I dont want to say "Happy New Year" to you; but, "God bless you."

 

Bro. Branham

"And now, beginning the new year, I want to say, not "Happy New Year" to you; I want to say this to you, "God bless you." And if He does that, that's all you'll have need of for the coming year. And I trust that He will". Contest the P:43  [62-1231]

GOD BLESS YOU dear readers of my blog. It's my prayer that God will make year 2014 a blessed one both spiritually and physically just like bro. Branham's wishes to his audience in 1960 "So how many's glad and happy the Lord spared you through another year? And here we are, coming up to the end of the road. And pray that God will forgive us of all of our sins and our shortcomings.Now, I want to say this before I start. I wish, to each one of you all, the most successful, and blessful, and healthy new years that I can wish to you. God be with you. May you grow both physically, spiritually, financially, and materially. Everything that God can bring upon you, I pray that He'll do it.  Revelation chapter 4 pt 1 P:7  [60-1231]

 

See, he had been so used to being tied (See?), he just thought he was still tied.

I hate to see anything penned up. I hate to see a man calls hisself Christian then penned down by some kind of a church creed, "I can't say, 'Amen.' I--I can't believe in that. The pastor says don't believe it." Oh, my, goodness. You're born free.
Then how about a big eagle? He's a heavenly bird. He lives way in above the clouds. That's where he goes of a morning, way so high, nothing else can follow him, not another bird. He'd disintegrate in the air if he tried to follow him. He's a special-made bird.
And then somebody had caught him in a man-made trap, he had caught this big eagle and put him in this cage. And the poor old fellow... I looked at him and my heart just burned. He looked at that side like that; he didn't know how to get out of that cage. He would just get across there, and he--he knowed how he'd take off, and he'd start flopping his wings. And here he'd go, he was banging his head up against the bars and beat the feathers out of his arm, wing feathers here, and all across his head, till it was bleeding. He hit that bar so hard it'd knock him plumb back on his back. He'd lay there and roll them weary-looking eyes, look up towards that sky, "There's where I belong. There's my home. There's where I was born for. But, looky, between me and there is a cage. Well, the only thing I know, I'm put my mind to it; here I come," and "bang," he'd go right back again.

 I thought, "Oh, my, isn't that terrible. I wish they'd sell him to me. I'd pawn my Ford to buy him (See?), just to turn him loose." See? Oh, it made me feel so bad, that poor big bird there, beat the feathers... I thought, "That's the most horrible sight I ever seen."
No, I take it back, the most horrible sight I ever seen is a man born to be a son of God and then penned up in some creed. And he looks up there and sees a God that he really wants to serve, but he just can't do it. They won't let him do it (See?): penned up. That's a horrible thing.

 Yes, yes, sister, brother, ever who wrote this, if you have fallen down here, that don't mean you're lost. You're just an eagle got into a pen; that's all. You're caged-up down here in sin again. You don't want to be there; that's the reason you're looking upward. There you are, "O Brother Branham, I once lived up there, is there a way here?" Yes.
Reminds me of one day (oh, a little boy) I was walking around behind the farm, and there was--somebody had tied an old crow to keep him out of the corn. And that poor old fellow was just about starved to death. I couldn't be that mean to do that. He tied the old crow by the foot, and the old fellow had eat everything was around; he couldn't get nothing else. The farmer just left him. And he was so poor that he--he couldn't even get up. Just he... And the crows would fly over and say, "Caw, caw, caw." In other words, say, "Come on, Johnny Crow. Wintertime's coming; let's go south." But he couldn't do it; he was tied.

 So one day a certain fellow come by and seen that poor old crow, so he just went over and caught him and untied him, said, "Go on, boy; you're free." See? And so then, the first thing you know, he kept walking around.
Here come the crows over, hollering, "Come on, Johnny Crow. Caw, caw, caw. Let's go south; the winter's coming. You're going to freeze to death."
If he could look back, say, "Can't do it." See, he had been so used to being tied (See?), he just thought he was still tied.
You may think you're tied too, brother, sister, that wrote this question. You may think the devil's got you tied down there, but he's lying. There was one time a Man come to earth, Jesus Christ, the Son of God; He untied you. Don't you believe it; you don't have to stay down there; no, sir, you're free. That's right. He died in your place to take away your sins. You just believe on Him, flop your wings, and fly away with the rest of them. Don't stay in that pit of the devil. No, sir.

 Now, will you lay hands upon me and free from that?
Sister dear or brother dear, sure, I'd lay hands on you, but that wouldn't free you. What would free you, you're--is to understand that you're already free. You're already untied. You don't have to worry about being free; you're already free. Jesus made you free. Be not again entangled in the yoke of bondage. You're free as you can be. You don't have to be tangled up. Laying my hands on you is just a tradition. We might do that. That... Why, I could do that, but that still wouldn't set you free until you accept what He done for you; that's just me saying "Lord, I believe it."

 62-0527, Questions And Answers, Branham Tabernacle, Jeffersonville, IN, 123 min

"I saw the king, but I'm so little, the king didn't see me."

Not long ago, up in Canada, when the late King George had visit Vancouver. I was with Brother Baxter then, and Brother Baxter was telling me of the king passing down the street, and oh, if you ever got to see him, he was a gallant man. That day he was suffering so bad, it's was before his healing of that multiple sclerosis, and he had stomach trouble also. And in the carriage, they said, he was suffering terrible, but you would never know it. Set up straight, speaking to his subjects as he passed by.

 Mr. Baxter stood back there in a place and wept as hard as he could weep. And he said, "Brother Branham, the reason I was weeping," he said, "our king was passing by."
And I thought, "That might be so, and the queen setting in her beautiful blue dress, how that those people that was their subjects wept, because that they were passing by." I thought, "If it would make a Canadian weep for joy, when the king rode by, what will it be when Jesus comes by, the King of heavens and earth."

 They turned out all the schools that day, and they give each one of them, the little children, a British flag to wave at the king to display their loyalty. And when the king had passed by, well, all the little children returned in a certain school, but one little girl. And they wondered what become of the little tot; she's just a little bitty fellow. And the teacher, when she called the roll, the child was missing. Hysterically, she ran into the streets, looking everywhere. And by herself, standing behind a telegraph pole, with her little hands up, just weeping her little heart out... And so the teacher run to her, she said, "Darling, what's the matter? Did you not get to see the king?"
She said, "Yes, I saw him."
She said, "Then, did you wave your flag at him?"
She said, "Yes, I waved my flag at him."
She said, "Then, why are you crying?"
She said, "I saw the king, but I'm so little, the king didn't see me." It was breaking her little heart.

 But that's not the way with Jesus. No matter how little you are, or how little you do, He records everything you do. He knows all about you, whether you are big or whether you are little. He knows all about it, and it's all recorded on His books. And sometimes, it's the little things that sets us up to the big things. We got to have all the body of Christ working together.

 60-0806, Hear Ye Him, Eisenhower High School, Yakima, WA, 77 min

I promised God, I would never take my first drink." ....." And said, "Now, if you want to shoot [me], you just shoot."

I had a story that was told me sometime ago. I might've told it in this church. If I have, you forgive me for repeating it just to hit the spot. There was an Indian guide, or kind of an overseer of the Indians. He was traveling in the Navajo country, and was got lost. His name was Coy. And he was going down a trail, a game trail, and he thought, "Now, if I hit this trail, I'll surely find water." And his horse was so thirsty till its tongue was hanging out and dry; the nostrils had turned red and caked with sand. He'd held his handkerchief over his face in the sandstorms until it was caked over, and he was perishing for water. And he was leading his horse when he struck the trail. And he said, when he got on the horse he saw this game trail, said, "Surely it'll take me to water." So he jumps a-straddle of his horse and started down the trail.

 And the horse knew also it was on the trail to water. How God gives instinct to the dumb beasts. And down the trail it went. Finally, a few turned off to one side, just a very few off the beaten path. The horse wanted to turn that way, but Coy thought different. He tried to keep it in the main blazed trail, and he started down and the horse would not go. He spurred it, and it nickered and started the other way. And it started rearing up. She was too weak to buck him off.

 So he started pulling the spurs to it again, until he cut the horse, so excited to get to water, his life would be spared, until the horse stood, quivering, bleeding. And he looked down, looked down there; she was quivering like that and almost falling under him. He looked down at her, and seen the blood on her side. He was a Christian. And he said to his horse; he said, "I've often heard that wild--or beasts had an instinct. It don't look like that that little bitty bunch turned off that way would be going to water. It looks like this great path here would lead to where they go constantly to water." But said, "If you've carried me faithful this far, I'll follow your instinct."

 Oh, how I think of that about Christ. The way to destruction is posted and blazed all the way, but there's a narrow road that leads to Life. Few there will be that find It. Only, not instinct, but the Holy Spirit will turn you aside to that water of Life. I think, "It's brought me safe this far, I'll take It the rest of the way." [Matthew 7:14]

 To finish the story, he--he hadn't gone a half a mile, until, all at once, the faithful horse plunged right into a big hole of water. The horse knew what it was talking about, what it was meaning in its way of expressing to the--the rider. He got in there. He said he throwed water up into the horse's nose. He bathed himself; he screamed and he hollered; and he was shouting to the top of his voice, and pouring water down his throat, and screaming, "We're saved. We're saved. We're saved." And the horse, drinking, and quivering. And he looked at her bloody sides, then all whelped up from the spur marks.

 And said just then, he said... heard somebody say, "Come out of the water." And he looked, and there was a little disfigured cowboy standing there. And he got out of the water. He said he smelled fire, and he looked over, and there was a bunch of men camping there. They'd been up on a prospecting outfit. They'd struck some gold, and on the road back they had their horses and pack horses along, and they come to this water hole and was resting, and they'd all got drunk.
And said they had some venison cooking, and he did eat with them. And said, one of them said, "Take a drink." He told them who he was; he was Jack Coy, the--the Indian guide. So he said, "Well, now, take a drink."
He said, "No," he said, "I don't drink."
And that's kind of an insult to them people. So he said, "You'll take a drink from us."
He said, "No, I don't drink."
So he throwed the jug up and said, "Take a drink." Drunk, all of them, you know, about a half a dozen.
And so he said, "Thank you, boys."
Said, "If our venison's good enough to eat, our whiskey's good enough to drink."
And you know how they are, drunk. And he said, "No," he said.
And they threw a shell in the rifle, and said, "Now you'll drink or else."

 He said, "No. No, I won't drink." And he started to aim the rifle. Said, "Just a moment." Said, "I'm not afraid to die." He said, "I--I'm not afraid to die." He said, "But I--I want to tell you my story 'fore I do, the reason I don't drink." Said, "I'm a Kentuckian." He said, "And in a little old log cabin one morning, where a mother lay dying, she called me to her bedside, and said, 'Jack, your father died with a deck of cards in his hand, across a table, drunk.' And said, 'Don't never drink, Jack, whatever you do.'" And said, "On my mother's brow I laid my hands. And I promised God, as a little ten-year-old boy, I would never take my first drink." He said, "I've never took it." And said, "Now, if you want to shoot, you just shoot."
And as the drunk raised his rifle and throwed the jug up again, said, "Take it or I'll shoot." And just then a gun fired and the jug bursted.

 

 Standing at the side of a canyon was a little old cowboy, disfigured, with tears running down his cheeks. He said, "Jack, I too come from Kentucky. I made a promise to a mother one day, but I broke my promise." He said, "I was waiting till these guys got drunk enough, and was going to kill the whole bunch of them, anyhow, take what gold they had." He said, "But I've been a drunk and I've done wrong." But said, "I'm sure when my gun echoed up through the canyons of heaven, mother heard me sign a pledge I'll never do it again." There by the grace of God he led all those people to Christ, all those out there.
See, there's something about water, something about refreshing. My point was to get to the water when you're thirsty. There's something it does to you, is to get to the water when you're thirsting.

 62-0204, Communion, Branham Tabernacle, Jeffersonville, IN, 86 min

A little couple that brought their dead baby to be prayed for.

we're seeing strange things in this day. Now I've remember the last time I was here was in a tent meeting. I remember of speaking of it last night, of a little couple that brought their dead baby in. It--it's up somewhere up here, they drove all day and night. The little mother setting, sad, holding that little baby in her arms. Now, she may be setting right here now, for all I know. And she... the little husband, couple of more couples with them, and they was... And she said... asked me if I'd come over (the man did) to the car. I took the little baby out and was just holding it; a little, dead, stiff, cold form; and I started to pray. And when I prayed, that body begin to feel like it was getting warm. So I just... I kept on praying. He started kicking and moving, going along, so I... started crying. I handed it back to the mother, she went on back home with it. So, they might not even been Christians, for all I know. See? That was wonderful.

 65-1206, Modern Events Are Made Clear By Prophecy, Orange Bowl, San Bernardino, CA, 113 min

We must be Christian soldiers, and get orders from the Bible for this hour now

David tried to bring the ark of God back into the house. He was anointed king. Why, he--he consulted his--his delegates, his captains of thousands, and ten thousands, and so forth. And they all said, "That's the Word of the Lord." And he consulted the priest, "That was wonderful." And they all got so inspired, they shouted, they done every religious act that was. And they was absolutely contrary to God's will, because there was a prophet in the land by the name of Nathan and he wasn't even consulted about it. See? And we found out it didn't work though they were sincere, trying to do God a service. [I Chronicles 13:1-13], [I Chronicles 15:2-3, 12-28]

 And you can be ever so sincere; but, until we know what we're doing, you're fighting at the air. Come back into the Word of God and get lined up, and then go; then you know. Like a--a soldier, don't know what to do until he gets orders to do it. We must be Christian soldiers, and get orders from the Bible for this hour now; not the charge yesterday, the charge the day before, but the charge today (which way we go). Find out the hour that we're living in.

65-1206, Modern Events Are Made Clear By Prophecy, Orange Bowl, San Bernardino, CA, 113 min

"The man is mentally ill. No man could put a bridge across that."

Now notice this. All people, everything, men are knowed by their works. When the great Municipal Bridge was built in Sydney, Australia, when they sent around the world to get bridge builders, architects, and from... One across the peninsula at--at Sydney, Australia, to span over to South Sydney... The architects and all, came and dug up the soil and tested it. And all of them come to this conclusion: "It cannot be done." Said, "The whole bay is full of quicksand, and the soil will not hold together enough. It'll shift from place to place. Therefore, if the bridge would be built, it would be a dangerous thing to try to pass over it."

 

 And finally, there was a man, who was a man of vision, a bridge builder in England. He came over, and he looked at the sand. He--he surveyed it. He tested the soils. He sounded the water. He looked it all over first. Oh, I love that. He looked it all over first.
Jesus said, "A man buying a ground, or going to meet a army, first he sets down and counts the cost."
If every one of you here at the altar this morning would set there in your seats before you'd come to be anointed and would count what it means, it wouldn't be just going through a prayer line haphazardly; it would be going there with a firm confidence, that God had promised it, and God was able to keep His Word. [Matthew 13:44], [Luke 14:28]

 

 So this man tested the soils; he tested the--each bed in there that had the quicksand. And finally he went to the officials; he said, "I will build the bridge and it will be safe."
The bridge builders of America and different parts of the world only laughed and said, "The man is mentally ill. No man could put a bridge across that." Said, "Even if a chicken should walk the bridge that would be built, it would sink. The bridge cannot stand it. The vibrations of even the dog running across the bridge, which will vibrate the bridge..." Said, "It would shake the sands, and the bridge would go down. It could not be done."

 

 But this man was a man of vision. And he knew what he was talking about, for something down in him told him he could do it. God, give us men in the church like that.
Now, from all of the scientific research that it could not be done... Science proved that it could not be done, but this man had a vision he could do it. So he took the contract. Quickly he went to work. He went to testing the soils. He went to testing and sounding the depths of the quicksand bed. He tested every bolt. He tested every piece of--of wood, every piece of metal, every concrete. Everything had to be perfectly tested, because his--his great name, and his character, and his ability rested on whether that bridge stood or not.

 

 And if a man of this earth, by a vision, would be sure that everything was tested perfectly before he put it in the bridge because of his character, and because of his name, how much more did our blessed heavenly Father test every Word that was ever said, or wrote in the Bible. He tested every Word, every prophet. And every son that cometh to God must be tested. The material that goes in this great highway, every rock, every material, before it's placed into the--the Body of Christ has to be tried, chastened. Every son that cometh to God must first be tried, no exceptions, every one of them. Every prophet before he could write in that Bible, he was tested by the Holy Spirit. [I Corinthians 11:32]

 

 Just as he... the bridge builder, I'm sorry I forget his name; I knew it. Couple days ago I was reading the article how that he had everything tested. He got the best mechanics he could find. He got the best concrete men. He got the best that he could find to put together the best that he had.
Oh, my soul would cry, "Hallelujah to God," when I think that God puts in His Church the best that He can find. God takes His children and tests them with a acid test. Then He places them into the Body of Christ because they are tested. They believe. They've went through the trials. They've had the experience. They are witnesses of His, and know what they're talking about. Not just an intellectual conception, but they've been borned again of the precious Holy Spirit, and time-tested and tried, until their souls are set like flint towards Calvary.

 

 Yes, they are time-tested. They are witnesses of His power. And through that, God's building a bridge from earth to glory, that the wayfaring man may come on the highway, set down under the tree in the cool of the day by time-tested material, those who take God at His Word. No matter what the symptoms are, the circumstances, that doesn't stand in the way. God's got time-tested material as a witness, and He places it.
And this great bridge builder, when finally the architect stood along on the side, and said to the builder, many of the critics, "It'll never stand."
So have they said the Church will never rise. So have they said the days of miracles is past. So, have they said that old time religion cannot be enjoyed any more.

 

 But, oh, when this man placed all those materials together, he dug; he got blowers, and he blowed out those quicksand beds. He went on down, down, down for hundreds of feet beneath the water, until he blowed that shifting sands away, until he put this concrete anchored in the rock on the bottom of the sea. Oh, it was a price, yes. And anything that's worth having, has a price attached to it. How great this salvation, what a great price.
But he finally got down under the shifting sands. And God has taken Christians and tried them, and tried them, He had to brush them off, and brush them off, and brush them off till finally one of these days He comes down to the solid rock. Some men just takes this little wishy-washy of experience of shaking hands, and joining the church, and being sprinkled a few times, or baptized, or something. And he washes all the shifting sands back until he's anchored on the Rock, Christ Jesus. All devils of torment can't move him.

 

 The bridge builder knowed what he was doing. And when finally it was completed, some of them said, "It won't stand. It'll be dangerous for anything to cross it."
He got around a bunch of engineers and with railroads, and that day, when they passed from South Sydney going to North Sydney, across the span he put about eight big freight trains loaded down. And he put the mayor of the city in a car, and he got in the front of it, walking, packing the flag. And as the great army and the big--eight big steam engines loaded down, marched across that bridge with the builder taking the first place, going in front, she never even moved.

 

 And Jesus Christ, God's Son, Who's the Architect of the Church, come to this earth and laid down the foundations. When He met the devil, He was tested by the Word of God, and He said, "It is written, men shall not live by bread alone." When he took Him to the pinnacle of the temple, He said, "It is written." See the material He was putting in His Church? He took Him to the mountain and showed Him all the great programs He could have. He said, "It is written."
All the Word of God was time-tested. And He's the great Captain that's going before us with His own bloody coat waving. But to the redeemed bought by the Blood of Jesus Christ, has bought a Church by the Holy Spirit that's tested every bolt, and every person that's ever anchored in this great Church of the living God. It's a time-tested material, that does it. [Luke 4:4], [Matthew 4:4]

 

 And as He marches on, the great regime coming behind Him, and as the borned again Church of the living God, She don't move because we have received the Kingdom that cannot be moved. It's dug plumb to the solid Rock, that's Christ Jesus, being that she's...?... on. Then as He goes before us with His own bloody coat making the way, it's a sign of redemption.

The devil sent in two people, a young boy and girl to break up the meeting

Fred Sothmann, a friend of mine, bosom friend from Canada, He's here in the meeting somewhere, was with me in a New England campaign just last year. And we went over in the Adirondack, where I was lost at that time, and the only time I was ever lost in the woods in my life. And I wanted to show Brother Fred where my wife and children was--or Billy, was waiting for me to come back when I was lost in that snow storm that night. And when we were standing there by the side of a little lean-to where I'd had Meda and Billy laying in this mea--lean-to while I was hunting bear...
Well, I stepped out to one side ,and the Spirit of the Lord came upon me and I begin to shake. And it said, the Spirit of the Lord said, "There is a trap set for you, and be thou careful what you say."
Fred, where are you at? Are you in the meeting here tonight? I know he come over. Yes, right back here. That's right. And we left there and I told Brother Sothmann, "Something's fixing to happen." And when we got to the meeting that night I said to the audience, "Remember, THUS SAITH THE LORD, there is a trap set for me. And all of you pray that I'll know to do the right thing when this comes to pass."

 

 And the next night it happened. The devil sent in two people, a young boy and girl to break up the meeting. And that was in--it was in, not New Hampshire, but Vermont. Freddy, you remember the name of the city, it was the capital, what--of Vermont. And we were just across Lake Champlain. And so when we were in the meeting this boy... The girl looked like kind of a Mongolian girl. But the boy was just holding... They were both at least twenty-five years old apiece. But such immoral acts in a church... They were setting about like this from me. And when I started preaching, he would just grab her, and throw her head back, and climb up on her, and kiss her, and carry on, and just act awful in the meetings. And the ushers couldn't make him be quiet. And I said to him from the platform, I said, "Young man, don't do that; you're attracting the attention while I'm preaching." And he just laughed right out at me. I thought, "Oh, oh, there it is, there's the trap, right there."
I went right ahead speaking just the same. And oh, he got so immoral with her, till I had to stop again. I said, "Don't do that, sir, please." I said, "If you want to make love to the young lady, then you leave the building, but this is a--a religious meeting." I said, "You shouldn't do that. Don't--please don't do that while I'm preaching." I started again and he just made it worse.

 

 And then when I was turn--I said, "Don't..." And Something said to me, "Say what you will, and it'll be done." I stood there. Mr. Mercier, the tape boy, and all of them standing, Brother Fred, and many of them standing present, the perspiration was just running from me. Something said, "Say, 'Blindness,' it'll be blind. Say, 'Death,' and they'll pack them out. Say what you will." I couldn't speak. I couldn't move. And it just left.
I thought, "God, what--what must I do?" And I turned, and he stood there, and his face white, looking at me. I thought, "What must I say?" Then I turned, and looked like, before I knowed what I'd said, I said, "I forgive you of your act."
And it must have been just the right thing to say. It was God trying a--a reaction on an action. That night it was revealed to me that I'd said the right thing. I knowed it was all leading to something, but what was it? What to do?
You know you have to watch what with a Divine gift what you do with it. Remember what Moses did? So I must've said the right thing. "I forgive you." For you know John, young John, wanted to burn up Samaria one time because they wouldn't feed them.
Jesus said, "You don't know what kind of a spirit you are. The Son of man came to save life, not to destroy it." And I... Them Scriptures just kept pouring over, all night. I didn't sleep. But that was a trap set that Satan would get me all worked up and then make me say the wrong thing. But the Holy Spirit was there and told me beforehand to be careful what I said. Oh, the goodness of God, how it was. It... Just His mercy. "Be careful what you said." And from then on there was a relief come. Then about... I begin to notice the different things that I would speak out unconsciously, not knowing what I said, and it would happen that way. I begin to speak about it.

 

 59-1123, Speak To This Mountain, Santa Clara County Fairgrounds, San Jose, Ca, 106 min

That's why you're pretty today, and that's why she's scarred. Are you ashamed of those scars?

Not long ago, a young lady come in from college. Her mother had washed over a board to send her to college. And when she drove into the station, she had a--brought young girl with her, and she'd got away from God and away from church. The young girl was with her. And the young girl setting in the--the train looking out in the... There stood her mother on the outside; she was all scarred up. And the young girl was looking at her from the train, finally said, "Look at that old haggy looking woman." That was the girl's mother. Said, "Isn't she horrible? My, wouldn't you hate to have to set at the table with her to eat?" That was her girlfriend. Now, instead of the girl speaking up, she turned her head. And when she got off the train, this old wrinkled woman run up to her, and threw her arms around the girl, and kissed her. And the girl was so repulsed. And she'd got away from her, got away from church and God. And she was so cold; she turned her back to the lady.
She said, "My, darling, my darling, what's happened to you?" And she was so embarrassed 'cause of her girlfriend...

 

 Just then, one of the conductors who knowed the story, walked up and grabbed the young girl by the shoulders, said, "Looky here, you...?... What do you mean?" Said, "Are you ashamed of your mother since you've been away at the college?" Said, "Remember, you know the story. One day the house was burning down. Your mother was a beautiful woman, far more beautiful than you are, or ever would be." And said, "You were a little tiny baby. When she was hanging her clothes in the back yard, and all at once the house caught fire. And here comes the fire engines to put it out. And the house was in flames. And you were crying up in the upstairs. No one would dare to pierce the flames. That little mother wrapped herself, and in there she run through those flames. She grabbed you. Took her clothes from her body and wrapped your face up, and wrapped you all up, and put your arms and placed her own face to the flames. And through the flames she come to rescue you. That's why you're pretty today, and that's why she's scarred. Are you ashamed of those scars?"

 

 That's the way Jesus did for us. When we were sinners, ugly before God, cast away, turned away, He came, the lovely Son of God from the ivory palaces, come down on the earth, and took the shame upon Himself and the sin upon Himself, and died there at Calvary, crying.
Should I be ashamed of His Gospel? Christians on the street are ashamed to stand up for the Gospel. But He was marred and made ugly, that you could be free. He was marred by sin that you could be free from sin. Don't never deny Him. Always love Him. Stand for that which is true. Stand for His Gospel.

 

50-0827A, Prodigal, Tent Meeting, Cleveland, OH

How that Bible float in that salty water for two years without even soiling the words on It.

During the time of the flood here in 1937, this little old church, when the mud floors and so forth that was in it, we could ride over the top of it here in a--in a rowboat. The floods went up, and that night when I preached the Gospel and had left my Bible laying open on the pulpit when I went home. Predicting that flood would come, I said, "I seen them measure twenty-two feet over Spring Street down here."
Old Brother Jim Wisehart and them laughed at me. You remember that, Brother George? I said... He--he said, "Oh, Billy, in '84 it only was about six inches on Spring Street."
I said, "I seen a man come down from the skies, and take a measure stick, and stick it there on Spring Street, said twenty-two feet."
He said, "You're just excited."
I said, "I'm not excited. It's THUS SAITH THE LORD."
Ask them how many feet was over Spring Street: twenty-two feet to the inch. Exactly.

And that old Bible where I had been preaching on that night... She started raining, the floods breaking through and so forth, and this old church... The seats went right straight up to the ceiling, the Bible went right straight up to the ceiling, washing through here with all that water raising it up. The pulpit went right straight up. They come right down; and every seat set right back in the same place, and the Bible laid right back in the same place, and all that water, and still opened up, the same chapter at the same place.

"Heavens and earth will pass away, but My Word shall never pass away."

How that Bible float in that salty water for two years without even soiling the words on It... God's Word's are true. Amen

 

 61-0108, Revelation, Chapter Four #3, Branham Tabernacle, Jeffersonville, IN, 187 min

You meant Josephine, didn't you?" I said, "No, I meant Joseph

Wife was with me at this meeting and little Joseph. That's been about three years ago. And all of you know the story, or perhaps have read about Joseph. I was taking the life of Joseph... And the doctor had told us we could have no more children after Rebekah was born, because she was a caesarean, and the wife could not have another child.
And I went into a little closet at Minneapolis, and was weeping there before the Lord. And a vision come down and said, "You will have a son, and you shall call his name Joseph." And so, I begin to announce it to all the people. And so, then waited four years.
Everybody said, "What about that prophecy about Joseph?"
I said, "He will be along. Don't worry."
And then we knew wife was going to be mother again. And so when it was born, it was a girl, Sarah, and everybody got to laughing at me. Said, "I... You meant Josephine, didn't you?"
I said, "No, I meant Joseph."
The doctors said, "Mr. Branham," said, "we had better do a little operation here, because your wife cannot, no wise, stand another child."
I said, "Doctor, don't you dare to touch her. We're going to have a son, and his name's Joseph." He just scratched his head, and done like that, and walked away.

 

 And four more years passed. And one day we found out that she was to be mother again. Some of them said, "Is this Joseph?"
I said, "I don't know." But I said, "I don't know. But Joseph's coming, 'cause God never told me nothing but what was true."
And so, I went out to the hospital and kissed her as she went up into the room, the delivery room.
A few minutes, the nurse came down. She said, "Who is Reverend Branham?"
And I said, "Me."
And she said, "You have a fine seven-pound boy."
I said, "Joseph, honey, you've been a long time getting here. Daddy's kind of glad to see you."
And she said, "You called him Joseph."
I said, "That's his name."

 

 62-0629, Be Not Afraid, It Is I, National Guard Armory, Santa Maria, CA, 97 min

What sermon did I preach that caused you to change your mind?

Down in Louisiana, we had an old colored brother down there, a Pentecostal brother, and he was a nice old preacher. I thought a lot of him. And he kindy had my hobby of liking to hunt. And so he one day they had an old fellow there; he's name was Gabriel, but the--they called him Gabe just for short.
And old Gabe was a nice old fellow, but he--we couldn't get him to line up with the church. The pastor would do everything for him he could, but he just wouldn't line up with the church. Had a fine, sainted wife, good woman, and she prayed constantly. And the pastor tried to get him to come to church, but he just wouldn't do it. He loved to gamble a little, and so forth, and drink a little. He just wouldn't line up with the church.
 

 One day, him and the pastor went hunting. And when--on the road coming home... Now, Gabe was one of the poorest shot there is in Louisiana. He couldn't hit a inside of a barn with the doors closed. So they went out hunting that day, and that evening coming in, they had just loaded down with birds, and rabbits, and so forth. All the game. It was on Saturday afternoon. They was going hobbling along an old familiar path, along side of a hillside, and old Gabe kept looking over his shoulder, seeing the sunset. He walked on a little farther, and directly down his big, dark cheek the tears begin to roll. The pastor was going on in front with rabbits tied over sticks, and a hanging over his shotgun, and going along like that. After while, a great, big, dark hand reached across his shoulder, he--he looked around he said, "Pastor?"
He turned around, and said, "Yes, Gabe."
Said, "You see that sun setting yonder?"
"Yeah."
Said, "That's setting on both of our brows," Said, "setting on both of our brows." He said, "You know what I'm a going to do?" He said, "I'm coming down to the mourners bench in the morning." Down south, I don't know if you know what the mourners bench is here. It's a altar. He said, "Then I'm goin' to rise up from there; I'm going back to my precious wife, and take my seat. And after I--you baptize me, I's going to become a member of this church, and I'm going to remain in that church until death shall set me free."
 

 The pastor dropped his gun, and throwed his arms around old Gabe, and he said, "Gabe, you know I'm happy to hear that." Said, "I want to ask you something, Gabe." Said, "What sermon did I preach that caused you to change your mind? Or what hymn did we sing in the church that caused you to change your mind?"
He said, "Pastor," he said, "I appreciate every sermon you ever preached. I always enjoyed them, because you tell the truth." Said, "I enjoy every song that I hear the choir sing." Said, "Because I know it speaks of heaven and of God." But said, "It wasn't that pastor." He said, "You know, pastor, I couldn't hit nothing. I'm a poor shot." He said, "Just look at the meat that God--that God has given me." Said, "Surely, He must love me, or He wouldn't be so good to me." He said, "Because He loved me, I love Him, and from this day on, I'm His servant."
 

 Brother, that's it. If we would just look around and see how good God is to us, count our blessings, then we'd be willing to take our place at His throne. Let's bow our heads just a moment.
Is there someone here would like to say, "Brother Branham, I know that God's been good to me, and I haven't been good to Him. I--I would like to raise to my hands, and say, I want to serve Him. I--I want Him to be my Saviour. And I'll raise my hand to Him now."
Now, I--I pray that the sincerity of your heart will be--come to the spot now, this glorious anointing of the Holy Spirit. Now, you may all be Christians. That I don't know. But the Holy Spirit knows. The same One that reveals the secret of the heart will speak to you now, and let you know whether you are a Christian or not. If He says that you're not a Christian, will you raise your hand and say, "God be merciful to me? I now want to accept Jesus as my Saviour."

 60-0802, El-Shaddai, Eisenhower High School, Yakima, WA, 109 min

Florence Nightingale - Her flesh had all left from her cheeks, her jaws were sunken in, and her forehead here-it just looked like a dead skeleton

And friends, I've seen lots of sights. I've seen people when their face would be eat with cancer till it'd be down here in their neck. They'd have to put a little trough here to pour their liquid in their throat here, with just the teeth and the bones, the meat eaten from it. And sights in India! I've seen lepers lay till there was not even enough for them to raise their hands, and stubs of ears, and no nose, and just turned out white, like a white wart turned inside out. Little children and everything eat up with leprosy, laying piled on top of each other. Seen little children laying starving, by the hundreds of them, through the streets, and their little bellies swelled out from starvation, a poor mother laying by them begging for one penny to help that person. That's the reason I can't...If I could beg, I could beg for them. I don't want nothing when I know of human beings that Christ died for is suffering like that. And there's hundreds and hundreds of them tonight everywhere around the world, and there they are in that condition.

        But when I seen Florence Nightingale, she was laying there with a sheet over her, and she could hardly move her lips. Her flesh had all left from her cheeks, her jaws were sunken in, and her forehead here-it just looked like a dead skeleton laying there. The skin had dried up. That cancer had eaten her in that condition. Just taken the blood from her.

           And she kept trying to say something I couldn't understand. And the nurse got down, and she said, "I want to shake his hand." And so the nurse had to raise up them bones and put them in my hand. Why, it was just like taking ahold of a skeleton. Her arms were probably a couple inches around in here. And her ...she wanted me to see her body. And they raised up that sheet, it would break the heart of anyone. Even the ring in the hip was sticking like that, just about that much from being together through here. And her legs was all blue, and I asked what that was. Her legs was probably up here near her hip about that big around. And I said...Well, here it is in the picture, where it was taken, see. And you can see what she was then after about six weeks later. And so I looked, and he said they fed her glucose until her veins collapsed.

            And so then ..."Oh," I said, "my! You are a Christian?" And she let me know "Yes." And she got down again, the nurse, to see what she was going to say. And she said, "Have Brother Branham to ask the Lord to let me die." See, she just hung on till there was nothing to hang on for anymore, nothing to build to. Said, "Ask Brother Branham to ask the Lord to let me die."

             I couldn't do that. She looked like she was a fairly young woman. So I said, "Let us pray."

            And if anybody's ever been in London, you know it's one of the most foggy places in the world. When it gets foggy, you have to feel your way around almost. It was real foggy that morning. And that's why William Cowper could not commit suicide. He couldn't find the ocean. When he wrote that famous song, "There is a fountain filled with blood," he couldn't find the place to jump in. The cab couldn't get to the ocean for him to commit suicide, drown himself.

             And as I knelt down to pray, the first thing, I started off prayer like this, I said, "Almighty God, creator of heavens and earth, author of everlasting life, giver of all good gifts." And when I got through with that there was a little dove flew from somewhere and sat on the sill of that window, and he was just about that far from my head. And the little fellow was restlessly walking back and forth, going, "Coo, coo." You know how they go. Well, I thought it was a pet at the house. I just thought it was a little pet dove. I'd just been in England about twenty-four hours, or hardly that long, and I thought it was a little pet dove. So I just kept on praying.

             I said, "Heavenly Father, this poor woman laying here a-dying, and she's asked me to pray that You would take her life because she's beyond herself, like, and she's nothing to build to. But, God, You are still creator. You are still God." And this little dove seemed to be so restlessly. And the rest of the ministers who was praying with me seemed to stop. And then as I kept on praying, when I said, "Father, I pray that You'll be merciful to her. And if You are going to take her life, and not let her live, then let her go in ease. Let her go to be with You now. But if it be Your will that You're going to let her get well, then, Father, let her get well," and when I got through praying, I said, "Amen."

              And the little dove took off through the fog again. Well, as soon as I stopped praying, the minister by me, he looked over at another minister, and said, "Did you notice that dove?"

I said, "What was that dove? Was that a pet?"

              Said, "No, it wasn't a pet." The minister said, "It was just a dove that acted funny."

           And I started to turn and say to Mrs. Nightingale, I started to say, "Well, I thought it was your pet." And when I did, like that, something said, "Thus saith the Lord." Oh, my, there, over almost her casket where she was laying, there was a vision of her walking along down the street. This is the picture of it right here, how she was a little later. That's what I saw in the vision. Then it come, "Thus saith the Lord, you're going to live and not die." And when I said that I thought, "Them things are so supernatural." I don't understand them. I don't know what they mean.

              And I walked out. I believe it was Brother Baxter said to me, "How could she live?" Said, "God will have to create a new woman."

          I said, "Well, He's able to do exceedingly abundantly above all." And six months from then, after two letters before that, here come the picture, perfectly normally healthy. Can't find a trace of cancer, and she's back nursing, and been nursing for a long time.

            Here some time ago it come up a dispute between a writer of a magazine in England. Said, "It was a very unscrupulous thing that this woman ...that was a false testimony." I happened to have in my files her own testimony. I sent it back to Mr. Stadsklev. He photostatted it and sent it over, and she got ahold of it. And then she went to this man writing the magazine, said, "Who said this testimony wasn't right?"

          See, that's where you have it. When you've got their own testimony in writing, you have it there, see.

           And then the man wrote me back a letter of an apology, that he said, "I taken somebody else's word for it."

           I said, "Don't never print nothing, sir, upon the basis of somebody else's word, because you see what you've done here now, see." I said, "Don't never do that."

             But the testimony is absolutely the truth. We would not print it unless it was the truth. See, it has to be that way, stated that it's true. So you see, the same God was with Florence Nightingale there is the same God that's right here. He's the same One, and the only thing...You don't have to wait to be prayed for. The only thing you have to do is just believe that the work is done.

            If you're a sinner, you don't have to wait for an altar call. Right where you're sitting..."While Peter yet spake these words, the Holy Ghost fell on them that heard the word." They were ready. It's a condition of the heart. It's a condition of the people.

 Thirsting For Life, Phoenix, AZ USA, March 4, 1960

"Think of it. The governor stood in my cell and would have pardoned me [from a death sentence] if I hadn't turned him out."

I heard a little something, a while ago, I'd like to repeat. It come from, I believe, it was Billy Sunday that made the remark. There was a boy that had done a crime. I don't know whether you ever heard of it, or not. He done a crime. They throwed him in jail, was going to... He was in. And so he had a trial. And--and the judge said...  

 And the jury come out. They said, "We find the boy guilty of the crime. And we, the jury," said, "we ask for his life."  

 And the judge said, "I--I sentence you to die, hanging from a rope, until your mortal life is gone. And God have mercy on your soul."

 And the boy was taken to the prison, and put in the inner prison, that he'd have to stay there until the time he was to die.

 And friends come to the judge, and said, "Judge, we helped elect you in the city. Please, please, don't let that young fellow die like that."

 I just come from Texas, for another, something like that. A young man and a young woman, and God spared their lives. They was to die, about three or four days after that. I guess you all seen the paper, you was with me over there, that they spared their lives.

 So they pleaded, and pleaded, and pleaded, the people, that he wouldn't do it. So after while, at the governor of the state...

 The mother, on the outside of the door, one day, fell down on the door, like that, and cried to get in.

 And finally the man come in, said, "The mother of that boy, governor, is--is outside there. She wants to see you."
And the governor said, "Bring her in."

 And the woman, in humility, crawled on her hands and feet, up to the governor, and took a hold of his shoes, and said, "Sir, that's my child. Don't kill him. Don't kill him. He's the only one I got. Don't kill him." Said, "He didn't mean to do that. Just give him life in prison. But don't take his life, governor."
The governor said, "Well, I'll go down and see him."
Said, "All right."

 So the governor went down to the ward where he was at, and they went in. The boy wanted to be arrogant. Said, "Got someone to see you."

 And the governor went in, said, "Young man, I'd like to talk to you." He got real arrogant, just set down, buttoned up, wouldn't say a thing. He said, "Young man, I want you to speak to me. I want to talk to you." And the boy just acted like he didn't even hear him. And he said, "Young man, I can help you if you'll let me."

 Said, "Get out of here. I don't want to hear nothing you got to say."
He said, "Well, son..."

 He said, "Shut up. Don't you see I'm nervous? I don't want to hear one word you're going to say."
He said, "Well, I come..."
He said, "Get out of this cell."
So he walked out. They closed the doors.

 So when he walked back, the guy, the--the police at the ward, at the door, said, "You're the most foolish person."
He said, "Who was that crank, anyhow?"
He said, "That was the governor of the state."

 Said, "No, not the governor. The only man that can pardon me, and I run him out of my cell. The only man that can sign my pardon, and I run him out of the cell."
As the governor went out, said, "He made his choice."

 So, the last thing the boy said, when they put the black mask over his face, to hang him; when they pulled the rope up tight, put the mask over him. Said, "Think of it. The governor stood in my cell and would have pardoned me if I hadn't turned him out."

 How do we know, this morning, that the Governor is not standing by our cell this morning? Don't turn Him away, if you haven't never received pardon from Him. Not only the Governor, but the King, the only One Who can pardon you, He may be standing by that little cell that you been living in for a long time. Why don't you just let Him in, if you haven't, haven't done it, if you haven't made a complete surrender to Him?

 Someday, you'll find out that this little humble way, that you might think is just a bunch of silliness, a bunch of people that don't know what they're talking about, you'll find out, the Governor is here this morning. If you have need, if you're in a little cell of sickness, you can't get out of, the Governor is here. The Governor of the world, He is just, and He will turn you out. He come. He signed your pardon. He just wants to give it to you, this morning. Don't turn it down.

Let's bow our heads a minute.

 If you want a real victory now, with your head bowed, why not surrender and let the Governor of state, let the Governor sign your pardon this morning. He's ready to take you out; take you out from sin, take you out from unbelief, take you out from sickness, take you out from ever what you want. You do it while we pray.
Now you pray in your own way. You talk to Him. See?

 The warden could have talked to the governor. That wouldn't done any good. See? The boy had to talk to the governor. See?  

 You have to talk to the Governor. If you're sick, talk to Him. If you've sinned and done wrong, talk to Him. He has a pardon for you.

 63-0421, Victory Day, House Meeting, Sierra Vista, AZ, 112 min