LE SURNATUREL (L'ATMOSPHÈRE SPIRITUELLE)
E-1 Thank you, Brother Rogers. God bless you. The Lord bless you, friends. Thank you, and you be seated just a moment. It always makes me feel good to--to feel welcome. That's kinda of A... I'm a Kentuckian myself, you know, and I--I like to hear that--making you welcome. And such a nice welcome to this city and among you, my Christian friends, Certainly makes me feel grateful to you. And always, by Brother Rogers, I--I love him. He has been a wonderful little brother to me, and how he's certainly been a real tool in God's hands here in Owensboro.
E-2 I was just looking across the street there where you're going to build a new church, or something over there, that he was telling me about this morning at the breakfast table. And that's wonderful, seeing you--you progress like that. That just shows that you're--you're backing up the right thing. And God's servant is trying his best to give the best he can to God's people. I'd... Every congregation will appreciate a pastor like that, that you see what your finances, your tithes, your offerings, and so forth, you are... He's going straight into the Kingdom of God, to embetter the Kingdom of God, make a better place, not for himself, for you. He--He's got the sheep on his mind, the shepherd always has.
E-3 While in Palestine, or over
in the orients, rather, I often wondered on the parable of the Bible,
the parables, rather, of the Bible, what some of them meant. And you
almost have to go into the orient to find out what this Bible really
means. Once I have... I've set down and many of us as--as western
ministers has quandered over a thought, "What did they mean by this?
What does this mean? And what did that mean?" And if you ever go to the
eastern country and see their unchanging habits, well then, you find
out more about the Bible. It become a new Book to me after I went to
the east.
For instance, like Jesus said, I believe in Saint John 10, I think. "I
am the door to the sheepfold. I am the door to the sheepfold." I often
wondered how that meant, that He stood at the gate and received all the
people as they come in, or I thought maybe the shepherd stood and
numbered the sheep when they come in like that. That's... I used to
think that. And perhaps many of you, my brethren and clergymen, have
thought the same thing.
E-4 But once there, you find
out that it's a difference. It isn't the--the numbering of the sheep,
but the shepherd himself becomes the door. There's a corral, like a
place with shelter over it. And he brings in all the sheep and puts
them in there, then he goes and lays down across the door. And the
sheep, or the wolf can't come in, or the sheep go out without crossing
the shepherd. I thought, "Isn't that wonderful." See, He is the Door to
the sheepfold. See? Nothing can come to the sheep unless the shepherd
permits it. And if we got the Shepherd at the door, how secure and--and
happy should we be. Satan can't touch you unless the Shepherd permits
it. And it's all for the good whatever it has to be. See what I mean?
And that's... When He said...
I noticed again, and the shepherd... In this country shepherd doesn't
mean very much, why, some ancient word. But over there a shepherd, oh,
my, and sheep... The people live by their sheep. And the shepherd takes
care of them.
E-5 One time while going
through the country, I noticed in the far east, of a--of a little... In
India how that they had the--a shepherd came down and was bringing his
sheep, and he... I thought of that parable there where it said, "My
sheep know My voice. A stranger they will not follow."
Now, that sheep was borned under the tutorship of this shepherd. He
learns that voice; he will never pay attention to anybody else's voice.
He learns that shepherd's voice. Another shepherd might call, they
might do whatever they want to, but there's some little something about
that shepherd that the sheep recognizes. See, that's the way it is with
God's sheep. Strange voices, they--it just don't sound right; they just
won't go; that's all. And if sheep can be tempted, but when it finds
out that it's the wrong shepherd, it'll turn away.
E-6 And I notice how the sheep
follow the example of the shepherd. Coming down through the streets,
where there's a little narrow streets of streets in the eastern
countries there, were made in the days of chariots, when they had the
chariots that went through the streets and horse riders. And they're
very narrow. Very seldom you find one as wide as them posts there, very
seldom. Sometime maybe, oh, twelve feet wide, the streets. Many of
the--of the...
Like in Oslo, Norway, the streets there is only about eight foot across
in the old city; it's around fifteen hundred years old, and then you
find out they didn't have automobiles in this modern age where they
shuffle and jostle through the broad ways. See, man called them broad
ways.
And then standing on the outer drive in Chicago I thought of that many
time, how that a three and four abreast going each way, the broad ways.
And the elevation of the separation of the streets in the middle...?...
into place. And for several miles a rail will rise up like this to
separate your traffic at different times of the evening and different
times of the day: Broad ways. In them days one of those lanes would've
been a complete highway.
E-7 But seeing this shepherd
come down through the city, it was a--it was alarming. There come a
whole string of sheep following him. Now, the easterners put all their
dainties out on the street; even their meats and everything else lays
on the street and all their fruit and their pro--produce lays right on
the street just like... Here's your store like this; they keep their
stuff back in there, but you buy right off of the side of the walk. And
there's no sidewalk; it's just a street. So everybody walks right in
the street, just right down the street, the cobblestone street.
And here come a shepherd down the street, walking, walking along, and
behind him a string of sheep a city block long. And them sheep walking
right by that produce and things and wouldn't turn right or left, they
kept their eyes on the shepherd, moving right on through. I thought, "O
God, what the shepherd means, not look right or left, not be tempted by
this or that, but walk in the footsteps of the shepherd. They want to
follow the shepherd."
E-8 I noticed one day while we
were in a little British jeep riding around, there was a shepherd had a
whole lot of animals up on the hill there, and he was feeding them.
They were leading them, and taking them places. And in there he had
sheep; in there he had goats; in there he had mules, had camels,
everything. He was feeding them all; they was all grazing. And the
shepherd was watching them. I said, "My, a shepherd here means many
things. Also...?... a shepherd is a grazer." But said, "you know the
strange thing it is, Mr. Branham," he said, "when nighttime comes, you
watch," said, "all those sheep go right straight to the shepherd."
Said, "The mules will stay out in the pasture." And said, "The camels
will stay out in the pasture," but said, "and the goats will stay out
in the pasture." But said, "The sheep all come straight to the shepherd
when it comes nighttime. Why?" Said, "Because the sheep are put up at
night and kept safe."
I--I said, "Mister, don't talk like that; you'll make me start shouting
right in the middle of the road." See? Nighttime's a coming. Many are
grazing on the same thing, but only the sheep will He recognize. See
what I mean? Just the sheep, the borned again. "Many are called; few
are chosen."
Oh, I love Him today, don't you? Let us speak to Him now before we open
His Word.
E-9 Our heavenly Father, we
come to Thee on this sabbath day, raining on the outside, me... We
might call it gloom, hazy rainy weather, but how could the farmer put
in his crops if we didn't have much moisture this spring? There'd be no
froo--food raised; ground would be dry; people would perish.
We realize that this is like experience of a Christian. Sometimes we
have to go through terrible chastisement, chastening of the Lord, many
things to correct us that we'll be fruit bearing Christians. Sometimes
has to prune us, cut off, take away, take out of our hands. We think
sometime, "O God, what are You doing to us?" But He knows what He's
doing. So we pray, Father, that today that You'll prune every one of
us, from the least to the greatest, the pastor. God, we pray that
You'll prune every one of us. Take away all that's unlike You, Father.
Take away the thing that's hindering us from being fruit bearing
Christians. The day's coming when it's going to get dark. And then we
want to go into the sheepfold. We want to be sheep today, Father. We
want to follow exactly in the footsteps of the Shepherd. He gave us as
example, said, "I come not to do My will, but the will of Him that sent
Me." May that be our motive today, God, to do the will of God Who has
saved us.
E-10 Bless the church today and the Sunday schools throughout the entire world. And remember us, Lord, this little spot here in Owensboro today, that You'll pour out Your blessings upon us, for we're needy and hungry and thirsting for righteousness. Thy promise is, "It shall be filled." In Jesus' Name we pray. Amen.
E-11 In these services a
visiting with Brother Rogers, which is always a great privilege to come
and to meet with Brother Rogers, and you dear saintly people here, and
other churches through Owensboro and the cities around about. I've
learned this: that no matter if he's Chinese, Japan, Korean, German,
whatever he is as long as he's a brother or she's a sister, there's not
a bit of difference in them. They're just all sheep of the same fold.
Watching it through the different nations throughout the world. As
communist... You get into a communistic country, where I've had to be,
I've had to have people with rifles to keep the crowds back, and I've
had to have people that were soldiers that I had to duck my head down
and mill around me to keep from getting shot till they get me out into
somewhere into the darkness where they couldn't see to shoot me at, and
things like that, preaching the Gospel, bringing good tidings of great
joy of the Lord Jesus Christ. And then it's--it's marvelous to know
that Jesus, in the midst of all of that is just as sweet, and good,
dear. He's just... There's nothing alarming about it, just taking a
message.
And today it's our privilege to be here with you and at the sports
center this afternoon, or this evening, rather, of the service. We pray
that you'll all find a place. If your own church is not having service,
why, be out to visit with us. And we'd be glad to do all that we can to
help you to make burdens a little lighter, make the community a little
better place to do right, a little easier, and a harder place to do
wrong. That's what the--the meetings are intended.
E-12 Now today, as we're just going to speak a little. I have a--a very bad voice, and--and I--I got a vision in my heart. And I thought this morning at Sunday school, just before the--the coming forth of the preaching this afternoon... And if God willing today, this afternoon, I want to speak on a very, or this evening, rather, a very outstanding Scripture concerning the time that we're living. And I believe by God's help, the subject, I probably will approach it from a different way then... The first, one of the first messages that I preached after the great visitation of the Holy Spirit a few weeks ago... And I thought being that we were together this morning, just as a little group of Christians here, that we would talk just heart to heart with one another awhile. And I know that down in every man's heart there's something that yearns to see the supernatural.
E-13 Here not long ago, I was setting in California in a meeting, wearing a hair piece on top of my head, and wearing a pair of dark glasses, just to listen at a brother's theology. 'Cause they'd recognize me if it wasn't. I set with people right next to me; they didn't even know me. Just setting there, just see, looking around, even hear them talk about me. They didn't know it was me, just set there. And I happened to be setting by a man with his collar turned around. There was a minister come to the platform, and the man's one of my converts to Divine healing. But he--he'd preach awhile, then he'd go back and a valet would change his clothes when he'd get a little sweaty, and come back out again on the platform. And this great man setting there shaking his head, and looked over to me, and said, "Does that act like a servant of Christ?"
E-14 I said, "I am not the
judge." I said... He said... "Well," I said, "I think his message is
wonderful."
He said, "Are you a Christian?"
I said, "Yes, sir, I am."
And he said... "Well," he said, "do you think a servant of Christ
should just put on a whole lot like that, and dress like that, and act
like that, and..."
And I said, "Well, you see, for my opinion, God has people in different
categories to catch people that live in different categories."
He was talking about, said, "Why, the man has two El Dorado's every
year."
I said, "I'm very thankful that God's that good to him." See? And...
but he looked down at me kinda strange, and he said, "Are you a
Christian?"
I said, "I'm a minister."
He said, "My name is so-and-so."
And I said, "My name is Branham."
He said, "You wouldn't happen to be the Branham that prays for the
sick?"
I said, "Yes, sir."
"Oh," he said, "I see."
E-15 And he could see why I was
taking up for this other brother. And he said, "Mr. Branham," he said,
"aren't you a Baptist?"
I said, "I was. Yes, sir."
He said, "I want to ask you something." He said, "I am a certain doctor
of theology in a certain church, well, a--a Presbyterian." And he said,
"You know what? On this west coast here," he said, "we Presbyterian
people had the entire coast sewed down." Said, "We had the biggest
churches and the finest congregations of any churches on the west
coast." And said, "You know what broke us up?"
I said, "No, sir."
He said, "That cult Christian Science come in and broke up our church."
And said, "Now this Pentecostal group's coming in and breaking up
Christian Science and everything."
I said, "Uh-huh." I said, "Doctor, do you know hungry children will eat
from a garbage can if they're hungry?"
He said, "Well, I guess that's right."
I said, "If you Presbyterians, as you said you were, if you would've
stayed with the Word of God and give the children the bread of Life,
that cult would've never broke them up." I said, "You just let down;
that's all." And I said, "People are still people and they're--every
man is trying to look beyond the curtain. He's trying to see where he
come from and where he went to. And if the Church of the living God
won't produce it, then the devil will rise up some cults to give them
some false things." I said, "Therefore you ought to stayed with the
Word of God; they'd all been Presbyterians." And that's right truly.
And that's the way I think, generally the feeling of people are.
E-16 Now, I want to read a
little text of Scripture here, and maybe the Lord will add His
blessings to it. And I'll lay my watch out, because I know your Sunday
school classes will be adjourning pretty soon and we have some after
service. And I thought I'd just talk to you just--just heart to heart a
little bit this morning in the Sunday school lesson. And we find this
just across the page from where I preached last night from II Kings;
this is II Kings the 5th now. Listen at the 4th verse.
And it was so, when
Elijah the man of God... heard that the king of Israel had rent his
clothes... he sent unto the king, and said, Where you rent your
clothes?... come to me and... know there is a prophet in Israel.
E-17 Now, the thing we want to
talk on this morning for a little while, is the supernatural. We're all
hungry for supernatural. You Methodist brethren are hungry for
supernatural. I got a Methodist preacher with me that's hungering and
thirsting for the supernatural. You Baptist are hungering and thirsting
for supernatural. All of them are. Now, surely if God is still God,
He's still supernatural. Don't you believe that? He's got to be.
Now, we are trying to place God in some prehistoric, or some historical
God, but what good does a historical God do today? What benefit is a
God of Elijah to a man today if He isn't the same God? What are you
learning about Him in the seminary? Well, and if He was some historical
fact and not the same today, you'd be better to learn agriculture or
something, something that would help somebody. Is that right? You'd be
better off if you learned to... your children to be an architect
instead of a minister if He's a historical God and not the same today.
What good does the God of Moses do [Blank.spot.on.tape--Ed.] if He isn't the same God
today? Just reason that in your minds now. We are so in--so always
concerned about our experiences.
E-18 A little lady told me last
night, which is in our midst... [Blank.spot.on.tape--Ed.] A preacher of a certain
great denomination of church... And I asked her, did her father ever
pastor so-and-so? And she said, "Brother Branham, my father only had
a--a grammar school education; therefore, they would not permit him in
bigger churches, because his education was too poorly."
Perhaps a fine Spirit filled man, but the organization would not
promote him, no matter how Spirit filled he was, because of a
inadequate education. There they missed God. Peter couldn't even sign
his own name, and he'd had the keys to the Kingdom of God given to him
by Jesus Christ.
We're looking to education. Education's fine, but that's taught in
school houses. The church is the place to know of God and learn of God,
and in the supernatural. And God is supernatural and the same
yesterday, today, and forever.
E-19 Now, we want to--to see and place this before our--our audience that--that God still is the same that He ever was. The people gets away from God, but God remains the same. His--His nature, and His power, and His desire is always the same through every generation. It never changes. It's always the same. It's the people that gets away from God and not God from the people. They lose their faith. God covers all space, all everywhere. He's omnipresent. So He's everywhere, and He's always has been everywhere, and He always will be everywhere.
E-20 But it's the attitude of
the people that brings the results. That's the reason at Pentecost they
had to go to an upper room and pray until the Holy Ghost came, 'cause
they got in one place and one accord. It's the atmosphere what brings
the results. You believe that? Let every man and woman in this building
this morning, boy or girl, get everything from their minds but the Lord
Jesus, and believe that He's standing present right now, and you'll see
something happening that'll cause headlines in newspaper in the
morning. That's right. It's atmosphere.
I don't believe in joking from the pulpit, because the pulpit's no
place to joke. It's a sacred place. I'm quoting something, just to--for
this here. Mr. Bosworth, very good sense of humor, and he said,
"Brother Branham, to prove that it's atmosphere," said, "you could take
a hen egg and put it on a--under a puppy and tie him down and it would
hatch a chicken." See? It's the warmth of the puppy's body that would
hatch the egg. It don't have to be under the hen; it can be under the
puppy. It could be in a incubator. It's the atmosphere.
And it's the atmosphere that brings the miraculous, and wonders, and
powers of God among the people. It's the atmosphere of the people. And
when people get to a place they're reasoning, and wondering, and
stewing, and thinking, and all tore up, and don't know where they do
stand, half of them not even Scripturally taught, how can you expect
the atmosphere to be right? You can't do it; it won't be right. It's
got to be in one accord, one place, and set around with one motive, one
thing, then you're going to see something happen.
E-21 It don't only work that, but if you'd look at it in the scientific world. Say you're all a whole bunch of salesmen and you're going to sell Chevrolets, or Pontiacs, or some kind of a car. And one in his heart really thinks the Studebakers are better and so forth like that. Get us all in here and saying the Buick is best, and the other one some other car, get us together like that, you could never have the right kind of a meeting. Taking in the devil's work...
E-22 Go over and... Say we're
going to a dance. One man standing up and saying, "Well now..." He--he
don't know about whether he wants to dance or not. And this girl over,
and she this, that... And the music playing, "Nearer, My God, To Thee,"
huh, what an atmosphere for a dance. Well, that's not any different
than what a lot of atmospheres... you go into church for a service of
God, just that contrary. Right.
The only thing to bring the right atmosphere then for the dance is to
put on your old music that makes dances, and everybody get thinking
what a good time they're going to have dancing and so forth, and
they'll be having a big whoop-uping time. Put the right kind of a music
on the piano, the organ, and everybody in the atmosphere that Jesus
Christ is there and going to meet everything that they have need of,
something will go to taking place: atmosphere. But that's the hardest
thing there is to do. And that is to get people in that atmosphere, the
atmosphere of worship, the atmosphere of believing.
E-23 And that's the reason sometimes a Divine life that's been called and set aside has become a fanatic, or crazy, or--or a mystic, or something to the eyes of the general public is because you're considered a--a--a--a, I'd say a neurotic, or a insane person, is because that you have changed your dwelling place and got into a different atmosphere. And your own motive, your one thoughts is to stay in that atmosphere. Any person that ever come into that atmosphere one time will never be satisfied nowhere else. And that's why I believe that we should have our churches under control by the Holy Ghost, that men and women in their work and wherever they should be, should continually desire, and they will, if they've ever once come into that atmosphere.
E-24 Now, being that I'm speaking in the Assembly of God church amongst Pentecostal people... Now, I've learned to love the Pentecostal people; they're my brothers and sisters. But many times defining our own ranks of Pentecost, that sometimes our atmosphere becomes an emotion instead of a worship. And that soon dies out, and the members become one thing and another. But if we could ever get a group of people together where was genuine Holy Spirit atmosphere, a sacredness and sincerity and worship, and men and women setting in there are God conscious, and know that the great omnipotence of God is present, ready to do all things without one shadow of doubt, it'll even have an effect upon the unbelievers that's setting in this evening. You can never come into that atmosphere without something happening.
E-25 I was preaching not long ago, the tape recorders here... The boys was with me, they took a sermon on the "Hidden Life Of Christ," how to get into Christ and how that some people has ups-and-downs, they can't... It's a place you have to find. The outer courts produced manna, sure. Many people are living right in that manna; they eat in that manna; but they don't live the right kind of a life. They're up-and-down; they have ins-and-outs and bad days and good days. But you've met people that absolutely no matter what the weather was, or what the conditions was, they're on the housetop all the time. He's found that secret. He's found an atmosphere to live in.
E-26 In the Old Testament how
that the congregation was fed from bread out of heaven. They lived in
three different atmospheres. In the courts, in there the manna fell,
and the Israelites eat manna. He eat the same manna they did at every
other place, same manna. But remember that inside the courts in the
ark, was a place fixed where they--the manna never did get old.
Otherwise it got old. It wouldn't last till nine o'clock in the
morning. They'd grind it up into meal and make some cakes out of it and
eat it. And they'd find out before the sun went down they were hungry
if they didn't gather enough.
And that's what's the matter with the people today; they got the
campground cramps. They go to a revival and have a great time. The
first thing you know a little after that, before another revival could
come along, they're back in the world again.
E-27 A certain man wrote an
article about me not long ago, which is perfectly all right; I love
him. I don't say that to be a hypocrite; I say it because it's the
truth. John Church, you Nazarene people's man... He said... He wrote
against Divine healing. He said, "One of their key men, Mr. Branham,"
said, "I've never met the man in my life." And to think of a sensible
man writing an article about a person he had never spoke to in his
life. That shows there's something wrong. Our law says, "How can we
judge a man without we hear him first."
He said, "I don't know the man, never heard--never seen him in my life.
But a--a man come to me and told me that he was setting... He wanted me
to pray for him, that he'd be healed of a prostate trouble. And he
said, 'I was healed once.' And said... He told me the story. He said,
"I was setting in a meeting,' and said, 'way back in a balcony.' And
said, 'It was Mr. Branham's meeting.' And said, 'All at once I begin to
feel a strange feeling come over me.' And said, 'Then the man turned
around from where he was preaching and said, 'The man setting up there
is so and so, a certain man from a certain place. And said he's praying
that he will be healed of a prostate trouble.' And said, 'If he will
only accept it and believe it now, he can go home and be well.' He
said, 'Something struck me; I never felt anything like it in my life.'
He said, 'And for a solid year my prostate never bothered me, and it
come on me again.'"
Mr. Church said, "Then don't you see that shows that Mr. Branham is
false. If God healed a man, He'd heal him for life." I thought, "Mr.
Church, how many times have you come up on the Silver Hills Campground
and get all those Nazarenes sanctified this year, and next year you
sanctify another bunch of them. Maybe they didn't have it to begin
with, then God wouldn't be real." See?
E-28 Divine healing, and
sanctification, and the powers of God is as long as your faith lasts in
it. When your faith fails, then your experience is gone. It's based
that way simply upon the finished works of Christ at Calvary. You're
sanctified as long as your testimony's right, as long as you live a
sanctified life, and believe that God sanctified you; you're
sanctified, counting it all to His grace and His merits. And as long as
you've accept healing and believe your healing and--and go on believing
it like that, you'll be healed as long as you believe it. And you start
doubting it...
And you take a--a man setting here this morning that's not a bit sick,
and let him begin to get in his heart, believing he is sick, they'll
pack him out of the building. As your faith is, so be it unto you.
That's not Christian Science. I'm not meaning mind over matter. But you
see, the thing of it is, it's the atmosphere that you live in.
E-29 Now, this man that we're
going to speak of for just a few moments, then I want to give you a
testimony... This man Elijah, the great prophet, was a man who lived in
that constant atmosphere. He was a called man of Nazarite birth. "All
gifts and callings are without repentance." It's nothing. You can't
make one hair black or white; you can't add one cubic to your stature.
We only have carnal impersonations when we try to impersonate something
that God hasn't made us. If we try to do something that God hasn't
called us to do, we'll be a total failure doing it. If man would try to
make himself woman, woman man, how would you do it?
I met that woman that they supposed to have a surgical test and be made
a man, made a woman whatever it was, in Italy, in Rome. There she was,
a disgrace to being a woman, drunk as she could be, walking up-and-down
the streets and, and, oh, a horriblest sight you ever seen.
E-30 Notice, you can't make
yourself anything different from what God intended you to be. Anything
else is an impersonation. Therefore if your conversion is only because
you're trying to hide behind something, or trying to make yourself a
better person, you're only playing the part of a hypocrite. Until
Christ has actually come to your life, and changed you, and brought you
into an atmosphere, that's the difference of it. That's the reason we
go through so many different forms and saying they have to do this.
Jesus said, "He that heareth My Word, and believeth on Him that sent
Me, has Everlasting Life."
Not a make-believe, it's absolutely something that's happened, a
conversion of the heart that's changed you and brought you into another
realm. Men misunderstood, Christians, women, men, boys, and girls, that
misunderstood who lived in those places, because it's contrary to the
natural run of life among people of the world. And I'm sure we all want
to live in that atmosphere.
E-31 Look, the people who eat
the manna out here on the ground was eating the same manna that the
high priest eat in under the Shekinah Glory. But this manna withered
away out on the ground, but that in the hidden place never did wither
away. It lasted through the spans of years. And a man who walked in
there, when the high priest went in beyond that veil, that veil that
separated the holiest from the holiest of holies, when he walked in
there, the veil dropped behind him, that man, he... It was even sound
proof. He didn't... He was shut off from all the world and the
surroundings. He knowed nothing in there but the living in the Presence
of God.
And a man or woman that ever walked into that Shekinah Glory of God,
the whole world's shut off behind him. No matter what the devil says,
you don't pay any attention to it. And He's living in a different
atmosphere. He lived in there where they put Aaron's rod. And it was
nothing but an old dead stick off of an olive tree. But once laid in
the Presence of God, it yielded what it was supposed to be in the
beginning. In one night's time it budded, blossoms, and brought almonds.
E-32 That's the same way that an
unbeliever or a sinner is ever laid in the Presence of Almighty God
under the influence of the Holy Spirit, he becomes a new creature right
then. His life becomes fruitful, fresh; life comes in, and he yields
what he was supposed to be, a son of God. He was took off of the tree,
so was that olive branch. He was took off of the tree, but sinners
and--and lukewarm church members become dry sticks with some kind of a
memory that some time there was a supernatural God of the past, that
had life, and way back there.
But if you believe and lay in His Presence it'll produce the same thing
to you. You will realize that you were born sons and daughters of God
and will yield the fruit of the Spirit. But you can't do it out there
on the courts; you got to do it in here, on the inside, hid away.
E-33 The man out in the courts,
he walked by daylight. Some days it was like this, raining. Other days
if was sun would shine, and the nighttime would be dark and stormy. He
had his ups-and-downs. That's the way you see people. "Oh," they say,
"we're eating the good manna of God." That's right. But where are they
living? They're living out there, eating it in a atmosphere that they
should not eat it in.
The next man, he had another light, that one at the altar. It was lit
by seven golden candlesticks, in little lamps. And sometimes them lamps
burnt low, and they smoked up the chimneys, and you know how a lamp
does, smokes and goes out. And a man who comes to the place where he
comes into the church, out of the courts, out of a just a lukewarm
church member, and comes up to live a pretty good life in Christ, he's
separate and things from the... But he's still living under lights that
will get dim, and smoked up, and artificial light. But when he once
walked in behind that holiest of holies, walked into the Presence of
God, and the veil falls behind him, there's a pot of manna there he can
eat every day, every hour of the week. There's where he's living in the
Shekinah Glory, wherein the interlocked wings of the Cherubim, the
great Pillar of Fire, and the Shekinah, rested there. And he's living
under there; he can't be nothing but a real genuine Christian any time:
Atmosphere.
E-34 Man and women who live in
there are misunderstood. You see it? They become peculiar. They don't
hear the things of the world, or if they do they don't pay attention to
them. They just move on. God never put that in there for nothing. God
never come for just any haphazard way. Prayer is not a--a perhaps.
Prayer is a sincere thing. Prayer is talking to God. Prayer is not get
down, shut your eyes, and thinking about your washing or your work
you're doing, say, "Lord, help me and John, and heal Miss Jones and so
forth." That's not prayer. That's repeating some words. But prayer is
to come into an atmosphere where you realize that you're in the
Presence of God and you're moving to then in the deepest of sincerity.
First you say a little worship, "O Jehovah, how I love You." You see
it? Then after the worship of prayer, then you come with a sincere
heart asking.
"If ye abide in Me," not go out from behind the curtains in the world
today and run around and try to get back in the curtains tonight. "If
ye abide in Me, My words abide in you..." Otherwise, if you're like
Aaron's rod that's pulled up to the Shekinah Glory by the golden pot of
manna where you can eat it any time... And your soul is refreshed and
blooming and yielding. Abiding. "If ye abide in Me, My words abide in
you, then ask what you will, it'll be given to you."
E-35 You see the failures of the
church, the Pentecostal church, the Methodists, the Baptists, and all?
It's a failing to that abiding grace of God. Tonight you'll shout and
clap your hands, and dance in the aisles, speak in tongues. That's
gifts. Gifts is no good unless you're abiding in the Shekinah Glory.
See?
Those things are fine. I have nothing to say against them; they're of
God. Shouting and blessing God is wonderful. Speaking in tongues, or
translation of tongues, or I mean interpretation of tongues, it's the
same, but... And all these other things, gifts of healing, prophecies,
and all these things are marvelous, but they're no good, they're not
fruitful, they can't yield the right, unless you're living in the
Presence of the Shekinah, the atmosphere around you is godly.
That's the reason that men and women are not permitted to these things,
because you'd go out here and call a blessing over something God had
cursed or--or curse something God had blessed. It's a abiding Presence
to know the will of God. Then don't look what the world's going to say
about you. It's what God thinks about you. Then you're living in His
Presence.
E-36 In the days of this
prophecy, or prophet, rather... God has never been without a voice or a
mouthpiece somewhere on the earth. And Elijah was His mouthpiece. And
as far as I know, during the time of the backslidings of Israel... They
always got cold and formal and backslid. Because it goes to show
friends, that here we have no continuing city, but we're seeking one to
come.
Not long ago I stood and looked. I used to be a pugilist as you know,
fight. I won fifteen professional fights (not bragging, I'm ashamed of
it.), but fifteen professional fights without losing a one, nine of
them knockouts. And I had my picture there, when I was in my very best,
muscles over me and black shaggy hair hanging around my neck. And I
looked and I thought... My little girl come in and seen my picture
setting in the room; she said, "Daddy, you don't look like you used
to." Sure not.
For in here we have no continuing city; this mortal body is fading
away. Where I used to be strong, old age, fat begins to slip in. I once
remember of a great tree that I used to stand by and its great stately
branches I said it'll live forever. And today it's a snag.
E-37 I stood not long ago in
Rome, where once ruled the world. And there, that great city has now
become nothing, but you'd have to dig thirty feet under the earth to
find the ruins of it, now one of the weakest, degraded nations in the
world. They're not even self supporting.
I stood in Athens, Greece, where another great empire once stood, and
there's not even hardly a symbol of that empire left. And I stood in
Cairo, Egypt, where Egypt once knowed and ruled the world and chair of
the Pharaohs, and there's nothing left but the Sphinx, and a few of the
pyramids is standing as relics of a once great worldwide empire.
Brother and sister, our great America and our great economy that we
have is rottening under the foundations, and someday, I see it in the
making right now, she'll lay in the ruins. And you young men today, you
young women, with the beauty of youth, the blush of the young cheek,
the folly of the young heart, but one day will mold yonder in a
graveyard somewhere. Why? Because all mortal has to give a way to
immortality. Every nation has to fall, because there's coming a nation
that'll not be ruled by men, but by Christ. These things fall.
E-38 Israel fell. And it
falls... And just before it falls, this great ten--great prophet raised
which was a fanatic among the people. But he lived in an atmosphere
that he was constantly in the Presence of God. And he served God away
to himself, almost like an isolationist. And I can imagine the people
talking about him. I can imagine them saying, "You believe that story
about the birds feeding him up there? You believe all these different
things?" In the days of Noah, "You believe the rain story, how it's
going to come water down, out of that fanatic?" But he lived under the
atmospheres of God and not of men.
And then when it come time, there was a... The Syrians came over and
took a little girl over into their nation. And then the great chief
captain of the army, the Bible said he was a mighty man, but he was a
leper.
E-39 Out in these--this world today, right here in Owensboro, Kentucky, there's men of great influence in your city here. I do not know them, but a city of this size could not yield hardly enough to be a modern Sodom without having men of influence. But it depends on where they let this influence dwell at, what kind of a life it produces. If it's under politics... Which I can't say nothing about them; we need politics and so forth. But whatever he is, if he lets hisself or this influence lay in the right atmosphere... He ought to lay in the Presence of God.
E-40 Notice, this Naaman was a great fellow, but he was a leper. There's so many people today, even I'm sad to say, that even in the pulpit, that's great men, but listens to man's theology instead of staying in the Presence of God, and still a leper, "Having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof." Influential speakers, forceful, but still never knows what it is to be borned again to--or to believe in the supernatural, and cannot understand it, except they come into the Kingdom of God... He will explain it away through reasonings every time. Why, he's never lived in this atmosphere. But a man ever comes in there he has to become a son and daughter of God, then his nature is like God. He believes the supernatural.
E-41 So they had a little girl
there. Now, I want to show you the force of a testimony of a child who
lived in a nation, or perhaps a family, who was under the influence of
God. She loved her master and her mistress. So when she seen Naaman,
probably a good hearted, good natured man... As far as we know,
according to history, Elijah had never healed a man with leprosy.
There'd never been a leper case healed in his day.
But the little girl, being raised and brought up under the influence
over in Israel, yet an alien, she was conducting herself as a believer.
And that's the way we should do all the time, is conduct ourselves, no
matter what our position is, conduct ourselves as believers, ready at
all times to give an answer for the hope that lieth within you. You see
it?
E-42 Here some time ago, down in
the south, the Germans, or the Dutch brought over, the Dutch colonies,
brought over to America Negroes out of Africa and sold them in the
southern states for slaves. And they become personal property to the
slave owner. And they worked at the toils of the day, and their scars
over them from whips and sometimes unkind masters. And they were
burdened and away from home. Many times they wouldn't want to work, and
they would make them and force them to work.
And in a certain plantation there was a great owner who owned many
hundred slaves, two or three hundred slaves on this great plantation.
He'd buy and swap slaves. And one day a buyer came by. He said, "I
would like to buy from you that certain slave." Said, "I've watched him
in his conduct." Said, "He walks straight; you never have to whip him."
Said, "He's always willing and standing ready to do anything." He said,
"He seems to be such a gallant person." Said, "Perhaps you've made him
the boss over the rest of them."
He said, "No, he's just a slave."
Said, "Maybe you feed him a little better and what makes him act
different."
Said, "No, he eats with the rest of them."
Said, "What makes him act different?" Here it is brethren.
Said, "No, I wondered myself what made him always with his chin up,
chest out, ready anytime, never droopy, never mopey. Then I learned
that he is the son of the king of the tribe. Though he's an alien,
though he's away from home, still he conducts himself, knowing this,
that he's the son of the king. He keeps the morale of the rest of them
high, for he knows he's a son."
E-43 How much that ought to be to the Christian Church this morning, and what a challenge. No matter what other men do and what those who profess Christianity does, we must walk as sons and daughters of the King. Our morale should be wonderful. We should never act as the world or live with the world. We should keep our courage high, knowing this, that we are aliens. We don't care about the world and what they think. We are aliens, pilgrims, and strangers. But someday we're going home. But at this time we're pilgrims.
E-44 This little lady was that
type. And she said to her mistress; she said, "I would God, that my
lord Naaman was over in my country, for we have a prophet over there
that could heal him of his leprosy." Oh, my, how God used that child.
How did she know? The same thing I was talking on last night:
inspiration from the very atmosphere.
Now, notice. That child under inspiration was led to say those words.
We don't know of Elijah ever healing anyone else and maybe no one else,
no matter how many he prayed for. But she said, "I would to God that my
lord was over with my country, for in my country we have a prophet."
Oh, if we could say that about our churches today. I would to God that
you could come under the influence that I live under and my church
lives under, for we believe that God is a Healer. We believe that God
is a Saviour. We believe that God gives the Holy Spirit. And I would to
God that you lived in my country.
E-45 Notice quickly, when they
entered into a place like that where the supernatural is introduced,
Naaman at once sent to his king. And he wrote a letter over to the
other king; he said, "Surely, now if there's a great thing like that
going on over there in that country, the king should know about it. If
there's a prophet in the land the king would know about it." Sure, the
higher-ups should know about it. See, that's still the carnal mind.
The little girl never said a word about the king; she spoke about the
prophet. Amen. Oh, I hope you see it. My, she spoke of the prophet.
Maybe she'd never seen a case of leprosy healed, but she knowed where
someone lived under that atmosphere of the supernatural. Said, "If
you'll go over there, something will take place."
E-46 But here goes the king on a
roundabout way, or Naaman, going to the king. And today you seek... You
say, "I belong to the church." Oh, my. That has nothing to do with the
atmosphere, not a thing.
Notice, and he brings the letter over to the King of Israel. And looks
like today, if there was a prophet in the land, if there was healing in
the land, that the ups-and-ups would know it. God doesn't always deal
with the up-and-up. We are an individual kingdom.
E-47 Speaking to someone the
other day about polygamy. I said the nation in a whole would be better
off if it practiced polygamy. It would. We're the highest rated nation
in the world with divorces, marrying and intermarrying, marrying and
intermarrying. Because we try to make the men of the world outside
coincide with Christian doctrine, and you can't put the nature of a
lamb in a pig. Polygamy would be better off for him. You may not
believe it but God would look at polygamy and excuse it a lot quicker
than what He would...
Now, remember, don't you say that I believe in polygamy; I don't.
I...?...what God said... Moses said that... The Pharisee said to Jesus,
said, "Why did Moses suffer a writing of divorcement?"
Said, "He did it because the hardness of your heart." Right. But it
wasn't so from the beginning, never will be. God did it because of the
hardness of their heart.
But in the nations where they have polygamy the divorce courts are at
ebb, low. But in here where we're trying to make and govern this
country as a nation, because being a Christian nation, but the name of
Christian nation doesn't make it a Christian nation. And you cannot
govern the world by the rules of God. You can't. I have no--nothing
against a sinner drinking. I have nothing against a sinner committing
adultery, nothing against the sinner doing this. But what I'm talking
about is these people who are supposed to be Christians and then doing
that.
If a pig wants to stick his snout in the manure pile and eat all day,
that's his business, 'cause he's a pig to begin with. But the lamb
doesn't do that. The sinner, he's a pig to begin with. But then when
you try to make a lamb out of a pig, you have to have a conversion and
he has to come into a different atmosphere. And when he comes into the
atmosphere his desires will change and his nature will change. That's
the way it is today.
E-48 So he goes to the king and
has a letter. This letter to him. "I just don't like it." Now at the
Baptist church the people say, "Anybody want to come in by profession,
or bring your letter, or the change of a letter, remove a letter..."
pack it from one church to the other. Just about as much influence in
it as there is in this king Naaman taking this King of Israel his
letter. What's that got to do with God?
God isn't going to come to the church and look up your letter. He's got
a Book in heaven called the Book of Life. And if your name's not on
this Book of Life, you're lost if you got a letter in every church in
the world. That's right. And your name will never be written there
unless you come into that atmosphere, living and loving with God. God
is a loving God. He wants to be loved. You can't be cold, cruel, and
indifferent and ever get anywhere with God. You got to be loving and
kind.
E-49 Notice. And this little
lady, she had told him to go to the prophet, but instead of the
prophet, he went over to the king. And the king didn't know nothing
about Divine healing; he didn't know anything about certain, certain
thing. Why, he didn't know that there was a prophet in the land that
could perform miracles. He didn't know nothing about. Though he was
supposed to be an Israelite, circumcised, but you see his atmosphere
wasn't like Elijah's atmosphere.
And when he got this letter, he reached and got his garments and tore
them up, said, "Am I God to make men alive or to kill?" He said, "I
want all of you (his cabinet), I want all of you to take notice. This
man's picking a quarrel with me." You see it?
See, the world, you know, it tears them up. See, he didn't live
under... Yet he was a professed Israelite. But he thought the days of
miracles was past. Oh, thank God, there was an old prophet way back
there in the wilderness who lived with God under a different
atmosphere. He heard the king tore his clothes up. He said, "Why did
you tear your clothes up?" Said, "Why didn't you send him out here to
me?" He didn't know whether there was a prophet in Israel or not. The
king didn't know.
E-50 There's many people today
that doesn't know that Jesus Christ is still alive. They don't know
that He still rules and reigns. They don't know that the Blood at
Calvary for the--for the all sufficient... See, that it even purchased
there at the cross for your transgressions and for your healings. They
don't know that that's real today. We need some more little maids to go
around and testify of these things. Don't you think so? Get in the
atmosphere of it.
It's not afraid what the world says, because while they're talking with
the world they're still in another atmosphere. You're talking to the
sinner but you're not in his atmosphere. And you're in such a glorious
and shrouded in, then Shekinah Glory all around you, and the veils of
the world hid. You can talk to the worldly women, or the worldly men,
or whoever it is and still live in that Shekinah Glory telling them of
a loving God that's raised from the dead.
E-51 A few weeks ago I was in
Karlsruhe, Germany. The church down there which is a some Zwingli, not
a Lutheran, but they had... I went in. Billy Graham was there one night
in Zurich, and I went in the next day. And my advertisement and Billy
Graham's was setting together. Billy Graham has a place in my heart as
a true servant of God. He preaches repentance, and he's doing a very
fine job at it. God is using him; we know that.
And he was--had a meeting there, and that day I didn't get to the
meeting, though I had an invitation to come set in the box. But I was
so tired and worn from a long flight around the country for several
thousands of miles in the plane, till I was wore out. And I went into
the room, and I went in to lie down, and I--I went to sleep and it was
too late. So I reached over and turned the radio on, and I heard him
preaching through the translator.
E-52 And the next morning when the newspapers come, I seen what a raking they give Billy Graham. The church denied, the main body of church, they ever invited such a person to their nation. And they said that he put a manicure in his hair, what is, or--or waved it, you know. What is it you call it? A permanent it is. Permanented...?... in his hair. And they said when he come to the platform to preach, he looked like he was going to a bandbox instead of a servant of God going... Said, not a wrinkle in his clothes. And they said that when he was preaching that he screamed and waved his arms like a fantastic soap salesman from America, and said his perfume was so great that you could smell him ten feet away. He preached on the Supreme Deity of the Lord Jesus Christ. And I knew what I was in for then, 'cause I had ten days there.
E-53 See, the church in Zurich
and Switzerland and Germany does not believe that Jesus is the Son of
God. They say He's the son of Joseph called the Son of God. That knocks
the very foundation from under Christianity. He was a virgin born Son
of the living God. And Billy Graham never held any strings; he preached
it that way. Yes, sir. And I knew I'd follow right up behind him.
And in there God gave us in that ungodly place, another morning, you'd
think the millennium had struck there, the chimes and bells on the
churches, and yet, they called Billy Graham a soap salesman and me a
soothsayer. You can know what kind of an atmosphere they're living in.
E-54 John went forth preaching
repentance, laying the axe to the root of the tree. He did no miracles.
Jesus come behind him, not preaching, but healing the sick and
performing miracles. And they said if they'd call him who come, John,
said he had a devil because he didn't eat and drink, and the Son of man
a gluttonous and a friend of sinners... Wisdom is justified of her
children.
And today to see in their own country Jesus Christ coming forth as
John, as a prophet like John, Billy Graham preaching repentance, and
then come back around in old fashion campaigns a heal the sick, and
prophecy, and all the different signs and wonders, it's still the same
ungodly Pharisee spirit that lived right yonder in a church atmosphere
instead of under the Shekinah Glory. Amen. God forgive me if I say
something wrong. You see what I mean? They don't believe.
E-55 We moved up on into
Karlsruhe, after having fifty thousand of those cold formal people
kneel at an altar, and give their heart to God, and receive the Holy
Ghost. Moved on up into Karlsruhe and the church sent word up there
right quick, "Don't let him come up there. (See?) Don't permit it." And
they couldn't find any stadiums and things, so the men got together and
built a place and covered several acres of ground and spread canvas
over it like a big cathedral, and thousands times thousands poured in
there the first night. 'Cause... They counted as many as a hundred and
eighty and two hundred buses every night from Germany, and from
Belgium, and all around coming into the Zurich meeting. And then we
were run up there, quickly, they said... Dr. Guggenbuhl my
representative there, went up there and they said, "No, the police said
he cannot come."
Said, "You had Billy Graham, what about him?"
"We have orders not to receive him from the church."
And church controls state to if you under--in Zurich and Switzerland,
or Germany, either one. Church and state's together, and the church is
over the state, and church and state united. So we couldn't do it. Dr.
Guggenbuhl and went out and he said, "God, it can't be so. You led
Brother Branham up here, and he wouldn't have come 'less You led him;
so there's got to be something happen, God."
And I was off resting, I said, "Yes, the Lord speaks to me to go to
Germany."
He said, "God, something's wrong."
E-56 And seemed like living in
that atmosphere, not a vision, not a voice, but something down in his
soul said, "This is American zone; go down to the American
headquarters. And he went in there to the Major, and the Major... He
went in and said, "Major, I'm Dr. Guggenbuhl from Zurich, Switzerland,"
which is an attorney which has nationwide publicity and--and loyalty to
the nation. He said, "And we have a brother from America comes over
here to preach for us." And said, "We have built a great cathedral out
here for him." And said, "Up at Hamburg we was going to have it in the
stadium, but weather's too rainy, and we had to put this place up here
Karlsruhe (which means 'Karl's rest')." And he said, "We--we have
brought him over here now, and he feels that he should come here, and
the church has denied us the privilege of letting our brother come."
Said, "They had Billy Graham up here." and said, "They let him come.
Now, what's wrong with our brother coming?"
He said, "Well, I think if they let Mr. Graham come, they ought to let
your brother come." And 'course that's American controlled, you know.
So he said, "Well, I'll tell you," said, "they won't let him come."
E-57 Said, "What do they have
against your--your preacher for coming?" Said, "What do they... Why
they don't want him to come?"
He said, "Kind sir," said, "here's the reason." He said, "because that
our brother prays for the sick and gets the results, and they're
against the supernatural of God."
He said, "What's your brother's name?"
Said, "Brother Branham."
He said, "Brother Branham," He said, "he prayed for my mother, and she
was taken from a wheelchair in Virginia." Said, "Tell him it's open,
come on. Not only that, but the army camp will turn loose and we'll
come."
Sure, God's still on the throne. when you feel your leading, move to
it; get in the atmosphere and follow the way that moves. If it goes
east or west, move. The first night a bunch of communists got on the
outside of the place, and they was rioting in these bushes with guns to
shoot me, they said. When we went out, German soldiers pledging their
loyalty, come around and held their arms over me, and around--around
me, till I got in the car. One almost got my son Billy before he got to
the car, a fanatic.
E-58 And the next night standing
in the building there where the Holy Spirit moving, I couldn't even
call the German names to the people in the audience, had to spell it
out and tell them. They seen me working. There set a medium, setting
over there with his eye cast on me. He said, "I'll come down" and said,
"I'll make him to know." He told them that day; he said, "I'll call a
storm out of the skies," and he said, "I'll cause it to tear that place
down." And the thunder was a roaring, the lightening a flashing as hard
as it could. And here he come, and he made his threat wrote it out.
When I was turning there... Didn't... That didn't matter to me what he
said. And when I seen the storm coming and people getting nervous and
one constant roar of lightening after the other one like that, I looked
around, and I seen where he was setting. I said, "You child of the
devil, you may be able to perform miracles, that's right, and I've
exposed you here." I said, "The Bible said as Jambres and Jannes
withstood Moses, so will these, the antichrist, having power to perform
miracles, but you're afraid to touch the supernatural of God." Right. I
said, "Because you done this, you'll pay for it."
They packed him out that night as a cripple. And while we were there,
the storm going on, I just continued with my message. I kept calling to
God in my heart, and after while, in about ten minutes, the storm
cleared away, and she begin to shine out real pretty. The Lord Jesus...
Why? The people got into the atmosphere when they seen the glory of God
begin to move.
E-59 At that time they started a
prayer line, and they were down there lifting the people to the
platform coming. And I shall never forget this, as they lifted up a
little girl to the platform, I never noticed her; I was talking to my
interpreter, which was a good one that night, American born German. And
I turned around and I said, "Sir, just looky." I said, "The stars are
bright, not one harm." And I said, "Look at him the way he looks down
there now, setting there with his head down, his hands like that." I
said, "Something's happened to him."
And about that time, looked around, and somebody begin to scream, and I
wondered what. And they'd set a little girl about this high, cute
little German girl, little plaits hanging down her back... And let me
tell you, we Americans, we classed Germany and got the wrong
impression. The real borned again children of Germany is just as sweet
and dear as any children there is anywhere.
E-60 A minister told me, said,
"I was detailed to do a reconnaissance," and said, "I went up to the
top of the hill, and they told me, "Life or death, you have to go
anyhow to break up that machine gun nest." And said, "It had ceased
firing for awhile." He put his arms around me, a German preacher which
was a Nazi in the Army, not the S. S. troop, now you soldiers. But this
was just a--a--a--a German soldier, and he was detailed, and he had to
do it, to do this reconnaissance.
And when he got up there, said, "I looked over there, Brother Branham;
I peeped up over the hill expecting to be shot at any minute." Said,
"You know what I found? A bunch of American boys in this machine gun
nest with a open Bible on their knees, praying." Said, "I knowed they'd
throw hand grenades there as soon as those eighty-eight millimeter guns
got trained in there, and they'd blow them up. So I picked up my rifle,
went bang, bang, bang, bang, bang, up in the air, run back real quick,
said, 'I don't know whether I got them or not.' And they moved the
machine gun nest."
Why? If that'll make soldiers feel that way about one another, what
will the Blood of Jesus Christ, will cease all wars forever when men
and women can ever come into the atmosphere and nations into the
environment of the living and resurrected God.
That man setting on the pulpit with me, after the service we had a
little one together with our arms around one another. And there
American with me, was a soldier in them a few years before, under
political influence would be shooting at one another and here with
their arms around one another under another influence that makes men,
brothers. It's your influence.
E-61 That night when this little
German girl, her little dress on, her little white face. I never
noticed her, heard them scream. And I went and turned this a way, and
nobody was trying to direct her. In that country they had to get a man
who could speak their language to give out their prayer cards.
And so, he wasn't very well trained, and he let the little girl,
instead of walk off, he just pitched her up there on the platform. She
was about the third or fourth one on the platform. And I looked, and
she near the edge of the platform which was much higher than the
ceiling, went up several steps to get to it.
And when I looked, she was... I reached and grabbed her like that and
the interpreter begin to talk to her. And she was mumbling off
something. She said, "I want to meet the man that's going to pray for
me," little blind thing. And he...
The interpreter said, "That's him that's got a hold of you." And she
moved her little hands. By the way, I had on this same suit, was give
to me about six years ago in Oslo. So she put her little arms around
me, and like this, and laid her little head over on my shoulder. I
thought, "Like my little Becky." And I stroked her little, long plait
like that, and I thought, "Poor old little thing." And I heard her
snubbing like a child on my bosom. I raised her little head up and her
eyes looked white, looking at her little face, as she was leaning back
like that on my arm.
E-62 And there, by the grace of
God, I saw a vision come forth. The little girl, I seen her laying in
her mother's arms, and her doctor looking at her, said she was blind
from birth. Tall, thin mother with blond hair, I seen her father, a
short, heavy set man with dark hair, where they were at, and the
speaking the vision. And the mother was setting out in the audience and
the father way back under many times thousands and thousands and
thousands of people, setting back there. And when I looked back, I
said, "Now, of course I have no power." What was it? It was atmosphere.
It was Shekinah was the One that was giving the thing.
And I looked, I seen the little girl was going like a shadow, out of
this little girl, going, walking along with her hands up, looking
around and talking and pointing to things. I knew that the God of
heaven lived and reigned...?... prayed for her, raised her up and she
was looking up at me, and her little eyes staring and sparkling. She
mumbled off something.
And the translator looked down; he said, "Brother Branham, she can see."
I said, "Keep it to yourself just a minute." I said, "What's she
saying?"
He said, "She's asking what them--them things are there?" It was
lights. And when the translator... She was close enough to her mother
had heard the voice and rest of them. And she looked up and she begin
weeping out loud. And her mother, so excited...
The influence had took over the building; the whole thing was under
heavenly influence. The devil was tearing out. Influence... Her mother
let out a scream and run so fast, till she run out of her shoes, they
flew up behind her. She rushed to the platform; she threw her arms
around the child, and the child said, "Are you my mother?" The first
time she'd seen her, said, "Oh, mother, you're so beautiful. You're so
beautiful, mother."
E-63 The next morning Almighty
God by His infinite power, when the German Church come down and said,
"We can understand and believe your theology, and your Bible teaching
is wonderful, Brother Branham." But said, "That Light, that Angel, we
can't understand It."
And they had a breakfast with about six hundred ministers met together,
and they put a big German camera there, and the Holy Ghost in that same
Pillar of Fire came down and was took on the German camera three times
that morning and swept through the...?... The atmosphere changed.
That's right.
Wished I'd have thought and brought it with me. Was in a Christian
Businessmen this month, or a couple months ago, rather. What is it?
It's atmosphere. Men and women should live under that atmosphere. Don't
get out from under some normal world existing influence, but stay under
the atmosphere of the Lord Jesus.
E-64 Shall we bow our heads just
a moment while we're in His Presence, every man and woman with their
head bowed, boys and girls. Turn that little lever that sets right at
the top of the brain cell, bypass all those reasonings out through your
ears as nonsense. Then open up that little valve that runs down to the
human heart, to your soul. It won't reason; it'll believe. It'll say
God's Word is right and Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and
forever.
I am so thankful this morning to bring to you in your presence, not a
historical Moses, not a historical Elijah, not a historical God, but a
resurrected God, One Who died. And the only purpose when He was made
flesh here, God Himself become flesh to take away sin and to make it
possible that His Holy Spirit could come in the human heart. The
historical God is with you today in the Presence of the Lord Jesus. If
you have a need, speak to Him now while we pray.
E-65 Great Jehovah God, Who
lived before there was an eternity, You was without father, without
mother, without beginning of days, or ending of years, and reading upon
the pages of this sacred Book how the things that You did in the days
of yore that's passed by, and to have the privilege of living in this
dark age just here at the end of the world, and seeing You rise on the
scene again, no guessing, no manmade theology, no cold atmosphere of
just joining a church or signing a paper, but living in the Shekinah
Glory and the influence of a resurrected Lord Jesus, confirming,
fulfilling His Word, bringing to pass everything that He said...
Merciful Father, I present this audience to You today, that You in Your
great kindness of this hour, will do for this audience that which they
have need of. Save the sinner; call back to repentance the backslider.
Heal the sick; give experience to those who need You, Lord, in that
type of an experience.
While I ask this audience, Father, to wait on Thee, may Your Spirit
sweep over the audience and give to them individually what they have
need of. And while we stay shut in with Him Who raised from the dead,
we ask God the Father in the Name of Jesus His Son Who said, "If you
ask the Father anything in My Name, I'll do it." And this is not a
myth, neither is this for man's glory. This is for Your glory, and that
You might raise up little maids and little boys and girls in this
community, that could tell the sick and afflicted there is a balm in
Gilead. Grant it, Father, for Jesus' sake.
While you set with your heads bowed, if you are sick, look to Him now
for your healing. If you need salvation, look to Him now for salvation
while we stay shut in with God, I wonder if pastor would continue on
leading in prayer.