Discerning The Body Of The Lord

Good evening, friends. Be seated. It's nice to be here again tonight under this roof and among these fine Christian people. And we are expecting God tonight to do the exceedingly abundantly above all that we could do or think. We know that He is real.

How many feel that you got healed last night in the services? Oh, that's just fine. We're looking for the rest of you to be healed tonight, and I think we still got out some prayer cards. Billy didn't give any out, he told me, because we didn't take up but just a few of those last night. And there might be some of those people who felt that they would like to come into the prayer line, or we might use some of them a little later on in the night for a line of discernment.

That's what.... It isn't the discernment that heals the person; it just sets them in condition to look up and accept their healing that Jesus has already did for them. See, the laying on of hands is a very good thing, because it's scriptural, but it isn't a Gentile way of getting healed.

In the Bible there was a Jew that had ... his daughter was very sick unto death, and she died. And he said to Jesus, “My daughter is laying ... is nigh unto death, but come and lay Your hands on her, and she will get well.”

But when the Roman, the centurion, the Gentile, when his servant was sick, he said, “I'm not worthy that You come under my roof; just speak the Word.” That's what turned the heart of Jesus. Didn't have to lay hands on him. He just wanted to hear the Word.

You see, I like that story, because that Roman recognized that He was a man with an authority. And if he said to a man, “Do this or do that,” he did it, and he recognized that same authority—authority in the Lord Jesus. For he knew that if He said to a man that was under Him, “You go,” or “You come,” he had to obey Him. And he knew that all sicknesses and diseases was under the control of the Lord Jesus; therefore, He didn't have to come lay hands on the servant—“Just speak the word and my servant will live.”

And Jesus marveled, and He said, “I've not found faith like that in Israel.” So, I would sure hope that I live to see the day when we Americans will have that kind of faith. “Just speak the word, Lord, and my servant will live.” Oh, it will be a great day.

Now sometimes when the anointing is very heavy, sometimes I don't get a chance to make the altar call; some of the other brethren, Brother Sullivan or some of my noble brethren here will take care of that. Someone might say that we were just featuring divine healing. Divine healing is just like going fishing. You never show the fish the hook; you just show him the bait, and he grabs the bait and gets the hook. So that's the way it is with divine healing. It's attractive because it demonstrates and proves that there is a God that lives and is interested in you. And the unbelievers see that. Quickly his eye catches it and knows there is a Living God, and then he is on the line of Salvation then. God can go to controlling him then and winding him in. So, that's what divine healing is for, merely for that sake.

The boys here have got some of the tapes, and the books, and records, and so forth that they have a little business of their own that they take care of. We don't.... For myself, I only have those books, and some of them I have to buy. There are some of them belongs to me—the sermons. The others are books that I buy from Brother Lindsay, called My Life Story, and then there is one called, A Prophet Visits Africa, and I believe three or four of the sermons belongs to me. They have them here, not for money; just so that the message gets out. That's the main thing.

Get the message out, for we're living in a hour later than we think. It's at the close of the age, and the church is in a terrible condition, and we're only trying to scatter sunshine among the peoples, not to try to convert them over to some of our beliefs, but to try to get them to live closer to the Lord Jesus and believe Him. Not to pull members from a church to another church, but to send more members to that church is our purpose.

Now, just before we open the Word for the evening message, which is short. We don't want to keep you long, because many are coming from way out of town, and you have to go back to work; and we will wait until Saturday night and keep you late then. And then Sunday you don't have to go to Sunday school until 9:30. So, let us bow our heads just a moment for a word of prayer.

Lord, we are grateful above thought for the opportunity to come and bow our heads to the Living God, and know that we have been promised by His Holy Son, the Lord Jesus, that we can have what we ask if we ask the Father in the name of the Lord Jesus, His Son. And we have been assured that we will have an interview, or an audition with Him, if we come in Jesus' name. For He has said, “Ask the Father anything in my name; He will grant it,” and we're absolutely sure tonight that He hears us, and that what we ask will be granted, because we feel that our asking is the will of God. For He has said in a certain place, “You have not, because you ask not, and you ask not, because you believe not.” Lord, the reason we're coming is because we do believe. And we believe that You will answer, and our prayers are not just to be heard of man, but we believe that You are listening, and are sure that You will answer us, because You have promised to. We would ask only Your will to be done.

Let it be, tonight, Lord, that every sinner that is here that does not know You as their Saviour, may this be the night that something will be done or said that they will accept Thee as their Saviour.

May those without the Holy Spirit, tonight, that's longing and waiting for that hour when the scales will fall from their eyes, and then their heart's desire will be given to them. Oh Lord, may the Holy Ghost, tonight, fill every heart. May there be such a manifestation of the Spirit of God till their souls will be so thrilled till all the doubt and superstitions will be taken from them, and the Holy Spirit will come into their life and seal them into the kingdom of God.

Grant tonight, Lord, that there will not be one sick person in our midst when the service is over. May everyone be healed. We would not forget them that are in the hospitals and shut-ins and in prison that is deeply in need of Thy mercy. Be with them, oh Lord.

And as we leave tonight, may we say like the disciples, “We've seen strange things today.” And may our hearts burn within us as we go to our different homes. We are depending on You, our Saviour, to grant these things to us according to Your promise, and Your promise is always Your will. We ask it in Jesus' name. Amen.

If you would like to turn tonight in the sacred writings to the first book of Corinthians, eleventh chapter, we would read a portion of the Scripture, beginning with the twenty-third verse:

For I have received of the Lord that which I also delivered unto you, That the Lord Jesus the same night in which he was betrayed took bread:

And when he had given thanks, he brake it, and said, Take and eat; this is my body, which was broken for you: this do in remembrance of me.

After the same manner he took the cup, also, and when he had given thanks, saying, This is the cup of the new testament ..., as oft as you drink it, in remembrance of me.

For as oft as you eat the bread, and drink the cup of the Lord, you ... shew forth his death until he come.

Wherefore whosoever shall eat this bread, and drink the cup of the Lord, unworthily, shall be guilty of the body and the blood of the Lord. (Now, I want to read my text out of the twenty-ninth verse.)

For he that eateth and drinketh unworthily, shall be guilty of the body of the Lord. (Now wait, I have read that wrong.)

For he that eateth and drinketh unworthily not discerning the body of the Lord ... shall drink unto himself damnation, not discerning the body of the Lord. (I have wept over this Bible, and it has got some faded places in it.)

...not discerning the body of the Lord.

Now, my subject tonight is: Discerning The Body Of The Lord.

Now, our eternal destination is not altogether determined by what we see and what we hear, but it's determined on what discernment we have of what we see and what we hear.

Paul was not disputing with them for taking the communion. Their act was right, but their discernment was wrong. For taking the Lord's Supper is the commandment of the Lord, but to take it unworthily, not discerning the Lord's body, is where the wrong lays.

These Christians was taking the communion and not living the life. Christianity is an experience and a life. And these Christians was just living any kind of a life, making a poor example of their profession. And Paul says, “That this cause, many are sick and weakly among you, and many are asleep,” which means they are dead, because they haven't discerned the body of the Lord.

And we who call ourselves Christians, we have no right to take the communion unless we are living above a reproach of the world. We have no right. The communion are for those who are living right as an example of Christianity.

The worst thing there is in the world is a person to try to impersonate something, and there's too much of that in the world today. Not only do we, in this day, are guilty of the same crime that Paul was rebuking the Corinthian church for, but of trying to do something that the Lord had commanded without discerning the body of the Lord, and the body of the Lord is the believers. But today we are doing things not discerning any of the Word of God. We should have a discernment on everything that we do. It ought to be measured by the Word of God. All the Christians do and say should be measured by the Word of God.

Today, people have changed quite a bit, and they sometimes put more reliability on what the church says than what the Word says. They believe then that the church has better rights to discern our taste than what the Word of God has. For instance like this: The church might say, “The days of miracles is passed,” and many people will believe it, because they think the church knows more about it than the Holy Spirit that wrote the Word. Therefore, we are not capable of discerning the things of God.

Jesus said once, “That except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God,” ... or, understand. And in other words, you can't discern the kingdom of God until you are born again!

People who will come and tell us that those who have accepted the experience of the Baptism of the Holy Ghost, that they are fanatics, or they are some ungodly name that the devil pinned on the church to call them holy rollers. I've preached in all the world, and I've never seen a holy roller yet. It is a name that the devil tacked on the church of the Living God.

Sometimes people don't have the right discernment. They are afraid of that. Don't you know that our Lord was publicly pronounced to be an insane person? The Pharisees, the high church said, “That man is out of His head. He has a devil, and He is mad,” and the word mad means “to be crazy”; and if they called Him crazy, how much more will they call them of His disciples!

Paul said to Agrippa, “In the way that is called heresy (crazy), that is the way I worship the God of our fathers.” I'm so glad tonight to join hands with him. In the way that is called fanaticism to the modern church, that is the way I worship God.

They were called heretics, because they didn't rightly discern the body of the Lord. That's the church of the Living God.

And the church tonight is called crazy, because the people doesn't have the discernment! If a man is born again.... And you tell me that you have been born again, and you do not believe that divine healing is a promise of God, and you do not believe that the Baptism of the Holy Ghost is for the people today, then I will have to say that your birth was of the wrong spirit. Because the Holy Ghost said that this promise is unto you and your children, and to them that is far off, even as many as the Lord our God shall call. You are accepting it by an intellectual conception. People are taking somebody else's word for it, and not got the discernment. They cannot discern between right and wrong.

I'm thinking today that many of we intellectual giants ... not we, but many intellectual giants.... God's people have never been great intellectuals. The Bible said that the children of darkness is wiser in this world than the children of the Light. God likened His people unto sheep. They're not smart and intelligent. He keeps them the way they are so He can lead them. If you try to use your own intellectual thinking, you right then bar out God. Sons of God are led by the Spirit of God. But it is a great intellectual day that we live in.

Here a few months ago (you read it in the newspaper), up in New York they had a trial, and two little preachers that felt led of the Lord sometime ago—little fellows about like myself that hardly knowed their ABC's—and the Lord led them to the Bowery, and they bought a certain building, and there they was preaching the gospel to their fallen brethren. Some great firm come to buy that, and all of them sold out but these little preachers. They had a revelation that the Lord wanted them to stay there, so they held their property, and the authorities brought them into court.

And they sent and got one of the great intellectual giants: Attorney Greenwall. And he made those little fellows feel ashamed of theirselves. He placed his words so correctly, and so educational like, and in such a way that those little fellows didn't know how to answer him, for he was an intellectual giant, one of the best attorneys there is in New York. And they had the little fellows so confused, they didn't know what to say. Finally he rapped and said, “What do you say for yourselves?”

And one of the little preachers got up, and he held the other one's hand, and he said, “Sir, the only thing that we know: that the Lord told us to take the building.”

And Attorney Greenwall said, “Here, stop that! We don't want no Lord in on this case.” About two weeks later, an airplane tried to go under the bridge, and it dove into the icy waters, and there Attorney Greenwall laying in the waters, struggling and dying; I wonder if he wanted God on that scene!

What was the matter? He hadn't discerned the body of the Lord, for those little preachers was anointed by the Holy Ghost and had the will of God. We don't need to be intellectual giants; we need to be humble servants of the Lord and discern His body. In all of his smartness, and his shrewdness, and his education.... You know the Bible said, “It is better for you that a millstone was hanged at your neck, and you be drowned in the depths of the sea than to offend my anointed.” I suppose he had a lot of time to think of calling the Lord on the scene, but he didn't discern the body of the Lord.

Sometimes I wonder if we intellectual Americans has enough discernment to discern right from wrong. Especially the juvenile courts prove that we haven't got it to discern right and wrong for our children, and they seem to have a good psychologist's answer. For instance like this: If Junior comes up to his papa, and stomps his little feet and screams out and shakes his head, said, “Dad, I don't care what you say, I want a hot rod!” (That is typical America.)

And the father says, “All right, Junior, I will buy it for you.”

You could say to that dad, “Why did you do it?”

“Oh, I love him.”

You remember, Dad, Junior is going to grow up to be a man someday, and he will marry and have a family. God help that wife that lives with a boy that has been brought up like that to have his way about everything he wants—can't discern right from wrong. That is not love. That is pure ignorance. The Bible is right. Spare the rod, and you spoil your son.

Little Fannie will come up to mother, and she is going to go up to rock and roll. Mother tells her she can't do it. “But, oh, Mother, you're cruel to me.” Of course, you love Fannie, and you let her go. She will get out amongst that bunch of hoodlums, and all that nonsense, come in and pucker up her little painted lips, and tell you a lie, that there's no harm in it. God have mercy to the man that will marry something like that for a wife. Discerning right from wrong. We can't discern our own.

I wonder sometimes if we can discern right from wrong for our own bodies, especially the Lord's body. We don't discern right from wrong from our own bodies. Day after day and week after week, month after month, and year after year, scientists work in the laboratories and set great big pictures out and everything and advertisements and warns the people: “Cancer by the carton.” Men, two hundred and seventy something thousand Americans will die this year from smoking cigarettes, and you smoke right on. We can't even discern our own bodies, let alone discerning the Holy Spirit and in the body of the Lord.

Did you see that article the other day that this scientist produced all of his research? He said, “Not only to cigarettes, does it give you cancer, but you've got fifty percent more chance of taking anything else,” and you smoke right on.

A woman met me some time ago when I struck at that just hard as I could. She was a habitual smoker. And she said ... put a little note in my pocket, said, “Read this when you get home.”

I said, “Thank you, I will read it now,” and I took it out and started reading it.

She said, “It is not polite for a minister in the pulpit to speak against smoking. You have nothing to do with that.”

I said, “It's my duty to speak against anything that's wrong!” God help the preacher that hasn't got a discernment of the right enough of anything that's wrong. A preacher that can't discern the need of his people by the Holy Spirit. God said, “This body is a temple of the Holy Ghost. If you defile it, I will destroy it!” We should preach against it. The trouble of it is, we got too many cigarette smoking preachers. That's what is the matter. And they're afraid to say it in their congregation, because they know they're guilty too.

Rightly discerning; rightly dividing. Whiskey, alcohol: “Why,” they say, “it's harmful?” All over your television screen, all over every billboard, in your newspaper is big cans of beer with lovely young women drinking it. They show you when they start. Look at them a little later from that. It fills their mind with poison toxin. Its increase of insanity is terrible. It causes immorality among the young. And even the churches today are preaching and practicing, many of them: “drink moderately.” You know that's the truth. Telling their young folks at home and the parents: “Let your children drink. They're going to drink anyhow, so just teach them to drink moderately.” The Bible condemns it. It is not right. God help a man with no more discernment than that, or a church. Can't discern the right from the wrong.

Oh, it's a terrible day that we're living in. Discerning the Lord's body! In our churches, and among our church people today, it's such a shame the way our women are acting, too. Many of them wearing immoral clothes: those little shorts. It's so sinful. A lady told me, and many has told me, said, “Billy, you better quit talking about that.” No, sir! I may have to preach to posts, but I will be telling the truth! That's right. That is right. It's the truth. Thank you. It is wrong, and it is sinful.

There was one lady said to me, she said, “I don't wear shorts; I wear slacks.”

I said, “That's worse. The Bible said, 'It is an abomination to God for a woman to put on a garment that pertains to a man.'” It is the truth. And then the alibi is, “They don't make any more clothes besides that.” But they still make sewing machines and sell goods.

A woman that dresses herself like that, she is going to be guilty of adultery at the day of judgment. You might be as pure as a lily to your husband or boyfriend, but Jesus said, “Whosoever looketh upon a woman to lust after her has committed adultery with her in his heart already.” So you might not have done anything wrong actually, but when you dressed yourself like that, you presented yourself to the man; he is going to have to answer for committing adultery, and you are the blame. And the church is permitting that. Not discerning the Lord's body. What a pity!

Bobbing off their hair. The Bible said that a woman that cuts her hair, her husband has a right to give her a divorce, because she is untrue. He said that she dishonors her head. Is that right? And the man is the head of the woman.

I know that's rough, but we need discernment. We need to discern it by the Word. The Word is right. Take the Word. God's Word is always right.

We can't discern by what people think, what intellectuals tell us, what psychologists tell us; we've got to go by what God says. “Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God.” “Not discerning the Lord's body, many are weakly and sick. Many are asleep”: dead, spiritually dead. The last plague that hit Egypt was death. The last plague that has hit the church is spiritual death. What we need today is a spiritual awakening, a spiritual awakening to discernment.

These people might have done this, oh, with good intentions. That man down South, that doctor the other day give that man that sulfuric acid that killed him, he had good intentions. He thought he was right, but he had poor discernment. He didn't discern his medicine.

Like the little girl that was walking down the street, and she found a little kitty, and he was all wet and about half froze. And she took him in, opened up the oven door and put him in the oven to get warm. Her intentions were good, but her discernment was poor. If we don't watch, we're going to bake the kitty, too, with some of our intellectual discernments.

The communist is coming on us. World is come in on us. Our churches are broken up. Men dividing themselves, separating themselves, not seemingly to have the faith. Splitting hairs over little insignificant doctrines. We should come together arm and heart and pray, and fast, and call until God sends back the Holy Ghost that we might have spiritual discernment.

The hour has come at the end-time now. We're in the shadows of the coming of the Lord, and the church can't discern it. We're living in the later hour than you think.

If Paul could arise from the dead tonight in Middletown, you talk about a burning fire; they would have him in jail before daylight as a maniac or a wild man. That man filled with the Holy Ghost and see things going the way they are and knowing that the time is at hand, there would be revival, or they would have to come to jail to hear him. That's right.

Now, Jesus said, and the Bible speaks that in the last days just before the coming of the Lord, there shall be great signs and wonders taking place in the earth. And you know the church is so dead in theology and all kinds of schoolings, and trainings, and educational programs till it can't discern those things.

Did not Jesus say to the church in His day, “You can discern the face of the sky, but the signs of the time you cannot discern, for if you would have known Me, you would have known my day.” The hour of the deliverance of the church, and they can't discern it.

We're so.... Something is wrong. I'm talking about the entire church, everybody that calls themselves Christians. God can start moving and spiritual things happening; people getting saved and filled with the Holy Spirit. Many thousands who call themselves Christians will pull back from it and say, “Oh, that's holy rollers.” You haven't got spiritual discernment, for everything the Holy Ghost does is written in the Bible. Judge all things by the Scripture.

That is how we discern to see if our discernment is right. If the Bible said, “Jesus is the same yesterday, today and forever,” I believe it. If the Bible.... If Jesus said, “The things that I do shall you do also,” I believe it. And if the Bible said that the Holy Ghost is for every generation—as many as the Lord our God shall call—I don't believe a handshake takes its place. I believe it's the same Holy Ghost that fell then, showing the same signs, the same wonders.

The best witness that we have that we got the Holy Ghost is when our spirit bears record with the Word. If we call ourselves Christians and say we're filled with the Spirit, and we see that the baptism of the Holy Spirit is poured out on the believers for all ages, and our spirit tells us that is for another age, you're wrong. That is right.

When the Bible says that Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today and forever, if our spirit said, “No, He is dead. He is gone on,” there is something wrong. Jesus said, “The works that I do shall you do also. Lo, I'm with you always, even to the end of the world,” and if our spirit pulls back from that, we haven't got the Holy Ghost. For the Holy Spirit will say “Amen” to every word He wrote.

Now, intellectual knowledge will pull you away from it, but the Holy Spirit will say “Amen” to His own Word. He certainly will. And He is seeking, and hunting, and trying to find someone that He can put Himself into. He longs to find it.

Don't think you can exhaust His goodness. Could you imagine a little fish a half inch long out in the middle of the Pacific Ocean saying, “I had better drink sparingly of this water; I might run out”? That would be just as foolish as to try to think you could ever exhaust God's goodness. Ask abundantly that your joys might be full. Believe God for anything He promised. It is yours.

The prophets of the Old Testament—Daniel and the others—said, “In the last days that the people that know their God shall do exploits.” That's a promise. When the intellectual looks at the exploits, they will say, “Oh, that's psychology; that's mental telepathy; it's the working of the devil,” but the Holy Ghost will answer back, “Amen! that is the truth.” Right discernment. They promised it. Jesus promised it. Jesus said, “The works that I do shall you do also, even greater than this shall you do, for I go to my Father.”

Paul promised that in the last day, by the Holy Spirit, that the church would fall away—millions of them. “There will come a falling away, for men will be heady, high-minded, lovers of pleasure more than lovers of God, truce breakers, false accusers, incontinent, and despisers of those that are good.” Not the right discernment.

“Oh,” you say, “that's the Communists.” That is so-called Christians. Watch the next verse. “Having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof.” No spiritual discernment. When you got spiritual discernment and the Holy Ghost is upon you, you have spiritual discernment. It says, “Amen” to every promise of God.

Paul said those days would be.

We've got it. It's here. It's on us, and we look and see it. We hear it from everywhere and what do we do? It ought to draw us together. The Bible said, “Assembling ourselves together, and that the more when you see that day approaching.” It ought to be one revival after another and bonfires of God's glory built in every church and every place. A great coming together where all the churches with one heart and one accord assemble themselves together and forget their man-made theology and cry out to God for spiritual power and spiritual discernment. That is the hour we need.

I might say this: that Jesus give us a day (as I touched on it last night) to know the end-time. Jesus said, “As it was in the days of Lot, so shall it be in the coming of the Son of man.” Now, does your spirit discern this right? “As it was in the days of Lot....” Remember, Lot was a type of America. It has proven it. What was the sin of Sodom? It was perversion, and this American country of ours.... The women have degraded themselves so much until man's natural sources has been perverted.

I was in Los Angeles a few weeks ago at the Christian Businessmen's, and picked up one of their noted papers and seen where one of the analysts said that perversion and homosexual had increased twenty percent over last year.

Jesus said, “As it was in the days of Sodom....” The police and the homicides and all that is just on the go all the time breaking up boys living together as husband and wife; women living the same way. Perverted! Their minds are filthy minds, because they don't have spiritual discernment. All is a lust and a filth, and they can't satisfy themselves even with one another. They don't even marry. They just take up and go out until.... They're perverted! Jesus said that would be in the last days, and here it is.

And you also remember, that in the days of Sodom—any of you ministers and you Bible students, I believe you would agree with this; Dr. Scofield and many others does; most all the teachers, Charles Fuller, and so forth, of great scholars in the land—that Abraham represented the church spiritual. Lot represented the church carnal or natural. He was down in Sodom in the sin, yet he had righteousness in him, but he was mixing with it. And remember, there was two intellectual preachers that went down to preach to Sodom. They did no miracle, only blinded them. And the preaching of the cross blinds the unbeliever. That is what great meetings of Billy Graham and them has done; it has made them worse.

When Billy Graham a few weeks ago noted (you heard it) that when, he walking in England, and had to take his wife in out of the parks where he'd had a great revival, because men and women were committing sexual acts right out in open public where he had the revival.

Does it do any good? Not intellectual. It will take the calling down of the wrath of God and holy fire out of heaven to ever bring a difference in the world, and it won't be. People are looking forward to a great something to come, and you're at the end of what has already come. The last signs has been given to the Gentile church. The Jews will have it after the church is raptured, but we're in the end of the Gentile age.

Now just closing, I might say this: Did you notice what kind of a person that stayed behind to talk to the church spiritual? Sat with His back to the tent, and Him a stranger and said, “Where is your wife, Sarah?”

And said, “She is in the tent.”

Said, “I'm going to visit you, Abraham, according to the promise I give you.” And Sarah, inside, laughed within herself.

And the Angel said, “Why did she laugh?”

Jesus said, “As it was in the days of Sodom so shall it be in the coming of the Son of man.”

Now, do you understand? You understand why a ministry like this can only go to full-gospel people? Do you see what it's come to? I was raised in a Baptist church and ordained a Missionary Baptist preacher, but when something struck my heart, I had discernment that that was the Word of God and He made it manifest.

They told me, “You will be a holy roller, Billy. Nobody will listen to such stuff as that.”

I said, “If God has sent it, God promised it in His Bible, He will have somebody to listen to it.” That is right.

Let's discern the body of the Lord. Discern the times that we're living in. We will die spiritually if we don't do that. And if this is true, then the Holy Spirit is with us, and we've got the last sign of the coming of the Lord just before He come; remember, that was just before Sodom burned, just a few hours before it burned.

I believe today.... Many of you all heard what Khrushchev said the other day to the Americans. You read it in your papers. Here is his statement. You've got natural discernment, you'll catch this. He said, “If there is a God, He is going to sweep the temple and clean it with you money changer capitalists.” You see what that means, don't you? And he is right. A heathen, a devil, an impostor like that, has to throw the threats out. Still they sleep, sinning, drinking, just ignoring because they have no spiritual discernment of the body of the Lord. What a day we're living in.

Brother and sister, to you my beloved ones, I'm not trying to be partial. I'm only telling you the truth. I'm only responsible for the Bible, and I'm telling you: if you believe in me to be His prophet or His servant, you believe that I'm telling you the truth. The end is close. How close, I don't know, and nobody else knows, but I know we're living in the shadows of His coming.

Can't you see them threats? You see what they've got? The nation is trying to drink it off, laugh it off. You can't do it. You're doing that to keep from taking the spiritual discernment that God can show them the handwriting on the wall. We know it's there. You can crack it off with jokes and Hollywood, television, or stay home and dicker with that if you want to, but a real born again man or woman that's got discernment of the Holy Ghost will find his place in church, worshipping, and crying out and doing all that is in his life to try to bring sinners. Certainly.

If it is God, let's.... You should put your heart in it, if you've got discernment. Work; just don't go and say, “Yes, I believe that. That's the truth. That's good. Amen,” and go home. Go to work! You've got discernment. Work while it is light, for the night cometh when no man can work. Work while we got an open door. Work while we can have meetings like this. Get our loved ones in. Bring them into the gospel. Get our friends, our neighbors. God died for those people, and we ought to be concerned enough about them to work till our hands are bleeding. We will come empty if we don't.

Like the little girl up here in Kentucky that died recently up in the hills, way back. There was about eight children. One little girl, about the middle of them, around twelve years old, her sisters and brothers were so lazy and wouldn't do nothing, and her mother lay dying with the horrible disease of tuberculoses. And the little girl—she done the mopping, the cooking, the washing, the taking care of her mother, while the rest of them loafed around, played and went swimming.

Finally her mother died, and then the little girl had to continue on because none of them would work. And she worked, and she worked, and she worked, until finally she took the dreaded disease —malnutrition and not having enough to eat, and so forth—the little thing's body broke down. She was dying.

Some Sunday school teacher came in to her and said, “Are you a Christian?”

She said, “Yes, I am.”

Said, “What denomination do you belong to?”

She said, “I don't belong to any denomination.”

Said, “Then tell me, how in the world are you going to meet Jesus. What are you going to show Him what church you belong to?”

She said, “I will just show Him my hands. He'll understand.”

Now, I think that is what He is going to look upon all of us when we see meetings like that is going on here. He is going to look at our hands and see what we've done about it. Spiritual discernment: not discerning the Lord's body.

Let us pray. If those hands should be at work, and you know they should be, won't you lift them to God and ask Him to sanctify those hands to His service while we pray? Raise up your hands.

Lord, look at those hands, and mine too, Lord. I want to come as a callused soldier. I don't want to come empty. I want to preach till I die. I want to pull, and beg, and fast, and pray, for I know the night shades are falling, and the hour is soon at hand. Lord, open my eyes to see more signs of Your coming. Burn these people's hearts tonight with great wonders that You promised.

When we see the prediction of the world and hear sinful man cry out, He is going to sweep the capitols. We realize that they have got the bombs there to do it with. Just some fanatic to touch it off. You're holding mercifully till You get Your church ready. Lord, what is here tonight, get us ready. Put our hearts into the service. Show us Your presence, for we believe that You have raised from the dead, and our Spirit discerns that You are here, the same Jesus, yesterday, today and forever. You're here in the form of the Holy Ghost to work through Your church; to heal and to save. Hear us, Lord, as I commit to You these people and myself in the name of Jesus, God's Son. Amen.

Oh, for His mercy, for His goodness. I just feel real washed out. That was on my heart. I had to say it. I hope I didn't hurt my Methodist, Baptist or Pentecostal friends. If I did, I didn't mean to hurt you. I want to awaken you, shake you a little. We're at the end. Not having discernment of the body of the Lord, separating ourselves, not seemingly having the faith. If there ever was a time that we needed everyone of you, it's right now! You need me, and I need you. God needs both of us. Let's join our hearts and efforts together. Let's not think because we're Nazarene, Pilgrim Holiness, Catholic, Presbyterian, Pentecostals, or what we are.... Let's be Christians. Let's discern the body of the Lord and reach out our arms even to the vilest of sinner and bring them into the fold. That is my humble prayer.

That Angel of God who came to Sodom, He come and He is promised. Remember, that same Angel came. Anyone knows that that was God. It wasn't that body, because the body was dust.

I spoke that to someone not long ago that that was God. He said (a minister) He said, “Oh, now Brother Branham, you don't believe that man was God?”

I said, “He was God! Abraham said He was.” He called Him “Elohim.” That is the Almighty God, Him and two angels.

He said, “Well, you thought He lived in a body?”

I said, “That's so easy. We're made out of sixteen elements: petroleum, cosmic light, and calcium, potash, so forth. God just gathered Him a little handful, and went 'whooosh.'” Said, “Step in there, Gabriel.” “Whooosh—Step in there, Michael,” and breathed one for Himself! “I've heard Sodom is about ripe. Let's go down and see. Let's go down ourselves! Abraham has been preaching and others have been preaching. Let's go see for ourselves.”

Where did they come to?—to the Elect. This One set behind and talked to Abraham. Abraham called Him Elohim. Watch that capital “El” and see if it isn't right: the Lord God Jehovah. He was in a body of flesh. You just don't realize what God is. God can just “whooosh.” I'm glad I know that God. One of these days I won't be nothing but maybe volcanic ashes, but He will speak, and I will come to life again! He is God.

My wife said not long ago, said, “Billy, you're about bald-headed.”

I said, “I haven't lost a one of them.”

She said, “Where are they at?”

I said, “Tell me where they was before I got them; I'll tell you where they are waiting for me to come.” It is right! There is not one hair of your head shall perish. The God of heaven that controls all things will say, “William Branham,” or so forth, “come forth,” and I will come in His likeness! Hallelujah! That same God by the Holy Ghost, dwelling among us tonight. In the Shekinah glory, proving Himself by the same natural signs that He did.

If a vine bears grapes today, it will bear grapes tomorrow. If it's a grape vine, it will always have grapes. We will never get in under intellectuals. We will have to come in by the Holy Ghost, because that is the only kind of a Spirit that the Holy Ghost church bears: the fruits of the Spirit, the life of Christ in us.

That same angel is here, a witness before Sodom and Gomorrah's destruction ... goes to destruction.

Now let's see. How many has prayer cards? Raise up your hands. There is forty or fifty. How many don't have prayer cards? Raise up your hands. Why, there's three times as many. All right. I feel led to do something. Let's just take the ones that hasn't got prayer cards. Let the ones with the prayer cards maybe.... Well, they can get in, too, but on this discernment, we want just the ones without prayer cards. Raise your hands again, the ones that's sick and hasn't got prayer cards so I can get an idea of who you are. All right.

Here is a showdown. Do you believe I've told you the truth? Do you believe you have spiritual discernment to know that it's the truth? We don't have to come up here. I'm not a healer. I'm a man. I'm your brother. Christ is your healer if you can just recognize Him to be here.

Now, if it comes to healing you, if He was standing right here with this suit on, He couldn't heal you, because He has already done it. He could only prove that He was the Christ. How would you know it? By the fruit of the Spirit you know Him. What kind of a life did He do?

What did He do when He was here to prove He was Messiah? When He was showed Peter and John ... or, Peter and Nathanael and them, by telling them who they were, where they come from; that was His sign to the Jews. That was the closing of their age. There was another class of people looking for Him to come. That was the Samaritans, which is half Jew and half Gentile. He told the woman at the well about her sins, and she recognized It to be the sign of the Messiah.

She said, “We know that the Messiah will tell us these things, but who are You?”

He said, “I am He.”

Now, He did not go to the Gentiles. Did He? For the Gentiles wasn't looking for Him. And how many believes that God is infinite? Well sure, He is infinite. Then He cannot say one thing or do one thing here and do something over here, and be just. He has got to do the same thing. If He has got a better plan, then He ought to have done it in the first place. When God is called on the scene for anything, and the judgment that He makes there.... If one sinner ever cried to God, and God saved him on the merits of his faith, He's got to save the next sinner, and the next sinner, and the next sinner. He's got to do it the same time, or He did wrong when He saved the first sinner.

He's got to do the same thing by healing. He's already finished that work. The only thing that you have to recognize, that He is not a myth; He is not some historical god; He is a God present: Jesus Christ the same yesterday, today, and forever, right now! Do you believe He's here? Would you discern it?

I want to turn my back to this audience. Now, I pray the Holy Ghost will prove what I've said tonight, the closing of this message, that the same signs that Jesus said was give to Sodom will be give to this generation. “As it was in the days of Sodom so shall it be in the coming of the Son of man.” Then you discern what Spirit is here.

Who was it again that's sick and has not a prayer card? We want to get the prayer cards. We're going to pray for all of them.

Now, I can't tell you who is who. God does know. First, I just want to find someone that the Holy Spirit....

Each one of you, now, just start praying and saying, “Lord, be merciful now unto me, and help me,” and see if He will do as He said He would do.

I just watch for His sign. How many knows that Jesus today is a pillar of fire that followed the children of Israel? “I came from God, and I go to God.” Is that what He said? And when Paul met Him on the road down to Damascus, what was He?—the great light, the pillar of fire. He is the same One today and the Holy Spirit of God. The body of Jesus sits at the right hand of God on His Throne in heaven, but His Spirit is here on earth completing and finishing His work. And that same Spirit that lived in the body of Jesus Christ was the same Spirit was in that angel that come to Sodom and Gomorrah. Do you believe that? The same One that followed the children of Israel, the same God.

Jesus said, “I'm that rock that was in the wilderness. Your fathers eat manna and they're dead, and I'm the bread of life that come from God out of heaven. I'm that bread. I'm that rock.”

“Why, you say you've seen Abraham, and you're not over fifty years old.”

He said, “Before Abraham was, I Am.”

Who was the I Am?—that burning light that was in the bush, that talked to Moses. He is the same Jesus tonight. That is a statement, isn't it? I challenge that. Challenge any believer to believe it.

This little lady sitting here with a little white thing on her hat. Have you got a prayer card? You, sick? Are we strangers to one another? God knows us both. There is a Light over the woman, if you can see it, circling right above her. She was praying. Is that right? Know you have not a chance to come up here, but you were praying, because I see just below that is a dark shadow; it's death. The woman is shadowed to death. She has a cancer. Do you believe God can heal you? Cancer of the breast. And I see a doctor looking at it, and he tells you that he is going to try to operate, and you're up for an operation. And I see you walk from a platform or something another. You are a preacher, a woman preacher. That's, “Thus saith the Lord!” Is that right, lady? What He said, was that right? Stand on your feet if that's right.

Now, do you believe the.... Can you discern that that's the same Jesus that touched ... the woman touched His garment? Not me, Him! I don't know the woman. She don't know me. God knows us both. God bless you, sister.

I see a lady in a vision. She is praying. She is a young woman. She is sitting right here. Something about a baby. It's a.... She wants.... No, she's had a baby. Oh, it's a miscarriage; that's what it's been: a dead baby. She is from Kentucky, and her name is Martin. Where are you, Mrs. Martin? Yeah, with the yellow dress. That is true, is it lady? Stand on your feet if that is so. I don't know the woman, but God knows her, and there she is. Blessed be the name of the Lord God.

Right behind her sits a lady. She's got hemorrhoids. She has got trouble in her right side. Kind of a heavyset woman with a black looking dress on. You got a prayer card, lady? You don't have? You don't need it. Do you believe that you had faith to touch something? You never touched me. You touched Him! All right, then raise up your hand with your handkerchief in it and accept your healing. Go home and be well in the name of Jesus Christ.

Look here. There sits a little lady back here with a checkered looking dress on. She's got her head bowed. She's praying for her father. He's got liver trouble. You believe the Lord will heal him, sister? You believe it? Then you can have it.

Lady, you were awful kind to her to tell her it was her. The reason you said that, because the Holy Spirit moved right over to you, too. That is right. You have a prayer card? You don't. You don't need one. You're praying for a mother. And you're thinking on bringing her to church tomorrow night. That is right. Don't have to do it. Lay your hands on her and call the name of the Lord Jesus. She will get well, if you'll believe it.

I challenge your faith! Who else has not a prayer card and wants to believe?

You, sitting here in front. You believe me to be God's prophet? A prophet is a messenger to an age. Do you believe I have God's message? You do it? I don't know you, but God does know you. If God will tell me your troubles, will you accept it as your healing, believe that it is His ... you can discern then that.... If your spirit can touch Him now while I'm talking to you, then you will accept your healing, will you? It is your chest, scar tissue. And besides that you are a preacher. That's right. That is, “Thus saith the Lord.” Believe God!

I'm going to turn my back. Pray. See if He is the same angel. See if it is the same God that promised when He had His back turned to the tent. Pray, some of you that the Lord God will send His angel and it proved that Sodom was at ... the end was at hand.

Oh, Lord God, send Your angel, tonight, and give the same discernment, because it's a promise of Your Son and let it be so.

A woman stands before me, and she is suffering with catarrh of the head. She is back in this direction, for I feel her pulling her faith. Her name is Mrs. Wiley. Where is she at? Let's see. Back in here somewhere. Whatever the ... there.... Was that you, lady? All right, go home and be well.

Have faith in God. Some of the rest of you pray somewhere. Let it be known, O Lord, Thou art God.

There is a woman standing before me that is praying back in the audience, and she has complications. She is wearing a red and white checked dress. Her name is Mrs. Lake. Where are you at, Mrs. Lake? Stand on your feet wherever.... God bless you. Go home and be well. Your faith has saved you.

That is the same Jesus! It is the same Angel! Have you got discernment to discern the Lord's body? Do you believe that I'm telling you the truth? Do you believe that Christ is giving witness of it? If you believe that, raise up your hands. How many believers are in here that will shake their hands like this? Then you believe me as God's prophet. Don't you doubt one bit. Take those hands that you're waving towards God and lay on somebody next to you, and you will see the glory of God. That is all He can do. Can you discern the Lord's body? Can you discern that His Spirit is here? “These signs shall follow them that believe. If they lay their hands on the sick, they shall recover.”

Lord God, Creator of heavens and earth, author of everlasting life, make Satan turn loose of every believer in here. They've got their hands laid on one another, and they are believers. They're having faith in God that they believe that You will do it. Oh Lord, Your words cannot fail no more than Your promises, and Your promises was, “If they lay their hands on the sick, they shall recover.”

Now Satan, you foul demon of oppression that is beating these people down to the dust, I adjure thee by the name of Jesus Christ, the Son of the Living God, that you turn them loose. Come out of them in the name of Jesus Christ.

Now, lay your hands on one another and pray the prayer of faith, and when you feel the Spirit of God discern it that it is God's promise to you. Everyone that can feel that God's power is moving in you, stand to your feet and accept your healing. I command you in the name of Jesus Christ, everyone of you believers to rise to your feet and accept Jesus as your personal healer. Come up, you in those wheelchairs, cots, whatever it is. Rise up! Believe God! In the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, be healed. They're raising up out of cots and wheelchairs and everything.

All right, Brother Sullivan.