Israel And The Church #5

... and tonight, we want to put them in the homeland. May the Lord bless. Now, this morning we had questions and answers. My, we had a bunch of them. I started about nine o'clock, and let out at two-thirty. I still got a pocketful—all kinds. But maybe we can get to them this next week. There's still more laying up here I haven't even seen yet. We'll get to them just as soon as we can. Hope Brother Thom stays with us next week. And so we got plenty of preachers around here; if one of us gets hoarse, we just jump on to the next one.

This is my first time to hold a revival of this type for seven years. Seven years ago, this coming week, I held my last revival here at the Tabernacle. It's been healing services. I'll admit we've had greater crowds and things, up to a hundred thousand, but I've never had any better time. I've just had a good time.

Last night I was just slobbering like a horse eating clover, Brother Wright, having a wonderful time! The Lord did bless us.

He blessed us today till we just like to tore the house down. That sounds like old-fashioned camp meeting, “tear the house down,” doesn't it? So we had a good time. The Lord did bless us. We believe He will tonight. Some very vital questions we discussed this morning; some of them on deep Bible subjects.

Now, this coming Friday will be a crucifixion message, this coming Friday night, the Lord willing. We'll take Him to the cross, see Him crucified, put Him in the tomb and keep Him there over Saturday night; but Sunday morning, on the Easter sunrise service, we'll try to bring Him out, show you how He proves what He is.

Be pretty nice, right after that, if the Lord let us have a big healing service, wouldn't it? Wouldn't it be dandy? Maybe get the high school gym or something, and just crowd in a few more thousands of people, and have a big healing service; put it in the paper and on the radios, and so forth. Usually runs several thousand people when we have healing services. That's my calling: praying for the sick. Had such a marvelous experience along those lines!

And I believe the Lord is fixing now, (the reason He's brought me in out of the field and set me down, I believe this is memorial, seven years), He's going to raise up another bracket, go on a little farther. “When the enemy comes in like a flood,” He said, “I will raise up a standard against it.”

Tonight, I want to read for our text ... or, for a Scripture....

And now we got a baptismal service right away. I won't talk too long tonight. I've been saying that every night, then give you about two hours-and-a-half, of sitting there, punishment. But I can't do that tonight, because I got several to baptize.

And Easter morning, right after the sunrise service, will be water baptism here in the Tabernacle, too—Easter morning baptism.

They'll be baptizing tonight. We're Baptists in the way of baptizing. We just have to be Scriptural, that's all. Not exactly Baptists; but Scriptural: We believe in baptism by immersing. And, now, if you don't believe it that way, that's still all right. But we believe it, in water baptism, by immersing.

Now here's a Scripture that I've been.... It's come to me for years and years, the last four years. Without many times failing, I could pick up the Bible, it'll turn to this chapter. And I didn't know it till just a while ago, has worked right up to the very closing of this message tonight.

Next week we may go back into Genesis or somewhere. We don't know where we go yet for this next week, because the Lord leads. But tonight....

When I was sick here sometime ago.... I wasn't sick; I was just broke down. I just stayed hours, I sat in the prayer lines for eight days and nights without leaving, without leaving the platform. Took my meals, and done what sleeping, on the platform. And I said, “I'm going to pray for everybody, if I possibly can.” And when I left, there were twenty-eight thousand people in the city to be prayed for—twenty-eight thousand. Well, that's the newspaper account. They were all there, when the newspaper said they were there, Jonesboro Sun. Now then this....

[A brother says, “They're still talking about the meeting down in Arkansas, Brother Bill. Where I've been there, they're talking of the Branham meeting at Jonesboro.”]

We had a marvelous time. That's where blind, deaf, dumb, cripples, and everything else was healed. Beginning to spread from there around the world.

[“I've met them. They're still healed down there, Brother Branham, from that campaign.”]

That's wonderful. You can hear that, can't you? Oh, yes. God doesn't patch up things. He heals it. That's right. He makes it well. Now, I'd like to go back down there and hold another one.

[A brother speaks, “Amen. They'd be glad to have you. They come from everywhere from those hills and hollows.”]

We canceled a meeting over at Memphis the other day, where they had the Church of Christ ... not church ... or, Youth For Christ was going to sponsor the big Memorial Auditorium in Memphis. And the Holy Spirit said, “Come home,” so here I am. I don't know....

He had Philip in a great big revival one time. Told him go out to the desert and preach to one man; he went out there. That's right. Left the revival, right in the heat of it. That's right. That's exactly. We just have to do what God says do.

Now, that's Joshua, the first chapter.

In the vision of going to India. Now, you all know the story, when I returned from Africa, while sitting on the bedside one morning. Them visions....

How many has ever been in one of my healing campaigns? Let's see your hands. Sure. You see how it shows visions. How many was here when I had just a night's healing service here? Do you remember that time? It was packed all around out there in the yard, and it raining and carrying on. A girl rolled up here in a wheel chair, was turning to chalk from her waist down, paralyzed, been sitting there for years. The Holy Spirit told her all about what she done and what she failed to do.

She said, “If God will heal me, I will do that.”

I said, “Rise up in the name of the Lord Jesus.” And there she went, walking on out of the building, just like normal, see, see.

That's the thing that finds out what's the trouble. You've got to find the cause before you can find the cure, always.

So, we don't want to start on healing, because when you start playing, “Only Believe,” we'd pull on a prayer line. But, now we want to speak a little bit here.

And now to finish telling you this vision. I seen it open up before me. And a man came to me. He had some sheets of paper. And He took those sheets; He said, “Insomuch that you was thinking of what would be your future,” and He threw them like that, and they went plumb up in the heavens. I've got it wrote out here in the Bible. Just like laying yonder in the cornerstone, and what would take place in the last days; and everyone knows what that was. It's been just exactly the words. It will be just this way. He said, “Your future's clear.” And He said, “As you was thinking of that trouble that you've had, that'll all leave. You won't have it anymore.” Then He said, “Another thing,” said, “you've been wondering about how to hold your services.”

Everybody always told me, Oral Roberts would pray for five hundred while I prayed for two. But I'm not Oral Roberts. God gave me a ministry; gave Oral one. Whatever Oral does, he just pass them through and lay hands on them like that. That's the way God told him to do it. I've got to stand and see the thing through.

You have to watch, friends. It's a dangerous thing. Remember. What if God put a curse on a person for a certain purpose, to do something, then here comes the prophet along and takes that curse off the person, and they still haven't done it? Then you're in trouble with God.

Look at Moses, our character we're speaking about tonight. God told him, “Go down and speak to the rock”; he went and smote the rock. But God dealt with Moses.

Look at Elisha, that young prophet, young fellow went baldheaded. Little children begin to laugh at him, said, “Baldhead, why didn't you go up?” And that angry prophet turned around and cursed those little children, in the name of the Lord. And two she-bears killed forty-two little innocent children. Now, you can't say that's the nature of the Holy Spirit. But it was an angered prophet. Certainly. We have to be careful.

Look at John, one time, said, “Shall we call fire down out of Heaven and burn them up?”

Jesus said, “You don't know what kind of a spirit you are,” see.

You have to be careful, move easily and slowly, watch what the Holy Spirit says do.

A young lady come up to the house here not long ago. Been prayed for so much till she had been anointed fifty times, I guess. How that everything had taken place. I prayed for her there. But sat down in the room one morning. When the Angel of the Lord come near, He begin to speak to her and tell her just what she had done, and something she was harboring back in her soul, she had had there for eight long years. She wouldn't tell nobody. The psychiatrist couldn't pull it out of her. And she almost fainted. Fell on the floor and begin to cry.

And I said, “You go make that right, and God will heal you.” That's right.

She went and got her husband and made the thing right, and come back up. She's healed today. How many knows who I'm talking about, in the building? Many of you do, sure. I think, if I'm not mistaken, the woman may be sitting here now. It was a very embarrassing thing, but God did the work.

Now, see, all of the praying, all of the stomping, all the casting out of evil spirits, she was harboring her sin way down deep in her heart, that she didn't want to tell nobody that she had did, but the Holy Spirit revealed the secret of her heart. She went and made that right, then she's clear. God won't bless over the top of sin. You got to clear it up first. That's right.

Now, and in that going forth there (Brother Roberts), He told me, said, “Just as you are led.”

Then He set Me down at Durban, South Africa, where we had a hundred thousand people in the meeting, the last meeting. Had thirty thousand converts in one day, when they seen what the Lord had did, how He done the great, mighty works. And there, then, I was sitting back there again; He showed me another crowd just like it, showed that crowd passing away.

Then He turned me this way, and an Angel came down with a light, flashed it on. I just seen oceans of people, and they were Indians wrapped in Indian garb. He told me, said.... And I seen the Angel come real near. And I said, “Who are these people?”

And the other Angel who was standing by me—the One that you see back there in the picture—well, He come near me, He said, “There's three hundred thousand of those in that meeting.”

Now, you mark it in your Bible, and watch what the report is. When I return from India, there will be three hundred thousand people attend the meeting there at one time. I look for a hundred thousand conversions at one time, see. It's the only thing that'll stem the tide of Communism now, when forty percent of India has already turned Communist.

Look. If the church, (I say this with respects) if the church can't produce no more than reading, writing, and arithmetic, and the psychic side of the Gospel, the Indians are finished. The Indians, like the natives of Africa, has got to see the power of God in demonstration. Been sending missionaries over yonder for fifty years, in Africa. And when the supposed-to-be Christians come, they was packing little mud idol under their arm. Why, the missionary told them.... Why, about healing: They got healing out of the idol; not through the idol ... through God! God winked at their ignorance. But when it come to a place where they was to be healed, the missionary said, 'Oh, those things, their days are past. We got that in the seminary. See, that's already passed. There ain't no such thing as that.“ Well, he carried his idol for healing.

I told him that the very God the missionary talked about, was the Head of all healing, and proved it to them on the platform. Then they accepted Christ and went out into the jungles there. One of the fellows out there that went out, is baptizing on the average of a thousand a week, right now—native theirself. That's missionary. God's doing a real quick work.

How many hear “The Wings Of Healing,” Doctor Wyatt and them; a bosom friend of mine, Raymond Huckster? 'Course, he's preached right here at the Tabernacle, Raymond Huckster. He went up into East India, up there, and had a revival, and had thousands of converts up in there. See what God's doing? Oh, oh, look, there's....

Let me ask ... say this. Let me give you an illustration. Here, here's one sphere, here's another sphere, and here's another one. Now, down here is the nominal church. Now up in here ... here is the sublime; here's where we're supposed to be, right next door to Heaven where the powers of God is leaking down. All right. It drops on this, drops down through to this one, then down through to this one. This is the nominal church, it just goes on, just on cold professions and a little ritualistic affair. That is the nominal church. They just get the very slight dripping. The next church, up here, Full Gospel, gets some of the blessings, but they go off into isms. We've got to lift up into this next sphere here before we can ever have a rapture. Exactly right. You got to get up into that before we can ever have it. And that's true.

Now, you mark that in your Bible. He has never told me anything, never since I was a baby, and that pillar of fire.... My own mother sitting back there now, fifteen years old when I was born, she opened up the little window, and the Angel of the Lord come in and stood there. From that time, since I can remember, He's never told me one thing that's wrong. And here I am in the city right where I was born and raised. Some of you all, strangers, seek around through the city, and ask any persons if ever one thing was told in the name of the Lord but what come to pass just exactly like it said. So I know It's all right, see. It's God.

Now, and at the end of that ... end of that vision, I seen my Bible coming to me, and it turned over to Joshua 1. And that has constantly been before me. Oh, just.... I can't get away from it.

And tonight I want to read that, 'cause it's taking the children of Israel over. Joshua, the great leader. Then we'll drop back into Numbers and pick up our lesson, and come out with it in the next twenty, thirty minutes, or something like that. We'll have the baptismal service, and you can make ready for it.

Now listen close as we read Joshua 1. After the death of Moses, that's where we left it last night. Is that right? Moses, where'd we leave Moses? Standing on the hill, waving goodbye to his people. And he was going to die, laying there. And he looked, and here stood the rock standing by him. He just stepped over on the rock, and the Angels come, packed him away.

All right:

... after the death of Moses the servant of the LORD it came to pass, that the LORD spake unto Joshua the son of Nun, Moses' minister,...

Moses my servant is dead; now therefore arise, and go over this Jordan, thou, and all the people, unto the land which I will give unto them, even to the children of Israel.

Every place ... the soles of your foot shall tread upon, that have I given unto you, as I said to Moses.

From the wilderness and this Lebanon even to the great ... river Euphrates, all the lands of the Hittites, even to the great sea towards the going down of the sun, shall be your coast.

There shall not be any man be able to stand before thee all the days of thy life: as I was with Moses, so will I be with thee: I will not leave thee nor fail thee ... or fail thee, or forsake thee.

Be strong and of a good courage: for unto this people thou shalt divide for an inheritance the land, which I sware unto their fathers to give unto them.

Only be ... strong and very courageous, that thou mayest observe to do ... all the law, which Moses my servant commanded thee: turn not from it to the right hand or to the left, that thou mayest prosper wherever thou goest.

This book of the law shall not depart out of thy mouth; but thou shalt meditate therein day and night, that thou mayest observe to do according to all that is written therein: for then thou shalt make thy way prosperous, ... then thou shall have good success.

Have not I commanded thee? Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be ... dismayed: for the LORD thy God is with thee wheresoever thou goest.

Now, we'll drop back now into the book of Numbers, and pick up where we left off last evening.

Now, I want your undivided attention, just for a few minutes, because you're crowded. And many standing, and so forth, and we're sorry about this, but we can't help it; Tabernacle's no bigger. Now, we left Moses...

The children of Israel had come up out of Egypt. They got into the wilderness, begin to murmur. God sent fiery serpents among them and bit them; they were dying by the thousands. And then He made an atonement, a brass serpent. Oh, how beautiful! That brass serpent, speaking of judgment, “Divine judgment, and sin already judged.” Genesis 3:14, God had already judged the serpent. And then in Exodus 17, we find that brass speaks of divine judgment, the brazen altar. Then, also, in the days of Elijah, we found out that the skies were brass. Brass always is a symbol of divine judgment.

Tonight, the nations are becoming brassy; symbol, judgment near at hand. I believe we're living in the closing out of the world's history. I believe that divine judgment is upon the nations, and God has permitted these things. Because we neglected Christ, that's the reason Communism swept the lands. We've taken thousands of hogs and killed them, and burned them up out here on the prairies. We couldn't walk the straight, narrow path. We brought back whiskey and beer. We've burnt up the wheat, turned it under. Throwed over the cotton; and hundreds of little children has froze to death, nearly, in the year. All right, we got it now; Communism swept right in and took it off the feet.

No wonder Christianity can't even lift up a standard, not because Christ is not able, but because that people want death. The message is ready, the power of God is sufficient. Men and women are scared to break out yonder into those spheres before God, and dare to trust Him, take His Word.

Moses, then he failed God. Moses is a perfect type of the church organization. Excuse this, brethren, but I want you to listen close. All them things was a shadow and type.

And today you hear people say, “Oh, I belong to the So-and-so. I belong to the Methodist.” Not only that, but Pentecostal people, holiness people: “I belong to the Assemblies; they're the greatest! I belong to the Church of God.” [Brother Branham snaps his finger.] God don't care that much about either one of them, or any of them. No, sir. God's interested in an individual, and any man or woman that dares to trust Him.

Moses was a type of the church organization, which, he was the law. And Moses glorified himself before the people, instead of glorifying God. And God turned from him.

And today the church has begin to glorify themselves instead of glorifying God. They're trying to get more members, better churches, better organs and better pews, and a bigger church. God don't give [Brother Branham snaps his finger.] that much for that. You ought to be glorifying God. I'd rather have a little old mission somewhere, cleaned up, down on the bowery somewhere, where they could really get free and shout, and praise God and have a good time, than all the great Cathedrals in the world. Amen. That's right. God is finished with the church ages.

Now notice. He condemned Moses because Moses glorified himself.

And you just watch today. These big churches, they're all wanting you to come to their church and their organization. And every preacher is pulling to try to get a feather in his hat. He'll go along, say, “Well, I might be the district presbyter. I might be this, that, or the other.” Brother, I want to be a Christian. That's what men and women need, is Christ.

Oh, when I begin to see them, see the way they're doing!

It reminds me here not long ago, I was on a little vacation after I'd come back from Africa. I was up here in the north woods, way up near the Alaskan border, a thousand miles from a hardtop road. Went back six days on horseback, getting plumb away from everything. And as I went back through there, I was riding along on my horse one day, and he just got scared. A grizzly bear just raised up, and he got scared. And I was going down through, he started running, and we got down through there. And there had been a old burn-over, and there was a great big bunch of big old tall trees that stood there. And they were white there in the moonlight, oh, just as stately and strong as they could look to be. All the life was gone out of them. And I listened at the winds howling, and the winds come down through there, just a-moaning, you know, and all them old trees would do is just squeak and squawk, and squeak and squawk.

Over in Joel, it said, “What the palmerworm left, the caterpillar eaten; what the caterpillar left, the worm eaten.” Them churches, oh, no doubt, just like them trees, they once were great living statues, the Methodist, the Baptist, the Presbyterian, the Pentecost. But I tell you, the fires and scorches of this world has scorched all the bark off of them; they're standing like a big bunch of tombstones now, just erected up there. No life in them at all. Amen. That's right. And when the rushing mighty wind comes from Heaven, down, the only thing they do is just squeak, and squawk, and moan, and talk against it. Hallelujah! What we need is somebody to accept it!

And I noticed down over there, them young trees that was coming up, they were flexible; they just give with the wind, frolicked back and forth like this, having a good time. I said, “That puts me in the mind of a good, old-fashioned, God-sent, Holy Ghost revival.” Hallelujah!

When signs and wonders begin to come into the church, the big old churches moan, “I don't believe in them things. That's fanaticism. The days of miracles is past.” And the wind whistling right down. The same ones that made them moan give the others frolic. Hallelujah!

And when you shook that tree, every time it gets a shake, it loosens up the roots so it can grow down and get a better hold. Hallelujah! That's what we need tonight, is a good, old-time, Holy Ghost shaking, get down, (glory to God) get an old-fashioned hold on God. All the shaking and pulling the Holy Ghost does you, He's loosening up the dirt around the roots so He can dig down, get a better hold, “Be rooted and grounded in Christ Jesus.” Some experiences—experience of healing, experience the baptism of the Holy Ghost, experience of the gifts of the Spirit—(hallelujah) just anchors you in Christ harder it blows!

Let the church squeak and moan if she wants to. Let them say, “The days of miracles is past,” if they want to. They're dead, anyhow. Oh, they say, “We're a church!” So was them trees.

But, look at them. No bark on them, just blistered; all the bark done burnt off. They couldn't pack the life up, that's the reason. If them trees had bark on them, and they could pack the life up to them, they would live again. But all the bark.... They've done went out there and made their rituals and so forth, so they can't even have any bark on them—nothing but just a squeak and squawk when the winds blow.

But God sent the wind just the same. So, this little bitty church coming up, little handful, they were just having a big time with it while the rest of them was carrying on about it. Oh, my! We need God's power in the church!

Now, when they left, Moses dying, they started on towards the promised land. (Have to hurry now because we haven't got too much time.)

But they started towards the promised land. Who come in their way? But one day there was an old king got awful excited about this bunch of Hebrews coming through there. And they knowed that God was with them. So he went over and got a prophet to come and curse them, by the name of Balak. And old Balaam got a ... Balak had a prophet by the name of Balaam. And Balaam straddled a little old mule, after God done told him not to go. And here he started down through, riding his mule, with a couple servants. He was going over to curse Israel. “Sure, I'll go take care of that bunch of holy-rollers for you. I'll fix them up.” So he got on the mule and away he went, right down through there. The first thing you know....

The mule had more spiritual sight than the preacher did. That's right. The mule saw the Holy Ghost standing in the road, with a sword drawn. He run out into the field, mashed the old preacher's foot for him. Brother, what we need today is some more mule-riding. Don't you believe that? That's right. Yes, there he come. He run out into the field, he saw the Angel of the Lord standing in the way.

And so, the next time the Holy ... Holy Ghost went over in a little narrow strip, and stood there again. And then the first thing you know, begin to spur the old mule and trying to get him through, and the mule just laid right down. He started kicking him, and beating him with a stick, and the mule turned around and spoke in a human voice, and said, “Haven't I served you well in all these things?” And the prophet still was so mad, never even noticed what the mule was saying. Oh, my!

If God can use the tongue of a dumb mule, to talk, surely He can use a man or a woman that'll surrender himself to God. Hallelujah!

Then, first thing, the scales dropped off the preacher's eyes, and he looked over there and he saw what was the matter. There stood the Holy Ghost, or the Angel of the Lord, in the way.

He went on down. He thought that surely he was going to curse this people. So when he goes down.... We find a good picture of it here in Jude, if we'll just turn over. Listen. When he got down there, he said.... Now watch Balaam. Balak is going to show Balaam Israel, so he goes and built his altar. He was a prophet, Balaam was. So he just showed him a part of Israel, just the worst part.

And that's just exactly the way the Devil does today: He just shows you the worst part of the thing. That's what the Devil shows some of these modern preachers of theology, just say, “Now, look here, you know John Doe that used to live over here, he run off with So-and-so's wife. We had enough of that bunch of holy-rollers.” He didn't think about some in his own organization did the same thing. That's right. But they could cover it up.

But, listen. He showed him just so much of Israel, then he took him back and showed him so much here. But when he come to a place, and Balaam, he thought, Surely if Israel had done wrong.... They did do wrong. They had done everything in God's calendar, wrong, nearly. And Balaam thought that a holy God would surely curse a people that had done that much wrong. He thought, Surely, God will do it. So when he got down there, he was so money crazy until he couldn't see what the reason that God wasn't cursing them. And every time he'd try to curse them, he would bless them. He'd throw out his prophecy like that, and go forth and take up his mantle and his parable; and instead of cursing, it would be a blessing fall back to them: “How righteous are thy tents, O Israel,” how great they was. Instead of cursing, it was a blessing.

What Balaam failed to see, is what the modern preachers and modern people fail to see in the Holy Ghost church today. They say, “I know a lot of them call themselves this, that, and the other,” and a lot of things they've done. I'll admit that, brother. They say, “They blow up with this, and they've done that, and done this.” That's true. I'll admit that. They've done wrong.

But where Balaam failed to see: that brazen serpent and that smitten rock going before Israel, making atonement. It was God's calling, God's election. They were God's people. Hallelujah! God had called them and separated them, and put a serpent before them (as an atonement) and a smitten rock, and Balaam failed to see that. In the day the modern preacher fails to see the power of the Holy Ghost, the smitten Jesus Christ, that we are in His body. By one Spirit are we all baptized into one body and become members of that body. And that's what the modern man fails to see in there. Before that Holy Ghost church moving on, they fail to see that. That smitten rock, that brazen serpent going before the church, making an atonement. Balaam failed to see it.

Then when Joshua come down to the end, Joshua took Moses' place. Joshua had been in the camp all the time. He and Caleb was the only two that started back there at the beginning, that went over. That whole generation died off because of unbelief. God started up a new generation. He started Joshua to be the leader, him and Caleb.

Now notice. As the church has failed.... The thing.... That Spirit in the church all the time, yet not recognized, the gifts of the Spirit, the manifestation of the Spirit, is what's picking up the church now and moving on.

Look. In the old days back there, they put up their tents. There was a pillar of fire that led them. And every time that pillar of fire would move, they'd move with it. It stayed over the tents. And if it was ten o'clock at night, two o'clock in the afternoon, there was a thousand trumpets blasted at once; every Israelite took down his tent, pulled up his stakes, and wound up everything, and they followed the pillar of fire.

Oh, that would be a good thing today! They followed the pillar of fire. And then where the pillar of fire stopped, they built under it. That become lost to the church.

And in the days of Martin Luther, after fifteen hundred years of dark ages, Martin Luther saw the pillar of fire move, and he come out of the Catholic Church, and he followed the pillar of fire and brought tens of thousands of them out.

And then Martin Luther built under the pillar of fire. And when he got down there, the first thing you know, he made a great organization called the Lutheran church. But one day the pillar of fire begin to move again. But Martin Luther couldn't move because he was organized. He had to stay there. That's right.

And a little fellow over in England, by the name of John Wesley, saw it. And Martin Luther said, “The just shall live by faith.” And John Wesley said, “Jesus suffered without the gates, that He might sanctify the people with His own blood.” He seen sanctification. The pillar of fire moved out, but Luther couldn't move because he was organized.

Let me say this to you, brother. God, in His Bible, never did have an organized church. That's doctrine. The Catholic Church says they're “the mother church.” They are the mother church. They are the mother of organizations, and Revelation 17 says the same thing. That's right. They are the first organized church. And these are just little daughters that's dropped off of it. Read Revelation 17. We'll get into it next week. All right, notice.

Then they couldn't move, so John Wesley saw the pillar of fire and he moved after it. And he pulled a great ... He saved the nations. About three or four nations was in moral decay, and John Wesley saw the pillar of fire and started the Wesley revival that swept around the world, and come over here, him and Asbury and them, and saved the day. That's right.

And then the first thing you know, John Wesley organized so tight, the pillar of fire begin to move again. Wesley couldn't move, because he was organized. And the Pentecostal people saw it, and away they went. That's right. Left Wesley sitting in the shade; God laid him up on the shelf with Luther. All right. Now, the first thing you know, they had a great revival, a Pentecostal revival, restoration of the gifts and so forth.

And now, the first thing you know, the pillar of fire has begin to move again. But Pentecost is so organized, it can't go. Brother, that hurt, didn't it? But that's good. It's so organized, crystallized until it can't go. That's right. That's true. But the pillar of fire is moving out, brother, and there's people that's going with It. Hallelujah! We're bound for the promised land! Yes, sir.

When Moses failed, Joshua saw that pillar of fire move, said, “Come on, children; we're on our road.” He brought them up there to the side of Jordan. Oh, when I think of that, how beautiful! He said, “Now, before we cross over, we'll let a couple of spies swim over.”

You know the case of harlot, the Rahab ... Rahab the harlot, rather, how she let the scarlet clothes down, and saved her house. By faith, she saved the day; she saved her and her household. All the walls fell but her part, because there was a red streak on her door.

Like we had the other night: the death angel coming through. Is there a red streak on your door before this great shaking comes? He said, “Not once more will I shake the earth, but I will shake the heavens. And we receive a [Unclear word], a kingdom that cannot be shaken”—Hebrews. Right. We're living in an hour! Now watch.

I see Joshua, the young leader. God meets him; He said, “Don't get scared now. My servant Moses is dead, but rise and go over this Jordan. No man, all the days of your life, will be able to stand before you. As I was with Moses, so will I be with you. Fear not; be strong and very courageous.” My, I can see that old warrior walking around there, little humble fellow. He called all of Israel up together, and looked down over Jordan there. It was in the month of harvest, April. And then the snows had melted in Judea, and there was a great river coming down through there, roaring.

I told you we got a film of it where some of our brothers was over there here recently, and they were having a meeting in there ... or, just passing through, making ready; I'm going over for a meeting. And there was about forty of them. And they got to that place, and they screamed and liked to tore down all the bushes around there. And when they got up there, where Jesus got baptized up there with John, every one of them got to screaming, jumped in the water and baptized one another again. Sure, something just tears a man's soul when he thinks that!

Old Buddy Robinson, when he was over there.... Some of you Nazarenes ought to get this. He was riding in an old Model-T Ford, going down this same journey the children of Israel come. He said, “Glory to God! Stop the thing. I can't stand it no more!” Right out there, he got to running, around and around the car he went, and screamed as hard as he could. Said he got in, said, “Start the thing up again; let's go.”

Something about it! Hallelujah! What is it? There's a deep in here calling to a deep. Brother, I believe when the deep's in here, calling, there's a deep out there to respond to it. As long as there's a hunger in the human heart now, to move out and to do something for God, that shows that there's something pushing down, coming down to us. We're near the thing, brother. Listen tonight! I believe this, in the name of the Lord, that the things that we have done are little minor things to what God is fixing to do right now. You're going to hear of great things.

I seen Joshua now; he's standing there. How is he going to get across the river? Look at them. There, they didn't have no arches, big bridge builders, steel and material, or woods to build bridges with, in those days. They didn't have them with them. But Joshua looked out across the muddy Jordan; he looked back there and he seen these thousands and tens of thousands of Jews. He said, “God will make a way!” God had promised them.

And if God promises, God will keep His Word. If God promised to heal you, He'll do it. If God promised to give you the Holy Ghost, He'll do it. You just come and repent, and be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ, and believe Him, and watch what happens. That's right. You will be filled with the Holy Ghost! God's obligated to His Word. He cannot take His Word back. He's got to keep His Word, in order to be God. He has to.

Now, notice Joshua standing there, looked all around. Oh, my!

We're going to stand there, too, one of these days. We're going to stand at the end of the road, when the muddy Jordan.... You're healthy tonight, friend; there may not be nothing wrong with you. But one of these days the doctor will be in your room, and say, “There's nothing else can be done.” That pulse will be slipping up the sleeve. Those youthful days are gone. Something struck. The doctor says, “There's nothing can be done. Sorry. She's a young woman,” young boy, old or young, whichever it is, “but there's nothing can be done.” Walking out of the room, you'll feel the cold vapors of death floating down into the room; that old Jordan will look muddy and rough. Oh, my!

May you be as Joshua. He looked, sitting back over there on the hill, and there was the Ark of the covenant, the go-between. He had something that would go between him and their troubles.

And, tonight, we've got the Ark, Christ Jesus, who stands between us and death. Some of these days when the last breath is leaving our body, I want to run down to the river, and say, “Give way, Jordan, I'm going over to see my Lord.” I believe the Morning Star will come out, down through the valleys of the shadow of death, light up the way, and the Holy Ghost will stretch two glossy wings across the Jordan and bear our weary souls to a better land. Amen.

Now, notice this.

Then when Joshua looked, he took the Ark of the covenant, told them, said, “Gather yourselves out here, sanctify yourselves against tomorrow, and get ready, for you'll see the Glory of God.” Then he knowed God was with him.

Then he took the priests, and they put God first; the Ark before the priests, before the congregation; made them stay back a certain distance until the Ark went first.

Brother, sister, if you'll put God first in everything you do, you are bound to come out right. Put God first.

And they went, packing the Ark. And when the priests' feet rested in the water, God rolled back the Jordan. She moved back. He stood in a pillar, and Israel crossed over on dry land. Built their camp.

Joshua was walking around, a couple days later, just looking over the place. Everything was closed up there, 'cause God had put fear on them all, of the Palestine dwellers up around Jericho. Joshua was walking along, and he looked, he seen Somebody. He pulled his sword. He said.... And this other Man pulled His sword. He said, “Who are You for? Are You for us, or are You for our enemies?”

He said, “Nay, but I'm the Captain of the Host of the Lord. Take off the shoes upon your feet, for the ground you stand on is holy ground.” He met Jesus there, face to face, the Captain of the Host of the Lord. And He told him what to do: to march around the walls, sound a trumpet, let out a shout, and the walls of Jericho would fall. And they took the land of Palestine, settled down in there as God promised them, because the promise of God was for them.

Now, my brother, tonight we're on our road to the promised land. In a few minutes we'll be burying people here in this baptism pool, for the remission of their sins, believing on the Lord Jesus. And I want to say this: If you haven't made your calling and election sure in Christ, may you make it tonight. You say, “Well, Brother Branham, God don't want me; I ain't worth nothing.” Yes, you are.

Not long ago I was standing at a museum down in Tennessee, and I was looking at different things, and I seen the analysis of a human body, of a man that would weigh fifty pounds. You know how much he's worth? Eighty-four cents, in chemicals. Eighty-four cents. A human body weighing a hundred and fifty pounds, worth eighty-four cents, in chemicals. Just about enough calcium to do a certain thing, and enough whitewash to sprinkle a hen's nest and so forth like that, just had a little bitty thing at eighty-four cents. But you'll put a hundred-dollar fur coat around that eighty-four cents, stick your nose up in the air and walk on like you were somebody; fifty-dollar hat on top of that eighty-four cents. There was a fellow standing there, said, “Say, we're not worth very much, are we, George?”

I turned around; I said, “But, boy, your body ain't worth very much, but you got a soul is worth ten million worlds. What about that?” He was showing his muscles, how big he was. I said, “What about that?” Man likes to brag on what they are.

Not long ago, out in the West, I was having a meeting. I went home with an old rancher for dinner. Oh, some of his people had been healed. He had give me a check there that would have bought me forty-five of these Tabernacles, if I'd have wanted it. I said, “I don't want your money.”

Howard, my brother, was with me, said, “Bill, why didn't you take that check?”

I said, “I don't want his money.” Let me live day by day. Not money I'm after. I'm wanting to serve the Lord Jesus.

He stood there when that woman was healed out yonder, the Melikians, in California. You seen it here in the Louisville paper. When they come here, two of those agents, and brought a million, five hundred thousand dollars, and offered it to me when I lived in this two-room shack. I said, “I don't even want to look at it. No, sir. No, sir.” The love of money is the root of all evil. Keep away from that stuff.

This rancher walked out of there, he said, “Reverend Branham?”

I said, “Yes, sir.”

He said, “You see them mountains over yonder?”

I said, “Yes, sir.”

“How far do you think they are away?”

I said, “I don't know.”

Said, “They're eighty miles.” Said, “I own plumb to that, and plumb beyond that. It's my grazing grounds.”

I said, “My, that's wonderful.”

He said, “I see down in there. See that city?” He said, “I own the bank in that city; I own all that ground down around there, and I own this way.” Oh, all he owned!

Stopped, in his little station wagon. I looked at him, very nice man. I laid my hand on his shoulder. I said, “Brother, I want to ask you a question.”

He said, “All right.”

I said, “Look right up this way. How much do you own up that way,” see?

He said, “Brother Branham, I'm afraid I don't own anything.”

I said, “There's where my treasures are laying now. I don't have nothing down here. 'But a tent, or a cottage, why should I care? They're building a palace for me over there! Of rubies and diamonds, and silver and gold, His coffers are full, and has riches untold.'” Yes, sir. That's where the riches lays, up yonder. Where your treasures is, your heart is also.

They was taking a love offering one time for Gypsy Smith. And when he went back in the back of the building, to go out that night, there was a poor little ragged girl standing there. She was all.... Her clothes was all tore off of her. She had something; she said she wanted to see Mr. Smith. So Gypsy Smith said, “What do you want, darling?”

Said, “Mr. Smith, I didn't have any money to give you. But said, ”About a month ago it was Christmas, and somebody give me a lollipop. And I love you so much, Mr. Smith!“ Said, ”My daddy got saved. He's not a drunkard now.“ Said, ”I thought I'd bring you this lollipop.“

Mr. Smith took it in his hand, tears rolled down his cheeks. Patted her on the hand. He said, “Honey, in my offering tonight lays as much as thousands of dollars of checks, but this is the greatest gift that I've got of all of it. It come from your little humble heart.” Oh, my!

What you've got tonight, friends, you're not nothing, anyhow. Why don't you give all you've got to Christ? Come, let's cross this Jordan. Let's go over and possess the land. You say, “Well, brother, you know I've got a good job in this city. I belong to a certain organization in this city.” What are you, anyhow? Give what you've got, over to Him. Let's gather up here around the Jordan and cross over tonight, go over into the promised land. May the Lord help you. I pray that He will, while we bow our heads.

Wish I could preach a little longer, but I'm hoarse. It's all right. Let's bow our heads a minute.

Lord God, we're standing up near Jordan tonight. The old muddy waves splashing out yonder. We know one of these days we got to come down there. And I realize that out yonder, before every one of us, is a great big black hole, big deep door that men go in, called death. And I know every time that my heart beats I'm one beat closer there. And I got to come down there, Lord. And every man and woman, boy or girl in here, has to come to that place. How far we are, You only know. But, Lord, I don't want to come there like a coward; I don't want to come there screaming, “Lord, give me a few more days to repent.”

I want to come like a hero. I want to come like Paul of old, saying this one thing, “I know Him in the power of His resurrection.” Not by shaking hands with some preacher, not by putting my name on a church book, a few drops of water sprinkled on top of my head. I want to know Him in the power of His resurrection, that, when He calls my name, I'll come up from among the dead. O God, may that be the desire of every heart here tonight.

If there's men and women, boys and girls here, who doesn't know You in the free pardoning of sin, and has got their names written in the Lamb's book of life, may they make their decision just now. Grant it, Father. We love the people. And Thou has vindicated Your services everywhere. And we know that You're here.

And we're thinking of Israel crossing the Jordan. Why? You promised it to them; You gave it to them.

And You give it to us. Lord, may we rise and go possess our possessions tonight. Grant it, Lord.

While we have our heads down, I wonder if there's a person in here tonight would say, “Brother Branham,” sincerely from my heart, “I want to go over Jordan. I want to cross over, but I'm not exactly right yet. I'm not fit to go over. I'd hate to meet the Lord in my condition. I'm going to raise up my hand and say, 'Pray for me, Brother Branham.' And you do it, will you?” I will do it. Raise up your hand. Who are you? God bless you. My, just hands up everywhere! Someone else put your hands up, “Brother Branham, pray for me.” God bless you. God bless you, sir. God bless you, sister. God bless you, little lady. God bless you, boy. God bless you, mister. And you back there. All right, someone else put your hands up.

Now look, people, this may be the last Gospel meeting you'll ever be in. When I go away and come back, my wife says, “Bill, you know So-and-so?”

“Yes.”

“They died. This one got killed. That one went in a heart attack.”

“Oh, you don't mean it?”

“Yes.”

“Oh!” I think, “Oh, my! I remember I made an altar call one time, and I seen that man sitting there. I wanted him to.... ”Meda,“ I said, 'Does anybody know...? ”Did he ever get saved?“

“No, he just died suddenly, coming from work. He started to put on his shoes, he died. He was killed in an accident. He never woke up out of his sleep; he went to bed one night and never woke up.”

I think, Oh, my! I preached to that man, that woman, young people, too.

Now, don't misjudge things, friend. Are you really a sinner tonight? Now listen! If you haven't been born again, you're still away from Christ. Do you want to receive Him? If you will, how many of you wants to accept Him? We haven't room here, I don't think, for an altar call around here. But if you'll just stand up to your feet, and say, “Brother Branham, by standing up, I'm giving this witness, I want to accept Christ right now as my Saviour. I want to get away from this old condition I'm living in.”

Will you be honest enough in your heart, and stand up to your feet? Who will be the first one to do that, say, “I want to accept”? God bless you, brother. There's three men standing, just a moment. God bless you, lady. Just remain standing if you will, lady, if you will. God bless you. Someone else. God bless you. God bless you, son. Somebody else. God bless you, sir. Someone else stand to your feet, say, “I want to accept Christ right now. I want to get out of my condition.” God bless you, sir. Someone else. God bless you with your hand up, back there with the baby. God bless you, lady.

Just remain standing. Someone else stand up right quick now. How about here, and some of you little children up here? You, young lady, God bless you, sister. God bless you young.... Just remain standing, if you will. God bless you, little girl. Someone else want to accept Christ, stand up. That's right. God bless you. God bless you. Stand up. Someone else say, “I now want to accept Christ right now. I want you to remember me, Brother Branham, right now.” Will you stand? Waiting on you. “I want to accept Christ.” Do you know you're a sinner?

[Brother Branham continues altar service.]