All Self-Made Men go to Hell

I have an interesting testimony today.

Recently, I wrote about a dispute with a collection agency. My dad stayed in an assisted living facility for four days, we paid in advance, and then they started sending bills. They told us to ignore the bills because they were computer errors. Then their collection agency started calling me. I found out the facility had not deposited the check, and I had to stop payment. The collection agency wanted me to pay them about $900, plus the original $600 bill, plus an additional $150 for an imaginary fifth day.

I contacted the Secretary of Agriculture and filed a complaint about the facility. That’s what you do in Florida, believe it or not. I contacted the Secretary of State and filed a complaint about the collection agency, which was making insane claims about me, losing documents, and refusing to deposit a new check I sent them as payment for my dad’s stay.

I tried to deal directly with the facility, but their business office coordinator would not take my calls. The receptionist flat-out told me she had accosted the business office coordinator and informed her of my efforts to reach her, but she didn’t respond. I told them I was considering going to the facility and sitting in the lobby across from her office, but when I prayed about it, I felt that God told me not to do that.

This was a stressful business for me. I didn’t want to have to go to court or arbitration. Courts and arbitrators can be very stupid. I didn’t want to end up paying someone else’s lawyer when I was in the right.

Long ago, I received a word from God. I don’t talk about it much, because it’s not the kind of thing other Christians receive gladly. He had me say, “From now on, I will have total victory, because you are for me.” I think about that when I have problems with people who treat me unfairly.

Speaking to Jews who were under the law, Jesus suggested that if they were sued, they should give the plaintiffs more than they sued for. I talked to God about that. I’m not under the law, and I have this word from God. Giving dishonest, irresponsible people nine hundred bucks for making errors and lying doesn’t seem like “total victory” to me. If I paid them, how would God be glorified for keeping his word?

I told God I would pay them what they wanted if it would make him happy, but I felt strongly that he didn’t want me to do it. Eventually, I started asking him if I was permitted to pay them, just to get them off my back. The sum was not very significant to me, and my peace of mind was. Still, I felt that he didn’t want me to pay.

Yesterday, the business office coordinator called me out of the blue. She was contrite. She kept apologizing. She said they would be happy to close the account for the cost of my dad’s stay, minus whatever stop fees I had to pay on the two checks I had already sent. I was shocked.

I was so happy, I didn’t bother to ask her to take the cost of my return-receipt mail off the bill.

I told her I wanted an email so I would have some kind of record of our deal. Here is some text from the email:

I just wanted to follow up from our phone conversation we had yesterday regarding your account.

Thank you for taking the time to help me understand, that most of the outstanding balance is due to a check that was lost here at the community.

As we discussed, the total due is currently showing $915, of which only $570 was actually owed (lost check for $600 minus $30 stop payment fee). Plus at this time, you probably would want to place another stop payment, on the check you sent to collection agency saying “Paid in Full”, which they are not willing to cash.

If you are willing to pay the $540 that you agreed that was owed, I will credit the remaining $375. After your payment and my credit adjustment, this will leave the account at a zero balance, for a paid in full status.

Please mail the check to my address below. I also will let the collection agency know as well, to consider this a closed matter.

I do apologize for all the confusion and thank you for helping me to get this taken care of.

You can’t make things like this up.

I kept feeling that God was telling me they were going to accept what I had offered, and they did better than that. I should have had faith.

I can’t figure out what’s going on at the ALF. Is someone over there an alcoholic? Is somebody in the business office having a mental breakdown? Why would you lose a check? Why would you call a collection agency instead of sending an email or picking up the phone? Why would you refuse to talk to someone and then call him, apologize repeatedly, and do everything he asked you to do?

I hope I haven’t caused unnecessary problems for someone whose life is falling apart.

I made sure I prayed for all of the people who caused this mess, and I used my supernatural tools to reject anger and worry. Something bad must be going on, for them to behave as they have.

The main thing is this: I felt God was telling me a certain thing, and that thing came to pass, improbable as it seemed.

I didn’t always behave as well as I should have during this fight. In my second letter, I told the collection agency to be very sure they didn’t lose my new correspondence. I suggested they pin it to someone’s sweater. Still, God didn’t cut me off for that.

We are supposed to hear directly from God, and this is how we’re supposed to live in the staggering promises he makes in the Bible. If you don’t have the Holy Spirit, you’re flying blind, and you will make disastrous mistakes. God told me certain things, I chose to believe him, and he proved I had really heard from him. Traditionally, Christians have operated through guesswork, and that’s why they land in the soup so often. Life can be much better than it is for most Christians.

You need the baptism with the Holy Spirit. You need to pray in tongues a lot, because it will bring you information. You need to learn to prophesy. You need to start now, while life for Christians is still reasonably good. It will take you time, and you don’t want to start on the day you need to hear from God.

Remember the parable of the wise virgins and the foolish virgins. The foolish virgins didn’t refuse to get oil. They just waited too long. By the time they got started, it was too late, and they missed the arrival of the bridegroom as well as the wedding.

The wedding is the rapture, and the oil is the Holy Spirit in his fullness. Yesterday I heard Perry Stone say the oil can’t be the Holy Spirit because the foolish virgins bought the oil. He says you can’t buy the Holy Spirit, so the oil can’t represent the Holy Spirit. He’s wrong. The Bible describes the kingdom of heaven as a pearl of great price, which a man bought after selling all he had. If you can buy the kingdom of heaven, you can buy the Holy Spirit. You buy the Holy Spirit by trading yourself for him, just as Jesus bought us by trading himself for us.

God isn’t going to send angels down here and have them hold signs and cue cards. He’s not going to speak to us through greasy televangelists who wear $7000 basketball shoes. You have to be able to hear from him personally. You need this for yourself and your family.

This is the way God has chosen to communicate with us. He gave us the word of knowledge, the word of wisdom, discerning of spirits, tongues, interpretation of tongues, and prophecy. Once in a while he speaks in an audible voice, and he has occasionally had angels speak to people, but you shouldn’t expect those things to happen often enough to save you.

I’m not doing as well as I should be, but I’m getting better fast, and most people I know haven’t even gotten started.

Don’t think you can count on people who are in touch with God to help you. They will have a hard enough time looking after themselves and their families. God isn’t going to let them be so burdened with lazy Christians that they can’t receive his victory and deliverance. You can’t climb onto someone else’s shoulders and ruin what God is doing for them. You need to do this for yourself.