Category: Peace

This Was My Answer to Prayer!

The Way Ministry was an answer to prayer for me. As a nineteen-year-old in 1975, I had a lot of unanswered questions about God. I was searching for those answers in my church and even traveled to Europe with a group to learn more about God, but came home disappointed. After that trip, I was staying at my parents’ farm for the summer between college years. One day, in frustration, I got on my bicycle and rode out on the country roads, pouring my heart out to God.

“There has got to be some way to get to know You and understand the Bible. There are so many churches with so many ideas, but only one You with one way of thinking. How do I find out what that is?” Then I was quiet, and I heard, “I will teach you My Word like you’ve never heard before.” A few days later, a believer with The Way Ministry came into my summer workplace with his Bible, and we got into a conversation about God.

Less than a month later, I was sitting through the Foundational Class, hearing the Word taught like I’d never heard before. I was thrilled—this was my answer to prayer. God and His Word were finally making sense to me—the law of believing, who Jesus Christ really is, what happens when people die, keys to the Word’s interpretation, and so much more!

And even after all these years, my heart still thrills when the accuracy of the Word is taught. What a joy to live life having answers and the peace that those answers bring. And what a privilege to bring those same answers to others, so they, too, can live this awesome, abundant life.

God Is with Me

I have learned that I can walk in this world with total peace of mind and a secure confidence that God is with me in any and every situation. God and I make a majority, and with His wisdom and guidance there is nothing I may encounter where I will not be victorious in my efforts.

We sat gathered around tables in the basement living room where the Word Over the World Ambassadors lived, listening to audiotapes of Dr. Victor Paul Wierwille teaching the foundational class on Power for Abundant Living. Chapter and verse, what does the Word say?—of the many, many golden nuggets in the class, this one really stood out. The teacher encouraged us to not take his word for it, but to go to Scripture, utilizing the research tools we had been taught, and discover the truths for ourselves. This was new and revolutionary to me. For the first time, I had a “firm rock in the sea of speculation, a safe anchorage in the ocean of doubt.” I could read and understand the Word for myself, and I could see current events, trends, opinions, traditions, fads, and ideas through the lens of God’s Word. This has been invaluable to me in my continued stand on God’s Word.

If I were to state a theme verse for my life, the following is a likely candidate:

Psalms 16:11:
Thou wilt shew me the path of life: in thy presence is fulness of joy; at thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore.

Being able to discern truth from error—to determine what the Word says—has given me great peace of mind. We live in a complicated and distracting world, and knowing how to filter all the impressions and demands for our attention is vital for a balanced life. This has given me the encouragement I have needed to stand. It has helped me mature and grow into the best version of myself. What has God done for me because of the Word of God I have learned in The Way Ministry? He has provided me with a life that is beyond what I could ask for or think of. He has given me access to the household of God, where I can enjoy fellowship with like-minded believers and a meaningful, personal relationship with my heavenly Father. I can practice the presence of God, basking in fullness of joy and pleasures forevermore.

From very early in my walk with The Way Ministry, I have been taught not to get anxious about anything. I have always endeavored to apply this in my life and have seen the benefits over the years.

Recently, my wife and I made the decision to change our place of residence because we are now fully retired and do not need the amount of living space that we had, and of course we needed to reduce our expenses further. We drew up a wish list and sent it out to real estate agents. As we began to receive responses, we experienced a challenge with our vehicle that resulted in it being unusable for about ten days.

The day after the repaired vehicle was delivered to us, we had to go to the bank to transact some urgent business. After our business was concluded, we decided to drive through two nearby residential areas to look at an apartment building that a friend had recently moved into and to look for rental signs. As soon as we drove into the second area, we saw a house with a rental sign on it. We made a note and continued our drive through the area.

On our return home, I started looking again at the offers that had been made to us. I saw an offer for an apartment in the second area that we had visited, and I called the real estate agent. We arranged to call the real estate agent back in a few days. Still on our return home, we again compared our wish list to the actual apartment.

We made the decision to meet with the real estate agent and the landlord a few days later in order to discuss a couple of trade-offs. The landlord agreed to the trade-offs, and we made arrangements for a draft tenancy agreement to be forwarded to us. On receipt of the tenancy agreement, we requested one addition for our protection. The landlord agreed to the insertion, and we made arrangements to sign the tenancy agreement and make the security deposit a few days later.

While the tenancy agreement did not prevent us from having fellowship meetings at home, we still wanted to discuss it with the landlord before signing the tenancy agreement. We were blessed to find out that the landlord was involved in “fellowship” at different homes and had no objection to us having our fellowship meetings at home. We signed the tenancy agreement and paid our security deposit.

We are blessed to be moving to a new area and look forward to open doors to speak God’s Word. The other tenant in the building is someone who we met in 1980. We have always exchanged pleasantries when we meet. We know some of the neighbors from having interacted with them over the years.

Though our car was in the garage at a crucial time in our home search, we never got anxious. God met our need, and we look forward to Him meeting our need as we move to exercise our ministry of reconciliation.

I was a young married man getting ready to end my service in the United States Marine Corps, and I had many possibilities ahead of me. I was looking to make big decisions in my life such as where to move, where to go to college, what to go to college for, where to work, and how to continue coordinating a household fellowship. These were some of the decisions that I was facing. I wanted to keep God first and make the best decisions for myself and my family. But I did not have one clear, logical choice to choose. Many of the choices were good or great; however, I wanted the best. I knew that God knew which one was the best. I needed to go to the Word and give time for prayer.

The Way Ministry has taught me the Word and the godly principles that I needed to be successful in this situation. I was taught in this ministry that we do not want to make a decision based solely on money or fear. These are not aspects of a situation that should be the focus when making godly decisions. During this time, I was offered a substantial signing bonus with the military to stay in for four more years, the housing market had just crashed that year in the United States, and there was a high unemployment rate across the country. I had concerns about money and fear nudging me. The scripture that I held on to while making this decision was taught to me at a Way Ministry fellowship.

Colossians 3:15:
And let the peace of God rule in your hearts, to the which also ye are called in one body; and be ye thankful.

The peace of God is what is to rule, judge or umpire, decisions that I make in my heart. I did not know the future, but I knew God did, and I needed to let the peace of God in me rule in this decision. I prayed and took believing action by researching my top options for many days regarding this decision. I set a date for when I needed to know what my decision would be. A few days before my “need to know” date, my wife and I went for a run to the top of a prominent hill in the city that we lived in. As we stood on the hill and looked out, I knew by the peace that I had in my heart that what was spiritually best for my life and my family’s future was to stay there.

By applying the Word that I learned in The Way Ministry regarding decision making, I reaped God’s abundance. We loved it there. We both received a great education, had jobs that we enjoyed, continued to coordinate a household fellowship, and we grew and matured in the Word a lot.

Five years later, my wife and I had another big decision to make: when to go into The Way Corps training. We applied Colossians 3:15 again, prayed, and took believing action. I set a time for me to make this decision by about what year we would enter the training, and by my “need to know” date, I knew. The very next year, we were going to be leaving the place that we loved to go into The Way Corps training to fulfill the calling that God had put on our hearts. The peace of God ruled, and we knew we were supposed to go. I have no regrets regarding this decision, for my life has only abounded in spiritual, physical, and mental blessings since making that decision.

Because of the Word and godly principles that have been taught to me in this ministry, my family and I are living our best lives today, and our future is as bright as the promises of God.

God’s Word truly is the stability of my life. Thanks to my parents’ faithful stand with The Way International for over thirty years, I was blessed with the incredible privilege to be raised with mighty believing examples all my life. As an adult I have been given MANY opportunities to apply those believing principles, one of which I would like to share with you.

As a child I was excited to grow up and become a wife and mother. God answered the first part of my prayer shortly after I completed serving in our ministry’s outreach program. I met my mighty man of valor, and we were soon married. God, as He is faithful, went on to answer the second part of my prayer, and I experienced a wonderful, healthy pregnancy.

When the time came to labor, things progressed smoothly. Eventually my body hit a wall that it just couldn’t seem to get past. Thanks to the wonderful gift of holy spirit, my husband and I remained peaceful, even though at this point my physical body was literally shaking from exhaustion and a slight fever. Soon it became evident that the medical staff was not as peaceful with the situation as we were! I began hearing whispers behind the curtain of the need to make medical interventions soon. Well, they didn’t know MY God!

God through His infinite wisdom had already arranged a solution to this opportunity. My parents and brother had arrived in town the previous day! My dad suggested we have a believers’ meeting and operate the worship manifestations. My family circled around me, held hands, and delivered God’s message for the situation. Immediately I stopped shaking and could tell it was time to deliver.

An hour later our sweet daughter was born with no more medical interventions. God wasn’t done delivering yet! After the postbirth checkup, it was brought to our attention that our daughter wasn’t moving her right arm at all. There was a tension in the room that I just couldn’t understand. Even as they explained the situation, I remember thinking, “So what’s the big deal?” Some may say I was delusional, but I know it was the peace of God in my heart that allowed for that response. God healed her completely without any medical assistance. Almost six years later I still look back on that day with great joy because today I can look at my daughter as she does push-ups, leads songs, and plays with two fully functioning arms. My deliverance was one of peace from the mighty Word of God I had sown in my heart thanks to The Way International.

Because of the Word I have learned in The Way Ministry, God has made known a peace in my heart that the world never gave. God has helped me to have peace in my heart in spite of living in a sometimes challenging five-senses world. Understanding the spiritual competition has enabled me to endure many things with a peaceful heart.

Before I learned the accuracy of God’s Word in The Way Ministry, I used to look for other ways to find peace. When I was twenty-three years old, I packed up my suitcases, quit my job, and moved away from the city where I had lived my whole life to a small town in the mountains. All this, so I could find peace. I was convinced that the city I was living in was the cause of all my distress. I didn’t like the traffic, the noise, the stress of my job, and all the many people crowded together in one place.

My first few months of living in my new environment in the mountains was very peaceful, and I thought I had found the solution to my anxiety. But as soon as I started meeting people, building relationships, and working different jobs, things became unpeaceful again. I was having the same problems I had when I lived in the city. It was all in the way I was thinking! I was basing my thoughts on worldly peace—the five senses—and I needed godly peace to reign in my heart.

After my brief stay in the mountains, I returned to my home state and started a small transportation business. As satisfying as it was to have my own business, often it was pressuresome. There was a payroll to meet, taxes to be paid, money to be billed and collected, sales calls to be made, and customers to keep happy. Sometimes I would lie awake at night wondering if the customers would send their payments owed to me on time, so that I could pay my employees.

Very soon after I started this business I was introduced to The Way Ministry, and I learned truths from God’s Word on how to claim His peace no matter what environment I was in. I learned in The Way Ministry that peace is part of the spiritual package we receive when we get born again of God’s spirit. I learned how to pray, I began to tithe, I learned how to operate the manifestations, and I started utilizing the spiritual resources I was given.

Then one day with no warning, one of my major customers filed bankruptcy and was not able to pay a substantial amount of money they owed me. The profit of my company depended much on this income. What was I to do? The Word I was learning in The Way Ministry helped me to stay calm and peaceful. I kept moving, kept tithing, controlled my expenses, prayed, and believed God.

And then one day, also without warning, I received a phone call from a salesman in Chicago who said the president of one of my smaller accounts gave him my name as a reference. He told me that his company had a new account in the town I operated and that they needed someone to deliver their merchandise. He said, “You’ve been highly recommended.” We started working together immediately. He gave me an order that day. This ended up being one of my largest and most reliable accounts. God provided for what I needed and more.

This incident encouraged me to stay peaceful in other situations that came up with the business, and this actually still continues to help me to remain peaceful in challenging times—knowing that God will always provide what I need. I’ve learned that God’s peace comes from a knowledge and application of His Word, not just from living in the mountains.

Because of the Word I have learned in The Way Ministry, God has made known a peace in my heart that the world never gave.

When I consider what God has done for me because of the Word of God I have learned in The Way Ministry, I think of the song lyrics, “There’s a peace in my heart that the world never gave, A peace it cannot take away….” God and His Word have been part of my life since birth, and it has been my choice to actively apply and live it daily. As a wife and mother of three young children, I cannot imagine life without God. And being peaceful is a daily, moment-by-moment necessity.

A few years ago, my husband and I arrived to work on a Monday morning excited because that was the day we were going to announce that I was pregnant with our first child. I had made cute announcements, and we put them in the mail and on our coworkers’ desks for when they arrived. But before we could even rejoice with our friends, I had a serious medical situation come up. I immediately got my husband and he prayed. We then went to see my department coordinator and he prayed with us. His wise counsel was not to allow one negative thought to enter our minds.

As my husband and I walked to the car to go to the doctor’s office, we talked about God’s promises and how He promises health and had already healed my body. We thanked God for the best in the situation. My husband and I dug our heels in, so to speak, and were determined not to back down on the promises of God.

While we drove to the hospital, my husband had me read out loud from the Bible. We didn’t talk; we didn’t discuss all the “what ifs.” We simply listened to the Word of God. All that we heard and the only thoughts that we had were God’s Word.

After the doctor saw me, he reported that I was OK, that the fetus was OK, and that everything was OK. I was advised to rest for a few days, and then I could resume life as normal. And that I did. I continued to have a peaceful pregnancy and now have a healthy daughter.

What could have been a stressful situation, a frightening situation, a devasting situation, wasn’t.

Isaiah 26:3:
Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on thee: because he trusteth in thee.

Challenges arise, and circumstances can be less than ideal; but when I keep my thoughts on things above, when I keep my mind focused on God and His promises, peace abounds.

When I first heard the rightly divided Word of God taught in a Way Ministry fellowship, many of my lifetime questions finally started to get answered. The eyes of my understanding began to be enlightened, and my life and everything around me became brighter and full of vivid color, even to this very day!

For years I longed for peace in my life. In The Way Ministry I learned about the peace that God gave me in His Word and through His Son, Jesus Christ. That peace now rules in my heart every day. I also longed for harmony. In The Way Ministry I found the harmony and unity I was looking for. I now enjoy fellowship with like-minded believers that have the same spiritual outlook on life that I have from God’s Word!

Psalms 133:1:
Behold, how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity!

Now I have a true spiritual connection with my heavenly Father. I literally believe what His Word says, and I see the godly outcome each time I believe. Yes, God is always there for us—closer than we realize—when we seek Him first in our lives. He will help us get the answers we need in life and bring to pass our hearts’ desires!