Understanding the Anointingvibrating through every part of me—I knew it in my spirit. I also
knew it wouldn't last long, because I couldn't physically stand it
that long, so I leaped off the platform and ran by the people in
the healing line, touching them on the forehead as I ran by.
I was so overwhelmed by the Spirit that the pastor had to tell
me later what I had done. I remembered starting to run, but I
couldn't see anything, even though I had my eyes wide open. (It's
difficult to describe spiritual things.)
The Ordinary Anointing
Everyone I touched fell under the power (that had only
happened once or twice to me as a pastor). Suddenly that
anointing lifted from me. I looked around and saw all those
people lying on the floor. I returned to the platform, sat down,
and finished the healing line with what I call the "ordinary
anointing."
Later the pastor told me I had laid hands on 34 people. He
said, "About 17 of them had come to get the Holy Spirit, and
they were lying there on the floor talking in tongues. Most of
them are members of my church. That astounds me—I've never
seen anything like it—because some of them were chronic
seekers; they'd been seeking the baptism of the Holy Spirit for
years."
That didn't happen again until September 1954, when I
preached the three Sunday services in the First Foursquare
Church of San Jose, California.
At the close of the morning service, I dismissed the people
and said, "You come back this afternoon and we'll lay hands on
believers to be filled with the Holy Spirit and we'll lay hands on
the sick to be healed."
That afternoon we had the people who wanted to be filled
with the Spirit to stand on one side and those who wanted
healing to stand in another line. The pastor and a minister friend
were ministering with me. Just as I started down the line, the
anointing came on me. Again, it was as if somebody had run by