Shalom everyone,

I am seeking advice from the brethern and would like to know if you have been in my situation and perhaps if you would share your thoughts and outcome.

I am seeking to stay at home for the remaining years of rearing my children. The eldest is 17, then 13, and lastly 10. For many years i've had the desire to be at home. At one time i went so far as to work part time at my place of business (at that time i was there for 19 years) now it has been 26 years. I was given the opportunity granted to me for 1 year to work part time then i was called to full time service.

My husband and i both work outside of the home and the children are in public schools. We have a terrible amount of debt and our house payment is grand. Many times i find myself spending hours to try and figure out how we can make ends meet if i were to quit my job. I realize that i am trying to do all this in my own power (which is none).

My husband seems to be agreeable - but knowing that when we are strapped for money immediately will turn to the idea of selling the house. Not that i'm against that idea but it seems to be a knee jerk reactioni (and this is before I quit)

I have been fasting asking Yah to show me and to speak to me (or help me to hear HIM). I know i must hear - but it's not sooooo clear to me - as i want confirmation. I know of examples in scripture where people asked for confirmation and sometimes it would be given and well others....... you know the story of John the Immersers father. Okay, well i had this thought given to me today that "the Father will not take care of my financial woes until I make that step of faith" not in those words but i interpreted this as being - He wont do anything for me until I leave the workplace.

Scary thought - if that message wasn't from Him. Can you imagine...... barely being able to make ends meet and then taking that step - and leaving the job behind. How can we possibly survive. Also, imagine the stress that my headship will have and will he order me back to work?

The human side says - sell the house, and extra things ---- but then my own head is telling me that in selling these things - I'm in control - not giving Yah the control.

I want YAH in control of my life and the steps we take day by day.

While praising HIM today at lunch - i opened up scriptures and read from Psalms 68......... there were nuggets in there that I choose to count as my own.
Psalm 68:6 Elohim makes a home for the lonely; He brings out into prosperity those who are bound with chains;
8 You, O'Elohim, send a shower of plenty, You confirmed Your inheritence
11-12 YHWH gave the word; the women who proclaimed it was a great company. Sovereigns of armies flee in haste! And she who remains at home divides the spoil.


My question is this....... how can I expect Yah to take care of the debt that we created? I understand sacrifices and giving things up - but to do it in my own power does not give glory unto the Father. This i do know. I know that if i try and work this situation out on paper BEFORE I take action - it will never come to pass - it will never work on paper.

Thank you Abba - I Believe - but HELP me in my unbelief.
Thanks for listening.
~aka. Seeking

Hi Precious One,
I'm not sure I can help but I can offer what I can. I was in your situation once, wanting to stay home to homeschool my children and be there to finish raising them. I came across an opportunity to learn medical transcription at home so that I could work from home. Are you considering working from home at all? It took me nine months to finish the course while still working full time for the most part. I have been working from home for the past seven years and have never regretted it. The way Yahweh worked it out was absolutely amazing now that I look back.

Have you built up equity in your house? Is it possible to set some short-term goals within the next year to chunk out payments for your debts, or to consolidate your debts and then chunk out to pay your consolidation off? I think the key could be taking steps to get where maybe you can at least cut back the amount of hours you work until you can quit, unless you believe strongly that you are supposed to just flat out quit. If you want, email me and maybe we can talk a little more privately about your situation. I have some thoughts,though a lot depends on where you are financially, what you mean by a 'terrible amount of debt', etc. Meanwhile, maybe others can leave you some ideas here.

Sometimes, you have to try opening the doors to see if they are unlocked. Pray that He will guide you and keep you from going through the wrong door. Do you have the faith to do that? He is very able to shut the doors.

Meanwhile, my email is eforum at 123 dot org I just don't know how detailed you want to get here publicly. I'm here if you need to talk more.....In Messiah, becky

{{{{{{{{{{{((((((precious one))))))}}}}}}}}}}}

I'm here for ya, sister!

I'm pulling for ya!

I'm praying for ya!

Let me know how it turns out!

Love you and the family bunches,

angeL/chosen

Shalom precious one

I have a similar situation but am not ready to share all the details publicly yet.

But I would like to offer one piece of advice.

The first thing I decided was that money (mammon) was NOT my elohim and that it was NOT going to make the decisions of my life.

I wanted to be home with my children and the only thing that said "NO" was money.

Well, money is NOT my master!

When I have a decision to make, especially as important as staying home with my children, the money factor is at the bottom of the list of pros and cons.It does not get the priority that it tries to demand.

When my heart desires to do what I think is good and right then I make the decision to do it and any challenges I have to overcome I leave in the hands of YHWH.

Then when a way- even if it is a difficult way- I thank YHWH that it is possible at all.

The path I have chosen is not for everyone but I wanted it and I have taken it. I have stayed home intermittently for most of my children's lives (now 20 and 13.)

Now I have debt but I figured it this way - If I have to choose between raising my kids and staying out of debt, I will raise my children because at the finish line I will get much more satisfaction and no regrets than if I had chosen to build a career and pay off my house and accumulate wealth.

I figured worse scenario financially was not the worse scenario but deep in my heart I don't think YHWH will forsake me.

I have had to suffer the consequences of my choices but that suffering does not include ANY regrets.

My sufferings have all been financial.

I hope this helps
You can email me at squartucci at hotmail dot com if you want to discuss more personal
Shalom
Sharon

Sharon,

I really enjoyed reading your post. Like I said before in my blog to AdoniYah one of my fav memories was when his foot got stuck to the floor and I had to spatula it loose. And if we hadn't been in debt from doing projects I'd never have that memory. And if somebody said I can make all the bad memories disappear but you also have to forget the foot and spatula I'd say no way! Maybe that memory was the cost of the debt, that's life, it was worth it.
This morning his foot got stuck in his work boot and he was on the floor and I had to pull on it for him because he just couldn't get it off himself. So when I would pull it I was pulling him too. It was so funny. Also we saw like 8 black hawk helicopters go over really low. We heard this noise and went outside to watch them. It was one of those mornings LOL.

Maybe some day the debt will be paid off, but in the meantime we'll make memories that are priceless, and it will make sense in the end.
I just heard this song, and I think that it is so comforting. I think it's saying just when we think something's lost or gone forever, you're not lost. It's just part of the ups and downs of life.


Michael Buble "Lost" Lyrics

Can't believe it's over
I watched the whole thing fall
And I never saw the writing that was on the wall
If I'd only knew
The days were slipping past
That the good things never last
That you were crying

Summer turned to winter
And the snow it turned to rain
And the rain turned into tears upon your face
I hardly recognize the girl you are today
And God I hope it's not too late
It's not too late

'Cause you are not alone
I'm always there with you
And we'll get lost together
Till the light comes pouring through
'Cause when you feel like you're done
And the darkness has won
And Babe, you're not lost
When your worlds crashing down
And you can't bear to fall

I said, babe, you're not lost

Life can show no mercy
It can tear your soul apart
!!!!!!!!!It can make you feel like you've gone crazy!!!!!!
But you're not
Things have seem to changed
There's one thing that's still the same
In my heart you have remained
And we can fly fly fly away

'Cause you are not alone
And I am there with you
And we'll get lost together
Till the light comes pouring through
'Cause when you feel like you're done
And the darkness has won
Babe, you're not lost
When the world's crashing down
And you can not bear to crawl
I said, baby, you're not lost
I said, baby, you're not lost
I said, baby, you're not lost
I said, baby, you're not lost

Sharon, if you ever need to talk, email me. I think we can be friends if you still want.

Shalom,
Naesimo

Shalom Naesimo

I agree that we could let finances cloud and lessen so many of our true riches.

Guess that's why you can't have two masters!

Thanks for your offer of friendship and I receive it with honor.

I hope my post doesn't sound as if I have anything but shalom and joy in my life or that I might need to talk about my debt. I was trying to offer encouragement to Precious One. My debt is not a problem too big for YHWH.
As I said before, money is not high on my priority list so the state of my financial affairs, be they abundant or frugal, has no impact on my shalom.
I like abundance but it ain't life or death.
YHWH is life!
That's why I don't want to share too much because I think it might be hard for people to believe that I could be in debt and NOT stressed.

I love hearing how blessed you are.

Shalom
Sharon

Sharon,

If I read something into your post I apologize. I'm not as stressed about our debt as I was at one point. But it can still get to me sometimes. I think it would be a blessing to hear how you are in debt but not stressed, so I look forward to when you feel more comfortable sharing. If you just wanted to email me and we could chit chat or I'd like to hear more how YHWH has blessed you too.

Shalom,
Naesimo

Blessings All,

Yesterday when I read this first post, I started to give an answer. After about two paragraphs I deleted what I wrote because it was becoming too long and too detailed for this type of situation. But, I would just like to bring one point out and I will leave it at that.

The Scriptures say that if you are in debt, then you are a slave to the person or entity that you owe. A slave does have a master. The Scriptures also say that you can not have two masters.

If you look at how much time a person spends at a 'job' every week in order to pay that master, you will probably find out that they spend more time working for the 'mammon system' in oder to satisfy their master than they do in serving Yahushua. Please remember that Yahushua said that he did not even have a home of his own.

There are several techiniques that can be used to get rid of that first master...the easiest is to sell the things that are in debt.

Have you ever looked at how much you are paying for those things that you want (need?) in which you went to another entity to borrow from?

Peace,

JourneyHome

JourneyHome,

Are you saying you don't have a job or home? Do you mean like have a garage sale?

As we grow and get further and further away from old bad habits we are also getting out of debt.

What does this mean?

Gal 3:28 There is not Yehuḏite nor Greek, there is not slave nor free, there is not male and female, for you are all one in Messiah éäåùò.

Shalom,
Naesimo

Blessings Naesimo,

It is not important what or how I have done things since everyones situation is different. All I can say is that I do not owe anyone anythings at this point in my life.

There are soo many different aspects to being financially independent that it would be impossible to address them all here. In dealing with each situation, different aspects of what could be done would come up.

Example...When I learned about being a slave to my lender from the Scriptures I took steps that I could at that time to diminish that slavery. I used to drive a 'new' Jeep Grand Cheerokee. I sold that vehicle in which I had approx $5000.00 of equity in it (unusual I know). I then went and bought an 'old' Toyota P/U truck for $3500 cash and pocketed the additional $1500. Since my payments on the Jeep were $328 per month, I kept paying that amount TO MYSELF...which I then applied to other debt that I had and paid that off. Then I took the $328 from the vehicle and the $200 from the other debt and applied it to another debt. In no time at all, all my debt was gone except for the house. I could have kept that process going with the house, but prices got so high a few years ago that I decided to sell the house. I could not believe the prices they were willing to pay. Now I am looking at buying another house becuase they have come down soo much...but I am not sure we are at the bottom of the cycle yet.

This time I will probably go with an old 'manufactured home' that I can fix up. I will do all this with cash, not financing from a lender.

My monthly EXPENSES (not debt) is around $1000 a month. It does not take too much work to make that in a year...and the 'business' I am in is seasonal so I try and make it within that 6-7 months...which by the way is coming up again soon.

In my 'previous life', I used to help multi-million dollar companies manage their risk and their assets...which included debt. I now offer that to people for free, but I am amazed at how few people really want that help. They too often like to have more than they can afford and just complain about not having any extra money or the long hours they have to work to make ends meet.

I praise YHWH for all the knowledge that He has let me acquire in this area and the 'loss of desire' to keep up with everyone else.

I hope this additonal info has been beneficial for you.

Peace,

JourneyHome

JourneyHome,

We are getting out of debt the same, as things get paid off we are able to put more back and more to other bills. Kinda like a snowball effect I think. AdoniYah is on salary so our income is fixed no matter how many hours he works. He might take a different job when we're out of debt or we might move. Do you mean you do credit counseling?

Shalom,
Naesimo

Hello, JourneyHome,
I want to say how neat that is, that you offer your counseling for free. Would you mind giving me an email address or something to get a hold of you so that I could use you as a reference to others who are needing help? If people could just grasp the priceless knowledge you have to share! You are right, few people truly want this help. Thank you so much....becky

Blessings Naesimo,

I feely give the information as it was freely given to me from YHWH. I try to help others make a plan that fits their needs to become debt free...if that is what they really want. Like I said before, most people really do not want it, they do not care if they are a slave to the lender...just as long as they look 'normal' amoung the neighbors. If things are done right...there is no need for credit...even though I can not get that through to my bank. Every time I walk in there they try to sign me up for another credit card or loan. I almost always say 'I have no need for any credit...just keep my 'money' safe for me...thanks.'

Peace,

JourneyHome

Blessings Becky,

I do not do 'counseling' per se. Each one of us here has something to offer 'The Body'. I just share with people what I would do in a given situation in order to become free from that debt. So I give no advice, just share what I would do, then it is up to them to actually do it.

As for the email address...I do not want to sound 'stuck up'...so please do not take it that way. I have not given my email address out to anyone for a very long time, unless it was necessary for access to something...like to Eliyah for access to the Forum. I have done this for a few reasons. I do not like to communicate by email...I only have it so that I can search the web. Also, everyone knows that I do all my communication with people here on the forum, so there is not any 'behind the scene' communication with others. What I say to someone is here for all to read, and it is a permanent record...so I need to watch what I say or say nothing at all. Lastly, I do not like spam. The only thing that comes into my inbox is offers from my internet provider since they and Eliyah are the only ones that have the address and Eliyah does not use my email address. I did make one exception to that a little while ago and that was to invite a brother that was on this forum, to join me for the Feast this year, but that is over and we do all other communication on the forum.

Maybe we could start by posting some general problems or situations that everyone can benefit from.

Again, I mean no disrespect...I just do not do email.

Peace,

JourneyHome

Shalom Journeyhome

I am so glad that you are happy with your lifestyle and YHWH has led you to that place but your posting is exactly why I won't share publicly my situation.

Someone who is not in debt is ready to make careless, blanketing judgments on those who are.
I see this as your judgement:


I can tell you that this is NOT my situation and I don't know if you are addressing precious one or naesimo or just "most people" but your diagnosis is not called for here. You may have some testimony that you think can help and they would be appreciated but to assume to know the motivations and intents of people is unnecessary.

I am a smart, educated woman with alot of knowledge about finances and so I am aware that I am breaking the laws of "financial soundness".

I whined for a long time to YHWH about my situation and I would tell him every month "This can't go on, this sliding deeper into debt every month" and finally he spoke to me and asked "Why?".
I told him it just wasn't right and reminded HIM of the 'facts' of financial soundness.
YHWH reminded me that HE is my only true source of right and wrong.

Then He reminded me that the original sin was eating from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
That I was to understand that what YHWH tells me is evil is evil and what YHWH tells me is good is good.
Which is why I didn't understand when something I would call evil (which means I have some kind of knowledge of good and evil-DUH) is not so with YHWH or something I call good is taken away by YHWH.

Hence I often would think YHWH is doing something 'evil' to me and yet theologically I know he is only good.
I would think no such things if I had no knowledge of good and evil.
I would think like Yoseph "Gen 50:20 “And you, you intended evil against me, but Elohim intended it for good, in order to do it as it is this day, ...
Everything is intended for good for me.

He has NOT told me that it is evil to be in debt nor that I have a covetous mind and hard as I find that to comprehend myself, it shall be my stance.

I can tell you that one of the things that has happened is I am being delivered from the fear of money. I am learning to not be mastered by it. Whether I have an abundance or none.

Just to balance it out, it is possible to be driven to be debt-free because of a fear of money or the lack thereof.
Pro 11:24 There is one that scatters, and yet increases; and there is one that withholds more than is right, but it leads to poverty.

As for my situation personally, I could sell my house, move in with relatives, be totally out of debt and some money left over but the bottom line is that is not what YHWH is instructing me to do so I must sit tight and wait upon the deliverance of YHWH rather than executing my own genius plan.

Blessed are those who have no genius plans and must wait upon YHWH!

Because precious one wrote

I interpreted precious one's question to be:
How do I wait upon YHWH in these circumstances?
Correct me if I am wrong.
Shalom
Sharon

Psa 22:4 Our fathers trusted in You; They trusted, and You delivered them.
Psa 22:5 They cried to You, and were delivered; They trusted in You, and were not ashamed.