Walt Smith

I praise the most high God who redeemed me from the life of misery and shame that I had lived for years. I was an unbeliever and a fighter against God. I had no use for anything connected with religion. It was all foolishness to me, but I was one of the biggest fools on this earth—a professed atheist!

I was not talked into this Gospel. Many years ago while trimming lumber in a sawmill, about 2:30 in the afternoon, God spoke to my heart, revealing Himself to me. He said, “The only true happiness is in the Lord.” I knew then that there was a living God. No one could talk that out of me. It was an actual experience! Anyone who has ever been around a sawmill, and has heard the screech of those saws and the rattle and the roar, knows one can barely hear a human voice. There was not a man within thirty feet of me, but God spoke to me above the scream of that machinery—and I knew it. In that moment I knew there was a living God, and I have never doubted it from that day until this.

Those men that I worked with knew that I was a drunkard and an atheist and had been for years. The minute Jesus spoke to my heart, I walked over to a fellow worker I had known for years, a hardened criminal who was worse than I was and I said, “There is a God!” He did not laugh. He seemed to realize something had happened to me.

I went to my father’s home, and I said to him, “I have had a visit from the Lord.” I did not know what else to say. He looked at me as though I had lost my mind, but I knew what had happened to me.

I did more than realize there was a living God. I said, “I will arise and seek His face, and find out about this thing.” And I did. The following Sunday morning found me sitting in the back of an Apostolic Faith Church. I did not know anyone there, but one meeting was enough for me. I saw the peace and the happiness that they had and I said, “If I had that, I would have everything.”

I thought I was pretty hard and tough; I’d had my own way for years. But that morning the Spirit of the living God came down and softened up this heart of mine, hardened by years of fighting against God, and tears rolled down my cheeks. That gave me hope and I made a start. I went down to their altar and prayed.

I asked God—the very God I had denied for years—“God, have mercy on me!” And He did. He saved and transformed me in a moment of time. Thank God for the Blood of Jesus! The power of God came into my life and this miserable, cursing, drunken unbeliever—filthy and unclean—was pure, clean, and holy. That took the power of God. It wasn’t any strength of mine.

The power of God came into my life and this miserable, cursing, drunken unbeliever—filthy and unclean—was pure, clean, and holy.

Sin and unbelief had robbed me of everything—willpower and character. I was nothing but a hopeless drunkard. I had cursed, drank, and smoked from the time I was just a boy and to be instantly transformed into a Bible Christian and have peace, joy, victory, and power to live above sin every day, it is no wonder I praise God.

I went to the people I had robbed and stolen from and made restitution. It took God to make me do that. I went back to that sawmill where hundreds of men had known me for years. They had known that I was a drunkard and an atheist; I had preached atheism there. Those same men could tell you that I went back and lived the life of a Bible Christian. Not an oath crossed my lips. I was not fighting my fellowman or chewing tobacco, but I lived for God. When I left that mill every man could tell you that God had made a change in my life.

When I returned home that day and told my parents that I’d had a visit from the Lord, my mother thought I was losing my mind and she didn’t say anything. But my father said, “Something must have happened to Walt. It is payday and he is sober.” He watched me, and when he saw me pay for some things I had stolen, he knew it was real. But I still could not talk to them about their turning to the Lord. I prayed for them for nineteen years, and just a little while before my father died, he could say as I had said, “I have had a visit from the Lord.” He had the assurance he was ready to go, and he had a glorious entrance into Heaven.

The kindness that was shown my mother during her time of bereavement melted her heart, and at the age of seventy-six, she repented of her sins and found forgiveness. What a transformation there was in that home! We lived together for many more years, enjoying Christian fellowship, reading the Bible and praying together, and talking about the things of the Lord. After she had a heart attack, I quit my job to take care of her. It was only about another month until the Lord took her Home. She went without a fear. I often wonder what would have happened to my parents if I had refused to give my heart to the Lord.

I spent thirty-one months in the Army and traveled overseas for two years. I thank God that I proved that He could keep a man living above sin right in the barracks, out on the drill field, or on the rifle range. God kept me with a song in my soul. I did not feel like complaining when the day was hot and the practice was long, tedious, and hard. I felt like praising God because I had the satisfaction in my soul that I was right with Him. If anything happened to me, I knew where I was going, so I was not worried. I knew if I died I would go Home to meet the God who had saved my soul from sin.

I have proved, too, that God can heal the body. One time I was so sick with acute appendicitis I could not get out of bed, nor hardly speak. I knocked on the floor with a shoe, and someone came from downstairs to see what was wrong. When he saw my condition, he did not mention a doctor but called for some of the ministers to come pray for me, according to the Word of God. God instantly healed me when they prayed. God also healed me of ulcers before I went into the Army, and though the food was sometimes not so good, I never had any trouble with my stomach.

After returning from the Army I did sheet metal work, and one day when on a ladder, I fell fourteen feet headfirst onto a paved driveway. I was completely helpless. A boy going by saw me and called for help. I was taken to a hospital. Both of my arms were paralyzed, my skull was fractured, and I had a brain concussion. But in that helpless condition I could praise the Lord. The doctor did not know how this was going to come out. I was told not to raise my head off the pillow for ten days, but the Lord healed me and I was out of the hospital in three days. A week later I was on an evangelistic trip. That is the power of my God.

I thank God for the privilege of upholding a Gospel with the power of God in it.