I Visit a Branham Meeting

1954

By Len J. Jones.

Reverend Len J. Jones is editor of the Australian quarterly magazine "THE EVIDENCE, "a Full Gospel Publication of 68 pages. Subscription rate is $1.00 per year. Send orders to "THE EVIDENCE," 197 President Avenue, Kogarah, N. S. W., Australia. He is at present on a visit to U.S.A.)

My eyes have seen and my ears have heard strange things this night, that I shall never forget.

It is 12:30 midnight. I have just come from a Branham meeting, and wish to jot down my impressions while everything is on my mind. I feel that I owe it to others to tell what I have seen and heard tonight. It has been as close to Heaven as I have ever been-as close to Heaven as I ever expect to be on earth. I shall never forget tonight. Something has happened to me; and I shall never be quite the same again. I will tell you what I heard and saw-please believe me, however incredible it may seem, for it is the truth.

Upon my arrival at Shreveport, the church secretary told me that the following night Brother Branham would be taking the service, and that both our meetings had been advertised together. I was delighted; I had wanted so badly to be in such a meeting, for I had heard so much about Brother Branham's ministry.

The only advertising given his meeting was the one advertisement in the newspaper; no more is needed when William Branham visits a town. The church was packed to capacity, with people standing. Some had come as far as 200 miles to that meeting. One of the first men I met was the pastor from Baton Rouge, 250 miles away, for whom I had preached recently. Rev. Gordon Lindsay, Editor of THE VOICE OF HEALING, came a similar distance from Dallas, Texas.

In his message tonight, Brother Branham said that he was to have left for South Africa and India yesterday but, as he was making preparation, a man came to him in his home, dressed in a peculiar garb with certain headgear that he described. whom he had never seen before, and said to him, "Don't go overseas until September." He looked, again (later he described the man to me) and the man was gone, and he realized that he had seen a vision. It was this touch of the miraculous that characterized the whole of that meeting, for we were yet to see and hear many wonderful things. Brother Branham immediately canceled his visit to South Africa and India, and will leave as instructed. His meetings in India are being sponsored by a leading dignitary of the Anglican Church.

Speaking on the Scripture, "Perfect love casteth out fear" he said that love was the greatest thing in the world and that nothing could stand against it. He said, "People and animals knew if you loved them, and you cannot deceive them." Illustrating this, he told two stories from his own experience.

One day he was crossing an open field when a ferocious bull rushed him. There was no tree to climb and no fence to get through, for he was in the center of the field. There was no hope but God. He said a strange peace possessed him, and he knew the animal could not hurt him. The bull pawed the ground for a time and then charged him at great speed. There he stood, helpless, in the middle of the field, with a charging bull coming toward him. All that he did was to stand there and quietly say, as the bull got closer and closer, "You can't hurt me, and I don't want to hurt you-now just go over there and lie down." On the bull came, until it was within three feet of him, when it just stopped in its tracks and did exactly as he said. Our minds went back to Daniel in the lion's den.

Further illustrating the power of love, not, only upon people but upon animals and insects, he said that one day he was mowing his lawn with his shirt off because it was a hot day. A swarm of hornets was disturbed and came flying around his ears prepared to attack. He again spoke quietly to the hornets and told them to go away for he didn't wish to hurt them and didn't want them to hurt him. Presently they just flew quietly away without molesting him. This, he said, was exactly what happened to the Apostle Paul when the viper fastened itself to his hand-he just shook it off into the fire, without any fear.

Speaking of healing, Brother Branham said that Jesus did not heal everyone at the Pool of Bethesda. He walked past many, without saying a word. He could have healed them all, but He didn't; there was just one man who was healed. And so, he said, it is the same today. The Lord can do it alright, but only some press through and touch the hem of His garment.

He said that Jesus could do nothing of Himself, which was why He walked past so many at the Pool of Bethesda, and why He didn't go the first day-in response to the plea of Mary and Martha, in connection with their brother Lazarus. He had to wait until the Father spoke to Him; for He could do nothing until the Father showed Him.

He said that Jesus saw everything in visions. He discerned the thoughts of men. What can we say to such statements? What do we know about such things? This is all out of our realm; but here was a man who lives in that very realm and, before that night was through, was going to do the very thing he was talking about in a most amazing manner. Branham is a man out of this world! He lives in another world altogether! Never have I heard such things! Never have I seen such things! Never have I met such a man, and never do I expect to again, as long as I live.

After he had finished speaking he said, "Now if I am a prophet of God, the things, I have spoken about will come to pass tonight. If they don't come to pass, you can brand me as a false prophet." Never have I heard a man say anything like that! Never have I heard a man speak with such authority!

Before the meeting started, cards had been handed out promiscuously by his son to those who wished to be prayed for. These cards numbered from L 50 to L 100. Brother Branham said that he would pray for all with cards numbered from L 85 to L 100. From that crowded auditorium 15 people came forward to be prayed for, and stood in the line. Now, I thought, we will see if this man is just theorizing and theologizing like the rest of us, or whether he has an experimental knowledge of the things that he affirms. Soon I was to be convinced that here, indeed, was a man that did the things that we preach.

As the fifteen people stood in front of him, he said, "These people are all strangers to me. I have never seen them before. I don't know them at all!" Now" he said, "we will see what the Lord is going to do tonight. Satan is only a bluff. Jesus won the victory on Calvary's Cross and has made us the boss." We also say the same thing, but this man was going to demonstrate it before our very eyes.

The first person that stood in front of him was a quiet, slim, middle aged woman. Brother Branham was so gentle and quiet spoken in all his dealings with the people-never once did he raise his voice or get excited or disturbed. He was a complete master of the situation all the time. Branham is just the kind of man that I always thought a Christian ought to be. There is nothing boisterous or arrogant about him. He is a meek and humble man, in the truest sense of the word, with one purpose in life only and that is to please the Lord. He is a man loved by all. No one begrudges him any of his success or is envious of his great popularity. He is just as much at home in the largest auditoriums in the land seating 10,000, which are frequently packed to capacity wherever he goes, as he is in his humble home, ministering to the people who come to him there.

As this first person stood in front of him, everyone waited breathlessly to see whether what he said was going to come to pass, in that meeting. Many preachers tell what has happened in other meetings and in other places; but here was a man who had already said, "If I am a prophet of God, the things that I have spoken about will come to pass tonight. If they don't come to pass, you can brand me as a false prophet."

He waited for a little while for he was in no hurry. Quietly he spoke to her, as if waiting for inspiration, "Now, I don't know you at all. We have never met before. If I can tell you things about yourself and what is wrong with you, you will admit that the Lord has revealed this to me, for no man could do such things by his own power." To this she agreed. The air was electrified, and the atmosphere was tense with excitement and expectancy. I now record exactly what he said to her, for I wrote it down as he said it:

"You don't live in Shreveport. You come from a place out of town. I see that the place you come from has a lot of pine trees. Is that right?" The lady quietly assented. "I will tell you where it is," he continued. "it is Camden, Camden in Arkansas. Yes, and your name is Dorothy, but they call you Dolly. Yes. it is Dolly Yacht and you have two growths in your stomach."

When he said this, pandemonium broke out among the great crowd. It seemed that everyone was weeping and sobbing and shouting all at once. Something happened to me inside, and I know that I shall never be the same again. Please don't suggest that there was any fake about all this-the very atmosphere of the place, and the spirit of the man would make such a thought almost sacrilegious. This all happened within six feet of where I was sitting on the platform. The woman went off the platform weeping, sobbing and praising God. When I last saw her she was kneeling quietly in one of the aisles of the church with her hands raised praising God, with tears streaming down her cheeks.

I have given only one example of the marvelous manifestation of this great gift that God has bestowed upon our Brother Branham and how He works through him. Other examples will be given from month to month, .as we continue to recount through THE 'VOICE OF HEALING what God is doing through his servant. Evangelist William Branham.

SO MANY WERE WEEPING. Surely we were seeing strange things - things that we had often read about in the Scriptures, but which we never thought we would ever be privileged to see.

The second person that stood before Brother Branham was also a woman. He told her that she was a Christian and that she had an ulcer on her leg near her foot. I looked down and saw that the foot was bandaged, but Branham never saw that. He was completely lost in God. Later he told me the man has five senses, but there is also a sixth sense, and that is exactly the realm that he lives in at such a time as that. I believe it. He can hear himself speaking but his voice seems a long way away.

Now don't tell me that this is spiritualism, fake or some evil power. It just isn't! Begone with such a thought! This is none other than the power of God - the God of the Bible which is His inspired Word and our guide and rule of conduct in everything. Such a thought other than that would not enter your head either if you were there and a witness of such a service. As a matter of fact Brother Branham spoke at length on the evil and the false and the counterfeit and the real - the power of God and the power of the devil. After such a meeting we can well understand the Pharisees saying to Jesus, "He casteth out devils by Beelzebub the prince of the devils." I am not a boy carried 'away with the flush of a new enthusiasm'. If I don't know something now at the age of 53, having been 30 years in the Christian ministry in something like 40 different countries, I never will know anything. This thing was real. This thing was God! This thing was Bible, and you would be the first to acknowledge it, too, if you had been there.

He stopped and waited and looked around as something was revealed to him. We could see something was happening, but we could not see what he was seeing. Then he turned to the congregation and said, "Right over there" and he pointed in a certain direction," there is a man with a cancer. He hasn't a prayer card and is sitting in the congregation. Alongside him is his wife who is blind, and on the other side of him is his daughter who is suffering with epilepsy." Then he told the man to put his arms around both his wife and his daughter and he would pray for them. Later I saw the three of them going into the prayer room to give their lives to the Lord. We know the Scripture "Perceiving he had faith to be healed," but this man practices it. The great crowd went mad with excitement, emotion and tension. All that Branham did was to quietly say through the microphone, "Have faith in God."

After the meeting Brother Branham, who is so very approachable as regards all such matters and is so transparent and anxious to explain and tell you all he knows, for his life is to talk about such things, he told me that he sees a light hovering over different people, and at the same time it is revealed to him all the circumstances of their lives. Many, many times he sees the sin in people's lives, and quietly tells them what they have done and that they are to put it right either by confession or restitution.

One by one, fifteen people stood before him. In every case he told them what was wrong with them and things pertaining to their past life. Every now and again he would stop and look toward the congregation, pointing out someone and telling them what was wrong with them. He always spoke with authority. He never made one mistake! I am told that he never does! Not while the anointing of God is upon him!

To one person he said, "You are nervous. You also have bladder trouble and something wrong with your chest." To another he said, "You have a heart condition which is getting worse. You come from Fort Worth, Texas. You are also concerned about a little boy that has a navel condition." To another he said, "You have had trouble because of an operation" and to still another, "You have some back trouble, raise your hands, praise God, and go away whole."

There was no hesitation about anything. It was never "Have you?" but always "You have." It was a voice of authority always, with the great crowd of people weeping and wiping away their tears and saying like those of old, "We have never seen it in this fashion before" and "We have seen strange things today."

We could continue telling of so many instances as he looked again toward the congregation saying to one woman, "You have had blood poisoning" and to another "You are nervous and have stomach trouble" and to still another "You will never have to be operated on for that tumor" always producing the same effect, but perhaps that is enough.

One woman just screamed as he told her what was wrong, but it was a scream of deliverance and not of fear. The abandonment of the meeting was not confusion but all beautifully in order. I have never seen anything like it. God was in that place that night. I never expect to see anything like it again although I hope so.

When Brother Branham finished praying and left the platform, Rev. Gordon Lindsay of "The Voice of Healing" took over the meeting, and made the appeal for the unconverted and others to get right with God. Afterwards he told me it was so easy to make that appeal. Hands were raised everywhere, and a great crowd thronged to the enquiry room to surrender to the Lord without any urging or begging whatsoever. Why, that was what we all felt like. To get right with God and surrender our all to Him seemed to be the only thing to do after such a meeting as that.

The people just stayed on and on - nobody wanted to go home. I believe it was Dr. Bob Cook, International President of Youth for Christ, who, when asked to compare Billy Graham with Brother Branham said, "Billy puts me in mind of John the Baptist and Brother Branham puts me in mind of Jesus." And that is no reflection on Billy Graham who is doing such a wonderful work for God these days. It is just that they are two different men with two different ministries.

Prominent men of all walks of life confer with Brother Branham and he numbers so many among his friends. So many have been helped by him. Men of all denominations look to him, for he is not a denominational man. Men like the present Anglican Archbishop in India; Dr. E. Stanley Jones; and Kenneth De Courcey of "Intelligence Digest" were just a few of the prominent names that were mentioned in our talk together.

When the meeting was over a further treat was in store as we met Brother Branham personally. Rev. Jack Moore, minister of Life Tabernacle, Shreveport, Louisiana; Gordon Lindsay, Editor of "The Voice of Healing"; Brother Branham and myself had a further time together as we had something to eat and a time of fellowship at the restaurant and in Brother Moore's car. The last thing that Brother Branham did before we separated was to say as we sat in Brother Moore's car, "Let us have a word of prayer together," when he prayed for each of us in turn. He then left us as he said goodnight, so much better off for our contact with this man of God.