I Learned How the Gift from God Works

Speaking in tongues was not something I had heard of until coming to this ministry. When it came up the first time, I was uncomfortable with it. Even though I could read in the Bible that it was something God addressed and made available, because I had never heard of it before, I was stopped in my mental tracks. Finally I realized that I really did not understand it enough. There is no way to remember how many times I read the chapters in The New, Dynamic Church on speaking in tongues. Having very little knowledge to make a decision is not a good place to stay. It can lead to being afraid, which stymies thoughts and understanding and growth.

Right across the hall where I lived in the dormitory, there was an ironing room not often visited, especially by freshmen. I found a spot to talk to God and share my thoughts and hesitations. That room offered a place for me to spend time thinking and reasoning and building believing from His Word. In the ironing room of my dorm is where I finally spoke the wonderful works of God for the first time.

Truth is not determined by feelings. This ministry gave me the tools to understand the Scriptures for myself. The Bible is God’s will and heart to us. We can learn about His gift, holy spirit, and how He designed that gift to work. I am thankful I pursued rather than shying away from something I didn’t understand. This has led to over fifty years of many victories and more to follow!

Speaking in Tongues Brings Peace

I am so thankful for The Way Ministry that has taught me the truths of positive believing and the power we have when we speak in tongues. Because of this knowledge I now have peace in my life.

Before I took the Foundational Class, I was very fearful driving and riding on the expressway. Now when I get tense or anxious, I just speak in tongues and I get peaceful.

God always protects us. Whenever an opportunity presents itself in my daily life, I know that if I go to God by speaking in tongues, He will take care of it. He always does.

God’s Word Applied Brings Victory Always!

There I was, twenty-two years old, freshly graduated from college, and very far away from home, family, and friends. In the car with me were four young men, all talking at once in a language, which, of course, I neither spoke nor understood. Thoughts ran through my mind at breakneck speed: “What should I do?” “What were they going to do?” “How in the world did I get in this situation anyway?” “Where was the other believer I had come there with?”

Just a few months before this, I had taken a class on the Bible offered by The Way Ministry. In the very first session, the teacher grabbed my attention with “FEAR…is SAND…in the MACHINERY of LIFE!” In spite of being fatigued, I had sat up straight and listened attentively as I was taught how to deal with and eliminate fear. It seemed to me that fear had followed me all my life, and I knew I needed deliverance. Once I learned that there were specific promises in God’s Word that could help me get rid of fear, I began to claim the freedom that God makes available to those who believe.

So, there I was, in a car with a bunch of total strangers in a packed parking lot, and I was definitely tempted to be afraid! BUT instead of cowering in fear, I began to speak in tongues silently to my God, and then I remembered a verse from the Bible: “For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind” (II Timothy 1:7). Over and over I repeated that verse to myself. After a few minutes, I turned around to the men in the car with me. “Do you believe in God?” I had to practically shout over the noise of their talking! “I’m here to teach people about God.” Suddenly, all of the men stopped talking. Again I asked, “Do you believe in God?” Total silence. Then, as if in a rehearsed scenario, they opened the car doors, jumped out, and walked quickly away, disappearing into the crowd of cars and people, leaving me sitting there alone.

Well, I knew that God had intervened for me in a big way that evening. What I learned in the Foundational Class offered by The Way Ministry helped me overcome the fear of what any man could do to harm me. God’s Word applied brings victory always!

Enjoying a “Fear Not” Lifestyle

Months of training as a letter carrier for the postal service had instilled in me more than a healthy respect for dogs along my route. All the stories of carriers being mauled caused me fear about becoming a statistic. Dogs are protective by nature, and we were taught that our uniforms increased their defensiveness. I was equipped with pepper spray and a fluorescent warning card for each dog on the route to alert me to its presence.

One day as I approached the driveway to a house with a handful of mail, a pit bull rounded a parked vehicle. In my mind’s eye, I saw myself being chewed up and spit out by this ferocious animal. With no time to grab my pepper spray, I screamed, threw the mail in my hands at the dog, turned, and ran back to my vehicle. I was so shaken that when I locked my keys in the vehicle at the next stop, I knew I needed to ask for a replacement carrier to finish my deliveries that day.

Some months later I was invited to a home fellowship, and when I was told of a class to help me understand the Bible and how to apply it in my life, I eagerly signed up. At that time the class was called PFAL (Power for Abundant Living). What I learned in that class changed my life and thinking. I discovered I had allowed fear to control many aspects of life, including my work and how I was raising my child.

Shortly after taking the class, while on the job, I saw a female pit bull running towards me from the other end of the block. I knew she had recently had pups and was therefore especially protective. I had plenty of time to run away, but I had recently learned of the power that I had in Christ as a born-again believer. Instead of running away from the dog, I ran toward the dog, commanding it to “Go home.” She stopped in the road, looked at me with her head cocked to one side as though perplexed, then turned and ran home. I followed and shut the gate behind her.

We learn from studying the Word of God that situations will arise, and we will be tempted to freeze in fear. But we do not need to allow circumstances to control our actions because we believe God.

Proverbs 3:25,26:
Be not afraid of sudden fear, neither of the desolation of the wicked, when it cometh.
For the Lord shall be thy confidence, and shall keep thy foot from being taken.

I am continuing to enjoy a “Fear not” lifestyle for thirty years by God’s grace and mercy.

Transformed as I Trust and Believe God’s Word

Because of the Word I learned in this ministry, I am able to renew my mind and take action on the Word of God so I can find myself in a position to experience God’s blessings.

When I took our ministry’s Foundational Class in 1994, I was taught that the wisdom and knowledge I receive from the Word of God is always the stability I need ANYTIME (Isaiah 33:6).

Knowing this, whenever I am challenged with a situation I remind myself to be Word conditioned rather than circumstance oriented.

This ministry has taught me that Romans 12:1 and 2 shows me the two alternatives I have when forming my mental attitude about a situation:

  1. I can be conformed to the world, or
  2. I can be transformed by renewing my mind.

Once I decide to renew my mind, only then am I able to prove God’s good, acceptable, and perfect will for my life.

This became quite apparent when the company I worked for was bought by another company, and there were massive layoffs. Entire departments were being let go. My coworkers were filled with fear because unemployment was at an all-time high, and they did not know what they were going to do if they lost their jobs. One of my coworkers asked me, “Why are you so calm? Aren’t you afraid of losing your job?”

When faced with the looming fact that jobs were going to be lost and mine could be one of them, I could have conformed to the world and worried over what to do if I lost my job and was not able to pay my bills, or I could be transformed by renewing my mind to what the Word says about God taking care of me.

I honestly answered my coworker, “No, I am not afraid because God is my sufficiency (II Corinthians 9:8), and He knows I need to pay my bills. He also knew that I would be facing the possibility of being downsized and has provided a way for me to escape (I Corinthians 10:13) as long as I trust and believe His Word.”

Instead of sitting around wringing my hands, I took believing action and sent out my resume. I gathered glowing references and even had several high-level executives post references on my executive search Web-site page.

A few weeks later I received a letter from my company’s top-level executives stating that my position was critical to the transition of computer systems to the new company. Instead of losing my job, they were inviting me to stay at least one year with a significant monetary bonus given to me, once I accepted, and another monetary bonus at the end of the transition. I accepted with the understanding that at the end of the one-year period, I may be looking for another job.

Several months later the new company executives offered me a position in their organization. They still paid the monetary bonus I was supposed to receive after the year was up, and I received a 13 percent increase in pay.

Renewing my mind to the Word proves God’s good, acceptable, and perfect will for my life in ANY situation.

Change Your Mind and Live

As I was growing up, my mom and dad taught me the Word they knew. The principles I learned about unconditional love, tithing, and putting my trust in God carried me for thirty years, until I came to a more accurate knowledge of the Word taught by The Way. Then I got to share with them!

When my dad was seventy, he fell and broke his ankle. Due to a chronic respiratory condition, his pulmonary doctor said Dad’s lungs were so fragile that he would not survive general anesthesia. As a result, they did an epidural to surgically repair his leg. After a week in the hospital, he suffered a massive heart attack. When I went to visit, asking how he was, he said, “Not good. In your vocabulary, the ‘adversary’ has me in his clutches.” I said, “How so?” He said, “Well, they’ve told me they will try to do one bypass but that I probably won’t make it.”

I got out my Bible, read him I Peter 5:8, and said, “This isn’t MY vocabulary, Daddy. This is the vocabulary of the Word. And it doesn’t say ‘an adversary’ or ‘the adversary’ but ‘YOUR adversary’ because it’s personal! The Word also tells you who ‘your adversary’ is. It’s the Devil, and he is looking to devour you! You don’t have to let him take you out, but you are going to have to change your mind.”

I said, “Daddy, close your eyes and get a good mental picture of what I am going to say. I want you to see oatmeal in a bowl, cold, no sugar, no butter. Do you see that?” He nodded. “Keep your eyes closed and now see something different. Think about bacon, eggs, hash browns, cinnamon rolls, coffee, biscuits and gravy. You see that?” He nodded, smiled with his eyes closed, and said, “Yes ma’am, I do.”

“Now, open your eyes.” When he did, I told him, “THAT is how easy it is to change your mind. Daddy, you can think that cold oatmeal thought that you probably won’t make it, in which case you probably won’t. Or you can change your mind, go for the ‘big breakfast,’ and believe to get your need met, whatever that need is. You can only think one thought at a time, so make sure that you are thinking the Word! I know you are seventy, but you don’t have to leave if you don’t want to. But if you want to stay, you are going to have to change your mind!”

I saw my dad the next day right before his surgery. He asked if it would be OK if he gave the little, yellow retemory book I’d given him to his nurse because he thought it would bless her to know the verses that built his believing. Of course I said yes!

That day my father had a quadruple bypass surgery under general anesthesia. He lived for several years after that! My dad was always respectful of the Word I shared with him, and on several occasions he saw God work mightily because he believed what I had shared with him. What a blessing to see God work in my dad’s life to keep him here all those years, all because he renewed his mind to the Word!

A God of Great Deliverance!

God has helped my family and me to see victories in many situations throughout the years because of the Word of God we have learned in The Way Ministry!

When my husband was mowing a sixteen-acre lot of grass on a tractor, his keys fell from his pocket. After he told me what happened, I purposefully determined to pray to God that we find these keys. Every time I thought of the keys I spoke in tongues abundantly, thanking God that we would find them. These keys were very important and necessary for him to have, especially to lock his shop door where he stored many valuable tools.

Through the Word taught, I knew that it was available to believe God to find the lost keys. I recalled the record in the Word in II Kings 6:1-7 where Elisha had believed God to find the lost borrowed ax head that had fallen into the water while one of the sons of the prophets was felling wood for a new dwelling. So surely God would help us find these keys! I did not become anxious. I kept lifting it to God. My husband and I did all we knew to do, such as raking the leaves all around our house as well as moving things and looking under them to try and locate the keys. On the second day in the early afternoon, having this on my mind, I climbed up on the tractor which was parked by our driveway and sat there on the seat quietly speaking in tongues. As I sat there quietly, Father showed me a picture of the blue fifty-five gallon drum, which was in the yard, and the still small voice said, “Go look under that drum.”

Of course, that is exactly what I did. I got up off the tractor and walked over to the fifty-five gallon drum, turned it over, and lo and behold, the keys were laying as “pretty as you please” right under the drum! I knew this was of God! Not only were the keys there, but I knew that my husband and I had just turned that plastic drum over the day before and raked underneath it and found nothing! Yet, here were the keys! God Almighty can do exceedingly abundantly above all that we can ask or think! This was Ephesians 3:20 in living color! My husband wasn’t at home at the time, so I couldn’t tell him yet. I was so excited that I ran over to my mother-in-law’s house, which was just down the driveway, and reported to her what God had done! God cares about every detail of our lives no matter how big or small! Our God is a God of great deliverance!

This has been a victory which I have recalled on occasion to remind myself, my children, and even others what God will do for us when we believe. Revelation is God’s prerogative of course, and we don’t rely on experiences, but the basic principles of believing coupled with the knowledge of how to pray and operating the manifestations of holy spirit are things that anyone can learn. And certainly they are among some of the greatest things I have learned from this ministry, which have enabled me to see victory after victory for which I am very thankful.

We Have So Much Power!

My time at Advanced Class 2018 was such a blessing. We learn a lot at a class like this because we are there for two weeks. What stood out for me was the truth of how much power we have as born-again believers. For example, in the Foundational Class we were taught that we could pray perfectly—that is pretty powerful! In the Intermediate Class we were taught that we could bring forth a message directly from God to edify the body of believers. That is also powerful! In the Advanced Class we are taught how to operate the other six manifestations. So, we learn about three manifestations in two classes and then six manifestations in one class. These all teach us how much power we really have.

We were not only taught in the Advanced Class how much power we have, but also that we have the authority to use the name of Jesus Christ. In one segment we learned about our power of attorney, which is the authority to act on behalf of another person in legal or financial matters. In the class we learned about the power of attorney that God has given us, which is: Since Jesus Christ is no longer on earth to carry on his business, he has executed a general power of attorney, authorizing us, the born-again believers, as his agents to use his name and carry on his business for him. We take the place of Jesus Christ on earth; we are in his stead. A great verse that shows this is John 14:12. This verse shows the immense power that we have and the authority we have to use the name of Jesus Christ. This was huge for me to understand. I did not even think about it before I took this class. After learning this, I began to think about all the power that I have as an individual.

The class also teaches us about the power of the household. We were shown how the power of the individual believer is maximized as we stand together as a household. In team athletics, the individual greatness is realized in the context of a team effort. We are spiritual athletes, and blessings that result from our individual efforts to live and speak the Word and operate the manifestations are maximized when we stand together. None of us is as strong as all of us.

As I was taking this class and learning about all the power that we have, some questions came to my mind. What do I want to do with all this power? Who do I want to be for God? While I do not have the full answer to these questions yet, this class helped me have parts of them answered. For example, I know that I want to do the Way Disciple program. Not only would this be a blessing because of all the Word I would speak, I would also get to prove God as my sufficiency. I believe the Way Disciple program would also help me find a more complete answer to the question: “Who do I want to be for God?”

Since returning from the Advanced Class, I’ve been determined to apply the Word that I’ve learned. For example, I’m taking action on the Keys to Walking by the Spirit, specifically by studying the Word much. A benefit I’ve experienced from studying the Word daily has been its availability when I’ve needed it during my day. Recently, my workplace was downsizing, and many of my coworkers were let go. I could have easily worried in this situation, but because I had been reading the book Joy and Peace in Believing, verses like John 16:33 were fresh in my mind.

John 16:33:
These things I have spoken unto you, that in me ye might have peace. In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world.

Studying the Word daily has definitely given me peace when I needed it the most. Thank God for this class!

God Can Turn the Ship Around

It was in the spring of 1985, and the next start date for our area’s Intermediate Class had been set. My fellowship coordinator asked if I planned to be in the class. I affirmed that I would be fully registered that same evening. However, there was a small opportunity. At the time, I was serving in the United States Navy, and my ship, the USS John F. Kennedy, was scheduled to be out at sea during the class dates. I knew from a recent Foundational Class that James 5:16 promises “…The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much.” I let my fellowship coordinator know the need, and we agreed that our God is big—bigger than even a U.S. Navy aircraft carrier—and that I should attend the class.

On the day of the class, the ship put to sea as scheduled for a two-week deployment, but I kept confessing that I would be at the class on time. As the day wore on, the ship continued on its appointed course. Having recently graduated from the Foundational Class, I was reading records in the Old Testament that were written for our learning, especially as they related to believing God. One record that got my attention was Joshua 10:12, where it was recorded that Joshua said, “…Sun, stand thou still upon Gibeon; and thou, Moon, in the valley of Ajalon.” The next verse records the results: “And the sun stood still, and the moon stayed, until the people had avenged themselves upon their enemies….” I figured since God did that for Joshua in that battle and I was in a spiritual battle, He would do the same for me. After all, we had been taught in the Foundational Class from Acts 10 that “God is no respecter of persons.” I kept the mind picture that I would be at the class and continued to speak in tongues as I had been taught, believing that God would come through.

A few hours later after lunch, an announcement came over the public-address system: “Good afternoon, Kennedy men, this is the captain speaking. We have experienced a small issue and will need to make an unexpected return to port this afternoon. The remainder of the cruise has been canceled and will be rescheduled for a later date. We expect to be back at the dock by 5:00 p.m.”

I never did find out exactly what happened, but I departed the ship as soon as we returned and was in my seat on time for the first session of the class!

There is a verse from the Military Outreach Retemories set that I have enjoyed over the years that I claimed that day and continue to hold close.

II Chronicles 20:15:
…Thus saith the Lord unto you, Be not afraid nor dismayed by reason of this great multitude; for the battle is not yours, but God’s.

We serve a loving, powerful God Who never changes. What He did before, He can and will do again. We just have to believe Him and claim the promises we have been taught in His wonderful, matchless Word. I am so thankful for this ministry and how we have been taught to practically apply the Word and expect to see the results!

I Know God Is Always Near

I have been in this ministry for over thirty years. Do you want to know why? Well, the ministry of The Way International has turned my life upside down, in a positive way of course!

After taking the Foundational Class, I had the blessing and the privilege to benefit from the teachings of the Word, which allowed me to understand many things with a new light because with the Foundational Class:

  • I learned how to read the Bible by myself.
  • I have come to know God and how He works and what He wants for each of us.
  • I learned how to build my believing in God.
  • I learned how to renew my mind and how to believe His Word in order to receive concrete answers to my prayers.

Since then I walk in peace. I do not worry about anything, since I know that He is always near me and that He always answers my prayers as it says in Matthew 6:33 and 34 and Philippians 4:9.

Matthew 6:33,34:
But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.
Take therefore no thought for the morrow: for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof.

Philippians 4:9:
Those things, which ye have both learned, and received, and heard, and seen in me, do: and the God of peace shall be with you.

This great ministry of The Way International has shown me that God, the Creator of all things and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, is real, and His Word is living and energetic for all who believe it and put it into practice. We can trust God because He is faithful and just to take care of us in all situations.

That is why, for decades, I have continued to stand steadfastly in this ministry, continuing to grow through all the avenues that the ministry makes available for our personal growth, such as household fellowships, The Way Magazine, Sunday Teaching Services, etc.

With all these things, how can I not love the Word of God? How can I not fellowship with The Way International?