Several years ago, we were driving past Crystal Lake Gospel Park on the outskirts of Portland, where I had been the camp meeting speaker for a number of years. Now Raymond T. Richie, the famed deliverance minister was there. I had ministered for him in his church in Houston, so I said to my wife, “Let’s stop and see what that old boy was up to.” We did, and received the disappointment of our lives.

For it was now in the 1950s, and he kept harking back to the 1920s, telling of what happened in his ministry then. The anointing and the glory were gone. He was only a shell of his former self. Now I’m reminded of Exodus 16:19-20, concerning stale manna. God had rained manna day after day upon the children of Israel….

… but I noticed that those that had been at Azusa Street were the most backslidden group I’d ever seen. They were living entirely of the past….

… You say, I got the baptism of the Holy Spirit 40 years ago, and Ohhh, the glory of that night! I know, I know, I know. What an experience! But what have you done with it since?