I am praying to you because I know you will answer, O God.
Author: Pat Sue
It is written in Psalms chapter 17: I am praying to you because I know you will answer, O God. Bend down and listen as I pray. It is written in Psalms chapter 5: Each morning I bring my requests to you and wait expectantly. It is written in Psalms chapter 4: The Lord will answer when I call to him. It is written in Psalms chapter 6: The Lord has heard my plea; the Lord will answer my prayer.
It was at the peak of his career that Rev. Minner began to hear the call of God: “Give it all up, Prentice. I’ve got a job for you to do.” After a period of time, my friend said: “alright I’ll go.” But he still was not ready to give up show business. At first, he tried to do both; run the ministry, and keep his career going. But this resulted in Rev. Minner being in a constant state of turmoil, which led to this prayer: “Please God, give me a sign. “ Be careful what you ask for, you may get it! After he finished praying, he told his wife Pam, and then went to perform.
Prentice always performed with a band. So therefore, he always carried his charts with him. He had all of the songs he performed arranged. Without these charts, the musicians could not play the show, for the musicians all read music. So it was the strictest rule that everyone kept their eyes on the music. That night, John Lerner had stopped to put a few quarters in the slot machines. John hit a jackpot and came out and informed everybody. Prentice and a couple of band members were on one bench and the rest of the band were on the other, with the music case between them. Prentice and the band turned to congratulate John. When they turned around, the music case containing all the music was gone and no one else was in the vicinity. The music case had vanished. Later that evening, Pam reminded Prentice of his prayer for direction: “Well, I guess you got your prayer answered pretty fast.”
It was spring of 1986. We were just finishing a tour of schools in Washington State sponsored by M.A.D.D. It was during this time that the Holy Spirit instructed Pastor Minner to take L.A.P. and begin to travel all over the country wherever he was sent. But Rick wanted to be an entertainer, just like Prentice. Since Vegas was the entertainment capital of the world, well, you get the idea. What about Charles, whose heart’s desire was to get his music published and heard. And most important of all, was his wife Pam, who had a good job here in Las Vegas. So Prentice decided to stay in Vegas. Things went well until fall. L.A.P. would have a morning meeting every day without fail. The purpose was devotion, a time of teaching, and daily schedule. Only this morning was different. Prentice came to the meeting more somber than we’d ever seen him. He began to weep as he announced that there was going to be a tragedy, and that it would take place in our own front yard! The Holy Spirit revealed, however, that everything would be o.k. Less than two weeks later, Rick Lane, and Jay Forde, were shot in our front yard. The doctor who removed their bullets called the incident “Miraculous,” saying: “The bullets were hollow points and ordinarily open up on impact! But these bullets did not open!!”
A few days later, in the still of the night, the Holy Spirit woke Prentice up and warned him to flee to California for safety. With only $250.00, no place to sing, no place to stay, Prentice told everyone to pack up, we were leaving for California. This time he was obedient! When we arrived in L.A., we were invited to sing a song or two, at a Minister’s Alliance meeting which hosted ministers from all over California. When Pastor Minner mentioned that we needed a place to stay, one lady offered us the use of her home. John called Pastor Minner and told him that we needed $7,000.00 to keep our homes by the following Saturday afternoon. During devotion and announcements, Pastor Minner suddenly stopped. Then he began to name off seven girls in the group and instructed them to isolate themselves from the rest of the group for three hours and pray for our miracle. One of the girls’ mother, whom he was supposed to call, was visiting, so Pastor Minner substituted another girl in her place. Shauna went to Pastor Minner and said: “Prentice, why didn’t you call my name? I am supposed to be one of the seven in the prayer group, aren’t I? This is far more important than visiting!”
Three hours later, the girls came out singing a victory song. They didn’t know how the Lord was going to work it out but they were sure that something really great was about to happen! That’s faith! Between Wednesday and the following Sunday, we received eight invitations to sing at various churches in that area. We received over $7,800.00 in one day with enough time to get the money back to John for our homes! HALLELUJAH.
L.A.P. was now in Atlanta, Georgia, where we had been for over 2 weeks. We were leaving for Nashville, Tennessee, which was the next stop of our ‘Faith’ tour. Pastor Minner got a call from John who told him we needed $5,000.00 to save our homes. Pastor Minner told us the situation, and instructed us to get down on our knees and pray right there on the bus! So we did! A short while later, Pastor Minner told the bus driver to turn the bus around. Then Rick and Charles asked why. Pastor Minner replied: The Holy Spirit said we were going the wrong direction. The $5,000.00 is waiting for us in Atlanta. One of our members remarked: Prentice, that pond has already been fished from. Let’s move on to Nashville. But we obeyed Pastor Minner’s instructions from the Holy Spirit and went back to Atlanta. Pastor made some calls to some Pastors in the area and by Sunday, we had 2 churches scheduled. By the time we finished both church services, we had over $750.00. A little old lady said: “Ya’ all should come to my church“. Well, we rolled our eyes in disappointment, But Pastor Minner said: “We ain’t got nothing better to do.” So we all packed into the bus and followed the little old lady to her church, already in session. She introduced us to the church and asked them to let us sing a song or two. They did, so we sang and told two testimonies. As they were taking up the offering, one of our girls leaned over to Pastor and said with five fingers raised: “Where’s the five thousand dollars?” Then, as the Pastor called for benediction, a voice called out from the audience: “Rev. Jones, Rev. Jones, I forgot my checkbook at home, but if this group will wait for me, I’m going to write them a check for $5,000.00!!! When Pastor Minner obeyed the Holy Spirit’s instructions and trusted him alone to bring it to pass, he did!!!
In February 2009, I received my final notice from the Clark County Treasurer that unless I brought into the office a cashier’s check in the amount of $4,984.64 by March 20th, my home would be auctioned off to pay past due property taxes. I had been doing monthly concerts for three years, trying to do everything I could think of just to keep my head above water, and I failed. It was at this time one of my close friends told me to give him a list of all my friends, and he would contact them and tell them of my situation, but he said: ”Because of the economy, times are tough, we’ll just have to see!” So I got down on my knees and began to cry out to God in desperation. I said: “I have done everything I know how to do! They’re going to take my home away from me; I ain’t gonna live like no damn bum! If this is all I got to look forward to, you can cash my chips in and take me home. I don’t know how to fix this! Help me!” After this, I went out for a while and frantically began to sob. I finally stopped crying when I said: “I saw you do it for Prentice, so do it for me. I trust you God!” Then I got my first Divine instruction. The Holy Spirit told me to play to him, for his enjoyment! That’s it? That’s all?!! I need $5,000.00. That don’t fix my problem!! But the Holy Spirit reminded me that I said: “I don’t know how to fix this,” and that I had asked him for help. Now obey and trust me! So from that day on until March 20th, that is exactly what I did. At the end of each day, I said with a great amount of hope: “I trust you Lord.” It was now March 19th, and I got a call from my friend John. He said: “I’m picking you up at 4:30 P.M., be ready.” “What for?” I asked. “We gotta go to the bank” he said. We arrived at my branch at 4:55 P.M. All the employees knew me by first name. So Sam, the bank supervisor says: “Pat, what can I do for you?” At Sam’s desk, John pulls out $400.00. Then John pulls out a bundle of checks, hands them to me and says sign them. After I had signed them all, Sam added everything up. Sam looked at us and said: “This is for the house isn’t it?” I said “Yup.” He said: “Pat, I’m going to do you a favor. I’m going to put these checks through. I’m going to waive the mandatory waiting period to process these checks.” This was the first part of the miracle. The second part came when he said: “Now, let me go cut you a cashier’s check in the amount of $4,984.64!”
Wisdom is shown to be right by what results from it.- Matthew chapter 11
When I obeyed his instructions and trusted him alone to bring it to pass, he did! In the kingdom, God is dependable.