61. ...Here sometime ago, I was coming from Dallas. I was flying across home. I got in a storm up here over Memphis, the big plane come down, the TWA, and landed there. He put me in the Peabody Hotel. I couldn't afford to stay in there now. They put me in there for that night. And the next morning they called me, and said, "Be down at the--at the airport at seven o'clock. The limousine will pick you up. Fixing to close now, listen close. "To pick you up at seven o'clock."
62. I said, "All right." Or they'll pick me up so I can be there at seven. Next morning I got up real early, 'cause I'd come out from a meeting. I had some letters I'd wrote that night, and I thought, "I'll mail these first. The limousine will be along after awhile." So I walked out, and I said to the fellow, "Which way to the post office?"
63. He said, "Straight ahead, down that way." And I went out, started down there, I was going down the road singing: I...They're gathered in the upper room,
All praying in His name,
Baptized with the Holy Ghost,
And power for service came;
Oh, what He did for them that day
He'll do for you the same,
I'm so glad that I can say I'm one of them.
Walking along down the street like that, singing it in my heart, all at once, Something said, "Stop."
I thought, "That just impressed me"
I said:Oh come, my brother, seek this blessing
That'll cleanse your heart from sin,
Something said, "Stop." There was a lot of fishing tackle there in the store. I got back in this place, so I could look at the fishing tackle so nobody'd watch me on the street, busy right in there.
And I got back in the corner; I said, "Heavenly Father, was that You speaking to me?" I kept real quiet.
Said, "Turn and go back, and keep walking."
64. You believe in being led by the Spirit of God? I turned, started walking back, walked on passed the hotel, just kept on walking. I looked at my watch, already seven. I missed the limousine. On down, on down, till I come way down there, in a little colored district, where there's colored people. Sun was way up high. I thought, "Oh, I'll miss my plane. But Something just keeps telling me to walk." So I just kept on walking. That's the way. Don't question God. Do what He tells you to do. So I just kept on walking. And after while I looked laying across the gate, and there was a typical old Aunt Jemima, with a man's shirt tied around her head. She was... tears running down her cheeks. And I passed by. She said, "Good morning, Parson."
And I said, "Good morning, Auntie," walked on by.
I said, "Well, how... She said, 'Parson.'"
I turned back, I said, "Pardon me, a minute, Auntie." I said, "You called me a parson."
She said, "Yes, sir."
And I said, "How did you know I was a parson?"
She said, "I knowed you was coming."
And I said, "You knew I was coming?"
Said, "Yes, sir."
And she said, "I've been standing here since four o'clock."
I looked on her. I said, "Well, bless your heart." She was wet on the back yet.
Said, "Yes, sir, I've been standing here." Said, "Did you ever read the story about the Shunammite woman?"
And I said, "Yes, ma'am."
Said, "I's that kind of woman." She said, "And I promised the Lord, if He'd give me a baby, I'd raise it for Him." And said, "He give me a fine boy."
65. And she said, "Parson, I raised that boy, but when he got to be a man," said, "a young man, he got with some wrong company. And he done wrong." And said, "He got a bad disease, a venereal disease." And said, "He's in there dying." And said, "Two days, he's been unconscious. The doctor man says there's no hope." Said, "We's good family here; we never thought of anything like that." And said, "He's dying," and said, "he's backslid." And she said, "Parson, I just can't stand to know my baby's dying without knowing the Lord Jesus."
And I said, "What?" mother love.
She said, "I prayed for two days." And said, "This morning, about three o'clock, I--I was dreaming. And I dreamed I was talking to the Lord. And I said, 'Lord, where is Your Elisha?'" And said, "I seen a man coming with a gray suit on with a little bitty semi-western hat." That's the way I was dressed.
66. Said, He said, "Just wait." And said, "I walked right out here, and been standing here ever since. I knowed you were coming." Said, "Now, I seen you coming." Said, "I thought, 'Lord, You stop him. I won't have to say a thing.'"
Now, with all that, the Holy Spirit telling me to walk, all that in my heart, I thought, "This must be it, Lord." Then about eight...
I--I said, "Well, Auntie," I said, "My name is Branham."
She said, "I's to glad to know you, Parson Branham."
I said, "Did you ever hear of me?"
Said, "No, sir, I don't believe I ever did."
I said, "My ministry is praying for the sick." I don't think she was a long them lines. But she said, "No, sir, I never did hear of you."
And I said, "The--the Holy Spirit had me walking down this way."
She said, "Won't you come in?"
And I went in. They had an old whitewashed fence, and a plow point hanging on the gate. When I walked in to that little old colored room where the colored people live, there wasn't nothing there, but a little... No rug on the floor, just wood like this, and a little old poster bed, but a sign hanging on the wall, 'God bless our home.'" I'd rather have that than all the pin ups, or anything else, that you could put in. That's shows that was a Christian home.
67. Great big fine boy there, has about--looked like about eighteen, had the blanket in his hand, going... [Brother Branham makes a grunting sound--Ed.] "It's dark. It's dark here."
I said, "What's the matter with him, can't he talk?"
Said, "No, he has been unconscious," said, "two days." Said, "He thinks he's out on a big deep sea, and he's in a darkness and lost." The tears running down her big old fat cheeks, she said, "That's it, parson. I can't to stand to hear my baby die, and have that on my heart the rest of my days, that my baby was lost."
68. And I thought, "Baby?" Weigh a hundred and eighty pound. Now, but, that was a mother's love. No matter what he done, he was still baby. He was still her loving child. I looked at her. I couldn't hardly choke back the tears, looking at her. And I said, "Is he very bad?"
Said, "He's dying, parson." Said, "The doctor man said, 'Don't call him no more. He's gone.'"
I felt his feet, real sticky. Now, I don't say, I... Felt like, you how a person gets that real cold sticky? And his feet felt cold. I said, "Well, I guess maybe he is."
So then, she... He just kept pulling this... And so, I said, "Will, you... Let us pray then, Auntie."
And she got down there, looked over at me, and I got at the foot of the bed and held the boy by the feet. I said, "Auntie, will you lead us in prayer?"
She said, "Yes, parson." Oh, brother, you talk about a prayer. I just cried like a baby. To hear that old saint, and it was just quiet and cool, said, "Lord God." She said, "Last night when You spoke to me Your poor handsmaid, in the dream, and told me that this parson was coming, I knowed that my baby is going to speak to me, and say he's saved before he goes." And she was talking like that, the tears running down both of our cheeks then. When she got through praying, she reached down and got her apron, wiped her tears. And she said, "Now, will you pray, parson?"
69. I said, "Yes, ma'am." I put my hands over on the boy, I said, "God, my plane's gone; I--I--I don't know why. But You told me to walk." This must be the case. I pray, God, that You'll be merciful to this boy, somehow the sovereign love of this woman praying for her baby, You brought me down here."
Just then I hear him going... [Brother Branham makes a moaning sound--Ed.] Saying, "Oh, mammy."
She said, "Yes, honey."
Said, "It's getting light around here now." Said, "I'm nearing the shore." In a few minutes he was sitting up on the bed.
About six months from then, I was going down, somewhere in the South. I went in on a train. They want about seventy-five cents for a hamburger on the train. I get them for about fifteen cents there at the station. I just waited till they pulled in the...?... and as you get off the train, you know how you walk up to that little restaurant. I was going walking along there that morning. I'd got on at Louisville that night. And started down there, and I heard somebody say, "Hello, Parson Branham."
70. And I looked around, there stood a little Red cap out there. Said, "How are you, Parson Branham?"
I said, "Howdy do, son." I said, "How did you know me?"
He said, "You don't know me, do you?" Said, "You remember that morning, that--that you come down to pray for me? My mammy here, you know, had been waiting at the gate waiting for you."
I said, "Are you the boy?"
Said, "Yes, sir, Parson Branham." Said, "I's---I's not only healed," but said, "I's a Christian now." What was it?
That morning when I got back to my plane, I jumped in a cab as soon as I left that house, and got back, run to the station to see what train, what plane I could get next. They said, "Last call," for this certain plane. God, by the love of that poor, ignorant colored woman, had a love for God and her baby, had grounded a plane and held it there. Hallelujah.
When love is projected, sovereign grace steps in and takes its place. God knew His gift. God knowed what would happen. God had selected this to be so. And the love of that mother had held... The love of that poor ignorant colored woman, probably didn't know her ABC's, but she knowed the love of God, that's what grounded that airplane and held it three hours.
When I got on, I said, "What happened, hostess?"
She said, "Oh, there was something happened, somewhere something..."
Oh, sure, I thought, "Well, I know it was." It happened in glory. Amen.
71. I tell you, brother, there's nothing like the love of God. Do you love Him tonight? Is He your Saviour?
Love - 56-0726 - William Branham
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