God was my perfect sufficiency. Some of the members of the congregation who
might be included under the Scriptural term "lambs" stood by me like
warriors. Two of them sat in the pulpit with me, one on each side to hold
my hands, as it were. God had warned me in a dream of the enemy's attack
and had shown me some things that were very helpful in that very hour. In
my dream I had seen the enemy in the form of a ferocious animal approaching
to destroy God's children. We were in a large pavilion which was entered by
a large open door. In my dream I thought that God told me to go and shut
that door. I started to obey, and when I got near it, the animal was about
to enter, but God made me to know that he would help me through and enable
me to get the door shut. As I shut the large door, the Lord showed me
another little door, saying, "Go and shut that too."
On the Sunday of which I am speaking, when I really had to face the enemy,
God gave me as a subject for my sermon various instances in the history of
the church where the enemy had attacked God's children and work and where
God himself had defended them and defeated the enemy. I spoke of how
Joseph's brethren plotted to take his life and finally sold him into Egypt
as a slave; of how God made him a prince and a ruler over his brethren and
finally their savior and benefactor. I spoke of Jesus--how the Jews killed
him, put his body into a sepulcher, closed it with a great stone, sealed it
with the king's seal; how the Lord defeated their purpose, arose from the
dead, and ascended to the right hand of God. Right in the middle of the
sermon God showed me what he meant by shutting the big door and made me to
know that I must expose and renounce the one under the spirit of the devil
who was trying to undermine the work. He showed me, furthermore, that
another man who was helping him was the little door and that he wanted me
to denounce him also.
As I began denouncing the spirit of error that had crept into the
congregation, the poor deluded ones clamored for a chance to defend
themselves, but God showed me that I should give no place to the devil. I
advised all the true children of the Lord to leave the meeting-place at the
proper time, and not to listen to the enemy's pouring out against God's
work and cause. Most of the people took my advice and left at the proper
time. Just a few backsliders and chronic grumblers remained to hear Brother
B--'s message. I can not tell you how God used this victory to encourage
and strengthen my soul. He seemed to humor and pet me all the next day and
to bring it to me again and again that he was pleased with me. I seemed to
hear him say again and again, "I am well pleased with you."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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