Starsky Reyes shares from his heart how God challenged him to really trust.

Romans 8:28 declares, ‘We know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.’

A great scripture for Christians! And believing it, in March last year I made a declaration that God was our provider. Foolishly I even boasted, ‘But I wouldn’t say God is my provider if I couldn’t place my complete trust in him financially!’

God can so easily take you up on your boasting!

I don’t know about you, but have you ever regretted saying something because God decided to take you up on it? It was almost like a parent talking to an over-confident child: I picture God saying, ‘Is that right? OK, let’s see about that!’

And test me he did!

Within the next three months, our finances quickly dwindled. Doing our budget became an absolute nightmare. No matter how I tried to make things work; there was no way to make up for a fortnightly deficit of about $500. I began stressing and worrying about where the money would come from. I thought to myself, ‘Do I get a second job? Do I sell things? Do I borrow money? Do I …’

Needless to say, I tried everything I could think of but we were no closer to a solution. It came to a point that rent was due in a week and pay day was more than a week away. All I had in my bank account was $35 and less than $300 in our savings account. In short, we needed a $1000 to pay for our rent.

At the end of my rope, I sat on my bed and cried out to God, begging him to do something… Anything! With tears flowing down my face, I can remember God speaking to me like a father condescendingly speaking to his son, ‘Are you done?… Are you done?’

Tears and repentance
As my tears continued to flow, I responded by asking the Lord for forgiveness. Then the seemingly condescending tone I first heard changed into a loving and peaceful one.

Challengingly the Lord said, ‘My child, if you would only place your complete trust in me and allow me to handle all of your finances. I promise that “I” will make it work. Let “me” handle everything. Don’t worry about what the numbers say. Don’t worry about whether it adds up or not. In fact, even if it doesn’t make sense in the natural, leave it to me and I’ll make it work!’

There was pause as God’s words sank in. Then I heard his added requirement: ‘There is however one important condition. You have to place your entire finances into my hands… and I mean all. Not just to fix this situation, but any others from here on.’

With that, I uttered… ‘Yes, Lord!’…and meant it. Overwhelming peace immediately swept through me and my worry and anxiety completely disappeared as God began his work.

God moved as I no longer doubted
Three days later, we miraculously received an unexpected $1000 from the government, enough to pay for our rent and expenses. Then a month later, I received a substantial bonus from my work which contributed to our regular expenses.

I would look at our bank account and try to understand, ‘How is everything adding up?’ But each time I did, God would say, ‘Hey, what did I say? Don’t try to understand it, just leave it to me.’ To which I would sheepishly reply, ‘I’m just looking….’

God miraculously did as he promised and made it work. Somehow all our weekly expenses were met, our bills were paid, and not once did we have less than three meals a day. God was good!

However, despite God’s overwhelming goodness, our financial circumstances still remained the same. In fact my wife Maila was made redundant a couple of months later, as well as losing other financial sources. But through it all, God’s promise kept us going. His unwavering promise to provide for us no matter how things looked in the natural, always worked out.

Seeing life’s circumstances in new light
The only real change was the way we saw our circumstances. We no longer saw ourselves in a position of lack, but instead as children of the God who owns everything. That he is a heavenly Father who so desperately wants to bless and care for his children. We saw every negative circumstance as a great opportunity to see God move in our life. And move he did!

God then decided do something unexpected. In God-only fashion, he again promised something seemingly impossible, (through our eyes anyway). God gave us a word through our dear friends Dr Robert and Maureen McQuillan, Life Focus Ministries.

Although this was late last year, they said that God is declaring that 2015 would be a year of ‘Peace and Prosperity’ for us and that we will see an increase in his favour in all aspects of our life. They also said that the Father saw a new home for us in 2015.

But, given our current circumstances at the time, this prophetic word sounded seemingly impossible. Encouraging as it might be, I couldn’t help but think, ‘That’s nice… OK… thanks, Lord’ and placed it on the ‘pending’ shelf. Only to be soon reminded by God that he is the God of the impossible.

Moving as God impresses
Within the next couple of months, God impressed on my family that 2015 would indeed be a new season for us. This included a mandate to move churches, despite being happy at our current one. He placed Planetshakers Church, Melbourne in our hearts as the place to move to. Therefore we obeyed and made the transition.

Within a week of moving there, the senior pastor, Russell Evans, declared over the church that 2015 would be a year of ‘Peace and Prosperity.’

As soon as I heard this, I was totally blown away and thought, ‘Surely this cannot be a coincidence!’ It was then that I knew that God placed us here for a reason.

Over the next few months, God changed our point-of-view and the way we saw life and our circumstances. A paradigm shift began to occur in our mindsets. We learned the incredible power of words and that our lives are shaped through the things we declare over us.

Specifically in declaring what the Bible says about us and speaking God’s word over our lives rather than confess how much we are lacking, how poor, Ill, helpless, miserable and such we are. Or that we are in this or that situation because it’s just the way it is. We began to strongly declare from scripture that…
• We are the head and not the tail, above and not beneath (Deuteronomy 28.13).
• Our God shall supply our hopes, needs and desires (Isaiah 58:11).
• His plans are there not to harm us, but to prosper us (Jeremiah 29:11).
• And many more scripture-based truths!

Declare God’s word over every circumstance!
Needless to say, if God’s word was able to form the entire universe simply by speaking over everything; imagine what can happen in our lives when we declare the many promises listed in the Bible.

As we continued to declare God’s word over our lives, we began to see how God’s abundant blessings outweighed the negative things around us. Each declaration was coupled with ‘I can’t wait to see God move in this area!’

Eventually, Maila got a job after almost a year of being unemployed. Her prayer was that she didn’t want numerous interviews or rejections. She believed and claimed that the one interview she would have would result in getting the job that God wanted for her. Sure enough, this is exactly how it happened.

Never let life dictate your circumstances
As for the house…
The bank said that in order to be approved for a home loan, my wife needed to be employed for at least three months. Amazingly, Maila got the job in August, which makes this month the bank’s required third. With one month left to go in 2015, we have been pre-approved for a loan, put a deposit on land and chosen the new house we want to build.

Does that mean we’ll get our first-ever ‘own home’ in 2015? Physically, not quite … but we are on our way to signing the contract by the end of 2015 and are believing that’s it’s a finished deal. And we give God all the praise because the best is yet to come!

My encouragement for those who are in similar situations is this – never let life dictate your circumstances.

We have a God who not only owns everything, but is also the God of the impossible.

His joy is to bless his children and see them prosper in life’s general circumstances – health, life itself, business, career, family, success, welfare.

What we need to do is …
• Remain in God’s will
• Place our complete trust in him
• Believe that he will never leave us nor forsake us
• Allow him to guide us through every aspect of our life.

So why not declare the many promises in the Bible for God’s children and see him do miraculous things in your life. And be blessed!

Starsky Reyes is an IT specialist who loves life, encouraging others and assisting in church life.