Up to Acts the second chapter, Acts chapter
2.
You know one of the most remarkable things
that God did in the whole of the
Bible was when, in Numbers the 16th chapter,
when Korah and his followers murmured and complained
against Moses.
And Moses totally got out of the way,
let God fight for him.
The earth opened up its mouth and swallowed
up these people.
One of the most pronounced, miraculous acts of
God in the entire Scripture, that the people
get mad at Moses.
You've killed the Lord's people, killed limited people.
It's a wild thing that God can do
things supernaturally, overwhelmingly, and yet be subject to
criticism for those very things.
Hard to understand.
And yet whenever revival comes, there's always something
that's going to come with it and it's
called religious stumbling blocks.
You're always going to see it.
I'm going to give you specific reasons why,
but you're always going to see religious stumbling
blocks.
Something that was not expected in the package.
Something that you did not make arrangements for
or reckon for.
Something that runs contrary to your doctrine or
your expectation or your personal desire.
Something that's just there to cause you to
stumble.
There are reasons that these things are always
going to happen.
But remember, even in the book of Acts,
the second chapter, one of the greatest miracles
in the history of God's dealing with the
people on planet earth.
In other words, it's a big thing, a
large thing, a huge thing.
Human beings filled with the Spirit.
Tongues of fire upon them.
Speaking in other tongues as the Spirit enables
them.
And what happens?
Some people hear the praises of God in
their own language and others say they're drunk.
Others think it's a joke.
They hear the noise.
They hear the wind.
They hear the people.
They're drunk.
Something's funny here.
Something's wrong.
Well, why does God bring revival with religious
stumbling blocks?
Why is it something people are going to
say, this is God?
Others are going to say it's the flesh.
Others are going to say it's the devil.
Why is it?
Well, there's one reason, which is just kind
of a natural thing to understand.
It's not so much why God does it.
I'm going to get to that next.
But why does it happen?
Well, God is working through imperfect vessels and
imperfect vessels are going to produce imperfect manifestations.
Some human beings so gripped by the reality
of God that it has shaken them to
their very boots, gets up in front of
the body, grabs the microphone, screaming and yelling,
tears pouring down their cheeks, shaking and sobbing.
Well, it's emotionalism.
You can't even hear what they're saying.
Well, it's not so much that God did
that as much as when His Spirit came
upon that individual and showed them His love
and showed them how off they had been
and they repented and got fully in the
flow of His love.
They were so overwhelmed and they so wanted
to communicate that to those people that humanly
speaking, that's the only way it was going
to happen.
Unless God superseded human limitations, unless He went
beyond it and just caused all of these
imperfections in man to cease and someone could
just get up and speak perfectly and this
and that.
I remember when the Spirit fell in our
church November 21st of 82, that there was
one fellow there just gripped by the Spirit.
I remember he was sitting and looking at
his hands, sitting just kind of cross-legged
or on his knees, I forget, just looking
at his hands.
They felt like they were on fire and
as he touched people, they would feel the
fire in his hands and he was just
overwhelmed by the presence of the Spirit.
And a couple days after that, we went
to pray for somebody and by the time
we were done praying, this couple had been
filled with the Spirit and delivered.
By the time we were done, he was
so overwhelmed by the Spirit that he literally
could not drive his little truck, mini truck,
Jeep, whatever it was.
And I remember as we drove in the
car, whatever the vehicle was, just driving and
he was just breathing heavily and just kind
of sighing and groaning in the Spirit.
Finally, he had to pull over and he
had to switch.
He still had to shift because it was
a strange shift and I couldn't figure out
how to do it, but I had to
drive.
I had to drive.
While he sat there, I'm saying, man, this
is heavy, this is the Spirit, this is
intense.
And I remember I called someone up and
they said, well, you know, he's new to
these things and when you get used to
them, when you get used to him, when
he gets a little teaching, this won't happen
anymore.
And I remember I was kind of explaining
that and agreeing with that.
And the next day, the next day, the
Spirit so overwhelmed me that I had to
do everything in my power just about to
stand my feet.
I'd run.
I was told afterwards I ran to the
pulpit at the end of a service and
spoke in tongues and interpreted tongues.
I was shaking violently from head to toe.
I would have had to do everything in
my human power to hold it back.
The message so overwhelmed me that when it
was done, I just ran off the pulpit,
got my face in the corner somewhere and
just lay there and shook and trembled before
the Lord.
When I next looked up, almost the whole
fellowship was up there repenting and crying out
to God.
You know, look, God's dealing through human beings,
dealing with human beings.
And there's some wonderful quotes that Barlowman puts
together talking about imperfect manifestations and the imperfections
of revival.
And I want you to hear these first
before we get into the why of religious
stumbling blocks.
In other words, why does God do it?
This explains why there are imperfect manifestations, but
that's really just the introduction to religious stumbling
blocks.
Religious stumbling blocks is something different that God
intentionally does.
Some of these imperfect manifestations cause people to
stumble.
And people who have all these religious hang
-ups and preconceived notions, they get all bent
out of shape.
That's something else.
But let me just give you some of
these quotes.
I'm going to read a little section here,
but I want you to listen carefully.
He says, in terms of the present Pentecostal
work and its beginning, the turn of the
century, he said, the enemy did much counterfeiting.
It went through about the same experiences that
all revivals have.
Its foes were both inside and out.
We have this treasure in earthen vessels.
Every natural birth is surrounded by circumstances not
entirely pleasant.
God's perfect work is wrought in human imperfection.
We are creatures of the fall.
Then why expect a perfect manifestation in this
case?
We are coming back to God.
In other words, Paul didn't say to the
Corinthians, you guys are in immorality, you guys
are in division, you guys are messed up
about the resurrection.
It can't possibly be gifts of the Spirit
that are being manifest in your midst.
He didn't say that.
It was a genuine manifestation of God, but
it was among earthly, fallen people that needed
some help getting back on track with God.
You can go down to a church that
doesn't have revival and find every type of
sin and mess in it, but the moment
revival comes, people expect everything to come perfectly.
It's not going to be like that.
It's never going to be like that.
People write it off because they see some
flesh, but why don't you write the whole
thing off because there's flesh?
Why don't you write off the history of
the body and say there's no such thing
as a real church because of all the
atrocities committed in Jesus' name?
No, you say, no, no, no, that's just
what man has done.
What God has done is perfect.
What God does is perfect, but it comes
through imperfect vessels.
Don't be surprised if a real move of
God is attended with imperfection, is attended with
some extremes, is attended with some mistakes.
It does not mean it's not a move
of God.
John Wesley writes of his time, almost as
soon as I was gone, two or three
began to take their imaginations for impressions from
God.
Meantime, a flood of reproach came upon me
from almost every quarter.
Being on alarm that Satan sows tares among
the wheat of Christ.
It has ever been so, especially on any
remarkable outpouring of the Spirit and ever will
be until the devil is chained for a
thousand years.
Till then, he will always ape and endeavor
to counteract the work of the Spirit of
Christ.
Just because there's weeds and tares sown in
among the wheat doesn't mean that we say
the wheat isn't real.
The wheat isn't God.
Well, there were people who felt that the
disciples in the book of Acts made some
mistakes, so the whole thing is wrong.
Who could ever think of such a thing?
And yet religious people have this high canon
of criticism against any revival.
If it doesn't come perfectly to meet every
one of their criteria, they say it's not
of God.
Well, that's never going to happen.
It's going to come through imperfect people.
A scholar of the Reformation said, a religious
movement almost always exceeds a just moderation.
In order that human nature may take one
step in advance, it's pioneers must take many.
Listen, how many of you have been around
natural births?
I mean, you were awake and there to
see it.
If you're a woman, you were awake and
there to see it.
If you're a man, you were there with
your wife.
Okay.
Did the baby come out wearing like a
little, if it was a girl, like a
little pink suit with like a little bow
either in the hair or taped to the
head if there wasn't enough?
No, the thing came out.
I mean, there was this incredible joy.
Both of our kids were home births.
I mean, being right there is incredible, absolute
exhilarating joy.
But you also knew what to expect.
I mean, the kid's going to come out,
look a little grubby, look a little dirty,
look a little bloody.
That's the way they're born.
That's still your wonderful, sweet child.
Why?
Because we're in a fallen world and birth
is one of the first things that got
touched by it.
So, when something's being birthed, it's got to
explode out of the womb.
There's some pain.
You know, they told Nancy, the midwife told
Nancy, she didn't push hard enough.
She broke a blood vessel in her eye
the first time pushing.
She was told she didn't push hard enough.
Well, it takes effort and energy to explode
this new life into the world.
That's how it's going to be.
You know, listen, there was a guy who
is the, well he is, not was, he
is the head maintenance man at Christ for
the Nations in Long Island.
He is a maintenanical genius.
Whatever the word is, not mechanical, but a
maintenance-ical genius.
I mean, the guy is absolutely phenomenal, gifted.
With cars also, but with any type of
appliance, whether it's a television, whether it's a
dishwasher, whether it's a pipe leading, so heating
everything.
He's amazing.
And you would tell him, we got this
problem in our house.
And he, without coming to examine it, he
would tell you what was going on and
how to discover it in your own house
and what to do to, you know.
I told him one time, we got this
leak in the bathroom and it's this and
that.
Downstairs, he says, you know what it is?
He says, they probably got them plastic pipes
there.
That's the way Richie would talk.
They probably got them plastic pipes there.
He said, now you watch.
He says, that's what's causing it.
It's eaten away at the wall and thus
and such, thus and such, thus and such.
Without seeing it.
And I remember he came in.
Now the wall was kind of eaten away
and he just, with his bare hands, he
just began to rip the wall down.
You know, he says, uh-huh, uh-huh.
You see, Michael?
See, I told you.
Uh-huh.
See them?
There's those pipes.
And you know, exactly the way he described
it.
The whole thing.
Well, I didn't say, Richie, Richie, you're pulling
the...
No, no, no.
The thing was wet.
The thing needed to be taken down.
The guy who comes in and re-does
it, he's got to be fine.
But the first guy just rips it down.
Well, revival tears down before it builds up.
All right?
I mean, just the basic principle.
Tears down before it builds up.
Have you ever...
When you go and they're gonna dynamite an
area.
You know, they're gonna, they're gonna blow up
a building and flatten the thing and rebuild
it.
Do the guys come there in like three
-piece suits that day?
Do you have women there in lovely dresses?
Are they serving tea?
Say, what are you crazy?
I mean, these guys are grubby and dirty.
They're gonna blow the thing up.
It's not gonna be pretty.
It's gonna be destructive.
And then someone's gonna come and rebuild something
real nice on it.
You know, someone was talking to me once
about a certain spirit and preaching a certain
way and, and this and that.
Well, that's fine if you're preaching to your
family and friends and those that love you.
But when you go into the lion's den,
you have to act differently.
I'm sure the tone with which Yeshua spoke
to his own disciples was very different than
the tone with which he spoke to religious
hypocritical leaders.
Right?
I mean, God had to tell Ezekiel and
Jeremiah, look, you don't be afraid of the
people.
Tell Ezekiel, I'm gonna make your face stronger
than theirs.
They're gonna stare at you, but you're gonna
stare them down.
Well, when things burst out, I mean, there's
gonna be an explosion.
If I said, everybody, there's a, like, nuclear
thing over here is about to explode.
We'll all die.
Let's just, let's, like, move outside just a
little bit.
I mean, it wouldn't even register.
But if all of a sudden, we just
run, dive through the, you know, break through
the walls, whatever.
You'd get out there.
Try to make a point.
Get something.
Revival comes with that same type of intensity.
And with all the teaching we could give,
still when it comes, you won't be ready
for it.
You won't be.
Nobody was more prepared than the 120 when
Shavuot began, the day of Pentecost.
Nobody was more prepared.
They were hungry.
They were seeking God.
They've been continually in prayer.
They were of one heart.
And yet, how did the Spirit come?
Suddenly, with the sound of a rushing, violent
wind.
You can never be ready for a move
of God.
You can never fully prepare for the coming
of God.
I was at a church.
God had shown me the outpouring that was
going to come.
May 10th of 82, He showed me the
outpouring that was going to come, which ultimately
came November 21st of that year.
I'd shared it with the leaders.
I remember the pastor sat us down and
read to us from the history of revivals
of the Southern Presbyterian Church of the United
States.
About people getting down on their knees and
barking like dogs.
Whether demons were leaving them or they were
just being humble, but they were changed and
were godly members of the church for years
after that.
And reading all these things just to say,
now be ready.
You never know what's going to happen.
And God didn't do a fraction of things
wild like that.
And half the people, more than half, were
scandalized and turned against the Spirit.
Listen, we're dealing with birth.
We're dealing with human beings.
And the fact is, if you're going to
pioneer the thing, you're going to have to
smash through, break through.
You don't intend to, but it comes with
such a burst of energy.
You don't cut a little hole in the
wall for the tidal wave.
The tidal wave takes the house and moves
it.
Another writer says, remember with what accompaniments of
extravagance and fanaticism, the doctrine of justification by
faith was brought back under Luther.
The wonder was, not that Luther had the
courage to face Pope and Cardinals, but that
he had the courage to endure the contempt
which his own doctrines brought upon him, as
espoused and paraded by fanatical advocates.
Recall, too, the scandal and offense which attended
the revival of heart piety under Wesley.
You want to hear a heavy quote?
What we denounce as error may be the
refraction of some great truth below the horizon.
John Wesley himself once prayed after the revival
had about died out for the time, Oh
Lord, send us the old revival without the
defects.
But if this cannot be, send it with
all its defects.
We must have the revival.
Adam Clarke said, nature along with Satan will
always mingle themselves as far as they can
in the genuine work of the Spirit in
order to discredit and destroy it.
In great revivals of religion, it is almost
impossible to prevent wildfire from getting in among
the true fire.
Dr. Seiss says, never indeed has there been
a sowing of God on earth, but it
has been over sown by Satan or a
growth for Christ, which the plantings of the
wicked one did not mingle with and hinder.
He who sets out to find a perfect
church in which there are no unworthy elements
and no disfigurations proposes to himself a hopeless
task.
What's the point?
The point is, if you're going to sit
back and criticize, you'll miss God.
The point is, if you're going to sit
back and wait for something perfect to come,
the great move of God will pass you
by and you'll judge it and be justified
in your judging it and stay there empty
while God's people rejoice.
So imperfect manifestations are going to come as
long as God is using imperfect vessels.
Then there's another reason though for religious stumbling
blocks, and this is more of an intentional
reason, and that's that God is going to
do what he does with a humble beginning.
What God does in the earth begins humbly,
and if you remember by chance where the
Savior of the world was born, one more
quote from Bartleman's book, a body must be
prepared in repentance and humility for every outpouring
of the Spirit.
The preaching of the Reformation was begun by
Martin Luther in a tumble-down building in
the midst of the public square in Wittenberg.
Among those thousands of cathedrals in Germany and
parish churches with which the world is filled,
there was not one at that time which
God chose for the glorious preaching of eternal
life.
That which man esteems is passed by again.
The Spirit is born in a humble stable
outside ecclesiastical establishments.
You know the Azusa Street revival?
Azusa Street was a form of barn that
was converted for meeting.
Brother Seymour who conducted the meeting, so-called,
he didn't really conduct them, but he was
the recognized leader, would sit behind two boxes
with his head inside the top box just
so nobody could see him.
You picture that with the thrones that we've
erected for people?
You know the leaders come and sit on
their thrones, some of you have a little
footstool.
People come and wait on them.
We think that's normal.
We think that's right.
The royal pastor is an abomination, but we
just think that's normal.
And here where God's moving, he's trying to
stay out of the way.
Bartleman says at times, you know, he'd come
to meetings and he'd hide.
He'd lay under the organ so people wouldn't
see him, wouldn't look at him and just
pray.
God's gonna do what he does with humble
beginning.
Why?
Well, one reason is human religious structure often
leaves God out and he's not welcome in
the bigger places, in the nicer places, in
the more prestigious places.
We'll see why in a little while.
But the moment people think that they have
got it and it's going to go according
to their system, they say the seven last
words of the church, we never did it
like this before.
The show must go on.
I mean that's the most spirit quenching phrase
in services.
The show must go on.
We've got a special speaker.
We've got announcements.
I mean the ladies' bake fair is next
week.
We've got to announce it.
We can't let the service go without the
offering.
Listen, are you serving God or man?
Are you trusting God or man?
It shakes things to the foundation.
God a lot of times comes outside of
these circles because that's the only place we'll
be accepted.
You may have heard the famous story about
this guy.
He's a bum on the street.
Christmas Eve, wants to get into a church
service.
We'll have to change it for messianic circles.
He was trying to visit a messianic congregation
on the last day of Passover.
Either one, Christmas Eve, last day of Passover,
you can choose depending on your religious orientation.
So anyhow, he's all in rags.
He comes to the door and they won't
let him into the building.
You know the story?
They won't let him into the building.
We can't have you in here.
You're not dressed appropriately.
It's a very holy occasion.
But I just want to come in and
worship God.
Sorry.
And they turn him out.
Actually, we'll either make it Christmas Eve or
Hanukkah Eve because it's cold out for the
story to be good.
It's really cold out.
So he sits down on a bench and
he's just starting to cry and real upset.
All of a sudden he looks and Jesus,
or for the other story, Yeshua, is sitting
next to him.
Jesus says to him, why are you crying?
He says, I want to go into that
service so bad.
They won't let me in.
He says, I've been trying to get in
there for 20 years.
They won't let me in either.
I'm convinced that in his fullness, Jesus would
not be welcoming most of our assemblies in
the United States.
How do I know it?
Because I know that there are things that
God would like to say to most of
our assemblies and people are not willing to
hear them because it would throw the program.
They may have to take somebody off staff.
When God challenged us at our church, the
beginning of 1983, after the Spirit was quenched
and quenched and quenched, and on March 27th
of 83, God wrote Ichabod on the doors
and said that the outpouring of the Spirit
was over there and called many of us
to move on.
A couple weeks later, leaders, broken, contrite, came
to my house.
They had been rebuked by the Lord.
They were confessing their sin.
They said, you're right.
What do we need to do?
And I said, simple.
I said, every ministry must cease.
Every office worker must consider themselves unemployed.
Every leader must step down.
You've got to fall on your faces and
pray and not do anything till God speaks.
And the leaders that were there said, amen,
that's God, we're going to do it.
And they went back and the others said,
no, we had to repent a little, but
we're going on, we're going on, we're going
on.
They went on.
Within six weeks, the church had suddenly fallen
$18,000 in debt.
Within that same six weeks, everybody, including the
pastor, had stepped down from taking any salary.
The only one that stayed on was the
administrator and he ended up, I don't know,
a year or so later dying anyway.
I mean, it was a tragic thing, but
to show how to go on.
God is not welcome to do his thing
most of the time in most of our
lives and most of our services.
It may sound blunt, it may seem absolutely
extreme statement, but the fact of the matter
is, you look at the biblical lifestyle, you
look at the biblical call, you look at
the biblical results, and you say, I guess
God's not free to do everything you'd like
to do in all of us.
So things happen in humble circumstances, many times
with children or with those who are not
prominent ministry.
Sometimes it is with those prominent, but many
times it's with with unknown people, with unlikely
candidates, because that person's willing to do what
God wants them to do and they don't
have a reputation to lose.
Another reason that God starts things in such
humble ways is because of human pride and
a false sense of exclusivity.
In other words, we have it.
Our congregation, our group, our movement, our denomination,
we have it all.
All these others are kind of secondary.
Well, God's not going to start there.
You think you've got it?
He's going to start down the block at
the one you're sure doesn't have it.
No one man has the ark of God.
People say, well, how do you feel about
groups who oppose you and stand against you?
Well, does the Spirit of God visit their
meetings?
Yeah.
Well, then I'll just pray for them and
bless them.
What else am I going to do if
the Spirit of God hasn't withdrawn?
Anyone who said, well, we've got our group,
our one emphasis has the exclusive anointing of
God, God's going to start down the street
from you at some place, just a hole
in the wall that nobody even knows.
So that stumbles religious people.
The imperfect manifestations stumble religious people.
The humble beginnings, not in the big cathedral
somewhere.
It could be in a big cathedral.
Not with the big famous preacher somewhere.
It could be.
But just somewhere, you know, outdoor meeting in
a poverty stricken area with some guy who
can't even pronounce the English language right preaching.
That's where God pours out a spirit.
Hey, he's got to because he couldn't get
into the other places.
And if he did, they would have felt
vindicated.
Maybe they were open to a spirit, but
they would have just put their stamp on
it, says it's ours, we have it, we
control it.
Once you try and box it in, forget
it.
That's it.
That's the end of revival.
There's another dimension, though, about religious stumbling blocks,
which is different than these first two.
Different than imperfect manifestations, different than humble beginning.
And this is the overt acts of God
that are intentionally produced by the Spirit to
cause people to stumble.
Things that God intentionally, willfully does to cause
the flesh to stumble.
Now, I'll make that clear in a minute,
but let me give you some examples.
You have to understand that maybe most revivals
that have been prayed for, when the beginning
of the outpouring has come, they were rejected.
Most of the time, the thing that people
were pleading for, they didn't get.
Because when it finally came, it stumbled them,
or it was going to cost too much.
Or they couldn't put their name on it.
What do I mean?
Well, let me give you some examples of
religious stumbling blocks.
I'm sure there are plenty of places in
the last hundred years or so that have
prayed for an outpouring of the Holy Spirit,
but when it came with tongues, which their
denomination flatly said was of the devil, which
all the theology utterly wrote off, when it
came with tongues, it was rejected.
Or maybe falling under the power.
This particular service, the mayor of the city
and the governor of the state are attending,
and all of a sudden, people start falling
out all over the place during the preaching.
I remember...
Well, let me say this.
I'm not talking about things that people do
intentionally.
I'm talking about things that God does.
Sometimes what people do intentionally, God can use
as a religious stumbling block.
One man told me that he had a
guest speaker with him, and this guy was
kind of very, very mildly charismatic, so he
just hoped that that particular day, this one
person who did a little jig every service
wouldn't do the jig, and to make sure
he sat on the other side with his
guest, and sure enough, that person did their
jig on the other side right in front
of his guest, and he just had to
die to that pride and that fleshly reputation
consciousness.
Deliverance.
Oh, not demons leave.
Someone starts convulsing on the floor and demons
leaving them in the middle of a service.
Oh, no, God, we didn't want that.
Didn't you get the contract that we said
send revival according to these predetermined conditions?
That's what you really want, and here's how
it's coming.
There's always something that you just didn't get
when you read it, you know?
You didn't see it.
Read between the lines, it wasn't there.
Well, it came with the package, and I'll
tell you why in a minute.
One of the most interesting ones really, really
took hold in the frontier revival under Peter
Cartwright.
That was called The Jerks, where some of
us have seen maybe a similar manifestation with
the convulsing shoulders and rapidly moving neck, but
these severe jerks that would convulse people, and
it was said that the people would be
there, you know, the ladies with their bonnets
and all done up nicely in their hair
like in a ponytail, but wrapped around on
top of their head, and they said the
first jerk would be so severe it would
loosen the ponytail, and the sound, according to
Peter Cartwright, the sound of the hair hitting
the back was as loud as a wagoner's
whip.
Can you pick that?
They said, well, you know, why did it
happen?
Some people felt it was a real sign
to the frontiersmen, you know, they wanted something
genuine.
This was a real sign.
Others felt it was just, again, to humble
the religious crowd.
Some of the things we'll look at in
a minute.
Peter Cartwright says it would happen, he just
starts to laugh.
I mean, I've had that, and I've confessed
this honestly.
Sometimes the Spirit of God will fall upon
people in such measure it seems so intense,
it seems so wild.
Sometimes I'll turn around and it may look
very holy and powerful.
Wow, he's just commuting with God.
I'm just trying to wipe the grin off
my face.
Oh no, look at this.
I remember I got asked to speak at
this birthday party, one-year birthday party for
a Korean baby, and this is a real
big custom in the old country because not
all babies made it to be a year.
So they dressed the baby up like a
clown.
There was this whole festive thing.
I didn't know I preached the real hellfire
message that night, but I mean, whatever.
Everyone in the room I think I forced
to get saved, one of those types of
environments.
But afterwards I started laying hands on people.
You know, that's what the couple wanted me
to do, just minister for you.
I started laying hands on people.
And here in the living room, I mean,
some of them I don't even think they
were saved, and they just started collapsing.
You know, here just getting laid out, the
power of God falling on this guy's living
room in the midst of this birthday party.
And I just remember turning around, Nancy sitting
there.
I'm just trying to get, you know, get
a grip on myself.
It's just so funny to see it happen.
Peter Cartwright said one time it was a
really serious, solemn thing.
Again, picture this.
These guys came in, drunken, rowdy, cursing, abusive,
just gonna try and break up the meeting.
And one of the guys, kind of like
the gang leader, was really just going bananas.
And he got seized by the jerk.
And the more he got seized, the more
he cursed.
And the more he went on.
And he was trying to walk away, and
just his whole body convulsing.
So he had some, you know, bottle of
liquor.
So he kept trying to drink it, but
he couldn't get the bottle to his mouth,
because he was convulsing so heavily.
And the more he convulsed, the more he
cursed, the more he blasphemed.
Finally, the bottle smashed.
Because he said, you know, nothing to these
jerks that I can't just drink off.
Finally, the bottle smashed.
And he was surrounded by people, and he
continued to blaspheme.
So he got suddenly, totally seized, and broke
his neck and died.
Just jerk, convulsed, and dropped dead.
And Maria Woodworth at his meetings, because of
all of the trances, they called her the
trance evangelist, or the voodoo priestess.
You know, she'd be preaching, and in the
middle of her message, just freeze.