Chapter 4 – Conversion of William Branham

William Branham, the boy, though he had received these remarkable manifestations of Divine providence in his life, nevertheless was not yet converted. For a time he still resisted that call. At the age of fourteen he was seriously wounded while hunting and had to spend seven months in the hospital. God dealt with him but still he did not take heed. Nevertheless, the urgency of the call became more and more conscious to him. Inasmuch as his parents were not Christians he did not get any encouragement there, and as he became older the enemy tried to get him to stifle that still small voice that ever was speaking to his heart.

He Goes West
When the lad reached the age of 19, he decided that he would go out West to work on a ranch. On a September morning in the year 1927, he told his mother that he was going on a camping trip to Tunnel Mill, a locality about fourteen miles north of Jeffersonville. He said this because he realized that if his mother knew of his plans to go West, she would plead with him not to make the trip. But when his mother heard from him again, instead of being in Tunnel Mill, he was far away in Phoenix, Arizona. In reality, down in his heart he knew that he was running away from God. He enjoyed the ranch life for awhile and the novelty of the West, but like all the other pleasures of the world, it soon got old.

Of his experiences in the West and the call of God which was ever upon his heart he says: “Many times have I heard the wind blowing through the tall pines. It seemed as though I could hear His voice calling away out in the forest, saying, ‘Adam, where art thou?’ The stars seemed to be so close one could pick them with his hands. God seemed to be very near.

“One thing that I remember so well about that country is the roads in the desert. If one ever gets off the road he gets lost easily. Some times tourists see little desert flowers and go off the highway to pick them. They wander off in the desert and are lost and sometimes die of thirst. So it is in the Christian way–God has a highway. He speaks of it in Isaiah, 35th chapter. It is called the “Highway of Holiness.” Many times little pleasures of the world draw one off the highway. Then he has lost his experience with God. In the desert when one is lost there sometimes appears a mirage. To those who are dying of thirst, the mirage will be a river or lake. People run after it and fall in, only to find that they are merely bathing in hot sand. Sometimes the devil shows you something that he says is a good time. That is just a mirage; it is something that isn’t real. If you listen you will find yourself heaping sorrows on your head. Don’t heed it, dear friend. Believe Jesus Who gives living water for them that hunger and thirst.”

A Sad Message
One day the young man received a letter from home informing him that one of his brothers was very ill. It was Edward, the one next in age to him. He did not think the illness was serious and believed everything would be all right. However, one evening a few days later, he returned to the ranch from the city, and as he was coming through the mess hall, there was a message given him which read, “Bill, come out to the north pasture. Very important.” He immediately walked out to the pasture and the first person that he met was an old Lone Star ranger whom they called “Pop.” He had a sad expression on his face and he said, “Billy Boy, I have sad news for you.” At the same time the foreman came walking up. They told him that his brother, Edward, had died.

You can imagine the shock this was to the lad as he realized that never again would he see his brother alive in this world. Events began to move swiftly from then on. Each time he resisted God, tragedy or sorrow of some kind would come to him. When he yielded and obeyed God, the Lord would bless and prosper him. Undoubtedly, that same lesson must be learned by every living person. Would that we all could learn by what others suffered, rather than by our own bitter experiences.

We again turn to Brother Branham as he relates the effect of this news upon him, of his sad trip home, and the events that followed, which finally resulted in his conversion to Christ:

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When I realized the news of my brother’s death, for a moment I could not move. It was the first death in our family. But I want to say that the first thing I thought of was, whether he was prepared to die. As I turned around and looked across the yellow prairie, tears ran down my cheeks. I remembered how we’d struggled together when we were little lads and how hard it had been for us. We went to school with hardly enough to eat. The toes were out of our shoes, and we would have to wear old coats pinned up at the neck because we had no shirts on. How I remembered also that one day mother had some pop corn in a little bucket for our lunch. We did not eat with the rest of the children. We couldn’t afford food like they had. We would always slip over the hill to eat. I remember that the day we had pop corn we thought it was a real treat. So to be sure I got my share of it, I went out before noon and took a good handful before brother got his share.

Standing there looking on the sun-parched prairie I thought of all those things and wondered if God had taken him to a better place. Then again God called me, but as usual I tried to fight it off.

I made ready to come home for the funeral. When Rev. McKinney of Port Fulton Church, a man who is just like a father to me, preached his funeral, he made mention that “There may be some here who do not know God; if so, accept him now.” Oh, how I grasped my seat; God was dealing again. Dear reader, when He calls, answer Him.

I’ll never forget how poor old dad and mother cried after the funeral. I wanted to go back to the West but mother begged me so hard to stay that I finally agreed to if I could find work. I soon got a job with the Public Service Company of Indiana.

Illness
About two years later, while testing meters in the meter shop at the Gas Works in New Albany, I was overcome with gas, and for weeks I suffered from it. I went to all the doctors I knew. I could get no relief. I suffered with acid stomach caused from the effects of gas. It grew worse all the time. I was taken to specialists in Louisville, Kentucky. They finally said it was my appendix and said I had to have an operation. I could not believe it for I never had a pain in my side. The doctors said they could do no more for me until I had an operation. Finally I agreed to have it done, but insisted that they use a local anesthetic so that I could watch the operation.

I wanted some one to stand by me that knew God. I believed in prayer but could not pray. So the minister from the First Baptist Church went with me to the operating room. When they took me from the table to my bed I felt myself getting weaker and weaker all the time. My heart was hardly beating. I felt death upon me. My breath was getting shorter all the time. I knew I had reached the end of my road. Oh, friend, wait until you get there, then you will think of a lot of things you have done. I knew I had never smoked, drank, or had any unclean habits, but I knew I was not ready to meet my God.

If you are only a cold, formal church member you will know when you reach the end that you are not ready. So if that is all you know about God, I ask you right here to get down on your knees and ask Jesus to give you that experience of being born again, like that He told Nicodemus about in John, chapter 3, and oh, how the joy bells will ring–Praise His name.

God Speaks In The Hospital Room
It began to grow darker in the hospital room, as though it were a great woods. I could hear the wind blowing through the leaves, yet it seemed a great way off in the forest. You have probably heard a puff of wind blowing the leaves, coming closer and closer to you. I thought, “Well, this is death coming to take me.” Oh! my soul was to meet God; I tried to pray but could not.

Closer the wind came, louder and louder. The leaves rustled and all at once I was gone. It seemed then that I was back again a little barefooted boy, standing in that lane under the same tree. I heard that same voice that said, “Never drink or smoke.” And the leaves I heard were the same that blew in that tree that day. But this time the voice said, “I called you and you would not go.” The words were repeated the third time. Then I said, “Lord, if that is you, let me go back again to earth and I will preach your Gospel from the housetops and street comers. I’ll tell everyone about it!”

When this vision had passed, I found that I felt better. My surgeon was still in the building. He came and looked at me and was surprised. He looked as though he thought I would be dead; then he said, “I am not a church-going man, my practice is so great, but I know God has visited this boy.” Why he said that I don’t know. No one had said anything about it. If I had known then what I know now, I would have risen from that bed shouting praise to His name. After a few days I was allowed to return home, but I was still sick and was forced to wear glasses because of astigmatism. My head shook when I looked at anything for a moment.

Conversion And Call
I started out to seek and find God. I went from church to church trying to find some place where there was an old-fashioned altar call. The sad part was I could find none.

One night I became so hungry for God and a real experience that I went out to the old shed back of the house and tried to pray. I did not know how to pray then so I just began to talk to Him as I would anyone else. All at once there came a light in the shed and it formed a cross, and the voice from the cross spoke to me in a language I could not understand. It then went away. I was spellbound. When I came to myself again, I prayed, “Lord, if that is you, please come and talk to me again.” I had been reading my Bible since I had been home from the hospital and I had read in I John 4, “Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they are of God.”

I knew that something had appeared to me, and as I prayed it appeared again. Then it seemed to me that there had been a thousand pounds lifted from my soul. I jumped up and ran to the house and it seemed as though I were running on air. Mother asked, “Bill, what has happened to you?” I replied, “I do not know but I surely feel good and light.” I could not stay in the house any longer. I had to get out and run.

I knew then that if God wanted me to preach he would heal me, so I went to a church that believed in anointing with oil, and I was healed instantly. I saw then that the disciples had something that most of the ministers do not have today. The disciples were baptized with the Holy Ghost and so could heal the sick and do mighty miracles in His name. So I began to pray for the baptism of the Holy Ghost. One day about six months later God gave me the desire of my heart. He spoke to me in a great light telling me to preach and to pray for the sick and He would heal them regardless of what disease they had. I then started preaching and doing what He told me to do.

From time to time people have asked me if I have received the Baptism of the Holy Ghost. This has always struck me as a strange question. For it is impossible that any Holy Ghost gift should function freely, unless the individual who possesses the gift should have received the Giver also.