A Modern Miracle of Grace

BLJ: This will be the final post (for a while) from Bro. Boardman's book, "Scriptural Death-Route Holiness." The book ends with a wonderful story of conversion and sanctification. If you want to read about real sanctification, this story will bless you.

A MODERN MIRACLE

Let us call this young man "Joe," though that was not his real name. At the age of thirty-three Joe was a confirmed alcoholic and cigarette fiend, with a teen-age drug and crime history. For years he had been hungry for God. Several times he had been saved, but the craving for alcohol and nicotine was so intense that he could not hold out. By the time this story starts he was at the brink of utter despair. His home and marriage were crumbling. His job was threatened. His future was utterly hopeless. When he was drinking he was so hateful, his wife could hardly endure him any longer. And he was drinking much of the time, especially on week ends. By this time he was drinking on the job -- driving truck and drinking on the highway. Everything was falling apart. He could no longer handle it. He had given up going to church at all. He was on his way out. It would be only a matter of time.

One night he came to our home on a quick errand. I greeted him as a friend. He shocked me. His face was red and bloated. He was despondent and wanted to run. He was desperate. It seemed there was but one more step to the point of no return.

We said, "Joe, you have been hungry for God for years, but these cravings are so intense that there is no way you can keep saved." He agreed.

Then we told him about several men who had been alcoholics for years, who now were marvelous Holy Ghost preachers, pastoring churches, and they recovered from the gutter level only because God healed them and purified their blood and stopped the cravings. He seemed intrigued.

We challenged: "Joe, why don't you come in right now, sit in a chair in our living room and let us anoint you with oil as the Bible says, and if God will heal you and purify your blood stream, you will never have another craving for either of the poisons that have ruined you." He consented.

We further pressed him: "Joe, will you agree to come to our home every evening and be anointed and prayed for until God works this miracle, no matter if it takes weeks or months?" He promised.

He was anointed. We prayed not over three, or possibly four minutes, when God instantly healed him, purifying his blood stream and the cravings were gone. The anointings and praying continued for six more nights until we all felt that it was no longer necessary. The cravings -- even to the sub-conscious buildup of years was instantly removed. Joe had stepped into a new world, but he was not yet saved. A few weeks passed. Getting Joe back to God and soundly converted was not so easy.

However, a few weeks later God put a small town on his mind which was nearly two hundred miles away -- a place he had never seen. Sunday afternoon he drove there with his wife and child. Consulting the phone directory God directed him to a holiness preacher. He walked into that service and could feel the intense hovering of the Holy Spirit. That night he went to the altar and God saved him.

The restitutions which followed for a few weeks, reaching back into the terrible teenage years, brought Joe closer and closer to the experience of heart-cleansing, by the baptism of the Holy Ghost and fire. At that point in time, Joe read the unpublished manuscript of this book and said, "This cut me to the heart and put me under awful 'death-route' conviction." He then requested that he come to our home every evening to pray, to dig out, and confess out his carnal traits and die out to them all, which he did.

God made Joe passionately hungry for holiness. He asked us: "Could we come to your home for nightly visits until God sanctifies me holy?" For the next fifteen nights these vigils continued, digging out, dying to carnal traits and facing traumatic issues.

Then followed the memorable Sunday night when Joe went to our local church service. A visiting preacher brought a powerfully anointed message on the prerequisites to sanctification (or heart holiness). God settled down. Joe hit the altar and in a few minutes took the leap of faith and the Holy Ghost approved of Joe's "death-route" commitments and sanctified his heart. The witness was unmistakable. Every person in the room could feel it. Many issues had been settled and this outpouring of the Holy Ghost confirmed it all.

Many more details could be mentioned and enlarged upon as Joe went down that dark, lonely "death-route" trail to his personal crucifixion, but all would be far too voluminous to bring into this account.

Joe could have taken it by faith scores of times without ever plowing to the depths, nailing old carnal self to the cross, or possessing the sweet anointing of the Holy Ghost which he enjoys today.

We close this account by stating that Joe's entire personality is radically changed. In his dying, God told him he must never defend himself, or fight his own battles, or make his own decisions. God insisted on HIS hand at the controls and Joe agreed to it for time and for eternity. Therefore we sing --

"And it's real, It's real,
Oh, I know It's real.
Praise God, the doubts are settled,
For I know, I know it's real."

In the days before Joe was sanctified, God put it on his heart to write three gospel tracts: "Are You Satisfied?" -- "Teen-age Problems" -- "Is Drinking Fun Anymore?" And much of his spare time is spent handing out tracts and telling people what God has done for him. Praise God forever! To Him be all the praise!