Blind Bartimaeus

1 Amen. Let's say "Praise the Lord," in this way for that wonderful song. Isn't that the truth? When Jesus comes, all things are changed then, aren't they? Gloom's all gone, darkness.

And we're just so happy that Jesus has promised, that wherever two or three were gathered together in His Name, that He would come. So we know that He will be here tonight, is already here, because we have gathered in His Name.

Every night, after about twelve o'clock, when I kinda get around to myself good... Someone tells me, my boy or my wife, one, "You held too long tonight, Billy. Them people are working people. You see how many is coming. It's awful cold in that tent." So I'm going to try to get out a little early if I can then. So you pray with me, and pray for me, and I'll do the very best I can to hurry up tonight.

2 Well, I'm so thankful. We're missing one cot and one wheelchair tonight. Praise be to God. That's good; from last night. I trust it be your night tonight, sister, and your night too, sister, tonight, that you won't have to be in the wheelchair or cot tomorrow night. And I trust that they, neither one of you all... You'll be setting back in the audience back there tomorrow night, or in your own church or wherever you go.

3 Now, to these new converts that's just being converted in the meeting, don't just lay dormant. You get some good church to go to. Look around here. If you're from this valley, and the vicinities around here somewhere, look at these pastors, that comes here on the platform, and helping us in the meeting. They believe in this kind of ministry. So you go to their church and tell them that you want to become a member there.

And if I was in this neighborhood somewhere, or around close to them, I'd be a member of their church, 'cause I appreciate them. And they're set theirself right up here on the platform, of night, let everybody know that what they believe in. And if you're out of town, from some other place, find you a good church somewhere, a good church that preaches the Gospel and believes in Divine healing. Now, if you're...

4 I don't know too many churches up this way. I know some down the other way. I know of the Angelus Temple, very fine church. That's right in Los Angeles. And I know Dr. Teeford and--and Rolf McPherson, and Doctor Cummings, and all--all those very fine brothers; very fine church. The Foursquare people are very fine. If you live around the temple, why, just remember that.

I had meetings for them all over the country; Brother Beard from over the West is a very good friend of mine. And I had their conventions and so forth, very fine people. And Rolf McPherson, I think is just one of the finest men that I've ever met; very fine man.

5 Then there's Brother O. L. Jaggers from the World church down there, another fine man. I've had meetings for him, and we've had great fellowship there.

Now, there's a little contention between them churches, but don't let that bother you. They're all right. That's a... That's all right; they're brothers. They're all right, all fine fine man, every one of them. That's right. They have to have a little contention one time to... Well, they kind of think their competitors, to kind of keep them spiritual. If you just don't let it go no farther than that, it'll be all right.

But I just love Brother Jaggers, and I love Brother Teeford, and Brother McPherson, and all them. They've all been very dear brothers to me. And I love them all. So their little contentions, why, that--that's all right. That just happens in families even, you know. And so, God's family don't run any smoother, looks like, than the rest of us. So they're all right, both of them. They're fine, all of them. They're fine fellows.

6 And I believe there's a Brother A. A. Allen holding a revival way down somewhere in Los Angeles down there. I hardly know of the man. I've heard of him, but I don't know him. But He's a brother that's holding healing services. And--and if there's any down around on that part, why... Course, Brother Allen is an evangelist like myself. He doesn't have any certain church.

And then there's a Brother Leroy Kopp down there that has a church. And I know him real well, a very fine Christian brother. And, oh, there's just plenty good churches around through here you can go to.

So be sure, of all them fine churches, you ought to find one somewhere. And find you a church home, and go in and tell them that you want to become a member of their body of believers.

7 And then remember, then go to the other churches and have fellowship with them, too. Don't never turn anybody down as a Christian, no matter if he's not a Pentecostal, or if he's a Baptist, or Methodist. Remember, he's your brother anyhow. See? That's right. Stay right with it.

If you don't feel that way, then you ought to come back. See? That's right. You ought to come back because you just didn't go quite far enough, you know. You just...

8 I was telling the other day of a Methodist brother, friend of mine. And he, we had a lot of fellowship together. And he used to pastor the Methodist church in New Albany. And we were both born down in Kentucky. I was born over in one holler and he was over in the other. That's about the way we have our directions down there. And so...

And when... I called Him Brother Lum. His name was Edwards. And so, if I got a convert... He said, "Now, Brother Billy," he said, "I... My father and mother were Methodist and I... therefore I--I just can't go for immersing. I--I--I want you to sprinkle me."

Now, he--he'd never make me a good member up there. So I said, "I'll tell you what. I've got one of the finest brothers down in New Albany (See?), just below me, three miles, and he's got a... He's a pastor of a real spiritual Methodist church." I said, "He's a fine man." I said, "It's kind of dry, not much water around there." But I said, "I--I tell you, you ought to go down to him. Now I'll take you down to him."

That was my convert that wanted to become a Methodist. If he had one that wanted to be a Baptist and wanted to really get immersed, he'd say, "Well now, you'll never make me a good member, but I got a good friend up in Jeffersonville, at the tabernacle, named Billy. I'll tell you, Billy will drown you. He will just hold you till every bubble...?... up and... He's a fine boy."

So that's the kind of fellowship we had. I'd throw it off on him and say, "It's awful dry down at his place 'cause he hasn't got much water down in New Albany, you know." And so he'd say it was so wet up there that I'd drown him. But we had fellowship, Methodist and Baptist. And I'd go down and preach for him; he'd come up and preach for me.

Now, if Methodist and Baptist do that, surely these others can do it. That's--that's right. So we all brothers in Christ Jesus. You believe that? [Congregation says, "Amen."--Ed.] Amen. That's wonderful.

9 Now, we're going to open His Word. And I'm going to lay this watch of mine out here so I know I won't go too long. See? Now Honey, don't you bawl me out after this service. You see? I--I'm going to time myself tonight, if I possibly can.

Now... Oh, she don't bawl me out, bless her heart. I'm just go saying that. She just tells me, "Now, Billy, you know them's working people and they have to hurry." And I know what it is. That's right.

So let's be in prayer, everyone very prayerfully. And remember, just a few more nights now, we'll have to leave California, you lovely city here, or lovely state, and go back to Louisiana. I go from here to a meeting up in Louisiana and maybe pretty soon back overseas again in a great long journey overseas. So shall we just speak to the Author now before we read His Word.

10 Now, heavenly Father, we come to thee humbly in the Name of Thy beloved Child, the Lord Jesus, to give Thee thanks and praise for all that Thou has done for us.

This little journey of a few years of fellowshipping with Thee, how our hearts are made happy because that we have seen You save sinners and fill them with Thy Holy Spirit, make ministers of the Gospel out of them, take prostitutes from the streets, make real genuine ladies. Oh, how we thank Thee for that.

See You take those bedridden cases, when Your beloved doctors have just give them up and said, "There's nothing more can be done; they are going to die," and see You raise them right up to perfect, healthy people, we're so thankful for this, Father, and we can hardly express it with human words. But just receive the adoration of our hearts as we pour out our souls to you in thanksgiving.

And now, Father, won't You open Your Word to us tonight and come and abide with us awhile. And save all that's not saved, and fill those with the Holy Spirit who is in lack of it tonight. And we pray also, Father, that You will heal every sick person that's in our midst.

11 So happy to hear the testimonies of last night of what You did. And I pray that if it possible, You'd give us a double portion tonight and just heal everybody that's in Divine Presence. For we ask it in Jesus' Name, Thy Son. Amen.

Now remember, the basis of the meeting... It hardly works. And one day, as you all know from a vision, you from down around Los Angeles, that one day this ministry will... I will stop it in America. See? And then... I can't now because when people come, it just keeps working.

But one day it's going to stop, when a little lady will be at the platform wearing a brown dress with a baby on her arm. And she'll have dark hair, and the baby be dressed in a white blanket. And that'll be the end of this type of ministry for me in America until the Lord Jesus calls for it.

But it'll be overseas. You see? In here I'll just call the people and run prayer lines and pray for them. The American people, it's so hard for them to see. They've had so much in the name of supernatural, they kind of stand back, doubt it. They can't help it.

12 The American people is so indocumated. You see, one says, "Well, Doctor Jones says that's hypnotism."

"Well, my pastor said he was a fanatic."

"Well, I tell you. I... My pastor said it was the devil."

"Well, my pastor don't know what to think about it." See? And they're shepherds. And it's all right. They're... See? But what you're doing, you're basing your conclusion on their decision. You got your own decision to make. See? So what it is...

One thing... One thing in the realm of supernatural like that can happen in India, and every thing's there will get up and be healed.

I seen one man walk to the platform in Africa. Well, they led him with a chain around his neck, brought him up to the platform like that. And that man was told what tribe he come from, by the Holy Spirit.

And a Mohammedan had just passed through, had done the same thing: told her what doctor she went to, and all about it. And them people just weeping, every Mohammedan there nearly come to Christ right at that time. But this lady was healed and made well and was told of those things.

Thirty thousand converts come to Christ and twenty-five thousand definite healings taken place in one minute's time. They even taken trucks and backed up to get those crutches, and old cots, and wheelchairs, and sticks, and clubs that they'd walked with, to pack them away from the ground.

13 And over a year from then, the Durban paper packed an article about the meeting, and said that one tribe, the Swazis up there, that they taken, I forget how many truck loads of firearms, and watches, and things that they had stole. They absolutely sold out. They wanted no more to do with sin.

And you didn't have to tell the people who's setting there as naked as they could be, men, women, and all... You didn't have to tell them to put on clothes; just let them find Christ. It'll put on...

Looks like their kind of losing sight of them in America, doesn't it? That's right. But it was so heathen.

14 This sounds awful flat. I s... A lady setting not as far hardly as this lady in a wheelchair setting, gave birth to her baby, just setting right there, and just picked him up. And that was all of it. See? And they don't notice that. And... Up in the tribes...

But those simple people, they never question. They don't question. They see something done; that settles them, every one of them. Just tell them, and they'll ever one get up and leave it. Some might maybe can't walk, and he's trying to make his step. And first thing you know, there he goes running. And here come another one this a way. And he sees that one going, and away he goes. And then, first thing you know, it's just a--just one great big conglomeration. That's all of it. That's all you have to say. It's all over then.

And then I made my altar call and thirty thousand raw heathens that had never knowed anything about Jesus Christ, accepted Him at one time and broke their idols on the ground till it looked like a dust storm around where they had been.

But the Americans, we in America, oh, we wonder, "Now, it isn't just exactly... He don't belong to my church. And I--I don't know about that. Now, I tell you. I--I'm pretty smart person. I've got an education." You'd be better off if you didn't have it, if that's the way you're doing it. That's right.

Well, we just have to put up with those things. We're a great civilization, but I'm afraid we're at the end.

15 All right. In the Book in the 18th chapter of Saint Luke, and the 35th verse, just for a reading, and just a few moments talk. And I'm going to watch my clock here, and as soon as it says nine o'clock we're just going to quit and start the prayer line so we can be away by nine-thirty, if possible: 35th verse now of the 18th chapter of Saint Luke.

And it came to pass, as he was come nigh unto Jericho, a certain blind man sat by the wayside begging:

May the Lord add His blessings to His Word.

16 We're all acquainted with this Scripture. And at nighttime like this, you don't try to preach, because it... the anointing... I been all in the afternoon praying just for anointing to see the visions are near. And then--then when I come in here and I get all to preaching, then the first thing you know, that leaves away. And then I'm... you have an awful time.

So I just have to talk a little while, to kind of get the feel of the crowd and get them all settled down, and every spirit. Not the people so much as it is the spirit, quieten down. Then you can start the prayer line. See?

17 And now, let's be thinking on this scene tonight. Back, this was just at the ending of Jesus' ministry.

Last night we were talking of the beginning, how that God had give him a vision to leave and go away. Then because his friend was going to die, and God was going to show His power through His Son, Christ, to raise this man up...

Now, tonight we're going to approach from another angle, at the end of His ministry. And He had done many miracles around over the country, though it was then like it is today. No matter how many miracles would be done, there's still people who would not believe.

And so, our scene opens tonight on a very sad affair. It's a blind man. And he's setting, crunched over.

18 Let's imagine as we... Let's take it at a drama affair. And let's imagine that the sun is going down. It's after three o'clock in the afternoon, perhaps. And the great high walls of Jericho...

Why, this blind man is crunched down along the side of these walls. And he's--he was a beggar, we're told. And his name was blind... His name was Bartimaeus. Many of you pronounce it Bartimaeus. Either way would be all right. And he was... His odds... Perhaps he had a lot of difficult making a living. And we're taught by historians that he was a married man, had a family. But he had a hard time making a living because he begged, and there was lots of beggars in them days.

There was... Lepers was beggars. Oh, that horrible plague of leprosy, no one hardly can pass by it without having a funny feeling.

I've seen them. I used to think that leprosy was contagious, that you could catch it. But you can't catch leprosy one from another. I've hugged them and kissed them, and everything else. So you can't catch leprosy from one another. It's a... It's caused by a diet.

And I've had lepers with nothing but just pegs for arms like that, wadding their little pegs around, trying to hug me in the prayer line and things. Poor old women on the streets and... Sometime leprosy eat toes till they just stand up like a big wart, about that big, real white. But just... Oh, horrible-looking sights of leprosy. What a horrible thing it is to have. Medical science has no remedy for it yet. And it's a very horrible thing. Not a painful thing, but it's a... It's so pathetic to see someone that's got their hands dropped off and so forth, and maybe part of their face and their ears eat off with leprosy. And it's white-looking, very horrible sight.

And there was many lepers in those days, and they... The people would have to come out of a morning. Maybe a man who could afford to give a man a coin, maybe he... The first man he met, he give him a coin. That settled it for the day. He couldn't give every one, because beggars were on every hand: blind beggars, and lame bleggar--beggars, and there were lepers, and all kinds of afflictions that just laid around begging. That was the scenes that our Lord saw while He was here on earth.

19 In the oriental, in the orients, rather, it hasn't changed very much. I've been in the orient, and see the astrologers, the wise men, set on the street, gazing up. And just about like it was when Jesus came; still wearing their loin cloth and turbans on their heads and so forth, always inquisitive, and wanting to ask questions, and talk about supernatural things, and so forth.

And so, this poor old blind man, setting there, perhaps in the fall of the year and maybe he was wondering how he was ever going to get his winter's money. And it gets pretty cool down there.

And he was setting by the side of the road begging. Maybe he'd eat today, and tomorrow he couldn't eat. Maybe the next day he couldn't eat, and then get enough together again.

I remember in Bombay... I will never forget when we got in there. There was Bombay, India; a really a needy place. You know that they just got their freedom back by bankruptcy a few... about five or six years ago.

20 And it's a four hundred and seventy million people in India, but there's many many millions of them that are beggars. They lay on the street like cord wood, right in Bombay.

And I remember after the first night... And the people knowed where we were staying there, that Taj Mahal Hotel. The next morning...

I had some money that was American money. And I take up offerings for overseas, and put it in till we got enough to go over, then go preach the Gospel, and then come back and have some more American meetings, then get enough money and go over and go preach and then come back.

And so I had some money that people had give me to give to the people. And so I went out. I thought, "Well, I'll just get it changed into--into Indian rupees. And so I went out into the street. And I'll tell you, they almost had to have every... the army to get me out of the street. They tramp on you and everything, run over you, beggars, when they knew I was up there. It was such a pitiful thing.

21 The next morning when Mr. Baxter and them come to get me to go to breakfast, and I went down there... And I... After I'd been in there, I looked on the outside, and just lined with beggars everywhere.

And I got up there and had a bunch of this, these rupees. They about twenty-four cents apiece, which a fellow that'll go to work, a woman or a man, either one, will go to work at about four o'clock in the morning and work till ten at night with a basket on his head, packing concrete up big steps and dumping it in, concrete all over their body and everything, for a rupee a day; and happy to get it.

And they can buy some curry, and that's about it. People walking down the streets, little old starved monkeys following them, seining down to get a hold of anything they can to eat. They're really needy.

And so I got a bunch of these rupees, and I got up there to the window throwing them out like that. And I'm telling you, it's a wonder they didn't get killed, just them rupees. And people was screaming and falling over each other, for the American people had give it to me to give to them, be sure it never went into some society and, or somebody to spend and so forth. But it went right straight to the individual. That's the way I like to give it, right to the person I know it gets to.

22 Well, then when I went to eat breakfast... I'm telling you, it was just one cry all hours of the night. It would just break a heart. I'd go up to the window, and there mother's with their little babies and their little bitty tiny hands, and their little cheeks all sunk in, their little bellies swelled out from hunger, poor little mother could just barely stand up. She was begging for her baby. It didn't make any difference if she died just don't let the baby die from hunger.

Well, how you going to give it to the mother then, everybody standing around, and--and lepers and everything? So when I go in there and try to eat breakfast... I could hear them all day and night, out there hollering "Padre, Padre."

Padre is a... It's a... I think it's a Spanish word which means father or minister. And I... they just cry that day and night. I give them all the money I had, bless their little old hearts. I--I felt sorry for them.

23 And to see all the beggars. I'd stand there at the window and walk back. They'd bring my breakfast in: an orange and a couple of cookies. Just as soon as they...

That old bitter tea... I drank so much tea till it was tea--tea... I believe you'd stick with the...?... leaf tea It just... all the time it was just tea, tea, tea, every few hours. And they'd bring it. And I wouldn't say nothing because it was right on the hotel bill. You see? And then I'd take these oranges and cookies and go over there and throw them out to them mothers and babies. Oh, my. And I seen a...

And I said to Billy Paul, my boy, I said, "Wonder if that fellow with no arms, how in the world is he going to get it?" Even his pegging on his toes like that, on his stubs of his feet. Leprosy eat his feet off. And finally we got him to one side to where we could drop a rupee to him.

You know how he got it? And them streets where cattle passing, and oh, my, just can hardly hold your nose to get through... He licked it with his tongue, and down the street he went on them pegs just as hard as he could to...?... would maybe get him some curry made out of sheep feet and so forth to eat.

Brother, I tell you, I'm a human being. That--that just nearly killed me to see them little babies. And I thought, "Mercy. Oh, God, how much longer will it be?"

24 And here we are--here we are, dash out enough out here in a alley to feed the people on nearly. But looky here.

I know this is off of the beaten path, my subject. I want to tell you something, just drop this to you.

Last week I was to preach. But I want to say this word. Look, we go over there and tell that man that he is our brother. All right. What do we do. We send over there, and he sees the American man get off the car, off of the boat, drive a great big fine car by.

He sets in a little old mud puddle, a few stalks of something he's raising there. His--his grandchildren... His great-grandfather was raised in ignorance. His father, there he is, his children come the same way. His wife will wash in that puddle and he will tote a little bit up to drink out of the same puddle.

And if we're brothers, equally, why is it that one comes dressed fine? And if... I'm ashamed to say it, but a lot of times snoopy, and rub by him. And then try to talk Christianity to him, he wonders.

25 Now, what's happened, communism has come down and told him it's all false, and give the false economy there. But give him hope saying, "Yea. That's the way to do it." That's the capitalists and so forth. And the first thing you know...

The reason it's done that is because that we put our money on beer cans and caps and things like that, and the missionary had to live off of a penny march that come up to the altar about once a month. And brother, we've sowed, and we're going to reap what we sowed. You just remember that. Sure.

Oh, my. Beggars. I can see old blind Bartimaeus setting there by the side of the gate. Let's just take him for a few moments to... just as that... as an individual. Let's just imagine we see him setting there and could catch what he was thinking about.

I imagine he was setting there shivering, the winds, his ragged sleeves hanging down. He can't see. If he could be operated on for his blindness, why, he didn't have the money to do it. Perhaps they couldn't do nothing for him, the doctors, because I guess it was too far for them, and especially in them days. So he was shivering.

26 And I'd imagine him being a believer. He would think back, "You know what? I'm setting right by this wall."

And right out, about a hundred yards from him there, was the very same highway that many years before there that, the great warrior Joshua marched around the walls when the walls fell. Just not but a few hundred yards from there to where Joshua, moving up towards the gate one day, the Captain of the host of the Lord stood with His sword up. But alas, the days is gone.

The same Jericho where this blind man set, I can imagine Bartimaeus saying, "Oh, if I could've only been living then, when Jehovah was real to the people, when Jehovah really done miracles for us. 'But the days are gone,' the priest says. 'That was hundreds of years ago. Jehovah doesn't do these things today.'"

And then also right on that same road, Elijah and Elisha come down with their arms around one another on the road to the Jordan where they struck the water, and it--the water parted hither and thither, and they walked across on dry land.

27 I can imagine blind Bartimaeus saying, "Oh, if I could've have only lived in that day when that great mighty prophets walked down that highway there. I would've walked up to them and said, 'Prophet of God, have mercy on me and give me back my sight.' But alas, the priest says the days of miracles is past. So we don't have it no more. Somehow they seem to say that Jehovah's lost all of His strength."

They really try to say the same thing today. But He's still Jehovah God, and His same power, the same compassion that He was, He always will be. They had them at that days who denied His power, and denied His miracles, denied His signs. And we got them yet today and will have them to the end of the world.

28 We got those in them days who did believe and receive. And we got them today that believes and receives. And if there's a tomorrow, they'll still be believing and receiving.

Jesus said, "I'll walk along your side, till the end of the world." Amen. "I'll be with you, a companion, a fellow citizen with you. I'll walk with you. I'll guide you in the paths you should go, if you'll just let Me." I love that. "I'll be with you to the end of the world. Till it's all over, I'll be with you."

Notice. Then he thought, "Oh, if I could've only lived in the days when miracles were real. Here I am beyond the doctor's reach. I'm a poor beggar. I have a family at home. Maybe today I never got a coin. My children's hungry; and my wife, I know she's hungry. And I have no other way to make a living. Oh, if I could only see, I'd get me a job over in a wheat field somewhere. But I can't see."

29 Now, I imagine as he set there, God begins to deal with his heart and prepare for something. Little did he know, just around the corner was the Fountain of Life. Hallelujah.

Just around the corner, when you get to thinking about Divine healing, get to thinking about Christ... Keep Him on your mind. "If there be any praise, if there be any virtue," the Bible says, "think on these things."

If any thought comes by, "Well, maybe it couldn't be so. Maybe..." Get it off your mind right quick. Think on things that's positive. Never let a negative thought pass through. The... Don't let it stop, anyhow, if it starts to. Keep your thoughts positive: Jesus.

30 Don't think, setting there in a wheelchair, you, that you're hopeless, helpless. You're not. Don't let that negative thought ever pass through. Don't let it anchor. You can't help it from going through your mind (That's right.), but don't let it stop.

Like the old farmer said, "I can't keep the birds from flying over my place." But he had a double-barreled shotgun, said, "I can sure keep them from roosting." So you do the same thing, and you too. See? Don't let them roost. Let them pass right on through.

Now, here's the shotgun to use. Both New and Old Testament's a double barrel, very good too. I'll tell you, It keeps them all away.

All right. Blind Bartimaeus setting there with all this passing through his mind, "If I could've only been here when the great prophets come down the road and walked down towards Jordan. I'd have stopped them for a few moments for just a little talk, and ask them to pray for me. And I believe Jehovah would've give me my sight."

31 Now, all of a sudden, he heard a noise. You know, it's strange, usually when Jesus is around, there's a little noise around. You know, I--I kinda like that; kindly little noisy you know. And you know, the only way they could tell Aaron was alive when he went in behind the holiest of holies... He had on the hems of his garments, he had a pomegranate and a bell. And that's the only way they could tell whether he was alive or not, he was making a little noise in there.

I'm afraid we need a pomegranate and a bell again to add just a little--a little noise.

And so, usually where Jesus was, if it wasn't somebody shouting there was somebody fussing at Him made some kind of a noise going on.

So around the corner come a noise. And the first thing you know the whole place was--begin to get alive with people. And the old beggar setting outside alone... And it seemed like, way out, probably twice the distance of this tent here, was where the road runs down by Jericho.

32 And there along on the road was perhaps where the noise was. And there's people passing by and every... Some of them were screaming, "Away with Him, away with Him." And the priest hollering, "You hypocrite. There's nothing to You." And some of them hollering, "Hosanna, Hosanna." Oh, a mixed multitude...

But along there came the very Captain of the host of the Lord, that had met Joshua. Amen. Isn't He the Captain of the host? He was the Angel of the covenant, the Pillar of Fire that led the children of Israel. And here He was and here again come when the people were saying, "The days of miracles is past. All hope's gone," here come the Captain of the host of the Lord, coming by, just on the time. He always arrives just right.

33 Here He is, coming by. 'Course the blind man, he didn't know. I can imagine him listening, his head around, see if he could hear better out of the other ear. The first thing you know, somebody stepped on him and so forth, and pushing him back. I can hear him say, "What's all the noise about?" Nobody paid any attention to him; going on.

He was listening to some of them, "Away with Him. Go on back to Nazareth where you belong. We don't need Your... down here in this country. Get on back." All kinds of noise...?... hollering, "He's the Lord of hosts. Hosanna, Hosanna in the highest."

The multitudes... One screaming, probably throwing overripe fruit at Him, and everything else...

But Jesus, walking out in front of the crowd, oh, my, His face up towards the heaven. What was ahead of Him? Going straight to Jerusalem to die for the sins of the world. Being who He was, the son of God, the King of all prophets, and the--and knowing that that laid ahead of Him, His mind, of course, was on that.

He wasn't listening to the howling crowd, "Away with this, and away with that," and "Hosanna." He couldn't listen to it; His disciples having a hard time to keep a riot from getting on to Him. Some tried to touch Him to get healed; others liked to slap Him or hit Him with something to knock Him down, and the disciples going on, pushed them away...

Jesus, in that cool, quiet, steady walk, right down the road, on His road with His face up towards His heavenly Father, walking as an obedient Son, correctly... And as He walks along, everybody screaming...

34 I believe there was a kind lady, maybe, when blind Bartimaeus, "What--what's all the noise about. I was just thinking, what's all the noise about."

And maybe a kind lady reached down and said, "Why, blind beggar, Jesus of Nazareth passes by."

Oh, new hopes rose up. How was it? Something... He couldn't see it, but in every sense he had of hearing...

Sight's not always... Seeing is not always believing. Sometimes hearing is believing. Faith cometh by hearing, not by seeing, by hearing.

Somebody told him that Jesus of Nazareth... "Oh, is that the prophet up there Who's doing the sick?"

"Well, it must be," said the lady.

Some of them's hollering to Him and saying, "My baby was healed by Him," and another man walking said, "He was crippled." He was packing some sticks that he used to walk on. But the priest thought...

"Oh," he said, stop Him for me.

"Stop Him? Why, you couldn't stop Him. Look at Him." He was going up the road there."

And then, the old blind beggar raised to his feet and cried, "Oh, Jesus, Thou Son of David, have mercy on me. Oh, Jesus, Thou Son of David, have mercy on me."

Now, you know in all that milling, rallying, fussing crowd, and Jesus with His face turned towards the heavens, walking straight to Calvary to be crucified with the burdens of all the world laying on His shoulder, He'd never heard that poor, little, old spindly man way back down there side of that fence, or the side of that wall a hollering, "Have mercy on me," when they was screaming everything. And as He, going on up the road...

Blind Bartimaeus trying to say, "Oh." Some of them said, "Shut up. He's way up the road there." He...

That didn't stop him. He raised his head, "Oh, Jesus, Thou Son of David, have mercy on me."

What happened? What took place? The same thing took place that the woman that touched His garment. He knew that was the closest he ever was to Him. He knew probably was the closest he'd ever be in life's journey here to Him. So the only way he could do was rise all the faith he could to believe that Jesus would not pass him by.

35 His faith stopped Jesus of Nazareth on his road to Jerusalem. All at once, as He walked, He stopped, looked around. What was it? With the Calvary in his mind, with the sins of the world on His shoulders, with howling mobs on both side, a poor illiterate beggar... The faith that that man had stopped Him in His tracks. And He turns around, looked at Him, said, "What would you do?"

Then He said, "Lord, that I..."

"What would you that I do for you?"

He said, "That I might receive my sight."

He said, "Thy faith has healed thee."

I can see him as He turns around; on up the road old blind Bartimaeus standing there saying, "He told me that I was healed?" See him trying to look for his hand. Said...

Oh, hear someone trying to say, "There ain't no difference in you. You--you--you're no different."

36 "But, but, but He told me. He told me I..." After while he... Daylight begin to break around him. First thing you know, he could see his hands. Here he comes up the road, screaming, and shouting, and praising the Lord. His faith had healed him. His faith was so great till it stopped Jesus of Nazareth and got a conversation with Him. If a blind beggar, without even enough clothes hardly to hide his skin could stop...

Maybe a man that couldn't even sign his own name, if his faith could stop Jesus of Nazareth in a multitude of people crying for His Blood, with a burden on His heart, and know that death laid before Him at Calvary, how much more ought your faith to stop Him tonight and bring Him to your individual needs. Hallelujah.

37 Oh, my. I was reading a little story on him not long ago. Maybe I had just a moment or two for it. They said that he had a little girl. He'd never seen her. And he'd always prayed that he'd see that little girl.

And they tell me that blind Bartimaeus had a--a couple little doves that done little enchantments. You'd have to do something to attract the attention of the people, passer-bys. Or so many beggars, they couldn't get any--anything at all. But if they could have these little doves to do little tumbles over each other that... (Now, the story may have been fiction.) Do little tumbles over each other, why, it would stop the people and they'd watch the little doves, then they'd think, "Oh, well, give him a coin." You see? And that's the way he made it, his living.

38 And so they said his wife got sick one night. and he went out and prayed, and he said, "God, I haven't got nothing. I'm a poor beggar. But if You'll just let my wife get well, I--I'll give You these two turtledoves tomorrow for a sacrifice." So his wife got well, and he kept his word.

39 Said not long after that that his little girl got sick, very sick, sick to die. And said the old blind beggar wept most of the night. And said he went out and prayed, and he said, "Lord, I haven't got nothing else to give You."

But these days, we have dogs, you know, that lead the blind people? They say they had a lamb then, that they'd harness up a lamb and train it to lead the blind people.

He said, "Lord, I only got one thing left, and that's my lamb. but if You'll just... If you'll just heal my little girl, and not let her die... I've never seen her. If you'll just let my little girl live, I--I promise You I'll give You my lamb tomorrow as a sacrifice." Why, he said, the Lord healed his little girl.

40 The next day on his road to take the lamb to the sacrifice--up to the temple to have it sacrificed, said Caiaphas, the high priest was standing on the wall, and he said, "Blind Bartimaeus, where goest thou?"

He said, "Oh, high priest, is that your voice?" He said, "I'm going to the temple to sacrifice this lamb. God healed my little girl, and I promised Him I'd give Him this lamb."

And said the high priest, said, "Oh, blind Bartimaeus, thou cannot sacrifice that lamb. Here, I'll give you some money and you go buy a lamb from the market up there and sacrifice that lamb."

He said, "Oh, high priest, I never promised God a lamb; I promised Him this lamb."

He said, "But, blind Bartimaeus, thou's cannot give that lamb. That lamb is your eyes. That's all the eyes you got, blind Bartimaeus. You can't give that lamb. It's your eyes."

He said, "Oh, high priest, I keep my promise to God, and God will provide a lamb for blind Bartimaeus."

It was a cold day. But when that noise came out of the side of the building, God had provided a Lamb for blind Bartimaeus' eyes.

My dear friend, that same Lamb is provided for you tonight. If you're sinful, and your eyes has never been opened to see the Light of God as a saved man or woman, boy, or girl, that Lamb has been sacrificed for you tonight. If you're sick, and ready to die, and your doctor has done all he can do... The man has done what he can. But there's a Lamb for your sickness tonight.

41 And let us bow our heads while we speak to this Lamb. Oh, God, we're taught in the Bible that upon the throne in the gloryland there was One setting Who had a Book sealed on the back side with Seven Seals. And the prophet wept because there was no man worthy to take the Book to loose the Seals. And there was a Lamb came up, One that had been slain from the foundation of the world. And It was worthy to take the Book and to loose the Seals; that Lamb of God.

I can just imagine when blind Bartimaeus knew that He had stopped somehow or got into the Presence of his provided Lamb... We see him now, not trying to fold his coat and lay it down neatly so he, well, if he don't get his sight, well he will be able to find it. We're taught that he cast away his garment. He knew he'd find it. Just so he got to the Lamb...

42 Oh, come, Lamb of God. Cast blindness from people's eyes tonight, that's trusting because they have joined church or some physical something that's happened. God, let the love of God pour into their heart. Grant it, Lord. Take away all stony conditions and let love Divine poor into their heart by that Lamb tonight. And heal the sick. For we ask it in His Name.

And while we have our heads bowed, I wonder if there's one here tonight that may be groping along in church darkness, not knowing just which way to turn, whether to become a Methodist, or remain a Presbyterian, or Pentecostal, or you just don't know what to do. Don't you want Him to give you your spiritual sight tonight by blessing you and kissing all the doubts away?

If you're a sinner here and want to be remembered in prayer, just raise up your hand to God while everybody is praying now. And I'll pray for you, and the rest of the congregation will to. Will you raise your hand, somebody that needs Christ tonight and know that you need Christ? Will you raise up your hand? I don't know your heart; God does. But the Lamb that came by Jericho that day...

43 God bless you, back there, my dear brother. God bless you, yes, and you, my sister. Someone else who will your raise you hand? God bless you, my sister. I see you back there. And God bless you, my brother, setting near the post there. God bless you over to my left here, yes, setting near the post over there again, another man.

"Jesus, Thou Son of David, have mercy on me. God, I know I--I may... This may be my last night on earth. I've got to meet You. I've neglected it. I really am not sure about my soul salvation. I want you to remember me, God, right now, that in this meeting... I--I want You to save me tonight and really fix my heart right so that when death does strike me, and I feel my pulse coming up my sleeve, and I press a dying pillow, the doctor walks away from the door and said, 'There's no more can be done. He's gone, or she's gone.' My loved ones leave the room weeping; death's cold vapors are floating through the room, God, I want to see You light up the valley of the shadow of death. I want You to fix it now."

44 Will you raise your hand, someone that hasn't raised their hand? God bless you, my brother. Yes, sir...?... by that.

You know, twenty-three years ago, I settled that. I've been happy ever since. I told the Lord I--I didn't want any trouble at the river. Each day I take inventory of myself. I don't want any trouble.

45 It's going to be awful on that morning, all the screams and cries that you ever hear, rich man throwing their money on the streets, rainbows flickering in the skies, lightning a flashing, thunders a roaring, the moon turning into blood and dripping out like drops--dark blood falling, the sun refusing to shine, the rocks a roaring, atoms exploding everywhere, fire falling...Huh-uh. I don't want no trouble then. I want to be sure of it. I want to make sure right now, 'cause you know, this might be the last hour that I be here, you, either one. It's all over then. The way the tree leans, that's the way it falls.

Would there be another, just before we close now and have prayer? You know, God knows your heart. Don't trust in theology. Don't trust in head knowledge. If you haven't had a real experience with God, and know that you've passed from death to Life, that Divine love of God reigns in your heart, don't take any chance on it, friend. Remember, I tell you in the Name of the Lord, nothing else will work.

46 Oh, you say, "I preach the Gospel." That doesn't matter. "I've cast out devils. I've had healing services." That doesn't matter.

Jesus said, "Many will come to Me in that day, 'Lord, have not I preached in Your Name: prophesied? Have not in Thy Name cast out devils and done many mighty works?' He will say, 'Depart from Me, ye workers of iniquity. I didn't even know you.'"

Better be sure. Just before we pray, one more time. Any hands that hasn't went up yet, would you put your hand up for prayer?

All right. Shall we... God bless you, mother, and God bless you. I see your hand. That's right.

47 Let's have prayer now. Kind heavenly Father, there was some young and old both with their hands up. Come by now, won't You, Jesus? Just speak peace way down deep in their heart. They couldn't have raised their hand 'less You would have told them to. But they did it. And Thou has said in Thy Word, "He that heareth My Word, and believeth on Him that sent Me, hath Everlasting Life and shall not come into condemnation, but's passed from death to Life.

We know that right now the transformation of dark shadows of death that hung in the face of these people, is now moving back, and hopes is coming, not with the physical eye, but in the spiritual eye, that they have did that which is right and has accepted Christ now as their Saviour. God, I pray that all their darkness will flee away, and the tempter's, doubter's powers will be broken, and they'll live in Christian life and light the rest of their days, and come home to You in peace at the end time.

God, grant that over in the other world some night, someday, rather, for there'll be no night, that I'll meet with them if not here on earth, set down there in the Kingdom where Moody, Sankey, Finney, Knox, Calvin, Paul, Peter, James, John, where many of our friends here: Paul Rader, dear Brother Upshaw, many of those other, oh, gallant soldiers that's passed beyond the veil. Just step beyond the veil, they understand. May I meet with all of them, and with these tonight who has accepted You.

Until then, Father, keep them sweet and happy in their experience with Thee. For we ask it in Jesus' Name. Amen.

48 Friend, I'm not no little boy no more. I've seen a many test, but I've never seen nothing yet could override love. It just takes everything out of the way. Love conquers wild animals. Love conquers. It's just the most conquering force there is, because it's God.

You know why I can help you? Because you love me and you believe me. If you didn't believe me, no matter what kind of works God would do by me, you still wouldn't get any benefit. Do you know that? That's my success with the Lord: the people love me and I love them. And that's where the success comes from. Otherwise, if it wasn't...

Look at Jesus. He said, "If I do not the works of My Father, believe Me not. But if I do the works of My Father, then believe for the work's sake." See?

Now, there's a woman touched His garment, got healed. A blind man screamed to Him and got healed. But...

49 [Blank.spot.on.tape--Ed.]... he didn't believe that He was prophet, and a bunch of Jews who didn't believe it. And they put a rag around His face, and they hit Him on top the head, and said, "Now, you prophesier, tell us who hit You. If You know all these things, tell us who hit You and we'll believe You if You'll tell us now." He never opened His mouth.

No, the works of God is not to be made a clown. Jesus never come to clown then; He doesn't come to clown now. Satan tried to tempt Him, said, "Do a miracle. Let me see you do it."

Haven't you heard people say that? "Let me see you do something. Let me see you."

A man not long ago, not knowing... A brother, when I was preaching over in Arkansas, said, "I'll... For one physical evidence that one person was ever healed, Divine healing, we'll pay one thousand dollars: our church." I just went and got about couple doctors and about four cancer cases had been healed (the doctor said so) and took them over to his house. I said, "We'll just send that over to foreign missions."

When I got to the door, "Oh," he said, "are you Reverend Branham?"

I said, "I am."

He said, "Well now, you have to go over here in Texas somewhere, and we'll take a little girl, and I want you go in among my brethren, said, "I haven't got the money."

I said, "No, I come to collect it. Here's the people that the doctors give up and said they had cancer, and we prayed for them, and Jesus healed them. Now, you said on the radio that that's what you'd give. Now, let's have it."

50 I said, "Here's one of them, Mayo's nurse, one of Doctor Mayo's, from Mayo's clinic, one of their nurses. We want to collect the thousand dollars."

He said, "Well now, we'll go over here, and we'll take a person, a little girl, and I'll cut her hand with a knife, and then you hold it out before my brethren, and heal it, and then we will believe it."

I said, "Brother, you're the one who needs healing from a mental deficiency." I said, "That--that is really..." I said, "Anybody would even think that, there's something wrong up here." See? That's... I said, "It's the same old spirit that said, 'Come down off the cross and we'll believe You.'"

The same old spirit said, "Do a miracle here before me, and we'll believe you."

I said, "Brother, you're... I pray that God... I love you, and that's not of hypocritically." I said, "But I love you, and I pray that someday God will have mercy on your sinful soul."

He said, "I don't sin."

51 And I said, "What is sin? Sin is unbelief." That's the only sin there is, is unbelief. I said, "Certainly it's sin."

Now, let's us not be sinners, unbelievers, tonight, but let's throw our faith together and believe with all of our heart. Will you do it while we pray for the next fifteen or twenty minutes? All right.

[Brother Branham asks someone--Ed.] "You still giving A's? Oh, F's, give out prayer card F's. I thought a couple days, there was a couple hundred of them. All right. We're changing tonight to prayer card F then. How many did you give, a hundred? A hundred F's. Let's start from... Let's start from 20 tonight. Who has F-20. See if I'm... F-20? 21 Who has F-21, raise your hand. See if we're all right now.

52 Look at your neighbor's card. They may be deaf, dumb maybe. Watch these cards on the cops, and so forth. And...

You got a prayer card, lady? Yeah. All right. You got a prayer card there? All right.

F-21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30. Now, let them line up first, right here. All right.

All right. While they're coming... Now, look around. If there's anybody that can't get up, well, you--you just raise your hand and we'll have the ushers to pack them up here. See?

All right. Now, that's, I think, 20 to 30. Now, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, let them come next now. All right. That would be 20 to 35. Now let them stand first now: F-20 to F-35. Now, we see how they line up. Maybe we can get some more and find out now.

53 Now, want your undivided attention now for the next few moments. Now listen, dear friend, this is your meeting. Now, I... tonight, speaking on this, after...?... explain the healing services...

Now remember, I do not believe that there's any virtue in any man to heal somebody. I don't believe that there's any power that any individual has to heal somebody with. I believe that two things that cannot be done: that no one can forgive sins or heal sickness. Remember that. No one can do it, because Jesus has already did it at Calvary, and you accept it as your personal faith in His finished works. Do you believe that? Say, "Amen." [Congregation says, "Amen."--Ed.] See? You...

54 Now God has set some signs in the Church. First, a preacher. that's the best sign, preaching the Word. Now, if it would be me. If you couldn't take my word for it, that would settle it. But not our Father; then He puts others in the Church. After preachers, He puts teachers; He puts prophets; He puts gifts of healing. That don't mean that they heal now; that means faith in healing. You see?

Just like preaching, the same way, it's not no power to heal with. When you claim you got power to heal with, then you take it off of Calvary.

I believe if you claim that, brother, to my... If I'm wrong, you forgive me. But the way I see the Scripture, that it's already finished. How could...

55 A--a brother in the Christian Business Men bought and give me this suit. It was paid for. He gave it to me about a year ago, 'fore I went overseas. Said, "Billy, you need a suit." Mine was all worn out on the collar. And he bought and give me this suit.

Now, there's no need of anybody trying to pay for it. It's already paid for. It's mine by a gift, is that right? And that's the way salvation is, and that's the way healing is. "He was wounded for our transgressions. With His stripes we were healed." Is that right?

Now, how many... Is all of them up? Yeah? Everybody there? You want some more, or is that... Well, it doesn't matter how many stands. We... That isn't the idea of it. The thing of it is, friends, is to get the Holy Spirit moving among the people.

Now, look, here's a lady standing here. This is a Divine gift. And here's a lady standing here in front of me. She's a total perfect stranger to me. I never seen her in my life. Are we strangers, sister, to each other? We certainly are.

56 Now, place yourself here. Now, first I can tell you by the Bible, that that is God's Eternal Word, and that is Truth. And anything that's contrary to That is not of God, to my opinion. It has to be This; This is the foundation. That's God's Word, first. All right.

Then, secondarily, He has preachers who comes down and preaches this Word, who understands It, and tells the people. Then, next, He puts prophets in the Church. Prophets are seers that foresee things, and tell things that comes to pass. And it's all by God's Spirit.

And when Jesus was here on earth, to the newcomers, He never claimed to be a healer. How many knows that, raise your hand. He said, "I am not the Healer." He said, "I-I... It's not Me that doeth the works. It's My Father that dwelleth in Me. He doeth the works." Is that right?.

57 And Jesus said, "Verily, verily..." Saint John 5:19, "Verily, verily, I say unto you, the Son (the body), I can do nothing... (The Son, His Spirit), I can do nothing in Myself, but what the Father inside of Me shows Me. (See?) And what the Father shows Me by vision, that I go do." Is that what He said?

"Verily, verily, I say unto you, The Son can do nothing in Himself, but what He sees the Father doing, that doeth the Son likewise." when He was questioned about not healing all them down at Bethesda, just healed one man laying on a pallet.

Watch there. And Jesus knew this man was there, and had been there, and a long time in this condition. Is that right? How many knows the Scripture says that? Jesus knew he'd been there, been... Sure, how did He know it? The Father showed Him.

There set cripples, and blind, and twisted, and halt, and lame, Jesus walking right around them until He found that man that God had showed Him. There he was. Said, "Will you be made whole, sir?"

He said, "I have no one to put me in the water." Said, "Somebody beats me down to it."

Said, "Take your bed and go into your house."

He never questioned a bit. Just picked up his bed, put it on his shoulders, started... Strength begin to come, and away he went. Jesus walked away and left the rest of them, 'cause the Father hadn't showed Him no more. See?

The woman at the well... Here it is again, a woman tonight to begin with. Now look, she's a woman, I, a man. Now, we've never met each other in our life. Now let's see if this is Scripture.

58 Now, Jesus went up and set down on a well. The Father had sent Him to the well. He didn't know... That's all He knowed. Go up to the well, up, way around Samaria.

Now, the Father God... Don't you believe that He's working in us? Didn't He say he would do it? "The very same things I do, you shall do also."

He goes up there and sets down at the well. Well, that's what the Father told Him to do.

59 The Father sent me to San Fernando Valley, in California, in this tent meeting. I just come here. That's all I know. I'm just here. There stands the woman.

Well, there come a woman out to get water, so Jesus went to talking to her. He said, "Bring Me a drink."

She said, "It's not customary for you Jews to ask Samaritans such, we have no dealing."

Why, they went in and the conversation, went on talking, until Jesus found just exactly where her trouble was. He said, "Go, get your husband."

She said, "Don't have any."

Said, "That's right. You got five."

She said, "I perceive that You're a prophet." She said, "Now, we know, we Samaritans, we know that when the Messiah cometh, He will tell us all things." But she couldn't understand Who He was. Said, "You must be a prophet."

60 Jesus told her that He was the Messiah. Is that right? And when He did that, she run into the city and told the men, said, "Come here and see a Man. I was standing out there, just went out to get some water, and the Man told me the evil thing that I'm doing," or whatever way she expressed it." Said, "Isn't that the very Christ? Isn't that the sign that the Christ was to be?

Now, what did the big church in that day think about Him? What'd they say He was? "Beelzebub, the devil, the chief of all the fortunetellers and everything else as evil.

But what did she say He was? The Messiah. She knew that was the sign of the Messiah.

And if Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever, it's still the sign of the Messiah. That's right.

So, not me, I'm just a man, who... You're just a man; women. She's just a woman; I a man. But the Messiah, the resurrected Jesus Who said, "These things... "A little while and the world won't see Me no more (the unbelievers), but you'll see Me, for I'll be with you to the end of the world. And the very things that I do, you'll do also." What? As the Father shows. Just act out in drama.

61 Now, as I explained it last night how visions like this, just secondarily... The main vision's when He shows Himself. But this is secondarily.

Now, I'm going to ask you all, if you will, to be real reverent. I'm going to make a proposition with you. I'll look the line, first. I don't believe... All you people, none of you know me, do you? Just, acquainted with me... Raise up your hand if we're strangers, all of you down the prayer line there, raise up your hands if we're all strangers. All right.

How many out there does not have prayer cards, and yet you want to be healed, and we're strangers to one another? Let's see your hands go up, anywhere.

All right. Just have faith. Now remember, the blind Bartimaeus that could pull faith through the Lord Jesus... The woman touched His garment.

62 Now if Jesus will come and perform right here, which right here, visibly before you, and I declare...

And if somebody would want to take my place and come up here, you're welcome to the microphone. All right, come down the prayer line. If you don't think it's right and of God, well, come take the microphone. You're welcome.

Now, but, here. If it is, and I'm telling the Truth, and I'm telling the truth about Christ, then if I speak of Him and tell the truth, He's obligated to speak back and say that I've told the truth. Then you got a right to doubt me now. But if He does what I said He will, that He's raised from the dead and doing the same, then if you do disbelieve then, then God be merciful to your sinful soul. That's all I--I would know.

Now, if Jesus will do the same thing by this woman here, her knowing that we never met before in life... If He will do, and know what she's here for, like He knowed what the woman was up there about, will every one of you with one accord and one heart, believe the Lord Jesus Christ, and believe that He's going to give you tonight, just what you come for? Will you do it? raise your hand? I wish every one of you that really believe it would raise you hand. He's looking at you. Amen. God bless you.

63 Now, heavenly Father, I--I don't know no more to do with all the knowledge that I have... I have none but which cometh from Thee. And I pray, Father, that Thou will now just move over this little audience, and may the Angels of God just move in close tonight.

It's a cold night. They've suffered long, setting here in the cold. Reward them, Lord, by healing every one. Grant it, Lord. May this be a night that every person will be healed.

And now, Father, send the Angel of the Lord and stand here by Your humble servant and anoint me. I... Thou knowest Lord, I don't know these people. They're strangers to me. But Thou does know them. And I pray that You'll help me, Lord, and will give unto me the very things that the people are here for, that they might know that You've raised from the dead, and are living here tonight, and willing to help them. And Your attitude towards them today, if You've raised from the dead and proved Yourself in power, then Your attitude is the same as it was in that day. Grant it, Father, and bless us and forgive us of our sins. In Jesus' Name we pray. Amen.

64 Now, everyone be just as reverent. I believe here's a handkerchief maybe to be prayed over. It goes to a lady. And here's another one. Maybe the same thing. And I pray over these, and that's just an individual letter to me.

Our heavenly Father, bless these handkerchief for their intended purpose. In Jesus' Name, I ask it. Amen.

Now, now sister, you just stay right... That's all right, you can tell her to stay right there. Distance has nothing to do with it. The only reason I get here, is because that I am... I am trying to single you out from all the massive people in order to contact you.

Jesus even sent His disciples away when He had to contact that woman. See? You ever read the story? Wonder if you ever thought that if you could stand where that woman stood. Wouldn't that be wonderful? You always thought you--it--it would be wonderful.

If you only knew, my dear sister, you're standing at the same place. That's right. You're aware, as a believer now, that something's going on. Just since I turned around this way and started talking, a real, sweet, humble feeling has come over you. Is that right? If it is, raise your hand up to the people. That's right. 'Cause between you and I, you probably never seen the picture of it, that Light is just a milling between you and I.

65 Now soon, if God will, it'll be... Maybe you're in just the three dimensions. This is another dimension. It's moving in on me. But it's a spirit. You see? It's in another world.

People, they're not gone, they're-they're near us; Angels and everything else. "The Angels of God are encamped about those who fear Him."

You remember Elijah down at Dothan that morning, when the boy said, "Oh, the armies of the Syrians are upon us."

He said, "There's more with us than there is with them." He couldn't see nobody. He said, "God, open this young man's eyes."

And when He opened his eyes, around that old prophet was--was Angels of fire and chariots of fire. The there was just... Then there's more with us than there is with them.

And that's the dimension now, by being born. Maybe you never will see, see such. But you believe it anyhow. How much greater is their reward who has never seen and yet believe. But some of us were born for that. God places that in the Church, from baby birth. Prophets are not just put in by man; it's a gift born. All through the Scripture, born from childhood...

66 And now, a lady who stands before me... And I... If the audience can still hear me, the Angel of the Lord is settling. And I know that I'm being heard somewhere. But she's suffering with what she thinks is a broken rib. It's in her side. She's got a lump in her side or a knot of some sort. And it was caused by a fan hitting... something that hit her. And it's caused this to happen. Is that right?

Now, I don't know what I said. But it wasn't me saying it. That was something else saying it. But was it true, ever what it was? If it was, raise up your hand.

Now, you know that something's here beyond man. Is that right? Well, you know whether that was true or not. You're a witness of that. And if it's true that... She's raised her hand to the audience that it's true. And the woman standing here with the Bible laying before us, you know she wouldn't say something wrong, and a Christian woman, too, besides that. That's true.

Then what's here? Jesus of Nazareth, risen from the dead. It's His Spirit moving.

Now, come here, sister. Whatever it was, if... Jesus said these words. When... The last thing He said when He left earth, "These signs shall follow them that believe (Mark 16): If they lay their hands on the sick, they shall recover."

67 Now, I have to be a believer for something to take place just like taken place, 'cause it's God proving to you that I am a believer. Is that right? And you are a believer, or I'd never been able to do it. It was your faith that did it.

Now, us so close to God, what happens then if I lay hands on the sick, what happens? It shall recover.

Now, our heavenly Father, in obedience to the commandments of our dear Lord Jesus, I lay hands upon my sister and ask that His Words be fulfilled. And whatever is wrong with this woman, may she be well, in Jesus Christ's Name. Amen.

God bless you, sister. Go, happy and rejoicing. Now look, just forget about it. If it was sickness, something wrong with you, or it's something somebody else wants, whatever it was, just forget it, all about it. It's all over. Just go, praising God for it. See? It'll be all right. Amen.

Oh, He's wonderful. I know you think I'm beside myself, but I'm not. No, no, I'm very conscious.

68 All right. Just have faith. All right. Is... Let the lady come on out here. Come right ahead, sister.

Now, I suppose you and I are strangers too to each other, are we? You and I together. We're years apart in age, and we are... But we--we got the same Lord Jesus, haven't we, sister? Now, I don't know you, never seen you. But Jesus knows all about you.

And you've read in the Bible, where back in the Old Testament, the prophets did that. And God promised the same thing. And the greatest of all the prophets, and all the king, and lord, and master of them, was Jesus. When He was here on earth, He just did His, like the same thing; only greater. Then He went away and said, "The very same things that I do shall you, to the end of the world." So it's just Jesus in His Church, isn't it? If it isn't...

Now I don't know... And I couldn't heal you, if you're sick. I don't know. But if you are sick, I couldn't heal you. Jesus would have to heal you, wouldn't He? And... But He will if you'll believe it. Now, He just... Through knowing...

Now, what if He was standing here with this suit on that He had Brother Gardener to give me? Now, what if... If He was standing here wearing this suit, now He couldn't say, "Now, come here, I'll heal you." No, He wouldn't do that. If He would, He'd have to go back on His Word. He'd say, "Child of Mine, don't you believe I did that when I died at Calvary I purchased your healing?"

You'd say, "Yes, Lord."

Then he'd say, "According to your faith then, be it unto you." Is that right?

69 Or, what if the Father would happen to show Him, and tell him... He might tell you what was wrong with you or something or another like that, couldn't He? He might be able to do that. But that's all He could do. Now, He... That's the same thing He is tonight, just working through a human beings.

Now, you believe with all your heart and surely He will heal you. I believe He will. Don't you, mother? Don't you believe He will heal you? Certainly He will.

May God help me to do something to raise your faith up. I see one thing, the woman... If the audience is still listening at me. There's a shadow around the woman. She's very very sick. She's got trouble in her kidney. That is right. And that's a cancer in the kidney. And she also has arthritis, because I see her, she can hardly move at times.

The vision seems to be dimming. Those things are true though, aren't they? They're true.

70 Do you believe now? The woman is the judge. The vision seemed to be kindly dim. Just a moment. Let me speak to her again just for the contact of your soul, sister.

Now, you look at me just a moment. Seemed like there's something He wants... I see you some way; you're trying to move or looking, or... No, it's about your arm. On a... On one of your arms... Under your arm you have a place. It's the left arm. Jesus can heal that too. You believe that? It's a growth, which is a tumor, and it's right under your left arm. But Jesus Christ can make you well. You believe that? Then come here. Have faith now.

Shall we pray. Our heavenly Father, I lay hands upon this woman, and I pray that as blind Bartimaeus stood there and got his sight, may she also, Lord, receive her healing and these shadows of death be taken from her. May she go and be well. I pray this blessing for my sister in Jesus Christ's Name. Amen.

God bless you, sister. Go, rejoicing and happy, and thanking God, and be well.

71 All right. We are strangers to each other I suppose, sister? And... But God knows us both, doesn't He? He knows us both.

Now, if there was anything... If I had some kind of a healing or something... First thing, if I said that, I'd be wrong. I'd be unscriptural. But if I did have, say if I did have, and if I was a doctor, and knowed what was wrong with you, and then wouldn't do it, I'd be a hypocrite (Yes, sir.) if I could help you and wouldn't do it. But the only thing I can do is just as He would tell me. And that's for faith, your faith in Christ.

Something happened then. Now, everybody real reverent. Somebody was praying. Oh, here it is. Praise be to God. Thank you, sister, for praying. I heard your prayer. Jesus did too. Your shingles is going to leave you now, setting right there with your hand up like this, the mother there, setting with your hand up. Now you... Yes, you can go on your road now rejoicing. He's heard your prayer. Thank you, sister, for your faith in God. Amen. Isn't He wonderful, sister? Your faith does that.

72 Now, be praying. You be praying, sister. All of you just be in prayer.

Now, the lady being a stranger to me... Now, I--just to talk to you as His servant... It keeps moving in the audience. There's faith arising out there. You see? Sometimes I don't know what it is; I just have to do as He says. As the Spirit of the Lord begins to move, I just have to move as It moves with me. You see? It's all a thing...

There He is over a woman that's real nervous, setting right there. And her husband's leaning over to her. He's suffering with a rupture. And they're both praying to be healed. Is that right? You're husband and wife. I see you both in the same room. You... All right. Put your hands over on each other.

Heavenly Father, in the Name of Jesus, may they be healed. Their faith, Lord, has touched You and caused this to happen. In Jesus' Name may they be healed. Amen.

God bless you, my dear brother and sister. Your faith has did this. Your faith alone.

If thou can only believe. Oh, my, isn't He wonderful?

73 There's another man and wife setting right back there, and the woman is suffering with a rupture, setting right straight in line with them. And the man has got a hearing trouble and also got hemorrhoids. And they're sitting right over the top there, the woman and man. You are healed, both of you. Jesus Christ makes you...

You hear me now, don't you brother? Your ears come open. Praise be to God. There it is, our Lord Jesus in His bountiful mercy... Setting there having faith... What does that? The same faith that was in blind Bartimaeus. You all ought to believe.

It's hanging over the lady in the stretcher. I'm wondering about her faith. She's very sick: asthmatic condition. She has TB, arthritis. That's right, isn't it, young lady, you in the...? That's right. Mother, if you could only believe, and believe me to be God's prophet, as soon as this service is over, take that little cot and set it up and go on home. See? Have faith. Believe.

74 Now, lady, just a moment to you. I'm sorry. I just have to move the way It moves me.

Don't move around, no one. See? It... The Angel of the Lord is a Light. It's a Pillar of Fire (See?), just a Light, an emerald-like Light burning, and It moves. And--and you moving, sometimes... It's a human soul. You're just all like, under control. If you move... And I know just where the skeptic is sitting; I know where the believers is setting. I have to watch just exactly. When that moves, that's a conflict, it's in spirit life.

75 Now, here It is. It looks like that you could see That. I see blood dripping. It's from that person setting right there, about three rows back, setting there, that's got dripping blood from the lungs. It's having trouble, a blood drip. Yes, sir.

Now, have faith. Don't doubt, but believe, and Jesus Christ will make you well. "If thou canst believe, all things are possible." Now, do you believe, sister?

76 The man setting right on this side over there is suffering with prostate trouble, setting right back there, kind of looking to me, kind of a aged man. If you can believe, my dear brother, it'll leave you and never come back again. I trust to God that you have your faith and believe with all your heart. You shall receive what you've asked for. Wonderful.

Now, the lady... I'm sorry, sister. I just have to... I see some great high mountains coming up before me, great big mountains. They got snow all over them.

Oh, you're here for somebody else. And that person lives just at a mountain. It's Denver, Colorado. And that is a man, and it's some relation to you. And it's a--a unsaved man. He isn't a Christian; it's dark around the man. And he's had been in some kind of a hospital and had a brain operation. And they've injured the nerves, and he... It was a balance nerve; he can't walk. You're trying to... He can't set or go on like that. And it's your brother-in-law. That's exactly.

77 Now that handkerchief that you wiped the tears from your eyes with, send it to him in the Name of the Lord Jesus, and may he be made well.

Just have faith. Don't doubt. Believe, and thou shall receive. "If you can believe, you will receive." The Bible said that you would.

I keep seeing a Spanish woman standing in mid-air right through here somewhere. I can't tell where it is, so just be praying ever where you are. You may even be behind me. I don't know. But please be reverent and set quiet just for a few moments.

Oh, what a wonderful Lord Jesus we have. How good, how precious He is. He does all things well.

Now, if I can get the attention of the little lady here that's standing before me. Sister, don't weep. See? Bartimaeus perhaps weeped. But if you have need of anything, Jesus is here to supply everything that you have need of.

Now, I'm your brother, and I'd only tell you truth, sister. And you know that I don't know you, or know nothing about you. You're aware of that. Are you, sister? But, can't you believe that I'm telling the truth about the Bible, that Jesus is the same yesterday, today, and forever?

78 What if you was standing in His Presence? He would know about you what the Father would reveal to Him. Is that right? The woman touched His garment, only He couldn't tell it until the Father had showed Him. He said, "Just as the Father shows Me, that I do."

My, what a wonderful faith moving in this audience, Oh, if you... When I'm gone from here, weeks, you people will find out you're well. You're getting healed. I just can't call it. It's just everywhere, looks like.

Just looks like it just... I look around, and it all just turns light, out in that way. And then, such a faith. You're being healed. You--you'll realize it. Maybe... You just watch and see, pastors, if your people don't come, tell you that they was--was healed here and wasn't even around... Nobody spoke to them or nothing. They're being healed anyhow. You just can't call it when it's just so much now.

So maybe with our sister here... You have a.. I see some trouble with your throat. You got a throat trouble. That is right. And you're very nervous, upset. And you've just had a something happen to you, like a heart attack. You had a heart attack just recently, and it's left you real weak and nervous. Come here.

Dear heavenly Father, the Author of Life and the Giver of every good gift, send Thy blessings upon this, Thy humble handsmaid, Lord. And heal her, and make her completely whole. I ask in Jesus' Name, the Son of God. Amen.

Now go. Don't doubt a thing, sister. You're blessed of God now. And I've asked, and I believe that I get what I ask for. Don't you believe that? Then go, claim it, and you shall have what you've asked for. Amen.

79 Have faith in God. Do you believing? Now please... I--I suppose maybe I'm... Am I... Yes, I'm getting late, maybe. Now just a moment. Everyone real... I'm trying to work for you, for God, to you. If you'll just be still and don't move for a minute...

Let me talk to this woman here. Is this the patient, sir? The Lord bless you, lady. You speak English? That's very good.

Now, you see, this must be very reverent. You say, "Brother Branham, what does that have to do with it?" A whole lot. Jesus one time, healing a person, took him out of the crowd and took him outside the city, prayed for him. Is that right?

80 And one time when Jairus' daughter was dead, all the people were weeping and carrying on, and He put them, every one, out of the house. Is that right? See? Yes. Your--your--your... The way you move, your actions... See, you're in another world.

Oh, I love you with all my heart. I wish you could just receive my Lord Jesus just now. You'd see one of the greatest things happen you ever seen in your life. But just believe.

Now, here's a woman, perhaps Spanish. I--I don't know. But God knows her. I don't. If God, our heavenly Father, will speak to this woman through the Holy Spirit, and just use my lips, as I submit myself to Him, and let me know what this Spanish woman is here for, will all of you, with one time, say, "That'll settle it for me for good? I'll right now then believe the Lord Jesus Christ and accept Him." Will you do it? All right. Then we can have prayer, and everybody would be healed.

You're already healed. I mean, accept it. See? Just as you accept it, that's when we know it.

81 All right, sister. May the Lord Jesus grant it. You Spanish, and me Irish, and years apart and--and everything, we don't know one another. But Jesus knows us both. He knows all about us.

You have a nervous condition, a stomach trouble (That's right.), trouble with your eye also. That's true. You're not from right here. You're not from this locality. No, you're from another place called El Monte, California, something on that order. That's right. And your name is Naomi. That's right. Moore is your last name. And your house number is 502, something like Mullhill street. That's right. Is that right? Now, you return well. Jesus makes you well.

Oh, God, have mercy, I pray, through Jesus' Name. Are you believing?

Sir, do you want to go eat your supper? Well, go get you a nice big hamburger and eat it. Your stomach trouble left you. Amen. Go and be made...

Come. Never an operation; tumor's done gone. Just go on your road, rejoicing.

82 Let's say, "Praise the Lord." The Holy Spirit's here if you could only believe it. This is it. This is what it takes to do it.

If you would believe, heart will never bother you no more. Just keep walking and rejoicing, and thanking God with all your heart and soul. Let's say, "Praise the Lord."

If you can have faith... Funny feeling, when I said about that stomach trouble with that man, wasn't it? Now, you go do likewise. Eat your supper, in Jesus' Name.

83 Do you believe out there? Do you want to be healed every one of you right now? All right then you do this. Bow your head just a moment. Now, you repeat this prayer. You pray the prayer the prayer that I say.

[Congregations repeats the following prayer after Brother Branham--Ed.] Dear heavenly Father, I now believe that Jesus Your Son has risen from the dead, and has forgiven my sins, and healed my sickness. I accept it right now. I believe that You're here in Spirit form, doing the same things You did when You were here in flesh. And I accept You as my Healer. Help me, Lord, to never doubt no more.

84 Now, you just be real quiet, keep shut in with God. Keep your head bowed. That's your prayer.

Now, just by faith look to Him. By eyes of faith now, with your physical eyes closed, look to Him; just imagine, there He stands, right there by your side; His arms are outstretched. Now, there's only one thing to keep you from receiving it. Right over you hangs a dark shadow. That's Satan, a doubter, trying to say, "Well, I... something else."

Now, I'm going to rebuke that doubt; that thing that's make--would make you doubt. That's my prayer. Now, you just keep shut in with God while I'm praying for you, believing that God's healing power is coming right into you by your own faith right now. God's healing power is moving right into you by faith that you're receiving it.

All the cancers are moving out. The stomach trouble is leaving. The female trouble is leaving. All diseases are leaving.

Now, heavenly Father, they have confessed. They have brought their problem to You. And I'm now bringing them unto Thee. And now, this demon of doubt that would hang over the people, that would cause them to doubt...

85 Satan, you have lost the battle. For years you've kept humanity shut up in doubt, but God in His mercy hath sent us the Light. And you are the deceiver. And you're exposed, and you have no legal rights. Jesus Christ the Son of God stripped you at Calvary of everything that you ever had. And you're only a bluff. And we're calling your hand, through the Blood of Jesus. And you can't make us doubt no more, so come out of these people, and get away from them, and clean out of this tabernacle tonight. I adjure thee, in the Name of the Jesus Christ, the Son of the living God, that every doubt moves away from every person, and Jesus Christ makes them completely whole. For the glory of God, I ask this in Jesus' Name. And, Satan, you're rebuked. Come out of them.