Three Questions- Sweet Home
" I will utter hidden things, things from of old..We will not hide them from our children; We will tell the next generation the praise worthy deeds of the Lord, His power, and the wonders He has done" Psalm 78:1-7
I asked three questions, Lord shall we buy or built a house, which house, this or that, and as they are very old houses what is the guarantee that they will sustain? God answered all my three questions in one sentence Leviticus 25:30 This story is a miracle story, like many miracles in the Bible. Read and learn Faith to ask Him.
I never realized that there are still some more promises to be fulfilled in His Great Plan for me. I recollected the promise He had given in Numbers 32 chapter, on that night in Vijayawada, Railway Quarters. Some people tried to involve in my personal and financial matters by diverting all my resources to be nullified by asking me to resign the job. But God showed them that they can not play games with me, they saw that God gave me an opening in Maris Stella college as a Lecturer again even in Vijayawada, a place where they tried to throw me off without any financial support, they wanted to see me without job, but all their intentions of humiliating me were seen by God and He uplifted me far above than they imagine. On the other hand God made them to ask us to go back and join my own job which God had given me in a miraculous way.Also they had to depend on us to take care of the church in Eluru. If a person wanted to do the will of God, and seek His will in his life, no one can destroy him/her by their evil tricks or jealous looks. This had been proved once again in a wonderful way.
The promise given on that night should be recollected once again here, it includes this sentence too--- Numbers 32:-24 "Build you cities for your little ones, and folds for your sheep; and do that which hath proceeded out of your mouth."
Next Promise:
My Sweet Home: Build cities for your women and children..."Numbers 32:24
Now God reminded me to go back to those 4 questions at the back of my Bible, and about the wonderful answer I got in Numbers 32:24 Build cities for your women and children..."As I told you we were living in rented houses.The first one was given in rent by one of my students which was a beautiful individual house for rent for Rs200/ one year we stayed in it, later for the summer holidays we vacated it put the things in our relatives house, went to Vijayawada where his sisters were put in a house and we were paying the rent there too., so after the summer holidays, as the financial burden was too much, my journal was going on and on with many sighs and tears, in the presence of God. So I had decided I should seek for a very less rented house. I sought for a thatched house for Rs. 60/ only one room it was so horrible. I thought it was well with me, and told myself that I should adjust to live anywhere for the sake of his happiness and for the peace in between us, so that our prayer life should not be disrupted. As he goes to office at 6 am and I go away to college at 9 am: we both would stay at home only in the nights, so the rest of Rs120/ could be used for his sisters',and parents expenses, fees etc.
I was saving EVERY PIE, NO NEW SAREES, NO FURNITURE. I had a small iron trunk box to keep our clothes, I spread blanket on it, it was useful to sit on, by the visitors , also useful as a table to iron clothes, also as table where I used to keep a flower vase, and Bible to read and kneel and pray, when it was not in use. Desires are simple, commitment and responsibilities were taken care wholeheartedly along with my husband, for his big family. Yet I did not make any scenes at home, and I learned to sacrifice silently, still to meet the two ends was not possible sometimes, unless I curtail my lunch or breakfast sometimes; without his knowledge, once I did not have kerosene for which I used to go to the ration shop, so I started to cook on three bricks, and dried wood and dung cakes, I reminded myself, that one missionary used to cook on orange peels when there was no money in the home. can you believe if I say all these issues were thrilling factors for me? all my married life I did not eat even one Apple as I wanted my children and my husband to eat. I was telling them that I do not like to eat. The toilet and bath was common for three co-tenants , but still I adjusted very well even though I used to live in Britisher's buildings for Police officers,in my parent's home; and five star hotel suit like hostel in college as Lecturer. Ratnamma. the maid, used to bring breakfast and coffee flask to my table in the room, and some time lunch to my room , we were treated as VIPs by our sister Principal Josephine in those days, We had luxurious life and never knew any problem in my life financially, till I got married.Once my dad came to our home, found how miserably I was living , I did not have a bed for him so he laid down on the mat on the floor. But still he did not say one word against my husband. But he expressed his sorrow to me. for which I answered him that I was quite happy with the conditions as they were for my husband's sake. Again I thought, giving summer rent was too much for us, so I vacated it, went to Vijayawada again , there I got jaundice , went to Vizayanagaram to my parent's house, God healed me within a day by raising me from death bed by giving His promise.The Lord touched me in one night and sustained me on my deathbed'; and restored me from sickness and healed me with full health . Psalm 41:3
On April 13th 1982 I was conceived again took one house near college for Rs350/ after a few months I vacated it as I could not meet the expenditure, and went to a house rented for Rs 80. Rented a house, this time a tiled house, near the pastor's house, and again saved money, and went back to Vijayawada, and came back stayed in small house again, shifted again into Rs 120/ house,( near Vedaraja house) where I had to get Municipality tap water from the road, me and my husband used to get up in the middle of the night sometimes to fill our pots with water. The labourers who used to gather there to have water used to fight with us without reason, once I was pushed on the road, by a coolie Labourer, woman, then my husband came and lifted me up. This sort of experiences were strange for me, but still bore everything for the sake of saving some money. and from there to Rs160/(chalamayya house) house and again to Rs 250/(Rajavilla ) house and again to Rs350/( Leelapanduranga House)
Sometimes, the neighbors were drunkards, thieves,debauchers, and criminals, I had to change the houses very often because we need to pay two rents in Eluru as well as Vijayawada for his sisters. Every summer I had to vacate the house I live in Eluru and when I come back I could not find good houses in good locality, therefore the safety of me and my children was at stake. When we go for less rented houses , they were available in low class localities, like slums where people of low character used to live, some of them were envious of us and fighting with us, some of them tried to steal things from our house.. etc(robber story) Ultimately I could not bear these tests any more .. I was vexed with changing the houses. We had changed houses for eight times in the short period of t 13 years of our married life.My husband never told me to change the houses, somehow i myself decided about the rent etc ad used to take his permission to change the houses.
The first principle we learned about the Fridge, i.e., Do not covet anything unless it's very very necessary; and Do not buy unless we have enough resources of finances to buy; Do not buy unless it is God's will applied to purchase of the house too. these lessons taught us to wait upon the Lord even for our dwelling place. So we tarried all these years, not buying house or site in Eluru. And now it has become a necessity, and we both felt that we should have our own house. On the other hand my husband was transferred to Eluru by that time.
In all those 13 years when we left our rented house in Eluru and stayed in Vijayawada for Dasara or Christmas holidays, we both were claiming the promise Job 5;24 " YOU will know that your tent is secure' you will take stock of your property and find nothing missing." Our faithful Almighty God have been keeping His promise all through these years till today ie.,2018.
My dear husband got a promise, Proverbs 24: 27 " Finish your work outside, get everything ready for yourself in the field, and after that build your house" .He showed it to me, I do not know what it did mean then, but now I ponder over it, he must have had finished his sever commitments in his own home, and fields in his village and thereby he got green signal in the word of God to build a house now in Eluru.
I was praying ( Niluva nilakaramaina needa leni vaaramu Prubhuva)" For we do not have a constant dwelling place to live in.... We both were kneeling down and praying for a house because Bank, where I get my salary deposits every month, is giving loan to the Lecturers, and many of my friends were buying and building the houses. My friend Swarna Kamla got 4 lakhs as loan and they bought a house in Ameena pet just a month before. So I was confident that we too could buy a house taking a loan from the Bank. I started to pray like this, 1 Corinthians 4:11 "To this very hour ......, I am in rags, I am brutally treated financially, and we are homeless.
As I was praying this issue, one day God reminded me the promise He had given, in 1985, 'Build buildings to your women and children' Numbers 32:24 "Build cities for your women and children, I prayed to my God ,"Lord do what you have promised. By faith I claim the same promise of School buildings to my children to own a house for our family too" it was 1993.
Good, I thought, so far I was under the impression that there are very good tall buildings for my children to study, St. Theresa's Elementary school, High school, Jr college, and Degree and PG college where I was employed. So when God told me go back to the place and build buildings to your children, when I got that promise in Vijayawada the schools were in my mind. But now by faith I was given assurance to extend the promise given by God to own a house too. Many a times, when God had given me one promise, though it was fulfilled in one incident,God leads me to use the same promise even to other situations while seeking His will, and did see the promise be fulfilled again and again. So this is one of the many many incidents where the same promise was for the school buildings for children was going to be claimed even for owning a house too.
When the spirit of the Lord help us to pray, He will guide us how to pray, He will remind us the promises to be claimed, He will give us assurance of those promises , sometimes one promise to many occasions. That is the work of the Holy Spirit.
We Started to pray in 1993, My dad went to the Lord in 1992,( it was another beautiful but very sorrowful story of His kindness,) when he was alive he tried to buy a house or land for me in Eluru, but I did not heed him and I was so stupid I hurt him too because I had to say NO to his pleadings very very bluntly and harshly in order to stop him to spend his money on me, all that I wanted him to enjoy life happily in his retirement days and we both were not willing to take any financial aid from him.
Now we were in search of a house to buy , or to build a house. As my dad's assistance or advice is taken away from me, we have no one who could guide us or help us in deciding to have a house, because by that time my dear dad was no more.
I shared this with my friends in college, and one day that is the last working day of College I was walking home along with one Mrs Mani, Zoology lecturer. In the course of the conversation, she said, 'Leela, I come to know that you are thinking to have your own house, there is one house which we wanted to purchase, half of the house was purchased by another Zoology lecturer in C R R college, half of the house is there to be sold. I saw it, and it is good for me, but my husband did not like it, so he is objecting to buy. If you are interested I will show that house to you. So on our way home we turned to right side street, and got the keys from another lecturer of opposite house, and saw the house to be bought. That particular lecturer was in charge of selling the house, told us that the house was for sale but it was more than Rs.200000/-
My husband and myself thought it was too much for us to buy. Because in our family rules we should never go for any thing which is beyond our capacity .
Remember the date we saw this house, (its' very important and the things that happened later).
It was April 30th 1993.
How God wondrously works in our lives!! God has a plan, a design for our lives, beforehand, but He reveals it to us step by step, only when we seek to find it. And we have to pray first, some people are under the impression, that God knew our needs and we need not pray. This is wrong concept, God knew our needs,even before we ask Him, but He would see whether we yield to His will and claim His promise to do. Tagore in "King of Dark chamber" beautifully quoted this,"We are the kings in the kingdom of the King of Kings. We can do what we like, yet,we do what He likes.
If we do not seek His Will we will not know it, we cannot see it, we will never know what is good for us, or whether we are going in right way or not.. , we will never know the hand of God and His will in our issues of life. Keeping our supplications at His feet and waiting for His will gives us testimony and courage,
Thinking that all our needs would be fulfilled if it is His will; or saying all that happened because of God's will, is like depending on Fatalism. it's not Christian faith , When we need any thing, if you seek His will to get it, and having it by His promise, needs faith.. Other wise it look like , as a child doing some thing as he likes and asking father to give permission; or doing something and saying it was done only because his father did not say no, . First of all he did not ask his father permission.at all. If we do not know His Will, we will never could glorify Him.. and thank Him. We will not have "a testimony "to share with, then we would not have others who would glorify Him along with us
.In fact we should glorify Him and thank Him all the time. Whether we know Him or not but when we witness His glory in our lives we will praise Him .That should be the essence of saying "Praise the Lord" . it's not a phrase to use as Good Morning or Good Evening to brothers. It should not be a repetition of parrots. it should be something like a song we could sing from our hearts along with the psalmist many a times,
Open your mouth WIDE, I will fill it up" Psalms 81:10 We need to have a BIG mouth opened Wide to receive His bountiful mouthful of food.
THREE QUESTIONS & One Answer
" So I say to you, ask, and it will be given to you, seek, and you will find, knock, and it will be opened to you" Luke 11:9"
The Lord loves each one of us, He wants to tell us what is the best , His best for us. If we ask Him He will reveal it to us. Because He never likes to be pushy even for our good. He wants us to learn to go to Him and learn of Him. Remember His Best is The Best. Even if we have the whole world in our hands we would never get that safety, joy and peace in our heart and life as it would be in finding and obeying His will." So I say to you, ask, and it will be given to you, seek, and you will find, knock, and it will be opened to you" Luke 11:9"
'We were searching for the houses, to buy and also for the site where we can build a house. In one instance we were cheated, we paid Rs 1000/ as an advance, Mr. Aurthur and my friend, and his wife Mrs kamala Swarna Kumari both came to check the house, and gave us a friendly and elderly advice, "better you forego your advance rather than investing big amount on this house, which is not worthy to buy.'
We withdrew, our bid over that house at the loss of Rs.1000/-. Some times fully knowing that we have to do the will of God, still the ego in our heart goes its own way, which look like human understanding and human intelligence, which would land us in mud ultimately. In such times, God in His mercy pull us out of that mud through some friendly advice or pulling us literally out of the fire like a burnt coal. Human heart usually do not seek the Will of God. It think it is intelligent and and wants to do its own will, But Jeremiah in the Word of God warns us, "The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?" Jeremiah 17:9
So we were praying and claiming the promises we have at His feet. We saw a house near our college which is in a 600 sq feet but a small house with one room and a kitchen in it. The owner of the house was a State Bank officer. We were negotiating with him and it was almost come to a final decision. But in those days we did not have mobiles or even land line phone, it was very difficult to contact people. So we were waiting for his final word of our bidding.
In one of those days , that is 1994, February first week, I was going to college by walk, just to save some money on rikshaw. While I was walking to college, suddenly I felt I must stop at a home of one of our church comer, Mrs Jhansi, a State Bank officer in our town. I thought I must ask her to enquire about the owner of the house which we were negotiating to buy. So I turned one step towards the right side and reached a small wicket gate, and about to call her, but I saw her brother, Mr Jacob Wesley was talking to her standing out side of their house in the compound premises. Seeing him I took a step back, feeling I should not disturb them, knowing he is a strict disciplinarian and not much in friendship with us in those days. But they saw me approaching the gate, so I quickly told Jhansi about my issue and requested her, "Can you please ask such and such person in your office, to contact us to finalize the issue about the house purchase?".
Blurting out my words, I left the gate , and rushed to college. Never we expected 'what all that happened that evening'. Mr. Jacob's nephew,Jacob Raj, came to our house and told us," My uncle Mr. Jacob asking you both come and meet him today after an hour"
We were conducting the Sunday worship in his school hall, so we used to give him much respect to him. We thought may be he had some problem faced with the Sunday worship service. As often he being a strict disciplinarian, any church goer make any mistake like forgetting to close the door, we were taken into task, so we thought may be it was one of those reasons he was asking us to come.
We went to meet him. Unlike the other days, he was so gentle in speaking to us and called us into his home and started to talk to us. " This morning sister ( its me) called upon my sister Jhansi in search of a house to purchase; Are you searching for a house to buy?"
I took initiative to answer him, because I was the one who talked that morning, " Yes, brother, we are trying to buy a house of her colleague in Sanivarapet Panchayat. which is very near to our college."
He said, " Brother, I am trying to buy a house for my sister Jhansi, I have done all the preliminaries , I have all the documents of the house, It is Rs.1,80000/-. The owner is asking for Rs.90000/- as an advance and to give the rest of the Rs. 90000/- after 6 months to get registered. When I told my sister, she is so 'adamant' and saying ,though she is the officer in the State Bank, that she cannot pay that much amount as advance but saying she could pay only Rs.10000/- for which the owner of the house is not willing. I will try to get that house for you if you are interested.' My husband said. "As you already enquired about the house and got EC and documents of the house we would like to see it brother."
I said,'Thank you very much brother, for your concern, as you said, if Jhansi is not willing to buy, we can buy, actually we have only Rs.90000/- with us now.That year another 50000 rupees were added to my savings as I got some arrears of DA of my salary.
He immediately said,' God will take care of the rest."
I was happy to hear that, we both asked him at once, ' Where is this house brother?'
He told us the location, immediately we both realized that the house he was speaking about was none other than the house we saw previous year,i.e, 1993 April,30th. At that time we were told that it would cost more than Rs.200000/- At that time we had only Rs.40000/- which I saved when I got some arrears in the college. for the past many years of my employment. But In this one year i.e,. between April 1993 to 1994 February another Rs.50000/- is added to that by saving and by some more arrears I got, in the college.
So I see the hand of God in this bargain, we were all in smiles while we were talking to him. He said, that he was intended to help us at any cost. And that he would definitely get the house to be purchased by us. He himself promised us, as if my own dad was alive he would had taken this issue so intensively.I felt though I rejected my dad's offer to buy a house for us, God made Mr. Jacob Wesley to take initiative in the place of my dad.
We came back home, and we talked for a few minutes how God changed Mr. Jacob in this case, to be so kind and concern. Then we both knelt down, to pray, before retiring to bed that night. I still remember the place where we knelt down, to tell the Lord what was in our heart. He prayed sincerely about the house, and asked the Lord if it is His will He would guide us in this matter." But what I prayed , I remember very well. Point to Point. everything I asked Him.
I cannot forget one single word what I prayed, that night.
"Lord, We want to buy a house , because you know how many troubles we are facing in this matter. Lord by your grace, you have given good positions in our employments, to build a good house. but if we start to build a house, your servant , my husband , have to spend whole time in purchase of sand, cement, and steel instead of spending his time , energy in Your kingdom, in your service. .So tell us, Lord,
1) Should we 'build or buy' a house?
2)Should we buy the house which is near the college that is in Panchayat, or this house in Ashoknagar, Muncipality of Eluru ( I was more interested in buying the house nearby college, as I knew how difficult it was to spend money on rickshaw; I thought even when I get old, I can go by walk to college ) So I asked God Lord,If we have to buy a house which house you want us to buy , the house in Panchayath/,village or Muncipality/Town?
3) Lord both houses are very old , if we spend all our savings on these old houses, if the ceiling or roof would not lost for long, and walls crack further, what will happen.Lord tell us should we buy or build a house? Even if we buy one of these old houses-- how many years would it lost? Will you give us guarantee for these houses Lord?"
I finished my prayer knowing that God heard my prayer. I know it. That is all that I knew. He heard my prayer, and He would tell me what we have to do. When we pray in the Spirit, we would pray in such a way which we never knew before what we are going to pray. .Romans 8:26--"We do not know what we ought to pray, but the Spirit Himself intercedes for us...."Luke 21:15 The Holy Spirit will give you both words, and matter, in the same hour, instantly and immediately." The Holy Spirit will teach you at that time what you should you say" The groaning and sighs of the Holy Spirit pray to God
Thus I prayed , and we retired to beds that night with PEACE in my heart, which is beyond understanding, which gaurdes our minds and hearts. When we have such PEACE the whole world would be in our palm as we are engraved in His palm.
Next day I was reading my daily bible portion, It was month of February 1994, I came to the Book of Leviticus 25 the chapter, I was reading slowly and steadily, when I come to the verse 30th , I was shocked, I found answeres to all my three questions, in ONE SENTENCE. Levi 25:30---
My Telugu version is more to my heart, more clearer to me. Its my mother tongue and I got the answer at once, I wonder how far I can do justice to this in English, Let me put the verse here. "If it is not bought redeemed within a year, and If there is a buyer of the house in the walled town, it will become the permanent property to the buyer throughout generations, ( children's children) It shall not go in the Jubilee"---......if it not be redeemed within the space of one full year then if the house is bought, the house within the walled city shall be established forever to forever to him that bought it through out his generations,it shall not go out in the jubilee." Leviticus 25:30
What? 1 ) question of mine... should I buy or build?
Answer was:
If there is a buyer of the house, BUYER.. buyer of the house which is not bought within one year, Answer was ----If it was not bought within an year"--- I counted immediately... Last year 1993 April... now it is 1994 February 9th.One year not yet over, it was not redeemed within this one year
2.WHICH HOUSE??
The HOUSE within THE WALLED TOWN? Yes this house in Ashoknagar is in Muncipality, TOWN OF ELURU. Answer is very crystal clear God is telling me to buy this house in the town , not the house near the college, which is in Panchayath... OOOOh wonderful God, Ohho wonderful God How can I praise Thee Lord!!
3.GUARANTEE OF THE HOUSE
God is giving me guarantee for generations, children and children, this is the answer to my next question, Will there be guarantee, should I invest all my hard earned savings on this OLD house? The answer is it will be there for children to children, and God answered further, It shall not go in the Jubilee.(foot notes says 50 years)
JUBILEE, Jubilee,? what is it? 50 years of life.. for the building, well, they are saying that this house was built 25 years back, Lord even if it is 30 years, another 20 years you are giving guarantee, oh 20 years, by then where I would I be? where my children would be? My daughter Happy was in 7th class, and son John was in 5th class, Daughter was 12 years and John 10 and 1/2 years old. so in jubilee where they would be, ( Oh my Lord, The year 2014 February this house completed 20 years that is Jubilee, my daughter is in USA and son is in AUSTRALIA...) Great God Great God, He is mighty God. this is 2018 I am still living in this house.
The house which I was going to buy was almost in ruins, one tin shed in front, one tiles shed at the back hardly three rooms, with a big hole in the ceiling where the bats dwell, and the doors had termite holes for the mouses, the floors were having pits all over, But still I determined to buy. Because the Lord had given green signal in a wonderful way.
Meanwhile the owner of the house was annoyed with Mr. jacob and said to him, that," first you brought your sister to buy and now you brought another party to buy, what is all this, and I do not like to sell it for Rs.180000/- but only for 200000/-" I do not know what made Mr. Jacob Wesley to go to Hyderabad on behalf of us, to plead him to come down to 180000/-? I do not know but he went with Joe his youngest son to the house of his eldest son Joshua and met the owner Srinivas and convinced him to fix the rate to Rs. 180000. Meanwhile God had given a promise that the house will be for 185000/ I did not understand about this number, but in the course of the conversation with my husband I said, "Hubby The price will surely come down to 180000/ and we need to spend extra Rs.5000/ on it for something else" Immediately he said,"It is written in 2 Kings 19:35 t that 18500 Assyrian soldiers were killed by an angel that night..., right?" I was looking at him with wide eyes, and nodded my head approving it . My Life- prayer- partner's face was beaming and I felt how beautiful are the things when we pray with one heart , mind and soul.
They came back on 13th February, 1994 and asked us to come to their home, Joe arranged two speakers to the land line phone and asked us to sit with them in their hall. Mr. Wesley called Srinivas, he was telling him , " sir first you told us this house is for your sister, now you want to purchase it for another party, sir, Though I wanted to sell it for Rs. 2,00000 you asked me to reduce it to Rs.180000 which causes much loss for me, even for that I accepted, but now one thing I want to tell you, ask the party to pay the full amount of Rs.180000/ at once, that too by the end of this month, that is, on 28th February 1994, and get the house registered, I have no more patience to wait upon. If they cannot get registered the house on my terms, ask them to leave it off. and please do not disturb me any more." Mr. Jacob Wesley assured him on our behalf of us, that we would give Rs.1,80000 give on 28th Feb and get it registered then and there. Then Srinivas hung up the phone.
That day was 13th, hardly we don't have much time, one fortnight only. How we can get that much of money within this short period? who will give us? we do not go for debts. But the promise of God Levi 25:30 is shining in front of my eye lids.
Here one thing should be remembered, When god gives us promise by guiding us to walk in His steps, when we are sure of walking with God, even though there would be many hurdles, obstacle we face, we do not shiver, or confused, we know we are in the cave of the Rock and things will be done as He promised. He told us to buy this Ashoknagar house only, so these obstacles are not to threaten us, but they are for His glory. Knowing this pretty well, I took steps further by Faith, A person who comes to Him should believe that He is there and He will answer. And I decided to take further steps the next day. You will read what miracle God did in these 15 days of time in next chapter.
When God gives guidelines to do any thing in our lives, He does not leave us in confusion, He steps into our lives more evidently and almost he takes us on His shoulders to reach the destination. His promises reveals His Will in each situation of life. How come I prayed in such a way? It is His Spirit that led me to pray . How could I get answer in one sentence of the Scriptures for my 3 Questions in my prayer? Its amazing story which fulfilled literally letter by letter. Its mere grace of God to love us to lead us and to give a testimony to us only for His Glory.
for next chapter click the link below:
https://www.mygodmystory.com/trivial-matters-matters-to-god/
