Blue Sundays are Gone

Although salvation was a wonderful miracle in this young college student’s life, it was just the first in a series of miracles.

By Rob Wakefield

Walking across the university campus, I felt the familiar wave of depression. The weekend was almost over, and though fellow students surrounded me, I still felt alone. Even though I was working on an academic program that I had selected, I had no real direction. In spite of all my social involvements, recognition for sports achievements, and freedom to party, I was not enjoying life. Sundays always seemed to be my worst day; I called them blue Sundays.

No power to do right

Maybe it was because the Sundays of my childhood had been so different. Growing up in a family where we faithfully attended Sunday school and church together, I had a good knowledge of right and wrong. However, no one ever told me that I must be born again, that there had to be a change of heart. Many times I wondered why I wanted to do the wrong thing. I had no power to do the things that even I knew the Bible said to do.

At college, I saw life styles that I had never come across before. My desire to participate in the things I saw soon caused me to compromise and violate my own rules of right and wrong. Then I found myself dealing with guilt. Finally, my ideas and objectives were so mixed up that I dropped out of school and lost my military deferment. It was not long before I received a letter from Uncle Sam and was drafted into the Army.

The witness of “Preacher George”

There I met the young man we all called “Preacher George.” He and I were assigned to washing pots and pans together. He started talking about the Lord, and he informed me that I was not a Christian. He said he could tell by the way I talked and acted. Then George began to tell me what a real Christian was. Something in what he said held me spellbound, and today I know that it was the Holy Spirit speaking to my heart.

As the days went by, out of all the men in our unit, it seemed George always chose to talk to me. One day I’d had enough. As he was about to sit down next to me at lunch time, I said, “George, why always me? Why don’t you go to some other table?” He replied, “Well, Rob, I know the Lord is talking to you.” That really got to me. I began thinking more seriously about Christianity, and I also began reading the Bible.

An important invitation

A year later, as I sat watching TV in my darkened apartment, another Christian I had met knocked on the door with an invitation to go with him to some special meetings at the Apostolic Faith Church in Dallas, Oregon. I asked, “Do you think it will do me any good?” His reply was, “I know it will do you good!”

That evening I heard that I could be freed from sin and released from any desire for it. That brought a response right from my heart. I wondered if God would do this for me. At the close of the message, I went forward and prayed. I knew nothing about repentance, and after a time I got up to leave. However, someone encouraged me to try again, so I went back to prayer. My whole life passed before me, and true sorrow came into my heart for the things I had done wrong. Crying like a baby, I asked Jesus to forgive me. What a miracle happened! I could actually feel His love come into my heart. Immediately, I received a heartfelt love for everyone.

Down the drain!

My life was changed from that moment. Alcohol had been a continual problem for me. That night when I got home, I poured two fifths of alcohol down the sink. My roommate was shocked and asked what I was doing. I said, “I don’t need this stuff anymore.” I was a new creature in Christ Jesus, and He changed my very desires. I told the Lord that if He could give me a purpose for living, I would serve Him all my life. He gave me that purpose. I have a victorious life, rich with His many blessings. The blue Sundays are gone because I love to go to God’s house and worship Him.

Awhile after my conversion, I heard that God was able to heal our bodies. Even though I didn’t disbelieve that, I had never experienced anything like it. I was in college at the time, and I developed a boil on my elbow which gave me so much trouble that I finally decided to go to the infirmary and get some help. As I walked up the steps, I just decided that I did not want to bother with it, and I left. Even though I did not pray about it, God took that boil off my elbow before I got home from the infirmary. He was showing me that He could heal.

Later, the Lord allowed me to become acquainted with a great Christian girl, and eventually we were married. As we trusted God to lead us, He allowed different experiences in our lives to help build our faith and teach us to trust Him.

An instantaneous healing

One night our baby girl was burning up with a high fever, and we could not get her to stop crying. I did not even know where to find the promise in the Bible that says, “With his stripes we are healed” (Isaiah 53:5). However, I looked for it. After I found and read it, I sat the Bible down in the chair, got down on my knees, and started to pray. The Lord showed me that this promise was for times just like this. As I began to thank Him for the promise, the Spirit of God came down. I jumped to my feet and said to my wife, “She’s healed!” At that instant, my wife said, “I know.” The baby had just quit crying, the fever left, and everything was peaceful. That experience helped me to realize God’s promises are just like that. When we apply them to our lives, He will come down and do what He says He will do.

Diagnosis: Cancer

A few years later, when we had three small children, a doctor told me that he thought I had cancer and suggested that I see a specialist. While waiting in the specialist’s office the next day, the still small Voice of God spoke clearly to my heart. “When I come, will I find faith on the earth?” I knew right then that God was calling me to trust Him.

My wife and I prayed for my physical healing. The people of our church began to hold me up in prayer also. If only God would step in and heal my body! However, days passed into months, and months into years. The tumor grew to the size of a large grapefruit. It was quite noticeable and extremely painful. Eventually the cancer began spreading through my body, up my back, and into my lungs. Many nights I rolled on the floor in pain, praying that God would give me strength.

One day at a time

God kept us going, just one day at a time. He used that period of time to make some changes in our lives. My wife and I did not get involved in many outside activities, but we took time for little things. Our family drew closer together. Certainly fear and doubts came our way, but we learned to lean on the Lord in a new and precious way. When we prayed, the Spirit of the Lord was so close. How He would bless us! I asked the Lord for a promise. He gave me Hebrews 10:35 and 36, “Cast not away therefore your confidence, which hath great recompence of reward. For ye have need of patience, that, after ye have done the will of God, ye might receive the promise.” Many times I rehearsed those verses, and we just held on, year after year.

The tumor is gone!

In His own time, the Lord did heal me. After an accident on the job, the specialist who examined me said that I had, indeed, had cancer, but the tissue was now “non-cancerous.” He added that all the praying in the world would not remove the tumor that remained, but today that tumor is gone!

I thank God for His healing touch. Even more than that, I thank Him for the opportunity He gave us to prove that He will be with us through the time of desperate trial. If He had healed me at the outset, what valuable lessons we would have missed! I thank Him that His ways are perfect, and I love Him with all my soul.

When I was growing up, my family and I were close. When I was saved, I was so excited about the peace and joy that I had found that I thought surely my family would all want the same thing. However, they were not excited at all. Some of them told me that I had lost my mind. As I prayed, the Lord promised me that someday my father would be saved. For years, I did not see any hope of the fulfillment of that promise, but I kept praying. On his deathbed, my dad opened his heart to the Lord, and when he died, I knew he was ready. I have proved that it pays to hold on to God’s promises. He will never fail.

Am I sorry that I gave my heart to God? Not in the least! He has been with me and blessed me more than I can say.

Rob Wakefield is the pastor of the Apostolic Faith Church in Grants Pass, Oregon.