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Life Story (55-0626A)
| Life Story (55-0626A) |
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Life Story (55-0626A)
E-1
So happy to be here this afternoon to speak to you of the Lord Jesus
Christ, the Son of God. And we trust that it'll be a great day for us
all. Coming to your--here to visit you this time, I have come very
tired. I haven't been at my best. I just left a great meeting in the
States and come right over here. And so, I am thankful that you have
put up with me. So we have done... I've done my best though. And I am
trusting that God will just do the exceedingly, abundantly for you.
E-2
After my meeting here, a friend of mine is coming, Tommy Hicks. I
hardly know Tommy, but he... What I know of him, a lovely man, a
real--a real Christian... Come to hear him. I have another friend in
America, Oral Roberts. He is another... He was one of my converts to
Divine healing. Many of them, out of the services we have... The Lord
has brought forth about five hundred ministers of Divine healing. E-3 Now, this afternoon has been given for my life story in the boyhood form. The next time I come over, I want to bring you the picture of the Angel of the Lord, where the scientific world in America, took the picture of it. It is written today; the world cannot deny it. Many times they say, "I don't believe that, preacher," because they don't believe God. But they have to believe science, for it's scientifically proven. So they're without excuse. They'll have to meet God someday.
E-4
I would like to ask you something. What good would it do me to come
here to this nation and be a hypocrite and misrepresent something? What
gain would there be to me? I take money, no. I don't take money in
America. I'm a poor man, and the people just send me over. I've got
four children, a wife, and I have to have just enough for us to eat. My
clothes are give to me. So I have no reason to come to misrepresent
anything. I--I come because in my heart I love you, and I want you to
love Jesus. And that's the reason I come.
E-5
Now, we're going to read the Scriptures found in Hebrews the 13th
chapter, beginning with the 10th verse, to the 14th. Now, listen close
to the reading of the Scripture. And my text is the 14th verse.
E-6 I am so thankful for that. Here we have no continuing city, but we're seeking one to come. That's what we all are doing.
E-7 But God's program is, to contract the people, "If thou canst believe..."
E-8
But look, before I would try to take away--to take away the only hope
that these people have... Do you realize there's people here with heart
trouble, cancer, TB, that no doctor can touch? The only hope they have
is Jesus Christ. And you who would try to take that away from them, woe
unto your sinful soul. Be like taking the bread away from a hungry man.
These people want to be well. The doctors done all they can do. And
they know of others being well. They come listen at the meeting many of
them get faith and they're made well. And then you try to rob them from
that? You shouldn't do that, my brother. You should encourage them.
They're human beings. They're brothers and sisters. It's somebody's
daddy. It's someone's mother, someone's little child. Let's help them.
Don't try to keep it away from them.
E-9
Shall we pray? Heavenly Father, help us now, that know Your dear Son.
And as I approach down the road from whence I have traveled, and renew
these things in my mind and heart again. May all my mistakes be
stepping stones to those are here today. And may they come to Christ
and be saved, in Jesus' Name. Amen.
E-10
When I was born, I come from a parent that was not Christian. Before
me, my father and mother's people were Catholic. And they come from
Ireland. They had immigrated to the U.S. But my father and mother did
not go to church. And I was born up in the mountains in a little log
cabin: no floor, just the ground. We--we didn't have a--a table. Father
had cut a stump in two, or log, and made a table. We had no lights. We
had grease in a can, and a piece of--of goods in there to burn for a
wick. There was no windows in the house, just a little door you opened
up. Our mattresses on the bed was made of straw: very poor.
E-11
And mother wanted to see what I looked like. The little candle light
didn't--didn't give enough light, so they opened up the little window
over the bed. It was daylight, and when they opened the window, that
Light of Fire sailed in. They all started weeping. They didn't know
what that meant. It was right over where I was at. E-12 When I was about eight, ten days old, my mother taken me to a little Baptist church. When I... That was the only church in the country. That was my first visit to the house of God. Later we moved to Indiana. That was in the state of Kentucky. And later on, at the age of about seven years old, I was packing water one day from a well. And I passed by a tree. I was weeping. I didn't want to pack the water. I wanted to go fishing with the rest of the children. But when I heard something in the tree, like the roaring of a wind, I looked up. I seen nothing but just a place in the tree about that big around, roaring around. And I kept looking, and I wondered why it just stayed there like a little whirlwind, and none of the rest of the leaves were shaking. And I heard a voice of a Man up there, said, "Don't never drink. Don't drink, and don't never smoke, or defile yourself with women, for there is a work for you to do when you get older." Oh, I was scared. I dropped my bucket, and I ran to the house, screaming. And I jumped in my mother's arms. And she... I said there's a Man in that tree. They went down to look: nobody there. They called the doctor, and he said I was just nervous. I said--I said, "No, I seen, and I heard him speak." And I never would go by that tree.
E-13
A little later on, about two weeks later I was playing marbles with my
brother, and I felt something come to me. We lived up on a hill, and
the river was below us: a wilderness around. And I saw a bridge come up
out of the wilderness. And it started across the river. Sixteen men
dropped off in--into the water and perished. And I seen a big sign, it
said "twenty-two years." I run in and told my mother.
E-14
When I went to school, as a little boy, many children had been borned
into the family. My father and mother had nine boys and one girl (nine
boys and one girl.) And then the girl was the baby. I am the oldest.
E-15
I remember one time at Christmas, my mother had popped some corn. And
she give it to us in a little bucket. And I--I--we went to school with
it. So I did wrong. I asked to be excused during time of school. And
when I went through the cloak room, I took a big handful of popcorn out
of the box, and went out and eat it to be sure I got my share. We
didn't have it very often, maybe every two or three years. And then
when brother come out, and we went to eat, he seen part of it was gone.
I--I was sorry.
E-16
I remember when we went to school together, there come a great snow,
and all the boys had sleighs to ride on. But we didn't have any, so
I--we got a big dishpan and slide down in it. Well, it was--we wasn't
in as much class as the rest of them, but we were sliding.
E-17 Now, when she had this cigarette, acting smart, I looked at her. And she said, "You want a cigarette, Billy?"
E-18
But when I started to light it, I heard something a whirling around.
There come that tree back before me again. And I knew that God said,
"Don't you never smoke." So I threw it down, and run away, and went out
in the field, and started crying. And I asked God to let me die. Nobody
wanted me; my people didn't. The young people didn't want me, so I
wasn't wanted.
E-19
We didn't have nothing of the world, but we had each other. When the
day we got married, we had an old stove (old stove), an old bed, and a
little old table. But we loved one another, and that's the main thing.
I--I worked hard to--to make her a living. After while, God gave us a
little boy, my little Billy Paul. And then, later a little girl come.
E-20
So I put down all the invitations, and I hurried home to my wife. And
when she come to meet me, I told her about these happy people. She
said, "Oh, Billy, I would like to have that experience." Said, "What do
they call it?"
E-21
Now, from here, listen. I listened to my mother-in-law instead of God,
and forsaken the church, and went on back with the Baptist people.
Right away, plagues hit my home. My wife took sick; my father died on
my arm; my brother was killed. And everything happened just in a few
days. A great flood hit the country and washed away the homes. My wife
was in the hospital. And I was out on a rescue with my boat. And one
night out in the water, my boat got in the current, and was going over
a big falls. I couldn't get the motor started, and I raised up my
hands, and I said, "Oh, God, don't let me drown. I am not worthy to
live, but think of my wife and baby."
E-22
And then I tried to find my wife. And when I got to the hospital, it
was covered over with water. The dike had broke, and all the waters
gushed in. Where was my wife and baby? I begin to find people [Blank.spot.on.tape--Ed.]...
see if there was anyone drowned, but they got away on a train. And here
I was setting on an island by myself. God give me a chance so--whether
to call people trash or not. I said, "God, I know I've mis--I've
misbehaved myself. Don't let my wife be killed."
E-23
And one day while I was out patrolling... I was a State Game Warden at
the time too, because I--I didn't believe in taking people's money, so
I worked for my living. I turned on the radio, and it said, "Reverend
Branham, come--come to the hospital; your wife is dying." I took off my
hat, undone the gun, and took off the badge, raised up my hand to God;
I said, "God, let her live till I can get there." And I turned on the
siren and run down the road. I stopped in front of the hospital and run
up those stair steps.
E-24
So I started walking in, and when I shut the door behind me, there was
my lovely wife, beautiful woman, real Christian, mother of my children,
dearest thing on earth to me. Her cheeks sunk way in, and she was look
like dead. I shook her with my hand. I said, "Hope, speak once more.
Please, honey. Oh, God, oh, God, let her just speak once more. I love
her so much. Won't You let me talk to her just once more?" And then she
opened her eyes. Oh, I shall never forget it. And when I--she looked at
me, she tried to raise her--raise her hands for me. And I got down
close to her. She said, "Oh, Billy, I love you so much. Billy, I'm
going away, and I want you to be a good boy." She was twenty-one. She
was twenty-one. I was twenty-three.
E-25
Oh, I said, "Hope, if I could only live it over." We knew we'd done
wrong. And she said, "Promise me something, Billy. That you will preach
that Message until you die." She said, "For it's real." She said, "I
was in Glory. I seen the Lord Jesus and the Angels." Oh, she said,
"It's wonderful." She said, "I must go back." Said, "Don't think I'm
beside myself, for I'm not." She said, "But I know what I'm speaking
of." She said, "Will you promise me that you will preach the baptism of
the Holy Spirit until you're gone from this earth?"
E-26
And I said, "Honey, at the resurrection, you stand over at the east
side of the gate. And when you see Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, coming
in, when you see all the saints coming in, stand there by the post, and
keep saying, 'Bill, Bill.' I'll have the children, and I'll meet you
there." That's my last date with my wife. By God's help, I'll keep it.
She went to be with God. We taken her down to the undertaker. E-27 I laid my hands on my little baby, and I said, "God, please don't take my baby. Let her live." She was my little darling, and I couldn't stand to see her go. And it looked like a black sheet come down. Then I raised up, and put my hand on her head, raised up my hand to God. I said, "God, I'm sorry that I have done the way I did. Forgive me, and please keep my baby here with me. I love her. There lays her mother, dead. Don't take my baby, too. I promise you I will preach. I don't care what the world says." My heart was breaking, but I know I had to reap what I sowed. I put my hand on the baby again, said, "God, not my will, but Your will be done." And the Angels come, packed her away. Oh, my heart...
E-28
I went out; I didn't know what to do. I put her in her mother's arms
and put her down in the ground. A few Easters ago I took--I took my
little--my Billy Paul and a little flower to the grave, went early one
morning. And the little fellow coming up to the grave, we took off our
hats, and he started crying. And he caught me by the hand. He said,
"Daddy, you've been mother and daddy both to me. Is my mother down
there?" E-29 When she has dead--when she was dead, and I went out and buried her, I couldn't get over it. I--I could see her going, but I couldn't see the baby going. Why should that little baby go? And I was working, trying to pay off the debts. And I was living in a little shanty house, just one room, and a little old cot. And the little old... The floor would be freezing over with ice, at night. And one night I come in, and I picked up some mail, and in there had a letter to Miss Sharon Rose Branham. Oh, my. My heart ached. And I--I knelt down and started praying. I said, "Father, I can't stand it no more. I--I--I just can't live. My baby, my wife, what can I do?" E-30 And then, being a game warden (a game warden, conservation officer), I--I took my gun, pulled back the hammer, and put it up to my head, and raised my hand. I said, "Oh, God, I hate to be a coward, but I can't stand it no more. I'm going mad. I have to take my life." And I pulled the trigger, and it would not fire. I pulled again, and it didn't fire. And then I opened it up, and there was the bullets in it. And I pulled the trigger then, up in the air, and it went off. I threw the gun away. I said, "Oh, God, I can't even rid myself. I worried. I love them. And I--I was getting delirious. And then a deep sleep come over me.
E-31
Now, listen to this, the love of God. I thought I was going, walking
along out West. I was dreaming, of course. And I thought I seen a--an
old wagon with the wheel broke off, which meant my broken family. And I
seen standing by the wheel, a beautiful girl, her--her pretty eyes. And
I passed by her. And in the west of--of America, it's custom to tip
your hat, women. And I said, "Good morning."
E-32
So I turned, and there was a beautiful home. Christian, that's where my
treasures is today. That's where my home is. That's what my hopes are.
And I looked at that big, beautiful home. Our people are poor people.
And I said, "We don't--I don't own that.
E-33
When we were married, we didn't have any furniture, but just a little
bit. And we wanted to buy a chair. And we started making payments on
the chair. Oh, I loved that chair. When I'd be so tired after
preaching, I'd lay back in the chair. And I got so I couldn't make the
payments then, and they come and got the chair. And we both just cried,
because we couldn't pay for the chair.
E-34
Someday when you people here in Switzerland hear that Brother Branham
has gone home, don't weep; rejoice, for I've gone to a better home
where I'll never get tired anymore. I don't want to be a baby to be
weeping. But if you only knew the story of the heartache, and all I've
went through with to get this Gospel to the people, you'd understand
why I'm weeping. E-35 [Brother Branham is weeping--Ed.] O God, forgive me, Lord, for weeping here in Your service. But when I think of the back life, my beloved sweet wife that's waded across the border, and all the mistakes that I made listening to ministers instead of You, I feel ashamed of myself. O God, help me to continue preaching the real truth. You've been so good to me, and I've been so evil. But I want to try to make it right by telling others what a real Friend You are. How You come to me when I had no friend, O God, and You've give me friends. Oh, I'm so thankful for that, Father. Here we are, way over away from the homeland. My mind goes back today, up there on that hillside, a little bunch of roses, setting by a tombstone. Someday if You tarry, I'll be buried there too.
E-36
Then I've got to meet, Father, what I preached to. O Father, these
lovely Switzerland people, German, French, and all around, they're Your
children. O God, I pray that You'll bless them and save them from sin.
And let them take my mistakes and not do the same thing. But may they
bypass all these evils. Won't you do it, Lord? Save every one, every
one. God, even forgive those who persecute. Let Thy Spirit of love
settle over this nation, this people. O God, we're just human, make so
many mistakes. Be merciful, God, and save all the lost, for Jesus' sake.
E-37
If you love the Lord, and you want to accept Him now, to be born again
and filled with the Holy Spirit, would you raise your hand? God bless
you. All the way up in the balconies, on both sides, out in the
overflow, God, be with you. Oh, you don't know how that makes me feel.
God bless you. If you believe God hears my prayer, shows me visions,
and you accept me as His servant, would you stand to your feet for a
moment, all that wants to accept Christ, to be born again. Oh,
my....?...
E-38
O God, look at this audience of people. Be merciful, Father. I'm sorry
I'm all tore up. But, God, be merciful to the people and save every
one. Those who are on their feet, and those who can't get on their
feet, may they all come to glory in peace. And may they all receive the
Holy Spirit. In the Name of Jesus Christ, we pray. Amen. Now, all that's sick, put your hands up in the air, ask God to heal. O God, in Jesus' Name, heal every sick person; get glory, Lord. I commit them to Your hand, in the Name of Jesus Christ. |
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