<TITLE>03. Par 9-13</TITLE>L-9 I said, "Oh, I was just teasing you all to see what you would do." I said, "I didn't mean that." I said, "I--I didn't mean that." Oh, my heart was crying on the inside of me to think that I'd take the nickels from that poor little old woman.
And her old brother used to come down. Gene, you remember him? Old Brother Ryan, had long hair. He come from Benton Harbor, and he put a Bible under his arm; he'd ride his bicycle down. And you can imagine what a sight that was, coming through...?... that hair blowing behind him, riding this bicycle. So he gave me the old bicycle; it backslid on him, and he--he... Isn't that some word for a Baptist to say? But it did. It just give out; that was all.
So I patched up the tires, and went down to the ten cents store, and got me two different colors of paint. And I painted it for twenty cents, and sold it for five dollars, and paid off the debt. So I didn't have to take up the offering after all. That was my first experience with an offering. So...

L-10 I wished I didn't have to take it, friends. My expenses are very little. I don't have any radio broadcasts. I don't have anything to take up any money, but just my little office work. And my expenses at my office at home runs me about the average of a hundred dollars a day. That's the reason I can go places in small groups.

L-11 What do you think Oral Roberts runs a day? It was the last I had heard of about seven to eight thousand a day. Billy Graham's is so many thousand a minute when he's on his broadcast. Now, Oral Roberts would like to come to some of these little places and hold revivals. Oral Roberts is a real good brother. He's a fine man.
I remember Oral when we first met. He had a little ragged tent setting over in--in Kansas City, Missouri. I had a big auditorium over on the other side, and Oral come set on the sideline that night, just a boy preacher. And we got our pictures together out in the yard. He said, "Do you think God would hear my prayer for the sick, Brother Branham?"
I said, "He will hear anybody's prayer."
He said, "Here I go." Now, I set on his sideline.

L-12 But you see, God knew that I didn't have intelligence to take care of a program like that. Oh, my. Television and everything else, I--I couldn't stand it, if I had to, you know, go out and take up money, and--and with that much responsibility, I'd go wild. So I just couldn't do it. And then he'd like to come to little places, but...
I just held a revival in a place that held twenty people. That's right. But you see, I'm not out much expense. Now, the way I do it, I just wait on the Lord, and if He tells me to go to a place that's got twenty people, I'm not under no obligations to the world, or to the radio, or anything, so I couldn't go; and so I just go hold a revival. If it's at Gravel Switch, or wherever it's at, it's all right.

L-13 And then if He wants me to go to Africa, India, or something like that, and preach to a half a million, He always has somebody to pay the expenses. I just set back and do what He tells me to do, get along fine. So I--I--I like that. I--I... God knowed I didn't have the intelligence that Oral Roberts and them's got. See, Oral Roberts is a college graduate, four years of psychology. So you can tell he's a smart man. And I'm not smart enough for that, and the Lord knew it. So...
Somebody was trying to give me a--a some... Well, I... It was a Four Square church. And bless their hearts, they're wonderful people, and they were going to give me a--a degree out there of a doctor's degree. I said, "Brethren, I'm too smart for that."


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