Death Grip

In 2001 at the age of 24, I became a first time home buyer, courtesy of Fannie Mae. Now today at the age of 34, I am proud to declare, I have become a homeowner, courtesy of Christ Jesus. I, like many others became paralyzed by debt. In 2009, the remaining balance on my mortgage was $130,000 and today, it is paid in full. I am a witness that Jesus saves and is a mighty deliverer. We made a decision not to allow the death-grip entangle us and our future generations. Make a commitment to follow God's way and retain your peace, health and prosperity. Christ set me free and I am free indeed.

Let me start my saying I believe that “Debt is Demonic” as spoken by Nasir Siddiki of Winning with Wisdom Ministries. If you aren’t paying cash for your car and home you are entrapped by a vicious cycle that is meant to give you one option… to lose. Living on a cash basis is contradictory to the common trend. God offers us a plan that we can count on. His way is always higher than ours. No wonder why many are adopting the Get-out-of-Debt mindset, as if it was ever a good idea not to be out of debt? God's way works. When we choose to borrow we are choosing bondage. There are benefits to borrowing but in most cases they don’t apply to everyday people. I learned that God’s way will lead to long term prosperity and if you don’t apply the biblical teachings to your life, sooner or later, you’ll wish you had. The credit system is designed for us to lose, but with God we can win. I’ve learned wisdom that is uncommon to the world, by accepting biblical teachings for marriage, business and finances. I dare you to make a decision and say “Let’s do it God’s way.” Here’s my part of my personal testimony of escaping the death grip.

I don't quite remember just how I felt as I signed those papers in the attorney's office that day. But I do remember feeling satisfied that our hard work had finally paid off. After months of negotiating with creditors and settling bad debts, my husband and I had finally escaped the hurt and shame of our past. We both had brought into our relationship, debt from our divorces, attorney fees from custody battles and student loan debt. Then on April 25, 2001 we now had realized the joy of success after divorce, or so we thought. To commemorate our new beginning, we now had our very own slice of the American pie. Accepting the keys to a modest 4 bed 2 1/2 traditional brick ranch soon became bittersweet. On one hand, I had accomplished conquering the financial debt and disgrace my divorce. On the other, now electing to bring a 30 year financial commitment into a new marriage could have proven catastrophic, since the most common cause of divorce is due to finances. Nevertheless, the purchase of a home was a sign of success by modern day standards.

Replacing our short lived debt free marriage with a 30 year mortgage eventually brought with it a whole new set of stress to our marriage. Now living in a quiet mostly retired community in the suburbs of Atlanta we decided to reposition ourselves for our dream of becoming independently wealthy. We read books on investing, starting businesses, and networking. We went to seminars, workshops and multi-level marketing campaigns to find out how the rich got rich. We read books such as "The Millionaire’s Mind" by Thomas J. Stanley, and "Rich Dad Poor Dad" by Robert Kiyosaki. In all of the books we learned that great success usually came after great failures. The central theme was to be willing to take risks and create asset generating vehicles, while strategically choosing options to protect your capital. We knew that for us to maximize true financial security we'd have to begin by paying off the house.

I can recall the day I checked the principle balance after remitting my first mortgage payment. To my regret, our 8% interest rate meant only $36 of the payment actually went to the principle. I felt betrayed under the weight of the reality. Buying a home definitely caused us to rethink our plan. Soon, becoming a borrower in hopes of becoming a homeowner someday, somehow didn't feel like much of a blessing. I begin to reminisce on the days when rent was $750 and I we were cash rich. "Renting wasn't all that bad," I remember thinking to myself.

I set up a meeting with my husband and immediately we put a plan in action to meet this challenge head on. I created a spreadsheet to calculate our progress and make sure that every payment was properly credited so the bank wouldn't get a penny more than they should. My anger motivated me. When others would give accolades at our ability to be homeowners I would make it my business to offer them the stark reality. Oftentimes, people would be offended by the mere thought that I wasn't ranting and boasting over our accomplishment. After sharing my sentiment with a close friend. She told me her plans of purchasing a new home, it was then I decided to resign my position after being met with some very harsh criticism. I honestly felt the responsibility to share with people the truth about the Truth-in-Lending Statement. Naturally this led me to become a Real Estate Agent.

The first year we paid down our mortgage enough to qualify for a refinance at no cost. So we refinanced and continued to pay the original monthly payment to further drive the mortgage down which was now at a 5.5% interest rate.

With the new income coming in from the Real Estate business we got caught up with the housing investment market. We purchased a property and when we found out we were expecting another baby decided to use it as a daycare. Between my husband and I climbing the corporate ladder, becoming speculative investors and the lustrous social lifestyle in Atlanta, it wasn't long before we had abandoned our plan. We went on a constant binge of upgrades using our newly established credit to foot the bill. Don't get me wrong we were rolling in the cash, but at some point our outgo was on the brink of exceeding our intake. And as I heard Pastor John Hagee put it.”this will eventually become your down fall."

Our financial health and lifestyle choices eventually led to the discovery of a larger problem. While on the quest of financial independence, we adopted the mindset of the heathen. Live, drink and be merry, for tomorrow we die. Our growing lust for worldly pleasures and achievement came at a cost we hadn't considered. Soon our marriage was on the rocks. I remember calling out to God, I plead to Him and he brought salvation to our home. We recommitted our lives to Christ and vowed that He would be the head of our family.


After awakening to the sobering reality of all we bargained for, debt commitments, private schools, designer wardrobes, shoes, shoes and more shoes, real estate renovations, payroll, and luxury vehicles all compounded with increasing interest rates and loss of rental income, we received bad news. We would be losing one of our contracts. The onset of a pending catastrophe was thwarted by the hand of God.

I'm writing today to let you know that no matter what you face, face it with God. God enabled us to surmount tremendous difficulties. When I look back over my mistakes, nothing compares to the mistake of counting God out of the equations. He is the one who makes all things possible. In my folly I learned valuable lesson and have obtained wisdom and understanding. I thank God that when my heart was ready the Lord spoke to me in 2008. He said, "I will open up my treasury for you." I repented for following the ways of the world when indeed I had known better, because I knew how God felt about debt. It was God who placed the desired to be debt free in my husband’s heart many years before. My husband and I made God our top priority and in turn God revealed the plan for us to get out of debt. God wouldn't allow us to file bankruptcy. But we did return what we could lawfully. We sold our real estate, put our children in public schools and disciplined ourselves for freedom. I will tell you that not everything He commanded was understood but we did what He said. God proved to be faithful and merciful to us when we couldn’t understand His kindness. We saw so many falls along the way. Lost everything, but God committed His hand to us when we were the least deserving.

In October 2009, I heard about Nasir Siddiki's ministry Winning with Wisdom, from Tulsa, Oklahoma. I was moved by his testimony of how he paid his mortgage off in three years. I saw my family now see God stay the hand of the enemy by going into covenant with Him. When Siddiki referred to a mortgage as the "Death Grip," chills went down my spine.

After 2 years it became clear that the Lord was doing all that He said He would do. We’ve experienced Jehovah-Gmolah the God of recompense, Jehovah-Tsidkenu, the Lord of our Righteousness and Jehovah-Jireh, our great provider.

His treasure was indeed opened to us. God's treasure is without limit. His riches are uncontainable. Since that October, after hearing Siddiki in 2009, God enabled us to reduce our mortgage by 100,000. Today, February 25, 2011. I hold in my hand a certified check paying the final 32,000 of our mortgage.

God showed us favor in every area and even allowed me to close my businesses stay at home with our children. So only by the grace and sovereign hand of God we can say the "Death-Grip" has been released.

-a servant's heart

Disclaimer. A servant's utterance is copyright protected (c) 2011 a servant's heart and the information contained expresses personal views and values of a servant’s heart. The passage in its entirely may be forwarded or linked without consequence however, for any non-personal excerpt for print or publication should request consent from a servant's heart prior to use.

Effectiveness

I woke up this morning with a song of praise. The kids were all moving in harmony. While brushing my teeth, I began to get agitated. I thought to myself, how was it that in such a short span of time I went from having my mind made up, focused on Christ's plan for my day and ready to seize every opportunity, to this funky, yes I said "funky" disposition. Standing in the mirror I questioned, "What happened?"

My mind on a quest to find the answer, I continued to brush. Brushing teeth is sort of like driving home from your local grocer. Your mind goes on auto-pilot. You never consider the route to get home, and then suddenly, you pull up to the driveway. Just as I had been during in this morning’s episode, until I became sensitive to the sudden change in the atmosphere. Gratefully my quest to search out the matter, that vexed my spirit, lead me to revelation that I wanted to share today.

Soon, I realized I was becoming fatigued from brushing my teeth. Now, I I remember, I had continuously forgotten to replace the batteries in my sonic toothbrush.

For years my husband had celebrated this new discovery. It offered the latest technological system to save time while effectively doing the mundane job of teeth brushing. Now, my oral hygiene along with the overall health of my teeth, in my opinion, testified that the good ole fashion manual brushing was sufficient. Therefore I couldn't justify the cost of this pricey instrument. It seems we were in long term marathon to prove which technique was better, until the day he came home and surprised me with my very own. He demonstrated how the new life changing Sonicare would benefit me. Reluctantly, I used it for the first time, a couple of days later. We'll it's been a year since I began using it. In the routine of my mornings, I rely on the advanced technology of the Philips Sonicare toothbrush with its unique dynamic action to gently and effectively accomplish brushing my teeth in 2 minutes.

My discovery… for days I've been using my sonic toothbrush manually. My method of using the device caused me to suffering from its weight. Which leads me to the question? Just how effective did I think using this advanced power toothbrush would be with no power? Certainly this was not what Philips had in mind when they promised to deliver unconventional results.

Often times as Christians we undergo suffering, much to the same effect of this simple illustration. We struggle through life until we recognize Christ and what he affords us through Salvation. He has equipped us and promotes us to effectiveness in the Kingdom. Before we know it our lives have grossly improved and we begin to take God for granted. We stop praising him, worshiping Him and replace our time with Him for other things. Then something goes amiss, it changes our ability to perform as we ought to. Our lives become tedious. But we never consider the irony of being redeemed yet still living subject to our current condition. Remember Christ offers us abundant life, but we'll fall short when we fail to do the necessary maintenance required to obtain it. Reading our Bible and spending time with God recharges us.

This morning God reminded me that He has replaced the old standards and the former mechanics of operating with new and effective tools He's awarded us.

Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is--his good, pleasing and perfect will. Romans 12:2 NIV

God's word is a device; sometimes we use it like I was using the toothbrush, without the power. Daily quoting scripture, without the power is of non-effect. God's word must be used with the Holy Spirit to deliver the intended results of accomplishing God's will. Our motivator should be with the will of God. I'm learning to apply the word of God in conjunction with His will and I can see mysteries unfolding before my eyes. The Bible states that God will not be mocked so we are only fooling ourselves when we cling to traditions and go through the motions without ever turning the power on. Could this be why some don’t produce fruit? Are they merely going through the motions?


When I recognized the issue, I hurried to complete the task and moved to the mouth rinse. Suddenly I could see the effects of my neglecting to replace the batteries which had consequences that were sure signs that I had ignored. Because the brushing had become so laborious I began despising the ritual which resorted in a lack of attention to my gum line. These past couple of days they had been bleeding. Possible because I had neglected flossing to make up for the time I was spending on the brushing. I even missed brushing altogether in the evenings before bed. Likewise, God gives us signs too.

Just because you are functioning does not mean you are effective. Function will never deliver the same effect as applying wisdom and valuing understanding. I don't think I ever expressed my gratitude or acknowledged my appreciation my husband. The toothbrush was indeed a great investment. Note to myself, tell Denny "Thank-You," today.

Commit to following the instructions God has given under the direction of the Holy Spirit. In doing so, His revelation will be apparent in your life. Don't resort to old tactics and coping mechanisms that were birth out of the flesh. Through Christ we have gifts. It's up to us to use them. We must be sensitive to change the course when we get stuck in a rut. Time is of the essences.

This is all the more urgent, for you know how late it is; time is running out. Wake up, for our salvation is nearer now than when we first believed. Romans 13:11.

May the revelation of the desire to function effectively in the earth bring those who are girded in truth to the straight path to accomplish God’s will in our lives.

-a servant's heart

Disclaimer. A servant's utterance is copyright protected (c) 2011 a servant's heart and the information contained expresses personal views and values of a servant’s heart. The passage in its entirely may be forwarded or linked without consequence however, for any non-personal excerpt for print or publication should request consent from a servant's heart prior to use.

Beyond the Cross

From the personal testimony published April 4, 2010

I am extremely grateful for every opportunity that the Lord has awarded me to share my testimony. These past four years have been phenomenal for me spiritually, physically, emotionally and our family has been abundantly blessed in every area of our lives. I attribute this to God's unmerited favor and my willingness to submit to God and His will. I know Him to be a rewarded of them that diligently seek Him. Currently my husband and I are like a fine oiled machine and this I attribute as the fruit of our obedience. Many have fallen prey to sickness, recession, and divorce that criticized me and cursed me yet a thousand at to our right hand and ten thousand at our side, but it has not come near our dwelling. Glory to God.

Like most of you, I tasted the bitter fruit that this world has to offer, in the end, as the Great Solomon proclaimed - It was all vanity. I went through a journey; some of you know all too well being that I was on that journey when I met you. I was self-absorbed, vain and couldn't be satisfied. Today I am settled in a way that could only come from the hand of God.

Yes I was always blessed, but I wasn't accountable to the Kingdom of God. Now that I have experienced the true love of God, I now know that I lack nothing. Forgiveness and acceptance of God's love has changed me and I'm no longer the same. When you have a divine intervention and personal experience with Jesus Christ you can never be the same, the sense of wholeness and completeness that I have is immeasurable. Now I count every opportunity to testify of His goodness. I am convinced that until you know Christ who is the Savior of the world, you will never truly understand your purpose.

What He did for me no man could have done. It took God to accomplish it in my spirit. Now I look at all that I accomplished before giving my life to Christ four years ago, and the summation can never compare to what he's done for me.

He woke me from my slumber, after being bound by seducing spirits, driven to destruction, as a foolish woman being led astray. I ask for your forgiveness in my hand of stumbling others and I have made a vow the the Lord from that day until now. I live to worship Him in all that I do, that He may be glorified in me. God has redeemed my whole family. Subjected to many works of the flesh, adultery to name one, but God. I'm so grateful that the spell of the enchanter and demonic warlock chains were broken after I cried out to God. God was preparing my husbands heart husband because I truly wanted to be free. I asked the Lord to come into my heart, forgive me and he purged me from any unrighteousness. A couple of weeks went by and my husband began to see the change in me. But how many know that God will do the work but that doesn't mean we won't have homework to do as well. I remembering struggling with the enemy, finally I heard the Lord tell me it was time to tell my husband. I didn't believe it was necessary in my own mind but I was obedient. I remember when I told my husband about the affairs. He had to die for me. It brought Him to know Christ in a way that He would have never leaned or depended upon him otherwise.

I'm here to tell you that fear is not of God, whatever you secretly struggle with allow God to minister to you and don't be ashamed. You may need to seek a prayer partner to stand with you but you don't have to live another day outside of God's best. That period was a place of death for us, but through God he has brought healing and restoration. My husband's faith is renewed, he is healed and serving Christ as my brother and covenant partner. I do not regret anything that happened because it brought me to the cross of affliction, then crucification and ultimately my rebirth. We are remarried and had a baby shortly after. Who is now 4 years old. We named her Eden, because she marked the new beginning for us. Since, we have been liberated, spiritually, financially and emotionally and physically. We have been blessed to share our story with other couples and aid in financially assisting other households and several ministries. I now home school four of our seven children. Alongside my husband we teach other couples on the importance of leading a Christ-centered family. I'm sharing this with you to let you know that there is life after affliction, the abundant life Christ made possible for us, living beyond the cross.

May the revelation of this prayer bring godly desires and restore a pure heart to those seeking true intimacy and wholeness in divinely ordered marriages. May they be girded in truth with a renewed commitment to allow the glory of God to be revealed through the covenant that Christ offers in all area of our lives.

-a servant's heart

Disclaimer. A servant's utterance is copyright protected (c) 2011 a servant's heart and the information contained expresses personal views and values of a servant’s heart. The passage in its entirely may be forwarded or linked without consequence however, for any non-personal excerpt for print or publication should request consent from a servant's heart prior to use.