The Evidence of the Baptism with the Holy Ghost

Be Identified with the Word of the Hour

February 27, 1972

1.	I’m happy to be here again in the house of the Lord. I especially
appreciate the little chorus you just sang. You’ll find out in a
minute why. But the last little while now we took two messages on the
adoption which I believe is for this age, and there’ll be a distinct
manifestation of the Spirit of God in the church, as Bro. Branham said
that, if the refreshing from His Presence could bring forth the
tremendous ministry which we know came forth in what we often call that
First Pull, he said, “What will it be like when ‘All in All’
comes?”

2.	Well, see, that’s over, of course, in the Book of Ephesians, the
fullness of Him that filleth all things with all things. I believe
that’s the end time when Christ is entirely poured into the church.
And, remember; we’re growing up into the Head, starting from the
foundation, when that great ministry of the end time, where the Bride
herself will be so identified with Christ, that the ministry will fit
perfectly. In other words, the Headstone coming down will fit perfectly.
So, how close the Bride must be in relationship to Him is just one with
Him; she’s becoming one with that Word. And we’re looking for that
to happen: the Bride to literally bring forth Christ; bring forth in the
realm of the Spirit and then, of course, Christ to come forth in the
body when He will be united with the Bride at the Marriage Supper in the
air.

3.	Then we went into the study of the end-time mystery of iniquity where
people wouldn’t know wickedness from righteousness. And that sounds
very strange because you tell that to people, and they say, “Don’t
tell me I don’t know right from wrong.” But they don’t. This is
how they are deceived into the World Council of Churches where they’ve
come into a mark of the beast through a church system, and they don’t
even recognize they’re in it. Some will never recognize it. They’ll
just be wiped out when the Lord comes to take vengeance upon the earth,
and then, there’ll be millions, I believe, that will recognize it too
late. They’ll be trapped, and they’ll have to give their lives in
order to escape damnation. And this, of course, is under the Sixth Seal
where the church is purged. They believe the lie, which is to believe
they’re born again, but they’re not.

4.	This is the age when they believe that the end justifies the means.
They believe certain commandments such as, “Go into all the world and
preach the Gospel to every creature,” and “These signs shall follow
them that believe.” And yet we know that in the White Throne judgment
Jesus condemns them for bringing forth the very signs that He said must
be brought forth. Now this sounds like almost a travesty against
justice. It seems that God doesn’t know His Own mind, but this is that
deceit the Bible speaks of that they shall believe the lie because they
took not pleasure in the truth, but they took pleasure in
unrighteousness. That narrow, narrow line that people don’t realize
exists today; the two spirits are so close that many are deceived. Your
best friends are being deceived. The people you’ve associated with
years are being deceived. 

	And you say, “You don’t know right from wrong.” 

	Well, they’ll laugh in your face. They’d say, “You’re the one
that has gone off the deep end.” 

	But we know what the Scripture says.

5.	We took several messages on it even, to show you what the mysteries
are, the revealed Word of God come down out of heaven, which we’ve had
under the ministry of the prophet, showing you out of that, as I’ve
already said, one of those great mysteries, the mystery of iniquity at
the end time. And as Bro. Branham said in one place, “Iniquity, they
knew better, but they didn’t do better.” There’s the people that
quote this Book, don’t believe It. 

6.	And so now, this morning we want to go along another line of thought
that Bro. Branham taught on which, of course, so many people don’t
agree with, and that is the evidence of the baptism with the Holy Ghost.
What is it really? That’s why I said you’d appreciate knowing in a
minute why that little song was sung, “Lord, send the power just
now.” Every morning, you’ve been…the other time you’ve been
singing the “Amazing Grace, how sweet the sound,” but this morning
you talked about, you sang a little bit about that power. Now the power
of God in the church is by the Holy Spirit, “not by might, nor by
power, but by my Spirit saith the Lord.” This is how it is
accomplished. 

7.	And people today, we know that “except a man be born of the Spirit
of God, he cannot enter the kingdom of heaven,” and also, “except a
man have the Spirit of Christ, he is none of His.” And, remember that
we’re all baptized into one body, and we’re not born again unless
we’re filled with the Holy Ghost because the rebirth and the baptism
with the Holy Ghost is the same thing. Bro. Branham said, “That we are
reborn by the baptism with the Holy Ghost.” He said that twice in
“The Manifestation of the Sons of God,” and then, of course,
you’ll find a large, goodly treatise on the Church Ages, on the very
same subject. 

	So, we want to deal with that this morning in order that we understand
thoroughly what the true baptism with the Holy Ghost really is. And
before we read, then, in the Book of Acts, chapter 2, shall we bow our
heads in prayer.

	

	Gracious, eternal Father, we’re glad to be with Your people this
morning, knowing now, Lord, that You have got, by Your Spirit, to lead
us into truth and show us these things. For no matter how clear they are
in Your Word, still they are of great confusion before us, unless Your
Spirit reveals the truth to us. So many things, Lord, that Your prophet
said, and we know they’re truth because he had that same ministry that
You brought down to earth two thousand years ago, for You said, “The
days of the Son of man would repeat,” and then, they would be gone
from off the earth, and we would look back at them. And we wouldn’t
perhaps necessarily covet to see one of those days, though You said they
would covet to see those days, and they wouldn’t see them. But
they’re gone now, but You left us something which is greater. You left
us the Word, which that great power ministry demonstrated that this
indeed was the Word. And now here we are, Lord, without access to that
same one who brought us the Word as a prophet. But we don’t need him,
if we have the Holy Spirit, for He will lead us and guide us into all
truth, and He will take the things that were said and make them real
unto us. 

	Now, therefore, we’re relying upon the Holy Spirit, Who has been
given to us as our very life and who is in the midst of the people,
also, and we are looking now to Him, the Christ within us, to give us
this truth and the revelation of it in such a way that we’ll not be
shocked off of course, nor put off balance, nor we’ll neither veer to
the left or the right by any wind whatsoever of doctrine, but grow up
into Christ, which we believe we’re growing up into now, until we come
to the full measure of the stature of the perfect man in Jesus Christ.
We look to this, therefore, Lord, now, that You’ll guide the very
words of the mouth and the hearing of the ear, so we shall not err, not
add one word or take one word away, but absolutely stand in the “THUS
SAITH THE LORD” which has been delivered to us. And we’ll be careful
to ascribe unto Thee honor and glory, because You’ve made it possible
in Jesus’ Name. Amen.

8.	Going to Acts 2, just to get a reading: [Acts 2:1]

(1)	And when the day of Pentecost was fully come, they were all with one
accord in one place.

(2)	And suddenly there came a sound from heaven as of a rushing mighty
wind, and it filled all the house where they were sitting.

(3)	And there appeared unto them cloven tongues like as of fire, and it
sat upon each of them.

(4)	And they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and began to speak
with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance.

	Now, in my opinion, and I say my opinion because somebody else may have
another opinion, which is perfectly all right. In my opinion there are
three major schools of thought propagated as to what the true evidence
of the baptism with the Holy Ghost really is. 

9.	Now, by far the largest group in my estimation is that group that
believes the evidence of the baptism with the Holy Ghost is to be
Christ-like in the sense of fruit bearing. And they use the Scripture
found over here in Galatians 5.

(22)	But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering,
gentleness, goodness, faith,

(23)	Meekness, temperance: against such there is no law.

	Now they contend, because that this is the fruit of the Spirit of
Almighty God, that if you are full of the Spirit of God, you will indeed
bring forth these nine fruits of the Spirit, and therefore, if you
manifest them you are truly baptized with the Holy Ghost.

10.	And they use, also, 1 Corinthians 13 to show that it is fruit
bearing and not some supernatural gift that is indeed the evidence. And
they say:

(1)	Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and have	not
(love), (And love is a fruit of the Spirit.) I am become sounding brass,
or a tinkling cymbal. (That hardly would be the character of a Christian
or a definition.)

(2)	And though I have the gift of prophecy, (And, of course, that
definitely is one of the gifts.) and understand all mysteries, and have
all faith, (And that’s one of the gifts.) so that I could remove
mountains, and have not (love), I am (still) nothing. (Notice, these are
supernatural manifestations now according to 1 Corinthians 12, and then
it jumps to Romans 12.)

(3)	And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor… (And this also
is a gift which is the gift of giving.)

	Now here’s where Pentecost made a great mistake. They thought there
were only nine gifts. There are hundreds of gifts. If you don’t speak
with tongues, that doesn’t mean a thing if you don’t speak with
tongues. Or if you do speak with tongues, that doesn’t mean a thing in
the sense that you’re going to categorize it and stand on it. You
don’t stand with nine super manifestations. 

11.	Right here It tells you in Romans 12 that you can show mercy with
cheerfulness. That’s a ministry. That’s a gift, too. Frankly, I’d
sooner have that a million times than talking in tongues. 

	You say, “Well, I believe tongues edify me.” 

	Well, that’s fine. How about edifying somebody else for a change?
This is what’s a nice little thought that goes through my head now and
then. See? It profits nothing. 

	So, you see, they use this thought here that, if you have the fruit of
the Spirit, then definitely, you must be full of the Holy Ghost because
the Holy Ghost manifests in this fruit. So therefore, if I have the
manifestation, then I have the Manifester, the Holy Spirit. That’s the
largest group believes this way.

12.	Then I believe there’s another group. (And I don’t say they’re
the second largest now, so don’t think that.) A second group believes
that, though one ought to bear fruit, and though one will bear fruit,
the true evidence is a supernatural manifestation of the Holy Spirit.
And they say, ‘Since this manifestation cannot come apart from the
Holy Spirit, see, or as the fruit could, since this supernatural
manifestation cannot come apart from the Holy Spirit, then, if I have
this manifestation, then regardless of anything else, truly I must be
baptized with the Holy Ghost.’ And, of course, they use the Scripture
which I read in Acts 2:1-4, but particularly, they use the Scripture
found in Acts 10:44-46. Now:

(44)	While Peter yet spake these words, the Holy Ghost fell on all them
which heard the word.

(45)	And they of the circumcision which believed were astonished, as
many as came with Peter, because that on the Gentiles also was poured
out the gift of the Holy Ghost.

(46)	For they heard them speak with tongues, and magnify God. …

13.	And, of course, also, they used Acts 19.

(1)	And it came to pass…while Apollos was at Corinth, (that) Paul
having passed through the upper coasts came to Ephesus: and finding
certain disciples,

(2)	He said unto them, Have you received the Holy Ghost since you
believed? And they said unto him, We have not so much as heard whether
there be any Holy Ghost.

(3)	And he said unto them, Unto what then were ye baptized? And they
said, Unto John’s baptism.

(4)	Then said Paul, John verily baptized with the baptism of 
repentance, saying unto the people, that they should believe on him
which should come after him, that is, on Christ Jesus.

(5)	(And while) they heard this,… (And) when they heard this, they
were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus.

(6)	And when Paul had laid his hands upon them, the Holy Ghost came on
them; and they spake with tongues, and prophesied.

	And, of course, the one they emphasize is in Acts 10, for It says,
“For they heard them speak with tongues and magnify God.” So, they
believe that there must be a supernatural manifestation in your life as
founded in 1 Corinthians 12 in the enumeration of the nine gift, but the
emphasize is on tongues, which becomes the evidence of the baptism with
the Holy Ghost. That’s the second group.

14.	Then, there’s a third group. And they are also very, very large in
number, and they believe very, very strong in fruit bearing, but they
place the true evidence of being baptized with the Holy Ghost upon
witnessing and bringing souls into the kingdom. For they say, if you are
truly born again, you will find it impossible to not witness to Jesus
Christ and not bring souls into the kingdom. And you’ll find the
Scripture they use is over here in Acts 1. Now:

(6)	When they therefore…come together, they asked of him, saying, 
Lord, wilt thou at this time restore again the kingdom to Israel?

(7)	And he said unto them, It is not for you to know the times or the
seasons, which the Father hath put in his own power.

(8)	But (Now, listen!) you shall receive power, after that the Holy
Ghost is come upon you: and you shall be witnesses unto me both in
Jerusalem, and in all Judea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost
part(s) of the earth. 

15.	Now, no one can say that these three groups do not use Scripture to
back up their faith or their various beliefs or tenets or doctrines, or
whatever you want to call it. The Scriptures they use are certainly the
Word of God, each one, absolutely, uses the Bible. And those Scriptures,
absolutely, deal with the indwelling of the Holy Spirit in men’s
lives. Now, make no mistake about it: every Scripture that I read this
morning absolutely deals with the indwelling of the Spirit or those that
are born again, those that are baptized with the Holy Ghost. Every
Scripture has to do it genuinely with the lives of those that are Spirit
filled, because the Bible says so. They refer to the baptism with the
Holy Ghost. 

	Yet not one of these groups has the true revelation for their doctrine.
There is a mishandling or a misunderstanding or a misinterpreting of the
Word of God in all cases. Now I’m not throwing off on them, because
that’s not our purpose to be here this morning. But we must make it
abundantly clear that they have missed the truth somewhere down the line
because the Word does not state that any of these is the actual evidence
per se.

16.	Now they say a lot of correct things about being filled with the
Holy Spirit. And that’s right; they do. They say a lot of correct
things. And everything that’s in here, there is a correctness to it in
the sense that the Scripture they use refers to the indwelling, or the
work, of the Holy Spirit in men’s lives. Yet, in spite of the
correctness of the Scripture used, (And I bring this thought out:
they’re using correct Scripture concerning the baptism with the Holy
Ghost or the Spirit filled life.) not one, per se, actually tells you
what the evidence is. In other words they do not lay down a starting
point from which you may go.

	Now there’s only one way to find out what the actual evidence of the
baptism with the Holy Ghost is, and that’s to study the Scripture and
to find the purpose of His indwelling because the purpose manifested
will have to be the evidence. Now Bro. Branham said that, of course, but
we won’t worry too much about what he said, because we’re going to
meet the people on their own grounds, because they don’t know about
Bro. Branham. And, if they did know, they wouldn’t want to listen
anyway. So, let’s just find out what the Bible actually says, and this
will be our guide.

17.	Now, let’s go to John 14, and we’ll read:

(16)	And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another
Comforter, that he may abide with you for ever;

(17)	Even the Spirit of truth…

	Now Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth and the life,” so
therefore, the spirit of truth is a spirit of Jesus. He also said, ‘My
Word is spirit and life, and the words that I speak unto you…’
They’re spirit and truth, rather. So now, this is that spirit we’re
looking for, the spirit of truth. Now, watch:

(17)	…whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth him not, (Now
they’re looking right at him, but they couldn’t understand who he
was.) neither knoweth him: but you know him; for he dwelleth with you,
and shall be in you.

	Now, where do you get a second person of the Godhead here, or a third
person, rather? Father, Son and Holy Ghost; see, it’s impossible. He
said he’s dwelling with you; the One that you’re looking at is going
to be in you. See?

(18)	I will not leave you comfortless: I will come to you. (See? Now,
notice in verse 26.)

(26)	But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will
send in my name, he shall teach you all things, and bring all things to
your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you.

	Now, notice how he put that. This Spirit, the Holy Spirit, when He
comes has a definite work to do, and that work, of course, is the
Comforter, a Paraclete; ‘the one called alongside to help’. And,
what is He going to do? What is His help going to be? To you personally,
He will be the teacher. He said, “I’m going to send… He’ll be
sent in my Name, and He will teach you all things and bring all things
to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you.” Now, watch what
those things are—what He said. 

18.	Now we go to John 16.

(12)	I have yet many things to say unto you, but you cannot bear them
now.

	I’ve explained that before; it sounds like an insult. God, very
blunt, said, ‘I’ve got a lot of things to tell you, but it
wouldn’t do me one bit of good to tell you. You haven’t got what it
takes to receive it.’ That’s what He told them. ‘I’ve got many
things to say to you.’ Now, watch the emphasis on ‘things’, not
objects. See? But it actually breaks down into doctrine. ‘I have many
‘things’ to say to you, but you don’t have what it takes at this
time, so therefore, I will refrain.’ Now:

(13)	Howbeit when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you
into all truth: (all things, all truth; things are truth) for he shall
not speak of himself; but whatsoever he shall hear, that shall he
speak… 

	Now, what do you speak? You speak words. See? What do words become? The
conveyer of thoughts. Where do thoughts come from? The mind. Then, what
will the Holy Spirit be doing? 

(13)	…and he will shew you things to come. (Now, what things? The
truth. The truth which is for a future period. The Word revealed in Its
day. See?) 

19.	Now, also 1 Corinthians 2. Now we’re going to establish our
doctrine, beginning at verse 9.

(9)	But as it is written, (That’s the Bible.) Eye hath not seen, nor
ear 	heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which
God hath prepared for them that love him.

	Now we’re dealing with something which has to do in the realm of the
objects. Something you might be able to put your hands on. But, watch!
Whatever these ‘things’ are now, which could deal with a material
concept in a spiritual world… (Notice!) The things which God has
prepared for them that love Him have not been seen by eye, nor heard by
ear, nor understood on the grounds of man’s ability to be able to
receive them from something he himself produces. Now, watch! [1
Corinthians 2]

(10)	But God hath revealed them unto us by his Spirit. 

	So therefore, the concept of even that which lies in the future dealing
with the Kingdom itself has to be brought to us through the process of
‘exegesis’ which is ‘to explain thoroughly by words’, because He
said, “The Spirit will take the things of Him and Himself and show
them to us.” And John says, “The Only-begotten of the Father hath
declared Him,” and the Word ‘declare’ in the Greek is
‘exegesis’ which is ‘to explain thoroughly by words’. So
therefore, we are reduced to an understanding of everything in the
kingdom of God coming to us by a revelation in the mind. This precedes
everything that will come to us, literally, both now and in the future.

20.	(11)	(Now,) for what man knoweth the things of a man, save the
spirit of man which is in him? even so the things of God knoweth no man,
but the Spirit of God. (See? Now, watch!)

(12)	Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the spirit
which is of God; that we might know the things that are freely given to
us of God.

	Now then, where is your fruit and your witnessing apart from a
revelation? I hope you caught it. This is where the prophet stood. This
is where you and I become unique and hated of all men, because it seems
that we ostracize them when they ostracize themselves by putting away
the Holy Ghost. Do you follow me? Now, keep it in mind. See? Notice! 

(13)	Which things also we speak, (Now, notice!) not words which man’s
wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy Ghost teacheth; comparing spiritual
things with spiritual.

	In other words, you can have every single manifestation you want and do
every duty you want in your life, but if you’re not in line with the
revealed Word of God and the dictates of the Holy Ghost in God’s
divine pattern, everything you do falls to the ground. Now we’ll prove
it. I haven’t made one word here I can’t back up by Scripture.
We’ll just prove it as time goes on. Notice:

(14)	…the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God:
for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because
they are spiritually discerned.

	Which means you’ve got the Holy Ghost in order to judge between.
Right in the Bible you’ve got to judge in between. I said, “Right in
the Bible you’ve got to judge between!” You don’t just quote
Scripture and say “This is what the Bible says. This is what the Bible
said.” You’ve got to have the Holy Ghost to know exactly what the
Bible said and where it fits, because this age is going to end up
crucifying to themselves the Son of God afresh. 

21.	Now, notice; they can’t crucify him afresh, but they do it to
themselves. Yeah, they literally crucify themselves at the end time. The
very cross that they depended upon to save them will crucify them at the
end time, because there’s no spiritual discernment. You know that’s
true because Hebrews 6 says that’s when they turn down the last day
message: once-for-all enlightenment. See? Turn it down. 

	Now, let’s go also, to 1 John 2:

(20)	But you have an (anointing or an) unction from the Holy One, and
you know all things.

	Now, remember; before there can be any such thing as a building, an
edifice, or anything in the realm of the material, there must be first
of all a blueprint, and then, that which is constructed or comes to pass
must be according to the blueprint. There is where you find God’s
foreknowledge predating predestination; it is the great Architect with
the master blueprint bringing forth His edifice. And the same applies to
you and me.

	We, also, must be in the blueprint, and everything we do must be in the
blueprint, as God said to Moses, “See thou make it according to the
pattern I showed thee on the mount.” And this was the structure of
worship. Let a man be outside of the structure of God -rdained worship,
worship all he wants and claim all he wants, his worship is vain.
That’s right. Now we’ve been dealing with that the last four or five
sermons.

22.	Now, “You have an anointing, and you know all things.” [1 John
2]

(27)	But the anointing which you have received of him abideth in you,
(Didn’t He say I’m coming to abide with you forever? Never leave you
nor forsake you?) and ye need not…any man (to) teach you… (No man
can do this.)

	Why? Because the Holy Ghost is not a man, and Jesus was a man, and he
couldn’t do it. It took the Holy Spirit. Christ ministry on earth,
except for the fact that He was the Son of man, and, also, the Lamb of
God, was completely a dismal failure. When only one man could say,
“Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God,” and He turned and
said, “You didn’t get that from a man or from yourself; you got that
from God. My Father revealed it.” But after He left, the church was
set on fire because the Holy Spirit came, because they were walking by
the divine revelation and the things of God were now made real. 

	See, what Paul said, “These things we speak. You don’t have any man
to teach you.” Now this does not obviate as some people think, (even
those who say they believe this message) that there are no teachers. 

	As Bro. Branham said, “Wouldn’t God be ridiculous to put teachers
in the body, then deny it?” 

	That’s like strapping your hand behind your back, your good right
arm, and saying, “Well, now there you are. I just don’t need that
arm, and I’m going to leave…” 

	That’s okay for the worshippers in India or some place to do
something like that, but, if you say you believe the Lord Jesus Christ,
then you don’t take away from the Word. See? 

23.	Now It says, “You need not any man to teach you.” Why? Because
no man can do it. I don’t care how capable and how Spirit filled a man
is, there is no such thing as that man teaching anybody, unless you’ve
got the same Spirit He’s got. Even George Fox knew that. He said,
“The reason the people didn’t understand Moses and love Moses was
because they didn’t have the same spirit in them that Moses had in
him.”

	And that’s the way that the children of Israel were in the days of
Jesus. They never had the same spirit in them that Jesus had; so
therefore, they could not understand, except for a little flash. Now:

(27)	…but…the same anointing teacheth you all things, (Now, watch.)
and is (the) truth, and…no lie, (Now, what’s truth? Words. Correct.
What’s the lie? Wrong words.) and even (Now, watch.) …even as it
hath taught you, you shall abide (and abiding is fruit bearing)…

	Now, where’s your fruit-bearing outside the Word? Supposing you’re
bearing fruit and don’t have the Word? Now come on. See, we’re just
looking… What we’re looking just at the Scripture to see what the
evidence really is.

24.	Now you can see right here that from the purpose for which the Holy
Spirit was given and how He is to truly manifest in our lives, there
could never be a physical supernatural evidence, like tongues or gifts.
Did you get it?—the purpose of the Holy Spirit: why He’s given to
you. How could there be a supernatural evidence like tongues or other
gifts? Now, listen! Teaching, that’s what He’s for, (teaching by the
Spirit, though that in itself is a supernatural ministry of the Spirit)
has no outward or physical evidence. That’s just what the prophet
said.

	Now, because you folk are used to me, and we’re one happy family
here, I look at your faces and you’re grasping, if you’re watching
me carefully. But I can preach to some churches, and they look at me
like this: [Bro. Vayle makes a facial expression.] cigar store Indians.
Another fellow, because his eyes aren’t so good, he’s looking, like
this.

	Do you know what? The people looking like this, might be getting it,
while the guy doing this, might not even know what I’m talking about.
There is absolutely no outward evidence as to the baptism with the Holy
Ghost. 

	You say, “What about the other Scriptures?” 

	Just leave them be where they are. We’re talking about evidence, not
what somebody thinks of it; what really is. Because it’s an inside job
of teaching, and one man may react as a stoic, the other with great
outward joy. You can’t tell by someone’s outward reaction, because
it’s a teaching ministry the Holy Spirit has. That’s what He is
given for. That’s what Jesus said He’s given for. That’s His
purpose. Then out of that purposes can come other things, but the
evidence could not be physical by any stretch of the imagination. See? 

25.	Now it’s not a knowledge that we gather by memorizing the Word
because we could do that, too. It’s an actual spiritual revelation.
Now, let me show you that this is actually in the Bible what I said. It
is not something that you can look at and see. Back again to 1
Corinthians 2. Now we’re going to read verse 14 again as our
groundwork.

(14)	But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God.

	You and I by ourselves cannot know for anything about the real truth of
God. Yet I want to tell you, you can know everything there is to know
about those nine fruits, and pretty well the same thing about those nine
so-called gifts and the rest in Romans 12. Yet It says without the Holy
Ghost you can’t know a thing. You really don’t know. You don’t the
hour in which you live because He’s going to show you things to come:
that which deals with Christ, what He is doing, and the hour of His
visitation—see, whatever the visitation is. 

(14)	But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: 
for they are foolishness unto him…

26.	Elijah must first come. Now anybody, and even before kindergarten,
knows that one comes before two. Yet no Christian does outside of people
like you and me, because Elijah must first come. But nobody’s looking
for number one; they’re looking for number two, which is Jesus. For
they, in their false humility, say, “I’ll make Jesus first,
hallelujah, Jesus first.” 

	Now, just calm right down, little liar: you make God a liar; you better
be a liar yourself because He said, “Elijah has got to come first.”
So, how come you’re looking for Jesus, and you haven’t even looked
for Elijah? 

	I may be a rough preacher, but there’s time to be rough. You don’t
tell me… You don’t tell me that you know the Word of God, if
you’re going to bypass what he said and blithely think we can just
pray and say ‘hallelujah, that’s it,’ jump up and down and have a
sensation, when people don’t even know Elijah has got to come first.
Then, how much knowledge is there in the world today by the Holy Ghost?
I want to know that.

	He’s supposed to teach them the things which are to come. He’s
supposed to teach them the things that are about Jesus. And yet, if they
crucify to themselves the Son of God afresh at the end time, how much do
they know about Him? If they don’t know right from wrong at the end
time, how much do they know about Him? Now this is the Bible, not…
This is not what I got to say. It doesn’t matter to you what I say;
it’s ‘what does the Word say’. See? It’s not how I attempt to
analyze it; it’s ‘what does the Bible say’. 

27.	Now, watch!

(14)	…the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God:
for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because
they are spiritually (judged) …(Now, watch!)

(15)	But he that is spiritual (has got the Holy Ghost) judgeth all
things, (You don’t need any man to teach you; you got it built in
you.) yet he himself is judged of no man.

	Then, if you can’t be judged by anybody then there is absolutely no
outward evidence or you could be judged. All right, am I right or am I
wrong? Now the prophet said that. He said, “There’s no physical
evidence.” 

	Now, watch. [1 Corinthians 2]

(16)	For who hath known the mind of the Lord, that he may instruct him? 

	Now, whose going to line up and say, “God, You’ve got to do it this
way?” when God does it His Own way. And it’s only the elect who
won’t be deceived, but they’ll know God’s way in the day in which
they live. 

	How many people try to instruct God? The only man that had THUS SAITH
THE LORD that could stand before the people and prove that he was wheat,
they turned him down flat. You know, people think that, when God reveals
Himself, He’s going to cut a wide swath. How big a swath did Jesus cut
when He was on earth? and yet He was God manifest in flesh. The Bible
said, “If they didn’t know Him they won’t know us either.” See? 

28.	Now, let’s go to 1 John 3:

(1)	Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that
we should be called the sons of God: therefore the world knoweth us not,
because it knew not him.

	Now there was the Holy Ghost in flesh, and they couldn’t recognize It
because there was no outward evidence. 

	You say, “But there was.” 

	No sir, not unless you had the Holy Ghost, you didn’t see anything.
Not unless you were in the election, you didn’t see anything. The best
you could do was know something was going on but you didn’t have the
revelation. 

	Nicodemus came and he said, “We know that thou art a man sent from
God, because nobody can do the works that You do except God be with
him.” See? “You’re a teacher,” he said, “teach us a little
gimmick you’ve got. Show us the rabbit’s foot you’ve got hidden up
your sleeve.” 

	You know what Jesus said? “You’ve got to be born again.” He said,
“There’s no way of getting to know anything about this unless you
have the Holy Ghost.” 

	Now, listen! If they couldn’t tell Jesus, if they couldn’t tell
Him, who He was, that He was Spirit filled, and He was not only Spirit
filled, but the whole Godhead dwelt bodily in Him, then don’t think
we’re going to have the kind of outward evidence that’s going to
make anybody know we’ve got the Holy Ghost. In other words, you
can’t depend on an evidence as the world wants it. It’s got to be
the scriptural evidence, which is being in the Word of the hour. See? 

29.	Now, let’s go to Matthew 13:

(10)	And the disciples came, and said…, Why speakest thou unto them in
parables?

(11)	(And) He answered and said…, Because it is given unto you to know
the mysteries… (That’s the revealed Word of God come down out of
heaven), but to them it is not given. (That’s right.)

(12)	For whosoever hath, to him shall be given, and he shall have more
abundance…

	In other words, with your revelation will come the fullness into
manifestation of that revelation. If you have a true revelation of being
a true child of God by the Holy Ghost, and you are heir to that kingdom
and in that Bride in the Millennium, (It’s not something you’ve
guessed, but it’s something that’s absolutely genuine, you’re in
the body of the Lord Jesus Christ.) you will literally come into the
full manifestation upon that which your faith relies. In other words,
you will become what you believe for by the Spirit of God’s revealing
it to you. You’re going to have it. You haven’t got it? You’ll
even lose what you thought you had.

30.	(12)	…but whosoever hath not, from him shall be taken away even
that he hath.

	Now they’re talking about the revealed mysteries of God, the revealed
Word of God. They’re talking about those things that come by the lips.
See? Just like the Bible says at the end time: this one, it said, “The
restoration of all ‘things’ spoken by the mouth of all the holy
prophets;” the ‘things’: Word of God. See? Now, keep reading.
[Matthew 13]

(13)	Therefore speak I to them in parables: because they seeing see not;
and hearing they hear not, neither do they understand. (Couldn’t get
it.)

(14)	And in them is fulfilled the prophecy of Esaias, which saith, By
hearing you shall hear, and shall not understand; and seeing you shall
see, and shall not perceive: (It happened right today.)

(15)	For this people’s heart is waxed gross, and their ears are dull
of hearing, and their eyes they have closed; lest at any time they
should see with their eyes, and hear with their ears and… understand
with their heart, and should be converted, (see, turned right around,
converted, get the Holy Ghost, and walk in new life) and I should heal
them.

(16)	But blessed are your eyes, for they see: and your ears, for they
hear.

(17)	…verily I say (to) you, (Now, listen.) many prophets and
righteous men have desired to see those things which you see, and have
not seen them; and to hear those things which you hear, and have not
heard them.

	Now, what did the prophets do? They prophesied that which should come
into manifestation, and when it came into manifestation, only those, the
elect of God, were able to discern what was the Word of God in
manifestation for their day. That’s exactly right. It happens in every
age. See? They, the prophets, wanted to see this thing into
manifestation; they couldn’t see it. And when it came, everybody, but
the elect, turned it down. 

31.	And right today we’ve got the very same thing. Daddy Bosworth
prayed for forty years for the ministry of Christ to return to this
earth, and when Bro. Branham came, he said, “There it is in that
man.” He recognized it. How many saw what Bro. Bosworth saw? I don’t
know one other person. There was the Word of God for the hour fulfilled,
that the days of the Son of man should come back at the same time the
days of Noah hit this earth and the days of Lot hit this earth. And
everybody screamed about the days of Noah and the days of Lot, and they
understood them, and they know this is the hour, but they didn’t know
the hour of God’s visitation which was the return ministry in order to
bring back the restored Word. 

	Then, therefore, who knew the things of God? No one but the very
elected because it took spiritual discernment to get in that Word, and
all the world could see is the so-called Christian. He only saw one half
of it. He saw the blind side. He saw the blind side. He didn’t see the
side where the light was. That’s right. See, he had ears to hear, and
couldn’t hear; and eyes to see and couldn’t see. He had a heart to
understand, but he was dead. Why? He’s so full of his creeds and
dogmas, so full of his own ideas. What’s the evidence? What’s this?
What’s that? The Word of God spiritually discerned; It’s judged
spiritually. 

	If you haven’t got the Holy Ghost, the Word of God will fight the
Word of God. The things of God will fight the things of God, which is
the Word. See? That’s why denominations couldn’t possibly have the
Holy Ghost. And, how could you be in the body of Jesus Christ? See, it
wouldn’t work. Okay. 

32.	Let’s go to John 6, just a little bit in here; kind of brings out
a thought or two. John 6:

(45) 	It is written in the prophets, (That) they shall be all taught of
God. 

	Go back to Isaiah; It doesn’t say that. It says ‘all…of God’,
to know what He’s doing, to bring the Scripture together that you’ve
already read, bringing into alignment, spiritual discernment. See?

(45)	Every man therefore that hath heard, and hath learned of the
Father, cometh (to) me.

	See? Everybody that can be attracted by the light of the hour will come
to that light. Not just a John the Baptist treatment now, that he was a
bright and shining light and he rejoiced for a minute, but you’re
stuck with what John brought, “Behold, the Lamb of God,” and wait
until the Lamb of God did the work of the Lamb of God and brought you
right into Pentecost, and from thereon you start your life. But they
rejoiced for a little hour.

33.	Don’t tell me you’ve got the Holy Ghost, rejoice just for an
hour, and then turn on the Word? How many said they believed Bro.
Branham, and then, when he died, “smeared across the road,” as
somebody said to me, then they turned. Yeah, a man thought that’s all
I had. I was looking for someone to cry on their shoulder, looking for
some prophet. He thought I was one of those little follower type of
guys. Oh, no. I’ve been through too many hours of traveling the hard
way myself to worry about following a man, unless he’s the kind of man
that Bro. Branham was—to bring the Word. Then that’s different. See?
But they walked off.

	He said, “I don’t see where God smears a man across the road.”

	I said, “He fed them to lions, scattered their bones over the face of
the earth.”

	At least He left Bro. Branham in one piece. 

	I said, “If you expect me to follow a man that’s living, then
I’ll go kiss the pope’s toe; he’s alive.” 

	No, see. You don’t look at a light for awhile, if you have the Holy
Spirit, you discern; you’ll identify and be one with It. Just what the
Bible teaches here.

34.	“Now, the Spirit of God that moves amongst the people quickens the
mind of the person to the promise of God.” Bro. Branham said that:
“The Spirit of God that moves amongst the people quickens the mind of
the person to the promise of God.” See, the promise of the hour. Now,
notice how this teaching by the Spirit is brought to us by Spirit filled
men.

	Let’s go to 1 John 4:

(1)	Beloved, believe not every spirit, (Now, watch.) but try the spirits
whether they are of God: because many false prophets (have) gone out
into the world.

	Now, you try the spirits that come, by what? Teaching. Because a false
prophet is a man who purports to bring you the truth—the revealed
truth. Because the original meaning of a prophet is a revealer of the
thoughts of God or the Word of God: he’s a revealer. That even
pre-dates the idea of a prophet bringing the Word. Now these men are
those who are supposed to bring us the truth. They can in many cases be
false.

35.	Now with this we read also verses 5 and 6.

(5)	They are of the world: therefore speak they of the world, and the 
world heareth them.

	“Now I’ll go along with that. The crowd goes along with that. I
like that. Yeah, I’ll go with that.” 

	That shows you what kind of spirit there is. 

	You know, the world’s all saying today, “How come our church
didn’t know about William Branham, if he’s that great man you say he
is?” 

	Well, I’m going to tell you one thing: if their churches had known, I
wouldn’t be going along today. Because you can bet on one thing: the
crowd’s wrong. The crowd never was right; never will be right. Can’t
be. See?

(5)	…the world heareth them. (Now, listen.)

(6)	We are of God: (Now, listen to John.) he that knoweth God heareth
us; he that is not of God (does) not (hear) us. Hereby know we the
spirit of truth, and the spirit of error.

	God associates the teaching by the Spirit; He associates that truth
with Spirit filled men. Now John says right here that men are in the
world. They can have the true Spirit or the wrong spirit. And the true
Spirit of God will be bringing the revealed Word of Almighty God, just
like John said, he that hears God, or he that is of God hears me. And he
said, “If you’re of God, you will hear me. And if you’re not of
God you will not hear me.” And he said, “This is the way that you
can know the Spirit of truth and the spirit of error; this is the way
that you can know if a man is full of the Holy Ghost and there is no
other way. There’s no physical evidence. Here’s the way you’re
going to do it based upon a revelation of truth.”

36.	Now I’m not giving you my ideas; it’s what the Bible says. Now,
of course, I know that this is an awful big mouthful for a man to say.
He gets up and he said, “Listen, you people, I want to tell you
something.” He said, “There’s the Spirit of Truth and error is now
in the world. It was just the Spirit of Truth, but it’s no longer the
spirit of Truth; it’s the spirit of truth and error. And he said,
“Two people are in the field today, the right one and the wrong
one.” Now he said, “If you want to know the right one; I’ll tell
you flat.” He said, “You’re of God, if you hear me.”

	And they said, [Bro. Vayle makes gasping sound.] “Oh, did you hear
what he said? Why that big mouth braggart. Yeah! He had the nerve to
say, ‘I know who’s of God by the fact of the one they’re listening
to. And John says, “If you listen to me, I know you’re of God.” 

	I can say the same baloney: “If you hear me, I know you’re of
God.” Well, go ahead. Let’s bring it right down to where it is.
That’s why you’ll never get denominations to see this. They’re so
sure of their creeds and dogmas. They say, “We’re the ones you
better listen to.” See? Now, let’s just look at the Truth. [1 John
4]

(6)	Hereby know we the spirit of truth, and the spirit of error.

	Now, we must be careful to see that the true Spirit is associated with
men teaching, just the same as the false spirit is. Now everybody likes
to magnify the idea of a false teacher, a false spirit; but the minute
you do, then you got to put also the other side on the man and have
another man standing there who’s not a counterfeit, but he’s a
genuine servant of God. And, where is it? It’s not in the external
evidence; it’s in the revealed Word being expressed on the lips of
those teaching. No place else. 

37.	Now, let’s find out if there’s another witness. Let’s go to 1
Corinthians 14. Now here’s what Paul said. Now we’ve quoted this
many times. You could almost quote It yourself. It says: 

(36) 	What? came the word of God out from you? or came it unto you 
only? (See?)

(37)	If any man think himself to be a prophet (one of the five-fold
ministry), or spiritual (full of the Holy Ghost), let him acknowledge
that the things that I write unto you are the commandments of the Lord.

	What things? Things are the truths, the revealed doctrine of Almighty
God, those mysteries whereof Paul spoke. And he said, “If you’ve got
the Holy Ghost, you’ll know that I have brought you the Word of
God.” Identical to what John said, see. 

	Now, isn’t that something? He didn’t say if you speak in tongues, I
know you’ve got the Holy Ghost. He didn’t say if you bear fruit, I
know you’ve got the Holy Ghost. He didn’t say if you were winning
souls, you’ve got the Holy Ghost. He said, “If you agree with what I
say; if you’ll stand for it…”

	Now, never mind what comes out of it. There’ll be plenty come out of
it, but the evidence or what we’re looking for has to do with men and
women following the revealed Word of God which is revealed to certain
people. Why? Because that’s how it started. And, remember; God can’t
change. “For whatsoever the Lord doeth He doeth it forever and no man
can add to it or take away from it.” See, because God does it. You
can’t change it. That’s your precept.

38.	Now, let’s go to the Book of Revelation and follow this through,
as I have done it before: Revelation 1. Let’s see how that God’s got
men who’ll bring us the revealed Word in every age.

(10)	I was in the Spirit on the Lord’s day, and heard behind me a
great voice, as of a trumpet.

	Now you know right away that a trumpet signifies that there is a
trumpeter who sounds to bring a message. No trumpeter runs around and
goes toot, toot, toot, toot, and doesn’t mean a thing, because Paul
said, “There is no such thing as a trumpet without a voice, or it’s
not a trumpet.” This is not something indiscriminate in the Word. The
man is a messenger. 

	Now the trumpet is a message. It’s a voice. It was like a trumpet.
Now, watch! In verse 12:

(12)	And I turned to see the voice…

	Now, notice; he said, “To see a voice.” Not to see the man, not to
see the one bringing it, but to see the voice, which is ‘what does
that voice bring forth’. Is it the revealed Word of God? Then you
don’t look at the messenger; you look at the Word! That’s why
there’s such a great problem today of making this a Branham cult
instead of bringing the people to Christ. Now you can’t ignore the one
that brought the Word, which is the messenger. But, when you’re
brought to the Word, it must bring you into the steadfast relationship
to Christ, or you’ve got the wrong angle. See? 

39.	Now: [Revelation 1]

(12)	And I turned to see the voice that spake with me. (In other words,
the emphasis is on the Word or the message preached. “Your message
shall forerun the Second Coming.” Now, notice:)

(13)	And in the midst of the seven candlesticks…

	Now, first of all he saw seven candlesticks. What is it? He saw the
Bride through seven ages, pure gold, and in her was the Voice that was
to be listened to. Now then, no one else will listen to the Voice
that’s in the Bride, but the Bride, because that’s where the Voice
is, in the election. They’re redeemed, seven of them, seven Church
Ages coming in, every branch is an age, and there are seven branches,
seven ages here, pure gold, gold of faith. And faith is a revelation.
See? 

(13)	(Now after he saw the candlesticks, he saw) one like (to) the Son
of man, (in the midst of the candlesticks)…

	Now in the Greek, ‘like unto the Son of man’ also may be rendered
‘who says the same things as’. Now then, we’ve got seven men in
the Seven Church Ages. Because in the hands of the One that’s in the
midst of the seven golden candlesticks, Christ, the revealed Word, are
seven messengers or the authority of Christ on this earth in the Bride.
There is an authority in the Bride, and it’s seven Church Age
messengers. I know people don’t like that. They say, “I got the Holy
Ghost, hallelujah.” 

	Listen! God forbid I should insult anybody, but let’s pretend I’m
talking to a bunch of heathen. See? The One, who says the same things
as, is exactly what Jesus said in John 14, “When He is come, He will
say exactly what I’ve said, and He won’t say one word other than.”
It’s exactly that Voice in the age. 

40.	Now, those seven Church Age messengers are the seven stars. Now,
remember; in the Greek the word ‘star’ doesn’t mean simply a light
holder like we see in the heavens—a reflector, but it means ‘the
preeminent one amongst many like him’. In other words God is going to
place seven ordinary men within the Bride of Jesus Christ, one for every
age, and he’s going to be so ordinary, people will literally spit on
him. 

	Listen; in the church age, Paul was ridiculed by those who said they
belonged to Christ and took issue against him. “Why,” they said,
“his speech is contemptible. Why, he said ‘pull-put’ instead of
‘pulpit’.” Oh, yeah. They said, “He shouldn’t have forgotten
his PhD back there but brought it along with him.” 

	Yeah. Paul said, “I count all that thing but dung.” See, God takes
the eagles off the dung heap; takes the princes out of the same place,
because He wants to elevate them to Christ Himself. 

41.	Now, the seven stars are the seven messengers. Now, notice; in every
Church Age beginning in chapter 2 [Revelation], which we’ll only read
a tiny bit of, It says here:

(1)	Unto the (messenger which is in) the church of Ephesus…These
things saith he that holds the seven stars in his right hand, who walks
in the midst of the seven golden candlesticks; 

	Now, watch! He is revealing Himself, then He brings out the historical
qualities of the age. Then he says in verse 7:

(7)	He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the
churches.

	But, notice; He’s talking to one man who is the messenger. He’s not
talking to different men. He’s not talking to two men and three men
and four men in Ephesus. It’s not a group of people that have a body
ministry so we can all get together like Latter Rain has done it. I’m
not throwing off on them, because I was amongst them, though I didn’t
go very long with them. But I was amongst them for some time. Their idea
was that, if you all got together and pooled your so-called resources,
you could come to a knowledge of truth. But there was just as much
so-called truth as there was minutes of the day, and all you had was a
dog fight, people fighting each other. There’s got to be a preeminent
one: an ordinary man that God puts the emphasis on. Now, that was in
Ephesus. 

42.	The next Church Age, verse 8. [Revelation 2]

(8)	And unto the (messenger) of the church (which) in Smyrna write;
These things saith the first and the last, which was dead, and is alive.

	Now, what did he do? To every single messenger He gave a divine
revelation of Himself, which is the Word, and gave them the knowledge of
the age, and then they gave the message, and the people heard It. 

	“He that hath an ear,” heard what the Spirit said by the Voice of
God in the Bride bringing forth the revealed faith of the hour to the
people who would listen. Now, how are you going to listen? My sheep hear
my voice. Now, remember that Christ is the chief Shepherd. Now, if
there’s chiefs; there’s got to be Indians. If there’s a chief,
there’s got to be an Indian. Do you follow me? That’s right. Who’s
the shepherd of every age? He has got to be this messenger in every
single age. 

43.	Now, we see, therefore, the voice of the Lord Jesus Christ down
through the Church Ages, and the messenger, until it comes to Rev 3:14.

(14)	Unto the (messenger) of the church (which is in) Laodicea (That’s
in a state of anarchy; people wanting their own rights.) These things
saith the Amen… 

	It’s all over. Alpha has become Omega. In other words He’s right
back where He was. Christ right back in the fullness of a pure and
chaste virgin of the Word.

(14)	…the faithful and true witness, the beginning of the creation of
God.

	God creating Himself in human flesh is now about to bring all the rest
of the election up out of the ground where they will be in their
re-created bodies, the living putting on immortality. Now, here is where
we stand. The voice of Christ in every age is by the messenger is every
age who brings forth the revealed Word of the hour, and the people will
be hearing that Word. Now then, the identification of a true,
spirit-filled believer will not be any different from what it was in the
first age, which is, Paul was able to say in the first age, “If you
hear me, you’re of God; and, if you don’t hear me, you are not of
God. Where do you line up?” See? Because he said, “When the Spirit
came, He would lead you into all truth.” Right? 

44.	He would show you things to come. He would give you the ability to
discern, to know the Word of the hour. Yet, how many people today, under
the vindication that no man has had since the time of Jesus Christ…?
That’s right, William Branham had vindication. You look in your
history books. I’ve had the privilege of looking into some of them and
the best records I could get my hands on. And in those records there is
no ministry comparable to the ministry of William Branham—absolutely
none. 

	When it came to the vindication, he’s the only man that has produced
THUS SAITH THE LORD. You don’t even find it under the ministry of the
apostle Paul, though he might have had it for all I know. You don’t
even find Jesus stand up and say, “THUS SAITH THE LORD.” He merely
spoke the Word. He had It without saying It. But at the end time that
make that great one to come would have THUS SAITH THE LORD, and It said,
“If you don’t hear him, then you’ll be destroyed from amongst the
people.” And that’s end-time destruction and it takes place under
the Book of Acts under the time of restoration. See? 

45.	So, how many people identified themselves with the end-time
messenger? You say, “Well, bless God, I can identify myself with God
because I believe so and so.” 

	Now, look; you see, that’s just exactly what they did in the days of
Jesus. That’s what they’ve done all along, is to identify themselves
with that which was not the Word of God. 

	Isn’t it strange today how that everybody looks back upon two men?
You know what those two men are? Luther and Wesley. Why? Now people say,
“I can’t believe that Luther really had the Word for his day, that
he was really the messenger of that Church Age because look at his
life.” 

	How come he’s got the preeminence nobody else has? Figure it out.
Because God said that’s what he would have. Now then, who’s right?
Man or God? 

	You look at Wesley. How about Whitfield? Great man of God, great
theologian. What about Fletcher? Young man giving his life for God,
great man. But who had the preeminence? Wesley. The whole world knows
it. They bare record to the fact that these men are the stars which
started the restoration which began in reformation, which will end in
complete restoration under the last seventh day messenger who is the
third of the three angels, the last three great angels mentioned in the
Word of God. Even the world bears record to It.

46.	Now, let’s go back to 1 John 2 again.

(18)	Little children, it is the last time: and…you have heard that
antichrist shall come, even now there are many antichrists; (You know
what antichrist is? Not ‘against’, although that is what happens.
It’s ‘instead of’. You got a lot of people right now standing
instead.) whereby we know that it is the last time. (Listen!)

(19)	They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had
been of us, they no doubt would have continued with us: but they went
out, that they might be made manifest…they were not all of us.

	In other words, there has to be an ingathering, and an in-gathering is
by the Word of God. See? It’s by the Word. You say, “What Word?”
The Word of the hour because there’s got to be a messenger! See? Now
you check it out.

	What dealt the Roman Catholic Church its great blow? Luther, one man;
not a bunch of men, one man. 

	You say, “What about Zwingli? What about us?” 

	Well, what about him? What about him? They didn’t amount to that.
I’m not saying they didn’t amount to anything now; I’m just
talking in terms, which one had the preeminence? Which one did God use?
Luther. What about the men who lived in Wesley’s day? Great men of
God, wonderful men: Luther, Wesley, see; they had them.

47.	Now, what man did God use in this day by proof that he was entitled
to bring the Word? There’s only one man. You can’t name Billy
Graham. Great man of God, but where’s Billy Graham? When the showdown
came with the heathen, where was he? He just kicked his toe in the dust
and walked off. 

	When the showdown came with William Branham over there in India, (which
is really a great complex of heathen religion) all those men sat there,
and Bro. Branham sat there while they lectured him hour after hour. And
then, at night, when it came his turn, he said, “In the name of your
gods, heal this man,” and there wasn’t one there that could do it.
But when he spoke in the name of Jesus Christ, that man, absolutely
blind, saw instantaneously. Now where’s your showdown? See? There was
the right. 

	Now you say, “Bro. Vayle, awhile ago you said it wasn’t
miracles.” 

	That’s right; it’s not miracles. But there’s a difference in
miracles; we’ll get to it in a minute. 

48.	Now, you could see here from what we follow through in Scripture
that God has ordained that the actual ministry of the Holy Spirit be
that we are aware and in the understanding of Christ, the things of God,
and the hour in which we live. Now, let’s look at the thought, then,
as to why, even though there’s much Scripture on bearing fruit, that
fruit bearing is not the evidence of the baptism with the Holy Ghost. 

	Let’s go back to Galatians 5. Not saying fruit bearing is not right,
now. See, nobody can ever say that, because it is right. Okay. 

(22)	But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering,
gentleness, goodness, faith,

(23)	Meekness, temperance; against such there is no law.

	And with this, of course, you read in 1 Corinthians how that love is
the embodiment or really you say the embodiment of all of that fruit.
Now the point is this. What love is the evidence? That’s what I want
to know. 

	You say, “Love is the evidence.” 

	Then, what love is the evidence? See? 

49.	Now, when I talk about the evidence of the Holy Ghost, there’s
only one people that’s identified and that’s those who believe the
Word of the hour. That’s where you start, and that’s where you
finish. But, what about this on love? Let’s check it out on love. In
Rom 12:9:

(9)	Let love be without (hypocrisy).

	The word ‘dissimulation’ is ‘hypocrisy’. You know that you can
manifest all the love in the world and be a perfect hypocrite in doing
it. See? Patting people on the back in the name of Jesus and say, “Oh,
don’t worry, honey, God wouldn’t blot out the West Coast. Why, He
won’t let Los Angles go down. That great city where God has done so
much, and done so many things, and there’s so many wonderful saints
there. No, come, honey, why, God’s a God of love, and He will never
blot that out. And sister dear, what does it really matter, if you cut
your hair or not. What in the world has that got to do with it?”

	Love? You can be an absolute hypocrite showing love. Sure. I want to
ask you a question. What’s there to be a hypocrite about the Word,
though? You either believe, or you don’t believe. Ain’t no
hypocrite. There’s no place for faking it. You either got a
revelation, or you don’t have a revelation. It’s something only you
and God know. You can’t fool anybody. Nobody can fool you. You can’t
prove it, and they can’t prove you haven’t. But you can come along
and say, “I know I’ve got God because I’ve got a lot of love,”
and you might not have a thing. 

50.	Let’s find out also about this thing called love. We go to 1 Peter
1, because, you see, here’s where people say is the real evidence.
It’s the fruit of the spirit. I’ve got love, and love, of course,
means meekness, you turn the cheek and all those things. It looks very,
very good. It is very, very good. It’s wonderful, and we’re supposed
to do it. But, let’s see if it’s the evidence. 1 Peter 1:

(22)	Seeing ye have purified your souls (Now, listen!) in obeying the
truth through the Spirit unto unfeigned love… 

	Now, if you don’t have the truth, then you’ve got a feigned love.
Sure you’ve got love, but it’s not the real thing. How can any man
have the real truth, if he doesn’t have the real Word? Well, that’s
what It says here.

(22)	Seeing you have purified your souls in obeying the truth through
the Spirit… 

	No other way to get to the truth, except by the Holy Ghost; no other
way to know what you’re doing even, you won’t know right from wrong.
And then, It says here:

(22)	(With) unfeigned love of the brethren, see that you love one
another with a pure heart fervently; (Why?) 

(23)	(Because you’re) born again, (How?) not of corruptible seed,
(creeds and dogmas) but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which
lives and abides for ever.

	Now, if you’re born again by the Word of God, then the Spirit
that’s in you is the very Spirit of that Word, and you’ll be lining
up to It. Then, how can you talk about a church or a denomination when
you want to bring souls into Jesus Christ? See? Now, let’s just look
at this business of love and the fruit of the Spirit.

51.	There’s a man called Nicodemus, went to Jesus one night, and he
said, “Rabbi, we know you’re a man sent from God, because nobody can
do what you do except God be with him.” 

	And Jesus said, “You must be born again.” 

	And Nicodemus said, “Now, just hold it right there.” He said, “I
don’t follow you.” He said, “How can I… Could it be possible
that you could go back in your mother’s womb and be born?” 

	He said, “No.” He said, “You got to be born of water and Spirit.
That’s how you get into the kingdom of heaven.” Then He said to
Nicodemus, “You know, …no man hath ascended up to heaven save he
that came down out of heaven, even the Son of man which is in heaven.”
[Jn 3:13]

	And you know, Nicodemus sort of shook his head, and he thought it over.
He said, “Now, no man hath ascended, he that descended even…” he
said, “You’re trying to tell me, if I read you right, that You are
controlling in heaven and in earth.” 

	And Jesus smiled and said, “You’re not far from the kingdom.
That’s what I’m telling you.” 

	And Nicodemus said, “Now, if you’re controlling in heaven and earth
because even the Son of man which is, and I’m watching You right here,
You’re telling me that the power of God is centered in You and though
I’m looking at a man, I’m actually seeing God veiled in flesh,
something like happened to Abraham.” 

	He said, “Oh, how astute you are, Nicodemus.” 

	Nicodemus said, “Now, You wouldn’t be telling me that You are
Jehovah?” 

	He said, “I am.” 

	He said, “You wouldn’t be telling me that You are Elohim?” 

	He said, “I am. All things are made by me.” 

	He said, “That’s interesting.” 

	He said, “Why is it interesting?” 

	“Well,” he said, “because there’s certain things that You are
supposed to have said, like I am to love You with all my heart and all
my soul. Now,” he said, “that’s very nice from Your side, but what
kind of treatment do I get from my side?”

	“Well,” He said, “I reciprocate because I am love. Esau have I
hated, Jacob have I loved. In pure election I have loved you. You
didn’t ask for a thing, Nicodemus, but, you see, I’m choosing. Your
brother might have been a finer man than you, but I want you. …[?]
might have looked ten times as good as Zacchaeus; but I picked
Zacchaeus.”

	Well, Nicodemus thought that over, and he said, “You know, I’ve a
little something I’d like to ask You, if You let me do it.”

	He said, “Yes, I think I could grant your request.” 

	“Well,” he said, “my request is to let me follow You around and
watch how You act, because, if I can see You act, and You say who You
are, then I got a pretty good idea what God’s all about, what love is
about, especially would I have a good idea of You in relationship to
man.”

	And I would think the Lord would smile and say, “Nicodemus, you are
very, very astute. You must come around and watch, and then you will see
how God is.” 

52.	Now here’s how you read your Gospel because, remember; God was
indwelling Jesus. And Nicodemus saw this man break the loaves and fishes
to five thousand, twice. He saw him raise the dead. That’s right. He
saw him calm the waters. He saw him turn water into wine. 

	He saw him do great things, but remember; what he saw would never give
him the true revelation of God, because he saw a man who would go to a
pool where other people lay in worse condition than one fellow, maybe
with arthritis, and say, “Sir, you want to get healed?” 

	The man said, “I want to get healed, but every time I try to get down
that water, somebody beats me to it.” 

	He said, “Take up your bed and walk.”

	Now, what kind of a God is it who will heal or raise from the dead one
widow’s son, one man’s daughter, feed a few thousand and yet, being
God, Who created every single thing there is to create, has been
created, and Who is absolute Sovereign, Who knows what’s going on and
nothing without His divine permission and protection, would still raise
one man, when there’s hundreds of thousands He won’t raise? Now,
where’s your love? 

53.	What kind of a God is it who went in the temple, and He told those
men there—and they were changing money and selling animals… It’s
right in the book. It’s either in Deuteronomy or Leviticus.
Deuteronomy, I think it is. [Dt 14:16] He said, “If the place where
you worship is too far where you cannot bring the first fruit and you
cannot bring the sacrificial animals, you sell them and take the money,
and then, when you get there, you buy what your soul lusts for, and
there you’ll make a sacrifice and partake unto the Lord your God.”

	And here those men were actually doing what God laid down for them to
do. Yes sir. And he braids some rope. Oh, how that stuff cuts. You know;
you’ve been cut by paper and by twine. Oh, it’s a miserable mean
cut. And He just took and whipped those guys, and He lashed them until
their arms were in big red welts, and maybe their throats in big red
welts, and He went, boom, kicked their table over, scattered that money
all around them. And He said, “Get out, you bunch of robbers and
thieves. Get out!” Now, that’s your demonstration of love and
consideration and meekness and kindness. I’m not suggesting you and I
are meant to do that, but I’m just suggesting that you remember that
Jesus was God manifested in the flesh, and everything that’s recorded
here in the gospels is an actual record of God doing it. 

	Now, listen to me! Why did He chase those men out? Not for what they
were doing, but the key lies in the words that He said, “You have made
my house a house of merchandise, and you yourselves are thieves and
robbers.” And, remember; a thief and robber is one who enters into the
fold in another way, except by the door, and here are those men that
were claiming to fulfill the Word of God by revelation were out to kill
the very manifestation of the Word of the hour. Then you know what He
did? He indicted them. See? 

	Now, get the picture. They were doing the will of God without a
revelation, and their worship was without the revelation of true faith.

54.	Now here’s where we stand, brother/sister. I don’t care what you
and I do as an act of love. I don’t care what you and I may think we
ought to do as an act of love. Unless it is solidly based upon the Word
of Almighty God, so that the motives are one with that Word, then it is
not an act of love.

	Today we’ve got such pseudo-psychologists to sicken you. The Bible
said, “Don’t spare the rod, and don’t spare the child. And don’t
let your eye pity, and don’t let your arm give out.” And It also
says something about beating the devil out of them because that’s
true, too. [Prov 13:24, 19:18, 22:15, 23:13, 29:15] There’s a lot of
devils could get into a kid, a lot of them kept out, if you just kept
the kid under control.

	But today you got that pseudo-psychology that says you’re not to keep
government in the house. Until today we’ve got to a place where the
women have risen up against the men. And, remember; those women are not
in the image of God. They are in the image of man, and man is in the
image of God. And they still rise up against the authority of the
household, even as the kids do. And preachers preach it as love, and men
talk about it as love, and they don’t understand they’re both going
down that primrose path to hell!

55.	Brother/Sister, unless our very actions, our meekness, and our
consideration and our temperance and our goodness and our faith is
solidly based upon the Word of God, It will not save us. And it is no
evidence of the Holy Ghost. What evidence can it be of the Holy Ghost to
misinterpret the Word of God when Paul said, “If we believe that God
raised Jesus and God raised Him not, you’ll make God a liar, and your
faith is vain?” 

	The Bible also speaks of reprobate faith from corrupt minds. And a
corrupt mind is that which takes the Word of God and mishandles It or
misinterprets It or misplaces It. Now then, where’s your evidence of
the fruit? There isn’t any. I can get you a Christian Science that
shows great love; get you a Unity that shows great love. 

	In fact, why is India the graveyard of missionaries? I have never been
there to find out, but I’ve been told on good authority and seen men
that came back, absolutely shaken in their souls to see what some men in
India would do in the name of their god for love. Such a spirit of
meekness and quietness and abnegation, such a spirit of tolerance and
love, such a willingness to humble themselves and take the lower
position, but they had no more use for the Word of God than anything. 

56.	Unless the fruit of the Spirit, as we have read by Scripture, comes
out of the Word of God… In other words, unless the character of the
man (because fruit is character), unless that character is from that
Word, there is no hope. As Bro. Branham said, “A great theologian came
to me this last week,” and he said, “Bro. Branham that great thing
we’re looking for is character.”

	He said, “It is not character.” 

	Does Bro. Branham mean we’re to live like a bunch of hogs? No, you
live like sheep, but it’s not the character, brother/sister. It’s
one with that Word that will bring the character. See? 

57.	Now, let’s look a little further. Let’s look at a
super-manifestation as found in tongues as an evidence, and that’s a
gift of the Spirit. Now the one I said they use is over here in Acts
10:44-47. This may sound like a tough one; but, let’s look at It and
find out. 

(44)	While Peter yet spake these words, the Holy Ghost fell on…them
which heard the word.

(45)	And they of the circumcision which believed were astonished, as
many as came with Peter, because that on the Gentiles also was poured
out the gift of the Holy Ghost.

(46)	For they heard them speak with tongues, and magnify God. Then
answered Peter,

(47)	Can any man forbid water, that these should not be baptized, which
have received the Holy Ghost as well as we?

58.	Now, notice in Acts 11:15:

(15)	And as I began to speak (to them), the Holy Ghost fell on them, as
on us at the beginning.

	Now, what chapter goes between this and chapter 2 and verse 4? It’s
the chapter where they went down to Samaria and hands were laid on them
to receive the Holy Ghost, and there is not one mention of tongues. What
is this? This is simply a direct outpouring of the Holy Ghost without
the laying on of hands. 

	And, remember; these men heard the Word, and the Holy Ghost fell, and
they spake with tongues. It does not say it is the evidence because It
is merely the historical account of how the Holy Ghost was given.
Because He was not given with speaking in tongues in Samaria, nor was He
given with speaking in tongues concerning Paul. Tongues is a gift, and
there is no place in the Bible where It says that tongues is given as a
gift as evidence. No place.

59.	Now, let’s also look at this. Peter said, “The Holy Ghost was
given, and they knew it was poured out upon the Gentiles, for they heard
them speak with tongues and magnify God.” Now, let’s go back to Acts
2, a minute. Let’s not just take some of the Scripture on this
subject. Let’s take all of It—not isolate any but read It all;
chapter 2.

(15)	For these are not drunken, as ye suppose, (when they said, ‘what
is this?’ Now, notice verse 16.)

(16)	But this is that which was spoken by the prophet Joel;

(17)	And it shall come to pass in the last days, saith God, I will pour
my Spirit upon (a-double-l) flesh: (all) and your sons and your
daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your
old men shall dream dreams:

(18)	And on my servants and on my handmaidens… (two groups of people)

	When? The same Spirit falling at the end time falling upon anybody and
everybody, but at the beginning it was not so. It wasn’t so. At the
end time anybody can be anointed: Mt 24:24, Mt 7:15-23. See? Heb 6:4-10.
All through Scripture you can find at the end time there’s an
anointing that only the very elected will not be deceived, and that word
‘elect’ comes from a very special combination of Greek, ‘eke’
and ‘logos’, ‘those who come out by the Word’. See?

60.	But in here there was no such thing as a church that was defiled.
Any manifestation was pure. You couldn’t even find a soul that tried
to be part of them that was a hypocrite. The Bible said, “They sat in
Solomon’s Porch, and no man durst join himself.” [Acts 5:12-13] And
when a couple of hypocrites came along, they were killed and carted out.
[Acts 5:1-11] The Bride of Christ at the beginning was a spotless virgin
with every manifestation in order. Certainly. If there was tongues, it
was real. Certainly. If there was prophecies, it was real. If there was
a word of knowledge, it was real. Everything was real. The church was
absolutely pure, because Paul said it was. She was a virgin. She carried
no seed of anything but Christ. 

61.	Now, here’s that early church in the days of Peter that’s got
the keys to open both doors, Jew and Gentile. Now God says, “Go on
down to the Gentiles.” So, what does Peter do? He goes on down to the
Gentiles. The Holy Ghost falls. He has already fallen when they speak in
tongues. They’re already filled. See? Peter knows, then, that here is
a manifestation which will be genuine, because at the end time only
could that manifestation fall on anybody. See? He also sees that the
Holy Ghost is poured out identical as it was to him. 

	It also (Watch now!) accompanies the Word. Now, what’s important
then? The gift of tongues or the Word of God? That’s what people
overlook. They get to talking about tongues manifestation. What about
that Word? What about the Word of the hour? Were they in the Word of the
hour? They were the Word of the hour because they were the first
fulfillment of the promise to Abraham that “in thee shall all nations
of the earth be blessed.” And though Israel knew it, and Peter
preached it on Pentecost, and the day after Pentecost, Chapter 3, and so
on, when Peter came to preaching it, (Remember; there was a difference
when he came face-to-face of It.) when that Word was manifested, what
happened? He saw the thing brought into full manifestation, and he said,
“I believe that.” See?

	What was it? It followed the Word. Tongues came with the Word. It came
because they believed they were elected. There was a manifestation.
There wasn’t in Samaria. There was some in Ephesus. There is no
Scripture that says that tongues is that evidence, because this evidence
(or this manifestation) also can be counterfeited.

62.	What about devil’s speaking in tongues? Now, let’s have a
meeting. We’ll have a meeting like they had in Montreal. Dr. Cliff
that… He’s gone now, but a very brilliant linguist, understood about
seven languages—spoke fluently. And in a Pentecostal meeting he heard
five different tongues that he understood; two were praising God, and
three were cursing horribly. It all went for the Holy Ghost. See?

	What about signs and wonders? What about that witch doctor that can
bring about a healing? What about those people that deny the very virgin
birth of Jesus Christ and the blood of Almighty God, and they can bring
it about?

63.	Now, listen; as in Corinth they stood with the Word, as at Pentecost
they stood with the Word, as in Ephesus they stood with the Word, as
Jesus said they would do it, and as Paul said they would do it: that is
your earmark. Do you stand with the Word? Not the manifestation you see.
Manifestation is fine. We’re not against genuine manifestation. Never
been against it. Certainly there’s genuine tongues. Certainly
there’s genuine prophecy. Certainly there’s nine gifts of the Holy
Spirit that are manifested in a miraculous way. Certainly there is, as
Irenaeus said, “There are hundreds of ministries or gifts in the body
of Jesus Christ.” But that’s not it.

	It’s being with the Word of the hour because that’s what the
Scripture teaches. Then, how can men say they got the Holy Ghost
manifesting in tongues, interpretation and in divers gifts and refuse
the Word of the hour? See, because there’s your key. Every single
time, when the Word was preached, the identification lay with the Word.
No place else. And, what are we going to do? But people don’t believe
that.

64.	Now, let’s consider—because our times going rapidly. Consider
soul winning. Let’s find out if soul winning and witnessing is that a
mark of the baptism with the Holy Ghost? Let’s go to Galatians 4 and
find out. Many Scripture on this, but I won’t go through them all.
Galatians 4:22-31:

(22)	For it is written, that Abraham had two sons, the one by a
bondmaid, the other by a freewoman.

(23)	But he who was of the bondwoman was born after the flesh; but he of
the freewoman…by promise.

(24)	Which things are an allegory (an extended parable)…

	He said, “I’m going to tell you a story now. It’s got a spiritual
truth. It’s right in the church:” Paul speaking to the Galatians.
Now Israel is down there, but so are the Gentiles, because the Gentiles
are coming in now, and God has blinded Israel so they turned away.
He’s talking now to the church that has both Jew and Gentile, but the
Gentiles are becoming predominant. But he’s going to the Old
Testament. 

65.	He said:

(24)	(There’s an) allegory which…are the two covenants; (There are
two covenants now.) one from the mount Sinai, (Moses gave the law and
that) gendereth to bondage, which is Agar.

(25)	(And) Agar is mount Sinai in Arabia, (which) answereth to Jerusalem
which now is, and is in bondage with her children. (A church system,
see, that’s been left. God’s moved on. Where has He moved to? He’s
moved to New Jerusalem.)

(26)	…which is above (which) is free, which is (our) mother…(not the
mother of us all; that’s a mistranslation because, remember; God is
not the father of all, and New Jerusalem is not the mother of all.
It’s only the elect.)

(27)	For it is written, Rejoice, thou barren that bearest not; (Who’s
that? That’s Sarah.) break forth and cry, thou that travailest not:
(See? That’s Sarah.) for the desolate (Now, who’s desolate, see?)
hath many more than she which hath an husband. 

	So, who’s desolate? Hagar. Well, what about her children? Just
everywhere, thicker than the hair on a dog’s back; cover the earth
like sand.

(28)	Now we, brethren, as Isaac was, are the children of (the) promise. 

	Now Hagar had a child by promise, too. General promise; be fruitful and
multiply. Just a general promise. Got a covenant; here’s a very
covenant with God.

(28)	Now we, brethren, as Isaac, are the children of promise.

(29)	But as he then that was born (of) the flesh persecuted him that was
born after the Spirit…

	And, remember; who’s the multitude? She that doesn’t have a
husband. Now God said, “I am not the husband to the church that’s
got the great majority. I am a husband to the church that has the
minority.” He’s got a small number. See? “I am the Husband of the
Bride, who is made up of the Word of promise.”

66.	Now, who do you belong to this morning? You’ve got your choice.
You’ve got a covenant. You can belong to the worldly church, or you
can belong to the true church, the Bride. You can come by the flesh, or
you can come by the Word of God. Now, how are you coming? You can come
like people do today and get the Holy Ghost, so-called, with an
anointing. You can come by a false creed or a dogma, and you can come
right into their church, you can have an experience. Sure you can. 

	Peter… Now, listen. With this Peter said, “Being born again, not of
corruptible sperm, but of incorruptible, by the Word of God, which lives
and abides forever.” Now he doesn’t say, just get born again. He
said, “Be careful how you are born again.” That’s right.

	What does the rebirth mean? A rebirth in the human mind means that the
fellow has a new start in life. Once I was blind, now I see. Once I was
a drunkard, now I don’t drink. Once I was a destroyer of people, now I
don’t destroy. Once I was wicked in my concept, now I try to be
righteous. 

	Now you can get born… You can get born right into a church system,
and you can show all kinds of evidence that you’ve been born again.
Now the word ‘repentance’ means ‘change your mind’. 

67.	Now, let’s just show you how a man can get born again right out
here in the world. Here’s a good old boy, so to speak, and he’s been
drinking, maybe for thirty-five years, and now his arteries are hard,
his kidneys are shot, and his liver is all hard, and he’s ready to go
on the way out. He’s blown his stack at his wife and family, and
he’s been a real abuser of himself and mankind. He’s just been a
real, real mountebank. He goes to the doctor, and the doctor says,
“Brother, you’re shot.” 

	“What do you mean, Doc?” 

	He said, “Look, you’ve drunk all these years, but now you’re
finished. One more drink, one more cigarette, one more blowing your
stack, one more abuse in your life, you could be gone.” 

	He said, “You mean that, Doc?” 

	He said, “As sure as I sit here, I stand here with you, I’ve seen
hundreds of men like you.” And he said, “You’re gone.” 

	He said, “Do I have a chance?” 

	He said, “You’ve got one chance. No more.” 

	He said, “Not one more drink?” 

	He said, “Not one more drink.” 

	And he said, “But what about when pressure comes?” 

	He said, “You don’t dare lose your temper.” He said, “Break
your blood vessels, you’re gone.” 

	“Well,” he said, “what about a cigar to calm my nerves?”

	He said, “Not a chance—either relax or to help you. And that’s
it.”

	And, you know what? The guy goes home converted. He goes home saved.
He’s born again. From now on he walks that straight and narrow line.
He doesn’t cuss anymore. He doesn’t drink anymore. He doesn’t
flare up anymore. You know why? Because he’s afraid. He’s got a
complete life change. He’s no more born again, bless God, than a sow
turns into a sheep. He never even went to church to get it. 

68.	Do you see where we stand this morning? Where’s your evidence?
See? Where’s your evidence? What he identified with? The Bible lays it
all out here this morning and shows you what it is: the evidence we’re
to look for. The baptism with the Holy Ghost is ‘to be identified with
the Word of the hour’. See? Because He said, “When He is come, he
will take the things of mine and show it unto you.” Then, how in the
world can He be one God, and people say they got the Holy Ghost and
believe in three gods? 

69.	Just the other day, just out in California, I wasn’t arguing with
a friend of mine, but just… They’re trying to show me that people
have had to have the Holy Ghost because certain things were going on. I
said, “Now, hold it right there.” I said, “Look, you understood
the truth of one God for a long time, and you’ve preached it. And
you’ve understood the baptism in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ was
the only right way. You know why. Now,” I said, “if the Holy Ghost
wrote that book, and a man claims to have the Holy Ghost, how can he be
in direct disobedience to the Word of Almighty God and claim the Bible
says contrary to what It says?” And then I said, “Then, don’t tell
me the person has got the Holy Ghost because he couldn’t have the Holy
Ghost.” 

	They said, “What about the years gone by?” 

	I said, “God winked at ignorance. God always has and always will wink
at ignorance because the Bible said, “They without the Gospel are
judged without the Gospel, but he that hath an ear will hear what the
Spirit says.” Now, if you haven’t got the Spirit, and you haven’t
got an ear, you won’t hear what He says. There is an identification
with the Word of the hour. 

70.	Now brother/sister, in what age do we live? We live in the days of
Sodom and Gomorrah. Is that right? Who’s he talking to? The church. I
want to ask you a question. Did Abraham put his divine seal of approval
on homosexuality? Did he? He did not. Did Lot? He did not, but he
tolerated it. You’ve got the same thing right today. You’ve got the
rotten, worldly church that puts a seal upon it, and you’ve got the
rest that tolerate it. Then you’ve got those that will have no truck
and trade with it. They’ll stand away from it.

	You’ve got the same thing going on as in the days of Noah. In the
days of Noah they had a peculiar condition. The same thing exists today;
but in Noah’s day, as it was in Lot’s day, there was a prophet.
Every age has had its messenger. Every age has had the truth. And this
age has the last revelation. 

71.	Now, listen. You believe that Bro. Branham was a prophet; you
believe that he was because he had THUS SAITH THE LORD. Now, listen to
what he said. 

	The Unveiling of the Mighty God: “Nothing outside of the message will
come to life.” 

	Now you can walk out now, or forget you ever heard the truth, or you
can take a stand for It. 

	You say, “Bro. Vayle, my friends...” 

	You don’t like it? Why don’t you pull God down out of heaven and
beat Him with a club? I’m being ridiculous on purpose. I mean to be,
see. People claim to believe God and say they’re one of His, but, when
the truth comes there, then they turn It down; they know more than God. 

72.	I’ve got a very dear friend who believes this message from the
inside out and the outside in, but there was a time when he used to ask
questions. So, I said, “Okay, Bud, where’s your vindication?” I
said, “You know I’ve had a whole lot more than you, and I ain’t
got none.” Yeah, I don’t have any. I said, “Can you produce one
THUS SAITH THE LORD?” 

	He said, “No.”

	And I said, “You better believe the fellow that can.”

	What kind of a God is there who would allow a man to say THUS SAITH THE
LORD and then, that very THUS SAITH THE LORD be brought to pass, and he
not be God’s man? I want to know. I want to know what kind of a God it
is. I couldn’t respect a God who double dealt me. Yet this man said,
“Nothing outside the message will come to life.” You know why?
Corrupt seed.

73.	Spoken Word Is the Original Seed: “You can only serve God as...”
Now, listen; here’s your winning souls, and here’s your fruit
bearing; here’s your ‘loving your fellowman’. “You can only
serve God as you do and believe the servants that God sends. That’s
the Book of Revelation. You can only serve God on earth, see, as God’s
servants are sent on earth by divine inspiration interpret the Word to
you.” 

	Remember the other night, when I talked to you about that altar that
Israel thought the other two tribes were building on the other side of
Jordan, and they said, “That’s an order of God; we’ll kill them.
We’ll blot those… Though they be our brothers, we’ll blot them out
and leave neither hide nor hair. We’ll blot out sin from amongst
us.” [Josh 22:11-12] Why? Because they’re attempting to worship God
outside the framework of the Word. Now, how then are you going to
worship and serve God outside the way God brought it? 

74.	Seven Church Ages:  “Now we’ve been constantly saying that the
true evidence of being baptized with the Holy Spirit is for the believer
to receive the Word for the age in which he lives.” 

	Question and Answers:  “There’s only one evidence of the Holy
Spirit that I know of and that’s a genuine faith in the promised Word
of the hour.” 

	Feast of the Trumpets:  “Jesus, the Son of God revealing Himself by
the Scripture, making the Scripture that’s been predestinated to this
day like it was to that day, and all other days, live, and to believe it
is the evidence of the Holy Spirit.” What else could a prophet of God
say? Isn’t that what Paul said? Well, what else could he say? That’s
your evidence.

	Easter Seal:  “But the real true quickening Spirit that comes to a
believer quickens him to God’s Word, when the quickening,” (That’s
at Pentecost.) “took place, they were not afraid to make a witness of
the message that they believed and knew to be the truth. Otherwise, they
were afraid of It.” How can you be afraid and ashamed of the Word?

	Also, Feast of the Trumpets: I think this is. “That’s the evidence
of the Holy Spirit when God reveals to you and you see it, THUS SAITH
THE LORD, and accept it.”

75.	How many want to walk in THUS SAITH THE LORD? How many have their
own ideas still hanging on? See?

	“Well, I believe it this way.”

	What about when Bro. Branham set the church in order, and they said,
“We want it our way”? See?

	Listen! It’s what God has done for you now that’s the evidence. Is
that right? Check it back to Jesus; He was on earth. He was God. Sure He
was. He told them He was God, and He was God: the Word of the hour; the
Word made flesh.

	Now, how many received Him? He said, “My sheep hear my voice.”
What’s the Voice of God? The revealed Word in every age: a messenger
in every age. And in every generation God has faithful men who take that
message out, until one day the last elected seed is brought
in—identified by that Word. Even history proves it. Study your
histories: messenger bringing the Word and people coming to that Word;
not signs and wonders. They’re fine. We don’t go against signs and
wonders. Everybody that’s healed, God healed them. The devil doesn’t
heal. Certainly, nobody doubts that. Miracles: we’re not against them.
God does them. That’s right. Fruit: how can a person say he’s a
Christian and not do his very best to walk motivated by the very Word of
God? Every Scripture these people have said is right. It deals with the
subject ‘what is the evidence’? To be identified with the Word of
the hour. There’s where we stand.

76.	Now, before I let you go, I want to say something very, very
important, and that’s this: How do I receive the Holy Ghost? Not by
speaking in tongues. Not that if you spoke in tongues… Nobody’s
going to ostracize you. No, no, no; but that’s not the evidence. See?
Can’t be. What about love? You can have that without being born again.
A lot of people have that.

	Then, how do I receive the Holy Ghost? Bro. Branham told you how. You
are baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, step number one,
after you repent of your sins. See? Secondly, you have hands laid upon
you by the elders or those that are ministering or good faithful
brothers. I wouldn’t draw a line on anybody that’s a real, true,
faithful servant of God to lay hands on anybody else, but that’s…
The Bible says to have hands laid on you in the name of the Lord Jesus
Christ, and now, by faith, this being your tie-post, the hour of your
commitment to God is where you go forward never doubting, never turning
back from that moment, but believe that you have received Him because
God can’t lie. See? 

	People always want to look for that great supernatural something. See,
that’s what’s wrong. It’s not physical evidence. It’s not
sensation. That’s absolutely not so. See? Hands laid on you; don’t
you ever turn back. Don’t ever have one doubt. This is it. Just keep
walking right on. God is faithful. “I had hands laid on me; I believe
I have received the Holy Ghost because I’ve obeyed His Word,” and
you walk right up into the fullness of the Spirit. 

77.	That’s why Bro. Branham in one place called it “a growth.” 

	You say, “Well, didn’t Bro. Branham say that a woman couldn’t
know she had a baby, unless she was anesthesitized. And didn’t he
compare that to having the Holy Ghost?” 

	That’s true. But he didn’t say your experience would have
sensation. And, when those who came to him, he often said, “Lord, this
one can’t believe without they feel they got something a little
extra,” and he in mercy prayed. But to the Bride he said, “You
don’t have a sensation. You don’t have an evidence”— meaning
physical. He said, “You have hands laid on you.”

78.	How many are willing to do that? Not too many. Now this morning, you
that don’t know if you have the Holy Spirit or not, or you that want
prayer for your body… Now this may take a while, but we’re here.
There’s no service tonight. That’s fine by me. We’re not here to
play church. I was just talking to Bro. Harold this morning. One of the
things that is, kind of hurt us all is going to Jeffersonville, and with
strangers from out of town, we had to go and eat, and therefore, we had
a lot of fraternizing. We waited for the meeting to get over and went
and ate.

	Today I want you to forget about your food. We’re not worried about
when we eat, if we eat at all. We’re here on purpose. And this message
was given for one reason: for you that don’t know if you got the Holy
Ghost, to have hands laid on you. But don’t you dare, unless you’re
willing to believe that, from this moment, you believe that you have
received and you walk right into an absolute genuine reality. 

	You say, “Bro. Vayle, did Bro. Branham do that?”

	Listen, I’m not going to name names, brother/sister, but if I wanted
to I could. And I can tell you where Bro. Branham laid hands upon a man
that he loved, and he categorically stated that that man had received
the Holy Ghost. That man didn’t even believe he had received the Holy
Ghost. 

79.	Are you looking for sensation? Or are you looking for the Word of
God? I want you very sober and sincere at this moment, brother/sister,
because I wish it had been my lot to stand before the prophet of God
before I ever came up any other way. I wish I could have been one of
those who heard him preach and answered that call and understood this
Word, at least in measure, as I understand it today, and have the
privilege to have him lay hands on me and say, “Receive ye, the Holy
Ghost in the name of Jesus Christ,” and have that man believe because
what else could he do, because that’s what he’s supposed to do, is
believe, or he wouldn’t have done it, and then walk away, that being
my tie-post that because of my faith, believing I would absolutely come
into the fullness. Do you follow me now, what we’re talking about? 

80.	How do I receive the Holy Ghost? Be baptized in the name of the Lord
Jesus Christ. That’s right. Hands are laid on you and at that moment
you believe and without a backward glance, never again doubting, because
you see, you’ve made your start on THUS SAITH THE LORD. That’s the
whole thing. Not what I’ve got to say, but what the prophet said: what
was proved. No backward glance. You’ll come in to the fullness of what
you’re looking for, but you’re not going to come the way the other
ages or somebody else said it—not going to be looking for the great
dynamic. Do you follow me now? Because this is what he taught; this is
what he did.

	He didn’t now say, speak in tongues. He didn’t now say, jump up and
down. He didn’t now say, “If I see a lot of manifestation, I’m
going to believe you got it.” He didn’t say, “I’m looking for
love” or the fruit. He didn’t say, “I’m looking for gifts.” He
stayed with the Word. Is this understood? 

	Now, if you want something else, you’re in the wrong pew, the wrong
church. This is what the prophet did. Do you follow me? Do you believe
me? I know what I’m talking about. I know what I’m talking about.
See? No turning now. Don’t come back next week and say, “I didn’t
get a thing; I’ll try something else.” No.

81.	It’s the same with healing. A lady dying of cancer, when Bro.
Branham preached the Seals, she shouldn’t even be able to see him
because he was going to go early the next morning. Remember; he told us
he would be gone real early in the morning, that Monday morning. He
didn’t go. God wouldn’t let him go. God kept him hanging around the
tabernacle.

	And they said, “Sister Murray, he’s in town, but you won’t get to
see him. We can’t find him.”

	The Lord said, “You go down to that tabernacle and sit in that
car.” She sat outside that tabernacle in that car, and he came over
and talked to her.

	He said, “Sister, you’re dying of cancer. You haven’t got a
chance.” That’s right; she didn’t have a chance. Now he said,
“I’m going to pray for you. And when I do I don’t want you to look
back. I don’t want you to even think of it again. Just put it out of
your mind.” Sister Murray is one hundred percent well.

82.	Are you willing to do that this morning? See, it’s not the prophet
being here that counts; it’s what he said that counts. Will you put it
out of your minds? Are you willing to come? No more doubts and say,
“This is my tie-post”?

	Now, this is a big step, because this is life or death for you who
haven’t the Holy Spirit, but you want to be filled with the Holy
Ghost. This is life and death for you in the realm of the eternal. And
for you who are sick, it means the difference between getting better and
not getting better. But can you walk up today just on that Word? See,
that’s what he taught. That’s what he did, and there’s nothing
else that you and I can do but to believe it.

	Shall we arise at this time?

	Heavenly Father, You know, Lord, I’ve done my best to stick with what
the prophet said, quoted as many quotes as I could of actually what he
said, and knowing how he did it. And Lord, for those who might expect
tremendous emotion and some type of tremendous manifestation, and
indeed, if that had been necessary, then your prophet would not have
been that calm, collected, solid in the faith, little prophet that we
saw in such unagitated control. There he stood when he prayed for the
sick, even commanding devils to go, it wasn’t with much emphasis and
great outpouring of words, but he just did what You told him to do. And,
when he laid hands on those to receive the Holy Ghost, which is a matter
of being in Christ or not in Christ, he simply laid hands on them, and
he believed You. He never looked for one bit of evidence in himself or
in them, but he stood and said, “That person received the Holy
Ghost.”

	Now, Lord, we’ve been a people that You know so well have the
emotional background in the majority of us. We’re a lot like Israel
that enjoyed the signs and had difficulty with the Word. Now, Lord,
today we want to be Calebs and Joshuas who are willing to walk right
into the promises of God by shear unadulterated faith, just as Bro.
Branham said, “Nothing supernatural, just stand up and come to it.” 

	Now, Lord, help those today in whom it’s a matter of life and death,
as we sort of put it the best we can concerning the baptism with the
Holy Ghost, that they’re willing to be a Joshua and a Caleb. They’ve
seen enough signs and wonders. They know enough of what’s happened.
They’ve got the witness by seeing and by hearing. They know.

	And, Lord, they’re willing this morning to come right up to Canaan
land and walk right in where the giants are and just take over.
They’ve got a promise: “Repent and be baptized and you shall receive
the gift of the Holy Ghost.” And the same with those, Lord, that come
for healing, and they need something from You, Lord, to change their
bodies and make them have the health that Your Word says they can have,
because You said, “Who healeth all the diseases, as well as, forgives
all iniquity.” Lord, this morning, they too, can do the same thing,
because I know, Lord, to receive the Holy Ghost is a million more times
important than have a million healings. And therefore, Lord, if those of
us who haven’t received the Holy Ghost can come on that same premise,
that same promise, the Word of God, and those that need healing can do
the same thing. 

	Now, Lord, in this very solemn moment I’m the least one here prepared
to lay hands upon anybody, but we’re not looking at people this
morning; we’re looking to You, Lord. You just said, “Have the hands
laid upon them,” and that goes for those that are ministering and
doing the very best they can.

	Oh Lord, my God, help now I pray in this crucial moment where
people’s faith is raised by the Word of God, You’ve said It. Your
prophet told us. It was proven that he was right. They can come just
like he said, and You’ll back up Your Word. Our heads are bowed; our
eyes are closed.

	I want you to just think a minute before we give the invitation for you
to come away. Maybe a little confusing for awhile, but it’s all right.
We do our best in a jam position. We’re not worried at all about
crowds and how we get around. We’re here for one thing, and that is to
do what we can for you.

	Just examine your heart a minute. Is there something else you’d
sooner rest upon than the revealed Word of the prophet? Is there
something else you’d sooner put your trust in? If you can say, “No,
Bro. Vayle, I’ll be honest with you; that’s what I’m really trying
to do now is to put my trust in what he said,” then this is your
opportunity. If you’ve confessed your sin and been baptized in the
name of the Lord Jesus Christ, we’ll lay hands on you just
what…that’s all. Because that’s all there is to do. You see, if
you’ve done the first two things, (God made perfect in three) He’ll
do the last one, which is fill you with the Holy Ghost. There’s no
other way. All right.

	[Bro. Vayle begins to pray for individuals.]

	Let’s just come as easy as we can. Just remain praying quietly.
Brother Johnson, you come and lead, and just tell me what your heart’s
desire is, what you’re looking for. If you want to leave you can go
out the side door. But I feel the presence of God this morning, and
I’m not worried. But I believe God, not the servant. I’m a servant.
Don’t believe me. Believe Him. Believe the Word.

	Father God, a honest brother come and receive the Holy Ghost, oh God,
not basing any hope now in the experience of man, but the Word of God
vindicated. My brother, in the name of Jesus Christ receive the Holy
Ghost. Lord, I believe too, that you’ll touch our brother and heal him
in the Name of Jesus Christ. 

	Brother, I lay hands upon you, may you as the messenger said that
you’ll receive the Holy Ghost in Jesus’ Name receiving the Holy
Ghost. Brother, I believe it. Bro. Vayle, I’ve been baptized in the
name of the Lord Jesus Christ, lay hands, receive ye the Holy Ghost.
Never look back, my brother; God has answered your prayer. Brother, we
lay hands upon you in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, baptized in His
Name. Brother, receive the Holy Ghost in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.
Brother, I’m telling you God fulfills His Word. Amen. All right.

	I lay hands upon our sister, having been baptized in the name of the
Lord Jesus Christ, receive the Holy Ghost in the name of Jesus Christ,
and receive your healing in Jesus’ Name. Now never look back now.
Brother, lay hands upon in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ you might
receive the Holy Ghost according to the Word of God, receive ye the Holy
Ghost and never look back, in the Holy Ghost Spirit, you shall go. I
believe God is doing this. Don’t go by feelings; go by faith. Amen. 

	Brother/sister now, everyone pray with me, our sister has had a
terrible time with her back. Only a miracle of God would do it. I
believe in a God of miracles. He is here this morning and in Jesus’
mighty Name, where the Spirit of God is we’re…you now in Jesus’
Name, ….be loosed from her. Let the back be healed in the name of
Jesus Christ. Praise God. I believe it, sister.  …can’t tell how it
will be. Amen.

	[Bro. Vayle continues praying for many others.] 

[Closing Comments:] Thank you for your good support in prayer in faith.
Now, remember that this is what the prophet taught. If you and I have
been going contrary to his teaching maybe for as much as a quarter
century… I admit that I had. That’s the way I was taught, but today
we are living in a divine revelation. We’re not living in what we
think is right; we’re living in what we know is right. 

	Now, brother/sister, there’s no place else to go. If this isn’t
it… Remember, if this is not it, you’re finished; you’ve had it
because he said, “This is what you do.” This is what he did. I know
it by experience, as some of you here today also know it by experience,
when he laid hands on you to receive the Holy Ghost, that was it. He
didn’t say now look, maybe, we’re going to do something else. If it
doesn’t work, we’ll try another way. Bro. Branham wasn’t that kind
of a man. Neither can we be.

	Now there’s no other way to go, brother/sister, but up. There’s no
place to go but forward. See? Don’t go by feelings. Don’t go by a
thing. This is your tie-post. This is your committal. No matter what
somebody else teaches then, “Now, look; I had an experience down the
road, and I’d like you to have my experience.” Don’t you pay one
bit of attention. Now, that may sound like I’m trying to put you on
the spot to get you my way. I’m not trying to get you my way. I’m
trying to get you God’s way.

	Remember the type… Remember that Joshua parallels Ephesians. And,
remember; they went into that land by shear faith, and those that
refused to believe the Word of God died. Now, remember; Moses didn’t
say, “Now, Joshua and Caleb, I’m going to give you a secret sword.
And one of you is going to get the atomic bomb, the other is going to
get the hydrogen bomb, and between the two of you you’re going to do
great wonders.” They went in the same way. Twelve went in the same
way. They all twelve went with the Word of God, and ten went back on It.
Do you hear me? That’s right. So, don’t think for one minute that
you got something second rate—that you got something that doesn’t
work. You’ve got the one thing that God and God alone will back up and
nothing else, and that’s His Word. And you’ve obeyed It.

	Now, remember; don’t look anyway but the way He taught, or you will
run afoul. Now, listen; believe me out of my heart I’m telling you the
truth, because I know a great man that came to Bro. Branham. And he
wouldn’t believe; he wasn’t satisfied. I won’t tell you a story,
but where is he today? Not even doing what he used to do, which is
preach a sweet gospel. He got some kind of a harmonious, money gospel
because he got left a big bunch of money. And now he’s trying to bring
people up to Christ by, you know, the rice bowl system. I’m not trying
to hurt anybody’s feelings. See, I’m not trying… Don’t think
I’m running anybody down. I’m not. I’m talking to you, because
you’re my friends. I love you. See? This is where Bro. Branham stood.
Your healing is the same thing.

	Now, folk, we have got to follow in Abraham’s steps. He considered
not his own body now dead, and yet the deadness of Sarah’s womb, but
he staggered not at the promise of God through unbelief, but was strong
in faith giving glory to God. And what happened? He became what God said
he was.

	Now, please understand me. Don’t look back, except as your tie-post.
You say, “That was the day.” It’s two o’clock now. See? Now,
remember; I don’t even know the date. It might be the 25th or the
28th. I don’t even know what the date is. I don’t take care of the
dates. Whatever it is, on this Sunday, I think it’s the last Sunday in
February we’re in now. See? Whatever it is, this is your tie-post.
Now, don’t you look back, except that’s that day. Do you follow me?
Please, I don’t want to keep at it, but I got to plead with you till
you understand, because I’m afraid some might not understand and say,
“Well, Bro. Vayle, I’m going to try something else.” 

	You don’t try things. You believe it, and God will do it. God will do
it. He said, “You come right up into it.” See? We’re marching to
Zion. We’re going on now. See? Believe me!

	Oh, if I could tell you what’s in my heart… How can I tell you what
I know? See, I’m no prophet. But, how do you know certain things? You
just know. And I could stand here and tell you as sure as I stand here,
God being my judge; I wouldn’t lie to you, I know that some of you
people here, I’d like to believe every one, but I would say a
tremendous majority, you’re going to find what I said is the truth.
You’re going to find it’s the truth. I haven’t lied to you. And I
haven’t lied because the prophet didn’t lie. See? I know that you
know.

	So, my, we should just praise God today and thank God, by the obedience
of faith, it’s over. Victory’s won. See? Victory is won. Don’t
look back and say ‘this was this and that was that.’ This is my
moment, the moment of truth, as they call it. Do you believe that with
me? I believe you do. It’s such a wonderful presence of the Lord here.
It is just so good.

	Let’s sing that little chorus, “Tis’ So Sweet to Trust in
Jesus.” Who will start? 

	[Congregation sings.]

	

	Heavenly Father, we have been singing the truth from our hearts, and,
Lord, I must admit, it sure does feel good to trust You and to put our
faith in the simple operations You told us to do, which You never ever
told us to do anything hard. You just said, “Be baptized in the name
of the Lord Jesus Christ. Just repent.” You just said, “Wash feet.
Sit there at the Lord’s Supper.” And now, Lord, at the end time You
told us what to do, and it’s good, Lord, to do what You said. And
it’s wonderful to know we’ve done it. 

	But, Lord, what a great moment of triumph it’s going to be, when
every soul here is suddenly aroused to the fact how great it really was,
that this was it! never asking any big thing, just asking that little
thing. And, Lord, when we saw that great prophet, who could stand up and
act so small, and yet be so big, and then it would always come down to
the little thing. Lord, I just pray that in Your grace this is the hour
in which we learned to be real humble and real small and just obey those
little things and, then, to put all faith in what He said to do. 

	Lord God, don’t let there be a Naman amongst us who is looking for
some big thing. May there be a lot of little Naman’s servants around
the place who say, “My master, if he’d have said some big thing
you’d have been just anxious to show you could do it, because you
think you’re a big man. Now, why don’t you do that little thing?”
Lord, there’d been sisters and brothers going through here, and
they’ve done that little thing, and Lord, I pray that there won’t be
one who overlooks the fact that he’s done exactly the right thing and
that You answer according to Your truth. 

	Lord, bless each one. And as we go, Father, may we go in a spirit of
faith and solemnity coupled with joy, sons and daughters of the King,
because that’s what we are. We ask these mercies in the name of Jesus
Christ. Amen.

	As we go, let’s just walk in that faith of solemnity and joy that we
sing once more, “We’ll Walk in the Light” because that’s what
we’re walking in.