Facing the prospect of foreclosure is a stress-inducing situation. I know… I’ve been there… several times. Foreclosures frequented my life… a cycle, repeating itself, and I seemed unable to break free.
I knew the promises of God… I could quote “prosperity” scriptures with the best of them. “My God shall supply all my need according to His riches in glory, by Christ Jesus.” “God is able to make all grace abound to me so that I can not only be self-sufficient, but possess enough to give to others who have needs.” “Give, and it shall be given to you, good measure, pressed down and shaken together shall men give into your bosom.”
Though it was the Word of God, it was powerless on my lips. I seemed doomed to repeatedly fall behind in mortgage payments, and to lose the home that sheltered my family.
I would cry out to God, asking for deliverance, but none would come. I found myself helpless… and hopeless.
The First Foreclosure
My first brush with foreclosure came almost 25 years ago. My main source of income had dried up, and I took part-time jobs to feed and clothe the family. There wasn’t enough money to do that and pay the mortgage, so we fell behind. Our prayers brought a miracle influx of cash that rescued us. We thought we were out of the woods, but without regular, substantial income we were soon behind in payments again. The housing market had hit a downward trend, and we couldn’t sell the house. Finally, out of options, we moved into a rental house and let our home go to the bank.
Over the next ten years we lived on “barely get by” street… sometimes falling behind on rent, then finding some way to catch up. Six of those years I worked two jobs to pay the bills, and after much effort I finally broke into a higher paying situation that allowed me to drop the second job.
We moved to another part of the country, where housing was less expensive, and managed to qualify for a home loan. Soon, though, my income dropped drastically. It was the beginning of the 21st Century, the dot-com bubble burst, and I found myself competing in a market flooded with job-seekers. Where I had been making 110% of our “break even”, suddenly I was making (when I could find work) at about 25% of “break even”.
The Stress of Joblessness
It’s uncomfortable for me to tell this story… The stress of the struggle and the hopelessness tries to flood my emotions. I’ve been there… on the edge of nervous breakdown because try as I might I could not find work. There were times I could feel the edge of the breakdown, as though I were standing at the edge of a precipice, and one false step or loss of balance would send me hurtling over the edge and into the abyss.
I would apply for work and be in the running, then come in second place… which is another way of saying, “You’re the best loser.” Or I would be told I wasn’t qualified… or I was over qualified.
Some would say, “Just go down to McDonalds and take a menial job flipping burgers.” But if that employer sees that you could suddenly find another job, after he’s spent the time and energy and money to train you, he’s not going to invest into your life… He’ll look for someone whom he thinks couldn’t get something better than what he’s offering. That employee is much more likely to stick around and make both of them some money.
The Cycles of Foreclosures
So there we were again… not making enough money to feed and clothe the family and pay the mortgage. We would fall behind to the mortgage company, they would begin foreclosure proceedings, and I would borrow money from relatives to bring us current. Only to repeat the same cycle over again. Each time I did this I went deeper into debt to relatives, without any means to repay them, AND I still didn’t make enough money to meet my monthly mortgage obligation. So the cycle would begin again. I couldn’t sell the house… I had hit another downturn in the housing market, and no one wanted to buy the house for what we needed.
Finally, $50,000 in debt to relatives and still falling behind on the mortgage, I decided I was not going to borrow any more money to stay afloat. Something had to give. It might be me, but I wasn’t going to risk any more family money.
Facing the Real Problem
Up to this point I had failed to realize the cause of these cycles was within myself… I was the root of my own problems. There was something in me that needed to change before the outward cycles would stop. I turned to prayer and began to seek Him in extended seasons of prayer for what I needed. I wasn’t so much praying for a change in my circumstances as I was looking for a “word from heaven” that would give me direction.
On the surface, things were the same. I continued to go backwards financially… but I had changed my focus and was looking toward heaven.
A Word from Heaven
I still remember the moment, as though it happened just this afternoon. I was home from work one July afternoon, floating in the pool and praying quietly in tongues. Suddenly a word from heaven dropped into me. It came in the form of a “big” thought that flooded my whole being with peace. The Lord said to me, “This situation will be resolved, and you will keep the house.”
That’s all I had, but that’s all I needed. I had Prayed Through. I had the answer… the end from the beginning, so to speak. I now knew the outcome, but had no concept how it would happen.
Things dragged out for another 12 months. Each time the mortgage company would call to ask when I could send them a payment, I couldn’t answer their question, except to say, “I don’t know how it will happen… All I know is that ‘this situation will be resolved, and we will keep the house.’”
I don’t think I had ever heard of a bank holding back on foreclosure for over a year, but that’s what happened to us. Circumstances still didn’t turn around… but I knew what I knew. I had a “word from heaven”, and I hung onto that word as tightly as I could.
I don’t want you to think I just sat on my butt and did nothing. I kept looking for a way to resolve the situation… something I could do… but nothing worked.
At the same time, though, I continued to seek God in prayer… asking Him to show me what I was missing about prosperity so that I wouldn’t have to repeat the same cycles of boom and bust in my life. During that year He brought me to a book, that led me to a movie, and then on to one minister’s teachings about the Kingdom of God. I began to see things differently, gaining a new perspective of what Jesus had already done for me concerning provision and financial well-being.
I cannot stress enough that I didn’t rest with that “word from heaven”. I didn’t need another singular event… I needed a life change… something that would last.
Redemption
On the day of the Sheriff’s sale, my wife and I drove out of town to attend the funeral of one of her family members. In our state we had 30 days after the Sheriff’s sale until we had to vacate the property or resolve the situation with the bank. I had no financial means to do anything… all I had was the “word from heaven” I had received when I Prayed Through.
Within 5 days we returned to town, and things were totally different. We had received a stunning inheritance from a very unlikely source… my wife’s recently deceased relative. We had more than enough to make restitution with the bank… and (to make a long story short) that’s just what we did.
The “word from heaven” had come to pass… The situation was resolved, and we kept the house.
But more importantly, within the next two months my job situation drastically changed for the better. What I had learned by seeking God during the previous 14 months began to show out in our circumstances, and we went to an entirely new level of supply – one that we have maintained over the past 6+ years.
What does this mean to you?
I’m no more special in God’s eyes than you. I don’t care what problems confront you, or how insurmountable they may seem, what Jesus said is true… If you seek God, and keep seeking Him, He will answer you, and turn your life around. Be determined to get what you need, and Pray Through until you get it.
Keep on asking and it will be given you; keep on seeking and you will find; keep on knocking [reverently] and [the door] will be opened to you. – Matthew 7:7
