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LEADING.OF.THE.SPIRIT.OF.GOD_ CAMPBELLSVILLE.KY SUNDAY_ 55-0807E
E-34 Sometime ago, coming from Dallas, Texas, a storm came up and blowed my plane. We landed in Memphis, Tennessee. I never forget it. They sent me up to that great hotel there called, "Peabody." I could never stay in a hotel like that with my own money. I don't have that type of money. But the--the airline sent me up there, the TWA. And then, when I was up there that night, I prayed that night. And the next morning... Do you believe that we are led by the Spirit of God?
I wish I had time to tell you many things. On with this: At this time it was very striking. The next morning I had some letters, I was going to the post office to mail them. And I started down the street; they called me and said, "Be ready to catch the plane at eight o'clock. The limousine will pick you up at seven-thirty."
I said, "Thank you, sir." I said, "Now, let's see. It's six thirty. I got time to go down there at the post office."
LEADING.OF.THE.SPIRIT.OF.GOD_ CAMPBELLSVILLE.KY SUNDAY_ 55-0807E
E-35 And I went down to mail the letters. I was going down the street singing. Well, the first thing you know, the Holy Spirit said, "Stop."
I thought, "What's wrong." I thought, "Maybe I just thought I heard that."
Went a little farther, and something checked me, said, "Stop a minute."
I looked, and there was a big police standing on the corner, so I stepped back up like I was looking at some fishing reels. And the Holy Spirit said, "Turn and go the other way." I don't know no more than just to do what He tells me to do, and I hope I never know any more.
I turned and started back, passed by the hotel, went on and on and on. I looked at my watch, it was eight-thirty. I got plumb over into the colored district. I didn't know where I was going, just being led. I didn't know. Just kept going. I've had it to happen dozens of times, yes, hundreds of times. I was just being led.
I thought, "Lord, what do You want me way down here around the river, and these little colored haunts where the colored people live."
"That's nothing to you. Follow thou Me."
LEADING.OF.THE.SPIRIT.OF.GOD_ CAMPBELLSVILLE.KY SUNDAY_ 55-0807E
E-36 I just kept on walking. The first thing you know, I looked, leaning across a gate, and I was going on along there singing that little song, "I'm so glad that I can say I'm one of them," singing it to myself, and I looked across the gate, and there was a typical old Aunt Jemima with a man's shirt tied around her head, a little old whitewash cabin of a thing setting there, and there was a--a plow point hanging on the gate for a weight to pull it back. And she was hanging out there looking over there. And I seen her about a hundred yards away, and I quit singing, just went on down the street. When I passed by, she started smiling, looking at me, tears running down her big fat cheeks. She said, "Good morning, parson."
I turned around. I said, "Good morning, Auntie." I said, "How'd you know I was a parson?"
She said, "Parson, did you ever read in the Bible about the Shunammite woman, who couldn't have a baby, and she told the Lord that she was blessed, and--and Elijah told her that she was going to have a baby, and she had it, and then the baby died?"
I said, "Yes, I remember that."
She said, "I's was that kind of woman. I couldn't have no baby, and I told the Lord I'd raise the baby," and said, "to suit for Him." And she said, "The Lord give me and my husband a baby." And she said, "Parson," she said, "the baby, my boy, when he got to be a man, he went out and done what was wrong." And said, "I couldn't help it, parson." Said, "I've washed over the washboard" said, "to try to raise him right in church, but," said, "he backslid, and he went away from God; and he got with the wrong crowd." And said, "Parson," said, "he got a bad disease, syphilitic, dying with a venereal disease." And said, "And he's laying in here dying." And she said, "Oh, the doctor man was here yesterday," and said, "he's been unconscious since yesterday morning, and said to me, 'He will never gain conscious no more.' Said, 'His heart, blood is coming back through his heart. It's eat him up, and there's too late to do anything for him. It's done eat holes in him.'" And she said, "Parson, I just couldn't see my baby die without knowing the Lord." She said, "I prayed all night." Said, "I kept saying, 'Lord, I's the same woman. Where's Your Elijah?'" Said, "I kept praying, and," said, "I fell asleep." And she said, "I dreamed I seen a man coming with a lead colored suit on, wearing a tan hat." Said, "That was you, parson." She said, "The Lord told me, at three o'clock this morning to come stand at this gate and wait for you." Said, "I've been here ever since."
I patted her on her shoulder still wet with the dew. I thought, "Lord, here it is."