¹ Good evening, friends. It's a privilege to be here tonight. This is my second time to be here in this Grantway Assembly, with my dear Brother Mack and all this fine staff here, and the joining Christians from different churches, Brother Lee Vayle. And I just met a brother here, that, a--a bosom friend to Brother F. F. Bosworth, and didn't even know Brother Bosworth had gone on to meet the Lord. I said, "I feel like I met the Elisha that poured water on Elijah's hands," when they had been abroad and didn't know that Brother Bosworth had gone on to meet the Lord, at eighty-four years old.

² Now, I want to greet the folks who is on the telephone hookup tonight across the country, all the way from California to New York, and Texas, and--and up different parts of the nation, from Maine to California. So we got a--a system of hooking up these telephones, that's been a great blessing. And now we understand, through our good friend, Brother Pearry Green, that they've got a--a little gadget they can put on your television set, and not only will it be on the telephone but it'll be televised right in your television set also. And they're seeing about it now.

³ And, Sister Mack, I'm glad to see you looking fine, setting here at the organ tonight. And many of my friends I see from down at Sierra Vista, and Brother Borders--or Brother Roberson, rather, from Indiana: many. I want to say to the folks up at the Tabernacle tonight, look like half of them is down here, and from the Tabernacle at Jeffersonville.
And to my friend up there, Brother Koontz, that you called in about, concerning that sick request. I'm praying for it, Brother Koontz. Just have faith. Don't worry. It'll be all right.
And down into Texas, Brother Blair, if you're listening in tonight, my brother, just remember this; that God Who brought you through the first time, can bring you through the second. And we're believing that God will grant this to you. And don't you take the Devil's lie about anything. You just remember that God is God, and there's... and He still remains the same yesterday, today, and forever. And we love Him and believe Him, and we are praying for you.
All of our friends in California, to Brother Mercier and them up here in Arizona, many other places, Phoenix; and Brother Williams, and you all are hooked up up there tonight, all around, we're certainly grateful. And down in Georgia... And we are certainly thankful for every one of you. The Lord bless you.

⁷ I have a feeling of real welcome here tonight in this fine church, the Assembly of God here on Grantway, and with Brother Mack, my good friend. God has blessed Brother Mack. I remember one time in Canada, that he was... I was riding back a trail on a horse, way back into the jungles, and the Holy Spirit spoke to me to get off and pray for Brother Mack. At that time he was in an emergency, and the Lord healed him. And so I'm so thankful for that, and to be assembled here tonight with him to worship the Lord in this fine truth.
A man sitting on the platform, behind me, said, "Don't guess you know me." Said, "One time you picked me up as a hitchhiker," and, I don't know, somewhere up in Boston or somewhere, "Detroit, hitchhiking."
And I said, "Well, I usually try to have a hand out, if I can, for those who are needy."
And so tonight we're all needy. And we pray that God will give us a hand tonight of help, of blessings, and of His grace and mercy.

¹¹ Now, I'm kinda prone to speaking a long time, but I'll try not to do that tonight. 'Cause the people up in Ohio just called, Mrs. Dauch and the group up there, Brother McKinney and Brother Brown, and all them hooked in through Ohio. We send you greetings also. It's late up in New York, and I suppose it's about eleven or twelve o'clock at this time, in New York. And the churches come and waited till this hour, just to--for the service. We're grateful for those fine friends around everywhere.

¹² Now, before we open the Word, let's just speak to the Author a moment while we bow our heads.
Dear heavenly Father, we are... Our hearts are overjoyed for the privilege that we have of being alive here tonight and assembled together with Your people, the people in whom we believe to live forever. We now possess Eternal Life, because "You gave Your only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have Everlasting Life." In His pilgrimage here on the earth, He taught us, "He that heareth My Word and believeth on Him that sent Me, has Everlasting Life; and shall not come into the judgment, but has passed from death unto Life, because we believed on the only begotten Son of God." How we thank You for this great Saviour. And we pray tonight that His great Presence will so bless us together here, as we read of His Word and speak on It. Let the Holy Spirit take that to each heart throughout the nation, Lord, wherever people are gathered together.
Bless other ministers who are in the pulpit. We pray, Father, that You'll bless this Grantway Assembly, its pastor, his wife, his children, the deacons, trustees, and all the board. And, Father, together may we work for the Kingdom of God while it's enough Light to see where we're getting around, for the hour is coming when no man can work. And, Father, while we have this privilege, may we--may we redeem the time, Lord. May we--that be granted to us. Heal the sick and the afflicted throughout the land. May the Presence of God be felt in every crack and corner of the nation tonight.

¹⁵ We realize that judgment is striking. Great faults are falling in, and the nation is shaking, and earthquakes in divers places. Great historical things that we've heard of in the days past of judgment, through the Bible, and we see it repeating again today. The prophecy saying, "As it was in the days of Noah, so shall it be in the coming of the Son of man. As it was in the days of Lot, so shall it be in the coming of the Son of man," and we see it happening now. Man's hearts failing; perplexity of time; distress between nations, God, we know we're at the end time.
Help us, Lord, to--to take the Message to every crack and corner, to every child that You've ordained to Life. Grant it, Lord. We ask it in Jesus' Name. Amen.
Lord, bless the reading now of His Word.

¹⁷ Now, many of you like to kinda look into the Bible, where a minister's a-reading. And I want to read tonight a couple three verses out of the Psalms, Psalms 42, just for the way of having a text. And I've got some Scriptures written out here, and I want to refer to them, if I can, as we go along in the next few minutes, to speak on this subject. The Psalm of David, David wrote the Psalms.
Now, while you're turning, I might say this. Many people say, "Well, is the Psalms inspired?" Certainly, they are. They are... Anything that's--that's in this Bible is inspired, whether it's history, whether it's songs, whatever it is. It's inspired. Jesus said, "Have not you read what David said in the Psalms?" And then I think... Psalms, of course, is songs. And if songs are inspired of God, which I believe they are, and prophetic also, I hope I'm standing that day when this song comes to pass.

²⁰ Now, Psalm 42.

²³ Now, the word I want to speak from tonight, one word out of the Bible, and that is found in the 2nd verse, "Thirst," the word of "Thirst." I was looking in the dictionary when I was looking up this word.
I was thinking about a--a sermon one time I preached on "Thirsting After Life." And I took it out of the Psalms too, when David said, "Thy statutes," I believe, "are more precious to me than life."
Then I was looking and thinking about that word "thirst," so I looked up in the dictionary to see what it means. And here's what Webster says, "It's a painful desire," a painful, when you want something so bad until it becomes painful to you.
Now, it's--it's not a unnatural thing to thirst. Thirst is a--a natural thing. It's just simply something that God has given us, that we could, to give us a--a desire for something. Sometimes God has also, has given you a--a control tower, something that sets inside of you, that--that controls these different desires. And this thirst, this control tower that sets in a man's heart, is something that God give him to--to warn him of the desires that's needful for him.

²⁷ Now, there is two different kinds of thirst. There is a thirst physically. And there is a thirst also spiritually. I would like to read this, what David said, again.

²⁹ Now, we find, God gives the control tower to you, to give to you the things that you need. Now, the control tower in you is what directs you. And this thirst runs in on this cold--tower, control tower, and tells you what you have need of, spiritually speaking. The control tower in the body, and in the soul also. There's a control tower in the body that tells you the need that's needed in your body, and it's brought to you by thirst. Also there's a control tower in your soul, that tells you the spiritual things that you have need of, something in your spirit, and--and you by this can tell what kind of a life is controlling you.
When you--when you can see what your desires are, then you can tell by that what kind of something that's in you, that's creating this desire that you have. See, there's a certain thing that you thirst for, and it--and it can tell you in your soul what this desire is by the nature of the thirst that you have. I hope that you can understand that.

³¹ There is a--a control tower of the soul, and one for the body, and each tower is a warning caller for the needs of the other. Each one calls to the need for what the caller is calling for; it sends out a wave of warning.
For instance, the--the flesh thirsts to satisfy the desires that's in the body, and the spirit desires for the things that's in the soul desire is, and many times these war one against the other. We find there, what's a great trouble today, that too many people try to live between those two desires. For one of them desires the things of the earth; the other desires the things of heaven.

³³ Like Paul said, describes it in Romans 7:21, "When I would do good, then evil is nigh." When you try, did you ever have that in experience, Christians, that when you're trying to do something that's worthwhile, go to make an effort to do something that's good, then you find out that there is the Devil on every hand, just to upset you, everything that you'd... And that's one good thing that I'd like to say this, that the Christians might know that when you're--when you're starting to do something, and there's something always trying to upset you in doing it, do it anyhow. That's the Devil there trying to keep you from doing what's right.

³⁴ Now, many times, I meet people that's prone to be a little nervous. When they find out that they're trying to do something, and--and everything's just blocking it off on both sides, they say, "It might not been the will of the Lord." See? Now, don't let the Devil lie to you like that.
The first thing is find out whether it's the will of God or not. And then if you want to know whether it's the will of God, look into the Bible. There is the thing that--that sets you straight, is the Word of God; and then if you see it's in the Word of God, for you to do it...
Like, for instance, seeking for the baptism of the Holy Ghost. Many times I run into people, say, "Well, I have sought for the Holy Ghost, and I just couldn't receive It. I don't believe It's for me. Every time I get down, I get sick. And I go to praying, if I fast, I get sick. And if I try to stay all night, or stay up, I get so sleepy. I--I can't get off my feet." Remember, that is the Devil. Because God intends for you to have the Holy Spirit. It's for whosoever will.
Many times you find, when you're prayed for in a meeting, for Divine healing, then the next day you find out, no doubt, that the Devil will make that twice as bad as it was the day before. See? Remember, that's just Satan trying to get you away from the blessing that God has got for you. See? Don't you listen to that fellow. See? Always press right on.

³⁸ I had an experience with that just recently on the road to Africa. If I ever had any time that the Devil ever did press at me, was to go to Africa this last time. It become one of the--the finest meetings and times that I ever went overseas. I got, I believe, more things accomplished in that little time that I was there, besides my hunting trip, than I ever did at any time. I always thought that those churches didn't want me there, and come to find out... I had a letter from someone, that it was, oh, they didn't want me there, all the association; and found out it was one man with a letterhead from an organization, that said, "We don't want you," he meant him and his family. See? So then when I got over there, I... See, just "we," that was he and his family; and it wasn't the people at all. So now it's a great field opened up for us.

³⁹ You see, when Paul said, "When I would do good, then evil is nigh."
You let a young convert come tonight to the altar, somewhere here in this tabernacle, or--or out across the nation; and just remember, tomorrow, mother will be more angry that she ever was, dad will be all upset, and all the school kids. And everything just goes wrong, because it's Satan trying to get you to turn around. He's trying to run you off the path. "When I would do good, then evil is always nigh."

⁴¹ Now, let us look at the thirst, and let's see whether actually a thirst is a natural thing. I've had people to tell me, "Oh, I never did. I believe it's just for some people to want to be Christians." Oh, no. That's wrong. It's actually something that's associated with every human being. It certainly is true. When we come to this country in the early days, we found the Indians here. And the Indians, though they were heathen at that time, they worshipped the sun or something. As long as they are human, there is something in them, a natural thirst, calling out for God, somewhere.

⁴² Now back in the jungles, just recently back there, four hundred and eighty miles from the closest civilization, a little small town of about three thousand people, of Beira, in Mozambique. We found natives that didn't even--never seen a white person. I found a native girl, she had no clothes on (any of them hardly have clothes on), and she was setting up in a tree. And I was tracking the lion, and there was... I heard something like a human being screaming. This native girl setting up there, walleyed, holding a baby. And what she was scared about... That's her only protection is get up a tree from a lion, leopard or something, or some animal. And she'd seen me, and heard it was a human being, but when she looked and seen a white person, she'd never seen one in her life (See?), and she was scared to death. See?
But when we find those people, even in that primitive condition back there, they were still worshipping. Before we called a line in, they poured out some mealy meal (That's what they eat.) on a little leaf, and clap their hands, and called on the spirit of some great something they didn't know where (like a patron saint or something, to a Catholic), to protect them, that they wouldn't be killed during the time of the charge of this lion.

⁴⁴ See, it's something natural. It's not a unnatural thing to thirst for God. It's a natural thing. It's just something that you should do. God has made you up like that. And it's no super human, it's just actually a common human being. It ain't just special for some people.
They say, "Well, I've seen some people live such a--a victorious life, that they're constantly on the housetop, they're praising God. Wished I could feel that way." Well, the reason you are feeling that way, it's the thirst in you. And it's just a natural thing. It's for every person to thirst for God.

⁴⁶ Now, we'll take some of the natural thirsting first. Let's take, for instance, thirsting for water. As David said here, thirsting for, of the water. Thirsting for water, the body is in need of water. And if you don't supply that thirst, you'll perish. You'll dehydrate, and you'll--you won't live. If you can't get water to that thirst, to quench that thirst of the natural body you'll soon perish. You won't live long. You can live longer without food than you can without water. Because you can fast for forty days (Jesus did), I suppose, without--without food, but you couldn't do that long without water. You would just simply dry up and die. You must have water. And--and the thirst that comes on you, why, it's to show that the body is in need of something to keep it alive. The body's got to have the water in order to stay alive. You're eighty-something percent of water and petroleum, anyhow, and you've got to take these sources in to keep you alive. As I've said, if you neglect it you'll perish.
The thirst also is an alarm. It's an alarm clock, that thirsting. The soul sets off alarm clock, a little buzzer inside of you that tells you that death has lurking nigh, that if you don't get water pretty soon, you've got to die. And it gets louder and louder, until finally you keep putting it off and you'll die, because it's a alarm clock.

⁴⁸ Like David described it here in the Psalms, "As the hart panteth after the water brooks, so panteth my soul after Thee, O God." As the hart panteth after the water brook...
I've often thought, as reading of this of David. David was a woodsman, a hunter. And he hunted deer, of course. And many of we in this day hunt them. The hart is a deer.
And we find, if you ever seen the dogs, the wild dogs will grab a deer. And usually they got, like the coyote, a fang. And he can grab the deer right above the burr of the ear here, and swing his weight. He cuts the throat of the deer, and the deer doesn't have a chance then. But sometimes the--the--the dog, like in Africa there, the wild dog will grab the deer right in the flanks, if he misses the throat. He'll grab the second time at the flank. And if the deer is strong enough and quick enough, he can shake the dog off.

⁵¹ The deer is much faster. The dog stalks him when he's not looking, and when he's upwind from him, and--and he--he don't know the--the dog is near.
And then, when the wild dog grabs him, if he's real quick, he can throw it off. And--but when the dog comes out of the flank, he has got a whole mouthful of the deer's flesh. Or, when he grabs at his neck sometimes, he'll cut close to the jugular vein, and miss it. And the deer, shaking him, will pull a whole chunk of meat out of the deer's throat, then the blood begins to run.
And then the dog will come right on the trail of that blood, after the deer. And as the life of the deer begins to dwindle, as the blood, which is the life stream to the body, as that begins to dwindle down, the deer gets weaker. And the dog then, or the wolf, is right behind the deer.
Now, if that deer can't find water... Now, water has something in it, that when the deer drinks the water, it stops the bleeding. But if he don't get water to cool him off, then the--the blood keeps flowing out faster; because he's running, keeping his heart pumping. But if he can ever get to water, the deer will live.

⁵⁵ Now, there's a great lesson there (See?) and David saying here, "As the hart panteth for the water brook, my soul panteth for Thee, O God."
Now, that deer knows, unless he finds water he's gone. He just can't live. I've tracked them many times after being wounded. When he hits a stream of water, he'll cross in and get a drink, go up over the hill; come back down, cross, get a drink of water and go up. You'll never catch up with him, as long as he'll follow that stream. But once when he leaves the stream, if he can't find another water brook somewhere, you'll catch him right away. And now, the deer knows that, so he'll stay right with the water, where he can get to it right quick. Now, could you imagine a deer with his nose up, he's been caught out somewhere where there is no water?

⁵⁷ And he says, "As the hart thirsts or panteth (is a thirst) after the water brooks, my soul thirsts after Thee, O God. Unless I can find You, Lord, I'll perish. I--I--I can't go unless I find You." And when a man or woman, boy or girl, gets that kind of a thirst for God, he's going to find something. See?
But when we come at it just kind of halfway, "Well, I'll kneel down and see what the Lord does." (See?), you're not really thirsting yet. It's got to be a thirst between death and Life, and then something takes place.

⁵⁹ The deer, also here he's... We find that he also has another sense of smell, that sets off an alarm in him when his enemy is near. He's possessed, this little creature, with a--a sense to protect himself. And he's--he's got a little alarm in him, a little something, that he tickles his nose when the enemy's near. You can get in the wind of the enemy, and he knows that you're there, and he's gone. Sometimes a half a mile away, he can smell you and get away, or the wolf or any danger. He's able to sense it because that he's made up that way. He's a deer, by nature. And that sense in him is just one of the God giving senses to him to live by.

⁶⁰ And then I thought, comparing the deer with a man that's thirsting for God. Before the enemy gets there, there's something about a child of God, that when you once are born into the Spirit of God, receive the baptism of the Holy Spirit, there's something about the person that can sense the enemy. You can take a man when he's taking the Scripture, and reading the Scripture, and try to inject something to that Scripture, that's contrary to the Scripture, a man that's filled with the Holy Ghost can [Brother Branham snaps his finger--Ed.] sense that right quick. There's something out of the way. When he gets into a place, and--and that little certain sense in there, that it's done to protect your life. You--you mustn't--you mustn't never go for anything unless it's exactly the Word of God. You must stay right exactly with that Word. And now, and we are secured with that sense as long as we're in the Holy Spirit.

⁶¹ You can go to read, and like for instance, somebody say, and I go to read in Mark 16, and say, "And these signs shall follow them that believe: In My Name they shall cast out devils; they shall speak with new tongues; or take up serpents, or drink deadly things, it would not harm them; if they lay their hands on the sick, they shall recover."
Now, then, you find a person get up there and say, "Now, that was for the apostolic age." That... Now, right quick, if you have received the Holy Spirit, you've been endowed with that sense. It sets it off. There's something wrong there. See? They try to explain it away, that it's for another day, that really you don't need those things today. But Jesus said, "These signs shall follow them that believe." See, there's a little something sets off in you, a little buzzer, in knowing that that's wrong and that's the way of death.

⁶³ 'Cause Jesus said, "If we add one word to This, or take one Word from It, our part's taken out of the Book of Life." See, not one Scripture. We must take It just the way It's written. And God watches over His Word to perform It, and we know that It's got to be just right.
So therefore, no matter what a church would say, what anyone else would say, if you're borned of the Spirit of God, you become part of the Bible. God told Ezekiel; he was a prophet; He said, "Take the scroll and eat it," then the prophet and the scroll became part of each other. And that's the believer when he receives the Holy Spirit; the Holy Spirit wrote the Bible, and the Spirit of God is the Word of God. "My Words are Spirit. 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." Hebrews 13:8, "He's the same yesterday, today, and forever." And when you are a part of that Word, oh, then let something come up contrary to that Word, [Brother Branham snaps his finger several times--Ed.] there's a little buzzer sets off right quick. See, It's to warn you that death is in the road. We should never do that. There is a also...
These thirsts are just natural. They are natural for the Christians. They're natural for the human being.

⁶⁶ There is also a thirst for success. So many people today, how we school for this thirst. We just noticed they started the university up. And we go down there, and people spend thousands of dollars to send their children to the school, and--and to universities and colleges, and so forth, to get an education, "To be successful," they call it, "in life." But now, I have nothing against that; now, that's all right. But, to me, you could get all the schooling in the world and still you haven't found the right success. That's right. Because that will just temporarily make things a little easier for you here. And there's... But when you die, you leave all that behind you.

⁶⁷ And this entire economy that we have... I was saying it the other day at Phoenix. It stand quoting again, that, "All this modern civilization, the whole educational program, the whole scientific program, is all contrary to God's Word and His will." Civilization is absolutely... There'll never be a civilization in the world that is to come, like this one. This is a perverted civilization. God had His first civilization upon the earth, when He spoke His Words and they come up, every seed of its kind, and in that civilization there was no death, sickness, sorrow. And now we take the things that is in the scientific world, that was put here to hold it together, and pervert it into something, and that brings death.
Like the atomic bomb. I don't know the formulas of these things, but I might say this wrong. They take uranium to split a--a molecule, and a molecule breaks into atoms. What does it do then? It just annihilates almost, just destroys. Everything that we do...

⁶⁹ We take medicine, put this formula with this formula, to cure this, and put it into us. And what do we do? We tear down something else.
Now, I guess you read--read last month's "Reader's Digest," that it said that, "In this age that we're living in now, that young men and women reach middle age between twenty and twenty-five years old." Think of that. Little girls in menopause, and twenty, and twenty-two and twenty-three years old, middle age. You see, what's done it, it's been this hybrid food and stuff we're eating. See? It's the stuff, the food and the--the life that we're living. Scientists has brought it to us, and in doing so they're killing you.
I was in Africa where I'd see them boys that never had a dose of medicine in their life. They eat meat that had maggots in it. They drank out of a pool that it looked like would kill an ox. And I was shooting a target at two hundred yards, and I couldn't see it with a pair of seven-fifty binoculars. And a man my age was standing there, telling me where it was hit with his naked eye. Now, if all this modern culture has done something... I feel if I had his eyes and his stomach, I'd be a pretty good man. Yeah.
But there you are (You see?), that's what science, education, civilization, we're destroyed by it. We destroy ourselves. It started in the garden of Eden and runs on for today. But thirsting for success...

⁷³ Then, we thirst for fellowship. We go, we want fellowship. It's like a young man and a young woman. Now, it's not unnecessary--or not (I mean) unnatural for a young man and a young woman to--to love one another. It is a thirst for love. It's their age, and they--they love one another. And it's not unnatural; that's just a natural thing for them to do that.
Now, we find many things, in the life that we live in the natural body, that we thirst for. It's just something sets in us. We want to do it; we absolutely feel that it's necessary. And it is necessary that we do it.
We find many women in these days thirst for beauty. Now, there isn't a woman... It's a natural thing for a woman to thirst to be pretty. That's--that's her God-given instinct and--and her beauty that God give her for her mate. And now, we find out that women want to be that way. Why is it? It's just because it's something God gave her. And it's not wrong for women to be pretty. They should be.

⁷⁶ And did you know, they are the only creature that--that the female is prettier than the male; it's in the human race. Every other animal, take the--the cow to the bull, the doe deer to the buck, the hen to the rooster, the mother bird to the father bird, always you find the male is big and pretty. But on the human race, showed there's where the perversion come, it turns around; and it's the women so is--is pretty, and they lust to be pretty.
Not like some of these weird creatures we see on the street of this day; no, no, not that kind of pretty. No. That's the horriblest looking sight I ever seen in my life. Yes, sir. That is a perversion; that's perverting the true thirst.

⁷⁷ Now, the true thirst that a woman should have, would be to "adorn themselves in modest apparel, and to have a Christ-like spirit," I Timothy 2:9. Now, that's a way the woman should thirst to be. Now, if you want to be pretty, that's the way what makes you pretty (See?) is a Christ-like spirit, and adorn in modest apparel.
Oh, my, some of these people today out on the streets, you can't tell a man from the woman, and it's a--it's the most horrible looking thing that you'd... I wouldn't, it's--it's... I--I never seen anything like it, like human beings. It's beyond human. Eyes painted way up like that, and, you know, them funny-looking lizard eyes, and all them funny-looking clothes. And, why, it don't even... All so out of form, they don't even look like a human being. And some of them boys out here with their hair combed down, their sister's rollers in front here, you know, why, it's a complete perversion. That's right. It's a--it's--it's Satan, and Satan is the perverter.

⁸⁰ When God made everything in the garden of Eden, it was lovely, then Satan come in and perverted. Satan cannot create nothing. There's only one Creator; that's God. But Satan perverts the original creation. And now he's got into this (I want to speak tonight about) perverting the--the original creation of thirst.
Now, a woman, as I said before, wants to be pretty. There's something in her that she's feminish, and she wants to be that way. But the way they are on the street today, hair cut like a man, wearing man's clothes; and then man turn around, wearing women's clothes, and a haircut like a woman. See, it's a perversion, the whole thing. Your food's perverted. Your life's perverted, your thirst, perverted. Your desire is perverted. It's a day of perversion.

⁸³ I was speaking here not long ago on "Satan's Eden." God took six thousand years and made a perfect Eden. Satan come over and sprayed them seeds and deformed them. Now, he's got six thousand years, and he's got his own scientific Eden right back again on a perversion of the right.
And this is the age of hybreeding, hybreeding. They even got the--the churches today till they're hybrid. That's right. They get in here; they just go to church; it's a lodge instead of a church. A church is a place where people come together and worship God in Spirit and in Truth. And today it's a lodge. We go there and have a little time to shake hands, and fellowship, and some black coffee in the back of the building, then go home till next week; we've done our religious duty.
Now, it's a perverted age. And Satan is perverting these thirsts that God put in you to thirst. Satan is perverting them. Now, if you want to know the right, perversion...

⁸⁶ If you, the women, wants to be pretty, take I Timothy 2:9, that's that "adorning themselves in modest apparel--apparel, with a Christ-like spirit, meek, subject to their husbands," and so forth. That's the way that you should be adorned, your life you live.
He perverts the true nature of God, and the true thirst of God, of the body and soul, by lust for sin: sin, a perversion. Now, we find out, a person today, the way they've took that perversion; thirst for God, the thirst for to be pretty, and all these thirsts for... For water, they've turned that into satisfying that with drinking. The thirst for joy (Everybody wants to have joy.), thirst for fellowship, all these great thirsts that God put into us that we might thirst after Him (God made you to thirst after Him.), and we try to satisfy it with some other kind of a thirst, with some other kind of a perversion of the correct thirst. See how it's in the natural? See how it's in the spiritual? We think, as long as we join church that--that satis--that's all we have to do. Well, that is absolutely wrong. No. God wants you to thirst for Him. "As the hart panteth for the water brook, my soul thirsts after Thee, O God." See, see?

⁸⁹ Now, if that deer was panting for the water brook, what if somebody come along, and another buddy deer could come along, and say, "Say, I'll tell you what I--I could do. I know where there is a mud hole down here." Well, the deer wouldn't want that. He... That wouldn't do him any good.
And there's nothing can satisfy that thirst that's in the human being, until God comes in. He must have It or die. And no persons has a right to try to hush or satisfy that holy thirst that's in them by the things of the world. No, sir. It's ungodly to do so. And if you thirst for God, don't shake hands with the preacher and put your name on the book. If you're thirsting for God, there's only one thing to satisfy it; that's meet God. If you're thirsting for God, that's the only way you can meet Him, is to do that.

⁹¹ And then there is a great danger also, if you don't watch what you're doing in that time. If you're thirsting for God, be sure it's God you find. See? Be sure that it's--your thirst is satisfied. But if Satan has been able to pervert you from these natural appetites (and that he'll do if he can), he'll--he'll simply make you try to be satisfied.
A man get out... what makes a man gets drunk: is because he is worried and tore up. There's something lacking in him.

⁹³ I was at Mayo's, here not long ago, and I was up there on a interview. And then it was told in this, that, talking about drinking, and I told them that my father drank.
Said, "What made him drink?
I said, "I don't know."
He said, "Is because that there was something that he--wasn't satisfying him, and he thought he could drink to throw it off his mind."
I caught it right then. See? It was really God, was the only thing can satisfy that thirst. God Himself is the only thing can satisfy that human thirst, is to accept God.

⁹⁶ Now, Satan takes these things, as I said, and perverts them. Then if you're--if you're... If you won't give that thirst the right place in your life, and won't thirst and take the things that God provided to stop that thirst with, to quench it, then Satan will lead you to some of his stagnant cesspools of this world. You must have it somewhere. If you can't find food, you'd eat from a garbage can. See? And if you--if you couldn't find water, and you was dying, you'd drink out of a--a pool of any kind, because you're perishing.
But there's no reason for that, when you're thirsting for God, because God is a living God, not some historical something. "My soul thirsts for Thee, the living God," Something that gives living waters, something that satisfies.

⁹⁸ There is another nature, a natural, just a natural thirst, in that thirst of the soul. You might say, "Brother Branham, is that soul thirst, is that natural?" Yes, that's natural for a soul to thirst. And it's... For God made you this way, that so that you would thirst for Him. He wants you to thirst after Him. Now, God made you like that. He didn't have to make you like that, but He did do it. And if He hadn't have made you like that, so that you would thirst, there would be an excuse at the judgment bar, say, "I--I--I never did thirst for God." But there's no excuse, you do. You'll make it somewhat; you might make it your wife; you might make it your car; you might make it something else; you might go to church and try to satisfy it. And I have nothing against going to church, but that isn't the satisfaction. It's to find God, the living God, the God of heaven into your soul, that satisfies that longing and thirsting that you long for.
Now. For He made you so you could thirst for Him, for His fellowship. Now, there's a genuine thirst for fellowship. Now, we like to meet with one another. We're doing that tonight. We meet here together tonight because we like to fellowship one with the other. Why do we do that? Because there's something in us that we want to meet one another. That's just natural. And now, we meet on a common ground here; that is, because we're all thirsting for God. See? And then we meet here on this regular, common grounds here of fellowship. In the church tonight here, might be many different denominational views and so forth; but when it comes to that thirst, we can meet on a common ground, one ground: we all thirst. Some might believe in sprinkling, the other one in baptism, and one in pouring, or so forth; but when it comes to the thirst for God, we--we come on one mutual ground. And God made us so that we would do that: thirst for Him and for His fellowship. I don't know anything...

¹⁰⁰ When I was a little boy, I remember I was raised in a real poor family. And I remember of many times I'd go out with fellows. I couldn't dress like to go out to a decent place. But, I--I don't know, there's something about people, that I liked. I liked to get with them. But I was, more or less, what is called, the black sheep. And when I got saved and found that Something in me that I thirsted for, a--a Friend, Somebody that would be a buddy to me, Somebody I could trust, Somebody you can set down to and talk your troubles over with... And when... I found that real true satisfaction when I found Jesus Christ, that real true Satisfier that takes away all--all the--quenches all that thirst, and gives you something that--that just looks like that there's just nothing to take His place...

¹⁰¹ And now how Satan tries to pervert this satisfying of the soul, that thirst for the soul. He tries to give you everything to satisfy it. And he's so deceitful in these days of perversion. This is a perverted world. It's a perverted race. It's a perverted people. Everything is perverted, and has perverted so gradual until it's become the most deceitful age that we--any human being ever lived in. It's more deceitful than it ever was.
Now, you just--you just can't imagine of how deceitful the nation's got, even with our own brethren, like American people.

¹⁰³ I was speaking sometime ago. I was in the woods a few weeks ago and found a--a--a cigarette pack laying in the woods. And it said on there, "A thinking man's filter." And I went on down through the woods a little ways, and I come back; kept bearing on my mind, "A thinking man's filter, and a smoking man's taste."
Well, I was at the World Fair couple years ago, remember they had that Yul Brynner and all them over there, when they was making demonstrations of cigarettes. And how they took that smoke and put it across a piece of marble, and took a Q-tip and raked up that nicotine off of there, and put it on the back of a rat. In seven days he had so much cancer he couldn't get up on his feet (See?) from one cigarette. And then they showed how that when that goes into the human lung... Some of them say, "I don't inhale. I just puff it in my mouth." Shows how it gets in the saliva and goes right down just the same, into the throat. See?
And then this man said, "You see so much talk about a filter." He said, "Now, if you have a desire (There's a thirst. You see?), a desire to smoke a cigarette, one natural cigarette might satisfy that desire for the time being. But if you've got a filter, it takes four cigarettes to satisfy," said, "because you're only getting about one fourth of the smoke."

¹⁰⁶ And said, "A smoking man's taste"? See, you cannot have smoke unless you get tar. And when you got tar, you got cancer. So there you are (See?); it--it's just a gimmick. And I think of a--a tobacco company that's in this nation, and--and it lives by this nation, and then with a gimmick like that to absolutely deceive American citizens, to deceive them. A thinking man's filter? It's only a gimmick to sell more cigarettes.
Then I thought of that thing, "A thinking man's Filter," I thought, "that's a good idea." So there is a thinking man's Filter; that's this Bible. A--a thinking man's filter will take this Filter; It'll produce a righteous man's taste. See?
Now, you cannot pull sin through the pages of this Bible. No, It stops it. It filters it out. Now, you can go to church, and just take anything, but you can't come through this Bible and have sin. It will not do it. It filters out all sin, and It gives a holy man's taste. Because if the man is thinking that he wants to be holy, and be like God, and be a son or a daughter of God, then he wants the right kind of a Filter. So He stops all sin on this side the Bible, and He can only bring the Holy Spirit through the Bible, that wrote the Bible. It's a holy man's taste to have this thinking man's Filter.

¹⁰⁹ Now, we find how deceiving it is today. Matthew 24:24, Jesus said in the last days that the two spirits would be so close alike until they would deceive the very Elected if it was possible. How close, how--what a deception of--of right and wrong we have today.
Even in our--in our government, in our politics, we--we haven't even got a man that we could put up as a politician that'll absolutely stand up for what he thinks is right. Where is our Patrick Henrys and George Washingtons, and Abraham Lincolns of today? Just as our President said there, "The way, if they want communism, they can have it, whatever the people wants." If that ain't a--a man that won't speak his conviction. A man will stand on a principle, that'll stand on what's what a principle... Just want to go the--the--the way of least resistance.
And that's the way that the people's got in the church. They want to come join church, and they say, "Oh, well, that--that's it; I--I've joined church now." You're trying to satisfy that great holy thirst that God put in you, that control Tower trying to turn you to the right thing, and you try to satisfy it with joining a church, quoting a creed, or something like that. When, it's nothing but the very Presence and filling of God Himself in your life, that'll satisfy that.

¹¹² He won't be satisfied with a creed. You'll never pull a creed through that Bible. No. There's not even the Apostles' Creed, so called, will never come through There. Show me in the Bible where the Apostles' Creed says, "I believe in the Holy Roman Catholic church; I believe in the communion of saints"; when the Bible said, "There's one Mediator between God and man, and that's the Man Christ Jesus." You'll never pull that through the Bible.

¹¹³ You will never pull all these dances, and shorts, and things that the people are doing today, these twists and watusis, and all these things, through God's Word. You'll never pull this modern trend of civilization through that Bible. It's against it. See? And you try to satisfy that thirst, but (You see?), it'll... This Bible will only satisfy a righteous man or woman's taste. This Holy Spirit, that they'd laugh at, and said, "You've gone out of your mind."... But That satisfies that longing, that something that the world knows nothing about. They have perverted themselves from true baptism of the Holy Spirit and the Word of God unto what? Unto the cesspools, the cesspools of the church, of dogmas, and creeds, and--and denominational differences, and so forth.
Say, "You a Christian?"
"I'm Methodist. I'm Baptist. I'm Presbyterian." That don't mean one thing to God, not one thing. You can't pull them things through God's Bible here. And you're trying to satisfy that holy thirst that God give you to thirst after Him. Is that right?

¹¹⁵ Now, you know that David said here, "...for the living God." Now, "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. And the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us." Then there can be no satisfaction until this Word, which is God, becomes alive in you, then you see God Himself fulfilling the promises that He made in the Bible.

¹¹⁶ Now, we have different interpreters of the Bible. One church interprets It this way; another one interprets It that way, and another one this way. Some don't take but a little bit of It; some take here and there, a piece of It. But God's His Own interpreter. When He makes a promise and fulfills it, that's the interpretation thereof.
If I promised you I'd be here tonight, and here I am, that's the fulfilling of my promise. If I'd say I'll meet you in the morning, and I'm there, that's my promise. There ain't no need of making any other excuses, I have got to be there.
And when God makes a promise, and then comes around and fulfills that promise, that's the interpretation of the promise. And I'd dare anybody to take God at His Word, and see if every Word in that Bible isn't the Truth. That's right. That's what that thirst is in there.
You say, "If I would've lived in the days of Jesus, I would've done so-and-so."
Why, you're living in His days. What are we doing about it? What are we doing? You say, "Well?" What you done, perhaps what the Pharisees done. They belonged to church and denied Jesus Christ.

¹²¹ We always say today, people try to say, "We compare. We've got to compare Bible leaf with Bible leaf, Scripture with Scripture." That isn't the Truth. No, it isn't the Truth. "This Greek word means this, and this means that." The Greeks themself, way back in the Nicaea Council, and them writers back in there, they had different forms. One believed this way. This Greek scholar meant this, and the other one said this one meant it this way. And they fussed over It. We don't need interpretation of Greek scholars or Greek words.
To know Him is Life, the Person, Christ Himself, not comparing. It's a revelation that God built His church upon. And if we don't build upon that same church... The Bible said, "Abel, by faith..." And faith is a Divine revelation. See? Faith is a Divine revelation. All right. This whole Thing's built upon the revelation then, and unless this is revealed to you... Jesus said, "I thank Thee, Father, that Thou has hid these things from the wise of this world, and revealed it to babes such as will learn." See?

¹²³ Now, the whole thing is built there; you've got to know the Person. And you cannot satisfy that by joining church. You've got to find the Person, God Himself, which is the Word and--and interpretation of Hisself today, the promises that He made today. The people that He was going to have in this day, "the church without spot or wrinkle," don't mean a denomination; it means the persons, the individuals without spot or wrinkle. "Be two in the bed, I'll take one and leave one; two in the field, I'll take one and leave one." But when God, that holy thirst to be like Him, and then you see that His Word is in you, vindicating Itself, that you are God's servant... Whatever God says, you just toe right up to it, then you're coming through the right process then to satisfy that holy thirst that's in you.

¹²⁴ Oh, of course, the people will laugh at you and say, "You've lost your mind. You've gone crazy." But remember what they're drinking from. See? Look where they're at. Could you imagine a big artesian well spurting up fine water, and somebody down at one of them holes down there with dead tadpoles, and creeds and everything laying in it, drinking down there, looking up and making fun of you? Oh. Why, he doesn't know; he doesn't know what a--what a thirst-quenching stream you're living at. That's exactly right.
We got a living God, not one that died nineteen hundred years ago and stayed in the grave, but One that raised again. Hebrews 13:8, says He's the same yesterday, today, and forever. The same Holy Ghost that fell on the day of Pentecost is the same Holy Ghost that's here now. He's the satisfying Portion, because He is the Word. That's right. The Holy Ghost wrote the Word; He interprets the Word. The Bible said in II Peter, that the Holy Spirit wrote the Bible, "Men of old, moved by the Holy Ghost, wrote the Bible."
Now, you can't do it; you can't satisfy that holy thirst with nothing less than God Himself living in you in the Person of the Holy Spirit. Education, culture, joining churches, reciting creeds, going to belong in a fellowship; all these things are very good, but they absolutely will not stop that holy hush--that--that holy thirst, rather, won't hush that holy thirst.

¹²⁷ I was listening to Billy Graham, the great evangelist, the other night. I tell you, I pray more for him now than I ever did, when I seen him really rapping it to them, the way they did. He said, "That bunch of clergymen coming down the road, them collars turned around..." Going down there where they had no business to go, sticking their nose in something. But they was going down the road [Brother Branham claps his hands--Ed.] clapping their hands and patting their foot. Well, they looked like unholy-rollers. Now, you see, but they got something they--they believe in. They got something; it excites the soul. They got something they was excited about. Some woman went and stuck her head in something down there, and they thought she was a martyr, and she had no business to be into. Now, we find that these men [Brother Branham claps his hands] had something they could clap their hands about. They were happy. They were doing something.
Well, if you can do that for a--a principle that you think is right here; and then stand in a church and somebody clap their hands or pat their foot, the deacons would lead them out the door... See, they have turned their people to a filthy cesspool of creed and denomination, instead of feeding them on the blessed holy Word of God that's delivered by the power of the resurrection of Jesus Christ.

¹²⁹ See, they try to... They quench their thirst by saying, "I am Doctor So-and-so," or come out of a certain seminary or a certain school. But that don't mean one thing, not a thing. But, you see, they--they try to satisfy themselves, say, "Now, God will recognize me because I am His pastor. God will recognize me because I am holy Father So-and-so, or Bishop So-and-so," or--or something like that. They're trying to satisfy their thirst there, when you can't do it. "I got a Ph.D., LL.D. I got my Bachelor of Art. I got this." That's all right. But, to me, that just means you're that much farther away from God (That's right.), that much further away from God all the time.
You only know God by an experience. You cannot educate This into you. It's borned into you. It's something that God gives you. Education has nothing to do with It. One of the greatest men in the Bible couldn't even sign his name, Saint Peter. That's exactly right, and him and John, the Bible said they were both ignorant and unlearned. But it pleased Jesus to give him the keys to the Kingdom, because he was thirsting for God (Amen.), thirsting for God, fellowship. Yes, sir. Oh, my.

¹³¹ I think of Isaiah, that young man, oh, a fine young man; he was down there in the temple one day. The great king had, he put his faith towards him and thought he was one of the greatest men, which, he was a great man. He was raised up, fine parents, a good mother and dad. But when he went out, his politics was clean, and he--he made things right with God. And Isaiah looked at him and thought he was a great man, put him for an example. But don't you never put no man, but the Man Christ Jesus, for your example. All men will fail. After while, he got to a place; he was--he was king, but he tried to take a priest's place and went into the temple, and he was stricken with leprosy.
Then Isaiah was all worried, so he goes down to the temple and he begin to--to pray; he thought he would go down and pray a while. And now, look, that man was a prophet; but down there in the temple as a young man, he was crying out to God one day, and a vision fell before him. And when he did, he seen Angels, Cherubims, with Their faces covered with Their--with Their wings, and Their feet covered, and flying with two wings. And They were going back and forth, up-and-down through the temple, crying, "Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty."

¹³⁴ And Isaiah, that great thirst that he had had, he--he perhaps was schooled. He--he probably had a good education. He had a--a marvelous conception of what God ought to be. He--he had heard the priests. He had been in the temple. He'd been raised to be a--a believer, but (You see?) he'd never come face to face with It before. See? He--he had a desire to do right. He wanted to be right, but he just had the educational side. He had the theological side of It.
But when he got there in the temple that day, and he seen these Cherubims waving these wings back and forth, and realized that these Angels ministered in the face of God, and them Angels didn't even know what sin was, and to stand in the Presence of God They had to cover Their holy faces, to stand in the Presence of God, then that prophet cried out, "Woe is me, for I am a man of unclean lips. All of my theology--theology and stuff that I've learned, all of my marvelous conception that I had of God, I'm face to face with it now." He said, "I'm a man of unclean lips, and I dwell with people that's unclean lips." All their teaching of the laws, and things they had done, had never reached that place to where he come into the Presence of God, and seen God with his own eyes, and His trail when He was setting up on High in the heavens. And there he was face to face with reality. And he cried, "I'm a man of unclean lips, and I dwell among unclean people."

¹³⁶ Then it was that the Cherubim took the tongs, and a coal of Fire from the altar, and touched them unclean lips, and turned him from a coward, or from a educated man, a teacher, to a prophet that the Word of God could speak through. Sure, while he was in the Presence of God, It was something different. That thirst that he'd had, had reached that place then, till he was filled with it.
And let me tell you, friend, I don't care how many churches you join, how many names you put on, which a way you go, and whether you're sprinkled, baptized, or whatever you are; until you meet that Person, Jesus Christ, that--that's the only thing that'll really satisfy.
Emotion won't do it; you might jump up-and-down and shout as long as you want to, or you might run up-and-down the floor, and you might speak in tongues as much as you want to. And them things are holy and good. I don't say--I don't say nothing against that. But until you meet that Person, that satisfying Portion, that Something that takes every fiber in your body, not by emotion, but by a satisfaction...

¹³⁹ Used to see a little sign, said, "If you're thirsty, say Parfay." There used to be a little drink when I was a boy, called Parfay. I remember coming down the road, oh, from fishing, I had been up to the pond, old stagnant waters. And I was about starved to death, and I seen a sign say, "If you're thirsty, just say Parfay." And I started saying, "Parfay, Parfay." I got thirstier all the time. And I--I... See, I--I--I got so I couldn't even spit after while, I was so--so thirsty.
Well, you see, that won't do it. There's nothing will satisfy it. I don't care; you can drink cokes; you can drink anything you want to, with them sweetened bicarbonated waters, and so forth, there's nothing that will satisfy the thirst like a good cool, cold stream of water. That'll quench that thirst. All these other things are substitutes.

¹⁴¹ And why would we want to take a substitute when there's a genuine baptism of the Holy Ghost that satisfies every fiber and longing in the human soul, can stand right in the face of death, like the great Apostle Paul said, "O death, where is your sting? And, grave, where is your victory? But thanks be to God, Who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ." That's the experience, brother; that satisfies that holy hush that--or that holy thirst that's in you. It satisfies it. You don't have to--to do anything else about it. Yeah, It cleanses the lips.
And there also, just people who live upon the emotion, upon the... Some people say, "Well, we got a lot of that in our Pentecostal movement." And they'll go in, which is fine, they'll pat their hands [Brother Branham claps his hands--Ed.] and play the music. The music stops, "sh, whew," a bucket of water went over everything. See? Now, we--we do that... We--we got in a habit of doing that. We got, we--we... It's just become one of our customs.

¹⁴³ Let me tell you something. When you worshipping God, in the Spirit and in Truth, when it becomes a custom for you to do it, because you think you ought to do it, because you think if you don't shout, or jump up-and-down, or dance with the music, your neighbor's going to think you're backslid; you're drinking from a stagnated stream. Right.
Until It fills every fiber, until the Holy Spirit Itself's bubbling in you; I don't care whether the music is playing, whether they're playing "Nearer, My God, To Thee," or whatever it is, the Holy Spirit's still ringing the glory bells in your heart. That satisfies. That's God's satisfying Portion. Anything less than That, you're done.
You might speak with tongue like men and Angels; you might give all your goods to feed the poor; you might prophesy, and you might have knowledge, understand all the mysteries and all these things, and you still become nothing (I Corinthians 13) until that satisfying Something that can only quench that thirst...
"My soul thirsts for the living God, like the hart panting for the water brook. Unless I can find It, I'll perish." When you get to hungering for God like that, something's going to take place. The Holy Spirit is to lead you to those great fountains of God. Yes, sir.

¹⁴⁷ Now, there is a good thing: to worship in the Spirit. That's true. But sometimes you have Spirit without Truth. St. John 4, said, "We worship God, Spirit and Truth." And Jesus is the Truth. That's exactly right. And He is the Word.
The streams God sent to satisfy you in the natural, Satan has polluted every one of them. He's put the poisoned dope in every one that he could get into. That's right. He took that great stream of the church.
That, that was God's way. Jesus said, "Upon this Rock I'll build My church, and the gates of hell can't prevail against It."
Now, there's different arguments of that. The Roman people, the Catholic says, He built It upon Peter. See, and if that be so, Peter backslid in shame. So It wasn't. It sure wasn't built upon Peter, Petra, the little rock. And then the Protestant says, that He built It upon Himself, Jesus Christ. Not to be different, but I different with them. He never built It on either one. He built It upon the revelation of Who He was. He said, "Blessed art thou, Simon, son of Jonas, flesh and blood never revealed this to you, but My Father which is in heaven has revealed this to you." Not by knowledge, you didn't learn it by books. You didn't learn it by joining church. You didn't learn it in the shops. You didn't. But the Holy Ghost Itself has brought the Person of Jesus Christ to you then, "Upon this Rock I'll build My church, and the gates of hell can't prevail against It." That holy thirst has been satisfied in the Person of Jesus Christ. There you are. That's the thing that we want to look for, satisfy that thirst with That. All right, we find that we must a...

¹⁵² Knowledge? Oh, my. Knowledge is a great thing. We fill up, and today we're full of it. But you see, knowledge... As I was saying the other day, speaking on that subject of knowledge, there was a man standing outside, was talking to a friend of mine standing there, said, "If a man don't believe in education, why is he reading the Bible?" They...
I thought, "Well, if they didn't get what the Lord Jesus said, how are they going to get a dummy like me, what I say?" They couldn't even understand Him, as plain as He was.
He said there one day, "Except you eat the body, the Blood, drink the Blood and eat the body of--of the Son of man, you have no Life in you." He didn't explain It. He walked on. That's right. See?
"Why," they said, "this Man's a cannibal. We want Him... To eat His body, drink His Blood... He's a vampire. See, He wants us to become a vampire." See them intellectuals?
But He said, "My sheep hear My Voice." See? It would come to the Elected, God had elected by foreknowledge. "And those who the Father... No man can come to Me except the Father draws him. And all the Father has given Me, they will come; they'll understand it."
Them disciples couldn't understand it, but they believed it. See? That's right. If you believe it... I can't understand many things. I believe it anyhow (See?), because God said it was so.

¹⁵⁸ Knowledge, you know, Satan's Gospel is knowledge. Did you know that? He preached it in the garden of Eden to Eve, and she was deceived by his knowledge gospel. Now, and has polluted the whole human race with it. That's exactly right. They've took educational programs, put them in the church. They're all right out there, but not in God's Word. No, sir. You don't know God by education. You don't know God by--by--by knowing how, learning mathematics and pronouncing big words.
Paul, he was a smart man. But when he come to Christ and received the Holy Spirit, went to the Corinthians, he said, "I never come to you with enticing words of man's wisdom," though he could've done it. Said, "I come to you in power and manifestations of the Holy Ghost, that your faith would be in God, not in the wisdom of some man."
Now, sometimes we make the church programs. They also call for their--their pastor. The church goes to vote the pastor; they say, "Well, this pastor now, he's got two degrees in college. He learned four years of psychology. He took this, that, the other." And they'll vote that kind of a man in (why?) instead of a pastor who believes in God's Word being inspired and being God, and will preach the Word regardless of how people feel about it.

¹⁶¹ God told Ezekiel, you know, said, "Preach that whether they believe it or not. You preach it anyhow." See? Right. Whether they accept it, or not, that ain't it. They didn't accept Jesus. He went right on preaching It just the same. See?
Instead of a real pastor that will really preach the Word and believe in God, they--they--they try to bring in the--the intellect, the man who's got the best education, the man who can stand in the pulpit and don't take but just about fifteen minutes so they can get home right quick, and go some--do something else, and Ricky can get his hot rod and start out, and--and they can go to the twist parties and everything. And it's, oh, it's--it's just it's a--it's nothing else but a hybrid educational pollution. That's right. That's just exactly what it is. That's right. But what is it? It satisfies their taste (See?); it satisfies a worldly church member's taste.
It don't satisfy a saint's taste. He'll take the Word every time.
But they say, "Oh, well, now them people's just a little off at their mind. See, they just don't, they don't get it. They, they're trying to live in a day gone by."

¹⁶⁴ Isn't it strange I come out here in the west, and I find out they're all trying to live in a day gone by. They always want some of the old fashion cowboy days. And go down in Kentucky, the old fashion hillbilly days, they want to act like it, have programs of it. But when it comes to old fashion religion, they don't want nothing about it.
Old-fashion days? I come down here in the rodeo time; I seen they had a big woman down there, that green stuff under her eyes, and short bobbed hair, a cigarette in it's mouth. Why, if they'd have seen that back in the old days, they'd have thought she was cankered somewhere. They, they'd--they'd--they'd have put her in. What if your mother would've walked out, dressed like you and your daughter dress today, what would taken place? They'd had her in the insane institution. Sure, she come out without her skirt on. Well, now remember, it's the same thing today.
Men is rottening in their flesh. If they're going through the middle age between twenty and twenty-five years old, their brain cells are rottening too. They haven't got... People has got so they haven't got enough understanding. They don't know what decency means. They don't know the difference between right and wrong. And, oh, though, their educational program, they...

¹⁶⁷ Did you know, education (I can prove it to you,) is of the Devil? Not to read and write; but I mean, putting their education in your church.
What does communism lay on? Science, education; that's their god. Satan (See?) that's what he introduced to Eve. That's what they're still holding to. Now, it's got over in our churches, got over in the Baptists, Methodists, and Presbyterian, Pentecostals, and all. Some education, intellectual, some great so-and-so and something like that, that just throws him farther away from God. It's wrong. Yes, sir. Now, we find out, that they--they--it satisfies their desire. When a--when a--a church would vote in something like that, it goes to show what's in that church's mind, what their desire is, what their thirsting is for. They want to say, "Our pastor's wide minded. He don't mind us mix-bathing, and he goes with us."

¹⁷⁰ A little girl told my Sarah there the other day. Her pastor had been to Africa; and when he come back, she stripped off her clothes that night, with a pair of little tights on, and done the watusi for him, to entertain him 'cause he had been to Africa. The Watusi's a tribe over there, you know. Boy, I'd like to see one of my girls in my congregation try to do something like that: watusi?
See, it goes to show... And a pastor would set and look at one of his congregation, a little sixteen or eighteen years old girl out there stripped off like that, and let her get by with that, that shows that he come out of a cesspool himself. A man of God do a thing like that?
Certainly. That sounds flat, but I realize I'm preaching across the nation too. But you know this also, brother, sister, let me tell you, that's the Truth.

¹⁷³ A vulture wants dead things. That's right. And that's dead. That's exactly right. Plainly shows, it just plainly show here what is their head and their control tower, what it's giving them (See?), what's in their soul. Their soul longeth for things like that.
Their soul longeth for a high intellectual church, where the people dress real fine, and the pastor takes fifteen minutes, or twenty. And if you go over that, they throw him back on the deacon board. And he mustn't say nothing about sin. He mustn't say anything about wearing shorts, and wouldn't say nothing about people doing this, that, or the other. He mustn't mention that at all. If they do, the board will have him throwed out. See what it is? That's their thinking man's filter.
The Bible said in I John 2:15, "If you love this world system, or the things of this world, it's because that the love of God's not even in you."

¹⁷⁶ Now, what about all this carrying on they done today in the name of the church: practicing square dancing in the church, bunco, bingo parties, teenagers rock-and-roll, twists, all these stuff. Look at this Elvis Presley, a devil standing in shoes. Pat Boone, Ricky Nelson, the biggest indebtiment this nation has ever had. That's right. They say, "Oh, they're very religious; they sang Christian songs." It oughtn't to... The church oughtn't to even permit a thing like that. Some of these guys go out here, and--and tonight they're in a--a roadhouse out here, dancing and playing music and everything, and the next night they come to the altar and weep, and the next night they're playing music on the platform. Oh, goodness, gracious. How far can filth, how far could filth go anyhow? Yes, sir. Prove himself first to be a man of God, not all this stuff just because he can beat an old guitar or something.
By your desire, you can tell who's on the throne of your heart. By what you love, that's what tells. You, you say, "Well, I think them things are all right, Brother Branham." Well, just remember now; in your heart you know what's there. Yes, sir. By what is feeding your soul, what your soul is thirsting for, and you can see it satisfies that; if it isn't this Word, then there's something wrong, because the Holy Spirit lives on the Word only. See?

¹⁷⁸ I want you to see another great danger, just before we close, if you are not--if you're not guilty of any of these things that I've mentioned, and that is, the danger of neglecting a thirst. See? You say, "I have a holy thirst. But I--I'm not guilty, Brother Branham, of just go and joining church, and things like this." But, see, to neglect a thirst. If you neglect to satisfy a thirst of water or food, you'll die. And if you neglect that thirst in you for God, you'll spiritually die.
You call for revivals; you wait for your church to have a revival. Well, that ain't--that ain't the revival for you. The revival ought to begin right in you, when you begin to thirst for God. There might not be another member of the church wanting that revival. If it breaks out in you, it'll break out other places. See? But, see, you neglect that thirst.
You neglect to milk the cow, when the cow is--the udder is full of milk; and if you let that cow stay like that, she'll go dry. That's exactly right. If you neglect to take a drink of water, say, "I just ain't going to drink anymore," you'll die. You neglect to eat food, you'll die. So if you neglect to give the Holy Spirit the Word of God, you'll die.

¹⁸² You Christians, you Baptists, Methodists, Presbyterians, Pentecostals, Assemblies of God, Oneness, Twoness, Threeness, whatever you are (See?); don't care... That don't matter nothing to me; I don't think it does to God. See, you're an individual; you're a unit. You'll never go to heaven as a church, a--a--a denomination. You'll go to heaven as one single person, between you and God. That's all. I don't care what church you belong to.
And if you neglect to read the Bible and to believe the Bible, and the Holy Spirit to feed upon That, you'll die. Jesus said in St. John 4:3, the Scripture I got right... Jesus said that, "Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every Word," not just part of It.
We take a little bit here. I call that a Bible hitchhiker. They say, "Well, I believe This, but now let's go over here. See?" See?
You've got to take it Word by Word. Jesus said, "Man shall live by every Word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God." Did you know that?
And, you know, we've made--we've made the day that we're living in, we--we made this day the--a--a--a religious perversion.

¹⁸⁷ My daughter called me in not long ago, and said to me, "Daddy..." (in the next side of the house), she said, "come over here, we're going to have a religious program on." It was a singing, hymn singing, and there was some little Ricky reading it up there. And if I ever seen a sacrilegious movement, it was that. Them guys up there, and people, looked more like it was a floor show. Supposed to be an Indian tribe, and they were carrying on, and--and jump up and box at one another.
Why, what's went with the sincerity? Where is those old fashion hymns we used to sing, and rejoice in the Spirit of God, and tears roll down our cheeks? And now we try to hold our breath until we ain't got enough breath in us, till our face turns blue, to try to show that we're some sort of a singer. See? We've copied that off of Hollywood, and all these programs that we see through this intellectual hymn sing and training of voice. I--I like to hear good singing; I like to hear good old fashion, heartfelt, Pentecostal singing. But I sure hate to hear that squeaking they call singing today. That's right. I think that's the most ridiculous thing. It's a perversion. That's right.

¹⁸⁹ I like to see a man when he's a man. I hate to see one with--with his wife's underclothes on out here, and slicked up along the side; and--and a roller hanging down here in front, and two cones of hair hanging down like bangs cut in front. That, I--I couldn't call that a man. He don't know what side of the race he belongs on. See? That's right. You see, the woman, look, the woman is trying to cut her, make her hair like the man; the man's trying to make his hair, bangs, like the woman. The man is wearing his wife's underneath clothes; she's wearing his overalls (See?), just a perversion, right around.
And that's the same thing it is with nations, with people, with churches, with everything. Oh, God, where's the end of the thing? The coming of the Lord Jesus Christ, that's the end of it.

¹⁹¹ So if you neglect to feed the Holy Spirit the Word of God... Jesus said, "Every Word shall be by the Holy Spirit." And listen now. If you try to feed it the wrong thing, if it's the genuine Holy Spirit in you, It'll know the difference. Now, remember, the Word of God is what the Holy Spirit feeds on. It don't feed on enthusiasm. It don't feed on education. It doesn't feed on church going. It doesn't feed on theologies. There's a lot of difference between an inspired something and a theological standpoint of it.
All those theologians in the days of Jesus, my, they had word by word, page by page, all laid out, the Messiah had to come this way. That's exactly what it was. And they every one missed it. You know what Jesus said when He come, said, "You are of your father the Devil, and his works you'll do."
It wasn't revealed to them what the real Word was. See, they missed those little corners, like they're missing today. "If you'll belong to this and belong to this, you'll be all right." Don't you believe that. You got to belong to Christ. And if there's Something in you, hungering for Christ...

¹⁹⁴ Just remember, when you were in your father's loins, you were with him then. But your father didn't know you then, and you didn't know your father. And you had to come and be born. God made a way through your mother, for the--the seed bed, and then it come. And then you become a man or a woman, whatever it was, then you recognized your father, and your father could have fellowship with you.
Now, remember, if you've got Eternal Life, your Life was in God at the beginning. And the Life... God is the Word. And then when the Word was made flesh in Jesus Christ, God coming down to dwell in His Own body, made Hisself the Son of God, when God came down to dwell in that, you were in Him when He was crucified. And you were crucified with Him, and you died with Him on Calvary. You was buried with Him on the mountain. And you rose with Him, on Easter morning. And now you're setting together in heavenly places in Him, and now you've got fellowship with Him. See?
God Himself become one of us. "No man has seen the Father at any time, the only Begotten of the Son--Father has declared Him." That's God became a man, so He could fellowship you as a man. See? And now you're--you are flesh, and He's flesh. God is made flesh among us in the Person of His Son Jesus Christ. And in Him was God. He was God, nothing short of God. He was God, God manifested in the Son Jesus Christ, which made Him Emmanuel, as the prophet said He would be.

¹⁹⁷ Now, see, then you had to be; before the world was ever formed your name was put on the Lamb's Book of Life. And then what can you eat? The Holy Spirit lives by the Word of God. And now, in Revelations 22:19, the Bible said, "Whosoever shall take one Word out of This, or add one word to It, his part will be taken from the Book of Life." See how deep it is? You cannot... The Holy Spirit won't live on the things of the world.
Like a dove bird and a crow. A crow is a big hypocrite. A crow, that fellow can go out here and can eat wheat all day long, and go over there and fly on a--an old dead carcass, and eat it too. He can set in the field, and he can eat with the dove, wheat, and go over and eat on the dead carcass.
But the dove can eat wheat all day long, but it can't eat on a dead carcass, because it's a dove. And a dove don't have any gall. One bite out of that dead carcass, it'd kill the dove. See, it has no gall. And that's the way it is, no bitterness.
And that's the way with a real, genuine Christian. They don't want the things of the world. They just eat the Word of God, and That alone, what's clean, the thinking man's Filter. See? They come through That and That alone. The dead things of the world, it stinks to them.
Look at the old crow in the days of the antediluvian destruction, flying from body to body, eating them old dead carcasses, he didn't come back to the ark. But the dove could find no rest for her feet (See?); she come back to the ark where she was getting grain. And that's the way we do; we live by the Word of God.

²⁰² In Psalms 42... David must have wrote this Psalm, Psalms 42, when he was a fugitive, when he said, "My soul thirsts after Thee, as a hart panteth after the water brook." Look, he cried. David was a fugitive. He had been... He had the anointing oil on him; he knowed he was going to be king. The prophet had anointed him king. Now, notice. And there he was, he had a little bunch of soldiers made up of Gentiles, and so forth, was up on top of the mountain... Where his own beloved city, because of their sin, they were garrisoned all around with the Philistines. And David, on that hot day, it must've been when he wrote this Psalm, "As the hart panteth for the water brook..."
Notice David in this condition. He looked down; he looked at his beloved city. And he remembered when he was a little boy, he used to take the sheep out by this certain pool there. It was a great, great water country, and also bread country down there. Really, "Bethlehem" means "the house of God's Bread." And then when David remembered going by there and drinking that good cool water, and here he was laying up here now, a fugitive, away from his own people. He had no place to go, and his soul must've cried for that good cool water.

²⁰⁴ He had some servants there that, my, just the least of his desire was a command. And they, three of them, fought their way through that line of Philistines; fifteen miles, seven miles, or something, down and back; cutting their way through, and brought him a drink of that water. But the soul thirst...
His body, he was up there, probably had to drink out of anything he could get ahold of, some old goatskins and things, with some old hot water in, on that hot day. He thought, "If I could just lay down and quench this thirst that I have... If I could just go down there to Bethlehem and lay down by that spring and drink."

²⁰⁶ And when they went down and got the water and brought it back, his soul thirst was so greater, not for Bethlehem, but from Jerusalem; his soul was. So he sacrificed the water, said, "I wouldn't even drink it." He poured it out upon the ground. See, his soul was more thirsty for God, than it was to satisfy the quench of a good--his thirst of his body, with a good cool water. He poured it upon the ground.
See, the house of God, the soul-cooling waters of Jerusalem, which is above... Jesus said, in John 6:33, "I am the Bread of Life. I am the Bread of Life." "Bethlehem," "house of God," our church, earthly Church of God, the church that's here on earth. We love to go to the church here on earth, but greater is Jerusalem, which is above, which is God. Jerusalem above, which is God. Greater is that soul's thirst to be there with Him, than it would to be just to satisfy yourself with joining a church somewhere. See? Joining a church don't satisfy that thirst. David proved it here. The waters right from the house of God (See?), he poured it out upon the ground to find favor, to get a good cool drink from God. Even on that... Greater than the thirst that's in you is that thirst of the soul-thirst for God.

²⁰⁸ Notice Jerusalem, the word... "Jerusalem is from above," the Bible said, "which we're... is the Mother of us all." And Christ is our Mother. We realize that. God is our Mother, for we're born of Him. The word simply means "peace," Jerusalem, Shalom. Or, Shalom, which means "peace," Jeru-shalom (See?) means "peace."
Greater should be the thirst of any soul for the waters of Life than to say you belong to a church. The thirst of the soul can't be satisfied, the real true thirst... It can be perverted. You can think you're all right when you join church, but that isn't it. That won't satisfy the genuine holy thirst for God. It just simply won't do it. It just... It's just not there.

²¹⁰ Now, David said in Psalms 42:7 here, "When the deep calleth unto the deep, at the noise of Thy waterspout..." the soul's call...
Look, I've often used this as an illustration. If there's a fin on a fish's back, it had to be put there for him to swim with. He has a need for that. Now, what if he'd say, "I'm going to be a different fish. I'm going to be a smart, educated fish. Uh-huh, I--I'll just... I'm going to believe some real theology. I believe I don't have to have that fin"? He wouldn't get very far in the water, would he? And that's exactly right.
What if a tree said, "Now, I know there had to be an earth first for me to grow in. That's right. I'm supposed to grow here. But I'm going to be a different tree; I want them just set me out here in the middle of the street, so I can be noticed"? See, he wouldn't live very long. See? That's right.
When the deep calleth to the Deep it takes more than joining a church. It takes more than shaking hands with the preacher. It takes more than living a good, straight life. It takes something to satisfy inside of you, that pours down from God into the soul. "The deep calling to the deep, at the noise of Thy waterspouts, O Lord. The deep calling to the deep..."

²¹⁴ What kind of a thirst could we think was in us tonight? We, as Pentecostal people, where are we getting to? What kind of a thirst is in us? What kind of a thirst is in me? What kind of a thirst is in you? Don't try to hush that holy thirst for God.
Years ago, when they used to have gold out here in the mountains. I read a story, many years ago; it's always stuck with me. It said there was a--a prospector went out here somewhere beyond the mountains here and was prospecting for gold, and he struck a rich claim. And he come back, thinking, when he got to the city, what he would be, his troubles was all over. And--and he--he tried to--to say, "I... Tomorrow I'll get in and I'll..." Just one day's journey, he'd be into the city, and he'd have the gold. And he had big sacks full of it.

²¹⁶ He had a dog with him. Not comparing now the dog to the Holy Spirit, but as I'm making an illustration. But this dog...
Through the night, the prospector laid upon his bed, and--and he begin to think, "Now, tomorrow I'll--I'll take all my gold in, and I'll become just what I've always wanted to be. I--I--I always wanted to be a rich man. I--I wanted to own fine things, and so forth."
And--and then this dog begin to bark, and because there was an enemy approaching. And he--he went out there, and he said, "Shut up." And so the dog quieted down. And no more than got back in bed, he started like he was going to go to sleep, and the dog started again, just jumping at the chain. And he went to the door again, said, "Shut up. I want you to know that tomorrow I'm a rich man." See? And that was his great dreams.

²¹⁹ But the dog started barking again. And finally, he got so discouraged, he went and got his shotgun and shot the dog and killed it. He said, "I don't have no more use for you anyhow. Tomorrow I'm a rich man. I'll become a rich man tomorrow."
And he set the gun down in the corner, turned his back over to the door, went to sleep. And the man had been following him for days, slipped in and killed him. He wasn't a rich man (See?); he stopped that warning buzzer that was trying to tell him his life was at stake.

²²¹ And, brother, sister, you will never be able to... Don't never try to hush that holy calling in your heart (See?) by joining a church, by reciting a creed, by belonging to a certain organization.
There's only one thing can satisfy it; that's the Person, Jesus Christ. "As the hart panteth for the water brook, so my soul thirsts after Thee, O God. My soul thirsts for the living God." See? There's something in you, that wants to see the moving of God. Your soul thirsts for it. Don't stop anything short of That.
Don't let some pastor tell you, "You just have to shake his hand, join the church, or belong to this organization." Don't you kill that holy hush. It's warning you. Someday will come when you'll come down to the end of the road.

²²⁴ Like a little lady in our city we come from. She told the... A little girl went up there to church, and a very fine little girl. And she was coming down the street. She had long hair, you know, and her hair pulled back like a slick as a peeled onion, nearly, and her face looked--no makeup on. And this girl used to make fun of her, said, "If you didn't have that flat-headed preacher you got up there," speaking of me, said--said, "you could look like something decent. But you look like something out of an antique shop." And, oh, she just really raked her over the coals, every time she could see her like that. Said, "Our pastor's broad-minded." Said, "He--he--he knows them. That, why you do like that? That don't mean anything, how you dress or think." It does. God's Bible says it does. We shall live by every Word.
So this little girl never paid a bit attention to her, went on. She's a missionary now.

²²⁶ So then this--this young lady took a social disease, and she died. A friend of mine pumped the embalming fluid in her when she was dying. He told me, said... After she was dead, he kept smelling the fluid. She had a hole eat in her side, social disease. They didn't even... Even her parents didn't know what was wrong with her. And she died. But before she died...
She taught Sunday school. And all of her little Sunday school group come in; they wanted to see her when she went off to heaven, the Angels come and pack her away. And her pastor outside, smoking a cigarette, walking up-and-down the hall in the hospital... And they was all going to sing when she was going to die, you know. They knowed she had to die. Doctors said she was dying, so they was all going to see the Angels come, pack her away.

²²⁸ And all at once, when she faced the reality... Now, she was a loyal church member, she was a Sunday school teacher, and a loyal church member of a fine big denominational church. But when she started to struggle, death struck her; her eyes bulged out, and she said, "I'm lost." She said, "I'm lost. Go, get the pastor."
He put his cigarette out and walked in, said, "Here, here. Here, here. We'll get the doctor to give you a hypo."
Said, "I don't want no hypo." Said, "You deceiver of men. I'm dying, and I'm going to hell. And I'm lost because you failed to tell me the truth. Go get that little Gooduse girl, and bring her up here to me, real quick. She's right."
Wait till you face the reality once. Don't you try to stop that holy hush. Don't you blast it away with some modern, educational, double-barreled shotgun. You listen to that warning of the Holy Ghost tonight, that's warning you, "I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life; no man cometh unto the Father, but by Me." And He is the Word.

²³² Let us bow our heads just a moment. I want to quote one more Word of the Lord Jesus, while you're thinking about it. Jesus said in Matthew 5, "Blessed are they that do hunger and thirst." It's even blessed to have that thirst in you. Have you come to a spot that your--your--your whole system has been so polluted by denominationalisms, and little cults and clans, and things, little church orders, social, like joining lodges, and so forth, from church to church? Has the Devil been able to put that water of pollution, and you're slopping out of it, like a hog in a trough? When, you don't even know what the real quenching thirst of God, to see Him, a reality, by the Holy Spirit living in you, manifesting. If you're--if you're that way tonight, if you're still thirsting for God, let me tell you:

²³³ If you've got that thirst tonight to know more about God, and to come closer to Him, will you just raise up your hand now while every head's bowed, say, "Pray for me." O God, look at the hands.
Out into the land where the broadcast is coming now, from east, north, west, and south, you in them rooms, raise up your hands to the pastors and whatever is there, that you desire, you--something in you, thirsting for God. That holy thirst, don't satisfy it. Oh, you say, "Brother Branham, I--I shouted once. I danced in the Spirit." Don't--don't--don't take that. No.
Wait till that satisfaction comes, the satisfaction portion of the fullness of the Holy Spirit comes in, then these joy bells of shouting, and speaking in tongues, and dancing in the Spirit will come. You won't have to do it by the music. You'll do it when you're going down the road in your car. You'll do it when you're sweeping the floor. You'll do it when you're driving nails in the wall, with your carpenter work. Wherever you are, that joy unspeakable and full of glory... Now, let us pray.

²³⁷ Dear heavenly Father. Long, lengthy, drawed out, this little message tonight, but, dear God, may Your Holy Spirit deliver the--the meaning to every heart. Right in this church, tonight, there was just multiplied numbers of hands up, all the way around the halls and everywhere. We--we pray, dear God, for them. Oh, may that satisfying Portion of God, which is Christ, the Hope of Glory, the Hope of Life in you, may it come to each one of them.
Way out across the nation, from California, way up in New York now, where it's early in the morning, they're listening in up there; over in--in New Hampshire, and--and down along in Boston, and all the way down in Texas, through Indiana, out into California, and around. O God, look at those hands; look what's beneath them, Lord, that heart there that's hungering and thirsting.

²³⁹ This perverted day, where the Devil's blinded people's eyes, just to join church, and say, "That's all you need." And they still look at their own self and see the way they do, and the desire they have to be like the world and...
When, the Bible tells us, "If we even love the things of the world, the love of God is not even in us."
Just think, Father, how perverted that he can make that real true Word, how that they can say, "Oh, we believe the Bible, but not This. We don't believe This. We believe This was for another age. We believe this is That," because some denomination has twisted their minds into that cesspool.
When Jesus said, "Whosoever shall take one Word out of This, or add one word to It, his part will be taken from the Book of Life."
Dear God, think of the disappointments there at judgment when people's lived a good, clean, holy life, went to church just as loyal as they could be, and lost.

²⁴⁴ Think of those Pharisees, how from little boys, they trained in the Word, come up through schools and everything, holy (had to be, or they'd be stoned to death), and Jesus said, "You are of your father the Devil."
How that Israel went down there... And let this be a warning to the Pentecostals, Lord, across the land. How that Moses, a prophet, came down into Egypt to fulfill the Word of God, to bring the evening light to them. How they seen the great miracles of God. How they followed him, crossed the Red Sea, was baptized unto him, went into the wilderness and eat Angels' food that fell from heaven, and then refused to take all the Word, when they come back from Kadesh-barnea, to Kadesh-barnea, from the--from the promised land, and said, "They're like giants; we can't do it." When God said, "I've already give you the land": borderline. Jesus said, "They are every one perished." They are dead, lost, without God, though they done all these things. They seen these miracles; enjoyed, danced up-and-down the seacoast, with Miriam, when they beat the tambourine. And only three out of the two million went in.

²⁴⁶ We realize, Father, that when the sperm, the genes from the male and female come together, there's only one out of a million that's accepted. One germ from the male finds the fertile egg of the woman, the female, and a million others perish.
There's a million, two million, come out of Egypt; two, Joshua and Caleb, entered the land. One out of a million, Father, I--I tremble when I think of that. Think, across the world today of five hundred million Christians, that'd be five hundred if You should come tonight. O God, let us remember that every Word of God stands a memorial. We must believe It. We must obey It.
And when You said, "Repent, every one of you, and be baptized in the Name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost; for the promise is unto you, and to your children, and to them that's far off, even as many as the Lord our God shall call." And, God, You are still calling tonight, and the promise is as long as You call.
And clergymen has twisted the minds of those people, and directed it by an educational, denominational school of theology, to a thing to say, "Oh, you just believe." The Devil believes also, but he can't receive the Holy Spirit. Judas Iscariot was a--done all the--the rest, the disciples did, preach the Gospel; but when it come time for him to get the Holy Ghost, he showed his colors.
God, may the people of the land tonight realize that without that experience, they are lost. May it be tonight that their souls will be satisfied with Thy Portion, Lord, as we commend them into Thy hand. They are Yours, Lord. We're only responsible for the Word. I pray that they'll believe with all their heart, and be filled with the Holy Ghost. We ask in Jesus' Name. Amen.

²⁵¹

²⁵³ Oh, isn't He wonderful?

²⁵⁴ You believe that's Scriptural? The Bible said, "Clap your hands. Make a joyful noise unto the Lord." You know, I always wanted to play music. My daughter, Rebekah, is taking piano. My little boy is taking trumpet. But I--I did learn an instrument of ten strings. [Brother Branham begins clapping his hands--Ed.]

²⁵⁵ [Brother Branham begins humming, "Jesus, the Light of the World."--Ed.] Worship God with everything you have. [Brother Branham continues humming--Ed.]

²⁵⁷ Don't you love Him?

²⁵⁹ Sorry to confuse you players like that, but I just get carried away. I don't know no better than just to worship. That's the way you do it. Yes, sir. I'm thankful for this opportunity, Brother Mack, to come and fellowship with you and your church here tonight, all these fine people.
And you that raised your hands for the baptism of the Holy Spirit, I trust that you'll meet Pastor Mack here, or some of them, and go back in a room here. And just remember, when God spoke the Word in the beginning and said, "Let there be," there had to be. And He said, "Blessed are they that do hunger and thirst after righteousness, for they shall be filled." See, it's got to happen. Come to visit your pastor here, and stand by him as he preaches the Gospel.

²⁶¹ Now, let's sing again that good old song; I just love that, "We'll walk in the Light."
Jesus said, "I am the Light," and you're in Him. See? How do you get into Him? Joining Him? No. Shaking? No. Baptism of water? No. "By one Spirit we are all baptized into one Body, which is the Body of Christ." And in that Body is nine spiritual gifts operating through the local body, the local church. That's apostolic, if I ever knew of it. That's right.