I have to start this with a little background. Some years ago my husband and I decided to invest our retirement savings in a small apartment complex (6 units). We figured the rent from the apartments would be our income when we retired because by then the mortgage would be all paid off. We bought that back in 1989. It turned out to be a lot more work than we expected to run an apartment complex, and last year we decided to sell it and invest the money into some type of retirement fund that would be less work.

The real estate market had been doing good for a long time, but it was the start of a slump when we decided to sell and things were slowing down. Property value was dropping a bit, buildings were not appraising for as much as they used to, things like that. After a couple of months we got an offer that seemed reasonable and entered into a contract to sell the apartment complex to them. The buyers had some sort of complicated trust fund and the apartment they were buying from us was part of a complicated 1031 exchange through that trust fund. That mean we had a longer closing period than usual: 75 days.

The buyer had been approved for the load, but they ran into some sort of problem with the bank about the legalities of the trust and the bank refused to fund the loan. We were originally supposed to close in early-to-mid February. The buyer's lawyers began working with the bank's lawyers but they could never seem to come to an agreement and fund the loan. After four or five weeks of delay things were not looking good. Our real estate agent decided to put the property back on the market, contingent on this sale falling through. The only problem was that property value had fallen during those three months that it had been tied up with the first buyer. We were not sure we could get as much for it from a different buyer. My husband and I had sort of given up on the sale and figured we might have to wait until the real estate market improved before we could sell it.

Sorry for the lengthy financial background, but it is important to know it to understand the testimony.

When I woke up on Sunday March 12, I knew that God was going to meet me at church that day. He had spoken it strongly to my spirit. I was really looking forward to when worship service would start, because I knew I was going to have a powerful encounter with God at it. In fact, it seemed to take forever until church and worship finally started. I had one agenda for church that day, to "get lost in God" during worship and to draw closer to Him than usual. I could care less what songs the worship team sung or what the pastor would preach on--all I wanted to was to experience God.

Once worship started, I did not have long to wait to experience God. He began to meet me before we finished the first verse of the first song. His presence was more tangible than usual. It felt like He was standing right next to me. I cannot tell you how good it felt to be so close to Him. He flooded my senses with His nearness and filled me with His joy.

Somewhere in the middle of the worship, the oddest thing happened. My attention was somehow drawn to the bulletin which was sitting open on my chair. I don't remember opening it, so I glanced down at it a bit surprised. My eye caught the bottom right corner of the page, where they had a summary of our building fund. It had the goal listed and the amount already given towards that goal. I noticed that the goal was almost met, they were only about $6400 short. I that this thought: "Wow, that is pretty close. I could pay that myself."

Now the dangerous thing about those type of thoughts is that sometimes they come from God instead of from our natural mind. I did not realize it might be a God-thought at the time, because there had been a time when I was a high paid software engineer, and it was not uncommon for me to do that sort of thing. But now I was a very low-paid minister and that more than five month's salary for me.

At the time, I was caught up in God's presence and did not really think about it, I simply went back to worship. I cannot describe how wonderful of an encounter I had with God. I really did not want worship to end. But after almost an hour, it did end so we could have our sermon.

I had been kneeling on the floor as I worshipped. I slipped back up to my seat as the worship team left the platform. As I did that, I heard the Lord say, "Why don't you do that, Teresa?"

"Do what, Lord?" I asked silently.

Suddenly I had a mental flashback to when I had seen the bulletin about the building fund and thought to myself that I could pay the balance off for the church. Ok, it sounded like maybe God wanted me to do that. So I did my usual thing, I asked Him to confirm it to me if He was really telling me that. He could choose "how" He confirmed it, but He had to do it in a way that I knew it was really Him.

Then I forgot about it again and listened to the sermon. Rodney was talking about loving God. He did a short sidetrack into how some people love money more than they love God and that those who really love God let Him be Lord of their finances. If He commanded them to give more than their regular tithe, they will do it because they put their money into the things they value most, and those who value God will be generous with their finances when He directs them to be.

"There's your confirmation." God said to me.

"Ok God." I felt this strong inner peace and I knew that God wanted me to pay off the unpaid balance. It felt right, so I purposed in my heart to obey Him in this and just do it. I decided I'd inquire about how much came in the offering that was dedicated to building fund and pay whatever balance was left. I had this savings account in the bank that I'd saved up when I was still working. It was my "rainy day money" or my "long term savings." But it had enough in it to cover the balance.

Now this is the wonderful part. It was costly obedience, yes, but God gave me this wonderful peace and it felt very easy to do this. There was no worry about finances, no tension, just this simple peace. I knew I was doing what God wanted, it simply felt right. I had this strong inner witness in my spirit. In the past it would have been easy to trust Him with that type of love offering, because there was always more money coming in. But now I did not have a source of more money coming in, when I spent that money it would simply be gone and not replaced. So God gave me this wonderful gift of His peace to make it easy to obey Him. He is so good! He helps us and makes it easier for us to obey Him.

The next morning (Monday) I called the church office to inquire how much money had come in for building fund. The person I needed to talk to was not there, and they called me back Tuesday. A whole ten dollars had come in--so the unpaid balance was almost as much as it had been before the offering on Sunday. I shrugged my shoulders, said OK to God, and wrote a check for the unpaid balance.

Later that same day, my real estate agent called me to say that the bank and the buyer finally reached an agreement and the loan papers would go to the title company on Thursday for them to sign. That meant we would probably close the following Tuesday or Wednesday, depending on when the buyer signed the papers. That was unexpected good news. I was a little bit dense at the time and did not see the relationship between writing the check and the sale going through. So God decided to make it a bit clearer for me.

I dropped the check off at the church on Wednesday and the next day the title company called and told me that we would be closing the sale on Friday. That meant that Thursday was the last day we "owned" the rental property. It is unheard of for a sale to close within 24 hours of receiving the loan papers from the funder. It usually takes 3 days after the papers arrive. But this was done in one day for some reason and the sale closed the same week that I obeyed God about the building fund.

Then God spoke to me and said, "You took care of My building, so I am taking care of yours."

When God asks us to prove that He is indeed Lord of our finances, He usually has some big financial blessing that He desires to give us... but He wants us to demonstrate that He is more important to us than money before He gives it to us. I think that is what Malachi 3:10 is about:

"Bring all the tithes into the storehouse,
That there may be food in My house,
And try Me now in this,"
Says the Lord of hosts,
"If I will not open for you the windows of heaven
And pour out for you such blessing
That there will not be room enough to receive it. "