Ce qu’il faut pour triompher de toute incrédulité: notre Foi
E-1 I've looked forward for a long time for this grand and glorious opportunity to come to--to this city, to minister to these dear people. About in our early pioneer days, when I sent Mr. Lindsay, I had on my heart, Yakima, and I wound up in Spokane. So then again, I sent to get to Yakima and somehow got bypassed and went somewhere else. So tonight, this is a long wait, about ten or twelve years I've watched for the opportunity to come to this city. I am very happy for the opportunity also, of getting this nice school here named after our beloved president, Dwight Eisenhower. And I trust that the Lord will give us an exceeding, abundance above all that we could do or think, this ten days of service. And we're wanting God, if it be His great plan to save every lost person there is in this country, right here on grounds to be saved.
E-2 I truly believe that the coming of the Lord Jesus is nigh at hand. I believe that if--we're living in the shadows of His coming, and I want to do all that I know how to get everyone ready for that grand event that's been prophesied, and people has looked for it since His going away. And we see the conditions arising, both in the political world, and also in the military world, and in the religious world, that all signs are pointing now that the coming is close at hand. To see the church in the minority, spiritual believers, and we see the--all that He spoke of taking place.
E-3 We know
that waiting for us is bombs from anywhere in the world now; they don't
have to look to the big nations; the little nations has the missiles to
destroy the world at any time that they wish to. And those missiles are
in the hands of sinful men. And every radar screen is setting, waiting,
waiting for one to come into their screen, and when they do, they'll
turn theirs loose. What's going to happen, when it all takes place like
that?
I'm so glad that I know the Lord Jesus as my Saviour. I'm so happy for
that. So happy that I know that there's many tens of thousands of
others who feel the same as I do. They're waiting for that great time.
E-4 We only
know life, as we know it, as a human, because that we've never been
nothing but human. But when we're borned again, there's a life that
comes from above, that comes into us.
I've had the privilege of traveling many nations, seen many people.
Altogether I guess, many times it's put around the world. I've been
pretty near every nation in the world, missionaring. And I notice, when
I strike a nation, the strange thing is that that nation has a certain
spirit. That spirit of that nation seems to be the--like dominate the
nation.
We go to Germany, and it isn't like the spirit that's in Finland. We go
to Finland; it isn't like the spirit that's in Australia. And you go to
Australia, it's not like the spirit that's in Japan. Then come back to
America, it's got the American spirit. Everywhere you go, you find a
different spirit. The people live different, act different, but one
great thing I have noticed, if you take a German and send him to the
United States, he will soon take the spirit of the United States. Take
an American and send him to Germany, he takes the spirit of Germany.
But wherever and whatever nation you go to, when you find borned again
Christians, they're all the same no matter where it's at.
E-5 And
I've seen people, that come into the meeting, like in... Our largest
crowd that we ever had was five hundred thousand in Bombay, and then I
guess, my greatest altar call, we ever numbered was at Durban, South
Africa, thirty thousand, one afternoon of heathens, gave their hearts
to the Lord Jesus, when they seen something take place at the platform.
Ten thousand Mohammedans followed that.
Now,--but I've noticed, take the bushman, and the tribesman, that come
in that doesn't even know which is right and left hand. They'll wear no
clothes. They don't know one word of English. They don't know any, but
just their tribal language, but when they receive the Holy Spirit, they
act and do just the same things you do, when you get the Holy Spirit,
just act the same way, go--just exactly the same. It shows that God is
universal. God is omnipresent, omniscient, infinite, and He works the
same with all these people.
E-6 And
every human being, regardless of color, or what he is, how little, how
big, what his color is, they're all of one blood. God made of all
nations, one blood. German, Swiss, African, everyone can give each
other a blood transfusion. The color of our skin, and the size of us
has nothing to do with it. But every human being's got a little
compartment in his heart, that there's not even a blood cell in it.
Many years ago the critics used to say, "God made such an awful mistake
when He said, 'As a man thinketh in his heart,' because there's no
mental facilities in the heart for him to think with."
But two years ago, I believe it was, when I was in Chicago in a
meeting, great headlines come in the paper, that they had discovered,
science has, that a man does have a mental faculty in his heart, that
there's a little compartment in the heart, the human heart, that's not
in the--the animal heart. They've found it on research on the heart,
and it--in there they say it's the place where the soul abides. So
then, after all, God was right when He said, "As a man thinketh in his
heart."
E-7 Now,
we--we reason with our mind, but the heart doesn't reason. The heart
just believes. We look with our eyes, but we see with our heart. Do you
look... You take something complicated, you say, "I just don't see it."
You--You mean you don't understand it. See? Your understanding comes
from your heart. You have your understanding.
Now, many times, I know all Christians know this, that people will
think, "Well, it just can't happen, but yet, in my heart there's
something tells me, that it's going to happen." Did you ever have that
experience, you Christians? Sure, you have. That's that inside man
thinking. It cast down reasons; it doesn't have anything to do with the
reasoning, because with--with God, words should not be reasoned. We
cannot reason out God. God is never known by science, never is God
known by--by mental powers. God is only known by faith. Knowledge will
never get a man to God; knowledge takes him away from God.
E-8 That's
where it started in the garden of Eden. There were two trees, one was
the Tree of Life, the other one a tree of knowledge. Man took his first
bite from the tree of knowledge; he separated himself from the Tree of
Life. And every time he bites off the tree of knowledge, he continually
gets further away from the Tree of Life, because he begins to think he
knows how to reason it out. You cannot reason God; you got to come back
to the simple Tree of Life, and abide under there eating the fruit of
Life.
That's what we're here for to bring the ministry that the Lord has
given me to you people here at Yakima, and many of you attended
meetings at other places, but for this city, perhaps, be many here this
week, that's never been in the meetings.
E-9 Now,
many times, people say, "Brother Branham, you feature Divine healing."
No, that is wrong. I feature Jesus Christ. See? Divine healing is a
minor, and you can never major with a minor. And Christ is our main
subject, then we believe that Christ, Jesus Christ is the Son of God,
that He died for our sins, and rose again the third day, according to
the Scripture, and now sets at the right hand of the majesty of God,
being a High Priest, to make intercessions upon our professions.
We--we're waiting, expecting Him to leave glory someday to return to
the earth, to resurrect the dead and to translate those that are living
into a glorified body to be raptured in the sky, to live with Him for
the space of three and a half years, during the time of the tribulation
period, and to return back to a purified earth to live a thousand years
here on earth with His Church, and forever be with Him, when He sets on
the throne of David. Now, we're looking--looking for that great time.
E-10 There
our theme in the the taberna--in our services is Jesus Christ the same
yesterday, today, and forever, the same. Now, we believe He's the same
in every principle. Now, Hebrews 13:8, is our theme. Don't forget that
now, during the meetings. If anything rises unseemingly, hold right
with that Scripture, and take it back to the Scripture: Jesus Christ,
the same yesterday, today, and forever.
Now, we cannot deny the Scriptures, for Jesus said all Scripture (we
know) is given by inspiration, and heavens and earth will pass away,
but not one Scripture shall ever pass away, 'cause it's God's Word.
Now, we believe that God can do things that He has not written in His
Word. But we like to stay just with what He has written, then we know
we're sure, if you just stay with what He's written in the Word.
E-11 Now,
during these ten days, if God permits us to go on, you may seen--see
some things that'll seem unreasonable to you. But if it seems a little
question, in my speaking I'll always stay right in the Words on God's
promises. That's enough for us. If we stay right with His promises, if
God will confirm all of His promises, that's as good as we need. Don't
you think so? That's as good as we need, if God will stay with His
promise.
Because I believe that we're living in a day that when there's
mysterious things going on, and will continue to go on, and get
complicated, because we know that there's to be a Jannes and Jambres
rise up in the last days to withstand Moses and Aaron, as the Bible
said, and some impersonations to act like it's something that it is
isn't.
But God's Word is ever the truth. I always hold onto that, and that
God's Word is always eternally true. And no man's word or no man is any
better than his word. If I don't keep my word, then I'm not much. And
if God doesn't keep His Word, He isn't God. But if God does keep His
Word, then He ever remains God. In order to be God, He's got to keep
His Word. You, see, He's got to keep His Word.
E-12 And now, on these... Probably tonight, I'd like to speak to you a little while, and kinda get acquainted with the auditorium, with the people, and kindly get ready for the services to come. Now, I spoke a few moments ago, that we did not try to major in Divine healing, yet we teach that to be one of the Bible truths, that Jesus Christ was wounded for our transgression, with His stripes we were healed.
E-13 Now, all redemptive blessings to us, the human race, was paid for, for us, at Calvary when Jesus died for us. We believe that the work and the complete plan of God, every redemptive blessing was completed at Calvary, that all of God's promises was made possible to every human being that would accept it, when Jesus died to clear the human before God at Calvary. I believe that every man in the world, was saved when Jesus died at Calvary. Every sick person in the world, was healed when Jesus died at Calvary. But now, it's a finished work. Now, the thing to do is, can we get the people to see it and accept it. Therefore, Divine healing doesn't lay upon some magic something, that someone has in their hands, or some holy oil, or water that they sprinkle on the people. I do not believe in those things. I--I believe that the Blood of Jesus Christ is sufficient for every thing we have need of. See? And I believe it's something has already been paid for.
E-14 Now,
the initial and original way to receive any redemptive blessing is by
hearing the Word of God, because faith cometh by hearing, hearing the
Word of God, like the ministers preach. If that were you and I, that
would be sufficient. If the people didn't want to believe us, why we
just let them go on. But God is so good, and so full of mercy, till
after all that He sent His Word, then He sent gifts into the church. We
all believe that. I Corinthians 12, there is nine spiritual gifts in
the church. That's in every local body, or should be in every local
body, the gifts of healing, the gift of wisdom, the gifts of knowledge,
the gift of a--a all these other gifts is in the church. Nine different
spiritual gifts is in every local body.
Then God has gifts that He has foreknown for each age and has placed
them into the church. Now, we find out there's five of those gifts. The
first of them is missionaries or apostles. The word "apostle" means
"one sent." The word "missionary" means "one sent." A missionary is
sent, and apostle is sent. God sends His missionary; God sends His
apostles.
E-15 First
is apostles, prophets, teachers, evangelists, pastors, those five
God-given gifts in the church. So each of you people, who has a godly
pastor, has a gift from God in your church, a shepherd. "Pastor" means
"a shepherd," to watch over the flock, to teach them the Word of God.
Then these other nine different spiritual gifts should be operating in
the church to keep the church clean. Like the Ananias and Sapphiras and
so forth, the Spirit of God rise up and call somebody out and tell them
they're living wrong, and--and rebuke that sin openly, and that's what
the Holy Spirit is in the church for, to keep the church clean and
ready for the coming of the Lord. We believe that.
E-16 Now,
then there are these other gifts that comes into the church. Now, after
the pastor, then there's evangelists comes in. And then there's
teachers comes in, and then there's prophets come in. And then there's
apostles come in. All these together, working together with the gifts,
keeps the church perfected, and clean, and ready for the coming of the
Lord. And if this certain church age falls asleep, waiting on the Lord,
the second church age falls asleep, even to the seventh watch, no
matter how many ages fall asleep, they will all rise at the coming of
the Lord, and shall be caught up together with those that are alive and
remain to meet the Lord in the air. And we're looking for that glorious
day, and I believe that if God will help us before the week is over,
I--I believe that we will see clearer than every before. I hope my eyes
are open to a lot of things too, 'cause I'm here to learn like all of
us are. I'm here to draw from you people something that--that to help
me.
Many people think that the evangelist doesn't need any help. You're
mistaken. He's needs more help than all the congregation does, because
he's standing between the enemy and the congregation.
E-17 Now,
being a stranger to you, I thought I would take and explain these
things, so that you would know, that we can start off and have a great
meeting in this here area. And I believe and trust to God, that after
this service is over, that every church through the area will be packed
out with fresh members, and been converted and brought in. I trust that
through that there'll be an old fashion revival sweep this valley here,
that'll cause people from all over the country to flow in here,
seeking. So I'll find when I come back to the United States, a hungry
people, after all the great meetings and things we've had across the
nation.
We've had great men to cross our nation: Billy Graham, Oral Roberts,
and many of those great warriors of faith, great men, personal friends
of mine. And I know they're good men, filled with God's Spirit and
wonderful teachers.
E-18 And
my--myself, I'm more of an illiterate type of person. I'm not educated;
I'm sorry for that. I did not get a schooling that I should get. I was
raised in a poor family of ten children, and I was the oldest. I had to
work to make a living for the family. But somehow, God in His great
wise providence, saw fit, way back before I knowed anything about it,
to put me a little place with you people. And to that I want to
minister with all my heart, to--to be your brother. And I would not
come here, by no means in the world, to cause any a any--any tear up,
or any fict--friction in the church, but I've come here to try to--to
take the frictions away, and bring the body of Christ together, and let
us know that we are all brethren, that we are all together.
And when I come from my own Baptist church to--to minister amongst the
pentecostal people, who believe the message that the Angel of the Lord
had brought me... And I found out that they were as bad as the Baptist;
they had many different organizations of them. And I found great and
fine brethren in every one of them. So I--I could not say tonight, that
I belong to the Assemblies of the Church of God, and yet I do belong to
them, because I haven't--haven't just joined the ranks, but I was
borned in their ranks as a brother, when I received the Holy Spirit.
And I've tried to stand right in between the breach, and say to both
sides, "Don't argue brethren. We are brothers; let us love the Lord,
and let's march forward, and united together..."
E-19 I'm a Kentuckian by birth, and all of you know what the emblem of Kentucky is, or slogan, is a crossed hand, like this: Together we stand, and divided we'll fall. So we don't want the churches divided; we want to stand together. Though that we might disagree one with the other, like that, that's just little tech--little things that's technical. Let's believe the main principles: Jesus died to save us all; He's give us all the new birth, and we're waiting for His coming, and enjoying the attributes of His death until He comes. That's all. We are enjoying Divine healing, the Presence of the Holy Spirit. And if Jesus Christ is the same... God forgive me for making that statement of "if He is"; it's sacrilegious to say it, but He is the same yesterday, today, and forever, because the Word says He is the same. Then if He is the same, then how would He act if He was here on earth today? He would act just like He did yesterday, if He is the same. Do you believe that, all of you? He would. Then if He would act the same, then He would do the same works that He did yesterday. Do you believe that?
E-20 Now,
the Scripture says... Jesus said Himself in Saint John 14:7, "He that
heareth My Word..." No, "The works that I do, that... He that believeth
on Me, the works that I do, shall he do also." And the--the English
translation there says, "Greater than this shall he do, for I go to My
Father." But if you'll take the original translation on that said,
"More shall he do." Now, no one could do greater than He did, because
He raised the dead, stopped nature, and just done everything. But what
it was, that He said, "A little while and the world will see Me no more
(Now, that word is 'Kosmos,' which means 'the world order.'). It shall
see Me no more, yet ye (the church) shall see Me, for I (And "I" is a
personal pronoun, we know that), I will be with you (He's even said),
in you unto the end of the world."
Now, what was it then? God could manifest Hisself through one Man, a
Man, His Son called Jesus. Now, God takes the Spirit of that Jesus and
puts back into His children, that's been adopted by Jesus Christ, and
manifest the same Spirit and same power, the world around. That's God
in us, Emmanuel in us.
E-21 We have
been cleansed by the Blood of Jesus, and I do believe in pure,
absolutely Holy Ghost religion and holiness. I believe that a man
cleaned up from a life of sin, quits all of his drinking, lying,
stealing, and everything else. I believe he lives for God, because the
Spirit in him is God's Spirit. And that Spirit leads him and guides him
into righteousness and holiness, that God could live in him, and will
His--do His will in him.
Now, there'd only one difference then would keep Jesus from being the
same that walked on Galilee, as to be here with us tonight in each one
of us... Now remember, the Jesus I'm talking about is the third Person,
which is the Holy Spirit, which is in us, God in us.
E-22 When
the Son of God... God once lived in a Pillar of Fire, led the children
of Israel, then He came down and lived in a Man, His own Son, a created
body. Then He--then He was--got a little closer to us. Then He had to
sacrifice that body to break that virgin born blood cell, to cleanse
the church that He might live in everybody's heart that would accept
that Blood for the cleansing, Paul says, so that He could come into
their heart by the Holy Spirit. Then that's God working in us.
Now, the corporal body of Jesus cannot be here tonight. It might come.
It would be a great hour, wouldn't it? If the corporal body of the Lord
Jesus, which sets at the right hand of God tonight, if It should
descend from heaven and come to the earth, we wouldn't need any more
healing services or preaching services. It'd all be over then.
When will it come? I do not know. I don't believe anyone knows, 'cause
Jesus said they didn't. But He said when He seen such signs as we see
today, know that the time was at the door.
E-23 Now, He
promised that the things that He would do, which I'll go into it later
in the messages. The thought tonight on getting ready, just kindy
feeling out the audience... We got ten nights, and many times people...
If you don't... If you rush into something, not knowing what you're
doing, then the first thing you do, you find yourself all confused. But
if you come into the line, know just exactly what to expect, then you
know how to receive your healing.
How that many times people on, dealing with cancer, tumor, or some
growth, malignant or not malignant. Many times they fail to get their
healing after they have already received it once.
E-24 Now, a
growth is a multiplication of cells. That's the same thing you are, a
multiplication of cells. You know where your life come from, because it
was through holy wedlock. And we realize that the woman doesn't have
the hemoglobin; it comes from the man. And--and the male produces the
blood cells. Now, many of you people are farmers, and you have
chickens, you have--look at the yard and see birds, and the birds...
A mother bird can build her nest and lay it full of eggs, and she can
hover those eggs, and treat them just as good as she can treat them,
and starve herself till she's so poor, she can hardly get off the nest,
turning those eggs, reverently every few minutes, so that they'll
hatch, keeping them warm, defying herself of all the food and things
that she should have to build her own body. She's loyal to those eggs.
But if that mother bird hasn't been with the male, them eggs will never
hatch. They'll rot right in the nest.
A hen, your chickens can lay an egg, the hen can. She can set on them
the same way, and it'll never hatch unless she's been with the male
bird.
E-25 Now,
that's what I think about the church today. See? No matter how many
members we have, how well we have to pet them and baby them, if they
haven't been with the Mate, Jesus Christ, and been borned again, they
can never believe Divine healing or nothing else. You just got a nest
full of rotten eggs. It's best to clean the nest and start all over
again. That's... If--if there ever was a time that they need a nest
cleaning, it's in America right now. That's true. We have by mistakes
brought in many people and put them on the church book, and so forth,
which is fine. I'd rather them be in church than to be out there on the
street, but yet, what we need is a revival.
Now, a revival isn't so much to bring in new members, but revive that
what you've already got in. See? Just like your--your sea over here. I
set over there by the shore the other day, and they taken me fishing
yesterday, after had one day off, and I watched that great, mighty sea
churn those waves up-and-down. I thought, "What's he so upset about?
What's he churning the waves about?" I thought, "There's not one drop
more water in it, then when it is when it's perfectly calm." That's
right. Got the same amount of water. Not no more water at all. But what
you having that churning for? I thought, "It's having a revival." What
does it do? Shake all the trash out of the water on the bank.
So that's what--that's what the church needs today is a revival. We'll
get all the unbelief shook out of us, until we can be clean. Don't you
think so? For all--what I mean by sin is unbelief. We realize that
that's the only sin there is is unbelief. We believe that. "He that
believeth not is condemned already."
E-26 As I
said one time, sometime ago, preaching in a Methodist church, I said,
"Smoking cigarettes, drinking whiskey, committing adultery, lying,
stealing, that isn't sin."
And a precious, dear little sister setting there, one of those little
round collars on, and taught holiness all of her life, she said, "I
pray, tell me what is sin?"
I just got next to her. I said, "Sin is unbelief." You--you do those
things because you believe not. He that believes on the Lord wouldn't
do those things. He's past from death unto Life.
Jesus said in Saint John 5:24, "He that heareth My Words, and believeth
on Him that sent Me, has Eternal Life (And there's only one form of
Eternal Life, and that's the Holy Spirit. See?) --has Eternal Life, and
shall never come to the judgment, but hath (past tense) past from death
unto life." Oh, I like that, don't you? He that believeth...
E-27 Now,
we... Always the meeting produces the three classes of people:
unbeliever, make-believer, and a believer. We've had that in--and we've
always had it, and we--we always will have it. And so, we want to get
the--the unbeliever to be a believer, and a make-believer to be a real
believer. Why would we accept a substitute when the skies are full of
the real? Why do we want something that's so fictitious and
all--something--a bunch of emotion or whatever it is?
Now remember, I believe that the Holy Spirit has plenty emotions.
Anything--I can prove to you anything that isn't--hasn't got life in it
is dead. So if the church hasn't got a little life, there's something
wrong with the church. It needs a resurrection. So I believe we have to
have emotion. We get...
I see we're on a basketball floor. Now, many of you people, the
children here, go to school, and I sure thank God for this beautiful
school. It's the most beautiful school I was ever in, I believe. In the
auditoriums, I've been in many. But I--here... What if you had a
basketball game here, and your team was a winning, oh, my, you just set
there in the balcony. You'd said, "It's the deadest game, I ever been
in." Why sure.
Well, if our Master's a winning the fight, I tell you, it--it--it--we
can sure could do a little cutting up once in a while, you know, let
Him know that we--we appreciate the victory that He's give us. That's
right. So we don't want it to be a dead meeting, a dead church; we want
it alive, with the Spirit of God moving, and a real sensible, sane,
Gospel way, just performing great signs and wonders, and showing the
signs of the Messiah in our midst.
E-28 As
Israel journeyed from the--from Egypt to the promised land, when they
were on their journey, little did Balaam know that there was a--the
voice of a King in the camp. He forgot to see that smitten rock in that
brass serpent, and their--the triumph shout of the King.
That's what we want tonight, we got a smitten Rock in the camp. Do you
believe that? That's the Rock, Christ Jesus. He was smitten like the
Rock was in the wilderness by the judgment stick of God, and He bore
our judgments, that as perishing people was rejuvenated again and given
new life from that water that come from the rock, so is the church.
Each time it speaks to the Rock, it's gets new water flowing, new Life,
and revived again.
Then He had a brass serpent making atonement for all their sins that
they did; a water's of separation made up without the camp to separates
the unbeliever from his unbelief. They had all of that, and then in the
midst of all of it, there was a triumph shout of the King in the camp
all the time. So we're on our journey tonight, and let's serve the Lord
with all of our heart.
E-29 Now,
we'll try each night to let you out... I think we begin tonight at
about eight thirty, and maybe tomorrow night we'll start a little
earlier. And then tomorrow night I want to go more into a subject with
you on Divine healing, so that you're thoroughly understand.
One little thing I want to push in right here, where if I forget it
tomorrow night... Let's take for instance, a--a growth, a tumor,
cancer, whatever it is. How did it start? Like my hand here, there's
nothing on my hand now, someday there might be a growth, cancer,
whatever it might be, tumor. What is that growth? It's... Somewhere
there's another little germ gets in there and begins to develop cells,
and it's a multiplication of cells. Just like you started in the womb
of mother, begin to grow into a--a human being. Dog comes into a dog.
Chicken to a chicken, and so forth.
But a tumor, cancer, or any of those growths, they don't have any
certain form, because they have--they're not made in any image of human
being. Some of them's got legs, and some of them's round like pancakes,
and some oblong, more. What is it? It's demons. Jesus called them
devils. Was He right? Certainly, He was right. Because the word,
"devil," means "a tormentor," cancer, tumor, and diseases that torment
you.
E-30 Now,
the last commission Jesus gave to His church was, "Go ye into all the
world, preach the Gospel to every creature. He that believeth and is
baptized shall be saved. He that believeth not shall be damned. These
signs shall follow them that believe: In My Name they shall cast out
devils (You believe that?), cast out devils."
Then what happened if the life left that tumor? We'll call it a tumor
or cancer. It's the greatest killer. Now, if the life leaves that
cancer, immediately, what happens when the life leaves you? For the
first day or so, your body shrinks.
How many hunters is there in here, hunts deer and animals? All right.
Now, you kill a deer today, and you say, or a butcher or whatever you
want to be, even a undertaker... See? You say, "This body laid on the
scale, it weighs two hundred and fifty pounds." Be careful what you
tell the boys now, when you weigh it in the morning. It'll be pounds
lighter. You know that, don't you? It'll shrink a great percent
overnight. The human body does the same. Any body of cells does the
same, because it's dying out. Now, then let it lay there for just about
three or four days in the sun. Then pick it up.
Let a little dog get run over on the street, and let him lay there for
three or four days in that hot sun. Watch what happens. He will be
twice his size almost. Then he's heavier than he ever was.
E-31 Now, like a man, when this spirit... See, we're not dealing with that growth. That's what the doctor deals with. The doctor deals with what he can feeled or what he can see. Two of his five senses he can work with: that is his feeling or his seeing. Now, he feels the growth; he operates; he looks at it, and takes it out. Now, if there's a piece of root left, it just keeps on growing. See?
E-32 Now, we
don't deal with that growth at all in Divine healing. We deal with the
life that's in that growth, the devil itself, that life. Then when that
life comes out, immediately or a few hours, the patient begins to get
relief, feeling fine, go testifying. Usually after about three or four
days, I'm gone from the city. See?
Well then, the Bible says, "That when the unclean spirit is gone out of
a man, he walks in dry places." He brings back seven devils worse than
he was; and if the good man of the house isn't there to protect, that
demon will come right in again, and the last estate of that man would
be eight times what it was at the beginning. See? He'd have seven more
different things. Now, we got to believe that, 'cause God said that,
and that's His Word. We just have to work on our message from that
(See?) that that's truth, because it's God's Word.
Now, if the people run right in it, and maybe having three night's
meeting, people run right in and get prayed for. "Oh, I got healed; I
feel so much better." Got up off of the cot, walked home, about three
or fo--about seventy-two hours, corruption sets in, and mortification
begins to swell, then say, "Oh, I lost my healing. Oh, I--I lost my
healing." That's the best sign in the world, you got your healing. See?
That's the sign you've got it, not lost it. And little simple things
like that the church has to be taught. See? To know how to take a hold.
Don't you let no unbelieving, as soon as you say, "Oh, I lost it," that
quick, Satan returns again. That's right. Then you're worse than you
ever were. See?
E-33 And that's the reason my meetings has never had ample time where I could explain it and get in among the people and tell them about it. And some of these days, the Lord willing, I'm going to get a big tent and move out somewhere where I could stay three or four weeks at a time or five, just keep--let that patient return back again, and prove to them, and show them that the thing is gone, 'cause God's no respect of person. He that'll heal one man with a cancer will heal another man with a cancer, if he comes in the same attitude, on the same basis. 'Cause would you take your children, set down at the table, and each one of them hungry, and say, "Now, you can have a glass of milk, to keep you from dying. But you, John, you can't have it. Joe can have it." You wouldn't do that. You'd think as much of John as you do of Joe, if you're right parents. Well, if you know how to good--give good gifts to your children, how much more does your heavenly Father know how to give good gifts to His children. So see, everyone of us can be healed.
E-34 And
I've seen so much done, I tell you, friends, I--I just know God can do
everything. I've seen leprosy in it's last stage, healed. I've seen
people that was... I've got doctor's statements of people have been
laying dead, examined by the doctors, dead, come back to life again, by
faith, just believing it. See?
And a little mother stand over her baby, and see that baby return back
to life after being--died that morning at nine o'clock and this was
pretty near ten thirty that night, just recently, down in Mexico. I
said, "Don't call that; let the doctor's sign that." See? So when we
make a statement, it has to be backed up. See? That it's true. We don't
let it be published, because I--I out, you know what I mean big things,
because the...
You know, we American people are looking for big things, great things,
lot of noise to it (See?), oh, lot of Hollywood. God help us to get
away from that and get back to the Gospel. That's right. I'm so sick
and tired of Hollywood evangelism, and seeing millions dying yonder
without knowing Christ at all. See? It is--certainly is sickening. How
contrary that is to God.
Elijah, the rushing wind didn't attract him; the noise of the thunder
didn't attract him. The earthquaking didn't attract him, but when he
heard a still, small voice, then the prophet veiled his face and walked
out. That's what attracted his attention. And brother and sister, let's
listen, this week, for that still, small voice. See?
E-35 Now,
before we approach His Word, to read it, let us bow our heads just a
moment to pray.
Now, Father God, we are approaching Thy Word in the Name of the Lord
Jesus, because that You promised if we would ask anything in His Name,
we would receive it. And we're sure that You're Word is true, because
we have come to this gracious little city that's invited us here.
And all these fine servants of Yours, gathered out here, and these
precious minister brothers back here, behind me to pray, watching over
their flock, out here, loyal shepherds, How I thank You for that,
Father. And many sick sheep are waiting for the hour for You to deliver
them. They can't go on any farther, Lord; the doctor's laid many of
them back, perhaps, that their heart's too bad to work anymore, the
cancer's going to kill them. And the doctor's done all he knows how to
do. We're grateful for him, and the knowledge that You've give him.
E-36 But now, Father, there's yet another step we can make. And that's why we're here. Some of them are here with sin sick souls; they do not know the joy of serving You, Lord, and knowing You as a personal Friend that walks with you on the street, rides with you in the car, talks to you in the secret closet, eats with you at the table. O God, let Jesus become a personal Friend, just one member of the family, in every home that's here in this city, throughout the region. Grant it, Lord.
E-37 We pray
now, that You'll bless our feeble efforts as we try to place before our
precious friends, the Gospel. And, Lord, will You help me, I'm the one
that needs help.
And if I should say anything, or try to say anything that was contrary
to Your will or Word, then, Father, You're still the same God that
could close the lion's mouth in the den with Daniel, you could close
mine also. And I pray that You'll not let me say one thing but what
would be to--the edifying and to--of Your church and of Your people.
And may every sick person be healed. May every lost person be saved,
every backslider brought back to fellowship again. Bless Your Word as
we read it tonight for this little text, may it put a preparation
together for a--a real time in these next few nights in Your servants.
And when services is closed, then we'll humbly bow our heads and hearts
before You, and give You all the praise and glory. For we ask it in the
Name of Your dear and beloved Child, the Lord Jesus Christ, our
Saviour. Amen.
E-38 Now, to you who are--usually keeps text, or account of the text, or places, I want you to turn tonight to I John, the 5th chapter, and the 4th verse, just to read a few words. I want a little text to draw a context.
E-39 And while you're turning, I might say that now on the evenings that we are praying for the sick, in order to keep order, the boys will be down here about a hour before service starts giving out prayer cards to anybody that wants them. They take the prayer cards and bring up before the people, and mix the prayer cards all up, bring them down and give them to anybody that wants them, and the prayer cards is to be used at night. Don't--don't bring them or give them to anyone else. You--you heard the instructions. You're the one that gets the prayer card. Then if you have some friend that wants a prayer card, then have them come over and hear the instructions that Mr. Borders and them will be giving you instructions, and ministers and so forth. And the prayer cards are inexchangeable, should be given to each one, and then they'll call by numbers to come to the platform. Then, that makes it so that no one knows where the prayer line is going to start, no one knows what cards... Say, Give me prayer card number one." Well, if you had number one, we may start from fifteen.
E-40 Because
I tried this; we tried it without prayer cards, and you talk about a
scramble. This really would be an arena. And then, we have a... Then we
tried that. Then I tried sending a hundred prayer cards to each
cooperating pastor. And then the first pastor got his group in, the
rest of them didn't get them in while the meeting was going on, 'cause
time we got through that, and them slow moving lines, because we don't
let them pass by until we're sure everything's all right. So I think
that's the way you'd want it. Is that right?
And then--and then, many times there's fifty healed in the plat--out
there, when there's one healed on the platform. So it doesn't matter
about that too much. And the Holy Spirit goes right on out through the
audience, as we'll get to farther on, gets healed just the same. But
the cards...
E-41 Then
you see, then what we did... We couldn't do that, 'cause the first
pastor got his in, about a hundred cards, for the three nights meeting.
That settled it. And then the next we did then, I'd go down and give
out prayer cards, and I'd come to--I'd say, "Let's--a--like this little
boy, here, let him come count, and where he stops, we'll start from
there." Believe it or not, mommy had junior stop right on her card, you
know. So we're still human, we realize that, and we had complaints
about that.
Then I had one fellow, that was caught in my meetings, selling those
prayer cards, guaranteeing someone that they'd get in the prayer lines.
One night finished that man. So I got my own son to give out prayer
cards, and I know that wouldn't be with him. And then, I fixed it so
the people would know that he wouldn't know where the prayer line was
going to start. He brings the prayer cards before the people and mixes
them all up, and just hands them right to you, wherever you want it. So
he doesn't know himself. Nobody else knows.
And then--then when I come to the meeting, I leave it just wherever the
Holy Spirit... I've done lot of times, count how many in this row, and
takes this row away from it, divide it by that row, and so forth like
that. Or just wherever the Holy Spirit would lead me to start, that's
where we'd start. Then we... Before the services end though, we always
pray for everyone that comes to the meeting. We always get that.
E-42 Then,
we want to let you to know too, we don't try to say, "Now, the
evangelist is here. He's the one that's going to do the healing." We
let you know that your pastor is a man of God, just as much of
authority to pray for the sick, as me, or anybody else, me, Oral
Roberts, or Tommy Osborn, or any--any of the men that's on the field
today, praying for the sick. Your pastor has the same authority. He
might not operate under the same gift, but he's still God's servant,
operating under the gift that God give him. So we always remember that.
And now, you come about... I... What time you going to begin the
services...?... ? Seven-thirty, then you ought to be here at six-
thirty, so you--they won't interfere with the rest of the meeting. They
start in to give out the cards up till that time, so come as early as
you can, so they won't all be gone when you get here. Then each night,
they'll be giving out cards that we pray for the sick, and that keeps
the big rush down, and everybody and then, they'd climb over one
another.
E-43 Oh, my, you ought to see in foreign lands where we--you have to take a militia almost. I've seen them run over a group of five embanked soldiers, see a woman jump up on top of a man's shoulders and run right across, getting across that man's shoulders. Upset the whole army, ranks something like that, running between their legs, maybe four or five thousand of them of them at a time just make a rush like that, and just break on through it anyhow, tear the clothes off of you and everything else, just trying to touch you or something. So we have here, we can have order in small meetings like we have now, and have it done decently and in order. Don't you believe in that?
E-44 All
right now, as we read the 5th chapter, and the 4th verse of I John:
For
whatsoever is borned of God overcometh the world: and this is the
victory that overcometh the world, even our faith.
Lord add His blessings to the reading of His Word. Now, I want to speak
tonight upon the subject of, "What It Takes To Overcome All Unbelief:
Our Faith."
E-45 Now, we
are just closing yesterday, where we had two great campaigns here in
the United States. One was the Democrats; they had theirs in
California, and the papers was all full of it. You couldn't turn the
radio on without hearing it. That's all right. That's the party. And
they chose what they thought to be the best man for their party, and
they chose Mr. Kennedy. And then when they elected Mr. Kennedy in their
rally, and, oh, they built the platform for Mr. Kennedy to be the
greatest man in the world today. And then, when they finally elected
the man that they wanted elected, they all cheered and gave great
praises to Mr. Kennedy.
And yesterday, or day before, whenever it was, when the other party,
the Republican party chose Mr. Nixon. Well, they preached for several
days, building a platform for Mr. Nixon, and--on their campaign. And
they--finally when the party elected the man that they thought that
they wanted to run for the presidency of our beloved United States, the
crowd cheered and joyed, and screamed, and jumped up-and-down, because
they had elected the man that they come in that campaign to elect.
E-46 Now,
we've come here tonight to elect a Man, and that Man is the Lord Jesus.
And I'm trying to build a platform for Him tonight, that in the coming
nights of this campaign that we might rejoice, and praise His Name,
because that we have elected Him in our hearts to be our Saviour, our
God, our Healer. And first, we want to place a platform for Him.
And now, we're going to talk about faith and victory. And there have
been many great victories won in this world. There... If I could
enumerate them tonight it would go into the multiplied thousands of the
great victories that's been won around the world: ancient days of Rome,
and Greek, and so forth, and the great warriors that has won great
victories, until the whole earth is bathed with blood of martyrs. I
might call your attention to two or three just to get started, and how
they act when that victory has been won.
E-47 For
instance, when the--the Germans in the last or the first--second world
war it was, that won the victory in France, and after they had made
everything safe, they made the platform for Hitler. And Hitler stood
there, they said, at the Arch of Triumph. I've stood there many times
myself. And when he stood there, that tens of thousands of thousands of
Germans marched by with the goose step, with the German salute to their
fuhrer as he stood on his platform that they had built for him, and
it's said the sky like a cloud for a half hour of German built
airplanes coming over. People screamed, guns fired, whistles blowed,
bells ring, everything, because they had won the victory and had taken
Paris--taken France.
And here sometime ago, at the world conference, the Pentecostal World
Conference, in London, England, they were showing a film there of a--a
Stalin, when they brought him in when Germany fell and they brought him
into Berlin. And what a sight that was to watch those Ger--or, Russian
built tanks with the turret guns just a little over one another's
heads, so perfectly trained for just one solid fire went around. Oh, I
don't see how the world could exist under such terrific shock as they
went into Germany. How that them guns just leveled a little over one
another and just a panoramic just constantly firing with those great
big explosion blo--balls of shrapnel, they just tore Germany to pieces.
And when they finally had surrendered and they went in they--they made
it safe and brought a platform and brought Stalin over in a plane when
he landed, that Russians with that kind of a little funny stooped down
and up, tens of thousands times thousands of Russian soldiers went in
stooping and back and forth, and hurrahing, and screaming, and
shouting, and going on, because that they had won the victory over
Germany. Had beat them down.
E-48 And it was something similar the day that the peace was signed when we had dropped an atomic bomb over Hiroshima and blowed about a million people into bits, and burnt the old gang out, with their stomach and eyeballs fell out, and then Japan surrendered. And when they did the whistles blowed, and guns fired, and screams went off, and everything, and many fathers was glad that the war was over, because that they'd get a little rest. Many fathers and mothers were glad, because their son would come home again. And it was a--it was a great day. And anything that wins a victory it's an overcoming something; it overcomes their object that they're fighting against.
E-49 I've stood in the jungles of South Africa while lion hunting, and here the lion that I used to think was an old mangy, scavenger, but I had a respect for him, because of all his great killing power he only kills to eat. The beasts can run over him all day long, after he's done eat; he won't pay any attention to them. But when he kills something, it's a pathetic thing to watch him. He will kill the--the wildebeest, or the zebra, or something. He will put his feet up on it, and he will throw his big masterous head up in the air, and the shaggy mane around his neck, and he will roar. Oh, I've stood off five hundred yards and see little pebbles drop off the ground, and off the hill and roll down, from that terrific blast of that victorious cry that he gives. He found something to eat, and he puts his feet up on it, licks at it and roars in the jungles.
E-50 All
these things doesn't last. These wars and blood shed, it comes right
back again, because it's won in the wrong way. It cannot last. There
will be no peace until Jesus comes and sets up His Kingdom, and the
world will study war no more. But until then, the nations are
controlled by the devil, as the Bible says they are. And they'll war
one against another until Jesus comes. How it was that day, when Satan
took Him on the high mountain, and said, "If Thou be the Son of God,
fall down and worship me, I'll give You all these kingdoms. They're all
mine. I do with them whatever I want to. I'll give them to You, if
You'll just worship me."
Jesus knowing that He'd would fall heir to them in the millennium, He
said, "Get thee behind Me, Satan, for it is written, 'Thou shall
worship the Lord thy God, and Him only shall thou serve.'" And Satan
got in the back of Him.
E-51 There's
an old proverb that's more than a proverb. No matter how--who is there
first, you have to play the rules of the game or you'll never win. If a
runner is running around the track, and one takes a short cut, and cuts
through the field, and beats the other one there by a half hour, still
he will be disqualified at the end of the race. He's got to play it
according to the rules of the game or he's disqualified.
And that's the way we have to do, the race of life that we're running
now, it's has to be played according to God's qualifications or we'll
lose when we get there. Whether we're president, whether we are the
governor, or a minister, or who--what church we belong to, or what
denomination, the rules of the game has to be kept. We must run it
fair; we must play it by the rules. We must preach the Word. We must do
it willingly.
Paul said in, I believe, in Hebrews the 12th chapter, "That seeing we
are compassed about with such a great cloud of witnesses, let us lay
aside every weight, and the sin that doth easily beset us, that we
might run with patience the race that's set before us." Paul was
speaking in the olympics and so forth, that was in Greece and Rome, and
so forth; he knowed that you had to play that game fair, for if you did
not, you'd be disqualified.
And tonight, as borned again Christians, as believers here at the end
time, we've got to play the game according to the rules. We've got to
run with patience the race that's set before us, looking to the Author
and Finisher, Jesus Christ.
E-52 Right
after that, or before that, previous to that, He gave the great 11th
chapter of Hebrews which gives the heroes of faith, "By faith Moses, by
faith Abraham, by faith Enoch, by faith Noah." All the great heroes of
faith, then saying, "Seeing that we are compassed about with such a
great cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight and the sin
(the unbelief) that does so easily besets us."
Here we are tonight right in the shadows of the coming of the Son of
God, and yet, we find the church in anemic condition. We ought to be
great, strong, mighty warriors of faith, that would shake a nation. God
gives it to us. We would just receive it. So there's little things upon
us that holds us back from running. Let's lay aside all those little
weights now, because we're looking to the Author and Finisher of our
faith, Jesus Christ, Who was made man on earth, and dwelt among us, and
was made sin, that through His righteousness we might be forgiven of
our sins. He became us, sinners, that we might become His
righteousness. In other wise, like this, He become me that I might
become Him. He was the Son of God; I was a sinner. He taken my place,
become a sinner, that I might be a Son of God.
And when we see that, it ought to attract the attention of every man
and woman, to lay aside every little skeptic talk. Oh, I love that. Lay
aside every weight, and the little unbelief that does so easily beset
us. Some little something come up, and we say, "Well, I never heard of
that before." Search it out in the Scripture, if it's the Bible, stay
with it.
E-53 You
people here are noted for your apples, great delicious apples raised in
the valley here and other fruits. When you set that little tree out no
larger than that, just a little slip. Every apple that's ever be in
that tree's in it right then. Certainly, it is. If it doesn't, where
does it come from? It's in the tree. And you plant the tree in the
ground. You irrigate it, put water on it. What does that little tree
do? It grows, and why... How it grows, it drinks, and draws from the
earth, water. It draws more than it's portion, more than enough to fill
it. It draws just so much until it pushes out limbs, branches, apples,
then goes down and hides through the wintertime, keep the sap from
being killed in the tree. What intelligence runs it down into the
ground, hides it through the winter?
Put a water in a tin cup, and set it on a fence, and see if it'll go
down when wintertime comes. Certainly, it won't. Some Intelligence runs
it down. That same Intelligence that runs the water in there, is the
same Spirit of God that's brought us together for this convention, the
same Spirit that's bringing us together here under the heavenly places
in Christ Jesus, to find His goodness and mercy for the hours that lays
ahead of us. Oh, He's real, God is.
E-54 Now, we
find that in this little tree, it pushes out. When it grows it pushes
out. And when you are born into the Kingdom of God, just a little baby
in Christ, everything that you have need of in this life's journey, is
in you when you receive the Holy Spirit. Oh, then what do you have to
do, is drink, and drink, and keep on drinking. Don't just stop when you
join church and are baptized; just keep drinking till you have faith
for this, and faith for that, and faith for this, and push out until
all the manifestations of the Holy Spirit is living in the church.
[Blank.spot.on.tape--Ed.]...
and a rewarder of those that diligently seek Him.
E-55 Now,
how are we planted? We're planted in Christ Jesus. Now, I believe, just
in my estimation of Him. He's the inexhaustible fountain of Life, that
you cannot exhaust His goodness. Some people think, "Oh, I hate to call
on God so much." That's what He wants you to do.
"You have not because you ask not. You ask not because you believe not.
Ask abundantly that your joys might be full." That's what God wants:
Ask big things. I'm asking for hundreds of souls in this meeting. I'm
asking that every sick person enters that door will go out of here
well. I'm believing it. I'm believing that till we go, that this won't
be another gathering together, but it'll be a revival in Yakima here.
Satan's kept me out of here long enough, and I believe the hour is here
for a real sweeping revival in every church and around the country.
E-56 Went out this afternoon, went to the different places visiting amongst the people, an old straw hat on, pulled down over my face, and so forth, I--just to see the attitudes of the people. You've got fine people here; you've got something to work on. That's right. Now, what we've got to do is get to work. We're here tonight to elect our Lord Jesus as our King in our hearts, our Governor, our faith Giver, our God, our Healer, our Saviour. Elect Him in our heart and go out here now and carry it to this great election that's coming at the judgment, when He will be crowned King of king, and Lord of lords.
E-57 Now,
we're living in a terrific day, but all that you have need of is
already supplied to you, when you believe. So many people, today, I
find, when they join church, and here especially, in America, they just
become drifters. They're just--"Well, praise God, I've met Brother
Branham, and I--I got saved, and I put my name on the book, and
that's--that's all I done." Just drifting, we don't want to do that.
You never got saved just to be a member of a church. You got saved to
work. We don't dress an army up just to lay around on the corner and
flirt with the girls, with pretty uniforms on. We train our army to
fight. And we're not at a picnic; we're on a battle grounds. We're
right here facing the enemy of our Lord Jesus, and the enemy of our
souls. Let us be up and doing with a heart for any strife.
I like that Psalm of Life, "Be not like dumb driven cattle," have to
drive you in a little corral somewhere and over this way, down this
way. Let's be a hero.
Lives
of great men all remind us
We
can make our lives sublime,
With
partings leave behind us
Footprints
on the sands of time.
Footprints,
that perhaps another,
While
sailing over life's solemn main,
For
a forlorn and shipwrecked brother,
In
seeing our footsteps shall take heart again.
Let us do something; we're written epistles.
E-58 Now,
here some time ago, a few years ago, my wife--I was in the study and
she come to the door and she said, "Billy, there's a--there's a bum at
the door. He wants something to eat."
I said, "Feed him. Give him something; he's a man. I don't care what he
is, feed him. Divide what we got with him. Man's hungry."
She said, "I'm afraid of him."
I said, "Oh, my, open the door and tell him to get something to eat.
Fix him something and give it to him."
So she fixed on the table, then called him in, then she come in the
room. So I... She was a little afraid of him, because he was kinda
dirty looking, and I went out and I said, "How do you do, my good man?"
He said, "How do you do."
And he was eating his dinner, and so I said, "Where you from?"
He said, "Oh, just here and there."
I said, "Where you going?"
He said, "Oh, the same thing, just here and there."
I said, "What purpose do you have in life?"
He said, "None."
E-59 Well,
that's just about the way that people gets in. We've got to have
something that we got a purpose for. We've got to purpose in our
hearts. We've got to do something. Now, you say, "Oh, we're having
revival. Yeah, we're over in the Eisenhower School Auditorium." Don't
let that be you, just a floater and a drifter. You can never amount to
anything like that. Let's get up and do something about it. Let's put
our shoulder to the wheel. Let's see that our church prospers; let's
get the Kingdom prospering. Let's see that the sick gets in here. Let's
see that God is laid down among the people, and great signs and wonders
take place that'll strike the nation. I'm satisfied that there'll be
things happen here that'll thrill this country, that'll shake it for
the Kingdom of God, if each one of us will get behind it.
What are we doing? Building the platform for our Lord. We wanting to
bring Him to Yakima; we're want to bring Him in a great revival. And
we've got to elect Him in our own hearts. We got to purpose something,
get something to do with it, something to do for, some purpose. You
don't just, oh, join the church and drift on. You don't do it that way.
You always, you've got to have a purpose in what you're doing.
Wife say, "Well, I'm just a wife."
Get on the telephone; do something. Do something to help the Lord Jesus
now.
E-60 Now,
there is a time that a man can come to a place where he can have a
purpose. It's something that'll change him. And that is, when a man
meets God. A man can never be the same if he ever meets God face to
face. It'll change him in spite of anything you can do about it. A man
can never be the same after he once meets God. Now, that's the truth.
Let us take somebody. Start with Noah. Noah had no certain purpose in
life. He was a common farmer, out in the field. And one day God met
him, and He spoke to him, and told him something that was impossible to
ever happen would take place. Then from that hour on, while Noah
purposed in his heart that he'd build that ark regardless of what all
fanatics said... Why, it never rained from the heavens. They never had
any moisture upon the earth. It was irrigated from springs. There'd
never been in a cloud in the sky. How was he going to do it? Well, God
said it was going to happen, and Noah purposed in his heart to achieve
this something for God, and he did it. No matter how much they laughed
at him, or how much they said, this, that, or the other.
"How's it going to rain? Where's it going to rain at, Noah?"
"I don't know."
"Well, show me where the rain is."
"I can't show you, but when the time comes, the rain'll be there."
That's right. He met God.
E-61 And
when your doctor turns you down, and said, "Cancer's going to kill
you." How in the world you going to live? I can't tell you how it's
going to be, but God said, "The prayer of faith will save the sick. And
it'll be that." That's right.
Someone said to me, not long ago, I was preaching on Elijah, and the
crows feeding him. I made a little rude statement, and colored people
excuse me for this. But I said, "He's a lot better off. They said he
was crazy up there in that tree. He had colored servants to serve him
every day. And when he wanted water, he'd reach down and get a drink.
When it come time for a meal, a colored servant, a crow come brought
him a sandwich."
And a minister from a certain church said to me, "You don't actually
believe that those were sandwiches?"
I said, "I certainly do. The Bible said it was meat and bread and I
believe it."
Said, "Then I want to ask you something: Where did he get it? Where did
those crows get it?"
I said, "That wasn't up to Elijah to figure all that out. He just
knowed God told him he'd feed him; the crows brought it, he eat it, and
he's satisfied with it. And that's all that counted."
E-62 That's
the way it is about Divine healing or the power of God, no matter who
tries to explain it and shove it away, God said it would be so, and
it'll be there. Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever.
His power is just the same.
He said, "He that believeth on me, the works that I do, shall he
all--do also."
"How you going to do this?"
"I can't tell you, but God said it would happen, and it just takes
place, that's all I know." I can't explain how a black cow can eat
green grass, and give white milk, but I drink it all the time, just the
same. I don't know the mechanics of it, but the only thing I know it's
milk and I drink it.
That's the way somebody said, "Oh, you get them people worked up.
They're all excited, that's..." I don't know about that. I can't say
what kind of excitement it is. I know that something changed my life,
when that excitement got on me.
Someone said, "You'll go crazy."
I said, "Leave me alone then, I more happier like this, than I was the
other way." So I got salvation this a way. I hope I so excited till I
die, because I'm having a wonderful time believing God's Word, and
seeing Him confirm it with everything that He said He promised to do.
There's Who our Lord is. That's that great One. Sure. We believe.
E-63 Oh,
when God meets a man, he's changed. When Noah met God, his whole
achievement was to build that ark.
People come out, "What are your doing, Noah?"
"Building an ark."
"What is an ark?"
"It's a boat."
"What's a boat?"
"It's a thing... There's coming water, going to fall down out of
heavens, and God's going to destroy this old wicked world. And all that
don't come in this ark is going to--going to be perished."
"Oh," say, "you all ought to take him down to a psychiatrist. There's
something wrong in the old man's head." Well, what was it? He believed
God. And a man that believes God, acts foolish to the world, because it
pleased God through the foolishness of preaching to achieve this. Amen.
E-64 "All that live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution. Blessed are you, when a men shall revile you and make all matters of fun to you, and call you all manners of names, for My sake. (See?) Rejoice and be exceedingly glad, 'cause they persecuted the prophets preaching before you." It's always been there. When you get the spirit of the nation here on you, you really become an American. That's the good national spirit to have. But sometimes from the way things are going now, it's getting pretty bad.
E-65 I was
in San Angelos, just recently--recently at Rome, and a big sign 'fore
you went into San Angelos said, "To the American women, please put on
clothes and honour the dead, before you come in here." You think that's
pretty bad, a great leader of a certain nation, after we got through,
said, "Have you got any good women over in your country?"
I said, "Thousands of them."
"Well, what do you sing all them dirty songs about them. Every song
that comes over, there's something dirty about the women."
I said, "That's just the other side. You don't know the good side of
it. You read the blank page." As I said, "Sure, we got borned again
Christian women, that's loyal and real ladies: young and old. Real,
they're the kingdom people. In fact, I said, "I come to your nation to
tell you about it." That's right. See? When you get a spirit...
E-66 Here
some time ago, I was going to a store, my wife and I, and there was
these ladies come with them little, bitty immoral clothes on, and
I--and we didn't see but about one woman out of about several thousand
that had on any other kind of clothes. And--and my wife said to me,
said, "Billy, what is it? Is it a--a against them women all dressed
like that."
I said, "Oh that's just American spirit."
"Well," said, "aren't we Americans?"
I said, "Yes, we are Americans. That's right. The greatest nation in
the world. We love it. But yet, we're not exactly Americans."
Said, "What are we?"
Said, "We're heaven born." I said, "When we come up there, and I be
just a--a Americans. We dress like the rest of them do, go right on the
same, drift, float right on with them. But when your Spirit comes from
up there, it's holy. Hallelujah! It's different. Makes you act like you
do up there. That's right. So when you receive that Spirit, you become
odd to these people here. See? You look different. You act different.
E-67 And
that's the way Noah did. He had spoke to God and had been changed from
just a floater in the antediluvian world; he become a creature of God
that had been born into the Kingdom to bring the message.
Jesus said, "As it was in the days of Noah, so will it be in the coming
of the Son of Man." Fanatical religion like, people's living holy,
claiming there's something coming from above, and we believe it's not
water, but the waters of God falls every night from above, from the
fountain that's filled with Blood drawn from Immanuel's veins, where
sinners plunged beneath the flood, lose all their guilty stain. Power
and glory flows out of that fountain up there to His church. When He
died, and rose on Easter morning, He had cut a hole all the way through
the side of glory to let the glory fall down on His church that come on
the day of Pentecost. It's been falling ever since. We believe that
with all of our hearts.
E-68 Now notice, as we're placing His platform. Let's take another man first. There was Abraham; he was just an ordinary man. He came down with his father from up at Babylon, and Shinar, down the valley and lived there in the city of Ur, in the land of the Chaldea. And the first thing you know, maybe he was a--oh a field man, or a sheepherder, or something, and one day he was out in the field when he was seventy-five years old, and his wife, Sarah was sixty-five, and God met Abraham and told him of another land that was far beyond that. And He told him he was going to have a baby by Sarah, and she was past the age of bearing, and had been sterile all of her life, and oh, he was too, but what was going to take place. God was going to perform something, and that man for year after year, as long as he lived, he professed that he was a pilgrim and a stranger, looking for a city whose Builder and Maker was God. Amen. It changes a man when he hears God speak to him.
E-69 Oh,
listen this week, listen for the voice of God to speak to you. It'll
change you; it'll take all the doubt out of your mind, knowing the Lord
Jesus is the same yesterday, today, and forever. When we see Him come
into the meetings, begin to do the same things that He did when He was
here on earth, then you want to listen close for that little voice.
That's something that'll change you, say, "Yes, God." That's exactly
what the Scripture says. That's word by word what the Scripture says."
Go home, take your Bibles, reason it out, see if it's right. Search
through the Scriptures. Has to come from Genesis to Revelations, tie
through the Bible. That's exactly your promise, and hear God; it'll
change you. It'll give you faith to believe. Them crippled hands will
come loose; those legs will come loose; that cancer will vanish away.
Those blind eyes will open, and the things that God promised will be
made manifested.
We're in a world who has been weaned away from those things, but we're
building a platform tonight for a Man. Amen. Amen. As the woman said at
the well, "Come, see a Man, Who told me the things that I've done.
Isn't this the very Messiah?"
E-70 Come,
see the Man, the Man that we're building on tonight, Lord Jesus, upon
Him, for upon all other grounds is sinking sand. All other grounds will
perish, but that Rock, Christ Jesus, will stand forever. You believe
that? Yeah.
Abraham confessed that he was a pilgrim and a stranger. All the days of
his life he looked for that city, whose Builder and Maker was God.
Always that way.
Moses had drifted away from Egypt and had got out in the wilderness,
was living fine; he was living back behind the mountain, lovely wife,
and little boy, Gershom, to fall heir to all Jethro's sheep and that.
Why, he was all right; he was going, just drifting along with the eases
of tide, Israel down there in trouble, crying, and God had elected him
to deliver the people. But he had got away from it.
E-71 Now,
that's what's the matter with many of our churches today. God called us
to a ministry. God called us to be His people. God called us to believe
in signs and wonders. God called us to perform signs and wonders. He
called us to do that, and we're drifting too far away from it. What we
need is another visitation of God. Won't God send it here at this
Eisenhower Auditorium? Send a visitation of the Spirit of God.
We're drifting too far away like Moses did. Moses was all right back
there; he was having a good living. The church today has got bigger
building than it ever had, better churches, better dressed people,
better living people than it ever had. But, oh, brother, that's not the
thing. Those things perish. We've got the victory; we've got to fight;
we've got to do something for the Kingdom of God.
E-72 There
was Moses back there, living luxuriously, walking down, one morning,
and God spoke to him out of that burning bush. That man was changed
from that time on. What a radical thing that causes you to do whenever
you find God. Look at Moses, run, killed one Egyptian, and run from it
out into the desert. And here he was the next morning, after he had met
God in this burning bush, had his wife setting astraddle of a mule with
that little Gershom on her hip like that, whiskers hanging about that
low, with a stick in his hand, going yonder, just hopping along just
shouting and praising God, leading his old mule with his wife on it.
"Where you going, Moses?"
"Going down to Egypt to take over." A one man invasion, but he done it.
He did it because God said so, and he had faith.
E-73 When God speaks to a man, he has faith, and he has ambition, and he has a purpose. When God speaks to a man, He gives him a purpose. When God speaks to a man, He gives him ambition. When God speaks to a man, He gives him faith to do it, to accomplish, or achieve what his purpose in life is, what God called him to do. He's called us to be in the church of God. Amen.
E-74 Let's--let's just make it our purpose in life to see that we are the church of God. Let's have ambition, not set around because the Jones' want it or the...?... want. What do we care about the...?... if they don't do it, let's us do it anyhow. If the rest of the nation wants to sink, that's up to them. In Yakima we stand for God. We want God. We want to achieve. We want to have faith. We want to have ambition. Let's believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, for He said, "All things are possible to them that believe. Verily, I say unto you (not if I,) but if you shall say to this mountain, be move, and don't doubt in your hearts but believe, that what you said shall come to pass, you can have what you said." I believe that with all my heart. You believe that?
E-75 He had
an ambition. Never was the same after that. He had an ambition. He had
something to work forward to, and he had faith to do it. All the days
of his life, he served God to deliver those people. He wasn't concerned
about... Long as he was getting along all right, what he cared about
those people laying down there suffering. And God said, "I've heard the
cries of My people, and I remember My promise which I had with Abraham."
And today when the church is sick, the sickness is piled up, and the
people because of--of intellectual pride, and so forth, is getting away
from Divine healing, get away from the Holy Spirit, God still hears the
cry of His people. Somebody's got to go.
E-76 Yakima,
let's rise and shine in the Name of the Lord Jesus. If you're sick...
You say, "I'm sick in body." God has spoken. God said so. "These signs
shall follow them that believe. In My Name they shall lay hands on the
sick; they shall recover." God has spoken it. Have any ambition?
"Well, the doctor said I was going to die." That's the best the doctor
knows. He's studied. Every medical research shows that he's done all he
can do for you, so according to medical science you're going to die.
"But the prayer of faith shall save the sick." Find your ambition; have
a purpose that you're going to be healed for the glory of God. Then
come with a faith that "I'm going to receive it." And you'll get it.
Yes, sir.
E-77 You
say, "Brother Branham, I can't understand it."
Well, now, when I go--when I go overseas, and I go to... Here's a big
ship setting there, a big airship. Seven times around, I--I've flew
this thing around. I don't go say, "Hey, pilot, a-- before I go on this
ship, you tell me how much scope them--each one of those props has,
give me all the mechanics of how this plane will operate. In a time of
a storm, what will it do? How much power do you have? How high can you
climb?" All the mechanics. I don't ask all those things. I know the
ship went across with someone else. If the ship went across with
someone else, it'll go across with me. So I just climb aboard, and get
me a seat, and set down. It's up to the pilot to see that it gets there.
That's the way on Divine healing. I don't know all the mechanics about
it. I can't tell you the mechanics; nobody else can. How a man can die
there and be striped across His back, if He's God Messenger to heal the
sick, because he believes it. I can't explain that, I don't know the
mechanics. I just take a hold of the promise and accept it, and say,
"Lord, it's so." That settles it. You believe that don't you, brethren?
Sure. Just accept it on the basis that God said so. That's the Man
we're building a platform for Him.
E-78 Remark
now, before closing. I'd like to say this: What about when you submit
yourself to the doctor? When a doctor comes, and he says he has some
medicine for you. And you take the medicine, and you say, "Now, doctor,
set down here and you tell me what's all in this pill. I--I want the
mechanics of it. What's all the analysis of this pill? What--what--what
kind of a medical formula have you got mixed up here for me? How--how
did you get this strychnine? How'd they do--how was that made? What did
it come from? And who found it? And where did this glycerin come from?
And where did this--all these other stuff that goes into the formula?"
He writes in Greek. Probably he don't even know it hisself. He just
writes it out. All right. That's what he's been told to do. But the
only thing you do, you submit yourself to the doctor and take the
pills. That's all. And if you trust your doctor, chances are, it'll
help you.
E-79 That's the same thing about taking this "gos-pill." I can't tell you all about it, but I know it works. I see it take others. When it comes to time to die, how you going to be translated, go over into another world, and become a new creature over there, and--and never get old, turn back to a young man again. How you going to it? I don't know. I just submit myself to my Pilot at the days of my going. He will see that I get over there all right. He will see about the rest of it. My shoulders will straighten back, and I'll become a young man, and--and I'll be different then. See? Because all the symbols of death will be taken from this old body, and I'll be made--have a body like His own glorious body, for I shall see Him as He is. I don't say, "Lord, tell me how You do it." I don't care how You do it, just so I got it. That's the main thing. And He promised it, and I believe it. Amen.
E-80 He
promised us a revival. He promised that these signs shall follow them
that believe. The prayer of faith shall save the sick. I don't know the
mechanics of it. All I know, He promised it, and it's true. I've seen
others step on it and go across. Then I can step on it too and go
across, and you can step on it, and go across.
What if the doctor come and said, "You've got an appendix I got to take
out there; I got take a--a blood clot off the brain."
"But doctor, tell me just what--how many nerves--what do you have to
cut? How do you cut this? How...?"
You don't do that. You just--you're sick, and you want to get well, so
you just submit yourself to the doctor and he goes on and does the
work. That's all there is to it.
That's the same way about Jesus Christ. Oh, my. I hope tonight that He
performs a great operation on all of our faith. Don't you hope so? Take
all the ruptured appendix out, all the--all the other things, the
little scavengers that's hanging around over us, the barnacles, and
come on through disappointments and things tonight. Just let God
operate on our faith and take all of it out, take everything away, and
when we wake up to the fact to know that Jesus is the same yesterday,
today, and forever, we'll have a perfect faith to work on through this
coming week.
E-81 Do you believe that, church of God? Do you believe that He is the same yesterday, today, and forever? Are you willing to trust your case right into His hand? Will you do it? Will you do everything that you can now upon this platform with the Man I'm trying to speak about? He's your Saviour, Jesus Christ. Will you trust yourself? Will you--will you vote for Him, right now? Will you elect Him, your Saviour and your Healer, right now in your heart and say, "Lord God, I'm going to believe every Word of it. I'm going to work with all that's in me, and everything goes on. If I see something going on in the meeting this week, that I don't understand, I'll go right home and see if it's in the formula. I'll go right home, and see if it's in the Bible, and see if God promised it."? If He promised it, it's yours--it's your privilege to believe it. It's for you. It's--it's a formula that God gives you.
E-82 The
other night, I was preaching on the subject of "Why?" And why? Why? And
I told them the Bible had a formula. In this formula there was in there
the cure for sin and sickness. Would you like to look in Moses? Why, he
had--Moses' satchel. He ministered to two million Israelites. And He
kept them in there for forty years, and when they come out, there
wasn't a feeble one among them. If there'd be a doctor here, wouldn't
you like to see what prescription Moses had? How many babies was borned
every night? See? What prescription did Moses give? He didn't have no
blood transfusions, and things out there for these bad cases, and--and
have to have a cesarean operations, and so forth. What was his formula
that he had? You want to know what it is? It's written right here in
Genesis, or Exodus, rather. It's written here, "I'm the Lord thy God,
that heals all thy diseases." That was the formula he had.
That's the Man we want to elect in this--for our campaign. All that
wants to elect Him in your heart, for to vote Him in as to be your
risen Lord, your risen Healer, your risen God, that died for you and
rose again on the third day and is alive... Will you elect Him, say,
"Lord, come into this building in each night. Come into my heart. Give
me faith and courage. Give me an ambition. Do something for me. I want
to be blessed by Your power." Raise up your hands, if you'll take Him
like that, say, Everywhere wherever you are. The Lord bless you.
E-83 Now,
tomorrow night, the Lord willing, they'll be here to give out the
prayer cards at six-thirty. And then we'll start the prayer line around
about eight-thirty--about nine-thirty, I guess, or nine o'clock, and by
nine-thirty we'll be out. Now, I thought tonight I'd say these things,
build a little platform, let you know what we believe. We believe in
Jesus Christ and every promise that He made. We believe that the New
Testament is a--is an antetype of the Old, that it just takes from the
Old. The Old foreshadowed the New, and the things that God did in both,
is here today in the form of the Holy Spirit, the same Pillar of Fire,
the same God, the same healing, the same blessings, the same saving
power. Everything that He was, He is today, and will be forever.
And we do not believe that these things lay in man. We believe that man
has gifts, but God has already purchased our salvation and our healing
at Calvary, and I want you to elect Him in your heart tonight to say,
"God, send Your power. Send Your blessings. I'll believe it and accept
it as my own personal property from You. It's a promise that You give
me."
E-84 May the
Lord bless you. Now, I want you to lay your hands over on one another
now, around through the building wherever you are. Now, if there be
someone, here, whose sick and afflicted, the Bible has said this,
"These signs shall follow them that believe."
The Bible never said, "These signs just shall follow Brother Branham,
Brother Roberts, or your pastor, or somebody else's pastor. These signs
shall follow them (plural)." Are you a believer? Say, "Amen." Then them
signs shall follow you. "If they lay their hands on the sick, they
shall recover." Do you believe that? Then when I pray here for all of
you, each one of you... Don't pray for yourself now, pray for the
person you got your hands on. See? Say, "Lord, give to this person I
got my hand on, give to them the desire of their heart." Say that. Say,
"Give them... If they're sick, give them healing." If you know the
person say, "Heal this person." And God's power will heal each one of
you.
And tomorrow night you'll be back here, saying, "Brother Branham,
before anything ever happened, before I ever see any great working of
the Holy Spirit, I've already witnessed it in my life, that He's healed
me last night, right when we were trying to elect Him, I accepted Him
into my heart, and something taken place. I just--I just--He operated
on me last night, and all my doubts are buried in the fountain, and now
I'm a new creature in Christ Jesus."
E-85 While
we bow our heads. If there's a sinner here, remember your Creator now,
while it is time that you can, for the hour will soon come, where
you'll not be permitted this. There one backslidden? Make your way back
to God, tonight. Won't you do it? Then go early in the morning to the
church and say, "Pastor, I return now. I want to take up my fellowship."
If you're a sinner, make your way down to the church of your choice,
and say, "Baptize me, pastor. I want to become a member of the church.
I want to serve God." And then tomorrow night go get you four or five
more sinners and bring them back. Watch and see if the Holy Spirit
doesn't move into the audience, produce Jesus Christ just the same as
He was yesterday, today, and forever.
E-86 Our
heavenly Father, upon the basis of Thy Word, upon the basis of Thy shed
Blood, on Thy vicarious suffering at Calvary, Thy triumph over death,
over hell and the grave, and over Satan, all the works of Satan, from
sin to its all its attributes, to sickness, and to disappointments, and
nervous flusterations, and all the gloomy wearies that goes with it,
all the doubts and things...
We build Your platform here tonight for Your beloved Son, the Lord
Jesus. We are elect in Him, Lord, for this campaign. And we're happy,
Lord. There's no other One we want. We want no one but Jesus. We love
Him. We believe Him with of all our heart. We've elected Him as our
Saviour, no other saviour. There's no church, no creed, no
denomination, no pastor, no pope, no priest, no rabbi, there's nothing
that can save us outside of the Blood of Your Son Jesus. He's our
Saviour. We love Him, and we know that Divine healing is Yours. It
belongs to You. For we read in Psalm 103:3, "I'm the Lord that heals
all your diseases." Therefore, Lord, we commit our case to You. You're
our Physician, our great Physician.
You're here tonight. Your believing children is obeying Your Word, by
putting their hands on one another, here from the minister all the way
to the--the laity of the church, everyone, pastors, evangelists, all
with their hands on one another, the housewives, the children, all with
their hands on one another because they believe this One that we all
elected, our Lord, our Healer.
E-87 Now, Satan, you know that you are exposed, and you're nothing but a bluff anyhow, and we're calling your bluff here. All of us elect Him in our heart, as Healer, as Saviour, as King, as Ruler, Lord, ownership, rulership. Now, you have to get out, Satan, you might as well get ready to go, because you have to. God's Word must be fulfilled. So I charge thee, by the Name of Jesus Christ, the Son of the living God, through His vicarious sufferings, and victory, Who robs you of--or strips you of every legal right you had. You have no more legal rights. You are a defeated being, and we charge thee through Jesus Christ, come out of this people, leave them, as they have their hands on one another. In the Name of Jesus Christ, come out of them, I release them for the glory of God. In the Name of the Lord Jesus.
E-88 Your
heads bowed. Feeled His goodness moving in. Believe it, no matter how
funny it seems. We don't go by how funny it seems; we go by how real it
is. It's God's Word.
Kinda funny for Noah to say it was going to rain, but it rained.
Sounded funny for Abraham looking for a city, and saying he was going
to have a baby when he's a hundred years old, but Sarah was ninety, but
he had it. Funny for Moses saying he was going down to Egypt to take
over, but he did it. God said so. Kinda strange for the Hebrew children
to say, "Our God's going to deliver us from this fiery furnace." And He
did it. Daniel come out of the lion's den alive, after he had being
there with vicious lions, hungry all night. But he did it. John come
out of...?... vat of oil after being burned for twenty-four hours, but
he did it. Lazarus come out of the grave after being dead for four
days, but he did it. Jesus rose on the third day after being crucified,
and the body embalmed by a Roman spear. The witness of the earth said,
"He's dead"; God said, "He's dead"; nature said, "He's dead"; the earth
said, "He's dead"; the Romans said, "He's dead," and everything said He
was dead, and He lives again forever more. How's He going to do it. But
He did it.
E-89 God
heals you now, it's God's Word that does it. So you have a right to it.
Do you accept it? Do you accept your healing? I don't care how crippled
you are, how blind you are, how--whatever's wrong with you, I don't
care to know. Will you stand to your own... right now and say, "I
accept my healing on the basis of God's Word." Stand to your feet, if
you believe it. Amen. Amen. That's good. Wonderful. Now, good. Now.
Now, you that wasn't sick, and you that want to accept Him as Lord in
your heart, believe the platform, want to elect Jesus to be the ruler
of this campaign, to be the Healer in this campaign, to be Lord in this
campaign. The rest of you stand on your feet, that'll do that. Say, "I
accept Him to be my Lord, my Healer, my All, my Saviour, and all in
this campaign." Wonderful. Everybody on their feet. That's fine. Oh, I
feel--I...?... I believe we're going to see something happen here. How
many feel that, believes that? I believe it with all my heart.
E-90 While
they are praising Him, give us a chord, "I love Him, I love Him." You
know that song? All right, everybody now together.
I
love Him, I love Him,
Because
He first loved me
And
purchased my salvation
On
Calvary's tree.
Let's hum it now. [Brother
Branham and congregation hums--Ed.]
First
loved me
And
purchased...
Don't forget six-thirty tomorrow night, prayer cards. I'm expecting
great things of the Lord.
On
Calvary's tree.
E-91 As we bow our heads, going to turn the service to our campaign or your manager, Brother Roy Borders. Remember the prayer cards will be given out tomorrow night at six-thirty, here at the auditorium, and prayer for the sick will start tomorrow night. All right, the Lord bless you till I see you again. Brother Borders...