No Holding Back! A Tribute to Billy T. Ball

“As for me, this is My covenant with them,” says the Lord. “My Spirit, who is on you, will not depart from you, and my words that I have put in your mouth will always be on your lips, on the lips of your children and on the lips of their descendants—from this time on and forever,” says the Lord (Isaiah 59:21 NIV).

The backstory -

It really started on a Saturday night. I don't know WHICH Saturday night but I do know I was 15. The church our family attended was in deep spiritual trouble. Our once thriving youth group had dwindled to just 4 or 5 students, 2 of which were my brother and I. We lived out in the country, maybe 10 or 12 miles from Middletown, Ohio. (One would think that after living there for years, at some point, someone would have clocked the actual mileage...)

My sisters attended the Grand Ave. Church of God in Middletown. They encouraged me to begin attending the youth service held on Saturday nights. The church had a growing bus ministry and a dear lady, Connie Centers, drove a few miles out of her way to pick me up for the Saturday night youth service. (JB Walters was the youth leader. JB has gone home to be with the Lord but as I've written in the past, in a very short period of time I was hooked! on Saturday nights because of the ministry of JB and Nina Walters!) 

Another couple, Rod and Juanita Montgomery, had a route in Preble County on Sunday mornings. I started attending the church on Sunday mornings also. When I turned 16 and got my driver's license, I began attending regularly. Billy T. Ball was not only my pastor, but was a preacher that spoke a Thus Saith the Lord message with a power and authority that I had never heard OR experienced before and I grew up in the church.

How could I or anyone possibly recount the impact of his messages, his life, and love for Jesus and His church. How could those who had Bro. Ball as a pastor recall the years of Sunday mornings and evenings, the Thursday night prayer meetings, and the Tuesday morning Bible studies...who could forget?

Bro. Ball laid my theological foundation. He also helped me lay the bricks that became the doctrinal building that sits on that foundation and, on which my life and ministry are now based. As I said, I have grown up in the church and always believed in the basics. (No need to list them here.) It was under Bro. Ball's ministry, however, that the Gospel opened up to a whole new level. There were things connected to those basic doctrines that could take one higher, deeper. longer, and wider than one could have imagined at the start. One would have to listen though...one had to listen intently, purposefully, passionately, and with single - mindedness to God through His Word, and His Spirit.  There were no shortcuts, or express lanes to drive in to understand His - Story (history).

I do not remember a time when the Word came without God's anointing. Bro. Ball walked in the Spirit and the Spirit worked through him in ways I had not seen and have rarely seen since. Bro. Ball, not only preached God's Word with power, but left us (those who were under his ministry) with a ravenous hunger for that Word. He helped us develop a thirst to know God and to speak about Him with authority. We developed a soul burden for the lost. Race, color, creed, ethnicity, or language - across the street, across town, or across the globe - it didn't matter. Winning the world was not only THE cause for which one's energies should be directed, but a cause that would end in a revival unparalleled in history. That revival would lead to the coming of Jesus.

Volumes could be written about anyone who has had a great and positive influence on others. Time nor space would allow the re-telling of a life who changed others' lives. This is a blog. I have a natural propensity to be wordy. I'll close with a Scripture that embodies what Bro. Ball imparted to me. I shared Isaiah 59:21 at the top of this post. I suppose if 100 people tried to summarize what impact Bro. Ball had on their lives, there would be 100 different ways that a tribute could be written. These words from Isaiah, to me, provide us with the promise that God's Word will always be on the lips of a new generation because of the faithfulness of the last generation. Being filled with and walking in God's Spirit and proclaiming HIS Word is THE most important gift anyone could give to others. Bro. Ball gave us this gift unreservedly. 

Part of the "title" for this post is "No Holding Back!" I too believe that a global revival is SOON coming. This revival will be the result of God's work in His last days church that will not only equal the work He did when the church was born but surpass it. This revival will lead to the Second Coming of Jesus and the end of all things. I can no longer be silent and I cannot hold back what I believe to be absolute truth. Billy T. Ball's legacy for me, was a message of extreme hope! A hope generated by the Gospel of Jesus Christ. The coming of God, in flesh, into this world has changed everything. His birth, death, resurrection, and soon coming is the Good News that the whole world needs. The Church, armed in God's Spirit and with His Word can, and will, storm the gates of hell and take back those who have been trapped by satan's lies in unprecedented numbers. The Kingdom that Jesus brought to this world will be presented back to God when He comes. And that, will be the end of all things.

I do not want to miss out on the work of God in these last days. I do not want to hear the cry, "The Bridegroom comes," only to be shut out of the wedding feast because my lamp has run out of oil. When it is all said and done, I want to hear God say to me, what He has already said to Bro. Ball; "Well done good and faithful servant..."