Čudák
Viete, že kazatelia dnes nedokážu posúdiť, čo je správne, či Slovo Božie, alebo denominačná cirkev? Nevedia, ktorou cestou majú ísť. Nedokážu rozsúdiť, čo je správne a čo nesprávne. „Viem, že Biblia to hovorí, ale naša cirkev hovorí...“ Vidíte, ľudia nie sú schopní rozoznať správne od nesprávneho. A čokoľvek, čo je v protiklade s Bibliou, je nesprávne. Božie Slovo je Pravda a každé ľudské slovo, ktoré je v protiklade s Ním, je klamstvo. A keď sa teraz snažíte stáť, v takomto čase, stáť za tým, čo je správne, stanete sa bláznom. Zoberme si zopár postáv.
Dokážem si predstaviť proroka Noeho v tom veľkom vedeckom dni, v ktorom žil; ten veľkolepý vedecký vek, v ktorom stavali pyramídy a sfingy, v ktorom mohli pomocou vedeckého výskumu dokázať, že tam v nebesiach nebola žiadna voda. Tu prichádza ten starý muž a hovorí, „Z nebies prichádza dážď.“ Noe bol pre tú generáciu bláznom. Stal sa bláznom.
Pomyslite na Mojžiša. Mojžiš, keď išiel dole ku faraónovi, ako sme o tom hovorili dnes ráno a Mojžiš ide dole ku faraónovi a hovorí, „Pán ma poslal dole, aby som vyviedol týchto otrokov,“ s palicou v ruke, proti obrovskej armáde, ktorá si podmanila celý svet. Faraón si s celým svojím vedeckým geniálnym nadaním myslel, že Mojžiš bol blázon. A on bol pre nich blázon.
1Zostaňme len na chvíľu stáť. Drahý Pane, znova prichádzame skrze modlitbu do Tvojej Božskej Prítomnosti; v prvom rade Ti ďakujeme za všetko, čo si pre nás urobil, a za veľkú lásku, ktorú vo svojom srdci cítime ku Tebe a ku Tvojmu Slovu. Pane, títo ľudia, ktorých milujem z celého svojho srdca, sa dnes večer obetovali a prišli sem, aby sedeli v horúcej miestnosti, a čo viac, pretože milujú Tvoje Slovo.
2A dnes večer sme sa prišli modliť za nemocných, Pane, a za núdznych. Nech tu v našom strede nebude na konci tejto bohoslužby nevládna osoba. Odmeň ich za ich vernosť, Pane. Hovor ku nám cez Svoje Slovo a posilni nás, Pane, ako prichádzame a nesieme pohanenie. Čo za výsadu je robiť to! Prosíme to v Ježišovom Mene. Amen. Môžete si sadnúť.
3Nemohol by som nájsť slová, samozrejme, aby som vyjadril svoju vďačnosť voči skupine ľudí, ako je táto, že prišli a usadili sa v tejto budove. Chcem povedať, že zajtra... Alebo, máme ísť do Topeka, v Kansase, kvôli ďalšiemu zhromaždeniu a skončí sa to nasledujúcu nedeľu. A odtiaľ potom pôjdeme do Filadelfie.
No, mali sme ísť za more do Kene, Tanganiky a do Ugandy, ku kmeňom, ktoré sú tam. A oni tam teraz majú menšie povstanie Mau Maus [Vojenský konflikt v Keni. - pozn.prekl.] Nemôžem sa tam dostať ako misionár, ale budem sa tam snažiť dostať ako poľovník. Idem tam, oni to vybavujú.
4Zvyčajne tam idem ako misionár a chodievam poľovať, tentoraz tam idem ako na poľovačku a budem misionárom. Takže tam, nejakým spôsobom, aby som sa tam ku nim dostal. A brat Mattsson-Boze je potom na tú prácu, pokúša sa ma tam dostať, vybavuje loveckú výpravu, aby som tam mohol prísť a ísť na lov. No a potom, prídem tam na tú loveckú výpravu, potom on povie, „Náš brat Branham je v krajine.“ Pôjde na veľvyslanectvo, „Bolo by to v poriadku, ak by sme tu zorganizovali len malé zhromaždenie?“ Rozumiete? To spôsobí, že to potom začne a ďalej sa to rozvinie. A tak nevieme, či sa to stane, či to budeme schopní vybaviť, alebo nie. Pokúšame sa. A ja som prosil Pána, že ak sa niečo stane, že to nebude môcť vybaviť, potom to bude pre mňa znamením, aby som sa vrátil naspäť sem do Jeffersonville a kázal Sedem Trúb, v júli alebo v auguste, niekedy vtedy.
5A potom, ak áno, dnes vidíme, budeme sa snažiť dostať túto školskú miestnosť, v ktorej je klimatizácia, pretože to by bolo naozaj dobré a chladné. Je tam miesto na sedenie pre okolo tisíc päťsto až tisíc osemsto ľudí. A je tam klimatizácia, úplne nové miesto, len o päť blokov nad týmto. A raz sme za to prosili a oni nám to nedovolili. A ten človek, ktorý nám to nedovolil prenajať, bol vyhodený zo zastupiteľstva školy. Takže teraz, ten, ktorý je tam teraz, hovorí, že si to môžeme kedykoľvek prenajať. Tak sme radi, že to môžeme mať. A tak si to môžeme teraz prenajať niekedy v júli a mať... Koľkí sa budete modliť, či je to teraz vôľa Pánova, či nás niečo odmietne? [Zhromaždenie hovorí, „Amen.“ - pozn.prekl.]
6Viete, mám rád Arizonu. Je to nádherná krajina. Vždy som tam túžil byť.
Ak to trocha zosilníš, brat Ben, ak to urobíš, ak to je... Ó, to... Tak veru. Áno. Alebo, ktokoľvek je pri tom, len to o trocha zvýšte, pretože prichádzam zo skutočne... [Niekto hovorí, „Nahrávajú, bratia.“ - pozn.prekl.] Čo hovoríte? [„Ten je len na nahrávanie.“ - pozn.prekl.] Ó, na nahrávanie. Aha, tu je druhý. Prepáčte mi. Dobre, brat Ben. A tak...
7Prichádzam z Arizony, prichádzam sem, som z toho trocha zachrípnutý, pretože to je zmena podnebia. Tu máme okolo 87 až 90 a niekedy stopercentnú vlhkosť. A tam sa to dostane na nulu a potom niekedy na priemer jednej dvadsatiny percenta vlhkosti. Tam skrátka žijete pod kyslíkovým stanom. A potom z pod toho odídem sem, viete, aký veľký rozdiel to vo vás urobí. Tak to vám spôsobí ťažkosti s hlasom, a tak ďalej.
Nastav to, ako to bolo, ak chceš, brat Ben. Zmýlil som si mikrofón.
Myslel som, že to bol ten, ale oni to zvyšujú na tomto.
8Modlite sa teraz za nás, každý z vás. Cením si vás. Billy mi hovoril o niekom, kto nám doniesol košík broskýň a malé darčeky, ktoré ste... Skrátka vám nemôžem dostatočne poďakovať. Neviem, ako to mám urobiť. A cítim sa tak nehodný, aby som si od vás vzal takéto veci. Modlím sa, aby vás Boh požehnal a viem, že On to urobí, lebo povedal, „Nakoľko ste to učinili jednému z týchto najmenších, Mne ste učinili.“ A Boh vás požehná, som si istý.
9A Arizona je taká krásna krajina, je tam jedna vec, ktorá mi chýba, to ste vy všetci. To je pravda. Všetci mi chýbate. Je mi jedno, kam idem, ja... to nie, to nie ste vy. Mám priateľov všade okolo sveta, ale to nie ste vy všetci. Tu na tejto malej skupine je niečo, čo skrátka... Neviem. Premýšľam o nich.
10A v Tucsone, to je turistické mesto, viete, a cirkvi sa odťahujú, viete. Je to trocha ťažké. Nie veľmi duchovné; a pretože tam je veľmi silná rivalita; a to spôsobuje, že to je ťažké. Ak by som vás všetkých mohol mať, plus zbor, potom žiť tam vonku, myslím, že by to bolo v poriadku. Rozumiete? Ale myslím, že tak dlho, kým toto zostáva zborom a vy všetci stále prichádzate, budem tu stále, pokiaľ nepríde Ježiš.
11A tak sa za mňa modlite, ako som hovoril pred chvíľou. Nechcem sa opakovať, ale keď sa dostanem pred vás, som nervózny a tiež smutný, precitlivený a temperamentný. Som vlastne taký, a tak... to spôsobuje, že som vnútri celý roztrhaný. Ale viem, že všade tam, kde môžem ísť... Nemám na zemi skupinu, o ktorej viem, že stojí za mnou tak, ako táto skupina. Nech Boh dá, aby sme boli tak neoddeliteľní, aby sme v Kráľovstve, ktoré má prísť, mohli byť spolu; to je moja modlitba.
12Stál som tu pri dverách a hovoril som pred chvíľou s Billom Dauchom, chvíľu pred tým, ako som niekoho znova viedol späť ku Kristovi, v druhej miestnosti. Ale ako som tam stál a rozprával som sa s ním, on má deväťdesiatjeden rokov, povedal, „Slabnem. Moje oči nie sú také, ako bývali.“
A premýšľal som, pred pár rokmi som ku nemu prišiel, keď mal úplné zlyhanie srdca a zablokované srdce, zomieral. A ten doktor, ktorý ho liečil, ktorý povedal, že sa z toho nedostane, ten doktor je mŕtvy. A Bill Dauch tu sedí, vidíte, vo veku deväťdesiatjeden rokov. Povedal som, „Bill, nie si viac použiteľný na zemi, čo sa týka práce a podobných vecí. Ale prosím o toto, 'Nech ti Boh dá silu,' pretože tak veľmi miluješ zhromaždenia.“ Tento deväťdesiatjedenročný muž prechádza cez národ v aute, či je teplo, sucho, zima, bez ohľadu na to, ako je, prichádza, aby počul Slovo. Nech Boh žehná tú statočnú dušu. Teraz nemám...
13Ešte raz sa chcem ospravedlniť, že som vás tu ráno takto držal, tri hodiny. A nepriniesol som všetko v tom posolstve, pretože som to skrátil, vynechal som časť z toho a niečo som preskočil, a tak ďalej. Preto som im povedal, aby zadržali tú pásku. Dovoľte, aby som sa znova niekde ku tomu dostal, kde bude chladno alebo niečo. Mohol som cítiť Ducha, ale pozeral som sa na vás a vedel som, že sa ovievate, a že vám je teplo, a to ma skrátka trhá na kusy. Nechcem, aby ste trpeli; chcem, aby ste mali pohodlie. Rozumiete? A to ma unavuje.
14To je tak, ako keď vidím chorých ľudí; ak nedokážem súcitiť s tými chorými ľuďmi, nemôžem pre nich urobiť nič dobré. Musím s nimi súcitiť. A takisto s vami; musím s vami súcitiť, inak nemôžem byť váš brat. Rozumiete? Musím s vami súcitiť. A ja to robím; Boh vie, že to je pravda.
15A teraz, dnes večer sa budem modliť za nemocných.
A chcem,... mužov, požehnať týchto mužov, brata Collinsa a Hickersona, brata Neville, brata Cappsa, správcov a všetkých, za skvelé správy, ktoré prichádzali, o tom, akí ste poriadni, udržujete zbor a ako všetko prichádza do svojej správnej pozície. Som vám vďačný, ľudia. Nech vás Pán žehná za to, že sa snažíte udržiavať poriadok. A list za listom prichádza ku mne do Tusconu, „Brat Branham, nie je to tak, ako to zvyklo byť. Veľmi sa to zmenilo, tak požehnaný pocit Prítomnosti Božej.“ A som za to vďačný. Nech vás Pán vždy žehná!
16Takže, teraz, dnes večer, čítal som tu v Písme krátke miesto, aby som možno povedal pár slov, aby som hovoril a čítal Písmo a potom snáď zopár miest Písma, potom budem ku vám na chvíľu hovoriť a potom sa budem modliť za chorých. Len na chvíľu; sledujem hodiny a pokúsim sa to urobiť tak rýchlo, ako to len bude možné. Ale myslím si, že keď sa spolu zhromaždila skupina ľudí, ak by sme nečítali Slovo, alebo nepovedali niečo, nejaké povzbudenie, zhromaždenie by nebolo úplné.
17Mnohí z vás čakali. Mnohí z vás majú ešte dnes večer pred sebou míle cesty. Ako to obdivujem! Ako sa dívam a vidím každého jedného a premýšľam o... tam v Arizone premýšľam, „Keď ho znova uvidím, pôjdem rovno dole, potrasiem mu rukou a objímem ho okolo krku.“ A tu ste, sedíte tu a koho, kam môžem, rozumiete? Neviem, s kým mám začať a kto... a ako sa z toho dostať. Ale áno, milujem vás. Boh vás tiež miluje.
18Teraz premýšľam či som sa nezmýlil, či tu nemám otvorené nesprávne miesto Písma, chcem čítať z 1. Korinťanom, z 1. kapitoly, od 18. verša a tiež chcem čítať z 2. Korinťanom 12:11, aby som z toho vzal tému. Teraz, ak sa mi ich podarí nájsť skutočne rýchlo, potom ich prečítame a potom sa pomodlíme a začneme rovno v tom, budem ku vám len chvíľu hovoriť na malú tému. V prvej Korinťanom, 1. kapitola začneme s 18. veršom.
Lebo slovo kríža je tým, ktorí hynú, bláznovstvom; ale nám, ktorí dosahujeme spasenie, je mocou Božou.
Lebo je napísané: Zahladím múdrosť múdrych a rozum rozumných zavrhnem.
Kde je múdry? Kde učený v zákone? Kde dišputant tohoto sveta? Či Bôh neobrátil múdrosti tohoto sveta na bláznovstvo?
Môžem To citovať znova? „Či Bôh neobrátil múdrosti tohoto sveta na bláznovstvo?“
Čo je potom múdrosťou tohto sveta? Bláznovstvo.
... či Bôh neobrátil múdrosti tohoto sveta na bláznovstvo?
Lebo keď v múdrosti Božej svet skrze múdrosť nepoznal Boha, zaľúbilo sa Bohu skrze bláznovstvo kázne spasiť tých, ktorí uverili.
Môžem prečítať ten verš znova? Počúvajte pozorne.
Lebo keď v múdrosti Božej svet skrze múdrosť nepoznal Boha, zaľúbilo sa Bohu skrze bláznovstvo kázne spasiť veriacich.
Keďže i Židia žiadajú znamenia,... Gréci hľadajú múdrosť,
my kážeme ukrižovaného Krista, Židom pohoršenie... Grékom bláznovstvo;
ale tým istým, povolaným, Židom i Grékom, Krista Božiu moc a Božiu múdrosť.
Lebo bláznivé Božie je múdrejšie ako ľudia a slabé Božie je silnejšie ako ľudia.
19A v 2. Korinťanom, v 12. kapitole, 11. verš, Pavol hovorí.
Stal som sa bezrozumným [„bláznom“ – angl. preklad KJV. - pozn.prekl.] chváliac sa; vy ste ma prinútili. Lebo vy ste mňa mali odporúčať, lebo som nebol, ako ani nie som o nič menší od tých prevelikých apoštolov, keď aj nie som ničím.
20Modlime sa. Pane Ježišu, daj dnes večer zmysel týmto zopár slovám, ktoré boli vypovedané v tých dávnych dňoch skrze veľkého apoštola Pavla, aby sme dnes večer mohli prosperovať skrze ich počúvanie, v ich uplatnení v našich životoch, aby sme mohli byť Božou ručnou prácou učinenou na takú podobu, akú pre nás On vybral, aby sme boli takí. Lebo prosíme o to v Ježišovom Mene. Amen.
21Budem dnes večer kázať pár minút, ak to bude vôľa Pánova, na tému: Čudák. No, je to veľmi hrubý a drsný názov pre tému, ale myslím, že on to viac-menej predstaví tak, ako to chcem vyjadriť.
22Viete, je tu dnes tak mnoho vecí, kvôli ktorým sa ľudia stávajú čudákmi, tak to nazývame. A ten výraz, ak to niekto nikdy nepočul, označuje niekoho, kto je „zvláštny,“ niekoho, kto je „čudný“ pre ostatných ľudí. A nieto pochýb, mnohí ľudia sú čudní jeden druhému.
23No, raz som šiel dole ulicou v Los Angeles, v Kalifornii a videl som veľmi čudnú osobu, ktorá sa správala zvláštne. A on išiel po ulici, neprotestoval, ale skrátka vyzeral, akoby bol iba na poobednej prechádzke. A išiel som na druhú stranu ulice. Aby som videl, čo tam robil. Všetci sa otáčali a smiali sa na ňom kvôli jeho podivnosti.
Všimol som si, že mal na sebe spredu zavesený nápis a pomyslel som si, že by som sa mohol ísť pozrieť, kvôli čomu sa všetci smiali na tom čudnom a podivnom mužovi. A tak on bol... Všimol som si ho, ako sa naňho ľudia dívali a smiali sa na ňom, ale zdalo sa, že on má iný úsmev, spokojný úsmev. Ostatné úsmevy, ktoré mu ľudia uštedrovali, boli skôr, akoby sa mu posmievali, ale zdalo sa, že on bol spokojný s tým, čo robil.
24No, dá sa o tom mnoho premýšľať, keď je človek spokojný s tým, že to, čo robí, je správne. Hoci je pre niekoho iného čudákom, ak je spokojný s tým, že to, čo robí, je správne, potom nech s tým zostane.
A keď som podišiel bližšie ku tomu malému mužovi, všimol som si na... Takto cez jeho hruď bolo na doske, alebo na tabuli napísané, „Som blázon“, a na spodku mal napísané, „pre Krista.“ Veľkými písmenami, “Som blázon,“ a dole na spodku stálo, „pre Krista.“ A každý sa na tom smial.
25A keď sa ten muž pretlačil cez ten dav posmeškov a vyvádzania, otočil som sa, aby som videl, čo mal na chrbte. A tam na chrbte mal veľký, obrovský otáznik a dole na spodku mal napísané, „Pre koho si teraz bláznom ty?“
26Nuž, pomyslel som si, že tam niečo má, rozumiete, ale vyzeral spokojný s tým, že môže byť bláznom pre Krista. A to je to, čo Pavol povedal, že sa stal „bláznom“ pre Krista.
27Brat Troy od Obchodníkov Plného Evanjelia, môj veľmi dobrý priateľ, on krája mäso. A raz sa mu do ruky dostal nejaký druh baktérie z bravčového mäsa, ktoré rezal. Nejaký muž, ktorý vie, alebo žena, možno vedia, aká baktéria to bola; ale to vás rozožerie. A tak, aby mu zachránili život, museli mu amputovať tri prsty. A na jednej ruke má iba dva prsty, ale napriek tomu zostáva mäsiarom.
28A bol tam malý Nemec, ktorý s ním pracoval v mäsiarstve dole v Los Angeles, a tak on sa stále pokúšal priviesť toho Holanďana ku Kristovi. A on hovoril, že je luterán a všetko je s ním v poriadku. Bol spokojný s tým, že bol kresťanom, pretože patril k luteránskej cirkvi, ako to vysvetľoval. A tak raz večer mal brat Troy privilégium presvedčiť ho, aby s ním išiel do zboru.
29Volal sa Henry. A Henry je v nemčine „Heinrich“, a tak ho volali „Heini.“ Počuli ste ten výraz. Povedal, „Heini, čo povieš na to, že by si dnes večer išiel so mnou do zboru?“
30„No,“ povedal, „myslím, že pôjdem.“ A tak išiel dole na staromódne zhromaždenie, kde mali modlitebné zhromaždenie a skutočne zostal presvedčený a odovzdal svoje srdce Kristovi.
Ó, na ďalší deň sa tento malý Holanďan radoval. Každú chvíľu len chodil cez budovu so zodvihnutými rukami vo vzduchu a hovoril, „Chvála Bohu! Ďakujem Ti, Pane Ježišu!“ a priťahoval pozornosť všetkých, každého z nich.
31Vidíte, stal sa čudákom pre celú radu mäsiarov. A keď krájal mäso, začal premýšľať o Pánovi a začal plakať. Položil nôž a chodil hore a dole po chodbách, nie hystericky, ale skrátka vyjadroval lásku Kristovi a hovoril, „Ó, ako Ťa milujem, Ježišu!" Viete, len chodil hore dole.
32A šéf išiel okolo a uvidel ho toto robiť a ako chodí a plače. A šéf... On si vôbec nevšimol šéfa; premýšľal o Ježišovi. A rozbehol sa dole so zodvihnutými rukami a slzy sa mu valili dole po lícach a hovoril, „Ó Bože, ako Ťa milujem!“
A šéf povedal, „Heini, čo sa to s tebou pre všetko na svete stalo?“ Povedal, „Všetci na celej linke o tebe rozprávajú. Heini, čo sa to s tebou pre všetko na svete stalo?“
33Ten malý Holanďan povedal, „Ó, šéfe!“ Povedal, „Sláva Bohu, bol som spasený!“
On povedal, „Čo si bol?“
Povedal, „Bol som spasený!“ Povedal, „Išiel som s bratom Troyom sem dole na malú misiu a bol som spasený. A Ježiš prišiel do môjho srdca a som tak plný lásky!“
On povedal, „Ty si musel ísť dole ku tej skupine bláznov.“ [v angličtine slovo „nut“ znamená „fanatik, blázon,“ ale aj „matica“ na uťahovanie skrutky. - pozn. prekl]
34Povedal, „Áno!“ Povedal, „Sláva Bohu!“ Povedal, „Vďaka Bohu za bláznov!“ Povedal, „Vieš, vezmi si automobil, ktorý ide dole po ceste, a ak z neho vymontuješ všetky matice, nebudeš mať nič iné, než hromadu starého železa!“
35No, neviem, ale to, čo povedal ten Holanďan, je skoro pravda. Odstrániť všetky matice? Matice sú to, čo to drží pokope. A myslím, že to je to, čo niekedy drží zbor, čo drží pohromade civilizáciu.
36No, keď som sa vracal pred pár dňami z návštevy v Prescotte, díval som sa na púšť a všimol som si, že tam vonku pri Phoenixe majú „japonské záhrady“ a mali tam kvety, nádherné kvety. Keď som bol chlapec, tam na tých miestach som zháňal dobytok. Nebola tam žiadna tráva a tie kravy žili len na kaktusových fazuliach, a tak ďalej.
37A tak som si všimol, že tam na púšti niečo pestujú. A uvideli sme tam na púšti tie kaktusy a kvety. A tam v mojom dome, alebo v dome, ktorý máme v prenájme; sestra Larsonová, myslím, že tu dnes ráno bola, videl som ju. A ona má vonku pri dome kvetinový záhon; nejakú hlinu. Všetko je tam piesčité a tak tam má na oboch stranách v kvetinovom záhone nejakú hlinu. A každé ráno musím ísť von a poliať tie kvety. Ak ich nepolejem, zomrú. A ony... A potom, tiež musím vziať nejaký sprej a postriekať ich, aby som ich ochránil od vošiek; ten hmyz by ich zožral.
38A potom pôjdete len o kúsok ďalej, tridsať stôp odtiaľ, tam rastú nejaké kvety a rastú vonku na púšti. A mohli by ste kopať do hĺbky dvadsať stôp a bolo by to ako sud prachu; vôbec nič, len prach, nie je tam žiadna voda. A kto postrekuje tieto? Rozumiete?
Tieto na tom záhone, ak ich zanedbáte postriekať alebo poliať, termiti, chrobáky, alebo vošky ich požerú. Ale vošky sa nemôžu dotknúť toho, tam vonku na púšti a ani sa s ním nemusíte maznať a polievať ho každý deň; on je výtvorom Stvoriteľa. Toto je skrížená kópia.
39A myslím si, že dôvod, prečo sa dnes pre ľudí stalo Kresťanstvo bláznovstvom; je ten, že máme hromadu kópií a nie skutočných Kresťanov, skupinu, s ktorou sa musíte maznať a postrekovať ich, aby zostali v zbore.
40Viem si predstaviť úplne prvú Cirkev, čím oni boli, a porovnať ich s touto dnešnou kópiou. Toto by bol lacný produkt oproti tomu, čím bola skutočná prvá Cirkev, tí drsní veriaci v Boha, s Duchom Svätým. Nemuseli ste sa s nimi maznať. Nemuseli ste ich potľapkávať a hovoriť im, že ich vezmete do tejto cirkvi; a ak ich táto unaví, pôjdu do inej; a urobíte ich Diakonmi, ak prejdú sem a opustia tú predošlú. To je skrížená kópia.
41Premýšľal som o Michelangelovom originálnom obraze, myslím, že to je, „Posledná Večera.“ Myslím, že to on namaľoval. Viete si predstaviť, koľko by vás stál ten originálny obraz? Bolo by to nespočítateľné množstvo tisícov dolárov, nikdy by ste sa nedotkli toho originálu, pretože to je za nevyčísliteľnú cenu. Je to ocenené tak veľmi vysoko! Ale môžete si kúpiť jeho lacnú kópiu asi za dva doláre.
42Práve preto dnes ľudia nedokážu pochopiť drsnosť skutočných, pravých veriacich. Oni sa stali bláznami. Viete, svet sa dostáva do takého stereotypu, že raz za čas musíte mať maticu, aby to narovnala. Je potrebné, aby prišiel niekto na scénu, kto je trocha odlišný, a on je bláznom pre tú generáciu. Jedného dňa som rozmýšľal, kto je schopný?
Kto dnes nie je bláznom? Vy ste pre niekoho bláznom. Verím tomu, že svet smeruje do úplného šialenstva. Viete, že je doba, keď ľudia nedokážu posúdiť medzi tým, čo je správne a čo nesprávne, alebo čo je pravda alebo blud?
43Viete, že politici nedokážu posúdiť, čo je správne a čo nesprávne? Videli ste ich, ako mlčali na tom hlasovaní o tom, aby sa Biblia vrátila späť do cirkvi, či do... aby sa Biblia vrátila späť do školy? Oni nevedia, ktorým smerom budú politici fúkať. Premýšľajte o tom! Neviem, ako je to teraz v Indiane, ale v štáte Arizona je protizákonné čítať Bibliu v škole. Myslím, že rovnako je to v Indiane, takmer v celých Spojených Štátoch, pretože nejaká neveriaca žena zmenila celý program. A pamätajte, čítať Bibliu v našich štátnych školách je protizákonné, a pri tom ešte dane veriacich podporujú, aby na školách vyučovali neveru.
44Politici. Potrebujeme ďalšieho Abraháma Lincolna. Potrebujeme ďalšieho Patrika Henryho. Potrebujeme Američana, ktorý dokáže vystúpiť a stáť, bez ohľadu na to, kde sú politici, a nazývať správne „správnym“ a nesprávne „nesprávnym“.
45Viete, že kazatelia dnes nedokážu posúdiť, čo je správne, či Slovo Božie, alebo denominačná cirkev? Nevedia, ktorou cestou majú ísť. Nedokážu rozsúdiť, čo je správne a čo nesprávne. „Viem, že Biblia to hovorí, ale naša cirkev hovorí...“ Vidíte, ľudia nie sú schopní rozoznať správne od nesprávneho. A čokoľvek, čo je v protiklade s Bibliou, je nesprávne. Božie Slovo je Pravda a každé ľudské slovo, ktoré je v protiklade s Ním, je klamstvo. A keď sa teraz snažíte stáť, v takomto čase, stáť za tým, čo je správne, stanete sa bláznom. Zoberme si zopár postáv.
46Dokážem si predstaviť proroka Noeho v tom veľkom vedeckom dni, v ktorom žil; ten veľkolepý vedecký vek, v ktorom stavali pyramídy a sfingy, v ktorom mohli pomocou vedeckého výskumu dokázať, že tam v nebesiach nebola žiadna voda. Tu prichádza ten starý muž a hovorí, „Z nebies prichádza dážď.“ Noe bol pre tú generáciu bláznom. Stal sa bláznom.
47Pomyslite na Mojžiša. Mojžiš, keď išiel dole ku faraónovi, ako sme o tom hovorili dnes ráno a Mojžiš ide dole ku faraónovi a hovorí, „Pán ma poslal dole, aby som vyviedol týchto otrokov,“ s palicou v ruke, proti obrovskej armáde, ktorá si podmanila celý svet. Faraón si s celým svojím vedeckým geniálnym nadaním myslel, že Mojžiš bol blázon. A on bol pre nich blázon.
48Dokážem si predstaviť proroka Eliáša v jeho veľkom dni, keď bol ten super vek módy; keď Achab a Jezábeľ vládli svetu, ako to bolo v tých dňoch; a všetka tá móda a všetko, čo chcela Jezábeľ nosiť a ako dostala všetky tie ženy, že sa obliekali tak ako ona, a maľovali sa tak, ako ona, a chodili tak podľa jej módy, tak, ako sa ona upravovala. A keď nejaký starý pomätenec, ako Eliáš, vystúpil na scénu a odporoval celému národu; pre Achaba bol bláznom. To je pravda.
49Prorok Ámos, keď prišiel do Samárie, v tom čase bola Samária podobná dnešnému Hollywoodu, ženy na ulici, obliekanie a dokonca verejné cudzoložstvo, ako sa tam správali a žili, nechali mužov...
50Dnes je to takmer verejné cudzoložstvo, rovno pred vami. Išiel som raz večer na určité miesto, aby som zohnal niečo na jedenie, a mladí chlapci a dievčatá sa tam objímali a bozkávali, ako neviem čo.
A vieš, moja mladá sestra, že to je potenciálne cudzoložstvo? Keď ťa muž bozkáva, on sa s tebou potenciálne dopustil cudzoložstva. Nemala by si mu dovoliť, aby ťa pobozkal, pokiaľ nie ste manželia, lebo žľazy, oboje, mužské i ženské žľazy sú v perách. Rozumiete tomu? A keď sa stretávajú mužské a ženské žľazy, nech sú kdekoľvek, potenciálne ste spáchali cudzoložstvo. A nemala by si chlapcovi dovoliť, aby ťa pobozkal, pokiaľ nie je ten závoj zodvihnutý z tvojej tváre a si jeho ženou. Nerobte to! Je to páchanie cudzoložstva. Je to miešanie mužských a ženských žliaz.
51Prečo muži nebozkávajú mužov a ženy nebozkávajú ženy na pery? Pretože to neskríži žľazy. Deti sa rodia skrze skríženie žliaz.
A tak je to znova skoro verejné cudzoložstvo, všade. Pozrite sa na obrazovky a všade, vidíte, slintanie a vyvádzanie. Niet divu, že nemorálnosť sa vnucuje! Ako to môžu robiť a rozširujú to všade tým, že bozkávajú tie ženy na ústa a vedia, že to je cudzoložstvo! Boh vám to neodpustí, ak neučiníte pokánie.
52A teraz, keď prichádza hore tento veľký prorok Ámos. On je známy ako jeden z menších prorokov, pretože tam o ňom nebolo veľmi veľa napísané, ale on mal Slovo Pánovo. A díval sa na to mesto, celé odovzdané...V parkoch, muži sa objímajú so ženami a ženy sa objímajú s mužmi, skrátka moderný Hollywood! A on kráčal cez toto mesto a hovoril, „Čiňte pokánie, inak zahyniete!“ On bol bláznom. Takmer sám seba prehlásil za šialeného, pre nich.
53Ján Krstiteľ, keď prišiel na scénu. Pre vtedajšie náboženské denominácie bol bláznom. Mal možnosť stať sa kňazom, nasledovať šľapaje svojho otca. Ale odmietol to urobiť, pretože Boh ho držal pomimo tých vyznaní a denominácií, lebo jeho práca bola príliš dôležitá. On mal oznámiť príchod Mesiáša. A nemal nič spoločné ani s farizejmi, ani so sadúcejmi, ani s ničím takým, on odmietol celú ich skupinu a povedal, „Nezačnite hovoriť, 'Máme nášho otca Abraháma,' lebo hovorím vám, že Boh môže z týchto kameňov vzbudiť Abrahámovi deti.“ Pre náboženský svet v jeho čase bol bláznom. Správne.
54Keď prišiel na scénu Ježiš. Pre nábožných ľudí v Jeho čase bol taktiež bláznom. Pretože oni hovorili, „Ty si Samaritán. Stratil si rozum. Si šialenec,“ inými slovami, „blázon.“ Týmto On bol pre ľudí, váš Pán a Spasiteľ.
Niet divu, Pavol, ktorý bol vyškolený od Gamaliela, aby bol kňazom a mal možnosť stať sa jedného dňa veľkňazom. A na jeho ceste dole do Damašku bol zrazený na zem nadprirodzeným Svetlom. A pozrel sa hore, on bol Žid a vedel, že Stĺp Ohňa bolo To, čo viedlo jeho ľud. Povedal, „Pane, kto si?“
A On povedal, „Ja som Ježiš.“
55A keď sa zbavil svojho vzdelania, zbavil sa všetkej svojej teológie, ktorej bol vyučený na školách, a stal sa obyčajným pouličným kazateľom, bol bláznom. Povedal, „Stal som sa bláznom.“
56A ľudia si mysleli, že bol šialený, mimo seba. Povedal Festovi, „Nie som bláznivý.“
On len poznal Pána. Ale poznať Pána, keď ste v nejakej náboženskej skupine...
Dúfam, že to neprepočujete. Poznať Pána dnes, keď ste obklopený nejakou náboženskou skupinou, majú vás za blázna. To sa nezmenilo. Mohol by som o tom hovoriť mnoho, ale chcem sa poponáhľať, lebo sa chceme modliť za chorých.
57Martin Luther, ten malý nemecký kňaz, keď niesol jedného dňa komúniu, hodil ju dole na schody a povedal, „Toto nie je telo Ježiša Krista. Toto je len chlieb, ktorý bol tamto urobený.“ A vyhlásil, „Spravodlivý bude žiť z viery.“ Pre katolícku cirkev bol bláznom. Mohli ho za to zavraždiť, ale on bol bláznom a oni ho proste nechali tak. Ale pre tú generáciu sa stal bláznom.
58John Wesley, vo dňoch veľkej nemorálnej hodiny v Anglicku. Vtedy, ak by neprišlo na scénu Wesleyho prebudenie... Celý svet bol skazený, všade bola nemorálnosť. A anglikánska cirkev sa dostala tak ďaleko, že už nie je žiadne prebudenie; také kalvínske názory! A Ján Wesley prišiel na scénu so slovom posvätenia, očistením od nemorálnosti. On sa stal bláznom.
59Citujem pána Wesleyho, raz vo svojej knihe napísal. Išiel dole po ceste a jeden muž z anglikánskej cirkvi... Oni všetci si mysleli, že je bláznivý a tak on tam stál na ceste. Pán Wesley bol malý, drobný človek. Tento mohutný veľký chlap si myslel, že by s ním skrátka mohol tresnúť o zem, a tak sa tam postavil do cesty. Pán Wesley prišiel a povedal, „Prepáčte, pane, mohli by ste mi odstúpiť z cesty? Ponáhľam sa.“
A ten anglikán mu povedal, „Bláznovi sa neodstupujem.“
60Pán Wesley zdvorilo sklonil svoj klobúk, prešiel okolo neho a povedal, „Ja vždy.“ Tak vidíte, bol tam niekto, kto bol bláznom; jeden pre Krista; druhý bol pre cirkev.
A tak, jednako ste pre niekoho bláznom.
61Keď na scénu prišli letniční, pred päťdesiatimi rokmi. Hovorili, „Tí ľudia sú blázniví!“ Boli bláznami, to je pravda, pretože odsúdili všetku skazenosť, ktorá bola v cirkevných vekoch do času, keď prišli na scénu.
Ale čo urobili letniční? Navrátili sa rovno späť do vývratku, z ktorého vyšli, rovno naspäť do denominačnej skazenosti. Viete čo? Je tu čas pre ďalšieho blázna. Áno. Je tu čas pre ďalšieho. To je pravda.
62Všimnite si, matica, prv, ako je matica, je skrutka, aby sa namontovala do tej matice. A tá matica je spojená závitom s tou skrutkou; ak nie, je to zle dopasované. Všimnite si. Všetci, ktorí boli spojení závitom vo dňoch Noeho, spojení závitom ku posolstvu Evanjelia; Noe, matica, ich pritiahol do archy. Záleží na tom, aké sú vaše závity, ku čomu ste spojení závitom. Ak ste spojení závitom ku svetu, oni vás pritiahnu. Ak ste spojení závitom ku Slovu, Ono vás pritiahne. Záleží na tom, ku čomu ste spojení závitom, ktorého blázna budete nasledovať.
63Ale Noe, ktorý bol maticou so Slovom Božím, bláznom pre ten vedecký vek a pre ten náboženský vek, v ktorom žil, on pritiahol do archy tých, ktorí mohli byť zachránení. Amen. Tých, ktorí boli predurčení, skrutku, ktorá bola vyrobená pred maticou. Skrutka musí byť spojená závitom ku matici.
64A tak satan, on má zopár skrutiek a matíc tiež, skrutky a matice kráľovstiev tohto sveta.
Faraón bol práve takým bláznom pre Noeho, či pre Mojžiša, akým bol Mojžiš pre faraóna. Faraón so všetkými svojimi vedeckými trikmi, pritiahol svoj národ ku sebe. Noe, tým, že bol maticou (bláznom) pre Boha, pritiahol cirkev do zasľúbenej zeme. Záleží na tom, akým smerom ste spojení závitom. On vytiahol cirkev z Egypta; ako Noe vytiahol cirkev von zo sveta do archy. Mojžiš pritiahol cirkev z Egypta do Bohom zasľúbenej zeme.
65Ježiš povedal. No, buďte opatrní, pretože tie matice a skrutky vyzerajú veľmi podobne. Len sledujte závit. V Matúšovi 24:24, povedal, „To by zviedlo takmer i samotných vyvolených.“
Nuž, americká a celosvetová denominácia potrebuje maticu.
66Metodisti, Baptisti, Presbyteriáni, oni všetci sú rozdelení v tomto a v tamtom a všetci bojujú. A napriek tomu sú všetci nakrútení na tú istú skrutku. A tak im Boh dáva skrutku a posiela im maticu, Svetovú Radu Cirkví. To ich všetkých pritiahne dohromady. To je pravda. Určite to tak bude, to ich pritiahne dokopy, Svetová Rada.
67Viete, došlo do toho, tu nedávno... Nič sa nemôže stať, žiadna vec bez príčiny. Ženy si chcú vyzliekať svoje šaty. Chcú nosiť šortky. A chcú naďalej patriť do cirkvi. Chcú nosiť všetky tie bikiny, či ako tie veci vôbec nazývate. Chcú to robiť a naďalej patriť do cirkvi; chcú kričať, vykrikovať a tancovať; uctievať, to je uctievanie.
68No, ak by som mal čas, dokázal by som vám to. To je uctievanie diabla, tancovanie takým spôsobom a robenie tých vecí. Môžem vám to dokázať v pohanských krajinách. Oni chcú uctievať, udržiavať svoje svedectvo a naďalej zostávajú v cirkvi. A tak im Boh dal maticu, dve alebo tri z nich; jedna sa volá Elvis Presley; jedna Pat Boone a Ernie Ford; dokáže spievať hymny a všetko možné a stále tvrdiť, že je Kresťanom. To je matica. Nie je spojená závitom so Slovom. Správne.
Nuž, povedal som, že to bude len pol hodina a vypršala. Ale počúvajte.
69Svet chce maticu. Diabol vidí, že ju dostanú. Už sú ku nej spojení závitom.
Ale kým je svet spojený závitom ku matici, sú tam ľudia nazvaní Nevestou. To je tiež spojené závitom. Práve s takou istotou, ako tu stojím, Boh im pošle maticu, ktorá vytiahne Nevestu z tohto zmätku do Prítomnosti Božej. To bude matica spojená závitom so Slovom.
70Jeden kritik mi pred pár dňami dole v Tucsone povedal. Povedal, „Vieš, niektorí ľudia z teba robia blázna a iní z teba robia boha.“
Povedal som, „No, čo s tým, ľudia narobia rôzne reči.“ Vedel som, že sa ma pokúša kritizovať. Rozumiete?
71Povedal, „Ľudia si myslia, že si bohom.“
72Povedal som, „No, skrátka...“ Viem, že ľudia to nerobia. Vedel som, že tomu nerozumie, pretože bol na druhej strane kože, vidíte. A tak som vedel, že to nepozná. Tak som povedal, „To nie je tak ďaleko od Slova Božieho. Alebo je?“
Vidíte, skrátka mu dať poznať, že nie sme stratení. Vieme, kde stojíme. Vieme, akú plachtu sme napli a aký vietor do nej duje. Vieme, aký bol náš závit a aká bola naša matica. A vieme, ako stojíme.
Povedal som, „To nie je tak veľmi v rozpore s Božím Slovom. Alebo je?“ Povedal som, „Spomeň si, keď Boh poslal Mojžiša dole ku deťom Izraela, Boh učinil Mojžiša bohom, to je pravda; a taktiež učinil jeho brata Árona prorokom. To je pravda. 'Všetci proroci,' povedal Ježiš, 'boli bohovia'. Boli bohovia; ľudia.“ To je pravda. Boh to myslel takýmto spôsobom.
73Počúvajte, Slovo, ktoré kážeme a text, ktorý som povedal dnes ráno, „Boh skrývajúci sa za kožami, jazvečími kožami, Boh skrývajúci sa za ľudskou kožou.“ Rozumiete? To je to, čo On urobil. Keď bol Boh zjavený na svete, skrýval sa za oponou, za kožou Človeka nazvaného Ježiš. Bol zahalený a skrýval sa za kožou človeka nazvaného Mojžiš a oni boli bohovia, nie Bohovia; ale boli Bohom, jeden Boh len mení Svoju masku, robí zakaždým tú istú vec a prináša toto Slovo. Vidíte, Boh to urobil takýmto spôsobom. On vedel, že ľudia musia niečo vidieť; je to v každom z nás, ktorí sme sa narodili na svet.
74Tak, ako som vám to hovoril dnes ráno, nikto sa tam neodvážil nasledovať Mojžiša. Boh nikdy nekonal s dvomi osobami. On vždy koná s jednou. Nikto sa neodvážil napodobniť Mojžiša. To bola smrť, fyzická smrť, pokúšať sa napodobniť Mojžiša, aby s ním šli do toho Ohnivého Stĺpu. Takže nie všetci ľudia sú učinení... Nie ste narodení tým spôsobom, aby ste sa prelomili do toho nadprirodzeného.
Ale Boh na zemi umiestnil niektorých ľudí, aby Ho reprezentovali, ako Jeho veľvyslanci. A ten veľvyslanec je ustanovený Bohom, aby vošiel do obrovského neznámeho nadprirodzena, aby rozpoznal a vyniesol veci, ktoré prirodzená myseľ nedokáže vnímať. To vynáša na povrch Tajomstvo Božie (Boha), predpovedá veci, ktoré sú, veci, ktoré boli, a veci, ktoré budú. Čo to je? Boh, Boh za kožou, ľudskou kožou. To je úplne správne.
75Sam Connelly, ktorý žije v Tucsone. On sem raz pred mnohými rokmi prišiel s pánom Kiddom a bol uzdravený; s vredom, ktorý ho neopúšťal mnohé roky. Keď som minulú jeseň odišiel, Sam mal kameň, ktorý špecialisti tam v Tucsone skúmali. Bolo to veľké ako guľôčka. Brat Sam Connelly... Mnohí z vás ho tu poznáte; on je z Ohia. A prišiel ku doktorovi a on povedal, „Sam, priprav sa na ďalší týždeň; vyberiem ten kameň von,“ pár dní pred tým.
Povedal, „Dokážem sa zbaviť toho kameňa, doktor?“
On povedal, „To je nemožné. Ten kameň je príliš veľký.“
76A tak ho zobral do auta a doviezol ho domov. A on zavolal; povedal, „Chcem, aby si prišiel a pomodlil sa za mňa, brat Branham.“ Prečo ma kvôli takej veci volal? A začal som sa za neho modliť.
77Povedal som, „Sam, to je TAK HOVORÍ PÁN, kameň odíde sám.“
78A na ďalšie ráno vzal ten kameň ku doktorovi. A povedal, doktor povedal, „Pán Connelly, nerozumiem tomu, ako sa to stalo.“
79A on povedal, „Som veriaci v Boha a Boh pre mňa vybral ten kameň, vybral ho zo mňa.“ Ten človek, doktor, tomu sotva mohol veriť. Práve tak, ako nedokázal veriť, že ten veľký nádor opustil bok mojej ženy. Viete o tom, vidíte. A tak povedal...
80Asi o šesť mesiacov neskôr, čo bolo asi tri... Asi pred dvoma týždňami alebo troma týždňami, bol Sam Connelly zasiahnutý vážnou srdcovou chorobou. A neviem, ako sa to nazýva, koronárna, alebo nejaký druh srdcového zablokovania, alebo čo to vlastne je. Je to veľmi nebezpečné... To nebude... Oni tvrdia, že sa cez to nedostanete. Srdcový infarkt a jeho srdce bolo zablokované. A jeho končatiny sa nafúkli, až boli jeho členky väčšie ako noha, tu hore okolo stehna. A tak ho zobrali dolu ku doktorovi. Doktor povedal, „Vezmite ho domov, pokojne, alebo do nemocnice.“
Sam povedal, „Nechcem ísť do nemocnice!“
On povedal, „Vezmite ho domov, uložte ho do postele a nehýbte hlavou, rukou, ani nohou po dobu šesť mesiacov.“ Povedal, „Môžete zomrieť v ktorejkoľvek minúte.“
81A brat Norman zavolal. A v ten večer sme išli navštíviť brata Sama. A keď sme sa za neho modlili a Pán prehovoril.
A na ďalšie ráno prišiel Sam dolu do doktorovej ordinácie s vytiahnutými nohavicami, zastal pred doktorom a povedal, „Pozrite sa na mňa, doktor!“
A doktor ho dal pod elektrický kardiogram a povedal, „Nerozumiem tomu.“ Povedal, „Vráťte sa do práce.“ Opýtal sa, „Do akej cirkvi patríte?“
Povedal, „Nepatrím do žiadnej z nich.“
82On povedal, „Nemôžete byť Kresťanom bez toho, aby ste patrili do tých denominácií. Musíte tam patriť.“ Vidíte, to bolo všetko, čo ten doktor vedel. Sam bol pre neho bláznom.
A on bol bláznom pre Sama, tým, že sa pýtal takú otázku.
Čo sa potom stalo? Sam prišiel a povedal, „Čo môžem povedať niekomu, kto mi hovorí niečo také, brat Branham?“
83„Povedz im, že patríš do jednej a jedinej Cirkvi. Nepripojil si sa ku Nej. To nie je denominácia. Narodil si sa do Nej.“
84Malá dáma, asi pred šiestimi mesiacmi, priateľka sestry Normanovej. Zabudol som jej meno, veľmi pekná malá žena, asi tridsaťročná. Ona a jej manžel sa oddelili a ona dostala leukémiu. A bola v takom stave, že sa sotva mohla pohybovať. A nakoniec sa to zhoršilo, že ju až doktori umiestnili na lôžko. A lekári ju navštevovali, až nadišiel čas. Dávali jej čas do nasledujúcej stredy. Do stredy mala byť mŕtva. A pani Normanová ju nejako dostala z lôžka, dopravili ju sem a musela ju pridŕžať na stoličke. A ako tam to malé stvorenie sedelo a kolísalo sa dozadu a dopredu a šedá, ako len mohla byť; žltá na koži od rakoviny, leukémie.
Povedal som, „No, môžem sa za teba pomodliť, sestra.“
A pokúšala sa hovoriť, v očiach mala slzy, povedala...
Opýtal som sa, „Si Kresťanka?“
Povedala, „Som metodistka.“
Povedal som, „Pýtal som sa ťa, či si Kresťanka.“
A ona povedala, „Myslíte tým, či patrím ku kresťanskej cirkvi?“
85Povedal som, „Nie, madam. Myslím tým, či ste narodená z Ducha Božieho a milujete Pána Ježiša?“
Povedala, „No, vždy som patrila do cirkvi.“
86Povedal som, „Ak vás Boh nechá nažive, sľúbite mi, že sa ku mne vrátite a ukážete mi, že kráčate po ceste Pánovej oveľa úprimnejšie?“
Povedala, „Sľúbim Bohu všetko, ak ušetrí môj život. Budem Mu slúžiť.“
87V tej chvíli prišlo videnie a povedalo, „TAK HOVORÍ PÁN. Nepripravuj sa; roztrhaj veci ku smrti na pozajtra.“ To bolo v pondelok a ona mala zomrieť v stredu. „Ty nezomrieš.“
Minulú nedeľu, týždeň pred touto nedeľou som s ňou sedel v miestnosti. Pribrala pätnásť kilo; doktor povedal, že sa tam nikde nedá nájsť ani stopa po leukémii. A ona chcela poznať cestu Pánovu; a poslal som ju dole, aby sa dala pokrstiť v Mene Ježiša Krista, v zavlažovacej priekope. Môže byť bláznom, ale, „Keď budem povýšený, všetkých ľudí potiahnem ku Sebe.“
88Bol som na návšteve hore u toho chlapca, ktorý si tu zvykol brať pásky, Leo Mercier. On má dvor s prívesmi. A bol som sa modliť za nejakých ľudí. A modlil som sa za jednu pani, ktorá sa volala Lokar, myslím, že tak. A ona bola štrnásť krát operovaná na rakovinu a doktori sa jej už vzdali, že zomrie. A modlil som sa za ňu a povedal som jej, že nezomrie, ale bude žiť. A nie je tam nikde po tom ani stopa. A kvôli tomuto, dvadsaťosem ľudí z jej rodiny, ktorí tam stáli, sú spasení a naplnení Svätým Duchom. Môže byť bláznom (maticou), ale to ku Nemu priťahuje všetkých ľudí, ktorí prídu. To je spojené závitom so Slovom. Rozumiete, čo tým myslím?
89Dostal som list, ktorý sem prišiel predvčerom, ležal rovno tam vzadu v kartotéke. Minulú jeseň, keď som bol na loveckej výprave... či minulú jar, bolo to pred rokom. Indiánsky chlapec, ktorý sa volal Oskar; s ktorým sme lovili na ceste tam hore; to je tam, kde ten Anjel Pánov, hovoril som vám, tu na druhej strane, že privedie toho karibu a toho strieborného grizlyho. Všetci z vás si to pamätáte. Potom ten chlapec, keď som vošiel... On vošiel do stanu, minulú jar. A keď ma Bud poprosil, aby som poprosil o požehnanie, (zložil si rukavice; on jazdil), nasadil si tie rukavice a bol pripravený odísť preč. On bol katolík. Nemal by s tým nič spoločného.
90Minulú jeseň, keď mohol, stál vedľa mňa... Keď tam jeho matka zomierala, dostala infarkt, povedal, „Nevrátiš sa späť a nepomodlíš sa za ňu?“ Išiel som späť do tej indiánskej chatrče. A tam sa všetci zhromaždili okolo tej matky, a ona zomierala, nedokázala povedať po anglicky ani slovo. A zostúpil Duch Svätý a povedal tej matke prostredníctvom tlmočníčky, jej dcéry, čo sa stalo, a tak to bolo. Dokonca ju nazval menom a povedal jej, čím bola a z akého kmeňa bola a ako sa to stane. A matka bola okamžite uzdravená.
91A na druhý deň ráno, keď som ich znovu navštívil, ako som prechádzal okolo, išiel som štyridsať míľ naspäť pre ovcu, všetci tam sedeli a ona bola celá... vysadla na koňa, aby si zašla pre sušené losie mäso. A povedal som, „Minulú noc, keď som sa modlil, povedal som, „'Náš Nebeský Otče, ktorý si na Nebesiach'.“ Povedal som, „Louise, ja... bola to katolícka modlitba. Všetci ste začali a potom, keď som pokračoval svojimi slovami, samozrejme, nevedeli ste, ako ďalej.“ A povedal som, „No, idem proste poďakovať Bohu. Nerozprávame modlitby; modlíme sa.“
92Povedala, „Nie sme už viacej katolíci.“ Povedala, „Veríme tak, ako veríš ty. Chceme, aby si nás všetkých vzal a pokrstil nás tak, ako ty krstíš. Chceme Ducha Svätého.“
93Na ceste späť... Ten chlapec stratil svoje kone, pár mesiacov pred tým a nemohol ich nájsť. A ten sprievodca na neho nakričal, povedal, „Oskar, toľko by si už mal predsa vedieť, že kone nemôžeš tak nechať. V tomto čase sú tam medvede, mnoho grizlyov, ktoré ich môžu zožrať.“
A on stále postával blízko mňa. A povedal, raz večer povedal, „Ja sa ťa niečo opýtať?“ [Brat Branham napodobňuje nesprávnu gramatiku Indiána. - pozn.prekl.]
Povedal som, „Áno.“
Povedal, „Brat Branham, pomodli sa ku Bohu. Boh mi dá moje koníky späť.“
Povedal som, „Bud povedal, že ich medveď zjedol.“
Povedal, „Brat Branham, popros Boha. Boh dá Oskarovi jeho koníky späť.“
Povedal som, „Veríš tomu, Oskar?“
Povedal, „Verím. Boh uzdravil moju mamu. Boh ti povedal, kde bol medveď, kde bola zver. Ten Boh, ktorý vie, kde je zver, vie, kde sú moje koníky.“ Vidíte?
94Pred rokom, kým sme stáli tam vzadu s Fredom Sothmanom (on je tu dnes večer), s Billy Paulom (mojím synom), prišiel dolu Svätý Duch: povedal som, „Oskar, nájdeš svoje koníky. Budú stáť v snehu.“
Tam leží list, napísali mi minulý týždeň a dostal som ho v piatok, prišiel sem. Teraz leží rovno tam v kartotéke. „Brat Branham, Oskar našiel svoje koníky stáť v snehu.“
95Ako prežili, nikto nevie. Tam, chlapec... V tomto ročnom období, v júni je tam toľko snehu, že je tam okolo nich stále dvadsať alebo tridsať stôp snehu. Ako tam vydržali cez zimu, v tom kaňone? Oskar sa mohol ku nim dostať, na snežniciach, ale samozrejme, nemohol navliecť snežnice na svojho koníka. Ale ich našiel podľa Slova Pánovho. Môže to znieť ako bláznovstvo (matica); len tomu raz uveriť. Záleží na tom, aké sú vaše závity.
96No, to sa nespojí závitom s denomináciou. To sa spojí závitom iba so Slovom. Ale vo svete je zopár ľudí, ktorí veria tomu Slovu! Bude potrebný nejaký blázon (matica), aby tú Nevestu odtiaľto vykrútil von, aby bola nakrútená na závit, lebo Nevesta a Ženích sú jedno. A Boh je jeden a Slovo je Boh! To bude musieť byť spojené závitom so Slovom a Ono potiahne Nevestu von z týchto denominácií.
97Áno, on ma chcel kritizovať. Viete, to mi pripomína to, čo som hovoril dnes ráno, Boh skrývajúci sa za kožami, za ľudskou kožou.
98Poviem krátky príbeh a potom zakončím; prepáčte mi, že som vás tu teraz zdržal okolo štyridsaťpäť minút. Bol dom, Kresťanský dom a bol tam... Toto som hovoril tomu kritikovi. A tam v tomto dome bol... Oni verili v Boha. Mali tam malého chlapca, ale pri búrke bol vystrašený na smrť, keď sa blýskalo, ó, bol skrátka vystrašený na smrť. Skrýval sa pod stoly, kamkoľvek, keď sa blýskalo.
A raz večer prišla búrka, tam na farme, kde žili, a stromy sa ohýbali od vetra, blýskalo sa, nastávala noc. Mama povedala tomu synovi, povedala, „No, synu, choď hore do izby a ľahni si spať.“ Povedala, „No, neboj sa. Choď tam hore.“
99A tak chlapec, oblečený v pyžame šiel hore po schodoch, obzeral sa na ňu, zdalo sa, že sa rozplače. Uložil sa, pokúšal sa zaspať, prikrýval si hlavu. Nedokázal zaspať; tie blýskajúce blesky okolo okna. A tak povedal, „Ó, mama,“ povedal, „poď sem hore a spi so mnou.“
Nuž, ona povedala, „Synu, nič sa neboj. To blýskanie ti nemôže ublížiť.
Povedal, „Ale mama, poď sem hore a spi so mnou.“
100A tak mama vyšla hore po schodoch a ľahla si ku svojmu synovi. A povedala, „Chlapče, môj malý synu, mama ti chce niečo povedať.“ Povedala, „Vieš, my sme Kresťanská rodina. Veríme v Boha a veríme tomu, že Boh nás ochraňuje v búrkach. Veríme tomu. A veríme, že Boh sa stará o Svoje vlastné.“ A povedala, „Chcem, aby si tomu veril, synu. Že sa nemusíš báť. Boh je s nami a On nás ochráni.“
101Chlapec trochu zafňukal a povedal, „Mama, ja tomu tiež verím.“ Povedal, „Ale, keď je ten blesk tak blízko pri okne, chcem cítiť Boha, ktorý má na sebe kožu.”
Tak, myslím, že mnoho z nás dospelých si myslí tak isto. Boh, s kožou na Sebe! [Prázdne miesto na páske. - pozn.prekl.] Boh, s kožou na Sebe! Pre svet to môže znieť ako bláznovstvo (matica), ale to priťahuje všetkých ľudí k Nemu.
Modlime sa.
102Nebeský Otče, ako tie malé príbehy o zážitkoch a niekedy sa stanú z nejakého dôvodu. A aj keď je to tak drsné, ako to je, jednako tomu rozumieme v jazyku, v akom sa to stalo. A tak Ti dnes večer ďakujeme, Pane, že Boh môže Sám Seba ubytovať v nás. Sme vďační, že tam bolo učinené zmierenie, Krv Toho spravodlivého, Ježiša; ktorý bol plnosťou Boha, plnosťou Božstva telesne, že obetoval Svoj vzácny Život; nebol Mu vzatý, ale On Ho obetoval úmyselne, aby sme si Ho my mohli užívať v plnosti Jeho Prítomnosti, v Sláve Shekinah, v ktorej žil; aby naše duše mohli byť posvätené tou Krvou, aby v nás mohol žiť Sám veľký Duch Svätý. A my sme sa stali učiteľmi, prorokmi, a tak ďalej, pre ľudí, pre tých, Pane, ktorí sú v potrebe; Božími darmi; Sám Boh sa prejavuje, vyžaruje veľké Božie dary v prítomnosti tohto moderného veku.
103A tento hrubý výraz, Pane, byť bláznom. A vieme, že v tomto dni sa niekedy používa, keď sa svet dostáva do starých koľají, tak ako aj cirkev dnes, že sa stačí len pripojiť do nových cirkví a do nových denominácií. A človek, ktorý ide vpred so Slovom, je považovaný za blázna, za šialenca. Ako veľký apoštol Pavol, ktorý bol vyškolený, aby bol teológom, kňazom, a jednako povedal, že sa stal bláznom pre slávu Božiu. Opustil svoje vzdelanie, aby ľudia mohli... počúvať jeho vznešené vyleštené slová. A on povedal, že neprišiel s očarujúcimi slovami a ľudskou múdrosťou, aby ich viera nebola v niečom takom. Ako sa ku tomu dnes cirkev obrátila, ako prorokoval, „Po mojom odchode vojdú do vnútra vlci, ktorí nebudú šetriť stáda.“ Ale povedal, že k nim prišiel „v moci a dôkazoch Svätého Ducha,“ aby ich viera bola v Boha. Otče, on sa stal bláznom pre svet, aby poznal Ježiša.
104A tak to my robíme dnes, Pane. Sedia tu ľudia, ktorí sú považovaní za bláznov, pretože sú pripravení veriť Bohu, za ich uzdravenie, za ich Večné miesto určenia. Riskujú, že stratia svoju povesť, keď Ho uctievajú. Ďakujú Mu, chvália Ho, dávajú slobodu svojmu duchu, aby ctili Boha; sú považovaní za bláznov. Ale Ty si povedal, že „bláznovstvo Božie,“ ak sme blázni, „je silnejšie a múdrejšie, než ľudská múdrosť; lebo ľudia skrze múdrosť nepoznali Boha. Ale skrze bláznovstvo kázne, to sa zaľúbilo Bohu, aby spasil tých, ktorí boli zachrániteľní.“ Modlíme sa, Bože, aby dnes večer prišiel Ten veľký Autor tohto Slova a uzdravil nemocných, zachránil stratených. Prosíme o to v Ježišovom Mene. Amen.
105Ja prirovnávam Boha, takže nebudete popletení v tom, čo som dnes hovoril; Boh je veľký Diamant, Večný.
A keď je diamant vydolovaný z modrých afrických kameňov, bol som v baniach a pozoroval ich vo veľkom... ako to spracovávali a dolovali diamanty, ako prechádzali cez drvič, veľké modré ohnivé diamanty a vydolovali čierne diamanty. Nemajú veľmi tvar, určitý tvar. Sú to len veľké kamene. A skutočne v sebe v tom čase nemajú žiaden oheň. Sú to len diamanty, kamene; okrúhle a hladké, mnohé z nich. Ale tento diamant musí byť osekaný. No, mať nejaký, ktorý nebol osekaný, je protizákonné. Musí byť osekaný a potom musíte mať potvrdenie, kde ste ho vydolovali, pretože sú v nich milióny dolárov.
A ja prirovnávam Boha ku tomu diamantu.
106Nuž, diamant je osekaný tak, že bude odzrkadľovať to, čo je v jeho vnútri, oheň, ktorý je v diamante. A to musí byť osekané v každom malom smere, každý malý tvar, tri body. Umiestnite do diamantu tri body a svetlo svietiace do toho trojbodového objektu vydá sedem farieb, rozumiete, vytvorí sedem farieb.
107A teraz si všimnite, „Boh bol ranený pre naše prestúpenia, zdrtený pre naše neprávosti.“ Vidíte, On bol osekaný, zdrtený, Ten veľký Diamant, aby z Neho mohli byť odzrkadlené dary pre Cirkev.
A to nie je svetlo; pretože svetlo sa musí vrátiť späť, keď je slnko mimo z jeho dosahu, tam, odkiaľ to bolo odseknuté.
Ale každý malý kúsoček, ktorý pochádza z toho odštiepenia, nie je zničený; všetko sa využije. Mnohé z nich sú spracované pre ihly Victrola [Diamantové gramofónové ihly. - pozn.prekl.] A tie ihly, ktoré boli odštiepené z diamantu, prinášajú hudbu, ktorá bola uzavretá do platne.
108A dúfam, že rozumiete, čo tým myslím. Úlomok z Krista, dar od Krista priložený na Bibliu, rozpráva skryté tajomstvá Božie pre veriaceho. On pozná tajomstvá srdca. Pozná každú osobu. Veríte tomu?
Keby hovoril, „Vidíte, čo som?“ Tak by to nebol diamant. Ide o to, odkiaľ pochádza. Diamant je diamantom, pretože je z diamantu.
109A takto je to s darmi Ducha... pre osobu, to je časť toho Diamantu. To je poslané a prinesené dole, a prevedené do daru, aby vykladalo, aby kázalo, aby vyučovalo. Je päť duchovných darov; apoštoli, proroci, učitelia, pastori, evanjelisti a oni všetci sú na vzdelávanie Tela Kristovho. A rovnako, ako sú tu učitelia a pastori, musia tu byť proroci. Vieme to.
110A veríme, že Boh sa v posledných dňoch má prejaviť medzi Svojím ľudom, pre to vyvolené Semeno, podľa Biblie, vo forme proroka. To je presne podľa Slova. Nie, že ten človek je Boh, ale že ten dar je Boh. Rozumiete? A to je ihla.
No, špendlík nebude hrať tú platňu správne. Obyčajná ihla na šitie to nebude hrať správne. Ale diamantová, tá je najlepšia. Prináša to jasne, ihla s diamantovým hrotom.
111Nech Boh dnes večer... Platňa vášho života, čokoľvek je s vami v neporiadku, čokoľvek, po čom túžite od Boha, nech Ten veľký Majster, ktorý drží ihlu vo Svojej ruke, nech ju On položí na váš život a odhalí nám, kvôli čomu ste tu, čo chcete; potom budeme vedieť, že On je tu.
112Nebeský Otče, udelíš to prv, ako sa začnem modliť za chorých, nemám toto v úmysle robiť, ale udelíš to, aby ľudia mohli vedieť? Možno sú tu neznámi ľudia, za ktorých sa máme modliť. Ja ich nepoznám, ale Ty áno. A Pavol povedal, „Ak hovoríte v jazykoch a nie je tam výklad, alebo to nedáva žiadne poučenie, ľudia budú hovoriť, že ste šialení. Ale ak človek prorokuje a odhaľuje, čo je na srdci, potom budú hovoriť, 'Skutočne je Boh s vami.'“ Dovoľ, Pane, nech sa to v tejto poslednej hodine zopakuje. Ty si to zasľúbil, a preto sa to musí stať. V Mene Ježiša Krista. Amen.
113Teraz som zvedavý, koľko je tu dnes večer nemocných ľudí? Alebo rozdával Billy modlitebné...? Sú rozdané nejaké modlitebné karty? [Bratia hovoria, „Áno.“ - pozn.prekl.] Sú. No, predpokladám, že každá chorá osoba má modlitebnú kartu, ale ja neviem, čo ste na ňu napísali. Myslím, že on vám len dáva kartu; vy na ňu napíšete, čo chcete. Je to tak? Len ste dostali kartu; napíšte na ňu, čokoľvek chcete.
114Nepoznám vás. Koľkí z vás tu vedia, že vás nepoznám, a predsa ste chorí a mohli by ste povedať toto, „Čo som ťa to dnes počul hovoriť, 'Boh za kožami. Boh zahaľujúci Sa za ľudskou kožou'“? Ale ak máte duchovné oči, môžete ich otvoriť a vidieť Ho, vidieť, Kto On je. A vy tomu veríte. Ježiš povedal, „Ten, kto verí vo Mňa, skutky, ktoré Ja činím, bude aj on činiť; a viac než tie bude činiť, lebo Ja idem k Otcovi.“ No, ak veríte z celého vášho srdca!
115Koľkí z vás sú tu, ktorí sú nemocní a vedia, že vás nepoznám, neviem, čo je s vami v neporiadku? Len zodvihnite svoju ruku a povedzte, „Som nemocný. Mám potrebu.“ Koľkí majú túžby vo svojom srdci, nie sú nemocní, ale majú túžby? Viete, čo som... V poriadku. Z tých, ktorí zodvihli ruku, ako vidím, nie je nikto, koho poznám.
116Poznám tohto muža, ktorý tu sedí. Som si istý, že je to brat James, a myslím, že toto je sestra James. Brat Ben, poznám ho. Len vaše tváre, niekedy; brat fotografuje. Ale...
Nech niekto tu vzadu, kdekoľvek, nech len... robím takúto výzvu na základe tohoto posolstva, na záver.
117Viete o tom, že Boh zasľúbil, aby sa toto v posledných dňoch stalo? On učinil zasľúbenie. Rozumiete? Ja teraz nemôžem urobiť, aby sa to stalo. Rozumiete, ja to nedokážem urobiť. On to musí urobiť. On je Ten Jediný, ktorý to robí; nie ja. Ale ja v Neho verím, inak by som tu nestál a nehovoril vám niečo, v čo by som neveril. No, modlite sa a povedzte, „Pane Ježišu, z Biblie som sa naučil, že Ty si práve teraz Veľkňazom, ktorý môže byť dotknutý, tým, že cítiš s nami v našich slabostiach.“ Nestarám sa o to, kde sa nachádzate. Povedzte len, „Verím Ti. A skrze vieru verím tomu, čo ten muž dnes hovoril.“
118To je to, čo mi povedal ten Anjel, „Dostaň ľudí do toho, aby ti verili.“ A ak som hovoril Slovo Božie, už to nie je „veriť mne,“ je to „veriť Slovu.“
Ak to nepasuje so Slovom, potom tomu neverte. Ale ak veríte, že je to Slovo, potom, čokoľvek to je, modlite sa, verte a uvidíte, či On stále môže odhaliť to, čo je vo vašom srdci.
119A každý vie, že Biblia povedala, že, „Slovo Božie je ostrejšie ako dvojsečný meč a rozoznáva myšlienky a zámery srdca.“
To je spôsob, ako Abrahám vedel, že To bol Boh, keď mohol povedať Sáre to, čo hovorila vzadu v stane, čo si o tom myslela; keď povedal, „Navštívim ťa,“ a Sára si pomyslela vo svojom srdci, „To tak nemôže byť.“
120No, povedal som, že On je tu, aby vás uzdravil. Čo si o tom myslíte? Ak len budete veriť! No, nemôžem, nemám nejaký spôsob; Nebeský Otec to vie. Rozumiete? Ja to musím vidieť. A to, čo vidím, rozprávam; a to, čo nevidím, samozrejme, nemôžem povedať. Ale On je práve tak Bohom! Zvýšilo by to vašu vieru, ak by to On urobil?
Kázať takto, to ma trocha vyvádza z miery. Ale On je tu. Som si toho vedomý.
121Pozorujem muža, ako sklonil svoju hlavu, rovno tu vzadu. Jeho žena sedí vedľa neho, tiež sa modlí. Priamo tam. Máš niečo na srdci. Tvoja žena sa modlí. Máš na svojom srdci bremeno. Je to kvôli tvojej svokre. To je pravda. Veríš, že mi Boh môže povedať o tom, čo je v neporiadku s tvojou svokrou? Nepoznám ťa. Sme si navzájom cudzí. Takže, je to pravda? Veríš, že mi Boh môže povedať o tom, čo je s ňou v neporiadku? Ona tu nie je. Vidím veľkú vzdialenosť; ona sa nachádza odtiaľto na východe. Ona je v Ohio... To je pravda. Trpí chorobou krvi. Nech tvoja žena vezme tú vreckovku, do ktorej plače, a položí ju na ňu. Nepochybuj; ona vyzdravie. Veríš tomu?
122 Je tu malá dáma, ktorá sedí rovno tu predo mnou. Plače. Niečo je v neporiadku s dieťaťom, neviem... Nie, nie je tam nič v neporiadku. Má iba túžbu. Túži prijať krst Duchom Svätým. To je TAK HOVORÍ PÁN. Ver, dieťa, prijmeš To. To je pravda.
Nepochybuj.
123Je tu dáma, ktorá sedí tu na konci radu. Modlí sa. Som pre ňu cudzí, ale ona je zatienená. Mala si operácie. Ak sme si navzájom cudzí, mám ten dojem. Nepoznám ťa. Ty ma nepoznáš, iba si o mne možno len počula. Nie si odtiaľto. Si medzi nami cudzia. Si z Wisconsin. To mesto je Milwaukee. A tvoj problém je rakovina; nachádza sa na prsníku. Operácia za operáciou, avšak bez úspechu. Nech viera, ktorá sa dotkla lemu Jeho rúcha, nech tomu hneď teraz verí. Ponor to do svojho srdca; stane sa to. Maj vieru!
124Muž, ktorý sedí tu v rohu. Modlí sa za svoju matku. On je pre mňa cudzí. Nepoznám ho. Ale on sa modlí za svoju matku. A jeho matka má to isté, ako táto žena, rakovinu. Alebo je z toho vystrašená, to je to. Je tu človek, za ktorého sa modlíš, a ten muž má problémy s chrbticou. On je tiež, vidím ho pod vplyvom alkoholu. On je alkoholik. Tvoj brat. Ty nie si odtiaľto. Si z Illinois. Veríš, že mi Boh môže povedať, ako sa voláš? Farmer. Je to pravda? Pozdvihni svoju ruku. Ver!
125Je tu niekto, kto nad niekým kľačí, modlí sa, niekto leží na lôžku. V poriadku. Veríš tomu, čo si počula, že to je Pravda, pani? Áno, veríš. Ak by som ťa mohol uzdraviť, prišiel by som to urobiť. Ale ty si už uzdravená Kristom, rozumieš. Len tomu musíš veriť. Tá pani tam stojí, modlí sa, modlila sa za teba, aby si bola dotknutá. Nepoznám ťa, ale Boh ťa pozná. Vy tiež nie ste z tohto mesta. To je pravda. Si z Illinois. To je presne tak. To mesto sa volá East Moline, Illinois. [Sestra hovorí, „To je mesto, kde som sa narodila.“ - pozn.prekl.] Trpíš rakovinou. Si žena kazateľa. Veríš? [„Áno.“ - pozn.prekl.] Zomrieš, keď tam budeš ležať. Prečo Ho dnes večer neprijmeš, a povedz, „Môžem vo svojom srdci, so svojou vierou nad čímkoľvek, čo je tu, verím, že som uzdravená. Som v Prítomnosti Božej.“ Vstaň, ver a choď domov a buď uzdravená. Tu ju máte.
Veríte z celých vašich sŕdc? [Zhromaždenie sa raduje. - pozn.prekl.] Chváľme Boha.
126Nebeský Otče, ďakujeme Ti za všetku Tvoju dobrotu a milosrdenstvo. Ďakujeme Ti za to, že si stále tu, rovno v strede všetkých týchto problémov. V tomto svete, ktorý je prevrátený, avšak Ty si tu. Nech Tvoj Duch, Pane, stále zostáva s nami. Vidíme, že Ty si tu, Boh s kožou na Sebe, v ľudských srdciach; dávaš vieru, zjavenie a videnia. Si Bohom vo Svojej Cirkvi, Boh vo Svojich ľuďoch. Ďakujeme Ti za to, Pane. A nech dnes večer každý verí, jednomyseľne, a nech môžu byť uzdravení. Modlím sa skrze Meno Ježiša Krista. Amen.
127Koľkí z vás tam na tej strane majú modlitebné karty? Nech sa tí, ktorí sú na tamtej strane, vrátia, poďte rovno stredom tejto uličky. Tí, ktorí ste v tejto uličke, vyjdite rovno týmto smerom, len zaujmite svoje miesto, vyjdite rovno týmto smerom. Nech sú, akonáhle skončia, táto rada sa napojí z druhej strany.
128Starší, príďte sem. Brat Roy, nech ťa Pán žehná; nevedel som, že tu sedíš. Chcem, aby sem prišli hneď diakoni zboru, ak sa sem môžu dostať odtiaľ, kde sa nachádzajú. Príďte sem trochu pomôcť.
Chcem, aby každý, za koho sa budem modliť, aby zodvihol ruku, opakujte po mne toto.
Pane, [Zhromaždenie hovorí, „Pane,“ - pozn.prekl.] verím. [„Verím.“ - pozn.prekl.] Pomôž mojej nevere. [„Pomôž mojej nevere.“] Verím, [„Verím,“] že v Tvojej Prítomnosti, [„že v Tvojej Prítomnosti,“] ako nasledujem Tvoje Slovo, [„ako nasledujem Tvoje Slovo,“] a moje... a položia na mňa dnes večer ruky, [„a položia na mňa dnes večer ruky“] prijmem svoje uzdravenie, [„prijmem svoje uzdravenie,“] v Ježišovom Mene. [„v Ježišovom Mene.“] Amen. [„Amen.“] Nech vás Boh žehná.
129Teraz dávajte pozor. „Modlitba viery uzdraví chorého. Ak položia ruky na nemocných, budú sa mať dobre.“ On povedal Noachovi, že bude pršať. To nikdy – On nikdy... Nikdy som nepovedal, „Akonáhle – keď ste sa za to modlili, budete sa mať dobre.“ On povedal, „Budú sa mať dobre.“
130On povedal Noachovi, že bude pršať. Vôbec nepršalo po dobu stodvadsiatich rokov, ale potom pršalo.
On povedal Abrahámovi, že bude mať so Sárou dieťa. To sa vôbec nestalo po dobu dvadsaťpäť rokov, ale potom ho mal.
Povedal Izaiášovi, že panna počne. Vôbec sa to nestalo po dobu osemsto rokov, ale ona potom počala.
Je to pravda? On to zasľúbil! Nezáleží na tom, ako dlho to trvá, On to v každom prípade urobí. Veríte tomu?
131Prichádzajte teraz. Nech brat Capps vedie piesne. Vy privádzajte ľudí s modlitebnými kartami. No, nech sa teraz každý modlí.
132Náš Nebeský Otče, počúvneme Tvoje prikázania o kladení rúk na týchto nemocných ľudí. Neviem, akú inú vec by si mohol urobiť, Pane, lebo Ty si vo Svojom Slove povedal, že si vykúpil ich uzdravenie. Dokázal si, že si tu dnes večer s nami, Slovo, ktoré dokáže rozpoznávať myšlienky, ktoré sú v srdci. Dokázal si to, že si medzi nami. A modlím sa ku Tebe, Otče, aby sa Tvoje Slovo, ktoré nemôže zlyhať, stalo tak skutočným pre každé srdce! Ako si povedal, „Ak tomu môžete veriť; nepochybujete, ale veríte tomu; povedzte tomuto vrchu, 'Pohni sa' a nepochybujte, ale verte tomu, že sa to stane!“ On nepovedal kedy.
133Ty si povedal ľuďom na Letnice, aby išli tam hore a čakali. Nepovedal si hodiny, dni; povedal si, „až kým.“ Teraz oni prichádzajú prijať svoje uzdravenie. Nech nikdy nepremýšľajú o ničom inom, než o ich uzdravení, až kým sa nedostaví vyslobodenie. Sme Ti poslušní, tým, že kladieme na nich ruky ako veriaci. V Mene Ježiša Krista. Amen.
134V poriadku, príďte hneď teraz. [Brat Branham a bratia kladú na ľudí ruky a modlia sa za každého v modlitebnom rade. - pozn.prekl.] [Prázdne miesto na páske. - pozn.prekl.] Ste uzdravení. Nech vás Boh žehná. To je dobre. [Prázdne miesto na páske. - pozn.prekl.]
Všetko je možné, len ver;
Len ver, len ver;
Všetko...
Pane Ježišu, modlím sa teraz za tieto vreckovky v Mene Ježiša Krista. Amen.
Zaujímalo by ma, či by sme mohli zmeniť tie slová:
Teraz verím, teraz verím;
Všetko je možné, teraz verím;
Teraz verím, teraz verím;
Všetko je možné, teraz verím.
135Veríte tomu, že to, za čo ste prosili a žiadali, vám bude dané? [Zhromaždenie hovorí, „Amen.“ - pozn.prekl.] Stane sa to.
136Pred chvíľou som videl prechádzať v rade ľudí, za ktorých sme sa modlili, zopár mojich talianskych priateľov z Chicaga. Koľkí z vás poznajú sestru Bottazzi z Chicaga? No, viete, nedávno mala duševné, nervové zrútenie, veľmi, veľmi zlé. Ale ráno v Chicagu na raňajkách Kresťanských Obchodníkov som povedal tej sestre pod inšpiráciou Ducha Svätého. Ona sa vrátila na jednu stranu a skrátka sa nemohla spamätať. A povedal som, „Sestra, nedostaneš sa z toho hneď, ale budeš v poriadku.“ Povedal som, „Bude to buď za osemnásť mesiacov, alebo za dva roky, presne v tomto čase budeš uzdravená.“
137Nedávno, keď som s ňou hovoril... Počul som, ako svedčila, tak šťastná, najšťastnejšia, aká kedy v celom svojom živote bola. Išla v aute. Nemala pokoja, vyzeralo to, že Prítomnosť Božia sa od nej odchýlila; samozrejme, bola to duševná nervozita, viete; a zrazu sa vrátila s veľkým prílivom radosti a bola na nej moc Ducha Svätého. Ona plakala a kričala a mala... Mali skrátka ohromný čas, asi pred tromi alebo štyrmi týždňami, alebo pred mesiacom. A minulú nedeľu som počul jej svedectvo a povedala, „Brat Branham, keď som sa vrátila, zaznačila som si to a vzala si tú pásku. A bolo to presne osemnásť mesiacov od toho dňa.“ Amen.
Milujete Ho? [Zhromaždenie hovorí, „Amen.“ - pozn.prekl.] Či nie je On úžasný? [„Amen.“]
138No, Ten istý Svätý Duch, ktorý dokáže presne predpovedať, bez jediného minutia, po všetky tieto roky; a skrze Svoje Slovo sa vám dnes snaží odhaliť, že Boh nie je nejaký vzdialený objekt, alebo nejaké historické niečo. On žije v prítomnom čase a Jeho Slovo sa manifestuje. Schoval sa za ľudskou oponou vo Svojej Cirkvi, odhaľuje Samého Seba skrze vašu vieru a moju vieru, spoločne, prichádzame spoločne, vytvárame jednotu Božiu. Bez vás nemôžem robiť nič; vy nemôžete robiť nič bezo mňa; nikto nemôže robiť nič bez Boha. A tak, spoločne to vytvára jednotu, spojenie. Boh ma poslal za tým účelom; veríte tomu; a tu sa to deje. To je práve to, vidíte, dokonale potvrdené.
Nestarám sa o to, čo s vami nie je v poriadku, čo ktokoľvek povedal; ak zo svojho srdca veríte, že budete zdraví, nikdy to nič nemôže zastaviť. On tak povedal. A On povedal, „Nebo i zem pominú, ale Moje Slová nepominú.“ Veríte tomu? [Zhromaždenie hovorí, „Amen.“ - pozn.prekl.]
139Koľkí z vás sa budú za mňa modliť na ďalších zhromaždeniach, keď odídem? [Zhromaždenie hovorí, „Amen.“ - pozn.prekl.] Som ten, kto potrebuje modlitbu. Rozumiete? Všetci ma odmietli, rozumiete, okrem vás, ešte tam vonku leží Semeno.
140Poslal som list do Južnej Afriky. Oni mi nedovolia prísť, ak nepodpíšem papier, že „budem krstiť na túto stranu, každého tri razy; raz na Otca, raz na Syna a Svätého Ducha, tvárou dopredu. A na druhú stranu, dozadu, raz na Otca... A učiť, že to je Náuka.“
Napísal som im list. Povedal som, „Duch Svätý sa za posledných pár rokov snaží dostať ma znova do Afriky. Chce použiť moju službu tam, kde v to jedno popoludnie prijalo Krista tridsať tisíc ľudí.“ Povedal som, „Pamätajte, krv tých duší je na vás, nie na mne. Ja som sa pokúšal prísť, ale vy ste to nechceli urobiť.“
Som zvedavý, aké to bude v tomto dni, keď bol Ježiš, Syn Boží vypudený z cirkvi, Slovo bolo odmietnuté? Ale v tom všetkom, On sa stále dáva poznať Svojim ľuďom. Nie ste za to vďační? [Zhromaždenie hovorí, „Amen.“ - pozn.prekl.]
141A prešiel som dnes večer okolo, kládol som na nich ruky, na nejaké ženy v pokročilom veku, na nejaké mladšie, na niektoré staré, na niektorých mladých mužov, na starých mužov, boli práve tak premočení a mokrí, ako som ja. Pomyslel som si, „Sedia tam, sedia tam a počúvajú na Slovo, o ktorom si zvyšok sveta myslí, že je bláznivé.“ Rozumiete? Oni sú skrutkou. Rozumiete, Boh je tu, aby to spojil závitom, aby vás vykrútil rovno z vašej choroby. To je zasľúbenie Slova. Len si pamätajte, to sa začne uťahovať, „Ja ich potiahnem; keď budem vyvýšený, potiahnem ich.“ On to z vás vytiahne. On to skutočne urobí. Len Mu verte, majte v Neho vieru. Nepochybujte o Ňom. Verte Mu.
142Modlite sa za mňa. Ak nemáte niekoho iného, za koho sa modliť, len si na mňa spomeňte.
A potom, až sa zídeme! Až sa zídeme!
Až sa zídeme...
Ďakujem, že prichádzate z ďaleka. Nech vás Boh ochraňuje, keď pôjdete domov!
Až sa...
Pozdravte všetkých Kresťanov, zdravíme ich z tejto skupiny tu. Nech je na vás Boží pokoj! Shalom!
Boh buď s vami, až sa zídeme zas!
[Brat Branham si začína hmkať „Boh buď s vami.“ - pozn.prekl.]
... až sa zídeme!
Až sa zídeme pri Ježišových nohách;
Až sa zídeme! Až sa zídeme!
Boh buď s vami, až sa zídeme zas!
143Som tak šťastný. Vidíte, je tu mnoho vecí, ktoré neviem, ale sú tu nejaké veci, ktoré viem. Som za vás tak vďačný. Som tak rád, že som ku vám pridružený. Som tak rád, že som jeden z vás. Boh buď s vami. On bude. On vás nikdy neopustí. On vás nikdy nezanechá. Neopustí vás. Vy ste sa teraz prelomili za oponu. Rozumiete?
144Som tak rád, že dnes večer vidím brata Palmera, jedného z našich pridružených pastorov tu z Georgie. Brat Junior Jackson je niekde v budove, vzadu v rohu, sme radi, že ho máme. Brat Don Ruddell sedí tamto. Ó, tak veľa! Neviem, či som niekoho nevynechal... Tu brat Ben Bryant a mnoho ostatných, ktorí sú tu, skvelý brat, Wilbur Collins. Sme tak šťastní, že vás tu všetkých máme.
Zaujímalo by ma, či by sme sa len mohli postaviť na nohy, teraz len na chvíľu. Skloňme teraz naše hlavy.
Až sa zídeme!
Až sa zídeme pri Ježišových nohách; až sa zídeme!
... až sa zídeme!
Boh buď s vami, až sa zídeme zas!
145Cítite tú blízkosť obecenstva s Duchom?
Hmkajme to. [Brat Branham a zhromaždenie začína hmkať pieseň, „Boh buď s vami“. - pozn.prekl.]
Všimol som si brata McKinney z Ohia, ktorý je tu s nami. Brat John Martin a jeho brat.
Sme tak radi, že vás tu všetkých máme. Nemohol som vás ani vidieť, bratia. On vás pozná.
Až sa zídeme! Nech sú moje a vaše srdcia v jednote s Božím srdcom, až sa zídeme zas! [Brat Branham a zhromaždenie pokračujú v pohmkávaní piesne, „Boh buď s vami.“ - pozn.prekl.]
Rád by som niekoho poprosil o rozpustenie. [Brat Branham sa rozpráva s bratmi. - pozn.prekl.]
Kým teraz skloníme naše hlavy v modlitbe.
146Snažím sa dať vedieť každému kazateľovi, že sme radi, za vás, že tu boli, za všetkých laikov, za vás, ľudia z Tennessee, z Ohio a zo všadiaľ po celej krajine. Stretol som tam dnes niektoré ženy až z Bostonu. Dnes ráno tu boli naši farební bratia, ktorí sú tiež odtiaľ zhora. Mnohí z rozličných častí krajiny; ďakujem vám, moji drahí verní priatelia. Boh buď s vami. Nazývam vás mojimi priateľmi. Spomínate si, čo o tom povedal Ježiš? „Bližší ešte ako brat,“ áno, priatelia. Zatiaľ čo teraz skloníme hlavy... Kým sa znova stretneme za týchto nasledujúcich pár dní, Boh buď s vami.
147Poprosím nášho dobrého, verného brata, brata Richarda Blaira, či nás nerozpustí v slove modlitby. Brat Blair.
1 Let us remain standing just a moment. Precious Lord, we come to Thy Divine presence again by the way of prayer; first, to give thanks for all that You have done for us, and for the great love in our heart for Thee and Thy Word. Lord, these people, tonight, that I love with all my heart, they have sacrificed and come to set in a hot room, and whatmore, because they love Thy Word.
2And we come to pray for the sick, tonight, Lord, and the needy. May there not be a feeble person in our midst at the end of this service. Reward them for their faithfulness, Lord. Speak to us through Thy Word, and strengthen us, Lord, as we go, bearing the reproach. What a privilege to do this! We ask in Jesus' Name. Amen. May be seated.
3 I could not find words, of course, to express my gratitude towards a group of people like this, that would come and set in this building. I want to say, that, tomorrow... Or, we're going to go to over to Topeka, Kansas, for the next meeting, and that'll end up the following Sunday. And then we go, from there, to Philadelphia.
And, now, we're supposed to be going overseas, over to Kenya, and Tanganyika, and Uganda, in the--the tribes in there. And they're having a little uprise now with the Mau Maus. I can't get in as a missionary, but I'm going to try to get in as a hunter. Go in, and they're fixing up.
4Usually, I go in as a missionary and go hunting, this time I'm going as to go hunting, and be a missionary. So, there--there, any way to get in there to them. And Brother Mattsson-Boze is then on the job, trying to get me in, to fix a safari that I come in to go hunting. Well, then, I come in on this safari, then he's going to say, "Our Brother Branham is in the land." Go down to the embassy, "Would it be all right if we just held a little meeting out here?" See? That gets it started then, and just keep it rolling. So we don't know whether it's going to be, we're going to be able to do that, or not. We're trying. And I have asked the Lord, if something happens that he can't, then it'll be a sign to me that I'm to come back here to Jeffersonville and preach the Seven Trumpets, along July or August, somewhere along in there.
5 And then, if we do, we're seeing today, we're going to try to get this schoolroom here that's air-conditioned, 'cause it'd be real nice and cool. Seats fifteen- to eighteen-hundred people. And it's air-conditioned, a brand new place, just about five squares above this. And one time we asked for it, and they wouldn't let us have it. And the man that wouldn't let us have it was throwed off the board. So now, the man that's on there now says we can have it any time we want it. So we are--we are very happy to get it. And so we may be able to get that now, and sometime in July, and have... How many would be praying, if the Lord's will now, if something turns us down? [Congregation says, "Amen."--Ed.]
6 You know, I like Arizona. It's a wonderful country. I've always longed to be there.
If you'll push that up a little bit, Brother Ben, if you will, if it's... Oh, that... Yes, sir. Yes. Or, ever who is on it, will step it up just a little bit, 'cause I'm coming back out of that real... [Someone says, "Tape, brothers."--Ed.] What say? ["That's just the tapes."] Oh, just the tapes. Oh, here is the other one up here. I'm sorry. Okay, Brother Ben. So I...
7Coming back from Arizona, coming in here, it makes me just a little bit hoarse, because of a change in climate. Here we have about eighty-seven to ninety, and sometime a hundred percent, humidity. And there it gets to zero, and then sometimes, on a average, one-twentieth of one percent humidity. You're just living under an oxygen tent. And then come out from under that, to here, you know what a great difference it makes in you. So it does bother you in the voice, and so forth.
Pull it where it was at, if you will, Brother Ben. I made a mistake in pulling it out. I thought that was, but up here is where they step it up at.
8 Now pray for us, every one of you. I do appreciate you. Billy was telling me of somebody brought us a basket of peaches, and just little gifts that you... I just can't thank you enough. I--I don't know how to do it. And I--I feel so unworthy to take things like that from you. I pray God will bless you, and I know He will, for He said, "Insomuch as you do unto the least of these, you have done it to Me." And God will bless you, I am sure.
9And Arizona being such a nice country, there is one thing that I miss, that's, you all. That's right. I miss you all. I--I don't care where I go, I--I... it ain't, it isn't you. I have friends, everywhere around the world, but it--it isn't--it isn't you all. There is something about this little group that just... I don't know. I think about them.
10And at Tucson, it's a tourist city, you know, and the churches are pulling, you know. It's kind of hard. Not very spiritual; and, because there is competition, is very strong; and it makes it hard. If I could have all of you all, plus the church, then live out there, I guess it'd be all right. See? But I suppose, as long as this stays a church, and you all is still coming, I'll still be here, until Jesus comes.
11 So pray for me, as I said a while ago. I don't mean to repeat it, but when I get before you, I--I get nervous, and I get melancholy, and sentimental, and temperamental, too. I am that, to begin with, so I... it makes me all tore up inside. But to know that wherever I can go... I haven't a--a group on earth, that I know of, that sticks by me like this group. May--may God let us be so inseparable, that, in the Kingdom that is to come, may we be there together; my prayer.
12Setting here at the door, talking to Bill Dauch just a moment ago 'fore leading someone back to Christ, again, in the other room. But setting there talking to him, ninety-one years old, he said, "I--I'm getting weak. My eyes are not like they should be."
And I think, a couple years ago, I come to him when he had a complete heart failure and heart block, was dying. And the very doctor that was doctoring him, that said he couldn't get well, the doctor is dead. And here sets Bill Dauch, see, of ninety-one years old. I said, "Bill, you are no more use in the earth as far as working and things like that. But I'm asking this, 'God give you strength,' because you love the meetings so well." That ninety-one-year-old man crosses the nation in a automobile, hot, dry, cold, indifference, anything it is, to hear the Word. God bless that gallant soul. Now I haven't...
13 I've got one more apology, of keeping you the way I did this morning, on a three hour. And I didn't do justice to the message, because I cut it up, and left part of it, and skipped part of it, and so forth. That's the reason I told them to hold the tape. Let me get it again somewhere where it's cool or something. And I--I--I could feel the Spirit, but I'm looking at you and knowing you're fanning and knowing you're hot, and--and that just tears me to pieces. I don't want you to suffer; I--I want you to be comfortable. See? And that wearies me.
14Like, I see sick people; if I can't--if I can't feel for those sick people, I can't do them no good. I--I've got to feel for them. And the same way with--with you; I--I've got to feel for you, or I can't be your brother. See? I--I got to feel for you. And, I do that; God knows that that's true.
15 And now, tonight, I'll give to praying for the sick.
And I want to... man, and bless these man, and Brother Collins, and Hickerson, Brother Neville, Brother Capps, the trustees, and all, for the fine reports that's been coming, of how you're orderly, setting the church, and how everything is be coming into its right position. I'm grateful to you man. The Lord bless you for trying to carry out an order. And letter after letter comes into Tucson, to me, "Brother Branham, it's not like it used to be. It's so much different, such a blessed feeling of the Presence of God." And I'm--I'm grateful for that. The Lord ever bless you!
16 Then, now, tonight, I was reading here in the Scripture a little place, to--to maybe set out a few words, to speak and read a Scripture, and then maybe a couple Scriptures, then talk to you for a few moments and then pray for the sick. Not but just a few moments; I'm watching the clock, and I'll try to make it just as quick as possible. But I do think that when a crowd of people are gathered together, without reading the Word or doing something, some exhortation, the meeting wouldn't be complete.
17Many of you has waited. Many of you has got miles of travel yet tonight. How I admire that! How I look and see each one, and think about... There in Arizona, I think, "When I see him again, I'm going to walk right down and shake his hand and hug his neck." And here you are setting here, and who, where can I, you know? Don't know which one to start at, and which... how to get out of it. But, yeah, I love you. God loves you, too.
18 Now I think, if I'm not mistaken, if I haven't got the--the wrong Scripture laying out here, I want to read out of First Corinthians, the 1st chapter, beginning with the 18th verse, and also read Second Corinthians 12:11, to take a text. Now if I can find those right quick, and then we'll read, and then pray and start right in, just speaking to you for a few minutes on a little subject. In First Corinthians, the 1st chapter, beginning with the 18th verse.
For the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness; but to us which are saved it is the power of God.
For it is written, I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and will bring to nothing the understanding of the prudent.
Where is the wise? where is the scribe? where is the disputer of this world? has not God made foolishness the wisdom of this world?
May I quote that again? "Has not God made foolishness the wisdom of this world?" What is the wisdom of this world then? Foolishness.
... hath not God made foolishness the wisdom of this world?
For after that in the wisdom of God the world by wisdom knew not God, but it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them which hath believed.
Can I read that verse again? Listen closely.
For after that in the wisdom of God the world by wisdom knew not God, it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe.
For the Jews require a sign,... the Greeks seek after wisdom:
But we preach Christ crucified, unto the Jews a stumblingblock,... unto the Greeks foolishness;
But unto them which are called, both Jew and Greek, Christ the power of God, and the wisdom of God.
Because the foolishness of God is wiser than man; and the weakness of God is stronger than man.
19And in Second Corinthians the 12th chapter, the 11th verse, Paul speaking.
I am become a fool in glorying; ye have compelled me: for I ought to have been commended of you: for in nothing am I behind in the very chiefest apostle, though I be nothing.
20 Let us pray. Lord Jesus, add to these few words, tonight, that's been spoken in days gone by, by the great apostle Paul, that we might prosper by hearing them tonight, in applying them to our lives, that we might be the--the handiwork of God, made in the fashion in which He has chosen for us to be in. For we ask it in Jesus' Name. Amen.
21 I'm going to preach tonight for a few minutes, the Lord willing, upon the subject of: The Oddball. Now, that's a very crude, rude text to take, but that's, I think, would more or less state it the way that I want to express it.
22You know, there is so many things, today, that people become oddballs, we call it. And that expression, if anyone has never heard it, it means somebody that's "peculiar," somebody that's "odd" to another fellow. And no doubt but what many of us are odd, one to another.
23 And, now, I was going down the street one time in Los Angeles, California, and I seen a very odd person, acting odd. And he was walking down the street, not picketing, but he was just merely like taking an afternoon stroll. And I went to the other side of the street, to see what he was doing. Everybody was turning around, laughing at him, because of his peculiarity.
I noticed he had a sign hanging on the front of him. And I thought I'd see what everybody was laughing about, this odd, peculiar man. And so he was... I noticed him as the people looked at him, they laughed at him, and--and, but he seemed to have a different kind of a smile, a smile of contentment. The other smiles that the people were giving him was more like ridiculing him, but he seemed to be satisfied in what he was doing.
24 Well, that's a whole lot to think about, when a man is satisfied in what he's doing is right. Though he be an oddball to somebody else, if he is satisfied that what he's doing is right, then let him stay with it.
And as I come close to the little man, I noticed on... across his chest here, on a plaque or a board, was wrote, "I am a fool," and at the bottom, had, "for Christ." "I am a fool," in great letters; down at the bottom, said, "for Christ." And everybody was laughing at this.
25And as the little man pressed on down through the crowd of jeers and carrying on, I turned to look what was on his back. And there was a great big question mark on his back, and down at the bottom, said, "Now whose fool are you?"
26Well, I--I thought he had something there, you see, but he seemed to be satisfied that he could be a fool for Christ. And that's what Paul said he had become, "a fool" for Christ.
27 Brother Troy, of the Full Gospel Business Men, a very good friend of mine, he--he's a meat cutter. And getting some kind of a germ in his hand, from cutting pork one time. Some man who knows, or woman, might know what the germ was; but it--it'll eat you up. So, in order to save his life, they had to--to amputate three fingers. And he only has two fingers on one hand, but yet he remains as a butcher.
28And there was a little German who worked with him in a--a butcher shop, down in Los Angeles, so he--he kept trying to lead the little Dutchman to Christ. And he said he was a "Lut'eran," and it was all right with him. He was satisfied that he was a Christian, because he belonged to the "Lut'eran" church, as he stated it. So one night Brother Troy had the privilege of getting him to go to church.
29 His name was Henry. And Henry, in German, is "Heinrich," and so they call him "Heini." You've heard that expression. He said, "Heini, how about going to church with me tonight?"
30"Well," he said, "I believe I'll go." So he went down to an old-fashion meeting where they was having a prayer meeting, and he really got under conviction, and give his heart to Christ.
Oh, the next day, this little Dutchman was enjoying himself. Every once in a while he would just walk through the building, with his hands up in the air, saying, "Praise be to God! Thank You, Lord Jesus!" and he attracted the attention to all, of all of them.
31You see, he become an oddball to the whole line of meat cutters. And he would be cutting meat, and he'd start thinking about the Lord, and he'd start crying. He'd lay the knife down, and walk up-and-down the aisles, not hysterically, but just making love to Christ, saying, "Oh, how I love You, 'Yesus!'" You know, just walking back and forth.
32 And the boss came by and seen him do this, and as he went walking down, crying. And, the boss, he never noticed the boss; he was thinking about Jesus. And he started down, with his hands up in the air, and the tears rolling down his cheeks, saying, "O God, how I love You!"
And the boss said, "Heini, what in the world has happened to you?" He said, "Everybody in the--in the whole line is talking about it. What in the world has happened to you, Heini?"
33The little Dutchman said, "Oh, boss!" He said, "Glory to God, I got saved!"
He said, "You got what?"
He said, "I got saved!" He said, "I went with Brother Troy here down to a little mission, and I--I got saved. And Jesus came into my heart, and I'm so full of love!"
He said, "You must have went down to that bunch of nuts."
34He said, "Yeah!" Said, "Glory to God!" Said, "Thank God for the nuts!" He said, "You know, you take a automobile coming down the road, and you take all the nuts out of it, you ain't got nothing but a bunch of 'yunk!'"
35Well, I don't know but what the little Dutchman was just about right. Take all the nuts out? The nuts is what holds it together. And I think that's what holds the church together sometime, holds civilization together.
36 Now, coming down from a visit at Prescott, a few days ago, I was looking at the desert and noticing how that out of Phoenix they have the Japanese Gardens, and they had flowers in there, beautiful flowers. Where, when I was a boy out there, I herded cattle down through those places. The cows, wasn't no grass, so they just lived on cactus beans and so forth.
37And then I noticed that there has been a--a reproduction to the use of the desert. And in the desert we find that, the cactus and the flowers. And in my home there, or the home we are renting; Sister Larson, I think she was here this morning, I seen her. And she has a flower bed on the outside of--of the house; some dirt. Everything there is sand, so she had some dirt in a large flower bed on each side of the duplex. And every morning I have to get out and water those flowers. If I don't water them, they'll die. And they'll... And then, again, I have to get some spray and spray them, to keep the lice off of them; the bugs will eat them up.
38 And then you go just a little beyond that, thirty feet from that, there is some flowers growing, and out in the desert they're growing. And you could dig down twenty feet and it'd be like a powder keg; nothing in the world but just dust, and there is no water at all. And who sprays them? See?
These in the flower bed, if you fail to spray them and to water them, the termites or the bugs, lice, will eat them up. But the lice can't touch that one out there in the desert, and neither does he have to be babied and watered every day; he is a production of the creator. This is a hybrid reproduction.
39And I think that, today, the reason Christianity has become, to the people, a nut; is because that we've got a bunch of reproductions and not genuine Christians, a bunch that has to be babied and sprayed, and in order to stay in the church.
40 I can imagine the very first Church, what they were, and compare it with this reproduction today. This would be a cheap production of what the real first Church was, that rugged believers in God, with the Holy Ghost. You babied not them. You didn't have to pat them and tell them you'd take them in this one; and if they get tired that one, they go to another one; and you'll make them a deacon if they'll come over here and leave this other one. That's a hybrid reproduction.
41 I was thinking of Michelangelo's original painting, I believe, of "The Last Supper." I think he painted it. Do you realize what that original picture would cost you? It would be countless thousands of dollars, would never touch that original, because it's beyond price. It's so valued so high! But you can buy a cheap reproduction of it for about two dollars.
42That's why people today can't understand the ruggedness of real, genuine believers. They become a nut. You know, the world gets in such a rut till every once in a while you have to have a nut to straighten it out. Takes somebody come on the scene that's a little different, and he is a nut to that generation. I was thinking the other day, who is able?
Who today is not a nut? You're somebody's nut. I believe the world is completely going insane. Did you know it's a time that people can't judge between right and wrong, or truth or error?
43 Do you know the politicians can't judge right and wrong? You see them keeping quiet on this voting the Bible back in the church or into the... Bible back into the school? They don't know which way the politics are going to blow. Think of it! I don't know how it is in Indiana now, but in state of Arizona it's against the law to read the Bible in school. I think it's the same thing in Indiana, nearly the whole United States, because some infidel woman changed the whole program. And, remember, it's against the law to read the Bible in our public schools, but believers' taxes supports infidelity to be taught in the school.
44Politics. We need another Abraham Lincoln. We need another Patrick Henry. We need an American who can stand out regardless of where the politics are, and call right, "right," and wrong, "wrong."
45 Did you know preachers today can't judge which is right, the Word of God or the church denomination? They don't know which road to take. They can't judge between right and wrong. "I know the Bible says it, but our church says..." See, people are not capable of judging right from wrong. And anything that's contrary to the Bible is wrong. God's Word is right, and every man's word is a lie, that's contrary to It. And to try to stand now upon a--a--a time like that, and to stand for what's right, you become a nut.
Let's call a few characters.
46 I can imagine the prophet Noah, in that great day that he lived in; that great scientific age where they built pyramids and sphinxes, where they could prove that there was no water in the skies, by scientific research. Here comes this old man out there, and said, "There is coming rain out of the heavens." Noah was a nut to that generation. He become a nut.
47Let's think of Moses. Moses, when he went down to Pharaoh, as we spoke this morning, and Moses going down to Pharaoh, and saying, "The Lord sent me down to bring these slaves out," with a stick in his hand, against the great army that had the whole world conquered. Pharaoh, in all of his scientific genius, thought Moses was a nut. And, he was a nut, to them.
48 I can imagine the prophet Elijah, in his great day, when the fabulous age of fashion; when Ahab and Jezebel ruled the world, as it was, in them days; and all the fashions and things that Jezebel wanted to wear, and how she had all of the women dressing like her, and her paints, and going on, her fashions, the way that she fashioned herself. And when some old crank, like Elijah, come out on the scene and withstood the whole nation; to Ahab, he was a nut. That's right.
49Amos, the prophet, when he come to Samaria in the day that Samaria was like Hollywood today, the women on the street, dressing, and even public adultery, how they carry on and live out there, letting man...
50 It's almost a public adultery, today, right before you. I went to a certain place the other night, to get something to eat, and the little boys and girls up there hugging and kissing like I don't know what.
And do you know, my little sister, that that's potentially an adultery? When a man kisses you, he has potentially committed adultery with you. You should never let him kiss you until you're married, for the glands, both male and female glands, is in the lips. Do you understand? And when male and female glands come together, let it be where it may be, you have potentially committed adultery. And you shouldn't let a boy kiss you until that veil is raised on your face and you're his wife. Don't do that! It's committing adultery. It's mixing male and female glands.
51Why don't a man kiss a man, woman kiss a woman, in the lips? Because it don't cross the glands. Children is born by crossing glands.
So it's almost a public adultery again, everywhere. Look on the screens and everything you see, a--a slobbering and a--a carrying on. No wonder immorality is on the--is on the incline! How can they do it, and sperm themselves all up by kissing those women in the mouth, knowing that that's adultery! God won't forgive it unless you repent.
52 And now, when coming up, this great prophet, Amos. He is known as one of the minor prophets because there wasn't too much wrote of him, but he had the Word of the Lord. And he looked out upon that city, all given... In the parks, man setting with their arms around women, and women with their arms around man, just a modern Hollywood! And he walked down through that city, and said, "You'll repent or perish!" He was a nut. He had almost declared himself insane, to them.
53 John the Baptist, when he come on the scene. To the religious denominations of that day, he was a nut. He had the opportunity to become a priest, to follow his father's footsteps. But he refused to do it, because God had kept him out of those creeds and denominations, because his job was too important. He was to announce the Messiah coming. And when he had nothing to do with neither Pharisee, Sadducee, or whatever it was, he rejected the whole group of them, and said, "Don't you begin to say, 'We have Abraham to our father,' for I say that God is able of these stones to rise children to Abraham." To the--to the religious world of his days, he was a nut. Right.
54 When Jesus came on the scene. To the religious people of His days, He was also a nut. Because, they said, "You are a Samaritan. You are out of Your mind. You're a madman," in other words, "a crazy man." He was that, to the people, your Lord and Saviour.
No wonder, Paul, trained by Gamaliel to be a priest, the opportunity of someday becoming a high priest. And on his road down to Damascus, he was struck down by a supernatural Light. And he looked up, being a Jew, and knowed that Pillar of Fire was what led his people. He said, "Lord, Who are You?"
And He said, "I am Jesus."
55And when he forfeit his education, he forfeit all of his theology that he had been trained in the schools, and become a regular, street preacher, he was a nut. He said, "I have become a fool."
56And the people thought he was mad, beside himself. He told Festus, "I am not mad." He just knowed the Lord. But to know the Lord in a religious group...
I hope you don't miss it. To know Jesus, this day, amongst a religious group, you are a nut. It hasn't changed. I could dwell much on this, but I--I want to hurry up for the prayer line.
57 Martin Luther, that little German priest, that packing the communion one day, threw it down on the steps, and said, "This is not the body of Jesus Christ. This is only bread that's been made back there." And he declared, that, "The just shall live by faith." He was a nut, to the Catholic church. They could have assassinated him for that, but, he was a nut, and they just let him alone. But, he become a nut, to that generation.
58John Wesley, in the days of the great immoral hour of England. When, if Wesleyian revival hadn't a come on the scene... The whole world was corrupted, immorality everywhere. And the Anglican church had got so far away till there was no more revival; such Calvinistic thinking! And John Wesley come on the scene, with the--the word of sanctification, cleaning up the immoral. He became a nut.
59 Quoting Mr. Wesley, once, in his book. He was coming down a path, and one of the man of the England church... They all thought he was crazy, so he stood in the path. Mr. Wesley was a little bitty man. This great big fellow thought he'd just get to slap him down, so he stood in the path. Mr. Wesley walked up and said, "Pardon me, sir, would you step out of the way? I'm in a hurry."
And the Anglican said to him, "I don't step out of the way for a fool."
60Mr. Wesley politely tipped his hat, walked around him; said, "I always do." So, you see, that was one who was the nut; one was for Christ; the other one was for the church.
So, you're somebody's nut, yet.
61 When the Pentecostals came on the scene, fifty years ago. They said, "Them people are crazy!" They were nuts, that's right, because they condemned all that corruption that was in the church ages at that time when they come on the scene.
But what has the Pentecostals done? Went right back into the vomit that they come out of, right back into the denominational corruption. You know what? It's time for another nut. Yes. It's time for another one. That's right.
62Notice, a nut, before there is a nut, there is a bolt to fit that nut. And that nut is threaded to that bolt; if it don't, it's a misfit. Notice. All who was threaded, in the days of--of Noah, threaded to the Gospel message; Noah, the nut, pulled them into the ark. It depends what your threads are, what you're threaded to. If you're threaded to the world, they'll pull you. If you're threaded to the Word, It'll pull you. It depends on which you are threaded to, what nut you'll follow.
63But Noah, being a nut with the Word of God, a nut to the scientific age and to the religious age that he lived in, he pulled them, that would be saved, into the ark. Amen. Those that were predestinated, the bolt that was made before the nut. The bolt must be threaded to the nut.
64 So, Satan, he has some bolts and nuts, too, bolts and nuts of the kingdoms of this world.
Pharaoh was just as much nut to Noah, or to Moses, as Moses was to Pharaoh. Pharaoh, with all of his scientific gimmicks, had pulled his nation to himself. Noah, by being a nut for God, pulled the church to the promised land. Depends on which way you're threaded. He pulled the church out of Egypt; as Noah pulled the church out of the world, to the ark. Moses pulled the church from Egypt, to God's promised land.
65Jesus said. Now, be careful, 'cause these nuts and bolts look a whole lot a like. Just watch the thread. Matthew 24:24, He said, "It would almost deceive the very Elected."
Now, the--the American and the whole world denomination needs a nut.
66 The Methodist, the Baptist, the Presbyterian, they're all scattered out in this, that, and all fighting. And, after all, they're all threaded to the same bolt. So God has give them a bolt, and sending them a nut, the World Council of Churches. It'll pull them all together. That's right. It sure will. It'll pull them together, the World Council.
67You know, it got, here not long ago... There can't be nothing happen, a cause, without a reason. The women want to strip their clothes off. They wanted to wear shorts. They wanted to still belong to church. They wanted to wear all these 'kinis', or ever what you call the things. They want to do that, and they want to still belong to church; they want to scream, holler, and dance; worship, that's a worship.
68 Now, if I had time, I'd prove that to you. That is a devil worship, dancing like that and doing those things. I can prove it to you, in the heathen lands. They wanted to worship, and maintain their testimony and still remain in church. So God give them a nut, two or three of them; one named Elvis Presley; one, Pat Boone, and Ernie Ford; can sing hymns and everything else, and still claim to be a Christian. It's a nut. It's not threaded to the Word. Right.
Now, I said I'd be through in a half hour, and it's up. But, listen.
69The world wants a nut. The Devil sees they get it. They're already threaded for it.
But, while the world is being threaded for a nut, there is a people called the Bride. It's threaded, too. Just as sure as I'm standing here, God will send them a nut that'll pull the Bride out of this chaos, into the Presence of God. It'll be a Word-threaded nut.
70 A critic, a few days ago, said to me, down in Tucson. He said, "You know, some people make you a nut, and others make you a god."
I said, "Well, that kind of runs all right." I knowed he's trying to criticize me. See?
71He said, "People think you're a god."
72I said, "Well, just..." I know the people didn't do that. But I--I knowed he didn't understand it, because he was on the other side of the skin, you see. So I knowed he didn't, he didn't know it. So I said, "That's not too far away from the Word of God. Is it?"
See, just let him--just let him know that we wasn't lost. We knowed where we were standing. We know what kind of sails we had set, and what kind of wind was blowing it. We know what our thread was, and what our nut was. And we know how we're standing.
I said, "That's not contrary to the Word of God, so much. Is it?" I said, "Remember, when God was sending Moses down to the children of Israel, God made Moses a god, that's right; and made, also, Aaron his brother, a prophet. That's right. 'All the prophets,' Jesus said, 'were gods.' They were gods; man." That's right. God means it that way.
73 Listen, the Word that we preach and the word that I said this morning, "God hiding behind skins, badger skins, God hiding behind the skin of a man." See? That's what He did. When God was manifest in the world, He was hiding behind a veil, behind a skin of a Man called Jesus. He was veiled and hiding behind the skin of a man called Moses, and they were gods, not Gods; but they were God, the one God, just changing His mask, doing the same thing each time, bringing this Word. See, God made it that way. He knows that man has got to see something; there is in every one of us born into the world.
74 Like I was telling you this morning, nobody was daresn't to follow Moses in there. God never did deal with two. He deals with one, always. No one was daresn't to impersonate Moses. It was death, natural death, to try to impersonate him, to go in that Pillar of Fire with him. So people are not all made... You're not born in that way, to break out into that supernatural.
But God set some on the earth to represent Him, as an ambassador from Him. And that ambassador is ordained, of God, to go into the great unknown supernatural, and discern, and bring out things that the natural mind cannot perceive it. It brings out the mystery of God, foretells things that is, and things that has been, and things that will be. What is it? God, God behind skins, human skin. That's exactly right.
75 Sam Connelly lives in Tucson. He come here once, many years ago, with Mr. Kidd, and was healed; with a standing ulcer for many years. When I went out last fall, Sam had a--a stone that the specialist there, in--in Tucson, examined it. It was big as a marble. Brother Sam Connelly... Many of you here know him; he's from Ohio. And he went to the doctor, and he said, "Sam, make yourself ready next week; I'll take that stone out," couple days from then.
He said, "Can I pass the stone, doctor?"
Said, "It's impossible. The stone is too big."
76So he got him in a car and took him home. And he called; he said, "I want you come over and pray for me, Brother Branham." Why did he call me for such? And I started to praying for him.
77I said, "Sam, it's THUS SAITH THE LORD, the stone will pass by itself."
78And the next morning he took the stone to the doctor. And he said, the doctor said, "Mr. Connelly, I don't understand how it happened."
79And he said, "I am a believer in God, and God passed the stone for me, took it from me." The man could hardly believe it, the doctor. Just no more than he could believe of that big tumor leaving my wife's side. You know about, see. So he said...
80 About six months later, which was about three... about two weeks ago, or three weeks ago, Sam Connelly was stricken down by a serious heart condition. And I don't know the name, the coronary, or some kind of a heart block, or ever what it is. It's a very dangerous... It won't... You can't get over it, they claim. A heart attack, and his heart blocked. And his limbs swelled out till his ankles were larger than his leg, up here high around his hip. So they took him down to the doctor. The doctor said, "Take him home, peacefully, or to the hospital."
Sam said, "I don't want to go to the hospital!"
Said, "Take him home and put him in the bed, and don't you move head, hand, or foot, for six months." Said, "You could die at any minute."
81 And Brother Norman called. And we went over that night, to see Brother Sam. And when we prayed for him, and the Lord spoke.
And the next morning, Sam went down to the doctor's office, with his britchy legs pulled up, stood before the doctor, and said, "Look at me, doctor!"
And the doctor put him under an electrical cardiogram, and he said, "I don't understand it." Said, "Go on back to work." He said, "What church do you belong to?"
He said, "I don't belong to any of them."
82He said "You can't be a Christian without belonging to them denominations. You have to be." See, that's all the doctor knowed. Sam was a nut, to him. And he was a nut, to Sam, by asking such a question.
Then what happened? Sam come over, and he said, "What can I say to anybody that tells me such things, Brother Branham?"
83"Tell them that you 'belong to the one and only Church.' You don't join It. It's not a denomination. You are born into It."
84 A little lady, about six months ago, leaning on the bosom of Sister Norman. I forget her name, very pretty little woman about thirty years old. Her and her husband had separated, and she had took leukemia. And she had been in such a condition that she could hardly get around. And finally it got worse until the doctors put her in a bed. And the doctors visit her till the time come. They give her until the following Wednesday. She would be dead by Wednesday. And Mrs. Norman somehow got her out of the bed, and brought her over, and had to hold her up in a chair. And as the little fellow set there, pitching back and forth, and gray as she could be; yellow over the skin, from the cancer, leukemia.
I said, "Well, I can pray for you, sister."
And her trying to speak, and the tears in her eyes, she said...
I--I said, "Are you a Christian?"
She said, "I'm a Methodist."
I said, "I--I asked you if you was a Christian."
And she said, "You mean belong to the Christian church?"
85I said, "No, ma'am. I mean, are you born of the Spirit of God, and love the Lord Jesus?"
She said, "Well, I've always belonged to the church."
86I said, "If God will let you live, will you promise me that you will return to me and let me show you the way of the Lord more plainer?"
She said, "I promise God anything, if He'll spare my life. I'll serve Him."
87Just then a vision come, said, "THUS SAITH THE LORD. Don't make ready; tear up your things for your death, day after tomorrow." That was on Monday, and she was to die Wednesday. "You're not going to die."
Last Sunday, a week from this Sunday, I set with her in the room. Gained thirty some odd pounds; the doctor said there's not one trace of the leukemia could be found anywhere. And she wanted to know; and I sent her down to be baptized in the Name of Jesus Christ, in an irrigation ditch, the way of the Lord. Might be a nut, but, "If I be lifted up, I'll draw all men unto Me."
88 I visit, up at the boy that used to take tapes here, Leo Mercier. He's got a trailer court. And I had been praying for some people. And I prayed for a little lady named Lokar, I believe it was. And she had had fourteen operations of cancer, and the doctors give her up to die. And was prayed for, and told her she would not die, but she would live. And there's not a trace of it anywhere. And because of that, twenty-eight of her family was standing there, saved and filled with the Holy Ghost. Might be a nut, but it's drawing all men unto Him, that will come. It's threaded with the Word. You see what I mean?
89 I got a letter that come in, day before yesterday, laying right back there in the file. Last Fall, while on a hunting trip... or, last Spring, it was a year ago. An Indian boy named Oscar, that we hunt on the highway up there with; it's where the Angel of the Lord, I told you, across here, would bring that caribou and--and that silver-tip grizzly. All of you remember it. Then that boy, when I walked into... He walked into the tent, last Spring. And when Bud asked me to ask the blessing, (he took off his gloves; he was riding), he put them gloves on and was ready to go out. He was a Catholic. He'd have nothing to do with It.
90 Last Fall, when he could, standing by my side... When his mother was back there, dying with a heart attack, he said, "Won't you come back and pray for her?" I went back in this little hut of the Indians there. And there, all of them gathered around this mother, and her dying, couldn't speak a word of English. And the Holy Spirit came down and told the mother, through an interpreter, her daughter, what had taken place, which was. Even called her name, and told her what she was, and what tribe she was from, and how that this would happen. And the mother was instantly healed.
91And the next morning when I went back to see them, as I rode out, going forty miles back for a sheep, there they was all setting there, she was all... getting on the horse to go back to dry moose meat. And I said, "Last night when I prayed, I said, 'Our Father Who art in Heaven.'" I said, "Louise, I--I... Was a Catholic prayer. You all started, and then, of course, I left you." And I said, "Now I'm just going to thank God. We don't say prayers; we pray."
92She said, "We no more Catholic." She said, "We believe like you believe. We want you to take all of us and baptize us the way you baptize. We want the Holy Ghost."
93 On the trip back... The boy had lost his horses, months before that, couldn't find them. And the guide was bawling him out, said, "Oscar, you knowed better than to leave them horses like that. The bears, lot of grizzlies, would eat them horses up by this time."
And he kept standing close to me. And he said, one night, he said, "Me ask you something?"
I said "Yes."
Said, "Brother Branham, pray God. God give me my ponies back."
I said, "Bud said the bear eat them up."
Said, "Brother Branham, ask God. God give Oscar his ponies back."
I said, "You believe that, Oscar?"
He said, "I believe. God make my mother well. God tell you where bear was, where game was. That God, know where game is, know where my horses is." See?
94 A year ago, while standing back there with Fred Sothmann, who is here tonight, Billy Paul, my son. The Holy Spirit came down. I said, "Oscar, you will find your ponies. They'll be standing in snow."
There lays the letter, wrote me last week, and I got it Friday, come in here. It's laying right there in the file now. "Brother Branham, Oscar find ponies standing in snow."
95How they lived, nobody knows. There, the boy... At this time of year, June, there is so much snow there is still twenty or thirty foot of snow around them. How did they stay there through the winter, in this canyon? Oscar can get in to them, on snowshoes, but, course, he can't put snowshoes on his pony. But he found them, according to the Word of the Lord. It might sound like a nut; just believe it one time! Depends on how your threads are.
96 Now, it won't thread up with a denomination. It'll only thread with the Word. But there is some people in the world believes that Word! It'll take a nut to wrap that Bride out of here, is threaded, for the Bride and the Bridegroom are one. And the God is one, and the Word is God! It'll have to be threaded with the Word, and It'll draw the Bride out of these denominations.
97Yeah, he wanted to criticize me. You know, it reminds me of talking about, this morning, God hiding behind skins, skin of man.
98 A little story, and then I'm closing; sorry that I kept you here about forty-five minutes now. There's a home, Christian home, and there was a... I told this to this critic. And in this home there was... They believed in God. They had a little boy there, but he was scared to death in a storm. Lightning, oh, he was just scared to death. He would run under tables, anywhere, when it would lightning.
So one night it come a big storm out on the farm, and where they lived, and the trees was blowing, and lightning flashing, getting late in the night. The mother said to Junior, said, "Now, Junior, you go upstairs and go to bed." Said, "Now, don't be scared. Go on up there."
99So little Junior, with his pajamas on, went up the steps, looking back, about half crying. He laid down, tried to go to sleep, covered up his head. He couldn't go to sleep; that lightning flashing around the window. So he said, "Oh, mama," said, "come up here and sleep with me."
Well, she said, "Junior, nothing is going to bother you. That lightning can't hurt you."
He said, "But, mama, come up here and sleep with me."
100So the mother went up the steps and laid across the bed, with her junior. And she said, "Junior, my little son, mother wants to tell you something." She said, "Junior, we are a Christian family. We believe in God, and we believe that God protects us in storms. We believe that. And we believe that God takes care of His own." And said, "I want you to believe that, Junior. That, don't be a scared. God is with us, and He'll protect us."
101Junior snubbed a few times. He said, "Mama, I believe that, too." He said, "But when that lightning is so close to the window, I like to feel the God that's got skin on It."
So I think that a whole lot of us adults think the same thing. God, with skin on It! [Blank.spot.on.tape--Ed.] God, with skin on It! It might sound like a nut, to the world, but it's drawing all men unto Him.
Let us pray.
102 Heavenly Father, as the little stories of--of experiences, and sometimes they happen for a reason. And it's, yet as rude as it is, yet we understand it in the language that it happened in. So we thank Thee, tonight, Lord, that--that God can house Himself in us. We're thankful that there was a propitiation made, the Blood of the righteous One, Jesus; Who was the fullness of God, the fullness of the Godhead bodily, that He laid down His precious life; not taken from Him, but willfully laid it down, that we might enjoy Him in the fullness of His Presence, in the Shekinah glory that He lived in; that our souls might be sanctified with that Blood, that the great Holy Spirit Itself could live in us. And we become teachers, prophets, and so forth, to the people, to those, Lord, who are needy; gifts of God; God Himself manifesting, glowing out the great gifts of God, in the presence of this modern age.
103 And the rude expression, Lord, of being a nut. And we know, that in this day, that it takes sometime when the world gets in a rut like the church is today, just joining new churches and new denominations. A man who comes forth with the Word is considered a nut, an insane person. As the great apostle Paul, who was trained to be a theologian, a priest, and yet he said he become a fool, for the glory of God. He forsook his education, that the people might... listen to his high-polished words. And he said he come not with enchanting words and wisdom of man, that their faith would be in such. How the church has turned to that today, as he prophesied, "After my departure, wolves shall enter in, not sparing the flock." But he said he came to them, "in power and manifestations of the Holy Spirit," that their faith would be in God. Father, he became a fool, to the world, to know Jesus.
104And so do we today, Lord. There is people setting here that's considered crazy, because that they're ready to trust God for their healing, for their Eternal destination. Placing their reputation at stake, in worship to Him. Thanking Him, praising Him, giving freedom to their spirit, to worship God; they're considered crazy. But You said, that, "The--the foolishness of God," if we are fools, "was stronger and wiser than the wisdom of man; for man, by wisdom, knowed not God. But through the foolishness of preaching, it pleased God to save them that was savable." We pray, God, that the great Author of this Word will come tonight and heal the sick, save the lost. We ask it in Jesus' Name. Amen.
105 I am likening God, so that you won't be mixed up in what I've said today; God is a great Diamond, the Eternal.
And when a diamond is brought out of the blue stones of Africa, I've been in the mines and watched them in the great... how they process this and get the diamonds out, how they go through the crusher, and the great blue fire diamonds, black diamonds come out. They have not much form, certain form. They're just a great stone. And, really, they have no fire in them at that time. They're just a diamond, stone; round, smoothed out, lot of them. But this diamond must be cut. Now, it's against the law to have one not being cut. Must be cut, and then you have to have a receipt where you bought it, 'cause there is millions of dollars in them.
And I liken God to that diamond.
106Now, a diamond is cut so that it will reflect what's on the inside of it, the fire that's in the diamond. And it has to be cut to every little way, every little shape, three points. Put the three points to a diamond, and a light against a three-point object will give seven colors, see, make seven colors.
107 And now notice, "God was wounded for our transgressions, bruised for our iniquities." See, He was cut, bruised, that great Diamond, that from Him might reflect the gifts to the Church.
And it isn't the light; because, the light must return back, when the sun is off of it, to where it has been cut from.
But every little piece that comes from that chipping is not destroyed; it's put to use. Many of them are made to Victrola needles. And those needles bring forth, that's been chipped from the diamond, bring forth music that's been canned into a record.
108And I hope you see what I mean. The chip from Christ, the gift from Christ, put upon the Bible, speaks out the hidden mysteries of God to the believer. He knows the secret of the heart. He knows every person. Do you believe that?
It would not be the diamond saying, "You see what I am?" It's what he come from. The diamond is a diamond because he's off of a diamond.
109 And that's the way the gifts of the Spirit is, a... to the person, it's a part of that Diamond. It's sent, and been brought down, and brought into a gift, to interpret, to preach, to teach. There is five spiritual gifts; apostles, prophets, teachers, pastors, evangelists, and they are all for the edifying of the Body of Christ. And just as sure as there is teachers, pastors, there's got to be prophets. We know that.
110And we believe that God is to be manifested in the last day, among His people, to the elect Seed, according to the Bible, in the form of prophet. That's exactly with the Word. Not that the man is God, but that the gift is God. See? And that's the needle.
Now, a pin won't play that record right. A regular sewing needle won't play it right. But a diamond, it's the best. It brings it out clear, a diamond-pointed needle.
111May God, tonight... Your record of life, whatever that's wrong with you, whatever that you're desiring from God, may the great Master Who holds the needle in His hand, may He put it upon your life and reveal to us what you're here for, what you want; then we'll know that He's here.
112 Heavenly Father, will You grant it before I start this prayer line, not aiming to do this, but will You grant it, that the people might know. May be strangers here to be prayed for. I know not them, but You do. And Paul said, "If you speak with tongues, and there be no interpretation or give no edification, the people will say you're mad. But if one prophesies and reveals what's on the heart, then they'll say, 'Truly God is with you.'" Let it be again, God, in this late hour. You promised it, and so shall it be. In the Name of Jesus Christ. Amen.
113 Now I wonder how many sick people in here tonight, that's here? Or did Billy give out prayer...? Is any prayer cards give out? [The brethren say, "Yes."--Ed.] There is. Well, I guess every sick person has got a prayer card, but I don't know what you wrote on it. I think he just gives you a card; you write what you want to on it. Is that it? Just got the card; you put on it whatever you want.
114I don't know you. How many here knows that I don't know you, and yet you're sick, and you would say this, "What I've heard you say today, 'God behind skins. God behind human skin, veiling Himself'"? But if you got spiritual eyes, you could open and see Him, see Who He is. And you believe that. Jesus said, "He that believeth in Me the works that I do shall he also; more than this shall he do, for I go to the Father." Now, if you believe with all your heart!
115 How many in here that's sick, and knows that I do not know you, know what's wrong with you? Just raise up your hand, say, "I am sick. I have need." How many has desires in their heart, not sick, but has desires? You know what I'm... All right. There isn't there anybody, that I seen, but what held up their hand. Now, I don't know...
116I know this man setting here. I'm sure that's Brother James, and I think that's Sister James. Brother Ben, I know. Just your faces, sometimes; the brother taking the pictures. But the...
Let somebody back in here, anywhere, just... I--I--I challenge this, on the basis, and the closing of this Message.
117 Do you know God promised this to happen in the last days? He made the promise. See? Now I can't make it happen. See, I--I cannot do that. He has to do that. He is the One Who does it; not me. But I believe in Him, or I wouldn't be standing here telling you something that I didn't believe in. Now, you pray, and you say, "Lord Jesus, I'm taught in the Bible that You're a High Priest right now, that can be touched by the feeling of our infirmities." I don't care where you are. And just say, "I believe You. And, by faith, I believe what that man said today."
118That's what the Angel told me, "Get the people to believe you." And if I tell the Word of God, it ain't "believe me," it's "believe the Word."
If it ain't with the Word, then don't believe it. But if you believe it is the Word, then, whatever it is, you pray and you believe, and see if He still can reveal what's in your heart.
119And anybody knows that the Bible said, that, "The Word of God is sharper than a two-edged sword, and discerns the thoughts and intents in the heart."
That's how Abraham knew that that was God, when He could tell what Sarah was saying back in the tent, what she was thinking about; when He said, "I'll visit you," and Sarah thought in her heart, "It can't be so."
120 Now, I said He is here to heal you. What do you think about it? If you'll just believe! Now, I can't, I have no certain way; Heavenly Father knows that. See? I just got to see it. And what I see, I say; and what I--I don't see, course, I can't say. But He's just as much God! Would that increase your faith, if He would do it?
Preaching like that, it kind of throws me out a little bit. But He is here. I'm conscious of that.
121Watching a man as he bowed his head, right back here. His wife setting by him, praying, also. Right here. Got something on your heart. Your wife, praying. Got a burden on your heart. It's for your mother-in-law. That's right. You believe God can tell me what's wrong with your mother-in-law? I don't know you. We're strangers to one another. So that's right? You believe God can tell me what's wrong with her? She isn't here. I see a great distance; she is in east from here. She's in Ohio. That's right. She is suffering with a blood condition. Have your wife to take that handkerchief there, she is crying on, place on her. Don't doubt; she'll get well. Believe that?
122Here is a little lady setting right here in front of me. She is crying. There is something wrong with the child, I don't know... No, it's nothing wrong. She's just got a desire. She is desiring to receive the baptism of the Holy Ghost. That's THUS SAITH THE LORD. Believe, child, you're going to receive It. That's right. Don't you doubt.
123 Here is a lady setting out here on the end of the row. She is praying. I'm a stranger to her, but she's shadowed. You had operations. If we're a stranger to each other, I suppose. I don't know you. You don't know me, only by just maybe hearing of me. You're not from here. You're a stranger among us. You're from Wisconsin. The city is Milwaukee. And your trouble is cancer; it's on the breast. Operation after operation, yet without success. Let the faith, that touched the hem of His garment, believe it right now. Sink it in your heart; it shall come to pass. Have faith!
124A man setting over in the corner here. He is praying for his mother. He's a stranger to me. I don't know him. But he's praying for his mother. And his mother has the same thing this woman has, cancer. Or, she is scared of it, which it is. There is a man you're praying for, and that man has trouble with his back. He is, also, I see him intoxicated. He's an alcoholic. Your brother. You're not from here. You're from Illinois. You believe God can tell me what your name is? Farmer. Is that right? Raise up your hand. Believe!
125 There is somebody kneeling over somebody, praying, somebody laying on a cot. All right. Do you believe what you've heard, to be the Truth, lady? You do. If I could heal you, I'd come do it. But you're already healed by Christ, you see. You just got to believe it. That lady standing there, praying, was praying for you to be touched. I don't know you, but God knows you. You're from out of town, also. That's right. You're from Illinois. That's exactly. The city is called East Moline, Illinois. [The sister says, "That's the city where I was born."--Ed.] You suffer with cancer. You're a minister's wife. Do you believe? ["Yes."] You'll die, laying there. Why don't you accept Him tonight, and say, "I can, in my heart, with my faith above anything that's here, I believe that I am healed. I'm in the Presence of God." Rise up, believe, and go home and be healed. There she is.
Do you believe with all your hearts? [Congregation rejoices--Ed.] Let us praise God.
126 Heavenly Father, we thank Thee for all Thy goodness and mercy. We thank Thee, for, You're still here, right in the midst of all this trouble. In this world that's perverted, yet You're here. Let Thy Spirit, Lord, ever remain with us. We see that You are here, God with skin on it, in the human hearts; giving faith, and revelation, and vision. You are God in Your Church, God in Your people. We thank Thee for this, Lord. And may everyone believe, tonight, with one accord, and may they be healed. Through Jesus Christ's Name, I pray. Amen.
127 How many over there has prayer cards, on that side? Let them that's on that side, move back, come right in the middle of this aisle. Them on that aisle, come right out this a way, just take your place, come right out this a way. Let those, as soon as they are finished up, this line catch the next side.
128Elders come here. Brother Roy, the Lord bless you; didn't know you was setting there. I want the deacons of the church here immediately, if they can get in from ever where they're at. Come here for a little help.
I want each one that's going to be prayed for, raise up your hand, say this behind me.
Lord, [Congregation says, "Lord,"--Ed.] I believe. ["I believe."] Help Thou my unbelief. ["Help thou my unbelief."] I believe ["I believe"] that in Your Presence, ["that in Your Presence,"] as I follow Your Word, ["as I follow Your Word,"] and my... the hands is laid on me tonight, ["and the hands is laid on me tonight,"] I'm going to accept my healing, ["I'm going to accept my healing,"] in Jesus' Name. ["in Jesus' Name."] Amen. ["Amen."] God bless you.
129Now watch. "The prayer of faith shall save the sick. If they lay their hands on the sick, they shall recover." He told Noah it was going to rain. It never--He never... I never said, "As soon as--as you're prayed for, you're going to be well." He said, "They shall recover."
130 He told Noah it was going to rain. It never rained for a hundred and twenty years, but it rained.
He told Abraham he was going to have a baby by Sarah. It never happened for twenty-five years, but had it.
Told Isaiah a virgin was going to conceive. It never happened for eight hundred years, but she conceived.
Is that right? He promised it! No matter how long it takes, He does it, anyhow. You believe that.
131Come forward now. Let Brother Capps lead the singing. You'll move the cards? Now let everybody be in prayer now.
132 Our Heavenly Father, we're going to obey Your commandments by laying hands upon these sick people. I don't know one thing else You could do, Lord, for You have said, in Your Word, You've purchased their healing. You've proved that You're here with us tonight, the Word that can discern the thoughts that's in the heart. You've proved that, that You are among us. And I pray, Thee, Father, that Your Word, which cannot fail, will be made so real to each heart! That You said, "If you can believe it; don't doubt, but believe it; say to this mountain, 'Be moved,' and don't doubt, but believe that it will come to pass!" He didn't say when.
133You told the people, at Pentecost, to go up there and wait. You never said hours, days; You said, "until." Now they're coming to accept their healing. May they never think of nothing else but their healings here, until the deliverance comes. We obey You by laying hands, upon them, as believers. In Jesus Christ's Name. Amen.
134 All right, come right by now. [Brother Branham and the brethren lay hands on the people, and pray for each one in the prayer line. Blank.spot.on.tape--Ed.] You're healed. God bless you. That's good. [Blank.spot.on.tape.]
All things are possible, only believe;
Only believe, only believe,
All...
Lord Jesus, I pray for these handkerchiefs now, in Jesus Christ's Name. Amen.
Wonder if we could change them words:
Now I believe, it's now I believe,
All things are possible, now I believe;
Now I believe, now I believe,
All things are possible, now I believe.
135Do you believe that what has been asked and desired shall be granted? [Congregation says, "Amen."--Ed.] It shall happen.
136 I saw, passing through the line a few moments ago, some of my Italian friends from Chicago. How many knows Sister Bottazzi from Chicago? Well, you know, she had a--a mental, nervous break just recently, very, very bad. But the morning in Chicago at the Christian Business Men's breakfast, I told the sister, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. She come back to one side, and she just couldn't hold herself together. And I said, "Sister, you won't get over it right away, but you're going to be well." I said, "It'll be either eighteen months, or two years, right in that bracket you'll be made well."
137 The other day while speaking with her... I heard her testifying, so happy, the happiest she had ever been in all of her life. She was riding in a car. She had no peace, the Presence of God seemed to have departed from her; course, it was mental nerve, you know; and all of a sudden it returned with a great flow of joy, and the power of the Holy Spirit was upon her. She wept, she cried, she--she had... They just had a great time, about three or four weeks ago, or a month. And I heard her testify, Sunday before last, and she said, "Brother Branham, when I got back, I marked down and took that tape. And it was exactly eighteen months, to the day." Amen.
Do you love Him? [Congregation says, "Amen."--Ed.] Isn't He wonderful? ["Amen."]
138 Now, the same Holy Spirit that can predict exactly, without missing one time, all these years; and, through His Word, has tried to uncover to you today that God isn't some object way off or some historical something. He's a living, present tense, His Word made manifest. Hid Himself in human veil, in His Church, revealing Himself by your faith and my faith, together, coming together, making the unit of God. I can do nothing without you; you can do nothing without me; neither could do anything without God. So, together it makes the unit, the connection. God sent me for the purpose; you believe it; and there it happens. That's just it, see, confirmed perfectly.
I don't care what's wrong with you, what anyone has said; if, from your heart, you believe that you're going to be well, there is nothing can ever stop it. He said so. And He said, "Heavens and earth will pass away, but My Word won't fail." Do you believe that? [Congregation says, "Amen."--Ed.]
139How many will pray for me in other meetings as I go? [Congregation says, "Amen."--Ed.] I'm one who needs prayer. See? Everybody has turned me down, see, but you, and yet there is Seed out there.
140 I sent a letter to South Africa. They wouldn't let me come in unless I would sign a paper that I "would baptize, over on that side, everybody three times; once for the Father, and once for the Son, and the Holy Ghost, face forward. On the other side, I'd baptize backwards, one for the Father... And teach that was Doctrine."
I wrote them a letter. I said, "The Holy Spirit has been trying, for the last few years, to get me in Africa again. He wants to use my ministry there where thirty thousand accept Christ one afternoon." I said, "Remember, the blood of them souls be upon you, not upon me. I've offered to come, but you won't do it."
I wonder what it'll be in this day when Jesus, the Son of God has been turned from the church, the Word rejected? But in--in all that, He still is making Hisself known to His people. Aren't you thankful for it? [Congregation says, "Amen."--Ed.]
141 And I passed by, tonight, put my hands on them, some aged women, some young, some old, some young men, old man, just soaking wet as I am. I thought, "Setting there, setting there listening at the Word that the rest of the world thinks is crazy." See? They are--they are the bolt. See, God is here to thread it up, draw you right out of your sickness. It's a promise of the Word. Just remember, it'll start tightening, "I will draw them; if I be lifted up, I'll draw them." He'll draw it out of you. He sure will. You just believe Him, have faith in Him. Don't doubt Him. Believe Him.
142 Pray for me. When you have no one else to pray for, just remember me.
And then until we meet! till we meet!
Till we meet...
Thanks for coming those long ways. God protect you as you go home!
Till we...
Greet all the Christians, salute them, from this group here. God's peace upon you! Shalom!
God be with you till we meet again!
[Brother Branham begins humming God Be With You--Ed.]
... till we meet!
Till we meet at Jesus' feet;
Till we meet! till we meet!
God be with you till we meet again!
143 I'm so glad. You see, there is some, many things I don't know, but there is some things I do know. I'm so thankful for you. I'm so glad to be associated with you. I'm so glad to be one of you. God be with you. He will. He'll never leave you. He'll never forsake you. He won't leave you. You've done broke through the veil now. See?
144So glad tonight to see Brother Palmer, one of our associate pastors over here, from Georgia. Brother Junior Jackson is in the building somewhere, back in the corner, we're glad to have him. Brother Don Ruddell setting over here. Oh, so many! I don't know, if I miss anybody... Brother Ben Bryant here, and many of the others here, fine brother, Wilbur Collins. We're so glad to have all of you here.
I wonder if we would just stand to our feet, just a moment now. Let's bow our heads now.
Till we meet!
Till we meet at Jesus' feet; till we meet!
... till we meet!
God be with you till we meet again.
145 You feel that closeness of fellowship with the Spirit?
Let's hum it. [Brother Branham and congregation begins humming God Be With You--Ed.]
I noticed Brother McKinney, from Ohio, with us. Brother John Martin and his brother. So glad to have all of you. I might not even see you, brethren. He knows you.
Till we meet! May my heart and yours, with God heart, be one till we meet! [Brother Branham and congregation continue humming God Be With You--Ed.]
I'd like to ask somebody to dismiss. [Brother Branham speaks with the brethren--Ed.]
While we bow our heads now in prayer.
146Try let every minister know that we're happy for them to be here, all the laity, you people from Tennessee, Ohio, and across the country. Some women I met over there today, all the way from Boston. Our colored brethren was here, this morning, from up in there also. So many from different parts of the country; I thank you, my dear loyal friend. God be with you. I call you my friend. Remember what Jesus said about that? "Closer even than a brother," yeah, a friend. While we bow our heads now... Until we get to meet again in the next few days, God be with you.
147I'm going to ask our good, loyal brother, Brother Richard Blair, if he won't dismiss us in a word of prayer. Brother Blair.
1Zostaňme len na chvíľu stáť. Drahý Pane, znova prichádzame skrze modlitbu do Tvojej Božskej Prítomnosti; v prvom rade Ti ďakujeme za všetko, čo si pre nás urobil, a za veľkú lásku, ktorú vo svojom srdci cítime ku Tebe a ku Tvojmu Slovu. Pane, títo ľudia, ktorých milujem z celého svojho srdca, sa dnes večer obetovali a prišli sem, aby sedeli v horúcej miestnosti, a čo viac, pretože milujú Tvoje Slovo.
2A dnes večer sme sa prišli modliť za nemocných, Pane, a za núdznych. Nech tu v našom strede nebude na konci tejto bohoslužby nevládna osoba. Odmeň ich za ich vernosť, Pane. Hovor ku nám cez Svoje Slovo a posilni nás, Pane, ako prichádzame a nesieme pohanenie. Čo za výsadu je robiť to! Prosíme to v Ježišovom Mene. Amen. Môžete si sadnúť.
3Nemohol by som nájsť slová, samozrejme, aby som vyjadril svoju vďačnosť voči skupine ľudí, ako je táto, že prišli a usadili sa v tejto budove. Chcem povedať, že zajtra... Alebo, máme ísť do Topeka, v Kansase, kvôli ďalšiemu zhromaždeniu a skončí sa to nasledujúcu nedeľu. A odtiaľ potom pôjdeme do Filadelfie.
No, mali sme ísť za more do Kene, Tanganiky a do Ugandy, ku kmeňom, ktoré sú tam. A oni tam teraz majú menšie povstanie Mau Maus [Vojenský konflikt v Keni. - pozn.prekl.] Nemôžem sa tam dostať ako misionár, ale budem sa tam snažiť dostať ako poľovník. Idem tam, oni to vybavujú.
4Zvyčajne tam idem ako misionár a chodievam poľovať, tentoraz tam idem ako na poľovačku a budem misionárom. Takže tam, nejakým spôsobom, aby som sa tam ku nim dostal. A brat Mattsson-Boze je potom na tú prácu, pokúša sa ma tam dostať, vybavuje loveckú výpravu, aby som tam mohol prísť a ísť na lov. No a potom, prídem tam na tú loveckú výpravu, potom on povie, „Náš brat Branham je v krajine.“ Pôjde na veľvyslanectvo, „Bolo by to v poriadku, ak by sme tu zorganizovali len malé zhromaždenie?“ Rozumiete? To spôsobí, že to potom začne a ďalej sa to rozvinie. A tak nevieme, či sa to stane, či to budeme schopní vybaviť, alebo nie. Pokúšame sa. A ja som prosil Pána, že ak sa niečo stane, že to nebude môcť vybaviť, potom to bude pre mňa znamením, aby som sa vrátil naspäť sem do Jeffersonville a kázal Sedem Trúb, v júli alebo v auguste, niekedy vtedy.
5A potom, ak áno, dnes vidíme, budeme sa snažiť dostať túto školskú miestnosť, v ktorej je klimatizácia, pretože to by bolo naozaj dobré a chladné. Je tam miesto na sedenie pre okolo tisíc päťsto až tisíc osemsto ľudí. A je tam klimatizácia, úplne nové miesto, len o päť blokov nad týmto. A raz sme za to prosili a oni nám to nedovolili. A ten človek, ktorý nám to nedovolil prenajať, bol vyhodený zo zastupiteľstva školy. Takže teraz, ten, ktorý je tam teraz, hovorí, že si to môžeme kedykoľvek prenajať. Tak sme radi, že to môžeme mať. A tak si to môžeme teraz prenajať niekedy v júli a mať... Koľkí sa budete modliť, či je to teraz vôľa Pánova, či nás niečo odmietne? [Zhromaždenie hovorí, „Amen.“ - pozn.prekl.]
6Viete, mám rád Arizonu. Je to nádherná krajina. Vždy som tam túžil byť.
Ak to trocha zosilníš, brat Ben, ak to urobíš, ak to je... Ó, to... Tak veru. Áno. Alebo, ktokoľvek je pri tom, len to o trocha zvýšte, pretože prichádzam zo skutočne... [Niekto hovorí, „Nahrávajú, bratia.“ - pozn.prekl.] Čo hovoríte? [„Ten je len na nahrávanie.“ - pozn.prekl.] Ó, na nahrávanie. Aha, tu je druhý. Prepáčte mi. Dobre, brat Ben. A tak...
7Prichádzam z Arizony, prichádzam sem, som z toho trocha zachrípnutý, pretože to je zmena podnebia. Tu máme okolo 87 až 90 a niekedy stopercentnú vlhkosť. A tam sa to dostane na nulu a potom niekedy na priemer jednej dvadsatiny percenta vlhkosti. Tam skrátka žijete pod kyslíkovým stanom. A potom z pod toho odídem sem, viete, aký veľký rozdiel to vo vás urobí. Tak to vám spôsobí ťažkosti s hlasom, a tak ďalej.
Nastav to, ako to bolo, ak chceš, brat Ben. Zmýlil som si mikrofón.
Myslel som, že to bol ten, ale oni to zvyšujú na tomto.
8Modlite sa teraz za nás, každý z vás. Cením si vás. Billy mi hovoril o niekom, kto nám doniesol košík broskýň a malé darčeky, ktoré ste... Skrátka vám nemôžem dostatočne poďakovať. Neviem, ako to mám urobiť. A cítim sa tak nehodný, aby som si od vás vzal takéto veci. Modlím sa, aby vás Boh požehnal a viem, že On to urobí, lebo povedal, „Nakoľko ste to učinili jednému z týchto najmenších, Mne ste učinili.“ A Boh vás požehná, som si istý.
9A Arizona je taká krásna krajina, je tam jedna vec, ktorá mi chýba, to ste vy všetci. To je pravda. Všetci mi chýbate. Je mi jedno, kam idem, ja... to nie, to nie ste vy. Mám priateľov všade okolo sveta, ale to nie ste vy všetci. Tu na tejto malej skupine je niečo, čo skrátka... Neviem. Premýšľam o nich.
10A v Tucsone, to je turistické mesto, viete, a cirkvi sa odťahujú, viete. Je to trocha ťažké. Nie veľmi duchovné; a pretože tam je veľmi silná rivalita; a to spôsobuje, že to je ťažké. Ak by som vás všetkých mohol mať, plus zbor, potom žiť tam vonku, myslím, že by to bolo v poriadku. Rozumiete? Ale myslím, že tak dlho, kým toto zostáva zborom a vy všetci stále prichádzate, budem tu stále, pokiaľ nepríde Ježiš.
11A tak sa za mňa modlite, ako som hovoril pred chvíľou. Nechcem sa opakovať, ale keď sa dostanem pred vás, som nervózny a tiež smutný, precitlivený a temperamentný. Som vlastne taký, a tak... to spôsobuje, že som vnútri celý roztrhaný. Ale viem, že všade tam, kde môžem ísť... Nemám na zemi skupinu, o ktorej viem, že stojí za mnou tak, ako táto skupina. Nech Boh dá, aby sme boli tak neoddeliteľní, aby sme v Kráľovstve, ktoré má prísť, mohli byť spolu; to je moja modlitba.
12Stál som tu pri dverách a hovoril som pred chvíľou s Billom Dauchom, chvíľu pred tým, ako som niekoho znova viedol späť ku Kristovi, v druhej miestnosti. Ale ako som tam stál a rozprával som sa s ním, on má deväťdesiatjeden rokov, povedal, „Slabnem. Moje oči nie sú také, ako bývali.“
A premýšľal som, pred pár rokmi som ku nemu prišiel, keď mal úplné zlyhanie srdca a zablokované srdce, zomieral. A ten doktor, ktorý ho liečil, ktorý povedal, že sa z toho nedostane, ten doktor je mŕtvy. A Bill Dauch tu sedí, vidíte, vo veku deväťdesiatjeden rokov. Povedal som, „Bill, nie si viac použiteľný na zemi, čo sa týka práce a podobných vecí. Ale prosím o toto, 'Nech ti Boh dá silu,' pretože tak veľmi miluješ zhromaždenia.“ Tento deväťdesiatjedenročný muž prechádza cez národ v aute, či je teplo, sucho, zima, bez ohľadu na to, ako je, prichádza, aby počul Slovo. Nech Boh žehná tú statočnú dušu. Teraz nemám...
13Ešte raz sa chcem ospravedlniť, že som vás tu ráno takto držal, tri hodiny. A nepriniesol som všetko v tom posolstve, pretože som to skrátil, vynechal som časť z toho a niečo som preskočil, a tak ďalej. Preto som im povedal, aby zadržali tú pásku. Dovoľte, aby som sa znova niekde ku tomu dostal, kde bude chladno alebo niečo. Mohol som cítiť Ducha, ale pozeral som sa na vás a vedel som, že sa ovievate, a že vám je teplo, a to ma skrátka trhá na kusy. Nechcem, aby ste trpeli; chcem, aby ste mali pohodlie. Rozumiete? A to ma unavuje.
14To je tak, ako keď vidím chorých ľudí; ak nedokážem súcitiť s tými chorými ľuďmi, nemôžem pre nich urobiť nič dobré. Musím s nimi súcitiť. A takisto s vami; musím s vami súcitiť, inak nemôžem byť váš brat. Rozumiete? Musím s vami súcitiť. A ja to robím; Boh vie, že to je pravda.
15A teraz, dnes večer sa budem modliť za nemocných.
A chcem,... mužov, požehnať týchto mužov, brata Collinsa a Hickersona, brata Neville, brata Cappsa, správcov a všetkých, za skvelé správy, ktoré prichádzali, o tom, akí ste poriadni, udržujete zbor a ako všetko prichádza do svojej správnej pozície. Som vám vďačný, ľudia. Nech vás Pán žehná za to, že sa snažíte udržiavať poriadok. A list za listom prichádza ku mne do Tusconu, „Brat Branham, nie je to tak, ako to zvyklo byť. Veľmi sa to zmenilo, tak požehnaný pocit Prítomnosti Božej.“ A som za to vďačný. Nech vás Pán vždy žehná!
16Takže, teraz, dnes večer, čítal som tu v Písme krátke miesto, aby som možno povedal pár slov, aby som hovoril a čítal Písmo a potom snáď zopár miest Písma, potom budem ku vám na chvíľu hovoriť a potom sa budem modliť za chorých. Len na chvíľu; sledujem hodiny a pokúsim sa to urobiť tak rýchlo, ako to len bude možné. Ale myslím si, že keď sa spolu zhromaždila skupina ľudí, ak by sme nečítali Slovo, alebo nepovedali niečo, nejaké povzbudenie, zhromaždenie by nebolo úplné.
17Mnohí z vás čakali. Mnohí z vás majú ešte dnes večer pred sebou míle cesty. Ako to obdivujem! Ako sa dívam a vidím každého jedného a premýšľam o... tam v Arizone premýšľam, „Keď ho znova uvidím, pôjdem rovno dole, potrasiem mu rukou a objímem ho okolo krku.“ A tu ste, sedíte tu a koho, kam môžem, rozumiete? Neviem, s kým mám začať a kto... a ako sa z toho dostať. Ale áno, milujem vás. Boh vás tiež miluje.
18Teraz premýšľam či som sa nezmýlil, či tu nemám otvorené nesprávne miesto Písma, chcem čítať z 1. Korinťanom, z 1. kapitoly, od 18. verša a tiež chcem čítať z 2. Korinťanom 12:11, aby som z toho vzal tému. Teraz, ak sa mi ich podarí nájsť skutočne rýchlo, potom ich prečítame a potom sa pomodlíme a začneme rovno v tom, budem ku vám len chvíľu hovoriť na malú tému. V prvej Korinťanom, 1. kapitola začneme s 18. veršom.
Lebo slovo kríža je tým, ktorí hynú, bláznovstvom; ale nám, ktorí dosahujeme spasenie, je mocou Božou.
Lebo je napísané: Zahladím múdrosť múdrych a rozum rozumných zavrhnem.
Kde je múdry? Kde učený v zákone? Kde dišputant tohoto sveta? Či Bôh neobrátil múdrosti tohoto sveta na bláznovstvo?
Môžem To citovať znova? „Či Bôh neobrátil múdrosti tohoto sveta na bláznovstvo?“
Čo je potom múdrosťou tohto sveta? Bláznovstvo.
... či Bôh neobrátil múdrosti tohoto sveta na bláznovstvo?
Lebo keď v múdrosti Božej svet skrze múdrosť nepoznal Boha, zaľúbilo sa Bohu skrze bláznovstvo kázne spasiť tých, ktorí uverili.
Môžem prečítať ten verš znova? Počúvajte pozorne.
Lebo keď v múdrosti Božej svet skrze múdrosť nepoznal Boha, zaľúbilo sa Bohu skrze bláznovstvo kázne spasiť veriacich.
Keďže i Židia žiadajú znamenia,... Gréci hľadajú múdrosť,
my kážeme ukrižovaného Krista, Židom pohoršenie... Grékom bláznovstvo;
ale tým istým, povolaným, Židom i Grékom, Krista Božiu moc a Božiu múdrosť.
Lebo bláznivé Božie je múdrejšie ako ľudia a slabé Božie je silnejšie ako ľudia.
19A v 2. Korinťanom, v 12. kapitole, 11. verš, Pavol hovorí.
Stal som sa bezrozumným [„bláznom“ – angl. preklad KJV. - pozn.prekl.] chváliac sa; vy ste ma prinútili. Lebo vy ste mňa mali odporúčať, lebo som nebol, ako ani nie som o nič menší od tých prevelikých apoštolov, keď aj nie som ničím.
20Modlime sa. Pane Ježišu, daj dnes večer zmysel týmto zopár slovám, ktoré boli vypovedané v tých dávnych dňoch skrze veľkého apoštola Pavla, aby sme dnes večer mohli prosperovať skrze ich počúvanie, v ich uplatnení v našich životoch, aby sme mohli byť Božou ručnou prácou učinenou na takú podobu, akú pre nás On vybral, aby sme boli takí. Lebo prosíme o to v Ježišovom Mene. Amen.
21Budem dnes večer kázať pár minút, ak to bude vôľa Pánova, na tému: Čudák. No, je to veľmi hrubý a drsný názov pre tému, ale myslím, že on to viac-menej predstaví tak, ako to chcem vyjadriť.
22Viete, je tu dnes tak mnoho vecí, kvôli ktorým sa ľudia stávajú čudákmi, tak to nazývame. A ten výraz, ak to niekto nikdy nepočul, označuje niekoho, kto je „zvláštny,“ niekoho, kto je „čudný“ pre ostatných ľudí. A nieto pochýb, mnohí ľudia sú čudní jeden druhému.
23No, raz som šiel dole ulicou v Los Angeles, v Kalifornii a videl som veľmi čudnú osobu, ktorá sa správala zvláštne. A on išiel po ulici, neprotestoval, ale skrátka vyzeral, akoby bol iba na poobednej prechádzke. A išiel som na druhú stranu ulice. Aby som videl, čo tam robil. Všetci sa otáčali a smiali sa na ňom kvôli jeho podivnosti.
Všimol som si, že mal na sebe spredu zavesený nápis a pomyslel som si, že by som sa mohol ísť pozrieť, kvôli čomu sa všetci smiali na tom čudnom a podivnom mužovi. A tak on bol... Všimol som si ho, ako sa naňho ľudia dívali a smiali sa na ňom, ale zdalo sa, že on má iný úsmev, spokojný úsmev. Ostatné úsmevy, ktoré mu ľudia uštedrovali, boli skôr, akoby sa mu posmievali, ale zdalo sa, že on bol spokojný s tým, čo robil.
24No, dá sa o tom mnoho premýšľať, keď je človek spokojný s tým, že to, čo robí, je správne. Hoci je pre niekoho iného čudákom, ak je spokojný s tým, že to, čo robí, je správne, potom nech s tým zostane.
A keď som podišiel bližšie ku tomu malému mužovi, všimol som si na... Takto cez jeho hruď bolo na doske, alebo na tabuli napísané, „Som blázon“, a na spodku mal napísané, „pre Krista.“ Veľkými písmenami, “Som blázon,“ a dole na spodku stálo, „pre Krista.“ A každý sa na tom smial.
25A keď sa ten muž pretlačil cez ten dav posmeškov a vyvádzania, otočil som sa, aby som videl, čo mal na chrbte. A tam na chrbte mal veľký, obrovský otáznik a dole na spodku mal napísané, „Pre koho si teraz bláznom ty?“
26Nuž, pomyslel som si, že tam niečo má, rozumiete, ale vyzeral spokojný s tým, že môže byť bláznom pre Krista. A to je to, čo Pavol povedal, že sa stal „bláznom“ pre Krista.
27Brat Troy od Obchodníkov Plného Evanjelia, môj veľmi dobrý priateľ, on krája mäso. A raz sa mu do ruky dostal nejaký druh baktérie z bravčového mäsa, ktoré rezal. Nejaký muž, ktorý vie, alebo žena, možno vedia, aká baktéria to bola; ale to vás rozožerie. A tak, aby mu zachránili život, museli mu amputovať tri prsty. A na jednej ruke má iba dva prsty, ale napriek tomu zostáva mäsiarom.
28A bol tam malý Nemec, ktorý s ním pracoval v mäsiarstve dole v Los Angeles, a tak on sa stále pokúšal priviesť toho Holanďana ku Kristovi. A on hovoril, že je luterán a všetko je s ním v poriadku. Bol spokojný s tým, že bol kresťanom, pretože patril k luteránskej cirkvi, ako to vysvetľoval. A tak raz večer mal brat Troy privilégium presvedčiť ho, aby s ním išiel do zboru.
29Volal sa Henry. A Henry je v nemčine „Heinrich“, a tak ho volali „Heini.“ Počuli ste ten výraz. Povedal, „Heini, čo povieš na to, že by si dnes večer išiel so mnou do zboru?“
30„No,“ povedal, „myslím, že pôjdem.“ A tak išiel dole na staromódne zhromaždenie, kde mali modlitebné zhromaždenie a skutočne zostal presvedčený a odovzdal svoje srdce Kristovi.
Ó, na ďalší deň sa tento malý Holanďan radoval. Každú chvíľu len chodil cez budovu so zodvihnutými rukami vo vzduchu a hovoril, „Chvála Bohu! Ďakujem Ti, Pane Ježišu!“ a priťahoval pozornosť všetkých, každého z nich.
31Vidíte, stal sa čudákom pre celú radu mäsiarov. A keď krájal mäso, začal premýšľať o Pánovi a začal plakať. Položil nôž a chodil hore a dole po chodbách, nie hystericky, ale skrátka vyjadroval lásku Kristovi a hovoril, „Ó, ako Ťa milujem, Ježišu!" Viete, len chodil hore dole.
32A šéf išiel okolo a uvidel ho toto robiť a ako chodí a plače. A šéf... On si vôbec nevšimol šéfa; premýšľal o Ježišovi. A rozbehol sa dole so zodvihnutými rukami a slzy sa mu valili dole po lícach a hovoril, „Ó Bože, ako Ťa milujem!“
A šéf povedal, „Heini, čo sa to s tebou pre všetko na svete stalo?“ Povedal, „Všetci na celej linke o tebe rozprávajú. Heini, čo sa to s tebou pre všetko na svete stalo?“
33Ten malý Holanďan povedal, „Ó, šéfe!“ Povedal, „Sláva Bohu, bol som spasený!“
On povedal, „Čo si bol?“
Povedal, „Bol som spasený!“ Povedal, „Išiel som s bratom Troyom sem dole na malú misiu a bol som spasený. A Ježiš prišiel do môjho srdca a som tak plný lásky!“
On povedal, „Ty si musel ísť dole ku tej skupine bláznov.“ [v angličtine slovo „nut“ znamená „fanatik, blázon,“ ale aj „matica“ na uťahovanie skrutky. - pozn. prekl]
34Povedal, „Áno!“ Povedal, „Sláva Bohu!“ Povedal, „Vďaka Bohu za bláznov!“ Povedal, „Vieš, vezmi si automobil, ktorý ide dole po ceste, a ak z neho vymontuješ všetky matice, nebudeš mať nič iné, než hromadu starého železa!“
35No, neviem, ale to, čo povedal ten Holanďan, je skoro pravda. Odstrániť všetky matice? Matice sú to, čo to drží pokope. A myslím, že to je to, čo niekedy drží zbor, čo drží pohromade civilizáciu.
36No, keď som sa vracal pred pár dňami z návštevy v Prescotte, díval som sa na púšť a všimol som si, že tam vonku pri Phoenixe majú „japonské záhrady“ a mali tam kvety, nádherné kvety. Keď som bol chlapec, tam na tých miestach som zháňal dobytok. Nebola tam žiadna tráva a tie kravy žili len na kaktusových fazuliach, a tak ďalej.
37A tak som si všimol, že tam na púšti niečo pestujú. A uvideli sme tam na púšti tie kaktusy a kvety. A tam v mojom dome, alebo v dome, ktorý máme v prenájme; sestra Larsonová, myslím, že tu dnes ráno bola, videl som ju. A ona má vonku pri dome kvetinový záhon; nejakú hlinu. Všetko je tam piesčité a tak tam má na oboch stranách v kvetinovom záhone nejakú hlinu. A každé ráno musím ísť von a poliať tie kvety. Ak ich nepolejem, zomrú. A ony... A potom, tiež musím vziať nejaký sprej a postriekať ich, aby som ich ochránil od vošiek; ten hmyz by ich zožral.
38A potom pôjdete len o kúsok ďalej, tridsať stôp odtiaľ, tam rastú nejaké kvety a rastú vonku na púšti. A mohli by ste kopať do hĺbky dvadsať stôp a bolo by to ako sud prachu; vôbec nič, len prach, nie je tam žiadna voda. A kto postrekuje tieto? Rozumiete?
Tieto na tom záhone, ak ich zanedbáte postriekať alebo poliať, termiti, chrobáky, alebo vošky ich požerú. Ale vošky sa nemôžu dotknúť toho, tam vonku na púšti a ani sa s ním nemusíte maznať a polievať ho každý deň; on je výtvorom Stvoriteľa. Toto je skrížená kópia.
39A myslím si, že dôvod, prečo sa dnes pre ľudí stalo Kresťanstvo bláznovstvom; je ten, že máme hromadu kópií a nie skutočných Kresťanov, skupinu, s ktorou sa musíte maznať a postrekovať ich, aby zostali v zbore.
40Viem si predstaviť úplne prvú Cirkev, čím oni boli, a porovnať ich s touto dnešnou kópiou. Toto by bol lacný produkt oproti tomu, čím bola skutočná prvá Cirkev, tí drsní veriaci v Boha, s Duchom Svätým. Nemuseli ste sa s nimi maznať. Nemuseli ste ich potľapkávať a hovoriť im, že ich vezmete do tejto cirkvi; a ak ich táto unaví, pôjdu do inej; a urobíte ich Diakonmi, ak prejdú sem a opustia tú predošlú. To je skrížená kópia.
41Premýšľal som o Michelangelovom originálnom obraze, myslím, že to je, „Posledná Večera.“ Myslím, že to on namaľoval. Viete si predstaviť, koľko by vás stál ten originálny obraz? Bolo by to nespočítateľné množstvo tisícov dolárov, nikdy by ste sa nedotkli toho originálu, pretože to je za nevyčísliteľnú cenu. Je to ocenené tak veľmi vysoko! Ale môžete si kúpiť jeho lacnú kópiu asi za dva doláre.
42Práve preto dnes ľudia nedokážu pochopiť drsnosť skutočných, pravých veriacich. Oni sa stali bláznami. Viete, svet sa dostáva do takého stereotypu, že raz za čas musíte mať maticu, aby to narovnala. Je potrebné, aby prišiel niekto na scénu, kto je trocha odlišný, a on je bláznom pre tú generáciu. Jedného dňa som rozmýšľal, kto je schopný?
Kto dnes nie je bláznom? Vy ste pre niekoho bláznom. Verím tomu, že svet smeruje do úplného šialenstva. Viete, že je doba, keď ľudia nedokážu posúdiť medzi tým, čo je správne a čo nesprávne, alebo čo je pravda alebo blud?
43Viete, že politici nedokážu posúdiť, čo je správne a čo nesprávne? Videli ste ich, ako mlčali na tom hlasovaní o tom, aby sa Biblia vrátila späť do cirkvi, či do... aby sa Biblia vrátila späť do školy? Oni nevedia, ktorým smerom budú politici fúkať. Premýšľajte o tom! Neviem, ako je to teraz v Indiane, ale v štáte Arizona je protizákonné čítať Bibliu v škole. Myslím, že rovnako je to v Indiane, takmer v celých Spojených Štátoch, pretože nejaká neveriaca žena zmenila celý program. A pamätajte, čítať Bibliu v našich štátnych školách je protizákonné, a pri tom ešte dane veriacich podporujú, aby na školách vyučovali neveru.
44Politici. Potrebujeme ďalšieho Abraháma Lincolna. Potrebujeme ďalšieho Patrika Henryho. Potrebujeme Američana, ktorý dokáže vystúpiť a stáť, bez ohľadu na to, kde sú politici, a nazývať správne „správnym“ a nesprávne „nesprávnym“.
45Viete, že kazatelia dnes nedokážu posúdiť, čo je správne, či Slovo Božie, alebo denominačná cirkev? Nevedia, ktorou cestou majú ísť. Nedokážu rozsúdiť, čo je správne a čo nesprávne. „Viem, že Biblia to hovorí, ale naša cirkev hovorí...“ Vidíte, ľudia nie sú schopní rozoznať správne od nesprávneho. A čokoľvek, čo je v protiklade s Bibliou, je nesprávne. Božie Slovo je Pravda a každé ľudské slovo, ktoré je v protiklade s Ním, je klamstvo. A keď sa teraz snažíte stáť, v takomto čase, stáť za tým, čo je správne, stanete sa bláznom. Zoberme si zopár postáv.
46Dokážem si predstaviť proroka Noeho v tom veľkom vedeckom dni, v ktorom žil; ten veľkolepý vedecký vek, v ktorom stavali pyramídy a sfingy, v ktorom mohli pomocou vedeckého výskumu dokázať, že tam v nebesiach nebola žiadna voda. Tu prichádza ten starý muž a hovorí, „Z nebies prichádza dážď.“ Noe bol pre tú generáciu bláznom. Stal sa bláznom.
47Pomyslite na Mojžiša. Mojžiš, keď išiel dole ku faraónovi, ako sme o tom hovorili dnes ráno a Mojžiš ide dole ku faraónovi a hovorí, „Pán ma poslal dole, aby som vyviedol týchto otrokov,“ s palicou v ruke, proti obrovskej armáde, ktorá si podmanila celý svet. Faraón si s celým svojím vedeckým geniálnym nadaním myslel, že Mojžiš bol blázon. A on bol pre nich blázon.
48Dokážem si predstaviť proroka Eliáša v jeho veľkom dni, keď bol ten super vek módy; keď Achab a Jezábeľ vládli svetu, ako to bolo v tých dňoch; a všetka tá móda a všetko, čo chcela Jezábeľ nosiť a ako dostala všetky tie ženy, že sa obliekali tak ako ona, a maľovali sa tak, ako ona, a chodili tak podľa jej módy, tak, ako sa ona upravovala. A keď nejaký starý pomätenec, ako Eliáš, vystúpil na scénu a odporoval celému národu; pre Achaba bol bláznom. To je pravda.
49Prorok Ámos, keď prišiel do Samárie, v tom čase bola Samária podobná dnešnému Hollywoodu, ženy na ulici, obliekanie a dokonca verejné cudzoložstvo, ako sa tam správali a žili, nechali mužov...
50Dnes je to takmer verejné cudzoložstvo, rovno pred vami. Išiel som raz večer na určité miesto, aby som zohnal niečo na jedenie, a mladí chlapci a dievčatá sa tam objímali a bozkávali, ako neviem čo.
A vieš, moja mladá sestra, že to je potenciálne cudzoložstvo? Keď ťa muž bozkáva, on sa s tebou potenciálne dopustil cudzoložstva. Nemala by si mu dovoliť, aby ťa pobozkal, pokiaľ nie ste manželia, lebo žľazy, oboje, mužské i ženské žľazy sú v perách. Rozumiete tomu? A keď sa stretávajú mužské a ženské žľazy, nech sú kdekoľvek, potenciálne ste spáchali cudzoložstvo. A nemala by si chlapcovi dovoliť, aby ťa pobozkal, pokiaľ nie je ten závoj zodvihnutý z tvojej tváre a si jeho ženou. Nerobte to! Je to páchanie cudzoložstva. Je to miešanie mužských a ženských žliaz.
51Prečo muži nebozkávajú mužov a ženy nebozkávajú ženy na pery? Pretože to neskríži žľazy. Deti sa rodia skrze skríženie žliaz.
A tak je to znova skoro verejné cudzoložstvo, všade. Pozrite sa na obrazovky a všade, vidíte, slintanie a vyvádzanie. Niet divu, že nemorálnosť sa vnucuje! Ako to môžu robiť a rozširujú to všade tým, že bozkávajú tie ženy na ústa a vedia, že to je cudzoložstvo! Boh vám to neodpustí, ak neučiníte pokánie.
52A teraz, keď prichádza hore tento veľký prorok Ámos. On je známy ako jeden z menších prorokov, pretože tam o ňom nebolo veľmi veľa napísané, ale on mal Slovo Pánovo. A díval sa na to mesto, celé odovzdané...V parkoch, muži sa objímajú so ženami a ženy sa objímajú s mužmi, skrátka moderný Hollywood! A on kráčal cez toto mesto a hovoril, „Čiňte pokánie, inak zahyniete!“ On bol bláznom. Takmer sám seba prehlásil za šialeného, pre nich.
53Ján Krstiteľ, keď prišiel na scénu. Pre vtedajšie náboženské denominácie bol bláznom. Mal možnosť stať sa kňazom, nasledovať šľapaje svojho otca. Ale odmietol to urobiť, pretože Boh ho držal pomimo tých vyznaní a denominácií, lebo jeho práca bola príliš dôležitá. On mal oznámiť príchod Mesiáša. A nemal nič spoločné ani s farizejmi, ani so sadúcejmi, ani s ničím takým, on odmietol celú ich skupinu a povedal, „Nezačnite hovoriť, 'Máme nášho otca Abraháma,' lebo hovorím vám, že Boh môže z týchto kameňov vzbudiť Abrahámovi deti.“ Pre náboženský svet v jeho čase bol bláznom. Správne.
54Keď prišiel na scénu Ježiš. Pre nábožných ľudí v Jeho čase bol taktiež bláznom. Pretože oni hovorili, „Ty si Samaritán. Stratil si rozum. Si šialenec,“ inými slovami, „blázon.“ Týmto On bol pre ľudí, váš Pán a Spasiteľ.
Niet divu, Pavol, ktorý bol vyškolený od Gamaliela, aby bol kňazom a mal možnosť stať sa jedného dňa veľkňazom. A na jeho ceste dole do Damašku bol zrazený na zem nadprirodzeným Svetlom. A pozrel sa hore, on bol Žid a vedel, že Stĺp Ohňa bolo To, čo viedlo jeho ľud. Povedal, „Pane, kto si?“
A On povedal, „Ja som Ježiš.“
55A keď sa zbavil svojho vzdelania, zbavil sa všetkej svojej teológie, ktorej bol vyučený na školách, a stal sa obyčajným pouličným kazateľom, bol bláznom. Povedal, „Stal som sa bláznom.“
56A ľudia si mysleli, že bol šialený, mimo seba. Povedal Festovi, „Nie som bláznivý.“
On len poznal Pána. Ale poznať Pána, keď ste v nejakej náboženskej skupine...
Dúfam, že to neprepočujete. Poznať Pána dnes, keď ste obklopený nejakou náboženskou skupinou, majú vás za blázna. To sa nezmenilo. Mohol by som o tom hovoriť mnoho, ale chcem sa poponáhľať, lebo sa chceme modliť za chorých.
57Martin Luther, ten malý nemecký kňaz, keď niesol jedného dňa komúniu, hodil ju dole na schody a povedal, „Toto nie je telo Ježiša Krista. Toto je len chlieb, ktorý bol tamto urobený.“ A vyhlásil, „Spravodlivý bude žiť z viery.“ Pre katolícku cirkev bol bláznom. Mohli ho za to zavraždiť, ale on bol bláznom a oni ho proste nechali tak. Ale pre tú generáciu sa stal bláznom.
58John Wesley, vo dňoch veľkej nemorálnej hodiny v Anglicku. Vtedy, ak by neprišlo na scénu Wesleyho prebudenie... Celý svet bol skazený, všade bola nemorálnosť. A anglikánska cirkev sa dostala tak ďaleko, že už nie je žiadne prebudenie; také kalvínske názory! A Ján Wesley prišiel na scénu so slovom posvätenia, očistením od nemorálnosti. On sa stal bláznom.
59Citujem pána Wesleyho, raz vo svojej knihe napísal. Išiel dole po ceste a jeden muž z anglikánskej cirkvi... Oni všetci si mysleli, že je bláznivý a tak on tam stál na ceste. Pán Wesley bol malý, drobný človek. Tento mohutný veľký chlap si myslel, že by s ním skrátka mohol tresnúť o zem, a tak sa tam postavil do cesty. Pán Wesley prišiel a povedal, „Prepáčte, pane, mohli by ste mi odstúpiť z cesty? Ponáhľam sa.“
A ten anglikán mu povedal, „Bláznovi sa neodstupujem.“
60Pán Wesley zdvorilo sklonil svoj klobúk, prešiel okolo neho a povedal, „Ja vždy.“ Tak vidíte, bol tam niekto, kto bol bláznom; jeden pre Krista; druhý bol pre cirkev.
A tak, jednako ste pre niekoho bláznom.
61Keď na scénu prišli letniční, pred päťdesiatimi rokmi. Hovorili, „Tí ľudia sú blázniví!“ Boli bláznami, to je pravda, pretože odsúdili všetku skazenosť, ktorá bola v cirkevných vekoch do času, keď prišli na scénu.
Ale čo urobili letniční? Navrátili sa rovno späť do vývratku, z ktorého vyšli, rovno naspäť do denominačnej skazenosti. Viete čo? Je tu čas pre ďalšieho blázna. Áno. Je tu čas pre ďalšieho. To je pravda.
62Všimnite si, matica, prv, ako je matica, je skrutka, aby sa namontovala do tej matice. A tá matica je spojená závitom s tou skrutkou; ak nie, je to zle dopasované. Všimnite si. Všetci, ktorí boli spojení závitom vo dňoch Noeho, spojení závitom ku posolstvu Evanjelia; Noe, matica, ich pritiahol do archy. Záleží na tom, aké sú vaše závity, ku čomu ste spojení závitom. Ak ste spojení závitom ku svetu, oni vás pritiahnu. Ak ste spojení závitom ku Slovu, Ono vás pritiahne. Záleží na tom, ku čomu ste spojení závitom, ktorého blázna budete nasledovať.
63Ale Noe, ktorý bol maticou so Slovom Božím, bláznom pre ten vedecký vek a pre ten náboženský vek, v ktorom žil, on pritiahol do archy tých, ktorí mohli byť zachránení. Amen. Tých, ktorí boli predurčení, skrutku, ktorá bola vyrobená pred maticou. Skrutka musí byť spojená závitom ku matici.
64A tak satan, on má zopár skrutiek a matíc tiež, skrutky a matice kráľovstiev tohto sveta.
Faraón bol práve takým bláznom pre Noeho, či pre Mojžiša, akým bol Mojžiš pre faraóna. Faraón so všetkými svojimi vedeckými trikmi, pritiahol svoj národ ku sebe. Noe, tým, že bol maticou (bláznom) pre Boha, pritiahol cirkev do zasľúbenej zeme. Záleží na tom, akým smerom ste spojení závitom. On vytiahol cirkev z Egypta; ako Noe vytiahol cirkev von zo sveta do archy. Mojžiš pritiahol cirkev z Egypta do Bohom zasľúbenej zeme.
65Ježiš povedal. No, buďte opatrní, pretože tie matice a skrutky vyzerajú veľmi podobne. Len sledujte závit. V Matúšovi 24:24, povedal, „To by zviedlo takmer i samotných vyvolených.“
Nuž, americká a celosvetová denominácia potrebuje maticu.
66Metodisti, Baptisti, Presbyteriáni, oni všetci sú rozdelení v tomto a v tamtom a všetci bojujú. A napriek tomu sú všetci nakrútení na tú istú skrutku. A tak im Boh dáva skrutku a posiela im maticu, Svetovú Radu Cirkví. To ich všetkých pritiahne dohromady. To je pravda. Určite to tak bude, to ich pritiahne dokopy, Svetová Rada.
67Viete, došlo do toho, tu nedávno... Nič sa nemôže stať, žiadna vec bez príčiny. Ženy si chcú vyzliekať svoje šaty. Chcú nosiť šortky. A chcú naďalej patriť do cirkvi. Chcú nosiť všetky tie bikiny, či ako tie veci vôbec nazývate. Chcú to robiť a naďalej patriť do cirkvi; chcú kričať, vykrikovať a tancovať; uctievať, to je uctievanie.
68No, ak by som mal čas, dokázal by som vám to. To je uctievanie diabla, tancovanie takým spôsobom a robenie tých vecí. Môžem vám to dokázať v pohanských krajinách. Oni chcú uctievať, udržiavať svoje svedectvo a naďalej zostávajú v cirkvi. A tak im Boh dal maticu, dve alebo tri z nich; jedna sa volá Elvis Presley; jedna Pat Boone a Ernie Ford; dokáže spievať hymny a všetko možné a stále tvrdiť, že je Kresťanom. To je matica. Nie je spojená závitom so Slovom. Správne.
Nuž, povedal som, že to bude len pol hodina a vypršala. Ale počúvajte.
69Svet chce maticu. Diabol vidí, že ju dostanú. Už sú ku nej spojení závitom.
Ale kým je svet spojený závitom ku matici, sú tam ľudia nazvaní Nevestou. To je tiež spojené závitom. Práve s takou istotou, ako tu stojím, Boh im pošle maticu, ktorá vytiahne Nevestu z tohto zmätku do Prítomnosti Božej. To bude matica spojená závitom so Slovom.
70Jeden kritik mi pred pár dňami dole v Tucsone povedal. Povedal, „Vieš, niektorí ľudia z teba robia blázna a iní z teba robia boha.“
Povedal som, „No, čo s tým, ľudia narobia rôzne reči.“ Vedel som, že sa ma pokúša kritizovať. Rozumiete?
71Povedal, „Ľudia si myslia, že si bohom.“
72Povedal som, „No, skrátka...“ Viem, že ľudia to nerobia. Vedel som, že tomu nerozumie, pretože bol na druhej strane kože, vidíte. A tak som vedel, že to nepozná. Tak som povedal, „To nie je tak ďaleko od Slova Božieho. Alebo je?“
Vidíte, skrátka mu dať poznať, že nie sme stratení. Vieme, kde stojíme. Vieme, akú plachtu sme napli a aký vietor do nej duje. Vieme, aký bol náš závit a aká bola naša matica. A vieme, ako stojíme.
Povedal som, „To nie je tak veľmi v rozpore s Božím Slovom. Alebo je?“ Povedal som, „Spomeň si, keď Boh poslal Mojžiša dole ku deťom Izraela, Boh učinil Mojžiša bohom, to je pravda; a taktiež učinil jeho brata Árona prorokom. To je pravda. 'Všetci proroci,' povedal Ježiš, 'boli bohovia'. Boli bohovia; ľudia.“ To je pravda. Boh to myslel takýmto spôsobom.
73Počúvajte, Slovo, ktoré kážeme a text, ktorý som povedal dnes ráno, „Boh skrývajúci sa za kožami, jazvečími kožami, Boh skrývajúci sa za ľudskou kožou.“ Rozumiete? To je to, čo On urobil. Keď bol Boh zjavený na svete, skrýval sa za oponou, za kožou Človeka nazvaného Ježiš. Bol zahalený a skrýval sa za kožou človeka nazvaného Mojžiš a oni boli bohovia, nie Bohovia; ale boli Bohom, jeden Boh len mení Svoju masku, robí zakaždým tú istú vec a prináša toto Slovo. Vidíte, Boh to urobil takýmto spôsobom. On vedel, že ľudia musia niečo vidieť; je to v každom z nás, ktorí sme sa narodili na svet.
74Tak, ako som vám to hovoril dnes ráno, nikto sa tam neodvážil nasledovať Mojžiša. Boh nikdy nekonal s dvomi osobami. On vždy koná s jednou. Nikto sa neodvážil napodobniť Mojžiša. To bola smrť, fyzická smrť, pokúšať sa napodobniť Mojžiša, aby s ním šli do toho Ohnivého Stĺpu. Takže nie všetci ľudia sú učinení... Nie ste narodení tým spôsobom, aby ste sa prelomili do toho nadprirodzeného.
Ale Boh na zemi umiestnil niektorých ľudí, aby Ho reprezentovali, ako Jeho veľvyslanci. A ten veľvyslanec je ustanovený Bohom, aby vošiel do obrovského neznámeho nadprirodzena, aby rozpoznal a vyniesol veci, ktoré prirodzená myseľ nedokáže vnímať. To vynáša na povrch Tajomstvo Božie (Boha), predpovedá veci, ktoré sú, veci, ktoré boli, a veci, ktoré budú. Čo to je? Boh, Boh za kožou, ľudskou kožou. To je úplne správne.
75Sam Connelly, ktorý žije v Tucsone. On sem raz pred mnohými rokmi prišiel s pánom Kiddom a bol uzdravený; s vredom, ktorý ho neopúšťal mnohé roky. Keď som minulú jeseň odišiel, Sam mal kameň, ktorý špecialisti tam v Tucsone skúmali. Bolo to veľké ako guľôčka. Brat Sam Connelly... Mnohí z vás ho tu poznáte; on je z Ohia. A prišiel ku doktorovi a on povedal, „Sam, priprav sa na ďalší týždeň; vyberiem ten kameň von,“ pár dní pred tým.
Povedal, „Dokážem sa zbaviť toho kameňa, doktor?“
On povedal, „To je nemožné. Ten kameň je príliš veľký.“
76A tak ho zobral do auta a doviezol ho domov. A on zavolal; povedal, „Chcem, aby si prišiel a pomodlil sa za mňa, brat Branham.“ Prečo ma kvôli takej veci volal? A začal som sa za neho modliť.
77Povedal som, „Sam, to je TAK HOVORÍ PÁN, kameň odíde sám.“
78A na ďalšie ráno vzal ten kameň ku doktorovi. A povedal, doktor povedal, „Pán Connelly, nerozumiem tomu, ako sa to stalo.“
79A on povedal, „Som veriaci v Boha a Boh pre mňa vybral ten kameň, vybral ho zo mňa.“ Ten človek, doktor, tomu sotva mohol veriť. Práve tak, ako nedokázal veriť, že ten veľký nádor opustil bok mojej ženy. Viete o tom, vidíte. A tak povedal...
80Asi o šesť mesiacov neskôr, čo bolo asi tri... Asi pred dvoma týždňami alebo troma týždňami, bol Sam Connelly zasiahnutý vážnou srdcovou chorobou. A neviem, ako sa to nazýva, koronárna, alebo nejaký druh srdcového zablokovania, alebo čo to vlastne je. Je to veľmi nebezpečné... To nebude... Oni tvrdia, že sa cez to nedostanete. Srdcový infarkt a jeho srdce bolo zablokované. A jeho končatiny sa nafúkli, až boli jeho členky väčšie ako noha, tu hore okolo stehna. A tak ho zobrali dolu ku doktorovi. Doktor povedal, „Vezmite ho domov, pokojne, alebo do nemocnice.“
Sam povedal, „Nechcem ísť do nemocnice!“
On povedal, „Vezmite ho domov, uložte ho do postele a nehýbte hlavou, rukou, ani nohou po dobu šesť mesiacov.“ Povedal, „Môžete zomrieť v ktorejkoľvek minúte.“
81A brat Norman zavolal. A v ten večer sme išli navštíviť brata Sama. A keď sme sa za neho modlili a Pán prehovoril.
A na ďalšie ráno prišiel Sam dolu do doktorovej ordinácie s vytiahnutými nohavicami, zastal pred doktorom a povedal, „Pozrite sa na mňa, doktor!“
A doktor ho dal pod elektrický kardiogram a povedal, „Nerozumiem tomu.“ Povedal, „Vráťte sa do práce.“ Opýtal sa, „Do akej cirkvi patríte?“
Povedal, „Nepatrím do žiadnej z nich.“
82On povedal, „Nemôžete byť Kresťanom bez toho, aby ste patrili do tých denominácií. Musíte tam patriť.“ Vidíte, to bolo všetko, čo ten doktor vedel. Sam bol pre neho bláznom.
A on bol bláznom pre Sama, tým, že sa pýtal takú otázku.
Čo sa potom stalo? Sam prišiel a povedal, „Čo môžem povedať niekomu, kto mi hovorí niečo také, brat Branham?“
83„Povedz im, že patríš do jednej a jedinej Cirkvi. Nepripojil si sa ku Nej. To nie je denominácia. Narodil si sa do Nej.“
84Malá dáma, asi pred šiestimi mesiacmi, priateľka sestry Normanovej. Zabudol som jej meno, veľmi pekná malá žena, asi tridsaťročná. Ona a jej manžel sa oddelili a ona dostala leukémiu. A bola v takom stave, že sa sotva mohla pohybovať. A nakoniec sa to zhoršilo, že ju až doktori umiestnili na lôžko. A lekári ju navštevovali, až nadišiel čas. Dávali jej čas do nasledujúcej stredy. Do stredy mala byť mŕtva. A pani Normanová ju nejako dostala z lôžka, dopravili ju sem a musela ju pridŕžať na stoličke. A ako tam to malé stvorenie sedelo a kolísalo sa dozadu a dopredu a šedá, ako len mohla byť; žltá na koži od rakoviny, leukémie.
Povedal som, „No, môžem sa za teba pomodliť, sestra.“
A pokúšala sa hovoriť, v očiach mala slzy, povedala...
Opýtal som sa, „Si Kresťanka?“
Povedala, „Som metodistka.“
Povedal som, „Pýtal som sa ťa, či si Kresťanka.“
A ona povedala, „Myslíte tým, či patrím ku kresťanskej cirkvi?“
85Povedal som, „Nie, madam. Myslím tým, či ste narodená z Ducha Božieho a milujete Pána Ježiša?“
Povedala, „No, vždy som patrila do cirkvi.“
86Povedal som, „Ak vás Boh nechá nažive, sľúbite mi, že sa ku mne vrátite a ukážete mi, že kráčate po ceste Pánovej oveľa úprimnejšie?“
Povedala, „Sľúbim Bohu všetko, ak ušetrí môj život. Budem Mu slúžiť.“
87V tej chvíli prišlo videnie a povedalo, „TAK HOVORÍ PÁN. Nepripravuj sa; roztrhaj veci ku smrti na pozajtra.“ To bolo v pondelok a ona mala zomrieť v stredu. „Ty nezomrieš.“
Minulú nedeľu, týždeň pred touto nedeľou som s ňou sedel v miestnosti. Pribrala pätnásť kilo; doktor povedal, že sa tam nikde nedá nájsť ani stopa po leukémii. A ona chcela poznať cestu Pánovu; a poslal som ju dole, aby sa dala pokrstiť v Mene Ježiša Krista, v zavlažovacej priekope. Môže byť bláznom, ale, „Keď budem povýšený, všetkých ľudí potiahnem ku Sebe.“
88Bol som na návšteve hore u toho chlapca, ktorý si tu zvykol brať pásky, Leo Mercier. On má dvor s prívesmi. A bol som sa modliť za nejakých ľudí. A modlil som sa za jednu pani, ktorá sa volala Lokar, myslím, že tak. A ona bola štrnásť krát operovaná na rakovinu a doktori sa jej už vzdali, že zomrie. A modlil som sa za ňu a povedal som jej, že nezomrie, ale bude žiť. A nie je tam nikde po tom ani stopa. A kvôli tomuto, dvadsaťosem ľudí z jej rodiny, ktorí tam stáli, sú spasení a naplnení Svätým Duchom. Môže byť bláznom (maticou), ale to ku Nemu priťahuje všetkých ľudí, ktorí prídu. To je spojené závitom so Slovom. Rozumiete, čo tým myslím?
89Dostal som list, ktorý sem prišiel predvčerom, ležal rovno tam vzadu v kartotéke. Minulú jeseň, keď som bol na loveckej výprave... či minulú jar, bolo to pred rokom. Indiánsky chlapec, ktorý sa volal Oskar; s ktorým sme lovili na ceste tam hore; to je tam, kde ten Anjel Pánov, hovoril som vám, tu na druhej strane, že privedie toho karibu a toho strieborného grizlyho. Všetci z vás si to pamätáte. Potom ten chlapec, keď som vošiel... On vošiel do stanu, minulú jar. A keď ma Bud poprosil, aby som poprosil o požehnanie, (zložil si rukavice; on jazdil), nasadil si tie rukavice a bol pripravený odísť preč. On bol katolík. Nemal by s tým nič spoločného.
90Minulú jeseň, keď mohol, stál vedľa mňa... Keď tam jeho matka zomierala, dostala infarkt, povedal, „Nevrátiš sa späť a nepomodlíš sa za ňu?“ Išiel som späť do tej indiánskej chatrče. A tam sa všetci zhromaždili okolo tej matky, a ona zomierala, nedokázala povedať po anglicky ani slovo. A zostúpil Duch Svätý a povedal tej matke prostredníctvom tlmočníčky, jej dcéry, čo sa stalo, a tak to bolo. Dokonca ju nazval menom a povedal jej, čím bola a z akého kmeňa bola a ako sa to stane. A matka bola okamžite uzdravená.
91A na druhý deň ráno, keď som ich znovu navštívil, ako som prechádzal okolo, išiel som štyridsať míľ naspäť pre ovcu, všetci tam sedeli a ona bola celá... vysadla na koňa, aby si zašla pre sušené losie mäso. A povedal som, „Minulú noc, keď som sa modlil, povedal som, „'Náš Nebeský Otče, ktorý si na Nebesiach'.“ Povedal som, „Louise, ja... bola to katolícka modlitba. Všetci ste začali a potom, keď som pokračoval svojimi slovami, samozrejme, nevedeli ste, ako ďalej.“ A povedal som, „No, idem proste poďakovať Bohu. Nerozprávame modlitby; modlíme sa.“
92Povedala, „Nie sme už viacej katolíci.“ Povedala, „Veríme tak, ako veríš ty. Chceme, aby si nás všetkých vzal a pokrstil nás tak, ako ty krstíš. Chceme Ducha Svätého.“
93Na ceste späť... Ten chlapec stratil svoje kone, pár mesiacov pred tým a nemohol ich nájsť. A ten sprievodca na neho nakričal, povedal, „Oskar, toľko by si už mal predsa vedieť, že kone nemôžeš tak nechať. V tomto čase sú tam medvede, mnoho grizlyov, ktoré ich môžu zožrať.“
A on stále postával blízko mňa. A povedal, raz večer povedal, „Ja sa ťa niečo opýtať?“ [Brat Branham napodobňuje nesprávnu gramatiku Indiána. - pozn.prekl.]
Povedal som, „Áno.“
Povedal, „Brat Branham, pomodli sa ku Bohu. Boh mi dá moje koníky späť.“
Povedal som, „Bud povedal, že ich medveď zjedol.“
Povedal, „Brat Branham, popros Boha. Boh dá Oskarovi jeho koníky späť.“
Povedal som, „Veríš tomu, Oskar?“
Povedal, „Verím. Boh uzdravil moju mamu. Boh ti povedal, kde bol medveď, kde bola zver. Ten Boh, ktorý vie, kde je zver, vie, kde sú moje koníky.“ Vidíte?
94Pred rokom, kým sme stáli tam vzadu s Fredom Sothmanom (on je tu dnes večer), s Billy Paulom (mojím synom), prišiel dolu Svätý Duch: povedal som, „Oskar, nájdeš svoje koníky. Budú stáť v snehu.“
Tam leží list, napísali mi minulý týždeň a dostal som ho v piatok, prišiel sem. Teraz leží rovno tam v kartotéke. „Brat Branham, Oskar našiel svoje koníky stáť v snehu.“
95Ako prežili, nikto nevie. Tam, chlapec... V tomto ročnom období, v júni je tam toľko snehu, že je tam okolo nich stále dvadsať alebo tridsať stôp snehu. Ako tam vydržali cez zimu, v tom kaňone? Oskar sa mohol ku nim dostať, na snežniciach, ale samozrejme, nemohol navliecť snežnice na svojho koníka. Ale ich našiel podľa Slova Pánovho. Môže to znieť ako bláznovstvo (matica); len tomu raz uveriť. Záleží na tom, aké sú vaše závity.
96No, to sa nespojí závitom s denomináciou. To sa spojí závitom iba so Slovom. Ale vo svete je zopár ľudí, ktorí veria tomu Slovu! Bude potrebný nejaký blázon (matica), aby tú Nevestu odtiaľto vykrútil von, aby bola nakrútená na závit, lebo Nevesta a Ženích sú jedno. A Boh je jeden a Slovo je Boh! To bude musieť byť spojené závitom so Slovom a Ono potiahne Nevestu von z týchto denominácií.
97Áno, on ma chcel kritizovať. Viete, to mi pripomína to, čo som hovoril dnes ráno, Boh skrývajúci sa za kožami, za ľudskou kožou.
98Poviem krátky príbeh a potom zakončím; prepáčte mi, že som vás tu teraz zdržal okolo štyridsaťpäť minút. Bol dom, Kresťanský dom a bol tam... Toto som hovoril tomu kritikovi. A tam v tomto dome bol... Oni verili v Boha. Mali tam malého chlapca, ale pri búrke bol vystrašený na smrť, keď sa blýskalo, ó, bol skrátka vystrašený na smrť. Skrýval sa pod stoly, kamkoľvek, keď sa blýskalo.
A raz večer prišla búrka, tam na farme, kde žili, a stromy sa ohýbali od vetra, blýskalo sa, nastávala noc. Mama povedala tomu synovi, povedala, „No, synu, choď hore do izby a ľahni si spať.“ Povedala, „No, neboj sa. Choď tam hore.“
99A tak chlapec, oblečený v pyžame šiel hore po schodoch, obzeral sa na ňu, zdalo sa, že sa rozplače. Uložil sa, pokúšal sa zaspať, prikrýval si hlavu. Nedokázal zaspať; tie blýskajúce blesky okolo okna. A tak povedal, „Ó, mama,“ povedal, „poď sem hore a spi so mnou.“
Nuž, ona povedala, „Synu, nič sa neboj. To blýskanie ti nemôže ublížiť.
Povedal, „Ale mama, poď sem hore a spi so mnou.“
100A tak mama vyšla hore po schodoch a ľahla si ku svojmu synovi. A povedala, „Chlapče, môj malý synu, mama ti chce niečo povedať.“ Povedala, „Vieš, my sme Kresťanská rodina. Veríme v Boha a veríme tomu, že Boh nás ochraňuje v búrkach. Veríme tomu. A veríme, že Boh sa stará o Svoje vlastné.“ A povedala, „Chcem, aby si tomu veril, synu. Že sa nemusíš báť. Boh je s nami a On nás ochráni.“
101Chlapec trochu zafňukal a povedal, „Mama, ja tomu tiež verím.“ Povedal, „Ale, keď je ten blesk tak blízko pri okne, chcem cítiť Boha, ktorý má na sebe kožu.”
Tak, myslím, že mnoho z nás dospelých si myslí tak isto. Boh, s kožou na Sebe! [Prázdne miesto na páske. - pozn.prekl.] Boh, s kožou na Sebe! Pre svet to môže znieť ako bláznovstvo (matica), ale to priťahuje všetkých ľudí k Nemu.
Modlime sa.
102Nebeský Otče, ako tie malé príbehy o zážitkoch a niekedy sa stanú z nejakého dôvodu. A aj keď je to tak drsné, ako to je, jednako tomu rozumieme v jazyku, v akom sa to stalo. A tak Ti dnes večer ďakujeme, Pane, že Boh môže Sám Seba ubytovať v nás. Sme vďační, že tam bolo učinené zmierenie, Krv Toho spravodlivého, Ježiša; ktorý bol plnosťou Boha, plnosťou Božstva telesne, že obetoval Svoj vzácny Život; nebol Mu vzatý, ale On Ho obetoval úmyselne, aby sme si Ho my mohli užívať v plnosti Jeho Prítomnosti, v Sláve Shekinah, v ktorej žil; aby naše duše mohli byť posvätené tou Krvou, aby v nás mohol žiť Sám veľký Duch Svätý. A my sme sa stali učiteľmi, prorokmi, a tak ďalej, pre ľudí, pre tých, Pane, ktorí sú v potrebe; Božími darmi; Sám Boh sa prejavuje, vyžaruje veľké Božie dary v prítomnosti tohto moderného veku.
103A tento hrubý výraz, Pane, byť bláznom. A vieme, že v tomto dni sa niekedy používa, keď sa svet dostáva do starých koľají, tak ako aj cirkev dnes, že sa stačí len pripojiť do nových cirkví a do nových denominácií. A človek, ktorý ide vpred so Slovom, je považovaný za blázna, za šialenca. Ako veľký apoštol Pavol, ktorý bol vyškolený, aby bol teológom, kňazom, a jednako povedal, že sa stal bláznom pre slávu Božiu. Opustil svoje vzdelanie, aby ľudia mohli... počúvať jeho vznešené vyleštené slová. A on povedal, že neprišiel s očarujúcimi slovami a ľudskou múdrosťou, aby ich viera nebola v niečom takom. Ako sa ku tomu dnes cirkev obrátila, ako prorokoval, „Po mojom odchode vojdú do vnútra vlci, ktorí nebudú šetriť stáda.“ Ale povedal, že k nim prišiel „v moci a dôkazoch Svätého Ducha,“ aby ich viera bola v Boha. Otče, on sa stal bláznom pre svet, aby poznal Ježiša.
104A tak to my robíme dnes, Pane. Sedia tu ľudia, ktorí sú považovaní za bláznov, pretože sú pripravení veriť Bohu, za ich uzdravenie, za ich Večné miesto určenia. Riskujú, že stratia svoju povesť, keď Ho uctievajú. Ďakujú Mu, chvália Ho, dávajú slobodu svojmu duchu, aby ctili Boha; sú považovaní za bláznov. Ale Ty si povedal, že „bláznovstvo Božie,“ ak sme blázni, „je silnejšie a múdrejšie, než ľudská múdrosť; lebo ľudia skrze múdrosť nepoznali Boha. Ale skrze bláznovstvo kázne, to sa zaľúbilo Bohu, aby spasil tých, ktorí boli zachrániteľní.“ Modlíme sa, Bože, aby dnes večer prišiel Ten veľký Autor tohto Slova a uzdravil nemocných, zachránil stratených. Prosíme o to v Ježišovom Mene. Amen.
105Ja prirovnávam Boha, takže nebudete popletení v tom, čo som dnes hovoril; Boh je veľký Diamant, Večný.
A keď je diamant vydolovaný z modrých afrických kameňov, bol som v baniach a pozoroval ich vo veľkom... ako to spracovávali a dolovali diamanty, ako prechádzali cez drvič, veľké modré ohnivé diamanty a vydolovali čierne diamanty. Nemajú veľmi tvar, určitý tvar. Sú to len veľké kamene. A skutočne v sebe v tom čase nemajú žiaden oheň. Sú to len diamanty, kamene; okrúhle a hladké, mnohé z nich. Ale tento diamant musí byť osekaný. No, mať nejaký, ktorý nebol osekaný, je protizákonné. Musí byť osekaný a potom musíte mať potvrdenie, kde ste ho vydolovali, pretože sú v nich milióny dolárov.
A ja prirovnávam Boha ku tomu diamantu.
106Nuž, diamant je osekaný tak, že bude odzrkadľovať to, čo je v jeho vnútri, oheň, ktorý je v diamante. A to musí byť osekané v každom malom smere, každý malý tvar, tri body. Umiestnite do diamantu tri body a svetlo svietiace do toho trojbodového objektu vydá sedem farieb, rozumiete, vytvorí sedem farieb.
107A teraz si všimnite, „Boh bol ranený pre naše prestúpenia, zdrtený pre naše neprávosti.“ Vidíte, On bol osekaný, zdrtený, Ten veľký Diamant, aby z Neho mohli byť odzrkadlené dary pre Cirkev.
A to nie je svetlo; pretože svetlo sa musí vrátiť späť, keď je slnko mimo z jeho dosahu, tam, odkiaľ to bolo odseknuté.
Ale každý malý kúsoček, ktorý pochádza z toho odštiepenia, nie je zničený; všetko sa využije. Mnohé z nich sú spracované pre ihly Victrola [Diamantové gramofónové ihly. - pozn.prekl.] A tie ihly, ktoré boli odštiepené z diamantu, prinášajú hudbu, ktorá bola uzavretá do platne.
108A dúfam, že rozumiete, čo tým myslím. Úlomok z Krista, dar od Krista priložený na Bibliu, rozpráva skryté tajomstvá Božie pre veriaceho. On pozná tajomstvá srdca. Pozná každú osobu. Veríte tomu?
Keby hovoril, „Vidíte, čo som?“ Tak by to nebol diamant. Ide o to, odkiaľ pochádza. Diamant je diamantom, pretože je z diamantu.
109A takto je to s darmi Ducha... pre osobu, to je časť toho Diamantu. To je poslané a prinesené dole, a prevedené do daru, aby vykladalo, aby kázalo, aby vyučovalo. Je päť duchovných darov; apoštoli, proroci, učitelia, pastori, evanjelisti a oni všetci sú na vzdelávanie Tela Kristovho. A rovnako, ako sú tu učitelia a pastori, musia tu byť proroci. Vieme to.
110A veríme, že Boh sa v posledných dňoch má prejaviť medzi Svojím ľudom, pre to vyvolené Semeno, podľa Biblie, vo forme proroka. To je presne podľa Slova. Nie, že ten človek je Boh, ale že ten dar je Boh. Rozumiete? A to je ihla.
No, špendlík nebude hrať tú platňu správne. Obyčajná ihla na šitie to nebude hrať správne. Ale diamantová, tá je najlepšia. Prináša to jasne, ihla s diamantovým hrotom.
111Nech Boh dnes večer... Platňa vášho života, čokoľvek je s vami v neporiadku, čokoľvek, po čom túžite od Boha, nech Ten veľký Majster, ktorý drží ihlu vo Svojej ruke, nech ju On položí na váš život a odhalí nám, kvôli čomu ste tu, čo chcete; potom budeme vedieť, že On je tu.
112Nebeský Otče, udelíš to prv, ako sa začnem modliť za chorých, nemám toto v úmysle robiť, ale udelíš to, aby ľudia mohli vedieť? Možno sú tu neznámi ľudia, za ktorých sa máme modliť. Ja ich nepoznám, ale Ty áno. A Pavol povedal, „Ak hovoríte v jazykoch a nie je tam výklad, alebo to nedáva žiadne poučenie, ľudia budú hovoriť, že ste šialení. Ale ak človek prorokuje a odhaľuje, čo je na srdci, potom budú hovoriť, 'Skutočne je Boh s vami.'“ Dovoľ, Pane, nech sa to v tejto poslednej hodine zopakuje. Ty si to zasľúbil, a preto sa to musí stať. V Mene Ježiša Krista. Amen.
113Teraz som zvedavý, koľko je tu dnes večer nemocných ľudí? Alebo rozdával Billy modlitebné...? Sú rozdané nejaké modlitebné karty? [Bratia hovoria, „Áno.“ - pozn.prekl.] Sú. No, predpokladám, že každá chorá osoba má modlitebnú kartu, ale ja neviem, čo ste na ňu napísali. Myslím, že on vám len dáva kartu; vy na ňu napíšete, čo chcete. Je to tak? Len ste dostali kartu; napíšte na ňu, čokoľvek chcete.
114Nepoznám vás. Koľkí z vás tu vedia, že vás nepoznám, a predsa ste chorí a mohli by ste povedať toto, „Čo som ťa to dnes počul hovoriť, 'Boh za kožami. Boh zahaľujúci Sa za ľudskou kožou'“? Ale ak máte duchovné oči, môžete ich otvoriť a vidieť Ho, vidieť, Kto On je. A vy tomu veríte. Ježiš povedal, „Ten, kto verí vo Mňa, skutky, ktoré Ja činím, bude aj on činiť; a viac než tie bude činiť, lebo Ja idem k Otcovi.“ No, ak veríte z celého vášho srdca!
115Koľkí z vás sú tu, ktorí sú nemocní a vedia, že vás nepoznám, neviem, čo je s vami v neporiadku? Len zodvihnite svoju ruku a povedzte, „Som nemocný. Mám potrebu.“ Koľkí majú túžby vo svojom srdci, nie sú nemocní, ale majú túžby? Viete, čo som... V poriadku. Z tých, ktorí zodvihli ruku, ako vidím, nie je nikto, koho poznám.
116Poznám tohto muža, ktorý tu sedí. Som si istý, že je to brat James, a myslím, že toto je sestra James. Brat Ben, poznám ho. Len vaše tváre, niekedy; brat fotografuje. Ale...
Nech niekto tu vzadu, kdekoľvek, nech len... robím takúto výzvu na základe tohoto posolstva, na záver.
117Viete o tom, že Boh zasľúbil, aby sa toto v posledných dňoch stalo? On učinil zasľúbenie. Rozumiete? Ja teraz nemôžem urobiť, aby sa to stalo. Rozumiete, ja to nedokážem urobiť. On to musí urobiť. On je Ten Jediný, ktorý to robí; nie ja. Ale ja v Neho verím, inak by som tu nestál a nehovoril vám niečo, v čo by som neveril. No, modlite sa a povedzte, „Pane Ježišu, z Biblie som sa naučil, že Ty si práve teraz Veľkňazom, ktorý môže byť dotknutý, tým, že cítiš s nami v našich slabostiach.“ Nestarám sa o to, kde sa nachádzate. Povedzte len, „Verím Ti. A skrze vieru verím tomu, čo ten muž dnes hovoril.“
118To je to, čo mi povedal ten Anjel, „Dostaň ľudí do toho, aby ti verili.“ A ak som hovoril Slovo Božie, už to nie je „veriť mne,“ je to „veriť Slovu.“
Ak to nepasuje so Slovom, potom tomu neverte. Ale ak veríte, že je to Slovo, potom, čokoľvek to je, modlite sa, verte a uvidíte, či On stále môže odhaliť to, čo je vo vašom srdci.
119A každý vie, že Biblia povedala, že, „Slovo Božie je ostrejšie ako dvojsečný meč a rozoznáva myšlienky a zámery srdca.“
To je spôsob, ako Abrahám vedel, že To bol Boh, keď mohol povedať Sáre to, čo hovorila vzadu v stane, čo si o tom myslela; keď povedal, „Navštívim ťa,“ a Sára si pomyslela vo svojom srdci, „To tak nemôže byť.“
120No, povedal som, že On je tu, aby vás uzdravil. Čo si o tom myslíte? Ak len budete veriť! No, nemôžem, nemám nejaký spôsob; Nebeský Otec to vie. Rozumiete? Ja to musím vidieť. A to, čo vidím, rozprávam; a to, čo nevidím, samozrejme, nemôžem povedať. Ale On je práve tak Bohom! Zvýšilo by to vašu vieru, ak by to On urobil?
Kázať takto, to ma trocha vyvádza z miery. Ale On je tu. Som si toho vedomý.
121Pozorujem muža, ako sklonil svoju hlavu, rovno tu vzadu. Jeho žena sedí vedľa neho, tiež sa modlí. Priamo tam. Máš niečo na srdci. Tvoja žena sa modlí. Máš na svojom srdci bremeno. Je to kvôli tvojej svokre. To je pravda. Veríš, že mi Boh môže povedať o tom, čo je v neporiadku s tvojou svokrou? Nepoznám ťa. Sme si navzájom cudzí. Takže, je to pravda? Veríš, že mi Boh môže povedať o tom, čo je s ňou v neporiadku? Ona tu nie je. Vidím veľkú vzdialenosť; ona sa nachádza odtiaľto na východe. Ona je v Ohio... To je pravda. Trpí chorobou krvi. Nech tvoja žena vezme tú vreckovku, do ktorej plače, a položí ju na ňu. Nepochybuj; ona vyzdravie. Veríš tomu?
122 Je tu malá dáma, ktorá sedí rovno tu predo mnou. Plače. Niečo je v neporiadku s dieťaťom, neviem... Nie, nie je tam nič v neporiadku. Má iba túžbu. Túži prijať krst Duchom Svätým. To je TAK HOVORÍ PÁN. Ver, dieťa, prijmeš To. To je pravda.
Nepochybuj.
123Je tu dáma, ktorá sedí tu na konci radu. Modlí sa. Som pre ňu cudzí, ale ona je zatienená. Mala si operácie. Ak sme si navzájom cudzí, mám ten dojem. Nepoznám ťa. Ty ma nepoznáš, iba si o mne možno len počula. Nie si odtiaľto. Si medzi nami cudzia. Si z Wisconsin. To mesto je Milwaukee. A tvoj problém je rakovina; nachádza sa na prsníku. Operácia za operáciou, avšak bez úspechu. Nech viera, ktorá sa dotkla lemu Jeho rúcha, nech tomu hneď teraz verí. Ponor to do svojho srdca; stane sa to. Maj vieru!
124Muž, ktorý sedí tu v rohu. Modlí sa za svoju matku. On je pre mňa cudzí. Nepoznám ho. Ale on sa modlí za svoju matku. A jeho matka má to isté, ako táto žena, rakovinu. Alebo je z toho vystrašená, to je to. Je tu človek, za ktorého sa modlíš, a ten muž má problémy s chrbticou. On je tiež, vidím ho pod vplyvom alkoholu. On je alkoholik. Tvoj brat. Ty nie si odtiaľto. Si z Illinois. Veríš, že mi Boh môže povedať, ako sa voláš? Farmer. Je to pravda? Pozdvihni svoju ruku. Ver!
125Je tu niekto, kto nad niekým kľačí, modlí sa, niekto leží na lôžku. V poriadku. Veríš tomu, čo si počula, že to je Pravda, pani? Áno, veríš. Ak by som ťa mohol uzdraviť, prišiel by som to urobiť. Ale ty si už uzdravená Kristom, rozumieš. Len tomu musíš veriť. Tá pani tam stojí, modlí sa, modlila sa za teba, aby si bola dotknutá. Nepoznám ťa, ale Boh ťa pozná. Vy tiež nie ste z tohto mesta. To je pravda. Si z Illinois. To je presne tak. To mesto sa volá East Moline, Illinois. [Sestra hovorí, „To je mesto, kde som sa narodila.“ - pozn.prekl.] Trpíš rakovinou. Si žena kazateľa. Veríš? [„Áno.“ - pozn.prekl.] Zomrieš, keď tam budeš ležať. Prečo Ho dnes večer neprijmeš, a povedz, „Môžem vo svojom srdci, so svojou vierou nad čímkoľvek, čo je tu, verím, že som uzdravená. Som v Prítomnosti Božej.“ Vstaň, ver a choď domov a buď uzdravená. Tu ju máte.
Veríte z celých vašich sŕdc? [Zhromaždenie sa raduje. - pozn.prekl.] Chváľme Boha.
126Nebeský Otče, ďakujeme Ti za všetku Tvoju dobrotu a milosrdenstvo. Ďakujeme Ti za to, že si stále tu, rovno v strede všetkých týchto problémov. V tomto svete, ktorý je prevrátený, avšak Ty si tu. Nech Tvoj Duch, Pane, stále zostáva s nami. Vidíme, že Ty si tu, Boh s kožou na Sebe, v ľudských srdciach; dávaš vieru, zjavenie a videnia. Si Bohom vo Svojej Cirkvi, Boh vo Svojich ľuďoch. Ďakujeme Ti za to, Pane. A nech dnes večer každý verí, jednomyseľne, a nech môžu byť uzdravení. Modlím sa skrze Meno Ježiša Krista. Amen.
127Koľkí z vás tam na tej strane majú modlitebné karty? Nech sa tí, ktorí sú na tamtej strane, vrátia, poďte rovno stredom tejto uličky. Tí, ktorí ste v tejto uličke, vyjdite rovno týmto smerom, len zaujmite svoje miesto, vyjdite rovno týmto smerom. Nech sú, akonáhle skončia, táto rada sa napojí z druhej strany.
128Starší, príďte sem. Brat Roy, nech ťa Pán žehná; nevedel som, že tu sedíš. Chcem, aby sem prišli hneď diakoni zboru, ak sa sem môžu dostať odtiaľ, kde sa nachádzajú. Príďte sem trochu pomôcť.
Chcem, aby každý, za koho sa budem modliť, aby zodvihol ruku, opakujte po mne toto.
Pane, [Zhromaždenie hovorí, „Pane,“ - pozn.prekl.] verím. [„Verím.“ - pozn.prekl.] Pomôž mojej nevere. [„Pomôž mojej nevere.“] Verím, [„Verím,“] že v Tvojej Prítomnosti, [„že v Tvojej Prítomnosti,“] ako nasledujem Tvoje Slovo, [„ako nasledujem Tvoje Slovo,“] a moje... a položia na mňa dnes večer ruky, [„a položia na mňa dnes večer ruky“] prijmem svoje uzdravenie, [„prijmem svoje uzdravenie,“] v Ježišovom Mene. [„v Ježišovom Mene.“] Amen. [„Amen.“] Nech vás Boh žehná.
129Teraz dávajte pozor. „Modlitba viery uzdraví chorého. Ak položia ruky na nemocných, budú sa mať dobre.“ On povedal Noachovi, že bude pršať. To nikdy – On nikdy... Nikdy som nepovedal, „Akonáhle – keď ste sa za to modlili, budete sa mať dobre.“ On povedal, „Budú sa mať dobre.“
130On povedal Noachovi, že bude pršať. Vôbec nepršalo po dobu stodvadsiatich rokov, ale potom pršalo.
On povedal Abrahámovi, že bude mať so Sárou dieťa. To sa vôbec nestalo po dobu dvadsaťpäť rokov, ale potom ho mal.
Povedal Izaiášovi, že panna počne. Vôbec sa to nestalo po dobu osemsto rokov, ale ona potom počala.
Je to pravda? On to zasľúbil! Nezáleží na tom, ako dlho to trvá, On to v každom prípade urobí. Veríte tomu?
131Prichádzajte teraz. Nech brat Capps vedie piesne. Vy privádzajte ľudí s modlitebnými kartami. No, nech sa teraz každý modlí.
132Náš Nebeský Otče, počúvneme Tvoje prikázania o kladení rúk na týchto nemocných ľudí. Neviem, akú inú vec by si mohol urobiť, Pane, lebo Ty si vo Svojom Slove povedal, že si vykúpil ich uzdravenie. Dokázal si, že si tu dnes večer s nami, Slovo, ktoré dokáže rozpoznávať myšlienky, ktoré sú v srdci. Dokázal si to, že si medzi nami. A modlím sa ku Tebe, Otče, aby sa Tvoje Slovo, ktoré nemôže zlyhať, stalo tak skutočným pre každé srdce! Ako si povedal, „Ak tomu môžete veriť; nepochybujete, ale veríte tomu; povedzte tomuto vrchu, 'Pohni sa' a nepochybujte, ale verte tomu, že sa to stane!“ On nepovedal kedy.
133Ty si povedal ľuďom na Letnice, aby išli tam hore a čakali. Nepovedal si hodiny, dni; povedal si, „až kým.“ Teraz oni prichádzajú prijať svoje uzdravenie. Nech nikdy nepremýšľajú o ničom inom, než o ich uzdravení, až kým sa nedostaví vyslobodenie. Sme Ti poslušní, tým, že kladieme na nich ruky ako veriaci. V Mene Ježiša Krista. Amen.
134V poriadku, príďte hneď teraz. [Brat Branham a bratia kladú na ľudí ruky a modlia sa za každého v modlitebnom rade. - pozn.prekl.] [Prázdne miesto na páske. - pozn.prekl.] Ste uzdravení. Nech vás Boh žehná. To je dobre. [Prázdne miesto na páske. - pozn.prekl.]
Všetko je možné, len ver;
Len ver, len ver;
Všetko...
Pane Ježišu, modlím sa teraz za tieto vreckovky v Mene Ježiša Krista. Amen.
Zaujímalo by ma, či by sme mohli zmeniť tie slová:
Teraz verím, teraz verím;
Všetko je možné, teraz verím;
Teraz verím, teraz verím;
Všetko je možné, teraz verím.
135Veríte tomu, že to, za čo ste prosili a žiadali, vám bude dané? [Zhromaždenie hovorí, „Amen.“ - pozn.prekl.] Stane sa to.
136Pred chvíľou som videl prechádzať v rade ľudí, za ktorých sme sa modlili, zopár mojich talianskych priateľov z Chicaga. Koľkí z vás poznajú sestru Bottazzi z Chicaga? No, viete, nedávno mala duševné, nervové zrútenie, veľmi, veľmi zlé. Ale ráno v Chicagu na raňajkách Kresťanských Obchodníkov som povedal tej sestre pod inšpiráciou Ducha Svätého. Ona sa vrátila na jednu stranu a skrátka sa nemohla spamätať. A povedal som, „Sestra, nedostaneš sa z toho hneď, ale budeš v poriadku.“ Povedal som, „Bude to buď za osemnásť mesiacov, alebo za dva roky, presne v tomto čase budeš uzdravená.“
137Nedávno, keď som s ňou hovoril... Počul som, ako svedčila, tak šťastná, najšťastnejšia, aká kedy v celom svojom živote bola. Išla v aute. Nemala pokoja, vyzeralo to, že Prítomnosť Božia sa od nej odchýlila; samozrejme, bola to duševná nervozita, viete; a zrazu sa vrátila s veľkým prílivom radosti a bola na nej moc Ducha Svätého. Ona plakala a kričala a mala... Mali skrátka ohromný čas, asi pred tromi alebo štyrmi týždňami, alebo pred mesiacom. A minulú nedeľu som počul jej svedectvo a povedala, „Brat Branham, keď som sa vrátila, zaznačila som si to a vzala si tú pásku. A bolo to presne osemnásť mesiacov od toho dňa.“ Amen.
Milujete Ho? [Zhromaždenie hovorí, „Amen.“ - pozn.prekl.] Či nie je On úžasný? [„Amen.“]
138No, Ten istý Svätý Duch, ktorý dokáže presne predpovedať, bez jediného minutia, po všetky tieto roky; a skrze Svoje Slovo sa vám dnes snaží odhaliť, že Boh nie je nejaký vzdialený objekt, alebo nejaké historické niečo. On žije v prítomnom čase a Jeho Slovo sa manifestuje. Schoval sa za ľudskou oponou vo Svojej Cirkvi, odhaľuje Samého Seba skrze vašu vieru a moju vieru, spoločne, prichádzame spoločne, vytvárame jednotu Božiu. Bez vás nemôžem robiť nič; vy nemôžete robiť nič bezo mňa; nikto nemôže robiť nič bez Boha. A tak, spoločne to vytvára jednotu, spojenie. Boh ma poslal za tým účelom; veríte tomu; a tu sa to deje. To je práve to, vidíte, dokonale potvrdené.
Nestarám sa o to, čo s vami nie je v poriadku, čo ktokoľvek povedal; ak zo svojho srdca veríte, že budete zdraví, nikdy to nič nemôže zastaviť. On tak povedal. A On povedal, „Nebo i zem pominú, ale Moje Slová nepominú.“ Veríte tomu? [Zhromaždenie hovorí, „Amen.“ - pozn.prekl.]
139Koľkí z vás sa budú za mňa modliť na ďalších zhromaždeniach, keď odídem? [Zhromaždenie hovorí, „Amen.“ - pozn.prekl.] Som ten, kto potrebuje modlitbu. Rozumiete? Všetci ma odmietli, rozumiete, okrem vás, ešte tam vonku leží Semeno.
140Poslal som list do Južnej Afriky. Oni mi nedovolia prísť, ak nepodpíšem papier, že „budem krstiť na túto stranu, každého tri razy; raz na Otca, raz na Syna a Svätého Ducha, tvárou dopredu. A na druhú stranu, dozadu, raz na Otca... A učiť, že to je Náuka.“
Napísal som im list. Povedal som, „Duch Svätý sa za posledných pár rokov snaží dostať ma znova do Afriky. Chce použiť moju službu tam, kde v to jedno popoludnie prijalo Krista tridsať tisíc ľudí.“ Povedal som, „Pamätajte, krv tých duší je na vás, nie na mne. Ja som sa pokúšal prísť, ale vy ste to nechceli urobiť.“
Som zvedavý, aké to bude v tomto dni, keď bol Ježiš, Syn Boží vypudený z cirkvi, Slovo bolo odmietnuté? Ale v tom všetkom, On sa stále dáva poznať Svojim ľuďom. Nie ste za to vďační? [Zhromaždenie hovorí, „Amen.“ - pozn.prekl.]
141A prešiel som dnes večer okolo, kládol som na nich ruky, na nejaké ženy v pokročilom veku, na nejaké mladšie, na niektoré staré, na niektorých mladých mužov, na starých mužov, boli práve tak premočení a mokrí, ako som ja. Pomyslel som si, „Sedia tam, sedia tam a počúvajú na Slovo, o ktorom si zvyšok sveta myslí, že je bláznivé.“ Rozumiete? Oni sú skrutkou. Rozumiete, Boh je tu, aby to spojil závitom, aby vás vykrútil rovno z vašej choroby. To je zasľúbenie Slova. Len si pamätajte, to sa začne uťahovať, „Ja ich potiahnem; keď budem vyvýšený, potiahnem ich.“ On to z vás vytiahne. On to skutočne urobí. Len Mu verte, majte v Neho vieru. Nepochybujte o Ňom. Verte Mu.
142Modlite sa za mňa. Ak nemáte niekoho iného, za koho sa modliť, len si na mňa spomeňte.
A potom, až sa zídeme! Až sa zídeme!
Až sa zídeme...
Ďakujem, že prichádzate z ďaleka. Nech vás Boh ochraňuje, keď pôjdete domov!
Až sa...
Pozdravte všetkých Kresťanov, zdravíme ich z tejto skupiny tu. Nech je na vás Boží pokoj! Shalom!
Boh buď s vami, až sa zídeme zas!
[Brat Branham si začína hmkať „Boh buď s vami.“ - pozn.prekl.]
... až sa zídeme!
Až sa zídeme pri Ježišových nohách;
Až sa zídeme! Až sa zídeme!
Boh buď s vami, až sa zídeme zas!
143Som tak šťastný. Vidíte, je tu mnoho vecí, ktoré neviem, ale sú tu nejaké veci, ktoré viem. Som za vás tak vďačný. Som tak rád, že som ku vám pridružený. Som tak rád, že som jeden z vás. Boh buď s vami. On bude. On vás nikdy neopustí. On vás nikdy nezanechá. Neopustí vás. Vy ste sa teraz prelomili za oponu. Rozumiete?
144Som tak rád, že dnes večer vidím brata Palmera, jedného z našich pridružených pastorov tu z Georgie. Brat Junior Jackson je niekde v budove, vzadu v rohu, sme radi, že ho máme. Brat Don Ruddell sedí tamto. Ó, tak veľa! Neviem, či som niekoho nevynechal... Tu brat Ben Bryant a mnoho ostatných, ktorí sú tu, skvelý brat, Wilbur Collins. Sme tak šťastní, že vás tu všetkých máme.
Zaujímalo by ma, či by sme sa len mohli postaviť na nohy, teraz len na chvíľu. Skloňme teraz naše hlavy.
Až sa zídeme!
Až sa zídeme pri Ježišových nohách; až sa zídeme!
... až sa zídeme!
Boh buď s vami, až sa zídeme zas!
145Cítite tú blízkosť obecenstva s Duchom?
Hmkajme to. [Brat Branham a zhromaždenie začína hmkať pieseň, „Boh buď s vami“. - pozn.prekl.]
Všimol som si brata McKinney z Ohia, ktorý je tu s nami. Brat John Martin a jeho brat.
Sme tak radi, že vás tu všetkých máme. Nemohol som vás ani vidieť, bratia. On vás pozná.
Až sa zídeme! Nech sú moje a vaše srdcia v jednote s Božím srdcom, až sa zídeme zas! [Brat Branham a zhromaždenie pokračujú v pohmkávaní piesne, „Boh buď s vami.“ - pozn.prekl.]
Rád by som niekoho poprosil o rozpustenie. [Brat Branham sa rozpráva s bratmi. - pozn.prekl.]
Kým teraz skloníme naše hlavy v modlitbe.
146Snažím sa dať vedieť každému kazateľovi, že sme radi, za vás, že tu boli, za všetkých laikov, za vás, ľudia z Tennessee, z Ohio a zo všadiaľ po celej krajine. Stretol som tam dnes niektoré ženy až z Bostonu. Dnes ráno tu boli naši farební bratia, ktorí sú tiež odtiaľ zhora. Mnohí z rozličných častí krajiny; ďakujem vám, moji drahí verní priatelia. Boh buď s vami. Nazývam vás mojimi priateľmi. Spomínate si, čo o tom povedal Ježiš? „Bližší ešte ako brat,“ áno, priatelia. Zatiaľ čo teraz skloníme hlavy... Kým sa znova stretneme za týchto nasledujúcich pár dní, Boh buď s vami.
147Poprosím nášho dobrého, verného brata, brata Richarda Blaira, či nás nerozpustí v slove modlitby. Brat Blair.
1 Let us remain standing just a moment. Precious Lord, we come to Thy Divine presence again by the way of prayer; first, to give thanks for all that You have done for us, and for the great love in our heart for Thee and Thy Word. Lord, these people, tonight, that I love with all my heart, they have sacrificed and come to set in a hot room, and whatmore, because they love Thy Word.
2And we come to pray for the sick, tonight, Lord, and the needy. May there not be a feeble person in our midst at the end of this service. Reward them for their faithfulness, Lord. Speak to us through Thy Word, and strengthen us, Lord, as we go, bearing the reproach. What a privilege to do this! We ask in Jesus' Name. Amen. May be seated.
3 I could not find words, of course, to express my gratitude towards a group of people like this, that would come and set in this building. I want to say, that, tomorrow... Or, we're going to go to over to Topeka, Kansas, for the next meeting, and that'll end up the following Sunday. And then we go, from there, to Philadelphia.
And, now, we're supposed to be going overseas, over to Kenya, and Tanganyika, and Uganda, in the--the tribes in there. And they're having a little uprise now with the Mau Maus. I can't get in as a missionary, but I'm going to try to get in as a hunter. Go in, and they're fixing up.
4Usually, I go in as a missionary and go hunting, this time I'm going as to go hunting, and be a missionary. So, there--there, any way to get in there to them. And Brother Mattsson-Boze is then on the job, trying to get me in, to fix a safari that I come in to go hunting. Well, then, I come in on this safari, then he's going to say, "Our Brother Branham is in the land." Go down to the embassy, "Would it be all right if we just held a little meeting out here?" See? That gets it started then, and just keep it rolling. So we don't know whether it's going to be, we're going to be able to do that, or not. We're trying. And I have asked the Lord, if something happens that he can't, then it'll be a sign to me that I'm to come back here to Jeffersonville and preach the Seven Trumpets, along July or August, somewhere along in there.
5 And then, if we do, we're seeing today, we're going to try to get this schoolroom here that's air-conditioned, 'cause it'd be real nice and cool. Seats fifteen- to eighteen-hundred people. And it's air-conditioned, a brand new place, just about five squares above this. And one time we asked for it, and they wouldn't let us have it. And the man that wouldn't let us have it was throwed off the board. So now, the man that's on there now says we can have it any time we want it. So we are--we are very happy to get it. And so we may be able to get that now, and sometime in July, and have... How many would be praying, if the Lord's will now, if something turns us down? [Congregation says, "Amen."--Ed.]
6 You know, I like Arizona. It's a wonderful country. I've always longed to be there.
If you'll push that up a little bit, Brother Ben, if you will, if it's... Oh, that... Yes, sir. Yes. Or, ever who is on it, will step it up just a little bit, 'cause I'm coming back out of that real... [Someone says, "Tape, brothers."--Ed.] What say? ["That's just the tapes."] Oh, just the tapes. Oh, here is the other one up here. I'm sorry. Okay, Brother Ben. So I...
7Coming back from Arizona, coming in here, it makes me just a little bit hoarse, because of a change in climate. Here we have about eighty-seven to ninety, and sometime a hundred percent, humidity. And there it gets to zero, and then sometimes, on a average, one-twentieth of one percent humidity. You're just living under an oxygen tent. And then come out from under that, to here, you know what a great difference it makes in you. So it does bother you in the voice, and so forth.
Pull it where it was at, if you will, Brother Ben. I made a mistake in pulling it out. I thought that was, but up here is where they step it up at.
8 Now pray for us, every one of you. I do appreciate you. Billy was telling me of somebody brought us a basket of peaches, and just little gifts that you... I just can't thank you enough. I--I don't know how to do it. And I--I feel so unworthy to take things like that from you. I pray God will bless you, and I know He will, for He said, "Insomuch as you do unto the least of these, you have done it to Me." And God will bless you, I am sure.
9And Arizona being such a nice country, there is one thing that I miss, that's, you all. That's right. I miss you all. I--I don't care where I go, I--I... it ain't, it isn't you. I have friends, everywhere around the world, but it--it isn't--it isn't you all. There is something about this little group that just... I don't know. I think about them.
10And at Tucson, it's a tourist city, you know, and the churches are pulling, you know. It's kind of hard. Not very spiritual; and, because there is competition, is very strong; and it makes it hard. If I could have all of you all, plus the church, then live out there, I guess it'd be all right. See? But I suppose, as long as this stays a church, and you all is still coming, I'll still be here, until Jesus comes.
11 So pray for me, as I said a while ago. I don't mean to repeat it, but when I get before you, I--I get nervous, and I get melancholy, and sentimental, and temperamental, too. I am that, to begin with, so I... it makes me all tore up inside. But to know that wherever I can go... I haven't a--a group on earth, that I know of, that sticks by me like this group. May--may God let us be so inseparable, that, in the Kingdom that is to come, may we be there together; my prayer.
12Setting here at the door, talking to Bill Dauch just a moment ago 'fore leading someone back to Christ, again, in the other room. But setting there talking to him, ninety-one years old, he said, "I--I'm getting weak. My eyes are not like they should be."
And I think, a couple years ago, I come to him when he had a complete heart failure and heart block, was dying. And the very doctor that was doctoring him, that said he couldn't get well, the doctor is dead. And here sets Bill Dauch, see, of ninety-one years old. I said, "Bill, you are no more use in the earth as far as working and things like that. But I'm asking this, 'God give you strength,' because you love the meetings so well." That ninety-one-year-old man crosses the nation in a automobile, hot, dry, cold, indifference, anything it is, to hear the Word. God bless that gallant soul. Now I haven't...
13 I've got one more apology, of keeping you the way I did this morning, on a three hour. And I didn't do justice to the message, because I cut it up, and left part of it, and skipped part of it, and so forth. That's the reason I told them to hold the tape. Let me get it again somewhere where it's cool or something. And I--I--I could feel the Spirit, but I'm looking at you and knowing you're fanning and knowing you're hot, and--and that just tears me to pieces. I don't want you to suffer; I--I want you to be comfortable. See? And that wearies me.
14Like, I see sick people; if I can't--if I can't feel for those sick people, I can't do them no good. I--I've got to feel for them. And the same way with--with you; I--I've got to feel for you, or I can't be your brother. See? I--I got to feel for you. And, I do that; God knows that that's true.
15 And now, tonight, I'll give to praying for the sick.
And I want to... man, and bless these man, and Brother Collins, and Hickerson, Brother Neville, Brother Capps, the trustees, and all, for the fine reports that's been coming, of how you're orderly, setting the church, and how everything is be coming into its right position. I'm grateful to you man. The Lord bless you for trying to carry out an order. And letter after letter comes into Tucson, to me, "Brother Branham, it's not like it used to be. It's so much different, such a blessed feeling of the Presence of God." And I'm--I'm grateful for that. The Lord ever bless you!
16 Then, now, tonight, I was reading here in the Scripture a little place, to--to maybe set out a few words, to speak and read a Scripture, and then maybe a couple Scriptures, then talk to you for a few moments and then pray for the sick. Not but just a few moments; I'm watching the clock, and I'll try to make it just as quick as possible. But I do think that when a crowd of people are gathered together, without reading the Word or doing something, some exhortation, the meeting wouldn't be complete.
17Many of you has waited. Many of you has got miles of travel yet tonight. How I admire that! How I look and see each one, and think about... There in Arizona, I think, "When I see him again, I'm going to walk right down and shake his hand and hug his neck." And here you are setting here, and who, where can I, you know? Don't know which one to start at, and which... how to get out of it. But, yeah, I love you. God loves you, too.
18 Now I think, if I'm not mistaken, if I haven't got the--the wrong Scripture laying out here, I want to read out of First Corinthians, the 1st chapter, beginning with the 18th verse, and also read Second Corinthians 12:11, to take a text. Now if I can find those right quick, and then we'll read, and then pray and start right in, just speaking to you for a few minutes on a little subject. In First Corinthians, the 1st chapter, beginning with the 18th verse.
For the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness; but to us which are saved it is the power of God.
For it is written, I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and will bring to nothing the understanding of the prudent.
Where is the wise? where is the scribe? where is the disputer of this world? has not God made foolishness the wisdom of this world?
May I quote that again? "Has not God made foolishness the wisdom of this world?" What is the wisdom of this world then? Foolishness.
... hath not God made foolishness the wisdom of this world?
For after that in the wisdom of God the world by wisdom knew not God, but it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them which hath believed.
Can I read that verse again? Listen closely.
For after that in the wisdom of God the world by wisdom knew not God, it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe.
For the Jews require a sign,... the Greeks seek after wisdom:
But we preach Christ crucified, unto the Jews a stumblingblock,... unto the Greeks foolishness;
But unto them which are called, both Jew and Greek, Christ the power of God, and the wisdom of God.
Because the foolishness of God is wiser than man; and the weakness of God is stronger than man.
19And in Second Corinthians the 12th chapter, the 11th verse, Paul speaking.
I am become a fool in glorying; ye have compelled me: for I ought to have been commended of you: for in nothing am I behind in the very chiefest apostle, though I be nothing.
20 Let us pray. Lord Jesus, add to these few words, tonight, that's been spoken in days gone by, by the great apostle Paul, that we might prosper by hearing them tonight, in applying them to our lives, that we might be the--the handiwork of God, made in the fashion in which He has chosen for us to be in. For we ask it in Jesus' Name. Amen.
21 I'm going to preach tonight for a few minutes, the Lord willing, upon the subject of: The Oddball. Now, that's a very crude, rude text to take, but that's, I think, would more or less state it the way that I want to express it.
22You know, there is so many things, today, that people become oddballs, we call it. And that expression, if anyone has never heard it, it means somebody that's "peculiar," somebody that's "odd" to another fellow. And no doubt but what many of us are odd, one to another.
23 And, now, I was going down the street one time in Los Angeles, California, and I seen a very odd person, acting odd. And he was walking down the street, not picketing, but he was just merely like taking an afternoon stroll. And I went to the other side of the street, to see what he was doing. Everybody was turning around, laughing at him, because of his peculiarity.
I noticed he had a sign hanging on the front of him. And I thought I'd see what everybody was laughing about, this odd, peculiar man. And so he was... I noticed him as the people looked at him, they laughed at him, and--and, but he seemed to have a different kind of a smile, a smile of contentment. The other smiles that the people were giving him was more like ridiculing him, but he seemed to be satisfied in what he was doing.
24 Well, that's a whole lot to think about, when a man is satisfied in what he's doing is right. Though he be an oddball to somebody else, if he is satisfied that what he's doing is right, then let him stay with it.
And as I come close to the little man, I noticed on... across his chest here, on a plaque or a board, was wrote, "I am a fool," and at the bottom, had, "for Christ." "I am a fool," in great letters; down at the bottom, said, "for Christ." And everybody was laughing at this.
25And as the little man pressed on down through the crowd of jeers and carrying on, I turned to look what was on his back. And there was a great big question mark on his back, and down at the bottom, said, "Now whose fool are you?"
26Well, I--I thought he had something there, you see, but he seemed to be satisfied that he could be a fool for Christ. And that's what Paul said he had become, "a fool" for Christ.
27 Brother Troy, of the Full Gospel Business Men, a very good friend of mine, he--he's a meat cutter. And getting some kind of a germ in his hand, from cutting pork one time. Some man who knows, or woman, might know what the germ was; but it--it'll eat you up. So, in order to save his life, they had to--to amputate three fingers. And he only has two fingers on one hand, but yet he remains as a butcher.
28And there was a little German who worked with him in a--a butcher shop, down in Los Angeles, so he--he kept trying to lead the little Dutchman to Christ. And he said he was a "Lut'eran," and it was all right with him. He was satisfied that he was a Christian, because he belonged to the "Lut'eran" church, as he stated it. So one night Brother Troy had the privilege of getting him to go to church.
29 His name was Henry. And Henry, in German, is "Heinrich," and so they call him "Heini." You've heard that expression. He said, "Heini, how about going to church with me tonight?"
30"Well," he said, "I believe I'll go." So he went down to an old-fashion meeting where they was having a prayer meeting, and he really got under conviction, and give his heart to Christ.
Oh, the next day, this little Dutchman was enjoying himself. Every once in a while he would just walk through the building, with his hands up in the air, saying, "Praise be to God! Thank You, Lord Jesus!" and he attracted the attention to all, of all of them.
31You see, he become an oddball to the whole line of meat cutters. And he would be cutting meat, and he'd start thinking about the Lord, and he'd start crying. He'd lay the knife down, and walk up-and-down the aisles, not hysterically, but just making love to Christ, saying, "Oh, how I love You, 'Yesus!'" You know, just walking back and forth.
32 And the boss came by and seen him do this, and as he went walking down, crying. And, the boss, he never noticed the boss; he was thinking about Jesus. And he started down, with his hands up in the air, and the tears rolling down his cheeks, saying, "O God, how I love You!"
And the boss said, "Heini, what in the world has happened to you?" He said, "Everybody in the--in the whole line is talking about it. What in the world has happened to you, Heini?"
33The little Dutchman said, "Oh, boss!" He said, "Glory to God, I got saved!"
He said, "You got what?"
He said, "I got saved!" He said, "I went with Brother Troy here down to a little mission, and I--I got saved. And Jesus came into my heart, and I'm so full of love!"
He said, "You must have went down to that bunch of nuts."
34He said, "Yeah!" Said, "Glory to God!" Said, "Thank God for the nuts!" He said, "You know, you take a automobile coming down the road, and you take all the nuts out of it, you ain't got nothing but a bunch of 'yunk!'"
35Well, I don't know but what the little Dutchman was just about right. Take all the nuts out? The nuts is what holds it together. And I think that's what holds the church together sometime, holds civilization together.
36 Now, coming down from a visit at Prescott, a few days ago, I was looking at the desert and noticing how that out of Phoenix they have the Japanese Gardens, and they had flowers in there, beautiful flowers. Where, when I was a boy out there, I herded cattle down through those places. The cows, wasn't no grass, so they just lived on cactus beans and so forth.
37And then I noticed that there has been a--a reproduction to the use of the desert. And in the desert we find that, the cactus and the flowers. And in my home there, or the home we are renting; Sister Larson, I think she was here this morning, I seen her. And she has a flower bed on the outside of--of the house; some dirt. Everything there is sand, so she had some dirt in a large flower bed on each side of the duplex. And every morning I have to get out and water those flowers. If I don't water them, they'll die. And they'll... And then, again, I have to get some spray and spray them, to keep the lice off of them; the bugs will eat them up.
38 And then you go just a little beyond that, thirty feet from that, there is some flowers growing, and out in the desert they're growing. And you could dig down twenty feet and it'd be like a powder keg; nothing in the world but just dust, and there is no water at all. And who sprays them? See?
These in the flower bed, if you fail to spray them and to water them, the termites or the bugs, lice, will eat them up. But the lice can't touch that one out there in the desert, and neither does he have to be babied and watered every day; he is a production of the creator. This is a hybrid reproduction.
39And I think that, today, the reason Christianity has become, to the people, a nut; is because that we've got a bunch of reproductions and not genuine Christians, a bunch that has to be babied and sprayed, and in order to stay in the church.
40 I can imagine the very first Church, what they were, and compare it with this reproduction today. This would be a cheap production of what the real first Church was, that rugged believers in God, with the Holy Ghost. You babied not them. You didn't have to pat them and tell them you'd take them in this one; and if they get tired that one, they go to another one; and you'll make them a deacon if they'll come over here and leave this other one. That's a hybrid reproduction.
41 I was thinking of Michelangelo's original painting, I believe, of "The Last Supper." I think he painted it. Do you realize what that original picture would cost you? It would be countless thousands of dollars, would never touch that original, because it's beyond price. It's so valued so high! But you can buy a cheap reproduction of it for about two dollars.
42That's why people today can't understand the ruggedness of real, genuine believers. They become a nut. You know, the world gets in such a rut till every once in a while you have to have a nut to straighten it out. Takes somebody come on the scene that's a little different, and he is a nut to that generation. I was thinking the other day, who is able?
Who today is not a nut? You're somebody's nut. I believe the world is completely going insane. Did you know it's a time that people can't judge between right and wrong, or truth or error?
43 Do you know the politicians can't judge right and wrong? You see them keeping quiet on this voting the Bible back in the church or into the... Bible back into the school? They don't know which way the politics are going to blow. Think of it! I don't know how it is in Indiana now, but in state of Arizona it's against the law to read the Bible in school. I think it's the same thing in Indiana, nearly the whole United States, because some infidel woman changed the whole program. And, remember, it's against the law to read the Bible in our public schools, but believers' taxes supports infidelity to be taught in the school.
44Politics. We need another Abraham Lincoln. We need another Patrick Henry. We need an American who can stand out regardless of where the politics are, and call right, "right," and wrong, "wrong."
45 Did you know preachers today can't judge which is right, the Word of God or the church denomination? They don't know which road to take. They can't judge between right and wrong. "I know the Bible says it, but our church says..." See, people are not capable of judging right from wrong. And anything that's contrary to the Bible is wrong. God's Word is right, and every man's word is a lie, that's contrary to It. And to try to stand now upon a--a--a time like that, and to stand for what's right, you become a nut.
Let's call a few characters.
46 I can imagine the prophet Noah, in that great day that he lived in; that great scientific age where they built pyramids and sphinxes, where they could prove that there was no water in the skies, by scientific research. Here comes this old man out there, and said, "There is coming rain out of the heavens." Noah was a nut to that generation. He become a nut.
47Let's think of Moses. Moses, when he went down to Pharaoh, as we spoke this morning, and Moses going down to Pharaoh, and saying, "The Lord sent me down to bring these slaves out," with a stick in his hand, against the great army that had the whole world conquered. Pharaoh, in all of his scientific genius, thought Moses was a nut. And, he was a nut, to them.
48 I can imagine the prophet Elijah, in his great day, when the fabulous age of fashion; when Ahab and Jezebel ruled the world, as it was, in them days; and all the fashions and things that Jezebel wanted to wear, and how she had all of the women dressing like her, and her paints, and going on, her fashions, the way that she fashioned herself. And when some old crank, like Elijah, come out on the scene and withstood the whole nation; to Ahab, he was a nut. That's right.
49Amos, the prophet, when he come to Samaria in the day that Samaria was like Hollywood today, the women on the street, dressing, and even public adultery, how they carry on and live out there, letting man...
50 It's almost a public adultery, today, right before you. I went to a certain place the other night, to get something to eat, and the little boys and girls up there hugging and kissing like I don't know what.
And do you know, my little sister, that that's potentially an adultery? When a man kisses you, he has potentially committed adultery with you. You should never let him kiss you until you're married, for the glands, both male and female glands, is in the lips. Do you understand? And when male and female glands come together, let it be where it may be, you have potentially committed adultery. And you shouldn't let a boy kiss you until that veil is raised on your face and you're his wife. Don't do that! It's committing adultery. It's mixing male and female glands.
51Why don't a man kiss a man, woman kiss a woman, in the lips? Because it don't cross the glands. Children is born by crossing glands.
So it's almost a public adultery again, everywhere. Look on the screens and everything you see, a--a slobbering and a--a carrying on. No wonder immorality is on the--is on the incline! How can they do it, and sperm themselves all up by kissing those women in the mouth, knowing that that's adultery! God won't forgive it unless you repent.
52 And now, when coming up, this great prophet, Amos. He is known as one of the minor prophets because there wasn't too much wrote of him, but he had the Word of the Lord. And he looked out upon that city, all given... In the parks, man setting with their arms around women, and women with their arms around man, just a modern Hollywood! And he walked down through that city, and said, "You'll repent or perish!" He was a nut. He had almost declared himself insane, to them.
53 John the Baptist, when he come on the scene. To the religious denominations of that day, he was a nut. He had the opportunity to become a priest, to follow his father's footsteps. But he refused to do it, because God had kept him out of those creeds and denominations, because his job was too important. He was to announce the Messiah coming. And when he had nothing to do with neither Pharisee, Sadducee, or whatever it was, he rejected the whole group of them, and said, "Don't you begin to say, 'We have Abraham to our father,' for I say that God is able of these stones to rise children to Abraham." To the--to the religious world of his days, he was a nut. Right.
54 When Jesus came on the scene. To the religious people of His days, He was also a nut. Because, they said, "You are a Samaritan. You are out of Your mind. You're a madman," in other words, "a crazy man." He was that, to the people, your Lord and Saviour.
No wonder, Paul, trained by Gamaliel to be a priest, the opportunity of someday becoming a high priest. And on his road down to Damascus, he was struck down by a supernatural Light. And he looked up, being a Jew, and knowed that Pillar of Fire was what led his people. He said, "Lord, Who are You?"
And He said, "I am Jesus."
55And when he forfeit his education, he forfeit all of his theology that he had been trained in the schools, and become a regular, street preacher, he was a nut. He said, "I have become a fool."
56And the people thought he was mad, beside himself. He told Festus, "I am not mad." He just knowed the Lord. But to know the Lord in a religious group...
I hope you don't miss it. To know Jesus, this day, amongst a religious group, you are a nut. It hasn't changed. I could dwell much on this, but I--I want to hurry up for the prayer line.
57 Martin Luther, that little German priest, that packing the communion one day, threw it down on the steps, and said, "This is not the body of Jesus Christ. This is only bread that's been made back there." And he declared, that, "The just shall live by faith." He was a nut, to the Catholic church. They could have assassinated him for that, but, he was a nut, and they just let him alone. But, he become a nut, to that generation.
58John Wesley, in the days of the great immoral hour of England. When, if Wesleyian revival hadn't a come on the scene... The whole world was corrupted, immorality everywhere. And the Anglican church had got so far away till there was no more revival; such Calvinistic thinking! And John Wesley come on the scene, with the--the word of sanctification, cleaning up the immoral. He became a nut.
59 Quoting Mr. Wesley, once, in his book. He was coming down a path, and one of the man of the England church... They all thought he was crazy, so he stood in the path. Mr. Wesley was a little bitty man. This great big fellow thought he'd just get to slap him down, so he stood in the path. Mr. Wesley walked up and said, "Pardon me, sir, would you step out of the way? I'm in a hurry."
And the Anglican said to him, "I don't step out of the way for a fool."
60Mr. Wesley politely tipped his hat, walked around him; said, "I always do." So, you see, that was one who was the nut; one was for Christ; the other one was for the church.
So, you're somebody's nut, yet.
61 When the Pentecostals came on the scene, fifty years ago. They said, "Them people are crazy!" They were nuts, that's right, because they condemned all that corruption that was in the church ages at that time when they come on the scene.
But what has the Pentecostals done? Went right back into the vomit that they come out of, right back into the denominational corruption. You know what? It's time for another nut. Yes. It's time for another one. That's right.
62Notice, a nut, before there is a nut, there is a bolt to fit that nut. And that nut is threaded to that bolt; if it don't, it's a misfit. Notice. All who was threaded, in the days of--of Noah, threaded to the Gospel message; Noah, the nut, pulled them into the ark. It depends what your threads are, what you're threaded to. If you're threaded to the world, they'll pull you. If you're threaded to the Word, It'll pull you. It depends on which you are threaded to, what nut you'll follow.
63But Noah, being a nut with the Word of God, a nut to the scientific age and to the religious age that he lived in, he pulled them, that would be saved, into the ark. Amen. Those that were predestinated, the bolt that was made before the nut. The bolt must be threaded to the nut.
64 So, Satan, he has some bolts and nuts, too, bolts and nuts of the kingdoms of this world.
Pharaoh was just as much nut to Noah, or to Moses, as Moses was to Pharaoh. Pharaoh, with all of his scientific gimmicks, had pulled his nation to himself. Noah, by being a nut for God, pulled the church to the promised land. Depends on which way you're threaded. He pulled the church out of Egypt; as Noah pulled the church out of the world, to the ark. Moses pulled the church from Egypt, to God's promised land.
65Jesus said. Now, be careful, 'cause these nuts and bolts look a whole lot a like. Just watch the thread. Matthew 24:24, He said, "It would almost deceive the very Elected."
Now, the--the American and the whole world denomination needs a nut.
66 The Methodist, the Baptist, the Presbyterian, they're all scattered out in this, that, and all fighting. And, after all, they're all threaded to the same bolt. So God has give them a bolt, and sending them a nut, the World Council of Churches. It'll pull them all together. That's right. It sure will. It'll pull them together, the World Council.
67You know, it got, here not long ago... There can't be nothing happen, a cause, without a reason. The women want to strip their clothes off. They wanted to wear shorts. They wanted to still belong to church. They wanted to wear all these 'kinis', or ever what you call the things. They want to do that, and they want to still belong to church; they want to scream, holler, and dance; worship, that's a worship.
68 Now, if I had time, I'd prove that to you. That is a devil worship, dancing like that and doing those things. I can prove it to you, in the heathen lands. They wanted to worship, and maintain their testimony and still remain in church. So God give them a nut, two or three of them; one named Elvis Presley; one, Pat Boone, and Ernie Ford; can sing hymns and everything else, and still claim to be a Christian. It's a nut. It's not threaded to the Word. Right.
Now, I said I'd be through in a half hour, and it's up. But, listen.
69The world wants a nut. The Devil sees they get it. They're already threaded for it.
But, while the world is being threaded for a nut, there is a people called the Bride. It's threaded, too. Just as sure as I'm standing here, God will send them a nut that'll pull the Bride out of this chaos, into the Presence of God. It'll be a Word-threaded nut.
70 A critic, a few days ago, said to me, down in Tucson. He said, "You know, some people make you a nut, and others make you a god."
I said, "Well, that kind of runs all right." I knowed he's trying to criticize me. See?
71He said, "People think you're a god."
72I said, "Well, just..." I know the people didn't do that. But I--I knowed he didn't understand it, because he was on the other side of the skin, you see. So I knowed he didn't, he didn't know it. So I said, "That's not too far away from the Word of God. Is it?"
See, just let him--just let him know that we wasn't lost. We knowed where we were standing. We know what kind of sails we had set, and what kind of wind was blowing it. We know what our thread was, and what our nut was. And we know how we're standing.
I said, "That's not contrary to the Word of God, so much. Is it?" I said, "Remember, when God was sending Moses down to the children of Israel, God made Moses a god, that's right; and made, also, Aaron his brother, a prophet. That's right. 'All the prophets,' Jesus said, 'were gods.' They were gods; man." That's right. God means it that way.
73 Listen, the Word that we preach and the word that I said this morning, "God hiding behind skins, badger skins, God hiding behind the skin of a man." See? That's what He did. When God was manifest in the world, He was hiding behind a veil, behind a skin of a Man called Jesus. He was veiled and hiding behind the skin of a man called Moses, and they were gods, not Gods; but they were God, the one God, just changing His mask, doing the same thing each time, bringing this Word. See, God made it that way. He knows that man has got to see something; there is in every one of us born into the world.
74 Like I was telling you this morning, nobody was daresn't to follow Moses in there. God never did deal with two. He deals with one, always. No one was daresn't to impersonate Moses. It was death, natural death, to try to impersonate him, to go in that Pillar of Fire with him. So people are not all made... You're not born in that way, to break out into that supernatural.
But God set some on the earth to represent Him, as an ambassador from Him. And that ambassador is ordained, of God, to go into the great unknown supernatural, and discern, and bring out things that the natural mind cannot perceive it. It brings out the mystery of God, foretells things that is, and things that has been, and things that will be. What is it? God, God behind skins, human skin. That's exactly right.
75 Sam Connelly lives in Tucson. He come here once, many years ago, with Mr. Kidd, and was healed; with a standing ulcer for many years. When I went out last fall, Sam had a--a stone that the specialist there, in--in Tucson, examined it. It was big as a marble. Brother Sam Connelly... Many of you here know him; he's from Ohio. And he went to the doctor, and he said, "Sam, make yourself ready next week; I'll take that stone out," couple days from then.
He said, "Can I pass the stone, doctor?"
Said, "It's impossible. The stone is too big."
76So he got him in a car and took him home. And he called; he said, "I want you come over and pray for me, Brother Branham." Why did he call me for such? And I started to praying for him.
77I said, "Sam, it's THUS SAITH THE LORD, the stone will pass by itself."
78And the next morning he took the stone to the doctor. And he said, the doctor said, "Mr. Connelly, I don't understand how it happened."
79And he said, "I am a believer in God, and God passed the stone for me, took it from me." The man could hardly believe it, the doctor. Just no more than he could believe of that big tumor leaving my wife's side. You know about, see. So he said...
80 About six months later, which was about three... about two weeks ago, or three weeks ago, Sam Connelly was stricken down by a serious heart condition. And I don't know the name, the coronary, or some kind of a heart block, or ever what it is. It's a very dangerous... It won't... You can't get over it, they claim. A heart attack, and his heart blocked. And his limbs swelled out till his ankles were larger than his leg, up here high around his hip. So they took him down to the doctor. The doctor said, "Take him home, peacefully, or to the hospital."
Sam said, "I don't want to go to the hospital!"
Said, "Take him home and put him in the bed, and don't you move head, hand, or foot, for six months." Said, "You could die at any minute."
81 And Brother Norman called. And we went over that night, to see Brother Sam. And when we prayed for him, and the Lord spoke.
And the next morning, Sam went down to the doctor's office, with his britchy legs pulled up, stood before the doctor, and said, "Look at me, doctor!"
And the doctor put him under an electrical cardiogram, and he said, "I don't understand it." Said, "Go on back to work." He said, "What church do you belong to?"
He said, "I don't belong to any of them."
82He said "You can't be a Christian without belonging to them denominations. You have to be." See, that's all the doctor knowed. Sam was a nut, to him. And he was a nut, to Sam, by asking such a question.
Then what happened? Sam come over, and he said, "What can I say to anybody that tells me such things, Brother Branham?"
83"Tell them that you 'belong to the one and only Church.' You don't join It. It's not a denomination. You are born into It."
84 A little lady, about six months ago, leaning on the bosom of Sister Norman. I forget her name, very pretty little woman about thirty years old. Her and her husband had separated, and she had took leukemia. And she had been in such a condition that she could hardly get around. And finally it got worse until the doctors put her in a bed. And the doctors visit her till the time come. They give her until the following Wednesday. She would be dead by Wednesday. And Mrs. Norman somehow got her out of the bed, and brought her over, and had to hold her up in a chair. And as the little fellow set there, pitching back and forth, and gray as she could be; yellow over the skin, from the cancer, leukemia.
I said, "Well, I can pray for you, sister."
And her trying to speak, and the tears in her eyes, she said...
I--I said, "Are you a Christian?"
She said, "I'm a Methodist."
I said, "I--I asked you if you was a Christian."
And she said, "You mean belong to the Christian church?"
85I said, "No, ma'am. I mean, are you born of the Spirit of God, and love the Lord Jesus?"
She said, "Well, I've always belonged to the church."
86I said, "If God will let you live, will you promise me that you will return to me and let me show you the way of the Lord more plainer?"
She said, "I promise God anything, if He'll spare my life. I'll serve Him."
87Just then a vision come, said, "THUS SAITH THE LORD. Don't make ready; tear up your things for your death, day after tomorrow." That was on Monday, and she was to die Wednesday. "You're not going to die."
Last Sunday, a week from this Sunday, I set with her in the room. Gained thirty some odd pounds; the doctor said there's not one trace of the leukemia could be found anywhere. And she wanted to know; and I sent her down to be baptized in the Name of Jesus Christ, in an irrigation ditch, the way of the Lord. Might be a nut, but, "If I be lifted up, I'll draw all men unto Me."
88 I visit, up at the boy that used to take tapes here, Leo Mercier. He's got a trailer court. And I had been praying for some people. And I prayed for a little lady named Lokar, I believe it was. And she had had fourteen operations of cancer, and the doctors give her up to die. And was prayed for, and told her she would not die, but she would live. And there's not a trace of it anywhere. And because of that, twenty-eight of her family was standing there, saved and filled with the Holy Ghost. Might be a nut, but it's drawing all men unto Him, that will come. It's threaded with the Word. You see what I mean?
89 I got a letter that come in, day before yesterday, laying right back there in the file. Last Fall, while on a hunting trip... or, last Spring, it was a year ago. An Indian boy named Oscar, that we hunt on the highway up there with; it's where the Angel of the Lord, I told you, across here, would bring that caribou and--and that silver-tip grizzly. All of you remember it. Then that boy, when I walked into... He walked into the tent, last Spring. And when Bud asked me to ask the blessing, (he took off his gloves; he was riding), he put them gloves on and was ready to go out. He was a Catholic. He'd have nothing to do with It.
90 Last Fall, when he could, standing by my side... When his mother was back there, dying with a heart attack, he said, "Won't you come back and pray for her?" I went back in this little hut of the Indians there. And there, all of them gathered around this mother, and her dying, couldn't speak a word of English. And the Holy Spirit came down and told the mother, through an interpreter, her daughter, what had taken place, which was. Even called her name, and told her what she was, and what tribe she was from, and how that this would happen. And the mother was instantly healed.
91And the next morning when I went back to see them, as I rode out, going forty miles back for a sheep, there they was all setting there, she was all... getting on the horse to go back to dry moose meat. And I said, "Last night when I prayed, I said, 'Our Father Who art in Heaven.'" I said, "Louise, I--I... Was a Catholic prayer. You all started, and then, of course, I left you." And I said, "Now I'm just going to thank God. We don't say prayers; we pray."
92She said, "We no more Catholic." She said, "We believe like you believe. We want you to take all of us and baptize us the way you baptize. We want the Holy Ghost."
93 On the trip back... The boy had lost his horses, months before that, couldn't find them. And the guide was bawling him out, said, "Oscar, you knowed better than to leave them horses like that. The bears, lot of grizzlies, would eat them horses up by this time."
And he kept standing close to me. And he said, one night, he said, "Me ask you something?"
I said "Yes."
Said, "Brother Branham, pray God. God give me my ponies back."
I said, "Bud said the bear eat them up."
Said, "Brother Branham, ask God. God give Oscar his ponies back."
I said, "You believe that, Oscar?"
He said, "I believe. God make my mother well. God tell you where bear was, where game was. That God, know where game is, know where my horses is." See?
94 A year ago, while standing back there with Fred Sothmann, who is here tonight, Billy Paul, my son. The Holy Spirit came down. I said, "Oscar, you will find your ponies. They'll be standing in snow."
There lays the letter, wrote me last week, and I got it Friday, come in here. It's laying right there in the file now. "Brother Branham, Oscar find ponies standing in snow."
95How they lived, nobody knows. There, the boy... At this time of year, June, there is so much snow there is still twenty or thirty foot of snow around them. How did they stay there through the winter, in this canyon? Oscar can get in to them, on snowshoes, but, course, he can't put snowshoes on his pony. But he found them, according to the Word of the Lord. It might sound like a nut; just believe it one time! Depends on how your threads are.
96 Now, it won't thread up with a denomination. It'll only thread with the Word. But there is some people in the world believes that Word! It'll take a nut to wrap that Bride out of here, is threaded, for the Bride and the Bridegroom are one. And the God is one, and the Word is God! It'll have to be threaded with the Word, and It'll draw the Bride out of these denominations.
97Yeah, he wanted to criticize me. You know, it reminds me of talking about, this morning, God hiding behind skins, skin of man.
98 A little story, and then I'm closing; sorry that I kept you here about forty-five minutes now. There's a home, Christian home, and there was a... I told this to this critic. And in this home there was... They believed in God. They had a little boy there, but he was scared to death in a storm. Lightning, oh, he was just scared to death. He would run under tables, anywhere, when it would lightning.
So one night it come a big storm out on the farm, and where they lived, and the trees was blowing, and lightning flashing, getting late in the night. The mother said to Junior, said, "Now, Junior, you go upstairs and go to bed." Said, "Now, don't be scared. Go on up there."
99So little Junior, with his pajamas on, went up the steps, looking back, about half crying. He laid down, tried to go to sleep, covered up his head. He couldn't go to sleep; that lightning flashing around the window. So he said, "Oh, mama," said, "come up here and sleep with me."
Well, she said, "Junior, nothing is going to bother you. That lightning can't hurt you."
He said, "But, mama, come up here and sleep with me."
100So the mother went up the steps and laid across the bed, with her junior. And she said, "Junior, my little son, mother wants to tell you something." She said, "Junior, we are a Christian family. We believe in God, and we believe that God protects us in storms. We believe that. And we believe that God takes care of His own." And said, "I want you to believe that, Junior. That, don't be a scared. God is with us, and He'll protect us."
101Junior snubbed a few times. He said, "Mama, I believe that, too." He said, "But when that lightning is so close to the window, I like to feel the God that's got skin on It."
So I think that a whole lot of us adults think the same thing. God, with skin on It! [Blank.spot.on.tape--Ed.] God, with skin on It! It might sound like a nut, to the world, but it's drawing all men unto Him.
Let us pray.
102 Heavenly Father, as the little stories of--of experiences, and sometimes they happen for a reason. And it's, yet as rude as it is, yet we understand it in the language that it happened in. So we thank Thee, tonight, Lord, that--that God can house Himself in us. We're thankful that there was a propitiation made, the Blood of the righteous One, Jesus; Who was the fullness of God, the fullness of the Godhead bodily, that He laid down His precious life; not taken from Him, but willfully laid it down, that we might enjoy Him in the fullness of His Presence, in the Shekinah glory that He lived in; that our souls might be sanctified with that Blood, that the great Holy Spirit Itself could live in us. And we become teachers, prophets, and so forth, to the people, to those, Lord, who are needy; gifts of God; God Himself manifesting, glowing out the great gifts of God, in the presence of this modern age.
103 And the rude expression, Lord, of being a nut. And we know, that in this day, that it takes sometime when the world gets in a rut like the church is today, just joining new churches and new denominations. A man who comes forth with the Word is considered a nut, an insane person. As the great apostle Paul, who was trained to be a theologian, a priest, and yet he said he become a fool, for the glory of God. He forsook his education, that the people might... listen to his high-polished words. And he said he come not with enchanting words and wisdom of man, that their faith would be in such. How the church has turned to that today, as he prophesied, "After my departure, wolves shall enter in, not sparing the flock." But he said he came to them, "in power and manifestations of the Holy Spirit," that their faith would be in God. Father, he became a fool, to the world, to know Jesus.
104And so do we today, Lord. There is people setting here that's considered crazy, because that they're ready to trust God for their healing, for their Eternal destination. Placing their reputation at stake, in worship to Him. Thanking Him, praising Him, giving freedom to their spirit, to worship God; they're considered crazy. But You said, that, "The--the foolishness of God," if we are fools, "was stronger and wiser than the wisdom of man; for man, by wisdom, knowed not God. But through the foolishness of preaching, it pleased God to save them that was savable." We pray, God, that the great Author of this Word will come tonight and heal the sick, save the lost. We ask it in Jesus' Name. Amen.
105 I am likening God, so that you won't be mixed up in what I've said today; God is a great Diamond, the Eternal.
And when a diamond is brought out of the blue stones of Africa, I've been in the mines and watched them in the great... how they process this and get the diamonds out, how they go through the crusher, and the great blue fire diamonds, black diamonds come out. They have not much form, certain form. They're just a great stone. And, really, they have no fire in them at that time. They're just a diamond, stone; round, smoothed out, lot of them. But this diamond must be cut. Now, it's against the law to have one not being cut. Must be cut, and then you have to have a receipt where you bought it, 'cause there is millions of dollars in them.
And I liken God to that diamond.
106Now, a diamond is cut so that it will reflect what's on the inside of it, the fire that's in the diamond. And it has to be cut to every little way, every little shape, three points. Put the three points to a diamond, and a light against a three-point object will give seven colors, see, make seven colors.
107 And now notice, "God was wounded for our transgressions, bruised for our iniquities." See, He was cut, bruised, that great Diamond, that from Him might reflect the gifts to the Church.
And it isn't the light; because, the light must return back, when the sun is off of it, to where it has been cut from.
But every little piece that comes from that chipping is not destroyed; it's put to use. Many of them are made to Victrola needles. And those needles bring forth, that's been chipped from the diamond, bring forth music that's been canned into a record.
108And I hope you see what I mean. The chip from Christ, the gift from Christ, put upon the Bible, speaks out the hidden mysteries of God to the believer. He knows the secret of the heart. He knows every person. Do you believe that?
It would not be the diamond saying, "You see what I am?" It's what he come from. The diamond is a diamond because he's off of a diamond.
109 And that's the way the gifts of the Spirit is, a... to the person, it's a part of that Diamond. It's sent, and been brought down, and brought into a gift, to interpret, to preach, to teach. There is five spiritual gifts; apostles, prophets, teachers, pastors, evangelists, and they are all for the edifying of the Body of Christ. And just as sure as there is teachers, pastors, there's got to be prophets. We know that.
110And we believe that God is to be manifested in the last day, among His people, to the elect Seed, according to the Bible, in the form of prophet. That's exactly with the Word. Not that the man is God, but that the gift is God. See? And that's the needle.
Now, a pin won't play that record right. A regular sewing needle won't play it right. But a diamond, it's the best. It brings it out clear, a diamond-pointed needle.
111May God, tonight... Your record of life, whatever that's wrong with you, whatever that you're desiring from God, may the great Master Who holds the needle in His hand, may He put it upon your life and reveal to us what you're here for, what you want; then we'll know that He's here.
112 Heavenly Father, will You grant it before I start this prayer line, not aiming to do this, but will You grant it, that the people might know. May be strangers here to be prayed for. I know not them, but You do. And Paul said, "If you speak with tongues, and there be no interpretation or give no edification, the people will say you're mad. But if one prophesies and reveals what's on the heart, then they'll say, 'Truly God is with you.'" Let it be again, God, in this late hour. You promised it, and so shall it be. In the Name of Jesus Christ. Amen.
113 Now I wonder how many sick people in here tonight, that's here? Or did Billy give out prayer...? Is any prayer cards give out? [The brethren say, "Yes."--Ed.] There is. Well, I guess every sick person has got a prayer card, but I don't know what you wrote on it. I think he just gives you a card; you write what you want to on it. Is that it? Just got the card; you put on it whatever you want.
114I don't know you. How many here knows that I don't know you, and yet you're sick, and you would say this, "What I've heard you say today, 'God behind skins. God behind human skin, veiling Himself'"? But if you got spiritual eyes, you could open and see Him, see Who He is. And you believe that. Jesus said, "He that believeth in Me the works that I do shall he also; more than this shall he do, for I go to the Father." Now, if you believe with all your heart!
115 How many in here that's sick, and knows that I do not know you, know what's wrong with you? Just raise up your hand, say, "I am sick. I have need." How many has desires in their heart, not sick, but has desires? You know what I'm... All right. There isn't there anybody, that I seen, but what held up their hand. Now, I don't know...
116I know this man setting here. I'm sure that's Brother James, and I think that's Sister James. Brother Ben, I know. Just your faces, sometimes; the brother taking the pictures. But the...
Let somebody back in here, anywhere, just... I--I--I challenge this, on the basis, and the closing of this Message.
117 Do you know God promised this to happen in the last days? He made the promise. See? Now I can't make it happen. See, I--I cannot do that. He has to do that. He is the One Who does it; not me. But I believe in Him, or I wouldn't be standing here telling you something that I didn't believe in. Now, you pray, and you say, "Lord Jesus, I'm taught in the Bible that You're a High Priest right now, that can be touched by the feeling of our infirmities." I don't care where you are. And just say, "I believe You. And, by faith, I believe what that man said today."
118That's what the Angel told me, "Get the people to believe you." And if I tell the Word of God, it ain't "believe me," it's "believe the Word."
If it ain't with the Word, then don't believe it. But if you believe it is the Word, then, whatever it is, you pray and you believe, and see if He still can reveal what's in your heart.
119And anybody knows that the Bible said, that, "The Word of God is sharper than a two-edged sword, and discerns the thoughts and intents in the heart."
That's how Abraham knew that that was God, when He could tell what Sarah was saying back in the tent, what she was thinking about; when He said, "I'll visit you," and Sarah thought in her heart, "It can't be so."
120 Now, I said He is here to heal you. What do you think about it? If you'll just believe! Now, I can't, I have no certain way; Heavenly Father knows that. See? I just got to see it. And what I see, I say; and what I--I don't see, course, I can't say. But He's just as much God! Would that increase your faith, if He would do it?
Preaching like that, it kind of throws me out a little bit. But He is here. I'm conscious of that.
121Watching a man as he bowed his head, right back here. His wife setting by him, praying, also. Right here. Got something on your heart. Your wife, praying. Got a burden on your heart. It's for your mother-in-law. That's right. You believe God can tell me what's wrong with your mother-in-law? I don't know you. We're strangers to one another. So that's right? You believe God can tell me what's wrong with her? She isn't here. I see a great distance; she is in east from here. She's in Ohio. That's right. She is suffering with a blood condition. Have your wife to take that handkerchief there, she is crying on, place on her. Don't doubt; she'll get well. Believe that?
122Here is a little lady setting right here in front of me. She is crying. There is something wrong with the child, I don't know... No, it's nothing wrong. She's just got a desire. She is desiring to receive the baptism of the Holy Ghost. That's THUS SAITH THE LORD. Believe, child, you're going to receive It. That's right. Don't you doubt.
123 Here is a lady setting out here on the end of the row. She is praying. I'm a stranger to her, but she's shadowed. You had operations. If we're a stranger to each other, I suppose. I don't know you. You don't know me, only by just maybe hearing of me. You're not from here. You're a stranger among us. You're from Wisconsin. The city is Milwaukee. And your trouble is cancer; it's on the breast. Operation after operation, yet without success. Let the faith, that touched the hem of His garment, believe it right now. Sink it in your heart; it shall come to pass. Have faith!
124A man setting over in the corner here. He is praying for his mother. He's a stranger to me. I don't know him. But he's praying for his mother. And his mother has the same thing this woman has, cancer. Or, she is scared of it, which it is. There is a man you're praying for, and that man has trouble with his back. He is, also, I see him intoxicated. He's an alcoholic. Your brother. You're not from here. You're from Illinois. You believe God can tell me what your name is? Farmer. Is that right? Raise up your hand. Believe!
125 There is somebody kneeling over somebody, praying, somebody laying on a cot. All right. Do you believe what you've heard, to be the Truth, lady? You do. If I could heal you, I'd come do it. But you're already healed by Christ, you see. You just got to believe it. That lady standing there, praying, was praying for you to be touched. I don't know you, but God knows you. You're from out of town, also. That's right. You're from Illinois. That's exactly. The city is called East Moline, Illinois. [The sister says, "That's the city where I was born."--Ed.] You suffer with cancer. You're a minister's wife. Do you believe? ["Yes."] You'll die, laying there. Why don't you accept Him tonight, and say, "I can, in my heart, with my faith above anything that's here, I believe that I am healed. I'm in the Presence of God." Rise up, believe, and go home and be healed. There she is.
Do you believe with all your hearts? [Congregation rejoices--Ed.] Let us praise God.
126 Heavenly Father, we thank Thee for all Thy goodness and mercy. We thank Thee, for, You're still here, right in the midst of all this trouble. In this world that's perverted, yet You're here. Let Thy Spirit, Lord, ever remain with us. We see that You are here, God with skin on it, in the human hearts; giving faith, and revelation, and vision. You are God in Your Church, God in Your people. We thank Thee for this, Lord. And may everyone believe, tonight, with one accord, and may they be healed. Through Jesus Christ's Name, I pray. Amen.
127 How many over there has prayer cards, on that side? Let them that's on that side, move back, come right in the middle of this aisle. Them on that aisle, come right out this a way, just take your place, come right out this a way. Let those, as soon as they are finished up, this line catch the next side.
128Elders come here. Brother Roy, the Lord bless you; didn't know you was setting there. I want the deacons of the church here immediately, if they can get in from ever where they're at. Come here for a little help.
I want each one that's going to be prayed for, raise up your hand, say this behind me.
Lord, [Congregation says, "Lord,"--Ed.] I believe. ["I believe."] Help Thou my unbelief. ["Help thou my unbelief."] I believe ["I believe"] that in Your Presence, ["that in Your Presence,"] as I follow Your Word, ["as I follow Your Word,"] and my... the hands is laid on me tonight, ["and the hands is laid on me tonight,"] I'm going to accept my healing, ["I'm going to accept my healing,"] in Jesus' Name. ["in Jesus' Name."] Amen. ["Amen."] God bless you.
129Now watch. "The prayer of faith shall save the sick. If they lay their hands on the sick, they shall recover." He told Noah it was going to rain. It never--He never... I never said, "As soon as--as you're prayed for, you're going to be well." He said, "They shall recover."
130 He told Noah it was going to rain. It never rained for a hundred and twenty years, but it rained.
He told Abraham he was going to have a baby by Sarah. It never happened for twenty-five years, but had it.
Told Isaiah a virgin was going to conceive. It never happened for eight hundred years, but she conceived.
Is that right? He promised it! No matter how long it takes, He does it, anyhow. You believe that.
131Come forward now. Let Brother Capps lead the singing. You'll move the cards? Now let everybody be in prayer now.
132 Our Heavenly Father, we're going to obey Your commandments by laying hands upon these sick people. I don't know one thing else You could do, Lord, for You have said, in Your Word, You've purchased their healing. You've proved that You're here with us tonight, the Word that can discern the thoughts that's in the heart. You've proved that, that You are among us. And I pray, Thee, Father, that Your Word, which cannot fail, will be made so real to each heart! That You said, "If you can believe it; don't doubt, but believe it; say to this mountain, 'Be moved,' and don't doubt, but believe that it will come to pass!" He didn't say when.
133You told the people, at Pentecost, to go up there and wait. You never said hours, days; You said, "until." Now they're coming to accept their healing. May they never think of nothing else but their healings here, until the deliverance comes. We obey You by laying hands, upon them, as believers. In Jesus Christ's Name. Amen.
134 All right, come right by now. [Brother Branham and the brethren lay hands on the people, and pray for each one in the prayer line. Blank.spot.on.tape--Ed.] You're healed. God bless you. That's good. [Blank.spot.on.tape.]
All things are possible, only believe;
Only believe, only believe,
All...
Lord Jesus, I pray for these handkerchiefs now, in Jesus Christ's Name. Amen.
Wonder if we could change them words:
Now I believe, it's now I believe,
All things are possible, now I believe;
Now I believe, now I believe,
All things are possible, now I believe.
135Do you believe that what has been asked and desired shall be granted? [Congregation says, "Amen."--Ed.] It shall happen.
136 I saw, passing through the line a few moments ago, some of my Italian friends from Chicago. How many knows Sister Bottazzi from Chicago? Well, you know, she had a--a mental, nervous break just recently, very, very bad. But the morning in Chicago at the Christian Business Men's breakfast, I told the sister, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. She come back to one side, and she just couldn't hold herself together. And I said, "Sister, you won't get over it right away, but you're going to be well." I said, "It'll be either eighteen months, or two years, right in that bracket you'll be made well."
137 The other day while speaking with her... I heard her testifying, so happy, the happiest she had ever been in all of her life. She was riding in a car. She had no peace, the Presence of God seemed to have departed from her; course, it was mental nerve, you know; and all of a sudden it returned with a great flow of joy, and the power of the Holy Spirit was upon her. She wept, she cried, she--she had... They just had a great time, about three or four weeks ago, or a month. And I heard her testify, Sunday before last, and she said, "Brother Branham, when I got back, I marked down and took that tape. And it was exactly eighteen months, to the day." Amen.
Do you love Him? [Congregation says, "Amen."--Ed.] Isn't He wonderful? ["Amen."]
138 Now, the same Holy Spirit that can predict exactly, without missing one time, all these years; and, through His Word, has tried to uncover to you today that God isn't some object way off or some historical something. He's a living, present tense, His Word made manifest. Hid Himself in human veil, in His Church, revealing Himself by your faith and my faith, together, coming together, making the unit of God. I can do nothing without you; you can do nothing without me; neither could do anything without God. So, together it makes the unit, the connection. God sent me for the purpose; you believe it; and there it happens. That's just it, see, confirmed perfectly.
I don't care what's wrong with you, what anyone has said; if, from your heart, you believe that you're going to be well, there is nothing can ever stop it. He said so. And He said, "Heavens and earth will pass away, but My Word won't fail." Do you believe that? [Congregation says, "Amen."--Ed.]
139How many will pray for me in other meetings as I go? [Congregation says, "Amen."--Ed.] I'm one who needs prayer. See? Everybody has turned me down, see, but you, and yet there is Seed out there.
140 I sent a letter to South Africa. They wouldn't let me come in unless I would sign a paper that I "would baptize, over on that side, everybody three times; once for the Father, and once for the Son, and the Holy Ghost, face forward. On the other side, I'd baptize backwards, one for the Father... And teach that was Doctrine."
I wrote them a letter. I said, "The Holy Spirit has been trying, for the last few years, to get me in Africa again. He wants to use my ministry there where thirty thousand accept Christ one afternoon." I said, "Remember, the blood of them souls be upon you, not upon me. I've offered to come, but you won't do it."
I wonder what it'll be in this day when Jesus, the Son of God has been turned from the church, the Word rejected? But in--in all that, He still is making Hisself known to His people. Aren't you thankful for it? [Congregation says, "Amen."--Ed.]
141 And I passed by, tonight, put my hands on them, some aged women, some young, some old, some young men, old man, just soaking wet as I am. I thought, "Setting there, setting there listening at the Word that the rest of the world thinks is crazy." See? They are--they are the bolt. See, God is here to thread it up, draw you right out of your sickness. It's a promise of the Word. Just remember, it'll start tightening, "I will draw them; if I be lifted up, I'll draw them." He'll draw it out of you. He sure will. You just believe Him, have faith in Him. Don't doubt Him. Believe Him.
142 Pray for me. When you have no one else to pray for, just remember me.
And then until we meet! till we meet!
Till we meet...
Thanks for coming those long ways. God protect you as you go home!
Till we...
Greet all the Christians, salute them, from this group here. God's peace upon you! Shalom!
God be with you till we meet again!
[Brother Branham begins humming God Be With You--Ed.]
... till we meet!
Till we meet at Jesus' feet;
Till we meet! till we meet!
God be with you till we meet again!
143 I'm so glad. You see, there is some, many things I don't know, but there is some things I do know. I'm so thankful for you. I'm so glad to be associated with you. I'm so glad to be one of you. God be with you. He will. He'll never leave you. He'll never forsake you. He won't leave you. You've done broke through the veil now. See?
144So glad tonight to see Brother Palmer, one of our associate pastors over here, from Georgia. Brother Junior Jackson is in the building somewhere, back in the corner, we're glad to have him. Brother Don Ruddell setting over here. Oh, so many! I don't know, if I miss anybody... Brother Ben Bryant here, and many of the others here, fine brother, Wilbur Collins. We're so glad to have all of you here.
I wonder if we would just stand to our feet, just a moment now. Let's bow our heads now.
Till we meet!
Till we meet at Jesus' feet; till we meet!
... till we meet!
God be with you till we meet again.
145 You feel that closeness of fellowship with the Spirit?
Let's hum it. [Brother Branham and congregation begins humming God Be With You--Ed.]
I noticed Brother McKinney, from Ohio, with us. Brother John Martin and his brother. So glad to have all of you. I might not even see you, brethren. He knows you.
Till we meet! May my heart and yours, with God heart, be one till we meet! [Brother Branham and congregation continue humming God Be With You--Ed.]
I'd like to ask somebody to dismiss. [Brother Branham speaks with the brethren--Ed.]
While we bow our heads now in prayer.
146Try let every minister know that we're happy for them to be here, all the laity, you people from Tennessee, Ohio, and across the country. Some women I met over there today, all the way from Boston. Our colored brethren was here, this morning, from up in there also. So many from different parts of the country; I thank you, my dear loyal friend. God be with you. I call you my friend. Remember what Jesus said about that? "Closer even than a brother," yeah, a friend. While we bow our heads now... Until we get to meet again in the next few days, God be with you.
147I'm going to ask our good, loyal brother, Brother Richard Blair, if he won't dismiss us in a word of prayer. Brother Blair.