Proof God Exists
I’m going to give you concrete proof of God’s existence and His willingness to help
you. I’m going to do this by sharing seven prayers of mine that God has answered. These prayers leave absolutely no doubt that the answer came from Almighty God, the Creator and Sovereign Ruler of the universe. God has answered my big prayers, small prayers, and everything in between. And He will answer your prayers, too.
I’m going to present the facts to you. And I think your common sense will lead you to conclude that it wasn’t Luck, Coincidence, Positive Thinking, or Hard Work that came to my rescue. It was Almighty God.
The Bible makes it clear that God hears the prayers of His children, and that He will answer them, and deliver His children in times of trouble. Let’s see if that’s true.
I’m going to begin with the very first prayer I prayed as a Christian. I had been a Christian for only a few days. The year was 1987, and I was thirty-five years old. My request was for a car. Mine had just been repossessed, and I had no money or credit with which to buy another one. If you have already read this answered prayer in the Author Testimony, then you may want to begin with Answered Prayer Number 2.
1. How God Got Me a Car
After I prayed with Tom Wells to repent of my sin, I stayed home that evening and began reading the Bible he had given me. I also prayed my first prayer as a Christian.
“Father, I haven’t any money. And my credit is ruined. But I need a car. Please help me, Father. I know You’re real. And I believe that You want to help me. I don’t know how You’re going to do it, but Father… somehow… please help me get a car. I ask this in Jesus’ name. Amen.”
That was it, that short and that simple. Then I went back to reading my Bible.
Three days later, on a Friday evening, there was a knock on my front door. When
I answered it, standing there was a woman I had never met before.
“Do you have a cork screw I could borrow? I’ve heard your parties. I knew if anyone had a corkscrew, you would.”
“As a matter of fact, I do have one.” I walked to the kitchen and grabbed the corkscrew from the drawer. “You can keep it,” I said, handing the corkscrew to the stranger. “I don’t need it anymore.”
“Are you sure you don’t want it back?”
“I’m sure.”
“If you don’t mind my asking, what are you doing home on a Friday night? Aren’t you usually out partying?”
“Well, I used to party, but I don’t anymore. In fact, I was supposed to go across town tonight and shampoo a man’s carpets. But my brother’s out with the car and won’t be back in time.”
At the time, I was selling Electrolux vacuums door-to-door. Since I hadn’t been selling many vacuums, whenever someone didn’t want to listen to my product demonstration,
I had begun to offer to clean their carpets for a reasonable price.
“If you shampoo that man’s carpets, will you make some money?”
“Yeah, about fifty dollars.”
When you’re broke, fifty dollars seems like a million.
“If it will make you some money, why not use my car?”
Her offer surprised me, even stunned me. “I couldn’t let you do that. You don’t even know me.”
“Yes I do, sort of. We’ve never met, but I’m the manager of the apartment complex.
I know you live here. If it will make you some money, you’re welcome to use my car.”
Five minutes later, I was sitting behind the wheel of the cutest white MG convertible you’ve ever seen. The black canvass top was down and it seemed as if all the stars in the universe were on display.
As I turned the key to start the motor, the woman asked, “By the way, do you need
a car?”
“Actually, yes. I do.”
“This one’s for sale. Want to buy it?”
“I’d like to, sure. But I can’t. I don’t have the money, and I couldn’t get financed.”
“Could you pay me something on it each week? Nothing that would stress you out, but a little something each week? ”
“Yeah, I could do that.”
“When you get back from shampooing the carpet, come see me in 12-B. We’ll work out a payment plan. As of now, consider this your car.”
I couldn’t thank her enough, and promised her I’d be back in a couple of hours. Before I had driven out of the complex, it dawned on me that I owned a car again. I slammed on the brakes, looked up at Heaven, and shouted, “You just got me a car, didn’t you? You just got me a car!”
And that is the God I know. The God I know is a God who cares deeply about His children. The God I know is a God who wants to bless us. The God I know is more than able to bring all circumstances under His control to demonstrate His love for us.
And here’s an interesting footnote: When I returned to this stranger’s apartment to work out a payment plan, a portrait of Jesus was hanging over the mantle in her living room. The woman was a Christian. (What Coincidence!)
2. How God Blessed Me with a Free House
Three months after I became a Christian, four of my church brothers at First Baptist
Church of Ocala asked if I would go with them to help serve the Thursday evening meal at the Inter-Faith Emergency Services Shelter, the local homeless shelter. Our church was to provide the Thursday dinner, and my friends wanted me to share my testimony with the homeless after the meal.
I was happy to go with them. And after the meal, I gave my testimony. This became
a weekly occurrence for me each Thursday evening for the next two years.
After nine months of volunteering to speak at the shelter, my roommate situation suddenly changed. My brother, Lee, decided he was going to return to Orlando, Florida, where he had lived for several years prior to moving to Ocala. And my other roommate, Matt, decided to return to his home state of Michigan. I was going to have to find new roommates or a new place to live. I prayed, “Lord, I know you have this all worked out. Please help me. Please send me new roommates, or provide a place for me to live on my own.”
The next day the telephone rang. It was the administrator of the homeless shelter. “We really appreciate you coming to the shelter on Thursday nights and sharing your testimony with our residents. We’d like to be a blessing to you, too. How would you like to live in a house rent free for a year?”
I couldn’t believe my ears! “Sure! But how?”
“One of our church members passed away last week, and it will take about a year to settle his estate. His house is sitting empty at the moment. We feel there’d be less chance of burglary if someone lived in that house until the estate is settled. We’d like to offer it
to you first. All you’d have to do is pay the utilities. Would you be interested?”
“Absolutely!’
And that’s how God blessed me with a two-bedroom ranch house rent-free for fourteen months.
3. How the Lord Fixed the Water Pump on My House
While living rent-free in the house the Lord had blessed me with (see Answered Prayer number 2), I woke up one morning and there was no running water in the house. The water pump had broken. At the time, I couldn’t afford to get it fixed, so I prayed and asked the Lord to help me.
If you didn’t know where I lived, my house was nearly impossible to find it. It was
off the main road, and half a mile down a tree-lined, winding dirt road that had several offshoots.
That night, I noticed the headlights of a car winding down the dirt road that led to my house. Soon, there was a knock at my front door. Standing on my porch was a man
I had never met.
“I’m lost,” he said. “I’m looking for an apartment complex that’s supposed to be near here. I know I must be right on top of it, but I’ve been up and down the main road and can’t find it. Would you happen to know where it is?”
“Yes, I know how to get you there.” I gave him directions, he thanked me, and as he turned to leave, it dawned on me that, earlier that morning, I had prayed for God to help me with my water pump. And here was this stranger standing at my front door.
I asked, “Would you happen to know anything about water pumps? Mine’s on the blink.”
“Know anything about water pumps? I should hope so! I repaired them for twenty years!”
Within two minutes, this man had my water pump working again. And that’s how God fixed my water pump.
4. How God Provided $400 to Pay My Bills
While living in the house that God provided (see Answered Prayer number 2), I was self-employed, trying to make a living by shampooing carpets. Business had been slow that month. It was Monday morning, and I needed four hundred dollars by Friday to pay some bills that were already overdue. The week prior, I had passed out flyers in the neighborhoods and had made lots of phone calls in hopes of lining up some work, but
I had had no success.
I prayed and asked God to help me. Later that afternoon, there was a knock at my front door. It was Suzie, a friend whom I hadn’t seen in over six months. Suzie worked in advertising.
“Finally! I found you!” she said. “I’ve been looking all over for you! What are you doing the next four days?”
“Not much of anything. I was hoping to shampoo some carpets, but I can’t seem to get anything going.”
“Then you’re not busy the rest of the week?”
“Hardly.”
“Good!”
“Good?”
“Yes! My company is filming a Levi’s jeans commercial on Rainbow Springs, starting tomorrow. I’m in charge of hiring some big, strong guys to lug equipment around and
I thought of you. The job pays a hundred dollars a day. I need you for the next four days, and we’ll pay you this Friday—four hundred dollars--in cash. Interested?”
“You bet!”
And that’s how God provided me with the four hundred dollars I needed to pay my bills.
5. How the Lord Exchanged My Old Truck for a Car
At the time of this prayer, I was living in Ocala, Florida, and driving an old Dodge pick-up truck that had a camper top. The truck was on its last leg. I had just been hired to work as an advertising representative for a family magazine in Ocala. The job, which started in two weeks, required that I make sales calls on businesses throughout central Florida, which is quite a large area. My old truck wasn’t going to hold up under the strain of all that driving. So I decided to sell it and buy a dependable used car.
I figured that, since God is the ruler of the universe and He wants to help me, He would know best concerning where I could find the best used car. So I prayed, “Father, You know I need to get rid of my truck and find a good used car. Of all the used car lots in the area, and all the used cars in the classified ads, you know which used car is the best one for me. Would you please help me find it?”
The next afternoon, I was eating my lunch in a convenience store. I was sitting at
a booth. Five minutes later, a man who was dressed in a security guard’s uniform sat down two booths over, about eight feet away. We were facing each other, and we were the only ones sitting in the row of booths. This man started a conversation with me.
“Hi.”
“Hello.”
“Don’t mind me, I’m just really excited today.”
“OK.”
“I’m a security guard, and I’ve just been promoted!”
“Good for you!”
“Yeah, I’m really excited about it.”
“I bet you are. That’s great!”
“Yeah. The company I work for just bought me a new patrol car!”
“That’s awesome!”
“Yeah, and they’re going to let me use it for my personal use, too.”
“Great.”
“So now I plan to sell my family car, and buy a used truck and fix it up for camping.”
“That’s funny…I have a truck. And I’m planning on selling it and buying a used
car.”
“Really? That is funny! But I plan on getting a Dodge.”
“Mine’s a Dodge.”
“But the truck I’m looking for has to have a big engine.”
“Mine has the biggest engine Dodge makes.”
“Really? But the truck I’m looking for has to have a camper top.”
“Mine has a camper top.”
“Is it here? With you?”
“It’s right outside.”
“Let’s go take a look.”
We left our lunch and walked outside. When he spotted my Dodge truck, he fell in love with it. He walked around it, inspecting the body and the camper top. Then he popped the hood. He poked here and there on the belts and had me start the engine.
“I’m an excellent mechanic,” he said. “I could fix this truck to run like new! I’ve got
a late model Ford Fairmont sedan. It’s got a newly rebuilt engine, new brakes, new tires, and a new exhaust system. It’s got a good AM/FM radio and cassette player, and the air conditioner has been recently serviced and works like new. How about I swap you even, my car for your truck?”
We met the next day at the Department of Motor Vehicles and exchanged titles.
I drove that car for the next three years, and never had the first bit of trouble with it. And that’s how God exchanged my old truck for a dependable used car.
6. How God Provided Me with a Ride to My High School Reunion
After I’d been a Christian for three years, I received a letter from my high school in St. Albans, West Virginia. The letter informed me that my twenty-year reunion would be in three months, in South Charleston, West Virginia. South Charleston is just down the road from St. Albans, but it’s a twelve hour drive from Ocala, Florida, where I was living.
I wanted my childhood friends and high school classmates to know the miracle God had performed in my life. But the used Ford Fairmont I had been driving (see Answered Prayer number 5) was finally beginning to show its age. It would not make the seven hundred and sixty mile trip to West Virginia, much less the return drive.
And I couldn’t afford a roundtrip plane ticket. At the time, I was Coaching Phys Ed
full-time at a Christian middle school in Ocala, and I was also the coach of their after school sports teams--for twelve thousand, five hundred dollars a year.
So that night I prayed, “Lord, I’d dearly love to tell my childhood friends and classmates about You. But I can’t get to my high school reunion. If I’m to go, please make a way.”
You know how it is when a high school reunion’s coming up; you want to look your best. So I began taking walks in the evenings, to lose a little weight.
Two weeks later, my roommate came home with a bicycle for me to use. Smiling ear to ear, he said, “I borrowed this from a neighbor a couple of streets over. It will get you in shape faster than walking.”
For the next two months, I rode that bicycle around my neighborhood to get in shape for my reunion.
Nearly three months passed. The week of my reunion, on Monday, I still had no way to get to West Virginia.
The next evening there was a knock on my front door. When I opened it, a man I had never met was standing at the door. He introduced himself as the neighbor who had loaned my roommate the bicycle.
“I thought I’d come by and check on the bike. You know, oil the sprocket, check the air in the tires, see that everything’s all right with it.”
I took him to the garage and he serviced the bike. As he was leaving, he said, “Ron tells me you’re from West Virginia.”
“That’s right. St. Albans.”
“I’m going right through St. Albans this weekend on my way to Ohio. I know it’s short notice, but would you want to ride over with me? I could drop you off and pick you up on the way back.”
Instantly, I knew that God was making a way for me! And then the thought occurred, But I have to be back Sunday night in order to go to work on Monday.
The very next thing the man said was, “The only problem is, I have to be back
in Ocala Sunday night. So I’ll be returning from Ohio on Sunday afternoon.”
“Actually, that’s perfect!”
And that's how God provided a way for me to attend my twenty year high school reunion.
One final note on this answered prayer. When I got to my reunion, I was able to let my friends and classmates know that Jesus had changed my life. And for the first time in ten years I saw a childhood friend, Ann Harvey (maiden name Talley).
As children, Ann and I had grown up together. She had lived right up the street from me. We had gone to grade school together, and also junior high and high school. I hadn’t seen Ann or spoken to her since my last high school reunion, ten years prior.
In twenty years, this was only the second time we had seen each other or spoken to each other.
She said, “I didn’t know if I’d ever see you again or not.”
“Me, either.”
“I’m so glad you’ve come to know the Lord.”
“Me, too.”
“I have kept you in my prayers every night, ever since we graduated high school.”
Her statement floored me! I was so touched, that I almost started to cry! Twenty years! That’s a long time to pray for someone, especially when that someone is a party animal, like I used to be. If you have a family member, or co-worker, or someone you are praying for, and they haven’t yet accepted the Lord, don’t give up. Keep praying for them. God will answer your prayer. He answered Ann’s, and He’ll answer your prayers, too.
7. How God Rescued My Dad
Growing up as a child in St. Albans, West Virginia, my hero was my dad. My dad
had been a tremendous athlete. He was also a party person, and I wanted to grow up
to be just like him. When I was twenty-two, I confided to my dad that I was having feelings of loneliness and emptiness, and asked his advice.
“It’s nothing to be concerned about,” he said. “It happens to me all the time. You’re just experiencing the natural course of life. Keep yourself busy in a career, and indulge yourself in the pleasures of life. Then you won’t have time to feel lonely or empty. For when you take your last breath, it’s over. There is no more. Nothing waits beyond.”
In 1987, when I became a Christian and understood the truth—that God is real, Jesus is alive, and there is a Heaven and a Hell---I went to see my dad, and did my best to share the Gospel with him.
His response was what I had heard many times over the years: “I’m not afraid of Jesus Christ himself!” Any time I visited dad over the next few years, his attitude concerning God and the Bible never varied: “I’m not afraid of Jesus Christ himself!”
I remember going to the altar at my church, falling to my knees, and weeping for
the salvation of my dad. I not only placed his name on the prayer chain at my church,
I placed it on every prayer chain I could find. Yet, whenever I spoke with Dad, it was always the same: “I’m not afraid of Jesus Christ himself!”
Years later, my dad was diagnosed with cancer. After a year of chemotherapy, the doctors sent him home. They gave him twelve months to live. And for the last twelve months of his life, dad would not allow me or any of his other three children near him. That included my mom, whom he had left several years earlier for another woman.
By dad’s strict orders, none of us, including his friends, were allowed to have any contact with him. My dad was a very proud man. He had been a tremendous athlete,
and now he was beginning to wither away because of the cancer. He would not allow anyone to see him wasting away. At the end, he was so frail and weak that he had to
be spoon-fed in bed. And then he died.
Driving to the funeral, which was held outdoors at a cemetery in Rainelle, West Virginia, I prayed, “Father, You're the only one who knows whether or not dad ever came to know You. I know you don’t want me to worry about this or be upset about this. So would you please let me know if dad ever got to know You? Please let me know, one way or the other.”
When I arrived at the cemetery and got out of my car. I spotted the casket beside a gravesite, fifty yards away. It was still above ground, underneath a large canvass canopy. As I began to walk toward it, from the canopy--fifty yards away--three men in their seventies started running toward me!
They weren’t walking fast, they weren’t jogging; they were running! Directly for me! It was one of the most peculiar sights I’ve ever seen. Instantly, my radar went up.
“You look just like your dad!”
“He sure does!”
“We would have recognized you anywhere!”
“You must be Lou!”
“Yes, sir.”
“We’re friends of your dad!”
“See that casket over there?” said one, pointing at the the gravesite.
“Yes, sir.”
“Your dad’s not in it! That’s just a wooden box. Your dad’s in Heaven!”
“How do you know?” I said. “What are you basing that on?”
They explained to me that three months before my dad died, he was visited by one
of these men, who happened to be a childhood friend of my dad’s. When they had been children, and even as young adults, this man and my dad had been very close. They also used to party together. But they had lost contact with each other over the years. This man and my dad had not seen or talked to each other over thirty years. When this man heard through the grapevine that my dad was dying of cancer, he made a point to find him. And dad allowed him to visit him on his deathbed.
As they were getting to know one another again, my dad learned that, years ago,
this childhood friend of his had become a Christian. Not only that, but he had become
a minister! And this minister, my dad’s childhood friend, led my dad into a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ!
“The last three months of your dad’s life, I was with him every day, at his bedside,” said the childhood friend. “And every one of those days, your dad was reading his Bible and praying. And he loved to watch John Hagee on television.”
“Look!” said one of the men. “There’s Bill! Let’s go tell him the good news about Walt.”
And the three men took off toward Bill, to tell him that my dad was not in that casket, but that he was in Heaven.
Who could have known that one of my dad’s best childhood friends--one of his party buddies--would reappear in his life thirty years later as a Christian minister? Who could have known that my dad would listen to him? Almighty God, that’s Who.
I had never met those three men before. And I’ve never seen them since. That day, which should have been one of the saddest days of my life, turned out to be one of the happiest. On that day, I learned that my dad was going to spend eternity in Heaven.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
There you have it, seven answered prayers that leave no doubt that it was Almighty God who delivered me time and time again. And He will help you, too. If you are not a Christian, I encourage you to invite Jesus Christ into your life. God has a wonderful plan for you. Knowing Him will make all the difference.
If you are a Christian, I encourage you to pray—pray about everything. God cares for you, and He will answer your prayers.
