I am so blessed to go on our website each day and read the many wonderful testimonies that come in from around the world. For truly, the Message of the hour is still alive, living in the hearts of His Bride, and is manifesting the same miracles as we hear on tape, and those that we read of in the Bible. He is truly still Hebrews 13:8, the same yesterday, today, and forever.
I wanted to take this opportunity to share a personal testimony with each of you that has just unfolded. As we all know, the Lord works in such odd and mysterious ways. This testimony is very special to me, and I trust it will be a blessing to you also.
As an introduction, I first want to give you a little back ground of the work here at Voice Of God Recordings.
I established VGR in 1981, and had the same vision then as I do now: to give the Message to every person on the face of the earth. I believe I can speak for you also when I say that this Message is truly God’s vindicated Word in this hour. It is the revelation of Jesus Christ in these last days, and once you see the Message, as Brother Branham said, everything else is just “filler.”
As most of you remember, 1981 was during the cassette tape era for audio devices. The cassettes were duplicated from the original reel to reel recordings of Brother Branham.
As we began the work of duplicating tapes, we felt it would be necessary to make copies of all the original recordings of Brother Branham, or what we call “masters”, and store them at another off-site location, thinking if a fire or other natural disaster would destroy one set of the masters, we would have the other set of masters as a backup. Again in 1981, the trustees of the Branham Tabernacle agreed to give the William Branham Evangelistic Association (WBEA) a strip of land on the church property to build a vault to store these precious original-master recordings of Brother Branham. What better place is there for the stored up Food than on the same property as Brother Branham’s church!
In 2002, WBEA transferred the tape franchise exclusively to Voice Of God Recordings, and thus signed over the land with the vault at the Branham Tabernacle to the name of Voice Of God Recordings. We had a lawyer come in and do the official documents for the deed, plot numbers, and so forth.
Within the last few weeks, however, the deacon board of the Branham Tabernacle discovered what seemed to be a “mistake” in the documentation made by the lawyer some 13 years ago. Brother Billy Paul (Secretary / Treasurer and Trustee) and the Trustee Board of the Branham Tabernacle presented this to me, for me to investigate. Upon investigation it was discovered, unbeknown to Bro. Billy Paul or myself for 13 years, that the piece of land that WBEA intended to give to VGR in 2002 was not the land the lawyers designated and titled to VGR, but in fact it WAS ACTUALLY A PORTION OF THE BRANHAM TABERNACLE BUILDING! But this was not just any portion of that sacred Tabernacle, this was the portion that Brother Branham and Sister Meda had purchased personally in the 1940’s, and the very lot Bro. Branham refers to when he states on tape, “I've always kept my name attached to it, so that I could be a vote sometime.” Of all the lots that the Branham Tabernacle holds, this was the only lot that Brother Branham had officially tied his name to! I immediately thought, “Lord, what an honor it is for me to also be attached to this precious piece of property.” Furthermore, it was revealed that this is the portion of the Tabernacle that holds the TAPE ROOM where daddy’s sermons were recorded after the expansion of the church in 1963! As you can imagine, this was all almost overwhelming for me. I couldn’t wait to tell the trustee board.
I called a meeting that Thursday afternoon with Bro. Billy Paul and the trustees of the Branham Tabernacle to discuss what a miracle this was to happen in this way, and like me, they saw the Hand of the Lord in all of it. In one accord, they all agreed that this was not “a mistake” indeed.
In accordance to what Bro. Branham said of their office, “and the trustees is the holding of all the property”, they instantly and unanimously felt the land should remain in the name of the VGR. As one of the trustees stated, “as the Lord crossed Jacob’s hands upon Ephraim and Manasseh, so did the Lord cross the hands of the lawyer, to distribute these lots in this way.”
That Saturday Bro. Collins called a meeting with both the Deacon and Trustee boards of the Branham Tabernacle to hear the results of their findings. The next day, Sunday August 1, was a Jubilee Tape called, The God Of This Evil Age, where Bro. Neville read the following:
This report, after the joint meeting of the deacon and the trustee board of the tabernacle of Friday night,…
Almost exactly fifty years later there was another joint meeting of both Boards… Praise the Lord!
Then, during that evening service, Events Made Clear By Prophecy, Bro. Branham comments on the board meeting:
They had a trustee meeting the other night here, on the board of trustees and deacons, and I think the minutes were read this morning before the church. Which, that's custom for us to do that. In the decisions that was made by the board of trustees and deacons here in the church, of course, it can't please everyone. We cannot do that. I have not one thing to do with the trustee board or the deacon board. I have not even a vote unless there's a tie, and I have to be here to do it then, Brother Orman Neville takes that second vote. Then we have to sign these, because we're part of the church. But what the trustee board and them boards' decision they make, we certainly stand behind them one hundred percent, 'cause that's what they're here for. And their decisions is between them and God. I cannot, cannot and would not, by any means, contrary that decision. And another thing, I am forbidden by the United States Government to make any decision concerning that, so please don't ask me to correct their decisions. I cannot do it, and I will not hear nothing about it. See? So don't ask me to correct their decisions. You see the board, that's the one that made the decisions.
For 13 years this somehow went unnoticed by all of us, and now, in direct parallel with the many statements on the Jubilee Tapes, these things are disclosed. There has always been a special place in my heart for the Branham Tabernacle and there is yet today, but what an honor it is for me to have my name attached to it with the same piece of land that Brother Branham attached his name to. Praise the Name of the Lord.
Your testimonies are always a blessing to me, and I just wanted to return this little testimony back to you today. It has a special meaning to me personally, and has certainly encouraged me to keep pressing forward in this great end-time work of our Lord Jesus.
May God richly bless you.
Brother Joseph