<TITLE>21. Par 57-59</TITLE>L-57 So then, looking around there and no spirit in it, just as dead as a tombstone. And then I thought, "Well, looky here, that is right." And I thought, "Look, this is a big bunch of tombstones." There they was all standing; I thought, "Why, sure. They--they was trees one time."
And that's the way these great big formal churches. "Oh, we had great... We're great churches."
No doubt at all. Sure, the Methodists, and Baptists, and all together, they were big churches one time. But I said, "What makes that wind makes them so mournful." Well, I happen to think that there come one day, a suddenly from heaven, like a rushing mighty wind, filled all the house where they were setting." And I thought, "That's right. God can send down an old time Pentecostal revival, and all the churches do is just mourn when it hits them. They're stiff; they're dead. They can't move. They go, "Mmm, there's no such a thing as Divine healing. Ohhh, Divine healing is gone. The days of miracles is passed. There's no such a thing as the gifts of the Spirit." Just, pouring of the Holy Ghost just moving right through their members, and they say, "Ohhh, don't believe that; that's fanaticism. Mmm, we are churches. Looky here. We are. We got a ritual; we're recorded." Oh, yes, but brother: dead. The devil's fire has done burned all the sap--bark off of you, and you ain't got no life left: just a big bunch of ritualistic tombstones. That's right. The only thing you can do is moan, and cry, and go on. And God's sending the revival just the same.

L-58 I thought, "Lord, that's really what Joel said: "What the palmerworm left, the caterpillar eaten. What the caterpillar left, the locust eaten." What the Lutherans left, the Methodists eaten. What the Methodists left, the Baptists eaten. What the Baptists left, the Nazarenes eaten. What the Nazarenes left, the Pentecostals eaten. And the whole thing's eat down.
The church is so...?... till it don't know what to believe; it don't know who to believe, or where to go. They don't know what to do. What this one taken away... The Lutheran, what it taken away--left, why, the Methodists come, taken what they had. And the Baptists taken what they had. The Nazarenes taken what they had. The Pilgrim Holiness taken what they had. The Pentecostals taken what they had. Look at the poor tree. I thought, "O God, what to do?"

L-59 Then, I saw over in the second chapter of Joel where it said, "I will restore, saith the Lord." Amen. Then I thought, "What could you restore, God? There's not even any life in the thing. How could You ever put anything in that old dead thing standing there; an old stump and the moon shining on it, and it moaning and groaning. It can't give; it ain't got no life in it. It just stands there and the wind comes and go, "Whooo, whooo." I thought, "You can't make that thing move, Lord, 'cause it ain't got any--any substance. It's got no life about it. It's all dried up and gone." And I thought, "How can you have a revival when these old fold--cold formal churches? You can't do it. You can't do it. They'll put..."
First place, they won't let you in the pulpit to preach this kind of a Gospel. That's right. "Oh, that guy, he's a holy-roller. I don't want nothing to do with him. Mmmmm." That's right. "Their members would bring you in, all right, but I'll have to consult the board and the deacons and all of them in this." And when it goes through that, "No, no, no, right down the road."
Don't tell me. I've been along the road. That's right. "Oh well, you--you're good people, but ohh... None of that in our church. It would just tear our church to pieces."
Brother, I'll be like that old colored man said, "You show me the church that ever died under spiritual blessings, I'll climb up to this great spire and lay my hands upon its big tower up there and say, "Blessed are the dead that die in the Lord." Amen. That's right.
It's not there. You can't do it.


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