The Audacity of Faith: What Happened...?

By Eben-Ezer

What happens when you feel like you are losing your mind and common sense eludes you. What do you do when you are trying to live as a servant of God and a good citizen but your parents do not understand you, your wife, brothers and sisters; and even your neighbors consider you as an outcast? (Perhaps worthless).The journey seems so long and you do not know where to turn. What can you do? Where can you go? Do you leave the people you love behind or do you move to another location to bring relief from the pain everyone is feeling? Wait. Remember there is hope in God!

The pain of death was at my bedside, the pangs Sheol laid hold of me; sorrows and troubles were at my doorstep. I was brought down low, and then the Lord delivered my soul from death. I am glad that God has dealt mercifully with me, for He has returned my soul to rest.

• Language: English
• Publisher: WestBow Press
• Release date: May 2, 2013
• ISBN: 9781449792152

Eben-Ezer

Eben-Ezer has always had an entrepreneurial spirit. For fifteen years, he was involved in futile business ventures, until he was blessed with the opportunity to own his own franchise. Operating this business was not easy, but he had finally found the right career. Today he runs a thriving store. Eben-Ezer is also a budding inventor and holds one patent.

Book preview

Contents

Disclaimer

Prologue

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Chapter 11

Chapter 12

Chapter 13

Chapter 14

Afterword

Support Verses

Disclaimer

THIS IS A MEMOIR. I SHARE these memories as perceived and articulated through my individual experience with the hope of helping others who find themselves in a similar situation. Though these memories reflect what I experienced, they may not coincide with what others depicted in the story experienced or remember. To better illustrate the environment in which I lived and the influence events had on my life, I have occasionally taken dramatic license. To protect the identities and privacy of those involved, I have changed my name, the names of others, our relationships, and the locations of events. Any resemblance to persons living or dead or to actual events or locales is entirely coincidental.

Prologue

GROWING UP IN THE WEST INDIES during the 1970s and ’80s was like playing Russian roulette. My little country, a wildly popular vacation destination in the Caribbean, was plagued with political strife. A dictator ruled the land, and people could not plan for the future, as corrupt officials would unscrupulously pick their pockets through high or unnecessary taxation and price gouging. For this and many other reasons, people fled in hopes of a better life.

My parents have always been industrious and resourceful people. In the West Indies, my father was a minister and factory worker, while my mom was a humble homemaker. No matter how hard they worked to put food on the table and to give us children a chance, it seemed like we never got ahead. The money always ran thin and barely covered our family’s growing needs. There were nine children in our family, all of us school age, but educating us in so disadvantaged a state was no easy feat. Education cost money, and though primary school was mandated, secondary education was not. Furthermore, after paying for the required education of the younger children, my parents, like many others, found it difficult to send their older children to school.

As a result, my parents decided to immigrate to America—the land of opportunity where immigrants were told that they could work their way up. Though born a peon, one did not have to die a peon in America. A person could easily be a servant one day and a master the next. This was the opportunity that my parents envisioned and what I in turn desired. In my adolescent and young adult years, I dreamed of finding success. However, my ambitions were directly opposed by the unseen Enemy. Where I dreamed of accomplishment, he desired my destruction. When the love of God fills your spirit, challenges will always be at your doorstep.

The Bible warns the people of God to be sober and vigilant, because our adversary the Devil is like a roaring lion seeking to devour us. I can offer several firsthand accounts testifying to the validity of this warning. The Enemy is at war with God’s children. He knows his time is short, and he is striving to destroy our hope, faith, and joy. As the son of a minister, I have always been a prime target for him. The Enemy knows that destroying my hope, faith, and joy will injure my parents’ hope, faith, and joy, thereby infecting God’s ministry.

Consequently, as a youth I was challenged every day by extraordinary peer pressure. There was pressure to do or sell drugs, to skip classes or cut school, to become a wayward youth or a gangster, and to fail. There were days when I, like many in my high school, considered carrying a weapon to protect myself against the repercussions of not submitting to the pressure. Thankfully, I did not do this and never truly needed to make that decision. I clearly saw the results of submitting to peer pressure: my young friends and neighbors who surrendered to the streets wasted their lives on drugs and behind bars.

Because I was a prime target, the enemy’s assault did not stop in my adult years. I endured personal, financial, and spiritual trials. Each trial was supernaturally designed to attack my faith and attitude of praise. I lost many battles—especially after visiting the demonic lairs of a brother and close family friends. Yet, like a good shepherd, Christ was always present to rescue me and dust me off for the next scrimmage. As a result, I claim victory in the war for my life, because if God is for me, nothing can stand against me!

In the 1970s, my parents left a Caribbean island to come to America. My siblings and I were separated for lodging purposes. The older children went to live with family friends and distant relatives, while the five youngest children, including myself, were sent to a boarding school. My parents did not want to place a significant burden on any one friend or relative and therefore thought it best to disperse their children among several places.

I felt like I had been cut off from the world. It was not the school’s remote location that made me feel so desolate; it was not having my mom or dad nearby to console me or watch over me when I was sick that made me forlorn. Though surrounded by adults in supervisory roles, I had no one to give me advice on making friends and managing responsibilities or to teach me how to ride a bike. Life as I knew it had ended, and the joy within me diminished. Forced into manhood, I had to learn how to care for and depend upon myself. When my parents left, a door closed behind me and my world got dark and lonely.

I had grown up in the Caribbean where demons walk by day and night, so when I was a child, fear was as natural as air. The place I called my home was saturated in evil, and Satan himself headed the country’s demonic regime. Though I was never a part of the occult world then, it was quite evident to me that good and evil existed and that the two forces were at war with each other. Hence I learned at a very early age to shun evil practices in all their ungodly forms.

In 1981, my brothers, now pastors, my sister, and I immigrated to the United States. My arrival in New York brought positive changes, but