During my time at Charisma, I've personally reported on two incidents of the Holy Spirit raising someone from the dead. The first time, God used Chauncey Crandall. The second time, God used Robby Dawkins.
Of course, I've read the Bible accounts of Elijah, Jesus and Paul raising people from the dead. I've read rather colorful stories of Smith Wigglesworth raising people from the dead. I even read about the Holy Spirit raising a man from the dead—after he had been embalmed—at a Reinhard Bonnke meeting without anyone praying over him. Then there's David Hogan, who some call the “Dead Raiser” because of how often God uses him to raise the dead.
But a video I watched on YouTube (above) recently was miraculous on top of miraculous and shows the power of prophetic ministry in the dead raising arena. There is at least one recording in modern history of someone seeing a vision of resurrection—and then witnessing the actual resurrection. William Branham, a prophet from southern Kentucky who rose to fame during the Voice of Healing movement and was known for healing manifestations with the help of an angel, had a vision in Georgia.
What William Branham Saw
“I seen a little boy being raised from the dead,” Branham said. “I went down in Miami and there predicted it before thousands of people.”
Branham not only predicted it, he described with minute detail what the young boy would look like, right down to his hair style and his eye color. Then it happened. Two years later, Branham was in Finland when he came upon the scene a deadly car crash. An American-made car struck and killed two children.
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As Branham tells it, the car knocked one of the children into a tree and crushed his brains. The car rolled over the other child and he was laying dead underneath some coats. Branham says his companions went over to look at the little boy and came back crying. They tried to convince Branham to go see for himself but he declined because he had a son nearly the same age.
“Finally, they persuaded me to go over and when I went to look at the little lad, I looked down at him and my heart was breaking to see the little fella and I turned away,” Branham said. “And when I turned away, something laid its hand on my shoulder. I thought it was Brother [G. Gordon] Lindsay and I looked around and there was nobody around me at all and the hand was still on my shoulder. See how stupid a preacher can be?”
What William Braham Did
Branham recalls that the boy's parents were on their way to the sad scene. The child had been dead about 30 minutes. Branham said he looked down twice and then asked someone to raise the coat off the boy's lifeless body. At that moment, the Lord replayed in his mind the vision he had seen in Georgia of a little boy being raised from the dead. It was the same boy lying on the ground!
“Every bone in his body was broken and his foot run through his sock. It was that boy perfectly … Oh my, what a feeling. You could take every scientist in the world and stand them there and every demon out of torment could be standing there—it's going to happen anyhow … God's already said it and it's going to be done,” Branham said. “I said, 'If that boy isn't on his feet in the next five minutes I'm a false prophet.'”
As the story goes, Braham knelt down over the boy just as he had seen himself do in the vision and prayed, “Lord, God of heavens and earth, over in the homeland you showed me this vision while passing through Georgia one night … I pray to thee Lord God that now that you will confirm the word so they might know that you're still the Lord Jesus and that Finland would know that You are the resurrection from the dead.”
With that, Branham laid his hands on the lifeless boy and called for the spirit of death to give the boy back. Immediately, he said, the little boy jumped up screaming and running around. He was raised from the dead and his broken bones healed—all in an instant. The news spread all over Finland. The mayor certified the event and it goes down in church history as one of the most astounding miracles ever.
Branham waged prophetic warfare against death based on a vision from the Lord and God was glorified. What vision has God given you?
Jennifer LeClaire is senior editor of Charisma. She is also director of Awakening House of Prayer in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, co-founder of AwakeningTV.com, on the leadership team of the New Breed Revival Network and author of several books, including The Next Great Move of God: An Appeal to Heaven for Spiritual Awakening; Mornings With the Holy Spirit, Listening Daily to the Still, Small Voice of God; The Making of a Prophet and Satan's Deadly Trio: Defeating the Deceptions of Jezebel, Religion and Witchcraft. You can visit her website here. You can also join Jennifer on Facebook or follow her on Twitter. Jennifer's Periscope handle is @propheticbooks.
