It isn’t often that someone mentions a spiritual experience that they have had without my prompting.  So, when my friend, Crystle, volunteered over lunch that God had once paid her mortgage, she definitely had my attention; this had to be a God thing. I share her circumstances of that time in the hope that you will behold the power of prayer, listen for God’s answer and give Him your trust.

Crystle writes:

This happened around late 2001. My husband and I had been separated for a couple years, and I was a single mother of three teenagers. Going from a two-income household to a one income household money was extremely tight. I was a preschool teacher; therefore, my income wasn’t very much to live on. Especially trying to maintain a home and a family. In order to support my family, I was working three jobs (preschool teacher, cleaning an office building and a clerk at Target). 

On top of the separation, my sixteen-year-old had given birth in early 2001, adding one more person to the equation that had to be taken care of. At that time, I was not getting financial support from my husband, we had not gone through the divorce process (I was praying we would reconcile the marriage). And I couldn’t get government assistance; they said that I had too many assets. 

Around July of that year, I had been working three jobs for a year. And then one Sunday while I was out grocery shopping for the week, I reached to get something on the shelf and I felt a snap in my lower back. My back was completely locked up, extreme pain radiated through my lower extremities, and I was unable to move. There I was standing in the middle of the aisle, frozen; I couldn’t move my legs to walk. As a range of thoughts were going through my mind trying to figure out what to do, one name came to mind (Jesus). I begin to repeatedly call Jesus’ name out loud. And suddenly, my legs slowly started to move. I was able to navigate to the check out and get to the car.

By the time that I got home my back had locked up again and my sons had to assist me in getting out of the car. A few hours later I was in so much pain that they had to put me back in the car and drive me to the emergency room. Well, needless to say, I wasn’t able to work at all for about three weeks. When my doctor released me to work, I could only go back to teaching with limited abilities.

All I could do was pray, pray and pray some more. I had depleted all avenues and financial support from family was non-existent, being that everyone else’s financial status was no better than mine.

Around mid-October, one night I was lying in bed crying, stressing and praying. Wondering how I was going to pay October’s mortgage and the other bills as the payment was already late. At that moment I gave up, I was fighting a losing battle. I lost all hope and decided that I couldn’t keep things afloat, so what was the use in trying? I was a failure, a failure in life, a failure as a mother and a failure as a provider. I lay there and cried myself to sleep.

Around 2:00 am I heard a sharp, authoritative voice say, “wake up!”. I opened my eyes and looked around the darkness in my room; no one was there. I thought that I was dreaming so I went back to sleep. Again, I heard the voice say, “wake up!”. This time I sat up in bed because I thought that surely, I was losing it, now I’m hearing voices. So, I just sat there in my bed in the darkness.

A few minutes later I heard the voice say, “get in your car and go to the Hard Rock”. By now I was fully awake and replied, “God is that you?”. because I just knew that God wouldn’t send me to such a place, I don’t have enough money to cover the bills as it is, and you want me to go gamble with what little money I have?  Then, I said to myself “why not? It doesn’t matter; you don’t have enough to cover the bills anyway”. 

I got up, got dressed, took a $20 bill out of my purse (so I wouldn’t be tempted to gamble all the money) and drove to the Hard Rock Casino. I parked the car and sat there contemplating for a few minutes. I went inside and went to the slot machines. I placed the $20 bill into one of the twenty-five cent machines. I played for approximately five minutes when the machine started to sound and the lights were flashing. At first, I didn’t understand what was going on until the person next to me told me that I had hit a jackpot. I immediately hit the cashout button. The person next to me tried to encourage me to keep playing. My response to them was “no, I got what I came for”. The amount that I won was the exact amount of the mortgage payment. I cashed out, went home, thanked God for the blessing and went to the bank the next morning to make the payment.

A few weeks later I got confirmation that this was divine provision. I had been studying the book of Proverbs when I read Proverbs 13:22 (see below), and again I began to cry. Because just when I thought all hope was lost God showed up and reminded me of who He is!

About eight years later I still ended up letting go of the property when I had to get custody of my two small grandchildren and was again in a similar financial situation. Only this time it was a decision to send the children to foster care and save my home or let go of the home and keep the children. After struggling for a year and a half, I prayed about it. My sister offered for the children and me to move in with her so that she could help me take care of them. I prayed and this time God told me to let go and He would give me another house. I have not gotten it yet, but I have not lost the faith that He will do what He said He’ll do. I know that you cannot have a testimony without a test. So, I pray that this is encouragement for others.

Relevant Scripture

A good person leaves an inheritance for their children’s children,
    but a sinner’s wealth is stored up for the righteous. (Proberbs 13:22 NIV)