<TITLE>17. Par 156-167</TITLE>L-156   He knew that his backslidden strength, though there it all stood, the great regime that he ever was, he stood there, but his backslidden strength could not meet the challenge of the hour.

L-157 And the church knows that, too. The evangelist knowed that when that Mohammedan challenged him. Your intellectual strength doesn't meet the challenge of the hour, 'cause the Devil is loose among us, with powers that nothing can--can dare to challenge but the Spirit of Almighty God, when this Word is made flesh. And it's going to get worse and worse, constantly worse.

L-158 He knowed that he was insufficient. He couldn't do it. And he knowed what would happen if God answered his prayer.

L-159   I wonder if we're that willing tonight? I wonder if the Pentecostal world is willing, tonight, to make that same agreement with God? "Lord God, if it knocks my denomination to pieces, if they excommunicate me from the council! I don't care if they take my fellowship card, and I have to lay on my stomach, and drink branch water and eat soda crackers, instead of riding around in a big car with a big salary! I don't care what the price is. That system drove me away from You. Take me back again, Lord. I'll believe Your Word. Revenge my eyes that's been put out. Let me die with it. Amen. Let me die out to my ownself. I don't care what they say about me. I may be bishop, I might be this, that, or the other, I don't care what they say. Bring back the power of the Holy Ghost in my life. I've been blinded long enough."

L-160   Oh, church, are you willing for that? "Let me die with the rest of them. Let my name, as reverend, doctor, or whatever it be, perish. O God, just give me again, just send upon me again, that glorious Power that fell on the Day of Pentecost; that can meet the challenge of this hour, in the face of communism or anything else that rises. Let me die, Lord, with them." There is a possibility, you know.

L-161 You know what? On such a confession, the Philistines, they was too drunk to notice what he was doing. All at once, when he seen there was a possibility, he turned his head up towards the sky, and the tears running out of the blinded sockets. He begin to move his lips; tears falling from his eyes. They wasn't noticing him. They were too busy making fun of him. He wanted God's Word, the real living God to come on the scene once more. He had failed Him. He knowed he failed Him. But he wanted to see the living God, living here, to prove to that Jezebel outfit that He still was God.

L-162   Oh, if it takes the starch out of you, if it makes you not act like some kind of a movie star, if you have to let your hair grow down, and put on an old-fashion dress, "I don't care what it costs. I'll take the way with the Lord's despised few. Lord, let's see it again, let's see the Presence of God moving before this Jezebel!"

L-163 He was aware of what happened if God answered his prayer, but he was ready and in dead earnest.

L-164   That's what we have to do. Get ready, make up your mind. Shut your eyes, let your affections... Don't alter God's Word to you; alter yourself to His Word. "Not my will; Thine be done, Lord. Not what I think about it; it's what You said about it." That's right.
What did he cry? "Lord!"

L-165 Said, "Little boy, put one of my hands upon this post. It's possible." Oh, my! "Lead me to the post that holds this, because I want to rest my hands. I'm tired. I've been made fun of, long enough." Oh my!

L-166 "I know, Lord, what it's going to cost, but maybe You will. There is a possibility. You're full of mercy. I've failed You, Lord." That ought to be the cry of the church, tonight.
"Little lad, would you put my hand upon one pillar?" "Yes"
"And my hand upon the other pillar?"
"Yeah."
"Is my hands placed right?"
"Yes, they are right."

L-167 And he started to pray. And he said, "Lord, revenge my eyes." In otherwise, "I've done wrong. But just once more, Lord, once more!"


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