Prayer in a Tight Place Stopped by the police when he had a gun in the car, this young man tried to strike a bargain with God. By Clark Wolfe

When you have been taught about right and wrong, God and eternity, you never get away from it. During my upper teen years, I knew that I was doing things I should not have been doing. Sometimes I would look in the mirror, and God would speak to my heart.

My Christian heritage goes a long way back. My great-grandparents were a part of the Apostolic Faith Church when it was founded, and I grew up attending church and Sunday school. Because my dad worked in the church literature publishing department, I was a familiar face around the

headquarters office. Sometimes I had the opportunity to help assemble literature or do some other project, and I liked that. But there was something missing inside. Several times as a child, God spoke to my heart, but I did not yield to that call. I guess I thought there would be more fun in not serving God.

Drifting

As I grew older, I gradually drifted away from the precepts that I had been taught as a child and was involved in drugs, alcohol, and other aspects of a life of sin. My heart became hardened, and in time I did not really feel condemned for any of the things that I was doing. It seemed the Lord had stopped speaking to my soul, or else I just did not hear Him anymore because I was not listening. Yet once in a while, like when I was looking in the mirror, His conviction would cut right into my heart.  

On one occasion I had been drinking and taking drugs and then was out driving with some of my friends. I had a gun in the car when a police officer pulled me over, and I knew that I could be in a great deal of trouble. Stopped on a dead-end street where I could see our church’s steeple, that night I told God if He would help me out, I would come back and serve Him. Even though it was a pathetic prayer, made only because I was in a tight spot, God heard it and extended mercy. The police officer let me off pretty easy. Afterwards the enemy of my soul told me it was just luck, but God’s Spirit really put conviction on my heart.

Praying

A few nights later, I went to a service during our annual camp meeting. I felt so sick and tired of all those things that I had been doing. As I started to speak to the Lord, He made it very clear that I should turn my heart over to Him. After the service, I knelt at the chair where I had been sitting. However, God let me know that if I really wanted to get my life straightened out with Him, I needed to pray at the prayer bench at the front of the church where other people were praying. After I obeyed and went to pray there, in a couple of minutes God came down and saved me. He changed my heart and my life.

Soon after that, my grandfather took me out to breakfast and told me that when a person is born again, sometimes it can be difficult. He said that we have a target on us, and the enemy of our souls is like a lion, looking for any area of weakness so he can destroy us. Then he said a Christian needs to grow, to keep moving forward, and to seek the other experiences God has available. It became clear to me that I needed to do exactly that, so I began to seek God, and He was faithful to help me. He spoke to my soul about some restitutions that I needed to make. Some of them were hard, but I always prayed first, and God helped me.

Consecrating

One Sunday night I was praying after a service, and I felt that my life was fully consecrated to God. He came down and wonderfully, entirely sanctified me. God put a song in my heart and changed my attitude and the way that I thought.

During another camp meeting, I was hungry to receive the baptism of the Holy Ghost. Many people were receiving from God, including my fiancé, and that made me want the experience even more. Yet, I did not receive the baptism during that camp meeting or the youth camp which followed. Before long, my thoughts were totally focused on that experience. I went to sleep at night thinking how much I needed my baptism, and in the morning, that was my first thought. It was even hard to concentrate on my job. 

A group of young men spent a weekend attending our church in Yakima, Washington. Saturday evening was a youth song night, but afterward, some of us got down to pray. God had been so faithful to call for different consecrations, but there was one thing in particular that I had trouble yielding. That night I turned it over to God and said, “I give You everything that I have.” When the Lord would bring something to my mind, I would say, “Lord, that is Yours.” When He would bring up something else, I would say, “Lord, that is Yours. Whatever You want me to do, I will do; wherever You want me to go, I will go.” That night God came down and filled me with the Holy Ghost. I cannot explain the joy it brought.

Living

God has been with me in life’s situations. A few years ago, I had pneumonia and was in the hospital for five days. The ministers came to pray for me, and that day I was well enough to go home. Three days later, I had to go and be x-rayed. The doctor came into the room and said, “Clark, I cannot explain what has happened, but the pneumonia in your lungs is completely gone. It should have been there for another six weeks.” He was so baffled that he took me into another room and showed me the x-rays. I knew what had happened—God had healed me.

Clark Wolfe is a minister of the Apostolic Faith Church in Portland, Oregon.