, and they won the victory. I believe today the matter of Divine healing is settled...God is the Healer!
I believe that Divine healing is a minor thing in comparison to all that God wants to do for the Church. As God in His grace has let our ministry spearhead the Divine healing revivals, I pray that He will let us find grace in His sight, to have part in a far greater revival that will win far more souls to Christ than in any revival of the past. If you are willing to pay the price, you can see a mighty, God-sweeping, old-fashioned revival in your city...will you do it?
At first I labored in this healing ministry, somewhat to myself. But now we have hundreds across the country praying for the sick, and skepticism and unbelief is beaten to the ground. Because of the many from all walks of life that are healed, statesmen, congressmen, rich and poor alike, people can no longer doubt healing. Tomorrow night the Honorable William D. Upshaw will be here. He was semi-invalid for 66 years. I saw him in a vision come into my meeting in Los Angeles, California. I had never seen nor heard of him before in my life. He came to the meeting on crutches; now he is normal and can walk and get about, and will be here tomorrow night. He testified before Congress the first and second of this month in the place where he had formerly sat in a wheel chair while representative in Congress. This is just one incident among thousands, where God has done miraculous things.
Listen closely to the reading of the Word. I am reading from St. John the 5th Chapter, "After this there was a feast of the Jews; and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. Now there is at Jerusalem by the sheep market a pool, which is called in the Hebrew tongue Bethesda, having five porches. In these lay a great multitude of impotent folk, of blind, halt, withered, waiting for the moving of the water."
Divine healing is included in the Atonement. God's Word is truth. If God said He would do a certain thing, He is under obligation to fulfill His Word. Do you believe that? I'm worth no more than what my word is. Many have a wrong impression of God, thinking He is a sort of "hit and run" person that can do whatever He wants. But I say that God does not do things in any haphazard way. He is under obligation to His Word. When God makes a promise, He has to keep that promise.
A good chapter in the Bible on Divine Healing is Isaiah 53. "But He was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon Him; and with His stripes we are healed." (Isaiah 53:5) We are healed by His stripes, when He died at Calvary. How many believe that He is Jehovah-Jireh? (Gen. 22) Then if He is Jehovah-Jireh, the provided sacrifice, He is Jehovah-Rapha, the Healer, also. For all the compound redemptive names of Jehovah were placed in Jesus Christ, because He is God's human sacrifice for the everything the world has need of. What Adam lost in the fall, Jesus brought in the Redemption. Do you believe that?
God restored what Adam lost through His Son Jesus Christ. No man can heal you; healing is not in man--it is in Christ. Only God is the Divine Healer. Even Christ said, "Believest thou not that I am in the Father, and the Father in me? the words that I speak unto you I speak not of myself: but the Father that dwelleth in me, he doeth the works." (John 14:10) When someone says, "I can lay hands on you and I have some kind of electricity that goes out and heals you," that is an error. If there is any healing element, it is in the believer. The man that is being prayed for has to have faith in Christ to be healed. No one can do what Jesus has already done. When Jesus died at Calvary, He forgave every sin of the world. You say, "I was saved 40 years ago, or 20 years ago, or 2 years ago." No you weren't--you were accepted 40 years ago, or 20 years ago, or 2 years ago. But when Jesus died at Calvary, He saved you. He put the deposit in the deposit box, and you signed the check, and drew the dividend. Is that right?
Jesus purchased everything you have need of in life's journey, when He died on Calvary. A minister could pray for you, or I could pray for you, or your mother or dad could pray for you; you might confess your sins to someone, but until you believe that Jesus died for your sins at Calvary, and accept Him as your Saviour, you're still lost. It's by faith, not how much you pray, nor how loud you cry, nor how sincere you are, how long you fasted, nor how hard you beat the altar. It's how much you believed. By faith are ye saved by grace. "...He was wounded for our transgressions...and by His stripes we are healed." Now how could a man do anything for you in the way of Divine healing? A man can only bring you to knowledge of Christ's death at Calvary for you, which purchased your healing. "Faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word."
Jesus is our High Priest sitting at the right hand of God the Father making intercession. What we confess He is, that is what He is to you. You cannot be saved, until first in your heart you believe that He saves you. You accept it as your salvation, then you testify of it to others. As you confess, accept, tell others and associate with those that are saved; it works salvation to the soul. Why? Not because you felt it, but because you believed it. Jesus never did say, "Did you feel it?" He asks, "Did you believe it?" When He returns to earth, will He find faith? You say that He will find church members, but His question is, "Will I find faith?"
Just as you accept salvation, you also accept healing. You believe you're healed, you act like you're healed, you confess you're healed, and it works healing--just the same as faith works righteousness. But God can't do anything for you until you believe that He had done this for you. If Christ is the High Priest of our confession, then we have a confession before He can act as our High Priest.
There is no use saying that Divine healing is not for today, because it is proved by God's Word. It is vindicated by the Holy Spirit and the hundreds being healed each week! God has said in His Word, "...I am the Lord that healeth thee." Again in Psalms 103:1-3, "Bless the Lord, O my soul: and all that is within me, bless his holy name. Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits: Who forgiveth all thine iniquities; who healeth all thy diseases." Jesus said in Mark 11:24, "Therefore I say unto you, What things soever ye desire, when ye pray, believe that ye receive them, and ye shall have them." That looks simple, doesn't it? And it's just as simple as it looks. The poorest person, the most illiterate person can receive every redemptive blessing Jesus died for. You don't have to have great powers and gifts. When Satan met Jesus, he said, "...If thou be the Son of God, command that these stones be made bread." And Jesus answered Him, "It is written; it is written." That does it. When you take the Word of God, it will defeat Satan anywhere, any place, and on any ground.
There is the story of a king who was a man of his word, who had a slave that was condemned to die. The king said, "Because you have trespassed against the law of the kingdom, you've got to die." The slave stood there trembling, with his head bowed. The king said, "Now wait a minute, pick yourself up. I am going to give you one last request. What can I give you before you die?" The slave said, "A glass of water." They got a glass of water and the poor fellow couldn't hold it. He knew he was going to die in a few minutes, and he was shaking and trembling and so weak he couldn't drink it. It was just splashing everywhere. The king said, "Now look here, I'm a man of honor, I'm a man of my word, I'm not going to take your life until you drink the water." So the slave threw it on the ground. The story goes on to say that the slave did not die. The king had said that he wouldn't die until he drank the water, and he couldn't drink the water because he threw it out. The king stood by his word. So God stands behind His Word. When He says anything, it stands forever.
Divine healing down through the ages has been something to bring people together to worship God. Divine healing has been one of the greatest ways to bring a revival. It shows people that God will keep His Word.
Many people have been healed by simply taking the Word of God, and believing it. But God has done much more than give His Word. He has given His only begotten Son; He has sent the Holy Spirit; He has given confirmation of the Word. He has sent His angels down from heaven. About four or five years ago, I made this statement, and now it is confirmed everywhere. I don't feel so upset when people don't agree. God has others who will believe. I believe God has called people to do certain things. Many people have asked me to lay hands on them and give them a gift. Brother, if I give you one, it will be a poor one. If God gives you one, it is Divine! Abide in your calling, whatever He gives you. You'll receive a full reward.
About six years ago the Angel of the Lord came down and spoke to me. Before that, when I was a little boy, my first knowledge of what God was doing in my life was when I was carrying water one day. He spoke to me in a whirl-wind in a bush. Later on when I wouldn't smoke a cigarette with my best girl friend, and I went home by myself, the Angel of the Lord spoke again. Then about six years ago the Angel of the Lord came down and spoke to me. God will fulfill His predestined plan in this world, and nothing can change it.
No matter how cold and formal the church gets, there is going to be a remnant without blemish at the end. You say, "That can't be; look at the church now." But God's predestined plan says that this will be. When God sent down an angel to Zachariah, He told him that he would have a son, John, who would be a Baptist when he came. Zachariah, standing there, failed to recognize the angel's message and said, "How can these things be?" The angel replied, "I am Gabriel, who stands before God; my words will be fulfilled in their season." It had to be, for God said it would be so.
I say this with my Bible open and before my Maker, before Whom I may be before morning. Every time God has shown me a vision, it came to pass, letter by letter, the way that He said that it would be. I am not testifying of myself, but what God has done for me. I am testifying of the grace of Christ that sent to this earth an angel to help encourage our faith to believe on the Son of God, Jesus Christ. The day is here, the hour is at hand, when the church must be ready for the placing within its midst the signs, gifts, and wonders, in order to give it a living knowledge of Him.
Regarding the ministry of angels, there are various instances in the Bible where the Angel of the Lord appeared, beside those already mentioned. Philip had the Holy Ghost, but it was the Angel of the Lord that spoke and told him to go to Gaza. How many believe that Peter had the Holy Ghost? When he was in prison, who was it that shone in the window, and let him out of prison? The Holy Ghost? No, it was the Angel of the Lord who appeared and stood by him. John wrote of the revelations of an angel, and John fell down to worship him, but the angel told him to worship God, not him. Angels of God are in the church to minister to those that are heirs of salvation. Woe unto this earth when God takes His Spirit from it. Yet the Spirit is here, and the angels of God are here.
God has given a gift that will show the secrets of your heart, the things that you have done, the diseases you have. Surely if God knows what has been in your life, He knows what will be in your life. I believe that we shall see signs and wonders like you have never seen before...the blind see, cripples walk, and deaf hear, and all manner of diseases healed. I have seen as many as eight wheel chair cases in an audience healed. When the Spirit of the Lord came upon me, I walked over to one man who had been crippled some twenty years, stiff as could be, his legs like a poker. In no time at all, he was up shouting the praises of God. I saw a woman all crippled up with arthritis who had been an invalid for years. I saw a light flash over her and she went walking away. I said, "Sister, stand on your feet, God has healed you." And us she came. A little boy came to the platform to be prayed for. I saw him walking away and said, "God has healed the boy. Take the braces off." And there he went away, down through the aisles, just as perfect as anyone. By next morning, you couldn't get around the hotel. People were there with wheel chairs, holding their crutches in their hand, testifying until you couldn't keep order outside. Praise God from whom all blessing flow! He's the same yesterday, today, and forever!
(Recorded by Electrical Transcription)
QUESTION:
Brother Branham, in the light of recent world events, do you believe that world judgment
is at hand?
BROTHER BRANHAM:
Yes, I do. I believe that with unsettled peace, wars and rumors of wars, that the time of judgment is close at hand.
QUESTION:
Do you have any comment to make on the situation in Korea? Do you think world conditions are going from bad to worse, or do you think that they will clear up, and we will have an era of peace?
BROTHER BRANHAM:
I do not believe we will have any real peace any more until Jesus comes. At that time, the kingdoms of this world will become the kingdoms of our Lord, and then there will be peace on earth. Until that time, I do not look for any peace, but for times to grow worse and worse.
QUESTION:
It is evident that God has used you in an extraordinary way in the initiating of his great world-wide Salvation-Healing Revival. Do you believe that anything greater than we have seen is on the way?
BROTHER BRANHAM:
Yes, I do, Brother Lindsay. I believe that greater things are ahead for us. I truly believe that in the light of God's Word, we are near something greater than we have ever seen--a repeat, I would say, of the Apostolic days, as it is written, "When the enemy shall come in like a flood, the Spirit of the Lord shall lift up a standard against him." (Isa. 59:19). The days are getting more wicked, but God's Church is making herself ready.
QUESTION:
Do you believe that there is any need for a new religious organization?
BROTHER BRANHAM:
No, Brother Lindsay, we have plenty of religious organizations. Some of them are good ones too. I believe that many are based to a great extent upon God's Word. I really don't believe that there will be another successful organization, for I believe that we are living in the end of time. Using Moses of old as a type of the organization which was the Law, we recall that Moses glorified himself before the people, instead of glorifying God, and he wasn't given the privilege to going over into Canaan with the children of Israel. But after Moses came Joshua. He is a type of this great revival that is carrying the Church into the Canaan land experience. Joshua is a type of that which was right with the Church all the time. These things have been with the Church, but not recognized. Moses was taken out of the way, and Joshua took the children of Israel to the Promised Land. Many of the organizations today--I do not say all--have tried to glorify themselves, and see which could get the most members, and criticize one another, and proselyte, etc. Today, God is dealing especially with individuals, calling out from every church, the true in heart, getting them ready to go into the Promised Land, by looking upon the signs and wonders of this latter-day ministry that is going forth now.
QUESTION:
This question concerns your ministry: Some have reported that you declared that your power was in your left hand. We have always heard you say that God was the Healer, and that God merely enabled you to detect the nature of disease through your left hand. Is this correct?
BROTHER BRANHAM:
I am happy to answer this question for you. Many times, this has been misunderstood, and has caused people to think that there was some king of magic in my left hand. This is an error--there is no power in any man to heal anybody. Healing was purchased by Christ's death at Calvary, the same as He secured our salvation. The only thing that men can do in the way of Divine healing, is to point people to Christ's work at Calvary, and help them to get faith for what He has already done for us.
When the Angel of the Lord met me, He did not say that I would have power in my left hand to heal people. If you will check my testimony, you will see that He told me that I was to be given a mission to pray for the sick and carry this message to them all over the world. Then when I questioned my ability to do such, after He had told me that I would be praying for kings and statesmen and so forth, He told me that there would be two signs given me to vindicate my ministry, as there were two signs given to Moses. I was to take hold of the person's left hand, and I would be able to tell him what was wrong with him. This has been greatly misunderstood by many people, who supposed that I felt some kind of healing power go through my hands. This is, of course, a great error.
The angel also told me that later it should be given to me to discern the secrets of people's hearts--to tell them what they had done in their life. This is Scriptural, for when Christ was on earth, He perceived the thoughts of people, as was the case when He met Nathaniel, and the woman at the well.
QUESTION:
Brother Branham, the devil always has his counterfeits. Spiritualism, which is obviously of the devil, pretends to reveal hidden things in a person's life, and perhaps in some cases is able to do so. Is it not true that the working of the word of Knowledge, and the working of the Gift of Discerning of Spirits, are to be sharply distinguished from the manifestations of spiritualism, in that they declare sin, not covered by the Blood of Jesus, and they also warn the careless individual that he must serve Christ with all his heart if he wishes to receive and keep his healing? Is not this some thing very different from spiritualism?
BROTHER BRANHAM:
Yes, Brother Lindsay, it is very much different than Spiritualism. If we go back to the Old Testament, we find that God, when He spoke through the prophets in days gone by, often revealed the sins of individuals. This was the case when Elijah met Aha. David, when he was met by the prophet, had his sins revealed to him. The gift of God is the original. The counterfeit that the devil uses in Spiritualism is merely a make-believe, a bogus, an imitation of the real thing.
If sin is under the Blood, you will notice that it is never mentioned. The Holy Spirit never calls it out. But if there is unconfessed sin in a person's life--a besetting sin, or something that would keep him from getting healed, it will be revealed.
In a way, I believe that my ministry has been given to prepare the way for others that are coming--that the people may know, when they come for their healing, that they must confess their sins and get right with God, if they would obtain deliverance. When our Master met the woman at the well, He asked her to give Him a drink. The He went straight to the point, and told her to get her husband, thus revealing a situation that was hindering her from drinking of the Water that He had offered her. Jesus said, "The works that I do shall ye do also." (John 14:12). And this ministry today is but a continuation of the works of Christ through the Holy Spirit. It has no connection at all with Spiritualism. I am sure you have noticed how Spiritualists are condemned when they get into our meetings.
QUESTION:
In view of the great miracles of healing taking place under your ministry, such as the healing of former Congressman Upshaw, who was unable to walk alone for 66 years, we believe that the authenticity of your ministry cannot be successfully challenged. The question we would ask is this: We observe in many cases that you declare a healing of an individual. In many of such cases, later investigation proves that the person did get his healing. However, would you say, that because this declaration is made that it would be impossible for such a person to lose his healing and get sick again?
BROTHER BRANHAM:
Yes, it is possible that the person could lose his healing and be sick again, because Divine healing is based altogether upon faith. For this reason, if any should disbelieve God's Word that was spoken in the Scriptures, it could cause them to fall back into their sickness, or into sin. I, myself, would be secondary, but God's Word spoken by a Gift through me would be God's Word to the individual. But, if that person should permit a superstitious thought, or permit the devil to put doubt into his heart, God's Word would be of no effect to him.
Not all sick people are healed who seek healing, just as not everyone who comes to get saved is saved. Sometimes I see death around the person. But even when death is near, prayer changes things. Do you remember the time that King Hezekiah was told by Isaiah the Prophet to set his house in order, for he was going to die? But the king turned his face to the wall and wept bitterly, and asked God to spare him. God heard the cry, and sent him Word of his healing, thus changing the program.
There is a great amount of ignorance when it comes to real practical things concerning the ministry of the Spirit. For instance, many suppose that if a miracle occurs, God will surely finish it in every case. But there is the case of Peter, walking on the water--clearly a miracle; but the moment his faith wavered, he began to sink.
QUESTION:
Brother Branham would you mind informing us what your plans are for the next six months? I am sure that many would like to know.
BROTHER BRANHAM:
As far as I know, I am to have five nights, after the meeting here in Shreveport, in New York City at the St. Nicholas Arena. From there I go to Africa, returning at the first of the year, God willing. Then I'm depending upon the Holy Spirit to guide me in the future.
Some have written me, asking if I intend to leave the ministry because I have said that I would have no itinerary after the first of the year. As Paul of old said, "Woe is me!--if I preach not the Gospel," or neglect to perform the duties that God has given me to perform here on earth. Very much to the contrary, I believe that God will grant me a greater ministry than I have ever had--something else that will go beyond this present revival. My intentions are to go home, get alone with God and find out what the next move is--not to quit the ministry. I feel that the end-time is near, and I wish to find out what God's will is, and I pray that God will reveal it, and also that the Church may become a better and stronger Church in spiritual things than ever before.
By W. F. Mullan
Vice-Chairman Assemblies of God, South Africa
Never before in the history of South Africa have such crowds come together for religious meetings as has been the case during the visit of Bro. Branham and Party in the months of October, November and the early part of December, 1951. From one end to the other the country was stirred as the flood-tide of blessing rose higher and higher, with each successive series of meetings.
It was impossible to find a Public Hall of any description large enough to accommodate the crowds. This resulted in the Branham meetings being held in a variety of venues, such as Open-Air Stadiums, Show Grounds, Football Grounds, Race Course, and a Military Airplane Hanger.
The sick and afflicted gathered in thousands, many traveling long distances, all expectantly hopeful that the prophet "would strike his hand over the place, and recover them." (2nd Kings 5:11). Under the forceful ministry of Bro. W.J. Ern Baxter they were soon to learn that all preconceived ideas of healing and wishful hopes for deliverance must be banished and replaced by genuine faith in the Word of God. With limited time to accomplish his task Bro. Baxter proceeded to build up the faith of the people, so that when Bro. Branham came on the platform he found his work made easier by the preparatory ministry of his very capable co-worker. Needless to say, miracles of healing took place. Some were instantly healed, and others reported gradual healing, while some went away from the meeting feeling no better, but later on reported that their condition had entirely disappeared or had greatly improved.
The first series of meetings was held in Johannesburg, the large industrial centre of South Africa, and the largest centre of population. The Johannesburg Committee, failing to find any central venue for the meetings, accepted the offer made by the Apostolic Faith Mission to use their Conference grounds on the northern outskirts of the city. Realizing the Auditorium would be too small to accommodate approximately 8,000 and by leaving one side of the building entirely open, a further two or three thousand could be seated on an embankment with good hearing and visibility, while on the other side of the Auditorium a further three to five thousand could be accommodated. Owing to Passport difficulties the Branham Party arrived at Johannesburg without Bro. Branham. This was a keen disappointment, but Bro. Baxter and Bro. Bosworth courageously faced the situation and overcame the difficulty by an excellent ministry from the Word of God and by Bro. Bosworth's praying for the sick with such wonderful results.
Then Bro. Branham arrived. He was brought straight from the Airport to the Platform of a crowded meeting. There were over 10,000 people present as Bro. Branham walked unto the Platform that first meeting. It was an unforgettable moment. The meeting was tense with expectation. Their faith had already been built up by the ministry of Bro. Baxter and Bro. Bosworth in the two days during which Bro. Branham had been delayed. After a few brief words of welcome, Bro. Branham arose to speak. He declared that he was conscious of the high level of faith permeating the meeting. Never before had he been in any meeting where the faith of the people was so high. Finally he prayed for the people 'en masse' and miracles took place. One young boy, Earnest Blom, whose one leg was several inches shorter than the other was instantly healed, and other miracles of healing took place. The attendances at the meetings mounted rapidly. Sunday afternoon saw a crowd of 10,000 and Sunday night over 12,000. By Wednesday night the crowd totaled over 14,000 people. The meetings closed and the Branham Party proceeded to the next centre for meetings, and in a few short weeks had visited 12 cities.
It was my privilege to accompany the Branham Party to many of the places where meetings were held, and I have seen so much of the power and blessing of God in each city, that I now find it difficult to adequately describe any particular scene in detail. I shall have to content myself with a brief summary of some of the high-lights of the Branham visit to South Africa. Indeed I very much doubt if "The Voice of Healing" would be able to grant sufficient space in any one issue for all that could be said concerning these memorable days in South Africa.
I shall not soon forget Bro. Baxter's message on the text "There is no difference" (Rom. 3:22), given in Bloemfontein; a message of salvation that stirred the hearts to such an extent that 2,000 people stood to their feet to accept Christ as Saviour and Lord. And who could forget his wonderful message on "The Second Coming of Christ" given at Port Elizabeth, or his stirring appeal in his message on "Now" (2nd Cor. 6:2). These and other wonderful messages, used of God to stir up thousands to an acceptance of Christ as Saviour, will live on.
Bro. F.F. Bosworth's messages were simply wonderful. Over and over again people were heard to say, "I wish I had known Bro. Bosworth in his heyday, or had had the opportunity of hearing him then." He very efficiently carried every task allotted to him, and in the execution of his duties, his loyalty to the Branham Party won every heart. In various places he very confidently lined up those who in one ear had absolutely no hearing and who had no possibility of even being able to hear in that deaf ear by reason of a Radical Mastoid operation. Then he prayed for them one after another and always with the same result: a creative miracle was wrought each time by God in answer to prayer. Thus was a demonstration of God's faithfulness and power. It was an encouragement to may servants of God to expect great things from God in answer to prayer. One was heard to say, "It seems so easy, doesn't it?"
Bro. Branham was all that had been reported of him. A man gifted by God, humble and sincere in every way. He was a channel through which it pleased God to manifest His wonder-working power. Over and over again he discerned the nature and ofttimes the cause of sickness in those who came to him, and times without number he did the very same for people seated in the audience. Then each meeting was closed by Bro. Branham's praying for the people 'en masse.' And now that the meetings are over and we have had some little time to asses the results, we can say that many more were healed in the closing prayer than in any other manner. We simply loved Bro. Branham and, indeed, we loved the whole Branham Party.
In Bloemfontien the meetings for the Non-Europeans reached a very high level. Bloemfontein, the capital city of the Orange Free State, is strategically situated in the centre of South Africa, and is less than one hundred miles distant from Basutoland, a large Native territory. To the Bloemfontein Non-European meetings held by the Branham Party, the Natives from Basutoland came in their hundreds. From Churches nestling up in the mountains; from the native villages and huts spread over the country side; over rough roads, by bus, by truck, on foot walking long distances, they made their way into Bloemfontein. At least 10,000 of them were present at the Branham meetings. Bro. August Kast, an Assemblies of God missionary, working in Basutoland tells of some wonderful happenings. In the Saturday afternoon meetings on 27th of October approximately 150 claimed to have received hearing in their deaf ears when Bro. Bosworth led them in prayer. Others were most miraculously healed under the ministry of Bro. Branham. Bro. Kast tells how one Native Church sent a truck load of 30 sick native people to the meetings and everyone returned home to Basutoland completely healed. Bro. Kast tells that he is now receiving 4 to 6 letters daily from Basutoland natives telling of their wonderful healings. Although Bro. Branham did not enter Basutoland his visit to Bloemfontein has stirred the whole of that Native territory.
In Cape town in one service held for the Non-Europeans 53 claimed that they had received sight of totally blind eyes, or else that their eyesight had improved.
From the Eastern Transvaal comes a wonderful report of the meetings held in Pretoria for the Non-Europeans. Before the Branham Party came to minister to them the Non-Europeans commenced to gather in the large tents erected for them. Every morning at 6 o'clock, hundreds of men and women gathered for prayer. The afternoon and evening meetings drew the greatest crowds ever to assemble in the district for religious meetings. The crowds grew to over 6,000 people. Bro. Bosworth ministered one afternoon and as he prayed for them 'en masse' one man who had been totally blind for 17 years, and was an inmate of a native blind institution, suddenly started to praise God, shouting, "Kea bona! Kea bona!" (I can see! I can see!) A deaf and dumb girl aged about 10 years was healed, and has now very quickly learned to articulate the words spoken to her. A woman who had been paralyzed on one side for 40 years, and unable to lie on that side and unable to use her hands, awoke the following morning to find herself sleeping on the previously paralyzed side, and had regained the use of her hands. One Native Evangelist returned with great joy to the Missionary to say that he had brought four sick people to the meetings and that all four had been healed, one of the four having been deaf. Others told of growths which disappeared, and of total blindness and deafness being healed. A crippled woman, who could scarcely walk, being bent low by many years of suffering, was loosed from her infirmities and can walk erect again.
One Missionary in his report states, "It is difficult to describe such meetings. The fervent prayers of so many thousands, the lusty singing, the wonderful preaching of the Word of God with power and demonstration of the Holy Spirit cannot be described; it can only be witnessed."
Perhaps the greatest meetings of the visit were those held in Durban, at least as far as numbers were concerned, and here again God's power was wonderfully manifested. Sunday the 25th of November was the climax of the Durban meetings. The Greyville Race Course was obtained for this last great day, and it was ideally sectioned off so that people of all races could be accommodated. The Main Grand Stand, seating thousands, and the open grass lawns in front and to the side were reserved for Europeans. The other stands and enclosures were opened for Indians, African Natives, and Coloureds (people of mixed blood). The people began to assemble at the entrance at 4 a.m. The ushers arrived to assume duty directing the people to their respective enclosures and stands. The Ushers assumed duty at 6 a.m. and the sun rose flooding the scene with bright early morning sunshine. What a job! Crowds, crowds and more crowds. There were 75 Police Officers on duty and these men were simply wonderful. In fact the South African police proved most helpful all over the country and Bro. Branham was so pleased with their kindly, courteous, civil manners and efficient service that he oftentimes stopped to thank them personally. The sun of sub-tropical Durban became warm as the thousands took up their positions for the day's three meetings, morning, afternoon and evening.
The Sunday morning meeting commenced at 10:30 and the Police Officers estimated the crowd at between 40,000 and 45,000 people. Bro. Branham ministered at this meeting and after a very helpful message on the Scriptures relating to Divine Healing he called for any who were deaf in one ear and totally unable to hear in that deaf ear as a result of a Radical Mastoid operation to come to him on the platform if they believed God could heal them. Several came forward and as prayer was offered for them by Bro. Bosworth, one after another, a miracle of God's creative power was manifested to the people.
Bro. Bosworth declared that this was the largest single congregation he had preached to in his 40 odd years of ministry. He enjoyed their singing--untrained through they were--everyone possessed a rich voice that blended together in wonderful harmony, with wonderful resilience and true pitch. Over and over again they sang at his special request. The air was filled with melody.
The afternoon meeting was the largest gathering of all. The Police Officers estimated the crowd at well over 50,000. Every inch of space was occupied. The crowd became so great that the Police called for extra assistance and appealed to the Active Citizen Force to render assistance. The sun shone warmly and the people were faint for they had remained in their places from early morning unable to move and aware that if they did move, they might not get back to the same place again. Buckets of water and cups for the people to drink from were carried through the crowd. Someone said that there were at least 75 men on this job alone. At last the gates were closed as it was impossible to admit any more. The crowds outside the gates grew into thousands, and an appeal was made to the Race Course authorities to permit the use of the special Turf Track. When this was finally obtained thousands poured into this extra space made available to them, but, alas, many were still unable to get to any position sufficiently near to enable them to see or hear. Consequently people were turned away, not in hundreds only, but in thousands.
Bro. Branham and Bro. Baxter ministered to the people. Bro. Branham declared this to be the largest audience he had yet spoken to. Literally thousands stood to their feet as an evidence of their acceptance of the Lord Jesus Christ as Saviour. Then the sick were ministered to and miracles took place. People slipped off their leg irons and walked, while others arose from their beds on which they had been carried to the meeting. The deaf heard, the blind saw and the people praised God.
The danger point was reached when thousands pressed forward to see what was happening near the platform. Every effort had to be made to restrain the multitude lest those in front be crushed to death. The voice of song filled the air and the people settled down and the meeting eventually closed with triumphant praise to God for His wonderful works.
In the evening meeting Bro. Branham ministered especially to the European section of the congregation. There were thousands of them in the Grand Stand, and thousands sat out in the open on the grass lawns. While Bro. Branham was speaking the rain began to fall softly, then more steadily. People on the grass lawns shared overcoats between two or three people; umbrellas were soon in evidence; and the newspapers on which some had been sitting on the grass were spread out over heads and shoulders. Some of the men took off their jackets and spread them over the sick on cots, or gave them to the ladies, and despite the rain hardly anyone moved: all were listening intently. What a sight to behold. The Spirit of God was moving in the midst and hearts were yielding to the Saviour. The sick were prayed for and as elsewhere the bonds of sickness, disease and pain were broken. Thus ended a memorable day.
In the city of East London the meetings were held on the Border Rugby Union Football Grounds. The Grand Stands on one side and the open stands on the other side were filled and thousands congregated on the open playing field in front of the platform. The East London meetings were excellent. It is interesting to know that the Platform used at East London was the Special Dais used by the Royal Family during their South African visit.
Having accompanied the Branham Party to so many of the places in South Africa where meetings were held you might ask what were my impressions. Perhaps I can sum it up all in one sentence: "Those who believed most, received most." Our gratitude goes out to God for this visit.