Ritorno e Giubileo
E-1 Thank you, brother. You be seated. [Tongues and interpretation are
given--Ed.] Amen, amen. Praise be to God. [Tongues and interpretation
are given--Ed.] Amen. What a grand thing it is tonight to hear this
said just before we--'fore I come to speak to you: God promising us
that He will give us a fresh anointing. That's why we have assembled
here. That's why this meeting is called.
E-2 I certainly deem this such a grand privilege to be here tonight to
assemble with this church again, these worshippers, with my good
friend, Brother Moore, his lovely wife, and their family, and all the
families of the Lord that has gathered out for this time of fellowship
and jubilee. We gather around the Word of God and around the praises
and worship of His people.
E-3 And I certainly miss something of not being here to hear our
brother speak of the outpouring at the beginning of--the outpouring of
the Holy Spirit at Azusa Street in Los Angeles. And I sent the tape man
ahead, Brother Sothmann, which is here somewhere to tape the message
this morning so that I'd be able to get to hear it. And we drove last
night through the storm, trying to make it, but we missed it, and we
got so tired, just had to stop at Little Rock about, 'tween twelve and
one o'clock and sleep awhile. I overslept this morning. So was kinda
tired, we been pretty busy, and getting ready now for overseas and so
forth. So we was just a little tired. And--but, I'll know I will enjoy
hearing this patriarch's message on that time.
E-4 One time in--up in Canada I was privileged to hear Brother Moore
read the story. And I've always wondered where that book went. I wanted
to read that, about the heartaches and cries of those people in the
early outpouring of the Holy Spirit. I believe one of them lost a
little child or something, had to--didn't even have a casket to put it
in, had to go saw some boards and make a casket. And, oh, my, how they
was rejected by the people. But yet, with an undying faith, moved on to
see the great church today, that it has produced.
Goes to show what faith can do. I think if a person ever is sure in
their heart and has something that faith can anchor on, they should
never cease. No matter how many times they're defeated, they should
continue on.
E-5 You know, there was a man one time who wanted to write a--thought
he could write comic strips. No one would accept his--his ability. And
finally he begin to write some little editorials for a church. And he
got out in a--a little old rat invested garage and tried to write some
stories. And no one would receive them. And every newspaper turned them
down, and said he didn't have the ability, but yet he believed he did.
And he continued on and on.
And he begin to notice the peculiarity of a certain little mouse that
was in the garage, and there's where the story of Mickey Mouse was
born. And Walt Disney now, millions and millions of dollars that his
company, or whatever he has, is worth. Because he believed that there's
something in him, pulsating.
And if a man can do that by the natural, what about a man that's been
pulsated by the Holy Spirit, that believes that God wants His
achievements to be brought to people, and will stay with the Scripture.
E-6 I'm looking forward this week to a revival in my own soul. I told
my wife yesterday when I'd heard some good news, and I rushed over and
threw my arms around her and screamed, "I'm free" and went out into the
room and started weeping. And I said, "You know, I--I--I want God to
give me a revival in myself." I said, "For about five years I've been
choked down under a--a great burden that's been released now and..."
And I thought, "Oh, my, I'm going down to Brother Jackson's have all
the people pray for me that I'll have a revival down in myself." I
really need it. I think we all feel a whole lot that way.
E-7 Sister Anna Jean, I sure appreciate that article that you wrote,
especially on that little cap. I'd like to see that some time.
So thankful to see Sister Moore over here, knowing she's been sick for
sometime. And Billy told me that she taken the floor awhile ago down or
something. It was a testimony of the grace of God, His healing power.
And during time this week, the Lord willing, we want to have some
healing services, pray for the sick. And we intend to do that, and pray
for everybody comes to be prayed for. And we're expecting God to give
us another Azusa Street outpouring.
E-8 And so now, I know it's... You've had... I thought the revival, or
the meeting started yesterday. But I find out it's been going on since
last Sunday, I believe. So I know you've had great speakers in here,
and we're certainly grateful that the meeting has this--has come into
this atmosphere tonight. It ought not to be too hard to think of
something to say to such a receptive audience, and--and the Spirit
already here. So you just walk right into it. It feels real fine to do
that. And I'm grateful that I always find that here in this church, a
fine welcome of--of the Holy Spirit.
E-9 Now, there's people that's standing, and outside, and it was around
when we came down. They were coming down, making a line going back.
There no room to get in upstairs or downstairs, in the balconies and
things. So we're--we're going to try to hurry just quick as possible,
and tonight, speak to you awhile, and then tomorrow morning there is
a--a--a session, I believe in the morning. And I--I'm sure everybody
wants to be here tomorrow afternoon. Brother Jack's going to answer
questions.
I said, "Brother Jack, what about that?"
He said, "I--I--I got the answers. I don't know about the question," he
said. So I'm sure glad the burden's on him to have to answer questions.
E-10 Now, we're happy and always like to meet each other, and talk,
and--and have a good time of fellowship, and that's what it is. But
now, let's get settled now for a few moments on the sincere side of
these things, knowing that we're all marching towards the end, day by
day. I was thinking of this old patriarch here, how many that
worshipped with him in Azusa Street's already crossed that river.
Someday some of us, if the Lord tarries, will be talking about meetings
in Shreveport at the jubilee. We'll be crossed over, many. We must
remember that we must do it.
So it behooves us to take every precaution. We don't get to come back
and try over no more. We've got to do it now. So when I come to the
audience... I never try to come to please an audience. I've never been
guilty of that. I come to try to please God. And sometimes I might say
things, and I might pinch or hurt, but I don't mean it in that way. We
need to stay with truth and what's right, and to see the Holy Spirit
come down to a vindicate that, that it is right. And that's what we're
all seeking.
E-11 Now, before we read a Scripture, I would like if we'd just bow our
heads again for a--a word of prayer.
Our God, we are approaching Thy throne tonight in the Name of the Lord
Jesus. Just to speak the Name does something to us, for it's lovely.
And we're coming up now, lifting up from this little building here,
going beyond the top of the building, beyond the moon, stars, into Thy
Presence and around Thy great golden altar to lay our faith and our
petitions up there with our Sacrifice, the Lord Jesus. And we're coming
in His Name, knowing that He said, "If you ask the Father anything in
My Name, I will grant it."
And now we come first to confess our sins, and our faults, and all the
wrongs. Oh, there are so many of them, Lord, that they're numerous. But
we just plead for mercy. And we would ask, Lord, that in this great
time of fellowship, that You'd return to us in a great outpouring of
Thy blessings again upon Thy people. As we see darkness settling and
the hour drawing nigh, and see the churches widening away from one
another, the hour that we're living in, draw us close again, Lord, with
the bonds of fellowship around the Word and around the Spirit.
E-12 May there not be a person that's anyways near, inside or out of
this building, but what will be benefited tonight by their coming here.
May they come with open hearts. And may we who speak, speak with open
hearts. May we altogether be committed to the Holy Spirit, that He
might take us and work His will.
We most humbly thank You for the Message that was given a few moments
ago, that we feel down in our hearts that we have the promise now
that--that You will visit us. And we're looking forward to that, Lord,
like children that's been given a promise.
Bless the Word, the reading. Sanctify the ears that hear and the voice
that speaks. And bring those who are wandered away back to the fold,
and those who are remaining in, encourage those to go on. Heal every
sick person, O God. May there not be a feeble person in our midst
tonight but what will be healed by Thy Presence. May we realize that
this what we are speaking to and hearing It speak back to us is not a
myth, but It is the resurrection power of our Lord and Saviour Jesus
Christ Who dwells among His people. We are listening to Thy voice,
Lord, to hear what we should do. In the Name of Jesus Christ, we ask
it. Amen.
E-13 Now, I want you, if you wish to, to turn with me in the Bible to
the book of--of Leviticus the 25th chapter. And I want to read the 9th
and the 10th verse to draw from this a context for what I wish to say.
While you're turning, I want to recognize some friends in here that I
see tonight: Brother and Sister Williams from Phoenix where a meeting
comes up shortly over there, with the people in Phoenix. I see also
Brother and Sister Norman here from Tucson, right behind them Brother
and Sister Evans from down in Georgia. And many others that I just
begin to spot around and see... The Lord bless you.
In Leviticus, the 25th chapter and the 9th and 10th verse:
Then shall thou cause the trumpet of the jubilee to sound on the tenth
day of the seventh month, in the day of the atonement shall ye make the
trumpet to sound throughout all your land.
And you shall hallow the fiftieth year, and proclaim liberty throughout
all the land unto... the inhabitants thereof: and it shall be a jubilee
unto you; and you shall return every man to his possession, and you
shall return every man to his family.
Now, I want to take the text from "Return And Jubilee." Now, as I
understand and have been told that this is the time of fifty years ago
today, I believe it is, if I do not misunderstand, that the Holy Spirit
was poured out afresh in the state of Louisiana.
E-14 And I have been reading some history on the Pentecostal move, how
right on a hundred years ago it was poured out in Russia. They rejected
it. See what they got? And wherever God sends His blessings and people
reject it, that a place always goes into chaos, just rots in its
condition. And we are sure that the message and the power of God, which
we all believe in, is such strange--so strange to the world and its way
of thinking, until, I believe, that our nation has practically done
what the rest of them has done. Now, to the honor and praise of God, we
are grateful for what He has given to us.
E-15 And Israel: God gave Israel, which was His servant, a possession.
And we want to base it like a Sunday school lesson. And I--tomorrow
night I intending to preach on the subject of "Why And How To Return
Back." And now, tonight I thought I'd... more or less, so the people
wouldn't get it--wouldn't miss it, rather, fail to get it, I'd kind of
teach it like a lesson of what has taken place, and to my honest and
sincere belief, what it's been, and what has taken place, and why. And
then tomorrow night, "How Do We Come Back?"
E-16 Now, in a type, or a figure, we take Israel because it's the
jubilee time and the church was given a portion, which was Christ
Himself that was poured out by the Holy Spirit into each heart that
would receive It and become sons of God. Now, Israel was a servant to
God, and he--it was given a possession. And this possession was not to
be given to anyone else. It was to be to Israel only. Palestine
belonged to them.
And if we had the time, or time would permit us, rather, to go back and
take the birth of those patriarchs when they were born by those women.
And each one when the baby was being borned and the mother in labor
uttered the voice of this patriarch, positionally placed him in his
place in Palestine hundreds of years later. How we can put our
confidence in this written Word of God because It's so inspired, that
every phase of It hangs together, and It's drawing a picture for us of
what God was, and what God is, and always will be.
E-17 Now, we find that when Joshua divided the inheritance to the
people, each person was placed positionally, exactly the way these
Hebrew mothers named those children, how they were placed in Palestine
just at their place; Asher, Gad, and--and Napthali, and each one,
Judah. Every one just placed in their position.
What a--a wonderful picture it gets us, because it's a type of God's
placing in the church, Himself, every member, every stone, every place,
every Christian, to itself. Each one of us in our peculiar way has a
place in the house of God, like Solomon's temple when it was cut out
all over the world. But when it was brought in by--to Joppa by--floated
in and took from there by ox-cart... And all these odd rocks had their
place when the temple went together.
E-18 And I think that God, down through this time has cut out some very
odd stones that we might not have understood, but they have their place
exactly in the temple, in the building of God. And Joshua, by
inspiration, not by just mathematics, he--he by... Inspired by God he
'lotted each one of those patriarchs in their position, just exactly
the way their name belongs.
What a--a picture it puts before us of God in His master works. No one
could've ever done it but God. There's no way of doing it: God alone.
It was to be for--was to be their--theirs forever. It was a gift from
God. God, by His marvelous grace, give these people this land in this
position and placed them in it according to His Word and the birth of
the people. Just perfect, how it clucked right together. And I think it
was a type.
E-19 And now, no one else could take that place. It had to be for
Israel alone, just them alone was the only ones that could take this
place, and still it--the blessings on the place. And if somehow or
other, during these time... If they lost their inheritance by some
means... It might been poverty; it might been some other way that
they--they lost their inheritance where their fathers... One would
leave it to his son; he would leave it to his son. It belonged to that
tribe. It belonged to that people forever. It was an inheritance.
And if I'm not misunderstanding the Scriptures wrong, I believe in the
great millennium that is to come (You know what I mean.) they'll take
right back to that place. For we know Zion shall be lit up, that great
city, and they'll not have day nor night there for the--the Light will
hang on Zion. And I believe in the millennium, those tribes will take
their positions again.
E-20 Now, if somehow or other the individual lost their inheritance
that was given to them by God, there come a year called the jubilee
year. And that was... Every seven years they had a--a rest, a sabbath.
Every seven days they had a sabbath, every seven years they had a
sabbath. And seven sabbaths was forty-nine years, and the fiftieth year
was jubilee.
And in this jubilee every man that had lost his inheritance by some
means... If he was a free born and a true blooded Israelite, no matter
who held the possession, it had to go back to him free. He didn't have
to pay a thing; he didn't have to do a thing, but just stop what he was
doing and go back to his inheritance.
Oh, my. He had a right to it. It was a God given right. Because he, by
grace, had inherited it, and it would--been given to his fathers and
handed down year after year. No matter what had taken place, if he lost
it, it must go free. It meant grace is way provided for each individual
to return to their rightful inheritance.
What a picture it gives us tonight of the church in this last days. You
see what man can do and then you see what God does. What man does is
failing, and will fail, has failed, and always will fail. But what God
does is eternal and must forever remain. Nothing can ever take it away.
God give it; it's His free gift, and by sovereign foresight saw it and
placed it, and there's nothing can ever move it. It's there eternally.
And at jubilee was God's manner of expressing grace to His people for
restoring or be brought back to their rightful position.
E-21 Now, I believe that this is the hour again of jubilee. I believe
it's the time of jubilee. I believe that fifty years ago in Louisiana,
this great state where the Pentecostal people are powerful and strong;
I believe that God set in operation a church. And I do not say this
critically; I say it sincerely, that I believe that though that little
minority has growed to a great powerful tens of thousands times
thousands of Pentecostal members that's associated in every form of--of
government that we have... And every... (Like police and--and--and
statesmans, and--and great men, even into the federal government...)
Sometime ago I understood that during the reign of Dwight Eisenhower,
that almost forty percent of the employees of the government was either
Pentecostal or had Pentecostal background.
E-22 Think of that, within fifty years that the church has growed from
a little handful of people down on Azusa Street until one of the
mightiest churches marching forward in the world today. We are grateful
for that. And I'm thanking God for that. And I am so glad to be one of
them, that God, through His marvelous grace, saw fit one day to bring
me into them and make me a part of them.
E-23 And it is by no means that I say this next thing through any harm,
but through zealous of the church. But the church, yet, has growed in
numbers, and it has growed in power; it's growed in finance; but it has
fallen from what it was at that day, spiritually. There has... The
greatest thing that could've happened to them, whether they become
great in finance, great in numbers, or whether they had to stay in the
minority, the greatest thing they could've held to would been that Holy
Spirit that God, by His marvelous grace, had poured out upon them to
lead them and guide them.
I believe that they have lost, and a--a great deal of that zeal that
they had, that burning fire that fell and caught their souls aflame,
that went into the street corners, to the byways, and to the highways.
In the... Not through the easy way that we travel today, but through
the way of persecution, through the way of sorrow, through the way of
heartache, turned down by everyone.
E-24 How I would like tonight, if my good brother maybe can hear in the
world beyond. But an old saint, that lives here in Shreveport years ago
used to set out when I first come here and tell me, "Brother Branham,
you are so right; the church is losing its grip. Oh, I pray that God
will help get it back again."
And Brother Lyle and I, as we set out there, that's Sister Moore's
father, and how he told me that in the early days, back in those days
when they were persecuted and turned out from everywhere, that he was
in a meeting once to where they were--had forbid them to worship the
Lord in the Spirit. And a group of people come up and shot through the
windows with pistols and rifles. And an old sister standing in the
floor with her hands up in the air praising God while the windows was
being riddled with bullets from rifles. And the bullets struck the
woman's dress and fell to the floor without harming her.
E-25 We need to go back to a power of God, and a--something that can do
the same thing today. Although in our numbers... Persecution always
gives strength to the church. We've had it too easy. We get slothful.
We get to a place where we don't want to move on, because everything's
just handed to us. It takes sorrow, and tears, and sweat, and prayer,
and faith, and promise to move forward in the power of the Holy Spirit.
That zeal and power that they had in those days has long time vanished
from our assemblies. I'm afraid if the windows would be shot out
tonight, people'd run every way and never come back again.
E-26 But... And another thing, it's too bad, you know, to think of
those things happening like that. But yet it proves that the God that
was in the old days is still God today. The God that was, ever remains
God, and expects His people to--to keep their vows and their promises.
But when we get everything so easy, then we just slip along. And the
first thing you know, we've gone out from these things, losing our
inheritance.
Now, read down here, about the 25th verse, or along in here, in this
a--a 20, the 25th chapter, rather, of Leviticus, that there was
something that I'd like to type, not critically, but soberly,
reverently, and in the fear of God, Who we're all in the Presence of
tonight.
E-27 Did you notice, as you read it (when you go home, if you haven't),
that if a man bought property inside of a walled city, then he had one
year to redeem that back if he sold it. And if he did not redeem that
back, that property, if it was inside of a wall, had to stay in there,
it could not go free in the jubilee. It was bound to stay there. They
were over the wall. They never heard the jubilee, the trumpet sounding.
They sounded a trumpet and it could not go free.
And I'm so afraid that one of the things that we had in the beginning,
how the old timers preached against organizing ourselves together, we
turned around and done the very thing back that our fathers fought so
hard to come out of. And the walled city, I'm afraid that too many of
us today, too many of our Pentecostal people has got walled into some
denomination, some organization somewhere, and will never hear the
sound of the jubilee and never come again back to the--the inheritance.
E-28 Now, remember, the ones that was walled in never got to go free,
they were bond-slaves the rest of their time. The owner owned them if
they put their inheritance in a city that was walled in. But if it was
outside, little bitty cities that wasn't walled in, then it was
considered like the plains, that it could go free in the jubilee. I do
not wish to criticize, but I only wish to state what is truth, what is
actually Scriptural truth.
E-29 Now, we find that so many of us, in these last days, in our
organization of Pentecost, that we have come in and organized ourself,
and rejected the leadership of the Holy Spirit by the wisdom of some
groups of people. Instead of having fellowship one with another, it's
divided us and separated us into several different organizations of
people. And in doing so, it has broke up our inheritance.
Now, these walls, inside, if we ever get walled into a place where we
can't accept the Word and the Holy Spirit, and have to take the--the
creeds and so forth of a church instead of the power of the Holy
Spirit, the jubilee will never mean nothing to that person. No matter
how much you can say mother left you your inheritance, daddy did that,
but you sold out, and walled up, and come into a creed, and accepted
this dogma that was injected into your fellowship instead of being free
in the Christ and letting the Holy Spirit lead us.
E-30 Along back in the age when the early church was getting itself
together, immediately they had to go to organizing. And when they did,
because they was afraid that somebody else would--a leader would get a
little group. They had issues that came in, and then they had to
organize these issues. If they had just have left it alone, let the
Holy Spirit weed out, and bring out, and lead in, and put in, the
church would've been farther advanced than it is now in spiritual
power. Yes.
E-31 Now, a man and his family could go back to their original
inheritance if they could hear the jubilee, a trumpet sound, and know
that--what it meant to them. Now, if they heard the priest sound the
trumpet, the minister... The trumpet is the Gospel. And when they hear
It, and they know what It means, and they know that that's their
inheritance, no matter where they'd lost, how far they went back,
whatever they had to do, they had the privilege to come and receive
again their inheritance. The whole family could come and receive their
inheritance.
E-32 So is it tonight that men and women here of Louisiana, that knows
the things that we do know and have heard from our brother and
different ones, of our Pentecostal experience of years ago, and find
that we have walled off... We haven't walled ourselves away from it so
far that we got to hear what somebody says instead of what THUS SAITH
THE LORD is, and can hear what the Word of God's got to say about it...
Now, is the hour of jubilee. Come back to your original inheritance, to
a real Holy Ghost again.
Remember, he could go free, didn't have to pay nothing, didn't have to
do nothing, just get up and go. That's all he had to do, go back, if he
knew the sound of the trumpet. But he had to know the sound of the
trumpet (See?), for they were sons of God.
E-33 We... Jesus said in Saint John 8:35 that the son abides forever in
the house. Now, a servant does not abide. A servant does not abide.
Remember, he is a son, not a servant. If he's a son, he is born a son.
If he's a servant, he is joined or bought.
Oh, there is no such a thing as joining the church. There's no Word for
it in the Bible. You cannot join the church. The church is the mythical
Body of Jesus Christ, that you got to be borned into it by the baptism
of the Holy Spirit. And there's no such a thing as joining the church.
E-34 In Revelations the 17th chapter, if you'll read in the "Diaglott,"
the "Emphatic Diaglott" of the original Vatican manuscripts, you'll
find there in Revelations 17 (in the King James version), it says, "And
she was full of names of blasphemy." The prostitute church, a daughter,
she had daughters, many daughters associated with her, and she was a
prostitute. The first organized religion ever was, was organized at
Nicaea, Rome, at the Nicaea, after the Nicene Council, then she become
an organization, a universal Christian church of an organization. She
had daughters.
And you see there the King James put it, "She had names of blasphemy."
But in the original "Diaglott," it said, "She was full of blasphemous
names." What a difference from "names of blasphemy" to "blasphemous
names." That means to me, I don't know, I... If I'm wrong, God forgive
me, but it means churches that has took on the names of Christianity,
that live like the world, and act like the world, and do the things of
the world, and has brought a disgrace upon the true church of the
living God. And they join those.
You might join the Methodist lodge, Presbyterian lodge, or the
Pentecostal lodge, but you cannot join the church. You must be born
into the church by the baptism of the Holy Spirit. That is true.
E-35 Now, we see where we're getting to. All right. Remember, sons
abide. They are forever in there. They are brought in there by
predestination: Ephesians 1:5, "Predestinated unto the adoption of
children by Jesus Christ before the foundation of the world." They are
sons that are born into the church of God, and they ever remain there
because they're borned into it. That's right.
A servant, now, remember, a servant gets his reward or his wages, but
he was never to be free in the jubilee. No, sir. A servant was not free
in the jubilee that was not born an Israelite. He had to be borned in
order to be free in the jubilee. He got his wages.
And many people get their rewards. Jesus said about the hypocrites,
said, "They have their rewards." But you're different. Yes, that's what
Jesus was saying in John 8 about the Jews. They said, "We're free."
He said, "The servants does not abide in the house."
But when He gave them birth, they was no longer servants; they were
sons and joint heirs with Him in the Kingdom. That's the way the church
is; it's joint heirs with Christ in the Kingdom, heirs of all things to
God, through Him.
E-36 Now, we find that the church moved off in the same direction that
its forefathers moved in, the--the first organizations of churches.
It's been that way down through the ages. But they are never, never...
The servants will not be free. They will not hear the Word. They will
not believe the Word. The servants, they heard the trumpet sound, that
priest riding through the land sounding this trumpet that every man was
free, sounded out throughout, liberty all out the lands. And every man
that was borned a Jew knowed he could go back to his inheritance. I
don't care how far he was sold, what happened, he could go back,
because he was a--borned in the house. He was in his father's house,
born. But the servant didn't know what he was doing. Oh, my.
E-37 Both of them working for the same master, sold under sin... Many a
Pentecostal tonight is sold the same way. Oh brother, return. Go back
to your original inheritance, all of you. Turn and go back. It's time
to go back.
The heathen... Now, the heathen slave could not do that, he didn't know
nothing about it. And after all, a heathen means an unbeliever, an
unbeliever in the Word.
Many of them will take dogmas and rituals and creeds of the church
instead of listening to the real Word. And when the real Word sounds
Itself out, they don't know what you're talking about. They want to
call you a holy-roller. They want to call you like they did their
forefathers fifty years ago in Louisiana, "crazy." Like it was back in
the days of Paul, "In the way of heresy, that's the way I worship the
God of our fathers." See, the heathen don't know nothing about it.
Though he professes to be something, but yet, a heathen is an
unbeliever, unbeliever in God's Word. That makes him a heathen.
E-38 It was only for the elected, God's chosen. That's the way it is
today, "Not him that runneth, or him that willeth, it's God that has
mercy." It's God that does it, God, by His grace. Jesus said, "No man
can come to Me except My Father draws him. And all the Father has given
Me will come to Me." It's God's grace that He chose the church before
the foundation of the world.
That church will hear the Word of God; they'll turn every creed down;
they'll turn every organization, every denomination that's contrary
down; and they'll serve God by the power of the Holy Ghost. Amen. They
certainly know the trumpet sound. "My sheep hear My voice." What are
you talking about? The Word. You say, "That's God's voice?"
"In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word
was God. And the Word was made flesh and dwelled among us. My sheep
hear that. They know it. A stranger they will not follow." They don't
hear these creeds; they don't hear these dogmas and these things that's
been injected to make an organization instead of a body. "A body has
Thou prepared Me," said God. Acts... or, Hebrews. "A body has Thou
prepared Me. A sacrifice and offerings Thou wouldest not, but a body
has Thou prepared Me," a body of believers, a body that's been born.
E-39 Before it can be a body of human beings... Before I could act as a
human, before I could walk like a human, before I could talk like a
human, I have to be borned a human.
How would've knot on a tree know how I acted? How could he ever say, "I
don't act like that." The only way he could be that would be to be born
like me. That's the way organization is dead, drawed people away,
because it went after a creed.
But in order to be a son of God you've got to be borned of the Spirit
of God, then you become Christ-like and do the works of Christ; then
you're not funny to them people. A human acting like a human's not
funny. And a Christian acting like a Christian, borned of the same
Spirit... You see the Pentecostal group at the beginning, that same
Pentecostal group acts the same way if it's born of the same Spirit,
'cause it's born. That's why, today, that people doesn't understand the
church. And the church has begin to grow cold and formal, getting after
creeds and things and leaving off the following of the Holy Spirit. All
right.
E-40 Others doesn't know the sound of trumpet. The bond slave is bond,
the Bible said here from generation to generation. Everyone that come
into that city and bought property, he was bound. He could not redeem
his property in the jubilee. It did not go out free, and he could not
redeem it. It remained the one that bought it from generation to
generation. That's what the Scripture says here. He must remain in that
city with his property, for that's where his inheritance was, was in
the city. He wasn't free to go back, because he'd sold out.
E-41 Now, we say from generation to generation... I asked a man not
long ago... One time, Doctor Bosworth (I guess you remember Brother
Bosworth.), he said, "I asked a girl one night in Toronto, Canada, 'Are
you a Christian?'"
She said, "I'll have you to understand, I burn a candle every night."
Like... See, that's all she knows about Christianity.
I asked a woman one time was she a Christian?
She said, "I'm an American. I'll give you to understand."
I said, "That's not nothing to do with it."
I was going to pray for a woman one time, and the lady said, "Pull the
curtain there."
I said, "Well, I was just going to offer prayer."
She said, "Pull that curtain."
I said, "All right. Aren't you a Christian?"
She said, "We're Methodists."
I said, "That testifies fine that you're not." See, see, see?
E-42 See, if you say, "Methodist," that's just a blasphemous name. You
say, "Baptist," that's just a blasphemous name. We can say, "Amen" to
that. But, brother, let me ask you something, "What about Pentecost?"
If it's not a borned again experience, it's still a blasphemous name
patterned after the beginning...?... correct. That's right. See, they
don't know one another; they don't know fellowship. All they know is
their creed. They're just settled down like some kind of a lodge, like
lodges. I...
Now, lodges is all right if you want to belong to them, but don't
associate it with the church. The church is a borned again bunch of
believers that's in Christ by the Holy Ghost, led by the Spirit of God.
They're not of the world; they're out of the world; they're different
from the world. That's what makes them what they are. Their life is
dead and they're hid in Christ and... Dead in Christ and hid and
by--sealed by the Holy Ghost. They're away from the things of the world.
E-43 The bond slave, from generation to generation... One woman said,
"Well, I'm a Lutheran." All right. [Brother Branham clears his
throat--Ed.] Pardon me. "A Lutheran. My mother was a Lutheran. My
grandfather was a Lutheran."
All right, bond slave from one to the other, handed right on down, just
to remained that way. You never go free in the jubilee. You could
preach the Word; you could see the Holy Ghost heal the sick, open the
eyes of the blind, speak in tongues, interpreted exactly what the Bible
says; but you don't know the sound of the trumpet. Right. That's the
truth. They don't know the sound of the trumpet. They've sold out.
They've put their inheritance back yonder in some walled in city.
E-44 Our Pentecostal church has done the same thing. Yes, put it right
back in a bot--robed in city they don't hear the Word of God. They say,
"If they don't come this way--don't come to our bunch, well then it's
not the right thing. Your name's not on our books, you can't go in the
rapture."
Your name's on the Lamb's Book of Life, and it was put there before the
foundation of the world, and there's nothing can rub it out. "My sheep
know My voice; a stranger they'll not follow." Yes, sir.
E-45 If the rich servant... A man come in, become a servant and got
rich, and he bought a brother. Now, that brother could be redeemed by a
kinsman. A kinsman could come, get him in the year of jubilee, and
could redeem him.
What a beautiful Christ here we have of--a beautiful picture, rather,
of Christ. How that a--a pilgrim out there in a bond, sold out to the
rich cities out there, sold out into the riches of organization... But
a kinsman brother who knows he's out there, some night put his Bible
under his arm, go after him. A kinsman, because he's got the same
spirit, he's born in the same...?... Go call him out of that group.
He's the kinsman redeemer. How that the picture was portrayed wonderful
in the Book of Ruth. Boaz, that when he taken the place of a kinsman
redeemer, representing Christ...
E-46 The church now is like Israel. The church is like Israel when it
come up out of Egypt. When Israel was down there in Egypt, God by His
marvelous grace, without any organization or anything else, He called
Israel to His health. He called them to their inheritance. He... Grace
furnished them a prophet. Grace give them a Pillar of Fire. Grace give
them a lamb, sacrificial lamb. Grace give them power. Grace give them
deliverance. Grace give them victory. Grace give them all these things.
And they danced in the Spirit, and shouted, and praised God about it.
And little did they know when they were dancing on the banks of the
Jordan there, or the Dead Sea, that they were forty years away from the
land. They was only about five days away, but they made their rashal
mistake in Exodus the 19th chapter where they accepted law instead of
grace, where they turned down God's way to have a way for theirselves.
"Give us something to do." That's been man's idea all along.
E-47 Now, remember, it's been man's idea... That's the nature of man.
Adam expressed that in the garden of Eden. When he was lost, instead of
going back to God for grace, he tried to make hisself an apron. And
ever since then he's tried to have something to do with redemption,
when redemption is a free offer of grace by God, God alone. There's
nothing you can do to save yourself; God saved you. No way at all you
can do. But man wants something to do into it.
They accept it today. And as fifty years ago, when your mothers and
fathers, you Pentecostal people tonight, when them old timers, and this
one setting on the pulpit here tonight, shouted and praised God, they
come out of them organizations. Why, you speak organization to them,
they'd laugh in your face. They were free. Yes, sir. They shout and
praised God; they spoke in tongues; they had signs and wonders and
miracles. The Holy Ghost came down; they seen the literal form of
Christ. They done great signs and wonders. They suffered; they bled;
they went under persecutions, bitter, and everything for that cause.
E-48 And now what did they do? The same thing Israel did. They made
their rashal mistake too; they wanted to organize. And what did it do
to Israel? What did it do to Israel? It... They wouldn't accept the
leadership of the Holy Spirit. They wouldn't accept the leadership of
Moses. They tried to even raise up Korah and Dathan and so forth to--to
lead them. They didn't want the leadership that God had provided for
them.
And today we don't want the leadership, or the church don't, that God
has provided. They try to think of some other way. They go to
seminaries, educate their men, come back out with a theological
experience.
Oh, I'd rather have a man preaching to me that don't know his abc's,
that never was in a--a theological seminary, and have a experience
right here on a broom-side--sage hill somewhere behind a stump and God
fill him with the Holy Ghost. Certainly. Let him be led by the Spirit;
God will make everything move right in direction towards him. He's like
a magnet: can't hide him. Like a house on fire in a high wind, you
can't put him out, he will burn right on. He's burning for Christ. You
can't do nothing about it. Yes.
E-49 What did they do though? They did the same thing that Israel did.
Oh, they had victory; they shouted; they danced; they spoke in tongues
at Pentecost down here at Louisiana fifty years ago. But as Israel
wanted something to do themselves, so did the Pentecostal church.
They'll organize the Assemblies of God. Then after that come the other.
I believe it's called the United, or something. Then along came another
one, and then another one, and then another one, and then another one,
till took where it's at today.
You know what you've done? The same thing Israel did. When they
rejected God's provided plan for them, they begin to wander. That's
what the church has done today: wandering about and taking in
everything into their denomination, tobacco smokers, and unholy people
married four or five times, and everything else, and let them preach,
and take a hillbilly singer out yonder out of the a--a rat house out
there one night and let him play on the platform the next night. Why,
it's a disgrace to the church of the living God to think of such a
thing. Certainly.
What did they do? It's brought blasphemous names, throwed Pentecost,
the very name that should be holy; it's throwed it into a spot because
they say, "He's Pentecostal. She's Pentecostal. They're Pentecostal.
Look at the way they do and act." That's right. Blasphemous names...
Sure, that's the truth.
E-50 Yes, sir, they made a rashal mistake when they did that, and they
wandered for forty years. That's exactly what they done. They wandered
for forty years when they wasn't over five days from the promised land.
It's about forty miles from the Red Sea to where they crossed Jordan,
about forty miles; they could have walked in three or four days and
been into the promised land. But they made their own choice.
And the church would've been a church tonight, glorious, without spot
or wrinkle, if the fathers would accepted and stayed with the Holy
Spirit that God had brought them out of them organizations. But they
went right back into it like a dog to its vomit and a hog to its
wallow. They went right back again into that, and now we've wandered
another fifty years, wandering in the wilderness.
E-51 But there come a time when God said, "You've been on this mountain
long enough. Come on; we're going over."
May it be Louisiana's experience now in this jubilee. May it be our
experience again that God, the Holy Spirit, will speak to the people of
this generation, their sons, as they did back there when the old
fighters have died out, that fought, and said, "Do you--going to do
this, I'll do this. And if you baptize in the Name of Jesus, we'll have
nothing to do with you. And you do this, we'll have that, and the other
thing." The old fighters are dead. That's right.
It's time to rise, be sons of God in the Name of Jesus Christ, and rise
to a place so you can return in this jubilee and hear the sound of the
trumpet of the Gospel of the Word of God. Ye are brethren. You are not
denominated; you are brethren because you can't be denominated; you're
born sons of God. If the slaves want to stay in the walled cities, let
them stay, but you're free. Amen. You're free. Let's go back. Let's go
back to our inheritance. Let's go back to the beginning, back to
their--to led by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit.
E-52 That's where they made a mistake. One time again Israel did that.
It's just a thing that people does. One time Israel looked around after
they'd had their inheritance divided to them. They wanted to be like
the rest of the world. They desired a king.
The old prophet... Prophets always been God's way of telling people.
"The Word of the Lord came to the prophets." It's the prophet who told
them the truth.
And Samuel stood up, and he said, "Have I ever taken your money, or
have I ever told you anything in the Name of the Lord but what come to
pass?"
They said, "That is true. You've never took our money. You've never
taken our living. You've never begged us for things. And you've never
told us nothing in the Name of the Lord but what was the truth."
He said, "Then stay away from them things out there. Get a king over
you... God's your King."
And it displeased God. And Samuel wept before the Lord, and the Lord
said, "They haven't rejected you, Samuel, they've rejected Me. You're
just an instrument I'm working through. Let them have it."
E-53 And that's exactly what they got. And we find the sorrow that
followed it. God is their King. God is our King. The Holy Spirit is our
Leader. God give us the Holy Ghost; let's stay by It. The Bible of
direction to see whether It is the Holy Ghost; the Holy Ghost can't
promise something here and deny it over here. It's got to keep exactly
what It said to remain God. All right. It's got to stay Holy Spirit,
got to be the same. Yes.
They wanted to disbelieve Samuel when Samuel had the Word of the Lord
and told them. Israel shouted and danced. Sure, they had a great time,
but they found out, they wandered for forty years.
Now, in our wandering... Did you ever think what they did out there in
the wilderness? Did you ever think of what Israel done? God blessed
them. Sure they did. They had their gardens, their crops. They married
their wives; they raised their children. God blessed them. And He's
blessed the Pentecostal move. And sure. But remember, that wasn't what
God sent them out to, to live in that wilderness. They was just to pass
through the wilderness. They were on their road to the promised land.
The church was to go on to the full promise. The church tonight should
be in her splendor of glory. She should be waiting for the coming of
the Lord. Instead of that, She's scattered everywhere, wondering which
is right. "Is this right? Is that right? I'll join this, and go over
here, and down that." Oh return. Get away from those things.
E-54 Now, what has it done for us? It done that for them. It made them
remain in the wilderness. It's brought us right back into the same
vomit that we come out of. We organized ourself and put us right back
in the same mess that we come out of.
Can't you understand that God never had an organization, never did
ordain one, and never spoke one, but always against it. God wants to
lead men. Men just can't lead themselves. They say, "Well, in the
multitude of counsel."
That proved a great fake one time when Jehoshaphat went down and meet
Ahab, and they said, "We got... Let's consult the Lord." It sound very
Scriptural. It said, "There's Ramoth-Gilead; it belongs to us. God gave
it to us. Hebrew children ought to be eating that wheat up there, but
instead the enemy's eating it. Don't you think we should go up?"
And Jehoshaphat said, a good man in wrong company... That's the way the
Pentecostal groups are tonight: fine people, Methodists, Baptists, and
so forth. Pentecost is not an organization, Pentecost is an experience.
See? Many good people got in the wrong company, listening to those
dogmas and rejected the Word. That's exactly.
E-55 Notice, Jehoshaphat said, "Should not we consult the Lord?"
He said, "Sure, excuse me. Oh, of course, I ought to knowed of that. I
got four hundred fine Hebrew prophets down here. I'll go down and get
them."
So he went down, and they all prophesied. Zedekiah got him two horns
and said, "Go on up." Sure, sounds logical. They said, "God gave us the
land. That's ours."
But there's something goes with it. You must obey God to stay in that
land.
That's the way it is tonight Pentecost. You disobeyed God when you
organized and separated yourself, seemingly not having the faith. You
may be Pentecostal, but you're not--by name, but you got to be
Pentecostal under conditions; that the Life of Christ, the Word of God
can flow through you and manifest Itself, and prove It's to be God, and
God working through you, the Life of Christ in you.
E-56 Now, we know that... See what this... He said, "Well," all them
said, "Go up. The Lord's with you. Go up and push them back off the
land; it belongs to us."
And you know, that didn't sound just right to Jehoshaphat; he was a
spiritual man. He said, "Isn't there one more that we could consult?"
"Why consult one when here's a whole organization now with all the
bishops and presbyters and all? They're all standing out here. Why get
any more?"
He said, "But surely, there's one more."
He said, "Yeah, I got one that I could consult, but I hate him." Why,
sure. Certainly he hated him; he was a real prophet. He said, "He's
Imla, the son of Micah. The organization put him out a long time ago,
don't have any fellowship with him."
Said, "Let's hear him."
"Oh," he said, "I hate him."
He said, "Let the king not say so, but let's hear what he's got to say."
Then some of the presbyters run over, told him, said, "All the bishops
and everybody said this and this; you must say the same thing."
He said, "I'll just say what God puts in my mouth." Amen.
E-57 Oh, we ought to have Brother Zepp here now to sing "Amen Chorus"
for us. Yes, sir. Say what God puts in your mouth. He'll never say
nothing but His Word. A prophet is a teller forth the same as a forth
teller. True.
So he said, "I'll say what God says." And then he checked his vision.
"Let me have tonight and see what the Lord says." The next morning he
come out and had THUS SAITH THE LORD.
Why? He checked it. He knowed that that real prophet before him, who
the Word of the Lord came to, had to be right. He cursed Ahab, told him
the dogs would lick His blood and Jezebel would be strowed over the
fields, and so forth. He knowed nothing good could come out of that
thing with a hypocrite.
I'll tell you, that God will never bless the church as long as she
organizes herself and sets herself to one side, which God has proved
down through the age He's cursed.
E-58 Show me one group of people where God raised up a revival down
through the Methodists, Baptists, Presbyterian, Lutheran, Campbellite,
whatever it might be, when He raised up a group of people and started a
revival. When they organized they died and never come back. How can God
bless what He's cursed? Oh, return, Louisiana. The year of jubilee's
on. Return to your own. Return to your inheritance. Certainly.
Notice, and then he went up there on the hill and he lost his life.
Just exactly because notice that Micah said his prophecy and knowed
that his vision compared exactly with the Word of the Lord. Certainly.
E-59 What has it done to us? Done the same thing. We took multitude of
counsel for safety. That goes in another place of Scripture. I can say,
"Judas went and hung himself and you go do likewise." But it don't--it
don't apply in the Scripture right. You got to make it say just exactly
what It said, no private interpretation, read It just the way It reads.
That's the way it's got to be. And then you'll always come back to it
and God's got to honor it. He watches over His Word to fulfill His
promises.
What has it done to us? It weakened our faith, first thing. I got a
list of things wrote down here, ten pages, what it's done to us. I'll
skip part of them.
The first thing, it weakened our faith because it separated us. And we
seen another brother over in another organization speaking in tongues,
and receive the Holy Ghost, and doing the same things we did, and yet
we were taught that he's an old hypocrite because he didn't believe in
our group. We are not divided, all one body. We, one in hope and
doctrine, the Bible, one in charity. It weakened our faith, paralyzed
us. Yes, sir.
E-60 What did it do? It made chickens out of eagles, earthbound birds
out of heavenly ones. What a... A chicken is a bird all right, but he's
earthbound. He keeps his nest down here where every weasel that come,
come around, kill his eggs and get his little ones and things. But not
an eagle, he builds it so high yonder till nothing can touch him.
God likens His heritage to eagles, you know. That's right. And we've
got a bunch of Pentecostal chickens and not eagles. What made it? We
give them chicken feed. That's what did it, some kind of a creed or
denomination and not the Word of the living God. We twitched it, and
turned it, and made what we wanted to make out of it to make an
organization, added dogmas exactly like the Roman church did: same
thing. No wonder she was the mother of harlots.
E-61 Yes, sir, they give them chicken feed, denominational creed; and
they've lived on that; that's all they know. They're earthbound. They
don't know how to raise their feet, and rise up in the Presence of God,
and claim victory. They don't know how to shout the praises of God.
They don't know how to accept Divine healing. You can talk to them;
they bray like a mule. They know nothing about it.
I'm not... If I'm... Just forgive me if I said something wrong. I
didn't mean to say anything wrong. I mean to make a point that
people... You can talk about Divine healing, they turn their back.
All... Even our Pentecostal groups are denying it.
Did you know the Roman Catholic church was first the Pentecostal
church? Two thousand years has brought her that. Let this Pentecostal
organization run the way it's been, and in a hundred years from now
it'll be worse than the Roman church. That's what adding creeds and
dogmas does; you make chickens instead of eagles.
God--God's Jehovah Eagle. All these little ones are eaglets. Brother,
they know how to take a ride up there in the blue above all this kind
of wic-wack down here that goes on. They don't want none of your
barnyard assemblies. They fly up in the heavenlies where the stars are,
breathe the fresh air of purity. Yes, sir. Oh, yes.
E-62 They've modernized our assemblies; that's what they done. And
another thing they've done, they've brought immorality to our women.
Exactly. Our men, our brothers, put them in denominations and say, "If
you don't... If we give out--take your card away from you, your
fellowship card, why, you'll never be able to preach nobody else 'cause
we'll blackmail you and we'll blackball you." And they're afraid. That
makes a chicken out of him.
Brother, shake loose. Come back. This is jubilee. You're a eagle. Don't
let nobody tell you you're a buzzard, or, a chicken. Excuse me.
You're... Well, a buzzard too, and a vulture... Yes, sir. You are an
eagle. Yes, sir. You don't care for the old dead creeds and
denominations. Let's come back; we're eagles; we fly in the heavenlies.
Amen.
E-63 A eagle can go where no other bird can think of going. If he'd try
to follow him, he'd disintegrate. He's a special built bird, yes
indeed. I will tell you, a man that's borned of the Spirit of God is a
special built man or woman. Hallelujah. They're born by the Spirit in
them and knows how to act and to do and to be a son of God. Amen. It's
true. You know that's the truth.
Yes, sir, we don't have to have... Our women, it used to be a shame for
our women to cut their hair. They're doing it. It used to be wrong for
women to wear makeup, they do it: Pentecostals.
I went here not long ago to one of our famous Pentecostal churches.
They knowed what was coming, so I just go preach the Word. And I've
been preaching it... Everyone of them got up and went out almost. They
didn't have hardly enough to have a Sunday school. There went bobbed
hair women, Rickies and Elvises, and all of them taking off one way and
this way, that way, and was Sunday school teachers. I said, "That bunch
of chickens, they can't stand good fresh meat." That's right.
We need a Holy Ghost. Eagles eat eagle food. Eagles don't live off of
creeds. They live off of the Holy Ghost. They live off of Christ. God's
real eagles, they're had to be born special.
E-64 Chicken say, "I'm a bird too." I know you're a bird. That's right,
but not an eagle. They don't hear it. They can't stand it. They can't
get--fill up. They just can't take it. Why? They can't take it; they
don't know nothing about it.
Solemnized our assemblies, paralyzed them. Our assemblies has been
paralyzed by modernism. We've got great big fine churches, great big
fine organizations, great big fine doctors of divinity.
I ever had a respect for a little woman one time, was named Mrs.
McPherson, Rolph McPherson's wife, a lovely little Christian. And I was
setting, talking, at a breakfast with the--one of the Christian
business men and we were setting there talking, having... It was a
dinner, it was. And so Brother Teeford said to me, he said, "Brother
Branham, I wonder why you haven't come out to see us." A long time ago.
And Sister McPherson, she come out of an old fashion Pentecostal home.
Her father and mother, one of the old pioneers of Pentecost.
E-65 And I said, "Well..." We got to talking about another brother who
established a big church and take pretty near all they had from the
temple, and all they... it done like this. I said, "Well, that's a very
poor compliment to the church here, if they're going over there to
build a million dollar church and got one already built here." I said,
"Hungry children eat out of a garbage can; they're hungry. That's all."
And when we got to talking about it, Sister McPherson raised up and she
said, "Rolph, that's true." She said, "What have we got here but a
million dollar white elephant?"
I said, "If you'd get back to that Gospel that Mrs. McPherson stood
for, for the baptism of the Holy Ghost and the power of God instead of
Doctor, Ph.D., LL.D., all that kind of schooling here..."We need a
return to Pentecost. Back to the Gospel. Back to the leadership of the
Holy Spirit. Yes, sir. Go out there and see them women preachers, short
cut hair, all kind... You know how they do.
You know what it does? I went the other day up here in the country, and
I never seen... I seen a woman over here in Los Angeles; I was going
over to pray for her. I thought she had leprosy. But I'd seen leprosy,
didn't look like that, green under the eyes and everything like that.
I... What... I never... I started to walk up and say, "Lady, I'm a
missionary. I've seen leprosy. I've seen pellagra. I've seen
everything. I never seen anything like that. I'm a minister, would you
let me pray for you?" Here come another one up, looked just like her. I
thought, "Wait a minute."
E-66 What was it? Why, it's a shame. Maybe a nice looking woman, but
you know you're not supposed to look like a freak, that some
prehistoric something, something off of somewhere they call Mars.
You are a borned again saint of God. Stay the way God made you. That's
right. Many of them Pentecostal women... When a woman does that, false
on the outside... The outside only expresses what's on the inside. It's
false on the inside. She's got a false denomination she's holding to in
the stead of... Christ ought to fill her life with a power of His
resurrection. Instead of that, she's took some manmade creed. The
outside always expresses what's on the inside. The tree's known by the
fruit it bears. Oh, my.
I know you might think I'm critical, but I'm not critical. I'm just
trying to tell you what's truth. Look where it's got our churches
today. Look where we're at. Why, our mothers wouldn't have thought of
such a thing. Our brothers wouldn't have thought of such a thing as a
organization. Why, you went back there in his early days and said
something about that, they'd laugh you in your face, we said, "We come
out of that vomit. We come out of that wallow. God called us out."
We don't want to go back like Israel for the flesh pots again of Egypt.
God brought us out of it, but we've been wanting to go back.
We went back and see what we got, the same thing they are. Pot can't
call kettle black. Yes, sir. That's right. Six of one and half a dozen
of the other. Creeds and things just separated us. But, brother... Oh,
I could hold on this a long time. But let's not do it. Let me give you
one good news. This is the year of jubilee. If you've got mixed up in
that kind of stuff, let's return. We got an inheritance.
E-67 The fathers of Pentecost fought to win the prize and sailed
through bloody seas. Let's not walk this flower bed of ease by joining
some organization, and settling down, and saying, "Bless God, I'm
Pentecost."
Let's get the experience. Let's go back to God. Let's go back to the
eagle food. Let's go back to the leadership of the Holy Spirit. Let's
go back to the Word of God. Let's go back to the fast and pray.
Why, the church forgot the street meetings long ago. The church forgot
its long nights of prayer. Why, they can't pray fifteen minutes no
more. Oh, my, when it does, it's some little formal thing and half of
them fall asleep. Why, it's a--it's a disgrace. Chickens trying to eat
eagle food, you can't do it. Won't digest. That's right. You're not
built for it. You're not built for the rugged part. Got to be built
rugged. And the only way you can ever get that is to be borned again
and change your way and come back. Amen. Yes, sir.
E-68 Yes, sir, it's time to return. "Return to what, Brother Branham?
Return back to the organization I come out of?"
No, return back to your inheritance, the inheritance that our Father
left us.
"How did He... What kind of an inheritance did He leave?"
"Wait ye, in the city of Jerusalem until you're endued with power from
on high." That's the inheritance.
Not, "Go, join this one, and go join that one, go join this one." Wait
till the power comes from on high. "How long?" Until. "One day? Two
days?" Wait until. Don't take some little emotion, some little
flusteration; wait there until you are dead and buried and borned again
anew in Christ Jesus, and every pulsation of your life beats out Jesus
Christ, so you can see the life of Christ reflected right in your--your
living, the way you go. Yes, sir, till you can find that power like
they had back there in the beginning...
E-69 Back to a Pentecostal inheritance. Yes, sir. That's your
possession. Denomination's not your possession. Pentecost is your
possession. Not a Pentecostal organization, your fathers come out of
such a thing. The Pentecostal experience is your possession.
Examine ourselves. The sounding of the trumpet. "What kind of a
trumpet?" The Word, God's trumpet, the Holy Ghost in the Word.
Oh, the poet really expressed it right when he said:
Nations are breaking,
Israel's awaking,
The signs that the prophets foretold;
The 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.
E-70 Today, we have preachers, ethical, educated, fine scholars, turned
out, can stand up and never move, never mess up a hair, never sweat a
drop, and just stand there and speak, and, oh, give the articles of the
church and everything just so pretty for fifteen minutes while you're
sleeping; go on back home. And you call yourselves Pentecostals.
Brother, we need an old rugged backwoods preacher that'll come out with
a pair of overalls on and hit the pulpit (Hallelujah.), anointed with
the power of God. He won't preach five minutes till the Spirit will
take the church, and it's gone the rest of the night up into the
heavenlies. It's eagles. They won't peck around on barnyard stuff; they
go on up into the heavenlies for their food.
E-71 The sounding of the trumpet. Yes, sir, return, dispersed. But if
you've sold your inheritance, if you sold out and done these things...
What am I saying? Return back. If you joined up with some cult that
tries to keep you away from fellowship with other brethren, leave the
thing. This is jubilee. Amen. I feel religious. Return. Return. This is
jubilee. Don't let it pass by. Remember, don't let it pass by.
If you've sold out, if you've went out in the world, if you've sinned,
you knowed that you once had the experience, you went and joined up
where you can't fellowship with the rest of them, you done all these
things... I don't care what you've done, if you're a son, you have a
right to return now because it's jubilee. It's jubilee time.
E-72 But if you settled back into a wall somewhere, put your name down
and anchored, got all chickenized, there isn't going to be much happen
to you, 'cause you'll never hear it. You'll walk out and say, "Well, I
guess it was all right. I've heard that before." See? Go home, sleep it
off, get up the next morning.
But conviction, you don't sleep off. The Word of God, you can't shake
off. If you're an eagle, you've caught something.
This sounds sacrilegious, and I hope it don't mean it that way to you,
but I--I don't mean it myself.
Like the farmer set the hen, he'd had--didn't have... Well, he had
enough eggs to set her, lacking one; he put an eagle egg under it. When
that little eagle was born, it was the funniest looking thing amongst
them chickens you ever seen. He's a odd bird all right. So he... The
old hen would cluck and she'd eat, and nearly anything. And that little
fellow, that wasn't a diet for him. He just--he just couldn't stand it.
And he'd hear that clucking of the hen. What does that mean? We got pie
suppers, socials, dances, buncos. See? He's a eagle; he just couldn't
understand that stuff.
E-73 One day, the old mammy hunting for him. Must've been the year of
jubilee for the little fellow. The old mother come over and she
screamed. He looked up, said, "That sounds right." He heard something.
She said, "Son, you're not a chicken; you're a eagle. Come out of it."
Said, "Mama, how do I get out?"
Said, "Just flop your wings. That's your God given deliverance. You're
borned a eagle. You've got an inheritance. Come on up higher. Get out
of that stuff. Return back."
He made four or five flops. And when he did, he set right down on a
post in the yard, right in the middle of Pentecostal organization. She
said, "Son, you'll have to jump higher than that or I can't get you."
Next jump he lit on his mammy's wings and went on into the heavenlies.
That's the call of the day, brother. Return back. You're not chickens;
you're a eagles. Return back. Yes, sir. Now, we know that it's true.
E-74 Now, the trumpet's a blowing; it's the sounding; this is the
fiftieth year. You heard by this old patriarch this morning and through
these messages what it was. I'm telling you tonight that the promise is
now. Let's return back. Paul said in Acts... and no, in I Corinthians
14:8, "If the trumpet gives an uncertain sound, who can prepare
hisself?"
We got great men crossing the world today, all the churches organizing
together like a big political machine, people come out like some great
regime, coming to it. And the first thing you know, the Methodists take
theirs and goes that way, and the Baptists take theirs and goes that
way. And one don't know what the other one's doing.
E-75 Mercy goodness, that's not it. The trumpet gives an uncertain
sound, "Come, join this creed, come, join that creed." And the Bible's
saying something else. Yes, sir, if the trumpet don't give a certain
sound, you can't--don't know what to prepare yourself for.
But when you see the Trumpet of God sounding the Word of God, and God
vindicating it with signs and wonders as He said it would do... That's
right. If the trumpet gives an uncertain sound, the Chief Captain won't
vindicate the call. Now, brother, that was a stomach full. The Chief
Captain won't vindicate the call. For He said in Mark 16, "All the
world... And these signs shall follow them that believe." That's the
Chief Captain. "In My name they shall cast out devils; they shall speak
with new tongues." Hallelujah. That's the call. The Captain said, "I'll
vindicate them by this." He said also in John 14:12, the Chief Captain
said, "He that believeth on Me (not him that says he believes), he that
believeth on Me, the works that I do shall he do also." Amen. That's
the certain sound.
He said to... Those Jews, said, "Why, you're a man making yourself God."
He said, "If I do not the works of My Father then believe Me not."
Amen. Let's have it for a church. Glory...?... Right. "These signs
shall follow them that believe."
Up and down through Louisiana in a buggy, an old T Model Ford with
tires wrapped on with bailing wire, went your fathers preaching that
against these dogmas that you've added to it. Come out of it. Return.
Come back. Repent. Return back to where you come from. This is jubilee
year. "These signs shall follow them that believe." Yes, sir.
E-76 Oh, let me say this. (This is taped, I know.) You rich Laodicea
church, said, "I have need of nothing." You know the Bible said you'd
be that way. Said, "You're lukewarm."
Oh, you say, "We shout and praise God." Oh, yes, Israel did the same
and made such an awful mistake. And that ain't it.
I mean that burning zeal of God, nothing can stop it. Look at that
Hebrews 11 there where just one nod of them patriarchs from God, they
subdued Kingdoms, wrought righteousness, stopped the lion's mouth, and
escaped the fire. The things that they done through faith by just one
nod from God.
E-77 Today God can send a preacher and hammer that Word as hard as he
can, and we go to sleep, get up and walk out. No wonder you're walled
in, the church is. I'm--I know this is taped. It's going lots of
places. You see? This goes all over the world, 'cause we have a tape
sale completely around the world, goes to missionary in foreign fields.
And I mean every one. Yes, sir. Return. This is the time to return
while the call's a coming. Yes, sir, these signs shall follow sons, not
slaves, not bondsman, not servants, but sons. "These signs shall follow
believers." And "No man can call Jesus the Christ, only by the Holy
Ghost." That's right. You might say you do, but the Holy Ghost has to
vindicate it and prove it. Yes, sir.
E-78 Oh, rich Laodicea with the church on the outside--Christ on the
outside the church, rather, knocking, trying to get in. Said, "I'm rich
and don't have need of nothing."
Sure, you come right up with the Methodists and the Baptists, overrun
them in numbers, but where is that power of God that fell fifty years
ago? Where is that zeal that burned in the hearts of them people that
walked the railroad tracks and picked up corn and crushed it out there
to bring the Gospel? We make them turn over in their graves. We bring
disgrace to our fathers and mothers that fought to win the prize. And
here we luxury around to denominational... Have I said enough to let
you understand. It's return.
E-79 God pulled His elected church out of them denominations fifty
years ago. God pulled that remnant out. This is jubilee. He's calling
again. Return, jubilee... Fifty years ago God pulled them from it, and
tonight He's trying to do it again. We'll continue tomorrow night, it's
quarter after. Let's bow our heads.
Nations are breaking (Christ is everywhere.).
Israel's awakening (She's her own nation, got her own money, her own
army. She's in the United Nations.),
The signs that the Bible foretold.
The gentile days numbered,
With horrors encumbered (Atomic bombs and everything),
Oh, return, O dispersed to your own. (This is the year of jubilee.)
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.
E-80 Return. Return, the Holy Spirit cries, "Return." I can think of
when Jesus looked up over Jerusalem and He wept. He loved it, and they
had rejected Him.
And a man that's filled with the Spirit tonight can look out over the
church and see a people that ought to be shining with the glorious
power of God. And the Holy Spirit within your heart weeps tears of
regret. What have we done?
God called us--our fathers out fifty years ago, and we returned back.
And you see what it's got us, a disgraceful bunch under the name of
Pentecost, people who smoke, drink, marry three, or four times, women
who cut their hair, paint, use their--shorts, wear immoral clothes,
everything, call themselves Pentecostal sisters. What a disgrace on the
Name of Christ. What a disgrace upon His church. No wonder He says
blasphemous names was found in Babylon, organization, confusion, all
messed up, all kinds of this, that, and the other. Where's Christ in
the whole thing? Return, people.
E-81 I wonder tonight, while we have our heads bowed, people believe
this is the truth, that we ought to return during this jubilee. It's
God's last call to His church. If you do, raise up your hands to God
and say, "God, I want to come." Just raise your hands and say, "I
believe it; I believe it." All eagles now who know and believe...
Our heavenly Father, You see these hands. At least half of this
audience or more has their hands up, and they know that it's the truth.
God of heaven, send the Holy Spirit, Lord. I see the hours are
darkening, and men's heart are going wax and cold and formal. The
churches has got away. But they don't know what that zeal and love and
power that they knowed fifty years ago in the Pentecostal move. They
have made themselves little caves. They've made themselves walls around
them, and they cannot come out in the jubilee. It never was so.
E-82 And God, You're a God that don't change. You keep Yourself the
same all the time; Your commandments cannot change. Every decision is
perfect; therefore, it doesn't have to be altered. It's perfect. It's
Your Word. Let it be tonight, Lord. Let it be that Your servant,
everywhere, many God fearing men, Lord, are standing these days all
around over the country, preaching, "Return, return." Their faces are
blushing with embarrassment when visiting ministers come into the
church and see the women and the men and the way they're doing and
acting, and a ministers that's filled with the Spirit, and they know;
their faces blush. What can they do? If they say anything about it,
that organization system puts them out.
O God, bring them eagles out of there, Lord. Take them out of that
cage; this is jubilee. Bring them out to freedom and the Holy Spirit.
Let them stand, live or die. Our forefathers dropped out of the
Methodists, Baptists, and Lutheran. Then generation after generation
where they organized themselves, sold out. You called Your eagles out
of that pen, out of that barnyard. Lord God, You're the same God
tonight, call again, Lord. It's jubilee time.
E-83 And grant, heavenly Father, that before this week shall end that
we'll see the power of God restoring back again great signs and
wonders. May the sick be healed, the cripples walk away. May the lame
walk, the blind see, the deaf hear, and the dead raised up, and the
power of God be manifested in hearts. Grant it.
Start a revival again, Lord. Bring the people out of these full--cold
formal things that they do, play a little music and dance they call in
the Spirit by the rhythm of the music. O God, a saint of God could
dance up and down the streets, or in a barroom, or anywhere else under
the power of God when he's dancing with the Spirit. And it shout and
praise God. They may seem--live different on the outside, Lord. And
Your church is expressing what's on the inside of it, hollow, shallow,
creeds, denominations, eat up, cankered, malignancy all over it. It's a
putrefied sore, surely.
E-84 I pray, God, that You'll receive my offering tonight as I lay it
upon the golden altar with the Sacrifice, Christ, Who taught the Word.
And I'm calling tonight, Lord, let Your Spirit bring the church back
again. Grant it, Father. I commit these words to You in the Name of
Jesus Christ. I commit these church to You; I commit this group of
people to You. O Lord God, do something for us, I pray. Hear the prayer
of Your servant. Grant it, Lord. I ask this sincerely with all my heart
in the Name of Jesus Christ. Amen.
E-85 You love Him? Do you believe Him? Do you believe it's the hour to
return? We're too late to start a healing service now. We'll catch it
tomorrow night. It's too late. I want to hold on to this awhile.
You think I'm crazy? I'm not crazy. I'm not beside... I know exactly
what I'm talking about. I know it's the truth. The church is rotten to
the core. That's right. She needs to be borned again. She needs to come
back to Her inheritance. She needs to come back to Pentecost. She needs
to come back to something...
Oh, you say, "I am Pentecost."
Oh, brother, I'm ashamed to call myself Pentecost, not because of the
holy name of Pentecost, but because that I could be different. I want
to surrender my own life. I want to put myself on God's altar and say,
"Lord, beat me, and mold me, and take me till I'm different from what I
am now. Make me Yours and lead me, Lord."
I been led around too much by man; I want to be led by God's Spirit.
I'm confessing this is Pentecost. I want to return back again to see a
revival. Amen.
E-86 Do you believe that? Let's raise our hands and sing, "I Love Him."
Give us a chord, sister, if--if you will now. All right, everybody
raise your hands and sing to the top of your voice, "I Love Him." And
when we do so, let's stand up on our feet. Altogether now, express that
you love Him. Let's be real Pentecostals.
I love Him, I love Him
Because He first loved me
And purchased my salvation
On Calvary's tree.
Now, let's hum it. Now, there's a Methodist standing by you, a Baptist,
a Presbyterian, a Pentecostal, let's shake one another's hands and say,
"God bless you, brother; let's return." Let's say that when we turn and
shake hands to everyone in here.
E-87 I... [The people greet one another--Ed.] Let's say it together.
"Let's return; let's return; let's return; let's return." Brother
Holstein said, "You preached Azusa Street exactly." Amen. Let's return.
I love Him; (Let's raise our hands.) I love Him,
Because He first loved me;
And purchased my salvation;
On Calvary's tree.
The Blood of Jesus Christ...
Oh precious is that flow,
That makes me white as snow,
No other fount I know,
Nothing but the blood of Jesus.
I don't know no organization; I own nothing. But I owe it all to Him.
Jesus paid it all, all to Him I owe, sin had left a crimson stain, He
washed it white as snow.
I love Him, (Let's just praise Him as we raise up.) I love Him, (Thank
You Father, thank You. Pray, Lord, that You'll--You'll send Your Holy
Spirit.)
Loved... (O God, take us back, Lord, to that experience. Pour out the
Holy Ghost, upon us.)
Purchased my salvation
On Calvary's tree.
E-88 While the music continues, let's just keep our hands up. Let's
just love Him; let's just praise Him. Let's pray in our own way. Pray
the way you do at church. All that wants to get a fresh baptism
raise--shake your hands back and forth. I want a fresh baptism
of...?... O God, praise Jesus. God, send the Holy Ghost upon us. Take
us back, Lord, to those experiences again. Forgive us of our
trespasses, Lord, and help us to come to this knowledge of the power
and truth of the Gospel. Grant it, Lord.
... vation
On Calvary's tree.
Right where you're standing, right in your own way, right where you're
standing, just praise God. Say, "God, I'm going to accept right now, I
promise You right now, that I'll not let loose until my soul returns to
that kind of an experience." How many will do that with me, raise up
their hand. "I'll not turn loose; I'll hold to the altar."
I love Him, I...
"I'll pray; I'll pray. I'll do anything, Lord. Bring me back to--bring
me back to my heritage. Bring me back to my real place again."
...Me (Praise God.)
And purchased my salvation
On Calvary's tree.
E-89 Oh... Blessed be the Name of the Lord. O God, send His power. Send
forth Your prophets, Lord. Send them with the Word; don't let them
compromise on a thing. Send back to the Bible, back to the Holy Ghost,
back to a zeal. Raise up a church without spot or wrinkle. You promised
it, Lord. You promised it; we believe You. I plead for everyone of us,
Lord, myself too. Send it, O Lord. Send the power just now. Fill every
heart. I pray, Lord, that You'll send us that what we need, Lord, that
You'd poured out fifty years ago here in the states. Pour it out again,
O Lord God. Fill up Your vials and pour the love of Christ into our
hearts, and make us that church that we should be, Lord, forgiving our
sins.
E-90 We return tonight, Lord. As a group of people, we return as a
people and an individual. We return to our heritage, Lord, the baptism
of the Holy Spirit. God Almighty, You promised it. Honor it, Lord.
Honor Your Word, I pray in Jesus' Name.
I... (O God, O God, holiness, righteousness... God's heritage--inherits
the praises of His people.)
... my salvation
On Calvary's tree.
E-91 While you remain standing, I want this dear old patriarch of the
faith... The thing that I've been talking about, brother, it's the
things that you all fought for many years ago.
[The brother answers, "Absolutely."--Ed.]
The church ought to come back to that, don't you say, Brother?
["We've gotten away from... To save the movement, we've got to get
back."]
Amen.
["We've gone the way of all the other denominations. It was good to
begin with, wonderful. And step by step they've fallen into the
clutches of machinery that has been of human genius making. We've got
to get back to the Spirit. We've got to get back."]
Hear the cry of that dear old saint from his heart with tears running
down his face. He knows that there's souls waiting across the altar
yonder.
E-92 Jesus will come someday. I hope and pray that God will raise up
men here and women that'll go back, that will go back in spite of
everything. Return back. It's jubilee. Get out of this mechanism. You
can never achieve anything for God in there. You're only achieving it
for an organization. Let's come out and achieve for God. And you can
only do it by His mechanism, the Holy Ghost, that's what was give us.
God bless you.