Branham Stories
Jehovah's Witnesses - Wood Family
One of my meetings not long ago, there was a Jehovah Witness brother that had been a little skeptic of the meeting. And when he heard of it, then he came to Louisville; he had a boy that his legs was bent up from polio. But one night he saw a little boy taken from a wheelchair that was so braced up over his hips, and one leg was shorter than the other. The little fellow ran all over the place and jumped up on the platform and preached a sermon. That convinced him.
He was a contractor. His name was Wood, Banks Wood. He lives, they are neighbors to me now. He was from Crestwood, Kentucky. Up in Ohio I had a big tent. He brought his boy and was setting back in the tent. That night the Holy Spirit went back into the meeting and said, "The man setting back there, his name is Banks Wood. He's from Crestwood, Kentucky, a contractor, Jehovah Witness by faith. But he has a boy with him by the name of David, that's got polio. One leg's drawed up. THUS SAITH THE LORD, he's healed." He didn't know what to do.
In a few moments the boy's mother said, "David, stand up." And when the boy stood up, he was just as normal and perfect as he could be. That convinced him. He stopped carpenter work, contracting, sold everything he had, bought a little house next door to me, has lived there ever since. And... Mr. Banks Wood. How many knows him? Why, you, many of you know him here, why, from selling books. He sells books in the meetings with me many times.
His family all being Jehovah Witness, very fine people, just the very nicest of people, honest, their name is above reproach in the state of Kentucky, fine people. So one of his brothers by the name of Lyle came down to visit him. Because they excommunicated him upon the basis of his--his faith then in God on Divine healing because they said it was of the devil... But the boy was healed. The boy now is a young man married, and he doesn't... He have--he has to study to see which leg it was that was crippled. And he works for the supermarket, some kind of a buyer or something for the supermarkets, or he just has.
And now, this Mr. Lyle came into Mr. Wood's house; he said, "Banks, you know as a brother we all love you." But said, "How come you go off on a deep end like that? How come do you listen to some fanatic preacher and to give up the faith that your father has taught you?"
He said, "I haven't give up the faith that my father has taught me; I just believe more." He said, "I believe that plus what I know now."
"Well," he said, "what kind of a quack did you get mixed up with?"
He said, "There he is, out there in the field cutting hay." And he said, "Well, you want to speak to him?"
Said, "Yes, I'd like to te--talk to him a minute." Said, "I'd like to just see what he's made out of."
So he called me out there, Mr. Wood did. And I was dirty and, you know how'd you be, and hot and sweaty, and overalls just white with perspiration, and where they'd been the day before. He come in, he said, "And you're the preacher that took Banks on this wild chase."
And I said, "No, sir, I'm not." I said, "I'm his brother in Christ, preaches the Gospel." And he looked me all up and down a few times; we set down to talk. Not an unreasonable person, nice, but he said, "Mr. Branham," said, "we were raised strictly Jehovah Witness, our father's a reader in the Jehovah Witness." I said, "That's fine. I'm certainly glad to hear that, that... And you have a nice name, and I sure appreciate a daddy that would raise you, and a mother, to be honest and upright people as you are."
And so while I was there the Holy Spirit in the goodness of His mercy, a vision came over. And I said, "Mr. Wood, I see you're a married man. You have a wife; she's a blond headed woman; you have two little boys about six and eight years old." And he looked around toward Banks real funny, looked back. I said, "You thought Banks had told me that. He has not." I said, "Perhaps maybe you know this. You have left your wife, or you're untrue to her. Last night you was with a woman that had auburn hair. She's much younger than you are. You were in a place where she and you were in a room together, and there was a man knocking at the door. You slipped to the window, and it's a good thing you didn't go to the door, you'd got your head shot off, 'cause he had a pistol in his hand." And he fell on the floor. He knowed that Banks didn't tell me that.
He said, "Mr. Branham, I want to know more about this." Right there in the room the Lord Jesus saved him. Away he went to tell his daddy. His daddy said, "Now, you've got all mixed up."
So here come his sister down. And she attended the first meeting and was converted, and I baptized her in the Christian faith. Then that blew the daddy up, and here he come. And so, Banks was gone when wife and I had just arrived at the house, and there was a car setting down the road, and a elderly man standing in the yard. And so we spoke to him, and he said, "I'm Mr. Wood."
I said, "Yes, sir," I said, "My name is Branham." I said, "I'm glad to meet you."
And he said, "Well, I'm glad to meet you Mr. Branham." Said, "You know where Banks is?"
I said, "He's probably gone to the grocery. This is usually our time to go, and he and his wife's gone. Won't you come in?" And so, he said, "No, I'd better stay right out here."
I said, "Well, come in, have a glass of water and refresh yourself. Banks will be in in a few minutes."
And a few moments he come in, and he said, "I want to go fishing with you, have you got time to go fishing?"
I said, "Oh, sure." I wanted to work on him. So he said...
Well, the next--that night it rained like everything. And then the next day we went down to... Said, "Well, I don't guess there's any need going; the streams will all be muddy."
And I said, "Well, we can go try." We crossed the river. And I's praying for the Lord to help me. I wasn't going to say one thing about religion. Let him name it. And so then if he's hungering, he will mention it. So then, when we crossed the river, I saw a vision. And I said, "Mr. Woods, that you might know," I said, "today every stream that we pass will be muddy." And I said, "Then when we get down to the lake that we're going, it'll be pretty and blue. We shall fish till about three-thirty this afternoon without catching any fish. Then I'm going to start catching fish. I'm going to catch about fifty pound. You're going to catch one. Your boy Lyle will catch one. We'll stop fishing at midnight. The next morning we go back a fishing again. I'll catch a large scale fish. These fish that I catch will be blue cat. And the next will be a large scale fish. Then we'll fish the rest of the day and won't even get a bite. That's "THUS SAITH THE LORD." He looked over at Banks and kind of grinned a little and looked around.
That's just exactly the way it happened. And when he left that night... After the second night we fished all day and that man climbed every bank that he could to try to make a fish bite, and he couldn't even get another bite. And I had about twenty-five pounds of fish, caught two of them, five at eight pounds apiece on little number four hook without a landing net. I... That had to be God, if anybody knows about fishing. And he was setting there watching. He kinda talks down in his throat. And his son said to him, the next day, said, "Well, dad, what do you think about it?" Said, "Well, I guess if anybody can see fish before they catch them, I guess that's all right."
And so I said, "But I can't do that always Mr. Wood. It was for your sake." I said, "Now, without any disregards, the Bible said 'If there be one among you who's a prophet or spiritual, if this one prophesies and what he says comes to pass, then hear him.'" I said, "No disregard to Mr. Rutherford, but he said Christ would come in '14, then he turned off spiritual, which He come that way, on the day of Pentecost. Now, the other four things that he missed," I said, "what about this?" See? And I baptized him about three Sundays ago, him and his wife in the Christian faith. "
