House
Testimony
I hope this testimony encourages you
to know that God is real. Know that Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life.
No one comes to the Father in heaven except through him.
Several months ago, Carolyn and I prayed and we asked if we should continue renting or try to buy a house. A few days later we received a letter in the mail stating that the owner was putting the duplex we lived in on market.We took this as our answer. Carolyn found a realtor at the building she works at, and we looked at two houses. We put an offer on the second house.We were really excited about this house because it was 2000 sq ft with 4 bedrooms and we were finally going to own a home, but this house was being sold AS/IS and was old and in need of many costly repairs. Also, the monthly payments would be over the top of our budget.
Carolyn and I argued a lot, and we
began to shift all our attention and energy toward this house. We decided to
stop giving money to the church and to stop giving money to other organizations,
so that we could funnel money into this house. We skipped going to church one
Sunday because this house was just too important to talk about. I skipped my
men’s group that Tuesday because this house was just too important to talk
about. This house became the center focus of our lives for a few weeks.
I hadn’t prayed much or spent much
time in God’s word during this time, but one day I decided to open You Tube to
watch Pastor Paul teach from the book of Romans. I had been going through his
lessons on Romans, so on that day I was at his lesson on Romans 8:1-17. And the
words of this lesson hit me and woke me up. I opened my Bible and I read the
words, “For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things
of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit set their minds on the
things of the Spirit.” I realized that I was going back to my flesh. By setting
my mind and my heart on this house, I was willing to devote myself to this
house. In my heart, I was willing to set God aside. I was replacing God with an
idol. An idol consumes your thoughts, and you dedicate your resources to it,
and it becomes the focus of your heart. It becomes the thing that you look to
for happiness. It replaces God in your life.
The thing is this, I had been watching
Pastor Paul on YouTube for about two years. I’ve watched his lessons on
Ephesians and Galatians and many other books in the Bible. That I had been
going through his lessons on Romans at that time and at that day I was on
Romans 8:1-17 shows that God is with us. I think I’m just picking and choosing
which Pastor Paul videos to watch, but the reality is that the hand of God is
involved in our lives more deeply than we know. We just can’t see it.
We backed out of the house contract,
and we looked at and submitted an offer for a condo, and we were accepted. We
met with the home inspector, and he saw our Jesus sticker on the back of our car,
and he said that he believed in Jesus too. We talked for a bit and then we went
through the home inspection and afterwards we got into our cars, and he left,
but Carolyn realized she left her purse in the condo, so I called him. The
phone rang a few times, until he answered and he said he would drive back. When
he pulled up next to us, he got out of his car and told us, when you called, my
phone showed your number as a spam alert and he said, “I never answer those
calls, and I wasn’t going to answer it, but the Lord told me to answer it.” He
repeated himself and we were all amazed. We had communicated via email, so he
didn’t know my phone number.
When we prayed for help in a decision,
God answered with a letter. When we sinned against God, He convicted me through
His word in the bible, and He delivered us from a bad decision, and used our
sin to show His hand, and to teach us, and to increase our faith. When we needed
help in getting Carolyn’s purse, God helped us in an unexpected way. That the
Almighty God of all creation would care about Carolyn getting her purse back
amazes me. And when God told the home inspector to answer his phone, it showed
that this condo is where He wants us to live. He truly knows the number of
hairs on your head, and He is truly with you if you are in Him.
