And Then Jesus Came

1 Let us remain standing, and bow our heads just a moment for prayer. Blessed and eternal God, we come into Thy Presence by the way of prayer just now to offer ourself as servants to Thee. We ask that You would bless us in a special way tonight, and these dear children of Thine that's waiting in this cold room.

And we're mindful of someday when death is going to chill our bodies. And may we tonight, if we're not prepared, may we prepare to meet that hour, that when death comes into our room to take us from this life to the one that is beyond, may we come to it with joy, in faith knowing that we know Him Who said, "I am the Resurrection and the Life."

2 And, Father, if there be such a one here tonight who could not meet this event in that great victorious cry of Saint Paul, "I have fought a good fight and finished the course," may this be their night of preparation. Heal the sick and the needy, Lord. Bless us in these few words and get glory to Thyself; for we ask it in the Name of Thy Son, the Lord Jesus. Amen. May be seated.

It is a much disappointment to all of us tonight that our furnace has broken down, and without any fire. Therefore I would be cruel to hold you very long. And you're so nice to come out anyhow, and I thank you for this. And I understand from my son who just told me at the door, that tomorrow the meetings are to be held (I guess you have announced it) in Brooklyn.

3 But if the good Lord of heaven being willing, in the month of May we have the entire month for the New England states here for a great services. Thank you. And--and they're making ready now. And there is a business man that's on the committee, that's going from church to church, and from place to place, and we want full cooperation from all churches.

No matter what your religious view is, if you believe Jesus Christ to be God's Son and have accepted Him as your Saviour, you're my brother and sister. And if God accepted you with your peculiarities and I, with my peculiarities, we should be thankful enough to recognize each other as brothers and sisters. See? And we're all working for one great purpose; that's for His Kingdom. And anything different from that would be the wrong motive anyhow.

4 Now, I feel so sorry about this, and I'm sure that Brother Hutchins is embarrassed to--to shame. But it's something we could not help. It's a matter that has been done here. The--the building is perhaps very old and the furnace likewise. But I will just speak to you a few moments by reading a text out of the Scripture and just being quickly. Then we'll pray for the sick, and worship the Lord, and just get ourselves right into the service now, and--and worship Him.

Tomorrow afternoon, if the Lord willing, I want to speak on the subject that I had planned for tonight over at the other place, a subject that I think is timely, more or less for the church in this day. The topic was to be, "Hear Ye Him." And tomorrow night, I wish to speak on: "A Notable Way To Recognize A Divine Gift." Now, the Lord bless.

5 The reason I wish to read His Word and speak on it, my words is the word of a man. It'll fail because I'm just a man. But His blessed Word is the Word of God which cannot fail. So I wish to read from Saint John, the 17th, or the... Pardon me, Saint John the 11th chapter, and the first four words of the 17th verse.

And then Jesus came.

You say, "Brother Branham, you have a very short text." It doesn't make any difference just how long or big the text is. It's what it is. The... It's the value. And sometimes we place value on long prayers, and on much drawed out time. But sometimes that is not right.

I was thinking of a little friend of mine not long ago, that I knew he wasn't a friend of mine, but I knew of the lad. He was searching up in an old garret, upstairs in a building. And he found in an old trunk stored away, a little postage stamp, just about one half inch square. And on this little postage stamp, he looked at it, and he thought, "That's an old stamp." So the little lad with ice cream sucker in his mind, rushed down the street to a stamp collector, and said, "Say, how much will you give me for this stamp?"

6 And he looked it over, the stamp collector, knowing it was a valuable stamp, he said, "I will give you one dollar for that stamp." Oh, it was a quick sale. That would get him much ice cream. So he sold the stamp. The stamp collector sold it for fifty dollars. After that it was sold for five hundred dollars. Later it was sold for a quarter of a million dollars. And it's still on the move.

See, it isn't how big it is, it's the value of it. The little stamp, the little piece of paper was insignificant, but it was the value of what was wrote on that little stamp, was what made it so valuable. And that's the way it is with the Word of God. It is so valuable that every little text, or every little word we can anchor our soul on it, because it's God's immortal Word. And all other things will fail, but God's Word will never fail.

7 It reminds me of a little girl not long ago in Canada. Some years ago when I was over at Vancouver, the great late King George was a visiting Vancouver. And I was noticing the emotion upon my manager, Mr. Baxter, while he was watching the king and the queen as they rode by. And how she in her beautiful garment, and the king though suffering with multiple sclerosis, and also a stomach trouble, he set correct in his carriage and was speaking and bowing to his subjects, or the people, as he passed by.

And Mr. Baxter, he said he stood and wept because the king was passing by. It was the first time he'd ever seen him, and it brought emotion to him just that moment, in the little view of the king passing by. I thought, "Oh, what will it be when our King of kings passes by...?... Just one glimpse of Him in glory when our journey is completed, these little cold nights in the theaters, and disappointments will just vanish like nothing then.

8 The schools turned out to see the king. And the--the teachers wanted to be patriotic, so they give each child a little flag, a little Canadian or British flag to wave as the king went by. And I like Jesus because that He notices every little thing that we do. You say, "Brother Branham..."

Maybe I seen the man counting the collection. You might not have had but just a few pennies to put in the collection, but Jesus saw it. You might not... You say, "Well, I haven't done very much for Him." But whatever you've done, He saw it.

The woman that put in a, just a few pennies in the collection, Jesus said she put in more than the rich did because of her tithing, she put all her living. No matter how little it is, how small and short our service will have to be, because of the weather and the condition, Jesus will see our sincerity. And I'm sure He will answer.

9 As I was speaking of the little girl, that all waved their little flags... There was an incident happen there that has always stuck with my heart. That was, one little fellow, just a little tiny tot, packing her little flag on her shoulder, she went down to wave at the king when he passed by. And when all of the crowd had cleared up, the little fellow failed to show up with the rest of the little girls. So the teacher was alarmed, and out on the streets she went to find the little girl.

And the little girl was found with her little head leaning against a telegraph pole, weeping. So the teacher said to her, "Why are you weeping? And did you not see the king? Did you not wave your flag?"

She said, "Yes, teacher, I waved my flag just like the rest of them waved."

Said, "Did you not see the king?"

Said, "Yes, teacher, I saw the king."

Well said, "Then why do you weep?"

She... The little girl replied, and said, "I saw the king, but I was so little, the king didn't see me."

10 But it's so different with Jesus. He sees every little move that you make, and every little kind word that you speak, and every little kind deed that you do. All of them mean much to Him.

These little words here tonight of these four letters that's been read for a text, they could seal your eternal destination, your attitude towards them. So that's what makes them so important. Them little words could set you free from sin tonight. Those little words could condemn you tonight. Those little words could set you free from sickness and suffering tonight, if you will receive them. But they've got to be received.

11 Some years ago during the time of Abraham Lincoln, I believe it was during his time when he was President of the United States. There was a soldier that had done something wrong. And he was tried in the courts, and was found guilty of the crime, and the judgment was death, the penalty of the--of his crime. There he must stand before a firing squad and be shot.

Someone went to the President and interceded for him. And when he... The President had compassion and just picked up a piece of paper, and said, "Pardoned. President Lincoln."

And he rushed quickly to the man and handed it to him, and said, "You are pardoned by the President of the United States."

12 Well, he picked up the little piece of paper and said, "Oh, such a little thing as that pardon me? Why, I won't receive it." And he threw it down.

And the man picked it up again, and came to the soldier, and said, "Sir, though it's a piece of scrap paper off of the President's desk, but his name is on it, and you are pardoned." And he refused to receive it. And the next morning he was shot at sunrise according to the penalty of the deed that he had done, the law on it.

And then here was the President's name signed that this man was pardoned. And the man was killed after the President had signed him free. Then it was tried in--in the Supreme Courts of our lovely nation. And the Supreme Court's decision was this (And listen to it tonight): A pardon is not a pardon, if it isn't received as a pardon. And these words is your pardon if you will receive them as your pardon for your sins, for your sicknesses, or your indifference towards God. It is your written pardon.

13 As It says, "Then Jesus came." That was perhaps, as anyone knows the context of this, that we will not have time to unfold tonight to you in the cold room. But it was during the time of the death of Lazarus, His friend. Martha and Mary had been His bosom friend. And He was associated with them. And one time Jesus received a vision from the Father, and He... God had told Him to leave the place and go to another place for Lazarus was going to die.

Now, you say, "Brother Branham, that's not written in the Scripture." But in Saint John 5:19, Jesus said, "I do nothing, except My Father shows Me first. I do nothing in Myself. The Son can do nothing, but what He sees the Father doing: that doeth the Son." And if you notice Him, how the great vision, He went away for four days. And they sent for Him to come, that Lazarus was sick.

14 Now, we don't know just what his sickness was, but some historian has said that he died with hemorrhages in his lungs. However, he grew sicker, and the physician, perhaps, could do nothing for him. And then after a bit, he got so sick until he died. And when he died, Jesus said, "Our friend Lazarus sleepeth."

And they said, "Well, if he's asleep, he doeth--doeth well." Now, see they don't get, and we don't today many times, what the word of death means. "Death" means "separation," doesn't mean that that you die forever. You're just separated from your friends. You're alive somewhere else.

And notice, the disciples said, "Well, now, if he sleepeth, he doeth well."

15 Jesus told them in their own understanding, "Lazarus is dead. And for your sake, I'm glad I wasn't there, but I go wake him." Oh, what a marvelous thing. Not, "I'll go and see if I can wake him. I'll go and wake him."

Could you imagine the disappointment in that little family? They had been excommunicated from their church of worship where their fathers had worshipped, because they had accepted Jesus as the Messiah. And here I can hear the mocking scoffs of the unbelievers, saying, "Where is your evangelist, your healer? Oh, when it comes time to His own buddy, He lets him die."

16 But we're taught that all things work together for good to them that love the Lord. God is making everything move just according to His great timepiece as it's ticking around.

Then when the darkest hour that little family had ever seen, excommunicated from their church, degraded in the societies of their church, their Friend that they had put so much confidence in had failed them, seemingly, and all hopes was gone... Lazarus was dead and buried four days.

Corruption sets in in seventy-two hours, three days. Perhaps his nose had already fallen in on his face. That's the first thing takes place; the nose turns, and falls in. And the skin worms had set in into his body. And then it's just at that great strategic moment, when the darkest hour they had ever seen, then Jesus came by. Oh, that's just like Him to do that. He comes in that darkest moment. Jesus came by.

17 But then again I'll take just a moment longer to say this, that when Jesus comes by, if He's not accepted, then it doesn't do Him any good to pass by your way. But when He is so good to come by and show Himself, then you should be so thankful that you would receive Him, that you would believe Him.

Now, little Martha had been very much dilatory about spiritual things. Mary was the one who set and listened at the feet of Jesus. But I think in this passage, Martha showed just exactly what she was made out of. She heard that Jesus come, and she started through the streets to meet Him. Now, seemingly she had a right to upbraid Him, and say, "Why didn't You come when we called You?" But to Martha it wasn't a question of whether He come, or whether He did not come. The thing was that finally He was there.

18 And it doesn't make any difference tonight how we've had prayer meetings, and what we've done, and so forth. He's here. That's the main thing. How many failures we have had and so forth, He's here now. He has come. And it is at our darkest of hour... In the world's history we now live in, we know that for both politics, for religion, and everything seems to be at a chaos at this time. Then Jesus came.

Notice it. Now, when she went to meet Jesus, instead of giving Him a sharp rebuke, she said, when she saw Him... Oh, I just love this. She fell down before Him, and her beautiful face looking up into the face of the Master, she recognized Him quick as her Lord.

19 You remember last night when I preached on the door in the heart, after the Lord has come into other doors that we must open to Him? And He cannot come in until every door is open, and then He is your Lord. That's what's the matter here in Newark. That's what's the matter in the United States. That's what's the matter with the church the world over.

You will accept Him as Saviour, but never as Lord, seldom. Lord is the ownership, controls. He controls your emotions. He controls your faith. He controls your love. He controls your life. He's in full control of you, and you walk in the Spirit of the Lord Jesus Christ. And the Bible said, "There is therefore now no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit." The Lordship of Christ has controlled you.

20 When a man smites you on the face, the Lordship controls you. When someone says something evil about you, the Lordship of Christ controls you. When the doctor says, "I am sorry, but my medical skill says to me that you must die; there's nothing more can be done," but the Lordship of Christ controls you by His Word: "By His stripes we were healed." The Lordship...

He opens the door and said, "Here I stand at the door. I give you faith over these things." Then you ignore anything else.

You say, "I would be a Christian, but my neighbors would laugh at me." Then Christ takes Lordship of your emotions. "I would testify to my boss, but I am afraid to." Then Christ takes Lordship.

21 And He'd took Lordship in the heart of Martha. And when He did, she fell at His feet and said, "Lord, if Thou would have been here, my brother would not have died." Oh, that's bound to stir His emotion. Remember he had been dead four days. And everything, darkness and all come; all hopes was gone.

Maybe that same thing exists for people in here tonight. Maybe your beloved physician, the doctor that's been doctoring you for years says, "There's nothing else I can do. You must die." And now, what about the Lordship of Christ. He has come, and He's here to help you.

"If Thou would have been here, my brother would not have died." Jesus, a vision by the Father to go raise Lazarus, yet questioned the woman. "If Thou would have been here, my brother would not have died." Listen at her next quotation. "But even now, whatever You ask God, God will give it to You." Oh, I like that. "Whatever You ask God, God will give it to You." Oh, I'd like to preach awhile on that. Martha had been reading the Bible.

22 That's where people fail to have faith. They don't read the Bible. Martha had read, where that the Shunammite woman when her baby died, everything was well as long as she could get to the prophet. And she stayed with that prophet till she got her heart's desire, because the Shunammite woman recognized that God was in that prophet.

And the prophet tried to give her a handkerchief to lay on, as it was... I think that's where Paul got his idea of laying handkerchiefs on the sick. But he had a staff in his hand, told Gehazi, "Go, lay it on the child."

But the woman's faith wasn't in the stick, it was in the prophet. She said, "I'm not leaving you."

23 And then Martha seen the same thing. She said, "If God is in His prophet, surely He's in His Son." Elijah was God's representative in the day of the Shunammite. Jesus was God's representative in the day of Martha. And His Church is His representative in this day. His Church, the Body of believers, is His representative. "He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the Church." Oh, the power of the Christian Church that lays dormant tonight because of unbelief.

Notice, as they went on, "If Thou would've been here, my brother would not have died. But even now, Lord, what You ask God, God will give it to You."

The doctor might've said, "This is just a few more days for you."

"But even now, Lord, whatever You ask God."

24 Is He alive? Could you speak to Him? He ever liveth to make intercession at the right hand of His Majesty. He's never asleep. He's not dead, but He has risen again. And He is the same in principle, power, action, moving, yesterday, today, and forever: Hebrews 13:8. He ever liveth to make intercession. He is the High Priest that can be touched by the feeling of our infirmities. "Whatever You ask God, God will give it to you."

Sometimes I think of that story of Jonah. And I compare it with people today who look at their symptoms in the stead of the Word of God. You know, Jonah was backslid. That's a big thing for a Baptist to say, but he was backslid; and he was in the belly of the whale down in the bottom of the ocean, and his hands and feet were tied behind him.

And laying in the belly of the whale in the bottom of the ocean, he refused to see the symptoms. Ever which way he looked, it was the whale's belly. But he would not look at it. He said, "I refuse, because they are lying vanities. Once more will I look to Your holy temple." You can't hide a believer from his prayer.

25 And when Jonah turned over in the belly of the whale, and looked towards the temple in the best of his knowledge, where that when Solomon dedicated and prayed and said, "If Thy people be in trouble and look towards this holy place, then hear from heaven." And God honored Jonah's prayer, and kept him alive three days and nights, and provided him oxygen. And he was delivered at the place where God wanted him to go.

26 And if God would do that for a man who looked at a earthly temple, built by an earthly man who later backslid and turned to idols, if God would honor that man because he believed in the prayer of Solomon, how much more will He honor your prayer tonight, who don't have to look to your symptom or anything around you, but look at heaven where He sets in the Presence of God with His own Blood as an intercession for your sins, as He intercedes.

"He was wounded for your transgression, bruised for your iniquity: the chastisement of your... was upon Him; and with his stripe you were healed." In the Presence of the Father, ever alive to make intercessions, think of it.

Then what happened? When this taken place, she said, "If Thou would've been here, my brother had not died. But even now whatever You ask God, God will give it to You."

27 Listen at Him. Watch His emotions. Oh, how He wants to get the hearts tonight like that. "Thy brother shall rise again," He said.

Listen at this beautiful young Hebrew girl. "Yea, Lord, He will rise again in the resurrection in the last day."

Now, there never was a man able to say this before, or since, or never will be, outside of Him. The Bible said, "There was no beauty we should desire Him," probably a little Fellow in stature. He pulled his little shoulders up, and said, "I am the Resurrection and Life. He that believeth in Me, though he were dead, yet shall he live. And whosoever liveth and believeth in me, shall never die." That was His eternal promise. And He Himself said, "The Scriptures cannot be broken. What consolation do we have then tonight, when God said something? "Where have you buried Him?"

A lady speaking to me sometime ago; she said, "Reverend Branham, one thing about your preaching, you brag too much on Jesus."

I said, "Lady, I couldn't brag enough on Him."

Well, she said, "You make Him Divine, when He was just a prophet."

"Oh," I said, "I beg your pardon. He was Divine."

28 He was God. God manifested in flesh. If He was just a prophet we're all lost. He was neither Jew, nor Gentile. He was God. His Blood came from God's own creative power, and the created the Blood cells. Mary was just a incubator. That was all. The woman produces the egg. The man produces the germ of life. He had no man, male as sexual, but His heavenly Father created the Blood cells, so the Blood was God's own Blood, not...?...

That's where our blessed hope rests tonight, right there. "My hope is built on nothing less, but Jesus Blood and righteousness; when all around my soul gives way, then He's all my hope and stay." Eddie Perronet said, "On Christ, the solid rock, I stand; all other grounds is sinking sand." What a beautiful thing.

"I am." Not, "I will be." "I am now, forevermore the Resurrection and Life." I'm so glad to know Him as my Saviour.

29 "Where have you buried Him?"

This woman said, "Mr. Branham, if I'll proved to you by the Bible that He was just a man, will you accept it?"

I said, "If the Bible said so."

She said, "I can prove it." And she used Saint John the 11th chapter." She said, "When Jesus went down to the grave of Lazarus, the Bible said He wept."

I said, "That's right."

She said, "Then that proves if He could weep, He was man."

I said, "He was man, but He was the God man."

30 That's right. I said, "When He went to the grave weeping, He was a man. But when He stood and pulled His little shoulders back and said, 'Lazarus, come forth,' and a man that had been dead four days stood on his feet and lived again, that was more than a man. That was God speaking through a Man's lips.

It was true. He was a man when He come down from the city and looked on a tree to find something to eat. He was a man. But when He took two fishes and five little barley loaves and fed five thousand, it was more than a man.

He was a man when virtue gone from Him from healing and so forth through the day. When He was on that little ship that night, ten thousand devils of the sea swore they'd drowned Him. And that little ship tossed about like a bottle stopper out there like that...

31 He was a man when He was asleep. But when He put His foot upon the brail of the boat, looked up and said, "Peace, be still," and the waves and the winds obeyed Him, He was more than a man when He did that. He was God.

32 He was a man at the cross when He cried for mercy. He was a man when He died. But on Easter morning when the tomb opened, and the seals broke, and death and hell could not hold Him any longer, He come out triumph. He was more than a man. No wonder He has thrilled the hearts of believers and poets and so forth.

One wrote:

Living He loved me; dying He saved me;

Buried He carried my sins far away;

Rising He justified, freely forever;

Someday He's coming, oh, glorious day!

He's been the theme of the Church, and of the poets, and prophets through the ages.

33 Sometimes in the dark hours, then Jesus come. It was the darkest hour that the Hebrew children had ever seen. One morning when the king had heated the furnace seven times hotter than it ever was het the darkest hour those fellows had ever seen; and then Jesus come riding in on the waves of heaven, and cooled the breeze from them.

It was the darkest hour, perhaps, the woman with the blood issue had ever seen. She had spent all her living, maybe the mortgage was gone on the farm and so forth. The... And none of the physicians could heal her. And it was the darkest hour she ever seen, but then Jesus come along (That's right.), just in time.

34 The man who had been carried and laid by the pool of Bethesda, by the waters, and he had been sick for thirty-eight years, no one could help him. And he laid on a pallet, helpless. It was probably his darkest hour. Then Jesus came along and helped him.

It was old blind Bartimaeus who set outside the walls of Jericho and shivered in the winds, when the cold November winds was a blowing. He was blind. He was poor. What would he do? It was his darkest hour. Then Jesus came along. That's the way Jesus does.

35 The disciples after the death of the Lord Jesus, and they'd walked all day with Somebody, not knowing who He was; that was Cleopas and his friend. They got to Emmaus, and they said, "Are You just a stranger, and You don't know that Jesus Who we expect to be the King of Israel has died, and--and He's crucified, and--and been buried, and this is the third day? Are You just a Stranger around here? Don't You know what's happened?"

Then when He got them all in one little building, a little restaurant, and the waitress had taken their order, and gone away, and brought back a loaf of bread, then Jesus did something, just did it in a way that no one else could do it but like that. Even as He revealed Himself, and did it just the way that He did before His crucifixion, their eyes were opened. Their hearts were made light. It was their darkest hour. Then Jesus come along.

In this hour that we're living, this great chaos that we're in now, it's the darkest hour that the world has ever seen. Where is the hope? Sputnik's in the skies, atomic bombs, controlled missiles, war. Any little nation can destroy the world...?... one hour what would...

36 If we had a President like we got now, Dwight Eisenhower, the President of the United States, a wonderful man. Oh, if we had one in every county, we could not be secured. If we had bomb shelters all under these places and everything, we're still not secured. There's only one safe place; that's in Christ, the Son of the living God. He is the bomb Shelter. Under His wings we will abide. We will rest safely.

Maybe some of you here has met your darkest hour. Maybe today the doctors told you there was no hope. But there is a hope. Jesus is come in this dark hour. He's come to His Church. He's revealing Himself and doing things just like He done on earth when He was here before His crucifixion to fulfill His Word.

37 When He was here on earth, He didn't claim to be a healer. He said, "It's not Me that doeth the works; it's My Father that dwelleth in Me." The same Father that was in Him, is in you. "I will give unto them Eternal Life." And anyone knows that that word "Eternal" come from the Greek word "Zoe," and Zoe is part of God's Own Life that's in you.

Everything that has a beginning, has an end. Your mortal life had a beginning; it has an end. The earth had a beginning; it has an end. But it's the things that had no beginning, has no end. And there's only one thing that had no beginning or end, and that's God. And you become a son and a daughter of Him, a partaker of His Majesty, has Eternal Life, and can no more perish than God can perish.

38 Oh, there I rest my faith, right there. Let the bombs, or whatever, we go to dust; I will go to heaven. That's all. Sure, there's our hope and faith. What did He do? Did He go around healing the people? Yes. How? As the Father showed Him. When Philip found Nathanael and brought him to Him, He said, "Behold, an Israelite in whom there's no guile."

He said, "How did You know me, Rabbi?"

He said, "Before Philip called you, when you were under the tree, I saw you."

39 The unbelieving Pharisee said, "He's Beelzebub. That's a spirit of fortunetelling in Him."

Jesus said, "Speak that against Me, I'll forgive you. But when the Holy Ghost is come to do the same thing, a word against It will never be forgiven." Then look at the blasphemy in the nations tonight. What do they call it? A polished up soothsayer, some Beelzebub fortuneteller. There's nothing left but Divine judgment.

If you spurn mercy, there's nothing but judgments left for you. That is true. Do not be deceived. Watch your day that you're living in. See what Christ has said. He promised these things to His Church.

40 When the woman at the well, when He looked at her, the Father give Him a vision to go up to Jeri... from Jericho, and on His road He had to go by Samaria. He sent His disciples away. No one knew what for.

A lady come out, or woman, we might say, because in this nation we believe that she was a woman of ill fame. And she was drawing the water, and He said, "Bring Me a drink, woman."

She said, "It's not customary for you Samaritans to ask, or you Jews to ask Samaritans such."

He said, "But if you knew Who you were talking to..." Oh, brother, sister, if you only knew Who I'm talking about. See?

41 "If you only knew who you were talking to, you would ask Me for a drink. And I'll give you waters that you don't come here to draw."

"Why," she said, "the well is deep." The conversation went on about worshipping in a mountain.

Then Jesus found where her trouble was, and He said, "Go, get your husband and come here."

She said, "I don't have any husband."

"Why," He said, "that's right. You don't have any husband because you have five, and the one that you're living with now is not your husband."

42 There was the secret of her heart revealed. Now, listen to what the Samaritan woman said. She said, "Sir, I perceive that You are a prophet." How much different she was from the scholarly Jew, the Pharisee who should have knowed better.

The Pharisee said, "Well, He's Beelzebub. He's a fortuneteller. Some demon spirit is on Him. That's how He..."

But they couldn't figure out. It always happened just the way He said it. So man try to figure out anything. You can't do it. You don't know God by mathematics. Neither do you know Him by science. You know God by faith, and faith alone do you know Him. By His foreknowledge He has elected you to Eternal Life. "No man can come to Me, except My Father draws him." That's right. And if you can see it and know that God is with you, how happy you should be, each of you.

43 Now, let us notice as the conversation went on for a few moments. She said, "I perceive that You are a prophet. We know, we Samaritans, we know that when the Messiah cometh that's called Christ, He will do those things. He will tell us them kind of things."

Now, that's the sign of the Messiah. The Jew recognized it. Philip went and got Nathanael, and Nathanael didn't want to believe it at first. He said, "Now, could there be any good thing come out of Nazareth?"

He said, "Come and see." That's the best way to be convinced, is come, see for yourself. Come and find out. Search it with the Scripture.

44 Jesus said, "Search the Scripture, for They are They that testify of Me." Search the Scriptures. And when Nathanael came and brought him, and He performed the miracle by telling him where he was before he came to the meeting, why he recognized. He said, "Rabbi, You're the Son of God, the King of Israel."

The Samaritan woman said, "We know... I know that You're a prophet. You must be a prophet, otherwise, but we know that when the Messiah cometh that's called Christ, He will tell us these things. But I don't know Who You are."

Listen at Him. "I am He that speaks with you." And she dropped that old water pot, and in the city she went to testify. "Come see a man who told me the secrets of my heart. Isn't this the very Messiah?"

45 And at His leaving He said this: "The works that I do shall you do also. Greater works than this shall you do." And the word "greater," anyone knows means "more." You couldn't do any greater in quality, just in quantity, 'cause He was there in one Person. God was rep--was represented in one Person. Now He's represented in the universal Church everywhere. "More than this shall you do, for I go unto My Father. Yet a little while and the world will see Me no more." The world "kosmos" there means that it's the world's order. "The world will see Me no more, yet you shall see Me, for I (A personal pronoun) I'll be with you, even in you to the end of the world."

46 The last days we're living in, the great teachers and things... Someone asked me not long ago, "Has the teachers been wrong?"

I said, "As an illiterate person, I wouldn't want to say that scholars are wrong. What they taught was well, but they just didn't go far enough." It's yielding yourself to the Holy Spirit, not to create a bunch of fanaticism, but to create a solid Gospel that's rests right here on God's eternal Word. And God is obligated to back up His Word.

Sorry to keep you this long. Let us bow our heads just a moment. And with your heads bowed, I wonder if there'd be a person here tonight that may be facing your darkest hour, and you'd say, "O Lord Jesus, be merciful to me, a sinner. I do not wish to die and go into torment. And I know if I die in the state I'm in tonight, torment is my doom. I have no assurance."

47 Before daylight they may send for the doctor, and he walk out of the room, say, "It's a heart attack. There's nothing can be done." And you'll be gone. You may go on the street before you leave here. You may go in the building here before the service is closed. And you'd want to be remembered in prayer, would you just raise your hands to Christ and say, "Brother Branham, pray for me"? God bless you, lady. God bless you, and you, just the hands around. That's wonderful.

Now, heavenly Father, to be obedient as a servant of Yours, I commend these to You. And someone would say, "Why did you just ask them to raise their hand?"

48 O Father, we realize that they defy the laws of gravitation. When according to the laws of gravitation You were supposed to lay in the grave. But the Word of God said, "I'll not leave My holy One; see corruption, and I won't let His soul be in hell." And the laws of gravitation was broken, and He was lifted up into glory.

Inside of these people their mortal arms should hang down according to the laws and statistics of science, but there's a spirit in them that realizes that they're wrong. Oh, some twenty or thirty in this building tonight has raised up their hand to their Creator, because inside them is something that says, "You're wrong. Accept Me." And it defied the laws of gravitation, put their hands towards the Creator.

49 Father, receive them. If from their hearts they meant that, they are Your children from this hour on. Grant, Lord, that they'll be baptized with water, and find a good Christian church somewhere, and serve You till death shall set them free.

And now, Father, I commit them to Thee. They are love gifts that You give to the Son, for they're tokens of the grace of Christ. And I pray that You'll be with them.

Now, as the sick and the afflicted are here, I pray, God, that You'll help tonight as we pray for them. In this great dark hour may every eye be anointed with eye salve. May their eyes come open and they realize like those from Emmaus. And as this little group goes from this cold little church tonight, like those who went from the cold tomb, over on their road to Emmaus, may they return home like they did, rejoicing, saying, "Did not our hearts burn within us as He talked to us along the road?"

Now, Lord, the only way that can be done tonight is not by this poor message, I'm sure, but Lord, if You'll just manifest Yourself, and do the things here tonight that You did before Your crucifixion, they'll know that the Scriptures are true: Jesus Christ the same yesterday, today, and forever.

50 Now, as Your servants we commit ourselves to Thee as a little group of sheep that's strayed in this little pen tonight. And now Lord, manifest Your love and Presence, for Thou has promised that wherever two or more would gather, "I'll be in their midst." Grant it, Father, we ask in Jesus' Name, Thy beloved Son. Amen. I'm...?... Yes, sir.

[A brother says, "We have very good news, and that is that we will be in Newark, New Jersey, U.S.A., tomorrow afternoon."--Ed.] Thank the Lord...?... ["We have by God's wonderful grace secured the community center with a brand new heating plant, and twelve hundred comfortable seats, and we will be there. It's just four blocks from here at 652 High Street. And we will be there tomorrow afternoon at three o'clock. And... Okay that's all right." Congregation laughs.]

51 [I noticed when we said we should be in Brooklyn tomorrow afternoon that many of you were not too happy. But now, God has opened up a way and Reverend Branham will be here and minister. We'll have plenty of time. We'll have it warm and nice and comfortable, and it's only four blocks from here. You can announce it; let your friends know. We'll have people here so those that come here for the meeting, they will be shown over there, and everything will work out just wonderful. Remember that now, that's High Street 652, the community center with twelve hundred comfortable seats. I think by the way, it's a lovely gathering tonight, wonderful gathering, and we are just sorry that you may not have been one hundred percent comfortable. I feel fine. I must confess that. Praise the Lord. Amen.]

52 I do think that that is a blessing from God. Let us just bow our heads just a moment. Now, the Almighty God Who can rule circumstances, that could stop the waves on a mighty sea, it must be that You're intending for another service to be here, for Thou has overruled the enemy, our enemy, and has given us this place. We thank Thee for this, and for putting on the hearts of the men, or whoever has done this. We thank Thee, Father, for it. And may we worship Thee tomorrow afternoon in great joy, in Jesus' Name. Amen.

If I could tonight, I would wish that everyone would be sure to understand this: I--I am not a Divine healer, and neither do I believe that there's anyone a Divine healer. I believe that the Divine Healer is Almighty God. I believe that the purchase of your healing was did by Jesus Christ when He died at Calvary. He was...

53 The--the Blood from His wounds and from His stripes flowed parallel with each other. "He was wounded for our transgressions; with His stripes you were healed." The... It is a finished work that God has did. I know, lovely friend, that it is been much said that should not have been said. That's right. And many things has been claimed which should not have been done.

'Course that's... We just expect that. You see? But there has to be the... If there isn't a bogus dollar, then there isn't a true one. So we have to have it. And we know that lots have been said about, just like touching a totem pole or something like that. That's isn't that. There's no healing power in any man. The healing power is in your faith in the Son of God's finished work at Calvary. That's just as plain as I know the Gospel.

54 Now, first it comes, faith cometh by hearing, hearing the Word of God. Now, that would settle it if it would be you or I, but not with the Lord. He's so good till He sends gifts in the Church: first apostles, which mean "missionary." Missionary and apostle is the same word, "one sent." Apostles, prophets, teachers, evangelists, pastors, they're all for the perfecting of the Church. Is that right? All these things are for that purpose. Now, God has given this.

And then in every local group, He's put nine different spiritual gifts to keep that Church in order while we're waiting for His coming. Now, tonight I... My claims are this that Jesus is not dead. He is alive.

55 In Bombay, India, South Africa, where our blessed Lord, I seen thirty thousand raw heathens come to Christ at one time, at--at Durban, South Africa, where I'm to return again right away. It would be... I would no way try to estimate at Bombay, India, when they seen our blessed Lord do the same things that He did when He was here on earth.

The Hindu's, the Mohammedans by the thousands accepted Christ as personal Saviour when we challenged it to a showdown. And the mayor of Durban said... Or the--the mayor of Bombay setting on the--the platform when a total blind man received his sight, and run grabbed him, and hugged him like that. Thousands times thousands that you could see just as far as floodlights would let you see, accepting the Lord Jesus.

56 You know, friends, Jesus never said, "Go into all the world and build churches." They're all right. He never said, "Go build schools." They're all right. But where we failed, He said, "Preach the Gospel." The Gospel isn't building churches or schools, though they're fine, but the Gospel come not in word only but through power and demonstrations of the Holy Spirit, is the Gospel. It's a living Gospel, not enchanting words, but a living faith in the--the Lord God, Who is alive forevermore among us.

Now, if He is alive as the Bible says He is, and He made a promise that He was the same yesterday, today, and forever, the things that He did, we would do also, now, to me that's the truth, or it isn't the truth. Now, if it is the truth, my life lays with it. If it isn't the truth, then I want nothing to do with it. That way we should think about those things. And tonight solemnly think that.

57 The way we do, we give out prayer cards just a few minutes before the services start, bring a bunch of prayer cards and mix them all up together and give anybody a prayer card that wants them. From there we start somewhere along in the hundred, or whatever they give out, call a few people to the platform until the Church gets anointed with the Holy Spirit, that makes you know that Christ is present. Then they begin to look, and as they look, they draw from Him.

Now, look. Are you cold, real cold? Could you wait just a minute longer? All right. Let me try... There's no way to explain it. It's inexplainable. You can't explain God. But let's just imagine like this just a moment.

Say we're all little boys and girls standing around a great big circus, where a circus is, and we haven't got the money to go in. And it... The Lord just made me a little taller than these men here, and made them a little stronger than I. God makes some of us the Body of Christ, some are preachers, and pastors, and teachers, and seers, and so forth. That all goes into the Church.

58 Well now, maybe I'm tall enough I can look up on with my hands, and pull up, and look through the knothole and see something on the inside, and you say, "What did you see?"

I'd say, "A giraffe."

"What else did you see?" I'd have to raise up again.

Now, if the ring master wanted me to know what was on the inside, he'd just pick me up and raise me up and say, "See what it's all about?" sets me down. Now, when I'm pulling myself up as it was, it makes me weak, but if the ring master raises me up, I'm in his strength. Then it doesn't bother me.

Now, I said that so that you could follow it real close. When our Lord was here... Now, we know that He's here tonight, but the Spirit that we have tonight is just a little portion of His Spirit. See? Now, in Him dwelled the Fullness of the Godhead bodily, and... He had the Spirit without measure. We have It by measure.

59 Now, say if I took a spoonful of water out of the Atlantic out here, well, you'd never miss it. But the same chemicals that's in that spoonful, the whole Atlantic has the same kind of chemicals. And if the Spirit of God is in His Church, It'll do the very same thing that He did. It's got to.

Now, when He went, on our subject tonight, to Lazarus, He never heard Him say anything. He was just rejoicing with them because God had performed a miracle. God picked Him up, and showed Him what was going to happen, sent Him over there. He stayed the four days, come back, raised Lazarus, and done it...

Look at Him. "You say He raised Lazarus?" Sure, at the grave.

Look at Him at the grave. He said, "Father, I thank Thee that Thou has already heard Me, but for these that stand by I said it." See? Father had already showed Him what to do. He said so.

60 Now, notice again. When the woman with the blood issue, He had no vision of her; and she come by with her own faith, and touched Him, for she knew He was the Son of God. And she touched Him, and He said, "Who touched Me?"

"Well," they said... Peter rebuked Him and said, "Lord, why everyone's touching You."

He said, "But I perceive that virtue has gone from Me, strength. I got weak."

61 And He looked around till He found the little woman, and He said, "Your blood issue is finished now. Your faith done it. Your faith did it, not My faith, your faith did it. Thy faith has saved thee." And watch the word "save" there, just the same as it is if you're saved physically or spiritually. "Thy faith has saved thee."

Now, tonight the Lord Jesus comes, and He shows visions as my brethren know that foretells things. Oh, my. There could be an encyclopedia wrote of it, of what He done. And not one time has it ever failed anywhere. Ask anyone. Not one time...

His great Being come down and permitted His picture to be taken with us here, which is here in Washington, DC by the FBI, George J. Lacy, head of the fingerprint and document in Houston, Texas, where it was taken... You've seen in the meetings the Pillar of Fire that led the children of Israel, the same yesterday, today, and forever.

62 "I come from leading the children of Israel in the Pillar of Fire, I... from God, I go back the same way. "Met Paul on the road down to Damascus, a Pillar of Fire. None of them seen It but Paul, but It put his eyes out. See? He was blind for a season. Here He is tonight, just the same Lord Jesus, doing the very same things.

Now, you say, "But Brother Branham, if I had an infirmity, if Jesus was here I'd go touch Him. Well, Brother Branham, can I touch you?" That wouldn't do a bit of good, not a bit of good. Touch your husband or your brother, or somebody setting there, it'd do just as well. Touch the seat. As our good friend Brother Roberts used to say, "Touch your seat, or your radio, or something,": point of contact.

63 But take Jesus as your Point of contact, brother. See? Bring Him to you. You say, "Well, Brother Branham, if He was just here I'd touch Him." The New Testament in the Book of Hebrews said that, He is now a High Priest that can be touched by the feeling of our infirmities. You can touch Him right where you are. "How will I know it?" Just like it was then. He's the same yesterday, today, and forever. Look up and touch Him. Watch Him turn back around and tell you just what you had need of.

Now, if He doesn't do that, then the Word's still right. I'm a false prophet. I'm a false teacher. But I am teaching the Word. And the Word is right. The Word is right. I make all kinds of mistakes, but the Word is never wrong. He is the same yesterday, today, and forever.

64 Now, I just want to pray, and you pray with me for every sick person. I wished I had the power to come, make each of you well. I don't have it. Your doctors, they do what they can do. That's very fine. But they can't heal. There never was a medicine ever healed, never an operation. No thing ever healed but God. Never was a hospital ever healed a patient. Ask any doctor.

They can set a bone, take out an obstruction, pull a tooth; but Who heals? They set the bone, but Who heals? Certainly. Psalms 103:3 said, "I'm the Lord Who heals all of thy diseases." Medicine will not create cells. If it can create cells, then it could make a man. But God's the only Creator. Satan can't create. He just perverts what God has created. One Healer, God. Let us talk to Him now for your...?...

65 Most holy Father, Creator of heavens and earth, Author of Everlasting Life, and Giver of every good gift, we humbly bow in Your Presence, and turn our face to the dust from which You've taken us. And someday if Thy beloved Son tarries, we shall return to the dust from where we come. But the soul that is within us comes from the great Spirit of God Who is eternal.

And we thank Thee for this glorious hope that we have. We have been promised by His great blessed Word... He said when He was here on earth, "Ask My Father anything in My Name, I'll do it." Lord God Jehovah, we come in the Name of Thy Son Jesus. And we ask Thee to confirm Thy own Word tonight, that make it known that Jesus is the same yesterday, today, and forever.

Forgive us of our stupid ways, our sins. Take all of our transgressions away, Lord. Hide them under Thy Blood. We plead for each other. And we know that in this little building tonight, it's not a very good place, we would say, to come, but You'll come to the humblest home there is. You'd go right into the midst of prisons, and into the barnyards, or pigpens to save a man. You're so good. We love You so much.

66 Lord, be near us now. Reveal Yourself to us, and do those things that You did when You were here on earth. Honor the faith of this people who is set through this long drawed out message tonight in this cold room. Reward them by healing their bodies taking away their sickness. You forgave their sins that raised their hands a few moments ago. And now, get glory to Thyself. For humbly we ask this for the glory of God.

And now, Lord, from here out is Yours. I've done the best that I know how. Anoint us now, Lord. Anoint them to believe. Anoint me to believe. And speak through us, and by us, for we ask it in Jesus' Name. Amen. [Blank.spot.on.tape--Ed.]

How grateful we are for the Spirit of God. How wonderful He works in our midst, and to that, we give praise and glory for all of His marvelous works. [Someone prophesies--Ed.]

67 Thanks be to the Lord. Father, we're so much grateful and thankful to Thee. Grant that this will be a time of rejoicing like never before. Give to the people that which is desired in their heart. Amen.

Now, if I understand the Scriptures right, I believe that there is gifts that comes into the Church, that the Holy Spirit speaks and pronounces to His people the things that He wants to do. And therefore, the--the people who spoke was just in order after I'd got through speaking. And now, the message is to the people that He has already did the blessing for you. It's for you to receive it.

Now, may you do it reverently while we call the prayer line. And let's see where did it. How many? Well, L? L's 1 to a 100. 1 to 50. Let's just start, being it's the meetings just now. And who has L-number-1, prayer card 1, L-number-1? Would you just raise your hand so we can see if we got them right. All right. Number 1? Would you come right here, lady?

68 Number 2. Now, look at your neighbor's card, 'cause it might be that they can't... Number 2, would you raise your hand if you can? All right. Number 2, lady, would you come here? Number 3, would you raise your hand? L-number-3. The lady back there.

Number 4, Number 4, would you raise your hand please? Number 4, this lady here. Would you come right here in line? Number 5, would you raise your hand please right away? If I could see number 5, the gentleman here, would you come? Number 6, would you...

[Blank.spot.on.tape--Ed.]

[Blank.spot.on.tape--Ed.]... the time, and it's getting late. Now, we want to get away. Now, first thing, I want to say, thank you for your loyalty of waiting. God rewarded us now and give us a nice warm place for tomorrow afternoon. God be with you.

In the morning go to your church somewhere, wherever they're having service. Greet your pastors and invite them out for tomorrow afternoon too. We'd be glad to have them.

69 Now, here's the showdown time. Here's a lady. I suppose we're strangers to each other, are we? We are strangers. I've never seen the lady in my life, and she's never seen me as I know of, 'less it was in a meeting somewhere. Have you ever seen? Never seen me no way. This is the first time we've ever--she's ever--we've ever seen each other any time in life. And that is true.

Then the lady standing here, there's... She's up here for some cause. I do not know. God knows that. She may be sick. I don't know. She looks like a healthy woman. I couldn't say. I don't know. She may be in financial troubles. It may be domestic troubles. I don't know. She's wanting something from God surely, or she wouldn't be standing here. If she isn't, God knows all about it anyhow.

70 If... She might be here as a critic. If she is, watch what happens. See? Now, we--we don't know. She's just a woman. Some of the boys, Billy, or Gene, or Leo, or ever who give out the prayer cards awhile ago, just give her a card and that's... She just--she's just called up here. That's all we know. Is that right, lady? That's all we know, this here.

Now, if I had power to heal the woman if she's sick, I'd do it. But I haven't the power. But if Jesus was standing here, wearing this suit of clothes that I have on, neither could He heal her. Did you know that? How many knows that? Kind of hard for you to raise your hands, but it's the truth. Why? He's already done it. He did it when He died at Calvary. How many knows that? Sure. Sure.

Then what would He do? He would do something to make her know that it was Him. He'd say something maybe like this, "Child of Mine... If she is a Christian. That I don't know. But if she is, He'd say, "Child of Mine, don't you believe what--that I--I died for this purpose?"

"Yes, Lord, I'll believe. Well, why would ask me that?"

71 But He might say, "Well, now, there's something in your life that oughtn't to be, or there's something that you have done, or haven't done," or something that way, that would cause her to know that Jesus was present. Is that right? If... Is that what He done in the days gone by? He told...

Here--here's to the newcomer. Here's a picture tonight, just like it was in the Bible time. Here's a man and a woman: Saint John 4. Everything that I try to do, the best of my knowledge, I place it in the Bible. If it's not in the Bible... Well, it might be God anyhow, but I just like to do what just He says to do (You see?), and then I'm--I'm sure. God can do things that's not wrote in the Bible, but I like to stay just with the Bible. Then I--I know it's right.

In the old Bible they had a... How many knowed how they tested a prophet, or a message, or a dream? It was said and told before the Urim Thummim. How many ever heard that? Let's see your hand. The Urim Thummim was Aaron's... The ministers raising their hands, of course. It was Aaron's breastplate. And always God has worked in supernatural.

72 And when the prophet went to speaking or the dreamer telling his dream, if it was of the Lord, a conglomeration of lights went to work, a supernatural Light worked on that Urim Thummim. Then it was God. It was true. But if it didn't work, no matter how well it seemed to be, it wasn't true. God refused it.

Now, that Aaronic priesthood ceased, but we have a new priesthood today. That Urim Thummim ceased, but we have a new Urim Thummim. And that's God's Word. What we do, or say, if it doesn't flash in the Word, I'd leave it alone. But it must come from the Word.

Now, this scene like Saint John 4, a man and a woman, which here we are before God, this pulpit, the Bible, that neither have ever seen each other in life. We're totally strangers. Now, if Jesus is the same yesterday, today, and forever, and will do the things that He did... Said, "I do nothing till the Father shows Me first." We all aware of that, Saint John 5:19.

73 Now, if Jesus will come and just take this body, my voice... Now remember, Jesus is in every way like He was, only a corporal body. Do you understand that? What are we? He is the Vine, and we are the branches now. The vine doesn't bear fruit. The branches bears fruit, but the energy has to come from the vine. The vine has to send forth the power to bear the fruit.

Now, if He is risen from the dead, which we know He is, and then if God sent me to do this... I'm not a preacher, as--as a preacher. I don't have the education to be a preacher. But if by a gift, if He lets me see visions, and say to this woman just like at the woman at the well, and will reveal to me something that's in your heart that you're wanting, would you believe it was Him? You know it'd have to come from some supernatural resource. How many knows it would be a supernatural resource?

74 Now, if you believe that, then it depends on what you think it is. If you'd say, "Oh, well, he's a mind reader." Well that's your reward you'd receive. But if... But 'course, there you'd... I wouldn't say it in that way. You'd... It might be terrible, because that would be the same as they did, blasphemy of the Holy Ghost (See?) which is unpardonable.

Now, that's what, they blaspheme when they call the works that He was doing, Beelzebub. How many knows that? And Jesus said it would never be forgiven (See?) to call the working of God by the Holy Ghost, Beelzebub or some evil spirit. See?

Now, if the Lord Jesus will reveal it... I don't say that He will. But if He will, you'll believe? Will the audience believe if... Does anyone know the woman out there? I suppose you do, yes, plenty of you. All right. Now, if I said, "Lady, you're sick, and you're going to be well," you'd have a right to doubt that. If--if... Unless you--just depend on how much you believe my word.

75 But if the Holy Spirit will go back like He did to Philip, or like He did to the woman at the well, and tell her something that she's done, you know whether that's true or not. You'll know that. Then if He knows what has been, He surely will know what will be. You understand?

You say, "Brother Branham, are you stalling for something?" Yes, I am. I'm waiting for the Angel of the Lord, the--the anointing. It hasn't struck me yet exactly. That's right. That's the reason I keep talking to her. Our Lord kept talking to the woman...?...

But now, the woman is aware now, that there's something taking place. If my audience can still hear my voice, right over the woman is a Light. Lady, you're aware that a real sweet humble feeling has just come over you. If that's right raise up your hands for...?... See? Between you and I, I see that Light.

76 And the lady is very, very sick and shadowed with death. She's suffering with a tremendous nervous condition, a cancer of the nerve. And she has tumor on the brain. That is true. That is true, isn't it, lady? Wave your hand so the people will know.

Now, you see... I never seen her. And right now, I don't know what I said to her. Now, you heard a voice. That wasn't me. That was Him. See? That was Him. 'Cause I don't know what to say to her. Now, that the audience might know, see, more you would talk to her, more would be... We just got a few standing here. Let's talk to the woman a little more.

Just to speak to you, because that more I would say to you, of course, more, and of course weaker you would get. Visions make weakness. Do you remember the great prophet Daniel saw one vision, was troubled at his head for many days? See? Jesus was touched by a woman's infirmity and said virtue went from Him.

77 But why then could, would He let me stand and have even more in one night than we have record of Him doing in the Bible? Because He made a promise. "More than this shall you do," the same thing, but more of it. See? Me, a sinner saved by grace, and Him, the Son of Jehovah, but He made a promise. His words are true. "More than this shall you do, for I go to My Father."

78 Yes, lady, I wanted--just wanted to see. Yeah, I see the woman, if the audience can still hear my voice, I don't know how loud I'm speaking now because the lady goes away from me, and she's overshadowed with death (That's true.), by a hideous black shadow which is cancer.

And also, she is concerned about someone else that she's praying for. And that is her husband that's here in this building. I feel his spirit moving. And her husband has tremendous pains in his back, and he's having some kind of a heart condition, a condition around his heart.

And I see you both somewhere. You're in some sort of a meeting, or doing something. There's a... You're raising your hand to... You are in a--some kind of a great meeting, hasn't been too long ago. And you raised your hand to be converted. And that was in a city called Triton, Trenton. Trenton, it is Trenton, New Jersey, and it was Oral Roberts meetings. That's THUS SAITH THE LORD. Do you believe the Lord Jesus Christ is present? It may be your darkest hour, but Jesus has come along. Let us pray.

Most gracious Lord, I lay my hands upon this woman, because Thou has said, "Go ye into all the world and preach the Gospel. These signs shall follow them that believe; if they lay their hands on the sick, they shall recover." Lord, You keep all Your promises, and I pray that our sister be made well, and the spirit of evil sickness be cast from her, and the desires of her heart given unto her; for I humbly ask it in Jesus' Name, which cannot fail. Amen. God bless you, my sister. God's peace rest upon you now. Go, don't doubting nothing. You'll be well. God bless you.

79 How do you do, lady? You're a stranger to me in a way that I don't know you, but yet you seem familiar. Just a minute. Oh, you have been in the meeting, and you were healed of a bowel condition. And you're here for someone else now. And that is a woman that's been burned with a... And you're a nurse. I see you in a hospital, nurse. And the woman is burned severely, and you're standing in her behalf. And I hear you call her name "Bethie." That is right. Now, the God that healed you will heal her too.

Father, in the Name of Thy beloved Son, the Lord Jesus, show mercy to this woman's request and may it come to pass that the things that she desires shall be given to her. This we ask in the Name of Jesus Christ, God's Son, Who said, "Ask in My Name, it shall be given." Amen. The Lord grant your request, my beloved sister. God be with you, sister, and grant to you...

80 You have a prayer card? You don't? You... All right, sir. You give it to someone else. All right. If you'll keep believing... You want God to heal you of that nervous condition you have. That's right. If you'll keep believing, you can have it. You touched Him.

I'm a stranger to you, lady. And here's a beautiful setting of the Scriptures. Here's a--a woman, a colored woman, me, a white man. Then I come from the Anglo-Saxon; she came from Ethiopia. It was the same picture of Saint John 4, a Samaritan and a Jew.

81 And the question was, there was a segregation in those days like there has been in the south for years, but Jesus let them know that there was no difference in the color of a person's skin. That's right. They're all children of God. Just the country we was raised in, has nothing to do with our relationship with God. But it's the same picture.

Now, lady, we've never met in life before. This is our first time of ever meeting. If that's right, would you just raise your hands with me? It's our first time meeting. Now, if our Lord Jesus... When a Jew, He met a Jew and told him where he was under a tree, said He saw him. That was thirty miles around the mountain: Some eyes. But He said, "I saw you when you were under the tree." And he recognized that miracle to be only of God. And he said, "You are the Son of God, the King of Israel."

82 The Samaritan woman, when He told her, a woman of a different race from He was, He told her where her trouble was, she quickly recognized that it was the sign of the Messiah. And if He's the same yesterday, today, and forever, between the races then that He went to deal with, isn't He the same today? If He manifested Hisself in that way to prove He was Messiah to them, isn't He obligated to us in this day to manifest Hisself in the same way? If He's the same, He will manifest Hisself the same. Does the audience believe that? [Congregation says, "Amen."--Ed.] May He grant it.

The lady is not here for herself. She's here for someone else. That's a brother. I see you coming up together. And that brother is in a horrible condition right now. He's an alcoholic. He's laying drunk, and he was so drunk you couldn't sober him up enough to bring him to the meeting. That's THUS SAITH THE LORD. Do you believe? Let us pray.

O Jehovah God, grant the request of this sincere woman who stands here. Let Thy Spirit come to her and give unto her the assurance in her heart, that she has what she asked for. Grant it, Lord. We bless her as laying hands upon her. In the Name of Thy Son the Lord Jesus, may she go, and what she's asked, may she receive through Jesus Christ. Amen. Don't doubt one bit. You shall have what you asked for.

83 We are strangers to each other. The Lord knows the both of us. But if our blessed Saviour will reveal to me what you're here for, will you believe on Him, and accept Him, knowing that He will give to you what you're asking? Let's say what you want in your heart, you pray, and ask God. And now, just be in your heart praying to God, and He will--I'm sure He will grant it to you.

Now, if the lady, and the people in the church can still hear my voice, the lady is suffering from a female disorder, a lady's trouble. That is right. This was caused by a birth of a child. The little fellow is at home, and he's got something wrong. The baby has got something wrong with it. It's all swelled up. It's got... Its jaws are all swelled out, and it's got something in the head, trouble in its head. That is THUS SAITH THE LORD.

You be the judge. Those words are true. God still lives Who made the promise by His Bible, "Ask and you shall receive." And O great Jehovah, Who cannot fail, I bless this Thy child in Jesus' Name, Thy Son. And may she receive that what she has come for. May she find it even so, for we send her to her home in Jesus Christ's Name for to be healed. Amen. The prayer of faith shall save the sick, God shall raise them up.

84 Be just as reverent. I know it's getting cold. It's cold here. But let's just try to get another one or two. How about in the audience, are you believing? [The congregation says, "Amen."--Ed.] Just believe; touch His garment; say, "Lord Jesus, I believe You. I believe that the Bible is right. And I believe that You've raised from the dead."

You say, "Brother Branham, these things ought to be before the whole world." I know it. But they'll not know it until we're gone. They never did know it through the ages. Even the disciples didn't know it. They said, "Must Elias come first?"

Said, "He's already come, and you didn't know him." Believe.

85 You believe she'd get well if I'd ask the Lord for you, your friend that's got diabetes? You believe it? You got a handkerchief you want me to pray over, haven't you? The woman has one leg amputated. That's right. THUS SAITH THE LORD. Bring me your handkerchief. You brought it for that purpose. Take it from your purse and bring it to me. Have faith. Bring it right here, just right here. I knew it, lady, by the revelation of Jesus Christ. You touched Something, didn't you, lady? You seen you wasn't going to get into the prayer line, but you were praying. I seen your prayer. Now, not me... It's--it's Something; it's the Holy Spirit. (See?) I'm only talking to you as He would talk to me. Now, let us pray.

Now, heavenly Father, in the Bible we are taught that they taken from the body of saint Paul, handkerchiefs and aprons, because the people seen the Spirit of God working in this man, and they had faith to believe their apostle. And they sent these handkerchiefs to the sick and afflicted, and the Bible says that evil spirits went out of them, and diseases were healed.

86 Now, we realize that we're not saint Paul, but we know that You're still Jesus, the same yesterday, today, and forever. And we're taught that when the Red Sea had the children of Israel cut off from the promised land, that God looked down through the Pillar of Fire, and the sea got scared, and moved back, and made a dry path for Israel to cross on towards the promise.

Tonight, Lord, when this handkerchief is placed upon the sick body of this one so desiring to be healed, I pray that God will look through the Blood of His Son; and may the woman pass from sickness into the promise of good health and be made well, for we send it for this purpose; in the Name of the Son of God, Jesus Christ. Amen. Now, let no one handle it.

Now, do you believe with all your heart? Do you believe that the Lord Jesus is here to make well, to heal the sick and the needy? All right. I believe if we would pray right here now to each one, so you get out of the chill that... Do you believe that God would heal you? Do you believe He would do it?

87 Are you aware that Jesus is come along? Is that according... How many Bible readers know that God promised that, that Jesus promised that? That's the things that He did. Now, remember your brother has nothing to do with it. It's your faith in the resurrection of Jesus.

Is this a patient?... Is this... Oh, I'm sorry, sir. I wasn't to pass you, no. But being that you're standing here, we're strangers to each other, as far as I know, we are. Now, you're a man, and our friend by the name of Philip went and found Nathanael and brought him over where a man met our blessed Lord. Now, you and I, being strangers, would just be the same, that we don't know each other. But you and I both are meeting Jesus now.

And now, if He is the same yesterday, today, and forever, He could let me know where your trouble is. And if He does, will you be reverent enough to believe that you're in His Presence? You know that there's Something. Standing before me, a man, wouldn't make you feel like you're feeling now. You know that there's Something that's on...

88 Why did I call you out of the sick to pray for the sick? The Light was already on you. And I know the Holy Spirit wants me to talk to you. That's the reason I did it, for I was fixing to pray for the entire audience. But when I turned and felt the Spirit of God this way, and I looked and the Light's all around you... Now, tears are running down your cheek, because you know you're in His Presence. I'd never make you feel that way. I couldn't, I'm a man.

I wish the audience could only know what this is, what I speak of. I know... You don't have to feel anything; you believe something. But it's because his faith is so anchored. Some way he realizes that he's in the Presence of Something besides a man. See? Watch the expression on their faces as they come forward and just get into the Presence of Him. Now, His Presence is there, of course, too. But...

If our heavenly Father, this being a man and us standing together that we have never met before in life, if God will tell the man what he wants, then surely God is interested in his desires. Is that right? Now, will the rest of you believe then with all with one accord?

89 Now, sir, the Lord Jesus grant it. I don't... It isn't necessarily that I would look at you or anything, but just to talk to you. I don't look at those people in the audience, and so forth. But... May the Lord grant the request. Now, if you're sick, you know I can't heal you. But it takes the Spirit of God to do that, and your faith in Him. Surely with the faith that you have, you would receive it.

My brother, you're not here for sickness. You're here with a desire in your heart to receive the baptism of the Holy Ghost. That's what you're here for. That's right. Also, your wife, she has some spiritual problems, and she has pain though; she's nervous and got pains through her body. That's right. You believe you will receive it?

90 I see you somewhere else. You have been at a meeting of mine before, but you didn't get in. That wasn't in this city either. It was a city where a large lake, and I see Joseph Boze standing near. It was in Chicago. You was in Chicago seeking the Lord for the baptism of the Holy Ghost. THUS SAITH THE LORD. That is true. Let us pray.

Blessed Redeemer, Thou has give the promise which can never fail. Let Thy Holy Spirit come just now, deeply, richly, and set the faith of the Lord Jesus in the heart of this man, and may everything that he has desired tonight be manifested to him, and given to him.

And may he go from this building down the street, rejoicing, saying, "Did not our hearts burn within us, for Jesus made Hisself real to us tonight." Grant it, Lord. I bless this my brother, in the Name of Jesus Christ, that he will receive that what he asked for. Amen. The Lord bless you, sir. You shall receive that what you have asked for. God be with you.

91 Do you believe? All right. Will you come? Someone thought back there it was mind reading, just a few moments ago, or telepathy rather. To prove it to you, lady, don't look at me, but lay your hand on mine. If the Lord God will reveal to me what's your trouble, will you believe me as God's servant? You have heart trouble. That's right. You believe that God will make you well of it? Then go and be healed in the Name of the Lord Jesus.

Do you believe, sir, with all your heart? You believe that God will heal you? All right. Then the diabetes would leave you, and you can go be made well. You believe it? All right. See, it is not. See?

A lady's trouble, and also a nervous heart, that is right. Go and be healed in the Name of the Lord Jesus. It is not telepathy. It's the Spirit of the living God in these great days of this...?... Do you believe it? Then let us raise our hands to God, and I want you to pray with me this prayer:

92 O God, [Congregation prays after Brother Branham--Ed.] Creator of heavens and earth, Author of Everlasting Life, Giver of every good gift, send Thy blessings upon us, and heal us. I now accept Jesus Christ as my Healer.

Now, stay shut in with Him. That's your prayer. That's your confession. Just believe that that same great Light that's here at the pulpit is circling It's way through the building. Oh, how wonderful. Receive your healing. The Lord Jesus make you well.

O Lord God, Creator of heavens and earth, I pray for this people, that the blackness and shadows of unbelief might be lifted just now, Satan... rebuked.

93 Satan, you have lost the battle. Come out. In the Name of the Lord Jesus we adjure thee to leave this people that they be made sound and well; through the Name of Christ we ask it.

I believe as a servant of Christ, that every one of you is healed right now. I believe it. I believe all the of those that would like a close walk with Christ should come right down here tonight and stand. You penitent sinner, come down here to the altar just now. And if He can save you and... Come down here and ask a little word of prayer, and give thanks for His goodness. Will you do it? You that believe that you're healed, stand up to your feet; give Him glory.

Give us a chord, "I Will Praise Him." All the people with their hands up...

I will praise Him, I will praise Him,

Praise the Lamb for sinners slain;

Give Him glory all ye people,

For His blood can wash away each stain.

Let's lift Him up and sing it now.

I will praise Him, I will praise Him,

Praise the Lamb for sinners slain;

Give Him glory all ye people,

For His blood can wash away each stain.