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THE LIFESTORY OF WILLIAM BRANHAM

The world knew him as Reverend William Marrion Branham. Those who loved him call him “Brother Branham”. As far as being a prophet - judge for yourself. God didn’t vindicate His servant in a closet, or some “secret chamber”, but the world saw the proof, yet perceived it not. Newspapers and magazines around the world had proclaimed it, but not with understanding. Hundreds of thousands of eyewitnesses around the world bear record of who he was, though few realized the meaning of the evidence before their eyes.

CHILDHOOD DAYS

William Branham was born in the hills of Kentucky in a crude log cabin, April 6, 1906. Those present witnessed a strange hazy light hovering over him, although it was before daylight.

When he was 3 years old, he told his mother he heard a voice speak to him out of the woods, saying, “You will live near a town called New Albany.” His mother laughed. But amazingly, over a year later, his family moved to Jeffersonville, Indiana, a town that’s a few miles away from New Albany.

His first vision occured when he was seven. While playing on the banks of the Ohio River, he suddenly beheld a bridge rise up and form across the water, as if under construction. As he watched, 16 men fell from that bridge and died in the river. Twenty-two years later, a bridge was built in that exact spot and 16 men fell from it, losing their lives during the construction.

There was no form of religion at all in the Branham family. William’s early life was filled with much hardship and poverty because his father drank heavily. His father also bootlegged whiskey during the Prohibition. One time, he made his son carry water to his still. As William was passing under a poplar tree, he heard the sound of a wind. It puzzled him for the day was calm. Looking up, he saw a strange whirlwind in the branches and a voice spoke out of the whirlwind and said, “Don’t ever drink, smoke or defile your body in any way, for when you get older there’s work for you to do.” It terrified him, and he never forgot that incident.

Yet, despite these and many more similar experiences, he has not yet known God intimately. While working for the gas company at the age of twenty, he was overcome with gas, became very ill, and had to have an operation. As he lay in the hopital, near death, he had a vision. He saw himself in the vision standing in a forest, and far away he heard the sound of wind rustling leaves - coming closer, and closer. He thought it was death. Then that voice said again, “Never drink, smoke or defile your body in any way. I called you and you wouldn’t go” (as in Jonah 1:1-3). “Lord,” cried William, “if that is You, let me go back to earth again and I’ll preach your Gospel from the house tops and street corners.” The vision then faded. Miraculously, William recovered.

He made a promise and he set out to keep it. Yet he knew nothing about finding God. Realizing that God dwelt in nature, he wrote a note and tacked it to a tree so God would read it. When that didn’t work, he entered a woodshed and, weeping for his sins, he prayed desperately, “God, I’m no good! Help me!” A cross of light appeared before him then. As he realized that his forgiveness lay in the Blood of Jesus Christ shed upon the cross, the joy of salvation flooded his soul.