As I Thought On My Way (59-0610)
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E-1
Thank you very much, my brethren, and it's certainly nice to be here.
Thank you. Thank you so kindly. I appreciate that, makes me feel good
when you feel welcome. There's nothing more sweeter than to–to come
into a place where you feel welcome and just at home. And I was
thinking, just when I was standing there of the kindness of–of the
people, the kindness of God and the people.
Just a few moments ago I heard that message go forth and the Holy
Spirit speak back that–to listen to the message. And then I–then hear
these brethren get up and say those things, it just makes me feel good.
E-2
Then today I happened to pick up some of the advertisements. As Brother
Joseph told you last night, I just kind of run in this time. I was
scheduled for overseas at this very time, but was turned down on
account of some investigation from tax that I'm going through at this
time at my church. And the foundation of the church, how we have to
have a governmental numbers and so forth, that we didn't know, because
the Tabernacle is a interdenominational tabernacle. We didn't know you
had to go through all that rigmarole; we thought that you were just a
church and had deacons and pastors and so forth. But the government
changes. They changed in forty-nine, I think it was. Well, I was out on
the field preaching then. I didn't know their changes and what the
congress did.
E-3
As I said last night, we're talking about Sputniks and moons, but we
can't even take care of what we got down here, let alone go to
somewhere else, or I can't anyhow. From the looks of things we're not
doing too good a job at it, but–as a nation, or a people.
E-4
But then, another great thing come, as I noticed that on the
advertisement. I said to Joseph just a few moments ago, "Brother
Joseph, I made a terrible mistake last evening. I don't like to have a
meeting without having a healing service at least one time during the
convention." And I–we placed it for Friday night. And then I picked up
the advertisement, and Brother Grant, my gracious and precious brother
and friend, was to have a service that night for seeking of the Holy
Spirit. And my, I–I wouldn't want to take it from that. And Joseph
said that Brother Grant had suggested that, and moved right in sweetly
to give it away for a night to pray for the sick.
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I don't know whether Brother Grant's even here; I haven't seen him yet.
But the Lord God bless our brother for his gallant soul and the way he
so graciously given that time.
I told him we could change it and have it on a Thursday night just the
same as Friday. And let's go right ahead because I think it's more
essential that the soul gets saved, than all the healing that would be
done. That's right. The soul is–is the main thing, because you can be
healed of your sicknesses, that's true, and your afflictions cured. I
know that. But when that soul is healed, it's eternal. But when the
healing of the body, you may get sick again. But the soul is the main
thing.
E-6
For did you ever try to put a valuation on what Eternal Life is?
What–what could you give for it. If I could be turned back to a boy of
nineteen, twenty years old, and would have all the world, and live five
hundred years without sickness or old age, I–or either live another
one–or ten more years, and have all kinds of troubles, and beg for my
food, and be persecuted and martyred at the end, but have Eternal Life,
I'd take that. When five the hundred years was up, it would be–all be
over. But it'll never end with Eternal Life. I'll live in the Presence
of Christ forever. We just don't know what's wrapped in that treasure
that God has given us.
E-7
Brother Rasmusson, it's sure nice to see you again tonight. We ain't
had much fellowship if we had together, and different ministers. And I
think we're to have a breakfast pretty soon, and–and we'll–may get to
shake each others hands and–and have some time of fellowship with all
this fine group of men who is constantly persuading and asking each
year to come to their fellowship. It makes me feel real good.
E-8
My wife also wanted to thank you all for your welcome last night; she
didn't get in last night. We've got a little boy, Joseph. How many of
you remember me speaking that Joseph would come, years before he got
here? Six years, the Lord showed me his coming. And he's all boy. She's
a little woman.
E-9
Someone… I was speaking here some time ago, and… at a Spanish
meeting, and I said, "This is an international gathering." I said, "I'm
Irish; my wife is German; my baby's Indian; and I'm speaking to
Spanish."
Afterwards, a little Spanish girl said, "Brother Branham, don't you think that your baby's a bit pale to be an Indian?"
I said, "Only a Indian by action": really all boy.
E-10 It's a little late, and so we'll not take too much time. And may the Lord bless us now as we bow our heads to speak to Him.
Most gracious Father, we just can't find any words to express our
feeling in our heart. As it is said by one some time ago in the
meeting, that he could speak in seven different languages, and he could
speak it fluently. But when he got close to You one night, he couldn't
find any words to express how he felt, so You gave him a new language
to express his feelings to You. That's the way we feel, Lord. There's
no words that we could form in our thinking to tell how we love You,
and to thank You for what You have been to us. And we could not get
reverent enough, neither could we even think enough deep thoughts to
come to You to ask You to continue to be with us. Oh, we need You, Lord.
As the song writer has said, "I need Thee. Oh, I need Thee, Every hour
I need Thee," that's the way we feel, Lord. So draw nigh unto us now as
we sit after a great day of–of speaking and manifestations of Your
blessings. And we come tonight to listen again for the Word. We would
pray that You would take those words of Your servant and speak them to
the hearts of Your peoples. And when we leave tonight, may our hearts
be just so filled with Your love till we'll go from here with the
determination to serve You more than ever in life.
E-11
And if there would be a sojourner, that has come into our midst
tonight, that doesn't know You in the baptism of Your Spirit, or
neither has knowed You by confession of faith, may this be the hour
that they'll say that one eternal "yes" to God and surrender their all.
And if that has been done, and they have not yet received the Holy
Ghost since they have believed, may this be the night that they will
receive the gift of God in their life.
If there be sick among us, Lord, may they go out of here tonight
rejoicing and thanking God for new found faith and health. We're
depending on Thee, Lord, for Thou hast promised that You'd fill us with
good things. "Blessed are they that do hunger and thirst for
righteousness, for they shall be filled." Now, speak to our hearts as
we have need; we ask it in Jesus' Name. Amen.
E-12
I've chosen for tonight a subject, "As I Thought On My Way." I would
like to read some of the Scripture, or a verse of Scripture found the
119th Psalm, and the 59th verse:
David was in trouble at the writing of this Psalm. We're told that it
was during the time that Saul was threatening to kill him. And his
house was being watched. Saul's men were laying, watching to see David
come out, then they would kill him.
And I can just imagine tonight, seeing David walking back and forth,
up-and-down the floor wringing his hands. It's usually when a man gets
in trouble that then he will turn to God. It's too bad that it has to
take those things to bring a man to recognize that he's a sinner, or
away from God's Presence and blessing. But God does it that way.
And I can see him as he–he's thinking. And all of a sudden, God's
goodness bursts forth and he begins to sing out: "As I thought on my
ways, I turned my feet to Thy testimonies."
E-13
A few months ago in our little city of Jeffersonville, Indiana, I was
called by a mother to go down and speak to the judge of the–the court,
which is a personal friend of mine, and to intercede for her son; for
he was going to penitentiary for stealing a car. And I called up the
judge, and I said, "Could I speak to you in the morning, privately,
just a little before the trial."
And he said, "Sure."
And I went to his office and knocked at the door, and they opened the
door. He asked the man to step out, and he gave me a nice big
handshake, and said, "What's on your mind this morning, Brother
Branham?"
E-14
And I said, "Judge, I star… I'd like to ask you something, knowing
that you're going to stand someday before a just Judge yourself, and I
know that you have to be honest in your decisions, the best of your
knowledge. But the boy that you're going to try in a few minutes, the
mother called me last night and said that her son sobbed on her
shoulder, and said, 'Mother, if God will only let me out, I'll serve
Him all the days of my life.'"
The judge looked at me, and he said, "Billy, you know what? I've never
sent a man to penitentiary yet but what wanted to be a preacher before
he left."
You see, it's when we're in trouble, then we begin to think about God.
It's too bad that we have to have it that way. But it is that way.
E-15
When Israel got in trouble when they had forsaken God, and went off
after idols, and doing things that they should not do, then they turned
to God and cried out. They sacrificed sheep and–and animals and–and
cried out day and night for mercy. And then the strange thing that was
with Israel, so is it with the Church today, God will come to their
rescue, and then after it's all over, they forget all about it.
E-16
If God was so merciful to forgive a man of his sins, and to give him
Eternal Life, he ought to be so reverent before God all the days of his
life that he will never turn his feet from God's testimonies. Should
always walk upright before God.
But it's just that way; they do it that way.
It behooves us all, while we are not in trouble, to seek God. It isn't
good to wait till we get in trouble and then seek God; it's best to
find Him now. For it is written that He is a very present Help in the
time of trouble.
E-17
I can remember a story. And my wife back there remembers it more than I
do, I suppose. On our honeymoon I had to make a little double time.
While we were on our honeymoon, we didn't have but just a little money,
so I–I took her up into New York to see Niagara Falls. And while we
was up there I went hunting. And I left her in a little lean-to one
morning. And I thought I was too good an Indian to ever lose myself in
the woods. And I wandered away, telling her I'd be back at a certain
time, and her a city girl and never been in the mountains in her life.
And I said, "You bake some potatoes over the fire and we'll have bake
roasted potatoes, and salt and pepper, and put it on the little stick
of butter." I said, "We'll just have a real jubilee. I'll be back at
two o'clock."
E-18
And I put my hand on top of Billy's head, which was just a little tot
at that time of about five years old, and took off down through the
woods. Wandering along through the great giant forest, I was following
a bear trail. After while I noticed something across the ridge. And I
took across another ridge, and then another ridge, and I got down into
the bottom, which is called the giants. It's in the Adirondacks. And I
shot a deer, a great huge deer, and I said, "That's better than the
bear. Now, I'll go back home."
And as I noticed, the storm clouds was hanging low. And I said, "Now, I come right down this a way."
Now, anyone knows that's ever been in the woods, it's time to sit down
when the storm clouds come, 'cause it's foggy; you don't know where
you're going.
But as I got further upward, thinking I was going right, I found myself
walking too far trying to find a place to come out, I come back to
where I shot the deer. I did that three times in succession. Now, the
Indians calls that "the death walk." You're walking in a circle. You
think you're going one way but coming back to the same place.
E-19
The storm was already on; the snow was falling. And I thought, "What
can I do now? I got a wife and baby in this woods was never in the
woods in their life, and they'll–they'll die tonight."
Ordinarily I'd have found a cave, and went into it, and waited till the
storm was over a day or two, and come out, and found my position, and
went on. But they didn't know how to take care of themselves.
And I said, "Now, wait a minute; you're just getting beside yourself."
And when you do that you get a fever and then you're lost. Then you'll
never find your way out: plunge yourself to death, mostly.
Well, I knew I was walking in a circle, but what circle was it? The
wind was coming in my face when I went to shoot the deer, and then on
the road back the wind was in my face again. So I couldn't tell the
general directions because it was just twisting in the treetops.
E-20
And I said, "Well, I'm going one straight way again." And I said, "I'll
not turn. I'll go straight, and I know that I'm right. I'm too good a
woodsman to ever be lost in the woods."
And I started on, kind of spurning myself on, that's intellectually. "I
can't get lost, because I'm too good a hunter." And I started on, and I
begin to realize that I was lost.
That's the way we get some times when we think we join a church and
we're all right, but there's something tells us we're lost. Wait till
death strikes you, and then see what you think. Better be sure now.
And as I started on sincerely in my heart, I can hear a voice speaking
to me, saying, "The Lord is a very present help in the time of trouble."
And I thought, "Now, I'm getting beside myself." Then I realized that I
was completely lost. And I knelt down and–on my cap, and set my rifle
beside of the tree, and said, "Lord God, I'm lost and I need You."
E-21 And when I raised up, I said, "Now, I'll go straight again."
And
as I made two or three steps a hand laid on my shoulder, and I turned
to see what it was just in time to see the clouds clear back and see
the tower on top of Hurricane Mountain. I was going straight into
Canada. And the Lord turned me back to the tower. I stood with my
directions exactly towards that tower. I wept, and I shouted the
praises of God. For I knowed He turned my feet towards the right path
again.
That was a great minute for me, but not half the minute it was one day
when He turned my face towards Calvary when I was lost. I can never
forget that moment. Let's come while we are in our right mind.
E-22
Some time ago a young colored boy rushed into the meeting when the
altar call was being made. He come from the outside. And he come up,
and he said, "I want to become a Christian tonight."
"Why, certainly, we're always glad to see that."
And said, "The reason I want to become a Christian, I've been a
rambler." And said, "I was out rambling around once, and–up in the
north woods," and said, "I got without money." And said, "I hired
myself to a lumber camp where there was an aged colored woman that done
the cooking, and I was going to assist her and–and then to wash dishes
and so forth for her, to get enough money to go on." Said, "We slept in
a little back room with a large piece of canvas to separate her part
from my part." And said, "One night with my head under the cover, I was
awakened by voices that was speaking loud by my window. And I pulled my
head out from under the cover," and he said, "I heard one man say,
'Jim, let's hurry back to the cabin as quick as we can, because we may
be swept completely into eternity in the next few moments, for that
tornado is headed right this way.'"
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Said, "Then I could not but wonder when I jumped to the window and
looked and seen that long funnel shaped cloud, and just one constant
blast of thunder and lightening. And see when the lightning, the trees
rooting up, and that great long serpent tail was coming right towards
our cabin."
Said, "I heard the canvas rake, and the aged old woman said, 'Son, come over on my side; I've got a lantern lit here.'"
And said, "I went over, and she said, 'Are you a Christian?'"
Said, "I said, 'No, I'm not a Christian.'"
Said, "Did you ever pray?"
Said, "No, I've never prayed."
Said, "Well, you better be praying, for these twisters lay everything flat on the ground."
E-24
Said, "Reverend, I got down by the side of that old woman on that
little box where the lantern set. But I was too scared to pray." He
said, "I couldn't get my thinking right." And he said, "Every time I'd
start to pray, a tree would root up and slam against the cabin; the
windows would go out." He said, "I was too scared to pray." He said,
"And now, the only thing I could do was sit and watch that calm old
saint with not a bit more worry of nothing in the world, constantly
speaking to Somebody that she was acquainted with." And I said, "Lord,
I'm too scared to pray. But if–if You'll just let me live, I will pray
after this."
E-25 You see, it takes trouble sometimes to make us realize, to turn our hopes to God, turn ourselves over to Him.
I
believe it was Job who thought on his ways, and he wanted to make them
sure, not only on his ways, but his children's ways. And he come God's
only way that God ever did make for man, the burnt offering and under
the blood. Many of you are sure that… You have read the story of Job.
And he said, "My children's been out having parties. And peradventure
they have sinned; I'll make an offering for them." He wanted to be sure
while he was normally and right.
E-26
You know I think if mothers and fathers tonight in this fair land of
ours, if they spent more time on their knees praying, bringing their
children to God through prayer, instead of out in these parties
drinking and running around, we'd have less juvenile delinquency.
E-27
And Job come by the way of the blood, the shedding of blood. That's the
only grounds that God ever fellowshipped with man, is on the basis of
the shed blood. There's no other way that God will fellowship with
people, only through the shed blood.
In the Old Testament, Israel had to come to one place of worship. That was under the shed blood.
And then when trouble struck Job, he could scream out, "I know my
Redeemer liveth, and at the last days He will stand on the earth.
Though after the skin-worms has destroyed this body, yet in my flesh
shall I see God." And he could scream, "Though He slay me, yet I'll
trust Him." Why? He knowed what path to turn to when he got in trouble.
E-28
Some of us go other paths in this neurotic age that we're living. So
many people turn to the psychiatrist, to… Christians go to the
psychiatrist. And the psychiatrist has to go to a psychiatrist.
Turn our path to God; He's our Healer. If our hearts condemn us not, then we have this assurance: God answers prayer.
And Job could say with a true heart, "I know my Redeemer liveth." And he thought on his ways, and turned to Him.
E-29
David, after he did wrong and taken Uriah, the Hittite's wife, the
lovely Bathsheba, and was going to be the father of her child, and had
caused her gallant husband to be killed in battle… But when the
prophet, Nathan, come in and revealed his sins to him, then David
thought on his ways, and he turned hisself to repentance in sackcloth
and ashes. That's the way to turn. God heard him. God will always hear
a man or woman that'll turn their feet to His testimony.
David was worthy of dying, and he pronounced his own death. But Nathan
said, "Surely, you'll not die." For he knowed David knew God, and knew
that he'd done wrong. He'd defiled his brother's wife.
E-30
I wonder tonight, and wouldn't say this, but maybe there'd be another
David setting here tonight that's as guilty as David was. When you turn
your light out at night, you see your brother's face, the man that you
defiled his loving wife or broke up his home, flickering on the side of
your wall. Or some woman see the woman's home that she broke up by
running off with her husband. It ought to bring you to repentance in
sackcloth and confession.
What the Church needs tonight is a confession and making right to come
back to the testimonies of the Lord God. There's mercy, forgiveness.
Seems that it would haunts people, going on, know that you're walking
hour by hour in the face of death. Why do we continue on with
selfishness, and greed, and ungodliness, and–and our eyes on things of
the world? Time we turn back to God's testimonies. "As I thought on my
way, I turned my feet to Thy testimony."
E-31
It was the prophet Jacob who had done wrong and had lied to his blind
daddy, because of a birthright. And one day his heart begin to yearn to
go back to the homeland. And he must've thought all that time, it was
covered up; but when he begin to get near home, he heard that Esau was
coming out to meet him. Then he thought of his deceiving ways. And he
prayed all night on the other side of the river. When he thought how he
had deceived his brother, it called him to all night prayer. God knows
that's what the Church needs.
E-32
I remember when the church used to call for a all night prayer meeting.
And when the sermon went forth, there wasn't a dry eye the church.
Everybody wept and cried out before God. And today it seems like it's
so loose, that people just go on living any way they want to, and still
say they are Christians. I wonder if we're not nearing home. We'd
better think on our ways and turn our feet to His testimonies.
E-33
It was Moses, the mighty prophet, an old sheepherder he'd turned in to
be, that was wondering back behind the mountain one day on a little old
path that the sheep had made. Perhaps it was very familiar to him. But
that morning was just a little different from other mornings. There
seemed to be something around him.
You know, Jesus said once, "If they hold their peace, the rocks will cry out." I wonder if the Angels wasn't preaching to him.
All of a sudden he begin to think on his ways, how that he'd made a
failure in life, and had tried to find safety while his people was in
bondage.
God, bring it till the heart of every preacher in here will get that
burden. How can we rest in God when the world is covered with sin and
church members living in sin? How can we hold our peace when the church
is tore to pieces by creeds and denominations, and brotherhood is
separated, and the people are becoming weary, when God requires
holiness, or no man shall see the Lord?
E-34
Moses begin to think on his ways, how that he'd went off in his own
schooling and training, and he knowed there was a call of God on his
life. But he had tried to work it out his own way.
Many of us preachers get in that trouble. A call of God in our life and
then go off and get a schooling that tells us that the days of miracles
are past, and there's no such a thing as the baptism of the Holy
Spirit: them was for days gone by. God, let you think on your ways.
That same God wrote that Word still lives and holds you responsible to
It.
E-35
It's wrong… God's infinite. And when He speaks, it's got to be
perfect. He cannot change. We cannot alter God's Word; we have to alter
our thinking to His thinking. Let the mind of Christ be in you. Then
you'll think like He thinks.
And as he begin to think on those things, I can see him become all tore
up. There's no man who can come into the presence of his own past but
what gets tore up about it. I pray that the Holy Spirit will bring
every human being in here now back to your past and look at it, then
turn to His testimony.
E-36
And as he begin to think, I can see that old man with flowing white
beard. But he said, "I've ruined my life. I'm eighty years old. And if
I'd have thought of it when I was a young man and would've done the
right thing, but now it's too far." And the great crystal tears rolling
down his white whiskers…
And about that time, when he was thinking on his way, there was a
cracking noise on the side of the hill. And while he was thinking on
his ways, he said, "I'll turn aside to see what this thing God has
done." I trust that God will bring that burning bush in the hearing
distance of every person here tonight. We can think on our ways.
And it changed Moses when he turned his feet from the path of sheep and
wild animals to the path that God had led him through the Red Sea and
to the promised land. Thinking on his ways, it does us good to think on
His ways.
E-37
After the cock had crowed three times and Peter looked up in the face
of the Lord Jesus, he begin to think on his ways, and what he had done
to our Lord. And the prophecy and the Word of the Lord came into his
view, for he knowed God had said. That same God that told him that has
told us what to do. What did it do when he thought on the ways that he
had treated Jesus, and how he had denied Him before the classical
people, and how that he'd tried to be one of the world, and tried to
act like the rest of them. When he thought on his ways, it drove him
into the darkness to weep bitterly.
I believe it's cock crowing time now for the church of the living God
to get alone with God and weep in bitterness of tears, and say, "God,
be merciful to me." No doubt but what there's men and women here
tonight, boys and girls that need that same thing, all of us need it:
alone with God. Think of our ways as we go, turn our feet to His
testimony.
E-38
Yes, it was Judas that was standing by the high priest to receive his
money for betraying the Lord Jesus. I'd certainly hate to take his
place. But there's men in Chicago tonight is more guiltier than Judas
Iscariot. He was taking a bribe.
Many men have taken a salary, and a Cadillac car, and big homes,
selling out to the principles of God. They're ashamed of the baptism of
the Holy Spirit. They're ashamed of the moving of God's Holy Ghost.
They're too classical. That makes them join the church. They do that
because they're afraid of the new birth.
E-39
I say this in a mixed multitude, but I want you to understand me as
your brother. When a baby's born, if it's on the floor, if it's on a
straw tic, or if it's on–in a decorated hospital room, it's a mess
anyway you take it. But it brings life. That's what the new birth is.
It's a mess, but it brings Life. It brings Eternal Life. Amen. It
brings Life. Life, I don't care what level it's on, I want to have that
Life, while we live forever. Men join churches to dodge that; they sell
their birthrights as Judas did.
E-40 And he heard the trickling of that silver as it trickled into his hands, and he cried, "I betrayed innocent blood."
I don't want nothing standing between me and the Lord like that at the end of the road. I trust it won't you.
"I have betrayed innocent blood." And he took the short route. He took a rope and went and hung hisself.
When
you think on your past, it'll either drive you to God or drive you away
from God. You might take the route of sin, backsliding, smoking, try to
puff it away. You might go down to the saloon, and get a whiskey, and
try to drink it away, when you defiled yourself, and defiled others,
and lied, and stole, and cheated, or deny the Gospel that you're trying
to represent, to have finery and look like the rest of them, and act
like this people of today.
E-41 God wants you to be different. He requires different. You'd be just as guilty as thirty pieces of silver.
You
can take the short route, sure, but there never was one. Look back in
the Bible times. Those who came to Him when they thought on their ways
like Peter, he found mercy. Those who took the short route is in
eternity, out in yonder somewhere without God, without hope, without
Christ. Take the road to Him; it's open. That's right.
The Roman soldier, after he had pierced His side with his spear and
seen the water and Blood gushing forth, and seen the sun go down in the
middle of the day, the rocks and the mountains rent out, and he hear
the thunder and see the lightening without a cloud, he smote hisself
upon the chest and said, "That surely was the Son of God." He thought
on his ways. He seen what he had done. And down at the foot of the
cross he went, so we're told. He thought on his ways, and he turned to
God's testimony.
E-42
Pilate, after trying to wash his hands of Jesus, ten years passed, and
he was still trying to get the Blood of Christ off of his hands. Maybe
ten years from tonight you'll be trying to shake this message off your
hands. But he washed, and he washed, and he washed, and there was no
way to get it off, with too much pride to turn to the Man that he had
killed. He finally plunged hisself to death over in Switzerland in a
pool of water, which the legend is, that on every Good Friday the blue
water bales up.
E-43
I wonder tonight, if you're thinking on your ways. I wonder if you've
been thinking back down in your mind something that you've done and the
path that you have trod. If you are, and you're condemned, don't take
the short way to go join a church, or go do this, or drink yourself to
death, or something. Well, let me tell you something.
Run to Him. There is room at the fountain for you. Let's bow our heads. Think on your way.
E-44
Lord, what can we do? We either think on our ways now and make it
right, or maybe before morning it'll be too late. Our hearts will be
fluttering, death will be meeting us, and we'll be like the young
colored man, and he–we couldn't pray. But while we're normal, while
we're sitting here with the introductory song playing, "There Is A
Fountain Filled With Blood," may we think on our ways and turn to Thy
testimonies. Guide our feet to that path of life, that bloody path that
Jesus trod all the way from Pilate's judgment hall to Calvary. May we
deny ourselves, pick up His cross, and follow after Him. As we're
thinking, may the Holy Spirit speak to our hearts, and may we turn from
our selfish way to the ways of the Lord.
E-45
And now, with heads bowed and everyone praying, if you're thinking on
your ways and you don't feel too good about it, let's come right now.
Let's just stand right up to our feet, and say, "Lord, I'm thinking on
my ways." God bless you, young fellow. "I'm thinking on my ways, and
I'm turning right now. Oh, I've received the Holy Spirit long ago, but
there's been so many things that I've done. I'm thinking of my ways. I
know I've done wrong, and I'm turning my feet to Thy testimonies right
now as I stand. I desire the prayer of this church to pray for me now.
I'm turning to Thy testimonies, Thy Word, O Lord. And Thy testimonies
is this: 'He that will come to Me, I will in no wise cast out.' It is
also in the testimonies, 'If you hide your sin, you shall not prosper;
but if you confess your sins, you'll have mercy.'"
E-46
You who wants forgiveness of all that you've done, and you make your
promise of a dedicated life from tonight on to God, stand to your feet
with these two young fellows that's standing up now. Lady, God bless
you. God bless you all around everywhere; that's good.
E-47
I am standing myself, I want God to search me and try me. If there be
any unclean thing in me, reveal it to me, I'll confess it and make it
right, I'll go do anything that He wants me to do. For if I was dying,
that would be my cry. If you were dying, that would be your cry. So why
not turn now before the storm comes? that in the hours of your trouble
you could say with Job: "I know my Redeemer liveth." Won't you stand?
Will there be some more before we pray? "Remember me, O Lord." God
bless you, ladies. God bless you all. Just remain standing for prayer.
Yes, up in the balcony there, that's good. Faith cometh by hearing. "As
I thought on my ways I turned my feet to Thy testimonies, O Lord."
Danger may be laying at the door; it is. If there's one speck of
condemnation, stand to your feet now for prayer.
E-48
While many are standing, more getting up, God bless you. That's
sincerity. "As I thought on my ways… As I've thought of what I've
been, Lord, how, I turn to You." I don't believe there's a one of us
that lives daily but what we have to turn every hour to Him.
I come, Lord. I'm standing, that's all I can do. I'm standing because
I'm convinced that I'm wrong, and I–I'm asking for Your mercy.
E-49
The reason I keep holding, because people keep standing. How do I know
that just one minute longer might mean the difference of death and
life. In an hour or two from now, some boy with a thrombosis, heart
attack, knowing that he's going out to meet God, and on his bed
screaming, "But what if I just have stood up there tonight at the
church. I'm so bothered now; I don't know what to do." Stand now,
friend of mine; come to this fountain. God will give you mercy.
E-50 Now, with our heads bowed, let us pray, each one in your own way, you that's standing.
Lord,
reverently, and quietly, and silently, we come humbly to Thee, knowing
that we are no good thing in us. There's no soundness in us at all. We
are altogether polluted. For we are borned in sin, shaped in iniquity,
come to this world speaking lies. And by nature we are sinners, and we
need Thy grace, Lord, and Thy mercy, and Thy holiness; for we have none
within ourselves. And neither can our churches or our creeds ever hide
us; it's only fig leaves which was rejected at the beginning and so
will it be rejected at the end.
E-51
But we are turning our feet to Thy testimonies, to Thy Word; and we're
confessing our faults and our sins and asking for Thy forgiveness.
Whatever our defilement is, Lord, may the fountain there that the thief
rejoiced to see, may it wash all our sins away. Grant it, Lord. May we
leave this building tonight like newborn babes–fresh and clean. And if
You should call us from this earth tonight, we feel we'd be ready to
go, because our feet are turned towards Thy testimonies. We was lost as
I was in the woods, Lord, and how my heart rejoiced to see that tower
that day. And our hearts are rejoicing tonight to see the tower of
Calvary, where we know that there's safety, and–and there's where the
lost come in and are found and directed home.
E-52
Bless these dear ones, these men, these women, boys and girls that's
standing, confessing their wrong. It is written in the Word, "He that
will come to Me, I will in no wise cast out." And they've been thinking
of them. And as David was, they may be as guilty of other things as
David was of taking Uriah's wife, but You heard him. You heard the
prayer of David and You–although You made him reap for what he sowed,
but he was still Your servant; You forgave him because he turned to
You.
E-53
They never turned away from the Church tonight like Judas, but they
have come to the cross. They're not going to try to drink this away;
they're–they're going to pray it away. They're going to do like Jacob;
they're going to cry until the Angel of God blesses them and takes away
all the sin and the shame. And I believe You'll do it right now, Lord,
for You promised it. We believe it in the Name of the Lord Jesus.
E-54
And while we have our heads bowed, I'm going to ask you that's standing
to your feet, that's stood, that feels that you've turned your feet
towards God tonight, raise up your hands to Him. And I'm signaling to
him, "Lord I've turned my feet." God bless you. One hundred percent
turned your feet towards God's testimonies. He will do it. He will take
every sin away and give you peace and satisfaction, things that the
world cannot do.
E-55
Now, the audience may raise their heads and look at the fellows and
women who are standing by you. I want you when they set down, to shake
their hands, "God bless you," and welcome them into the fellowship of
Jesus Christ. Those who were standing, as they set down, let the
Christians around say, "God bless you, brother and sister." If there
was anything wrong, and feel now that it's all gone, God be merciful to
you. Amen.
E-56
Is there any sick among you? Raise your hand. Now, lay your hands on
one another that's got the sickness. As I said last night, I've been…
I've prayed. I–I want this one thing in my life, that when I–when I
pray I–I want to believe that I'm going to have what I ask for.
A fine little brother that belongs to the Assemblies of God in
Louisville, Kentucky, Brother Rogers… You Assembly of God people, you
see him on your–your book of–of your minister, ever what you call it.
He's a fine little fellow. He was in my study about three days ago, and
we were praying. And he said, "Brother Branham, do you think we'll have
a revival in Louisville?"
E-57
I said, "I hope so." And he turned to look at me. I said, "Brother
Rogers, I met God the other day at that cave. I can't say that I think
so, because I don't think so. But there's one thing I can be honest
about; I hope so."
I do hope we do. But to say I think it. I cannot think it, I–I'm
neutral. I–I'd like to see it, but I ca–don't know whether there will
be or not. We want to search our lives and see if there be any unclean
thing in it. And if our hearts condemn us not, then ask; you can
receive what you ask for. I'm going to ask for your healing. I want you
to ask for your healing, and ask for the people's healing setting by
you. God will heal the people.
E-58
Let us pray now. Lord, just the same as You was wounded for our
transgressions, in Your testimonies it's written: "By His stripes we
are healed." There are those who are physically sick that they cannot
serve You just right because they're sick and feel bad. They've wearied
and come to church, and they're setting in this convention listening to
the minister, Your servant, speaking. They're in misery and pain. God,
grant that this will settle it right now, that their hearts will turn
to Your testimony: "I'm the Lord that heals all Thy diseases. And all
things are possible to them that believe." And with no condemnation in
our hearts, we now believe in You, that You'll heal us and take all of
our sickness away from us. We ask this in Jesus' Name, and so shall it
be. Amen.
E-59
There are letters here, Lord, and little cards and parcels that
represent sick and afflicted. And we're taught that they taken from the
body of Saint Paul, handkerchiefs or aprons. And we know we're not
Saint Paul, but You're still God. Let it be so, Lord, that when these
handkerchiefs touch the sick, may the enemy turn them loose and may
they be healed. For we're following the testimonies of God, the
testimonies of His Bible, and we believe in Jesus Christ, the Son of
God, Who cleansed us from all unrighteousness, and gives us the Holy
Ghost, and Divine healing right now. In Jesus Christ's Name. Amen.
