CHAPTER FOURTEEN
I was called for a meeting in Missouri. When I arrived, I began to pray for the first service. All I could hear the Spirit say was, "Let patience have her perfect way." I went to the church and prayed. It was the same thing. I knew that was not for the church, but for me. I did not get the text until they were singing the last song. When I started to preach, a couple of young women began to throw mud balls, talk and laugh aloud. The Lord said, "Let patience have her perfect way." So I did not say a word to reprove them. Once I caught them looking toward me, and I gave my head a little shake "no," but they paid no attention. The Lord kept reminding me to let patience have her perfect way.
The next night those two girls came with their pockets filled with shelled corn. They wore red sweaters. They moved up about three seats from the back. A bald-headed man sat near the front. Those girls threw grains of corn at his bald head. The first grain hit his head and slid off. It brought quite a laughter and I could tell by the way he was acting that he was almost ready to do something about it. I shook my head at him. Those girls kept up a commotion all through that service. The next night they came for frolic again and sat about half way toward the front. I thought, "Girls, you are getting on dangerous grounds now." They started their disturbance again. but it wasn't funny. Even they didn't enjoy it. Soon the Holy Ghost smote them with the power of old-time conviction and they began to weep. When I gave the altar call, both hurried to the altar. Before they knelt to pray, both asked me to forgive them. I told them that I freely forgave them and if they would ask God in the same way as they had asked me, He would also forgive them. They prayed through. The first night they had carried on, some of those in power in the church wanted to do something about it. I said, "Let the Lord take care of it. He can do a much better job than we can." Thank God. He did.
I became very restless. I went to the church to pray, to the hay mow, to the timber, but could not seem to pray through. On Saturday night I was to sleep with the pastor of the church. I was under the burden and was restless most of the night. I fell asleep long enough for God to show me some visions. The first that he showed me was a cane mill. The cane had been run through the juicer already. God said, "Pearl, put those cane pummies through again." I said, "Lord, those are dry." He said, "I know it, but tighten down the machine and put them through the mill, and you will get enough to make a batch of sorghum, and it will be very good." I said, "Lord, I will do it." I wakened and prayed some more. The Lord impressed me that the dry pummies were the church folk.
I went to sleep again and had another vision. It was of a woman; she was dead, but was to give birth to a child. A crowd of people were gathered. They said to me, "That child is alive and you must help it." I said, "I am no doctor." They said, "You will be responsible for that child's life." I said, "I will do all I can," and as I knelt by the side of that mother and began to help her, she came to life. I said, "Pray and the child will be born." I wakened, and the Spirit said, "This is the meeting you are in." I again went to sleep and dreamed that the preacher was closing the meeting the next day. I wakened and God said, "You are responsible for these souls."
Again I went to sleep and had a vision of many happenings in that community back for as far as twenty years. I wakened and spent the rest of the night in prayer. The next day the pastor said to me, "The weather is getting bad. I think we should close the meeting." I told him that I did not feel that way. He replied, "I am not in favor of it going on." I said, "If you don't want to stay, you may go home, but God has shown me, that I am responsible for souls here, and I am staying. He said, "I am pastor and I am not in favor." I said, "Brother, it was the church that called you as pastor and it was the church that called me for a meeting. I am an ordained elder and I am going to obey God." He went home and we had a wonderful meeting.
One night in the second week, a man and wife came in, whom I had seen in the vision. The next day I was sent for to go to their home. The man with whom I was staying said "You had better not go down there. He has a bad reputation." I said, "I will go; you pray for me." When I arrived, I was asked to come into the house. The father sent their two small boys out of the house and told them to go over in a pasture on a hill where he could see them from the window. They were to stay there until he called for them.
There was only one door in the house. I was asked to sit down. He took his chair and set it against the door. He began talking by saying, "Last night, when we came in the church, you looked at us as if you had seen us before." I said, "I have." He asked, "Where?" I answered, "In a vision on Saturday night." He turned pale, and said, "What did you see?" I said, "The clothing you have on is stolen and all the goods in this house was stolen from the railroad cars. You helped rob a store," and I told him where, and described those who helped and told him where they had a lot of stuff hidden. He said, "What next?" I said, "You struck a man in the head with a club and he died later from it. You murdered that man. Though the law could not pin it on you, God has." Then he said, "What next?" I said, "Down around the bluff, you have a hole dug in the side of the hill and you have it covered with brush. In it you have a still, a barrel of mash, and twenty-seven gallons of booze." He said, "My God, Wife, this is of God, and it is true. Mr. Poe, what can I do?" I said, "You have stolen meat from your neighbor's meat houses and stolen stock from their pastures. You must repent and confess your sins. Go to those from whom you have stolen and tell them you are getting right with God and that you will pay them as soon as you can get the money." Every one of the men forgave him. He took back the things they had not used that had been taken from the store, and was forgiven. He went to the altar and was gloriously saved. He sought holiness and claimed a call to preach. I was told that his wife opposed it and that she backslid and made it hard for him and left him. God knows the future.
There were men in that community who were afraid to come to meeting because of their sins. After this one had confessed, one man quit coming. I had been asked to take dinner at his house on Sunday. He did not come to church that morning. I went to the house for dinner. I asked where he was and they said, "At the river." I went about a mile to the river to find him. I heard someone in a boat and located him by the sound. I slipped up to the bank of the river, keeping low, so that he could not see me, for I knew that if he saw me he would hide. I was standing within a few feet of him when he looked up and saw me. He said, "Oh, you have found me. I never wanted you to see me again after I heard that you had a vision of So-and-so."
"I knew you were hiding out on the meeting, but I will not tell others what He showed me about you." He said, "I knew you knew about my sins." I said, "God knew and He is the one you will have to face some day. You had better to face your sins here and now than to face them in the judgment." I coaxed him to take dinner with us. While we were eating the phone rang. We were all asked to come to pray with a woman.
I had been warned of God not to have an open testimony meeting, only to ask those who had prayed through to tell it. This woman, with whom we were to pray, arose one night and said, "Whee, whee, I have the victory, Whee. Brother, I don't know if you will get to preach or not tonight." I said kindly, "Sit down. You don't have anything of the kind. Sit down," and down she went. In a couple of nights she began the same thing again. I said, "Sit down, please. You are not saved. I know that when I have a message from God, I am to preach it. Please take your seat." She did, but she was not back for a couple of nights, and some good folk said, "Brother Poe, you offended that woman. I said, "No, she is home praying through." They said, "Do you think so?" I said, "I surely do, and it will not surprise me if the whole church is called to her house to pray with her most any time."
When we arrived at her place, there was the whole church; she had called them in to pray with her. After we had prayed for some time, she jumped up and came across the room to where I was and said, "Now, Brother Poe, do you think I have the victory?" I said, "No, Sister, you do not have the victory." She stopped, stood still, and said, "I don't have, folks. I have been backslidden for over a year. I am ashamed and sorry." By this time she was broken up and began to sob and cry in humble repentance. She prayed in agony of soul and prayed through. It was wonderful. The meeting continued and she was sanctified.
The meeting had not closed but a few weeks when that woman dropped dead. Then God showed me that if I had not obeyed Him and been faithful, she would have been damned forever. Oh, folk, there is a praying through. There is no use to go on with a profession that is not true. We have so much shallowness in these days. That is one reason why we do not see more done for God and more people having greater victory in their lives. God wants us to believe Him, obey Him, and be used of Him. We do not let loose and let God have His way enough. He wants us to be free.
Before the meeting closed, a number of people prayed through -- over fifty young people. What a fine group! It paid to let patience have her perfect way.
I learned afterward that the reason those girls acted the way they did was because some had spoken to them when they were not to blame and the young folk had been misjudged and threatened. We must be careful. The devil is looking for something to drive our young folk away from church. If I had scolded those girls, I would not have won them to Christ. How I thank God that He told me to let patience have her perfect way.
Sometimes people see things that really are funny and if you are in church where you want to be good, sometimes it is hard to keep from laughing. One time while I was backslidden, just after I was married, there was a special meeting at the Methodist Church. Wife and I were going and I asked a young man to go along. We sat in next to the front seat. This young man was bashful, but a good boy. A family came and sat in the same seat with us. They had a girl that was not too bright. She sat by this boy, and reached her hand over and laid it on his. Easily he pushed it off, then she put her hand on his leg. His face was so red, I don't believe it could have gotten any redder. It was all I could do to keep from laughing aloud. Just then the people were asked to kneel to pray. I whispered to that boy and asked if he wanted me to speak to my wife and have her to get over where he was. He was so bored that he spoke out loud and used a by-word and said, "Yes." That was just too much. Try as I would, I snickered aloud and could not help it.
I went from the meeting in Missouri to the West Coast. I conducted the first meeting in Long Beach, California, then went to Oregon. While in a meeting in St. Helens, Oregon, I was called to Newburg, Oregon. I prayed about it and answered that I could come. While in St. Helens, a converted Catholic told me that he and his wife had been fasting one meal each day of that meeting and some days, they fasted all day. There were seekers from the first night and each night of the meeting When I left for Newburg, he and his wife said, "We are going to continue to fast and pray for the meeting there."
When I arrived in Newburg, I met a man who was a Russian, and converted Catholic. He said, "I am going to fast and pray for this meeting each day." It was a great meeting. Brother M. C. Clark was pastor. We were having seekers almost every night.
One Saturday, I went upstairs to pray. After praying for about an hour, I seemed to have come to the end, and said, "Amen," and got up. The Spirit checked me, "You have not prayed through. Go back." I went back, prayed about another hour, and got up again. The Spirit said, "You didn't pray through. Go back." I prayed about another hour, got up, started to the door, and the Spirit spoke again as before. I went back to pray again, only to get in an agony of soul for souls, but not for long. I began to shout, "Victory! Victory! Victory!"
About that time I heard Sister Clark shout, "Glory! Glory!" That night we had a big altar service. About midnight a young woman, who had poison in her hand with which to commit murder, prayed through. About that time a young woman who had not come to the altar, dropped out of her seat and began screaming as if she were being scalded. About an hour later, a young girl came in and asked if I were Brother Poe. She said, "I was here the other night, but there were so many here that I could not get in. We stood outside and listened. A group of us young people were meeting tonight and I told them about the services. We want to get saved." I said, "Bring them in and we will pray for you." She said, "We are not dressed to come in. We just have on our everyday clothes" (that was not slacks or shorts either. They were dressed modestly. The boys had their overalls and lumber jacket shirts on). I went out to the car and there were seven besides herself. We told them the way of repentance and started praying. We prayed all night, and at daybreak, all but one was saved.
The District Elder came that morning. (The meeting was in the Free Methodist Church.) I said, "You will have to preach this morning." He said, "Only on one condition -- that you preach in Sunday school," to which I readily agreed. There were sixty five at the altar when I finished I preached again in the afternoon and that night. Many were at the altar.
Brother Clark announced that the meeting would close that night and that I would be leaving the next day.
Monday morning, Brother Clark and his wife went to Portland. He was getting ready to go to New York City to the General Conference. In a little while after they had gone, a person came, wanting to be saved. While we, Sister Clark's aged mother and I, were praying, another came. It kept up like that all day. We had no time to stop even to eat. At 4:00 p.m., the time for me to go, there were eight people in the room to be prayed for. I could not go. Brother Clark came home. He said, "Well, since you are still here, what do you think of having service tonight?" I replied, "I believe it is of God." He phoned to a few, told a few others, and we went to church early, and could hardly get in the house for the crowds. He went outside while we were singing. He returned and said, "Brother Poe, this house is packed, but they are twenty-five deep around this church." He continued, "There are over twenty-five hundred people out there that cannot get in." He announced that the meeting would close that night, but the next day there were so many who came for prayer that we could not get away. It was like that until Thursday night, with great crowds and many at the altar. We continued until Sunday, and closed with an overcrowded house and numbers standing outside.
It was reported that over a hundred prayed through in the parsonage that week besides the many who prayed in the church. That meeting ran for five weeks. This ten-day stuff just begins to awaken some, in my opinion. It is a church killer instead of a revival, and that is one of the reasons we are not seeing revivals. Oh, you say, the people are getting tired. Let them pray through until they strike victory, then get under the burden and pray until the Lord has put conviction on and it will not be so troublesome. Amen! I am not writing this book to get pats an the back. Most people are so dead and don't know it that it is pitiful. It is hard to get people awake, but God is able. He needs someone to travail in pain for souls. Too many are in a state of indifference and it is hard to get them out of their lethargy long enough to get them revived so that we can reach the near-damned world. Many have never seen a revival and never will unless we can get them to see that God is depending on them. It costs something to have a revival and most people are not willing to humble themselves and, like Nehemiah, weep and cry and confess until God answers. It costs fasting and praying and self-denial. It is our job. Will we wake up before it is too late? O God, keep me stirred. I must keep the fire, the burden, the vision, the passion for souls. Without a vision, the people perish.
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