It was with great anticipation that in early 1964 we were waiting for Brother Branham’s meetings in the Great Central Valley north of Los Angeles to begin. On Saturday, February 8, 1964, we drove 100 miles up from Los Angeles to the Kern County Fairgrounds in Bakersfield. We arrived early and went to a nearby Kentucky Fried Chicken restaurant to have supper. While we were waiting at the restaurant, I talked to a man by the name Mr. Price, who was behind us in line. He told me he was also going to Brother Branham’s meeting and that he was hoping to be healed.
When we arrived at the fairgrounds auditorium there appeared to be thousands of people in attendance, but it just so happened that Mrs. Upshaw was sitting right in front of us. (Note that Congressman Upshaw was healed on Feb 8, 1951. That was the 13th anniversary of his healing, and today is the 63rd.)
My wife had written the words “Flannigan Family” on one of my old handkerchiefs and placed it in a box next to where Brother Branham would preach.
How thrilling it was to sing Only Believe and to hear Brother Branham preach, The Token. As usually happened, Brother Branham waited until the presence of the Angel of the Lord came before he started calling out people from the audience. Personally, just sitting there, I was praying to God and thanking him for sending to us a prophet to fulfill Malachi 4:5 and 6, Luke 17:30, and Revelation 10:7. I kept reciting the words of those scriptures to God in my prayer and asking for a closer walk with the Lord, but at no time did I pray for healing for myself or for my wife.
The first person Brother Branham called out of the audience that night was Mr. Price, whom we had met at the restaurant earlier. Brother Branham told Mr. Price to stand up, and when he did my wife said, “That’s the man we saw at the restaurant!” Immediately Brother Branham turned in our direction and looked at me and said:
“Here's another man setting here looking right at me, a real contact. The man is suffering with a stomach trouble and a back trouble. His name is Mr. Flannigan. I don't know you, but that's true. That's your wife setting there by you. She's suffering too. You believe that God's able to tell me now, in your fine contact of faith? Your wife has a back trouble, and she's got a female trouble. It's in the womb. That's THUS SAITH THE LORD.”
I had never in my life spoken personally to Brother Branham, and he did not know us. Afterwards, Brother Branham prayed over the prayer cloths in the box next to him, and my wife retrieved my handkerchief. Nevertheless, before this experience and even afterwards for a while, my wife had a hard time fully coming into the Message.
I was totally healed, and my back never hurt me again. The next year on September 18, 1965 my wife gave birth to our son Billy. The following month, in November, 1965, Billy began to have trouble with his intestines, and his bowels would not move. I did not know what to do and I dialed 411 for information for Brother Branham’s phone number in Tucson. When I got the number and called it, Brother Billy Paul answered and said that Brother Branham was not home right then but that he would call us back. While we were sitting around the kitchen table after supper waiting for Brother Branham to call, my wife was washing and drying the dishes. The phone rang, and I answered. I talked briefly to Brother Branham for the first and only time in my life, and he asked me to put my wife on the phone. My wife then began to talk to Brother Branham and to cry and say that she was afraid that she had committed the unpardonable sin because she had resisted the Message with her fiery temper so much. Brother Branham assured her that she had not committed the unpardonable sin, and then asked her what she had in her hand. She said that she had a dish rag that she was using to dry the dishes. Brother Branham told her to lay the rag on the baby and that he would be alright. She did so and Billy’s bowel problem was over immediately. After that my wife fully came into the Message, and we moved from Los Angeles to Arizona.
There are many other testimonies I could give but I would like to close by saying that for more than the past fifty years I have tried to pass out the Message to as many people as I can, as often as I can. Back in the 1970s I broadcasted Brother Branham’s Message on the Family Life Radio in Tucson for seven years. After three near-death experiences in my youth, I have known for nearly 70 years now that the Lord is not through with me yet. Nearly every day I go to truck stops, libraries, stores, restaurants and checkpoints, and approach whomever the Lord lays on my heart to contact, and give to them the Message. Some days I have as many as twelve contacts, some days I have none, but usually I have about 4 to 6 people to whom I bear witness each day. Even today I gave the Message out to eight people on my way from Sierra Vista to Tucson. I especially like to talk to soldiers and when I witness I let them know I served in World War II. I am still a soldier—a Soldier of the Cross.
I hope someday to see everyone who reads this testimony. May the Lord Jesus Christ bless each and every one of you.
Brother Flannigan.