Epilog

It’s been exactly 10 years since this book was first published, and that version didn’t include this Epilog.

First, praise God, I never spent any time in jail. The credit card company graciously dropped the charges, after they transferred the credit card debt into my name in order for me to pay it off.

Secondly, my mountain finally fell, not just crumbled, and was cast into the sea.

As I predicted, it did not fall as I’d ever imagined it would. After I had the opportunity of giving my house back to the mortgage company, something so unheard of at the time (yet a year later everyone was walking away from their homes,) I received a surprising phone call from one of my dearest friends who lives overseas. She asked me where I was going to go, after hearing I’d given my house back and I said, “I have no idea.” She got very excited and shouted, “You’re coming to live here! I wondered why I couldn’t find a one-bedroom and why God had given me two—it was for you!!!” To confirm this was His plan, He led me to find a flight that was so cheap my friend couldn’t believe I was serious. So, a few weeks later I packed just 3 suitcases, gave everything I owned away to family, and I flew to my new brand-new home that had a view of Lake Geneva in Switzerland!

This all happened after my deepest valley of all time. My husband took our children for a visit, then refused to return them. Very soon, after some unimaginable stunts to stop me from trying to get the children back, it was clear that for me to remain in this country wasn’t at all safe for me or for my children. “Then Jesus said to His disciples, ‘If anyone wishes to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me. For whoever wishes to save his life shall lose it; but whoever loses his life for My sake shall find it’” (Matthew 16:24-25). “Agree with thine adversary quickly, while thou art in the way with him” (Matthew 5:25 KJV). “Keeping away from strife is an honor for a man, but any fool will quarrel” (Proverbs 20:3). “Consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance” (James 1:2–3).

Yes, these were very dark days, but I knew He’d sent me to a country that is known for safety, surrounded by the most majestic mountains, the Alps, that are beautifully snow-capped throughout the year. While there I was blessed to travel throughout Europe, bless my sister who only had a year to live with a trip to Europe, her dream, and in the midst of all this, back in the states, my mountain fell with a huge splash!

The courts granted me freedom from all my debt, due to Him causing the courts to actually file a case of bankruptcy on my behalf—something I’d never heard of before or since!

Even though I tried every which way to stop the process, nothing I tried would stop the momentum. Even when I was told I’d have to return to the states to come to the final hearing, and I told them I couldn’t—I was so sure the process would stop. It didn’t. Instead, I was notified that they were appointing a proxy to stand in on my behalf. Each and every time I tried to stop the process, something outrageously unheard of would happen, keeping the process going.

It wasn’t until after I got the final papers in my hand that my Husband told me what I never understood. As He loves to do, He asked me several questions, “Whose debt was this anyway, Michele? Did you run up credit card bills? Did you spend everything on vacations with another man while you were married? Did you apply for all those loans that you never intended to pay? Or was all of it someone else’s debt?” Tears of relief just flowed down my face as He went on, “You were willing to take the debt, lose everything, your own children, even your country, be humiliated and yet transparent. Now you are free my Love…” and very soon after, I was on a flight back to the states to attend my son’s wedding. And believe it or not, God wasn’t done.

Even though I indented to return back to Europe to live, I was given a home by former neighbors of ours.  Yes, given! At first it was discussed to give me the deed, then my Darling spoke to me as I was driving home one evening, saying that taking the house, meant taking on a mortgage, which was far from debt “free.” Banks own homes, most people don’t. There are a few who do, like a couple of testimonies I shared in this book where God’s plan was to buy a home free and clear—and someday that may be His plan for me too. Yet, for now, I love that I am free to move about, without the burden of taxes to pay. Once a door opens for me to live by one of my children or somewhere else entirely—like when I moved to the beach and each of my children came with their families to enjoy the sand and sea--each time I’ve moved, I never needed to try to find a buyer for my home. Every home on this planet God owns, and as our Husband’s bride, He just wants me to live there and enjoy it as my own for as long as I’m there. I’ve lived where I’ve paid no rent at all, or at such a reduced rate it shocked people when they found out. Everywhere He’s given me favor, sometimes trials (to keep me close to Him as my Husband), but each time where He’s had me live has Wowed those who are watching. “You are our letter [an epistle] written in our hearts, known and read by all men” (Corinthians 3:2).

This verse I’ve known so well for years, “‘The silver is Mine and the gold is Mine,’ declares the Lord Almighty” (Haggai 2:8). But it took on an entirely new meaning once I was debt free and committed to Him to remain that way no matter what. We all know He owns everything, so why would I or any of His brides choose to be in debt to anyone, not to a bank or mortgage company or credit card company or to drive a car. He has set me free to focus on simply loving others. “Owe no man any thing, but to love one another” (Romans 13:8).

Each time my Husband tells me it’s time for us (the two of us, He and I) to go, I just give my notice and off we go, following His lead again and again and again. When something breaks, I notify my landlord whose job it is to get it fixed for me, because He’s my Husband and owns it all.

“The earth is the LORD’s, and all its fullness, the world and those who dwell therein” (Psalms 24:1).

 “And he blessed him and said: "Blessed be Abram of God Most High, Possessor of heaven and earth” (Genesis 14:19).

“‘The silver is Mine, and the gold is Mine,’ says the LORD of hosts” (Haggai 2:8)

“You shall dispossess the inhabitants of the land and dwell in it, for I have given you the land to possess” (Numbers 33:53).

“Who has preceded Me, that I should pay him? Everything under heaven is Mine” (Job 41:11).

“For every beast of the forest is Mine, And the cattle on a thousand hills. I know all the birds of the mountains, And the wild beasts of the field are Mine. “If I were hungry, I would not tell you; For the world is Mine, and all its fullness” (Psalms 50:10-12).

“Do you not know that those who minister the holy things eat of the things of the temple, and those who serve at the altar partake of the offerings of the altar? Even so the Lord has commanded that those who preach the gospel should live from the gospel” (1 Corinthians 9:13-14).

“Now then, if you will indeed obey My voice and keep My covenant, then you shall be My own possession among all the peoples, for all the earth is Mine” (Exodus 19:5).

‘The land, moreover, shall not be sold permanently, for the land is Mine; for you are but aliens and sojourners with Me” (Leviticus 25:23).

“Indeed heaven and the highest heavens belong to the LORD your God, also the earth with all that is in it” (Deuteronomy 10:14).

Dear bride, if you are still waiting for your Mountain to fall or at least begin to crumble, I hope what I’ve shared will give you the faith to trust that it will happen at the appointed time.

“Then the LORD answered me and said, ‘Record the vision and inscribe it on tablets, that he one who reads it may run. For the vision is yet for the appointed time; it hastens toward the goal and it will not fail. Though it tarries, WAIT for it; for it will certainly come, it will not delay’” (Habakkuk 2:2-3)

It will also happen His way, not yours.

“‘For My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways My ways,’ declares the Lord. ‘For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways, and My thoughts than your thoughts’” (Isaiah 55:8–9).

And when it happens it will come with the sort of freedom you never imagined could be yours.

“Whom the Son has set free is free indeed” (John 8:36).

Let me close my epilog with my newest favorite verse that should unleash your imagination into what I know He has for you, dear sweet bride.

“Now glory be to God, who by His mighty power at work within us is able to do far more than we would ever dare to ask or even dream of—infinitely beyond our highest prayers, desires, thoughts, or hopes” (Ephesians 3:20 TLB). Dream big!

 

“You will say to this mountain,

‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move;

And nothing will be impossible to you.”

— Matthew 17:20