Miracle House | 1st Time Home Owners | 🎉🏘️

Today marks exactly 5 months since we moved into our new home. Even to this day it still feels so surreal to be living in this beautiful place. ❤️

My brother and I have been praying to have a place of our own since we were both still in college. Back then it seemed so impossible to ever buy a house because of the high monthly mortgage, plus the initial 3-5% down payment.

Who got that much money laying around in their mid-20s anyway? 😂

Even though it seems impossible we believe that we serve a mighty God who specializes in the works of all impossibilities. Every Sunday we would pray together, seeking the Lord before we enter into the new week.

We would worship, give thanks, and lift our prayer requests. One of them was to have a place of our own. We prayed that this house would be a house of prayer. A place of gathering where others can experience the love and presence of God.

We did have some specific criteria in our house prayer:

Include a 2 car garage
Multiple windows for natural lighting
A place for laundry and dryer

In 2019 on the month of my birthday I received a prophetic word that I'll be living in a place of my own, “not anytime soon, but sooner than you think.” (Will release the recording in a future blog, so stay tuned!) 😉😏

Note: Back then I was still in college, unsure about my career path and future. The following month I asked my spiritual mom and pastor to pray for my internship at Hilton. Then out of the blue, she prayed prophetically about me having a house.

That same year I also dreamt of what this house would look like. When God speaks, He is loud and clear.

Then 2020 happened. The greatest year for everyone around the world. JK. Not only did I not graduate that year but I also caught covid hahaha Hallelujah! 😄🙌🏻 Despite the unfortunate events that happened in 2020, there were still many great events that were exciting and worth remembering! ✨

In December, my brother got married to his beautiful and lovely wife, Cici Clara! Moreover, I was able to spend some quality time with my parents and grandma in Indonesia. Oh and cannot forget to mention how this blog, Skillful Pen was created in that same month. 🖋️

As we returned to America at the beginning of January 2021, we started our house/apartment hunting. We saw a couple of apartments and tried to apply but received no response.

My brother was stressed, I was stressed. He got so frustrated to the point I told him, “You know what, just find a 1 bedroom apartment for now, don’t worry about me, I’ll stay with my uncle.”

Why did I say that? Because of all the apartments and houses that we saw, it was way too small and I wasn’t willing to pay more for a smaller space. I’d rather stay with my uncle. But again, God had other (better) plans.

We stopped our house hunting for a couple of months, believing that God will provide in His perfect timing. Then in April, my brother saw this 3 bedroom cute house that had 2 patios, 2 car garage, and 3 natural light windows all around. On top of that, the house was just recently remodeled with white marble countertops, and all the kitchen appliances (microwave, dishwasher, and oven) were all brand new. He took a video and sent it to me.

I thought “Wow this is a pretty nice house. Must have a lot of applicants though.” Yep, we found out from our real estate agent there were actually more than 40+ applicants applying for this house.

What did we do? My brother applied and we prayed. We believe that if this is from the Lord then He will somehow make the owner choose us above the other 40+ applicants.

Because this house had a #F, we prayed “God, let this home with the #F represent your divine Favor and Faithfulness over our life. You are a God who has shown us over and over again that you are mighty and powerful. Nothing is too difficult for you. But if this house is not meant to be ours, then close all doors and let us not be disappointed with the final outcome.”

A couple of days later my brother said that his application is in the top 3. Our real estate agent asked if he wanted to bid higher or not. But no pressure because the owner didn’t request a price increase either. My brother decided to stay with his current bidding price.

Keep in mind the other 2 applicants may have bid a higher amount. Regardless of what’s happening on the other side, we simply believe that our God is greater. He is capable of doing exceedingly abundantly above all we may ask, think, or imagine.

We found out about the wonderful news on Mother’s Day Weekend.

Everything happened so quickly in May. From the money transfer, contract agreement, and final closing, whew. I don’t even know how my brother did it. Must be the help of the Holy Spirit. I took the role of prayer haha because that same month I was also trying to discern if I should quit my previous job before I had another job offer.

Call me crazy, but hey crazy faith is what attracts the attention of God. 🥺😎🤪

Even though they said we might have the key after Memorial Weekend, we prayed that we would have the key before Memorial Weekend. We wanted to have the 3 day weekend to move everything. Lol.

And yes, my God is so so good! That’s exactly what happened. Friday, May 28th my brother got the key to the house, and May 31st is when we finally settled down into our new home.

Every Promise of God came to Past.

What I thought 2 years ago was crazy impossible, God proved that ALL things are possible for those who believe, trust, and love him.

What Promise(s) has God said over your life? Remember that Jesus is not a man that He should lie. He is Faithful and true to His word. Every Promise shall come to pass, it’s a matter of us walking and trusting in Him until it happens. His timing is not your timing, His way is not your way. We serve a God who is full of multiple, fun surprises.

Isaiah 55:8-9

“For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,” declares the Lord. “As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.

Keep the Faith and allow the Lord to shape you in your season of waiting. He is far more concerned about shaping your character to reflect His before He can shower you with His infinite blessings.

Godly Character is what sustains you in the long haul. (Just look at the story of Joseph.)

All in all, never stop growing, but always be teachable and open to the leading of the Holy Spirit. Because when you do, amazing things start happening. Life is so much sweeter and exciting when Jesus is the One who takes the lead.

Here are some photos of my favorite people who I have the honor and privilege of knowing: