|
1-1 It's certainly a
privilege to be here this morning on this birthday of the Full Gospel Business
Men's Chapter here at Phoenix and to know that the Lord granted me a little
part of it, to be part of this fellowship. I want to greet Brother Carl Williams
and his wife, Brother Stromei, and the rest here at the platform: Brother Shores,
Brother Outlaw, ministers, and all you fine people.
You know, I--I had a birthday last week too, and I'm just a tiny bit older than
the chapter. I believe he said five years old for the chapter.
Somebody said the other day, "How old are you, Brother Branham?" I said, "Twenty-six."
And I said, "I wiped out the first twenty-five years. I didn't serve Him so
well in them." I said, "I hope He does too." To get Him to do it'll be different.
But it's good to be here.
1-4 And now, we want
to not take much of your time, because we... I'm--I'm always afraid after I
hear some of these fine testimonies and things that's going on, that I--and
songs, that I will do something that'll upset that; and I wanted to add to it,
if there be anything I could add to it.
These sisters, that Brother that sang the song this morning (the colored brother),
I appreciated that. "His Eye on the Sparrow." And these sisters that sang this
song, that's been one of my helps since I was here the first time. I had, I
got that on a record, and I've just played it out, "I'd Like to Talk It Over
With Him." And I asked Brother Dawson Riley there, my friend, if he would--some
of them, if they'd see if they could get those ladies, if they were still here
on earth, to sing it again this morning. And I hope Terry got it. And I suppose
he did. I want to take that off of there maybe to a record or something, 'cause
I really like that song. And that's my--my desire is to talk it over with Him.
I think we all want to do that. That's why we're here this morning.
1-6 Now, the oncoming
meetings next week... Is it all right to mention it? I--I to be home this coming
week at the Tabernacle next Sunday for Easter Service, Saturday night, Sunday,
and Sunday night. And then I go back to California. All you people around California,
be sure glad to have you at the meeting over there. And I think Billy has sent
out the wrong advertisement. He said the Biltmore Hotel I believe it's to be
at, it's a--couldn't get it; and it's at the Eastmont?... Embassy, the Embassy
Hotel. So any of the Full Gospel people over there would let you know, if you're
over that way.
And then we come back from there, and I go to South Africa. And just one month
from today we sail for South Africa, expecting a great time in the Lord, about
three nations down there. So we--we certainly solicit your prayers. I probably
won't be able to see you no more if the Lord carries on for us to go until I
get back. I hope I have a great report for you when we come back.
2-2 Last time down there, I think the Lord that gave me the greatest meeting I ever had. And one time for an altar call... Now this is out of blanket natives, as far as I know, there was thirty thousand accepted Christ at one time. And we thought maybe they meant physical healing, because there had been about twenty-five thousand healed at one time. And the next day the mayor of--of Durban (which is Sidney Smith) said, "Go to your window and look coming down the street." And there were van load after van load just piled full of old crutches and things, just piled up. That they were coming behind the natives (which was at war at one another) coming down the streets of the city singing "Only Believe" in their native tongue. I'll tell you; my heart thrilled like... When you see something like that, Brother Shores, you feel your work's not in vain then. You see, you tried.
2-3 And I hoped God
repeats it again, not because, 'cause we're going down there, but because we're
looking for the coming of the Lord. He's... As the songs said, we're seeking
out that little lost sheep that's, that... He--He won't come until that sheep's
in. Everyone has to be in the fold. He won't close the door till that last one's
in.
So minister brothers, I'm sure with you this morning, I'm trying to hunt out
that last sheep. It might be in Phoenix this morning. I don't know. But when
the last one comes in, then the Shepherd will close the door. [Someone
speaks to Brother Branham and congregation--Ed.] That's perfectly all
right...?...
2-5 I don't. I'm the
one that has to write out what I'm going to say almost. I'm--since I'm getting
older I find it harder to remember, put my Scriptures down and so forth. Used
to be I could line up about fifty Scriptures in my mind and never even pass
right on through it, but I got a lot of rough miles behind them days.
So we're looking for the coming of the Lord. Lord bless you all. And you--you
get up here and you think... You set down here and hear these people testify,
and you think, "Well, when I get up I'm going to say something about that."
And there's so much to say, you'd be all day saying it. But I certainly appreciate
you all. May this little chapter just keep growing. May every church in Phoenix
continually to grow until Jesus comes is my sincere prayer.
Now, I think just to rest us just a little bit, let's stand while we have prayer,
will you?
3-1 Almighty God, the
Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, Who raised Him up from the dead and has given
Him to us as the Sacrifice, the Lord and Saviour. We are so grateful to Thee
for this privilege that we have this morning to stand in Thy Presence with Thy
people that's been redeemed, and looking for His glorious second coming to receive
us unto Himself.
If there be sin among us, Lord, purge us with Thy hyssop. And we pray, heavenly
Father, that You will heal every sick person that's in our midst. And if there
would be by chance those who doesn't know You in this great baptism of the Holy
Spirit that we're so earnestly contending for, and seeing it is a must according
to the Scriptures for this last day, we pray God, that He'll fall upon us all
today and baptize us a-freshly into the Body and bring those that are out in
too, Father.
Bless us as we read Thy Word and endeavor to speak that which is truth of Thy
Word. Close our mouths to that which is untruth and open our hearts and mouths
to that which is truth. As we commit ourselves to Thee use our mouths to speak,
and our ears to hear, and our hearts to receive. For we ask it in Jesus' Name,
Who has ordained it to be so. Amen.
3-4 I would like to
read from the holy Word, three places in the Bible. And if you would mark these,
and you want to carry them on through to read them for further information,
I'd be very happy if you'd mark them down. The places I'm going to read is Matthew
28:1-10, and then Revelations 1:17-18, Romans 8:11. May I repeat them again.
And now, Matthew 28:1-10, Revelations 1:17-18, and Romans 8:11.
Now, we are approaching Easter. And as you're getting your places and marking
it down, I think that this coming week is the most, and the greatest historical
week of all of the weeks of the year. I think of the greatest thing we will
celebrate this week, this coming week, was the greatest event that ever taken
place on the earth. I don't think anything could surpass it. You say, "Well,
the--the crucifixion was great." But many men has died. Many men has been crucified,
even in the same days of our Lord. But there was only One of them Who rose up
from the dead. That sealed it.
4-1 Now, I'm--want to
read. And this is kind of a little pre-Easter message, the Lord willing about
forty minutes. Now, let's read from St. Matthew's Gospel, the 28th chapter beginning.
4-2 And in Revelations
the 1st chapter and the 17th and 18th verse:
5-3 Seeing that Easter,
that I have stamped it in my own heart as the greatest meeting or the greatest
event of the year...
(I want to ask you to pardon me a moment. Isn't that kinda blaring out there
to you, kind of a roaring? Is it all right? Can you hear it all right like that?
You can't hear it. Is that better? Right like that. I was... didn't want to
get too close.)
Now, why I say this is because that Easter He proved what the Bible had said.
All the Scripture that was written of Him to do, He sealed His Messiahship when
He rose from the dead: The Easter Seal.
We have so much of it today. We talk about that buying Easter Seals. Well, I
want to speak this morning on the "Easter Seal."
5-4 It's a different seal than what we buy with our money as a seal to go on letters, for I think the Tuberculosis Association, or whatever they call it. I--I think this seal is a little different seal. And being that Easter is the great day of the year for we Christians who claim to be God's children, I want to try to break into it and see how we should be fellowshipped with this great thing that Christ did for us.
5-5 A... The Word of God was spoken many, many hundreds of years before His coming, of His crucifixion, and of His death, and of His suffering, and also of His resurrection. We'll be going through these services perhaps next week as we listen to our--our radio programs, and in our churches with our pastors and so forth, this coming week. But of all the days and all of the things that Jesus did... And certainly appreciating all of His vindication of God's Word, and what He did to fulfill it--of healing the sick, raising the dead, casting out devils, preaching the Gospel to the poor and fulfilling every word that God said that He would do when He came; and then also suffering for our sins in our stead to be the propitiation for our sins at the cross, where no one else could've done it but Him...
6-1 But above all of
that, I think Easter sealed the whole thing, because there'd been prophets on
the earth who had prophesied before Him. There had been prophets on the earth
who'd healed the sick, even raised the dead and done the same signs that Jesus
did, but Easter proved it.
It sealed the Word of God forever for the true believer. All gloom and doubt
was shattered at that blessful morning. Man had been shut up, as it was, in
a prison house, even to religious people before this day, because they had been--seen
great religious moves, and moving of the Holy Spirit, and so forth; but when
a man died, it seemed to settle it. But when this One came and said, "I have
power to lay My Life down; I have power to take it up again," and then go prove
what He said, to me, that--that's the seal of it when something is said, and
then is turned around and proven.
6-3 If a man said...
Like Columbus believed the world was round, and he watched the ships (as we're
told), how they come in, and he could see the mast way before he could see the
ship. And it proved him that the world was round. People didn't believe that
in that day, but he was a man of vision. He set out to prove exactly what he
had a vision of that was the truth. And God purposed to prove His Word the Truth.
So He... There was only one Man that could do that, and that was Jesus; and
He come and proved that to be the truth.
It sealed it. And that broke all the seals of gloom and scattered all the--the
superstitions of other religions, and so forth where great men has raised up
and said great, marvelous things. But they're everyone in the grave. But our
Christian religion is the only one who has a empty tomb. And that proves to
me that He is the God of the dead and God of the living, that He can raise up
the dead back to life again. And I... This quickening power, quickening Spirit
of His, has proved through the years that He is the One Who can quicken the
dead back to life again.
6-5 And when He proved
by His promise this great conquering power that He had on Easter, He proved
that He could conquer death, hell, and the grave. "I am He that was dead and
is alive again and alive forevermore, and have the keys to--to death, hell,
and the grave." What a statement for anyone to make. And not only did He make
it, but He had already proved that He--He had what He claimed to have.
And I think "God hasten the day that when we, as Christians who believe this
Bible, can prove what we are talking about." See? That's what makes, as they
said awhile ago, the salt of the earth, the sister said. That's right. The world
is looking for this salt. And when we can prove by our lives and by the Bible
a... that our lives are vindicating that Word to be living today, that--that's
the day we're looking for...?...
7-1 The Word--this Spirit,
Romans 8 there that--11 said, "If this Spirit that raised up Jesus Christ be
in you, will also quicken your mortal bodies." Not only did He prove to Him--to
us that He was Jehovah Redeemer and had power over death, hell, and the grave,
but He has also give us the access to the same Spirit, that we ourselves can
have the assurance that we too are quickened by that Spirit. For the Spirit
that raised up Jesus from the dead dwells in your body; It will also quicken
your mortal bodies.
Now, the word "quicken" means "to be made alive after death." After it's dead,
then it's to be quickened.
7-2 The world has been
shut up in doubt for many ages until then, this was proven: not only talked
about, but was proven. I think that anything that's worthwhile...
As Jesus said, "Go ye therefore, teach all nations and prove to them by demonstrating
the power of God to them. These signs shall follow them that believe." Them
who promise and say they believe, He give us a definite understanding of it,
that these signs would follow them that believe. It would be the proof of their
testimony.
Now, we can say we believe, but until we are--have the proven sign that He said
that would be upon us, then we are just confessing to be believers and not the
possession of believers.
7-4 For remember...
A few days ago I was listening to a--a radio program on KAIR, down in Tucson,
and this minister had taken the side against us, that the Pentecostal religion
was nothing but just a sham; there was--not to listen to it, it was unstable.
And said, "Any man that spoke in tongues and these things and claimed to be--heal
the sick and so forth by prayer, that it was--to leave away from it and to pray
for those poor decrepit people, because that they were an a illusion, that there
was something wrong with them." Oh, how I would have liked to have talked to
that brother just a little while.
And he said that the--that that was only given for the apostles at the day of
Pentecost, and that was all. I find that thirty years later Paul was ordaining
these gifts in the church in I Corinthians 15; that he set in the church the
gift of speaking in tongues, miracles, and all these other gifts was set in
the church.
8-1 Jesus said that,
"Go ye into all the world and preach the Gospel to every creature."
"How far?" All the world.
"Who to?" Every creature. They've never received it yet.
"And these signs shall follow them that believe."
"How long?" All the world.
"Who to?" Every creature. "These signs shall follow them in all the world and
in every creature. These signs shall follow them. In My Name they shall cast
out devils, speak with new tongues. If they taken up a deadly thing or serpent,
or drinking a deadly thing, will not harm them. They'll lay their hands on the
sick, and they shall recover." That was His last commission to the church: Mark
the 16th chapter.
8-3 Paul's, ordaining
these gifts into the church thirty years later, and said in Galatians 1:8: "If
an angel from heaven preaches to you any other Gospel than this which is already
received (See?), already been preached, let him be accursed."
I believe that Pentecost began without an ending. I believe it's to be to every
creature, all times and all places. That Pentecost should always remain. The
Pentecostal blessings should be upon the people.
8-5 And now, what is this Pentecostal blessing? It's a confirmation of the resurrection. No wonder the Gospel itself means "good news." Good news of what? He's raised from the dead. "And because I live, ye live also." Ye which were once dead in sin and trespasses, God has quickened us together by that Spirit that raised up Jesus from the dead. And we are now setting in heavenly places with Him, communing with Him, talking with Him. What a joy to tell people that story that believes it to be the truth.
8-6 I'm wondering today just what's happening. Are we really getting the people to God, or are we just getting them to church? We must get them to Christ, where this quickening power. It's good to go to church, sure. If that's as far as we go, it's not far enough. When you come to church, that's good; but go on to Christ from the church; because we must receive this quickening power if we ever expect to be in that general resurrection, because it's the only thing that will ever bring us from the dead. "For if this spirit that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, it'll also quicken, make, bring to life your mortal bodies." What a promise to us.
9-1 Now, notice, the
very essence of this resurrection is to tell, and to show, and to prove that
Jesus has raised up from the dead. He's not dead; He is a-living. He lives here.
He's in us. "I'll be with you, even in you. A little while and the world seeth
Me no more. Yet ye shall see Me, for I will be with you, even in you, unto the
end of the world."
Now, as Christians, we all claim He is alive, or we've been quickened from--quickened
from life--from death to life by His Spirit. And if we haven't been quickened,
then we've not been made alive.
9-3 Now, we're going
to break into this subject, the Lord willing, and kinda teach it for a few minutes:
how that are we quickened and can we be sure that this is the truth?
Now, this is your own life. This is my life. It's where that the...
If this isn't truth, what I'm fixing to say, then I'm one of the most foolish
people in the world. I've give my life for something there's nothing to, and
so have you. But if it is the truth, then I owe everything that I am. I owe
everything that I could be to the cause of which we're standing for. And I think
that we mustn't lose our enthusiasm.
And as we see Easter approaching, it just does something down in me, as I--I
know that that's the day that the thing was sealed forever in the sight of God.
9-6 Now, we notice it's
the same Spirit that raised Him from the grave that is dwelling in us. Now,
how could that be the Spirit that raised up God, Jesus, from the dead has--dwelling
in us? Now--now is the Spirit that quickens. It's not the Word that quickens;
it's the Spirit that quickens the Word, or gives the Word life, gives It wings
to fly, gives It access. It's the Spirit that does that.
Now, the wheat alone is just a wheat, but when the quickening life gets into
it--into the wheat, then it gives it life. And we which were once dead, made
in the image of God, and yet dead in sin and trespass, there's some way God
had to get this quickening life into your mortal body.
9-8 I'm talking about
your body. Now, Jesus was the Word. You believe that, don't you? "In the beginning..."
St. John 1, "In the beginning was the Word, the Word was with God, and the Word
was God. And the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us."
Now, as the promised Messiah, He quickened every Word that was prophesied that
He would do: healed the sick, and how He'd be born of a virgin, all that, made
it--it's true. He was the Word manifested here on earth, but He could not do
this just as a man. It taken the Spirit of God dwelling in Him to quicken these
promises to Him.
10-2 I hope that we
get this real clear now. Jesus, being a Man Himself, the body; but it took the
Spirit in Him: the Spirit. "It's not Me that doeth the works; it's My Father
that dwelleth in Me. He's the One that does the work." See? And Jesus Himself
was the Word, because He was... Before God... This is a bad word to use, and
I hope you take it right before a crowd, but He was predestinated by the foreknowledge
of God, how God's plan was to be, that He would send a Redeemer, and this Redeemer
could only be His own Son.
So then, that was God's promise all the way from the garden of Eden, that Jesus
would be here.
Here He was, as a Man borned of a virgin. But it taken the Spirit of God to
quicken that Word to Him, and He was the Word quickened, the Word quickened
for that hour.
10-4 The time had come
when you had to have a Redeemer. The law had failed. Other things had failed.
Now, it takes a Redeemer, and He was the promised Redeemer. He was quickened
by the Word of God.
And now, if that same Spirit that was upon Him to be the Redeemer in that age,
that we have accepted... Now, the promise of in this last days what would take
place, if you become part of that Word, you are redeemed with Him; because the
same Spirit that dwelt in Christ is dwelling in you, quickening your life to
this age. And it will also in the end time quicken your mortal bodies, resurrect
them, bring them up again. That takes the gloom away when we look at it in that,
and that's the truth. See?
10-6 Romans here, Paul has proved it to us. See? "If the Spirit that raised up Jesus from the dead dwells in you, It will also quicken your mortal bodies." This is the same Spirit that raised Him up that quickened the true believer to Eternal Life. The Spirit that raised up Jesus from the dead dwells into the believer, quickens the believer to Eternal Life.
10-7 There's only one
life, one Eternal Spirit, one Eternal Life, and that's God. God alone is the
Eternal. And then we, being His children, are part of Him; that is, the attributes
of His thinking. And the thought is expressed, and becomes a word. Then each
individual in here that possesses this Eternal Life was before the foundation
of the world in God's thinking. That's the only way it could be, cause you are
a attribute. That's an expression of a thought has been come a word, and a word
has taken life, and it's eternal. That's the reason we have Eternal Life.
In the same principle that the great Son of God, the Redeemer... We become sons
and daughters of God through that same Spirit, by the same foreknowledge of
God.
Look at the millions on earth that didn't receive it when Jesus was here. But
how thankful that we should be this morning to know that we have the direct
evidence and the Bible proofs that we are included in that great resurrection
morning coming, that great Easter. We have the earnest of it right now in our
mortal bodies.
11-3 The predestinated
ones are the first, of course, to be quickened, when the Holy Spirit comes to
claim its own. Now, there is a great statement; and I want my minister brothers
to try to understand this. See?
In the beginning, God, the great Spirit... He wasn't even God then. He was the
eternal One. "God" is an object of worship. He had nothing to worship Him. There
was no--there was no angels, no nothing, just God alone. Him alone was eternal.
But in order to be God, there had to be something to worship Him. So He created
Angels, and beings, and Cherubims, and so forth to worship Him. And His great
plan begin to unfold.
11-4 But remember, you,
in the--the statue that you are in this morning, if you wasn't in His thinking
then, you're not now. For you... There's some part that's in you that's eternal;
and eternal only belongs to God.
And in God was His thinking of you setting right where you are now. In His thinking
I stood at the pulpit this morning, because He's infinite and knows all things.
Therefore, He could tell the end from the beginning, because He's eternal. And
you, being a son of God or a daughter of God, then you were in His thinking
at the beginning.
11-6 And then when the
Holy Spirit come... And you're on earth, walking around here as a sinner; way
down in your life there's something. You don't know what's taking place, but
you're hungering.
I heard the Presbyterian brother, I heard the--the Baptist, talking about back
there, He was a Freewill Baptist, preaching where he can--my fellow brother.
That--you...
There's something in you, something that you never put in there. It's something
that you couldn't desire to be in there. It's something that's contrary to your
own nature. It's the foreknowledge of God taking place.
12-1 God's Word, as
Jesus, was born the Son of God to be Emmanuel, God's full expression in a Man...
And He found Him in perfect obedience down at the river of Jordan, being baptized
by that prophet. And as soon as He obeyed Him and walked out of the water, the
heavens opened to John, and he saw the Holy Ghost descending from heaven, saying,
"This is My beloved Son." See, perfect obedience, the Spirit had sought Him
out in obedience.
Oh, wayward man or woman this morning, when you're setting here and there's
something in you telling you this is right, it's the Holy Spirit seeking you
out to bring you to a knowledge of truth of this hour that we're now living:
not some hour that's gone by, the hour now.
12-3 There was thousands there that had--obeying the hour past, but there was a present tense hour. That was the hour that Jesus was to appear, and there stood the Word. There stood the people, and here was a manifestation of God taking place to a vindicate that that was the truth. And as Pentecostal people today, let me say this: That we're standing in this last days where God promised He'd would pour out His Spirit upon all flesh, and His sons and daughters should prophesy. For It said, "These signs shall follow them that believe." It's the hour. That's what's makes that creation in you.
12-4 As I spoke here
not long ago (It sounded a little sacrilegious but I hope it don't to you this
morning.), the farmer that set the eagle--or set the hen and had an eagle egg.
Many of you remembers the story of the old eagle giving birth to this to this...
or the hen giving birth over here to this chicken... Or the--or egg of a eagle
under her chicken feathers. See, it's the atmosphere. The Presbyterian church,
Methodist church, Baptist church, any of them can bring forth these eagles.
Sure, it's the atmosphere that does it.
As Dr. Bosworth used to say, you can take a hen egg and put it over a--under
a pup and tie him down, a pup would hatch out a chicken. Why? It's the atmosphere.
And when any church or any group that'll assemble themselves together and pray
until they're throw away their creeds and things, and look straight in the face
of God, it'll bring forth eagles just as certain as I'm standing here.
12-5 That's what I think
that this Business Men's Group has done, trying to break up the atmosphere.
We're getting too clannish. One belongs to this and that. Let's break up the
atmosphere and get the atmosphere in a heavenly worship. Get the atmosphere
right.
Eagles will be born in--out of any church anywhere. And this little eagle walked
with the hen for a long time, but the--the clucking was kind of strange. He
didn't understand what the hen meant when she scratched in the--the--the waste
of the manure piles in the yards. And that wasn't food to him. And she eat bugs
and so forth that a eagle doesn't eat; so it seemed strange all to him. And
he was a ugly duckling. He was a--not saying this sacrilegious; maybe he was
a Freewill Baptist, and--but something on that order, or Presbyterian.
13-1 But you know, one
day his mother knew that she had laid an egg. There had to be a child somewhere.
So she throwed her big wings into the winds, and she searched, and she searched,
screaming to the top of her voice. And one day she passed over the barnyard.
And when this little eagle heard this familiar scream; He'd never heard it before,
but he realized that it fit him like a glove over a hand, and he knew that was
his mother. She knew that was her son. She was looking for him.
So has God in every age ordained His church for that age: a message for that
age. And they could have laws and anything that they want to, but when that
hour come, the Holy Spirit of God, which is at the beginning thought out and
spoke out for that age, that Spirit hunts that egg. And when he hears that message,
there's no church denomination going to hold it. It'll rise to the heights.
It's got to.
It's a different bird. It's a different creature. He's a eagle, and he'll hear
the scream. "My sheep hear My voice." As someone said (Brother Williams), "sheep-food."
"My sheep hear My voice, a stranger they will not follow."
No matter how loyal the church has been, and how much its big a name it's got,
when "My sheep hear My voice (which is the Word), a stranger they will not follow."
They'll go right straight to that Word, and they can do it. It's like a magnet.
13-5 One day up in Indiana,
I was visiting them steel mills, and the whistle blowed. And everybody took
off their aprons and begin to sweep the--out from their lathes, out into the
middle of the floor, the shavings that they'd made through the day. And I was
walking along with the man that was taking me through. And he said, "Watch this."
And so every man laid his--his bench dress upon the--upon the table walked away.
Way back in the back, he touched a little button, and here come a big magnet
through. And it picked up every bit of that iron that was shaved off of those
pieces. Now, it went out, it demagnetized it. It dropped into a cupola and was
melted over for another piece of--of goods, the same thing, axles or whatever
they were building. And I stood there and looked at that till I--I just lost
myself.
And I said, "I'm wondering something."
He said, "What is it, sir?" And I said, "I notice that some of that didn't go
up."
He said, "It's aluminum, and the magnet is not magnetized to the aluminum."
I said, "I see." And he said... Then I said, "Well did you notice there's a
piece of iron laying across...
"But you see sir, it was bolted down."
I said, "I see." And I... When he took it out, I said, "Now, what happens to
that out there?"
He said, "It goes right back into the mill, poured out into through the cupola,
and comes right back and makes another wheel."
I said, "Praise the Lord."
14-2 That's it. See? There is a great magnet setting in the sky that God one day'll touch His fingers to. No man knows the time He's coming, not even the Angels of heaven doesn't know. God alone knows. But there has been some trimmings that's come off of the Bible: Bible Christians, believers for this hour. One of them might've been a axle back in another day. This might be some other part. It's going on to make the big regime of God, but it'll be molded into the pot of God's great cupola and poured out again into the images of God. Just those who are magnetized to it will be taken up. Oh, how to... What a privilege it is to know that there is something in the resurrection that's pertaining to us.
14-3 Now, notice, recognize
the call of God's Word, which is a part of... And it's a eagle to an eagle.
Now, if that mother would've screamed like a--a buzzard, he'd have never knowed
it. He'd have been just as well off in the barnyard. But it was the scream of
an eagle. There was something inside that little fellow that he knowed he was
an eagle; and the same thing is with every true believer.
When the preaching of God's Word comes forth, and it's vindicated, and proved
that it's God's Word for this hour, then there's something within the believer;
I don't care how loyal his father was to a church, or how loyal his mother was,
or his grandparents, and if that church is teaching contrary to this hour of
the baptism of the Holy Ghost message; there's something in him that screams
out. He'll leave the barnyard. He's got to do it. The chicken might've been
all right one day but this is eagle hour. See? It--it's a different.
It's something that he must leave, the old coop, and fly away into the blue.
Then this earthly body is quickened and brought by the quickening Spirit to
the obedience of God's Word.
15-2 Now, when this
Holy Spirit, represented as the eagle flying over the land, and finds the believer...
"No man can come to Me. No man can come to Me as he wants to. All the Father
has given Me will come to Me, but no man can come by himself." It isn't your
own thinking, your own drawing. It's God drawing. See, see? "All the Father
has given Me will come to Me."
Now, the Holy Spirit is here on earth, looking out those individuals that God
has ordained to Life in this age. And as soon as It finds It, It does just like
It did on Jesus Christ, the great super Son of God, He who redeemed us all.
It comes down and takes Its place of abode into the human life.
15-4 Now, notice. Brought
the quickening power... Now, that quickening power that come upon Jesus quickened
Him to manifest every promise of the Word of that day. So does the Holy Spirit
that come upon us in this day. If it's not a mockery holy spirit, if it's not
the devil mocking the Holy Spirit, but is the real true Holy Spirit, it'll manifest
the promise of this hour.
When It fell upon Luther, It manifested that promise of that hour. When It fell
upon Wesley, It manifested the promise of that hour. When It falls in this day,
It manifests the promise of this hour. When It fell upon Moses, It manifested
the promise of that hour. Fell upon Noah, It manifest the promise of that hour.
When It fell upon Jesus, It manifests the promise of that hour. See? It's the
Holy Spirit coming down to quicken, make alive those people that's foreordained
of God to be in the rapture. Oh, that is, if he's a true eagle, he will understand
the message of the hour: if he's a true eagle.
15-6 Now, the little
eagle probably in the barnyard was eating all right, but he--he knowed it wasn't
just exactly right. But then when he heard the truth, then he received this
truth.
Now, in John 14--John 5:24 rather, Jesus said, speaking this way, "He that heareth
My Words and believeth on Him that sent Me, hath Everlasting Life and shall
not come into the judgment, but's passed from death unto Life." Just think how
simple that is. "He that believeth..." Now, the correct way of saying that,
"He that understandeth..."
15-8 Now, you go out
here on the street and say to this prostitute, "You believe?"
"Sure."
"You believe that He's the Son of God?"
"Certainly."
"Been baptized?"
"Sure."
Go down to the drunkard and say, "You hear that, hear that preacher preach?"
"Yeah."
"You believe that?"
"Sure."
16-1 See, but he that
understandeth, he that knoweth his place in this hour... "He that heareth My
Word and believeth on Him that sent Me hath (present tense) Eternal Life, shall
not come into the judgment, but's already passed from death unto Life."
Then when this new Eternal Life dwells in you, it is the potential or the earnest
of you being quickened from mortal to immortality. Let me say that again. When
this Spirit has found you, the individual, and has come upon you, it is the
potential of your eternal inheritance that God thought of you and made for you
before the foundation of the world. That is your potential.
Like if you ask me for an oak tree, and I gave you an acorn. Now, the--the--the
life for the oak tree is in the acorn. Now, but you have to wait till it grows
up.
16-3 So do we. When
you receive the Holy Spirit of God, it's God's potential waiting upon you that's
already recognized you, and you're sealed by the Spirit of promise of God into
the body of Christ. When God looked down at Calvary and seen Jesus dying, He
not only... He died for His Bride, the body, which is the Word-church, the church
that believes the Word of God for the age whether it's feet, body, head, or
wherever it is. See?
It's Christ was bleeding and dying, and God, looking upon Him, saw His resurrection,
and the church raised with Him on Easter.
Now, I want you to get all of this together 'cause I've got something here,
a little bit I want to say, the Lord willing.
16-6 Now, notice, it's
the earnest or the potential, the quickening power of your resurrection when
you receive the Holy Spirit, is then dwelling in you, the potential of it. Notice,
you--you are now on your way growing to the full resurrection.
No tree just comes up overnight. It's got to grow. As we grow in the grace and
the knowledge of God... You are baptized into the Holy Spirit. Now, as the Pentecostal
church baptized into the Holy Spirit, it's begin growing. Limbs that's died,
just pruned them off; but the tree's still growing. It's still going on, because
it's got to come to the resurrection.
You're led by the Spirit to quicken the Word to you who is believers. The Word
keeps quickening as you come to the first limb, second limb, third limb, on
up. It just keeps quickening. The Spirit of God keeps quickening to you. Notice
that Pentecost, their bodies were quickened by the new life they received. That
makes me feel religious. Think.
17-3 Now, here was men,
fishermen, tax collectors; the humble little women of the--just ordinary housewives,
little virgin girls. They were believers. They were believing that this was
the truth. They believe that when Jesus died they believed on Him, and rose
up again from the dead. They believed that to be the absolutely testimony of
God, that He had quickened Him to life.
Now, they go up to the day of Pentecost to receive their abstract. You know
what an abstract is? It's when a deeds been cleared. They went up there just
to receive their abstract, and they become quickened. Or... What a thrill. They'd
bought the land: been bought for them. They'd received it.
Is it true or not? "We seen Him raised up, but now what about us? We are witnesses.
We stood and seen the Man crucified. We seen the clouds come over the earth
and darken the skies, and the--the earth quaked and shook and had nervous prostration."
Then when they put Him in the grave, they speared Him in the heart with a spear;
and they took His body down and laid it in a grave of Joseph of Arimathaea.
And then they find out that on the third day He raised up again. And as the
disciples said, "We are witnesses of this. We seen Him raise up. We know He's
alive."
17-6 Now, what did that
do? That took all the fear out. No wonder Jesus said, "Fear not. I'm He that
was dead and is alive forevermore." See? It taken all the fear out when they
did that. Now, but when they went up to Pentecost, there they received the quickening
power, the power that made them alive.
Now, there's where I think that you Presbyterian, and Methodist, brethren, you
do receive potentially on believing on the Lord Jesus Christ, but the abstract
hasn't come yet. That's the clearing of the deed.
18-2 God gave Abraham
a promise. Abraham believed God, and it was imputed unto him for righteousness.
But He sealed the covenant by the seal of circumcision. And God gives you a
promise potentially that you will receive it, and you're going to be raised
up; this body is going to be glorified with Him at the end time. But you see,
you have to get a clearance on that deed. And the clearance is when everything
against it has been stricken off, and you got the abstract to it. You've got
the seal. It's yours. Everything's on it belongs to you. Amen.
And when we believe on Jesus Christ for our Saviour, and repent, and are baptized,
and come up to believe Him, God recognizes our repentance and our faith towards
Him and sends down the abstract. And the abstract is the assurance. It's the
guarantee that everything was ever held against you, you thoroughly repented.
Hallelujah. And the property is boughten, and you hold the abstract for the
assurance.
18-4 Let somebody try
to put you off the land and say he belongs, and you with the abstract in your
hands. Let him try to do it. There ain't a law in the land can do it. Because
you hold the abstract, and there's no devil, no church, or any theology that
can overstep the boundaries of God's proof and abstract that the baptism of
the Holy Ghost has recognized us in Jesus Christ.
We're just as sure to raise as He raised, because potentially we have already
raised in Him. Amen.
The whole thing... What does it do to our mortal bodies? It turns our opinion,
changes our notions. It sets our affections on things which are above, and the
smoking, drinking, gambling, the things that you used to do is dead. It's beneath
you, and you are quickened, and this quickening power brings your body into
a raptured condition already.
18-7 Notice, the Pentecostal
people up there when they got quickened by the Holy Spirit... Listen to me.
When those Pentecostal group up there on the day of Pentecost received their
abstract deed from God... Sure, it glorified their souls. They screamed; they
saw tongues of fire separated upon each of them. And it so quickened their body,
till they couldn't even speak in a earthly language anymore. It quickened their
body to a heavenly language, the place they're going to.
Quickening power of God shook their mortal bodies so till their entire mortal
language was transfigured, transformed into an immortal language. What a quickening
power. What... something it belongs... If the Spirit that raised up Jesus from
the dead dwells in your mortal bodies, it shall also quicken your mortal bodies.
We are quickened then by the power of the living God. Tongues quickened them
to a new heavenly language, to speak to them, a rapturing up, raising up into
a different atmosphere than what they'd ever lived in. Also with the new quickening
life to them that come in them, it quickened their language. They spoke in new
tongues. Oh, yes.
19-3 Now, watch it. It also was designed to give them (after this abstract); it was designed to give them every promise that was on the grounds. Every promise on the grounds of God's Word, that was promised in the Bible, that quickening power was give to them to quicken that promise to them. Therefore, they laid hands on the sick; they was healed. They spoke in new tongues. They done great signs and wonders, because that was in God's promise. And when Jesus died to redeem that back to them, the grounds that belonged to the sons of God, He demonstrated what God was. How dare we to socialize that and put it into an organization. We have no rights to do that.
19-4 It's the Holy Spirit
today hunting out honest hearts that will believe that message. Everything in
the Bible that was promised is to that believer; and when you accept it in its
fullness, then God knows that you'll do it; He gives you the abstract to that.
And then, every promise that's made is in your possession, and the Holy Spirit's
there to quicken that to you. Oh, my. What a--what kind of people should we
be? How wonderful to see that God's great Holy Spirit here to do that power.
Think of it.
When the Holy Ghost Itself, here to bear record of this hour. Jesus said so.
He's the same yesterday, today, and forever. How dare any man to wipe that out
of there. "The works that I do shall you do also. (John 14:12) These signs shall
follow them that believe." That is the assurance.
19-6 When we see a group
of people setting together, and those signs manifesting themselves, that's the
assurance that the abstract is there to vindicate that that's property of God.
Amen.
So we are Easter also. Amen. We are now in our Easter. We've already raised
(Hallelujah.) from the things of the world to the things of God's promise. Not
we will; we are. It's the potentials. It's God's promise He'd pour out His Spirit
in the last days, and that's what they would do.
20-1 Notice, laid their
hands on the sick. Everything that was in God's promise... "I shall pour out
My Spirit in the last days upon all flesh. Your old men shall dream dreams;
your young men shall see visions," and all these different promises that He
made. Everything's laying right there in God's promise.
Jesus redeemed it to us, and when we become... Or we--if we are ordained on
that ground, if we are ordained to be on that ground (like the eagle walking
in the chicken's nest), if you're ordained on that ground, the Holy Spirit is
here to find you; and when It finds you, you recognize His call. You know the
hour you're living. You know that these things are supposed to happen, quickly
you're raptured up to meet it, and now you're setting in heavenly places in
Christ Jesus. Oh, what a promise. What a heavenly Father Who would give us these
things.
20-3 The Spirit quickens
their fellowship with God, so that they call the dead back to life in that day.
They laid their bodies upon the dead; they come to life.
Listen closely. They done the same things that Jesus did, because the same Spirit
was upon Him was upon them. If one Spirit makes a man act this way; it makes
the other one act that way. If one... How can this come upon and say he's got
the Spirit of God and deny the works of God? Cannot do it.
20-5 Notice, God's life,
which is in the Greek called Zoe, moving through them and in them, quickened
their minds to His Word. Now, let me say that real quietly now. The Spirit of
God that moves among the people, quickens the mind of the person to the promise
of God. See, it does it.
Look at... I'm trying to show you the--the... and let you realize that I'm speaking
now of the church, and also quickened to life in Him. Although they only was
His attributes to begin with, but if God said in this day (back in the beginning),
"John Doe will be My servant," millions of years ago... Now, John Doe was born
in sin, shaped in iniquity, come to the world speaking lies, because he's a
mortal; but maybe he gets a little religious feeling. He will go join a church.
Maybe he will join a Pentecostal church; I don't know. He might join anything.
But let him get under the atmosphere of God once. See? John Doe is bound to
recognize Who his Father is. Just as that eagle recognized who the mother was.
It's got to realize it. See? Only that John Doe is God's attribute that's become
a Word spoken, and then the Holy Spirit seeks that Word out. Here it is. He
calls him, gives him Everlasting Life, and brings him into the Presence of God,
God's Word.
21-2 Look, God had to
same when He saw Jesus. It was a--it was a finished work that God finished with
Jesus when He said, "It's finished." All the plan was finished. And when the
Spirit of God comes upon you, and you truly are one of God's attributes that
He spoken of... Now, if you're not, you'll wonder and flusterate, and run here,
and there, and everything else, and never come to the knowledge of the Truth.
But if you are one of those, the old things pass away right quick (You see?),
and you become new, and the plan of salvation is finished. You're ready to obey
every Word that God ever spoke of you (See?) for you to do. You're submissive
to His Word.
The contract, exactly, the abstract to the contract, the title deed belongs
to you. The debts are all paid. It's all struck off, and as it was at the day
of Pentecost.
21-5 Now, let us notice the quickening--this quickening Spirit on other people. Now, I told you I wouldn't speak very long, and I just got twenty minutes to keep my word if I do that. Notice, to keep to what time I said--about a hour.
21-6 Notice now. This
quickening power that only comes... Now, there's a lot of mockery of it. There's
a lot of people that really think they got it when they haven't. A lot of people
do it because they've got some false impression of what they've seen other Christians
do.
Satan can impersonate any of that. We know that. And as missionaries, you can
see it impersonated: shouting, dancing, speaking in tongues, all these things,
you can see it impersonated anywhere, absolutely, amongst heathens, even people
who deny there is such a thing as Jesus Christ being the Son of God. See? And
they do all those things themselves.
But the real true quickening Spirit that comes to the believer quickens him
to God's Word. That's back to eagle food again, right back to where he lives.
"Man shall not live by bread, but by every Word that proceedeth out of the mouth
of God."
22-1 Let us now notice
this quickening Spirit as it come upon other people, like it did on--on the
day of Pentecost. Let's notice Pentecost, how they acted, and see if they were
quickened by this quickening power that we're talking about.
On the day of Pentecost they were all waiting up there. In themselves they were
afraid. The Jews is... What they were going to do, so they got scared. And what
happened? When this quickening power fell from heaven, there was a bravery set
upon them. There was something, an understanding, where they wasn't too sure
of it a few hours before.
They knowed He had--He'd died; they know He had risen; they had talked to Him
on the way; but was that thing for them, or was it just for them, or for Jesus
Himself? But here on the day of Pentecost, the Holy Spirit, the Abstract, fell
upon the believers that made them part of His resurrection, made him part of
His fellowship. The Holy Spirit came and confirmed to them that they would be
raised up, because they were potentially raised then from cowards to brave men.
They were--they were afraid of the very Word that they thought. Don't let this
pass over you. They were afraid.
22-4 They knowed that
he was that Word. Even the Jews had to admit it. Nicodemus said, "Rabbi, we
know that you're a teacher that come from God. No man could do the things you
do except God be with Him. Now, we know that. We recognize that."
So the disciples... Peter had even swore in His Presence. All of them had forsaken
Him at the crucifixion, but here they are now up in this upper room in the Presence
of God.
Then all of a sudden, here come this Holy Spirit down from heaven, and It quickened
them. And the quickening took place; they wasn't afraid to make a witness of
the message that they believed and knowed to be the truth. Otherwise they were
afraid of it.
22-7 How many Presbyterians,
how many Methodists, how many Baptists in the world today, how many Pentecostals
that's knows the truth and are afraid to make a stand on it? I'm persuaded to
wonder what was that fell on you? Are you a part of His resurrection? Would
you dare scream off for some man's theory and idea, or have you got the real
boldness and the real manhood it takes to stand out and call right right and
wrong wrong?
Are you a part of His resurrection? Are you a worshipper of a bunch of creeds?
Are you a goer to church? Do you have your name on there and dead in sin and
trespasses? He that believes not the full Word of God is a sinner.
23-1 Those Pharisees
believed in many things to be the truth; they said, "We're God's children."
And they were until that Word was preached, but when that Word was preached
and vindicated, then they become sinners for rejecting the thing that they knowed
was right and witnessed that, "We know that thou art a teacher come from God.
For no man can do the things that you do without God being with Him."
I wonder today. Where are we at? I ask you: Where is this resurrection finding
us? Are you dare to step out? Are you dare to take God at His Word? If you're
ordained to Life, you sure will do it. If you're an eagle, you can't help doing
it. There's something in you.
23-3 Or do you want
to just serve a creed somewhere and say, "I go to church. I'm just as good as
you are." See, if you hold no birthrights, you'll never see it; you can't see
it. But if you do hold the possession of this birthright, you can't help from
seeing it, because it's part of you, and you're a part of it.
How could I deny the mother that gave me birth? How could I deny the father
that his own blood is in me? How could I deny Charles Branham for being my Father?
I could not do it. I'm willing to stand his reproach or anything else, because
I am his son. Hallelujah. Then being a son of God (And He was the Word of God.),
how can I deny that Bible being Truth that Jesus Christ isn't the same yesterday,
today, and forever? And seeing the hour that we're living in, we need a Easter
in the church: resurrection. We need a resurrection to power of faith: men and
women to stand out for that which is God's vindicated Word.
23-5 Say, "Well, we
having a Youth for Christ." That's all right. "Our church is having a meeting.
We want so many members." Nothing against that. That's all right, but that's
only the atmosphere. That might be an old hen's feathers, but if you'll get
in the right atmosphere there, you'll hatch eagle if you're a eagle egg. And
if you were foreordained of God to see it, you can't help from seeing it. You're
coming forth in a resurrection.
That's the way the Baptist was born. That's the way the Methodist was born in
a resurrection of that day, but they turned off to a hen instead of an eagle.
24-1 I said not long ago, going down from Tucson, I watched a very strange thing. I seen a hawk setting on the wire down there. That hawk has long lost its identification. It used to be a bird next to the eagle. It could not follow the eagle; no, by no means, nothing can follow an eagle; but he was a hawk. Christ is the Eagle and the church should at least be a hawk. They can fly higher that any of the rest of the birds. But that hawk has become soft. It's lost his identification. He sets on the telephone wires and waits for some dead rabbit. He hops like a vulture in the stead of flying like a hawk.
24-2 No, my brother,
sister, you Pentecostal people, which is my own dear people, the church is losing
its identification. It's coming down and depending on some dead formal creed
instead of flying in the heavenlies our yonder for fresh manna.
A hawk used to hunt his own manna, but today he takes what the automobiles run
over and what the vultures eat. He hops like one. He looks like one.
We so adorned ourselves in the modern world, our women cutting their hair and
wearing shorts, our men with not enough backbone to stand in the pulpit and
tell the truth; we've long got soft on the Word.
Oh God, send the Holy Ghost and look out them eagles somewhere that's ready
to stand now, no matter what takes place; that'll soar into the unknown, not
set on the telephone wires and look for some Sunday school literature to come
in. Let me have the Word and in it a precious and a power and demonstration
of the Holy Ghost.
We need an Easter, a resurrection that's potentials.
24-5 My friend, if you're satisfied with such carrion of the world, there's something wrong. My sister, my brother, let me say to you this in godly fear, knowing that I may never live to see an Easter again, but there's one thing sure: when a genuine foreordained son of God by the Word of God hears that voice of God, he'll rise and go to meet It. It's the potentials that he's going to meet the real living Word. As He was... The bride will meet the groom. She's a part of His body.
24-6 Notice, long have
we.. We're losing our identification. We come on Wednesday night, some of us.
Others stay home to watch "Who Loves Susie." Televisions, all kinds of worldly
things, all kinds of entertainments to keep you away from church... Long have
we lost it.
Our seminaries, our schools, are putting out a bunch of Rickies with a whole
lot of theology, and entertainment, and everything in the church to take the
place of the prayer meeting.
We've took dress and tried to fulfill what the modernist try to do, and bring
them in. You'll never win them by that. They got more of that than you have.
You ain't got no business on your ground--on their ground. Let them come over
on yours where the real baptism is shining, where the real power of the Resurrection...
25-3 Don't try to build a church like theirs. Don't try to have a pastor like that. Don't try to do this, that or the other, or cooperate with the world. They shine with Hollywood; the real Gospel glows with power. Eagles hear that. They don't look for a shine; they look for a glow. Glowing with humility, glowing with love, glowing with power: that's what the real eagle hunts. You can't scratch in a barnyard and please him. He will never be able to do it. You'll never tell it to him, because he don't believe it. Let that voice scream from the heavens, "I am He that was dead and alive again." Something takes place. "I am the same yesterday, today, and forever. And it shall come to pass in the last days, I'll pour out of Myself upon all His flesh." Glory to God. "I'll quicken your mortal language; I'll quicken your mortal tongues; I'll give you the evidence that I'm going to bring you in the resurrection with Me." Hungry hearted eagles reach for that just as hard as they can. It's the Pearl of great price that they sell everything else and go buy. Amen. God help us, friend. Our churches are losing their identification. Let's quickly now, let's go to some...
25-4 Watch the action
of those disciples: a-scared? They knowed Jesus was the truth; but you see,
it was against the popular idea, the popular religion of the hour. The most
strictest religion--Pharisees, Sadducees, and so forth (their cults, clans and
denominations) they were against that heresy; but Jesus was the identified Word,
and Jesus is the Holy Ghost in Spirit. "A little while and the world seeth Me
no more, you shall see Me," not the body, the Life that was in Him: God is upon
the church to call sons like He did then, obedient; "I always do that which
is pleasing to My Father. Which one of you can accuse Me of sin." In other words,
sin is unbelief. "What has the Word said about Me that I haven't done? (There
it is.) Show Me what the Word said that I'd do that I didn't do? Which one can
accuse Me? Which one can lay your fingers on Me and say that I haven't fulfilled
My Father's Word?"
Oh, when the Pentecostal church gets to that spot, "Who can accuse Me of unbelief?"
26-1 Oh, Christians,
be identified not as a hawk but an eagle. That hawk is soft; it'll come down.
You never see a eagle doing that; he will never do that. He hunts his own food
out of the blue. God's prepared him so that he can see it. He gets fresh manna,
not something that's dead.
In the Hebrews, when they crossed through the wilderness, they eat, tried to
eat dead manna, and it become stagnant. It had--it had wiggletails in it. You
know what we mean. It's contaminated, rotten, maggots is in it.
Why would I eat a food that had been dead years ago? It might be in form and
shape, but it isn't fresh. We got to get food every generation new. So does
the eagle look for that food every generation, as we're in our journey.
26-4 Notice. Now, let's take some people again. Let's take some of the Old Testament prophets, see what they did. Let's look first at Stephen, how Stephen in the midst of that Sanhedrin Council... When that Council brought him up there, that great assembly of believers there, or supposed to be believers, brought him up and tried to condemn him, "Why," he said, "you stiffnecked, uncircumcised in heart and ears, you always resist the Holy Ghost. (That's that Eternal Life.) As your fathers did it back yonder through the prophets, so are you doing it today." And they gnashed upon him with their teeth. They didn't want to hear that. He was against their creed; it was against their denomination; and they stoned the man to death. And he raised his hands up, looked toward heaven and he said, "I see heavens open and Jesus standing at the right side." Why? He had the resurrection, quickening power in him that took him into the bosoms of Jesus.
26-6 Notice quickly
now. Look at Philip, down there in a great revival--having a revival where it'd
been daresn't for any man... Why, if he'd had had've got a big cooperation amongst
the churches and everything down there and was having a great revival, and the
quickening power of God spoke to him and said, "Stephen..." Maybe it said this,
"You're having a great revival, but I got one man I want you to talk to." And
Stephen's obedient, no matter what it is, how much criticism, "Oh, Stephen,
you can't leave."
"But I can. God said so." And he went out into the desert, and out there he
found this eunuch. And what happened? He said, "Has uh... If thou believest
with all thy heart that Jesus is the Son of God, I'll baptize you." When he
baptized him, look, he was quickened by this quickening power to leave a revival
of thousands of people to go out into the desert to one man.
Oh, that'd be against all reason. See? Why there's ten thousand wanting you
here, but there's one wanting out there. See, and the quickening power sent
him to God's provided place. Hallelujah.
27-2 Men and women, it'll make you stand to your feet. It'll make you do the things that God wants you to do. I don't care what somebody else says about it. The neighbors say, "Oh, that person's lost their mind, pray all night; they read the Bible." I don't care what they say; it's what God called you to do. That's right. Why, they say, "We can't have these old fashion Pentecostal revivals, like..." Oh, yes we can too. You can have it in yourself, and you are the majority in God, no matter what the rest of them think.
27-3 Notice after in obedience... Listen close now. After obeying God to His Word, when he fulfilled his mission, that quickening power that he received at Pentecost caught him away, quickened his body. Miles and miles away, he was taken in the Spirit, and was found over in another country somewhere: quickening power of God. And if we be Pentecostals, that same power that raised up Jesus from the dead, if it dwells in your mortal bodies... See?
27-4 All right notice,
let's take another man with this quickening power. There was a man way long
ago by the name of Enoch. When a new thing come along, when something come along
and said, "Well, now we have to go back to the old school or this, that, or
the other," Enoch walked with God. Whatever God said do, Enoch never missed
one word. He walked with God.
What was he? He was a son of God. He was an eagle that had been called to that
day, and when it came time, he was so full of that quickening power... Remember,
he'd walked five hundred years or more before God, and not one time had he missed
His Word. Not one time did he misbehave himself. Not one time did he do, but
kept the testimony. Everything that God told him to do, he went and done it.
No argument about it, he just went and done it. No matter what anybody else
thought, he went and done it. Why? He was full of that quickening power.
And when it come time for the old man to die, God just sent down a ladder and
he walked up home. He quickened him and took his mortal body up in a rapture.
Amen. That's that quickening power.
28-1 Look at Elijah.
After his work was finished on earth, he was so full of that quickening power,
he condemned them Jackie Kennedy haircuts in his day. He had told old Jezebel
what he thought of her. He told them preachers and priests what was right and
wrong. And they didn't believe him, but he condemned them painted-faced women
and things so bad, and he was so full of that quickening power, till nothing
could harm him.
God had fed him from the heavens, took him out and set him aside. And he was
so full of quickening power when it come time to die, the Jordan opened up,
and he just walked... Was sent down a chariot and took him up home. So full
of that quickening power he become a true genuine son of God.
28-3 Notice, he had
a successor, and his name was Elisha. And Elisha had a double portion of this
quickening power. See? He had a double portion of it. Now, he preached for about
eighty years, or he was about eighty years old. He took sick and died. Now,
he didn't get to go home like Elijah did.
See, both of them is represented there in the church. Some saints go, and some
resting; but notice, when Elijah was taken up in the rapture, then Elisha went
to sleep in God, full of quickening power.
28-5 Look at his prophecy just before he died. See? Now, let me show you. I don't care if you're dead or where you're at, that quickening power never leaves. Years and years after his death, his meat had rotted away; the skin worms had eat it up. But they were packing a dead man one day, throwed him in on that bones, and there was so much quickening power there, till the man came back to life again. Hallelujah. Raised him up from the dead, because that quickening power that was upon that saint of God never left him, stayed right on those bones.
28-6 Oh, remember, we
are flesh of His flesh, bone of His bones, if we are His Bride. Death won't
bother that quickening power at all. "Though the skin worms destroys this body,
yet in my flesh shall I see God." Glory to God. What a... I don't know what
to say...
What a hope for an old man like me, knowing I see my end time right out yonder
soon, as fifty-six years old.
Ever since a little bitty boy I stood here trying to proclaim this, but I know
that in me... Nothing good that I have, nothing I've done, but in me is that
quickening power.
It quickened me one day from the things of the world as a young man unto Eternal
Life. All the things that's happened... I've seen visions, foretold things;
He never let nothing fail yet. I've spoke in other tongues. I've prophesied.
I've done those things by the Spirit of God that dwelt in me. That's quickening
power.
29-3 I know that someday...
My Redeemer's living now, and someday when He comes, these bones shall rise
again to go to meet Him in the air. You may bury me in the sea, burn it up,
whatever you want to, that quickening power is eternal.
Whew. I feel a Easter right now. Yes, sir. I've had it for years. It's in me.
It's in you, if you--the Spirit that raised Jesus from the dead dwells in your
mortal bodies. It's quickened you from the things of the world to the Word of
God only. It's quickened you from this life to Life Eternal.
You, who were once dead in sin and trespasses has now been quickened together
to set in heavenly places with Christ Jesus, feasting on manna from above, seeing
the hand of God made manifest and prove the promise of this day.
29-6 As it was in the
days of Noah, so shall it be in the coming of the Son of man. They were eating,
drinking, marrying, giving in marriage. And as it was in the days of Lot, so
will it be in the hours that the Son of man will be revealed on earth, not Son
of God no more, Son of man come back as the prophetic message for the last day,
when that eagle will be flying, not the lion, not the ox in the sacrifice age.
See, every time a religious power went forth to meet the challenge of the political
power of the world... When the lion raised up the religious power, it went to
meet the Roman power. And then when it come the sacrifice hour, the ox went,
because he's a sacrifice beast to the Lord. Then come the reformers down through
the church ages, come the face of a man. And them reformers have been since:
Luther, Wesley, oh, Calvin and on down--down Pentecostal age. But in the last
message that went forth, there came a flying eagle. It's eagle time, reveal
time, the Word of God made manifest, the Word of God proved.
Oh, children, walk into this baptism of the Holy Spirit. Come in and believe
it with all your heart. God will fill you.
30-1 Looky here now.
We find now. Remember, we are flesh of His flesh and bone of His bone. As God
raised His bones and flesh out of the grave, they cannot hide the man that has
the potentials. Death cannot take him.
Jesus said, "All the Father has given Me will come to Me; I'll raise him up
at the last day." Oh, my. Easter, why, we're right in Easter. When He raised,
we raised with Him. He sent the abstract back; we hold it as the baptism of
the Holy Ghost. He is alive forevermore, the same yesterday, today, and forever.
Hebrews 13:8 proves that He's the same.
30-3 His Messiac, anointed
ones believe that. What is the Messiah? What is the Messiah? "Messiah" is "anointed
One." And now if He was the Messiah by being the anointed One for that day to
fulfill the Word of God, to be the Redeemer and the anointed One, and God raised
up that body, His Bride is the anointed One for this day, and it's already raised
with Him in the resurrection, because these two are one. Amen.
I wished I could tell it the way I see it. I wish I had the education I could
do it with. See? I--I hope you see it. I hope God, the Holy Ghost comes down
there and puts that in your heart to see what I mean.
30-5 The resurrection. We are now in the resurrection. We are setting with Him in the resurrection, but only those who have Life, not those who do not have Life. They won't know it. They'll never know it. They'll go right on thinking they're getting the Holy Ghost, being saved, and the rapture will done be over with and gone. Said, "Elias has already come and they did that what... And you knew it not." See?"
30-6 Notice death does
not stop the quickening power of God. Notice death can't stop it. You say, "Well,
my mother was a Spirit-filled woman. My daddy, I never seen a man so full of
the power as my daddy, but he died, Brother Branham." Sure, that didn't stop
the quickening power.
Moses had that quickening power. Do you believe that? There never was a man
like him on the earth until Jesus. For he didn't only see visions; he talked
face to face with God. Even a prophetess, Miriam, disputed his word one day.
He said, "Don't you fear God? Consider my servant, Moses. There's not nobody
in the world like him this hour. There's never been anybody like Moses. I speak
to Moses. What did he ever say that wasn't true. See? I speak to Moses. Don't
you fear God? Don't you say a word against him." And right then she was stricken
with leprosy and was dying. She didn't live very long afterwards.
31-1 Moses prayed for her, and Moses climbed upon the mountain at a hundred and twenty years of ministry--or eighty years of ministry, hundred and twenty years of life, climbed up on the mountains, and died, and was buried in the valley. But that quickening power was on him. About eight hundred years later, here he's standing on Mount Transfiguration. Amen. What was he? He was included in that resurrection. Sure he was. He had the quickening power of God. Here he was standing.
31-2 Looky. Job, Abraham,
Isaac, the saints on the day of the resurrection, that great morning; and Job
and all of them knew that would come when He said, "I know my Redeemer liveth."
Hundreds and hundreds of years before Christ... It's actually the book of Job
was wrote before Genesis, they claim: the oldest book in the Bible.
And in his trials and--like we go through now... And his wife even, the closest
thing to him on earth, said, "Why don't you curse God and die the death?"
He said, "Thou speakest like a foolish woman. The Lord gave, the Lord taken
away, blessed be the Name of the Lord," and then when the Spirit of God come
upon him, and he begin to prophesy, he said, "I know my Redeemer liveth, and
at the last days, He will stand upon this earth; though the skin worms destroys
this body, yet in my flesh shall I see God." And he made a place to bury himself.
He said, "If I buy this ground," and he bought there and buried hisself.
31-4 Later on come a
man named Abraham. (The church growing, coming on up.) Abraham, well now, he
had the potentials of God too: Everlasting Life, Eternal, because God called
him. Now, notice, when he died or Sarah died, he bought a piece of ground in
Palestine near Job's grave and buried Sarah. Abraham died and also was buried
with Sarah.
Abraham begot--begot Isaac, and Isaac, when he died he slept with Abraham in
the same portion of ground.
Now, when Isaac begot Jacob, Jacob died way down in Egypt, but being a prophet
now with this potential, this quickening power, he said, "Don't you bury me
down here, Joseph. Come here, my prophet son. Put your hand upon this hip that
God crippled. Swear to the God of heaven you'll not bury me down here." What
was in that man? Why wasn't Egypt just as good as any place? He was a prophet.
He knowed where that resurrection was going to be. Wasn't going to be in Egypt,
but be in Palestine. Said, "Put your hands upon my crippled hip, and you swear
by the God that I've served (You're my prophet son.) that you'll not bury my
bones down here. Take me up yonder and bury me."
32-1 Joseph, being a
prophet, also laid his hands upon his crippled daddy, said, "I swear to the
God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, I'll not bury you here." They took him up
and buried him in that land. Why? Why?
When Joseph died, he said, "Don't you bury me down here. Don't bury me down
here." Why? God's God everywhere, but He has a plan. Joseph was a prophet. He
said, "Someday (Listen at his words.) the Lord God will visit you and will take
you out of this land, and when you go, you take my bones." That quickening power
was in them bones.
Oh, if the Spirit of Him that raised up Christ from the dead dwell in you, He
will also quicken your mortal bodies.
Don't put my bones down here. Bury them up there. But those of the promise,
when Jesus come...
32-3 Here I've got a
Scripture here, Matthew 27:51, when Jesus raised from the dead, Job seen that
coming, said, "I know my Redeemer liveth. The last days He will stand upon this
earth. Though the skin worms has destroyed this body, yet in my flesh I will
see God. I'll Him."
They knowed that was a prophet. Abraham was a prophet. Isaac was a prophet.
Jacob was a prophet. Joseph was a prophet. And they had the revelation of God
according to His Word.
32-5 On that Easter
morning when that One came and redeemed all those who'd believed on Him, they
raised too, according to the Bible. That quickening power come into the grave
of Job, where there wasn't even a spoonful of the dust of his bones left. After
all those hundreds, and hundreds, and hundreds of years, his bones had decayed
and had went back--and turned back to the gases of the earth. And just a mere
ash dust laid there. But yet, when that's quickening power--according to the
Word of God to the promise, hundreds and hundreds, yes, thousands of years later,
when that quickening power would brought forth from the grave, Job, Abraham,
Isaac, Jacob, all of them come out of the grave with Him.
The Bible said so. St Matthew the 27th chapter and the 51st verse it said, many
of the saints that slept in the dust of the earth resurrected and come out of
the graves with Him when He come up on Easter morning.
Why? They had that potential. They had that quickening power (See?), and raised
up from the dead, and went with Him in the resurrection, enjoying the resurrection
with Him, because they were full of that quickening power. They had that genuine
Easter Seal. "Well," you say, "I wished I lived back in the Old Testament."
Wait a minute. In I Thessalonians the 4th chapter the 16th verse I want you
to read that. "I would not have you ignorant, brethren, concerning those that
sleep, that you sorrow not, even as others which have no hope. For if we believe
that Jesus died and rose again the third day (not make-belief, but we believe
it), even so them that sleep in Him shall God bring with Him."
The New Testament saints with that quickening power shall resurrect also at
His second coming, just as sure as the Old Testament saints with all that quickening
power upon their bones, and translations, and powers, and so forth that showed
of God. Them prophets, who the Word of God came to, they resurrected with Him
on that resurrection morning.
And with the promise of God, that everyone that's in Christ Jesus will also
come with Him in His resurrection: the quickening power of God upon the bones.
33-5 No wonder we lay hands on the sick. No wonder we love one another. We're brothers and sisters. We shouldn't hate one another because we're corrected by the Word of God. We should love one another and have respects for one another. You know, if you don't, it won't help you.
33-6 There's a little
fellow setting right here in this--under this church now. A few days ago...
That man believes. A little old boy had a cancer on his ear, and he wouldn't
say nothing about it. He's working up there at the house. I'd been on a hunting
trip with him, up there with the Mosley brothers and Brother Dawson here. We
was up here hunting. Brother William's son... And I happened to look over on
his ear, and I seen his ear all swolled up. And I said, "What's the matter,
Donovan, that ear?"
He said, "Brother Branham, it's been on there for a long time. I don't know."
I just mis--caught him by the hand there. That was a big cancer on his ear.
Never said one word, just held it. It was off my brother. In a day or two after
that there wasn't even a scar left of it. It was his respect to the God of heaven
by His quickening power killed that cancer and spared the life of Donovan Weerts
back there. That's right.
34-1 What is these things?
Looky here, people here in Phoenix. Look at you people who's believed in this.
Look at the people who has this, that lays their hands upon you. Watch what
happens. It's quickening power. "These signs shall follow them that believe.
If they lay their hands on the sick..." That quickening power, eagle to eagle,
something's going to take place.
Now, a eagle to a buzzard won't work. Eagle to eagle raises from the barnyard
to the heavenlies. "These signs shall follow them that believe," when they're
both in belief.
34-3 See that same quickening
power of God represented in these two prophets, Elijah and Elisha. Notice, the
same word, one of them is catch up and the other one is caught up: catch up
and caught up. See? He was caught up; we'll be catch up--catch up with them,
meet them in the air; be caught up to meet them in the air.
Notice, a bird has to have two wings to balance itself. That right? Elijah was
a translating wing: Elijah. Elisha was a resurrection wing. See, both of them
together representing the saints that are living and the saints that are gone
on.
Remember, quickened to see the past the curtains. How these people were quickened
back there to look past the curtain and see down in this time.
34-6 Those prophets...
Look at Paul. He said in the last days how these people would be acting and
calling themselves Christians. He was a prophet, full of the quickening power,
foresaw it coming to pass. We believe that, don't we? He received quickening
power.
Look at the quickening power today foretelling things without one event missing.
Not one time does it fail. Quickening power: not the power of a man, the power
of God, the power, the abstract of Easter, the resurrected Jesus has sent back
the abstract to guarantee us that we're already quickened with Him.
34-8 Notice, you remember
the little book, the Business Men here, "Looking a-Past the Curtain of Time"...
I begin to get older, knowing my days are getting shorter, and I get real...
I play that little piece that them ladies sang awhile ago. I've had it for about
eighteen, twenty years now, "I Want To Talk It Over, Lord." You get out there
and go to praying, then that quickening power comes. I'm rested up. And I looked
up there, and I said, "Looky yonder."
I remember that morning being caught a-past, and my wife setting back there,
laying on the same bed with me that morning. And I was raised up and looked
up, and there she was asleep. I said, "If I'm going to do anything for the Lord,
you'd better hurry up, boy, you're past fifty." Then the Holy Spirit caught
me away. And I looked over there and I seen those saints, just as certain I'm
standing here by this desk, with this sacred Book laying here, and a minister
of the Gospel.
35-2 Have I ever told
you anything in the Name of the Lord but what happened? If I did, I want you
to tell me about it. Every time, hasn't it been perfectly at the platform? Every
time hasn't it happened just like He said? This was THUS SAITH THE LORD.
I stood there and looked over in that time, and I seen tens of thousands times
thousands coming, young men and women running, throwing their arms around me,
screaming. I looked right back and seen myself laying on the bed. Oh, Lord,
let me look a-past the curtain of time.
What is it? It's quickening power that'll catch us away: that great quickening
power.
35-4 The quickening
power come in this last days. That's what I'm in Arizona for right now. There's
many people setting right here, stood right here in Phoenix and heard me tell
you from this very platform, THUS SAITH THE LORD. (How many remembers it?) Now,
goes... Something's fixing to happen.
I saw seven angels come. Didn't "Life" Magazine pack it, just a fog of It floated
across here twenty-seven miles high and thirty miles across. Is not Fred Sothmann
and these others, Gene Norman and them setting back there, stood right there
when them seven Angels appeared right there on the hill? It shook the hills
for miles around like that. There stood seven Angels and throwed a sword in
a hand and said, "Go home and open these Seven Seals that are given." And here
they are, the true mystery of marriage and divorce, and the serpent's seed,
and all these things that's been fussed about. It's THUS SAITH THE LORD.
What is it? The quickening power coming to the church, making her ready in this
hour that we're approaching: quickening power. Oh, God help us to receive it.
Help us to believe it.
See? Just depends on what attitude you take to It whether It's going to do you
any good or not though. See, you have to believe that. If you don't believe
it, it won't do you one bit of good.
36-1 How old Samuel
stood there before that people and said, "Have I ever told you anything in the
Name of the Lord but what happened? Did I ever beg you for your money to live
on?"
"No, but we want the king anyhow."
That's the way the church is today. They want their own ideas. They won't pay
a bit of attention to you. They walk right around. Well, it just goes to show
the quickening power is not there.
"Oh," you say, "Well, I spoke in tongues." "I jumped; I shouted."
That's all fine, but if that quickening power is there, you'll recognize. Like
that little eagle, that's his mamma. That's the Word, that's THUS SAITH THE
LORD. That's what God promised. That's what was foretold. That's exactly what
happened.
We're beyond any shadow of doubt, potentially in the resurrection right now,
the saints getting ready to be taken up in the air.
36-3 So Jesus, so full
of this quickening power, said, "If you can destroy this temple that took you
forty years, you thought, to build, I'll raise it up in three days."
Why? Why could Jesus say that? I want to ask you. Why could Jesus say a thing
like that? He knew that He was... Amen. I wished I could make that stick. He
knew Who He was. He knew that every word God had wrote in there of Him, He'd
fulfilled it. He knew He was the One David spoke of.
Do you know you're the one the Bible speaks of? Do you know your position is
in Christ? If you're in Christ, you're a new creature. Do you know this Word
is just like everyday living to you. Why, sure. It's yours. You are an eagle;
that's your food.
36-6 He knew that by
the power of God He would do it, because it was prophesied He would do it. That's
the reason He wasn't scared to say, "Destroy this temple. I'll raise it up in
three days." Because David said, "I'll not leave His soul in hell. Neither will
I suffer my holy One to see corruption." He knowed not one cell of His body
would corrupt, and it corrupts in seventy-two hours.
He said, "Destroy this temple. I'll raise it up again in three days." Why? He
was so full of that quickening power that quickened every word. He looked back
and seen every word God wrote of Him and prophets said, He'd fulfilled it. He
knowed that would be fulfilled too.
37-1 Now, every word
that God said, has your spirit said, "Amen" to it, and it's been fulfilled in
your life as a believer? Do you hold back on something and say, "Well, my church
teaches different"? Then be careful, hawk.
Notice, eagles believe. There's no question to them; they believe it.
37-2 Notice, now He
knew it would happen because the Word said it was, and every word wrote of Him
had to be fulfilled. He knew that it was written by the power of God by the
holy prophets that had prophesied that He would do so, and prophecy never fails.
It cannot. The Word of God can't fail. And it is written in the--by the Spirit
that...
And now, also the Spirit that raised up Jesus from the dead, if It dwells in
your being, your body, It will also quicken your mortal body. Then shoot it,
burn it, do anything you want to; make fun of it, tear it down, turn it down;
do what you want to, God will raise it up, for He said He would.
Every saint of God has that promise in him, knows that that's the truth. So
fear not, brother, we already in the Easter.
37-4 Look now at transfiguration
just before we close: transfiguration. We're all represented there in transfiguration.
Look what we are seeing today. Notice just what we're seeing today, the quickening
power of God. We was all there.
There was the dead saints represented in Moses. There was the resurrection and
Jesus Christ glorified. Elisha, Moses, Elijah, and Jesus all standing on the
mountain: the dead saints, the raptured saints, and Jesus glorified.
37-6 Oh, my. What do
you say... I heard a guy say the other day, "You people, why, if you have this
kind of power, you ought to go out and tell people what you can do." Far be
it from a real Christian saying a thing like that. See? Surely, we don't claim
no power to... but we do one thing.
When they looked around with all this power upon them, they saw Jesus only;
and the real true believer don't care whether he's backing up a denomination
or nothing about it. He only wants one thing: for you to see that glorified
Christ. Makes any difference, a real true Mount Transfiguration experience only
glorifies Jesus Christ.
He didn't glorify Moses, didn't glorify Elijah, didn't glorify themselves, didn't
glorify nothing else, but they seen the glorified Christ; and any true believer,
that's what's in his heart: to glorify Jesus Christ. That's what He's trying
to get the people to see. Not say, "Well, if you come and join our groups...
If you come do this or do that..." Oh, don't do that. Don't do that. See God's
Word, which is Christ magnified and fulfilled the promise of this day, in this
great hour of resurrection... Notice, and it gives them joy to know that we
are with Him, of flesh of His flesh and bone of His bone. What a joy.
38-1 That's the only
thing that a real believer cares about. They don't care about a denomination.
They don't care about an organization. They don't care about what the other
women think. They don't care; certainly not.
They won't do these things that the--these other women do. They... These men
won't do them things. They won't hang and baby around with some organization
to keep from being putting out and afraid they won't have a meal ticket. They
don't care about them things; It's nonsense to them. There's only one heart's
desire, that is to Jesus Christ glorified.
Their conduct must be with God. It must absolutely, nothing else but just the
glory of Jesus Christ. And what is Jesus? The Word. That right? Now, notice,
and seeing His same vindicated method proving His resurrection...
38-4 Now, what is it? Seeing your life by His promised Word that He said He's the same yesterday, today, and forever, proving that He's still alive. I don't care if every door in the country's closed to me. That time... My, as I said I was fifty-six the other day. I could be snapped out; I'm at the heart attack age. I'm in all this other age and everything else. Well, what difference? It didn't make any difference to me when I was a kid. It don't make any difference now what hour my number is called, and my card out of the rack. I don't care if they ever knowed I ever lived on the earth. It don't make me no difference. You don't have to have no big monuments and big buildings to say that I was here on earth. But there's one thing that I want them--them all to know: that Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever, and in my heart I hold His abstract.
38-5 I know that someday, although I may be drowned in the sea, I may be killed in Africa; I don't know what'll happen to me. But one thing I know: I hold the abstract. Hallelujah. Every door could be closed. That don't make a bit of difference to me. I'm not trying to glorify some man, or some organization, nor myself, or none of the groups, or nothing else. I want people to see Jesus Christ is raised from the dead, and His Spirit lives. He's the same yesterday, today, and forever.
39-1 No wonder Jesus
said, "Fear not. I am He that was dead, but I'm alive forevermore." For now
we are redeemed by Him and are risen with Him, and are now, not will be, setting
in heavenly places in Him.
Now, when we have this Spirit in us, the Abstract, shows that all of the doubts
has been stricken off. What? Christ lives: not I live, not me, Christ lives
in me. Not you live, but Christ lives in you, because His living Word lives
in you, showing that all of the accounts of all your Methodists, and Baptists,
and Pentecostal ideas and everything else is stricken off in Jesus Christ.
39-3 Like on Mount Transfiguration,
all the prophets and everything else is finished. All the days of the Lutheran,
the Methodists, the Presbyterians, they're all right, but "This is My beloved
son. Hear ye Him," the Word of this hour, the hour of the seals, when all the
mysteries back yonder that's been hid all these years, since that great pyramid
of time was stricken off the headstone, making honed down, so that the star
of David will settle into its place, and the great church of the living God
will be raised like the wings of an eagle, packed out yonder into glory. Yes,
in now, in now in our bodies, speaking with new tongues, and prophesying, and
foreseeing, laying hands on the sick, and they recover. The world dead and all
the things of the world, we've passed from death unto life, and we now hold
the power. Hallelujah.
On that resurrection morning when deaths seals will be broken, we shall rise.
Hallelujah. We shall rise. Amen.
39-4 There ain't enough
devils in hell to keep us from doing it. We were foreordained of God for this
hour. The Word of God manifests Itself right through us, and we live in the
Presence of God, by the Word promise of God.
There ain't a devil in hell can keep me from raising. There ain't a door he
could shut in my face on that morning. The seals has been broken. Hallelujah.
I'm free. I'm an eagle. I'm no longer in a cage, but I'm free. I've raised from
the dead into the new Life of Jesus Christ, not only me, but every man, woman,
boy, or girl setting here that's been filled into that Spirit of God is a new
creature in Christ, and you are a eagle.
40-1 We are alive today
and enjoying the resurrection forevermore. Because He lives, we are alive also.
And He's living us, making us alive, and the Spirit that raised Him from the
dead dwelling in our beings shall quicken our mortal bodies in that great eternal
Easter. Glory to God.
Oh, take the world. Take anything you want to, but give me Jesus. Amen. I love
Him. He's all the world to me. And because that you are a part of Him, I am
a part of you, and you are a part of me, and together we're a part of Him.
40-3 Oh, Christian,
what a opportunity we have. We have opportunities that St. Paul never dreamed
of having. We have opportunities that Enoch, and Elijah, and all of them never
had, the opportunities we have now.
There's one little sheep out yonder somewhere, and He will not be satisfied
till that one comes in the fold. By the help of God, and by a vision, and THUS
SAITH THE LORD, I'm returning across the sea. That last little sheep may even
be a black one down there, for all I know, where they don't even think they
got a soul, but God knows different. I'm going to seek till the last day of
my life to find that one, wherever it is.
40-5 I hope I never
have offended any of my brethren by saying these strict things. I... Not as
that I don't want you to go to church, sure, I want you to go to church. You
go to church wherever you're going. But just don't let that be your hope, saying,
"Well, I belong to this," or "I belong to that." Oh, brother, sister, belong
to Christ. Go to church, but belong to Christ. Amen.
Let that--let that potential, if that isn't in you, quicken you right now to
Life. Won't you just receive it now? This room's full of It. I feel It all over
me. I know It's here: the power of God. The great Seer of visions, the great
Foreteller that can tell the things that have never failed, the great One that
can speak and no man can say it's "no." A man can open, and no man can shut.
He that was dead is now alive, and alive today here in Phoenix walking amongst
the newborn flowers.
40-7 No wonder on that
Easter morning little tear drops of dew was laying on every lily's cheek and
every rose. Why? It knowed it was brought up through the ground, and somewhere
there's an eternal flower blooming. It'll take its place someday. That's right.
No wonder joyful tears can run down our cheeks. No wonder our hearts quiver
and shake, when we can feel that same transforming power coming into our lives
and filling us. Even for letting us speak in a language that comes from heaven.
We're so quickened up into His Presence there: prophesy, foresee, foretell,
and everything hitting perfectly with the Word. If it's prophesying contrary
to that, don't believe it; but if it's with the Word, it's already said, THUS
SAITH THE LORD. "Fear not, I am He that was dead and alive forevermore." That
is God's Easter Seal, that seals every letter of this Word into your heart.
What is the seal? You are written epistles, read of all men. You know that.
But when God has claimed you, He sealed you with the Easter Seal, that you are
risen with Christ, and you are a new creature. If you haven't been sealed this
morning, do so while we bow our heads.
[A message in prophecy given by one in the congregation--Ed.]...
Lord. You hear that? Think now, with your heads bowed. Romans 8:11; "If so be
that the Spirit that raised up Christ from the dead be in you, It will also
quicken your mortal bodies."
41-4 What can we look forward to, people? What is there left? Look at Formosa and all the world, and atomic missiles and everything else just ready to strike the world, and just so nervous, scared, and screaming, and these movie mimics is on out there just telling all kinda jokes, just like a little boy going through the graveyard, whistling at night, trying to make the people believe that everything's all right. Don't you be deceived. The coming of the Lord is at hand.
41-5 Did you notice
the other day, a fisherman come up and told me (setting down yonder in the bay)
that some kind of a rugged point or something other down here, how that long
before that earthquake shook over in Greece, all the fish that usually feeds
about that time of morning, they didn't feed. What was it? They wasn't on the
surface. The second time it happened, the same thing took place. He knew right
then something's going to happen, them fish wasn't feeding at that time.
And all the gulls and things that feed on the fish, they quit feeding. That
early in the morning, that's when they feed. They just set upon the bank, got
away from the cliffs and things, for just in a few minutes the sea moss begin
to boil up out of the earth off the sea bed. See, them fish knew it before it
happened.
42-1 Going into India,
I read the paper: said, "The earthquake must be over." For days the little birds
wouldn't come back to their nests in the rocks; the cattle wouldn't stand around
the shelters, under the shade in the heat of the day. The sheep stood right
out in the middle of the field and leaned against one another. They wouldn't
go up around them rocks two or three days before the earthquake happened. Why?
Them sheep knew it. They knew something was going to happen. Those birds knew
something was going to happen. Those gulls knew something's going to happen.
Those fish knew something's going to happen. It's the same God that led those
animals into the ark.
Can't you see, Spirit-filled people, something's fixing to happen? Don't look
for some great big universal something sweeping, nothing but the coming of the
Lord Jesus. Remember, just remember the words and promise of the Lord. Won't
you come on in right quick? Get away from them big walls. The resurrection is
near at hand now.
42-3 If there's somebody
here that don't know that they'd go in that resurrection, and not sure that
they've got that resurrection power resting in them... Though the skin worms
destroy it, though an atomic bomb burst right in the middle of you, it'll never
destroy that quickening resurrection power. No, no, sister, brother, your precious
name is put on the Lamb's Book of Life up yonder. No man can rub it out. There
isn't enough rubbing compounds in the world to rub your name from the Book there
where His Blood has bought it. If you're not sure of that, don't--don't take
a chance on it now. See?
You might take a chance on running through a barricade somewhere and not get
killed, but you're not going to run through this barricade. No, no, you're going
to get it. You don't have to. There's a red light flashing now. Bypass, bypass
your own ideas; bypass the things of the world. Come, let's be resurrected together
in this great Easter time, the great celebration of the Easter.
42-5 Can you celebrate it in your heart this week? If you can't would you just raise your hand to God, say, "God, I'm not sure of it. I don't know whether I could just do all of that or not. Will You help me? I'm going to raise my hand to You, Lord. Help me." God bless you. God bless you. That's good. "I--I want You, Lord. Help me. I--I want--I want to be raised. I--I want to be... I want to have the potentials right now. I want to know it's right. I want to know that it's right, Lord. I don't... I can't make no mis..." Don't want no mistake then. It ain't going to... It's going to be too late. Now, is the day. My, now is the day; don't wait.
43-2 Not long ago I
was preaching. An old colored man come back there to the back of the building
and met me. He said--says, "Reverend, I wants to tell yuh. I says you's right."
He said, "I done told the Lord a long time ago: I want my ticket in my hand
that morning. I want to know that it's marked right." Said, "It's going to be
a lot of trouble down there at the river." He said, "I--I'm comin' down to that
river. I--I don't want no trouble there. I want to get it all straightened up
right here."
That's right. Got your visa? If you haven't got your visa... You may have a
passport, but if you haven't got your visa, you can't enter the land. You know
that. Have you got your--everything ready? If is isn't, right now's the time
to do it. Fear not; if you're a little bit scared... Now, there's about maybe
a hundred hands that went up in here, so if you're just a little bit scared,
now let's just settle it.
43-4 Now, I know we've
had different ways. Some men say, "Come up and let me shake your hand." Others
say, "Come up and kneel at the altar." Now, them's fine. I haven't got one word
to say against it at all, not a thing. Anything they say... But let me just
tell you my way. As many as believed... As many... Coming to the altar won't
make you believe. Shaking hands with the minister won't make you believe. But
if you're called of God and you're a eagle to begin with, just a scream tells
you. You believe. If you really believe it, I'm going to pray with you.
Could you imagine that little eagle stay in that barnyard any longer? No, no.
Huh-uh, no, no. Don't stay here any longer, friend. Let's--let's rapture now.
The grace of God is here to do It.
43-6 Heavenly Father,
we realize that we're coming down towards the closing hour. We haven't too long
to be here now. Not as our age, but at the time. We believe there's a many a
young person setting here, be living when this happens, and it may happen yet
today. We don't know the minute or hour, but, Lord, You told us, "When you see
these things taking place..." And they've been taking place now for a long time.
We know we're way over according to the scientist. Six or seven years ago we
was three minutes till midnight. We don't know how much time that is ticking
on, but we know we're right there. O God, to have that assurance, to see that
our heart punctuates every promise of God with "Amen!" To see that the Spirit
Itself that's come into us, quickens our being...
God, let my brethren see that this morning. Let my brethren see that. That that
Spirit comes in and quickens to the Word. Let my sisters see the same thing,
Lord. And then, if they see something that won't let them quicken to that Word,
O God, may they get rid of it right quick. Grant it Father. It's all in Your
hands now.
I know I've failed in many things and continue to fail, but Lord, I've done
all I know how to do. Now, it's in Your hands. They're Yours in Jesus' Name.
Receive them Father.
44-2 Now, to you that's
here and is needy of healing for your body... How many believers are here? Raise
your hand. "I am a believer as far as I know in my heart." How many possess,
you know beyond a shadow of doubt, that in your heart right now you've been
raised from the dead? Oh, my, what could happen in a meeting like this then.
I know I'm late, but what could happen right now? Just think of what could take
place. The potentials is laying right in you.
See, you with your hand up, you've took like--like an oath to God: "That I know
that something's happened to me. I may not be right where I ought to be." Neither
am I. No, sir, I'm a long ways from where I should be, but I know this one thing:
I've passed from death to Life. I know something happened to me.
44-4 Many... Not as
an old man now, but many, many years ago it happened, and I know that day when
I walked into that hospital when I had my great challenge... I'd seen my wife
die, me calling for her life. "What have I done but stand on the street corner
and preach and pray for the sick."
And then Satan said, "Well, he won't answer your prayer." I seen her die, but
I know that in her was that resurrection power. Them bones shall rise again.
I seen my little baby lay there. And I laid my hand on it and said, "God, don't
take it."
Looked like He pulled the curtain down and said, "I won't even hear you no more."
Satan said, "There it is, just one word." He knowed better than tell me there
was no God, 'cause I knowed that. But he said He don't love me; He don't care
for me. See, every reason and thing said, "You're just a young man, yet twenty
years old. There lays your wife laying down yonder in a morgue, and here's your
baby going there. If you... And just--you said he was a great healer and he's
all this; and look what does He do? One word, he wouldn't even had to speak
it, just look down there and say, just nod His head, that's all would take place.
It'd be healed. But you see, he don't love you. He don't care for you. Letting
your baby die right there now. And even refuse to hear your prayer in this dark
hour."
45-1 Everything he said
was absolutely the truth. He said, "What have you done? Work all day long till
you couldn't hardly stand up, and then stand up all night till twelve and one
o'clock standing on the street corners preaching, making calls to the hospital.
Just come in and set down in a chair, set there and sleep an hour or two and
go back to work again. Next night, the same thing. Here you are about twenty-one,
twenty-two years old. Every friend, every young lady, every young man that you
ever associated with, calls you a crazy crank. What have you done? You've made
a fool out of yourself. Don't you see it?"
I was just about ready to agree with him. Something down in me; that was that
quickening power. I said, "The Lord gave, and the Lord taken away. Blessed be
the Name of the Lord."
45-4 Oh, friend, you're a part of this body. You're God's little children. Now, I'm saying this to build your hope. If you've found... If I've found favor with you, told you the truth, and what I've told you is--is... As the prophet said of years gone by... Not making myself His prophet, no, sir; but I'm telling you the truth. Has He ever said anything but what was right? I've knowed you now for some twenty something years here in Phoenix, since that song, "I'd Like to Talk It Over With Him" over at Brother Outlaw's church, I believe it was, and Brother Garcia. Have I ever told you anything in the Name of the Lord but what happened?
46-1 Remember, there's
only one hope. Get this quickening power. It'll hold you when everything else
has give away; it'll hold you.
Some of them said, "Did you keep your religion, Brother Branham?"
I said, "No, it kept me." It keeps me. I don't keep it. It ain't whether I hold
on or not; it's whether He held on or not. He is what held on for me. He didn't
have to.
Angels was setting in every tree, said, "Just pull your fingers loose; just
point. You don't have to take it from the cross. Just point your finger and
watch what..." See, that mocking bunch. But if He'd did that, I couldn't have
had this testimony today. You couldn't have had it, but because He stayed to
the cross, He held there, that's why I hold with Him.
46-3 Now, if you're
sick, will you lay your hands one another. Let's pray. Lay your hands on somebody
by you. Regardless of what's wrong with you, have faith now. If I ever told
you the truth, I tell you now. See? Jesus said, "These signs shall follow them
that believe." And you're believers; you just raised your hands. Don't doubt.
There's some poor suffering person that you got your hands on. Somebody's got
their hands on you.
Remember that quickening power, that power that raised up Jesus from the grave.
Now, you have faith in what you've got in your--in your own body. It's going
to help that person that's got your hands on. If it dwells in you, It'll also
quicken your mortal bodies.
46-5 Dear God, as I
stand here this morning nearing the noonday time, when it's about this hour
of the day when Jesus cried, "My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me? ...
I thirst."
No wonder the prophet foresaw it and said, "All my bones they stare at Me; they
pierced My hands and My feet. But He was numbered with the transgressors. But
He was wounded for our transgressions. He was bruised for our iniquities. The
chastisement of our peace is upon Him, and with His stripes we are healed."
We claim that this morning, God. We claim that.
In the morning of this resurrection, notice this a-vindicated truth that I've
told, Lord, from Your Word in the Presence of God. He is Judge, and we are witnesses
that He's redeemed us, and in us lays, by the grace of God, that resurrecting
power.
47-1 And our friends
are sick, the ones that the hands is laid upon. O God, we challenge the devil
in the midst of our faith this morning, with hands laid upon the people, and
me with my hands stretched over the people. Let every disease, every affliction
that tries to hold the people in the presence of this vindicated truth, come
out in the Name of Jesus Christ. May these people be made free today.
That the Bible, the Words of our God said, "If they lay their hands on the sick,
they shall recover."
47-2 And our hands has been up in the air towards You, God. As every plant of the earth drinks at Your fountain, and as sure as that plant that's germitized drinks from Your fountain, it begins to build up. It begins to grow. The stalk of corn, the flower, whatever it is that's drinking in Your fountain grows up toward You. And this morning we've grown inches, Lord. We can reach up higher. We're drinking at Your fountain. We are Your creature