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What’s more, I was the 7th child born to our household. Seven is the perfect number, or the number of completion. The local newspaper sent a reporter to our home to do a full page story about my arrival to the world. As I began to grow up, I could sense that I was different from everyone else. I had this powerful awareness that I was set apart for greatness, but I didn’t know how. There was nothing this world offered that interested me. My parents wanted me to work hard at being a good student, make lots of friends, follow all the rules that the world says we must to be a success, and make something of myself. I looked at people who the world called "successful" and I could sense the emptiness of it all. Money without inner fulfillment was nothing more than a dressed up prison cell. It wasn’t for me. It didn’t motivate me at all to study or work hard. As a result, I only did enough to squeak by. By the time I was about 12 years old, one of my older brothers took it upon himself to motivate me. He demanded I bring him my homework every night. He would quiz me extensively about the subjects at hand. If I didn’t know the answers to his questions, I would be beaten. This went on night after night, year after year. It didn’t work to motivate me. It only caused my body to be in pain all the time. Another one of my brothers offered me illegal drugs as a way to alleviate my suffering from the daily physical and mental abuse I was experiencing. I gladly accepted any escape from the hell I was in. Day after day I was told that unless I became a scholar, I would never amount to anything. Whenever I had a thought or idea, I was shot down and told how stupid I was. I had six brothers and two sisters who all seemed to be at war with one another at all times. I felt like I was raised in a war zone. I did everything I could do just to survive each day. I never remember my mother or father hugging me or telling me they loved me. In fact my dad was rarely home as he was a traveling salesman. My dad liked to take a lot of pictures when he was home on weekends, but of all the pictures I was in, I was never smiling. I never felt loved by anyone. No one ever made me feel special. I was scared to grow up, believing I was never going to amount to anything, as all the authority figures in my life had told me over and over. I still remember the day I turned 15 years old. I was thinking about my life and how I wanted to end it that day. I couldn’t believe I was actually considering suicide on my 15th birthday. I was born and raised in upstate NY in a suburb of Utica. It was March 4th, 1971. The snow had been coming down heavily since the night before, and all the schools were closed. I called my long time girlfriend Barbie and asked her to come and see me so we could get high together. While I was waiting for her, I went upstairs to my older brother Phil’s room to listen to my favorite rock station. As I sat between those 18" X 36" huge speakers, I began to dread the thought of growing up as the music blasted in my ears. I didn’t want to be like anyone I knew. Everyone’s life seemed empty to me. I envisioned myself being only qualified to be a ditch-digger, because I was failing out of school. I saw myself as being miserable, and that’s why I began considering ending my life that day. But just then the music stopped and the DJ began to speak. He said, "Are you dreading the thought of growing up?" It was like someone slapped my face to get my attention. I immediately focused completely on what this man was saying. He continued by saying, "You’re considering ending your life as I speak." Now I was looking at the radio speakers thinking that this guy was speaking directly to me. I had never had an experience like this. He went on to say, "I want you to know there is hope." I could hardly believe what I was hearing. I couldn’t wait to hear what he was going to say next. "I want you to know that JESUS loves you," he said. "Oh no", I thought, "I’ve heard this stuff all my life in church, but it hasn’t helped me at all." Just as I was ready to tune him out, he said, "I know you’ve heard this all your life, and you feel it’s done you no good." I thought, "Who is this guy and how is he hearing my thoughts?" He continued by saying, "Not only does JESUS love you, but He wants you to EXPERIENCE His love." Wow! I had never heard that in my 15 years as a Catholic. Perhaps the only reason I hadn’t killed myself was because of the love I was experiencing from my girlfriend. Her love was, by far, the best thing about my life. And now this man on the radio, this voice that was speaking directly to me, was telling me that the Source of all Love in the universe wants me to feel His Love in my heart. I had to find out if this was true. I turned off the radio, got down on my knees and prayed this prayer: "Dear God, I don’t even know if You exist, but if You do exist, and if JESUS is Your Son, and if He Loves me and wants me to experience His love, then I am open to receive it right now." Before I had the final words out of my mouth, I felt this warm tidal wave of divine love sweep over my entire being. In that instant, I knew God was real, and that JESUS was His Son, and that He loved me. I had heard about His love, but now I had experienced it and had first hand knowledge of it. The experience of being flooded with His love changed me instantaneously and forever. As I stated earlier, when I was growing up, I never felt close or loved by anyone, not even by members of my own family. As a result, I never had any love for anyone else, including members of my family and parents. After experiencing God’s tsunami of Love sweep over me, I came downstairs, and as I was entering the kitchen, I saw my mother bringing groceries in and setting them down on the counter. For the first time that I could remember, I noticed her face. She looked worn out. Instead of ignoring her, as I usually would, and considering her my enemy, I felt this intense love for her. The love God had filled me with was now seeking expression through me to others. I couldn’t contain this divine love that remained in my heart. I told my mom that I would bring in all the groceries and put them away for her. She looked startled because none of her children ever volunteered to do any work around the house. We only worked when we were forced to. My mom was speechless and didn’t know what to say. She had always dreamed of having a loving family, but that dream eluded her. She quietly went off into the laundry room to do some work there. When I finished putting the groceries away, I noticed the snow was still coming down strong and I saw that there was a foot of snow in our driveway and nearly two feet of snow where the town plow had pushed the snow from the road onto the end of our driveway. I knew my dad was coming home that night and that he would have to spend hours shoveling the driveway just to get his car in off the road. Once again the divine love that now possessed me made me want to make my dad happy. This was a new feeling for me to have, as I never thought of anyone but myself until now. I went out there and shoveled that snow with all my heart. It took me at least a couple of hours as we had a rather large driveway. When I had reached the end of the driveway, I turned around to see that several more inches had recovered my work as it had continued to snow while I was hard at work. So I shoveled the driveway once again. After finishing it the second time, I decided to chip all the ice off the driveway as well. I got that driveway down to the bare pavement, something that hadn’t been seen since the snow had begun to fall in the previous December. I wish I could have seen the look on my dad’s face that evening as he approached our driveway. He was probably dreading having to shovel the driveway that night. The end of the driveway would have been three foot high with snow, had I not shoveled it. Normally our driveway was the worst-looking one on the block, but on this night, it was the best shoveled driveway anywhere. I was upstairs when my dad came in the house that night. After saying hello to everyone who was downstairs, I heard him ask with a very surprised voice, "Who shoveled the driveway?" My mom told him that I had done it. He asked where I was and she told him I was upstairs. He called me down and asked me what made me shovel the driveway. I said, "Dad, something happened to me today that has changed me forever." He asked me what it was, but when I began to tell him, I got all choked up and began to cry. I tried to recompose myself and start again, but I begin to cry again and again. I told him I would have to tell him some other time. Everyday after that, I continued to love others with the love that God placed in my heart. I was a completely new person. The change was like night to day; from darkness to light; from sadness to joy; from aimless to purposeful; from self-centered to God-centered. For the first time in my life, I was happy. All of my brothers and sisters were living in a daze, but none could deny I was radically changed. No one had been very religious or spiritual up until that day, but now I could see all of my brothers and sisters begin to examine their own relationship with God, or lack thereof. |
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My parents were affected the deepest, and they began a more intense journey toward JESUS. Later, one of my sisters and one brother joined in as well, while the rest sought God in their own way. Soon I stopped taking drugs and began to evangelize everyone in my life. My girlfriend, who I had hoped to marry someday, left me because of my decision to follow JESUS wholeheartedly. Later, my three best druggie friends left me as well. I had about 50 casual friends at school, but one by one, they left me too. On the very evening I lost my last friend, God began replacing those I had lost for His sake with new, born again friends. One by one, as I witnessed to everyone I got within three feet of, I shared my story of how I once was lost, but now I’m found. Slowly, but surely, the seeds I was spreading around began to germinate, and people started getting saved. God replaced all my old friends with new and better friendships that would last for eternity. When I was a senior in High School, I was voted "The Most Changed Student" out of some 400 students in my class. I was told that I received about 97% of the votes in that category. Everyone could see how different I was. I was not the person I once was. I was truly a new creature in Christ. I was hungry to know more about God, so I began hanging out at the Christian Book stores where I spent all my money on various Bible Translations, commentaries and books that went into great detail about various subjects in the Word. I never studied in school, but now I had a purpose and a plan, and that was to know all about God. While still in High School, I asked my newly saved friends if they wanted to start meeting before school to pray and study the Word together. About a dozen of them agreed, and I began to teach the Word to my new born friends. I also joined a local Catholic Charismatic group with my parents. When we joined, there were only four people in the group. I was soon chosen to be one of the Bible Teachers of that group which grew to about 150 weekly members before I went away to the College of Steubenville, now called the University of Steubenville, famous for being a leader in the Catholic Charismatic movement. While there I started a Bible Study group which quickly flourished. When I returned home after college, I wanted more than the Catholic Church was giving me, so I began to explore and see what all the denominations and non-denominational churches had to offer. Each had their strengths and weaknesses. I learned the most about the Bible in the Charismatic or Pentecostal Churches like the Four Square Gospel Church and The Assemblies of God Churches. It was there I realized that every passage in the Bible contains a personal message from God to me. During that time period I started a business. I had some of the elders pray over me and my business so that I would be successful. To be honest, the prayers didn’t seem to help at all. I ultimately lost money in that business and had to close up shop. In addition to that, the Pastor of my church began repeating the sermons I had already heard before. I stopped growing and learning in that church. I had been to all the other churches in the area and this Assemblies of God was the best in the bunch. I felt like I had nowhere else to go, so I stopped going to church all together. This may have been a mistake, but I truly didn’t know where else to go. I decided to put all my focus on my job. As I did, my relationship with the LORD grew lukewarm. It was during this period that I began to date the woman I would marry. She was very religious. I had originally met her at the Catholic Charismatic meetings where I had been the only teenage leader and Bible Teacher. When I began dating her, I ran up against one obstacle after another. I had been taught that obstacles were meant to be overcome, but now I see that they were God’s way of trying to stop me, but I wasn’t listening to Him during this period of my life. I hadn’t read the Bible in a couple of years, which is why I was no longer in tune with Him. We had to elope to escape her family who didn’t ever want to see her married to anyone. God was trying to stop me from marring her which explains why I wasn’t even smiling or happy on my wedding day. When we returned home, my wife began to be unfaithful to me in various ways. Some years later after we were married, the LORD began to call me back to Himself. I knew I was empty inside ever since I stopped pursuing Him. I didn’t want to be empty anymore, so I threw myself back into pursuing Him. He told me that the best way to know Him was through His Word, The Holy Bible. I began to immerse myself in it for hours each day. As I did, my business began to take off like a rocket. My income doubled that year. The next year, it doubled again. I began teaching my daughters the Word every night (Sunday-Thursday nights). They began to prosper at everything they put their hand to. Both graduated high school as the valedictorians’ of their class. Both were the captains of their basketball and soccer teams. They played the leading female roles in the school plays each year. They were the most popular students among their peers, teachers and staff. My oldest daughter would lead the singing and read the readings at all the religious gatherings. My youngest daughter started a Bible Study during lunch time in her senior year at high school which 25% of the entire student body came to each day. My daughters were the most popular girls with all the guys at their school. All the most well-liked guys wanted to date my daughters because they had such beauty, depth and wisdom. The Word that was deposited inside them every night caused them to prosper at everything they put their hand to. This caused my daughters and I to have a very strong bond. They knew their lives were wonderful because I was spending the time each evening sowing the Word into their hearts. The more God’s Word was in me, the more I prospered. My income began to soar. My health began to improve as I shed extra pounds. I was more joyful and loving. The only apparent downside was the fact that my wife didn’t like it when I began to walk according to the Word. She liked it better when I walked according to the flesh, but I told her I was never going to walk that way again. To make a long story short, she eventually kicked me out of our home. I prayed about this and God told me He didn‘t want me to resist her wishes. He doesn’t want us to be unequally yoked with those who are not born again, so I left in peace. But before my wife kicked me out, I had begun teaching the Word again throughout my community. Every week I saw miracles. People were cured from cancer that had been diagnosed as "incurable". People who had been infertile for 15 years started having children. Miraculous healings were a common thing. Marriages were restored. Most of my students began to prosper like crazy. Most of them doubled their income within a year. Some even quadrupled their income within just one year. I saw that God had not only anointed me to prosper, but everyone who came under my teachings received this same anointing. I knew I had to bring this anointing to the world. Back in 1994, God gave me a vision and revealed to me the purpose of my life. He showed me how He was calling me to a worldwide ministry. For 14 years He had me studying the Word everyday and writing out lessons. I was stunned when God called me to communicate on His behalf to others through the written word. I had failed English in high school. I couldn’t put a sentence or two together, let alone spell words right. I asked God if He knew what He was doing by choosing me. He reminded me, "in our weakness His strength is shown." I could never take the glory for how He uses me. All the praise, honor and glory belong to Him. I studied daily under some of the most anointed Bible Teachers in the world, many of which I will be introducing you to in the daily lessons. God has revealed to me how He wants to make His people rich by partnering with Him in His business. He is in the business of saving people and raising up those people to be priests and ministers for His Kingdom, who are supposed to raise up priests and ministers, who raise up priests and ministers, etc., etc. When God’s people come to understand His system for evangelizing and discipling the world, there will be a worldwide revival where millions of people will be saved in the end time harvest. PRAISE JESUS! That day is quickly coming upon us. I hope you will be a part of the end time harvest.
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