The background to this story is that we felt called to leave our old church, without knowing where we were going. God led us very clearly to join Re:Hope. We currently live in Inverclyde and we knew that part of joining Re:Hope would be to make it our “local” church. We have two children still in school. Beth (16) is sitting Highers in Greenock this year and Georgia (10) is starting Primary 7. As a result we don’t want to move before Beth finishes her exams in June 2024.
On Sunday 2nd July, I was praying and I received the word: “I am going to do something incredible for you”. I didn’t really know what that meant, but I thought it was related to the house situation. On Friday 7th July, I was browsing Rightmove and noticed a banner for a new development of homes in Partick. We had looked at every new build development we could find in Glasgow and they were all increasingly far-out from the area we wanted to live, locally to Re:Hope West End.
I sent an email to the developers’ contact form along the lines of: “I wonder if this development comes too early for us, as we are not wanting to move until June 2024”. At that point, I was virtually certain that they would either all be sold already or they would be wanting people to move in sooner.
The next day was Saturday 8th. In our quiet time in the morning, I had the word from God: “I go to prepare a place for you”. When reading, my bible fell open at that exact part. I wrote in my journal: "Is God saying he is preparing a house for us?"
Later that day I got a call from the sales rep. He said, “honestly, we have started selling these houses too early. The one you’re interested in won’t be finished until May/June 2024.” I nearly fell off my chair!
After much to-and-fro we decided to reserve the plot. My wife - who HATES change - was very unsure about the size of it and was quite anxious about it for the rest of the day. She was just sure it wasn’t big enough for our needs. Later that evening, she was really upset about it so we both prayed a simple but sincere prayer: “God, if this is the right thing to do, make it clear to us tomorrow at church through something that someone says or prays”.
We went to church and Laura spoke about her time in the Middle East. She said “it wasn’t my first choice but it was God’s choice for me” and, later, "what if the house I'm in isn't the one I chose for myself but the one God chose for me?". During the response time, the prayer team’s prayer points included:
- Breakthrough with buying property
- Asking what’s next, feeling weighed down with decision making
- Clarity and direction
We were both absolutely floored, so we went upstairs and received prayer from Dave Crawford. He prayed that everything would become clear to us and work out in our needed timescales.
On Sunday night we were still very unsure about it but neither of us could honestly say that we felt it was God’s will for us to cancel the reservation. So we prayed again for peace and clarity.
The next week on Tuesday 11th, in quiet time, I opened the bible and it fell open at Hebrews 11:
“By faith Abraham obeyed when he was called to go out to the place which he would receive as an inheritance. And he went out, not knowing where he was going. By faith he dwelt in the land of promise as in a foreign country, dwelling in tents with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with him of the same promise; for he waited for the city which has foundations, whose builder and maker is God.
...
These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off were assured of them, embraced them and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth. For those who say such things declare plainly that they seek a homeland. And truly if they had called to mind that country from which they had come out, they would have had opportunity to return. But now they desire a better, that is, a heavenly country. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for He has prepared a city for them."
He has prepared a city for them! What a word! And that was the decision sealed for both of us. If Abraham can leave his father’s house and live in a tent while following God's will, surely we can too — and it's not even a tent!
Fraser Speirs
Re:Hope West End
Is there an area of your life where you feel like you need more peace and clarity? Ask God to do this today!