God Answers According to Need

Yalesville Ct

1966

	…And this insight will be helpful to us because it will show us the
actuality of prayer, the reality of it, and particularly it will be a
lesson to us. I think that today many people pray and I know in days
gone by I’ve been guilty of attempting to exercise myself in prayer
and it has not been satisfactory because it has not been really of God.
Now, many people might not understand; they say, “Well, can’t I pray
and always be in the will of God?”

	No sir! I’d say this that… We may discuss it more as time goes on
but one of the easiest places to backslide is in a prayer room. Prayer
itself is not just an answer; it’s believing prayer. And therefore, we
must understand the subject. And so I’m taking several illustrations
from the Old Testament. It’s actually the first five books, and I
don’t believe, too, we’ll cover them all, but we’ll cover a number
and I believe much good will be revealed to us. And before we read them,
let’s pray once more.

	Gracious Father, how we thank You again for the ability to come
together, Lord, to hear this Word, the hearts, O God, that are hungry to
hear It. And not only hungry hearts, Lord, but hands and feet and mind
and body, willing to put into exercise that which we hear.

	Now, Lord, may every mind be open and every heart really opened to be
exercised by the Holy Ghost tonight so that we can get truth and see the
Word of God, indeed, the way it is, especially concerning this subject
of prayer. Now, help us, Lord, as we look to You and believe at this
time, my God, that we have the petition we desire because it is
according to Your will that we ask this. And we thank You for it in
Jesus’ Name. Amen.

1.	Now, the first recorded prayer in the Bible is in Genesis 15. Now, if
there is a recorded prayer, other than just a sentence, I’m not
thoroughly aware of it. I’m not going into the Garden of Eden thought,
but we’re going into what we know to be actual, real prayer, as
people, men and women, prayed to the great, invisible God—not the
unknown god, because God can be known—but the invisible God.

	Now, the first few verses, beginning in Genesis 15:

(1)	After these things the word of the LORD came unto Abram in a vision,
saying, Fear not, Abram: I am thy shield, and thy exceeding great
reward.

(2)	And Abram said, Lord GOD, what wilt thou give me, seeing I go
childless, and the steward of my house is this Eliezer of Damascus?

(3)	And Abram said, Behold, to me thou hast given no seed: and, lo, one
born in my house is mine heir.

(4)	And, behold, the word of the LORD came unto him, saying, This shall
not be thine heir; but he that shall come forth out of thine own bowels
shall be thine heir.

(5)	And he brought him forth abroad, and said, Look now toward heaven,
and tell the stars, if thou be able to number them: and he said unto
him, So shall thy seed be.

(6)	And he believed in the LORD; and he counted it to him for
righteousness.

	Now, to me it is not by happenstance or by accident, that the first
recorded prayer is uttered by Abraham, who is the father of the faithful
and the receiver of the promises, because that is, to me, the way it
should be because we are children of Abraham by faith, and God has given
us exceeding great and precious promises. And it is not by chance either
that this first prayer is like this: “Lord, what will You give me?”

2.	Now, here is a great truth: God has revealed Himself to Abram in this
revelation of the first verse that He was his personal protector and
provider. He said, “I am your shield and your exceeding great
reward.”

	Now, of course, the word ‘shield’ is an instrument of protection,
so what God is saying… Now, you know the Psalm, “The Lord is the
tower and the righteous run into it,”  “the Lord is a rock in a
weary land,” and “the Lord is a cover,” and so on. The thought of
complete protection lies in the shield.

	Now, the next thought is ‘reward’. Now, you know the Book of
Hebrews tells us that “He that cometh to God must believe that God is,
and that He is a rewarder.” It is not sufficient to know that God
‘is’, but it’s sufficient only to know that God is ‘your’
rewarder. Now, ‘to reward’ is ‘to supply’. So God says to
Abraham, “I am your protector, and I am your provider. I am your
protector, and I am your exceeding great provider.”

3.	Now, if God is our protection, what more do we need? The answer is
“nothing,” for the Scripture says, “If God be for us, who can be
against us?” See? That is correct. It doesn’t matter what is against
us as long as God is for us because God is my protector. See? He says in
His great promises: “When thou passes through the waters, I will be
with you, and they shall not overflow you.” And It says that “What
shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall height nor depth, shall
nakedness, peril or sword, of things present or things to come? In all
these things we’re more than conquerors through Him.” And where is
He? He’s inside because we have this abundant strength through Our
Lord Jesus Christ. 

	Now, God is a protector of His people, and I said during the
“Faith” series, here’s where we all have our most terrible time.
We don’t want God to protect us. See? We like to fight our own
battles--the  American tradition is the Horatio Alger, entirely
unscriptural premise of the little boy making good against all odds by
himself.

	Now, you can be an idealist, and that’s a good thing, but idealism
has no place in God because idealism strives at, but does not
necessarily attain to, but in God you are working in the realm of the
infallible because “I am the Lord, I change not.” “Is there
anything too hard for the Lord?”

4.	See, we must see that God wants to protect us, and that’s what we
all have this problem with right now in the last days since the
prophet’s gone. The one thing he warned us about was to hold steady
and don’t fuss.

	Well, somebody takes a crack at me, my natural propensity is to take a
crack back. That’s not letting God protect me. That’s me protecting
myself. Well, if I protect myself, then God can’t protect me, because
this is not a partnership. God never said, “Abraham, I’m going to
teach you a few tricks how to take care of yourself.”

	See? Now, that’s what we want. We want a few tricks out of the bag
and then say, “Now, Lord, I’ve learned my tricks. You stand back,
and I’ll go do it, and I’ll see if I’ve learned these laws.”

	That’s not it at all. See? The Lord is our shield, and He is our
provider. See, He wants to be.

5.	Now, this is a tremendous revelation, see, because what else do you
want more than protection and provision? Protection and provision sum up
the whole way of life, because if you know they are taken care of from
physical harm, and you’re provided for in your sustenance and your
clothing, what more do you want? See? Now, you notice that Jesus brought
out in the Sermon on the Mount, he said, “Why do you take thought for
tomorrow? What are you all fussed up about? He said, “Look at the lily
of the field. It doesn’t toil nor spin, but Solomon in all his glory
was not arrayed like one of these.” He said, “Behold now the
sparrows, [] “they don’t sow and plant and sow and reap, and put up
in barns, but your Father knows what they have need of, supplying it,
and He knows what you have need of. How much more,” he said, “shall
he clothe you, oh you, of little faith…and you can do that for
yourself.”

	But He doesn’t say that. See? He said to put your trust in the living
God because “cursed is man who puts his trust in man and maketh flesh
his arms.” See? And so this is a tremendous revelation that God wants
to be the actual Source of all supply for physical protection and
positive goods that we need in our lives. And God wants to do it.

6.	Now, I say, what more could anybody want? See, nobody could want more
than that. Nobody. That’s a husband relationship to a wife. It’s a
father relationship to the children: the protector and the provider. And
remember; protection comes before provision because it sure wouldn’t
be any good if God said, “Well, I’ll tell you what I’ll do: I’m
really going to provide for you, but I can’t guarantee I’ll help you
keep it.”

	[You] say, “Well, now that wouldn’t be any good at all because
somebody could come along and take it away from you.”

	The fact of the matter is you could have everything all lined up in a
great big abundance and you can still starve because somebody come and
took it away from you. You see, you look at the animals, powerful,
strong animal. They’ll be maybe rending a carcass or something. But
you get another animal come by, he’ll run because he’s scared.
It’s the instinctive desire of man to preserve himself, or the element
of fear, self-protection we call it, is the strongest instinct in a
person’s life. Forget yourself. See?

	And if that’s the strongest instinct, then we are, maybe, in trouble
on this point: we have to learn to let God protect us. 

7.	Now, God said to Abraham, “I am your protector and your
provider.” Now, that’s exactly what He says to us today, that He is
our protector and provider. [] And notice, this is where Abraham started
in his basic revelation of God. Now, the other revelation he had
wasn’t good enough. It was a revelation but all it was: God, thou art
owner and possessor of heaven and earth by reason of creation.

	Well, God’s got all of His creation. What’s He going to do with it?
Give it to us. See, we don’t know that, and that’s what Abraham
didn’t know. He knew that God was creator, but the creator revelation
is not enough. The basic revelation to every Christian, and God will
hold you to this if He kills you in doing it, that He is both protector
and provider. And so He starts back here with Abraham, the father of the
faithful, and the first thing Abraham learned, see, really, as Abram he
learned it in order to become Abraham, see, to go, as it were, from a
child to this dynamic Father, the ultimate, the highest, the progenitor
of nations. See? In thee shall nations be blessed.

	Why, we do good if we get one of our [] whole family blessed. See? But
this man had the outreach of the world in his grasp, and the revelation
was: “Abram, I am your protector and your provider.”

8.	Now, this dynamic revelation came to him as it comes to us, the great
basic one: what God wants to be to His people. And he said, “All
right, if that’s the case, that You are my protector and my provider,
I have a problem, and I wonder how You’re going to handle it for
me.”

	Now, I know that that may sound like I’ve changed something that’s
not in the Book, but I’m not. You see, I’m saying exactly what’s
in the Book because over here in this second verse here, he said,
“What wilt thou give me?”

	God said, “I am your protector and provider.” 

	…if He is protecting him, see. All right.

	“If You are protecting me, then Your protection has got to go to the
place where I’m going to have a son. If You’re providing for me,
then Your provision must go to the place I have a son because, if You
don’t protect and provide for me, then Eliezer gets everything I’ve
got.” 

	See, where is protection in that? You have a lot that somebody can just
cart away on you.

9.	Now, he wants to have a son. So, Abraham comes to God with this need:
“I have a need of a son,” see. “Now, Lord God, what will you give
me? What will you give me, seeing I need a son? What are You going to do
about my need?” See?

	“What is your need?”

	“My need is a son.”

	“Well, good! I’ll give you a horse and buggy.”

	Aha. Isn’t that what you would think so? See?

	God said, “You need a son. All right. That’s your problem; that’s
your need. I am going to give you a son. See? If the son is a need,
therefore you shall have the son.”

	Now, right here I want you to notice that God established Himself as
the provider of every single promise, and He is faithful to us, and He
is not the ‘Great I was,’ but He is the ‘Great I am’, and He
never changes, and He still wants to provide us with every single need,
no matter what it is, no matter how farfetched, even as it was for the
time of Abraham. Now, we must learn this and never forget it, that
according to the first, actual prayer ever uttered, this law is
established: that God answers according to need. Now, that may sound
strange to you, but that’s right.

10.	Now, here’s where we’re going to learn a tremendous
truth—simple as A-B-C, but absolutely as deep as the whole gamut of
every answered prayer in this world because God said, “Abraham, what
do you need?”

	And Abraham said, “I need a son.”

	And God said, “A son you shall have, because that is your need.”

	Now, the Bible says, “My God shall supply all of your need by His
riches in glory in Christ Jesus.” This is where the verse of Paul has
its foundation. See? “I am your protector and your provider.” And
that sums up, as I said, the whole of life. There isn’t one single,
solitary thing in life you can find outside of those two things:
protection and provision. And those are the two needs of life that sums
up everything in life that has a need. Everything comes from it:
protection and provision—nothing else outside those two. If you can
find it, well, you’re a great scholar. You’re bigger than God
because that’s all God revealed Himself to man for, and if God is
sufficient for man, then this is it. Nothing can be found outside that
constitutes a problem. I say nothing can be found outside these two
sources: protection, provision.  

	Now He said, “What is there within that realm that constitutes a
problem?”

	And he said, “A son.”

	And God said, “That’s your need? All right. I’ll meet it. You can
have a son.”

	See? My God shall supply your need, see, by His riches in glory. You
have the foundation. 

11.	So, the needy believer cries out tonight, like you and me, “What
can I expect from God? How will God deal with me?”

	And the answer comes back: “What is your need? What do you have need
of?” 

	And we name them.

	And God says, “I am going to supply that need.”

	Now, listen: this is the basis of your faith. That’s right, because,
if God does not supply according to our need, see… In other words, if
we can’t get our needs met, see (I can have my need met.) [] why would
you bother asking God for anything? No point in going to God; meet your
own needs. See?  But you get it now. The fact that we can have it is the
basis of our faith. In other words, I have a need. That means I can have
something in the place of that need, which is that answer.

12.	Now I don’t know what our problems are because I don’t need to
know, but the fact of the matter is: Jesus has the answer, see. In the
Garden of Eden when Adam had sinned, God had the answer. The answer was
the bleeding Lamb. And God covered Adam with those skins. 

	When the Israelites were groaning in Egypt in the heat of their day of
oppression, God met every one of their needs. When Samaria was besieged
by the Assyrians and they were literally turning into cannibals, God met
their need. When Hezekiah cried to God when he was sick, God met him.
When Israel had no food, He fed them manna. When they had no law to live
by, He gave them law. When their children and cattle thirsted, He gave
them water. When Peter was in prison, He sent an angel. When Paul and
Silas were doomed to death, an earth quake set them free. When they
didn’t even have wine at Cana, God gave them wine. When Peter got into
difficulty over taxes, having spoken out of turn, God gave him money.
When Bartimaeus needed healing, God gave him his sight. The
Syrophenician woman got her request. The daughter of Jairus was brought
back to life.

	And you can go through Scripture, hundreds upon hundreds, and the
literal history of the Bible is based upon God fulfilling His promises,
whichever promise He had given to them.

	So there is absolutely nothing in the realm of whatever our need is,
springing from protection and provision but what God has that answer for
us. In other words, the answer to every prayer is []based upon a need.
Otherwise, men would not pray.

13.	Now, I know what we’re thinking tonight. We’re thinking, “Yes,
but there are conditions that go along with this, are there not?”

	Yes, that’s true, many times there are conditions. I’m not saying
there are not, but what we’re dealing with tonight is this: that God
can give me the answer. In other words, I can get my need met because
God answers prayer according to the need, and the need is what brings
forth the prayer. See? I can have my need met.

14.	Now, notice again: Abraham, when he heard the revelation, God said,
“I’m protector and provider.”

	He said, “All right. What’s it going to do for me?” Let’s test
it: “I’ve got a need.” 

	“Now, what are you going to do about the fact that I don’t have a
son, and I need a son?”

	God said, “All right, you’ll get your son.”

	You see? So that the prayer, based upon the need, the need assures you
that you’ll get the answer. Now, you see, that’s exactly what
we’re not taught. We’re taught that the need doesn’t assure you
you’ll get the answer, or let me put it this way: can have the answer.

	You say, “Well, maybe we think of conditions, we think of this, and
we wonder, “Can I really get my need met?”

	Until a person knows that he can get his need met, you can never
exercise faith. I don’t care if it’s your faith, the faith of God,
or both of them put together, see, because it just won’t work. God
answers according to need. There’s a need and God is going to do
something about it. See, once you get that in your mind fixed, “I can
have my problem met.” Most of us look around, say, “Oh, my, I’ll
never get this problem met,” but you can get it met.

15.	Now, I can have my need met. That’s the thing that you’ve got to
get ingrained in you. And it is based upon the Word of God; so
therefore, we can have it done. Just like Peter said…they said,
“Lord, can you heal this boy?”

	He said, “If thou canst believe.”

	In other words, you’ve got a need here, see. Do you realize the need
can be met? God will do it for you, see. I can have my need met. See,
that’s the whole thing: I can have it. I don’t care what the need
is, we’re not even talking about that, because we mentioned the need:
the Syrophoenician woman had a daughter. The daughter wasn’t entitled
to healing even. A poor woman had given all her money away to stop her
issue of blood; blind Bartimaeus, crying out; the man born blind; the
man at the pool forty years; the man at the Gate Beautiful. Every single
place you’ll see that somebody had a need, and God met that need. See?

	Now, there isn’t one thing in the Word that’s not covered by a
promise. There isn’t one thing in all our lives that’s not covered
by God’s provision and protection, and so therefore, we can have our
needs met.

16.	Now, let me show you something here. I think I‘ve said this
before, that someone advertised in the paper and said, “Well, we can
make you an artist.”

	Well, I’d say the guy is a liar. You can’t make me an artist. I
don’t have it in me, see. Now, I could practice and practice and
practice…no good. I can’t be an artist. 

	Driving through the mountains that I particularly wanted to see the
mountains this time of year, and the Lord was good enough to let me
have… Well, I’d planned fall meetings for Lebanon, and I got a
little work around the house to do, and it worked out just right…maybe
through my conniving or God’s goodness… Maybe, I hope, it’s more
His goodness than my conniving, to make it at just exactly right when
the trees are right.

	Well, I didn’t know if they’d come early or late, but the Lord is
good, so I came exactly right because I see they’re fading in some
spots now. My, what beautiful trees! And it’s so beautiful I thought I
was going to go down the road, I’m going to deliberately try to keep
them in my mind. I looked at a tree and I’d look as hard as I could
and say, “Now, I’m going to recall that to my mind so I can see that
beautiful tree just…” Oh, they’re fantastic. Of course, the fall
is my time of year, and it’s just fantastic. And you know, boom. Gone!
I don’t know what those trees look like. I’d go riding for miles
more, and I’d see them, and I’d love them, and I’d say, “I’ll
remember what that tree looks like.”

	So, one we saw, coming up on the Parkway, I can remember a little bit,
because I kind of remember some had a little green and a little red, and
I’ll forget that by tomorrow. 

	But you see, the thing is: I don’t have what an artist has got to
have, see, because an artist puts on paper what’s in his mind, see. It
comes out what is in here, see. I can’t be an artist; I haven’t had
that. I couldn’t even be a mechanic. If I took a clock apart, I’[d
have] enough parts over for two more clocks. It just doesn’t work,
see.

	See, I’m showing you there are some things you can’t have. Don’t
kid yourself, see. For when it comes to your needs—they can be met.
Now, there’s the thing wherein we fail, see, because this is the first
prayer, and it is basic to all faith: I can have this need met, see.

17.	Now, let’s take an example of what I’m driving at. A really good
example is the truth of Miriam. Now, here was a woman who was a sort of
a prophetess. Now, I don’t know what kind of a prophetess she was
because she actually didn’t do too much prophesying. She sort of got
all inspired and sang a little bit and danced a little bit, and that’s
all right. 

	Now, she spoke against Moses, and when she spoke evil against the
Lord’s anointed, she was smitten with leprosy. God struck her. Now,
the devil didn’t strike her—God struck her because God deals with
His Own people, not the devil. So, she was smitten with leprosy.

	Now, here is Miriam, as white as snow, ready to rot away in death. So,
what happens? Moses cries to God. He loves his sister. He forgives her
of sin, and he falls on his face before God, and what happens? God
healed her. Now, notice: Miriam brought on this condition herself, see,
which is true. Nobody else did it. She asked for it, plain as
English--we use that expression. But with her need, God still healed
her, you see.

18.	Now, we’re like Miriam: over ninety percent of all of our problems
we bring on ourselves, see. And because we bring them on ourselves, we
get a complex, and then we say, “Well, I just don’t think God will
do anything about this because I brought it on myself. But that’s not
so: Miriam brought on her own trouble, see, just like… 

	We’re just like her. We’re our own worst enemy. We bring on our
problems. But is there a solution? And the answer is, “Absolutely,
yes.” Adam brought on his own problem; Eve brought on her own problem.
There are very few problems we don’t bring on ourselves, see, in this
old world. We’re just like the Scripture says: “Man that is born of
woman is born unto trouble, as sparks fly upward. And that’s true, and
he’s born like a creature that does a lot of bad things, too. Even the
very best have a tremendous time of walking rigidly under these forces
of discipline that keeps their bodies under and, then, live exactly
right.

19.	But you’ll notice here that Moses had compassion for his sister.
And though she was wrong, she still had a need, and because she had a
need, that answer from God came. Now, in Mt 14:14 you’ll find this is
true because It says, “Jesus went forth and saw a great multitude and
was moved with compassion toward them, and he healed them.” 

	You will notice that the need of the people is what moved Jesus to
compassion. How did they get sick? I don’t know. Some of them might
have been a bunch of drunkards. Some of them might have been out there
messing around, doing wrong things. Some of them might have got hurt in
an accident by which was robbing somebody else, maybe, you know. There
are a hundred and one things that could happen to a man, and maybe
people just live intemperately, see, and they don’t live according to
the way they should live. But It says that Jesus saw them, and he saw
them with a need, and the need moved him to compassion. Notice, it was
the need that inspired the compassion, see. Like the Bible says,
you’ve got a brother come to you, and he’s not too well-dressed,
he’s lacking in clothing and food, and you’ve got the ability to
help that person, and yet you shut up your bowels of compassion, and you
say, “I’m not going to help him.”

	“Here, son, God bless you, I’ll pray for you. Maybe somebody down
the road can give you dinner.”

	Why, he says, “How say the love of God is in the person who shuts up
his bowels of compassion?”

	Then if we are to see a need and be moved by compassion, then the need
brings on the compassion, and the answer comes on because the man’s
got a need. See? You give because he’s got a need. It doesn’t say
you give because he’s got a pretty brown eye and a nice smile and a
dimple in his chin, or someplace else.” It doesn’t say, “I’m
going to cut wood for a week and draw your water and make bricks, and a
few other things.” Or maybe he’s a friend of your cousin, Joe, or
something like that. That has nothing to do with it. The point is: the
fellow’s got a need, see, and because he’s got a need, there’s got
to be an answer. Now, that’s what God said, “I’m your provider,”
see, and He had compassion because of their needs. 

20.	Now, the same thing applies in Heb 4:15: “He is touched with the
feelings of our infirmities.” See? Now, if he is touched with the
feeling of our infirmities, what is he going to do about it? Well,
he’s going to say, “Well, I feel for you, but I can’t reach
you.” That’s a human expression, meaning: “Well, I’d like to
help you, but you’re not going to get this chicken doing it.” See?
That’s human.  That’s not it. That’s not Christ. See? 

21.	Now, we’re prone to judge Christ because he warned them, he said,
“You thought I was a man altogether such like you were,” see. But
God is not a man, but He’s going to repent, see, can’t change His
mind. Now He works on the grounds of the need. It’s the need that
gives the compassion. Now, we studied in faith; we understand that God,
being a Savior, He had to have a sinner. God, being a Provider, He had
to create a person who needs provision. That’s one of His compound
titles, the 'Provider’, see,  the “Lord is my Shepherd’, and all.
Now therefore, it’s the need of men that God responds to. Do you
follow me? All right.

22.	“Ninety and nine sheep lay in the fold,” the songwriter said,
based on the parable. Of course, the song writer, not being in the Holy
Ghost, a little more sentimental than having  the power of God, got all
fouled up. The ninety and nine needed to repent, but they were a bunch
of self-righteous critters. There was one out there who was lost, and he
knew that he was lost, and God went and got him. And the moral of the
parable was: the Lord rejoices over one sinner that repents because he
needs repentance, than ninety-nine just that don’t need it. 

	Now, if God had ninety-nine healthy people, He could only be glorified
in one unhealthy person. If God had ninety-nine righteous people, who
hadn’t even looked out of the corner of their eye or screamed in holy
terror when they saw something evil and ran away, that wouldn’t do one
thing for God. The only thing it would do, if anything, for God is a
sinner that knows he’s a sinner. In other words, there’s got to be a
need. Now, the answer is according to need. See? You don’t see anybody
with two thumbs. He’s a monstrosity. If you needed one thumb, God gave
you one thumb on one hand, see. Need a thumb on the other hand? God gave
you a thumb on the other hand. If he needs four fingers, God gave you
four fingers. 

23.	Now, you know, the Bible speaks out against these ten, these eleven
tall giants and stuff like that. That’s ridiculous…great, big
monstrosities. God’s not in that. See? God hears what we need, and the
thing is: I can have my need met; I can have it, see. This is something
I can have. It’s a need.

	[You] say, “Well, God answers legitimate need.” 

	There isn’t any need that is legitimate. It’s all illegitimate. On
the other hand, it’s all legitimate because God saw they got here. So,
legitimate or illegitimate, it doesn’t make any difference. A need’s
a need, see, and God answers according to need. 

	I want to get you to see the point. If we can ever get here, (God will
help us to get here.) we’ve got this thing sown up in a little ten
cent bag. You don’t need a dollar size bag, because I can have my need
met. I can have it met. And if you can have it met, the next thing, you
are going to have it met. See, that’s actually what we’re talking
about.

24.	In Psalm 103, which we see here, verses 1-13:

(1)	Bless the LORD, O my soul: and all that is within me, bless his holy
      name.

(2)	Bless the LORD, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits: (Now,
notice:)

(3)	Who forgiveth all thine iniquities;  (all that you calculated to do,
all you were trapped into doing) who healeth all your diseases.

	Now, if this were the way some people were, there’d be some diseases
that couldn’t be healed. See? But It says, “All my diseases.”

	“But, Bro. Vayle, I want you to know the reason my heart and my
stomach’s bad is because I’ve been an alcoholic.”

	Well, so what? I can find people with just as bad a stomach and just as
bad a heart who haven’t had a nickel’s [worth of] alcohol. They
didn’t even indulge a little smell of catnip to get them sort of up
high. That doesn’t mean a thing.

	[You] say, “I know that man. He’s going to have what’s coming to
him.”

	What’s coming to him? See? If you’ve got a God Who healeth all your
diseases, then He’s heals all the diseases, see. I don’t care what
it is: cancer, you name it. It doesn’t matter what it is. See, He
forgives all iniquities.

	“Yeah, but I don’t know if He’ll do anything about this, you see,
because…”

	There’s nothing; there’s no ‘because’ about it. You think for
one minute that David’s sin wasn’t premeditated? Certainly, it was
premeditated. 

25.	It says:

(4)	Who crownest thee with (What?) loving kindness and tender mercies;

(5)	And who satisfies thee with good things so that thy youth is renewed
like the eagle’s.

(6)	The Lord executeth righteous and judgment to all that are oppressed.

(7)	He made known his ways unto Moses, his acts unto the children of
Israel.

(8)	The LORD is merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and plenteous in
mercy.

	Now, when does a man need mercy? When he’s done something wrong. See?
So, whether you bring it on yourself or not, that’s not the question,
see. And conditions right now aren’t the question. The condition is,
“Can I get this need met, or is there a possibility that God does not
meet certain needs? Now, if He doesn’t meet certain needs, you’d
better find out what they are.

26.	I’ve got a blanket right here because He said He’d heal all our
diseases, see, forgive all our iniquities, and He satisfies our mouths,
see. That takes care of the stomach. And, furthermore, He doesn’t get
mad. And if He had a chance to get mad, which He would have except by
the propitiation of Christ now, because they’re at peace with God, and
He can’t get mad. And He can chasten you, but in doing it, He never
gets mad doing it.  See, if God got mad and whupped you, see… God
wasn’t mad at all. He can’t get mad. If He got mad, His judgment
would be distorted because in anger your judgment gets distorted. God
couldn’t get mad if He tried—not with His Own. No, sir. Wrath is
passed on Christ.

27.	Now he says:

(9)	He will not always chide: neither will he keep his anger  (The word
‘anger’, of course is not in the original.) neither will He keep
(Himself from doing something about conditions. That’s true! But
notice what it says. That’s to the sinner):

(10)	He hath not dealt with us  (See?) after our sins; nor rewarded us
according to our iniquities.

	[You] say, “Well, I brought this on myself. I shouldn’t have done
it.” See? “So, there’s got to be a special price.” 

	Missing the boat again. See? 

	“I don’t think God will do it.”

	No, you see, you missed the boat. “He hath not dealt with us
according to our sins.” If He dealt with us according to our sins,
then we’d have to pay the uttermost farthing. You don’t find God
talking about anybody paying the uttermost farthing for his sins,
because they’re blotted out in Christ. The only time that you pay a
farthing for disobeying God is on the grounds of grace because He said,
“Agree with thine adversary when he pops you in the nose.”

 	“I’m sorry. I guess that something happened that shouldn’t have
happened, or somewhere you saw something that you didn’t like, and
I’m just sorry I made you angry so you might have popped me in the
nose.”

	[Not] availing yourself of God’s grace is what God frowns on. Right?
Right here in the Bible. I can back up every statement I make.

28.	See, not your needs… I don’t care how your needs came; I don’t
care how mine came. God dealt with me when I wouldn’t listen to God. I
wouldn’t avail myself of His grace. I refused the grace of God, quit
preaching for about nine years. And I was ready for the nuthouse and the
doctors…take on the psychiatrists… I had only gone twice, and he was
trying to help me. He liked me real well because he could see that I had
an understanding of certain things, but I was being beat to death in my
condition. I’d gone to the doctors, to the clinics, I had TB of the
pituitary gland. They might as well have said, “You’ve got fungus on
your feet.” I was just so far gone, (It didn’t much matter.)
wondering how to commit suicide, wondering everything, and then suddenly
God [delivered]!   Man! Bang! It’s all over. And there is no
condemnation, no sickness. 

	My own sisters stood back, and they couldn’t believe it. They said,
“That dirty skunk; I can’t believe it. How in the world did God
bless that guy, put him back in the ministry, give him a better ministry
than ever and set him free? Now, he should have gotten his head bounced
around somewhere.”

	Human reasoning! He does not reward us according to our sins, see,
because God has turned away wrath in Christ Jesus. But He does frown
when we don’t avail ourselves of His grace and let Him protect us and
provide us. Do you follow me? Now we’re getting somewhere. See?	

29.	(11)	For as the heaven is high above the earth, so great is his
mercy toward them that fear him.

(12)	And as far as the east is from the west, so far hath he removed our
transgressions from us.

(13)	Like as a father pitieth his children…

	Why? Because they don’t know any better. Now, I think you get old as
me and you raise kids… Oh, I guess Knute knows a little thing about
it. The rest of you folks are just kind of growing up, you know.
You’re not nearly as happy like us. Brother Shaw there, of course, he
might qualify, too. I guess he does because his kids are grown. We’re
the ones who know that our kids don’t know that we love them and pity
them because they don’t know we’re trying to help in what we do.
Sure, that’s the whole thing, see. He pities them like a father. What
in the world is the matter with those kids? They think they’re getting
picked on.

	No, they’re being deprived. What it is, they don’t understand. And
then, of course, they get in trouble, and then, we do our best, but
somehow it doesn’t reap. And that’s how it is with God.

30.	(14)	For he knoweth our frame; he remembers that we are dust. 

	Now, you know what dust is? It’s pretty unstable. The only time that
dust is stable is when there’s water in it. And that’s the Holy
Ghost, of course. Water-Word. Unstable, see? 

	Now, He knows it. He knows our frame is dust, but He’s touched with
the feeling of our infirmities, see, and He wants to help us[]. But
we’ve got to get it through these skulls that He wants to help us and
we can get help. See, I don’t care what the need is. The need is
actually the open door to God. See? Because if there weren’t any
needs, then God wouldn’t be worth anything to us. And so being God,
He’s smart enough to give us lot of needs out there.

31.	Now, the thing is, then, I can have my need met. It does not matter
what it is, from the cradle to the grave, from the drying our eyes to
the raising of the dead, from moving a toothpick to moving a mountain. 
See, now I said, “Never mind about conditions because we’ll get to
them after a while. The important thing is: I have something to receive
from God. I have something that God said I can have, and I can have it.
And I don’t care if it takes something on my part to get it. The thing
is: I can still have it. See? 

32.	Now, here is the thing: we’ve all read the Scripture… We’ll
read It again. Turn to James 5. Now, I’m just expressing from my heart
what I believe is in your heart in order to help us all tonight to get
up and get our troubles cleared up. Now, It says here in Jas 5:13:

(13)	Is any among you afflicted? let him pray. Is any merry? let him
sing psalms. 

(14)	Is any sick among you? let him call for the elders of the church;
and let them pray over him,  

(15)	And the prayer of faith shall save the sick, and the Lord shall
raise him up; and if he have committed sins, they shall be forgiven him.


(16)	Confess your faults one to another, and pray one for another, that
ye may be healed. The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man
availeth much.

	Now, when James wrote verse 15, he actually had to put in verse 16 to
make sure they got how it should be done. And it’s “confess your
faults, have prayer by the elder, and it’ll be done.”

	But, listen, how many believe that? 

	No, we don’t believe that. Why? On what grounds? Because we figure,
“Well, if I do confess my faults, will I really get healed?” See?
So, I’m showing you: all this talk about meeting conditions is not
where your faith lies. See? You can be a million conditions and still
not believe God. 

	“Well, I did it, will it happen?” 

	“I did it, well, it’ll happen.”

	No! See? I’ve got a need, I can have my need met. It says the
condition is “confess my faults.”  

	“Oh, bless God, then I’ll confess them all! Hallelujah!” Dance
away. 

	But we read it, and we don’t say, “Well, I can have it met.” We
say, “Well, when I do confess, do you think it will really happen?”

33.	Now, come on. Be honest with me, because if anybody here was dying
of cancer tonight or had some incurable disease. Now, remember; your
confessing of your faults is to the person—not to the world. You
don’t drag it out in public and involve people. You go to the person
involved. 

	Now, you tell me tonight… Now, I’m wearing glasses. I haven’t had
to wear them to this time until about a year ago. It started with a bit
of reading, and the eyesight doesn’t improve any—it gets worse. All
right. What lies in it? Does it lie in the fact that I need to confess,
and that’ll do it? Could be, but the point is: do I believe if I do
confess, it will happen? See? In other words, we’re still up that old
creek, where just saying, “Well, I could do…but I just wonder if it
will matter.” See?  

	Surely it’ll happen. Now that I’ve done it, that’s it, see. But
we’re not convinced that God does meet those needs because we don’t
believe the Bible like we ought to. We look at conditions around about
us, and we see everything happening, and we say, “Well, He didn’t
meet this one over here; He didn’t meet that one over there.”    

	Oh, yes, God will meet it. God will, and there isn’t anybody under
the sun, especially a born-again believer but that every single promise
in the Book is his. He can have every single promise, not one missing,
not one Word. See? The thing is: I can have it! Not the neighbor, see;
not ‘maybe so’. Because that’s why I bypassed these conditions.
See? I wanted to keep them out of your hair. I wanted you to see it
because the major thing is: I can have it because, if there are
conditions, that’s nothing but tiddly-wink. Once you’re convinced,
you can have it.

34.	You say, “Look at the man here. He’s convinced that there’s
gold out there in the hills.”

	He’ll suffer any kind of deprivation to go and get that gold. A
person’s convinced there’s diamonds, he’ll take the blistering hot
sun and almost die to get those diamonds. If you really knew tonight
that you could go down this road here, like some people hope they can,
like the Hindus do, and measure your body, take off most your clothes,
you’ll have your body lacerated with the rocks and all, and measure
yourself again, put your body down in…if you knew, like people hope to
get something done for themselves, if you knew that you could 
positively have your diseases healed, there wouldn’t be one of us
wouldn’t strip down and do it. See? 

	We’re always: “Can I get my need met?” “Will I really get this
need met?” See? “Can I get my need…?” 

	And if you ever get sold that you can get that need met, I tell you:
the meaning of the conditions is next to nothing. See, it’s next to
nothing because what won’t a person do, if it’s in the realm of
possibility, if he knows he’ll get what he’s after?

	God knew that. Why, He said, “I’m going to watch these people here
because from now on there’s nothing that they can’t receive but what
they won’t do.” See? 

35.	But the Christian is saddled by the devil. It all comes on, and we
say, “Well, now, look; you deserve it. You did ‘so and so’, now
you can’t have that need met”…fifty thousand things, when all God
started with Abraham [was], “Abraham, you got a need?”

	“Lord, I’ve sure got a big need.

	“You need a son?” “Well,” He said, “a son you’re going to
have.” See?  

	Believe tonight. Now, you’ll notice something else here, the way God
answers Abraham’s prayer: He took him out and showed him the stars,
and He said, “You only asked for one son. That’s all right,” but
He said, “Look, I’m going to make your descendants like the stars
and the multitudes and like the sands of the seashore for number.” 
And He was saying, “Look, you are dealing with me, the great I Am. If
the heavens cannot contain me, then you are selling me short because
you’re not asking large enough.” 

	The Bible says, “You ask largely that your joys might be filled.”
In other words, God is a provider, but He is big provider; He is a
lavish provider; He is liberal. See? Not just, “Can I have my need
met?” but “Can I abundantly have my need met?” My God is not able
to supply my needs by His riches in glory, but it’s the exceeding
abundance that God deals in. See? And Abraham is selling Him short.

36.	Now, God has always hungered to be ‘God to His people’. It’s
like the case of Adam; when He created the heavens and the earth, He put
Adam over the whole earth. He didn’t give Adam just one little thing
and say, “Well, now, Adam, you can have this one corner here; just be
sure you don’t move out of it.” 

	He told Adam, “Look; [] you’ve got dominion over the whole earth.
It’s up to you to replenish that earth and to propagate.” See? It
was up to Eve, but they were to do it together.  Eve stepped out of
line, of course, and became the fertile ground for the serpent’s seed.

	Now, Adam owned it all, see, because God is a big God. Now, Adam
didn’t need it all, [] but he owned it all. But God knew there’d be
a day coming when Adam’s seed, and whatever else came in, would need
it all. And if we don’t stop propagating, we’re going to be standing
on each other’s shoulders. See? Christians have never learned that God
is a God of oversupply.  

37.	Take the example of Israel leaving Egypt. God said didn’t just
say, “Moses, go on down there, and we’re going to let them come on
out. God made it so abundantly evident that He’d bring them out, or
He’d force it on them. See? God’s a big God.

	Look at Lazarus: God didn’t say, “Well, Lazarus died last night.
We’ll go down this morning, (That means he’s been dead four hours.)
and we’ll take care of him.”

	God let him be there four days until the body was turning into liquid.
God didn’t just say, “Now, go lay down, and lay hands upon the
sick,” He said, “Peter, we’ll do something else: wherever you
walk, that shadow will fall. They’ll be healed by the multitudes.”

36.	In other words, God saves uttermost to the uttermost. And we say,
“How big is God?” See?

	Well, we say, “God can save any kind of sinner.”

	Well, if God can save any kind of sinner, He can meet any kind of need.
See?

	The question comes. People ask and say, “How do I know if I’ve got
the baptism of the Holy Ghost?” “Can I get the baptism with the Holy
Ghost?” 

	Certainly! If you feel there’s a need for the Holy Ghost, then that
Holy Ghost’s got to come. See?

	[You] say, “What am I going to do about it?”

	That’s not the point. It’s what’s God is going to do about it,
because you can’t do anything about it. He’s the One that fills with
the Holy Ghost. He puts it in the body of the Lord Jesus Christ. See?

37.	What do we need tonight? Healing, baptism, it doesn’t matter what
it is. The point is to see: “I’ve got a need. I can have that need
met.” See? There’s too many people don’t know that because we go
by experience rather than the Word of God. And remember: this is the
place where it started. It started based upon a need. God revealed
Himself to Abraham, and the revelation of God to Abraham would not have
been acceptable except that Abraham had a need. If he hadn’t had a
need, God couldn’t have done a thing. But he had a need, and because
that’s all that he had was a need, God went to work on that need for
him. 

	If our need is financial, God has the answer. Now, I know that busts a
lot of people. I know it bust   one fellow from down South—and that
through him for a loop. His name was Bob Keene, very sweet boy down
there in Columbia, South Carolina. My friend, Ned Iverson said, “Lee,
I want you to come and pray for Bob. He’s got financial problems.
He’s going broke.” 

	I said, “I’m not going to bother praying for him.” I said,
“This is no matter of prayer, see? You don’t get anything by praying
to God for finances. The Bible says, ‘Give!’” Start giving! 

38.	Now, the thing is I’ve got a need…God says He’ll supply.
“Give, and it shall be given.” The point is: will God really meet
your need? What if it does cost you something to give?

	“Well, I’ve got thirty dollars, a hundred dollars, in the bank and
I’ll write a couple checks out for ten or fifteen dollars apiece.”

	Now, the point is: will God give that back multiplied? Certainly He
will! As far as I’m concerned, He didn’t only say He would, He did
it! That’s where I got my start. I’m not way up in the clouds.
Don’t worry, I’m not any plutocrat or tycoon or anything else. 

	You got need…. It started back when I had a need so bad because
I’ve never had anybody stand behind me; never had a guarantee of
anything. Back years, years back now, I’d been working on the field
over ten years by myself with no guarantee of anything…of any
description, but I had a need, and God said He’d supply that need, but
He said, “You give.” 

	See, now the thing is that I believed that He will do it. The
conditions can be met, but we get our eyes on conditions. You can forget
about conditions. The condition is nothing. That’s a little
tiddly-wink thing. The big thing is: can I get that need met? Can I have
this particular need secured?  Can I have this problem dissolved? The
thing is: “Yes, I can have it dissolved.” 

	“Are there conditions?” 

	So what if there are conditions! Not a thing to do with it, but [it’s
not] the point I’m driving at. Sure there’s something to do with it,
but it’s not the point I’m driving at tonight, see.

39.	Now, this is how God works, see, and this is what we need the
revelation of tonight: God does meet our need. I can have this need met,
see. Don’t put the need up and say, “I wonder how it will be done. I
know it has been done, but I wonder if it will be done.” 

	Sure, it will be done. You put your need up and say, “It can be done,
and it will be done.” See? “Will I get better?” 

	Absolutely. See, the main thing, “Can I get better? Yes, I can get
better.” “He healed all my diseases.” See?

	Now, “Is there a condition involved?”  Fine! We’ll meet the
condition. See? But I want you to see the conditions don’t deter
anybody once you’re sold on it. 

	Here’s a man says, “I’m going to sell you some stocks that will
double itself.” 

	Well, if you knew that there were going to be stocks doubling itself []
tomorrow, because some company’s going to take their stocks and divide
them in two, well, you know, divide his stocks, so that your one share
will now be worth two shares—you heard about it. What would you do to
get those stocks? 

	You’d say, “I’d mortgage my home, I’d go to everybody I could,
I’d do everything I could, without letting them know what I was going
to do, and I’d take every single cent, I’d put it in that stock, and
then just as soon as that stock doubled, I’d turn around and sell it,
and I’d make one hundred percent profit. 

	See? In other words, you wouldn’t care anything about what you went
through because you were convinced that stock would double.

40.	Now, I had a friend that did that. In the old days, before
depression… Brother Ball is now a fine brother in the Lord. He was a
band leader. He was a man who did a lot of interior decorating. He still
does it—very expensive man to hire because [] because he has to
pastor; he won’t work too hard. You know, he’s getting old, too, but
the work he does is very, very expensive work. But he’s got so much
that people still want him. And he had a business that netted him about
$50,000 a year. He also played in his band; that made him money. Any
time he felt like it he could take a charter a plane to Philadelphia,
New York—take his whole band with him…live like a king. See? He made
a lot of money.

	During that time a fellow said to him, [] “Mr. Ball…” (I forget
his first name now. They call him by his first name. He said, “The gas
company here is going to double its stock tomorrow. They said you can
put in… I don’t know what they’re going to do, but it’s going to
be really something big. So, if Ball got his hands on $10,000, he’d []
come out with about a $40,000 profit, is what it would amount to.

	So, he just went into the bank, borrowed $10,000, threw it into the
stock, and next day walks out with $40,000.

	Now, if that man really would have to beg, borrow, or steal…or take a
gun, I think he would have done it. 

41.	Now, Christians don’t do this, but I’m showing you the point.
You let a fellow be told he can’t have it, he’s going to get it.
From there, it’s all over. See? From there on. See? What Christians
don’t realize: “I can have it.” Based on what? Based on a need.
See? Based on a need.

	Well, we say, “Well, all I’ve got, God, is a need.”

	Well, He said, “That’s all I have need of is hearing your need. My
riches are based upon your need. My riches cannot be based on anything
but a need.”

	How can God show righteousness apart from a sinner? How can He show
healing apart from a sick person? How can He show provision apart from a
needy person? How can God do anything under high heaven except based
upon a need? It was the need that moved God with compassion. All that
they had was their needs out there. I don’t care how they got them.
The poor, old girl with the issue of blood, she could have been
syphilitic for all I know--anything else. That didn’t matter. That
wasn’t the point. One fellow might have had his eyes gouged out
because he tried to rob somebody. A fellow got him with a spear. That
wasn’t the point. The point was they had a need, and every need can be
met, whether you think that need has a righteous basis or an illegal
basis. 

42.	Let me tell you this: there isn’t one need in this world that
doesn’t have an unrighteous basis because it was sin that brought the
whole schomozzle in. So, whether you did it yourself or somebody else
caused it, it makes no difference. See? The thing is: I can have my need
met. Now we’ve got to understand that because that’s where the
revelation lies. Now, God has the answer, and the answer is ours. That
is true. Nothing is impossible unto us. We say tonight, “I can have
it; it is mine.”

	Now, the Bible says, “Ask, and it shall be given unto you.” See?
“Ask, seek and you shall find; knock and it shall be opened.” Now.
those are three moments we go through perhaps: asking, seeking, or
knocking and seeking. See? In other words, ask for it, keep looking for
it, and thirdly, search for it. It may be involved in there, as I say,
some conditions to be met, but that is all right.

	Now, I hope you can see what I’m driving at because I don’t want
you to get all fouled up in your mind concerning conditions, (See?)
because there is not one condition laid down that can’t be met. See,
that’s the whole thing; there isn’t one. Now, most of those
conditions simply lie in the tongue. In other words, it’s to make an
apology or to say something to put things right. In other words, we must
fill ourselves up with the truth that we can have what we have need of.

43.	Now, let’s go back to Abraham before we close here and see this
truth. Now, look at Abraham. He needed a son. Right? That was his need.
He had everything else, but he wanted that son. And he said, “Lord, I
want a son. I need a son.”

	And God said, “All right. A son you shall have.”

	Now, you’ll notice that when he got the promise he was tried. See?
Certainly he was tried. That’s not it. See, there were conditions
there, see? Now, his body gets old—he doesn’t look at it. His wife,
Sarah, gets old—he doesn’t look at it. See? What was it? God had
promised, (See?) and nothing can change the truth: I can have it because
God said it is mine. See? So, that’s what we’re driving at tonight,
and we must sit still in our hearts because this is the basis of our
faith in prayer: I’ve got a need. And God says, in His Words, I can
have that need met. And I doubt if you can find one single, solitary
thing in your life that’s not covered by the Word. In fact, if you can
find one problem that is not covered by the Word, then you have put God
out of business because, then, God’s not big enough. See? His grace is
not big enough, His arm is not big enough. He was bluffing when He said,
“Ask anything. Is anything too hard for the Lord?” See?

44.	But God’s cry has always been against the people because they have
never taken Him to be their protector and provider. They don’t think
He’ll do a good enough job. See? David did. When David walked in that
light, he was fine. Saul wouldn’t do it. No, sir, Saul never would. He
would not believe that God would supply his need. He wouldn’t believe
that God would do it, take care of him, and he got destroyed. But old
David, just go out there, threw off his armor, and everything, took his
old slingshot and a stone, let God guide it, and destroyed the giant.
See? The giant was so bold, he said, “I don’t even need a sword.
I’ll just pick you to pieces, pluck the flesh off your bones and feed
you to the birds.”

	Well, David wasn’t that kind of a fool to go in there, and he just
took a slingshot. He wasn’t going to get tangling in there. Now,
don’t tell me David was that good a shot. I know a young kid could
grab a lion or a bear by the [a word or two not clear] and swing his
tail and knock him for a loop. Anybody knows that he was glorifying God,
that God gave him that power. See? The need was there, and God met the
need. But, you see, David stepped out. He said, “I can have my need
met, see. I can have it met. It doesn’t matter what it is.”

45.	[] Here now, we’re going to about close with this thought: we have
a case like Paul. I know some people think, well, here’s something
they can’t have; God won’t do it. And I challenge that, because when
Paul had his dilemma after having written the Scripture, given by God,
how that God supplied every need by His riches in glory, how that the
Lord would heal…the Spirit of God, the Spirit that raised up Jesus
dwell in you, that same Spirit will quicken your mortal body… That’s
not the Resurrection; that’s the Voice of healing. That’s right
today. See?

	Now, after Paul had written all that, he was bothered with an
infirmity, and he sought God three times. Now here’s the kind of faith
he had. Then when the third time it didn’t go, he said, “What’s
going on here? Why is this need not met?”

	And God gave him a special divine revelation that, though every other
need would be met, that one need would not be met because he needed it
for a higher purpose.

	And the very same thing happened to William Branham. He said the Lord
revealed to him he would never lose that nervousness until he died.
That’s why we should have known when he said that he knew God had
healed him, was healing him, and he wouldn’t be back anymore—that he
has to die, because that was the original promise. God can’t go back
on His original promises. 

	You see, the revelation was there because God Almighty had to take the
person aside and say, “For reasons of grace, relative to the welfare
of my people, in which you play this leading part.”

46.	Now, it happened only at the first of the Book, and it happened at
the back of the Book, but you can’t find any place where it happened
in the middle, because Paul was the first messenger and William Branham
was the last one. See? And there’s nothing in the Scripture
anywhere…because God will not give you a need… (We being what we
are--just simple folk in the Gospel.) there is no revelation for you and
me of God bypassing us for a higher purpose because we don’t have a
higher purpose. We’re not leaders; we don’t have a message to the
world in the sense that they had. We don’t have that revelation
because that’s where the thing came in for the purpose because those
men with revelation apart from something would tear them down. They
would have been in danger to have the same thing in their life that we
see with these men with their tents and their crazy money programs and
everything else. You and I don’t have that. 

	Let me tell you: if that were to happen to you and me in the future,
and something were to come to you and me, [] you know what we could do?
Just like Paul: something happens, and we pray and it doesn’t happen,
pray again, and it doesn’t happen, just say, “Lord, is this like
Paul?”

	And you know what will happen? You won’t even hear from Him. You’ll
just know one thing: you can have it, because it would take a special
dispensation of God to rescind that one thing. And both of those men,
there was just one thing they couldn’t have, and that was because of
the grace of God and for their own good, and they suffered and became
better men for it. So therefore, the answer was still given, because the
answer was the need of abundant grace above their fellow men. They had
to have it.

47.	So, we got the Word tonight from the beginning—the very first man
to pray an actual recorded prayer, based on a revelation from God, and
the first revelation, which is the basic and mightiest revelation to the
child of faith: God wants to supply all of our needs by Himself, see,
every one. He wants to both protect and provide, in that order, because
that, and that is the real order. If He had said, “Provide and
protect,” then I knew it couldn’t be God because first things come
first. Protection comes first even as, “Forgiveth all thine iniquities
for He healeth all thy diseases.” First things first. See? Just like,
“Before there was ever a sinner, there had to be a Savior,”
otherwise God would never [one word not clear] 1:02:25 a man; before
there was a problem, there had to be an answer; before there was a need,
there was a provision already sitting there; before there was a sheep,
there was a shepherd. Before there was anything, God was what He was,
and God not only contained the answer, He was the answer; He provided
the answer.

	The answer for this age lay in the world evolving for millions of years
until the coal fields and all these things were laid down, the oil and
all. How they came I’m not prepared to say and I care less, whether a
bunch of fish got rotted down there and made the oil, I care not. If the
coal was made out of a bunch of plants, that’s fine. I don’t care
what it’s made of. I’m not arguing the point. I’m not arguing
whether the world is five and a quarter billion, or twenty billion years
old. I don’t care. 

	I only know one thing from the way God wrote the Book, that He made
everything propitious for man. See? The provision was there before man
got here, and the provision is still here. See? 

48.	Every need…every need, I can have it! See? That’s it. I can have
it. Why aren’t people coming through to the Holy Ghost these days the
way they want to be? Because they’re not convinced they have It.
You’ve got to be convinced tonight. The minute you’re convinced you
can have it, if they said, “Stand on your head,” and you never stood
on your head, and they say, “Put your arms and wiggle both your
heels,” you’d figure a way to stand on your head and wiggle both
heels. You wouldn’t have any problem. Like I say tonight, it’s
embarrassing to confess our faults, but just let any one tonight be
assured that he can have his healing, you watch; there wouldn’t be one
wouldn’t go down and make everything right.  

	See, the conviction must be there, but this is the basis of all prayer:
I’ve got a need, and that is the reason why I can be heard. In other
words, the need is basic to the answer. The asking prayer is based in a
need, and I can have it. What do I need tonight? I don’t know what I
need. Who cares? See, “Can I have it?”

	“Well, Sister Smith died of this thing that I’ve got.”

	I don’t care if Sister Smith, Mr. Smith, and all the kids died of it.
They didn’t believe they could have it. See? He said, “Believeth
thou this?” See? Do you believe you can have it? Are you sure that you
can have it? The Bible says you’re assured. Your surety lies in
Christ.” What lies in you is the Holy Ghost. That made every promise
sure when you got sealed in by the Holy Ghost. That made every promise
sure, where not one could fail. Not one, see? You’ve got the Token.
So, say, “I can have it. I can have it.”

49.	What about the couple who came to Dr. Price, years ago? …one of
these great miracle healers, almost retired off the field, or what his
activity was before. She was absolutely childless because they had
performed a hysterectomy on her…impossible to have a child…all the
organs cut out. And yet when they came back the next year, he dedicated
the baby. See? It wasn’t adopted; it wasn’t test-tube; it wasn’t
this; it wasn’t that. It was a child born naturally from natural
parents. See, the need. It doesn’t matter what the need is. Never mind
how God meets it; it hasn’t got a thing to do with it. When He meets
it all, it’s in His time. The main thing is: If He’s satisfied, does
Scripture back this up? Can you get your needs met, or is there a
loophole?

50.	Now, we learned by faith before that God is not pleased with those
who He cannot reward. God is not pleased with those that He can’t do
things for, and He can’t do things for those that don’t have a need.
So therefore, your need has two things: it guarantees God that He can do
it for you, and it guarantees you can have something done by God, King
of Kings, the Lord Himself. I can have it. 

	Do you follow me tonight? To get this is to get the secret of going to
God in prayer and meeting any condition because, as I stand here, I’m
absolutely convinced that when you know you can have it, you’ve got it
made. 

51.	They called me, and they said, “Bro. Vayle, can you come down to
Florida and pastor this independent group down here that left the
churches? 

	I said, “I don’t know. I’ll pray about it. And you better pray
about it.”

	I wasn’t too fussy about going there in a sense. Sure, I wanted to
go, but I didn’t know that I could go. I didn’t understand what all
was involved. And they prayed, and I prayed.

	Finally, they got real urgent: the phone calls began coming in, and I
couldn’t stall them anymore, so I said, “I’ll give you an answer.
That night before I went to bed, with absolute, just…not carelessness,
but a care freedom. I meant it. I said, “God, I don’t care if I go,
or I don’t go. I just know one thing: I want You to let me know if
I’m to go, and that settles it. And I don’t care if I go or not, but
the first thing tomorrow morning when I wake up, I’ll know if I should
go or not go.”

	I went to bed, had a pretty good night’s sleep, as far as I know, and
then I opened my eyes, and bounced out of bed, and there it was: I guess
I’m going to Florida. 

	I went to get my visa, and they said, “Well, Reverend Vayle, it
doesn’t mean that you’re going to be able to go, now that you’ve
applied.” 

	I said, “I realize that.” 

	And they said, “So therefore, don’t start selling your furniture
and all.”

	I went right home and started selling the furniture.    

52.	A fellow taught me, he said, “You know our Lutheran preacher, he
didn’t get to go for two years.”

	I said, “I’m not your Lutheran preacher.”

	I wasn’t. I didn’t care if it took him two years, twenty years, two
months, or what. I knew that I could go to Florida. See, that was the
thing. I knew I could. What about obstacles? Hang the obstacle! That
doesn’t mean anything. See, it doesn’t mean a thing. The condition
didn’t mean a thing. 

	“How are you going to get money?”

	The money doesn’t matter. The point, well… 

	“Well, all right, you need a signer.” 

	So there were a couple of guys down in Florida signed. I thought,
“Well, that’s all right; it doesn’t look like they’ve got
anything but chicken feed. I go to see a fellow in [] in Kent,
Washington, near Tacoma, in that area, and Bro. Henny… And I didn’t
know if he had much money or not. I said, “I want to get across the
line. I need a co-signer, because, you know, I’ll never come to you
for any help.”

	Well, he said, “Sure, I’ll sign it,” he said, “what do I
need?”

	I said, “Well, I don’t know. Your banker will put it down at your
request, if you said it, and I won’t even look at it. Seal the
envelope. I don’t want to know what you’re worth or anything
else.”

	So, he walked into the bank. The man said, “Well, sure,” he says,
“you’ve got no trouble. You could bring six guys across.”

	I don’t know what the fellow is worth. I didn’t care. I knew if I
needed a millionaire to sign this, that was no problem. I didn’t know
where the millionaire was because I hadn’t seen one, but he’s around
somewhere. See?

53. The thing is: “Can I go?” Well, if you can go, you’re done
gone. It doesn’t matter when you start. That’s the way God works.
Whom He calls, He justifies; whom He justifies, He glorifies. Whom he
calls, He glorifies. You see?

	You get the picture? “I can have it.” 

	You say, “Well, my age….” again. Age hasn’t got anything to do
with it. 

	I prayed for an old fellow one time in the hospital. He would be old,
must have been eighty-two years of age, as far as I know. The cancer got
his throat, his tongue was already protruding from his mouth, choking
him, filling up his throat. He was a Unitarian, Unity man. A friend of
mine was in that hospital and seen him and talked, and she talked about
prayer for the sick, and he said he’d be glad to have him pray. I went
in, and just barely said a few words and prayed, and the next thing I
knew, they took him to the county hospital, out of the big hospital, and
the next thing you knew he was all perfectly normal.

	Say, “Well he was eighty-two years of age…let him die.”

	No, he doesn’t need to die. Sure, he’s going to die some time. Let
him die well. Don’t worry about those conditions. That’s the thing
that bugs everybody. See? Once you’re settled, “I can have it.”
See? I’ve got a need. That’s the thing.

54.	In fact, the women, they say, when they’re younger, “Well, I’m
not too pretty, and I want Prince Charming.”

	“Oh, I love John, but would he want me?”

	“I want Bill, but would he want me?”

	“I want George. Would he want me?”

	You see, always, always, always bringing up something… Don’t do it,
see. Just the one thing: “I can have this.”

55.	[Do] you follow me tonight? Because that’s exactly what the first
recorded prayer in the Bible stands for, and God can’t change. You can
get it, see. What if it does cost something? “I can have it.”  See,
because, why? Because tonight we are wondering, “Even if I do meet the
conditions, is it mine?”

	I know of what I talk, don’t worry. I may not talk human sometimes
but I’m pretty human up here preaching. All I got to do is talk out of
my heart, and I can nail you to the wall because you’re no different.
See, that’s why Christ became flesh. He’d know all about it.
That’s why God didn’t send angels. It wouldn’t do one good for
angels to come on down here and try to teach you folk. He knows He
didn’t know what He was talking about because He wasn’t one of you.
See? That’s one thing, too, about Bro. Branham—he was one of them. I
don’t care how high and mighty he was, what a great man, he’s still
one of us. 

	And I don’t care how punk I am, I’m still one of you, and I know
exactly what it is, see. We’re not convinced we can have it. Right?
Huh? You follow it? Can we have it? See, that’s it. The first prayer,
remember: God’s laws: what He did in the beginning, He’s got to go
all the way down the line. He can’t change, see. He can’t change,
and He didn’t change because a Jehovah God that appeared to him,
appeared in the flesh, and He had compassion on those that had a need
because he had a needy people. See? The same Jehovah God that said, “I
am the First, Jehovah Jireh. I am the Lord, Who is healing you now.”

	They cut the tree and threw it in the water.

56.	Let me ask you a question: who brought that misery on Israel? Israel
brought it on themselves. God didn’t. I’m a part of that tonight: I
don’t have anything but I brought it on myself. Oh, you can blame the 
ancestors. I know they put the genes there but…a little more trouble
than some other gene. But whether it’s Gene or a George, I can tell
you one thing: I got troubles before Gene and George. You know what I
mean? But you know something? God answers our prayer. Why? Because
it’s His grace, it’s His mercy, and I can have it. I can be healed
of my foul condition. See? I can be healed of my deafness; I can be
healed of my heart condition. See?

	Now, you can’t say, “Oh God, take away this factor out here and
this life that is building my character.” But I can have peace that
overcomes in that condition. See? Because what? God is our protector.
Now, He couldn’t be a protector unless somebody’s taking a shot at
you. To be a protector does not eliminate the sniper, but it makes the
wind blow so that the sniper’s bullets get off your back…miss.
Certainly. See? Do you follow me? I’m not talking about that area.
We’re talking about need: God needs me.

	[You] say, “What about the enemy’s need?”

	He’ll even make the enemy’s  [one word unclear], see. See? Don’t
worry, give it time. Give it time. Abraham had to give God time, but he
got the son. Didn’t he? He met the conditions…sure the conditions.
See, the point is that Abraham knew he was going to have that son.
That’s why he didn’t bother about his body. So what? That’ll never
do it. He said, ‘It’ll take God, so forget it.’ My body didn’t
promise the son; God promised the son. 

	Sarah never said she would deliver. God said Sarah would deliver. See?
Now, they had the need. See? That’s the point, see: “I can get this
need.” “I can have my need met. I can have it; I will have it; I’m
going to have it.” My… See, do you follow me? This is the thing
we’ve got to get in our minds because I know that once we get it, from
there on, there isn’t any problem because, if God says, “You do
this,” well, you’ll say, “Well, that’s fine, I’ll do it. So
what, this thing works.

57.	That’s where the Scripture speaks of, that He said, “If you
abide in My Word,” and, you know, that’s to perform it, well,
“then you’re my disciples.” That means ‘to learn’. You see?
Then when you learn, the truth sets you free. What truth sets you free?
The fact that you saw those works, that you believed, that you can’t
wait to set in motion what will bring the answer. I can have it, see.
“I can have it.” My God supplies all your needs. Every affliction,
every need, every sickness, every problem…it doesn’t matter, see.
“I can have it.” You see it? 

	You know, folks, this is so simple, really that a doctor should see it.
I picked up a book years ago and I started reading it, and I wanted to
find out how you get real good health and I knew the way, as far as I
was concerned, was exercise and diet. I was quite convinced because this
man I’d read about had raised himself almost from the dead by exercise
and diet. He’d been given up by the greatest brains in the world.
Doctor William Offord couldn’t help; nobody could help him…at Johns
Hopkins University, at fifty-four years of age—and so he began
studying diet. And I thought, “Now I’ve got it all beat: all I’ve
got to do is grind the right food at the right time and eat the right
thing, and instead of being a jerk, I’ll be just a real powerful,
healthy fellow. 

	And I picked up this miserable book, and the first thing he said:
“healing is in the mind.” 

	Throw the book down and forget it. That’s just the way we are. See?
And he told how it was when he believed… In other words, he saw the
possibility, and he knew he could have that, and he began working. 

	Cliff said the same thing, dying of an almost collapsed condition,
bleeding ulcers and all, and he received his healing on the grounds of
what? It came because he knew he could have the answer. See where it
starts? Never mind the conditions. See, I know that’s what the devil
will use as a bugaboo every time, but that’s not it because we know by
the natural realm that man lives in that, if he’s only sure that he
can have it, he doesn’t care whether there’s a pack of wild wolves
ahead. He’ll find something to do with those wolves. See? But I’ll
tell you one thing: if he was in doubt that he could have it, do you
think he would bother those wolves? Huh! He isn’t going near those
wolves.

58.	And I know tonight, I’m convinced here tonight, if any of us have
a problem that we know we can have licked by God, and there is a
condition laid down, I am not worried that that condition would stop us.
I’m not worried about it, because I say again, I know tonight that
[if] each one of us could get a certain condition in our body healed, we
wouldn’t care how red our faces were. We’d go…conditions because
that’s not it. The thing is, is to see God work the way it is:
“You’ve got a need, Abraham? I’ll take care of it.” See? God
answers according to need. See what I said? God answers according to my
need.

	You say, “He answers according to faith.”

	Huh! You didn’t have any, so what’s faith? See? Faith isn’t where
you just go ahead and feel good and start feeling better. It’s not
where you got a lot and getting a lot more. Faith is where God provides.
Right? Protects. Need. So, what’s money for? If you couldn’t get
anything with money, who needs money? There’s got to be a lack;
there’s got to be something there that you want. That’s why you use
money. See?

59.	All right. I’ve got a need. Everything is based upon a need, and
God’s got [the answer]. I’ve got a need and God answers according to
need.

	“Now, you mean to tell me I’ve got a need and that’s all God
needs for an answer?

	That’s all. You’ve got to show God your need and your prayer of
faith upon it. God answers according to your need. You need a car?
He’ll not send you a beautiful telephone or a lovely hand-painted rug.
You’ll get a car. You needed a horse because the car won’t work,
God’s not going to, “Well, I’ll give you a 4-wheel jeep.” Of
course, the 4-wheel jeep is no good because a 4-wheel jeep won’t go in
there.        

	No, God  gives you what? Gives you the horse, right? If you need a
boat, what does God give you? He gives you a boat. Follow me? He answers
according to need. In other words, I can have my need. Right? I can have
it. Do you follow me? I hope you do because I’ll tell you what: this
is what counts because if this is it… If this is not [] in us, where
we really get it, we can pray ourselves blue in the face, and we’ll be
held back every inch of that way because of that condition. Forget it.

60.	What does the Scripture say about the man who found a great treasure
in a field? He sold everything he had and bought that field. Right?
Because he knew it was there. What about the pearl of great price? He
sold everything he had, and he got that pearl. I’m trying to show you:
don’t let conditions get you upset. Don’t let anything get in your
mind other than this: I can have it. See? Do you follow me? I’ve got
to drill on because this is the secret: I can have it, see. How much,
what can you have? ‘All’ that I need; ‘all’ of my needs are in
Christ. ‘He’ wants to do it, see. He wants…  

	Imagine a fellow getting perfect healing because he confesses his
fault. Now, that’s so simple and yet it’s so basic, and yet so
funny, you just don’t want to pay much attention to it. We’d sooner
have a gift of healing come by, wouldn’t we, if that hadn’t been
working…and praying and fasting, (See?) but that doesn’t work
either. 

	[You] say, “Why”

	Because the people are outside the Word of God. What’s the condition?
The condition is: I’ve got a need, and the original prayer uttered was
based upon a need, and God answered according to a need. There was a
condition to meet, but that didn’t matter, see, because he knew he’d
get it.

61.	Are you ready tonight if God laid it on your heart to do some
confessing or do something and make it right? Now, would that stop you
from getting healed? I don’t believe one, not one. I really believe
with all my heart that seriously speaking, whatever our need is tonight,
that if that problem was based in something we did, and God said,
“Now, make it right,” I doubt if anybody would sit still… He’d
go and make it right…because I’m trying… See what I’m trying to
show you? Don’t…the conditions… See, the devil’s got you fooled
by conditions. And he’s had proof tonight that’s not so. See?

	So, where are your eyes? You’re back on this: I’ve got a need. God,
here it is. You said You’d supply, and You will supply. I can have
this. I can have it. See, we’ve been… All those years we’ve been
bugged about this whole thing. The devil’s giving us…has worked on
us and worked on us and worked on us. See? And that’s where those
doubts come in. No, I can have it. “Nothing in my hands I bring,
simply to Thy cross I cling.” God, I can have it.

	Abraham… “What will you give me, Lord? I’ve got a need.”

	“What do you need?”

	“A son.” 

	“A son you’re going to have.”

	Well, now did He give him something else? Were all the nations of the
earth blessed? Certainly. Were there conditions? So what? So what? Was
there a condition he couldn’t do? No, sir. Now, would Abraham have
done one thing except he knew he’d get the answer? No. Follow me now?
I know I’ve drilled and drilled on it, but here is the secret of
getting things from God. 

	[You] say, “I know, the devil will come along, and he’ll say
you’ve got to jump over the moon.”

	“There’s a million things you’ve got to do that will keep you
from doing it. And then you don’t know if you’ll really get it.”
See?

	But if you know that you can have it, then the conditions are right.
Right? 

	Okay. Let’s pray.

	

	Gracious, heavenly Father, we have come now to the end of another
service, looking only at Your Word, Lord, that every need can be
met—we can have it, just like you said to Peter…

	He said, “Can I walk on water?”

	He said, “Certainly. Step out.”

	And he stepped out, walked a certain distance, and then, of course, we
know, Lord, he got caught with conditions, which didn’t have a thing
to do with it, because it could have been, Lord, he could have sunk to
his knees and, then rose up, and walked some more. But, Lord, we know
tonight that You’ve given us promises, and we know the devil wants to
rob us because he’s been unveiled tonight. He’s been shown up for
what he does to our minds. He’s that old deceiver. He appealed to
Eve’s mind; he does the same to us. He hasn’t changed, and, Lord, we
still let ourselves be double-crossed.

	And now tonight, Lord, first of all, we’re going to apologize to You
for first, conditions, because we’re sorry, Lord, that we haven’t
really seen this before in the sense that we ought to see it. We don’t
even see it now, but we’re looking to it. But You do answer according
to need because that’s all You can answer to—it’s got to be a need
or there never would be an answer. 

	Now we know, Lord, a little condition laid down at times, but that’s
all right. You said, “Give, and it shall be given.” We got a need,
we give; it takes care of it. All these things, Lord, it’s just simple
as A-B-C. You said about sicknesses. Maybe some of us are sick, and we
don’t have any faults to confess. We can still get healed; that
doesn’t matter. We can be like Abraham… He didn’t have any faults.
They were just barren, a physical infirmity. They didn’t have anything
to do with it. They were born that way. But, Lord God, You took care of
even that. So, it doesn’t matter, Lord, if we were born with it. Who
caused it? That doesn’t matter. 

	Miriam caused hers, but she had a need, and You took care of it.
We’ve got needs tonight, Lord. Tonight, my God, we know that we can
have the answer, we know it academically, theoretically, we know it a
good bit in part, but now, Lord, tonight we want to go all the way. We
want to go all the way, Lord Jesus Christ, so that there is nothing
whatsoever missing—nothing…every answer. 

	Lord, some folks tonight need these promises made real. Some tonight, O
God, are sick in body. Now, Lord, You speak to them, whether little
things they need to confess. Lord, don’t let their imagination trick
them now, no, we don’t want any of that, with reasoning and puzzling
things out. But, Lord, if You were big enough, and we know You [are], to
convict us of our sin…

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