It Is The Rising Of The Sun

Let us bow our heads. Lord, as we gather here this fine Easter morning—see the little buds pressing their way out, the bees flying in and getting their portion, the birds singing like their hearts would burst with joy because there is an Easter—we believe that You raised up Jesus from the dead many years ago today, and we celebrate this memorial day.

And let there come an Easter among us all today. May we, as his servants, understand his Word that we were in his fellowship then, and that now that we are risen with Him and sitting together in heavenly places.

Bless the service here in the Tabernacle, and across the lands where it goes by this telephone.

Heal all the sick and the afflicted. May it be an Easter for them also, and an exodus from sickness unto strength. And those who are dead in sin and trespass, may they live today through Christ. And we'll praise Thee, for we ask it in his name. Amen.

I certainly deem this a marvelous privilege this morning to be back here in Jeffersonville, Indiana, with this great congregation, the church packed and standing, and around and outside and in the lots and everywhere. To you people on the phones across the nation, it's a beautiful morning here.

Five o'clock this morning my little friend with a red breast flew up at the window and woke me up. Seemed like his little heart would burst, saying, “He is risen.” I've always thought of this little bird as being a friend to me, because I like him.

As the legend about him says, “A little brown bird saw Him suffering on the cross where sin had placed Him. Of course, the little bird had no sin. He didn't have to die for the little bird. But he flew into the cross and tried to pull the nails out with his little beak, and he got his breast all red.” And that's the way I want mine, too, as a shield, of trying to protect this glorious thing that He died for.

Realizing that our time is limited here, especially for those friends who are listening in by this telephone.... I would like to call your attention this morning to a picture that some time ago was taken by the camera, of a vision that I had here at the Tabernacle, of leaving Indiana to Arizona, where I was to meet, in the form of a pyramid, seven angels. Not knowing what would happen later when I got there, thinking it was the end of my life, that no one could stand the blast ... and I'm sure all of you are acquainted with the story. And then in Sabino Canyon, one morning like this, while in prayer, there had been a sword placed in my hand, and said, “This is the Word—the sword of the Word.”

Later, the angels appeared as was prophesied. And at the same time a great cluster of light left where I was standing, and moved thirty miles high in the air, and around the circle, like the wings of the angels, and drawed into the skies a shape of a pyramid in the same constellation of angels that appeared.

Science took the picture, all the way from Mexico, as it moved from northern Arizona, where the Holy Spirit said I would be standing, forty miles northeast of Tucson. And it went into the air, and Life magazine packed the pictures—a mystic something way in the spheres, where there could be no moisture, where there could be no evaporations of anything; thirty miles high, and twenty-seven miles across, and coming right up from where those angels were.

Now they asked to know—science, the ... one of them in Tucson—wanted to know any significance, but I didn't tell them. You all knew it, told beforehand. But it wasn't for them; it was for you.

And so there He spoke to me, and said, “The seven seals will be opened. The seven mysteries, seven-fold mystery of the Bible, that's been closed up since the foundation of the world, will be revealed.” And we, yet a humble little group compared with all the world, we've enjoyed these blessings, hearing those mysteries. Marriage, divorce, serpent's seed and all these different questions, has been completely revealed to us, not by man, but by God Himself ... has opened those seven mysteries of what the church was, how it was in Christ at the beginning, and how it would be revealed in the last day.

And now, as this went up.... We have the picture outside on the plaque. But then, I have the picture laying present here, if you notice, as Life magazine had it. But I wonder if my audience, visible here, has ever really looked at the picture, see, in the way it should be.

You remember, I was preaching when this vision came, upon the subject of the book of the Revelation, where the old judges...; where we seen Jesus in Revelation 1, when we started to open the seven seals, or the church ages rather, just prior to the opening of the seven seals. Christ was standing with hair like wool—white. And I described that to you, that the old English judges, and judges of long ago, when they went to the bench to be sworn in, their supreme authority was given them. They wore a white wig, as it was, over their heads, to show their supreme authority.

Well, if you'll turn the picture like this and look (you can probably see it from the audience), it's Christ. See his eyes looking here, just as perfect as it could be, wearing the white wig of supreme deity, and judge of all heavens and earth. Can you see his eyes, nose, his mouth? Just turn the picture from this (the way they had it, this way, the way it's supposed to be. Can you see it? He is supreme judge. There is none other but Him. And that is a perfect identification again, a vindication that this message is the truth. This is the truth. It is truth, and making Him not a third person, but the only person!

With the white, see, you see the dark—his face, his beard, and his eyes. And notice, He is looking.... From Him comes this light shining on the right-hand side, to which He's looking to. And on the cross, that's where He looked, to the right, where He pardoned the sinner. In the light of his resurrection we still go forth in his name.

I wish this morning that I had just much time to spend upon these phenomena that's beyond any shadow of doubt been proven for the past thirty years, or thirty-five years, right here at this church, since down on the river, when that same light came down here in Jeffersonville, in 1933, and spoke those words, “As John the Baptist was sent to forerun the first coming of Christ, your message will forerun the second.” We're at the end time, and we see it. We wonder sometimes why it hasn't spread over the earth. Maybe sometime we'll have a chance to explain that, if God willing.

Now I want you to turn in your Bibles, as we always believe that the Word must come first, of the reading of the Word. I always read that, because my words is the word of a man, it will fail; but the Word of God can never fail.

Now we're going to read from the holy Scriptures a text. And we want you to turn, first, to three places in the Bible that I have chosen to read from. One of them is in Revelation the first chapter, and the seventeenth and eighteenth verse. This is where He appeared with his hair white as wool, and his feet was like brass. And then I want you also to get in your Bibles, Romans 8:11. I have chosen this morning three places to read from the holy Scriptures for my message today that the Lord has placed upon my heart for the resurrection. And then I want you to also ... Mark 16:1 and 2. There I will draw my context.

Now in Revelations 1:18, we read these words, 17 and 18:

And when I saw him, I fell at his feet as dead. And he laid his right hand upon me, saying unto me, Fear not; for I am the first and the last:

I am he that liveth, and was dead; and behold, I am alive for evermore, Amen; and have the keys of death and ... hell.

And in Romans the eighth chapter and the eleventh verse, we read this:

But if the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by his Spirit that dwelleth in you.

And now in Mark the sixteenth chapter, the chapter of the resurrection, the sixteenth chapter, the first and second verses:

And when the sabbath was past, Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother of James, and Salome, had brought sweet spices, that they might come and anoint him.

And very early in the morning the first day of the week, they came unto the sepulchre at the rising of the sun.

Now, my text this morning, I want to take for a text: “It Is the Rising of the Sun.” And for a subject I want to use, the quickening power.

Now, you know, you perhaps have been hearing the radio and the different ministers speak, and our noble Brother Neville this morning speaking his Easter subject, on the resurrection. And I thought maybe I would take it a little different path—not to be different, but just to add a little more, maybe in another angle for you. The Scriptures, every angle you go with the Scriptures, it always declares Jesus Christ. You cannot get away from it any way. It always declares Him.

Now, as the world today in a memorial service—or at least in United States and this side of the earth this morning in the churches and throughout—is celebrating a memorial of the greatest triumph that man ever had.

I think, as Saviour when He died, or as an infant when He was born, He could not have been here unless being ... coming into the earth. And when He died, certainly He atoned for our sin. But yet, there's been many fine little babies born; and there's been many men who has suffered and died for a real cause; but there never was one that could raise hisself up again until this day.

Now that it is the greatest week in history, the greatest celebration of all times, this Easter is where He proved what He had said. Men can say things, but yet it isn't exactly ... can be believed upon, thoroughly, until it's been proved to be the truth. And as God, who said, “Prove all things; hold fast to that which is good,” He would not tell you to do something that He would not do Himself. So He proved who this was that died for our sin.

And now, not only is it a memorial day of all these great Easter flowers, and Easter bonnets, and pink rabbits, and so forth, that we've got into, and holy celebrations, which is all right.... But this is not the real thing, in that way.

As people today are trying to say, “We should wash feet once a year on Thursday, and on Friday we should take the communion,” and all different doctrines of.... They argue about whether it should be this day or that day, or whether it should be a Sabbath day or the first day of the week or.... All these things are just merely tradition. What good would any of it do you, whether you had Lent or not Lent, if there is no life in you? It's only a memorial. Which, there's nothing against it, but they have certainly carried out their traditions but left off the main thing.

Satan doesn't care how religious you are, or how right you are in your doctrine. If you miss that life, you won't come up anyhow. No matter how religious, how good, how many churches you've belonged to, or will belong to, it doesn't matter one thing unless you have been born again.

Therefore, if God raised up Jesus from the dead, did He raise Him up for a memorial? And is this resurrection morning only a one day in the year, or a certain day that we celebrate this? Or are we benefactors of his resurrection? What does it mean to me? What does it mean to you? Now we believe by faith that He raised from the dead, but what has that got to do with me? That was two thousand years ago.

Now to find this text.

As I was tired, my arm hurting me from shots that the nurse gave me for.... Leave overseas now, as you know, in a few days, and I must have these shots, son and I. And with cholera, yellow fever, and everything, I was pretty weary—making me sick. Which, Caesar requires to have these shots before you go into the other nation, and He said, “Give Caesar that which is Caesar's. But then give God that which is God's!”

And as I was sitting there wondering what would I speak to this waiting audience this morning (which I am very thankful for, and men and women who would lay their life on the line for what you would say).... How should I do it? What should I take for a text?

And then while I was sitting there, almost asleep, my door rattled out on the front side of the house. Nobody being there but myself, as far as I knew, I listened. I didn't get it just right. After a while, the den room door, where I have turned into my study, it rattled, and someone kept shaking the door. And I went to the door and opened the door, and to my surprise, a pretty little yellow-haired, blue-eyed girl stood there. Looked like a little Easter flower (that's sitting here looking at me now).

She handed me a card. And it was the.... 'Course I guess when I get home there'll be Easter cards, and so forth; but the only one, being leaving home, that I had received. And she said, “Brother Branham, this is from Daddy and me.” She wanted to be sure that me was in it. And her arthritic father, sitting in a wheel chair, had sent this card. When I took it and thanked the little darling, as she turned and walked away from the door, I opened up the card.

And in the form of this card I drew my text. For on the card was the St. Mark 16:1 and 2, sunup, the sun was rising. Then I thought of that, and then the subject of the quickening of Jesus Christ to be raised up from the dead, I drew my subject.

Now, the sun, at this rising of the sun.... Well, there was a time when the world was laying in utter darkness. It was without form and was void. And it was all covered with water, and was laying there in the dark, dismal, gloomy atmosphere. And the Spirit of God moved upon that water, and said, “Let there be light.” God had a reason to do that, for down beneath that water there was seeds that He had planted, and it had to have that sunlight to make it live.

And the first light was ever given in the earth was God's spoken word. The first light that ever struck the earth was God's spoken word. He said, “Let there be light,” and there was light. That turned darkness into light, in order to bring forth a creation of joy and life upon the earth.

Then the Spirit of God, as it moved with love and compassion, at that great day—the first day of the dawn of creation upon the earth—the sun rose and swept across its rays and dried up the waters from the earth, and made an atmosphere above. And for its first time, it was to bring joy and life to the earth by a seed. That was a great hour.

But, oh, it wasn't nothing—that sunrise—like the sunrise on that Easter morning. This time, with the sun leaping into the skies, it brought forth a greater sunrise than ever; because it came greater news with this sunrise, than it did with the sunrise at the beginning. This sunrise brought a news that “He is risen! He is quickened from the dead, as He's promised. He's risen from the dead.”

The first time the sun rose (in Genesis), it was bringing a message that there will be life upon the earth—mortal life.

But this time when the sun rose there was a dual sunrising, another Son-rising. It was not only s-u-n rising; it was the S-o-n had risen to bring eternal life to all God's promised seed that by foreknowledge He had seen laying upon the earth.

No more could the botany life live back there at the beginning without the s-u-n to bring it to life; no more than today, when sons of God is upon the earth, it takes the S-o-n light to bring them to eternal life, his chosen ones that He knew before the foundation of the world. He had chosen them in Himself before the foundation of the world.

And on Easter morning.... Then in this dirt somewhere laid our bodies at that time, for we are the dust of the earth. And in heaven there was a book of memory, and his attributes was in Him —knowing that because this Son of God raised, it would also raise to life every son that was foreordained to this great time. He knew it would be. And what a more glorious sunrise that was than it was at the beginning, at ... time when it first dawned.

Now, on this great breaking of the Easter seal....

Now, today we have a tuberculosis Easter seal. People sends a message, one to the other, to support this great fund or drive, for the doctors and medical science to work upon something to retard, or to help, the tuberculosis. They are sealed, what we call an Easter seal, when we send message one to another. But when we receive the message that seal is broken, because the seal is what's got a message bound on the inside.

And now, the true Easter seal on this sunrise was broken; and the secret of life after death was revealed. Before that time, we didn't know. The world groped in darkness, groped around, man ... suspicion. Theories was among men's hearts, tradition, made-up. Men worshiped idols, they worshiped the sun, they worshiped all kinds of gods. And all kinds of people that made claims, they all went into the grave, and they stayed in the grave.

But the real seal had been broken, and one who once lived as we live, died as we will die, was risen from the dead. What a morning! Never one like it in all the history of the world. The secret was made known that He was both resurrection and the life.

And He said, when He come forth on that morning, “Because I live, you live also.” Not only was He the beneficiary of the resurrection, but all those seed that was resting in God's great promise was a benefactor of that resurrection to life, because He said, “Because I live, ye shall live also.” That was the breaking of the seal. Because He was brought up, so will every one that's in Christ be brought up with Him.

At this glorious sunrise God had proven, or vindicated, his Word. All the gloom and doubt that had moved in people's minds was taken away, because here was He who once lived, ate, drank, and fellowshipped with mankind, that said, “I have power to lay my life down; I have power to raise it up again.” And now, not only had He made the statement, but He proved it to be the truth. Oh, what a glorious thing that is!

I'm sure this morning that even we who believe it cannot comprehend what a great thing that was. Because He raised from the dead, we also have already raised from the dead, for we were in Him.

Notice now. As the gloom covered the earth, and the seeds could not live without the s-u-n to rise, and gloom had covered the earth.... And now the S-o-n was risen, and all gloom was vanished by this light as it spread across the nations to the people, that “He is not here, but He has risen!” What a statement! He had proved his Word. He had proved it to be true, for He had now conquered death, hell, and the grave.

The trinity of the devil—death, hell, and the grave—for Satan is the author of death, he is the possessor of hell, and also the grave. And that was the trinity of Satan—being caused by one thing, that was death. Death, you go at the grave; and being a sinner, you go to hell. All the very one thing, the trinity of Satan, which was death. That had held man in captivity all these years.

But now the true trinity of God, being one, manifested in Christ—who was life, and had broke the seals and conquered the enemy, and rose up—the one true and living God. “I am He that was dead, and I'm alive forevermore, and have the keys of death and hell.” God, in one, made man, and dwelt among us, and conquered every enemy; and had proved that the trinity of Satan was conquered, and that the trinity of God was made known, because only God alone had power to bring life back again. He was that Emmanuel. God had been manifested in the flesh.

No wonder He could claim there (Matthew, the twenty-seventh chapter), “All powers in heaven and earth is given into my hands. I send you to be my witnesses to all the world.” He had conquered both death, hell, and the grave. Not only did He do that, and come out, triumphant, with all the power in heavens and the earth.... All that was the Father, all that was the Holy Ghost, and all that there ever was, was in Him. “All powers in heaven and in earth is given unto me.” Everything else is powerless. He had conquered it.

Now ... and then, not only that, He sent word to his disciples, his believing, “Fear not, for I am He that was dead, and is alive again forevermore. And I have the keys to death and hell; I've already conquered it. Don't fear anymore, for every foreordained, predestinated seed of God shall come to life when that light spreads across the earth of the glorious gospel. In every age, it'll bring forth the crop that God ordained it to do.” He had raised from the dead.

Oh, what a wonderful thing that is: “I am alive [or quickened].” The word means ... the word quickened, the Greek word means ... that's something that's made alive after death.

Like the seed that goes into the earth, it has to die, every bit of the seed. It has to rot, every bit of the seed. And every bit of the life that was in the seed has to come forth again.

He was quickened. Not only that: “And will send the same life that quickened me, the power that brought me from the grave, I will send it upon you, to quicken you, that where I am, there ye will be also.”

In Luke, twenty-fourth chapter, forty-ninth verse, He said, “Behold, I send the promise of the Father upon you; but tarry ye [or wait ye] in the city of Jerusalem, until you be endued with power from on high.”—to show that not only did He draw all the benefits out of it, but He shared those benefits.

He come to redeem, or to bring to life, those predestinated seed that God seen before the foundation of the world and put their names in the book of life. And here they are on the earth, without a hope. He came not only to be the blessing, but to share the blessing with every predestinated seed. Now, if the seed wasn't on the earth, it could not live. It had to be on the earth, and also germitized. No matter how long it's kept in darkness, it'll come forth when the S-o-n shines upon it. Notice now, He come to share it with us.

No wonder the gospel is good news. The very word gospel means “the good news.” The good news what? If a man died for our sake, that's good news. If Christ was born, that's good news. But never a news, never was there news like this news, that He who made the promise has confirmed the promise, that He's alive forevermore, and has the keys of both death and hell in his hand. All the gloom was shook away. There was no more gloom to be seen, for the Son was up from the grave. There was no “He will come,” or “He may come.” He had already come—the gospel, good news.

Notice, the very message of the gospel itself is to prove to the people that He is risen. “Go tell my disciples that I am risen from the dead, and I'll meet with them, to confirm this to them.” O God, how in this last days there shall be light again across the earth! “I'll prove to my disciples.... Go tell them that I am not dead, and I'm not a tradition, but I am a living Christ. I'll meet them. Take this message to my disciples, that I am risen from the dead,”—the gospel, good news.

You say, “Is that right?”

Hebrews 13:8 said He's the same yesterday, today, and forever. We, his beneficiaries, are to prove his life is in us now, the beneficiaries of this life. The life, there never was a life lived like it; He was the Son of God. And He died, and that shut it out. But when He raised again from the dead, on Easter morning, then we, as his servants, are commissioned by Him to go into all the world and to bring this good news to every person, that He is living. And how can we do it by word only? For it is written, “The gospel came not by word only, but through the power and the manifestation of the Holy Spirit,” to prove that He is alive.

Now, if there is another gospel, as Paul spoke to one of the groups, “I am so surprised that you turned to another gospel....” Which, there is no other, but a make-believe gospel, to a denominational fiction, turning from that good news.

“And because I live, ye live also. And I live in you, and the works that I do [John 14:12], the works that I do will identify Myself in you.” What a message! No wonder we've had a dark world of theology; but in the evening time there shall come light again. There will be a resurrection in the evening time. It shall be light at the evening time.

Now, the very essence of the message that was sent—that He is risen from the dead—we, his beneficiaries, we who share the resurrection with Him, draw benefits from this, by proving to the world that He is alive. We cannot do it by word only. We cannot do it by some tradition of man. We only reflect exactly what we're pointing to.

I'm afraid today that too many of us are not getting people to Christ. We're getting them to a church, to a theory. But we must get them to Christ. He is the only One, and the only One that has life. “He that has the Son has life.”

And if the life of a man that's dead be projected in you, you will live the same life he lived.

If the blood of a man was a certain type, and you took the blood from one man and changed the blood of the one man into another, he would absolutely be that typed blood.

And if your spirit that's in you is reckoned dead, and you are anointed with ... the life that was in Christ is upon you. Romans 8:11 said, “If the Spirit that raised Christ from the dead dwells in you, it'll also quicken your mortal bodies.”—that same life, them same powers, them same beneficiaries, that He had here on earth, from God. He redeemed you, a seed that was foreknown by God, whose name was put on the Lamb's book of life before the foundation of the world.

And that gospel light of the resurrection, the confirmation of the Word.... How did we know He was the Christ? Because He proved what He talked about. How will I know the message of the hour? God proves what He promised, and He talks about it. That is the identification, that we are beneficiaries with Him in the resurrection. He proves what He has talked about.

What He promised to do in Christ, He proved on the resurrection. What He promised to do in the days of Moses, He proved it. What He promised in the days of Enoch, He proved it. In all the days of the apostles, He proved it.

Now in this day He proves what He said, because they are a part of that seed that was represented on the book of life that He came to redeem back to God again. Oh, what a message!

On Easter morning, not only did He raise, but his beneficiaries raised with Him. They were in Christ at his crucifixion. They were in Him at his resurrection. We are his beneficiaries, quickened after being dead in darkness, in a darkened world of unbelief, where churches and denominations, and so forth, had drawed us out.

And there was something in us calling, “Oh, we want God! We're hungering and thirsting for God.” We joined the Methodist, Baptist, Pentecostals, Presbyterians, and whatmore, and still there was something wrong. We just couldn't find it yet. And all of a sudden, while we was groping in darkness, the great resurrection came to us in the manifestation of the promised Word of God.

Like He was the manifestation of the promised Word of God: “I will not leave his soul in hell, neither will I suffer my Holy One to see corruption.” He manifested it, every word of God that was promised to Him. He proved it when He raised on Easter morning.

Now, them who were once groping in darkness and wondering around—if they should wash feet on this day, or if they should keep a certain day, or do a certain set of rules—all those things passed away. For there was a glorious resurrection that defied every man-made thing that man had ever done, every man-made reason.

There had never been, to that time, a man that could lay his life down and take it up again. He defied that scientific proof they had, by raising again.

When they say that Jesus Christ isn't the same yesterday, today, and forever, that his power isn't the same, that his gospel isn't the same, when the Bible says it's the same.... God defied every denomination, every creed, and He moved forth with his Holy Spirit as He promised, and proved it to us that He is alive.

We are the benefactors of his resurrection, quickened after being dead in the world, in sin and trespasses. He has quickened us together with Him, raised with Him, now sitting in heavenly places in Christ Jesus.

His Spirit brings his same life again on the earth. “If the Spirit of God, that raised up Christ....”—the body, the anointed body. If the Spirit of God anointed that body in such a way that.... When that seed fell into the earth, He just wouldn't let Him rest there. No. He quickened Him and raised Him up. That same Spirit (by the same works, by the same power, by the same signs) be in you, it'll also raise you up.

I'd like to read a little scripture here for you. I'd like for you to turn to another scripture I got wrote down here. It might help you a little. It's found in the book of Leviticus, the twenty-third chapter, the ninth to the eleventh verse. Listen close. In the law, Levitical law, God speaking to Moses, listen. All these things are types now, and we'll stop here for a few moments to get into this type.

And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying,

Speak unto the children of Israel, and say unto them, When you ... come into the land which I give unto you,...

“... unto the place, the position, that I have given unto you. Now you speak to the children of Israel, that when you get to this certain place that I've promised you I'd take you, when you get there in this land....” Now speaking natural here, typing the spiritual.

... and shall reap the harvest thereof [you have received what I told you thereof], then ye shall bring a sheaf of the firstfruits of your harvest unto the priest:

And he shall wave the sheaf before the LORD, to be accepted for you: on the morrow after the sabbath the priest shall wave it.

If there would be any holy ritual, it should come forth on the Sabbath day, which was the seventh day of the week, which is Saturday. But did you notice, in this memorial to wave it on the first day of the week?

“The sheaf, which was the first of your seed that you planted, when it comes up and ripens, you cut down this sheaf and take it to the priest. And let him take it and wave it before the Lord for your acceptance, that you are accepted. You have come with your sheaf, and he is to wave it before the Lord, on....”

Not on the Sabbath, the seventh day; but on the first day, which we call Sunday, S-u-n-d-a-y.

'Course, that's a Roman word, which they called it the sun day for the sun god. But how it is changed!

It's not s-u-n anymore. It's the S-o-n-d-a-y, the Son-day that that corn of wheat (God's first one up from the dead) is to be waved over the congregation, that we are his seed; and that's the first of the seeds of those that slept, waved upon the first day of the week. On Sunday, He raised up. Waved good-bye, and ascended up on high, in the presence of the people.

Notice, it was the first corn of God's wheat that had been raised from the dead, God's first corn of wheat. By God's quickening power, God had quickened his life, raised Him up from the dead, and He was the firstfruits of those that slept. The firstfruit—He was that sheaf.

That's why they had to wave that sheaf, for it was the first one that come to maturity. And it was waved as a memorial of thanksgiving to God, believing that the rest of them would come. It was a sign.

And, today, because He was the first son of God to come to full maturity, to be in God, He was plucked up from the earth and is waved over the people. Oh, what a glorious lesson! By the quickening power, the first one! Although, He had been typed—and many times, as we'll see later, that He was typed—but this was really the firstfruits of them that slept. He was waved over the promised seed that had promise of life.

He was waved at the day of Pentecost when there came a sound from heaven like a waving, mighty, rushing wind, and was waved over the people, the Pentecostal people that was up at Pentecost, waiting for the blessing to come.

And to be waved again, we realize, in the last day, according to Luke 17:30, in the Son-day again, “... in the day that the S-o-n of man will be revealed,” or waved again over the people.

Now, who is this Son of man? “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God ... And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us.” And of all the teaching that we have, and confirmation of the Word of God—by Word of God, by signs, by wonders, we see today, that in the book of Luke here (as we just quoted from Luke the seventeenth chapter and the thirtieth verse), and Malachi 4, and the different scriptures that we are acquainted with—that that Word again is waved over the people; that the dead traditions of man is dead, and the Son of God is alive again with the baptism of the Holy Spirit right among us, and is giving us life.

As Christ was the first one to raise—from all the prophets and so forth, all those typed in many places, He was the firstfruits of those that slept—in the bride coming of Christ, coming out of the church, there'll have to be a sheaf waved again in the last days. Oh, my!

Waving of the sheaf! What was the sheaf? The first one that come to mature, the first one that proved it was a wheat, that proved it was a sheaf. Hallelujah! I'm sure you see what I'm talking about. It was waved over the people. And the first time there will come forth, for the bride age, for a resurrection out of dark denominationalism, will be a message, that the full maturity of the Word has turned back again in its full power, and being waved over the people by the same signs and wonders that He did back there.

“Because I live, ye live also,” speaking to his wife. “Because I live, ye live also.” What a resurrection that that was! And what a resurrection this is, to be quickened from the dead, to be made alive in Christ Jesus by God's quickening power.

He was waved to them. The Word, which He was, was waved back to them on the day of Pentecost, the Word made manifest. Now, and as I say, it's to be waved again in the last day. Now, for instance....

You say, “Well, now, wait a minute, Brother Branham. I know a church that....” Well, I do, too, see?

But now, for instance, what if we were going to go back to Tucson this afternoon, and each one of us was going to go in a big Cadillac, brand new? And all of the seats were made out of doeskin, softest of leather, soft and easy to sit in; and the floorboards were plush; the steering wheel were nickel-plated and had diamond studs all over it; and the engine was mechanically tested to be exactly the right engine; and the wheels all had bearings and greased up; and the tires were all puncture-proof and blowout-free, had all been tested scientifically.

They had been pushed off the assembly line, both of them, and both of them filled up with gasoline. That's the running power, the gasoline, because in it is the octane. But now when you're going to start them, although both of them look just alike, but there was one of them don't have any spark, any firing power.

“Well,” you say, “the power is in the gasoline, Brother Branham.” But I don't care how much power is in the gasoline, unless there's a spark there to manifest that power, unless there's a power there to confirm that that's gasoline, it just might as well be water. Until....

No matter how much theologians claim, how well you got your church set, how much education you got, how much like the Bible, until that wave sheaf, until the Holy Spirit comes upon that person to quicken that Word.... The gasoline represents the Word. It's the truth, but without the Spirit it won't move.

We have put too much stress on the mechanics and nothing on the dynamics. It needs the dynamic power of God, the resurrection power of Jesus Christ upon the church, to manifest and to bring to pass that this is gasoline. It might be in a gasoline can; it could still be water, see. But the only proof of it is put this life on it, and it'll prove whether it's gasoline or not.

And when you try to put the Holy Spirit in the denomination, you are as much as ... you can get a splutter. You'll ruin your engine by getting it full of carbon.

But, oh, I'm so glad that there is a ten-thousand-octane power—the Word of God, and a Holy Ghost to light it up and to resurrect the power of God into a man's life, or a woman's life, or into a church. That shoves that Cadillac down the road yonder under the dynamic power of the Holy Ghost, which came back and was waved over the people at the day of Pentecost, making Him the same yesterday, today, and forever.

There was the first sheaf come up from all the prophets, which was the Son of God, the King of all prophets.

There has been churches, churches, brides, brides, churches, brides, brides. But there has got to come one (Hallelujah!), there has to come a real bride. There must come one that's not only got the mechanics, but the dynamics of it, makes that church live, move in the power of his resurrection. Until we come to that place, until we find that place, what good does it do to polish the hubs? What good does it do to give her a face-lift or a simonize job, when there's no dynamics in it? No matter how much the mechanics prove to be right, there has got to be a dynamics to make it work.

That's what He proved! Hallelujah! That's what Easter proved. He wasn't only the Word, but He was God Himself, the dynamics in the Word. That made the body of Jesus Christ—cold, stiff, and dead in the grave—shake into life and rise again and roll away the stone. “I am He that was dead.” So dead till the sun said He was dead, the moon said He was dead, the stars said He was dead, all nature said He was dead. And now the whole world has to recognize that He's alive again. He was not only the mechanics, God's Word; He was the dynamics to prove it.

And as He being the groom, the bride has to come forth because it's part of Him. And it can only be the manifestation of the fulfilling of all the revelations any others has spoke of the bride. It can only manifest. If it does something different from the groom, it isn't the bride. Because she is flesh of his flesh, bone of his bone, life of his life, power of his power, she is Him! As man and woman are one, and woman taken from his side, she has taken his Spirit, the feminish Spirit, from Him, the flesh from his side—made both mechanics and dynamics, the wife. The Spirit of Him and the flesh of Him, and put it together, it made mechanics and dynamics.

Until the church, or the people....

All these Easter bunnies, and ceremonies, and big churches, and finery, will fail and pass away.

Until that church becomes both dynamics and mechanics, and the Spirit of God, that moved Him to do the things that He did.... If He hit on sixteen cylinders, so will the bride. Amen! For He said in John 14:12, “He that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also. I'll give him a charge of my dynamics in his mechanics that the world will not be able to withstand it; and I'll raise him up again at the last day.” That's the Easter message, the dynamics and the mechanics together! The mechanics without the dynamics—no good; neither is the dynamics without the mechanics.

You can scream and shout and jump up and down, all you want to, and deny this Word, it won't do any good. You're just cranking around. The pistons have got the spark there to fire, but no gasoline to fire it by.

It'll only work as they come together. Amen! So one will sit still and the other one will go up. That's the only thing there is to it. Yet, they both might look alike, both claim to be churches, both claim to be bride. But one has mechanics and dynamics. It brings it to pass, that what He said is the truth.

It just won't move, no matter how good the mechanics is, until the dynamics come. When the dynamics come, that fire is made to connect with that octane in the gasoline. And when that explodes, it causes a combustion, and that combustion moves—every motion, every move—for He is the same yesterday, today, and forever. That's the resurrection. That's the real power of God—mechanics with the dynamics. Notice, it's the Spirit that quickens. It's the spark that fires. It's not the gas that fires; it's the spark that fires the gas, see.

“You can do nothing without me; but with me you can do all things.” As He is the Word, it's the Father living.... “...Father sent me, so send I you. As the Father has fired me and pushed me into everything, I do only that which is pleasing to God. Now, as He sent me, so send I you with the same mechanics, and it takes the same dynamics to operate it. And these signs shall follow them that claim to have the mechanics. The dynamics will take its place.”

Paul said, “The gospel came to us not in word only [through gasoline only], but through spark also,” to make it move. There you are. It came to us in that manner.

It's the same Spirit that raised Him up that quickens the true believer to eternal life. Now remember, potentially.... Now watch (as we are getting out of our time). Notice, “the same Spirit,” now, Romans 8:1. Now let's just read that again, in Romans 8:1, and we'll see what that says. All right. Not Romans.... I mean, 8:11, I'm sorry.

In Romans 8:11, “But if....” There's the problem. There's this catch:

But if the Spirit of him [God, the Holy Spirit] that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you,...

Oh, there you are: If the bridegroom's Spirit dwells in the bride!

When God made his first bridegroom, He made the bridegroom first, and he was both man and woman, in spirit; formed him in the dust of the earth, to make him material. And notice when He made Eve, from Adam, He took not another piece of clay; He took from the same piece of clay. The same word, for Adam was a spoken word, see. He took from him, and then taken the.... He had masculine and feminish spirit. And He took the feminish spirit away from Adam, and placed it in Eve; so it's still part of Adam's spirit. It's Adam's flesh; then it was Adam's spirit, the dynamics, that quickened the mechanics of his body.

So the bride must also be flesh of his flesh, and bone of his bone. Then how is this mortal flesh going to become his flesh? We'll get to it in a minute, see. How is it done? What is this great transformation? Notice.

Now if the Spirit of him [God] that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by his Spirit that dwelleth in you.

Oh, my! The predestinated one, of course, like the seed laid upon the earth, the one that had life in them. Many of them were dead. They were just rotten seed. The waters and things burnt them out. But, you know, there was a seed laying there ready for life. God knowed it was laying there.

Now, the predestinated ones are the first to be quickened by the Holy Spirit, for the Holy Spirit comes to claim its own. (Now, this is deep now, be sure to catch this good.)

Now, as the sun was sent across the earth, not to bring rocks (which was dirt also) to life, it was not to bring all the dirt to life, but was to bring the part of the dirt which was enclosed around a life.

Not all men will receive Christ. Oh, no. But those which God foreordained life, is housed around some of the dirt of the earth. That's the one He comes to quicken. They're the ones.

Now, that dirt would lay there in the sun and say, “Oh, this old sun is so hot!” That rock, say, “This old sun is so hot!” But that little seed said, “That's what I'm looking for,” and it begin to spring forth to life. It quickened that part of the dirt, because the sun was sent not to quicken the rock, not to quicken the dirt, but to quicken the life of the seed.

Now, the Holy Spirit comes now. Of course, it wasn't sent.... Why won't all the people receive it? It wasn't sent to them.

A guy told me, “I don't believe. I don't care what you'd say. If you could raise up the dead or anything, heal the sick and prove it, any way, I still don't believe it.”

I said, “Certainly not. You're an unbeliever. It don't mean a thing to you. It wasn't even sent to you. It's sent to those who will believe.”

The message is to the believer. To them that perish, it's foolishness; but to them that are in Christ and part of that seed, it's life.

My crude little story about the farmer putting the egg, the eagle egg, under the hen, see. That little eagle was, absolutely, he was a odd-looking little creature, when this farmer had did that thing that he did, to put this eagle egg under this old hen. And she hatched out a funny-looking chicken, and it was a odd little fellow. He didn't look like them. His feathers wasn't like the rest of them. He was an odd little guy, and all the rest of the chickens recognized him an odd fellow. And the hen went around....

He didn't even like the diet she was feeding him. He just didn't like that scratching in the barnyard. He didn't have nothing to do with that. So he wondered why he had to be the odd one around there, anyhow. See? And he never tasted anything that.... He just ate enough to keep him alive, because he didn't like the taste of it, see, because he wasn't a chicken to begin with, see.

And the hen would cluck and, you know, “The days of miracles is past. There is no such a thing. Join the church.” It just didn't hit right with the little guy. So he followed around the hen until one day his mammy....

The old eagle knowed she had laid so many eggs, and there was one missing. She knew that that eagle was somewhere, so she starts out on the hunt for him. And she circled over the mountaintop, and down in the valleys, and over in everywhere where he might be. By this time it's time for him to be born. It's time for him to be hatched out. Said, “Maybe a crow come in and picked up my egg; maybe a vulture. I don't know. Something picked up my egg. But I know ... that egg is in my mind. I got a son somewhere. I got to hunt him.”

So does God. He's that great eagle. In his thoughts He knowed He'd have a church. He knowed He'd have a people. No matter what's cuddled them, no matter what they was hatched out under, He is hunting. He is hunting for his own.

And one day, the story goes, this old eagle flew over the barnyard. She was looking everywhere, and she found him. Oh, for that resurrection, to recognize that he really wasn't a chicken after all, he was an eagle! And he was always taught to look down, look for a bug or something in the barnyard. But he heard a scream that said, “Look up this way!” And he looked above him, and there was a creature with fourteen-feet wings, powerful than all the chickens there was in the barnyard, and claimed him to be her son.

He said, “Mama, how can I get to you?”

Said, “Just jump, start flopping your wings, for you're an eagle.”

See, she knew she had a son somewhere. No matter what he's been raised up in, she's got a son somewhere.

And God knows! Hallelujah! He's got a predestinated, foreordained church. He knowed He's got sons and daughters, and a bride waiting somewhere. When the Holy Spirit begins to fly over it, that wave sheaf.... Oh, my! He's the same yesterday, today, and forever. Not some mythical story, but a reality!

No matter how many tries to tell him.... A eagle, he didn't know what a eagle was. Yet, he was an eagle. He would not understood it until he seen something that reflected him ... that he reflected, rather.

And when we see, not a denomination, not a Ph.D., not a LL.D., not a good neighbor, but a son of God—molded in the image of God, with the dynamic power of God to answer the request of this day, that He's the same yesterday, today, and forever—there ain't no hen going to hold you. He hunts for his mama. He's an eagle to begin with. He recognizes ... this real eagle recognizes the call of God's Word. Why? He's an eagle. A eagle to a eagle. The Word, before the foundation of the world, to the Word! The Word, predestinated, to the Word written, for the hour. Do you realize your position? He hunts for it.

Then this earthly body is quickened and brought by the quickening Spirit of God to obedience to the Word of God.

(Quickly.) When he wanted to know how he could get there with her, he had been taught he couldn't do that. “You can't get no higher than you jump.” He's a chicken, see.

But this eagle said, “That's not so.”

“Well, look at the chickens.”

“No matter what the chickens are, you're a eagle. Just start spreading those wings, and get a little exercise in them. Start moving up.”

The Word to the Word. “The works that I do shall you also. He that believeth in me, the works that I do shall he also,” see. “Because I live, he lives also.” “If the Spirit that raised Him from the dead dwells in you, it quickens your mortal body,” see.

What does it do? Now listen, so that you'll know. This Easter I want it to mean more to you than any Easter ever did. I want you to see it. We know what it done for Him; but I want you to see it's not will, it has done the same for you, see. What does it do? It quickens the mortal body. This mortal body that we live in, it quickens it—in other words, brings it to life.

Now, you who once walked along with a great big cigar in your mouth, and everything, or a bunch of cigarettes, and you women who once had short hair, painted, and carried on, wore shorts, and things like that, all at once something screamed, and you looked down here, and it was the Word. See, it quickened your.... You said, “No more shorts for me, no more liquor for me, no more lying, no more stealing, no more this, that,” see. The Spirit that raised Him from the dead dwelling in you will also bring your mortal bodies, the dust of the earth, into subjection. You see? What is it? Subjection to what? Christ. Who is Christ? The Word. Not the theology, but the Word.

Then you say that these things.... “Oh, I think it's all right for the women to wear slacks,” when the Word said no.

See, it quickens you to that. See? You are drawed to it. See, it's you, then. You become part of the Word. It brought your body....

Now, “Well,” you say, “well, now, let me tell you something. My pastor....” I don't care what your pastor says; it's what the Word says. If you want to be a chicken, go along with them. But if the pastor speaks different from this Word, then he is not a feeder of the eagles; he's a feeder of the hens, see. Not of the eagles, see —the eagle eats on eagle's food, see. It quickens.

The Bible said it's wrong to do that. And the men, and so forth, and what all you do, it's wrong. Say, “Days of miracles is past”; this Bible said He's the same yesterday, today, and forever. If they say, “That's mental telepathy, and it's some kind of a mind-reading, this discernment, and all these visions and things is nonsense,” see, they are chickens. They don't know what eagle food is.

But, brother, when you hear that scream, there's something in you—you're a eagle to begin with. Why? You are that seed that the resurrection of the S-o-n has dawned and the wave sheaf upon the earth to make you recognize that you are a eagle and not a denominational chicken. You see it?

Now, if the Spirit that raised Him from the dead (the Word, the dynamic of the Word) dwells in you, it also quickens your mortal body. Now how are we flesh of his flesh and bone of his bone? Because (quickly) while we were yet mortal sinners (mortal, ready to die, these bodies) it quickens that body. What's quicken? “Brings to life.” The spirit that once liked to drink, run around, commit adultery, and all these, it's quickened. Why, the thing died, and you are resurrected. It quickens your mortal bodies.

Therefore, your body is the temple of the dynamics. Because (why?) from the beginning you are part of the mechanics. Oh! There is your resurrection. There is the church in the resurrection with Him. These bodies right now are quickened, see. You've heard, you believe, it changed you from a denomination to the Word, see.

The dynamics, if it comes upon water, it'll just splutter: “Days of miracles is past [pomp-pomp-pomp]. Oh, I believe the Bible [pomp-pomp-pomp], but there ain't no [pomp-pomp-pomp]....” See?

But when he hits that one thousand octane, “Whrrrrr,” away she goes, you see. Oh, my, the dynamics strike that! But it strike a chicken, it won't do no good. But when it strikes the eagle, he moves out. Amen. The dynamics with the mechanics. See what I mean? That is, if he is a true eagle, now, he will understand.

Let me straighten a little scripture here for you. (I think we're off of the phone, but we are still here.) St. John 5:24, Jesus said, “He that heareth my word, and believeth on Him that sent me, has everlasting life.” Now look, I go down the street and just take that literally what it is, without the spiritual understanding.... Not making it say nothing else, but just saying what it says, see. The right word there in the Greek, in the original, it says, “He that understandeth my word.”

Now, to prove that's right. I go down here, and here's a drunk coming along the street with some other man's wife on his arms, and cussing and taking God's name in vain, and everything else like that. “Say, did you hear what that preacher said? Did you?”

“Yeah, I heard it!” That don't mean he's got eternal life. See?

“He that understandeth my word,” he that is an eagle!

“Now, Brother Branham, I want more Scripture than that.”

All right. “My sheep hear my voice. A stranger they won't follow.”

As in the marriage and divorce case the other day. When the Holy Spirit had told me that, I come said it just the way He told me.

Some minister lady give me a right sharp little bawling out. She said, “I guess you take the place of God?”

I said, “No, ma'am.”

Said, “Well, you told them their sin is forgiven,” said, “where it said only God has power....” Another Pharisee, see.

I said, “You see, that you might know that Jesus told Peter and the apostles, after he had the revelation of who He was.... He told Him, 'Thou art Christ, the Son of God.'

“He said, 'Blessed art thou [see], son of Jonas: flesh and blood never revealed this to you, but my Father which is in heaven has revealed it. Upon this rock I'll build my church; the gates of hell can't prevail against it. And I give unto thee the keys: whatever you bind on earth, I'll bind it in heaven: what you loose on earth....'”

That's that divine revelation of the Word made flesh. If it was flesh in that day by the Son, the groom, it's the flesh today by the bride.

“Whose soever sins you remit, to them they are remitted; whose soever sins you retain, to them they are retained.” Now, the Catholic church picked that up and takes it to their priests, but that's carnal.

Watch, it was the spiritual revealed Word that did it! That's the reason He told them to go baptize in the name of Father, Son, Holy Ghost. He knowed they knew who He was.

Talking to a little preacher the other day, he said to me, he said, “Now, Brother Branham, I've come out and joined ... went over to a certain church, a Pentecostal church where....”

The Pentecostal now has started taking the round wafer, you know. You've heard of that, I guess—the kosher, the moon god, you know. And they all accepted it and taking it. This man said.... His congregation went to him. He said, “What I bless is blessed.” Now, ain't that what the priest says, he has power to turn it back to the body of Christ? See, just six of one and half a dozen of the other, just the same.

And he said, “I want to ask you something.” He was trying to dodge that issue of the baptism in Jesus' name, because this was the man that said it was the antichrist that did that. He said, “Do you think it's all necessary that a man should be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ?”

I said, “Yes, sir.”

He said, “After he's been baptized in the name of Father, Son, and Holy Ghost?”

I said, “Yes, sir. He hasn't been baptized at all, see. He hasn't been baptized at all. No name; that's a title.” I said, “It isn't recognized.” I said, “Why did Peter...?”

He said, “Well, let me tell you something.” He said, “Now, in Acts 10:49,” he said, “While Peter yet spake these words, the Holy Ghost fell upon them.”

“But,” I said, “he turned right around and said, 'Can a man forbid water that these should not be baptized?'”

He said, “Well, you was speaking over there, a while ago, about Acts 19, where Paul passed through the upper coasts of Ephesus ... find them disciples.” And said, “Why,” said, “they wasn't baptized in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost.”

I said, “No, they were baptized unto repentance, not for remission of sins. Unto repentance, because Jesus hadn't been made known yet. The sacrifice hadn't been killed.”

He said, “Well, why did they have to be baptized over?”

I said, “The man that had the keys said this, 'For be it known unto you that there is not another name under heaven given among men, whereby ye must be saved.'”

Salvation alone goes in the name of Jesus Christ. “Whatever you do in word or deed, do it all in the name of Jesus Christ.” There is not another name, no church, no hierarchy, no titles, or nothing else. Yet, He is the Rose of Sharon, lily of the valley, morning star, Alpha, Omega, beginning and the ending, Jehovah-jireh, -rapha, -manasseh, all these. He is all these things, but yet there is no salvation in any of those titles. Jehovah, no salvation; Rose of Sharon (yet He is), no salvation; Father, Son, or Holy Ghost, no salvation. Only the name of “Jesus Christ.” And then the Bible said that “Repentance and remission of sin must be taught in his name, beginning at Jerusalem, and to the uttermost parts of the earth.”

He said, “Do you think it makes any difference?”

I said, “Sir, I want to ask you something.” He and I and my wife were sitting at the table. He just moved over to see me.... I said, “We are both Arizonans. We live here, and we know our council, and our ward and all, our mayor, the governor and everything.”

He said, “Yes.”

I said, “Now, if I told you, brother, to go over here and sign up for our dinner in the name of the governor of the state of Arizona, would you go sign it like that? Do you think they would receive it at the desk?”

“Why,” he said, “I guess not.” He said, “Why did Jesus say that?”

I said, “This is it, see. Why? If I told you to go sign for this dinner in the name of the governor of the state of Arizona, and us being citizens of Arizona, and knowing who the governor is, why, you would know to sign it in the name of Sam Goddard, see,” I said, “because he is the governor of the state. I don't have to question you. You know who the governor is. When He said, 'Father, Son, and Holy Ghost,' He knowed how they was going to baptize. They knowed who He was. 'My sheep hear my voice,' see.”

He said, “Oh, I see.”But now, the next thing, will you believe, see? “He that heareth my word, and believeth on Him that sent me, has everlasting life.” And when this new eternal life dwells in you, it is the potential.

When you have received this Holy Spirit, now, that they did at Pentecost.... They were the mechanics; now the dynamics had to come. They had believed. You know, our good Baptist friends tells us when we believe, we've got it. But, they didn't have it, yet they had believed.

Acts 19, they had believed, but they didn't have it. “Have you received the Holy Ghost since you believed?” See? They had the mechanics, all right, because the apostles were ... or, I mean, Apollos was teaching to them and proving by the Bible, the mechanics, that Jesus was the Christ, but they didn't have the dynamics yet, see. That's it. All right.

[Blank space on tape.] ... mechanics, you potentially have the earnest, the waiting.

Now, when you get the dynamics, you have been quickened from mortal to immortality. It makes the whole body come subject to the Word. It'll make you act different, look different, live different. It'll just make you different.

Now look. [Blank space on tape.] ... been quickened. “You who were once dead in sin and trespasses, and darkness, has He quickened.” What by? His Spirit that raised up Jesus on Easter morning from the dead. And if it dwells in your mortal bodies (now watch), it also quickens, brings to life, makes it subject to the Word.

Now how can you claim to have that Spirit, and throw yourself away from the Word? You're quickened by something else. For it will quicken your mortal bodies to the Word. Sure, it will.

You can't run without it. You'll just splutter, if you don't believe all of it. If you have part gasoline and part water, you ain't going to go nowhere, see. You've got to take it one hundred percent gasoline. If you don't, you backfire, and you ain't got no power, see. “Well, I believe this, but I don't believe that,” Pomp-pomp-pomp. You ain't going nowhere.

But, oh, when you take the fullness! Let it light up on that. Every word is truth.

Then notice now, as we close, notice this. Notice, it's just like a little seed laying in the ground. Now, potentially, you are resurrected. You're resurrected when you receive the Holy Spirit in you. You're resurrected right then. Your body is potentially resurrected.

Look at a little seed, plant in the ground. It has to drink from his fountain, the waters that pours down. And as it drinks, it pushes up towards Him, coming more like the likeness of the seed that went into the ground, see.

The church come that way, through justification, sanctification, baptism of the Holy Ghost, now in the blossom, see. The Spirit of God come through that.

And the spirit of the world has come through the antichrist, the same way, and now blossoming out in a great union of churches, see, the whole thing.

And the individual comes that way. Everything works on the same scale of God, because He is the same yesterday, today, and forever. Notice, on your way, growing to the fullness of the resurrection, led by the Spirit.

As the sun, s-u-n, pulls that little plant that's drinking from God's fountain, just keeps.... See, it can only drink from one thing. You pour oil down on that little seed one time—kill it. That's right. You pour stagnated water, old water that ain't no good, it's contaminated, it'll stunt the growth. It won't bear fruit. Is that right? But you pour real good soft rain water, amen, no man-made chemicals in it, just let it come from the heavens above, and watch that little plant. There is no water will grow that like that rain water. You put chlorine and stuff in it, like you try to dose us up with, and the first thing you know, it kills the plant.

That's what's the matter today. They try to give them waters from the denominational fountain, and it stunts the growth, see. But let him have the....

Come where the dewdrops of mercy are bright;

Shine all around me by day and by night,

Jesus, the light of the world.

(Then you got it, then.)

We'll walk in the light, that beautiful light,

Comes where the dewdrops of mercy are bright;

Just shine all around me...... .

Take these man-made fountains away from me! No other fount I know; nothing but the blood of Jesus! That's all the fountain I want to know. Let the Word dwell in me, Lord. Water it with thy Spirit.

Notice, now, if that Spirit that raised up Jesus from the grave, dwells in you, you potentially have life; led by the Spirit to quicken the Word to you, to believe it. The little thing keeps pushing up as it grows.

Notice, at Pentecost, their bodies were quickened to a new life. Look at a bunch of little cowards. (Am I holding you too long? Look, I'm just warmed up, that's it, feeling good. Oh, my!)

Notice, they were cowards. Notice. But, they had the mechanics, see. But they were all sitting back in there, saying, “Oh, I'm afraid of it. I'm afraid to go out and make a claim, because, oh, all them great big bishops and things out there. Oh, I'm afraid to. Them priests and things, I'm afraid to make that claim, afraid I'll say I believed on Him. Oh, I just can't do that, you see.”

But, all of a sudden, the dynamics come. Yes. And what did it do? It not only filled their spirit, inside, but it quickened their mechanics. Their bodies were quickened. They were no more cowards. They went right out in the face of the people. Yes, sir. “You men of Judaea, and you that dwell in Jerusalem!” Where, before the dynamics come, they were just mechanics, see. “Ye men that dwell in Jerusalem, let this be known unto you, and hearken to my words! These are not drunk, as you suppose.

“I'm one of them. This is that! I'll show you what it is. It's the Scripture. This is that!”

And I've always said, “If this ain't that, let me keep this till that comes.”

“No, this is that that was spoken of by the prophet Joel, 'And it'll come to pass in the last days, saith God, I'll pour out my Spirit upon all flesh.'” See, the dynamics come into the mechanics. They wasn't afraid no more.

Some of you people that are afraid that some woman will laugh at you for having long hair, or quit wearing makeup; some of you men that's afraid your organization will throw you out when you baptize your congregation in the scriptural baptism; you need to close yourself in the upper room till the dynamics come. That's right.

It changed them. It quickened them. It made them different. They were a changed people from then on. It quickened them from an old life of being a coward to like the Lion of the tribe of Judah. They absolutely faced martyrdom, nailed to crosses, crucified upside-down, burnt, throwed in the lions' den. No more cowards about them. Death had no victory over them at all. The dynamics was in the mechanics. Yes, sir. It quickened their mortal body.

Now listen. Here is another thing for proof. It so quickened them in such a way till you know what? They was lifted up in heavenly places, and their mortal bodies was so quickened till their language changed. It quickened their language. That's what the Bible said. Their mortal bodies being quickened, their language was quickened. Their thoughts were quickened, their spirits were quickened, their lives were quickened. They were quickened altogether! They tried to talk, and couldn't talk in any more human languages. They was so quickened up in the presence of God till they spoke in new tongues, a heavenly language. Whew! What a quickening power!

“If the Spirit that raised up Jesus from the dead dwells in you [Oh, hallelujah!], it will quicken your mortal bodies.” It'll make you do things you didn't do before. They was full of quickening power then, see.

Your body ain't subject to sin no more, your desires.

He say, “Come on out here....”

You say, “Shut your mouth.”

“Oh, we got the biggest....”

“Shut your mouth.”

Ah, you're a eagle! Did you ever see how independent an old eagle walks? He don't hop like a vulture, see, to every dead ... and all the carrion laying on the ground. No, sir. He walks proud.

“Shut your mouth.”

“Oh, here is a good dinner over here.”

“Not for me. My desires has changed. My appetite is different. 'For man shall not live on the world [carrion] alone, but by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God.'” A genuine quickened eagle lives by that. Amen!

Oh, and He raised up Christ from the grave, dwelling in you, has quickened your mortal body unto his presence. You recognize it. You are no longer a scavenger; you're an eagle. You don't want the things of the world. You're a son and daughter of God. You're feasting at a fountain that the world knows nothing about. You're drinking that somebody knows ... the world knows nothing about. You're eating hidden manna that the world never even knowed nothing of it, for you're an eagle. You're quickened up where you can get to it. You can't get to it down here; you got to get up here. You got to be quickened, lifted up there, so it will quicken.

What did they do? They spoke in another language. The Bible said they did. “They spoke in every tongue under heaven.”

Could you imagine that, them old mortal bodies that's in there, say, “Well, I don't know now whether I can believe this or not”?

All at once, they were so quickened till the bravery of the Lion of the tribe of Judah fell into them, over that waving sheaf. Oh, that eagle come to call its own. “And they loved not their lives unto death.” Amen.

And there is going to be more who will give their

life's blood

For this Holy Ghost gospel and its crimson flood.

And the Son has got to be revealed again, in the bride in the last day. A quickening power has got to come, quicken them out of these dead denominations and creeds to a living Word of the living God. Oh!

No, it quickened them to new life. It does the same thing for us now. Notice, then, they was so quickened in that quickening power (Listen close now. I'm trying to show you.), the quickening power wasn't only in their soul, but it was all over them. Not only the dynamics come in to quicken, but it quickened the mechanics. You see what I mean?

They were so quickened till their tongues begin to speak in another language. They were so quickened by the power of the resurrection of Christ, until they laid their hands.... They were so quickened with quickening power, till when they laid their hands upon the sick, they got well. It quickens your mortal body. They were healed by laying on their hand.

And the Spirit quickened their fellowship together with God, till they also were so quickened into the presence of God until when a person died and their soul had gone off, it called him back to life again. Amen! Glory! Now I'm feeling religious.

That's right, quickened! Not only was his resurrection for Himself, but for whosoever will, to this predestinated seed that's laying there. Quickens. Quickens the mortal body!

They laid hands on the sick, they recovered. They prayed in the Spirit, they saw visions, called the dead back to life. That's right. Quickened their mortal body.

If it comes into you, if it be so.... Now, you can say it's so; but if it be so, these signs follow them, you see. It quickens your mortal body. It'll quicken you.

Now, notice, quickened them into the presence of God. Why? It was the Spirit of God that raised up Jesus from the grave. And, the Spirit of God.... “I give unto them eternal life.” Come from the Greek word, if you look it up, Zoe, which moves it through you and then quickens even their mind.

Now look. How can you say that that Spirit dwells in you? Though you done everything that you thought was right, here is your evidence whether you got it or not. If the Spirit that was in Christ is in you, it also quickens you to the Word, for He is the Word. And if it, contrary, quickens you away from the Word, then it isn't the Spirit of Christ! I don't care what you done, until that moves you in the Word. “My sheep hear my voice, and they shall live by every word.” Every word! I was talking on that the other day.

My old mother, she's gone on now, and she was a very odd woman. And she was, you know, about half Indian, and she was odd. But in there she was a person that didn't dream. But, I don't think she only had four or five dreams, all of her life. But every time she dreamed a dream, it was true. She had a dream; it was true.

I remember one time when I first started preaching, many years ago. We was living right up here on the road, right just above here. I was preaching right here at this church. She dreamed a dream that I was standing here by the side of three steps. And I was standing preaching to everybody that they must walk up these three steps before they hit the highway. And on the highway is a little pearly-like white line, run right into the doors of heaven, to the pearly gate. And that pearl had been stretched out to the top of these steps. If that ain't my message exactly today: justification, sanctification, the baptism of the Holy Ghost. And I was saying that a person has to come by these three steps to be able to walk that highway.

And said that there was a lady came by. Now, you know what kind of shoes people wore thirty-five years ago. There was a lady come by had on a great big pair like they wear today, spike-heeled shoes. And she come by and I said, “Wait a minute, sister. You can't walk that highway with that.” And I said, “You can't do that.”

And she said, “Huh!” She said ... looked around at the rest of the women, said, “Don't believe him. He's a madman, see. Don't believe him. I'll show you I can be justified, sanctified, and filled with the Holy Ghost, and still walk it.” And she ... I just let her go. Couldn't do no more about it, couldn't stop her. And she jumped up on the highway. And she looked back at the sister, said, “See, I told you!” She started to run up, and she....

You know, as the Bible said, in Isaiah, fifth chapter, that they would have “outstretched necks.” They have to, they're pitched over, see. “Mincing as [they have to, have to twist], mincing as they go, making a tinkling with their heels.” See, the daughters of Zion in the last day.

And she started up that highway just as hard as she could run. And after a while the road got narrower and narrower. She started reeling, mincing, like that, and off she went.

And mother said, “The horriblest screams that I ever heard in my life was that woman falling into those flames and smoke, going down, down like that.”

Said I turned around and said, “See?”

She just obeyed everything but one word, see, everything but one word. Sure, Pentecostal women can be saved, sanctified, and filled with the Holy Ghost, and then fail. Absolutely. “Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds....” See? See? And she failed it. And as I said, see, she would have went on in all right, but see, she failed to listen—telling her what was ahead. And He's wrote the gospel by the disciples, apostles, and doctrine of the apostles and prophets, and so forth, and they won't listen.

Now notice this quickening power, Zoe, bringing the Word. The mind that was in Christ was in you then. I'm trying to show you that when you raised ... when God raised Jesus from the dead, He raised up you, also, and also quickened to life with Him. You are now quickened to life, although then you were but an attribute in his thoughts; but God had saw all in Him at the finish, see. When God looked down upon the body....

The Spirit left Him in the garden of Gethsemane. He had to die a man. Remember, friends, He didn't have to do that. That was God. God anointed that flesh, which was human flesh. And he didn't.... If He'd have went up there as God, He'd have never died that kind of death—can't kill God. But He didn't have to do it.

But remember, He went there with you in Him. See, God had never separated the bride from the groom yet. So when God looked down upon the body of Christ, He saw both male and female. It was all redeemed in that one body, see. They are one, same—same Word. The same Word spoke of the groom speaks of the bride.

Well, how can the bride come and fail to manifest everything was promised of Him; and the groom come, and He wouldn't be the bride? But when He did everything, even to proving it by raising Himself up from the dead afterwards, then don't the bride have to do the same thing, have to be exactly what the Word said she would be in these last days? Don't she have to return through Malachi 4? Don't she have to be manifested like it was in the days of Sodom? Don't the world have to be just exactly like it is? Isn't these things a perfect identification of the Word of God made known to us?

Well, friends, I know I'm keeping you a long time, fifteen minutes yet till dinner, but maybe I'll get through by then. But notice, looky here, what a perfect thing it is. I don't know when I'll see you again, see.

Look, notice this. But God foresaw the bride in the groom. Hallelujah! See, to save his wife, like Adam He had to go with her. Adam knowed what he was doing; Eve didn't know what she was doing. But Adam walked out with his wife, see. And Jesus took his wife's place and became sin for her. Remember, He became you. He stood your punishment, that you might stand in his place. He stood in your place, that you might stand in his place. What a love! What a fellowship! How can we deny it? How can we do anything but love Him, friend? I could stay on it hours, but let's move on a little farther.

Like the Pentecostal experience today, and the coming of the Holy Ghost in this last days, as promised, is like the abstract to a title deed, see.

Now, you can get a title. Sure. See, you can get a title to a place, but that still don't say it's yours. No, sir. Somebody way back yonder could come in and put a claim on it. But when you get an abstract, that shows that everything that's ever against it is struck off, plumb back from the foundation. Is that right?

And when a man has said that he believes the Word, and then when the Holy Spirit comes, it is the abstract to the title. And that gives you permission, when you have that abstract, that every bit of that belongs to you and everything on it belongs to you. Amen! And that gives us the abstract, when the Holy Ghost comes upon this title deed that God saw back yonder before the foundation of the world, and put it (name) on the book of life; but was born through a man and woman, and subject to sin, and guilty of sin. But when I believed on it, I received the deed; but when the Holy Ghost come, it was the abstract that everything against me, whether my mother done it, my father done it, my grandmother done it....

Like the little epileptic child I prayed for a few minutes ago. That come through from the grandparents, the epilepsy fell down upon the child.

I said but when the abstract has come, it struck off, omitted everything. I'm a abstract-holder then. Amen! And as sure as the Spirit that raised Christ from the dead, I have an abstract deed that I'm part of that body, with the abstract of the Holy Ghost making that body of Word live out just exactly like it did in Him, as He promised in the last day. The abstract. All my sins are struck out, all your sins are struck out, by the blood of Jesus Christ, and the Holy Ghost is come as an abstract to the title deed that God give me by grace, by foreknowledge. Oh, my!

What you scared about? No wonder He said, “Fear not; I am He that was dead and alive again; and I'm alive forevermore; and have the keys of death and hell.” Don't worry about nothing. Even death ain't going to hurt you. Notice. Beautiful!

Let's go right quick now. The abstract title. The debt is settled. Everything against it has been struck off. Glory! I may act silly, but I feel good. No, see? Oh, an abstract deed. Do you realize what that means? Do you realize what that means, brother? There is nothing can take it away from you. Amen. I am a holder. Amen.

What deed? I have now cashed in on my beneficiary of his death, burial, and resurrection. He become me that I might become Him. Now, He became a sinner that I might become a son, amen, and hold the abstract deed. “For these signs shall follow them that believe.” See, the abstract deed.

Now quickly, before ... we got about ten minutes more.

Let us now notice, quickly, the quickening of the Spirit. I'm going to show you some signs so that you'll understand. Look, now watch what.... This “quickening power” was my subject. After the Son has raised up, look how it done on them at Pentecost, what it did to them, what that quickening power did to them. It quickened them.

Now let's notice what it did on Stephen. Stephen was full of quickening power. Wasn't that right? See, he was full of quickening power. It didn't make him a-scared. He said, “You stiff-necked and uncircumcised in heart and ears, you always resist the Holy Ghost: like your fathers did, so do you. Which one of the prophets that showed forth the coming of the Just One didn't your fathers stone?” Oh, my! Done something to him. Sure, he was full of quickening power.

And they said, “We'll get rid of that guy!”

And when he died ... they stoned him. and his poor little head, the stones beating against it like that, he looked up and said, “I see the heavens opened [quickening power was working]. I see the heavens opened, and Jesus standing at the right hand of God.” That's what quickening power done for Stephen.

Notice, another fellow had this quickening power. His name was Philip. He was so full of the quickening power, he was having a great big meeting down at Samaria. Devils was being cast out, people was baptized in the name of Jesus Christ, they was having a real meeting. And the Spirit spoke to him. Oh, the dynamics come down, and it said, “Leave this revival.”

But what will the ministers say? Don't make any difference what they say, see. He was full of quickening power. He had the gasoline and the dynamics was falling upon him. Said, “Go out into the desert.”

And he found a eunuch there and baptized him in the name of Jesus Christ—one man, who took the message down to Ethiopia. That right? And he obeyed God.

In obedience to God, if you have never been baptized in the name of Jesus Christ, do it, and watch the quickening power pick you up then, see.

When Stephen done this great thing ... or, not Stephen, but Philip done this great thing to leave that great revival and obey the commandments of God, when he fulfilled ... by baptizing this eunuch in obedience to God, he was so full of the quickening power till it caught him away.

“It will quicken your mortal body, if this Spirit that raised up Jesus from the dead....” It quickened Philip till he wasn't seen for maybe 150 miles, over somewhere else, over in another country. It quickened his mortal body. How did he do it? He was so full of the quickening power.

Oh, church of the living God, we can't stand around here on little sugar-tits that we are nursing around here today. We've got to be full and prayed up with quickening power until the quickening of the Holy Ghost.... We got to be caught away someday in that rapture yonder. Yes, sir. Amen! Oh, my!

Excuse that expression. I was thinking about a mother that makes those little sacks, used to, for the baby. Some of you old mammies remember it. The little old baby gets to squalling, you take some coffee grounds and some sugar, wrap it up in a sack and let him suck on it, just to pacify him. There is no strength in that; it'll kill him, see. That old caffeine in there and stuff, a little sweetening to make him swallow it down to get caffeine in him.

We are tired of such stuff as that. Get back—you're eagles—back to the Word of God! Be burly. Nothing can hurt your feelings, therefore you're free from all the scandal of man. Whatever anybody says against you, that just brings more love. Amen. Quickening power, caught away into the heavenlies, a eagle that's done flew above the chickens, way up yonder in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus. Oh, it was on Philip. That quickened him, caught him away.

Let's take another man. There was a man by the name of Enoch. Now, he had walked with every word of God for about five hundred years. He had a testimony that “I haven't one time failed his Word.” He got so full of the quickening power, when the dynamics hit him on them mechanics he didn't even have to die. He just took up home. Just started walking. He was so.... Like Philip, he got so full of quickening power, instead of going over to Gaza and going to another place where they found him up in the upper coasts there, instead of that way, he just went walk.... Said, “I'm an old man, anyhow. I just got so much quickening power I'll just walk right out of the earth.”

That's the same quickening power that we have right now. See, it will quicken your mortal body. Isn't that right? It's the quickening powers.

Enoch, with that perfect testimony that “Everything God told me to do, I did it. Everything that I seen He said for me to do, I done it.” And he become so full of dynamics, or mechanics, until, when the quickening power struck him, the mechanics, it just lifted him right up. He walked on out of the earth into heaven.

Now, now notice on Elijah. After.... Look, Elijah, that great prophet, man in his day. Excuse me. Brother, sister, in that day he had busted them painted-faced women, them Jezebels, and Ahabs, and stood, till.... And nobody, looked like, stood with him. And he rebuked and devoured and stood out there, and God had taken care of him and helped him in every place. You know, the old fellow got tired one day. He said, “I'm getting old, so I just can't go no further.” He was going on, I guess, ninety years old—real old. And walking around there, and he was so full of quickening power, you know what? He looked across Jordan.... (O God! I can almost see the other side. Can't you?)

So full of the quickening power until he seen a chariot hooked over there, some horses of fire, and chariot of fire, hooked to some tree over there. He just walked across the river and went home without even dying. The quickening power caused a chariot to come down from heaven and take him up. He even took off his coat and throwed it back for Elisha. That's right.

Now then that fellow picked up that robe—a type of the church again, see—picked up that robe. Now, he done twice the miracles, which is a type of Christ and the church, see. Elijah done four; he done eight, see. Now, he was double the power, because he asked for it. “Greater things than this that I do shall you do,” see. But he was so full of the quickening power and everything till he done all these, double what Elisha done, more than he did. And notice, he lived a life on up till about eighty or ninety years old, he got old, and he died. He died and they took him out and buried him.

You know, but that quickening power didn't leave him. Many, many years after that, when the flesh had all rotted off his bones, he was laying in a tomb. And they were packing a dead man one day, and they saw the enemy, and they just throwed this man in on top of Elisha's bones. There was so much quickening power on those bones till the man jumped up to life again.

Oh!

He'll quicken your mortal bodies. Though dead and rotten in the grave, and yet that quickening power rested over that dirt. Hallelujah! “He that raised up Christ from the dead ... also quicken your mortal body.” The Elijah back there, Elisha and Elijah....

Remember, that dead man, that prophet, full of that quickening power, laying in the grave and rotted away; there was so much quickening power till, they throwed a dead man on him, he come to life. He could still lay hands on the sick, couldn't he? Amen. There you are.

And remember, we are flesh of his flesh—Jesus Christ. We are flesh of his flesh, and bones of his bones. Oh, there's no way out of it, we're going to rise, that's all. You're going to rise, that's all.

Easter means more than just a tradition. It is also now, for our bodies are quickened with Him and we're sitting in heavenly places.

And this body may rot in the sea, it may rot in the ground, there may not even be a spoonful of ashes, but she is coming forth, for the Spirit that raised up my Lord from the dead has quickened this mortal body. It's quickened your mortal body. And we are his beneficiaries of his resurrection, his policy of eternal life that I talk so much about, you know. No wonder He said, “Fear not.”

For as Paul said, “Death, where is your sting? Grave, where is your victory? I'm full of quickening power. Thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.” Yes, sir, quickening power. Oh, my!

He is alive forevermore, the same yesterday, today, and forever, Hebrews 13:8. Notice, Messiah, the anointed one. So is his bride the messiah-ettes, see, the anointed one.

Notice, death does not stop God's quickening power. Death can't stop it. When you've got it, it's eternal. There ain't nothing going to stop it. You can't harness it, you can't do nothing to it. If you live your life out, that still don't stop it. Just as good as it was.

Notice, Moses is full of that quickening power. Was he? He was a prophet who the Word came to. He was part of the Word. He was the Word of that day. Is that right? And after he was dead eight hundred years, on Mount Transfiguration there he stood with Elijah. Is that right? The quickening power, death don't never take it away. No, no. “I'll raise it up again.” The angels come, buried him down there in a valley. He had been rotten and gone, his bones was gone and everything else, but the quickening power was still there. It quickened him and brought him up. And there he was standing there. Notice.

You say, “Is that right, Brother Branham, after eight hundred years? Oh, my!”

If you would read in Matthew, I got a scripture here, Matthew 27:51. You can write, put it down. When all those back there that believed that He would come ... the Bible said here, after He come.... They were sleeping in the ground. Quickening power was upon them, and they were a part of Him, them saints. They were a part of Him because they had believed on Him.

Potentially they had that life through the sacrifice of a sheep, a propitiation, which could never bring the spirit of a sheep back upon the man. How about now, with the spirit of the man ... God Himself, upon him, see, how much more quickening power do we have? But through the propitiation for sin was offered a lamb, in type. What we have is not the type; it's the antitype. What are we scared about? And those fellows who only had a type pointing to his resurrection, and went down into the grave with it....

As Job back there under his great strain—my, everything took away from him. The devil said, “Let me have him. I'll make him curse You to your face.” And he broke....

Said, “Don't you take his life.” And he did all but take his life.

And his wife even turned against him. Said her breath had become strange to him. In other words, she would have nothing to do with him. She didn't seem to love him anymore, just pushed him away. “Job, you're miserable! Why don't you just curse God, and die?”

Said, “You talk like a foolish woman.” Oh, my!

See, he held right to what he had. Now, he was a prophet. He said, “I am not a sinner. I have offered the provided sacrifice.” Amen. He knew where he was standing. He was on the Word. No matter what the others said, he was right there at the Word. Then, that great tremendous hour, said, “You speak like a foolish woman.” He said, “The Lord gave, and the Lord taken away; why, blessed be the name of the Lord.” Said, “I come in this world without anything. I come here naked, I'll go out the same way; blessed be the name of the Lord.” Sitting there broke out in boils, his kids dead, he was poverty-stricken, and his friends all turned against him, his church members, everything else, scraping himself with a.... And what a miserable wretch! None of you has ever been through that yet. Still, he held to that Word.

He was an eagle. Oh, my! You can't keep the film over his eyes all the time. No, no. All at once, standing on that Word, what happened? The skies peeled back, the thunders began to roar, the lightning began to flash, and Job looked up and saw the vision, said, “I know my Redeemer liveth. At the last days He'll stand upon this earth. And though after the skin worms has destroyed this body, bones and all, that quickening power will be there. I'll see God for myself, whom I shall see for myself. My eyes shall behold, and not another.” Is that right? “Though after my reins be consumed within me, though after the skin worms that's in my body now will destroy it....”

You know, skin worms don't come to you. That worm is already in you, your own skin worms. Did you ever notice that? Put you in a coffin, and put it air tight; the bugs will eat you up, just the same, because they're in you. You are just a bunch of bugs to begin with on the inside.

“Though the skin worms, my skin worms destroys me, my flesh, yet in my flesh I'll see God.”

And on that resurrection morning.... Glory! Hallelujah! Matthew, this great writer, 27:51, said after He was resurrected from the dead that the Old Testament saints, many of those that slept in the dust of the earth come up out of the grave, and entered into the city, and appeared to many. That quickening power, still on them bones of Elisha when there was no more bones; still on Job, when there wasn't a spoonful of dust left of his body but the quickening power was still there.

“If this Spirit that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, He'll also quicken your mortal body.” Notice, quickly now.

You say, “Oh, I wish I lived back....” You live in a better time. Now if you all...

I see you're putting down some scriptures. All right, put down I Thessalonians 4:16. Notice how beautiful, see. In the.... The saints, “them that sleep in Christ will God bring with Him,” see—saints in the grave. Resting—like Elijah was; some like Elisha was, see. Some of them be quickened, some will be taken. Some will be in the grave; they will go with Him. “The trumpet of God shall sound, and the dead in Christ shall rise first. And we which are alive and remaining shall be caught up together with them, to meet the Lord in the air.” The quickening power on the living; the quickening power on the dead.

See, that same quickening power of God presented in both of these prophets. Look at their names, are almost the same: Elisha, Elijah. See the bride and the groom? One of them is Mr. Jesus; the other one is Mrs. Jesus. You see, almost the same, just between the he and she, see.

Elijah.... And look how it's represented here. Now, Elisha was taken up in the rapture, represents the church. All right. (Elijah) And Elisha rested until the resurrection, see. It's just like a bird needs two wings to balance hisself, see. The church was represented right there in those two prophets. “For we which are alive and remain to the coming of the Lord shall not hinder them which are asleep; for the trumpet of God shall sound....” Both wings shall come together, and we'll fly away, hallelujah, fly away. Because what? In the living, or dead, that quickening power still lives.

Notice. Remember. Remember now, quickened to see what these things are. Watch the quickening power of this day. Remember, we are quickened.

Not long ago, for help....

I think our Lord said, and so did Paul, “What the Father showed me, I've held nothing back. I tell you.” And in these last days when we see this quickening power upon us.... He even give quickening power to us to see the sick healed. We have seen the quickening power working among us like it was then upon them in the early days—see it bring back by vision and raise the dead, see it make the sick well.

The other day I was telling someone. Little Donovan Weerts here, I guess you all know him. I was up hunting with him. Poor little fellow.... He's a nice little guy. He comes here to church, just a very good friend of mine. He said, “I didn't want to bother you.”

I looked at his ear, turned all inside out. And I said, “How are you, Donovan?” Just took him by the hand like that. He had a cancer. I said, “Donovan, what's the matter with your ear?”

He said, “Don't know, Brother Branham. About six, seven months, and just keeps getting....”

I said, “Why didn't you say something about it?”

Said, “I didn't want to bother you, Brother Branham.”

I said, “Do you know what it is?”

Said, “I have a idea.”

I just put my hand over on him, never said a word. Two days after that, there wasn't even a scar. What is it? The quickening power, see, it will quicken your mortal body. His ear would've eat off, his brains would have been gone, see, he'd have died. But, the quickening power, see?

And one day when I was weary, myself, I said, “Boy, you'd better go ahead, you're fifty years old. If you're going to do anything for the Lord you better hurry up and do it. You're getting old,” see. And there that morning, the quickening power come, and He let me look over the curtain, and I seen all of you over there. He said, “All that you ever loved, and all that loved you, they're give to you.” I seen 'em all over there like that. What was it? Quickening power.

John the Revelator was filled full of quickening power, that stood up and seen the end from the beginning.

Isaiah was full of the quickening power, and stood up and seen the millennium and all.

Quickening power. “And if the Spirit that raised up Christ from the dead dwell in you, it'll quicken your mortal body.” Remember, the quickening power.

Look what we've seen in this day. The quickening power has come to us to open the seven seals. What was that, the intelligence of a man? No, the quickening power of God. See, the quickening power of God foretold this would take place. See, the quickening power of God made the world testify to it, it's the truth. The angel of the Lord, I told you, was around that pillar of fire; quickening power let the world testify that it's the truth. And, in that, they didn't know what it was. And we knew—just look this a-way and it's our Lord up there, see.

He is the one who opened those seals. He is those seals, for the whole Word of God is Christ, and Christ is the seals that was opened. What is the opening of the seals then? Revealing Christ.

And the very seven angels, which represented the seven churches all completed, and we couldn't even see it. They took the picture; not us. And there He is standing there, supreme judge; showing that He is Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end. What identification! Quickening power did that to us.

Quickening power lets us see his coming. Quickening power snatched us from death to life. Quickening power gives discernment to know what's wrong with you, and what to do, what you have done, and what you ought not have done, and what you should have done, and what you will be. Quickening power, all these things!

Our Lord Jesus was so full of quickening power He was all of it together. He was so full of quickening power He said this, “You destroy this body, and I'll raise it up in three days.” Talk about confidence in quickening power! “Destroy this body, this temple, and I'll bring it up in three days.”

Why? Why did He say that? He knew that it was written of Him, see—that it was written of Him by the Word of God which could not fail. The Word said, “I will not suffer my Holy One to see corruption, neither will I leave his soul in hell.” And He knowed that quickening power would raise Him up, that there wouldn't be one cell corrupt.

He said, “You destroy this temple, and I'll bring it back again in three days.”

Why? It was prophecy, the Word of God. And prophecy, if it's true Word of God, cannot fail. And the same prophecy and Word of God that said He'd raise Him up, says that we are already raised with Him. No wonder He said, “Fear not.” And it is written that the Spirit that is now, was in Him, now in us, also quickens our mortal bodies. Fear not, friend, the S-o-n is up. The Son is up.

Now look at transfiguration. We was every one represented there. There was the living saints that had raptured, there was Elijah standing there; and there stood Moses, the dead saints represented. Also, both of them had quickening power. Whether one died, and the other didn't die, they're all there.

Notice, oh, look what we are now seeing in these last days. The same thing that He promised, John 14:12. Now look. [Blank spot on tape.] Certainly.

People say, “You claim to have power?” No, no.

We're just like them at Mount Transfiguration, see. Certainly, we do not claim power. But we, like they was on the Mount Transfiguration.... They wasn't saying, Moses, say, “See who I am,” the disciples say, “See who I am, see who I am.” You know what happened? Notice, they seen Jesus glorified. That's all they wanted to see represented, Jesus glorified.

And so is it today, we don't try to be some big person. We don't care what the people say about us. Our name ain't nothing; it's his name. Our life is nothing; it's his life. It's his power, not our power. And there is only one thing that we love to do, is see Him glorified. And how can it be? When He's glorified in us by his resurrection that's in us, we see Him represented again as He was. Today.

Did you get that? See, our desire is not to be glorified. Our desire is not some big name. Our desire is not boost some church, or make more in the Sunday school, or try to bring in, hog-tie, push in, offer picnic, party, or bring stars, buttons, or something else like that. That's not our desire. Our desire is to see Him glorified. Glorified what? Not with self-pride, but in us, our lives, to prove He is alive and living in us.

If I can get myself out of the way, so when William Branham not even thought of, and you not even thought of, till we can see Jesus glorified among us. See Him. That's our desire. That gives us the quickening power. And it gives us joy to know that we are with Him, both flesh and bone of Him, being the bride of Him; and seeing his same vindicated methods, proving in us that He is now risen from the dead, see.

No wonder He said, “Fear not,” for now, notice, we are redeemed by Him, and now risen with Him. That's what Easter means to the people—risen with Him. Notice. Now we have his Spirit in us, the abstract deed fully paid.

No, you don't say, “Well, I hope I make it.” You've already made it. Not, “I will make it.” I've already made it. I never made it; He made it for me, see. Not me; Him! “Well, Brother Branham, they say....” I don't care what they say. There, He made it for me. That's all I want ... I'm caring about.

I just want to see Him manifested. How can you do it? Call Him down? No. He is in you. See, He is in you. “Well, then, Lord, if I can get myself out of the way, You can manifest. How can You do it? Because You ordained it so. 'All that the Father has given me will come.'” Notice. Glory!

With all that evidence collected, with us now this morning, oh, I think of that song:

On that resurrection morning,

When death's cords will be broken,

We shall rise, Hallelujah, we shall rise!

You believe that? We shall rise! In Him we become part of Him, the Easter, the revealed secret of God, like it was then, of life after death. We are now alive who were once dead in sin and trespasses. The true Easter seal has broke death from around me and I'm alive. The Easter seal at the beginning broke the seal of the Roman seal, the Easter seal, that He was sealed up, and men, when they died, was gone; but He broke the seal and revealed the secret. And now God by his Holy Spirit has broke the seal from around our lives, and Christ has revealed that He lives in us, for now we are quickened with Him. Oh, page after page.

We shall rise, Hallelujah!

We shall rise! Amen!

On that resurrection morning,

When death's prison bars are broken,

We shall rise, Hallelujah! We shall rise!

Oh, aren't you glad! I'm so glad! Way back down yonder in a little old coal shed one morning the seals were broken and I raised with Him a new creature, his quickening power. The Son is up.

Not long ago I was told a story about a fisherman. A fellow come out and hired an old fisherman to take him fishing out on the West Coast. They went out that morning.

If any of you have fished out there for the salmon, why, you know what takes place. It gets awful foggy out there. I see my little brother, Eddie Byskal, down there (a missionary to the Indians out there). And we fished, ourselves, out on those coasts.

So this fisherman was kind of a greenhorn, you know. He went fishing, and they drifted out. Waiting for daylight to come, you know. And they couldn't hear the foghorn no more, and this fisherman got all excited, said, “Say, we're drifting out to sea! Hey!” Got all excited.

He said, “Sit down, son. Sit down.” The old fisherman, quiet, you know. He knowed what he was talking about. Said, “Just wait until the sun comes up, then we can see where we're at.”

You say, “Must I be Methodist? Baptist? Pentecostal?”

Just wait. The Son comes up, we'll see where we're at. He is the Word. Wait till you see the Word manifested, shining across the seed, the wave sheaf, we'll see where we're at. Do you love Him?

Sorry I kept you this long. How many of you is going to stay over for tonight? Oh, just come back again then, this evening, see. About seven o'clock? Did you have something else? [Brother Neville says, “No.”]

Let us bow our heads.

Is there one here, or many, who doesn't have this quickening power in you? The Son has shined across, and you've sat in this tabernacle, you've listened to tapes, and yet the Spirit has never quickened you till you could follow the Word of God? If you women, you men could obey every word that He's written.

Oh, that's a dangerous thing. What if you would be a dead seed, no life in you? But there is something in you that tells you, “I want to rise this morning. I want to rise from the state that I'm in. I don't want to be just a dead seed, be left to dirt and driftwood. I want to rise.”

Will you raise your hand, say, “Pray for me, brother”? God bless you. God bless you. My, look at the hands. There is no way at all for an altar call, what we call a altar call, people come up around the altar. I'm not too much on it, anyhow. That was just added to the church during the days of the Methodist revival, see.

The Bible said, “As many as believed were baptized.” There is a pool here full of water, waiting for any candidate who is ready to die to themselves.

Now, you might be buried many times in the name of the Lord Jesus, but until that seed is life, see, it won't quicken it. No, no. Baptismal waters is like the dew that fell from heaven. It can fall upon the seed, but, there's no life there, it can't live.

But if that real baptism of the waters of death to yourself, and you're ready to die out to everything that you've ever been taught by creeds and denominations which is contrary to the Word, and you'll walk as a son or a daughter of God, and you mean it in your heart, watch what that baptism of water will do to you this morning. “Repent, every one of you, and be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of your wrongs, your sin, and you shall receive the sheaf, the wave-offering. You shall receive the dynamics, the Holy Ghost. For the promise is to you, and all them, to all generations it'll be.”

Father God, I have spoke at length, and taken up much of the people's time, but, Lord God, there is no stopping to it. It just seems you just have to quit and walk away, and rest, and come back. We're living in a dying world, amongst dying people, with a message of life, and with the evidence of the resurrection. Dear God, we're only going to be mortal once, and what will it be if we let this opportunity pass us?

Our hearts are burning, our souls are thrilled, these who have come in. And many here are hearing this message this morning. Yes, two or three hundred lifted their hands. They want to believe, Lord. Oh, surely that seed is not dead, Lord. How could they raise their hands like that? There is something. O God, it's old self, it's that wife of Job standing there saying, “Oh!” But, Lord, let that Job, that believer, walk in this morning, die completely, and be buried here in this baptismal waters.

The dewdrops that come from heaven, the Word of God that says it'll wash away every sin and remit it! You are baptized in the name of Jesus Christ, what for? The remission of your sin. Sins remitted in the name of Jesus Christ.

May then, Father, may, if they're sick, may they walk out well. May, if they're crippled, may they walk out under the power of the Holy Spirit. If they've been sinners, may they walk out washed and clean. And the mechanics, by going in; the dynamics come from above, the Holy Spirit, and catch them away, Lord. Quicken their mortal bodies, then we shall hear genuine new tongues, powers of God, love untold, dying grace, and living grace, and a resurrected Christ, a body, a bride representing Him on earth.

Father, they are yours. They raised their hands, I have preached the Word; now, Father, receive them, I pray. In Jesus Christ's name I ask it. Amen.

Do you love Him? Isn't He wonderful? Are you satisfied that you are a part of that Easter resurrection, that you raised with Him? Raise your hand. You are included.

My little children, as Paul would have said (not trying to impersonate him, but the love), I love you. I storm the roads and everything else to get here, to get to speak with you. Come up out of the desert, across the snowdrifts and so forth, to get here. We fly in planes, you drive across the country, so we can get together. We love one another.

We are part of one another. Don't you never let Satan tell you anything else. Being a part of one another, we are a part of Him. And we are fellow citizens of the kingdom, enjoying these blessings, together, of the resurrection.

And now, see, now you are already resurrected. When God raised Him up, He raised you. The Son is just now on you, and now you're growing into a blossom life like He was, to be resurrected completely in that last day. Your potentials you have now. Why do you know? Your soul changed, didn't it? Your body come in obedience to it, didn't it? In obedience to what? A church? The Word, which is the life. Then you are now resurrected from the dead. It is Easter, with Jesus and I. It's Easter, with you and Jesus. And it's Easter, with you, I, and Jesus. We are all.... Or, Jesus, you, and I, we are all resurrected together.

And we will rise at the last day, even though our spirits leave our bodies, even though the bodies rust, may they go to dust, may they be burnt up, may they be in the bottom of the sea. The Bible said, “An angel poured out his upon the sea, and everything that died come up.” There is nothing can hide us or separate us from that God that we love so well, that's raised us up together.

God bless you. I've kept you here a long time. If them people is still on that telephone, they sure.... At fifty cents a minute, they've really paid this morning. But I just couldn't stop at that hour. I just had to go on.

Now, the Lord willing, I'll be back tonight to talk with you again. And if I can't, and then you all know.... I suppose we're not on no.... We're on telephone no more? Not on telephone no more.

You all know where I'm going, don't you? Africa! I've called for a long time; for years I've tried to get back. Now a vision—the Spirit of the Lord has prepared the way. They said, when those poor natives heard it, that I didn't come the last time when I was there, they laid on the ground day and night, moaned and cried, saying, “Lord, what have we done?” Thousands of them. Those people don't even believe they got a soul, see. And they cried and they moaned, and they cried.

Don't you send no word ahead. Please don't. See, if that visa would happen to go through there and get amongst them ministers, they would stop me right there. I have to go in as a hunter. I'm going up to the queen that brought seventeen trainloads down and come down to the meeting. I get to go up and hunt on her territory. And I go in, my passport and everything calls for a hunter, not a religious service.

Then there is going to be one brother meet me, say, “Why don't you have a little meeting for us?” The stadiums are already rented. They don't even know it, see. Oh, glory!

Pray that the will of God will not be hindered, that my soul that's cried for Africa since I've left ... may I be able to return again, then bring you message of a great meeting. I probably won't see you no more from today until I return back. We're going just in a few days now, the tenth of May. Will you pray for me?

Remember, you don't know what troubles are till you hit there. Witch doctors on every side, and devils, and don't think they don't know what to do, see. And you better know what you're talking about when you stand before them. “But I know in whom I have believed, and I'm persuaded He is able to keep that which I've committed to Him against that day.”

Now, there is some handkerchiefs laying here. Dear God, as this message this morning of the resurrection ... and me standing here, Lord, and proving by the Word that that quickening power is in the believing child. Therefore, upon believing, in faith, that that quickening power has changed my life; and these people believes, Lord, and it's changed their lives. And we pray one for another.

I'm laying my hands upon these handkerchiefs, that.... May God, who quickened Jesus Christ and brought Him from the dead, and that Spirit that raised Him up from the dead, be dwelling in our body.

The Spirit that was upon the body of Elisha, that after being dead and nothing but bones, it had quickening power in it. The hands of the apostles had quickening power in it. The minds of the apostles, the sight of the apostles, the tongues of the believers, all had quickening power.

Now may that quickening power, as I lay this Word upon them, and my hands to represent a possessor, by grace, of that quickening power, may it quicken every one of these sick bodies, and they be made whole again, God, through Jesus Christ's name.

May it not only for these handkerchiefs, but for those people out there in the audience, everyone that suffers. Those little children, elderly people, whatever they are, may that quickening power quicken them right now, in Jesus' name. Amen.

Now, how many has got quickening power? Now lay your hands upon one another, if that quickening power is in you.

Now, there is only one thing to keep it from ... hindering, that's your unbelief. A women touched his garment, was made whole; a Roman soldier spit in his face, and went to hell, see. So it depends on where you're at. Do you believe it? Do you believe it?

Now I want you to bow your head and pray for one another. Just pray right out. Just say, “Lord, this person....” See, just pray for one another.

Dear God, we do this in the name of Jesus Christ, the only name given among men whereby that we can be saved or healed. These people, who are fellow citizens of the kingdom, a possessor of quickening power, quicken it to them, Lord, just now. And may the Spirit go from eagle to eagle, from Word to Word, till the fullness of Jesus Christ be made manifest in each of the bodies for physical, spiritual, or any need they have need of, as we lay our hands upon one another. In Jesus Christ's name.