Shutting the Mouths of Lions

By 1958, the Martin’s 10-year lease on King’s Garden was up for renewal and had to be approved by the tuberculosis board and city officials. In this penultimate episode of BY FAITH, the miraculous story of how God fulfilled His Jeremiah 32 promise to give Mike the city will be recounted—including details like the miraculous clerical error that gave Mike’s team the ability to purchase the property, how the Martins managed to acquire $100,001 in cash in the span of a week, and the dissolution of the lease on Mike’s birthday, of all days. The stories in this episode are a true testament to how the God of the Old Testament heroes can still shut the mouths of lions today, even when those lions are more likely to be found in public property hearings than in a pit with a prophet.

In 1948 God promised Mike he would go into full-time ministry for 10 years, and in 1958 He fulfilled that promise with the purchase of King’s Garden. Though this episode recounts that epic conclusion and sets the stage for all that’s to come with CRISTA, “Shutting the Mouths of Lions” will also tell the story of the final miracle in Mike’s life: his entrance into the Kingdom. A few years after the purchase of King’s Garden, Mike and Viv embarked on a cross-country ministry trip. Before the trip even began, Viv had a premonition something would go wrong, and all along their route Mike’s health continued to worsen. Eventually the couple would end up in a Detroit hospital, Mike suffering from a severe heart attack coupled with pneumonia. In her own words, Viv tells the story of how Mike knew it was his time to go be with the Lord, describing his dream about Heaven and how God was calling him home. Mike passed away in his sleep the day after he told Viv about the dream, and the Martin family, along with the CRISTA family around the world, grieved the loss of this humble servant leader.

Listen to "Shutting the Mouths of Lions" on Spreaker.