I will be eternally grateful for the Word of God that The Way Ministry has taught me for over forty years and for the deliverance it has brought to my life and the lives I’ve touched with the rightly divided Word.
As a child, I grew up in the Presbyterian Church and was taught that God was love, but also someone to be feared, made you sick, and even killed. You see, I had a dear high school friend die during his surgery, and all my pastor could comfort me with was that “God had taken him, and we can’t always know why God does these things.” My friend was a great guy and always attended our youth fellowships at the church, he sang in the choir, and was an Eagle Scout. So why did he have to die?
Years passed and I still had lots of unanswered questions. When I became a registered nurse, I encountered even more of those unanswered questions in the hospital. An infant was a stillbirth, and I had been taught he would go to heaven if he was baptized, and hoping to bring some comfort to the mother who was grief stricken, I had him baptized. When I informed the supervisor, who came to get the body, she replied that the infant would be stuck in purgatory forever. I was angry and appalled at God, and once more was puzzled by the thought of how could a so-called loving God do such awful things? I wanted answers to life’s confusing dilemmas and searched for them in all possible places.
I was twenty-three years old when a friend of mine came to visit on his way to the Rock of Ages, a Christian music festival, in Ohio. It was obvious to me that he had a new perspective on life. He was no longer the depressed, suicidal mess that I had known him as. He was an answer to my long-awaited prayers and didn’t even realize it, but God knew.
Philippians 4:19:
But my God shall supply all your need according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus.
I took the Foundational Class he told me about, and the Word that was taught in the class has answered every question I have ever had in my life. Now I know how to teach others, so they can gain an understanding of how much God loves us. God is not that mean guy carrying a big stick to smack you with if you mess up. God loves us, treasures us, and wants to meet our every need.
I recall the tears of joy in the eyes of one new believer when I shared God’s love with her. She had grown up in an abusive home and had wondered why God had allowed that to happen to her. The Foundational Class delivered her from a life of self-loathing and condemnation, to a life filled with so much joy that even her outward appearance changed to that of a joy-filled believer.
I John 3:20,21:
For if our heart condemn us, God is greater than our heart, and knoweth all things.
Beloved, if our heart condemn us not, then have we confidence toward God.
A few years ago, while I was at work, I received an emergency call from my husband who was working out of town. He said he woke up with sharp pain in his abdomen, so I instructed him to get to a nearby urgent care. Within minutes I received another call from him that he had called 911, since he couldn’t drive because of the intense pain.
Psalm 46:10:
Be still, and know that I am God….
That verse helped me stay peaceful while I drove home to pack and fly to the city where he was working. I didn’t even know what hospital he was taken to, but God did, so I spoke in tongues while I waited for my flight to depart. While I was waiting, I received a phone call from my insurance provider to clarify our coverage, and they told me which hospital he was in. I found my husband in the emergency room and he was soon taken to the intensive care unit with a hole in his intestine. The surgeon came to see him and said my husband would need surgery unless the hole closed, but for now, they wanted to get him stabilized in intensive care to watch for worsening signs. I phoned our local ministry leadership to pray with him, and he contacted the believers to pray for my husband’s deliverance. Within days I took him home, and his intestine was totally healed. God is a God of deliverance!
Psalm 34:19:
Many are the afflictions of the righteous: but the Lord delivereth him out of them all.
Over the years I’ve learned to not depend on the arm of man, but on God.
Numbers 23:19:
God is not a man, that he should lie; neither the son of man, that he should repent: hath he said, and shall he not do it? or hath he spoken, and shall he not make it good?
God never has and never will disappoint me when I look to Him as my strength and sufficiency. Always go to the Word.