Look
63-0428, Look, Jesus Name Church, Phoenix, AZ, 107 min
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L-1 Brother Jimmy. And good morning, friends. It's... I am very happy to be here in Phoenix again this morning, enjoying this fine time of fellowship. Wish I could just set in a long time, listening at these pretty songs, and to see young Jimmy really get into that song. Hum! There's nothing put on about that boy, is there?
L-2 And Brother Outlaw was telling me this morning that this is his precious mother setting over here by the door, of eighty-one years old. God bless you, sister. I guess many years ago when you rocked that little baby in your arms, and them little hands struck across your cheeks, you didn't think you'd be setting here, eighty years old, listening at him in his church, maybe, at that time. You believed it then? That's very fine, very fine. So happy. God give you... Well, can't say many years, because you are--you are, inwardly, an Eternal being. You see? So you never did begin, so you can't end, so you just have Eternal Life. That's very good.
L-3 Brother Dyson, I haven't had the privilege of meeting him yet, but he is going to continue this service on through next week, beginning tonight, here at the church. And I'm... I sure hope that there's a great success here in this revival. I only wish I could set back here somewhere and just soak in the good things of God, as our brother preaches. I hear he's a missionary's son from Jerusalem. And so I'm sure you're going to enjoy this ministry this week, of our brother. If it's all possible, attend, hear him, back him up. And those who cannot come, and you're away from home, out-of-town, can't get back, do as I'm going to do, pray for him, and pray for the success of the service.
L-4 I remember the first time in Phoenix. It was this church, only it was in a different place. It was the church, but a different roof that we worshipped under, and the great fellowship that we had with Brother Outlaw. I have a record that was made during that meeting. And it's always... When I kind of get feeling a little down, I go play this record, and it's about scratched out. Perhaps, maybe, the man that made it, is here this morning; little, red flexible record. And then, course, I have many of the late records of this young choir here, which was little babies then, singing. We get much out of it.
L-5 When we heard these fine songs, I said to Brother Outlaw, "I'm glad they're being taped, because I like to study that. I like to hear those songs and play the tape, hear the songs when you can set down."
L-6 There's nothing like music. You know, God heals by music. Did you know that? Uh-huh. God heals by music. [I Samuel 16:14-23]
L-7 God heals by love. See? God heals by medicine. God heals by prayer. God has many ways of healing. Depends on what type that you need. [Isaiah 53:5]
L-8 Sometimes a little love, stretched out, will just cure an old sore, an old place that's been a grudge or something. It'll heal it right over, just a little love, a little care.
L-9 Sometime when you feel all down, and, as we call it, a street expression, down in the dumps, see, just put on one of those tapes, that music or a record, and go to playing it. The first thing you know, you're patting your foot, or your hand, and it's all over then. You're right up and ready to go again. [I Samuel 16:14-23]
L-10 Now, these six-hour Messages, that's not the evangelistic type, that's when I'm home and--and just kind of... Everybody knows how to take me there, just kind of long-winded. And a lot of people can say more in five minutes, you see, than I can say in those six hours. So, depends on what you're saying.
L-11 Now, I believe, this morning, I got a little note here, that some sister here that wants her little baby dedicated to the Lord. And I said to Brother Outlaw, "You don't baptize infants?"
He said, "No." No, he just... He dedicates them like the Scripture says to dedicate them. [Mark 10:13-14]
He said, "No." No, he just... He dedicates them like the Scripture says to dedicate them. [Mark 10:13-14]
L-12 So I--I think, at this time, if this sister that's got this little one to bring up, will bring it up. And we--we believe in this, being a doctrine of the Bible. And trying to follow the Scripture and the pattern that the Lord Jesus left us, just as close as we know how, is to follow through the way He did it. And we don't find any place in the Bible where He baptized them or even commissioned them to be baptized. He--He just... They said, "They brought little children unto Him, that He might bless them. And He laid His hands upon them and said, 'Suffer little children to come unto Me, and forbid them not, for of such is the Kingdom of God.'" [Mark 10:13-14]
L-13 So if the organist or pianist will, will give us just some of that lovely music, kind of slowly, "Bring them in, bring them in, bring them in from the fields of sin." I believe you're acquainted with it.
L-14 What's the little fellow's name? [The mother says, "It's a little girl. It's Rebekah."--Ed.] Rebekah. Last name? ["Hammer."] Hammer. This is Brother and Sister Hammer. ["Yes."] God bless you. This your only one? ["Our fourth girl."] Fourth girl. You ought to be an evangelist. Philip had four daughters, you know. ["That's right."] And they were all prophetesses. [The father says, "I'm not a minister."] You may not be, but I trust that God will give you four prophetesses out of these daughters, anyway, Brother Hammer.
L-15 Very sweet. She's yawning now. You should see it. I like them. But I'm always afraid when I pick them up, to dedicate them, I'm always afraid I'll break them. You know, they're kind of... I--I feel real funny, picking them up. And my wife always said, "You can't break them." So, but they look so sweet. They look like you just have to handle them. So I'm going to try to hold it, if it's all right.
L-16 Now, this is a job my wife would like. Isn't that a little doll? Little Rebekah Hammer, how are you? That's good. We're grateful for this, how God has give to this union this lovely child. It has to come only from God. No one can give life but God.
Let us bow our heads now.
Let us bow our heads now.
L-17 Our Heavenly Father, we bring to You this morning this little lump of love that's been placed in this home, by Your great hand. How the mother, these months, has packed it beneath her heart, longing to see what it would look like when it arrived. And here it is this morning, this sweet lovely little girl. And she gives it a Bible name. And now comes to the altar of God, she and her husband, to dedicate it, to give it back to the God that gave it to them. Bless their home, Father, we pray. Bless their family. Bless this little Rebekah.
L-18 In the Bible, we find that the people brought little babies to You, that You might lay Your hands upon them and bless them. And if You were only here in a visible body this morning, why, this parent would bring this little Rebekah to You. We realize, Lord, that our hands are very poor substitutes for this great mission, but You have charged us to do so. Therefore, Lord, I give to You little Rebekah, in the Name of Jesus Christ, in a dedication. May You take her little life and use it, Lord, for Your glory. And we'll praise Thee for it, in Jesus' Name. Amen. [Mark 10:13-14]
L-19 God bless you. May the Lord grant, little baby will live, be a fine woman and a great servant of Christ for tomorrow, if there is a tomorrow. God bless both of you, so nice.
L-20 Oh, them little fellows. It's that innocence. I've often thought how innocent a child is. And yet, if we could only be as innocent as one of those children... But, come to find out, we're more innocent, when the Blood of Jesus Christ has cleansed us from all sin. [I John 1:7]
L-21 Now let's turn in the Scriptures. To you who like to read the Scripture, let's turn to the book of Hebrews, the 9th chapter, for some Words. Let's begin with the 24th verse of the 9th chapter.
For Christ is not entered into the holy place made with hands, which are the figures of the true; but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us:
Nor yet that he should offer himself oft, as the high priest entered into the holy place every year with the blood of others;
For then must he often have suffered since the foundation of the world: but now once in the end of the world hath he appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself.
And as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment:
So Christ was once offered to bear the sin of many; and unto them that look for him to appear the second time without sin unto salvation. [Hebrews 9:24-28]
Nor yet that he should offer himself oft, as the high priest entered into the holy place every year with the blood of others;
For then must he often have suffered since the foundation of the world: but now once in the end of the world hath he appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself.
And as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment:
So Christ was once offered to bear the sin of many; and unto them that look for him to appear the second time without sin unto salvation. [Hebrews 9:24-28]
L-22 May the Lord add His blessings to the reading of His Word. Let us bow our heads now for prayer.
L-23 Almighty God, Who is the beginning of all things, Who made the worlds by Jesus Christ, we come in Thy Presence, in this building this morning, as a gathering of Thy people: to first offer ourselves to You for service; to give thanks for what we have already received of Thy hand; praying that You'll bless the reading of this Word. May the Holy Spirit continue to make the Word real to us, as we look to the Author of the Word, for we ask it in His Name, Jesus Christ. Amen.
L-24 Now, we are going to try, this morning, to take just four letters, in a word, Look, for a subject, and to deal with it a little while, as the Lord will lead us to do. I have a few notes written here, and some Scripture that we might refer to, as we go along. Look.
L-25 L, double o, k, look. The word, really, when... It's used oft. But, "look," when you hear the word, it's usually somebody trying to get you to see what they are looking at. They say to you, "Look." Like going down the road, you, someone, might see a certain scene, and they would say, "Look," and then express what it is. It's at the mountain, at--at the--the cactus, or whatever they're looking at. But, the first thing, to get your attention, is, "Look."
L-26 Now, everybody is looking, today. Everybody is looking for something, and looking for something to happen.
L-27 We know that the world is constantly watching the skies, the radar and the screens that we have up, around the world, every nation, for its own defense, has--has got a magic eye, like, looking to--to find something to appear into this screen, like an atomic missile or something. Then, they've got something there to go back to the one that sent it this way.
L-28 Everything is looking. The Ford Company is looking to make a better Ford. The Chevrolet is looking, make a better Chevrolet. Phoenix is looking to make a larger and better town. The nation is looking for more territory, so it can spread itself. The church, just church, is looking for more members.
But the Bride is looking for the Coming of her Lord.
But the Bride is looking for the Coming of her Lord.
L-29 We're all looking. Depends on what the voice is trying to tell you to look for. Some of us are saying, "Look for this." And if it's a church, we're saying we want so many more this year, members. That's all right.
L-30 But the Voice that I trying to say to you this morning, is like the writer of this epistle, we believe to be Paul, which is saying, "Looking for the Coming of Jesus Christ, the second time," looking for Him. In order to do it, you got to see something before you can tell somebody else to look at what you are seeing. [Hebrews 9:28]
L-31 Noah had an experience of this. And he, by faith, he saw the coming of a flood, a great rain that was going to cover the earth and take all the... wash off the earth; the rededication again to God. The filth of the world, that the people had got in that conglomeration that they were in in that day, and it had to all be washed off, to start again. [Hebrews 11:7]
L-32 I just finished a series of services on the last seven seals. And finding, in this sixth seal, that there is a great interruption in--in nature. The moon, the stars, the earth belches forth. The church is purged, Israel is purged, and everything is purged under that seventh seal, so that the Millennium can start in. There has to be a cleansing, first. [Revelation 6:1-15]
L-33 And that's what the church, today, and what I want to point to you, that we need a cleansing. Before anything can begin from God, we got to have a purging. And when we look and see things that is now, under the present conditions existing the way they are, we can see that we got to have something to happen before God can continue His program, and a purging. Many of us, I say, might look back to...
L-34 I have a tape, or, well, it's a movie film that was filmed in Jerusalem, where we were asking the Jews, when they were returning back from Iran and many places, a few years ago, about five years ago, packing their loved ones on their back, and bringing them off of ships and out of airplanes, and so forth, coming back. Asked them the question, "Are you returning to the homeland to die?"
They said, "We are coming to see the Messiah."
They said, "We are coming to see the Messiah."
L-35 When you see Israel, that tree, putting forth its buds, it's a great ensign. The time is at hand when Israel becomes a nation, and she's a nation today. [Matthew 24:32], [Mark 13:28]
L-36 We see things happening, that, to the world, it's just as blind to them as it was in the days of Noah. But to we who look for Christ, the second time, it's an ensign that He is soon coming. We see something fixing to happen, and depends on what you're looking at. [Hebrews 9:24-28]
L-37 Now, Noah knew by the Word of God that there was coming a flood. By faith he saw it. He knew that was going to be, because God's Word promised it. Now, Noah, himself, by faith, saw what God's Word said. But the world could not see it, because it could not be scientifically proven that there were water up in the sky. But Noah knew it was there, because God said so. [Hebrews 11:7]
L-38 That's the Church, the Bride, the called-out today, knows that the Coming of the Lord is at hand, regardless of how much we've been able to go in progress, and so forth, and succeed in splitting an atom, and--and sending a--a radar message to the moon. That means nothing to the believer, only a sign that the Coming of the Lord is at hand. We see nations breaking, and the nations coming, falling apart, and the world coming apart, and the church move coming apart. Then, we are taught, that, "We receive a Kingdom which cannot be moved." But as these things begin to happen, the Church binds Itself together, tighter and tighter, with the... by the Word of God. It's a great day that we're living in. And we are... [Hebrews 12:28], [Hebrews 9:28]
L-39 Everybody is looking for something. You might be looking today to a time you get home, to eat your dinner. There might be a--a picnic this afternoon, that you're taking your family to. There might be something another, next week, that you're looking for a neighbor to come, or some friend. But everybody is looking for something.
L-40 And as a group of believers today, assembled together, we want to fix our thoughts, our principles and things, upon the Coming of the Lord, "Looking for Christ, Who shall appear the second time without sin unto salvation, to those that believe and are looking for Him to come." God, here, the... by the writer, is inviting us to--to view this and to look at it. We... The writer says here, that, "We look for Christ, the second time, to see Him as He is." [Hebrews 9:28]
L-41 And now we know that the Word is Christ. "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God." And Hebrews 13:8 said, "He's the same yesterday, today, and forever." Therefore it's the Word that we look to, then, for It is the--the expression of what God is. And when God came in Christ, He was the expression of what God was. And whatever He was, He ever remains, because He's Eternal and cannot change. [John 1:1], [Hebrews 13:8]
L-42 What a hope it gives us, that God has not left us without a true witness in the days of confusion that we live in today! Yet, we are certainly a privileged people, if we'll just look to the true witness we have, the Word, see, because that's God's full revelation of Jesus Christ. Nothing can be added to It or taken from It, because It is the revelation of Jesus Christ. [Revelation 22:19]
L-43 God has never left His people without a true witness. God is going to judge the world by Jesus Christ. And if Jesus Christ is the Word, then God judges the church, or the world, by the Word, for He is the Word. There is a Judgment coming. The sinner knows it. [John 1:1, 14]
L-44 Many people, when you speak of Church, they have a funny idea. The world, when they pass by the Church, I mean, the Body of Christ gathered together, they think of our women with some great, long stringy hair, with black dresses and everything. And they think of the men with long fingers, dressed in black clothes, and always condemning them. To a good sense of the word, that's true, because, "The Church is a peculiar people, a called-out people." [I Peter 2:9]
L-45 And the reason it looks that way to that man who wants to judge the Church in that condition, is because the Church is always pointing a condemning finger to everything that he thinks is good. And if he's a sinner, he thinks sin is good, the pleasures of life, such as living in the world. And when the Church stands up and condemns that thing, It looks like a hideous animal to him. But if he only knows, it's God's only way of bringing to salvation, that's right, expressing the Word of God by the lips of His servants.
L-46 Now, God could have chose to preach the Gospel by the sun, by the moon, by the stars, by the wind, or by nature. But He chose men to preach the Gospel, and that's where the Voice of God will come from. And you can judge the voice according to the word it expresses, then you can see what kind of a voice that you're listening to. If it's contrary to the Word, don't listen to it. But if it is the Word, then God is duty bound to back that Word up and vindicate It and make It Truth, because He promised to do it. So we're living in a great day, these Words of Christ expressed. [Acts 8:26-39]
L-47 When He came into the world, He was the Word, Himself. He didn't have to write no books. He never wrote a book. Why? He was the Word. He didn't have to write about anything, because He was what the others had wrote about. He was the Word. Therefore, He didn't write anything with His Own hand. He was the Word, Itself. And He's the same yesterday, today, and forever, so He still remains the Word. [Hebrews 13:8], [John 1:1-5, 14]
L-48 He said to the Jews, one day, He said, "Who can accuse Me of sin?" Now, sin is "unbelief." "Who can point their finger to Me and say that I haven't fulfilled every Word that was written of Me?" [Luke 23:14]
L-49 Would not it be a glorious thing this morning, my brethren and sisters, if the Church of the living God could stand and say, "Who can accuse me of sin? Every gift that God promised in the Bible, and everything He promised would be done, it's operating right among us today"? Isn't that a wonderful thing? Who can? Then we... The denominational thoughts would move plumb out of existence when we can see God speaking for Himself. [Luke 23:14]
L-50 So many people are looking for different... No one wants to die. No one wants to be lost. Everyone wants to be in the Presence of God. I do, you do, everybody does. But we're not willing to come the way that God has provided for us to come. See? That's what makes it so much different.
L-51 My boy, Billy, the other day, give me a camera. And he showed me a--an object. He said, "Daddy, take that picture out there." Well, it's a little 35mm Petra. And I took up the little camera and looked at the object. There was about three of them objects standing out there, a Saguaro cactus. I could see one stalk, two stalks, three stalk. And I took it down again, looked, there was only one stalk. I put it back again, it looked like there was three stalks.
L-52 Well, that's just the way, sometimes, we get out of focus. Got a range Finder. And we try to put something of God way back somewhere else, and something another, maybe we haven't used our range Finder. Let the Holy Spirit get our ideas away from ourself and our church theology, and let the range Finder come in and connect us, you'll not see three or four. You'll see one object, of God. See?
L-53 Looking through the same camera, a man can see something, but his own intelligence tells him there's only one stalk out there. See?
L-54 But that's the way the Holy Spirit does, if we'll just let It have Its way. It'll take the Word Itself and bring It into focus, to where we'll see what we're looking at then. And then you'll find out, maybe, if people that are trying to show you something, is not so wrong, after all, you see; if you'll just let the range Finder start, the Word Itself, begin to show the Word in manifestation. Amen. It'll--it'll do it if you'll just let it. See? But you got to use the range Finder, to get your--your... If it hit the zero mark once, it'll hit it again.
L-55 I--I love to--to shoot, and--and the targets. And here not long ago, I was squirrel hunting down in Kentucky. There was... I had a little model-75 rifle. It sounds... I hope it don't sound sacrilegious to you, to say this in a sermon, but I--I will tell you. I'm trying to make a point. And this little rifle, I trained it in. And I've dealt and fooled with guns since a little kid. I--I love them. And I--I had this little model-75 till I could just, every time, hit a squirrel's eye at fifty yards with it.
L-56 I had a paper from the range down there, signed up, that, "Driving nine bullets through the same hole, at fifty yards, on a rainy, windy day." And I got it signed up and notarized. And that was the Lord helping me, of course, to do that. That's unusual.
L-57 And I started to shoot the squirrel. I find out, I hit him somewhere else besides in the eye. I got nervous. I tried again, on paper, and it wouldn't hit the target. It would hit within, oh, quarter of an inch, or a half-inch, something, at fifty yards. But I knowed it would do better than that. I done everything to the gun that I knowed how to do, and nothing seemed to--to fix it up right.
L-58 So I wrapped it up in the box and sent it back to Winchester Company for examination, for rebedding. They wrote me a nice letter I have, my file at home. And it said--said, "Rev. Branham," said, "that--that rifle will group an inch at twenty-five yards." Said, "It's just a model-75." Said, "It's not a target gun. It's just a little plinker." And said, "You'll never get any better than that." Now, that was the Winchester Company that made the gun, said, "An inch at twenty-five yards," and I drove nine straight holes at fifty yards.
L-59 Now, here's my thought. My wife said, "Now look, Bill," she said, "if that company who made the rifle will just say that, and it won't do no better than that, then who are you to say that."
L-60 I said, "Honey, here is what it is. I don't care what the company says. I've seen it do it, and I know it'll do it."
L-61 And I set down there, when the other brethren were shooting at squirrels. Anywhere they wanted to hit them was all right, mid-center, back, or anywhere. I set under a tree and was crying. I said, "God, I'm so nervous. I can't hold myself together. Why did You make me a little, nervous fellow like this?" And just... [Romans 8:28]
L-62 I realize where I am standing here, the Bible before me. And a Voice, just as plain as you would hear mine, said, "You were made thus for a purpose."
Because, until you--you know that that rifle is going to zero once, because... If it zeroed once, rather, it'll zero again. It's the same rifle. [Romans 8:28]
Because, until you--you know that that rifle is going to zero once, because... If it zeroed once, rather, it'll zero again. It's the same rifle. [Romans 8:28]
L-63 Therefore, I see it. See? If obeying this Word, taking this range Finder and bring It down to a place till I can see the same thing those apostles saw, the same Gospel they preached. It'll produce the same results, 'cause It did for them. It'll strike the target every time. No matter what the churches says, and the people who claims to be, I--I know It'll do It. Because... And there is what I want to look at, that Word, to see that It's exactly in focus, to see the same vision they saw. And It'll do the same job that It did for them. It'll heal the sick. It'll raise the dead. It'll cast out devils. It'll bring forth a glorious Church Who is willing to seal their testimony with their own blood if it comes necessary to do that. Because, it depends on what you're looking at. [Ephesians 5:27]
L-64 Now if I had looked to what the Winchester Company said, which is supposed to be the one that--that made the gun, then I'd have listened to them. But I knowed different.
L-65 Now if I look to the church, and they say, "Oh, them days is gone, and there's no such a thing as That," and, see, see where you'd be? It'd be plumb off of target. See?
L-66 But if He is ever God, He is still God. He always was God, and He can't be nothing else but God. And He is God, Eternal. Therefore, we want to look to that Target; not what target the church is shooting at, but what Target that Christ is shooting at.
L-67 "We look for Christ to appear, the same Jesus." He said, when He was on earth, "A little while and the world seeth Me no more. Yet, ye shall see Me, for I'll be with you to the end of the world." That same One Who could direct the Word, and be the Word, and direct It right straight on to the Target, that same Lord Jesus is here this morning in the form of the Holy Spirit, to direct our thoughts and focus down, His Word, to one true and living God, to one purpose, to one achievement. And if we'll just let Him do it, He will focus the Word right into a place that'll prove that He's the same yesterday, today, and forever. Depends on what you want to look at. [John 14:19], [Matthew 28:20], [Hebrews 9:24-28]
L-68 We must focus our lives. Not what somebody else says, but focus our lives to Him. And He is the Word. See? If we get our lives lined with the Word, then the Word and our life becomes the same. He said, "If ye abide in Me, and My Word in you, then ask what you will. It'll be granted to you. Verily I say unto you, if you say to this mountain, 'Be moved,' and don't doubt in your heart, but believe that that what you have said will come to pass; you can have what you have said." Oh, my! "Not what I said; what you said, you can have," because you and He become the same. Because, the mind that was in Christ is in you. And the mind that was in Christ was to fulfill the Father's Word. Which, He was the Word. There you are. Then you and the Word are focused in, together. You become a living unit of God. How great! [John 15:7], [Matthew 17:20], [Matthew 21:21], [Mark 11:23], [John 1:1-4, 14]
L-69 There was a time when man's sins... When man sinned before God, he crossed a great chasm. As a writer said here, that "He appeared on the last days for salvation to those that look for it." Now, this great chasm man crossed, left hisself no way back. He could not get back again, because he's crossed that separation between him and God. [Hebrews 9:24-28]
L-70 God, being full of grace and mercy, took a substitute, and it was a lamb or an animal, was offered, a substitutionary death. "But the blood of bulls and goats," as Hebrews here said, just previous to where I read, "cannot take away sin." It only covered sin. It was a propitiation, truly, but it just covered sin, for it was speaking with a good conscience, looking forward to when the Blood would come that would cleanse sin, divorce it, put it away forever. [Hebrews 10:1-5, 10-18], [Hebrews 9:24-28]
L-71 Now, when Jesus came, He wasn't just a man. He wasn't just the third person of the trinity. He, He was God. He was God, Himself. He, He was Emmanuel. And we're taught, in the Bible, that, "We're saved by the Blood of God." When God Himself became one of us, He--He changed His--His--His, what He was. He changed His tent. He came down, condescending from Glory, and became man. Therefore, born without sex, He created Himself a body that He lived in, Himself. Emmanuel, God represented with us, the Word made flesh among us, and lived with us, to redeem many sons back to God, through the shedding of this Blood. [Hebrews 13:8], [John 15:7], [Matthew 1:23]
L-72 The body, sure, was Christ. It was the anointed One. And if Christ means "the anointed One," and He's the same yesterday, today, and forever, and He is the Word, then the Word is the anointing. "If ye abide in Me, and My Word in you, then say what you will." It's the Word of God, the anointed Word, that's what does it. [Hebrews 13:8], [John 15:7]
L-73 Now, there was a time, as I have remarked, that a woman, when she got a stain on a--a white piece of goods, she... There's no way of getting it off. I remember when my mother used to put black coffee on grease, to try to take a stain off of something. I remember a time she used to take the old turpentine bottle and try to wash out the stain, coal oil and so forth, to remove the stain from a garment. Well, you just wouldn't move it good. There's still a trace of it. That, in symbol, I'd like to take, as the blood of goats and sheep, and so forth. [Hebrews 10:1-5, 10-18]
L-74 But now they have manufactured a stuff called bleach. And that bleach, Clorox or whatever it is, it's a bleach that's been manufactured. And what, this morning, if I had a tub full of that bleach setting here, and a--a little eye dropper with black ink in it? Let's study it a minute. What is that black ink? Much of it is water. But, the color, where did the color come from? The color had to start. We know it's a creation. So if it started with a creation, it had to come from a Creator before it can be a creation.
L-75 I don't know what these words mean. I couldn't break it down. But you excuse the words that I'm going to use, but to make a point. Well, let's say, well, when it drops...
L-76 This drop of ink, now, it was for a purpose. That color become that color for a purpose. That one drop of ink can sign your death warrant, can send you to the electric chair. Or that one drop of ink can pardon you from your sins. It was set here for a purpose. We got to use it for the right thing.
L-77 But, for instance, it's finished. And we drop that one drop of ink into a tub full of bleach. What happens to it? You don't see nothing happen, but there's no more color. The color breaks up. You don't know where it went. Well, it turned back to acids. Course, the water is a form, with H2O, it goes back, the water, back to the water that's in the bleach. But the chemical in this bleach broke that so completely, till you can't find a stain of it no more. It's gone. It broke into, say, it went back to acids. What did acids come from? It goes on back, say, it come from--from atoms, what, or molecules. And what molecules? Molecule from atoms, atoms to electrons, so forth and so on, as you go on.
L-78 Let's think of it. When it begin back there, we say it come from atom, or from molecule, say, molecule four-one times molecule six-nine made molecule H. What if it been six-eight instead of six-nine? It'd come out pink instead of black. Something had to determine it. What if it was atom times four, times six, times eleven? It ought to been... If it come out six instead of eleven, it would have been brown. See? It had to come from somewhere who designed it.
L-79 Look out the window at that palm tree. What is it? It's volcanic ash with a life in it. Look across the street from it, you see a eucalyptus. What is it? Volcanic ash with life in it, a different kind. Look, you see a rose. What is it? Volcanic ash with life in it. Where did the color come from? Just think of that. Well, Who colored that flower? There is two flowers, of the same specie, one is yellow and the other one is red. Both of them come from a little seed. And what, where'd the coloring come from? Part of it's green, part white, part red, part yellow, where did the coloring come from? Same sun shined on the same place. Something has to determine it. It's a natural substance, so it had to have a creation somewhere. Now look, then, what does it do? It goes plumb back to the beginning, to a Creator.
L-80 Then if sin put a stain on a human being, and Moses, by offering a sheep, could take the--the Voice of God...
"I'll put My Words in your mouth." [Exodus 4:12-15]
"I'll put My Words in your mouth." [Exodus 4:12-15]
L-81 And he walked out there with the Word of God, and said, "Let there be flies." And there wasn't a fly, nowhere. In less than five minutes, maybe, an old green fly begin to buzz around. In another ten minutes, they were maybe two pound per square yard. What was it? The Word of God in the mouth of His prophet. The Word of God is creating, but it's got to come from the right resource. [Exodus 8:21]
L-82 And then if God could take that man, and bridge a way across there, by the blood of sheeps and goat, and could make the Word of God creative by the mouth of a man, how much more... not only, but the creative... or the power of the sacrifice of a bull or a goat. But the Blood of Jesus Christ, that when sin is confessed and drops into that bleach of God, the own... God's own creative way of taking away the stain, so far, that it's put in the Sea of Forgetfulness, to be remembered no more. [Exodus 4:12-15], [Hebrews 10:1-5, 10-18]
L-83 When a man confesses his sins and gets right with God, and God drops the sin of this confession into the Blood of His own Blood, and forgives that sin, and--and replaces in that man the original Spirit that should been there, His own Spirit, making him a son of God, how much more ought the creative power of God to be in the Church! See? It breaks down every wall of sin. It breaks down. See? [Isaiah 1:16, 18], [I John 1:9], [Hebrews 10:17]
L-84 People today try to say, "Those words was back for another age." It is, if you're still out from under that Blood.
L-85 But if you're under that Blood, the power of God by His Word remains the same. It's got to be the same. If He could do that by the blood of sheep and animals, what about the Blood of Jesus Christ? [Hebrews 10:1-5, 10-18]
L-86 I could do it. We must cope our lives and focus it in to the Word of God. Just like that we would a picture camera, or try to get the right focus before we snap it, and then we got the real true picture. That's what we want to do, to focus our lives into Jesus Christ, that Christ and you become the same Person. You are a son adopted to God by the Blood of the righteous Jesus Christ.
L-87 Then the Church would be moving on without friction, without hurt, without harm, without--without doubts, without scruples, without friction. It would be moving in the power of the Word of God, manifesting every Divine blessing that God promised to It, if it'd just do that.
L-88 We must do our lives, and then see Him and see Him only, not some bishop, some great man, or something we take pattern by, but we look to Jesus Christ. Not some organization, not some pope, or--or some archbishop of Canterbury, or some other "Divine man," that we call on earth. But we must look to Jesus Christ. He is the Word. And the o-... [Hebrews 9:24-28]
L-89 Abraham, when he was asked to sojourn in a strange land, and look for the promise, he never doubted the promise.
The Christian looks at the unseen. [II Corinthians 4:18]
The Christian looks at the unseen. [II Corinthians 4:18]
L-90 Remember, you are endowed with five senses. One of them is sight. But I'll prove to you, your sight don't see everything. Here, this morning, right in this room right now, there's living representations of creatures in this room. There's living voices in this room. If you do not, then go turn on the television and see if there isn't people plumb across the nation that's being represented right here in this room this morning. Their figures and their beings is passing through this room. Is that true? Why? Only way you'll ever know it, is a transmitter, to pick it up and transmit it into reality. [II Corinthians 4:18]
L-91 And the only way that the Church will ever know that Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever, is get into that transmitter, the Blood that transmits our sins away from us, and brings us across that chasm, into the Presence of God, being sons of God which He represents Himself in. Oh, what a great thing! If we'd look to that this morning, we'd forget the differences of the things that's in the world today, and the things that other people looking for, and the great numbers and so forth. "We're looking to Jesus Christ, Who is the Author and Finisher of our Faith." [Hebrews 13:8], [II Corinthians 4:18]
L-92 Now remember, the whole Christian armor is supernatural, if you are a Christian. [II Corinthians 4:18]
L-93 You say, "Seeing is believing." You can never be a Christian if you believe that. [II Corinthians 4:18]
L-94 "For faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen." You cannot be a Christian and have to see the thing. The whole armor of God is supernatural. Love, joy, peace, faith, long-suffering, goodness, meekness, gentleness, and Holy Ghost, it's all unseen. And the Christian doesn't look to what he sees with his eyes. He looks to what he sees with his faith. [Hebrews 11:1], [II Corinthians 4:18], [Galatians 5:22-23]
L-95 And his faith can only be based upon one thing, that's the Word. Amen. Now I feel like a shouting Baptist. Yes, sir. See? When you get to that Word, that's the living thing. That's the Word. When your mind and eyes can be single to that Word, and focus that in till you see exactly what God is doing, what a wonderful thing. [Romans 10:17], [Hebrews 9:24-28]
L-96 Abraham saw it. See? He did not look to any of the misunderstandings of the promise. What if he would have looked and said, "Here I'm seventy-five years old. And such-and-such a voice spoke to me and said I'm to have a baby by my wife. She is sixty-five years old, about fifteen, twenty, years past menopause"? What would he have done? But what did he do? He never paid any attention to what the natural things was. He looked at what God said. It become such a reality to him till he didn't see nothing else but what God said. He left his home. He separated himself from all unbelief, anything that would try to pull him away. He separated himself so he could walk alone. [Hebrews 9:24-28], [II Corinthians 6:17-18]
L-97 That's what every genuine believer has to do. Separate yourself from these doubters and unbelievers, and walk with Christ. It, it's Life, to you. [II Corinthians 6:17-18]
L-98 And Abraham did such a thing. And twenty-five years later, we find him still believing the same promise. Why? He had focused his--his mind to the will of God, by the Word of God, and believed it. [Hebrews 9:24-28]
L-99 If we can focus ourself to the plan of God, to what God wants for us, and what God promised us, and let everything else alone. No matter how long it is, just keep believing. [Hebrews 9:24-28]
L-100 Romans 4 here, we find Romans 4:14. It said, "And he staggered not at the promise of God, through unbelief." He didn't let unbelief contaminate him, at all. He looked to one thing, that was, the Voice that spoke to him. [Romans 4:20]
L-101 That's what the Church ought to do today. Look to the one thing, the Voice, the Word of God that speaks to us. Churches and peoples can speak any way. But, look to the Voice. What are we looking at?
L-102 He looked to the Voice that spoke to him. "He called everything, contrary to that Voice, as though it wasn't." And yet, materially, it was as far out of focus with the world as Noah's time was. It was just as far out of focus. [Romans 4:18], [Hebrews 9:24-28]
L-103 Because why? Noah's time, they couldn't prove there was rain up there. But Noah knew that, if God said so, He was able to put rain up there. [Genesis 6:13, 17-18]
L-104 Abraham knew that his--his body was as good as dead, but he considered not his own body. He considered not the deadness of Sarah's womb. A young girl, he had married his half-sister, lived with her all these years. And now she is ninety years old, and he's a hundred years old. But he didn't even think about that. That didn't even come in his mind. Why? He had focused all the unbelief out. Oh, glory! [Romans 4:19-20]
L-105 That's what the Church should do. That's what each member of the Church should do, would focus out of you all doubt. Look only to that Word. It promised it. God said so. It's got to be that way. [Hebrews 9:24-28]
L-106 The Bible said, "Against hope, he believed in hope. He staggered not at the promise of God, through unbelief, but was strong, giving praise to God." Each day he got stronger because the miracle would be greater. [Romans 4:20]
L-107 Sometimes we can't wait from one night to the other. Sometimes we can't wait from one revival to the other. We have to go out and entangle with the things of the world. How we ought to be ashamed of ourselves.
L-108 Before we come here to confess and get into that Blood of Jesus that cleanses us from all sin, we should focus ourself down, to see that one true living God standing there, Who made the promise, that, "Heavens and earth will pass away, but His Word cannot fail." Stay right there upon That, then you're not tossed about with winds of doctrine, carried about from place to place, from pillar to post. [Matthew 24:35], [Mark 13:31], [Luke 21:33], [I John 1:7]
L-109 But, you know where you stand, because you been zeroed in with God. You see your own life hitting that target, just like those apostles did. You live the way they did. You were baptized the way they were. You see the same results that they seen. You see it operating in you. You are zeroed. I don't care what the company says and what the denominations say. You are zeroed, because you know that you're hitting the target. Amen. Then you know where you're standing. Depends on what you're looking at. If you're looking to somebody else, you'll go any way. Any little puff of wind will blow you off the target. But, oh, you can't be blowed off the target when you're zeroed in. That's all. There's nothing going to stop it. God carries it to its... [Hebrews 9:24-28]
L-110 Just like David's little rock in the sling, it went straight to its destination. [I Samuel 17:48-50]
L-111 So will your prayers go straight to its destination, 'cause it's offered in the Blood of Jesus Christ which cleanses you. There's not a sin or a spot on you nowhere. That's right. There can't be. As long as that Clorox is between me and God, how is He going to see my sin? How can He do it? [Hebrews 10:17], [I Samuel 17:48-50]
L-112 If I make a sin, it's not willfully. "He that sins willfully after he receive the knowledge of the Truth." But there's no willful sin, yet you do sin. But you don't do it willfully, because, in your heart, you--you don't mean to do those things. [Hebrews 10:26]
L-113 But when you do it willfully, it's different, then I think you wasn't there at the first place. [Hebrews 10:26]
L-114 Now, the thing of it is, is come to a place where that all the stain of sin is washed away. Then you stand, redeemed by the Blood of the Lamb. You are an Adam, like he was before he fell. You are a son of God, washed in the Blood of God's Own Blood. [Hebrews 10:17]
L-115 It was blood that brings forth a child. It was only blood, alone. The blood comes from the male sex. The blood comes from the man. The woman, she produces the egg, the filler. But the man is the hemoglobin, which, there comes the germ. And in the germ is where--is where the life lays.
L-116 And the Life comes not by confession in some church, or some creed, or some document. But the Life comes when you been born again by the Blood of Jesus Christ, the--the Germ. "The--the works that I do shall you do also. He that believeth on Me, though he were dead, yet shall he live. Whosoever liveth and believeth in Me shall never die." There is that Life of God, as a son of God, born by the Blood of God. And you're... The same Holy Spirit that wrote this Bible will focus It right back into you again. There's not a denomination or a creed that can do that. Only God Himself can take a hold of the camera of your eyes and let you see what God is, and what His purpose is. Yes, sir. Certainly. [John 11:25-26]
L-117 Now, we find out, Moses. We find out, later on, he--he built... He saw Israel. Moses, the great prophet, he looked out the windows. He was raised in Pharaoh's courts. And he looked out the window and he saw a bunch of mud daubers. There's nothing but half-dressed people with lashes of whips upon their back, no way at all to ever be delivered. But Moses knew the Word of God, and he looked upon them as a promised people. He looked upon them as a people that had a promise. No matter how much the world, that day, looked down upon them, as a bunch of mud daubers or slaves, he looked upon them as a people having a promise. [Hebrews 9:24-28], [Hebrews 11:23-27]
L-119 Moses seen the victory. Why? He had focused himself. Though being a prince, though heir to the throne of Egypt, he focused himself away from the lust of the world. He focused himself away from the beauty and power that he had within his own potentials to receive. He focused that out, until he seen a blessed people yonder, by the promise of God. He focused in, because he knowed that God promised Abraham that He would visit His people. And he knew that he was raised up for that purpose, and he focused it all out. [Hebrews 11:23-27]
L-120 Pharaoh did not have this potential. He was offered it, but refused it. And when he refused it, then he couldn't focus.
L-121 No man, after he's turned down the Word of God, can ever focus hisself into It, because you refuse the Word that brings you into relationship of Christ. That's right. So... [Hebrews 9:24-28]
L-122 But, Moses looked out of this window, he believed it. Why? Moses looked by faith. That's how Moses looked. [Hebrews 11:23-27]
L-123 Now listen real close to this remark. Faith! Now, don't forget to get this now. Faith is designed to see what God wills and wants. There is no knowledge that can do that. Faith alone is designed, and give to the human race, to find out what the will of God is. [Romans 10:17]
L-124 And you take your faith that you got, and it don't focus with the Word, then leave it alone. You got the wrong faith. [Romans 10:17]
L-125 But when your God-given faith focus you with the Word of God, you're directly in line and zeroed. Oh, my! God help us this hour, great hour that we live in. Faith, designed to see what God wants! How do you see it? Through the camera of His Word, His promise. This is a full revelation of Jesus Christ. [Hebrews 9:24-28], [Romans 10:17]
L-126 Then, when the faith that's in you, focus you to this Word, you're focused away from all denominations and creeds and everything. You're focused right straight on the Word of God. You're zeroed in. It only needs is a little touch-off. Amen. That prayer flies straight in the Presence of God, because there's nothing to stop it. Yes. That's what does it, when you're zeroed-in with God, focused in, by then you're looking at the target. [Hebrews 9:24-28], [Romans 10:17]
L-128 You're looking to what you know did happen. Look on your target. You see where they hit it. If they hit it in that day, He's the same yesterday, today, and forever. Focus out all these creeds and things you got mixed up. Get right back to the Word, then confess your unbelief, and let God take His Holy Spirit and direct your sights right straight on Jesus Christ. We're looking to Him then, not what somebody else says. [Hebrews 13:8], [I John 1:9], [Hebrews 9:24-28]
L-129 Not even what the doctor says, as good as it might be. He's got his place. The church, as good as... It's got its place. We don't deny that. But it's got, all got its place. It'll fire, but it won't hit the target.
L-130 "Only them who look for Christ the second time." That's the zero. It depends on what you're looking at. Yes. [Hebrews 9:24-28]
L-131 Now, today, you see, faith is designed to do this. Same faith today sees the same thing. A faith of the Church today should see the same program of God. I want you to don't miss this now. The Church today, that's called of God, will certainly see the program of God, because the program of God is written out Here, the Blueprint. And the Holy Spirit, by faith, is the One Who reads It and sets It together. [Hebrews 9:24-28]
L-132 Then how could a man say he's filled with the Holy Ghost, and the Holy Spirit say a certain way to do something in the Bible, and this man comes around, said, "Oh, well, that's fanaticism"? Could the Holy Spirit, be the real Holy Spirit, deny Its Own Word? [Congregation says, "No."--Ed.] No. It has to stay with the Word because It's God. See? [Hebrews 9:24-28]
L-133 What are you looking at? What are you seeing? We must see Jesus. And the only way we see Jesus, see the Word. This is the--the natural Symbol of the Spirit. You know what I mean? It is the Letter that the Spirit quickens. See? That is the Letter, that, and the Spirit quickens this Letter and makes It a reality. Yeah. [Hebrews 9:24-28]
L-134 Moses looked by faith. And the man today who sees God's program, does the same thing, looks by faith. [Hebrews 11:23-27], [Hebrews 9:24-28]
L-135 Moses, later, seen this great thing. When the people got in trouble, what did he do? He made a serpent out of brass, put it upon a pole. And said, when they were bitten by serpents, because of their unbelief, that, "Whosoever looked upon this serpent lived." Notice. The man who just come and looked... [Numbers 21:7-9]
L-136 Now, the stick, the pole it was on, was a piece of a tree that was cut down there in the wilderness, probably a piece of mesquite, or--or something that you'd have here, ironwood, or whatever it might be. It had done been separated from its natural growth. It was dead, within itself. The brass was probably a piece of helmets from the Romans, or--or something that they had took in the salvage. It was molded and put together, and made a serpent. [Numbers 21:7-9]
L-137 If men come out there, just as an idol, to look upon that serpent, they received nothing. [Numbers 21:7-9]
L-138 But when the true believer come out there and looked upon that serpent, with the spiritual revealed Truth... That serpent itself, being it was in the form of a serpent, it represented sin already judged. They seen sin, their unbelief, already under judgment, from the serpent from the garden of Eden. And the serpent was made out of brass, which means Divine judgment. See? [Numbers 21:7-9]
L-139 The altar was made out of brass, brazen altar, which the sacrifice was offered upon; brass, Divine judgment.
L-140 The great prophet, Elijah, when he looked up to the skies, in the days of his ministry, the three-and-a-half years, and there was no--no water, at all. He said, "The skies look like brass." What was it? Divine judgment upon a disbelieving nation, of the message of God, that their faith was so dim, could not see it in that day. [I Kings 18:41-46]
L-141 I wonder today, if we see all the hydrogens and oxygens, and the bombs and the things that we have created, wonder if we don't see a nation, a time, looks like brass. It's Divine judgment.
L-142 We have become so--so profound in our intellects. We have educated our children till we got a bunch of rickys. And we got what we got, even our churches and things. And our boys going to seminaries, getting out here, and go down there and learn some Ph.D. and L.L.D. Let me tell you something. Every time he gets one, he goes farther and farther from God.
L-143 God is so simple. The reason that man can't find God, he don't get simple enough.
Someone said, "Brother Branham, how do you see visions?"
Someone said, "Brother Branham, how do you see visions?"
L-144 It's not me. See? You--you got to get yourself out of the picture. God made a promise. God has got to stay with that promise. But you've got to be simple enough to get out of your own way.
L-145 Someone said, "This would be a great man if he had a L.L.D. out of our college." If he does, he just goes another gap from God.
L-146 "Men today can send a message," I said, "to the moon, but he walks over a blade of grass where he could not explain if he has to." God is hid in simplicity. See? You can't get simple enough. A man get an education, the first thing he knows, he's so great, he can't humble himself.
L-147 And God is so great, that He humbles Himself and hides Himself from the sinner. Jesus thanked God for it. He said, "I thank Thee, Father, Creator of heavens and earth, thou hast hid This from the wise and prudent, and will reveal It to babes such as will learn." The way to know God is get simple. The way up is down. [Matthew 11:25], [Luke 10:21]
L-149 The way up is down. "He that humbles himself shall be exalted. He that exalts himself shall be abased." See? We must humble ourselves, not try to know too much. [Matthew 23:12], [Luke 14:11], [Luke 18:14]
L-150 Just know one thing. Focus everything else out of the way, and look unto Christ. If you don't know how to write your name, that don't have one thing to do with it. Just focus your heart to Christ and His will, and watch what happens. Yes. Certainly. [Hebrews 9:24-28]
L-151 Now, many come there and seen, said, "There's a great serpent. People goes out there and gets healed, by looking at the serpent. Maybe we had better take the family and go over." [Numbers 21:7-9]
L-152 You hear such things today. "There's a great healer coming to town. And he, there, we'll all go over and get healed." Now, when you think that way, you've certainly got your camera out of focus. Yes, sir.
L-153 Focus it down to Jesus, and Him only. Look to Him, and you'll see what God's purpose is. [Hebrews 9:24-28]
L-154 Now, when that Hebrew come up there and looked at that brass serpent, and said, "That brass, that serpent, means sin already judged. Brass is Divine judgment upon it, and God has judged my sins. And--and I am... By this brass serpent, it representing something is to come, sin already judged. I'm free." He was healed. That's right. [Numbers 21:5-9]
L-155 And today, Jesus said in Saint John 3:14, "As Moses lifted up the brass serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of man be lifted up." If you can look upon Him; not as a church man, not as a prophet, not as just a good man, not as a third person of a trinity, or something. If you can look upon Him as being Emmanuel, Himself, Who came down and give His life. And was lifted up, that, "Whosoever believeth in Him shall not perish, but have Eternal Life." [John 3:14-16], [Numbers 21:5-9]
L-156 If you can focus your camera till you see that, and know it cost the life of God, Himself, when He made His life here. Didn't have to give it up. He laid it down, freely. He was God. He didn't have to die, but He did it, freely, gave His own life, that He might bring sons to Him, that His work might continue on. "The works that I do," John 14:12, "the works that I do, you'll do also." If the things could to be done like that, and you can see Him and see Him only, then you'll get your camera in focus, see, to a place to where God can use you. Certainly. [John 14:12]
L-157 Now, if you just look upon it, say, "I got a little crucifix hanging in my car. I got one at my home, a cross." That's all right. But that ain't what it is. That's not what He's talking about.
L-158 You got to see that God knows that you are a sinner. And that you have confessed your sins, and God put your iniquity upon Him, upon Hisself, and become a man. He crossed His strain, and come down from being God, to be man, that He might die in your stead, to give Hisself for you. And you confessed your sin. And not a manufactured Clorox. But a--a power of God that was made Blood, that He might take away your sinful blood by sexual desire, and make you a free man and woman of God. There you are. [Hebrews 9:24-28], [Hebrews 10:17]
L-159 What you looking at? You say, "Oh, I belong to the Assemblies of God. I belong to the United Pentecostal. I belong to the Methodist, the Baptist." You're still focusing yourself away.
L-160 Focus yourself in on Jesus Christ. Amen. Hear the answer come back, "All thy sins, which are many, are all forgiven." Be per-... [Luke 7:47], [Hebrews 9:24-28]
L-161 Be persistent, like the little Syrophenician woman. No matter how many disappointments she had, as she come down, she still had focused herself on, that that was God. And she come to Him and got what she asked for, because she had her focus right. She had it, no matter how many puffs of wind come, and saying, "The days of miracles is passed. Your husband will leave you." That didn't bother her a bit. That bullet went straight to its point. Amen. We can focus on... [Mark 7:25-30], [Hebrews 9:24-28]
L-162 [Blank.spot.on.tape--Ed.]... time. Then we're looking for Him to come, that's the one is going. Oh, my! See, you got to get the purpose. You've got to get to know what is. [Hebrews 9:24-28]
L-163 Look at the sheep-gate. There was people. God has always had a way for man to look for salvation. That brass serpent, the people had to look at it. That's right. And at the sheep-gate, they had to look at it. Them people set there. [John 5:1-5]
L-164 Let's think it was a hospital. There were many sick and afflicted. There was thousands, multitudes laid there, like a hospital today. Tender hands of their loved ones waited on them, just exactly like they would in a hospital today. [John 5:1-4]
L-165 They were waiting. Their eyes were watching that water. There was five porches where the sheep-gate was. At the... It's outside of Jerusalem, and there, or this gate. And then when he come in, he watched. There had to be something supernatural happening. And as soon as that supernatural happened, they made a rush for it. [John 5:1-4]
L-166 Look at the church today. God wants us to watch for the supernatural when His Word is made manifest and vindicated. Now we run away from it because it's not connected with our organizations. See? [Hebrews 9:24-28]
L-167 At the sheep-gate, they watched for the supernatural moving. God has always moved through His people, through supernatural vindication of His promise. He promised He would do it. When they seen that promise begin to move, in a supernatural, they jumped right into it and took it. [John 5:1-19]
L-168 Today, even now, the Holy Spirit, the supernatural power of God, is in the earth, moving, showing things. And people run from It, instead of getting into It, the Word made flesh and vindicated, the very things that He did and promised that we would do, does the same things. And if It isn't connected with our groups, we have nothing to do with It. That's right. [Hebrews 9:24-28]
L-170 And the Pentecostal brethren, let me drop this to you. You're looking for a time to come that when there's going to be men rise up on the earth, and go out in hospitals and deliver them, and say the whole hospital move out. Don't you never be deceived like that. You believe me. You believe that's a lie. It never was done. When Jesus...
L-171 Let's say that was a hospital. He went in there by the leading of the Spirit. He found one man that He knowed was ready. And He spoke, that man. He told him the secret of his life, told him there.
L-172 He wasn't unable to walk. He could walk. Somebody could beat him, running. He said, "When I'm coming, another steps before me." See? He wasn't blind, neither was he deaf, neither was he dumb. He wasn't crippled. He had some kind of a retarded disease, wasn't going to kill him. He had it thirty-eight years. And he would try to get down there, and somebody a little better off than him would step in, then the virtue of the Angel left. [John 5:1-19]
L-173 We go in today and find a man of God, led by the Spirit of God, sees a vision, goes, does something like that, and they say, "Why, here is Jones, sets on the corner. Let me see you healers heal him."
L-174 You see that same old devil, that said to Jesus, with a rag wrapped around His eyes? And said... Hit Him on the head with a stick. And said... Changed the stick, from one hand to another. Said, "Tell us who hit You. We'll believe You're a prophet, then." [Luke 22:64]
L-175 Why, before the world ever begin, He knowed who had that stick in their hand. He didn't clown for nobody. He did exactly what the will of God was. The Church will do the same. See? [Luke 22:64]
L-176 The sheep-gate, but they were watching for something. They were looking for something. [John 5:1-4]
L-177 Now, if them said, "Oh, well, we'll go up there and see what the rest of them does. We'll see if that looks supernatural." They never got nothing.
L-178 But it's that man that had to press up, not set at the back, but in the front; that man who waited for the altar call, that man who waited to see something supernatural. [John 5:1-7]
L-179 Like this man here, Brother Williams' boy, raised in a Pentecostal family. But, yet, one time, standing in a meeting where his daddy felt led to send him, and there that young fellow standing there, and he seen the supernatural hand of God, quickly he become a Christian. He was ready to accept It, for he seen the moving of the water. He knowed there was something supernatural. [John 5:1-7]
L-180 It's not a "join church, shake hands, and a million more in '44, or a new church, a new building, or new something."
L-181 It was a new life, that come by a supernatural move, that they were looking for it to happen. They knowed every certain season; then come down, and they waited. [John 5:1-6]
L-182 Now, if it isn't going on all the time, and we're on top the house, jumping around, we feel, "Well, we'll leave this church. It's cooled off." What a nonsense! How we can't wait! Abraham didn't, wait... He didn't think God had cooled off. He waited twenty-five years, then he seen the hand of God move.
L-183 They waited at a sheep-gate, from month to month, for whatever it was, for that one supernatural moving. But they looked for it. Oh, my! They were looking for it. [John 5:1-7]
L-184 And today we've lost that vision, Pentecost. We've lost something. Let's look to Christ. Our denominations has spread itself till it's went way out, and now we're fighting and trying to get more and bigger churches, and higher classes, and better educated preachers, and things. And what have we got? We've got away from the very Thing that God told us to look at. What are you looking at?
Look and live. That's what we must do if we expect to live. [Hebrews 9:24-28]
Look and live. That's what we must do if we expect to live. [Hebrews 9:24-28]
L-185 Others might have laughed at them, said, "That bunch of holy-rollers down there, down there around that pool. Why, they say there's a... Why, it's nothing but the wind. Well, the wind comes down, blows the water back." [John 5:1-7]
L-186 Not to them. It was the Angel of mercy. It was the Angel of healing. And I believe it was the Angel, though it seems so simple. But, you see, God hides in simplicity. [John 5:1-7]
L-187 I've had them to come to the meeting, say, "Brother Branham, I didn't know you was a holy-roller. Because, I noticed all that group screaming, and crying, and going on while you were speaking, hollering 'amen' and so forth. Why, that's nothing but emotion." It might be to you who don't believe.
L-188 But, to we who have tasted of the good things of God; we who know what the Holy Ghost is! [Hebrews 6:4-5]
L-189 You say, "Them people speaking in tongues, is just jabbering off something. They just... It's only intellectual. It's only some work-up." Or somebody say... It might be, to you.
L-191 You say, "Well, now, you know, it's just the day of... That's that stuff. There's--there's... Well, people won't believe that."
L-192 That won't stop the real move of God, at all. Jesus come right in the midst of unbelief, but it never stopped Him a bit. He went right on.
L-193 The people today, no matter how try, much they try to say It's fanaticism, the people go right ahead believing It. They can't explain It. They don't know what It is. They know they got an idea of what It is.
L-194 Like Benjamin Franklin, with a kite in his hand, he said, "I got it. I got it. I got it." He knowed he had something.
L-195 So does this man and woman, who might not be able tell you what are atoms, how many molecules is in an atom, but they know they got the Holy Ghost. Because why? They zeroed it with the Word of God, what Peter said on the day of Pentecost. "Repent, every one of you and be baptized in the Name of Jesus Christ for the remission of your sins, and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost." When that confessed sin drops into that Blood, all Blood, is remitted. The Blood remits the sin, and a man stands as a son of God. Amen. [Acts 2:38]
L-196 Then he's zeroed, "Ask what you will and it'll be done for you." Then, just somehow or another, you seem to know the will of God. Some supernatural way, there's a moving, something in you, says, "Go over here and do that. Go down here and do that." See, there's something in you, always hits the target just exactly the way it's supposed to be. Oh, how wonderful! [Matthew 7:7], [Luke 11:9], [John 14:13-14], [John 15:7], [John 16:23]
L-199 The people might say, our church, our brethren, "The--the cooling off of the Message," and so forth.
L-200 It ain't cooled off. We're watching for the moving of the water. I'm watching to see something happen. I'm here in Tucson now. Why? I don't know. The water moved me down here. I'm watching to see something happen. It's going to happen. [John 5:1-9]
L-201 I told you, when I come here, the other day, "Something will happen. There would be a thunder or a blast go off, them seven seals come forth." Get the tapes and find out whether it's right or not. See? Oh, we wait for the moving of the water. [John 5:1-9]
L-202 We seen something, setting back, on a cross, side of that desert north of Tucson. Just what I told you here, before it happened. I was picking those little goat-headers off of there, and just then it went off, and shook the whole mountain. Rocks rolled down, and things like that. And the Holy Spirit turned, said, "Return to your home immediately, for the Seven Seals is going to be opened." Get the tapes and find out. That's THUS SAITH THE LORD, told before it happened, and everything. Find out if it's Truth, or not. When I'm gone on, that still lives on.
L-203 We're at the end time, friends. I'm looking for Jesus to come. That blessed Lord Jesus Who I've loved, and has give my life to, as a young man, I'm still looking for Him to come. I believe He will. Though, like Abraham, it may linger. Yet, I get stronger and more in love with Him, expressing myself daily to Him. I know every believer in here does the same thing. [Hebrews 9:24-28]
L-204 No matter what others say, "Oh, you're a back number. You ought to... I don't care what they say.
L-205 I still believe God. I focused in on the Word and know that Truth. Nobody has ever been able to shake me from it yet. As long as God holds my heart right straight on that Word, I'll stay there. Amen.
L-206 Elijah, he, one day when he was looking for something to come, to bring help to the people, he looked. And he looked till the old man, eighty-something years old, was too tired to climb the mountain, after been fasting, praying. But God told him, if they would repent, something would happen. What was he looking? He sent his servant up, said, "Go up and look. Look. Something is going to happen." Three years and a half, and no rain, not a cloud, not even dew falling. But said, "Go, look." And Elijah or... [I Kings 17:1], [I Kings 18:41-45]
L-207 Gehazi stood and looked, and looked and looked. He didn't see nothing. He come back down. He said, "I didn't see nothing."
"Go back again." Amen. "Go back and stay till it happens." [I Kings 18:43]
"Go back again." Amen. "Go back and stay till it happens." [I Kings 18:43]
L-208 And Elijah goes back... or, I mean, Gehazi, and he looks and looks and looks. [I Kings 18:43-44]
L-209 And Elijah, that little bald head setting there in the sun, and his whiskers and his beard, white beard, and them little bony-looking arms across his bony knees. He said, "Lord God," as he begin to pray. [I Kings 18:41-44]
L-210 Said, "Go back again now." Amen. What was he doing? He was looking for God to take care of His promise, no matter how brassy she looked, how much judgment is upon it. That's right. [I Kings 18:41-45]
L-211 Someone said, other day, he said, "Brother Branham, you believe That, and you speak so much against the organizations of religions. What makes you do that?"
L-212 I said, "Nothing against the brethren in that organization, but it's the system is what I'm against."
L-213 Like the disciples going to embalm the body of Jesus. That body was nearly ready to rot, that's right, was an awful smell. But they stayed right with it.
L-214 That's the same thing today, although the church has got itself all scrupled up. It's in all kinds of conditions. It's broke off in isms and formalities and everything, but I've got to stay with it. We must stay there. We got to stay there because we love it. There's something in us, compulsing us. The pulsations from our heart says, "Stay with it, because there's going to be a resurrection one day, and God will take from that." Amen. Yes. Wonderful Lord Jesus! All right.
L-216 Now, unbelief would have caught that right quick. "If that's the best you can do?" See? "If that's all you can do, well, take it back."
L-217 But what was it? He was looking for the supernatural. Oh, he knowed only the hand of God could do it. And when he saw that hand, J-e-s-u-s, he had f-a-i-t-h. Yes. And when he saw it, he said, "I hear the sound of abundance of rain." What was it? He accepted the first move. [I Kings 18:41]
L-218 Oh, unbeliever, this morning, you who have been all scrupled up in your water baptisms and everything else, let the Spirit of God open your eyes and show you just a little something, then you start from there. "I hear the sound of abundance of rain." You who believe creeds instead of the Word, come back to the Word, just see the first little move. Faith accepted it. "There is what I'm looking for." [I Kings 18:41]
L-219 We're looking for the Coming of the Lord. We look at the Holy Ghost falling in the last days. We look at signs and wonders. We watch what's taking place. See? Don't you see? What you looking at? That's exactly what God said would take place. Let faith grab it, say, "I want it, too."
L-220 Watch Elijah. When he accepted it, you know his life must have been renewed. He outrun Ahab's chariot. He run before the chariot, when he couldn't even climb the hill. He run before those swift horses. "Get the rain barrels out. I hear the sound of abundance of rain." The first little move, "Glory!" [I Kings 18:41-45]
L-222 Oh, if the people here, if you haven't received the Holy Ghost this morning, if that first little tinkle would say, "That's the Truth. That man is telling the Word that's the Truth," then hurry as quick as you can. Don't wait. What you looking at? What you waiting for? The hour is later than you think. Get moving towards It, as fast as you can. Why? When Elijah saw that move, it was the evidence of an answered prayer. [I Kings 18:41-45], [John 5:1-5]
L-223 O God, I wish that every sick person here this morning, that feels this Holy Spirit in our presence now, could realize that. That's the evidence of a prayer that you prayed, has been answered in the Presence of God. Every man who wants the baptism of the Holy Ghost, if you'd feel that little grand feeling, saying that, "I believe that's the Truth"; if you'd take that, "That's the evidence of my answered prayer"; raise up your hands and say, "God, I receive It now," something would take place. Depends on... [I Kings 18:41-45], [John 5:1-5]
L-224 God throws the signs all around us, and we still move right on, just out of the way of it. Yeah. Oh, my!
Elijah knowed it was an answer of prayer. [I Kings 18:41-45]
Elijah knowed it was an answer of prayer. [I Kings 18:41-45]
L-225 Jonah refused to see anything was contrary. He was down in the belly of the whale, in the bottom of the sea. But he said, "That won't hide me." He said, "Once more will I look towards Your holy temple." What was he looking at? He actually couldn't see the temple, but he seen the promise made by the temple. [Jonah 2:4]
L-226 O God, if we could just only see the promise of the Word, that Christ promised, "Wherever two or three are assembled in My Name, I am there in their midst. And whatever they ask, they shall receive." If we could only see it, and the first move, move right into It. Don't wait any longer. What you looking for? [Matthew 18:20]
L-227 God answers your prayer, and places It all around you, then you say, "Well, now, let me see, what would so-and-so say?" Oh, don't do that.
L-228 Look at Christ. Look to what He said, "I'm there where two or three are gathered in My Name. I'm there among them. Let them ask. They shall receive." What a promise, what a Divine promise!
He refused to see anything that would make him doubt. [Matthew 18:20], [Hebrews 9:24-28]
He refused to see anything that would make him doubt. [Matthew 18:20], [Hebrews 9:24-28]
L-229 If the Devil says, for you, say, "Now, wait a minute, maybe tonight you might be a little bit better, when the revival starts." Might be fair, that might be good, but don't wait till the revival starts. Be...
L-230 Become part of the revival right now. God wants to start it in you. God wants to start it in the church. The Holy Spirit will take the messenger, then, and send forth the Message. God will vindicate that Message, great signs and wonders. See? Refuse to see anything that would make you doubt.
L-231 Jonah did, and God delivered him out of the belly of the whale. Certainly. Yes, sir. [Jonah 2:1-10]
L-232 Job, when even all of his friends had turned him down, everything was wrong, Job kept looking towards the sky. Some of them said, "You're a secret sinner. You--you, you're looking. Job, what are you looking up that way for? Because you've done sinned, God has done proved what He's done to you. You're a secret sinner, Job." [Job 15:11], [Job 2:10]
L-233 Job knowed he wasn't sinner. He had met exactly every Word God required, that burnt sacrifice. That burnt offering was all God asked for. God only asked for the burnt offering, and Job knowed he had made the burnt-offering sacrifice. [Job 1:4-5]
L-234 God only asks you to believe His Word. Amen. Amen. He don't ask all these isms and creeds, and everything else. He asks for you to believe Him. "He that believeth on Me!" Amen, and amen. "He that believeth on Me, the works that I do!" "Look to Him, all the ends of the world, and live." "He's the same yesterday, today, and forever." Amen, and amen. Yes, sir. Don't wait for anything else. Look. [John 14:12], [Hebrews 9:24-28]
L-235 Job stood and looked. He seen his flesh, all corruption. He seen blood over him. He seen boils over him. His wife come. His church members left him, and accused him of being a secret sinner. His wife come and said, "You look miserable. Why don't you curse God and die the death?" [Job 2:9]
L-236 He said, "Thou speakest like a foolish woman. The Lord gave, the Lord taken away; blessed be the Name of the Lord." [Job 2:10], [Job 1:21]
L-237 About that time, when he stayed with the Word, then the lightnings begin to flash, the thunders roared, and the prophet looked towards the sky. And he said, "I know my Redeemer liveth. He will stand in the last days upon this earth. Though, after the skin worms has destroyed this body, yet in my flesh shall I see God, Whom I shall see." [Job 19:25-26]
L-238 Watch. The first, He's called "Redeemer"; the next, He's "God." "I know my Redeemer liveth. The last days, He will stand on the earth. Though, after the skin worms destroys this body, yet in my flesh shall I see God, Whom I shall see for myself. My eyes shall behold, and not another." When he was dying, and his body rottening, while he was in the flesh, he looked till he seen the resurrection, hallelujah, and knowed that he was included in it, because he was keeping God's Word. Look and live, my brother. Amen. He seen what God's purpose was, and he did it. God had a cause, to test Job. [Job 19:25-27]
L-239 He's had a cause, to test the people. Everything is done for a cause. He's doing the same thing now. He sends us signs and wonders amongst the people. He sends the Gospel Truth, and let them look over It, to some creed, deny the real Truth and take a creed; deny This and take that, when they know the Bible teach contrary to that. But He does it for a test. Then there's no excuse at the Day of the Judgment. Oh, my!
L-240 Look what's promised in the last days. In closing now, let me say this just before we close. Look what promised in the last days.
L-241 Look what He's already done in these last days. He's poured out the Holy Ghost upon His people, brought back the original Pentecost again, brought back the original baptism of the Holy Ghost; brought back the original water baptism, brought back everything, back to its original. Come right on down, and brought back the original evidence of Christ, by showing us visions and prophecies that never fail one time. Move right on down, everything just exactly the same, to show that it's beyond human mind. They could not do that. It's God. [Acts 2:38-39]
L-242 Watch that great Pillar of Fire that led the children of Israel. Anybody, any Bible scholar, knows that that was the Angel of the Covenant, Jesus Christ.
L-243 Hebrews said, Hebrews 11th chapter said, that, "Moses forsook Egypt, esteeming the reproach of Christ greater treasures than that of Egypt." See? What was it? Christ in the wilderness. [Hebrews 11:23-30]
L-244 In John 16 or... Beg your pardon. John 6, when they was taking the communion, or whatever it was, breaking the bread and having the great time there at the jubilee. Jesus said, "I'm the Bread of Life that come from God out of Heaven. He that eats My flesh has Eternal Life, and I'll raise him up the day of the--the last days." He knowed He would do it. He said He was the Bread of Life. [John 6:35, 39-40, 44, 54-56]
L-245 They said, "You make Yourself God. You make Yourself..." Said, "But, why, we know You're crazy, now." Mad means "crazy." "We know You're crazy. You're a Man not over fifty years old, and here You say You 'saw Abraham'? We know You are mad. You're out of Your mind. You're a religious fanatic."
He said, "Before Abraham was, I AM." Amen. [John 8:57]
He said, "Before Abraham was, I AM." Amen. [John 8:57]
L-246 What was 'I AM'? That burning Light in that bush. Moses saw It. He watched It all the days of his life, and It led him right into the promised land.
L-247 That same Light came down and was standing there. And He said, "I AM before Abraham was. I AM that burning bush. I AM THAT I AM, that Angel of Light. I come from God, and I go to God." [John 8:58], [John 13:3]
L-248 A few days after the resurrection, Saul of Tarsus was on his road down to Damascus, to persecute the Pentecostals. And when he's on his road down there, there was a great Light moved down, put his eyes out. He could... None of the rest of them could see that Light, but he could. It was so vivid to him till It blinded his eyes. Said, "Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou Me?"
He said, "Who are You, Lord?" [Acts 26:14-15], [Acts 9:4-5], [Acts 22:8], [Acts 26:15]
He said, "Who are You, Lord?" [Acts 26:14-15], [Acts 9:4-5], [Acts 22:8], [Acts 26:15]
L-249 He said, "I am Jesus." That same Light that was in the burning bush, the same Light had come from God and went back to God. [Acts 9:5], [John 13:3]
L-250 And we have a picture of that same Light among us today, doing the same wonders, and same miracles, and same signs, and yet we look for something else. The Gospel Truth, of the vindication of the Word, this baptism of the Holy Spirit, baptism in the Name of Jesus Christ, these things that we teach, are absolutely the Truth. Where are they vindicated? [Congregation says, "Amen."--Ed.] Amen. Whew! I feel religious. Yes. Why? Because the Holy Spirit is here. Cause, around the world, He's proved it, back and forth, and never failing one time. Amen. [Exodus 13:21]
L-251 What are you looking at? What are you waiting for? Uh-huh. It's time. The waters are being troubled. Move in now; the signs of the last days. [Hebrews 9:24-28]
L-252 "It shall be Light in the evening time," you know. Yes. "It shall be," Haywood said. And that's right. "The path of Glory you'll surely find." Yes, in these last days, you would do it. [Zechariah 4:7]
L-253 Look. It depends on what you're looking at. Look what's been done. The Pillar of Fire, the Holy Ghost, He's the same yesterday, today, and forever. Now let us look. Let us believe. Let us understand that we're in the last days. We're in the last hours. And we're in the last minutes of the last hour.
L-254 I got this film, and I maybe bring it up to Brother Outlaw, some time, for a Wednesday night service, show you that, where we took at Jerusalem, call it Three Minutes Till Midnight. Take what science has said.
L-255 The Bible said, Jesus said, "When you see the fig tree, and all the other trees, putting forth their buds," Israel returning as a nation. They are a nation. We see the other trees: the Methodists having their put forth, the Baptists having theirs, the Catholics having theirs, all the rest of them having theirs; the Pentecostals, through Oral Roberts, having theirs; all the rest of them having their revivals, putting forth its branch. "Then know that the time is at the hand. This generation shall not pass until all these things be fulfilled." [Matthew 24:32], [Mark 13:28-30]
L-256 We see Israel in her homeland, with her ensign lifted up, the six-point star of David. She's got her own money, her own nation, her own army. She's got everything. She's--she's Israel. What is it? She's there, ready for the purging, that God will take that hundred and forty-four thousand from it.
L-257 Look at the church today, is in its chaos, all mixed up and everything. It's looking, "And we got more in there. We got better than they have. We're this, that, and the other." [Hebrews 9:24-28]
L-258 And there that Bride is looking to the Coming of the Lord Jesus. Which, that secret, secret Coming of Christ shall come and catch away His Bride in the night. Like a book I read of Romeo and Juliet, one time, how he come with a ladder and got his bride out among them. That's what Jesus will come, someday, and looking for that one is not looking to his creeds, but looking to Christ, waiting for Him to come, with his heart centered. [Hebrews 9:24-28]
L-259 They come, Blood relation, like Isaac and Rebekah, own Blood relation. That's what we have to come, Blood relation to Christ, through the Sacrifice, when our sins are omitted by the Blood of Jesus; not by what some church says, what somebody else says; but what the Blood has done, and proved that it's done, by the Word working through the same thing, carrying out the same ministry He had. Amen.
L-260 What are you looking to, church? Oh, these last days, oh, He's been right among us, people, and we forgot it. He set right among us, and we didn't know it. The Holy Spirit is here this morning, and maybe many will go away and forget it. Maybe many that's sick will forget to believe and anchor their faith right where it should be now. The true... [Hebrews 9:24-28]
L-261 Truly the pool is troubled. The waters are whirling backwards from the natural, showing the supernatural. The Holy Spirit is here, taking a normal bunch of people, intelligent, setting here, well-dressed, well-educated, looking. The Holy Spirit fall upon them, and something whirls them around. They holler, "Glory to God! Hallelujah!" What's the matter? The troubling of the water. Amen. [John 5:1-19]
L-262 Sinners setting there, backsliders, prostitutes, drunkards, and everything else, are saintly, godly. You can't put a finger on their lives, anywhere, since they receive it. What is it? The troubling of the waters. What are you looking at? The Holy Spirit fall among us... [John 5:1-19]
L-263 I was setting there, a while ago, with Brother Outlaw, pointing people, to him, here with diseases and things. And could be done right now, showing the different things that's happened in lives and things. What is it? It's the Holy Spirit, Jesus Christ, the same yesterday, today, and forever. What are we waiting for? The troubling of the water? It's already troubled. The Angel will leave pretty soon, and all virtue is gone, and then there's no salvation left. You'll be left into outer darkness. [Hebrews 13:8]
L-264 Story I heard, a few days ago. In closing, I might say this. There's a boy who had done a murder. He done something wrong.
L-265 Well, I was called on a case, the other day, you know, this over here in Texas. I got a little certificate from them the other day, "Saving a life," it said. We went over there for that little Ayers. That man that taken the picture of the Angel of the Lord, who, that night over there at Houston, and criticized me and said everything in the world about me. Throwed his arms around me, hugged me, said, "Just think, Brother Branham, the very man that I said was hyp-... practicing hypnosis, has come to save my son from the electric chair." That's right. I talked there before them all. And what did the governor do? Pardoned it. Oh, my, when they was to die in four or five days, afterwards. Right. Why? I'm interested in life. Life!
L-266 I said, "Sir, you have no right to take the boy's life. The first blood was ever spilled, was one brother spilled another's. He shed his blood. But God didn't take his life in capital punishment. He put a mark upon him, that nobody would kill him. Don't rub that off." Amen, and amen. Right. We're interested in life.
L-267 One day, a mother's boy had killed a man. He was laying there, ready to die. And so the little mother stood by the governor's door, and they asked in. And, finally, with one of the guards, said, "Governor, that mother of that boy is out here, wants you. She wants to see you."
L-269 The poor little thing crawled on her hands and knees, up to his feet, laid his hands... her hands upon his feet, and said, "Governor, honorable sir," said, "you're the only man that's left, that can spare my son. Please, kind sir. I know he's guilty. He's just as guilty. Your courts of justice found him guilty." And how many of us are not guilty in the courts of God? "Your courts of justice found him guilty. He actually killed, and he's subject to death. I know that. But, sir, as a man, you have no right to take the life of my boy. God only can give life, and only God can take life. Don't do it, sir. Please don't. I beg of you, as a heart of a mother could bear." And so he sent her away.
L-270 It broke his heart, so much, the pleading of that mother, till he goes down to the jail, to the prison where the boy was setting back in the prison.
L-271 The man had built up a complex. Just about like the church has done today, "You'll either preach It the way I like It," or you won't hear It at all. "I won't pay no attention!" Was... and set there. Man after man had come to him, trying to talk to him. He had built himself till he wasn't going to hear no more.
L-272 So the governor walked in. He said, "Son, I'd like to talk to you."
He said, "Shut up and get out of here," in his cell.
He said, "Son, I've come to help you."
Said, "I told you to get out of here."
He said, "Shut up and get out of here," in his cell.
He said, "Son, I've come to help you."
Said, "I told you to get out of here."
L-273 That's the way people does the Holy Spirit today. Yeah. "Get out. I don't want nothing to do with It." And knocks at the door. "If I do that, I'll have to give up my card party. I'll have to give up this. I'll have to give up that. I'll have to give up my church creed. I'll have to give." See? You better listen. He's the only One has got pardon. That's right. What are you looking at? See? [Revelation 3:20-21]
L-275 That's the way people do today at the altar call. They keep their head turned. They don't want to hear It. They'd turn their head from God Who is telling them, "That's the Truth." A little, wee Voice, like a touch.
L-276 You know, Elijah, he heard the rushing wind, blood, fire, smoke, and it didn't bother him. But when he heard that little Voice, he come out. Oh, that little Voice that the church has failed to hear! Right. [I Kings 19:9-13]
L-277 So, the--the--the man tried his best. The governor tried to talk to the boy. The boy said, "Are you going to get out of here or am I going to throw you out."
L-279 When he walked out, the boy looked around, kind of arrogant, as he walked down through the hall.
L-280 And when he did, one of the guards stepped out and said, "Governor, did you do any good?"
He said, "No. He wouldn't listen."
He said, "No. He wouldn't listen."
L-281 That boy jumped. He grabbed the bars, said, "Who was that?"
"That was the governor. Come for your pardon."
"That was the governor. Come for your pardon."
L-282 Too late then. He screamed. He cried. He said, "Think of it. The governor, here in my own cell, to pardon me, and I turned him down."
L-283 And when they put the rope around his neck, before they put the black mask on, after he had walked the thirteen steps, last words he said, "Think of it. The governor stood in my cell, for pardoning, and I turned him down." And they hung him.
L-284 Oh, there's more than a governor here this morning. Jesus Christ is here. And that little cell, called man or woman, He's here to give pardon. Don't, don't turn Him away. Don't do it. Find your purpose that God brought you here in life.
L-285 We're in a tremendous hour, friends. You know that. As the old song said:
Nations are breaking, (Look what time it is.), Israel's awaking,
The signs that the Bible foretold;
The Gentile days numbered, with harrows encumbered;
"Return, O dispersed, to your own."
The Day of Redemption is near,
Men's hearts are failing for fear;
Be filled with the Spirit, your lamps trimmed and clear. (What?)
Look up, your Redemption is near.
That's right.
False prophets are lying, God's Truth they're denying,
That Jesus the Christ is our God;
That's right.
This generation spurns God's revelation,
But we walk where the apostles have trod.
The Day of Redemption is near,
Men's hearts are failing for fear;
Be filled with the Spirit, your lamps trimmed and clear,
Look up, your Redemption is near.
The signs that the Bible foretold;
The Gentile days numbered, with harrows encumbered;
"Return, O dispersed, to your own."
The Day of Redemption is near,
Men's hearts are failing for fear;
Be filled with the Spirit, your lamps trimmed and clear. (What?)
Look up, your Redemption is near.
That's right.
False prophets are lying, God's Truth they're denying,
That Jesus the Christ is our God;
That's right.
This generation spurns God's revelation,
But we walk where the apostles have trod.
The Day of Redemption is near,
Men's hearts are failing for fear;
Be filled with the Spirit, your lamps trimmed and clear,
Look up, your Redemption is near.
L-286 That's right. Look up, brother, get away from all this dogma of the world. Look up. Look to Christ. Look to Jesus, as the song says. [Hebrews 9:24-28]
"Look and live," my brother, live;
Look to Jesus now and live;
It's recorded in His Word, hallelujah,
It's only that we "look and live."
What are you looking at this morning?
"Look and live," my brother, live;
Look to Jesus now and live;
For it's recorded in His Word, hallelujah,
It is only that we "look and live."
You believe that? Let's sing it together. You know it?
"Look and live," my brother, live;
Look to Jesus now and live;
It's recorded in the Word, hallelujah,
It is only that we "look and live."
Now let's sing it together now.
Look, live, my brother, live;
Look to Jesus now and live;
It's recorded in the Word, hallelujah,
It is only that we "look and live."
Look to Jesus now and live;
It's recorded in His Word, hallelujah,
It's only that we "look and live."
What are you looking at this morning?
"Look and live," my brother, live;
Look to Jesus now and live;
For it's recorded in His Word, hallelujah,
It is only that we "look and live."
You believe that? Let's sing it together. You know it?
"Look and live," my brother, live;
Look to Jesus now and live;
It's recorded in the Word, hallelujah,
It is only that we "look and live."
Now let's sing it together now.
Look, live, my brother, live;
Look to Jesus now and live;
It's recorded in the Word, hallelujah,
It is only that we "look and live."
L-287 What are you looking at? To them that look for Jesus, a second time, He will come in Glory unto salvation, to take us out of this sinful world, out of this sin and stuff we're in. You believe that? [Congregation says, "Amen."--Ed.] Look and live. The only thing you can do is look, take the Word. As the serpent on a pole represented the living Word that would be made flesh, so does the Word today represent the Presence of the Holy Spirit when we see It vindicated among us. He is in our little cell this morning. Won't you listen to Him while we bow our heads? [Hebrews 9:24-28]
Continue on, brother.
Continue on, brother.
"Look and live," my brother, live;
Oh, look to Jesus now and live;
It's recorded in the Word, hallelujah,
It is only that we "look and live."
[Brother Branham begins humming Look And Live--Ed.]
Look to Jesus now and live;
It's recorded in the Word, hallelujah,
It is only that we "look and live."
Oh, look to Jesus now and live;
It's recorded in the Word, hallelujah,
It is only that we "look and live."
[Brother Branham begins humming Look And Live--Ed.]
Look to Jesus now and live;
It's recorded in the Word, hallelujah,
It is only that we "look and live."
L-288 While you have your heads bowed, look to Jesus now, brother, the Word. If you've never repented, repent. If you've never been baptized in the Name of Jesus Christ, be baptized. You've got a promise of God, that you'll receive the Holy Ghost. That's what the original Church started with, and the way It started. God is infinite. He cannot change His program. That's the way it has to ever remain. The Church was inaugurated on the Day of Pentecost, by repentance, baptism in the Name of Jesus Christ, and a promise to receive the Holy Ghost. "These signs shall follow them that believe." [Mark 16:17]
L-289 If that's never happened to you, friend, will you raise up your hand to God now and say, "Brother Branham, pray for me." God bless you, you, you. God bless you. Good. God bless you, you, you. That's good. All right.
"Look and live," my brothers, live;
Look to Jesus now and live;
Now, it's recorded in the Word, hallelujah,
It is only that we "look and live."
Look to Jesus now and live;
Now, it's recorded in the Word, hallelujah,
It is only that we "look and live."
L-290 Now, it's recorded here in the Word. We're in the last days. There's nothing put up about this. There's nothing bogus, no hoax. It's the Word being made manifest. It's the Word telling the Truth. You've been--you've been at the meetings. You've been in the meetings before, and you know that it's the Truth.
L-291 Now, we have a lot of impersonators. We know that. But don't look at them. There was a mixed multitude went with Moses. But, remember, there were some true Israelites there that went to the promised land. See?
L-292 The same in this group, brother. There's real, genuine Spirit-filled men and women, real, real, can't put a finger on their life. Won't you look and live this morning? Look away from the impersonators. Look away from the--the ones that would be fanatics. Look away from all that and look to the real Jesus. We're recorded in His Word. Hallelujah. "To those that look for Him the second time He will appear." [Hebrews 9:24-28]
L-293 If you would like to come forward to the altar, to stand for prayer, if you haven't received the Holy Spirit; haven't met these qualifications, of the book of Acts, that Peter spoke of, and you would like to meet them this morning. While we sing one more verse, I would like to invite you, come stand at the altar for prayer. And then we will perform the baptism, or we will pray for you to receive the Holy Ghost. While we sing.
Oh, "look and live," my brothers, live;
Look to Jesus now and live.
Somebody else?
Recorded in the Word, hallelujah,
It is only that we "look and live."
"Look and live," my brother, live;
Oh, look to Jesus now and live;
It's recorded in the Word, hallelujah,
It is only that we "look and live."
Look to Jesus now and live.
Somebody else?
Recorded in the Word, hallelujah,
It is only that we "look and live."
"Look and live," my brother, live;
Oh, look to Jesus now and live;
It's recorded in the Word, hallelujah,
It is only that we "look and live."
L-294 What's the matter with women this morning? All men? Seldom you see that. This is the hour of sincerity. All right.
"Look and live," my brother, live;
Look to Jesus now and live;
It's recorded in the Word, hallelujah,
It is only that we "look and..."
Look to Jesus now and live;
It's recorded in the Word, hallelujah,
It is only that we "look and..."
L-295 I just feel there should be somebody else. Come on. These, these four men standing here, there is more than that here. Come on. You want to live? Remember, God writes it down. They asked, "How must... What must we do to be saved?" And it was told them. Now, He cannot change that, and never was it changed, down through the Bible ages. [Hebrews 9:24-28]
L-296 Now we got different ideas. We change it now, oh, my, everything. But don't, don't look at that. Don't look what they're doing now.
L-297 Look to what He said Here. Look to the Bible. You look and live, brother. That's the only way you can; sister, too. Come now, if you haven't received this experience and know that it's exactly the Bible, with God Himself there, vindicated. Don't take no chance. [Hebrews 9:24-28]
L-298 What are you looking at, this morning? What are you looking at? Did you stop in this hideous, hectic day that we're living in? What are you looking for? God has placed everything.
L-300 The sign of the hand in the sky, Elijah said, "That cloud, the size of a man's hand, like a vapor." What was it? He kept believing. "I hear the sound of abundance of rain." That cloud become two clouds. Two clouds become a hill. A hill become a mountain. The mountain become another mountain. The first thing you know, the whole skies were thundering, rain was falling. What was it? He accepted what God sent. [I Kings 18:41, 44]
L-301 And this morning, if that little Thing has touched your heart, and says, "I need that," that's that little sign, the size of a hand of a man. Come.
Let's bow our heads.
"Look and live," my brothers, live;
Oh, look to Jesus now and live;
Oh, it's recorded in the Word, hallelujah,
It is only that we "look and live."
Oh, look to Jesus now and live;
Oh, it's recorded in the Word, hallelujah,
It is only that we "look and live."
Let's bow our heads.
L-302 Wonder if you brethren here, some of you minister brothers, you'd walk right down, some of you brethren, lay hands on these brethren that came down here, if you will, brethren.
L-303 Lord Jesus, this man has brought the confession, has come this morning. Dissolve all his doubt from him.
The Blood, Father! Forgive us, Lord!...?...
He's worth giving up everything for.
The Blood, Father! Forgive us, Lord!...?...
He's worth giving up everything for.
L-304 Likewise, for this brother here, Lord, may his confession drop in the Blood of Jesus Christ. May he be filled with the Holy Ghost. That God would change his name, leaning on his staff. But he needs the Holy Spirit. Made his confession this morning!...?...
L-305 Fill him with the Holy Ghost. [Brother Branham and the ministers continue praying with those at the altar--Ed.] And may there come forth a great power of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
L-306 All the church bowing your heads now, be in prayer. These brothers are praying now, and everybody lay your hands upon them and pray.
Here is another one come.
Here is another one come.
L-307 Lord Jesus, upon the confession that he comes to make today, I pray, God, that You'll fill him with the Holy Ghost, Lord. He's looking away now to Calvary, where only the Blood of Jesus Christ can cleanse him. Only one Blood can make that leap across that chasm. That's the Blood of Jesus Christ that flows within the chasm, and puts him next to God, tonight. Grant it, Father, through Jesus Christ. Amen.
L-308 Everybody in prayer now, laying your hands upon them, brother, these men standing here. Praying with all your heart now.
L-310 That's exactly the way I received it, when I come up and said, "Lord God, I'm deeply sincere. I really mean it, from all my heart. This is between death and life, and I--I don't want to die. I--I want to live, and I--I want to go to Heaven. And You promised."
L-311 I never heard of such a thing as Pentecost, never heard such. But, I said, "In the Bible here the requirement was, according to this Bible, for me to repent, and that I do. And I've been baptized in the Name of Jesus Christ. Now, Lord, You promised me the Holy Ghost. You promised to do it."
L-312 I never heard of anything like speaking in tongues, never read it no more than there in the Bible. I just didn't think any. And right there come a Light across the room, in a cross form, and ever what was on it was speaking in tongues. I said, "I don't understand Your Voice, sir, Your language. If You can't speak English, and I don't understand Your language; if You'll just come back and speak again, it'll be a sign that You've accepted me." And there It was again.
L-313 Oh, brother, I looked and lived, then. I been living ever since, in the glorious realms of God, where the power of God is flowing freely down by the spout of His blessings.
L-314 Now let's raise our hands as we stand, each one of us here, and these men. Now, brethren, the Holy Spirit is here. The Pardoner is right here by the side of you. Let's believe with all of our heart now. Let's each one believe. Now let's raise our voices to God. God bless you.
Heavenly Father, we pray...?...
Lord Jesus, I pray You, that You will grant this!...?...
Lord, may she not fail to see it now!...?... You saved her from dying. Now she's free to live...?...
Heavenly Father, we pray...?...
Lord Jesus, I pray You, that You will grant this!...?...
Lord, may she not fail to see it now!...?... You saved her from dying. Now she's free to live...?...
"Look and live," my brothers, live;
Look to Jesus now and live;
Oh, it's recorded in God's Word, hallelujah,
It is only that you "look and live."
Oh, "look and live."
Look to Jesus now and live;
Oh, it's recorded in God's Word, hallelujah,
It is only that you "look and live."
Oh, "look and live."
L-316 That's it. Like the brass serpent. There was no power in the serpent, but it's what they looked at. Now, the promise said, "They shall lay hands on the sick; they shall recover." I lay my hands upon him because it's representation, like the brass serpent. May they look at Jesus, yonder, Who died. He's the propitiation of our sick folks to heal. He's the propitiation of our sin. May the power of God come upon this water, and heal each one, in the Name of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.
The baby? The baby? [Mark 16:18], [Numbers 21:8-9], [I John 2:2], [I John 4:10]
The baby? The baby? [Mark 16:18], [Numbers 21:8-9], [I John 2:2], [I John 4:10]
L-317 In Jesus' Name...?... In the Name of the Lord Jesus...?... Oh, in the Name of Jesus Christ.
God bless you now. Believe with all your heart. Believe it.
Remember, brother...?...
God bless you now. Believe with all your heart. Believe it.
Oh, "look and live," my brothers, live.
How do you do it?
You look to Jesus now and live;
Oh, it's recorded in...
How do you do it?
You look to Jesus now and live;
Oh, it's recorded in...
Remember, brother...?...
L-318 You know what's the matter with the churches today? We get way... We--we--we give up too quick. Elijah stayed there and he prayed, and he prayed, and he prayed until something happened. And when he felt that little trinkle come down in his heart, he said, "I hear the sound of abundance of rain." If men and women in here, who wants Christ or the Holy Ghost, who wants to be healed, if they would just stay there and say, "Lord, You promised it. You promised it," then feel that little trickle. Say, "Here it is, Lord. I accept it," something is going to happen.
[I Kings 18:41-46]
Oh, "look and live," my brothers, live.
Look to Jesus now and...
Look to Jesus now and...
[I Kings 18:41-46]