SID: Now, I was told that when he had his encounter with Jesus, he was literally pinned to the floor all that time.
LADONNA: Yes.
SID: That’s why he didn’t come out.
LADONNA: Yes, yes. He couldn’t move. You know he would always say how tears ran from his eye, but he wasn’t aware of crying. Just the awesome presence of the Lord.
SID: But there was another milestone, and I sure wish that I had been able to see this. There was a man by the name of William Branham, that as far I can discern from what I read and study, He had the greatest gift of accuracy with healing. If he would say someone’s going to be healed [laughs], he would go even better than that. He’d what was wrong with them before he even knew and it was one of the most precise gifts of healing I have ever, ever heard of. So they saw that meeting, and they saw a notable Miracle that affected your dad. Tell me about it.
LADONNA: Brother Branham preached a message titled, “Where Does Sickness Come From?” And of course, that was funny to my parents because they thought, “Well, everyone knows that. Sicknesses come from germs.” [laughs]
SID: [laughs]
LADONNA: Now, remember my Folks were good Pentecostal people. They fasted, they prayed, they really long and hard; foamed at the mouth, I mean they did the Pentecostal thing. And I mean, no disrespect, we are Pentecostal people. [laughs] But Brother Branham preached the message that showed from the scripture that sickness began to happen after the fall. And so sickness came from the devil. It was never God’s plan. And then he showed ho Jesus would address ‘spirits of disease’ or ‘spirits of Infirmity’, or ‘unclean Spirits’. He’d cast them out. And then, of course, Jesus gave that same authority to His Disciples, and they cast out demons. The Early Church healed the sick, delivered people. And so he showed that Jesus’ power was greater than the power of the enemy who put sickness on people. Well, that just blew my parents away, they never heard anything like that. Well, Brother Branham had a prayer line and sick people came across for him to lay hands on them. The first Miracle is the one you’re referring to is the little girl who was born deaf and dumb, a mute. He put his fingers in her ears, and he said the simplest prayer. He said, “In the name of Jesus Christ, I adjure you Satan, ‘Spirit of Deafness and Dumbness’, leave this girl and enter her no more.” And that’s all that was to it. He took his fingers out of her ears, and she could hear everything instantly clearly, repeat every word. Well, my Folks were—.
SID: Between you and me, when they saw that Miracle, I mean if they were Pentecostal, they’ve seen Miracles in the past. What made that so different?
LADONNA: Well, the way my father would tell it in reflection, he said, “We were Pentecostal, we knew God could heal, and we prayed for the sick every Friday night.” And he would say, “We didn’t see many Miracles, but sometimes a Miracle would happen, and we never knew why.” We rejoiced; so, yes, in their tradition there was no question that God could heal. But that was funny to my father later. That we prayed for the sick but we really didn’t know why God would heal, or that He would for sure. So, when they saw this man—.
SID: You know the religious phrase, “God works in mysterious ways.” But not for His children; His children, it should be a mystery. We should all understand! [laughs] LADONNA: Exactly, it’s so simple. And that was what amazed my Folks; it was so simple, and they saw that Miracle. That showed them that India and the failure of the past did not have to ever be repeated. They could stand before people of any religion, of any culture or tradition, any pagan lifestyle, and declare the word of God, and demons would have to go. People would be healed, Halleluiah.
