<TITLE>11. Par 41-44</TITLE>L-41 And I thought, "Yes, that's right. Well, then I see why the Lord has stopped me here." These great big, old trees once were real trees. And that reminds me of some of these great big, starchy churches, you know. They stand way up high like that. Oh, my, they build their spearals--spire until it's so high it sticks all over the city, and my, just about as dead as the tree was. Oh, they were once trees sure. They were once filled with the Spirit way back under the Lutheran and Methodist age, and so forth. But what the Lutheran left, the Methodist eaten; what the Methodists left, the Baptists got; and what the Baptists left the Pentecostal got. And oh, the poor tree's eat down. That's just about all there was to it.

L-42 Back in the beginning, that tree, God's heritage back there which was His vine, His tree, it--it was a new church; they had fellowship, love. They had Bible doctrine. They had everything just right. And along come one insect to eat this out, and another to eat that out, till it's become nothing but a great, big, old, empty spooky-looking place. That's about right.
And then, every time the wind would blow they'd just moan. And I said, "That's right. Every time God repeats the Pentecostal experience, the only thing these big, old morgues can do is stand there and go, 'M-m-m-m days of miracles is past. M-m-m-m there's no such a thing as that,'" just as spooky as it can be, to try to drive the people away from it.

L-43 I thought, "Well, then, why do You send the wind, Lord? Why do You send it anyhow?" They're done; they're finished; they'll never receive it. Just like them old cowhides was done dried and set. There's no way of trying to tell them anything 'cause they'll never believe it. They done got set, and calloused, and dried out, and that's all of it. But I thought, "Why do You send the wind then?"
But then I remembered Job--Joel said, "But, I will restore, saith the Lord. I will give back to you all the years the caterpillar eaten, and the locust eaten."
I thought, "Where would it be, Lord?" And I noticed, down underneath these trees come up a bunch of undergrowth, a little bunch of trees. They were green; that's true. The church might act a little green. But, brother, it's flexible to the winds of God when it blows. Every time the wind would blow those little trees would just laugh, and jump, and joy. Boy, I said, "If that ain't an old fashion Pentecostal meeting, I never seen one." That's right. Right. Certainly.

L-44 Oh, them little trees, when the wind blows, they are flexible.
They'll say, "I can't go to that meeting. I'm the Presbyterian. I belong to the Assemblies. I... Oh, I wouldn't cooperate with that at all." You old stiff, starched, half dead... What's the matter? What we need today is a restoration of the genuine Pentecostal breaking-down experience in the churches of the living God. I thought, "Lord, will You do it?"
And I seen that little bunch of backwash, they called us, you know, but...?... or offcast, or whatever it is. But they... You say, "Well, they were green." They might be green, but they're flexible to the wind. They can give, but then they got Life in them anyhow. That's one good thing.
I thought, "What do you shake them so hard for?" Every time you shake a tree, it loosens up the roots around so it can grow down and get a better hold. And every time we open up our hearts and let the Holy Spirit come into us, it only shakes the roots loose so that we can grow down and get a better hold on Christ Jesus:
Anchored on the Rock that cannot fail,
Grounded safe at last in the Saviour's love.


<A HREF="P12">Next Page</A>