My Story of Repayment

Meet our lovely Guest Writer, M’Lisa Newell!

Our love story is an amazing testimony of God’s faithfulness. When my husband Shawn and I were married in 2012, it was such a special time for us because we had both prayed and waited for God to send us a partner to journey with. We set out hoping to be in full time ministry. At the time, Shawn was a part-time student pastor and worked technical support for a software company. I was a worship pastor at my church.

In 2014, the desire to live in a house began to well up within us. We were living in a condo and dreamed of expanding our home. When we began the search, we found an amazing subdivision near church. It was a new construction, so you can imagine our excitement! A brand new home! We felt God’s peace about the decision and began the building process. The house build would take six months. 

Every Sunday afternoon, we would drive in the neighborhood to see the progress of our house. It was such a fun process! On one of our visits, we decided to write Scripture on the wood frame. God had been speaking to us at the time through Isaiah 54:2-3: 

“Increase is coming, so enlarge your tent and add extensions to your dwelling. Hold nothing back! Make the tent ropes longer and the pegs stronger. You will increase and spread out in every direction.” Is. 54:2-4 (TPT)

I love when God speaks so specifically into our lives and seasons. He loves to reveal Himself and partner with us in everything we do. 

Just as the house was completed, God opened the door for Shawn to come on our church staff. We could finally work together in full time ministry. Though it would be a financial sacrifice to purchase the house while Shawn left his full time position to come on staff at the church, we were confident that we could still afford our new home. 

Our plan was to rent out our condo while we lived in our new house. However, when the time came for approval, our condo had not appreciated enough in value, so our loan was denied. All of a sudden, our house—the one we had waited patiently for and felt God led us to build—was lost. We felt cheated—we were upfront about our financial situation when we signed to start building our house. Now, we felt like it was taken right out from under us. We were devastated!

We knew that, no matter what, we wanted to honor God with this news, so we released all of our disappointment to God. We trusted him. 

Fast forward to two and a half years later...Shawn and I were in our condo, and I had the desire to be in a house again. I knew the Holy Spirit was leading, drawing me in to dream again.

Excited to explore our options again, Shawn set up an appointment for us to look at a new subdivision on a Friday morning. I woke up that morning after having a prophetic dream. It was so powerful—I woke Shawn up, saying, “Babe, you’ve got to hear this dream. God is trying to tell me something!”

In my dream, Shawn had all of our money laid out on the dining room table., He was counting the money and said to me, “We have $100,000 in the bank.” In the dream, I thought, “Whoa, we can buy a house.” Then, Shawn said, “Oh, wait, I counted $20,000 more. We have $120,000 in the bank.”

Prophetic dreams are a way God engages with us and deepens our relationship with Him. “There’s a private place reserved for the lovers of God, where they sit near Him and receive the revelation-secrets of His promises” (Psalm 25:14, TPT). There is a secret place reserved for us to enjoy His presence.

That morning, I asked Jesus to show me what the dream meant. The number 120 stood out to me, and the Holy Spirit reminded me of a sermon from a year prior that I had watched. So, I pulled up my notes in my phone, and there it was. In the message, the speaker was teaching on Leviticus 6.

“Then the Lord said to Moses, ‘Suppose one of you sins against your associate and is unfaithful to the Lord. Suppose you cheat in a deal involving a security deposit, or you steal or commit fraud, or you find lost property and lie about it, or you lie while swearing to tell the truth, or you commit any other such sin. If you have sinned in any of these ways, you are guilty. You must give back whatever you stole, or the money you took by extortion, or the security deposit, or the lost property you found, or anything obtained by swearing falsely. You must make restitution by paying the full price plus an additional 20 percent to the person you have harmed’” (Leviticus 6:1-5*, NLT)

Did you catch it? 120% should be given back to you in full. This principle means, when you are stolen from, you are more blessed! I knew this dream had to do with something that was stolen from us, and God was going to give it back.

On the same day I woke up from the dream, we went to the appointment to see a house. We weren’t sold on it, and we didn’t love it. I got the idea to look in the neighborhood in which we had built our previous house. Shawn pulled up the map, and we saw a couple of houses for sale, so we decided to drive and revisit that neighborhood.

You can probably imagine it was a bit painful driving into the subdivision we once dreamed would become ours. We hadn’t driven in the neighborhood since the financing fell through. 

We saw one house that was for sale then we drove towards the house we had built over 2 years prior. "I think I see a sign in the yard!" Sure enough, there was a FOR SALE sign in the yard! We were so shocked, we could hardly believe it.

Then I knew: God was giving us our house back!

And He did. We bought it!

You know what’s so amazing? The lady who bought the house after we lost it lived in it for about six weeks then had to move out of state. The house went on the market, and sat empty for two and half years. 

The day God showed us it was for sale, someone had tried to buy it and their financing fell through. But in God’s providence, He had reserved the house for us. How good is God?

I pray our story encourages you to seek God. He loves you, and He longs to reveal Himself to you. This story isn’t just about possessing something material, it is about God’s faithfulness as a Father. 

Shawn and I felt so loved by God when He gave that house back to us. From the very beginning of building, God knew what would happen and had a plan to restore it back to us.

That is what He does—He restores what is broken and unjust, and He puts things back in the correct order. Walking with God is a faith journey. It is step by step trusting and hearing His voice, even when you feel you’ve been cheated, stolen from, misunderstood, or accused—even when you were following God.

Ecclesiastes says that God sees and knows everything done against us. He is faithful to come through.

Jesus made us righteous, and He invites us into an abundant life. He made a way for us to be completely free in Him. All we do is receive the freedom He offers us, receive and believe in Him. He wants to adventure with us! He wants to share His secrets.

I declare right now as God has been faithful to restore things in my life, that He will restore your life as well. Maybe it’s promises unfulfilled, a dream for your life, or maybe it’s an actual house. Whatever it is, God is a restorer of time, places, houses, and relationships, and He loves to restore and bless us.

“And then, after your brief suffering, the God of all loving grace, who has called you to share his eternal glory in Christ, will personally and powerfully restore you and make you stronger than ever. Yes, He will set you in place and build you up.” -1 Peter 5:10 (TPT)

M’Lisa Newell - Los Angeles, California

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