This Scripture Saved My Life!

The scripture that changed my life most dramatically was shared at the very first fellowship I went to in The Way Ministry.

I Peter 1:23:
Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which liveth and abideth for ever.

This scripture saved my life! At the young age of fourteen, I was on a path of destruction because the people that were supposed to be the ones in my life to give me stability, security, safety—my earthly parents—had abandoned me in the most vulnerable moment of my life a year earlier, and I felt worthless.

My friend invited me to that first fellowship, and I went from being lost in life before the teaching of God’s Word that night to being found by God during the teaching. I felt like I was home, that I had a new lease on life.

Until I heard the Word that was taught that night, I believed that I was corrupted and didn’t think there was any way to stop it. I had cried out to God and prayed for help, but I kept doing destructive things because I didn’t think I mattered because the most important people I knew weren’t providing the most important need I had—to be loved.

I knew I loved God, but I didn’t know if He loved me. My friend invited me to fellowship, and my unstable foundation began to change. During that fellowship meeting, I was put on solid ground. I knew God loved me wholly, no matter the condition I was in, and that I had received His incorruptible seed in me and that the Word had God’s backing! After trusting in the truth I read and heard that night, I had complete believing that my eternal life was secure with God Almighty! The caring support of others at that fellowship and afterwards made me think that my future would be bright.

Forty-five years later, I still have that firm foundation, and I have never had to back down from what I was taught from God’s Word at my first fellowship in The Way Ministry. My life has gone continually forward on solid ground as I renew my mind. I have been provided the more than abundant life through my lord and savior, Jesus Christ, in ways beyond what I ever thought might be possible before I heard the Word taught in The Way Ministry.

I have come to know by living proof that as you trust, delight in, and commit to God, as Psalms 37:3-5 records, you will receive blessings beyond measure. God knows the matters of the heart and how to heal them, and He did that in a profound way for me that first fellowship night; and He hasn’t stopped since because His promises are true. I was rescued by them starting with that first fellowship and the promise of I Peter 1:23, providing me wholeness and a life that has been full of Ephesians 3:20 blessings ever since.

God Lightened My Heart

I began to think about killing myself when I was eighteen years old. My number one concern was to have a plan for my life. I had two objectives: (1) find God, and (2) fly airplanes. After a lot of sincere, dedicated, practical effort, I had totally failed with both. I felt as Ephesians 2:12 says, “…having no hope, and without God in the world.” I felt profoundly lost and severely depressed, and I had no reason to continue.

Then God planted a man squarely in my path—my trainer for a new job as a stocker at a lumber yard. He had a quality of light about him that I had never seen. When I came to his Way Ministry fellowship, I met many more people with the same light! They were all deeply excited about the Bible, which I slowly came to realize was in reality the Word of God. I took all the classes available. God reached in and lightened my oppressed heart, through His Word and via the love of the household of The Way.

Fast forward forty years. I am still here! I have been happily married for twenty-eight years, and we have two wonderful children. I have a peaceful, engaging, abundant life. God is still reaching into my heart as I read His Word. It is an amazing, ongoing adventure of sweetness and light, growth and service, as I give of my abilities and resources. I never got my pilot’s license, but I can wait until I get my new body! It will be more reliable than a plane.

God knows how to bless those who seek Him, and He never stops watching over His children.

Enabled to Live a More Than Abundant Life!

I’m so deeply thankful to God and to the ministry of The Way International for the forty years of accurate teachings from God’s Word that I have enjoyed and for how they have enabled me to live a more than abundant life! God’s Word is the anchor of my soul—and my anchor holds!

Forty years ago I took the Foundational Class. It was an amazing class. The week before, I had attended a meeting and watched the ministry’s film called Changed. I greatly needed change in my life, so I signed up for this class the next day. I was due to give birth in just over a month, and I was scared and very alone. I had no resources and didn’t know what to do with my life or how to raise the child I would soon be responsible for. I had nearly given up.

The following weekend I attended a statewide ministry campout, and I “insisted” that this class start immediately—I needed answers right away! I had finally started to see a glimmer of hope for my life, and I believed that this was my last shot at making my life work. God met my need, and that same day the final person we needed to have enough students to start the class signed up to take it with me.

That week, on Tuesday, July 4, 1978, our class started. I was made comfortable throughout the class, and all my needs were met daily. Midway through my class, my dear mother and my support died—though not unexpectedly. I was surrounded by love and care and protection by the believers, and my questions were answered from God’s Word with compassion. All details were handled with wonderful understanding and love. I was able to complete the Foundational Class with great victory and healing.

During the class a huge question I had had for fourteen years (How do you get faith?) was answered in one verse (Romans 10:17). I had previously pursued the answer to this question with, among many others, a top religious leader who was the head of a huge church in the Bible Belt. But I had not gotten any answers that made any sense to me. When I spoke in tongues during the last session of our Foundational Class, I said out loud (to stomach and my baby), “We will be OK now.” The next month I went to the Rock of Ages with the believers and found more deliverance than I could have imagined possible. I even said that this must be what heaven is like! Five days after returning from the Rock, I gave birth to a healthy baby boy.

My journey for the next forty years would bring many experiences, both joyous and difficult; but I have always triumphed with my God and with my ministry. God has never failed me, and The Way Ministry has always held forth the truth of God’s Word that has guided me in the way that I needed to go—God’s way. Now I am seventy-three and still very convinced that God works mightily in this ministry and in me to will and to do of His good pleasure. The Seventy-fifth Anniversary year of The Way International has been a year for me to reflect on my own growth, learning, accomplishments, and victories through the years. Forty years ago I chose LIFE, and thanks to God and this ministry, I have had a good understanding of the way God has wanted me to travel. I will continue in God’s way for as long as I live!

Profoundly Thankful for The Way Ministry

I was born in 1957 after my mother was told she would have no more children (she earlier had two miscarriages). Later, in 1968, my father and I were in an automobile and struck by a fully loaded train, causing the car to flip over several times. We were miraculously unharmed, though the car was totally destroyed. In 1977, I completed my first Way Ministry Foundational Class and have since enjoyed learning and applying Biblical keys and principles as taught in the ministry’s series of Biblical classes. What I have learned has proven to be the mainstay for my successful navigation through life.

The Bible (God’s Word) clearly teaches that we have an adversary whose mission is simply to steal and to kill and to destroy; in absolute contrast, the Word further instructs that we can live a life that is more than abundant through Jesus Christ (John 10:10). Despite the fiery darts from our adversary, we can overcome and collectively dismantle the works of the adversary through the power of the holy spirit within. Having the ability to clearly discern God’s goodness from the evilness of the adversary causes me to be profoundly thankful for The Way Ministry, which has the heart to research and teach spiritual truths with unparalleled boldness and accuracy.

In this context, it would be wonderful to live a life absent any attacks after being born again, but as the saying goes, we are not promised a rose garden! I know this all too well as I was confronted with a dire health situation in 2014. With the inexhaustible prayers and help from my fellow Way believers, I can say, “The Word works!” And I’m LIVING proof.

I reflect on my life since birth and can clearly see God’s unbounded divine mercy and grace. The Way Ministry’s teachings, Biblical resources, and programs have given meaning to my life and have offered me a clear pathway to best demonstrate my thankfulness through serving the one true God as enabled by the wonderful works of His only begotten Son, Jesus Christ.

If not for The Way International’s Board of Directors, their energized ministries, and their faithfulness to God and His household, my life would be adrift, absent a chart and compass to God’s heart and will for my life. For The Way International’s ministers, Staff, and faithful believers I offer my deepest prayers of thankfulness to God.

In closing, my wife and I are wholly committed to the Word, and we strive to serve God, as recorded in Ephesians 4:2-4:

With all lowliness and meekness, with longsuffering, forbearing one another in love;
Endeavouring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.

There is one body, and one Spirit, even as ye are called in one hope of your calling.

Accomplishing Great Things with God

In 1983 I had lived twenty-three years of my life. After being discharged honorably from the United States Air Force, I had fear as to what would become of my life. I met some wonderful people known then as Word Over the World Ambassadors, who were witnesses for Christ. They invited me to a fellowship and I attended. The first teaching that I ever heard was on believing rightly according to the rightly divided Word of God. My mind was set free from the prisons that had been holding me back and down throughout my young years. Life had new meaning for me, and I started loving and living for the one true God. My outlook on what could be accomplished was limitless.

Since then I have worked on believing for the best, not settling for just good enough. “I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me” (Philippians 4:13) led me into the United States Marine Corps. I am always learning and growing in God’s household, falling down and being shown how to overcome through my walk in right believing, striving to stay focused and just “stand.”

I have fellowshipped in this ministry for the past thirty-five years. Many individual accomplishments have come to pass over the years. Some of the greatest ones are receiving my bachelor’s degree in environmental sciences and sustainability cum laude (with honors); building a log cabin on a lake from my own design and then selling it for $178,000. This was enough to pay off $88,000 in debt and purchase the land where my wonderful wife and I now reside and where we just finished this year building a second cabin. My wife and I also started a new barbeque sauce business and opened a hair and nails salon. We have plans to attend flight school to receive our private pilot licenses, and I have my own business as a licensed Maine guide.

The most enjoyable accomplishment in my life of walking in right believing is operating as a Bible study group coordinator, reaching out and teaching others how to believe rightly and walk with God as I have learned to do over these past thirty-five years. Matthew 6:33 has been my spiritual compass, keeping me on the right path, and I Thessalonians 2:13 says it best, “For this cause also thank we God without ceasing, because, when ye received the word of God which ye heard of us, ye received it not as the word of men, but as it is in truth, the word of God, which effectually worketh also in you that believe.”

I Now Have a Life Worth Living

Boy, do I have a story to tell! When I was twenty-two years old I was strung out on drugs, on the doorstep of being homeless, and without a reason to live. I began praying to God for help and quit the drugs cold turkey. God provided me with strength, and within two weeks I was witnessed to by a WOW (Word Over the World) Ambassador.

With great gratitude and appreciation for the Word delivering me, I decided at the age of twenty-three to go out WOW. That year as a WOW Ambassador helped establish godly principles in my life which I have held onto for over thirty-five years—such as reading the Word and praying daily, not to mention the boldness it helped me establish in witnessing. If only I had the vocabulary and the time to express how totally grateful I am for those initial years.

With the abundance of the Word and the deliverance that I saw, I decided to go out WOW a second year. During that year, I witnessed to my wife, who has been by my side for over thirty years. We’ve been living debt-free for over twenty years. We have two children, and they are both serving as household fellowship coordinators.

We live on the Pacific Coast and just went down to visit our daughter, her husband, and our granddaughter in Tennessee. A high point of each day on our vacation was when my five-year-old granddaughter and I would get into the Word and pray in the mornings. If I was not awake, she would tap me on the shoulder, wanting me to get up to read and pray with her! Though the miles keep us apart at this time, the Word continues to cause our hearts to be knit together in love. I am truly thankful for the Word I have learned in The Way Ministry. I now have a life worth living.

Speaking in Tongues Brings Rest to My Soul

I have been blessed multiple times over the years since I attended my first fellowship in 1984. That was also the year I took the ministry’s Foundational Class. The thing that I have utilized the most since learning truths from God’s Word is speaking in tongues. One of the benefits taught is that it is rest to the soul. The ability to speak in tongues has brought deliverance to me a number of times.

One example was during a plane flight for a business trip. I had left home not feeling my best, and the pressurized cabin, along with the seating position I was in on the plane, was making me feel both claustrophobic and anxious. Then I remembered that speaking in tongues would bring rest to my soul. I began speaking in tongues and focused on the peace of God. Thankfully, soon afterwards I began to physically feel much better. I no longer had the anxious and claustrophobic feeling that I’d experienced earlier, and I completed the flight and the rest of my business week in prevailing health.

This power of God energized in my life was the result of being taught by my brothers and sisters in Christ in this ministry, who had the care, love, commitment, and desire to teach me, along with others, how to understand and remember truths from God. The example above is only one of the countless times that I have spoken in tongues to bring personal peace to a situation, and I am so thankful to have that power available to me.

I know that no matter what challenges arise in my life, God has my back. He honors His promises, and when I fall short in my believing, there is a loving household that shares with me what the Word says to help me get my actions back on the right path.

“You’re Going to Heaven!”

I had been singing in the church choir since the second grade. My greatest joy as I sang was to focus on the words of the song. One day as I looked up at the church ceiling, I expressed a yearning to God that had filled my heart for years. As the words of the song came out of my mouth, I yearned for an answer to my thoughts of “There’s got to be more than this! There’s got to be more than this!” There had to be more than just going to church once a week. I needed answers to my “why and wherefore” questions about my life.

Years later, when I was dating my now husband, he invited me to a Way Ministry household fellowship. We both signed up for the Foundational Class. As I spoke in tongues for the first time, my heavenly Father’s still, small voice revealed to me, “You’re going to heaven.” My eyes became flooded with tears—tears of joy and relief! No one in the class understood why I was crying so much until I shared what God revealed to me.

Because of the Word of God I have learned in The Way Ministry, God has given me deliverance from the fear I had, since childhood, of going to hell. As a child growing up, I never felt good enough or worthy enough to go to heaven. Now I no longer wonder and think, “There’s got to be more than this!” I can clearly and excitedly say, “There IS more than this—the rightly divided Word of God—and the deliverance others receive as I speak God’s Word to them.”

I Know I Am Born Again

Before taking the Foundational Class, my wife and I attended a church where the minister preached the love of God and eternal life. When he retired, a new minister came to our church; and he taught you could get saved, but if you sinned after you got saved, you could get unsaved, lose your eternal life, and have to get saved again.

We were invited to go hear Dr. Wierwille and to take his Foundational Class. My wife and I decided to take Dr. Wierwille’s class, as did the other three people that went with us to hear him speak. At that time, I wondered if I was born again or not. Sometimes I thought I was, and other times I doubted that I was. I just did not know.

During the last night of the class when Dr. Wierwille was leading us into speaking in tongues, it was like the adversary was sitting on my shoulder telling me I could not speak in tongues and that I was not even born again. In my mind, I said to the Devil, “Get out!” Then Dr. Wierwille said to all of us, “Speak in tongues!” I was the first to do so. I spoke in tongues. That was almost sixty-two years ago, and I have never doubted again that I am born again of God’s spirit. I know I am.

God has blessed me abundantly as I’ve believed His Word, and I am thankful for the ministry where my wife and I learned God’s Word and will for our lives. I will continue to stay faithful to God and His Word, and to The Way Ministry.

God Will Make a Way

I was nineteen years old, and I found myself with one very pressing need in my life. Worry and fear had taken control, causing me to lose jobs, to lose friends, and even a fiancé. I knew I needed answers. I remember asking God to literally show me the way out. Not long after, I was sitting in the home of four wonderful people and listening to God’s Word. They pulled out a Foundational Class registration card and handed it to me. One line jumped off that card, which was “Overcomes worry and fear.”

One truth in the ministry’s Foundational Class that brought me deliverance was the teaching on the law of believing. No one had ever taught me that I had the ability to control my thinking—that was a revolutionary concept to me. I learned that God’s Word contains promises that I can claim—over nine hundred of them. I was also introduced to a powerful book—The Bible Tells Me So. The first five chapters of this book showed me how I could take control of my thinking and believe the positive truths of God’s Word. I read this book over and over. One particular chapter called “The Synchronized Life” has a scripture that continues to live for me today, which is Psalms 18:33: “He maketh my feet like hinds’ feet, and setteth me upon my high places.” The Word says that God makes my feet like hinds’ feet, meaning, He makes it so that I may learn to walk by the Word so that my hind feet—my thoughts and actions—track with my front feet (representing the Word). So, where the Word tells me to set my feet, or my thoughts, that is where I place them. I learned that I could trust God’s direction because He is all-knowing.

Most of my worry at that time in my life stemmed from fear of the future or the unknown. But now I knew that I had a personal guide in life that would go ahead of me on the trail and make my way perfect.

In 2010, I again experienced this truth. My family and I were living in Canada in a location that we had just moved to only eight months previously, and we received a phone call asking if we would consider moving to another city because there was a great need for leadership there. My response was, “Can I take a few days and get back to you?” This would be a big, sudden move. I knew that I would need to find work in the new city. Most of the time in a move like this, people would get housing, a new job, and a school for their kids beforehand. But one thing that I had learned by this point is that if something is God’s will, then He will make a way, and all I need to do is trust Him and follow Him up the proverbial mountain because He will go ahead of me.

I remember hearing from all sorts of people, “There are no jobs there!” “You better prepare to submit thousands of resumes!” “Don’t you know that all the good jobs are leaving?” But I had no worry over the future because I knew I just needed to make my thoughts track with God’s perfect promises. Despite all the negative voices, I only had to submit one resume to a company that did not exist until we moved to our new city. I was the first applicant and first hire. Eight years later I am a director on the board of this company and vice president of Business Development.

The Word of God I learned in The Way Ministry continues to work for me and inspires me to reach new heights. As one version of the Bible reads in II Samuel 22:33 and 34:

God is my strong fortress. He clears the path I need to take.
He makes my feet as steady as those of a deer. Even on steep mountains he keeps me from falling.