Last month, we took as a subject “What If Christ Had Not Come?” This month, we want to look at another question, “What If God Had Not Sent Brother Branham?” Where would you be today?
While many of you were fortunate to have been born and raised in the Message, a large number of believers today had their roots in a Pentecostal denomination. Others came from various Protestant denominations or the Catholic Church. But there are many precious believers today who never had been associated with any church, or any religious group. They were wanderers, lost in sin—until one day they heard that Voice, and recognized that they were Eagles.
Most of us were born too late to be in his early meetings, or did not have the opportunity to go. Let us just look back at one year of Brother Branham’s early meetings—that of 1947—to see how many places he ministered, praying for the sick for hours, until his own health was compromised.
In 1946, after his Commission, Brother Branham spoke in 15 locations, in addition to speaking in the Branham Tabernacle.
In 1947 alone he held 44 known meetings. These were held in various cities in the states of Arkansas, Arizona, California, Florida, Idaho, Illinois, Kansas, Louisiana, Missouri, Oklahoma, Oregon, and Texas. He also held meeting that year in these provinces of Canada: Alberta, British Columbia, Manitoba, and Saskatchewan.
Oh, wouldn’t you love to have been in those meetings in 1946 and 1947? Unfortunately, there are no 1946 recordings, and only six recordings that date from 1947.
Until 1954, the messages of Brother Branham were not recorded on a regular basis. The earliest known recording dates from 1947 and was recorded as a 78 rpm record. According to information given us, this original recording was made by someone with access to phonograph recording equipment, who saw these meetings as an opportunity to test their equipment on a speaker in an auditorium.
Later in the year of 1947 another unknown individual, being so impressed with Brother Branham's meetings in Phoenix, Arizona, obtained the necessary equipment to also make phonograph recordings of these services. We certainly are thankful to the Lord for His laying this upon someone's heart. Undoubtedly they had no idea of how the Lord was using them, or how much the Bride of Christ would appreciate their effort six decades later.
Brother Branham was on the field almost continually in the later 1940’s and early 1950’s, but few recordings exist of these meetings. In fact, Brother Branham held more meetings in 1948 than any other year, but only two recordings from 1948 are currently available.
When the reel-to-reel tape recorder became readily available to the general public, more and more of Brother Branham’s meetings were recorded. It was common to see 15 to 20 tape recorders lined up at the platform to record the service. Also, by this time, Brother Branham was doing his own preaching before he prayed for the sick.
As wonderful as those early meetings must have been, Brother Branham certainly made a sacrifice to make himself available to pray for all those people. All those intense meetings, combined with a lack of rest, took a great toll on God’s prophet.
The front page of the July 1948 issue of The Voice Of Healing, carried two articles about Brother Branham; one bearing the caption, “Brother Branham takes extended rest,” while the second article was entitled, “Five Great Days In Eugene, Ore.,” describing his meeting there.
The first article also stated, “So great has been his compassion for the sick and the suffering that it is difficult for him to withdraw from the multitudes, when there are so many needing his ministry. In the early part of his healing ministry, our brother would pray for the sick until one or two in the morning, or until he would drop from sheer exhaustion. In the course of a year’s time, he had lost almost 40 pounds.”
The second article also stated, “In this meeting Brother Branham was so exhausted that anyone could see he was going to the very limit of his strength every night.”
Brother Branham truly put everything he could into praying for the sick, often bringing himself to complete exhaustion before being taken from the platform.
“And what I’ve always wondered, could I minister to all the sick. That’s what’s been my heart’s desire. I tried it. I told you one time stayed at the pulpit for eight days and nights. Couldn’t get…?… more—thousands and thousands more at the end of the eight days than there was. And I never left the platform. I slept here, eat here, and everything, right at the pulpit for eight days and nights. I did, I taken about a eight month vacation after that. I had…
In other words, I couldn’t get out. I was just in a nervous break. It just liked to killed me. So then, I—I knew then that I must use a little more wisdom than what I had. Jesus never even tried to touch the peoples like that. Is that right?”
50-0821 The Angel And The Commission Cleveland OH
“A few years ago when I left on my first trip, my little girl Rebekah was remarking one of my going out. I was gone six months before returning. I’d just go from place to place. I stayed eight days and nights and never left the platform; I said, “I’ll pray for all of them or die here trying.” Well you, no need of trying, there's more at the end than there was when I started. The prayer line constantly going all the time, thousands and thousands coming through the prayer line. They’d bring orange juice; I’d sleep, put my head up against the pulpit, and sleep, and start the prayer line again. Stay right there with them. They’d stay right standing in the rain and everything, waiting.
When I got home, my little girl didn’t know me. I was a stranger. She said… Her mother had been showing her my picture. But when I come home I’d lost my hair; my face was wrinkled, drawed up; I’d lost about twenty-five pounds of weight. That wasn’t her daddy. That like to killed me when I know my own child wouldn’t know me. Well, that's the way it’s been…?… with Billy. But I know Him. I want Him to say on that day, “You done the best you could, so it'll be all right,” as long as that's all right.”
56-0422 Show Us The Father And It’ll Satisfy Spindale NC
It was not until the end of October 1948 before Brother Branham was able to get back into meetings, starting with a meeting in Fresno, CA, which was followed by meetings in Seattle, WA in November.
Brother Branham certainly was attacked by the enemy for his stand for the Word throughout the rest of his ministry. We’ve all seen (in films or in person) how he would be at the point of collapse when Brother Billy Paul would come to take him out.
Why did he keep on pressing himself to the limit? It was for YOU, my dear friend. The tape recorder that came on the scene in the early 1950’s, by 1954 was recording nearly all of his sermons. In 1962 Brother James Maguire received the tape franchise, and every sermon thereafter was made available on tape. Cassettes followed, as did CD’s, and now we have the microSD card.
Aren’t you glad Brother Branham came to us with this Message? He literally gave his life to bring this Message to you and me—all so that we might make ourselves ready to meet our Bridegroom.
“And now beginning a new year, I want to say, not ‘Happy New Year’ to you, I want to say this to you, ‘God bless you.’ And if He does that, that’s all you'll have need of for the coming year. And I trust that He will.”
62-1231 pp 64 The Contest Jeffersonville IN