Bill Wager

I was just a youth when my mother became very sick. The doctors said there was no hope for her and they sent her home from the hospital to die. She made preparations to send my sister and myself to relatives. But when she got home, she got on her knees and prayed. The Lord saved her and He raised her up. The next day, she went outside and hung a big load of wash on the line. All the neighbors came to see what had happened because they knew she had been sick.

Things changed in our house after that. My parents were going to a church that had grown cold, but one day the Lord spoke to my mother saying, “Come out from among them, and be ye separate” 2 Corinthians 6:17). From then on, my parents started looking for the true Gospel and a place to serve God among people who were Spirit-filled. They went from church to church. In each one of those churches it seemed that the power of God wasn’t there.

Then the Lord led them to where a group of Apostolic Faith people were holding a street meeting in Everett, Washington. When my mother heard them she said, “That is the same thing the Lord did for me. That is what I have in my heart.” It was exactly what they had been looking for.

My parents embraced what they heard and wrote to the founder of the Apostolic Faith. They were encouraged to hold meetings in our home. Some of my earliest memories are of kneeling down at a chair in our home, praying. When just a little fellow, my folks told me how the Lord could hear and answer prayer. I was brought up in a Christian home and I saw real miracles performed.

It wasn’t long until we moved to Dallas, Oregon, to attend the Apostolic Faith Church. I was brought to church and heard the truth go forth in power and glory. I was reared under the sound of a real Christian Gospel. I knew the Apostolic Faith people had the right thing, and I knew what I should do. At school, though, they preached the opposite of what I heard at church. I saw the other kids doing wrong things and I knew I shouldn’t follow, but I did not have the power to do right. I began doing things against my Christian training. One time I grabbed a cigarette that someone had been smoking, and that condemned me to the soles of my feet. I realized that if I didn’t do something, I would be going the way of the other kids.

Many times I thought about my parents living a real Christian life before us children. I never heard them speak a cross word between them—all I can remember is just happiness. Sometimes we didn’t have very much to eat. Sometimes we didn’t have a lot of clothes to wear. We were quite poor, but the Lord took care of all our needs. I never went hungry.

One Sunday morning, the Lord put such heavy conviction on my soul that I decided I had to settle it. I got down at the altar and meant business. I hadn’t committed any great sin, but I sure had a load of conviction. I told God I would do anything if He would save my soul, and He did it. I felt so free and so happy; I hadn’t realized what a burden I had been carrying. It seemed as though a ton had rolled off my heart. I knew I was a Christian.

The sun was shining that morning through the stained glass window. What I saw was what I felt in my heart: peace and joy.

I was just a youth, but my whole life changed. The next day, when I went out the first thing I noticed was I had the power to do right. I wasn’t defeated anymore. I went back to school and straightened out all the things that I had done wrong. I could live a Christian life among my classmates. Even the teachers started letting me have responsibilities because they knew I would do the right thing.

God has taken me through all kinds of troubles, trials, and afflictions, but He has always been there. He helped me raise a family. I have great-grandchildren in the Gospel now. Today that same peace and joy is in my heart.