Does God Change His Mind?

Let us remain standing, with our heads bowed just a moment. Heavenly Father, we thank You for every graceful thing that You have given to us. We're unworthy of any of your blessings. These are certainly unmerited blessings that we receive. And we pray, God, that You'll continue to be with us, just walking in and feeling this wonderful Spirit in the meeting. I know it comes from You. So I pray, Father, that You'll continue to honor the meeting tonight with your presence, and heal all the sick and the afflicted. Grant it. May this be a great night that we'll not forget soon because of your presence. We ask it in Jesus' name. Amen.

I want to apologize for keeping so late last evening. I will try to be faster tonight, and just so that we can hurry up and pray for the sick. I certainly felt good about last night's meeting. They seemed like that there was many people got healed. And I had plenty of support, everybody praying and together. That's the way we stand. So, the Lord bless you. Now, I think tomorrow night we're to be.... I guess they've already announced it. It's another, another place.

All right. Now, let's turn to the book of Numbers, the twenty-second chapter, right quick, for just a little text, to pass a few comments. And then we're going to place the most of the time in the prayer line. Billy said he gave out enormous amount of cards, two or three hundred of them, and it'll take quite a while to get them through the prayer line. So, I will just speak for a few minutes, not over thirty minutes if possible, and then start the prayer line, pray for the sick.

In Deuteronomy, in (pardon me) Numbers, twenty-second chapter, and the thirty-first verse, I wish to read this:

And the Lord opened the eyes of Balaam, and he saw the angel of the LORD standing in the way, and his sword drawn in his hand: and he bowed down his head, and fell flat on his face.

Now this may sound like a rude little text for just to give a stand, and to have our healing service. And I'm going to try to have the prayer line started by nine o'clock if possible. Now, I want to take the subject tonight “Does God Change His Mind?”.

You know, we can change our mind. And because we learn a little different, we know we were wrong. But I don't believe that God can change His mind, because if He does, then He certainly could not be infinite. And He could make a better decision if He could change it.

So He ... the faith that I have in Him that, that He doesn't change His mind, because if God ever makes a decision He has to stay with that decision, see. And each time the same problem comes up, He's got to act in the same way He did the first time, or He acted wrong in the first time, see.

So it gives us somewhere to have a basic faith. Now we cannot....

Yet, faith isn't just a loose-leaf something, that you can fly it here and over somewhere else. It's something that's got to be sure. It's got to be stable. And now, I cannot base my faith upon some theory. It's got to be a proven fact, before I can have faith. Just like a man choosing a wife to marry, why, he's got to have faith in that woman. He marries her, and he certainly is fixing hisself for a lot of trouble, see. So he's got to ... you got to have faith, some solid facts, some faith to base it upon—upon her word, upon what somebody else has said or something. He's got to have something to place his faith on.

So, I feel that, to meet God there is just one thing that I can base my faith upon, and that's His Word, because we have different ideas. Pretty near all of us, we'd sit down and go to even talk about something to eat. But we would differ on something to eat. We're made different. Our appetites are different. And therefore it makes our churches.... We see they're different in their ideas of what's right, and what's wrong. That gives us, every one, a privilege to take a choice.

But to me, I believe that the Word of God is right. And I don't believe that it's of any private interpretation. I believe it's just, what it says, that's the truth. And that's the way I take it, just on the basics of it being the Word of God. Now, I haven't got faith enough, maybe, to make all of it act, but I certainly wouldn't want to stand in the way of somebody who did have faith enough to make it act. Like for instance, Enoch had enough faith that he didn't have to die. He just took an afternoon stroll and got tired here on earth, and just walked on up to heaven. I'd certainly like to have faith like that. But I hope that we do get that faith someday, as we grow on into Him.

Now, our....

The reason I chose this place, because it seems like that here, to me, is one of the places in the Bible that would be a critical place, for the text tonight. Because it looks like that God did change His mind, and told Balaam one thing to do, and then told him something else to do. So I thought, maybe just for a while, we'd try to straighten this out just a little, and see what He really told him.

So, now, to outline this, we know that Balaam was a prophet, and Balak was the king of Moab at the time. And they were not infidels up at Moab. They served the same God that Israel served. Because Moab, the nation, was founded by Lot's son by his daughter. And so they served the same God. If you notice, their sacrifices and everything was just exactly the same bullocks, and also the rams, speaking of the second coming. And now, if fundamentalism is all that God requires, then Moab was just as fundamental in his offering as what Israel was.

But we find them now, Israel is in the line of following the word of God to a land that had been promised them. And they'd come....

Here would be a type of the natural and spiritual meeting. And when the natural and the spiritual meet there's always a collision, because they run right head-on into each other. And Israel here would ... I want to represent it as the spiritual church, and Moab as the natural church, just the church, what we call church natural. And we're all sure that there is a church, and there is a bride coming out of that church. We know that is true.

And they clash here. And we notice that when they clashed here, it come under something that I would like to speak a moment on. As soon as they clashed, and one seen what the other one was doing, there was a great impersonation, one of the other. And that's where we find it today, that we do get too much impersonations. And when you do that, you're always in trouble. You cannot live the other fellow's life. We cannot impersonate something. We must be just what we are. You mustn't never try to.... If this fellow does something, because he does it, you think you have to, too. You don't do that. You're an individual to God. And we mustn't try to impersonate each other.

And now Israel, right in the line of duty, marching on their way to a command ... by a commandment of God to a promised land, they clashed with Moab, another group of believers. And I hope this doesn't sound too bad, but the little illustration I want to make here, is Moab being settled down in a land. He was more like an organized affair. He had his celebrities, and his dignitaries of his kingdom. But Israel was just a wanderer. They had no certain place they went. They just wandered as the Lord led them. Now, I believe, also, Balaam, later in his prophecy, said the people would not be among the nations. It would just be scattered. And that's what it's always been.

And we find out the clash come

just as Cain and Abel. They, also, came together in a clash; and them being brothers, and both of them of the same mother, Eve. And we find that they realized that they were mortal, and they'd been put out of life, out of the garden of life. And they both was trying to find a way to get back in there. And if you notice, both boys was very religious. Cain was just as religious as Abel was. And they both built altars, otherwise a church. They both made sacrifice. They both prayed. And they served God, both of them. But one of them served Him wrong.

Now, you see, you can be ever so sincere, and yet be wrong. You can be wrong. There is a way that seemeth right, but the end thereof is the ways of death. Now we see that this was so true with Cain and Abel. And when they seen.... Cain saw that Abel's sacrifice was received. And I might stop here, and say, “Why did God receive his sacrifice?” Is because that ... that he was ... by a revelation he understood that it was not apples (or I believe now they got it the pomegranates or something, that they eat in the garden of Eden) that caused sin. And he found Adam—or I mean Abel—believed that it ... he ... it was blood, which it really was. And Abel by revelation, faith, offered unto God a more excellent sacrifice than that of Cain, which God testified by it he was righteous, see.

And the whole church is built upon a divine revelation of the Word of God. The whole....

Jesus said so. One day, coming down off the mount, He said to His disciples, “Who do you say I the Son of man am? Who does people say I am?”

And some of them said, “Well, You're Moses, You're Elias or one of the prophets.”

He said, “But who do you say I am?”

And Peter made that great statement, “Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God.”

He said, “Blessed art thou, Simon, son of Jonas.”

And here's the great argument, amongst believers. Now, the Catholic church says that there He built His church upon Peter, for He said, “Thou art Peter (little stone). Upon this stone (little stone) I'll build my church.” Well, now, the Protestants mostly believe that it was upon Himself, that He built upon Him the cornerstone. But you see, He was the cornerstone to the building.

I believe that what He built the church upon....

Not to be different, but you see the question was, “Who does men say I am?”

And Peter said, “Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God.”

He said, “Blessed art thou, Simon, son of Jonas. Flesh and blood never revealed this to you.” You never learned this by going to a seminary, see. You never learned this by some man-made affair. But my Father, which is in heaven has revealed this to you, see. “Upon 'this' rock I'll build my church, and the gates of hell cannot prevail against it,” the spiritual revelation of Jesus Christ, who is the Word. Then it would be the spiritual-revealed truth of the Word, is exactly where the church rests.

I think that's what Abel had at the beginning—a spiritual revelation that it wasn't the fruit of the field, or the works of our hands, or so forth. It was blood. And he offered to God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain did.

We find in Abraham and Lot, the same thing in a choice. Because Lot went down when the time come.... When the spiritual and the natural church come in a clash because of the herdsmen, they had to separate one for another. And whenever this does, it sets up a jealousy. We find out that Abel, because God had received him, and He did not receive Cain's beautiful, big offering he had toiled so hard for, and was religious, and bowed down and worshipped, and so forth —done everything that Abel did, only he didn't have the revelation of what was the truth.... So we find out that when God accepted Abel's revelation and his offering, it made Cain get jealous of Abel. And there was the first murder.

We find out that jealousy become between the herdsmen of Abraham and Lot, and they had to separate. We find out that Moses and Korah had a clash also. Jesus and Judas had a clash. And as ever it's been the same thing, and so is it today. The natural church and the spiritual church has a clash when they come together.

Now, the natural tries to match the spiritual, always with a carnal impersonation. But as it was with Esau and Jacob, it will not work.

God has His church called, named, set aside. And in the age that she lives in, He'll reveal Himself to her, each and every time. Just as He said in Romans the eighth chapter, that the foreknowledge, or predestination, of God might stand sure, Cain (or I mean Esau and Jacob), before either boy was born, before they even had a chance to make a choice, God said, “I hate Esau, and love Jacob.” For He knew what was in them from the beginning. And we know (keep that in mind), He knows what's in your heart. He knows what you mean. No matter what we say, He knows what you mean. And it's always caused trouble.

And they.... Always, the natural always tries (since Cain destroyed Abel), the natural has always tried to destroy the effects of the spiritual. We find it the same thing today, the very same thing today. It proves that it comes from Satan, because it's jealousy, and impersonation of truth.

So we really believe that God never changes His mind about what He said. He always keeps it true.

But He has a permissive will. Now, there's where the trouble lays. We try to work on God's permissive will. And He will permit it. But also, if we take His permissive will, though it's not right, He will make His permissive will to work out together to glorify His perfect will. There's nothing will go wrong with God. We're.... He knows just where the clock's ticking at tonight. There's nothing wrong. Every lick is hitting just exactly the way it should be. Everything. We think it's wrong, but he knows it's right. It's supposed to be like this.

Like at the beginning, God just permitted sin to come. He did not.... That wasn't His perfect will.

But you see, God, the great Spirit, the Father, in Him was attributes. And these things that you see displayed now is just His attributes being displayed. He dwelt alone. He was not even God. God was an object of worship. He was the great eternal One. And in Him was attributes, such as to be Father, to be Saviour, to be healer. And now, how could He.... First He had to be father, because it proves He was father, but He dwells alone. He alone is immortal.

And now ... but His attributes has to be displayed. Now to be a Saviour, there has to be something lost. And God cannot purposely lose anything, and then redeem it. It wouldn't be becoming to His holiness and His great judgment. But He put man on free moral agency, knowing that man would fall. And in that, then, He became man, Himself, in order to redeem back man, that fell. That's the reason that Jesus was Immanuel. If God sent another person besides Himself, then that wouldn't be just. God had to come Himself, and take place. And God could not be ... come down in spirit, and take place. He had to be made flesh, in the flesh of His own created Son.

And He showed here in the beginning, that His perfect will was to create man out of the dust of the earth. But you see, He permitted sex to be brought in. He never did intend children to be born by sex; but it was permitted, which soon will fade away.

Now, we find out that Moab was illegitimate to begin with, because it was Lot's son by his own daughter. Now, notice, as the natural church.... Moab represents the natural church, Moab does; and Israel the spiritual church. Now Israel, the bride, was the ... represents the called-out. The church itself, the word “church” means called-out ones. “Come out,” those who have come out. “Come out of her, my people. Be ye separated,” saith the Lord, “and I will receive you unto myself. Touch not their unclean things.”

The church of God is called out of the world, out of the chaos of the world. You're no more of the world.

As I was trying to say the other night to you, it's when you know that you have the earnest of your ... of your eternal redemption right now, in you by the baptism of the Holy Spirit. It's already quickened you. You are now risen with Him, and we're sitting together in heavenly places, in Christ Jesus, see. You're no more of the world. If you love the world, and your affections are still on the things of the world, then the love of God is not even in you, see. We are ... from ... free from the world. There is no more desire.

In the Hebrews, I believe the tenth chapter, said there was a continually remembrance of sin each year those beast's body was offered. But in this case the worshipper, once purged, has no more conscience of sin. No more desire to sin. The whole thing is gone from you, because you have been quickened into a new life.

And then the church natural is just a bunch of people in denominations that joined. It's no more.... I don't even no more call it church. I don't like to refer to it. I like to refer to it as a lodge: Methodist lodge, Baptist lodge, Pentecostal lodge. But the church is the borned-again that's in Christ Jesus, that's new creatures. And so, we still see that ... that God keeps His word.

Now Moab seen.... Moab looked down upon the field, and seen God moving amongst this people who was not even an organized nation. They were just floating around, from place to place. But the strange thing, that they come upon these nations, and they took them. Everything was in their road, they took them. Now, they found out—Moab looking upon it, Balak, he looked down upon the nation of Israel—and he said, “The people cover the whole face of the earth.” He said, “And they lick up the nations just like an ox licking up grass.”

And they found out one of the great key-notes was, that how they got this great revelation, there was a prophet among them. They had a prophet, now, someone that led them. It wasn't a man-made system like he was used to, his delegations with him, and so forth, but it ... and his dignitaries. But they had a leader, a divine-call leader. And, oh, what a sad day it was when the church world left off the divine leadership of the Holy Ghost, and adopted a bishop or anything else to take its place. It was a sad day. The Holy Spirit is to be the leader of the church. He is sent to confirm the Word of Jesus Christ, to make the church live as it did live at the beginning.

Not long ago, a very famous school here in this city, a seminary (and they have one in Phoenix).... And one of the men, or a couple of the students, was, came down to me and said, “We like you, Brother Branham. We don't have nothing agin' you at all, but we'd just like to straighten you out.”

And I said, “Well, I sure want to be straightened out.” And so, I said, “If I'm wrong, I certainly don't want to be wrong. I talk to too many people.”

And he said, “Well, here is your trouble.” Said, “You are trying to introduce, or to make live again, an apostolic religion, when the apostolic religion ceased with the apostles.”

And I said, “Yes, sir.” I said, “Well, now if....”

He said, “Now, I wouldn't debate it with you.”

I said, “I wouldn't either. We're not supposed to do that. We're brethren.”

And he said, “Well,” he said, “I would just like to help you.”

I said, “I'm certainly willing to get help.”

And he said, “Now, you see,” he said, “now the.... That's true.”

And I said “Now, on talking, we mustn't use textbooks.” I said, “I won't use mine.” I had none but this one. But, so, so.... I said, “I won't use textbook, just the Bible, and you ... we just use the Bible.”

He said, “All right.”

I said, “Now, we believe that the apostolic church began at the day of Pentecost. Do you agree with that?”

He said, “Yes, I do.”

I said, “Now we realize that God gave the church power, there, for these apostolic movements.”

He said, “Yes, that was the framework of the church. Now the church is already set in order, and we got all of our pastors, and our great organizations and things. We don't need those things anymore, to draw people.”

I said, “Now, where does the Bible say that?” I said, “You tell me where the Bible says that at,” see.

And he said, “Well it doesn't exactly say that, in that way.”

I said, “Well, then I can't receive it, less it says it just in that way,” see. I said “We're....” I said, “That's the way it has to be.” I said, “Do you believe that God's still calling people?”

He said, “Yes, sir.”

I said, “Now, you will believe that the Bible is, correct, every answer?”

“Yeah.”

I said, “Now, the spokesman at the day of Pentecost was Peter, who had the keys to the kingdom.”

“That's right.”

And I said, “Now, whatever his decision was, Jesus said, 'What you bind on earth, I'll bind in heaven. What you loose on earth, I'll loose in heaven.'”

He said, “I'll believe that.”

I said, “Now, in Acts, the second chapter and the thirty-eighth verse, Peter said to those people who were marveling—these people speaking in unknown tongues—and they asked him what they could do to be saved. And he said, 'Repent, every one of you, and be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sin. You shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost. For the promise is unto you, and to your children, and to them that's far off, even as many as the Lord our God shall call.' Now if God's still calling, that same promise is for them.”

Well, he come over here and was with one of Billy Graham's groups up here, praying for a meeting. And a group of them was sitting up here in California somewhere, a few weeks ago, in real deep sincere prayer, consecrated to God, fasting; and the Holy Ghost fell on the whole bunch, and began to speak in other tongues. Yeah. Now, he is a member of the friendly church, the Assemblies of God in Tucson, Arizona. He said, “Oh, Brother Branham, I go up there and feel so good. I just raise back my hands,” and said, “The glory of God! I just sing.” And said, “I never could do that in a New Testament Baptist church.”

I said, “I see you can't. That's why you're out.” So there you are, see.

God keeps His word. What He says, He'll do it. God has to keep His word.

Now, we find out here, that this carnal impersonation that Moab had.... He saw this prophet among Israel, that was able to bless, curse, lead, and so forth. So he tries to match it by politics. Now, that's just what's taken place in the churches today. They have tried to match it with some kind of a system. You can't do it.

The Holy Spirit must be alive in the church always, leading the church for the age that it's living in, to confirm the Word that's promised for that age. God spoke the word from the beginning, and so much for this age, and so much for that age, and certain for them age. It always happens just that way. And see, and the Holy Spirit must be alive in the church to make this church live its day. It must be here today, to confirm this latter-day ministry, latter-day signs, latter-day pour-out of the Holy Ghost. It's just got to be here to do that. And you cannot get it through the working of systems. God has a system. He is the one who has give us the Holy Spirit.

Now, we notice here that Moses had a king, and that king was God that anointed him. And Balaam also was under a king, Balak. And it was more like a political setup, see. Balak ... Balaam, a prophet of God, he went to Balak for his information. Moses went to God for information. There was a difference. Yet both of them were prophets, because they were both called of God. Both met God, both talked to God, and both Spirit-filled. Now, I'm coming home, see.

Now, they were both Spirit-filled men. Now, that is true. The Bible said that God met with Balaam, and talked with him, see. So we notice each one of these prophets, both of them being prophets, men of God, they catered to their headship. Moses catered to God; and Balaam, here, catered to Balak. Notice here, in typing the spiritual and the natural, how perfect it was. Moses, sent by God in a line of duty, is met and challenged by another man of God. Could you imagine such?

But look what a set-up they had up there. It was a organized nation.

And Moses was leading the children of Israel, just as God would tell them where to go—led by a pillar of fire, and a supernatural being that was leading the way. And Moses was getting his information through the logos, of course, that went out of God—that pillar of fire, which was the angel of the covenant, which was Christ, the anointed One. And he was getting his message through there and giving it to the children of Israel, on the road to a promised land. But this man was all settled down. And he had his kingdom, he had his churches, he had everything right there, in order. So he sends over to get this man to come over, and to curse this people. And notice, could you imagine that one prophet, one man of God, seeing the works of God with another man, and try to challenge that works of God, when he knew, ought to have knowed better?

Now, Balaam.... First, when Balak sent to him and told him come over, and curse this people.... Now, Balak done the very thing

(or Balaam, rather) done the thing that was right. He sought God. He sought God first. Now that's what he ought to have done. And then God give him his perfect clean-cut answer. “Don't go with him. Leave them alone. Don't you curse those people. They are blessed.” Now that ought to be enough. When God says anything, He cannot change that.

Notice. His perfect will was “Don't you go. Don't attack that people. They are my people.” That was His perfect will. But Balaam didn't like those people to begin with. See, there you are. How many Balaams do we have today! The same thing. They know better.

They had them in the days of our Lord Jesus. Nicodemus come and said, “Rabbi, we know you're a man sent from God, or a teacher sent from God. No man could do the things that you do unless God was with him,” see. They knew it. There was a Balaam again.

Now, Balaam didn't like the people. Notice his headquarters, after they'd sent some fine men over there, to tell him, “Now, there is some people coming up down here, and I understand that you're a prophet. You're a great man. So you come up here, and curse this people.”

Balaam said, “Now, you wait a minute, till I go in and pray, and stay all night. Maybe the Lord will meet me, and He'll tell me.”

All right, the next morning, the Lord met with him, and said, “Don't go. Don't curse those people. They're blessed.”

All right, Balaam went out and said, “Well, I can't go, because the Lord told me not to go.”

Now, notice, when they went back and took the headquarters, for him to go down there and stop this meeting they had, you see.... Well, then come to find out, the headquarters sent a better set of people—higher dignitaries, maybe a bishop, somebody else or might have been a state presbyter, or somebody—sent down there. “Tell him to go down and stop that, anyhow,” see.

Notice, his better influential group, better gifts, more money, said, “I can exalt you to a better position. I might make you, instead of just being an ordinary man, I can make you a little higher. And I have the right to do that, because I'm king here in this great movement. And I can do something better for you, if you'll just do it.”

Notice, the new offer blinded him. He ought to have knowed what God said, God will do. But it blinded him. And as a prophet of God, he should have not been influenced by such a group. He should have got out of that group to begin with. And if I'm talking to some man of God here, when they try to tell you at the headquarters that the days of miracles is past, and this what we're doing here, and the Lord Jesus is blessing us, and that's a bunch of fanaticism, work-up, and emotion, and there is no such a thing as divine healing, get out of that group, right there! Get out of it, because it's the Word of God being made manifest.

They say, “There's no such a thing as apostolic days. There's no baptism of the Holy Ghost. That speaking in tongues is nothing to it. There....” Oh, but brother, don't you listen to that! There's a many one like Balaam today, sitting back in their office, reading these books of the Bible, and know that it's the truth. But yet, just because of position's sake, they won't take their stand. Just exactly right.

Notice, God.... He knew he shouldn't have been in this group, or Balaam should have knowed it. They get out of the will of God. Them fellows will talk you right out of the will of God. When you find the will of God, don't let nobody talk you out of it.

I've knowed of good people come to the meetings, get healed, and go back. And they'd say, “Oh, well, there's nothing to that. You're just worked up. There's nothing to it.” And the people go to doubting. I've seen people come, and receive Christ in their heart, go back; maybe speak in tongues, and go back. And the church will say, “Why, you're a disgrace to Christianity,” and so forth. And oh, my. Don't do that, see. Get out of that group. Stay away from it.

Notice, Balaam used a phony text here, for his, conscience's sake, see. He said, “Peradventure, you stay another night, and maybe I'll ask God,” you see. “Maybe He might have changed His mind.” But God don't change His mind. When God give us the declaration of the baptism of the Holy Ghost, on the day of Pentecost, that's the way He has to keep it. He did all through the Bible age. And He will any other time that man will come upon them basis, that He offered there. If you'll come believing, repenting, being baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of your sins, and believing on God, God's obligated to fulfill that prescription. Right. Because He's the doctor, and He'll fulfill it, if you will ... if you will obey it.

But you can't afford, now, to try to get this prescription, take it over to some quack druggist that might put something else in it. It might kill the patient. That's the reason we got so many dead church members, today. They're trying to give the wrong prescription. God's got the prescription, right here in the Bible. He's the same yesterday, today, and forever. You've got to take the medicine the way the doctor said give it.

The Bible said “Is there no ... is there no balm in Gilead? Is there no physician there?” 'Course there is. Said, “Then why is the daughter of my people in this condition?” See, we got the Bible. We got the physician. It's just the druggist is misfilling the 'scription ... prescription. That's what it is.

You're trying to say the days of miracles is past; there is no such a thing as the baptism of the Holy Ghost; and all these things. It's nonsense. The Bible is exactly right. God doesn't take back anything He said.

And they try to use a phony way out, something another like “Well, we believe that....” Well, no matter what you believe, it's what God said. He said, “I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh.” He promised this in the last days.

They try to say the meetings, that you are seeing.... They call me a soothsayer, a polished-up soothsayer, or a Beelzebub, or some devil. Well, they've got to say that because they're of their father. That's what he said about Jesus at the beginning. And it's not us doing this, anyhow. It's same Jesus, because He's the same yesterday, today, and forever. It's His Spirit.

Oh, something that could pass, bypass, and full ... bypass his commission.... So many people try to bypass that. “Oh, come join the church, and it'll be all right. We're an old church, we've been here for many years. We started....” Yes, that's right. If that's so, then the Roman Catholic church has got it on all of you. They're the first of the organizations. They was first. But remember, not the first church; they was the first organization, and the mother of every one of them. Which, every one of them is contrary to God. Revelation 17 says the same thing, see. Yes, we are in the last days.

Now remember, God will let you go. See now, and then Balaam, he thought, “Well....”

Then God told him, “Go on.” Why? God knew what was in his heart. God knew that was in his heart to begin with, so He told him to go on. He will permit it. He will permit you to do it. He will bless you many times in doing it. He blessed even Israel after they.... Grace had already give them a prophet, pillar of fire, a deliverance, signs and wonders, brought them out of Egypt, and everything. And yet they wanted a law. God let them have it, but it cursed them all the time. He let Balaam go on, just the way he was supposed to. But what did he do? He went down there and, instead of cursing the people, he had to bless the people. He could not curse what God had blessed.

And I told you I was going to quit at nine, and I looked up, and it's time now. And I got a book full of notes here. But I want to say this in closing, that God never changed His mind. His direct will was for Balaam not to go. And when God makes a statement it has to ever remain true.

Now, the Bible said, “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever.” Now, that don't mean in a certain way, that means He's the same yesterday, today, and forever. Jesus said in St. John 14:12, “He that believeth on Me, the works that I do shall he do also.” Is that right? He promised in Mark 16, “These signs shall follow them that believe.”

They say, “Well, that was just for the apostles.”

He said, “Go ye into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature. These signs shall follow them, in all the world and to every creature. In my name they shall cast out devils. They shall speak with new tongues. If they take up serpents, or drink deadly things, it wouldn't harm them. If they lay their hands on the sick, they shall recover.” Now that is his qualification.

See, we try to qualify something. We are trying to make ... qualify the church to what we think God's Word is. We can't qualify to the church, we've got to qualify to God.

I've always said it's a great matching time. You paint your steps red, and watch your neighbor paint his red. Some of you women wear a certain kind of hat at church, and watch the rest of the women get that. Mrs. Jacqueline Kennedy had this here water-head haircut, and look all the women. She wore them little old sack-colored aprons, or things like that. It's scandalous for the woman to be on the street, with them stretched on like that. Look at all the women doing the same thing. It's an impersonation.

But that's in the world. The church people picked it up. And it's a shame that they do it. It's wrong for them to do it. And it's a disgrace. And when we see it creeping into Pentecost, it's more disgraceful. That is right. But you see the church puts up with it, and lets it go.

Now, we don't care ... I never cared whether my coat matched my trousers, or my tie matched my coat. I want my experience to match God's Bible, and His requirement. And that's what we as Pentecostal people ought to do, is have our experience just like theirs was, because He's the same Jesus, the same Holy Ghost, the same power. He's living today, and He lives among us.

It kind of reminds me of one day, his mother had gone off from Jerusalem, from the worship, and his foster-daddy, Joseph. And they went three days journey, and just presuming that He was along with them. And they found out that He wasn't there.

And you know I want to liken that today.... You know the church has had a three-stage journey—Luther, Wesley, Pentecost—three-stage journey. God will give them a message: justification, Luther, he hung onto it; then come sanctification through Wesley; then the baptism of the Holy Spirit with Pentecost.

And I wonder if we didn't get off all on a big tantrum somewhere, to build big things and do great things, like Balaam had in his mind. Great organizations—the one to outrun the other; and this one more giving gold medals; and stars for Sunday school; and who could bring in the most members; and take in just anything into the church. I tell you, there's one church there's not a hypocrite in—that's the church of the Lord Jesus Christ, that's baptized by the Holy Ghost. You're not persuaded in there; you're borned in there. You're sent in there by the Holy Spirit.

They found out ... the parents found out that He wasn't among them.

Now, in this hour, this great crisis is on, when we know that this nation is shaking. Not only the nation, but the world is shaking. It's at the end-time. There's not another thing that I know to happen, but the rapture, the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ. It's all ready. And we see these gatherings....

Oh, get every benefit, this convention coming up, get everything out of it you can get that's of God. If you haven't got the Holy Ghost, just put it in your mind you're not going to leave here until you get it. That's the way to do it. Stay there, because you ... this is, might be your last opportunity. There may never be another convention on this West Coast. It may be beneath the sea by that time, 'fore another one. So we don't know what could happen. So we're looking for the judgments of God to come upon the nations.

Now may I say this, they thought He was along, but they found out in the crisis that He wasn't, see. He wasn't with them. Now, we find out that in the time that, when this great thing has been brought up, and we find out that we're missing something in our churches. And that is the power of Christ. Now look, I don't want to criticize. I love you. And genuine true love always is corrective. Now, we're missing Christ in our church. We're missing Christ amongst our Pentecostal people, our brothers and sisters. There is something wrong. The old-fashioned prayer meetings they used to have, all day and night, they don't have them no more. Our women used to wear long hair. They don't do it anymore. It would be a disgrace for women to paint, and use paint back in the early days, and act the way these women do.

Something went wrong—nothing wrong with Christ, see—but something went wrong. Something is somewhere.... The pulpit used to wouldn't have permitted such a thing as that, but it does now, see. The crisis is on, and we're missing something. We're missing power that we ought to have, where the big machine ought to be running up, and great signs and wonders. Well, this building ought to be sitting so full of power of God now, till a sinner couldn't stay in here, the Holy Spirit condemning it right quickly—like that ... like Ananias and Sapphira. And we're missing something.

Now what happened? They went to look for Him amongst their kinfolks, and they didn't find Him amongst their kinfolks. So where did they find Him? Right back where they left Him. And I think when our church got on this great organizational spree, that we had to ... one had to outdo the other, and had to have bigger churches, and better class of people, and better dressed people, and better singers and stand up there and....

I like good singing. I like real good old-fashioned Pentecostal singing. But I cannot stand that put-on stuff. It just simply don't go with me—hold your breath till you're blue in the face, just to be heard. I believe in singing from your heart, in the Spirit of God, like I heard in here a while ago, see. I like good old-fashioned shouting. But I think shouting can go on, just if the music is going on or not—the Spirit of God upon the people. It brings down the blessings, and the power of God. I believe men can testify, and sing, and praise God at their work, wherever they are, truly. And now, we're missing something. Where will we find Him? Right where we left Him, in the Word. Let us pray.

Dear heavenly Father, one of these nights we're going to close this Bible the last time. The last song is going to be sung, last sermon preached. The last prayer line will be called. The last sinner will come in. And then what? Oh, dear God, we don't want your permissive will, Father. Let us walk in your perfect will. Let us just not take a word here and there, and make it to fit a dogma, or a creed, or something.

Let us take the Word as it is, believing the full gospel, all that Jesus taught for us to do. We do not believe that the Acts of the Apostles is just the framework. We believe it's the Word of God. It's the acts of your Holy Spirit in the apostles. And we believe that the same Holy Spirit, Lord, that come upon them, and the way they acted, it'll do the same thing in us when it comes upon us, if it's the same Spirit.

So I pray, dear God, that this convention that we're just on the eve of it, to start tomorrow night, I pray, heavenly Father, that it'll be the greatest convention that this city has ever had, because of your presence. Bless each speaker. Oh God, may it be so shaking, may the wrath of God be thundered out across the pulpit. May sinners shake, tremble, may the presence of Jesus Christ come so real to the people, that they can just close their eyes and see Him walking among them. Grant it, Lord.

Now, tonight, just before this happens that we're praying for, dear God, some of your children are sick. They've been wounded, and they're hurt, and I've come to pray for them. Will You honor what I ask You tonight, Lord, for their sickness? I trust to You there won't be a feeble person in this building when the services is over. Your servants all through here, sitting out there, shouting, throwing up their hands, and back here on the platform and saying, “Amen” to the Word, Father, we are one unit of people. We've come out of the world, out of those cold formal conditions, and we've been borned of the Spirit. We're alive tonight. And You said because You live, we were alive also. And we are trusting Lord, and believing with all of our heart according to the Word, that we are represented in Thee.

Now make thy words real tonight, to heal the sick, as I pray for them, and these others pray. Grant it Lord, it'll be so, and we'll praise Thee for it. We ask it in Jesus' name. Amen.

Now.... [Someone begins to speak in another tongue.] Thank you, Father God. We feel that, just like one time in the Bible, they was up against a crisis, and the Spirit of the Lord fell upon a man, and He told him where to defeat the enemy, where to go. Listen to that. Just correct yourself. See the Spirit of life in you corrects you to the Word, see. If the Word is living in you, it lives itself right through the Word.

Now, last night I was late. Now, you're such a fine people. I just.... Looks like as I start getting older, I just wish I could.... I will be with you forever, in another land.

So, now, we're going to pray for the sick. And now, I'm not going to try to bring too many at a time, like I did last night. And now, Billy Paul give out a bunch of prayer cards, I suppose a hundred of them. Did you give a hundred or...? Two hundred. What was they? C. Who has C, number one? Raise up your hand. Let's see if that's right now. Prayer card, look on your prayer card. It's got a number and a letter on it. C number one? Raise up your hand. Way up.... All right come down here. Number two, three, four, five. Now, and you, somebody get over here and catch them. Now we want every one of the prayer cards, but we want them lined over on this side. One, two, three, four, five. I see three of them. And your prayer card, sir? Four. Now if there be another one, five. Is that the person coming there? One, two, three, four, five. C number one, two, three, four, five. All right. Now, just come as you're called, your number.

So, last night I seen them down there, people crowding. We don't want that. This is a church, you know, not an arena. So we, you have to keep order. One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten. Now just line them up, as they go back. Now, prayer card six, seven, eight, nine, ten. And somebody will hold up their hand, when they got ... when they're lined up back there, and we're going to pray for them. How many is going to believe with me now, that the Lord Jesus is going to do a great work? I'll do all that I can. Now, six, seven, six, seven, eight, nine, ten, eleven, twelve, thirteen, fourteen, fifteen,

Now, just come around so they won't all be crowded at once, you know, and around it. That's what the numbers are given to you for, to keep you in order, you know, keep so it will not be ... then as your number is called, will you just come then. All right. And now, we want to ... now, I want all ... everybody to be real reverent, now. And we'll pray on now, for about ... till we can get these people prayed for. And we don't know what the Lord might do. We don't know what He'll do, but we're expecting Him to do great things.

Now I believe fifteen.... Have I got that many over there yet, Billy Paul? Where you at? All right. Fifteen, sixteen, seventeen, eighteen, nineteen, twenty.

Now, see, they're already jamming up. So now, I'm going to have, maybe, perhaps, some brother to, as when them comes down to the end of the row, let him call the next numbers, you see, so we won't all have to stand there so long, when we're praying for the sick people. All right.

Now, we'll ... I want you to ... I want to speak to you while they're getting those people so they won't be jammed up together.

Now, no one come until your number is called. We called up to fifteen, I believe, it was, or twenty, something along there. I'll say up to twenty. And then let's wait, and that'll be enough in there right now, whatever is over there. And now how many cards is there? Raise up your hands. And how many doesn't have cards? Raise up your hands.

Now remember, you don't have to have a prayer card. We've been here two nights. And each night the Holy Spirit has went out over the audience, and healed the people regardless of prayer cards. Is that right? The prayer card only does one thing to you: help you to get in line. That's right. But you have faith, and you watch the Holy Spirit leave the platform right here, and go right out among them audience there. How many knows that to be true?

Now, I believe, firmly believe, if there was any other church besides the Pentecostal church that I would ... could go with, and believe to, I would be with it, if I thought there was anything better. And when you hear me say something about the organizations, and things like that, I'm not against the people. It's because.... What if you seen a man that you loved out in a boat, floating right down towards the falls, and knowed that boat was going to sink with him? And you'd say, “Well, I love him, but he's got his own ways.” No, I couldn't do that. That's not in me. I'd scream, run out and grab him, shake him, jerk him in, or anything else to get him out of there, see. And I know that that won't float the falls. That's right. It's got to come back to Christ, as certain as anything. It's got to come back to God.

Now, I....

Everybody in here has been in my meetings before. Is that right? Hold up your hands, if you've been in the meetings. All right. There's not any.... Is there any newcomers that never was in one of my meetings before? Hold your hands. Well, what do you.... I never.... Is this the first time you've been in one of my meetings, raise your hands again? Well, I tell you, I, maybe I better change this thing. [A brother says, “Explain a little bit about your ministry.”] Well, I'd better. You ... to you people that just come in, I'm going.... It's going to take me a few minutes longer. Let me explain, because you'll go away with the wrong impression, see.

I believe in every act of God. But I do believe that the Bible promises us, in the last days that there is to be ... come again.... The church has got to get in the same order it was that Jesus left it when it went away, see. It's the bride. It's got to come back to that place.

Now, we've come through the great works of God, through justification, sanctification, the baptism of the Holy Ghost, restoration of gifts. But in following the line of Abraham....

Now, I'm uneducated. And so I have to use something like John the Baptist. He was uneducated too. He went in the wilderness about nine years old, and he never got an education. So his sermons were more based upon like nature, “Oh, you generation of snakes,” see. That's the worst thing he'd seen, and the ... so slimy, and he called them priests snakes. He said, “You generation of snakes, who has warned you to flee from the wrath to come? Don't begin to say we got this, we belong to this. God's able of these stones (that's what he'd seen on the river bank) to raise up children to Abraham. And also the ax (that's what he used in the wilderness) is laid to the root of the tree. And every tree that don't bring forth good fruit is hewn down.” (That's the kind he burnt, and made firewood out of, you see.) But the good trees ... he just makes his sermons like that.

So in this, I want to say it in this manner. We're at the end-time, the harvest time.

Now, in Abraham's journey he met God all along, in different forms, and so forth, which we could take it, and show it just.... We are Abraham's seed, if we're in Christ. And Isaac was really his lesser son. He was his son sexually. But spiritually Christ was Abraham's seed, his royal seed, his faith.

Now, we find that his royal seed, it travels the same journey. The bride of Christ travels the same journey that Abraham did. And the last sign that Abraham seen, before the promised son came, was when God was manifested in a human body, and two angels came down. Jesus said in St. Luke the seventeenth chapter, and the thirtieth verse, that “As it was in the days of Noah,” He told about Noah's time. And said, “As it was in the days of Sodom,” see, His coming, “so will it be in the days when the Son of man is being revealed.” Now, He never said Son of God being revealed; the Son of man.

Now Jesus came in three names: Son of man, which is a prophet; Son of God, which went through the church age; then Son of David. But in between the Son of God and Son of David, according to His own word and according to Malachi 4, and many scriptures, He's to return back into His church in physical form, in the people, in a ... in human beings, in the way of being a prophet, see.

And watch what this man done when He came down to see Abraham. First thing, He told Abraham about his name being changed, because He didn't call him Abram, He called him Abraham. And when He did, why we find out that, that He said “Where is thy wife, Sarah?” S-a-r-a-h, not S-a-r-r-a.

“Why,” he said, “she's in the tent behind You.”

He said.... Now, she was ninety and Abraham was a hundred. And He said, “Now, I'm going to visit you according to the promise, the time of life.” And Sarah, on the inside, heard Him, listening through the wall of the tent. And she laughed to herself. And the angel-man, sitting there, said (discerned her spirit in the back behind Him), and said “Why did Sarah laugh?”—saying about these things. Well, they called Sarah forth, and she denied it. He said, “But, you did do it.” She was scared.

Now Jesus said, just before the coming of the Son of God, or the Son of ... the second coming, that this age that we live through.... He come as Son of man, a prophet, because that fulfills the scripture. Moses said, “The Lord your God shall raise up a prophet like unto me.” We all know that was Jesus, don't we? So He had to come according to the scripture, a prophet. He never called Himself the Son of God. He called Himself the Son of man. But now, He is, through the church age now, He's been Son of God. In the millennium He'll be Son of David, sitting on David's throne.

But between this time, we find out by the scriptures, He is to reveal Himself, again, as Son of man, a prophet. Because the Word of the Lord comes to prophets only. Never to theologians. It is to prophets. And the Lord said He did nothing, in His unchanging Word (we just talked about) until first He showed His prophets. And the end-time.... Them seven seals, that this Bible has sealed up—the sevenfold mysteries of all of Christ—has to be revealed first, and it can only be brought to a prophet. We've been looking for that for years. And we believe that His Spirit is among us now.

So we find....

Now watch when Jesus come. Watch what He did to prove Himself to be that Messiah, that anointed One. One day after He had received.... The Father had came down and dwelt in Him in the form of a dove, coming down from heaven saying, “This is my beloved Son, in whom I am pleased to dwell in.” That's the reason He said, “I and My Father are one. My Father dwelleth in Me. It's not Me that doeth the works, it's My Father that dwelleth in Me.” John bear record, seeing that Spirit of God like a dove, descending, a voice coming from it saying “This is my beloved Son, in whom I'm pleased to dwell,” see. And He dwelt in Him.

Now watch when His ministry started. He had to act Son of man, now. Now watch what He did. There come up a man by the name of Simon Peter. His name was Simon, then, later called Peter. Andrew had been attending the meeting of John. And then when Jesus come, and John had introduced Him, he saw Him. And Andrew asked his brother Simon to come to the meeting with him. And they'd been told by their father, as it's said, that there would come a time before the real Messiah would come, that there would be many false messiahs raise up. There is always that way.

He said, “But sons, remember. The real Messiah, you will know Him, because He'll be according to the scripture. He will be a prophet. Now, we haven't had a prophet for hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of years, since Malachi. But there'll be many people make claims, which we know there was. There was a Jesus raised up, and carried out a bunch, and so forth. But this real Messiah will be a prophet.” And all Hebrews are taught to believe what the prophets says are the truth.

Right then, that uneducated fisherman who, we're told, didn't have enough education to write his name—the Bible said he was both ignorant, and unlearned—he recognized that to be the Son of God. He recognized that to be the Messiah, because there was a prophet. There was the One who told him who his name was, and told him what his father's name was. Then he knowed that had to be a prophet because the man didn't know him. And he was given the keys to the kingdom.

And we find there was some standing there listening at that. And one by the name of Philip, who had a ... was having Bible studies with a friend by the name of Nathanael, looking for the Messiah. So he runs around the mountain, about a day's journey, and comes back. And he finds this Nathanael over there, under a fig tree, praying. And he said, “Come, see who we found—Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph.”

So Nathanael, being ... or Philip ... or Nathanael, rather, being a good man, he said, “Now, could any good thing come out of Nazareth?”

He said, “Well,” he said, “just come and see.”

Now that's good advice. Come see for yourself; don't stay home and criticize. Come find out. “Search the scriptures. In them you think you have eternal life.” Jesus said, “They are they that testify of Me.”

So, on the road back, no doubt they had a little talk. He told him, said, “You know that fisherman that couldn't sign that ticket for them fish you got that day? He told him—you know his father was up there in the church—his name was Jonas, you remember? So he ... he told him who he was.”

“Oh, I'll have to see that.”

So when he walked up ... and maybe he was in the prayer line where Jesus was, I don't know. He had walked up in Jesus' presence. Jesus looked at him, and said, “Behold an Israelite in whom there is no guile.”

Now, the first place, you say, “How did He know he was an Israelite?” Well, because he was dressed...? No, no. All Easterners wear those turbans. They dress alike. And said, “...an Israelite....” And He said, “...there is no guile.” He could have been a crook, or anything. Then he would have been exposed. He said, “...in which there is no guile.”

And so that kind of took the starch out of Nathanael. So he said, “Rabbi, when did You ever know me? Why, I don't get this. When did You ever know me? I never met you. I just was brought up here by Philip. When did You ever know me?”

He said, “Before, you were under the fig tree. While you were there praying, I saw you,” see.

He said, “Rabbi, Thou art the Son of God. Thou art the king of Israel.”

Jesus said, “Because I told you this you believe? Then you'll see greater than this.”

Now, there was those standing there (now, let me give you a little warning), there was those standing there, rabbis, and priests. And they said, “This man does this by Beelzebub.”

And Jesus turned and said, “I'll forgive you for that (for the atonement wasn't yet made), but some day the Holy Ghost will come and do the same thing.” He said, “And to speak one word against that, it'll never be forgiven you, in this world nor, the world to come.”

On to the woman at the well, the Samaritans.

Now, there was three races of people of earth. We might be black, brown, yellow, whatever we are, but we come from one blood. And there is three races, which come from Ham, Shem, and Japheth's people—and that's Jew, Gentile, and Samaritan (half Jew and Gentile). Now we Gentiles, Anglo-Saxons, we were heathen, worshipping idols. We wasn't looking for no messiah. So, when Jesus manifested Himself as Son of man—now listen close, and I'll close. When Jesus came, He was duty-bound to represent what the prophet said He would be. So there before Israel, He represented Himself before Peter, and Nathanael, and those there as Son of man.

Now, He has need go by Samaria. And He goes up to Samaria. And there He found a woman sitting at the well. We know the story. And as she.... They talked together. She come to get water. He said, “Bring Me a drink.”

And she said, “Now there's segregation here. We can't have this. And I'm a woman of Samaria, and you're a Jew. We don't have....”

He said, “But if you knew who you were talking to, you'd ask Me for a drink.”

She said, “Well, the well's deep. What are you going to draw with?”

And the conversation went on till He contacted her spirit. And when He contacted her spirit, He found what her trouble was. How many knows that? Now how many of you newcomers knows that's the truth? That's right. That was true. And what did He say? “Go get your husband, and come here.”

She said, “I have no husband.”

And He said, “Thou hast said well, for you've had five husbands, and the one you're living with now is not your husband.” She turned....

Now, she wasn't like them priests, said “He's got a devil, He's a fortuneteller or something.”

She turned, and she said, “Sir, I perceive that You are a prophet. Now we haven't had one for four hundred years. The church hasn't been used to such as this. But we perceive ... I perceive that You are a prophet. Now, I know that we're looking for the Messiah. And when the Messiah comes, that's the thing that He'll do.”

Now the Bible said, “He's the same yesterday, today, and forever.” If that was the anointed sign of Messiah back there, to the Samaritan, and to the Jew.... Now, it never was done before Gentiles. Nowhere in the Bible did Jesus ever do it before Gentiles. They had four thousand years of looking for a messiah. We've had two thousand years, with their training also, to look for a messiah. Now, if that was His identification just before their day was finished, it's got to be our identification. Because He promised the Son of man would reveal Himself again, in the day that the world become like Sodom again. And anybody knows we're there, see.

Now, I believe that Jesus Christ keeps every word. All scripture

is inspired. I don't believe we have one right, and will be condemned for it, if we add one word to it or take one word from it. Revelation 22 says so. I believe He's the same yesterday, today, and forever. I certainly honor the Lutheran for their stand in their day, the Methodist for sanctification in their day, and the Pentecostal for their stand in their day. But we're living in another day.

We're living when there's been stalk, tassel, shuck (almost like the wheat), but the wheat's inside the shuck. The shuck has just supported the wheat, kept the hot sun from burning it. And now the denomination is pulling away from it, so it can lay in the presence of the Son to get ripe.

So we're in.... There won't be no more organizations rise up. This is the end of it. We've had.... Always about three years when a message starts, they organize it. This has been going on for nearly twenty years, and no organization. It can't. We're in the wheat time, the harvest time. I can hear the great combine coming. We're going home one day. He's the same yesterday, today, and forever.

Now, I am not He, but I am His servant. I do not believe that you lay hands on people and give them gifts. Gifts and callings are without repentance. They are predestinated of God, to meet the age and the time of that age. Any Bible student knows that's the truth. Moses was born just in time, Jeremiah in time, all the rest of them, John the Baptist in time, Jesus was in time, and we're in time. This is what's supposed to happen.

Now I claim that He is alive today. And His Spirit.... After the church ages.... We're in the Laodicean church age, the last call; and the worst of all of them, because He was put out of the church. Remember, Son of man, and He was put out of the church—not an organization out of an organization, but a person out of an organization. None of the other church ages had that, just the Laodicea. If you're spiritual, you'll understand.

Our heavenly Father, now I have testified truly of You. Now if this be true—which I know it is, Lord, I believe it true—You testify that I've told the truth. In Jesus Christ's name. Amen.

I'm going to ask something just a moment. I wasn't going to have any discernments in the line, because I thought all of you had been in my ministry. But for these people that's here, let some of you people out there go to praying, and let ... just someone in the line, or something.

And now, if Jesus Christ will take this human being, I.... It won't work without you. You're the one who does it. Now listen. A woman touched His garment one day, and He turned around, said, “Who touched Me?”

They all said, “Why, You seem...,” or Peter said, “Why, the whole crowd is touching You.”

He said, “But I perceive that I've gotten weak, or virtue has gone from Me (virtue is strength). And said, ”I perceive that I have ... I have gotten weak.“ And so, He looked around upon the woman until He found her, and told her about her blood issue, and that she.... He said, ”Thy faith has saved thee.“ All right.

Now He's the same yesterday, today, and forever. And the New Testament, the book of Hebrews, said that right now He is the high priest, making intercessions for you, that can be touched by the feeling of your infirmity.

Now here, is that one of the patients, here?

Now for the audience: I do this not for a show, friends. Now, stop thinking that. Remember, I get your thoughts. How many knows that's true, and sees it? Here is a woman that I've never seen. I don't know one thing about the woman. We're probably born miles apart, and years apart. And here, we stand here tonight. We're strangers to each other. I don't know....

Now I have no idea. Here, here is, here is St. John 4 again. A man meets a woman. Now, I'm not Jesus, and she's not that woman. But here is just similar. And He said, “The works that I do, shall you do also.” Now I don't know. It takes this woman's faith to do it. I don't know nothing about her. But now, if I have told that which is truth, then God's obligated to make ... to say this is right.

Now, not knowing you, if God of heaven ... and I have told the truth, do you believe that what I said about that is the truth? You accept that to be true? You believe that I wouldn't stand here, before this Holy Bible, and try to mislead someone—a man of my age—and know I've got to meet God yonder at the judgment bar? We've got to stand there some day. We know that. Now, if God can reveal to me something in your life, that you know that I don't know nothing about, because I don't know you.... If anything, it would have to be something in your life, I would know nothing about it. It would have to be ... come from a supernatural power. And then it would be up to you, what you thought the power was.

And now to you newcomers, now I hold my hand—now, please don't walk around right now, because see, you're each a spirit. When I turn, you just feel like a pull from everywhere, see. You're human beings, and got spirits. And you are a spirit. If you're not, you're dead. So you, just respect, just for a moment. And you men, here, pray. I wasn't expecting this—never come for this tonight, at all. I come just to pray for the sick. But that's the newcomers.

Now, do you believe that if the Lord can tell me what your trouble is, or what you're here for, something you have done, or ought to have done, or something else, then you will believe? All right. I'm trying to contact your spirit, you see. That's what I'm trying to do—like He did the woman at the well. He talked to her a little bit, see. He was asking for a drink. And that's what I'm trying to do, is get your mind—not reading your mind—but trying to, as He did, perceive your thoughts.

You're here for a stomach condition. You got a stomach trouble. That's right. Raise your hand if that's true. Do you believe, now? Not only that, but, you're hungering for something else. You want the baptism of the Holy Ghost. Wave your hand, if that's true, see. I seen that light move down on her, and then move back, see. Go and receive the Holy Ghost. In the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.

Do you believe now, newcomers?

Now, you say.... Now, here, see, when that anointing once gets started, then here it goes, see. Just as soon as the woman standing there, she is ... she is right now.... She recognizes there's something around her. How many ever seen the picture of that pillar of fire that light there, at Washington, DC? See, now, I wish.... It's another dimension, like. I'm looking right at it. There it hangs, right here by the woman. I'm looking right at it.

Now, I'm a total stranger to this woman. I don't know her. And I doubt very much whether she knows me, only just by being out in the meeting. That's all. But if God can tell me something about you, or something like just a while ago, would you believe me to be His prophet, His servant? You'd believe that with all your heart? Well, may He grant it. You are facing an operation. And that operation is about your hand. There's no places on it, but it's a nerve condition in your hand that was caused by an accident. And you're supposed to be operated on. You believe, and you won't have to be operated on, if you'll just believe with all your heart. Amen.

Just have faith now, just don't doubt. Just believe.

Now here, let this one more woman, because this woman is in a critical condition. You see that black shadow? How many ever seen the picture taken of the black shadow of death? It's hanging over the woman, right now. If God don't help her, she can't live. She has a tumor [The sister says “Yes.”], and the tumor is in the brain. [“Yes.”] Dear God, if You're present, so close now, that knows all these things, I pray, dear God, that You'll heal our sister. Let her live, Father, for your glory. I ask in Jesus Christ's name. Amen.

How do you do? You're a mighty nice person. If mother had lived she would have been about your age, I suppose. She's in glory, tonight. She'd always pray for me, when I went to meeting. If the Lord ... [The sister says, “I'm eighty-five.”] Ma'am? [The sister repeats, “I'm eighty-five.”] Eighty-five years old. Bless your heart, sister.

Now, I am a total stranger to you, I suppose. We're, years difference in our age, and I don't know you. I've never seen you, we're just two people met here on earth. But you are a Christian. You're a believer. Because the reason I know that, is the feeling of your spirit. You're ... you've welcomed me, see. And I do believe it to be the Holy Spirit, because it gives the works and actions of the Holy Spirit. And I know it's Him. I know this thing, that we speak of, is true. I know it's the truth.

Now, I don't know what would be wrong, but if the Lord Jesus would reveal to me what would be wrong with you, would ... you would know whether it was right, or not; or tell me something that you've done, or ought not have done; you'd believe it was that same Lord Jesus, same God that could tell Philip where he was, tell Simon what his name was, do you believe Him to be the same one? Your trouble is a bowel trouble. [The sister says, “Exact, that's exact.”] Isn't that right? [“Yes, sir.”] You believe me, now, to be His prophet? Your name is Mrs. Bayer, Mrs. Bayer, Bayer—like Bayer Aspirin. That's right. You're healed. Go on. Jesus Christ makes you well. God bless you.

You believe with all your heart? Now if you just have faith, don't doubt.

Now, you're really not here for yourself. You're here for somebody else. It's a man, and he's not here, a brother. That brother is in a mental institution. Take that handkerchief you got in your hand while the Spirit is on you. Send it to him. Put it on him. Don't doubt. He'll come out of the institution, and be well. Do you believe it? God bless you.

You say that, “You said that angel in the last day, that he had his back turned.” Well, you look. I won't look at this woman. I turn my back. Now, lady—the one that's the patient—can you hear me? Say, “Yes.” [The sister says, “Yes.”] If the Lord Jesus will reveal to me what's your trouble, when I'm looking this way, you'll know whether it's the truth or not. Is that right? Do you believe then, it's to fulfill what Jesus said it would be done in the last days, as it was in the days of Sodom? Will you believe it? You have a lady's disorder—a female trouble. Believe with all your heart, now. It'll leave, and you can go home and be well. God bless you. If thou canst believe.

Do you believe God'll heal that heart trouble? Well, just keep on walking, saying, “Thank you, Lord.” Believe.

Get up of a morning, you can hardly move. Arthritis is a bad thing. But Jesus Christ is the healer of arthritis. Do you believe that? When you step off of a curb, sideways, going down, I see you doing that. You won't have to do that no more if you'll believe. Do you believe that I was sent for this purpose? [The sister says “Yes, I do.”] Then in the name of Jesus Christ, may it leave her. Amen.

You got stomach trouble. Do you believe God will let you go home, and eat your supper, feel good about it? Go on your road. Eat your supper. Believe and you'll feel fine.

You have a weakness comes over you. That's right, because your heart's bad. That's right. You don't have it no more. Now go believe it.

What if I didn't say one word to you, and just laid hands on you. Would you believe me, too, that you'd get well? Come here. Dear heavenly Father, I pray that you'll heal the woman and make her well, through Jesus Christ's name. Amen.

How many people here believe? How many of you newcomers, all you people? Just think now, I can't hardly see the people coming now. Just remember, one vision caused the Lord Jesus to get weak. How many knows that? One woman touched Him. Daniel saw a vision and was troubled at his mind, his head, for several days. How many knows that? See, all right. Now, how many of you people believe that, that this is the Holy Spirit? Do you believe it with all your.... Not me now, the Holy Spirit. Now here's men sitting here that believes that, too.

Now some ... now some more of you people that's got them prayer cards.... I want everybody that is going to be in this prayer line, stand up to your feet, just a moment.

Look. I want to ask you a solemn question. Have you confessed all your sins, that is there.... You believe ... have you confessed, and you believe that you're going to be healed? You've confessed all your sins, and made all the wrongs right? Raise up your hands, if you have. Before God, you believe that? And now with your hands up also, do you believe it takes the Holy Spirit? And this is the Holy Spirit that's just vindicating Himself among you? You believe that with all your heart? You do? Then every one of you can be healed.

Now, do you have faith and confidence in these ministers sitting here? Do you believe them men, too? How about, let's pray for you, each one; and then let you come by, and lay hands on you. This makes me so weak that, just go on like that, it just ... it just gets me. And I'm going to South Africa, after this, for.... Oh, my, you know how it is down there, where you can't even talk to the people. And there'd be ... we're at least expecting 300,000, one single meeting. So, you just believe. You here in America, you've seen it, in and out.

Dear God, these people are needy. And I don't know nothing else that You could do, Father, to prove to them by your Word, that You're the unchanging God. I believe that we have seen so many great things, Lord, and ate from your table with such dainty, wonderful, eternal food of life, till we've become, we become too accustomed to it. It becomes a common thing.

We're not.... We don't approach it right, Lord. When we see ... even I think of myself standing here. I should be on my knees, knowing that right here ... that Spirit that raised Him up from the dead, is standing right here. The Spirit was on Him, when He was living here on earth, is right here, now. And we poor, unworthy sinners, through His grace and mercy, He bought our lives.

And here we are today, carrying on His work, as He said that we would carry on His work. “The works that I do, shall you do also,” promising these things and proving them here in this world. Lord, I am so grateful to You, that I could be counted a part of the people of yours, in this last day.5

Dear God, these people are standing. They're sick Father. I have no way of healing them. And neither do You now. You've already healed them. You were wounded for our transgressions. With your stripes we were healed. So Father, I pray that each one of them passing through here, when we're going to pray for them, that they'll come like they were now walking under the cross. For they know beyond a shadow of doubt, the vindicated Holy Spirit is here on the platform. The Christ of God is right in the meeting. Forgive every sin. Take away every unbelief. And may each of them be healed, as they pass through this line. In the name of Jesus Christ, I ask it. Amen.

[A brother says, “Brother Branham, if we can have everyone sit, and take one section at a time, that way then they won't crowd.”] Yeah. All right.

Now, I want to ask something. Will you, my brethren, stand here with me? You see, here is one thing about it. Many evangelists goes into a city, and they do all the praying for the sick, and all the rest of it. And when the congregation, when it's gone.... The people is only built around the evangelists, see. That isn't so, people. These men, I doubt ... anyone in this age, I know it.... There is a lot of impersonation. But I won't say what I was going to. But these men might not do that. That's true, and I very much doubt it.

But they are just as ordained of God to lay hands on the sick, as I, or anybody else. God is just as much to answer their prayer, as He would be to any prayer there is. Jesus has commissioned, “These signs....” Didn't say, “will follow William Branham, Oral Roberts, so forth.” It'll follow “them that believe.” And these men are filled with God's Spirit. They are baptized people with the same Holy Spirit. That Spirit was here doing that work, just a few moments ago. He is still here. He is on each one of these men, see. And they're all filled with it.

So I'm going to ask them to make a double line, along here on the sides of this row, here, if they will, so that they can lay their hands upon the sick, too, as they pass through.

And they want those who have prayer cards to stand, prayer cards only, to stand out in the aisle. And the rest of you pray. Just a few minutes now.

Stand on each section. Just stand right out, to your left of your section. Stand out to your section, and then they'll just call you. When you see this line up here ending, let this line walk right into it. When this line ends, let this one walk into it. And when you come by....

Now, remember. You'll just be taking a walk, unless you're believing. How many of you know, you just feel in your heart, that you've prayed through about this, and you're going to be healed, as soon as you pass through this line? Raise up your hand, say, “I accept it, Christ, right now, just because You commissioned these things.”

Now, I pray for every one of you. We're going to pray.

I'm going to ask Sister Rose, or ever who is at the organ over there ... Sister Rose, will you please play “The Great Physician now is near” for us. And let the people, all the other people, be in prayer. And as they pass through this prayer line, I believe every one is going to be healed. God bless you.

The rest of you now, keep your head down, and be praying for others. Be real sincere, see. That's how that little Baptist preacher got the Holy Ghost the other night. He was thinking about it, just sitting there real sincere, and it fell upon the whole group of them. You got to be sincere with God.

Now He's proved He's here with you. He is here. Now, when anybody tells you that this is just a bunch of excitement, you know better now, don't you? You newcomers, He vindicated Himself. It's Him, and no one else could do that. This hasn't been done for, since the days of the apostles. It's just now come back to the church as was promised. The Lord bless you, now. Now, you people, as you pass through this line, come praying. Everybody, now. The Great Physician now is near, the sympathizing Jesus. Now, when you come, come with your heads down, in reverence pass by. And these men lay hands on you, you'll be healed.

.....est note in seraph.......

That's all right, come on. [Blank spot on tape.] ... these things. But just a simple thing of obeying, what God said do. I've seen it happen so many times. See, the scripture didn't even command us to pray for the people. It just said, “lay hands on the sick, they shall recover.”

Just recently, oh, it's ... I don't say recently ... the case was in my mind now. It's been about three or four years ago, or more. We was right here in California. Two women came by. There's one of them had a growth on her face, and the other one had a stomach trouble. And they believed it just so. I laid hands upon them, and said, “Now I do this in the name of the Lord Jesus.”

It was almost a month later, that lady was trying to eat with that stomach trouble. She just couldn't do it. One morning a real cool feeling went over her, she said. And she went to eat. And she run down to tell her neighbor. And her neighbor was shaking the sheets like that, trying to find the growth that had left her face, that night, see. Just believe, friends.

If He does that for one, He'll do it for all. And it's just a simple thing of laying on of hands. And that's what He said do. We don't know how it works. I don't know how it works. It's just His promise. He said it would do it. And I've found tens of thousands around the world, they just get well. God promised to do it. And it's His promise, see. We just believe that.

Now, we're all coming over here, and you that couldn't get up, move right up close. And we're coming over to pray for you. Now, I want each one of you men to go right along here, laying your hands in here, if you will. Right along there. And I want to stand here, and pray, and then come lay my hands on them, too. All right. Get right in here. You all move right up close, so everybody can reach, now.

Dear God, in Jesus Christ's name, we're praying for these people. Some of them are afflicted, crippled there. Them hands of those ministers, Lord, are going back and forth, from one to the other. I pray that You'll heal each one of them, Lord. Let the Holy Ghost come upon them people, each of them, Father. And may the great power of God overshadow them, just now. And may they go home and be well, knowing this, that Jesus said “If they lay their hands on the sick, they shall recover.” You promised it, dear God. We are believing it. We're believing it, because You said so. And we know that it's so. So shall these people be well. In the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, I bless them all. Amen.

God bless you [Blank spot on tape ... a brother sings “Only Believe.”] My heart accepts healing for every one of you. I believe that. Will you believe it with me, each one of you, now? That's all. I told you the truth, just as far as I know it. I love you, and God bless you. And I believe with all my heart, you're going to be well. And may my blessings be with each one of you, now. May God watch over you, and protect you. You're in my prayers. Will you pray for me while I'm in Africa, like that? I love you, and I'll see you tomorrow night.