I am very thankful for The Way International and the Word that it has taught. I took my first Foundational Class forty years ago, and I am currently celebrating my fortieth year standing with this ministry. God has worked in my life many times in that period, and He performed several miracles before that to get me to the place where I was witnessed to.
Thirty years ago I graduated into The Way Corps. Even to this day, I draw upon what I have learned in The Way Corps to benefit my life and the lives of others. What I learned in The Way Corps literally saved my life in a big way fifteen years ago.
I was working at a newspaper, first writing obituaries, then real estate ads. It was getting harder and harder to type. My pinky finger on my left hand kept hitting the Caps Lock key. I also noticed a tremor in my hand. I was laid off of that job and started living with my mother. She was eighty years old and needed the extra help. As my manner was, I would study the Word, recite retemory verses, and listen to the Sunday service teachings faithfully, as well as read The Way Magazine.
During this time, it was noticeable that my whole personality and demeanor was slowing down. I went to a Limb meeting at a state park. As I walked around taking pictures, the believers were asking each other if I had experienced a stroke. I was walking differently. I found it unusual that I couldn’t button up my jacket. One of the believers helped me with it. In the days following, this believer called my mother and exhorted her to take me to the doctor.
I would wake up every morning with tremors in both hands. I was starting to have trouble walking around. My mother would have to walk with me and hold on to me so I wouldn’t fall down. She eventually would have to dress me and put me to bed. I had many doctor visits. I kept three-by-five-inch cards in my purse to study while in the waiting room. I wanted to fill my mind with the Word because I was taught in The Way Corps that the brain was designed to hold the Word of God. It was also a way of keeping fear out of my life. I put my thoughts on the Word so that I wouldn’t dwell on my situation. I was scheduled for an MRI. I wanted them to see a brain the way God designed it, full of the Word, when they looked at the MRI results.
The MRI machine was intimidating, with the loud noise it made and with the feeling of being in a tube that it gave me. To keep my mind from reverting to fear, I would recite retemories and speak in tongues. I would not let my mind give in to fear. This was highly effective. When they took me out, the woman asked me, “How do you stay so calm?” There was no fear exhibited on the scan, and they wondered at that. The Word of God works!
After the MRI, I was diagnosed with a brain tumor. This is a brain tumor that sits on top of the brain. They told me it had been there for many years.
I wondered, “How could this be?” I had been in the Word for decades, and I was as faithful as I knew how to be. I had gone out as a Word Over the World (WOW) Ambassador, completed The Way Corps training, and was faithfully running a fellowship for what totaled seven years. Isn’t God good always? I talked to someone whose opinion I trusted. He had previously been my fellowship coordinator and was a Way Corps Alumnus. He said, “Satan strikes with a continual stroke.” This statement helped me and reassured me that Satan may have brought it, but God was going to deliver me out of this. God’s solution was what I sought for this problem.
I endeavored to put the Word on in my thinking more and more. The Sunday Night Services that summer featured a series on Job: From Victim to Victor. It was about snatching victory from the jaws of defeat! I made that my theme. I was going to snatch victory from the jaws of defeat. Satan thought he would defeat me, but God would deliver me.
The four steps to renewing the mind were what I worked and lived:
- Study the Word of God.
- Recognize our position in Christ as sons of God.
- Practice the presence of God.
- Live with the love of God in the renewed mind in manifestation.
Once I was diagnosed, I was scheduled for brain surgery to remove the tumor. When surgery time came, there was a massive blackout that affected many states in my part of the country and part of Canada. This lasted for one to two days, and surgery was postponed a week.
I finally had the surgery. I was really scared going in there. I fought my fear by reciting I John 4:18 and II Timothy 1:7 nonstop, one after another, over and over again. I wanted power, love, and a sound mind. When they were prepping me for surgery, I was reciting the retemories out loud. The nurse looked at me quizzically, and I said, “It’s OK. This is how I meditate.”
The surgery took several hours, but it was effective. The tumor was on top of the brain, and it was plucked out like a piece of fruit. The actual size, I heard, was anywhere from the size of a plum to an orange. Pathology showed no cancer present.
Recovery time in the hospital helped me build my relationship with God. I knew God had me in the palm of His hand, and I practiced the presence of God. I spoke in tongues much because God knew what was going on behind the scenes and I didn’t. I wanted to recover fully. I got the Bible from the room and looked at it. I said, “Great, I can still read.” I strove to read the Word every day, and when I couldn’t read it, I recited my retemories. Mostly I talked to God. Job received his deliverance when he prayed for his friends. I prayed for every single person in our whole Branch. Job received double when his ordeal was all over. I told God, “I want double.” Little did I know that there was a man who would write a letter to me that would arrive two weeks after my hospital stay who would later become my husband! We have been faithful fellowship coordinators for the past ten years.
God completely delivered me from that brain tumor. I found out later that if I had waited much longer to have the surgery than I did, I would not have lived too much longer. I came through the surgery and was faithful to my physical therapy. I am stronger than I ever was physically, and my eyesight even got better! Looking at me today, people don’t believe it ever happened. I am a walking example of God’s grace and deliverance.
I continue to put God’s Word in my mind and teach people that the renewed mind is the key to power, that God is good always, and the value of putting God’s Word in their minds and hearts. I tell them that by doing and recognizing these things, they also can snatch victory from the jaws of defeat!