Without the Smell of Smoke
by Melanie Hemry
The hands on the wall clock appeared frozen in place and the night seemed to crawl. The building was quiet as 27-year-old Robert Nichols sat in his office, fingering a CD by Kenneth Copeland from the 2005 Great Lakes Prosperity Overflow Convention.
Robert’s mother had given him the CD set from the meeting the year before, but he and his wife, Tamara, had known better than to listen to it. For a year, the CDs had remained on the countertop in their home. Now, though he knew better, Robert had brought them to his third-shift job where he considered listening while he worked.
What was wrong with him?
He was committed to the Lord and to doing what was right. Back in college he’d been on the football team and a big man on campus, partying and having a great time. As soon as he realized that he was being captured by that culture, he quit school, moved home and immersed himself in the Word of God. He’d thrown himself into serving at the church he had attended since middle school.
Since being married, Robert and Tamara had been single-minded in their pursuit of God.
That, he now realized, was the problem.
They were doing everything they knew to do…but something was missing. They were so hungry for more. Didn’t Matthew 5:6 say that those who hunger and thirst after righteousness would be satisfied? He and Tamara were seeking the Lord at home in their own private time of worship and through the Word of God. They were serving in the church. And yet they felt ravenous for more.
Robert shoved the CD aside and rubbed his hands over his face, recalling what his pastors taught: It was wrong to listen to any message outside their own pulpit without their approval. Yet he’d never felt so compelled to do something he knew was wrong. With a deep sigh of conviction, he shoved the CD into the player and turned it on.
Ignited by Faith
“When I listened to that first CD it felt as though I stepped into the light,” Robert remembers. “We’d been asking God for more, never imagining that the answer was at home lying on the counter. I called Tamara and said, ‘You’ve got to hear this!’
“When she got home from her job as a special education teacher, we listened to the entire set of the Great Lakes CDs. What we heard changed our lives. We started learning about the power of our words and how important it is that they line up with God’s Word. We started learning how to live by faith!”
18 : BVOV
