Delivered From Debt - UBM [David Eells]

My intention is not to bring anyone under the curse of the law. Instead, my intention is to demonstrate that God’s economy is “give and receive” and also that a double-minded man is unstable in all his ways and if you sin after you’ve come to the knowledge of the truth there remains no more a sacrifice but a fearful expectation of judgement. I was judged and cursed for many years due to this back-sliding. But praise the Lord! He is gracious to forgive and delivers us from all evil if we truly repent and follow Him and now we live in His economy, not the world’s and we are seeking to do so even more.

In 2011, soon after our first daughter’s birth (see Micah Birth Trial - httpss://www.ubm1.org/?page=birth-pienaars) we started examining our lives and we identified areas where we were still trusting in the “arm of the flesh” and not being fully reliant on God’s provision by faith. We repented and got rid of all insurances and provisions as far as was legal i.e. health/medical aid, home contents, death and vehicle insurances, retirement annuities, etc.

In August of 2011 I received confirmation from the Lord that I was to leave full time employment and I resigned from work (after Mammon tempted us with a salary increase and two cash bonusses to stay) to be home with Claire and Micah relying fully on Father for our provision. During this personal wilderness experience we witnessed God’s amazing provision through many wonderful miracles of healing and supernatural provision despite many trials, tribulation and persecutions. Praise the Lord!

We also came the to the realisation that all debt is a sin (see Is Debt Scriptural? - httpss://www.ubm1.org/?page=debt). We sold our car that was on finance and downgraded to a used family car and we were able to pay my Father-in-law for it very quickly. We were debt free by God’s grace.

I slipped back into debt again in 2015 by financing a car. What was really difficult to come to terms with, is that there was a curse on my sweet family, not only on myself, with this debt. My wife suffered from anxiety until 2017 – which she realised was from debt and the Lord was gracious with her and delivered her once she had repented – even though it technically was not her sin. I however, didn’t piece this together until much later.

Fast forward a few years, and we later found ourselves living in Australia and our previous experience of God’s provision faded away in memory. I, Riaan, had fallen away in my revelation of the curse of debt and through lending my ears to carnal men whom I had previously trusted (before my born-again experience), and I was deceived to believe that there is certain “necessary” financing you are allowed to do, such as for vehicles and then later on for a business venture. In 2018, seven years after our wilderness experience, I had put our family in AUD51k of car and credit card debt (approximately US$36k).

Through a series of events (testimony for another day) which included repentance and submission to God we committed to paying the debt off as soon as possible.

God miraculously moved us from the mainland of Australia to the island of Tasmania in January 2018 where I did not need to travel for work anymore and we could be together as a family. I was however, earning a salary of about AUD50k less per year than what I was on the mainland.

We stopped all side-line business ventures to live frugally and worked out that we could put about AUD1,100 per month into the debt if we only had bare minimum of what we needed. This would take us more than 40 months to pay off the debt. It looked impossible. But we knew we had repented of the debt and that God is faithful to honour our prayers and faith in being good stewards.

On 18 March 2018, only 14 months later, God settled the debt in full. Praise the Lord! I had spreadsheets and calculations galore and I can honestly say I have no idea how it happened that quickly. I received a slight raise in salary during this time, and there were a couple of unexpected deposits from various places, but even when I add those up – it doesn’t. God’s financial maths is different to ours it seems 😊. The curse on my family due to my transgression loomed, and since we’ve paid off the debt, the atmosphere in the home and the relations with family members – both nuclear and extended – has greatly improved.

We even had AUD400 to spare which we gave away. Two days later I unexpectedly received AUD6000 in my bank account! It was from a company I worked for that had miscalculated previous tax payments. We couldn’t wait to give that away too😊 Praise the Lord!

God’s provision and salvation is so big. I am humbled and thank our Heavenly Father for washing us with the water of the Word.

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