Overtaken

And all these blessings shall come upon you and overtake you because you obey the voice of the Lord your God.

Deuteronomy 28:2

It’s testimony time, so buckle up. Some of you have heard this, but most of you have not, so here we go… Let’s start off by saying God is amazing. He is absolutely and irrefutably amazing. You cannot talk me out of it. I have written in the past about God’s promises and how they hinge on our obedience. “If” is a big word when it comes to God. Mostly notably, in Malachi 3:10 where God admonishes his people, “Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, so that there may be food in My house, and put Me to the test now in this,” says the Lord of armies, “if I do not open for you the windows of heaven and pour out for you a blessing until it overflows.”

July 28, 2021 started just like any other day. At the time, Vince left for work at 4am Monday and didn’t get home until around 7pm on Friday, only home on the weekends. That was his schedule for nearly 13 years. As a commercial electrical foreman, you go where the work is. It was rough on all of us. So when I heard the mudroom door creak open at noon on a Wednesday I was completely disoriented. I walked into the kitchen. The first words out of his mouth were, “I don’t work for <insert company’s name here> anymore.” Um…what? It took me a second to absorb and without hesitation I responded. “This isn’t even a road block. Not even a speed bump. This is just us going one direction and God arresting us to take us another way. We tithe. We give offerings above the tithe and we know what God has promised us. Just watch and see what He does.” So he went up to take a nap and I went back to what I was doing. Our equivalent of Jesus sleeping on the boat in the middle of the storm.

Later that afternoon Vince was contacted by a friend who worked for another electrical company who had heard about what happened. He told Vince to wait for a call from his boss because they wanted to hire him. They didn’t even know him, just his qualifications and reputation. So after less than 12 hours of unemployment he had a new job for a little more money. We were so grateful. We would have been grateful still if the story had stopped there, but it didn’t. Oh, it very much didn’t! He settled in for work and a couple of weeks later he got an email. And then another. And another. Companies wanting to hire him and doing their best to out bid each other in the process. As we weighed each offer, we settled on one. Can I just tell you it involved a 45% raise with fully paid benefits for our entire family? Isn’t that just like God? When we live a life of gratefulness he says, “Oh, you like that? Watch this!”

In the midst of all the overwhelming excitement was a little smidge of “What on earth just happened?” He had been given so much favor at his previous company and had just gotten another raise. We had no idea what happened and still don’t. As I was in prayer one day, God reminded me of the Israelites in Egypt. During the time of Joseph they were given position and favor. They were welcomed. During the course of time the heart of Egypt was hardened against them and they were enslaved. For hundreds of years they served Egypt until God heard the cries of his people. He raised up a man named Moses who stood before Pharaoh and in due time they received their freedom. If God hadn’t hardened the heart of the Egyptians and Pharaoh, the Israelites would never have gotten to their promised land. We had been living in Egypt and God had a much better plan and place for us!

In the midst of all this we had been getting ready to list our house and move closer to work, so Vince could be home during the week. As we stayed the course through all the chaos, we listed our home by faith and received multiple offers, ultimately receiving 50 thousand more than we asked! Ephesians 3:20 tells us he can do, “exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think…” He certainly has exceeded our expectations! We have been able to move to a home that literally ticked all of our boxes, including some we didn’t even think to add. As we packed up the house, Vince insisted that we leave most of our furniture behind. He would say, “Its a new beginning for us, why would we take that with us?” My practical side warred with my spirit but eventually I came to the conclusion that if he has the faith for that, I’ll just join my faith with his. It only takes a mustard seed, you know. And guess what? In typical fashion, God provided over and above, yet again.

During the first few months we walked around in a haze. One of our pastors, Pastor Lori, often talks about walking in the FOG (Favor of God) and that certainly applies! We were reminded of the verses in Psalms 126, “When the Lord brought back the captivity of Zion, we were like those who dream. Then our mouth was filled with laughter, and our tongue with singing. And they said among the nations, ‘The Lord has done great things for them.’ The Lord has done great things for us and we are glad.”

Before you get the impression that this is all about money, it’s not. It’s so much more than that. It’s about the Gospel. The Good News. What is the Good News? Jesus tells us exactly what it is in Luke 4:18 when he quotes Isaiah 61, “The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me, Because He has anointed Me to preach the Gospel to the poor; He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed, to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord.” We received because we activated our faith through obedience to His Word. So many people believe that the Gospel is just about salvation. That is cutting out so much of what God intends for us. He intends for us to live in abundance, favor, freedom, joy, health. Why pick and choose which promises we are going to believe for? Why not just live in His abundance? He has offered us His fullness. It’s time for the church to stop living in doubt and unbelief and reach out and take what’s theirs!