The Pocket Full of Change Ministries
Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. Romans 10:14
"Daddy really got saved,” a woman called to tell me.
Puzzled, I answered, “I remember.”
“No, I mean really,” she said excitedly. “I know you prayed that little prayer with him but I questioned him later. He didn’t understand what he had done. I said, ‘Daddy, do you have any idea what you just did?’ He didn’t know what to say. We had prayed for him for years so I wanted to make sure. Everyone had talked to him. After you prayed for him, he sounded the same for a while so I know he wasn’t saved. Then someone else began teaching him and he changed. He even started going to church. I don’t know when it happened but now he is really saved.”
I tried to explain but she didn’t understand. Such is the life of an evangelist. Good thing we don’t do it for the credit. We wouldn’t be fulfilled. Her daddy had called on the name of Jesus and was saved back in November of 2013. I saw the Holy Spirit do a mighty work in his life. I knew he was lost and had prayed for an opportunity to give him the gospel. Miraculously, he came into the same bank I was in the day I prayed for that opportunity. I gave him the gospel. As usual, he argued but finally prayed to meet Jesus. His daughter witnessed the entire thing. She wept and hugged me. For a few minutes, she enjoyed the miracle.
Then doubt set in. She expected her daddy to be instantly changed. She wanted proof. The poor guy. His daughter interrogated him. I know him well and I can just imagine that interesting curmudgeon’s response to her grilling. He wasn’t ready to drop 90 years of ranting about Christians or admit that he’d been wrong. He knew what he was doing with me and I saw the moment he reluctantly surrendered to the conviction of the Holy Spirit. This man is strong willed. Trust me, no one could talk him into doing something he didn’t want to do. He needed time to process. His family pushed the panic button and didn’t trust what had happened. Instead, they doubted that God had answered their prayers and rejected their miracle. The result was months of unnecessary fear – all because of trying to apply human logic to supernatural events. I love this family and hate that they suffered unnecessarily.
Here is what really happened. God heard the prayers of the family. God answered my prayer and sent my friend to the bank while I was there. Her daddy met Jesus. Unfortunately, he didn’t pass his family’s test for salvation but he did pass the Bible’s test – he got saved. When you call on the name of Jesus, God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit is a package deal. God sent someone to disciple him and because this man now had the Holy Spirit, what used to be nonsense, made sense. He even eventually even went to church – which is what new Christians do. God sent one miracle after another. That is how the Holy Spirit works when people call on the name of the Lord to be saved. I know it because the Bible promises it and I’ve seen it happen. That wasn't a "little" prayer - it was the prayer of calling on the mighty saving power of Jesus.
I’m thrilled that this daughter is finally sure of her father’s salvation but he got saved there in the bank. Everything that happened afterward was expected but slow growth. If someone you love gets saved, trust it. We often don’t see signs of the fruits of the spirit for weeks or even years after someone gets saved but the Holy Spirit is working once he is invited in. In my experience, most people don’t completely change in a heartbeat and neither did this man but it began when God opened the door and sent him to the bank. No one will ever take the wonder of that away from me because I expect and receive miracles often enough to recognize them. Trust the process – trust the Bible – trust the Holy Spirit. Expect miracles and believe them when they happen.
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Cheryle M. Touchton, the Pocket Full of Quarters Lady, is the Director of Pocket Full of Change Ministries. She and the Missionary Dog Shiloh travel the country as missionaries. For more information or to schedule a speaker for an event, go to www.pocketfullofchange.org. This ministry exists because people like you are called to help fund the work of the kingdom. To help keep Shiloh the Missionary Dog and the Pocket Full of Quarters Lady on the road leading people to Christ, you can donate at
