Those who love your teachings will find true peace.—Psalm 119:165 (NCV)

I’d like to tell you a story involving my father-in-law…

A gentleman who needed peace in his life went to Oral for prayer because he said he had “lost everything.” Oral asked him specifically what he had lost, and he replied, “I lost all my money in the stock market.”

Oral then asked him to state anything else that he had lost. He simply replied, “No, there’s nothing else.”

After this, Oral asked him another question, one that had to be directly from the Holy Spirit because it was so perceptive and exactly what this man needed to hear: “So, are you saying that your money was everything to you? Are you saying that nothing else has value? Are you saying your family has no value? Your mind has no value? Your health has no value? Your relationships with others are of no value? Your relationship with the Lord has no value? Are you really saying that the only thing that had value to you was money? And do you really mean that, to you, when you lost money, you lost everything?”

Starting Again

In an instant, the man had a Holy Spirit-given revelation. He realized that he could start again. While losing his money had been unexpected, money could be replaced. The man began to say, “I can make more money. I still have my family. I still have my health. I still have my relationship with the Lord, and He will help me to make more money and get back on my feet.”

What had brought this man temporary peace—his money—was the very thing that brought him torment when it was taken away. But when Oral directed him to true peace—the peace of God, which could sustain him in any situation—the man suddenly had a change of heart, and this led him to have a change of mind.

We can view biblical peace as “nothing missing, nothing broken.” This man was missing money, but that could be replaced. He could regain financial resources—even obtain more than he’d had before. However, the restoration of his finances had to begin with him. He had to recognize who his Source of peace was in order to get out of his despair and return to productive work. Once he recognized his true peace and understood that God was still there, he realized he could get back everything he had lost, and more.

The Power of God

Why was Oral so convinced that this man could recover financially? First of all, Oral had faith in God. He knew that if the man could simply connect with God, everything could change for him. Second, Oral had experienced his own miracle of recovery. It wasn’t financial, it was physical—but a miracle is a miracle, right?

You see, as a young, poverty-stricken boy, Oral had stuttered so badly that his fellow students and even his teachers had laughed at him, causing him to become painfully introverted. Then, at age seventeen, he was dying of tuberculosis, and he attended a healing meeting in Ada, Oklahoma, where God miraculously healed him and called him to take His healing power to the nations of the world through a healing ministry.

Oral went on to recover physically, to say yes to God’s call, and to devote his life to building a ministry that still impacts the world today. And the stuttering that had been so difficult for him in his youth? God miraculously healed him on the same night He healed him of tuberculosis, and Oral preached God’s Word with power and anointing for many years.

So, when Oral told the man who thought he’d “lost everything” that he could recover, he spoke with firsthand authority. He knew the power of God to turn bad situations around and to reach into impossible circumstances and work miracles.

If Oral were writing this, I truly believe he would tell you that no matter what has happened in your past, God can turn it around. My prayer is that you will believe this, that you will put your faith in the God who works miracles and see what He can do for you.

True peace—the peace of God—can sustain you in any situation.

Practicing Peace: Consider spending some time thinking about, praying about, and writing a response to this question: How different could your future look if you stopped revisiting certain things in the past as God directs?