A week or so ago, God had instructed Allen to use our “God money” to pay some bills. I realized I had almost a superstitious fear about obeying and had to remind myself that obedience to His voice was most important to God and that He doesn’t move through fear.

Afterward I had some orders come in, but I didn’t transfer the normal portion to the God account. I think I was then struggling with a fear of lack – after all He let us use it once…

Last night God dealt with me on that as well and I asked Him how much I should transfer over and He said $40. I was in bed at the time and said if it was really Him to remind me the next day and I would comply.

Today He did remind me. I could feel my flesh complaining as I transferred 20% of my balance out of the account into the God account, but I was determined to trust and obey (neither my husband nor I have been employed in 2+ years, $40 is a lot to us right now).

Literally a minute later, I got a desperate email from a D4Y customer needing a scarf immediately. She placed the order right then. The scarf she bought was the $40 scarf.

God is not subtle… and I love Him for that.

As a note, I did transfer the tithe on that immediately into the God account and within an hour had another order for more than 3.5x the first order… so yes, obedience is a very good thing!

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At this moment, both my husband and I are not working.  It was God’s orchestrating that put us in this position, so we’re waiting with full expectation that He will show up and do what He’s said He’ll do because He has tested our faith before, and frankly confirmations like this one help encourage us that we’re hearing His voice!

Anyway… so here’s the story!

We have some friends from church who are precious, Godly people.  They worked for the same organization not long ago and during that time became engaged and a week before their wedding found out that neither one of them were going to be paid for the last month that they’d worked.  Ouch!  What a way to enter into their marriage!

Both being strong people of faith they put it in God’s hands and they’ve consistently had what they needed when they needed it.  Different needs were met different way.  And I had been praying for them in the area of finances since I’d become aware of their needs. They had both found some part-time work to tide things over.  Then to make things more exciting they discovered they were pregnant!

One afternoon the husband (an amazing worshipper and worship leader) was called upon to lead worship at a church service that evening.  He stepped up without hesitation.  That evening, one of the leaders felt led to share their situation and open it up for the small gathering to give a love offering to them.

I looked over at Allen because I felt we were supposed to give, but he said he wasn’t getting that.  I was disappointed to say the least and asked him if he was sure a couple more times and then submitted to his decision as my husband.

I continued to pray that God would either release me of the burden to give to them or speak to my husband’s heart and tell him how much.

The next morning, Allen and I went to the prayer room at church and saw our friends there.  During one portion of prayer, they asked for anyone currently needing financial breakthrough to raise their hands and receive prayer.  Allen and I got up to get prayer as did our friends and several others.

As we were receiving prayer the Lord spoke a specific amount of money to Allen that we were to give to our friends.  When he told me afterwards I began to cry because I knew it was the voice of the Lord, and because it is such an honor to give to someone in need when you yourself are in need – it sets you up for the blessing of the Lord.

We quickly wrote them a check and handed it to them.  After prayer they came and shared their portion of the testimony.

When they got married they didn’t have anything but a twin mattress (which doesn’t work so well for marrieds!), and they’d felt led to buy a mattress set with the 90-days-same-as-cash option, believing God would provide the funds to pay it off before the 20+% interest kicked in.  They were 2 days away from the end of the 90-day period.

A week earlier, God had asked them to sow… to give to someone in need in the midst of their own need, and they had done so in obedience with expectation of God’s faithfulness.

On the way to the prayer room that morning they had thanked God for the offering the previous evening, but had felt led to pray more specifically.  So they asked God if He would provide the funds to pay off the mattress set.  And you probably guessed it, the amount God had told us to give them just an hour or so later was exactly what they needed to do that almost to the penny!

Praise God!  He is so good   We got to meet the need of some dear friends AND got confirmation we’re hearing His voice.

And in addition, because I had submitted to my husband and his ability to hear from God, the timing and amount were an answer to specific prayer, which is beautiful!

What a blessing!

W 16 July 2008 – Update

It’s exactly a week since I posted this testimony.  Today, I got a call about a settlement that I’ve been waiting on for over 9 months.  The person handling this situation for me was absolutely astonished because the settlement was 2.5 times what they would have expected.  They had no explanation for this and were completely baffled.

The difference between what was expected and what I got?  About 10 times the amount we gave last week!

Our God is an AWESOME God!

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Introduction

Traditionally, my husband is not a fan of Christmas. His objections are largely focused around the forced gift-giving. Year-after-year he would voice his objections around the gift-giving practices, and finally give in and get presents for his children and some immediate family members and friends.

Changing a heart

As Christmas approached in December 2006, we found ourselves in an interesting position. Out of obedience to the Lord’s instructions to us, we had destroyed all our credit cards. In working towards becoming debt-free, we were spending any “extra” funds paying off debt.

So we found ourselves with Christmas upon us with no extra cash to buy presents. We would certainly not buy presents in lieu of paying bills, nor would we apply for new credit and go into debt simply to purchase gifts.

Finally, Christmas Eve was upon us. It fell on a Sunday and on the way to church an interesting thing happened… the Lord changed my husband’s heart. It wasn’t that we wanted to buy gifts for his children out of obligation, but he realized he loved getting them even a little something just to say “I love you!”

Knowing we serve a big God, I said something to the effect of, “Who knows, God may provide a way for us to get them gifts yet!”

Our Miracle

The service was wonderful as always, and afterwards we made our rounds saying our hellos and holiday well-wishes to our dear family in Christ. In the midst of all that, one of the young ladies at our church came up to me and told me that she and her fiance would like a brief moment with us if possible.

I rounded up my husband and we found them again… they told us that the Lord had put it on their hearts to give us $100 for Christmas. We were completely surprised and overwhelmed! We are not known as “needy” people so there were no cues in the natural that could have let them on to our situation!

We told them how the Lord had used them and my husband even told them of my comment on the way to church that God might provide a way even still. We gave them teary, grateful hugs and went on our way.

Quick Provision

As incredible as the money was, we didn’t want to give the children money – we wanted to give them gifts, but we didn’t have time to spend shopping. We said a quick prayer in the car – knowing that if God could provide the funds He could direct us to the right gifts as well.

We headed to a nearby mall and in 18 minutes had found one gift for each child that was a unique fit for them… and we had $12 left (which we knew was the tithe!)

Conclusion

The Lord is mindful of all our needs – no matter how big or small. And when we are obedient and trusting, He is faithful!

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Introduction

God has spoken some fairly incredible promises over our finances. On the heels of those promises have been opportunities for obedience and tests of faith. The test I am sharing about here was one of the most difficult tests…

First Fruits vs Tithe

Honestly, I never really understood the difference between first fruits and tithes. I had always thought they were the same thing. In January 2006, my pastor taught on first fruits though and really made the difference clear.

In short (for those who may not already know), it’s easiest to think of first fruits as in harvest. So, if you planted a crop of tomatoes and lets say that you have 10 tomatoes that get ripe first – that is your first fruit. So you offer all 10 to God – holding nothing back – in expectation that He will provide abundantly. The next group that gets ripe might also be 10 – this time though, you would give a tithe (1).

So how does that translate into modern life? Well, when you get a raise – the difference between your normal check and the new check with the raise would be an example of a first fruits offering.

I’ve heard of people who give their first paycheck each year as a first fruits offering. In our case, we had never given a first fruits offering, so we took it to God and asked Him what we were to give.

Our First First-Fruit Offering

As I asked the Lord what our first first-fruit offering should be I sensed God was asking us to do something significant (at least for us!). I was thinking it was to be my bonus check from work – a large amount of money for us. I kept my thought to myself and asked my husband what he was sensing – expecting confirmation if I was correct.

Over the next week or so, I continued to ask my husband what the Lord was saying to him on this topic. But he hadn’t gotten an answer yet.

In the meantime, we had found out we had a sizable tax return coming… about three times the size of the bonus! We had been praying about where the tithe from that was going to go. We had not had to wait long for our answer on that – a precious young lady from our church (Maria) was planning a short-term mission trip to Honduras. She needed money to buy a ticket We both immediately sensed she was to have the money and we told her so.

In her excitement she began sharing about God’s call on her life. She was called to be a full-time missionary, but had a student loan that was holding her back. As we left that evening – I grabbed Allen’s hand and prayed a quick prayer – “Lord, I would love to help Maria with that student loan – if you can make a way for us to do that it would be awesome! I just pray that debt would be removed in Jesus’ name!”

A couple days later, Allen called me at work and said he’d finally heard from God on the first fruits. God had told him that I thought it was my bonus check, but it wasn’t (already I was floored!) – God had told Allen that we were to give the whole tax refund to Maria to pay off her student loan and give her about half what she needed for her Honduras airfare.

Confirmations

I did a big gulp – you see, I’d done the math and the tax refund was enough to take care of all the things we’d needed to do – we could have done without the bonus money, but to do without the tax refund was truly an act of faith!

Even as we prayed for wisdom and confirmation – more confirmation came – God supernaturally brought up a picture of her on my computer screen. I work in information technology – I am aware of what is possible and what God did was not possible!  And more confirmations came after that.

As I reasoned out in my head giving her the money – I knew cutting the check would leave us with about $17 and change in our account until payday. I thought to myself “I guess we’ll just live on credit cards until then.”

When we gave Maria the money she was overwhelmed – you see God had told her that her family in Christ would step in and would help with things like this… it had seemed impossible that anyone would, but with God NOTHING is impossible!

The Next Step – Freeze the Credit Cards

Still on the high of stepping out in faith – God followed it up with instructions to completely stop using credit cards. We literally put them in a block of ice in the freezer!

This was a big step because we were cash poor – but we were trusting God to show up.

That spring we’d taken the Crown Financial Ministries class. We’d always known that we were walking by faith being in our home (see Tithing and holding out on God) – the house was always held open in our hand ready for God to move us, but each month – He provided… we’d just never know exactly how much! During the class we discovered that we were running between $500-$1000 short each month! How incredible that each moth God provided the difference! (Note: let me just say I am not advocating going into heavy debt and then looking to God to fix it – however, in this case we found ourselves there, repented, were obedient with that which we had and God showed up!)

A Test of Faith

The First Fruit offering had taken a chunk out of our cash. As the end of May approached, we realized we did not have enough to pay June’s mortgage. We waited fully expecting God to show up just as He always did – especially after our big leap of faith!

Only the money didn’t come by June 1. It wasn’t there by the time the late fees were applied on June 16th. And by the end of June when we still hadn’t paid it and weren’t ready to pay July’s either… well, let’s just say my faith was being stretched!

Allen and I pressed in in prayer daily. We asked God for correction if we had acted wrongly. We sought Him with all our hearts. The only correction we recieved was a word from a prophetic friend who said “God says stop worrying! You’re dealing with doubt and unbelief.”

We knew it sounded crazy, but we felt like God had put us in this specific position as a test… we didn’t know what kind of test or why, but we felt it was His hand and we were simply to trust.

Right at that time, God came through with a smaller financial miracle – but it again confirmed that this test was from God.

Feeling Stupid

By the end of July, I was feeling really stupid. I knew in the natural what we were doing made no sense, but we both kept sensing that God was saying don’t try to fix it – just wait on me. All the words God would send our way lined up with this. Yet I felt stupid!

One day God sent a word of correction to me – He said, “Who are you to feel stupid about where I have put you?” Wow! It totally opened my eyes and freed me up to simply rest where He had me.

Fire Getting Hot!

The beginning of August arrived with letters of impending foreclosure. We still sensed that we were to wait on Him as crazy as that might seem to some. We were convinced either He would come through with the finances or a foreclosure officer needed to know about Jesus!

A friend who I had shared our situation with emailed me with some rather harsh words about what we were doing. Challenging that there was no way that God would do this. It devastated me! Through the heavy flow of tears I heard the Lord ask me who I was going to believe… Him or someone else?

I asked Him about my credit rating… and He told me where He was taking us it didn’t matter – that I just needed to have faith.

God is Faithful

In mid-August, two days before official foreclosure proceedings against us began we received an unexpected check that paid our full past due amount and all the way up through October! Praise God! He had shown up just like He said He would… and our level of faith had increased in the process… that’s for sure!

Conclusion

Sometimes we are called to take big steps of faith. No matter how big – God’s faithfulness is bigger.

In my mind – this story is only part of the testimony – there will be more coming as God continues in His faithfulness to bring forth the promises as He has given them

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Introduction

I am a dog person. In June of 2006, I had to put my 12.5 year old Rottweiler, Chester – that I’d had for a third of my life – to sleep. It was a devastating moment, but one that God used to teach me so many things. He is so faithful!

However, it didn’t take me long to realize that dog people are happiest when they have a dog :)

Praying Specifically

I knew exactly what I was looking for in a dog. I wanted another Rottweiler – a male with his tail (like Chester). I knew we wanted him fixed and also potty trained, which meant not a puppy (which could have made finding one with a tail a bit more challenging!) – yet young enough that we could have a nice long life with him.

With all that in my heart and prayers, I began poking around online looking for a fit. I made my way to PetFinder.com and then to the ARK (Animal Recycling Kennel) – a no-kill shelter a few hours away.

It was there that I found Sketch – a male Rottweiler with his tail who was about 1.5 years old and had already been fixed. The moment I saw his page I sensed the Lord saying, “that’s your dog.” He was exactly everything I’d asked for.

Submitting and Surrendering my Desires

When I got home I showed the page to my husband who announced he didn’t want another dog. I was floored! We’d always talked about getting another dog when Chester had passed… I felt a little like a woman who’d wanted children her whole life, had just gotten married and her husband announced he didn’t want kids! And I told my hubby that was how I felt.

But that said, I sensed the Lord checking my heart and instructing me to submit to my husband and trust my desires with Him… that if I pushed, I’d miss my blessing. So, I told Allen that I did not want to push him into this, that I would submit to his authority and his final decision – I just asked that he would pray about it.

For the next several days, I asked Allen if he had prayed about the dog – he would say no and declare again that he did not want another dog. One of his main reasons was that at the time the adoption fee was more than we could afford. The Lord was taking us through a huge test of faith in the area of our finances and so it was not logical to spend money on a dog.

A couple of times when I would ask Allen if he’d had a chance to pray about it yet he would say “just go ahead and do it.” Each time I would have to lay down my desire to simply ‘get my own way’ and I would tell him I was submitting to his authority as my husband, but I believed God had said this was to be our dog. If that was the case, we would be in unity.

God Hears ALL Prayers

Finally, on the fourth day of asking Allen to pray, he grabbed my hand and said a quick prayer that went something like this: “Lord, if you want us to have this dog just provide a financial miarcle in the next couple days and we’ll know we’re supposed to have it. Amen.” He looked at me said “There!” tossed my hand down and walked out of the room.

We both knew what Allen had meant in his prayer… he was thinking ‘God, pay our past due bills, pay a couple of the future ones, and give us some padding and THEN we’ll get a dog.’ But of course… that wasn’t what he’d said

God Knows How to Give Good Gifts

Less than a half-hour later our phone rang. It was a friend from church who told me that she and her husband had been praying about it and they felt like God was telling them to pay our adoption fees for us to get a new dog. In addition, they were giving us a Petsmart gift card for any start-up costs – a total of $450!

I started screaming I was so excited! Immediately, I realized it was God doing a number of things at once:

1. Confirming that the test of faith we were in was of Him
2. Reminding me that He was perfectly able to meet our needs anyhow, anywhere, anyway – in His perfect timing
3. Showing me that He is mindful of the little things we desire and those things matter to Him as well (see also Christmas Miracle)

I ran downstairs to tell Allen what had just happened. He just started laughing that nervous laugh that happens when you know you just got busted. He laughed because he knew God knew what he meant when he’d prayed, but God had answered what he had actually prayed. He also knew that this was of God and was blessed and overwhelmed by the testimony the Lord continues to write in our lives.

Conclusion

Sketch is a wonderful dog. He is a living breathing reminder of God’s faithfulness and His love for us. He is mindful of all our needs – no matter how big or small. And when we are obedient and trusting, He is faithful!

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Introduction

Even though God had already showed Himself true to me on tithing (see A Newbie Tither), during a backslidden period I had stopped giving to God. When I came back to the church, God quickly pricked my heart (and my husband’s) that I (we) needed to start giving to Him again. We started small again and quickly built up our giving until we were tithing (literally 10%) of our net income (after taxes).

In Over Our Heads

About a year later, we bought a new house. It was a God-miracle that we were able to get the house – it was clearly from His hand. The problem was though we’d been in the house less than a month when I realized there was no way we could afford the house. I headed to the park up the street one evening to talk to God about this matter.

The Tithe Principle – It’s About Trusting God

I began to plead my case to Him, quoting Malachi 3:10-11 back to Him and everything. I began to say to Him, “Ok God, I’m going to test You in this – just like You said to because I tithe…”but the moment I began to say tithe He convicted me and said, “You are holding out on me.”

Immediately I knew what He meant. See we had been able to “afford” to tithe on our net income – to tithe on our gross income (pre-tax) would mean a couple hundred more a month! I began to argue with Him and say, “What a minute, I’m here telling you that we can’t afford this house and You are telling me that You want us to give MORE money?”

He replied, “If you can’t trust me with a couple hundred extra a month we have bigger problems than this.”

After spending a few more moments making sure He was serious, I asked Him if I was seriously supposed to go back and tell my husband this (he was not in a Good place with the Lord during this time). He said I should. So in faith I returned home to talk with my husband.

I marched in and told him that God had said we were to start tithing gross not net. He replied, “That’s fine. We’re going to lose the house anyway – it will just make it happen faster.” I started to argue with Him, but the Lord stopped me and pointed out that despite the attitude, he had said yes.

Tithing – Gross vs. Net

Let me pause for a moment and say that I don’t believe God has a rule about tithing gross versus net. It is simply a heart issue. If you seek God’s face and He says $5 a week – give $5 a week. He desires our obedience, not our sacrifice. But if God says tithe gross – I would strongly suggest you begin tithing gross!

So we began did begin tithing on our gross income and a miraculous thing happened… God showed up.

Seeing the Lord hold true to His word

First my husband’s job made him part-time. Yet each month, miraculously we had all the money we needed to cover our expenses. About four months later, my husband’s company went out of business and he was without a job for a few months and each month we had what we needed – sometimes things were paid at the end of the month instead of the beginning, but things were always paid.

Ironically, during this time God was allowing these things to happen to my husband because he was not walking with the Lord. God was using this to get his attention. He also was making it impossible financially for him to be able to leave our marriage! Who would have thought that a woman’s husband losing their job would be a blessing? Yet with God in charge, it was!

He finally got a “temporary” job and we were getting on top of things.

Allowing the body of Christ to minister to us

During that time, two friends of mine from work who were fellow believers approached me and told me they sensed that God had told them to take up an offering for me. Both these individuals were in jobs that I knew made less money than I did and I was moved by the fact that they wanted to, but I was not the type of person to received charity – I was the one who typically gave charity!

I thanked them profusely and told them it was not necessary. I will never forget the look on my sister in Christ’s face as she looked at me and said, “What if I told you we were going to do it anyway because Jesus told us we were supposed to.”

I reflected for a moment, silently repented of my pride and responded, “Then I would assume God was trying to teach me something here and I would graciously say thank you and release you to do whatever the Lord tells you.”

Several weeks later they arrived at my desk with huge grins on their faces. They gave me $375 they had collected. I was blessed, but I thought, “God, why this money? Why now?” I didn’t have to wait long to find out!

The Miracle of Obedience

Two days later, my husband called me to tell me he was having car problems. Periodically when he’d hit them the car wouldn’t stop. He’d pump them and then it would finally stop. Clearly, that’s a pretty big problem! He took the car into the shop. The total… $355+ tax.

It was the same amount that we’d been blessed with. What was so amazing is that had they not taken the collection – we simply would not have had the money to fix it. Since it still was sort of working, my hubby probably would have driven it at least a little. Who knows what plans the enemy had for him!

But God is an AWESOME God! And so a month before we even knew we had a need, He was prompting their hearts to meet a need we didn’t even know we had.

So God – through the body of Christ – provided for us and protected my husband. Malachi 3:10-11 in action!

Conclusion

God can be trusted at His word. He may take us places that make us uncomfortable, but it’s always for our own good. Had I never been in a position of need, I would never had had an opportunity for God to meet my need.

So be ready – be listening – and most of all be obedient!

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Introduction

I’d gotten saved in February of 1997. In March of that year, God started talking to me about my finances. I knew I needed to give to God – not because He needs it, but because it was an indication of where my heart was (Matthew 6:21: “For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also”).

The problem was, I was already overspending my modest income. In addition, I’d amassed a debt that was approximately equal to half a year’s salary.

Starting to Tithe

The thing is – it is never a “good” time to start tithing (giving 10% to the Lord), but yet the bible tells us to do it. As a matter of fact, God tells us to test Him in this area! (Malachi 3:10: “Bring ye all the tithes into the storehouse, that there may be meat in mine house, and prove me now herewith, saith the LORD of hosts, if I will not open you the windows of heaven, and pour you out a blessing, that there shall not be room enough to receive it.”)

I decided at the very least I could start giving $5 each time I went to church. My logic was that if I weren’t at church I would have likely rented a movie and gotten something to munch on. So the $5 was money not spent.

After a couple weeks, I’d increased it to $10 a service and then a week or two later I was giving a half-tithe (5%). It was at that time that crisis struck.

Unexpected Expenses

I got a couple unexpectedly high bills in the mail – they equaled 1.5 months salary! There was no earthly way that I could pay them and I knew it. So I took it to God.

I said that I knew I wasn’t doing a whole tithe yet, but He knew my heart and knew I was giving even more than I thought I was able. I reminded Him that He told us to test Him in this area. I asked Him to help me. And help He did.

Unexpected Cash Flow

I had two weeks to come up with the money. Within that two-week timeframe I got an unexpected tax refund, won several classifications in a digital imaging contest, and got a check from my college roommate who three years earlier had accepted a camera from me promising to “pay when she could”. The total came to $50 over the amount I needed! It was as if God said, “Not only will I meet your need, but I’ll give you enough to go out to eat as well!”

God was faithful to His word!

Praying for a Job

Even though God had met my specific financial need, it didn’t take long before I realized what I really needed was some extra cash flow, but I loved my job.  So I prayed for something part time… but something that made enough part time where I could get the amount I needed in a relatively short amount of time… minimum wage wasn’t going to cut it! I continued to increase my giving until I reached a full tithe – I had seen He was true to His word and trusted Him. Within about 2 months I was offered a part time teaching position at a local college that was a direct answer to my prayers.

With my faith stirred up from God’s faithfulness I began praying for a full-time job making more money.  My preference was for one where I would have more free time to spend doing “God stuff”.  I continued to be faithful in my giving having been very encouraged by His demonstrations of faithfulness as I was faithful to Him in my finances.

Two and a half months later I was offered a full time job making significantly more than I was and I was promoted 3 months after that… at the end of it all I was making almost over twice what I had been!  God was faithful!

Conclusion

Yes, you could argue that this worked out all as a “lucky” coincidence, but frankly the likelihood that that is the case is probably less statistically likely than that there is a God who is true to His word. I’ve seen Him come through in similar fashion too often in my life to believe it’s all by accident. I know who He is and I trust Him.

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