Today's Featured Sermon
Click to Tune In
 Listeners Now:  
Since April 17, 2002:
 Listeners Served:  
 Sermon Downloads:  
 
   
Loading...

Things That Are To Be
65-1205, Things That Are To Be, First Assembly Of God, Rialto, CA, 125 min

Printer Friendly Version | Print Book Version | Listen to this sermon | Download in MP3 format | Automatically Scroll Paragraph

L-1 To Brother Boone and the congregation, this is certainly a--a great privilege for me to be back in San Bernardino again. This place holds many great memories of the days gone by. And to hear that, the visit here, and still have living influence, why, it certainly makes you feel glad that the Lord directed us this a way, years ago.
L-2 I was just setting out there in the parking lot, just now, trying to remember of one of the events that taken place. There was a Mrs. Isaacson had been my interpreter in Finland, on a Finnish campaign, and she came to the car when I was just leaving. And she said, "Your voice of Finland." And I just wonder if Mrs. Isaacson lives around here. I didn't know. She wouldn't happen to be present tonight, I suppose? Mrs. May Isaacson, and she's from Finland.
L-3 Then another outstanding thing that brought to my memories, was a little waitress in a restaurant that I eat, somewhere near, they call the Antlers Hotel. I believe that's right, now. And the little lady had... I was praying with her. She had... She, nice little lady, but she wasn't a Christian. I invited her to the meeting. And she had lost a baby, and I believe that her husband, they was separated. And we was praying that she would make up with her husband, or they would make up, together. So, I just wonder if that little lady could be present. See? The...
L-4 And then another event taken place, was a little baby that was brought from somewhere, about a day's drive. And it had died, and was laying in the mother's arms. And was brought back to life. Is that... Was that person present here? And it come, I believe, from the state up in this way, around, was above here. And the little mother had drove all night long, and the father, and the little mother setting there, sadly, holding her little, dead-form baby. And I thought, "Such faith!" If I was the biggest hypocrite in the world, God would have honored that mother's faith.
Holding the little baby in my hands, like that, praying. Got warm, it begin moving, opened its little eyes. I hand it back to their mother. So, they was from somewhere. I do not think they were Pentecostal, though. They were just... I believe it was just some church, that from... I don't know even if they was Christians, or not. Never asked them. I was just so elated about the little baby being brought to life again.
Since then, Brother Boone, much water has went down the river. But we're still serving the same God Who remains the same yesterday, today, and forever. [Hebrews 13:8]
L-5 Just looking around, seeing Brother Leroy Kopp setting here. It's the first time I seen him for a long time. [A brother says, "He's Paul Kopp here."--Ed.] Paul. That's right. Leroy is your father. That's right. ["And he--he's in Russia, tonight, so pray for him."] Oh, my! Russia. Well, that's, I know, this gallant soldier there, he's there on the business of the King. ["Right."] So, I'm certainly happy to be here and to hear this young minister saying he was inspired by the ministry that we had while we were here. Such a great thrill that is!
And I am trusting now, that, knowing we got... People are standing, and we won't keep too long. We remember those great healing services.
L-6 Then, I understand that there is a--a--a brother here in the neighborhood, somewhere, holding a healing campaign, a Brother Leroy Jenkins. I believe that's right. And so I'm very thankful, trusting that the Lord is blessing him and giving him a great, great service. It...
My, I felt really honored, tonight, to come into a church like this. I always feel better in a church than I do in those auditoriums. There's nothing against the auditorium. But, you know, I... It may be a superstition, or I just... Seems to me like a truth. See? They... You go into those auditoriums where there's fights, wrestles, burlesque, everything else going on, evil spirits seems to hang around them places. Now, that may seem a superstition, but it isn't so. But when you come into a church, you... usually, certainly a spiritual congregation, it seems like, that is, you--you feel more at liberty, like there's--there's something. The Presence of God is there. You know, it seems to be different. I don't know what effect the building has, but it's where the people are congregated. Course, the same, people are at the other place, but on those evil grounds. May be just me thinking that way. But, anyhow, I'm glad to be here tonight.
L-7 And now we want to not keep you too long, 'cause a standing audience. And we are going, tomorrow night, at some other place here. I don't even know where it's at. It's near here. [A brother says, "Orange Show Auditorium."--Ed] Where? ["Orange Show Auditorium."] Orange Show Auditorium, for the services tomorrow night. I... This is between, I'm speaking on a tour for the--the businessmen's Full Gospel Business Men's group. Which, I've had the privilege of speaking around the world, for them. And so in there, a very dear friend invited us over here, and we're glad to be in the assembly tonight.
L-8 Now, before we open the Bible... Now, anybody that's got physical strength can open It in this manner. See? But it takes the Holy Spirit to open the Word to us, open our understanding and reveal the Scriptures. I believe in the Bible. I believe that It's God's Word. I believe that the earth, or the peoples of the earth, will be judged someday by this Word. Now, that may seem strange. Now, there's many different with that idea. [John 16:13], [Romans 2:16]
L-9 I was talking to a very loyal friend of mine, not long ago, who is Catholic. And he said, "God will judge the world by the Catholic church." If that's so, which Catholic church? See? So, if He judges it by the Methodist, then what about the Baptist? See? If He judges it by one, the other one is lost. So, there's too much confusion there.
But we have to go to It, to find our--our true statement, and the Bible says that God will judge the world by Jesus Christ. And He is the Word. Saint John 1, "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us." And Hebrews 13:8 said, "He's the same yesterday, today, and forever." And I believe that to be the Truth. Now, I believe that. In... [Romans 2:16], [John 1:1, 14], [Hebrews 13:8], [II Timothy 4:1], [John 9:39]
L-10 God, in the beginning, being the infinite God; He is finite and... or infinite, rather. We're the finite. His mind is so much greater, and we, in our little finite mind, cannot understand His great, infinite wisdom. But therefore, when He speaks anything, it may seem very strange to us, to hear Him say a certain thing in the Scripture, but it's got to happen. I believe that His Words will never pass away. Therefore, I believe that God, knowing that we in our little finite mind could not interpret His--His great mind, He interprets His Own Word. He doesn't need any interpreter. He interprets His Own Word, by vindicating that Word in Its season. [Isaiah 55:7-9], [Matthew 24:35], [Mark 13:31], [Luke 21:33], [I Corinthians 2:16]
L-11 I believe that, God, in the beginning, that Noah was the Word for that day, for His Message. [Genesis 7:1-23]
Now, along come, after that, come Moses. Now, Moses could not have taken Noah's Word. He could not build a ship and floated them out of Egypt, down the Nile River, or to the promised land, or so forth. His message didn't work in Noah's day; that was the part of God's Word that was vindicated to be Truth by Moses. [Exodus 3:1-4]
Neither could Jesus have had Moses' Word. And the Luther could have not maintained the word of the Catholic church. Wesley, he could not maintain Luther's Word. And the Pentecostal, they could not take the Methodist Word. They... See? [Revelation 3:1-6], [Revelation 3:7-13]
The Church is growing. Each age, it's lotted in the Scripture here. So, God, through the Holy Spirit, reveals His Word, by manifesting It and vindicating It, Hisself, showing that It's His Word being brought to pass in the day that It's promised. [Titus 1:2-3]
L-12 Jesus said that. He said, "If you can't believe Me, believe the works that I do," for they testify of who He was, see, if anyone would have knowed the Scripture.
Now, He come so oddly, so strange, that the people didn't want to believe Him, because, "He, being a Man, was making Himself God."
So, He was God, in form. "God was in Christ, reconciling the world to Himself."
"And no man can do these works without God be with him," as we know Nicodemus said that. That, the Sanhedrin believed that. [John 10:38], [John 3:1-2], [II Corinthians 5:19]
L-13 Now, we know that, that Word. If they would have known the Word! He said, "If you'd have knowed Moses, you'd have knowed Me, because Moses wrote of Me." And we look. If they had looked back in the Scripture, see what the Messiah was supposed to do, then they'd have knowed Him by the vindication, that, "God, through Christ, was reconciling the world to Himself," and bringing to pass all the promises that was of the Messiah, that He was to do. Jesus bore record of that Word, making that Word live for that day. [John 5:46], [II Corinthians 5:19], [Revelation 1:1-2], [John 8:14]
L-14 And I believe that's the same thing we live in today: God bearing record of His Word, by vindicating what He said He would do. Now, we know that this is the day of salvation, where God is calling men from the world, from a life of sin, unto a life of service. And in the day that God has poured out His Spirit from on High, great signs and wonders are to accompany the ministry of this day. This is the... when the former and latter rain are falling, together. And we know that there is supposed to be great signs and wonders. Which, in many great denominations, This is turned down.
But I'm very thankful for these open doors that I've had, to go into, and the inspiration it's give to young men like your pastor here. That's caused them... As I'm beginning to get old, and know that my days are numbered, and know now that these young men can take this Message and sweep It on to the Coming of the Lord, if He doesn't come in my generation. Which, I'm hoping to see Him. I look daily for Him, watch, keeping myself prepared for that hour. [John 8:14], [Acts 2:17-21], [Jeremiah 5:24], [Hosea 6:3], [Joel 2:23], [James 5:7], [Luke 12:37], [Matthew 24:42-46]
L-15 Now let us speak to the Author before we read His Book, as we bow our heads.
Heavenly Father, we are grateful to Thee, to be alive tonight, to return back to this great city. Setting here in this panoramic here of the mountains, looking up and seeing the snow, and the orange blossoms blooming, at the same time, what a magnificent world You've give us to live in! And how that we see that man has disturbed and--and acted in this world, it makes us ashamed of ourself, Father.
We are here, tonight, to try to put forth our efforts, to try to cause men to see this great thing that God has done, and know that there's something greater just beyond. May we look to that, tonight, Father, as we turn in to Your Word and read. We can read It, Father, but let the Holy Spirit reveal It to us through the revelation. For we ask it in Jesus' Name. Amen.
L-16 Now, you that like to perhaps take notes, and--and to read the Scripture with the minister, as--as usually they read It. And it used to be, when I... years ago, I didn't have to write down my Scriptures, and so forth. But I've got a little older since then. See? I just passed twenty-five, just recently, twenty-five years ago. So, it makes it a little bad. But I'm still trying to hold on to everything that I know to do in His Word, until He calls me.
L-17 Now, let us turn to Saint John the 14th chapter, very familiar Scripture that we want to read tonight, to draw from this a context, the Lord willing. Nearly all knows this. It seems to be, many times, it's used in funeral services. There ever was a time that I'd like to preach a funeral service, it'd be to this world. Let it die and be born again. Saint John 14:1 through 7, I believe, I have marked down here.
Let not your hearts be troubled: if you've believed in God, believe also in me.
In my Father's house is many mansions:... it were not so, I would have told you. I go and prepare a place for you.
... if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also.
... where I go you know, and the way you know.
Thomas saith unto him, Lord, we know... where thou goest; and how can we know the way?
Jesus said unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.
If you had known me, you should have known my Father also: and from henceforth you know him, and have seen him. [John 14:1-7]

May the Lord add His blessings to the reading of His Word. And we'll refer to It again, in the times as we go on, while we want to just speak a little lesson to the Church.
L-18 Last evening, I was in Yuma; Arizona, where my home now. I--I... When I was here before I lived in Jeffersonville, Indiana. Now I been in Arizona, by a vision sending me there, a few years ago. And we resident there now. I don't have any church there.
Brother Green, our brother here with us, has established a tabernacle where the... one of the Assemblies of God, a church, downtown assemblies. They emerged, and I think they all went in with Brother Brock and with Brother Gilmore, left this church open. And Brother Pearry Green, from--from Texas, moved in and took the place, which is associate with us. We're glad to know that--that Brother Green has reopened this church that was closed.
L-19 And last night, speaking over in Yuma for the Christian Business Men, I spoke on the subject of The Rapture. Now, that might been a strange subject to speak among, at a--a banquet, but most everyone there was Christians. And that's the way it is on these campaigns like this, or in--in a church. I could say now, "How many of you is Christians?" Probably every hand would go up. You're a Christian. And so, if we're Christians, I think we ought to be kindly notified ahead. We don't have to just guess at it. We're notified what our destination will be.
L-20 And I want to speak on that tonight. And the subject is going to be: Things That Are To Be. And now, speaking last night on The Rapture, so tonight, I want to speak on this subject, that I might tie it together with last night's Message. Now, there is going to be a Rapture, we know that. That's in the future, to be.
L-21 Now, Jesus here is speaking, about, He's gone ahead to prepare a place for us. "Let not your hearts be troubled." Now, He was talking to Jews. Said, "Now, you believed in God, believe also in Me. As you have believed in God, believe in Me, because I am the Son of God." See? "And, God," other words, "I and My Father are One. My Father is dwelling in Me. And what you see do, I'm doing, it's not Me. It's My Father that dwelleth in Me. He doeth the works."
"God was in Christ, reconciling the world to Himself." [John 14:1], [John 10:30], [II Corinthians 5:19]
L-22 It was easy for those Jews who had been taught, through generations, to believe that there was a great supernatural God. But to think that that God had come down and was manifesting Himself through the person of His Son, Jesus Christ, God tabernacled in a body of flesh, that was a little too much for them to--to understand.
But He said, "Now, as you have believed in God, believe also in Me. For in My Father's house are many mansions, and I go to prepare a place for you." Jesus' life was fixing to end, here on earth.
He had showed the people, and proved to them, that He was Jehovah manifested in flesh, by the great signs and wonders, and the reference of the Bible that He had referred to, to Himself. And He proved that He was God, manifested.
Now He said, "When you see My life ending, it's ending for a purpose. And I'm going away, to prepare a place for you; that where I am, there you may be also." Jesus therefore is telling His disciples that this life is not ended in death. [John 14:2-3]
L-23 Now, saying this was a funeral text. Remember, we, death sets right before us, and we don't know whether there may be some in this building tonight will not go out of here alive, in this physical life. That's how uncertain it is. Five minutes from now, it could be that young, healthy, young people in this building can be a corpse in five minutes from now. That is true. And again, it could be, in five minutes from now, we'd every one be in Glory. We just don't know. That's in the hands of God. Jesus said He didn't know, Hisself, when that time would be, but, "That was in the hands of the Father only."
L-24 Now, but, He was telling them, that, after death there is life. Because, "I go and prepare a place," that is, to receive them, shows that there, He was speaking to them, that there was a--a life after this life is ended. And what a consolation that ought to give to all of us, to know that, after this life is over, there is a life, that we go into. And as you get older, that becomes more of a reality to you. As you begin to see the days of your life drawing close, then it begins to, you begin to pack up closer, getting ready for that great event. It's now... It's a continuing of this same life in another world, another place. [John 14:2-3]
L-25 Your birth here was pre-planned. I guess you believe that. Every one of you knows that our birth was pre-planned. Did you know that your being here never originated just at a myth or a thought? Everything was all pre-planned by God, before the foundation of the world, that you would be here. The infinite God knowed. And to be--to be infinite, He had to know every flea that ever would be in the earth, and how many times it would bat its eye. That's infinite. See? You, our little--our little minds, cannot fathom what infinite means. The infinite God, He knowed all things. Therefore, there's nothing out of cater. [Romans 8:29-30], [Ephesians 1:4, 11]
L-26 If we know the Word of God, we know where we are living. We know the hour that we're living in. We know what lays ahead. We see what we've passed. And the Book of God is the revelation of Jesus Christ; His works through the ages, that was up to the book of Revelation, and then His promises that is to come. So, all of His promises are true. God cannot speak any Word without It being confirmed. Every Word that He says has to come to pass. Before the foundation of the world... [Isaiah 55:11], [II Samuel 7:28], [Mark 13:31]
L-27 Some people mix Genesis up, there, when he said, "God repeats Himself." No. Just, you're misunderstanding. See?
God, at the beginning, He said, "Let there be. Let there be. Let there be." The world was just dark, in a chaos. Even when He said, "Let there be light," there might have been hundreds of years before light ever sprung in. But when He spoke it, it has to come to pass. It must be that way. See? And He spoke His Word. Them seeds was beneath the water. When He dried off the earth, then the seeds come up. What He says must come to pass. [Genesis 1:3]
L-28 He said, through the prophets. I referred to it last evening. Like, we take Isaiah, he said, "A virgin shall conceive." Who would think, of a man that was thought of among people, to say such a word as that, "A virgin shall conceive"? But because he...
A prophet is a reflector of God. He is made so that he cannot speak his own words. It has to be God's Words that he speaks. He's just like a reflector, and he is God's mouthpiece.
And so, therefore, he said, "A virgin shall conceive." He probably could not understand it, but God had spoke it through him. Because, He promised that, "He would do nothing until He revealed It to His servants the prophets." Then, when he said that, it was eight hundred years before that ever come to pass. But it had to come to pass.
Finally, those Words of God anchored in the womb of a virgin, and she conceived and brought forth Emmanuel. "Unto us a--a Child is born, unto us a Son is given. His Name shall be called, 'The Counsellor,' 'The mighty God,' 'The Prince of Peace,' 'The everlasting Father.'" That had to be that way, because God had spoke it through the mouth of His prophets. And all the Words of God has to be fulfilled.
Therefore, we know that Jesus has gone to prepare a place, to receive a people unto Himself. Who those people are, I hope it's we are part of those people tonight. If it isn't, my friend, God has made a way, a condition, that you can be included in that if you want to. You're on free moral agency. You can act the way you wish to. But now notice, now, in this world that is to come. There is a world to come. [Isaiah 7:14], [Matthew 1:23], [Amos 3:7], [Isaiah 9:6]
L-29 Just like your birth here, I said, you was prepared. God knew you would be here.
And now you know, even things that your parents done, now, people think that that isn't visit from generation to generation, but it is.
L-30 Over in the Book of Hebrews, I believe, about the 7th chapter, speaking, Paul there, the writers, I believe it was, was speaking on a--a great event that taken place with Abraham, that he paid tithes to Melchisedek, when he was returning from the slaughter of the king. And now he said, that, "Levi was in the loins of Abraham, when he met Melchisedek, coming from the slaughter of the kings." And then he reckoned that to "Levi paying tithes, also, when he was in the loins of Abraham," his great-great-grandfather.
And He visits the sins of the people upon their--their children, from generation to generation, that won't keep His Word. See? [Exodus 34:7], [Hebrews 7:9-10]
L-31 You were all pre-planned by God. Nothing happens by chance, with God. He knows all about it. It's all pre-planned, planned for many generations back, so that you could be here tonight. Did you know that? [Congregation says, "Amen."--Ed.]
Just think, that, you, at one time... I'll repeat this again. You, at one time, was in your father, in the gene of your father. Now, he didn't know you at that time, neither did you know him at that time. But, you see, then you were put in the bedding ground, in the womb of mother, through holy wedlock. And then you become a person expressed in the image like your father, then there's fellowship. [Jeremiah 1:5]
L-32 Now, the only way that you can be a son, a daughter of God, because you have to be the... have to have Eternal Life. And there's only one form of Eternal Life, and that's God's Life. Only one form of Eternal Life, that was God. There, to be a son of God, you had to be in Him always. The gene of your Life, spiritual Life, tonight, was in God, the Father, before there was even a molecule. See? And you are nothing but the manifestation of the gene of Life that was in God, as a son of God.
Now you're expressed, after His Word has come in you, to Light up this age. You are expressing God's Life in you, because you are a son or a daughter of God. Therefore, you get what I mean? [Congregation says, "Amen."--Ed.] See? You are in... You are now made, you're setting in this church, tonight, because your duty is to express God to this nation and this people, and this neighborhood where you associate.
Wherever you are, God knew that you would be here, because you have to be one of His genes, or His attributes. You had to be. If you ever, if you've got Eternal Life, then It always was Eternal Life. And God, before there was a foundation, world, knew that you would be here. And when the Word, or the water, "the washing of the water of the Word" fell upon you--you, it was expressed in a being. Now you have fellowship with your Father, God, just as you have with your earthly father. See? You are citizens of the King; not citizens, but you are children, sons and daughters of the living God, if it be that the Eternal Life dwells in you.
32a Now, then, if It was, Jesus was the fullness of God manifested. He was the fullness of the Godhead bodily. Therefore, when He came to the earth and was manifested in flesh, you were here in Him then, because He was the Word. "In the beginning was the Word; the Word was with God, and the Word was God. And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us." The Word was made flesh. Therefore, you walked with Him, when you were in Him, when He was on earth. You suffered with Him, and you died with Him. You was buried with Him. And now you are risen with Him, and manifested attributes of God, setting in Heavenly places; already raised, resurrected to new Life, and setting in Heavenly places in Christ Jesus. Oh, that means so much, now days, Church! That means so much to us, to see ourself positionally placed in Jesus Christ! [Ephesians 5:26], [Colossians 2:9-10], [John 1:1, 14], [Ephesians 2:6]
L-33 Now, if we are those attributes of God, we cannot live by creeds. We cannot live by denominationalism. We must live by the Word, because the Bride is a part of the Bridegroom, like any wife is a part of her husband. Therefore, we must be that Word Bride. And what is that Word Bride? The manifestation of this hour, the Bride, not a creed or a denomination; but a living oracle of God, a living attribute of God, displaying to the world the attributes of God, in the formation of the Bride that's to be expressed in this hour that we're now living.
L-34 Martin Luther could not express the attributes that we express, because that that was in the beginning, the resurrection, like the corn of wheat that went into the earth.
L-35 Now, we quote this again. You probably read that book, that German making fun of me, and said I was a fanatic of all the fanatics. He was--he was absolutely against everything that's called God, and even made fun of God. Said, "A God that could open the Red Sea and," said, "take His people out; and set with His hands across His tummy, and let (through the dark ages) all those people die and suffer, those little children be eat by lions."
L-36 You see, the whole--whole program, the whole Church, is built upon Divine revelation. Jesus said, in Saint Matthew, the 16th chapter, "Flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but My Father which is in Heaven has revealed this to you." What was it? A revelation of who He was. "And upon this Rock, I'll build My Church, and the gates of hell can't prevail against It." See?
The revelation of Jesus Christ in this hour; not what He was in another hour! What He was now, the Bible expresses. It's growing in the Bride, to the full stature. Therefore, if the corn of wheat, of Christ, had to fall in the ground, so did the Bride have to fall in the ground, through the dark ages. Any grain that goes in the ground must die, or it can't produce itself, reproduce itself. And the great Church that He established on the Day of Pentecost, by the sending of the Holy Ghost, had to suffer martyrdom and go into the dirt, into the earth in the dark age, to bring forth again in the age of Luther, and come on out to the full stature of the Bride of Jesus Christ for this last day. See? There's no way... [Matthew 16:17-18]
L-37 Therefore, the Bride, in the Rapture, will come forth. And there is all pre-planned by God, all backed up. From the beginning, He knowed every man, every place, who would set, all about it. It's all pre-planned. God knew it would be here. And--and when... He made it that way, so that when we get there... He's gone to prepare a place for us. And when we get there, it'll all be prepared just like even this night is prepared, like this hour is prepared. Yes. His great foreknowledge tells Him all these things, by foreknowledge. [John 14:2-3]
L-38 He's omnipresent because He's omniscient; omniscient because He's omnipresent. Therefore, by His foreknowledge... Now, He can't be just like the wind over the earth, because He is a Being. He just isn't a myth. He's a Being. He dwells. He even dwells in a house. He dwells in a place called Heaven. And therefore, by His omni-, being omnipresent; being omniscient, knowing all things, then He is omnipresent because He knows all things.
L-39 You, now, you grew from your birth, when you was born and presented into this world. God knew that you were going to be here in this earth, and you growed from birth to maturity. Things that seemed so strange to you, in your young womanhood, young boyhood, as children, now seems very real. You couldn't understand it when you was a child. But now, as you become adult, you begin to understand and find out that everything was just set just right. And, you, it really means something to you now. [I Corinthians 13:11]
L-40 So is it in your spiritual birth. You do things that you don't understand, when you're a little baby, come to the altar. You give your life to Christ. You do such strange things. You wonder why you did it. But after while, when you mature, as matured Christians, then you understand it. See? There's something picks up. You see why you had to do it. Your spiritual birth! Your natural birth types your spiritual.
How--how it fitted to you, in this life, as you grew, everything fitted right in, because you were made for that. Wasn't it a strange thing, the night that you staggered into the mission, the tent meeting, or the little church somewhere on the corner, and something the preacher preached on, a certain subject, and you just fell right at the altar? See? See? God knew that, before the foundation of the world. See? It--it seemed strange to you, why you did it then. But now you understand; you knew what happened. It's so fitting to you in this life, and will be also in the Life that is to come. This world and its life seems to--to advance as you mature. Everything seems to go right with you. [Ephesians 1:4]
L-41 I don't believe in a... that a person just happened to be here by chance. Now just think, when you come to the--the world, everything had to be fore-prepared for you, or pre-prepared, rather, for you. I don't hardly understand that how that we could think that a God that could prepare all these good things for us would not... we could not put trust in Him. That, if He brought us in this chaos that we're in now, and prepared the good things of life for us here, how much more can we trust Him to prepare the things that is to come, see, the Eternal things! It seems, I say, very strange. [I Corinthians 2:9], [John 14:2-3]
L-42 And I--I do not think that Heaven is a place that my mother used to tell me about. I believe that the Church has growed from that. To think, it used to be, a hundred years ago, or two, I think the old-timers used to think that everyone that died went up to Heaven and had a harp, and--and set up there on the clouds and--and played a harp. Now, they knowed that there was a place called Heaven. But, they, if that be so, all the musicians would have it on us, you see. But we... But it--it isn't that kind of a place. It isn't playing harps, at all. I believe, don't believe the Bible teaches that. But that was a conception that they had before the fullness of the Word come into existence, or the opening of the Seven Seals, that's promised to us in this age, that we then understand.
I believe that Heaven is a real place, just the same as this is a real place, see, for God started us in our spiritual growth in this place. And I believe that Heaven is a place just as real as this, where we don't set up there for Eternity and just set there on a cloud. We don't just strum our harp, for all--all from here, ever. But we're going to a real place where we're going to do things, where we're going to live. We're going to work. We're going to enjoy. We're going to live. We're going to Life, to a real Eternal Life. We're going to a Heaven, a paradise. Just like Adam and Eve worked, and lived, and eat, and enjoyed, in the garden of Eden before sin came in, we're on our road right back there again, right, right back. The first Adam, through sin, taken us out. The Second Adam, through righteousness, bring us back in again; justifies us and brings us back in. [Genesis 2:8, 10, 15]
L-43 You people that take the tapes now, the message of justification, I want you take it. And you do take the tapes, I want you to get that. I spoke on it, here some time ago.
L-44 Look how your earthly parent, before you come here, before they knowed you was coming, made ready for your coming. Just think of that now, your earthly parents. Which, an earthly parent is only a type of a heavenly Parent. "If we know how to give good gifts to our children, how much more does your Heavenly Father know how to give good gifts to His children." Jesus spoke these Words. See?
They made ready your coming. They made a little crib, or got a little, some little booties, and little clothes, and so forth. They made ready, everything for you to arrive, prepared before you even come on the earth. [Matthew 7:11], [Luke 11:11-13], [John 14:1-3]
L-45 Jesus has gone to make ready our coming there. Now notice. "In My Father's House is many mansions." Or, let us...
I don't mean to add to the Word, or take from It, because we're not to do that. Revelations 22 said, "Whoever will add a word, or take a Word out of It." But let me just make this, as not an additive, but just to--to bring out a point.
"In My Father's House is many kinds of mansions." I don't believe that when we get to Heaven that we will be, just everybody look just exactly alike. I don't believe that--that all will be blondes, or brunettes, or--or little, or--or all big, or--or all giants.
I believe that God is a God of variety. The world proves that. He's got big mountains and little mountains. He's got plains. He's got deserts. He's got different things, because He made it the way He wanted it. And He made the seasons; summer, winter, spring, autumn. He made the seasons. It shows He's a God of variety. He made you in a variety. Some men are real blusterous; and some are real dogmatic; and others are fine; others are kind. And you just find all different kinds of people, and in His Kingdom. See? [John 14:2], [Revelation 22:18-19], [Genesis 1:14]
L-46 Look at Saint Peter, and judge him by Andrew. See? Andrew is that prayer warrior, just stayed on his knees all the time. And the apostle Peter was one of those firebrands that preached, and--and so forth. And Paul was more scholarly-like, more of the... like the prophet, or something, and set back.
L-47 And, see, Moses wrote the first four Books of the Old. Which, he wrote the Old Testament. The rest of it was the laws, and kings, and psalms, and so forth, and what someone wrote of the prophets. But Moses wrote the laws, the first four Books of the Bible: Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, and Deuteronomy.
L-48 And then Paul wrote the New Testament. That's true. Matthew, Mark, Luke and John wrote the acts of what taken place, and so forth. But Paul separated law and grace, and put it into its place. See? He was the writer of the New Testament. He gave us the writings of the New Testament, setting the Word of God in order.
Now notice, many, "many mansions," many kinds of mansions.
L-49 Like, many kinds of hills; like, many kinds of rivers, springs, lakes. They were here when you come here, first, because the kindness of your Heavenly Father placed them here. Because, some men likes mountains. Some people likes waters. Some likes deserts. So, you see, your coming, He knew your nature and what you would be, so He made it just the way that you could enjoy it. Oh! I think that's a wonderful Father, see, know that He made it like this.
I'm glad He made mountains. I--I like the mountains. I... And I--I like that. Where, the others, "Oh, I can't stand... Oh, He must have emptied His mortar box out there." Well, He emptied it out so I could enjoy it. You see? So then say, "I like the plains, where I can see a long ways." Well, the two different natures, both of us Christians.
But the Father knew that you would be here, and prepared everything for you before you got here. Amen. Your first coming, here, He had it ready for you when you got here. Isn't that marvelous to think of what He done?
L-50 Now, now, but remember, these are only temporal gifts, in type. "Now, we know that Moses, in building the tabernacle in the wilderness, or preparing it, he said he made all things after the order of what he saw in Heaven." See? So, the earthly things only express what the Eternal things are. And if this earth that we live in today, being so great, as we love it; and love to live, and breathe the air, and see the flowers and things; if--if that, if this here is the expression, one that's dying is only expressing one that's Eternal. When you see a tree struggling, pulling, trying to live, that means there's a tree somewhere that doesn't have to do that.
When you see a man here, struggling to live, somebody in a hospital, or on a sick bed, or in a accident, struggling, and the death rattle is in their throat, and pulling, and crying, and screaming for life, what does that mean? There's a place, somewhere, there's a body that doesn't struggle and scream for that. See? It just doesn't do it. [Exodus 25:9]
L-51 Now, they are temporal gifts to us, these things, only expressing that there is One where it's the Eternal One. That's what Jesus has gone away to prepare, the Eternal One for us. Now, they only express there's a greater of the same kind, 'cause these are a same kind. [II Corinthians 4:18]
L-52 Now, remember, the Bible said, "If this earthly tabernacle of our dwelling, if it perish, be dissolved, we have one already waiting."
Just as the little baby, its little muscles, in the mother, are twisting and turning. And, but just... See? And you notice, you can take a woman, if she is ever so foul; but when she's become a mother, a little while before that baby is born, there's a kindness about the woman. Get around her, there's always something, she's more tender. Why? There's a little angel spirit waiting to receive that natural body. Just as soon as it's born, the breath of life comes into it. And God breathes it in there, and it becomes a living soul. Now, just as this baby is being born, then the spiritual body is there to receive it.
And now, when this body is dropped here, in this earth, like the baby is dropped, also there is a immortal body waiting to receive the spirit back into itself again. Oh, what a great thing! We are--we are now in Christ Jesus, (amen), babies, babes in Christ, children of God, waiting for the full deliverance, at the Coming of our Lord Jesus, the... to receive us up unto Hisself, when the body, this mortal, will take on immortality. [II Corinthians 5:1-2]
L-53 The likeness, all the things that He did, expresses the things that are to come. Just as the body gives you here, just as this body, He gave you to live in, only expresses that there is one that is greater, yet, to come. See? "If we bear, or have borne the image of the earthly, we also shall bear the image of the Heavenly," which holds no evils in this one that is to come. Now, this one does hold evil, sickness, death, sorrow. I've just expressed here, not long ago, preaching on The Transformation Of The Word Of God, of how that--that this body, it's got the evil in it. [I Corinthians 15:48-50]
L-54 And all this modern civilization that we live in is of the Devil. You don't believe that? The Bible says it is; this world, every government. We don't want to believe that. But the Bible plainly states it, that every government, every kingdom of the earth, is owned by the Devil and ruled by the Devil. Jesus was taken by Satan, up, and showed Him all the kingdoms of the world that was, would be, what more. And Satan claimed them, his, and Jesus never argued with him, because he is the god of this world. See? And he said, "I'll give them to You if You'll fall down and worship me." See? He was trying to give them over to Jesus, without sacrifice. See? It was a bargain he was going to make Him.
But the world had sinned. So, the penalty of sin was death, and He had to die. That's why God was manifested in flesh, so He could take death on Him, to pay the penalty. There's nothing to come back. It's not earmarked. It's absolutely, freely paid. All the debt is paid. It belongs to Him now. And we are delegates of His Kingdom, assembled here together tonight, in the Name of Jesus Christ our King, setting in Heavenly places. [Matthew 4:8-9], [Romans 6:23], [Ephesians 1:3], [Ephesians 2:6]
L-55 Now, in this world that we live in, this education. I want to prove to you. Education, science, civilization, and all these things that we seemingly so enjoy today, is of Satan, and will perish. You say, "Brother Branham, civilization?" Yes, sir. This civilization come by Satan. Genesis 4 proves it. Cain's son, see, started this civilization, building cities, and organs, and so forth. And civilization came by knowledge. Knowledge is what the Devil sold Eve, in the garden of Eden, that caused her to cramp, transgress God's commandment.
So there will be a civilization in the world that we're going to, but it won't be this kind of a civilization, for in this civilization we have sickness, sorrow, lust, death, everything in this civilization, wrong. But in that civilization there will be none of these things. We won't need science.
Science is the perversion of the original, anyhow. See? You split a molecule, to split atoms and do so-and-so, to blow you up. You take gun powder, bang this, to kill something. You take the car. And take gasoline out of the earth, and the materials out of the earth, to loosen up the fibers, so it can blow up. And go down the road at ninety miles an hour, and kill somebody. See? Oh, so nervous, squeeze, and hurry up; we got to push, and taking. Oh! See? It's all of the Devil.
The Kingdom of God will not have automobiles, airplanes, or any scientific achievements. No. It won't have any education, at all. It'll be an education so supreme to this, that this won't even be thought of. See? Education, civilization, and all this, comes from Satan.
Now, you say, "Brother Branham, why do you read, then?" [Genesis 4:16-17, 21-23]
L-56 See, just like, why do I wear clothes now? In the civilization that was to come, that was first, they didn't need any clothes. They were veiled. They had no reason to wear clothes, 'cause they didn't know they were naked. Now you... Now you find out, that, in now, then, that we know that we are--are--are--are naked, sin abides here, then we've got to wear clothes. But it wasn't so at the beginning; there was no sin. See? [Genesis 3:10, 11, 21]
L-57 Now, the same thing is in the way of civilization, altogether. We read. We write. We do this. But don't never get adjusted to that. Don't never make that your god, for that is the god of communism. See? It's not of Jesus Christ.
L-58 Jesus Christ is by faith; not what you can scientifically prove, but what you believe. I can't scientifically prove you, tonight, in this building, that there is a God, but yet I know He's here. But, by my faith, vindicates it.
Abraham could not scientifically prove to you that he was going to have a baby to that woman, and her nearly a hundred years. But his faith confirmed it. See? Didn't need any scientific proof. Why, the... Why, the doctor would said, "The old man is crazy, out here saying he's going to have a--a baby by that woman; him a hundred years old, and her ninety." But, you see, God said so, so it don't take science. It takes faith, to believe God's Word, not science. [Galatians 2:16], [Galatians 3:22, 26], [Romans 4:3, 19-20]
L-59 So, our schools and things are a blow up. As, God never said, "Go forth and make schools," or even, "have Bible schools." You know that? [Congregation says, "Amen."--Ed.] He said, "Preach the Word." That's exactly right. Our educational systems taken us farther away from God than anything I know of, that's right, farther away from God. Not build schools, hospitals, and so forth; that was for the world and for that group. But, I ain't got nothing against them; they play their parts, but that still is not that.
We build a hospital, ever so good, and practice with the best medicine we got, and thousands die in it daily. But, oh, my, in the Kingdom of God, there is no death, there is no sorrow. Amen. There's no need of these things of the world. But we've passed from this thing, into the realities of God; where we struggle so hard to try to find, through science. And more scientific we get, more death we bring on ourselves. We're fighting a losing battle there, so turn loose of it. And by faith, believe Jesus Christ the Son of God, tonight, and accept Him. He is the One.
L-60 What is science preparing for you? More death. That's right. Sputniks and everything going up, all these things, to scatter death and everything across the earth. Don't look to that. Turn your head higher than that, towards Heaven. Look where Jesus sets, "On the right hand of God," tonight, "ever living to make intercessions on our confession." Of what? We believe His Word to be the Truth. [Romans 8:26-27], [Hebrews 7:25]
L-61 Now, we find, this life holds all kinds of evils, so therefore the life that is to come won't have it. This one has lust, and sickness, death. Because, what is it? It's not the house that He's gone to prepare. This is a pesthouse. How many knows what a pesthouse is? [Congregation says, "Amen."--Ed.] Sure. Well, that's what you're living in. A pesthouse is where they put all the diseased people. Well, that's just what sin done to us, put us in an earthly pesthouse. Were you... They wouldn't let anyone else come in the pesthouse, because there's all kinds of germs flying around in there, and--and the people will take these germs and--and be sick, themself. And sin brought us into the Devil's pesthouse. [II Corinthians 5:1-4]
L-62 Oh, but the other one is called, "My Father's House." "I'll go and prepare a place for you. Take you out of this pesthouse and deliver you into My Father's House." Amen. There you are; take you out of this old earthly pesthouse. He's gone to prepare a place, a perfect place where no evil exists, no sickness exists, no old age exists, no death exists.
It's a perfect place calling you to that perfection, and you have to be perfect to get there. The Bible said so. Jesus said, "Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father in Heaven is perfect." It's a perfect Kingdom, so it must be a perfect people come. Because, you have to stand and be married to a perfect Son of God, and you must be a perfect Bride. So how can you do it through anything else but the perfect Word of God, which is, "The Waters of separation, that washes us from our sins"? Amen. That's right. The Blood of Jesus Christ, think of It, the dripping, Bloody Word. Amen. The Blood, the--the Word of God bleeding Blood, to wash the Bride in. Amen. Yes, sir. She stands perfect, virgin, unadulterated. She never sinned, in the first place. Amen. She was trapped into it. See?
There's the Father's House that He's gone to prepare. [John 14:2-3], [II Corinthians 5:1-4], [II Corinthians 13:11], [Colossians 1:14, 28], [James 1:4], [Romans 5:9], [Ephesians 5:26]
L-63 This one come by sex, and from the fall, and must fall with the fall. No matter how much you patch the old thing up, she's going to fall, anyhow. She's done, because she's doomed, because God said so. She is finished. God is going to destroy it. He said so. There'll be a renovation of the whole thing. You believe that? [Congregation says, "Amen."--Ed.]
In the beginning, when the world had its birth, when God pulled back the water, first, off the earth, like He did the water from the mother's womb, there was a world born. Yes. And peoples begin to live on it when God put them on there. And then they begin to sin. And it was baptized, by immersing, in the days of Noah. Then it was sanctified by the Blood of the Creator dropping upon it.
And now that's the way you come, through justification, to believe God. You were baptized unto repent, or, too, for the remission of your sins. You confessed your sins before God, and He forgave you for it. And you was baptized, to show that you had been, you had been forgiven; confessing to the people, and showing to the world, that you believe that Jesus Christ died for you. And you... He took your place, and now you stand in His place. He become you, that you might become Him.
Then the sanctifying power of God cleansed all the habits out of your life. You used to smoke, drink, do things that wasn't right, tell lies, everything. Then the sanctifying power of the Blood of Jesus Christ comes into your life and takes all the things away from you. If you happen to say something's not wrong, quickly say, "Wait a minute. Pardon me. I didn't mean to say it like that." See? The Devil got a trap setting there. But you got grace to come back, if you're a real Christian, say, "I was wrong." Yes. So, therefore, now, the... [Acts 2:38], [Luke 3:3], [Luke 24:47]
L-64 Now, the next thing you receive, was the baptism of the Holy Ghost and Fire.
Now, God, when this Millennium is over, God is going to give the world a baptism of fire. It's going to blow the whole thing up. "The heavens and earth will be on fire." Peter said so. And the thing will have a baptism of fire, renovation of the whole thing. And then there'll be a new heavens and a new earth. That's, when, where dwelleth righteousness.
That's where we are. We have become from mortal beings, from time beings, to Eternal beings. When the Word of God lit our souls, and we become sons and daughters of God, with the attributes, the gene of God in us, to be sons and daughters of the Father, God in Heaven, crying, "Abba, Father! My God, my God, in my Father's House." [John 14:2]
L-65 Now, this old world must fall, because it come through sex. And it come through disobedience, in the beginning. And we was born here through sex, through the fall, and it must go right back the same way, to the fall. But the one He is now preparing for you, cannot fall, because He is making it so. "I've gone..."
What if we just had to stay in this kind of a body? Aren't you glad there's such a thing as death? [Congregation says, "Amen."--Ed.] Now isn't that strange? But now, say, for instance...
A few years ago, I was a little boy, and now I'm a middle-aged man. I got a friend setting right there, Mr. Dauch, and he's ninety-three years old, a few days ago. Look at him now. Forty or forty-five more years, that would be me. Now put another forty years on him. Where would you go? The only... [Genesis 3:6-7], [II Corinthians 5:1-4]
L-66 I'm glad that there's something to get us out of this pesthouse. There's an open door, and it's called death. Jesus stands in that door. Amen. He'll guide me over the river. He'll take me through that door. There's a great door standing yonder, called death. And every time your heart beats, you're one beat closer to it. And some day I must come to that door. You must come there. But when I come there, I don't want to be a coward. I don't want to scream and back off. I want to come to that door, wrap myself in the robes of His righteousness (not mine), His.
By this I know, that, "I know Him in the power of His resurrection." That, when He calls, I'll come out from among the dead, to be with Him, out of this pesthouse. Wherever this body might fall, and wherever it might land, whatever it is, I'll come out someday, because He promised It to me. And we believe it. Yes, sir. He's making One that cannot fall. [Philippians 3:10]
L-67 Notice how the expecting mother, on earth today, how the mother's body craves for certain things. I'm speaking, I guess and hope, to all the adults that will understand. The mother, in the birth of the baby, if there's something lacking in her body, she begins to crave certain thing. Look how dad...
I remember we was raised, such a poor family, and--and we didn't have hardly anything to eat when we were kids. Many of you suffered that same thing.
So how that, when, before the babies would be born, mother would crave something. And dad would just pinch corners, everything, to get it for her. See? It's her, the body, her body, the calcium and so forth of her body, and the vitamins that she needs. Junie is being made up, see, and he craves for things, foods for the coming child. And how, the parents, they try to get it so the baby will be born as perfectly and happy as possible. See how your parents will do that? When there's something needed, the mother gives witness of it, see, her system is made up. You understand? [Congregation says, "Amen."--Ed.] That, how that when there's something needed here, to the oncoming child, the--the mother begins to crave for that.
L-68 Now, stop just a minute. Why we have revivals? Why do we assemble ourselves together? Why am I always rebuking the people? Why am I calling you Pentecostal women, "Quit wearing paints, make-up, and bobbing your hair, and stuff like that"? Why am I saying that? Because, the old-fashion way of pentecost used to not do that. The real Bible way is not to do that. You wearing these shorts and clothes that pertains to men, do you know the Bible says that that's an abomination to God? [Congregation says, "Amen."--Ed.] But we permit it. Why does the Holy Spirit keep crying out? It knows there's something lacking there. We must be in the full stature of Jesus Christ. We must be sons and daughters of God. We must act like God's children. [Hebrews 10:25], [Deuteronomy 22:5], [Ezekiel 23:40], [Jeremiah 4:30], [II Kings 9:30], [I Corinthians 11:1-5], [Ephesians 4:13]
L-69 Long ago, a little story was told. I noticed one colored brother setting in the back. In the South, they used to sell slaves. And this, when they had slaves down there, when slavery was, before the emancipation, of the proclamation. And they would go by and buy them, them people, just like they would a--a used car, dealer. They had a bill of sales, and sold them human beings just like they were--they were used cars. You got a bill of sales with them.
L-70 One time a buyer come by, a broker. And he was going to... He'd go around these big plantations and buy slaves. And he come to a certain big plantation where they had many slaves, and he wanted to see how many they had. And there was all of them out there, working. And they--they were sad. They were away from home. They was from Africa.
They had brought them over here. The Boers had brought them over and sold them for slaves, and so they were sad. They know they'd never go back home again. They'd live and die in the land. And they had, many times, they'd carry whips and whip them. They were property of the owner, and he did with them what he wanted to. And they just... If he killed it, he killed it. And if he, whatever it was, he just did it. That's slavery, like Israel was, and--and many of the nations had been brought into slavery. And they'd have to take them poor slaves. They just served. They were crying, you know, all time, and sad.
L-71 But they noticed one of them slaves, young fellow, he had his chest stuck out, his head up like that. Never had to whip him. Never had to tell him what to do. So that broker said, "I want to buy that slave."
He said, "He's not for sale."
He said, "I would like to buy him."
He said, "No. He's not for sale."
Said, "Is he the boss of the rest of them?"
Said, "No." Said, "He's not the boss. He is slave."
He said, "Well, maybe you feed him different than you feed the rest of them."
Said, "No. They all eat out there in the galley, together."
He said, "What makes that boy so much different than the rest of them?"
He said, "Here is one thing. I wondered for a while, too. But that boy, an alien from Africa, but in Africa his father is the king of the tribe. And, yet, he's an alien away from home. He conducts himself as a king's son. He knows that, across the land, that his father is the king of the tribe. And now he conducts himself, because he knows he's the son of a king."
L-72 Oh, brother, sister, you and I, in this world that we live, let's conduct ourselves as sons and daughters of God. We're aliens here, but our behavior ought to be according to the commandments of God, that we are sons and daughters of God. Our behavior, we should act and do, and everything, according to what the laws that God laid down.
"And it's an abomination for a women to wear a garment that pertains to a man." It's wrong and sinful, "For her to cut her hair," the Bible said so, "uncommon thing for her to even pray."
You say, "What about this?" [Deuteronomy 22:5], [Romans 12:2], [I John 3:1-2], [Galatians 4:6], [I Corinthians 11:15]
L-73 Someone got after me; a great, noted minister, not long ago. Said, "Brother Branham, come. I want to lay hands on you." Said, "You're going to ruin your ministry."
I said, "What?"
Said, "Bawling them people out like that."
I said, "I'm telling the..."
Said, "I believe that." Said, "I'm a Pentecostal, too. I believe that women shouldn't wear short hair, shouldn't wear paints, and these things like that the way they do, paint their faces up." Said, "They shouldn't do that. But," said, "God called you to pray for the sick."
I said, "He called me to preach the Gospel." Yeah.
And he said, "I believe in that. But," said, "you think that?"
I said, "Yeah. Look what you got, all these big programs, televisions, and everything else. I ain't got nothing but God to answer to." That's right. I said, "I don't have nothing but God to answer to."
He said, "I--I--I... You're going to ruin your ministry."
I said, "Any ministry that the Word of God will ruin, ought to be ruined." That's right. Certainly. That's exactly.
He said, "Well, you're going to ruin it." [Deuteronomy 22:5], [I Corinthians 11:5, 6, 15]
L-74 I said, "Who is going to tell It then? See? Somebody has got to say It. Somebody has got to stand for that what's Truth, no matter what It hurts." And friends, as Christian, as people that believe we're going to Heaven, the Holy Spirit Itself will type us in the Word of God.
He said, "You know what you ought to do?" Said, "People believe you to be a prophet." Said, "You ought to be teaching these women how to get gifts of prophecy and things like that, and great, higher things instead of little thing."
L-75 I said, "How am I going to teach them algebra when they won't even learn their ABC's? When they won't even do the common thing, see, the natural thing, how you going to tell them high things?" When you won't even start from the... You want to get on top the ladder before you hit the first. That's the reason you fall. See?
But get at the bottom, and climb right on up as God leads you up. See? Cope your life and ever follow every bit of the Word that God has ordained for you to do.
L-76 Now think how that God... We should behave ourselves and act like Christians. Our conduct should be like Christians. Because, we are aliens here. This is not our Home. No. We were just put here, temporarily. We've got to go, every one of us, tonight.
L-77 Now think. If God, in His mercy, has the mother, before the little baby is born, it's craving for some vitamin, and the mother's words speaks forth, "Dad, I--I--I want cantaloupe, or watermelon. I want something, another." It's out of... Why, he'll do everything he can, to get that, because he knows that he wants his child born as perfect as it can be. See? And he'll do everything that he's able to do, to get it. , [Galatians 4:16]
L-78 How much more able-er is He, to get it! He's a Creator. Now think how able He is, to prepare us a body, to live like His Own glorious body, if we want to live. There is something in us, calls, to live. And there is something in us that calls to do right. Then God will call somebody on the platform, or the pulpit, that will preach the absolute Truth. Why? See? It shows you. Then, if you're a real child of God, you begin to cry out, "God, take it away from me. Circumcise me from this. Take these things away from me." Why? It's needed for your heavenly Home that you're going to, where He's gone on to prepare. You got to be a real Word Bride of Christ. [Philippians 3:21], [John 8:32], [Romans 9:1], [Galatians 2:5], [Galatians 4:16]
L-79 I was preaching a few nights ago on the sacrifice, in the days of the atonement. I was preaching on the only place that God, the only Church that God will meet a man in, and that's in, He said, the place that He put His Name. He said, "I won't meet them in any other place but the place, the gate that I put My Name in." Now, He don't meet you in the Methodist gate, Baptist gate, or Pentecostal gate, or any of them. But He put His Name in His Son. He said, "I came in My Father's Name."
Any man comes, and any child, comes in his father's name. He... I come in the name of a Branham, because my father was a Branham. And you come in your name because that was your father's name.
And Jesus, the Son, came in the Father's Name. And He said He put his Name, "In this gate that I put My Name in, that was the sacrifice." And in Jesus Christ is the only place that you'll ever find fellowship and worship to God.
You say, "Well, I belong to the church." That don't make one thing different. You've got to be in Christ.
A certain denominational minister, the other night, said to me, said, "Mr. Branham, look here. Jesus said, 'Whosoever believeth.' The Bible said, 'Whosoever believeth that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, is born of the Spirit of God.'" [Leviticus 23:27-28], [Psalms 118:19], [John 5:43]
L-80 I said, "Don't the Bible also say, that, 'No man can call Jesus the Christ, only by the Holy Ghost'?" See? You can't make the Bible lie. It's got to hook right in.
So you have to become absolutely born again, of the Holy Spirit in you, that witness out, yourself, you know that He is the Son of God. And then if you are, and a part; if you are a child of God, in the Word of God; how can you deny the Word? How can the Holy Spirit make you believe a creed, that you have to do something like this, when the Bible said something else? "We have to join a church, and do this, or do that," when the Bible plainly tells you what to do? See? And then when you see That, and you jump right into It, you're right with It then. Just keep moving right on up, and just grows.
Like a--a--a germ coming into the womb of a woman with the egg. And then when that little egg begins to develop, and begin to bring forth germs, it don't put one human germ, and a dog germ, and a cow germ. It puts all human germ. [I Corinthians 12:3]
L-81 And when a child of God, when that predestinated... That's a bad word to use, but it's God. Here is God's Bible. The foreknowledge of God can predestinate, make everything work to His honor. When that predestinated seed, that you was to be, and God called you, and that little eagle of a seed in there heard the Word of God, it will build on top, one Word on top the other one, on top the other one, on top the other one. It'll not mix with any creed.
L-82 Notice. "In these gates, every day, they should eat new kosher. And there would be no leaven found among them, through the seven days." Is that right? [Congregation says, "Amen."--Ed.] The seven church ages, then, no unleaven, no creed, no nothing added. It has to be absolutely unleaven bread. "No leaven shall be found among you, at all." Just a leaven, the Word Itself, that's the only. And that Word is God. And God was made flesh, in the Person of Jesus Christ, which, that is the Gate. "There is the Gate I meet you in, to worship, when you follow the commandments of God." [Exodus 12:15], [John 1:14]
L-83 Therefore, if you've, tonight, just come, say, "I offer Jesus Christ my life," and you've never received the Holy Ghost; come into It. You must do it. You must grow into It. Ask God to pile Word on top of Word, like that, until you become the full stature of a son of God, or a daughter of God.
Taking the things of the world? First John says, "If you love the world, or the things of the world, it's because the love of God is not even in you." You've been deceived. You got the love of the world there, and it's deceived you, the Devil has, by piling things on to there, and showing. See? You can't... Well, then, you cannot take one Word of God out of the Bible.
What caused the first sin? Not by just a big point blank lie, but because Eve misconstrued, the Devil did to her, one Word. One Word, broke the chain, and refused to take one Word. That was the beginning of the Bible.
Jesus came in the center of the Bible. He said, "Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every Word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God." That's the entire Word of God. Do you believe That's the revelation of Him? [Congregation says, "Amen."--Ed.] The entire Word of God.
Then, in Revelations 22, Jesus came to John, on the isle of Patmos. And Jesus, "I Jesus have sent My angel to testify of these things." See? "Whosoever shall take one Word out of This, or add one word to It, I'll take his part from the Book of Life." [Ephesians 4:13], [I John 2:15], [Revelation 22:19], [Genesis 3:1-4], [Matthew 4:4], [Revelation 22:18-19]
L-84 Not just say, "Well, I--I believe Jesus Christ, Son of God." That's all right. Then add the rest of It to it. You say, "I been justified. I give my hand to the minister. I believe in Jesus Christ." Then you've got to be born-again. You must be filled with the Holy Ghost. See? Just keep adding on, as you keep on going. You're growing into the stature of a son and daughter of God. My!
God, able to prepare us, and to give to us that crave in our life, that we want to see something. How many in here wants more of God? [Congregation says, "Amen."--Ed.] Why, it goes to show there is more for you. See? You're craving it. Your little birth pains are coming on. See? You need more, so that we can be happy, and free, and perfect. We got to be. [I Timothy 1:12], [Acts 20:32], [John 3:3], [Luke 1:15], [Acts 2:4], [Acts 4:31]
L-85 Like the--the little--the little germ of life being the... in the bosom of God, just like, and the germ of life is in the bo-... in the bosom of the mother. God is growing; and going, gone, to prepare the place for us, the Eternal place with Himself; not a place where there's a pesthouse, a dying, sin, adultery, and filth of the world here. If your mind is on that, it shows it never has come in contact with God. See? You're worked up. You got a mental illusion.
You just join church and say, "Well, I belong to this. My mother belonged to that." That might have been all right in your mother's day, but we're living in another day.
L-86 Wesley's message would have never... He just couldn't take Luther. Luther believed in justification, but Wesley had sanctification. The Pentecostals come along, they couldn't take just justification, sanctification. They, it was time for the restoration of the gifts. Now we're going from that. See?
The three stages of the--the Vine coming up. The first, it's a little blade, Luther come up, from the reformation. All right. That was the stalk. Watch nature. God and nature works in continuity, because God is in nature. See? The next come, the tassel, the pollen, the Methodist age. Then come the Pentecostal, oh, my, just so perfect, see, just like a grain of wheat looks like it's perfect wheat, grain of wheat. Open it up, there's no wheat there, at all. It's a shuck, a carrier of It, but that Life is working on through. See? [Revelation 3:7-13]
L-87 Them back there in the Luther age accept Luther. That Life come through, but it went and denominated out. The first thing you know, just become a denominational whose end is to be burned. See? The stalk dries up; is just a carrier. Some of them still try to stay in that old carrier stalk, know nothing about God, dead. They say, "Well, look, we're a leaf. We was a Luther." That's right. But look where it's at now. See?
"We were a Methodist."
And even, "We were a Pentecostal." But look at Pentecost, how cold and formal it's getting, how everybody walking away. See? What is it? It was a carrier of the real Seed. See? All these others was carrier, but went denomination. If you say, "I'm Pentecost," that's don't mean no more to God than if you said you was a Roman Catholic or a Jew, or whatever you might be. [Revelation 3:1-6, 14-21]
L-88 You got to be born, that Life that come through that carrier there. Don't stay in the stalk. Don't stay in the seed. Go right on out to the perfect part.
L-89 Now, remember, and every reformation we've had, on all those Lutherans and so forth, in three years they organize. That's right. Every revival brought a organization in three years.
Think how long this been going on, twenty-something years, and no organization. Why? It's the Seed, coming, forming under the husk, like this. Laying out, now it's got to lay in the Presence of the Son, to ripen into the glorious grain like the One that went into the first. The real Church that went down, first, is coming right back up through the stalk, to come out, another Church, when the combine comes to pick It up. The Life that went down in Luther, the Life that went down in the Methodist, the Life that went down in the Pentecostal, will come into the grain. It'll all go right into the grain, and go out, forming the perfect Body of Jesus Christ.
L-90 Just like the sun comes up, of morn. You can't look at no nature 'less it testifies of God. You don't need even the Bible, to know there's a God. The little sun born, a little weak baby. About seven o'clock, goes, starts off to school. Ten or eleven o'clock, it's out. Twelve o'clock, it's in its strength. Three o'clock in the afternoon, it's getting old. Seven or eight, six... Five or six o'clock in the afternoon, she's getting stooped-shouldered. It dies. Is that the end of it? No. It resurrects again the next morning. The life, death, burial, resurrection!
L-91 Look at the leaves come on the trees. It comes up, a good, fine leaf; brings out shade; puts out its fruit. Next, first thing you know, autumn comes, strikes it, death; runs right down into the root, into the ground again. Is that the end of it? Next spring she comes right back again to testify. Oh! That's perpetual life.
But, brother, sister, we got Eternal Life. We've got Eternal Life through this great One Who came, has gone, is able to prepare us a body. And these growing pains we feel, like you women feel condemned of what you do, you men that hangs on to seminary doctrines, and so forth, you all want to say, "I--I recite this creed. I do this." But there's something right down in you, when you see the eyes of the blind opened; the deaf unders-... blind. All these things that's promised. See the Word preached in Its power. See a prostitute, off the street, made a lady. See a--see a drunkard come out of there, and be a real saint of God. My! See? There's something, Life in there. And you begin to feel, "Well, maybe I oughtn't to do that." But, see, what it is, it's something. Your Body hungers a need, and, "Come on." But God's got the vitamins right in Here for every bit of that Body. Jesus has gone to prepare the place in the bosom of God; yes, sir, a little germ, son of God, little son or daughter of God. [John 14:2-3]
L-92 Jesus only asked for one thing, in His prayer to the Father. You know what that was? One thing, after all of His sacrifice that He did here on earth, the life that He lived, the path that He walked. He asked for one thing, "That where I am, they may be also." He asked for our fellowship. That's the only thing He asked the Father in the prayer, your companionship forever. If you want to read this in Saint John 17, and 24th verse. Then how much should we desire Him? If He desire...
Now listen. If you really are born of the Spirit of God, that means everything to you. See? It ain't some book of rules. You don't live any laws and so forth. You live by the grace of God, the Spirit of God. [John 17:24]
L-93 I've often said this. As a missionary, I'd be going overseas. What if I brought my wife in, my children, "Now looky here, children! Listen here, Mrs. Branham! I am your husband. Thou shall not have any other husbands while I'm gone. If you do, I'll skin you when I get back home"? Uh-huh. See?
Stomp my foot, "Children, hear what I say?"
"Yeah. Yes, papa. Yeah."
"You let me hear of one transgression? See?" See? Now, wouldn't that be a home?
Now what if she say, "Now, you through, sir? Now I want to tell you something. Mr. Branham, I am your lawful wedded wife! Thou shall not have any other girl friends while you're gone, either"? Now, wouldn't that be a home? Now, that would be something.
We don't do that. I love her, and she loves me. When she knows I'm going, she knows I don't go 'less the Lord calls me to go. We get down on the floor, and get the children around. We pray. I said, "Dear God, take care of my little companion, my children." They say, "God, take care of daddy while we're gone, while he's gone." And then when we go over...
L-94 Now, what if I did do something wrong over there? What if I did transgress, do something wrong? And I come back and went to that poor little wife of mine, stood there and look at her face wrinkling, and her hair turning gray, I walked up and said, "Honey, I want to tell you something. You know I love you."
"Sure, Bill, I know you love me." [Ephesians 5:25]
L-95 "I tell you what I done. I took some girl home." I--I say, "Will you forgive me for it?" I believe she would. I really do. But would I do that? When I look, standing there, see them hairs turning gray, and know she has stood between me and the public, and I know what a real wife she has been, could I do that? I--I'd rather die than hurt her. I would.
And that, in phileo love to my wife, how much greater is my agapao love to God! Oh, I wouldn't do nothing to hurt Him. Certainly not. I--I love Him. I want to do everything that He--He wants me to do. I want to cope with every Word that He said, no matter what the world says. They, they ain't going to believe It, anyhow. I want to know what He said for me to do. And if I lack something, I want Him to give it to me. And live for Him, keeping ourselves from the world.
L-96 This old earthly body here has got to its... Let me tell you. This earthly body that you think so much of, that you pattern after Hollywood. You're so close to it. It won't be there much longer. You remember. You've heard the prophecy, see, that the Lord give me, "It's going under." Yes, sir. Notice. It will. You just watch. Now, It never told me nothing wrong, yet. I'll take that to anybody that wants to say. I don't know when or where, but she's done. Judgment hangs over it. There's no redemption for it; it's passed. See?
L-97 Now notice this. Live for Him, keeping ourselves from the world. Now look. You look on television, some of you sisters, and you go down here and you want, you young women. You're young. I know that. But you're Christians. See? You're different. You don't want to be like the world. You love the world. It's not only you young ones; some of you older ones. See? Well, what does that? See? You watch television, you go down to the store, you see these little old clothes that women wear, that's ungodly.
Do you know what's going to happen at the Day of Judgment? You might be just as virtuous to your husband as you can be, but in the Day of Judgment you're going to have to answer for committing adultery. Jesus said, "Whosoever looketh upon a woman to lust after her has committed adultery with her already in his heart." Who is to blame? You. See? You presented yourself, them shorts and slacks.
Some women said to me, not long ago, said, "I don't wear shorts, Brother Branham. I thank the Lord for that. I wear slacks." [Matthew 5:28], [Deuteronomy 22:5]
L-98 I said, "That's worse." That's worse. That's right.
L-99 You can't even buy a dress, hardly, for a woman. She said, one woman said, "Well, you said the truth. 'You can't. You can't buy it.'" But they still sell goods and have sewing machines. See? So there's no excuse, at all. See? See?
It goes to show, sister. I'm your brother. And I'm a servant to Christ, that's got to answer at the Judgment Bar for what I say here tonight. See? You're going to stand, guilty of adultery, because that the love of God has leaked out of your heart. You still go to church. You might still dance in the Spirit. You might still speak with tongues. And them things are fine, but that's not It yet. No, sir.
L-100 Remember, the Bible said, "In the last days there shall come false Christs," not false Jesuses. They wouldn't stand still for that. But, "false Christs," false anointed-ones. They're absolutely anointed with the Spirit, with the Holy Spirit, and still false. See? There's two... [Matthew 24:24]
L-101 There's three people of you. The outside is the body. You got five senses, that you contact your earthly home with that. The inside is a spirit. There's five senses there, love and conscience, and so forth, you contact. But the inside of that is the soul.
L-102 Remember, "The rain falls on the just and the unjust." The same rain that'll make a grain of wheat grow makes a cocklebur grow too. See? What is it? At the inside of that seed is a nature, and that nature display, displays itself. It can stand in the same field, right there with the weed. The weed and the wheat stand together, rejoice just as much. Its head is down. It's starving for a drink. When a rain comes, the cocklebur can shout just as loud as the wheat can. "But by their fruits you shall know them." See? [Matthew 5:45], [Hebrews 6:7-8], [Matthew 7:16, 20]
L-103 Christians, I may never see you again. See, it's been years since I been here. May never see you again. Line up with God's Word. Look in the mirror.
Like a little boy one time, had been out in the country, never seen a mirror. He come to his--his auntie's house. He started walking up the steps. He seen a mirror, and he seen a little boy in the mirror. He kept walking up, looking. And--and he would wave, and the little boy would wave. And he kept looking. He never seen himself in a mirror. So when he got close enough to it, he turn around, said, "Why, Mama, that's me!"
L-104 How do you look, in God's mirror? Does it reflect a daughter or a son of God? Is there something, which, you hear That, does it make you hate the man that's saying It? Or, is there something pull, say, "I know that man is right because that's in the Scripture"? Then, that's the vitamins needed for this body that's ordained to be there, a house that that other one is going to need when you get there. See? "This house; if we have borne an earthy."
L-105 Now remember, we think so much of this body. We put so many clothes on it. We do so many things, that, unnecessary, change after change after change, and all these things. And--and, oh, it's just everybody.
Just let somebody start something. You paint your steps red and watch the Joneses paint theirs red. You change from a Chevrolet to a Ford, and they just can't stand it. It's matching time. You let the... You let a woman come to church, certain kind of a hat on, watch all the women get that; especially the pastor's wife, see, just watch what happens. Now, that is true. That is the absolutely truth. It's matching time. Brother, it ought to be matching time. And all them--all them things is--is for a purpose.
I don't care whether my coat matches my trousers. And I have a hard time. My wife or my daughter-in-law, somebody, tell me what kind of--of tie to wear with it. I--I don't care whether they match, though. I want my experience to match God's Word. That's the thing, 'cause that's where I aim to live; not down on the corner yonder with the Joneses, but yonder in Glory where Jesus is, gone to prepare us a place. Yes, we want that. Yes, sir. Keep from all this.
L-106 This old earthly tabernacle here, you know what it is? This body is like an old coat that you wear, a coat that you once wear. But now you have one so much better, you don't use it any more. What do you do? You hang it in the closet, for you've got one better. You've got a better coat. It's more up to date than the one you used to wear, that's worn out. What? It is that garment. You are the inside of that there. That garment only done what? It bore your image. See? But you don't need it any more now. You've hung it up. It's a rag.
And that's the way this old body is, you, it's bore the image of the heavenly. Yet, it is not you. You are on the inside of that body. You, the Spirit of God, is on the inside of that body. That's what makes the outside come into subjections, because the inside is pulling it, see, bringing it in line with the Word of God; your inside, you yourself, your being.
This body is just an old coat. And some day, what will you do with it, for you was--was only in the garment for a while? That is like the earthly garment; this body. Your--your real body, your real self, is on the inside of this old coat that you call William Branham, or Susie Jones, or whoever it is. See? Some day it will hang in the earth's hall of memory of you. You'll put it out yonder in the grave, and somebody will put a tombstone up, "Here lies Rev. So-and-so, or John So-and-so, or So-and-so." It'll lie there as a memorial of you. The people just seen you in this. And what you was, your real you, was on the inside of that. But the old coat, itself, just "borne the image of the Heavenly."
Oh, people, have you made reservations to change coats? Have you made reservations for Heaven? Remember, you must have reservations. You can't get in without them.
I'm talking to you in modern language now, that you know. If you go to the hotel, say, "Well, I had the..." [I Corinthians 15:49-50]
L-107 "Did you have reservations? Well, I'm sorry. Everything is filled up." You're out in the cold, because you failed to make reservations.
And if you come to the end of your life's journey, without reservations, there will be no One there to meet you. You'll have to step off into a dark Eternity where there will be screaming, and weeping, and wailing, and gnashing of teeth. You must. You can't get into the City, you, because you haven't got reservation. You must have them, to enter the City, where Jesus has gone to prepare a place for you. Remember, you must have the reservations, and the garment of salvation, on. You cannot. [Matthew 24:51], [Matthew 25:10, 30], [Matthew 8:12], [Luke 13:28]
L-108 In Matthew, I got a Scripture here. I'm watching Scripture, Matthew, twenty-... 22:1 to 14. I haven't time to read it, because it's getting too late. I've spoke too long, to you. But remember, the king sent forth and made a supper. He killed all of his oxes, and--and fixed the fatlings and everything, had a great supper prepared. And he sent out, and he bid many to come.
One said, "Well, you know, after all, I belong to this." "And I got this." "I got to go with my farm." And one did many things. And he sent again, and they evilly mistreated them. And finally... That was the Jewish generation, Jesus was talking to. They had something else to do.
Then, finally, he sent in, "And say... Go. Just don't... Just compel them. Go into the streets and highways, and everywhere, and compel them to come in." And after that, determined that his house was... His wedding supper was going to be set. There's going to be guests there.
And then he found a man in there without the wedding garment on. He wanted to hold to the old coat. And look what he said. "Friend, after I have invited you to my wedding supper, and I invited you and give you an invitation to come!" [Matthew 22:1-14]
L-109 And if you ever was in the Orients, which I preached in there many time, that wedding supper is still carried on just the way it was. The bridegroom, that, all, he has so many guests that he's going to have. Probably, Brother Kopp, probably you've watched it there in India. See? They have so many guests that he's going to ask; say he's going to ask thirty guests.
Now, the bridegroom has to furnish the robes. He has to furnish them, therefore there's a man stands at the door. And you come up with your invitation. He examines your invitation and puts you on a garment, a robe. That, some of them are rich, and some of them are poor, and some of them are different, but they all look alike when they get these robes on. They all look alike.
And you have to all be alike. You ain't going to be, say, "I'm the Methodist over here. I'm the Presbyterian over here." Oh, no. You ain't going in, the first place. See?
You've got to come by the Door. Jesus said, "I am the Door to the sheepfold."
"I'm Pentecostal. I'm this. I'm that." That don't mean one thing.
You come by that Door. And if you come by that Door, you get the robe.
L-110 And this man, when he said, "How did you get in here, friend?" See?
It showed he come up some other way, and come in a window, come in the back way, but not through the door; not through the Door, the way that Jesus came, through self-sacrifice; giving your all to God, and walking to Calvary and be crucified with Him. And rise again, to wear His garment of sacrifice and death to the things of the world. [Matthew 22:12]
L-111 "If you love the world, or the things of the world, the love of God is not even in you." See? If you still have the love of the world, want to act like the world, and do like the world; you're try... you're... Yet, you're in the church, but a cocklebur in the patch with the wheat; shout with the rest of them, rejoice with the rest of them. All the spiritual blessings is right upon you.
You say, "Well, I prophesy." So did Caiaphas. So did Balaam. That has nothing... [I John 2:15]
L-112 "I got the baptism, the Holy Spirit." That still has nothing to do with it. That's just only a temporal gift for you.
The real gift is your soul down in there, see, that was born of God, and that controls the whole thing to the Word of God and the will of God. And there you grow up, see, then you're a son and daughter of God. You're a child of God. And these things, as you come up... Like the mother, now you're in the bowels of the earth, trying to come forth. You're a son of God, coming forth, and you see the Word says, "I should do this. I should be born-again."
"Well, I belong to church." That don't mean one thing. See?
"I'm Methodist; my mother." That's good for your mother. [I John 3:2]
L-113 "Well, my, I'm Pentecostal. I belong." That, if you don't line with that Word, there is something wrong. See? Then, you see, your real father ain't God. See? Because, that real start in your soul, before there even was a spirit, it was your soul. That soul didn't come from God, then it wasn't a germ of God, to begin. You're deceived. You're in a patch of weeds and bearing the world's record of the weeds coming forth. Acting like the world, loving the world, is because the love of God is not in you.
L-114 And now there'll be false anointed-ones in the last days, not false Jesus. They wouldn't stand for that. But, "false," anointed. They are anointed, yes, sir, but they're anti-Christ. They're anointed with the Spirit, to do the signs and wonders that Christ did, but won't line up with His Word. See?
"Many will come to Me, that Day, and say, 'Lord, have not I prophesied, and cast out devils, in Your Name?'"
He say, "Depart from Me, you that work iniquity. I never even knew you."
"I was Pentecostal, Lord. Glory to God! I shouted. I spoke with tongues. And I laid hands on the sick, and healed them, cast out devils."
"Depart from Me, you that work iniquity. I never knew you." [Matthew 7:22-23], [Luke 13:27]
L-115 See what I mean? Oh, little children, do you feel the need of that vitamin tonight, that something? There's a body waiting yonder. There's a body waiting to be received. People, don't be deceived. Don't be deceived. The Devil is a deceiver. Even the--the wedding garment, you must wear It. It must be. [Matthew 24:11-13], [Matthew 22:11-12], [II John 1:7]
L-116 Now we're at the evening time. The earthly body is now ready to be dissolved, and we're preparing to enter into the Heavenly. And we now feel the strange call, of God, to go to this great Eden. And before we can be born here, our little bodies cried for something that--that had to be provided, or we'd be an afflicted child here if we wasn't. God has no afflictions up there. They're, every one, perfectly lined up, the Bride just exactly like the Groom was, the Word manifested in Its season. God grant, tonight, children, each and every one of you! There is a Heaven to go to. There's a hell to stay away from. [II Corinthians 5:1-4]
L-117 Now, many of you know that the Lord has given me visions, thousands of those. The greatest thing... I used to fear death. About three years ago, you seen the Christian Business Men, a Past The Curtain Of Time. I realize I might not live through this night. I may never see you again in my life here, but this is true. I--I don't know whether I'd call this a vision, or what it was.
One morning, recently, I was... I had just woke up. I come in from meetings. And my wife was laying there, asleep. I said, "Honey, are you awake?" She was still sleeping. I know we had to get up, to get the children off to school.
And I put my hands back up, like this, and I said, "Well, say, Bill Branham, do you know you're past fifty? You, if you're going to do something for the Lord, you better hurry up, 'cause you ain't got too much more time." I thought, "My, I hope that I can live to see the Coming of the Lord Jesus."
I always had it in my mind, that--that when we died, I'd see, like, brother here. I'd say... "Yeah, you preached in my church, one night down on earth, Brother Branham." But, he--he's a spirit, I couldn't shake his hand, because his hand is out there in the grave, rotted away, see; mine, too. I used to kind of think that.
L-118 But that morning, when, I felt Something come over me. I thought... Usually, like a vision comes. And I looked, and I--I looked. I thought, "My! What is this?" And I looked, a great, green hills. And young women was coming from everything, by the tens of thousands, and hundreds of thousands. And they were all coming, long hair hanging down their back, white robes on, barefooted, screaming, hollering, "Our brother!"
L-119 I--I thought, "Now, this is strange." I turned back around and looked. And there I laid right there, and there was my wife, laying there on the bed. And I said, "Now, you know what? I died." I said, "That, that's what's happened. I--I've died." And I said, "I might have had a heart attack, or something. I've died. There lays my body." I was just laying there with my hands back, like that, just as stiff. I thought, "That's not twenty feet from me." And there I was, looking. I thought, "That's... There is my wife there. There, there is everything. There is my shirt hanging there on that bedpost there." And I thought, "Here I am."
L-120 I looked around again, and these women were all coming. And they were... I looked, coming this way, and there come my brothers. Oh! They're genuine. All of them looked to be young men. They were screaming, "Our precious brother!" Oh, I didn't know what to think.
L-121 I thought, "This is strange." I looked back, and I wasn't an old man. I was young. I thought, "This is a strange thing." I thought, "Is this a vision?" I'd bite my finger. And I thought, "No. It ain't the kind of vision I've had."
L-122 Then, there, Something begin to talk to me up here, and said, "You've entered in with your people."
I thought, "With my people? Are all these Branhams?"
L-123 He said, "They're your converts to Christ." And these women...
You know I've always been considered, on account of they'd call me "woman-hater," but I'm not. See? Cause, I believe... I--I--I don't like immoral, indecent. I like real, genuine sisters of Christ. If that way, all right.
L-124 I had some scars when I was a kid. I know things that happened that's kind of turned me that way. But it--it was all God, making, molding me for this hour. See?
L-125 I think a real, genuine sister, there's nothing any nicer. If God could give a man anything better than salvation, He'd give him a wife. See? And so, then, if He could give anything better, He would have done it. And then to see some of them turn and don't even act like a wife, unloyal to their marriage vows, and their husbands the same. Remember, you're bound as long as you live, to one another. "What God joins on earth, joined in Heaven also." See? [Matthew 19:5-6], [Romans 7:2], [I Corinthians 7:27, 39]
L-126 And so then I--I seen that. And these women run up and was throwing their arms around me, and hugging me, and call me, "Brother!" Now, they were women, but there can never be sin in that place. See? They were women. But, see, what made us now, a women with a--a gland, a female gland, and a man with a male gland, it's for raising children. There it won't be. They'll all be one gland, but they'll still be in the form. The earthly image that they bore here will be there, but there'll never can be sin. You're all the same. There'll be no more children raised there. See? That's right. It'll all be that way. And so I looked, and these women.
L-127 And they picked me up. These brothers set me up on a place. I said, "Why'd you do this?"
He said, "In earth you was a leader." And said--and said, "You... These are the people."
L-128 And there was some woman come up. She said, "Our precious brother." Most beautiful woman!
When she passed by, this Voice stopped, said, "Don't you remember her?"
I said, "No."
Said, "You led her to Christ when she was past ninety. See? Can't you see why she says 'precious brother'?"
I said, "Well, do--do you go..."
Said, "No. We're waiting here."
I said, "Well, if I've passed over, I want to see Jesus."
Said, "You can't see Him now. This is the Scripture, said, 'Souls under the altar.' He's just a little higher. Some day He will return. We're go back to earth. We don't eat or drink here."
L-129 I said, "You mean I was afraid of this? Why, this..."
There's no word to speak it, friends. "It's perfect," wouldn't--wouldn't touch it, "sublime." There's no English vocabulary that I know, no word at all, that could ever express what it is. It's beyond anything that I know. There he was. There was no sickness, no sorrow. You couldn't die. You couldn't sin. It was just perfect, just perfect. Friends, you mustn't, you mustn't miss it. Remember.
L-130 And when I was a little boy, I saw a vision of hell, as a little boy. And you know how the ladies, today, or the women (lady wouldn't do a thing like that), paint their eyes like a wolf, or something like that, that blue stuff under their eye. I seen that. I was sinking. As a little boy, I had been shot, and I was laying, dying in a hospital. And I had always knowed there was God.
I remember the first prayer I ever tried to pray. The only thing I could say... I--I've never told this before. I just feel I'll tell it right now. I was shot, laying there, dying in a field. And the only plea that I could have to God, I said, "You know, Lord, I never did commit adultery." See? As a little, young boy about fifteen years old, I tried to live right. And I said, "I've lived clean." And that's all I could say. That's all the merit that I could offer Him.
L-131 And then laying there, then, when the doctor done walked away from me, and I felt myself sinking into a dark Eternity, and looked like. I holler for papa, "Oh, papa, help me." There was no papa there. "Mama, help me." There was no mama there. "God, help me." There was no God there. It was just the endless, horrible, oh, nightmare. Burning, blazing hell would be a pleasure, being up aside of that. And falling through there, I thought, "Oh, my!" Over and over, like this. I got into a place, smoke, and dark, and sick. And, oh, such a feeling! It was death on me.
I could see those women coming up to me, with them kind of painted eyes like that. Now remember, that's been forty-five years ago, about forty years ago, anyhow. Going, they was going, "Oooh! Oooh! Oooh!"
I said, "Am I to be there forever?"
"Forever."
L-132 I said, "O God, if You'll let me out of here, I--I--I'll never be ashamed of You again. I'll never be ashamed. God, please give me a chance."
The first thing you know, I felt myself coming back up. And the doctor was alarmed, 'cause my heart was only beating seventeen times to the minute. I done bled all my blood out and everything, was laying in my own blood. And I've wondered, some day that would happen?
L-133 About two years ago, when I moved to Tucson, I was with my wife down at J. C. Penney's. I was setting there like that, and with my head down, waiting. Cause, you know how, ladies, they shop a long time. And I was--I was setting there, my head down like this. And an escalator was coming up. And here come some of them women up, with them waterhead haircuts, you know, like they do, like that. Coming up with them painted-looking eyes like that. And they were speaking Spanish. And that's that. It all (the vision) reoccurred again. There it was, "Oooh! Oooh!"
L-134 Brother, sister, let me tell you something. It may seem funny now, but you once get there. It's a serious thing. Don't you never go that way.
L-135 Me, as an old man, a minister, I preached around the world, got millions of friends, but I know I've got to stand with you yonder. Get away from the things of the world. And if there is something in you, that you still want to act the way you act, if you do have the things of the world in you, remember, you're none of God's. You're just a church member, until that call; that deep, calling to the Deep. See? [Psalms 42:7]
L-136 Like, before there was a fin on a fish's back, there had to be a water for him to swim in, first, or he'd never had a fin.
Before there was a--a tree to grow in the earth, there had to be an earth, or there would have been no tree to grow in it. There'd be no reason for the tree, and to make it coexist.
L-137 Before there is a creation, there has to be a Creator. "Blessed are they that do hunger and thirst after righteousness." See? There is something in us. You raised your hand a while ago, "I want more of God." See? There is something needy.
And if you love the world, going that way, the things of the world, the world's travel you'll go, and in the fall you'll be. See? Come out. You're sons and daughters of a King, the King. Be lady and gentleman. Walk like Christians. Live like Christians. Act like Christians. Remember, I'll meet you at the Judgment Bar with these remarks. See? [Matthew 5:6]
L-138 Look in your looking glass, tonight, and see. "Which way am I headed? Is Jesus preparing a place for me, a body? That body is perfect. That body walks orderly. It's a son or a daughter before God. And I'm birth pains in here, to be born into that body there. If I still love the world, it shows me that (I'm not) I have no body there. I'm just a church member. I wasn't the germ of God. I am not. He is not my Father." [John 14:2-3]
L-139 He said, "If you cannot stand chastisement," that's what you're getting now, "then you're bastard children, and not the children of God." Isn't that right? [Congregation says, "Right."--Ed.] Does the Bible say that? ["Amen."]
If you cannot stand the chastisement of God, when you see the Scripture lining you up, and you say, "Oh, I don't want to hear that Stuff. I'm--I'm a Christian. I do a..." All right. Go ahead. See? It's one sure evidence that you're not a child of God.
But a real child of God is hungering and thirsting. Why? If there's something in your heart, telling you you want it, and it needs there, it shows there's something pulsating, trying to pull you there. There's a body there, that this one is a type of here. What are you using this one for, to glorify the Devil and the world, and fashions and things? Are you looking towards Heaven, there's something up there, you're glorifying God with your life?
In my Father's house are many mansions: if it wasn't so, I would have told you. And I'll go and prepare a place for you.
... and come again, to receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also. [Revelation 3:19], [Matthew 5:6, 16], [Luke 6:21], [I Corinthians 6:20], [John 14:2-3]
L-140 Things That Are To Be. These things that are now, are only potential, calling for the things that is to be.
Let us pray.
L-141 Think seriously. Will you, dear Christian friends? Think real seriously, just a moment. Let's just be real quiet just for a moment. Let the Holy Spirit speak.
Now, the Lord Jesus sent me to you Pentecostal people, long ago. Here is one of your boys that's come up to be your pastor, said, "Resulted from the ministry." He seen the Lord Jesus open the blinded eyes; "make," he said, "the waterheads shrink right up." I still have healing services. But I realize that I have prayed for many people that were very sick. They were healed. The Lord answered prayer, and healed the sick. But, you know, some of those people, were healed, has already died. And no matter how sick you are, if you're healed, you're going to die, anyhow.
L-142 But that soul, my precious brother, that soul, my precious sister, won't you think about it now? That's Eternal. If that love of God is not in there, there is nothing pulling, won't you ask God, "O God, start me over, new, tonight. I love You, Lord. I want to love You. And something in my heart tells me that I must live closer to You. I want to come, right now, Lord, and do that"? If that person or persons are in this building or out of this building, I ask you, as a servant of Christ, in the Name of Jesus Christ, will you just, with your head bowed, raise up your hand to God and say this much, "God, draw me nearer, nearer, dear God. I want to line with everything that You have in Your Word"? Raise your hands. Now just be real honest. Just think.
L-143 Now, they say, "Oh, I've done this. I, I've shouted, the Spirit. I've spoke in tongues. But, look, there is something lacking in my life. I look in the mirror of God's Word, I know there's something. I go to church, but I'm not what I should be." See? That shows that, something.
Now, if you can look at yourself and see that you're not lined up with God's Word, and there's nothing in there that'll cause you to raise your hand, then you know there's something wrong. You have. There's... Mother used to say, "You can't get blood from a turnip, because there's no blood in it." See? Think of it, real seriously. This might be your last opportunity. Thirty, forty hands has been up, this little group here, even to clergymen.
L-144 Just be real reverent just a moment. Now think real straight. "Dear God, I may be killed, tonight, in an accident. I may die in a heart attack. One of these mornings, I may call the doctor, and he come, and my pulse is beating up my sleeve; I'm gone. I'm pressing my cheek against the pillows, call, 'O God! O God! O God!'" See? That heart is making its last beat. You're coming to that great Door. You'll never come out unless you're born again of the Spirit of God. You'll never come out unless there's something in you, after you're born of the Spirit of God, hungering and thirsting to go on with God. It must be. See? You're a child in the earth, in the bowels of the earth, still waiting to be born into the Kingdom of God, where He's gone to prepare another body for you, that's a perfect body.
Now think real deep, and let's pray together. [John 14:2-3], [John 3:3-8]
L-145 Dear God, as I know that this is paged on the Book, the great Record! We have blundered into science, Lord, enough to wake us up, for realities to know that every move that we make goes around and around the world, the same time we make it. We've got that through television. We do realize, Father, that that television doesn't manufacture a picture, it only channels the--the vibrations into a tube that makes the picture. Even the color of clothes that we've got on, shows through the ether waves of the air, that vibration around the world. Then how is our sisters with them clothes on, acting like that, and not even hunger; painted faces, cut hair?
Ministers that would go to theology, some seminary, "And take the things of man's word, which makes, by their traditions, makes the commandments of God of no effect upon the people, by their traditions," saying they should belong to church, and that's all.
O God, do they realize that every word we say, scientifically proven, it's on a record? And it starts when we start living in this earth. It ends when we die, and it's put in God's album, to be played back again at the Judgment.
How are we going to escape it, the damnation of God, if the thing has been made so clear before us and yet we turn It down?
O dear God, these Words never die. They go on and on. The record will be played at the Day of the Judgment. You seen those hands that went up, Father. It'll be right there at the Day of Judgment. Also, what their heart was thinking, will be there at the Day of Judgment. [I Corinthians 11:5-6]
L-146 Now, Father, God, I ask You, as Your servant, I pray that You'll take all the iniquity away from Your people. Iniquity: something that we know we should do, and don't do it. David said, "If I conceive iniquity in my heart, God will not answer my prayers." I pray, God, that You'll take our iniquity, 'cause the Word is Your looking-glass that shows us of how short we are of being sons and daughters of the King. Father, I pray that You'll do it, tonight. [Psalms 66:18], [Matthew 24:12]
L-147 And make that an altar, 'cause the altar is setting full of people. And make that altar, there in the chair where they're setting, make that heart of theirs the altar. May the world move off from every brother, sister in here. And may that little germ of Life, the gene of God that we just talked of, that attribute that come down from God, and has been manifested here to honor and glorify God. God, move the world from that.
L-148 The others, I cannot pray, Lord, because "the sickness is unto death," and there's nothing there that causes them to move. But those who can move, and know that it's wrong, clean their hearts and their souls, tonight, Father. And may they be filled with Your Spirit, walk in Your Light.
L-149 Bless this dear, young, healthy, strong-looking pastor here, Lord. This young man, influenced, he said, by what he saw You do. This fine young man, O God, set his soul afire. Grant it, Lord. May he be a true shepherd, continually, all the time, to feed the flock which the Holy Spirit has made him overseer over. Grant it, Lord. May he not turn right or left, no way for no creed, no nothing else but the unadulterated Word of God come from his mouth, and That only. Bless him, God, him and his loved ones, and his little church here. Be with them all, Father.
L-150 I commit this to You, Father. The Seed has been sown. May It fall upon that seed that was ordained to Life, and grow great, strong Christians for this assembly here, and other assemblies where they come from. Grant it, Lord. I commit it to You, in the Name of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.
And, Father, "He was wounded for our transgressions, bruised for our iniquity; the chastisement of our peace was upon Him; and with His stripes we were healed." [Isaiah 53:5]
L-151 I seen moving through the door, a few moments ago, a poor nervous woman. And, O God, into her own family, what great things has been done, how You have manifested Yourself! I pray, God, for that woman. Take away all that back past, of life, Lord, and heal her tonight. Will You, Lord? Take her to You.
L-152 See it, little children setting here, Lord, needing healing, others. I pray that You'll heal them, Father. Grant it. May Your great healing power come and heal us, both soul and body.
L-153 And now, to you now who are in the church here, or outside, that needs healing, I want you to raise up your hand, say, "I need healing, Brother Branham." Looks like everybody does. All right. Will you believe me to be a servant of Christ? Say, "Amen." [Congregation says, "Amen."--Ed.] Then, I want you to lay your hands over on one another. Just lay your hands over on each other. You raised your hands, that's inside or out, you raise your hands, that you were believers in God.
Jesus Christ said, His last commission to the Church, "Go ye into all the world, and preach the Gospel to every creature. He that believeth... He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved. He that believeth not shall be damned. And these signs shall follow them that believe; in My Name they shall cast out devils; they shall speak with new tongues; if they take up serpents or drink deadly things, it won't harm them; but, and if they'll lay their hands on the sick, they shall recover." Now, Jesus said that. Remember, He said that. That has to be. He wouldn't have said that 'less there's going to be somebody could catch that Word. [Mark 16:15-18]
L-154 Just like the womb of Mary could catch the germ, "A virgin shall conceive." Like a palm tree could be created, an oak tree on a hill, His Word did it.
His Word can catch into your heart right now. "I am a believer, Lord. This man or woman I got my hands on, they're suffering. I'm not praying for myself. Because, they're praying for me. I'm praying for her, or for him. And, O God, heal him, heal her. And I am a believer, and now we're assembled. We've just been taught that we were with Christ when He walked on earth, for we are part of His Word. We suffered with Him. We bled with Him. We died with Him. We was buried with Him. We are risen with Him, and we're setting together in Heavenly places in Christ Jesus. The great King setting here in our midst, and I am a son or a daughter of this King. And I have my hand laid on a son or a daughter of the King, that's praying for me, and I'm praying for them. Now, Lord, answer my prayer, and heal this son of God or this daughter of God."
Together, let's pray now for one another. [Isaiah 7:14], [Matthew 1:23], [Ephesians 2:6]
L-155 Lord Jesus, we humbly come, confessing our wrongs. We come, confessing that we are worthy of sickness and death, and sorrow, but we are accepting Your propitiation for our sins and our sickness. And, tonight, these sons and daughters of God, setting here, hear the correction of the Word, and raising their hands, and wanting a closer walk. They laying hands on one another now because they believe Your Word to be true. They believe that we're now risen with Christ, setting in Heavenly places with Him. They got their hands on one another, praying one for another.
You said, "The prayer of faith shall save the sick, and God shall raise him up; and if he's did any sin, it shall be forgiven him. Confessing your faults one to another, pray one for the other, that you might be healed. For the effectual fervent prayer of the righteous availeth much." O Eternal God, hear the prayer of Your servants.
And now, it's written again, "If the people, that's called by My Name, shall assemble themselves together, and pray; then I'll hear from Heaven." O God, hear the prayer of Your children tonight, from Heaven. Send down the Holy Ghost upon this audience, like a rushing mighty wind. And we bring these people before God. [I John 1:9], [I John 2:2], [James 5:15-16], [II Chronicles 7:14]
L-156 Satan, you are defeated. You are a defeated being. Jesus Christ conquered you at Calvary. You have no power. You're a bluff. We're calling your hand, tonight. In the Name of Jesus Christ, come out of this people here, you sickness and diseases. And may they go, free, in the Name of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.
L-157 Hallelujah! Feel the glory of God! Feel your prayer answered. You believe God answered the person setting by you? How many believe it? Raise up your hands. [Congregation rejoices--Ed.] There you are. Oh, wonderful!
I love Him, I...
With your hands up now, sing it to Him, with all your heart.
Because He first loved...
Do you mean it, with all your heart now?
L-158 How many of you feel that God has forgiven your iniquities, the things that you've done? "And from this night on, O Lamb of God, I promise to walk upright. I'll walk in honor of the Name that I'm called, a Christian, Christ-like life. I'll raise my hands, God. I dedicate myself anew to You, tonight. I'll walking in the Light." Amen.
We'll walk in the Light, beautiful Light,
Come where the dewdrops of mercy are bright;
Shine all around us, by day and by night,
Jesus, the Light of the world.
We'll walk in the Light, It's such a beautiful Light,
It comes where the dewdrops...
Where He's gone to prepare a place for us.
Shine all around us, by day and by night,
Jesus, the Light of the world.
Come, all ye saints of Light proclaim,
Jesus, the Light of the world;
Truth and mercy in His Name,
Jesus, the Light of the world.
What will we do then?
We'll walk in the Light, such a beautiful Light,
Comes where the dewdrops of mercy are bright;
Shine all around us, by day and by night,
Jesus, the Light of the world.

Oh, don't you feel all scoured out, feel good? [Congregation says, "Amen."--Ed.] Oh, my! Let's shake hands, as we sing again.
We'll walk in the Light, such a beautiful Light,
Comes where... (God bless you, brother.)... of mercy are bright;
Shine all around us, by day and by night,
Jesus, the Light of the world.

Let's just close our eyes and hum it. [Brother Branham and congregation begin to hum Jesus, The Light Of The World--Ed.] We'll act like children. We are children.
Oh, it's such a beautiful Light,
And It comes where the dewdrop of mercy are bright;
Oh, shine all around us, by day and by night,
Jesus, the Light of the world.
Don't you love Him? [Congregation says, "Amen."--Ed.]
My faith looks up to Thee,
Thou Lamb of Calva-...
Just close your eyes and sing it. Worship in the Spirit.
Saviour Divine;
Now hear me while I pray,
Take all my sins away,
O let me from this day
Be wholly Thine!
While life's dark maze I tread,
And grief around me spread,
Oh, be Thou my Guide;
Bid darkness turn to day,
Wipe sorrow's fears away,
Nor let me ever stray
From Thee aside.
L-159 Oh, my! I know I'm just an old-fashion guy. I like... I think that's got all the new, chopped-up, fandangoed, rock-and-roll impersonations beat, a million miles. Them old poets that wrote them songs, the Holy Spirit touched that pen, begin to write. Oh, my! Think of Eddie Pruitt and all them; great! Fanny Crosby:
Pass me not, O gentle Saviour,
Hear my humble cry.
L-160 One time they was trying to get her. She didn't--she didn't do like the Pentecostal Elvis Presley, sell her birthrights for a mess of Cadillacs. She... Come to her and wanted her to write--write worldly songs. She said, "I would not do it, for nothing."
Said, "Why, you're blind. When you get to Heaven, how you know?"
She turned around, inspiration, so she said:
I shall know Him, I shall know Him,
And redeemed by His side I shall stand;
I shall know Him, I shall know (How?)
By the prints of the nails in His...
Otherwise, "If I don't see Him, I'll feel His hand."
I shall know Him, I shall know Him,
And redeemed by His side I shall stand;
I shall know Him, I shall know Him
By the print of the nails in His hand.
L-161 Don't it make you love Him? Gone to prepare a place for us! "And if I go and prepare a place, I will return again, to receive you unto Myself." [John 14:2-3]
L-162 Little children in travail now, re-obey the commandments of God. And pastor, here, if none of you has been baptized, the water will be ready. And--and membership for the church, or whatever you want to do, or whatever, you do it. You haven't got the baptism, the Holy Ghost, this is the night to receive It. Don't you believe that? [Congregation says, "Amen."--Ed.]
L-163 "Oh," you say, "Brother Branham, it's late. You done preached too long."
Paul preached all night, one night, this same kind of Message. And a little... A young man fell off of the wall and killed himself. And Paul, so anointed with that same kind of Message, laid his body upon him, and the life come back into him again. He is still "Jesus Christ the same yesterday, today and forever." [Acts 20:7-12]
Don't you love Him? [Congregation says, "Amen."--Ed.] Let's just, once more, with our hands up, "I love Him. I love Him."
Where's the pianist? There, if you will, sister, ever who it is. Give us the little chord, if you will.
How many love Him? Just raise your hand. Say, "I really love Him. I just love Him, with--with all my heart. I love Him." [Acts 20:9-12], [Hebrews 13:8]
L-164 Now let's just sing it, to the glory of God. Now, with our eyes closed, our hands up to Heaven, "I love Him. I love Him." We'll worship Him. When you preach, and cut, and tear, and pull like that, this is the balm that God pours in, just heals. "There's a Balm in Gilead, for the soul." Let's sing it now. Give us the chord. [Jeremiah 8:22]

I love Him, I love Him
Because He first loved me
And purchased my salvation
On Calvary's tree.
L-165 "And in this will all men know that you're My disciples, when you have love, one for the other." That's right. If we can't love one another who we do see, how we going to love God Who we can't see? [John 13:34-35]
I love Him.
L-166 [Brother Branham speaks to a brother on the platform--Ed.] God bless you. [The brother says, "Being here tonight is a real honor from Heaven."] Thank you, brother. ["It's really nice."] Now, I think the church, every one, was strengthened. Don't you? ["Yes. Really."] God bless you, Brother Boone. I'll turn the congregation to you. God bless you.

LWB is dedicated to all who are looking for the appearing of the Lord Jesus Christ; to you we owe credit for the materials used herein."Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is; but exhorting one another: and so much the more, as ye see the day approaching."[Heb 10:25]."So then neither is he that planteth any thing, neither he that watereth; but God that giveth the increase."[I Cor 3:7]
Copyright © 2002-2024 Living Word Broadcast. All Rights Reserved. Copyright | Privacy Policy | Disclaimers | Credits