^E-1 [Congregation sings "Only Believe"--Ed.] How are you, Brother Carl? Push that chair back. All right. Is it mine? Oh. Here it is fine.
Well, it's certainly nice to be back in the house of the Lord tonight, and especially this one, because I had the privilege of dedicating this house of the Lord some time ago when our precious Brother Sharritt built this place. And we dedicated it to the Lord for His service. And it's good to be in the house of God at any time, isn't it? It's a real nice place to be. And down here in this frigid zone that--where it's... I come down here to get away from the cold weather, and I got right into it. I said last night, "I hope I didn't bring you all all this trouble." Well, you know, they say summer takes its winter's rest out here. And maybe the winter come to look in on it, see how it was getting along. But it's good to--to be here any time.

^E-2 I've always had a--a feeling for Phoenix, since a little boy. I love Phoenix. And Phoenix was my first place to ever preach to people that wasn't the white race of people, and that was the Indians. I went up to the reservation. I guess there may be people here tonight remembers when I made God a promise on a platform: if He would heal an alcoholic and a woman with TB, I'd go to the reservations to minister to--to the Indians. And they reminded me of it, and the both of them were healed. And I went up to the Apache Reservation, and there the Lord gave us great victory.
I can't think of that lady's name that was healed with cancer up there. I... It was an outstanding case. I believe she was a missionary up there, the Assemblies of God, the best I remember that. We went with her (Mitchell), and... That's right. Is there anybody here was along in that meeting up there at the reservation then, at that night? I thought... Yeah, that's right.

^E-3 I--I thought I was going to be up against it. I--I couldn't make them understand what I was meaning. I never forget that night. There was a... Long after I'd preached awhile and told them about Christ... I was standing on the steps of the mission hall. And they had the place full, and then they were all on the outside. So I was talking to them. And one outstanding thing that night was the--the old Indian brother they had brought in on a board, and 'long some time towards morning. And they were wet where they'd walked across the--the river--forded it down there, somewhere and brought him in.
I asked the young fellow; I said, "Aren't you afraid you'll take pneumonia?"
He said, "Jesus Christ take care of me. I bring my daddy."
"Good." I said, "Do you believe he'll be healed?"
"Yes." He was shaking with palsy. The two young boys were packing him. I prayed for the old man.
After while I heard something screaming. Looked down. The old man had the board on his own back, going around waving at everybody. Just simple faith to believe, it's all it takes.

^E-4 I remember that night, a sweet old Indian woman, she had long braids of hair hanging down. And she was on crutches, and they were very home-constructed, they--like broom sticks with a piece of board over the top of them like a two-by-four, and then wrap rags around. And really, the next one to come was... She was in line coming from the inside of the building. But there was a little young Indian boy, very strong-looking little fellow. He was... Beat all the rest of them in to get in the line.
And the poor old thing was trying to get her sticks out. And she'd seen two or three healings before she'd got in the line. And I thought when she looked at me, and them great big, deep wrinkles, and tears cutting down through those ditches in her cheeks, I thought, "Somebody's mother." I never said one word to her, never prayed for her or anything. She just looked up at me. And as she did, she--she just handed me the crutches and walked on away, just that simple.

^E-5 My son is trying to gear me up here. Can you hear that better? I--I read a story today about a--a pig being taken to the sanctuary. And I guess you noticed... [Microphone is arranged--Ed.] Now, that feels better anyhow. That's the way life goes. It's got a lot of knots in them anyhow, hasn't it?
Now, is--the people are standing and--and we're don't--we don't want to take any more time than we possibly can help. And you're such nice people, till I--I would just like to talk a long time to you. And we're here now in visit with the Full Gospel Business Men's Fellowship. And the regional convention is being held over at the Ramada beginning the last part of... Let's see. What is the date? 24th--24th to the 28th at the Ramada Inn. And there's going to be some marvelous speakers over there: Brother Oral Roberts, and many others. And I--we always have a good time. And when the people come together like that we have a great time at this Ramada Inn.

^E-6 It might be that Brother Oral and I might hold a healing service over there. You can't tell. That would just be fine, if... So--so we--we never have had one together. I don't know what he'd think about having one, he and I together, but I'm willing. If he can stand it, why, we'll try. And then, pray for the sick people...
And we haven't been holding healing services, if you've noticed. We haven't been giving out prayer cards or nothing, because of the congestion of the small churches. You know, when the people... You can't hardly get the people in and out. And then when you do, it causes a conglomeration of mixing around, and the fire marshal wouldn't appreciate that. So we just kinda omitted the healing services so far in the meetings, and just been trying to bring a simple little Gospel message to... And your presence, and cooperation with me, and your prayer for me encourages me to be here. And I hope the little messages encourages you to continue on being--living for Christ.

^E-7 And I notice, many times the people come from one church to the other. And that gets us all acquainted, and--and we just get real as--chummy with one another. And I like that. We might as well set together here in heavenly places, 'cause we're going to that kind of a place where we'll be together in heavenly places, in heaven.
There was a little line of criticism I got the other day in the mail. It might pass it on while we kind of adjust our feeling. Any minister knows you have to say something another, kinda adjust yourself to the audience, and the audience to you.

^E-8 There was... the Business Men packed the article in their--the Business Men's "Voice," of a little... I think we're just going to call it a vision, and it was a little different usually, from visions I have. I was--had been taken from where I was at, up, look--it didn't look to me much further than the roof of that building. And there I was in another place where I seen all those who had passed on. Many of you read the article, of course. And in there, after He had told me them was--who they were, and they all were young again, and they were real...
I always was afraid to die. Not afraid that I'd be lost, but I didn't want to be a spirit. I only... I wanted to be a human man, 'cause I always understood as a man, shake people's hands. And I'd think, "What if I'd get there, and I'd meet Brother Rose. And he'd be a little white cloud, or something. And I'd know it was Brother Rose by some other sense. But I couldn't shake his hand, and I couldn't talk to him, or..." I--I'd wonder, "Wouldn't that be awful?" But I thought, "Then when I returned back, 'course, I'll have a resurrection." That Scripture had never occurred to me before, that if this earthly tabernacle be dissolved, we have one already waiting.

^E-9 So that morning, I'd gotten up and I was thinking, "Boy, you're fifty years old. If you're going to do anything for the Lord, you'd better hurry up. You're going to be too old after while." And all at once, I was caught up into this place, and could look back and see myself down here. Never had that experience. Many times I've had visions of seeing myself standing somewhere, and then... Oh, if you don't understand it, you'd think you'd lost your mind. You--you're here, watching yourself there. And then you leave here, and you're in yourself there. It's maybe way back, years ahead, and so forth. It's hard to explain. You don't--can't explain it. You can't explain God. You got to believe Him. See? If you can explain it, then it's no more faith. You just have to believe it.

^E-10 And after He had told me, seeing all these people, and they were... They had bodies. They--they couldn't be sin. The men and women... Those women were hugging me, and they were women. But there were no possibility of ever being sin again, because (See?) the glands of our bodies will be changed there. We have... We're different sex now, because that's for reproducing the world, and our--and our marriage to bring children. But then there'll be no more need of that. There'll be no more children born. We won't have sex glands in the new world (See?) not at all. But yet the woman will be woman, and the stature... And so will men be men. But there will be no more male and female among them in that way. And them glands won't be in, so there'll be no way at all for Satan to ever play another trick on them.

^E-11 So in that I noticed... These women run up and throw their arms around me and say, "Our precious brother, I am so happy that you are here." Now, it was amazing--all of them young, all the most prettiest women, long hair, dresses long, you know, the--like robes, white silk-like robes. And how pretty they looked.
Then here come brethren, just in the... Most handsome men I ever seen, looked like all of them about twenty years old, and their eyes sparkly, they--oh, they just every ounce of man. And I wondered. And they were picking me up and hugging me and saying, "Our precious brother."

^E-12 I wondered how... I looked back down and could see myself down here yet, laying down. Now I thought, "That's strange." And then I asked... There's a real lovely lady come up, threw her arms around me, and said, "Oh, Brother Branham, we're so happy you're here, our precious brother."
I looked at her as she went away, and that voice that was talking to me said, "Don't you recognize her?"
I said, "I--I do not."
Said, "She was past ninety when you led her to Christ."
And there she was, the most beautiful thing I'd looked at in the way of a woman. And I said, "No wonder she said 'Precious brother.'" See? Now she can never change no more. She's that way for eternity.
I said, "I want to see Jesus."
Said, "He's higher than this. Someday He will come, and you'll be judged by the Gospel that you preached 'cause you was the leader."
I said, "Well, will Paul have to be judged by his crowd?"
Said, "Yes."
I said, "I preached the same Gospel he did. Just exactly the way he said it, that's the way I said it."
And them millions of voices screamed out, "We're resting on that."

^E-13 Then a strange thing happened. I used to have a little saddle horse, and I--I called him Prince. And how I loved that little old horse. I used to ride him every morning 'fore school, run my traps. And I seen this little old horse come up to me, and lay his head across my shoulder and nicker. And I patted him. I said, "Prince, I knew you'd be here." And I felt something lick my hand. It was my old coon dog. He put me in school, furnished my clothes, hunting. I said, "Prince, or Fritz, I knowed you'd be here too." And then I felt something happen. I was going back.

^E-14 That was wrote in the Christian Business Men's "Voice." And a minister wrote me the other day. He said, "I appreciated that vision, Brother Branham. It sounded all very good till you mentioned horses. Heaven is made for human beings. There's no such a thing as horses in heaven."
"Well," I said--I answered him back; I said, "Brother, I never said I was in heaven. I was asking where Jesus was, and He was still beyond." I said, "But if it might help you a little, in the Book of Revelation it says, when Jesus left the heavens of heavens He was riding a white horse, and all the host of heaven was following Him on white horses. See?...?... So that was coming from heaven of heavens."

^E-15 And what made me feel so good, when I started to go back He said, "All that you ever loved, and all that ever loved you, God has given to you." Some bright day on the other side it'll be different. I just can't... You just can't afford, people, to miss that place. Don't do it. Whatever you do, make... Don't be afraid. There's no need of being scared. There's nothing to be afraid of.
Oh, when I thought to come back, it made me sad. "Will I have to go back again? Will I have to go back to what I was afraid of being?" See? Then when we come to the resurrected body, then we will eat and drink. They didn't eat and drink. They had no need of eating and drinking. They wasn't going nowhere, and they wasn't tired. It was just... There's no word that I could use. It was perfect; that wouldn't make it. It's beyond what I call perfect. They had--they'd just arrived; that was it, at that place, and it was wonderful.

^E-16 So, oh, listen, friends. I think I'm in my right mind, and I--I--I know it sounds strange. But I've never been able, and never tried to explain to people these things. Many things that's... It's beyond explaining. And you'd only confuse the people's mind. But if I could, and felt to do so, it would be alarming.
But notice this. I say this. Don't be afraid. Death is just a scarecrow trying to keep you away from something. My, it's so glorious. It's beyond anything that you could think of. No wonder the Bible said, "Eye has not seen, ear has not heard, neither has it entered the hearts of men what God has for them in store that love Him." Oh, just to look apast the curtain of time. Then I've tried harder than ever before in life to try to win people to Christ since then. You can't afford to miss it. Don't do it. Be sure that you're right with God, and other things will be all right.

^E-17 Now, I just got a few notes wrote down here I thought I would speak a little bit tonight from. And I think tomorrow night we're way up in, about twenty miles from here or more: Mesa, I believe it is, Mesa. Is that?... Mesa--Mesa... And then, the next night at Tempe: Tempe. And I--I've got the schedule in my pocket here out of the paper Brother Williams gave me, but I been pretty busy. I just haven't looked it over yet. Billy just comes and gets me and said, "We're going so-and-so, and so-and-so, and here we go." And then I get over here, and he tries to choke me.

^E-18 Now, is everybody feeling real religious? Say "Amen" if you are. Real good. That's fine. Now, let us just bow our heads, now, as we have just, our little senses of humor, and of expressing. We're children, and we rally and talk as children, and we... Even God has a sense of humor, you know. So let us bow our heads now and speak to Him before we read His Word.
While we have our heads bowed, is there those in here who does have a request for prayer? Let it be known by your lifted hand. God bless you. Let us bow our heads now.

^E-19 Our heavenly Father, we are coming into Thy Presence now as we bow our heads and our hearts in humility. We are approaching by faith beyond the moon and stars to the throne of God in the Name of the Lord Jesus, because we are sure that if we come in His Name that You're going to hear us. We will be accepted in Your Presence through His Name. And what a privilege that it is to know that we are accepted in the Presence of God, through the Name of Jesus Christ.
And He told us, Father, that whatever we asked in His Name, that You in Your abundance of mercy and grace, would pardon our sins and would give to us our desire. Father, we're so happy for that. There's not another thing that we could think of that would be a higher privilege, than to have this privilege. It would be a privilege for we American citizens to approach our president. And all we'd have to do to go through to get to approach the president for just a moment of time--to take up a moment of his busy schedule, we'd have to go through offices, and--and every way to get to come, and have to state our reasons, and--and would have to be examined before we'd have that privilege.

^E-20 But to think of it. The God, Creator of heavens and earth is waiting for us to approach, we unworthy sinners. He's waiting for us to approach in the Name of the Lord Jesus, with the assurance that we will be granted what we ask for, if we can only believe that we will. Then we'd watch our requests very close and know that we would not speak foolishly or ask foolishly. And if we would, we pray You pardon us, Lord.
And we're asking tonight for mercy upon each one of these hands that was up. May their request be granted to them, Lord. May they feel assurance in their heart right now, that while we're in Your Presence that... When we open our eyes and raise up our heads from the dust from which You molded us, may we feel that anchored assurance that we have been granted that what we asked for.

^E-21 We would ask for those, Lord, perhaps in the building tonight that has never come into Your Presence by the way of prayer, to ask pardoning for sin. May this be the night that something will be said, or something done, or some acting of the Holy Spirit that would cause their hearts to quiver and ask that pardoning grace.
Heal the sick. Lord, we pray that You'll grant to them, tonight, the assurance that the prayer of faith is now being prayed, and it shall save the sick. For we could say, and add this, that that's THUS SAITH THE LORD, for it is written in the Word of the Lord.

^E-22 Now, Father, we pray that You'll bless these little comments that's been provided here today for Your Word. Pull from this reading a context to every heart. And if I should fail in any way, Lord, and miss the unction of the Holy Spirit, may He in Divine grace go with the Word and place it in the heart where it was supposed to be. And may we tonight see the hand of the Almighty stretch across this building, and do things that would be the exceeding abundant above all that we could do or think.
When we leave tonight and go to our different homes, may we be able to say like those that came from Emmaus, "Did not our hearts burn within us, as He talked to us along the way," for we ask it in His Name. Amen.

^E-23 Now, many people kinda write down and--the text that a minister uses. And I would--if you wish to now, I'd like to read two places in the Holy Script. That is in Genesis the 22nd chapter we will go first and read, and then in St. John 12:32 we'll read for the second part of the Scripture. Now in John--in Genesis 22, we begin with the 7th verse of the 22nd chapter.

^E-24 You know, there is many ways that--that people take, but really there's only two ways that a man can go. That's the right way and the wrong way. And all of us here tonight, we're on one of those roads: the right one or the wrong one. There's no middle ground. Jesus said, "You cannot serve God and mammon," meaning the world. We're either right or wrong. And now, if we'll just get away from our own way is the only way we can get in God's way. And God has made a provided way for every thing. He's provided the way. And where we get in trouble is not following that way, and--and injecting into it our own ways. And that makes a perversion. And anything that's perverted is--is not dependable. So God has a way. And let's just look at some of His ways.

^E-25 Let's take something in nature, because nature was my first Bible. I know God's a Creator, and He created nature. And He lives in His creation in nature. Let's take for instance the tree. I just pulled up under one a few moments ago out there, or Billy did, and the limbs on it. And I noticed the leaves falling. Now, we have never been able, and we never will be able to find a better way for a tree to hide its life through the winter, than God's provided way for it to hide its life. Now, what if we tried to manufacture some other way than the regular provided way for the tree?

^E-26 What if every August, or September, in the land--especially where I come from, the North... If we would have to go out to the apple orchard, and get some kind of a--of a instrument, and place it into the tree along about August after the apples are ripened, and pull the life out of the tree, and take it into a good warm place, and keep it through the winter, the life, sap life out of the tree, and place it in a good warm container, and keep it till spring, and then inject it back into the tree? You know, that would never work. It would never be so. And to try to do it would only kill the tree. But God has a way to take care of that life through the winter. God made a way. Knowing that winter would come on the tree, He made a way for it. I was--had the privilege of leading a seventy-five year-old infidel to Christ by that not long ago.

^E-27 Mr. Wood, a neighbor of mine... And he was a Jehovah Witness by faith, and he had a boy that was crippled, had a leg drawn up under him. And his wife, I believe, belonged to the--the Anderson movement of the Church of God. And they come to Louisville, Kentucky, where they lived out in a little place called Crestwood, about thirty miles from Louisville. And at the meeting there at the auditorium, they seen a girl that was--had this here disease that she was turning to chalk, or stone. And she--it'd had already paralyzed her way above her hips, that she hadn't moved for, oh, several months. And it come from her feet. She was prayed for one night, and the next day she was running up and down steps just as hard as she could go.

^E-28 And Mr. Wood brought his son. 'Course he never got in the meeting. And immediately after that I--I was taken overseas, went over for our Lord. And on the return I was having a meeting up at--in Ohio, and he brought the boy, named David. And he was setting way back, oh, almost a half a city block.
And the Holy Spirit came in and said, "There is a man here tonight. And he and his wife sets way back in the back." Never saw him in life. And said, "The man's name is Wood. He is a contractor. He has a crippled boy that had polio that drawed one limb up under him. But, 'THUS SAITH THE LORD,' the boy is healed."
Him not being used to such, the boy set there for a while. And after a bit, his mother said, "David, why don't you try to stand up?" And when he stood up, the leg was as normal as the other.

^E-29 The man sold his business and moved over, next door neighbor. And, oh, he's such a lovely brother. The other morning when he knowed I was coming out here for extended time, he... About daylight, when I left home, there he was standing out on the street, crying like that, hitchhiking like he was going to go with me. And he hugged me and went on down the lane. Such a wonderful brother. He's been a real chum to me.

^E-30 We were down in the state of Kentucky, squirrel hunting about three years ago. And it got real dry. And now, if any of you eastern people know what a gray squirrel is, he--Houdini the escape artist is an amateur to him when he's scared. So I love to hunt them; so we hunt them with a .22 rifle. And we'd hunted... I was on my vacation about two weeks, and we'd been camping out. And it was very dry, and you could just walk through the woods and break a--a leaf, and that little fellow... Oh, my. Whew. You just can't see him. He's gone.

^E-31 So Brother Wood said, "Brother Branham, I know a--a place down here that's got deep hollows." How many knows what a holler is? Well, what part of Kentucky you from? And that's what they call it down in Kentucky. Down here, I believe you call it a canyon, or something, where the water goes down the branch. And you get in those deep places and it's still damp, and you can walk and not make noise.
He said, "But the old fellow is an infidel, and, oh, he hates preachers." And I'd only been in the country once before, and that was in a meeting.
And I said, "All right. You go--you know him?"
He said, "He knows my dad real well."
I said, "Let's go ask him, because we're not doing any good here."

^E-32 And we went over in his little truck, and up through the woods, and down over the hills. And oh, my. Finally we arrived at a little place. And there were two old men setting under an apple tree. It was about the 20th of August.
And so he got out of the truck, went over, and he said, "My name is Wood." Said, "I am Banks Wood." He said, "I wonder if it would be all right if we hunted on your place."
He said, "Are you Jim Wood's boy?"
Now, his daddy is a reader in the Jehovah Witness, or he was. And the whole family come to Christ, every one by visions, every one telling them just what would happen. And it did just that way. Oh, how I wish I could stop and tell you just that family story, how they come in: every one of the children into the Kingdom of God now, baptized with the Holy Ghost.

^E-33 And so, when Banks accepted it, his--all of his people excommunicated him. That was all. He was out. But one by one, each one of them passing by to say "Hello" to him, the Holy Spirit would catch them and tell them things, and then they'd come in. And they'd go tell some other, and then he'd come and tell him something, and then he'd come. And that's the way the whole family come into Christ.

^E-34 And so, when we got the--out of the... He got out of the truck, and he said to the man. He said, "Are you Jim Wood's son?"
He said, "Yes."
Said, "Jim Wood is an honest man. Yes, sir. Help yourself; hunt where you want to."
He said, "Thank you." He said, "I brought my pastor along with me."
He said, "Wood, you don't mean you've got lowdown enough to have to carry a preacher with you wherever you go?"

^E-35 I thought it was about time for me to get out. So I got out of the truck, and I walked around. Oh, my. You brethren hunt. My hunting partners, I know you're in here. And how bloody and dirty, and whiskers about that long you know, hadn't had a bath for two weeks, and oh... So I got out of the truck and sidled over. He looked me up and down two or three times. I guess he thought, "Some preacher."
I said, "How do you do?"
And he said, "How do you do?"
And so Mr. Wood started to introduce me as who I, my--his pastor. And he said...
'Fore he got a chance to do it, the old man said, "Well," he said, "I tell you right now." He said, "I'm--I'm supposed to be an infidel. I haven't got much use for you guys call yourselves preachers."
I said, "Yes, sir. All right." I said, "That's to opinion."
And he said, "Well, you know, I'm an infidel."
I said, "Don't believe that'd be worth bragging about. Do you think so?"
He said, "Well, I reckon not."
And so I said... I thought in my heart, "Lord, if You ever helped me, You do now."
So the other old man setting there, he never said nothing: old slouch hats (I don't know if you know what it is.) sewed up with twine cord, you know. And so they set there a little bit.
And so he said, "You know what I got against you fellows? You're barking up the wrong tree." How many knows what that means, "barking up the wrong tree"? That's a lying dog, you know, that barks up the wrong tree. The game's done gone from there. There ain't nothing up there.
So he said, "You fellows are barking up a tree." There's nothing up there, in other words. You're talking about God, and there is no such a thing as God.
"Well," I said, "Of course we believe that."
He said, "Well, you might, but I don't."
And I said, "Well, that's all right."

^E-36 And he said, "You see that old chimney up there on the hill?"
I said, "Yes, sir."
Said, "I was borned up there." And said, "My dad built this place down here. We moved down when I was about sixteen years old. After the death of my father, I took the place. I've raised my family. I've been here seventy-six (or seventy-eight or something like that) years." He said, "I've looked constantly every day through the skies; I've looked all over the woods; I've looked all over the ground, and I haven't never seen anything that looks like a God."
I said, "Well, that's too bad."
And he said, "That's the reason I think that you fellows are barking up the wrong tree."
I said, "Yes, sir." And then something happened. I looked up to the tree. I looked down, and there was apples laying on the tree. I said, "You mind if I have one of them apples?"
He said, "Help yourself. The yellow jackets are eating them up." You know what yellow jackets is, I'm sure.
So I--I got down, and got ahold of one of the apples, and rubbed it on my trouser leg, you know. And I took a bite. And I said, "That's a dandy apple."
He said, "Yes, that's a good one."
I said, "How old is that tree?"
He said, "I planted it there. Let's see, it's forty-seven, forty-eight years old, something like that." Said, "I planted it a little bitty sprout." Said, "I picked it up from somewhere, way somewhere else, and brought it over here."
I said, "Yes, sir." And I said, "Does it bear each year?"
"Every year she bears fine apples." Said, "We can a lot of apples out of there."
And I said, "Well, that's wonderful. I'm glad to hear that." And I said, "You know, here it is only the 15th of August." And I said, "It's ninety in the shade nearly all the time." And I said, "It's strange that all them leaves are falling off of that tree, and we haven't had no frost."
And he said, "Oh, that's the--that's the sap has gone back to the root."
"Oh," I said, "is that what it is?"
He said, "Yes."
I said, "And it goes back to the root? What for?"
He said, "Well, if it stayed up there, the winter would kill it."
I said, "Kill what?"
He said, "The tree. The germ of life is in that sap, goes down, and hides down in the roots."
I said, "Oh." I said, "Now, will that's... What about..."
He said, "Well," he said, "That's nothing unusual."
And I said, "No, no. That's just an act of nature."

^E-37 He said, "You know, I want to tell you something." He said, "Before you go any further, I want to say this. That I did hear of a preacher one time, that I'd like to hear once. If he ever comes to this country again, I want to hear him."
I said, "Oh? That's nice." I said...
He said, "He was over here at Acton about two years ago in a campaign out on the--the Methodist fair--grounds out there, at the Methodist campgrounds."
And Banks looked... I turned around to Banks, I... It was... (That's Brother Wood.) I said...
And he said, "I forget what the man's name was now." Said, "You know, he'd never been in this country before." And said, "Old lady (somebody) lived up here, about a mile up on the hill." Said, "She was dying with cancer. And they took her to Louisville, a hundred and twenty miles, and the doctors cut her open. And her whole stomach was wrapped, intestines and all, with cancer. And they could do nothing for her." And said, "Then they brought--sewed her up and brought her back. And my wife and I had been going up every day. And they couldn't raise her up no more; we just had to pull the draw sheet and change her bed."
And said, "We'd been going up there for several weeks. He had--been just looking any night for her to die or any time." And said, "Her sister lives back over on another creek (You know, that's the way you name, down there. It's not a road; it's a creek.)--over on another creek."

^E-38 I heard somebody laugh. It's just full of Kentuckians in here. Yeah, over... Well, I was borned on what they call Little Rennix down there. My grandpa lived on Big Rennix, that empties into Bumshell. Bumshell Creek comes right down to Little Rennix, runs out down by Casey's Fork, and runs right on into the Cumberland River. Now, that's just across Green Briar Ridge. That's where my mother was borned, up on Green Briar Ridge.

^E-39 And he said, "This woman lived over on another place." And said, "That's about twenty miles from here. And she come that night, and was setting way back at the back of that campground." And said, "This preacher... When he was up on there, he prays for the sick." And said, "He was telling the people about who they were, and all about it."
Said, "This woman got in late, and she didn't get one of them cards that they were giving out." And said, "This preacher turned around to her, and told her... Said, 'You know, you, lady setting back there, you are So-and-so. And tonight when you left home, you put a little handkerchief in your pocketbook with a blue figure in the corner of it.' Said, 'And you've got a sister named So-and-so.' And said, 'She's dying with cancer of the stomach.' I just saw it in a vision. 'Now, take that handkerchief, and go lay it on her, and 'THUS SAITH THE LORD,' she'll be made well.'"
He said, "And the lady... That night, we heard the awfullest noise up on the hill. I thought they had the Salvation Army up there," he said, "about midnight. And we thought the old lady died." And he said, "You know what? Me and my wife went up the next day to see if we could offer comfort, early in the morning. And there she set at the table with the coffee pot, just pouring coffee, and her and her husband was eating half-moon fried apple pies for breakfast." Now, that...

^E-40 How many knows what the half-moon apple pies are? You know, I'm at home now. That was just... I love them, and I like sorghum molasses on them. And I've looked all over this place for sorghum molasses. And if I get back here again, I'm just going to bring me a bucket, 'cause I just can't hardly get along without it. And you know, I--I use a lot of them 'cause I'm kind of a Baptist, you know. I--I--I don't believe in sprinkling them cakes; I just baptize them all over, real good. And I... So I pour the molasses on them heavy.
So then he said, "She was eating it."
I said, I thought, "This is it." I said, "Now, you don't mean that."
"Well," he said, "go right up there and see for yourself." Said, "That's been two years ago." And said, "She don't only do her own work; she does the neighbor's work." Now see, he was preaching to me then.
You know, my mama used to say, "Give the cow enough rope, it'll hang itself." So that's about right. He got his own foot in his own mouth, that time, when he said--he said, "Go up there and look."
I said, "Now look, sir. You mean the doctors cut that woman open and found her with cancer?"
"That's right."
And I said, "And sewed her up? And then you mean to tell me that man over there, fifteen miles from here, saw that woman and told exactly what would happen when they laid the handkerchief on? And that woman got over that cancer?"
Said, "Go right up there. I'll tell you how to get there."
I said, "No, no. I'm taking your word." I said, "I'm taking your word." I said, "Yes, sir. Yeah."

^E-41 I was eating this apple, you know, all the time, chewing it. I said, "That's a fine apple." I said, "I want to ask you a question. What made that sap leave the tree and go down into the roots?"
"Why," he said, "it had to, to preserve its life for the winter."
I said, "Then next spring it comes back, bringing you another bunch of apples?"
"Right."
And I said, "Now, I want to ask you something. What intelligence runs that sap... Say, 'Here, it's fall. Go back down in the roots and hide. If you don't, the winter will kill you. Go back down into the roots, and stay there till spring. And then when it warms up and gets just right, now, come back up and bring up some more apples for this fellow.' Now you know that's botany life. It has no intelligence of its own. Then tell me, what intelligence sends that life down into the root of that tree? It has no intelligence of its own."
He said, "That's just nature."
I said, "Then take a bucket of water, and set it on that post out there, and see if nature will run it down in the fall of the year, and bring it back in the spring. See? No, sir. What is it?"

^E-42 Now, aside for a minute. It's God's provided way. It only operates the way God provides for it. A little voice says, "Get down to the roots," and down it goes. Now, it does that without any intelligence. What ought we to do, by the same God speaking to us? We... But we've got a right to refuse or to accept. And mostly we refuse. The tree can't refuse. It only knows one routine; that's obey its master.
"Well," he said, "I never had thought of that before."
And I said, "I tell you what. You think on it a long time, while we go hunting. And when I come back, you tell me what it is--what tells that tree sap to go down into the roots, and stay for the winter, and come back again next spring. When you find out what intelligence that controls that--that tree life, and says 'Go down in the root, and come back.' I'll tell you it's the same Intelligence that told me to go put that handkerchief on the woman, and she'd be made well."
He said, "Tell you?"
And I said, "Yes, sir." I said, "What was that man's name? Do you remember?"
He said, "I can't think of it."
I said, "It wasn't Branham?"
He said, "That's it."
I said, "I'm Brother Branham."
And there on that spot he raised up, took ahold of my hands. He said, "For once in my life, I see what you mean." I led him to Christ.

^E-43 Last year I was down there. He's passed on, went on. The mercies of God. There set his wife, under a tree peeling apples off the same tree. I walked up and I said, "May I go hunting?"
She said, "We don't allow any hunting."
I said, "I'm sorry." I--I--I said, "I thought I had permission."
She said, "Who'd you get permission from?"
I said, "Your husband."
And she said, "My husband is dead."
I said, "Just recently died, didn't he?"
She said, "Yes. He never give people permission."
I said, "Out under this apple tree... Last year, I was down here, and we were talking about this tree."
She said, "Are you Brother Branham?"
I said, "Yes."
She dropped the apple pan. She said, "Brother Branham, he died in the victory of Jesus Christ, his last testimony."

^E-44 What is it? Just seeing, not trying to go through all the mathematics of how it happens, but just a simple little thing, watching God provide a way, and something keeping in the way. See, the same Intelligence that would say to a dumb tree, "Go down and hide for your life," that same intelligence was the One Who showed a vision of the woman. And he caught it. And he could not deny either one. There stood the tree, and there was the woman. Amen. See, God's provided way.

^E-45 Neither have they ever found a better way for a chicken to get out of a eggshell, than to peck his way out. They haven't got any better way. Science has never been able to produce anything else. If you crack the shell to take him out, it would kill him. He'll die. He must follow God's provided way in order to live. Amen. That works on human beings too.
He's equipped. Did you ever notice little chicken when he gets out of the shell? He's got a extra little beak upon his shell, a little white scratcher. And the little fellow in there, just as life begins to come, he begins to nod his little head. What does that do? That little scratcher scratches the shell, and makes it thin. As he gets a little more life, he begins to hammer with that little thing. And after he's already out of the shell, he don't need it anymore. So it just drops off.

^E-46 And the thing that does, it's a protection for the end of his bill. If it wasn't so, he'd have a deformed bill, and couldn't pick up his grain. Oh, my. God's provided way of survival, God fixes him up, just the way to get out of there. There's no better way. Anything else would kill him. He must come God's provided way. Now, if you try to manufacture some way or figure out some way, you'll kill it.
That's what's the matter with the Christian church today. It's tried to accept some manufactured way, in the stead of beating its way through to the Kingdom of God. It's tried some other way, and it won't work. You kill your patient. You kill your--your--your baby, God's baby, by trying to manufacture some way.

^E-47 "Oh, there's no need of this here boo-hoo, and crying. There's no need of all this, all this." Oh, yes, there is. "There's no need of this dying." Unless there's death, there cannot be birth. Birth only comes by the substance of death. "'Less a corn of wheat falls in the ground and dies, it abides alone." It must rot, and get into corruption. And then from that corruption springs forth life. No other way it will work. It must first corrupt, and be corrupted. And that's the way we must be: die to ourselves and be borned anew of the Holy Spirit.
No, they haven't found any better way for a chicken to get out of a shell, than to peck his way through. That's God's provided way for him, and he's equipped to do it. God wouldn't provide a way without providing a instrument for it. So He provided the way, and provided the instrument for the chicken to free hisself. Amen.

^E-48 Now, neither have they ever found any better idea for ducks and geese to come south from the north, than to swarm and then fly their way down. No other way. You see, before they fly down south, or fly from the south back north, they swarm first. Before they leave their grounds or homes to a new home, they swarm. Bees does the same thing. They swarm. That's a nature. What is it? They have a revival. They all swarm and get together. You never heard such a noise in your life.
And before we can ever leave this habitation to a new one, we've got to swarm in a revival. Oh, you get around a bunch of ducks and geese, you never heard so much jabbering in all your life. What are they having? A revival. They're fixing to take to the air. Amen. That's what we need today, is a swarming revival; no other way, not membership. God doesn't count majorities. He counts sincerity in His provided way.

^E-49 Now. They have never found anything else to take its place. There could not be a better way. Now, for instance what if science would say, "Poor little duckies. We just don't want them to swarm any more. And we're going to throw a net over them, before they get ready to swarm. And we're going to herd them right into a coop, and we're going to carry them down south." That's like running them into some organization, or something, you know, cooping him up somewhere. That's on his way to a slaughter. He knows he's going to a slaughterhouse when he gets in the coop. But when he's going God's provided way, he's far away from that.
So maybe I oughtn't to have said that. I didn't mean it in--in the way of being a slander against an organization. But you know what I mean. Maybe that's...
Aw, that ain't way to do it. You can't run into an organization and coop yourself up, and say "I'm Methodist," or "Baptist," or somewhere. That isn't it. No, no. You got to swarm. That's right. You've got to come to a place you can peck yourself through.
These--they get together, and they get into this coop. And--and when they... If you do that, they know they're on their road to the slaughterhouse.

^E-50 But now, what if you could put them all--herd them and put them into a cage, and pack them down south, turn them loose. Then, before they get ready to swarm, then throw a net over them. "We don't believe in days of miracles." See? "You little ducks, you can't fly no more. That used to be for ducks of another age." As long as God makes a duck, He makes them all the same. And if God makes a way for a duck to go, that's the way all the ducks go.
And you know what it would do? It would finally kill that duck. He'd be so soft, his wings wouldn't grow out right. He couldn't fly no more. Just like his barnyard cousin--all belly and no duck. See, he ain't got no wings to pick hisself up with. That's right. See? He would become a softie like his barnyard cousin, his denominational brother that don't go nowhere. See? That's right. See? That's right. That's all he would be--an old softie. He wouldn't know nothing about flying free. Amen.

^E-51 That's what's the matter today. We try to coop them up, and tell them the days of miracles is past. And he couldn't trust hisself, his feet off the ground. It would kill him. He wouldn't live very long. But you know that little duck would say, if he could talk back, "No, thank you."
"Oh, it's easy. You haven't got a thing to do. You can just act the way you want to."
He'd say, "Thank you. I do act the way I want to, because there is something in me moving. (Amen.) And I must act the way I want to." And every man that's borned of the Spirit of God, there's something moving in him. He's got to fly into the heavenlies some emotion, something another that makes it real.
The little fellow would finally become like a chicken, a domesticated bird. He just couldn't get his feet off the ground anymore. So if the chicken would always continue to fly in the air, why, he could go all right. He could go east, west, north, and south, and see things.

^E-52 And another thing. You see, he just wouldn't make it. Because on the road down from Canada, he picks up different kinds of materials, food that he wouldn't get if you had him in a cage and just feeding him corn all the time. Can you read between the lines? You put him over there, so he just knows the Apostles' Creed (so-called), and how to go to Sunday School, and that's just about all there is to it: pay the preacher, and live the way he wants to.

^E-53 But, oh, when you're in flight... Amen. When you're in flight you pick up more than your denominational creed. You pick up the vitamin--the spiritual vitamin that builds the body that's solid--full of muscles, with wing feathers that can lift you up off your feet and show you things that is to come: the Holy Spirit. "When He, the Holy Ghost is come, He will show these things to you, reveal these things to you that I've told you; and will show you things that is to come."
Yes. No, you couldn't coop him up and take him. It wouldn't work. No. If you coop him, he's headed for the slaughter.

^E-54 Neither could man ever choose a better route than what he can. You might go and say, "Now, Mr. Duck, I'll tell you something. You're going the wrong route. You must go over here, reroute yourself. Go down the coast over here. It goes... it's better than going the way you go." It just won't work. No. No. They think they know a better route than God's provided route for them. But they know.
Or could you choose a better leader for them than the God-provided leader God has given them? And man will never be able to choose a bishop, or an organization, or anything else that'll take the place of the leadership of the Holy Ghost to the church. There's not another thing could do it. It's God provided way. God provided a way for them: a leader, an inspired leader.
And that leader is inspired. Why, I've watched them a many time, when I'd take an early hunting trip--going for sheep or something, when you have to go early--up in the mountains. Haven't had any frost. Maybe up there a little snow will cap the mountain. That cold wind will sweep down across the mountain. There's a natural born leader among them. He'll run right out on that lake like that, and honk four or five times, and there the swarm comes. Yes, sir. They all know him. They know him by the way he honks. Oh, my.

^E-55 You know what I was speaking about last night, the Gospel trumpet, if it gives an uncertain sound... His sound don't give an un... He doesn't give an uncertain sound. They're real ducks. They know the sound of a duck. What if you just put an old guinea out there or a turkey? His honk wouldn't sound right. They know the sound of a leader.
And the church ought to know it. "Having a form of godliness and denying the power thereof: from such..." Don't let them lead. "Heady, high-minded, lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God, truce breakers, false accusers, incontinent, and despisers of those" ducks that does fly. See? See what I mean?
They know that Gospel sound. "My sheep know My voice. A stranger they will not follow." God always proves it right.

^E-56 Notice. Now, and right--they cannot get a... You could not choose for them. What if you went out there and you said, "Oh, wait a minute, little ducks. You're certainly wrong. Here is a fine big drake. My, he looks kingly among you. And now, you know what I'm going to do? I'm going to pour a little water upon top of his head, and I'm going to inaugurate him. I'm going to make him King Duck. And I'm going to put a crown upon him, and dress him a little different, so you all will know him. Always follow this fellow here, because he's cultured." Turn him loose on the pond. He could honk as much as he wanted to. Every duck would turn his back on him, 'cause he gives an uncertain sound. Yeah.
But let that little duck that's been chosen of God to be the leader, let him honk, and watch them all swarm to a revival. "Where the carcass is, the eagles will be gathered." He knows all about it. See? So He--He has a provided way. And the ducks know the provided way. Too bad that man doesn't. All right. But that's the way it happens.

^E-57 Now. All right. If he is the inspired leader-duck, he'll bring them to God's provided place for them. And if we'd only listen to what the Leader says, the Holy Spirit, He'll bring us right back to the Word again. That's God's provided way. Along the road we don't need creeds, and denominations, and wild weeds. There's certain duck-grass, and stuff that we have to eat, the ducks do, going down. And there's food that the... Really the--the flowers of God... Heavenly-bound creatures eat along the road. And that is, "Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every Word that proceeds out of the mouth of God." See? That duck, leader-duck will lead them to God's provided place just as straight to Louisiana, where one of these others wouldn't know where he was going, get up there and circle around.

^E-58 I was reading in "Life" magazine about three or four years ago, where there was an old gander started with a bunch up there. And he claimed he was a leader. And the first thing you know, they wound up over in England and have never got back yet. That's right. So they have to watch what kind of a duck, or gander, they're following. So they say over there in England... Them's Canadian honkers too. And they get over there in England, and all around, swarm. But they don't know which way back. Oh, my.
It's too bad the church played a whole lot of that too: followed off in a place, and they don't know how to get back. Say, "Well, we... I understand that grandma said, times grandma said that her grandma said that they used to have healing services in the church. But days of miracles is past," let somebody lead you off on the wrong track. Better follow God's inspired way. It's the only way.

^E-59 Notice. This little duck... No one has ever been able to route them any different. They know that little leader will lead them just exactly to God's provided place. And how does he do it? By His God-provided instruments. He's got his antennas out all the time, like we ought to have, catching the Spirit, our spiritual antennas.
Now, we find out that he'll go up in the air, way up in the air. He's got his antennas out. He knows the kind of food that these little ducks has to live on to make this flight. So when he picks up something way down on the ground, you'll see him soar off, and down he comes. The whole group will come right down, just have a gastronomical jubilee. And he'll "Honk," up in the air they'll go again, straight on towards the south. That's right. God's leader--God's leader for the ducks. That is right.

^E-60 And I want to say something else. You know, they have never been able to scientifically get a--find a better way for a baby to get what he wants besides crying for it. You know, they can't educate him to grunt. And they can't educate him to talk that quick. But you know how he gets it? He just takes God's provided way for it. He cries for it, yells, and kicks, and screams till he gets it. See? That's right. That's the only way, is cry for it. They can't find a better provided way than God's provided way. That's right. Just let it go.

^E-61 And those natural things... I stopped, here not long ago in Germany, and was speaking to a large group of people. And I said, "What's the matter with you Germans? You know, I was coming down the street, and a dog barked. And he barked in English." And I said, "A mother was trying to pacify her baby out there at the car awhile ago, and he was crying. And he was crying in English." I said, "What do we get all scrupled up about? See, they are going God's provided way. And we come from a tower of Babel (You see?), got all scrupled up." That's right.

^E-62 ...?... God's provided way is the best way. They don't know a better way for the baby to get what he wants than to cry for it. As Dr. Bosworth used to say, "The baby that cries the loudest gets the best service," and that's about the way it is.
And that goes for God's children. I can parallel that for you. A man get up on and say, chewing his chewing gum real well, "You know, Father, I'm here tonight. If You want to give me the Holy Ghost, all right, I'm here. But if You want to heal me, I'm setting here. But if You don't, why, all right. It's Your will, Lord. (He's done wrote the will out, here in the Bible.) This is Your will. All right. (This is His will, right here.) And if You want me to have it, I'll have it. But nevertheless, if You don't, why, it's all right." You'll never get nowhere.

^E-63 But let that one get there and cry out, like Buddy Robinson. He stopped in the middle of a corn field; he tied up his mule; he said, "Lord, if You don't give me the Holy Ghost, when You come back you'll find a pile of bones laying right here. I'm going to stay here until I get it." That's business.
God always recommends to His people, His believing children, to always go in His provided way. That's God's idea, to recommend to His children His provided way. Cry for what you have need of. He wants you to cry out.

^E-64 When Peter started out walking on the water, he thought he was getting along all right. "See how big I'm doing?" He started sinking. He didn't say, "Well, I guess it failed," and on down at the bottom--a few bubbles come up and that was all of it. See? No, no. He cried out, "Lord, save me." Amen. And that eternal hand reached down and picked him up again. Why? He cried out.
That's what's the matter with the church. We don't lay there long enough; we don't cry out long enough; we don't hold onto it. If a little baby wants something he'll kick, and scream, turn red in the face. We're afraid we'll take the (What is it you call it?) mascara out of our face, or whatever it is, that paint. You get... You get what you want from God you'll take it off anyhow. So you--so you don't have to worry about it. You'll mess your hair up. But that don't make any difference. No. No, sir.

^E-65 Now God don't expect us to come to Him with some intellectual speech. I remember I tried that when I tried to get saved. I was going to write Him a letter and put it in the woods, 'cause I knowed He'd come through the woods, and tell me--tell Him I was ashamed of myself, and I--I didn't want to do it. And I got down there to pray, and I said, "Now, let's see. I seen a picture one time, that they held their hands like this." I said, "Mr. Jesus, I wish You would come here a minute. I want to talk to You just a minute. I'm listening." Nobody. I said, "I did it wrong." All right.
"Mr. Jesus..." Maybe I'm supposed to do it like this. I said, "Mr. Jesus, would You come help me? I'm a sinner. I want to talk to You a minute." Nobody come.
I folded my arms. I said, "Mr. Jesus would You come here? I want... I hear people say 'God talked to me.'" I said, "Mr. Jesus, would You come here? I want to speak to You."

^E-66 'Course then the devil come on the scene. That's the way he does. He might tell you your knees are hurting. "No need of asking." See? "You wait, get it tomorrow night." He's always around when you're not ready. And then he said to me... But always, what he says, take advantage of what he says. Take advantage of it. He said to me, "You know what? You're already nineteen years, twenty years old." Said, "You're already twenty years old. You've waited too long."
I said, "O God, I've waited too long. Lord, even You don't hear me, I'm going to tell You anyhow. I've always wanted to do this." Oh, brother, that brought Him on the scene. See?
What was it? Cried out. Just simple, cry out. "Lord Jesus, You promised it, Lord." He come on the scene. That's the way to bring Him on the scene. You're just a baby. Cry, cry out for it.
Don't try to say, well, "Most something or another," and some great wrote-out prayer you practiced on for an hour or two. That don't do any good. Like they say, "Did you say a prayer?" No. It's a sin to say one. You pray one. Don't say one; pray one.
"Say a prayer for me."
I said, "Don't do that for me. You can pray for me, but don't say no prayer." No, sir. No, just pray for me, when you pray. All right.

^E-67 Cry for your needs. That's God's provided way. Didn't Jesus explain it when He said the unjust judge, to the woman that cried day and night? How much more will the heavenly Father give them the Spirit who cry out for it day and night? Seek. Keep seeking. Knock. Keep knocking. Just keep on till He opens. Stay out with it. Cry until the promised Word is a-vindicated. Then you've got it. You don't have to worry no more. You see the Bible promised it, then stay right there and cry until you get it.
If a little baby sees a cookie and he wants it, he just cry, and cry, and cry, and kick, kick and scream, and holler, and turn red in the face. His mommy give him a cookie, and it's all over. See? He got what he saw, what he wanted. If he wants to lick off of your ice cream cone, he'll just keep raising a fuss till he gets it. See?

^E-68 Well, that's the way we're supposed to do. If I see a promise in the Bible that's God's Word, then I just stay there and cry out till God gives it to me. And He'd do that to get you off His hands. You see? That would be in the natural. But He's wanting you to do it. He likes for you to ask. "Ask abundantly that your joys might be full." Yeah--yeah. Cry until His Word is a-vindicated. Now, friend, let's watch just a minute now. Cry until the Word is a-vindicated.
The trouble of it is, we get a cookie and think that's all there is. There's a whole table full. We get so we can speak in tongues; we say "Oh, brother, that's it." Oh, no. That ain't it. That's just some of it. That's right. "Oh, I got happy enough to shout." That's some more of it. But there's a whole lot more of it. Just keep on crying out until... That's God's provided way for His people. God's provided way always is to take His Word and hold onto It until It's a-vindicated to you. Now, do you follow me? God--a provided way... Hold on to the promise until it's made manifest to you.

^E-69 And remember, I'm on record for this--that any promise of God in the Bible, if... It's on conditions now. Just because you believe it's there, that don't make it so it'll happen. Them Pharisees and Sadducees was just as religious with those sacraments as they could be. But God said, "They stink in My nose." See, there was no sincerity. There was nothing to it that should be. You've got to come upon basical promise, and then upon your mental attitude towards it.

^E-70 Look at those four hundred priests that day, or prophets, Ahab had out there. They said, "Ramoth-gilead belongs to us. Joshua by the Holy Spirit divided this, and the Syrians has got it."
And one prophet said, "Now, looky here. That's fundamentally right." Now, he was a real Baptist, and he said, "That's exactly right. That's the fundamental proverse--promise. That land belongs to us."
So he made him two big horns and said, "Go up there, and take these horns and push Syria plumb off. That belongs to Israel." That's right. Fundamentally, it was right.

^E-71 But what did little Micaiah say? He said, "I saw Israel scattered like sheep having no shepherd." See?
Ahab, that hypocrite down there, letting Jezebel run him around doing everything... The real Word of God coming through the prophet had cursed that thing. And how could God bless what the prophet had cursed in the Name of the Lord? See? Can't be. No matter how much religious nation we are, how much background we got, the thing is corrupted and corrupted. It's gone.
No matter how great our organizational life is in church, we believe in it. It's fine, all right. But the thing is corrupted. God's done laid them up on the shelf, and there they lay. And there's never a piece of history that any one ever rose again. So it's wrong. It's finished, wrote off, no good.

^E-72 His Word is always what He wants to see vindicated, and it'll only be vindicated upon certain conditions; that's when you meet those conditions. You seen people that can take the Word of God and just make it live for them. And others come right back with the same Word and can't do nothing with it. It's on conditions. That's right.

^E-73 Look here. I'll show you an example of that in the Bible. Israel was on the road up to the promised land. Here come Moab, which was the--was the same religion exactly. That was Lot's daughter's child. And notice, when Balaam come down, it was God talking to him. He put seven altars, just like Israel had seven altars. He put seven clean sacrifices, bullocks on the altar. That's just exactly what Israel had. And another thing, he put seven rams, speaking of the coming Messiah. That's exactly what Israel had. Fundamental they were both right, fundamentally. But it was on conditions. Amen. He failed to see the real promise of God. That's the same thing it was in the coming of Christ. That's the same thing it's come back to today. It's on condition. Right.

^E-74 Job... God doing what? Making a provided way. Job, a prophet, needed a comforter. Now, listen close now. My--my time's got away. Job needed a comforter. And men tried to provide that thing for him, and they could not do it. They always got Job off the line. But Job come right back. He needed a comforter. God provided a comforter for him, when He give him a vision of Jesus Christ. And he cried, "I know my Redeemer liveth (my Redeemer)," there's only one. "And at the last days He'll stand upon the earth."

^E-75 Now remember, the vision... You said, "My redeemer." He showed him Christ. Christ is the Word. "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 when Job, being a prophet... Now, listen. Job being a prophet, the Word of the Lord comes to the what? Prophet, absolutely. That's where the Word comes to. That's how you know whether they're prophets or not. They stay in the Word. The Word is revealed to the prophet, and Job was a prophet. He couldn't see the end. But when he saw the Word, being a prophet, he said, "I know my Redeemer liveth," after the church had failed, after everything else had failed. Even his loving wife had failed him and...?... she said, "Why don't you just go on and curse God, and die the death, Job?"

^E-76 He said, "Thou speakest like a foolish woman. The Lord gave; the Lord taketh away. Blessed be the Name of the Lord." And the thunders began to roar, and the lightnings flash, the Spirit come upon the prophet, and he saw the Word. Then he said, "I know my Redeemer liveth. At the last days He'll stand on the earth. Though the skin worms destroys this body, yet in my flesh shall I see God. (Amen.) I shall see for myself. Mine eyes shall behold, and not another. We brought nothing into this world, and it's certain we take nothing out. The Lord gave, the Lord taketh away. Blessed be the Name of the Lord." What a comforter. He asked for a church member. God give him a vision. He asked for the bishop to come give him comfort, the presbyter. God gave the prophet a vision. That's what he needed.

^E-77 Israel needed a way out of Egypt. They needed some way, some military strength, or something to deliver them out of the hands of the Egyptians. God provided a prophet with the vindicated original Word: Moses. Is that right? They wanted a army to rise up, and to take them out, and beat the Egyptians down. But God sent them the Word, the prophet with the vindicated Word that God had spoke before to Abraham, saying, "Thy seed shall sojourn in a strange land. But I'll visit them with a mighty hand," the Word that God had spoke.
They was crying for a deliverer, and God sent them a prophet with the Word. God had a provided way to tell the difference between the believer and the unbeliever. And God... Now, some of them said, "Well, now, if the plague falls we'll just go in the hospital. If the flar--if the plague happens to fall, you know what we'll do? We'll go get Dr. Jones. He'll know how to take care of it." It didn't work. Yet, they were smart.

^E-78 "Well, if the plague falls, we'll just go down beneath the ground in a cave and shut the door down." That won't do one bit of good. "We'll stay in the house, and put a mask over our face, and--and put some disinfect on it." Didn't do a bit of good.
God made a provided way. Yes. And it was what? The blood. God provided, as simple as it seems, to take the blood of a lamb and sprinkle the door. Yet, God said that was His way, and He honored it. "All out from under the blood dies, the firstborn."

^E-79 When Noah needed a provided way, to saving of his household, God had him to construct an ark. They might have built mock boats. That's what people think today. But you see this was a special boat. They probably had boats then, the same as they got now. But this was a special boat. It was a... Listen to me now. It was a God-constructed boat. And a church today is the same way. It's got to be a Bible-constructed church.

^E-80 My experience is not to be the best member in the church, but a--an experience that's constructed by the Word of God. "These signs shall follow them that believe." God-constructed experience, it's the only thing that's going to take me up. It's the only thing that's going to take you up. Anything that's going to lift above that...
I don't care how many I--come and say, "Look, I'm a good Methodist, Baptist, Presbyterian, or a Pentecostal." That won't mean one thing to God. It's got to be God-instructed. And that's the Holy Spirit by the Word. And the Holy Spirit will never instruct anything but the Word, because It is the Holy Spirit. Men moved, of old, wrote the Bible by the Holy Ghost, God's provided way.

^E-81 Now, Israel needed a--a provision. And God give it to them, and separated the believer from the unbeliever. The same thing is today: the believer and unbeliever separated.
Moses... I've got to skip a lot of notes now. But Moses, a faithful servant of God... Now, listen old timers; some of you, like me, that's getting way up in their years, listen. Moses had served God faithfully. He'd put up with all their chatting, and all the Dathans that raised up and said, "Say, there's other men that's prophets besides you. You're not the only pebble on the beach." And he knew he had God's message for them.
Impersonators raised up. Moses just said, "God, what can I do?"
And He said, "Separate yourself. I'll just swallow the thing up. Take your rods, and go in there and see which one buds. See? I'll show you who's priest, who's prophet." And Moses had served the office faithful.

^E-82 Then when he got old, a hundred and twenty years he'd walked faithfully with God. All these forty years in the wilderness, stood all kinds of persecutions of nations, and people, constantly, and then he come to a place to die. He needed a place to die. God provided him a place on the Rock. O God. Let me die there too, upon the Rock. The Rock was Christ, you know. God provided a place for Moses to die. That's where...?... I want to die. Let me die in Christ.
And then when he was dead, his body laying up there, he needed pallbearers. So God provided pallbearers: angels. Why? They was the only One could take him where he was going to. Amen. God provided the pallbearers. That's right. I am depending upon the Holy Spirit, upon the Word, the promise. Not take you out for a nice big burial.
They did the rich man that way, but he lifted up his eyes in hell (See?), not about a fancy burial, it don't make any difference. I want to take God's provided way. Them that are in Christ will God bring with Him when He comes. That's the provision. God made His faithful prophet a place to die.

^E-83 Enoch, after walking five hundred years with God, and God told him, "Enoch, you're not going to have to die. You want to come up home? Are you homesick, Enoch?"
He said, "Yea, Lord. I'm homesick."
Said, "Have you walked in the pest-house down there long enough?"
He said, "Yes."
He said, "All right, just start walking."
Enoch needed a ladder; God give him a highway. That was God's way for him: provided him a highway, upward. He didn't even... He just went right up like that. He didn't have to strain at all. Just run right up, and the Holy Spirit behind him lifted him right up. He went right up the highway of holiness, right into the Kingdom of God.

^E-84 Elijah, after he had condemned bobbed hair and painted faces for all of his life of that Jezebel, the first woman, her and the renowned president of that time, who put a poor example before the people and got them all carried off. And--and actually, he thought he was the only one preaching that. And he just carried the thing every way.
And he'd done so much he was getting tired, and he wanted to go home. And he knowed God was from above. He needed a rope to climb up, to come up to heaven. But God sent him a chariot with two horses hitched to it. That's God's provided way to take him. He might've been looking for a rope, but God sent a chariot. That was His way. Joshua... And at the end of the road, that was Elijah's end. That was Noah. That was all the time the end.

^E-85 Now Joshua, when he come to the end of the trail through the wilderness (Watch.), he needed a bridge to cross over Jordan into the promised land. God... He--he needed a bridge, but God's provided way was a power, not a bridge; He sent a power. And He held the river back, and he walked across on dry land. That was God's provided way. Not a bridge, he had a better engineer. So He just sent him power, pushed the water back until he walked over on dry land.

^E-86 Daniel, for the cause of God, was throwed into a lion's den. He needed a fence; but God sent him an Angel. What a difference. That was God's provided way. He needed a fence; but God give him an Angel. What a better fence it was. He always gives you better than you ask for, always. Yes. He needed a fence; God sent him an angel.
The Hebrew children, they needed some water to put out that fire. But God sent them the fourth Man. That's all they needed. He untied their hands, and talked with them, and they walked out without the smell of fire on them. They needed water; He sent the fourth Man.

^E-87 The wise men up at Babylon, up in India, they knowed that something was fixing to happen. They knowed the King was born, and they needed a compass. God sent them a star to lead them to the King. See, they went God's provided way. I can just imagine some of them saying, "Say, Balthazar, you know you're a great man; did you bring your compass?"
He said, "No."
"Well, how are you going to get there?"
"I'm going God's provided way." That's the way.
"How are you going to get there?"
"God's provided way."
"What is it?"
"That star, that's it. That's God's provided way for us." They needed a compass, and God give them a star.

^E-88 The world needed a Saviour one day, and God provided His Son. When He come, He was not recognized. He was not wanted. They said they wanted a Saviour. But when God sent it in His way... They asked for a king; God give them a baby. They wanted a mighty man to stomp out Rome. God give them a little crying baby in a barn. See? But it was God's provided way. We... But they didn't want it the way God wanted to send it. They wanted it the way they wanted it. See? So, therefore, they went into chaos because they didn't accept His way. There was some that did.

^E-89 This was the birthplace of the church was at Pentecost, after Jesus had commissioned them to go into all the world and preach the Gospel to every creature, these signs shall follow them that believe. He had told them what to do, told them to go up to the city of Jerusalem and wait. They needed a charter. They needed a charter. They wanted to draw up a creed. God give them the Holy Ghost. Oh. They needed a denomination; but God give them a Spirit. What a difference, how God does do it.
The Holy Ghost was God's provided way to lead the church, not a bishop: the Holy Ghost. That's what... That was their charter. And from that day to this, it's been every true borned again child's charter: the Holy Ghost.

^E-90 Now, after two thousand years, friends... We're closing. Now, after two thousand years man is determined to have his way. He made hisself a charter. He made hisself a manmade ethics. And what did he do? There has become by it a great falling away from the truth. They've got off until people don't know what to do. Creeds, denominations, all kinds of isms, sensations, and everyone says the Bible says "This." They'll take this part of it, but won't take that part of it. They don't follow the charter; therefore, they lose the course.

^E-91 And after all these years, when we've got nine hundred and something different organizations of Christianity, and each one condemning the other one, saying "This is right, and they're wrong," and "This is right, and that's wrong," and so forth... And the poor people are so confused they don't know what is right and wrong.
What do we need? We need to get back on the course, get back to the charter. What do we need? We need a genuine, true, Scriptural sign of the truth. A vindicated Gospel truth is what the church needs for this end-time way. God promised to give them a sign for this last day.

^E-92 Do you remember when Jesus was speaking and said, "The queen of the south shall rise up in the last day, will rise up and condemn this generation." She come from the utmost parts of the world to hear the wisdom of Solomon. He had a spirit of discernment. How she come so far to see that spirit of discernment, and He said, "A greater than Solomon is here."
He said also, as in the... like the prophet Jonah... "Jonah, As he was in the belly of the whale for three days and nights, so must the Son of man be in the heart of the earth three days and nights."

^E-93 And He said, "A wicked and adulterous generation will seek after a sign." If this ain't that sign, or, that generation, I don't know where it's at--a weak, wicked, church-going, adulterous generation. They would seek after a sign, and He said they would get it. For as "Jonah was in the belly of the whale for three days, so would the Son of man be in the heart of the earth." But there would be a resurrection, like Jonah come out of the belly of the whale.

^E-94 Malachi the 4th chapter, promised us that in the last days that there would come forth the message that would turn the hearts of the children back to the faith of the fathers, the original faith of the fathers. They promised it. Jesus promised it. Faith of the end-time believers will see the original Messiahic sign. Notice. If He is raised from the dead, and creeds have put Him out all these years, and denied that truth, then the thing that we've got to look for in the last days is a turning back to the--the original faith, back to the faith of the early Pentecostal fathers. And they seen His resurrection.

^E-95 And today we are seeing His resurrection, the sign of His resurrection. Jonah, three days and nights was in the belly of the whale. And on the third day he arose from the whale. Jesus raised from the dead after being three days in its belly. Two thousand years He's been absent from the church. But He promised through Joel, "What the palmerworm left, the caterpillar eaten. But I will restore," saith the Lord. "All that the palmerworm, and the caterpillar, and the locust, and so forth eat up, I will restore it in the last days."
The prophet said, "It shall be Light in the evening time." The same sun shines in the east shines in the west. It's been a day, a dark day. They've joined, and put creeds and things. But in the evening time it shall be Light: the same sun, the same results, the same signs, the same wonders, the evening time.

^E-96 How did He prove Hisself to be Messiah? Now, the question is after two thousand years of hammering against it, is He still Messiah? Well, what He was then... Hebrews 13:8 said, "He's the same yesterday, today, and forever." What He was then, He has to be the same today. How did He prove Himself to be the Messiah? According to the Word of God. For God had said through Moses, "The Lord your God shall raise up a prophet liken unto me."
That's the reason the woman at the well... When He told her her sins, "Why," she said, "Sir, I perceive You're a prophet. We know when Messiah cometh He'll tell us these things."
He said, "I'm He that speaks to you."
She run quickly and told the people in the city, "Come see a Man Who told me what I done. Isn't this the very Messiah?" And the people believed it, because they were looking for that Messiahic sign, four hundred years without a prophet.

^E-97 Jesus said, "As it was in the days of Lot, so shall it be in the coming of the Son of man," when God revealed Himself in a body of flesh, eat the--the meat of a calf, drank the milk from the cow, and set there before them, God, Jehovah, in manifested in the flesh with His back turned to the tent, and told what Sarah was talking about in the tent. It shall be Light in the evening time.

^E-98 God's a-vindicated Word is the sign of the day that we're living in. It shall be Light. And He promised through Malachi 4, through many places of the Bible, that the end-time people would see the same manifestation that they saw, 'cause He can't change that sign. He's promised it. Now, we've heard Him speaking in tongues on Calvary. We've seen Him doing all the things that He did do. We seen the apostolic church back there at the beginning, how that apostolic church, the moves that they made. We see it turning right back into the church again here in the last days. What is it? It's God vindicating, just like He did to Moses, like He did through the ages.

^E-99 He has provided a way that we might not be deceived, that we would know. Jesus said in John 14:12, "He that believeth on Me the signs that I do, the works that I do, shall he do also." That'll be it. Now, if He died and He's dead, then the works cease. But if He lives again, then His works continue on as it was, for He's the same yesterday, today, and forever. You believe that?

^E-100 Listen, let me say this. Jesus proved He was the Messiah by the Bible signs of the Messiah. He proved it. He was. Now, may God let me prove now that He still is the same. You believe it? He proved it. He was. He proved He was. May I, by the grace of God, prove He is. He proved He was. Now, let's prove that He is. That's exactly what He promised. That's what He said. That's the way He told it. And "these signs shall follow them that believe."

^E-101 What is it? God's provided way, the resurrection way, the thing that brings a man from his stupidity into the light of the Gospel, brings him from an intellectual brain like some great regime of a machine, and humbles his heart before God.
"Why," you say, "that man's so smart, Brother Branham. He had four degrees; he's got a Bachelor of Art; he's got all this..."
I don't care what he's got. He'll have to forget everything he learned in order to know Christ. That's right. He'll have to humble himself and get away from anything the world did to him. And you learn Christ by humility, believing Him. And it's the evening time.

^E-102 What did I say over here at the beginning? What was it I spoke of here? Accepting God's provided way at the end-time. Each one of these men, each time through the Bible, through nature, we see... Now, God don't take a tree today and make it something another, and then tomorrow make it something else. No. He makes it today. Today the sap goes down. Tomorrow it comes back another way. And the next time He has them pull the sap out. No. He stays right on course. And each one of these men we talked about through the Bible, God stayed right on His course with them, exactly by His Word, not a one of them, but what was exactly on His Word, all through the Bible exactly on His Word.

^E-103 Then when you say, "Well, I'm exactly on His Word," then He a-vindicates that to be the truth. Now, He's still on course tonight, if we'll just believe it. Will you do it? Let's bow our heads.
Now, just as reverent as you can be for a moment... God's provided a way that He might bring the believers to a rapturing faith: God's way, His provided way to bring believers to rapturing faith.

^E-104 Before I make the altar call, I'd like to say this: I feel led to do this. Is there sick people in the house? Raise up your hand. I'm going to ask you to please be just as quiet, set still, just a minute longer. Now, we'll be out in five more minutes, if you just be real reverent.
Now see, when you're disturbing, you're disturbing somebody. And I've got the whole thing under the control of the Holy Spirit. I must have it in order to do this. God made the promise. It wasn't me. It was Him that made the promise.

^E-105 Now, as far as I know, there's some people here that I know. There's some I do not know. I can actually see about, I suppose, about four people that I know. And one of them is Brother Williams here, and Brother Rose. I know them. And Mother Sharritt is setting over at the door. I... Of course, I know her. Here's Sister Williams setting here. I know her.
And this lady setting right here, about two rows in front of me here, she works at a dry goods store, and is a friend to the family. I don't know her name, but I believe she's a member of Brother Outlaw's church up there. I think that's right.
And then I see Brother Dauch, Sister Dauch from Ohio, setting here. I heard Brother Sothmann way back there somewhere say "Amen" awhile ago. I watched. That's about all that I see and know in here.

^E-106 How many of you that's sick, and knows that I do not know you, raise up your hands, that knows that I know nothing about you, raise up your hand. All right. You just have faith now and believe.
Now, if I have told you the truth, God is obligated to vindicate that word to be the truth. Is that right? It's right. Now, that will be the provided way then, according to what I've said tonight. That's God's provided way to tell you this is the truth, because anybody knows that it's totally impossible. It'd be a miracle that science cannot explain. You can't explain a miracle. It's beyond explaining.

^E-107 And if God should speak in here tonight to one person that would know that I was a stranger to them, and tell them what they'd done, or what they ought not have done, or what they will do, or what they ought to do, or something, just like Jesus did when He was here on earth. He made Hisself known to the public that that was the Messiahic sign. How many knows that, say, "Amen." Then the church believes it. That's the only way the people, when He did that...
They--the woman touched the hem of His garment; He turned around and said, "Who touched Me?" Physically He didn't feel her, but it was her faith that did it. Now, you can have that kind of faith if you will just pray and say, "Lord Jesus, take away every doubt from me. Take away my doubts, and let me believe this. I'm desperately in need. And I'm coming tonight, for the Bible says that Jesus Christ is a High Priest that can be touched by the feeling of our infirmities."

^E-108 Did you know this sign, this miracle, has not been done in history since the death of the last apostle? That's right. I've just come through the--the--all the history books that I know of, Hislop's "Babylons." I've come through the Foxe's "Book of the Martyrs." I've come through the--the pre-Nicene fathers, the Nicaea Council, and post-Nicaea. I've come through all those books. Not one place have I seen it in the history of Martin Luther, John Wesley, the first revival, the Welsh revival. They've been crying, shouting, praising God, finally dropped into speaking in tongues. And then this was supposed to be the last sign. That was the last thing that Sodom saw before she burned.
And remember, He didn't reveal it to Sodom. He revealed it to Abraham, the chosen and elected. And the gift is not going to the worldly churches out here, if you notice. It's going to the elected church. That's the ones that's being benefited by it. They're the ones that will receive it.

^E-109 If it would be done out there, they'd say the same thing they did when He performed it, "He is Beelzebub, a fortuneteller." And anybody knows about a fortuneteller, knows that's--that's a crazy thing to even say. They don't know the first principle of telepathy or fortunetelling. That's a work of the devil, trying to copy the work of God.
God shows a prophet; the devil has a medium. The two are pretty close together. Jesus said it would almost fool the elected, if possible. It's true. We got loss--lots of impersonation. He said, "As Jambres and Jannes withstood Moses, so will these men of corrupt minds, reprobates concerning the truth." But their folly will be found out.

^E-110 Now, in the Name of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, I take this audience under my control but--for the Holy Spirit, by the Holy Spirit in the Name of Jesus Christ.
I ask you, as believers, don't you move. Set still. And you believe that Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever. And I'm here to make known His works and His ways; I've been very reluctant on these things the fifteen, sixteen years I've been on the field. But there's an hour coming now when something's fixing to take place. The message will go to another nation, another people.
But while we are in the Presence of His holy Being... The church in America, I believe, is just about called out. She's finished. She's washed. She's ready, the real church. Hypocrisy still remains on. But the true church was a true church to begin with--the borned again, the predestinated to the call of God.

^E-111 If you believe with all your heart, I ask you to pray and say, "Lord Jesus (in your heart), let me touch Your garment. And how will I know that You're still the same High Priest? Speak to me through the lips of Brother Branham. And if he's told me the truth, which I believe he has..."
Be sure to mention that in your prayer, 'cause He told me, "If you get the people to believe you..." That's the only... You... He couldn't do many mighty works, because they didn't believe Him. Don't believe me as Him, but believe that He sent me. And I'm here to manifest Him. He proved that He was. May God help me to prove that He is raised from the dead, the Messiah, the same yesterday, today, and forever.

^E-112 Now, just be in prayer. I'm watching and waiting. Just pray. And if the Lord will grant it, and will prove to you that this is the end-time sign, will you walk in the Light? Will you believe Him? Have faith in Him? He's no respecter of person. Just have faith all along, everywhere.
Now, while you have your heads bowed, I'm thanking the Lord. Here is that Light that you see in the picture. He's right here in this room now. And I see it right by the side of a woman who's setting to my right. She's praying for a son that's in trouble. Just don't doubt. Have faith.

^E-113 To my left there is a woman and she's scared. She's afraid that she's got cancer. She's very much shook up about it. I hope she don't miss it. The woman has tried for a long time to press her way in. She's afraid. She isn't from here. She comes from another city, and the city is a smaller city than this, though it lays south from here. It's by the side of a mountain. It's Tucson. The lady's name is Mrs. Bach. You believe? Will you accept your healing? All right. Don't be scared of it no more. Your faith makes you whole.
A lady by the name of Mrs. Hershey. Don't forget; God can prove that son innocent, if you'll believe with all your heart. Don't doubt. Have faith. Believe.
A lady setting over here on the side to my right, she's suffering with a heart trouble. Her name is Mrs. Cloud. If you'll believe with all your heart, and accept your healing, the almighty God will make you well. Will you believe it? All right. You believe with all your heart.
A lady way back here to my right in the right hand row, dark dress on... Mrs. Yates, believe with all your heart, and your back trouble will go from you.

^E-114 Oh, my. You love Him? Do you believe Him? Is He the same yesterday, today, and forever? Now, if He proves that and you see that is right, and those people will bear record I've never seen them in my life...
But look. Now, if you will take my word for what I'm saying, if you will believe with all your heart, and lay your hands on one another, you'll be healed, if you'll just believe it with all your heart. It's a sign of the end-time. Now, put your hands over on one another, you that's going to pray for each other. If you're a sinner, confess your sins. If you're a backslider, confess that you're wrong. If you're sick, confess that you want to be healed, and say, "I believe You, God."
Now, the Bible never said just the prayers of William Branham will do this, but He said, "These signs shall follow them that believe. If they lay their hands on the sick, they shall recover." Do you believe that?

^E-115 Now, how many times... How long have I been with you, Phoenix? This is about seventeen years I've been coming here. Have you ever seen it proved wrong one time? Has it always been just exactly the way the Holy Spirit spoke it, through the thousands times thousands, and to the multitudes of times... How many times around the world of all nations, and kindreds, tongues, and people? It's Jesus Christ, not your brother. And I'm quoting His Word to you. "These signs shall follow them that believe