A Life Wasted

CBN Telethon continued...

There had been numerous events that touched me during this telethon, but nothing compares with what happened in the last minutes of the week long broadcast. The telethon was being broadcast from the larger Studio A, which was now packed with people. You couldn't really say there was a stage because the area used for speakers and music guests was flat. On the opposite side of the Studio the phone banks was an elevated area with rows of tables and chairs. Anyone watching the show stood along the walls between the two areas. On this last night both sides of the large studio was packed with CBN Staff and guests who had participated in the show but had now stayed to watch. As the end of the broadcast drew near there was a sense of anticipation in the air. I didn't know why, but I felt it. Everyone just knew something was going to happen.
I was standing on the side, near the front where Pat was talking on air as the time to end the telethon was winding down. I don't recall what he was saying, but he suddenly stopped and said, "I feel the power of God here now."Pat held his right arm out like a wand and pointed at those standing along the wall to his right. As soon as he did, those he pointed at fell to the ground, unconscious. He continued pointing in a slow sweep towards the back of the room towards the phone bank and those volunteers dropped their phones mid sentence and fell out. Everywhere he pointed everyone in the path of his sweep fell to the ground. I watched, amazed at what I was seeing, then noticed the two cameramen on that side of the room had fallen with their studio floor cameras limply pointing down. For some reason it was the out-of-action cameramen that made me understand the significance of what was happening.

My analytical mind worked hard to sort out what I was seeing. I looked back at Pat and realized that even those standing with him to his right were on the ground, which included Ben Kinchlow. Pat's hand slowly continued around the room down the left side of the room and I thought that it was going to be embarrassing when he reached me and I didn't fall. But when Pat Robertson pointed his hand at me I fell. Before he reached me my only thought was to resist, that I wouldn't be knocked down by a finger, but when it was my turn I had no thoughts nor any control. I went to the ground like everyone else. The term they used was "slain in the Spirit." Everyone in that room fell. There were four big studio cameras in that room and all four were pointed limply at the ground with their operators on the ground. One of the cameras was positioned towards Pat's left, near where I stood, so he followed the wave most of the way around the room until it reached him and his camera was the final one to go limp. People watching the telethon's live satellite broadcast at home saw that camera following the wave before it too dropped. That was how we went off the air from that historic broadcast.

When I regained consciousness I was both laughing and crying. Alan Small, the guy who had helped me understand healing the previous year was beside me again and helped me stand up. He said, "I see you're having a good time." And I was. I didn't understand any of it, but I had never been so happy in my life. All I remember afterward was that I went to a Waffle House with a bunch of staffers and we stayed there all night. Everyone else in the Waffle House thought we were all drunk, and in a way we were. Never before or since have I felt such spiritual power. I couldn't explain it then and I wont even try now. All I know is that it was real.