¹ Thank you. Good to be here tonight again. I didn't know how they ever found out I was going to pray for the sick. Everybody come in to be prayed for. You know, I believe if you follow the leading of the Spirit, it's all right. That's the best; that's a message that never fails.
Now, I was setting in the room today, after a certain minister that's just so dear to my heart (three of them), three of my real good friends, they told me they was coming to go to lunch with me. And I thought, "Well, that was just fine," you know.

³ So I--I just eat a little bit of breakfast, 'cause I was sure they was going to pay for it (You see?), and I'd have a good full dinner. So 12:00 come, and 1:00 come, and 2:00 come, nobody there yet. So there was... The police was chasing a criminal down there in the yard, and so I went down to see that episode. I couldn't find Brother Jack at all. So I come to find out, the hotel man had give him the wrong number; and he was ringing the wrong door, all the time, where I--I wasn't at. I'll let him pay for me, one again, though, sometime. Him and Brother Tracy, I was sure glad to see them and Brother Brown tonight. That just seems like we ought to go back in Arizona again.

⁴ I can remember coming across the desert the other day. I told my wife back there, I said, "Here's where Brother Jack set in the back of his little Chevrolet, Brother Brown and he argued all about the--the original creation, whether it was done in six days or whether it was done in six million." That was a good one.
They get so arguing; they'd get out and get a handful of rocks, and one get behind one pole, and one another, and throw rocks at one another just as hard as they could. They couldn't settle it that way, say, "I can outrun you." Down the road they'd go; Brother Jack, a little short fellow, just as hard as he could twist; and Brother Young with them long legs, you know. I never laughed so much in my life.
Then Brother Jack got back in the car and pulled off his shoes. Brother Sharritt had give us a big sack of oranges, and he half cleaned them up 'fore we got to Shreveport.

⁷ You know, them's golden days though. Yes, sir, they're golden days. I know it sounds joking, funny, but it's the truth. But we... There's something about that, as you get older and begins to linger on your mind. You think of those days that you wished you could live again, that's right, our younger days. And as we get old, they all become pictures. I'm so glad it was pure, and holy, and brotherly fellowship in love, knowing that we're going to a land where we'll never get old, where--that great Land, yonder, where we'll never, never grow old or never dying.

⁸ One of our precious brothers, so dear to us all, he just crossed over in that Land. And every time I come to this platform, I--I guess I'll think of Brother Lyle. I looked over last night and seen little Judy setting over there, and my heart was just pounding; I was thinking of how she felt. And I know when dad died how... But we only have to go through those schools of sufferings to know how the other fellow feels.

⁹ I believe I'm looking at an old minister friend setting here. I just can't call him. Is that right? You used to pray for the sick here, all the time, years ago? Gerholtzer, that--that German name, I--I never could get it picked up just right. Brother Tracy had met him out there. And I knowed him about ten years, and I said, "You haven't aged six months in that ten years." We are living in a world that must cease someday.

¹⁰ Now, tonight, I was... Had you real late last night, I'm going to try to not do that tonight. Finish my story; I was thinking about tonight, preaching on a--a subject of the rapture to the church. How the conditions, as I see it in the Scripture, what conditions the church will have to be in for the rapture, and what'll take place just before the rapture takes place, and how it will take place. And we all believe in the rapture, don't we? Yes, sir. We believe in it. And then all at once, Something just said, "Pray for the sick tonight." And I was just eating dinner with a little Mexican brother there; I went down and picked him up on the street. I guess he's here tonight, he and his wife.
And then someone come, give me a testimony. Said, "If... On the grounds of the church," she said, "there's a man there that, I believe it was about a year ago, that he had come into the line of discernment." And I was thinking tonight of having just a old fashion prayer line, like Brother Jack and Brother...

¹² Brother Young Brown used to give out the prayer cards for me. And I found him real honest and never catch him selling a card or doing anything wrong; brother is real straight. And we have caught them trying to do that, you know. So it--so we... Brother Young, he was right on the job all the time and faithful. And I remember, he used to stand and take up the cards and bring them through the line. I'd pray for them and they go along, just that unadulterated faith those people had, if they'd just get near you they'd get healed. And I think there was twenty healings to the one to what we have now.

¹³ Then this story come in this afternoon about a man; he's probably here now. That he was in the prayer line a year ago, somewhere, and--and he'd had... Said in the discernment was told that he'd had the mumps. And the doctors told him, after the mumps fell, that he could never have a girl baby, and he always wanted one. I think he had a boy. But in the vision from the Lord, it told him, "But you're going to have that girl baby."

¹⁴ And he said he's got the little girl here tonight. I don't know the man, might... Would--would he be in the audience, or the--the person that I'm speaking of? or somewhere? I don't know, somebody just told me about it outside. Oh, look, here's the baby hanging right--right in here, setting right... That's fine. That's very fine. What a sweet little fellow. It wasn't so far to walk over everybody to... Real cute, little baby, I'd have her come out here and give the testimony. Maybe she will by tomorrow or some time when we're having our services.
Now, tomorrow morning is the Business Men's Breakfast. Have you announced I guess it's all... That's fine.

¹⁶ And now let's have a little--a little lesson on Divine healing. How many believes in it? Oh, my, going to be a great night, when you have faith like that. People who believe it, that's what it takes. It's for the believer.
Now, then I got me a pencil and begin to write down some texts and so forth, and the--and then Billy knocked on the door and said, "Daddy?"
I said, "Wait just a little while, I haven't got it finished yet."
He said, "But Brother Jack's waiting on you." So I--I had to come on. I stuck, didn't have no paper clip, and I got one of Meda's "johnny pins" or some kind of a pin here that they called a "bobby pin." That's what it was, "bobby pin," just some kind of a pin. And--and I don't know much about them things, you know, and I just seen it laying there. And so now to make a paper clip here, to separate what I was--had some notes for in the morning, and separate them, one from the other one.

²⁰ And as you get older, it used to be I could just remember them Scriptures and things just so easy. But, you know, kinda hard to do. You find that trouble, Brother Jack, yet? That's right, yeah. I told Brother Jack, here not long ago, I said, "You know, Brother Jack," I said, "I'm getting so I can't remember." I said, "I start to say something, and I have to wait."
He said, "Is--is that all the farther along you are?"
And I said, "Well, isn't that far enough?"
He said, "No." Said, "I ring up somebody on the phone and say 'What'd you want?'" I thought you was kidding me then, Brother Jack; I found out that's pretty true.
Yes, sir. My, how you forget. But let us have all of our deeds done right, because they're in a book, a record that's to be played at the day of the judgment.

²³ Now, we're like one big family. And I don't suppose we're hooked up tonight across the country, as I was preaching my message last night. I think it's just maybe the local assembly here. So last night, I sure appreciate your courtesy of standing... I don't try... I didn't try to take advantage of Brother Jack. But he's always told me, "Say what you want to." And so I just come in the platform and preached a little doctrine. But... so just a... we... It's been... Some of my denominational brethren...

²⁴ I had a dream, the other morning. I don't dream very often; I'm not a dreamer. But I--I dreamed that I seen a man, a young fellow in shackles, he was trying to get out, and--and I said... Somebody told me, said, "Those are horrible people; don't have nothing to do with them."
And I seen this young fellow getting out of his shackles, so I just let him alone. I thought, "I'll just see what he does." So he got out, and he was a nice fellow. I seen others trying to get out.

²⁶ Now, this is only a dream. And I walked over this a-way and I seen a--a Brother Roy Borders, a very good friend of mine, lives in California. Looked like there's something wrong, his eyes was half closed, and great big--maybe cancer or something over his eyes. Now, someone was trying to pull me away from him. I screamed, "Brother Borders, in the Name of the Lord Jesus, snap out of that."
And he just barely could speak, saying, "Brother Branham, it'll have to take something more than this. I just can't grasp it, Brother Branham. I just can't grasp it."
I said, "O Brother Borders." I love him.

²⁹ And someone pulled me away, and I looked, and it was a lady standing over here. The... When I was a little boy, I--I used to haul groceries from the grocery store to the people. And her name was Mrs. Fenton; she lives in Jeffersonville yet: a personal friend to the wife and I.
And she said, "Brother Branham, deliver us from this." Said, "This is a house of hell." And said, "You've been misunderstood." And said, "These... And you misunderstood these people too." Said, "These are fine people, but..." I looked over there, and like a great big cellar, or--or big walls, down beneath a great big cave, and great iron bars, eight or ten inches thick. And people, out of their mind, twisted arms and legs, beating their head like that. And she was crying, saying, "Deliver the people, Brother Branham." Said--said, "Help us; we're in trouble." She herself, I know her, she belongs to the--I believe the Church of Christ, or the Christian Church, called Church of the Brethren. So she...

³¹ I looked around, and I said, "I wished I could." And go on, looking around; and I... My little, bitty body and--and them great, big iron bars, and those poor people in there, and you couldn't get to them, them iron bars was setting close together. And I looked, and they were beating their head like they were out of their mind.
And I seen some lights flickering around in there. And I looked up, and there stood the Lord Jesus with the--of a lights of rainbow around Him. He was looking right straight to me, said, "Deliver those people." And He went away.
And I thought, "Well, how could I deliver them? I--I haven't got strength enough in my arms to break those bars."
So I said, "House of hell, give away to the Name of Jesus Christ."
And all the creaking and popping, and--and the rocks a-rolling, and--and bars a-falling; and people running, screaming, "Delivered!" and screaming at the top of their voice, and was all delivered.

³⁶ And I was screaming then, "Brother Roy Borders, where are you? Where are you? God is delivering His people. Where are you, Brother Borders?" I've wondered about that.
You know, Brother Borders is very scared. You know the prophecy (all--many of you do; you take the tapes and so forth), about the west coast.

³⁸ There's a man setting right here tonight, that was there when that happened (when we were standing there, on a hunting trip), a minister who's listening in last night with a blinded eye, he just come up there and he said--introduced himself. He had on colored glasses up in the mountain. He said, "Brother Branham," said, "I'm Brother McHughes." He said, "I--I helped sponsor one of your meetings once in California.
I said, "I'm glad to know you, Brother McHughes."

⁴⁰ So there was about twenty men standing there. We was out javelina hog hunting. And I said... the day before going up the mountain, I said to Brother Banks Wood... All of you know him, a personal friend. I said, "Brother Wood,..." Picked up a rock and threw it up in the air, and it came down. I said, "THUS SAITH THE LORD, 'Something's fixing to happen.'"
So he said, "What is it, Brother Branham?"
I said, "I don't know, but within twenty-four hours you'll see. Something's fixing to happen. It's a great sign."

⁴³ And the next day... that was one late afternoon. The next day, about ten o'clock, we were fixing to pull out. Everybody had their javelina hogs, and we were standing there. And Brother McAnally, you know, and all of them, they were dressing them out, and--and Brother Borders and I, and Brother Roy Roberson, a crippled veteran, a very dear, precious friend of mine, and he was standing there. I looked up, and Brother McHughes said, "Brother Branham, does the Angel of the Lord ever appear to you when you're on these hunting trips?"
I said, "Brother McHughes, yes. That's right. But I come out here to kinda rest.
He said, "All right, Brother Branham," said, "I didn't mean to disturb you."
I said, "You didn't disturb me."

⁴⁷ And I just looked around, and I seen a doctor looking at his eye. Now, I didn't know him; he had on dark glasses, which is awful bright and sunny in Arizona. And I looked at it, and I seen a doctor tell him, say, "Sir, I been doctoring that eye for years, two years, something like that." Said, "The allergy that you have in your eye, you're going to lose your eye. It's eating back into the sight, and there's no way I can stop it."
And I said, "What you asked me that for, is because of your eye. Them sunglasses is just because you got a bad eye."
He said, "That's right."
I said, "Your doctor (described him), he told you, a few days ago, that you're going to lose that eye because the--the allergy is eating into the sight of the eye. And he's been doctoring it for a couple years, and he can't stop it."
He said, "Brother Branham, that's the truth."

⁵² And I started to turn around and look, and I seen a--a woman much older than he, kind of a dark complected. They're originally from somewhere up here in Arkansas. And so she raised up her--her--her skirt and showed her limb to her son, and she said, "Son, if you see Brother Branham, tell him to pray for my feet." And had long tumors hanging between her toes and things.
I said, "Your mother's a gray-headed woman, and she raised up her skirt, pulled back her--her stocking and showed you her feet, and said if you saw me to tell you to pray for her.
And he said, "Oh, mercy."
I looked back and I seen him standing there with no glasses on, vision, I said, "THUS SAITH THE LORD, God healed your eye and heals your mother too."

⁵⁶ About that time, I turned around... Now, there's men setting here, was standing there. I said to Brother Roy Borders--or Brother Roy Roberson, put my hand on his shoulder, for he's a veteran, I said, "Brother Roy, get under something, right quick, something's fixing to happen."
He said, "What do you mean, Brother Branham?"
I said, "Don't talk. Get under something, quick." And I turned and picked up a shovel, there by the side of the place, and walked off from them, 'cause I knew it would come where I was at.

⁵⁹ Right beside a great canyon, eight or ten times higher than this building, just a box canyon; like a fire come down from the heavens, like a whirlwind, just a few feet above where I was standing, and ripped the rocks right out of the mountain, went out through and cut the tops of the mesquite trees off, for a hundred yards out. Everybody running, and trying to get under trucks and everything else. It went back up again and clapped like a great thunder, went back up in the skies again, and come down again, and done that three times. And when it was all over, they come over and asked, "What did it mean?"
I said, "I don't want to tell you, it was a judgment sign. In a few days a great earthquake's going to strike on the west. And it won't stop. California, Los Angeles will sink. It's going down. It'll slide right into the ocean." And two days after that, the Alaskan earthquake shook Alaska.

⁶¹ And then, the last meeting I had in California, while speaking, and didn't know nothing happened till I got on the street, It told California, said--said, "Capernaum, Capernaum, the city that's called by the name of the angels (that's Los Angeles), you've exalted yourself into heaven, but you'll be brought down into hell. For if the mighty works had been done in Sodom that's been done in you, it would've been standing till this day."

⁶² Now, the last few days, the great roaring and popping. Then, here come out a paper of science, said, "It's all honeycombed; it's got to go under." They just know it.
And you watch, the water will come plumb back into the Salton Sea. Los Angeles is doomed for judgment. I tell you before it happened, that you might know when it does happen. I never spoke that by myself. And I've never had Him to tell me one thing but what happened. And you can bear record of that. That's right. When? I don't know.

⁶⁴ I went out, and they told me what I said. And I listened, went back and searched the Scripture. You know, Jesus said, almost in them same words about Capernaum; and Sodom and Gomorrah was--was in the bottom of the Dead Sea, I suppose was then. And later, about a hundred years later, Capernaum slid into the sea, and it's in the sea. The same God that put Sodom in the sea for its sins, the same God that put Capernaum in the sea for its sins, the same God will put Los Angeles in the sea for its sins, that city of--of corruption.
Brother Roy Borders is scared to death. I don't know whether to--what that meant that, or what. I don't know. Let us pray.

⁶⁶ Lord, it's so good to testify to real listeners. We believe, Lord; help our unbelief. And we realize that we're going right down the road now to the end of the world. Just what time, we don't know. But that secret catching away of the Bride; one of these days, Lord, we'll be--we'll be raptured, caught up with Him. And we're waiting for that day. Prepare our hearts, Lord.
There's many, we look, laying here on these cots and stretchers, men and women who are bound by the enemy. There's people setting out there, perhaps, if You don't touch them, they'll die of a heart attack. Maybe some of them is eaten with cancer.
And, Father, Thou knows the heart of every man. You know whether it's true or not true. And we say these things because that we know what You have done; Your great power has delivered so many. We're witnesses of it, though they try to tell us that those things doesn't happen. But it does Lord. We are witnesses.

⁶⁹ I pray tonight, Lord, that somehow You'll build faith in these people's hearts, that every one of them will be delivered, all these sick and afflicted people. May it be so simple, Lord, just let us, as we try to teach the Word. Let the Holy Spirit take my mistakes, Lord, and correct them in the hearts of the people. And make it a real, real night that the--that He can bed Himself into the heart of each believer here. We set this night for that purpose, Lord. May those who are not saved, above all things, be ready; get ready now, while the doors of mercy still open. We ask this in Jesus' Name. Amen.

⁷⁰ Now, we're going to turn to the Scriptures, to start with, and in...
Someone laid a--a note here on the desk, and said they took up an offering for me tonight. That wasn't necessary; don't do that. I can't take it back. I remember one time in Calgary, Canada, they took up an--this offering was taken up. Brother Jack was trying to tell me... My wife setting back there; she, the children had an old two rooms we were living in, she had to put a blanket in the door to keep the--the door shut so the children wouldn't get pneumonia. And she said... He said to me, said, "Brother Branham, that's not fair to treat her that way." So you remember the case. They took up, I forget how many thousand dollars.
And I said, "Oh, take it back, Brother Jack."
He said, "Now, how we going to do it?" So I bought the place and it's there. So to the glory and honor of God... We kept it for a couple years, the wife and I, as a gift from the church the people.
And then I thought, "That doesn't sound right. I brought nothing into this world; it's certain that I'll take nothing out." So I turned around and 'lotted it, and deeded it back over to the Tabernacle. That when I'm finished, why, some other servant of God, if there is a tomorrow, will use it then. See? So thank you very kindly, friends. God bless you for it.

⁷⁵ Now, in James, the Book of James the 2nd chapter we want to read, beginning at the 21st verse.
And now, I just about... A little while to teaching, and then we'll start praying for the sick just as quick as we can, and get just as many people through this prayer line as we possibly can. And let's too, remember also... I don't want to forget Sister Anna Jean and Brother Don, and them, I think they're over in Thailand somewhere. Aren't they? To where? Bangkok, and in the mission fields. There's so many things you think about in the daytime, you want to mention before the people. Then when you come here, you--you can't think of it; you're reading right down on that lesson.

⁷⁷ And now, in James here the 2nd chapter, and we're going to begin with the 21st verse of the 2nd chapter of St. James, and read a--a portion of It: the 21st verse of the 2nd chapter.

⁷⁸ Now, my subject tonight... And hold your Bibles now, 'cause I got several Scriptures written down here. If we don't get too long, I'll refer to many of them. My subject is: "Works Is Faith Expressed." Now, remember: "Works Is Faith Expressed." Works show that faith has already took ahold. See? See? Now, we choose this because we... I believe that it might help us to understand. Now, listen real close, and we'll go into it like a Sunday school lesson.
Here James is expressing in his teaching from Genesis 22:1-9, what man seen in Abraham.

⁸⁰ Let's just go back; I've got the Scriptures kinda marked out here in Genesis the 22nd chapter, and the 1st to the 9th verse.

⁸¹ Now, he had in his mind now; he's going up to kill his son, 'cause God told him to. But look at the Scripture here:

⁸³ But now, in Paul, in Romans, the Book of Romans the 8th--the 4th chapter; 4:1 to 8. I won't read it all, but just read part of it.

⁸⁵ Now, let's... if you... If we was not turning too much, we'd go back again to Genesis the 15th chapter and the 6th verse; 15:6, I believe is right. We'll begin at the 5th:

⁸⁶ Now, the two men that were talking on faith: Paul justified Abraham by what God saw in Abraham; but James justified Abraham by what man saw in--in Abraham.
See, now, James said, "He's justified by his works."
Paul said, "He's justified by faith."
But, see, Abraham believed God; that's what God saw in him; he believed It. But then when he went to acting as though it was already done, that's what man saw in him.
And that's the same as it is to us, because our works express what faith we have. But if we're afraid to act on what we believe, then we do not believe it. See, you've got to believe it.

⁹¹ Abraham's works was expressing his faith he had in God's promise. Now, Abraham, remember he was ninety years old--a hundred years old, and Sarah was ninety years old. And now they were well stricken in age, past child bearing, had been for many, many years. And they'd lived together as husband and wife since they were young and no children. But yet, God told him when he was seventy-five years old and Sarah sixty-five, "You're going to have a baby." And he believed God's promise. He believed it. Now, see, he made ready everything for this baby. See, that's what God saw, when he believed God; and man saw what he did to express what he believed. And that's the same thing that works tonight, the same way it is with us.
It had been revealed to him. See, it had been revealed to him, so he believed it so, and was acting as though it had already took place.
Now, let's just stop there just a minute. Sometimes we misunderstand this. People gets emotion, and they try to work on emotion. That won't work.

⁹³ Now, I'm like Brother Gerholtzer here, we're--we're old men, and we've been in the--this a long time, and we've seen the pros and cons, and--and everything. And praying for the sick, around the world, and seeing the--the disappointments of people, and seeing the--the "Hallelujahs" from every side. Then, all this we learn by. Now, when as boys, when we started preaching this, Brother Gerholtzer, like we started to swim. The first thing, you know, it used to be that I'd get out, and I would... As Brother Jack, I've had Brother Brown to walk me on the street, night after night, to try to get myself around to myself. I'd stand there like a little kid, splashing the water, seeing visions, you know. And I'd just stay there till Brother Brown...

⁹⁴ I remember one night; I never will forget it, up in San Jose or somewhere. He come to wake me up; I hadn't slept for several days, and I didn't know I was talking to the man, but said that I told him, started crying, said, "I'm going home." See?
"Why," he said, "you can't go home." There's a meeting going on down there.
I said, "Well, I'll be ready in a few minutes to go home. See, just beyond, beside myself almost. See, I was a boy then.

⁹⁷ Like you're learning to swim, you know, you splash the water and go across the pool, and "huhhh, huhhh, huhhh, I made 'er!" Now, after you learn to swim, more graceful is the stroke, and it don't wear you out so much. See, that's it; you learn how to do it; and cut every corner and make it better, and that's more of a ease. See?
A little boy that never walked, would try to walk down this aisle here, he'd fall down a dozen times and be wore out 'fore he got there. But anyone who knows how to walk, an athlete, would walk right down that aisle and never even notice doing it. Well, he had that to start with; that's what he is now.

⁹⁹ Well, that's the same way with preaching Divine healing or anything else. As you go along, you begin to learn. If you don't learn, there's something wrong. See? You've got to learn, and you've got to learn how to accept God and what it really means.
We allow it, sometimes say, "Well, this guy didn't have enough faith; this guy didn't do this and this. There's a reason there for that; there's a reason. Sometime it's unconfessed sin. You could pour a gallon of oil on a person, and scream till you got hoarse; it would never move that devil. No, sir. You've got to confess that. That's what discernment does, say, "Go make that right; bring that out."
But it's so slow doing that. You see? And then--then the rest of them get impatient, and they say, "Aw, I never got prayed for." But we want to find a way now, that--what takes place, the real basic of Divine healing.

¹⁰² Now, a gift, just like I said last night, "A gift is wonderful, but you can't base your Eternal destination on gifts." You cannot major on a minor, and a--a gift is a minor. And Satan can impersonate any gift God's got; he can make something just exactly like it (See?), exactly. Therefore, we got to watch that.
Like sometimes I expressed about shouting; I've seen demons shout. See? Speak in tongues, I've seen demons speak in tongues. Sure, he impersonates It. It isn't a genuine, but it impersonates It (You see?), makes it look like it's real. And people sometime, who don't know the difference, declare this to be real when it isn't real.
And the same thing they do about Divine healing. They think, "Well, it's a hocus-pocus or something like that." It isn't. It's a genuine, unadulterated faith in what God said to be the Truth. And that anchors. And when it anchors, there's nothing going to move it. It's going to stay there. And therefore, cutting these corners...

¹⁰⁵ Now, "faith" is a "revelation from God." Now, "faith" is a "revelation." There's where I want to stay there just a moment. It's a revelation. He has revealed it to you by His grace. It's nothing you did. You didn't work yourself up into faith. You never had faith; it's give to you by the grace of God. And God reveals it to you; therefore, faith is a revelation. And the whole Church of God is built upon the revelation.

¹⁰⁶ A Baptist minister told me, not long ago; he said, "I just can't accept revelation."
I said, "Then you cannot accept the Bible. You cannot accept Christ, because He is the Revelation of God. He's God revealed in flesh." Therefore, the whole church is built upon Divine revelation.
Jesus said to (I believe it was Peter.), said, He said, "Who does man say I the Son of man am?"
He was talking to His disciples. "And some said You're Elias, and Moses, or one of the prophets, and Jeremiah."
He said, "But who do you say?"
He said, "Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God."

¹¹² Now, the Roman Catholic church says He was speaking to Peter, "Upon this rock I'll build My church."
The Protestants said He was building It upon Himself. Now, they could be right. But to me both of them's wrong. It was upon the spiritual revelation of Who He was. "Flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, Peter. But My Father, which is in heaven, has revealed this to you. And upon this rock (the revelation of Who He is. Upon the revelation that He is the Word, and the whole)... Upon this rock I'll build My church, and the gates of hell cannot prevail against It." It showed the gates of hell would be against It.

¹¹⁵ Abel, by faith, revelation (no Bible written in those days)... But Abel, by faith, offered unto God a more excellent sacrifice than that which Cain. Which God testified, "He was righteous." How? By faith. How? By revelation. By revelation, Abel offered unto God a more excellent sacrifice, because it was revealed to him that it wasn't fruits of the field; it was the blood.
That's why some people can believe it, and some can't believe it, some try to make-believe it.

¹¹⁷ In a audience of people, where a prayer line comes through, you'll find some... And they were all good people, we'll say. There's some that's trying hard to believe it, trying to work themselves into it. Some just can't do it at all. And others, it's just by grace; it's just given to them. Now, there is the difference. See? That does it. That's the real revelation, because faith is a revelation from God. It must be revealed first.

¹¹⁸ Jesus clearly expressed this when He said, "No man can come to Me except My Father draws him first, or reveals Me to him first." You ought to read that. It's St. James--or St. John 6:44 and to 46. They didn't know Who He was. They thought He was just an ordinary man. They thought Him just to be, as people does today, some prophet. He was the Prophet; He was an ordinary man, but there was more than that.

¹¹⁹ Just like last night, speaking... When you get the book, you're going to see maybe a little confusion there of what I said, "The two books of Life." It's the same Book, but one of them is your natural birth, the other one is your spiritual birth. One leads out to the other one, just like a stalk of wheat. Whenever you talk of me, you talk of me as a living person. But there's a part of me here is that person, that must perish. That's the book that the name comes off of. But the eternal one, the predestinated one, the elected one, the name never can come from there because it was always on it. It can never be taken off. You'll notice it in the book, so we save your confusion. You'll find it that way. Because I think, Brother Vayle, who put the right grammar to it, reminded me of it today. I said, "That's right."

¹²⁰ The Baptists believe there's two separate books. And in one way it is two separate books, and another way it isn't two separate books. I'm two separate people... I'm body and soul and spirit, three separate people, but I'm... Only one makes me as a being.
There's only real one Book of Life. Like there was one germ of--of the wheat that come up through the stalk, and went through the tassel, and out through the husk, and into the wheat; all the way along there... You say, "Now, that's a wheat laying there." It isn't the wheat; it's the stalk, but together it's the wheat. See, it's the wheat because it's all one stalk, but the wheat is what you're talking about, the grain at the end of it. The others was a carrier; it must perish. And that's the one--one place sounds like you can have your name taken off the Lamb's Book of Life, and the other place you can't do it. So that's where it is. It's all in that great revelation there, which was made known during the time of the Seven Seals. Why--it is why some people can't believe It.

¹²² Jesus said that "No man can come to Me except My Father draws him first. And all that the Father has given Me, will come to Me." No man can understand Who He is, or how It is, except it be revealed to you by the revelation of God. And then faith in that, you act accordingly. See? Here we see plainly that God is revealed in Jesus, and only those who were foreordained to see it, will see it. Be sure to read this Scripture; I omitted it then, of that St. John 6:44 to 46. I omitted it because I thought maybe we'd have a--maybe not enough time to go through, because that clock up there just keeps moving.
And so we... You notice, "No man, no man can come except My Father draws him first. And all the Father has given Me, they will come." They'll recognize it. No other man can do it, no other person, no matter how good, who you are; it's got to be revealed to you. Then you see Who Jesus Christ is.

¹²⁴ Now, here, predestinated plan is in plain view. Just as other seed, the Word of God is a Seed and must have the ground prepared beforehand. If you sowed seed, just throwed it out there on the ground, it would do no good; the birds would pick it up. You throw it among thistles and thorns; it'll choke it out pretty soon. Jesus' parable said so. So the ground has to be made ready first. So God, in sovereign grace prepares the heart first. He prepared you before the foundation of the world to receive Him in this age. He foreknew you by his foreknowledge and ordained you to Eternal Life. He knew you; therefore He prepared you.

¹²⁵ That's the reason you staggered out of these things and staggered into what you have now. It was God leading you to the place where He had ordained for you to be. It... Or if it--this ground isn't prepared beforehand, it can't grow. That's the reason the seed of faith, when you're preaching faith, see the discernments of the Lord, and see what takes place, and all the gifts of the Bible working; people working, said, "Oh, hallelujah, I believe It." And come up and find themselves disappointed. See, the ground has to be foreordained. And you know when it strikes it.

¹²⁶ Like my little eagle, last night. He knew when he heard that scream of that mother eagle, "there's a lot difference between that and the cluck of the hen." See, because he was an eagle from the egg. Not... He wasn't made an eagle right then; he always was an eagle. And a Christian always was. That's the reason the divorce, when you're divorced, because you were trapped into it (See?), by your first parent Adam and Eve. You become a sinner by nature. You didn't want to be, but now you heard the Gospel, and faith cometh by hearing, revelation comes by hearing. There is a little something inside of you.
Another man setting right by you, say, "Aw, I don't believe that stuff. Nonsense. I don't believe that. Nothing to that."

¹²⁸ Like they did on the day of Pentecost, they laughed and said, "These men are full of new wine." Though it was... It was a great thing to those it was happening to. Why? It was God revealing Himself to the individual. While others laughed, these were rejoicing. It was an individual revelation, which is faith; faith that's revealed. If it wasn't faith, then it wouldn't even be there. It was faith.

¹²⁹ Just seeds has to have the ground prepared first. "Therefore, all He foreknew, He called. All He called... All He foreknew, He predestinated." If you want to read that, Romans 8:28-34, and also Ephesians 1:1-5. See, all He foreknew, He did call. All He called, He justified. And all He justified, He has already glorified. There's nothing out of order. We think there is, but look in the Scriptures. It's just hitting exactly the way God's Word said it would. We see the Message is rejected today. Isn't that just what the Scripture said they would do? Sure, all these things are ordained of God.

¹³⁰ Oh, It should make you walk happy. That's the trouble with we today, so much difference than the Christians of old. When the real, true revelation of Jesus Christ being Emmanuel dwelled in the hearts of those men, they were rugged people. But today we're patted by denominations, with, "Oh, I tell you, they ain't got the revelation. You come over here." You're depending on their revelation. If their revelation isn't according to the Word of God, then it's wrong; mine or anybody else's, that's where the showdown comes. The Word of God tells which is right and wrong.

¹³¹ Any seed has to have its ground, of course. "Therefore, all He foreknew..." See, He already knew what was going to happen. Notice, Jesus said again, about the Seed, "Some fell on rocks, others in mixed ground." See, over where there's thorns, thistles, and everything else, It couldn't grow. And others on good ground, good ground, good soil, which has been prepared, already prepared.

¹³² All that the man out here, he's like as a chicken, he's looking along, trying to find. He hits into this, and he hits into that, but after while there comes a sudden scream from heaven. He recognizes It right quick, "That's the Word of God." See, he knows It because there's something in his heart that's been told to him, revealed to him about It.

¹³³ Notice, the prophet Isaiah said, "A virgin shall conceive." What a strange saying. How a--a man in his right mind could say that? There'd never been a virgin conceive. "A virgin shall conceive." Now, he didn't worry about saying it; he just said it. How's she going to do it? And that's not his business. He... It's just to say what God said that He was going to do. God revealed it to him, showed him the vision, revealed it, and it was right.

¹³⁴ Just the same God that told me that little baby would be borned by that man who couldn't have a--the child or have a girl. Like others and things, how it sounds strange when the doctor says it can't happen.
But when God says it's going to happen, it depends on what kind of a word that falls in. Remember, the prophet stood up there and His Word went forth.

¹³⁶ Like God in Genesis 1, He said, "Let there be light. Let there be this. Let there be that." Created man in His Own image, image of God created He them, male and female, and there was nothing on the earth yet. Then we find out in Genesis 2 here He made man in His Own image. There was no man to till the soil, after the rest the creation. What was it? It's His Words; He was speaking It. And when He spoke, He said, "Let there be light." There might've not been light for eight hundred years afterward, might not have been no light, but He said It. And as long as He said It, "Let there be a palm tree. Let there be an oak tree. Let there be this," them seeds was forming down beneath that water. That's right. And in the season, in the time, in its own season, it brought forth. It can't fail; it's God's Word. It just can't fail; It'd been expressed.

¹³⁷ Now, one day, God talked to man, face to face. But in time of Moses, when the fire was falling, they said, "Let God... Let Moses speak, not God; we might perish."
Therefore, He said, "I'll not speak to them like that no more. I'll raise them up a prophet." That's the way God's system always was.
Now, here's a prophet standing; now, he's under inspiration; he isn't thinking about his intellectual, "Now, wait a minute. If I'd say that, well, you know, the people would think I'm insane." See, that's his intellectual; there he's listening to Satan just like Eve did.

¹⁴⁰ And as long as the doctor says that you can't live, you can't get well, you can't do this or that... As long as you listen to that, that Seed will never fall in that kind of ground and do any good. It can't. But when something tears all of that away, and It falls in that bedded ground, there's nothing can tear It out.
Now, no matter how long it takes, it's going to happen. Now, He said, "A virgin shall conceive." Did you know it was eight hundred years before that happened? God foreknew the woman, who she'd be, what her name was, where that Seed would fall into. Do you believe that? Sure, He did. And from a literal womb would come forth this great miracle. God knew about it. He just revealed it to his prophet who was faithful and spoke the Word. Without even thinking about what It was, he just said It. He never tried to reason It out.

¹⁴² If you try to reason out... What if this man, this woman, or this man setting here, or somebody try to reason, "And I been crippled all these years. The doctor says, 'There's not a possible chance'"? Well, there might not be as far as he knows, and that's true.
But if something can tear away them weeds, if God by His grace, not the preacher, not nobody else, but God could place into your heart a revelation that'll pull, "You'll be well!" There isn't nothing going to keep you setting there. There's nothing can hold you there; you're going to be well. But until that does happen, you're going to set right where the doctor says you're going to set; until that happens. It has to be revealed. It's the grace of God that reveals it.

¹⁴⁴ Now, notice, God knew the woman It would come to. Notice Isaiah, there was no question. Isaiah didn't say, "Wait a minute, Lord. Wait--wait just a minute. What did You say to me? A virgin's going to conceive? Oh, now--now, wait, Father, there--there--there never was such a thing as that done."
He didn't hesitate; he just said, "A virgin shall conceive." Right.

¹⁴⁶ Notice Mary: "Now, now Lord, wait a minute. You know I--I never knowed a man. This is impossible. Nothing like this never happened. Oh, oh, no, nothing like this ever happened. How am I going to have this baby? I don't know any man, so it can't happen. Uh, Angel, you're just mistaken. I've got an optical illusion. You know, my church says these days are gone." Nah! It would never have fell in such a place as that. Mary never questioned.
She said, "How can it be? I know no man."
He said, "The Holy Ghost shall overshadow thee. That's how it's going to happen."
She said, "Behold, the handsmaid of the Lord": no question.

¹⁵⁰ See, Isaiah, when God produced the Word by thought revelation into the heart of Isaiah, It fell into the right grounds; it was a prophet. That prophet didn't care for any man's wisdom. He didn't care for any man's intellectual. He didn't care about the person of anybody. He was a dedicated channel to God, and God spoke and he spoke. That's all. Whether it hurt, whether it didn't; whether it sounded crazy, whether it didn't sound crazy; didn't make any difference to him. It was God, not the man.

¹⁵¹ And when that Word went forth; now It becomes a Seed; It has to fall somewhere. If God said It, there's bound to be a womb somewhere for It to fall into. Just as He said, "All things are possible to them that believe. If you say to this mountain, 'Be moved,' and don't doubt in your heart, you can have what you said." See, there's got to be somewhere that's right.
Notice. Now, we find that Isaiah here spoke It.

¹⁵³ The virgin Mary, as soon as... The grounds was already broke up. She'd been a virgin. She hadn't run around. The grounds had been already prepared, or predestinated by foreknowledge of God.
Even said, "She was a virgin." Right then God knowed what her name would be. Her name was on the Book of Life in heaven.
Then it was vindicated. Men--then to man saw the expression of It by the works, when it was already done. Now, we look back and say, "Sure, it was done," 'cause we see the works that was done.

¹⁵⁶ Noah's works expressed to man, what his faith was in God's promise. Now, God met Noah, and He said, "Noah, it's going to rain. I'm going to destroy the whole earth with water." Now, it never had rained; that's the impossibility. Well, now, Noah got... Said, "Prepare an ark at the dimensions that I'll tell you about." And him being a carpenter, and he went to work and begin to take his split axe, and everything to cut the boards, and fix it up there with the shittim wood, and put the pitch in it just like He said. And do you imagine what people thought about that man?
They said, "That man is actually crazy, because he says, 'It's going to bring water out of the heavens,' and there's no water up there." But, you see, Noah didn't think about that. His works was expressing to the people what his faith was and what God said would take place.
That's the reason the genuine Christian separates himself from everything but the Word of God, no matter what the people think, what anybody else says. He's separated because... He isn't just saying that; if he is, it won't be long till his works will be make known. He'll fall back and slip this a-way, join this, and this one, start... He'll--he'll show what he is. But if he's a genuine, if the Word of God has bedded into him, then It's going to bring forth Its kind; you'll see that man preparing for that great hour. See, that's the way Noah did.

¹⁵⁹ Moses, with a stick in his hand, came to take the people from Pharaoh. Now, could you imagine... Moses, the Bible said that he was taught in all the wisdom of the Egyptians. He was smart; he could teach their intellect things. He was taught all their wisdom. He didn't need to catch up on his education. Now, you think about a man out there in the wilderness with all that education, and then God appearing to him and said, "Moses, take this stick in your hand, and go down there in Egypt, and bring my children out with this switch you got in your hand. Just lick the whole thing with this switch."
Now, what if Moses would had said, "Here, just a moment; I thought I was talking to an intelligent being, this great 'I AM' that you say you are. Now, how in the world would I ever take this little, old crooked stick I got here in my hand, and take over an army of million of men, armed with spears, fighters? And I'm not a fighter; I'm a shepherd. How can I ever do that?"
There was no question. Why? Why? The ground in his heart, he was a predestinated person. "Gifts and callings are without repentance." God had told Abraham that He would do that, and there was the ground prepared.

¹⁶² And Moses took this stick, and went down there, and took that nation out of a nation. When he come with a stick in his hand, and told Pharaoh, "Let them go."... Pharaoh seen in Moses the works, that he had faith in what he was going to do, or trying to do. He had faith in the promise of the God that had made the promise; he went down to take it over. No other man would've done that, and no other man could've done it; he was ordained to do it. God, beforehand, had told Abraham that that's just what would happen. Then when the time of the promise drew nigh, there was a little boy born, a fair child. And the parents, Amram and Jochebed, was not afraid of the king's commandment. See, there was something; the grounds was already prepared.
O God, I hope I'm speaking to ground prepared tonight, that the Seed can fall in the right place, and it's going to be some... If it isn't, it won't happen.
That's the same thing. Well, you say, "Brother Branham, that kinda takes it away from us. If it does, it takes it away from Christianity too. See, you can impersonate anything. But if the--if it really falls in, the Word of God falls in the right kind of ground, it's going to bring forth its kind. It's got to, because It's a Seed.

¹⁶⁵ Noah... Moses, his works, expressed faith in the promise of the God that he believed. Pharaoh, the man, could see what was... Not... he couldn't see how Moses was going to do it, but he knowed Moses believed what he was talking about or he wouldn't be standing in the palace there with a stick in his hand. Said, "By this stick I'll take them out from you." An old man, eighty years old, not an athlete: and old man, stooped shoulders, and whiskers hanging down to his--probably his waistline, and gray hair, if he had any, and there with that stick in his hand, saying, "I'm going to take them out, let the people go, THUS SAITH THE LORD. And if you don't do it, God's going to judge you." Amen. Why? That's... See, it... Was he afraid? Why, just one arrow, one spear, anything else could've ended it. He was fearless. He knowed exactly where he was standing; said, "God will smite thee, Pharaoh." Yes, sir.
For God told him, "You will come to this mountain again," and he knowed he was going there. Hallelujah. We know where we're going too at the end of this journey. God has promised. There's a land beyond the river. Be fearless in your testimony. Amen. If it's revealed to you, you are fearless. You don't care if the whole world, what they say; you're fearless. When it's revealed to you, "This is the Truth coming from God," then you can be fearless. If not, you can't be.

¹⁶⁸ David, with a shepherd's sling, expressed to the whole Israelite army the faith that he had in their God. Now, there was Goliath on the other side, and he stood out there and made his boast: many times bigger than David; he had fingers fourteen inches long. And he was a mammoth, big fellow, the Philistine giant. And you notice David, the smallest one, he was even too little to be in the army, too much of a runt, they couldn't use him. So his brothers was out there in the army. And then, Goliath was making his boast.
But David, now remember; it was revealed to David. He thought, "Here is the armies of the living God standing in their own land, and there's a boasting uncircumcised Philistine out there." We'll call him cancer tonight; we'll call him paralytic.
Why, David was no kind of a match for him, not with any kind of a weapon; he was no match. That man's shoulders was probably ten, twelve foot across; he was probably standing fourteen, fifteen foot high, a spear like a weavers needle, probably twenty foot long, the blade on it maybe four foot across.

¹⁷¹ And a little David standing there with a little piece of leather, goatskin or sheepskin, with two pieces of string tied to it. But it was revealed to him. Revelation struck him. Amen. He said, "The God that took me out of the paws of the bear, that took me out of the paws of the lion, how much more will He deliver that uncircumcised Philistine in my hand."
His brothers, way more able to do it, Saul, head and shoulders above his army. But, you see, it wasn't revealed to them. Amen. There it is: they believed it could be done; they believed that God could do it; but it wasn't revealed to them; but it was revealed to David. So there's the difference, right there. If it's absolutely revealed to you that God is going to heal you, you're--you're going to get it. [Blank.spot.on.tape--Ed.] You're going to get it. I don't care what's wrong with you, what the odds, it may be worse than David and Goliath. But if it's revealed to you...

¹⁷³ And notice, when it's revealed, David become fearless. He said, "Today I'll cut your head off." Amen. That's our God, by grace, in that crucial moment when decision had to be made, that same God that produced the grace in that day, and dropped that seed of faith in that little hunchback-looking boy, seeing in his heart; that same God, in this crucial moment, could take that woman from the wheelchair, that man who comes to the...?... heart trouble. When that little grain of faith is revealed to you... And I don't care how long it takes...

¹⁷⁴ Now, notice the giant on the other side didn't believe it; neither will the cancer. He laughed; he said, "Am I a dog, you'd send a kid out here to fight me?" Said, "I'll pick you up on the end of my spear, and let the birds eat your flesh." Why, he had all the--all, everything for his side.
But, you see, that didn't shake David at all. Why? It was revealed to him. He had faith in what he was doing. He knowed he was going to do it. And he did it, is because that it was revealed to him, and he knowed where he's standing.
And if God would just spoke that, right down in your heart tonight, said, "You're not going to be laying in that bed. You're not going to be setting in that chair. You're going to be well," there couldn't be anything change your mind in it.
But until that's happened, every preacher in the world could pray... I don't say it wouldn't help you; it would; it'd encourage you. But until that faith... See, the healing power is in you. It don't come from the preacher. It comes to you by revelation, by faith. "Not by power, not by might, but by My Spirit," saith the Lord. "My Spirit, by grace, reveals this to you." And there's nothing can take it away: by faith, revelation.

¹⁷⁸ Then, David to prove his works... Now, some of them said, "I know you're naughty." His brother said, "You come up here to see the battle. Now, you get on back over where them sheep was."
He said, "Let me speak to Saul the general." You see?
And Saul said, "Now, son, I admire your courage, but you see, you're nothing but a youth. And he's a warrior from his youth, you're no match for him."
He said, "I was tending my father's sheep..." He could base it on something. Amen. O brother. And the God that saved your soul, can't He heal your body? It's just the same, reveal to you, He's your Healer as He was your Saviour. See? But it's got to be revealed first; that's the difference. He had something to base his faith on.
Said, "Now, this never happened before."
But said, "The same God that delivered me from the paws of the lion, will deliver me from that uncircumcised Philistine."
"How do you know, David?"
"I believe it."
"Why?"
"It's been revealed to me." And he said...
He knowed what he was talking about, 'cause when the giant said, "I'm going to feed you to the birds"; he said, "I'm going to cut your head off." There's the difference. See? And he did it.

¹⁸⁵ Samson, caught out one day off guard in a prairie, and here come a thousand Philistines upon him. And he looked down on the ground, and there's where a mule had died, and he picked up the old jaw, jawbone, dry as it could be, and took out after those Philistines, beating them over the head with this old dry jawbone of a mule, and as far as I know, not a tooth ever fell out of it. And them Philistine helmets was probably a inch thick ('cause they beat one another with war clubs in those days) to keep a man from beating them on the head. But he took the jawbone of that mule and beat down a thousand Philistines, and the jawbone never broke. He just kept beating them, like that, as they come up. The rest of them took off for the rocks (See?); they was getting away from him. Why? He believed it.
Sometimes...?... I want to tell you something else. Work on that pulsation, that spare of the moment like Joshua did, like Mary Magdalene, all those. Just that moment when something is revealed to you, grab it. Hold to it, that spare of the moment.

¹⁸⁷ Yes, it was revealed to him. He went to meet these thousand Philistines. Now, what do you think when those Philistines said, "Now, look, coming there, that little shrimp; only about four feet and a half tall to begin with; with seven little curls hanging down his back, like mama's little sissy (See?), come along there with a jaw bone of a mule. And look at us, what a great army we are. Isn't that ridiculous?" But what was he doing? He was expressing to those Philistines what had been revealed to him by God. He grabbed the jawbone and took off, because that's what He put in his hand; He put that in his hand; that's what he believed: he could do it. And by doing so, he was expressing to those Philistines what God had put in his heart to do.

¹⁸⁸ John the Baptist expressed his faith by his works, and when he said, "There stands One among you now."... Just think of that. St. John, I got the Scripture, St. John 1:26. See? He said...
They said, "You say the Messiah's coming? Why," said, "man, what's the matter with you? We been looking for Him for four thousand years."
He said, "He's standing right among you now." Hallelujah. So is He tonight. (uh-huh)
He expressed his faith by his revelation, because it was revealed to him that he knowed he would baptize the Messiah. He was a man thirty years old. He knowed he had to be there somewhere; he'd never knew who He was, and there He was standing right among them. He said, "There's One standing among you now, Who you know not, and I'm not worthy to loose the latches on His shoes, but He'll baptize you with the Holy Ghost. And He's right among you now." He expressed it, his faith, because he knowed in his day he was to see and baptize God's Messiah. So, you see, the people could see the expression upon him; in the way he was preaching and the way he was acting was expressing that he had a true revelation from God.

¹⁹² Now, to prove that it was true, walking right out of the crowd come the Messiah, just an ordinary young Man walking down through there, dressed like other men. John said, "Behold, there's the Lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world."
"How do you know Him?"
He said, "He that said to me in the wilderness, 'Upon whom thou shall see the Spirit descending, that's the One that'll baptize with the Holy Ghost.'" See?
See, he knew Him because there was supposed to be a sign about that time. (Are you catching it?) John knew just about the hour, 'cause he was a prophet. It was revealed to him, that he know would be about that time he'd see a sign. And when he seen that sign, he said, "He's standing among you." He knew it was there.
Oh, I see the sign that the end time is here. I see the things that's promised for this end time Message, coming to pass, unfolding just exactly like the Scripture said. And I know that the time is at hand. I say that without hesitance. I believe it's right at hand, for I see the signs that He said would happen just before that time. It's ready to happen now.

¹⁹⁷ John expressed his faith in what God had revealed to him. Therefore, works is faith's testimony. When they see you acting like you're healed, then they'll know you got faith that you are healed.
What does testimony say? Saying this: "I have it now, 'cause I received God's promise. It is now working in me. I am making ready for it to happen." See, that's what you testi--your works does. Why, sure.

¹⁹⁹ Here, some time ago, next to my last trip in Africa; I was just over there this spring, but trip before that. There was a little baby that had club feet, and one foot--leg was shorter than the other one. It never wore shoes in its life. Oh, it was a most horrible deformed. And I prayed for the baby that night; they'd watched and seen those things done; they prayed for the baby. And the next morning I went down, walked by a shoe store. And I walked in there, and there was the man buying the baby a pair of shoes to wear. He believed it.
Like this man over here, that believed that God would give him the baby. Sure, he believed it was going to happen, made ready for it. "I'm making ready." Although no physical results seen as yet, but that didn't make a bit of difference. He believed it, like Abraham, called anything contrary as though it was not so. There.

²⁰¹ Therefore, if your intellectuals does tell you... Ohhh, here's the stinger now. If your intellectuals does tell you that this is the Truth, God is the Healer of sickness, your mind can witness that that is the Truth; but if there is not the bedding ground in your heart, faith, to fall in to express it, it will not happen. Though much--no matter how much this outside man can reason it with the Scriptures, and say it's right, that still doesn't make it right.
How many takes the tapes? Did you get my sermon not long ago, "The Anointed Ones Of The Last Day?" Did you believe that? See, it said, "There will be antichrists. Antichrists would almost deceive the very elected, if possible." Can it through... It can't, because it's impossible; they're elected. See? All right.
But He said, "The anointed ones..." See, "Christ" means "anointed," but these were anti. They were anointed, but anti, against Christ in their teaching. Now, they could do anything that the rest of them could do.

²⁰⁴ Now, remember, you're in a cycle of three, but you're one person. Like Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, cycle of three, but one Person, three attributes of the same God: fatherhood... Three offices like: fatherhood, sonship, and Holy Ghost. And you are body, spirit, and soul.
Now, the outside body has five inlets to it to contact your earthly home: see, taste, feel, smell, and hear. The inside, which is a spirit, it has five senses: conscience, and love, and so forth. But the inside of that, the soul, has one thing. That's where you live.

²⁰⁶ The Spirit can come out here and anoint you to do certain things, and you do it, but that don't mean you're saved. But think of it. Caiaphas prophesied. Judas cast out devils. See, the Spirit anointed him. There's rain falls on the just and the unjust; the weeds can rejoice with the wheat. But it's what it is at the core. There's where you can, intellectuals can accept and say, "Oh, sure, that looks good. I believe that." That still don't do it. No, sir. And the spirit can actually make witness of it, and still it isn't so. Because if that soul hasn't come from God, it can make all the impersonations out here, but it cannot be real. You can act healing; you can act like you have. You can act like you receive it. Christians can act like they're Christians, and act and be ever so good at it, but that don't mean they're saved. That's exactly right. See? The Spirit can be there, the real genuine Spirit. The Holy Spirit can anoint you; that still don't mean you're saved. It's that inside soul that never dies; it's got Eternal Life. It always was Eternal Life. See? It come from God; it goes to God; it's the soul.

²⁰⁷ Now, notice that, it's got to be. Five, f-a-i-t-h, outside; spirit, J-e-s-u-s; on the inside, y-o-u. See? That's how standing here looking at you, I don't know a one of you. The spirit can anoint me, still I don't know none of you. But when that inside of the inside breaks in, that's God.
That's where the outside can reason. You take a man, say, "Well, you know, I--I know I'm not supposed to commit adultery. But, you know, then the spirit tells me I shouldn't commit adultery. But, you see, way down in there is still that thing in there." See, it'll kinda govern around, and better watch it.
But when it's directed from the inside, it throws all the rest of it together. That's the guidepost. That's the control tower, the inside of the inside. The soul controls the spirit, the spirit controls the body.
So an outside whitewash don't make any difference. Them religious people back there, that Paul called "whited walls," and so forth, they were outward just every way the--a believer, and they had prophesies among them, and everything else but the inside of the inside... "The soul that disbelieveth..."
That's the reason I say people can jump up and down, and speak in tongues; people can shout, lay hands on the sick, and heal the sick and so forth by faith; all these great things there by the Spirit, still be lost. Anointed ones...

²¹² Notice Jesus has said, "Only believe, for all things are possible to them that believe." Faith and works are husband and wife; they work together. The husband works with the wife, the wife with the husband; they identify one another.
Like a man says he's married and yet he can't produce and show that he has a wife; you doubt his claim. See? A man said, "I'm married."
"Where's your wife?"
"Oh, I--I don't know about that." See, see? Be kinda hard thing for me to believe him.
I say, "Well, where is your wife?"
"Well, I don't know." I--I ain't going to believe it.
So you see, if you have what you say you have, "I have faith." How you going to show me you got faith? By your works. See?
"I'm married."
"How do I know you're married?"
"This is my wife." See? There you are.
"I am married, this is my husband."
"I am healed."
"How do you know?"
"My works shows my faith." See, see?

²¹⁵ Now, what--what you're speaking of: your faith is what God sees in you; your works is what the other people see in you.
That's the difference between James and Paul here, explaining about Abraham. They never contradicted one another; they was both the same; married.
So is faith that doesn't produce works, anyone has a right to doubt your testimony. Now, do you hear it, before we start the prayer line? If your faith doesn't produce works with it, you can't make anyone believe that you're healed. Say, "Well, I don't know." See? "Why, yeah, sure, I got all the faith in the world." You don't. Because, if you are--got faith, then works is married to faith. They're husband and wife, one--one identifies the other one.

²¹⁸ Let's think of Abraham for just a few minutes. Abraham got that holy union in complete (See?); he got the whole thing together. He called things contrary to his faith as though it was not; and acted on the same principle. I can imagine, after about twenty years, somebody come by and said, "Father of nations? Abram, you said your name was 'Abraham,' which means 'father of nations.' Just how many children do you have right now, Abraham?" See?
That didn't stumble him a bit. The Bible said he staggered not at the Word of God, through unbelief. He went right ahead making ready, keeping all the booties ready and the bird-eye and everything; he was going to have the baby. That's all.

²²⁰ Even Sarah said, "You know what's going to happen? You're going to have the baby, but I tell you the way we're going to do it. Hagar now is my maid; I'm going to give her to you." ('Cause polygamy was legal then.) "And she'll have a baby, and I'll take the baby myself." But Abraham didn't believe that. Nope, he wouldn't do it. But Sarah was inspired to do it.
So God told Abraham, "Go ahead and listen to her," but He said, "yet this is not what I promised you. This is not the way I promised it."

²²² Now, watch, he called anything contrary, and his body then dead, and Sarah's womb the same. Now, he was an old man, a hundred years old. Sarah was ninety years old. Now, notice. The deadness of Sarah's womb or the deadness of his body wasn't even brought under consideration. Listen to this:

²²⁶ At a hundred years old? Look, his body now dead, his manhood, and Sarah's womb dead... He's... It wasn't even considered. When it's revealed to him, that dead is not considered. You're a paralytic, or whatever you are, that isn't considered. The wheelchair's not under consideration. Or the little boy, maybe paralyzed, whatever it is (I don't know), it's not under consideration. Don't even consider it.
"But the doctor said, 'He'll never get out of here.' The doctor said, 'She'll never come...'" That's not even considered.
"Well, look, I'm an old person; I'm getting middle aged." Not don't even considered.

²²⁹ And we are the children of Abraham (Hallelujah.), not as Isaac was, but his Royal Seed through Jesus Christ by the faith that he had. Abraham's Seed coming forth in the last days to shine like the stars. Abraham's children. "Considered not his own body now dead..." Neither even considered it. It wasn't even brought into question whether God would do it or not; God said he would do it. Why? It was revealed to him. Is that right?
When it's revealed to you, when it really... something... You can't make it happen; it's got to be revealed to you. Then you don't even consider anything else: how impossible it is, don't consider what the doctor said; you don't consider what mama said, what papa said, what the preacher said, what anybody else said. You just consider what God said.

²³¹ "He considered not his own body now dead, neither the deadness of Sarah's wombs. It wasn't even brought under consideration. Oh, my, that just shakes me. Body dead, nor the deadness of Sarah's womb, not even brought under consideration.
No circumstances will be considered when faith finds its bedding ground. When a germ gene from a man finds the--the egg in the woman, and both of them fertile, something's going to happen. Hallelujah. The doctor can say, "You'll not have a baby. I can prove that there's--your genes are dead in your body, and her eggs will never be fertile." But let that fertile egg, let that germ twist itself to that egg one time, watch what happens; that little boy or that little girl comes on the scene. Why? Faith has found its bedding ground. Works goes to work, cell on top of cell, and here comes the little fellow. Amen. God, have mercy upon us. O God, to be rugged Christians like we should be. If we were men and women, you could take God at His Word. You can't do it until it's revealed to you. (I got to hurry.)

²³³ Notice, the holy faith of God was united with the holy works of his prophet. Remember, God's holy faith was revealed to Abraham. He received it, and by there he started with his holy works, by believing. The seed of promise had a place to grow. What if he said, "Abraham...?... Well, you know, Sarah, after all, it's been twenty-five years since God made that promise"? Oh, oh. "If something would have happened..." See? But it wouldn't. God knowed it wouldn't.
What if the virgin Mary said, "Well, now, wait a minute, I don't... A--a virgin conceive? Well, they'll throw me out of my church if I go in and say such a thing as that"? Now, she would've thought those thoughts if it hadn't been that prepared bedding ground.
When that prophet said, "A virgin shall conceive," that settled it. See?
"These signs shall follow them that believe." If a bedding ground is laying there when that Word drops there, it takes ahold. There's nothing can stop it.

²³⁷ Now, quickly, while we finish. See, the Seed had a place to hide. God knew it, or He'd have never give the promise to Abraham. Now, listen, real close now. God knowed where that promise was going to; He never even called Abraham till he was seventy-five years old, but he was His predestinated servant from the beginning, so was Sarah.
Notice, remember, he had no Bible to read from. He didn't have it as easy as we got it today to read His Word and see others who've took It. Remember, he only had It by revelation, and that's the real thing. Same as it was by Joseph, in Genesis, there was no Bible. Remember, Moses wrote Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, and Deuteronomy. None of those characters in there had any Bible to read till after Moses. Is that right? They didn't have a Bible that we got to help us along in our crippled condition. They were rugged men who--was revealed to them by God, and they stood right there. Nothing moved them. Now, do you think that we can still have that rugged faith? If It's revealed to you.

²³⁹ Pardon the expression, or the testimony at this time, just before closing. I remember that up here in Twin Cities; I think Brother Brown and them was with me; and I was taking the life of Joseph in the Bible. And I read that Bible; there was a man there was nothing against. Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and all of them had something against them, but not Joseph. What a man, a perfect man, a perfect type of Christ.
When I read that, I just got to crying one day in my little old hotel room. And I went over in the closet where I had my clothes hanging, pulled the door together; I said, "God, I want to thank You for a man like Joseph, a man who once lived on the earth, a--a man in flesh like I am, a man that could believe You and take Your Word." He was hated of his brothers. He couldn't help being spiritual. He saw visions. He could interpret dreams. All of them hated him for it. He couldn't help that; that's just what he was.

²⁴¹ See, it just wasn't to the others. They ought to have loved him, but instead of that... When he told sometimes things against them, "Oh," they say, "here comes that dreamer." See? And they hated him without a cause.
I said, "Why did they do that?" And yet that man never moved; he stayed right there. See? I said, "Thank You, Lord. O God, thank You for such a man."
Right then the Holy Spirit revealed to me, said, "You'll have a son, and you'll call his name Joseph." I got up from there and thanked the Lord.

²⁴⁴ Becky, setting back there, had just been borned about a--she was about a year old. She was with caesarean; it runs in my wife's family to be caesarean; 'cause they don't unhinge like the woman should; the bones are solid like a man, and she had to be cut from her mother. And the doctor told me; he said, "Brother Branham, don't you never have another child by this woman." Said, "Her womb is as thin as a balloon." He said, "You'd better let me tie those tubes."
I said, "No, I wouldn't--don't think about doing that, Doc."
He said, "Well, you--you--you'll... She shouldn't have another child." Said, "You're going to ruin her"; said, "she'll die." Said, "We had an awful time there," said, "you just... She just did come through."
And then the Lord told me I was going to have a son and his name would be called Joseph. I never was scared about it. All of you, many of you remember it.

²⁴⁸ I went forth announcing it, "I'm going to have a baby and his name's going to be Joseph." How many remembers it? Sure. All around over the country, everywhere, telling people, "Going to have a baby, his name's going to be Joseph."
Just the same as that little boy was raised up in Finland from the dead. Brother Jack was right there when it happened. Told you, two or three years before it happened, "There'd be a little boy," how he'd be dressed, where he'd be laying. "God said so."
"How is it going to be?"
"I don't know. But it was revealed to me that it was going to happen."

²⁵² It was revealed to me, "I was going to Arizona, and there I'd meet seven Angels. And they'd tell me then what--a Message that I was to preach." And that was the Seven Seals. It happened. How many remembers me saying that, the tapes and things before it happened? And it happened. Magazines, everything else took the picture of It. That Light there in the air, they can't even understand It yet. There it was.
I remember calling Brother Jack and asking him about that, Christ being standing there, and Brother Jack said, "That's in His glorified state." See? I love Brother Jack. He's one of the best theologians I know of, but I just couldn't hit it just right.
I was standing there, I said, "Lord, how is this? Young man here" I said, "with hair like wool."
And He said, "He is wigged." Watch in the book, before it ever happened, I said that. And that day when that happened, it went up. And then you turn that picture sideways, if you've got "Look" magazine or "Life" magazine. Turn it sideways. There He is, just perfectly Hofmann's Head of Christ, looking right down where I was standing; there It is in the magazine. How many's ever seen It? 'Course, you've all seen. There, looking right back, proved exactly the revelation was correct.

²⁵⁶ Why wigged? Why, the old English judges, the Jewish judges, used to wear a wig, they do yet in England; when he's... That's supreme authority; he wears a wig. And that showed Him standing there wigged by Angels' wings; He is the Alpha and Omega. He is the supreme Judge, and none other but Him. He is to look upon as Alpha and Omega. And there He was a young Man, no more... thirty years old, wearing a wig of white, showing that He was supreme, God, "The Father hath committed all judgment unto the hands of the Son." Hallelujah. The revelation is never wrong. Speak it anyhow, no matter what it sounds like: goes right with the Word.

²⁵⁷ Now, remember, four years later, my wife, we knew we was going to have a baby. Everybody said, "Is this Joseph coming?"
I said, "I guess it is; I don't know, but I'm going to have Joseph."
When it was borned, it was Sarah. Then a man called me up, and laughed in my face; he said, "Say, you know what? You meant Josephine." The man died. The man died.
I said, "Sir, I said, 'God told me I was going to have a son and I'd call his name Joseph.'"
There was three people that left a certain denominational church and come to our church, and heard me saying that. When Sarah was borned, they said, "Huh, he's a false prophet."
I said, "Wait a minute, lady, I never said when; neither did God say when. He told me I was going to have a... he was going to... told Abraham, he was going to have a Isaac, but Ishmael was borned in between that time, but it didn't take it away." I said, "God said I'd have this boy and then call his name Joseph."

²⁶³ The doctor said, when he come up; he said, "Reverend, I'm going to tie those tubes now." Said, "I..."
I said, "Don't you do it." I said...
He said, "Well, you might get married again and have that boy yet."
I said, "I'm going to have it by her. God said so." I couldn't read it out of the Bible, but it was wrote on my heart by revelation by faith; God said so. Didn't want to stagger at the promise of God through unbelief.
Some of them said, "You meant Josephine."
I said, "I meant Joseph."
Doctor said, "She can't have another baby."
I said, "She will have another baby."
Four years passed, finally she was going to be mother again.

²⁶⁸ Then a woman (a false prophecy sent forth across the country) writing words, said, "Now, Meda's going to die, during this time, because I was sent to lead Bill." And it said that "He won't listen to me 'cause I'm a woman, and God's going to get even with him now by killing his wife."
I said, "God sent Jesus Christ to lead me." See? I said, "I'm led by the Spirit."
Poor little Meda. We had a nurse that'd been healed there in a meetings; you all know, Mrs. Morgan, and one of Mayo's nurses, the worse cases of... Well, she's on the record, dead, about twenty years ago, of cancer, Sarcomas cancer, in Louisville, right on the Baptist hospital record. She's nursing in--in Jeffersonville, in the hospital now. She's been there for all these years, 'cause God said she'd live.
And so, Meda loved her, and she said, "I want Margie come with me, Bill, I don't feel like going to the hospital."

²⁷² I said, "Don't make... We love Margie, but Margie's not our God; Margie's our sister." And I took off up to Green's Mill. She'd got me all tore up, 'course I love her. I went up to Green's Mill. And I...
And she said, "Bill, you think I'm going to die?"
And I said, "I don't know, but the baby's going to be borned anyhow. You're going to have a Joseph."
She said, "Is this him?"
I said, "I don't know, honey. I can't say, but God said you was going to have Joseph, and we're going to have Joseph. I don't care what anything says; we're going to have Joseph. Then the same God that's told me all these revelations told me that, He never failed on others and He won't fail on that."
I went up to the mill to pray. And I started there, there stood that Light hang between two trees, said, "Go back to your work and to your book." I went back to this...

²⁷⁸ The Bible and was... And laying in my car. And when I did, the wind had blowed it over to where Nathan was setting, and David; said, "Go tell My servant David; I took him from that sheepcote, from feeding those few sheep of his father's, and I made him a great name like the great men." (not all the--the greatest name, but just like great men; never made him a Billy Graham, but a... give him a name, you know) Said, "I done that, but" said, "I can't let him build the Temple, but his son..." And just as soon as It said, "His sons," oh, my, there it was.
I said, "Joseph?" That's right.
Right there in the house I went. And there's the little fellow, so big she a big old boy, she couldn't hardly walk, going out through the field. I run, throw my arms around her, said, "Honey. Joseph is coming. Joseph is on his road."

²⁸¹ Anyone knows, with caesarean, you can't let the baby drop. That night the baby dropped. [Blank.spot.on.tape--Ed.]... broke, everything else.
Next morning, at seven o'clock, we went over to the hospital, the doctor said, "Oh, mercy, goodness."
I kissed her good-bye; I said, "Honey, it won't be long; Joseph will be here." Run up the steps, she went like that on the operating table.
A few minutes, the nurse come back, said, "Reverend Branham?"
I said, "Yes, ma'am."
She said, "You got a fine, seven pound, three ounce, boy.
I said, "Joseph, son, welcome." Yes, sir. Why? Why? What is it? It wasn't written in the Bible that would happen, but the same God of the Bible that revealed it to Abraham, we didn't consider the deadness of her womb, the impossibility to being that way. You don't stagger at the promise of God through unbelief, but you give praise to God, know that it's got to happen. I don't care what doctor says, everything else will come in all kind of a way, but don't you believe it; it's a lie of the Devil. Yes, sir, true. Faith goes about, together with works, to create the promise. (Let's hurry.)

²⁸⁸ Just exactly as I said, "Rahab the harlot," James said, "was justified by works." But why? Her faith.
She said, "I hear that God is with you." She didn't want to see how Joshua wore his hair or how he wore his clothes. She said, "I understand that God's with you." That's all was necessary; she made ready.
Just as true vision today (I'm closing just in a moment.)--true visions from God today, it's a promised Word for the day. Say, "These visions, Brother Branham, where do you get that?" People stumble at that. Did not Acts 2:17, said, "It shall come to pass in the last days that your young men shall see visions, your old men shall dream dreams"? Isn't that right? That's what the Bible said.

²⁹¹ All right, now if that's so, also look at Malachi the 4th chapter and find out if this isn't promised today. How can you have faith in it? The Bible said so.
Now, you take Luke 17:30 and read it. Jesus said, "As it was in the days of Sodom, so shall it be in the coming of the Son of man." Just like it was at Sodom. Now, look at the position of the world today: Sodomites. Look at that Billy Graham and Oral Roberts, them two witnesses, down there witnessing to the denominational churches. One to the Methodist, Baptist, and Presbyterian; the other to the Pentecostals. This one, that one, and the other one.

²⁹³ But remember, Abraham wasn't in Sodom; he was already called out. And there was One stayed and talked to him. And the One stayed and talked to him, showed him a sign. With His back turned, He said Sarah was going to have the baby that he'd waited on. Amen. With His back turned... And he called It God, Elohim.
Now, that brings to pass today, because we have faith. And I know this is of God, is because this and other Scriptures point to this hour. Revelations 10 said that in the hour of the seventh angel's message, when he begins to sound forth his message, not in a healing service, but the message that follows the healing service...

²⁹⁵ Jesus went forth and preached; he said, "He healed the sick, and everything. O that young Rabbi, that prophet, He's a great fellow. We want Him in our church."
But one day He stood up, said, "I and My Father are One." Oh, my. They didn't want Him no more then. Yeah. Oh.
"Except you eat the flesh of the Son of man, and drink His blood." He didn't explain It. Said, "Except you eat the flesh of the Son of man, and drink His blood, you have no Life in you."
Why, I imagine some doctors and nurses said, "This fellow's a vampire, trying to get us to drink his blood." See, they didn't understand it. He knowed it.
But them disciples, they might not have been able to explained it, but they set there and believed it anyhow, amen, for it was revealed to them. Yes, sir. They knowed it; the Scriptures had declared it.

³⁰⁰ It could be asked then to me, this that you might say, "Why do you have faith to believe in these visions, when--when there's so many false impersonations goes forth?"
I'm going to speak a little something, strong