Hearing God

My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me.
John 10:27

It’s barely six weeks into this year but I narrated the story of how we sold our house in Toronto twice already. Since a remembrance of a great story doesn’t happen frequently, I thought I’d better write about it. The time was 1997 and back then, both Eng and I were just learning to hear God. He felt the prompting to move to the Philippines then and start a business. As we prayed about it, it became very clear that “Yes, we’re to move.” It wasn’t clear what for as I thought it was to do missions work but Eng felt that he was to start a business. We weren’t sure why we were going but we started to ask God questions about what we needed to do so we could go.

I remembered praying and asking God whether we should rent or sell our house. We both preferred to rent it so in case we came back to Toronto, we still had a home. The next day, a Real Estate agent knocked at the door. He asked if we wanted to sell our house. I was surprised because of my prayer! I explained that we hadn’t decided and thanked him. When Eng got back from work, I told him what happened. “How interesting!” was his remark. He didn’t think there was anything to it. “But Eng",I said, "what if it’s God’s answer to my prayer?” I wasn't sure but I really didn’t want to miss the Lord’s answer so I suggested for us to pray together. Our friend Sarah was living with us at the time so we invited her to join us. I remember the three of us kneeling in our carpeted living room floor. “Lord, please make it clear if we’re to sell our house because agents come like the one yesterday did and we don’t know if it’s just by chance. Thank you that we won’t miss it. It won’t be murky; we’ll know exactly what to do.”

The next day, the same agent came back and inquired if I’d spoken to my husband. Did we want to sell our house? I told him that we hadn’t decided but even if we did, we already had an agent in mind. When Eng came home that day, I wasted no time in telling him what happened. “What a coincidence!” was all he said. Neither of us was convinced to sell our house based on what happened so we didn’t act on it.

Weeks later while I visited friends in Bedford, Pennsylvania with our 3 sons, I told the story above. Our pastor friend said, “You’ve been praying to God to know what to do about your home and from nowhere, a Real Estate agent came two days in a row and you don’t know what to do? Maybe you’re looking too hard.” I could feel a bit of conviction in my heart but in my mind, I silently answered him with, “Easy for you to say, it’s not your house.”

The next day, while at their weekly prayer meeting, a friend we hadn’t seen in a long time, walked in. Since our prayers had started, she quietly joined our group. Shortly after, she laid a hand on me and prayed, “I thank you, Lord that their house will sell. I thank you that I see papers being signed. I thank you that it’ll sell for a good price.” I didn’t know how she knew we were praying! When I asked her why she prayed what she did, she said she couldn’t stop the words from coming out of her mouth. She said she felt uncomfortable in saying them because she didn’t even know if we were selling our house but she couldn’t help herself!

Eng wasn’t there so when we talked I told him that I knew what we were doing about our house. He said, “I already know what you’re going to tell me. You’re going to say God wants us to sell our home.” We sold our house months later. It sold for a good price. We moved to the Philippines and lived there for 4-1/2 years.

I know that because both Eng and I wanted to rent our house, it was hard for us to see how God answered us. Thankfully, He didn’t get upset and stop talking to us. He kept answering until we finally got it. If you're trying to hear from Him, I guarantee you, you'll get it, too. He is answering. You too will hear Him.