Nobody had a green checkered shirt. And I said, "It'll have to be a green checkered shirt, or the vision will not be complete ....."

Lee, I just happened to think of another one that... See, I'm trying to think of something that there's men living right here that was present, can see it, and all about it.And about a--a year before this happened, and about... Before my--my mother went away, you know, I was given a vision one day of being a hunter, you know, and hunting for game. And I--I seen an animal I'd--I'd never hunted before. It looked like a deer, only it was many times bigger. And I went to get that animal.
And there was a man with me that--a couple of little fellows that had a... One of them had on a green checked shirt.
And so I thought I'll--I'll go get that animal. It's a marvelous animal. So I started after it. And on the road, I--I met a--a female and a little baby one of the same type of animal. Only, it looked like a deer. But I--I'd never seen a deer like that. And I've hunted all my life.
And I went over and got the... and shot the animal. And was real close to it, got real close to it and shot it. And when I did, I seen a little hand measure the horns. And it was exactly forty-two inches, exactly, forty-two inches.

On my road back, bringing my trophy out, I met a--a great silver-tipped grizzly bear. And this bear, I shot with one shot and killed it. And I was studying about my rifle being too small before I shot it, because it's just a .270. It was a hundred and thirty grain bullet. So I shot this animal, and--and this bear, and skinned him out.And--and so then about a... And the vision left me. 

And about a--a month after that, I was down in Kentucky, and Brother Arganbright called me and wanted to give me a hunting trip to Alaska, and said if I go up there for the Businessmen and have a meeting...
I told him I had a vision of killing a big grizzly bear.
He said, "Well, I've got it all fixed up to take you on a grizzly bear hunt." He said... And so I... "And also moose hunting."
And I said, "The thing that I got wasn't moose," I said, "because a moose has paneled horns. And this had horns like a deer." And so it... not panels. So... but in spikes...
So I--I said, "Well, it sounds very good. But let me pray first."

And that afternoon, into the woods I went, and prayed. And it looked like all the time that it'd get farther away from me.So then about a--a month after that, Billy Paul handed me a letter from a friend by the name of Harvey Southwick. He's called Bud Southwick. S-o-u-t-h-w-i-c-k, Southwick. And he's a class-A guide on the Alaskan highway around Muncho Lake. His home is in Fort Saint John.
And the spring before that, I'd been up there on a hunting trip with a Christian brother named Eddie Byskal, which is a great man influenced... great influence in the Canadian ministerial group.
And we'd been up there. He was a... Eddie was his--this man's pastor. And on the road back in, the waters got us cut off back there, and we couldn't get in to hunt. So, we just had to lay in the--the tent.
And it was at the time of year that the midnight sun is about shining that high up. It's right on the Yukon. And it would hardly would get dark at night, just a little gloomy looking, and then be day again.

And the waters got so terrific we couldn't go any farther, so we had to head back. And during this time, this man, Bud, had not received the Holy Spirit as yet. He'd just been a believer. So, Eddie was telling him about my ministry, about visions and so forth.He said, "Oh, my. I've got a brother that's got epilepsy." He said, "If I could only get him with that, I... with that boy."
And so then, I come into the tent. I'd been out looking around, glassing, late in the afternoon. And so Eddie asked me. He thought if they could get a chance that we could get the boy into one of the meetings, and maybe the Lord would show a vision what to do for him. Well, he kept talking about it, constantly.
Well, I was trying to relax from such. So I just went away and didn't say anymore about it. And Bud kept constantly asking Eddie, wondering if the Lord would help him with his brother.
So, on the... About the third day, we started out. And one of the horses got down in some mesquite. And then I... We helped get him out. And I was riding what they called the drag. That was behind the... all the whole trail of horses. And the horses are not tied together, so they'd went out into the woods. And I'd help chase them back in line again.

And I saw a vision of this young boy. So I spurred up my horse and went up in front, around the string, that is the string of horses. And I got up there and said to Bud, the brother of the man that had epilepsy; I said, "Mr. Southwick, the Lord Jesus has showed me a--a vision of your brother. Now, this brother has had this epilepsy since he was a little boy.""That's right."
And then, I said, "Your brother looks such and such. A young man with..."
"Yes, that's exactly right."
"Now," I said, "now, you send and get him. And don't doubt this. You send and get him down at Fort Saint John, bring him up here. And--and when he falls into one of those epileptic spells, jerk his shirt off of his back and throw it in the stove, and say--in the fire, and say this, 'I do this in the Name of the Lord, according to what Brother Branham has told me to do.' And it's THUS SAITH THE LORD, the spell will leave him."
And so Bud anxiously sent and got his brother and brought him up. And he'd have maybe five or six of those seizures a day. And so Bud was out of the house at the time when his brother arrived. And his wife, Bud's wife, is a very fine Christian woman and filled with the Spirit of God, a little woman, mother of five children. And so this boy fell in one of his seizures in--in the little old shack they were staying in.Well, he usually gets violent when he'd do that. And the little woman would run, 'cause she was afraid of him. But her being a Christian and believed the Word, and believed It with prophecy just the way it should be done, she just straddled him and jerked his shirt off his back. And there was a old salamander there, burning. And she threw it into the fire, crying, and said, "Brother Branham said to do this in the Name of the Lord."
And the spirit left him and had never come back on him yet. And that was over a year after. He never had one spell afterwards.

And then, I got a letter from him (Now, to my story.) after I'd come back from Kentucky, that invited me to come hunting. So when I prayed over that, was like I kept getting closer to go up there to see Bud.And then when I... We went up there to--to go on this hunting trip, Brother Fred Sothmann went with me. And I'd drawed it on the windshield exactly how long them horns would be, and had told it, and how big the bear would be and what kind it would be, told it before hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of people, and drawed it out on paper, just the way it would be, how the animal would be in a panoramic, and I'd have to go over some snow to get to it. And there'd be more with me. But I'd be the one that got the animal with the forty-two inch horns. And on my road back, I'd kill this silver-tip grizzly bear.
So when I got up there, I... We're way from the cities now. We're around five hundred miles from any city up on the Alaskan highway. The closest real city is Fort Saint John, which is very small. There's a little place in between there, called Fort Nelson. But it's just kinda a wide place in the road. And it's a few little buildings, the Hudson Bay. And perhaps you've been there yourself, Lee.

And but when I met this Bud, way up there from nowhere, I told he and his wife that vision that night."Well," he said, "such an animal, we don't have here. And we don't have very many deer. They're very scarce." Said, "maybe it was a caribou. Did you ever hunt caribou?"
I said, "No. But doesn't a caribou have panels?"
He said, "Yes."
I said, "Well, this didn't have any panels. It looked like a deer."
"Well," he said, "the first place," said, "we're not... we're going to hunt sheep. So we won't be in any bear country, nor..." and said, "We're going up high, too high for that."
I said, "Well, it may be some other trip. But it's going to happen, because the Lord never has showed me anything that's ever failed yet."
So about three days back, we were walk on the mountains spotting for some sheep. And we found some. And on the road back down... So we'd have to go the next morning to find to where the sheep was. They was too far away for us for that day. So we a...
 

 And on the road back, little Eddie Byskal fell in the--the river and got wet--a little creek we was crossing.And by the way, that's down there at the camp that there... at the Southwick trailer, there was nobody had a green shirt. Eddie didn't have one. I didn't have one. And Blain, that's Brother Bud's oldest boy, who is a guide too. He didn't have one, nor Bud didn't have one. Nobody had a green checkered shirt.
And I said, "It'll have to be a green checkered shirt, or the vision will not be complete. It'll be some other time, or somewhere else."
And so Eddie fell in the water that night, come back and got wet. He had to change clothes.
Early the next morning, way before day, we went to the top of the mountain, and on... to find the--the sheep. On the road up, we passed... Me seeing my first time, a wild caribou cow and calf. I should've knowed the vision right then. But I didn't.
 

 We got off the top of the mountain. There was no sheep there. We stayed there and--and looked up over the mountains. And being Christians, we talked about, wondered if it would be that way in the great millennium to come.And--and so Eddie had tipped over the other side of the hill, and he had found a bull caribou. And he shot it. And we heard the gun go off. And so we went over there. And he shot it, and we butchered out the caribou. But it had right nice webbed paneled horns on it.
So then we had our lunch. And we went on up to kinda the top of the hill, which was about a couple, three city blocks. And we'd butchered the caribou down by a little spring like, that was running down by the side of the mountain there. And we got some--some water to drink after eating our--our meal.
We went to pick up our saddle horses. And when we did, the... Bud said to me; he said, "Brother Branham, them sheep might've went over this mountain." Said, "You like to climb; would you like to climb over it?" Said, "We'll get back about ten or eleven o'clock tonight to the base camp." Said, "If you feel like climbing."
I said, "Oh, I love to do it, Bud."

So we was going to go over the mountain. And while I was standing there looking, and he was instructing the boys to take my saddle horse and his saddle and pack Eddie's caribou meat on it, and go on back to the camp. And we'd--we'd come back over to see if the sheep was over in that... in the other ravine, or other side of the mountain, and then come back down that night. We had to go up through some snow.And while I looking around, I picked up my glasses. And believe it or not, exactly around that panoramic and looking right at me was that animal laying on the bank, about a mile from me.
And I said, "Bud, here, take these glasses. What is that animal laying?"
"Oh," he said, "Brother Branham, it's a big old caribou looking this a way."
And I said, "Bud, look at his horns."
He said, "Yeah, he's an odd one."
I said, "That's exactly the way... And here's exactly the panoramic and snow, and just the way the animal is supposed to lay."
Now, he said, "Well, the Lord has give it to you."
I said, "Yes."
"Only thing," he said, "but wasn't there to be a bear too?"
I said, "Yes."
He said, "What about a man with a green shirt on?"

And none of us had noticed, but Eddie, and his wife packing up his clothes, had put a shirt in the--in his duffel bag. And there was Eddie standing, getting wet the day before, changing his clothes, had put on a green checkered shirt that he didn't know he had.And I said, "Looky here. What does Eddie got on?"
And they all begin weeping and shouting because of seeing that.
I said, "All right, go on down. Take the boys." They went on down.
They said, "No, we're going to wait here."
And Bud said, "Well, Brother Branham, it'll be almost totally impossible to get to that caribou, 'cause he's looking right this way. And we're way up to summit of the mountains where there's no trees or nothing, just simply caribou moss and that's all." The highest thing ever would be a blueberry bush, which would be about four inches high, or five at the most--of inches. And so they're just a little patches on the mountain. And so he said, "He's bound to see you."
And I said, "But Brother Bud, the Lord Jesus has give the animal to me."
He said, "Well, he's an odd one. Never seen one like that."
So we took off. He said, "Well, can I go with you?"
I said, "Sure."
And we walked right up to that caribou, within about thirty-five yards, and I shot the caribou. And there was three of them laying there. The rest of them had big panels, and this one had them freak looking horns.
Well then, we looked back with the glasses. And the boys were--had their arms up waving to us that they had seen me get the caribou. So they went on down to pack the horses and come out at the bottom of the hill. We got into small timber again, about two miles below the mountain--or down the mountain.

So while we were skinning him out, Bud said, "You know, Brother Branham, you said these horns was how long?"I said, "Forty-two inches."
He said, "In my saddle bag, I've got a tape measure." He said, "They look to me like they're about ninety."
I said, "No, they're--they'll be forty."
He said, "Now, according to what you told me, before we get back to that boy with that green shirt on, on your road back, you're going to kill a nine foot silver tipped grizzly."
I said, "That's THUS SAITH THE LORD."
He said, "Brother Branham, I can see every inch of the mountain from here down and all around. (You can see for miles in there.) And there's not a spot of anything nowhere. Where's that bear coming from?"
I said, "That's not for me to question, Bud. That's the Lord's Word." I said, "Remember, He's--He's always God, and the... He keeps His Word."

So when we got the--the trophy off of the--the--the cape, and the horns and things from the caribou, then we started down the mountain. I'd packed my gun awhile, and then Brother Bud would pack the horns. And--and the horns would just about reach from my shoulders down to the ground, and the--with the head of the caribou made it weigh about, over a hundred, a hundred and fifty pounds. And we had an awful time, both of us small men, trying to get it down the mountain, just kinda slide it down easy as we went down.Now, the timber started. The little scrub timber, the little... Oh, I guess it's spruce, little spruce trees run about two or three foot tall. And then some of them would get up around five or six foot tall, just little patches.
And Bud stopped. He said, "Brother Branham, if we're going to get that bear, he'd better be showing up, hadn't he?"
I said, "Bud, I believe you doubt that."
He said, "Brother Branham, how could I doubt it? This has been a full year, more than a year since my brother, you told me what to do about him. And he hasn't had an epileptic fit from that time since."
And I said, "He never will unless he starts to unbelieving, or starts to acting to the world again." And then, course, "Go and sin no more or a worse thing will come upon you."

So he said, "I... What I'm trying to think about, Brother Branham, I can see five miles, every spot that there is. And with these glasses, I can see beyond that. And there's no bear nowhere, and no place for one to come to."I said, "Brother Bud, have you forgotten, my precious brother, that He's still Jehovah-jireh? Remember the ram that come into existence when Abraham had need for one, because it was the Word of the Lord? This is still the Word of the Lord. See? When God told me I'll kill a silver tipped grizzly bear before we get back there, I will get that bear, THUS SAITH THE LORD."
Said, "Brother Branham, that--that's faith."
I said, "No, it ain't faith. It's believing just what God says. It never has failed, and it ain't going to fail."
So he said, "Remember, we're only about a thousand yards from that boy with the green shirt on now. We can't see them yet, but they're down in that hole there. And we... when we get down there."
Said, "No matter how far it is away from you, or how long it is, God can create a bear. He created the first one. And He's still the great Creator, Jehovah-jireh."
And we went on about another hundred yards, two hundred yards, maybe a little more, and set down again to rest. And this time, I'd been packing the rifle. Now, it's a little .270, very small rifle for bear hunting, so then--with a little hundred and thirty grain bullet.So we set down to rest. And then we was something about three or five hundred yards, something like that, from where we would meet these fellows there in that timber.
We looked around again. We'd been talking as we'd been coming down.
Said, "Brother Branham, that old bear had better be showing up, hadn't it?"
I said, "Bud, why would you question that?"
He said, "I'm not questioning it, Brother Branham." He said, "But, you know, you know." Said, "I... Maybe I don't live in the cycle you--you live in." He said, "I--I just can't hardly understand how it would be."

And just then, I turned to look over on the hill. I said, "Bud..." He had the glasses around his neck, because I was going to pack the horns. And--and he was going to pack the rifle. And I said, "What's that sticking right up there in--on the hill?" He turned his glasses and looked. It was getting along about six o'clock, or five o'clock in the afternoon then, the sun getting low.He said, "Oh, Brother Branham. So help me, it's the biggest silver tip I ever seen in my life. It's about a half a mile up the mountain from where we come." He said, "Brother Branham, where did he come from?"
I said, "I don't know."
He said, "I've watched that mountain everywhere, both of us. And there sets..." He said, "It's a silver tip. I'm looking right at him. And that's..." Said, "His big silver tips a blowing like that, the hair on him, blowing across his back. And that..." He said, "It looks like a big cow setting there, or something."
And I said, "He doesn't see us, does he?"
He said, "No."
I said, "Well..."
He said, "Brother Branham, I don't believe you have to get closer to him. Just shoot him from here. The Lord's done give him to you." He was half a mile away.
I said, "No. According to the--to the vision, I shot him close to--pretty close to me."

So we started--laid the horns down and started up the mountain. Well, we climbed over a little coolies and so forth till we... That's little ditches and things, until we were within about, oh, somewhere between three and five hundred yards. And that was the last one.The first at about--about seven or eight hundred yards, Bud said, "Brother Branham, can you get him from here?"
I said, "I was closer than this, Bud."
He said, "I'm afraid he's going to see us, and he will charge right down the hill."
And I said, "Well, Bud, I have... I have seen this. I--I seen him in the vision; it's the same bear." And I said, "Me, I'm going to get him."
"But," he said, "Brother Branham, don't you think that that little .270, that little hundred and thirty grain bullet is kinda small?" Said, "I've seen them run right in on a--a big Weatherby magnum, smash them right in the chest, and they just keep on coming."
I said, "Bud, the Lord gave me the bear." Said, "If I had a B-B gun, I'd still get him. See?" I said, "'Cause the Lord has give him to me."

He said, "Well, Brother Branham, did you ever shoot a grizzly before?"I said, "I've shot many bear, but not a grizzly. I've shot brown, and black, so forth, but not a grizzly."
He said, "Brother Branham, you shoot him right in the back and break his back so that he can't get up. Well, that's the way you shoot a grizzly. That's the way we shoot them up here."
So I said, "Bud, according to the vision, I shot him in the heart."
Said, "Oh, Brother Branham, he's right straight up the hill." Said, "He will just come right down the hill. Even if you blow his heart out of him, it wouldn't stop him."
I said, "But Lord... But according to the Word of the Lord, I shot him in the heart. I remember shooting him in the heart."
Said, "Well, Brother Branham, if the vision said you shot him in the heart and you got him," said, "I'll stand by your side." But said, "I'll tell you, if it wasn't that vision, I sure wouldn't stand."
I said, "Well, you stay here if you want to."
Said, "No, I--I'm going along."

So when we got within about three hundred yards, or something like that, I said, "We'll raise the head up over the hill." I said, "There he is." And I put a shell up in the chamber in then. I said, "All right, Bud."And so when I raised up, the grizzly saw me. And he started to make a charge. And when he did, I shot him right smack in the heart. And before I could get another shell in the gun, the grizzly, charging towards us so hard, within about fifty yards, turned end over end stone dead.
So Brother Bud looked at me and his face, and had it's white around the mouth. He said, "Brother Branham, I didn't want him on my lap."
And I said, "Neither did I, 'cause he'd be rough company."
And we went over there. He got up and I kept him covered. Throwed blocks on the bear and it was dead. And we went over there: perfect, exactly the way the vision.
He said, "Now, Brother Branham, when we got down to where them boys are, and if these caribou horns measure forty-two inches, I'm going to have a screaming fit."
I said, "Well, you might as well have it right now, Bud, because that's exactly what it is."

So we went on down to the... to there. And I said, "Then when Eddie..." He was standing there screaming, and shouting, and crying. And Blain was running towards us, a shouting also.And when we got down there to where it was, I never said a word about it. And Bud just walked over to his--his horse and pulled out of the saddle bags, pulled out his tape measure.
And I said to Eddie in a small still voice, or a small voice, I--I said, "Watch. Blain will put his hands right around the horns, 'cause in the vision a little hand was holding the tape on the horn, as I told you down at the camps last night, and--a few nights ago."
And he got the measure. He said, "Come here, Blain. Now, hold this tape."
And he held it. And right exactly, point blank, exactly forty-two inches on the horns.
He said, "Brother Branham," said, "where will I be a year from now?"
And I said, "Bud, I can't tell you that." I said, "We who see visions, and are honest with it, can only say just as He tells us to say. And only thing I know, He said this would happen.

WMB -  Audio letter to Lee Vayle [64-0500]
 [This text was transcribed off an audio "tape letter" from Brother Branham to Lee Vayle concerning the manuscript for the "Twentieth Century Prophet" book. It was recorded in Brother Fred Sothmann's house--Ed.]

You're trying to get good and then come to Him. He never come to save good men; He come to save bad men that knowed they were bad

In this rock came forth the waters. He was the Rock. And He commanded this Rock and--must be smote. And He gave abundance of pure, fresh, clean water to everybody that would drink. He saved all who would drink from it, a perfect parallel with John 3:16: "God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son,... whosoever believeth on Him should not perish, but would have Everlasting Life."God smote that Rock on Calvary. Our judgment was upon Him, that from Him might come the Spirit of Life that would give you and me Eternal Life. That's a perfect parable of it there in this wilderness.

They never had to pull, dig, pump, or anything, just partake of His provided way freely. When... They didn't have to dig it out of a pond; they didn't have to pull it up with a bucket; they didn't have to have no windle to get it with; they just had to partake of it. And that's all there is now. You don't have to join nothing; you don't have to get down at the altar and work up something, pump in it; you don't have to say a word over and over and over till you get a confusion of language; the only thing you have to do is just partake of Him freely, God's provided way. No pumping, no pushing, no nothing, just take of it freely. Nothing you have to do, just partake of it; that is just believe it that's all I can say to it. You never had to do anything for it, never had to dig for it. They never had to get down and cry all night for it; they just partook of it. It was smitten and ready. That's right.

I'm looking at a man now setting in the back of the room here. I remember telling that on an old barn stall one day by a manger. And he said, "But I'm no good."I said, "I know you're not." And I said, "I'm not either." But I said, "You're looking at what you are. Quit looking at what you are, and look at what He is."
He said, "If I could just get rid of these cigarettes, Brother Branham, I--I--I'd be a Christian."
I said, "Don't get rid of them. You're trying to get good and then come to Him. He never come to save good men; He come to save bad men that knowed they were bad."
He said, "Well..."
I said, "Listen, you don't want to go to hell, do you?"
He said, "No."
I said, "Well, you don't have to. He died that you might not have to go."
He said, "What do I have to do?"
I said, "Nothing. It's just that simple."
He said, "But if I could ever..."
I said, "There you go back to that cigarette again. Quit thinking about that cigarette. Just remember; think about Him, what He did, what He is, not what you are. You're no good, and you never was and never will be, but what He is. He's the One." And I said, "Now, the only one thing you have to do, if He took your place down there, you just willingly accept what He did. Only thing you have to do is just accept it."
"Why," he said, "that's simple. I'll do that."

I said, "Here's the creek." I brought him up here and baptized him in the Name of Jesus Christ. Some of his people are setting here, and I--I know how--they felt funny at me for doing that. I knowed what I was doing. I seen in the man something that was genuine. I could see it there, and I took him and baptized him in the Name of the Lord Jesus. And when then we did that, it wasn't long after that till I was--went down to his son's house. We seen a--a vision of a tree being broke at a certain place, and the man fell, almost broke his back, took him in the hospital, and that night the Lord revealed to me that was the end of cigarettes. So the next day he wanted some cigarettes. I said, "I'll buy him a carton and take it to him. You just watch and see." His cigarette days are done. He's never smoked one since, never wanted one since.God... See, the first thing you got to do is to come to that Fountain. You've got to come to that Water, realize it's nothing that you can do; it's what He done for you. You don't have to dig; you don't have to pump out; you don't have to quit this; you don't have to quit that; the only thing you have to do is get there and drink. That's all. If you're thirsty, drink.
 
Now, He was the Rock. God smote Him for us, and He gave forth abundance of pure, clean water. He does yet today to everyone that will believe. This is His grace, of course, to His people, us.There's something like there like the people of today, ready to receive what they can get, but don't want to give any service in return. Israel was ready to--to drink from the rock now. But they didn't want to give God His service that was due Him.
And He's always giving us a service. You know, we can't even breathe without Him. We can't breathe without God's service. That's how dependent we are on Him. And yet, it almost breaks us in two if we try to do--have to do something for Him; He asks us to do something, go see somebody, go pray for somebody, go help somebody. It's almost breaks us up to do it. But we don't want to do anything to Him for service.
His complaint was, "They have forsaken Me, the Word, and have accepted a broken cistern instead. Accept... They have forsaken Me, the Fountain of Life, the Fountain of Water of Life, and they desire and would rather drink from a stagnated cistern."Could you imagine that? Could you imagine a person now, that here's an artesian well who's putting out that fine limestone water right out of the heart of the rocks, down there in the sand beds and so forth, just as cold and good as it could be, and would rather drink out of a cistern over there that had washed off the top of the barn, the sheds, and all the out-buildings around the place, and put it right into that cistern there where the seepage of the water drains right back into from the barn, the stables, the stalls, and everything draining right back into the cistern, and then we want to--would drink out of that before going to that artesian well? There would be something mentally wrong with the person. That's right.

And when a man or a woman will take a denomination on their stand, that'll permit bobbed hair, wearing shorts, makeup, all this other kind of stuff, and some little kind of a--a program, and all this carrying on, and can go to the bowling alleys, and--and all that nonsense out there, and can put up with that, and like that better than they do the old fashion Word of God that cuts down, and hews out, and makes ladies out of women and takes them--makes them dress right and act right, takes cigarettes and tobaccos and swearing and cursing and lying and stealing away from you, and all the world away from you, and give you something that is a perfect satisfaction? Why do a man or a woman go to such a thing as that for comfort? How can you get comfort out of that? How could you get a fresh drink out of a stagnated cistern? Why would a person...

If a person goes to a stagnated cistern to get a drink when there's an artesian well open, you'd say, "There's something wrong with that man's mind." And if a woman or a man goes to such a place to find comfort, there's something spiritually wrong with that person. They don't want the Word. It shows that their nature is still a frog, or a tadpole, or something. That's right. Something of that nature likes that stagnated pool, because them kind of things won't live in a fresh water pool. They can't do it; it's fresh water. They can't do it.

WMB from the message 'Broken cisterns'

64-0726E

Sometimes God lets the things get so dark that you can’t see up, around, or anywhere else

"Israel, at the river when they'd possessed the land, went over. How they going to do it? It's the month of April; the floods are coming down, because the snow is melting up in Judaea. Oh, what a poor general it seemed like that God was to bring His people there in the month of April when the Jordan was higher backed than it ever was.Sometimes... I might could stop here if I had time to give you just a little tip. Sometimes you may be setting out there with cancer; you might be setting with a disease. You think, "Why, me being a Christian would be in this a-way? Why would I be setting like this if I'm a Christian?"

Sometimes God lets the things get so dark that you can't see up, around, or anywhere else, and then He comes and makes a way through it for you, that you might say, "This day this Scripture is being fulfilled, that He promised to do."
 

 He let the Hebrew children walk right into the fiery furnace. They said, "Our God is able to deliver us from this fiery furnace, but nevertheless, we'll not bow down to your image." When they walked out of there with the smell of the furnace upon them--no smell of the furnace, rather, upon them, they could've said, "This day is this Scripture fulfilled."When Daniel come from the lions' den, he could've said the same thing. John the Baptist, after four hundred years of ecclesiastical teaching... No wonder that church was in a mess at that time. When he appeared in the wilderness, the Jordan, he could've stood right there on the bank, as he did, and say, "This day this Scripture (Isaiah 40) is fulfilled."

 

Exerpts from the sermon 'This Day This Scripture Is Fullfilled' by William Marrion Branham

February 19, 1965

DO YOU KNOW GRACE?

It was said one time... I was reading it when I was writing a note for this. I--I could not exactly remember the book that it's in, but I'm sure this is right: that one of the books I read on Mr. Moody, Dwight Moody, in Chicago. (We have a great listening church in Chicago also tonight.) That Mr. Moody after reading Romans 7, ran into the street, and the first man he met, he said to him, "Do you know grace?    "And the man replied, "Grace who?"     Mr. Moody said, "The grace of God."  So it so thrilled him when he seen that what--how grace had separated us from the law, and how that--what part grace played. When I... Anything that I want to do is when I... Always told the people when I crossed the line on the other side, I'd like to stand up and sing: "Amazing grace! how sweet the sound, That saved a wretch like me!" Grace, precious grace, more of grace to know. For it is by grace we are saved; not by what we can do, what we can... Whatever we do is not counted to us; grace is what saves us. "By grace are ye saved through faith;"

Invisible union of the bride  65-1125

So it's not you that keeps yourself; it's the grace of God that keeps you. You didn't save yourself, or nothing you've done to deserve being saved; it's God's grace that saved you. God's grace called you. God's foreknowledge knew you. He knew that you'd be in this church this night before the foundation of the world was ever laid. He's infinite. If He isn't, He isn't God. If He did know all things, He was God. If He didn't know all things, He wasn't God. If He's Almighty God, He can do all things; if He cannot do all things, He's not Almighty God. There you are.

Hebrews Chapter 7 part 1   [57-0915E]

  Think of it. Love and grace is sisters, twin sisters. You can't have grace without having love. They're twin sisters. That's exactly right. Before you can have grace, you have to have love. Before you can actually show somebody a favor, you love them; right or wrong, you have to love them anyhow, or you can't. See? So love and grace is the same thing. They're just twin sisters (That's all.), love and grace. They were... We can't see one without the other. "God so loved the world, gave His only begotten Son." He shed His grace abroad in our hearts through the Holy Ghost. See? There's just nothing you can do without working one with the other. Grace, grace of God this is what saves us.

 Message of grace   [61-0827]

 Abraham spoke of us. God take--God took Abraham by grace and saved him. And that's how He takes you: by grace. And how do we test His patience? Today we're up; tomorrow we're down. One day we believe; the next day we're wondering. Today we're a Methodist; tomorrow we're a Baptist. Today we believe in Divine healing; tomorrow the tummy ache comes and we don't know whether we believe it or not. But yet in the midst of all of that, God wants us to stay put. But He saves us anyhow. If it wasn't the grace of God, we'd all be gone. Sure. God saves us by His grace.

 Message of grace   [61-0827]

 Now, He called Jacob, not--called Abraham, pardon me, by election and by grace, and give him Eternal Life, and told him He'd come to him in an old age. He didn't have to do one thing about it. Only thing, it was by grace, and that's exactly the way the church is called today. Is by grace are you saved through faith. And we know that's right. God calls the church by His grace. If it wasn't today for the grace of God, you'd be out here in the rain watching the ball game somewhere. You'd be out here on the highways running around. You'd be in a barroom somewhere, be out with some man's wife, or some woman's husband. You'd be a--out in the world. But it's by the calling and grace of God, that He's changed your minds, and made you new creatures in Christ Jesus, and our soul looks up to Him today with expectations of His coming.

Abraham and his seed after him   [61-0423]

  Now, that was David's passions. He had five hundred wives, but when he seen Uriah's wife, instead of taking one of his five hundred wives to appease or satisfy his passions, he went took this other man's wife, then he killed Uriah when she become a mother. David didn't know what he was doing, why, David was ready to pronounce judgment. That's the way we are. We can always judge the other fellow, but when it comes to us, oh, that's different. David said, "The man will pay with his life."

That old prophet, them eyes narrowed down; he said, "David, surely you'll not die." Watch grace then go to work right quick. The Spirit struck the prophet, saved David's life. Grace, "Surely you'll not die, but the sword will not leave your house till it's thoroughly purged your heart, for you are that rich man." Oh, it was different then, wasn't it?

What saved David when his own judgment said, "The man will die. He'll pay to the uttermost, and he'll pay for it with his life"?

And the prophet said, "Surely (grace) you'll not die. You'll not die, David. Grace has saved you." It was grace to David that saved him. Oh, my. If it hadn't been for grace, where would we all be? Is that right? Certainly.

 Message of grace   [61-0827]

Now, man has always tried to save himself, and do different things to be saved by, but it's never has been in the New Testament by any works of our own; it's "by grace are you saved, through faith." That's the only thing that can save you is grace.

 Israel in Egypt  [53-0325]

 Now, "faith" is a "revelation from God." Now, "faith" is a "revelation." There's where I want to stay there just a moment. It's a revelation. He has revealed it to you by His grace. It's nothing you did. You didn't work yourself up into faith. You never had faith; it's give to you by the grace of God. And God reveals it to you; therefore, faith is a revelation. And the whole Church of God is built upon the revelation.

 Works is faith expressed   [65-1126]

God's grace cannot be bargained for!

God's grace cannot be bargained for, neither be--can be talented into. It's sovereign grace. "Nothing in my arms I bring, simply to Thy cross I cling." Naked, wounded, I just come as I am.Just as I am, without one plea,
But that Thy Blood was shed for me,
And that Thou bids me come to Thee,
O Lamb of God, I come!
That's all, it's grace that brought me. Grace did it. Grace is like... Another thing that I'd like to say; sometimes grace is...

These big churches, they think that you can go down there, they think, "Well, we built the biggest church in the city. We got a ladies aid society here that makes poor--clothes for the poor, and sends them overseas. We feed the poor. We do all this."Paul said, "I can do the same thing, and nothing."
They say, "Well, we, we're an old organization. We've been here for two thousand years. We're five hundred years old. John Wesley, Alexander Campbell, these great founders back there, they founded our church. Hallelujah."
Well, Jesus Christ founded this Church, the baptism of the Holy Ghost, and told them to go up to Pentecost and wait till they received the power from on high.

And still you can belong to the Pentecostal church and be lost. Pentecostal church is no more than any other church. That's right.The thing of it is, there's only one church; that's the church that you're born into by the baptism of the Holy Spirit, "For by one Spirit we're all baptized into one body," I Corinthians 12:13; that's right: I--I Corinthians 12. Now, we are baptized into that church.

But people think that they can merit it. "Why, we... I--I went to school and I learned to do this, and I went to seminaries and I done..." That don't mean one thing. You can't buy God's grace.God's grace is like this. Let me tell you a story in ending. God's grace is like this. One time there was a mighty king, and this mighty king had a son, and it was his only son. And one day a murderer killed that boy. And through that kingdom went the delegates hunting for that murderer. They finally found that murderer. And when they found him, they brought him back and imprisoned him. And when they did, a trial was set and a sentence was made. Oh, it was a terrible thing. He had murdered the king's son, and he knowed what was coming to him.

They put him into the inner cells; they locked the doors; they put pads on it so no one--and guards around it, 'cause we know what kind of a horrible punishment this boy was going to receive, because he killed the king's son, the royal king's son. Guards was placed all around the doors. He was put in inner cells. Stripped, with nothing but a--a loincloth on. And there he was, set there in that condition, starving, wouldn't give him nothing to eat. He was setting in that condition.Then they brought him out to a trial. He was found guilty and proven guilty. A sentence was made, that he was to be executed under horrible capital punishment; he was to be killed by inches until his mortal life was gone. Sentenced by the judge, he was to die. And he begged and he cried, and he said, "Though I am guilty, though I am guilty, I'm sorry that I did that. I wished I had've never done it. I'm sorry that I did it. In a moment, in a rage of temper, I did it. I didn't mean to do it that way."

One day the king went down to the place to visit the boy, to tell him, talk to him and tell him about killing his own son, the only son he had. He'd killed that boy. He said, "I'm going down to talk to him."And when he went down there, he looked back in that cage, like a caged-in animal. He saw his little skinny body laying back there in a corner, crying, his face all sunk in, his jaws sank back, his eyes way back; matter was all in his eyes; and his mouth was all whited over: no water, thirsty, laying back there on his face, crying. The king said, "Stand up." He come up to him; he looked at him. He said, "Why did you kill my son? What did my son do to you? What did he do to merit such a death as you killed him, stabbing him to death with a spear?"
He said, "Nothing, my lord, not one thing. Just my own impudence, just my own ways. I killed him because I was jealous of him, and I got in a temper fit, and I killed him." Said, "I'm to die under your justice, sir. I realize that, and I deserve to do it. Only thing I'm crying for, that I'm just sorry that I killed that royal man like that, without a cause."

The king turned on his heels and walked out, went out to the desk, and said, "Destroy all the records (You know, put them in the sea of forgetfulness.) Destroy all the records. Wash him up, and bring him up. I'll send down a robe for him."After while, a great big limousine drove up to the door. When it did, a carpet was spread out to the prison cell. The king stood at the end of limousine, said, "Come, my son, and ride home with me to the palace," put the king's robe around his shoulder. He said, "From henceforth you are my son." Because he had pity. That's grace.
That was me, that was you. We killed the Son of God with our sins. We were alien, dirty, filthy, laying in the cells of the world. God washed us by the Blood of His Own Son, and cleansed us, put on the robe of the Holy Spirit. And now the great chariot of God will back up to the door someday, and we'll go home to live with Him. All records are destroyed; we can't be judged no more; burn them up, He put them in the sea of forgiveness and remembers about it no more. No wonder we can sing,
Amazing grace! how sweet the sound,
That saved a wretch like me!
I once was lost, but now I'm found,
And was blind, but now I see.
It was grace that taught my heart to fear,
Grace my fears relieved;
How precious did that grace appear
The hour I first believed!

WMB ~Message of grace

61-0827

THEIR BIBLES HAD PROPHECIES OF HIM (JESUS CHRSIT) BUT THEIR EYES COULDN'T SEE

257 [They] Called Him, "Foreign, a fortuneteller, a devil, a Beelzebub," and said, "He made Himself God." Oh, my.
Didn't Isaiah the prophet said He would be called the Mighty God? Isaiah 9:6, "Unto us a Child is borned, a Son is given, and the government shall be upon His shoulders, and His Name shall be called Counselor, Prince of Peace, Mighty God, the everlasting Father." That's right. Also, St. John 1:1, "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. And the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us." You believe that? He was just not... He was a prophet, but He was more than a prophet; He was the God-prophet. Why did He have to come?
259 Remember, He comes in three son's names. He came first in the name of the Son of man. He never called Himself the Son of God. You know that. See? He came in the Son of man, a prophet; Jehovah Himself, the Father called Jeremiah, "son of man"; a prophet is son of man. He come...
Now, He come after the day of Pentecost, He come back in the form of the Holy Ghost, supernatural Spirit. Now, He's Son of God.
In the millennium He'll be Son of David, setting upon the throne of David. See? He come... He's Son of God, Son of man, Son of David.
262 Oh, the Bible's full of these nuggets. We can't get them all in one night. But it's just fitting to set this in now. Tomorrow may never dawn. We may be gone before tomorrow. I may be preaching to a person that'll be dead before in the morning. I could be gone before in the morning. Brother, sister, that's not myth; that's actual facts. We don't know what time we're going. You'll not have any chance after that last breath leaves your body. Make it right now; don't wait till in the morning, may be too late.
263 Notice now, they had done to Him just exactly what the prophets said they would do, just as they are doing to this very same day in the Laodicean age. If you want to look at it, read Revelations 3: "Blind, naked, and don't know it. Turning Christ..." When He begins to reveal Hisself into the seed form again, the same One that went into the ground come back to be the Bride; just the Bride and the Groom is the same flesh and blood, the same ministry, the same things, doing just exactly what He done; the Spirit...
And here they're impersonating and doing everything else, and each one's got his book and running, and this. And, oh, you never heard such sensations, "And I smell a devil, and all this, that, just as unscriptural as it can be.
265 And the genuine thing laying right there before them, they walk away, "They don't belong to my organization, my--my...?..." See? Just blind leading the blind, won't they all fall in the ditch? Blinded by man's denominational traditions, they put Him out of their church as God said they would do in Revelations 3; as usual as prophesied...
Notice how Jesus tell--and made Hisself known to these disciples now, and we'll close. These two disciples, Caiaphas--or Cleopas, rather, and his friend. Now, we're in the resurrection, the morning after the resurrection, the first resurrection; what a beautiful morning; Jesus is up from the dead and living among His people. What a beautiful thought.
He's here the same today as He was that day, because He's the same yesterday, today, and for... And revealing Himself more today than He has in any other age since that day; come through the wheat and stalk and shuck (is all past now), we're into the wheat again. See? We're back into the grain.
268 Known as... know... Watch how He made Hisself known to these people. Now, remember, as their Messiah (just before we close) of the promised Word of the age... Notice. He appeared unto to the--as He had said He'd do to the prophets. Notice, "Fools, and slow of heart to believe that all the prophets has wrote of Him had to be fulfilled."
Watch Him. He refers right back to the Word of God; He never come right out and told them, "Don't you know Me? I am the Messiah that's resurrected." He never said that. See? He just give them the Scripture, like John did, and the rest of them. See? He just... They have to pick that out themselves. They have to judge for theirselves. Now, don't go to sleep; judge for yourself.
"Fools, slow of heart to believe all that the prophets has said had to come to pass." What a rebuke to them that claimed they knew Him. See?
271 Notice how He approached the subject. He never come right out, as I said a few minutes ago, and said, "Well, don't you know I'm your Messiah for this age? Don't you know that I'm He?" The real servant of God never identifies himself that way; the Scripture identifies who he is. Sure, he will. See? But called their attention to what the prophets had said to look for in the Messiah's age. See it? Go right back: "Fools, and slow of heart, not to believe that all the prophets said about the Messiah should come to pass."
He, as John, let the Word of the Bible identify Him, what He was to them. That should been made plain enough. If the word had identified Him, that should be plainly, who the promise was they was looking at. They knowed he had... Someone had to come on the scene at that time.
Why, He could've said, "Now, let me show you what the Word says is supposed to happen in this day."
274 Am not I tonight trying to tell you, Word by Word, even to the position, the place, the names and numbers, everything else, and all the signs, times, and everything, that we're right at the end time? Surely you can see what I'm talking about. See? Look. That's so plain it should need no more identification. He said, when He was here on earth, "Search the Scriptures, in Them you think you have Eternal Life, They are what... They testify of what I am (See?), Who I am."
Notice, He begin with Moses the prophet, a prophet, Deuteronomy 18:15. Now, I'm watching the Scriptures here. Deuteronomy 18:15, Moses said, "The Lord your God..."
See? God spoke to him on top of the mountain. And, oh, my, the thundering; they said, "Let--let the Lord... Let Moses speak, not God, lest we perish."
He said, "They said well. I'll... I won't speak to them no more like this, but I'll raise them up a prophet." That's been His message all the way through. That's what's got to settle the whole thing at the end. It's just got to, because the Word of the Lord has to come to the prophet. It's the only thing It can come to. If it don't, it breaks God's Word and makes Him tell something wrong. See? It goes to a prophet. And the prophet is sent from God, ordained. And how you know it is, and not what the man said,...
278 We've had Elijah's, and coats, and everything else, and mantles, and all kinds of nonsense that went off into organizationism and everything else. But there will come on this earth, by God's promise, a genuine servant of God, identified by God, by His Word being the answer of this day, that'll set the Bride in order (a real little minority of the church) and take it up. That's right. He'll introduce, "Behold, there's the One I talked about (See?), that'll come."
And all that the prophets had said about Him, and for this age, why, it sure would be interesting to have heard Him say that. Wouldn't you like to have heard Him say it? "All the prophets said about..." Remember, He said what the prophets would say about Himself, quoting His own Self, what He had said, and He was the Word quoting.
281 Now, let's listen to the Words that He quoted. Would you like to hear what He said to them? Let's just carry the conversation now, just before we stop.
Now, they were briefed on all the late happenings of the crucifixion, of the story at the grave and the tomb, and the women had seen Him, and another one said they seen Him, and so forth. He said... They--they briefed Him on that. And He goes right on with the Word about--quoting Himself through the Word.
"Now, look in Zechariah 12." (He must've quoted Zechariah 11:12.) "For He was sold with thirty pieces of silver. Was not the Messiah supposed to be sold by thirty pieces of silver?
"In Psalms 41:9, He was betrayed by His friends."
Of "Zechariah 13:7, forsaken by His disciples."
"In Psalms 35:11, accused by false witnesses."
"By Isaiah 35:7, dumb before His accusers, never opened His mouth." (All right, sir.)
"Isaiah 50:6, He was scourged."
"Psalms 22--22, He cried at the cross, 'My God, why has Thou forsaken Me?' All My bones they stare at Me. They pierced My hands and My feet.'" (Look at the prophecies He could talk about.)
"Isaiah 9:6, Unto us a Child is born, a virgin shall conceive, so forth."
"And also in Psalms 22:18, they--they--they parted His garments among them."
"In Isaiah 7:14, a virgin shall conceive."
"Psalms 22:7 and 8, made Him a--mocked by His enemy, he was supposed to be His friend, His enemies the church."
"In Psalms 22 again, He was... Not a bone was to be broken, but they pierced His hands and His feet."
"Isaiah 53:12, died with malefactors.
"In Isaiah 53:9, bruised, and buried with the rich brethren."
"In Psalms 16:10, He was resurrected from the dead. David said so, 'I will not suffer My holy One to see corruption, neither will I leave His soul in hell.' He was raised from the dead."
"Malachi 3, John the Baptist was His forerunner."
And all of the types He might have went to. Even to Isaac being the type of Him upon Mount--upon the mountain where his father Abraham took him in Genesis 22.
284 It was now that they begin to see Who had fulfilled these Scriptures that was promised of that day. It was then, after it was late; they begin to see. "Oh, well, wait a minute. You know what?" They knew then that their crucified Friend Jesus was that Prophet that was promised. They knew because... See? They hadn't been briefed on the Scriptures.
But, here, all these things that's supposed to happen at the cross, all these things. "Fools, slow of heart to understand all the prophets have said, how that the Messiah shall suffer, and enter into His glory, and raise the third day."
Still they go, "Oh, yes. That's right. I see. He--He--He... Did not our hearts burn within us?" they said. No wonder their hearts burned. The prophecies that He was giving that was fulfilled...

WMB

Modern events are made clear by prophecy

Preached on Monday, 6th December 1965 at the Orange Bowl Restaurant in San Bernardino, California, U.S.A