WEBCAST SPECIAL - How to Believe God for a House: Our Personal Journey

hello this is pastor George Pearson's welcome to this very special edition of the believers voice of victory broadcast thank you for coming on over here from the broadcast glory and I've been talking about how to believe God for a house and all during our times that we're talking about a house there's somebody that's in the conversation that we're talking about that I just thought we need to hear from her and her name is Terry Copeland Pierson's welcome my wife this isn't to you back this is really exciting to have Terry on the broadcast today we have some things that we want to share with everybody about our own personal journey our own journey into believing God for not not just one house but but multiple well the process that we went through and I have one scripture on a read before we actually get into the teaching of this and let me remind you about something the the notes of this are amazing she did you did all the work just love the way you have stars in your eyes don't ever get rid of those okay laughter I mean it really is amazing what she has written down and this is going to be great for you you can go on the website right there where you download the other notes from the broadcast you can download these notes as well and they're all there for you to go back over to read to receive and so I have one scripture though I want to read I just let you have one that's all you get okay I've got one scripture this is my wife by the way just in case you didn't know but this is this is my Scripture and this is this is my scripture for you of all of these years we've been married now 36 years 36 years we just celebrate we've known each other for 38 yeah and you know with every every day that goes by I appreciate you more and more and more and where our house houses our concern this is the scripture right here men listen up you listen up to what I'm about to read to you proverbs chapter 14 and verse 1 every wise woman buildeth her house and so tarry in all of these years that we've been married and been family together I have watched you exemplify this scripture you are a wise woman and that's why you're here right now verse where it says in a smart man gets out of the way see that in there you know some men do you really enjoy being a part of that and I don't think that's exclusive that verse of course is talking about more than just the structure of a household right about a household and a family and a home yeah and so there's a lot more to it but you know a house God really does most of the times but the the house part of the family more for the woman than the man generally not always of course and I think our journey it wasn't really until I started looking at some of these things in particular for this broadcast because you asked us to do it that that I saw such a pattern in a process in our lives and it made me really rejoice in the Lord you know in a way that I don't think I would have taken note of first so this is it's a it's a very personal journey you know when I was reading the things that you were writing things were coming back to me that I had either forgotten or either forgotten hadn't paid attention to or just had had been there and had been unearthed after all of these years and when you see it in its context it really is pretty it's it's a pretty amazing story about how the Lord helped us and you know he'll help you too and I'm excited about what he's going to be doing for you so Lord Terry Lord Terry take us on this journey here you know I'm right behind you baby I will now this was really something a little different you know I normally don't write everything out this way but just seemed like that's what I was supposed to do I know the outlines that you've done for the broadcast before their true outlines you're so meticulous and do that so well and through scriptures and I do that sometimes too when I'm preparing a message but this just wouldn't come out any other way so although I don't want to just sound like I'm reading this to you I didn't want to miss the details so we'll see how it sure comes out I hope it is a blessing it'll be great but first and foremost you have to have a foundation especially when you're sharing this with someone else and the Lord took me to scripture in John chapter 4 verse 23 and I'll just read it to you looking up George but I've typed it out a time will come however indeed it is already here I'm so glad this time is here god when the true genuine worshipers will worship the father in spirit and in truth amplified says reality for the father is seeking just such people as these as his work worshipers I think it's important to take a look at the first thing that I want to bring note to is thy Word is truth jesus said that in John 17:17 thy Word is truth so we could say right here that those that truly worship the father what happens they are yielding to him they are looking to him in both the word and in being led by the Spirit what does it mean for the word to be reality in your life well that means that it has to become real to you that the Word of God the written word of God becomes more real to you than your circumstances becomes more really changes your your perspective it changes your the way you live and the way you approach live from and some things you go to the word and you're changed immediately some things the changes are a process of change or a lot of changes one built right on the other and that's really a picture of the Christian walk is the Word of God changing your life step by step by little and and the Bible says all the way to the point you look like Jesus and that's what we want to do right so this is the story that we're going to share with you can be applied to every single aspect of your life the second thing I want to note is this phrase the in spirit or you could say in the spirit or by the spirit it's the Spirit of God who leads us in the Word of God John 16 talks about that and said when the spirit of truth comes he'll lead you he'll guide you into all the truth in fact it's one of my favorite verses it says he will guide you into the truth for he will not speak his own message but he will tell whatever he hears from the father he'll give that message he'll announce it to you and declare to you the things that are to come so that's worth going on in looking at the next several verses - so the Holy Spirit is sent to us to guide us in the truth both guide us to the word to guide us through the word and then to guide us and how to walk the word out how to cooperate with the word so that it becomes true reality in our lives now the word is real in the spirit already I mean it's more real than the natural world because it produced the natural world you've heard dad say that a lot but my dad being I don't know not everybody might know that but I'm a Copland kid right so it's very very evident is it okay maybe not everybody can see that but the Spirit of God makes this word become reality Naturally Speaking so circumstances begin to look like what the word says the word becomes flesh the word becomes flesh and it's not just body our body flesh but it becomes flesh of things and circumstances situations finances health relationships it becomes whatever is needed in this natural world it becomes what it says it will produce in the written word of God now in retrospect I really wasn't we didn't go to this scripture to stand on it I'm sure I'd read it but it wasn't something we said when we got married well we're going to live by this verse but it actually is what happens when you're just seeking the kingdom yeah when you really love God and you really want to know God I think I do thank God for the revelation that dad's preached all oh my life is hearing him talk about the word the integrity of the word so it was already just the word God wasn't giving the heart first place it was already final is an integral part of our life and so this journey is really a story of what the word was producing even before we knew to expect it to certain areas God's faithful anyway increase is a really good word I like that one I like it too it's a good word that describes just what happens when you walk with God it's what happens when you put the word first and and you're led by the spirit because God is increased he he is progress he's always taking you up God God's never sending you backward right and that process and progress should be in every area of your life because the real heart of it is a increase in your relationship with him it's an increase that knowing more about him being like him walking with him and the more you do that then the more that is evidenced in the things around you I'm Lucy I don't want to leave anything out I like this word increase in that it in itself it indicates a process increase that means you're starting at one point and there's movement forward it can mean more it can mean stronger it can be better and it's really tied to the word prosper and there John 2 says I wish above all things that you prosper be in health as your soul prospers so what does that mean to do better to increase to increase in quality to increase in quantity you know we go to heaven it's not going to be worse than being here it'll be better than me so the things of God are always about doing better and increase and becoming better you know mark 428 it says this gives us the kingdom process jesus said first the blade then the ear and after that the full corn in the ear what does that mean well you don't have to be know too much even about farming to understand that a corn or bush or a rose or anything starts as a seed and it it grows and first there's some fruit a little this way the blade you see that seats producing then the stalk and then what happens the full fruit so that's been the way things have worked in our life in a lot of different areas and I wanted this part of what we're going to share you know Paul also talked about being skillful in the word skillful indicates maturing and ability to handle the word to go to the word to on purpose take the word like a sword he said in Ephesians 6 the sword of the Spirit and be skilful in that word well that's what's happened with us over this lo these many years and it's okay if at any point you want to ride in and say y'all been married 36 years really I can't believe that y'all been married that long we will receive those letters Christ God Romans 8:14 says those that are led by the Spirit are the sons of God now when I first read that I thought Lord that seems exclusive so what about those that aren't led by the Spirit of God does that mean they can't be children of God it's the know take note this is not talking about being children this is talking about being sons the Greek word there it's not the same as being born of God but it's mature developed it's good you know that there's a maturity when you're led by the spirit there is a natural process of maturing in the word there's also you can reverse that and say as you mature in the word or more and more led by the spirit those two hand go work together swine jesus said those that worship in spirit and in truth they become genuine worshipers they're the ones that are truly seeking the Lord so to share how this process has worked in our lives and the fruit of it and it was preparing for this that I saw a process I saw the progress that got it done in our lives and I got pretty excited just finding it out I know Lord you gotta see this I recognize some things from the Lord that I had not recognized I would encourage everybody to sit down and just begin to look at and analyze what God's done in your life it's it's an amazing journey now I know you talked all last week about believe in God for a house you talked about our house and you're really reflected on the one we're living in now but as I started to prepare for this broadcast I realized that we weren't just talking about one house that we didn't just start out believing for the house that we're in now but it was that blade stop so true full fruit so true that it that's really what brought us to so I wanted to divide this up into the four different houses that we have lived in and there were some rent houses in there and we won't go to talking about those don't get me started we're going to talk about these four houses that the Lord brought us to and through to the part where we are now there's probably another house coming after this one I wouldn't doubt that and I wouldn't doubt about that so really the journey started back in 1977 and we that's when we first had faith for a house but you know it wasn't very specific faith it wasn't really to buy house didn't even consider buying a house didn't think about that I don't remember giving any thought to it if we did I don't I don't know we just weren't in touch we know back when we were - were you and we were we were first dating engaged we actually looked at apartments there until we did and so we were I think we were thinking more apartment than anything else yes but we weren't sure what we wanted you know we didn't put any specific effort even into I don't even George asking the Lord for specific things you know just just what a place to live yeah do you seem to be the only thing about me we're just so excited about being married being narrating married and starting a life of our own that we really didn't consider didn't even think about that so we were looking we looked at one house it was well over an hour away yeah and it was a cute little house but Howard right that didn't seem right and there just wasn't a lot of good places available and we didn't know where we wanted to live now the office at that time was in Arlington Texas which was a that time a relatively small suburb of Fort Worth so there wasn't much in the area the the office was located coming out away from houses especially smaller houses that we could afford and but Jill we just prayed and the Lord somehow led us to this cute little house and it was really cute and it was brand-new yeah it's brand-new the land Hort land force landlords had built this for her parents but the parents didn't want it they wanted to live there over in Europe or something they weren't they they well she was bringing him over you know Dean the night the parents wanted to live with the children not in a separate house so I don't know how they worked all that out but they decided to keep this house as a rent property and you know I think George really what was happening was the blessing avatar there was it work for us it was working yes without even thinking about it now my grandparents Nani and granddad had made tithing as a commitment in their wedding bells yeah I don't remember that we actually wrote that into our wedding wedding vows but we had made that commitment very early on that we were going to be Tyler's no matter what right we were going to be Tyler's and so we with that commitment the blessing of being a tither was at work for us even though we never said now Lord we're Tyler's and we expect this and we believe for that and we need a perfect house and need it to be this than that we just you know we were young and they loved and whatever just going along looking for a house so this cute little house came up even though we weren't focused in a specific way and it was the first one that was built in this particular development yeah well there were not there were many houses really around it it was the first one that came up well there's some houses but on this street I remember him very many you know empty Lots house empty lots yeah right in fact the behind us was still so remote yeah George would mow the lawn and take the grass and throw it over the fence for the cows that live behind us okay the cows loved George and they would come up to the back and feed off our lawn cuttings so it was a pretty much know some of the other day but that same story and they were telling me yeah our Lincoln's not like that anymore it oh no I tried to find that little house not too long ago and it took me a while it's been swallowed up a lot of buildings so the Lord and his blessing was working and we were seeking the kingdom you know we've heard dad talk about that we were in the ministry and and we were seeking God's will for our lives and everything we did we really were and that was our main focus and and I look back on that that took everything that we had faith was was that focus you know seek the kingdom Lord what do you want for our lives we weren't thinking about Lord what do you want for us where to live just give us the place but what do you want far lives working in the ministry working to build the ministry working to build the kingdom I was just working in the mailroom at the time when the TV department won anything but we were believing it was and it was a believe in this was our lives it was our life we loved what we did so much that we would often go out there on the weekends just to work and see what we could do and I was our department work in the art department and I would go help you worked in the mailroom during the week but I would go help you some art department and do things with you in the weekend and God really blessed us that way and he helped us so this house now was 1,400 square feet now for some people that may sound actually big depending on where you live right now but in our area I would say that's not a very big house in fact that square footage may have included the garage I don't know but we rolled around in that house I like to say it like this like a marble in a jar I mean you go from room to room we got married the Lord did bless us we did have we had a mattress mattress and box springs thank God and we had a table and chairs we've gotten enough money as wedding gifts to buy a table and chairs for the kitchen we had a bookshelf that my cousin had built and he was experimenting in the furniture industry so he built this bookshelf and it was kind of cool for the 70s it was cool now later the thing collapsed on top of me it was it was just set up like this and it was taller than we were big book show they didn't have a lot of shelves I was just yeah it was sort of connected by nuts and bolts all and that those nuts and bolts would start to loosen and the thing would just start falling over this way it was the books that were actually holding it up I mean we should make sure you were on the road one timing and that book I came home and that bookcase said let's see it was leaning this way so oh I got to push that back oh yeah no no it was leaning this way so harder I got to push that get that straight now so I got on the side and I pulled it towards me when I did the whole thing moved this way and pinned me to the wall and I'm thinking Jesus give me angels help me give me strength to recover from this bookcase so I gave it a big shove and I guess the Simpson anointing came on me I gave that thing is shoving it went all the way and knocked a hole in the other wall when you came home the bookcase had racked all the way in made a big hole in the other part of the wall so this is what we had Owen we had a chair I had a chair that had been my grandmother's it was really old never been recovered and but it was something to sit on right now our clothes were in cardboard boxes when we got married so we just set the cardboard boxes up better nice closet though so we hung everything and then clothes in cardboard boxes but right away another family member gave me a chest of drawers that wasn't too big but it was drawers and it had was half refinished she'd been working on it was halfway done she gave it to me knowing surely that I would finish the refinishing buddy remember do you remember the grass that was growing up in the bedroom along the it was a it was a cute house really cute little house really really cute great floor plan but it was a little track home and one day I was walking down the baseboards and I looked and there was a little piece of grass so I started pulling this grass and they're all down the length of the base board we had Saint Augustine grass it creeped in between the foundation and the wall but anyway so blessings so anyway wait this is the way our house was in that of what we owned which was not much so it was at this point it became really necessary to become very focused on the Word of God yeah I mean we we needed some stuff this reminds me of you know Gloria talking about boiling potatoes and their coffee pot well I had some pots and pans thankfully but we didn't have hardly anything to sit on and just one chair in the living room and it looked so lonely so we just went to the word and with Matthew 18 18 to 19 we prayed the prayer of agreement if any two of you or more on Earth agree as touching anything there I am in the midst of them whatever they ask will be granted by my father praise God we needed some stuff but we were seeking the kingdom yeah so what we did it was fun we we put action to our faith and I took masking tape yeah the Lord was showing me this is where being led by the Spirit we knew we needed to put action to our faith and we you know it took my entire paycheck to pay the rent on that little house it was $350 a month it was huge for us was my whole paycheck so we would you know relied on your paycheck to get us through for everything else lord help me so I had to be led by the spirit and and what he led us to do was take masking tape and I'm masking taped off place for furniture in the living room right and we would just would walk around that masking tape like it had a couch there and we just trust the Lord and and I found some baskets now these baskets they were about oh they were nesting in size three steps one was about this big the next one this big this big and they were kind of tall and they were solid on top they weren't the kind of baskets like you carry basket but they were it was the 70s everything was macrame and rope and sticks so I had these three so I took one of them made it an end table for the one chair and the others I turned them over and I went and cut some stock looking things and forgot what those things are called but they little they were cute at the top but they started coming apart and getting all over the house so I hairspray them anyway and stick those in the baskets and then I pray because you traveled a lot with the out on the road that there and then and I'd say lord help me rearrange this livery so it looks more full Oh so I'd spend an hour more rearranging my tear chair in three baskets trying to make it look right and I mean I hung blankets on the wall because this all I had I didn't have pictures right but it was the 70s everything looked like that you know so I thought I was pretty chic decorator back then but over time a little bit of time somebody gave us a couch that wasn't really what I liked and it was used but we were so fight believe we're thankful for the seed we're grateful yeah we were really grateful no remember exactly how long we had that couch and really not all that long I think a few months and lo and behold the Lord blessed us with enough money to buy a couch and we went to the department store we found one we liked it and we had that one couch in our living room in so we were really about so we can show them I still have the receipt from that couch but we can show you that receipt and I probably have things too but you know where your stuff is I don't know where mine is so we've been married about two years and along comes Jeremy baby number one and you know how babies do they they tend to take over I mean I don't care that everything little guy was this big and it wasn't very long before he took over the whole house that wasn't a lot of house to take over but you know you got toy boxes in the living room and it's just that the bedrooms were so small in this house there was no room for toys or even a toy box in his bedroom so we had to move everything into this little dent living area and so we were outgrowing it but here was the thing we weren't just outgrowing it in toys and furniture no we were outgrowing it on the inside what we didn't intend to we weren't thinking about that we weren't unhappy with where we were just cute little house it was so close to the office seven minutes away how convenient and the other thing George about that little house was even when I was in high school I had this little desire that I always thought I want to live in Arlington it was kind of up-and-coming unity idea and here we were in Arlington Arlington so the Lord had met that little that right desires I did he took notice of that even though it was just a little high school desire had yeah but here we weren't so there was no thought to move except that we were running out of space due to the blessing of the Lord but there was something growing on the inside of us that was reaching for something bigger and it wasn't just okay I've got to get big space beyond this toy box but just seeking the kingdom continuing to put the word in our lives which we weren't we were growing and I think it's important to note here what we mean by putting the word first in our lives he was going all the time back then it was cassette tapes yeah we were listening to tapes all the time we're listening to dad's preach I guess we had start yeah we had started in the television yeah we were fully engaged in television so I'm listening to dad preach a lot I swear I'm traveling on the road by then in the meetings and yet that wasn't enough so we're listening and applying listening and applying with all our heart listening and applying so that's how we were putting the word first it really was a integral part of our life our daily life so this vision that was inside of us had grown even though I didn't have a really a natural vision in my mind of where to go I still wasn't focused on that wasn't on purpose believing for a house but the Lord had brought us through that to this place to this first house and with the same process that brought us to the first house he set us up for a second there are so many things that I had forgotten about that first house Terry I'm so glad that you brought those out to us but what about the second house the second house well I believe George that really what got us from the first house into the second house really was a continual result of the two things seeking the kingdom mm-hmm seek first the kingdom Matthew 6:33 all these things will be added to you seek first the kingdom what things well kingdom things first of all kingdom things and the kingdom realities and we were growing in depth as we mentioned just a little bit ago that those feeding on the word the tape's plan he's just part of our life you know and just going day and night lot of times happening in the card I put our cassette tape in the car and there just wasn't a whole lot else in our lives we didn't have room for a lot of other things than when we enjoyed life we did fun things but we didn't desire a lot of other things it was more about seeking the word and the kingdom of God what God wanted us to do in her life but then part of that being the tither that's seeking the kingdom that's seeking to do things the kingdom way and I just believe the blessing of the tither was doing things for us that we didn't even know to ask for we didn't know what to expect so this house was too small there's something on the inside of us that's reaching for something bigger right but we we didn't know had no idea we really hadn't even taken action to look for another house didn't even see financially how we could so we were just at that place where it's getting bigger on the inside of us but I don't think we had really taken any action but boy it changed literally overnight we knew that it was getting time to go it was but what happened was my grandparents my grandfather in particular can see that the ministry was moving north of Fort Worth now Arlington we were south excuse me southeast of Fort Worth and the ministry was about the property were currently on and we would be moving north and he was still very active in the ministry and he wanted to be closer so there was a community not terribly far from the ministry though there were no houses in this area whatsoever there was a little community that stood off all by itself and he bought a house there I didn't even know they were looking you just went and bought the house yeah well that didn't go over with my grandmother very much my grandmother was one of those women that had to her dream house she moved into that house when I was just before I was born and she had no intention of moving so I think she agreed to let him buy that house but she wasn't going anywhere mm-hmm and finally when it came down to putting that house for sale she said aw I'm not leaving I think it was pretty much you can move if you want to but I'm not going so he realized he was going to be stuck with this house and they were always looking to be a blessing to us so they called us I remember I was laying on our bed our little bedroom there in Arlington and he called me and he said I want you to take this house which we had only seen it one time and I'd walked through it thinking they had bought it for themselves pay very little attention to it for us I never thought that I want you to take this house and you guys just live in there and I think he actually had hopes that we could live there for a while and he could talk Nani into selling that gallon for the two and and that she would want to move and be out there closer to us everybody by that time my dad would had moved into the area and so we lived there for a few months and it hadn't been there very long and it became very clear he's she's not coming but in a matter of I think we from the time he called me to the time we moved into that house was three or four days it seems like it was less than a week I still remember the phone call we packed which it didn't take a whole lot to pack that house we were in we borrowed a truck from the ministry which was just a little short bed truck but everything we owned in that truck in the back seat of our car all we had to do with the bookshelf is just let it fall you know cousin that built that he greatly improved his furniture building techniques after that he really did especially when he found out it nearly killed his cousin put the bookshelf you found a way to keep it upright oh how funny and you know that bookshelf still lives in England still live today praise God so we just packed up everything that little house I still remember we had one or two people come help us it just didn't take much to load it up moved into this second home and we were so thankful for it well after we'd been there for a few months and my grandfather said kids your grandmother's not budget she's not moving so what I want you do I want you to have this house and how we'll work it out he paid cash for a portion of that house and then he had a loan on the rest of it so he said I want you to pay me back for the part I pay cash and I just know um I happen to know that he did not charge us the full amount he gave us a grand ed deal yes it was a good thing that he did do he gave us a grand a deal so we had to pay him back and we had to assume the loan then and we actually got the title to the house so we weren't just paying him so he worked this out and that was good in one respect except that now we went from a single little payment for this house we were in to two payments a month so we were paying him and we had assumed the loan do you remember how tight that was hmm is that we it was a squeezer yeah but the Lord helped us you know he made a way for us naturally speaking even though things had changed financially for us to some degree I mean over the years we'd increased and proven ourselves to be worth a little bit more than slightly below minimum wage where we started I think but the Lord had helped us and blessed us that way so we were doing better financially but still I mean it was tied to two payments a month and once again we found in our house that being in this house we're like that old marble in the jar we're rolling around this house was double the square footage the one we had and so the one couch that we had in the other house had taken up the whole living space the couch in the chair now the couch and the chair is not filling up the living space we actually had room where we could invite people over really good and sit in those chairs so the Lord blessed us you know I remember George we wanted vacation and we never had extra money for a vacation for anything like that because we were putting everything into this house but there were some people that we knew that his business was it had a working arrangement with an a call it travel agency and this travel agency part of what they did was barter with companies and give away free trips to Hawaii and he had way more than he wanted and so he gave us one thanks to him over those years he sent us three or four times to Hawaii everything paid for Kondo ripped car everything but our grocery bill and so we were really blessed we went to Hawaii airfare everything everything he paid our way for that so we were blessed you know we weren't it was tight but we weren't suffering except for this one thing now as far as I was concerned this was suffering there were only a few colors in the whole color spectrum that I just can hardly stand to look at in a decorating sense orange rust which is just a version of orange and brown I guess rust is a combination of orange and brown and so we didn't mind moving into this house at first because we thought Nani and grand was gonna move into it right but listen this house had rust colored carpet orange countertops everything else in the house was brown with the exception of the rust and orange colored wallpaper that had silver accents the wallpaper in every room was one version or another of orange rust and silver a little cream thrown in here and there for good measure I was surrounded with these colors that I just up for me I did not like those colors and we were coming into the 80s everything was pink and green and and the whole rust thing had gone out with the 70s so it was it was really painful for me but the Lord helped me to tolerate that really but but when I think back on it George that's what it was we tolerated it you know that commercial I don't even know if it's still on but that vegetable the Gauchos oh yeah yeah so I could I could have had prosperity I could have I could add the word on things I I could have had the word on new wallpaper but you know it it just didn't come to us we were so focused on meeting those monthly payments and just living our lives and God helped us and we did well and we increased we put back some money and some savings and eventually we were able to pay granddad off I'm just trying to remember these four years to pay him off so come on three four or five maybe maybe up to six years it may have been up to six years but not more than that but still all that time we're making those double payments double payments and got him payment and partly because he had made his what we owed him was pretty small I'm out but you know that like I said this house was a nice house a custom-built home nice brick house and double the square footage which was really great so we we paid grand dad back and we we started to save and we're being diligent we had some you're so diligent you're always still isn't you're so diligent then put money back in savings and you know we were trust in the Lord in a very general sense so he was blessing us the Lord was blessing us and the extra was coming so our savings accounts growing some but I didn't know what it would take to relieve me of this decorating pain that I was decorating a loom dilemma that we were in but with the blessing of the Lord he helped us and we were able to make some changes now I have a creative eye about a lot of things but I've been so focused all our married life on ministry and the television department all those things I never really took the time to develop much in the area of decorating I knew what I liked I just didn't know how to get it that way but you know God supplied we were preparing to build property the new headquarters building out here and with that there was a decorator hard for the building and we became friends and she offered to help me and so she helped me pick out the colors and man I went from rust to pink and green as fast as I good in about half the house it was only good for about half the house and so all this time we are believing God and it was funny that took about six years from the time we moved in to get to that point and I remember that it was six years because it happened about the time Audrey was born yeah and I remember that because the whole nesting thing and the money available kicked in sort of late in my pregnancy so I'm actually making phone calls to the painter from the hospital bit telling him how to finish up and do a few things but we it was nice you're amazing you know you just really are amazing we had to finish it up but it was really nice to come home and at least part of the house it's going to be a be ultimate in multitasking yeah but I didn't call from the labor room just that you could have though I can picture it so it was nice though to come home with new baby and have some fresh was nice we had had new carpet and I believe we had painted the walls fresh and own new bedding first time and all those just went out of the roast and new bedding well in half the house the back half of the house the bedroom half of the house was had some fresh colors and the living room had fresh carpet and that was it was really nice so new we lived along with that for another six years just going along I got so tired of that orange coloured orange circle his breast brown whatever it was in the kitchen one day I just got so tired of it took it and ripped it off the wall I don't know what I thought I was going to do but I ripped it off the wall and it was a vinyl wallpaper so it had backing so the backing on the wallpaper was actually kind of a creamy yellowy color and I thought mm-hmm not too bad so never occurred to me to paint over that I just did not have a can-do mindset oh actually what it was was there was a limitation and my thinking about money I didn't realize it was there now we can believe God for finances for certain other things but when it came to the house I had a room we call it a mental block but it was a spiritual block I didn't see us with the money yep and really I could have afforded some paint but I didn't see us doing it I didn't see myself taking care of that very busy there's two young children very busy in the ministry and I just couldn't really see it so we went along like that with that goofy wallpaper backing I don't know for several years and the Lord helped us in this important to notes that we were we were giving that's why we knew how to do that and we were actually developing in our ability to give listen to the Lord loaned us so remember I gave gave our living room furniture away did that come do remember that okay and so you remember what we did yeah our lawn chairs the lawn chairs came from the living room that's not talking nice lawn furniture okay this is launching lawn chairs we're talking just oh they're watching TV with a cam you know where I got that lawn chair lawn furniture remember now I paid $100 for it in Arkansas from a guy on the side of the road and it was willow bent willow furniture came here by that it was bent willow furniture that he formed into a loveseat this and a two chairs okay so this stuff was raw raw treated furniture so this is even though it says late 1980s yet it was still raw wood furniture bit will furniture with nails poking out of it but we had some cushions on it it looked pretty cute for a while but you know you use it every day and oh my goodness so we had that in the room for a while and it's I'd have to back him around it because it was it was before I was drying out falling off where the kids would sit there picking up off it but you know the Lord always provided he always prospered us and I remembers we found a somebody blessed us with a really good deal on some couches they were new but they'd never been I mean they were used but they've never been used so they were like you knew and they were just what I wanted and we had those it was a couch and loveseat and boy the house is starting to look nice um I knew my seafoam green color of the 80s carpet seafoam green well I was really styling back then so the Lord really didn't bless us over the years were giving we're tithing we're increasing our giving is increasing we're being led by the spirit in our giving or sewing into the ministry or sewing and we're living for the kingdom you know our lives we've endeavored whether it was our job or raising our children to be led by the Spirit Lord what would you have us to do that's really important when you're raising children our kids were really different there were seven years apart boy and a girl is you just have to be led by the spirit how you you raise your children you you can't want to do it just like this and this way and that's the way my mother did it so we're gonna do it that way or this is the way my mother did it so I'm absolutely not gonna do it that way you can't plan on any of that you've been led by the spirit and learn you know from your own experiences but but you're led by the spirit so this next six years what's happening the visions growing inside of us now being led by the spirit the Lord led me Audrey was about three I think when the Lord bled enough for almost 4 the Lord told me to retire from my position in the television department and stay home Wow I've never considered doing that but I knew it was time and he made it very clear so the focus of my life changed well I'm at home a lot more and in that time I'm praying a lot more the Lord started teaching me the things in prayer my fellowship with him that I never had the time to develop right so the emphasis was not just on the word the emphasis of the realm of the Spirit being led by the spirit was increasing my life my awareness of it doing much more on purpose mixing this seek the word and the leading of the Spirit putting them together in ways that like I said on purpose that I hadn't really thought of or taking notice of and God had helped us we were led by the witness of the Spirit I think we always were even when we were dating you know we knew something about the leading of the witness of the Spirit that this is right that's not right follow him and he had been faithful to lead us but this was another dimension in it this was more on purpose and I don't know if you remember but the results of that were outstanding whereas before the Lord was blessing us but we weren't really sure so much how we're going were growing in purpose for things so we weren't pastoring at the time not yet but I was very active in the church and you were too but I was teaching a new members class so I'm standing there teaching membership as soon as it's over a lady walks up to me I've never met her before that I recalled and she said the Lord has spoken to me and told me that I'm to get involved with you with whatever project you're working on well I had in this newfound prayer time had been confessing and believing in quoting scriptures about getting rid of that orange countertop you know those the floors and so forth and I told her I said well my project is I'm believing God to do some things in my house and she said okay that's fine and she wrote me a check well I thought you know you expect what $100 $200 the be nice praise God it was several thousand dollars several thousand dollars and she gave me that well there he had it that was my countertops new flooring in the kitchen new wall colors praise God and he helped me he paid for it in one lump sum and the help that I needed to get it done so all this time cuts really moving us along progressing me right so here we are at this place that would not we live there now another few more years and this vision this time with the Lord is just increasing something on the inside of me in such a way that it's I feel it I can tell it and I was becoming very dissatisfied with where we live and you'd think I would remain satisfied in this house it was a nice house one tiny but I felt I was outgrowing it from the inside out yeah you remember that no so we didn't know what to do but just to be led and all we knew to do to put action to our faith again remember what we did yeah the Lord gave us an assignment he gave us the assignment start packing packing we packing packing buy things exactly what I was gonna say we were packing by faith so we packed all the things that we didn't really need and cardboard boxes stacked to the ceiling in the dining room and a house smelled like cardboard it didn't you know it was that way wasn't that way a few days it was that way weeks probably several months yeah but it's good sometimes to put pressure on your flesh it's good sometimes to apply pressure to your circles he gave that to us that is leading to help build our faith and to get us to the place where we're yeah we're ready to go Casillas moving to see us out and we had a lot of visioning envisioning that needed to happen for what he was doing on the inside you know didn't have a picture to it I can feel it you could too but I didn't have a picture of what that really looked like but we were new we knew we were well on our way for transitioning out of this house to the next house but this next one wasn't going to come quite as quick and suddenly as we had the move from the first house to the second but through all of it God was teaching us developing our faith developing our ability to hear his voice and his leading and we can see the end to our time in our second house as we got ready for the third so by this time I was going from art director to CEO of Keith st. KCM then on to pastoring the church and we were we were five years in the pastoring when that desire started to grow on that desire to move because of the word because of because of the word just growing exponentially on the inside of us it was it was time to move again it was but like I said the outward vision I didn't really have it but there was something on the inside that was bigger than what I knew to look for on the outside you know George I was thinking about this this morning and it was a cool thing the Lord showed me he said did you know that you have to believe against the word for it to not automatically produce in your life mm-hmm I mean when you're seeking the kingdom you're putting the word in your life there are certain things it will do for you just because you're seeking God but if you set yourself against it to believe against it what what I mean like you don't believe you're supposed to prosper and you set yourself against the word regarding prosperity or increase like we've been talking about it will shut it down and it won't work for you you you it's almost like a reverse faith you you set yourself against the production of the word and we weren't doing that and we understood that God wanted us blessed we understood that God this is really the way we heard the word though that God would like for us to be debt-free I just think that's kind of what yes I found that attitude there wasn't a real no but but we wanted to be you know now as I was thinking about this and and how we were we were letting the word do its work but if you will turn your faith to the word and on purpose agree with it in any particular area that it says it will produce for you it will really increase and speed up the activity of the word because it gives it a freedom to work in your life that it wouldn't otherwise have to make a decision like Kenneth and Gloria did way back in 67 that whatever they saw in the word they were going to do whatever they heard God say through his word they would make their decision to do it and that's that cooperation with the word we were seeking the kingdom doing what he showed us to do and because God is obligated to his word he had to do some things to move us chantey had to change some things in us move us towards getting us in position to receive the next step that he had for us about three years before this point he had really put it on our heart to give our house - so our house give our house to another family was in the ministry but we were not debt-free at the time so what was he doing he was putting us in a position when we were developed in our giving I think to that point we understood about giving but so we could follow him not because we had this passion to be debt-free but because we had a passion to give yeah so for those next three years we started really working to get that house paid off because he said we had to give that house debt-free it was interesting that he told us to just sew that house but what I'm hearing right now is I hear Jerry Savelle saying the magnitude of your harvest is dependent upon the magnitude of your seed and you obviously when when God speaks to you about sowing a big seed then there must be a big harvest that's coming after that so that's what he told us to do and and we processed that with our faith and and didn't just jump up and do it because we weren't debt-free and he told us to give it debt-free but we started growing in faith towards that debt freedom yes diligence I mean you were working it you're we researched it found out ways to pay that mortgage down adding to it double payments whatever it took we're gonna pay that house off because this was our situ we had an expectation and that seemed I mean it was sewn as soon as we determined that it we were giving it in the spirit it was sewn and God was working some things so even with our best efforts we still had a ways to go to pay that house off and yet this thing's growing on the inside of us to move God's working it so we got a phone call from a friend of ours that's a minister and we of course really trusted him he he very valuable to us in ministry to our family in ministry and is to this day so he called us and he said I believe I have a word from God for the congregation there at the church praise the Lord we had told him before if God ever gives you anything brother you come and you preach it and he did so he didn't really tell us what it was about until he gave us a little hint of it right before we walked out that night I believe it was a night service for some it was was it a special service or remember it I remember I can see it right now was a Wednesday night service is that what it was mm-hmm so it came in so you know it wasn't the full congregation I remember the auditorium we had at the time was full because at that point we were probably doing three services because I heard Torrey was pretty small so I don't know few hundred people there for five hundred maybe maybe not that many so he preached on sowing and he preached on reaping and it repeat preached on ways for them for God to bless you and he went to some scriptures and showed how blessing the people in the ministry was a way that God had for increase in your life that it was an investment in his kingdom in a certain way that would produce blessing well that's all good word and it was really some things we hadn't really heard before we were excited about it and then at the very end he surprised us and he received an offering for our house and we had not talked about this house except with friends and family just normal conversation that we wanted to move and we were believing God for something else I'm telling you that offering was over and above it was way beyond what that number of people would normally produce it was outstanding a really blue was a move of God I mean it really was what God did for the people in the people not just God being nice to us I mean he did something that not in our church in all those people and I know he did things for them but we were really blessed with a very significant scene so we we praised God for that so we were able to pay that house off and we did it after being in it house 17 years so it took us 17 years to pay that house but hey that was a 30-year mortgage was thirty years yeah and so just a little more than half we got it paid off some people it takes the whole 30 years so it was a glory to God yes it was a big glory to God we paid that house off we're Tet free we had a little bit left over not a huge amount I don't remember now what it was but we did have a nice little portion left over and we took action to sow that seed so we told that family or giving you our house praise God problem was you know I've been looking and I'd looked everywhere I know a couple of times I really panicked and I really repent over that but I would get out in the car I put the kids to bed and then you'd be there at the house and I get out in the car start driving around the neighbors a for sale sign but here's again the limitation it was a mental block yeah and yet it was a spiritual block yeah because we couldn't see ourselves beyond this little world that we lived in the neighborhood that we lived in we couldn't see ourselves and anything yeah much different you know we couldn't see ourselves living out further away I mean our world would just it was like an imaginary border that was I would say imaginary invisible but it was very real yes we couldn't see ourselves beyond that I think that's the key right there to be - we couldn't see ourselves beyond yeah and that's what the Lord was helping you had to help us you know it's really clear how much he had to help us now this was in early spring but that Christmas before we got an invitation to go to a Christmas party at a friend's house these friends had just moved to town also in the ministry hadn't been in their house very long and they invited us to come now their house was pretty far away what seemed like a long way off so we went to the Christmas party and George that house was outstanding what a beautiful house neighborhood everything everything is beautiful it was just the house they had a lot of stature to it and it was beautifully done inside orange was nowhere in the house it just it was just beautiful quality classy it was very classy house and I was enjoying the inside but meanwhile you walked outside and you were just taking in the neighborhood what happened when you walked out I walked outside the door front door and I was actually waiting for you because we were leaving and I looked out down the street and I said Lord I really really like this neighborhood but it's just too rich for my blood Oh wash your mouth out was so dope but that really said where we were mm-hmm and so you know what the Lord had done the Lord had done he took you outside just like he took Abraham outside yeah look at this kind of neighborhood look at this house so you know it was a seat that he sewed in you that we it was a grand neighbor it was grand it's a good word for it it was uplifting when you would drive through it and there were houses with pillars in the front I mean oh wow just a feast for your eyes it was there was night remember what I don't know if they did this one house that they had snow in their front yard they brought in soon yeah we drove past it yeah they nobody else had snow and they had just brought in a company and had snow put in the yard for the kids to play in they're not we're so impressed with that opulent oh that's another good work most opulent well we had lived in a nice house but I wouldn't have you I would not have associated the word opulence well with what we had it was not bad at all mr. nice house but what happened was this the word was producing something bigger on the inside than we could see on the outside so by taking George outside he was helping us to bring our thinking up to a level that our spirits already were because of the word yeah that's our spirit already risen but our thinking our changing we need to be conformed you know we had that happen with from first house to second house that happened again friend of ours went on vacation with Leroy Thompson one time and they rented a car mm-hmm and brother Leroy got into the car and he sat there and this other guys sitting next to him and brother pastor Leroy says we need to take this car back the Lord is not pleased with this car he wants us to get a better car and that's exactly what he was endeavoring to do with us he wanted us to do something because of the next place that just that he wanted once everybody do that it's not just that he wants you to but he he was obligated to what the the word was producing yes yes he had to move us that way he it was not just that he wanted to which he did he wants to for everybody but when you seek first the kingdom and your we were so in and given and and believing and expecting even though our minds weren't quite to that he was obligated to what let that word for the word meaning you will demand better it will that's good good to say it so this is where being led by the spirit was so important because where do we go from there so I had looked at dozens and dozens of houses in our neighborhood the realtor finally called said Terry listen literally you've looked at every house on the market there's there's not one more to look at not one nothing so we're gonna have to go out beyond this radius that you've given me to look at we we thought we were really you know stretching our wings we got a call again from that same Minister friend okay and he called me said hey guys I was praying this morning and it just seems to me that you're not looking in the right place the jerk you're not looking in the right place for a house you need to branch out you need to stretch out and get further away you know George when he said that the seed of freedom Wow it broke dropped new me yeah and all of a sudden I could see it yeah outside our little 20-mile circle never thought of it didn't know we could I got free and we could see ourselves out beyond so I called the realtor and she started showing me some things didn't look at very many houses at all when she took us to a house oh my goodness this was the most beautiful house I'd ever seen yes gorgeous it was grand it just it was grand everything about it was beautiful we walked in the front door and and the woodwork was beautiful there was beautiful crown molding in every single room of the house every bathroom there were it was we would actually have an extra bedroom for a guest room the kitchen with a tile work the marble there was a stained glass in the master bathroom and there was lots of space and a game room for the kids and a pool beautiful pool the yard was spectacular yeah we spent over an hour looking at that house we had some friends go with this you remember the lady that I mentioned had walked up and I've never met her before and she said the Lord's told me to get involved with you and your project we become acquaintances and then friends and they've been with us in the church at that point it was about six years so they went with us and we're looking through that house she got excited I got excited you got excited her husband got excited we finally had to leave the house because the people that live there needed to come home we walked outside on the porch and we started dancing we were dancing who's not time we're dancing and just praising God it was awesome this is Spirit the Lord came on us it was the Holy Ghost and was now I'm not completely positive but we're we're almost 100 percent sure that it was at that point that we're dancing on this story makes me want to cry and we looked up then we hadn't realized it but across the street and down about 30 houses was that very house or you had walked out and looked the neighborhood and said this is a beautiful neighborhood but it's too rich for my blood and in just a matter of about three months suddenly the word had produced this massive harvest in our life I was standing there looking down the street at the very door that I said that and the Lord said I'll fix you I'll put you in this place in this neighborhood I'll fix that too rich for your blood thing the goodness of the Lord he helped us in spite of ourselves yeah he did he did but he was faithful to his word so we bought the house now it was miraculous in the sense that we didn't have much money left from that offering we had paid off the other house given the house and fact we'd been living in that little house a little house but the house we were in we had been paying rent to the people we gave it to until we can find a house so they were ready for us to if we were ready to move and I mean it happened fast so to buy a house of this stature was a lot more money we could handle the payments and God miraculously did some fancy footwork with the mortgage and we were able to handle that but okay we're we're back in debt we've gone from debt-free back into debt owed and I think it's important that we didn't really understand that we needed to be debt-free who we it was good to be debt-free we didn't comprehend why we needed to be debt-free and we just found the way to that mortgage it worked and we borrowed the money and you know what we had phase 4 the Lord gave us and what did he what'd he give us well we did have faith we had faith to make the payments but George our faith had come to the place where that that old I can't do anything about it I can't fix this wallpaper I can't I was good that was gone it was gone so I made the commitment going into this house you went into that house actually not having to fix it oh yeah there was it was nothing to fix it was it was pretty empty that above and beyond whatever yeah so we went into it with the faith saying I'm going to keep this house up if something's broke we're gonna fix it if something needs to be changed we're going to change it and that in itself was a big step for us because the girl that the yard the house I mean this is really high quality and you don't replace high quality with lower quality then we're gonna have to have really put out some money every month just to keep the yard up and there were 50 rose bushes in this neighborhood and 75 crape myrtle trees I mean it just bushes and flowers and it was really beautiful so you know we had faith for that we knew we could do it and the Lord gave us exactly what we had faith for and then we also had to have faith for furniture and we did I remember a neighbor came a few weeks after we moved in and opened the front door and she saw that there was there was just empty and she said so the furniture hasn't arrived yet and I said it's on its way amen that's way we had learned to purpose for your furniture purpose and go to the word expects God to move and he was faithful and he began to do that of course well again we're sewing mean we gave we gave so much of our furniture way we moved into that house there was nothing again we were back to the marble in a jar thing we're just rolling around in it there was very little to sit on except that same I guess we got new kids got a new kitchen table and chairs we did God helped us he blessed us so the blessing was working now this was not God's best I do not believe that it was his choice and his will for us to be in debt but he's getting us to his will and I'm so thankful that even though we we did what we did he was faithful to us Psalm 103 11 says his mercy is towards them that fear Him I found that Scripture when we lived there in that house I said Lord what does that really mean that's nice that sounds warm and fuzzy well how does the rubber meet the road on that verse he said as long as you're honoring me and my word even your mistakes will turn out all right praise God even your shortcomings everyone's fallen short of the glory of God but by the the work of Jesus he can make up for that gap and help us so he did now some people say well I'll just I'll just borrow the money or I'll just do that and repent for it later now don't work out that way for you because you've got more to repent of than the debt you haven't honored the Lord you haven't honored the word you haven't done what you had revelation to do and could have done we honestly didn't see that we needed to be out of debt and our intent was as soon as we borrowed that money then we're going to start paying it down there hated get it now and and we set our faith for that dad was kind and you know he wasn't preaching about debt freedom as intensely then as he does now but he was preaching it and we knew it was available so why weren't we walking in it the way he did because we didn't commit to it the way he did right we weren't drawing on the grace that was in that word he was preaching like we could have to have gone into an the next house debt-free now there revelation of Romans 13:8 oh no man anything but to love him was not a revelation to us not that way not the same level could have been but it wasn't it wasn't so God was faithful to us and he helped us to bring yes to that point so we didn't really understand that we needed to be debt-free and here was another place that we had never purposed to be debt-free with the kind of intensity that it requires to do so we never set ourselves for it not in a way you know we wanted to be but we were not determined with it with an intensity that was about to change that was about to change long came days of refreshing days of refreshing more that the well is that 30 days of glory that's what it was 30 days 30 days of meetings and it was on September the 12th of 1998 we'd only been in that house about six months or six months and we are were sitting in the service and I'm actually sitting up behind the speaker who that night was brother Copeland I'm sitting right behind him and he spent that whole night talking about staying out of debt debt freedom it's it's on one of our series now the 12 CD series that we have on how to it's time to get out of debt and it just turned my life around I'm sitting there and I'm writing on my notepad debt free debt free debt free and he made a couple of statements Terry he said what one does today for the sake of tomorrow is called an investment what one does to enjoy today at the expense of tomorrow is called debt and then he said borrowing is a replacement covenant it is going to someone else when you should have gone to God and then he said that borrowing to me this this is what the Lord was saying borrowing had become a serious breach of my covenant with God and the light came on now you you weren't there well no literally I was not in that movie I was actually preaching a meeting somewhere another continent I think so you came home yep and you started sharing there with me and I didn't disagree with you but that light hadn't come on in me to the degree that it was starting to come on in you you know yeah but God needed us to move along on this this was important we had a lot of debt you know this this house was a significant increase for us in every way including the debt was a significant increase and so not too many months after that so I'm pressing on your on the broadcaster's I'm digging into this and you were on this particular assignment you were kind of behind me a little bit but you're coming up with me as fast as you could and so nice I'm being nice but I was pressing into it with all of my heart determined to be debt-free and so brother Copeland calls me one day he says George why don't we do a week of broadcast together I said okay and so what I determined to do which I look back on why in the world did I do that but I was going to come in and talk about living debt-free and came into this it had to be the Lord came into this very studio in this very spot there's a plaque right down there and I sat here and there's a there's camera right there and we're talking about dead freedom and Kenneth looks at me and he said George you got out of debt and then you went back into debt why did you do that and I just remember sitting here Carol Hill was behind that camera and I just remember her looking around the camera like shocked what it was like all the air in the room was sucked out it was and and I'm sitting there thinking to myself this is good for me this is good for me this is good for me now I can remember we went to Moscow one time it was the time that we went there for Billy's meeting at Rick's Church and we settled into the room and I'm standing there and you can see in our hotel you could see Red Square from our hotel I turn on the TV and there we are in Russian Kenneth and me on that broadcast some room wise and you didn't even have to understand thank God what are you doing to me here he said that to me and I just fumbled over myself just I was trying to answer but but he's so kind and so merciful he told me later he said the Lord told him to ask me that question and he started to answer me and he said Georgia's because your faith wasn't strong enough and it wasn't big enough for you to to do that at that time and just we ministered out the rest of those couple of days and it was so valuable and Terry it just got me it just got me on fire yep to press through this and determine that we were going to live and at that point we we really had to be led to the spirit because you came home put a for sale sign in your yard we'll live in a tent if we have to we're not gonna be just like wait a minute wait a minute okay so let's be lid over the other ditch yeah a little bit I was I'm like we're getting out of this house we're moving tonight you and I had one of those talks we sat there until the Sun went down and we had to turn on a light it was that it was that kind of a day we were we were working together and you know the Bible says that the Lord led the children of Israel out of Egypt you know he didn't just jerk him up by the hair of the head and wake up one morning from one place into the other he led them and so he began to lead us and through this leading process he began to change things in us and there was a real transformation in fact I would say that a shift took place shift a shift took place on the inside of us and our whole debt our view of debt changed the Word of God was conforming our thinking to his will and I knew that had happened some time after that we're driving down a road not too far from the house and I looked up we were driving past the place where we had signed the mortgage the title play oh yeah and all of us that I didn't even think about looked at I pointed at that place then I said there's the place where we committed that awful sin what's the it when to send to us before but suddenly it had become a sin it had changed the word our view of debt had changed and so we had a new ferociousness to get out of debt and your dad said the day I was on that broadcast he said to me he said George he said you need to remember this and this is where the kindness of the Lord through him so you need to remember this at the moment you make the decision the quality decision to be debt-free God sees you debt-free Wow first god I was glad he could see it Wow so it took a while for us to see it now I don't know what it would have looked like had we believed God to be debt-free and never go back into debt I don't I don't know I don't know how he would have worked it I don't know if it'd have been that house I don't know but I do know that there would have been a way that God would have provided and whatever that time would have taken to get us into a place that he needed to stand to produce because of his word it would happen God's faithful but you know he's faithful right where we were at so he helped us now we were in that house I've been there about three years when we started since another change coming yes but that was three years George was so important because not only were we believe in to get out of debt but the environment that we were in was beginning to work on us as well we had to see ourselves in that kind of environment beautiful home lovely neighborhood the gas stations were beautiful in our neighborhood I did a little convenience store was beautiful everything was restaurants restaurants everywhere we could turn now where we had come from there had we moved there there was one grocery store 20 minutes away and it was we were really out in the country and it was growing up a little bit but it was still you know I remember we were really excited when the Waffle House came because we now had a restaurant and then then after that glory to God there was a Dairy Queen so we were coming up but here was this place that with restaurants of every you can think of everywhere you turn stores shopping it was beautiful place and so he was putting in us letting this environment get on the inside of us if it was only inside of us so that we could reproduce that vision wherever we went so he is teaching us and increasing like he did Abraham with the Stars and the sands of the sea so he could produce the seed of that again wherever he went that the blessing could produce it but we were in a place to that our faith was stronger than it ever been before we had learned a lot about the inner witness of the Spirit which was critical for the next step we were to take we had watched the Lord provide for us in every every direction we we had a lovely home we had we were able to keep up everything we had furniture in the house I mean I had come up to a whole new level of understanding about purchasing and purchasing higher quality now wasn't always looking for the you know the bargain basement right you know God blessed us with good deals but that wasn't I didn't have to have that to be able to see myself with some nice things God blessed you with a decorator a man that games and he helped us he was he helped me up dad you can go shopping in Dallas and things that you've never seen before so after 17 years we were able to pay off that that first mortgage that second house it took us 17 years which was a glory to God but by obedience to the word sowing reaping diligently diligently diligently doing what we needed to do pay that payment pay double payments do whatever it took man God was blessing and in four years four years we paid off a house that costs four times the amount of the house that we had given but that seed was producing in her life mm-hmm it was really producing and this was all just a big setup so this determination took us to the word in a whole new level its determination to the word took us to a whole new level and then this word along with being led by the spirit and took us our next house well here we are my dear once again mm-hmm needing a place to live number four number four or four so those of you that have stayed with us all the way through house one two and three I hope you can see the progress in the the process really of what of what it takes and of course you know you think all these three segments together you know it's a lot of time to talk about it but hey we're talking nearly 30 years by that point almost right thirty years probably bore by like 25 when we first got into this process so we're needing a place to live but this time glory to God he's helped us we're smarter yes smarter in the word were able to hear his voice more clearly in our spirit and we were very determined we are mature sons of God we are matured by the high spirit so here we are we're living in this house knowing we need to do something we don't don't remember we're going back to an area where we had lived before for 17 years and the realtor had told us just four years before you've looked at everything there is in the entire district out there there's nothing so we really are needing a place so what are we gonna do well you know we this I remember was your idea and the Lord impressed you to do this and we took three days and we actually went out of town and we didn't pray about anything else for those three days and the Lord led us to do it and it's not always this way but the nice place the nice resort place and we would get up in the morning and we stayed in our room and prayed all the way through to early afternoon and then we would take the rest of the afternoon enjoy each other and go out and look around shop or whatever and just reflect on what the Lord was talking to us about so it was really in our conversation and our thinking we were very focused on just this one piece and during those three days the Lord spoke to us and we wrote it down and I came away from that time with these three things number one he told us that there was a house for us and we that reassurance that there is a place there is a place it's waiting for us but he also told us to not be afraid to remodel well I needed that word because I was hesitant the Lord had helped me but I was intimidated by the thought of remodeling and didn't really want to do it but I've learned by this time the Lord leads you he empowers you so I wasn't afraid of it once he said that to me and he told us that this house would have personality as a result of it in other words it's not a cookie cutter house so I got excited about that and he told us he started moving us towards the plan don't put your house on the market until you found the one you're gonna live in okay so it wasn't very long after that we found out that a relative was putting their house for sale and it was right back in the general area where we had come from now this was a nice house it wasn't very old at that time I think maybe seems like it was a eight years old or so something like that I don't recall but not a very old house and I'd really thought the Lord was telling us that we're gonna remodel an old house but he didn't say that but remodel house so we saw this house and knew it was for sale but it was not my style and it was half the size of the one we were living in okay so we're talking about really scaling back it it just it just didn't suit me I thought it was great for their family but it wasn't great for me and I'd come from this really beautiful place and this house was more suited to the neighborhood that we were looking in and I just I just didn't couldn't see myself doing it at all but the Lord spoke and George even though it was kind of emotional like I'd go to that house and think I don't want to live here I don't this is not what I want it's not what I came from and yet I've learned enough to look on the inside and by looking on the inside I found peace yes Colossians says at lit and the amplified says let peace be your umpire it squashes the tree and let peace be your umpire and I had peace now I'm crying well I'm thinking of this house and what I'm going to have to do but I was grounded because of the word that said don't be afraid to remodel and add-on he said that don't be afraid to do that ok Lord I got to faith in you to do this because I did not want to take on that that task now this time we're really looking for this in a way that we had never looked for anything before even before we came to that house and I almost forgot this piece so we were going to the word in a way we hadn't before and Deuteronomy 12 11 says there shall be a place which the Lord your God shall choose to cause his name and his presence to dwell there now he does the same thing and in Deuteronomy 12 18 he says it he the last one Jude army 12 11 and then 1218 he talks again about the place the Lord will choose and he mentions it again in chapter 16 verses 6 and verses in verse 15 so the Lord in many places actually where he talks about this place that he chooses where I tell you to go and I'd like to amplify because is that it's the place where he chose to put his name and for his presence to dwell now we know now reflecting on that he was talking about Jerusalem for the Israelites and yet for us he's speaking to us he said I've got a place where I have chosen for my name and my presence to dwell for you it'll be the abiding place I want you in so then that's when we realized that our relative had a house available and I went through that whole process and that peace was his abiding presence so somehow this presence on the inside was going to have to change things on the outside for my outside to have as much peace as my inside had and that started us on a journey of five plus year journey of really an adventure in faith and adventure in God it was again I don't think it has to take somebody that long but it did for us because I was so learning in the learning process was really about learning to walk with God he's again changing our thinking changing our I did and and causing our way of operating in the word and trusting him at a whole new level okay so the first thing you did was give us a plan you showed us what to do about how to sell this house and buy this house and rent a house I mean the whole thing was just started laying out for us I still have my notes from do this do this do this praise God and it started working just that way but then came the time to fix this house change it it's a way that more suited us and so I started off just say well we'll just do a little here and we'll do a little there and we'll fix a little of that and and I can probably be content with it but they're on the inside that vision that the word had been working in me for 30 almost 30 years by then was the scratching to get out and I'll get so agitated I'd be agitated with this certain way a wall was or agitated with them the floor planner agitated with the pantry and agitated with this piece or that piece and and what I realized later was that was this vision try scratching at me trying to get out and it bothered me I was so agitated I need to be patient I need I need to be taught no no depends on what you'd be patient with people but and I was patient and waiting on the Lord but I was not going to just tolerate the way things were that didn't match the vision on the inside for myself and for our family so this agitation actually I began to recognize it was the leading of the Lord so we've been working on the house for about four months and I was fixing this and fixing that but all of it was one big compromised and I was spending I spent most of the money that we had left from the sell of the house we were in the purchase of this house which we paid cash for and now I'm running out of money but besides that this agitation is really getting to me I just shut everything down I'll shut it down for four months and we didn't do anything and Lord I don't know what to do but this agitation this dissatisfaction there's something bigger on the inside of me and I know how to get to then this I don't know how to turn this house into that yet I know you want to send this house I don't understand and there was something there was a key you know dad says there's a key he issue and the Lord gave me a key issue that I would have thought to see this is being led by the spirit and it had to do with you and the thought came to me the realization really you need to honor George give him what he wants now he'd not asked for hardly anything ever in a house particularly pretty happy with whatever except that he wanted he wanted a view he'd always desired to have a view of you a view of water we've grown up on Cape Cod right there at the debate God can be the canal and he said I also would like always wanted to study like to have a study like a New England style study the real warm would work something like that and so the Lord dropped that in my heart to make that happen for him well we were not on the lake now we were across the street from houses that were on the lake but we weren't on one so we had started again to look at the process of what are we going to do I had an architect that's going to help me with the remodel and I brought him back in after this four-month shut down and I said Stan I really believe we're supposed to find a way for George to have this view of the lake and I don't know if there is such a thing so he got a ladder real tall ladder 15 foot ladder laid it up against the house and climbed up the top of it and he looked he said Terry I could see the lake from the second storey if we just had an office right here well the house was two storey but there was no space no room that looked out that direction and I said what Stan I really want to expand master bath a little bit a little bit is kind of small for me can we expand that out a little bit he said that's perfect we just bump the master bath out we go straight up and we'll have that second story and I can put windows right here and George will be able to see the lake praise God but what started was a domino effect of the Holy Spirit that was phenomenal phenomenal and this broadcast really doesn't permit the kind of time that it would take to tell you detail by detail what happened but I can tell you this just a few things that happen so he was we needed a staircase in a way to get to that room so we came around into the four-year area and the staircase at that time just came straight down from the bedroom area there were a couple of bedrooms upstairs and they were pretty small I think it was somewhere like nine by 10 or something pretty small little smaller than I had in my heart that I wanted and this staircase came straight down and made a little turn and I said stand we've got to get to that new area that we're going to build out he said Terry we can't do that we'll have to do something from your bedroom up to that area Stan I don't want a staircase in my bedroom I don't want a staircase I do not want to bring people through my bedroom well we'll add an outside door you can come I do not want to bring people from the backyard to come through a staircase to get to his office well Terry there's a wall right there I know Stan but the Holy Ghost has an answer for this Terry the Holy Ghost knows there's a wall I said walk pray in tongues stand by in tongues now I'm telling you there's a way to get to that and I could see red coming up out of his collar cuz I'm frustrated him so much he said you can't do it I said you praying the Holy Ghost until you get an answer for this and I walked off so I could see him he's he's walking back and forth he's fuming there's a wall right there there's a wall right there so he goes up to the top of the steps and he looks and I saw it hit him revelation wait a minute he's looking on the wall come downstairs goes back upstairs come downstairs go back upstairs I know what to do you know what to do you don't know what to do know exactly what to do I Lord showed me I don't have to get on the computer to see how we can make it work so that little move that we made towards honoring you I had no idea that it was going to create this long term domino effect so now on the other side of the house there was a driveway porter cashier so there's a garage with a little room up above and the house was on the other side of the driveway and I thought I want to connect those two so we'll just take in the driveway so how wide is the driveway you know is as wide it's just a single card driveway to go around to come into the garage so we started tearing into things we'll just extend the roofline across and take in that space above the garage and we'll take in this driveway so I don't know how many feet that was probably I don't know 10 11 feet something like that maybe a little more so we took that space in and we realized we didn't even realize we owned the property on the other side of the driveway it kind of looked like we didn't but when we checked it out we did so we put the driveway on the other side of the garage to come in so here we are we're gonna build this story second story up for George's office get a nice little extra space in the back for closet and bathroom and we take in the driveway well we've got to connect the roof line now bear in mind this house the way it was built before it had one of those pulldown attics which we'd always had in every house we had before over the first two houses anyway bad needed storage space I have stuff I love Christmas I love Christmas Donna George you love Christmas I have Christmas trees in every room of the house everywhere I can some rooms have more than one tree little trees big trees little bitty trees great big trees I have giant trees decorated that's what I'd had before really didn't have that I guess I didn't have quite that many as we were moving in this house but I did love Christmas so and this the house didn't have any storage George looked in that little pull down attic you said Terry there's no room up here there's no room here I don't know if we can get our suitcases up here I don't know what I was going to do it on my Christmas stuff so Stan looked at that he said look I think we can move the rafters back when the air conditioner back the plumbing back and I can get you a nice landing up here for a nice really big storage spot praise God so now we're gonna bump this up and we're gonna connect the roof line from this new space over the master bath which is your office over to this new space that was up over the garage which this little room over the garage and we're going to connect these two spaces with the roof line much of which of course was already in attic space but no access to it George do you remember to our amazement when we did that a third floor up here's a third floor yeah all we did was connect that tear down the sheetrock and we started pulling out sheetrock and I'm telling you it was amazing little closet space this big suddenly became something this big there was a bookcase in the upstairs which was a nice bookcase but there was something about it that was scratching at me I did not like that bookcase I don't know why I just bugged me and we realized that he had was actually the bookcase the bottom part of it was actually a false front because it was the ceiling from the room below and I tell you I wrestled with the architect and the Builder and everything else about taking that bookcase out you don't want to do that that'll cost you too much money I want to lower the ceiling you don't want to do that god I mean it took me I think a year to finally convince them I want to get rid of that bookcase so we finally took that bookcase out and had no idea what was already under the roof but it was out and in just a void space no access to it took that bookcase out lowered the ceiling down in the room below and I to huge walk-in closet areas so I made one a walk-in storage closet and then behind that I put a walk in cedar closet praise God I always wanted to have that way the cedar closet back there and all of that was just there now all we had to do when we moved the bookcase out we just she rocked it took it in run the ductwork to it so it was air-conditioned praise God so closets are popping up right left right and left so when we tore out the sheetrock on the second floor and connected the roof line we had to get from the top of the staircase to your office well the space was there it was under roof we just didn't know it was there changed to free rafters around put to some different support beams and all of a sudden I look and there's this huge space the size the the size of an entire what then was we thought would be the living room it was it's a big space it existed there were the joists were there all I had to do was put a floor down sheetrock it and I built a book I say I built we had a book house built in front of it and that bookcase now opens up into a huge Christmas storage room now we found that space because the Lord said to honor you and what you wanted I ever since that I've been trying my best to do stuff for you it always comes out really good for me I like that I've had it done yeah so this house just grew and it grew and I said oh there's space right there build out built build it will be more storage space there build this that went in that third floor I mean attic space so you know it's not a perfect third floor but in that third floor we were able to put a small area for workout equipment I have a craft area where I can do a my Christmas wrapping and so forth we have another huge storage room where we put all stored all of our personal information and photographs that are kind of the archives well you know we've been married long enough now we need archives that and then a whole nother area that kind of took the shape of a chapel so I'll put a cute little chapel door on the front and it's right now it's still another storage area because even though my daughter married and got her own house she didn't fully leave home in fact she just went she needs storage she just sends things back to me but price God so we just all these wonderful blessings of the Lord in this house and all of that happened I took that's a five-year process it made it sound like it went really of it but there were so many other miracles that happened I mean we didn't have the money for that we were we did not have the money for that but somehow the money came the money came people were giving us things then we never talked about it we never asked for anything and there would be times that we would let it sit for very long after that yeah yeah it would get slow I've tried to keep it going no matter what it did get slow at times would even if we went over there and swept the floor we did we kept busy we stayed busy with it and God would God would make it work now another thing about it there were times when I would start to do something that was a compromise because of money or because of time we were we were reading a rent house and the landlords weren't very friendly this time they weren't very helpful and I wanted out of that house I did not like it didn't like it but the Lord gave us grace to stay there so I would get in a hurry it's with out money or getting a hurry to do something and I'd start making something work and that scratch on the inside would start at me again I was agitated that's not right that's not the vision that's not what I put in you well there were times I had to spend more money to undo what I did but I had to be willing to do it I had to be willing to do it and to never let myself look at it as though the money I had was all there'd ever be and of course we're sewing were given how many were sewing big seed in fact through that process the Lord took us to a point and reminded us of all the seed we had sown into other people's lives and showed us something we never had noticed before every one of them were in the ministry we had we except for and we had we had paid house payments for people we had made huge contributions towards people in their home big chunks of money not a house payment but a big chunk of money that would maybe furnish a whole room you know we'd put our take our savings and do that for them and the Lord shows beverlyks I don't know half dozen or more people like that help this person so furniture to that person when when our folks were believing for their house and getting there at the house they live in now built what did we do we sowed into that we put right into that and money was coming it was coming out of the blue people were calling us things happen I don't know how it happened full disclosure now we're out of debt glory to God full disclosure my folks came to us and so we want to see your kids in this house so we we want to help you we want to loan you for a phase of the house the next phase we were in but we didn't go to the bank and whistle was we were making covenant with our family but you know George we never treated that dishonorably on family it doesn't matter no we paid them in fact we paid them with the same intensity that we had any other loan and we and we started paying them back pay them back pay them back pay them back and we we did and God helped us and so we got in by the time we were in the house we were free from all bank loans and support we had a little bit left to go to pay them back for that their support and help which we're so thankful for it helped us and then before you know it too long that was paid off yeah glory to God were in this gorgeous home which is a that which is again with all that the contractor said Terry you don't have square footage you have square image because I took in every inch that I could find for space for storage for closets for everything everything is expanded to such a degree that we actually doubled the size of the house I literally doubled it we were going through that house with house with Stan we've got a hammer and you you're going like this with a wall and you just took the hammer you start breaking through the wall and you you said look in there look at that face empty space because God had stored it up for us and I just want to share this one other testimony about the way God provided not only for the finances where debt was concerned but provision for the things in the house and and this is important I just almost missed this George I said we had really focused on the word in a way we never had before we really really did not just okay financial scriptures but we started going to the word looking for scriptures for everything in the house yeah we found scriptures for woodwork we found scriptures for the flooring we found scriptures for the sinks we found scriptures for fabrics we found scriptures for the yard we found scriptures for everything week if you found you yeah I brought this with me this is first Kings six in first Kings seven I have it from the new United conversion and I highlighted all of the different places I found this one day and I'm looking through this and I'm seeing entrance stairway side rooms roofing interior interior walls with cedar boards floors things on the walls entrance doors and and going into the seventh colonnade portico pillars overhanging roof great courtyard high grade stone great skilled craftsmen in bronze and it's just listing one thing after another in those a network of inter woven chains okay and then there's this whole list pillars and bowl-shaped capitals and stands and pots and shovels and sprinkling bowls and golden a table and floral work and just on and on and on and I saw that I brought that to you teri look look look look what I found and it every everything everything you know we started pulling out those scriptures I'm a confession cards for them I started saying them and that the word was becoming flesh it was becoming sinks and light fixtures it had the most unusual things happen doorknobs yeah and there were there were mistakes that were made some time one time the cabinet maker made a terrible mistake so he just gave us the mistake and made new ones but the mistake became this really unusual piece of furniture in one of the bathrooms and just it was amazing but I want to tell this one part about the light fixtures we weren't even to the place of deciding about light fixtures yet but we're speaking like light the light being light was light be light was so my the decorator that was helping me Sharon wings such a blessing of the Lord she called me one day on a Saturday and said Terry I've come across a tent sale with light fixtures and I think you should come look okay so I drove over there and there was just a tent and it just full of light fixtures hanging chandeliers nice ones so we spent two hours just circling that tent that wasn't very big but we spent two hours circum it probably took three minutes to walk around we circled looked at every one over and over and over and over till I could start to see that one would work in the living room that one would work in the dining room no not the dining room but the music room that one would work in the kitchen that would work in the bathroom that would work in the master bedroom that one would work in the Texas room and I'm seeing these pictures too were pulling them out setting them out in the grass the grass so there was this one little fixture it was small about this big it was a sconce you know it was a glass bird really pretty little bird it has a little head turned like this little vine thing coming around it and little I don't know a couple of light bulbs I guess and I thought that's sweet I don't know where I'd put that and it looks like it's part of a pair but there's only one piece so the sales lady came over and she said you ladies have been here so long we're now moving into the close of our tent sale so everything you gets an extra 10% off praise God so I said how much is this little bird well I'm gonna give it to you for $65 and then be 10% off that right yeah 10% off that great do you know if I could still get the match for this well I think so you could check the catalog in the main store and see but probably probably okay well we'll take that so we got all these fixtures for this lot and they're gorgeous you know really nice pieces but I didn't know what they were really valued at because I had never looked for light fixtures before never so we put all those in a place and totaled up the price I went okay but I wrote it out and I knew it was a good deal I mean it was you know for a house this size and where we're going and the standard I'm looking for you know wasn't too bad at all so I wrote the check and we just put the lot pictures in storage in the meantime this my decorator friend Sharon said I don't go try to find that pair of that when she found the pair we found out that was Waterford crystal and it was worth $900 almost $900 a pair you know for this I'd remember if that was for the set of the pair anyway we found the match and because of her dealings with this particular company they have it toward half off so I wound up buying this beautiful Waterford crystal bird sconces for a few hundred dollars that were worth a thousand it was amazing and we started finding these other fixtures and they were still in the catalog and some of them were worth thousands of dollars I had no idea things I had paid 150 for or 1500 for what I mean it was it was stunning just stunning and nearly all my life fixtures were bought that day I've never seen them had that tent sale again never known of it if they did and all these beautiful fixtures well I still needed one more beautiful fixture we needed something big and the ones I was looking at I mean they were thousands of dollars thousands so she calls me one day and said I think I found chandelier for the dining room really where garage sale I go Raj sale yep but it's crated up and you're gonna have to come look all they have is a as a snapshot of it okay so I went looked sure enough this really big crate this was an imported chandelier from Italy and all the crystals on it were pink and clear it was gorgeous beautiful beautiful huge several tiers lots of lights big dangling crystals that hang from the bottom that were pink this beautiful pink color oh goes all over me again that thing had been crated for ten years I said we'll never use it we just want to get rid of it they sold that chandelier to me I don't know how much it would have cost but my estimate is for about ten cents on the dollar and that's about what I paid for all the fixtures in our house somewhere between ten and fifteen cents on the dollar for what they were worth light be my light was hallelujah and God did that for us be led be led where you go shop be led who you talk to be led to go here be led to go there there were times we paid full price for something because bless the Lord I wasn't gonna have anything less than what this house and my vision determined yeah when we took out the driveway and connected the house we didn't have a driveway yeah didn't have any place for our cars and you know in the neighborhood you're not supposed to park your car on the street but we had some people across the street that had extra pad on their driveway and they allowed us to park there but then we had somebody from the church who came to us who has a concrete business said we want two guys the guys have gotten together we want to we want to build you a driveway I didn't even know if they knew that we didn't have a driveway you know we weren't talking these things talking about it they came it was a driver they came and put a driver you so God to God just did the miraculous but what was that the word that we'd been feeding on all those years it's producing a vision and God took this house by house by house and finally after five years or so he said take possession there was still some things needed to be done there were no doorknob we have to reach in to the door not the outside door no no no but inside and three days before Christmas 2006 we took possession and we moved in what an amazing journey this has been together and we have more in store wait there's more and there's more for you there's more freer life there's more that God has for you and Terry I just I want to thank you for doing all this you put this together so marvelously and you're you have a mind that remembers all of these things and it's it's important because people need to know that there is a journey that's involved there's a stand of faith that we we only have about 20 minutes on broadcast to be able to talk about these things but that there is more behind the story of what it takes to do these things and so we want to encourage you that you there's a home for you there's a place for you there's debt freedom for you there God knows the desires of your heart just like he knew the desires of Terry's heart sometimes with guys it's like just get us in the house and give me a chair but I have learned through you to appreciate those finer things and the Lord has left lifted up my vision there were some things that I was doing that one night that I woke you up in the middle of the night and said I've got an idea we need to change something that we've already done in the house and so I became a part of that as well so we want to pray for you we want to well the Lord showed me this that sometimes the journey is as important as the destination that's right you saw the journey from you know our little bitty house in Arlington to this house our journey of believing God for the through the five years for this house and a journey that we're on now four things as we continue to grow and develop and the Lord and his vision that keeps working in us that journey is as important as the final destination if the journey is a walk with Him walk with the Lord yes it's not about the stuff yeah it's about the walk with him and lit in the walk with him produce the step the step follows God he just it just follows him but it's walking with him and I have enjoyed my journey Oh proverbs 31 joy you you are amazing you really are you well okay but she is amazing and I and I'm so thankful for just the wisdom of God a wise woman builds her house father in Jesus name we pray for those who are watching us right now and I thank you you are so good you are so kind you are so gracious and you desire father for us to reach new levels of your kingdom that we could experience days of heaven on this earth and I thank you Lord for the mansions the places that are in heaven waiting for us and how you desire for gardens of Eden to grow up around us that we would truly live in places and those abiding places those places where we just are in you and how important it is father for the homes that we live in that those places are a refuge a divine refuge for us to be able to worship you and raise our families and enjoy life together these places of protection and father we thank you that you are opening doors literally doors and that lord I praise and honor you that and this is just something that the Lord is reminding me about that houses are looking for you that's right houses beautiful homes are looking for you because your father loves you and you are an heir of God and the same thing he did with us he will do it with you as you walk out the Word of God as you continue to follow his precepts and his his ways and the ways he has for you you will see these things manifest and it really did through faith and patience we obtained that's right you need to know today first of all that God loves you and that pastor Terry Copeland Pierson's and I love you and don't forget this and Jesus is Lord you

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Keywords: 2715906988001, faith, george pearsons, god's promises, spiritual growth, terri copeland pearsons, word of god

Id: yMTg0Ubvc_M

Length: 124min 23sec (7463 seconds)

Published: Wed Sep 13 2017