The Quenched Desire – Episode 13
The Quenched Desire – Episode 13
© Lewis Dampson
Meanwhile, Mrs. Johnson had arranged for transport. She asked the young men to put Charles into the car when they brought him. She successfully sneaked Charles out of his nation and the place of his calling in his sleep.
Mrs. Johnson was able to smuggle Charles into her resident country with the help of her husband. They took Charles to their estate.
Charles woke up and was both confused and surprised. He didn’t know where he was. “Where am I? This is not my room, neither is this my home,” said Charles as he moved about in the house. He coincided with Mrs. Johnson when he opened the door to go out.
Mrs. Johnson could see the frustration on Charles’ face. She smiled upon seeing Charles’ frustrated gesture. “Calm down gentleman. I know you are confused and surprised to see yourself in a different environment, but….” Before Mrs. Johnson could finish her statement Charles had interjected. “Please spare me that and tell me what I need to know. Where am I and what am I doing here?” Charles asked angrily.
“Charles, I need you to calm down so I can explain everything to you. You know you are not feeling well. Let us go inside to your room and we can talk there,” Mrs. Johnson said trying to persuade Charles.
Her persuasion worked and Charles followed her into the room. Charles sat on the bed since he felt weakness in his knees.
“I brought you from your country to mine. I have seen the suffering you are going through in your own country. You have ministered to your people from your heart. You have labored for them. And what did you get in return? Criticisms, accusations and slandering. They don’t respect the anointing on your life. I respect the anointing on your life and for that matter, I have brought you out from the reach of your tormentors. I will provide and care for you here until you regain your strength,” Mrs. Johnson said.
Charles was convinced by what Mrs. Johnson said. With that, Mrs. Johnson and her husband were able to retire Charles to their estate. Then they built their new home around Charles’ needs. They built him a bedroom, a prayer room, and his own private stairway.
Charles’ health was still deteriorating while in the Johnson’s house. He could no longer walk and so was confined to bed. With Charles bedridden and emotionally unbalanced, Mrs. Johnson knew Charles could easily be convinced to accept her doctrine. She didn’t wait for long to put her plans into action. She visited Charles daily in his room and sat beside him on the bed.
Mrs. Johnson told him about the mistakes and wrong judgements she felt he made while in ministry and Charles listened to her respectfully. “You see Charles, there were a lot of mistakes with the way you operated in the Spirit while you were in ministry. I think you were operating more with your senses than with the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is so holy to work through us until we purge ourselves thoroughly. It is very difficult for the Holy Spirit to work through a man. Just imagine God, supreme as he is to just hand over his affairs to a young man like you. He needs someone with experience and I think you don’t have that experience yet. That explains the problems you were facing back home. Those people criticized you because it wasn’t the Holy Spirit that was working through you,” Mrs. Johnson said as Charles listened to her attentively.
Charles was unable to discern that everything the woman was saying was based entirely on her opinions. He was so emotionally destabilized that he couldn’t hear the voice of the Spirit. When Mrs. Johnson saw that she was facing no resistance from Charles, she continued.
“Now let us talk more about the spiritual gifts that operated through you. As I said earlier, you are so young to handle such great power and I believe that caused your depression. Because you needed a greater capacity to walk in the Spirit which you obviously lack, the devil deceived you with a counterfeit. That is why he is tormenting you with demons. I want you to denounce the gifts because they are not from God. They are actually from the devil. Also, unless you are totally crucified to self, you are deceived,” Mrs. Johnson finally persuaded Charles to denounce his supernatural gifts. She made him believe they were from the devil and couldn’t have come from God.
Besides confounding the multitudes, Charles concluded that he too, had been deceived by the supernatural operations. From that point on, Charles determined from Mrs. Johnson’s counsel that he would no longer trust any moving of the supernatural. And he concluded that in order for the Holy Spirit to move through any believer, he or she would have to have a far greater wisdom and experience than that which he possessed. The depressed revivalist’s condition was extremely frail and was further frustrated by the repeated prodding and drilling of Mrs. Johnson.
(It is surprising how believers can forget about the goodness of God when we fall into temptations. Charles had tasted the supernatural. An experience, most of the young men in his age group had never experienced. He didn’t consider the thousands that had turned to God and became born again because of those gifts. He couldn’t cast his mind back and remember the multitudes that came from other nations to receive from his ministry and carried the power to their countries. He didn’t think of the multitudes, hungry for a touch who stood on the streets because he had been so transparent for the Holy Spirit to use. Neither did he consider that his lack of rest- not a lack of consecration-caused his confusion.)
Because Charles failed to discern and refuse the advice from Mrs. Johnson, the spiritual equipment that came as a result of his call was severely damaged for any future manifestation.
To further proved her success, Mr. Johnson spoke frequently of how Charles had come to see the light. She boasted of how Charles – the great revivalist had seen reasons in her doctrine. With that, many people began to accept her teachings and doctrines. People read her weekly newsletters which still had the name of Charles written under them.
Soon, Mrs. Johnson had become popular in ministry with people trooping into her church every day to hear of her new doctrines.
To be continued
