Understanding the Anointingthe altar. Old Dad Smith would give an altar call dancing!
When I first saw him, he was 63 years old. He held me a
meeting when he was over 70, too.
My first impression was, Well, he might reach a few
uneducated folks. But he reached educated people! Lawyers,
bankers, doctors, and judges would get saved, and in one place
the mayor of the town got saved. He danced them down to the
altar. The anointing was upon him. You could see it when it
came upon him.
Yet he'd start out in the natural. He'd say to his daughter,
"Inez, strike up a tune." Inez would strike up a tune, and he'd
start dancing in the flesh. He might dance that way for a little
while, but then you could see it: The Spirit of God would hit
him. The anointing would come on him. It was so phenomenal
the crowd could see it, too. Sinners would gasp. They could see
that something had come on him suddenly.
It was light. It was powerful. It was a blessing. It would
draw people to the altar.
(There is a secret involved here: Dad Smith would start out
dancing in the flesh and then the anointing would hit him.)
I didn't attempt to imitate him, however. If you go out and
start doing something just because somebody else is doing it, it
won't work for you.
God said He would take the foolish things to confound the
wise. If God wanted to use him that way, what business was it of
mine? He got results.
Now, Dad Smith didn't know a thing in the world about
faith, but that was all right. He was getting more people saved
than I was, and I could teach his converts faith after he got them
into the kingdom. That wasn't his ministry anyway. His ministry
was getting people saved.
He could have revivals when nobody else could. He could
get people saved when nobody else could. Back then if you got
half a dozen saved and three baptized with the Holy Spirit, you