¹ Minister brothers, and you friends out there, I say it's a privilege to be here this morning. Such an introduction as that, why, I don't know how I'm ever going to live up to that one.
But just setting there talking, Brother Noel and I, I don't believe I've ever met a person just exactly... We all are made in different molds, but by the same God. Just like Brother Jack Moore, he's certainly been a... Brother Noel was just saying, "Since I've been here with him..." That's his son-in-law, and how he had learned to love him and respect his wisdom and things. And that... I can say "amen" to that. The many fine thing--times that we've had together, he and I, and Brother Brown, Brother Bootlayer here, fine men of God that I really love them with all my heart...
And then as I see we're all not getting any younger; well, I just think of the time now that watching us as we change since about twenty years ago crossing the deserts, and so forth together as younger men. But just knowing that there is a land where we'll never get old. We'll meet there again someday.

⁴ Last night when I was leaving the tabernacle, there was a little lady laying back there on a cot, and she said, "Brother Branham, years ago..." I think she had been paralyzed. She said, "You told me..." I forget what the woman's remark was now, something like this; I hope that I don't misquote it. Said, "That this affliction I had would be for a purpose," or something, that she would have a baby. And she couldn't understand how that would be done and her in that condition.
There stood a young, handsome-looking young man; he said, "I'm the baby that she had." Said, "I'm the baby that she had."
And so many things has happened along the road; we don't even have time here to talk it over. We will on the other side.

⁷ And this Business Men's chapter... I do not belong to any organization, I guess as you all know, but I... This is the only group that I'm connected with, pack a fellowship card, is... They are interdenomination; it's just businessmen. They have been a great asset to me and to the type of ministry that the Lord our Father has given me. It's... It wasn't exactly that I don't like the organization; it's just a ministry that's given to me, and if I am not loyal to that call, then I'll be a disloyal person to God.

⁸ And I'm thinking, just 'fore I left Tucson, maybe many of you were there, one day I was in Los Angeles speaking to the chapter. And there was... I had just raked the organization maybe a little--little hard. I--I didn't mean to be that way. If you mean that to be mean, then I'd be a hypocrite. You mustn't do that, no, that's just throw off on someone. But I had talked about a tree that I saw in Brother Sharritt's yard. It had about five different kinds of fruit on it. And I said, "I never seen a tree like that in my life." It was a... It had grapefruit; it had lemons; it had tangerine, tangelo, oranges, everything growing on the same tree. "Well," I said, "I--I sure don't get that. What kind of a tree is it?"
"It's a orange tree."
And I said, "Well, that grapefruit?"
Said, "Yeah."
I--I said, "How could it?"
Said, "That's grafted."
And I said, "Oh, I see."
He said, "They're all of a citrus family, and any tree that's of a citrus family being, it can be grafted."
I said, "I understand." Then I started shouting just a little bit, you know, 'cause I am nervous and emotionally.
So he said, "What's the matter?"

¹² And I said, "Well, I was just thinking of something." And I said, "Now, I want to ask you a question." I said, "Now, next year when the blooms come on, they won't be oranges, tangelos, grapefruits, lemons; there'll all be oranges because it's in a orange tree, won't it?"
He said, "No, no. No, each branch bears of its own."
"I see."
So that still was sounding real good, because I'm... you know I'm... 'Course I got a degree out of Hartford and all of these other universities, you know. So--so I'm... watch nature, that's the best university that I've ever found yet, the Creator's university. So as I watch that, I get my sermons from the way I see nature acting.
And I said, "Well, that just makes me feel real good."
He said, "What's the matter?"
I said, "I just thought of something."

¹⁹ So that day, I was preaching on that. I said, "Now, you see, when the church first started out, it was... Jesus said..." I was preaching John 15. "'I am the Vine: ye are the branches. And every branch that don't bring forth fruit will be cut off, burnt.'"
And somebody just down on my neck real hard on that, said, "You see, I thought if you was actually once filled with the Holy Ghost and saved, you said, 'they couldn't get away from it.'"
"That's right."
He said, "What about that?"
I said, "Now, you're talking on a different subject. He's talking about fruit-bearing there, not the Vine; He's talking about fruit-bearing, and not the Life."
He said, "Well, just cut the tree back so it will grow, bear fruit." He said...
And I said, "Now, see, this tree, when it started out, was all genuine, Bible Christians. Then along come a branch called Luther, and Methodist, Baptist, Presbyterian: lemons and whatmore." And I said, "You see, it thrives on the name of Christianity, but it... It's living off of that Tree, but it's bearing its own denominational kind. See? But I said, "If that orange tree ever puts out another limb itself, it'll bear oranges like it did at the beginning."

²⁶ There hadn't have been setting up there, a head of a great--one of our greatest Pentecostal organizations, I don't know how to make it so that everybody will understand that it isn't my idea that--that I'm--I'm against those brethren, sisters; that is wrong. I'm so misunderstood, and I don't know why. See?
People think I don't even believe in people going to church. That's a million miles from the truth. "We must assemble ourselves together; that much more as we see the day approaching." See? We must come together in unity. We might not...
If I lived in a city and they had nothing there but a--well, some church (I don't want to call any name.), but just any church, if they only believed one thing, that Jesus was Divine, all the rest of it was wrong, I'd go to that church. If I can't get a whole loaf of bread, I'll--I'll take a slice. See? I'll go listen, worship the Lord, and show Him that I'm doing my part. I want Him to know I'm alive. I'm--I'm want--want everybody to know what side I'm on. I assemble with the Christians, and there worship and--and serve the Lord.

²⁸ But it's so hard, I... Used to bother me so bad, and then I found out even our Lord was misunderstood in so many things. He'd say anything, and they'd--be misunderstood. I guess it just has to be that way. But those who are wise will understand. See? The Bible said so. They'll catch It.
So this morning while saying this... And I said, "Now, they--they live off of the name of Christianity, but they bear the wrong kind of fruit. It has a denominational fruit. They set a thing, and they're living right off of it, and living off the very Life."

³⁰ It's what I was trying to say last night, that spirit can be baptized into that Spirit and still not be a Christian. See? You're living right off of the same Life, but the fruits you bear tells what you are. See? That's right. See? They can do all the signs, and pray for the sick, and heal the sick, and open eyes, and cast out devils, and--and do all these things, living right off the same Life that's in there, but still it's a lemon. See? That's right. "The fruits, you're known," Jesus said. And so then we find out...
And when I got off the platform, this great leader raised up, he said, "You didn't mean that," he said, "we know that we're all grafted in." Well, that is true that we are grafted, stump grafted, that's right; but not in the Vine, grafted. So then he said... begin to kinda--kinda slur me back a little bit.

³² And there was a young fellow there; I think it's some movie star's people. His name's Danny Henry, and he was a Baptist boy. Well, he come to the platform to put his arms around me, and he said, "Brother Branham, I hope this don't sound sacrilegious," but said, "I believe that could almost be the 23rd chapter of Revelation."
And I said, "Thank you."
And he started to say something else and he started speaking in tongues, a Baptist boy. And when he did, there was a--a woman from here in Louisiana; she was a Frenchman, kind of a big heavyset woman; she wrote down the interpretation.
Well, then there was another young fellow setting over here was a Frenchman; he wrote down what he said. They compared the notes, and they both was the same.
And then a big, light-headed boy standing way back in the back, at Clifton's Cafeteria, come walking forth. He said, "Let me see those notes."

³⁷ I went to see what they was, and all three of them was the same for the interpretation. He was the interpreter for the U.N., French interpreter. And it said this:

³⁹ Now, I see some young brother come awhile ago, Brother Stringer, I think from down in Louisiana--or Mississippi, brought us some pictures here that you seen us watching it. It was of the Angel of the Lord when it appeared. How many's heard the story? I guess every one of you here's heard it. You've had it on tape and so forth.
Now, that was told me one morning at ten o'clock, standing in my room in Indiana. Told me I would be at Tucson, be early in the morning, I'd be picking a cocklebur (what we call there, a goat-header) off of my trouser leg. And seven Angels came and bursted this, and ground bursted and everything else, to rocks rolled out of the mountains, and seven Angels stood there.
And I said, "Well..." I told my wife, and she's somewhere present this morning, "You get everything ready 'cause no way a man could exist that," I said, "come out of that. I'm going to Tucson; my work is finished here on earth. I'm going home to be with the Lord Jesus."
"Well," she said, "are you sure?"
I said, "Yes. Yeah, no one could--could stand that. There's no way of doing it."

⁴⁴ I just preached the Seven Church Ages. That's where I had called our gallant, little Brother Jack Moore to ask him about this Jesus in Revelations 1 standing there with white hair and everything.
I said, "He was a young Man." And now, that's where the revelation come about that being a wig on, and not Him; He's wigged (and I couldn't understand it), as being supreme Deity. And the old judges used to do it in Israel, had to be white-headed. And the white stands for purity. And the English judges to this day, in supreme courts of England, put on a white wig when they come up, because there's no other law above theirs on earth. See? And they're supreme judge.

⁴⁶ And I remember I went there in Arizona and everything; I was trying my best to... scared to death. I went to Phoenix meeting. And you remember I preached the sermon, "Sirs, What Time Is It?" You remember that? I said that I seen that, I said, "Before it comes to pass, remember, THUS SAITH THE LORD, something's going to happen." You've probably got the tapes in your library of tape now. And there I said, "You remember now the visions that never fails. Something's going to happen. Remember."

⁴⁷ And a few days after that, I was getting nervous, and I thought, "What I... just... Am I going to die? If... I hope it's quick so I can get over it. I don't want to linger."
And one morning the Lord said, "Go up in the top of Sabino Canyon."
And I was up there holding up my hands, praying. I felt something strike my hand. It was a sword. Now, you can just imagine how you'd feel, standing there by yourself and here's a knife in your hand about that long. I pulled it down and looked at it. It was just a knife, one of them... And I'm scared of a knife, anyhow. And it had a--it had a--a metal, something like one of these knives, like pot metal or something, real sharp and narrow. Had a sheath around it here, where the dueler's used to, to keep from cutting one another's hands, and--and it had a pearl in the handle here, just fit my hand exactly. Well, I rubbed my face and looked back. (Right on that same spot, the other day, I saw a little white dove come down. I'll tell you about that later on.)

⁵⁰ And I was holding that in my hand; I thought, "That's strange. Now, Lord, I--am I losing my mind? There's no one here. I'm miles from anybody, and here is a sword. I had my hands up, and where did it come from?" And I thought, "That's the strangest thing. Now, looky here; it's a sword; see, hit it, and it was a sword." And I said, "There's nobody here standing here. I'm up on top of these rocks, plumb on top of the mountain." And you couldn't even see Tucson from there, it was so far down.

⁵¹ I thought, "Now, that's a strange thing. Now, it's got to be in this vicinity somewhere, somebody that could create and make a sword and put it in my hand." And I said, "It could only be the very God that created a ram for Abraham, could create those squirrels" that you've heard. And I said, "Here is the material, three different kinds of material in it, and I'm holding it in my hand just as real as anything else I could hold in my hand."
And I heard a Voice, said, "That's the King's Sword."
And I thought, "Now, where did that come from? Was right along there in them rocks somewhere." And I held up my hand like that; I said, "A king's sword."

⁵³ And I looked around, and the sword was gone. And I said, "A king's sword." That's to... They knight with--with a sword; I think that's right, the army or some way; they knight with it. You know, and I said, "Well, that's what that was probably for. It means that maybe I'm to lay hands upon ministers, or something like that to make them ministers." And then I...
A Voice spoke back again, said, "THE King's Sword," not a king, THE King's Sword. See?
I thought, "Now, I'm either beside myself; my mind has slipped, or there's something taking place, there's somebody standing around here by me."

⁵⁶ And, brethren, these things are true. I don't--I don't know how to tell you; you've always seen it always happen that way. See? See? And it's... I couldn't understand it. It's a--it's the strangest feeling.
And just then I thought, "Now, ever Who that is has talked to me all my life, since a little, bitty baby boy, is standing right here, and I can't see Him at all." I said, "The King's Sword?" That would be... God is the King. "And what is this sword?"
"The Word, It's been placed in your hand." Said, "Don't fear of death; it's your ministry."

⁵⁹ Oh, my. Down off that mountain I went, crying, screaming, top of my voice, jumping over rocks. I went down, told my wife; I said, "I'm not going to die (See?), it's--it's--it's my ministry." I told her to get with Billy Paul here, and take the children. I said, "Now, I don't have anything, but the church will see that you all don't go hungry and things, and I'll--I'll meet you across the border."
And--and so I said, "No, I'm not going to die, it's something about my ministry."

⁶⁰ A few days after that I was coming out from a meeting, had a three page telegram, was from over here at Houston, Texas. And that man that criticized me so bad the night that the Angel of the Lord was taken, the picture of It taken there at Houston, he called me up, he said--sent a telegram, the wife said, "I know, Brother Branham, you're busy. My son, Ted Kipperman's sister's boy, is setting in the death row to die in the chair." Said... (what if that was Billy Paul?). He said, "He and a little girl has got to die." And you all read it in the paper, of course. And said, "Only hope we have is for you come and hold a meeting and get the people together."

⁶¹ And Raymond Huckstra had already wrote me several times, but you know, I'd planned there at that meeting to go on a hunting trip with Mr. McAnally and them. And I thought, "Well, if I let them kids die and don't put my effort forth, I'll never be able to go hunting again."
So I said, "All right, I'll come." I come over to Houston, had the meeting, and 'course the--they never killed them, they just they give them life. And that's what they wanted them to do, just give them life. So that's about twenty one years, I guess, in--in Texas.

⁶³ So then, and going back, I went up in the mountain and I went with Brother Fred Sothmann. He's here somewhere. Brother Fred, where are you at? Right here. Brother Fred Sothmann, Brother Gene Norman; one day, the second day setting there, the Angel of the Lord came right down into the camp where we was at and begin to tell about their children and things they were doing.
I left and went back on the hill. And I'd already got my javelina; I was trying to chase one around to Brother Fred. So I found where they'd been eating on the side of a hill, and I said, "Well, now, I'll tell you what I'll do, Brother Fred." I said, "Now, you go over on that point in the morning." We go up there at daylight, climb up over the mountain. "And go there at daylight, I'll get over on the other side. Now, I won't shoot one, but if they run this way, I'll shoot in front of them and turn them back. You pick out a big one."
"All right," he said.

⁶⁶ So Brother Fred went over there. And Brother Gene Norman (I don't think Brother Gene come, did he?), he was--he was on the other side. Many of you know Gene Norman, a bosom friend of many, fine brother. And he went down a little below where the--them pigs, they just wasn't there that morning. I could see Brother Fred, wave at him, he was about a mile away from me. Well, I thought, "Where could they have went?" I went down into a great ravine, and come down; I thought, "I'll see if I can find where they're at." Started back up. It was just a little after daylight; the sun was just begin coming up.

⁶⁷ And I went around a great big chasm, oh, my, hundreds and hundreds of feet, just great rocks in the great canyon there, them big walls. And it was kindly getting... The sun was raising up, about seven o'clock, I guess, or something like that. And I set down and I was looking around; I happened to look down on my trouser leg and there was that bull-header, burr. And I said, "You know, that seems strange. You know, the Angel of the Lord told me I'd be about forty miles northeast of Tucson; I'd be picking a bull-header off of my leg." You remember I seen it? Uh-huh. See? And I said, "That's strange." I was holding it.

⁶⁸ And just as I looked up, I seen about twenty hogs about five hundred yards from me, come out eating this little phyllary and laid down. I said, "Now, if I can just get Brother Fred and get him around to that point there, he'll get his hog right there. But I know he's about a mile or two from me now." So I said, "if I could cross over this little ridge without them seeing me, up by this little juniper tree there," I said, "if I get around this side, there's a deer trail comes down this side; I can run up there and get out of the way. And hang a little piece of paper here where I know which one of the fingers to go out on, on the canyon, and get Brother Fred there just in time."

⁶⁹ I throwed this little bull-header down, forgetting about that, and started across the hill real easy and looked back, they didn't see me, and run down and hit this deer trail. I had a great big black hat on. I started running up through this canyon real fast, and it happened.
The whole earth shook, everywhere. Rocks that size rolled down, dust flying like that. And I looked, and standing before me stood seven Angels, just exactly the way it was. I felt like I was standing way up off the ground. First, I thought somebody'd shot me, you know, with that black hat on; looked like a javelina hog, anyhow, you know, they're dark. I thought somebody'd shot me, such a... right close. And I--I seen then what it was. Well, as soon as... I got my commission, and the Scripture, "The Seven Seals which is the seven mysteries..." See?

⁷¹ Someone said to me, said, "Now..." Oh, he said, "Well, now, someday the Lord, probably you seeing visions, Brother Branham, will reveal to you what these things are; we can all get closer to God and have more power than we get in speaking in tongues and things."
I said, "It can't be that way."
'Cause, see, I believe the Word to be the Truth. And the Bible said, "Whosoever shall add one word or take one Word from It." It has to be in this Word. See? It's the mysteries that the people's overlooked. Well, right there is where come my Message of serpent seed and the true belief of the security of the believer.

⁷⁴ I'm not disgrading my Presbyterian brethren there, and some of you Baptist brethren on the way you have security. I'm not saying this to be different, but you didn't have it just right. See? That's right. See? But I had it wrong too. But when an Angel stands from heaven and tells you, and here it is right in the Scripture, that--that's true. See? That's right. See, He always speaks exact with the Scripture.

⁷⁵ In there I watched it until that circle went up, started sweeping up, and they turned into like a mystic light, like a fog. Just exactly the way... How many seen the picture of It that was taken in Houston? Nearly all. See? Well, that's just the way this was. It turned into the same thing, It kept going higher and higher.
I was running and running, trying to find Brother Fred and them. After while, about a half hour later, I could see him way down, waving his hands; and Brother Gene coming, waving. They knowed something had happened. And so then I got with them. That's Brother Fred setting right there.

⁷⁷ As it went up, I didn't know that the observatories and things, plumb into Mexico, was taking that picture. "Life" magazine packed it as It went up. And many of you... Here's "Life" magazine packing the picture of It. A mysterious thing here, they said they don't know where it come from; it's too high. It's above all the spheres and everything else to be... It's too high for fog, because it's thirty miles high and twenty-seven miles across after it got up that high. There's not even humidity nor nothing up there. You see?

⁷⁸ And they thought of a plane; so they checked all the places, no planes up that day. See, they have to, on account of shaking windows and things. "There's no planes up." Here it is right here in the magazine, will tell you the same thing. And--and it went on and on. And today right in the...
Here it is in "Science" magazine, where they can't understand; they don't know what It is.
Tucson, at the university, a friend of mine went over the other day and was talking to them about it. Said, "We can't understand what..."
I said, "Don't say nothing, don't do no good. 'Cast not your pearls before swine.'" See? It's to the church, to the elected, the called-out. See?

⁸² And then each one was coming, saying, "Brother Branham, I see your picture here. I see this. I..." You know how it is. But that--that long sweep as this brother has on here where its... Excuse me [Brother Branham gets the photograph--Ed.]. Here's the way It started up, sweeping up. Actually this was on the right hand side. And you all remember I said, "The noted Angel was the one that talked to me, was on the right hand side," even before it happened. You remember? His wings pointed back like that, that's exactly the wings of that Angel as it went up. See, as it... So they started taking the pictures because it was so mysterious. But when the last picture, when It formed Itself into the skies and so forth, this is it as "Look" here packed it. You see how it rose up just as they begin to see it. You see? And there comes the--the real main and last picture, when it formed.

⁸³ They don't know where it come from or where it went; they don't know yet. Science is completely stumped about it, don't know what happened. But we know; "there shall be signs in the heaven above." We know it. See? And He promised these things. See? And the only thing that this was permitted to be taken...
I know we're just home folks here this morning. If I ever impress you brethren or sisters as a know-it-all, please forgive me. I don't mean to be that. I'm stand--setting here this morning talking before men who are scholars, men who are smart; now, I--I'm a illiterate; I can't even pronounce my Scriptures right. I got a chapter to read this morning, I'm... was going to ask one of the brothers here to read it for me, 'cause I can't even pronounce the names in it, I Chronicles 13 (if you will, Brother Jack, you be hunting it up), for my subject. I--I can't even pronounce those names; I'm letting him do it, 'cause he can pronounce them.
And I know I'm talking to smart men. But, brethren, these things are done that you might not look at my illiteracy, but believe that I'm telling you the Truth. It's God telling you the Truth. That's the Truth. See?

⁸⁶ Now, and when I speak of denominations, I'm not meaning for you to be so cruel and... No, I don't mean for you not to go to your church. Go to your church, what you're supposed to do. But just don't join up with them organizations, because one day I'll be telling you and prove it by the Scripture; it is the mark of the beast. And you just remember, it's the mark.

⁸⁷ I'm preaching... I wouldn't preach it in Brother Jack's church, he'd tell me, "Go ahead and do it"; but I'm going to the Tabernacle, it'll be about four hours long. And my subject is: The Beast at the Beginning and the Beast at the End, Through the Trail of a Serpent. See? Takes about four hours. I got my Scriptures all laying out. The beast from the beginning, he was the beast at the garden of Eden; he's the beast at the end, and show that he's a religious person and a denomination (that made the denomination); and come right through the trail of it, and prove it to you by the Scriptures that it is. I didn't know that till the Holy Spirit give it to me the other day up there.

⁸⁸ Now, in this, I was watching this one day, standing, and something said to me... looking at it, and I thought... Brother Hickerson, one of my trustees--or deacons at the church at Jeffersonville... If I don't believe in going to church, why do I have churches? We had them all across the country, hooked up the other night, every two hundred square miles had one of my churches.
Now, this--this picture, I was standing, looking at it, and something... I was standing in my room. Something said, "Turn it to the right."
Now, listen. I know that sounds like somebody's a little mentally upset, but (You see?), as I said the other night, all these great things are so scholarly... Now, I'm not against that. Remember, we have to have... Now, send your children to school and get education and so forth; but I'll tell you right now, it won't do them no good in the world that is to come, 'cause there'll be another civilization, only so far above this. That civilization won't even have any... It won't have any schools in it; it won't have any death in it, won't be any sin in it. This has all that; no matter how much civilized we get, more and more death is added all the time. See? That one will be without death. But now we have to have school; we have to wear clothes, we...

⁹¹ I was going to speak this morning on Satan's Eden (many of you's got the tape of it), Satan's Eden. He has made another garden of Eden, and six thousand years it's taken him to make it, just like God did His at the beginning. God made His Eden, and Satan corrupted it. Now, Satan's made his own Eden, and God's going to destroy it (That's right.) and put His own.
Something said to me, "Turn it right."
I thought, "I think I'm looking at it right."
Said, "Turn it right." See?
I thought, "Maybe that Voice means turn it to the right." And when I did, you see what it is: Hofmann's Head of Christ, at thirty-three. Here, looky here, see His dark beard, His face, His eyes, His nose, and everything else. See the part in His hair here coming up. And He's wigged with that white Angel wig to show that the Message of Him being God is the Truth. He is the supreme Judge of the universe, supreme Judge of heaven and earth. He is God, and nothing else but God. He is God expressed in human form called the Son of God, which the Son was the mask. And if that don't make our Message exactly right: identified by the Scripture, identified in service, identified by His Presence, the same yesterday, today, and forever... Therefore those Seven Seals are the Truth, brethren. Might disagree with them, but just set down and study with a open heart one time, just let the Holy Spirit lead you from...

⁹³ Here, when Brother Jack... I called him before preaching this and talked to him one time about "What was this white wig?"
He said, "Well, Brother Branham, I declare it to be that it was in His--after His resurrection in His glorified body." I was talking to Brother Jack. And there's... I don't know of anybody in the world that I'd rely on anymore of their teachings on theology and things as I would like Brother Jack Moore and Brother Vayle, and such men as--as that, real theologians, that's read all kinds of books and different angles from everything. Well, but (You see?), even with that, and my bosom friend, I--I--I just couldn't receive it; there was something there just wouldn't take it.

⁹⁵ And then when it come, this, then I see what it is. Here's His dark beard. You seen It, I guess. See? His dark beard and dark hair, His eyes, nose, everything, just perfectly, and even the part in His hair coming over on this side. He is God. See? And He's the same yesterday, today, and forever. And this is "Look" magazine--or "Life" magazine. I think this is the... I forget what issue it is now; oh, May the seventeenth, 1963. That's when it come out, if anybody wants the magazine. It's the same picture that's got Rockefeller and his--his wife on the back of it. And this is the new "Science" magazine that "it's still a mystery."

⁹⁶ What did I say these things for? That it might give you a little view of the things that we're trying to say, that God is identifying both in heavens and in earth to be right, these discernments, visions. We have plenty of impersonations, we always. But remember, before there can be a bogus dollar, there has to be a real dollar first; first has to be a real dollar, and then they're made off of that. Just like we had a real Moses and a real Aaron, then we had a Jambres and Jannes after them. You see how it all comes? They see it and then they try to impersonate that, when there's truly one original. That's right. Not saying that to harm, or to degrade, or misplace something, but just for Truth; to know that I...

⁹⁷ I'm getting to be an old man, and I know my time ain't too long. If Jesus tarries, I may--could stay a little while; but I know that someday this heart's going to make its last beat, and I'm entering into a great, dark chamber there called death. But when that comes, I don't want anything to have to look back for, to try to repent for. I want, when I come to that time, to be clean and pure by the grace of God. I want to wrap myself in the robes of His righteousness, when I enter there with this one thing in my mind: I know Him in the power of His resurrection; and when He calls, I'll come out from among the dead and live with Him forever. And it's my purpose here now to try to get every man, not to change your theologies or nothing, but to increase your faith in God's promise of this day. Now, let us pray.

⁹⁸ Dear God, we are a grateful people this morning, but yet, Lord, we're living in a dark world that... There isn't a one of us here this morning, Father, but what feels that we--we want a closer walk with You, we want that--that touch of You in our lives that can tender us, and make us flexible so that You can change us at anytime, and mold us into sons and daughters of God. That--that's our purpose here, Father, that's--that's my only objective that I have is to try to--to live before You and to get Your Word and speak It back to the men and women that, not to be a different person, but to try to honor Him Who's give me Life. Grant it, Lord.

⁹⁹ May there not be a person here today... Or--or if--if we're hooked up this morning across the nation again, may there not be a person that's in the sound of our voice ever have to go into that great chamber not knowing You in the power of Your resurrection. If there be sinners somewhere across the country, that, or in this building, this great auditorium, setting here this morning... If there are those who don't know You, may this be the day that their conscience will be shook, woke up, and they'll realize that they don't know what minute that we may be called or summoned to answer for our lives on high. And if our name is still on that stalk book, doomed we'll be; but if it's in the Lamb's Book of Life, the real Life, then we are saved.
And may, Lord, as that Life travels from the blade into the pollen, into the shuck, then to the grain, while we're passing through this morning if there be some Life that goes into the grain that's laying back in that stalk, bring it out today, Lord, may it follow the moving of the grain, for we ask it in Jesus' Name. Amen.

¹⁰¹ Sorry to take so much time. I'd forgot about this even being on the radio time out there, the phone time.
Now, let us turn for our reading. And Brother Jack, if you got your Bible there? While I'm finding my Scripture, I'll ask Brother Jack to read this Scripture because I cannot pronounce these names. All right. It's in I Chronicles 13...?... [Brother Jack Moore reads I Chronicles, chapter 13:

¹⁰³ Thank you, Brother Moore, for the reading of the Scripture for me. Now, sorry I couldn't read that myself, but I--I couldn't do it.
Now, I want you to turn with me to Mark 7:7, and we'll read the first seven verses of St. Mark the 7th chapter.

¹⁰⁵ Let us pray. Dear God, honor Your Word now, and may It accomplish that which It is purposed for. Use us as instruments to speak It, and our ears to hear from You, and our hearts to receive It. We ask in Jesus' Name, for the glory of God. Amen.

¹⁰⁶ Now, my subject for a few moments is this... I... We are on the national telephone hookup this morning. And I understand that my good friend, Roy Borders, is listening in, pretty well tore up about last night. I'd forgot that we were on the radio, or this hookup last night. Roy, wherever you are, if you're over in San Jose in the church there, or either down to Brother McHughes' church, or wherever you are, don't fear, my brother, everything will be all right. Set still, you just... He'll make it known to me, Roy; don't weary, son, have faith in God.

¹⁰⁸ My subject this morning is: "Trying To Do God A Service Without It Being God's Will." Now, that's a strange text, and I trust that the Lord will reveal this to us now. Remember: Trying to do God a service without it being the Will of God. Now, that seems very strange. But in this maybe God can help us.

¹⁰⁹ Another thing I'd like to say this morning, that we're glad to have in our midst a friend of mine, a very dear friend, a young fellow. Many of you people on the radio now can--or the--on the telephone hookup, knows who this is. Today is his birthday, ninety-three years old, Brother Bill Dauch setting here before me, ninety-three years old.
Several years ago the doctor said, "He cannot live." (I just noticed him setting here now.) Under oxygen tent, and his lovely wife called me and said, "Brother Branham, if you expect to see your old friend Bill alive, you better come at once."

¹¹¹ And I... One of my tires was cut on the side, my wheel had been knocked out, and I tore a tire off of my car trying to get to him. I was just coming from a--a--a station, filling station, and coming from the restroom where I stopped in Ohio trying to get to him, and walking out I saw a vision. And there stood Brother Dauch, standing in the church with his hand out; it changed, and I seen he coming down the street and shook my hand. Said, "Go tell him, THUS SAITH THE LORD."
He was about ninety years old then. He had a heart attack with a heart block, and a complete heart failure. Very shrewd doctor the man is not... he don't want... I... No won't say that. He's just a man who can afford, get any doctor he'd want. He had a very fine Jewish doctor who met me in the hall and said, "There's not a chance for him to live."
And I went in and slipped my hand under the oxygen tent; I said, "Bill, can you hear me?" He nodded his head. I said, "THUS SAITH THE LORD, 'You're not going to die now.'"

¹¹⁴ A week from then, when I got in the pulpit to preach my message, here come Brother Dauch walking up through the building. And when I went over to Furr's Restaurant, across... I mean the Blue Boar, across in Louisville, here he was getting out of the car, coming down the street, holding his hand out, just exactly according to the Word of the Lord. That's three or four years ago; and here he sets all the way down here in Shreveport (crosses the nation, not by plane now, by car), setting here this morning. "Happy birthday, Brother Dauch." That's from all across the nation, from everywhere. "God bless you."

¹¹⁵ I baptized him, after being a trinitarian, I baptized him when he... Was one of my first meetings, when Brother Banks Wood had to let him have his clothes (He's a good-size man, as you see.), and he went into the pool and I baptized him at about eighty-five or ninety years old, in the Name of the Lord Jesus. He said he never could feel right until he found that security of something. Then he received a birthday where he'll never grow old. That's right, that great land. He even is expecting to live to see the coming of the Lord; it could be done. But if he would sleep, he--and we are awake at that time, he'll come first. That's right. So, Brother Dauch, there's no way now to miss it. You're exactly on the line. Stay there, my brother. God bless you. And I thank the Lord for a good man like that, and for giving him all of these years.

¹¹⁶ In the Book of the Chronicles: "Trying to do God a service without it being His Will." God is sovereign. First we want to understand that. The people today are wondering why we can't have a revival. You believe God's sovereign? See, the Bible speaks this way.
And we try... As I was discussing with a group of my fine brothers, Baptist brethren, not long ago, and they said, "Brother Branham, we can only have a revival when we take the Word, word by word, page by page, letter by letter."
And I said, "I believe too, page by page." He said... I said, "They've been trying to do that all along."
He said, "But we must find the Greek interpretation of the Word, what the Greek says."
I said, "I haven't read too much, but reading the history of the church, and the Nicaea Council, or the pre-Nicaea Council, and Nicaea fathers, so forth, they were arguing back there about the Greek. That's two thousand years ago. One said, 'It means this', and one says, 'It means that. The Greek word means this.'"

¹²¹ Just like our language, the word "see." Use the word "see," you could mean "a body of water," "I understand," or many things. Bored, "to be boring a hole," "make a walk," or--or "you bored me," or "you paid my board," or it could mean any--many things. And those little vowels and so forth, just change the whole meaning. So you'll never do it like that. God wrote It like that, because the...
And all of the Word is inspired, and He said that, "I thank Thee, Father, that Thou has hid these things from the eyes of the wise and prudent, and will reveal (Amen.) to babes such as will learn." It's a revelation of Him, as I said last evening, "Will reveal It to babes..."
I said, "It won't work, sir." I said, "A revival will never come until God, the sovereign God, sends it; and then He might take up a little nitwit that can't even sign his name and do it with it, that knows not even good English let alone the Greek."

¹²⁴ That's what He done in the time when Peter preached at Pentecost, you know; he couldn't even sign his name: ignorant and unlearned. But God does things in such strange way to our intellectual thinking. That makes it God. If He'd got a bunch of theologians and dignitaries, and so forth, they'd said, "That smart Caiaphas (You see?), he had it just right." But God went down and got fishermen that couldn't even sign their name, and that's what He took. That's God; He takes something that's nothing and makes something out of it to His own honor. He took a chaos and made a Eden. It's God.

¹²⁵ Now, if there's anybody got the mechanics for a revival, is our noble brother, Billy Graham. But the mechanics is all right, but the mechanics won't move it; it takes the dynamics to move it. You can build an automobile, put fine seats in it, make fine pistons, and--and prove by science what it can do; but unless the dynamics is there, she's just a dead piece of goods.
So in the Welsh revival, one of our late revivals before our Pentecostal, no one knowed what started the revival, just a bunch of people.
Now, when we get all... Our friend, Billy Graham, will get all of the Presbyterians, and Lutherans, and Pentecostals, and everything together, go into the city, and there they'll have a great gathering together of thousands, and thirty thousand will come in two weeks and give their hearts to Christ; go back another two weeks and you ain't got a one. See? That's the mechanics.
But let God in His sovereign grace just speak to some little nitwit, as so to say, a little nobody; let His Spirit fall into a city and men can't go to work, women can't wash dishes, the maid can't make the bed, a-screaming and crying with their hands up in the air. That's revival; that's in the will of God.

¹²⁸ It was said that some noblemen from the church went over to the Wales to understand, or figure out what all the mechanics was in the revival, during the Welsh revival. And when they got off the ship with their tall hats on, and their round collars; see come down the street, a little policeman, swinging his club around and around like that, whistling, they said, "My good man, could you tell me where the Welsh revival is?"
He said, "Yes, my brethren; you're standing in the middle of it." He said, "You understand, I am the Welsh revival," said, "because the Welsh revival's in me."

¹³⁰ That's sovereign. That's what God does, and He alone has a right to send a revival. Not get the mechanics together, it's pray for God to send the dynamic--dynamics.
He only reveals His Word in the predestinated. Now, when I use the word "predestinate"... Now, it's a bad word to use in public, especially when we have mixed crowds between the Arminians and the Calvinists. And not a... I've asked you not to think I know It all, but they're both wrong according to the Scripture. Grace is what God did for me, works is what I do for Him. See? Then you've got it. If you climb out on either one of the limbs, you'll sure find yourself out on the end of the limb and can't get back. The Book of Ephesians pulls it together; I think.
Now, but the word, when I use it, "predestinated," don't think that I'm... That's the only word I know how to--to make... It's God's foreknowledge (See?), that He know. He--He can't say... He--He died that all might be saved; He did; but by His foreknowledge He knowed who would and who would not. See? That's what He knows; I don't know it; you don't know it, so we work out our own salvation with fear and trembling.

¹³³ Now, but God has His Word set, and has in all ages. His foreknowledge has caused Him to set in the church, and in the people, certain things that He did from the beginning. And then the Gospel that's being preached to that age is only revealed to that certain people; the rest of them don't see it. See? "Thank Thee, Father, Thou has hid these things from the eyes of the wise and prudent, and reveal it to babes such as would learn." That's predestination. Not that He did it by, you say, "I'll choose you, and don't choose you." By His foreknowledge He knowed what you would do.
By Him being infinite... You believe He's infinite? If He isn't, He can't be God. Then, just think, being infinite He knew every flea that would ever be on the earth, how many times them fleas would bat their eyes, how much tallow was in each flea, every blade of grass it would ever set on; that's infinite. We're finite; we stumble in darkness. God likened us to sheep, and we must have a leader. And that leader's not man; that Leader is the Holy Ghost, the Spirit of Christ among us. "A little while and the world seeth Me no more." His physical Being was raised up to the throne of God, where the Spirit was on the throne; now Christ is on the throne: Jesus. "A little while and the world seeth Me no more, yet ye shall see Me, for I'll be with you to the end of the world, even in you." The throne of God, of Christ, is erected into your heart; and He's setting on God's throne; but in the millennium He sets on His own throne; which, He swore that He'd raise up this man, His Son, David's Son, to set on His throne.

¹³⁵ Now, He reveals these things by His foreknowledge to those who He has ordained to these things; otherwise they don't see it. Stand right there looking right at it and can't see it.
How many ever seen that picture of a cow in the bush, that you just have to look and look? Did you ever see that? Or, seen the picture of Christ in a bush, or in the sky, or clouds? See, that painter has got that so fixed up till you have to look at it just a certain way. Well, then, when you once see it, you can't see nothing else but that. Every time you look, there it is. How many's seen those pictures? Well, sure you have.
Well, that's the way Christ is Himself, the Gospel, the message is. When you once see the message of the hour, there's nothing else you can see but that. That's all. Everything else is gone; the rest of it's just a filler (See, see?) when you once see the message.

¹³⁸ That's--was in Noah's time. When Noah and his group...?... When they saw the message, nothing else mattered. When Moses' group saw it, nothing else mattered. When John's group saw it, nothing else mattered. When Jesus' group saw it, nothing else mattered. When the apostles' group saw it, nothing else mattered. When Luther's group saw it, Wesley's group saw it, Pentecostal group saw it, nothing else mattered; they pulled away from everything. Why? By His foreknowledge He predestinated these things to happen.

¹³⁹ He chooses His own person by His foreknowledge. Like He said in Romans 8 here, that Esau--that the--that the election of God might stand sure... That Esau and Jacob both borned of holy parents, twins, that His election might stand sure and true, He said, "I hate Esau and love Jacob," before either boy was born. See? He knows what's in man. He knowed it from the beginning what it was; therefore He can make everything work just exactly on clock time. We get all nervous and flusterated; you never seen Him flusterated; they don't. See? Everything's working all right; just exactly, the clock's ticking.
These things that's supposed to happen, all these women with short hair, and these men wearing their--like they got hair like their wives. I see them, absolutely, have these roller-curlers in their hair, curl it up here in front. What a perversion. That's the results of Satan's eden. And look at her, she's trying to cut her hair like her husband. Her husband's letting his hair grow like his wife. And she is wearing his clothes, and he's wearing her underneath clothes. See, there you are. She's getting masculine, and he's getting feminish. See, it's Satan's eden, contrary to what God made it at the beginning. That's the Truth.

¹⁴¹ If I don't get started, we'll never get into this. But these things, and the way for Him to do it, and who'll do it, that's His own chosen way; He chooses. That's the way He wants it done.
As I heard Brother Pearry Green, our pastor at Tucson, preaching the other night about how that God made things some way (I forget what his text was.), but he said, "That's the way God likes it; that's the way God does it." Well, that's right.
Now, who is it among us that's going to tell Him He's wrong? Who would dare to stand up in God's face, and say, "You're wrong, Lord, You should do it the way I want it done, the way Dr. So-and-so said it should be done"? Who is that far gone in their mental faculties to say a thing like that? No, you wouldn't come out and say it, but you think it.

¹⁴⁴ Like on my Message of the antichrist, "There shall rise false christs." Now, He didn't say false Jesuses. See, nobody would stand still to be called "Jesus," in the term of the Lord. But false christs means "the anointed."
Oh, they, each one thinks they got anointing, "Glory to God, he can do this and do that." But put him on the Word test and find out where he comes out at (See?), on the message of the hour.
They had anointing in the time of Jesus, but not on him. They had anointing in the time... Even Dathan had anointing in the time of Moses. He said, "Now, don't you think you're the only holy one among us; God's got plenty. We'll just start an organization here, a group of men."
God said to Moses, "Separate yourself from him." He opened up the earth and swallowed them up. He had give His original Word to Moses, His prophet; that's the only way He ever did do it, and the only way He ever will do it. He doesn't change His plan. See?

¹⁴⁹ So our ideas is wrong. His ideas are right always. And don't try to tell Him that He's wrong. No matter who we think is best qualified; it isn't us to say who's best qualified. Now, there's where you get in your organization.
Some little brother filled with the Spirit will go into a city and build up an organi--build up a--a nice group of people, and at the conference they'll meet, and all the holy brethren get along, you know, and say, "You know what? I believe little Jones here (He's just a little pick among them.), I think he ought to have that nice big tabernacle; I think. Don't you think that's right?" And oh, my. There he goes. And then the congregation's scattered. See?
"Separate Me." God does the separating; He's the One Who does it. But they all, each one, wants to take this little one, put him over here, and this one down here. That's man's idea.

¹⁵¹ Man has the keys, but God holds the keys actually. They give the disciples, the holy church, the keys; and watch the first time they used it. When Judas had fell by transgression, they got together and cast lots, and the holy brethren... Who would say they wasn't holy brethren? Who say they wasn't holy? But they cast lots, and it fell on Matthias. And when he... What did he ever do? Nothing. But Paul was the elected one. Amen. That was God's choosing: a little, hook-nosed, sarcastic, high-tempered Jew. Not the Matthias, the D.D., you know, he--he was... But Paul; God chose Paul; the church chose--chose Matthias. See? You have no right to tell God He's wrong. He knows what to do; He knows what the man's made out of.
Who would ever of that church ever chose Paul? Oh, no, never. Said, "That guy's the one that's putting us all in jail."
But God said, "I'll show him what he'll suffer for Me." He know what.
All right, no matter who we think is right, God knows who's best qualified because He knows the heart of man; He knows.

¹⁵⁵ Nor does the revival, or does these things happen at the time that we think they ought to happen. We think, "It's this time right now, glory to God." I notice in out chapters and so forth of the Business Men, "There's coming right away, hallelujah, a great revival."
Don't be deceived, "He has already come, and they did to Him what was list." But they think there's a revival. Is it happening? No! It's done, dead; it's over (uh-huh). Notice, this is lamp trimming time, coming out and going in. "They that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength."

¹⁵⁷ Notice here in our text, notice David, king of Israel; he was the one who got the revelation of bringing the ark of God back to his place; that they never consulted it in the days of Saul 'cause Saul had backslid. So they never consulted the ark at all, the covenant, in the days of Saul, 'cause he had backslid and got away from God. So David, quickly, with inspiration... Now, notice this. It's a very treacherous text if you don't get it right. And I feel that the hour is coming where we should be men instead of babies. We should have strong meat instead of milk.

¹⁵⁸ Notice David, king of Israel, the king had just been freshly anointed the king, or elected king, Saul... Samuel anointed him by the will of God; and he was absolutely God's chosen king, no doubt to it. And here he is, and inspiration strikes him. It was revealed to David. He got the revelation; nobody else had said nothing about it. "Let us go and fetch the ark, 'cause that's the will of God that we have the ark here with us, that we consult God by this ark." Very, very gallant thing, don't you think so? All right.

¹⁵⁹ Remember, but, him being king and got the revelation, he overstepped his place. There was a prophet in the land by the name of Nathan; he was the one that was ordained to get the revelation. There's anything to be spoke; He said, "The Lord doeth nothing until He reveals it to His servants the prophet." But, you see, David being king, with the anointing upon him... Now, is that the Scripture? Anointing upon him, and got a true revelation; but it was wrong. Because Nathan was the prophet of that age, and the revelation never come to Nathan, and when the revelation come to David he never even consulted Nathan about it. He's just going to go ahead and do what he wanted to do.

¹⁶⁰ But notice who David consulted here in the 13th chapter, "But he consulted the captains of thousands and of hundreds," back to his congregation. See? "Now, don't you think we should do..." That isn't it. Now, he was trying to do God a service, but he wasn't ordained to do it (See?), 'cause God had a way.
Just the same as God could've spoke to the--the king about his sore and getting well, but He didn't. He had a ordained way of doing it; that was His prophet. So He spoke to the prophet. Isaiah told him to go back and tell Hezekiah what would happen.
Now, Hezekiah was talking face to face with God, and--and God could talk to Hezekiah, of course, but He made certain channels. You understand it? God has His Own set way of doing things: sending revivals, talking, speaking, whatever it is. He has His way of doing it, and we are nobody to tell Him how to do it. He does it the way it pleases Him to do it.

¹⁶³ So you see, David, being inspired... Now, you remember I said the anointing, the false anointing? Remember the Holy Spirit can come and anoint a person, and still it's out of the will of God. Here proves it right here. See? We have to go through God's way of doing it, not our ways, God's way of doing it. 'Cause, David being a king, anointed, anointed with the Spirit of God upon him (a type of Jesus Christ), but that wasn't God's channel.
And all the congregation, it pleased them, the Bible said. Notice, captains of thousands and of hundreds, also the priests and theologians thought that was wonderful. There is your Bible schools and everything else; they thought it was wonderful. Even all of the people agreed, and the priests, and--and all of them agreed that the king's anointing was right. Notice. But God had not promised to reveal His Word in Its season to them. God had His way of revealing His Word, but not to them. Remember, it was contrary to God.

¹⁶⁵ Something like in the days of Micaiah the son of Imlah. Do you remember that story? Judah and Israel were separated, and they had two different kingdoms, and Ahab was the king over one kingdom. And Jehoshaphat was over the king--kingdom of Judah, I believe it was; and Ahab was over Israel, Jerusalem.
Notice, and then here come in a bunch of alien and took off part of the God-given land that God had give to Israel, and these Philistines up there, Syrians, were holding that ground and was feeding their own children off of the ground that belonged to Israel. And so they needed that ground to feed their own children and their own families. God gave them... That was their God-given rights.

¹⁶⁷ And so Ahab calls down Jehoshaphat, and said, "Come down." He said, "Looky there what our enemy's doing. Is it right that we, the people of God, with a God-given right that we should have this land... It belongs to us, God through His prophet, Joshua, divided this land; it should be ours; it belongs to us, to our children; and here the communists has took it over, and we have... We're so hungry, and they got our God-given rights. Don't you think that we should go up there and take our land back? If you'll join your forces: if you Methodists, and Presbyterians, and all, and Presbyterians, and Lutheran, and so forth, all take the ecumenical council here now, we'll all set together, and we'll take the thing." (I'm saying and speaking in a parable now) "We'll go get it."
"Why," he said, "certainly, we're all one."
Now, the Bible said, "How can two walk together except they be agreed?" See?
There where that great man, that great Pentecostal man, Jehoshaphat, got mixed up with the wrong crowd. And that's what happened to our Pentecostals today. There's some real men in there, but they're mixed up in that denominational crowd. Get out of that thing. It's cursed of the Lord.

¹⁷¹ Notice now. There he was, and he said, "Yes, that sounds reasonable." Said, "Our chariots is yours, our people; after all, we're all Jews. Sure, we'll go up with you." But is this enough religion left in Jehoshaphat to say, "Don't you think we should consult the Lord first?" See? "I think it'd be a good idea."
Why, Ahab, of course, said, "Why, oh, sure, I should've thought of that."
"Well, is there a man of God somewhere? Have you got a prophet?"
"Oh, I got four hundred of them. I got the whole council down here, the whole denomination. They're Hebrew prophets."

¹⁷⁵ Now, remember, the Bible said they were prophets, Hebrew prophets, not heathen prophets, Hebrew prophets: a school of them, a theological seminary.
"Well, bring them up!"
And the kings dressed themselves and set before him to impress the prophets. And here come, I believe it was Zedekiah come up, the great chief of the district councilmen, or ever what he was, come up there among them. He made hisself two big horns; he said, "I have heard from God. THUS SAITH THE LORD, 'With these horns you'll push the Syrians plumb out of the land.'"
"O glory!" everybody thought that was wonderful, fine.

¹⁷⁹ Watch how close it gets to that razor edge now between right and wrong. And remember, it'll fall on one or the other sides; and it comes down sometime like a honed razor between the difference of right and wrong. It's got to be every Word of God, not just almost every Word, but every Word. And it's got down today, not to Lutherans, not to Methodists, not to Pentecostals, but to that honed age, in this age where just the antichrist anointing is so perfectly, it would deceive the very Elected; they'll fall on the wrong side if they don't watch it, like a wedge. Watch. Be careful. We're not living in a Pentecostal age now. We're passed that age, just the same we've passed Luther, and passed...

¹⁸⁰ Notice. Now, the prophets all prophesied, four hundred of them, well fed, well fixed, Hebrew prophets gave them witness, one accord, "THUS SAITH THE LORD, 'Go up; the Lord is with you.'"
Jehoshaphat said, "Well, that--that sounds all right." But said, "have--have you got another one?"
"Another one? We got the whole denomination here; we got the whole council gathered out here. Why do we need another one?"
He said, "Oh, but I thought maybe there might be another one."
He said, "Oh, yes, there is another one, but he don't even belong to this council. He's an outcast. It's Micaiah, the son of Imlah, and I hate him." See? Said, "They won't receive him into fellowship, and he's just a common outcast to begin with. And he's constantly, everything he prophesies he just won't encourage my seminary a bit. (Uh-huh) And he does all these things evil; he's always prophesying evil against me just to be different."
"Oh," Jehoshaphat said, "don't let the king say such a thing as that. But I'd like to hear what this man's got to say."
Said, "Well, we'll find him."

¹⁸⁶ So they sent out somewhere in the wilderness, and they sent a man, said, told him, said, "Now, on your road back now, I want to tell you something. You want to get back in the denomination again? (See?) Do you want to have fellowship with all of them again? If you do, say the same thing the district presbyter says; say the same thing the bishop says, and they'll bring you right back. Now is the time to do it."
But could you imagine a anointed, true prophet of God compromising on one Word of God? No indeed.
He said, "As the Lord lives, I'll only say what God says." We need a son of Imlah. "As the Lord lives, I'll only say what He says (That's right.), what He says."

¹⁹⁰ So when they got down there before the people, all the prophets, they said, "Now, you say they..."
He said, "Wait, give me tonight; let me see what the Lord's going to say." So that night the Lord appeared to Him in a vision and told him what to say.
The next morning he said, "What do you say, Imlah?" when they was all standing out--or I mean "Micaiah, son of Imlah," said, "what do you say now? We're all here together, all the priests, and all the prophets, and all the kings, and everything setting here together. What do you say now at this great council?"
Said, "Go on up," said, "but I seen Israel scattered like sheep having no shepherd."
And Ahab said, "What did I tell you? That renegade can only prophesy evil against me."
How could he say anything else when God was saying the same thing? A prophet's supposed to be the mouth of God speaking, not his own thinking. His... He just speaks. He's completely yielded to God; he don't want to hurt nothing, but he has to say what God says; 'cause he has no control of it hisself. See?

¹⁹⁷ He said, "Now, didn't I tell you?"
And then up come the--the big man with the horn and smacked him in the mouth; he said, "Which a-way went the Spirit of God when It went out of me?" In other words, let me try to break that down, "Looky here in... Looky here; I want to tell you something, Micaiah. Do you realize that I am a master in the Scriptures? Do you realize that I have the anointing?" Or, "the baptism. (We'd say it today.) Do you realize that I have that?"
Imlah said, "I'm not doubting that."
He said, "But listen. The Spirit of God has told me, and bore witness with all my four hundred here, that we're going to push the Syrians out of the land. And who are you to come around and say that our great king is going to be slain?" He said, "The Spirit of God told me that."

²⁰⁰ Let me just break it down so you understand it. And maybe we find Micaiah say, "Last night in the vision, sir, I saw God setting upon a throne. And I saw all the host of heaven gathered around Him, and they were having a council in heaven. They said, 'Who can we get to go down and deceive Ahab? Because under the throne here is a prophet, a true prophet, his name is Elijah. And he has prophesied by My Word and said that "That wicked Ahab, because he slew Naboth, the dogs will lick the blood of that wicked man," and we've got to make that come to pass, because It's already been spoken. It's THUS SAITH THE LORD. It has to come to pass, got to be there. And how are we going to do it?'"

²⁰¹ "Then down from the creeping regions of the lost, way down in there come a spirit moving up, he said, 'I'm a deceiver, and if I can do a service to you, I'll go down and get in his prophets. Because they was so organized they'll only understand one thing, and that's a little emotion. And I'll cause them to prophesy a lie. And I'll get Ahab to listen to those dignitaries instead of Your real prophet; 'cause he'll examine everything he says with your Word; he'll examine his visions by the Word; he'll examine everything he does by the Word; and if it ain't with the Word he wouldn't listen to it. But if it... I can deceive these others, and I'll... they... Ahab's got so much confidence in that great unity together of their safety, so they go around together and they'll get together. And I'll cause Ahab to listen to them, go out there. And that's how we'll do it.'"
"God said, 'You can do it, you're a real deceiver; you go on down.'"

²⁰³ And then Zedekiah smacked him in the mouth, said, "Where was you..."
He said, "You'll find out when you're setting in the inner cell." (Uh-huh.)
He said, "Go up." said Zedekiah to the king. Said, "Go up and return in peace."
Ahab said, "Take that fellow and put him into the prison. Put him in shackles; feed him bread of sorrow and water of sorrow. And when I return back with my victory from out here, which my prophets has told me that this revival's sure to happen,'" said, "I'll tend to that fellow."
Listen at Micaiah's last words to that man: "If you return at all, then God never spoke to me." Amen.
See, God has His way of doing things. These men thought they were doing God a service. Be careful. Not emotion, not enthusiasm, not imaginations, but it must be THUS SAITH THE LORD, must be right. All right, no matter... We find these things so.

²⁰⁹ Notice now when David had made this great proclamation. And it seemed like that it was good, a good thing to do, then we find out that the... (Am I tiring you? Am I too late...?...) They had made this great proclamation. He consulted not the prophet.
Now, anyone knows that Amos 3:7 says that God promised that He would never do nothing until first He revealed it to His prophet. Through the church ages we've had reformers, but promised by Malachi 4 that there would be a prophet in the land in the last days, because it has to fit that pattern (See?) before the end time comes.

²¹¹ Before Jesus come the first, Elijah come, Elijah of Malachi 3. Matthew 11 says so, "If you can understand it, this is who was spoken of, 'Behold I send My--My messenger before Me.'" Now, He's prophesied, all theologians believe that; that, in the last day, the Spirit of Elijah is to come too. It has to come five times, God uses that Spirit: Elisha, Elijah, John the Baptist, and for the Gentile church, and then for the Jews of Revelations the 11th chapter. That's God's g-r-a-c-e, f-a-i-t-h, J-e-s-u-s, Jesus, the--the letter five. Can't stop at four; it has to go to five. See? Notice.

²¹² Now, He promised that, so that sets the Bible just exactly to this day, and the Sodom and Gomorrah. And Elijah was not... That wasn't Elijah; that was the Spirit of God on Elijah; Elijah was just a man. Now, we've had Elijahs, and Elijahs' coats, and Elijahs' mantles, and Elijahs' everything. But the Elijah of this day is the Lord Jesus Christ. He is to come according to Matthew the seventeen--or Luke 17:30. It... The Son of man is to reveal Himself among His people: not a man, God. But it'll come through a prophet. And He never had two major prophets at the same time, never in the world. See? No matter how much there's... Two--two heads can't... It has to be one head. God has to get one man under His control. See? There's one God; there was Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, but one God over it all, notice, and just used them offices. So has He with Elijah, the Spirit of Elijah; he used that Spirit, but the same God controlling It all the time to fulfill His Word.

²¹³ Now, notice in this now. David thought he had everything in order. And he was inspired. See how the Holy Spirit can anoint a man? But it's got to be in the order of the anointing. The outside spirit can be anointed with the Holy Ghost and the soul as dark as pitch. The cocklebur grows on the same water that builds--puts life into the wheat, puts life into the cocklebur; but at the bottom of the cocklebur, it's a cocklebur life. It's rejoicing, and blooming, and got life, and doing everything that the wheat does, but the soul of it is cocklebur. See? False teachers can rise, teaching all kind of trinitarianism and everything else, and be anointed with the Holy Ghost, and perform just as many miracles as the true Gospel can. But by the Word here, that's what does it. See what I mean? Now, it's all right to teach this, I guess; I'm--I'm in a interdenominational tabernacle this morning in--in this hotel here.

²¹⁴ Notice, watch what we're saying. Now, well, listen. David had all the emotion that the real revival had. Notice. They shouted, they screamed; they danced; they really got something out of that anointing: sure did. All like a real revival, but you notice, God was not in it. God was not in it. He had a prophet setting right there in the land that they ought to have knowed. See? David should've have knowed that.
Something today, we got all the mechanics, like the great denominations, crusades of our time, but the result's turning out the same as it was then; our results of our great crusades, and all of our big fine reason, our big buildings, and our big--building thousands, and adding members and things, it turns out the same way, all a flop. I'm not saying that to be different; I'm saying that to be honest before God Who's Book I'm standing by this morning. See? All turns out a flop, same results.

²¹⁶ Now, let us see what happened when God in His time and age and His prophets are not considered, just depend on theology, priests, denominationalism like we do today. Now, closely. It all gets messed up. If the true Spirit of God there, It'll direct it into the Word; not just one place in the Word, the entire Word for the entire age. See?
The day of Pentecost, the Spirit directed it right into That, to Joel 2:38. See? The day of Luther, It directed it right into That; Wesley; in this last Pentecostal move; but this is another age; this is the calling out of the Bride. Not two thousand years ago at Pentecost, or the repeat, or the return. Pentecost...

²¹⁸ The Holy Spirit was in Luther; the Holy Spirit was in Wesley; it's God's Word being anointed. And the Holy Spirit returned to the people of the age, and they begin to have the restoration of the gifts. They found out by yielding themself to God, the Holy Ghost spoke in tongues through them. They laid their hands on the sick and they was recovered. They danced in the Spirit. See? That was the age of the reformation, bringing the church back into order. And the last order of the church was placing the gifts into the church; like Luther placed justification; Wesley placed sanctification; Pentecost placed the gifts. But what did they do? The same mistake, as nature has patterned to the wheat stalk, they denominated, which is against God, contrary to God.

²¹⁹ Now, we find out that when... Then when these stalk gathers, comes together, they form their own idea. And no matter... When the "new issue," as they call it, come forth out of the Assemblies of God, what did they do? They couldn't receive it. No matter how much truth it was, the baptism in the Name of Jesus Christ, they were already the General Council. Man had done took it over; the Spirit had done left them. That's right. And then this come forth... I've talked to some of your best leaders; they say, "Well, what would we do now?" They would embarrass themselves when they know it's the Truth. And if they don't, they're spiritually blind and ignorant to the Bible: not saying that nasty now, saying that reverently. 'Cause there's not a place in the Bible where anybody was ever baptized using those titles, "Father, Son, and Holy Ghost." And never was used till after the ecumenical council, the Roman Catholic church. Their own catechism witnesses the same thing. It's a Catholic dogma, not a Bible doctrine, but a Catholic dogma. And you Methodists brought out your catechisms and everything just like they had, just gradually growing out of it. But now when you come to Pentecost, and spread out some of those dogmas, you still held on to...
But now is the Bride-calling; now's when the Seven Seals has been opened; now when the complete things that the reformers left has to be opened; and only Malachi 4 can do that, because it takes the revelation straight from God to an individual to do so. That's right. It can't come to a group, never did: one man. That's what God promised in the shadows of the coming for His Bride, an Eliezer. See?

²²¹ Notice when priests, ministers and so forth, get their own inspiration and truly anointed. David was anointed. The Bible said so. But, you see, he went through the wrong resource; he went to the wrong channel. He channeled his anointing on the wrong side, to the people and what they thought, to the captains, what they thought, instead of to God's holy channel to find out what THUS SAITH THE LORD was, "Is this the time for this? Is this the season for this? Is this the will of God?"

²²² Then if he's a true prophet of God, he'll go before God first, say, "Father, what is it?" like Nathan did later on to David.
David said, "Is it right for me to live in a house of cedar, and the ark of my God under tents out here?"
And look at Nathanael, said, "David, do all that's in your heart, for God is with you. You're a anointed vessel of God."
But that being a prophet, and his mistake, and God's duty bound to His prophet. That night He appeared to him, said, "Go, tell My servant David; I admire his courage; I love him for this, 'cause he's a man after My own heart. And I know it's time that My ark would be that way, put under something, but I just... It ain't the season for it to happen. I'll let his son do it, but I won't let him do it."
Then here come Nathan with THUS SAITH THE LORD, "David, the great revelation you had is as wrong as it was when you brought the ark up. (Uh-huh! Uh-huh! See?) Don't you do it. Don't try it. But God said He'd have your son to do it." There. See? There you are.

²²⁶ David was anointed to say that because aforehand he could see it, just as Abraham sought for a City on the earth. You know, he was looking for it, because he was going to live here someday, Abraham is, in that city. And he went around looking for it. And right on the same grounds where he looked, it was just above him then, and will return in the millennium and he'll live in that City. But being a prophet, he was ordained and inspired; he knowed there was a City somewhere, and he was looking for it. But, you see, the whole revelation of it was hid from him; it wasn't for his age; it's... [Blank.spot.on.tape--Ed.]... on down to John, where he saw it coming down from God out of heaven. That was the City.

²²⁷ See, everything has to be in its season. You plant your wheat in the spring and--or in the fall and cut it the next summer. See? It's got to come up through the stalk, got to come up through the tassel, and shuck, and on into the... It's got to be in season. All nature runs in continuity. The Spirit of God made nature, and all God and nature's in continuity. All the things that's put in the temple was a pattern of what He saw in heaven.
You see a tree struggling trying to live; that means there's a tree that don't die. You see a man struggling for life; it shows that there is a tabernacle waiting somewhere that don't die. "If this earthly tabernacle be dissolved we have one already waiting."

²²⁸ The good heavenly Father permitted me to walk behind that curtain one day and see it. How many heard the soul, what it's under? Looking apast the curtain of time. There it was just the same as I'm preaching to you all; there they stood. Souls under the altar crying, "How long?" Not just a myth, somebody who had intelligence: "How long, Lord?" See? Why, we feel that now as our age, like Brother Bill Dauch setting here at ninety-three. There's something longing for that young man again. There's something... You'd give anything, how I would like to (Brother Jack, and all the rest of us) go back, Brother Gerholtzer, here, into that young manhood. What do you want to do it for? To be young and run around again? No, sir. Because we feel we'd have more time to glorify this God that we love.

²²⁹ But my dear brethren, I have this message this morning, there is a land beyond the river that they call that sweet forever. There we'll glorify Him through the ages, and all the ages, and eternity roll. Why do we feel that? Because the deep is calling to the deep. And as long as the deep's a-calling, there's got to be a deep to respond to that call or there wouldn't be no call. Before there can be a creation, there has to be a Creator first to create the creation, or there's no... That shows the very evidence that there is.

²³⁰ Notice these priests, all out of line. Notice the anointing, all right, nothing wrong with the anointing. Same with you Pentecostals, but watch what channel you're moving in now. The day has changed since Pentecost; something else goes. If there'd been no prophet in the land, perhaps David would've been right. That's right. But there stood Nathan, vindicated, ordained, witnessed by God to be a prophet.
And watch. The ark in the Bible always is a type of the Word to us, because it was the Word of God in the ark. And was... Notice the ark that they brought up, look how they did it. It was not put in its original God-ordained position. Now, God said back here in the laws that it must--how it must be done, how this ark must be moved, and who it must be moved by. But David, under his anointing...

²³² My brethren, don't you miss this. And my sisters, you who want to be women preachers and so forth, don't you miss this. No matter how much your anointing is, you've got to get in God's provided position. David's anointing was all right, but in doing it he got enthused and stepped over the boundary line. What did he do? He stepped over the boundary line. Instead of putting the ark in its original position, he carried it on a new cart and not over the hearts of the Levites. It was supposed to be carried on the shoulder of the Levites, which is over the heart. The Word is not in the mind; It's in the heart, not on a new cart. What was that? Some--represented something new David did there: spoke of every denomination there'd ever be. God's Word is not to be by--carried by state presbyters or bishops, and so forth, of denominations. It's the baptism of the Holy Ghost in the heart of man, and not in some ecclesiastical move. The Holy Spirit is a treasure of God's love in the heart of men and women to obey. See?

²³³ Was on the shoulders of His ministers, His ministers was the Levites. Put it up over their left shoulder and packed that ark like that, because it was up over their heart. They had the burden of the Word on their heart. Amen. Now, you got the burden of your denomination on your heart, the burden of your congregation: whether you're going to build this, or do that, or do something else; the burden of how many more you're going to give to your denomination; instead of the burden of the Word of the Lord, till that people will see only the Word of God and nothing else. But you got It on a new cart now. See? They're packing It up here in the ecumenical council even, shouldered. I don't want to get critical. May God help me now, just telling you the Truth.

²³⁴ Now, influenced by creeds and ecumenical councils, the Word, the real Word of the season of that age was ignored, because they had a lot of emotion. But David, the anointed king... He was king, but he was anointed king. You say, "I'm a minister, anointed." Then stay a minister; don't try to be a prophet. See? If you're evangelist, stay evangelist.
Remember Uzziah, in the days if Isaiah, the young king... the young prophet... Uzziah was a great man, anointed man, God blessed him; blessed hisself. Yeah, I preached on that to you here one time. And one day he got so highly up till he thought he could just take the office of a priest, and he took the--finally went in before the Lord, and the... Them priests told him, "Don't do that, Uzziah." But he got exalted. The prophet couldn't tell him nothing. The priests knowed their order; they was keeping their order, he said, "That's not your order, Uzziah. Don't do that."

²³⁶ Well, he made them "Shut up!" And he went with the--with the fire in to offer, take a priest's job; he was anointed king, not a priest. And those priests was trying to tell him, "You're a wonderful king; you're anointed; God has blessed us by you; but you're a king, not a priest."
And you pastors shouldn't never tell a prophet what to do, or you evangelists tell a pastor. See, each one has his office if it is perfectly identified.
So he went in with the fire, and was stricken down with leprosy and died.

²³⁹ Now, here's David, king; David's trying to do the same thing here. He's taken it upon hisself. "Well, that's fine, got to go. Looky, lots of people. What do you say, captain, you have ten thousand?"
"Glory to God, David, I feel the Spirit." Oh, he did. He did feel It. "What do you think, David? You feel It?"
"Glory to God, It's all over me. Let's check it and see if it's right. Let's see. Where does the ark belong?"
"With us: belongs among us."
"Who should we consult? Sure, the ark. Just the same thing as that ground belonged to--to Israel instead of the Philistines. That's right. They belong to us. And as I feel the anointing too."
The captains of hundreds, all the congregation, "Glory to God." They clapped, and they shouted, and they danced, and jumped up and down.
They had the Spirit, but what do you think Father was thinking? "How I've sent Nathan, that prophet down there. They know what to do, and so does David; but now he's just all enthused and stepped right over his boundary line and went to do this."

²⁴⁶ All right, notice, carry it on the shoulders was God's original plan. There is five musts. I want you to put these down, if you're... I see you're writing. (And it's twenty minutes, twenty something minutes after ten, so I'll try to be through by eleven, if possible. I'll hurry just as quick as I can.)
No matter how sincere a man may be in doing God a service, no matter how sincere, how much anointed, how much of a Presbyterian, Baptist, Pentecostal; no matter whether you're a bishop, deacon, whatever you are, pastor, evangelist, prophet, whatever it might be; there's five musts that must be considered first. No matter how much anointing, how good it seemed, how the people shouting, everything the Spirit's a-doing, there is a must.

²⁴⁷ Now, my brethren, while you're getting your paper ready, can you understand now why? Now, remember, you've all thought, and have been taught among you, not... (See, I'm speaking across the nation.)... that I did not believe in speaking in tongues. I do believe in speaking in tongues, but you can still speak in tongues and not have the Holy Ghost. I Corinthians 13 says, "Though I speak with tongue of men and angels, I ain't nothing yet." See? That's the anointing of the Holy Ghost; that has nothing to do with the soul inside here. You can speak in tongues and deny the Word. I've seen it done, and you see it too. See? A woman can preach the Gospel and... See? They can do all... They cut their hair, and still shout and speak in tongues and everything else. Uh-huh. That's exactly right. You got to line up with the Truth of the Word.

²⁴⁸ Notice. No matter how sincere a man may be, no matter how great he's used of God, no matter what he is, he must be this: must be... The thing that he's speaking of must be timely by the Bible. If somebody say, "Well, Moses back there..." I know what Moses did, but that not what God's doing today. "Well, back yonder, thirty years ago Luther said..." That might be fine, but that's not what He's doing today. "Well, forty years ago, Pentecost fell." But that's not what He's doing today. See? It must be timely.
It must be according to the Scripture. It must be in season, the second one. Thirdly, and it must be according to the way that God's Word spoke it would be.

²⁵⁰ Now you say, "Glory to God. The Holy Ghost fell on me, hallelujah, just like It did on the day of Pentecost." But that might be different today. It fell on David too, didn't it? Sure, It did. Fell on Uzziah, but it was wrong. See, you got to go deeper than that now. See? You got to go deeper than that. Now, don't feel hurt, just--just be reverent. See?
And notice, and it also must come to the man of God's choosing, not a denominational choosing, not of the people's choosing, but according to God's choosing. And if it's a message from God, of a great revelation from God, it must come to His prophet. Now, if you want the Scripture of that, it's Amos 3:7. See? Now, it must.
There's five things it must be: It must be in season. It must be at the time God said it would be. It must be written in the Word of God. It must be in the season of God's time. See? And it must be by God's choosing.

²⁵³ And God doesn't need any of us to interpret His Word. God is His Own Interpreter. He don't need our seminaries. He don't need our wisdom; it's nonsense. See? Eve got that (uh-huh) and missed the interpretation by her wisdom.
Say, "Oh, boy, that guy's a smart man." Well, that don't mean a thing. Sure. Ahab was a smart man. Belteshazzar was a smart man. Satan was the most cunning and crude, subtle, none of you could withstand him, none at all.
I don't depend on none--no wisdom, just depend on God. See? How is God? He is the Word. And then how does God interpret His Own Word? Listen close now, don't miss these things. How does God interpret His Own Word? By making It come to pass, not just one here, but all of it for that season.
Not say Noah go out and preach and inspired; but built an ark, put doors in it, fix it this way, and that way. What if he put the door on top instead of the bottom? What if he put the window on the bottom, the door on top? See? It's got to be instructed according to the time, because that's exactly what God's going to use it for. It must be that way, and it must come by inspiration.

²⁵⁷ I heard a guy say one time, said, "I believe that man prays for the sick; I believe it's fine. But as being a prophet," said, "I believe he's God's prophet; but as a teacher, why, he's a Jesus only." What a... What kind of a person would you call that? A man doesn't know what he's talking about.
The very word "prophet" means that "he is a revealer of the Word of God"; the interpretation only comes to that. And that's why today we're in such a need of this great person that's supposed to be sent to us in the form of the prophet Elijah, because it'll be the revelation of God made known to us by vindication, showing that it's the day and the hour and the season that God promised it to be in. And remember, he'll be spoken against; always has been, always will be. Rejected, just like the shuck will pull... First he'll be accepted, because the shuck only holds the wheat until it's able to get forth to the sun. Pentecost will only sheltered the message, giving it an ope