Conference

You can find this sermon at ChurchAges.net

1 Happy to be in this ... gathered in heavenly places in Christ Jesus, hear the messages from the Lord, knowing that we are living again in the days of the apostolic church move. Oh, I'm so glad for this.
Today's been a wonderful day. We have had some interviews with the people and so forth, and the Spirit of the Lord has been near, and we've seen great things take place, and I believe that we are near the end, real near, more near than we really think we are.

2 So tonight is another night that we have the privilege of, this side of eternity, to gather together to speak on His Word. I believe if we should just close the meeting and go home, it wouldn't ... many times pay us just for being out tonight, the singing, and hearing the exhortations, and the Spirit speaking to the people.
Look in the Scriptures and search them. This is the way it began. This is the way it'll end. Did you ever notice that the Gentile kingdom was issued in by unknown tongues and interpretations? King Nebuchadnezzar, the handwriting on the wall, unknown tongues and interpretations. It goes out the same way---the Gentile age.

3 Oh, it would be so nice if we had a few weeks we could take speaking on prophecy and so forth. I asked Brother Jack Moore, my precious friend, today, if it would be all right if I announced something in the assembly tonight. He said, "Certainly."
Beginning next Sunday a week, the fourth through the eleventh, at Jeffersonville, I am speaking eight nights there on the seven last church ages. I'm going to write a little commentary on it, and the Lord seemed to place upon my heart that I would speak it before the church. And it'll go on magnetic tape, and from that to the records, and from the records to the typewriter, shorthand typewriting, and then be out in print which makes at least three new books coming off now of visions, and then this book will come out, the seven last church ages. I believe that we are in that age.

4 How come me to write it, I was looking back... Every time the Lord speaks to me I place it down, and then watch it, and bring it to the people, and show them how it comes to pass. I picked up a prophecy, I didn't... And I was a pastor of the Baptist church there. I didn't even know what a vision meant, and now them things that happened, I'd call it falling into a trance. I didn't know to call it a vision at that time, I was just a boy: 1933, on June.

5 I was on my way to Sunday school, and when I was getting my Bible, a vision came before me; and I was stopped in the floor. And here was what it said. It's on yellow paper. Will be printed in the "Herald of Faith" right away, because most all of it is fulfilled. 1933---think of this now. Many, many years ago, about twenty-eight years ago it taken place. Watch how accurate His Word is.
Said, "We now have a president (Mr. Roosevelt), and this Mr. Roosevelt will cause the world to go into a world war through his ... in his time of his administration as president," and then said, "And during this time they have permitted women to vote, which will be a curse to the nation. They'll elect the wrong man sometime." And they did the other day. Think of that. Said, "We will go to war with Germany, and Germany will be fortified behind concrete. And we will take an awful beating at this place," the Maginot Line eleven years before it was built, see. Exactly.

6 Said, "This new dictator, Mussolini, will take his first step toward Ethiopia, and Ethiopia will fall at his feet." It did. It said, "That'll be his last. He will end in disgrace." And I said, "It will come to pass before the end time comes that there will be a great woman stand up in the United States, because the United States is marked woman. Her number is thirteen, and she will rise up, either be president, or (I put it in parentheses) perhaps the woman being beautiful and attractive will be the Catholic church but cruel at heart, and she will lead the nation to pollution. And then it will come to pass that they'll have an automobile perfected into a place, that I seen a family driving in an automobile that was glass topped and didn't have any steering wheel in it."
And I seen the other day that it in the "Popular Mechanics" that the machine is already invented. They can take it anywhere you want to by some sort of a---this radar control. Just set your post to it and it goes right on. You don't even need it, and it's glass topped.

7 Then I turned to look and I seen the United States was a smoldering, something had burned it up, and down beneath there I said (not in the trance) but I predict... Remember this. I guess this is taped too. I predict that these things will take place between now, 1933 and 1977 which will give us sixteen more years if my prediction strikes right.
Now, there was seven things spoke of that would happen. Five of them has already happened. There's two left to take place. It'll be that way. That's in the name of the Lord it shall be that way, see.
Oh, He's great. [Someone speaks in tongues.] Father, for Your Spirit for the... [Break in tape.]
Upon the people, the gifts that's in the church. We thank Thee, Lord, for they speak in unity. They speak in unity of Thy coming. The prophets, the speakers with tongues, the interpreters, all are warning us. The hour is at hand, and truly we believe that it's later than we think. May we prepare our hearts and souls for the coming of the Lord.
And tonight as we read in Thy Word, may You speak to us now through the written Word. We ask in Jesus' name and for His glory. Amen.

8 In the book of Isaiah ... just for a short message to not keep you too long. I want to say to the congregation that was not here this morning. I know many of you had to work. It's bad to have a meeting on a day when people has to work, but our noble and beloved brother, the rabbi, gave us an outstanding message on the time and on the Bible. And I certainly have appreciated the fellowship that our brother has had with us here, and I've had with him. And he has to leave tonight at eleven something, and he said he'd have to leave about ten-thirty. I said, "Perhaps we will be finished by that time." And I certainly appreciate him very much. May God speed him on, is my prayer.

9 Many of you heard a little prophecy given not long ago in this church by a little Baptist woman. It came to pass last night. So I'm sure the church knows what we're speaking of. This church tonight stands on Mount Transfiguration experience. It is so.
Let us turn to Isaiah the first chapter and read from the seventeenth and the eighteenth verse, maybe the sixteenth also, as we read:
Wash you, make you clean; put away the evil of your doings from before mine eyes; cease to do evil;
Learn to do well; seek judgment, relieve the oppressed, judge the fatherless, plead for the widow.
Come now, and let us reason together, saith the Lord: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be white as wool.
Father, bless Thy holy Word. We wait, Lord, upon the Holy Spirit to reveal these things to us. Speak to every heart as we have need, Lord. You are pleading through many gifts and through Thy Word, pleading in the highways and byways, trying to compel these eleventh hour people to make ready Your coming. Grant it, Lord, and help me now and speak. We ask in Jesus' name. Amen.

10 If I should call it a text, I would like to take the subject of "Conference," because when I come up, I noticed up over the door there is called a fellowship meeting; and a fellowship meeting is merely like a time where we fellowship together. And many of you remember the aged and beloved man and servant of God called F. F. Bosworth, was my associate and a beloved brother, who just recently went home at nearing a hundred years old to meet the Lord.
And he always had a great sense of humor, and when I would meet with him and talk with him, he'd always have some little sense of humor. And he used to say, "Brother Branham, do you know what fellowship is?"
And I said, "I think so, Brother Bosworth."
He said, "It's two fellows in one ship." So I think that's a very good expression.

11 Now, when he was dying, you heard of his death, of course; and I rushed down quickly to Miami to see him. And I rushed in the door, and there he raised up, seeing him rise and the white hair and his little bald head, and his little thin arms reached out for me. I run and grabbed him around the neck, and I screamed, "My father, my father, the chariots of Israel and the horsemen thereof." For if there was a man that I know myself that added dignity to the Pentecostal church, was F. F. Bosworth, a great man of faith.
Then he told me. He said, "Brother Branham, I have a word for you, and I'm so glad you got here before I left."
I said, "What is it?"
He said, "Hasten to the mission fields right away." Said, "There's where the success in the Lord's work lies for you." Said, "Go, before some of these young fellows go and ruin the way of going."
And I said, "Brother Bosworth, I want to ask you a question, my precious sainted brother. In all the times of your ministry, what was the most gracious time? When you received the Holy Spirit, or when a certain person was healed or...?"
He said, "Right now is the greatest experience I've ever had in all my life."
I said, "Do you realize you're dying?"
He said, "All that I've lived for for more than fifty years, Brother Branham, is Jesus Christ." And he said, "Any minute He may walk in the door to take me home."

12 When death struck him, he raised in the room and shook hands with people for over two hours, his converts, and some of them had been gone for fifty years.
I like that "Psalm of Life," the part of it says,
Lives of great men all remind us
And we can make our lives sublime,
With partings leave behind us,
Footprints on the sands of time.
Footprints that perhaps another,
While sailing over life's solemn main,
For a forlorn and shipwrecked brother,
In seeing shall take heart again.

13 I love that. We meet together to discuss things. We hear so much about conferences lately. Everything you hear of recently has been a conference. They're holding con... [Break in tape.] U.N... Conferences all over the world.
What is a conference anyhow? What's it for? It's for when business or the heads of movements gets together and tries to solve out the best thing that they know to do.
When... Usually conference is called in the time of a crisis. In the time of a crisis, they call out their very best intellects, the men who seems to know the best; and they bring these men together, heads of nations, heads of organization, heads of business firms. When a crisis is on, they call these men together, and they sit down and use the best that they have to get the thing reasoned out.

14 And then we find that we had one during the time of the Second World War. I believe they called it the Big Four Conference. Been a few years ago, some less than twenty, that they had the Big Four Conference. Many of you men and women here can remember that conference, when all the world was in a time of a crisis. The eastern and the western world was at ends with each other. Germany, and the Nazi nations, and so forth, they called all their best brains together, the celebrity of the nations, the best and set down.
I remember a friend, a preacher friend of mine, a Baptist brother, very fine man, Dr. Pettigrew, in Louisville, Kentucky. And he was listening for the returns of that conference, and he said that he was ... had his radio on listening from the place where the returns was coming in, what they were trying to decide. And I think that's what we all ought to do. I think when things are at the end, we should not only be listening, we should be praying, praying for the leaders of our nation, praying for men that's in power, that God will rule.

15 I was in one of them the other day when I noticed they was eleven of us sitting at a table in a great federal court, and at the end of the table there was one empty seat. I was involved in this, and I know who was sitting there the way it come out---my Lord. Oh, I'm so glad that prayer changes things.
Then when we were... Dr. Pettigrew said he was walking in the floor listening for the returns, and said someone knocked at the door, and it was one of these modern beatnik sort of a people with the overalls, and the long hair, and down and up and you know, and I don't know; all them kind of foolish things. And he said, "I want you to go with me downtown. I write literature," and he said, "poetry. And they won't buy my poetry," and said, "and you're a man of influence," and said, "you come help me and give me a recommendation."
And he said, "My good man, I'm listening to the return of the Conference of the Big Four. I want to know how it comes out."
And this beatnik said, "Oh, my poetry, my songs," in the modern, rock-and-roller, booglie-wooglie, ever what it was in them days, the young people were doing, is more important than that. Not knowing if that didn't go right there would be no nation to have booglie-wooglie any more, or ever what they call the stuff.

16 Now. Oh, we ought to be concerned about these things. There was another conference called the Geneva Conference, when we had to get together again with the nations and try to solve out what's the best thing to do. And there's one just recently called the Paris Conference, and they usually select a place, a nice place where it's suitable.
Just recently I was in Geneva where they held that conference, and it seems to be a place where they can look out and see things that inspires them. It's strange, when the strain is on a person, he has to have something to inspire him. Poets climb up in the mountains to watch the sunrise. Many have them a shack out somewhere. Prophets live in the wilderness away from the people, somewhere to find something that inspires them.

17 And the Geneva Conference was held in a beautiful place, the Paris Conference, and so forth. And seeing these conferences of the nations are so appropriate, and we're having so many. And we all know about them; we read about them in the newspaper, and hear of them on the radio, and the televisions, and what more outlets we have.
And we know about them, but let's think about some conferences God had. God has conferences also. He said here, "Come, let us reason together," saith the Lord. "Though your sins be like scarlet, they shall be white like wool, red like crimson, white like snow. Come, let us reason together." God wants a conference. God has conferences.

18 In the world conferences, men meet together and they eat, drink, lie to one another. It's a lot different when God has a conference. Men meet together and fast and pray, get orders from heaven and go forward. Let's speak of one of God's conferences, or a few of them.
One of the first conferences I can think of God having, was the Eden Conference. God had a conference in Eden. When the news came into glory that His son had been lost, that he had sinned and turned his back upon his God, the news struck heaven. No doubt but what, many of the Angels wanted to go down and see if they could do something about it, but God wanted to hold that conference Himself. It was His child that was in trouble. He couldn't trust it to an angel.

19 It was an important conference, and in this day when theologians are preaching, and people are saying that Jesus was just a man, that Jesus was just an ordinary prophet, that He wasn't divine... Why it would break the whole picture. He was more than a prophet. He was God came down in flesh to give conference and reconciliation. It wasn't just an ordinary man or a prophet. He was the God of the prophets.
And He came down in flesh. And when... It sure, certainly shows that in the beginning the first conference that God had with man He came Himself. He didn't trust it to someone else. When God came down to redeem man, He never trusted to a prophet. He came Himself, for He was the only one that could do it.

20 And when this great conference in Eden, God came down and... Look at the nature of man. It shows it today in man. Instead of man trying to come out and saying, "Lord, I have sinned," he hides himself somewhere, and many times like Adam did, makes hisself a fig leaf religion, something he made up himself, some kind of a creed that he would say and hide himself.
But just like it was with Adam, so will it be with every man who's trusted in creeds. There'll be a time when you stand by God, that your creed and fig-leaf religion won't hide your sins. God's made a way, a prepared way.
Before He could talk to Adam, He could not talk to him naked, and He killed something. Something has to die, and something did die to make a covering that we could hold this conference with God. God must've selected a certain tree in the garden of Eden, and He called Adam and Eve, and throwed those old bloody sheepskins in there, and said, "Wear these out here." What a conference.

21 And when conference is made, there's decisions made. Then we that receive our decision have to act accordingly. God had the conference with Adam and Eve and made a decision, that it was God, that was God's remedy, and it never can change. There's no church, no creed, no man, no angel, no devil. Nothing else can change that. God made His provided way for a sinner to stand in His presence; that was through the shed blood of the innocent One. And we're all born in sin, shaped in iniquity, come to the world speaking lies.
We could no more save ourselves by our creeds and so forth, than we could hold our bootstraps and jump over the moon. We are lost, and there's none of us can save one another, no man, no prophet, no priest. Takes Jesus Christ, who was God in flesh, to save us. And He has made the sacrifice.

22 I see him standing there, Adam with his big manly body that was a very picture of health. When I was in Greece here not long ago I seen a picture of some unconverted mind, a great artist who had painted a picture of Adam and Eve. It was a discredit to humanity. Eve looked like an animal instead of a lady: great hair hanging one side, and her mouth sitting sideways, and one leg bigger than the other one, and oh, she looked horrible. That's what the conception of the unconverted mind.
Eve was the most beautiful woman that ever walked on the face of the earth. He made her. Her eyes was like the stars in the heavens.
And I see her standing there with an old bloody sheepskin around her. God was showing there at this conference what His plan was for the future salvation of the whole world. Watch Adam as he walks away, those old bloody sheepskins slapping against his big manly legs and against hers as they were departing from His presence.

23 It was only a prefigure of a picture, that we could turn our camera now to one morning down in Jerusalem. I can listen out the window and hear a noise. What is it? It's a priest saying, "Away with such a man."
I can hear a little woman run out in front of the crowd and say, "What has He done, but heal the sick, and raise the dead, and brought deliverance to those that were in captive?"
A big cruel hand would smack her in the mouth, say, "Would you listen to that woman instead of your priest?" A cruel Roman whip a beating Him...

24 It's kind of an awful picture, but let's raise up the shades and look. I hear something bumping down through the street, over the cobblestones. I look out the window, and I saw a little man with a white robe wove throughout without seams laying across His shoulders, packing an old cross as it bumps going down the street. His shoulders are rubbing raw; and I noticed on His little garment, there's little spots all over it, and those spots as He goes up the hill gets bigger and bigger. After a while they all run into one. Now, a great bloody splash against His legs. What was it? That second Adam, that seed of the woman.

25 The bee of death humming around His head as He goes up the hill, knowing that soon the devil will certainly ... had the wool pulled over his eyes there. The devil said, "How could a man that claims to be God, how could he? I challenged him to do a stunt or one of his tricks in front of me to turn bread into ... or rocks into bread. He failed to do it. How could he stand, if he's a prophet, and let a Roman soldier put a rag around his face and hit him on the head with a stick and said, 'Now, if you're a prophet, tell us who hit you,' and sit still. He's a faker. I'll come and sting him with my sting of death. I'll get him now."
Oh, how he failed. When they hung Him on the cross, and that bee was a humming around Him. If a bee or an insect that has a stinger ever stings and anchors that stinger deep, when he goes away he can never sting again. He leaves his stinger in the flesh. Death could sting a sinner and get by. But that time he left his stinger in Emmanuel's flesh, and he pulled the stinger out.

26 No wonder Saint Paul could say years after that when the bee of death was humming around him, "O death, where is your stinger? Grave where is your victory? But thanks be to God who giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ."
Death was conquered. The bee can hum around. The bee of death can buzz and saying, "I got you."
But we can point over yonder to an empty grave and say, "Thanks be to God that gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ." He can make a noise, but he can't sting you. He ain't got no more stinger. When he anchored his stinger in the flesh of Emmanuel, God's flesh among us, it pulled the stinger out of death. That was God's idea at His first conference.

27 Man must live, not by himself. He must not come with his own man-made theory. He condemned it. He did not come with a man-made creed. He had to come through God's provided way. The conference was settled. That was all of it. It was finished. Man must come by the sacrifice.
Let's talk of another conference just for a moment. There was another conference. Many of them we could think of, but I'll just hit two or three here for a few moments. Let's think of the Burning Bush Conference. There was one time a Burning Bush Conference. God's people had been taken down into Egypt, and there we know how Joseph was sold, a perfect type of Christ, and how that we seen him dismiss every Gentile from around him to make hisself known to his brethren. Very beautiful picture of the day we're living in when the Gospel's going back to Israel again. Jesus will make Himself known to the Jew away from the Gentile.

28 Then when we find out that after four hundred years of bondage, and the Egyptians rose up there, and there was a pharaoh who did not know Joseph; and finally it come to a place they were made to serve with rigor. How the Egyptians made slaves out of them and beat them and drove them like cattle!
God ordained a prophet to rise up. That prophet run away and married a beautiful Ethiopian girl and had a son, Gershom, and was well satisfied to inherit a lot of money from his father, Jethro, or his father-in-law Jethro. And was keeping his flocks on the backside of the desert when all at once the cries of God's people come up before him. There had to be something done. God remembered.
I'm so glad He remembers. He remembered His covenant. He remembered Eden. He remembered Abraham. He remembers every word that He ever promised, everything that He ever said. He's the infinite God. He remembered it all, and He remembered He made His promise.
There's only one thing for God to do: that's keep His Word. And to keep His Word, He had ordained a prophet; but this prophet was a runaway, out into the wilderness. He was a fugitive. He had went out into the wilderness and he was settled down, but when God ordains a man to do something, no matter how much he runs...

29 God ordained there'd be a church in the last days; there can rise devils, and demons, and hypocrites, but God will have that church, because He said it would be there. He will do it. There's nothing will... God's able of these stones to rise children unto Abraham.
And then when he found this fugitive of His, this prophet Moses, out there very well satisfied with a beautiful wife and a family and going to be rich. That Jewish heart, that was good enough for him. The burden had left him, because he had failed in his theology and in his intellectuals to deliver the children of Israel, but God had ordained that he should do it.
Everything that God ordains will come to pass. God's going to have a church and going to have a people. He's going to have someone to believe His gifts. He's going to have those who'll speak with tongues, those who'll interpret. He's going to have prophets that He... He's going to do it, because He said He would. God will have healing and salvation. And the Holy Ghost will fall, and He's able of these stones to rise children to Abraham.
We Baptists, Methodists, Presbyterians and so forth can turn it down as much as we want to, but God will have that Church just as certain as His Word said so. He will do it. He remembers every word that He said. In the season it'll bring forth.

30 There was Moses, satisfied, ready to stay down there, but God thought, "I've got to have a conference with that prophet." So He selected a certain place. Let's think it was under another bush up on top of a mountain. God ascended ... descended from the heavens and set that bush afire, and He called Moses to a conference. Moses in his weakness begin to plead; but when he saw God's glory, he was ready to go.
Sometimes God's people is called into a conference with God, where they meet God. You know you have it in your house when the baby gets ... till the doctor walks out and says, "There's no chance for it to live."
Your pastor says, "There's so such a thing as divine healing." Oh, that don't stop it. You're ready for a conference, and you're a different person when you talk to God.
When you got a wayward boy or wayward girl and you can pray to a place till you bring God on the scene, where He will meet you there in the bedroom, out there in the shed, down in the barnyard, wherever it is; when you have that conference with God, you're changed, something happens. And people who have those conferences with God and meets God, they act silly to the world after that.

31 Look what a silly picture looked to Moses. Here was a great army down in Egypt (like Russia now), had the whole world conquered, Egypt did. And here is an old man eighty years old, whiskers plumb down to his belt line, gray hair hanging down his back, eighty years old. The next morning had his wife sitting straddle of a mule with a young'un under her arm like that, an old crooked stick in his hand, going down, a praising God as hard as he can go.
Say, "Moses, where you going?"
"I'm going down to Egypt to take over." How silly. How it looked to the unconverted heart. What? He'd had her ... [Break in tape.]
God commissioned you to do it. No matter how silly it looked, God is going to do it anyhow. It's the way it is with a Pentecostal man or woman. They might speak with tongues. They might run with their hands up. They might cut all kinds of shines, and even sometime they think they're drunk or crazy; but they've had a conference. No matter what it looks like to the world, God did it anyhow, so it doesn't matter.

32 Did not they say on the day of Pentecost, "These men are full of new wine."?
Peter said, "They're not that way. The saloons ain't open yet, but this is that."
Well, brother, I've often made this mistake... If this isn't that, I want to keep this till that comes. This is that.
And then if you notice, Moses on his road down to Egypt, a one man invasion. But he did it because he'd had a conference with God; and God had commissioned him and showed him His glory; and not even a nation could stand in his way. When God meets a man in a conference, and fills him with the Holy Ghost and sets his soul on fire, there's nothing going to stand in his way. He's going down to take over.

33 The children of Israel on the road back, they had another conference with God, Moses did at the Red Sea. We'll call that the Red Sea Conference. When right in the line of duty lay trouble. And listen Christians: There's where you'll make your fatal mistake. There's where Israel made her fatal mistake. When she asked for a law to serve God by. In Exodus 19, after grace had done provided a savior---Moses, a prophet---done provided a lamb, done provided a covenant, done provided all these things; and yet they wanted something to do themselves. They wanted some theology.
That's what's the matter today. If we'd have left Pentecost the way it was at the beginning... But we had to have something to argue about. We had to be oneness, twoness, threeness, Church of God. Oh, my. All these riding hump-backed camels of one hump, two humps, three humps and so forth. What difference does it make how many humps a camel's got as long we're riding in? What difference does it make, whether you're in a Ford or a Chevrolet? Just keep moving.

34 But we had to have a denomination. We had to have an exodus, you know. We had to have a twentieth chapter of Exodus, I believe, where they'd give a law. We had to have something that we could do to show that we were Dr. Ph.D., L.L.D., double L.D. So-and-so (You see?), make them look like the rest of the world. Like Israel made her fatal mistake again when she refused Samuel, the prophet, and wanted Saul, the king. Samuel pulled them up. He said, "Have I ever taken any of your money? Have I ever spoke anything to you in the name of the Lord but what God backed it up?" They could not say a word.
Said, "Yes. You haven't taken our food and our money, and everything you said is right, but we still want the king. We want to be like the rest of the world, like the Gentile nations." They got it.
That's the way we do. We can't leave the blessing alone just the way it is... [Break in tape.] it's for everybody. We have to say, "Now, we belong to this church. We belong to this church," to act like the rest of them. Pentecost is not an organization. Neither can it be organized. Pentecost is an experience for whosoever will let him come that he might drink of the waters of the Lord. It's an experience. It's the Holy Spirit living in Methodists, Baptists, Jews, and what all---proselytes, and Catholics, and whatever more. It's an experience that we experience when we have a conference with God. Talk it over with Him.

35 So they come in the line of duty right up against the Red Sea blocking off their path. Usually when you have a conference with God and start to do something, the devil blocks it. He will make you so sick you can't get up. He will make every neighbor talk about you and call you a holy-roller. He will do something about it and tell you you're going down there to be old-fashion. Let your hair grow out, you're going to be an old number, a back number. The girls that you used to play bridge with won't think you're as pretty as you used to be. What difference does that make? You hold a conference with God, and you'll quit playing bridge anyhow. That's right. That's right.
But see, we want to be like the rest of the people. We want to act like the Joneses. We're matching. Paint your steps red, and watch the neighbors paint theirs red. You buy a Chevrolet and brag on it, watch your neighbor get rid of his Ford right quick. He's just got to act like you do, see. You got to act like him. You want to match experiences.

36 I've often said I don't care whether my pants match my coat, my tie matches my shirt. I want my experience to match God's Bible. That's what the church ought to do. What they did then, that's what I want now. Why take a substitute when the Pentecostal skies are full of the real? Why would you take something that wasn't right? Take the real, because God is ready to pour out His... "The promise is unto you and to your children." Preaching on that tomorrow night, if the Lord willing.
To whosoever will let him come, and right in the line of duty you hit the blockade. Oh, I guess all nature just quivered. Why, look what a thing. Here was Moses and Israel right in the line of duty with a pillar of fire leading them, and led them right down into a trap. God likes to get His people in a trap, see what they'll do. "Every son that cometh to God must first be tried and chastened." He gets them there. He brings you here. He puts you in between opinions. Now, could that be mental telepathy? Could it be? See? He puts you in a trap to see what kind of a decision you're going to make. That's right. Search the Scriptures. Jesus said, "They are they that testify of me." That's right.

37 Now, God lets it get that way. Now, He brought Israel right into the trap---mountains and deserts on both sides, Pharaoh's army pursuing, thousands of chariots and spears. And a bunch of humble little poor slaves not armed with nothing, come down to the Dead Sea ... or the Red Sea rather, right down to its banks, and here was the dust of the chariots coming. And here was the mountains on either side, no way. Looked like God was a bad military man, left His people with no retreat.
Sometimes He does that: Let the doctor walk away and say, "You ain't going to live. You're going to die. That cancer's going to kill you. You'll never get up out of that chair." He seems like He leaves you with no retreat, but He is your retreat. Climb back into His arms.
God, He's my refuge. He's my mighty tower. The name of the Lord is a mighty tower. The righteous run into it and are safe. The towers of refuge. He is our refuge. No other refuge I have but Him. I don't want to know any other refuge. He's my refuge. He is a rock in a weary land, a shelter in the time of storm.

38 I remember the first time I ever spoke in tongues. I was preaching at the Milltown Baptist Church, and I was out there preaching, and I'd got all wound up. And all those Baptist sitting there looking at me; and the Holy Ghost came upon me, and I jumped out in the middle of the aisle and begin to speak with tongues. I thought, "Well, what's happening now?" I never knew anything about it, and when I started back I heard my lips say this, "I'm the rock in a weary land, the tower ... the refuge in a time of storm." Oh, how I wondered, and every one looking at one another like geese in a yard. Looking like that, and I felt the same way, because I didn't know. But I know something had happened to me. Oh, I'd found the tower, a hiding place. I've never wanted nothing else since then, but that spot, that blessed hiding place.

39 Right in the line of duty, right under the fire of the enemy, there they was. Looked like all nature was trembling for them. What's the time? What's the Christian procedure? What is the thing to do in that kind of a time? Hold a conference. That's right. When the church gets to a place that this one's doing that, and this one's doing this one, and everything up-side-down, don't quit the church; hold a conference. Have a prayer meeting somewhere.
Moses selected a place. I'd say, let's think it was right back behind that rock, and he got over there and said, "Lord God," something like this: "Lord God, Great Jehovah, who met me in the burning bush. That experience has never left me, and I've done everything that You told me to do. I'm standing in the line of duty. I've brought Your people out here as You said. Yonder hangs that pillar of fire. There stands Pharaoh's army. Here's the mountains and the Dead Sea. What must I do, Lord? Must I give myself up to Pharaoh? What must I do? I want You."
I can see angels begin to sit on each rock all around. Oh, what a conference. After a while the Spirit of the Lord... I can see that pillar of fire move over. What was it? There was a decision made. What are you going to do? Give up and go back and try again? Go back into the denominations and the world? No, sir. He said, "Rise and go forward."

40 God never goes backward, never sends His people to go back to what Moody said, what Sankey said, what Finney said. Go forward. Amen.
Trouble of it is today, science is going to find God before we do. They're searching in the realms and got the lie detectors and things, and they can prove that there is a power. You seen it the other day in the "Look Maga..." No, it was in "Reader's Digest" I believe. Where they took the healer and down in... It was over in England.
They opened up the churches to what they called the healers, and about eighty percent more people was healed than medicine ever healed in England. Was that "Newsweek," Gene, or what was it? You remem... "Reader's Digest." All right. They took the healer to see if there was anything come from him; put his hand under x-ray and let him pray; put a piece of lead foil or find out if it was just his hand or if there was a power ... [Break in tape.]

41 Let's see what Sankey said about it, what Moody said, what Knox, Calvin, or somebody else said about it. That's all right. They were God's people in that day, but we're moving on. Science can only go so far ... [Break in tape.]
If you say to this mountain be moved and don't doubt in your heart but believe that what you said will come to pass, you can have what you've said. Whatsoever it is, let it be. Untapped resources.

42 A man said not long ago, said, "I don't want to bother God, you know. I know He's awful busy." Nonsense. "I don't want to..." Well, you can't exhaust His bountiful blessings. Could you imagine a little fish about a half inch long, out in the middle of the Pacific Ocean say, "I better drink of this water sparingly, because I might run out."
Could you imagine a little mouse about so big under the great garners of Egypt saying, "I'd better eat ... ration myself this winter to just two grains a day. I might run out before the new harvest." That's ridiculous. Well, it's twice that ridiculous ... a thousand times more to think you can exhaust the mercies of a merciful God. Why, He's trying to force His way into you. "Ask abundantly that your joys might be full." No way to exhaust Him.
Like a pump. The more you pump, the fresher the water gets. Oh, I like that. Just keep pumping. Living at the spout where the glory's coming out. I love that.

43 Now, Moses cried to the Lord, and the Lord said, "Rise up and go forward." And when Moses went right straight and stepped his foot into the water, when that taken place, the Red Sea opened back, and Israel crossed over to a great victory. They had a conference. That's the way we always have to do, is have conferences.
Now, I want to speak of another one right quick. There was a conference. There's many of them we could speak of, but let's just not pass this one by. There was a Gethsemane Conference one time. When it had to be brought after a victorious life had defeated sickness, defeated everything in the world, He came to Gethsemane, and Father had to check up to see if He really wanted to go through it or not.
When He led His disciples, and they all got sleepy and laid down and went to sleep; but Jesus went just a little farther. He always does that. You just go part of the way and watch him go him a little further, all the way. He's ahead of you all the time, making the way. He went just a little further; and when He got out there, he knelt down by the side of a rock.

44 Let's just think... I can see Gabriel come down, His great sword standing by His side. I can see Wormwood. I can see the other great angels lighting on the rocks around. What was it? A conference table being set.
Then that Holy Spirit of God, as we see on the picture of Gethsemane, that light, which God is light---El Elohim, the self existing one. When He came down into His presence. "Do you want to go through with this, Son?" What? The angels are listening. "What's going to be the result? The whole world lays upon Your shoulder. Do You want to pay the price, or what do You want to do? You can come right on now without death. There lays Calvary before you. There they'll spit in Your face, and they'll take You to Calvary, all these things. You'll die in agony with the crown of thorns on Your head, and Your blood will drain out. Are You willing?"
Let's see what the conference, what the echo's going to be? All angels are standing around, wondering what takes place now. The decision's made. What is it? "Not my will, but thine, be done." Oh the angels unfolded the blessings and begin to minister to Him then, preparing Him for that great hour. A conference was set. A decision was made. I'm so glad of that decision.

45 How can my little petty decisions---whether I'll serve Him or not... Sinner friend, how would your decision be tonight, God, knocking at your heart when such a decision was made for you? What's your answer to His ply? "Come unto me all ye that labor and heavy laden, I will give you rest." What would be your reply in that decision? What would be your reply? God's holding a conference with you right now. What about you, sick man or woman? God's holding a conference with you. "Will you receive me? Will you believe my Word? You see me in power and action. You hear me speaking through these mortal lips of men and women, that's surrendered their lives to me; and I promised when I ascended on high I'd give gifts to men."
He promised it. "You see my Word fulfilled. If I keep that, I keep all my Word." A conference is being held right now. He's holding it with you.
You've got to make a decision. God's waiting for your reply. "I will serve You, Lord. I want the Holy Ghost," or "I don't want it. I won't have it."
"I will take it away."
"I believe You healed me, Lord." God's waiting to hear what your decision is. You're the one has to make it. He's done made His. He proved that He made His. Now, you got to make yours. I got to make mine. This church has got to make his. We've all got to make our decisions. What will you do about it---Gethsemane?

46 Then His death, burial, resurrection.
There was another conference held. Let's get to it just quickly to these conferences. We will close in a moment. There was a Pentecostal Conference held once. The people who had walked with Jesus and heard Him speak of the blessings and, oh, promised that the coming of the power...
God told them before He left the earth, He said, "Stop preaching. Don't sing any more songs. Let's not do anything else now. I want you to go up yonder to the city of Jerusalem, and I want you to wait there, because we're going to have a conference in glory. Father and I and all the Angels are going to have a conference, and we're going to make the decision. You wait up there. We'll tell you how the church is to be run."

47 I can hear the apostles saying, "Well, we'll probably have some bishops and high priests, and we will have all these things you know. So, we'll just go up and wait and see what the decision is. We'll see whether we're supposed to have organizations, whether the bishop is going to run it, or the pope's going to run it, or whether some great man's going to run it. We'll see who He elects. Wonder if I'll be the big one. Wonder if I'll be the big one." The other one said, "I'll be over all of it. Well, he blessed me. He leaned on my shoulder. He did this." Oh, my. Taken them ten days to get ready for it.
While they were waiting for this, then they all got in one accord. That's the way we do tonight. That's what we should do at this conference. All you Methodists, Baptists, Presbyterian, Lutheran, Catholics, and whatever you are, we should all be in one accord, waiting to hear the return. And after this... The most glorious place it could be settled at was in glory. God came down, and a conference was held: How the church must be run. Must it be run by bishops, by organizations, by some mechanical devices? How must it be run? And they were 120 all in the upper room waiting. All right, the returns came.

48 And suddenly there came a priest up the road, his collar turned around in the back, "Lick out your tongue and receive the holy eucharist." That sounds silly. Oh, no. That's wrong. The bishop come down and said, "Now, wait a minute. We can't stand for these things." No, no.
But suddenly there came a sound from heaven, like a rushing mighty wind. Not the pastor say, "Give me the right hand of fellowship. We'll try you for six months." No, sir. There came a sound (not from a seminary) but from heaven, like a rushing, mighty wind, and it filled all the house where they were sitting. And that big pillar of fire that led the children of Israel, the ancient Israel, through Israel, separated itself; and tongues of fire set upon each of them, God dividing Himself in the church: one to be prophet, one to be apostle, one to speak with tongues, the other to do something else---God dividing Himself.

49 One God worked in three offices: one God called the Fatherhood. The same God lived in a man called Jesus, called the Son. Now, He is in His church called the Holy Ghost. Divided Himself in His universal body. Hallelujah! The mystical body of Jesus Christ that's borned of the Spirit of God.
Therefore, as it was said by our rabbi brother this morning, our beloved one, about unity together: we are not divided. The devil tries to divide us by his mechanical divisiveness by saying, "I belong to the Assemblies. I belong to the Oneness. I belong to this. I belong to that." But we are not divided. God gives them the Holy Ghost who obeys Him; and both sides has received the Holy Ghost, who obey Him. We are not divided; all one body are we. That's our conference purpose. We are not divided. We are one body.

50 The Holy Ghost, God dividing Himself, making sons and daughters, setting upon... That pillar of fire divided itself, and a tongue of fire sat upon each one of them, and they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and begin to speak with other tongues as the Spirit of God give them utterance.
There were dwelling in Jerusalem bishops, archbishops, popes, and so forth, great men, all nations under heaven, and when the counsel come together, and they said, "Why, these men are all full of new wine."
Peter stood up in the midst of them and said, "These are not drunk, as you suppose they are, seeing this is the third hour of the day. But this is that which was spoken of by the prophet, Joel. [Joel 2:28] ' And it shall come to pass in the last days [last days plural, two days, last two thousand years], saith God, I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh [Jew, Gentile, Greek, bond, or free, male or female] I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh: and they shall prophesy, my sons and daughters. I will show signs in the heavens above and in the earth below, pillars of fire and vapors of smoke.'"
"Let me freely speak to you of the patriarch David, for David said, 'The Lord said unto my lord, "Sit thou on my right hand. I will make thy enemies thy footstool. Moreover my flesh shall rest in hope because I will not leave my soul in hell. Neither will he suffer His Holy One to see corruption."'
"Let me speak to you of the patriarch David, for he is both dead and buried, and his sepulchre is with us this day. David is both dead and buried (and told them of what they'd done), but said, 'This same Jesus who you have crucified by wicked hands, God has made Him both Lord and Christ.'" Amen.

51 Excuse me. I didn't mean to walk around. Maybe Someone's making me walk. Anyhow, I got on my walking shoes. Oh, my. I want to take a trip some day like Enoch and walk right on up.
Standing in Brother Outlaw's church not long ago in Phoenix, Arizona, they were singing a song, "We're Going Up, Up---Up, Up, Up." After a while I thought I was gone. Said the first round, climbing a ladder, said the first round was justification; the second round, sanctification; the third round glorification; then the Holy Ghost came down. I started up, up, up, up, up---up, up, up, up, up, up till I struck that milky white way. I thought if we go any higher, we're going right from this church. That's what we need today is strike that milky white way to Calvary. Rise in the power of the Holy Ghost. Lay aside our creeds and differences; start up, up---up, up, up. That's what we need to do. Going up...

52 That was the Pentecostal Conference. They started preaching divine healing, the power of the Holy Ghost. Peter told them what to do on the day of Pentecost. Said, "Repent, every one of you."
They said, "What can we do to receive this? How can we get saved?"
Peter said, "Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ, for the remission of your sins, and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost. For the promise is unto this generation, and that's all; the days of miracles shall cease." That might be in the old ladies birthday almanac, but that's not in God's Bible according to Acts 2. That's right.
He said, "The promise is unto you, and to your children, and to them that's afar off, even as many as the Lord our God shall call." That's God's decision. That's His conference.
When they were saying, "What are we going to do?", oh, the brains of the church and the power of God met together. The power of God said, "This promise is unto you, and to your children, to them that's afar off, even as many as the Lord our God shall call." As long as He's still calling, His conference decision still meets every requirement. He will pour out His Spirit, as long as God's still calling sinners to repentance, He's got the Holy Ghost to pour into them.

53 "The promise is unto you, and to your children. Lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the world. These signs shall follow them that believe." Oh, my. "The works that I do, shall you do also. A little while and the world will see me no more, yet ye shall see me." Look at them conferences. "I will be with you, even in you, to the end of the world." What a conference.
Then they went out, Peter and John, ignorant and unlearned. I can prove they were Pentecostal. They'd had the Pentecostal blessing. Another way, they didn't have any money. They went to the gate called Beautiful, and there laid a man crippled from his mother's womb, and they said... Held out his little cup for an alm. Looked yonder to see if these fellows looked like gentleman. They might give him something.
Now, here's what proves they were Pentecostal. Said, "Silver and gold have I none, but such as I have..." Oh, brother, take your silver and gold and give me that. Take all your seminary theology and give me that. Take all your education and all your high brow stuff and give me that. For it's only that that'll take you up, up---up, up, up.

54 Have a conference. God said you could have it. "Whosoever will, let him come." Going up. "Such as I have, give I thee. Faith in the name of Jesus Christ, rise up and walk." He didn't wonder about it. Reached down and picked him up and held there until his ankles begin to get a little stronger and a little stronger. Here he started walking, and then started running, then started leaping. He was Pentecost too then. Yes. He was a holy jumper, and he went down through there just a jumping, and a leaping, and praising God. If that ain't Pentecost, I never seen one.
I can prove to you that Israel was Pentecost. When they overcome and seen the taskmasters... Like you overcome and seen the whiskey, the cigarettes, and all the other things laying behind you dead in the Red Sea of the blood of Jesus. You know what happened? Moses sang in the Spirit. Miriam beat a tambourine, and all the daughters of Israel beating tambourines, ran up-and-down the banks dancing in the Spirit. If that ain't a Pentecostal meeting, I don't know what one is.

55 Somebody said to me not long ago, said, "Brother Branham, you're preaching this new kind of salvation, aren't you?"
I said, "No, sir."
Said, "Ain't you got some of this new salvation?"
I said, "No. I got a new case of the old salvation." That's right. I said, "This is the oldest there is."
Said, "When was it organized?"
I said, "Before the world was ever founded."
Said, "How do you get that?"
I said, "Job 7:27 said, 'Where was you when I laid the foundation of the world, when the morning stars sang together and the sons of God shouted for joy?'" Well, this old time, heart-felt, sky-blue, sin-killing religion shouting, why, my, it's older than the Bible. It's older than the hills. It's older than the earth. It's not new, it's something old. Just being a new case of it. Don't get inoculated from it. Come to it.

56 So then, they were just as usually you have the papers all begin to criticize or whatever it was, and they pulled them in before the Sanhedrin Council, and they had a conference. The world had a conference, like the Geneva and so forth, and said, "What are we going to do with these men?" Said, "They can go out and preach, but don't name that name Jesus. Don't you preach no more in that name." They beat them and threatened them. Said, "If we ever hear you mention Jesus again, we're going to do something horrible to you."
Peter and John walked out of jail that morning, out from the conference, and they went over and said, "You know what? I believe we'd better call a conference." So they was going to call another conference. Now, let's call it the Acts 4 Conference. In Acts 4 they all come together, and they were telling different experiences, and they called a conference, and they got down on their knees, and called a conference. They wanted to call on God to ask what they could do. Should they retreat or should they... Or what must they do? Should they preach divine healing? Should they compromise? What must they do?

57 And they begin to pray like this, all with one accord---another Pentecostal meeting---all with one accord. I imagine that was a noise. Don't you imagine so? Everybody saying, "Why did the heathens rage, why do the people imagine the vain things?" Surely they're stretching forth thy holy child, Jesus, His hand to heal the sick. And when that conference begin to be held, and they begin to call out to God, the returns came.
"Oh, maybe you'd better be careful. You might get in jail. You'd better kind of take it easy." You know what the Spirit said to that missionary awhile ago. "There's no taking it easy." Must I be carried home to heaven on a flowery bed of ease, while others fought to win the prize and sailed through bloody seas. Why do we expect to be carried home on a basket of flowers? Let me fight. Let me show some scars.

58 As I was reading an article or a little poet book. Said that Caesar was going to ask ... and he was going to ride in a great chariot, and he wanted some of his soldiers, a honorable soldier to ride with him down through the streets of this great jubilee. And all the warriors trimmed their plumes, and polished their shields and their helmets, getting ready to pass by Caesar to review, to see who he would choose to ride with him in this great parade. And said, all of his warriors walking perfectly, straightly, walked by, and stood with their salute. And said all along Caesar looked at each one as he come by. Said after a while a little bitty old soldier crippled up in his arm, scarred all over his face, and everything walked by, and he felt ashamed of hisself, and kind of bowed his head, and started away; and Caesar said, "Wait a minute. Wait a minute there. Come back here."
The little soldier walked up and fell down on his knees. He said, "Yes, great emperor."
Said, "Where did you get them scars? What you all scarred up about?"
He said, "I got them in the battlefield fighting for my emperor."
He said, "You sit up here by me. You're the one to ride." I don't care whether I'm a D.D., Ph.D. or double L.D. I want some scars to show that I've been in the battle. That's what Christians ought to do. Don't you chose the flowerly, easy things. I will take the way with the Lord's despised few. I've started in with Jesus, O Lord, take me through.
Nearly thirty years in the field now, too far gone to turn back. Just want to go on. Whatever the end is, that lays in God's hands.

59 They had a conference; and when they got through praying, the Bible said the building actually shook where they were assembled together, and they preached the Word of God with boldness.
Now, one more conference, we'll close. That's the conference... You might not've attended the Geneva Conference. You might not attended any of these conference we spoke of, but here's one you're going to attend. That's the judgment. You're going to attend the Judgment Conference. You're going to have to attend that one. Whether you are ready or whether you're not, that's a conference that we're all coming to; because the Bible said, "It was once appointed unto man to die, after that the judgment." And we're every one coming there. So you better find mercy before you start, that it might be ... because that day is going to be too late. You can't find mercy then. It's going to be a conference of judgment, and every soul is going to be there to answer for the deeds that you've done in this life. And you're going to be there just as sure as God wrote the Bible, as God made the heavens and earth.
Friends, as sure as we're in this building tonight and more sure, you're going to attend that conference. And you're going to ask for mercy, but you won't receive mercy. This is the day that you receive mercy, but the time will come then at the conference you'll be judged, not with mercy but by an angered God, in His anger. And if a righteous man be scarcely saved, where will the sinner and ungodly appear.

60 Let me show you how close we are to that Judgment Conference. Did you notice in the other conference I want to speak of just a second, just briefly touch it. They had a conference here the other day. I don't know whether you know it or not. What some people... We who are in touch with God, I think we ought to enlighten our people to what's going on.
You remember that conference they had the other day where Khrushchev jerked off his shoe and slammed it against the... Did you catch that what that was? See? Remember, they were five eastern communistic nations represented there, and five western free nations represented there.

61 Notice. Daniel had a vision. The head of gold was Babylon. Watch how that come down. Watch, take the history in the Bible, and the next was the breast here of silver: Medo-Persians; the next was brass. Each time it got harder and harder, and it showed that the Gentile image could not stand because gold is the heaviest of all of them, and it was top heavy. It couldn't stand. And each time from the... The gold was the softest. Then silver is next, and then brass next, and then iron was next. Each one of those kingdoms has succeeded one another, just exactly the way the Bible said they would do.
And notice, he said then at the end time before the stone was hewed out of the mountain, the image had ten toes.
Now, that would be five on each foot, two big toes. Four and five standing together, and as much as thou did see that they were mixed with iron and clay... Now, remember that was the Gentile kingdom; anyone knows that. That they were iron and clay, they would not mix. In so must as iron and clay won't mix, neither will these mix or cleave together. They can't get along.

62 Now, did you notice? Did you know what the name Khrushchev means in Russia? Dirt or clay. He was heading up of them kingdoms. You know what Eisenhower means, the head of this? Iron. Iron and clay, and they couldn't mix together. He took his shoe and beat it on the... There's no mixing together. They can't mix. They won't cleave one to the other.
Do you see, friends? The next thing left is the stone to be cut out, the coming of the Lord, to roll into this image and mash it into pieces; and all these kingdoms will be ground and blowed away like the chaff on a summer's thrashing floor. We're at the end time, brother, sister. Can't you see where we are?
Listen: "Thus saith the Lord": Repent. I predict three curtains. In the name of the Lord, there's one called the Iron Curtain, which will be Russia. Watch Red China. That'll be the Bamboo Curtain. They're horrible, but watch that Purple Curtain that's rising in the United States and over the world, the Roman Empire, the cruelest of all of them.
Remember in the name of the Lord. Get away from it. Come away from anything that's attached to it. Flee to the Rock. The coming of the Lord is at hand. We need a conference. I need a conference to talk these things over with God. The church is at the end of her road. Let us pray.

63 Lord, O God, we know the coming is nigh. This has been a warm spot in my heart, Shreveport, Lord. I just thank You for this little open door still. For a nation, still there is the privilege that we have of open these doors, and no soldiers are coming in to arrest us, and take us out here, and mash us in the street; but it won't be long, Father. We see all these things happening. Oh, let us prepare now, Father. Let us get oil while there's some to sell, not sell but just to receive. I pray that You'll bless Your people tonight. Bless this little broke up message and give glory to Your people. I ask this in Jesus' name. Amen.
Let's see. I don't know about the prayer cards. I don't... Where's Billy Paul? No prayer cards. Well, do you believe anyhow? Do you believe with all your heart? I wanted to preach this tonight. Maybe he will give prayer cards tomorrow night. They've named it, but I tell you what did it. I was so broken down.

64 How many knows the visions almost kill you. Jesus---one woman touched His garment and virtue went from Him. You know that? Here's little Miss Schrader here. I was talking to her today in there. You wonder why she lays like that. She has a gift of prophecy. That's what does it.
Daniel saw a vision, was troubled at his head for many days. People don't realize what that is, see. But God is still here. God knows all about it. You don't have to come up here with a prayer card. I feel the Holy Spirit right now. I feel His blessings and His glory.
How many out there is suffering and needy? Raise up your hands. Knows that I don't know you. I don't whether I can find just all of you or not. You pray. Listen. To let you know as we talked today...

65 Do you remember there's actually three races of people in the world. We know that, isn't it? Ham, Shem, and Japheth's people. That's exactly right. Jew, Gentile, and Samaritan. You remember Peter on the day of Pentecost. He had the keys. Do you believe that? Jesus said so, and he opened the Kingdom to the Jews at Pentecost, and Philip went down to Samaria and baptized them all, but yet the Holy Ghost didn't fallen on them. Why? They was another nation.
So then they sent up for Peter and John, who came down and laid hands on them, and they received the Holy Ghost. At the house of Cornelius, he was constrained by an Angel to send for Peter. After that, the Holy Ghost was open to every race of people then: Jew, Gentile, and Samaritan.
Remember when Jesus was here on earth, He showed His Messiahic sign to the Jews. They recognized it. We had that last night. Do you remember that? He showed it to the Samaritan. They recognized it, but not one time did He do it before the Gentiles. Why? You had two thousand years of gospel. Now, your time is come. Like the Jews had thousands of years. They had to see it. The Samaritans and so forth, they had to see it. They wasn't looking for... They were looking for a Messiah.

66 Us Gentiles wasn't. We were Romans and heathens with a club on our back, worshipping the idol. We wasn't looking for no Messiah. The Messiah comes to those who are looking for Him. He showed Hisself Messiah. And today the Gentiles claim they're looking for Him, but they fail to see Him. [Break in tape.]
Declared Himself Messiah by the things that He done, and every believer in the Bible, that seen it that was ordained to eternal life believed it. And if He's the same yesterday, today, and forever, the infinite God, and will let the Gentile church go into the kingdom on their basis of theology, He'd be unjust. He certainly would, because He let those nations see Him. But He promised in this last days He would appear too. "Where abouts, Brother Branham?"
"As it was in the days of Sodom, so shall it be in the coming of the Son of man."

67 Remember the brother speaking this morning of three angels coming down? Two of them went down into Sodom. There's always three. It's in a trinity, and the trinity is one, see.
Now, notice. There was the Sodomites, the unbelieving Sodomites, the world. There was Lot, the lukewarm Christian, believer. There was Abraham, the called out from them, elected Abraham. You believe that? Watch. Two angels, modern preachers, went down and preached, didn't do no miracles, only just smite them blind; and the preaching of the Gospel does smite the unbeliever blind.
But Lot was saved, but Abraham represented for this last days the elected church, the church that the supernatural's been going in.

68 Watch that Angel. Now, watch what He did. Now, we all know beyond any mistake that that was not an angel. It was God Himself. It was the theophany---God. Abraham called Him Elohim: God. And He stayed back and talked to Abraham. Now, watch the sign He gave Abraham that the... Not when the world was destroyed by water; you remember when it was destroyed by water; He said as it was in the days of Noah. They were eating, drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, and it was in the days of Lot, see. Then you can interpret that.
Watch this Angel when He came. First thing He said to Abraham, professed that He was a stranger, just two men coming in. Abraham with the Spirit of God in him recognized that those were men of God. When he had told Sarah to get some bread ready, while he went and killed a calf, and let the servant dress it, and brought it out. Now, wait. That was God.

69 A man said to me not long ago, "Brother Branham, you wouldn't think that was God." It was God. The Bible said it was. He eat the flesh of a calf, drank the milk from the cow, and eat corn cakes, I suppose it was, and eat butter: God Himself. Well, he said, "Well, how could He be in flesh?"
You fail to know who God is. God's a Creator. What are you made out of? Sixteen elements: cosmic light, and petroleum, and calcium, and potash. Well, God just reached over and got a handful of clay and went [Brother Branham blows: Whew!] " Step in there, Gabriel. [Whew!] Step in there Wormwood, Michael" Whoever it was. [Whew!] Blowed one for Hisself, walked down there and eat and vanished. Hallelujah! What does this body mean? My God can speak if I have a spoon full of ashes, I will come forth anyhow.

70 As I've often told you I was combing these three or four hair I got left. My wife said to me, said, "Billy, you're getting completely baldheaded.
I said, "I haven't lost a one of them."
She said, "Pray, tell me where they are."
I said, "You tell me where they was before I got them. Ever where they was, they're there waiting for me to come to them." Amen. Hallelujah. What is it? You rot... Every hair in your head's numbered. I will raise him up in the last days. Hallelujah! My body was laid out on this earth before there was even a life on the earth. The calcium and petroleum and stuff. God's a contractor. He laid out all the bodies like He was going to build a subdivision. He knowed we'd be here. He knowed I'd be here before the world. He knowed I'd be standing here before there was a world here. He knowed you'd be sitting in the seats you are. He's infinite. Certainly, He knows you. What are you scared about?
He put your name on the Lamb's book of life before the foundation of the world. The Bible said He did. What you worried about? You got the Holy Ghost, sealed into the kingdom of God. How long? Until the day of your redemption. Amen. The church is scared. Don't be scared. Fear not. Only believe. That's what God wants. Sure.

71 Great powers of God. That great Jehovah standing there in this theophany, eating flesh, drinking milk, corn bread, and butter. And then He said, "Abraham, where is your wife, Sarah?" Watch that same one saying, "Thou art Simon, the son of Jonas." See? Representing what He is, the same God. He was dwelling in a flesh borned of a virgin then. Now, He dwells in the flesh borned of earth, but been sanctified through His blood; God above you, God over us, the pillar of fire; God with us in His Son; God in us, the Holy Ghost. Sure. The offices of God, same God all the time, different offices. Sure. It's God. God, the Holy Ghost. He's God. He's with us tonight.
Notice. He said He would be, at the last days before the world was burned, when this Pentecostal Church would come in power. Jesus said, "As it was in the days of Sodom, so shall it be..." Watch God manifested in flesh with Sodom. "Abraham, where is your wife, Sarah?" He knowed he was married, knowed he had a wife, and knowed her name was Sarah?

72 And he said, "She's in the test behind You." Remember the Bible said, "Behind him." The curtain's back. She was in the tent.
He said, "Abraham, I (another personal pronoun, see.) I'm going to visit you." Who was this guy? "I'm going to visit you according to my promise and the time of life." Sarah's going... That twenty-eight day time is going to start with her again. She's going to turn back to a young woman, and "I'm going to visit you." And Sarah inside the tent within herself no noise, said [Brother Branham illustrates.], and with His back to the tent, said, "Why did she laugh?" What kind of telepathy is that? What kind of a mind reading is that? What was it? It was God in flesh; and Jesus was God in flesh; and the Holy Ghost tonight is God in flesh, showing to the church, bringing to pass His promise. Glory.
Oh, church of God, rise on the wings of an eagle, and fly away from this thing. How are going to dig deep enough to get over it ... get under it? How are going to hide from it when it'll blast a hundred feet in the ground for a hundred miles square. Well, the concussion would break plumb through to the lava. But there's an escape, oh, going up, up---up, up, up. That's all. "I will raise him up at the last day."
You sick, you believe that He's here? May He represent Himself. I don't know. Pray. Every one of you pray.

73 Now, Lord, I don't know. These people ... I don't know them, but that they might know that the same God, the same God that dwelt in human flesh down there before Abraham, and when He come in a body virgin-born with blood to take away your sin of the world, the sacrifice of Jehovah, who dwelt in Him... When He said, "It's not me that doeth the works. It's my Father. He dwelleth in me. Me and my Father are one. I and my Father are one. My Father dwelleth in me." And He did the same works that He did when He dwelt in that body standing there before Abraham, promised that the ... "He that believeth in me, the works that I do shall he also."
I preached a hard message of conferences. We're in a conference. We're calling on You, Lord. You make the decision. Are you the same yesterday, today, and forever? I've tried to preach Your Word just the way it's wrote. I've tried to stand on that. If You are here, Father, give us Your decision. Are You the same? Are You here to work in our flesh the will of God and do the things that You promised He would do? Vindicate it, Lord, at least by two or three in the audience. We ask in Jesus' name. Amen.

74 No one moving, real quiet, real reverent now. If anyone wants to come here and take my place, if you don't believe this is truth, come here and try it. You're welcome to the pulpit.
How many in this building here that's sick, and you know that I do not know you, know nothing of you, raise up your hand? There isn't a person that I know of. How many has a desire on their heart for some loved one or something? You know I don't know you. Or in need of anything, just believe it.
Before God, before the Holy Spirit, I'm going to look and see if I know anybody in this building that I actually would know. There's a man sitting here that I'm looking at. I don't know his name. He come here with those missionaries. I forget your name. I was introduced to him the other day.

75 This man here waves at me once in awhile, but I don't know him. I don't know who he is. I'm just looking to be sure that I... I know Sister Schrader sitting here, of course Jackie, Brother Moore's daughter, and there's my daughter-in-law, Loyce. And isn't this the lady here from up at Hot Springs that I talked to this morning, Sister Humbard. What say? Hombard? I know her. Outside of that, I don't know anyone out there. I'll catch the platform maybe tomorrow night if the Lord...
All right. Let's see. The Bible said, "Prove me, saith the Lord." Is that right? Now, you be sincere and you pray. Let me turn my back and see if God keeps His Word. If the God that dwelt in that flesh down there of that man, that theophany, or whatever it was; the God that dwelt in Jesus Christ through Jesus... Everybody thought He talked double, but sometimes it was Him talking; sometimes it was the Spirit talking.

76 Now, remember, Jesus was God. We're not God. He had the Spirit without measure. The fullness of the Godhead bodily dwelt in Him, but we have the Spirit by measure. Well, now if I took a spoonful of water out of the ocean, that would be comparison. You'd never miss it. Well, that's the Holy Spirit that's on me and on you, but remember if I... And Jesus had the whole ocean, was in Him, all of it. But if I took a spoonful of water out of the ocean, the same chemicals that's in the entire ocean is in that spoonful. Every chemical in the ocean's in there. It's in the water. It's the same Spirit, but not as much of it; but it'll act the same way, because He promised it.
I'm just asking you to say this: "Lord, [Be sure you put a Scripture] " it is written in the Scripture that You are now our High Priest that can be touched by the feeling of our infirmity. I have a need. Lord, to confirm Your Word to me, let me be able to touch your garment. I wish..." Now, I don't say that He will do it. Remember I don't say He will do it. I'm just taking Him at His Word.

77 Now, if you'd say, Brother Branham heal me." I wished I could. If Jesus was standing here, He couldn't do it. He's already did it. He's just trying to get you to believe it. If He will do this to you people out there, that's just sitting out there, will it shove away every doubt and you'll believe with all your heart? All over the building, will you raise your hands to God, and say, "It would just make me believe it."? All right. Pray.
Now, Lord, this is not for a show. This is to confirm Your Word. You keep Your Word. I believe every one. Now, there's men and women out there just in need, like the people was the day that You were on earth---like the woman that touched Your garment. You are in glory tonight sitting at the right hand of the Majesty, and You are a High Priest, You said, that can be touched by the feeling of our infirmities. We cannot heal. We know we're not healers, but You make Yourself known that You're still God. Let someone, Lord, have faith enough to touch You at this time. I pray that---that You'll let me, Your unworthy and unprofitable servant, be able to relax myself and get my own self out of the way, that You might speak Your mysteries to Your church to confirm it.

78 Father, Moses wasn't worthy of going down to Egypt, but You chose him. Peter, the fisherman, wasn't worthy to be apostle, but You chose him. We are not our own. We are bought. I'm not worthy to be Your servant, but You have chosen. None of us are worthy, but You have chosen.
Let it be tonight, Lord, that the hard part of Your Word will be performed, that the people might know that You are God, and I'm telling them the truth. Now, the people are looking and they're wondering, and the Bible has plainly said, "If there be one among you who is a prophet, I will speak to him; what the man says is the truth, comes to pass, then hear him." Father, I'm saying this that they might believe the message that I'm preaching to them. I pray that You'll confirm, I spoke of You. Now, speak, Lord, that I've told the truth. Grant it, Father, as I wait on You for a pull of faith from somewhere. In the name of the Lord Jesus.

79 There's a lady, and I see her before me. She's suffering with arthritis. Here she sits right here, hand up like this. That's true. You were praying that God would turn me around. Now, He has. Your arthritis is gone. I don't know the lady. I've never seen her. Are we strangers to one another, lady? I don't know you. You don't know me. That you might ... Do you believe me to be His prophet ... I mean, His servant? That word stumbles a lot of... Look on me and believe.
What about that boy? Do you believe God can tell me what's wrong with the boy? If I could heal him, I would do it. I can't, but it... Jesus can't, but God is in our flesh now. That boy's got rheumatic fever. If that's right, raise up your hand. Or he did have it---he doesn't now. If thou canst believe...
What did she touch with my back turned? She touched the High Priest. Will you believe now? Pray, somebody. Believe. Have faith. There's so many of you, so many.

80 Do you think she will be healed of that cancer, your aunt? Do you believe that she will be made well? She's not here, but you were praying for her, an aunt that's got cancer. Believe and she will be well. Just have faith. Don't doubt. Believe with all your heart. God answers prayer. Do you believe that? Have faith in God.
Somebody through this section, somewhere. No matter where you are, pray. O Jehovah-jireh, Jehovah-rapha, the God of visions, the God of power, the God who we know in Jesus Christ, let it be so, Father. Yes.

81 Now, see if I can find the person. I'm looking at someone back there that seems to be near. Ted Dudley. Is that Ted sitting there? Thought it was. Right in here is a Ted. It's right behind you. A lady back there... Yes. See, it's not her that's sick. She's praying for her son. That's right. It's an elderly lady. He lives in Mississippi, a sinner that you're praying for to be saved. I never seen her in my life. Is those things true, lady? Raise up your hand. Is God still working in human flesh? What about you all back in that part? Do you believe back in there? Pray with all your heart. He who knows all things...
I pray Thee, Lord, knowing the heart of men, and not that men might be known, as You spoke in tongues this morning, but the message said there's prophets in the midst. We know that is You, Lord. Who would You speak to back there?

82 Yes, a young man, wearing a shirt that's buttoned up and no tie on. It's a sport shirt. Here. I don't know you, young fellow. I've never seen you in my life. Do you believe me to be His prophet? You're from away from here, from a school. Have faith. You're praying for your little brother. He's a spastic. You're in Texas at this time, but your little brother's from a country that's got mountains in it. It's Idaho. Your name is Mr. Hunt. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and receive what you've asked for.
O the Rose of Sharon, the lily of the valley, the morning star, the Alpha, Omega, the first and the last, the root and offspring of David.

83 Man sitting there with a double hernia, rupture. Been operated on twice for it. Mr. Finlin from Mississippi. I don't know you, but that's the truth. Do you believe? Have faith.
Miss Farmer, never seen you in my life. Do you believe God heals your throat trouble? You can go to Mississippi too and get well. Miss Boyd, next to her, you're from Shreveport. I don't know you, but you have bursitis, neuritis. Get well. I challenge you to believe on the Lord. I'm not He, but He's here.
Wiping the tears from your eyes, laying on a bed, dying. There was three lepers sat at a gate one time; they said, "Why do we sit here? If we sit here, we will starve to death." In the city they were eating one another's children. Say, "Why sit we here? Let's go do something about it. If we go to the camp of the enemies, if they kill us, we will die anyhow. We're going to die anyhow, but maybe they'll save us." And on the basis of going to an enemy's camp, God rewarded them.

84 If God will tell me what your trouble is, lady... You're shadowed; there's a dark shadow over you, dying. If He'll tell me what your trouble is, will you rise, and not go to an enemy's camp to take a chance, but come to the house of the living God where you're expected? Will you believe me as His prophet? You have cancer on the spine. You've been in bed for weeks. Rise up. Receive your healing. Go home in the name of the Lord Jesus. Do you believe? How many...? There she is! Her spine was filled with cancer. Let's give God praise.
I will praise Him, I will praise Him,
Praise the Lamb for sinners slain;
Give Him glory all ye people,
For His blood has washed away each stain.
I will praise Him, I will praise Him,
Praise the Lamb for sinners slain;
Give Him glory all ye people,
For His blood has washed away each stain.
Let's bow our heads.
I will praise Him, I will praise Him,
Praise the Lamb for sinners slain;
Give Him glory ... (What we said...)