Expectation

1 Thank you very much, brother, and I'm happy to be here. May the Lord bless you. You can be seated now. I certainly have a great privilege this morning to stand in the pulpit at Tucson for my first time in life. I was thinking as I come over this morning of how many cities throughout the world that the Lord has given me the privilege of visiting, and talking with the congregations, and this morning being my first time here in America to ever be in this fine city.

Since we have been here we have learned to love its people and, and your atmosphere, your fine weather, the beautiful mountains, the deserts. There's something about it that would make me crave to stay here. It's so quiet. We was on the desert yesterday looking around, and it just seems like when you're out there that God speaks. There's nothing in a hurry, they're going nowhere, not excited about anything, so they're just quiet and relaxed. And that seems to be a whole lot like their people that I meet here--relaxed. No hurry. We're not... no hurry to do anything, and that's a good place for a nervous minister, so he can quieten down. No hurry. Life has its... such hustles and bustles, as we call it "running to and fro", and we've got to get this done in a few minutes, and this, and just so much time. It seems like when you come here, "Well, what's the hurry?" And I like that.

2 And now, you can learn another thing on the desert that I think would kind of pay us to look at--all those cactus needles. When I... You see those needles, and I don't believe there'd be a machine could sharpen one that sharp. My son could say "amen" to that, 'cause we had to pick them out of him all day yesterday. And now, if that little cactus was, was in my country, it would unfold and be a beautiful soft leaf, because what it is, is a leaf rolled up. And nature's sharpened it that way. That's the way it protects itself. It might be good for us to think of that just a moment.

Now, put water on this desert and leave it here for several years, that cactus would come up with leaves on it, would be soft. And that's the way the churches get sometimes when we run without spiritual water. We just roll up real tight and sticking one another. But put the water on it, it softens out, and flexible, and... I think that's what we have churches for, is where we can have spiritual water that keeps us sweet and soft so that God can use us; and flexible, not sticking one another, but just laying softly and sweetly upon the other fellow's shoulder, and each one of us bearing one another's burdens and so fulfill the law of Christ.

3 I met your little pastor. It was my first time in life to meet him, and such a grand little fellow. I'm thankful that he has this wonderful church here and this congregation. And then my good friend, one of your members here... Brother Norman, Sister Norman was sojourners with you, but they have now taken up residence, I think, to stay. I don't blame them. And he told me, "Building this church," he said, "when I drove down the last step, the nail in there," said, "I said, 'O God, let my friend, Brother Branham, walk over this step someday to speak to the congregation.'" And he was standing back there crying about it a few moments ago, how God had answered his prayer. And I--I'm so glad for the privilege of being here. I've... You're a people... I met... only thing I know to call is Brother Tony. I couldn't call that Italian name. And so I met him, and he's a fine man. And another man, I believe they call him Otto--Otto, something like that. I'm not very good at these pronouncing names.

And we was having the international conference yesterday. There was a German there, and an Italian, and whatmore, and I was there as an Irishman. So I said, "This is an international conference." Many of the boys, some of them had been overseas and fighting with the nations, and so forth, with the different nations. But if you could all feel like we did yesterday standing on the desert, there would be no more war; we'd be brothers. Christ is the answer.

4 Looking upon this beautiful valley and surrounding mountains, and towering, I like it. I was setting there up high, looking down upon the... this city and I thought, "How many prospectors in the days gone by has passed over this ground and perished right here in the desert, searching for a gold mine?" And them days are just about past now, but we thank God we have found the gold mine. You don't dig it out of your hills here; you get it out of the skies. And now, today we don't prospect any more, but we "suspect" God to fulfill every promise that He ever made, and pour out upon us His bountiful blessings.

And He remains God, and His heart is just as anxious to give us what we ask for as we are to ask, and more so: because He "so loved the world, that He gave his only begotten Son, whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life." And if He loved us while we were sinners, alienated from Him, the commonwealth of God, how much more is He willing this morning to give us exceedingly abundantly above all that we could do or think.

And we come into the city to visit. We're leaving tomorrow now for California, on up into the northern part, and different parts of the world. But it's certainly a great privilege for me to stand here this morning in this lovely church, Assemblies of God. They've been some of my great sponsors, world over. Fine people belong to this organization, fine ministers, fine laity. I think all of God's people is fine. Wherever you find them, they're fine people.

5 And being a missionary and traveling much--about seven times around the world--I find that the Holy Spirit... You go into like Thailand, Japan, South Africa, back up in the Hottentots, and those places there, that men and women come to the church with not one bit of clothes on, because they know no different. Tens of thousands of them lay together. If you could speak their language, say, "Which is right hand and left?" they wouldn't know what you was talking about. All they know is to kill what they can to eat, they can't... any way to get something to eat to survive, just like an animal would do.

But there's one thing that makes them us. You stand in a congregation like that and let the Holy Spirit fall on them, they do the same thing you do when you receive the Holy Spirit, act the same way. It goes to show that God is no respect of person or nation. As Acts 4 says, that Peter said he perceived that God was not a respect of any nation, but all that fear Him... And so we have something in common: that's Jesus Christ.

6 I called my wife a while ago and it's around zero up there; and even the schools are closed with snow, all snowed under, and roads so slick. If anybody's from the East, you'd better be glad you're out here in the West now, 'cause it's very cold. So we could not have things in common with my land and this land, but we do have with my God and your God, because it is the same God.

I come this morning to kind of introduce the ministry that the Lord Jesus has permitted me to carry around the world. And I thought this morning in Sunday school it would give the people an opportunity that I could explain to them (being we're just here for one night) that... how to... they might receive Christ for healing for their bodies. And the little odd things, first time being here, something might seem a little strange to you. "Why did they do it this way? Why didn't they do it this other way?" I might explain that.

Now, usually when we come into a city when they're having a big meeting, why, we--we ask for the cooperation and affiliation of all churches to come together, so that Christ is not divided among us; He's the same Christ among all of us. And we try to get all the denominations--Methodist, Baptist, Pentecostal, Church of God, the Holiness, and all--together. And then set together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus, with expectations that God will pour out His Spirit upon us and do the "exceedingly abundantly." Now... And then when we... To do that...

7 I've always made this statement. I... Everyone knows that I was a Missionary Baptist, and I'm a Missionary Baptist that received the Holy Ghost. So then in that, I do not believe that Pentecost is an organization. I believe Pentecost is an experience that whosoever will might come and receive. We cannot draw a fence around it, because it isn't, it spreads beyond our fences, you see.

So I believe that a person is saved--if he's a Methodist, Baptist, Catholic, or whatever he may be--if he's solemnly trusting Jesus Christ for His grace. But if he's a Catholic and believing the church saves him, then he's lost. If he's a pentecost and believes that the church saves him, he's lost. But no matter what he is, what church he goes to, if he, if solemnly depending on the blood and merits of Jesus Christ, he's saved, I don't care what church he's in. For it's by faith are we saved, that by grace.

8 I used to herd cattle, driving them up on the roundups up in Colorado. Over the Troublesome River valley, the Hereford Association grazes that valley. (I suppose that you have the same laws here, and to get the brand, the card, the Chamber of Commerce and so forth.) And if you can raise a ton of hay on your farm, well, then you can send your cattle in for (one cow per ton of hay the ranch will produce) for the grazing rights in the forest.

They have a large drift fence where we go up the Troublesome River--the west fork, the east fork, of the Troublesome River. And many times I've set there of a morning in the spring roundup, sending the cattle up, put my leg across the horn of the saddle, and watching the ranger standing there, watching those cows go through. One day setting there, I thought, "This is the way it'll be in heaven when we come to the great gate."

I noticed going through there, there was about fifteen or sixteen different brands of cattle that goes in there. Some of them is the diamond bar, that's Mr. Grimes up on the ranch; Mr. Jefferies, the turkey track; and different brands. The ranger wasn't noticing the brands so much. He wasn't paying attention to that; but he was watching for the blood tag in the ear, 'cause you cannot put a cow on that pasture unless it's a thoroughbred Hereford. And that's what they want to understand, that they're thoroughbred, had to have a blood test.

I thought, "That's exactly what it'll be at the day of the judgment. He won't notice what brand I'm wearing, whether I'm Baptist or Pentecostal or Presbyterian, but He will watch for the blood--the blood tag. 'When I see the blood, I'll pass over you.'" We enter in by what we are; not who we are.

9 Now, when we come down to the service tonight... about what time does the service start, Reverend? Seven forty-five. Then about 6:30, I suppose, between 6:00 and 6:30 I'll have some of them come down to give out the prayer cards to the people--a little bit before that the service, so they won't interfere with the service as it goes into session. And let the sick people get up here in front so I can be close to them. And then there'll be a prayer card. The boy will come down and bring so many cards, and mix them all up here before you, and then just give each one a prayer card (See?), that you want. Each one wants a prayer card, you can have it.

Therefore, the reason we do it that way... It used to be we'd send in a meeting so... Each pastor was cooperating, we'd send him a hundred cards for his congregation. Well, the first one got his group in, that settled it. The rest of them didn't get in, 'cause, maybe being there just about three nights, I couldn't get that many people through the line. Then we found out that wouldn't work.

So then, I got some a minister to go with me to give out prayer cards, and he belonged to an organization; and when he wouldn't show a little favor to his own organization, well, then that got kind of touchy.

10 So then, I usually call ten or fifteen people to the platform to begin with. Well, if they didn't have prayer card number one up to fifteen, why, they'd just throw it on the floor. They didn't want it, 'cause they wouldn't be called. So we found out that wouldn't work.

Then I'd take a child, like one of those little boys, and I'd say, "You come up here, sonny (or a little girl, like, setting on the mother's lap)."

I'd say, "Can you count?"

"Yes, sir."

"Then you start counting."

We'd start, "three, four, five, six," up to wherever he stopped; I'd start from right there.

Well, believe it or not, we've still got human beings; mother knowed where to tell Junior to stop at for her card. So we found out that wouldn't work.

So then, then we got a man in the prayer line, or up one time, selling prayer cards to get the people to be the first ones on the platform. So that wouldn't work.

So one night the Lord revealed to me to let the man come down to give out the prayer cards, and stand before the audience and mix them all up. Then this one might get number one, this one thirty-five, and that one sixty-two, and the next to it. They'd all be mixed up. And then that would show that the man was giving out the prayer cards wasn't the one that put them up here, 'cause he didn't know. They was all mixed up.

11 Then, however, when I'd come down to the meeting, well, sometimes I'd start on number one, sometimes on twenty-five and fifty. Sometimes I'd take how many was setting on this seat (to myself, while I'm speaking), and multiply it by this on this side. Oh, just any way. That way it leaves it sovereign to the entire congregation. And by the way there's about fifty-to-one healed in the audience that's healed on the platform.

The message is not to try to heal somebody, because healing is something that's already been purchased. Salvation's been purchased. You just didn't get saved last week, or last year, or five years ago. You got saved when Jesus died for you at Calvary. That was your salvation. And now, you just accepted it two weeks ago, or two years ago, whatever it was. And that's the way it was healed. "He was wounded for our transgressions, with His stripes we were (past tense) healed." So it's only to get the people to see, to realize, that the Presence of Christ is close. That's what brings the results of thousands of people being healed.

12 Now, just before we approach the Word, let's approach the Author first in a little word of prayer while we bow our heads.

Our gracious heavenly Father, we are approaching Thy holiness this morning in the all-sufficient name of Jesus Christ, Thy Son, because we've been taught by Him in the Word that if we ask the Father anything in His name it will be granted. We have no other name that we can rest assured that He will hear us, only by that all-sufficient name of the Lord Jesus.

We thank Thee first, Father, for what You already have done for us--the many blessing, the manifold grace that Thou hast bestowed upon us. Then we thank Thee for the grace that we have this morning to stand in this new church, that's a memorial built here in the city, erected here for the glory of God, that wayward sinners might come in and be saved; that the sick that's past the doctor's position of the earth, past their understanding, that still can come to the higher powers, the Almighty, and be healed. Oh, how we ever love Thee, Father. How we thank Thee for these.

And we are privileged people to... thinking of the Russians this morning with the big Sputnik up in the skies with a man setting in it, and hear his heart beat all the way to the earth. How close the end-time is here! It... come right over the nation and it's "Surrender or perish!" O God! Think what it would be if they'd ever go to throwing those atomic missiles. The old earth would rock out into space, and time should be no more.

But we're taught in the blessed Word, before this ever happens the church is going home to be with her Lord. Oh, how Noah got in the ark before the rain fell, Lot was called out of Sodom before the fire fell. Lord, we believe the church will be caught up out of the earth before the great destruction comes. We're so happy to know that we're nearing that time.

And, Father, as we look this morning and know that it could happen before night, this nation, or world, could be blowed to bits. Some little nation or some fanatic let one of those missiles loose--and they're all aimed at one another--here it would go. But before it happens, God, the rapture, the trumpet will sound and we'll be summoned into the skies to meet our Lord. What type of people should we be this morning? Happy, lifting up our heads as we see the fig tree budding, and the great signs, and the science saying it's three minutes before midnight. Most any time it could strike.

13 Oh God, strike the church this morning, Lord, with Thy power and with Thy manifold wisdom. Strike it today, and let Thy great wings spread out up over this little building today; and take the children under there like a hen does her brood, and nourish the sick back to health, physically and spiritually. Grant it, Lord. Bless this church. Bless the purpose that it stands here, the cause that it represents: the pastor, the elders, the deacons, the trustees, and the laity, and all the strangers in our gates.

Not only to this church, but we pray that You'll bless every church throughout the land. And because of this little gathering today, may there start an old fashioned revival that'll sweep this Arizona from side to side. Grant it, Lord. We'll humbly bow our heads in Thy presence to give thanks, for we ask it in Jesus' name, Thy dear Son, our Saviour. Amen.

14 Now, not to preach, but just a little setting in order, preparing hearts for the event tonight, that we believe that our heavenly Father will meet with us. And then maybe at some convenient time, the Lord willing, we'd like to come back maybe for a more extended time, where we could get together, and get the brethren together. We're just on a visit.

But I would like to read from St. Luke, the second chapter and 25th verse, 26th verse:

And it was revealed unto him by the Holy Ghost, that he should not see death, until he had seen the Lord's Christ.

I'm going to use a subject of "Expectation." Expectations usually is based upon a faith. You have to have faith before you can expect anything. And now, like many of the servants of God in the Old Testament... Faith cometh by hearing, hearing of the Word.

15 And I've often quoted this, that God is obligated to His Word. I like to read just a word or two of It, because what I say will fail, because I'm man, but His Word cannot fail because it's God. What... God is ever called on the scene at any time to make a decision... And the first decision God makes has to be the same decision every time.

Now, there's where you must solemnly base your faith, on THUS SAITH THE LORD. You must believe it, that it's God's Word. And that's the only hope that we have, the only substantial hope that we have, is on the Word of God. And now, God being infinite, and cannot make a mistake, and He's perfect, therefore, all of His... all of His promises must be perfect as He is perfect. "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God... And the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us." the Word itself. So therefore, the Bible is the Word of God. It is God Himself placed upon paper.

For no man is any better than his word. If I can't take a man's word, I just can't have any dealings with him. He must be honest, he must be truthful, and especially as he professes to be a Christian.

16 Now, that's just a little short text, but it isn't how much it is. It's not the quality... or the quantity; it's the quality of the Word. It's what it is: It's God's Word.

Simeon here, of old, said that it was promised by the Holy Spirit that he would not see death until he seen the Lord's Christ. He had a right to expect it, because God had revealed it to him by the Holy Ghost. He had a reason to reveal it.

17 Now, we find out that Abraham of old, when he was seventy-five years old and his wife sixty-five (Sarah), how that God spoke to him and revealed to him that he was going to have a baby by Sarah, his wife. He was sterile and she was barren. And they'd been this way all their lives, but yet God told him that he was going to have a child by Sarah.

And He asked him to separate himself because of this promise. And that's the way we have to do. When we take God at His Word, we have to separate ourselves from all things around that's contrary to that Word. You can't go to people and say, "Now, do you think I got my healing? You think...?" Nothing what they think--that has nothing to do into it. It's what you think. It's up to you. So he was asked to separate himself, and he did so with great expectations of receiving the child.

18 Now, we find out that that child never arrived until twenty-five years later. But instead of growing weak because it never happened the first month, he grew stronger all the time, because his expectations was greater. If Sarah was one month older, it'd be one month greater in the expectations, because God kept His Word. It would be a lot better for her to have the child at a hundred years old than it was at sixty years old. See what I mean? It was a greater miracle all the time. And he never grew weak, but grew stronger all the time.

Now, we are the children of Abraham. The Bible said so. We, being dead in Christ, take on Abraham's seed, and are heirs according to the promise. We are heirs of the promise with Abraham, because Abraham was given the promise. Now, if we are his heirs with Abraham, then we are Abraham's children. And the same faith that Abraham had we have ourselves, that when God makes a promise, just know it's going to happen. It can't do anything else.

19 Could you imagine Abraham going out...? Just say he did, him and Sarah. He was seventy-five and her sixty-five. That's about fifteen, twenty years past menopause. And it was his half sister. He's lived with her since she was first married to him--probably sixteen or seventeen years old--and no children. And God appeared to him and told him she was going to have a baby. Now, Abraham expected that to happen, because God said so.

I could imagine... Could you imagine a old man seventy years old, and a woman sixty-five, going down to see the doctor to make arrangements with the hospital to have the baby? What would people say to them? What would the doctor say? "The old fellow is... something wrong mentally. There's something wrong with that old fellow." Well, every man or woman that takes God by faith, and accepts His promises, is considered by this world some kind of a crank or a fanatic, because the things of this world is so foolish to God. What the man calls great, God calls foolish. Now, but Abraham believed it.

Now, the first twenty-eight days after... (her being about fifteen, twenty years past menopause), "How you feeling, Honey?"

"There's no difference."

"Well, praise God, we're going to have the baby anyhow."

20 It was so much expectation perhaps Sarah knitted some little booties, and a little blanket, and... Why? She was expecting something to happen. That's the reason it happened. Year by year passed on, and Abraham got stronger and stronger, giving praise to God. And finally it happened, because he expected it to happen.

After she was ninety years old... or, he was ninety. "What do you think about it now, Abraham? About give up?"

"No, sir, we're going to have the baby anyhow. We done got the clothes laid back, and got everything ready."

"How long you had them?"

"Twenty-five years, but God will send the baby anyhow."

I like that. See, it's positive. God said so, and that settles it. When God ever makes a decision, He has to make it eternal. Now, I can make a decision, and five minutes have to go back and make another one, 'cause I was mistaken in that one. You can too, because we're finite. But God, being infinite, cannot make a mistake. He's the infallible, omnipotent, omnipresent, infinite God. Amen. When His decision is made, it's settled forever. He can't come back and say, "I was wrong." He cannot do it.

21 And if God made a decision in the beginning that on faith, if we believed His Word, He would make every promise come true, then God still is the infinite God to His promises. Cannot fail. It must be that way. It's positive. You have to hit the spot if you'll take His Word, believe it.

Now, if He'd have said... Well, like churches say that, not... some ministers say that the days of miracles is past; God doesn't heal the people any more. If God was ever called on the scene to a sick man and healed him upon the basis of his faith, if another sick man comes to Him, He's got to do the same thing, or He acted wrong when He healed the first man.

If He give the one the Holy Ghost that obeyed Him, in the Bible, exactly as He promised there in Acts... He said, "The promise is unto you and your children, them that are afar off, even as many as the Lord our God shall call." If a man meets those qualifications, God's obligated by His Word to fill him with the Holy Ghost. Because if He didn't, then He made a mistake. And if God made a mistake, He's a man and not a, and not God, then He's finite, like we are. So you see, as Abraham's children we take God's promise and just hold onto it. No matter what takes place, we hold right there just the same, because God said so and that settles it.

22 Now, you can't bluff it; you've got to have it. You just can't bluff it. It won't bluff. Satan's not a... He knows whether you're bluffing or not. But when you're not bluffing, he knows it also. When something anchors down in your heart that you know that it's so, then something's going to happen.

Abraham believed that. He believed God. He took God at His Word. And under expectations, he waited twenty-five years with that expectation getting greater and greater. And finally the baby was born, because he was expecting it.

He separated himself. And if you'll notice what it waited for... God told him to separate himself from all of his kindred, and God never did bless him any more till he obeyed Him fully. As long as his father hung along, why, the old fellow caused trouble. And then he got with Lot, and then Lot caused trouble. And all... until he separated himself and got away from all the unbelief, shook away from him. Then God came down and talked to him, and something happened.

23 And when we get all the little disbelieving spirits away from us, and just take God at His Word... "I don't care what So-and-so said, or so-and-so said, God's made the promise. I stand right there." Then God will go to answering.

But remember, He blessed him, and He kept him, and so forth, or fed him, and led him from place to place; but He never fully blessed him and give him the promise until he completely separated himself from every little thing of the world. Let his nephew go on down to Sodom if he wanted to, and the rest of them so-and-so. His father died. And then God told him, "Rise and look to the land. I give it all to you. Look east, north, west, and south." I think that's the way. If a church, a people, ever comes to a place where they completely separate themselves from the things of the world, then you can look through every promise in the Bible. It's all yours.

It's like a great big arcade. By one Spirit we're baptized into an arcade. Some people just come into the arcade by the Holy Ghost baptism, say, "Well, thank the Lord, I got in. Thank the Lord, I'm here."

That isn't it. To me... what did God say to Abraham? "Get up and look all through the land. It all belongs to you." That's the way, when I come into Christ, I wanted to look around. Not just know He saved me, but what else have I got in there? If somebody give me a big arcade and I went into it, I'd like to examine the thing, see what I got. That's the way with Christians today. They fail to examine the promises of God and see they're to "whosoever will, let him come." I found something a little high, I'd get me a stepladder and get up to it, look on the shelves and see what belongs to me.

24 You Christians sometimes don't examine, find out what belongs to you. Healing's yours, salvation's yours, joy is yours, peace... every promise in the Bible is yours. When a man's filled with the Holy Spirit, God gives him a checkbook with Jesus' name wrote on the bottom of it. Send it in. Don't be afraid to write it out. Send it in, and He will send down His bountiful blessings upon you of what He promised.

Moses had done give up hopes. He was back on the back side of the desert herding his father-in-law's, Jethro's sheep, when one morning, back on the back side of the desert, he saw a bush burning. He got in the presence of this bush. Though Moses was a theologian, because he was trained in the wisdom and all the learning of the Egyptians (been told by his mother that he was called for a purpose) and all of his theological experience became nothing to him.

I'm not downing theological experiences. But I am saying it'll never take the place of that experience you meet when you meet God. Something happens. He becomes a new creature. Sometimes it makes you do things funny to the world.

25 I could imagine Moses the next morning (with Zipporah setting on the mule with little Gershom on her hip), going down to take over down in Egypt--an old dry stick in his hand for a walking cane, the whiskers blowing both ways... And, "Where you going, Moses?"

"Going down to Egypt to take over." A one-man invasion. It's like one man going to Russia to take over. An old man a hundred years old, his wife setting on the mule with the baby, going down to take over. But the thing of it was, he did it, because that God made the promise, and Moses was expecting God to keep His promise.

26 He--he--he slew the Egyptians. He went out there one time and slew one out of the will of God, and it was a stain on his hands; come down the next time and slew the whole nation, it was a glory on his hands. Because one time Moses was doing it, and the next time God did it. That makes the difference. He was expecting God to deliver them, because "I've heard their cries; I've seen their affliction and I (personal pronoun) have come down to deliver them, and I'm sending you, Moses, in My place." That did it.

He's seen your suffering. He's seen the doctor say, "I can't do no more about it." He's come down in the form of the Holy Spirit to take over, if you'll just let Him do it. Be expecting Him to do it, know that He promised to do it, hold on to His Word. He said He would do it, therefore be expecting it.

27 Simeon, a man of great reputation--Simeon was an old sage, and he was a... had a great reputation among the people (if you ever read into his history); and he was an honorable man. And could you imagine an old man there, nearly about eighty-something years old, going around saying, "Well, you know I'm not going to die until I see the Lord's Christ."

I can imagine some of the rabbis saying, "You know, the poor old fellow, it's pitiful. Why, the old man is a little off at his head. Why, we've been looking for four thousand years for the Messiah. Since Eden has our people looked for the Messiah; and here we are in Roman captivity. All circumstances is closed... all the evidence that these things are going to happen is closed away from us; we're in bondage. We're not even a nation no more;. we're broke up the way we are under the Roman government. And here this old man with one foot in the grave and the other one leaning, and yet he says he's going to see the Lord's Christ. Oh..." they'd say, "my, that'll never happen."

28 But Simeon knew that it was going to happen. I can imagine some of the young rabbis saying, "Well, just let the old fellow alone. He's harmless; he won't hurt nobody. But he's going around here testifying to everybody he's going to do this, and going to do that, and he's going to live to see the Messiah coming, and all like that."

"Well, Simeon, what's your reason? Why do you say such a thing as that? What makes you say...? When David looked for Him, when Elijah looked for Him, and the prophets of old, and we've looked for Him through every age... And now the days of miracles is past and everything's darkened out. Four hundred years since we had a prophet, Malachi; and here you are, you're coming saying you're not going to die until you see the Messiah. How do you know that's going to be true?"

"For it was revealed to me by the Holy Ghost."

There's his foundation. That must be your foundation. That must be my foundation. When the Holy Spirit reveals it to us and it's according to the Word, there's nothing going to stop it--when it's revealed to you by the Holy Spirit, and you look here and it's a promise in the Word.

29 Now, divine healing is a promise in the Word. Now, if the Holy Spirit will reveal it to you, that He has died to heal you the same as save you, then come with expectations to receive it, and God will certainly see that you get it.

Now, you might... The doctor might say, "Now well, let them alone. It won't hurt them, I guess. They're just going to die anyhow."

But you just remember, if God made the promise, you stay on it no matter what the circumstances is. If you say, "Well, I got cancer." "I got TB"--that doesn't have one thing to do with it. If God has revealed it, God keeps His promise, that's all.

30 Often think about Jonah. Thinking of symptoms, people look at their symptoms. Jonah had a real case of symptoms. He was in the whale's belly with his hands and feet tied, and was down in the whale's belly in all the vomit, and down in the bottom of the sea, on a stormy sea. Now, he had some symptoms. If he looked this way, it was whale's belly; that way it was whale's belly; everywhere he looked was a whale's belly. Now, there's nobody here in that bad a shape, I'm sure.

But do you know what he said? He said, "They are lying vanities. I won't believe them." What did he say? "Once more will I look to Your holy temple."

For he knew that when that temple was dedicated, the day that Solomon dedicated the temple, he prayed, and he said, "Lord, if Thy people be in trouble anywhere and will look towards this holy temple, then hear from heaven." And he knowed that God heard that man's prayer.

And you know what God did? He kept him alive down there for three days and nights, took him on over to Nineveh. Probably taken the fish that long to swim through the water to get him over there. But he stayed in the belly of the whale three days and three nights. He was expecting God to do something, because he had met the requirement. God had made the promise and he believed it.

31 And if Jonah, under those circumstances could get a miracle work like that from God, because it was according to the Word, it was according to his faith... And if he could do that under those circumstances, how much more this morning can we be healed, when we don't look at a temple made with hands. Solomon finally backslid. His wives drawed him away from God.

But we look to the right hand of God where Jesus sets with His own blood, ever alive to make intercessions upon our confession. How much more can we call any kind of disease "a lying vanity. I don't believe it. 'He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities, the chastisement of our peace was upon Him and with His stripes we were healed.' Then, Satan, take your course, get out of here," see. "I believe God. I'm expecting it to happen." There you are.

If it don't happen right now, it'll happen after a while. If it don't happen today, it'll happen tomorrow. If it don't tomorrow, it'll be next week. Whatever, it's going to happen anyhow. God said so. There you are. Now, you're getting down to where you have faith. Be expecting it. What God said He would do, God will do. He cannot lie.

32 So Simeon... of a great reputation... Don't make any difference about reputation. That's what... too much is getting to our churches today, even to our Pentecostal churches. Too much fashions, too much rep... stuff, like we have great reputations, you know, in the society, and things. What we need is an old fashioned, backwoods, sky blue, sin killing religion. What we need is gun-barrel straight, something that'll preach the gospel without compromise, and let the chips fall wherever they wish to, and chop into it. We need men of God, stand with power, get the church back into the place where it ought to be.

Something's wrong. We realize that. We all know it. We're aware of it. Our churches is falling away, getting weak. What we need is not a new organization to spring up, what we need is not another latter rain; what we need is back to faith in God's Word and God's Bible. A soul-shaking experience back in the church, that's what we need. A cleanup, a straighten-up, all through our churches and our organizations. Quit drawing those boundary lines, just this and that.

33 A certain organization the other day, because that I let another minister set on the platform that didn't belong to their organization, he said, "We have drawed a line. We have drawed you out of it, Brother Branham, out of, out of our circle."

I said, "I'm drawing another one, so big... take you back in again." I said, "So you just can't push me out." That's right. "I'll draw a line right over the top of yours and take you right back." See?

That's for... We are brethren. "We are not divided; all one body are we." Right. We're Christians, borned of His Spirit, washed in His Blood. We are Christians. We should act like Christians; we should behave ourselves like Christians, men and women. Let me tell you that that's one thing the church is lacking today, is behaving itself like Christians. We go around and act like dead flies. It's terrible. No faith--not enough, if it was ink, to dot an "i." We just strictly have lost something. What we ought to do is have our shoulders back.

34 Years ago they used to sell slaves on the slave markets here in the south, especially down in Georgia, and so forth, when... And they would go overseas in Africa, and the Boers would bring back the slaves. Bring them out there on Jamaica, and ship them into Florida, and sell them--human lives. That was wrong. God made man, and man made slaves. No person is to be a slave. We're free in Christ. We ain't no nation's slave, no organization's slave. We are men and women of God. Reach out our arms to every fallen brother, no matter where he's at. There's room for us all. So when we come to a place...

They'd go around, buy these slaves at the different plantations. They'd get a bill of sales, just like would a used car on a car lot somewhere. So they'd go around and buy these slaves. They'd take a...

I read of Abraham Lincoln, a great southerner. He got off the boat there in New Orleans, and seen them in a slave pit there auctioning off a big man--great big sturdy Negro. And his poor little wife standing out there with two babies, crying, for they was going to sell him to breed him to bigger healthier women to make bigger slaves. Abraham Lincoln pitched his fist like that, and said, "That's wrong. Someday I'll hit it, if it takes my life." It did, but he hit it. He broke it, too.

35 Let me tell you, brother, unbelief is of the devil. Let me hit it, Lord. I don't care if it costs my life. Let me break that thing from over the church, those boundaries, and so forth--that we can see we're by one Spirit we're all baptized into one body, and we're Christians. We are brethren. No matter if a man belongs to the Church of God and I belong to the Assemblies, and this one's Baptist, or Presbyterian; we are brothers, what we are, we are brothers in Christ. Let's break it. Break these boundaries down. We can reach out our arms to every brother.

Here some time ago, they said, "Brother Branham, if you'll just join our organization..."

I said, "No, I'm with your organization, but I tell you what I'm going to do, I'll reach out my arms on both sides for everyone." That's... We're all one in Christ.

36 One day this broker came by a plantation home. He said, "How many slaves do you have.?"

He said, "Over a hundred."

Said, "I'd like to look them over."

"All right." They were all working, and they were... they was downhearted. They'd get to a place where they'd know that they'd never be back in the homeland again, and never see Papa and Mama, and never see the children any more, and so forth, and they, they were very melancholy. And they'd take whips and whip them to make them work; make them pull and work, whatever they had to do.

One day when this slave buyer came by, he noticed how he was whipping those slaves, making them work--all but one young man. They didn't have to whip him. Shoulders back, chin up; he was right out at it any moment.

And the broker said, "I'd like to buy that fellow."

"Oh," said the owner, "he's not for sale. Can't sell him."

"Well," he said, "I noticed you don't have to correct him."

Said, "No."

Said, "What's the matter?" Said, "Is he the boss over them all?"

Said, "No, he's a slave.

Said, "Maybe you feed him different than you do the other slaves."

Said, "No, they all eat in the galley together, just a slave."

"Well," said, "What makes him so much different from the rest of them?"

He said, "I wondered too, till I found out one day that over in the homeland where he come from, Africa, his father is the king of the tribe. And though he's an alien, yet he knows he's the son of a king, and he conducts himself like one."

Oh, God! We are the sons and daughters of God, the son of the King of heaven. How shall we conduct ourselves then? Little old weakly... pushed back? No, sir.

"My Father is rich with houses and lands,

He holdeth the wealth of the world in His hands.

Of rubies and diamonds and silver and gold,

His coffers are full, He has riches untold."

For we are a child of the King, let's conduct ourselves...

37 Women, don't be like the world. Don't dress like the world. Don't be these modern things, and all this stuff that they're doing. Keep away from it. You're a daughter of the King. Gentlemen, you brethren, you don't have to be beat down and pushed off to the corner. You're sons of the King. Yes, stand up throw your chest out, meet it. Certainly it is...

We're expecting God to do something for us. He can't do nothing for us when we're just all drooping around like something about half dead. He wants a lively church. He wants the members in there to be lively stones built up into a house of faith. Believe Him, accept Him, taking His Word.

Now, you say, "Well, I have a great reputation, Brother Branham. I'm a businessman. I play cards at my society." I don't care what you have, brother, there's not a greater society in the world than the society of Jesus Christ.

And you'll never join into it. You say, "Well, I'm a member of a church." There's only one church, only one way, one gate--that's Jesus Christ. He that enters any other way is the same as a thief and a robber. And by one Spirit we're all baptized into that body. Right, and we're brethren. Yes, sir. And we are sons and daughters of the King. We ought to conduct ourselves. Our reputations is nothing on the earth, but it wants to be in heaven where we want our, our stand to be, before God.

38 Now, we find... take Simeon on down... (I see I got about five more minutes.) Let's bring him down a little farther. We find out that Simeon had a good reason for what he was doing, because the Holy Spirit had revealed to him that he was not going to see death. No matter what, how old he was, or nothing about it, how many others had failed in trying to see Him, but he himself as an individual was going to see the Lord's Christ.

Oh, brother, sister, if you could get the Holy Spirit to reveal to you now, "I'm the one's going to be healed. Yes, sir. I don't know what the rest of them are going to do, but it's going to be my time. This is the hour of my healing."

"This is the time I'm going to receive the Holy Spirit. God has revealed it to me. I'm going to receive it." Different--something will happen.

39 Like the deep calling to the deep. "The noise of Thy waterspouts," said David. In other words, if there's a deep in here calling, there's got to be a deep out there to respond to that call. In other words... How many believes that you'd like to have a closer walk with God? Raise up your hand. All right. How many believes that God's a Healer? Raise up your hand. Sure. Well, now, if you've got something in you telling you that, there's got to be something out there to respond to that crave.

Here, like this: before there was ever a fin on a fish's back, there had to be a water first for him to swim in, or he wouldn't have had no fin. Before there was a tree to grow in the earth, there had to be a earth first, or there wouldn't have been no, no tree to grow in it.

Here some time ago... I was just thinking (I quoted this recently) that a little boy in our city, he was... eat all the erasers off his pencil at school. And the teacher wrote his mother. And his mother one day, found him out on the back porch, eating the pedal off of a bicycle. So, it was rubber. And so they taken him down to the laboratory to examine the little fellow to find out what was wrong. And the doctor found out his little body needed sulfur. Now, you find sulfur in rubber. Now watch... As long as there was a crave in there for sulfur, there had to be a sulfur first... Oh brother, do you see what I mean. There has to be a sulfur out there first before there can be a crave in here. You see it?

40 That's the reason there's more of God for you. That's the reason there's divine healing for you, because you're seeking for it. That's the reason there was a God whose... Abraham was seeking after, whose Builder and Maker was God. He was expecting it, because God had made the promise. Do you see it?

Here... Before there can be a creation, there has to be a Creator to create the creation. And as long as you feel that you're believing in divine healing, there's a fountain open somewhere. As long as you're believing that there's a God that'll fill you with the Holy Spirit, there's a fountain open somewhere or you'd never crave it. Others... Many others don't crave it (See?), because it's not revealed to them. But it's revealed to you. Why? By what? (I feel pretty religious right now.) See? What is it? It's revealed to you by the Holy Spirit, the same Holy Spirit that revealed it to Simeon.

And as long as He's revealed it, there's a fountain open somewhere. Oh, if we could just see it! The fountain is open somewhere, for it's revealed to you by the Holy Spirit, God is a Healer. Where is that fountain at? God fills with the Holy Ghost. Where is that fountain? See there's a fountain now, or you wouldn't have that craving in your heart. So it... It just makes you lose all your thoughts of anything else, because it overrides everything. It fills your uttermost being with believing it. Now, there's not two Holy Spirits. There's only one Holy Spirit, and the same Holy Spirit that revealed it to Simeon has revealed it to you; revealed by the Holy Spirit.

41 There is a fountain filled with blood,

Drawn from Emmanuel's veins.

Sinners plunged beneath the flood,

Lose all their guilty stains.

That's for every sinner. Peter said on the day of Pentecost there, said, "Repent, every one of you, and be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of your sins, and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost. For the promise..." Oh, my! How can you take it back and put it in some historical thing? "The promise is unto you, to your children, to them that's far off, even as many as the Lord our God shall call."

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

[Blank.spot.on.tape--Ed.]...?... Pentecostal blessings, the power of God trying to take His church. He doesn't fail. He doesn't diminish. He's just as bright and fresh today as He ever was, and always will be. He's eternal. Oh, yes.

42 Sons of God are led by the Spirit of God. (David duPlessis once said about that... about sons of God)... Sons of God are led by the Spirit of God. You all believe that, don't you? Children of God are led by the Spirit of God. Now, the trouble of it is, the church today... (He said, "We got too many grandsons.") But God don't have any grandchildren.

43 Now, you Methodists, pick up just a minute. I want to take your coat down. If we still had Methodist sons and daughters of God it would be fine. If we have Baptist sons and daughters of God, it's fine--Lutheran, Nazarene, Pilgrim Holiness or Pentecost. But just as the rest of them did, so are we in the Pentecostals. We're taking our children and bringing them into the church, because we was in there, making them members of the Pentecostal church.

That's grandchildren! God don't have grandchildren! That same son or daughter must pay the same price we did, and receive the Holy Ghost the same as we do. There's no grandchildren. God don't take them in like that. There are sons and daughters. There's no grandchildren. God don't have any. No such a thing with God. Well, say, "I belong to the Methodist church. My mother belonged there." That's a grandchild! God don't have it! You're a grandchild to the Methodist church, you're a grandchild to the Pentecostal church, but God don't have any grandchildren. Every man and woman has to be born again individually, sons and daughters of God. That's what makes them full of Spirit and full of life.

44 Coming springtime. After a while all the little birdies down here get out in them cactus tops and bushes out there, build them a nest. An old mother bird can build her a nice little nest and make it so cozy for her babies, lay a nest full of eggs. And she can set there on those eggs and so loyal and turn them just so much, and get so hungry, and she'll starve herself, till she's so poor she can't fly off the nest. If that mother bird hasn't been with the mate, them eggs will never hatch. Right. They're not fertile. The blood stream comes from the male sex--the hemoglobin. That's true. The woman only produces the egg (the female), but the male is where the fertile comes.

That's what's the matter with the churches today. Our Pentecostal people... (Not saying nothing against this wonderful church and your wonderful pastor. I met him, I know what he believes.) But today we get bigger churches than we ever had and our faith's getting lower. What's the matter? See, we're bringing in members, grandchildren.

What we need brother... Not that old bird, as I say, she could sit on there, that nest, until she was so poor she couldn't fly from it. But if she hasn't been with the mate, what will them eggs do? They'll lay right there and rot. You know that by your chickens. They'll lay there and rot.

45 There's only one thing to do, brother--clean out the nest. That's right. That's what our Pentecostal movements need today is a nest-cleaning time. Get the rotten eggs out of the nest. Bringing in members, and making them deacons and so forth, and patting them on the back because they pay a little heavy in the church; know no more about God than a Hottentot does about an Egyptian night. That's right. What we need is a borned-again experience, with back to the baptism of the Holy Ghost, with real genuine Pentecostal faith in God, exercised in our church. That brings something that you're led by the Holy Spirit. When the Word speaks, you say "amen" to it, and you believe it.

46 Simeon moved by that Holy Spirit, and there he had the Promise.

Now, in closing I might say this. Let's say comes a time... News didn't travel then like it did. Look at little Mary. She was expecting too, a virgin. She was--she never knew a man, but the Holy Ghost met her and said, "That holy Thing that will born to you will be, will be of the Holy Spirit. God's going to be Father of this Son."

Well, she expected God to keep His Word. She didn't go around saying, "Now, wait. I'll see... till I feel life, then I'll go to testifying."

No, no. It ain't what you feel. Jesus never did say, "Did you feel it?" He said, "Did you believe it?" You believe it.

Somebody say, "Well, I don't feel any different." That has nothing to do with it. It ain't talking about the outside hand and the outside body: He's talking about the inside that believes it. It controls the rest of it.

Said, "Did you believe it?"

Mary, as soon as the Angel told her, why, she said, "Behold, the handmaid of the Lord. Be it unto me according to Thy Word." She took right up in the hills of Judaea, testifying. Went and told Elisabeth, her cousin, that she was going to have a baby, not knowing any man. Why, Elisabeth was astonished, said... (And little John, you know, he was six months already, formed in his mother's womb, without life).

47 The great Angel appeared to Zacharias, and he doubted God's Word. He said, "You'll be dumb till the time the baby's born." (You know, God's able of these stones to rise children to Abraham. If you don't want to take it, somebody else will.) And he said... When he found out...

She give the salutation, she said, "Oh, the Holy Spirit will come upon me, and I'm going to conceive. And this holy Thing will be called the Son of God, and I shall call His name Jesus."

Now, little John was six months without moving. Anyone knows that's subnormal. Three to four months at the most, and then here's six months and he hadn't moved. But as soon as she heard that salutation in her ear from Mary, another one expecting, another one expecting, both of them...

And when Mary said... called the name of the Lord Jesus, the first time that Name was ever spoke in human lips, a little dead baby in the womb of its mother leaped for joy. And John received the Holy Ghost in his mothers' womb and begin leaping for joy. And if the first time the name of Jesus Christ was ever spoke in human lips made a dead baby leap in its mother's womb for joy, what ought it to do in a borned-again church, to get faith for power! I'm not excited! I know where I'm at. See? But I just get feeling good sometimes when I go to talking about those things. See? That's right, because it's true; that name of Jesus Christ has life; and when it's spoke with power and faith, there isn't nothing will stand in its presence. That's exactly right. Oh, sure, sons and daughters of God.

48 Now, let's say Simeon was setting back in his study. Maybe it's on Monday morning. All the priests are at their work. (And there was about two-and-a-half million Jews in Palestine at that time, so several babies was born overnight; on the eighth day the males had to be circumcised.) Let's think Simeon's setting back in his office. He's got the Word, he's looking all through it, like that. And he comes upon the scroll, perhaps over in Isaiah, Isaiah 6:9. "To us a son is born, a child is given," so forth. "His name shall be called Counselor, Prince of Peace, the mighty God, the everlasting Father." I can just imagine him setting there.

49 Now, all the time little Mary was on her road up there to have the baby circumcised. She comes into the prayer line, or whatever it might be--the line going up for circumcision. All the babies was dressed in nice little fine needlework, you know. And cute little fellows, and no teeth, you know, and I just love them. And see the little guys there, and mothers, sweet, with their little baby; but here He had... wrapped in His swaddling cloth. You know where they got it, off the yoke of an ox in the stall--and yet the very Creator of heavens and earth! And we put on a fifty-dollar suit and turn our nose up, like, if it would rain it would drown us, and our Saviour was born without even clothes to wrap Him in. "Foxes has dens, the birds of the air has nests, but the Son of man has not a place to lay His head." Who are we? How should we...?

"Well, I belong to the biggest church in this city." Oh, mercy, brother and sister, you feel like that you're getting away from God right then! "God has... He's obligated to me." He's obligated to nothing. You're obligated to Him. He's done His part. You got to believe just like the rest of them believed. You've got to come the same way they come.

50 I can see Simeon setting back there. And all at once now little Mary comes into the building. I can see all the other women keeping a distance. I guess you borned again people know what I mean. She was standing there. The women keep their distance, say, "See that woman there... she's had that baby out of holy wedlock. Her and Joseph was just married a couple months ago and she was already to be mother before it was born. She was to be mother before she was wed, rather. See? That's an illegitimate child. Look at her packing that illegitimate child in the temple of God. Keep away from her." (That's the way real believers... ) But Mary, holding that little Baby in her arms... Maybe it was in swaddling cloth with... off the yoke of an...?... ox's yoke in the stable. Maybe it was, but in her heart she knowed Whose Son that was.

That's the way with every believer. You know the doctor might say, "Oh, don't believe that fanaticism." Your mother might say it, your husband might say it, your wife might say it, but you know when something's been born in your heart. God's revealed it to you. You're expecting something to happen.

"Don't go down to that church. You don't need to go into there." It's all right. You'll come just the same if something's in there. See? "Oh, they're a bunch of holy rollers." That don't make any difference what you call them. It might be... their swaddling... might be pretty common, but anyhow I know what's wrapped in it. I know what's wrapped in Pentecostal swaddling. Yes, sir. I know we got everything in it, but yet there's... the Holy Spirit's wrapped in that, too. It's exactly.

Packing it in her arms like this... She didn't care what the rest of them... They all kept their distance. Whenever you get the Holy Ghost, you're marked. Everybody, they mark you. They know. They know it. Say, "Ah, she's one of them people speaks in tongues; she goes to that Pentecostal group. Stay away from her. Don't invite her over to the card party." Don't worry, if she's got the Holy Ghost she wouldn't go anyhow. So, so...?... So there you are...?...

51 After while, we see along there in the other room, kind of snickering and laughing, you know, "See, that's her. That's one of them. See? That's her." She knowed. That's all right, she was paying attention to her Baby. She knew Who it was. It meant more to her than all the societies and everything there was. All them that didn't believe, they didn't have to believe, but she knowed what she had. That's the way we are. We know what we have. We know what that promise is.

Now, here He is in the temple, first time--God in His temple in human form. God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself. Here He is, a teeny little Jehovah baby now, laying in the mother's arms. Just a little fellow like the rest of them, but there was a difference there. That...?... "Well, we go to church the same as you," but there's a difference there (See?), wherever you get the right place, the right thing.

Here she comes through the building. Now, if the Holy Spirit has revealed that to Simeon, it's up to the Holy Spirit to see that He carries His Word out. (A little drama here now.)

Simeon's over in the temple, over there praying. The first thing you know, what takes place? When he's reading that Scripture, the Holy Spirit says, "Stand up, Simeon!"

Not, "Where do you want me to go? What do you want me to do?" That's none of the business; do what He told you. Stand up. Here he comes.

"Start walking."

"Where am I going?"

"It don't make any difference, just keep walking." Walk! Do you believe sons and daughters of God are led by the Spirit of God? Here they start walking.

"Where am I going?"

"It don't make any difference, just keep walking."

Walked out... They see old Simeon come out before the audience, looked all up and down there. "Where am I going, Father?"

"Just go over here to this little line of women, down along there," (a couple of hundred of them).

Here he comes right down. "Wonder what's the matter?" He's packing this scroll, Isaiah--book, scroll--Isaiah 9:6. Got his finger on it, perhaps. (The Holy Spirit does some strange things. Do you believe that, brethren? Strange things.) Here he comes walking down. The first thing you know he comes right exactly where this little woman was.

52 Now you see, they didn't have television in them days, didn't have a radio and press--just lip to ear. And this had never got out this Baby was born. See? He was just... Well, it was odd anyhow. Nobody'd put it in any paper. If it'd been today it happened, they'd never put it in the paper, unless they wanted to scandalize or something.

So here, come down, and Simeon stopped right there before her. And when he looked over there... See, it was revealed to him by the Holy Spirit that he would not see death until he found the Lord's Christ. And the very thing that the people were making fun of, the Holy Spirit led him right to it. Don't you believe He led you this morning the same way? The same thing? Same Holy Spirit? Led him right here. He was expecting to see this Christ, and there he walked down; and as soon as he saw it, he recognized it.

53 Now you come tonight. You come; just set down if you're skeptic. Set down, get you a seat. Just watch for a few minutes. Are you expecting to see Him come on the scene tonight? I am. See? I'm expecting it. He will do it, if you expect it.

And as soon as he found It... found the Baby, he reached over in the mother's arms and took the Baby, and embraced It against his own heart, and said, "Lord, now let Thy servant depart in peace, according to Thy Word, for my eyes have seen Thy salvation." Oh, my! Led by the Holy Spirit!

Now, keep these words in your heart, and watch tonight to see God's salvation. (I'm going to stop in a moment.) You keep that on your mind; let the Holy Spirit lead you tonight to see God's salvation. He promised He'd do it in the last days. See if He does! See? Expecting--today have great expectations, like he did.

54 And there was another one in that day was expecting. (I'll get her in just as we close.) Her name was Anna. She was a prophetess. She was in the temple, blind. But she could see beyond the walls of that temple.

I hope that every separate organization today can see beyond the walls of your organization. It's all right, your organization, but see beyond the walls of it. See?

As blind Anna set there, all at once... She was looking also for the consolation of Israel, but she was blind. The Holy Spirit must have said to her, "Stand up, Anna!" She stood up. Here she comes, winding her way, led by the Holy Ghost, around through the people. How did she do it? She'd been expecting it, and the Holy Spirit was leading her. That old blind woman, leading along through the people, coming along. (Here was Simeon with tears running off of his snowy white beard. "Lord, let Thy servant depart in peace.")

I wonder what the snickering crowd thought then. See? What was this great carry-on? "Well," they said, "there's old Anna; she's blind. And there's Simeon; he's old and kind of half-off at his head."

But they were standing at the right place. No matter what condition they were in, they were standing at the right place. That's where I want to stand. God, let me stand at the right place!

And here she come winding her way through there. Now, if the Holy Spirit could wind that old blind woman around all those people to get to Him, how much more can it wind you around these streets tonight?... Coming down to get to the spot where we believe that He will heal the sick, He will save the lost.

And here she comes. And as soon as she got there (she also found the spot) she lifted up her hands and blessed God and spoke of Him, and spoke of the thorn that would be in Mary's heart, and so forth, and prophesied. See, she was a prophetess, and the Spirit of God was upon her. And God led that old blind woman through the crowds till she got to that spot, because she was expecting Him to come. I'm expecting Him. If you'll be expecting Him, God will meet our expectations.

55 A great musician, just here a few years ago, went to Russia. He was playing an overture, and he was playing just so greatly until the Russian people were screaming at the top of their voice. They stood up and they screamed, and they screamed, and applauded, for him to play just once more. And he, and he stood (now listen), and they... They screamed again, and they stomped, for him to play again this great overture.

And he... They noticed the boy. They said, "He must be beside himself. He's not noticing our applause. He's not noticing it. We're trying to call him back to play again." But they noticed he just stood like that, staring. So after while they turned to look. He wasn't paying any attention to the applauding of the people; but his old teacher, the old maestro, was setting up in the audience. He wanted to see what he said about it. He wanted to know whether he would applaud, or nod his head--it was well done. He didn't care what the people said; he wanted to see what he said.

And if the people tells you that the days of miracles is past, Jesus Christ is not the same yesterday, today, and forever, don't notice what the people are saying, but look up to the Master Who wrote the Words. Keep your eyes turned up there. See, what He says about it. If divine healing's right, search His Word today, and come expecting tonight. Can we bow our heads just a moment?

56 Gracious Lord, I am thankful for this little audience that's set here now waiting. I pray that You'll sink some seeds into their hearts, that they'll come tonight with such expectations, till the lame will walk, the blind will see. May there not be one feeble person among us tonight. May all the heart trouble be healed, the cancers. And may Your Spirit just come down, and even in their homes this afternoon may they be healed before they even get to the church. We're expecting, Lord, great things.

So guide the people into the house of God tonight. Guide the sinner, that wayward boy, mother's darling baby that she's brushed his tears away, and there he lays on the barroom floor today; that wayward daughter, out all night. May the Holy Spirit speak and guide their feet to the house of God and then to the altar tonight to find Christ, their Saviour. And may we, as Simeon of old, with arms of faith, embrace the precious Lord Jesus in our hearts tonight, and make our heart the cradle. Let our experience with Him be as a swaddling that'll make us live different from now on.

Bless our little brother pastor here, and these other ministers, and whoever there is in the church, Lord, today. Bless... trusting that You'd give every church a great service today. May it be a day we'll never forget. Keep us strong now to serve You. Bless the people as they go to their homes. We ask in Jesus Christ's name. Amen.

57 As I turn the service to the pastor, sorry to keep you overtime. I know you leave at twelve and it's quarter after. But that's kind of mild for me. Sometimes when I get... I don't know when to stop, it feels so good. So sometimes I'm in here two or three hours like that. So I just love it, when a nice responding audience like this... I'm coming with expectations tonight that God will do great, marvelous things for us. Till then, God ever be with you, as I turn the service back to your pastor, and thanks a million for listening, all of you.