Is Your Gift from God or the Devil? - Part 7
William Branham had a true gift from God. He had visions, dreams, and powerful spiritual experiences all of his adult life. Many of these experiences contained important messages from God.
As a young minister in 1933, Billy Branham had an experience in which an angel appeared to him and showed him a vision that contained a warning. In this vision, he saw swarms of angry flies pouring out of the mouth of a fat moth. The flies flew out in all directions. One of them flew into Branham’s ear, causing him to wince.
The angel said, “Be careful. The flies represent evil spirits, such as spirits of divination and fortune telling. Be careful.”
The next day, young Billy Branham stopped by a grocery store to talk with his friend George DeArk. He was in the back room, sharing his vision of the flies with George when a woman came into the store. Branham immediately had a strange sensation and said to his friend, “George, there’s something funny about that lady.”
Stopping at the cash register, the woman said to Ed DeArk, “I’m looking for a man by the name of Branham. I’ve been told he’s a man of God.”
“Well, you’re in luck. He’s in the store,” Ed hollered to the back. “Bill, there’s someone here wants to see you.”
When Billy walked up, the woman asked, “Are you William Branham, the prophet of God?”
“I’m William Branham.”
“Are you the one that performed that miracle on Mr. William Merrill at the hospital, and also healed Mary Der Ohanian after she had been crippled for 17 years?”
Billy shook his head. “Lady, you’ve got it wrong. I am William Branham, and I was there when both of those things happened, but I didn’t heal them. Jesus Christ performed those miracles.”
That satisfied her. “I’ve lost some real estate, and I want you to locate it for me.”
Billy didn’t understand what she meant by that statement, but he did know that this situation was what last night’s vision had been warning him against. He said, “Ma’am, you’ve come to the wrong person. You must have been looking for a reader or a medium.”
She seemed surprised. “Aren’t you a medium?”
“I am not. Mediums are of the devil. I’m a Christian and I have the Spirit of God.”
Her look turned icy. Suddenly Bill realized that she herself was a medium. He said, “Last night, in a vision, the Lord sent an angel to warn me of your coming and to tell me to be careful. This work you’re in is of the devil and grieves the Spirit of God.”
The woman grabbed her heart. “I … I need some medicine.”
“Ma’am, quit doing these things and your heart will be all right.”
She spun on her heels and stomped out of the store in a huff. Still in sight, she stopped again and clutched her heart. With a sharp cry, she crumbled to the sidewalk. By the time Ed and Bill reached her, she was already dead. (Jorgensen, pp.91-93.)
Turning Into a Wolf
Scott Evelyn was a Christian minister who didn’t look or act like a traditional minister, but he was a great inspiration to me. He didn’t write books or have a YouTube channel as far as I know, but he did record one message in which he shared stories of a few of his life-changing encounters with people. I have listened to that one message more times than I can count.
This is one of the stories that Scott shared in that recorded message.
Scott was with a small team of Christian ministers in Schenectady, New York. The team had been interpreting dreams and having positive, Holy Spirit-led encounters with people at a festival there.
While he was there, he was invited to a health food store to interpret dreams for people.
Scott took a seat at a table in a little café that was set up in the back of the health food store.
A young lady, maybe 18 years old, came in and sat down with Scott.
She said, “I have to know the meaning of this dream.”
“I’m walking down the street. Beautiful, sunny day. Birds are singing, sun is out; not a cloud in the sky.
“Suddenly, the sun explodes, and it turns into the moon, and now it is dark, and I turn into a wolf. And I have great power. And I can fly wherever I want, and I have great power. I fly all around, and I could feel the power within me. And I fly into an abandoned building, and I go deep into the cellar, where it is cold and damp, and it’s rusting away.
“And I fly out, and I have great power. And as I fly straight up, I begin to fall back, suddenly, I know I’m falling into a pit, and a hand comes out of the sky and grabs me by the neck, and I wake up.”
In response, this is what Scott said to the young lady. The words seemed to come out of his mouth before he even realized what he was saying.
“You’ve just begun with witchcraft. And you can have great power. But your life will be cold, and damp, and eventually, you will rot away. I am that hand coming out of the sky to save you today.”
The girl turned white as a ghost. Without saying a word, she got up and left.
Scott felt instant regret for what he had said, thinking that he had made a terrible mistake in responding to her that way.
After another half hour of interpreting dreams, Scott got up to leave the store.
As he tried to walk out the door, he felt like his coat got stuck on something, and he turned around to see what was holding him back, … and it was the girl. She was the cashier in the store, so she hadn’t left. As she saw Scott walking out of the store, she grabbed his coat.
Scott looked down at her, thinking that she was going to be angry with him.
Looking into his eyes, she said, “Thank you for saving my life.”
“Today I have given you the choice between life and death, between blessings and curses. Now I call on heaven and earth to witness the choice you make. Oh, that you would choose life, so that you and your descendants might live!”—Deuteronomy 30:19 (NLT)
**References: **
Evelyn, S. *The Power of the Right Interpretation *[Audio CD]. Itinerant Ministry Team.
Jorgensen, O. (2019). Supernatural: The Life of William Branham, volume I, books 1, 2 & 3. Supernatural Christian Books.
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