11/07/2022
WILLIAMS BRAHAM
CHAPTER TWO
SAVED FROM A FREEZING DEATH
The providence of God was with Branham from
his birth. His father, working as a logger, had to be
away from home for long periods of time. When
Branham was only six months old, a severe
snowstorm blanketed the mountains, trapping the
young child and his mother inside their cabin. With
firewood and food supply gone, death seemed certain.
So Branham's mother wrapped herself and her baby in
ragged blankets, and then they laid hungry and
shivering in the bed to face their fate.
But "fate" cannot change God's plan. He was
watching over them through the eyes of a neighbor.
This neighbor, concerned that smoke was not coming
from their chimney, trudged through the heavy snow
to their cabin and broke through their door. Quickly he
gathered wood for a warm fire and waded through the heavy snow back to his own cabin
to get food for the Branhams. This man's goodness and alertness saved their lives.
Soon after this ordeal, Branham's father moved his family from the backwoods of
Kentucky to Utica, Indiana, where he went to work as a farmer. Later, the family moved to
Jeffersonville, Indiana, which would become known as the hometown of William
Branham.
Although the family had moved to Jeffersonville, a moderately sized city, they
remained extremely poor. At age seven, young Branham didn't even have a shirt to wear to
school, only a coat. Many times he sat sweltering in the heat of the small school,
embarrassed to take his coat off because he had no shirt underneath. God never chooses
between the rich and the poor. God looks upon the heart.
THE WIND FROM HEAVEN
School had just ended for the day, and Branham's friends were going to the pond to
fish. Branham wanted to go with them, but his father told him to draw water for that evening.
Branham cried as he drew the water, upset that he had to work instead of going
fishing. As he carried the heavy bucket of water from the barn to the house, he sat down
under an old poplar tree to rest.
Suddenly, he heard the sound of wind blowing in the top of the tree. He jumped up to
look, and he noticed that the wind was not blowing in any other place. Stepping back, he
looked up into the tree, and a voice came saying, "Never drink, smoke, or defile your body
in any way, for I have a work for you to do when you get older."
Startled by the voice and shaking, the little boy ran home crying into the arms of his
mother. Wondering if he had been bitten by a snake, she tried to calm him. Failing to
soothe him, she put him to bed and called the doctor, fearful that he was suffering from
some strange sort of nervous disorder.
For the rest of his childhood, Branham did everything he could to avoid passing by
that tree.
As strange as that experience may have been to Branham, he found that he could
never smoke, drink, or defile his body. Several times, as a result of peer pressure, he tried.
But as soon as he would lift a cigarette or drink to his lips, he would again hear that sound
of the wind blowing in the top of the tree. Immediately, he would look around to see, but
everything else was calm and still as before. The same awesome fear would sweep over
him and he would drop the cigarette or the bottle and run away.
As a result of his strange behavior, Branham had very few friends as he was growing
up. Branham said of himself, "It seemed all through my life I was just a black sheep
knowing no one who understood me, and not even understanding myself." He often
commented that he had a peculiar feeling, "like someone standing near me, trying to
say something to me, especially when I was alone." So Branham spent the years of his
youth searching and frustrated, unable to answer or understand the call of God upon his
life.
NO PLACE TO RUN
Although Branham had received supernatural manifestations in his life, he was not
yet born again. When he was fourteen, he was injured in a hunting accident that left him
hospitalized for seven months. Still, he didn't receive the urgency of God's call that pressed
upon him. He had no idea what was happening to him. His parents weren't familiar with
God, so he had no encouragement from them. All he had was his own limited knowledge,
so he resisted the call of God.
At the age of nineteen, Branham made a decision to move, hoping that a new location
would relieve him of this pressure. Knowing that he would meet with disapproval from his mother, he told her he was going to a campground that was only fourteen miles away from
his home, when actually he was going to Phoenix, Arizona.
With new surroundings and a different way of life, Branham secured a day job on alocal ranch. At night, he pursued a professional boxing career, and even won a few medals.
But try as he might, Branham couldn't run from God even in the desert. As he looked out
upon the stars at night, he would again sense the call of God upon him.
One day, he received news that his brother, Edward, who was closest to him in age,
was seriously ill. Branham felt that, in time, everything would be all right, so he continued
working at the ranch. Just a few days later, Branham received the heartbreaking news that
his brother had died.