LITMIR.BIZ

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will? Nope.”

      “My sentiments exactly. But he’s a preacher. So why should I question his integrity? If we acquired that building right now, it would still take two to three months to fix it up. We might be able to get one area completed enough to begin services in a month. The crew could possibly work on the rest without disturbing us. I don’t know. Could this really be God at work? I’m just not sure what to do at this point. But he wants an answer from me pretty quickly.” Pastor Landris sat back down in the chair.

      “Then you know what? We need to kneel down right here, right now, and seek God’s guidance and direction. Landris, you don’t have to do anything until you hear from Him. I don’t care what or who’s pressuring you. When you don’t know what to do, it’s best not to do anything until you get clear direction about it.”

      Pastor Landris nodded and reached out his hand for Johnnie Mae to come to him. She walked around her desk, and they knelt down together beside the chair he’d been sitting in. As they held hands, Pastor Landris began to pray.

      “Dear Lord, I come to You, not leaning to my own understanding, but acknowledging You in all my ways. Direct my path, O Lord. Order my steps. You’ve told me to wait on You and to keep Your way. In Psalm 37:34, You say if I do this, You’ll exalt me to inherit the land. Lord, you know the hearts and motives of everyone walking on the face of this earth. I lift Reverend Knight up to you right now. I admit—I’m not sure whether he’s for me or against me. Protect me as I do Your will. Not my will, but Your will be done. I’m committed to go where You tell me to go, to do what You tell me to do, to say what You tell me to say. Oh, that You would bless me indeed, and enlarge my territory. Let Your hand be with me, and keep me from evil, that nothing may cause pain. You’ve told me to wait on You; I’m waiting. You’ve told me you would supply my every need. You know what I’m in need of right now.

      “Lord, we need a place for the ministry You sent me here to begin. You have begun a good work in me. I realize the enemy will use others to try to hinder or stop the work. It’s up to us to keep pressing. Psalm 91:11–12 assures me that You will give Your angels charge over me, to keep me in all my ways. These angels will bear me up to ensure I don’t even dash my foot against a stone. You say in Psalm 91:15 that we can call on You and You will answer, that You will be with us in trouble, You will deliver us, and honor us. Speak to me, Lord. Tell me what You desire me to do. This I pray and thank You in the name of Jesus. Amen.”

      “Amen,” Johnnie Mae said. “Hallelujah, Lord. Thank You, Jesus. Thank You, Jesus for answering this prayer. We thank You that it’s already done.”

      “It’s already done,” Pastor Landris chimed in with praise. “Thank You, Lord. Thank You, Father, that You hear me always.”

      “Thank You, Jesus for being our advocate…for interceding for us as You sit on the right hand of our Father…forever interceding on our behalf,” Johnnie Mae said in agreement with her husband. “Thank You for saving us. Thank You that You’ve already made a way. Right now, it’s already done. Hallelujah to Your name.”

      “It’s already done, in Jesus’ name,” Pastor Landris said as he realized that was his Word from the Lord. “It’s already done.”

      Chapter 9

      And when they saw him afar off, even before he came near unto them, they conspired against him to slay him.

      (Genesis 37:18)

      “Poppa Knight, how did it go?” a tall, slender man with hair cut low to his head asked as soon as Reverend Knight sat down in the recliner in the great room.

      Five preachers were in attendance: Reverend Marshall Walker, Reverend Perry Grant, Reverend Moses Beam, Reverend Theodore Simpson, and Reverend Paul Knight.

      “I think it went quite well. From the look on his face when I left him at the restaurant, he’s seriously thinking about my offer,” Reverend Knight said. He picked up a pastry from the platter—cream cheese with a pineapple filling. “Are these fresh?” he asked, poking it before taking a bite.

      “Yeah, they’ve just been sitting out a while. We’ve been here waiting on you for over two hours now,” said Reverend Beam, who was almost as round around the waist as he was tall. He picked up a pastry with raspberry filling and consumed it in three bites. “Taste fresh to me.”

      “So you left him wondering a little, you think?” the tall Reverend Walker asked.

      “Your plan executed to perfection, Reverend Walker,” Reverend Knight said as he looked straight in the eyes of his good friend Marshall. They’d known each other since elementary school and had been cut-buddies since middle school.

      Reverend Walker had always been the brains of their group of five. Or, at least, that’s what they let him believe. He was the one who devised this plan after learning Pastor Landris was pursuing the purchase of a building their organization owned.

      The five took this information as a sign from God for them to put a halt to Pastor Landris’s efforts before he got started. It was Reverend Walker’s idea to send Reverend Knight. He made Reverend Knight believe it was his, since on paper, this was his organization. It was his place, by right, to take the lead in the matter.

      “What about when the phone call came in of our dear preacher’s heart ailment?”

      “I think he was frustrated at the timing, Reverend Walker. Especially since I’d just dropped the bombshell about my knowledge of his defunct radio station deal. You called back just before he could get any answers to his questions,” Reverend Knight said.

      “That’s how we planned it. I would call twice, back-to-back, as your signal to begin. At some point, you would bring up the radio deal. I’d call back repeatedly until you answered.” Reverend Walker clapped his hands once with sheer delight. “And voila! ”

      “So what did he say? Come on, Poppa Knight,” Reverend Beam said, “hurry up and tell us everything that happened. You know we’ve been sitting here waiting patiently. We were almost ‘having a heart attack.’” Reverend Beam laughed as did the others.

      “I’m certain two things are on his mind—the offer of the building for nothing for as long as he wants, and my knowledge of something I’m sure he believed no one knew about. Also, that it was a $10 million deal, and that the deal had fallen through, jeopardizing, or at least restricting, his cash flow.” Reverend Knight looked at Reverend Grant. “Are you sure you didn’t have anything to do with this fiasco?”

      “Not a thing,” Reverend Grant said, holding his hands up as if to show he wasn’t hiding anything. “You know that other group of businessmen I hang out with from time to time who are into all sorts of dealings? Well, they were the ones who told me about it. They thought it was too bad for the good reverend, but that’s what happens when you don’t do your own deals while playing with the big boys. You don’t rely on others to handle important business. Pastor Landris never should have trusted his brother with something like that if it was out of his league. Word in the circle is, Pastor Landris’s brother is bad business.”

      “So what exactly did happen with the radio station?” asked Reverend Theodore, the preacher with the thick, bushy eyebrows and mustache.

      “Pastor Landris was about to buy that station over on the FM channel. The one that plays a variety of R&B and stuff,” Reverend Grant said.

      “You know…that stuff we pretend we don’t listen to anymore,” Reverend Beam added. They all laughed.

      “There was something about him putting up $10 million dollars—cash—for it. But Sammie, that’s the guy who was handling the deal for Pastor Landris’s brother, does more than a few shady things alongside his legitimate dealings. All that caught up with the dude, and now everything in Sammie’s possession has been frozen, including Pastor Landris’s money. He can’t get his ten mill back, which, from what I hear, he wasn’t going to get back, anyway. It was this or nothing. Sammie has a reputation for playing with paper money and not the real tender after he pockets

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