DEWITT TABERNACLE TEACHING SERIES
THUS SAITH THE LORD
By C.W. Wood
November 2006
For those of us who are acquainted with the ministry of God’s Prophet,
Brother William Branham, we well know that people from around the world came for
many years to be ministered to by him. The great drawing card was that this
God-called man was given visions in which he was shown when and where certain
individuals would be healed. Once the Lord had shown him the vision, he would
say to the person, “Thus saith the Lord, you are healed, or you will be
healed, you will not die of your disease.”
In all the years that Brother Branham received such visions and
pronounced the person well, it was never known to fail. It always came to pass
exactly as it was shown in the vision. In the early years of his ministry, this
fact quickly spread around the world and we can understand why people would make
every effort to get to this man bringing their sick and dying loved ones, hoping
and praying that he would have a vision concerning them. The stories are many
telling of the sacrifices people made to reach this Prophet of God. Some
spending all they had for the journey, and some even starting the trip without
the money to make it all the way. They came from around the world.
We say again, it’s no wonder that the people of the world would do
everything possible to just stand in Brother Branham’s presence for even a
short interview! To many, it was truly a matter of life or death for themselves,
or some friend, or loved one. Thousands times thousands were healed through the
visions that God gave him. Thousands of others were healed as the gift of
discernment operated through the Prophet, telling them things about themselves
that only they and God knew. This often raised their faith to the level so they
could know that God was on the scene, and that He wanted them to recover from
their sickness. This knowledge was all they needed to go home and get well, the
knowledge of God’s will to heal them!
It has been this writer’s experience, in forty-two years of preaching
the Gospel of healing, that anytime the sick person becomes absolutely convinced
that it is God’s perfect and gracious will to heal, they always recover. Any
Christian knows God has the power to heal, but sadly, not all understand that He
greatly desires to use that power for them personally. It was the great mercy of
God that gave His Prophet the gifts that caused the people to believe He wanted
them well. They soon learned that no man could read the secrets of their hearts,
nor could he give himself a vision that announced the outcome of their sickness.
It had to be God on the scene working through the man to increase their faith.
If they had only realized, as we do today, that if they had stood on the
Written Word, God would have honored it without a vision. Psalms 107:20
has never changed, “God sent His word
and healed them.”
But there was a great problem that arose in Brother Branham’s life
because of the gifts. The operation of the gifts and the coming of the visions
took physical strength from him. So much so, that he could only minister
personally to a very few of the multitudes that came to his meetings. We Message
Believers know that he would stay on the platform as long as he possibly could
before having to, at times, be carried off with all his strength gone. I will
not set out to explain this loss of strength. My message is to point out another
drastically important truth.
I will state it as I understand it, and then give the Prophet’s own
statements, as he explained what the Lord was teaching him. For somewhere around
fourteen years, Brother Branham depended on the visions he had concerning
certain individuals before he would say, “Thus Saith the Lord, you are
healed.” But as we have stated, he would only have the strength to minister to
a very small percent of those who needed healing. This fact became a great
stumbling stone to him, and he eventually began to seek the Lord for a better
way to help the people. The Lord heard his desperate cries, and in the message, AS
I WAS WITH MOSES, SO SHALL I BE WITH YOU, 1960, Brother Branham poured out
his heart to the people, explaining how he had actually, without knowing it,
misused the gifts God had given him.
The great outstanding truth is that the Prophet, without ever realizing
what he was doing, was placing the visions ahead of the Word! He was
leaning on the visions, more than what the Scriptures themselves said about
God’s will to heal the people. The gifts, which were graciously given by God
to establish the fact around the world that He is a loving, compassionate
Healer, was now being used to try and pacify some people who were stubbornly
holding on to their unbelief. They would not believe that God wanted to heal
them personally, unless He would minister the gifts to them individually!
No matter how many times the Lord had shown His will to heal the people
in the prayer line, they refused to believe it was for themselves, without a
personal confirmation. Without regard for the physical strain it imposed on the
Prophet, many of them demanded their own personal sign. And so, eventually,
Brother Branham was driven to desperation. Because of his great compassion for
the people, he overtaxed his strength, and his health was affected. It was at
this point that the Lord began to show His Prophet that he was misusing the
gifts.
Realizing that some of our readers will be offended that I should say
Brother Branham was misusing the gifts, I respectfully remind you that I am only
saying what he, himself, said. The great point of this sermon is to make us
realize that the people were relying on the visions and the discernment BEFORE
they would believe God wanted to heal them. All this time I say, “THEY HAD THE
WRITTEN WORD OF GOD THAT DECLARED IT OVER AND OVER!”
They had “Thus Saith the Lord” in their Bibles if they had only
believed it, but they wanted a sign to prove the Word was right. God wanted His
Prophet and the people to trust His promises in the Word to heal!
QUOTE: AS I WAS WITH MOSES, SO I WILL BE WITH THEE, PAGE 29, “To
show that it wasn’t exactly God’s perfect will to do that, the sign always
weakened me. How many knows that? (Congregation says, “Amen.”–Ed.) Ask my
wife back there. She can tell you. The one…She gets it worst. And everybody
has to put up with me. Not knowing hardly where you’re at, walking about, and
– this, that. You don’t know. Walk, go down the road a little piece,
and stop.
Now, coming from these last meeting, I took those people in the line.
First, we’d have couple nights, three, without giving out prayer cards. Then
you got such a rally, we’d have to give out prayer cards. I would stand, some
time, and run fifty or seventy-five. Maybe have forty or fifty discernments, at
one time, in each and every night. That right, Gene, Leo, and you that’s
around here, that’s in the meeting? (The brethren say, “That’s
right.”—Ed.) Sure was the truth! And what did it do? When It left, and they
started home, I’d forget where I was at; want to know where I had come from,
on the highway.
And you mean to tell me, God does that to a man? No, sir. It was the man
doing it to himself, by taking a sign post instead of a commission. I stopped
under a little tree there, on the side of the road, somewhere in Washington, or
somewhere up in there. I said, “Lord, if You’ll just let me shake back to
myself, good again, help me to know what’s truth, so I can get straight once
with the people, and get the commission straight.”
I got it now. Sitting down here on the mountain side, of
Believe it, and live. Believe it, and get well. I can’t make no one
believe it. You have to believe it, yourself. But I have told you the Truth. God
has testified that it was the Truth, by His Word, by His Angel, by signs and
wonders, for twelve long years. If they’re not going to believe it now, they
will never believe it. Is that right? (Congregation says, “Amen.”-Ed.) But
the hour has come, when I’m tired staying on this mountain. I want to go up to
The prophet said, “I’ve got it now, He revealed it to me.” Reading
between the lines, he was saying that he saw he must lead the people back to the
Word. He said, “God has testified that it is the Truth by His Word.”
He showed it is His will to heal all who will believe it. He showed it by His
Angel and by these signs for twelve long years, and if you won’t believe
it’s His will to heal you now, after all this proof, you probably never will
believe it!” He said, “I want to get Faith within myself (By believing the
Word only), not looking to a sign…..or some kind of a sign post. I want to
say by Faith (In the Word), I come.”
Matt. 12:38-39, “Then
certain of the Scribes and of the Pharisees answered saying, Master, we would
see a sign from Thee. But He answered and said unto them, An evil and adulterous
generation seeketh after a sign; and there shall no sign be given to it but the
Sign of the Prophet Jonas.” The people in Jesus’ day had their Old
Testament scrolls, and in them the complete story of Messiah’s coming and His
ministry was written. And at the time of their request to see a SIGN, He had
already fulfilled many of the prophesies that spoke of Him. Yet, they demanded
more proof that He was the One! Because of their unbelief, they received a
rebuke from the Lord.
We have seen a modern day repetition of the unbelief of the Pharisees in
that the people of this day had many promises in the written Word of God
concerning His will to heal His people, yet they demanded a personal SIGN before
they would believe it. In Jesus’ days on Earth this grieved Him, and there is
no doubt that He was grieved by it in our day.
We can not help but wonder if some of us who have been desperately sick
at times, since the Prophet left, would have not been healed if God had
supernaturally sent Brother Branham to us with “Thus Saith the Lord.” This
is our natural inclination to want “A God with skin on Him.” But, God’s
plan is to bring us to the place of believing HIS WORD above ever other thing on
Earth. He will not be satisfied until He has produced this Faith in us! God knew
He would take His Prophet home before the Rapture. He also knew that many people
would be left in a deep pit concerning healing without the Prophet’s “Thus
Saith the Lord.”
The great burden of this writer is to show that God’s written promises
in the Scriptures about healing are even surer than the visions of the Prophet.
Every promise in the Book is “THUS SAITH THE LORD.” The problem with many of
us is, we seek some more reliable proof that God will heal us than what is
written in His Word. If the doctor says we are getting well, we are apt to
believe him. If we begin to FEEL better, we are apt to cling to that good
feeling, but if it leaves we tend to slide back into our unbelief. God wants us
to know that nothing can change His will and His Word concerning our healing.
Let us pray that in the following quotes of the Prophet, we will be able
to see that God did not intend to leave His Bride in a hole concerning our
health, but that He was only directing our attention back to His supernatural
WORD. If the visions from God did not fail, how much more will His written Word
never fail when we plant our spiritual feet on it. The people had let the
visions replace the Word and the Lord had to bring us back to the central point
of all true faith, His Promised Word! The Word is true with or without a vision,
with or without feeling, with or without a doctor’s conformation.
QUOTE: AS I WAS WITH MOSES…, PAGE 20, “Moses, when he went
down there, he had a sign, with a stick and with his hand. The sign here is no
more the commission than it was with Moses. What if all the Israelites say,
“Say, all you Egyptians, all the rest of you Israelites, come over here? We
got a man can do a trick with his hand. You ought to see it. We got a man can
take a stick and make a snake out of it. Come, see it.” That was just a
signpost. That wasn’t the commission. They wasn’t waiting for a signpost.
God help us. They were waiting for a deliverance.
And this poor, sick, crippled-up world is waiting for a deliverance, and
looking at a signpost. Have mercy! A sign post is nothing but a sign to prove
the commission. There’s the new ministry. It’s just been revealed to me.
“Pray for the sick. Get the people to believe you.” God can never leave
that. That’s His commission, no matter what goes on, how much I fail. I fail
miserably. I should never have went ahead with them signs. That wasn’t the
will of God, but God has blessed it anyhow. But I’m ready to leave this
mountain. I want to go across
QUOTE: AS I WAS WITH MOSES, SO I WILL BE WITH THEE, PAGE 21,
“Another woman there, said, “My back.” She said, “They can’t find what
done it.”
I said, “Do you believe me to be His prophet?” She said, “I do.”
I said, “What happened, back yonder in the early month of June,
you…They’re—they’re trying to work on you, and trying to operate for a
slipped vertebra. It’s not so. It’s a pinched nerve. You got it by lifting
the load, when you worked for McSpaddin’s Market.
She said, “I remember when it was done. I remember it now.”
That doesn’t heal her. That only points to the commission. Quit leaning
on the signpost. Let’s go on to the city. Let’s get away from this mountain.
Let’s get to the city. Let’s cross
I’ve wronged. I’ve done wrong. That’s why I have based these
sermons the way I have. ‘Cause, He said, “As I was with Moses, so will I be
with you,” and when that Hand come down and pointed that very same Scripture.
For a long time I’ve wondered, because I didn’t know what the commission
was. I’ve looked for something supernatural beyond that. God cannot get away
from His commission. God give the commission, that’s what it must remain. (His
commission is His written Word!)
But all the Pentecostal people like signs. They like to see it. The Bible
said, “A wicked and adulterous generation seeks after a sign.” But the
commission was, “Pray for the sick.” And tens of thousands times thousands
that I have failed to pray for, because they all desired the sign. They all
desire it.
The other day, I was trying to work the ministry, got it into the room.
And a man come on the platform, said, “Now, Brother Branham, wait a minute. My
case is different. I’ve just got to know something.” I said, “Well, the
doctor could examine you.”
“Oh, I don’t want that. I—I want to know right now. My case is so
different.”
I said, “Well I hate to do this, Brother.” Went on into it. And the
first thing you know, the Holy Spirit moved. He said, “Praise the Lord.
That’s right.”
I said, “The rest of you come on now. Let me pray for you.”
When I did that, you know what the next one said? “My case is just as
important as his.” Then I got about six or eight, and closed the meeting. Like
to kill me.
I’ve always wondered, why would that do that to me? Is because I was
doing it wrong. That’s just the signpost pointing to the commission. It’s
not the commission. That signpost has been nailed down, around the world. And
languages,
Watch, God puts it right back in the people’s lap. “You were born to
pray for sick people. If you can get them to believe.” I said they won’t
believe.” He said, “I’ll give you two signs, and by this they will
believe.” notice, then these sign, they’ve rallied for them, the signposts,
instead of the commission. “Believing that you were sent to pray.” (End
quote) May the Lord help us now, as
we try to sum up what the Prophet was teaching us in these quotes! The signs
were simply to prove God’s perfect will to heal all people. His requirement
was, and is, “Only Believe.” The signs were never meant to be used on every
person who needed healing. Their purpose was to; once and for all, show that He
greatly desired to heal all who would simply understand that He wanted to. The
signs that He demonstrated through the Prophet was to be the PROOF of His
gracious will. But the people, “Rallied for the signposts instead of the
commission.” They wouldn’t believe the written promises to heal unless God
gave a vision for them personally.
The revelation is God heals, with or without a vision, with or without a
dream, with or without any kind of a sign. The one who demonstrated the signs is
gone, but the One who promised in His Word to heal us is forever with us! If in
your mind you suppose you would rise from your sick bed if the Prophet was still
here to tell you, “Thus Saith the Lord,” then be reminded, Dear Friend, that
we have “Thus Saith the Lord” in the Bibles that we all carry! If the
visions never failed, then the Scriptures are more certain than that!
It is within the plan of our all-wise God
to at times change our circumstances from the sunshine of health and prosperity
to the
What shall we do then, Beloved, when our Sun is behind a cloud? First, we
must understand that it is only a temporary hiding of His face from us. We will
continue to praise Him for His love and mercy, even when He seems to withhold
it. Praise Him for the times of joy and also when the gloom of a trial is upon
us. There is beauty in the sunrise, but there is also hidden beauty in the
setting of the sun, as darkness approaches. We will only make a circle and come
back to the sunrise again. We will believe that the nighttime of trial is as
useful as the bright day. The bright stars of His promises shine forth at night,
so that the way is not totally dark. What a glorious revelation to know He is
always near!
Yes, God took His tired Prophet home to his rest. The visions and the
discernment he had are no longer with us, but a merciful Lord has proven by them
that He desires, “Above all things that
we should prosper and be in health, even as our soul prospers.” (John III,
Verse 2) The Lord did allow us, for a time, to lean on the Signs, but in 1965,
it was time for Him to start us back toward His Word.
There was to be change in the Prophet’s
ministry. It was to be healing for the people through his belief, and their
belief in the WORD ALONE. The emphasis was to be on THE WORD rather than on
visions and signs.
QUOTE: AS I WAS WITH MOSES….PAGE 20, “…….And by this they
will believe, by these two signs…DON’T YOU FAIL TO GET THIS! The sign is not
the commission. The sign only points to the commission (THE WORD). You get out
here on the road and see a sign, and (it) says five miles to
Let’s take, “Thus Saith the Lord” in His Word and live. Amen!
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