Be Not Afraid, It Is I

Be Not Afraid, It Is I
Phoenix, Arizona, USA
60-0305
1Let us bow our heads just a moment now for prayer. Our precious Lord, we are grateful that we can stand and sing this song, “Lord, I receive,” because this is a promise that was given us. And we pray tonight, Lord, while the crowd is under the anticipation, and along with myself, of seeing You do great signs among us tonight. We pray, Lord, as the prayer line passes around this platform tonight that every person will be healed for Your glory. And, Father, we pray that the oncoming tomorrow, around the different parts of the city, that these precious brethren who is standing gallantly for the cause of Christ, that their churches will be packed out, and many souls saved, and great day tomorrow in every church throughout the city.
And then, tomorrow night, Father, we pray that You'll help us as we endeavor to pray for the sick again tomorrow night. Pray that tonight there'll be so many people healed till they'll be telling their neighbors, they'll be coming in tomorrow night for healing likewise. Bless the service and all that we do. We will bow and give Thee praise, for we ask it in the name of Thy Son, the Lord Jesus. Amen. You may be seated.
2It is such a wonderful blessing to know the Lord Jesus as our Saviour and to know Him as our Healer, looking for Him to come as our King to set up a kingdom on earth that we shall rule and reign with Him for a thousand years, forever be with Him. And now being that tonight is rather pushing for the service of healing, or praying for the sick, we want to say . . . I want to make this statement. The reason I haven't had any healing lines this week, there's been something that's been on my heart, and I told you the last time here there was a new ministry coming. And I spoke with some of the brethren today and was telling them about what's happened. Just remember that the first time I was here, you remember, the Lord had told me something was going to happen, change in the ministry. It happened. Said another one was going to happen and it happened.
Now, there's another one greater, far greater than all the rest of them put together, already confirmed and ready. I hope it happens tonight. I just might say that. I don't have the time to explain it to you, but the brethren who does know about it, it's wonderful. It'll be such a great thing for the people, and I am grateful to God that the hour is soon at hand, I believe, that when God is going to help His children. Especially it'll be for those who can't muster the faith to reach up and get ahold of God like they should. I believe the Lord is providing a way for us now to take care of them also. Some runs into the faith that they can just reach over and receive anything. That's great faith. Some of them has mustard-seed faith and has to wait so long to get through. I believe the Lord is making a way for those people now. And I don't know when it will be, but it will be. Just as certain as I'm standing here, it will be.
3I guess the ministers has announced their services tomorrow at different places. And you're strangers here, some of you, from out of the city. Why, we'd certainly . . . in any of these churches you can find a place to worship, the faith of your choice. And we'd be glad if you'd attend the services of some of these brethren here, the churches. Any churches that you want to go to, from other towns where you're from, someone can tell you where your church is located. They'll be glad to do it, anybody. And so the Lord bless you real richly, and have a good service tomorrow everywhere. I pray, when you come in tomorrow night for prayer service again for the sick, that there'll just be exceedingly abundantly of the things done.
4Now, you that wants to turn to the Scripture readings, we're going to read tonight a portion of Scripture from St. Matthew, fourteenth chapter. And you who are keeping the markings down of the reading, let's begin about the twenty-second verse as we read, of the fourteenth chapter of St. Matthew's gospel:
And straightway Jesus constrained his disciples to get into a ship, and to go before him to the other side, while he sent the multitudes away.
And when he had sent the multitudes away, he went up into a mountain apart to pray: and when . . . evening was come, he was there alone.
But the ship was now in the midst of the sea, tossed with the waves: and the winds were contrary.
And in the fourth watch of the night Jesus came unto them, walking on the sea.
And when the disciples saw him walking on the sea, they were troubled, saying, It is a spirit; and they cried out for fear.
But straightway Jesus spake unto them, saying, Be of a good cheer; it is I; be not afraid.
May I use that last three words or four: “Be Not Afraid, It Is I.” I want to make that a text.
5It must have been close to sundown when the big fisherman begin to move the boat back and forth to push it from the bank. I can see his great brawny muscles as he had the boat loaded with the rest of the apostles as he pushed away from the bank, shoved it free from the sands of the shore of Galilee, and it moved out into the water. The big rugged fellow climbed over some of their feet and took his place by the side of Andrew, his brother, picked up the oar, and they started away from the shore. And as they moved steadily out to sea, the people who loved them standing on the bank waving, and the sun going down, and it must have been about twenty minutes before they disappeared out of the sight of the last one waving. I can see each one drop his oar, wave, and then pick up his oar and start again with the little ship. Way back in the west it looked kind of red and low as the sun sank over the Judaean hills.
6There must have been a long silence. Then I believe it was the young John that must have let up on his oar and said something like this: “I remember when I was just a little boy how that my mother used to take me on her lap and read me the story of God, and how that she used to read that story of God loving His people so well that He provided for them when they had no way to provide for themselves. And said that one day when God had called His people to take a journey from the land of bondage to the land of freedom, they ran out of bread out in the wilderness and there was no corn or flour for them to make bread.”
And he might've said this: “I remember when she told me that every night that God rained bread down out of heaven, and of a morning His people would go out and get that bread. And I have said to my mother, 'Mother dear, where did God get that bread to feed so many people, two million people or more, out in that wilderness? How did He send it down through the skies when they were asleep and rained it upon the ground? Where did He get the flour, Mother, to make the bread?'
“Well, she used to say something like this, 'My dear son, God is the creator. He is able to make bread, or create whatever He wishes to. When some requirement that God requires, He is so great, John, till He just speaks and it's there, because He is the great creator.' ”
7And now he might say this, “My brethren, did you notice His face this afternoon when all those hungry people were standing there?”
And one of the disciples might've said, “Yes, I noticed way down along the creek there was a little boy playing truant from school, and had his lunch, and he had five little barley loaves and two fishes. And when He took those bread into His hands and broke that bread, handed it out, took those fishes that were fried and broke them fishes and handed them out, and when He reached back to get another piece of bread it had already growed on there, already cooked and ready. The fishes was already fried. And out of that little-bitty lunch of five biscuits and two pieces of fish, He fed five thousand people. Did it remind you of the story of God feeding His people? So there must be some great connection between this one that we're walking with and Jehovah God, because there is something about Him that He does the same thing God did. He takes care of His people.
8They were in a wilderness.“
“And I'm persuaded, brethren,” might've been young John said in his youthful way of about . . . he was about thirty years old, I suppose, maybe thirty-five. He was younger than the rest. He might've said this: “It was strange when I watched His eyes. There was something godly about Him. He never had one doubt but when He reached back for another biscuit it would be there, and He pulled one biscuit off of another. Now, brethren, tell me where He got it at. He must be some connection with that great Creator that could make bread, and could make it already baked, and could make the fish already fried and ready, bringing it from five biscuits and two fish enough to feed five thousand, and take up five baskets full of fragments left over. There must be something about Him that we yet have not understood, but I know that He's some connection with God, because no man could do that unless God would be with him.
Jesus had said, “If I do not the works of my Father, then believe me not. But if I do the works, then you believe the works.”
9And young John must have dropped his head, took back his oar.
And it must've been Simon then, the big fisherman, that said, “Yes, that was enough to convince anybody that God was in that man, because no one could have done it. That man could not have done it himself, but God was in Him.” And then he said, “When I was convinced, I was rather a rugged little fisherman on the sea. Brethren, you know I had better training than to what I was doing first, because I had a godly old father. He was a Pharisee, but he was a great man.
“I can remember down on the seashore when he would pick me up in his lap and set me down, and would say, 'Simon, my son, you're just a lad, but maybe in your generation, if your father doesn't see it, there will come some day a deliverer which we know has to be the Messiah. And, Simon, many people will misunderstand Him. Our churches will misunderstand Him, and He will be a man that will be a strange sort of a man. But, Simon, my son, I never want you to forget this: you'll have to know the Messiah by the Scriptures that's wrote of Him. Don't never leave the Scriptures, my son. And Moses, our leader, has told us what the Messiah would be, for it is written in the Scriptures that the Lord our God shall raise up a prophet among us, and when this Messiah comes He'll be a God-prophet. He'll be different from other prophets. He'll be a God-prophet. But you'll know Him, Simon, because He will be that prophet, and He'll do the sign of a prophet.'
“And when I heard of this Galilean man, this Jesus of Nazareth, I thought it was just another quack, just another Passover night. But one day when He borrowed my boat, been talking to me, as soon as I come into His presence He called me by name. The first time I ever saw Him He told me who I was, and not only that but He knowed that godly old father of mine. He said, 'Simon, you are the son of Jonas.' And when He said that, I knowed that was the one my daddy had spoke about that the Scripture said would come, because He was a God-prophet. I knowed His signs was beyond a prophet, so He was a God-prophet, and I knowed that would be Him. That's the reason, brethren, that I fell on my face. When Andrew told me about it, I didn't believe him, my brother sitting here.”
10Young John brushed his hair back, a few tears with it, and then smiled, and said, “When I seen Him break that bread, I knowed He was God.”
But Peter said, “When He told me who I was and who my father was, I knew who that was.”
11Well, then, it must have been Philip who shrugged his shoulders a little bit, and looked around and said, “But brethren, you should have seen the face of Brother Nathanael here. When I'd found Him, and I knew beyond a shadow of a doubt when He told Simon that day who he was and who his father was, I knew that was the Messiah. And when I heard Him say that, there was something burned within me that I knowed our generation had a visit, and I was going to be determined that every friend that I knowed, that I was going to get him to Him just as quick as I could. So I thought of Nathanael, my bosom friend. And when I went around the mountains about fifteen miles, running that day, and over the cobblestones and the sun was hot, and I heard much talk about it, pro and con, as I went along the seashore of Galilee to see my friend. I came up and knocked on the door, and his wife came to the door, and I said, 'Where is Nathanael?'
“Said, 'Why, Philip, he has just went out into the olive grove. I think he's gone out to see about the irrigation or something.'
“Quickly I run out into the grove and I found him on his knees, as usual. [That's a good way to find a man.]
12I found him on his knees. And the message was burning in my heart till I could hardly wait to tell him, but yet I let him finish his prayer and when he got up, not knowing I was there. . . . Usually I would go to him and said, 'How is the grove getting along, Nathanael? How is everything up at the market? Have you did any trading with the caravans that's coming through (as he usually did because he was rather a businessman)?' But I had something to tell him.“
That's what we need today, brethren, a message that's so burning that nothing else takes its place. Quickly, he didn't say, “How do you do, Nathanael?” He said, “Come see who we've found!” There's something about when you find Jesus that it's your subject day and night. You can't talk about nothing else. “Come, see who we have found, Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph.”
13And Nathanael being a just man, and a level thinking man, he said, “Now, wait just a minute. Now, you know that there could be nothing good come from Nazareth, and if there was such a thing as the Messiah that was coming, He would come to the high priest first and make hisself known. He would come to our church.” But you see, God does things peculiar, strange. He does it in order to pull the elected from everywhere.
“And then when . . . I told him that if he was going to be critical, the best thing to do was just come see for himself.” I think that's a very good message to anybody. Don't criticize. If you hear of somebody that's receiving the Holy Spirit, if you see a life changed and something definitely, and they say . . . you've been told that there is no Holy Spirit, do not criticize it. Take your Bible, look it over, see if God promised it, and then go see for yourself. Don't stay home; go find out. Look it over yourself and compare it with the Scriptures, and if it's with the Scriptures it's right. If it isn't with the Scriptures, that's questionable. But as long as it's Scripture and a promise, it is true.
14And he said, “Come see for yourself.”
Then he looked back over his shoulder to find Nathanael sitting there weeping for joy. And he said, “Brethren, do you remember our conversation along the road? I told you that the Scripture said that the Messiah would be a prophet, a God-prophet, that Moses said the Lord your God shall raise up. And all of our people questioned Him, 'Are you that prophet?' And he left them kind of in a daze, not telling them exactly what He was.”
And he told, said, “You remember the old fisherman by the name of Simon?”
“Yes,” said Nathanael, “I remember him.”
“You remember when we bought that fish from him that day? And you wanted him to sign a receipt and he didn't even have enough education to sign his own name. But that same illiterate man came before this one that we know to be the Messiah and as soon as he came, He told him who he was and what his father was.”
And Nathanael said, “I'll come see for myself. He'll never tell me nothing. My mind's stronger than his. He'll never read my mind. He's no mind reader.”
“And when we come up into the presence. . . .” And then I can hear him say, “Just a moment,” Philip say, “Nathanael, I'm getting filled up. You tell the rest of it.”
15And Nathanael said, “When I came up to look at Him I knew by His looks that He was different from other men.” And brother, sister, when a man once gets a vision of Jesus Christ, he can never be the same after that. He's different from others. And he said, “When I looked at Him, and He looked back to me, and He looked me right in the face, and He said, 'Behold, an Israelite in whom there is no guile.' Well, I thought, wonder if Philip could have told Him that he was going after me. Wonder if that could have been the case. So I turned around and said to Him, 'Rabbi, when did you ever know me? We are strangers to each other and when did you know me?'
“He said, 'Before Philip called you, when you were under the tree, I saw you.' ” Said, “That was enough. That settled it. 'Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God, the King of Israel.'
“Then that look that He gave me and said, 'Oh, you believe me to be such because I've told you where you was and told you these things; then thou shall see greater things.' And truly today I have seen greater things, when He taken the bread and broke it and created bread behind it and fish. He told me the truth. Therefore I am persuaded above any measure that that is the Son of God, that prophet that was to come into the world at the ending up of our dispensation.”
16And they sat quiet for a few minutes. Then Andrew, sitting across from Peter, pulled his oar in and said, “Let's rest for a few minutes, brethren. Let us all share this, because it's well dark, and we're floating along pretty lively, and we've got all night to cross this little Galilean Sea. So we all well remember the day that we'd walked with Him so long and His feet was so tired. Remember when we went down to the spring and got some water and poured on His feet and they were blistered from walking. Yet He said, 'I have need to go by Samaria.' Really, on his road to Jericho, a roundabout way. We wondered why would He go a roundabout way.”
17Remember, reminds me, rather, of a recording I was listening to a few days ago when I was laying in the bed, the day that I saw the Lord Jesus walk into the room (that I don't think I've told you about), to talk about this new ministry to me. When I was laying there in the bed, I was listening at a teacher teaching on a tape, and someone said to this teacher. “Why is it that you don't go and stay straight in the road with your text?”
And this teacher said, “All the people I teach to is not on the highway, so I have to go by the wayside to pick them up.” That's pretty smart, Brother DuPlessis, Brother David, and it's true. Jesus will take His teacher to one side off of his text, and Jesus will go aside to win one soul, or to do one thing to help somebody.
18Say, “You remember how His precious feet was hurting Him? And He made His way to Samaria. And it was noontime, and we'd been out bigger part of the night. He'd prayed for so many sick and He was weary, walking along the road. And He sat down so tired that He couldn't make His way hardly in the city. And He sent us away to get some food, and the Samaritans wouldn't let us have it. So on our way coming back we were astonished to see Him, our Master, talking with a woman marked with ill fame. But when we seen that, we were astonished and we. . . . Did not we all slip up in the bush, and stand still to see what He would say?
“And He said, 'Woman, bring me a drink.'
“Do you remember what she said, brethren? She said, 'It's not customary for you Jews to ask Samaritans such. We have no dealings with each other.'
“But now listen, brethren,” Andrew might have said, “Listen what He told her. He said, 'Woman, if you knew who you were talking to, you'd ask me for a drink, and I'd give you waters that you don't come here to draw.'
“And the woman, all excited, said, 'Well, where can you get this water? The well's deep and you have nothing to draw with.'
“And do you remember, brethren, what He said? 'The water that I give is life eternal bubbling up.' And the woman wanted that water. And He said to her, 'Go get your husband first and come here.' And do you remember, we thought He must be trapped or something when the woman looked Him boldly in the face and said, 'I have no husband.'
“We thought, 'How could that be our Lord, to make such a mistake as that when Messiah is perfect? How could it be this woman is denying that she has a husband?'
“But then did you notice the expression in His face? Calmly, quietly, said, 'Woman, thou has said true. You've had five husbands and the one you're now living with is not yours.' How it melted that woman! She thought she could lie out of it, but the expression on her face and the tears in her eyes. . . . She said, 'Sir, I perceive that you are a prophet.' Now, brethren, listen to what He said. She said, 'You must be a prophet. We know that when the Messiah cometh, He'll tell us these things, but who are you?' And He said to her, 'I am he that speaks to you.'
JOHN4:25,26,29
“Brethren, when we know that our teaching is that this prophet would be a God-prophet, and when that Samaritan woman testified, against our priests, that she knew that when the Messiah come He'd be a . . . give the Messiahic sign, He'd be a God-prophet. And even our priest called Him Beelzebub, a fortune-teller. But this ill-famed woman seemed to have a better understanding of the Scriptures than our priest did. She said, 'You must be a prophet. But we know when the Messiah cometh, he'll tell us all these things, but who are you?' He said, 'I'm he that speaks to you.' And on that, when she found out that she'd had a contact with the real Messiah, she run into the city and screamed to the men, 'Come, see a man who told me the things that I've done. Isn't this the Messiah? Isn't this the sign of the Messiah?' ”
“And how many more things,” Peter must have spoke up and said, “could we say about Him that has proved that He is the Messiah of God?”
19About that time, Satan looked up over the rim, and he saw the little boat out on the sea without Jesus. He thought, “Here's my opportunity.” So is it tonight with every individual, with every church, with every member of the church. When Satan can see you alone without Jesus, it's his opportunity to smite you. Said, “I'll rid the whole bunch now. I've got them right where I want them. Now I'll drown the whole bunch of them.” So he began to breathe in and blow out from his nostrils great powerful winds that . . . and his poison breath hit the sea. It had a nervous prostration. And sin from Satan will make anything have a nervous prostration!
That's the reason we got so many nervous breakdowns so the insane institutions filled up. We got people running through a thirty-mile zone at ninety miles an hour, squeezing all the tar . . . the rubber off their tires turning the corners. They're in a nervous, neurotic state. They don't know what to do. All the world is nervous, upset, they don't know where they're standing. They're joining one church and then the other church. Every little thing, they're running here and there, to and fro. It's because that Satan has begin to push out his poison breath, has begun to blow his winds of strife, breaking churches apart, separating brotherhood, making people think that they're a little better than somebody else, they belong in a better bracket, they belong to a better church. There is only one church, and that's the church of Jesus Christ. And there's only one way to get into it—that's by birth. You are born into the church of God and there's no other way to be brought in. And it doesn't matter whether you're Methodist, Baptist, Presbyterian, Catholic, Orthodox Jew, whatever you are. God does not look at your denomination; He looks at the brand that's on you . . . or, the blood.
20Years ago I used to do quite a bit of riding. First riding I ever did was here at Phoenix. I thought I was a rider like my dad till a bronco piled me up a few times right out here in Salt River Valley. He throwed me into a bunch of cactus out there one day. I was in an awful shape for a week or two. Trying to chase a burro down. Right off of Sixteenth Street, thirty-three years ago.
And I remember over in Colorado, the Hereford Association grazes the Troublesome River Valley. And many times, when we'd take the cattle up there, have I sat with my leg wrapped around the horn of the saddle while the ranger was checking these cattle going through the gate, the drift-fence gate. And there was the Turkey Track, there was the Lazy K, the Diamond T (Mr. Grimes), and Tripod (which was Mr. Jeffries, who I was with), Mr. Zwalin, the “A,” different ones going through—which every man could raise a ton of hay could put a cow on the pasture for the summer. But I noticed that ranger never even checked the brands. He looked in their ear for the blood tag, because nothing could go on that forest except it was a registered Hereford.
And that's the way it's going to be at the big gate someday. God don't care what brand you're wearing; He's going to look for the blood tag of His own Son, for it's the blood of Jesus Christ. He won't watch the brand; He'll watch the blood. Not “when I see the brand”; “when I see the blood, I'll pass over you.”
21Satan has blowed his breath of poison, saying, “Oh, these people don't believe like you.” It ain't what you believe; it's who you believe. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved—on the Lord.
And he seen the little boat out on the sea. And he'll watch your little boat too. When he can see you out on the sea of life without Jesus, that's his time to sink you. And he'll do it if you don't watch him. These disciples had went off without Him.
And now I say this with brotherly love. I wonder in the last four or five years, or more, if we haven't got so busy—so many things to do, and our building programs, and all of our societies and things that we're getting in the church—if we haven't kind of went off without Him, if we haven't stayed home at night to watch some television on Wednesday night instead of attending church. I wonder if we haven't been too busy trying to make enough ends to get a new car, or something like that, and forgot church. Wonder if our programs haven't called us away un. . . we say our church is getting cold and formal. I wonder if we'd check up on ourselves, if we're not just about as much to blame, or a little more, than the pastor is, the cause of our church being in that condition. Remember, you're sailing in one little boat, and there's nobody can get in there with you but you and Jesus. So keep it congregated. In unity there is power, with the rest of the believers having fellowship one with another while the blood of Jesus Christ, God's Son, cleanses from all uncleanliness.
22And then the little boat began to pitch back and forth, and it looked like the time had come. I could think, the first thing, when the winds begin to blow, Simon being a great fisherman, he said, “Hoist the sail.”
And Satan said, “I'll rip it off.” And a lot of times we hoist up some things. Satan just rips it down for us.
And then he reached down and grabbed his oar and bent his back to it, and broke the oar. Then the great waves begin to fill up the ship. I wonder if getting away from God, maybe getting away from prayer meetings, if the world hasn't flipped some of its waves into our ship. I wonder if we haven't got to a place that where we would rather go to a party than go to a prayer meeting. I wonder if it's got to a place that we kneel down at the altar and stay there five minutes instead of five hours like you used to. I wonder if the old church hasn't lost a little of its zeal for God. All of us—Methodist, Baptist, Presbyterian, Pentecostals and all.
23Brethren on a stormy sea and the devil saying . . . every time the lightning would flash, a little demon would sit on a wave and laugh, and said, “I got him now.”
Maybe it's sickness has overtaken you. A cancer is eating you up, tubercular is in your lungs, arthritis has crippled you, and you wonder what's the matter? Satan said, “Just a little while longer.”
You spoke to the doctor, and said, “You're gone, your heart's in such a condition.” That may be right, but let's check up a little bit.
24They thought that maybe they'd made a mistake, that they were forsaken. But you know what happened? Jesus was mindful of them. After He sent them away He climbed the highest mountain He could find. And no matter how far out they were from the top of the mountain where He was at, He was watching them. I'm so glad tonight, though He's been gone from the earth in physical body two thousand years. . . . He started climbing on Calvary, and He climbed to the ramparts of glory. He can see the universe around. His eye is on the sparrow, and I know He's watching Madison Square Garden in Phoenix, Arizona, tonight! Our ships may be filled up with sickness, distress, pains, and aches, sufferings and nervous and flusterations. We may be tore to pieces, but there's somebody that's watching over us.
25He climbed so high till He went all the way into heaven, and the Bible said He is so high till He has to look down to see the heavens. Heaven is His throne and earth is His footstool. There when He climbed so high in the power and glory until He sits on the Father's throne, and looks down, and there's not even a sparrow can fall to the street without Him knowing it. He knows how sick you are. He knows your doubts and your flusterations. We're in a terrible storm, but don't be scared—there's somebody watching. Which one? The One that broke the bread, the One that knowed Peter and called him by his name, the One that told the woman of her sins. The one that touched the hem . . . a woman touching the hem of His garment and He turned to her and told her her blood issue had stopped, the One who perceived the thoughts of the mind. He hasn't laid down in a grave so He can't see you, but He's climbed into glory and He can see even a sparrow that falls in the street.
26Before He left He said, “A little while and the world won't see me no more [the unbeliever], yet ye shall see me [the believer] for I will be with you, in you, to the end of the world.” Jesus Christ the same yesterday, today, and forever. Never let the poison winds of Satan ever harm you to throw you off of that. He watches over us. And when all hopes is gone. . . . Maybe you visit the doctor this week. Maybe you've been in every clinic there is in Phoenix, and maybe to Mayo's or John Hopkins (I've seen it many times), and they'd say there's not an earthly chance.
27Many of you, about three years ago in Reader's Digest, read the article of the miracle of Donny Morton, when I was in Arizona, or I mean in California, how the Lord—after Mayo's and John Hopkins and all of them had turned that little twisted-up baby down—the power of God unfolded that child and made him well. Mayo's called for an interview for it, wanted to know what happened. Sure. Reader's Digest wrote it up. What happened to little Donny, the little Canadian boy? All hopes was gone after Mayo's and Johns Hopkins said, “The child cannot be healed.”
But the father said, “Donny, we're not whipped, for not long ago there was someone here in Canada praying for the operator, long distance operator. She was in a school. She was deaf and dumb, like these people sitting here. And there was two of them went to the meeting at Calgary, and the Lord healed both of them. One of them is a singer in church, and the other one is a long distance telephone operator.
28He said, “Donny, if God knowed them, He knows you, Honey, and I'll get you somewhere.”
He hitched his horse to the sled. Down through the snow they went, with the mother. When they got to the place where they was to put the little boy and his mother and them on the plane, they didn't have enough money for one to get on the plane. So he found a Greyhound Bus that Donny and his father could ride; and they come to Los Angeles and some kind of association helped them to get out to the meeting where we was at, the Assemblies of God out there at the campground, North . . . or Southwestern Bible School.
There when the father started in the line with the little baby, said there was a young man that had to put him out of the line because he had no prayer card. That was Billy. Billy was doing that because it wasn't fair for the man to come in the line, because others had been waiting for days in the prayer line. But when the little fellow . . . I seen him walking off the platform with that little twisted baby. I said, “Let him alone, Billy. Bring him on up here.” And when the father, trembling, brought the little fellow—and his head sideways, his big eyes cast back in his head, shaking his hands, twisted down, his little legs drawed up behind him—I said, “Sir, if I could heal your baby I'd do it. But you're a Canadian, and you've come a long ways, and this little baby's name is Donny Morton.”
The father began to shake, and he said, “That's true.”
I said, “Do you believe?”
And he started screaming. He said, “With all my heart.” He went straight from that meeting that night and bought Donny his first pair of shoes, and he wore them the next day.
Why? His eye is on the sparrow. He knows every move. He hasn't left. He isn't dead. He's raised again and He is the same yesterday, today, and forever. His great omnipotent power can never fail. He is still the Son of the living God. Oh, He's so great.
29And when He looked down off of the mountain, He knowed they'd get in trouble, so He climbed high enough that He could watch them all the way through the journey. That's what He's done tonight. He knowed we'd be in trouble in this age, so He climbed plumb into heaven, that He could see us plumb through life's journey. “I'll be with you. Even to the end of the world, I'll be with you.” Jesus Christ the same yesterday, today, and forever. What He was then, He is now. What He done then, He does now.
30He was the one who said, “I can do nothing in myself.” St. John 5:19, He said, “Verily, verily, I say unto you, the Son can do nothing in himself but what he sees the Father doing.” In other words, He can't lie because He's God. So when He said, “I do nothing until the Father shows me [not tells me, but shows me]. What I see the Father doing, that doeth the Son. Then Jesus never performed one miracle until God showed Him by a vision what to do.
If that was the sign of Messiah then to the Jews, to the Samaritans. . . . Never to the Gentiles. The Gentile age is ending now. We all know that. The handwriting's on the wall. We know that we're at the end time. The Gentile world is so in such a conglomeration of sin and confusion until. . . . The Jews has returned yonder as a nation. The old six-point star of David is flying, the oldest flag in the year . . . the oldest flag in the world. Twenty-five hundred years since it has flown. There they are with their own currency, Israel returning to its own. The revivals and everything that we've got indicates the soon appearing of the Messiah. We're at the end.
31Now, if God gave the Jews that sign of Messiah before the mercy was taken from the Jews, gave it to the Samaritans at the end of their journey, He has to do the same thing to the Gentiles and give the same sign, or He done wrong when He gave them that sign. If God ever makes any kind of a decision, it's perfect forever. He's God, He cannot go back and say, “I was wrong. I'll do this for this generation and this for something else.” He is the same yesterday, today, and forever. He has to do the same, and He promised He'd do the same.
And tonight in the hour, and our little boat rocking, “Nations are breaking, Israel awakening, The signs that the Bible foretold; Gentile days numbered, with horrors encumbered; Return, O dispersed, to your own.' The day of redemption is near, Men's hearts are failing for fear; Be filled with the Spirit, your lamps trimmed and clear, Look up! your redemption is near.”
32Oh, how we should take these warnings, seeing the end time come. We're seeing the little boat filling up fast, the Gentile age running out, Satan scattering, doing evil.
But in the midst of all of it, when they were in their most distress and thought all hopes was gone, they seen someone come walking on the water. But the sad part of the story is this, they were afraid of Him. They thought He was a spirit. In other words we'd say today, something spooky. They thought it was some kind of a spirit, maybe an evil spirit out there on the sea. And the only thing that could save them, the only hope they had, the only salvation was left for them, they was afraid of it because it looked spooky to them.
And if that isn't the same thing tonight with this nation, I don't know it. God sending His promise, proving it by His Spirit, and the people says it's a mental telepathy, it's a evil spirit, it's of the devil. The only thing that can help, and they're afraid of it. Jesus Christ the same yesterday, today, and forever. He is the same, He does the same, He acts the same. He is the same, in every manner and every principle, He's the same. He's here now. His Spirit is here.
33If you could only, my friends, you sick people, could only realize that healing is a something that's past tense. It's something God has already done, and the only thing that you can do is to accept what He has done. Then it'll be different, if you can accept it, if you can believe it, if you can have faith and believe that God is.
How many—before we call prayer cards for the people to come up here—in this building that doesn't have a prayer card and you're sick? You? You there? All right. There's a man and a woman. I do not know you, do I? What about you, sir? I do not know you, do I? We're perfectly strangers. All right. If the Lord God of heaven is still the same God, if Jesus Christ is the same Son of God, if He's here tonight in the form of the Holy Ghost that He promised He would be, and will reveal to me your trouble, lady—not knowing you and no way for me to know you—if God will reveal to me your trouble like He revealed the woman at the well what her trouble was, would you believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, and I've preached the gospel and told the truth? Will you believe it? Will the rest of you believe it? All right.
You suffer with your eye trouble. And you believe that God will make you well? And you down there suffer with a lung trouble. Do you believe that God will make you well? Stand up on your feet if you believe it. All right. Go home, both of you, you are healed. Jesus Christ makes you well.
34Oh, if you can believe! Don't you see, healing can't come from any man's hands? It comes from Calvary. It's a finished work that God did for you at Calvary. Jesus Christ the same yesterday, today, and forever. Do you believe it? Are you aware that the presence and the goodness and the mercy of Almighty God is here now to help you? Would you believe? Could you believe with all your heart?
Here, I'm looking at a man. There's nothing wrong with him, but he's thinking about his friend. That you might know that Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever, he's thinking about his friend, and his friend has blackouts. He's a veteran. That is right. Can't get him to church, but he's a veteran and having blackouts. You're interested in him and praying for him. Is that so, sir? If it is, stand up on your feet. I do not know you. I've never seen you in my life, but that's the truth, isn't it? If it is, raise up your hand. Have faith and believe in God and the blackouts will stop and he'll be made well. Hallelujah! Glory!
35Wait, do you have a prayer card, sir? You don't have a prayer card. All right. You won't . . . you wouldn't be in the line then.
See what I mean? It's Jesus Christ revealing Himself. He said, “As it was in the days of Sodom.” What was it? A human being, standing there with the Spirit of God in him, that said, “Abraham, where is your wife Sarah?”
Said, “In the tent behind you.”
And she smiled to herself. He said, “Why did she laugh?” Jesus so much as said this, that same thing will take place just before the fire falls just to blast the whole world. “As it was in the days of Sodom, so shall it be in the coming of the Son of man.” Oh, if you will just believe it!
How many has prayer cards? I sent Billy down to give out prayer cards. Where's he at? All right. What's the letter on the cards? Somebody that's got a card, what letter is it? A? Who has A number 1, raise up your hand, A number 1. All right, sir. Stand right down here. A number 2. All right, right here. Number 3, number 4, number 5, 6, 7. [blank spot on tape] . . . and forever.
Wonderful, wonderful, Jesus is to me,
Counselor, Prince of Peace, Mighty God is He;
Saving me, keeping me from all sin and shame,
Wonderful is my Redeemer, praise His name!
How glorious, how wonderful He is!
36All right, 30 to 40, let them come now, A 30 to 40. Now the ushers will keep you lined up with your numbers, and so forth, how to get in the line down there. Now, I've stopped just a teeny bit early. (Got them? That's okay. They got the ushers over there.) All right. 30 to 40. Now 40 to 50, 40 to 50, let them line up.
37And now while they're lining, I want your attention just a moment. Our Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of the living God, He is most wonderful. And there was a woman in the Bible that she had no way of getting close to Him, so she said this, “If I will touch the border of his garment, I'll be made well.” How many knows that's Scripture? “If I will just touch. . . .” Now look at her faith. Look at Martha when she was back, and had sent, for Lazarus. And Jesus went on, never. . . . He just ignored it. They sent again. That lovely girls, and their brother dying, Jesus' bosom friend, and they sent for Him again. And He ignored it and went on. Why? Remember St. John 5:19? “I do nothing unless the Father shows me. I do nothing.”
38There's something with this lady here sitting here. I'll tell you what it is now. See, you don't realize just what's wrong, see. I told you something wrong with your eyes, which is astigmatism, but your main thing you're wanting me to pray for—to call you, to tell you, which will help you—your heart. That's right. Now, if that's right, stand up. All right. Now, sit down. All right. See, you was going to be healed anyhow, see. You was going to be healed, but you was wanting me to know it was heart trouble, see, by you praying like that, “God, let him know it, let him know it,” God spoke back, and said, “It's heart trouble. Tell her about her heart.”
Oh, He's wonderful! He knows the secrets of the heart. Oh, isn't He wonderful? How glorious, how marvelous the Son of God! This little woman touched the border of His garment. That's exactly what she did right now. Now, you know she never touched me.
39You're not going to get in the prayer line either, sitting there, the elderly man looking at me, right here? You haven't got no prayer card? Do you believe that God will heal you anyhow? You, sitting here? You, yeah. You're not going to be in the prayer line? All right. You'd like to have your eyes healed though, wouldn't you? Your eyes, that's right. Raise up your hand if that's right. You've got it. Amen. All right. It's over now, you don't have to get in the prayer line. Just go on back, it's over now. What did he touch? He touched His garment. What happened? The same thing happened when that woman touched His garment.
The Bible said that He is a high priest. You believe that? Right now He's a high priest that can be touched by what? The feeling of our infirmities. Is that right? Well, that's what's happening. You're touching the High Priest; not me. God has to have a channel to work through. He works through man. He's always used man. When Jesus came, that was God in flesh, God working through man. He was God in David, He was God in Elijah, He was God in Joseph.
40David, a rejected king, went up over the hill weeping, up on the Mount of Olives. Five hundred years later the Son of David, as a rejected king, wept the same thing over the same city. It was the Spirit of God in Him. The Spirit of God in David, the Spirit of God in the Son of David—Christ weeping over the city as the rejected king [Blank spot on tape.]
“Who touched me?” No one said a word, but Jesus looked around, watched the people. And when He found her He said . . . told her about that blood issue she had, her faith had saved her.
Now, He's the same tonight. If He's the same tonight, He'll be the same tonight, work the same tonight, the same signs. “The works that I do shall you do also.”
41I was talking to a fellow not long ago. He said, “Oh, sure, Brother Branham, we preach the gospel all over the world—that's greater works.”
I said, “Do the works then that He did, then do the greater. Show me the works that He did. 'The works that I do shall you do also.' ”
42The Spirit of God is present. How wonderful it would be if we could all believe now with one accord.
Now look, down this line there's. . . . How many more has got prayer cards? Anybody else got any prayer cards? All prayer cards? Now remember, prayer cards will be give out at six o'clock again tomorrow night. Now this line here is for prayer for the sick. Now, if I could heal this man, or anyone else along there, I'd do it. I can't heal. I have no way of healing, but a sign shows the presence of God. Now, God first sent His Word. That's the best way to believe it, what your pastors tell you. That's right. If that would be you or I, and they didn't take our word for it, they could just go ahead and die. But not God. He's loving and kind. He sends other signs.
He puts in the church what? The first thing that God puts in the church is apostles. That's missionaries, same word—“one sent.” Second is a prophet, and then teachers, evangelists, and pastors. God sets those in church by foreordination, God foreknowing all things. Then in each local church is gifts, nine different spiritual gifts. It's not only on one. It goes from one to the other, and back and forth. Paul said, “You all may prophesy.” Now, them's not all prophets; that's a gift of prophecy. A gift of prophecy, it has to be judged by two or three judges before it can even be given to the church, or passed upon. But if God sends a prophet, it's born a prophet, always, with “thus saith the Lord,” see.
43Now, we're looking in the church today for God to rise up such people. We're looking for great signs, and great missionaries, and great apostles, or great . . . great men. They're here. I talked to one just a few hours ago—Oral Roberts, great man of God. Up here at the hotel, us praying for each other, laying hands on each other and asking God's blessings that our work would move on. Tommy Osborn. Oh, just . . . I couldn't stop to call them—great men all around through this city, pastors, and everything. They're all servants of God. Your pastor ain't close, there's a neighbor that's filled with the Holy Spirit—go with them and pray. Anywhere, so we get in, that's the main thing get in.
44Now, I couldn't take this line here for discernment. You know that, because that just nearly kills you. Anyone knows that. How many know that visions weakens you? The Bible said so. What happened when that one woman touched His garment? He said, “I perceive that I have gotten weak.” Is that right? “Virtue has left me. I got weak.” One person. Well, you see what two persons would be, then three persons, then four persons. You're about gone, see. But the only way it is, Jesus said, “More than this shall you do, for I go . . . or, greater [which means more in quantity, not quality] shall you do.”
45Now, I believe I made the announcements. I'm going to ask each one of you people, keep the little ones just as quiet as possible, everyone sit still for a few minutes, and I want you. . . . Now remember, my prayers is no more for the healing of these people than your prayers is. Each one of you are partners with me, and we're partners together with Jesus, for these sick people. What if this was your son, Dad? What if this was your son, Mother? Your husband, wife? Your father, child? What if it was? You'd want somebody to be real sincere about it. The more would pray, the happier you'd be. Now, there's a many of them out there, sir, praying for you. And each one's going to join with me in prayer for you, and for each one of these people along here.
Now, if we'd stop for this discernment, we'd get about four or five and the rest of them would go back to their seats. But long ago when I first come here, you remember that day up here at Brother Garcia's, that I prayed for nearly three thousand people that afternoon? Do you remember that? Sure, many of you do. See, three thousand people. They had to pack me to the motel. Just stand there, laying hands on them, praying till . . . and just saying, “God bless you,” until my mouth, I could hardly open it no more. My lips was parched, like that, but hundreds was healed, see—just laying on of hands.
46Now, the Bible said, “These signs shall follow them that believe. If they lay their hands on the sick, they shall recover.” Do you believe? Do you believe all along the line? If God doesn't say one thing to you in any discernment, you're ready to believe it anyhow. Is that right? Just laying on of hands. All right. Now, you come. . . . Just stand where you are, sir, that's all right. Now, that you might know, this fellow has been standing a long time, and. . . . Brother Borders . . . no, this brother, are you one of the ushers there, sir? Are you the next patient to come? Watch the people there. All right, just so there's somebody to help them. And if they're too crippled to come up, bring them right around here, and I'll lay hands on them and pray for them.
47Now, how many in here will pledge your loyalty to be offering prayer for these sick people? Raise up your hand. Now, all of you see, look along here, everyone.
Now, heavenly Father, this is the moment, this is a crucial moment. The moment that that same Jesus who came walking to the ship that night on the sea, walk in tonight, Lord, in the midst of this people. Walk in by the power of the Spirit and so saturate our body, our souls, and our spirit with Your presence until we'll see the great works of God. May each person that passes through this prayer line, and hundreds of people sitting here tonight lifting their hands and pledging their loyalty to pray for the sick, and I, Your servant, Lord, praying, and You, the Holy Spirit, here performing and doing the same things, the impossible things to be done by man. . . .
It is true that someone might have enough mental faith to rise up out of a wheelchair, or get up off of a cot or a stretcher, but when it comes to discerning a spirit perfectly, that takes You, God. That's only You. The greatest miracle that we've seen in the ages is that. But You've promised it. It was a sign that You was going to give to the Gentiles just before their closing day.
48Lord, we don't know what day will be the closing of Phoenix, but we pray, Father, that tonight that the people will not miss this, but they'll. . . .
Now that the hour has come for deliverance—after a full week of calling to the altar and doing all that we could to get people to repent, seven straight nights now—we pray that You'll be merciful and heal all the sick that's in divine presence. And, Father God, if there's anything here that You wish me to know, just speak to me, Lord, and I'll answer You. Answer the prayer of all the people, and may everyone coming through the prayer line pass by this pulpit knowing that the prayers of the people is for them, and Jesus the Son of God is here to prove Himself to be their Saviour and their all present King and God. Grant it, in Jesus' name. Amen.
49Now, one word from Him will be more than thousands that I could say. Now, that you might know. . . . Now, those people out there, wherever they were, had no prayer cards. You just keep praying. Keep praying. Now here's people with prayer cards. To show you the prayer card has nothing to do with it, show you that the Spirit of God is here, I'd just like to say a word to this man.
50This man, as far as I know, I don't know him. I know nothing about him. He might've seen me, been in the meetings and looked at me, and so forth, and I might've see him somewhere. I couldn't say that, I don't know.
But to look at him in the face, to look at him that way, God knows (my hand) I've never saw him in my life, just to know him, unless I'd seen him and wouldn't know him. But now the man's standing here for some purpose, for some cause. I don't know, but it's seemingly that he's in a desperate condition.
51But if the Holy Spirit will tell me just something, just something another, so that the other people down along this line can see that that Spirit that knows everybody in here has the anointing—and the Bible predicted it would be just that way in this day—surely it would make them have faith. Would it make you have faith if the Lord could tell me what your trouble was, like He did the woman? Would it help you? Would it help the rest of you people in the prayer line? Would it help you? All right. Would it help you out there to believe? I'm just going to take a moment and talk to him.
52Now, sir, we're perfect strangers. Just like Philip that found Nathanael, you come tonight. You come here, just a man, walked in here and somebody give you a prayer card, and here you're standing on the platform. I don't know you, know nothing about you, but the Holy Spirit is here who does know you. Now, if God can reveal to me something that would show you that . . . tell you the truth, you'd know whether it was the truth or not. You'll know that much. If it told you something that has been, you'll know whether that's true or not. Then if He knows what has been, surely He'll know what will be. If you know that's right, then whatever He says will be, it's got to be right, see. That's true.
Now, if I said, “Praise the Lord! Hallelujah! You're sick. . . .” Sure, you're standing on the platform. You're here for something. You might not be sick, I don't know. But if I'd say, “Praise the Lord! Are you sick?” you'd say, “Yes sir.”
“Hallelujah! The Lord says you're going to get well.”
You'd say, “Praise the Lord,” walk away. That could be truth. That could absolutely be the truth, but how much greater is it who can go back down in your life and tell you what you have been, then come here and tell you what you have been and what you will be. See, that's the infallible part. And you're the judge, and there's at least five or six hundred people here tonight, and you know that it would . . . whether that's the truth or not.
53Now will every person in here believe, you said? May the Lord grant it.
Father God, I can't have no contact with the man. It's up to You, Lord Jesus. There's so many of you out there praying, makes it hard for one on the platform. You have to kind of hold back, or there'd just be a burst over the plat . . . out in the audience. Now he is. He's aware now that something is taking place. That's right, isn't it?
54The man's actually shadowed to death. He doesn't look it, but he is. It's cancer. That cancer is a stomach cancer. It come from an ulcer that's been on for some time. It's growed worse until it's come into a cancer, without hope now. And you have just . . . you've accepted Christ, but you had onetime been a Christian and backslid, then just come back to God recently. That's right. Yes, that is true.
And you've got a burdened heart for somebody. Do you believe God can reveal to me who that somebody is? Would it help you? Would it help you to believe? It's your mother. You believe God can tell me about her? Something wrong with her hip, and she's in a hospital. She's a great woman. She was healed in one of my meetings before, thus saith the Lord. Come, let us pray. Our heavenly Father, laying hands upon the man, with this audience of people, condemning the evil, may he go and be well in Jesus' name. Amen. God bless you.
55Come, lady. If I don't say one. . . . You know I know what's wrong with you, don't you? But if I don't say one word, it's all right, is it? Our heavenly Father, I pray that You'll heal the woman. May she go and get well, in Jesus' name, while we pray. Amen. Your heart trouble's left you. Now you can go home.
56You know you must believe God or that cancer would kill you. Our heavenly Father, I pray that in Jesus' name that You'll help her and heal her, while we all pray for her and lay hands upon her, saying, “These signs shall follow them that believe. They shall lay hands on the sick, they shall recover.” In Christ's name, amen. God bless you, sister. Go believing now with all your heart.
57Precious Lord, I pray that You'll heal our sister, and may she leave here tonight and go home and be well, while this great host of people is praying in Jesus' name. Amen. Now, I didn't tell you what was wrong. You believe it anyhow? You believe it? Well, your heart trouble's gone, so you. . . .
58Our heavenly Father, I pray for this dear man. May Your Holy Spirit come upon him and make him well. I pray that You'll heal him in Jesus' name. Amen. Bless you, sir. Lord Jesus, I pray that You'll make our brother well. May Your Spirit be upon him and completely heal him for Your glory. Amen. Bless you, sir. Heavenly Father, I pray that You'll heal our sister, and may these people that are praying, along with Your servants, may they be healed in Jesus' name. Amen. God bless you, sister. Go believing.
59Our heavenly Father, give this man a blood transfusion. May the power of God come upon him and take this horrible thing away from him. In Jesus' name, may he be healed. Amen. God bless you, my brother. Want to go eat your supper? All right, go ahead, your stomach trouble left you. It seems like if you don't say nothing the people don't seem to get it. Now, don't do that, see. God's just as great whether I tell them anything or not. You believe that? Just as great. He's the same God, He knows all things, does all thing. He's just God.
60Now, like this woman here. Do you believe me, sister, as God's servant? You believe that I've told you the truth out of that Bible? You believe God can tell me something about you? You do? All right, you're suffering with a throat trouble. That's right. Not only that but you are a preacher to begin with, a lady preacher. And then you're praying for somebody, a close friend of yours that's got cancer. That's “thus saith the Lord.” Go now, believe. Our heavenly Father, I pray that You'll make the woman well, in Jesus' name. Amen.
61Come, sister dear. Now, the people are praying for you out there. Everybody, now. Lord, I pray that You'll heal her and make her well, in Jesus' name. Amen.
Come. Speak English? Speak English? Your back. That's right. Raise your hand if that's true. Raise up your hand. Go, now, back to your people. Jesus makes you well. Amen. Come believing. You going to believe for her too? All right. Come. Our heavenly Father, I pray that You'll make her well. Grant it, Lord. May Your Spirit and power come upon her and heal her, in Jesus' name. Amen. God bless you. Believe now, sister.