talking about those natural calamities—I’ve cried and missed my Dad many times.  I’m talking about these spiritual valleys where it seems that you’ve taken a step of Faith and God never….  There’s one thing that God’s consistent with: He goes somewhere every time immediately after He motivates me to do something for Him.  Ever notice that?  I get ready to give up on God and say “Oh!”—I talk pretty plain to God—“Take it!  Another big mess you got me in!  You got it.  You’ve got it.  Bye”—and He will not leave me alone.  “I’ve come to peace!  I’m leaving this crap!  God can have it”—and He’ll pick up my handkerchief and follow me and bother me the whole way.  Every time!  Never fails.  But with equal consistency He’ll make Himself sufficiently real to me.  I’ll say “Well, there is something to this way of Faith!  I’m gonna go for it.  Come on, let’s go for God!”  Then He goes on vacation.  Every time!  Never ever seen it fail.  It’s those kinds of valleys of weeping I’m talking about.  “Where are you God?  Another fine mess you got me into!” 

          I remember when you first called, Charles—and I won’t reveal the confidence anymore than you would when I call you as friend—but it’s like you’ve just settled down; you’ve paid your dues.  There ain’t nothing, I already said, more that God can teach me.  I know what I’m preaching today—why do I have to keep learning it every year?  You just think everything is on keel, and out of the blue will come something that just shatters everything.  And like an old soldier that’s been out there too many times I don’t get up as easy anymore.  It was a blissful kind of warfare when I started out as a Christian.  I didn’t know the devil was as tough as he was.  I would sing silly little songs like “Write the name of the devil on the bottom of your shoe and walk around on him.”  I mean he’s tougher than the Ninja Turtles, I’ll tell you that!  I knew all the promises of God and I’d listen to the

preachers and they’d tell you, and I’d see them get all starry-eyed: “Satan’s under your feet!  And the devil is under you and God has conquered him and ‘Greater is he that is in you, than he that is in the world’!”  And I’d say “That’s right!” and then the devil would knock me 75 feet.  And I’d get up and say “This fight’s just starting!”

Now I’d walk around a tree to miss the devil.  I’m tired of fighting.  I’m worn out with it.  Don’t want any more valleys of weeping.  Told God that all year and He said “I’m the Boss!  Valleys are part of the trip.”  I don’t want you surprised this year.  Cheer up, saints!  It’s gonna get worse.  I’ll tell you something else though, when the devil gets—when I finally get up he’s got more to contend with!  Now this Church is not gonna stand still and I don’t intend to retire and I have great respect for the devil’s ability and his weaponry.  And I can say what the preacher said without saying it with so much vim: “Greater is he that is in us, than he that is in the world.”  And now I know, though I have to relearn it a bit, to pull out the Bible and do what I’m doing today as we go into this year and as I expect to announce Secret Five has become a reality.  And as we invade the territory of the ‘prince of the power of the air’ and make what we have the capacity to do—this the greatest and most powerful radio network ever formed in the world—I expect Satan to move because he knows that we are truly invading his territory.  And I wanna be ready—for the Church, myself, and I want you to be ready—for valleys of weeping that will come.  I also want you to apply it individually—valleys of weeping are part of the journey.  You don’t wanna give up because they are there.

I’m gonna say two things I always say when I preach this message.  Cause is unimportant.  It is Satan’s way when you get into a valley to start dealing with the ‘why.’  If you made some mistake and you’re to blame and you know it, Satan loves to beat you to death with