A supernatural home

To me, that defines something that only God can do, that is why I am titling my post “A supernatural home.”

As many of you know, we have made a quick, somewhat unexpected move to a state 700 miles away from our home.  Within 3 weeks, we had gotten the job, sold our belongings, and packed up and moved.  All of this done without stress and worry.  Why?  Because God was the focus of this move.

One of my favorite bible verses that I look to much in my life is

Jeremiah 29:11

 For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope.

Many a times over the last 14 years of knowing the Lord, I would get down about life.  Upon coming to the knowledge of a saving Christ, I brought much baggage with me into my new relationship with Him.  I didn’t really learn much about God taking care of all my worries and leaving all my “junk” to Him till later on in my walk.  How much better I could have avoided many of the depressive, pitfalls that I faced over the past part of my life.

When I “discovered” this verse it really struck a cord with me.  Really???  There was someone who had plans all figured out for ME and it didn’t include punishing me for my sins and didn’t include making me live out a life of sadness and worry.  There was something out there that was promised to me and will strengthen my walk with the Lord.  How was I going to get it?

This didn’t happen all at once, well it manifested itself over time I am sure, but being a human being, I am sure I overlooked some of His blessings because of my own selfish desires.

My husband and I have often sat around and talked about making a move to a “warmer” place.  We have often looked at the mountains of Tennessee area.  We would talk about how much fun it would be to be able to take the children to parks and go out and explore for most all of the year.  Our home at that time was in Michigan.  I love Michigan, but I do know that for many a long months, we are stuck inside without much to do through those cold winter months.  Not a HUGE deal for myself, because I didn’t have to drive to work everyday in it.  But after having baby after baby and having them ALL locked in the home for months on end.  Days could get pretty harried.

We have rented our home for about 6 years.  Some will think, “You are wasting your money by renting.”  But we did purchase a home, once upon a time due to the “pressure” of saying  that we NEEDED to buy a home.  Well we fell into that pressure and bought not asking God for advice, but advice from people.  Then when the bad economy hit and my husband’s job was in danger, guess what??  We lost our home.  During that time it was hard, I was a fairly new believer in “God’s provision” for us. But God was molding us at that time to line our lives up with what “God” wanted for our lives, not us.

Ever try looking for a rental when you have just lost your home???  Almost next to impossible.  But when we started praying and really praying for God to provide a home.  He provided.

We found a home that was owned by a Christian woman.  Even this woman told us that she was “advised” not to rent to us, but she felt the Lord told her to accept our application.  I am thankful for Christians that listen to the Lord.  Can you imagine how much better our world would be if even “we” as Christians listened to and followed what God would have us do instead of doing what “we” want to do ourselves?

Our home, needed work.  I remember walking through it, and I don’t want to sound ungrateful, but it was tough.  It was dirty, needed lots of floor and wall repairs and I was pregnant at the time.  I didn’t say much just went home and cried out to the Lord.

As always, God provides.  We didn’t have much money, but thankfully it was tax time and we were able to receive a chunk of cash to allow us to pay the deposit and first months rent plus have money leftover to pay for new paint, flooring, and supplies.  My husband worked diligently staying at the home by himself and doing repairs and then leaving for work the next day.  He continued that for about 2 weeks to finally make the home “liveable.”  I am thankful for a husband that would care to provide a good home for his family.

This home served us well.  It was low enough in rent amount that we could afford it each month, even with low hours my husband was on.  It taught us to “live within our means”  which means that if you want something better, you had better save for it first instead of buying into the buy now and pay later mentality.

At the same time, we were blessing our landlord.  She was needing someone to do the upkeep on the home and then 6 years later when she was ready to sell it, God had blessed her, through us, with a home that was worth more because of all the new additions that we added to it.  My husband was also able to gain more skill sets by remodeling a kitchen and putting in new counter tops and floors.  He has completely gutted a bathroom and remodeled that.  He has become more knowledgeable in his life.  Isn’t God awesome working out “good” for both His people??

Okay, onto our current situation.  Even though my husband had longed for a warmer climate, and inside I was not looking to being cooped up all winter long with 6 little ones God was planning our “hearts desire” to a warmer place.

Our landlord told us she was ready to sell the home, which meant we needed to move.  My husband and I naturally thought, okay let’s start the process and buy a home here in Michigan.  I guess it is time to do that.  We were also praying for direction at this time as to which home to buy so that we didn’t get into another bad situation later on in life.

Proverbs 24:27

Prepare your work outside;
    get everything ready for yourself in the field,
    and after that build your house.

We started working and preparing our fields.  We did everything that we could physically do as humans. Even though I KNOW God can just give you things, I believe that He wants us to do our part in helping the situation.  We applied for a mortgage, did all the necessary paperwork, started looking for homes and left the rest up to God.

Meanwhile, we had a lull in the paperwork process and that is when the job offer came up for my husband in another state.  My husband was excited, but knew that we would not be able to make that expensive move, so he politely told the company he did not want to waste their time and it just wasn’t a good time to move, maybe in the future.

God had other plans…..my favorite verse Jeremiah 29:11…states he has plans to prosper you and to give you hope.  My husband was needing some “hope” to get through  this next long winter and God provided that with a move to a warmer climate.  The company offered to give us a bonus sign on, using it however we needed to get our family down to North Carolina.  (By the way, we are right next to the mountains of Tennessee but further south to enjoy the warmth of South Carolina.)  Talk about a supernatural act!!!!

2 Samuel 7:27

LORD Almighty, God of Israel, you have revealed this to your servant, saying, ‘I will build a house for you.’ So your servant has found courage to pray this prayer to you.

Now it was time to look for a home down south.  Meanwhile, we were still continuing our path of buying a home in Michigan, because as humans, we were contemplating if this was the will of God or our own needs of wanting to move.  Funny, how God will put something right in the forefront of our eyes, but we question everything about it.  That is okay, because even in those times He will still continue to guide and direct as He did for us.  Our mortgage buying process was moving along smoothly up until this point and then it came to a halt!!!  That is God gave it a halt!!!  Even afterwards, after we confirmed the rental and signed the contract with my husband’s company, when it was all set in stone and a “for sure” that is when our mortgage company called and said, “I don’t know what happened but things are okay to proceed now. ”   Well, I know what happened——God was halting the process so that we didn’t get conflicting answers.  God is NOT confusing!!  Let me say that again….

GOD IS NOT A CONFUSING GOD.  HE IS A GOD OF PEACE!

If you are praying about things and it is all confusing and you are not sure which which way to go, pray for direction–ask God to close doors that need to be shut and open doors that He wants you to go through.  He will make things clear as to where you are supposed to go.

Even our last home, which I was at first not thinking I would enjoy, I realized what a HUGE blessing that home was.  We had wonderful neighbors that we had built long lasting relationships with, and we had a large yard that provided a good place to fellowship with others with.  We used it for music practices for church and the yard was used to fellowship with other church families.  This past year, my teenagers used it to hold open mics at our home which provided a time of music, fellowship, and outreach to teenagers in our area.  All these things, God provided for our family.  Because He promises to do that.  Sure at times, I looked around and started complaining inwardly about the situation.  The not -so-nice new things.  I even “coveted” friends homes from time to time.  I know we aren’t supposed to but I did.  But looking back, when I just enjoyed the times I had in our home, it was good.  We had great many get togethers with friends that I will cherish forever.  Our summers of fun, our Christmas parties, and Daddy’s neighborhood slip and slide!!!  Talk about fun!!!

I do remember the selfish side of me, longing for “newer” things.  But instead of complaining to my husband and making him feel poorly about our home situation, I kept it to God.  Even when my husband would start to complain about something, I would immediately not agree with him and focus on the positives of things in the home. God provided me with the tools necessary to help fix up the walls.  He also allowed me to find furnishings for my home that were within our budget.

Does God care about your household furnishings??  He sure does!!  But God is good that you won’t have to go in debt getting them.  When I was needing to furnish my home, I just prayed about it.  I didn’t immediately get an answer but I prayed and left it up to God.    Then God started showing.

We had been giving many items over the years from people, upgrading their own.  We are very thankful for those gifts.  They served a good purpose.  With a large family, I realized things did not last like “normal” families.  I prayed for heavy duty and sturdy items.  We were able to find the necessities needed for our home through various resources.  Our couch, we found on Craigslist and no one wanted to pick up this couch because the lady said you would need a moving truck to fit it, because of it’s size.  But God can make it fit into a 15 passenger vehicle because of His “supernatural ability.”  Plus He will give it to you for a cheap price.

Other items we got because we prayed about finding the best one that would last.  He directed us towards purchasing other large items and how to save on those items.  Did we get them all at once?  NO, I waited for almost a year to get benches for my table, but I have them now.

As far as  wall furnishings, I am not too much into that, but I was able to find clearance items at our local stores.  The rest I was able to make for cheap.  They were all things that showed what our family was about—-photos of all of the good times we have.