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God’s Will for His Children

God Forgives

I had always known as a child that God did exist, but I did not know that He could and would forgive and that Jesus Christ was the way, the truth, and the life. Then someone took the time to lovingly show me the truth from God’s Word.

This is the truth: God forgives and forgets.

I John 1:9:
If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

Psalms 103:12:
As far as the east is from the west, so far hath he removed our transgressions from us.

I never knew these scriptures or even where they were in the Bible. I was taught as a child to obey and that God punishes those who do not obey. I was taught that only by begging God for forgiveness could I be forgiven. A footnote to that teaching was that God never forgets my disobedience.

Being shown from God’s Word the truth that He is love and there is no darkness in Him at all, I was able to let go of past sins, failures, condemnation, and feelings of inadequacy. And most of all, I was shown that God only wanted me to live a life that was more than abundant.

I Finally Accepted the Word

The most significant event that I am grateful for is, literally, getting born again.

Growing up, my parents never attempted to influence their children’s views concerning God. I was an agnostic through much of my childhood, and I had participated in church on occasion, but I didn’t get much out of it. During my years in college, I received an education in “religion,” including a variety of Christian faiths: Roman Catholicism, Lutheranism, and Calvinism, among others. I also received an education in some Eastern philosophies, including Buddhism and Daoism. By the time I completed this “education,” I determined that as messed up as the world was, if there was a God, He would have straightened it out long before now. I decided at that time that I was an atheist and remained so for the following three years. At that time some followers of The Way witnessed to me and began instilling in me an understanding of the Word and (more importantly) the integrity of it. Through some longsuffering on their part, I finally accepted the Word for what it is: revelation of God’s will for us. I was not just told why the world was the way it was, but I was shown in the Word the reasons why. I was also shown many other things that established my new Biblical convictions and beliefs.

One evening at fellowship, I was asked to pray during directed prayer (until that moment I had refused to pray because I was coming to fellowship for purely academic reasons), and I had to make a decision. So I decided that the Word has integrity and that I could place my trust in it and God. At that moment, I was born again. I became a child of God with the promise of eternal life, and I looked forward to seeing what other treasures awaited me in my new station of life. One of my earliest lessons was in the joy of giving, and I have continued to give as much as I can ever since.

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Service to God and His People Is So Satisfying

My parents did a wonderful job bringing me up. They raised me as a Christian in a denomination as they had been. They taught me to work hard and they taught me how to be detail minded, honest, fair, and good to all, with a willingness to take care of others. I will be ever grateful for that. However, as a teenager, I began to sense some uncertainty in my faith and in who I was as a Christian. I began to question the denomination I was a part of. I was at a crossroads, wanted answers to life, and began to search for ways to curb my hunger and to put into practice the Biblical principles that my parents taught me. I had a strong desire to make a difference in life, but did not know where to start. What I was craving was an avenue to serve in and to serve with purpose and meaning. Little did I know that my lifelong dream would be serving God for a lifetime! After I completed college, the search for answers continued until one day someone handed me a small green enrollment card for The Way Ministry’s Foundational Class. Of the many one-liners about the class teachings printed on the front side, two that stood out for me were “Makes life meaningful” and “Disciplines the mind by believing.” The back side of the card was an agreement that read, “I am enrolling in this class because I am searching for an accurate knowledge of the Word of God and desire to increase the power of God in my life.” To say the least, I was searching, and I indeed had a desire to increase the power of God in my life!

Well, over thirty-five years later, I can confidently and thankfully say, “The rest is history!” Like for so many, the class was life changing. As I was taught and began applying truths from the Bible, my life began to have meaning. I learned how to develop a personal relationship with God, and I learned how to pray. As I proved the Word in my life, I started sharing it with others. I learned that I was important to God. With God as my sufficiency, I started a new life filled with believing opportunities at every turn! I grew in my confidence that He is not slack in what He promises and that His power is available to me. Major deliverance followed as I decided to put myself in a position to grow. I began to give back by serving, and that was so instrumental to making my life meaningful. As my priorities changed, I found I had more time to give. Things that once were so important to me now paled in significance compared to living a life filled with God’s Word and making it available to others.

Shortly after completing the ministry’s Advanced Class, the door opened wide for me to serve as a fellowship coordinator. A year later, I went out Word Over the World (WOW) Ambassador, where I was assigned to coordinate our family. What an awesome responsibility that was! Helping people and finding the hungry hearted was so fulfilling, and we met our goal of running a Foundational Class that year! And as if God had not blessed me big enough, I was asked to manifest on the main stage at the opening night of the Rock of Ages, when the WOW Ambassadors were pinned for their year of service. (As a side note, my parents were in attendance, and they got to hear the worship manifestations for the first time! When I was reunited with them later that evening, the first thing my mom asked was, “Where did you learn how to do that?” Oh, what a witness that was!) After my WOW year, I came on Staff at The Way International Headquarters, and that same year I met my wife. A year later, I entered The Way Corps program, where I received training to be a Christian minister. Since graduating into The Way Corps, I have served on Staff. Needless to say, God has blessed my life abundantly!

As a Christian minister for almost twenty-five years, life is still becoming more meaningful, and I continue to see great benefit as I discipline my mind by believing! Service to God and His people is so satisfying, and opportunities personalized for my season of life continue to open. As I put God first, He continues to prosper me physically, mentally, and spiritually. I look forward, with great enthusiasm and thankfulness to The Way Ministry, to what God has in store for me next!

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A Spiritual Principle That Absolutely Works

The Way Ministry taught me how to claim God’s prosperity through the principle of tithing. I remember vividly a time when I put this principle to the test. After college I decided to go to law school. Law school was a very expensive endeavor, and I did not want to go into debt. I knew that I wanted to help people as an attorney, and graduating law school debt-free would give me the freedom to take any job and go anywhere to best help others.

So, I took a year and worked at a law firm to save money, I made changes to my spending habits and living expenses, I applied for every scholarship I could find, and I faithfully tithed. By the time I entered law school, I did not have all of my tuition together. But, I continued to apply for scholarships, and I trusted that God would come through with the rest of what I needed.

At the end of my first year of school, I remember sitting on my bed, looking at the invoice for the next semester’s tuition fees. I did not have the money. I had less than a month to come up with the money, or I would need to withdraw from law school. I knew that it was not God’s will for me to withdraw from school, because He had opened so many doors for me to get as far as I had. As I sat on my bed, I told God that I believed in Him. I was doing everything that I knew to do to raise the money; the rest was going to come from Him. In that moment, I decided to increase my abundant sharing. I had been taught in this ministry that tithing and abundant sharing is our recognition that God is the Source of our supply. It is our acknowledgement that He is our sufficiency. From a five-senses point of view, it seemed counterintuitive to part with the very thing that I was asking God to supply me with—money. But, spiritual verities do not always line up with senses knowledge.

Within a few weeks, a family member who did not know of my financial situation told me that it was recently on his heart to help me with my law school tuition. He asked me how much I needed to finish my education. I was embarrassed to tell him the full amount, because it was such a large sum. But, I told him anyway. He paused and thought for a few seconds and then he said, “I think I can do that.” And just like that, I went from having no options to having my need completely met. God worked in another person to bring to pass my prosperity.

I am often amazed by the abundance that I have experienced in my life because I have faithfully applied the principle of tithing. While it may not be logical by the five senses, it is a spiritual principle that absolutely works. It is the accurate knowledge of spiritual principles that causes a man or woman to claim the more than abundant life. And I am thankful that this ministry continues to teach that it is the Word, the Word, and nothing but the Word!

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We Were Finally at Home in The Way Ministry!

I Chronicles 16:8-10:
Give thanks unto the Lord, call upon his name, make known his deeds among the people.
Sing unto him, sing psalms unto him, talk ye of all his wondrous works.
Glory ye in his holy name: let the heart of them rejoice that seek the Lord.

To God be the glory, indeed, for He has done great things for me.

Though I was taught in church about God’s love, God’s goodness, God’s mercy, and the Almighty God, as I grew up, I soon began to perceive what then appeared to me to be a contradiction between the love and omnipotence of God and real life. Despite my Christian education, I could not understand why my grandfather passed away or why there was so much violence and evil in the world. Questions kept piling up as the knowledge I received from primary and then secondary school increased. In a culture saturated with witchcraft, I felt helpless and fearful. As I kept attending the church, I expected pastors and priests to provide answers, to no avail.

By the age of nineteen, I came to the conclusion that there were no acceptable and logical answers to expect from the church and started my own quest. God, I thought, is too great to pay attention to and take care of human business. Humans had to fix their own mess!

It was when I fell short of fields of research that God found me through a wonderful disciple of The Way Ministry who introduced me to the rightly divided Word of God. (I had never heard that before!) He soon convinced me to take the Foundational Class, then called Power for Abundant Living. I invited my wife to join me. After the first three segments of the class, I exclaimed, “That’s what I was looking for!!!” We were finally at home in The Way Ministry!

Proverbs 22:6:
Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it.

All our expectations have been exceeded. For twenty-four years, we have learned far more than we would have ever thought possible.

My wife and I have gone for a journey full of abundance and power with God Almighty, which lasts to this day. We have been freed from all our fears, for we know who we are in Christ, what we have received, and what we can achieve with the power of God in Christ in us.

We have done for our five boys what our own parents did for us: we exposed them to the Word of God to the end that they are all born again of God’s spirit and speak in tongues.

The will of God is good, acceptable, and perfect. We know it by experience.

What a heavenly Father we have!!!

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Thank God for His Protection!

Power to Claim God’s Deliverance

When our firstborn was a few months old, I was home alone with him on a hot summer day. The weather forecast predicted a strong line of thunderstorms heading our way. The power to our apartment suddenly went out, and in the heat of summer, I knew I had to get myself and the baby to a safe location. I packed up our things, and we headed to my mother-in-law’s house in the next town over. As I was driving, lightning flashed, thunder clapped, and sheets of rain poured down on us to the point where I could barely see the road or the other vehicles around me. I knew from the Advanced Class that I had the power to claim God’s immediate, miraculous deliverance. So I shouted out loud in the car, “Father, I need to get this baby safely to our destination! In the name of Jesus Christ, I claim that this rain STOPS!” And it was as if we passed through an invisible wall. The rain stopped, and the road on the other side was bone-dry. We made it safely to my mother-in-law’s home, where we were able to sleep soundly through the night and return home (power restored) the next day.

God Kept Us Safe

My husband, daughter, and I lived in a house that had a garage attached to the side of the house. We usually parked the car and came into the house through the door that went from the garage to the house. The door was wrought iron. One day my husband left to do some errands, and my daughter and I stayed home. About fifteen minutes after my husband left, I saw four police cars parked in front of my house, and I heard them say, “The thief jumped over the fence and went into that garage.” They were pointing at my house and at my garage.

I moved toward the garage door and saw that the thief was standing at the door. He looked at me and told me to open the door. I told him, “NO!” He started twisting and turning the doorknob to open the door. I prayed and thanked God for His protection. The door did not open, and I was so relieved that my husband had locked the door when he left to run his errands. The thief kept turning the doorknob and banging on the door to open it, but it didn’t open. After a few minutes, he gave up and ran out, jumping over a fence and out to the street. The police followed after him, and I took a deep breath and thanked God for His protection. Once I was sure he was gone, I went to the garage door and tried it. It opened easily. It had not been locked. All the time the thief was trying to get in, it was open. But God kept it locked and secure so that my daughter and I would be safe.

This ministry has taught me to believe in God’s love, care, and protection. As I prayed and believed, He took care of me and my daughter, keeping us safe from all harm. What a great God and Father we have!

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Clear and Concerned to Get Results

I Was Able to See God Meet My Need

I am very thankful for the things that I have learned from our ministry’s teachings. One of those things is believing God to meet my need. In Volume I of Studies in Abundant Living, The Bible Tells Me So, I learned that a big key to getting results to prayer is to get clear and concerned about what I want to see come to pass. I also learned that the power of prayer is magnified when we team up to believe for things.

Several months ago, I found out that my car needed a number of expensive repairs. Rather than spend all that money on my older vehicle, I decided that it would be better to save up for a more recent one. I had enough funds saved to start looking for a good-quality used vehicle, which was a good thing, as the condition of mine was getting progressively worse. I started my search, but couldn’t find anything that I liked. My wife reminded me to write down specifics—the model and even the range of years for the vehicle. She helped by looking on the Internet and found a few that fit the specifics. The next day I called to see if those were still available. Some were already sold, but I found one that was still available and arranged to see it. It was the right model, within the acceptable year range, in excellent condition, and had several luxuries that were beyond expectations. The salesperson also found out that the price had just dropped several hundred dollars, as they wanted it to sell. After it passed our mechanic’s prepurchase inspection, my wife and I agreed that it was a good deal, and bought it.

Without the Word that I had learned in this ministry, I would have most likely searched in an unclear fashion, which may have taken months. With the Word, I was able to see God meet my need by staying focused and believing together with my like-minded spouse.

God Was Able to Take Care of Me

There have been many principles of life I have learned since I have received an understanding from The Way Ministry of what God makes available through His Word.

Here’s one incident that is very vivid in my life, that I continue to share with others whenever they are challenged looking for employment. I had learned from the teaching that I received on believing that being clear and concerned about what you need is an important aspect of receiving anything from God. I had just moved into a new area, and I began to look for employment; but before I did that, I sat down and went through my living expenses and what I needed to live comfortably. When I ventured out, the first interview I had was with a company that had a good position for me, but their starting rate was below the amount I needed. After talking to the interviewer and sharing with this person the necessary need I had plus my ability, and expressing I would do the job above and beyond the normal, I was granted not only the job, but they were willing to raise the pay rate to accommodate my need also.

In future times, whenever I look for employment, because I saw how God was able to take care of me by my remaining clear and concerned on what I needed, I am confident that whenever I pursue different avenues of life, I will have the right tools to gain the desired results.

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God Never Forsakes His Children

In 2017, I experienced a great health issue. My eyes couldn’t see anymore. My left eyelid had fallen completely. I was seeing everything double to the point that I could not read the Bible anymore or watch TV or drive. I could not take care of the fellowship that I was coordinating or anything else, even with my glasses on. According to the neurological service where I had been hospitalized, I was told I needed emergency surgery.

God never forsakes His children and is always able to change lemons into lemonade.

The household helped me in such a wonderful way, from the fellowships in my area to the Country coordinators. They did not cease to make mention of me in their prayers. The exhortations and teachings on God’s Word being His will, given to me by my Country leaders, really strengthened my believing.

God gave the final word as He answered our prayers. The emergency surgery which should have happened was delayed and then definitively canceled. Today I can thank my God for His wonders, because He delivered me. My health situation got better and better. I can see again, my eyelid is up, and I can use both of my eyes. Everything is just great. I went back to my daily activities as I used to do in the past.

What blessed me even more is that one day, as I was getting ready to ride with the assistant fellowship coordinator to our Household Fellowship Coordinator Training, he looked at me and told me, “You are the one driving!” I did not hesitate! I took the keys and drove there and back, which is almost five hundred kilometers.

This is what God is able to do for us, His children, and what He made available for wholeness, good health, and healing.

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We Believed God to Meet Our Needs, and He Did!

I first took the ministry’s Foundational Class when I was twelve years old. Ever since that class, I have had the joy to stand with this ministry. Many of the concepts taught in that class were not new to me, as I had been taught them from birth. Growing up in the ministry has been a profound advantage to me in that I learned to walk according to the Word of God, and it just became my way of life. Tithing and abundant sharing are just natural and logical practices for me. Giving and serving others are just what I’ve learned to do. I have always had my needs met. I haven’t always earned a lot of money, but we’ve never gone hungry and we’ve never not been able to pay our rent on time. We, as a family, have believed God to meet our needs, and He ALWAYS has.

I remember as a child, our family had need of a new car. Dad got us together, we talked about what we needed and wanted the car to have, we prayed about it, and within a few days we had exactly what we said we needed plus a few extra things we hadn’t thought about. That was how life was for us. We believed God to meet all our needs, and He did so without fail.

As an adult, we received news that my wife was diagnosed with cancer. The nurse that gave us the news was surprised when we didn’t seem shocked, scared, or devastated when she told us, like most of her patients were. We simply told her that we believed that God would take care of my wife, so there was no reason to be alarmed. Today she is cancer free.

The numerous classes and teachings we have heard over the years have put us in a position to help others and to serve God’s people. We have been household fellowship coordinators, we’ve been Branch coordinators, we’ve worked on The Way International Staff; and at each position we have felt that we were called to carry out that particular responsibility. We did each one with joy and all the love of God that we could put into it, and God has blessed us at every turn.

We told a young man about our approaching anniversary. He said, “Congratulations, what’s your secret?” I replied that with God at the center of the family, everyone is on the same page, believing together, and life is GREAT! I can’t think of a better way to live, nor would I want to try to live any other way.

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God Talked, I Listened!

The first household fellowship I attended was coordinated by a beautiful young woman in a wheelchair. I was told she had polio as a child, when she was about four years old, and as she got older, became wheelchair-bound. This amazing woman did not let that keep her back; she held a full-time job, a college degree, and always had a beautiful smile that lit up every room. She owned a handicap-accessible van and had a driver whose wife was her caretaker (she helped with meals, personal hygiene, etc.).

It was about three years after I began attending fellowship and when I had been working at a hospital (which was just about a mile from where the young woman lived), when, on my day off, I was headed back there to meet a few colleagues on our way to a conference. As I was walking into the emergency room (ER), I saw her caretaker walking out with the empty wheelchair. I asked what had happened, where she was, and was speechless when told that she had gone into respiratory failure, was being admitted to the intensive care unit with a prognosis of “poor,” and was not expected to survive. I was stunned; it couldn’t be—not that vibrant, beautiful young lady with the big smile, genuine heart for God, and infectious laugh.

I rushed inside to see her being wheeled on a stretcher; her eyes filled with tears when she saw me. Holding her hand and rubbing her head, my eyes now filled with tears; I know I heard God say to me, “This is why I brought you to this hospital.” I know He said a lot more, but my heart was full, and I couldn’t quite hear it all at that moment.

Now, I might have heard someone else talk about others doing the same thing, I don’t remember that now, but I am positive the following is what I know God told me to do: After calling the minister overseeing the state and informing him of the serious medical situation, I asked permission to call The Way International Headquarters to start twenty-four hours of continuous prayer. Next, I started calling household fellowship coordinators as well as believers I knew and asked them to pass the request for prayer on as soon as possible. I needed volunteers for a 24-7 prayer sit-in/vigil at her bedside (once permission was obtained from the attending physicians, staff, and hospital administrators). I popped in every chance I got while on duty and also while taking my shift as a volunteer when not. Someone who had a portable audiocassette player/boom box gladly offered to let us use it. This was because, as God clearly showed me, she had to have the Word within earshot 24-7—it could be a teaching, a Bible passage, or the Word in song. The verse God brought to my mind was:

Psalms 107:20:
He sent his word, and healed them, and delivered them from their destructions.

By the end of the first week after she had been admitted, there were visible signs of improvement, but God instructed me to not stop yet. We continued until she was transferred to the rehabilitation unit, and then slowly cut back on the hours as she improved more and more. The day she was discharged was a moment of praise and glory to God for His mighty hand in leading me to that place, that hospital, that day and time. She lived about twenty-four more years before falling asleep. In my heart, I’m convinced God had His hand in the whole thing—He is cool like that—my moving to that city, being introduced to The Way Ministry, taking the class, working at that specific hospital, on the unit where I developed a great working relationship with those specific physicians, as well as my trusting God to show me what He needed me to do at the time.

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The Word of God Gave Me Stability

The Word of God has given me stability. I know that I know what the truth is, and I can stand on it and be proud to stand and speak of it.

Isaiah 33:5,6:
The Lord is exalted; for he dwelleth on high: he hath filled Zion with judgment and righteousness.
And wisdom and knowledge shall be the stability of thy times, and strength of salvation: the fear [respect] of the Lord is his treasure.

Growing up I asked, Am I going to heaven? Why don’t we sacrifice animals like in the Old Testament? I wondered, What happens after death, and where were the dead if they were alive? I wondered so much that I did my high school senior research paper for English on the topic of life after death, and I concluded there was life after death because of the experiences people had had while they were “dead” and then came back to tell the story. At one time I could predict when the phone was going to ring. That was something fun, but it got old because I didn’t see the practical application for that (thank God). Life became for me about sacrificing my life for others, but at twenty-seven I had had it. All that stuff was just getting me depressed. I left my hometown and was witnessed to in less than two weeks. In eight months I took the Foundational Class! WOW, not only was it there in black and white that I was born again in the uncomplicated formula of Romans 10:9 and 10, but I learned I do not have to sacrifice anything for God, but had a perfect sacrifice for me, and I’m not a servant, but a son!—of God! The class showed me where spiritualism came from and that the dead in Christ will be made alive at the return. Oh my, well, I’m so blessed for what the Word has done for me; it saved me. I still am thrilled to find that the Bible makes sense and that there are people like me that love this Word for its soundness and that it is the stability of our times.

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