The next prayer would take place in 1993. But first let me set the stage for it. I was in and out of the Spirit of God for the next few years. Yes! The Lord was dealing with me as you just read, but I was still in bitterness because of my divorce, so my relationship with God was still on shaky ground. (I was also a slow learner. I guess!) It still hurt to go to church because I would still remember the painful memories of when my wife and I stood in church together. (Even though it had been over ten years from our divorce.) I also resented losing the day to day relationship with my daughters through the years. So I had a lot of emotional issues to deal with. (Not to mention my childhood roots.).
I was also still around people who drank a lot, and I felt like the lone ranger when it came to religious matters, because it seemed like I was the only one who believed in God among those I was with during that time period. It was hard to speak a lot about the Lord, when I was so spiritually weak myself.. (Yet! I managed to slip a word in here and there.)
But then it was 1993, and I was all alone in my apartment one night. I was very depressed and perhaps a bit suicidal, because I remembered all the back slidden years of bitterness and depression, and I was growing weary and tired of it all. So the Lord started to reason with my heart. Here’s what he said to my heart: "Jeff, Why don’t you witness for me like you use to do?”
Yes! That’s what he said to me! But I laughed at him, because I remembered all my back sliding, and all the drunks who didn’t want to hear about God. So I laughed at God, like Sarah laughed at God, when God told Abraham he would have a son at 100 years old. I just thought it was hopeless for me to be a witness again. But the Lord kept pressing me, so I became angry with the Lord, and here’s what I said: "Lord’ Just show me one person who wants to hear me talk about you or the Bible. Just one Lord!" (He did!)
It was just about two hours after I said that to the Lord when the telephone rang about 10 O’Clock at night. It was my niece who never called me before in her whole life. (First time.) Here was her exact words to me as I answered the phone: "Uncle Jeff, I know you know things about the Bible, and I need someone to talk to me about the Bible, but I can’t find anyone to talk to me about it, so I'm wondering if you will talk to me about the Bible?."
Yes! That was her exact words, just two hours after I told the Lord to show me just one person who wants to hear me talk about Him. She and I talked all through the night and morning hours. We were still talking at 8 O’Clock the next morning. It was the longest time I ever talked to anyone about the Lord in one session in my whole life before and since that night.
My niece continued to call me night after night, and we started getting into 4 hour praise sessions with the Lord over the telephone together. It was during one of those praise sessions, when we asked the Lord to intervene in my sister’s family, because there was much violence and strife happening in her family circle. Then a month went by before I heard anymore about my sister again! (But Good News! Since that prayer my sister went to church, and was baptised with the Holy Spirit! She was speaking in tongues all within weeks of our praying for her, and all we did was pray. We never even talked with her. Just prayed for her, and the Lord sent strangers to minister to her.
Another thing happened then in 1993. I was praising the Lord one night, and the Lord told me that he was going to visit the apple of my eye! My daughter Angela gave her heart to the Lord that year , and she has been a Christian every since (I had nothing to do with it. I didn’t talk to her about the Lord then. Somebody else did.). The Lord also told me he was going to pull my bitterness out by its’ roots, but that wouldn’t come until five years later in 1998.
It was 1998 when I was visiting my daughter Angela once. Angela had been a Christian for five years then, and she was praying for her parents, because of the bitterness between us. Angela would try to speak to me about it, but I would use my Bible skills to cut her off at the pass so to speak. But it was then I noticed the pain in her eyes. (The pain in her eyes cut through my heart like a firing dart! Piercing my heart to pieces, as 20 years of bitterness melted within me, because suddenly I remembered my childhood dream about fatherhood, and I remembered the day Marilyn and I had Angela dedicated to the Lord when she was only 3 years old, and I stood there thinking how happy and proud we both would have been to hear our daughter talking about the Lord like she was doing that night.
So the lights came on for me, when I realized that bitterness isn’t what I wanted in the first place. I certainly never wanted to see pain in my daughter’s eyes, and I should have been praising my daughter’s words about the Lord, instead of trying to justify my bitterness through the years, and making up excuses why I had failed her. It was then I made an oath to myself and the Lord that I would never hold bitterness in my heart ever again.
I started reaching out to my daughters more than ever before! I especially reached out to my twin daughters, who were just babies when Marilyn and I divorced, so they didn’t know me very well. It was about that same time, when one of my twins hugged me once with tears in her eyes too. I never realized my twin daughters missed their relationship with me so much.
It took much prayer and reaching out, but Marilyn and I started talking after never speaking to each other in over ten years, and on Septemtember 8, 2001. (Just 3 days before 9/11) Marilyn picked me up in her car with our twin daughters Krissi and Kari in the back seat, as we all drove up to Angela’s house together, to surprize Angela with both of us visiting together. (I don’t want to see pain in Angela’s eyes. So it was one of my prayers being answered that day, and I bet it was a few of herown prayers being answered too!)
It was a very special day for our family circle, because it was the first time the twins ever remembered riding in the back seat with both their parents in the front seat. It was the first time our daughters saw us both peacefully under one roof together in over 20 years, and the first time the twins ever remembered the whole family circle together in their lives, because they were babies when we divorced.
Marilyn and I were never romantically involved since the divorce in 1978, but we are both on friendly terms today. Infact! Marilyn has already visited this website, because she just emailed me the other day and told me so. She might even be reading this page.
I want to finish this page by saying there has been other prayers the Lord has answered for me, but I wanted to give some of my testimony or history of my life, so the reader could have more insight and understanding about me and the Lord’s dealing with me. The Lord did suggest I start witnessing again for Him in 1993, and then gave me reasons why I should. (My own daughters eternal souls could have depended on it.!) My niece was also another soul the Lord cared about.
Those who have read the first page of my book on this website will know I once asked the Lord how I can know the Bible was His inspired word? It was in in 1993 I prayed that prayer to the Lord. It was just a few days after my niece called in 1993, when I asked the Lord to show me how the Bible is inspired, because I was really impressed how quickly he had my niece call me, after I told him to show me just one person who wanted to hear me speak about him or the Bible. (So I said to the Lord! My exact words: "Lord, You’re good! That was quick! Just two hours! I couldn’t find anyone in over ten years, but you sent someone in two hours! O.K Lord, How do I know the Bible is your inspired word? I believe you exist Lord! Because you answer my prayers. But what about the Bible Lord?"
It was then the Lord taught me about the Old Testament prophesying about Jesus Christ hundreds of years before Jesus was born. My book on this website is a product of that prayer. Today! I’m a believer in Jesus Christ, and I believe the Bible is the inspired Word of God. (All because of answered prayer in my life!)
In closing I want to say that I’m very happily re-marrried now to a very Precious and Special Christian Lady named Carol, who shares a similar childhood experience as my own, so the Lord has blessed me with a very dear soulmate, who I cherish and love with all of my heart. We are both so compatable with each other, that we both marvel how wonderful our marriage is, and we both believe our marriage is another answer to both our prayers, because we both yearned for true love for so many years.
We met through the Christianet website at: www.christianet.com
We married in September 2005. Just thought I would give Christianet a little advertising, because of our graditude. (Ironically! It was Marilyn who first told me about Christianet in 2002.) I'll never forget Marilyn's words once. (I caused her to fall from grace.) I can only hope and pray that I have helped encourage her faith the last several years, with hopes that I have been instrumental in restoring her faith some. Yet! Another twist could be: How do I know Marilyn wasn't praying for me through the years? Could it be, that neither of us really ever lost our faith in the Lord?
The Lord is the Author and Finisher of both our faiths, and our souls are in his hands. I do know that all three of my daughters are Christian believers, and I believe both Marilyn and I both have given testimonies which encouraged their faith. Marilyn is my witness that things I wrote here are true, and there are other witnesses as well.
But my new wife Carol is my witness to how well the Lord has just blessed my life, because I couldn't have asked for a more compatible wife than I have now. Carol is the fulfillment of everything I ever dreamed about! Fantasized about! Yearned for! Hoped For! Believed in! Desired for in a Special Lady and Wife! I wouldn't trade Carol for anyone or anything in this world. I'm 100% sure she's a perfect match for my heart! She's the one who stands out among all other women. She's More Special and Precious to me than anything in this world, and it's something I'll never let her forget. (I said of this world! Now the Lord in Heaven is another thing!) The Lord will always be number one in Carol's heart and my own heart.
There's one last thing I want to tell here: Since 1998 my faith has been in all the Lord can do through me, because I lost complete faith in myself, because of the mess I made out of my life through the years. So I put my faith in the Lord instead of myself.
(1). I was computer illiterate in 1998. I couldn't have turned on a computer if someone would have paid me a $100.00 to do so. (Running a computer was just a fantasy to me in 1998.) But now I run a computer and website. (2). I just wrote a book about Old Testament prophecies of Jesus Christ on a computer, that stemed from the teaching of the Lord Himself in 1993. (3). The Lord isn't finished with me yet! The Lord has given me visions yet to be fulfilled! I have prayed, and the Lord has answered my prayers.
God Bless You All! I Pray He’ll Touch All Skeptics Who Read This Page In Such A Way They’ll Never Forget. So They’ll Learn To Have Faith In The Lord!
