Former And Latter Rain

Let us bow our heads just a moment for prayer. Our heavenly Father, we are grateful to Thee that we can say “Father,” knowing that that means that we are sons and daughters. We would ask Thy blessings on the furthering of the meeting tonight, get glory unto Thyself. We ask it in Jesus' name. Amen. You may be seated.

Now, last evening I held you a little long, and I'm very sorry. I just . . . seems like I just have so much to say, and you're such a nice audience too, that it's hard to say it just in a few moments.

Now, I have been asked several times, “Brother Branham, when are you going to start healing services?” We have them every night. We're talking about the healing of the soul right now, and then the other will automatically take place. As long as we can get the soul straightened out, then we can have faith.

I know the acoustics are pretty bad in this building. And it's better tonight, I'm sure, because it sounds like it is to me—there isn't the rebound. Each one of these things looking in each other's face, it makes it kind of hard. But can you hear better back under the place tonight, back beneath. . . ? Can you hear pretty well back in there? Can't hear it? Back in here? Can you hear pretty well back there beneath the. . . ? All right, that's fine.

Now, I'm going to make an announcement. If the Lord is willing, Saturday night. . . . This coming Saturday night, I think no one has services. We come in here to visit. We don't want to interrupt anyone's services, because we just come quickly, unexpected. It's just a kind of a little time before going overseas again. And we kind of come here to fellowship along with the ministers and the fine people that's in Phoenix, our precious friends that we expect to spend eternity with, and in.

So now Saturday night, the Lord willing, I would like to have, if it's possible that night, just an old-fashioned prayer line, the way we had it the first time when I come to Phoenix. Just get everybody and line them all up, and bring right along, and stay right there with them until we pray for them. I like that.

And I put so much, I think, many times upon revelations and gifts. A gift is something that doesn't heal you. Gifts does not heal. Gifts are some way that you have to relax yourself. And the only way that you ever find anything from God is how you can yield yourself to the Holy Spirit. That's the way gifts work.

Now I want you to turn with me tonight just on a short subject. And I've got a little alarm clock here on my watch, I'm going to try to watch it closely. Now, you might not hear it, but it vibrates my arm to let me know that it's time to quit. So I'm going to try to let you out early tonight if possible, and the rest of this week.

I think Brother David said something to me today about taking his place Tuesday for a ministerial meeting. That'd be fine with these ministers, but I can never take a teacher's place, because I'm not a teacher. But I would like to meet and have fellowship with all the ministers, and so forth, of Phoenix, wherever it's planned to be at Tuesday morning.

Now let's turn over to the book of Zechariah, fourteenth chapter. And then I want to also go back into Isaiah, the twelfth chapter of Isaiah. Let's read a portion of the Word. I mean the fourteenth chapter of Zechariah first, want to read the sixth and the seventh verses. And if you're marking it down, Zechariah 14:6 and 7:

And it shall come to pass in that day, that the light shall not be clear, nor dark:

But it shall be one day which shall be known to the Lord, not day, nor night: but it shall come to pass, that in the evening time it shall be light.

And then in Isaiah 21 it is, Isaiah 21:11 and 12:

The burden of Dumah. He called me out of Seir, Watchman, what of the night? Watchman, what of the night?

The watchman said, The morning cometh and also the night: if ye will enquire, enquire ye: return, come.

It must have been about the setting of the sun. The sun was going down in the west, and it had been an unusual day, a day that seemed to be an uncertain day. There'd been so many things going on. Warning after warning had come from the tower, “Approaching enemy!” And as the sun began to sink down in the west, the evening lights was reflecting that the day was far spent. That's quite a picture of this day now. The evening lights are shining and the day is far spent.

And out in the streets at the public well where the people got their water, I can see young women coming out, as it was the custom in that day, to gather and get water for the night, when the men would be coming from their work and mother preparing the meal. And as they gather and talk, as young ladies can, let's just break in now for a few moments on their conversation, and comparing this with that day and this day, at the evening light time.

I can hear the young ladies speaking of a dance or a party they were going to, and what certain dress that they were going to wear, and just how . . . the new date that they had. And I couldn't hardly compare that with this day, because I don't think what they wear today could hardly be called a dress to one of those.

But they were making ready, talking about what kind of a time they were going to have that night at the dance. And finally one young lady must have spoke up and said, “Girls, have you heard that fanatic out of the tower? All of those messages he swept out of that tower today? That old crank makes me so angry! He gets on my nerves, and mother too, till we could just pull our hair. Always speaking that we're too evil, that God's going to judge us of our sins—like God isn't so good that He wouldn't judge us. We are a religious people, we are a religious nation. We're known all over the world as a religious nation.”

Let me break in right here on the conversation. Religious nation doesn't have anything to do with God. It's an individual, it's you. We're called a religious nation, but, mercy goodness, it's far from it.

And so then I can hear them go on saying, “Well, I heard Daddy talking the other night, and they're going to have a board meeting pretty soon. And this fanatic we got up there in that tower, always warning us about our sins are so great that God's going to send in a nation and swipe us out, I hear the next board meeting, they're going to excommunicate him. They're going to get him right off the board. He's too much of a crank for us modern people in this day. We just can't have nothing like that. He keeps us all tore up, warning us of judgment. And we just won't stand for it anymore. Mother says when she goes to her card party that you hear that old tower man call out, 'It's wrong to do it, it's wrong to do it, God's going to judge you.' And Mother and Dad have a big hold in the church.

“And one day the preacher said, or the priest said . . . spoke about it. And he said that he thought that fellow was nothing but a fanatic [because the priest had to kind of sway with the people, or if he didn't, he lost his job in the pulpit].”

I'm so glad to have men of God that's free, that can preach the gospel, regardless, and have no ties bound to them. And I'm happy to know that there's people that receive it when it is preached in its power.

But as the evening went on, the young women speaking of what was going to take place then, the young men gathering at the tavern, and after a while, after getting (drinking, in the modern, would be today, the rock'n'roll parties) . . . and sin got on its way.

Somehow, it's strange, when it gets dark, demon-possessed creatures begin to move. I seen in a magazine here some time ago, that some movie star said that night was made to live in. Night is made to sleep. And if you'll notice you people here at the desert, it's your serpents, and scorpions, and snakes, and lizards that crawl at nighttime, spiders and evil. Those who prowl at night around is evil. Night is very evil because it's darkness.

And thanks be to God that there is a light that we can see to walk in. And people who walk in darkness are blind, not knowing where they're going; but the children of the light know, because they're walking in the light. And Jesus is that light: “I am the light, the truth, the light, the way.”

And in the tavern, as they were speaking. . . . And after awhile, I can hear the dance stop, and the jazz band cease for a few minutes, and somebody said, “Say, did you hear that old crank up there in the tower? He's been speaking again, blowing off his head about judgment coming on—we're going to be blowed up, or blowed out, or something. Some nation's going to come in and get us. Don't they know that we're the farthest advanced nation in the world? Don't they know that we are better equipped than any other nation? We could whip anybody that come along”—not knowing that creeping right up on them all the time was the enemy.

No wonder everybody's nervous. No wonder the day that we're living in is so tremendous.

Some time ago I was watching, one day, of a picture of a lion slipping up on a lamb. And the little fellow got nervous, though he could not see the lamb . . . or, the lion. But the lion could smell the lamb, and he was down, crunching up closer and closer to the little fellow in high grass. But the little lamb did not see the lion, but he had another sense that just seemed to tell him, or warn him, that trouble was at hand. That's what's the matter with the nation today, that's what's the matter with the world today. Even sinners, there's an unrest.

While I was out driving around today, coming down from South Mountain, I went out there to find the place I used to go pray. There's a housing project there now. And it's a good thing you preserved a few stalks of cactus, because Arizona's gone, that's all. There's no more desert. Like the old prospector, I imagine there's not a wild burro left in the state of Arizona. Got him in a pen somewhere, if there is. It's just all cut up in roads. The East has moved out here. Civilization has traveled this way; and every-where it goes, it pollutes the country. God . . . I'd like to live here when it was really Arizona, and seen some of its beauty.

Now, coming down, I tell you, I like to got run over three or four times. People shooting across the streets, this a-way and that way; thirty-mile zone, doing sixty or seventy miles an hour—just barreling it. Police stopping them, arresting them, going right on just the same. Where are they going? They don't know where they are going. I tell you, it pays to know where you're going. They're heading on somewhere, but they don't know where.

And, brother, it's an unsettled peace everywhere. The nations are unsettled, the church don't know what to do, the people don't know what to do. It's unrest. What's the matter? It's oncoming judgments! You'd better hear me. Oncoming judgments! We might put a Billy Graham in every state and have a revival day and night, it'll never bring her back again. Remember that. It sure won't. She's headed for judgment, there's nothing else left.

And then we wonder why we're so nervous and upset, why these insane institutions up here and different places are full. It's because of drinking, and sin, and nervousness, and whiskey, and rioting, and night life—ignoring the Bible, ignoring God.

Nervous, neurotic, breakdowns, the world's full of it. Peniten-tiaries are overloaded, insane institutions. Even the psychiatrist has to have treatments from one another, and we find them in the institution. That's right. And I learned the other day of certain movie stars, and singers of these rock'n'roll parties, that one outstanding rock'n'roll boy has to have four psychiatrists with him all the time.

Oh, mercy, I'm glad that we got a psychiatrist: the mind of Jesus Christ, the power of God, discerner of the thoughts of the soul. He's what follows the Christian. That's our consolation, that's our director.

Then we find also this unrest. Everything seems to be at a nervous unrest. The time has run out, the east and west has met one another. Come forward from the east until the west has come and met it. Now, the Bible said in my scripture reading there would be a day with the Lord that would not be called neither day nor night. It'd be a dismal day, just enough light to see how to get around. That's the day that we've lived in. Since the beginning, the sun rises in the east and sets in the west. Not a different sun—the same sun that rises in the east sets in the west, and civilization has traveled with the sun.

And now India—well, not India, but China—was the oldest civilization, or first that we have record of. Now we're back here to the West Coast where the east and west has met. Civilization has traveled on with it. And during the time in the east . . . when the Holy Spirit was poured out first, was on the eastern people. Now I'm quoting this again so you won't forget it. They had the first light! The s-u-n shines in the east first, and the S-o-n shined in the east first, on the eastern people.

Now we've had a dismal day. We've had enough light to walk in, enough to believe on the Lord Jesus and be saved. We've formed churches. Great Lutheran church, the Methodist, Baptist, Presbyterian, all those great churches has come up during this time. But we've never had exactly a promise and a latter rain as we were prophesied to have. In the last days there would be a latter rain, and the former and latter rain would be together. Now the first rain was in the east, the latter rain is in the west. And in the latter rain, both former and latter rain will be together.

And now the sun has come across giving a dismal light because of the denseness of the faith of people.

Jesus was the Son of God. As we was talking today, He was the Son of God as much as He was a man. At thirty years. . . . We have no record of Him doing anything till He was thirty years old. When He was baptized in Jordan by John, then the Holy Ghost came upon Him without measure. “In him dwelt the fullness of the Godhead bodily.” He was Emmanuel, God was in Him. Why was God in Him? Because He was sinless born, and because that He had a way that He could yield Hisself to God, and in Him dwelt all of God.

Now you and I can have no more God in us than what we can yield ourselves. As much as we . . . as much Bill Branham as I can get out of the way, God will come in. But as long as William Branham's in there, then God has no way of getting in. And the same with you. It's getting ourselves out of the way—not looking the way we think, not doing the way that we think, but letting Him do our thinking, let Him do our looking, listening to the Holy Spirit.

Now it's come across, and it's in the evening time. Now, the Bible promised us that in the evening time it would be light. What kind of a light? The same light that shines in the east shines in the west. The same light shines in the morning, shines in the evening. Now we've come all the way across this, and in the evening time the shadows are falling. And we've had light!

Now I want you to notice, oh, in the hour of this watchman, had warned and had told the people of the oncoming judgment; but they laughed at him and made fun of him. And, then, we see in the Scriptures that when a city was built, the first thing was built was the protection of that city, which was the wall. And then to be sure that the city was safeguarded they had a tower built way high on the wall, and a watchman was in that tower day and night. Twenty-four hours around, he watched east, north, west and south. Because he's higher than the rest of the people, he can see off. His duty is to warn the people. When he can see oncoming judgment—armies approaching, spies slipping up, anything coming on, no matter what it was—he reported it back to the city if he was a good watchman.

I want to say something here, and I hope you catch it in the right way. Do you mean to tell me that they would put a near-sighted watchman in that tower, when the life of the city depended on him? Would they put a man in there that was half blind? Certainly not! It would be the best-sighted man they could find they'd put in there. God also, when He builds His city, His church, He walled it with the blood of His own Son, Jesus Christ. And He put a tower in it. And in this tower. . . .

The Bible likens His prophets to being eagles. Now an eagle can soar higher than any other bird. If another bird tries to follow an eagle he'd die, because the eagle's made special; and he can go so high, if the hawk trying to follow him, the hawk would disintegrate in the air. He just couldn't follow him. His feathers would fall out, he'd come apart. But the eagle is a special bird.

Now what good would it do him to go way up there in the air unless he could see way off? He'd be blind himself. But, see, nature has provided the eagle with an eye that he can see as high till you can hardly see the eagle yourself. Some of them fourteen feet across their wings. You can hardly see the eagle with your eye, but he can see any little moving object on the ground. Now, God likened His prophets, His preachers, to eagles. He calls Himself “Jehovah-eagle.” He's a eagle Himself.

Now God has set—not man—God has set in the church, first is apostles, secondarily prophets, teachers, pastors, and so forth. God set them in the church! If God put them in there, they're qualified for the job! God wouldn't put a man in a tower, in a position like that, that said the days of miracles is past. God would not put a man in a position like that to be a prophet or a seer that would say that Jesus Christ isn't the same yesterday, today, and forever, when the Bible declares Him to be. God would not put a man in a tower there that would preach a wishy-washy gospel and not tell the truth and warn the people of the wrath that is to come.

He'd put a man in there that would be bold, that would have a spirit that seen the oncoming judgment, and regardless of what the people said, he'd warn them anyhow. Cry out against it! He doesn't put blind prophets in his tower. He puts prophets, preachers, who foresees the coming judgment and warns the people to flee.

That's the same thing that took place here. The tower man had warned the people. All day long he said, “I see the dust.”

“Aw,” they said, “nothing. I don't see no dust.”

“Why, I know there's an approaching army!”

And they went right on just the same. That's the way they're doing the same thing today. Any man could read a newspaper, if he's got any spiritual discernment about him at all, can see that we're at the end! The hour is here. There's nothing left for us but the coming of the Lord Jesus.

Some people go out and say, “Oh, that might be a thousand years from today.” I don't believe that. I believe this generation will see the coming of the Lord Jesus. If this generation doesn't do it, I want to preach to the young people that they'll be looking for it in their generation.

I believe it'll be in this generation because the fig tree's putting forth its buds yonder, and Jesus said, “That generation will not pass till all things be fulfilled.” Israel's restoring herself. She's a nation. All the signs and wonders that was to take place in the last days, it's here! We must cry out from the tower, from the high place that God places you in, and warn the people! But seems like they just go dumbly right on, as they did in that time.

Then when they was all in there, dancing and going on like a modern Pearl Harbor, when they were dancing and stripping young ladies of their clothes, and running them through the streets, and so forth, all of a sudden there was an attack! The enemy watches for nighttime to come. He likes to come in the night. The great raids in the armies today is at nighttime.

That's what. . . . You talk of communism. Communism's laying for one thing. We hear so much about it today. Communism's wanting one thing: the nation's honeycombed with it, but it's waiting for what little spiritual we have got to die out, till it gets darkness in the church! That's the only way it can strike. Let the Americans who claim to be Christians rise to their feet in the name of the Lord, call out, communism would have no place. But we weave right into it, and our churches is even full of it. Sure, everywhere.

The whole thing's polluted, the whole body's polluted. There's only one sound thing and only one foundation—that's Jesus Christ. On Jesus Christ is the only rock of salvation that I know of. The only way of escape is through Jesus Christ. He is the One.

Now when we see the hour's approaching. . . .

It's a strange thing, all of a sudden they were caught without warning, seemingly. They were caught without taking warning. The watchman had warned, and had warned, and had warned, and they had stuck their fingers in their ears and walked around in their own lusts. All of a sudden, when it got dark, the aliens had slipped around, like that. In a moment they were slaughtered and gone—like Belshazzar's big tea party or whiskey party he had down there, and Pearl Harbor, and many other great drunken sprees we've had when the enemy has broke in.

We're not drunk . . . you don't have to be drunk upon wine. The only thing you have to be drunk on tonight is the things of the world. The church is becoming drunk on the things of the world! They're bringing the things of the world right in the church: bunco parties, card games, dancing, even teaching rock'n'roll in Y.M.C.A.'s and in churches. Why, it's a disgrace!

I may go down in history, if there is a history, as a fanatic, as a crank; but at the day of the judgment I can stand and say, “I warned the people of the wrath that is to come, and it is at your hands.” It could happen at any time. You see how close the world is to collapsing into the hands of the atomic bomb. But yet the church is to be gone before that takes place. How close is the coming of the Lord?

A strange thing—our Lord, when He was here on earth, He taught more of His second coming than He did of His going away then. Read the Scriptures, find out how much He talked of His second coming. Better than 80% of His talk was on His second coming. Not what was then—His sacrifice and going away—but the second coming. He gave the people warnings. He never feared to give them warnings. Let's see some of the things that He did.

If Jesus talked so much—80% of His time—on the second coming, then it behooves us to listen to see what He said would take place. He said, “You'll hear of nation rising against nation, kingdom against kingdom. You'll hear of all these things. And this temple will be tore down, not one stone left on the other.” He said, “But that's not the end yet.” He goes ahead and tells how things would take place. Then right down at the end He said, “But when you see the fig tree putting forth its buds, and all the other trees,” said, “then you know summer's nigh. Likewise when you see this, know that it's nigh at the door. And verily, I say, this generation shall not pass until all be fulfilled.”

Look, the Baptist has got a revival, Billy Graham. The Catholics is having a revival. And the Methodists is having a revival, some of them, and some of the Baptists. Pentecost has got a revival, Oral Roberts and so forth, great men of God who's gone forth in a revival.

And Israel's got a revival! God deals with Gentiles as individuals, Israel as a nation. And Israel, for her first time for 2500 years, is restored again to Jerusalem! O people, don't let that go over your head! That's the fig tree putting forth its buds. “This generation. . . .” Forty years is declared a generation. It's already been gone a long time, way into it—ten, twelve years. We're into the last generation!

Watch what He said would take place. As it was in the days of Noah, they'd be marrying, giving in marriage. Look at the Reno, Nevadas, and everywhere else. Even to the ministry—leaving one wife and marrying the deacon's wife, and so forth, back and forth —and allowing it in their churches! Oh, take warning, people! They'll run to and fro, and knowledge shall increase. It'll come a time, as the warning gave, that the church would get to a place they'd be heady, high-minded, lovers of pleasure more than lovers of God; trucebreakers, false accusers, incontinent, and despisers of those that are right; having a form of godliness (going to church, that form of godliness).

I'm not saying this to call any certain church. Every one of us is guilty. The Pentecost is guilty, the Presbyterian's guilty, the Baptist is guilty, all is guilty! We've all sinned and come short of the glory! Exactly right.

A few nights, about two nights, before I come down here, I believe Brother Leo there called me, or come up and told me, said, “Run down to your mother's and turn on the radio right quick.” The Methodist church in Indiana, a great Methodist church, was on the television having a rock'n'roll party. And when . . . they covered up the crucifix and things, and the minister with his cloak on, his collar turned around. Looked at it with my own eyes. And he said this, when. . . . The newsman asked him, said, “Why is this?”

And he said, “The Methodist church has long forgot, and should never have misunderstood it, the beautiful art of rock'n'roll.”

Oh, it's a shame! John Wesley would turn over in his grave if he knowed that! Them old sanctified mothers and daddies that dressed and lived and acted like saints. . . . You've gone down into disgrace to the name of the Methodist church. Not only that, but Baptist, Pentecostal, and all of us, are guilty! It's a disgrace. That's what Jesus said would take place at the end time.

Another thing He said, “There'll be earthquakes in divers places.” I read in your Phoenix newspaper yesterday, I believe it was, where hundreds times hundreds was killed. “The waves will be roaring, fearful sights.” Look at the tidal wave, what it done. Look at Chicago not long ago, when the bathing beauties on the beach was swept off by the big tidal wave, and never made out yet where it come from. I forget how many earthquakes are happening every hour across the world. It's on the increase all the time. Why? The old hull is getting thin!

The coming of the Lord is at hand, the judgments God spoke of. He said the people would get to a place they'd fall away, gross darkness would cover the earth. When spiritual darkness gets upon the earth, it's time for the enemy to attack. We're at the hour—gross darkness.

Now watch, it's time!

When we see these things that Jesus said would take place, look at Him. As I quoted last night: “As it was in the days of Sodom, so shall it be in the coming of the Son of man.”

Just before the destruction of Sodom, Abraham, the church called-out, spiritual. . . . I might quote it again. Here they was standing out there to themselves, living hard, but they were right with God, keeping God first. Lot was enjoying sin for a season, like most of the people are today, calling themselves Christians. “If you love the world, or the things of the world, the love of God's not even in you,” said the Scripture.

These things were to take place. We've got them. They're here now. We're seeing them every day. Go out on the street tonight; you'll see it tonight. Why it's plain, the handwriting's on the wall, on the streets, on the skies, everywhere. The end is here! We're at the end time. Don't be deceived, friends. God is not mocked, “Whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap.” We're at the end time.

And then we see these fearful sights coming: earthquakes, tidal waves, falling away, gross darkness, heady, high-minded, lovers of pleasure.

Now that's all for the world. That's what the world is pointed to; but the church has another sign. Oh, that blessed, called-out sign! He promised that there'll be a latter rain in the church, the church spiritual; in the last days He'd pour out both former and latter rain. Remember, former rain come first, latter rain comes second, both former and latter rain in the same season. He promised it. Now we'll notice what those rains are.

Now, when . . . we find out that the prophet said, “There'll be a day that won't be neither night nor day, but in the evening time it shall be light.” What kind of light? The light of the same sun that began in the east will shine in the west at the last day, the last hour of the day. The sun shall shine over here, the S-o-n shall shine over here.

Now we've had a time. . . . We've had a little evening light, but watch the order. Isaiah was perfectly in scriptural order when he said: “The morning cometh, and the night also.” Did you notice that? The morning cometh, and the night also. “The morning cometh. . . . Watchman, what of the night?” When we see these things that Jesus said would come to pass in the last days, and predicted the last generation and we see it physically—Israel in the physical, the signs physically, the world sinking, the atomic age, and the end of the age, the end of time, and we see it in the handwriting everywhere—it makes us call out, “Watchman, what of the night?”

We have a watchman, a watchman that climbed the ramparts of glory. The Holy Spirit was sent back to tower in men and women who would believe God. That's the watchman—the Holy Spirit sent to us as a watchman that watches over us! He is our guardian. The Holy Spirit was sent to lead men, to be the watchman of our soul. Exactly right.

Man wasn't to watch one another; it was the Holy Spirit to watch over us. He's our tutor, our teacher. The Holy Spirit's to teach. Then we cry out to the Holy Spirit, looking at these things, “Watchman, what of the night?” He says, just as He said here, “The morning cometh, and the night also.” What is it? Watch how it takes place now.

Now, He said to the natural, the men, what they could see. Now He's saying to the church there'll be a latter rain, the rain will fall in the last days. And we've had a latter rain. Remember, but what's taking place then? First it begins to break day. And then, before it breaks day, then it gets the darkest that it's been all night, and then it breaks day. Now, you get that? Watch in the morning. It'll start breaking day, then it'll get real dark, and then it'll break day. But first it's day—breaking day—then night, and then the breaking of the day.

Now watch what He said, “The morning cometh, and the night also.” The darkness, the little darkness just before day, what happens in that time? We've had that first little light. We've got in that light. We see the signs here, the earthly signs. There's all kinds of things happening: earthquakes, and people turning away, and the immorals of women, and the men, how they would act; and how that women would pervert themselves to men, and men try to pervert themselves to women, both wearing of garments. And the Bible says it's an abomination for a woman to put on a garment pertains to a man.

All these things, they walk right in it just as wide open with their eyes as they can be, stumbling in gross darkness! People who're calling themselves Christians—women, men, smoking cigarettes, and drinking, and going to cocktail parties, wearing shorts, bobbing their hair, wearing make-up, manicure (ever what it is) on their face, and walking right on! Exactly right!

And you scream out, they say, “Brother Branham, you're an old fogy.” You'll remember this someday! Take heed! God sets up His tower. He puts somebody up there. Your pastor will scream out against it. Any of your Full Gospel men, or a Baptist, or a Presbyterian, or whoever is filled with the Holy Ghost will scream out against it. No matter who it is, if he's a man of God, his spirit will be like the Holy Spirit because it is part of the Holy Spirit. And the Holy Spirit wrote this Word, and the Holy Spirit confirms this Word! Everything He promised, He takes care of it! Certainly. It has to be so. We're in the last days, we're in the end time.

Notice, “The morning cometh, and the night also.”

Now we've had a great revival amongst the Full Gospel people. It's been a great thing. We've seen healings done, and signs and wonders. But remember, now, He said, “The morning cometh, but the night also.” Now it's beginning to darken up again. I was here about twelve years ago. Why, we couldn't even hold the people nowhere around here. Everybody was coming from everywhere. That was the time that Mrs. Waldrop (Sitting right there. Well, I think it's Mrs. Waldrop. Out here in this light, I can just see figures out there like . . . not too well.), when she was brought back from the death, I believe with cancer of the lung, or heart, or something. Great signs and wonders took place. The people thronged till you couldn't get around the place, when we were over here with Brother Garcia, and the different places, and the schoolhouses, everywhere.

Now I find it, with my Brother Roberts, with Brother Hicks, and many other great men, we find that it's slumping. You can't get people out. Preach over twenty minutes, they get sick of it. They go back. There's something wrong. What is it? The alarm went off, and you turned over and shut the alarm off. You want to sleep a little longer! The morning cometh, but night cometh first!

Don't turn the alarm off. Let it alarm. Jump to your feet, it's time to get up! When the preachers warn of the coming of God and the coming of the Son of God, don't turn your alarm off. Don't try to drown it. Don't go back into the world and say, “I've got a few wild oats to sow.” You thirty-five-year olders, and you teenagers, don't try that. Jump to your feet! Let the alarm go. That's God's Holy Spirit warning you to flee from the wrath that is to come.

When you see the sick being healed, the blinded eyes opened, deaf ears unstopped. . . . Oh, we had a lot of fanaticism went with it; it always goes. We have that in every meeting that's ever been. We always have it. Look at that. . . . I was reading about Martin Luther not long ago. It said it wasn't a great mystery how Martin Luther could protest the Catholic church and get by with it; but the greatest mystery was that he could hold his head above all the fanaticism that followed the revival and still come out. That's it. Keep your mind on Christ, your eyes on Calvary! Move forward! Let nothing put you back in the bed asleep. Say, “Oh, well, look here—this happened, that happened,” don't have discernment of Spirit. Don't shut your alarm off; listen to it.

And remember, what happens just before the coming of day? When that dark time comes, then the morning star comes out, and it's . . . the brightest star in the heavens is the morning star. Oh, don't miss this now: the morning star comes out between that little light spell and the real breaking of day. As soon as it gets real dark, just before the break of day, the morning star shines its brightest. What's it doing? It's reflecting the light of the coming sun. Do you get it?

What makes. . . ? Science says that the reason it gets so dark is because that light is pressing the darkness. It's congealing together. And that's what makes it dark, is the oncoming light. Who is the light of the world? Jesus. Oh, not some new U.N. or program of the world—get your mind off of it. Get your mind on the coming of Jesus. What is it? The morning star.

Let's go over to Revelation. Jesus said Himself: “He that overcometh I will give him the morning star.” The Bible said that. What is it? A overcomer! One that's overcome the world, overcome self, overcome pride. “I'll make him the morning star.” What's it to do? “I'll shine him up and set him up there that I can . . . My oncoming power will reflect My own presence.” Hallelujah! In the darkness! “He that overcomes will I give the morning star.”

What's the morning star set there for? To reflect the sun coming. What is the morning star? Is the sun shining against it, reflecting the presence of the coming of the sun. It's the brightest thing in heaven. The brightest thing in heaven ought to be today—and is today—the minister, or the Christian, or the Spirit-filled man that's so filled with the Holy Spirit till he's forsaken the world and everything; and God is reflecting His light, coming through him, warning the world that the approaching S-o-n is at hand. Oh, what an hour!

Closing, I might say this: “Watchman, what of the night?” The morning star will reflect it. The morning star will reflect the sun. Now I'm calling to you morning stars, every one of you. Don't turn your lights off. Don't turn your alarm off. If you're getting smutted up, your eyes dimmed out with the things of the world, polish yourself, morning stars. Take the sin out of your life, get the unbelief away from you, that the Son of God, Him coming, you can reflect His presence. Reflect Jesus in your neighborhood, all you morning stars.

As one of His watchmen, that He's put me in the tower, one of them, I say this tonight: the oncoming Son is approaching, reflecting His coming,

the little ministry that He's given me. What was the last sign to Sodom? When the angel turned his back to the tent and told what Sarah was doing. What was the last sign to Israel and to Sodom? What was the last sign to the Samaritans? He wasn't with the Gentiles; the Gentiles had never been taught. Now you've had two thousand years of teaching. What's the matter? The latter and former rain is coming together! The morning stars are being polished by the blood of Jesus Christ.

I heard on a program this morning somewhere (I was somewhere eating, or something), I heard a woman had some bells she was ringing. (You might've heard it. I believe it was the television. I heard it, I didn't see it.) But there was a program. There was a woman had bells that she was ringing from, oh, little different places. They had her on a program. And the one had the most clearest ring, she said that was made of human blood, that bell was.

Oh, my brother, if there's anything that'll ring the gospel today, is the blood of Jesus Christ that has been brought into the gospel bells, to ring the light of the coming of the Son of God.

Watch the ministry of the Holy Ghost. Watch it today, when it comes back.

The church has gradually been coming down. The first reformation was Luther. We had a great big wide place, justification by faith. The church was shook. Then come along Wesley, the second big revival. It shook it down to sanctification, the church becoming the minority—greatly in the minority. Then after that come Pentecost, the restoration of the gifts. It's shook it down now to just a little thing, like a pyramid coming up. But right at the end time, before the capstone can come to the pyramid, what about it? What is it? Then the church is really in the minority. “As it was in the days of Noah, so will it be in the coming of the Son of man,” where eight souls was saved by water.

Now the coming of Son of man, what is it? The church come from justification, sanctification, baptism of the Holy Spirit, and now both former and latter rain come in. And it's so close, approaching—as my hand is a shadow, becomes closer, darker, darker, darker, and it becomes . . . hand and shadow is the same.

The church and all of its spiritual gifts and lights and so forth, and the great signs that He's given to the church to look at. . . .

There's the world out there. The fig tree putting forth its buds, there's earthquakes in divers places, all these other things are handwriting on the wall to the world. But you see these signs appearing, “The works that I do, shall you also.” “A little while and the world seeth me no more, yet ye shall see me, for I'll be with you, even in you, to the end of the world.”

These great signs appearing, what is it? The Spirit in the church is becoming so close like Jesus till the church and the Spirit will unite together, and the resurrection will come! Morning lights. Oh, you stars of the morning, put your alarm back on! Rise up and wash your face, get the night out of your eyes! Shine forth the approaching of the Son of God. Long healing lines should've been gone long ago. The miracles and performance of God has got so much greater than that in this day until that's a back thing, because we've got a former and latter rain together. It's the hour. Do you believe it? Let us bow our heads.

O heavenly Father, we're now at the end time. We're approaching that great hour of the coming of the Son of God. O God, may these morning stars here. . . . They might have been dismal for a few days. They think the revival is dying out. That's just exactly what You said would take place, gross darkness; but the morning star would reflect the light. “He that overcometh I'll give him a morning star.”

And I pray, Father, that You'll let every one of us be overcomers tonight—overcomers of unbelief, overcomers of anything within ourselves, that we might overcome ourselves that Christ might live in us. Give us of thy Spirit tonight, O Lord. All preaching and all things that we say, many could wonder, and say, “Oh, I don't know, I've heard preaching before.”

Lord, don't let it stop at that tonight. Put former and latter rain together. The former rain, the rain that You brought on the earth in Your days, You said it would come with the latter rain. Now the latter rain is already fallen. Now let the former rain come in (which You've already done), showing the signs of the resurrection, that You're the same yesterday, today, and forever. In Christ's name I ask it. Amen.

I know that's scouring hard. Brother, sister, I don't stand here and enjoy doing that. The only thing I enjoy is the fellowship of the Holy Spirit, and your spirit—which is part of the Holy Spirit—recognizing it back. I feel it. Let's just sing a little song right now. I don't know what to do. We haven't give out no prayer cards. I haven't had no lines of that sort yet. I'm holding it off. I want altar calls. Is there someone here who's a sinner would raise up your hand, say, “Brother Branham, I'm a sinner, and I want to be right with God before the coming of the Lord Jesus”?

Is there one here? Just raise your hand, say, “Pray for me, Brother Branham, I want to accept Christ as my Saviour.” We're a little bitty group in here tonight, just a hundred or two people—whatever it is, I don't know—sitting in here. I'm a poor judge of crowds. But whatever it is, is there one that would be. . . ? We don't need a sympathetic altar call. If you're really. . . . “All the Father has given me will come. And no man can come except my Father draws him.” So there you are.

Do you feel a tug at your heart? I'm asking you as a Christian brother. If it is, raise to your feet and say, “I want you to pray for me, Brother Branham, be it I'm trying to reflect the light of the coming of the Son of God.” I'm talking to you as His servant, I'm speaking.

If there is not, is there a backslider would say, “When you pray, Brother Branham, remember me”?

If you're not polished up enough, you got so much world on you that God can't reflect Himself through you. You once . . . seems like you were called for a morning star, but you've been down in the smoke, and it's got your lights all smoked out. The Holy Spirit can shine against you, and yet you're so dull. You sit and say, “I'm too tired. I've been in meetings before. I don't know.” Oh, what a miserable person you are. Oh, let the blood of Jesus Christ wash your soul, friend, that you might reflect the light of the Son of God. Young and old, do that, will you?

Let us bow our heads again just a moment. Let's sing a hymn.

I love Him, I love Him

Because He first loved me,

And purchased my salvation

On Calvary's tree.

I love Him, I love Him

Because He first loved me,

And purchased my salvation

On Calvary's tree.

O Father God, in the quietness of the Spirit, move upon our hearts. I've asked for those who doesn't know You to identify themselves tonight with You as the morning stars. I ask Thee, now, Father, that You might let the people, or the strangers in our gates, know tonight that You're here. This was ordained of You. It is easy for a man to speak something, but if God doesn't back up what he's saying, Father, like Moses of old, “How will they believe me?” And You give him a sign to perform and said, “. . .this they will know.”

And You're still God, and the hour of deliverance is at hand. I pray, God, that the people will come out of spiritual Egypt and Sodom. May the sign that was given to Sodom, as You promised Sodom, that You'll perform that sign before them tonight that it might be known that this is truth and the hour is at hand. I commit it all to You, Father, yielding myself, with these my friends, my brothers and sisters, as we fellowship together. In Jesus' name. Amen.

(Humming) “I love Him, because He first loved. . . .” Everyone be real quiet now. We're calling on God to do something. I can see a little woman one time in the Bible, she seen Jesus come across the ocean . . . or, the little lake, and she said, “If I can touch his garment, I'll be made well.”

She'd had an issue of blood for a long time. And she said, “That's a holy man, that's the Son of God. If I can touch his garment, I'll be made well.” She pressed through the crowd until she touched His garment.

He turned around and said, “Who touched me?”

No one seemed to identify her. But the little woman could not hide herself. Jesus looked back in the midst of the people. He told her that her blood issue had been healed because she had believed.

Nathanael went and got . . . or, Philip went and got Nathanael and brought him up into where Jesus was. And He said to him, “Behold, an Israelite in whom there is no guile.”

He said, “Rabbi, when did you know me?”

He said, “Before Philip called you, when you were under a tree, I saw you.” A day before, fifteen miles around the mountain.

He said, “Rabbi, you're the Son of God.”

When He went to Samaria He told the woman at the well of her husbands, and she said, “Sir, you must be a prophet. We know when the Messiah cometh, he'll do this.”

He said, “I am he that speaks with you.”

She went and told the men in the city. She said, “Come see a man who has revealed to me the things in my heart. Isn't this the Messiah?” Sure it was.

Now He promised. . . . He said, “Don't go to the Gentiles.” Now He never did that before Gentiles, see. We were . . . the Anglo-Saxons were heathens in them days. But now it's come our time. The evening lights are here. “Watchman, what of the night?” Oh, morning stars. . . .

How many in here that's suffering, or have a heart . . . something that you know that only God would know how to reveal, that you'd just raise your hand and say, “God let me touch Your garment. Let me touch the border of Jesus Christ's garment”? Wherever you are, whoever you are. . . .

As knowing, I only can see two people that I know right now, and that's Brother Pat Tyler and this little fellow here from . . . it's a friend from Brother Pat's community up there. In the audience, that's all I can see at this time that I know. Unless . . . I seen Sister Waldrop here a while ago, Sister Hattie Waldrop. I seen her somewhere in the building. Yes, right down here. As far as I know, that's all that I know in front of me. You pray.

Does the Bible say. . . ? Now, look, I could stand here and preach. You've heard that all along. But the Bible said that in the last days, right at this time, before the coming of the Lord, that there'd be a Spirit come on earth enveiled in human flesh—man, like it was at Sodom—and would be able to discern the thoughts of the mind like that angel did there, as it was in the days of Sodom. How many understands that? Just raise up your hands, that you caught it, you know. It's exactly. Who was that? That was Christ in that man.

Now He was a man. He wasn't a theophany, He wasn't myth. He wasn't myth; He was a man. He ate flesh, drank milk, ate bread. Now, I'm not that man, but the Spirit of Jesus Christ is here. And you can be that man, or whoever He's chose to be that one, that He can work through.

Now, he that'll overcome, overcome himself, overcome his own thoughts, overcome the world, overcome all things, then “I'll give him the morning star to reflect the light.” What light? The light of the approaching Son.

Now, if you've got an infirmity, does the Bible teach. . . ? I'm going to ask these ministers that, and you all: does the Bible teach that right now Jesus Christ is our high priest that can be touched by the feeling of our infirmities? Does the Bible say that? All that believe that, raise your hands. Is that right, ministers?

Now, if He's the same high priest that He was then, only His corporal body sits at the right hand of the Father God. . . . But His Spirit is here working in His church. Do you believe that? And the church, the morning star, is reflecting His light. Now when did that star shine? Just . . . not through the night. Just at daylight. Just before day that approaching sun brings forth that light. Now, it's never been since that time until now, because Jesus said it would not be. That's right. But now we're here.

Now let the God of heaven, who wrote this Word, let the Son of God, who died and rose again and is ever-living present, let that high priest that is the Son of God come to me and speak and use my body, use my lips—because the only lips He has is yours and mine. See, His body is at the right hand of God, will not return. . . . When that returns, it's all over.

But His Spirit is here, working. He said, “I am the vine, you're the branches.” The vine doesn't bear fruit. It only gives life to the branch to bear fruit. Now it'll bear the same kind of fruit that the life is in the vine. And if Jesus is the same yesterday, today, and forever, it'll produce that life.

Now, if He's a high priest and you can touch His garment. . . . You say, “Oh, I believe I can touch Him. Yeah, yeah, I believe it.”

Now, He didn't act like that when He was here. That woman touched His garment and He turned around and called her. Is that right? If He's the same high priest, He'll act the same way, if Jesus is the same yesterday, today, and forever. Now you pray. Let the God of heaven, our precious heavenly Father, give. . . . And if He will do it, how many will be happy over it, and love Him. Just raise your hand, say. . . . See, we got to have something, I haven't been, I've just been preaching. A few nights we'll get into this. Let me say this to you, friends. This ministry here will continue on, but there's something that. . . . Men who know me, know this is truth: that something happened a few weeks ago that's so great, I won't even say it in the audience. But there's men sitting here that know it, right here, that it's already done, see. That's right, it's true. It's far beyond.

Remember when I come first, telling you what would come? That thing happened. Then come and told you another—this discernment would come, and you'd see it. Now that's happened. Now I tell you this is already come. It's just waiting the hour, just before the breaking of the day yonder. It'll approach forth, and then the end will be. May the Lord bless, I pray.

Say, “O high priest of God, O let. . . .”

[Break in tape.] Here, you may raise your heads just a moment. I thought it was that lady at the end. It's this lady sitting here. She's praying for a trouble she has, which is dropsy. That's right. I don't know you. God knows you. But that's what you're praying about. Now you feel a real strange, sweet feeling around you. Isn't that right? Would you just stand up to your feet just a minute? Is that true, what I said? It's the truth. Here, wait just a minute. There's something else about the woman. I see her shadowed, and death was over her. Yes, you've been in my meetings before. You had, at that time, a cancer, and the cancer was in the lungs. And I prayed for you, and the second day you coughed the cancer out of your mouth, and been well ever since. That's thus saith the Lord! Are those things true? All right. You may be seated. You have what you asked for. God bless you. You just have faith in God.

Now, what could do that but Jesus Christ?

Here, I see a little woman sitting right out here. She's praying. She's a burdened-hearted person. I don't know her. I don't know whether she'll get it or not. Yes, here's her name. Her name's Mrs. Sand. She's praying for a daughter that has mental trouble. Do you believe the Lord Jesus will heal that woman? If that's your name and that's the truth, stand up on your feet, believe with all your heart. I do not know the woman. I've never seen her in my life as far as I know. But whatever was said, is that the truth, lady? It is? All right. Go home. I pray that God'll give you your desire. Just have faith. Don't doubt; believe.

Here's a man sitting right over here. He's praying. I don't know him, never seen him in my life, but that light's hanging over him. Something's happened just in the last moment. The man has a burden on his heart. He's got some kind of a vertebrae trouble in his back. He's got lung trouble also, and he . . . yes, he's praying for also a mental case, a daughter. Mr. Lentler, something like that. That is right, sir. Stand on your feet and accept it in the name of the Lord Jesus. God bless you, sir.

See what happened? From this woman to that man, both of them praying for the same thing, that evil spirit. . . . Now remember, I don't know you, do I, sir? I don't know none of you all. That's right. But, see what (the Holy Spirit is here, see) . . . how that devil was trying to get that connection there and break it up? But the Holy Spirit run it right over there. As soon as you seen what happened to her, you thought the same thing. If that's right, wave your hand, like that. The man was called. All right. That's it.

I'm not reading his mind. I don't know him. But that's exactly what's the truth.

I cannot heal, but you cannot hide your life now. The Holy Spirit's here. It's a gift. If you will believe with all. . . .

Now here, I see a woman sitting right in here praying. Just a minute, the light of the Holy Spirit, that pillar of fire, is over the woman. Well, that's a strange thing. She's got a burden on her heart. She's praying for another woman, and that woman has a disobedient son that she's praying for. If you'll believe with all your heart, he'll get right.

A little woman sitting right back here with her head bowed, she's got eye trouble she's praying for. She was healed once before in one of the meetings. I see her in the prayer line. If you'll believe with all your heart, you can have what you ask for. Amen.

Back there, you with. . . . The lady, you're worried about . . . oh, it's about the prayer . . . a prayer cloth, a handkerchief that you got laying up here, you brought up here. And you're wanting to leave tomorrow, you have to leave, so you have to take the handkerchief, these handkerchiefs, to them people that you prayed for. Do you believe it'll be healed? If you believe it with all your heart, you can have it. Amen.

What is it? The Holy Spirit. What about you? Do you believe me to be God's prophet, His servant? You here, laying on this stretcher. I cannot heal you, lady. You are seriously sick, very sick—sicker than you've been told. But if I'll tell you what your trouble is, or where it's at, will it cause you to believe God and accept Him as your healer? That's the only hope you have is through Christ. It's in your blood, that's right. Seriously, too. If I tell you who you are, you believe I'd know who you was by the Holy Spirit? You've got a contact with God. If you believe it, Miss Smith, you can rise up and go home. Do you believe it? That thing's true, isn't it? Then get up on your feet, take up your bed and go home and be made well in the name of Jesus Christ. He'll give you strength, rise up from there and take up your bed and go on home, believe it. Are you believing on the Lord Jesus Christ? Don't be afraid. He'll provide the strength if you act on what. . . .

All right, do you believe now, all of you? How many of you in here wants to be healed just now? How many believes that the Holy Spirit's here? Is that exactly what He said would be in the evening time? It shall be light. What kind of light? The same high priest that come in the east is shining in the west! The same God! The same power! “Watchman, what of the night?”

Oh, morning stars! Every one of you that's believers, raise your hands. Now put your hands on somebody next to you. Let me quote His words to you. Let me tell you what He said: “These signs shall follow them that believe.” Who said that? The same one that's here, the same one that's proving Himself: “These signs shall follow them that believe. If they lay hands on the sick, they shall recover.”

[Is there any more wheelchairs, any more cots, stretchers? Where're they at?] All right, lay your hands on one another.

Our heavenly Father, we bring this audience to You as morning stars to reflect the faith of Jesus Christ, that said that “Whatever the Father shows me, that I do.” They're laying hands on each other, believing for their healing. Let them shine just now, Lord, as the Holy Ghost shines forth and has proved Hisself here. He is the Son that's shining on the stars. May they receive their light, that the power of the resurrection of the Lord Jesus . . . and be healed just now.

I condemn every sickness in this building. In the presence of the Holy Ghost, in the presence of the angel of God who's here now, I condemn every sickness. Oh, you devils that's trying to hold these morning stars, trying to smoke up their light, they're rising, filling their lamps and trimming them, setting them afire with new faith. May they burn through every sickness. May the light shine. May they rise and shine and trim their lights, clean out the chimneys that the light of the testimony of the resurrection of Christ might shine through.

Satan, you are defeated. You're exposed. Why, anyone with common, ordinary, human intelligence would know that man could not do this. It takes the power of Holy Ghost, and that's His promise, that's His Word; and He's fulfilled it, and you are defeated, Satan! Come out! In the name of the Lord Jesus, go from these people. May they go and be well, for I ask this to be, in the name of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.

Do you believe on Him? Do you accept Him? Do you accept your healing? Then never have a negative testimony. The very Holy Spirit that made the promise, the very Christ that died, the same morning star, the same pillar of fire that led the children of Israel, the same one that worked through Jesus, that He returned back to God, and smote Paul blind (is still the great light that followed the children of Israel) on his road to Damascus, the same thing is here tonight, doing through human bodies just exactly what He done through human bodies that eat flesh and meat at the day of Sodom. And He said: “So shall it be in the coming of the Son of God.” That is the Holy Spirit. He's here, receive Him, He's yours.

You're morning stars—don't be drunkened out by the things of the world. Don't be just thrilled by little things that's taken place. Ride above that and receive Christ tonight and be healed, every one of you. I commend you to Him in the name of Christ, as I turn the service to the pastor. God bless you, brother.