We bought an apartment in Manchester UK as a Buy-To-Let, about eight or nine years ago, off-plan. When it was built and ready to be rented, there was a property market collapse.
Over the next several years some of the tenants left without paying all the bills leaving my husband and me liable for them. The last one skipped the country with her guarantor - her mother. It resulted in us having the apartment repossessed and also leaving us with the bill of £116,137.40p which in American terms is approximately just under $144,000.00.
My husband was paying this off at £20 per month. I was made redundant from my job the same week we were repossessed which meant they got nothing from me.
Christians and leaders and financial consultants ALL recommended that we go through bankruptcy. Knowing the implications of that, we declined, possibly because people we knew had suffered greatly doing that.
We had phoned the mortgage company saying that we were pensioners. The debt was handed down several companies making the debt lower each time, but it was still unlikely that we would ever be able to pay it off, so we suggested to them that they write it off.
On 18th November 2016, we received a letter from our debtors, to say the board of his company unanimously decided to write off the whole amount £116,137.40p! It also mentioned we were to stop any further payments.
There are many people with financial problems in the world today. We will tell our testimony whereever we go. We made a mistake by not spending enough time with God initially and asking Him about it. This apartment was offered to us by others who wanted to off-load one of the two buildings they had.
The lesson learned is "always seek God on big decisions and be careful who gives you counsel." In our case everyone gave wrong counsel, except the Lord! There was literally nobody else, apart from some ministers who prayed.
Proverbs 3:5 says to trust in the Lord with all our heart and lean not on our own understanding; in all our ways acknowledge Him and He will direct our paths. That is the Scripture that says it all!
Question from Mark Virkler: Did you seek the Lord before you purchased the property? Did He give you a green light? Did your 3 spiritual advisors also confirm this, since it was a major decision and it is wise to receive counsel on major decisions?
Answer from Susan: We trusted the two "spiritual" friends that offered us the property. We also had a financial advisor. Here are the lessons I learned:
- Lesson 1: Pray carefully about who your Christian advisors are to be.
- Lesson 2: The biggest lesson learned is, do not go against a check in your spirit. If in fear and it doesn't feel right, don't do it. If you are experiencing pressure to do something quickly because of a time constraint, and don't listen to the Holy Spirit, and honor His check in your spirit, this is a big "NO". This has been a huge learning curve. There is a big difference between faith, foolishness and presumption.
Related Blogs:
How to Hear God’s Voice
Comments
Listening to that check from the Spirit
by Anonymous
I learned this same thing, so can testify about all the same aspects of necessity of multiple wise counsel, avoiding undue pressure in timing, and NEVER going against the "check" from the Spirit (which is often pushed away by our "own understanding"- Prov.3:5-6). I was trapped into a similar situation in 2009, felt pressed by others to move against that "check", and lost all three properties I had accumulated from my late husband's life insurance, for my family's inheritance and my retirement. Now I'll be renting and laboring the remainder of my days, until the Lord works a merciful miracle in my life. GOD IS GOOD! HE CARRIES ME!
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