Sid: We want families of born again believers to be role models for the world. We want to provoke Jewish people and all people to jealousy. Our families are not what they’re supposed to be, children even in Christian homes are estranged from their parents. Husband and wives are bickering and fighting and flying in the wrong direction. And I believe that God has put into my hands a course called “What God has Joined Together, God’s Plan for a fulfilled Marriage.” I am raving about this teaching, I believe that if you have a bad marriage, if a husband and wife listen to this course and if it’s so bad that only one spouse will listen I believe that through using God’s word with the revelation knowledge that God gave Gary Whetstone that your marriage is going to turned around. If you know young people getting married or newlyweds, I urge you to get this into their hand. The course “What God has Joined Together” 6 audio cassettes plus a booklet “Life Changing.” I have on the telephone Pastor Gary Whetstone Pastor of Victory Fellowship in New Castle, Delaware. He is also the head of Gary Whetstone Worldwide Ministries and has founded over 207 Bible Schools worldwide. On yesterday’s broadcast we found out that Gary had a freak accident and went as we say in Hebrew mashuga, crazy, locked up in a mental institution, nothing to be done with him. They wanted to do an electronic lobotomy that would leave him as a vegetable. Two days before he get’s led to the Lord, he urges the head psychiatrist to let him out and not have this lobotomy. They don’t listen to him they thought “Oh, talking about God that proves he’s crazy.” And supernaturally he escapes from the institution, he runs on the highway and he doesn’t even remember this except he met the woman. This woman goes right through him on her car and she’s shocked. She recognizes that he’s a mental patient that has run away because she’s connected with that institution and she’s ready to call the police and a voice said to her Gary.
Gary: “Do not report him that this young man belonged to God and God had a call on my life.” Incredible isn’t it? Just think about that Sid that a person who was ready to take an action God intervened blinded the eyes of all of those guards, spoke to that woman, and now that woman was in our church and she did not even know that I was that young man until she had been in the body to Christ in our church for about 7 years. Incredible of the power of God delivering a person. You know Sid we had stopped with a fact that that car like went through me and then I literally did escape and did go to Florida. And I remember praying a second time in Florida the only time that I had talked to God that I remember and I said “God if You’re really real I want to be able to go back to Delaware and have a clean bill of mental health.” For some unknown reason this incredible peace came over my life which I now know is the peace of God. And I came back to Delaware they put me through months of evaluation again and tests and could find absolutely nothing wrong. Salvation Sid was a complete absolute turn around and transformation of my life. As soon as I got out of the mental hospital which was now in 1972, a young man that we know that anybody who was in a tremendous traumatic state of that nature is looking for security. What I did is I went back to some of my former girlfriends that I had had prior to becoming locked away in the mental hospital.
Sid: Now you really, although you were born again, you really did not know the word of God, you had not been discipled.
Gary: No knowledge whatsoever.
Sid: Okay, go ahead.
Gary: No knowledge, I mean to tell you. Well, actually I went to a church right after getting out of the mental hospital and the pastor invited me to leave. Because he said “We don’t have your kind here.” And it was really turned me off to even want to know God anymore. I started dating again a former girlfriend her name was Faye O’Neal, and she had known me all of my life growing up and knew what had happened to me in the mental hospital and all of the things and drugs and everything. And literally I married her on the 12th of May in 1972. You know sometimes when we understand the situation of a person prior to marriage we can look back and say “Oh yes, if they’d only had fixed that before they got married they would have been able to successfully been married.” Well, that’s what happened with me, I came into the marriage with all of the baggage of having such an incredibly tormented life. Even though I had salvation Sid I did not have knowledge. I didn’t know what the Bible said about marriage, I didn’t know what God wanted to do with marriage. My wife was not born again, we never went to church and after a period of just a few years I mean I went back into college and started growing academically in business and finance and industry that I was in industrial engineering. All of a sudden one day, now this happens to so many people I tried drugs one time just marijuana nothing serious. In 1975 all of a sudden all of this incredible torment came back upon my mind. One open door to the enemy caused a complete mental relapse. Sometimes we have people that are in our church and see that happen with drugs or alcohol and we don’t really give enough credit to the power of that mental torment and abuse. My wife said “Listen if you ever have a situation where you go back again to that mental process I’m out of here.” Well, she was and she sued me for everything and got it all. But what’s interesting is during that time my mother ended up in the latter part of ’75 had given herself to the Lord, had received the power of the Holy Spirit. She said to me “Gary, you know you’ve got a problem here.” Well I said it’s pretty evident got two small children that child support has given you $15 left a week to live on.” She said “No, no, no that’s not the problem; the problem is you’ve got demonic spirits that have really been tormenting your mind and you need to get set free.” I didn’t understand what that meant believe me Sid at all but I did know this it sounds far better than the mental hospital. During that time, and many of those that are listening today you’ve had similar experiences. Tremendous pangs of depression and mental anguish had gripped me to the place where I had attempted suicide in 1975 three times.
Sid: I read about that time you actually drove your car on the railroad tracks, heard the train and you were going to be… I mean that wasn’t Russian roulette that was suicide.
Gary: Absolutely, you know I had no plan of ever living. I had failed in suicide attempts before and I would watch the Amtrak Train coming up the east corridor here in Newark, Delaware which is right outside the church that I pastor in New Castle, Delaware. And I sat on the tracks of that train that sped by at about 80 miles and hours in my little Volkswagen waiting to be killed. That train was on a different track, I mean it’s incredible what God does. It turned out that the train had had some track problems several miles between Baltimore – Delaware and the rerouted the train to another track. It sped by me and missed me. Well, that was it. I ended up being majorly offended by these attempts of suicide, but one thing I did do which really brought a change. I got Spirit-filled in a small home meeting during that time. And a person ministered to me a Pastor in the region here and he got me set free mentally. Sid, that’s when I gave myself to the word of God. And I said “If God can deliver a mental patient like me, if God can take the pain of attempted suicide and the horrific areas of depression and mental torment that was in my life and break it, God could restore a marriage.” As I shared yesterday, I spent 7 years studying the word of God because of the failure that I was as a man, as a father, as a husband. And I realized that the word of God was only truth that had power to bring change and as well with the Holy Spirit. After I gave myself to that intense time of study and prayer for my wife Faye it was very incredible. As we were going through out divorce proceedings I would pray for her. And then I want you to listen to this if you’re listening because God gives you the same ability. I could see in the Spirit what was happening with my wife, I mean at first she took off with one of my best friends the very day that we separated. You think that anybody with this type of experience with marriage would become very embittered and have a lot of hatred and judgment. But you know God taught me something and that was that love literally has no account of sin or hurt. That love covers a multitude of sin. And I can tell you I remember when we published that article in Charisma Magazine which you’re referring to many times. I had pastors call me right after that and they say “Gary you should never own up to anything that is so controversial in your past.” And you know I said to pastors I said “Look what are we hypocrites to think that pastors don’t have challenges.” Any of you that are listening you know pastors that have fallen to immorality, areas of compromise and sometimes even ministers have the worst marriages in the church. And you know I settled in my heart that year that God was going to restore our home. I not only had conviction, but I gave myself 100% to the understanding of the word of God because the word of God is like it says “That which God has joined together let not man put asunder.”
Sid: But very briefly, at your divorce did… you did get divorced.
Gary: Oh yeah.
Sid: What did you tell the judge and put in demand to be put in the record?
Gary: You know this is kind of interesting my wife is you know standing there and I’m standing there and he asked me, “Do you have anything to say Mr. Whetstone before this divorce decree is final?” And I said “Yes.” The Stenographer is there typing all of the words being said. And I took the Bible off of the area that the judge kind of has you raise your hand to or whatever. He said “What are you going to do with that?” I said “I’m going to read a sentence. He said “We only use that as a point of reference for you to speak truth.” I said “Well, it’s to me more than a point of reference, this is truth.” And I open up the Bible to 1st Corinthians chapter 7 verse 11. And I said “And I want it to be on the record that this statement governs greater authority than the courts of Delaware, greater than my wife’s desire to be divorced, it says ‘But if she departs let her remain unmarried or be reconciled to her husband.’” And I said “I want it to be on the court record that I’m only going to permit Faye Whetstone to remarry me.” That judge looked at me like I came from Mars and he said “What you’re going through a divorce today.” I said “I realize that and I know that the law is bringing a closure to this area of marriage but I want you do know I will remarry this woman and I will not permit her to stay unmarried, she will remarry me.”
Sid: Our time is up.
Gary: I know.
