Hearing the voice of God solved financial problem
I would like to share a healing I had in 1960 where I heard a voice in answer to a prayer.
My father had died when I was nine, and the only thing that he had really left us was a furniture store. While he had been a cracker jack salesman, my mom had remained a house wife and knew little about running a store. We struggled with making a living during the 50’s and when I turned 18 I joined the Army.
In 1960 I was serving in the U.S. Army in Germany as a Spec. 4 in the 21st Inf. Division. I had received a letter from my mother telling how she had fallen down some stairs and broken a bone. She wasn’t able to run the store, and I was faced with a decision. I had thought about staying in the Army, and my officers were working at getting me into West Point. My mother and I had not gotten along for years, but I felt that it was important to heal the problem of personal relationship and decided to try and get out of the service on a hardship discharge.
I was told that it would take a year to receive this special discharge, but I had always worked things out in Christian Science and knew that if it was the right thing to do it would work out in a manner that was correct for everyone. I was on my way home in less than 30 days.
The store had been in the same location for over 40 years, but when I came home I found that my mom had moved the store to a new location a few blocks from the old location. She hadn’t been able to keep up with the rent and had been forced to move. We didn’t have any customers but we did have a lot of furniture.
During the next weeks and then months, I spent a great deal of my time at the Christian Science Reading Room. My mom and I were the only two running the store, and she had completely recovered. Because we didn’t have customers I would take off and read articles in the Sentinels and Journals at the Reading Room. And because they were open in the evening until 9:00 p.m. I spent my evenings there as well.
After six months of going to the Reading Room and spending most of my time in prayer, I found my self in deep doubt about the effectiveness of prayer. I know that I had always believed in the power of prayer, but this was the darkest moment in my life. Sitting alone at the back of the store, I asked the question, “is there really a God?’ The answer was immediate and firm. “I AM.” It came as a voice. I broke out crying. My mom heard me and asked if anything was wrong, to which I said, “No mom everything is perfect. I was stunned.
The effect was immediate. The next day, a former salesman came to the store, and asked for a job on straight commission. I told him that we hadn’t had any customers but that didn’t faze him and he came to work. Next came the customers. We didn’t advertise or anything, but where there hadn’t been a person through our door in weeks, now we had customers. Mom had tried to break the contract with our landlady but she wouldn’t do it for mom (we were paying for our rent with furniture). Now she came to me and asked me if she were willing to break the lease could I be out of the store by the end of the month. Being 20, I said of course I could.
I didn’t have any idea as to where we would go but that night I had a dream about our new location. I told my mom about it the next day and she told me to go and look at a certain building across from our old location and see if it looked like my dream. It did, and we moved a complete furniture store in about 2 weeks. Now during all of this time I felt that nothing was going on, but I was very wrong. I to this day am still discovering things that happened that were proofs of God’s constant care
The two biggest things that happened were that I knew that there really was a God. And in these 45 years since that event, when ever I need to dig in hard on a problem I go back to that moment at the back of the store. I can picture it in my mind as if it just happened.
God is.
The second thing that happened was that my mom and I worked out all of our differences. I left after that to go back into the Army were I served with the 82nd Airborne in N.C. and then on to help form the 1st Cav. I served with the 1st Cav in Vietnam.
- Chuck Pike
-
My father had died when I was nine, and the only thing that he had really left us was a furniture store. While he had been a cracker jack salesman, my mom had remained a house wife and knew little about running a store. We struggled with making a living during the 50’s and when I turned 18 I joined the Army.
In 1960 I was serving in the U.S. Army in Germany as a Spec. 4 in the 21st Inf. Division. I had received a letter from my mother telling how she had fallen down some stairs and broken a bone. She wasn’t able to run the store, and I was faced with a decision. I had thought about staying in the Army, and my officers were working at getting me into West Point. My mother and I had not gotten along for years, but I felt that it was important to heal the problem of personal relationship and decided to try and get out of the service on a hardship discharge.
I was told that it would take a year to receive this special discharge, but I had always worked things out in Christian Science and knew that if it was the right thing to do it would work out in a manner that was correct for everyone. I was on my way home in less than 30 days.
The store had been in the same location for over 40 years, but when I came home I found that my mom had moved the store to a new location a few blocks from the old location. She hadn’t been able to keep up with the rent and had been forced to move. We didn’t have any customers but we did have a lot of furniture.
During the next weeks and then months, I spent a great deal of my time at the Christian Science Reading Room. My mom and I were the only two running the store, and she had completely recovered. Because we didn’t have customers I would take off and read articles in the Sentinels and Journals at the Reading Room. And because they were open in the evening until 9:00 p.m. I spent my evenings there as well.
After six months of going to the Reading Room and spending most of my time in prayer, I found my self in deep doubt about the effectiveness of prayer. I know that I had always believed in the power of prayer, but this was the darkest moment in my life. Sitting alone at the back of the store, I asked the question, “is there really a God?’ The answer was immediate and firm. “I AM.” It came as a voice. I broke out crying. My mom heard me and asked if anything was wrong, to which I said, “No mom everything is perfect. I was stunned.
The effect was immediate. The next day, a former salesman came to the store, and asked for a job on straight commission. I told him that we hadn’t had any customers but that didn’t faze him and he came to work. Next came the customers. We didn’t advertise or anything, but where there hadn’t been a person through our door in weeks, now we had customers. Mom had tried to break the contract with our landlady but she wouldn’t do it for mom (we were paying for our rent with furniture). Now she came to me and asked me if she were willing to break the lease could I be out of the store by the end of the month. Being 20, I said of course I could.
I didn’t have any idea as to where we would go but that night I had a dream about our new location. I told my mom about it the next day and she told me to go and look at a certain building across from our old location and see if it looked like my dream. It did, and we moved a complete furniture store in about 2 weeks. Now during all of this time I felt that nothing was going on, but I was very wrong. I to this day am still discovering things that happened that were proofs of God’s constant care
The two biggest things that happened were that I knew that there really was a God. And in these 45 years since that event, when ever I need to dig in hard on a problem I go back to that moment at the back of the store. I can picture it in my mind as if it just happened.
God is.
The second thing that happened was that my mom and I worked out all of our differences. I left after that to go back into the Army were I served with the 82nd Airborne in N.C. and then on to help form the 1st Cav. I served with the 1st Cav in Vietnam.
- Chuck Pike
-
posted by Elise L. Moore, C.S.B. @ Monday, December 26, 2005
