A ND T HY SEED SHALL POSSESS

T HE GATE OF HIS ENEMIES

 Let us remain standing, and just bow our heads for a word
of prayer.
2 Our Gracious Heavenly Father, it is again that we approach Thee,
asking forgiveness of our sins and trespasses, and praying that You’ll be
merciful to us, Father. We would pray, Lord, that You would pardon all
of our transgressions, would lead us into the paths of Light and Life.
3 And make us, Lord, so salty that others would long to be Christians,
in whom we contact, we know that salt is a savour if it contacts. And
Father, we pray that You will make us the strength of the salt, and may
we be so desirous to contact the outside world that’s dying, that it might
be a savour to them. We are told that we are written epistles, read of
all men, and, Father, we pray that our lives will so be, as we profess to
have this great experience of Pentecost, that it will be such a—a salty to
the world, that they’ll long to be that way also.
4 Give us of Thy Holy Spirit, Lord, that we might show to the world,
that our faith in our Saviour is confirmed, that He is not dead, but
He is living with us day by day, guiding us and directing us, feeding us,
walking by the still waters and the shady green pastures.
5 We pray that You’ll bless us tonight in the Word. Heal the sick and
the afflicted, save the lost. Get glory unto Thy great Name, for we ask
it, in Thy Name, Jesus Christ. Amen.
You may be seated.
6 We are indeed, deem this a grand privilege to be back again tonight,
here at the church, to minister again the Word to the people. And
this has been a great day. I’m so glad to meet Christians, to meet
real, borned-again people. I hope you don’t think that I, expressing
and saying the things that I do, that I think that California has all the
sinners, they’re all over the world. And I have…Last evening when I
was approaching, I had been down in the city in the afternoon, and I
noticed that some of the peoples, how they were doing, just like they
are in other parts of the world.
7 And I come in last night, and nicest, little girl from the platform
here, from the choir, I believe it was, walked back there. She was a
Canadian, real nice, little lady, clean looking, and a real, just a real
lady, I hope my Rebekah is like that when she gets her age, a Canadian
girl. And then, tonight, coming in, standing out there by the side of the
2 THE SPOKEN WORD
wall stood a—a little lady, standing out there, when my son, and my
daughter-in-law come up, and I, from Arkansas, waiting out there in
the cold just to shake hands with me, said she had remembered when
I was in Hot Springs many, many years ago, the Humbard family. And
just see people like that, it just makes life worth living.
8 You know, we—we live to serve, and to do what we can for those
people, and to try to help others that maybe doesn’t know the joy of
living that life. Some people think that when you become a Christian
that it ta-…just takes all the joy out of life, it’s just vice versa. I—I
have lived both ways, this is thirty-one years I’ve been preaching, and
I have…I would not trade this life if there wasn’t even any Heaven
to go to at the end of it, there wasn’t any Jesus to see. I have more joy
living this way than I, one day, than I would ten years any other way,
if there wasn’t nothing after.
9 But that’s really from my heart, as—as your brother and God’s
servant. There’s such a peace and a satisfaction, knowing that when
you lay down if you never wake again, what difference does it make?
See? You’re—you’re—you’re saved, that—that anchor that holds within
the veil somewhere out there, something that tells us that the good is
just the other Side.
10 Billy said last night to me when I left, he said, “Daddy, do you think
you could ever make it sometime you’d get out nine o’clock?”
I said, “I hope so, sometime.” But I…You’re such a nice people
to talk to, and you…there’s no place to stop.
And he said, “Well, first thing, you talked about thirty minutes
before you ever started on your sermon.”
11 I said, “Now, Billy, I’m going to, I ain’t going to do that tonight, I’m
going—I’m going to start right straight into the sermon right quick, so
I can let the people out.”
12 We got a, still a full week; and then we’ve got to go from here then
up into Visalia; and right straight from there to Ohio, back in the snow;
and down in Virginia, where I think they got seventeen inches of snow
in there now; then back over in Illinois, Bloomington, up Chicago;
and then all the way up in northern British Columbia, where it’s really
snowing; and then, I hope, if the Lord willing, sometime this summer,
to—to get overseas again, because there is where my heart lays. That is
true. You would, too.
You say, “Well, you don’t love us.”
13 Yes, I love you, but you are already anchored in Christ, and those
people over there, just so hungering and thirsting. And now, if I was
working for you, and I could pick, I was picking berries, on one side
of the road over here, I could pick fifty gallon a day, on this side of the
A ND THY SEED SHALL POSSESS THE GATE OF HIS ENEMIES 3
road, I could pick two quarts a day. Now, which field should I work in?
Certainly. You know what I mean.
14 But one thing about having meetings here, the American people
has the money, and they’re the ones that have to sponsor. Those people
can’t even eat over there but what…and it’s just so terrible, you would
never realize what it is.
15 Won’t strike your heart until you stand in the street sometime,
preaching, and seeing a little mother with her little baby, and his belly
swelled up that high, dying for hunger, and trying to hand you the baby,
she knows she’s going to die, too, starving. Well, what if you take that
one? Here is one over here, and one here, and one here, and one, just
everywhere. See? And it’s a pitiful thing.
16 Then you come back, and think that we rake in the garbage can
enough to feed those people.
17 And there’s just something, the economics of the world is not
balanced right somewhere, it’s just not right. And we can’t do nothing
about it, you can see it, but, see, I’m just one American. And that’s…
and just one Christian. And we can come back and tell the stories.
18 And it’s truth that many missionaries, tonight, are eating one or
two meals a week, and without shoes on their feet, just an old pair of
ragged trousers, or something, wrapped around them, going into the
jungles preaching the Gospel, this Gospel that we’re preaching right
here. It just isn’t right, it just doesn’t seem right, although they don’t
complain, they go right ahead doing it, anyhow. Just almost breaks
your heart to see.
I say, “That fellow there?”
“He’s a missionary.”
19 When we was in Durban, South Africa, there’s where I had, I
guess, the largest altar call the Lord ever gave me, we registered thirty
thousand converts at one altar call. Just think of that. Thirty thousand
blanket natives received Christ as personal Saviour when they seen
taking place, just like you’ve seen here last night. They’re hungering
and thirsting. And when they see something that’s got a reality to it!
But see, we here in America, we just have all kinds of evangelists, and
if one don’t please us, we just drop him off, get another one. And you
know, we just have such a variety, and the—and the first thing you
know, why, it all becomes so common to us till we just forget about it.
Those people are really craving God.
20 I seen little black boys stand like that, little children, never knowed
what a suit of clothes was. Never knowed…Well, we had some
homemade ice cream, and one of them would come up, and I put it
4 THE SPOKEN WORD
in his hand, he dropped it and screamed out. I asked Mr.…, or, the
man was standing with me, “What did he say?”
“He said, ‘Boss, it burnt me.’” It was cold, you see, he never had felt
nothing cold, see. He said, “It burnt me.”
21 See them down there, when they go to get their drink, and the
crocodiles chaw them up. And see them coming for as many as two
months ahead of time, when they heard I was coming over there to
pray for their sick. They would go along packing their loved ones
on homemade stretchers, boards, and whatever they could have. And
when they would, a lion would come, they would shinny them up a tree
somewhere till the lions left, then bring them down. Such a sacrifice,
down through the jungles! And then to see them laying at least four or
five city blocks deep, till you can’t even see the end of them like that,
laying there, just…
22 And when they seen one man healed at the platform…I turned,
and through fifteen different interpreters, it’s, you just have to write
down what you said last, but when I asked them, had the missionary
told them what this great Jesus was?
“Yes,” but he had also told them that the days of miracles was past.
I said, “Now, what was He then? Whatever He was then, He
remains the same if He’s living.” See?
23 And when they seen that proved that He was, I made just a prayer,
congregational prayer, and Dr. F. F. Bosworth (Did anybody ever hear
of him? Most everybody. One of the grandest ol’ saints I ever met
in my life.), he estimated between twenty-five and thirty thousand
spontaneous miracles taken place at one time.
The next morning, Mr. Sidney Smith, the mayor of—of—of Durban
called me, said, “Watch the window towards the seashore from your
hotel room.”
I said, “What is it?”
Said, “I will see if I can get there in time, it’s on its road.”
Well, I was sitting there, I wondered, “What did the mayor mean?”
24 And just that night, there had been a woman had died over there
that day, a friend of his, prayed for her, and she had come to life, the
papers giving big headlines about it. And I went up…
25 See, where people really humble themselves, and forget everything
else, and just believe on the Lord, just everything takes place. And
then…But you have to believe it, that’s all, just, not—not just strain
at it, but just simple, believe it, see, just, right.
And so, they called. And I heard something making a noise, and I
went down the street.
A ND THY SEED SHALL POSSESS THE GATE OF HIS ENEMIES 5
26 Now, they have—they have tribal wars among them, but when I
walked to the platform there was fifteen, I know, different tribes there,
all in there with their witch doctors, and the chiefs, and so forth, and
they all stand with one accord, about nearly two hundred thousand,
and sang, each one in their native tongue, all blending together, “All
things are possible, only believe.”
27 Brother Bosworth said he had trained symphonies, and went
to the Madison Square Garden with a hundred-and-something-piece
orchestra, and he said never…said some of them would be a octave
high and a octave low, training voices, but said there—there was just
every one, and them, wouldn’t know which was right and left hand, just
perfect music. I can just see him yet as he took off his glasses, and begin
wiping his eyes, he said, “Brother Branham, this is my coronation,
to hear that.”
I said, “That’s the Holy Spirit, It’s the only Thing that could
make them sing.”
28 The next day, when I went to the window and looked out, I thought
my heart would jump from me, I looked, coming down the street there
come seven of those big African vans. They’re just about long as from
here to the, oh, across this building almost, got some four to six wheels
under them. And they were piled just as high as they could be piled
with old boards, and clubs, and things that those people had walked on
the day before.
29 And the ones that had walked on them was walking behind, for
city blocks. Six of those bi-…seven of those big van fulls, like that,
coming down the street with their hands up in the air, was crippled the
day before singing, “All things are possible, only believe.” I tell you!
You see why…what I mean. It’s just, it’s, your heart just bleeds to get
to them again, you see, just jumps to see what you could do for them.
30 And I got a paper, one of the Durban paper, that said that one tribe,
the Shangaan, I forget how much that they brought back weeks later,
and they was, and when they come back, they was through with sin,
bring back firearms, and watches, and what they had stole from living
out in the compounds, you know, they would come into the city, steal.
31 Now you pardon me, my sisters, for this rude expression, and do
not think that I’m trying to make something, pushing it hard. But I just
want, just to ask you one thing. We’re supposed to live in a—a land of
civilization. And this baptism of the Holy Spirit that we talk about, I’ve
seen people receive the Holy Spirit that didn’t know right and left hand.
And you know what they do when they receive it? They act just like
you do when you receive it, do the same thing. And they don’t know
which is right and left hand. And standing on that ground were women
6 THE SPOKEN WORD
standing there, just as, no clothes, no more than they was borned in,
and there they stood there, young and old, and all alike.
32 And I asked them, I said, “Now, I want you to…Would you
receive this Jesus, that’s made this man that was all crippled up to
stand up straight and walk, where It told him…?” And I said, “I…
As your witch doctors had thought I was reading his mind.” I said,
“Now, it shows the God of Heaven has made him well.” I said, “How
many wants to receive Him as personal Saviour?” And they raised
up, thousands.
Brother Baxter and them said, “I believe they must have meant
physical healing.”
33 I said, “Start it through the interpreters again.” I said, “I did not
mean physical healing, I meant to receive Christ, Someone Who loves
you. And I realize that you got a raw end of it here, just like our
American Indian got over there, where God placed him in the land.”
But I said, “You—you got a bad deal out of it, but there is One that
will give you justice, that’s the Lord Jesus, and you want to receive
Him as your personal Saviour, you can go Home to Heaven.” And
I said, “Raise your hands. Them that’s packed idols, break them on
the ground.”
And they broke their idols, and raised up their hands, thirty
thousand blanket heathens.
I said, “While you have your hands up, receive Jesus for the baptism
of the Holy Spirit.”
34 And when they did that, them people, some women standing there,
naked, just a clout, you know what they done to walk away from there?
They folded their arms to walk away.
35 Now, what is the strange thing to me, that a woman that don’t
know right and left hand, and as soon as Christ comes to her heart, she
realizes she’s naked, and she will try to hide herself, and we, who are
supposed to be a Christian nation, continually takes it off. Can you
explain it to me? I—I just want to ask that question. I…in all…
I don’t mean that to joke, this is not no place to joke, this is the
desk, the pulpit of God, see. But isn’t that true? It…Can you make
sense out of it?
36 A native that knows nothing about God, and as soon as Christ
comes to their heart, they realize they’re naked, and we who are
supposed to be Christians, constantly each year, just as much as the
law will keep from running you off the street, taking it off every year.
Something is wrong, somewhere. Maybe it’s…it might be me, it just
might be me that’s wrong, I don’t know. If I’m wrong, then the Word
is wrong, see. I like to stay with the Word.
A ND THY SEED SHALL POSSESS THE GATE OF HIS ENEMIES 7
37 Now, forgive me, Billy, I did it again. I believe I had Brother Borders
to read some…I got some announcements here, but I will just get
them a little later, ’cause it get too late. And I’m going to try to get out
at nine o’clock, if I possibly can.
38 Now, I want to take from that Scripture reading out of Genesis, the
22nd chapter, and the last ten verses of the 17th verse:
and thy seed shall possess the gate of his enemies;
39 Now, we been studying on Abraham, and how that God was with
Abraham, and what He did for him. And last Saturday night, we left
Abraham, you know, where God had turned him and Sarah back to
a young man and young woman. Did you like that? Do you believe
it? Went back, and she had the baby. And we’ve proved that by the
Scripture that Sarah was a young woman, because there was a young
king down there, Abimelech, that fell in love with her.
40 And I got a little note on it, said, “Brother Branham, they just lived
longer in that day.” Someone little disagree, course, that’s just all right,
but I would like to make that clear to you, my brother.
41 Did you notice the Scripture says, “And they were both well
stricken in age”? See? They were old. And so He turned them back to a
young man and a young woman, showing what He’s going to do to all
the Seed of Abraham. Now, we see those great promises that He gave.
42 Then we find out that Abraham was sterile; Sarah was, perhaps,
was barren, perhaps Sarah was the one that was barren. But after,
Abraham, being his own body, as the Bible said in Romans 4, as good
as dead, and we find out that yet forty years after that, when his wife
died and he married again, he had seven other sons, besides daughters,
after that. So, you see, it just, you, in between the line, you see, God
just done something for them, that’s right, He just turned them back,
and made them a young couple again.
43 I’m so glad that I have the opportunity, and can bring one of the
greatest treasures to the people that there is in the world, to tell them
that we are heirs with Abraham of this promise, we are Abraham’s
children. How do we do it? By joining the church? No. By being dead in
Christ, receiving the Holy Spirit. Then we are Abraham’s Seed, and are
heirs with him according to the promise. Don’t fail to get it, Christian
friend, stay with it.
44 If I do a little whistling-like while I’m speaking, all of you know that
I used to be a pugilist, I used to box, I had the three-state championship,
never lost but one fight in my life. And I smiled at a guy one time when
he—he hit at me and missed me, and he smacked me right in the mouth,
and it knocked two teeth loose there, and broke the corner off one. And
just the other day, I lost the filling out of it, so I—I do a little bit of
whistling at times.
8 THE SPOKEN WORD
45 I was thinking one time how bad that was, and I remember Mrs.
Graham, for the noted evangelist, Billy, said that the, one of the great
times of his life that, he’s got one tooth out in front, you know, and he
wears a partial, and he lost this tooth, and it was just about time for
him to go on the broadcast, and he said, “He just whistles terrible, and
he just, and he had to stand by the microphone,” and said, “oh, Billy
was really doing some praying.”
46 And a porter, and everybody looking through, the bellhops trying
to find this tooth, where it was at. Come to find out, it fell out of his
trouser pocket and was in his shoe, somebody found it down in one
of his shoes. And—and she told it on him while she was in Louisville.
And so, the thing he did, he would take a towel after taking a bath, and
throw it over the top of the door like that, and make a big, dirty streak.
And she was too short to get up and wipe it off, you know. So, we all
have our faults, you see, all of us, even to the best.
47 So we find that Abraham and Sarah now had received this little one.
At the age of about twelve years old, he was taken, asked by God, or, to
take his own child up on the mountain and sacrifice him, take his life.
48 And Abraham did not disbelieve God, because he knew that if he—
that if he obeyed God like he had, waited for twenty-five years, that he
received him as one from the dead (Now what about that? Were they
old or not?), receiving him as one from the dead, knowed that he was
fully persuaded He was able to raise him up again from the dead. See?
Because he was just as good as dead, his life within him, as the male,
was dead, and Sarah, the womb was dead, and she was just…He had
just received him as one from the dead, so he knowed that God could
raise him up if He kept His promise.
49 Then we see when full obedience come, then when he was about
to take the life of his own son, the Angel of the Lord called from the
skies, and held his hand, and there was a ram behind him. And he took
the ram that had been caught in the weeds by his, or, the vines by his
horns, and offered the ram instead of his own son. And we discussed
that. Where did this ram come from?
50 Now, Abraham was three-days’ journey, and then lifted up his
eyes far off and seen the mountain. He was at least seventy-five to a
hundred miles from civilization, and up on top of a mountain where
there’s no grass or no water, and he had rolled the rocks around, and
fixed the altar, and there was no ram there. And if a ram would be up
there, animals would, killed it long ago, straying out like that. And
that’s the reason he called it Jehovah-jireh, “The Lord will provide
Himself a sacrifice.”
51 I believe God spoke the ram into existence. And we found out that
it wasn’t a vision, a vision don’t bleed, he killed the ram, and the blood
A ND THY SEED SHALL POSSESS THE GATE OF HIS ENEMIES 9
run out of the ram, and he offered that instead of his own son. You
know who that ram was? The Lord Jesus Christ. That’s exactly. That
was, in figurative speaking, that was Him.
52 Then God was so pleased with complete obedience! God had tried
His patriarch, He had tried His servant. And every son that cometh
to God must be what? Tried, chastened. That’s where that many fall
away, because we can’t stand that trial.
53 A person come to the altar time of revival, and you’ll watch just
a little while, when the hot trials begin to come, Jesus plainly taught
it, said, “The sower went forth sowing seeds, some fell by the wayside,
some fell into stony ground, and amongst thorns and thistles, and the
others fell over in good ground.”
54 And He said that’s the way the Word went, goes out: Some hears
the Word, go out, birds come along, pick it up, see, they don’t—don’t
do no good at all. Others come up overnight, oh, they’re going to do
great things, but when the trials begin to come, it chokes them down.
But some goes all the way over into good ground, and that brings forth
a hundredfold.
55 Let’s be the hundredfold, let’s go way over, sell out everything from
the world, and look to Christ, and believe Him with all of our hearts.
That’s how these things happen, that’s how visions come, that’s how
power to God…of God moves among us is when we’re, no roots of
bitterness, and everything is cleaned out, and the Holy Spirit can work
through us, then we become a channel.
56 What if there was a short in this speaker, tonight? You’d never be
able to hear me, it would be all full of static, you wouldn’t know what
I was saying. Well, that’s just like we are. That’s a—that’s a mute, until
something makes a noise in it, it cannot speak itself. And that’s the
way we are, we know nothing about the Heavenlies, but it takes the
Holy Spirit to come down, and use our eyes for visions, our lips for
words and prophecies, and—and—and speak the words, and watch the
things happen.
57 “Ask what you will in My Name, it shall be done unto you.” See?
“If ye abide in Me, and My Words in you, ask what you will, and it’ll
be done unto you. Verily I say unto you, if you say to this mountain,
‘Be moved,’ and don’t doubt in your heart, but believe that what you
have said will come to pass, you can have what you’ve said.” Saint Mark
11:22 and 23. Now, we know that those things are true.
58 Now, we find that Abraham first was tried. And after he had
endured the trials…
59 And what does the Bible say that we are if we cannot stand the
chastisement of God? Then we become illegitimate children, so-called
children, but not real children of God. The children of God knows
10 THE SPOKEN WORD
exactly where they stand, they know where they’ve put their hope, their
faith, their trust, nothing will ever shake them from it.
60 “All the Father has given Me will come,” that’s right, and now,
“he that comes to Me I will in no wise cast out. He that heareth My
Words, and believeth on Him that sent Me, has Eternal Life, and shall
never come into condemnation, but has passed from death unto Life.”
There’s the Scripture. See? Saint John 5:24.
61 They believe it, they’ve accepted it, there’s something happened
to them, they become a new creature. They’re a new nature, they’re—
they’re a new being, a new creature. There, the Greek word says, “new
creation.” It’s a new creation, you have been recreated again from what
you were, to the image of a son of God, and a daughter of God. It’s just
such an…it’s the greatest miracle that ever happened, when a sinner
can be made to become a Christian.
62 For instance, here’s a thorn tree growing, it’s—it’s life, this thorn
tree, and it’s got thorns all over it, and it’s got a funny-looking leaf
on it. Now, you see, it takes something besides any human work to
change that thorn tree, and make them thorns go off of it, and just
unfold, and be real pretty, smooth leaves, and bear oranges. Now, you
see, what would have to take place? You would have to transfer the life
of an orange tree into that thorn tree, and then it would actually bear
oranges, because the life inside of it is orange. Of course, you couldn’t
do that naturally, it won’t—it won’t cross that way.
63 But that’s what we are. Like, we—we are now a—a wheat, a grain
of wheat in God’s garner, when we was a cocklebur, and God changed
us from a cocklebur to a grain of wheat. Makes the fruits different,
changing your own mind, your own ideas. It’s the greatest miracle that
ever happened, when a man or a woman is borned again of the Spirit
of God, and becomes a new creation in Christ Jesus.
64 Now, we find then that God told Abraham, “Because you have did
this,” and give the patriarch this great trial, He said, “your Seed shall
possess the gates of the enemy…of his enemies.” Enemies, it’s in the
plural. “They shall possess the gates of the enemies.”
65 Now, his Seed. Now, who’s He talking about, the Seed? The
Seed is the Church. How do we come to Church? Not by joining It,
but by being borned into It. You see, I—I believe that we have our
organization, our denominations, and them things are all right, but that
don’t put us in the Church. We could join every one of them, and still
not be in the Church. You don’t, you’re not joined in the Church, you’re
borned in the Church. You become the family of God.
66 Now, I been in the Branham family for fifty-one years, and they
never did ask me to join the family, because I was a Branham at
birth, I was born in the family. I—I be a Branham by birth, that’s
A ND THY SEED SHALL POSSESS THE GATE OF HIS ENEMIES 11
how you become a Christian, by birth. When you’re borned again you
become a new creature, a new creation in Christ Jesus, and all old
things has passed away, and all things has become new again. What
a…Wonderful!
67 I’d like to ask the church one thing: What greater treasure could
you find in earth, tonight? What could you find that you would swap
for this hope? Why, there couldn’t be nothing that would no ways touch
it any way, for this great hope.
68 Now, but remember, “Thy Seed shall possess the gates of his
enemies.” The Seed shall possess. Now, He’s talking now of Abraham’s
Seed. And how do we become Abraham’s Seed? By being dead in
Christ, Galatians 3. We, when we’re dead in Christ, we become
Abraham’s Seed. See? We—we’re dead to the things of the world, and
begin a new creature in Christ Jesus, then the Holy Spirit that was
in Christ is in us, and that makes us Abraham’s Seed, and gives us
Abraham’s faith. See? That’s the reason…
69 People say, “Oh, I wouldn’t believe in Divine healing.” I was talking
to a certain minister, nothing against the man, he’s got a right for his
ideas, he’s an American the same as we are, and he said, “Brother
Branham, I don’t care if you could produce ten thousand miracles, it’s,
still I do not believe in healing.”
70 I said, “Certainly not, it—it wasn’t for unbelievers, it was just for
those who believe.” See? That’s right. It’s—it’s not for unbelievers, it
was only meant for believers, that’s all. This Holy Spirit is to them
that believe, Divine healing is for those who believe, not unbelievers,
it’s believers.
71 Now, you know they…Jesus came right at the time they were
preaching against it, and everything else, but He went right on healing
just the same. And no matter how much they talk about “There’s no
such a thing as the Holy Spirit,” the people go right on receiving it just
the same. See? They might not be able to explain it, they can’t explain
how many molecules there is to an inch, or how many miles it is to the
moon, but they know they received Something, and they’re enjoying It.
72 And, this is not a joke, but it was told in the Christian Businessmen
recently, at one of the meetings. There was an elderly, colored sister
wanted to testify, she said it kind of in a Southern way, she said, “I’s
want to gives my testimony.” She said, “I’s not what I want to be, and
I’s not what I ought to be, but still I ain’t what I used to be.”
73 So, I think that’s the way the Church might be able to say it, tonight.
We might not be what we want to be, and we might not be what we
want to be, but, and what we ought to be, but we know something
has happened, we’re not what we used to be. I know that, because you
have passed from death unto Life. There’s something that happened,
12 THE SPOKEN WORD
and we know it, something taken place down in our lives, that makes
us Abraham’s Seed, because we are in Christ.
74 Now, his Seed, now, Jesus said about the Seed, He said this, that
“It would be far better that a millstone to be hanged at your neck,
and drowned in the depths of the sea than even to offend the Seed
of Abraham. The least of these that believe in Me, it would be a…”
And God told Abraham, “Whoever blesses you, I will bless them; and
whoever curses you, I curse them.”
75 Now, a little later on in the week now, I’m going to get The Seal Of
God And The Mark Of The Beast, and divide two nights on that, I want
you to be sure to get it if you can. You hear so many charts and things,
but watch how simple it is when the Bible brings it out, just how easy
it is to see it, and now, the pro and con of it.
76 Now, if you’ll notice, He said that He would bless who
Abraham…who blessed Abraham and his Seed would be blessed,
and He would curse ever who cursed Abraham. Now, you just watch
that in the Jewish people, see what’s happened; watch that amongst
Christians, see what’s happened, always that way. So, you see, he will
possess the gate of the enemy.
77 Let’s go back and find some of the men of Abraham’s Seed under
the Jewish covenant, then bring it down into the Gentiles, when we
were grafted over from the Jewish age to the Gentile age, to take a
people for His Name.
78 Now, let’s take some of the men who was the Seed of Abraham,
and see if they possessed the gate of the enemy. Let’s take for instance,
now, let’s speak a moment upon the, when the children of Israel had
been carried away captive down into Babylon. There come a time, first,
that there had to come a trial. There’s always trials, it’s always darkest
before day in—in nature, and you’ll always have trials before you have
victory; if there’s no war, then there’s no victory.
79 And now, the Hebrew children down there had been brought on to
a spot where the king had made a—a declaration, that anybody would
not bow down to this image would be throwed into a fire of furnace,
furnace of fire, rather. And then when they…That purposed in their
heart, that they was not going to defile themselves, they were going to
live close to God. Now, the three Hebrew children, Shadrach, Meshach,
and Abednego, they were the Seed of Abraham, they had the promise
of God that his Seed would possess the enemies’ gates.
80 Now, I’d imagine when a trial come up…What’s the first thing
a child of God has for a refuge when a trial comes? The greatest
weapon, was ever put in the hands of mankind, prayer. It even changes
everything, it even changed the mind of God one time. God told His
prophet go up and tell the king he was going to die. And the king
A ND THY SEED SHALL POSSESS THE GATE OF HIS ENEMIES 13
turned his face to the wall, and said, “Lord, I beseech You to consider
me, I have walked before You with a perfect heart. I need fifteen
years longer.” And God spared his life fifteen years longer. Prayer
changes things.
81 Then we notice then when these Hebrew children come to a
prayer meeting that night, “What are we going to do?” There had
to be a—a gathering, and a decision had to be made. No doubt they
prayed all night long, and the decision was unanimously, because they
were deciding that they could not afford to go back on God in the
time of trial.
82 Wouldn’t that be good for the whole church now? When the
decision is made, “Shall I turn to the things of the world? Shall I go
like the rest of them go?” That decision comes to every Christian, it
comes to you daily. How are we going to do it? You’ve got to make
your decision.
83 And they made their decision that, regardless of what taken place,
they wasn’t going to turn away from God, that’s right, because they
had the promise of God that they were Abraham’s Seed, and they
knowed their position, and knowed where they were standing. And
they told the king…
They said, “Now,” they said, “we’re going to throw you into this
fiery furnace if you do not bow down to this god.”
84 And he said, “King, live forever. Our God is able to deliver us from
that fiery furnace, He’s able to do it, but if He doesn’t, we’re still not
going to bow down to that image. We’ve made up our minds, we’ve took
the way with the Lord’s despised few, and we’re going to stand true to
it.” Oh my! That’s what the Church needs.
85 Now, you must take that same initiative when it comes to Divine
healing. When it comes to anything that God has promised, take the
initiative and stand there, God made the promise. He’s obligated to His
promise, as long as you’re Abraham’s Seed, He’s got to answer. Now,
don’t get any doubts in your mind, keep them doubts away. Just stay
right straight on the cross now, look right straight to the One Who
made the promise.
86 I’ve never seen Him fail yet, and I’ve never read of Him failing, and
you never will, because He can’t fail, He’s God. He made the promise,
He made it way back here in Genesis, that’s the seed chapter, “And your
Seed shall possess the gate of the enemies.” Not a enemy, the enemies,
every one of them, all of them.
87 Now, this enemy was the fiery furnace. So, I could imagine that
morning…Let’s just dramatize this just a little bit. It seems real
good to my heart when I see…You know, after they had made
their decision…
14 THE SPOKEN WORD
88 I believe God hears, but God don’t always have to answer prayer
right then. See? God answers in His Own time. If you asked Him, and
believe Him, then He will answer in His Own time. So, I imagine in
Glory there was, when they was praying, I can see the Angels standing
around the throne of where God was setting, saying, “They’re in prayer,
they’re under strain.”
“Yeah, but they’ll hold out true, I got confidence in them. They’re
My servant Abraham’s Seed, so they’ll hold true.”
Well, the next morning, the king might have said, “Have you
decided now that you’re going to bow down to my god?”
Said, “No, we’re not going to bow down. Well, we just…”
89 It raged his indignation in him, he het the furnace seven times
hotter than it ever was het. And he took some big strong men, they
started walking up to drop off into the furnace. And as they walked up
close, looked like that the dark hour was there.
90 That’s the way it looks to Christians sometime when somebody, the
young lady, when she’s been persuaded by a boy that she really loves
to take her first cigarette; when she’s forced, maybe, to take a—a drink
for her first time, have her first cocktail at the party of the boss that she
works for; or the man who’s got a wife and family at home, when the
immoral woman tries to make love to him, you’ve got those barriers
at the gate, but if you’ll just, look like God forsaken you, but just keep
walking steady, watch Him, just keep moving on.
91 And they walked right up. And, you know, we’re the one that gets
nervous. What about you, accepts your healing night after night? Well,
you think, “Oh,” tomorrow, “I—I’m—I’m still coughing. My hand is
still crippled.” That don’t have one thing to do with it. When you
have really, honestly, from the depths of your heart accepted that as
a finished work that Christ did for you, it’s finished, that’s all of it.
Yes, sir. Just stay right with it.
Now, they kept walking, I can imagine Shadrach looked over to
Meshach, said, “You’re sure we’re prayed up?”
“Oh, yeah.”
92 Walked right on, furnace getting hotter and hotter, till almost the
skin coming off of their face. Even the Bible said that the men that
throwed them in there, the intense heat of that furnace killed the men
that throwed them in. Looked like it was the darkest hour, they was
walked right up to the edge of the furnace.
93 But, you know, it sometimes God lets it get that way to try you.
You can never…Abraham would have never possessed the gate of the
enemy until he was tried first. And you’ll never possess the gate of the
enemy until you go through the trials. “Some through the waters, some
A ND THY SEED SHALL POSSESS THE GATE OF HIS ENEMIES 15
through the flood, some through deep trials, but all through the Blood.”
God leads his children. See, you must first be tried.
94 Oh, then the illegitimate falls in the trial, but the true child of God
stands true. He knows where his possession lays, he knows where he’s
standing, he knows what’s happened to him, he knows that he’s passed
from death unto Life, and he knows that God answers prayer.
95 Now, we see them going up, just this one step from going into the
fiery furnace, looked like that they were completely defeated.
It may be down…I’ve seen cancer cases come to almost
their last breath.
96 A brother laying with arthritis, recently, had his hands laying like
this. The Holy Spirit told him, said, “THUS SAITH THE LORD,
you’re healed.”
97 He went home and got worse. He said, “I can’t help it, that man
didn’t know me, he never seen me in his life.” Lived in Phoenix. He said,
“He never seen me in his life. How could he tell me who I was? I know
by the man’s talk, he’s no educator. I know that there was something
supernatural. And I…something happened.”
They couldn’t even move the pillow, when they moved the pillow
for his hands, he’d say, “Oh, wife, wife, be careful!” Oh, just screaming.
And she said, “Honey, aren’t you afraid you’re bringing a reproach
upon the very religion that we believe?”
Said, “I cannot! I believe it in my heart that it’ll happen.”
98 And it got so bad, he laid back, and his little girl was trying to put a
wet rag on his face, he felt fainty, and he looked up there, and he said he
seen Christ come before him on the cross. And said, when He bowed
his head to die, he thought his breath was going, he couldn’t breathe no
more, the arthritis was all through him, and when he bowed his head
to die, he seen Christ bow His head there, all of a sudden he give a
big leap, and out of the chair, and around and around and around the
place he went.
And that, why? He possessed the gate when He went through the
trial. But first, you must possess…must take the trial.
99 The Hebrew children was at that place. Sometimes we think it’s real
dark, but remember, it’s in the darkest of hour when Jesus comes by.
100 It was Mary and Martha, the little sisters of Lazarus, Christian
family had left their synagogue to believe on the Lord Jesus, and it
was their darkest hour.
101 They come out of their church, they couldn’t go back no more, ever
who professed to be a follower of Jesus was excommunicated from the
church because He was a—a radical, Somebody going around tearing
16 THE SPOKEN WORD
up their churches. And they didn’t want that, so they said, “Anybody
tries to follow him, why, we will throw you out of fellowship.” So they
were out of the fellowship. And they couldn’t return back to church,
they were become heretics.
102 And then, the very Man that they come out for, the Lord Jesus,
very Man they come out for, they sent for Him to come pray for their
brother when he was laying, dying with hemorrhages, and they…
He refused to come. They sent the second time, and He refused to
come. Oh, how dark the hour was then! Finally, the midnight hour
come, struck, and the boy died. They put him in the grave, he was
there four days, corruption had already set in his body. Skin worms was
in him, bugs from the ground was crawling into his flesh, the darkest
hour they ever seen, it was at that time when Jesus came by, just at
that dark hour.
103 Oh, a woman that, said not long ago, said, “Brother Branham,” I
was talking about raising Lazarus, said, “You don’t mean to…You
brag too much about Jesus being Divine.”
I said, “He was Divine, yes.”
She said, “Well, I will prove to you by your Bible he wasn’t.”
I said, “Go to it.”
And she said, “Well, the 11th chapter of Saint John said he went
to the grave of Lazarus, he wept.”
104 I said, “That didn’t—that didn’t have nothing to do with it, He
was both man and God.” I said, “He was a man, truly, when He was
weeping, but when He stood by the side of a man’s grave that had been
dead four days, and his nose already fell in, the bugs eating in his body,
said ‘Lazarus, come forth,’ that took more than a man.” Yes, sir.
105 He was a man when He come down off the mountain that night,
looking around for something to eat on that olive tree, and they found
nothing there, He was a man when He was hungry, but when He took
five biscuits and two pieces of fish and fed five thousand, that was more
than a man, yes, sir, that was God in that Man. Yes, sir.
106 He was a man laying out there on the back of that little ship that
night, devils, forty thousand of them, of the sea, swore they would
drown Him, that little ol’ ship like a bottle stopper out there, flopping
around, the devil said, “We got him now, he’s asleep. We will drown
him.” He was a man, tired and weary, laying out on the back of that
boat there, with a pillow somewhere, asleep. But, brother, when He
once arose, oh my, put His foot upon the brail of the boat, looked up,
and said, “Peace, be still,” and the winds and the waves obeyed Him,
that was more than a man, that was God in that Man.
A ND THY SEED SHALL POSSESS THE GATE OF HIS ENEMIES 17
107 It was a man that cried for mercy on the cross, that’s right, “My
God, why hast Thou forsaken Me?” He died crying for mercy, that’s
right. But on that third morning, when He broke death’s seals, and
rose again on the third day, and ascended on High, He was more
than a man.
108 Everybody that’s ever amounted to anything believed that. That’s
right. Poets, authors, prophets, whatever more, believe that.
109 Now, the Hebrew children, going through their trial, they was right
up to the last moment, they was just ready to step into the furnace. You
know what? Sometimes we watch things going on here on earth, but
there’s something going on in Heaven all the same time. We might not
be able to see it, but it’s going on, anyhow. [Brother Branham clears his
throat—Ed.] (Pardon me.)
110 Let’s turn our camera now towards Heaven. I can see Jesus sitting
on the Throne, coming daylight, smoke is raising way up in the skies
from the furnace, I see Him setting there watching down, see what
they’re going to do. That’s what He does to you and I when we’re tried.
He promised that the Seed of Abraham would possess the gate of the
enemy, I believe that.
111 I see Him watching, all at once, a great Angel comes up to his right
side, stands at attention, puts his hand on his sword, Gabriel, said,
“Father, have You looked down there? They’re the Seed of Abraham.
They are, they believe in You, they prayed all night, and they’re going
right into their death. Let me go down there, I will change the scene.”
I believe he could have done it. That’s right.
He said, “That’s right, Gabriel. You’re a good Angel, just
stand there.”
112Here comes another one up, his name is Wormwood, he’s the—the
Angel over all the waters. I see him stand at attention, said, “Father,
have You looked down in Babylon?”
“Yeah, I’ve watched them all night.” Oh, His eye is on the sparrow,
and I know He watches me. “I’ve watched them all night.”
113 “They are fixing to burn three men up down there this morning,
Seeds of Abraham that’s took You by your Word, and standing gallant
on it. You know one time You told me to turn loose all the waters.
I have the control, You let me go down, I will wash Babylon off the
map.” He could have done it.
114 I can hear Him say, “That’s right, Wormwood, you’re a wonderful
Angel. You—you did just exactly everything I told you to since you
created…I created you. You did, too, Gabriel. But you know, I’m
going down Myself, this is My job.” Oh my!
18 THE SPOKEN WORD
115 Just when they was ready, take their last step, I can see Him stand
up, His priestly robes drop around Him where He’s setting tonight.
They’re Bloody, making intercession upon our confession, for He died
to bring to pass anything that we ask. Where is our faith at in Him?
116 There He stands up, motions that way, and here comes a big, white
cloud by, steps up on it, calls the east wind, north wind, south wind,
and west wind, to drive them like horses, reach up, get a hold of the
zigzag lightning, crack it across the skies. Before they could ever step
in there, He was in the fiery furnace with them.
117 He stood in there with a big, palm fan off there somewhere of the
Tree of Life, fanning the fiery blazes off of them like that, Said, “I just
wanted to talk it over with you children. I know that you’re the Seed
of Abraham, I gave the promise, and I’m here to answer, come here,”
keeping the fire blazes off, oh, yes.
They opened up, said, “How many did you put in there?”
Said, “Three.”
118 He said, “There’s One more in there, and He looks like the Son of
God.” He was. Why? They, after they was tried, they possessed the gate
of the enemy. Amen.
119 Daniel was brought to the same thing after he was put through
a trial whether he would pray or not. He raised the curtains back,
throwed up the shades, and knelt down and prayed, just like he always
did. Yes, sir. Prayed just like he always did. And what happened? They
went through the trial.
They said, “We will feed you to the lions,” and they had been
starved for weeks.
Said, “My God is able to deliver me from them lions.”
But after he had went through the trial, what happened? He
possessed the gate of the enemy. Why? He was true to God.
120 Moses, after he had been true to God, come through the trials,
and brought the children of Israel right in the path of duty, all nature
screamed out against it, here was the mountains on one side and the
deserts, Pharaoh’s army pursuing, and the Red Sea blocked them off.
Why, they was trapped! Looked like God was a poor military man, to
push them right into that corner there and let them perish.
121 God loves to do that. God loves to show His hand mighty. Yes, He
does. He likes to show His power. He’s waiting tonight to show it to
you, to take that sinner and turn him around, take that woman of ill
fame and change her to a godly, saintly woman, take that girl that’s
taken the wrong road, that boy the wrong road, bring them back to a
place, and make sons and daughters of God out of them.
A ND THY SEED SHALL POSSESS THE GATE OF HIS ENEMIES 19
122 He’s ready to take that man dying with cancer, that with the heart
trouble, that that’s blind, that one who’s afflicted, if he will just place
his faith in there to turn him around from death unto life, start him off
with a testimony.
123 He’s waiting to do it, He puts you right in the trap to see what you
do. He put them right down in that trap there, looked like nature itself
was hiding its face. Yes.
One writer said one time, that when they got in that place, wonder
what Moses would do. They had one command, “Go forward.”
124 If you’re in the line of duty, no matter what stays in the way, the
greatest experiences I’ve ever had is to come up against something I
couldn’t get over it, or under it, just stand there and watch God make a
way through it. That’s the way to do it, just move, keep moving, press
your nose against it. Just keep moving on, just keep going on, God
will make a way.
The old, colored man down south carrying a Bible, they said,
“What are you carrying that Bible for, Mose? You can’t read.”
Said, “I believe It.”
Said, “Well, how—how do you know it’s right?”
He said, “Well, it’s, I believe it from civer to civer, the civer also.”
Says, “It’s got Holy Bible wrote on it.”
Said, “I guess you believe all that’s in there?”
Said, “Yes, sir.”
“I guess you believe whatever God would tell you to do,
you’d do it?”
He said, “I’d do it.”
Said, “What if He’d tell you, jump through that wall, that stone
wall? How are you going to get through there?”
125 He said, “If He’d tell me to jump, I’d jump, He’d make a hole when
I got there.” So that’s right. So that’s the thing you have to do, is take
God, and believe It, and jump, anyhow.
126 If you know you could explain it, understand it, then it wouldn’t
be faith no more. Your faith is what you believe that He has done for
you. “And faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of
things not seen.” You don’t see it, you can’t figure it out. There’s no
way to figure out God, you just got to believe Him, and keep walking
on. He said so.
127 That’s how I stand in the pulpit for the visions. That’s what…He
tells me go do certain things that seems humanly impossible, and you all
know that, it is humanly impossible, but He said do it, just go on, He’s
the One to take care of it, and He will do it. Yes. How great Thou art!
20 THE SPOKEN WORD
128 When Moses was trapped in this place here, now, he’s right in the
line of duty, right in the line of duty, God led him right down there.
What’s He going to do? The Red Sea, a trap set exactly, but Moses just
marched forward on.
129 One writer, I believe, said that God looked down through that Pillar
of Fire with angry eyes, looked down at that Red Sea that was trying
to cut off His children in the line of duty, and said the sea got scared,
and rolled back, and just made a path for them.
130 Well, if He could look through a Pillar of Fire and do that, what
would it do when He looked through the Blood of His Own Son at
a confessor standing there, with a promise that God swore He would
take care of it, and swore that He would, that His Seed of Abraham
should possess the gates of the enemy? Sure. He’s duty bound to do it
by the Blood of His Own Son laying on the mercy seat, tonight. Oh, if
we could get away from this earthbound ideas, and look up yonder, see
Who made the promise, the very God of creation! Yes.
131 Joshua, also, after he’d had a trial at Kadesh, come back, ninety
percent of the ministers said, “We can’t take it.”
132 Joshua said, “We’re more than able to take it,” him and Caleb. And
he was the only two out of the two-and-a-half million people that went
over. What did he do? He come down to Jordan, it was holding him
out of the promised land, but he possessed the gate of the enemy. Why?
Because he took God at His Word, he had had a trial, and he believed it,
He knowed God kept His Word, so he possessed the gate of the enemy.
I could go on and on, but I’m overtime.
133 All these great warriors, every one of them, they done great things,
they—they…great miracles, and wandered about in sheepskins, in
deserts, and was destitute, and some sawed asunder, and all different
things. As Hebrews 11 says, all these great warriors all come down to
die, every one of them come down to die, but one day, one glorious day,
that Royal Seed of Abraham come, borned of a virgin. Yes.
134 When He walked the earth, He was the true Seed of Abraham.
He walked the earth, He possessed the gate of sickness for the
people, He possessed the gate of affliction. All He…In the garden
of Gethsemane, in the court that morning, He possessed the gates of
temptation. Upon Mount Transfiguration, there He proved Himself.
135 When the devil took Him up to another mountain, He possessed
the power over the enemy to show that He could do it. “If thou be the
Son of God, turn these stones into bread.”
136 He didn’t have to do it, He said, “It is written, man shall not live by
bread alone.” He took the Word of God ’cause He was a true Seed of
Abraham, and possessed every blessing that God promised. Yes, sir.
A ND THY SEED SHALL POSSESS THE GATE OF HIS ENEMIES 21
137 Stood there under temptation, said, “I could speak straightway
to My Father, and He would send Me twenty legions of Angels.”
What could one do? Twenty legions of Angels, they could change
it if they wanted to. That’s right. But He had to be tempted in all
manners like we are. Standing there with handfuls of beard jerked out
of His face, and the Blood and mockery, drunken spit from the soldiers
hanging in His face.
138 They put a rag over His head like this, and hit Him on top the head
with a reed, said, “Now you said you was a prophet, you can read the
mind of the people, tell us who hit you. Tell us who hit you.” He could
have done it, but He would been listening to the devil. He possessed
the gate of the enemy, He stood the temptation. O God, for such a
One! That’s right.
139 Then when He died yonder at the cross, hell taken His precious
Soul. The Bible said His Soul descended into hell. That’s exactly right.
Hell captured His Soul, and took Him down there. But brother, on that
third day He possessed the gates of death, hell, and the grave, and rose
up the third day, overcome it all. He took sickness, death, hell, the grave,
and everything.
140 I believe He jerked the gate plumb off the hinges of them, and took
them out, rose on High, ascended on High. And, tonight, you are more
than conquerors. His Seed shall possess the gates of the enemy. Yes, sir.
He possessed every gate, He conquered every sickness, He conquered
every sin, He conquered every temptation, He conquered death, He
conquered hell, He conquered the grave, He possessed the gate of all of
them. And we in Him are more than conquerors, while we’re in Him,
’cause He conquered for us. Oh, we would ever know what that true
Seed of Abraham was, what it really meant to us!
141 The devil doubted Him. The devil, that was one time he had the
wool, as we call it, pulled over his eyes. When he took Him up on the
mountain, as I was speaking of a few moments ago, he said, “Could
that be? That man is just a prophet. Could he be the Son of God?” He
said, “If thou be the Son of God,” showed he doubted it, “if thou be the
Son of God, command these stones to be made bread, because you’re
hungry, you been fasting forty days, eat.”
Jesus said, “It’s written, man shall not live by bread alone.”
142 Took Him up on the pinnacle of the temple, said, “Cast yourself
down, because it is written, He’d give Angels charge concerning Thee,
lest at any time, dash Thy foot against a stone, they’ll bear Thee up.”
He said, “Yes, and it’s also written…” Everything, He met him
with the Word of God, because He was the true Seed of Abraham.
143 He possessed every gate of temptation. Oh, how He did! He was
a Man, He was a Man like you are, like I am. He had a right to be
22 THE SPOKEN WORD
married, He had a right to have a home, He had a right to the things
that we have, He had a right to have clothes. He could have done it,
a Man that could turn water into wine, that could know where a coin
was in a fish’s mouth, why, He owned the heavens and earth, but yet
He abstained from those things.
144 The sweetest words in the Bible when He said, “Father, I sanctify
Myself that I might sanctify them.” What was He trying to do? Set an
example. He was sending twelve man out with a Gospel that would
conquer the world, and He’s depending on you and I to do it. If He
could sanctify Himself like that, why, ought we to set aside every
failure, and every doubt, and everything else, and sanctify ourselves!
For we are the Seed of Abraham through Him, that are more than
conquerors through Him. Yes.
145 He had a right to be married, He had a right to have a home, He
had a right to lay His head on a pillow, but “The foxes has dens, and the
birds has nests; and the Son of man never had a place to lay his head.”
Why? “I sanctify myself, Father, for their sake, I do it.”
146 “For their sake,” not because He had to, but “for their sake,” He
conquered every enemy.
147 Standing there in the courtroom that day, or, the courtyard, when
He had been tried and falsely accused, the only thing they found against
Him was breaking the Sabbath day, He said, “I’m Lord of the Sabbath,”
and He was. “Making Himself God,” and He was God. And there, all
those false accusings and things, and false witnesses they had against
Him. Finally, beaten with a big lash till His ribs was showing through,
and the little robe He had on His back, they took it off, beat Him to a
post. What was it? That was the true Royal Seed of Abraham.
That’s where we stand, tonight:
My faith is built on nothing less
Than Jesus’ Blood and righteousness;
When all around my soul gives way,
Then He is all my Hope and Stay.
For on Christ, that solid Rock, I stand;
All other grounds is sinking sand,
All other grounds is sinking sand.
There’s where I take my hope, right there on that solid Rock.
148 Abraham’s Seed, He possessed every gate, even to death and hell.
See Him there. Had a mockery…That woman trying to wash His feet
again. Put a rag over His face, and said, “If you’re a prophet, tell us who
hit you, we will believe you.”
On the cross they said, “If you are the Son of God, come down,
and we will believe you.”
A ND THY SEED SHALL POSSESS THE GATE OF HIS ENEMIES 23
They wouldn’t believe Him anyhow, no matter what He done; He
didn’t mind them.
149 Let’s take a little look at Him this morning, or, tonight. It was a
terrible morning that morning. We’re back in a room. Let’s just, I’m
going to take this congregation, I want you to look at something. Let’s
go over to the window, I hear a howling mob. What’s the matter?
Raise up the curtain and look out. I hear something bumping, coming
down the street. What is it? A cross dragging, around down the street,
bumpety-bump, over them old cobblestones, going up to Golgotha.
That’s the Seed of Abraham, there goes the second Adam.
150 In the garden of Eden when God had, to His holiness, and true to
His Word, when Eve and Adam had done evil, when God, Himself,
running up and down through the garden, hollering, “Adam, Adam,
where art thou? Where art thou, Adam?” If somebody wants to know
where…Who this man was, Jesus, Who was He coming hunting
His first lost son? Did God send an Angel? He come Hisself, He
came Himself, that’s how He come. You want to take…[Blank spot
on tape—Ed.]
151 …justice. If there’s not justice, there’s no law. If you don’t have
justice…judgment to go with it, there’s no need of having law. What’s
the use of having a law that says, ten dollar fine to run the stop light,
and then don’t…say, “Don’t run the stop light,” and no fine behind it,
no penalty to pay, no judgment? Without judgment, there’s no justice.
So the justice was to die, so it was the only thing He could do.
152 And then when He seen Eve standing there, that beautiful little
woman, that real masculine man standing there, those big, brawny
muscles, and the blood running off his arms from that ol’ bloody
sheepskin, little Eve standing there, the most beautiful woman ever was
in the world, because she was created by God’s Own hand, her eyes was
like the stars of the heaven. She didn’t need Max Factor’s stuff to make
her pretty, and when she had, over like this, and there she was standing
there, the blood running down her beautiful little body, standing there,
looking in the face of God, in that big Light, hanging there in those
palm trees, “Depart out of My Presence.”
153 Now, watch Adam as he starts away, and across his legs them ol’
bloody sheepskins, beating like that across his legs, He couldn’t stand
it, He’s a Father, said, “Just a minute, I will put enmity between your
seed and the serpent’s seed.”
154Where was it? Here it was at Calvary. Here He goes up, this second
Adam, God Himself come down and made man, going up the hill.
155The devil always did hate that Word, but that’s right. Yes, sir. He
was more than a prophet. People today with this socialized religion,
24 THE SPOKEN WORD
saying that Jesus, “Just a good man, a—a philosopher, it’s good to hear
his teachings.”
156 If He wasn’t God, if that wasn’t Emmanuel’s Blood, then He was
a man like I am, that’s right, and we’re lost. He was God. God, the
Holy Ghost, overshadowed Mary and created a Blood Cell that brought
forth, not a Jewish blood, not a Gentile blood, but God’s Own Blood.
Blood comes from the male sex, this is a created Blood, no sex into it at
all. And that was God Himself, going, walking up the hill there.
157 Let’s look at Him, He had a little robe throwed across His
shoulders, it was wove throughout without seam. I notice as He goes
walking, I’m looking at Him by faith, showing Him to you all by faith,
there’s little red dots all over the back of that coat. What makes that
like that? As He goes farther up the street, and the cross rubbing on
his shoulder, I notice them little dots begin to get bigger and bigger.
What are they? What’s the matter? All at once they all become one
great big, bloody splash. Then I hear something else beating against
His leg, second Adam, going up the hill with a bloody garment beating
against His leg.
158 You know, Satan said, looked around, said, “You know what? I
don’t even believe he’s a prophet now. I know that can’t be God, God
would never act like that, let that mocking bunch of drunkards run over
Him like that, let them call him holy-roller,” I’m talking to you, “let
them call him old model, something like that, ‘You’re an old fanatic,’
He’d never do that.”
159 But it…He was God. His Kingdom was from above, His delegates
is the same thing, their Kingdom is above, they act like from up there,
they talk about up there, “Where their treasure is, there their heart is
also,” they’re talking about that.
160 As He walks on up the hill, I can see that death. Satan sent that
death sting yonder, said, “Go down and get him now.” Said, “Go down
and get him, now is the time to get him.”
161 That bee, like a big ol’ bee of death, begin to buzz around Him,
humming around and around Him, say, “Yeah, look at him bleeding,
look at him, spit all over his face. Look at them all laughing, making
fun of him.”
162 I see a little woman run out, and say, “What did He do? What evil
has He done? What did He do, but preach us the Gospel? What did He
do, but heal your sick?”
Somebody smacks her out of the way, said, “Would you listen to
that crazy woman instead of your priest? Go on up the hill with him.”
163 They beat Him again, He goes on up the hill. The bee says, “I will
get him after awhile when they hang him on the cross.”
A ND THY SEED SHALL POSSESS THE GATE OF HIS ENEMIES 25
164 You know all insects, bees and things, has a stinger, and death is a
bee, it has a stinger. But you know what? When one of them bees ever
anchor his stinger real deep, he pulls his stinger out. Brother, when he
socked his stinger into that flesh, that wasn’t man, He anchored his
flesh in Emmanuel, and when he did, He pulled his stinger out. I tell
you, to Abraham’s Seed now, he can buzz and make a noise, but he
can’t have no sting.
165 One of them coming to his death said, “O death, where is thy sting?
Grave, where is thy victory? But thanks be to God, Who gives us the
victory, through our Lord Jesus Christ!”
166 Yes, he can buzz, and make a big noise, and fuss, and pull hospital,
into, you, a hospital, and tell the doctors standing there, and a bunch
of mourning and crying, but you look him in the face and say, “Death,
where is thy stinger? I can point yonder to the Royal Seed of Abraham,
Whose Blood I was born by, He pulled that stinger out of death, so,
death, you have no stinger for me.”
Grave, “I will mold you someday.”
167 “Where is your victory? But thanks be to God, Who gives us the
victory, through our Lord Jesus Christ.” And His Seed shall possess the
gates of his enemies, possess the gate of all of his enemies.
168 And when He come, He possessed every gate, the gate of sickness,
the gate of death, the gate of hell, the gate of temptation, the gate
of the grave, He possessed every gate and freely gives it to us, and
makes us more than conquerors through Him that loved us, and gave
Hisself for us.
169 Let’s bow our heads just a moment while we think about that. I
wonder tonight, if by chance: How many is in this building here that
doesn’t know Him as your Saviour, and you know that your life is not
right with God, would you raise up your hand? Say, “Pray for me,
Brother Branham, in this closing prayer, I want you to pray for me.”
170 God bless you, back over in the corner. God bless you way back
there, lady. Would there be some more? How many more, up in the
balcony? Can I see some hands up there? All them people, God bless
you back there. God bless you here, lady.
171 Would someone else just raise your hand? It won’t hurt you. My,
just raise up your hand, say “I…” You know yourself. Say, “Brother
Branham, I’m not Abraham’s Seed, I belong to church.” God bless
you here, sir. “I—I’m not Abraham’s Seed.” God bless you, lady, right
here. The Lord be rich to you, tonight. Over to my right, yes, the
Lord bless you.
172 Somebody else? Say, raise up your hand, and just raise up your
hand, say, “Remember me, Brother Branham, in your prayer, I want
26 THE SPOKEN WORD
to—I want to be Abraham’s Seed.” Because remember, if you’re not
Abraham’s Seed, you’re not in the promise.
173 Now, you may belong to some church, and that’s all right. Yes, sir.
I have nothing against you belonging to church, I think that’s a good
thing. But, brother, sister, that will not help you one bit at the hour
of your death, or at the Coming of the Lord Jesus, You’ll have to be
Abraham’s Seed.
174 And the only way you can be Abraham’s Seed is to deny your own
self, and die to your own self, and be borned again of the Holy Spirit,
because the Life that was in Christ makes us Abraham’s Seed. We take
on his Seed by the Holy Spirit which was given to us by the promise
of God, “And the promise is unto you, and to your children, to them
that’s far off, even as many as the Lord our God shall call.”
175 Eight or ten hands has been up. Would there be some more with
honest sincerity? Just be honest with yourself. If you’re a church
member, we’re not asking you come join this church, no, we just want
you to be a Abraham’s Seed.
176 Brother, sister, I may never lay eyes again on you in this life, but
there at the Judgment Bar, I’m going to have to face you. See? Now,
remember this night, the 13th day of February, 1961, when this day
rolls up there on the canvas of the skies of the Judgment, this meeting
will come to your remembrance.
177 God bless you over against the wall there. “I want to believe on
Jesus, I want to become Abraham’s Seed, tonight.” I bought…The
Bible said that which is outwardly is not Jew, but that which is inwardly.
His—his Seed shall possess the gates of the enemy.
178 We got the enemy on the run now. Ten or twelve hands has been
up already. That…We show that we got the enemy on the run. Would
there be another one join our ranks tonight, and raise your hands and
say…? God bless you, sir. God bless you. Would there be, back there?
God bless you back there. Yes, my brother, up in the balcony, the Lord
bless you. Yes. Join our ranks. We got the enemy running now.
179 Last night we got him started on from the sick people. Just look
at the cancer cases, and all, was delivered here last night. The enemy
is moving now. Last week we just battled, and cut, and everything we
could, but we got the enemy moving. See?
180 Now, many is coming up, coming out in the ranks, taking…filing
right in. There is…Won’t you come join with us, tonight? Join your
hands with God tonight, become dead to the things of the world and
accept Christ as your Saviour. Will you raise your hand before we pray?
Say, “Remember me.” God bless you back there in the back there, I can
see your hand up way back. Just another?
A ND THY SEED SHALL POSSESS THE GATE OF HIS ENEMIES 27
181 What about somebody up close here, not a Christian? Say, “I want
to, you remember me, Brother Branham. Just pray for me while you’re
praying, just remember me in your prayer.” I will do that. All right.
Now let’s keep our heads bowed.
182 Now, Heavenly Father, there’s none of us know that we will be here
tomorrow, this may be the last night on earth that we spend. There’s
someday I will close this Bible the last time, sometime I will close my
eyes, and bow my head for the last time, and each person in here will
do the same. We don’t know when that time is coming, Lord. We know
there’s a great big, dark chamber setting before every one of us, every
human being, it’s called death.
183 And as we think of the writer of the Thanatopsis, every time my
heart beats, we get one beat closer to that chamber. Every time my
heart beats, and that clock ticks, we’re just one beat closer, someday
it’s coming to its last beat.
184 God, we do not desire, I’m pleading for these people, we do not
desire to enter into that chamber screaming, and crying, and wishing
for more life, and a few minutes to repent. God, we want to come in
there with a boldness. We will come in there as Abraham’s Seed, the
promise in our hearts, knowing this, that we know Him in the power of
His resurrection, that someday, when He calls, we will come out from
among the dead and rise, and go to be with Him, to ever be with Him.
185I pray for these who raised their hands, Lord. Many raised their
hands, they’re sincere, God. They—they didn’t do that on their own
power, there had to be a given power for them, and that was Your
power. And they raised up their hands that they were sincere in it.
186 God, it is written in the Word that the effectual, fervent prayer
of a righteous man…Now, there’s none of us righteous, but we are
accepting His righteousness, and we’re bringing His Blood before You,
we’re bringing His Word before You, like He said, “Ask the Father
anything in My Name, I will do it.”
187 Now, we’re bringing You these people, by faith, right up before
You, Lord. There they are, they’ve sinned, they’ve done wrong, they’re
wanting forgiveness of their sin. They raised their hands to You that,
and for me to pray for them that they’re sorry that they did that.
Lord Jesus, forgive them. May they find that real sweet peace that
passes understanding. Understanding that God so loved the world
that He gave His Son, that—that they might have the courage to
raise their hand.
188And let them have this understanding, too, Lord, that they were
chosen, or they would have never raised their hand, for Jesus said, “No
man can come to Me, except My Father draws him first.” Let them
28 THE SPOKEN WORD
know that God, the Father, is standing by their side, speaking to their
heart, and they have made this choice.
189 He also said, “He that heareth My Word, and believeth on Him
that sent Me, has passed from death unto Life, and shall never come to
the Judgment, but has already passed from death to Life,” got Eternal
Life now. Father God, You wouldn’t turn one down.
190 And I pray that You’ll be merciful to these. And I pray that You’ll
help them, and to give them boldness now, after I’ve quoted this
Scripture, that it was You that made them raise their hand, for You
said so, “No man can come, except My Father draws him, and all that
the Father has given Me will come.” And let them know, upon that
confession right there proves that You forgive their sin.
191 Now, may they not be ashamed of it, may they stand boldly, say,
“Yes, I now accept it upon the basis of His Word, that I will never go
into the Judgment of the damned, because God spoke to my heart, and
I raised my hand that I would accept Him as my Saviour. I wanted to
be remembered in prayer.” Grant it, Father.
192 Now with our heads bowed, I ask each one that raised their hand, if
you believe what I’m telling you, Christians, pray, God said this: Jesus
said, “No man can come to Me, except My Father draws him first,”
now, what made you raise your hand? It’s the Holy Spirit there telling
you, convicting you that you’re wrong. “And all the Father has given
Me,” or spoke to, “will come,” (And you did, raised up your hand, “I’m
a sinner, I want forgiveness, I did wrong.”) “I will no wise cast him out,
give him Eternal Life, raise him up the last day.”
193 Now, there’s one more thing I want you to do, “He that will confess
Me before men, him will I confess before My Father and the holy
Angels.” Now, I’m asking you to do one thing in the goodness of God.
Just think how good He was to let you raise your hand.
194 I spoke to a young girl when I was yet a Baptist preacher, I was
down in Nashville, Tennessee, and I felt led to tell her that I believed
God was giving her a final call. She met me outside the church that
night, and she said, “Don’t you never embarrass me like that again!”
I said, “I never embarrassed you, I hope not.” She was a
deacon’s daughter.
She said, “I’m young, and I’ve got plenty of time to do that.”
195 I said, “Lady, I would have never pointed my finger to you if I didn’t
feel that it was right. I never made an altar call if I didn’t think…” And
she just bawled me out terribly.
196 About two years later, I was down there with my old friend, Brother
Morrison, the Baptist church, to have another meeting, and when I
did, I walked down the street, and she was a nice young lady, she
A ND THY SEED SHALL POSSESS THE GATE OF HIS ENEMIES 29
was walking down the street, it’s been twenty-five years ago, and her
underneath skirts hanging low. Oh, how foul she looked! I thought,
“That can’t be that deacon’s daughter!” And she spied me, she kind of
smiled, turned her head sideways. I walked over close to her.
She said, “Hello, Preacher.”
I said, “How do you do?”
She stood there on the corner a little bit, said, “Come, go with me
to my room.”
I said, “Thank you, I’m kind of a bit hurried.”
She reached in her pocketbook, and said, “Have a cigarette?”
I said, “Now, aren’t you ashamed to say that?”
She said, “Maybe you’d take a drink with me. I will pay for it if
you’ll take it.”
197 I said, “Shame on you, lady! Wouldn’t you be ashamed to ask a
servant of Christ a thing like that?” I started to walk away, I said, “I
will be praying for you.”
She said, “Just a minute, there’s no need.”
I said, “Why?”
She said, “You remember that night standing there by that
rosebush, the side of that Baptist church?”
And I said, “Yes.”
198 Said, “My father is still deacon there.” Said, “You can tell this
wherever you want to, wherever you go, if you want to.” She said,
“That was my last call.” She said, “You know, since that time,” said,
“I used to always feel a calling in my heart to come to God,” she said,
“but since that time,” she said, “I’ve got harder and harder.”
199 Now, this is the statement the girl made: She said, “My heart is
so hard against God, and against the church, and everything,” said,
“I could see my own mother’s soul fry in hell like a pancake and
laugh at it.” See?
200 Now He’s merciful to you. He knocked at your heart, and you
raised up your hand, “Yes, Lord, I’m wrong.” That was the Father.
Now will you confess Him enough, would you just stand up to your
feet? I won’t ask you to do nothing else, just stand to your feet so
the people can see that that was God knocked at your heart. Now,
remember, real, true children, “God knocked at my heart, I want to
stand to my feet, just let the people know.”
201 God bless you, sir. God bless you, young man. Someone else stand
up. That’s right. All that knocked, “I now believe,” just stand up just
a moment, just a moment. Please, just stand up just a moment, every
one. That’s fine. Would there be another one want to stand, just at
30 THE SPOKEN WORD
this time? Say, “He knocked at my heart, I never raised my hand, but
I’m going to stand for Him right now, I will stand right now. I believe
I will stand for Him right now, because He knocked at my heart, I
never want my heart to get in that bad condition like that. While it’s
tender, I will raise.”
202 Now, I say this to you upon the authority of God’s Word: If you
stand for Him here, He will stand to you at the Judgment, “He that
confesses Me before men, him will I confess before My Father and the
holy Angels.”
203 I would ask you people, you dear Christians that’s just now become
Christians in Christ, just got the—the invitation to be Abraham’s Seed,
find some good church and be baptized. God bless you, Sister, for
standing up like that. That’s very fine.
204 Now, just remain standing, I want to pray for you again. And
find some good church, be baptized in Christian baptism, and seek
the baptism of the Holy Spirit. There’s young people standing,
young men, and, would make ministers and missionaries, God bless
your royal Life.
205 Now, you that have your head bowed, I want you to open your
eyes, and turn and look, see who it is. And I want you now, when
we stand, to offer them the right hand of fellowship, as Christian
believers, say, “Welcome.” Invite them to your church, or something.
Now, let’s all stand on our feet. While you shake hands with them,
say, “Welcome into the Kingdom of God, tonight,” say, “my blessed
pilgrim brother,” turn around, each one of you, shake hands with them
people now as we sing.
Just as I am, without one plea,
But that Thy…(That’s it, Christians, be real sweet.)
…shed for…(I’m looking up in the balcony, young
men crying, people shaking.)
…that Thou bidd’st me come to Thee;
O Lamb…I…
206 Brother Buntain says there’s a prayer room downstairs. How you
get to it, Brother? Just right through the gates, if you’d want to go down,
just in a moment. And I will turn the service to him. And maybe some
of you hasn’t…How many hasn’t got the baptism of the Holy Spirit?
Raise up your hand, and are seeking. You want to be…God bless you.
“Whosoever will, let him come.” Is that right?
207 Now, aren’t you happy, you that’s raised up and professed Christ,
tonight? If you feel real good about it in your heart, raise up your
hand so the people see, you that raised your hand, you that come.
Looky there, every one of them, a hundred percent. Yes, sir. That’s
A ND THY SEED SHALL POSSESS THE GATE OF HIS ENEMIES 31
it. How many of all of you are glad you’re Christians, tonight? Raise
up your hand.
208 What did the Bible say? His Seed shall possess the gate of the
enemy. Amen. We conquered tonight in Christ, our great Conqueror.
We broke down the walls of sin, broke down the walls of indifference,
and souls marched into the Kingdom of God to rise up in the
resurrection at the last day. Aren’t we happy?
All right, Sister, “I love Him, I love Him, because He first loved
me.” Everybody now, all together:
…love Him, I love Him
Because He first loved me
And purchased my salvation
On Calvary’s tree.
209 Oh, don’t you love Him? Now, don’t leave now, I want you do
something for me. Now, when we sing it again, I want you to shake
hands with somebody in front of you, somebody behind you, to the
right and left, and say, “God bless you, pilgrim brother, or sister. Glad
to be here in the house of God with you.” Let’s do it now while we sing.
I…(God bless you, my pilgrim brother. God bless
you, my pilgrim brother. God bless you, my
brother.)
…first loved me
And purchased my salvation
On Calvary’s…
Now let’s sing it to Him as we raise our hands to Him.
I…
Raise your hands.
…love Him…
I get you to your pastor. 
 A ND THY SEED SHALL POSSESS T HE GATE OF HIS ENEMIES
61-0213
This Message by Brother William Marrion Branham was delivered on Monday evening,
February 13, 1961, at the First Assembly Of God Of Long Beach in Long Beach, California,
U.S.A. This sermon, number 61‑0213, is one hour and twenty-four minutes. Every effort has
been made to accurately transfer the verbal Message from the magnetic tape recording to the
printed page, and is printed herein unabridged and distributed by Voice Of God Recordings.

©2023 VGR, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

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