The Ninety and Nine Plus One!

He was a 17 year old boy who just went for a swim in the park. But, he never came home. The flood swollen river took his life.

If that would have been the front page story in a newspaper or a feature story on a nightly newscast - it wouldn’t have phased me a bit. But, there was more to it than that. You see, he was my son. That did tend to make a difference.

Later, I heard the words of Jesus as He said: "He that loses anything for my sake shall receive a hundred fold in this life, besides the blessings of eternal life." Those words dug deep and stuck. I knew that I did not want my son’s death to be in vain. I knew that nothing in my life could be wasted. I knew that no matter how bad a circumstance may be, it has to be melted together with other elements of life in such a way that it will produce good results in the earth and in the kingdom of God.

So, from that time on, I began praying like this: "Lord, this death cannot be in vain. This life cannot be wasted. My loss has to be turned into gain.. I ask you to save 100 young people because of my son’s death and as a direct result of my prayers. But, that’s not all. I ask that those hundred converts would merely be the ‘seeds’ of a much greater harvest. I ask you to fill them with your spirit and train them and equip them and then thrust them forth into the harvest fields of the world to bring forth a multiplied harvest of good. Lord, I ask for a hundred fold return from each one of those hundred that you save. I ask for a hundred times a hundred.

But, I didn’t stop there. I asked God to prevent a hundred suicides and to use those spared lives to do good in the earth on my account and for the glory of the King! I soon began asking God to prevent a hundred murders - taking those spared victims and using them for His glory also. Of course, I had to also ask God to find 100 potential murderers or actual murderers and bring them to himself and begin using them to bring life to many.

What could I say, the hundred fold principle was digging itself deep into my being. I thought of terminally ill patients and I asked God to miraculously heal at least a hundred of them and allow them to live at least five extra years in the earth. I then requested that He empower them to do much good with their lives during those extra years.

The potential from that one request was staggering. If one hundred people lived for an extra five years, that would be a total of five hundred extra years of Christian service in the world! And all because one insignificant "Joe" dared to ask for such a thing!

There is no way that I can live for 500 years. There is no way that I can accomplish that much good in one lifetime, even if I lived to be a hundred. Somehow, God allowed me to tap into a fantastic way to absolutely multiply my fruitfulness in the earth. I stuck with it. That kind of praying was destined to become a part of my everyday life - for the rest of my life. I was sold on the power and possibilities and potential in just daring to ask for such a thing.

The news of an accidental death, triggered that same response again. I began to plead with God to spare a hundred people who would have normally lost their lives in accidents. I asked Him to give them at least an extra five years to live and do good in the earth. I knew that from then on there would be miracles of rescue and protection going on all over the earth. God was listening to my prayers and He was answering.

I used to struggle, trying to find something worthwhile to do with my life. I always wanted to do something great for the Lord, but my weaknesses and limitations kept me living in a realm of frustration.

The self-centeredness of my life made me seek for a fruitfulness that depended entirely on me and my strengths, talents and abilities. No wonder I was frustrated. I am a small man in physical stature. I have always known I could not or would not be anything like Billy Graham or other extremely successful preachers.

However, I had tapped in to the concept of a God who actually hears prayer. I believed He would literally fulfill my requests. I didn’t care whether He did it through others or by His own unlimited power and resources. All I had to do was ‘believe’ and ‘ask’. All I had to do was ‘keep on believing’ and ‘keep on asking’. There really was a way for me to reach thousands and tens of thousands of people with the love and Grace of Christ.

The Word of God says: "The eyes of the Lord go to and fro throughout the earth, to show Himself strong on behalf of those whose hearts are perfect toward Him." In the book of Revelation, we are told that the eyes of the Lord are the ‘spirits of God’ or ‘the angelic powers of heaven’. And they are going back and forth, throughout the earth! Why? To answer our prayers and to manifest God’s love, grace and power on behalf of many. Who am I that I should not believe that? If I believe it, then why shouldn’t I ask for many great and mighty things to happen in the earth - especially if I know that I am asking for things which God Himself delights to do anyway?

If I had a public ministry in which hundreds of miracles were taking place, I would be tempted to take some of the credit and bask in some of the glory. I would be in danger of becoming proud and lifted up. But, if I pray and God scatters those miracles all over the earth and uses many people and even angels to carry out those prayers, how can I boast? It is not me that is doing any of it. It is God working - just because I dared to ask, just because I dared to believe.

Jesus once said to Thomas: "Blessed are those who have not seen and yet believe!" Did I ever doubt that God was answering my prayers? Well, many doubts came to me and I used them to question God. I asked Him if He was really doing those things that I was asking for. But, I didn’t quit asking. I was driven to seek compensation for the loss of my son. No earthly compensation would satisfy me. I wanted a spiritual inheritance and eternal rewards. I wanted something that would be pleasing to God and worthwhile to others. I wanted my grief, sorrow and pain to abound to the blessing and happiness of many. I dared to ask and to keep on asking.

When my son drowned, on the day before Father’s Day, I thought of Noah and his family. I thought of how they had been spared from drowning in the flood. I remembered the rainbow. At first, the rainbow merely reminded me that my son was not spared from such a drowning. But, every time I saw a rainbow, I would remind God of His promise to give me a hundredfold return for my loss. I wondered how it could possibly happen, and thought of the angels who are going to and fro throughout the earth to show themselves strong on our behalf. I would take courage and keep praying.

After spending years in this kind of praying, I told God it sure would be nice to know for sure that He was carrying out my desires and fulfilling my prayers. But, I told Him that even if He gave me no proof that it was working, I was still going to keep on believing. My job was to ask and believe. I figured He could give account for Himself and whether He honored my prayers or not.

I took a trip to Arkansas. When I walked through the doors of a church, there was a woman coming up the aisle toward me. She was leaving. But, she stopped me and started rattling on about how God had done a miracle for her.

Her car had gone off the road and turned over in a ditch. She was trapped inside without any way to get help. She knew she was about to die, but her fears were distracted when she saw a rainbow of colors in the car. Then, over in another corner, she saw an angel. The angel stayed there until help came and her life was saved.

She finished her story and she was gone. I have never seen her since. I can’t remember her name. But, she mentioned the two things that had kept my hope and faith alive for all these years - the rainbow promise and the ministry of angels in the earth.

Suddenly, I was overwhelmed by a surge of gratitude toward God. I immediately left the church and took a drive to be alone with Him. I knew He had graciously given me a ‘token’ for good. He had given me a sign to show me that my prayers were not unrealistic or too far out. He was encouraging me to keep on asking for such things from Him. On that day, I told Him that I was now satisfied. He didn’t have to give me any more signs at all. I was going to keep on believing without having to see the results for myself.

But, He did allow me one more notable experience. After asking Him to avert the suicide deaths of many, He actually used ‘me’ to bring that about in one particular situation.

After sixty years of keeping quiet, my mom revealed to me that she had planned to take her own life during the early part of her marriage. She had kissed her baby goodbye and gone up on a bridge over the Missouri River in Montana. She fully intended on going to see Jesus, because life had gotten entirely too unbearable for her. But, she wasn’t sure she could be forgiven for such a deed, so she walked back and forth on the bridge, struggling with her desires and her concept of right and wrong.

She ended up going back to her baby and husband. Her alcoholic husband got saved and called into the ministry. They ended up going to China, Tibet, Africa and many other countries of the world. She gave birth to eleven children and ended up with over 80 descendants so far - and the number is increasing all the time. It won’t be long before a hundred people will be alive and well and doing the will of God in the earth, just because she did not kill herself.

I took her story and put it into print, mailing it all over the United States. My brother condensed the story and sent it to all the newspapers in his state as a "Mother’s Day Story".

The day after he mailed the envelopes, an editor called him. The editor had faced some tragic news in his life and had gone into his office to kill himself. Before reaching into the drawer to get his gun, a letter from that day’s mail caught his attention. He opened it and there was my mom’s story. The man sat and cried for six hours. He eventually called my brother and told him what happened.

One life had been spared, because my mom had shared her story with me. I had passed it on and my brother passed it on even further. Was that an answer to my prayer ‘for God to spare the lives of at least a hundred potential suicide victims and then use those lives to do more good in the earth?’ What do you think?

If God could bring multiplied good out of my mom’s life and her many, many descendants - just think of what He can do through the hundred families that are going to be spared from going through such shocking tragedies.

Oh, I know. Every time I hear of a suicide, I am reminded that He is not going to stop every suicide attempt. A good friend of mine lost his son in this way. But, I simply encouraged my friend to ask God to bring good out of his son’s death. I explained the ‘hundredfold principle’ and offered him a chance to get revenge on the evil powers of hell which had pushed his son to do such a destructive thing. I challenged him to ‘not let his son’s death be in vain’. I encouraged him to believe that hundreds of people around the world could go on living, thus causing his own son’s life to become exceptionally fruitful in a round-a-bout way.

Isn’t that what God did for His Son who died? Didn’t He actually use the death to bring about multiplied mountains of good in the earth? Then why can’t He take any and every bad thing that happens in our lives and do the same thing? He can and He will. All we have to do is, ‘dare to ask’.

A girl and her aunt stayed after church to talk to me one night. Little by little, the girl’s story emerged. Her step-father had molested her when she was young. The story was prolonged because her constant sobbing, the effect of re-living those painful experiences. After ministering to her for some time, she was able to forgive him and pray for him. She quieted down and felt the peace of God working it’s healing work in her.

That’s when I went on to tell her about the hundredfold principle. I told her she could ask God to prevent a hundred girls from going through what she had gone through. Then, I told her she could ask God to find another hundred like herself and ask Him to heal those girls also. She was instructed to ask God to compensate her for her pain, by blessing those girls and using them to do wonderful things with their lives.

But, why stop there. She had suffered much, she should be compensated royally. So, I told her she could ask God to find a hundred men like her step-father. She could pray night and day for God to convict them of their sins and bring them into a powerful repentance experience. She could ask God to use those men to tell their stories and help prevent further abuse in many families. She could ask God to cause those men to be thrust forth into the harvest fields of the world, telling others about Jesus and His power to save. I told her that Jesus could let some of them end up in prison for their sins and then save them there. He could then use them to bring God’s light and love to hundreds of prisoners around the world. And all because she had suffered at the hands of wicked men, just as Jesus had.

If The Father could use the pain and suffering of Jesus to bring forth good in the earth, then He can also use our pain and suffering for useful purposes - if we will but trust Him and give Him permission to do so.

I now challenge you to come up with your own prayers concerning any bad thing which has happened in your life - asking God to fulfill that hundredfold principle in the earth on your behalf. It can be done. He will do it - if you will but believe and ask and keep on believing and asking.

He is able to do exceedingly, abundantly, above all you can ask or even think of asking. There is nothing too difficult for God. We can forgive others and ask God to compensate us for our losses, our pain and suffering.

Isn’t this the better way?