Then, from my right side, behind me, came the same voice of The Angel of The Lord, who had spoken to me since I was a child, saying: “I will teach you how to fish; but you must keep quiet-don’t say anything about it!” I answered, “I will.” He said, “Fasten on your lure.” This I did. Then he said, “Now, to catch those big fish you have to go way out in the deep water.” I swung and cast with all my might, and the line went out its full length. He said, “That was good!”

. . .

I got so excited trying to show the ministers how to fish that I jerked the lure completely out of the water, catching a fish about the size of the lure, seemed as though the skin of the fish was stretched tight over the the lure. I wondered how I would ever get it off!

(William Branham’s Third Pull Vision, excerpt)

William Branham was a man sent by God.  He was a prophet, but he was also a man.  When he spoke for God, he never made a mistake, but, in the day to day of his life, he admittedly made a few (as he points out himself, especially as regarding certain personal decisions).  He was no more infallible than the young prophet in 1 Kings 13, who, after he delivered a true word from God, was deceived by an older prophet who deliberately lied and deceived him to eat when he had been told not to.  That prophet, a true prophet, whose prophecies were later fulfilled exactly, made a mistake in his personal life (not his prophecies), and died prematurely because of it.  The same is true of William Branham.

When considering the above segment of the “Third Pull” vision of William Branham, the symbols catch my mind.  Each of these symbols has a meaning.  In the studies and discussion of William Branham that I have seen, there does not seen much of an examination of these vision, yet they contain valuable insight, correction, and teaching that is just as applicable to William Branham as it is to us today.

Too often, when shown something in my own life by the Lord, by manner of symbol or parable, I have failed to understand until much time later what was actually being said.  Yet, while the truths are always simple Biblical truths, yet unrecognized, they often offer insights into specifics and some of the true desire of God for a man in healing and power ministry.

We see elsewhere that the William Branham sometimes referred to his lure as his doctrine, especially regarding the seven seals.  In consideration of the rest of his fishing rig, as we might call it, we see, practically, there is his fishing rod and his line.  Specifically, the line is mentioned, so we know that is important.  But, if we consider his rod to be his pulpit, in a figurative sense, his “reach” as it were, it would make sense, because that is his ability to cast out his message, his lure.  The deep water could be the deep places in the Spirit, into the dark, hidden places, the hidden things that God reveals by His Spirit, it is also the peoples, the multitides, and the vast depths of thoughts, emotions, and words of a man whom would be the “fish” Mr. Branham sought to catch.  The words of a man’s mouth are  deep waters, as the Proverbs say (Proverbs 18:4).

Nearly all of these metaphors are the symbols for Gospel preaching, because that was his business.  Better understanding of precisely what the angel signified by these helps us with clearer understanding of the instructions left to William Branham.  The line, however, is related to the doctrine.  While it was the rod from which the lure is cast and the pull is initiated, the line is the thing that connects the lure to the fisherman.  Without the line, the lure is lost.  The line was the thing that was important to keep from getting tangled.

When we think of lines, we can think of the lines of someone reading a script, or “straight lines”.  If we understand that the angels warnings were for Mr. Branham to not get his “lines tangled”.  It would appear, judging from his end, that this is precisely what did happen to some degree, resulting in a loss of fishing capabilities.  The line, it would seem, could be reckoned to the instructions from the Lord, whether by the Spirit or the angel (as the angel is only a messenger of the Lord, the messages from the angel are “from the Lord” just as sure as any communication).  But, when our lines of faith, our lines of teaching (separate from the doctrine itself), and even the “battle lines” on which we choose to fight get tangled, we get tied up in them, in things that we should not.  We get tangled.  So, the line is the thing that delivered the pull from the pole.  His preaching, his lines of argument, his reasonings, his teachings, and his faith.

What is also important in this revelation is the result of fishing wrong, of tugging too hard at the wrong time.  It was said, the fish, not the one he wanted, was stretched tight over the lure.  He didn’t see how it got in or how he would get it out!

The object of William Branham’s ministry was to get people ready for the coming of the Lord, not primarily to have them have correct doctrine, although that was important.  The fish that he had caught had nearly become one with the lure itself!  They were stretched exactly around it.  They were able to reproduce, in some measure, the form of the doctrine.  They could Amen it, and challenge people on it.  They could argue the doctrine.  But, did they see it by the Spirit the way Branham did, or were they just following another teacher?

The Word says that no one will teach another, know ye the Lord.  If the purpose of the William Branham’s was to prepare the way for coming of the Lord, then the main object of that is to raise the faith of Jesus Christ in His church, so that they could overcome all the wiles of the devil.  The point was never for William Branham to have it all figured out and expound it to the people.  His doctrines, right or wrong, were only the lure, they were the bait.  They were what captures the attention in the mind of man, so that the greater thing, the Kingdom thing, the invisible agency of the Holy Spirit could come in.  The end desire of fishing is not to get them on the hook, but to get them into the boat!

In the same way that Jesus taught His disciples to beware of the yeast of the Pharisees and of Herod, explaining that this was their teaching or doctrine, we must be open to the yeast of the Kingdom (Matthew 13:33).  The point of the teaching is rightly to capture the heart of the believer and nonbeliever, and to draw them, by faith, into the very faith of the apostles, so that the doctrine presented is true, and yet the revelation of it is not something taught by man, but received from the Father Himself.  Peter himself had said and heard said that Jesus was the Christ, but on the day Jesus asked the twelve who they said He was, and Peter said He was the Christ, Jesus knew by revelation that it was nothing other than true revelation from Heaven.

This is the purpose of Apostolic Instruction, to bring to the fullness of maturity in the faith, to bring to the place where one is capable of hearing clearly, and rightly from the Father Himself, to the place of faith and maturity.

The point for William Branham, and for us, is to be thoroughly convinced in our own minds, to present sound and correct Biblical doctrine, and, with our lines of communication and our lines of faith and our pull in the Spirit, to bring them not just to the doctrine, to only get wrapped around it and be consumed with it, but rather to become drawn into the place where the doctrine comes from, the Source of all, the place where all the treasures of wisdom and revelation are hidden, namely, Christ Himself (Colossians 2:3).

People must not become nearly hooked upon right doctrine as they are upon the life of the Spirit and in Jesus.  Only when this is accomplished, has the lure been successfully applied to a catch.