E-1 In the Book of Deuteronomy we read in the 32nd chapter, the 11th verse, "As an eagle stirreth up her nest, fluttereth over her young, spreading abroad her wings, taketh them, beareth them on her wings."
E-2 Being an outdoor person, I always wondered why God likened His heritage to an eagle. My first Bible was nature and I just loved it. You see God in nature if you look for Him, for He is the Creator of it.
E-3 I saw those great birds and experienced being high in the mountains where their dwelling place is. Herding cattle, being a game warden, then getting converted and reading the Bible has never taken it out of me. I just love the outdoors and to watch how God moves in His universe.
E-4 The heritage of God is likened to a great eagle. I have read that in Palestine there are 40 types of eagles. The word eagle means one feeding with the beak, which is a very beautiful type of how God feeds His children by His mouth with the Word.
E-5 "Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God." He is the Eagle who feeds His eaglets with the Word. And we will notice that God often likened His prophets to eagles, and He also likened Himself to an eagle. He is Jehovah eagle, and we are His eaglets, His little ones. And does He not feed us with His own mouth? "Man shall not live by bread alone but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God." God feeds us His eaglets with His Word, His spoken Word.
E-6 Many times I have enjoyed a good meal of a steak or a chicken, but never could I enjoy a feast as I do with God at His table. Just let God feed us on His good Word and it is a marvelous food in our mouths and for our inner parts. The church today is starving to death in my opinion, so to speak of spiritual times today there can be nothing to take the place of the eagles' food, only real eagle food will suffice—and since we are eagles we have to have the food eagles eat—not a social gathering, or a supper in the church basement, nor some knit-and-sew party—we need eagles' food, fed from the mouth of Jehovah eagle.
E-7 The two great wings of the eagle are for deliverance. They also represent the Old and the New Testament. Another thing about the eagle is that it can soar higher in the sky than any other bird. You have heard the expression that a person has eyes like a hawk, but a hawk is an amateur in being able to see, as compared with the eagle. A hawk cannot see half the distance that an eagle can and if a hawk tried to follow an eagle up, up into the heights, it would perish. Therefore the eagle is especially created to live in the heights.
E-8 God likens His prophets to eagles. The higher you go, the further you can see. If you are going to go high, and haven't got the eye to see farther, it would do no good to go higher. So God, when He takes us up higher gives us ability to see farther. I like that. The higher you go the farther you can see.
E-9 Now if we are likened to eaglets then we will soar the eagle way into the blue. But have you noticed other birds try to fly too high? And look what happens; they will take off after the eagle and go way up, just like the eagle does, but after they're up there they start complaining. They find they don't fit in the eagle flight. One will say, "I can't stand this"—and another will complain about something else. What is it? They are neither built nor called to fly high like the eagle, and they will fly right back to their cold dead churches and die of starvation. But not the eagle—he sails on and on and on.
E-10 Notice now how the eagle will soar on the wind. He sets his strong wings and he sails on. I like that. And that is the way a believer does. He doesn't run from pillar to post, a Methodist this week, a Pentecostal the next—he sets his faith in God and sails away, riding on God's lovely wind. I want to tell you an experience I witnessed in Colorado while hunting there.
E-11 One day up in the mountains I had been hunting elk. It was early in the season. The snows hadn't come to run them down yet, so I had to go up in the timber line. There was no person within 70 miles of me. The rancher had dug another trail and we were to meet about four days later. I tied my horse that morning and went way high in the region where years ago I used to chase out the cattle.
E-12 All of a sudden there came a rain. I got in a tree "blow-down," and the rain passed over. It would rain awhile and then snow awhile, then the sun would shine. I got a little bit wet so I was wiping my face off and walked out from behind the tree. I was standing out there when I heard something 'way back in the head of the hollow. An old wolf got to howling, and his mate answered him down in the valley.
E-13 David said, "Deep calleth unto deep." I love the wild and when I heard that old wolf howl and the mate answer it something 'way down inside of me began to call out. The sun was peeping through the rocks in the western horizon. As it was going down it was shining against the evergreens where it had frozen and formed a rainbow.
E-14 Just then I heard the elk herd I had been after. The big old elk made a bugle call 'way back over in the great thicket. Oh, I began to weep. I couldn't help it. Something in me loves nature, and when the "Deep calls unto deep at the noise of Thy waterspouts" (Psalms 42:7) I just melt. If there is something in there calling for deep, there HAS to be a deep to respond to it.
E-15 Before there is a fin on a fish's back, there has to be water for him to swim in. Before there was a tree in the earth there had first to be an earth, or there would be no tree. A few years ago I read where a little boy ate the erasers off pencils and his mother found him eating a pedal from a bicycle. An examination at the clinic showed that the little fellow was craving sulphur. If there is something in you craving sulphur, there HAS to be sulphur to respond.
E-16 If there is a creation, there has to be a Creator to create the creation. There is not a man or woman that has ever had a taste of God but what right now you are longing for more of God. You are reaching out for more of God. If there is a desire in you for more of God, somewhere there has to be more of God to receive.
E-17 I saw the rainbow colors and there was something down in me that I couldn't hold my peace. I could see God in the rainbow; I could see God in the sunset; I could hear God calling; I could hear and see God everywhere. If you get God on the inside, you will see Him everywhere you look. But He has to come into your heart first. He has to change you from a chicken to an eagle. He has to give you a desire to do something.
E-18 And as I watched, all of a sudden I heard a little pine squirrel. Perhaps you brethren know what they are—they make a lot of noise and get nowhere. There he was, sitting on a stump, just chatter, chatter, chatter. I thought—little fellow, what are you doing? He had seen a big eagle in the storm and had taken refuge under this blowdown. And then the big fellow jumped out.
E-19 I said, oh I see little pine squirrel what you're so noisy about. He wasn't watching me. He was watching that eagle. I watched them a few moments and I thought—God, why did you change my thought from 'way over there down to here? What is in this?
E-20 Here is a little old flying squirrel, not worth a penny. And here is an old eagle~the only thing he does is fly in the sky. But, I thought, why did you change my view to look this way? And as I watched the old fellow kept moving his wings. I thought, are you afraid of me? I have a rifle here; I could shoot you if I wanted to. I grabbed the rifle and I was watching the big eyes look over at me, and he kept moving his feathers. I thought, yes, I see why you are so brave. Here is the reason you are not a coward. God gave you two big powerful wings, and you have confidence in those wings.
E-21 If we could only take the wings of the Bible, God's written Word, and have as much confidence in the Word of God by the Holy Spirit. If we would only have as much confidence as the eagle did in his wings! He knew that he could make one jump and be above that timber and I could never have shot him. I watched him and after while he got tired, and he made just one big jump and flopped his wings about twice, and you know what he did? He did not flop again. He just knew how to set his wings, and he held his wings out and when the wind came in he lifted them up and I stood and watched him until he became just a little speck.
E-22 Then I wept again. I thought, God, that is it. If the church only knew how to set its wings of faith into the promise of God and not join every little ism that comes along. That is not it. It is just setting your wings to His promise and the Holy Ghost just lifts you up.
E-23 He left that little old earth-bound pine squirrel sitting there chat, chat, chat—the days of miracles are past, there's no such thing as the baptism of the Holy Ghost, you're just a bunch of idiots, that's all there is to it, and so on, and so on. The eagle just went, went on up higher leaving that little old chatter-chatter-here and chatter-chatter-there behind
E-24 God help us to take the wings of the eagle, take every divine promise God has given us in the Bible. That is in the reason, friends, you are not living in bondage. It is because you set your wings in the promise of God, and by faith the Holy Ghost lifted you up.
E-25 The eagle is stirring up her nest and if there is anyone who would dare set his wing in God's promise, in His Word, God will take you from this miserable, unrighteous, ungodly, selfish life that you are living and make you free, and happy, to live above sin, and live in a blissful atmosphere that the world knows nothing about. Amen.
E-26 I remember one time when I was at the zoo in Cincinnati, Ohio, and was looking at an eagle that had just been captured. It was one of the most pitiful sights I have ever seen. This great heavenly bird had been netted and captured by someone and thrown into a cage.
E-27 That poor fellow was so out of place that he would jump with all his might against the big bars, flapping his wings, only to find himself on his back. He had beaten himself against those bars until all the feathers were beaten from his wings and his head and face were bruised.
E-28 As I continued watching him, he would walk proudly back and forth and then with all his might throw himself against the bars, only to fall back again. Then he would lay there on the floor, his weary eyes scanning the skies, and I thought of how he was not made to be on the earth.
E-29 He is a heavenly bird; his whole make-up is to live in the blue, ’way above this old world. Then to see a bird like that made to soar in the blue, lying there. Made to soar, but captured for life by the cunning of man. What a pitiful sight.
E-30 But, brethren, it is a common thing to walk out here on the streets of Chicago or any other great city and find men who were created in the image of God, made to be sons and daughters of the Most High, and find them changed by sin and habit and the cares of this life. They are in far more pitiful condition than that eagle was in.
E-31 Man was not made to be bound. Man is made to be free. "He whom the son hath made free is free indeed." He doesn't have to be bound. Oh, it would take hours for me to express the feelings in my heart when I think of how men are changed and of how they do not live in their God-given privileges.
E-32 Man is made in the image of God, and he does not have to be a bond-slave to Satan. God made man in His own image—to be a son. He placed a soul in him, and a thirst after God. Then man tries to satisfy that blessed holy thirst with whiskey, alcohol, tobacco, and different kinds of living. It is a disgrace to try to quench the thirst for God with other things.
E-33 Bound by sin--not that God desires it, but man willfully gets in that shape. It would do us good to study the life of the eagle, observe its make-up, and pattern ourselves after him.
E-34 I believe in the Word. It tells of the eagle renewing its youth. It had been thought that the eagle would ever so often renew its youth, bring itself to being young again. Later we have found out that it does not exactly renew its youth, but what happens is that there are times when it feels so good that it acts young
E-35 I would liken that to a revival when God's eaglets, though they might be a bit aged, get to feeling young again when the revival comes. They get to feeling good, and feeling young again. I feel better when I know that the presence of God is near than I do at any other time.
E-36 Now if you will notice closely you will see how we are likened to the eagle in the respect that he renews his youth. First, he is the only bird there is that can be all worn out, and all in, and nearly dead—and he will come back strong and soar the heavens as a young bird. Now why does God liken us to an eagle? It is because of this: when you are all "down in the dumps" as we often say, along comes a good revival and you are renewed in the Spirit. I've seen a revival come to town and the old and young alike would become revived, and dance and rejoice in the Lord like happy children should.
I have seen people who were bound in wheel chairs, and upon death beds with cancer, but when God's spirit swept the revival they were renewed and soared out of the wheel chairs and off the cots rejoicing! Our great God renews us—He renews our health, He renews our strength, He renews our hope, He is constantly renewing us! Amen. Do you see, dear ones, why we are likened to eagles7 We are renewed in Spirit as they are.
E-37 Another thing I want you to notice is this: a mother eagle will not build her nest on the ground. She goes to the highest mountain peak. The mother eagle makes her nest in the rock, feeds her little ones, and one day she decides that she does not want her brood to be like chickens. A chicken is a bird, just as the eagle is, but it is an earth-bound creature. It can flop and fly a little but it can scarcely get its feet off die ground.
E-38 This reminds me of the so-called Christianity which some people have today. Just enough religion to make them miserable. You may be able to say that you have your name on the books, but have you ever soared in the heavenlies?
E-39 The eagle never makes its nest down here on earth. He makes it just as high in a rock as he can. He is a type of the church of the living God. What a blessed privilege it is to know that God has hidden us in the cleft of the rock of Calvary, far beyond the howl of the enemy. Oh, the privileges that we have! High up there in the rock is where the mother eagle gives birth to her little ones. She nurtures them, cares for them, high in the rock where the coyote could never climb. She is beyond them. I am so glad that we have a heavenly Father who will, if we permit Him, put us in a place where the howling of the devils cannot bother us, and where the lure of whiskey and night clubs cannot touch us, far beyond the polluted streams of this world and its fantasies.
E-40 Now when the mother eagle builds her nest she gets vines and sticks and leaves and pieces of wood and briars. She is very careful as she doesn’t want her little babies to be pierced by the briars, or have pieces of sticks poking them. So what does she do? She goes and finds a lamb and slays it, and she takes file lamb's skin to the nest and shreds it and works it around until she has the nest real cozy and comfortable for her babies. And that is what God does for us. When God sees we are about to be born-again. He watches us during the service to see what we will do—don't forget that. And He will prepare a nest for you in His kingdom for He knows soon another eagle will be bom to Him. And as His Spirit woos you notice how warm and soothed you feel. And notice--is not God the Lamb that makes your abode so lovely and peaceful and safe? He is the Lamb of your nest, your abode! Praise the Lord!
E-41 Right here friends I want to emphasize this: above all, do appreciate God for the lovely abode He gives you. Remember, only fools walk with hobnailed shoes where angels fear to tread. How it grieves me to hear you as God's children complain and murmur. Shame on you all if you're guilty! And you people who call others holy-rollers, or fanatics—shame on you! Don't you know that you're a fool for using such expressions. Let me tell you this—a fool will call another Christian a holy-roller, or some other dishonoring name, and the angels fear to even think such things, let alone say them. And you people who come to a meeting and call the works of God, Beelzebub—or take an apathetic attitude, or shrug your shoulders and leave after a night or two—shame on you! Don't you know the angels would not dare say one thing against one of God's servants, or His children? And at every meeting that is taking place God has His angels there to help out, and these angels watch over you, and take care of you all through the meeting, and then they are commissioned to go home with you to watch over you and keep you safe. And right here let me ask you—are YOU as concerned as this about your brother—are you as concerned as this about a meeting? Oh how easy He makes it for us to walk with Him.
E-42 And now let us look at the mother eagle again. Notice how she watches the little eaglets, watches every move they make. She is concerned, she won't let them fall out of the nest. And look how our great Heavenly Father watches over you—He won't let you fall. Jehovah eagle watches over His little ones! Oh hallelujah ! I sometimes think that we would break our necks with the power of God if it weren’t that God watches over us. He sets our limits, He keeps us in the nest, and He Spreads His big wings over us—when He does this no one can harm us, or take us out of His hand, His own nest. Just think how helpless you were when you were first bom of Him—but see how He watched over you! He never stops watching over you. How blessed!
E-43 The mother eagle watches until her eaglets are fully feathered. When she thinks they have matured sufficiently she stirs the nest. I have wept as I have watched this through binoculars. She will fly towards the nest and with those great wings give the eaglets a blast of wind. It shakes all the loose feathers out of the eaglets, because she is getting them ready for their first solo flight. The little eaglets know that something is going to happen, because they are eagles. They feel the blast of the rushing mighty wind and the nest is in for a shaking.
E-44 The mother gives a certain scream, throws her wings out, and those little baby eaglets somehow know by nature how to place their feet in her wings, take their little beaks and hold on to a big strong feather.
E-45 The mother turns her proud head and sees her brood on her wings, lets out a scream, for she is full of joy. Her eaglets know their place, and she takes off for the heights. She goes just as high as she can, the little eaglets not murmuring a bit. They just hold on and go places they never thought they would be.
E-46 Off they go into the blue and when they get up high she shakes them off, right in the middle of the air. When she shakes them off, she doesn't leave them but makes a big circle, watching.
E-47 There the little ones are. They flop their wings for the first time. They turn somersaults, and everything else, but they are flopping anyway. When they get weary the mother just swoops under them and carries them up higher again. Sometimes she will catch one with one foot, and another with the other foot, and carry them up higher. The little eaglets are carefree because they are not dependent upon their own ability, but on the ever present ability of their mother who is watching over them. They just have an old fashioned Pentecostal jubilee.
E-48 Then when she gets done with them, and they have had all their fun, she spreads her big wings and they sit on her wings, holding onto a feather with their beaks. She takes them down to something new again, down to a green place. They have never had their feet in that place before, so they just jump off and have another jubilee. They are just as carefree as they can be, and when she gets through she takes them and flies off to a great high place in the rock and there she sits and watches over her little eaglets. Woe to any creature that will try to harm them.
E-49 The little eagles know how to place their feet on the wings of the eagle and hold on to a feather with their beaks. God tells them how, and the church of the living God knows how to take hold of the Word of God, and those great strong wings of deliverance and hold on to every divine promise when a mighty shaking takes place. They know how to hold—they hold on because they have an eagle nature.
E-50 The mother eagle turns her proud head and sees her brood on her wings. I have often thought of what God would do when He sees His church take its position in the Word, to claim every promise that God has made. God looks at them proudly and loves them with real love.
E-51 Every member of the body takes his place positionally; the minister in his place; the prophet in his place. What a day, when God gets His church on the Word and there comes the power of God and we follow all the way on the wings of that great eagle of God, the great Holy Spirit.
E-52 As the eagle rises higher and higher the little eagles do not murmur a bit. They have their little beaks set in her feathers, they just can't murmur. And that's the way God takes His church—if you're really set in the word you don't murmur, you just hold on, as the little eagles hold on. If God made the promise, He can keep His promise, and so those who are set in the Word hold on.
E-53 As the mother eagle watches over her own, so Christ is watching over us. He is sitting on the right hand of Majesty on high and it makes no difference what the world says or what people think Just have a wonderful time and rejoice, If you do not think that God has things for you that you never knew about, just come take a ride.
E-54 God likens His prophets also to eagles. The Holy Spirit will take a prophet way up high in heavenly atmosphere and show him many things that will come to pass in the future. He took Nahum of the Old Testament so high that he saw the cars which we have today, and how they were colliding with one another on the roads, and he said, "The chariots shall rage in the streets, they shall jostle one against another in the broad ways: they shall seem like torches, they shall run like the lightnings." (Nahum 2:4.) Paul was taken up so high he saw the last days wherein man would be "trucebreakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good, traitors, heady, high-minded, lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God; having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof." (П Timothy 3:3-4-5.) Paul, as God's eagle, soared up into God's realm and saw all this, then returned to warn us about it. Oh, thank the Lord!
E-55 When I think of eagles and prophets and how high they fly compared to the poor earthbound chicken. The eagle is determined that her brood shall not be like earthbound chickens. She will see to that! Now a chicken may be your denominational brother but he knows nothing about heavenlies—he has never been up there. And those old barnyard chickens will set on their old nests and cackle "There's no such thing as divine healing, there's no such thing as speaking in tongues, there's no such thing as the baptism of the Holy Ghost." Well, how does he know? He has never been out of the barnyard to find out. He has never soared the blue heavens of God’s great spiritual heights.
E-56 Now the chicken is a bird, just as the eagle, but the chicken knows little about heavenly atmosphere. In speaking of eagles I'm reminded of a farmer out West who put an eagle's egg in with a setting of chicken eggs. When it hatched out it was the funniest looking little thing. All the other chickens chirped, and he couldn't understand what they were chirping about because he spoke a different language. I hope you know what I mean. He watched them, and he didn't know what to do. They all picked on him because they said he was an odd fellow.
E-57 The old hen would cluck and the little chicks would cluck, but the eagle didn't understand that cluck. He didn't come when the others did because he didn't know that kind of clucking. I am not going to say much but I hope you know what I am talking about.
E-58 A real born-again child of God doesn't behave like Ше people of the world. They say that they belong to a church, but you don't understand die cluck. You were bom an eagle. God knows His own.
E-59 One day they were out in the barnyard and the mother eagle happened to fly over that area. As she flew by, her great shadow swept over the barnyard. She looked down, and saw her own. She screamed at him and when she did the little fellow turned his head and began to look upward. When he looked up, she screamed at him, "Come, you're not a chicken; you don't belong there, you are mine!"
E-60 The little eagle wondered what to do, because that was what he wanted also. There may be many an eagle hearing me who has been walking in some denominational chicken yard for a long time. I hope He calls you and says, "You are Mine."
E-61 She called to him, "Just make the first big jump, and flap your wings." He made the first jump, flapped his wings, and found that he wasn't earth-bound any longer, because he was then on a barnyard post. She said, "Son, come higher, give another jump and I will carry you on my wings." What the church of the living God needs is to jump from the barriers of denominationalism, from all the isms, and to cut loose. Nest stirring time has already come, but we need another jump. We have gotten as far as the barnyard post, but we need to get free and ride on His wings for a first solo flight.
E-62 I am so glad that God has children in all walks of life who, when they hear the Gospel with the power of Jesus Christ, know that it is His voice.
E-63 I was all bent down with a big denominational head behind me, but one day I heard a Voice from Above. It was not from headquarters, not from the presbyter, not from the deacon board, or from the bishop- -I heard a cry from heaven. What a real thrill that gave my heart!
E-64 The trouble is that these barnyard chickens don't know what they're clucking about. They aren't eagles, but just old barnyard chickens who have never put the power of God to a test. They have never been healed, nor blessed by the great Holy Spirit, they have never danced, nor wept in the Spirit. But an eagle—he has all this and even more—he soars on and on into the heavenly realms.
E-65 Right here I want to make a point to you Pentecostal people—it is a simple truth I will bring out with another lesson on the eagle. The mother eagle is very wise—she knows that her baby just can't live in the nest all his life. He has to get out and work and do for himself. The little eagle has it very soft in the nest, walking around on sheep-skin, and he is fed every day by mama eagle—why, he hasn't a care in the world! He is so happy in the nest—like one who just got the Holy Ghost and thinks he can go set the world on fire. But you know that he can't just stay in the nest all the time and just live on the blessings. And that is what is the matter with the Pentecostal church.
E-66 Listen you Pentecostal eagles! You’re staying too long in the nest. Pay heed to what the great mother eagle will do—she will come to the nest and with her great beak she will start tearing every thing out of the nest that makes it soft and easy for her young. She throws out the lamb-skin, and the rabbit fur, and the padding, and makes the nest so miserable that the little eagles can't even sit down—if they do they sit on a stick, or on a briar, or get jabbed by a stone.
E-67 Do you know God can make you willing to do something? That happens to many of us. He just pulls out the padding on us in our nice feathered churches, He blows the feathers away, and soon we get so miserable and disgusted, and I think if ever the Pentecostal church ought to be uncomfortable and disgusted, it is now! We certainly padded our nests, oh yes! But look what God's doing! He's tearing up our nests, He's sure making them uncomfortable. Why is He doing this? He is making you willing to leave your denomination and launch out for yourself—just as the mother eagle makes it so miserable her young ones don't want to stay in the nest, and they get out and soar the heavens where they belong.
E-68 God has many ways of making us willing to get out and launch out for Him: He may take a loved one from you; He may allow sickness to hit you. He has to do this because you're too willing to have it easy at some church or denomination when there is work to be done. He doesn't want you cooped up in a nest all your life, regardless of how nice He's made it for you. He expects you to have a desire to get out and do more than just be blessed—He wants you to work for Him—to be an eagle and rear a family yourself, feeding other baby eagles.
E-69 A mother eagle, just before taking her little family out on its first flight, will come up on the nest and stand over them. She sees that they have too many loose feathers so she begins to beat her big wings with great force—and my, do the feathers fly out of the nest and very soon the little eagles have all the loose feathers blown from them. Today our great mother eagle (Jehovah) has taken her place over the Pentecostal nest and is beating her great wings as hard as she can to blow the loose feathers out of the church. The Pentecostal church can't fly away to God with a bunch of loose feathers! Why, it has come to the place where you can't tell a Pentecostal woman from a modem worldly church woman—she bobs her hair, she dresses in form-fitting clothes, she wears make-up. What's the matter? I'll tell you—too many loose feathers.
E-70 And you men who preach in this fancy Hollywood style—shame on you! You must be full of loose feathers to have to fly that low and preach the things you do. And you church members who watch television—your feathers are mighty loose, listening to Arthur Godfrey and Elvis Presley and all those ungodly things. Then you wonder why you can’t take a flight in the Holy Spirit. You wonder why God doesn't restore the gifts to the church. Г11 tell you why—God doesn't have anyone to restore the gifts to! Loose feathered preachers who won't preach the truth—Shame on you!
E-71 Just remember this—if you don't want to stay in the old barnyard with the chickens, you better wise up. Why, the chicken doesn't have enough feathers to take him off the ground—and that’s all the strength you Pentecostal churches have. If you don't go on with God you're as bad off as a church that never believed in the deep things of God in the first place.
E-72 The church needs a flight. We need to go into spheres unknown, unreached. Don't settle for a barnyard walk. Let's prepare to soar the heavenly realms Take God at His Word. You can't do that on little creeds, and doctrines, and loose feathers. Let that fire bum within you day and night to make you to know that God is YOUR God, and would have you to take Your flight with Him to realms unknown. Know this, that He watches over His heritage day and night lest some should pluck it from His hand. You are His heritage, praise the Lord. Stand up, stand up for Him; If we stand up and let God clean us from all our loose feathers there will come a sound from heaven as a mighty rushing wind, and we will go forth as did the early church.
E-73 You'll have to step to make it if you want to go into the heavenlies, as do God's eagles. You’ll have to leave your church if it won't go with you. You will have to leave all, and jump high as you can toward Him, then He will rush under you with a mighty wind and bear you up. I am not telling you to leave your assembly or your little church, but I am telling you to step out on Jehovah's wings—come up higher. If you haven't ever been out of the nest of your denomination it is time you step out and make a flight in this great vast kingdom of His. It is time to know all He has for you and all there is in His Kingdom. There is more to it than being a church member, friend.
E-74 Just as the eagle stirs her nest, sometimes God does the same thing in the church. Just when we get all settled down on something, God stirs the nest. He brought Martin Luther from Catholicism, then they got so starchy He stirred the nest and sent in John Wesley. Again they got starchy so He sent in Finney. It is nest stirring time again because we have yet again settled down.
E-75 He sends the mighty rushing wind and blows away all the loose feathers. You can't have loose feathers when you are solo flying for the Lord. God stirs up the nest and comes in with a rushing mighty wind as He did on the day of Pentecost, and all the old loose feathers fly off. He sends a Pentecostal revival and shakes up the nest. When you see a shaking time coming, eagles are ready for a blessing. The church is ready for something.
E-76 Let us set our wings in God's promise, in His word, and by faith let the Holy Ghost lift us up. Amen.
E-77 Last evening it was laid upon my heart to speak on the subject of the handwriting on the wall, and the Lord did bless us. I marvel how the Holy Spirit revealed to us as He anointed me to speak, and you to heard the things of God which are so close at hand. You remember last night how I typed the great Babylon of die old testament and found that we are in the same kind of situation as they were in when the handwriting appeared to them on the wall. Today here in America are the same conditions that prevailed then, our morals are extremely low and weak, we are found drinking wine, and making women our God. Just as they did, we find ourselves doing today, and we know without doubt that our days too are numbered. We are weighed in the balance and found wanting.
E-78 Sin is the same anywhere, anytime. You may make sin look pretty and hide it under glamour and dress it up, but it is still sin. Sin is scattered everywhere because it has been made to appear so glamorous in the eyes of the people here in America. I often think of the evil thing liquor has come to be. I remember as a boy that liquor was called moonshine, or Old Charlie Barleycorn. Today it is in fancy bottles under handsome names and even colored pretty—but it is the same old rotten devil's brew. And look at tobacco- years ago old granny might take a corncob pipe and smoke it when she had a toothache, but see how popular that devil has become today. Mothers, daughters, and even little children smoke today—and it's popular to do so, but it is sin just the same—it is just hidden under another name. It used to be wrong for people to gamble, and to do so one had to go to a place of ill-fame to attend a gambling party. But look at it now! It used to be that women, as they walked down the street would cross over to the other side rather than pass the door of a saloon. Look at it now: there inside she puts her foot up on the bar rail and leaves her children home with a baby-sitter, to become a bar fly instead of a mother—she is more popular. It's all sin whether popular and in style or not, and God hates sin and He will make you pay for your sin because He is a Holy God, and a Holy God cannot tolerate sin. Sin requires death, and they that sin are dead already in their trespasses.
E-79 As we look at the great evils that plague us today, we can see that just over yonder horizon are advancing the great on-coming judgments to this country, for God cannot let us get by with sin. He would not be a righteous God if He let us live the way we live and get by with sin. He will make us pay for our sins, and as I've said before, I say again, if the righteous God of Heaven lets us get by with our sin He will have to raise up Sodom and Gomorrah and apologize to them for destroying them, for we are just as bad as they were, maybe worse.
E-80 Anyone who has the spirit of the living God in His heart surely must feel the hot blast of the oncoming judgment that is about to hit the world. In your spirit you can discern and know that something is about to happen. The whole world is quivering and anxious, the little nations, the big nations, for in the hands of communists and ungodly, evil, perverted men lies the power to turn this world into ashes in one minute's time. All that is keeping them from doing so is the mercy and long-suffering of God—He won't let them do it. We must remember that and be grateful to God for His divine care to His church. We must remember that! We could become a Russian satellite before morning. Yet we remain unconcerned, and we just go right on.
E-81 The world has become so neurotic that even the psychiatrists themselves are having nervous breakdowns. The great men of science don’t know what is taking place—they are staggering under the evil influences of a war of nerves that is taking place in the universe. Every city, every farm, every street, every place you encounter the same evil atmosphere of darkness that is relentlessly enveloping the earth. But the spirit-filled child of God is aware of what is going on—he knows the answer—the Lord is soon coming, and the Word of God is fulfilling itself with such rapidity that only the true born-again, spirit-filled, spirit-led Christian can keep up and above board in this hour. The world is dilly-dallying along, knowing something is wrong but seeing no solution because they have no light to lead them to a solution. So they rock and roll it out in one grand time in order to forget and to escape the nervous tensions that encumber them. And these cold, formal churches that are backslidden so far (Pentecostals too are included) are finding other ways to take their minds off these evil vexations because they are failing to receive an answer from God that will make a way out for them. Rather than praying through to God to remove the evil that plagues the world and be free of it they would rather endorse relaxing and watching TV, have suppers and sewing parties, run to swimming beaches and places of worldly gatherings, preach sermons on flowers and bluebirds, and totally lay aside the real issues and blessings of God—that He can heal and perform miracles and raise the dead, and all the other truths they've stopped preaching. Just when they should be preaching these things harder than ever they aren't saying a word. Why? Because they are backslidden. Instead of praying through and hanging on to God they discontinued prayer meetings, and when they did that they had to substitute them with something like a social sewing meet or a run on the golf course. If you want to escape the evil of the world hang on to God, don't give up. It may look blacker than ever before but if you don't keep praying and seeking God you'll never get an answer. Keep hanging on saints. If your denomination has given up and refuses to pray and give heed to God's fullness in this hour and face the bare truth, then quit your church and find one that IS hanging on!
E-82 Instead of praying through, you prayed out. What's the matter with you weak-backed Christians? You let down the bars. Sure it was easier to let down the bars—you thought you wouldn't have so much pressure from the world. Well you're going to get a lot of pressure one of these days and you'll find it would have been much easier to hold up the bars than suffer the judgment of having let them down. Have you ever stopped to think of the lovely Joseph? What if he had given up and quit praying when he was in the dungeon? If any man had a right to quit on God and to give up because he was seemingly forsaken, it was Joseph. He was cast into a dungeon for taking a stand against sin. How could God allow him to be thrown in prison when he had made such a courageous and loyal stand for God? Surely Joseph had a right to rebel and to backslide into a cold state after such a thing! He could have—but he prayed and still believed for the supernatural, and looked to God's MIGHTY HAND TO BRING HIM OUT. How many of your Pentecostal Hollywood preachers would have held out like Joseph? Three long years in a filthy bug-infested dungeon with men of evil natures for constant company. Think of it, three long years—but he hung on to God, he hung on to prayer, he didn't waver. Weeks went into months, and months into years, still God didn't take him out. Oh he could have given up, but no, not Joseph—he was born-again, he couldn't give up, something within him cried out as it did with Job, "Though you slay me, yet will I trust you." He hung on for three long years, then God brought him out with His mighty hand.
E-83 He brought Joseph out with a supernatural manifestation, and ever since the day Joseph left that dungeon the supernatural of God accompanied him wherever he went. I say tonight that if the church will pray, oh pray and hang on, that one day it will arise and God will bring it out with His mighty hand and endue it with power from on high as He did on the day of Pentecost, and like Joseph they will go forth in the land with the supernatural of God with them. Remain faithful, deliverance is soon to come Church. Believe me as God's servant I speak the truth.
E-84 The church of the living God may be tried for a season now, but born-again sons and daughters are now being led together and are being impressed by the Holy Spirit to come away from the world and all its ties. I know that we can make it to safety from all the evil that will befall this world only if we pay heed to God. But man won't listen, even though the warning voice of God speaks day after day man still desires to live in sin—and the Christian, it seems, loves dabbling with the things of the world.
E-85 It is later than we think, but many people think they have plenty of time. The Scriptures, however, declare differently. Jesus said, "Likewise also as it was in the days of Noah, and in the days of Lot, so shall it be in the day of the coming of the Son of man." Let us look at die coming of destruction and judgment as it came to pass in the days of Noah and Lot. They are both types and examples of the third destruction in God's Word.
E-86 Before God came to destroy Sodom and Gomorrah, or before He destroyed the earth by water, He sent a real mercy call. Notice how Enoch came and preached against sin—and God sent an angel also, and He sent His prophet Noah. But what did men do? They ate, they drank, they builded, and it was "wine, women, and song," and they rejected the message of Enoch and of Noah. The message of Enoch and Noah was Grace, Mercy, and Deliverance, but the message was turned down, and they sinned on—just as they do today. The world of that day had its great men of learning, and its great scientific advancements, and they put their trust in their own knowledge rather than in God's Word, or God's prophets, so God was rejected of them—therefore God in turn did reject them. When the waters of judgment came it took the believer to safety, but the unbeliever to death and torment. It was the same water that destroyed the unbeliever that took Noah to safety. Today it is the Gospel message that will destroy the unbeliever, and take the believer to the realms of glory and will rapture the sons of God before judgment strikes. The church will be safely carried through it. Amen.
E-87 We try to bring the message of the supernatural of the vision of our heart that is telling us of the end time being at hand, but the modem church rejects it as did Lot's kinfolk. People laugh and make fun of the supernatural, just as Lot's kinfolk laughed and made fun of him.
E-88 I have noticed too that here are some preachers who will not preach the message of His soon coming—they will bypass this important subject, or they will pass it off to their followers that it is for the next generation after them. But the fact is that this is, I believe with all my heart, the last generation and God has come down from glory to baptize the church with His power. Jesus said, "Go ye into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature," and the next verse, "These signs shall follow them that believe." Look at it in the face of what it is worth—what other generation has received this light and brought forth these works of God since the day of the early church? The early church had this same ministry, then the long dark ages started, and now the end is at hand and the words of Jesus are burned into the hearts of His people again, for He said, "Go ye into all the nations and preach the gospel unto every creature, and when this is done then shall the end time be." Can't you see that God's church is being endued with power as it was when it began? His sons are going forth with the message of grace and mercy and deliverance and the signs the Bible spoke of are following them—as well as appearing in the heavens. Anyone with an ounce of spiritual insight can see for themselves that this is the generation that will fulfill God's Word.
E-89 Lot was a righteous man the Bible declares, but the sins of his people and of Sodom vexed his righteous soul daily, as it does the hearts of true sons of God today. Lot had seen the perversion and the misuse of the human body, dope addicts, drunkards, and juvenile delinquents, but Lot's kinfolk mocked at him, and they wouldn't believe him. Oh I can hear them laugh at Lot, saying "How can a great city like Sodom be destroyed with all its might and power and super-scientific advancements?" And they are saying the same things today, "How can the world be destroyed by fire, how can it come to an end?" On and on they prattle... My dear brothers, I will tell you how it will go out--the same Word that spoke the world in to existence will speak it out of existence—by the Word of the Lord it was spoken into existence, and by the Word of the Lord it will be spoken out of existence. God be merciful to this poor, wretched, blind, miserable nation. It has become rich and increased with goods, but it is naked before God and knows it not. What a pitiful sight!
E-90 Let us look at what took place before Sodom was crushed by God. I want you to notice that Sodom was blotted out by fire, and in Noah's time the world was blotted out with water. God made a covenant with man that He would not destroy the world by water again, but He made no covenant with man concerning the fire—therefore He can destroy the world by fire and not break His word. Peter the apostle saw this and spoke of it.
E-91 Before God would destroy Sodom He sent His angel to warn Abraham. Why? Because Abraham was one who lived by the Word and kept the Word. That is how angels come to man—because they keep God's Word. Three angels came to Abraham and told him (a godly prophet of God) that God would destroy Sodom. Watch the reason for these three angels' visit—they were bringing the news of the last warning of destruction. And the angels left Abraham's place and went on to Sodom to tell Sodom of the pending judgment. Sodom in return laughed at the angels and even sought to do evil to the angels. Oh how like the so-called churches of the world today. A real God-sent man will come into their city and they will seek to do him evil and hurt rather than stand behind him and back him up and support him, and pay heed to the message. But the Bible says they will be like that, speaking of the last days expressly, "Men will be lovers of the things of the world, heady, high-minded^ truce breakers, false accusers, devisers of those who are good." You say, "Brother Branham, those people must be communists." No they're not—they are so-called Christians, having a form of godliness but denying the power thereof—denying the last day message, denying the supernatural, refusing to pay heed.
E-92 Oh but how blessed to rest in God and to believe, and to be rewarded as was Lot and was Noah- chosen by our faithfulness and His grace to escape. Have you ever read the Word this way concerning the great flood? Before one drop of rain fell to earth, Noah went into the ark—and before one ball of fire fell from heaven on Sodom, Lot was taken out of Sodom. And Jesus said as it was in the days of Noah, and as it was in the days of Lot, so shall it be in our day of the coming of the Son of man. The handwriting is on the wall, Church. Wake up! If the writing is on the wall, how close then is the rapture of the church? Think of it- -Noah went into the ark for safety, and Lot came out of Sodom for the same reason. One came out, the other went in. What is this a type of? Well, I picture it in my heart as this: it is a type of the church coming out of the world for safety, and going into the ark of Christ to sail on to glory. Noah went into the ark of safety, and Christ is the ark of safety. And remember this—before the hail and the darkness and death swept over Egypt, Israel made her way to Goshen where there was light. Men and women, listen to me now—before the day comes and you're left here upon the earth in darkness and judgment, run as hard as you can to the ask for safety—receive His message of mercy. "Hurry," said the angel, "and escape hither for I can do nothing till thou hast come out.” Judgment can not come. Russia has a missile that will put us on our deathbed. What is it speaking of nationally and spiritually? God is speaking to His church to "Come hither for I can do nothing till thou hast come out." God, waiting for His church to break down their denominational barriers and come together for a real out-pouring of Holy Spirit to lift His church to glory. "I can do nothing till you come thither." We must come together that He might unite us into one body and rapture us before world destruction.
E-93 He is visiting you today, Church, in mercy, and while He is pay heed and receive His message. Come hither away from these man-made Babylonian walls of man-made denominations; run away from man-made theology and creeds; run to the middle of God's grace and scream for mercy, for it is the blood of His son that will save you! Get away from your old doubting nature, your superstitions, pay heed and flee to the middle of His grace and live. For I say unto you the walls of man-made denominations will crumble and perish with the unbelieving world. But righteous Lot and righteous Noah were taken out, and so will the church of the living God be taken out. If you pay heed you will not see one atomic bomb, and not one weapon of destruction will come nigh thee—you will be safe in God's great kingdom. Can't you feel the pull of God's spirit trying to get you away from all that is man-made in a slumbering church, to keep you by His living Spirit? Blessed be the Lord, He is opening our eyes! We are coming forth dear God, revive us as we come hither.
Amen.