There was only silence from the demons, except for the normal hissing that accompanied them wherever they went.
“Then be off now to your neighborhoods. Be careful, but turn up those voices!”
All during the night a rotating group of volunteer Prayer Warriors from the three churches maintained a prayer vigil in the room they had rented at the Palace Hotel, praying by name for the salvation of each one of the men who had been invited to the breakfast. Praying for the speaker, Benjamin Fuller. And praying for divine protection during this important battle in their city in the spiritual war.
Nepravel and Zloy were hugging the roof of a bar in the commercial center that separated their two neighborhoods, watching all the incoming prayer cover and knowing that any voices still left turning inside the invitees in their neighborhoods would be weak, at best.
“I haven't seen so many answered prayers in years and years,” Zloy cursed. “I'm sure glad it's not like this all the time!”
“You and me both!” agreed Nepravel. “Look, let's work together and protect each other. I'll go with you to your neighborhood and stand watch against angels while you spin up your voices—then you do the same for me.”
“Sounds good. It'll take all night that way, but perhaps we'll survive!” grumbled Zloy, as they headed out.
20
THURSDAY, MAY 4 – Alarm clocks went off early that morning all over the city, and in Pittsburgh, as believers from the churches arose to pray for the list of men who would be attending the prayer breakfast. Bob Meredith was proud of his daughter, Bobbie, who had asked to be awakened early so she could pray for Susan's father and the other men as well. While Bob dressed, Bobbie knelt by her bed and began praying, adding her voice to the hundreds of other voices seeking God's intervention in their city that morning.
At that precise moment, Nepravel and Zloy finally reached the Sullivans’ house, after a tense night of dodging angels in their neighborhoods. While Zloy stood guard on the roof, Nepravel arrived at Richard's side, just minutes before his alarm was set to go off. Nepravel was upset but not surprised to find that the large number of incoming answered prayers had almost completely silenced the important voices of Pride and Disbelief inside Richard.
As Nepravel began to spin them up again, Zloy was focusing on a huge angel who appeared to be coming their way, just above the treetops, from the east. His attention on that one angel was almost his undoing, because this angel was only half of a pair, and the other angel was heading toward Richard's house, sent by all of the prayers, from the west. Only at the last instant did Zloy remember his training and turn to check over his shoulder, just in time to duck the crack of the talons and screams from the eagles’ heads of “Holy, Holy, Holy is the Lord God of Hosts!”
“Yiiee!” screamed Zloy as he dodged to his left and spun around, only to face the second angel now closing on him, as the first circled to return.
Nepravel simultaneously heard Zloy's scream and the angel's proclamation. Since all demons are lying cowards, he was not prepared to risk his future by staying with Richard, nor by helping Zloy defend himself. Instead, Nepravel took off through the back of Richard's home and threaded his escape through the woods to the north.
Zloy, desperate to escape the twin attack by the circling angels, dove into a storm sewer outlet on Devon Drive and flew as quickly as he could through the dark tunnels of the city's sewer system.
When Richard's alarm went off that morning, he could not for a moment remember why it was so early. But then he recalled the prayer breakfast with Benjamin Fuller and Bob Meredith's appointment to take him. With the demonic voices only partially working that morning, thanks to all the prayers, he found himself—and it actually surprised him—looking forward to the event.
By the time Bob's car pulled into the driveway, Janet was awake as well. Bob came to the front door and smiled a hello to Janet, whom Richard kissed goodbye, and they walked out to Bob's car.
Richard could not believe it, but there, waiting in the car, were Court Shullo and two men he did not know. As they approached the car, one of the men opened the front passenger door, and Bob Meredith introduced them. “Richard, this is Ricky Knowlton. Ricky is a young accountant who goes to our church and works not far from your office. If you'll give him your car keys, he'll have your car waiting for you in your normal garage space.”
“Hi, Ricky,” Richard smiled. “Well, here are the keys and my briefcase, and there's the car. I certainly do appreciate your doing this.”
“Think nothing of it, Richard. What you're going to hear this morning is so important that I'm delighted to help.”
As Ricky headed toward Richard's car, he and Bob climbed into the front seats of Bob's car.
“Hi, Court,” Richard said as he buckled himself in. “I had no idea you would be here this morning.”
“It's a real privilege to be here, Richard. Do you remember Jim Anderson from the Greene Firm?”
Richard had not immediately recognized Jim, but now he remembered the attorney against whom they had litigated a major insurance case a few years earlier.
“Hi, Jim,” Richard said, extending his hand. “I didn't recognize you at this early hour.”
“I can imagine,” smiled Jim from the back seat with Court. “But I'm sure glad to be here with you.”
As they began the fifteen-minute drive to the Palace Hotel, Bob explained to Richard, “Court and Jim just wanted to come along this morning to let you know how important the message you're going to hear this morning can be in your life.”
“Richard,” Court began, “you know from our evening together a year ago that the first priority for Sandy and me is trying to submit our lives to the Lord. I thought you might like to meet Jim again and hear what he has to say.”
Richard, who was beginning to be overwhelmed by all of this attention so early in the morning, nodded to Jim.
Jim, who was a little older than Richard, told the other three men the moving story of his oldest son, who had been estranged from his parents and become a heavy user of alcohol while still in college. Unknown to Jim, his son was on the verge of suicide when a Christian chaplain at the college found him and brought him to his knees in what Jim's son later described as the worst and best all-nighter of his entire life.
Within a week, Jim's son gave his life to the Lord. He was so moved that he came home in the middle of the term to tell his mother and father about how the power of God had changed his life. Jim greeted his son at their front door and could not believe the physical transformation. The three of them spent most of the night staying up, talking and crying, as Jim's son and Jim himself unburdened many years of pent-up misunderstandings and frustrations. His son returned to college the next day, but Jim had called Court, whom he knew to be a Christian, to describe the events of the previous day. And within another two weeks, both Jim and his wife became Christians and joined Court's church.
As they drove up to the Palace Hotel, Jim concluded, “Richard, whatever you may have thought or heard about real Christianity is probably at best only half true. Whatever garbage is in your life, whatever problems you are having with your wife or your children, God wants you to be victorious and happy. You can be, believe me, if you just stop trying to run it all yourself, and, like I did, turn it over to the Father who knows everything you need even before you ask.”
They pulled up to the front of the hotel, and all four men got out. But Bob handed his car keys to Court.
“You're not staying?” Richard asked, as Court and Jim re-entered the front seats. “No, Richard, there wasn't room at the prayer breakfast for us this morning. We just wanted you to know how much you mean to us…and how much you mean to God.” Court smiled as he waved goodbye and started the car.
As Bob escorted Richard into the hotel lobby, they noticed many other cars pulling up and dropping off other men, just as Court and Jim had done. Richard, who had organized events for his civic club, was astonished at the preparation and organization which ha
d gone into delivering so many men to this breakfast so early in the morning. He could not help thinking, Why are all these men doing this? They must really believe that whatever is going to happen here is important.
After they received their name badges, Bob led Richard to their table, where he introduced him to the other invitees and hosts who had already arrived. Richard recognized Ben Fuller from his photographs, sitting at the center table in front of the podium with several men whom Richard vaguely recognized as clergy from some local churches.
Richard's seat was marked with a place card, and when he arrived and looked down, he found a brightly colored placemat, as well as an envelope. Looking around the table, he noticed that each man had a different, individually colored placemat. Richard picked up the envelope, and, before opening it, looked more closely at the placemat. Drawn in crayon, in the bottom left hand corner a man was looking up and reaching up with his right hand. In the top right hand corner were clouds and a large forearm and hand reaching down toward the man. Written in the middle were the words, “God loves you, Richard.” And in the bottom right-hand corner it was signed Cindy, Scott, Lacy, and Jeff Peterson.
While Richard was trying to imagine how this placemat had arrived at his place, he opened the envelope and found a short note written to him by Henry Coker. The note read, “As I know Sally explained to you years ago, God changed our lives completely. You don't have to go to jail, Richard, to find God. He is right there in that hotel ballroom this morning, looking for you. Don't do what I did for so long, Richard, and tell him no. The greatest decision you will ever make is to say yes to God. Sally and I send you all our love. Henry.”
Richard was speechless, and noticed that several of the other men seated at his table were having similar experiences. Holding out the envelope, he turned to Bob Meredith with a questioning look, but Bob only smiled, as Jim Burnett rose to walk to the podium.
Unknown to the hundreds of men arriving at the Palace Hotel, they were being guarded by fifty brilliant angels, both inside and outside the facility. Each angel shouted his individual praise to God. The Prayer Warriors, now numbering over twenty, continued to pray upstairs in their hotel room. And Balzor and his lieutenants stood off at a great distance, cursing the Light.
Following the invocation and the welcome by Jim Burnett, breakfast was served. They all sat down, and Richard asked Bob Meredith how this had all been possible.
“Let's just say there are some people who love you very much, Richard, and who want you to find the peace that only God can give. We checked with Janet to find the names of some people who might have planted seeds in your life years ago. She was a little skeptical, but she gave us some names and phone numbers. When we called them and gave them the opportunity, they jumped at it. In fact, they're probably praying for you right now. And look around. All of these men are loved in exactly the same way as you,” Bob explained, motioning throughout the entire ballroom.
Richard almost could not eat the sumptuous breakfast put in front on him, he was so overwhelmed by the car ride, the placemat, and the envelope. He managed to make small talk with the mechanical contractor sitting across from him and with the other men at his table, a few of whom he had met previously, but none of whom he knew well.
As the dishes were being cleared, Stephen Edwards rose and walked to the podium.
“This morning we have with us not only our speaker, but also a fine lady, Paula Lindsay, who is going to sing two songs for us before we hear from Ben Fuller.”
Accompanied by the pianist who had played during breakfast, Paula Lindsay walked to the podium, dressed in a conservative black dress with a single strand of pearls, picked up the microphone, and began singing “I Bowed on my Knees and Cried Holy.” Richard, not thirty feet away, was pierced by the incredible love radiating from this woman. She was indeed singing, but primarily she was worshiping her Lord. The words of her song moved Richard deeply. Then she began her second song, “He is Here.” The depth of her belief was so obvious and the words of the song so powerful that he actually felt himself opening, almost like the bud of a flower, to the sunlight she represented. As she closed her eyes and raised her free hand during the last verse of the song, Richard could see tears in her eyes. It occurred to him that this woman had not been performing, but had instead been singing to her Lord. The rest of them had just been privileged to be there while she did so.
When Paula finished, there was hardly a dry eye in the ballroom. She curtsied humbly to their applause, smiled, and bade them farewell.
Stephen Edwards returned to the podium to introduce Ben Fuller. As the applause began and Ben rose to walk up the three steps to the platform, he said a quiet prayer of thanks to God for all the support he had received from the organizers of this prayer breakfast. And he asked the Holy Spirit to use him and to prepare the hearts of the men in the audience that day for his message.
As Ben reached the podium and looked out across the faces in front of him, he was strongly encouraged. The hall that morning was filled with angels, not demons, and the Holy Spirit was moving mightily in the hearts and minds of these men, preparing them to hear the true story of how a great man of law and commerce had learned that the greatest power imaginable came only by humbling one's self, and by giving up those things that will not last in order to obtain those things that will last forever.
As Ben Fuller began speaking that morning, the voices of deception inside Richard were almost completely silent, dimmed by the prayers, by the obvious love and concern of so many people, and by the message of the two songs Paula Lindsay had sung. Richard, for the first time in his entire adult life, was open to hear the Truth.
Benjamin Fuller described for them his life of acquisition, material gain, love of money, and slighting his family. He described how he sought possessions, corporate power, fame, and constant activity to fill a life he knew was empty. “But the problem was,” he said, “no matter what I acquired and no matter what I did, the happiness I thought they would bring only lasted for a short time, and the emptiness returned. So I tried harder and worked harder and stayed at the office longer and made more goals and wrote out more Do Lists.”
Encouraged by the Holy Spirit, Fuller admitted to the group that morning something he had never admitted in public before, that there had also been other women. When Richard heard this admission and saw the obvious pain on Fuller's face, he felt a wrenching inside, and his breathing became difficult.
“I was lying to my wife. Every day was a lie to my wife. I kept saying to myself, she doesn't understand me. But the truth was that I was not even beginning to meet her needs for real love and affection. So I know now there was no way she could begin to meet what I thought were my physical needs.” Fuller pulled out a handkerchief and dried his eyes. Richard felt as if a knife were being turned in his heart.
“I would hardly have known it and never have admitted it,” Fuller continued, “But I was a wretched human being, ruining myself, my family, and my business. Because I was breaking God's laws and not fulfilling His plan for me. I did not put Him first in my life. I put myself first. I was not the spiritual head of my family. I didn't even know what that meant. I did not love and honor my wife. I complained about her shortcomings. I did not raise up my children to fear the Lord, as the beginning of their wisdom. I left their training to other people, most of whom taught them that there is no God. And all of these awful things were true because, like Adam and millions of men after him, I was rebelling against God, confident that I was in charge of my own future. But in truth, I was living hell on earth, and heading for hell itself. And worse, I was taking my family with me.
“But then by God's grace, I attended a function not unlike this one. I sat there, and heard the words a man was speaking from a podium just like this one, and I knew that those words were not from him, but from God. I knew that they were meant just for me, as I hope some of you may feel that my words are meant just for you, personally.”
Richard tried to wipe th
e moisture from his eyes without drawing attention to himself.
“Men, God has such a better plan for us than we can ever imagine by ourselves. And certainly better than the media or the movies or our government would trick us into believing is our fate.” Leaning forward and moving his hand from side to side as he spoke, Fuller proclaimed, “He has the power to wipe all of your garbage away. To change you completely and permanently. To change you eternally. To assure you that you will spend eternity with Him in heaven, but also to give you a new life while you are still on earth. Can you imagine that?
“All you have to do is give up. Give up your fruitless efforts to be in control. Give up your rebellion. Become a child again and let your heavenly Father do what He has always wanted to do, through His son Jesus Christ: be the Lord of your life. There is so much good which will unfold for you, as you will hear about in the follow-up sessions in the weeks after this breakfast, so much richness, so much joy. So much love. So much happiness that you cannot imagine…so much peace.
“How do you change? How do you become a completely new person? Become the husband your wife needs and wants to give herself to? Become the father who can train and lead his children? Become the businessman who will ask God for His agenda before setting his goals? How do you do that?
“The answer is very simple but very important. Like me, you have probably imagined that all the complex problems in your life require complex solutions. But the one simple solution has been there for two thousand years, and the only reason I can imagine that we don't all grasp for it is that we must be deceived into ignoring it. Don't confuse lack of complexity with lack of power. The answer is right here for anyone who wants the power to change his life this morning.” Fuller went on to describe the incredible changes God worked in his life once he asked for forgiveness and let Jesus become the Lord of his life. He spoke for almost thirty minutes and concluded by reminding them that based only on God's justice, he certainly deserved to spend eternity in hell.
On the Edge Page 34
