I talked to a young woman some time ago who was in the emergency room. She was from the psychopathic... A great meeting at Flint, Michigan, and they had maybe thirty cases of insanity in the room. And they said you could not bring them out in public because they were in straitjackets and all kinds of conditions. And I went into the room, and one man went with me. And when we went in there, there was a beautiful young woman, looked to be about twenty or twenty-five years old, sitting there. I said, "How do you do?"
She said, "How do you do?"
And I said, "Well, it's hard to know which way to start." And some of them out of their minds and screaming, and people watching them.
She said, "If you don't mind, sir, I'd like for you to start with me."
I said, "With you?"
She said, "Yes, sir." "Well," I said, "you're not a patient are you?"
She said, "Yes, sir, I am."
"Well," I said, "you seem to have your right mind."
She said, "I wonder." And she said, "Could you listen to my story
just a moment?"
I said, "Certainly, madam."
And she started telling me. She said, "I was reared in a good home."
She said, "And my mother taught me not to do wrong, to shun evil, and to embrace the right thing." She said, "And I lived that kind of a life for a number of years, and I got mixed up with a young man." And she said, "It caused a disgrace to me." And said, "I just started, and throwed myself away, and I become an alcoholic." Said, "Then they picked me up and sent me to a Catholic institution called The Good Shepherd's Home."
Said, "There I was under correction for a number of years, and then they released me. And as soon as I got out from that, I started drinking again."
And said, "Then I served a year or two in women's state prison."
And said, "Then I had changed from Protestant to Catholic, then during this time I changed back to Protestant again from the chaplain talking to me." And said, "I come out and tried again, but," said, "I went right back into it again, into prostitution, drinking."
And I said, "Your mother?"
"She's dead."
"Your father?"
"Dead."
And I said, "What do you think they would think about you now?"
She said, "Oh, if I could only go back again."
I said, "A lovely young woman like you, don't you desire to be married and have babies like all mothers do, and so forth?"
She said, "I would love to, sir, but look at me. What could I offer anyone?"
I said, "You've got one thing you can offer."
She said, "What's that?"
I said, "Your soul to Jesus Christ."
She said, "Sir, He wouldn't receive it."
I said, "Oh, yes, He will."
Said, "How do you know He would? I've tried."
I said, "Yes, you're just turning pages. But you really come to Him..."
1JHN1:7
She said, "What could He do with me?"
I said, "Make a lady out of you."
Said, "Not me. I'm too far gone."
I said, "He can take you back to the time when you was a virgin innocent girl. The blood of Jesus Christ is sufficient and powerful to transform the vilest sinner to a blood-washed saint, guiltless before
God."
She said, "I've tried that so many times."
I said, "I want to tell you, I believe your case has never been diagnosed right." I said, "You don't want to be like that."
She said, "Certainly not." Said, "Just what you mentioned awhile ago is what I want to be: a mother, with husband, with babies, someone to love and someone that loves me. But I'd never spoil a man's life like I am."
I said, "You don't have to." I said, "This may sound old fashioned, sister, but it's the truth nevertheless. It's the devil that's done that to you.
It's the devil that's got ahold of you, driving you to things that you don't want to do."
She looked at me with those big dark eyes, and said, "I've always believed that was the truth."
I said, "Would you kneel here with me?"
She said, "Now they tell me I'm a mental case."
I said, "You are, but," I said, "Jesus Christ restores the right mind.
There's nothing too great for Him."
And she said, "Do you think He would for me?"
I said, "Certainly. But we've got to get that devil out of there before He can... where he entered when you was a young girl. He'll go out, and you'll go right back to that place again."
And she got down on her knees, and I asked her to pray. And she prayed for a few moments. She looked over at me, and she said, "Brother Branham, I'm now going to make a new start."
I said, "Sis, it won't do one bit of good. You're going just exactly the same road you've been over. It won't work."
And she said, "I mean it in my heart."
I said, "I know you do, but that devil's more stronger than any mental powers that you could put to him." That's the reason I don't believe in an intellectual religion. I believe a man's got to be born again of the Holy Spirit. It's got to be deeper than your thinking. Got to be an experience.
And she said, "What must I do?"
I said, "Just stay right there." And we prayed and prayed. I went ahead and prayed with some more people and come back; she was praying. I come back to her again. And after awhile I come back, and she was getting deeply in sincerity.
In a few moments, she raised up with tears running down her cheeks.
She looked me in the face. She said, "Brother Branham, something's happened."
I said, "You don't have to turn no new pages now."
The woman's married and got a family. And a lovely sweet born-again Holy Spirit-filled saint because God could take her back to a place where she started to do wrong. That's His goodness. And from that time she was a changed woman. From the time of a young girl to one time, she was evil. God taken her back; and from that time, she was different.
Those things of turning new pages, that's good. We think that's very good.
Just like after the first world war. Many of you men and women can remember that perhaps. I was a little boy of about eight or nine years old.
I remember it well, of even ministers saying, "War is over; we'll never have no more wars. It's all settled now. We just can't have no more wars, because we got poison gases and so forth." Many of you remember that.
The nation told us, "Wars are settled for good." They meant that. From that time, they said, there'll be no more war. But we had them just the same. When they begin to see rumors rising up, nation turning against nation, they formed what was known as The League of Nations to police the nations. They tried that. See, that was mental, but it did not work. It throwed us right into one of the greatest wars we ever had after that. Now, they've got what they call the U.N., police the nations again. But it will fail just as sure as two twos are four. It's got to fail! They think it's good, which it is; but as long as mental thinking, it doesn't do it. It takes revelation, spiritual revelation. All those things, as good as they may be... Trying to join church, that's good. I think everyone ought to join church. That's good as far as it goes, but that's not the cure. I think that everyone ought to take their choice as American citizens to join any church that they want to. And I think that we ought not to disfellowship that person upon their convictions. I think we should all fellowship with one another, asking God's mercies on us all. But that's not the thing yet.
Every New Year's men will make a pledge, go out and write on a book, maybe on a Bible sheet, and say, "I'll never drink again." "I'll never smoke again." "I'll never be untrue to my wife again." And less than five or ten days, they've broke every vow they made. See, they're making it by mental conception. That's why many people join churches, because they fear hell. And they come and put their names on books and go out and think it settles it; but it doesn't. It's not lasting. All those things are temporal.
But there is a time when a certain thing can happen, and from then on it's different, really different. That's when man meets God. Things change when man meets God. A man can never meet God and ever be the same again. You'll either be a better person or a worse person. You'll be better off or worse off after you meet God. It depends on what you want to do about it. But a man can never meet God and ever be the same.
Whatever your attitude is towards God seals your eternal destination.
60-0302 (t) From That Time |
