¹ Let's bow our heads. Dear Lord, we thank Thee tonight for the promise of the coming of the Lord Jesus, where we'll meet in a great meeting where it'll never end, of joys and songs, as we praise You through the--the ceaseless ages that is to come. We ask Your blessings upon the meeting tonight. We ask Your blessings upon this tabernacle, upon its staff, its pastors, its co-workers, co-pastors, and all.
We ask You to bless these, Lord, who have come many miles to be in the meeting; lay Your hand of mercy upon them as they travel back to their homes. Grant it, Lord. May we meet many more times together in this place called the house of God, to worship. Bless those who are tuned in tonight, Lord, by the way of the telephone. May every unsaved person find Jesus Christ their Saviour tonight; heal all the sick and the afflicted. Father, Your servant is reporting for service, in Jesus' Name. Amen.

³ The Lord bless each of you. So happy to be here tonight. I just got in when Brother Ernie was singing the last part of his song, "On the Wings of a Dove." Certainly beautiful poem, certainly beautiful, and I--I know it's timely. So now, we very thankful.
And to all you people that's tuned in tonight out across the nation, I wished you were only here to see this a-waiting, expectations on the people's faces as they're jammed in the building tonight; having a wonderful time.
We want to thank Brother Jack Moore, and Sister Moore, and Brother Noel, Brother Bootlayer, Brother Brown, all these associates here, the whole tabernacle, the whole staff, for inviting us back.

⁶ It was a really a kind of a--couldn't say a coincident, it was simply just the hand of God that worked it out. There's a brother here that had a dream sometime ago about this thing happening, said I was standing in a pair of white trousers, in Indian moccasins. And that's just exactly the way I was standing when I called Brother Jack for the meeting here, just exactly, (at Carson, Colorado) Indian moccasins and a pair of white Levi trousers on. Brother Leo, if you're listening in, I was just meeting you in a few minutes. So that's when the meeting took its birthplace right there.

⁷ Now, it's Sunday night; I know many of you will drive all night tonight going home, some of you will be driving in the morning. I've got two days drive ahead of me. And so we--we won't hold you very long. And I've tried to make this an old-time night, the night that Brother Brown, and Brother Jack, and all of us that used to pray for the sick years ago, would pray for the sick in the same manner that we did then.
Now, can you hear me back in the back? I just keep lowering these mikes because I am hoarse.

⁹ And so I want to... Just a little something, this little incident's happened. Why, they was telling me awhile ago that there was a brother, perhaps here in the meeting tonight, that just come out of denominationalism, come into Shreveport, want to hear about the Message. And he got mixed up; he didn't know where he was at, so he went downtown. He seen a people gathered; he said, "Is this where Billy Branham is going to preach?"
He said, "No, it's where Billy Graham's a-preaching by--by the way of a--a film."
He said, "Well, I'm sorry, I--I got the wrong place."
He said he come up, he said, "Now, where can I go, Lord?" Said he started walking up this main street. I don't know what it is; there's a big church up here at the end. Texas Street. And there was a big white cross up on a church. Said the Lord told him, said, "Just keep walking." Said... When he got there, they was... Said, "Well, here must be where it is; there's a lot of cars setting around." And said, "A bride and groom come walking out of the church." That was last night; there was a wedding; I seen it come out. "The Lord said, 'Now, that's what it is. You're coming out of denominationalism to enter into the Bride to go with the Groom." See, see?

¹³ I was remarking to my wife, coming down the street, how the moon and the star hanging right above that cross, as we moved up into it. I guess I just look at little things like that, maybe kinda complimentary to my belief in God and my ministry.
I was thinking tonight in Tucson, it happened to be that Victor Le Doux, he was this Frenchman... He's a genuine Frenchman. I believe I was telling you the other day, that when I got through speaking, trying to separate denominationalism from real Christianity... And a man was giving me a--kind of a short talk about it, from a famous denominational Pentecostal church.
And so Danny Henry, I think he's some movie star's cousin or something, and he was a Baptist; and he run down to the platform, and just threw his arms around me and said, "Brother Branham, I hope this don't sound sacrilegious, but that could be the 23rd chapter of Revelation." And when he started to say something else, he started speaking in tongues.
And this, three French people... A Frenchwoman (big, heavyset woman, dark complected, from Louisiana, she may be setting here tonight) wrote it down on a piece of paper, what he said. Then Victor Le Doux, a minister, wrote down the same thing; and they were comparing notes, or going to. A light-headed man (kind of a blond hair) standing way back, packed back as far as he could, come walking up, wanted to see those notes. He was the interpreter of French at the U.N.. And all three notes was the same.
And It said this:

¹⁹ Danny Henry don't know. Like myself, he hardly knows good English, let alone French. And if you notice in there, it's like the French language, they put the verb before the adverb. And the interpretation of all three was exactly alike.
Danny Henry, sometime ago, he make... Danny may be listening in tonight. Victor Le Doux perhaps is, because I understand he's in Tucson. And you people in Tucson at the church, the tabernacle, the Tucson Tabernacle where Brother Green's the pastor; Brother Victor Le Doux, I understand is in a tent meeting right at the foot of Park Avenue where it runs out into Highway 80, coming this a-way. And if you're out there tomorrow night and next night, whenever how long he'll be there, go to hear him; and Danny may be with him. And it could be that they're listening in from the Tabernacle tonight; I don't know.

²¹ Danny went to Jerusalem right after that, and said he was laying there in the tomb on the board--rock board that Jesus laid on, a corpse just before His resurrection. And said, all of sudden I come on his mind; and said he run out, begin crying, and he walked outside. And he was directed... He's a man that makes things out of rocks; tumbles rocks, I meant. Said he went to where they said the cross was drove down, and he just dropped off, knocked off a little piece of rock about like, oh, a inch square, or something; put it in his pocket, and was impressed to bring it home.
When he did, something said to him, "Make Brother Branham a pair of cuff links out of that." So he put it in the acid, and it changed the color from the regular limestone-looking rock to a bloodstone rock. And he made the cuff links.
And when he give them to me, he hadn't noticed it, but right through the middle of both cuff links runs that straight, narrow strip. I have them on tonight to pray for the sick. See, a--a bloodstone color, like the dripping blood, with the straight, narrow line right through, just exactly what his prophecy said, the straight and narrow way (See?) in the prophecy. I showed it to him.
Danny, if you're listening in, you or Brother Le Doux, either one, tonight's going to be the old fashion night when we're to pray for the sick. I'm glad to walk this straight, narrow way, the way of the Gospel, the way of the Word, with our Lord Jesus Christ.

²⁵ God bless you all. Now, you're so nice to talk to, I'll just talk a long time, and I'll have you here too long. Billy said there's between three and four hundred people to be prayed for, so I'll just have to hurry up with our message as quick as possible, and then pray for the sick.
Now, to the people in Arizona, the next Saturday night, we're over at (never can think of the name of that town) Yuma, Arizona, at the banquet. So then in California we follow right on in Sunday morning, to Los Angeles and the places that's been predicted to be there.
Tonight, I want to take a text out of the Scripture.

²⁸ By the way, I was setting in a cafeteria today, the Morrison's Cafeteria; Brother Jack, his wife, I and my wife, we went over to Morrison's Cafeteria to have a little time together, we hadn't been out; the women had never been together. There was a young fellow walked up to me; his name's Green; he's the father of Brother Pearry Green. And he said, "You know, Brother Branham, you was talking about a 'johnny pin' the other night." That's really a... What is it? Bobby pin. He said, "You were talking about a 'johnny pin,'" said, "I got you a 'johnny pin.'" He gave it to me.
Now, that's a "johnny pin," ladies; that won't work in the hair. A "johnny pin," he said--said he'd been using it for years, to hold the pages of his Bible down. So he said, "I'll give you a genuine 'johnny pin.'" So Brother Green, if you're here somewhere or listening in, that "johnny pin's" a dandy, just holds it right.

³⁰ Now, we want to get into the Scriptures right away. And I want you to turn with me now to Psalms 55, and then also Matthew 3. And my subject tonight was Brother Ernie's topic: "On The Wings Of A Snow-white Dove." Now, I won't be able to strike all the notes and Scriptures that I got here, because I'll just kinda skip over a few of them, and because I promised the message.
The Lord willing, for Yuma next Saturday night, I want to preach on the conditions for the rapture if the Lord willing.

³² In Psalms 53... I beg your pardon, Psalms 55:

³³ David, a lover of the wilderness, when he got distressed and the people wouldn't believe him, and the enemies had come upon him, he said, "If I had the wings of a dove, I would fly out into the wilderness and there remain." How many times have I thought that same thing. If I could take my rifle off of the wall, my camp bag, go out in the wilderness and never return again. I've asked the Lord if I can live to see the day... I don't never want a funeral service; I said, "If I can just go out in the woods somewhere, set 'Old Blondie' against the tree..."
That's my rifle, excuse me, I--I--I say that on account of my wife setting there. You know, that rifle a brother here gave me years ago, I killed fifty-five head of game with it, without missing a shot, some of them seven to eight hundred yards. I call it "Blondie" because my wife's a brunette, so she said I think more of the rifle than I do her. But...
So I--I'd like to set it against a tree, and say, "Lord, let Joseph find it someday." I'd like to take the wings of a dove and fly away.
But just like one time up in the mountains and watching an eagle, and seeing him fly away (You know my story of it.), I said, "It's good to be here, Lord; like Peter said, 'we could build three tabernacles.' But down at the foot of the mountain, the sick and the afflicted are waiting; the lost and dying are waiting." So let us do what we can while it's day, and someday there'll be a--the wings of a white Eagle will come down; He'll bear us away.

³⁷ Now, in Matthew 3:16, I'd like to read 16 and 17:

³⁸ Now, we want to speak a few minutes on this bird. A dove has always been one of my favorite birds. And thinking of a dove, a dove is really--and a pigeon is the same bird. A pigeon is a domestic dove. They're both the same family. I've looked it up and it is the same family. A pigeon and a dove, they're both of the same family. The habits of these birds are outstanding.
I preached here some few years ago in a tent meeting out here with Brother Moore, on "The Lamb And The Dove." I guess you all remember that; and how that the dove is the most cleanest bird that we have, and the lamb is the most meekest animal that we have. They're both sacrificial bird and beast.

⁴⁰ How beautiful it's typed here as Jesus being the Lamb, and God being the Dove. And the dove would not have settled on a wolf; his nature's not right. It couldn't have settled on a dog; his nature's not right. It had to be on a lamb; the two natures had to be the same. And that's the way we have to be; our natures has to change from the roaring sinner to the meekness of a lamb.
And did you notice the Dove led the Lamb? And notice, the Lamb forfeit everything He had to the Dove. And look where the Dove led Him: to crucifixion for the sins of us all.
Now, the Dove, if God wanted to represent His Son, He was represented by the most cleanest and meekest animal on the earth, a earthbound creature; but when God represented Himself in the heavens, was by the meekest and most cleanest bird there is in the heavens: a dove.

⁴³ Now, doves vary; there's many different variations of them. Usually our turtledove is kind of a gray-looking bird. And then there's a morning dove, and then there's the evening dove. There's also called the Sonora dove that we have at home; he's a little, gray fellow, little, bitty fellow with red stripes on his wings. There's many different kinds of doves, and they vary in colors. So is there same thing in the pigeons.
Now, the dove is a very odd constructed dove, because his habits that he cannot eat anything that's unclean; he just couldn't do it, because he's not built for it.

⁴⁵ Now, I've always talked about the dove being a symbol of God, and the crow being a symbol of the hypocrite. A crow can set on an old dead carcass and eat all day long, and fly right out in the field and eat wheat with the dove. But the dove can eat wheat all right, but it can't eat the dead carcass. See? He just can't do it; he can't stomach it. And I wondered why he couldn't do it; they're both fowls, both birds. But why? It's the structure of them.
That's the way it is with a genuine Christian. A just a denominational Christian can just take anything, but a genuine, borned again Christian cannot take the things of the world. He's constructed different.

⁴⁷ I found out that the dove don't have any gall. There's no gall in a dove, because he has no need of it. So that's the way it is with a Christian, he doesn't need any bitterness (See?) 'cause he only can eat the food of God. And it doesn't take bitterness to dissolve that; takes love (See?) so he--to dissolve the food. Bitterness: "Oh," they say, "well..." they difference with It. But love always receives It, the Word of God.
Now, he has no gall; so therefore, he could not... It's just against him to eat anything bad. And if he would, it would kill him. But there's no danger, he isn't going to eat it, because he has no appetite for it.

⁵⁰ And that's the way with a real Christian. Did you know a real Christian doesn't have even any sin at all imputed to him? David said, "Blessed is the man who God will not impute sin to." When you're washed in the Blood of the Lamb (not by make-belief, but really the--the Blood of the Lamb), God does not impute to you anything that's done, because you're under the Blood and He doesn't see it. There's a Blood sacrifice; the only thing He can see you in, is the way He saw you before the foundation of the world when He put your name in the Lamb's Book of Life. That's all He can look at, because you are redeemed from everything that was ever done; you're washed in the Blood of the Lamb. Therefore, there's no gall in you; there's no unclean habit in you; because that the Blood of the Lamb has did this; and God cannot impute sin to you after you've got a sin-offering laying there waiting for you.
"Why," you say, "that gives me plenty of room then, Brother Branham; I can do what I want to." I always do, always. But when a man can really see what Jesus done for him, and turn around and do something contrary to Him, it shows he never received Christ.

⁵² I got a little wife setting back there. She's ten years younger than me, and as gray as I am. The reason is because she's stood between me and the--and the outside world. If I was going overseas, and I'd... Wouldn't this be some sort of a family to live in, if I'd gather my family around me and I'd say: "Looky here, Mrs. Branham; you want to realize that you're Mrs. William Branham. Thou shalt not have any other husbands while I'm gone. Don't you make eyes at any other man," and all these things. "Don't you flirt at all. If you do, when I come back I'm going to divorce you."
And she'd turn around and say, "Now, my good man, I want to tell you something also. Thou shalt not take out any other woman while you're gone. Thou shalt not do this and that. If you do, just consider yourself divorced when you come home."
Now, wouldn't that be a loving family? Uh-huh. See? No. If I really love her, though I believe if I did make a mistake and slip and do something wrong, I believe she'd forgive me for it because she loves me. And if she did, I believe I'd forgive her for it; certainly, because I love her. But if I love her like that, as long as I love her like that she has no worry. Though she would forgive me, I wouldn't hurt her for nothing. I--I--I'd feel the guiltiest guy in the world; I couldn't wait for the minute I'd tell her about what I done, because I love her. Well, that's... If I love her with phileo love like that, how much greater would my agapao love be to Jesus Christ?

⁵⁵ Though I might smoke a cigarette, I never in my life; but though I would, He might forgive me for it; I believe He would. If I took a drink, I never in my life, but I believe He'd forgive me for it. And I love Him too much. God, help me; I don't want to do anything like that (See?), because I love Him. That stuff is gone from me, because when He changed me from a crow to a dove it made a difference; my appetite and things left me; then sin is not imputed to me, because I don't aim to do it; it's not in me to do it.

⁵⁶ Now, another great thing about this dove. He's a strange bird. Did you ever see all the birds...
One of my favorite birds is a robin. Now, you boys quit shooting at my robins (See?), 'cause I don't want you doing that. My robin, you know how he got his red breast? You know, one day there was a Man dying on the cross; nobody would help Him; God had forsaken the Man, and He was dying. His hands had nails in them; His feet and his side a-bleeding, crown on His head and thorns, blood running over His face. And there was a little bird passed by, a little, brown bird. And he looked at that, was--thought it was the most pitiful sight he ever saw. And he knowed he was just a little bird, but he looked at them great big, old cruel Roman nails drove in His hand, and he flew in with his little beak and tried to pull them loose. He got his breast all bathed with blood, since then it's been red. I want my breast shielded with His Blood too, defending Him when I come to meet Him. I love a little robin.

⁵⁸ But, you know, a little robin has to take a bath; but, you know, a dove don't have to; no. He's got some kind of oil on the inside of him that oils him and keeps him clean from the inside out. You know that? The dove has. The dove oils himself. Did you ever pick up one, smell that odor on him, a pigeon or something? That's oil that's produced from the inside of him. His body makes up a oil gland that keeps his feathers always clean on the outside because he's clean from the inside out. That's right. He's a marvelous little bird.
Now, I know you can hunt them here, I think, in Louisiana. Don't do that. Oh, I couldn't do it. I guess if I was hungry, it'd be all right, but I--I just couldn't pull the trigger on one if I had to.

⁶⁰ There's... A dove has a great strange thing in our family. One day when my grandmother... She come from up here in Kentucky, off the Cherokee reservation. She was dying, a little woman, and she was... They had... I think they call it scrofula or something; she was dying. And grandfather knelt down by the side of the bed; while Mama, Aunt Birtie, Aunt Howlie, all of them knelt around the bed; Uncle Charlie (little bitty, four-year-old boy,) the baby; Mama, the oldest, being about twelve years old. And she had combed her black hair out on the bed, and she started singing, "Rock of Ages, cleft for me, let me hide myself in Thee," when she was dying. Grandpa, at that time, wasn't a Christian. I baptized him at eighty-seven years old, in the Name of Jesus Christ, at the foot of the river there where the Angel of the Lord appeared.
But while she was singing this song, with her feeble little hands up in the air, a dove flew in the door, come around, set down on the top of the bed, started cooing. God took her soul.

⁶² I went over to London, England with Brother Jack and with Brother Gordon Lindsay, and there'd been a woman by the name of Florence Nightingale (claims to be, I think, a great-granddaughter or something of the late Florence Nightingale) that wrote me many letters. She was down in South Africa, dying with a cancer. And she had a picture; you seen it in the book. I never seen a mortal like that in my life. Brother Jack, I believe, was with me that day. We went into a minister's house at the rectory, just behind the church where they'd brought her.
While we were yet out on the... Where the plane come down, they paged us, and she was in a ambulance there then; had been flown up from--from down in South Africa, knowing that I was coming to England at that time. The minister took her to the rectory, so we went back there to pray for her.

⁶⁴ I've seen lots of sick people, but her little arms didn't look over a inch across, her--her skull where it laces together, you could see it. And she--her limbs way up here around her hips wasn't over that, about two inches across, just the bone. And she couldn't raise her hands; she was too weak to raise her hands. And she was trying to say something, and I couldn't understand her. And when I finally got to hear, I believe through a nurse, she said, "Brother Branham, pray that God will let me die." She couldn't--didn't want to live. And I noticed, and tears was running off of the side of them bone on her face. Where she got enough moisture about her to cry, I don't know; for her veins was collapsed, and she was in a terrible condition. Coming to pray for the sick, I couldn't pray for her to die. But she just looked like couldn't die; she just lingering on.
I knelt down with your pastor in the room to pray. And when I knelt down to pray, a little dove flew up by the window, begin cooing. When I finished praying, I thought it was a pet dove there somewhere. Foggy outside, how England is, the British Isles there... And this little dove quit cooing, and flew away. I walked over and laid hands upon her and called the Name of the Lord. And the woman is a great big, strong healthy woman today, "On the wings of a Dove."
He keeps hisself clean from the inside. A Christian does that too; he cleans from the inside. That keeps the malice... He don't need any gall to digest anything, because he doesn't eat it. See? He's clean from the inside out.

⁶⁷ Now, we notice that this bird... Many things I've got written down here, but the clock keeps moving around. This bird was also used in the Old Testament for sacrifice, for an atonement, and for cleansing. Let's just refer here to one in Genesis 15:9. Let's think of this verse just for a moment. Now, Abraham was--asked God here, how would He do this. And God is making His Word back to Abraham, and He does it in a strange way. Begin with about the... Let's begin at the 1st verse. I don't like to hurry this.

⁶⁹ The covenant was made... You know, how he cleave them apart, and how that this...
Or the old times, when they took--made a covenant, they would take and write the--the agreement up, and kill an animal, stand in between it, tear the covenant in two, one person took one part...
Like the Chinese laundry used to do. The Chinaman here, he couldn't write English, so he wrote on there and tore a piece of paper and handed you a part. And you--you remember the Chinese laundries when they used to do that. And you... Their--their two ends had to compare, to get your clothes. See? And you couldn't fool him, 'cause he had the other end of it. You might recopy your name, but you can't retear that paper. See? So he had... It had to be the same piece of paper.
So that's the way they done it in the oriental days, long--or long ago in the eastern days. They'd kill a animal, stand in between it, tear the piece of goatskin apart, one took one... And when the covenant was confirmed, they brought the pieces together and they had to dovetail just exactly.

⁷³ Now, what God is showing him here is this: on these sacrifices is speaking of Christ; that how God took Jesus to the Calvary and tore Him apart, and received the body up into heaven, and sent the Spirit down upon us, that the same Spirit was on Him has to be on you to dovetail with the Body, to be the Bride at the end time. See, see? That's right. See? Won't be a denomination now, It'll be the Word, what He was. See?
But like that Word has to come to Word, like cell in a human being. You know, when your--your body's being built, it isn't one cell of a human, next of a dog, and next of a pig. Oh, no, no. It's all human cell. That's the way the Body of Christ is, all the Word of God, not just part of It, some tradition added to It; no, It's all the Body of Christ.
Now, we find here that he used both a turtledove and a young pigeon, because they are the selfsame family. Now, you always...

⁷⁶ So notice. I just refer to a couple of these Scriptures: Leviticus 12, and the 6th verse. We find here that the order of a woman being purified; if the woman had a baby, she had to wait. If it was a boy, she had to wait for thirty-three days before she could enter the congregation with the doves for purification. If she had a girl, she had to wait ninety-six days before she could enter the congregation.
Now, we find here, the 6th verse:

⁷⁹ Now, it--now it was used for atonements, and in the atonement for sin, one dove. Or of leprosy, which is a type of sin, you brought two doves: one's head was taken off, turned upside down and bled on the other one; and then the other dove was set free. And when the dove flew, he bathed the ground with his blood of his mate, and the blood cried out to God, "Holy, Holy, Holy is the Lord God."
Can't you see the dying Mate Jesus Christ, was killed and sprinkled upon us, that we should go free, crying out "Holy, Holy, Holy, unto the Lord." What beautiful types. Wished I had some voice. Now, type the great Holy Spirit as we just read in Revelations 3:16.

⁸² Used of God for signs, this dove was. Noah was given a sign, as the brother just sang about it. God was displeased, and there was nothing going to stay His wrath, for He said, "The day you eat thereof, that day you die." And Noah had found grace with God and had built an ark according to the constructions--the instructions, rather, that He had given him. And he had been floated up.
I can imagine his--what happened in them days when they said, "This old man up on the hill, an old fanatic, building an ark, saying it's going to rain, it never has rained." But it...
Noah said, "It's going to rain anyhow."
And then I know the day that he went in, I think what... can't think of what day it was, I believe the seventeenth day of May. Noah entered into the ark, and God shut the door.
And the clouds begin to come; the rains begin to fall; the sewers begin to fill up; the fountains of the deep broke up; the springs all belched up their water. Finally people got into the houses, climbed up. The old ark set right there just the same.
After while when enough begin to get around her, she begin to rise up higher and higher. The people knocked at the doors and screamed, but it did no--no good, Noah could not open the door. God closed it; God's the only One can open it.
So is it at our Ark, Jesus Christ; God opened the door for us on Calvary, He'll close it just as sure as He opened it.

⁸⁹ And it floated, and on and on, maybe a mile's deep over the top of the earth when this earth was tumbling out from the way from the--the--its regular orbit. And around and around it went, and chunks, and trees, and above the mountains and so forth, pitching for forty days and nights... And when the winds begin to cease...
God's wrath is horrible. His love is pure and Divine; and His wrath is just as Divine--it's as Divine as His love is, because He must pass judgment because He is a Judge. He's a Law-giver, and law without penalty is not law. So there must be a penalty to law. And you transgress God's laws, that's when you pay the penalty.

⁹² Now, we notice that after Noah floating up there, no doubt seasick from all that roaring and popping, and the wrath of God mashing and crushing, and screams and so forth. Then it begin to quieten down; nothing happened. Days passed; nothing happened. Perhaps the food supply for the animals and so forth running low, nothing happened. So he thought, "Wonder... I can't see out."
The ark was so constructed (when you were once in it), there was only one window in it, and it was right in the top. You couldn't look sideways; you couldn't look no way but straight up. And that's the way the Ark, Jesus Christ, is. You can't look at the next fellow; you can't look at nothing but Christ when you're in the Ark, because there's only one door, and He is that Door we talked about this morning. You have to keep looking up, "For he that will put his hand to the plow and even turn to look back, is not worthy of the plowing."

⁹⁴ Now, as in this ark... And he could see light, and perhaps sunlight, but he wondered where he was. The ark was still a-floating; he could hear the waves against the sides, but he knew that there'd been many days; surely the water was receding by that time. So he went and got an untrusted bird, treacherous, and he tried him, and he sent him out. He was a crow, and that crow never did return, because he found pleasure out there, outside the ark of God. He flew from one old dead body to another, eating the carcasses and the a-carrion that was floating on the water; and he was perfectly satisfied.

⁹⁵ So after several days he tried again, for he knowed... He didn't want to step out in the wrath of God. So he turned a dove loose. And this dove was of a different nature than the... It was not a vulture; neither is it a scavenger; it can only eat the clean pure things. And it was so satisfied because it couldn't find nothing else to put the soles of his feet on, it returned back to the ark. Noah said, "Well, the flood's still on."
Then he waited several other days, and he sent out again; like his prayer, "O God, has Your wrath been appeased? Is--is--is Your wrath over, Lord? Is it all done?" And he said, "Now, if I send her out this time, she may stay out there if the floods are down; she may stay." But he sent her out by prayer, and then when she went out there directed by God, she picked off a holly leaf off of a tree, and flew back and pecked on the window again.
God used the dove for a sign. She come back saying that the flood is over, and then God opened the door, and they went out. That's Genesis 8:8.

⁹⁸ Also used in Matthew 3:16, again when God's wrath was on the earth. And there was no way, the darkest of night, midnight, the churches had got things in such a twist till there was no way to get out of it. And there was false teachers, all kinds of things coming up, all kinds of professions coming up, but God used a dove again. It pleased Him; His Son Jesus had pleased Him so well, that He identified Him.
Now, they couldn't believe that this Baby that was born down there in that stable in a manger of hay, before his father and mother, supposingly to be, was married. They couldn't imagine God using anything like that. So He had to be identified to the world; and that day down on the river, when He walked down to prove Hisself God's Masterpiece (that I talked about this morning)... When He was obedient to walk into the water...

¹⁰⁰ Now, if you notice there, there's a great lesson. John was the greatest man on earth at the time. Jesus said, "There never was a man borned of a woman as great as he," to that time. And he was a prophet. You believe that? Now, remember, if the Word of God will come to anything in the land, it'll be a prophet. That's always God's way. Do you believe that Jesus was the Word manifested in flesh? So there's only one way He can come to be introduced; not by the priests.
He didn't go up and say, "Caiaphas, will you introduce Me?" If He did, He made the same mistake that David did in our lesson the other day (See?); if He went up to the church, and said, "Will you introduce Me?"...

¹⁰² Just notice when He was borned even. When He was borned, He was borned in the shadow of the church. And they was probably rang the bells and everything, but it was shepherds that recognized Him and Magi. See?
And here He is now, on... ready for His ministry. And if He is the Word... According to God's great plan, the Word can only... The Lord God does nothing until He first reveals It to His servants the prophets. That's always His pattern, has to be; when the Seals were opened, when anything else. Any major event taking place in the earth, God reveals it to His prophets. And John was the prophet, for he was prophesying He'd come.
Then down off the side of a hill one day, when a discussion was going on, a bunch of priests standing around... And they said, "Do you mean to tell me that you call yourself a prophet, and stand over there in that mud?" (Not in a church, because they wouldn't have him.) "Stand over in that mud, and tell me that the hour's coming when the great Jehovah who ordained these sacrifices, when great Jehovah who built this temple, who came into it as a Pillar of Fire, the day will come when that daily sacrifice will be taken away?"
He said, "There will come a Man, and He's among you now (somewhere out there), and He will take away the sin." The priest was disgusted with him.

¹⁰⁸ John looked up. Now, what is he? The prophet. And here is the Word; there comes the Word coming right straight to the prophet, right to the water. John said, "Behold, the Lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world. There He is; that's Him." Jesus never spoke a word, walked right out into the water. And I can see there, standing in that water (Think of a drama.), two of the greatest that ever struck the earth: God the Word, and His prophet.
Notice. The Word come to the prophet in this dispensation of grace in the water. Uh-huh. I thought you'd catch it. Uh-huh. In the water, the first revelation of the Word was in the water. Now, you see where the Bride started, the Evening-light Message? In the water. The Word, true Word not mixed up with creeds, but come to the prophet in the water, by the water.

¹¹⁰ Notice. Could you imagine the eyes of the Word and the eyes of the prophet meeting in the water? Oh, that's too much for me. There stood the prophet; there stood the Word, looking in each others' eyes. And the prophet said, "I have need to be baptized of Thee, why comest Thou unto me?" And the Word said... It has to be true.
Now, let me give a drama here. "John, you're a prophet, you know the Word. (See?) You recognize Me, you know Who I am."
"I have need to be baptized of Thee," John said.
Jesus said, "Suffer that to be so. That's exactly right; you do have need to be baptized of Me. But remember, John, being a prophet, it is behooving to us, or becoming to us (as the Word and the prophet), that we fulfill every Word. For, John (Here's the revelation now.)--John, you know Who I am, I am the Sacrifice. And according to the Word of God, the sacrifice had to be washed before it was presented for sacrifice." Is that right? The Word... "The lamb was washed and then presented for sacrifice, and I am that Lamb. And I must be washed before I can be presented to the world for a Sacrifice. Suffer it to be so, John, for thus it is becoming to us as the Word and the prophet together."

¹¹⁵ Well, there can't be a mistake. Now, everyone of these things...
Now, see, if it wasn't that very setup, John would've been like any of the rest of us; so they say, "Yeah, I--I know Who you are, Lord."
"Well," He said, "wait a minute, I'm the Word. 'Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every Word.' Eve left off one, but you got to take every Word. And I am that Sacrifice, and I must be washed before I'm presented. But what you said, John, is true."
John being a prophet, knowing the Word had to be fulfilled, he suffered that and baptized Him. And when He was raised up out of the water, there come the Message from heaven on the wings of a Dove, "This is My beloved Son." He sent the redemption Message of grace on the wings of a Dove, come flying down out of the heavens. "Peace on earth, good will toward men." The Sacrifice was ready right then; It's been raised, fed, His ministry was ready, a Word that would redeem the whole world, "It's over."

¹¹⁹ The dove is used in the Bible as a symbol of peace, and also it's used by nations as a symbol of peace. We have nations... Our nation is represented by an eagle. And there's other birds of other nations. Rome has an eagle. Germany has an eagle; many of them, great birds of the sky. But in all of them, the dove symbolizes peace in all nations. It's a universal thing.
Just like Brother Green said one night, Brother Pearry Green said, "The symbol of surrender is raise your hands. Any nation, raise up your hands, it's surrender." He said, "When you sing, raise up your hands, you surrender it all."
And the dove is the symbol of peace in every nation. Why is it done? Because of its gentleness and because of its innocence. That's the reason it symbols peace.

¹²² Another thing about the dove, it is a home-loving bird. It loves to stay home. And another thing it is, it's always loyal to its mate. The dove, male or female, never leave one another. That female finds her mate in mating season. See? That's complimentary to God's great creation. That's the reason He made Eve a byproduct. See? If she'd have been made like other females, when the time come for her mating time, she'd have found her mate; but she could any time. See? And that's the way; that's what it is. I just... We don't want to go into that, because I've got it on "Marriage and Divorce" and so forth. And how it... But yet she's honorable and brought that virtue, and you know I preached on it the other night. All right, notice, she's got a great responsibility.
But the dove is always loyal to his mate: always, never leaves her.

¹²⁵ And may I stop here just for a minute to say this: a true Bride, female dove, is loyal to her Mate too. It won't inject any dogmas, any denominational doctrines, anything of the world. It'll stay loyal to its Mate, the Word: always loyal.
And by this home-loving conduct, by the conduct of its home-loving, it has been successfully used for a--a carrier pigeon. Because it loves home, you turn it loose anywhere, it'll always go back home. It'll go back home.
We'd like to stress on that a little while, and you Christians would understand what I mean. It always finds its way back home; so therefore, it's been used for carrier pigeon. It's used in time of war, used to be; they still use them, carrier pigeons to carry a message. So you see, then that makes the dove both by God and man, a messenger; a dove is a messenger. It was a messenger to Noah, to tell Noah that there's peace again. It was used by God to vindicate that this was His Son, the Sacrifice to bring peace upon the earth and goodwill to man. It was used as a messenger.

¹²⁸ Right here I have a little story in my mind, I read one time out of a book. Now, I don't want to say this is sure; it may be in "The Decline of the First World War." I'm not positive of that now; if you miss seeing it, then I'm wrong. I either read it in a book... It's been many years ago. But it was certainly a--a really a--a dramatic thing that happened.
The American soldiers was pinned down by German machine-gun fire, and they were in kind of a pit. You soldiers, I guess, understand how they were on a reconnaissance somewhere. And they was pinned down, and they had just a little bit of ammunition left. And the Germans was moving in great units, moving in everywhere. And they knowed that unless they'd get some reinforcement, some help, that they would soon all die (they had to); the Germans coming right down off the mountain, looking right down their neck, going right into them like that.

¹³⁰ And one of them happened to remember that he had a little mascot, a little pigeon. So he knew that this pigeon, if it could get out of there, would carry the message to the main headquarters to where they'd been stationed. And so they set down and wrote on a note, "We are pinned down in a certain position at a certain area. We're out of ammunition, in a few hours we'll have to surrender or either we'll be massacred." And they pinned this, or tied it on the--the foot of this little dove and turned him loose.
Now, he's a home-loving bird, so he... What does he do? He takes back home for his--meet, find his mate. She was worried about him; he'd have to come back home.

¹³² And as he went up, the Germans seen what had happened. So the thing they done, they started shooting at the dove. And one of them hit him with a .30 caliber machine gun, or bullet, it broke his leg. Another one tore a big hunk out of his back. His chest was bruised all the way across. One of his wings was crippled, the end shot off of it, and he flew sideways. But he kept climbing, and finally he made it. Crippled, wounded, broken, bruised, but he fell in the camp with the message. That was a great dove.
But, oh, brother, Isaiah 53 tells us of One, came down from home and all that was good:

¹³⁴ Sickness, superstition, and devils had us pinned down; there was no way out; the church had gone wrong; they'd went off on denominational things (and the Pharisees, Sadducees, and washing of pots and pans), and the Word of God become of no effect. But this little Dove came down, and there's only one thing could take place: there had to be a redeemer.
But being wounded, broken, beaten, torn, but He knowed His way back home. So from Calvary's cross where they bruised Him, mashed Him, tore Him, like a bunch of wolves upon Him, He made His flight from Calvary and then landed in heaven's doors, saying, "It's finished. It's finished. They're free. Sickness can be healed now. Sinners can be saved. The captive can be set free."
Though He was bruised and wounded, that great battle there when even everything against Him... Even the poet cried out.

¹³⁷ I've been a neurotic all my life. As a little boy there was something struck me, that scare me, about every seven years it would happen to me. Brother Jack remembers when I first started, come off the field for a year; something just happened.
I remember the day that Juanita Hemphill... I think her name's Juanita Kelly now; she married Brother Kelly after the death of her husband. Anna Jeanne, I've got their pictures and things, they were such... And her... And them two girls and Sister Moore had a--a little trio. They sang that song that I never forget: "Looking Beyond the Sunset." Brother Jack, you remember, I guess, coming up from Florida. What fine little girls.

¹³⁹ And I remember that morning a little Pentecostal group from up here in northern part of the country, in Michigan somewhere, those girls stood out there when Brother Hooper... I seen him here the other night, I... He may not be here now, Brother Ed Hooper. Are you here, Brother Ed? I don't think he... He set here the other night. None... Many of you know him. He and I, and Brother Hooley, we was leaving. And those girls standing there on the corner singing that, gave us, each one, a yellow rose that they took out of their hair. (That's where that maniac had been healed down there; great things had took place.)
Coming up the road just as happy as I could be, all of a sudden it struck me; a year later 'fore I entered the field again, just killed me.

¹⁴¹ Since a little boy, I always said I didn't know what a vision was. A little boy, I always said, "If I--if I'd only fall in one of those trance, and see that I'd get well." That time... I always wanted to go to Mayo's to find out what was wrong. The doctors there...
My stomach gets sour; and oh, my. Brother Jack's helped me around the house. I walk right around the house; and just a hot greasy water like, flying out of my mouth. And walk to the pulpit, and pray for people that was twice that bad, and be healed. I've had them lay my hands on a man with a cancer on his face, and the cancer left his face, standing there; and I was so sick I couldn't stand up.

¹⁴³ And you don't know what I've suffered; just mental oppression. Every seven years it's come, all my life. That's where I'm at now, seven eights.
So I was--I was so distressed; I cried, I begged, I pleaded. And I remember when I finally thought I had enough money to go to Mayo's for an examination; they said, "They'll find what your trouble is." Wife and I, and Becky back there... Sarah was a little, bitty fellow. I had just entered my healing ministry. And we took off to Mayo's.
I went through the clinic. And the night before I'd find--had my finals the next morning, I just woke up and was setting there on the bed looking around. And I looked out in front of me, and there was a little boy, looked just like me, about seven years old; and looked at it, and it was me. And he was standing by an old snag tree. And on that tree...

¹⁴⁷ Any of you squirrel hunters know you can rub a stick up and down on a tree like that, and it'll scare a squirrel and run him out if he's in the hollow.
And I was seeing there where that squirrel had been, and I thought, "What kind of squirrel is that?" and I rubbed it. And when I did, I looked over and it was me then about thirty-eight years old, the little boy was gone. So I rubbed that limb, and out of the hollow log, pole, come a little squirrel about that long, dark, almost black, and looked like little currents flying from him; little bitty beady eyes, the wickedest looking thing that I ever seen, looked like a weasel more than a squirrel.

¹⁴⁹ And he looked right at me. And I opened my mouth to say, "Well..." And when I did, he... Before you could've batted your eye, he flew right into my mouth, went down into my stomach, and just tearing me to pieces. And as I come out of the vision, with my hands up, looking, I went a-screaming, "O God, have mercy. It's killing me."
I heard a Voice way down in the room, say, "Remember, it's only six inches long."
How many's heard that story? I've told you that many times, the people around the Tabernacle.
Well, on and on it went, suffering just the same.
Mayo Brothers, the next day, examined me. Said, "Your father was an Irishman; he drank. Your mother being a half Indian, that makes you almost a half-breed. So you'd be... You're--you're--you're just such a nervous wreck until you'll never be out of it." Said, "Otherwise, you're healthy. But that, that's something in the soul that man cannot control." Said, "You will..." Said, "When a man dies, can't hold a autopsy, 'cause his soul's gone." He said, "Well, you'll never get over it."

¹⁵⁴ And that guy said, my old doctor, said, "My father had it; he died at about eighty-five, ninety years old," somewhere along there, he said. And said, "A month or two before he died, I examined him; had it all of his life, he'd get them" said, "spells."
"Some people," said, "they get it; they're high tempered"; said, "that's the kind that'll kill you." He said, "The other kind, like women in menopause, they cry. You got the kind that's kind of a weary feeling." Said, "The old-timers used to call it 'had the blues'; it wouldn't leave them." Said, "When that hits you, your stomach sours; you're just upset."
I said, "But, sir, I don't do nothing." I said, "I'm happy."
Said, "That's right. That's just out of the human grab bag." Said, "You'll always have it." Oh, what a discouraging thing.
But the words, to think it, "Remember, it's only six inches long," that's hung with me, as my dear wife back there can tell you. Year after year, I've thought of that.

¹⁵⁹ And then, going overseas this last time, I was... Before... Well, I was back home, and I was on a squirrel-hunting trip. I jumped out of the car with Brother Banks Wood, who's listening in tonight, and I started to run up the hill, and looked like my heart would jump out of me.
And I asked Dr. Sam Adair; I said, "What does that?"
He said, "Next time you have it, get a cardiogram."
Said, "All right."
So it happened again in the next year, and went and took the cardiogram. He said, "Nothing wrong with your heart," said, "you're just nervous." Started coming on then...

¹⁶⁴ Well, another doctor said to me, a good friend of mine, said, "That's your heart, boy," said, "you better be careful." That's the year I called Brother Moore and he got somebody to preach in my stead, when I went on that ram hunt with Brother Fred. I'd go up over mountains just like I did when I was sixteen years old, mile after mile, running; never bothered me a bit. See?
I come back and told Sam. He said, "Well, there's something wrong; you'd better be careful."
Then I saw a vision of an old doctor standing with those--old fashion doctor with stethoscopes over his arm. He said... He was standing in front of me one day; he said, "Don't let them tell you that's your heart; that's your stomach."
So I--I thought, "Well, I'll just take that word, 'cause it was a vision. Come on."

¹⁶⁸ I started to Africa; to get some shots, and I had to take a bunch of shots before going to Africa; that's the law. So when I was getting these shots, he said, "Why, I can't find one thing wrong with you." Said, "Your hemoglobin, your blood's ninety-six, it's ninety-six." Said, "If you was sixteen years old, it wouldn't be any worse--wouldn't be any better." And said, "Heart enough to beat you a hundred years. Lungs, everything," said, "you're all right; no sugar, nothing."
I said, "Thank you." So I got a physical test, and--and to take my--my health certificate to the board.
So he said, "You know anything about it?"
I said, "Nothing but persistent souring in the stomach all the time."
He said, "Well, I'll tell you." He said...
I said, "Oh, I've been examined. I've been to Mayo Brothers, and everywhere."

¹⁷⁴ He said, "But wait a minute." He said, "Sometimes a ulcer is so little till that barium meal won't show it; and sometimes it's too big to show it, because an X-ray is only a shadow. And a little bitty ulcer, you can't see it, it won't enough stick. Whole lot of little bitty ulcers could do that." He said, "I know an old doctor up here that's found an instrument; they got it now; they can put you to sleep with a little sodium pentothal, put a tube in your throat, and they just actually look down in your stomach and see what's wrong." Said, "He..." Said, "He's your type of people; he's a Christian." Said, "Why don't you go see him."

¹⁷⁵ I took his name: Dr. Van Ravensworth. So when I come back, I went up to see the old doctor. Oh, he's a fine old man from Dutch East Indies, out of a big line of missionaries. And he had heard of me and read my book, and oh, he just shook my hand; he said, "Brother Branham, I'd be glad to do that for you." He said, "Tell you what to do; next week you run over at the hospital over here," and said, "and call me up before you go." And said, "I have to give you a little shot of pentothal." And said, "Then when I do," said, "it puts you to sleep for five minutes."
My little girl had just took it to have a tooth pulled, and Brother Norman's little girl. "A five minute sleep," I thought, "that won't bother me." So I thought I'd be satisfied then to look at it.

¹⁷⁷ And then the next morning, I raised up in the bed and looked around; I looked over in the twin bed; my wife over there, she hadn't woke up yet. And I was looking out the window towards the great Catalina Mountains there where I live, and I looked up there where the Angel of the Lord put that Sword in my hand, where the seven Angels that you see in the picture appeared, great things taken place.
And I looked, and as I looked, there I was standing by that tree again, right where that squirrel was. I looked up there; I thought, "That's that squirrel's den." And I thought, "Wonder if he's still up there?" (in the vision). I raked the side of the tree, out he come. And before I could even bat my eye (He was the oddest looking squirrel I ever seen; now, you'll have to know my ministry to know these symbols and things.), he jumped at me but he missed me; He missed my mouth, hit on my chest and fell off.
And as soon as he did, I heard Something said, "Go to the Catalina Mountains."

¹⁸⁰ So I turned around; I said, "Meda, are you awake, honey?" And I woke her up.
She said, "What's the matter?" About five o'clock in the morning...
I said, "I was looking out here, and I saw that squirrel again, Honey."
"What squirrel?"
I said, "The one I seen up there at Mayo's." I said, "You know what? He missed my mouth this time; he never hit me; he went out on my chest." I said, "Praise be to God. I've looked, oh, since a little boy, I have longed to see that happen. If I could ever see that happen, not even... Before I knowed what a vision was, if I could ever see that happen, then I said, 'I'd be all right. Whatever that told me, that's what I'd be.' And for forty years I've looked for that, and there it happened."
Before, when I was at Mayo's, the same time I was up there when they give me that message, and I saw the vision...

¹⁸⁶ My old mother that's gone on to glory now, very odd woman, she had about three or four dreams in her life, and they were always true. She'd tell me, and the... She'd start to tell me, I'd tell... I'd say, "Stop right... Mama, I'll tell you what the rest of it is." See?
'Cause always when you give me a dream to interpret, you don't always tell me just exactly what it is. Then when I see it over again, I see exactly what you dreamed about, then He tells me what it is. See? You don't have to tell me what the dream is, He shows me the dream Himself. See? And then I see, I say, "Well, you didn't tell me this and tell me that." See? And so the God that can interpret a dream, can show a dream; He can show one; He can interpret it. And so then...

¹⁸⁸ Well, wasn't there something like that in the Bible, said, "If you can..." I--I... Just happened to come to me. Daniel, wasn't it? Or, no, Joseph--Joseph. Well, it's somewhere in the Bible. I just remembered that, said, "If you can show me... If you can tell me what a..." Oh, it's King Nebuchadnezzar; that's right. Said, "If you can... If you can't..."
The magicians said, "Tell me the dream."
He said, "It's gone from me." That's right. That, I remember that; just thought of it then.
Now, notice. And mama, she said, "Billy," when I come back, she said, "come here, son, and set down." She said, "I had a strange dream. I dreamed that I seen you laying sick, just about to die with your stomach as usual." How many diets has she cooked me. And she said, "You were building a house upon a hill." And said, "I seen six white doves come down from heaven, cooing, in a letter 'S' and they set upon your chest. And you was looking, and the one in front was trying to tell you something." Said, "They was real glossy, white doves. And they took their little heads and put against your cheek, and going, 'coo, coo, coo,'" And said, "I couldn't understand it." Said, "They just kept going, 'coo, coo, coo.'"
I said, "Oh, I see it, praise the Lord." And said, "They formed their letter 'S' again and went back up into the skies, going 'coo, coo, coo, coo,' going back home."
Well, the little animal that I saw was six inches long. The string of doves that Mom saw was six; six is incomplete. I knew that someday I'd see that seventh one. That was man, suffering; so on and on it went.

¹⁹³ That morning, I got up after seeing this vision; obeyed the Lord. I took my little boy Joseph to school (He's listening to me now in Tucson). I took him to school, and told Meda I didn't know when I'd be back.
And I took off up into Catalina, up into the--the foothills, and--and went up into the place where the Angel of the Lord put the Sword in my hand. Real early; and started climbing up the mountain.
Well, instead of going up in the peaks this a-way (which there's a lot snakes, scorpions, you know how Arizona is), I turned to my right; Something said, "Turn to your right." I went way into the peaks; I went around, and I was going around those great huge rocks, many times bigger than this tabernacle, laying up in them tops there where seldom ever a person could get.

¹⁹⁷ And along about eleven o'clock, I was going into a little cove, back where some--a little place turned in like this over a little deer trail. And I had my shirt off, my hat in my hand, because I was just lathering with sweat. And so I turned in there, and as I turned into that little cove, I felt the Presence of the Lord. I jerked off my hat and looked around. I thought, "He's here somewhere. I know He's here." I thought, "What is it?" I made a few more steps. I said, "Lord, You're here somewhere."
And I looked laying on the path, and there laid that little squirrel; had jumped at something and missed it, and it hit a bunch of cholla (That's jumping cactus). It rammed through his head, chest, stomach, and he was dead. That odd-looking little squirrel, he had missed my mouth and hit that cholla. And the Voice of the Lord said, "Your enemy is dead." I stood there, and I trembled. I took my foot and ma...

¹⁹⁹ Usually crows would've eat it up. I killed a snake, couple days later than that, it laid on the road about a half hour. There's always eagles and crows flying through there, and they'll pick it up right now. I killed a coral snake; that's the most dangerous snake we got; laying right beside of me, a few days after that. I started to come back to pick it up to show it, the crows had done got it, ravens passing over.
And that had been laying there ever since I'd seen the vision, two days before; I believe it was on Saturday, and I went up there on Monday. So there he was, laying on there dead. I mashed through it with my foot.

²⁰¹ I went back around, set down again; set there and cried awhile, and prayed; looking down over Tucson, miles below me. Turned back around and come back, it still laid there. When I entered that cove the Spirit of God come on me again. I went on around, went down the mountain, went in and told my wife; I said, "Honey, I don't know how, but I'm going to get over this."
Dr. Ravensworth, when he give me the examination, he said, "It's totally impossible for you to be well." He give me a shot of pentothal that was to last me for five minutes, and I slept ten hours. So that stuff, even an aspirin just knocks me out. So they... He give me a shot, put that tube down my throat. When I come to, and he told me the next morning; he said, "Reverend, I hate to tell you this"; but said, "your stomach walls are even so hard, they're dried up." (I never seen it; he used the name of gastritis, and I went and looked in the dictionary and it said, "something that's withered away"). And said, "You can't get over it." He said, "You'll always have it." And I would've been a discouraged boy if it hadn't been for the vision of the Lord.

²⁰⁵ And the next day Something said, "Go back to the mountain."
And that day instead of going one way, I was led to go another way. And I was standing there; and looking, setting in the front of me, and there set that seventh little, white dove, looking right at me. I rubbed my eyes; I said, "Surely, it's a vision; surely, it is." I looked, and I said, "Little dove, where do you come from?" Just as pretty and white, could've been a pigeon, whatever it was, a-way in that wilderness.
God Almighty, Who raised up Jesus Christ from the dead, Whose servant I am, and His Word laying here open before me, know that I tell the truth and lie not.
There set the dove, setting there looking at me. I walked around; I thought, "Surely, it's a vision." I turned my head; I looked back, and there he set there, them little, white wings, just as snowy as he could be, his little, yellow feet; and little, yellow beak; setting there looking at me. He was watching right straight westward. I walked around him like that; I wouldn't touch him for nothing. I walked on up the trail; looked back, and there he still set watching me.
Brother, as a son of Abraham, I consider not what the doctor told me; I'm going to be well anyhow.

²¹⁰ The third day I went back; I was climbing up high. And many of you know the vision about the Indian chief riding that little wall to the west. Something attracted me off to a big rock, about noon time, said, "Lay your hands against that and pray." God in heaven knows this is true.
I laid my hands against the rock and looked up towards heaven and started praying, and I heard a Voice coming out of the top of the rocks there, said, "What are you leaning against, over your heart?" And I raised back like this, my bare shoulders; naked from my waist up, hot. I looked back. And there was wrote in the quartz, in the stone, white, "Eagle" just exactly what the vision said that the next Message would come forth by.
I was so excited I run home, got a camera, and come back the next day, and took the picture of it. It was still there, wrote in the rock, white, "Eagle" (Dove leading eagle).

²¹³ Somehow, I--I know. I'll tell you before it happens. The doctor's a good doc--good doctor, no doubt; I--I think he's a fine man. But I--I know I'm going to be over it. It's done. It's finished, and I'm going to be well.
And I was thinking as Ernie sang that song a few moments ago, "On the Wings of a Dove." How is the melody to that? Start it for me, Ernie.

²¹⁶ Dear God, I thank You for these things, Father. You give Noah the sign; You gave the world the sign, and You gave me a sign. And the next day, seeing that eagle flying, O God, there's a Message coming forth now, and I pray, God, that You'll let the Dove lead. Grant it, Lord. It's led me to a faith I never had before. I know, God; I know it's going to be all right; so I thank You for it, Father.
And tonight, send down Your Message again, Lord, on the wings of the Dove of the Word. Grant it, dear heavenly Father. And every one that passes through this platform tonight, and out yonder in the meetings across the country, may Your great Dove of faith fall into their hearts and give them faith, Lord, for their healing. Remember that God is not a respect of person. He could send the Message to Noah, could send It to John the Baptist, could send It to me, can send It to others.
I pray that that Dove will fly into every heart right now, Lord, with Its little, golden beak, and whisper that, "By His stripes... By all My wounds and stripes you are healed." God, grant that our transgressions will be blotted out, our iniquities will be forgiven us, and that our sickness will be healed. It's in Your hands, Father. In Jesus Christ's Name. Amen.

²¹⁹ With your heads bowed just one minute longer, how many here would like to say, if you can and want to say this, "Brother Branham, I've been wrong all my life. I've wanted to serve God, but tonight I'm ready to surrender. Pray God, that that Dove will fly into my heart tonight. I can feel It flutter its wings as He comes in"? Raise your hands, will you? Here in the visible audience, my, all over the building.
Way out into the audiences across the country, way up to Brother Hunt and Brother Coleman, out to Brother Leo and them, down into Tucson, over into Branham Tabernacle, across the west coast, raise your hands everywhere: "I want the Dove to fly into my heart tonight. Bring me God's sweet love on the wings of a snow-white Dove, the Holy Spirit. Bring It to me tonight, Lord, and drop into my heart the faith that I have need of."
In the Name of Jesus Christ, I pray, God, forgive our sins. The wounded Dove has brought the Message back, O God, "It's finished." We believe that. Just give us faith to believe It, we pray. In Jesus' Name. Amen.

²²²

²²⁵ Why, me an old man, suffered all my life, why did He heal me now? I believe I'll ride this trail again; I got to bring a Message. And I say to my Father tonight (as Junior seen in a--a dream the other night of the wings of this Dove moving in these windows here), Lord, Your servant's reporting for service. Amen, I'm ready.

²²⁷ You that got prayer cards, in this aisle here, step forward over here; stand up, step forward in this aisle here, over this a-way.

²³⁰ Where did the dove come from up there in the wilderness? I'd say this: God seen Abraham needed a ram for a sign; He's Jehovah-jireh, "the Lord can provide for Himself the sacrifice." To think of it, the same God, by the same inspiration, by the same kind of people, sent a dove. He's still God, Jehovah-jireh can provide anything He has need of.
Won't you, just while you're coming through this prayer line now, ask God to provide for you on the wings of the Dove, the Dove, Spirit of the Holy Ghost, to give you faith in your heart to believe that you're going to be healed.

²³² I'm trying to get them all on their feet. You see? I'm asking now. Brother Brown's at his place. Brother Jack... What say? [Someone speaks to Brother Branham--Ed.] All right, good. This section here, comes through this a-way first, that's lined up. The sections back over in here fall right in behind them. These fall right in behind the wing. And you fall right in behind these here, coming right around to be prayed for.
Now, I'm sure this is not going to be no fast line; we're just going to take a little time so we can really pray for each one, far as we can.
Now, I cut my message just a little short (And you all caught that. See?) so that I could have this prayer line. This is a memorial line in honor of the days when Brother Jack Moore, Brother Young Brown, your wives let you go, and you come over and we went out into California, and all through Arizona (together, through the desert), and prayed for the sick.

²³⁵ You know what? There's people living today that was dying then, and still alive because of that effort. What did it do? It sprung up Divine healings in every church there is in the country; now even Presbyterians and so forth. They... It hushed their mouth, for it taken God to anoint somebody to slay the Goliath, to show that it could be done, then the rest of them took courage (That's right.) and went on. It can be done again, for He still sends His love on the wings of a Dove.
Christians, I want you to listen. If I would stand here and try to quote to you of the supernatural things that I've seen happen even in the past three years, I'd be here this time next Saturday night, telling you. I don't even speak of it so much, 'cause it sounds like it's almost impossible, but I tell you the truth. It's exactly the truth. We're living under the leadership of the great mighty Jehovah, the same One that was with the prophets in the Old Testament, with the church in the New Testament, He's here today taking a Bride out of the Gentiles for His Name's sake. Believe it. Won't you, people? If you ever did believe it, believe it right now. That's true. I want you to do it. We don't know what'll happen yet tonight. We don't know what will happen. We're just waiting under expectation.

²³⁷ Please, in the Name of the Lord Jesus, I ask you as His servant. I know when you're dealing with congregations, you got everything mixed in there. But if you believe me as His servant, if there's one speck of doubt or (Sin is--is doubt, unbelief.), if there's one speck of it in your heart, ask Father to take it away right now. See? "Lord..." And then when you come with genuine faith... Now, my hands won't mean nothing unless That strikes you first; then when it comes, it'll light it off; you'll be healed. That's right, you'll know you'll be healed. See? You'll believe it.

²³⁸ Now, I'm going to pray now for each one of you. And I... When you do this, you put your hands over on one another too, so we'll... And you be praying for the person you got your hands on, then I'm going to bring you through the line. Put your hands on somebody that's with you in the line.

²³⁹ Dear God, I--I don't know no other way of saying these things, Lord. I just know to tell what I know is the truth, and You're my witness tonight that I am telling the truth. My faith, Lord, and my own healing in the future; I don't know when, I don't know how; I don't understand it; but I believe It, Lord, that I received the sign from above. That seventh dove finally got here, the seventh inch is soon finished on the animal. It's over.
God, I want to serve Your people. So I pray, God, that You'll so anoint us tonight that whoever we lay our hands on, may they be healed; not because it's us, but because it's following Your commandment. You said, "These signs shall follow them that believe." Lord, help me to believe, and help their hearts to be the bedding ground of faith. And may, together, for the glory of God, every sick and afflicted person in this building (or the buildings throughout the land) that's obeying these commands now, will be made well. In the Name of Jesus Christ, I ask it. Amen.

²⁴¹ Have faith; all of you pray with us. Now, this is not a line of discernment.
[Blank.spot.on.tape--Ed.] Depression, fear, I know what this... Poor little thing, she said she's never seen peace in life, the same thing that I had: can't sleep, nervous, tension.
Dear God, bear me record, Lord, that I've told the truth. How I feel for this little woman. I pray, God, that You'll send to her, tonight, that streak of faith from above that knows that You are obligated to Your Word, and You'll keep every Word. May the God of heaven take this fear away from my sister. And I obey You by laying hands upon her and condemning it. In the Name of Jesus Christ, may it come out of her. Amen.
Now, look sister, you believe me now, if you can start from right here by the cross, from this night, deny you've got it. See, go on saying, "I haven't got it no more." And it will leave you...?...

²⁴⁵ Sister Palmer...?... Uh-huh. Yes. Our sister, Sister Palmer, her husband is a very dear friend of mine, a minister from Georgia or Alabama, Georgia--Georgia. And she was coming up to the Tabernacle... They drive, when I'm preaching at the Tabernacle, fifteen hundred miles to hear one service. Brother Palmer lost control of his car, or the boy, one, when they was turning a corner, and they had a wreck. She's got an affect of it. Let's pray.
Dear God, deliver this servant of Yours, his little wife, loyal, true, little servant in Christ; I pray, God, as I lay my hands upon her with my Brother Jack Moore here, that You'll heal her and make her well. In Jesus' Name. Amen. Now...?...

²⁴⁷ In the right foot, and you're standing for him? His little boy is crippled; he's got a hurting in his stomach and back. Let's pray.
Dear God, let that snow-white Dove dip down into his heart just now, "Wounded for our transgressions, bruised for our iniquity, with His stripes we are healed." I ask this to be so for our brother and for his little son, in Jesus Christ's Name. Amen.
Severe headache pains, and a leg ailment that bothers him while he's a-working.
Dear God, grant Your healing blessing upon this young man, as we as servants of God lay our hands upon him. In the Name of Jesus Christ. Amen.

²⁵¹ She has a lady's trouble, female, and also she wants the baptism of the Holy Ghost.
Dear God, as I offer you this prayer of faith for this little lady, may the female trouble be gone, may the baptism of the Holy Ghost come on the wings of a Dove, in Jesus Christ's Name. Amen. God bless you, sister.
Growth on his eye, and for his loving companion...
Dear God, You know the hearts of man. I pray Thee Father, in Jesus' Name, that You'll grant this request that this brother's asked; and our obedience to Your Word of laying hands on him. In Jesus Christ's Name. Amen. God bless you, brother.
She has a growth in her left side, and also her voice is bad.
Dear Jesus, I pray that You'll heal this sister; laying hands upon her in the Name of Jesus Christ, that her healing will be. Amen. God bless you, my sister.
Poor sister, I see your trouble, swollen limb, kidney, bladder, and a ankle throwed out of place.
O Father, God, heal this precious woman, Lord, I pray, as I lay hands upon her in Jesus Christ's Name. Amen.
God bless you, sister; that's the way, believe it.
You hear that, don't you, on the microphone? Ever who's at... the engineer, if you'll step it up just a little bit, the audience can hear their testi--or what they say when they come by. Be in prayer for them when you hear it; when I start praying, you pray with me.
Dear God, I pray for this our sister, that You'll heal her, dear God. We're doing this because it's Your command. In Jesus Christ's Name. Amen. Bless you sister.

²⁶² Dear God, You hear that testimony; You hear what the enemy's done to her. We are trying to take the Name of Jesus and defeat this enemy; he's already because the bruised, striped Dove fell in the floor of the house of God with a Message, "It's over." Grant it; may she believe that, Father, in Jesus' Name.
Dear God, I pray that You'll heal this our sister. May the Dove of God witness to her tonight that He did it for her, that she could be well. In Jesus' Name. Amen.
Dear God, I lay my hands upon my brother who stands here. He had enough faith to come this far, Lord; now may he receive his healing and go to his seat well. In Jesus' Name.
Dear God, I pray for our brother, laying hands upon him. Help, dear God, that the faith of God will dip down just at this time; and be like Abraham, call those things which are, as though they're--are not, for God made the promise. In Jesus' Name. Amen. God bless you brother.

²⁶⁶ Dear God, You are the One Who can make the true decision. I pray, dear God, as this young lady asked for this, may she receive it in Jesus Christ's Name. Amen.
Dear God, I lay my hands upon our sister in obeying what You said do. This takes us back for many years, Lord, since we run a prayer line like this; but we know what happened then; we know You're the same God today if people can have the same faith today. I pray in Jesus' Name for our sister's healing. Amen.
Dear God, I lay my hands upon my brother here and ask for his healing, in the Name of Jesus Christ. Amen.
Father, I bring before you tonight this our sister, and lay my hands upon her to witness that I'm standing as a witness of Your strength, stand as a witness of Your visions, Your Word, and I'm a witness that You're God. And I lay hands upon her in obedience to the Word of my God, and ask for her healing. Amen.

²⁷⁰ Dear God, I lay hands upon my brother in like manner, as a witness of Your strength I ask for his healing in Jesus Christ's Name. Amen.
[Blank.spot.on.tape--Ed.] "What?"
She said, "The Healer." Said that "A man from up somewhere, up in Arkansas, had been healed that morning, a blind shoe cobbler." (You know the story, it'd been on the radio.)
And I said... I thought... I played the part of a hypocrite. I said, "You don't believe that's the truth?"
She said, "Yes, sir, I do."
And I said, "Do you believe in this day when God would do something like that, when..."
She said, "Sir, I listened to the religious program." She said, "I'm a Christian." She said, "I listened to the programs; I heard that man up there that was healed this morning, that blind shoe cobbler. They throwed him out of the church; he was making so much noise, one church to the other. With his hat on a cane, wiggling it around, running up and down the church. He was everywhere in the city, hollering, 'I'm healed. I'm healed.' A blind shoe cobbler."
I said, "Do you believe that?"
And she stood there a little bit, was kind of drizzling rain; she said, "Sir, if you'll get me in where he's at, then I'll find my father." Then I felt about like that.
I said, "Maybe I'm the one you're looking for."
She said--grabbed me by the lapels of the coat, she said, "Is you the healer?"
I said, "No, sister, but I'm Brother Branham."
She said, "Have mercy." I thought of poor old blind Fanny Crosby, "While on others Thou art calling, do not pass me by." See, He'd healed one, He could heal her.
I put my hands over her eyes; I said, "Dear Jesus, one day an old rugged cross come bumping down the street; the shoulders with blood running out of them, the little frail body that was practically fell under the load. A colored man by the name of Simon of Cyrene, came up and picked up the cross, helped Him bear it. I'm sure You remember it, Father. One of His children is staggering here in darkness; I'm sure You understand."
She said, "Glory to God. I can see."
I said, "Can you see?"
She said, "Yes, sir."
I said, "Count them lights." And she counted them. I said, "What color suit I got on?"
Said, "You got on a gray suit with a yellow tie." That was it; she could see.
Oh, God respects humility.

²⁹⁰ Dear God, have mercy and heal my sister, in the Name of Jesus Christ. Amen.
Dear God, as I take this feeble, wrinkling hand, only You know what's passed through here. I pray, dear God, that the same hand I got tonight will embrace like those feeble hands of Simeon that day, "Lord, let Thy servant depart in peace, for I now see Thy salvation." May It come upon her, Lord, Your salvation, and make her well in Jesus' Name. Amen.

²⁹² [Blank.spot.on.tape--Ed.] On The Trial of... Mr. Unbelief indicted Jesus Christ? You remember "The Trial"? How that the... They had the--the attorneys and everything, and who stood for who. And we had the--the prosecuting attorney, Satan, that was going to prosecute; how the trial was brought...
And he said, one, Mr. Doubter, he come up; he said, "I heard a preacher say, 'Anoint the sick in oil, the Bible says that.' I was anointed in oil, wasn't healed. The other one said, 'Lay hands on the sick, they shall recover.'" He was trying to prosecute.
But when the witness came forth, here it was, "God told them, said, 'It had been...'" He said, "It's been six months since I had hands laid on me, and Your Word says that 'Lay hands on the sick and they shall recover.' And hands was laid on me by one of Your anointed servants, and I haven't recovered yet. Therefore, You're a false pretender, because Your Word don't mean what It says."

²⁹⁵ So when the witness come up, the true was this, that "His Word is true. He never said when He would do it." He said, "These signs shall follow them that believe; if they lay their hands on the sick, they shall recover." See? See? That's what He said, "They shall recover." So whether it's a prone miracle just happen right like this or whether it's just obeying God, that's up to Him in the individual. See? But if the individual believes It, I don't care how long it takes. He said To Abraham, "You're going to have a baby by Sarah." The baby never come for twenty-five years. He told Noah it was going to rain. Noah had the flood--the--the ark built for the flood, many, many years before the flood came, but he knowed it was going to rain. The Bible said, "The prayer of faith shall save the sick, and God shall raise them up." When? He didn't say. God is just, He's true; just read what His Word says."
That's what I've done tonight, laid hands on the sick. Now, I believe every one of them's going to be healed. I believe, every one of them. You believe the same? Now, believe for these afflicted people.

²⁹⁷ There's a little lady here, seems like I ought to know, I prayed for her last night out there in the prayer line. What's her name? Chambers--Chambless. If that little lady would've lived--would've lived normally, wouldn't have been afflicted, she certainly been a beautiful woman. And she's setting there now, shaking. Lovely, fine spirit in the girl, and she sets there jerking like this. Oh, how that breaks my heart. How would I have wished... Just how I would...
Here's a little baby, lady setting here holding it. Its little tongue hanging out, its little body afflicted. What if that was my little Joseph? What if it was my little grandson Paul? What if that was Rebekah setting back there, or Sarah? What if Mrs. Simpson here was my wife Meda? This young man setting here was Billy Paul? This aged woman setting here was my mother? Remember, it's somebody's baby, somebody's sister, somebody's daughter, and somebody's son. See? I am their brother; He is our Saviour. All that I can do is... What faith I've got is offered in their behalf. That's all I know.

²⁹⁹ Now, the Lord can show me a vision; He could tell me what's the matter with each one of them. I can prove that to you (See?); you know that. But that don't heal them. That doesn't heal them. No, it's got to be something drop in them. See? And I hope...
Like I could go up here take each one of you and baptize you in the Name of the Lord Jesus Christ; that won't remit your sins. No, no. No, I don't believe in water baptism in the Name of Jesus Christ unto regeneration; I believe the Blood is regeneration (See?) now, not the waters. But, see, I could baptize and baptize, but you only go down a dry sinner, come up a wet one (See?) until you have thoroughly repented. Repent, and then be baptized in the Name of Jesus Christ. See? And that's where I different with the Oneness movement. Not baptizing to regeneration, no; I believe it's the Blood that cleanses, not the water. See? Repentance, and then be baptized in the Name of Jesus Christ.

³⁰¹ Now, I'm going down to pray. And these people are just as much to you as they are to me, maybe even more than--than my own relation.
Now, let's all join together, and your hands in faith, and my hand in faith, bringing down the hands of the Lord Jesus to lay on these poor crippled people. Will you pray with me?
[Blank.spot.on.tape--Ed.] Those handkerchiefs that's for the sick and the afflicted, you may get them right after service. Now, help me pray for these, will you?
God, we thank You, Lord, for what You have done tonight. We thank You in advance for the healing of every person come through the line. Dear God, I pray over these handkerchiefs, perhaps for some who could not even come to the meeting, and their loved ones brought the handkerchiefs. In the Bible we're taught that they took from the body of Paul, handkerchiefs or aprons. Now, those people back there had lived in Your Presence; they'd seen You on the street, they'd seen You in their meetings, and they'd seen Your same Spirit upon Paul. And they knew it wasn't that man; it was Your Spirit that was dominating his life, for we see Paul doing the same things that You did.
And now, Lord, the people of this day sees the same God living in His church with His people. And they've brought these handkerchiefs, that they might be taken from here to their loved ones. Grant, God, that every one of them will be healed in Your own way. We don't request any certain thing to be done of any certain way or any certain nature; we just ask, "In Your own way, Father, heal them." For the glory of God, I offer this prayer of faith over it. In Jesus Christ's Name. Amen.

³⁰⁶ I've had a wonderful time of fellowship around your faith, your presence in Jesus Christ. This will be a meeting that I'll long remember of what taken place: love, cooperation, fellowship.
And now, till we meet again, may God of heaven guide you. He Who makes the stars to shine bright at night to lighten up the path when it's growing dim, may He lighten your path with the Star of Bethlehem to guide you to a full surrendered life in His Word, is my prayer.

³⁰⁹ Now, let's shake one another's hands when they sing:

³¹² Bow our heads. As the wheels hum a song going home, I trust it'll--you'd hear the humming of the wheels, the roaring of the engine.