"HAPPINESS DOES NOT CONSIST OF HOW MUCH OF THE WORLD'S GOODS YOU OWN, BUT HOW CONTENTED YOU ARE WITH THE PORTION THAT'S ALLOTED TO YOU"

EXCERPTS from the message "My Life Story, Angelus Temple, Los Angeles" preached in 1959


"And he reached over and got me by the hand. He said, "Bill, listen, money ain't all things that's in human life." He said...... I said, "Charlie, I--I only make twenty cents an hour, but I love her and she loves me. And I promise you, Charlie, that I'll work till these... the callouses wear off of my hands, to make her a living. I'll be just as true to her as I could be."   He said, "I believe that, Bill." He said, "Listen, Bill, I want to tell you." Said, "You know, happiness, don't altogether take money to be happy." Said, "Just be good to her. And I know you will."  I said, "Thank you, Charlie. I sure will do that." Then it was her time to tell Mama. Don't know how she got by, but we got married".

"So, when we got married, we didn't have nothing, nothing go housekeeping. I think we had two or three dollars. So we rented a house, it cost us four dollars a month. It was a little, old two-room place. And someone give us an old folding bed. I wonder if anybody ever seen an old folding bed? And they gave us that. And I went down to Sears and Roebucks and got a little table with four chairs, and it--it wasn't painted, you know, and we got that on time. And so then I went over to Mr. Weber, a junk dealer, and bought a cooking stove. I paid seventy-five cents for it, and a dollar and something for grates to go in it. We set up housekeeping. I remember taking and painting a shamrock on the chairs, when I painted them. And, oh, we were happy, though. We had one another, so that was all necessary. And God, by His mercy and His goodness, we was the happiest little couple could be on the earth".

" I found this, that happiness does not consist of how much of the world's goods you own, but how contented you are with the portion that's alloted to you".

"No money, I pastored the church seventeen years and never got one penny. I didn't believe in tak-... There wasn't even an offering plate in it. And what tithings I had from work, and so forth, had a little box on the back of the building, said, little sign on it, "Insomuch as you have done unto the least of these My little ones, you have did it unto Me." And then that's how the church was paid for. We had ten-years loan to pay it, and was paid off less than two years. And I never took an offering of no kind"

"And, that day, they'd had fine, young preachers out there, and they had preached powerfully. And then they said, "The one's going to bring the message tonight is..." I believe they called him, "Elder." And their ministers, instead of "Reverend," it was "Elder." And they brought an old colored man out there, and he had one of these old-fashioned preacher's coats. I don't guess you ever seen one. Long pigeon-tail in the back, you know, with a velvet collar, and he had just a little white rim of hair around his head. Poor old fellow, he come out like this, you know. And he stood there and he turned around. And where all the preachers had been preaching about Jesus and the great... how great He was, and so forth, that old man took his text from over in Job. "Where was you when I laid the foundation of the world, or when the morning stars sang together and the Sons of God shouted for joy?" And the poor old fellow, I thought, "Why didn't they put some of them young fellows up there to preach?" Great... the place was packed and jammed. And I thought, "Why didn't they do that?"  So then this old fellow, instead of preaching what was going on down here on earth, he begin to preach what was going on in Heaven all the time. Well, he took Him up at the beginning at the beginning of time, and brought Him back in the Second Coming down the horizontal rainbow. Why, I never heard such preaching in my life! About that time the Spirit hit him, he jumped about that high and clicked his heels together, throwed his shoulders back and went tipping off that platform, said, "You haven't got room enough up here for me to preach." And he had more room than I got here. I thought, "If That'll make an old man act like that, what would It do if It got on me?" I--I thought, "Maybe I need some of That." Why, he come out here, I felt so sorry for the old fellow. But, when he left, I was feeling sorry for myself. And I looked at him go off there"

And the next morning I got down there. Invited us for breakfast. Course, I wouldn't come eat with them, because I had nothing to put in the offering. And I just went back. And the next morning when I went in, why (I eat some of my rolls), and set down. And they was got on a microphone. And I had never seen a microphone before, and I was scared of that thing. So they... And it had a little string hanging up here, and it hanging down. One of them drop mikes, like. And he said, "Last night, on the platform, there was a young preacher here, a Baptist."
I thought, "Uh-oh, I'm good for a working-over now."

And he said, "He was the youngest preacher on the platform. His name was Branham. Does anybody know any whereabouts of him? Tell him to come on, we want him to bring the morning message."

Oh, my! I had a little T-shirt on, and seersucker trousers, you know. And we Baptists believe you had to have a suit on, to get in the pulpit, you know. So... And I--I just set real still. And during the time... They had it up in the North then 'cause (their international convention) the colored people couldn't come to it if was in the South. They had the colored there, and I was a Southerner, had starch in my collar yet, you see, thought I was a little better than somebody else. And it happened to be that morning, set right down by me was a--a colored man. So I set and looked up at him. I thought, "Well, he's a brother."

And he said, "Anybody know the whereabouts of William Branham?" I scoots down in the seat like this. So he said, announced it the second time, said, "Anybody on the outside" (he pulled this little mike in) "know the whereabouts of William Branham? Tell him we want him on the platform for the morning message. He's a Baptist preacher from southern Indiana."

I just set real still and ducked down, you know. Nobody knowed me, anyhow. That colored boy looked over at me, said, "Do you know where he is?"

I thought. I--I either had to lie or do something. So I said, "Hold down here."
He said, "Yes, sir?"
I said, "I want to tell you something." I said, "I--I'm him."
He said, "Well, go on up there."

And I said, "No, I can't. See," I said, "I got on these little old seersucker trousers and this little T-shirt." I said, "I couldn't go up there."

He said, "Them people don't care how you dress. Go on up there."
I said, "No, no." I said, "Keep still, don't say nothing now."

And they come back to the phone a minute, said, "Anybody know the whereabouts of William Branham?"

He said, "Here he is! Here he is! Here he is!" Oh, my! There I got up with that little T-shirt on, you know. And here I...

He said, "Come on up, Mr. Branham, we want you to bring the message." Oh, my, before all them preachers, uhm, all them people! And I went slipping up, you know. My face red, and my ears burning. And I slipped up, seersucker trousers and T-shirt, preacher, Baptist preacher going up to the microphone, never seen one before, you see".

"And I stood up there, I said, "Well, I--I--I don't know about this." I was fumbling, real nervous, you know. And--and I got over here around Luke 16, and I thought, "Well, now..." And I--I got on the subject, "And he lifted up his eyes in hell, and cried." And I got... So I--I begin to preach, you know, and I got to preaching and felt a little better. And I said, "The rich man was in hell, and he cried." That little three words, like I have a lot of sermons like that, "Believest Thou This," and "Speak To The Rock," you've heard me preach them. And I had, "And then he cried." And I said, "There's no children there, certainly not in hell. Then he cried." I said, "There's no flowers there. Then he cried. There's no God there. Then he cried. There's no Christ there. Then he cried." Then I cried. Something got a hold of me. My! Oh, my! After, I don't know what happened. When I kind of got to myself, I was standing on the outside. Them people got screaming and shouting and crying, and I, we had an awful time. When I come outside there was a fellow walked up to me with a great big Texas hat on, big boots, walked up, said, "I'm Elder So-and-so." Preacher, cowboy boots, cowboy clothes on.

I thought, "Well, my seersucker trousers ain't so bad then."  Said, "I want you to come down to Texas and hold me a revival."  "Uh-huh, let me put that down, mister." And I put it down like that.  Here come a fellow up with one of these little, kind of a golf trousers on, where they used to play golf, you know, had them little blouse pants. He said, "I'm Elder So-and-so from Miami. I like to..."  "My, maybe dressing isn't so much of it." I looked at it, and I thought, "All right."  So I grabbed these things, and home I went. Wife met me, she said, "Why do you sound so happy about, Billy?"  I said, "Oh, I met the cream of the crop. My, it's the best you ever seen. Them people ain't ashamed of their religion." And, oh, I told her all about it. And I said, "And looky here, honey, a whole string of invitations. Them people!"

STAY BLESSED, Bro. Joshua