Quand leurs yeux s’ouvrirent
E-1 Thank you very much. Good
evening, friends. Happy to be here again tonight in the service of the
Lord Jesus. Trusting that your hearts are all on glow tonight with His
blessings. Just a little weak in my voice. This is four months straight
now without one bit of rest. And I got two more meetings before I get
any rest; that's Charlotte and Anchorage, Alaska.
And I'm... The tremendous impact of the anointing of the Holy Spirit
gives such an awful weakening condition to me, really, I wasn't
supposed to have one healing service while I was in Carolina, any
place. The manager's not here, and that's the reason I'm having it. If
he's here he'd pull me out of the meeting right now, to see me do it.
When I get this tired and worn, they take me in. But it's because I've
never been here before, and I want to come back. You're lovely people;
I'm trying to do all I can for the Kingdom of God while I'm here.
E-2 And we're struggling pretty
heavy. I just speak so much in open air, from city to city, from nation
to nation, till my voice just gets tired. I just... Not only that, but
my body does. And I get so weak sometimes. Now, as far as physical
strength, I'm pretty strong. But you don't realize what those visions
does to a person. They just almost kill you. And they--there's no way,
it takes you hours to come out of them. Then one right after the other
one, you can imagine what it does to the person.
When it even made Jesus weak, we can realize about what it would be to
a human being like ourselves. There's no way to explain it, you
just--just have to go on. I couldn't explain it, and no one else could
explain it; so you--you just have to take our word for it. But if
you're a good Bible student, you'll understand, if you know the Bible
really correctly, the way It's written.
E-3 So we'll probably go ahead
and have it. Now, in Charlotte, we'll probably only have one healing
service. And that'll probably be the Sunday afternoon, just getting too
tired, too weak. And some more of the managers going to be with me and
them up there, so they probably will--they won't let me have it. But I
probably at least have one night some time, or one Sunday afternoon at
Charlotte. And then they'll probably cut it down to one night at
Anchorage before we get some rest.
Now, the thing is, when Moses, the servant of the Lord, went down in
Egypt, every time he met a Hebrew He didn't have to heal his hand with
leprosy and perform a miracle with a stick. He done it one time and
that settled it. That was forever true.
Well, see, there's where I do wrong. One time should settle it forever
(See?) With every congregation. It can be really proven of God and from
the Scripture, and God does it one time, that should settle it.
E-4 Every time Moses... Could
you imagine meet--meeting someone, say, "Now, wait a minute; I want to
show you the Lord sent me. See, my hand's leprosy now. Now it's clean.
See this stick? It's a snake. Now it's a stick." Wait and get to the
next Hebrew and say, "Now here, here's my hand; it's leprosy." Oh, no.
He did it one time, and that's it. See? They all believed it.
But the Lord never sent me to do all this; I do it upon my own accord.
And that's the reason it bothers me so bad. Soon, there's something
greater than this coming; it'll soon be here. It'll be marvelous then,
if the Lord willing.
How many ever read my last vision that's been wrote up in the magazine?
Wait till you see that take place. Then this will be minor. What the
Lord's fix... It'll just keep going on and on, on and on. Jesus is
coming. The time of the gathering of the people is at hand. And we must
look forward to great things to happen.
E-5 How many read the sermon,
"When Omnipotence Speaks, Miracles Happen"? Did you? You believe that?
Certainly. Omnipotent spoke at ever junction. And when the Church
cooled off, and, then Omnipotence spoke; miracles takes place. And this
is the junction of all junctions; this is the end time. The end of the
whole history of the world is right now at hand. So you can expect
Omnipotence to speak, and you can expect the greatest and mightest
miracles that's ever happened on the earth will happen in the next few
years to come, if Jesus tarries. It will be.
Then watch for Satan to raise up his too. When--when all heaven turns
loose, all hell turns loose too. And it's prophesied that there'd be a
Jannes and Jambres on the earth in the last days, who would almost
impersonate the real thing so close it'd deceive the very Elect if
possible. See? So we're looking for all of that.
E-6 So my Christian friends,
the best thing for you to do, and I do to, is to stay just as close to
the Lord Jesus as we can. Love Him and pray daily that God will help us
and guide us, that we'll be on His side when the end finally comes.
That's our desire of our heart. And I'm sure if we're sincere in our
heart, and study His Word, and receive all that He has for us, we'll
not be deceived by the antichrist and his--his power.
Did you notice? The antichrist can do everything but heal. He can't
heal. Did you notice Jannes and Jambres when they stood against Moses,
they could do everything but heal. They could bring curses, but they
couldn't take it away. See? God's the only Healer there is. He's the
only One can heal.
And today we have the finest hospitals we ever had, finest doctors
we've ever had, smartest doctors, the best doctors, the best drugs we
ever practiced with. Don't you believe that? And we got more sickness
than we ever had. Why? We got more sin and unbelief then we ever had.
Unbelief is sin.
E-7 What is sin? Unbelief.
Smoking, drinking, committing adultery, lying, stealing, that's not
sin. That's the attributes of sin. You do that because you're an
unbeliever. If you was a believer you wouldn't do that. See? Just
because you quit drinking, and quit smoking, and quit drinking, and
committing adultery, that doesn't make you a Christian. You're a
Christian because you are a believer. See?
You are a sinner be... You--you do the things that you ought not,
because the life that's in you makes you do it. A tree's known by its
fruit. And you... If a tree look like it was a apple tree and it was
bearing pears, then it's a pear tree, because the life in it is the
life of a pair tree.
E-8 I want to show you how
simple it is, just one little illustration. Can't keep my eyes off a
little baby tonight, setting down here. It looks just like mine at
home, and I--I--makes you feel funny. I'm...
All the medicine that we got in the world. We haven't got one medicine
that'll absolutely guarantee to heal a bad cold (You know that?),
common bad cold. Hundreds of people dies every year with a bad cold.
Doctors die every year with bad colds. That's right.
E-9 Look, we haven't got a
medicine in the world that'll heal a knife cut (Did you know that?),
little simple knife cut. We haven't got a medicine that'd heal it.
"Oh," you say, "Brother Branham..."
No, we haven't. If we got a medicine that'd heal a knife cut, it'd heal
a knife cut if it was in my coat or on this desk. It would heal a knife
cut; it'd heal it wherever it's at.
"Well," you say, "Brother Branham, now you're getting fanatically.
Because medicine wasn't made to heal your coat, or heal the desk; it
was made to heal your body."
E-10 All right, what if I cut my
hand with a knife now, and I fall down dead. The doctor comes in a
pronounces me dead; they take me over to the morgue, or the funeral
home. They embalm my body with a fluid that makes me look natural for
fifty years yet. Let every doctor in the United States, Germany, and
wherever the great scientists are, come in and give me a shot of
penicillin every day. Sew that place up, put all the Merthiolate, sulfa
drug, everything we got in it. In fifty years from today that cut will
look just exactly the way it did when it was cut. If medicine heals the
human body, why don't it heal it?
"Well," you say, "the life is gone out."
"That's right. Now, what's life? You tell me what life is, I'll tell
you Who God is. See?"
E-11 Medicine doesn't build
tissue. God builds tissue. See? Doctors... Now, not condemning them,
God knows, no, sir. We--we respect them, and they're our--our friends.
They're God's servants and we respect them. And they don't claim to be
healers; they only... They could come, like if you cut your hand, it's
a good thing to do, go to the doctor and let him sew it up, put the
drug, and ever--whatever he puts in it to keep it clean. But he has to
turn it over to God then to heal it.
You got a bad appendix, the doctor looks down, say, "You have a bad
appendix, sir. Well, we'll just trust God and take that thing out, all
right?"
Go down and take it out. Take it out, then the doctor sews it up.
You're not well. He just takes the appendix out. Now, what about the
healing? God has to do that. Is that right?
E-12 You break your arm. Go down
to the doctor. What does he do? Say, "Just a minute, I'll pure a little
of this cure all on it and..." Now, that would be a quack. See? So
he'll... What he does, he sets the arm; that's what he knows. He looks
through the x-ray and finds out if he's got all the bones setting
right. He puts it in a splint, and you hold it that way for several
days. And then God heals it. And you take... Doctor never healed it, he
just set it; God healed it. See?
Now, don't condemn the doctor, and the doctor shouldn't condemn God. We
should all work together. Don't you think so? There's mighty fine
things today. It's too bad the selfish motives that's are in man.
E-13 Now we have chiropractic.
The medical doctor condemns the chiropractor; the chiropractor condemns
the medical doctor. Osteopath, they condemn both. And all of them
together condemn Divine healing.
You know what I'm thinking? The osteopath does a lot of good things;
the chiropractor does too. The medicine does also. Surgery does also.
Even a medical doctor some time condemn a surgeon. The surgeon condemn
a medicine doctor. What's the matter? Forgive me, doctor, whoever you
are. I don't mean to insult you, but I'm only making a statement before
people. We need you, and we need one another.
It looks to me like that anyone that would condemn anything that would
help anyone, they--it's a selfish motive. There's something wrong with
the person. If we just all forget that, osteopath, chiropractic,
medical doctor, surgeons, ministers, and all work together to try to
help our fellow man, to make life a little better for them, to make
their journey a little more pleasant, I think God would be more pleased
with all of us. Don't you think so? So if our motives are right, our
hearts are right with God, we're trying to do everything we can to help
make life a little more blessed for each one.
E-14 That's my business here
tonight. I don't come as a healer, for I'm not. I don't come as a
medical doctor, for I'm not. I know nothing about the body. The only
thing that I know; that there is a risen Jesus Christ, and He is the
Lord of lord, the King of kings. And I know His Divine promise has
promised us that the things that He did when He was here on earth, will
be reproduced again.
Now, did He claim to be a healer? No. He never claimed to heal anyone.
He said, "It's not Me that doeth the works; it's My Father that
dwelleth in Me; He doeth the works." Is that correct? Then what did He
do? He was possessed with a power, or endued, I'd say, with a power,
excuse me. I didn't mean to say possessed.
E-15 But He was endued with a power from God that He saw visions. And He told His disciples, and all them who questioned Him, that He didn't do nothing until the Father God showed Him a vision on what to do. And He did just what the Father showed Him to do." How many knows, Bible readers, that that's true and that's the Bible, raise your hand. Saint John 5:19, Jesus said, after He passed through all those crippled people, He said, "Verily, verily, I say unto you, The Son can do nothing in Himself," 'cause He never healed a one of them. He healed a man laying on a pallet that had a retarded disease, thirty-eight years. He said, "The Son can do nothing in Himself, but what He sees the Father doing; that doeth the Son likewise. The Father worketh and the Son worketh hitherto.' In other words, the Father showed Him what to do.
E-16 Now, you Bible scholars,
you who have been looking for a superman to come, that does things just
at random, he will go out and whatever he wants to do, he does it. That
never was in the Bible. And it never will be done by mortal beings in
the will of God. If Jesus Christ... No man will ever live a life above
His. And no prophet at any time ever did do anything without first God
telling him to do it. Search the Scriptures and see if that's right,
always. It's not the will of man; it's the will of God being shown to
man.
So now, may I explain this to you, that all sin and sickness was
settled when God dealt with it at Calvary some nineteen hundred years
ago, when His Son died to save us from sin and sickness. "He was
wounded for our transgressions; with His stripes we were healed."
That's what the Scripture says.
E-17 Now, I don't mean that He
made one atonement for your sickness and one for your sins; He made one
atonement, and that was for sin. And when you deal with sin, you've got
to deal with every attribute of sin.
The human race, as we're taught in the Scripture, didn't have any
sickness before sin came in. And then when sin came in, it... Sickness
was issued in as a attribute of sin, which had to bring death. Sin is
death. And sickness follows sin. Worry, follows sin. Did you ever
notice what a horrible thing worry is? There's not one value in it at
all.
I was speaking here some time ago to a group of--of--of men at a club
in a city. And I--I said, "There's--there's not one value... If you was
going to be killed in the morning," I said, "worry would not help you
one bit."
I seen one man kinda look down and kinda laugh, and he said, "Well,
what would faith do?"
I said, "Sign your pardon."
That's right. Worry, there's no value in it. Faith... So just get away
from worry and have faith.
E-18 If the doctor's done all he
can for you, the man's done all he knows how to do. He's done to the
end of his knowledge; he doesn't know nothing else. And a good honest
doctor will tell you, "That's all I can do."
Now, many times he will tell you, "May the Lord help you and bless
you." In Mayo's up there, when they turn people down, they say, say
sometimes them things, "God, be merciful to you. And if we ever find
anything we'll call you back." They're trying to help someone. Trying
to make life better for somebody. That's what we all should be doing,
trying to help each other as neighbors along life's journey.
E-19 Now, then we have a right
then, when we come to God, and ask Him for His help. And that's what
we're here for tonight. Now, if I'm telling you that work is already
finished, which the Bible declares that it is finished, then what could
I do for it, if it's already finished? The only thing I can do is point
you to the time it was finished and the Scripture that says it was
finished, and that's about all that can be done. It rests within your
personal faith in the finished work of Jesus Christ at Calvary. That's
the only Gospel that I know that's written in the Bible. The work was
finished at Calvary. And we only look to that place. And by faith we
draw dividends off of our eternal salvation. This is the earnest of our
salvation, the Scripture says.
Then friends, if there's--if there is no earnest to healing, then
there's no resurrection of the body. If salvation only pertains to the
soul, that when we die and all of our--our corruption of our mind and
our thoughts, are changed when we come into the Presence of God... And
this change that we have now by the Holy Spirit, if that's the--the
earnest of our eternal salvation... Sure, that's the down payment, the
proof that there is a place where we'll go beyond temptation, and
there'll be no more sin.
E-20 Then there has to be a
attribute if there--or, I mean a earnest, if there's a resurrection.
And if there's no Divine healing, there's no resurrection; so we
believe in the resurrection. And Divine healing is the earnest of our
resurrection. I can give you statements of people who's been, according
to medical science, laying dead on the cancer society, been dead ten,
twelve years ago, living and lively tonight as they can be. What is it?
It's the earnest of our resurrection. Now, we look and live; we believe.
Now, Jesus, when He died, after making that promise, He said the same
things that He did, that the Church would do, until He returned again.
"I'll be with you, in you to the end of the world. The things that I do
shall you also. Greater than this," or more than this, "will you do,
for I go to My Father."
God was operating through one human being, Jesus. And when He returned
to God, He operates universally in every believer's heart around the
world.
E-21 I was surprised when I had
my first service in Durban, South Africa. When we went in there that
afternoon, at the airport there's some thirty-five thousand or more,
waiting to receive us. And we walked in the meeting and no more leading
into the meeting, the Lord showed a vision of a car coming and a boy
with one leg shorter than the other. Have you got that book? I don't
know whether the boys has any more or not, "Prophet Visits Africa." And
it told him and who he was, and even told him what his name was. Told
him he was healed. The boy come running down through there, and he was
normal and well. He was examined after bit by some doctors.
The next morning the Medical Association of Africa called me up and
asked me to have breakfast with them, which was a great honor. They
said, "We open every hospital door to you, Reverend Branham," said,
"for you have helped us more."
E-22 Now, down there it was
something on the order... And no disregards to you my friends, it's
Christian Science like, on the Afrikaans AFM Church. They didn't
believe in even having a doctor; it was a sin to have a doctor in your
house, to them. And they said, "There's many of those people that we
could help if we could only get in to." And said, "They love you, and
they believe you. And when you told them that--that the medical
profession was of God and--and God would help the people through
medical profession," said, "it opened doors to people that--that we
couldn't have got to otherwise."
"Well," I said, "I'd rather that isn't so much as I said it for it is
for you also, but it's--it's the Word. God said so. And that settles it
when God says it." And so we know the great things are done in the
hospitals and amongst doctors; and so therefore, we've got to recognize
that to be of God, because all good things come from God, all good
things.
E-23 What if I had to walk
tonight back down home? What if I had to walk to my home about six
hundred miles away? Well, that would be terrible. What if I went in an
ox cart? But science has produced an automobile, I thank them for it.
I'm very glad; I accept it.
What if I had to wash my hands with sand like they used to years ago?
But science has perfected soap; I can clean them much better. See?
Well, then if I have to condemn the doctor, I have to condemn the soap
and have to condemn the automobile and have to condemn all those
things. See?
So wake up now. Be real wide awake Christians. Look to Jesus Christ. If
the doctors done all he can do, Christ is here to heal you, not to heal
you, but He is to prove to you that He's already healed you. Now, first
He spoke by the Word. Then if you don't believe the Word, then being He
is risen from the dead, and we believe that.
E-24 And listen Christians, I
want to ask you this solemn question. Isn't it a wonderful thing
tonight to know that our Christian religion (think hard now) is the
only religion on the earth, out of the hundreds and hundreds of them,
that can prove that their Founder and Saviour is a living.
Buddha died twenty-five hundred years ago. Mohammed died around
nineteen hundred years ago. Different religions, their founders are
dead, buried; they got their memorials at the grave. But we got an open
tomb. Not only that, the Jews couldn't believe it. They said that some
of His disciples come stole Him away. They're always trying to figure
some way out, some mechanical way. But Jesus knew that, knew they would
do it. But He said, "A little while, and the would won't see Me no
more; yet you'll see Me: for I will be with you, in you, to the end of
the world. The things that I do shall you also."
And tonight, in our midst, Jesus Christ, God's Son, is a living here
with us, omniscient, omnipresent, omnipotent, infinite, immortal, God,
living with us now. Right here in Spindale, North Carolina, on this
night, He's here; He's everywhere. And if you'll submit yourself to Him
and believe Him, the same works that was performed when He was here on
earth, He will perform them right back again. There's not another
religion in the world that can do that outside of Christianity. May the
Lord bless while we speak on His Word and read It just for a moment.
Let us pray.
E-25 Heavenly Father, as the hours are growing late, men and women are here from different places, and different occupations in their journey, their pilgrimage here on earth. And we pray that Your blessings will be upon each of us as we serve Thee. And Father, we pray that You'll take the motives of our heart tonight and express it through Thy Word to the people, that they might know that we're here to be Your servant and to give to them Thy love through Thy Word. And that they might know that You're alive, and that their hope that rest in Eternal, Immortal Life beyond this shadow that we live, is correctly, Your words are true. Now, come and speak, Our heavenly Father, for we ask it in Jesus' Name, Thy Son. Amen.
E-26 In the Word of God, Saint
Luke 24th chapter, the 31st verse and the 32nd inclusive, listen to the
reading of the Word. I love to hear the Word, because faith cometh by
hearing, hearing the Word of God. My words is a man's word; they perish
and fail just like yours or anyone else's. But His Word will never
fail, it's the imperishable Word of God. Listen close:
And their eyes were
opened, and they knew Him; and he vanished out of their sight.
And they said unto
one another, Did not our hearts burn within us, while he talked with us
by the way... while He opened unto us the Scripture?
And now may the same Lord Jesus open to us the Scripture. Now, there's
many people, anyone that's able, physically, to turn the pages can open
the Bible this way. But there's no one can interpret It and open It to
us but Christ Himself. John saw in the Revelation, in the last book of
the Bible, and He that set upon the throne had the Book in His hand,
and no man in heaven, or in earth, or beneath the earth, was able or
worthy to take the Book, to loose the seals, or even to look thereon.
And a Lamb as It had been slain from the foundation of the world, come
and took the Book out of the right hand of Him who set upon the throne,
and opened It, and loose the seals. That's the Son of God. May He open
it to our hearts.
E-27 Being that I got a weak
throat, just speak for a few moments and then start our prayer line in
the next fifteen minutes or so, and pray. Now, give me your undivided
attention.
Our little scene is tonight, the first beautiful morning of the
resurrection. And it wasn't a thing that, like is scattered across the
world now. The resurrection to us now means much more than it did to
them morning, because many did not believe it. We're following two
disciples, one of them's name's Cleopas. The Bible doesn't give what
the other ones name was.
The Scripture says that these men were ignorant, unlearned men. They
didn't have any education. But they knew Him. And I--I think that a
education is wonderful, but I would rather know Him in the power of His
resurrection, than to have all the education the world could give me.
Education is wonderful, but to know Him is Life. And these disciples
knew Him. But because a disappointment had come up, they had forgotten
all His Words.
And isn't that just about like we have it today? When one little
disappointment comes about something, someone comes in and misconstrues
something, and then we go to say, "Oh, well, it's all fanaticism; maybe
there's nothing to it after all." Isn't that just the human race?
"Well, I know Divine healing isn't real 'cause I know Mrs. Jones is
prayed for and she didn't get well."
That doesn't have one thing to do with God's promise. That had to do
with Mrs. Jones' faith, or the will of God. See?
E-28 Now, but they had forgotten
all of His Words, that what He said He would raise on the third day.
And they were present when He said it, when He talked to His disciples.
But they'd forgot all about it. Sorrow had come. They'd seen a Man that
they'd--had raised the dead after being dead for four days, and seen
that Man let soldiers spit in His face.
And seen a Man Who could stand, and by the power of God, tell people in
the audience, of His audience, even can perceive their thoughts. He
could foretell things that would happen perfect, the way He said it
would be. Even sent an apostle down to catch a--the first fish and to
take a coin from his mouth to pay tribute. They seen Him how great He
was and accurate in His predictions. Never failed one time. When He
told a person something, it was always perfect.
E-29 And we see that Man now
with the--the Roman soldiers has wrapped a rag around His face so He
couldn't see, and was hitting Him on the head with a stick and saying,
"Now, you tell us, if you're a prophet... Prophesier, you tell us who
hit you, we'll believe You." We seen a Man who was able to do all these
things and then in weakness, seemingly, defeated.
It broke their faith, it should not have, but it did. And it does yet.
"We seen a Man Who could call a dead man from the grave, Who could do
all these wonderful miracles, and see Him hang on the cross with great
spittle all over His face, with His beard and face bleeding, where the
soldiers jerked out His beard, and spit in His face. And seen Him with
His back beat to a pulp where thirty and nine stripes..." They couldn't
put forty.
E-30 And did you know there's
thirty and nine major diseases in the world today. Thirty and nine
stripes across His back with a cat-of-nine-tails, leather sockets in it
with lumps of lead, beating till His ribs showed through, "all My bones
stare at Me," He said in the Psalms...
And to see the Jews and the religious men of that day, the high
churches, the scholars, the educators, walk around saying, "Now, if You
are Christ, come down from that cross and we will accept you, we'll
believe You."
They wouldn't have. "And how could a Man that was that powerful one
time, lose all of His power overnight?"
I wonder if we aren't thinking the same thing? Or the Pentecostal
church nineteen hundred years ago, who went about preaching the Gospel
and healing the sick, see visions and miracles taking place with a
living resurrected Jesus in it, and all of a sudden lost its power. Did
you ever think of it that way? That's right.
E-31 There was something--their
hearts were heavy. Like many believers today. They still loved Him. And
all the time, on this wonderful first Easter morning, Jesus was alive
in a springtime of the world, and they didn't know it. And it's the
same thing today: Jesus is alive. And many people who love Him don't
recognize it yet. They're worshipping Him as a creed, or as Someone Who
once lived, Someone Who was once powerful, Someone Who once could call
God and have things done. They worship Him as a historical God.
But what good is a historical God today? If He isn't the same God
today, what good is He to you? If the God of Elijah doesn't live today,
then what good is the God of Elijah to you? It's like taking a bird and
putting him in a cage and feeding him orthodox food to make him have
strong wings, and then put a cage around him so he can't fly.
That's the way we do in our churches. We want to be so precise and so
orthodox. But yet, keep the people caged up to a dead religion, a creed
of a man that once lived. He's a Man that lives today. He isn't dead.
But as it was then, those who loved Him, many of them didn't know it.
And those who had brought a report of it, they didn't believe them. So
is it today. Some are bringing the reports of the resurrection, God
Omnipotent, All powerful, still lives. But many doesn't believe it.
E-32 So these two disciples, on
the road, they were thinking about Him, and as they thought about Him,
He stepped out of the side of the road and begin to talk to them, and
they didn't know Him.
That's the way... Now here it is, get it. I'm sure the reason that we
don't see more of Christ; we're always talking about something else but
Christ. If you let your conversations be upon Christ, and upon His
finished works, and His goodness, instead of so much stuff that we do
think about all day long, Christ would appear more often to us, if we'd
only look at it in that way.
And as they're going along, speaking about Him, He walks along their
side, and they don't recognize Him. Many times He's been at your side,
yonder in the hospital when your doctor turned you down, all he could
do. But you got well; you didn't realize that's Who it was.
When that car went right in front of you and you slammed the brakes and
just barely missed him. You didn't realize that's Who it was setting at
your side. He's been with you in so many things. When the barrel was
empty during the depression, the children had no clothes, you never
knowed where the next meal was coming from, somehow you made it. You
didn't realize it was Him. See? How you've been blessed. If you only
knew that's Him that you love, that's with you.
E-33 As they went along, He said
to them, "Why are you so sad?" I wonder if He'd say the same thing to
this little gathering here tonight? "Why are you so sad? What makes you
so weary?"
"Why," they said, "are You just a Stranger?"
They didn't know Him. And you don't know who that is setting right next
to you tonight. The Bible said, "We have entertained Angels unaware."
God sending His Spirit to an individual and that individual is a
mouthpiece, when you receive that individual, you don't receive Him,
but you receive Him that sent Him. Jesus said, "When you receive Me,
you receive not Me, but you receive My Father that sent Me." You get it?
We laugh at a preacher sometime, a good Gospel preacher, because he
disagrees with our theology. We make fun of him some time and even call
him that scandalous name of holy-roller, fanatic. You don't know, you
might be talking about God when you do that. For the Bible said,
"Insomuch as you have done unto the least of these little ones that
believe in Me, you have done it unto Me." "And these signs shall follow
them that believe," not all that say they believe, but "these signs
shall follow them that believe." That's how you know them. See what I
mean?
E-34 Now, notice as He goes on.
He begins to speak to them. And notice, quickly, Jesus will always go
to the Scripture. He begin with Moses, and He said, "Oh, foolish, slow
of heart, to believe all the prophets--not to believe all the prophets
said." In other words, "Are you so slow at heart not to preach the full
Gospel?" Not part of it, all of it... Said, "Are you so foolish? Don't
you know that all the prophets has said had to be fulfilled?"
And He begin to explain to them the need of the fulfilling of the
Scripture that the prophets have said. I feel very religious right now.
Surely, you know what I'm speaking of. Would we be so slothful and so
foolish of mind, to confine ourself to a book of creeds and lay aside
the Bible, and say the days of miracles is not past--or is past, when
Jesus said, "I'll be with you to the end of the world. And the things
that I do shall you do also, even more, for I go to My Father."
How could we be so slothful? Jesus rebuked them, said, "You should've
knowed that the Scriptures..."
E-35 And as they journeyed on
the day become drawing nigh to the close, and they were very
interested, they knowed that that Man spoke a little different from
ordinary line of clergymen. And as He went along the road... Now, they
got near the city where they were going. Now, quickly now, as we come
to a close, listen.
As they got near to the place where they were going to stay, He made
out like He was going to go on by. The Bible said He did. Now, many
times, He makes out like He's going to pass you by. "Well, last night
there was chairs setting here and cots laying here, and tonight the
chairs are empty and the are people here, and the cots are empty and
the people are here. Well, why don't He get me?"
Well, now a lot of times He makes out like He's going to pass you by,
but He never does. He just does that. You remember, blind Fanny
Crosby's hymn?
Pass
me not, O gentle Saviour,
Hear
my humble cry;
While
on others Thou art calling,
Do not
pass me by.
E-36 Watch Him, He makes out
like He's going to go by them. But they constrained Him to come in.
They persuaded Him to come in. "Oh, come and abide with us." And He's
never invited, unless He comes. When you'll invite Him and open up the
doors of your heart, Christ will always receive that invitation. He's
waiting, and longing, and anxious to get to that invitation. If it's
preaching the Word, if it's seeing His works, seeing the sunset, seeing
the sunrise, watch the flowers bloom, or the prophet prophesying,
miracles or signs, whatever it is, He's trying to speak to your heart
to get in. Did you know that? Now, you ask Him to come in, and He will
come in.
And then when He got them on the inside... Now, here it is, notice.
Once on the inside, the doors close... The little restaurant that they
went into, once on the inside, seated at the table, they ordered bread;
and the waitress went to get the bread, brought it back, and laid it
down while they were setting there in silence watching each
other...?... The door was closed on the outside world. Jesus made
Hisself known to them by doing something that He did before His death
and burial, to prove to them that He was the very Christ that was dead
was with them doing the same thing He done before He was crucified. You
see it?
E-37 Now, tonight, if you'll
only shut off your theology for a few minutes, shut off your worries,
and take Christ into your heart... Close off the world and all around
you and just let Him come in. And He will do something here tonight
just like He used to do when He was here on earth before the
resurrection. And you'll see that He is the risen Christ. Quickly, He
vanished out of their sight. And they ran back light-footed,
light-hearted, saying, "That indeed the Lord has risen from the dead;
we know it. We seen Him do something just the same way He did it before
His crucifixion. And to us He is risen from the dead and alive for
evermore."
That same Lord Jesus Christ, I declare by His Word, is here tonight.
And if you'll only let Him get into your heart, He will do the very
same things He did when He was here on earth, or I'm a false witness of
the Bible and the resurrection. Challenge of that, how could you turn
it down?
If He will, will you receive Him? Would you raise your hand, say, "I
will receive It, if He will return to this building tonight and will do
the things that He did when He was here on earth, I myself, will
believe."?
E-38 Now, don't notice my poor
education; I'm not much of a preacher; but I do know Him. And I--I know
Him in His resurrection. And I declare, that if you've ever received
Him in any way, you know Him. But you--you must have faith in Him. Now,
when He was here on earth... Now remember, He didn't claim to be a
healer; He saw visions.
A woman touched His garment and run out into the audience, and Jesus
said, "I got weak; who touched Me?"
Peter said, "Why, who touched You? Why, everybody's touching You."
He said, "Yes, but I got weak." Said, "Who touched Me?"
He looked all around through the crowd. Everybody denied; the woman
denied herself; she said, "I never done it." All--all of them denied
the Bible said; everyone denied a doing it. But Jesus knew that
somebody there was telling something wrong. So He looked around till He
found the little woman. She'd had a blood issue for so many years. He
told her that her faith had made her well. Then she come and fell down
at His feet and confessed all.
E-39 If that was Jesus
yesterday, the Bible said, "He's the same yesterday, today, and
forever." If that's what He did yesterday, He will have to do it today
in order to be the same. When He--when Philip went and got Nathanael,
as we quoted last night. And he found him over around behind the hills,
several miles, and brought him back. And when he come up and stood
before Jesus, Jesus said, "You are a believer, a honest man."
Why, he said, "Lord, now, now wait a minute, when did You know me?
You've never seen me in Your life, and how did You know me?"
"Why," He said, "before Philip called you, when you were under the tree
over there praying, before Philip called you, I saw you."
He said, "You're the Son of God; You're the King of Israel."
E-40 But what did the church
people say, the people of the big church? They said, "This Man is the
chief of all the fortunetellers, the devils; He's Beelzebub."
And what did Jesus say to them? Listen now, for your own soul's sake.
He said, "I'll forgive you for that. Who speaks against the Son of man,
it shall be forgiven, but when the Holy Ghost comes, and if you speak
against Him then, when He's doing the same thing that I am, that'll
never be forgiven you in this world or the world to come."
Bible readers, is that true? It's the unpardonable sin. Why? 'Cause the
Bible said that He was standing there with the Spirit of God doing
these things, telling that man who he was and where he come from, and
they said He was a fortuneteller, saying He had a unclean spirit:
calling the works of God and unclean spirit, which is blaspheming.
Anyone knows what blaspheming is. Blaspheming the Holy Ghost is the
unpardonable sin which will never be forgiven in this world or the
world to come. So if you don't understand, just keep still, and go
ahead, and don't say nothing about it, be best.
E-41 A woman came one day,
speaking to Him. Peter come up, and He knew who He was. He said, "Your
name is Simon. Your--your father's name is Bar-jonas," said, "but
you'll be called Peter from henceforth."
He knew as the Father revealed it to Him. Now, He said, "I don't do
nothing but what the Father shows Me; and then what He shows Me, that I
do."
Now, if that was the Jesus of yesterday, that's the Jesus today if He
is risen from the dead. If He hasn't, then it's just a cold church
formal creed like we all teach and go on, that's all. "One man lived
long time ago, was called the Son of God; He died and rose again, but
He's gone away. There's nothing to it no more; we just worship as a
creed. We come to church and do the best we can, hoping that someday
that there will be a manifestation of His presence."
That's not what He said. "I'll be with you; the things that I do I'll
be doing in you to the end of the world." That's right. Shall we pray.
E-42 Our heavenly Father, enough
has been said by man. Now, let the Holy Spirit continue on the service,
Lord. And I pray that You will grant tonight that the Holy Ghost will
so represent You here, that the people of this community, that has
gathered in this building tonight, may be without an excuse at the day
of the judgment.
O God, as You said to Cleopas and them, "Don't you know the Scripture
must be fulfilled?" And if You said that You'd be with us to the end of
the world and would do the same things through us that You did, mustn't
the Scriptures be fulfilled? You said that in the last days, this day
that we live, that when the great signs and wonders would be taking
place, the Jews would be returning for the third time to Palestine; the
ensign would be lifted up. And all the great signs of the world's would
be taking place like it is today. You promised in that day You'd pour
out both former and latter rain, and that signs and wonders would be
wrought among Your people again. You promised it, Father, and we know
that Your words are true.
E-43 Now, as Your poor, unworthy
servant, and as all of us together are Your unworthy servants, but we
now submit ourselves to Thee and yield to the working of the Holy
Spirit, that if there be some here, Father, who doesn't know You in the
power of Your resurrection, may it come to pass tonight that they will
believe on You. Have mercy on the sick and afflicted. And may each one
catch the vision of Your finished work and Your Everlasting Eternal
Life, which You are the possessor of, and give to us as we believe. And
declare Yourself to be alive tonight, holy Father God, as we pray and
ask these blessings in Jesus Christ's Name, Thy Son. Amen.
Now, I'm going to ask this, which is usually a custom that I do. Now,
to you people who haven't been in the meetings before, I will admit
that connected with Divine healing is much fanaticism. Jesus said there
would be, connected with all religious moves are fanatics.
E-44 Just visiting in India and
watching the hypocrite lay there trying to clown for somebody, roll his
back on some spikes, walk through some glass. Just remember, that in
the interior there's a genuine person who's doing it for the sacrifice
for his soul. But that's a clown. We have it in all different kinds of
churches, Methodist, Baptist, Presbyterian, Lutheran, Pentecostals,
everywhere else. That's the reason I don't belong to any church. I
belong to the One Church; that's the Body of Christ. And all these
members are made up out of different churches as they believe and God
receives them. So have faith tonight and believe.
But now, if you are a unbeliever, I don't believe I would stay any
longer in the meeting. I believe I would go and wait and come back
tomorrow night and listen to another service. For I don't think it
would be profitable for you. For you have to take my word in just a few
nights here, but some horrible things has happened in the meetings when
Christ, the Holy Spirit begins to move among the people, and diseases
and demons...
E-45 See, we call it tonight, we
got medical names, call it cancer, epilepsy, and all kinds of things.
But Christ called them devils. The word devil, is a tormentor.
Like a person that's deaf and dumb. The doctor would examine that
person. Now, listen close. He'd say, "Well, the nerves is dead in the
ear, or on the vocal cords, the nerve is dead, that's the reason you
can't speak or--or can't hear; there's no vibration; it's dead."
"Well, why didn't it die all over the body then?"
"I don't know," he said, "it just died there."
Well, the thing of it is, what the doctor works on is what his five
senses will declare: see, taste, feel, smell, and hear. Has anybody
here ever heard the old Missouri thought, "Seeing is believing."? Did
you ever hear that? You want to see how foolish that is just a minute?
Let me show you something.
E-46 Over here please. Here's a
man standing before me with a gray suit on. He's got a stripped tie.
Quite a bit larger than I am. How many believes that? Why? You see.
Step back this way. Now, I cannot see the man. It's impossible for me
to see him. But do you want to argue with me he's not there? I know
he's there just as well as if I was looking at him. And I can't see
him. Then seeing is not believing.
I've got a sense of feeling. And I can feel him. And the sense of
feeling is just as reliable as the sense of seeing. How many senses are
there in the human body? Five: See, taste, feel, smell and hear. Now, I
now I can contact him in my sense of feeling. Now, I cannot contact him
in my sense of feeling; it's dormant. But my sense of sight says he's
there. Now, seeing is believing now. But feeling is believing now.
Where's the pianist? Organist, or something? Give us a little note,
would you sister? How many believes there's music, let's see your
hands. How many of you sees it, raise your hand. Did you see it? Well,
why did you raise your hands for, then if seeing is believing? Hearing
is believing now, isn't it? See, hearing is believing.
E-47 Now, what is faith? Faith
is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things you do not
see, taste, feel, smell, or hear. You believe it. Your body has five
senses; none of them senses contact God. God give you them five senses
to contact your earthly home, here on earth.
But you contact God by faith. That's the... This great mechanical age
that we live in, people's got--has got it scientifically prove it. Like
Moses, if he was standing there at the bush... What if he'd been a
modern man today and the bush was on fire? What if he said, "Now, wait
a minute; I'm going to take this bush, some leaves off of it; and I'm
going down to the laboratory to give a chemical test and find out why
them leaves didn't burn and got fire on them." See?
In those days, when a miracle was done they took a man's word for it
and went on. Because they knowed it was supernatural. But today they
got to run it through the scientific test. And you can't prove God by
scientific tests. God is believed. And you know Him by faith.
E-48 A fellow said to me not
long ago, he said, "Brother Branham, anything that's not scientifically
proven is not real."
I said, "I will just contradict that brother and say anything that is
scientifically prove isn't real."
"Oh," he said, "that don't sound intelligent."
I said, "I know it don't sound intelligent, but it's correctly
intelligent. The real things of life cannot be scientifically proven."
He said, "If it isn't scientifically proven I can't accept it."
I said, "Are you a married man?"
He said, "Yes, sir."
"You love your wife?"
"Yes."
I said, "Scientifically tell me what love is. What part of
you--show--pull it out here an let me see it; analyze it; let me see
what part's love that makes you love that woman different from anyone
else, makes you love your children different from other children,
what's scientific?" I said, "Have you got any mind?"
He said, "Certainly."
I said, "Scientifically show me what your mind is."
Can't be done, certainly, but it's real. Love, joy, peace,
long-suffering, goodness, gentleness, patience, all those are God, and
they're the real thing. The scientific things are perishable, come from
the earth. But the unscientific things are the real things that come
from heaven: God, Holy Spirit, Angels, supernatural; they are the
everlasting things. Believe on the Lord; don't try to scientifically
prove anything; just have faith in God.
E-49 Remember, there was two
trees in the garden of Eden. How many knows that? One was of them was
the tree of science, the other was the tree of faith. As long as man
eat from the tree of faith, he lived. But the first bite he took off
the tree of science, knowledge, he separated himself from God. And he
destroyed himself. And every time man bites from the tree of science,
he destroys himself.
He bit off gunpowder; kills his comrade. He bit off automobile, off the
tree of science: kills more people than all the wars put together. He's
bit himself off a cobalt bomb now; wonder what's he's going to do with
that? See?
Science destroys; faith builds. I have nothing against the tree of
science; it's done wonders. But you can't depend on it. Here's where
you have to depend on your faith; it's everlasting. Believe on God.
Believe that He's raised from the dead; and may He come into your
lovely audience tonight and show Himself alive to you by working
through His Church, is my sincere prayer.
E-50 What was them cards, B, B 1
to a 100? I'm not going to call too many up tonight. How many was here
last night, let's see your hand. Did you notice? There's more people
healed in the audience than there is on the platform anyhow. See? It
isn't--the thing is here just to get somebody up here so he can stand
up here to be--start the Holy Spirit moving among the people.
So I--last night I think I called from 1 to 50, in them cards that they
give out. I think tonight I'm just going to call about the last fifteen
of them, say 85 to a 100, just stand those up here and see just maybe
we can get to a few of them, four, five, ten, maybe all of them, maybe
more. If not, then we will start back, we get through them we come do
some more, depends on what the Holy Spirit does.
Look at your little card, I don't have any one of them laying here, but
it's a little bitty card, about so big. Now, I want each one to look at
the person next to you, because it might be somebody deaf and can't
hear, might be somebody crippled and can't stand up. And now when your
number is called, you answer your number, otherwise just be reverent
and set still, wait for your number.
E-51 Now, who has prayer card 85
raise--I think 85, 90, 95, 100, yea, that'd be fifteen. Who has prayer
card 85, would you raise your hand? Over here, would you come back on
this right side, lady, so you can get up and down the steps. 86, would
you raise your hand, please? All right, 87? Come over here, lady. 87,
88, 88, all right. 89, now see, we can legitimately, without any
squeezing, without any pushing, without any trying, get every one lined
up perfectly in line. 89, 90, who has prayer card 90? All right, sir.
The boy just announced that tomorrow night, you sick people coming to
get cards, instead of you have to chasing all over the building,
they're going to rope off the first ten sections in each row for sick
people only, in--in these first ten rows on each side tomorrow. Is that
right? First ten rows, all right.
All right, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7. That'd be 85, 86, 87, 88, '9, 90, 91,
92, all right, 91? 92, 92, would you raise up your hand? Somebody got
prayer card 92? Look at somebody by you now; may be somebody deaf,
can't hear their number called, 92? Is yours 92, lady? 92? Ninety-what,
sister? 93, isn't 92 here? Just one moment. See, I don't want no one to
miss your turn.
All right, 93 then, 94, 95, 96, 97, 98, 99, and a 100. Let's see if all
of them can get up.
E-52 [Blank.spot.on.tape--Ed.]...
that does not have a prayer card now, now listen real close. See? Don't
be a bit alarmed; don't be nervous; be quiet. Now, this is the Church
of the Lord tonight, the Church of God. I know it's an arena used, but
tonight it's dedicated to the Lord. See?
So now, how many here that does not have a prayer card, but solemnly
you believe every word the Bible taught. You believe that Jesus Christ
is here, and you believe that He--that He will--that He is just exactly
the way we've explained Him, He's raised from the dead, and He's here.
And you want Him to heal you, would you raise your hand?...?... I'd
just thought I'd get a--an idea of where they were at, but you--ever...
It's just solid, everywhere.
Now, I don't want to--if I call without the prayer card then somebody
that's got a prayer, well, don't--see I'm wanting those who does not
have prayer cards, that won't be in the line. But it's just a solid
bank, you wouldn't know. So I have no way of stopping your faith;
that's between you and God. But you look and believe.
E-53 Now, if Jesus has risen
from the dead, and you're setting out there, and you believe with all
your heart, and if He's risen from the dead, can your faith touch Him
today, Scripturally speaking, like the woman touched Him when she had
the blood issue, can it be done? Yes. "You say--you say you was a
Fundamentalist?" Yes, sir, I am. All right, then what about the
Scripture? The Bible said that He is now a High Priest that can be
touched by the feeling of our infirmities, is that right? Plead your
case to Him; tell Him. Don't try to get up here; there's nothing in me;
I couldn't do nothing. But it's in Him. So let your faith touch Him.
Then if I'm yielded, and become His mouthpiece, then He is obligated to
answer your faith (Is that right?), to turn right back around and do
the same thing that He did to the woman that touched His garment.
Now, if He will do that, all that have promised to believe on Him, say,
"Amen." Now, may the Lord bless you.
E-54 Now, I'm going to ask you
little fellows something for me tonight, will you do it? Jesus loves
you, little fellows. I know it's warm in here, and you're restless; but
I'm going to ask you, with mother and dad, and all of you, will you
just be real quiet for a few minutes, or set real still. See? Course I
know mothers with little babies, they can't--little fellows are upset,
so forth; you can't help that. But if you're--if you can just set still
a few minutes, just set quiet. See?
When the Holy Spirit comes, each one of you people become a--like a
live wire. See? And the Holy Spirit is a Light. How many knows the
Bible says that? How many knows that Jesus Christ is in the form of
Light now, let's see your hands. How many--has anybody got a picture of
Him here now that was taken there with me down then--not because...
Somebody got the picture raise up your hand, somebody's got one of the
pictures, the Pillar of Fire? Here is it, right here. Here it is, the
Pillar of Fire that led the children of Israel. This is scientific. If
I die tonight, my testimony's true. The scientific world has proved it.
The Church knows it. So that--that settles it. George J. Lacy proved
that, right there.
E-55 And now you see this; it's
a Light. When the children of Israel was led by the Angel of God
through the wilderness, what was it? A Pillar of Fire, is that right?
Thirteenth chapter of Exodus. God kept It, in the day time It looked
like a white Light, like a cloud. And at night time, It was a Light.
Now, that was Christ. How many knows that?
Well, if He is the same yesterday, today, and forever, and if He said,
"I come from God and I go back to God..." Then when He was here on
earth, He was a man in flesh, when He returned back, His corporeal body
went into the Presence of God and He turned back to Light. Is that
right? If He's the same as He was when He was with Moses. Now, is that
Scriptural?
When Paul was on his way down to Damascus, what was It struck him down?
What did he see? A Light, is that right? And he said, "Why persecutest
thou Me?"
He said, "Who are You, Lord?" Called the Light, Lord. "Who are You,
Lord?"
He said, "I'm Jesus."
So He's the same yesterday, today, and forever. You see it? Now, He's
Spirit now, called the Holy Spirit. The same with God the Father,
leading Moses, called God the Father, the three dispensations,
Fatherhood, Sonship, and Holy Ghost. See? It's just three offices of
the same self God. Tonight His office is here on earth in His Church as
the Holy Ghost, God the Holy Ghost. Same God that was in Jesus is in
you. And if He's the same, and correctly the same, the same things that
He did then, He does now. If it isn't, then He isn't the same
yesterday, today, and forever, He changed or weakened in His death.
E-56 Now, now just--if you just
stand where you are just a moment, lady. Now, how many people in this
building is totally strangers to me, let's see your hands, everywhere
that you--that you know I don't know you. All in the prayer line, are
you all strangers to me? Are you a stranger to me? Everywhere,
everybody's strangers. Then I don't know you. I don't know nothing
about you, never seen you in my life.
But now, you say, "Brother Branham, what you stalling for?" Sure, I am;
that's exactly right. I'm waiting for Him. What... If He doesn't come
to me, I--I--there's nothing I can do, that's right. But if He does
come, then He can work. But I have to be anointed. Then it's your faith
that pulls. See?
Now, here stands a woman; here's a very perfect picture of a man and a
woman again. Let me quote a Scripture for the stranger. When Jesus of
Nazareth was here on earth, as I'm talking to this woman now. Now,
Philip said... He was a Jew. When Jesus told him where he was before he
come to the meeting, he said, "You're the Son of God; You're the King
of Israel." Now, all that knows that that's in the Scripture, Saint
John the 1st chapter, say, "Amen." All right.
E-57 That was the Jews. But now
here He goes up to the Gen--to the Samaritans. And now, He sets down
and sends the disciples away. And a woman comes out, a woman of
Samaria. She comes out to get some water. And Jesus carried a
conversation with her. He begin to talk to her, contacting her spirit.
Father told Him to go up there; He was contacting her spirit. And then
when He found just exactly where her trouble was, He said, "Go, get
your husband."
She said, "I have no husband."
He said, "That's true." He said, "You got five, and the one you have
now is not your husband." Isn't that right. See?
Would you get a chair just a minute, Paul, 'cause bless... Would you,
somebody set it up, the lady with a chair. Be seated just a moment.
And said, "You said well. Said, 'I--I have no husband.'"
He said, "Go, get him."
She said, "I have none."
He said, "That's right; you got five. And the one you have now is not
your husband."
Now, look what she said; now look at this woman now. Listen my subject,
Jesus Christ the same yesterday, today, and forever, raised from the
dead.
She said, "Sir, I perceive that You are a prophet. Now, we know (we
Samaritans)--we know that when the Messiah cometh (which is the
Christ), when Messiah cometh, He'll do these things; He'll tell us
these things, but Who are You?"
And she said--He said, "I am He that speaks to you."
E-58 Now, if that was the sign
for the Jew, for the Samaritan, and Gentile, and the whole world then,
that He was the Messiah, because He done those things, would not it be
the same signs of the Messiah if He is the same tonight? Is that right?
Then if He's raised from the dead, He's no more in a corporeal body,
but He's in our body. All that was in God He poured into Christ, and
all that was in Christ He poured into the Church. See? So it's just a
continuation. "That day you'll know that I'm the Father, and the Father
in Me and I in you, and..." See? All together. The Holy Spirit working
among His people.
Now, here's a lady, I--I don't believe I ever saw her, as I said a few
moments ago. God knows the lady. We've been raised miles apart and
first time of ever meeting in life. Now, if there's--if that lady is
here for some purpose, I don't know. She wouldn't be on the platform.
But if the Holy Spirit will reveal to this woman, just like He did the
woman at the well, and will find out what this woman's trouble is and
will correctly tell her, she--she knows about that, whether that be
true or not, wouldn't you, lady? You'd know whether that was true. And
if He would tell the same thing, would you all believe Him now with all
your heart? All right, all right.
E-59 Now, to contact the woman's
spirit. Now, please be real reverent and keep your seats. Now, the Holy
Spirit is here, and I--I know that He is here so be real reverent, now,
as I look to the woman just a moment. Now, lady, I just want you to
answer me as I talk to you. And then that'll be... Now, if I tell you,
well, you come here and say this lady setting here would say, "Mr.
Branham, I'm sick."
"Oh," I'd say, "go ahead you're healed (See?); you're going to get
well." She has a right to doubt that; she don't know me. She don't know
how firm my words are. But what if someone, something comes here to me
and tells me about it, and what she is, and what she's done, or what
about her, then she'd scratch her head, she'd say, "Say, that man don't
know me; that had to come from some other resource." Then whatever she
classed it to be, that would determine what she got. If she said, "Now,
well, it's not of God." It'll never bot--never help her a bit. But if
she believed it was of God and embraced it as God's promise, then God's
obligated to His Word. See?
E-60 Like the man hit Jesus on
the head with a stick and the woman touched His garment. She got
virtue, because she approached God's gift right. The man didn't. And
that's the way it is. He was trying to say, "Show me something." That's
the same devil that said, "Turn these stones into bread and do a
miracle before me; I'll believe You (See?) if You're the Son of God."
Just the same spirit, lives right down through man.
Now, to contact our friend here, the lady, not knowing her, never
seeing her, it would have to take... Now, if you want to stand up now,
you can stand up now. I just thought maybe I had you standing there too
long, that you were getting weak.
And now, God knows us both, and someday you and I have to stand in His
Presence to give an account for everything that we've done in this
life. That's right. We have to bow before Him some time or other.
E-61 Now, I've asked the
engineer to watch my voice, because I know it's low, but as I look to
the woman, and speaking to her, like Jesus did the woman at the well, a
man and a woman standing together... Jesus was trying to contact her
spirit to find out what her trouble was; and when He found it, He told
her. She believed it and said, "That's the sign of the Son of God, the
sign of the Messiah." That would be the same to us tonight, wouldn't
it? I'm just talking to you.
Now, the lady who stands before me, being a stranger, and as I'm
yielding myself to God, and she's standing there knowing all what's
she's here for. I see her as she moves away from me. The first thing,
the woman's all bothered. She's got a terrible nervous condition.
That's true. And you got something wrong with your throat. That's
right. And it's a dark shadow hanging there; it's a cancer. It's a
cancer in your throat. You're scared about it. And you've got something
on your mind, you're worried about. You've made some promises and
didn't live up to it, and so forth like that. You're studying of those
things.
E-62 And another thing it is:
you've had cancer before. I see you going into a hospital, or some kind
of a place where there's two doctors a standing. And that was a cancer
too. And that cancer was on the breast. And they removed the breast,
removed the cancer from the breast. That's THUS SAITH THE LORD. Is that
true? Then raise your hand.
You believe on the Lord Jesus now, He raised from the dead? Will
you--you believe now? If He knows what was, He surely knows what will
be. If He can tell you correctly all about your past, surely He'd know
your future. Is that right? Well, I say by His Word, If thou canst
believe with all your heart, right now, and here I am anointed with
some kind of a Spirit. You know that. I'm saying that for the audience
benefit. If you accept it and believe it to be the Son of God, He said,
"These signs shall follow them that believe: they'll lay hands on the
sick, they shall recover." It has to be, doesn't it? Do you believe it?
Well, come, let us pray.
Our kind heavenly Father, as I bow my head in Thy Divine Presence, and
ask for mercy for this dying woman. And I pray that she'll go from here
tonight and be a well person and just cause an old fashion revival to
come to her neighborhood by the call--way of her healing. I pray this
in Christ's Name. Amen. God bless you, lady. Now, go rejoicing and
happy, doubting nothing, believing all things.
E-63 Would you come? Now, let's
just say, "Praise the Lord." The Bible said, "Let everything that has
breath praise the Lord." Now, I'm not emotionally, but I am emotionally
too. Anything without emotion is dead.
So now, the lady stands here as a stranger to me. I do not know her,
have never seen her. Is that true, lady? That's the truth. [Lady
speaks, "Only on tape have I heard you."--Ed.] Ma'am? [Lady
says, "Heard you on tape."] On
tape, all right.
Now, please, be just as reverent. Something happened there then and I
missed it. Don't be moving around, please. See? It--the Angel of the
Lord is a Light and I have to follow It as It goes from here. Now, be
real reverent, please do, just for a little bit. They won't let me stay
long under these conditions.
But right now there oughtn't to be one shadow of doubt in anybody's
mind. Every person ought to be believing right now with all your heart.
Moses was sent to perform a sign to prove that God had sent him. I was
sent to perform the sign to show you that Jesus lives today. And if He
lives, every promise is true. He's alive to make good His promise. You
ought to believe it, oughtn't you? But being that we got people
standing in the line, don't move now, 'cause the diseases goes from one
to another. See, please.
E-64 Now, lady, as a stranger to
you, I just speak to you in the Name of the Lord Jesus, not knowing you
and knowing that both of us will have to answer at the day of the
judgment some time when the secrets of all hearts shall be disclosed,
we know.
I just have to leave, friend, I suppose. See? If you believe me, you
would--you would do what I told you to do. Please, don't move around,
just for five minutes, for the sake of the other people; don't do it.
See? It's--it's a counter... See, that's the reason we can't get
nowhere. If you believed, you'd do just as I told you. I set... I asked
you if you had to go for the next fifteen minutes to leave a few
minutes ago. Now, please don't; please stand still just a few minutes.
See? You're a spirit. Lot of you doubt me. And when you move that puts
a con--con...
You say, "Oh, Brother Branham, that's psychology." Is it? Then Jesus
did it when He taken Jairus' daughter and put everybody out of the
house and went in and healed her. He did it when He took a blind man
and went out of the audience and plumb out of the city and on the
outside of the street, oh, took him to Hisself and healed him. Is that
right? Certainly. No, it's just a pack of unbelief and mingling with
faith, and a battle's going on.
E-65 Now, pardon me, lady. I
don't mean to be rude, but I have to be firm. See? But God knows us
both, doesn't He? And He knows what you're here for. I don't know you.
And what I'm trying to do is single your spirit from all these others,
to see if God can get in contact with both of us. Like Jesus even sent
His disciples away to talk to the woman. That's right.
But if God will let me know what you're here for, just like the woman
that come to the well, would you receive Him as... To receive... It
might be financial trouble; it might be domestic trouble; it might be
sickness. I don't know; He does. But you will receive it? You will?
You are, first thing, is a nervous condition; you're extremely nervous.
That is right. 'Cause I see you just walking back and forth. And
you're--you got some trouble with the lungs, with the liver also. It's
a malignancy. That's right. It's a malignancy. And you're something
mixed up about Pentecostal. That's right. And then there's something
about Presbyterian. That's right. And you're not from here; you're from
another country north from here. It's a city, I see
so--R-i-c--Richmond, Virginia. That's right. That is right. You
believe? God bless you, and I bless my sister, in the Name of Jesus
Christ, for her to return well. Amen. God bless you, sister. Go,
believing now, don't doubt.
E-66 How do you do, lady? Do you
believe? You believe me to be His servant? If God will reveal to me
what your trouble, will you accept it?
I--I can't help it, sir. See, the vision just leaves me. In the Name of
Jesus Christ, the Son of God, may you set still. Cursed be you if you
move from now on till you're called. For the sake of these others I say
it. And if I be God's prophet, better be careful what you're doing.
You're here for someone else. You're not here for yourself. It's a
woman, and she's not here, it's your sister-in-law. She's got cancer,
expecting to die. That is right. Do you believe? Then that handkerchief
you brought with you, go put it on her; have faith in God; let her
live. God bless you.
Bring the lady. You believe with all your heart? I'm a stranger to you,
never seen you in my life. God knows you; I don't. But you're
suffering; you're really nervous. You have a distressed, disturbed
nervousness. You're all upset about something. That's right. You're
suffering with a nervousness, and you're praying for somebody. It's a
man, and that man is in the hospital. And it's a mental affair, nervous
mentalness. And that's your husband. Don't fear; believe that Jesus
Christ, the Son of God, is here; he will get well. Do you do it? Do you
accept it? I can't heal him or heal you, but do you believe it? Amen.
Then go and you will receive it. Amen. Have faith in God. That's it.
Have faith in God.
E-67 Do you believe, sir? I'm a
stranger to you; I've never seen you. We don't know each other, but God
knows us both.
What about it, son, are you believing? Don't doubt, no matter what's
wrong with you; have faith now. You were praying. You're in a serious
condition; you had an examination of something wrong in the rectum.
It's a growth in the rectum. You have to set on cushions, pads, like.
That is right. That's THUS SAITH THE SPIRIT. That is true. I don't know
you, never seen you in my life; but that's true, isn't it? And you're
not from here. You come from the east, coming this way, west coming
here. You come from a city called Charlotte. That's right. Your name's
Charles. Your last name's Pruitt. That's right. You believe now Jesus
is standing here; you believe it's Him that knows you? Then go home,
Mr. Pruitt, and receive your healing, in the Name of Jesus Christ. Have
faith in God.
E-68 Come, sir. We don't know
each other, I suppose? Christ knows us both. You believe that? What you
scared about? Your troubles in your throat. You've got something where
the doctor examined you, and he says there's little pockets like, or
little things in your throat. And you've been up for an operation for a
long time. You've been putting it off, and putting it off, and putting
it off. You're scared of it. Don't be scared, believe. You know you're
standing in His Presence; I don't know nothing about you. Isn't that
right? You believe you're in His Divine Presence now? Then receive Him
and be healed in the Name of the Lord Jesus Christ. The reason I laid
my hands on you, because that's what you wanted me to do. That's right.
If that's right, wave your hand? All right now, now...
Let's say, "Praise the Lord."
E-69 Come, you believe. The next
time you get up, you won't have to get up that way then. Your back's
been bothering you a long time, so just go on off the platform
rejoicing and praising God; your back trouble will leave you and you'll
be well. You believe it? All right, now I lay my hand. In the Name of
the Lord Jesus, may you receive it. Amen. Now, go believing.
Come, lady. Stop thinking that I'm reading your mind. I'm not. Here, I
believe this, lay your hand on mine, lady, just to contact. If God will
tell me what's wrong with you and me looking this way, will you believe
it with all your heart? The patient. You're suffering with a lady's
trouble; it's a female condition. If that's right raise your hand off
of mine to the audience. Now, is that reading her mind? Got a drainage
from it and it's bad. It's right. It's abscess on the ovary. But you'll
get well. Your faith's healed you. Go ahead home and praise the Lord.
Let's say, "Praise be to God." You believe?
E-70 Got something wrong with
the disease--disease in your bones, right there on the end of the row,
haven't you, brother? That's right. Yes, your wife's setting right
behind you with diabetes. You believe that Jesus Christ make you well?
You believe it? All right, raise up your hand. All right, you can have
it. Amen. The Lord bless you. Your faith saved you, sir. Amen.
Lady, what if I just told you, you was healed 'fore you come up here,
would you believe it? Then go back; you was. Amen.
Come, believing. Awhile ago when I said to that lady turning this way,
and told her about a female trouble, you was the one come before me.
You had female trouble too, lady's trouble. You were healed. So just go
ahead thank Him; just believe with all your heart.
Jesus can heal you of your heart trouble and make you well, you believe
that? Make you every... All right, just receive your healing, go back
to your seat; be made whole in the Name of the Lord Jesus.
You believe? Have faith in God.
E-71 You got back trouble too,
haven't you? internal troubles too. You just been down a long time; you
just got up out of a bed to come here (That's right.), walking on that
stick. You're believing God's going to make you well, aren't you? All
right. When the service is over just throw your old cane, or crutch,
back under there, and just go ahead home (See?), having faith. You
contacted Him just praying that way.
Liver trouble, isn't it? You believe me to be His prophet? A while ago
when I turned to contact--I caught a contact of you then, but I seen
something. I waited just a minute, people were moving; I couldn't keep
you in contact. You believe me to be His servant? You're not from here
either. You're from a big city that's got a city on one side of a big
river, and on the other side there's another big city. And there's
bridges spanning across. And you're going by a great big place that's
got high tower on it, and it's got some kind of a name writ up on it,
and you're going up a hill. And that's near a big river; it's the Ohio
River. And that place is Cincinnati, Ohio. You come here from
Cincinnati, Ohio. That is right. If that's true, stand on to your feet.
Go back home healed, 'cause you're well; your faith has made you whole.
God bless you.
Hallelujah. You believing?
E-72 What's sinus to God?
Nervousness too, haven't you? Sinus and nervousness and all upset,
that's right. I'm not reading your mind, but that's the truth. Do you
believe God? You believe me to be His prophet? Then raise up before the
audience to witness that you believe it, and stand on your feet and be
made well. In the Name of Jesus Christ. Praise the Lord.
I challenge anybody here to look this way and believe. I do. And the
whole group of you can be healed if you'll believe it. What more can He
do? He's raised from the dead; He's here. His Words are true? Do you
believe it, everyone of you? Then have faith in God.
Heavenly Father, in the Name of Jesus, Thy Son, we condemn every
sickness here, and pray God, that You will cast away every evil spirit,
all unbelief, and make them well.
You too, sister, go and in Jesus Name, be healed.
You believe? Raise up your hands. Stand up on you feet then, I don't
care who you are. Stand to your feet and give God praise. Praise the
Lord; you're healed in the Name of the Lord Jesus.