The Anointing To PreachSo he said, "Mr. C, you know what happened to our little
preacher while you were gone?"
"No."
"He got baptized with the Holy Spirit and spoke in other
tongues!"
The Presbyterian dropped his head, and the Methodist didn't
know if he was about to announce he was pulling out or not.
But we never lost a member, we never lost a family. They
saw the value of the experience.
The Presbyterian announced, "I've heard him preach before,
and I've heard him preach since, and I want it!"
Ninety-three percent of them followed me in the baptism of
the Holy Spirit, and the other seven percent still attended.
Although I would be anointed to preach, that strong
anointing with the glory cloud didn't happen again in my
ministry for three more years. During those years I had been
baptized in the Holy Spirit, had come over among Full Gospel
people, and was pastoring a little church in the black land of
northcentral Texas.
One Sunday night I was preaching away on prophecy—it
was the second Sunday night of September 1939—and the
anointing came upon me. I don't know what I said, and I couldn't
see anything or anyone. It was as if a cloud or dense fog filled
the church.
When I came to myself, I was standing down in front, off the
platform. That was the first time I'd ever done that. In fact, my
wife had said, "I believe you could preach standing in a wash
pan," because I never moved from behind the pulpit when I
preached. I had been trained that way when I was a Southern
Baptist.
But here the glory had come down and I didn't know one
word I had said for 15 minutes. I had been in the glory cloud.
When I found myself walking around the altar, I got so
embarrassed my face got red, and I ran back on the platform, got