In August of 1973 he's on his high school football team. He's a receiver. This is in Hemet, California, but the name of the school is not given. He is now seventeen.

The story goes that he was so valuable to the game of football that he received that year the coveted

congressional appointment to attend none other than the Naval Academy in Annapolis, to play football for the U.S. Navy! Forty-two years have passed since this honor was (perhaps) given. Very hard to trace either in Annapolis or at one of Hemet's several High Schools. We keep being forced into believing stories.

But alas! Before he can go to Annapolis, he is hit in a football maneuver by a defensive tackle from a rival high school (also not named). "If memory serves" (and we are dependent a lot on his memory) his helmet flew off, he was hit so hard.

Maloney complains that the refs weren't calling penalties against this "animal" from the other school. Maybe they were scared, he opines. Picks him up in midair and slams him to the ground (seems to be the victim of a lot of violence), where a rock protruded. The rock penetrated his back, hit his spine, dislocated his shoulder, and messed up his ankles. He "suspected" he had fractured a vertebra.

A sister in the Lord tells James, now very depressed and very confused about his life, and obviously in need of a healing or two, about an up and coming evangelist named Brant Baker. He decides to give it a try, and attends one of Baker's evangelistic healing meetings. It is 1973.

Brant Baker has been Influenced by Kathryn Kuhlman in his ministry. He claims that his first personal encounter with people being slain in the Spirit, etc, was at a Kuhlman meeting. She reportedly danced by him on her flamboyant entrance, and knocked him out. He did not wake up until the end of the service, and therefore missed her entire ministry.

As for Brant Baker, it will come out later that he is either a recovering or practicing homosexual at this time and until his death by AIDS in 1985. But Baker (page103) "calls him out" in a service, tells of his injuries, and then speaks the healing word. Baker taps him on the head, he falls. He is healed. He awakes, gives his testimony, gets tapped again, and falls again. Life is now cool once more.

In this same year, a most exciting one for him evidently, there is a second miraculous intervention on his behalf. He meets up with one Frances Metcalfe. Her effect in his life was so great that this very book is dedicated to her, and her prayer group, known as the Golden Candlestick.

One day a woman (Metcalfe) approaches Maloney, wags her finger in his face, and says, "You're the man." He meets in her home prayer meeting later. Two dozen people of prayer, mostly women, are assembled. They are, in the main, ex -seminary students. Somewhere along the path, the Lord stops them, tells them to intercede, and to worship. Only. They are not to continue their studies and be ministers or pastors. Only pray.

They have been praying, so his story goes, for one person to be sent from Idyllwild to inherit all their prayers! After this meeting, Maloney knows, Cest moi. It's he. Himself.

He collapses in this meeting as under Baker's ministry. And from then on, after he awakens once more, he does what he does for the Lord, and for the honor of the Golden Candlestick. (pages 126-129) Through the years, he keeps up with them and reports to them.

One last member of the group, Dora, comes to a church in California (unnamed, un-dated), pours a vial of oil on him, and thereby ruins his suit. The last word from the Candlestick. She is now dead. As are all the rest. So no way to trace this story. Or is there? It's not given in the book anyway! Well, not exactly. For those who want to trace down that tale, a name is given in the book. People from a ministry there in Idyllwild have picked up where the "Candlestick" left off (page 153).

Tracing them, though, leads one to another slippery slope. If they existed at all, and Maloney admits that some will think they are a legend, their history seems to be largely in the hands of Maloney, as are all their purported "revelations", of which he has gathered many and assembled into a three- volume set. They never intended to write such books, you see, and their writings are scattered here and there. Reminds one of the origins of Koran.

For me, I will stay with the revelations given to the original apostles and prophets. Not enough for today's mystics, but more than enough for me.

Anyway, it is Metcalfe through a "word" that sends Maloney to Christ For The Nations Institute (hereafter CFNI), where he begins his studies in that same wonderful year of 1973.

As a student at CFNI, he works in a nursing home ministry to release his giftings. Later he becomes a teacher at that Dallas school.

In 1975 (page 201,) this poor seminary student is in his third year of training. He fasts a lot during those days, because he has no money for food. He spends three hours in prayer before his classes. He even spends up to seven, eight, fourteen days at a time fasting. And then he will do these fasts, several in a row!

But his peace continues to escape him as he has a recurring nightmare of rejection. One night that whole "spirit" is torn out of him as he hears God speak behind him in his room, " Look Up." He is told that the black cloud he sees is that spirit of rejection that came from his mother's womb. He is further told to point his finger at it and tell it to leave. Glory fills his bathroom. He gets a glimpse of the Heavenly Throne Room. Living colors. Winged creatures. He is asked by God, "What do you want of Me?" So, James gives Him a list of his ministry desires. God is quoted as saying, “Yes, Okay, hmmmm,” and a casual conversation ensues...

(Page 288) March 5, 1975. Maloney says he trusts our discernment to let us know he is telling the truth. (Which means if we do not believe all his stories, our discernment is not trustworthy, or we have none. Also worthy of note that he says things like this often. He knows we will not believe, because…)

He is nineteen years old, or so. This incident supposedly happens not a long time from the one above. He is praying in the Spirit when he is paralyzed by Him. Through closed eyelids, he sees a brilliant light. An angel. He, like Paul, is not allowed to tell us everything the angel said. It's personal. About twenty minutes. The angel quotes Scriptures. Philemon 6.

The angel then turns him around from lying on his belly, to his back. He sees hell. Rankings of demons. They are devouring one another. He is told that His people have authority. Maloney's fear leaves. He rebukes the demons. They scatter. The angel now tells him that he'll be given the gift of faith.

On page 250, he tells another story of his college days. A certain (of course, unnamed) traveling evangelist is speaking at a church (which is also unnamed). As James walks into the building he notices that people are taking information from those who enter. According to Maloney, this information is used by this "imitator" during the " word of knowledge" session later.

The evangelist is very late for the service, or at least that is what the people are led to believe. Actually he is in a room near the podium where he can peek out and see who is there, how they are dressed, etc. Obviously a false prophet.

Strangely, though, Maloney relates that this fake did get some revelation, and he did have a genuine gift. We are led to believe that that knowledge may have come from an unholy spirit. Maloney rebukes the man under his breath and the man senses it, calls him out, judges him. Maloney walks out, and the people hiss and spit at him!