Unless the Lord builds the house...

We believe that the Lord speaks. And not in vague generalities, but in specific direction-giving ways. We believe this based on what we read in the Bible and based on our own experience. He has spoken to us in many ways on many topics, but the topic I will address today is our move. Many years ago, the Lord spoke, through other faithful believers, that we would eventually move away from Austin. He didn't give us any other details at the time, but we took it on faith that that word would be fulfilled. After a while, Jeff decided he'd like to attend grad school. He took the GMAT and made a stellar score. He then applied to several schools all around the U.S. He was not accepted to any of them, even though his GMAT score was almost perfect. We then understood that this wasn't the Lord's plan for us or the fulfillment of the word He had spoken. Time passed, and Jeff began seeking opportunities within the company he was working for at the time that would move us out of Austin. This didn't work out either. About a year later, he got an offer to work for another company in Austin. We still believed what the Lord had spoken, but this seemed like a good opportunity and another viable option hadn't presented itself. So, Jeff took the job, knowing it wasn't going to be a long-term arrangement. While he was there, he made some contacts that allowed him to start his own consulting business, which he operated on the side. Then, about a year ago, the consulting business began suddenly to blossom. Eventually, it became clear that the Lord had blessed Jeff's consulting business in such a way as to finally fulfill the word He had spoken ,and that he had kept us in Austin for a time to prepare us for something down the road. So, we put our heads together to try to come up with a good place to move. What we came up with was College Station. We went to school at A&M and always enjoyed living there. We began looking at houses there and were discouraged at not finding anything we loved within our budget. In the meantime, an opportunity presented itself for us to move to Brazil for six months. We decided to use this time to seek the Lord for further direction. About a month after we arrived, the Lord gave me a dream, warning me of a difficult situation in College Station. We were sure He was telling us not to move there at this time. A week after that, Jeff attended a church in another part of the city that neither of us had ever been to before, and he asked the people there to pray for him, telling them nothing of our specific request about where to move. The Lord spoke through the people there, showing very clearly that we should not move to College Station. We were very blessed to have my dream confirmed, and we began seeking the Lord for further direction. For the Lord's own reasons, He has chosen not so much to give us the big picture and tell us where to go, but rather to tell us where not to go. So, we continue to seek Him. (Maybe that's part of the reason. With too much information, we become dependent upon ourselves and fail to seek Him as we should). It does seem, though, that He is providing us with an opportunity to serve Him in and around the Houston area, specifically near Kingwood. So, that is where we are planning to go when we get back to the States, unless the Lord shows us something different. Our greatest desire is to be in the place the Lord wants us, and we are learning that “unless the Lord builds the house, they labor in vain who build it.” (Psalm 127:1)