Conferences

You can find this sermon at ChurchAges.net

1 Thank you very much, brother, the Lord bless you. Good evening, friends. It is a... [congregation claps] Thank you. That just makes me feel double welcome. And so nice to be here in Arizona tonight in this city of Phoenix, and this lovely tabernacle, with this fine fellowship, which I've looked forward to coming back since I was here last. And a few days ago it was mentioned, just before I went overseas, that ... the possibilities of coming back to Phoenix, that none of the brethren was coming in this time. Well, that sure made me feel good, to know that I'd get to see my friends again out here. And while I was in Puerto Rico, in the Caribbean Islands, why, then when I returned I heard then that we was coming out here. And it certainly was a great privilege to get to come back.

2 It always seems good to me when I come down across the mountains and see those deserts blooming and flowers beginning to come---after battling a snow storm for four days and then freezing up---and coming down here where it was nice and warm. It's just a little touch of heaven. This valley always has had an attraction for me since I was a little boy.
I remember my first visit to Phoenix. I was just about ... well, I was about sixteen, seventeen years old. It's been around thirty years ago. And up on Sixteenth and Henshaw was a desert. That's where I stayed, up ... just right out on an old country road. Rode down along an irrigation ditch coming into Phoenix. That's how I got down from the Henshaw Road coming into Phoenix. All gravel, just an old gravel road coming here. Certainly has changed,

3 and there's people has changed. The valley has changed. Phoenix begins now at Apache Junction, coming this way.
It will continue to change if time goes on. That's the way we find everything in life---it changes. I've only found one thing that doesn't change: that's God. He doesn't change. I found Him around thirty years ago. I was running from Him when I come to Phoenix. But there's no need of running from Him---He knows where you are. And so then ... but He has never changed and never failed to remain the same loving, sweet Saviour that I have ... that I found. The only thing, in me, it just seems like He gets more dear to me each day as it goes by, because I'm getting just a little closer to Him. My life's running out, and I'm not the little boy I was a few years ago. But there's one great hope that I have: that's some day to return back to that again, only with immortal life, never to die.

4 A few days ago, or some time ago I might say, I was combing what few hairs I had left. My wife said to me, she said, "Billy, you're almost bald-headed."
I said, "Yes." It was because, to start with, from a barber putting carbolic acid on my hair. It all come out, and then it never did come back right. I said, "But, Honey, I want to tell you, I haven't lost one of them."
She said, "Pray tell me where they're at."
I said, "Well, I will answer you if you'll answer me."
She said, "All right."
I said, "Where were they before I got them? They were bound to be a substance somewhere, and wherever they were before I received them, they are there waiting for me to come to them." Someday this ... that is exactly right. Not one hair of our head but what's numbered. God knows all about it.

5 I slipped out a while ago, looking out to Camelback Mountain, and remembered as a little boy I rode a horse out there. I used to work up here above Wickenburg, went up with them to bring cattle down. I've often wondered how ... if I could ever see a time that I could ever be that seventeen-, eighteen-year-old boy again. But God's Word teaches that I will be. There's nothing that God loses. He'll raise it up again at the last day. He promised that, Jesus did.
And then we're knowing that this life, no matter whatever happens in this life, all of our homes, our big city, our fine nation, this fine state of Cali... I better not say that, had I? The water rights are too... Arizona will fade and go away some day. All of our homes in this valley will be dust again, but our souls have immortality. When we're born again of the Spirit of God, God promised to raise us up again at the last day through His Son, Jesus Christ, and then we would be young forever. We'd never have to be sick no more, never have no more heartaches or sorrows. What a time that will be!
When He said in Revelation 21, "I saw a new heavens and new earth, for the first heaven and first earth was passed away, and there was no more sea," that's the one we're longing to go to, striving to go to.

6 And around the world as I go---preaching to the people, praying for their sick and afflicted, meeting my fine brethren of every church and every denomination, having great fellowship---I'm looking forward to the time when I shall meet them to never say good-bye again.
Today I was standing in Miller's Cafeteria, and the man who was taking care of the meat back there knew me. Then the boy, waiter, said, "Hello, Brother Branham." I sat down, and I met my friends, Brother and Sister Norman and their people from Tucson. A few moments, an elderly man and woman come up. And this lady, when they introduced themselves, was from Oakland; came over and going to be here for the meeting. They're probably present tonight. And she received, as I understand, the Holy Spirit two years before I was born. She's been preaching for forty one years, I think it is, the gospel.

7 When I see people like that... And she said, "There's only one thing that worries me---I wish I could get out and keep going." My, I felt just about that big, standing beside of that woman. To think of an old saint, aged, and still, all that's in her, something cries out, "More God---if I could do something for Him." It should make us ashamed of ourselves. We should go right out into the field, start doing something for the Lord Jesus.
I want to thank our precious brother here tonight, and the board of this church, for inviting us and bringing us out here so we could associate and have great fellowship together, trusting that God will give us a great meeting. I think it's about fifteen days. My, can you put up with me that long? That'll be about as long as I ever held a meeting in my life---will be fifteen days, the longest meeting. I usually just stay three to five nights, and gone.

8 We was in Puerto Rico last week, or week before last, it was, I believe. We was in Kingston, Jamaica, and having about three thousand converts each night (and went to Puerto Rico), was there about three or four nights. Went to Puerto Rico for two nights, had three to four thousand each night there coming to the Lord. And here at Phoenix now for fifteen days. My, I just trust that the Lord will do something great for us.
And because of our coming together, I trust that it'll cause a revival, a real revival over the entire Maricopa Valley here, that there will be a revival in every church, and everywhere there'll break out the Spirit of God, of love and fellowship that'll be on its way to bring Jesus Christ, the Son of God, back to the earth again. Upon those thoughts, before I take a text, let us bow our heads for a word of prayer. Now, before we pray, would there be any like to be remembered in this prayer? If they would, just raise your hands up to God, inside or out. He sees and understands. Keep your thought in your mind now as we pray.

9 Our most gracious Father and God, who brought again the Lord Jesus from the dead, raised Him up on the third day, and presented Him to the church as the only mediator between God and man, the man Christ Jesus, Him leaving this most wonderful promise to us, that if we ask the Father anything in His name, He'll give it to us, it would be granted. So we come before thee tonight, Lord God, in the name of the Lord Jesus, Thy Son, to ask that You first will pardon us of every sin and every trespass that we have did against Thee.
And if we have sinned against our brother, or against our neighbor, or anyone, may the Holy Spirit reveal that to us at the beginning of this revival, that we might go and make these things right, that we might have clear hearts and clean hands and undefiled conscience before Thee that Thou could send us to the needy, those who are indifferent about God---our testimony would not be hindered, but the great Holy Spirit would go before us and help us to bring people to the Lord Jesus.

10 We ask, Lord, that You'll bless this church and its pastor, and its board, and its members. Bless the body of Christ that's in the valley here, the members of every church.
And we pray not only for this church but for all, that there will come a great revival, and that the glory of God may be felt throughout the valley, and not only through the valley, but around the nations. And bring the Lord Jesus, as we see the time approaching. We'd ask, Lord, to remember those that are sick and afflicted, the shut-ins tonight, out in the hospitals and the convalescent homes and around. Let Thy Holy Spirit, Lord, minister graciously to them, through the name of the Lord Jesus.
Give unto us of Thy grace and Thy love, and give us Thy Word, Lord. May the Word each night be planted into our hearts, and the Holy Spirit water until we become real statures of God, members of His body, bringing forth love in such a measure that it would be so salty until all Phoenix would thirst to be like those Christians. For it is written of our Lord that He said these words, "Ye are the salt of the earth." And we realize that salt is a savor when it contacts. May we live such lives till our spirits will contact others and make them crave to be the people and live the life that the Holy Spirit lives through us.
Bless Thy Word as we read it tonight, and we pray that You'll establish it in our hearts, for we ask it in the name of the Lord Jesus, Thy Son. Amen.

11 Waiting inside and out, and around the walls... We know what it means to stand cramped and maybe stand a long time before the services start, so each night I'll try to hurry just quick as I can. But yet, I want to give ample time for the Holy Spirit to let the Word work, take its place in the heart, so that... You know, eternity's a long time. It never did begin or it never will end. We dropped down in time, but we'll be lifted into eternity one of these days or nights. And it will determine what stage of that---how we live here---what our outcome will be there, so let us be real deeply and sincerely every moment ... that this would be the last message we'd ever hear in our lives.

12 I have chosen for a text tonight, found in the book of Isaiah, the first chapter, the eighteenth verse; and just for a while, after I read it, I pray the Holy Spirit give us the context of the Word.
Come now, ... 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.
I thought that would be a very appropriate thing to start out the service with tonight, and I want to take the text---if I should call it a text---of "Conferences." The prophet here has been called to... God said, "Come, and let us reason together. Let us just have a conference."

13 We've heard so much lately, in the last few years, about conferences. And what are conferences for? What's the reason for a conference? Usually a conference is held in a time of an emergency, when an emergency arises that the armies, or whatever, is ... if it's a conference of that type, that the big men, the leaders, could get together and swap their ideas and reason out things, and work the best that they could for what they were working for---the cause, the purpose.
Many in here can remember a conference that I have in mind tonight. Was a few years ago, when they had what they called the "Big Four Conference." The free nations had come together and held a conference because that they was in emergency. At that time Germany was just about to take England; and the world, as it was, there was a state of emergency. And the Big Four powers of the free world met together, and they was trying to come upon some idea, something that they could put their hands on that they could change the strategy, to know how to win that war.

14 I remember a minister friend of mine was in Louisville, and he was listening to the returns. Usually, when they have a conference of that type, the whole world was focused upon the outcome of that conference, because the whole world was involved in it. Usually, if there's not anything to your interest involved in the conference, why, you don't care about it. But let you have some interest in it, then you want to hear the returns, to hear what's taking place. This minister friend of mine was listening to the radio, and he was just walking the floor, listening at the speech, and, he said, someone knocked at the door.
And it was during the time that when we were having rough times. You couldn't have sugar in the coffee, and, well, we complained about that. Had to boil the coffee the second time, and we complained about that. Sometimes I wonder if we don't do a little bit too much complaining. When we think of having to boil the coffee twice and complaining about it---and men dying on the field. Young American blood being shed on the field, and blood of the nations poured out---and then we complain about some little sacrifice that we have to make. It seems like that ... I hope this doesn't seem wrong, but we seem to be more or less an ungrateful people for the things that we do have. We don't put evaluation to the things that we do have.

15 And this minister was pacing the floor and someone knocked at the door, and he went to the door to see what was going on. And there was ... like a modern beatnik there, you know, with his whiskers all over his face, and dirty. And he said, "I'd like to talk to you a little while." Said, "I'm a poet. No one will buy my poetry; and you're an influential man in the city, and I feel if you'd go down and give me a little send-off, well, people would buy my poetry."
And he said, "My dear man, won't you come in and sit down just a moment?" He said, "I'm hearing the returns of the results of the Big Four Conference." And the young fellow wasn't interested in a conference; he was only interested in his own poetry. And he wouldn't even listen to the minister, till the minister had to take him to the door and make him sit on the porch until he had heard the returns; because it seemed the only thing in life to him was to sell this poetry that he had written.

16 And then we could think of another conference. There was the Geneva Conference. We all remember the Geneva Conference, how that they selected that beautiful place. I've been there several times, and it's certainly a pretty place, in Geneva. And in the Geneva Conference and the results of that conference... And then recently, the Paris Conference. We remember the great Paris Conference, another great historical marker. And then, now our own beloved President Dwight Eisenhower, he's visiting the free world, conference after conference after conference. Khrushchev, he's also out, conference after conference after conference.

17 Why? Because, it looks like that there is a state of emergency coming on. The world is in such a shape till any little nation could destroy the whole earth. Man has achieved by his scientific researches, and he's got beyond gunpowder and poison gas. He's got into hydrogen bombs and nuclear weapons, and so forth, that they could rise a submarine up out of the ocean somewhere and destroy the world. And everyone's getting afraid. That's why they're holding conferences, trying to get together and find out what we must do.
God also has conferences. God holds conferences when emergency arises. Let us look into some of those conferences. The first one that I can call, when emergency arose, was, we would call it, the Eden Conference. When word reached heaven that God's children had fallen, there immediately something had to be done, because His own son and His own daughter had fallen from grace. And there was a case and a stage of emergency. If man ever existed, there had to be something done.

18 I can imagine God, our Father, down in the garden of Eden, looking around to find a certain tree, to where He could call His children up in His presence under this tree. He selected a place. And He called that conference, and He stood Adam and Eve and the serpent, and there was a conference held.
They had trespassed His laws, and His laws were just and the penalty must be paid. And how are they going to live after the death sentence hangs on them? And there was a conference held, and there was a propitiation made for that sin. And temporarily---until the woman's seed was to bruise the serpent's head, that would pay the full penalty of sin---there was a lamb sacrifice, until that time to be fulfilled.
And there was something that was achieved, there was something done that was great---a way that man could be saved again.

19 I'm so glad that they had a conference. If they'd've had no conference, where would we have been tonight? There was something done. Agreements was met, and bylaws was made, and they went forward. That first conference meant the difference between life and death to the human race.
And then, let's call another conference. There was a time when there was a prophet that knowed the Lord God as his Saviour; and he had misbehaved himself, and tried to do it in his own way. May I stop here just for a moment to say this, my brother, or my sister? Any time that any person ever tries to do God's word or will in their own way, they need a conference right quick with God, because they're wrong. There's only two ways to do anything---that's right and wrong. That's your way, and God's way. Your way is always wrong.
Moses found out that his way didn't work. And as Moses learned the hard way, so have I learned it that way. No doubt but many of the people here tonight, sitting here or standing here, has learned it the same way. It's a hard way. It's best to surrender your will to God's will, and hold a conference with Him.

20 And when... We find out that Moses, in his great schooling and his intellectual learning---smart, intelligent---he was so shrewd till he could teach the teachers. I'm not trying to support ignorance, but I think that when we get that way we're in the most dangerous stage we can get into---when we get so smart that we know more than everybody else. That's what's the matter with the world today. That's what's the matter with the nations today. Each one's trying to get smarter than the other. That's what's the matter with the people today. We're trying to out-smart something.
We're trying even in our churches to see how greater a steeple we can build, the better class, as we'd call it, to get in, the better dressed. Taking away the real jewels and nuggets of the gospel, and compromising upon them. Instead of the altar, a handshake; instead of the baptism of the Holy Spirit, we've compromised to a handshake; or a baptism by immersing to the sprinkling of some water. Anything to get our own plan in it, but it will never work. It never did work, and it never will work. God's way is always right. Got to be His way, is the only way.
Moses, in all of his great military mind and how that he could achieve, he thought murder was the question ... or, murder was the way, and he slew an Egyptian. And his very beginning, he found himself defeated.

21 I might say this: there's a many minister tonight in the land, and in other lands, and many Christians tonight, that in their heart they really want to serve God, but they find themselves defeated because they take their own intellectual conception of the gospel. Just join church, or do some good thing, or give someone some clothes, or do a little good deed---if that's all that it took, then the Eden Conference was in vain, and the death of the Lord Jesus was in vain. God laid a program down and we've got to come to that program; and sooner we get to that, the better the church will achieve the purpose of God---when we get to God's program.

22 Moses tried to work it out in his own way, and he found that he was wrong. And by doing so, like many others---who backslide from one revival to another, going up and trying to impersonate a Christian, or standing and making some kind of a sign, or some declaration of creed that we recite---we find ourselves in a few days defeated, because we're trying to do it in ourselves. It'll never work. We must meet God's program word by word, letter by letter.
See, anything that you try to do with a intellectual mind is so contrary to the Spirit. The intellectual mind thinks it has to be smart and wise. The Holy Spirit is humble. Break down all you ever knowed. Walk sweet and humble before the Lord, loving Him with all your heart, with all your mind, and with all your strength. There's where the Holy Spirit works. Makes you do things that you didn't think you ever would do. It'll make you repent, and go back and shake hands and make up with people. Like you could join church and still call yourself a Christian, and hate down in your heart; but you can't be led of the Holy Spirit and do that. You can't do it. You can't cheat, you can't lie, you can't pull shady deals. It's got to be out and above board and the Holy Spirit's approval on it.

23 Moses tried, but he failed. God had called him, and there's no doubt in the hearing of my voice there may be many people that God's called the same way. But we try to appease that by joining church, or doing something religious. It'll never satisfy. You need a conference with God. So Moses (God determined, because He'd elected him to do so), He wandered in the desert. And one day, on the back side of the desert, God decided to call his runaway prophet, and He selected a certain tree. I've always wondered, "Wonder what He put on that tree that it didn't burn up?" The leaves were popping and cracking, and the fire burning. I don't know how long it had burned, but it didn't burn. It was God's selected place to meet His prophet.

24 God selects the place to have His conferences. Just as the kings and the rulers of the nations select their places for conferences, God selects His place. It's my honest prayer that your seat tonight, or your standing place, is God's selected place for you; that He can talk to you, speak to you, do something or say something that would attract your attention, that He could hold your attention just for a few moments.
Moses walked up to the burning bush, watching, and beholding what a sight it was, to see a bush that was burning and yet it did not consume. And when he walked up to the burning bush, he got orders, "Take off your shoes, Moses, for the ground that you're standing on is holy ground." Moses obeyed by taking off his shoes.

25 We notice one thing---that when men has conferences of the nations, they get together and they find a big place, and they feast and they have great dinners, and they sit at the table, and they have sociable drinks; and they get ready and go out from there to try to accomplish what they have selected in their minds to do. How different it is from God's conferences. Men don't come together in God's conferences to eat; they come together to fast and to pray, and to receive orders and go forward with it.

26 Moses, coming on top of the mountain for these forty days, and he'd been up there getting the commandments, or afterwards. Knew what it was to meet God, knowed what it was to have a conference with God, so he waited his forty days. It was easy after he had once had a conference with God. Men whoever have a conference with God (or women), knows what it means to forsake food sometimes, forsake water, forsake the things of the world, forsake everything else, to come apart with God to hold a conference.
Moses on this first conference, the burning bush, he received orders from God. "I'm the God of your fathers, and I've heard the cries of my people, and I'm sending you down to deliver them. I want you to go down into Egypt." Look what simple reasons He used.
Moses begin to make excuses, and said, "I'm not ... I'm slow of speech," and so forth. So He told him that He'd be with him, and the angel of God would go before him, and signs and wonders that He would do. So he was ready then to go.

27 After you have obeyed God, and gone on the mission that He sent you on, sometimes we come into difficult circumstances. Moses hit that. He had went down into Egypt and had done just exactly what God told him to do. He'd obeyed the Word to the letter and he was following the Word. God promised Abraham that his seed would sojourn in a strange country among strange people, but He would bring them back to that land after they had been captive four hundred years. So Moses was perfectly in line with the Word of God.
And even in that you still hit obstacles.

28 There may be some here tonight up against that. Say, "I'm sick, Brother Branham. I've been a Christian all my life. I've had the Holy Ghost for years. I've been a member of this church for so many years. I've lived faithful, all that I've done. And here I am tonight, the doctor says that I must die. I got cancer, I got heart trouble, I'm in a wheelchair," or something else. Those things happen. Moses was perfectly in line of duty of God and also in line of the Scripture.
The first thing for a man to do to find out if something has went wrong is check himself. First, are you in the line of God's Word? Then the next thing, are you in line of duty, following what the Holy Spirit told you to do? Then if that be so, then there is only one thing left: that's a conference.

29 Moses had led the children of Israel by the hand of God from Egypt, and had come to the Red Sea. We'll call this the Red Sea Conference. He was exactly in the line of duty, leading the children across to the Red Sea, and was taking them to the promised land as God had promised. He'd heard from God, the Holy Spirit was upon him. He had led them out, done the miracles and signs of God, and here they was right in line of duty, and there every obstacle that could be, shut off. It seemed that nature would even itself cry out, "Oh, Moses and Israel, I feel sorry for you, because doom just waits you."

30 It might be that with you tonight---doom just ahead.
What did Moses do, this great runaway prophet? He'd had one conference with God and he knowed what it meant to him. He knowed the only thing to do was have another conference. He selected him a place. Perhaps he'd say, "Oh, I don't know, maybe over behind this certain rock." He'd went over there, and perhaps had knelt on his knees, and said, "Great Jehovah, I read in the Scriptures, or by the Word that I have, that You'd deliver your people. You sent an angel and spoke to me, and I'm strictly in the line of duty. And here we are at the Red Sea, and there's no way to get over. So I thought within myself, there's only one thing to do. I'll never try to rely upon my intellectuals; I'll just come have a conference with You."
God said, "Stand on your feet, Moses. Go speak to the children of Israel that they go forward." Never does God ever say "retreat." There's no retreat in God. God is "go forward,"

31 no matter what stage of the battle you're in.
If you've backed up and said, "I'm afraid of divine healing, I'm afraid of this, that, or the other, I'm afraid about the baptism of the Holy Spirit," speak and go forward. No retreat. Don't come back ---there's nothing to back up to. God is always "go forward," if it's the line of duty, the line of His Word. Go on. Move on.
"Well," say, "I know someone went into fanaticism." But that wasn't you. Your duty is to go forward. Until God gets through with you, just keep moving forward.

32 A few years ago, when the Lord called me (me a local Baptist pastor) to go preach divine healing, I'd never heard of such a thing as Pentecost---no more than I may have heard somebody say, "It's a bunch of holy rollers," or something. But when He came, and I seen Him, and He spoke! If God speaks, there's something's got to respond to it somewhere. Whether my church believed it or not, there's somebody going to hear it. From there came Oral Roberts and Tommy Osborn, and so forth, and revival fires burn all over the world tonight. Why? Speaking, going forward.
Don't back up. We're coming to kind of a slowdown. There's no place to slow down. If there's anything, get in double gear! Let's go forward. There's no stopping place. Pentecost cannot stop. There's no place to stop. Let's not build a fire on the same ground, two fires in two nights. Let's build a new fire here tonight, and a new fire on up the road, on and on, until we see Jesus. There's no stopping place now.

33 Moses, he prayed and he got orders. And he stepped out and asked the children of Israel to go forward; and the sea opened up, and they went through. God always makes a way. A conference, that's what the churches needs tonight is a conference. Get orders and move forward. You pray and ask if it's time now to lay the great blessing of this that's went through in the last thirty or forty years---of Pentecost, of the blessing of the Holy Spirit, the baptism that set the world afire for a revival that's never been seen since the day of Pentecost in the beginning... They never had it in the Lutheran revival. They never had it in the Wesley revival. They've never had it in no revival till this revival.
It's not time for Pentecost to lay itself to seed; it's time to spread out its tents. It's time to go forward, bringing in the brethren from every denomination, from every walk of life, and the message to burn forward. No time for stopping! If you're halting, let's call a conference, see what's wrong.

34 When we get to a place that we think we're the only one that God can use, we better call a conference. God sent Jesus, His Son, to die for every member of the body of Christ. Methodist, Baptist, Presbyterian, Lutheran, Catholic, whatever they may be, they're all God's children by the promise. How are they going to hear the message unless we...
If we cool off, what are we going to do? We're putting a bad example before them. It's no time for cooling off; it's time for a warming up. We can't have a warming up till we have a conference---an old time revival that'll bring back the revival fires, that'll attract attention, when sinners are born into the kingdom of God, when men begin to see ill-famed women, and ill-famed men, and sinners repenting and changing their life, going forth making restitution, weeping, bringing precious sheaves. The church needs a good case of old-time godly love, brotherly love. We need a conference, hold a conference.
Quickly let's go to another conference. There was a Gethsemane conference. There's many we can mention. There was a conference one day in Babylon, whether they should bow to the image of the king or whether they'd keep God's Word. God sent the fourth person down on account of that conference.

35 Daniel had to have a conference, and God sent an angel, maybe a pillar of fire, a light; scared those animals off and they did not have the power over Daniel, because they'd held a conference, a prayer meeting somewhere.
That's what does the difference. When we get so wrapped up in the things of the world that we can't come to church on Sunday night---or Monday night, or any other night, and have to watch our television programs and certain things like that, that shows that the world has leaked into us.

36 What the Pentecostal church and all other churches needs tonight is to "lay aside every weight, and the sin that does so easily beset us, that we might run with patience the race that's set before us." We need a conference, a universal prayer meeting, for the church of the living God to be called together.
Don't think I am angry or beside myself. I know what I speak of. The need of the church tonight is a conference, a prayer meeting, a get-together, called together. Ministers break down their middle wall of partition, church members that'll forget the differences between the denominations of churches, church members and ministers hold to the horns of the altar with one accord, and pray until the fire of God begins to fall again. God knows ... the stubbornness and difference of men is broke up in godly fear, and brotherly love takes its place in the human heart.
Then you'll become salty. Then the message will have its preeminence in the heart. It'll have its influence in the city.

37 We could scream and shout, or do whatever we want to, and it'll never influence men until they see the life of Christ being projected in you---someone who is tender, and merciful, and forgiving, and ready to turn the other side of the cheek, or give the second coat, or go the second mile. Christianity in action. Not just talk from the pulpit, but acted among the members, among the pastors. That's when you see Christ living in the church, decisions made.
Jesus has brought Himself to a decision. And before going to Calvary, the Father brought His own Son into conference in Gethsemane, while angels taking their positions to see what the decision would be. Oh, it might not have been this way, but let's think maybe it was. I can hear Him say, "Son, do You desire to go on to Calvary? There's a ban waiting for You, there's persecution, there's death and murder laying in the way. There's exposure of your own body---they'll strip the clothes off of You. They'll beat You into pulp. They'll pull a crown of thorns over your head, and You'll die screaming for mercy. Should You go on?"

38 Look at the decision.
Sometimes when we, sitting in our seats, and the Holy Spirit say, "You must do this, or you must do that..." You got someone who won't speak to you, you won't speak to them, you won't make it right. And you're just ashamed to go up and say---if you are in the wrong, or if you're not in the wrong---to go up and say, "Brother, let's forgive and talk it over."
Jesus, when He looked up into the face of the Father, He said, "It's not My will, it's Yours to be done." What a decision! That decision anchored and swept the world, still comes tonight to every penitent soul. "Not my will, but thine be done." That's the decision.

39 There was a decision also made, a Pentecostal decision. A hundred and twenty went to the upper room. And they were waiting because that their leader, their Lord, had ascended up into the heavens to the Father. And He had told them, He said, "Now, you wait up to the city of Jerusalem. And I don't want you to go out preaching yet. I don't want you to have any schooling. You don't need any more theology. But I want you to go up there and just wait there till you get in one accord. Then I can send the decision of heaven back to you." That's what's the matter today. That's what's the matter with the churches today. What's the decision for this hour?
Look here, when Khrushchev, and when the communists, the other day, could take a little bottle of medicine, and shake it in the face of the world (atheists, ungodly, God-hating nation), and say, "We can take a paralytic and pour this into him, he'll straighten up again... ?"

40 What a disgrace! Although I'm thankful for anything that can be done to help the sick---I don't discredit that---but deliverance wasn't given to infidels. It was given to the ministry of the Lord God. The church of the living God has deliverance with them. It doesn't come from a bottle; it comes from Calvary.
But what's the matter? There's something wrong. We need a conference. The church needs to come together. The people needs to come together, and wait with one accord until the decision comes. They're trying to build bomb shelters down under the ground, four hundred feet, make it out of steel. Why, the concussion of one of those bombs will blow a hole in the ground a hundred and seventy-five feet deep, for a hundred and fifty square miles. Why, there's no way to dig out of it. There's only one way to get out of it, is go up out of it.

41 Conferences---how deep we must go, how much reinforced concrete and other things---that won't be worth that [Brother Branham snaps his fingers.]
We're at the coming of the Lord. The church needs to be called together in a conference, come in one accord, and wait to see what the decision of God is. "O Lord, what must we do?" We've come down now, we've preached the gospel, we've spoke with tongues, we've had interpretations, we've had signs and wonders and miracles in our church; but we've come to a place till we're halting. Now the communists shake a bottle in front of us, say, "We got it here."
Jesus Himself said, "Verily, I say to you, if you say to this mountain, 'be moved,' and don't doubt in your heart, but believe that what you've said will come to pass, you can have what you've said." Oh, my, what's the matter, then? A conference, that's what we need---a conference! One accord, in a conference.

42 They waited. They wanted to see how the church should be conducted. They wanted to see whether it should be conducted by intellectual conceptions of good moral living, whether they should conduct it upon the basis of certain sprinklings or forms of baptisms, or what must they do? How must the new Christian church be conducted? And there was a conference held in heaven how they must do. Carry a pad of paper with them, and take everybody's name down, give them communion and send them on ---was that it? But they were waiting, with one accord, in one place. That was Pharisees, Sadducees, all the rest of them. The little things of their denominations had been broke down. Their sects, and so forth, of their religious teachings had been broke down. They was called to a conference by Jesus Christ. There they were, waiting, with one accord.
"And suddenly there came a sound from heaven like a rushing mighty wind, and it filled all the house where they were sitting. There appeared on them cloven tongues like fire... And they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and began speaking with other languages, as the Spirit gave them utterance.

43 There were Jews---devout men out of every nation under heaven---had gathered there at Jerusalem. When this was all noised abroad they came together, were confounded because they heard every man speaking in his own language wherein he was born." That was God's decision of how the church must be run. Brother, when we capitalize upon the things of God, and make it just our group is the only one has got it, it's time to call another conference. Get back to God again and hear another sound like a rushing mighty wind, to see brotherly love.
We hear so much today about Christians has got to be millionaires. You have to own a fleet of Cadillacs or you're not spiritual. How far that is.

44 I was speaking to a group of men here a few nights ago that has spread propaganda across the world, on books and so forth, that you must ... become a Christian and your business flourish, and everything---which, that's good, God'll do that. But what we need today is not a flourishing business; what we need today is a testimony of the power of the resurrection of Jesus Christ as a living witness.
How contrary that is from real Pentecost. You got to live in a better neighborhood today, you got to do this, and you got to dress this way, or be that way. That's all right. I believe Christianity, as much soap and water as you got, will make you keep yourself clean. That's right---physically. And, of course, the Holy Spirit's there, it will spiritually.

45 But, brother, that still isn't what I'm talking about. What they did at that day, instead of trying to boast on how much of the worldly things they had, they sold everything they had, and they distributed it amongst the poor.
A certain fellow raised up when I said this. He said, "Brother Branham, that was the greatest mistake the church ever made, to let them do that."
Said, "Why do you get that?"
He said, "Because when the persecution arose they had no homes to go to, and they were scattered everywhere."
I said, "It's exactly the will of God, because then they had no place to go, no worldly possessions. They went forth preaching everywhere, and the Word of the Lord grew." God's decisions is always right, exactly right. Went forth everywhere preaching. That's the way He had scattering the Word.

46 The Pentecostal Conference was not to be upon a certain bunch, or a certain sect, but "whosoever will, let him come." That's what Peter said. "For the promise is unto you, and to your children, and to them that's far off, even as many as the Lord our God shall call." That's who it's for, for whosoever will. Let him come that he might drink from the fountains of the water of the Lord.
Now, there was another conference, and we're coming to a close for this last conference. There was a conference arose after they were scattered abroad everywhere, preaching. And two of them went up to the gate called Beautiful, and there laid a lame man that was sick, crippled from his mother's womb, and he was lame in his feet. And Peter and John said, "Look on us," and he did. And he said, "Silver and gold have I none [that's it]; but such as I have..." Would you trade that for silver and gold? Would you trade that for a name of popularity? Would you trade that for a television show---Sunday night or Monday night, Tuesday night, whenever it was---when your church has got services going on? That's what's the matter today. I've often said this, "If this isn't that, then I'll keep this till that comes."

47 Peter said, "I have silver nor gold; but such as I have I'll give you. In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth rise up and walk." And the man hesitated a little, and Peter grabbed him by the arms, him and John, and lifted him up, and his ankle bones received strength. He begin leaping and praising God. It did something to the congregation.
They took them in and whipped them, and threatened them that they should no more preach in such a name, no more scatter the heresy of Pentecost any further. So when they did that, they went out with that threat that they'd be throwed into prison if they preached it again---said anything about Jesus being raised, and the Holy Ghost here performing miracles. You know what they done? They were in trouble, there was an emergency. So they went to their own company. That's where we ought to go tonight; not go out and ask the mayor of the city how we should do this, how we should do that. We shouldn't send off to some school of education and ask how we must do this or how we must do that. If our church is getting lean in the Spirit, the thing we should do is hold a conference with God.

48 Acts 4 they held a conference, and they preached ... they prayed like this, "Lord, why did the heathens rage and the people imagine a vain thing? Is it right for us to refuse to preach divine healing in our messages? Should we preach divine healing or should we refrain from such a thing? O Lord, we know what Your Word says. Then give us boldness, courage." Then their house was shook where they were assembled together. What an answer!
Give us a conference like that on Eleventh and Garfield. We'll preach the full Word of God, we'll stand on everything that God said stand. We'll believe in being dead from sin and alive in Christ. We believe that a man that's dead from sin refrains from the things of the world because they're dead to him. He no more gossips, and pouts, and fusses, and fights, and stews. He's at peace with God and with the church from then till the day he's taken out of the world.

49 I believe that the Holy Spirit kills the nature of the world in a man or woman. Yes, sir. I believe that divine healing is right. I believe that the power of the Holy Spirit is just as great today as it was when it was poured out at Pentecost. I believe it breaks down the walls of partition and brings the brotherly love, that the devil and all the cares of the world can't separate us from the love of God that's in Christ. We need a conference, a real conference, to bring us together in this time.
There's another conference coming, and that's the conference of judgment. Now, you might not have been at the Big Four. Neither was I. You might not have been at the Geneva. Neither was I. But, brother, sister, let me say this to you as your brother: that one, you're going to be there. Every time that ambulance screams out there on the street, let's you know that you're going to be there too. Every time you pass by the graveyard and see a tombstone, something tells you you're going to that conference. Every time you hear the warning voice of your pastor across this pulpit, it tells you you're going to the judgment. Every time you comb your hair and see the gray, or it falling, the wrinkles in your face, your eyes dimming, what is it? You're going to judgment. You're going to be at that conference, just remember that. You've got to be there, young or old, right or wrong, you're going to stand there. "Some men's sins go before them, some follow."

50 The conference we need tonight in America, the same as here at Phoenix, and across the world everywhere, is a conference of an old-fashioned prayer meeting, of a place that where we can get back to the place where brotherly love exists, where the Spirit of God can come into our hearts and make us so miserable for the things out here that's going on in the world. Do you know the sealing angel said, "Put a mark upon those who sigh and cry for the abominations that's did in the city," while the investigation judgment's going on, to see who is worthy to escape the wrath. The angel was to seal only those who cried and sighed for the abominations done in the city.

51 Now mark these tonight.
This is where the conference is held. We've come here for that purpose, to hold a conference here at this church. We've come to reason among you. God said, "Come let us reason together." No matter what you have done, let's forget that and start right now. [Break in tape.]
Judgment is coming, all will be there---who has rejected or who has refused. No matter what you've done, you're going to that conference. And you're going to have to appear there before Christ to give an account of your life, how you spent it.
There might be some say, "Well, look here, Brother Branham, I'm an old man, an old woman." Or, "I'm insignificant." "I was born in a home that didn't believe in God."

52 I don't care how insignificant it may be, how little you may be, how old you may be, how sinful you may be, how many times you've tried to receive the Holy Spirit, how many times you've tried to repent, how many times you've tried to do right and failed, there's still hope for you as long as God's knocking at your door. I don't care how many churches you've joined, how many mistakes, and how much fanaticism, or how much this or that you've done, there's still hope as long as God knocks at the door.
Conference. I believe tonight, and I pray that right in this audience, right now, that angels of God will take their places around this building. Let's hold a conference. What if you die tonight? Or, what if somebody runs in the door and says, "John Doe, I have a message here for you."
"Oh, what is it? I'm John Doe."
"I have a order here, you inherit a million dollars." Oh, that would be grand, but you might die before you ever get it.

53 You might say, "How do I know I got a million dollars?"
"Well, here's a postal order, here's a ... from the government, shows before this could be written, this order, there has to be a million dollars on deposit before this can be written."
I say, "Well, what are you hollering about, you just got a piece of paper?"
But you say, "Look what it is. Look on here. Here's a postal clerk's name (if such could be written). A million dollars on deposit here, it's in the bank."
I don't care what you've got against you. You may have cancer, you may be sin-sick, you may have demon possession. I don't care what you've got, I've got a message here for you, screaming across this pulpit as hard as I can. There's pardoning, there's grace, there's healing, there's forgiveness, there's love, there's joy, there's peace.
You say, "What are you so enthused about, Brother Branham?"
It's written, "Though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be white as snow. Come let us reason together."
But you say, "I'm unworthy." I know you are, but Jesus died for you.

54 In our fair city, or city near us, the other day, there was an accident happened. An old bum was crossing the street. He looked like his clothes was ragged, his old hat was tattered. And a young teen-age boy and girl coming down the street, making love to each other, and they wasn't noticing the poor old fellow, and they hit him and knocked him way back up, and smashed him ... the side of a building when the fender sideswiped him. As the boy turned from the girl to see the old man, he swung sideways and crushed him up side of a building.
The emergency was called and they took him over to the hospital, the city hospital. And they looked him over, and there his arms was broke, his legs was broke, and his ... they thought he was unconscious. He wasn't even hardly breathing. So a bunch of doctors, they thought about others they had, and they said, "We should hold a little conference here. Now, the old man is nearly seventy, no doubt. We don't know who he is. It'll take us hours after hours of our time to operate, set his bones back again, and try to straighten him up. And the old fellow doesn't have very much longer to live, and we've got others waiting out here. I just don't believe it's worthwhile to do it. Let's just lay him back, and it won't be too long till he'll be gone anyhow."

55 But the old man wasn't as dead as they thought he was. He turned himself over. He said, "Gentlemen, I've heard every word you said." He said, "I am worth something." He said, "I'm worth so much till God gave His only begotten Son that I would be saved." And he said, "I received that message some fifty years ago. And as passing tracts on the street, I've walked from place to place trying to preach the Gospel." He said, "I'm worth something, or God would've never saved me."
Sure you are. Angels of God are here. I don't care what you've done. "Though your sins be as scarlet, they'll be white like wool; though they be red like crimson, they shall be white like snow." Let's hold a conference, each one where you're at, and ask God, "O Lord, am I worth anything?" "I'm just a little housewife." "I'm just a farmer." "I work at a filling station."

56 "I don't care what you do."
"But you see, Lord, I've been evil. I made three or four shows, and fell."
"I don't care what you've done. Let's hold a conference." Though your trials have failed, though your intellectuals has passed away, God's got a burning bush right there by your seat tonight. He's got an angel that can set your heart afire. Come let us reason together. Let's start here from Eleventh and Garfield. Let's start, you Christians, and let's us hold a conference.
Let's hold a conference. "Lord, my life will soon be over. Jesus will soon come. [We're going to get to those messages this coming week, Lord willing, the second coming, how close.] Now, and what must I do? Maybe I've just got this week to work and that'll be the last that I'll ever have time to work."
Let's hold a conference now and see what the Holy Spirit would say, while we bow our heads everywhere, inside and out. And if our pianist there, whoever it is, will go to the piano just a moment.

57 Now while you're praying may the Holy Spirit, in His goodness and mercy and His tenderness, come down to you and say, "Child of Mine, that's Me talking to you. I'm wanting to speak to you just a moment. I know that you feel you're condemned, and I want to take you a little closer to Me. You don't want to come empty-handed. You don't want to come with sin on your conscience. You want to come with happiness and peace and joy in your hearts." While we have our heads bowed and our eyes closed, each one of you now, a little private conference with God while we wait. "Though your sins be as scarlet, yet they shall be white like snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be white like wool."
You say, "Brother Branham, it's sickness that I've got." A little faith right now will just settle the whole thing. It's just a little sin not to believe. What is sin? Unbelief. "He that believeth not is condemned already." Let's find a little conference.

58 The other day I laid sick. Couldn't even whisper for nine days. And I heard something in my room and I looked up, and there stood someone dressed in white. I seen a Bible open, and a cross came out of it, and out of the cross came Jesus. He told me what I was fixing to go into that was wrong, and, oh, that conference, the sweetness. One second later I called my wife, and she was so scared she dropped the blankets on the floor, the sheets, to come in and change my bed. Just a little talk with Jesus makes it different.
Now, inside and out, with your heads bowed, how many would like to be remembered tonight, in closing prayer of the message? Would you raise your hand? God bless you, you. God be with you. Outside, would you want to hold your hand? God sees. There's no darkness so dark but what He can see. Yes, hundred and fifty, two hundred, maybe more, hands have went up. There's no way for us to make an altar call here, the altar is full of little children; but the...

59 Just keep singing. Now to you that's sick, you raise your hands, say, "Lord, let me have ... let me talk it over with you right now." God bless you. That's right. A hundred and fifty or more of those---there may be that many. All right. Whatever the conference is, no matter. If thou believest...
Our heavenly Father, in the sacredness and sweetness of this minute that may mean the difference between death and life to many people... We cannot see outside, standing in the churchyard, but around the building inside, over the audience, we seen many hands---many of those calling for salvation, many of those wanting to be saved and filled with your Spirit. Then there was many raised their hands for sickness.
And we've been through the conferences, Lord, of that upon the Word, we ministers, and we have orders from You: "Preach the Word." That's why they call us "Full-Gospel preachers." We preach the whole Word, the whole counsel of God. We believe He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquity, the chastisement of our peace was upon Him, and with his stripes we were healed. We believe that's so, Lord. We're settled in that in our hearts. No matter what they have done, though their sins be as scarlet, You promised if they'd come and reason together...

60 Now, Lord, we realize we haven't got much more time. We see everything moving right at the door. And we don't know how long we'll live ourselves. May not through the night, we do not know. But we have the blessed promise, Jesus saying, "He that heareth my words and believeth on Him that sent me, has eternal life, and shall never come into the judgment, but has passed from death unto life." Lord, if there be anything in me, as I stand here at the pulpit, over this sacred spot where the gospel has been preached so long, where great servants of yours has wept this altar wet with tears... Try me, Lord. I want a conference, and you promised that I could have it with the Father if we would ask in Your name. And each of us are holding conferences, inside and out.
May we hear the burning of the Holy Spirit. May we feel the impact of His presence that tells us our sins are forgiven, and though they were like crimson, they shall be white like wool. And our unbelief and frustrations and our indifference and little petty thoughts will all pass from us, and we'll become a great united church of the living God. Every denomination together, every heart all with one accord, marching forward, undivided upon the principles of the Lord Jesus and upon His teachings, upon His Spirit that's bringing us to that day of the judgment.
May we confess our sins now, and they go before us.

61 Those who are sick and afflicted, that's your children. All sins has been forgiven and they're washed in the water by the Word, the word of separation ... or, the waters of separation, the Word; and has divided them, Lord, from the wrong to the right, and has forgiven them. May the Holy Spirit, right at this moment, Lord, touch their sick bodies. May they rise from their sickness, go out tomorrow to be different, to be at work with the Lord somewhere, doing His bidding. Grant it, Lord.
Bless every minister, Your shepherds, Lord. Oh, Lord, bless their precious hearts, shepherds of these flocks around through the country here. Lord, may their churches just begin to prosper. May the cause of Christ begin to grow. Grant it, Lord. Bless this pastor here, our dear brother. We ask that You'll just bless him abundantly and all of his staff and his church and his members. May there be hundreds, additions, to the fellowship---grant it, Lord ---because of the presence of Christ. Forgive us of every sin and take us into Thy keeping.

62 Now, while we have our heads bowed... The pastor just whispered in my ear, if these that raised their hands want special attention, they can certainly get it in a side room here. If you want a special attention, if you'd just raise to your feet, walk over here to my right, we'll take you over here in the room, those who need a special attention from Christ. It doesn't feel sufficient just now, that you have received that what you've asked for, the doors are open, we'd be glad to have you to come in so we could council with you. While we softly sing real... "Come Home," is that what you was singing, sister?

63 Now keep your heads bowed and pray. Now you that raised your hands that doesn't feel that you have just what you want from Christ, right to my right, right here, there's a place fixed so we can minister. Pray now.
Softly and tenderly [as you come by,
won't you come right to the altar
so I'll be sure to touch each one]
... ... for you and for me;
See, on the portals He's waiting and
watching,
Watching for you and for me.
Come home, come home,
Ye who are weary, come home;
Earnestly, tenderly, Jesus is calling,
Calling, O sinner, come home!

64 With your heads continually bowing. [Brother Branham hums] Maybe the little conference sitting in your seat there settled it. So glad to know that it did. I wouldn't think that you were honest enough to raise your hand if you wanted something from God, and then not honest enough to refuse it if it was given to you. I believe you have received it. God ever bless you while we remain with our heads bowed. I'm going to ask the pastor now to say a word of prayer.

Conferences

You can find this sermon at ChurchAges.net

1 It's a grand privilege to be back again tonight in the house of the Lord to service with you brethren and sisters in the like precious faith of the Lord Jesus. I think a lot of it was my part last night of maybe holding a little too long. I've got the reputation of holding long services. I never did hold any longer than all night. I never have taken much longer. I kind of come up with the apostle Paul when he preached all night and the boy fell out of the balcony and got killed. He laid his body on him and the boy come back to life.
So someone said to me, he said, "Brother Branham, you just talk a little too long." Well, I got so much to talk about I just can't get it all out at one time. I just ... ever since Christ filled me with his presence, why, I've just had so much to say about it.

2 And so tonight we're going to try to let you out early, because I do think of respects for those who have to go at a long distance, and you have to go to work, and so forth. Maybe a little later on in the week we'll lengthen out just a little bit more. Now, last evening we had prayer for the sick, or what we call ... many times referred to as healing service. Of course we don't ... we know we do not heal anyone, but we just pray for them. And I have never healed anyone yet, but I've certainly had some great answers to prayer, seeing the Lord heal the sick. And so that's why I'm here, to try to fellowship with you around these things.
And not only to the healing of the body, but healing of the soul also, which is far more essential than healing the body. Now it is possible that if you live long enough you'll get sick again, because sickness... The Bible said, "Many are the afflictions of the righteous but God delivereth him out of them all." So we have many afflictions promised, but a deliverance from them.

3 In the discussion when the late Jack Coe... Many might have known him. He was a very personal friend of mine. I thought very much of Brother Jack. And he had such a ... excuse the expression, like a bulldog's faith to just hold on for healing. And he would ... someone would come up with crutches, he had him an ax or something there he'd cut them up. Break them up, before he had them ... prayed for them. He wasn't going away on them crutches anymore. If they couldn't walk away, they could crawl away until they got enough faith to...
And he had a little anvil and a hammer laying there. And someone would come up with glasses on to be prayed for, for their eyes, he'd reach up and take them off, break them all up with the anvil, throw them over to one side.

4 So he got in some trouble down in Florida. Satan set a trap for him and got a child that he took the braces off of. 'Course you know the story. Reverend Gordon Lindsay was down there in the trial when the judge said, "You claim that boy to be healed?"
And Brother Jack said, "He was healed."
"Oh," said, "there's no such a thing as that."
Said, "When I took the braces off of him he walked across the platform. He said he was healed."
Said, "Now, if you can produce one scripture where God ever did anything like that---would be healed here, or something, and it'll just last a moment---why, I'm willing to take down on it."
Brother Lindsay raised up and said, "I can produce a scripture."
Said, "Let's hear it."Said, "One night on a stormy sea, Jesus told Peter to come walking to him on water. As long as he walked... He was on top of the water as he believed; but when he got ready to disbelieve, he sank."

5 So, that's right. So the judge dismissed the case. There could be no more about it. That's exactly. See, he was. As long as he was walking he was all right; but when he begin to doubt, down he went.
And that's just how long divine healing lasts---as long as you believe it. And that's how long salvation lasts---just as long as you believe it.
Someone said to me some time ago, said, "Brother Branham, I don't care what you would produce, what you would say, or anyone else, that... You might raise up ten dead people, and make every cripple walk," said, "I still would not believe it."
I said, "Certainly not. It wasn't for unbelievers; it was just for those who believe." That's all. It's just for believers.
Jesus said, "to those that believe." Unbelievers are not even included, see. You're just to be pitied. Something wrong somewhere. So if you're a believer, why, it's for you. If you're not a believer, then it's not for you.

6 And someone said, "Would you...?" (Was out on the street one day.) Said, "Would you tell this man standing on the corner what's wrong with him?"
I said, "You know, God takes his man but never his spirit." His spirit upon Elijah come upon Elisha, then on John. The one was upon Jesus came on the church, and on down through the age. Satan does the same thing. He takes his man but never his spirit. I said, "I'm just about minded when they put a rag around Jesus' eyes there in the court that morning, hit Him on the head with a reed, and said, 'Prophesy and tell us who hit you and we'll believe you.'" He never opened his mouth and said a word, because he didn't clown for people; He only obeyed God, see.

7 Satan said to Him, "If you be the Son of God, why, perform a miracle here before me. Let me see it." You've heard that said, see. Just remember, that's the devil, see. That's him, see. He said, "If you be the Son of God," said, "just perform a miracle and turn this bread ... this rock into bread and I'll believe you."
He said, "It's written, 'Man shall not live by bread alone.'"
And then at the cross Satan and those priests said, "If you're the Son of God, come down off the cross. Then we'll believe you."
He could have done it, but He'd have been obeying Satan, see. He don't do what Satan says. He does what God says, and any servant of God does the same---just obedient. So when you hear those remarks, just remember where it comes from.
Don't despise the people, but feel sorry for them that they're in total darkness and blindness, maybe ordained to that condemnation. Then what? That's bad, isn't it? So we just feel sorry and just move on, be humble, and be Christians.

8 Now tonight I wanted to speak to you upon a little subject that perhaps, maybe ... just to kind of ... till we get our audience kind of balanced, and begin to let all the superstitions rub out... Last evening I thought for a first time it was pretty good to see as many as responded to the Holy Spirit. Of course I could have counted at least twelve right in here that thought it was a hoax or something like that, but you're going to have that anyhow, you know. So you just don't let that interfere with the ones who do believe. They're disbelievers, unbelievers, and in a bad shape. So just pray for them.
Now tonight I want to approach the subject of conferences. Now I want to read a scripture found in Isaiah 1:18:
Come now ... let us reason together, saith the Lord: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be ... white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be white like wool.
That's a very familiar old gospel text. Perhaps your pastors has approached it many times. And I think it's one of the most outstanding texts (or sympathetic), of the Old Testament---God trying to hold a conference with the people to reason things out. Jehovah God, who made heavens and earth and all the creatures that's on it, and yet would ask to have a conference with the people to "let's reason it out, to see what it would be."

9 We hear so much lately about conferences. There's been so many of them, and there's so many conferences being held across the nation, around the world. I was at Visalia, Illinois, a few weeks ago---or, Visalia, California---a few weeks ago, and we had the armory building, something about like this or a little larger.

10 And the first afternoon there was so many people piled into it before it got dark, they turned away around ... many hundreds. And the next night there was nearly two thousand, so we couldn't stay there any longer. We went up to the fair grounds at a neighboring city. By three o'clock that afternoon there was so many in there they had to close the gates and not let them in after three o'clock in the afternoon. So, just piling in.

11 And they're planning now on making a great building at another neighboring city for a great gathering---a municipal auditorium. And I forget how many million dollars it cost. Way up, I'd say maybe twenty-five, thirty million dollars. And they said, or announced it on the radio and in the papers, that within two years' time they would more than pay for the building by just conferences. And being that they was going to have this great place, that many great clubs, and so forth, that holds their conferences---and lodges and things---were already trying to book it up for years ahead; bringing the money to the city of the people that comes into the city for these conferences and meetings and so forth.

12 We find out there's a lot of getting together in these last days, more than there used to be. And I think it's time that God's people began to get together more. "Come, let us reason together," saith God. I think it's time that the churches got together, our little differences got tore down, and we got together with ... being one. Jesus prayed that we might be one. "...this will all men know that you're my disciples, when you have love, one for the other." And it's time, I think, in this time, that we should be assembling ourselves together and becoming more one, for we are not divided. We have different ideas, just like our thumb prints are not alike, and our appetites perhaps would not be the same; but yet in principle we are human beings. And that's the way it is in Christianity. Our differences of our organizations; yet one. We are one because we're children of God, born of his Spirit, washed in his blood.

13 And that's why we're here tonight, is in a conference. This is conferences where we get together. We've had them in the nation, national. Here in the last world war, many of you people my age and quite a bit younger can remember the second world war, when they had the conferences.
We wonder what conferences are ... what are they for, anyhow? It's for them to take the most intelligent of the group and to come together and try to work out some strategy to do something. They're usually held ... in a time of a crisis is when they call conferences together. In a time of crisis. Be a wonderful time to have one in the universal church of the living God, wouldn't it? on the account of the crisis that we're facing---communism and all the things ... the isms of the world. The church is cooling off. And it's time for us to come together and reason, get together on these things.

14 Now, they called one of the conferences of the world conferences, the Big Four. Many of you remember that, when the Big Four powers met together. Our own beloved Dwight Eisenhower, our president, and then also Churchill, and the other big powers of the world called the Big Four Conference. There was a crisis on. The nations were ... the peace-loving nations was in a time of crisis when Hitler and the Nazis were all just about to smother out the world; and the peace-loving, God-fearing people, and our great heritage, was at stake. Therefore they come together for a conference.

15 There was the Geneva Conference. We can all remember the Geneva Conference, and also the Paris Conference, and how that they do that. They see that there's a crisis arising, and then they call the very best that they know how. The heads of the nations come together and reason out among one another what they're going to do. They select a certain place and ... somewhere where it's inspiring. And they get in this place and talk over and pool their ideas together, how that they can come together as one great leader, as one great nation, as one great army, all joined to be one.
That would be what... We could do a great thing if all the ransomed church of God could come together and do that same thing. All lay down our little ideas and little differences that really separates the people, and we could get together as one great unit of God. Communism would flee, all the other isms would flee, when the great army of God would ever come together.

16 Now, we find that in these get-together places they try to find a place that's inspiring. I've been at Geneva where they held the Geneva Conference. It certainly is an inspiring place. There's something about places that you're at, conditions around you that makes up an environment, it helps you a lot.

17 I can think of the greatest times of my life (I'm an outdoor person) is to get out on the mountains and watch the sunset, listen to the call of the wild animals, hear the birds. It's inspiring, it's something ... it does something to you.
Then we could come to the place where we can get inspired by coming together, meeting places. Some of us would get cold or a little different, keep away from prayer meeting on Wednesday nights, stay home to watch some certain television program that oughtn't to be on. And people get infatuated with that and stay away from prayer meeting, to watch some silly program. Then when we come together in these revivals is to bring our gifts and our ministry together, to pool it together for a revival to bring inspiration upon the people; to get together for an outbreak of a real revival, or, now, a going home of the church, for we're near the end-time.
That is definitely known, that we're near the end. And now as we feel out the meetings (a night or two as we go along, see which way the Holy Spirit will be leading), we'll get into it, the Lord willing.

18 But, now, inspiration, it's places and conditions you can get into to be inspired. I, being a lover of the outdoors, I love to climb up into the mountains and listen to the call of the wild; and I've loved it since a little boy. Not so much to hunt the animal, but just to be in the woods, because there's something inspiring to me.

19 Here a few years ago I was up here in Colorado where I'm a guide on a outfit---been taking people out for years. One day the rancher and I went back late. After many of the ... (it's called) the dudes had got in, and got their deer and so forth, and went out, then we'd go back, way high into the mountains. There's where I have a little private conference, every time I go up, with the Lord. He always shows me something, or draws me near Him, when I get away from everything.
And this year the snow had been a little late and the elk herd was high. There was snow up on the top, so I had to go up high to find the elk. And one afternoon up there... It was along the last of October. The quakers down low was just like firecrackers, so brittle and dry. I was up in the snow. And the weather can change so quickly up there. It could be one moment raining, then snowing, then sun shining. And there come up a storm, and I got behind a tree and set my rifle down and waited till the blow went over.

20 And I was right by an old blow-down near the timberline. That's as high up as the timber grows, till you get into pigmy spruce and so forth. Then when ... I was amazed as how... I was sitting there behind the tree, hearing the winds blow, and thinking of the Lord, behind a big pine tree. And after awhile the storm let up. I raised up, looked around.
And the great elk herd that I was trying to get into, they'd been separated during the storm, and I could hear the big bulls a-bugling. Oh, there's something about it that just puts something alive in you, to hear them fellows bugle. I have a great respect for them. Then over on the mountain I heard a wolf howling, its mate answering it down in the bottom. Looked over towards the west and the sun was setting, and just as going through the crevices of the mountains the great magic eye, looked like of God, looking across the mountain tops, blue horizon; and seeing then where the winds had blowed, and the water had froze on the evergreens and had formed a rainbow that went all the way across the canyon.

21 Oh, all that together, I just broke down like a baby and began weeping. There He was, God in the rainbow, the covenant---look upon as Alpha and Omega, jasper and sardis, both Reuben and Benjamin, first and the last. There He was, howling up there in the wolf; here He was, bugling in the elk. Everywhere you look up there, seemed to be God.
That's the way I like to get that inspiration. Get up in there alone with God, so high. Miles and miles and miles, couldn't get down for ... a couple days, take me to get down from where we was to where the horses was hitched. But just up there alone with God. Sleep out there that night in the mountains.

22 And while we was up there I just got one of them kind of a real rejoicing spirits on me. I guess it's not strange to you Pentecostal people. And I got so happy I set the gun down against the tree and began to run around and around the tree, just jumping around as hard as I could, screaming to the top of my voice, "Praise the Lord, Praise the Lord." And I guess if somebody would have come in the woods they'd thought there was someone out of the insane institution there.
Around and around the tree I went, just as hard as I could go, screaming and kicking up the pine needles. I had to blow off the steam somewhere---I'd have bursted. I was just having a wonderful time because I was right in the presence of God, having a conference with Him, just speaking, "How great Thou art, how great Thou art."

23 "There You are, everywhere. You're there in the skies, in the magic eye of the sun running to and fro through the earth. There You are in the rainbow. There You are in the wolf, there You are in the elk. There You are in the winds, hear them blowing through those pines as if to say, 'Adam, where art thou?' " see, moving around. Inspiration, a real genuine conference, having with God.
And all at once I was interrupted. And I just don't like to be interrupted in them kinds of times, so... I just like to scream it out till I get all satisfied. Then I looked and there was a little pine squirrel. Oh, he is a little rascal, about that long, the blue coat policeman of the woods. And he'll scare everything in the country. And they all listen for him, because he's always ready to "chatter, chatter," at something. He jumped up on an old stump or log there, looked over at me and began just barking as hard as he could, "Chatter, chatter, chatter, chatter."

24 And I thought, "Well, what's the matter with the little fellow." I said, "Don't you like that?" I said, "Watch this then." And around and around and around and around the tree I went again. And he just kept chattering the more. I said, "I'm praising my Creator, little fellow." I said, "I'm having a good time with Him. We're holding a conference here. I told Him that I was empty and He's filling me, see? Here's the way it goes." And around and around and around the tree I went again.
And I happened to notice the little guy wasn't noticing me so much, as he kept cocking his little head sideways and his little eyes bugged out on the cheek, almost, looking down like this. Well, I stopped and I thought, "Now what's interrupting me?" And I looked down in that blow-down. And during the time of the storm had forced a big eagle down into the brush where the trees were lapped, and years before it had a blow-down. And he was chirping or fussing at this eagle, and the big eagle was crawling out from under this brush. And he looked up at me, and jumped up on the log.

25 And I thought, "Well, now, what's so godly about you?" And I looked at him like that, and I thought, "Well, God, why did you let me stop worshipping You and shouting, just to look at that old eagle?" Well, an eagle ... God likens Himself to an eagle.
And He calls his prophets eagles, because the eagle can fly higher than any other bird there is. There's nothing can follow him. If a hawk would try to follow him, he'd disintegrate in the air. That's right.
Well, he's got an eye that he can see after he gets up there. That's the reason I say, anybody that's jumping, just jump as high as you can live, you know. That's all. Because what good does it do you to get up, if you can't see something while you're up there? It doesn't do any good. So he gets up there and he's got an eye he can see far off things before they get here. And that's the reason God likened the eagles to his prophets, or his prophets to the eagles; and He calls Himself Jehovah Eagle, and we're eaglets.

26 Now, there's a lot of difference between a eagle and a chicken. They're both birds, but one of them is earth-bound and the other one's heaven-bound. That's just a lot different, only they're about cousins or something. So if the chicken can't get his feet off the ground, don't worry; he's just a chicken to begin with, you know. He'll never get up there and know what an eagle knows, that can fly up there in the heavenlies.
So I watched this fellow as he was sitting there, with his great big gray-looking eyes watching me. And I thought, "Well, there's one thing I admire about him---he's not afraid." And I hate a coward, so ... God does too. So, a man that's afraid after he's been healed to testify about it, a man that God has saved and then he's ashamed to tell somebody that he's saved and filled with the Holy Ghost, I haven't got much confidence in his salvation. So, when you really get it, you want to tell everybody. You just can't keep still. What the church needs is some more Holy Spirit and fire in it that moves, that moves the church. Takes fire to move the church.

27 So this old fellow, I watched him for a few moments, and after awhile, after he seen that I was admiring him, I said to him, "Hey, do you know I could shoot you before you got off that log?" just to see if he was scared of me. He wasn't afraid---just sitting there. And I noticed... "What makes you so sure of yourself?" I noticed he kept moving his wings, just feeling if all the feathers was in the right condition. Because he had a lot of confidence in them wings, and he knowed that he could be in that timber before I ever put my hand on that rifle. And there I got a lesson. I thought, "Here in this conference I'm learning something," see.

28 Now, that eagle had two wings that God give him, and he had confidence in those wings. He knew what he could do with them wings and he wasn't afraid of me at all. So he knowed he could be in that timber before I even got my hand on the rifle.

29 And I thought, "If that eagle, with two wings that God give him, knowed that he could escape there before I could do anything about it, what ought a Christian that's received the Holy Ghost...?" As long as you can feel his presence around you and everything's in running order ("...no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, that walk not after the flesh but after the Spirit), when you feel that running condition, don't worry about what Satan is going to do. Just ... you know you're on good terms then.
So I watched him that way. And come to find out he wasn't afraid of me, but he just didn't like to hear that little old ground squirrel (little old pine squirrel sitting there), going, "Chatter, chatter, chatter. Chatter, chatter, chatter," like he was going to tear him to pieces. Why, he wasn't going to do nothing ---he was too little. The eagle could have picked him up and that would have been ... why, his foot was bigger than the squirrel. So, but the little squirrel was jumping up and down like he was going to tear him to pieces, just making a bluff out of it, you know.

30 Finally the old eagle got enough of it. So he just made one big jump and flopped his wings about twice, and then he set his wings. And I stood there and watched that eagle till I cried. He never flopped his wings, flop, flop, flop. He just made a couple of flops till he got up above the timberline, and then he just knowed how to set his wings in them air waves coming up the mountain; and it just carried him on, on, on, till he became just a little spot. And never moved a feather---he just knowed what to do.
And I thought, "Isn't that it? It isn't join the Methodist, then go join the Baptists, then join the Assemblies, then join the Church of God. It isn't flop, flop, here and flop, flop, there. It's just knowing how to set your wings of faith in the power of God, and when the glory rolls in, just ride upon it, on, on."
Get away from them little old earth-bound chipmunks saying, "Chatter, chatter, days of miracles is past, no such thing as divine healing, no Holy Ghost no more. It was for the apostles a long time ago." Just set your wings and fly away, on, on, on, on, till you can't hear it no more. That's the kind of conference we want with God, that will lift us up above the shadows, get us away till all the criticism and anything, you can't hear it no more---just be shut in with God. You don't have to join this one, join that one. Just know how to set your faith.

31 That's right. Just set your faith in the Word of God. And when that Old and New Testament gets spread out there that He's the same yesterday, today, and forever, and when the power of God rides in, ride with it. Just go right on up, up, up, up, up, all the way. He is the same yesterday, today, and forever. He cannot fail.
Oh, these conferences, it should be a prayerful consideration for all of us. We shouldn't just let one happen and then not pray for it, both national and church and whatever it may be. We should always pray.

32 A minister friend of mine, good Christian brother, at ... when the Geneva Conference ... he was waiting on his radio to hear the returns of it because our nation was at stake, and our great heritage that our forefathers fought for was at stake. And he was a righteous, good, godly man. He was sitting listening.
Someone knocked on his door---a modern beatnik, with his beard, dirty. How in the world that American children could ever go for such stuff as that, and then get out there...? Knocked on the door and he said, "Sir, I'm here to sell some of my poetry and my songs," he said, "and they won't hear me." And said, "They won't give me an audience. And they tell me you're an influential man in the city."
He said, "Good man, come in and sit down just a minute. I'm listening for those returns." But, oh, he wouldn't stand still. No, sir. That was more important than the outcome of the nation.

33 That's the way a lot of church members gets today, that little bitty fandangle things that happen amongst people is more important than the real church of the living God. Let's forget our little things and fly away. Let's listen for the returns.

34 Now here they had another conference I'd like to speak of just a moment: the last conference they had at the U.N. building, where the East and the West met together, where Khrushchev took off his shoe and beat the desk with it. Eisenhower and Khrushchev met, Eisenhower representing the free world and Khrushchev the Eastern Communist world. And that went right over the head of many people, not praying concerning it.
But if you happened to notice, that was a direct answer and a direct prophecy fulfilled at that time. It was direct prophecy. The East and the West had fulfilled exactly what Daniel said, that ten kingdoms, there would be ... wouldn't mix, like iron and clay would not mix together. And the word "Khrushchev" in Russian means "clay"; the word "Eisenhower" in English means "iron"; and iron and clay could not get together.

35 Oh, as we see these things approaching we ought, to be on our knees crying out, "O Lord Jesus, do something for us right away, that we might try to pull the last person that can be brought into the kingdom of God"; pooling ourselves together and having conferences and meetings and get together in prayer meetings all night long. The trouble with the church tonight, we just go and kneel down, and pray and yawn a few times, so sleepy and tired, and have to go home and go to bed.

36 It isn't like the early Pentecostal church. They prayed all day and all night. I met these old timers from forty years ago. Said they'd pray all day and all night, walk on the streets. Today we become classical and want to compare with the big churches, and that's where we make our mistakes. I tell you, the church was in better order forty years ago for the coming of the Lord than it is tonight, because we are the Laodicean Church. We realize that this is the age we're living in. And that was the only church that Jesus was found outside his own church knocking on the door, trying to get back in his own church.

37 Our differences has turned Him away, our separation of brotherhood, and the way that we've went after the things of the world instead of things of God. We ought to have been plumb into Canaan's land, and here we are in the wilderness, wandering around and around again just like they did back there. We should be having all kinds of gifts, signs, and wonders in our churches. Instead of that, God can raise up something, then we all get scared of it and walk away, and say we don't understand these things.
What do you think they done in that wilderness for forty years, walking around and around over the same old grounds? We've took Acts 2 and 4, Acts 2 and 4, Acts 2 and 4---we've run it to death. Let's go on! The promised land is there. "For whatsoever thing you desire, when you pray believe you receive it and you shall have it." Acts 2 and 4 is right, but it ain't all of it. That's right. There's more of it. That's ... every promise in the Bible is ours. It's given to us by the Lord Jesus, and his great mighty hand is holding. Time for us to possess the land that's been given to us. Certainly.

38 Conferences. Oh, when the world has a conference and they meet together, what do they do? They usually have some whiskey and cocktails, and drink, and lie, and cheat, and deceive one another. Make all kinds of different plans and so forth, and with a knife behind them---as the Bible said they would do.

39 But what does happen when God has a conference? Men fast and pray and wait on orders, and then move. We've been talking now about world conference, national conference. There's many of them we could think of, but let's think of some conferences God had. Let's call a few of those to memory.
Let's think of the first conference that God ever had when a first emergency arose. We'll call it the Eden Conference. That was the first emergency, when word came up to heaven that God's son and his daughter---his children that he put into Eden---had lost their place in grace, and had gone away from God, and was backslidden and naked. Heaven couldn't hold Him any longer. He came down to the earth, walking back and forth through the garden, crying, "Adam, Adam, where art thou?"

40 Man truly expressed what he's made out of right then. Instead of coming out to God and saying, "I'm wrong, Father. I did wrong," he hid himself and wrapped himself in some fig leaves. That's what man tries to do today. Instead of come out and say he's an unbeliever, he'll try to say, "I'm a Presbyterian, Baptist, Methodist, Lutheran," or something else. Instead of wrapping himself up in the righteousness of God, and confessing his sins that he's wrong and a disbeliever, he tries to hide behind some church theology. Get out from behind it, Adam, unbeliever. Notice, that's what he does, though.
And notice, God never sent an angel down to find his child; He come Himself. That was the reason I think today ... that today when they try in this day of modernistic religion---this day when social religion is dominating the country, creeping into all different denominations---they try to take the divinity off of Jesus Christ and make Him just a man.

41 Not long ago I was talking to a woman. She said, "I appreciate your messages, Brother Branham, but you put too much stress on Jesus. You brag too much on Him."
I said, "If I had ten million tongues I couldn't brag enough on Him." And I said, "He's worthy of everything I could brag about."
She said, "Well, there's one thing---you try to make Him divine."
I said, "He was divine."
"Oh," she said, "he was just a man. He was a good man."
They don't believe in his atoning blood. Listen, if that was the blood of a Jew or Gentile, we're all lost. That was the blood of God Himself. He was no Jew nor Gentile; He was God manifested in the flesh. That's exactly.

42 What happened? The blood comes from the male sex. We know that. A hen can lay an egg, but if she hasn't been with the male bird, it'll never hatch. It's unfertile. The baby that's born of a woman is wrapped in her blood, but not one speck of her blood ... the hemoglobin is in the male sex. So we can...
Just like, it's coming springtime, and we notice those mother birds get out here and make them a nest, lay them a nest full of eggs. And she can get on that nest and hover those eggs till she's so poor she can't fly off the nest---so reverent, so respectable to her eggs. She turns them this way and turns them that way. She's starving to death, but she's afraid that they'll be exposed if she flies from the nest. She's a loyal mother and tries to hover these eggs. But if that female bird that laid the egg, if she hasn't been with the male bird, the mate, them eggs---no matter how much she hovers them, how well she treats them ---they'll rot right in the nest. That's exactly right.

43 That's what's the matter with a lot of our old cold formal churches today. We got a nest full of rotten eggs. Only thing they are is professors, and never been with the mate, Jesus Christ. Only thing to do is clean it out, and start over again with men and women who's been in contact with the mate, Jesus Christ, to his church.
How can they believe the supernatural power of God when they haven't got anything to believe with? My old mammy of the South told me, said, "Honey, you can't get blood out of a turnip, because there's no blood in it." How can you get faith out of a person that's got nothing to have faith with? If you've never been born again of the Spirit of God, you don't know the first principle of the power of the resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ. That's right. They don't understand it. Oh, we got them. And they're big payers in the church, and we make them deacons and everything else, and hover them---and they're just unbelievers to begin with.
Now, how true that is, to see the mating time. The mate... Now ought to be the mating time, when the church gets in contact with Christ, and gets real genuine Holy Ghost faith.

44 And this lady said to me, she said, "Brother Branham, you said you was a fundamentalist---you just spoke what the Scripture said and stayed with it."
I said, "I do."
And she said, "I can prove to you that He wasn't divine."
I said, "If He was anything less than God, He was the greatest deceiver the world ever had." I said, "The Holy Ghost, God, overshadowed the virgin and created a blood cell in the womb. This blood cell was the Son of God. Through that blood we have remission of sins. Man knowed nothing about that woman. She said, 'I never knew a man.' And that was God Himself tabernacling with man---God, Himself."
She said, "And you make Him divine."
I said, "He was divine."
She said, "I'll prove it by your own Bible He wasn't divine."
I said, "Let me hear you say it."
She said, "In St. John, the 11th chapter, when Jesus was going to the grave of Lazarus, the Bible said, 'He wept.' And if He was divine He could not weep."
"Oh," I said, "lady, that's thinner than the broth made out of a shadow of a chicken that's starved to death." I said, "How could you base any theology on that?" I said, "He was both man and God." No man has seen God at any time, but the only begotten of the Father has declared Him. God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself. Exactly right.

45 I said, "It was true, when He went down to the grave of Lazarus He wept like a man; but when He pulled those little shoulders up, looked out there, and said, 'Lazarus, come forth,' and a man that had been dead for four days stood on his feet and lived again, that was more than a man. That was God speaking through his Son. Right. It was God in Him. He was a man when He come down off the mountain that night hungry, looking for something to eat around a tree. He was a man when He was hungry; but when He took five biscuits and two fish and fed five thousand people, that was more than a man. That was God who could create. Not another fish; but a cooked fish. Not some more wheat; but baked bread. He was God the creator.

46 He was a man laying out there on the back of that boat that night when the devils swore they would drown Him. Perhaps ten thousand devils of the sea said, "We got Him asleep now and we can drown Him." The little boat pitched about like a bottle stopper in a storm out there. They thought, "We got Him now." He was a man when He was asleep, tired and weary from his service; but when he put his foot upon the brail of the boat and looked up and said, "Peace be still," and the winds and the waves obeyed Him, that was more than a man.
When He died at the cross, He cried like a man. "My God, have mercy. My God, my God, why hast Thou forsaken me?" He was a man in his death; but on Easter morning when He broke the seal of death, hell, and the grave, and rose again...
Oh, it's inspired every poet or song writer that ever was. Any man that ever amounted to a hill of beans believed He was divine. It's inspired poets and prophets through the years. One wrote a poem, said this, "When I survey the wondrous cross whereon the Prince of Glory died, I count all my fame to be but loss."

47 Eddy Perronet said, "All hail the power of Jesus' name. Let angels prostrate fall. Bring forth the royal diadem and crown Him Lord of all."
Blind Fanny Crosby said, "Pass me not, O gentle Saviour, hear my humble cry; while on others Thou art calling, do not pass me by. Thou, the stream of all my comfort, more than life to me; whom have I on earth beside Thee? or whom in heaven but Thee?"
Another one wrote out this: Living, He loved me, dying, He saved me; buried, He carried my sins far away. Rising, He justified freely forever. Some day He's coming, oh, glorious day. Any man that believed He was divine... Certainly.

48 Oh, when God had a conference in Eden, his son was lost, his children was lost. That's the reason He never trusted redemption with any angel or anything else but Himself. We was redeemed by the blood of God, and now that blood cell, that's what gives us boldness to stand on his Word. That's what gives us boldness to walk in the face of demons and opposition, because we know we're coming covered with the blood of the Lord Jesus, which is the divine powers in the blood of Jesus.
Now, watch Him. We see this conference, God coming through the garden of Eden. There's something got to be done---there's emergency on. His children's lost. He don't know what to do. Comes down in the garden and begins to hunt them up. When he found them back in there, hiding behind some sort of a man-made creed, what did He do? He selected a certain tree and called them out. And he had a conference, and there was a decision made: how that man must be redeemed. And man has worked on fig leaves ever since; but God has never recognized nothing but the blood, that he started with at the beginning.

49 Every man and woman down through the age, every prophet, every person, has always went upon those principles. Job stood firm on it. The only meeting place of Israel was under the shed blood. The only place the Shekinah glory fell was under the shed blood. The only place that the Shekinah glory will come (don't let me hurt your feelings, Baptist, Presbyterian), but the only place that the Shekinah glory falls is under the blood. That's the reason you feel this Shekinah Pentecostal glory is because it's under the blood, the shed blood of the Son of God. Back into the Shekinah glory, when He took his own blood and rent the veil in two, and we come into the presence of God---the Shekinah glory, where his blessings... Oh, it makes new men out of old.

50 Aaron left his rod there one year and it bloomed out and blossomed while it was in the presence of the Shekinah glory. Any man laying in the presence of God's Shekinah glory ... will take an old dead sinner, dead in sin and trespasses, and bloom him out to a new creature in Christ Jesus.

51 A conference. A conference---God made his decision. That's what we would call the Eden Conference. (You know, this time passes too quick. See, you don't even get started till it's time to stop.) The Shekinah glory at the Eden Conference.
Now, there was another conference. Let's refer to two or three more right quick, if you will. There was another conference. Let's call it the "Burning Bush Conference." There was a man who run away one time, a run-away prophet God had. Went out and married him a wife, had a little boy named Gershom. His name was Moses. So he was going to inherit all the flocks of Jethro, and he was doing pretty good, as he was under the mountain one morning. Oh, he'd done forgot about the burdens of the people down in Egypt, because he was pretty well fixed up.

52 I think that's just about the way the Pentecostal church has got---forgot about the burdens of those sinners. That's not only the Pentecostal church, but the Methodist, the Baptist, the Presbyterian. Instead of getting them back to God, and any man... I don't care what theologian you are, or what church you belong to. There was one church, and all Christendom began at the day of Pentecost with a Pentecostal experience. The Catholic church said that was them. Everyone tried to refer back to that, but if it was them, why ain't the same glory and same signs following that church that was then? Certainly.

53 Now, there was a conference. God seen his runaway prophet; and when God chooses a man to do a thing, there's no way for him to get away from it. God haunts him. Maybe some of you here tonight, a backslider, you'll be miserable all the days of your life (and you ought to be), until you surrender yourself to God. There he was.
Some of you women, some of you men, goes back out in the world, goes to dances and things that you were taught better. Today it's a shame what our Pentecostal churches has come to. Like as David DuPlessis said some time ago, where that we had gotten to. You know us Pentecostal church is just like our Methodist church (that we're in their building tonight), like the Baptist church, the Presbyterian. If Methodism would get back to John Wesley's teaching, it would be fine. Sure. If the Baptists would get back to John Smith, the Lutheran would get back to Martin Luther, and if Pentecost would get back to Pentecost (that's right), it would be all right.

54 It started right, but the thing of it is we adopt grandchildren. God don't have any grandchildren. He ain't got grandsons; He's just got sons. We take our children in and put them on the cradle roll, like Methodists and Baptists and all of them. They come into the church and we take them in as Pentecostal; and know no more about God than a rabbit knows about snowshoes. What we need today is back to the experience of God, and back with the Holy Ghost again. That's right.
Now, excuse that expression. It sounds sacrilegious. I didn't mean to say it just like that. But that's the truth. That's right. We've got to get back to... God don't have grandchildren. He has sons, but not grandsons. No place in the Bible where God had a grandson. Every person must come and pay the same price, must come the same way. God's only got one way, and that's Jesus, and you've got to come that way. Without that, there's no way of getting to Him.

55 Now, we find out that Moses was pretty well satisfied. Everything was running fine, and he'd lost all the burden for the people that was down there in bondage. And one day God decided He'd call him. And so he selected a place, a certain tree.
And where God comes down there's ... somehow or another there's always a lot of fire where God's at. If you're around where God's at, there's a lot of noise and a lot of fire. I don't know why, but it's always been that way. That's scriptural. Yes, sir, it's always a lot of fire. And it takes fire to move the church, anyhow. You'll never do it. You'll never dress them in fig leaves. You'll never dress them in Pentecostal fig leaves. They got to get back to the fire. That's right.

56 One time my brother and I, when we were little boys, was walking and seen a turtle. We thought it was the funniest looking creature I'd ever seen, the way he throwed them feet. You Illinois people know what turtles are. And here he come walking. I said, "Isn't he funny looking, brother?" We walked up.

57 Just puts me in mind of a lot of people, when you step on them with the gospel, you know. They go, "Shuh," get back in their hull, you know. "I'm So-and-so. I belong to this organization." That don't have one thing to do with it. That's right. "I belong to So-and-so." Well, I'd be ashamed to admit it. Might be forgiveness for it if you try real hard to repent. You might be forgiven for it. God don't recognize no organization. He recognizes the blood of his own Son, Jesus Christ. That's all. "When I see the blood I'll pass over you."
This boy and I was back there, and this old turtle. I said, "You know what I'll do, Honey? I'll make him get out of there." I went and got me a switch and I poured it on him. It didn't do a bit of good. You can't beat them into it. That's all there is to it. You can never get them back by beating them. That's right. I've been trying it for ten years and can't do it. You just can't beat them back to it.

58 So I said, "I'll tell you what I'll do. I'll fix him." There was a branch running along there, so I went down and stuck him down in the water. Just a few bubbles come up, and that's all there was. Brother, you can baptize them face forward, backwards, or three times, five times---it don't do no good. Just a few bubbles come up, and that's all that's left. Isn't that right? Or, "Bless God, I told you I'd do it." That's about all there is to it.
You know how I finally got him to move? I built me a little fire and set the old boy on it. He moved then. What the church needs is another Pentecostal fire, the Holy Spirit, to make the church move back into the harness of God. Back to the harness.
God don't care what organization you belong to. He's against all of them anyhow, so when... Well, that's true. I can prove that by the Scripture. Catholic was the first organization, which was a prostitute, and she had daughters. Now, you can make out any way...

59 Anybody ever read the Nicene Council, pre-Nicene fathers, anything, you'll see where it came to. First was the Nicolaitane that God hated---the deed. Then first thing you know it became a doctrine. What was it? "Nico" is to conquer. "Laity"---of the laity. Conquer the laity. Put the holiness on the platform and let the laity pay for it. So there you are. So that's just exactly it. So we all follow in the same steps and go right back into the blackness again just as hard as we can go.

60 I used to herd cattle. I stood up there one time. The Hereford Association grazes the Troublesome River Valley, and if you can raise a ton of hay on your ranch you can put a cow on the pasture. And then as many tons as you can raise, that's how many cattle your ranch will produce. They brand them and put them up there. They had a drift fence so they couldn't drift back on private property as they come down from the mountain. I used to set there with the ranger many a day, with my leg around the horn of the saddle, watching them when they passed by.
And that ranger would stand there. Ours was the Turkey Track, and the neighbor's was a Tripod, the Diamond Bar, and Grimes next to us; and all up and down there, all different kinds of brands went through there. But you know what? That ranger never paid any attention to the brand. He'd maybe gaze at it and look around, but that wasn't it. He never noticed the brand, but he certainly examined for the blood tag. There was no cow could go on that pasture 'less she was a registered Hereford.
That's the way it will be at the judgment bar. He won't ask you whether you belong to the Church of God, Assemblies of God, or Pentecostal Holiness, or whether you're Oneness, twoness, threeness, fourness, fiveness, or whatever you are. He'll look for the blood tag. And that's what will take you in, will be the blood. "When I see the blood, I'll pass over you." Exactly right, brethren, see. That's right.

61 So getting back now, we find that there was a conference. They'd forgot all about ... Moses got in his creeds out there and forgot the burden. But God chose a place and He had a conference. And He called Moses: "Take off your shoes, Moses, you're on holy ground. I have heard the cries of my people. I've remembered my promises that I made Abraham, and I'm going to send you down to deliver them."
Now, Moses knowed that voice was God because it was scriptural. Now anybody that passes and sees a voice and if it is not a scriptural voice, leave it alone. If the Bible says so, then believe it, because it's a scriptural voice. People seeing angels and so forth... Joseph Smith seen one. I differ with Joseph Smith because it was not scriptural, but I don't say the man never saw an angel. I'm not to dispute the man's word. There's been many angels, and so forth, saw. But if any angel... Paul said, in Galatians 1:8, "If an angel from heaven come, preached any other gospel than that which I've already preached to you, let him be accursed." That's right. Stay with the Word, right with the Word. And what the Word says, stay right with it. Don't move from there.

62 And Moses saw that the conference he was holding with God, or God was holding with him, was exactly scriptural, because God made the promise and He said He would deliver them. And God said, "I chose you, Moses, and you're going down to do it." Moses goes right down into Egypt and performed the miracles that God told him. We haven't got time to go into it as I'd like to, but you understand.
When he come back out, bringing the children of Israel out to the promised land, right in the path of duty laid the Red Sea. It's strange how that God will lead his children right into traps---sometimes wheelchairs, sometimes with heart attacks, sometimes ... He leads his children. Why? To see what they'll act, to see what a reaction they'll have on an action, see what they'll do.

63 Every son that comes to God must be tested, tried. In the Old Testament a son was born in a family, but he had to be tutored and raised up and tried. And then he was placed as a son, or adoption---placed into the body. Then when he was placed, once placed, then his name was just as good on the check as his father's was. He was heir of all things. That's where God is bringing his church, giving them the testings.
There laid the Red Sea right in the path of duty. What could they do? Now it looked like that all nature was crying for them. There was Pharaoh's army a-coming, the chariots. Here was the mountains on either side. The Red Sea had them trapped. Looked like it was a ... looked like nature would have screamed, with that great army of two and a half million people down there in that valley---helpless, no swords, nothing to fight with. So what happened? There was emergency on, and Moses selected a certain rock and went in behind it and called a conference. I like that. "What must I do, Lord?"

64 Wouldn't it be good if all the churches would call a conference right now? When we see the way things are going, if we couldn't call a conference, and realize and go back and find out what kind of a church God had at the beginning? Call a conference and reason it out together, one with another? See what the first church did, what kind of a spirit was in them, what kind of signs followed them, what kind of a ministry they had, what kind of a people they were? Wouldn't it be wonderful if we'd do that? It would be a wonderful thing.
Moses did that. He crawled over behind a rock somewhere, and said, "Lord, what can I do? Here's these people. I'm straight in the line of duty. I did exactly what You told me to do. And here I come right up against this."

65 Maybe you're sitting here tonight, an old mother, raised a bunch of children. Raised them up as much as Susanne Wesley. She had seventeen children, yet she could find three hours a day to pray and lead them to God. That's the reason she had a Charles and a John. Now-a-days we push a button, wash the dishes; push a button, wash the clothes; and haven't got time for nothing. See, something wrong somewhere. Now, oh how the devil can do the people.

66 Notice, but now they had this conference, and Moses consulted God. He waited there until he got orders---like Adam did. He waited till there was orders what to do. Moses waited until he got orders, like he did up there. "How am I going to deliver them? What can I do?"
"Go down and tell them, 'I AM sent you.' " That was it. Now here he's straight in the line of orders again, right in the line of duty, and the enemy comes up. Maybe he's come upon you, maybe on you, maybe on you, you, you---all around here. Heart trouble, diseases, afflictions in your body, what can you do?
Have you prayed up? Is everything all right? Then let's have a conference. Amen. Let's find out what to do.

67 You say, "Brother Branham, I've tried to get the Holy Ghost. I've sought God. I've sought God and I can't get the Holy Ghost." Let's have a conference then and find out what's wrong. The Holy Spirit is a revealer of the secrets of the heart. The Bible said so. Let's find out what's wrong. Let's see what's the reason you don't receive the Holy Ghost. Find out what's wrong. Let's have a conference.
Moses had a conference and he waited until he got orders. I'm against a lot of this here super-duper divine healing they have in the land today. You might not like me after this remark, but I'm going to say it anyhow. They got so much super-duper stuff. "Oh, divine healing, everybody, only thing you have to do is---Hallelujah---is have hands laid on you. Oh, glory to God!" That's not so. Repent, and get right with God! That's what we need---more repentance.

68 I read a letter from the Lutheran church not long ago... Not saying this complimentary, God knows, out of my heart, over this Bible. He was really tearing one of those evangelists to pieces about some of their super-duper ideas of healing. Said, "What about little Debra Stadsklev, when the mother rode over here and was standing there when... That little baby had died that night, and this was the next afternoon. Dead---the doctor pronounced it dead and everything, cold and stiff. Laid it over into my arms and I prayed for it. The baby commenced crying, put it back in its mother's arms. This mother was standing there to see that.
She wrote when her little baby took sick in Germany, Mrs. Stadsklev. Captain Julius Stadsklev (he's a friend of Billy Graham's), one of my associates in the meeting, wrote that book that you're getting here now, "A Prophet Visits Africa." And now ... and was there present when the angel of the Lord came and they taken his picture, that pillar of fire that came down, comes in the meetings. He took the picture of that, saw it all.

69 And so he ... when his baby died, that little mother wouldn't have any peace. She phoned from Germany, and the jet airlines of the American Air Force was going to fly me over there to Germany. Said, "This baby can be raised again."
I said, "Let me see what the Lord says." And I waited, and I waited. Two days passed. The doctor was very nice. They didn't even ... they had them around there screaming over the baby, and hollering and carrying on like that, and everything---but no life. I waited on.
One morning the Holy Spirit woke me up and said, "Don't you touch that, don't rebuke that. That's the hand of the Lord." And I sent them word back.
That Lutheran minister said, "Why didn't you wait like that till you got a clear-cut decision from God?" Then you know where you're standing. Wait till you have "thus saith the Lord," then you know where you're at.

70 [break in tape] ... something went wrong somewhere. They sure do it now. They say it's headaches. Well, brother, there oughtn't be a headache in the country, then. Yes, sir. There's something wrong somewhere. And it used to be wrong for the Pentecostal women. I've not been in the Pentecostal movement but just a little bit, but I just see it gradually growing out, growing out, becoming... You're looking at too much television, too much stuff that you oughtn't to be; instead of having prayer meetings and back to the church of God, them prayer nights like they had. No wonder we can't have a revival.
God could send an Oral Roberts, a Tommy Hicks, and what, across the country, and still we've got nothing to build on, till we get back to the old time St. Paul's revival and revive the Holy Ghost back to the church again. Deacons in the church married four or five times and all this kind of stuff, when you know that's not Bible. Amen.

71 I said to a lady the other day... She said, "I tell you I don't wear them little shorts." Said, "I wear slacks."
I said, "That's worse." Right. Yes, it is. The Bible said it's an abomination for a woman to put on a garment that pertains to a man. That's filthiness. Yes. Some woman said they don't make any more clothes... They still make sewing machines and you can buy goods. There's no excuse. What you need is the baptism of the Holy Ghost ... [unclear words] this mockery. That's true. Amen. You think I'm beside myself, but I'm not. I know right where I am. That's right.
Dress like that and get on the street---you may be as virtuous to your husband as you can be, you might be as virtuous a daughter to your sweetheart as you could be; but at the day of the judgment you'll answer for adultery. You'll be guilty of committing adultery. Jesus said, "Whosoever looketh upon a woman to lust after her hath committed adultery with her in his heart already." You presented yourself that way, and the sinner looked at you. When he answers for adultery, who's guilty? You, for presenting yourself like that. Amen.

72 Now, that's the truth. Don't get mad at me. That's the Word of the Lord. Oh, what we need is a conference in Pentecost. Exactly right. Back to a Pentecostal conference.
We find out Moses stood there till God give him orders. And when he come out from behind that rock, I imagine him saying, "Let's go forward."
Some of them said, "Forward to what?"
"Just keep moving, that's all." When his foot struck the water, the Red Sea moved back and a dry land came across. And he walked across on dry land, because he had a conference with God.

73 Oh, there's many conferences we could speak about. There was a conference at the fiery furnace, there was the conference in the lion's den. We've had many conferences.

74 Let's get to another one. It's called the Gethsemane conference. There was a terrible conference. He didn't have to die a young man. He didn't have to do it. But when He seen lost humanity in its condition, said, "Not my will but thine be done." Angels come and ministered to him. That's what...
Then after his death, burial, and resurrection, there had to be another conference---how the Christian church should be run. Whether it should be run by bishops, or whether it should be run by popes, or how it should be run. So Jesus told them in Luke 24:49, "Just wait up there at the city of Jerusalem. I'm going up to have a conference with the Father. I'll send you word down after awhile, but you wait there. I'll tell you how it's to be run." (Whether Peter is to be the first pope or not, whether we're going to have bishops and archbishops and district presbyters and everything else.)
"How're we going to do it? We'll wait and find out."
And they had what they call the Pentecostal conference. They climbed them little outside steps up, and went up into the upper room where 120 people gathered, a little grease candle burning. They didn't eat and drink for ten days, waiting. What's the returns of the conference? It was quite a long one. And they had ten days' waiting, and after a while the returns came. Oh, yes.

75 There wasn't a priest come up the road with his collar turned around, said, "Now we're going to take the first communion. You lick out your tongue and I'll give you the wafer, and I'll drink the wine." Wouldn't that be... ? Neither was there a preacher come up the road, said, "Give us the right hand of fellowship. We'll put your name on the book and try you six months on probation." Nope. That's man's conferences. That's the way they do at the councils and conferences.

76 What happened? When the conference return came, they were all in one place and one accord and suddenly there came a sound from heaven like a rushing mighty wind, and it filled all the room where they were sitting. Cloven tongues set upon them like fire, and they were all filled with the Holy Ghost and begin to speak with other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance. That was the returns from general headquarters. The Holy Spirit was to lead the church. Not man-made dogmas but the Holy Spirit. That was the Pentecostal conference.

77 And I think all the way from Martin Luther to Pentecost ought to go back and have a conference again, find out it's the Holy Spirit that's to lead the church---not dogmas, and creeds, and "hail, Marys," and apostle's creed. I want you to find me the apostle's creed in the Bible. There's no such a thing; but yet we bow down to it, and say it, and just as... That's lodge joiners; that ain't Christians.

78 Christians are born again of the Spirit of God. The Holy Ghost comes into them and they're filled with the Spirit. The life of Christ lives through them. They go into all the world and preach the gospel. How far? All the world. Just for this generation? All the world. "These signs shall follow them that believe." How far? "All the world, every creature that believes." "In my name they shall cast out devils, speak with new tongues, take up serpents, or drink deadly things it wouldn't harm them. If they lay their hands on the sick, they shall recover."
That's what the orders was. That was the orders from the conference, from God in heaven. Sent down the returns---a rushing mighty wind. Oh, how far...? We need another conference, brethren.
What happened in the conference? They didn't walk up and say, "I now take your hand. I will become a member of this church."
Get a salt shaker and throw three or four sprinkles of dirt, or water, whatever you want to call it, on them and walk out and say, "Now you're a member."
That's not right. No, sir. Not even to water baptism, which is so essential. It still wasn't the thing. But there came a sound, as a rushing mighty wind, came from heaven. It filled all the house where they were sitting. That was the returns of that conference, the way God decided to run his church. How dare us to try to move one iota from that? How dare we, as men, to add one thing or take one thing away from it? How can we do it? That's the way the church is to be run---by the power of the Holy Spirit.

79 There was another conference held right away. Those men went forth, preached the gospel, healed the sick. Peter and James passing the gate called Beautiful, and there laid a man crippled from his mother's womb. Said, "Silver and gold have I none; but such as I have, I'll give you: In the name of Jesus Christ rise up and walk." And away he went.
And then what happened? They wanted to put them in jail. The news columns had criticism of all kinds in it. And they just criticized them, and snatched them up before the council, the general council of the church. When they did at the Sanhedrin courts, they forbid them to preach that kind of a gospel anymore. So what were they to do? They were forbidden to preach the name of Jesus Christ. So what could they do? They held another conference. Acts 4 Conference we'll call that, the Acts 4. They got with their own group.

80 Wouldn't that be fine if all Christians would get with their own groups, and all groups would get together and hold a conference---what must we do? Communism honeycombing our nation---our nation is beginning to be wiggled through with communism; and the church is getting cold and ritualistic. The churches are fighting one another, blasting one another, and members are...
You could ask them if they're Christians. Say, "I belong to So-and-so." That don't have one thing to do with it. God don't care that [Brother Branham snaps his fingers.] about your organization. He wants to know if you're born again. If you're not born again, then you're not a Christian. You can only be a Christian when you take the life of Christ in you; and if the life of Christ is in you, it will produce the life of Christ. Could you gather peaches on a watermelon vine? Certainly not.

81 So watch what happened. They got together, and assembled themselves together, and they quoted the Scripture---repeated the Scripture---back to God. Said, "Why did the heathens rage and the people imagine a vain thing?"---telepathy, fortune-telling, mind reading, all these vain things. Said, "Why did they imagine the vain things? Truly ... stretching forth the hand of thy holy child Jesus to heal."
And when they had that conference, and there was about ... I guess there was three thousand converted on the day of Pentecost, and many hundreds and hundreds after that. They probably ranked in eight or ten thousand people gathered into a room to pray. And when they did, and praying all with one accord, all the same time, the Bible said that the building was shook where they were assembled together. The answer come back, and the Bible said they preached the Word of God with boldness.
Some people are afraid to preach the Word. They'd be excommunicated from their church, their organization. They're afraid of it. Then, we need another conference, Acts 4 conference. Are you afraid of what somebody's going to say? As long as God said it, stay with it. Live by it, die by it (that's right), and you'll rise by it---the only thing you will do, the only way you can rise.

82 A conference. What we need is conference. "Come let us reason together," saith God. "If my first church would..." God would come in the room tonight and say, "If I ordained my first church and they had the blessing of Pentecost upon them..." And what they did, they went forth and showed the signs of the resurrection. Let's come and reason together why we're not having that tonight in our Pentecostal groups, in our Methodist groups, and our Baptist groups, and our Presbyterian groups. What's the matter? There's something wrong. So let's come reason together.
How could we reason it? With the Methodists? With the Baptists? With the Presbyterian? No, sir. We could only reason it by God's Word. And the first church was filled with the Holy Spirit, went forth in great signs and wonders. The life of Jesus Christ projected itself in the life of every one of those people. Let's come...

83 "Let's reason together," saith the Lord. "Let's come and reason. Though your sins [your unbelief] be like scarlet, I'll make them as white as snow. Though they be red like crimson, they'll be white like wool. I'll give you a revival. I'll restore back all the years the caterpillar has eaten, the locusts eaten. [What the Lutheran left, the Methodist eaten. What the Methodist left, the Baptist eaten. What the Baptist left, the Pentecostal eaten.] But I will restore," saith the Lord.
It's a guarantee of restoring, that's one thing. God promised it in Joel 2. "Let's come reason together." What one eat down and left, the other one took it on down, till it's become a stump. The real Pentecostal church, the real Pentecostal people, the real Pentecostal experience, has begun ... it's a historical thing.

84 Now, how could I stand and teach you theology? What good would it do me to tell you that God one time healed the sick, and made the cripples to walk and the blind to see; and poured out his Spirit, and they had discernment of spirit and done all these things; and the sign of the Messiah, the resurrection, followed them down through a church age; and then tell you those days were past? What good does a historical God do if He isn't the same God today?
What good would it do to give your canary bird vitamins to make good feathers and strong wing bones, and keep him in a cage? What good is a school of theology if you can't let the person know that God still is God? If He's just a historical thing, He's past. But He's not dead; He's alive forevermore. He's here now. He's Christ. Certainly.

85 We need to come together and reason it out. What kind of a church was it at first? That's the kind of church... God is infinite and cannot change his mind. God makes a decision, He has to keep it. His first decision of a real Christian church happened on a Pentecostal experience. Now, that wasn't a Pentecostal organization; that was a Pentecostal experience, which can come to Methodist, Baptist, Catholic, Presbyterian, or whosoever will. That's an experience that comes.

86 Love, God's love. Love is the most powerful thing that there is in the world. It conquers anything, is love. By this you shall conquer, by love divine--- loving one another, loving the cause of God, loving Christ, loving suffering humanity. That's how you conquer.
Yes, they had a conference and they got orders, and they went forth and they preached the Word of God with boldness.
Now I'm going to speak of one more conference just for a moment. You might have missed the Geneva conference. You might not have even heard the returns on the radio. You might have missed the Gethsemane, which you did. You might have missed the Red Sea. You did. You might have missed all these conferences, but here's one that you're going to stand---that's the conference at judgment. You're all going to be there. Every one of us is going to stand at the judgment seat of Christ to give an account for what we've done with Christ and his Word.

87 There's going to be a conference, and you're going to be there. I don't care what you do with your life. You could commit suicide, be so guilty. You could have your body cremated and taken out upon the seas and blowed to the four winds. You'll be there anyhow, for every knee will bow and every tongue shall confess. There might have been a mighty conference, and many of them, that you'd miss; but there's one you're going to attend.

88 And I'll tell you, every time you see a gray hair it means that you're going. Every time you hear a siren, it's a conference you're going to meet. Death is meeting you in the face. Young or old, whoever you are, you're on your road. Every time you pass a grave yard, it speaks that you're coming to that conference. Every time you hear a sermon preached, a hymn sang, it means you're coming to that conference, and you're going to be there. And you're going to answer for what you've done with God's Word and with God's Son and with the Holy Spirit that He sent you. You're going to answer. You're going to be at that conference.

89 So if you're here tonight, friends, and have never had that conference with God... Some men's sins go before them, confessed; some follow. If yours, your unbelief, hasn't been confessed yet, won't you think of it while we pray, as we bow our heads? In the reverence and solemnity of this moment I would ask a solemn question that all people will have to answer for. Be sincere, and let this be a searching time in your heart. What will you do after this conference?
This is a conference tonight, where we have gathered together here in this gymnasium, to speak the Word of God in halls and so forth just like they did in the early days. The same Word of God has been preached. You're going to have to answer some day for it.
Are there those here tonight, or how many are they (I know there's a group), that would say this to me, "Brother Branham, I have never been born of the Spirit of God. I have never received God's Holy Spirit. And I know if I stand at that conference, after I've been told so plainly by the Scripture, witnessed by the Holy Spirit, I'm going to have to give an account for my life at that day. I'm going to raise my hand to God and ask Him to be merciful to me, and I want a conference right now with God. I'd like to talk it over with Him right now."

90 Now with every head bowed (Cursed be the one that raises their eyes), would you raise your hand and say, "Pray for me, Brother Branham. I've not yet received the Holy Spirit." God bless you. Someone else. Surely you'd be honest in a time like this. Going to a conference. God bless you, lady, God bless you, lady. God bless you here.
You're going to a conference, and remember, no matter how good you've been in church, that doesn't do one thing. The Pharisees in the days of Jesus lived a lot holier life than any of we here in America live; but they were considered evil because they were sinners---unbelievers in Christ and his Word. And I've told you plainly the conference, when God wanted to decide what kind of a church He wanted, it was a Spirit-filled church from Pentecost. If you haven't met that conference yet, would you raise your hand and say, "Brother Branham, pray for me." God bless you, you, you.

91 In the balconies to my left, is there any up there would raise your hand quietly? With your heads bowed, everyone praying, please. Balconies to the left, balconies in the rear, balconies to the right, now remember. I can't make you do this. I can only speak the Word. It's up to you to decide. But remember, this same message will judge you. It's on magnetic tape in heaven, and it will be played over again at the day of the judgment.

92 If you haven't received God's Holy Spirit yet, never had that conference and met like they did at the Pentecostal conference, you've never received Him yet, just put up your hand, say, "Pray for me, Brother Branham." Someone who has not put up their hand to ... raise your hand.

93 Our heavenly Father, Thou seest the hands of the people. There were some who raised their hands and wanted to be remembered in prayer, enough courage. How thankful they should be. Jesus said, "No man can come to me except my Father draws him first." Think of those that we know that's sitting right here that did not raise their hands. Now, you are a discerner of the heart. Those who You spoke to and they did not raise their hand, what will it be for those people at the day of the judgment, when the final conference is held? Then it will be decided who did receive, and who did not, whose names are on the book. You said, "Those on my left, I will say, 'Depart into everlasting fire which is prepared for the devil and his angels.' "

94 And we know that the time is near at hand. We see the world in a quivering, shaking, condition, knowing that the atoms will soon be burning, and the heavens will be on fire---as the apostle Peter said---and will burn with fervent heat. The atoms of the earth will catch fire soon. There'll be a relay and there'll be not even dust left of the people.

95 And then what, Lord? Maybe five hundred years from now an old tombstone, blown over yonder in the howling winds, the burning blistering sun, when it lays near the sun for its purification before the Millennium, maybe the name of some of the people here will be written on that. Where will their wandering soul be? May they not look to this modern world now, but may they look away to Christ, listen to the message and the messenger that's speaking in their heart.
Bless those who raised their hands, Father, may they receive the Holy Spirit, I pray in Christ's name. And with our heads bowed, just a moment, did you really mean that? Would you come here at the altar? Rise up out of your seat now, you that raised your hand.
And you that did not raise your hand, if you've been in future meetings, which you will see here, too---see Him by prayer open the eyes of men that's blind, see Him heal those that are crippled and twisted, see Him go down and discern the very thoughts of the heart of the people, just as He said.

96 Now that's his Spirit that's talking to you now, the Spirit that you saw here tonight that knowed the secrets of the heart. That same Spirit tells me there's many here that should come. Rise up now and come here and stand here around this little platform here a moment for a word of prayer. Will you come? God bless you. God bless you, lady. God bless...
Pass me not, O gentle Saviour
Would you come, whosoever? Do you believe God hears prayer? Come around this altar.
While on others Thou art calling, Do not..... .

97 Come down out of the balconies, won't you? Some of you young folks just at the turning point of life, come accept Christ as your Saviour. Will you tonight? Be filled with the Holy Spirit. This is the time, the place, everything is ready. There'll be no excuse, for the very Spirit that's here tonight will stand against you in the day of the judgment. Now you know I wouldn't say these things 'less it were so. Come down tonight.
Saviour, Saviour...
Reverently, quietly, will you walk out of your seat, just make a few steps, come down here, stand here. God bless these that's come.
While on others Thou art calling, Do not pass me by.

98 I stood by a young lady dying not long ago, had been in one of the meetings. She said, "Don't pray, Brother Branham." She said, "My day is gone." She said, "One night in your meeting I couldn't hardly sit in the seat," she said, "sitting with my boyfriend. I asked if he'd come. He said, 'No.' "
Said, "That was my last day." She said, "It's too late now."
The girl, a fine young lady, but was dying with a social disease they could not repair. And the undertaker, a friend of mine, pumped the embalming fluid into her body. Kept moving, they couldn't find where it was at. They smelled it. Holes had eat in the young lady's body. A beautiful young lady. She said, "I should have come."
She was a church member. Yes, sir. Her pastor standing there, smoking a cigarette when she was dying. You know what she said to him? "You deceiver of men. You told me I was right, and you were wrong." She said, "I'm dying and I'm lost, and you're the cause of it." She called for a girl that comes to the Tabernacle who tried to lead her to Christ. They both went to high school together. Tried to get her to come, but it was too late. The girl was dead before she got there. She wanted to repent. She wanted to tell this girl she was sorry because she had called her a foul name, a "holy roller."

99 It always tells at the end of the road. That's where you have your conference with the death angel. It's coming to each one of you. You're going to meet him one of these mornings. You may meet him on the highway tonight, you may meet him in your bed tonight. You're going to meet him somewhere. You're going to have a conference. He's lurking near now. Angels of God are lurking near. You'll want them to plead your case on that day. They're speaking now, won't you come? Once more while we sing.
Trusting only in thy merit, (Don't
trust your church; trust his merit.)
... . seek thy face.
Heal my wounded, broken spirit,
Save me by Thy grace.
Saviour, Saviour,
Hear my humble cry. (Personal
workers, will you come now?)
While on others Thou art calling,
Do not pass me by.

100 While the personal workers are coming up, each one getting around, let the women get by the women, the men by the men. "Come now, let us reason together," saith the Lord. "Though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be white as snow."
Do not pass me by.
Saviour, Saviour,
Hear my humble cry.
While on others Thou art calling,
Do not pass me by.
Let me at Thy throne of mercy,
Find a sweet relief...
Won't you come down now? Come, someone else now. Is there another would like to come before we change this service?
Saviour, O Saviour,
Oh, hear my humble cry,
While on others Thou art calling
Do not pass me by.

101 Now how many in here would like to consecrate their life anew to Christ? Raise up your hands. Just say, "This night, henceforth, by the help of God, I'll consecrate my life to God. Raise up your hands, all sincere Christians. "I'll reconsecrate my life to God."
All that's sick, raise up your hands and say, "I will believe on Jesus Christ for my healing right now. I will."
I believe our heavenly Father's pleased with those people coming to receive Christ. Don't you believe so? Now, let us all stand on our feet just a moment, those who can, for a consecration service, consecrating ourselves to God anew. Let us stand up now to renew our vows and our consecration to Christ. Do you love Him? I love Him. Now, everyone now, everybody together.
I love Him, I love Him. (Now make
your consecration to Him.)
Because He first loved me.
And purchased my salvation
On Calvary's tree.
I love Him, I love Him.
Because He first loved me.
And purchased my salvation
On Calvary's tree.
Now, each bow your head now and in consecrating prayer give yourself over to Christ, while I'm going to ask one of the ministers here if he'll come and offer a consecration prayer. Right here, brother.

Conferences

You can find this sermon at ChurchAges.net

1 Then to hear your testimonies, and come in after being on the field, and hear someone testify. I'm certainly happy to see Brother Jeffries. I call him Creechy, there. I didn't know he was in the meeting. And I know this means a lot to you, too, from coming from the battlefield, from where the lights are low; and come in under this nice atmosphere of Christians and people all together, free in the Spirit. I--I like this, where people are free, have a free feeling. And it's something about it. We just don't try to act starchy. They're just--just... They used to say, take off your collar and feel at home. I like that. I'm sure we all do. Don't we? [Congregation says, "Amen."] Just...

2 I was thinking, when I looked over here at my daughter, Rebekah. Remember one time, being off in a meeting. And she was a little fellow then, her. And she's got a little sister, four years smaller. And so Becky is blue-eyed and kind of tall, and Sarah was brown-eyed and kind of short. So they was both daddy's girls. And I really love children, and the Lord gave me some fine children.
And so they was waiting to see me. When I come in, they wanted to play with me a little bit. So the sandman got in their eyes and they had to go to sleep, along about twelve or one o'clock. And the plane didn't get in till around maybe two or three in the morning. And I went in to lay down, couldn't sleep. I just got out in the living room, set down in the chair. It's a little joke, kind of, I tell on them. And it was a...

3 After while, daylight come, and Rebekah, here, woke up, and she knew that I should be home. And--and she looked over and seen Sarah still asleep. So she looked down and seen me setting in the room, and here she come, just as hard as she could, and jumped up on my lap, both arms. And about that time, Sarah, her little sister, woke up. Well, she looked, but Becky had already beat her, to me.
So kind of comparing this with the church that's been a long time.
And Becky was kind of thin, long-legged, and she could set on my lap real good and both feet hit the floor. She was balanced up, pretty well, you know.
I say this kind of for our Methodist brother over here, been a long time around, you know, and growed up a little.
Well, Sarah was a little short. And I don't know whether your children does or not; mine does. One will, the oldest one will get something new, and then it'll go down to the next one, and then down to the next one. And--and Sarah had on Becky's pajamas. And it was these rabbit-feeted pajamas they used to have, you know, kind of big, and her little feet couldn't pack it very well. So she started through the house.

4 And Rebekah threw her arms around me, and she turned around, looked back to Sarah, and she said, "Sarah, my sister, I want you to know that I got here first." She said, "And I've got all of daddy and there's nothing left for you." Well, Sarah kind of felt a little stepped on, you know, so her little lips turned down.
And kind of reminds me, maybe the churches that's been on the road a long time, you know. They've got all the ins-and-outs of it, and they can set down with all the theology and explain it, and speak it in Greek, and so forth. I compare that with Rebekah.
So then Sarah looks around, her little lips dropped, and she turned and started back in the room. I kind of winked my eye at her and motioned like that, and stuck my other leg out. That's just what she was waiting for. Here she come, jumped up on this leg. And she was... little legs was short, you know, and she couldn't hit the floor. She was kind of topsy-turvy. So I just threw my arms around her, to keep her from falling, hugged her up close to me. She put her head upon my chest and laid there a little bit. She looked around to Rebekah. She said, "And Rebekah, my sister," see, said, "I want you to understand something, too. It may be so that you were there first, and you may have all of daddy. But, I want you to know, daddy has got all of me."
So, so that's about the way it is. You know, I may not know all the ins-and-out. But as long as He's got all of me, that's all we care about. Just let Him take us and use us the way He wishes to.

5 I certainly appreciate this stay here, and this fine fellowship among these fine brethren, ministers, all the cooperation of the personal workers, and everything that's been done; for the Ramada, and for their fine cooperation. And I'm only sorry that it's just--just four days. See, you just get to knowing the people, and the people begin to know you, and then--then you have to leave, right when really something could be done to--to really magnify God.
And the things that goes on, it might have been new to many of you, and you wouldn't understand it. You can't explain the thing in just a night or two. And then after you get settled down, of course, you could. Many things went on.
You pastors remember, that, in your churches, weeks to come, there'll be women coming to you, saying, "You know, I had a female disorder. It's gone." One, "I had a stomach trouble. It's gone." I couldn't call it all. It's just everywhere, faith just jumping everywhere.

6 For instance, a few moments ago, there was a--a man come up here and--and put his hand on my shoulder. And he said... I looked up at the man. I thought, "I ought to--ought to know that man." I had seen him somewhere.
And he said, "You remember me?"
"And I don't believe I do."
So then he said, "I was in your meeting in Saskatoon, in Saskatchewan, in '40, about '42, or something like that. Way back, many years ago."
And I said, "Yes." I thought, "I've seen that man somewhere, but I can't place it." And so we went, he went ahead, talking.
In a few moments I begin to recognize, that, a few nights ago, in the meeting, there was a--a lady, I believe she was kind of gray-headed woman standing on the platform.
And if I would be facing the East, which is really a traditional that I just like to face the East, 'cause He's coming from the East. When I baptize, I usually baptize them that way. And look like the... Always to my right side, because each time that this Light comes in, It comes from the right side. And so I always try to keep the people coming to me from the right side. And I'd be standing, kind of this way, I suppose, positionally now, the way the building is seated up there.

7 And down to my left, I noticed, standing by me, a woman much younger than the woman was standing before me. And she had pink clothes on. It was different from the woman standing there. I kept noticing, and I dropped down. And I...
There's no way to explain it. You just have to believe it. That's all.
I looked down. There was a lady setting down here, right to my left, and she was kind of a... Something was wrong with her. And I looked back, and then here stood a man by her. I thought, "There is something strange." And I was trying to keep my mind to the woman I was talking to.
Because, you see, maybe, if you watch something happen, see, it might be telling this woman what this woman had. See? So, you, it's very... And Satan is laying right there for every opportunity he can. It's just grace of God, see, that He lets that happen.

8 And then I--I looked. I seen this woman kind of... One was much younger than the other. And one woman was kind of a... She was tore up, mentally disturbed. And the other woman had some kind of affliction really bad. And then this man...
And come to find out, this morning, when I stood here, that was the man. And I said, "Haven't you got a wife that's--that's sick, that's mentally disturbed, oppressed, like?"
And he said, "Yes."
And I said, "Was she in the meeting, night before last, and set down to my left, wearing some kind of a pink dress or something?"
Said, "Yes."
And that was her. And that's how I recognized the man. I believe I... I believe I wrote his name down. I'm getting, can't remember too well. A pastor M-a-c-k, he set down right here somewhere. And that was right, wasn't it? And he told me, said, "My wife, many years ago, was in your meeting, and was instantly healed by a miracle that you was telling her about, and telling her about her troubles. And she was instantly healed; and many, a couple of times, a rare blood disease, and ulcers, and things like that."

9 Now, see, what happened, if I could try to let you see what I mean. The lady had faith. See? And her faith, she was believing, yet probably with no prayer card or nothing. But she was believing, and maybe stronger than the lady was, setting before me.
And now, I believe, he said that his wife come in. And if I'm not mistaken, that's her setting right there by the man. And that is the woman. That's the woman. To look at her, that's--that's the lady, all right.
Now, you see how the--the grace of God, to that? The lady, actually, really believed with all of her heart. And her faith was so much greater than the person standing here, it went to her. Course, now, and then the man asked me, he said, "Brother Branham, is there anything seriously wrong with my wife? Will she be well or something?"
I said, "Sir, I don't know."
See, you are the one who makes that vision. Your own faith does that. See? Your faith does it, not mine. It's you. See?
Jesus, standing there before those people, and this woman touched His garment. He didn't even know who touched Him. He said, "Who touched Me?" Now, Jesus wouldn't say anything just to be saying. He, really, He didn't know who did it. And He looked around, over the audience until He found that woman. See? And then He told her about what faith she had.

10 Now, I, I wouldn't know. And then sometimes... See, this wasn't explained, I suppose. But now, see, what you, what you are, what's wrong with you, that's the Holy Spirit revealing that. And sometimes I watch it, it turns dark, shadowy. I just don't say nothing, because it's perhaps death. And so I just say, "Go, the Lord bless you."
And maybe, if they stay long enough, just wait there, see what the Lord says. And then that's what He's saying. Now, that's what, that the vision has showed what's wrong with you, or what you've done. But then stay still and wait. I notice the people just walk away. See? Stay still. Just stand there and wait, and see what He says, and then you find out.
If it comes back, and I see a vision of what you are going to be. That shows what you have been. Then, if I can see what you're going to be, you'll notice it, it's always THUS SAITH THE LORD. And then, then you mark that down, and see if that don't happen just like that. It'll never fail, if a vision.

11 Here's what. I have confidence. If the vision come, told me, this morning, that George Washington was going to rise out of the presidential graveyard, for me to go there and call him, I'd invite the world to come see it done. Right. It would not fail. It cannot fail. It never has, and it never will, as long as you don't try to use your impression. And now many times...
I think we're all pentecostal here, this morning. Aren't we? [Congregation says, "Amen."] Many times, where I think that people get enthused, you see, you get an impression that the Lord said so-and-so. And you say it, when really it's not. And that would be wrong to say that. See? You wait until you know that God has definitely spoke, and it'll be perfect each time. But if you're just impressed to say that, you might say it, but... And when you do that, that causes something like a carnal impersonation. And you, really, brother, sister, it doesn't help God; it hinders God. See? And maybe God calls you to be a--a witness or something else. Then you stay true to what God tells you to do. Be a true witness.

12 Now, this has been a great meeting, one of the finest bunch of faith behind me, of them ministers, that I ever set with. And the people out in the audience has been wonderful. And I'm only sorry that we just have to close off so quick this way. But I hope, someday, if it be the will of the Lord, to be back.
I guess the manager here, Brother Borders, was introduced to the people, and I just like for him to stand up. Brother Roy Borders has been with me in a many great struggle. Would you just stand, Brother Borders. He's very humble. Brother Borders don't know this, but it hit me again. I'm going tell him now. And Brother Borders is a sick man. I've just got to meet him and go--go with him, after this service this morning. Brother Borders, I hope it don't shock you. But the Lord must touch Brother Borders, right away. He's got a valve closing in his heart. That's exactly right. I've never spoke to him any more than what you see me on the platform, but that's true.

13 I'm going to tell this woman while the Holy Spirit is on me, and I got to quit then, see, 'cause it's just begin to moving. This lady setting over here now, looking this way, that man asked. It's nothing serious. It's a change of life, just a menopause, a weary, dreary feeling, and all mixed-up. You'll be all right. Don't fear. See? That's just what it is. Now, the great Holy Spirit, in His Presence!

14 I got a little girl here that this man just spoke of, I got some things written down here. A--a little girl was operated on, at Phoenix, yesterday, a kidney removed, or something, from Brother Outlaw's church, a man that's everywhere I go. If it's in the range of a hundred, or two, miles, the man attends every meeting. And one of the members of his congregation is here this morning. And a little girl operated on, for a tumor on the kidney, and it's malignant. Only God can save that child's life.
A little deaf girl that Brother Jenkins has spoke of. Oh, there's just so much that's sick and needy.
And now, just before we go to the speaking part of the service, I'd just like for us to pray a moment. Let us bow our heads. And if there's other requests, just raise your hand.

15 Our Heavenly Father, we are taught, in the great Divine Scriptures, inspired Words of God, put in print, that, "We would be seated together in Heavenly places in Christ Jesus." And we feel that this morning, to see a--a Heaven-bound group of people, made up of all different denominations, setting together. To look out upon them and see some of the men that's older than I, some young men coming on; and just as the leaves and the flowers, and all nature works, the old moves off and the young moves in. Heavenly Father, we thank Thee for the Holy Spirit, that gives us this great assurance, that some great Day we'll meet again.
We thank Thee for His great power. He helps our infirmities. And we pray for this little girl that's--that's had this removed tumor out of the kidney, and it's cancerous. Lord God, be merciful to this little girl. I think, what if it was my child? It's somebody's darling. I pray that You heal it. May the power of Satan be taken from it. May that child live to the glory of God.

16 Bless, I pray, this morning, the little, deaf girl that was mentioned. Pray that You'll give the hearing back to that little girl, little Jenkins girl.
I pray, Heavenly Father, for Brother Borders, my precious brother, as we see Satan trying to take him off of the field. God, we claim him for the Kingdom's sake.
And we pray for all these special requests. And for this lady that the other night standing there, that faith moving up, now You have explained it to her, Lord, and now it'll be all right. We thank You for this. We pray that You'll continue to be with us.
Bless these ministers. Bless all that's helped; the musicians, this little quartet that sang, and the quartet from the church over there, them fine young men, for the lady give us the specials. And all these things, Lord, they're--they're too much to remember in our mind, but Thou knowest them all.
For this Ramada Inn, for that fine man that stood here a few moments ago, and saying, "God bless you." God, we pray that it'll turn to him, and that he may, Lord, be filled with the Holy Spirit, become a great witness in the world, of Jesus Christ, greatest thing that could happen, Father.

17 Now we pray that You'll bless Brother Tony and these fine men here, even being of the lay members of the church. And, yet, they're trying to, the Business Men, organize themselves together, to make another witness. God grant their efforts, be filled with the Spirit and discerning of knowing what to do and how to do to act for the Lord Jesus.
Bless the Message this morning, Lord, as I speak. And I pray that You'll anoint It with Your blessings. And when we go away, we can say like those who came from Emmaus, "Our hearts burned along the way."
Then, Father, if there be an unsaved person in here, one who doesn't know You, or just a church member, may the great power of the Holy Spirit reveal to them their need today of salvation through God's appropriated way, the only way, Jesus Christ, for we ask it in His Name. Amen.

18 I thank you again. One thing I forgot to mention, a while ago. They... Brother Tony, as he stepped out to the car last evening, he said... I said, "I never look at..." I am been in the ministry now some thirty-three years. I pastored the tabernacle at Jeffersonville for seventeen years, never had one penny salary. And I never took up an offering, all the days of my life. Never did take, never intend to take one. And last night Brother Tony said that they was... I said, "Did you make the expenses?"
The understanding, when I met with this fine brother, Brock. And did I pronounce that right, "Brock"? And Brother Gilmore, and some of the other brethren up there, the other night. I said, "Now, they asked about the finance condition." I said, "Just whatever the expenses are, that's all there is to it."
"Well," he said, "we want to take you an offering."
I said, "No, no. Don't do that. I--I get--I get a hundred dollars a week from my church and that takes care of it," I said, "I, what all I need. I, I don't need nothing, see." I, I'm thinking about over on the other side, There, something over There. And I know that--that I tried to keep my ministry...
So many has come, and the manager, saying, "Brother Branham, it ought to be in bright lights."

19 And the president of the Four Rose Whiskey was over to our place, here some time ago, and she brought her daughter. And she said, oh, the little girl wanted to be healed. And she said she had heard about it, and she going to have an operation. And so they said... Oh, she wanted to come over. She didn't want to be operated on.
Well, she run right in while I was speaking, want to be prayed for right then, had to be right then. Well, now, she couldn't stay. Her mother was after her. So mother come in the back of the room, set down with that arrogant look. So then we come up, prayed for the little girl and went back.
Well, couple days after that, the doctor had said, said, "All right. It's a bunch of foolishness." Said...
But she said, "No, I feel fine. No appendicitis with me. I'm fine and dandy."
So then they went on, four or five days. After while... You see, just as I explained it, after about seventy-two hours, that symptom reoccurs again if you really got healed, see, healing. I'm not talking about miracles. And it reoccurred because the appendix begin to swell. And the doctor said, "Now, you see? Now you better go get that holy-roller preacher again."

20 So then, he wouldn't operate. But, course, when there was about fifteen hundred dollars involved, he--he--he could do it. He said he wouldn't, but he did it. It happened to be a friend of mine on that staff, that, when they removed, opened the girl up, to take the appendix out, there was nothing wrong. See? They operated for nothing. They just left the appendix there, 'cause it wasn't even affected in no way. And the doctor come, told me about it, a friend of mine on that staff, that helped operate.

21 Now you see what it was. She was all excited and didn't know just how to hold onto that faith. See? And there we don't get a chance to explain that. Then that made the... My doctor friend told the mother, and said, "The appendix is still there." They said, "She needed that appendix, and it wasn't infected. It was nothing to it, at all, just perfectly normal, pink; just, oh, like it should be."
And the mother became a believer. Then she says to me, "What needs to be done, is, your ministry, is not sit down in the corner with a bunch of--of just ordinary people. It should be flashed across the country everywhere, should be on billboards." Now that's just what the Devil wants. That's right. See? But, no, I don't want it like that.
I--I want it so I can just visit anywhere, do any. Wherever the Lord calls, that's where I want to go. Just where He just keep it humble, and let the Lord move us wherever He wishes to move us.

22 And now, to you people, if you... that's been prayed for, if you... After about seventy-two hours, corruption sets in. We know that. Mortification sets in after seventy-two hours. If something reoccurs... If you really believe that, with all your heart, there's nothing going to stop it. You believe it, anyhow. Stay right with it. It'll be all right. Don't you...
But you can't bluff it now. You've got to really know it, that it's done. See? There's a lot of difference between hope and faith. A hope just hopes for it. Faith knows it's done. So, that's the difference.

23 Now, this morning, I don't want to keep you. It's already ten o'clock, and, see, about six minutes after, by this watch that Billy give to me.
And now I want to read a verse out of the book of Isaiah, the 1st chapter, for just a little comments. And I got some Scriptures written down here, that I might refer to. And just keep you about thirty minutes, then we'll be ready to go, the Lord willing. Isaiah, the 1st chapter and the 18th verse.
Come now, and let us reason together, saith the LORD: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be... white as snow; though... be red like crimson, they shall be white like wool.
Now, the Lord add His blessings to the reading of His Word. And I want to speak on the subject of: Conferences. Holding a conference!
Lord, bless the Word now, and may the seeds fall in our hearts, where we have need. And, Lord, may mine be open, with every one here, that we might understand the hour that we're living and what we should do. In Jesus' Name we ask it. Amen.

24 Speaking of conferences, we--we hear of so much of it in these days. Everything is a conference. And, frankly, that's what we're here this morning in, is a conference. And we hear so much of them, and so many different places they're held, so many things that's accomplished by conferences. I think that it's a thing we should do, is to have a conference. And usually, when they're held, in the times of emergencies. Usually when an--an emergency is on, then you hold a conference. You call a quick conference. And we think of it in that terms.

25 Now, here, many of you can remember the... for instance, the conference we had in the world crisis, when Germany and the rest of the world was at war, when President Roosevelt was president of the United States. And--and there was the other great four, they call it. They held, what they called the "Big Four Conference," of Churchill. And they met together, and they had to have what they called the Big Four Conference of the free world, because that they had to come together and pool their ideas together, and get in a strategy of somewhere, because the enemy was advancing, and he--he must be stopped.

26 And then they--they was to get together, so they could, ever the wisest of the groups. And then one would get one's idea, and the other's idea, and then pool it together, and see what they come out with. That was the Big Four Conference. And where they should strike back, where they should put their armies, the certain, like the Fifth Army, and the Fourth Army, and the Tenth Army, and so forth, and how they could work together, and where the enemy had his strongholds.
And if you notice, they always try to hit that spinal cord. That's the lifeline. And it's always, strike the enemy, if you want to kill it, you must strike it in a vital spot. If you don't, you don't kill it. And so therefore, just one thing to be done.

27 Just like setting a meeting. If we could take the--the Kingdom of God, as men has said many time, in the ministry, and like quoting back to the woman, said, "If you would take and get the great people together, the great minds, and set it together, and then strike it from right there." But, you see, you're striking at the wrong thing. See?
If I can get ministers together, if I can get a group of God-saved men together, and let them see the power that's in Christ Jesus, that--that He actually lives in our hearts, and can know the thoughts of the mind, and foretell, and tell forth, and--and make it be perfect, then those ministers will be inspired and they'll take it to their people. And see what I mean? There's the place to strike, where the guns are setting now.

28 And in the Big Four they had that great conference. Then we had another conference that was called the Geneva Conference. I'm sure many of you remember when they had to have the--the Geneva Conference. And there was another one called the Paris Conference, when they met in Paris. It's just constantly, all the time, conference after conference after conference, meeting together, because the need is great in national life. The--the brain of the world seems to be so entangled that you just don't know where, what to do. And the whole world is scared to death right now.
It reminds me of a little boy going home in a dark night, going through the graveyard, whistling. He just whistles as hard as he can, because he's merely calling a bluff, to himself. He--he--he don't want to think that he's scared, but he's whistling to try to relax himself. But down in the bottom of it, he's scared, "Behind every tombstone there's a goblin." Or, see, he's scared, and he's whistling just to kind of quieten himself.

29 And that's why we have so much tommyrot today on the radio and television, of men, like men who has got talents, singers like Ernie Ford and Elvis Presley, those boys who is selling out their birthrights for a mess of pottage. They get out there, and all you have to be is a jokester, or turn some crack, or--or something like that, to make the American public laugh. When, you know you're only trying to quieten them; and you know, behind it all, we know that judgment is at hand. That's right. Might as well face it. We're at the end of the road, brethren. And all the Ernie Ford jokes, and the Elvis Presley rock-and-rolls, and all this stuff, it's another Nebuchadnezzar's feast. It won't do a bit of good. Judgment is going to strike.

30 This nation has come to the same place like Sodom and Gomorrah. And the just God, would let this country get by with what it's doing now, as a just God He would be morally obligated to raise up Sodom and Gomorrah and apologize for burning them up, that's right, if we get by without the judgment. But, just remember, it's coming to us.
You flee to the Rock as quick as you can. Don't put it off. Don't notice what all these, just joining church and creed and so forth. Do like these Methodist brethren here: flee to the Rock until something echoes back, that you see Christ reflecting. It might have to beat you a little. In the old Bible times, when they, the...

31 Nowadays, here in this gold state of Arizona, in the old, they got smelters now to smelt out the iron and the pyrite, what's called fool's gold, and smelt that out from the real gold, by a smelter.
In the old days, the only way they had to separate it was a beater, beat the gold with a hammer, like the Indians beat it. And the only way that the beater knew that he had the gold ready, was when he beat all the dross out of it. And he would beat it, and turn it over, and beat it, and beat it, until all the dross went out. When he seen his own self reflect back into the--the gold, he knew then that all of the dirt, and the iron, and the foreign matters was out of the gold.

32 And that's the way God is trying to do His Church, is to beat it till all the creeds, and the nonsense, and all the world, is beat out of it, till it reflects back the Life of Jesus Christ. Remember, the church! I've just come off of the great meeting at home, where the six Seals, and that sixth Seal... or, seven Seals. And that sixth one was the purification of the church. The church, of course, goes through the Tribulation period for its purifying. But, the Bride is raptured, is the difference between the Bride and the church.

33 I hope I don't get doctrinated here now. If I say anything that you don't believe, why, do it just like I do when I'm eating cherry pie. I--I love cherry pie. But when I hit a seed, I never throw the pie away; just throw the seed away. So you do the same thing. Eating chicken, when you hit the bone, you don't throw the chicken away, you just throw the bone away. If I say something you don't believe, just throw the bone away, you see.
Now, but there is emergencies, and crisis is on, and constantly is calling the president to the final, to conferences, and they have to meet for this or that. And Cuba will fly up, then they have to call a conference. And something else will fly up, they have to call a conference. All we hear about, nearly, is conference.
What do they do at a conference? How is it made up?

34 First thing, they call together, and then select a certain place. In Geneva, I've been there. That's a--a great, beautiful place. And they usually try to get to a place kind of inspiring, so that they can get there, and then select this place, call all the great men into this one place. And make a... I haven't got it wrote down here. Where was that place in Switzerland, we went down there, Billy? Where they... That was at Geneva, wasn't it? And I think it was a beautiful country. I didn't write down the--the name of that conference, but I remember being there. And they meet and have these places, and they select the best they can, and work upon it.

35 Now, that's of the world. And everything that's wrong, everything that's in the world, it's wrong, is a type of the right.
Now, sin itself is only righteousness perverted. Now, there's only one Creator, and that's God. And Satan is not a creator. He's only a perverter of original creation. A lie is the Truth misrepresented. Adultery is the right act misused. Everything is always a perversion of what's right. Satan can pervert but he cannot create. See? And--and we remember that, that the wrong, a lie, or anything that's sin, is righteousness perverted. And so we find that Satan always takes a type, for what he's going to do, off of what God has done.

36 For instance, like many people seeing the meeting, they say, "It's a telepathy. Or, it's a... The man is, was called what? Simon, the sorcerer, and--and something like that." See? Why? When you see a spiritualist or a devil act, it's only a perversion of a real genuine thing that God has. That's right. See it?
And men ought to be, ought to know enough, and spiritual enough, to be able to discern between what's right and wrong. Did you ever hear of a spiritualist casting out devils, and--and healing the sick, and preaching the Gospel? "And by their fruits they are known." See? They got some little stand over in a corner somewhere, and read the palm of your hand, and guess at four or five things, and a dozen of it be wrong. And there you are, you see. That's just a perversion, trying to draw people's minds, that's out of ease, away from the real, genuine Holy Spirit, where we can set together in Heavenly places, and Christ reveal to us what we should do.

37 The churches ought to be that way. The people that speaks in tongues... I--I just want to speak this, because I'm your father, as it was. I'm going to act as that this morning. See? We got a great thing. But it's--it's... I believe that it's not represented just right. See? And it'll sell itself if it's perfectly represented right. Now, I think there's many of these Methodists, these Baptists, and Presbyterian, would like to have This. But it's the way we present It to them. See?

38 Now, if you see a fellow out building a house, and got a hammer and he's putting nails in the house. You walk up. And you got a machine that you can put a half a keg of nails in it, "Rrroot." Just nail it up like that, twice as quick, and a better job. If you walk up to him, tell him, "Ah, what are you doing? You're old fashion. You don't want to do that. That's the wrong way. Here, I got a machine will do this." Right quick, you have ruined your sale. You businessmen know that. You've ruined your sale. The thing to do is go up and brag on him, how--how well he can build, and then just introduce the product. If it's any good, it'll sell itself. You salesmen know that.
And you know there's nothing better than the baptism of the Holy Spirit. There's nothing better was give to man, out of Heaven, outside of the Holy Spirit. But, you see, we--we try to knock the other fellow down. Let's try to pick him up a little bit, and put our arm around him, and let him let it know that the blanket stretches all the way across the bed. See? And hold that kind of a conference, you see. Give him a little room, too, but after all he's--he's struggled.

39 Now, but, you see, many times in our churches, we permit people just to raise up even when you're preaching, and speak in tongues, and making an altar call, somebody speak in tongues, and somebody to, and give interpretations. Merely, one of them, I believe, I believe the person is genuinely speaking in tongues. But I believe the other is, more or less, prophesying, 'cause, some will speak in tongues, maybe for five minutes, and the other one give four words of interpretation. See? It has to be at the same sound, the same raise and fall of voice.

40 And then, again, if they say it, and it doesn't come to pass, then get that evil spirit away from you. You don't want that. In my tabernacle, when one speaks like that, he better have it. It's wrote down. If it doesn't come to pass, they get that evil spirit out of them. It's got to be exact, not some repeating. Jesus said, "Don't use vain repetitions as heathens do." It's got to be something directly to somebody, or to help the church, or to help the cause. That's wrote right down. And if it isn't... And the people who speak with tongues, and them great gifts to help the body of Christ, they meet hours before we ever get there, and the Holy Spirit works through them. Then it's put on the desk, and we tell out what they've said here. And if doesn't happen right as it said it did happen, then they cannot do that no more till that evil spirit is out of them.
You say, "Well, Brother Branham, that?"
Well, look. And I have to stand up here. I wouldn't be afraid, because it's God. It has to be right, every time, here. And it has to be right, out there, every time. Then when people see those things come to pass, then they'll believe.

41 What the Pentecostal church needs, this morning, is a good conference. That's exactly right. All the denominations, the--the oneness, twoness, threeness, fourness, and all the rest of us, and the church of God, Assemblies of God, all of us get together and reason these things out, that's right, and get the church moving.
As long as Satan can keep you firing at one another, he just sits back and said, "Brother, I don't even have to fight."
But if we could just get together, and look up to God, as brethren, then step, arming, united. You don't have to change, and one go to one church. And do the--the way you want to. Them little differences you make is no difference anyhow. God give every one of you the Holy Ghost. So the Bible said, "God gives those the Holy Ghost who obeys Him." So surely somebody has obeyed God.

42 But the thing, as long as Satan can keep the little differences, that's what makes the church in such a commotion as is today. Let's forget that thing and come together.
Remember, the other brother is just as much in Christ as we are. There's no big men, no little men, no superiors. We're children. We're one in Christ. And our little differences doesn't make any difference. Whether Becky wants a blue dress, and Sarah wants a red one, they're both getting dresses. That, see what I mean? So they mustn't argue about that. So I think that's what we--we really should do.

43 Now, talking about world conferences, at world crisis. You know, God has had some conferences, too. We think about the Paris, and the Geneva, and the Big Four, and many other conferences. Let's think about some conferences now that God had, which these were a types off of, of what God has had.
I--I think that the first conference, that I can think of now, Scripturally speaking, I'm going to call it God's Eden conference. "God made man in His Own image, in the image of God created He him; male and female created He them." They were His beloved children. And they were put on the basis of free moral agency.
The old infidel has said, many times, "Why would a just God do a thing like that, and had all the suffering that's gone through the age?"
God didn't do that. Man did that, himself. God wasn't willing for him to do that.
"Well then, if God was omnipotent, why did He let it even happen? Why didn't He make man perfect?"

44 Because, in the beginning there was nothing but God. And in God was attributes, His attribute to be a Saviour. We know it's so. He is a Saviour, and that was in Him. And there was nothing lost, to be saved. In Him was attributes to be Father, and there was nothing He could father. In Him was attributes to be a healer. There was nothing lost, nothing sick. So the only thing He could do was make man on the basis of free moral agency, knowing that he would do it. God didn't do it, Himself. Man done it, himself.
And you're the same way this morning. You can accept Life or turn Life down. But God made man thus, that he'd... knowing he would do it, not willing that he should do it, but knowing he would do it, that it would display His attributes. So there's nothing out of time. Everything is ticking just exactly according to God's great timepiece. See? And this only displays His attributes, to select His children who really love Him and believe Him. And every man has an equal right.
God being infinite, knew from the beginning what would be and what wouldn't be. So therefore He wasn't willing that any... But being infinite He'd have to know. So, therefore, He could say that He would have a Church without spot or wrinkle, because He knew He would have it. He is God.

45 Now, and this lovely place in the garden of Eden, oh, where men and women lived together. God is a great contractor.
Now, you have a lot of it here in Tucson, as it's building. Few years ago, when I was here, just a little bitty city. And now, up there where I'm living, why, the coyotes and Papagos was going through there when I was here a few years ago. And now there's... Why, it's big projects, and houses, and building on out, on out, on out, on out. Well, what's happening? See, contractors go in and buy a piece of land, and subdivide it, and build houses.

46 Now, God did that. See? He--He laid out all the material, to make our bodies, while this world was being formed. Now, we're made of sixteen elements, that's potash, and calcium, and petroleum, and cosmic light, and so forth. And all this goes together to make the man. But that was here before there was a man on the earth. See? God made our bodies and laid the material out here before there was an earth.
Now, you're brought into it and you come here by God. And now you have the opportunity to live Eternally if you so choose. That's exactly what Adam and Eve had. Every... God cannot change. He has to remain the same, give every man the same opportunity.
Now we find out, God, it pleased Him when He made man. He looked at His--His daughter and His son, and how pleased He was with them. And then we find out that, as soon as Adam and Eve had sinned, and the message come up before God, our Father, "Your child has fallen from the grace. He's got away from You." My, how that must have alarmed His heart!

47 And now notice the nature. When Adam realized that he was lost, when he knowed that he had done wrong and it was made manifest before him, that he was in the wrong. Instead of calling, "O Father, come to me; I'm lost; I've done wrong; been deceived; come to me," he hid.
And it was God, going up-and-down the garden, screaming, "Adam, where are thou?"
Isn't that the same today? You can show men, by the Word of God, when he's failed. That's exactly. Adam knowed he had failed. He had failed the Word of God.
And you remember, it doesn't take a whole lot. You know what caused all this sickness, and all this trouble, and death, and sorrow, of six thousand years? Because one woman just failed to believe one little sphere, little phase of God's Word, just one little iota. She believed most of it. Satan told her the Truth about most of It. "These things you'll do, and this." And then said, "Surely you'll not die."
But just to disbelieve one little iota, caused all this trouble. Is that right? [Congregation says, "Amen."] Do you think disbelieving one iota will take you back, after it's caused all this? ["No."] No, sir.
We've got to come to the Word. That's the only, and That is God. "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God."

48 And, see, when God made man, when He begin to brood over the earth, up come, like Easter flowers, up come grass, up come species, rising higher and higher. The great Holy Spirit, brooding! Or, brooding means "to be mothering, cooing." "Coo, coo." The flowers come up. The Father said, "That's wonderful. Just keep it up." And He brooded. And after while, out come birds. And the next thing, out come animals. He kept getting greater, greater, greater, greater.
And, finally, the earth reflected the reflection of Him that was brooding: God. And he was in the image of God. Never did anything come higher than a man, even to our beloved sisters, a woman. She is not in the original creation. She's the byproduct of the man, a part of him; and they're one, in Christ. Oh, what a great lesson we have here right before us now, that we could spend hours on, throw light upon! Notice.

49 Now we find out that, then, when this man reflected God, then God come down in His own reflection, in the form of Man, Jesus Christ. And God was in Christ. The God, in Christ, reflecting Himself to the earth, what He was: a Saviour, a God, a Healer. God, displaying His real attributes, through a Man, which was His reflection. And God, in order to get this, couldn't come through sex, which first started the ball rolling, but He brought it through a virgin birth.
Can't you see that, that first sin, what it was? [Congregation says, "Amen."] Many won't agree with that, and you holler about "the serpent's seed," but there it is. See?

50 Now, the reflection, God reflecting Himself in Christ. But then when this man was lost...
Today, when man is showed, by the Word, that he shouldn't do these things, sometimes he's loyal to a church.
If there's any of my Catholic friends here this morning, pardon this just a moment. My people are all Catholic too, you know, Roman Catholic.
Now notice. When this priest come to me, about many great healings, and he said, "Your background is Catholic. Why is it you're not Catholic?"
I said, "I am catholic."
And he said, "Oh, I can't believe that."
I said, "Don't your church teach that this Bible, that Jesus Christ established the first catholic church, and these apostles were catholic?"
"Yes."
I said, "Then I believe just what they wrote."
He said, "But, Mr. Branham," said, "the church keeps changing. He gave Peter the authority to--to have the keys, and he can bind, and the apostolic succession of the popes, and so forth."
I said, "I got all your writings, or most of them, in there, Facts Of Our Faith, and so forth. But," I said, "look. If those men who wrote that Bible, walked side by side with Jesus, say they were catholic and they wrote that Bible, don't you think they would know more about the will of God, and the commands of God, than what this modern bunch would do today?" And I said, "Notice, if it is the Church, then when they obeyed what God said, originally, and it is the Word of God, look at the miracles and signs, and so forth, they had. And you don't have them at all, today. It's an evidence that God is not with you."
He said, "Mr. Branham, we're not supposed to argue."
I said, "Sir, I wouldn't argue with nobody. I'm just asking you something." Then I brought up the Nicaea Council and so forth.
He said, "We're not to argue." He said, "You are trying to speak of a Bible, of a Word." Said, "God is in His church. That's what the church was. This is what it is today. We're supposed to listen at the church today."
I said, "God is in His Word."
He said, "God is in His church."
I said, "He's in His Word. And if the Word isn't in the church, then God isn't in the church, because the Word is God." And I said, "Besides, do you believe the Apocalypse?" Which means, "Revelations." It's the Greek. "You believe the Apocalypse is inspired?"
Said, "Certainly."
I said, "Then, Jesus Christ said, Himself, in the Apocalypse, that, 'Whosoever shall take one Word out of It, or add one word to It, his part will be taken out of the Book of Life.' Then how can you say that you have authority to take out, put in, or do what you want to, when you're forbidden to do it by the founder of the Christian Church, Jesus Christ? You can't do it." See?

51 Oh, the hour, the tremendous time that we're living! And when men is told of their error, instead of trying to come back and say, "Father, I'm wrong; forgive me," they still hide behind the fig leaves. Fig leaves is what they sewed together, themselves. And they tried to... The word religion means "a covering." And they tried to make themself a hand-made covering. And man hasn't changed yet, today.
So, God had to call a conference. And He had to meet with His person, His child.
And remember, His commandments was, "The day you eat thereof, that day you die." And God cannot defy His own laws and be just. So He made a great chasm between Him and man. So when they...
He wanted to redeem His child. He didn't want them to go like that, so He had to redeem him. So they called a conference, and it was the first conference that God ever met with man, was the Eden conference.

52 How is He going to save that man? What can He do, to bring His lost children back to Him? And remember, His first decision is perfect, always.
If it would have been the creeds, the fig leaves, He'd have said, "Adam, you have done justly. Come on out from behind the trees. I think you're a wise man. You're reflecting Me, because you're wise. Your fig leaves is just right." Man is still trying that fig leaf.
But God made a decision. And the decision was, that, something had to die, because it spoke of Him, His holiness and righteousness, to His own law. "The day you eat of that, you die." And there had to be a substitute with a feeling. Botany life has no feeling. So He had to kill something in order to get skins, to cover them up. And that was God's decision, how to save man, to bring man back into fellowship with Him, at Eden, and it has forever remained that way. No man...

53 I don't know how many times that they've tried to educate the man. They have tried to tell him that an educational program will do it. How many times has the churches tried that? It's failed every time, and it will. We try to organize, each fellow have... Now, I'm not against education, neither am I against organization. But the organization and educational programs, and all the other that we've man-made, is fig leaves.

54 It's, back to God's original decision at that first conference, Eden, back to the blood! The Jew, in the old days...
Now I'm coming down home, for Pentecost, just for a few minutes.
In the old days, when God accepted this substitute, how the Jew used to come down the road with his slick bullock. And he'd say, "You know, I'm a sinner. Jehovah requires me to offer blood." So he goes and gets his lamb or his bullock. He takes it down to the high priest, down to the temple, and he lays his hands upon his sacrifice. What does that do? That identifies the worshipper with his sacrifice. And the priest comes and kills the bullock, and catches the blood and sprinkles it upon. And this worshipper sincerely knowing, this Jew, that that's what Jehovah required of him.
The man went home with a good feeling, feeling the quiver and shaking of that lamb, the blood spraying all over his hands, and so forth, and see that little fellow kicking and dying, as its throat cut. He knowed that he ought to be that one. He looked at his sacrifice. He identified himself by laying his hands upon it, "I should be that one." And then when they cut its throat, it dying and bleating, and going on, and the little fellow quiver and quieting down, and the worshipper stand there and saying, "O Jehovah, You've accepted that instead of me. I'm ashamed of myself." And the man went home justified, because he had done exactly what Jehovah required. That was fine.

55 But, by and by, it became a family tradition. Now he takes his sacrifice, say, "Well, let's see, now. Oh, yes, it's getting to be new moon, feast. I guess I better. It's a cleanse, in the tabernacle. It's a feast of pentecost. I guess I better go down, offer me a lamb." Go on down there and kill it, with no feelings at all; but go on back with the same idea he had, coming in there.
And then what did He do? Jehovah said, here in Isaiah, speaking a little later on, He said, "Your solemn feasts are become stink in My nose." [Gap in the audio]
We must come, not like a bunch of rickys and rickettas. We must come, not like a bunch of formal, or so forth, that they have today, of these traditional religions. We are pentecostals. Let's come with deep sincerity, lay our hands upon our Sacrifice yonder at Calvary, and feel the bleeding and suffering of Jesus Christ, as we identify ourselves that we are dead to the things of the world and this modern ideas of the day.

56 We're as Sodom and Gomorrah, and we're living in that. Let the righteous spirit in us... These sins vex our soul daily; let the sins of the world, and the fashions of Hollywood, and all this Hollywood evangelism and nonsense, all this make-up, and beat the music, and jump up-and-down. The music stops, down you go.
When a man is washed in the Blood of the Lamb, he don't need music or nothing else. The power of God just works upon him, and he can shout, scream, praise God, or do anything else, whether there's music or not. The Holy Ghost is in him, and he's identified with Jesus Christ.
But, today, we just want to. We have to jump around a little bit, as Pentecostals, 'cause our forefathers did. They had something to jump around about, this Holy Spirit making them jump. And then when they come back down, always live as high as you jump. If you don't, don't jump at all. We come down today and live all kinds of lives. We bring a reflection upon the very Thing that we're standing for.

57 And our organizations are getting worldly. They're getting out there and letting our Pentecostal brethren get out there in these great schools. They're all right, nothing against them, but I'm only trying to show a point. They educate them, and teach them psychology, and give them the B.A. and just like the rest of them does, and send them out there. And what they are, they're absolutely... They're not pentecostal.
God don't have any grandsons. God has sons. We try to think our mother was pentecost, and our daddy was pentecost, and all we was brought up in Sunday school, and automatically we're pentecostals. That's grandchildren. God don't have grandchildren.

58 He has sons of God and daughters of God, and every man must pay the same price the first man paid. He must come under the shed Blood of Jesus Christ. That's what he must do. Now we find out, now, that that's what, in the beginning, the sincerity.
Now we try to think, because we've got a young fellow here that wants an education, He goes out into the schools and so forth, he comes forth educated. He can speak real lovely. He can stand on the platform. He's a man of glamor. Well, that's Hollywood. They want something that shine. You want a man with a culture, with a fine education. You want a man, regardless, that's broad-minded, that he can see he don't care for the women cutting their hair. The Bible said for her not to do it. Don't care for the... If a deacon comes in the church, if he's a good man and can pay pretty good, they don't care if he's been married a couple of times. "That's all right. He's a good fellow." But the Bible refuses it. Exactly.

59 We don't come into the church by theology. We come in by kneeology. That's right. We come into Christ.
But, you see, today we've--we've got this idea that we want to go like the rest of them. That's what got Israel in trouble, want to go like the rest of them. Our solemn feast of pentecost has become just a formal worship. We all know that. And we see it getting... We mustn't do that.
The thing we must do is get back and identify ourself with Jesus Christ. Take His way and let Him work through us, then men will gladly follow Him who once taught, "I'll draw all men unto Me."
How we'd like to go on for a little bit, and express some more thing on that Eden conference, but I got some more conference I want to go to.

60 For instance, let's have another conference, the Burning-Bush conference. I would call it the burning bush.
Now, God had a runaway prophet. When God calls a man to do something, he just might as well come to it, or he'll be miserable the rest of his days. Moses started out. He was called of God. He was ordained for a job. And then when he started out, the people didn't believe him, so he just let the people go. He run out and married some beautiful Ethiopian girl, and got inherit, inherited a bunch of sheep. And there he was, out there, and he lost all the vision of the people, of the church of the living God. And God had ordained him to do it. He raised him up, "born from his mother's wombs, a proper child," and He raised him up for this purpose. No need of trying to get out of it, you're going to do it, anyhow.

61 And you, just church members, and you feel that there is something deeper in your heart, you'll be a miserable wretch until you accept that Christ, like that. You seen the real genuine Holy Spirit working in people. You'll be miserable until it comes to you. It's God calling you. Give yourself up. Come out, behind the bushes. It's already settled. God made His way. It's through the Blood.
You say, "Well, I belong to the church." That don't no mean a bit more than if you belong to the rodeo, not a bit. Nothing against the organization; but I'm not against the people in the organization, but it's the system.

62 Now notice this. Now we find this burning bush. God knew that that prophet was living in ease, so He decided that He'd have to speak to this prophet. So, He selected a place. Emergency was on, "I have heard the cries of My people. And there's a man that I sent to deliver them, and he's weak and washy."
O God, I hope He calls one here this morning, the ministers to get on fire. Look at the vision. We're dying. The world is gone. The church is backslid. God is trying to call a Bride out.
So, He selected a place, very odd place to us; it was a bush up on top of the mountain. But that attracted the prophet's attention. And He called him up there for a conference.

63 Watch. He had to obey it, word by word. "Take off your shoes, Moses. The ground whereon you stand is holy."
What if Moses said, "Well, now, Lord, I just had some schooling. Honor is 'take off your hat,' so I'll take off my hat"? That would never worked.
When God said, "Shoes," He meant shoes.
When God said, "Born again," He meant born again. He don't mean a handshake or a repeat of creed. Everybody is scared of that new Birth.
The Devil substituted a handshake for It, or some kind of a psychic affair, that would make you acknowledge, "Yes, I'm born again." But your life tells what you are, the life that's in you.
You say you are born of the Spirit of God, and deny one Word of that Bible, it shows you're not. You try to place It back on something else, that shows it wasn't the Holy Spirit, 'cause He would never deny His Own Word. You say, "Well, my church teaches that." There, it shows you're not. You're born of the church, not of God. This is God, His Word.
Here he is, Moses, the anointed. "Take off your shoes. You're on holy ground."
"Well, wouldn't my hat do just as well?" He said shoes. And that's what He meant, was shoes.
God says, "Be born again." It means born again.

64 Now listen. Oh, I'm in a mixed multitude, and young children. But you'd listen to your doctor. You listen. I hope you listen to me and understand.
Any birth is a mess. I don't care if it's in the pig pen, or--or it's in a pink decorated hospital room. Any mess... birth is a mess. And so is the new Birth. It's a mess. It'll make you do things you didn't think you'd do. But out of that death and corruption comes forth Life.

65 And no seed can bring its life until it's dead and rotten. And out of that rotten mess, when there's nothing else left to rot it, it's only the life that lives. When a son comes to God, he is given tests.
I stood there that day, I remember, as I took my test. When I'd been days after days, months after months, and years, four or five years on the streets, corners, preaching the Gospel, and trying to do that which was right in God's sight. And He let my wife go right out from under me. My baby laying there, dying. And I got down to the baby, I said, "Lord God, don't let my baby die," eight, nine months old, little baby.
I looked up, and looked like a black sheet coming down. He even refused to hear me. He wouldn't even look at me. I raised up, about twenty-three years old. There laid the wife in the morgue. He refused to hear me, for her, when all I had done. I said, "God, tell me what I've done. If I've done wrong, punish me, not them." I said, "What have I done? Work all day, and preach all night, and stand on the street corners. And every... What have I done? Tell me what I've done?" He wouldn't even tell me.

66 Then Satan come up to my side. He said, "Then you'll serve Him, when one word would change the whole situation? One word will save your baby, but He refuses to do it. He won't do it; when one word. Then you'll go ahead and serve Him?"
All the human reasoning, that's right. "Why should I serve Him if He won't even as much as just look down at my baby, that'd take all it take? And much as I had thought I done for Him, then He wouldn't even listen to my own baby." That was the hardest temptation. All human reasonings had broke away. "Why should I serve Him if He can't do that much for me? And I go day and night, for Him, and He even refuses to tell me what I done." Well, human reasonings is gone.

67 But, oh, when a man is born again, that's something in there that holds. It come down to that spot, when I thought, "Where did I get her? Where did she come from? What am I, anyhow? Where did I come from?" See? All the human part had broke away, then that real genuine Spirit of God laid there.
I walked over to her and put my hands on her head. She was suffering so bad till her little eyes was crossing together. I said, "Sweetheart, in a few minutes, I'll take you and lay you on mommy's arms, out there in the--in the morgue. I'll bury you out here under the pine trees. And someday daddy will see you again."
I looked up. I said, "God, though You slay me, yet I'll trust You. You gave her. You taken away. Blessed be the Name of the Lord."
For, then, all my human reasonings had vanished. I was at the end of my road. But when you come to the end of your road, then there is that real Spirit of God there to take over, at that time, and lift you up.

68 You must be born again. Everything has to die away. All your theology, all your thinking, all you ever was or ever expect to be, your life and everything else, dies away. And then the Holy Spirit comes in. That's when you take off hats, shoes, stand before God. "Nothing in my arms I bring. Simply to Thy cross I cling."
That's where Moses had to come, where he could obey what God said do; the burning-bush conference. Then God said, "I'll show you My glory now," after he was willing to go. And he went down in Egypt.

69 There is the Eden conference. There is the burning-bush conference.
Let's take another one, right quick. Let's take the Red Sea conference. You know, right in the line of duty, sometimes, Satan crosses our path. Minister brothers, you all know that. Christians, you know that. Right.
Here is Moses, going down, and showed the signs to Israel; the one that he showed the first to, and they wouldn't listen. He goes back in a line of duty, under the anointing of God, with the very voice of God to speak things even into existence. He could call for flies. He used the voice of God. He said, "Let flies come." And there wasn't even a fly in the country. He walked on back. He knowed it would happen because he had spoke the Word of God. He walked back. And directly an old green fly begin to circle, and then they were two pounds per square yard.
Creative work, that belongs in the church of Jesus Christ today, under the Blood of Jesus Christ, by His Word, that we're in contact with Him. No difference. The Word that we hear is here, and it's God. We see Him standing there. We know it's Him speaking to us, same thing. I seen it done, and I know it's right. It's with the Bible.

70 There, Moses, given the authority. He went down and showed the signs to Israel, and Israel come out with him. And here they are, right in the line of duty, and there's the Red Sea cutting them off. Moses called a conference. God must have selected a place over behind the Rock. Moses goes over there, and say, "Lord!"
If you're walking in the line of duty, you got a right to call a conference. That's what we've come to pray for. That's what we're sent to hospital for. That's why we go to the sick bed for. Call a conference. Oh, my! I feel religious right now. Call a conference. That's what the Pentecostal people needs today, is call a conference. What's the matter? We slowed up. There's a wedge in the camp somewhere. Call a conference.

71 Moses called a conference, said, "Lord, I've did just as You told me, and here we're in a trap. Death is coming, moving upon us." Like a patient with a cancer, "Death is moving upon us." And Moses stood there till they had an audition with God. He stayed there until God spoke. He knowed His voice. He was the prophet.
Said, "Why you crying to Me, Moses? I give you authority to take those people over there, and told you you'd do it. Speak to the people and go forward." Amen. Red Sea's begin to move, and everything else, when God spoke the Word. When the decision come for what for him to do.
"I'm here. I'm up against it. What must I do?"
"Speak and go forward." And the Dead Sea moved.
Our time is getting away. And I--I got so much, different places, I like to refer to. Let's hurry. Got several more, David, and so forth.

72 But here, remember, there was a Gethsemane conference come one time, when God and His Son had to get together. After all, there was no one else could die for the sins of the world. There was nobody worthy to die, no man.
Every man in this world was born sexual desire, and that's what caused the turmoil at the beginning. That's what done it, made us a hybrid creature. We're born of sex, human desire. It's hybrid. Something has been... That's the reason it's got death in it, as I spoke last night. But when God made His first man, He never asked woman and man to get together. He created him out of the earth. He was a genuine plant. His sin is what brought him to a hybrid.
That's what's the matter today, the reason we're getting so many hybrid Pentecostals. You're listening to reasoning and instead of the Word. Come back, people. Come back.

73 Notice, out there in the mixed-up crowds, I didn't say this. It's between you, you Pentecostals setting here, and us. We don't come here to be heard. I come here to try to help. I come. If I--if I'm just standing here, to say I--I spoke on a certain subject this morning, that makes me a hypocrite. I come here with the Truth, and a Truth that I want you to know, something that I believe God puts on my heart, to help you, that we can see the hour that we're living in. See?

74 There's a Gethsemane conference, when the only One that could die come up to the hour. Then when that great time come, there He had to make His final decision. No doubt the Father said, "Are You still ready to go through with it, Son?"
He said, "Is it possible, Father, is there some other man You could find somewhere? I love My people. I love the brethren that You've give Me. Is it possible that some other man could?"
"No. You're the only One can do it. You're the only One that's virgin born. You're the only One is born without sex." No other man, no bishop, no pope, no cardinal, no nothing can help you. It's that One. "You're the only One can do it." Then the conference was.
Satan was standing there, ready to claim the human race. He said he had rights because they had sinned.

75 As you people that's here, has had the tapes on the Seven Seals. When the Lamb come forth to claim His redemption, what He had redeemed, time was finished then. He is in the work now, doing the work of redemption. But someday He walks from the sanctuary, to take up the Book of redemption that He's purchased with His Own Blood, then the hour is over. He comes forth then to claim what He has redeemed.
Here He was, standing in Gethsemane, that great suffering. The sin of every man was upon Him. Everything that ever died, the death of that was placed upon Him. And He was innocent, but He had to become sin.
"Can You, the holy Son of God, take the sin of adultery? Can you take the sin, the punishment of adultery? Can You take the sin, the punishment of a lie? Can You take the sin of all these things? And can You bear them upon Yourself, yet innocent?" He was the only One. The conference was met.
What did He say? "Not My will; Thine be done."
O God, can we all hit a Gethsemane conference, that final check up?

76 Then there come another conference one time. A few days after that, about forty days, there come a conference, after His death, burial, and ascension. The Christian Church was going to be organized.
Methodists, Baptists, Presbyterian, Lutheran, all of us, listen now just a minute, in closing.
There come a time when God was going to not only take a people...
Like, Israel is His people. "Israel will be saved as a nation," the Bible said so, "be born in a day." God deals with Israel as a p-... nation, as a--as a people.
But He deals, the Church, with a individual. "He has called, out of the Gentiles, a people for His Name."
Now, we find out that the hour come now. How must this Church be run? They were forbidden, though they had preached, though they had healed... Listen to me. Though he, they had preached, though they had healed, though they had seen great signs and wonders, and though they were a witness that He was the Son of God, yet He forbid them to preach until they held this conference. "Wait up there at the city of Jerusalem. I'll send you word back how the Christian church should be operated. I'll let you know if I'm to have a bishop, or a cardinal, or a pope, or whatever I'm going to have. I'll send you back. I'm going to Heaven, to hold a conference. You'll wait there till you hear the returns." Amen. Amen.

77 I remember when they was holding that Geneva conference, an old minister friend of mine, Dr. Pettigrew, in Louisville, said he was listening to the radio, listening. The nation was at stake. He wanted to see what the decision was, what they were going to do. And some beatnik come to the door, with his hair hanging down in his face, and said, "Dr. Pettigrew, I understand that you're a... that an influence man." Said, "I, I've got some rock-and-roll songs. The--the people won't listen to me. If you'll just give me a little boost off!"
He said, "Son, stand out there just a little bit." Said, "I'm--I'm listening to see what the returns is going to be."
He said, "But, Dr. Pettigrew," said, "this is a great thing." He said, "This means a lot to me." Like it meant any more than hearing the returns from the Big Four Conference?
That's the way the people are today. Some little beatnik, something another, in the name of--of religion come around and try to attract your attention from hearing the actual Returns. Hum! Some little sissified, pettified, religious-ied (if there is such a word to use), getting more members and better people, getting a bigger church and a bigger following, trying to attract your attention, brethren. Don't listen to them. We've got the Returns wrote out Here.

78 That was the pentecostal conference. Said, "Don't you sing another song, don't preach another word, but go up there and wait till this conference is over. I'll send you back the News. I'll tell you who is the greatest among you. I'll tell you exactly what you're to do; whether you're to have an organization, whether you're to have a pope, or a bishop, or whatever you're supposed to have. I'll tell you about it. But wait till you hear the Returns. We're going to Heaven, to decide the thing."
"And He ascended on High, led captive captive, set down by the right hand of God, and sent gifts back to men." Then when the Day of Pentecost was fully come, they been waiting.
Oh, what if it would been, what if--if Andrew would have said, after about six days, "You know, brethren, I believe we don't have to wait any longer. I believe that, by faith, we receive our ministry. We should go ahead, start right out and start on our ministry, right now."
That's the trouble with a many a minister. He don't stay there long enough, till he hears the Return, till he hears his commission.

79 Well, you know, maybe there would been another name, Philip, would got up, said, "You know, I been feeling pretty good. After all, we have a knowledge of this, what He wants to do."
That might be so, brethren. You might have a B.A., D.D., L.L., Q.U.S.T., and it won't mean a thing. Your knowledge don't mean nothing. All your seminaries just don't mean a thing. You've got to wait for the Returns, to see what God said. And no man has got a right to preach the Gospel without meet, first meeting Jesus Christ as a Person, not as some theology, theology. Well, you know what I mean, some theological degree. Theological degree, he has no right to do it upon that, no matter how much he can explain It. That isn't it.

80 Just like Moses. He could teach the Egyptians wisdom. He was the smartest man in the land, but he had to go to the conference with God. And no man has a right to claim to be a Christian, no woman, no child, no preacher especially, until he himself has come upon that sacred sands where he met God. All the theologians in the world, all the infidels in the world, can't explain that away from him. He was there. It happened. It happened to him. He knows where he stands.
There, they went to the Day of Pentecost.
And we didn't see a--a... Now, I'm not... I'm just making an expression. We don't see it there, where the bishop come up the road with his satchel in his hand, and he said, "Now, I have been sent of the Lord. I want to lay hands upon you brethren and send you out." That's the 1963 version of it, the bishop and his staff.
Well, we think of them. Let's just take it with due regards to our Catholic friends. Let's say there come a priest up the road, with the last rites, so-called. "Lick out your tongue and take the wafer, and I'll drink the wine. And then you'll be a member." If that would have been, it would have been at the first place.
God is infinite. His decision is just like it was in the garden of Eden. He, His first decision, settles it.

81 Well, what did they do? They waited, and they waited, and they wasn't satisfied. They waited, until, "There came a sound from Heaven like a rushing mighty wind. It filled all the house where they were setting. Cloven tongues set upon them, like Fire. And they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and begin to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance."
A bunch of cowards that was afraid of evangelism, a bunch of cowards that was afraid to face the dignity and the celebrity of the city and the religious critics, was out in the street, testifying, "This is That." That was God's decision.
A few days after that, the Samaritans. Philip had went down and preached to them and baptized them in the Name of Jesus Christ, though the Holy Ghost hadn't fallen upon none of them yet. So, they sent up to Peter and brought him down. They know they had great joy. They was happy and rejoicing, and they had had a great time. And they had had great healings and everything.
Now, Nazarene, Pilgrim Holiness, Methodist brethren, listen. Healing isn't it. Joy isn't it. It's the experience. It's the Holy Spirit, Christ Himself, coming into you, as a Person.

82 They sent up and got Peter and John who came down and laid their hands upon them, and the Holy Ghost came on them. In Acts 10:49 we find that Peter, while he was speaking to the Gentiles, "While Peter yet spake these Words, the Holy Ghost fell on them that heard It. For they heard them speak in tongues, and magnify God. And Peter said, 'Can we forbid water, seeing these has--has received the Holy Ghost like we did at the beginning?'"
Paul, talking to a bunch of Baptists, in Acts 19, passed through the upper coast of Ephesus. He finds certain disciples. They were happy. They had a great Baptist preacher there, by the name of Apollos. And he was a converted lawyer. And he said, "He was proving by the Bible, that Jesus was the Christ."

83 And Aquila and Priscilla, tentmakers with Paul, said, "Our brother Paul is in prison down there." Ain't that some place for a preacher to be? He was in prison because he cast the Devil out of a fortuneteller. And he said, "He, he's in prison, but he'll visit us pretty soon, and he'll explain the Word of God to you, more perfect."
And they were having a good time, like all good Baptists do, shouting, praising God, having healings, and signs, and so forth.
But when Paul come up and listened at them, an apostle, he said, "Have you received the Holy Ghost since you believed?" They thought they had it. See? "Since you believed?" We think, when we believe we got It. That's wrong. He said, "Have you received the Holy Ghost since you believed?"
They said, "We know not what it be, or whether there be One."
He said, "Unto what was you baptized?"
Said, "Unto John."
He said, "That won't work no more. You got to be baptized over."
So, he baptized them in the Name of Jesus Christ. Laid his hands upon them, and the Holy Ghost came upon them, and they spoke in tongues and magnified God. How? Just like they did at the beginning. The same formula was carried out.

84 When a doctor writes a prescription, don't let none of these quack druggists try to mess with it. They give you too much antidote, it won't help you. And if they put too much poison, it'll kill you.
Don't fool with God's formula. Carry it out the way it was at the conference. That was the Orders. Amen. I love Him.
Reminds me of Jesus' parents. They went up to the pentecostal feast. On the road back they found out. They been three or four days, and they didn't find Him among them. They begin to wonder.
That's about the way it is now. The churches are beginning to find, "What become of Jesus? What happened? We are Pentecostals, but what happened? We're Methodists, but what happened? What become of Jesus?"
They begin to look among their kindred.

85 That's what we begin to think. "What did Moody say? What did Sankey say? What did Finney say?" That was their day. We're on up the road. If we start searching back, like they did!
They went to their kindred and they couldn't find Him. They went to all their kindreds, the bishops, and so forth. They couldn't find Him. Finally, they found Him just where they left Him. Where did they leave Him? At the feast of pentecost. They had to go all the way back where they left Him, before they found Him.
And, church, that's what we got to do, go back where we left Him. Get away from some of our traditions. Go back where we left Him. You want to know where you left Him? Have a little Bible conference and just don't pull any punches, just tell the Truth.
We're going to wait now till we see how it was. No bishops, no nothing, just the Holy Spirit was supposed to lead the Church. That's the only Leader we have is the Holy Ghost, and He leads according to the Word.
If you say, "Well, I got the Holy Ghost," and you deny the Word; it ain't the Holy Ghost then, 'cause the Holy Ghost wrote the Bible. Right. So, it isn't the Holy Ghost.

86 Listen. Closing. In world conferences, what do they do? They eat together. They talk together. They fuss together. They lie to one another, at a world conference, a conference of the world, of the nations.
But what, when God calls a conference, what's happened? They meet together. They don't feast, but they fast. They don't fuss, but they pray. They wait till they get orders, and go forward.
That's what the church needs today, is a going forward, get the Orders. And you say, "How can I find the Orders?" Here they are. This is the Orders. "How do you know, Brother Branham?" The way God first planned Redemption was by the blood, and He will never change it, when God makes a decision. That's the reason you can hang your soul on that Bible, any phase It says, because It is the Word of God.
And God, being infinite, He cannot say, "Well, I was mistaken, two thousand years ago." God's Eternal. He never did begin. He never will end.

87 And the only way you can ever be like Him is be part of Him. On the Day of Pentecost...
That great Pillar of Fire that had followed Israel, or Israel had followed It through the wilderness, see, that great Pillar of Fire was God, the Angel of the covenant, Jesus Christ. "Moses esteemed the reproach of Christ greater treasures than that of Egypt, so he forsook Egypt and followed Christ."
Notice, on the Day of Pentecost, what did God do? He taken that big Pillar of Fire and divided It. That was Himself. Tongues of Fire, forked tongues, cloven tongues, come down, forked tongues, and set upon each one.
Oh, when, we ought to be ashamed, to let our organizations divide us! When, God divided Himself among us, that we might be one. "This will all men know that you're My disciples." Do you hear that, brother and sister? God divided Himself. We are never divided, one another, because we're parts of God.

88 Just let this Fire come to this Fire, and, after while, you'll find out, it'll move that. It's come up through Luther, Wesley, Pentecost. And find out, the pyramid will be capped, one of these days.
You know, it never was capped, the pyramid on the back of your dollar. "The great seal," it says. And we in America, here is the American seal on this side. But why did it say, "The great seal," the one that Enoch made? Not pyramid doctrines now, 'cause I don't believe in that kind of stuff. But they never did cap the pyramid. Why? The--the Capstone was rejected. But It will come again, someday. Praise the Lord!
And, see, in that pyramid, I been there. It's honed so close till even you can't run a razor blade. There's no mortar between it. It just perfectly sets together like the same stone.
And when that Church gets honed into the perfect image of Jesus Christ, He will come, resurrect all the saints when He comes, and take them with Him. The Church of the living God will be caught up.

89 But, brethren, we'll not be like Eve, one have this and one have that, a disfigured body. It'll be word by word, what God said.
Say, "Brother Branham, what did He say then? You never told us."
All right. Peter spoke it. When they wanted to know, "How do we get into this? What happened?" He gave us the formula.
Now, if he said, "Shake hands and join church," that's what it would been. And if he said, "Stand on your head," that's what it would have been. He said, "We'll organize a great man, and make a great body, and a great pope, and a great this, that," that's the way it would have been.
But what did he say? "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. For the promise is unto you, and to your children, and to them that's far off, even as many as the Lord our God shall call."

90 And as long as God is calling, it's got to be the same formula. Not shake hands, repeat a creed; but be baptized by the Holy Ghost, into the Body of Jesus Christ. That's the way the Christian Church is to be run. Not by creeds, not by denomination, not by education, not by theology; but by the baptism of the Holy Spirit, to lead men and women. And He will never lead you away from the Word of God. He'll lead you right to the Word of God, because "Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every Word that proceeds out of the mouth of God."
Have you got about two or three more minutes, four? [Congregation says, "Amen."] I got another conference I'd like call to you. I got it wrote here. Just, "Acts 4," it says. I know what that means.
Acts 4, after the disciples begin to preach, the churches begin to criticize. They begin to make them... The churches said, "Now wait a minute. You can go ahead and perform your miracles. You can do all this thing, but don't you preach no more in the Name of Jesus Christ." They beat them, and to stripes, and everything else. So what did they do? There got to be something done. They're forbidden. The law says that they can't preach this way no more.

91 Oh, brother. I wish I had just a little more time. The time is coming when you're either going to put your organization into the World Council of Churches, you'll... If you do that, you take the image of the beast, 'cause you got a power just like it was in Rome. And if you don't do it, you'll be an individual, independent church; and when you do, the image of the beast is going to close your doors, and you're going to be forbidden. And then you're going to need a conference. See?

92 "They tell us that we cannot, no longer. We can't preach in the Name of Jesus. Let's consult God and find out whether we can, or not." So they went up and had a conference. Oh, oh, oh, oh! Excuse me. We need one like that, this morning. "Is it good for us to obey man, or God?" said the apostle. They had a conference, about what we got this morning. And they stood up and give, "The--the--the church is telling us we can't preach unless we come to their group, and so forth. And we can't have this minister 'less the organization says so. And no matter how much anointed it is, we have to do this, that." And you know how it is, each group, and so forth. "What are we going to do?"
And they had a conference, and they got down and begin to pray. That's Acts 4 conference. "And when they did, all with one accord, 'Lord, why did the people imagine a vain thing; or the heathens rage, and the people imagine a vain thing? Stretch forth the hand of Thy Holy Child Jesus, to heal the sick. We're forbidden to do this. And all of them praying with one accord."

93 You talk, some people, criticize us for everybody praying the same time. How'd you like to have been in that group, "All in one accord"? Somebody said, "How can God ever hear that?" How many prayers you think He's hearing at one time, anyhow? You forget. He is not finite. He is infinite. See?
"And when they all prayed in one accord," the Bible said, "the building was shook where they were seated together." Amen. The Returns come back. "And they went forth preaching Jesus Christ, everywhere, God working with them, confirming the Word." The Acts 4 conference.

94 Oh, brother, just a minute, there's another conference. You might not attended any of these conferences. You might not attended these world conferences. Remember, you might not have done it. But, remember, there's one conference, I'm going to speak of now, that you're going to attend. I don't care who you are, you're going to attend it. You might be excused, up to this time, but from now on you're not. That's the conference at the Judgment. That's right. You're all going to be there, every one of us. And we're going to give an account for what we've done and said on this earth. That's one conference you're going to attend.
Every time you hear a siren go down the street, remember, it marks you. You're not going to be here very long. Where you see a gray hair coming, stooping of the shoulders, see a hospital, a graveyard, what is it? Testimony, you're not here for all the time, and you're moving up to that conference. And we're all going to be there.

95 We're going to have to give an account of what we have done with Jesus Christ. Is that right? [Congregation says, "Amen."] And Who is Jesus Christ? The Word. "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. And the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us." "Jesus Christ the same yesterday, today, and forever."
God, working in three dispensations, that's the reason He spoke about calling Him "Father, Son, and Holy Ghost." See? Not three different Gods. That's where you get mixed up. It's not three different Gods. It's one God in three manifestations, see, of--of the one God. We only got one God. We're not heathens. See? But we--we got one God, but three manifestations. That's the reason Matthew said, "Baptize them in the Name of Father, Son, Holy Ghost," because, see, It was One. That same God: was in the Old Testament; was the same God was made manifest; and the same God that's here today. Jesus Christ, the same: that Moses forsook the--the world in Egypt; the same then was here today; and the same One will be forever, Jesus Christ. And He is the Word. Amen.

96 God has got to judge the church by something. God has got to judge the world by some standard. You believe that? [Congregation says, "Amen."] Well, if He's going judge it by the church, which church? If He judge it by the Roman Catholic, the Greek is gone. If He judge it by the Greek, the Roman is gone. If He judge it by the Methodist, the Baptist is gone. If He judge it by the Baptist, the Methodist is gone; vice versa. If He judge it by the Oneness, the Twoness is gone. If He judge it by the Twoness, the Threeness is gone. If He judge it by the Threeness, they're both gone. There you are. What is it? What is it, brethren? It's a bunch of nonsense.

97 God has to have some standard. If I had to join a church, which one would I join? There's only One, and you don't join That.
I've been in the Branham family, fifty-four years, and I never did join the family. I was born a Branham. I'm a Branham because my father is a Branham.
And I'm a Christian because my Father is--is God. Amen. We're Christians upon that basis. We are Christians. We're born of His Spirit. And the Spirit of my Father, in me, I have the attributes of God in me, and they display theirself like they did in His Son, Jesus Christ. There you are.
"Upon this rock I build My Church. Not by... Flesh and blood hasn't revealed it to you, but My Father which is in Heaven has revealed it. Upon this rock I build My Church."

98 If God judges the world by the Catholic church, the Protestant is lost. He joins it by--by the Protestants, which one? He judge by the Catholic church, there is many different fears of the spheres of the Catholic church, so which one is it going to be? You see, a person would be confused. You wouldn't know what to do.
But here is what God will judge them by, the Word. That's the standard. "Heavens and earth will pass away, but My Word shall never fail." Upon This I take my stand. All other grounds is sinking sand. All other grounds is sinking sand.
On Christ, the solid Rock, I stand;
All other grounds is sinking sand.
I'm depending on It. I'm not trusting in what I am. I'm trusting in what He is. I cannot, I cannot go to Heaven; Jesus said I had to be perfect to get There. "Be ye therefore perfect even as your Father in Heaven." How can you be? But when you got... Look not at you, but at your Sacrifice.

99 Well, if a little mule was born in time of the Old Testament. He had broke down ears, and knock-kneed, and cross-eyed. Why, he know he'd get knocked in the head. He's no good. But the mother could tell him, "Son, you were born with a birthright. Because that you were born thus, this way, you'll live. But the one that dies for you will have to be a perfect lamb, will have to be offered so you can live." They'll break the neck of the--of the--of the horse if he was no good, and he is no good. But, you see, but a perfect lamb has to die so he can live.
If you say you're no good, "I ain't worthy to get healed, Brother Branham. I ain't worthy to come to Christ." Don't look at yourself. Look at your Sacrifice. I'm no good. There's nothing good in me, not even a thought. There's nothing no good, nothing no good in you. There's none of us deserve anything but hell. That's exactly.

100 But, oh, look what stands to represent us. Look what stands to represent us. And Here is His Life, in print, try to be manifested through us. And then, through some little creed, we turn It down. Oh, we need a conference. Yes.
That's the reason I can walk to the platform, not being a fear that something is going to come up, and going to happen this way, or that way, or it'll fail, or something go wrong. No. I look at my Sacrifice.
"Billy, what did you do this week?"
I done enough to die, said, in an hour. I, I'm a sinner, to begin with. But I'm looking Who give me the promise. I'm looking Who said so, "Don't you fear. Stand there. For this cause you were born. I raised you up for this purpose." Then all devils in hell can't make me move. I'm standing there on Christ, that solid Rock.

101 Any of you remember Paul Rader? A great warrior of God. I was a little boy, setting at his feet. He died, over here in California, not long ago. When he was dying... He and his brother Luke stuck together, like me and my son here. They went together, just hand in hand, like brother and brother, just as father and son. And Paul came to the end of the road.
Moody Bible Institute sent a little quartet down there, to sing. And they had the blinds all pulled, and shades down, the hospital. And Luke had kind of a... I mean, Paul had a sense of humor, you know. And he looked around to that little quartet. And they was singing Nearer My God To Thee. He said, "Who is dying, me or you?" He said, "Raise them curtains there and sing me some good, snappy Gospel songs." And they got singing.
Down at the cross where my Saviour died,
Down there for cleansing from sin I cried;
There to my heart was the Blood applied;
Glory to His Name.
He said, "That sounds better." Said, "Where is Luke, the one that stuck by me through thick and thin."
He couldn't see his brother die. He was in the next room. They went and got him. Paul raised his big hand to Luke, and Luke took hold of his hand. The tears ran off his cheek.
Said, "Luke, think of it. We been a long ways together. We've took a many a brier pile, and through many a ditch. But, think of it, in five minutes from now I'll be standing in the Presence of Jesus Christ, clothed in His righteousness." That's it.

102 Paul has told me. Said he... when he was a young man. He come from Oregon. He was a--a woodsman, and he would cut the trees. And he said, when he was over in one of the islands... I forget where it was at. South America, that's where it was. And he was missionary-ing there. And he took this black fever, black-water fever. And, oh, you know what that is. That's death, right away. Way back in the jungles, miles to a doctor.
Paul was a great believer in Divine healing, as you know. And so then he--he told his wife, he said... They was going for a doctor. He said, "It won't make any difference. I couldn't live that long." So his wife... Said, "Honey, you get down here, the side of the bed, and you talk to our Doctor. Let's call Him on the scene."
So his wife begin praying, "God, don't let my beloved husband die. He is here in the mission fields for You. Don't let him die."

103 Fever raging, out of his mind, nearly, just going and coming. He said, "Honey, it's getting darker and darker. I can't last but a little bit longer." Said, "Just keep praying, honey."
And he dropped off into a coma. He said he had a dream. Said he dreamed he was back in Oregon, a young man. And said he had a boss in the lumber camp. He said, "Paul, go up, the top the hill there, and fell me a tree of a certain size and bring it to me."
Said, "All right, boss."
And he went up to the top of the hill, and said he could just see that axe. You know, the farther north you get, why, the softer the wood becomes; farther south, the harder, the same wood. So, he went up there. And he said he begin to see the axe go way deep, the bit, into the tree, as he fell the tree. He scraped it up, and fixed it. Stuck the axe in the trunk, down to the trunk of the tree, the big part; and was, you know, lifting, to put his knees together, to lift. Said he's a strong man. You know how Paul was, short, strong, man.
So he started to lift up the tree, and he just couldn't lift it. He said, "I tussled and I tried. And I felt so... I had to take that log down there to the boss." He said, "I just couldn't lift it." Said, "I tuggled, tugged and pulled, and tugged and pulled," he said, "until my strength was just all gone." And said, "I just set down against the tree, and thought, 'I am so worn out! I can't even move no more.'"
Said, "Directly I heard the sweetest voice I ever heard. It was my boss. And he said, 'Paul, what are you struggling with it for?'"
He said, "Boss, I--I--I just simply can't pick it up. It's too great. The load is too great for me to carry. I can't go any farther with it."
He said, "Paul, there is a stream, going right by you. Why don't you just throw it in the stream, and jump on it and ride right down the riffles? And it comes right by the camp."
He said, "I never thought of that."
And when he throwed it in the riffle, he looked back. And his Boss was Jesus. And said he just jumped on the log, and down over the riffles he went, splashing the water, hollering, "I'm riding on It! I'm riding on It! I'm riding on It!" And said he come to, and he was standing right out in the middle of the floor, throwing both hands in the air, saying, "I'm riding on It! I'm riding on It! I'm riding on It!"
"Nothing in my arms I bring. Simply to Thy Word I cling!"

104 Brother, sister, there's no good thing in any man. There's no good thing in anything else but Jesus Christ. And I'm riding on every promise here this morning. And someday I expect to ride into His Presence upon the shed Blood of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Let us bow our head.
I'm riding on It. I'm riding on It. Not upon my affiliation, upon my denomination, upon my self-righteousness, but I'm riding upon the Word of God. I believe that, through the righteous Blood of Jesus Christ, someday I shall see Him. I shall be changed and made like unto His own glorious body. I shall be in His image. I shall see Him as He is.

105 As I see the years creeping up, on me, my little hair that I have, turning gray, my shoulders stooping, I haven't got much longer. Thirty-something years I've been behind the pulpit. I only wish I had a thousand lives I could give for Him. I wish I only had it. I love His people.
What are you trusting in this morning? Some good work that you've done? Some church that you belong to? Are you really standing on the Word of God? Are you really experienced? Have you heard that... Have you had a private conference with God, and the Returns came back like it did on the day of Pentecost? Not some substitutionary, not some handshake, some mental confession, but upon the Fire of the Holy Spirit coming into your life that changes all that you do and say? If you haven't had that, will you raise your hands and just say, "Pray for me, Brother Branham. I'm not..."? God bless you. God bless you. My, at the hand!

106 How about you, Pentecostals? Some of you people, that you know, that just--just traditionally you go to church, and you like the music, and you--you can act like a pentecost, but, actually, right down at the bottom of you, you know there is something missing. You know there is something missing. If you want to really, this morning, at these breakfast table.
You know, I may never see you again at another breakfast, but I want to see you at a Supper when it's all over. You never had that experience, will you raise your hand, say, "Pray for me, Brother Branham. I now want to become..."? God bless you. That's right.
You say, "Does raising my hand do anything?" If you mean it, it does. He will see you.

107 Now, you believe me to be His servant. Many people has called me a prophet. I don't claim to be a prophet. No. But if you believe that God speaks to me, you listen to me now. Sincerely, when you raise your hand, believe that, and watch what happens to you. Now, if He will let me know what's in your heart, if He can tell me what you prayed about 'fore you left home, and what you did, the words you said, what you've done in your life, and who you were, and where you come from, and what's going to happen to you hereafter, and it does, then surely He is speaking to me now.
Let's make this a conference this morning. What about it, Methodists, Baptists, Presbyterian, Pentecostals, Oneness, Twoness, oh, a church of God, Assemblies of God, whatever you are? Let's just have a conference. Let's see if we don't need a little love, one for another. Let's see if that wouldn't kind of cure the thing, if we just had a little love and respects, more, for one for another. Will you do it? All right.

108 Let's have one like Acts 4, and you confess everything that you've done that's wrong. And right over the table where you're at, that altar where we asked the blessing, at the family altar, the table where you thank God for the daily bread.
And, remember, when you eat. Because you eat, something has to die, so you can live, physically. Did you know that? If you eat meat, the animal died. If you eat bread, the wheat died. If you eat greens, the greens die. It's a form of life. And the only way you can live, physically, something has to die so you can live physically.
Isn't it just the thing, friends, to show you that fig leaves and man-made ideas won't work? Something had to die, so you can live Eternally. Something had to die; not a church, not you. It's, it's Christ, died for you. Accept it now, will you?
While we bow our heads, each one keeping in your heart what you have need of. Till we meet, may God bless you.

109 Heavenly Father, I've held this lovely audience of people. Because, I don't know. You know, this may be the last time. One thing, You may come before night. You may come before I could get back again. There is one thing sure: You are coming. I may die. I may have to leave the earth. There is many in here. If I should come a year today, from this day, there's no doubt people here that would not be here; they're gone on. This is our last time, Lord, we're going to meet. Some of us in here, we know, this will be our last meeting here on earth. The next time I meet them will be there at the Judgment, and I'll have to answer for what I've told them, as a minister this morning. I've put them to that Word, Father. That's all I know to do.

110 Now there's many people that's said, in this conference this morning, they want to talk it over with You. They're doing it now, Lord. They raised up their hands. They are witnesses that, they--they--they, they're tired, Lord. They are weary. And they know the world's conferences has run out.
There is no more hopes. We can't build nothing. All the nations has atomic, hydrogens, and poison bombs, and astronauts, and everything, Lord. The whole world is quivering and shaking. It's going to be purified pretty soon, and get ready for a great Millennium. She is going to shake, like, to pieces. She is tottering now like a drunk man staggering home at midnight, in the darkness. She don't know where she's going.

111 O Father, but there is a foundation. There is assurance, "For we receive a Kingdom that cannot be moved." I pray, Father, that each one will hurry to that Kingdom this morning, in Christ Jesus. Bless them, Father, as they got their heads bowed, their hearts bowed. They are waiting now for the answer. We're in a conference. Send down the answer just now, Father, to every one.
Some of them need salvation. Some, their first time. Some that's... And they're--they're just going to forget their creeds. They, they want to find That, the way it come down the first time. They want Your decision. Not the church's decision, not some creed's decision; but the Bible decision, the decision that God made in Acts 2, when He sent the Holy Ghost and Fire upon the Church. That was His decision, how the church must live, and what they must do. Laying aside everything else, Father, we wait for that decision. O Lord, send Your power just now and baptize every one. While we have our heads bowed:
They were in an upper chamber,
They were all with one accord,
When the Holy Ghost descended
That was promised by our Lord.
That's His Word, promise.
O Lord, send Your power just now,
Pray now.
O Lord, send Your power just now,
O Lord, send Your power just now,
And baptize every one.
O Lord, send Your power just...

112 I see ministers turning people around to the table, to pray with them. That's right. "The power just..."
Just don't think we're just standing here talking. He is here. "O Lord..." If you're... Don't look up at somebody else. Close your eyes and look to Him, by faith. "Baptize every one." Remember.
They were in an upper chamber,
They were all with one accord,
When the Holy Ghost descended
That was promised by our Lord.
Here we are, all different creeds. "O Lord..." We're in--we're in unity now, now. Believe now.
O Lord, send Your power.
Look at how He's been coming to us this week. Here He is, right here now, right by your side, if you'll just believe it.
Now, and baptize every one.
O Lord, send Your power just now,
O Lord, send Your...
"I give You my heart, Lord. I give You everything. Here is my hand. I--I consecrate myself to You right now. Send Your power upon me just now.
And baptize every one.
Again, "O Lord..." Sing it till it becomes a reality to you. See? Now close your eyes, close your heart to all foolishness and all outside.
... just now,
O Lord, send Your power just now,
And baptize every one.
O Lord, send Your power just now,
Oh, pray now. Ask Him for It. "Power just now." Oh, confess your faults.
Lord, send Your power just now,
And baptize every one.

113 Now, Father, I pray that You'll clean every heart. We confess our sins. We confess our wrongs. We have been wrong, Lord, all of us, together. We're all guilty. We're short of the glory of God. O God, won't You, in mercy and pity, look upon us, Lord? We are needy people.
And we see the vision of the Coming of the Lord;
He is tramping out the vintage where the grapes of wrath are stored;
He has loosed the fateful lightning with His terrible swift sword;
His Truth, the Bible, keeps marching on, marching on.
It marches over creeds. It marches over denominations. It marches over everything. Thy Truth keeps marching on.
Send Your power just now,
O Lord, send Your power just now,
O Lord, send Your power just now,
And baptize every one.
O Lord, send that power just...
I believe it, Lord. I believe it.
O Lord, send Your power just now,
O Lord, send Your power just now,
And baptize every one.

114 While the music continues on, and you praying. Now, if you clean your heart all out, all is confessed, you really laid it on the altar now, now He's the High Priest of your confession. He can only, only help you as you believe it. If you've confessed your sins, if you confessed your wrongs, if you've done everything, confessed you been too dilatory, whatever you've confessed, now it's laid on the sacrifice altar. Now put your hands upon Jesus and identify yourself. You identify yourself. By faith, lay your hands upon Jesus. And then when you do, look up to Him and say, "I receive it, Lord. I believe You now."
I can, I will, I do believe;
I can, I will, I do...
You believe it with all your heart now.
I can, I will, I do believe
That Jesus saves me now.

115 Oh, do you believe it now, with your sacrifice on the altar, on the altar? What you've laid down, all your differences, you've laid it on the altar. Now, by faith, lay your hands upon your Sacrifice, Jesus, Who is setting at the right hand of God, to make intercessions for you, upon your confession, that you believe with all your heart that He's accepted what you've offered to Him. If you believe that Jesus Christ has accepted what you've offered to Him this morning! "I give you my life, Lord. I been cold. I been indifferent. I, I've done things I oughtn't to have done. But, from this hour, I want to move up closer to You. And I believe that I receive it. I lay my hands upon You now, as I make my confession."
Do you believe that? [Congregation says, "Amen."] Do you believe that God heard your prayer? ["Amen."] If you do, raise up your hands to God, say, "I believe You heard my prayer. I make my confession. I believe You hear my prayer. Now I'm going to stand up and praise You for it. I'm going to give You thanks."
Stand up on your feet now, and say, "Thank You, Lord. Thank You, Lord. I believe You. I now give You praise for giving me the assurance in my heart."
Now just raise your hands and praise God, in an old-fashion way, the way that God would have you to do.